GUILFORD — The Selectboard on March 10 cleared the way for the Planning Commission and Broad Brook Grange to pursue “village center” designation for Guilford Center and Green River Village.
The designation has been on town planners' minds since at least 2011 and already exists in language in the draft Town Plan.
Planning Commissioner Michelle Frehsee and Grange member Sara Coffey asked the Selectboard for their support, enshrined in minutes, to take the next steps toward the town's application.
Frehsee and Coffey say their work with the Windham Regional Commission on the project could see the designation come through in a month or two.
“This would be a civic center village center designation, not a commercial village center designation,” Frehsee said.
She added the idea came as a Vermont Preservation Trust suggestion to help Guilford receive tax credits and grants, “things that could be helpful for historical society buildings and the grange,” she said.
As part of the application, the town's task force on the project would “go building to building” to seek input and support, and a village center map would have to be set, Frehsee said.
The application would come from the Selectboard, which unanimously approved the motion for town planners to take these next steps.
Emergency plan approved
Also March 10, the Selectboard heard from Herb Meyer, the town's emergency management co-director, on the new emergency operations plan and a pending live emergency management exercise
Members unanimously approved the emergency operations plan, which codifies, among other things, who's in charge of what during catastrophes, how to activate the town's Emergency Operations Center, what resources it'll deploy, and how it'll work with local, state, and federal agencies if needed.
Separately, Meyer reported that Guilford is scheduled to participate in a live catastrophe exercise the week of June 4, and that “it's going to involve a lot of people and more than one day. It's not a nuclear [emergency simulation] and not a weather; we don't know what it is, but it is a lot of people,” he said.
The Emergency Operations Center (bit.ly/1hwueS1), Guilford's all-hazards emergency response organization, is co-located with the Guilford Volunteer Fire Department at 108 Guilford Center Rd.