On the first Tuesday in March every year, the whole town gets together in the High School auditorium for Town Meeting. This happens all across Vermont. It's another one of those quirky Vermont political traditions -- like having to take an oath to "vote in the interests of the people of Vermont" before you can register to vote. Anyway, around 1000 Northfield residents showed up yesterday to debate such issues as whether or not the town should buy a used dump truck who should be elected to positions like town manager and library board (several write-in campaigns were going strong last week, with candidates standing on street corners in the frigid cold holding signs).
Also on the agenda every year: the school budget. The citizens of Northfield have to vote to approve the school budget every year. And this year, our town VOTED DOWN THE SCHOOL BUDGET! I'm not sure what is going to happen now -- I don't suppose they're just going to close the schools (though Lucy wouldn't mind) -- will we have to have another town meeting to approve a revised budget? Will we have to spend an hour trying to elect a moderator for this special-session town meeting, like we did yesterday? I'm interested to find out what's going to happen. Though people don't seem to be particularly worried. Apparently this happens all the time!
