BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – The Bellows Falls Village Trustees’ regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m., moved quickly into the town manager’s report.
Manager Scott Pickup announced that construction of a new base on the Firefighter’s Memorial sculpture had recently been completed and “looks great.” He encouraged everyone to visit the location in the downtown park.
The town is collecting bagged leaves from residences for approximately the next month, Pickup reported. Residents are asked to bag their leaves and leave curbside for pickup by town trucks.
The ordinance committee recently spent time reviewing town ordinances, and their proposed updates were presented for the trustees’ consideration. No immediate action was necessary, but Pickup was looking for the board’s input before sending the revisions to the town attorney for review. The trustees would have the opportunity to look over everything again following any legal changes.
There was a discussion on complaints that the town has received regarding an issue that is of growing concern to village residents; discarded items left in the public right of way for an excessive amount of time – weeks, months, and longer.
Currently, when the town receives a complaint about a specific property, the town health officer responds to the individual filing the complaint, then reaches out to notify the homeowner of their options to rectify the situation. “Most folks do comply,” Pickup said. The larger issue is with recurring complaints about the same residences.
Trustee James “Jiggs” Mcauliffe commented that he felt people should be allowed to put something like furniture or other household items offered for free in front of their residence, but for a limited amount of time. When something sits for weeks or months, it becomes an eyesore, and a potential public safety hazard.
Another concern raised at the meeting was the increasing number of people who are essentially living in their vehicles, parked in public areas, and staying overnight for an extended period. Pickup stated that this is unfortunately something that is occurring more frequently, specifically near the train station.
Pickup stressed the importance of handling these cases delicately, and said the town plans to take a comprehensive look at how best to address the issue, and he will bring the findings back to the board for further discussion.
Gary Fox, Rockingham development director, gave an update on ARPA information.
Fox told the meeting that when asked about allocation of ARPA funds, “the number one scoring item for the village was the transportation master plan connectivity.”
Some work has been done already, reported Fox, with help from Walkable Rockingham and Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance (BFDDA). “Various groups, such as our historic preservation commission and Bellows Falls Historical Society, have brochures on walking tours, and we all had a meeting last week to discuss design, and [came up with] the connectivity proposal you have in front of you,” Fox told the board.
With an allocation of $40,000 from the ARPA fund, this new collaboration of local organizations and volunteers will begin to leverage rural business development technical assistance, and continue the work on a shared design that will offer continuity and tie the communities together as part of the greater Rockingham-Bellows Falls walk-bike connectivity program.
The funds will allow the organizations involved to coordinate their efforts, and consolidate the information; what are the walking tours, where are the trails, where are the intersections of bike paths? Delineating the individual projects, putting together a budget for each of them, determining where the funds will come from, who will carry out the work, and what the timeline will be for each project will be the focus of the group, explained Fox.
Pickup added that they are not replacing existing brochures. Each organization will still be responsible for producing their own hand-outs, but combining forces will make each program stronger, with a unified, community-facing presence.
This will also coincide with an update to the town website, an effort that has been in the works for some time, according to Pickup. “We’ve been trying to come up with ways to make our website more functional, and better, on a lot of levels,” he said, “for the board, for visitors, for businesses, and for our organizations.”
The trustees are scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, Nov. 14.