After the Select Board cut funding to all nonprofits regularly supported by Antrim by 50% due to a high increase in the tax rate this year, articles regarding funding for The Grapevine Family & Community Resource Center, the Home and Harvest Festival and the Antrim Community Board sparked most of the debate at Town Meeting Thursday night.

A petition warrant article requested the town restore $10,000 to The Grapevine. Select Board Member Michael Ott spoke against the article. 

“While I support The Grapevine and we all support The Grapevine, we had to make a lot of cuts this year and it had to come from somewhere,” he said. “All the departments had to take cuts – the Police Department, the Fire Department, the library.”

Antrim’s budget rose 11%, mainly due to the cost of replacing the town well in 2024, which cost about $750,000.

Staff and supporters of The Grapevine spoke about the vital role the organization plays in Antrim and the region. 

“Ninety percent of the teens in Antrim have participated in activities at The Grapevine or Avenue A,” said Grapevine board member Dottie Bauer. “Having a supportive community and trusted adults in their lives is essential to teenagers staying in school.”

Erica Snyder, an Antrim native who now works at The Grapevine, said the organization gave her the skills and support she needed as a young mother with three children. 

The article passed 167-25 votes by a secret ballot vote. 

Many town residents also spoke in support of a $15,000 request to support Antrim’s annual Home and Harvest Festival. Rick Davis, a longtime organizer of the event, said Home and Harvest currently operates at a loss of about $4,000 a year, and that volunteers support the event with their own money. The article was amended to request $7,000 for Home and Harvest and passed by majority voice vote. 

Gordon Allen, representing the Antrim Community Board, proposed an amendment to the community board article requesting the town donate the “Brown Church” (formerly the Antrim Church of Christ) to the Antrim Historical Society. The article as originally written proposed the town raise and appropriate $6,500 to fund the work of the Antrim Community Board.

“The purpose of the community board is to do projects which benefit the community and increase community assets. All we are trying to do is guide the town on whether the Church of Christ, which the town has taken the tax deed for,  should go to the Historical Society or not. If people don’t agree with that, so be it, but is very important for us to know where the community stands on that issue,”  Allen said

Town Moderator Arthur Merrill said Allen’s proposed amendment would not be permitted by law, as it would change the intent of the article. Select Board member Bob Edwards said that “the community board’s 11th- hour approach to this issue is disappointing and inappropriate.” 

Edwards said that the the town had removed the church from a recent auction of town properties and planned to discuss the fate of the church after Town Meeting. 

“After Town Meeting, the Select Board will look at finding a realistic strategy that potentially might lead to a pathway forward that considers the building’s historic significance, the town’s interest in preserving historic properties and the Historical Society’s vision, and any and all financial impacts to the Antrim taxpayer as a whole,” Edwards said. “We want to come up with a plan that makes sense, and I would hope that the assembly tonight will work with the Select Board and have trust that will come up with a resolution to the disposal of that building.”

Allen agreed to withdraw the amendment. 

“We wanted to have a conversation about this at this meeting, and I was very glad to hear what the Select Board had to say. I had not heard those plans before, and I am happy with that,” Allen said. 

Allen and Helene Newbold then spoke on behalf of the proposed $6,500 funding for the Antrim Community Board, a town board founded in 2023 to undertake community projects on behalf of the town. Initiatives include relaunching the swap shop at the recycling center, creating a welcoming committee, hosting a business fair and creating an updated date inventory of town resources and assets. 

Newbold said the $6,500 would go to funding an administrative assistant five hours a week to assist with creating and maintaining the inventory and database of town assets. After being amended to $3,600, the article failed by standing vote, 81-69.

The remaining warrant articles in the ballot all passed, with the exception of an article requesting funds for a new bailer at the recycling center.

“The crew says it’s OK if we wait another year on that,” Ott said. 

The town budget of $5.3 million passed by a wide majority. 

At the close of the meeting, Select Board member John Robertson thanked retiring Town Administrator Donna Hanson for her long service and presented her with flowers on behalf of the town.