Emergency drill completed
DUMMERSTON — DUMMERSTON - Dummerston's Emergency Drill took place the morning of May 13, and included a simulation of evacuating the town. Later that day, the Selectboard reported on the drill at its regular meeting.
Because the town is within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, and is one of six towns in the Plume Exposure Pathway Zone, it receives assistance with drills through the federally-mandated Vermont Radiological Emergency Response Plan (RERP) program.
Dawn Hubbard, who recently returned to her position as Emergency Management Director, told The Commons in an email that the drill went well.
“I couldn't have asked for a better group of people,” she said, noting, “They know their tasks to the point of not needing to be guided for almost any situation presented to us.”
The Selectboard was encouraged to attend the drill, because, as board Chair Zeke Goodband said, “in the event of an actual emergency, everyone in the Selectboard has a role to carry out.”
Goodband named the “dedicated core group” at the emergency operations center who have worked hard for many years: Bess Richardson, Jean Momaney, David Patriquin, Susan Daigler, and Larry Lynch.
Goodband said the Selectboard wants to find “some way to thank them for their service,” and plans to begin with a letter the board can all sign.
Jerelyn Wilson, new this year to the Selectboard, said she was “pretty impressed” and learned a lot at the drill. “I look forward to figuring out what are the vulnerabilities that exist” and how to mitigate them, Wilson said at the May 13 meeting.
“What are Dummerston's past emergencies?” Wilson asked, “and how can we plan for the future?”
As Vermont Yankee completes decommissioning, and ceases supporting the emergency drills, “the emphasis will change,” Goodband said, and will be geared “more toward natural disasters, train wrecks, the rivers,” and other events.
When asked if there were any surprises, Hubbard said, “Not really,” adding, “We knew there would be unexpected information coming at us to respond to and we were ready for that.”
Trash talk coming soon
DUMMERSTON - In anticipation of Act 148, the law that the Vermont Legislature passed mandating changes to garbage, recycling, and compost pickup, the Dummerston Selectboard has put trash on the agenda for its June 10 regular meeting.
The Selectboard plans to have Chris Campany from the Windham Regional Commission attend, as well as representatives from local trash haulers and the Windham Solid Waste Management District. This meeting will take place at the town office in Dummerston Center.
Paving bid awarded
DUMMERSTON - At the May 27 Dummerston regular Selectboard meeting, the board awarded Guilford's Vermont Roadworks a paving bid.
Vermont Roadworks will skim and overlay pavement on a portion of Middle Road and School House Road at $70.86 per ton.
Road Foreman Lee Chamberlain said the Highway Department's paving schedule would also include Johnson's Curve and Upper Dummerston Road, once the current project is completed.
Quarry Road culvert permit approved
DUMMERSTON - At the May 13 regular Selectboard meeting, Road Foreman Lee Chamberlain informed the board that he received the permit authorizing the town to alter the stream at the Quarry Road culvert.
The permit, dated April 28, was issued by the Watershed Management Division of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
According to the permit, “This project authorizes the replacement of a failed 5-foot by 6.5-foot arch pipe over an unnamed tributary with an open bottom 18-foot by 5-foot-9 arch pipe with associated channel bed and bank stabilization to restore aquatic organism passage.”
Although the project was initially to begin July 1, Chamberlain told the board on May 27 that construction of the culvert may start sooner.
Stickney Brook Road runoff
DUMMERSTON - The Selectboard and the town Highway Department are working on a solution to a complaint they received from Susan Barry about water runoff on her Stickney Brook Road property.
Road Foreman Lee Chamberlain explored installing a culvert across the road to solve the problem. But, as he reported at the May 27 regular Selectboard meeting, there is insufficient depth on Barry's property for a culvert.
Chamberlain and Selectboard Chair Zeke Goodband said they would talk to Barry to try to resolve the issue.
Gravel in the news
DUMMERSTON - Road Foreman Lee Chamberlain said the Highway Department recently received 6,800 yards of crushed gravel for next year.
Meanwhile, Dummerston Selectboard Chair Zeke Goodband told the board at the May 13 regular meeting he had spoken with some Poplar Common residents “to check in how it's going there as compared to last year."
Poplar Commons, located off Carpenter Road, is near two gravel pits: Renaud Gravel Inc. and SB Lands. Residents there have complained in the past. Goodband said he recently received “sort of mixed reviews” from them. Some said the blasting is louder; others said the blasting season was shorter.
Chamberlain told the board the companies are “all done” blasting for the season.
Traffic study
DUMMERSTON - The Dummerston Selectboard approved a traffic counting request from the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) at its May 13 regular meeting.
According to Road Foreman Lee Chamberlain, who presented this request as part of his Highway Report to the board, the WRC needs traffic data for the upcoming Salmon Brook Bridge repair project.
The WRC will lay counting tape across East-West Road between numbers 913 and 934. The tape will track the number of vehicles that travel the road, their type, and average speed.
Selectboard Chair Zeke Goodband noted this data is also useful for the Windham County Sheriff's Department, the entity in charge of patrolling Dummerston, to determine speed limit signage.
Painting bid approved
DUMMERSTON - The Dummerston Selectboard awarded Momaney Painters in West Dummerston the bid to paint the town's Community Center, for $11,800.
The building, the former West Dummerston School just off West Street, needs its clapboard exterior painted. The project is scheduled to begin this summer.
Appointments
DUMMERSTON - At the May 13 Dummerston regular Selectboard meeting , the board re-appointed Larry Cassidy to serve on the Vermont Community Development Board.
Marty Forrett was re-appointed as Alternate on the Development Review Board.