Select board moves to appoint two residents to planning board amid quorum concerns

A board member reported resignations from the planning board and said Victor and Tracy Sherbrooke had offered to join if appointed. The board noted the Vermont League of Cities and Towns told them spouses may serve together in the absence of a local prohibition.

"Victor and Tracy would be very good additions to the planning board," the committee member said. The chair and other members discussed whether to retain the current seven-member combined planning/zoning board or to reduce the planning board to five members, which would require a separate zoning board under state rules. There was back-and-forth about the practical difficulties of finding members and whether towns could lawfully hire a part-time planner only above a population threshold.

The chair made a motion to appoint Victor and Tracy to the planning board and a member seconded the motion. "I make a motion we appoint them to the planning board," the chair said; the transcript records the motion and a second but does not contain a formal roll-call result in the excerpt. The discussion made clear the board faces recurring quorum problems and is weighing structural options (7-member combined board versus smaller boards plus a separate zoning board) as it considers appointments.