Burke Town Clerk

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2008 Summary of Activities

The Town Clerk's Office continues to be busy even with the declining economy. This year was particularly special to me because as some of you may know, I was chosen "Vermont Clerk of The Year" by my fellow Town Clerks. It was a complete shock and such an honor. I want to thank the Selectmen, Sam, Mike and Emery for being so supportive. Also to my very capable and loyal assistants (Cathi, Linda, Gail and Muriel) for all their help and support.

This year we recorded 2,086 pages in the land records. This is down a bit from last year as you know, the housing market slowed down and also re-mortgaging. We filled 4 land records books. Thirty-one (31) marriage licenses were issued this year up from 23 last year. The Burke Hollow Meeting House was reserved for nine (9) weddings during the summer. There were fifteen (15) births and nine (9) deaths also recorded in our vital records.

There were fourteen (14) reservations for special events at the Darling Memorial Park during the summer. The Adult baseball team reserved the ball field for the entire summer for games and practice.

If anyone would like to reserve the park, meeting house or town office for any event please call the Town Clerk's office. We will reserve your time in our date book and this will eliminate any conflicts.

We registered 385 dogs in 2008. There were several dogs still unregistered at the end of the year. These dogs will still have to be registered for 2008 along with 2009, plus a fine. The Spring Rabies Clinic has been set for March 14, 2009 at 9:00 am and will be held at the Town Hall at the school. This is a perfect opportunity to get your dogs vaccinated and registered at the same time. There will be staff from our office there to register your dogs for you. Even if your dog is not due for a rabies shot this year, you still should take advantage of this day to register your dogs. The deadline for registering your dogs is April 1. After that there will be a penalty applied. We must have a valid rabies certificate and spayed or neutered papers on file at the Town Clerk's Office prior to registration. The fee for spayed or neutered dogs prior to April 1 is $10.00, non-spayed or neutered is $14.00, and after April 1 the fees are $13.00 and $19.00 respectively.

After May 1, the fees goes to $15.00 and $23.00 respectively. Please remember that there is a dog ordinance, which we do enforce. Stop by the office to pickup a current copy. All owners must keep their dogs under control at all times.

If you are planning on bringing your dogs or cats to the Rabies Clinic, please have your dogs on a leash and your cats in a carrier as requested by the Vet.

We continue to do vehicle renewals. This is a service that is greatly appreciated by those of us who lead busy lives and just forget to send in our registrations on time. We registered 235 vehicles in 2008. We can renew a vehicle registration that has expired up to sixty days. We can renew from a State generated renewal form. If you have lost it or did not receive it in the mail, we may still be able to help. We will need your drivers license and a credit card. We do not accept cash for this service, credit cards, checks or money orders only, made out to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for the amount of the registration. There is a three-dollar processing fee, which the Town gets to keep. We can also renew snowmobile registrations. This service brings revenues of $705.00 just for renewing vehicles registrations. Fees like these, for the little extra work that we perform, help to pay for a portion of our office expenses, reducing the amount required from property taxes.

The Lister's files are available Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. or by appointment.

Continuing Education in the Clerk's office is still a big concern of mine. I have learned so
much from being on the Continuing Education Committee and also from the workshops that we put on. I feel that I can run my office more efficiently. Again this year I had the honor of being reappointed to the Executive Board of the Vermont Clerk's and Treasurer's Association. I was also elected by that Board to be the secretary for the E-Board. I am also a mentor from Caledonia County Clerks for other Town offices to be able to call for answers to questions and advice, particularly the newly elected clerks.

We are looking forward to another great year with all the new things coming along and hope to continue to learn and improve as we go along. It is going to be exciting. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, please feel free to stop by the office or give us a call at 467-3717 and we will be glad to help if we can. Time seems to go by very quickly here, maybe having a nice facility to work in and nice people to work with has something to do with it.

We are very excited about the possibility of having a new community center here at the same location as the Town Offices. It will keep everything centralized and be more convenient for the whole community. We are encouraging you to vote yes on Article 9.

Thank you for all your help and support.

Priscilla Aldrich, cvc, cvt
Cathi Feeley, Assistant Treasureer
Linda Hackett-Corey, Assistant Town Clerk
Muriel Feeley, Office Assistant
Gail Weed, Office Assistant

Source: 2008 Annual Report, Town of Burke, Vermont