WE DID IT! Berlin votes tax break for CCG!

I’m extremely pleased to report that the town of Berlin voted to exempt our Grange from property taxes, as we asked, at the Town Meeting this morning.   Woo-hoo!  The only change made was reducing the initial tax break from the 10 years we requested, to 5 years, by a floor amendment.   Virtually everyone in the meeting seemed to vote for the tax break!
So we will save over $7,000 this year and for the next 4 years after this one–a huge help for our beleaguered Grange budget.  That will add up to more than $35,000 we don’t have to raise and send off to Berlin over that time period!

Merry and I set up a display (made by Merry over the weekend) about the Grange in the lobby of the Berlin Elementary before the meeting, and spoke to many entering voters.  We found quite a few who said they already supported us, and none saying negative things.
Once the meeting started and this matter came up for discussion, the moderator invited me (with the permission of the Berlin voters) to address the meeting, so I got to be the public face of the Grange again.  I fielded a number of questions about the Grange and its history, as well as about our offer to allow free use of the Grange Hall for Berlin residents and organizations in return for the tax exemption.   Once again, the questions were generally positive, not negative attacks.  Evidently my answers–and the support expressed by a number of members of the Town Meeting–were satisfactory, as we got the result we hoped for.   The amendment to reduce the initial period of exemption was an expression of caution, not of non-support.
We look forward to working Berlin and Berliners to support community-building meetings, celebrations, sing-alongs, craft-fairs, family reunions, baby showers, dinners, plays and whatever else we can work out.   We are confident that in 5 years we will be recognized as an important institution, and will continue to receive support through tax exemption!
We’re already talking with Selectboard member Jeremy Hansen about having an official celebration–maybe on Tax Day, April 15th?  or early May?–to mark this change.
Thanks go out as always to a large group of contributors to this campaign, including Berlin residents, Grange members, the Friends of the Grange, Marj Power who introduced Jeremy Hansen to us, and more.   It meant a lot that we could point to our tradition of support for local people and community groups!   Together, we did it!