Since the writing of this report a year ago, we have seen a Village Fire Station lost, selection and visit from Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD), hired a community and economic development coordinator, joint village/town fuel supplier selected, town wide re-appraisal completed, town waterway classifications established, selection as recipient of two million dollars for main street.

Sometimes things seem to work out for a reason, a good example of this was the Town/Village purchase of the Tatro property and building. The intent was to use this for cold storage of equipment the two of us own and is stored outside. However this has provided space for the Fire Department while waiting for a replacement building to be built.

One of two Towns selected by VCRD, a group who come in and help a community set it’s course for the future and what we want to see for Johnson. A lot of community members have been very active with follow on committees to continue the work, the Chairman Dean West has done an exceptional job driving this, his report is also enclosed. Additionally Johnson has been selected as the recipient of a two million dollar federal transportation grant for main street. The Village will be the lead on this as the greatest impacts are within the Village.

The listers have put in many hours and a lot of work this year completing the Town wide re-appraisal, for which we owe a depth of gratitude.

We are very happy to welcome Lea Kilvadyova to the newly established position of community and economic development coordinator. Lea has administrated a grant for the Planning Commission and has been very successful in these short few months getting more grants approved.

Our budget is up fairly significant and with one most notable change. Starting this year the Library will be within our budget, both their revenue and expenditures are presented. The library Trustee’s asked the Selectboard to assume some accounting and employee responsibilities. Revenue generation particularly from their trust funds has been steadily decreasing due to the markets, while expenditures have continued to rise, for a increase budget of 82% this year. The librarian and any assistants will be Town employees, subject to and benefited by the policies of the Town, while the Library trustees will continue administration of the library, staff, and it’s direction. Most of the other budget increase are from area’s we have no control over, Sheriff Communication and Patrol are up 24% and 21% respectively due to competitive salary adjustment requirements. Village contracts for 10 cents on Grand list was increased 33% as a reflection of Grand list increase due to re-appraisal, and Fire department contract increase of 10%.

We have increased paving twenty thousand dollars, a steady decrease in State funding for paving left us with zero state aid dollars for this current budget. We are finding it more and more difficult to just maintain our current paved highways say nothing of new paving projects.

Railroad street bridge is slated for replacement this summer of 2005 with the last word we received, however at this writing we have not seen evidence to support this. We should have a better update at Town meeting to the status of all bridges.

We should all expect to be inconvenienced for the next few years within the Village limits. We have two Town, one State bridge replacements slated, a Village major water project, and main street revitalization. Our hope is the State will work with us to coordinate this activity with the least amount of disruption as possible, time will tell if this is successful, however we will appreciate and thank you for your patience.

We thank the Highway Department for their continued dedication in maintaining our highways, to Rosemary and her staff for all of their support, and to Duncan for the assistance he provides to the SelectBoard.