Page 14 - 2025 Brighton VT Annual Report

him to fill a vacant seat. Bruce has family commitments which makes serving another term on
the board impossible, but I look forward to his continued attendance remotely when he is able.
Heather McElroy and Mike Testut are not up for re-election this year so that leaves us with one
board member running for re-election and that is William(Billy) Hawkins. Billy has been a great asset to
the board, and I look forward to his return. And that brings us to the two seats that were added in 2024,
nobody filed to run for them. The same way that nobody filed to run for Cemetery Commissioner, Lister,
Auditor or Water/Sewer Commissioner. The town simply does not have enough people with the time or
desire to serve on all these boards. Even in the years before expanding to five members, rarely was there
ever a contested election. My hope is that you will consider this when deciding whether to continue with
the five-person board as we don’t just have two positions to fill, we have ten.

In closing I would like to thank the residents of Brighton for giving me the opportunity to serve as your
Town Manager. I never really envisioned my career path taking me into municipal government but having
worked with the Brighton town government for the past 12 years I have found that I truly enjoy it. My goal
is to always treat everyone equally and do my best to make the lives of the residents of the town better.
This means we all won’t agree on every topic all the time and that is how it should be. We just need to be
able to listen to each other and then we make the decision we feel is the
best. It may be wrong at times but if we can admit that and work together,
no harm will come from it. I look forward to the exciting year ahead of us
and being able to report on our many successes next year.

Sincerely,

Mike Strait
Brighton Town Manager

Town Manager
Mike Strait

12 Town of Brighton, VT