Taking Office in April

Unless a recount demanded by his opponent overturns his 22-vote lead, Mr. Sanders will take office in April in this prosperous city of 38,000 people, set dramatically on a hillside with Lake Champlain and a picture-book view of New York's Adirondack Mountains on one side and the rolling hills of Vermont's intense rural poverty on the other.

In four unsuccessful races for Governor and United States Senator since 1970, Mr. Sanders had ruffled some feathers by attacking the political, financial, business and educational leaders of the state for directing their attention to growth and development rather than the plight of the state's poor, politically disenfranchised and elderly residents.

But his victory was met with restraint by some of those leaders. ''I wish Bernie Sanders luck and success,'' said Gov. Richard A. Snelling, a Republican whom Mr. Sanders has accused of being in thrall to business interests. And Hilton Wick, president of the city's largest commercial bank, remarked in steely tones that it was unlikely the new Mayor would have any ''significant, rapid effect'' on life here.

Gordon Paquette, the city's five-term Democratic Mayor, declined to talk about the election until after a recount is held next week. In five previous races the former bakery delivery man had never lost an election, never lost a single city ward. He had run unopposed, and thus with tacit Republican support, three times and rarely garnered less than 75 percent of the vote. Vietnam War Protester

Mr. Sanders, who ran as an independent, is a former freelance writer, carpenter, film producer and political activist who came to Vermont in the late 1960's like thousands of other young people upset over the Vietnam War and the plight of the nation's cities. This time he beat Mayor Paquette by 43.2 percent of the 9,000 votes cast to 43.1 percent.