Longtime town official Ronald Bisson resigned from the Select Board and the Planning Commission on Saturday after apologizing for an antisemitic comment that he made during a recent commission meeting.
Pownal board member apologizes over comment, resigns benningtonbanner.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from benningtonbanner.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BENNINGTON — The Jan. 24 deadline for filing nomination papers for local elections is approaching, but legislative action could make the filing part easier by not requiring voter signatures.
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
POWNAL â Voters in Pownal will elect three people to the Select Board on March 2. Running for two one-year Select Board seats are Jenny Dewar and incumbents Bob Jarvis and Ronald Bisson. Joyce Held, whose name also appears on the ballot, has withdrawn from the race.
For a three-year Select Board seat, the candidates are Michael Slattery, a former Planning Commission member; incumbent Angie Rawling and John Wallner Jr.
To help inform Pownal voters, the Banner submitted identical questionnaires to the candidates, and gave each the same deadline and word limit. Two candidates, Bisson and Wallner, did not respond. Below, in alphabetical order, are the responses of Dewar, Jarvis, Rawling and Slattery.
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
POWNAL â Six candidates for the Select Board participated in a forum sponsored by the Friends of Pownal, answering questions and offering their views on key issues before the town.
One candidate on the town ballot did not participate, while another made a surprise announcement at the end of the forum saying she was ending her candidacy.
The forum was held Feb. 7 as a videoconference and was recorded by the Catamount Access Television network. It is being shown in replays on CAT-TVâs Channel 1085, including Thursday, Feb. 18, at 9:30 p.m., and also can be streamed through the networkâs Facebook page.
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
POWNAL â The Select Board discussed but didnât decide Wednesday how a $600,000 bond for the new town office project would be repaid if the proposal wins voter approval during the March 2 election.
Taxing options were discussed during a public hearing, however, and those included assessing a flat charge on all real estate parcels; assessing a charge on only developed parcels, or taxing according to the assessed value and tax rate, the way other property bills are determined.
A flat tax on property is the method of repayment for the bond that funded the Pownal wastewater system, which opened in 2006. Owners of developed parcels have paid a flat tax of approximately $70 per year on the sewer bond, while undeveloped parcels are assessed roughly half as much.
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
POWNAL â Hoped-for personal outreach to town residents and public information sessions havenât been possible because of the COVID-19 epidemic, but state environmental officials last week updated the Select Board on a study of drinking water options for North Pownal village.
Department of Environmental Conservation hydrologist Grahame Bradley and Trish Coppolino, DEC Environmental Program manager, discussed a draft study report last week and the next steps in the process.
The options for providing safe drinking water in the village include continued on-site filtering of private wells found to be contaminated with industrial chemicals; drilling new, deeper wells with tightly sealed casings; creation of a new North Pownal water system, and connecting to another public water system.