Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-05-09
ANNUAL VILLAGE MEETING.

e ANNUAL VILLAGE MEETING
! SMALL NUMBER OF VOTERS ATTENDED
: Old Board of officers Elected Without Opposi
1 ton Considerable Discussion Over the Pro
; posed Amendment to the Village Charter
Regarding the Public Vehicles Article Fl
5 nally Passed by Close Australian
System of Baloting to be Continued.
One hour and 10 minutes was all the
, time consumed in transacting the bus
, mess which came before the voters oi
the village at the annual meeting Tues
day, although according to the Aus.
tralian system of balloting the polls
had to be kept open from a. IN. un-
til to accommodate the Ill citizens
who were interested enough to vote.
The result of the election was as fol
lows:
Whole number Of votes cast st............. III
Necessary for choice e..,,........,....,....., sc
BailitIs
Z. W Blodgctt. ..'.,....,....,........... LOG
l.. W. Hawlcy Observation-Disclosures. 109
G. X. Crosby. 1O7
X. G. Bacon. 107
5.,lIeIISS /: II HSye. ......:.............:. los
Village clerk and treasurer;
W. Dorr Perry. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Ill
Chief engineer:
| II, W Sanders. .......,..........,...,... LOG
& T. turner q
Auditor:
c. a. Harris 100
Tax collector;
H. L. Gordon. Ill
The business session was called to
order at } O'Clock by E. W. Blodgett
and the second article regarding the
reports of the bailiffs. treasurer and
chief engineer was brought up for
consideration i. +. Adams moved
that the reports be accepted and his
motion was carried unanimously. In
regard to article 3 ''To raise money to
defray the expenses of the coming year,
c. +. Thompson moved that tax of
40 cents payable July ! be voted and
/ there was no opposition to this motion.
/ George W. Pierce moved that article 4
regarding the appropriation of 500 for
| 16 band concerts be passed and this
matter also went through without a
/ dissenting vote.
Article > was the bone of contention
of the meeting and the discussion of it
took up nearly an hour 1t was as fol-
lows:
To see if the Village will amend and add to its
bylaws by passing, enacting and adding there
to, the following
Article NO person shall keep or keep stand
ing in any public highway. street or lane in the
village of Eratteboro, any horse, team, hack
/ coupe, carriage, sleigh, express team or job
team, for public use or hire without the written
consent of the bailitfs therefor and under such
regulations and conditions as the bailitfs in
such written consent shall make
Article 2-lf any person shall violate any Of
the provisions of the preceding section, he shall
forfeit and pay to ana for the use of the village
Of Brattleboro the sum of SO and costs.
As soon as Mr. Blodgett had finished
reading the article G. f. Thompson
moved that it be dismissed on the
-ftuads dat it a;,s entirel, too broad.
Mr.. Thompson said he used to vel
come the day when the streets were
lined with teams for it showed that
there We're some people in town. He
thought the bailitfs had no right to
rule teams off the street and was de-
cidedly against the article r. C.
Bacon explained the meaning of the
proposed amendment saying that it
was misunderstood by many people 1t
was simply for the purpose of regulat-
ing the public coupes and job wagons
and not, TO drive them or anyone else
off the streets. The drivers should be
made to occupy certain places and to
keep those places clean. Mr. 1homp-
son still thought the amendment was
too broad and Mr.. Bacon again tried
to explain it to him.
J. L. Martin then got up and said
that he thought the power of cleaning
the streets was in the hands of the
road commissioner and that there was
no way that the coupe drivers could be
made to do it, He and Mr.. Bacon
talked back and forth for a little while
no one was able to catch the
drift of Mr.. Martins harangue.
C. Il. Crosby spoke in behalf of the
saying that some authority
was needed to distribute the locations
for the different vehicles and that it
would be for the benefit of the coupe
and job men themselves if they had
to whom they could appeal.
l.. W. Hawley said he had expected no
opposition to the article after il was
understood and saw no reason why
there should be any c. f. Thompson
still saw no occasion for the article and
L. +. Adams took his turn in trying
to explain to Mr. Thompson that there
was decided need of regulation in the
matter and that it should appeal to
the voters as a simple business propo-
sition. Mr.. Thompson and his second
then withdrew their motion and the
question was again before the house.
F. d. +. Stowe feared that it would
be dangerous precedent to put so
much power in the hands of the bail
ifs and that it would be leading tow
ard city government. 4 vote was
hen taken on the question of accept
ng the article but the chair was in
iouht as TO the result. After consid-
srable more talk on the subject the
house was divided on the question and
he article was carried $40.
Article 6-"To see if the village will
continue the present system of ballot
ng'' was finally passed by a vote of
'S-22. 1t took nearly ten minutes to
ret the voters to understand which
way they were voting in the matter
md there was considerable uproar be
ore the decision was reached