Cavendish Update 5/12/23: SB Mtg/Request/News/Activities
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5/12/23
1. Cavendish Select Board Meeting 5/8/23
2. Cavendish Info
3. CTES Principal Request
4. Events
1. CAVENDISH SELECT BOARD MEETING 5/8/23: Cavendish Select Board (SB) meetings are videoed by Okemo Valley TV and posted to their website. In addition, unapproved minutes from Monday’s meeting will be posted at the Cavendish Municipal Website and the VT Journal and Chester Telegraph provide coverage.
Items Discussed/Action Taken
Approved by the SB: Rick Chambers as the new Cavendish Town Manager. A local resident, Chambers comes with 25 years of experience in water and sewer. He was the Superintendent for Water and Waste Water for Springfield.
• Signing an “Amended Resolution for Municipal Planning Grant: The amount is $17,280, requiring a 10% match.
• Liquor License for Grafton Village Cheese Company, which will be located in the old Black River Produce building on route 103.
• The appointment of Rick Chambers as the representative and Stephen Plunkard as the alternate to the Solid Waste Management District
• The appointment of John Saydeck to MARC VTrans Town Advisory Committee
• The Annual Financial Plan for Town Highways and Certificate of Compliance for Town Road and Bridge Standards and Network Inventory.
• Use of the Proctorsville Green for the June 24 Streetscapes fundraiser
• Use of the Hillcrest Cemetery for Memorial Day program on May 30 (Tuesday)
Denied: The SB denied an outdoor liquor permit to Outer Limits Brewery, whose outside dinning is on town property and were only given a temporary license due to Covid.
Town Water: Once again the issue was tabled, with the reason being that the head of the water dept. was not a good public speaker.
2. CAVENDISH INFO
• ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) MINUTES MAY 2, 2023: According to the results of the survey about how Cavendish should spend their ARPA funds, the top 3 recommendations were to improve public infrastructure, improve outdoor recreation spaces and parks and the capital investments in public facilities. Many of the comments suggested fixing the water/sewer systems. The survey was sent to CTES families last week. Minutes of the meeting are available at the Town website.
• School restructuring panel begins discussing ‘right-sizing’ of Cavendish, Chester-Andover elementaries: The job of the restricting committee is to come up with all of the possibilities scenarios for “right sizing” the schools to best use the district’s buildings along with the pros and cons of each and present its findings to the GM board. One of the statistics discussed at the meeting was per pupil cost (PPC). With the 79 students, the PPC for the 2022-23 budget year at Cavendish Town Elementary is about $29,000 while Chester-Andover Elementary spends around $21,000 for each of its 225 students and the Green Mountain High School’s 328 students cost about $23,000 each. Elected chair of the committee, Adrienne Williams came to the conclusion that ‘we don’t even know what we don’t know. Jump forward to the 2023-24 budget and while GM and CAES are holding at their pupil count, Cavendish is projected to lose nearly 18 percent (or 14) of its students, bringing the cost per student to over $35,000. That’s a $6,000 per student increase while the other two schools see increases of about $2,000 per student. Various ideas were explored such as splitting up grades, busing students from Northern Chester and Baltimore to CTES. Chester Telegraph
• Clean Up from Oil Spill: This past week the contaminated dirt piled up from the diesel fuel spill from April 2-located at the former town garage- has been removed. Other mitigation activities in the wetlands are still underway.
• Memorial Day: After a three year absence due to Covid, Cavendish will once again hold a public Memorial Day celebration on May 30 (Tuesday). Activities get under way at 10 am with a program at the Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES), which will be followed by a parade to Hillcrest Cemetery.
• Cavendish Historical Society News: Thanks to the clean-up at the old town garage site, the CHS plant sale will go ahead as planned at the Museum on May 26 (Friday) from 5:30-7:00 and May 27 (Saturday) 9-noon. Learn more about the sale and other upcoming activities at the CHS spring newsletter.
• Martha K. Quinlan A devoted member of Holy Name of Mary parish in Proctorsville and Annunciation Church in Ludlow, Marty was known for her Wednesday night concert parties at her home adjacent to the Proctorsville Green. Marty died on April 28 at age 93. A Mass of Christian burial will take place on Wednesday, May 17 at 1 p.m., at Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church in Proctorsville, with burial to follow at Pleasant View Cemetery in Ludlow and luncheon to follow.
• Thousands more than expected died in Vermont during the pandemic. Vermont reported almost 3,000 more deaths from 2020 to 2023 than would have been expected were it not for the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but less than one-third of those deaths have been directly attributed to the virus. The increased mortality points to a rising tide of challenges Vermonters experienced during lockdown: delayed access to health care, isolation and a worsening of the state’s decades long opioid crisis. But 2020 was only the beginning of Vermont’s struggles with the virus, according to CDC data. The number of excess deaths ticked up throughout 2021 and reached a peak in January 2022 during the height of the Omicron variant wave. Even as the state recovered and reopened in 2022, there continued to be more deaths than would have been expected, according to the CDC. The state’s death toll that year rose to 22% above the expected estimate. VT Digger
3. REQUEST FROM CTES PRINCIPAL: HI parents and community members, I am very excited to tell you that our new school playground is going to be awesome! We have curvy slides, zip lines, four person seesaws, and much more coming our way this summer!
BUT, I need your help! I need AT LEAST 25 hard working people each day on August 17th, 18th, and 19th who are willing to be here at CTES at 8am on one or all of these days. What will you be doing? You will be working on a team of between 5 and 10 other hard-working volunteers to put together pieces of the playground to get installed, spreading wood chips, working the food tables, or entertaining the children of our hard working volunteers. If we don't get enough volunteers, we will not be able to get this done before school starts. Please help me make this playground dream become a reality! Here is the sign up: Playground SIGN UP Thank you! Amy Bohren 802-578-7758
4. EVENTS
MAY 12 (FRIDAY)-13 (SATURDAY): Black River Good Neighbor’s semi-annual rummage sale will take place at Fletcher Farm off of 103 from 10-4.
MAY 13 (SATURDAY): Clean-up of the Proctorsville Green from 9-noon. Bring rakes and other tools.
MAY 15 (MONDAY): 4th quarter property taxes due
MAY 16 (TUESDAY): The Annual Meeting of Cavendish Fire District 2 will be held at Cavendish Fire Station, 2154 Main Street, Cavendish, VT 05142, at 6pm. Copies of the board’s annual report will be available beforehand from the Town Office. The Warning notice is available online.
MAY 26 (FRIDAY): Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) plant sale 5:30-7:00 in front of the CHS Museum.
MAY 27 (SATURDAY): CHS Plant sale 9-noon
MAY 29 (MONDAY): Memorial Day. Town Office closed.
MAY 30 (TUESDAY): Cavendish Memorial Day program. 10 am at CTES, immediately followed by a parade to Hillcrest Cemetery.
JUNE 5 (MONDAY): E Tools Workshop at the 6:00 p.m., at the Cavendish town office to demonstrate battery-operated tools for the yard and garden. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments. FMI: CavendishCommunityConservation@gmail.com.
JULY 29 (SATURDAY): Cavendish Town Wide Tag Sale
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