Board of Trustees

The Essex Junction Trustees is the governing, legislative body for the Municipality of the Village of Essex Junction. The five-member board is elected at large within the Village. After each Annual Meeting, one of the Trustees is elected by the other Trustees to the office of Village President.  The Village President is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and presides at the Trustee meetings. The three-year terms of the Trustees are staggered to provide continuity.

Board Members & Contact Information

George A. Tyler, Village President gtyler@ essexjunction.org 802-310-8215
Elaine H. Sopchak, Vice President esopchak@ essexjunction.org 802-324-2546
Daniel S. Kerin dkerin@ essexjunction.org 802-879-8343
Lori A. Houghton lhoughton@ essexjunction.org 802-879-6701
Andrew P. Brown abrown@ essexjunction.org 802-598-8162

The Village Trustees welcome your questions, concerns and suggestions.  Please feel free to contact any Trustee at the email or phone number listed on this page.

Please be aware that the Trustees are not able to respond to emails as a group.  If you send an email to all five Trustees, it is mostly likely you will receive a response from only one Trustee.  This is because there are laws that prevent elected officials from conducting business outside of a public meeting.  Responding to a group email is an example of this.

If you wish to discuss a concern with the entire Board of Trustees, the best way to do this is either to contact the Village Manager to have your concern placed on an upcoming meeting agenda, or to attend a Board of Trustees meeting and address the Board at the beginning of the meeting.

To put an item on a Board agenda, call the Village office at 878-6944 and speak to either Patty Benoit or Village Manager Pat Scheidel.  To speak to the Board of Trustees at a meeting, be there when the meeting starts (usually at 6:30 p.m.)  Immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance, the Village President will ask the audience if anyone wants to speak about something that isn't on the agenda.  That's when you can bring up your concern.

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Summary of Last Meeting

The Village Trustees met on Tuesday, September 12.  Highlights from the meeting include:

  • In Public to be Heard, resident Chris Chiquoine voiced concerns about the noise level at the Wolfsgart event in August.
  • David Voegele, Executive Director at Essex CHIPS, introduced himself to the Trustees and gave a yearly organizational update.
  • Jacob Lemieux presented his Eagle Scout project to the Trustees, building seating cubes for bus stops.  The Trustees approved his request to place two seating cubes in the public right-of-way at bus stops on Brickyard Road and Summit Street.
  • The Trustees signed a Tax Stabilization Agreement with Cyrus Patten for his property at 8 Pearl Street.  Village President George Tyler stressed that no Village taxpayer money would be paying for the stabilization. 
  • Darby Mayville updated the Trustees on steAmfest.
  • The Trustees authorized staff to submit a Go! Vermont grant for the purchase of bike racks, and matched it with $500 of Village funds.
  • George Tyler updated the Trustees on the Manager recruitment process.
  • The Trustees reviewed and signed an acknowledgement of the General Rules & Ethics Policy.
  • The Trustees approved the creation of a separate checking account for EJRP to receive credit card payments. 

The official meeting minutes can be found below.

Archive of Minutes

Most meetings are available to watch on www.cctv.org