Rutland Herald
Chris Bianchi declined the chance for an interview, but instead emailed a statement.
Bianchi, 47, has been on the Killington Select Board for six years, and said he is once again asking for the voters’ support as he seeks re-election March 3.
As a Killington resident for more than 40 years and once a student of what is now Killington Elementary School, Bianchi has deep roots and connections to the town and community.
“It’s been an honor to serve our town,” Bianchi wrote in the email. “I want to continue to work with our board and town employees to continue the progress we’ve made and ensure the town is taking care of its responsibilities, is conservative with its spending and thoughtfully planning for the future.”
Before serving on the Killington Select Board, Bianchi served on the Woodstock Union Middle/High School Board, staying involved where his two sons attended school.
Bianchi sits on the Killington Mountain School board of trustees and has been since 2001.
Bianchi wrote he understands being part of a board means no one individual can affect change or claim accomplishment without first building consensus with other board members.
“To build consensus, you must start by listening and understanding the concerns and ideas of the key stakeholders,” he wrote. “You must be able to define the key issues and goals and, most importantly, you must be willing to compromise.”
Part of the responsibilities of the board, Bianchi wrote, is to set the direction for the town, and foster a work environment where the town manager and town employees can effectively carry out the plan that has been established by the voters in the town budget.
Bianchi said he wanted to thank Killington voters for supporting and passing the budgets.
“Working together we’ve made significant progress. The town has created the first-ever comprehensive long-term capital plans for the town and golf course, ensuring that we properly maintain our equipment and infrastructure, all while continuing to plan for the future while tremendously improving transparency.”
Bianchi wrote the town has worked together to successfully complete all repairs caused during Tropical Storm Irene, while simultaneously managing the $3 million expense to the town without significantly increasing taxes, which eases the burden on taxpayers.
Killington established the first-ever police department in the town, and has increasing patrols and better equipped the officers to handle threats that face the community, Bianchi wrote.
With the town always working with the resort, Bianchi noted town officials and resort officials have fostered a great relationship between the town, residents, the business community and the resort.
“This relationship allows for private and public partnerships that benefit all.”
Another big accomplishment that Bianchi highlighted is the switch of the town budget from a fiscal year to align with the school and state year.
“This allows us to avoid unnecessary borrowing,” he wrote.
It also allows for the town to vote on the budget before the fiscal year starts, to spread the tax payments out over a longer period of time, as well as allowing the taxpayer to keep money longer.
“We have continued to lobby Montpelier for education property tax reform and we’re finally seeing some action from our lawmakers,” he wrote. “And for the past three years, we’ve established a strategic plan for the Select Board, mapping out the year, which allows us to be more proactive instead of reactive.”
The proposed budget, Bianchi wrote, is another example of how the town can manage thoughtful and planned spending.
“If we try to cut the budget too much, expenses, such as road maintenance, will become deferred, unpredictable and even more expensive in the future and we will see larger fluctuations in our tax rate,” he wrote. “I believe the board has already trimmed the budget this year and we voted unanimously to propose this plan to the voters.”
While Bianchi is supportive of the accomplishments made by the town over the past several years, he says he is also aware of what else needs to be done in the years to come.
“While we’ve made progress, there is more to do. With your support, I will continue to work hard for you, and am committed to serving the town as I have done for the past six years.”
Jim Haff, a former selectman, is once again running for the board against Bianchi.
Haff, 54, is originally from Long Island, N.Y., but has made Killington home by owning and operating the Butternut Inn and Pancake House with his wife and three daughters.
Haff said one of his biggest concerns for the town is that the focus seems to be on investing in the future when they should be investing in current projects, such as the Green Mountain Golf Course and the town swimming pool.
“We’re not taking care of our current stuff,” he said. “The golf course is our main tourism attraction, we should be putting more money aside to take care of it.”
Haff pointed out that in the next decade or so, the entire swimming pool will need to be replaced, along with the irrigation system for the golf course.
“We should be putting more money aside for those projects, not investing money into new projects right now,” he said.
Haff said he is in complete support of developing essentials in town, such as a new fire station for the Killington Volunteer Fire Department and maintaining the highways. He also is very much in favor of developing the economic attractions of the town, he said.
But if elected, he would turn to the residents of the town and present them with these options.
“If people want to focus on new developments and attractions in town, then we can,” he said. “But if they don’t want to work on these projects right now, then we shouldn’t.”
Haff said that while investments such as a mountain bike course will be beneficial for the town in the long run by drawing more tourism, he does not feel as though they are a priority at this current time.
“The town administrators only want to invest money on new stuff when we really need to be investing money on the old stuff,” he said.
Haff said one of his biggest accomplishments of his previous term on the board was when he helped local property owners object to their grand list or assessed home values, creating a drop in the property taxes.
“The listers did an appraisal that showed that properties in town were overvalued in the market,” Haff said.
About the proposed town budget — that will make the transition from a 12-month to an 18-month budget — Haff said he believes the numbers are wrong.
“The budget numbers just don’t add up,” he said. “Our current town administration simply doesn’t understand math. None of them know how to run a business of a town or run the numbers of a town. I know how to do that.”
Haff said he is not trying to pick on anyone or single anyone out in the town administration, but that the numbers simply cannot be ignored, and that math and numbers come easily to him as one of his strengths he can bring to the board.
Haff said once the numbers in the budget are properly represented and the budget is rebuilt to accurately reflect the town’s finances, then he will begin to look at where adjustments can be made.
But the adjustments, he said, are based entirely around what the people of the town want.
“I’m not going to be making choices based on what I want for the town,” he said, “but based on what the people want. I will listen and represent. I don’t believe people of the town have been given truthful options about the direction the town can go in.”
While Haff acknowledged that there has been tension on the Select Board in the past, he said the past several years off of the board have given him time to regroup, and that he is now ready to be back on the board and making unified choices with the rest of the board and residents.
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