This issue of the Cavendish Update is made
possible by the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association (CCCA), a non-profit membership organization that is
dedicated to the conservation of land and natural resources and to the
preservation of historic sites within the context of sustainable economic
growth. FMI: PO Box 605, Cavendish VT 05142 or 802-226-7736
The 8/16/13 Cavendish Update Contains the
Following:
1. Thank You CCCA,
Sponsors for the Proctorsville Concerts
2. Cavendish Select
Board Meeting 8/12/13
3. Cavendish Related
News
4. Cavendish
Historical Society: Upcoming Events
5. Vermont Golden
Honey Festival at the Golden Stage Inn
6. BRGN Expands
Furniture Outlet Hours
7. River
Front Landowners and Farmers Informational Meeting
8. Events
1. THANK YOU
CCCA, SPONSORS FOR THE CONCERT SERIES
Since the end of
June, Cavendish has enjoyed a series of seven concerts, every Wednesday night
on the Proctorsville Green. It’s been a unifying community experience, as
people of all ages attended, picnicked, caught up with friends and neighbors,
held parties and enjoyed classic Vermont summer evenings.
Thanks to the
talents of Sharon Huntley, a variety of bands were booked and concerts went off without a hitch. She must
have an in with the weather man as even on rainy days, the sun shown for all of
the concerts and there was no need for the indoor venue.
Special thanks to
Peter LaBelle who coordinated press releases and handled the business end of
things.
Thank you to all
involved. To show your thanks, and to support the 2014 concert series, make a
tax deductible contribution to the CCCA, PO Box 605, Cavendish VT 05142.
2. CAVENDISH SELECT BOARD MEETING 8/12/13
Select board (SB) meetings are recorded by LPC-TV and are
available at their
website and on Comcast Television.
At Monday night’s SB meeting the following items were discussed:
A. Town
Roads/Paving Projects/Gravel
• Town Paving: Reclamation on Twenty Mile
Stream Rd begins on Aug. 13, and depending on weather, should be finished by
Friday Aug. 16 or the beginning of the following week. Work on Tarbell Hill
will also begin. Richard Svec, town manager, expects that the roads should be
repaired and paved by the end of August.
• Chubb Hill Road: A number of residents who live
on or near Chubb Hill Road came to the meeting to express their frustration. The
signs of a new road, bisecting the Davis property, have been in evidence for more than two
years. It has been frustrating to see cones and hay bales blocking what is a
much safer access to Route 131 from Chubb Hill. Svec explained that the permit
from the state was obtained on June 15 and the VTrans site visit took place
shortly thereafter. Legally, the town is required to hold a public hearing and
needs to provide a 30 day warning period from the announcement of the hearing.
On August 19, at 5 pm, the Select board
will site visit the Chubb Hill area, which will be followed by a hearing at the
town office. Anyone wishing to comment on the project, and become part of the
record, needs to do so at the Aug. 19 meeting. If there are no objections, the work to open
the road will begin immediately.
In order to make the changes to the access road, Chubb Hill
will be closed for one-two days. If all goes well, the new access road will be
operational by August 23. Closing dates will be posted to the Cavendish VT
Facebook page and
blog as soon as they are known.
• Gravel: The town obtained a volume of raw
material from VELCO as they constructed the Coolidge Substation. This has now
been crushed. Lesser quality gravel will be used for projects such as the
shoulder areas of Tarbell Hill, while the higher quality gravel will be used to
line ditches, fill mud holes in the spring etc. A question was raised about
whether the town’s gravel pile would survive a flood like Irene or if it would be washed down the river. Svec and
members of the board explained that the gravel pile was not impacted by Irene
and is not expected to be in the event of future flooding.
B. Sustainability
• Zero Sort: Given the fluctuations in the
price of recyclables, the Select Board will need to consider what will be best
for the town in terms of paying for the Zero Sort service- a fixed rate over the
period of the contract or a variable rate based on the rise and fall of the
prices of the recyclables. This will be discussed at a dedicated meeting. More
information is needed to determine if the town would be best served by ordering
a new compactor or going with a used one. Factors like warranties may offset
any cost savings from purchasing used. In addition, the Board wasn’t sure if
there would be a lag time from the point of purchase to installation for a new
compactor. Progress continues at the site and the concrete pad, on which the
compactor will sit, will be poured this week. This work is being done in house
by Assistant Water Operator Randy Shimp, who has 11 years of experience working
with concrete.
The board again discussed how best to educate the community about
Zero Sort, arranging volunteers to help see that it’s implemented correctly. As
there are several other environmental projects which residents need to be aware
of, the board voted to use the town’s bulk mailing permit to send out information
on Zero-Sort and several other projects (PACE and Efficiency Vermont programs).
• Composting: The same legislation (Act 148)
that is requiring the town to recycle anything they possibly can, requires that
by 2017 anything that can be composted be kept out of the landfills. The push
is for composting at homes to minimize the need for a central point at the
transfer station. Various types of composters were discussed including a “Green
Cone Digester” that handles all types of food scraps including meat. Learn more
about
Digesters.
• Solar Project: Soveren submitted a Certificate
of Public Good for the Cavendish project of 150 solar panels. It was rejected
as the site would yield more than 150KW. The Certificate has been refilled using
fewer panels so the desired 150 KW will be achieved. Through this process, the
VT Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) evaluated the project in terms of
wetlands. As long as there is a 50 foot buffer the project is fine. Note that
the wetlands existed because of a beaver dam, which was destroyed during Irene.
The project can easily meet this requirement
There is an issue with taxes as the VT legislator passed a bill
that requires an education fund tax on the solar equipment. For the Cavendish
project, this would amount to about $750 a year. The question is whether to
have the holding company responsible for the solar project pay the tax, which
means the rates benefitting the town would be adjusted downwards to reflect
that, or increasing taxes,. One way or the other, the tax will need to be paid,
and therefore needs to be put before the voters to determine a course of
action.
• PACE: At Town Meeting this year, voters
approved the town’s participation in Vermont’s Property Assessed Clean Energy
(PACE) program. This is a financing program designed to help qualified homeowners
invest in specific energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.
Homeowners can borrow up to $35,000 in a low interest loan, which is to be repaid
over/up to 20 years. The administrator of this program is Efficiency Vermont.
The town’s only responsibility is if a homeowner defaults on their loan, then
the town would have to post a lean on the property. This is no different than
what is required of the town with anyone that holds a mortgage. According to
PACE programs in other states, defaulting on a PACE loan is very rare.
The Select Board was given a Program Administrator Agreement form
to review. The town’s lawyer will also be reviewing these materials, and if no
problems are found, the Select board will vote to adopt the Agreement at their
Aug. 19 meeting. An informational meeting will be held to further discuss PACE
with homeowners.
C. E911 Numbers: In order to make it easier for
first responders, the town is offering low cost house numbers, installed for
free by the Cavendish and Proctorsville Fire Departments. Notice of this offer
was sent with the tax bills, and 117 signs have already been ordered. As it is
anticipated that there will be a second wave of interest in signs, once the
first group are posted, the board voted to extend the date for purchasing
numbers. To learn more about the program or to place an order, contact the Town
Office 226-7291.
3. CAVENDISH RELATED NEWS
Do VT State Police Have to Meet TicketQuotas?: A VT State Police
internal e-mail would imply that they do. It surfaced during an investigation into the
alleged DUI arrest of an off-duty police officer. Burlington Deputy Police
Chief Andi Higbee's stop was part of a state police operation called Sober
Summer. It allows certain barracks extra DUI patrols. The internal email
obtained by WCAX News shows state police solicited troopers to work a special
detail the night Higbee was pulled over. The email instructs troopers to make
two vehicle stops per hour. In response to the quota allegations, Vermont State
Police Col. Tom L'Esperance issued the following statement: "The Vermont
State Police do not use quotas. There are no set number of required tickets or
arrests for any trooper; for patrol operations, grant funded initiatives or any
other function. The Vermont State Police do set benchmarks for citizen contacts
of any trooper working an overtime detail funded by federal grants. These
benchmarks ensure that any trooper working a federally funded traffic safety
detail is proactively and judiciously using the time to increase public
safety." WCAX
McDonalds in
Springfield has been Demolished: Closing on July 28, the McDonalds in
Springfield is being replaced with a new smaller building. It will reopen in
late October.
Eagle Times.
4. CAVENDISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY: UPCOMING
EVENTS
The most frequent requests for information
the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) receives fall into three
categories-genealogy, Phineas Gage and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. As it has been
since 1976, there are still “no directions to Solzhenitsyn” given, but there is
a special summer exhibit about his life.
Since requests for
information are received weekly, we started wondering what our early settlers,
Phineas Gage and Solzhenitsyn might have in common. Each of their stories are
unique, with the common thread being that they all survived considerable
hardship and yet went on to thrive. A program on August 25 will explore the
characteristics of thrives by reviewing the lives of Cavendish’s first families
(Coffeen, Dutton and Proctor), Phineas Gage and Solzhenitsyn.
On Sept ember 13,
1848 Phineas Gage, a foreman, was working with his crew excavating rocks in
preparing the bed for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Cavendish. An
accidental explosion of a charge he had set blew his tamping iron through his
head. It entered under the
left cheekbone and exited through the top of the head. Thus began the first
documented case of traumatic brain injury, which laid the foundation for
understanding that different parts of the brain serve different functions. To
mark the 165
th anniversary of the accident, CHS will hold its annual
Gage Walk on September 15. There will be a discussion about Gage before the
walk. FMI: 802-226-7807 or
margoc@tds.net
5. VERMONT GOLDEN HONEY FESTIVAL AT THE
GOLDEN STAGE INN.
The first annual
Golden Honey Festival will take place on Sept 14 from 10-4 on the grounds of
the Golden Stage Inn in Proctorsville (Depot Street and 103). Vermont artists,
candle makers, bakers and beekeepers are invited to showcase their products.
Goodman’s American Pie of Ludlow (Proctorsville residents) will be baking honey
themed pizza in their new portable Beehive Oven. There will also be music,
kids’ crafts and education workshops. Admission is free.
Vendors (crafters,
gardeners, bakers, farmers, artists and beekeepers) are being sought for this
event. The cost is $20 for a 10 X 10 booth. Electricity is available by
reservation only and costs an additional $5. This fee can be waved if you are
willing to present a 30 minute educational lecture or demonstration.
6. BRGN EXPANDS FURNITURE OUTLET HOURS
Black River Good Neighbor Services announces the
doubling of hours for their furniture outlet. Formerly open only on
Saturdays, the store will now open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 to 4.
Located at 105 Main Street in Ludlow, the furniture store is housed in
the former thrift store building that began its life as the town firehouse.
The furniture outlet sells good quality used furniture
and gratefully accepts saleable donations. It is an extension of the
organization's thrift store operating at 37B Main Street. Proceeds from
sale of the donated goods go to Black River Good Neighbor’s food shelf and
financial assistance programs. The food shelf serves the towns of Ludlow,
Cavendish, Mount Holly and Plymouth and distributes food on behalf of several
USDA food assistance programs as well as through its own efforts.
FMI: 802-228-3663.
The Thrift Store is open Monday through Saturday from 10 to 4.
The food shelf is open Monday through Friday from 10
to 3.
7. RIVER
FRONT LANDOWNERS AND FARMERS INFORMATIONAL MTG
The Ct River Watershed Council is sponsoring a free
informational meeting on erosion Thursday Aug. 29, 7 pm at the Fletcher Farm
(dinning hall) at 611 Route 103 South, Ludlow , VT. If you’ve been affected by
erosion, this is a great opportunity to learn about funding and program that
you may qualify for. FMI: 802-457-6114
8.
EVENTS
Even though the concert series have ended, Cavendish
Recreation continues to sponsor Rec Night on Thursdays at 6 pm at Greven Field.
The walking path is a great way to stretch your legs and enjoy the river.
The upcoming week is the last full week of summer for
the kids as school opens on August 28 at CTES and GMUHS. Seventh grade
orientation is Aug. 26 and 27 at GMUHS.
Make the most of the last days of summer To learn more about upcoming events in
Cavendish and surrounding towns go to:
