Within our leadership Charles Eaton left because of
commitments and Paul Bouchard was appointed as his
replacement Several months later Nathaniel Ireland
left because of his health and former selectman Earle
Wesson was appointed as his replacement. And finally,
Barbara Knicely stepped down because of personal
reasons, and Bruce Cutting was selected to fill the
vacancy. This left Stoddard in the unusual situation of
ending its year with an entirely different Board of
Selectmen than it began with. Yet despite these
changes each group has worked together to consider the
needs of the town and how their decisions would help
the town.
Beginning with the individual departments needed to
run the town, the selectmen requested accountability
and credibility from each and for the most part received
it. In turn the departments were given quarterly
financial reports. The selectmen and department heads
have worked together to keep the departments within
their budgets. In addition a volunteer budget committee was formed to assist with this year’s proposed
budget. Three people - Vicki Marshall, Phyllis Sawyer,
and Bruce Cutting, worked closely with the selectmen
and department heads to come up with a line-by-line
proposed budget for the coming year. It was ...