For the third year in a row, Sharon took up the matter of the Pledge of Allegiance following the business portion of Town Meeting.
Two years ago, in a narrow vote with only a one-vote majority, the town agreed to start their annual Town Meeting with the pledge. Last year, after starting the meeting with the pledge, residents took up the issue during the “other business” portion of the meeting, and voted in a secret ballot to abolish the practice.
This year, after the town had unanimously passed the entirety of the warrant, the resident Jack Ogren once again tried to make the pledge a new Sharon tradition.
“Most of us are of an age where we grew up saying the pledge a school, at scout troops, as we joined adult organizations,” said Ogren. “So many of us grew up with that, and to turn away from that makes little sense.”
But other residents objected to the proposition. Robert Hauser, who moved last year to do away with the pledge at Town Meeting, again spoke in favor of keeping it out of town politics.
“You can practice your own patriotism any way you want, but don’t impose on those that don’t want to be imposed upon,” said Selectman Carl Newton.
Ogren originally made a motion for the matter to be voted upon by a show of hands, rather than in a ballot vote. However, when the residents agreed to pass an amendment to his motion that would make the motion a secret ballot, Ogren withdrew his motion, believing going through with the vote wouldn’t result in change.
“You may want to consider taking the flag down,” he told the Select Board.
Residents had little comment on the town’s plans for an employee compensation schedule, which is much the same as last year, with the exception of changing the Clerk and Administrator positions to salaried instead of hourly.
The budget passed in a unanimous voice vote, setting the town budget at $376,425. That represents less than a $10,000 increase, the vast majority of which was caused by increases in contracted services from Peterborough, explained Newton.
The board did ask the residents in attendance their opinion on the expenditure of town funds to charitable organizations that serve the town. This year, explained Town Administrator Debra Harling, the Peterborough Food Pantry has made a request for $200 in funding, the first time it has requested a donation from the town.
Last year, the town gave funds to Monadnock Family Services, Home, Healthcare and Hospice, Contoocook Valley Transportation and the American Red Cross. But last year, the latter two did not provide any services to Sharon residents, said Harling.
The consensus of the crowd was to do away with the Contoocook Valley Transportation donation, which was about $250, in favor of supporting the food bank.
In the largest article outside the budget, voters agreed to put $35,000 in the highway repairs fund. Currently, explained Selectman Ted O’Brien, the fund holds $41,000.
“We need about $100,000 to make a dent in some of the problems,” said O’Brien.
The article passed in a unanimous voice vote.
Voters asked several questions, but ultimately had no objections to funding capital reserve accounts, including $10,000 for the town bridge fund, $7,500 for the audit fund and $1,000 for the welfare services fund, all of which passed unanimously.
The town also unanimously approved a $6,800 article to purchase new software for the town clerk. The bulk of the cost will be to purchase the software, and it will have a $1,703 continuing cost.
Voters voiced no objection to passing over an article that would have discontinued and barred Swamp Road to the public. The article was originally placed on the warrant because of problem dumping in that area, but Newton informed the crowd that one landowner on the road had strong objections to the proposal.
“We sent out registered letters and got a very negative response back,” said Newton.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.