LUDLOW, Vt. – The Ludlow Selectboard began their Monday, Oct. 21, regular monthly meeting – scheduled for the third Monday instead of the usual first – by awarding bids for the resurfacing of the Dorsey Park tennis courts and new diamond construction Pullinen Field.
The Dorsey Park tennis court bid was awarded to Advantage Tennis, in the amount of $33,000, which town manager Brendan McNamara told the board was the middle of three bid that the town received. This included resurfacing without asphalt overlay, which would have added a significant amount to the expense. Ludlow recreation director Nick Miele told the board that Advantage, which was the only company to have visited Dorsey Park prior to bidding, had felt that the asphalt overlay was unnecessary, as the courts were already in good condition.
The board also awarded a bid for construction on Pullinen Field, the former Black River High School baseball field. Due to the destruction of one of Ludlow’s Little League fields in the July 2023 flood, Miele and the recreation department had been forced to schedule all baseball games and practices at Dorsey Park, something for which McNamara lauded the department. McNamara and the board had previously discussed converting the field into a Little League-sized field to alleviate the scheduling conflicts, however, over the summer, an American Legion team was formed in Ludlow, which requires a full-size baseball field on which to play.
“A Legion team in Ludlow is a good thing,” McNamara told the board, several members of which also expressed their excitement. The need for a full-size diamond, however, required alteration of the plans for Pullinen Field. To that end, McNamara and Miele had developed a plan to construct a second, Little League-sized diamond in what is now center field, consisting of base and mound cutouts rather than a full-dirt infield. This would allow Pullinen Field to serve double duty, and reduce the scheduling issues by providing a second field on which younger players can practice.
The bid was awarded to Slate Rock Timber LLC, in the amount of $18,000.
The board then heard from Malia Cordero of the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, who told the board that Ludlow’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan had been submitted to Vermont Emergency Management, who will need to approve the draft. Once the draft is approved, the town’s percentage of reimbursement from the Vermont Emergency Relief and Assistance Fund (ERAF) for disaster-related expenses will increase from 12% to 17%. The board adopted the plan as written.
After some discussion, the board also approved the annual lease of Sterns Pit, also known as the Blue Lot, by Okemo, for $85,000. Though the board’s consensus was that the lease amount was fair in light of services Okemo provides to the town, such as plowing and payment of police officers to direct traffic, the board agreed that they would like to see a monetary estimate of these services in the future.
During his municipal manager update to the board, McNamara said that Ludlow had received $1 million from ERAF, and that the repairs on the spillways for Jewell Brook Dam Sites 3 and 5 had been underway for two weeks. He also said that the engineering phase of the larger project to address all five Jewell Brook Dam Sites was underway, and will take two years.
McNamara also touched on the recent fire at the Trailside condominiums on Okemo, noting that it highlighted the need to revisit the issue of short-term rental (STR) safety and a possible ordinance. One of the units, an STR, McNamara said, had 14 occupants at the time of the fire, though nobody was injured. However, McNamara did emphasize that the incident “has brought to light some of the problems we have in this town with short-term rentals.” McNamara said that a short-term rental ordinance was not about adding extra regulations on STR owners, but about ensuring that “the current regulations are being followed.”
The Ludlow Selectboard will meet for a public hearing and community forum to discuss a local options tax on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 6 p.m., at the Heald Auditorium in Ludlow Town Hall.