WARREN—Voters at town meeting on March 8 endorsed increased funding for the local ambulance service despite a 139% increase in its budget.
An early motion by Warren Treasurer Sheila Foote to cut funding for the 24/7 Warren-Wentworth ambulance service was eventually withdrawn after discussion over the reasons behind the request. Meanwhile a potentially controversial noise ordinance petitioned by a local resident displeased with a noisy campground was tabled without discussion.
Voters approved a combined total budget for school a-nd the town of over $3.9 million, an increase of about 4.4% over the previous year. Property taxes are expected to rise even more due to higher costs for the Warren Village School and decreased state aid.

PIERMONT—Piermonters will be asked whether they want to discontinue their membership with Upper Valley Ambulance and instead join Woodsville Ambulance on town meeting day.
“We’ve had people ask,” said selectboard chair Wayne Godfrey in an interview. “I think it should be discussed.”

PIKE—For a former Peace Corps country director in Ukraine, the recent Russian invasion hits close to home.
Doug Teschner, of Pike, was in Ukraine in 2014 when Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula on the Sea of Azov and annexed it into the Russian Federation. Teschner was there for the evacuation of Peace Corps volunteers. It was a bloodless takeover, but it foreshadowed today’s war.

ORFORD—Twenty warrant articles await voters who will gather in person at the annual meeting which will take place March 8 at 7 p. m. in the Rivendell Academy Gymnasium with voting for town officers beginning at 4 p.m.
The selectboard seeks approval to enter negotiations for a purchase and sale agreement for an Orford property rich in sand.
Late last year, the board discussed acquiring the property and decided to add the proposal as a 2022 warrant article.

STRAFFORD—Keith Fifield stood atop his sugarhouse checking sap lines hung like telephone cables coming out of the woods behind his house. His father, Wayne, sat in the driver’s seat of a John Deere loader with the bucket that lifted his son resting at the roofline.
As the bright winter sun thawed the frozen ground on a February afternoon, deep mud ruts were carved into the road leading to Fifield Sugar House on Maple Hill Road in Strafford, a Vermont hamlet filled with quiet winding roads.