Bristol Voters Approve Highway Department, Add School Funding

On Monday, Bristol voters rejected a move to eliminate the town’s highway department, and on Tuesday, cut a teacher position during the business portion of town meeting.

Total approved funding for schools was $5.6 million.

On elimination of the town’s highway department (and its only employee, Sean Hunter), 331 voters approved keeping the department while just 47 voted to eliminate it.

Voters approved a move to add $65,000 to the school budget in an attempt to force school officials to cut two and not three teacher jobs.

In a surprise move, the voters rejected a $7972 funding request from Lincoln County TV after Phil Congdon, a member of the budget committee, protested that Time Warner Cable has failed to provide cable TV services for Bristol.

“They are to provide access (for LCTV) but they are not doing it. We have 4000 homes and only 800 have cable service,” he said.

Election resultsElected Monday by voters, (incumbents without opposition) were Selectman Chad Hanna, Gordon Benner to the Parks and Recreation Commission, David Howell and Bonnie Sablinsky to the School Committee. Also elected was incumbent Robert Cushing and newcomer Andrea Cox, to the planning board.

Highway departmentThe move to eliminate the highway department and Hunter’s job came after 176 voters signed a petition to eliminate the department as a cost saving move.

The results mean Sean Hunter, the highway department’s only worker, will keep the job he has held for nearly 10 years.

“After one of the selectmen called me with the results Monday evening, I slept a bit better,” Hunter said.

“I owe a lot of people thanks for their support,” he said.

School budget voteDuring a sharp debate during Tuesday’s well-attended (200 to 225 residents) town meeting, voters objected to school official’s attempts to cut three teachers

AOS 93 Supt. Bob Bouchard said the proposed cuts were related to declining enrollment.

“Not long ago, we had 300 students in the school. Now it is 200,” he said.

“We cut two teachers last year and one more the year before,” he said

Elizabeth Potter, the mother of three school students, urged voters to add funding for one more teacher ($65,000) although Bouchard said the school committee was not obligated to spend the additional appropriation.

Potter said smaller class sizes equal better instruction for the students.

Not so, argued Roberta Watson, a member of the budget committee, and a former 1st grade teacher and elementary school principal, who argued the optimum class size is about 18, rather than the smaller numbers of the Bristol School.

In a close vote, the move to add $65,000 to the $2.4 million school budget passed by just 14 votes (75-61).

Transfer stationVoters also rejected a move to force the transfer station (dump) jointly operated by Bristol and South Bristol to open on Sunday despite pleas from residents who said many work six days a week and can only visit the dump on Sunday.

Selectman chair Chad Hanna said the Sunday closure came when station employees wanted one weekend day off.