ROCKINGHAM — On behalf of the Bellows Falls local government and the Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance, I am seeking a meeting with Governor Peter Shumlin and other interested parties to discuss the future of the Vilas Bridge.
At a minimum, for this discussion, in addition to Bellows Falls municipal officials, it would be important to have the legislative transportation committee chairs and the secretary of the Agency of Transportation present. We would be available to meet in Montpelier or at any other time or location when officials might be in southern Vermont.
Realizing that the bridge is controlled by the state of New Hampshire, it will be important going forward to arrange joint meetings to discuss the status and future of this project.
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BFDDA has been a member of the Vermont Downtown Program since 1996, one of the first. As a member of this program, Bellows Falls has received Downtown Tax Credits, Vermont Transportation Grants, and Downtown Enhancement Grants.
All of these programs have allowed Bellows Falls to make tremendous strides in reviving a community that lost most of its downtown businesses after the demise of the once-flourishing paper and textile mills that built this community during the 19th and early-20th centuries.
But Bellows Falls was faced with yet another major obstacle and loss in March 2009, with the closing of the historic Vilas Bridge, which connects Bellows Falls with Walpole, N.H. and points south.
There is a long (documented) history of neglect of this bridge by the state of New Hampshire.
In 2006, a Joint House Resolution (J.R.H. 7) was offered by state Reps, Michael Obuchowski of Rockingham and Carolyn Partridge of Windham, calling for New Hampshire to conduct the necessary engineering studies on the Vilas Bridge and to perform the actual construction and restoration work in 2007.
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Several cross-state meetings have been held since the closing. Present at all of these meetings have been local representatives from both sides of the river, as well as representatives from the Agency of Transportation in Vermont and the Department of Transportation in New Hampshire.
We have testified at Executive Council hearings in New Hampshire, and we have met with the Southwest Regional Planning Commission from Keene (Cheshire County) and the Windham Regional Commission in Brattleboro.
Yet the outcome of the most recent cross-state meeting, on June 28, 2012, was that New Hampshire has indefinitely deferred any work on the Vilas Bridge. The project has been taken off the state's 10-year plan.
The impact to the village of Bellows Falls is multifaceted. Economically, our central business district has labored under a 30-percent decrease in business, a huge blow to a community that was beginning to show signs of recovery, even in a difficult economy. Many of our downtown businesses are showing signs of stress.
As a National Historic Resource, the Vilas Bridge attracted many tourists to our area. The bridge is also located on a crossing of the Connecticut River Falls that also contains historic Indian carvings (petroglyphs) below the bridge; the best viewing of these magnificent carvings was from the bridge itself.
The bridge is also located on a Connecticut River Byway. Travelers along the byway were directed across the bridge. Cultural heritage visitors also visited our historic community, not to mention the antiques hunters who would map their trip to include crossing the Vilas Bridge to shop in Bellows Falls.
The commerce of this town and the surrounding area has been drastically impacted and seriously affected. The commercial business district is the lifeline of this community.
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In addition to the economic impact, the issue of safety has not been stressed enough. We are a mutual-aid-dependent community, as are the New Hampshire communities across the river.
The other crossings include an “at-grade” rail crossing that often handles freight trains of 100-plus cars, and a small underpass a few miles to the south. Both “alternate” crossings have limitations.
We know that solving this problem will take cooperation between Vermont and New Hampshire. Vermont has already proven that this type of state-to-state collaboration works, as evidenced by the quick replacement of the Lake Champlain Bridge. As an aside, the daily traffic count on that bridge is about 2,000 fewer vehicles than the number that used to cross the Vilas Bridge.
I look forward to hearing from the governor's office regarding how to return the Vilas Bridge to a list of vital concerns and to strategize on how to appropriately interface with the state of New Hampshire to get this project back onto their list of future projects.