LUDLOW, Vt. – The Ludlow Selectboard meeting on Monday, May 4, saw many Ludlow residents turn out to voice their concerns about the temporary housing for ambulance department personnel which has recently been placed next to the Ludlow Fire Station.
Several citizens voiced objections to the building, with concerns ranging from its aesthetic value – or lack thereof – to its reduction of available parking near the fire station, as well as its potential to block the view of fire engines pulling out of the fire station and onto Route 103. A recurring theme in the discussion was the feeling expressed by several residents that the building should have been placed near the current police and ambulance department building on West Hill Road.
Board member George Tucker explained that the emergency services building committee, on which he also serves, had recommended the purchase of the building due to the inadequacy of the current sleeping arrangements for Ludlow emergency medical personnel, which Town Manager Penny Wu described at a previous meeting in February as a small room with two single beds in a bay in the town garage, shared by male and female ambulance personnel.
“The bedroom that we provide is unacceptable,” Wu told the meeting attendees. Noting that emergency medical personnel often work 12-24 hour shifts, during which they are asked to perform a variety of high-stress tasks, Wu likened the quality of sleep they are able to get to the sleep one might get on a long airplane flight. “It is a liability waiting to happen.” Wu also felt that the lack of separate sleeping quarters for men and women was a problem, explaining that a senior loss consultant for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns who saw the previous sleeping quarters “could not believe that we ask male and female [personnel] to sleep in that room.”
In response to a question from board member Scott Baitz about insurance and flood hazards for the building, Tucker explained that the building is not currently located in the flood plain of the Black River, and that previous water damage to the fire station during the 2023 flood came almost entirely from the washing out of the earthen railroad bed above Off the Rails, since replaced with riprap, which is more effective in controlling drainage.
Urging them not to become bogged down in dealing with the pushback about the temporary housing, Ludlow resident Ryan Silvestri, who previously served on the planning commission, said he hoped the board would instead focus on the larger issue at hand: namely, the town’s aging emergency services buildings, which are in need of imminent replacement. “I really hope that this trailer doesn’t become a distraction from…other difficult decisions that you all are going to have to make, like very rapidly,” Silvestri said.
Moving on, the board approved a bid in the amount of $15,400 submitted First Due, for what was described by Wu as a modern digital platform for fire and EMS recordkeeping, and approved increased transfer station fees.
The transfer station residential fees will be increased by $5 beginning in July, bringing the price of a new permit to $30, an additional permit to $15, and an extra roll of bags to $30. There price per pound for waste weighed on the scales was also increased from 10 cents per pound to 15 cents per pound. Transfer Station Manager Patty Potter noted that the fee structure had not been updated since 2019, and that transfer station costs have increased dramatically since then, particularly the cost for the purple bags which residents must use to dispose of their trash. While there was some discussion devoted to whether or not the bags could be eliminated, it was determined that alternatives, such as the punch card system in use in other towns, would create unacceptably long lines at the transfer station in a town the size of Ludlow, particularly during the peak of the winter ski season.
The board also reviewed proposed increases to zoning and construction permit fees. Planning and Zoning Director Erin Ladd told the selectboard that these fees had not been updated in 20 years. After studying surrounding towns similar to Ludlow, including Killington, Woodstock, and Stowe, Ladd developed a fee structure and submitted it to the board. The proposed fee structure can be viewed in the selectboard’s May 6 meeting packet at the Ludlow town website, www.ludlow.vt.us.
Tucker added that town taxpayers have effectively been subsidizing development due to the low permitting fees not covering the cost of the man hours it takes for town employees to work on development projects. Tucker said that the increased fees were designed to ensure that “if there is another [development project the size of] Jackson Gore…the hundreds, if not thousands of staff hours that went into that project is not on the taxpayer burden.”
The board also appointed Matthew Bellantoni to the planning commission to fill the seat vacated by Judy Pullinen, an incumbent who had been reappointed at the previous meeting in a somewhat contested appointment process. A motion at that meeting to appoint Bellantoni to the commission was revised prior to its adoption to instead keep Pullinen in her seat.
Speaking in his capacity as the town’s assessor, Silvestri reported to the board that the townwide reappraisal process had determined an increase in Ludlow’s Grand List value from $1.6 billion to $2.6 billion, or 62%. Silvestri said this increase is on par with what is being seen in other towns in the area and across the state.
Finally, Wu informed the board that she was reviewing previous discussions and drafts of the short-term rental registry ordinance put before the board in 2025, and would be bringing it before them for discussion at an upcoming meeting.
The Ludlow Selectboard will hold their next meeting on Monday, June 1, at 6 p.m., at the Ludlow Town Hall.