Peter Booth (Board of Civil Authority)
Peter Booth: Plunging into volunteer work in Jericho
Peter Booth didn’t waste any time getting involved in Jericho after he and his wife, Amy Beaton, bought their home in 1992. He tried various boards and committees including the Conservation Commission and ran for a seat on the MMU School Board. He attended a meeting of the Underhill ID School and when he discovered that nobody was running for their vacant seat, he accepted the challenge. More recently he served two terms on the Planning Commission and one on the Affordable Housing Committee. He has been involved in Democratic politics for three decades and spent several years as chair of the Jericho Democratic caucus. “I always wanted to be out in the community, meeting and helping people,” he said. “That’s how I like to spend my time.”
In 1995, Booth ran for Justice of the Peace, and he has been reelected every year since then. The most visible work done by JPs is staffing elections. “We’re the people behind the tables checking off your name when you come in and out, and handing out ballots,” he said. Less well-known is the work JPs do as members of the Board of Civil Authority which oversees property tax disagreements. When taxpayers contest a reappraisal, the Board is the quasi-judicial body which decides who is correct. They also review applications for abatement of taxes and penalties for late tax filings.
One of the most enjoyable parts of being a JP is performing weddings. Booth said that 20 and 30 years, ago, he officiated a wedding every summer and when civil unions were legalized, he was initially quite busy, but he’s getting fewer calls and hasn’t united a couple in five or six years “That’s one of the more fun parts of the job,” Booth said.
Booth gives back to the community in part because the community has given back to him. In 2001, while he and his family were vacationing in Maine, their house burned down. When they got home, a neighbor who had been watching over the property was waiting for them and immediately called Gaye Symington who offered the family the use of her in-law apartment. An Underhill couple put a $300 credit for Booth and his wife at Jeri-Hill Hardware and a Jericho resident opened an account in the couple’s name at Merchant’s Bank which eventually grew to $30,000 from community donations. Booth used his knowledge of tax appraisals to ask that his taxes be lowered since there was no longer a house on his lot.
In 2001, Booth joined the teaching staff at CVU following stints working at People’s Academy and the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center. He teaches math from pre-algebra to calculus. Fifteen years ago, a para-educator at CVU had the idea of issuing a fundraising challenge to students for the upcoming Penguin Plunge which benefits Special Olympics. If they raised $15,000, a teacher would shave his/her head. Booth volunteered to be that teacher and was confident the students wouldn’t raise that much money. Instead, they almost doubled the goal by raising $28,000. Booth was true to his word and has taken part in similar challenges – once sporting a mohawk after his students passed their fundraising goal – over the years and proudly notes that CVU has raised over $400,000 for Special Olympics through the plunge.
Booth has always worked with kids. In his second year in Jericho, before having children of his own, he coached a Little Leage team of third graders. “I was the only one who wasn’t a parent who had been strong-armed into coaching,” he said. Since then, Booth and Beaton have adopted four children. Shortly after buying their home, they called the Vermont Department of Children and Families because they were interested in foster care. It was there that learned that adoption was not an expensive process if it was done through the agency, and they proceeded to open their home to four youngsters.
The first three children Booth and Beaton adopted came to them at a very young age. Jesse was roughly six weeks old, Avery was only 30 days, and Aiden was six months old. They were only supposed to keep Aiden for a night but that turned into a weekend, then a week, and then a month, and he just celebrated his 19th birthday with them. The couple thought they were done with adopting until 2008 when they got a call, asking if they could keep a 15-year-old for one night. Booth recognized Jessica as a former student and once again, one night turned into a full-time commitment. This summer, Booth and Beaton flew to Lisbon for Jessica’s wedding. Just before Booth walked her down the aisle, she whispered to him “we’ve come a long way from pre-algebra.”
Although weddings are the most enjoyable part of being a justice of the peace, Booth really likes working at the polls. “You get to meet every voter in Jericho,” he said. “We’re getting more and more isolated behind our screens but when you’re running the elections, every voter in Jericho comes through. Seeing the community face to face is great.”
