By Michelle Fields, Standard Correspondent
The Village of Woodstock now officially owns the land off Maxham Meadow Way that will be the new snow dump. Construction of the snow dump is slated for this fall with plans to begin using the site in the winter of 2017/2018.
“Yesterday we signed and purchased the land from the Woodstock Resort Corporation,” Trustee Chair Candace Coburn announced at Tuesday night’s trustees’ meeting.
The purchase was the culmination of several years’ effort, beginning in 2013, on behalf of Sustainable Woodstock and the East End Action Group working with the Trustees. First Sustainable Woodstock was able to raise $32,500 towards the $70,000 purchase price after one of the parking funds that the Trustees had planned to tap into was deemed inaccessible for this purpose due to state law at the time. Later, they were the driving force behind attaining a $175,000 grant to build the new snow dump, which will be further from the river and thus more environmentally sound, according to proponents.
“We’re going out to bid for construction,” Village Manager Phil Swanson told the trustees noting that he hopes to have bids for their approval by the September meeting. “The idea is to have it built this fall and have it ready for use next winter.”
The delay in using the snow dump after it is constructed this fall is due to three primary factors, according to Swanson, “The expense is not in the budget (this year) for extra ground water monitoring at about $6,000 or $10,000 for transportation (to the new dump, which is further down Route 4 than the current location in the Jungle at the east end of the village)…we also need to get the grass established.”
The plan will be to prepare a budget for approval of voters at the 2017 Village Meeting that will include these operating expenses.
However, the new snow dump has already provided one opportunity for the village. The village has agreed to let AJ Alsup bring excess snow from his east end property to the snow dump in exchange for an approximate 500-foot easement onto Alsup’s property that will allow the village to add six more parking spaces to the new park-and-ride lot in the east end.
“That would be our rent,” Swanson told trustees about the easement arrangement.
With this easement arrangement, the new park-and-ride lot will soon be paved.
“I did not want to pave it until we got the easement set,” Swanson said.
This article first appeared in the August 11, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.