Vermont's Legislative Apportionment Board meets every ten years to configure legislative districts for the state, then forwards its proposals to the House and Senate for a final decision. On Oct. 15, the board finished its work on a House map that gives strong preference to single-member districts (many currently have two representatives) and in the process more than doubling the number of towns that would be split by districts. The board argued that a public survey with 630 respondents found strong support for moving to single-member districts and that while most respondents favored conforming to town borders, "by a margin of 65% to 35% [they] indicated that it was better to split a town border in order to create two single member districts than to maintain that border within a two-member district."

Among other changes, the proposed map divides the current Sharon/Strafford/Thetford/Norwich district represented by Jim Masland and Tim Briglin into two single-member districts, with Sharon and most of Norwich in one, and Strafford, Thetford, and a rump of Norwich in the other. Here's what Masland and Briglin have to say on the matter:

From Jim Masland:

My principle objection to the single district proposal is that it would split Norwich in two (albeit a large part and a bit that would be attached to the Thetford, Strafford district). The problem with that and any other districts where towns are split apart is that the influence of the selectboards and school boards in split towns would be necessarily diluted. Bad, bad, bad! If local government is to retain its importance, we can’t let that happen.

From Tim Briglin:

The advantage of allowing for two-seat representative districts is that they are better able to keep whole communities intact. To have part of Norwich represented by one legislator while another part of town is represented by a different legislator would be challenging for Norwich in several ways. Currently, 21 Vermont towns are divided between two legislative districts. The Legislative Apportionment Board's proposal would more than double that number by dividing 44 communities. The LAB adopted this 150 single-member district map proposal on a half-hearted 4-3 vote. The Legislative Apportionment Board's work is the very first phase in a process that will culminate with the legislature adopting a redistricted map in late spring 2022. I believe there is little/no chance the LAB's proposal will be adopted by the legislature.