Bennington residents will vote on a warrant article to establish a new fund for the town’s Sawyer Park recreation facilities at this year’s Town Meeting ballot session in March.

Residents reviewed 29 warrant articles at the first session of Bennington’s Town Meeting on Tuesday night. Bennington is an SB2 town, which requires towns to host a deliberative session presenting warrant articles in advance of the Town Meeting ballot session. Any amendments to warrant articles must be proposed at the deliberative session. 

Article 27 proposes Bennington establish a Recreation Revolving Fund so that any money raised by recreation activities will be used to sustain and support recreation activities for residents. The money could only be used for recreation purposes. The Select Board moved to establish the fund after the town’s Recreation Department was relaunched in summer 2024.

“The Recreation Department did a great job and people really turned our for events, and we want to support it, ” said Select Board Chair Jim Cleary.

In answer to a question from resident Ronnie Clough about the status of the  Sawyer Park bandstand, which was recently demolished after high wind damage, Cleary said the town has received $14,000 from its insurance company to rebuild the bandstand.

“We might move it to a different spot out of the wind,” Cleary said. 

Voting machines capital reserve fund proposed

Moderator John Cronin spoke to Article 28, which proposes establishing an Accessible Voting System Capital Reserve Fund to pay for voting access technology for disabled voters as required by the Americans With Disabilities Act. Currently, the town provides a iPad for voters who cannot access a voting booth. 

Cronin said that while the state currently only requires automated voting equipment for voters with disabilities, “voting machines are coming.”

“At some point, towns will be required by the state to purchase voting machines for everyone, and we need to be prepared for this, because it is expensive, and we will have to pay for it. The machines are expensive, and the software required to run the machines is expensive. Some years, we have six elections,” Cronin said. “This is a first step.” 

Fire truck funds article amended

Clough proposed an amendment to Article 17, which would stipulate that $54,000 from the upcoming sale of a used fire truck be put in the Fire Department Capital Reserve Fund.  As originally written, Article 17 proposed taking $75,000 out of the unassigned fund balance, with no amount raised by taxation, and adding it to the fund.

The amendment proposes replacing the $75,000 with $54,000 from the anticipated sale of the truck.

Town Administrator Deb Davidson said there is a cap on the price of the truck, and that the town will not sell it for less than a certain amount. If the sale of the truck does not raise at least $54,000, the funds will go into the general fund. 

Residents approved the amendment, which will be on the ballot in March.