LUDLOW, Vt. – The Monday, Dec. 1, Ludlow Selectboard meeting marked the first meeting for Ludlow’s new town manager Penny Wu. Board member Noah Schmidt welcomed Wu to her new position, saying that the board is “very excited, very happy to have [Wu].” Wu thanked the board, and said she is “excited to be here.”
The first major item on the agenda was to approve a bid for riparian replanting at the former site of the Timber Inn. The buildings on the site were demolished in July of 2024, a year after flooding for a third time, as a condition of a FEMA buyout.
The town had previously had a site plan engineered by Stone Environmental, and was now seeking a contractor to carry out the plan in the spring. After some confusion about whether the funds expended on the project would be reimbursed by FEMA, outgoing town manager Brendan McNamara confirmed that the federal agency would, in fact, reimburse the expenditure, though the town would be responsible for paying the costs upfront.
Approval of a bid was complicated by the fact that the low bid, provided by Norris Landscaping and coming in nearly $15,000 lower than the next-highest bid, did not include removal of material from the site. The board elected to table the issue until their next meeting, to further investigate what removal would cost if handled separately, and whether the savings would justify the added step in the process.
The board then heard from several residents of Godfrey Road, who were concerned about the proposal by the Ludlow snowmobile club – the Side Hill Cronchers – to utilize a portion of Godfrey Road and South Hill Road as part of the network of Vermont Association of Snow Travelers (VAST) trails during the coming snowmobiling season. The residents were concerned that the snowmobiles would create an excessive noise disturbance, passing very near to at least one house which abuts the road, as well as a possible safety hazard for drivers on the roads.
John Murphy, president of the Side Hill Cronchers, explained that the proposed use of the road was due to a last-minute change of heart by a landowner who had previously given the club permission to utilize her property, only to rescind it on short notice. “I believe it will be just for this year,” Murphy explained. “We don’t want to be on the road any more than the neighbors want us on the road.” Murphy said he will continue to work with adjacent landowners to find a way around using the road as soon as possible, but that the club was left with no other choice for the time being. “I’m hoping to have an alternative in the coming months, and I will come back to the board,” said Murphy. In the meantime, to mitigate some of the concerns, Murphy offered to place curfew signs on the road limiting use to before 10 p.m., and said he would speak to the game warden about patrolling the area to ensure safe riding practices and compliance with VAST and state snowmobiling regulations.
In order to facilitate the club’s finding an alternative route, one of the concerned landowners, Kevin Kuntz, offered to allow the club to utilize his property to avoid the street. “If my property can be used again, I have no problem with it, but I am going to ask the town to deny the use of that road,” Kuntz said. Murphy said he appreciated the offer, and would consider it in future attempts to connect the trail across private land instead of on the public road.
The board, while sympathetic to the residents’ concerns, felt in general that not approving the request would “disrupt an entire industry,” as Board Vice Chair Justin Hyjek put it. “Without this trail, they’re literally shut down,” said board member Scott Baitz. The residents pushed back, saying that the club should utilize other trails to circumvent the area, but both Murphy and several members of the board, including Chair Brett Sanderson, insisted that there is no alternative route.
With sympathies to the residents, the board moved to approve the club’s use of the road, with Hyjek abstaining.
The Ludlow Selectboard meets the first Monday of every month, at 6 p.m., in the Heald Auditorium at the Ludlow Town Hall.