The flooded Ottauquechee River wreaked havoc on both banks near the Rec Center Bridge. This photo was taken from the area of the Little Theater.
The Town Selectboard has given its approval to Upland Construction taking on the re-build of the Little Theater/Recreation Center in Woodstock which was heavily damaged last August by Tropical Storm Irene. At Town Meeting voters approved a 225K bond to assist in the re-build.
While there were no other headlines out of Tuesday night’s Woodstock Selectboard meeting, what is of note, to Woodstock Early Bird, is that the main topic of discussion is still about flood reconstruction — some ten months after Irene hit.
Town Manager Phil Swanson presented updates on various bridge re-builds, including Bridge 23 and Roberts Road bridge off of Rt. 12 North. Selectboard members gave approval to a Stantec Construction recommendation for the Roberts Road re-build, at an estimated cost of 470K. Many of these projects will be almost entirely covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a five percent contribution from the Town.
Preston Bristow noted that Woodstock has been exceedingly successful in re-gaining costs incurred by Irene due to the up-front organization of Town Manager Phil Swanson and his team and thanks to the hiring of a consultant, Stantec, who provided FEMA paperwork assistance which has led to the prompt consideration of and response to Woodstock fllood applications.
On that topic, Swanson reported that a second phase of an Emergency Watershed Protection funding program, underwritten by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, is now available. He reports that two property owners that during the first phase of this flood-funding did not qualify may be able to do so now. This is a program that in the aftermath of Irene provided funds for those who had structures about to fall down due to flooding. Swanson clarified that the new phase of the program does NOT cover any reconstruction costs retroactively for property owners who rebuilt streambanks after the flood. For more information contact Town Manager Phil Swanson who is likely to pass along contact information for Tom Vicars. Town of Woodstock is the conduit for this program which may provide 90 percent of funding with ten percent to be paid by property owners.
The Selectboard put on their “Sewer Hats” last night and approved funding for creation of a bio-nutrient management plan to assist property owners such as Tom Debevoise who provide land for sludge deposit. All “sludge farms” will require such a plan in 2013. The Billings Farm already takes Wooodstock sludge and has such a program in place, Debevoise, up to this point, has not. Bristow commented that the cost of developing a plan is important since it is ultimately costly to ship off sludge, indicating better to keep it here with a management plan.
And finally, while Woodstock Early Bird was hoping for more discussion of “Muffin Monsters”, a topic which makes her giggle, we did get our “quote” of the evening with discussion and approval of a plan to clean out sludge tanks. It seems, that much like humans sometimes, they need a good “cleanse”. Woodstock’s tanks need to be cleaned out in order to prevent rust. This is called “cathotic protection” which, of course, turned into Bristow commenting that we needed to “catharticize our tanks.” A good cleanse is always cathartic, yes? The cost of the cleanse will run about 5K. Swanson says since there has been a recent sludge dump, “This is the perfect time to do it!” Of course it is!
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 