Grapevines in winter

All of the town's officers are up for reelection this spring.  The nomination caucus, where it is decided who will run for each office, must be run by someone who will not be on the ballot so I got a call last month asking if I would preside.   It was to be held tonight just before the regular town board's monthly meeting.  I noticed the caucus was allotted 5 minutes - I finished it in 4.  Town people like to grouse about the board, clerk, and treasurer but no one wants to do their jobs.  In each case, therefore, only one person was nominated per office.  I stuck around for the board's meeting afterward.  They discussed the town property appraisal company overcharging for their services.  The appraisal company added a note saying their fuel costs were higher than expected.    The town, however, has a contract w/ a set price.  The board discussed tort law and in the end the clerk was instructed to send a check for the contracted amount and include a note that if they wanted more, they will have to appear at a board meeting to discuss it.   Then there was the $10,000 bill from a nearby Fire Department.  Only about 2% of the town's total area is in that Fire District so our usual bill is around $400.  This year the state decided to determine each Fire District's costs by the equalized value of the entire town.  We'll have to pay the bill but in a couple of months the Fire Districts will have meetings w/ state officials and we should get the money back then.   The board then talked about last month's ice/snow storm.  The board said the state didn't name the six counties hit hard as a disaster zone because there aren't enough people living in those counties (never knew there were population limits on disasters).  However,  the state transportation department will reimburse us for some of the cost of debris removal from the roads.  The board did some quick calculations on people's time, brushing, extra fuel, and extra electric for plugging machinery in.  They gave the estimate to the clerk who will let the state know (actual receipts will need to be sent in later before money is meted out.)  Then there was a discussion of where in the town roadways were 'washboarding' or, in some cases, turning into 'sugar snow' (obviously not a late season snow but snow that holds together until weight is applied).  The board members checked the weather forecast on their phones and decided not to put down additional sand.  Warmer weather should fix those issues soon.  You kinda get the picture - being on the town board isn't so much a privilege as it is a pain.