BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – At the Tuesday, March 18, Rockingham Selectboard meeting, town manager Scott Pickup announced a recent effort to improve community outreach via the town website. A new option has been added to the website where visitors can register an email address, and receive digital copies of a new town newsletter highlighting items of common interest to Rockingham residents. Pickup said the hope is that this will evolve into “a weekly opportunity” to keep the public informed.
The selectboard adopted a regular meeting schedule that continues the first and third Tuesday of each month, beginning at 6 p.m. Additionally, Board Chair Peter Golec announced the town clerk’s office, town hall lobby, and the town website as official public notice and posting locations. Golec said they had posted notices at the police department and post office in the past, but it had been “hit or miss” depending on when the buildings were open to the public, and he had suggested the notices be taped to the windows of the offices during off-hours.
At March’s Town Meeting, Rockingham residents had voted in favor of purchasing the Bellows Falls Train Station, and development director Gary Fox was at Tuesday’s meeting to present, along with representatives from Stone Environmental, the brownfields cleanup report and analysis of the site.
The State of Vermont is the landowner, and will be responsible for cleanup outside the building, while the Town of Rockingham will be responsible for the cleanup of vapors inside the building. The plan is to install a vapor barrier and subslab depressurization system that acts much like a radon mitigation system, and will be codesigned with a flood mitigation system.
Funding for the project will be 80% sourced from grant funds, and 20% will come from low-interest loans at an interest rate of 2%. The board authorized Pickup to sign the agreement on behalf of the town. The complete analysis and report can be found within the meeting packet on the town website.
Board member Elijah Zimmer had previously asked the board to consider painting a rainbow design on the crosswalk in the Bellows Falls downtown area. The board continued the discussion, with Pickup cautioning that the town would be held responsible should an incident occur due to the change in crosswalk pattern. Pickup referenced the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which details the Department of Transportation’s guidelines that define the standards used by municipalities nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all streets, highways, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
Golec commented that the manual contains “a lot of graphs that, unless you are an engineer, don’t mean a lot to the rest of us.” He further remarked that the MUTCD restricts altering the color of paint used in crosswalks, citing safety concerns.
Pickup agreed, stating, “You can see the MUTCD is very technical, and when you vary from [the standards], you assume liability for things that you put in the road.”
Board member Bonnie North asked, “What about sidewalks?”
Further discussion followed, debating other alternatives to the crosswalk idea, such as painting a sidewalk, wall, or bench. Bellows Falls resident Eddie Riddell and his fiancee Mary were at the meeting, and Mary suggested painting the front side of the steps that lead from School Street to the downtown – a local landmark referred to as “the stairs.”
Mary said, if the board decided to go ahead with painting the stairs, “I know that would be a project I would be one to volunteer for and paint the front of the stairs so that’s not what’s being stepped on, and you can see the rainbow [going up the stairs] from the street.” Several board members said they felt that was a good resolution.
North suggested they form “a volunteer committee to come up with ideas of where we could put rainbows around Bellows Falls.” After several residents attending on Zoom commented they supported the plan and would sign up to volunteer, North told the meeting that anyone interested could email her at bonnienorth@rockbf.org, and she, along with Zimmer, would start organizing a group of volunteers.
The selectboard will hold their next meeting on Tuesday, April 1.