2/6/2016 From the Desk of Les Elder
Only 34 Milton residents showed up today to approve all of the Warrant Articles that were submitted by the Milton School Board. Article # 2, the operating Budget of $9,844,284.84, was the only article to gather much discussion. Les Elder made a motion to reduce the Budget by 10% to $8,859,823.96. However there was an attempt to make a second amendment to the Operating Budget, but the Moderator ruled Stan Nadeau out of order and would not allow the amendment, since the discussion on the question had been closed, and a motion had been made and seconded to limit discussion. (There appears this may have been incorrectly motioned, but the moderator asked and was given authority to continue) The Amendment was defeated by a vote of 18 to 16. There also was some discussion regarding the $279,034.00 for leasing new computers and the only amendment was a housekeeping measure which passed. Minor discussion and questions on the remaining Warrant Articles left all warrant articles intact and all passed. Sending to the voters of Milton a total package of approximately $11,208,360.00
It was true democracy at its best. And they are right when they say your vote counts. If more people that had shown an interest in cutting some of the articles had shown up things may have been different. We will never know. It’s over and done and will now passed on to the voters in March.
It's appears that everyone in Milton is happy with the Schools, they way they are operated and their escalating taxes. I for one am not. But it takes a majority to make changes in a democracy. That majority was not there when needed, if in fact it even exists.
