DUMMERSTON — For the last few months, Selectboard members in Putney and Dummerston have discussed the possibility of joint ownership of the Renaud Gravel Pit, located off Route 5.
Progress is advancing somewhat slowly. While Selectboard members wait for the relevant studies and documents, they have begun discussing permitting for the gravel pit after its permits expire in a few years.
In September, Mike Renaud, the gravel pit's owner, offered to sell the facility, which provides gravel and riprap to the two towns.
For both towns, owning the pit will provide guaranteed access to a local source of materials to maintain their respective roads.
Exclusive access will mean that the town will be assured of a supply for a much longer span of time than if the pit were to supply commercial customers as well as the municipalities. If other customers continue to draw from the pit, estimates point to it running out of ledge in 20 years.
This would require the towns to locate another pit and likely need to secure permitting from multiple towns through which the heavy materials would need to be trucked.
With the state recently increasing demands on towns to manage their roads' stormwater runoff, access to gravel is crucial.
Currently, the town's respective attorneys are working on an inter-municipal agreement, and Stevens & Associates, a Brattleboro engineering firm, is completing assessments of the pit and its contents.
Ultimately, the decision of whether to purchase the pit will lie with voters at Putney and Dummerston's respective Annual Town Meetings.
At the Nov. 21 regular Selectboard meeting, board member Hugh Worden gave his colleagues an update on the project's progress - which, he admitted, isn't much.
The town is “kind of at a standstill” on the inter-municipal agreement while its attorneys complete that document, said Worden.
Should voters approve the purchase, the town will likely need to bond - borrow money - to fund the project.
RHR Smith, a certified public accounting firm in Maine, will conduct a required town audit, which voters approved at a Nov. 14 Special Town Meeting.
Worden described the results from Stevens & Associates as preliminary and conservative, and noted that the gravel pit “could be a 43-year resource.”
Worden drew his colleagues' attention to the northern side of the gravel pit. That section has its own standalone permit that expires in 2022.
Because the assessment shows that side contains more than four years' worth of material, the town has an interest in renewing that permit, ideally before purchase, Worden argued.
He told The Commons, “It could also be done after the fact as option 2.”
But there are decided advantages to bringing voters a proposal to purchase property with the permitting secured to let both towns draw materials for the long term.
The town could be a party in the permitting process but would have to act fast, said Worden.
Because of the Development Review Board's schedule, the town would have to get this item on the DRB's December agenda. Otherwise, the town won't have the permits in hand for March's Town Meeting.
Board member Jerelyn Wilson expressed surprise at the timeline. The sale hasn't even gone through yet, she said, and added, “we haven't had a town meeting. There's no town vote.”
She asked if the town could remove the permit “if things don't go as we're expecting.”
If the sale doesn't go through, or voters turn it down, the gravel pit's permit for the northern end would simply expire in 2022.
Stevens & Associates submitted a proposal to represent Putney and Dummerston in the permitting process, including Act 250, said Worden.
The town could accept the offer and pay the firm $7,100, Worden said, “or go it alone,” which would require someone from the Selectboard to appear at the DRB hearings and write the permit applications.