Woodstock Early Bird The Early Bird Gets the Worm: earlybirdtips@gmail.com

The sidewalk snow removal committee formed several months ago by the Woodstock Village Trustees has recommended four separate options to be voted on at the Annual Village Meeting on March 20.

All four items were approved by the Village Trustees on Tuesday night, to be added to the Village Meeting Warning. Here are all four options, with tax impacts that are listed in the full report (available for viewing at the Woodstock Town Hall):

Option #1:

To add $100,000 to the Village budget with $70,000 budgeted for winter sidewalk snow removal and $30,000 budgeted for summer highway maintenance work. (Would add 4 cents to the Village tax rate, which translates to approximately $40 per $100,000 of valuation – making it the most expensive of the four options.

Option #2:

To add $45,000 to the Village budget, contracting out winter sidewalk snow removal. (Would add 2 cents to the Village tax rate, which translates to approximately $20 per $100,000 of valuation.

Option #3:

To add $23,000 to the Village budget, paying $100 to each abutter of a Village sidewalk and $300 for abutters with sidewalks long than 200 feet. (Would add a little less than 1 cent to the Village tax rate, which translates to a little less than $10 per $100,000 of valuation.

Option #4:

Keep the current ordinance. No changes.

It was noted several times at Tuesday’s meeting that there was consensus – but not unanimous approval – for these items in the special sidewalk snow removal committee formed to explore options for Village-wide snow removal.

Regarding the first option, Village resident Corwin Sharp questioned whether the Village would be able to clear snow from the approximately 6.5 miles of sidewalk that exists in the Village with 1 full-time employee and a part-time seasonal employee.

Municipal Manager Phil Swanson told Trustees he is confident the Village could do so, and Village Trustee Bob Pear, a member of the committee, noted that Springfield has 30 miles of sidewalk and has two workers for snow removal. The committee spoke with officials from about 50 Vermont towns, some of which have similar systems with the same amount of employees in charge of sidewalk snow clearing.