Selectboard struggles: Making change by stepping up, and stepping down

LUNENBURG, Vt. (WCAX) - It’s a tale of two selectboard members -- one leaving, and one joining -- and both for the same reason -- to make change.

Gary Briggs joined the Lunenburg Selectboard five months ago, when he wanted to see more for his town. “Nothing was getting better. In fact, they were getting worse,” Briggs said.

The strain of keeping small towns alive piles up on community members. “We were taking what automatically came to us, but we weren’t doing anything to go out and seek those kinds of grants,” Briggs said.

He felt like the selectboard was keeping the status quo rather than growing, and he says the board’s disorganization made the community miss out on grants that would help pay for things like working on Lunenburg’s old abandoned mill and other infrastructure and recreational activities. Briggs also found out Lunenburg is one of the only 12 towns and cities in Vermont that did not have a municipal plan. “Most of the state and federal grants, we didn’t qualify for those because we didn’t have a municipal plan,” he said.

So, Briggs stepped up. “I know change is not easy, especially in small, rural towns,” he said.

“Change is not the enemy. In fact, it’s inevitable if we want to preserve the essence of what we have,” said Bram Towbin, a former Plainfield Selectboard member.

When Towbin joined the Plainfield Selectboard, he says various positions weren’t filled, including as the health officer or animal control person. Towbin recently stepped down from his selectboard, citing many of the same issues Briggs saw as a reason sign up. “It took a great deal of proactive searching to find people willing to take on the responsibilities with little compensation. The annual budgets are sometimes $1,000 a year,” Towbin said.

Being a selectboard member is essentially a volunteer job, and with lack of support, Towbin says it’s hard to make it seem worth it. “When changes are made, small towns must be part of the conversation. In fact, the Legislature would do everyone a favor if major legislation included a detailed impact on local officials’ time and town resources,” Towbin said.

Towbin says that while he feels leaving the board is the best decision, he will continue to help in his community and come back when it feels right. As for Briggs, he’s looking forward to finishing the city plan and seeing Lunenburg grow.

But while Briggs and Towbin are taking opposite approaches to making change., one thing they share is a hope to keep Vermont’s small towns alive.