Weathersfield News, Week of January 27, 2014

Budget season is almost done. The Budget Committee, Town Manager, Select Board and various other Departments have been working for weeks, meeting for hours, preparing, reviewing, suggesting, cutting, re-adding, conversing and are now finally ready (as of Monday night - fingers crossed) to bring a finalized Town Budget to the printers to be placed in front of the residents of Weathersfield.

Well, this year I sat through the majority of the Select Board meetings regarding the Town Budget. It wasn't exciting. Sometimes it was very confusing as I didn't have the paperwork in front of me to review what they were talking about. But I do have a much better understanding of what went into the budget and what it takes to prepare a budget that will be 'presentable' to the majority of the people.

What I didn't see was a whole lot of other Weathersfield residents interested in the gathering, collating, massaging, trimming or examination of the budget that is going to be presented in the Town Report.

This is what I have heard in the past, from individual citizens to being recorded at Town Meeting... "why this expense?!" "Who thought up these numbers?!", etc., etc. I guess my feeling about this is very similar to the feeling I have about elections... if you aren't there, you didn't voice your opinion and you didn't vote, then you shouldn't complain about any of it.

If you aren't registered to vote - in Weathersfield or anywhere else - then bite your tongue. Women especially. Do a little research. There were women, especially, who picketed, marched and protested; were threatened, abused and ostracized - but continued on their quest until the key vote came on June 4, 1920 - when the Senate approved the 19th amendment (by 56 'yes' to 25 'no's' - after four hours of debate) which prohibited state or federal sex-based restrictions on voting.

I know for the last few years, as I have worked at the voting polls, that the turn out for Weathersfield is dismal at best (especially at a non-presidental election).

If I remember correctly, we only have approximately 20 to 25% of the registered voters show up. That is truly sad.

One of my girls said to me, "I don't vote because I know my vote doesn't count for anything." WRONG! Each and every vote counts - as a YES or a NO. If there were 50, 100 or 200 people that came to vote that usually don't, it could, potentially, change the course that our Town takes!!!

It's a right, a privilege, a responsibility! One we should all take seriously. Mark your calendars now. Town Meeting Day in Vermont 2014 is March 3, Monday. Voting is Tuesday, the 4th. Be THERE!!!

In other news (stepping down off my soap box, taking a deep breath) I'm sitting at my cousin Patty's house in Pennsylvania, after 9 hours of driving Saturday. Sunday was spent visiting with my cousins: Patty & Jerry; Pam, John & Brianna; Bobby & Pamela, eating, playing cards, laughing and sharing memories. We figured out that it has been 11 years since Mike and I were in Maryland, together, alone! 

At 8 pm it was 36 degrees. While they were all cold, it felt like a heat wave to us! (Of course it was only -brrrrr- 8 degrees in Vermont.)

Monday morning, bright and early, we will be back on the road again for another 10 hours of driving, headed further south to visit Roger and Sandy Martel in South Carolina. It's been a few months since I've been down, but it's been 10? years since Mike has been there.

It's been really nice (so far) to be sequestered, alone, in the car with Mike, just the two of us. We are having a good time. Traveling has been good - other than the bit of snow we ran into Saturday from Hartford, CT to Scranton, PA.

THANK YOU to our wonderful girls and their boyfriends for helping take care of all the animals, the wood stoves and the house while we are gone for a whole week. We truly could not have gone on vacation, together, without your support and help!

We will be back on the road by the time that some of you are reading this on Thursday. Mike and I both have things scheduled for Saturday, February 1. By then, I'm sure, my girls would also like to be back to their 'regular' routines after helping on the farm and in the house all week.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014 is the last day to register to vote for 2014 Town Meeting to be held March 4, 2014. Do your part! Register & VOTE!

Stay warm and think SPRING! :)