Maple Corner Net

Date: September 2nd 2010

The Maple Corner Net Newsletter is now being published 2 times a month, usually on the 2nd and 16th, depending on how much info I get, and how busy I am. You can easily contact me with news, comments, criticism, or compliments, by just replying to this email. This Newsletter now has 515 subcribers.
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Editor's Note: Next issue going out about Sept. 18th.

Contents:

• Frozen Local Organic Raspberries for sale in Maple Corner
  
• North Branch Mushroom Club
• Lost Maine Coon Cat
• Marion Gray running for the Washington County District 6 seat in our legislature
• The Rustbucket Brothers in Concert – September 11
• Worcester Clothing Swap - Oct. 7 - 9
• The Calais Conservation Commission invites you  to participate
• VT Rebatesfor Roll Bars Raffle
• My Notes and Occasional Comments; Calais Selectboard meeting, Monday, August 9, 2010, written by Peter Harvey
• Maple Corner Back to School Special Movie Night Sat. Sept. 11th at 7 p.m.
• Wild Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk
• Eat on the Wild Side: Wild Edible Harvest and Preparation
• Annual Corn Roast and Bonfire in Kents' Corner
• House for Rent in Maple Corner

 

Reminders and Updates:

• Adamant cookout announcements
• Events at Wisdom of the Herbs School

 

• Important Calais Web Links
  
  
• Community Quote of the Week
  

 

 

 

Subject: Frozen Local Organic Raspberries for sale in Maple Corner

Final tally: We harvested 650 pints of raspberries from our Random Road patch, which is 1/12th of an acre. We have planted 5 more rows this year, so are up to 1/7th of an acre. The berries that we picked ourselves, that didn't go to the Maple Corner Store, we have frozen, and are now selling about 100 pints of frozen raspberries. They are nicely frozen so that they are all individually loose from each other, which means that you can shake out a few berries, or use them all at one, whichever you want. They are in 2 pint ziplock bags, and selling for $5/pint, or $10/bag.

Last year we sold out of our frozen raspberries in about 10 days, so don't delay if you want to have some this winter.

Steve & Sarah Gallagher 223-0505
Random Gardens

For more info and a berry report call Steve & Sarah Gallagher at 223-0505.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Lori Scott
Email: vtshihtzu@yahoo.com


I have lost my 13 year old maine coon cat.  Brown, Black and Tan. Answers to the name of Chief.  Weights about 30 pounds.  If you see him please give me a call at 223-5420 home or 793-5420 cell.  We have had him since he was a little tike and we miss him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Notes and Occasional Comments; Calais Selectboard meeting, Monday, August 9, 2010, written by Peter Harvey


Note: “The History and Law of Vermont Town Roads” by Paul Gillies, Jan
2005 is available for free from the Vermont Local Roads Program at St
Michael’s College 1-802-654-2652 for those who are interested in the
background of all these roads discussions.

**********************************************************************************
The Primary Election is being held Tuesday, August 24, 2010, from 10am
to 7pm at the Town Hall. That is two weeks earlier than previous
years. Absentee ballots are available at the Town Clerk’s Office.
**********************************************************************************

Calais Selectboard meeting, Monday, August 9, 2010 at the Calais Town
Hall. Members present clockwise from the chair: Denise Wheeler
(Chair), Cy Lamberton, Scott Bassage, John Brabant (Vice-Chair), and
Mike Garand. Rose Pelchuck took the Selectboard's official minutes.
These notes are my own observations and personal comments of this
meeting. 8 people were in attendance at this evening's Selectboard
meeting: Brian Pelchuck, Alfred Larrabee, Wayne Morse, Bill Powell,
Gail Graham, Gary Schultz, Josh Schultz, and myself.

7:05 Denise called the meeting to order

7:05 Minutes:  July 26 minutes - The Board voted 3-0-2 (John & Scott
abstained because they were not at that meeting) to accept the minutes
as submitted.

7:05 AOT Certificate of Mass Discontinuance – The Board passed around
and signed the document to be sent to AOT, the result of the Board
vote at their June 17, 2010 Special Meeting where the Board voted 4-1
in favor of the mass-discontinuance of “all of Calais’s town highways
that are not otherwise clearly observable [the invisible roads].”
Originally labeled “not clearly observable,” as of July 2, 2010, are
now classified as “unidentified corridors” by State Statute, Act 158
(passed in 2008). Scott, the single dissenting vote, did not sign it.
[see item 7:50]

7:08 Town Garage Roof & Insulation – Road Commissioner Alfred Larrabee
brought a second bid to the Board for having the Town Garage re-roofed
and insulated. Infinity Contracting LLC [Nathan Temple of Luce Rd,
Calais] put in a bid of $16,750 to remove the current compacted
insulation, replace it with 1.5” spray foam & 14” cellulose
insulation, and put on a new roof to the same specification as the
$25,181 bid quoted at the last meeting from an out of town company. An
additional bid of $2,500 was added to enclose the soffits to keep out
squirrels & birds. Enclosing the soffits was not included in either of
the insulating/roofing bids. After hearing recommendations from
Alfred, the Board voted 5-0 to accept the Infinity Contracting bid,
“not to exceed $19,250.”

7:18 Road Commissioner Alfred Larrabee brought a brochure to the Board
about a company that chops and pulverizes brush and trees up to 20
feet high. He had a sales man stop by the garage and suggested that it
would be an efficient way to clear roadside brush. It would cost
$130/hr to hire it done. He told the Board that his crew is behind in
clearing roadside brush. The Board responded cautiously. John told
him, “If you are going to go into this with this level of intensity,
we need to talk with the land owners first.” Mike agreed with him.
Denise asked Alfred to work with Mike and give them a list of roads he
would want to do this on.

“my comments” I saw a video of this machine at the Farm Show in Barre
last winter. It was demonstrated as clearing wooded areas of trees and
brush. It is sort of like a very powerful brush hog mounted on a tall
boom that lowers down over trees and “pulverizes” them, throwing
branches & chunks of wood every which way. It is not a method to do
safely near people or traffic or houses.

7:27 Curb Cut Application for Sandra Guerette: Sandra wants to
subdivide her property on County Rd just south of Bliss Pond Rd and
has asked the Board for a curb cut. Only Cy and Alfred had stopped at
the site, although others were familiar with driving by it. After
discussion the Board went ahead and approved it 5-0 with the usual
condition that there be a 20 foot flat apron on to the road with the
proper radius and that it be signed off on by the Road Commissioner. A
large amount of fill will be required to bring the driveway up to the
grade of the road.

7:40 Review Estimates for Trimming the East Calais Cemetery hedge:
tabled to the next meeting.

7:46 Discuss Joint Meeting of the Board with all the Town Commissions:
Denise will coordinate a date that will work for all in October. This
meeting is meant to keep the Boards and Commissions familiar with what
each other is working on. As required of all a public meetings, it is
an open meeting. It may be a potluck.

7:50 Ancient Road Petition for Special Town Meeting and Re-vote –The
Board announced that they have received a petition to “…petition for a
vote pursuant … to disapprove the Selectboard’s Mass Discontinuance
vote of June 17, 2010 [see item 7:05] signed by more than 5% of the
Calais voters. This petition causes the Selectboard, by State Statute,
to hold a Special Town Meeting to revote the issue. Scott was assigned
to draft a post card warning a special Town Meeting & vote. Denise
will check with the League of Cities & Towns about procedure. John
will email pdf files of the 11 pages of the petition and signatures to
the Board members.

my notes: I signed this petition for a Town wide vote to disapprove
the Selectboard’s Mass Discontinuance vote of June 17, 2010. Mass
discontinuance simply does not work because there is no “list” of
invisible roads. No one knows which roads are invisible until the
Committee on Unmapped and Unmaintained Roads completes its study of
each road. At this point the roads on the list are: 1) visible, 2)
partially visible, or 3) invisible (no physical evidence of their past
existence). The Committee initially separated the about 40 roads into
two groups, the easy short roads and the longer probably more
difficult roads. So far the Committee has simply reported to the
Board, at the Special Selectboard Informational and Public Hearing
Meeting, @ the Calais Town Hall on June 8, 2010, that it had studied
and visited the sites of most of the 20 Short Spurs, the first group
of roads. The Committee then recommended that the Board discontinue 14
of those roads or spurs, but the Committee told the Board that it
needed to further study the remaining 6 roads before making its
recommendations to the Board. It has not yet recommended keeping any
ancient roads. The Committee has yet to begin studying the second
group of about 20 longer and more complicated roads. Because there is
no “list” of invisible roads, nothing will be truly settled this way.
My understanding is that the only alternative to the Selectboard
voting on the recommendations of each individual road is to wait until
2015 without putting any of the roads on the Town Highway Map. At that
point, July 1, 2015, any of these ancient roads not on the Town
Highway Map filed with the State will be discontinued by the State
Statute.

7:58 Review Draft 4th Class Rd Ordinance dated 9/12/09 – This draft
was initiated by Ann Winchester more than a year ago when she was
chair of the Selectboard to address the concern of damaging use to
some “mapped” class 4 roads. At that time she worked with attorney Jim
Barlow at the League of Cities & Town while drafting this proposed
ordinance “… to protect Calais valuable and fragile class 4 roads for
the permanent enjoyment of its citizens by prohibiting uses which
cause serious erosion and damage.” The ordinance would limit use to
“non-motorized vehicles, except that an adjoining land owner my use
the road for access subject to the town of Calais Class 4 road policy”
The Board picked up review of this ordinance again in July as a way of
dealing with the issues brought up by abutters of two class 4 roads in
town. For the past 20 years these roads have been know locally as “the
Hazel Stevenson road” and “ the Muriel Graham road” because these two
women, who lived at the ends of these roads and who are now deceased,
took on the protection of these roads. The Board is again working with
Jim Barlow about this draft. Denise reported that Attorney Barlow said
that to put up a gate on a Town road it must first be classified as
“Pent Road.” Attorney Barlow has offered to review and redraft the
ordinance at the rate of $85/hr. John, seconded by Scott, made a
motion to have Jim Barlow review our class 4 ordinances and rewrite
this draft to meet state standards. The motion passed 5-0. Denise
tabled further discussion to give everyone a chance to think about it
more.

8:18 TH. 8 [Hazel’s mapped class 4 road between Worcester Rd. &
roughly the west end of Dugar Brook Rd.]. – John began this item with
“I think we need a standard that compels 5% [65] of the voters to have
signed [the petition] and that all the land owners signing the
petition be registered voters. We need to treat everyone the same and
not be seen as doing favors.” John recommended that “we not act on
this letter.” John, seconded by Scott, made a motion “that we decline
to move forward with the letter’s request and send a letter explaining
our position saying that they act on a petition signed by 5% of the
registered voters.” The motion passed 5-0. John will write the letter
to Paul Weisbart, who had handed the letter to the Board at its June
28th meeting.

my notes: The Selectboard debated what to call this request to
discontinue TH 8 that was signed by 6 voters and 1 non-resident land
owner. The Board now seems to regard it as a semi-private letter of
request to the Board that they may consider, but are not compelled to
address. They must, by State Statute, address the concerns of a
petition of 5% or more of the voters.

8:26 TH 44 [Wheeler Rd] – Wayne Morse and Chuck Storrow have been
arguing over a section of road that the Town discontinued in 1966.
Wayne contends that the Town did not follow legal process when it did
so. Wayne also contends that because the Town only owns a right-of-way
[not the property] to almost all of the roads in Town, he owns to the
center of that road right of way and the Town had no right to deed the
roadway to the other property owner, the Hartsons at the time. Tonight
the Board voted to have attorney John Clesh investigate the TH 44
issue to see if it met the standards in 1966 and today, with a
spending limit of $3,500. The motion passed 4-0-1 (Cy abstained
because of his previous involvement and vote that he believed had
settled the issue years ago soon after Wayne had first brought it to
the Board). John expressed this thought that “this would be a good
test case for proceeding with all ancient roads.”

8:49 Reports/Updates
1. EMFD building – Scott reported that the Fire House is essentially
done. He told the Board that he sees his future role on the Building
Committee as to keeping the Board up-to-date on the committee. He told
the Board that he will bring all requests for spending back to the
Board. At this point two Board members said they had heard rumors that
the Ambulance Service is discussing taking on Woodbury without first
discussing it with the Calais and East Montpelier Selectboards. Last
month the Ambulance Service extended its service area to Plainfield
and bought a cheap used ambulance before notifying the two towns
Boards who had initially backed the Ambulance Service and own the
building that it works out of. At that point the Board expressed its
distaste for being side tracked. Tonight the Board members again
expressed their displeasure with this growing rift. This evening
Denise took on the task of arranging a meeting of the two boards and
the Ambulance Service board.
2. McCullough Gravel Pit – Scott told the Board that the DRB will have
their next hearing on this permit application, Tuesday, Aug 17, @ 7
pm, at the East Calais Rec Center.
3. Curtis Pond Dam – John expressed his frustration about trying to
talk with the Hardwick Electric Co. to compare costs of rebuilding the
Hardwick dam with the estimates to rebuild the Curtis Pond dam.
4. Ancient Roads Committee – nothing to report
5. TH 44 next steps – Denise; dealt with above
6. TH 8 – Denise; dealt with above
7. Small Claims Court – Denise; nothing new to report since the last meeting

9:07 Other Business – added to the agenda for the next meeting:
1. municipal employee benefits for the road crew.
2. Ben Moffat letter asking for permission to put a tree stand for
deer hunting in the Chapin Rd Town Forest
3. Listers appeals

9:17 The Board adjourned. The next scheduled meeting of the Board will
be 7:00 pm, Monday, Aug 30, 2010. Agendas are posted at the usual
places: the Calais Town Clerk’s Office, the 3 stores in town, and the
East Calais Post Office. Only items posted on the agenda are voted on
at any meeting. Those wishing to bring items before the Board should
contact Chair Denise Wheeler (456-8730). Agenda items for the next
meeting need to be received by 6 PM, the Wednesday before that
meeting.

*******************************************************************************
Post script: Special Town Meeting. The Selectboard held a short warned
Special Meeting at the Town Hall Saturday Aug. 21, 2010 @ 9:30 am to
vote on setting a date and article for Special Town Meeting to vote on
the question forced by the petition (see item 7:50 above). I forgot
about this Special Meeting and showed up shortly after it was over.
They set a date: Monday, September 20, 2010 @ 7:00 pm. “NOTE: voting
will be in person only during the meeting. There will be no voting by
absentee nor Australian ballot for this Article.” The Article to be
voted on reads: “To see if the Town will vote to overrule the
Selectboard’s decision to June 17, 2010 to extinguish the Town’s title
to “invisible” ancient roads. “Invisible” ancient roads are those
whose right-of-way is owned by the town, and are not otherwise clearly
visible and not on the Agency of Transportation map of town highways.”

my thoughts: There are accusations from both sides dividing the Town
with this issue. In my view, it is not the issue that may divide the
Town, but manipulation of one group to get it’s way over others that
causes anger and division. I will settle for a public vote if the
threats of law suits, that would only continue and irritate division,
are dropped. Leave it to the most democratic process, a Town wide
vote, not the group with the most money to hire lawyers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful 4-bedroom house in Maple Corner for rent. $1,200 month.  fireplace, heat-efficient, attached 2-car garage, excellent condition.  Contact Julie at 223-1907.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Quotes of the Week:

"By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer’s best of weather And autumn’s best of cheer." - Helen Hunt Jackson

 

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