By Curt Peterson, Standard Correspondent
In spite of the best efforts of Woodstock Village Trustees and Municipal Manager Phil Swanson, the new East End Park will revert to its historic snow dump status this winter. The officials had hoped to find an alternative site for storage of the white stuff in time for the first snowfall, but apparently it was not meant to be.
Perhaps partially inspired by the oft-cited essay by Margaret Merrill in a 1989 issue of Ladies Home Journal in which she called Woodstock “the prettiest small town in America,” the trustees have been trying to beautify the park-and-ride facility and the long-time snow dump off Pleasant Street in the east end for some years. A $48,000 grant will be used to do gravel work, drainage improvement and stone wall restoration for the upper level park-and-ride area. Application has been made for a second grant to pave that area next year to better accommodate bus parking during tourist season.
With its view of the Ottauquechee River, Billings Farm and wooded hills to the north, the land below the park and ride is thought to be a perfect place for a park that the trustees hope to develop, which will require them to find a new location for snow historically gathered during streetclearing in the Village and dumped by trucks at the site. Typically the large piles of snow would stay until they melt in the spring.
A visitor today will find the views of the river, Billings Farm and the wooded hills, but little else to indicate its park status. A few small trees are planted on the bank and staked with supportive ropes. No tables. No grilles. No seats. Not even a sign identifying the park.
A plan to purchase a new snow dumping site from Woodstock Resort Corporation was thwarted when Trustees learned the parcel included designated wetlands, making it ineligible for their intended use. Subsequent negotiations with WRC identified another proposed site that, while it does include wetlands buffer areas, does not infringe on actual wetlands. Woodstock has filed an application with the State for permission to use the new parcel for the proposed snow dump, but Swanson has no idea when the state will act on the permit application. For this year, the park will remain “seasonal”, meaning it will be a park until it is needed as a snow dump, and a park again once the snow is gone.
Swanson said he has no idea what the permit application process will produce.
“It’s up in the air,” he said. “But I’m hopeful.”
Asked if that meant he was optimistic, Swanson replied, “All I’ll say right now is, I’m hopeful.”
The state is in the process of enforcing existing water quality legislation right now, and is considering even tougher regulation, which would suggest Woodstock’s use permit application, like others involving wetlands and their buffer areas, is getting careful scrutiny.
So is it possible that the new east end park will continue to be seasonal and used for dumping snow during future winters, complicating the trustees’ east end beautification efforts?
“We’ll have to cross that bridge when and if we come to it,” Swanson said. “The fact is now and will remain that the current site for Woodstock’s snow dump is not the best for the town, and we need to do something about it.”
This article first appeared in the December 17, 2015 edition of the Vermont Standard.