Cavendish Update 3/13/15 SB Mtg/News/Events

3/13/15 EDITION OF THE CAVENDISH UPDATE

1. Cavendish Select Board Meeting 3/9/15

2. Cavendish Related News

3. Memoirs of Philip Tiemann: Chapter 2/1930s Washday

4. On-line Fundraising: How to Avoid Being Scammed

5. Cavendish Calendar Looking for Sponsors

6. Fish Friendly – A Talk About the Black River

7. Events

1. CAVENDISH SELECT BOARD MEETING 3/9/15 : Select board (SB) meetings are recorded by LPC-TV and are available at their website and on Comcast Television.  Written minutes are available at the town’s website.   Actions taken at Monday night’s meeting included:

• Selectmen’s Organizational Meeting

• Adopted the use of the term “select board” as opposed to “selectmen,” since there are now two women on the board.

• Approved liquor licenses

• Approved the use of the village greens for the 5th Annual Town Wide Tag Sale

• Agreed to have a representative from Comcast attend the April meeting to discuss expansion into areas of Cavendish with limited Internet access. Also agreed to invite Matt Dunne from Google.

• Approved an application for Cavendish to be part of the third round of Solarize Upper Valley, a project of Vital Communities, 

In addition, landscaping/planting designs were presented for 601 Main street, which will increase parking for CTES from 20 to 31 spaces, and for Greven Field.  For a report on this meeting, see The Dish. 

2. CAVENDISH RELATED NEWS

Use of Controversial License Plate Scanners Rising Among Vermont Police: Vermont law enforcement officers expanded their use of Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems in 2014, according to a new report. Police more than doubled the number of searches of the statewide license plate database in criminal investigations. The license plate readers, which are mounted on police cars, capture images of vehicles as they go by and identify the license plate number individually, simultaneously recording the time and place where the photo was taken. The plate number is then checked against a statewide “hot list” populated with vehicles wanted in relation to criminal cases, missing persons investigations or even a lapsed registration. The data – including time and location – is also stored. Each time a license plate reader snaps a photo it’s uploaded to the statewide database and held for 18 months. Note: Ludlow Police Department is one of the police departments that are using the License Plate Scanners. VPR 

 Lawmakers Scrutinize Flow of Military Gear to VT Police: Since 1999, the Department of Defense has distributed more than $5 billion worth of surplus military equipment to police agencies across the country. Some of it has ended up in the Green Mountains. The bulk of the gear is pretty routine, and includes stuff like fuel filters, furniture, generators or clothing. But sniper rifles, Humvees and even armored vehicles are also flowing into Vermont police arsenals. VPR 

 Plan to Cut VT State Jobs: The governor wants the union to reopen its contract, but leaders are not budging. The governor says if he cannot cut pay, his only option is to cut hundreds of jobs. Faced with a $112 million budget hole, the governor's right-hand man says they'll need to slash 150 to 325 positions to save $10.8 million. WCAX 

 3. MEMOIRS OF PHILIP TIEMANN: CHAPTER 2/1930s WASHDAY: A joint effort of Cavendish Connects and the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS),  Chapter 2 of the Philip Tiemann’s Memoirs of moving to Windy Hill (Brook Rd) in 1933 has been posted to the CHS Blog.  Settling into rural life, while Tiemann is learning how to farm, his wife is having to adjust to a home without electricity. CHS provides a description of what laundry day was like for women of the era following Chapter 2. To read the prelude and other chapters of Tiemann’s Memoirs go to Coming to Vermont (Cavendish): Memoirs of Philip Tiemann.

 4. ON-LINE FUNDRAISING: AVOID BEING SCAMMED: While we've recently seen two segments of our community (Moniers family and the GMUHS/BRHS French students) helped through on-line fundraising, we've also learned of a scam pertaining to the death of Frank Silfies, who was known locally to many in the fire, rescue and crisis community. To help users understand how to avoid scams and make sure that those who need it get it, the following post On-line Fundraising: How to Avoid Being Scammed is available at The Dish. 

 5. CAVENDISH CALENDAR LOOKING FOR SPONSORS: The Cavendish Community and Conservation Association produces a calendar each year that celebrates some aspect of life in Cavendish. Community members take pictures and the twelve best are selected to grace the pages. The calendars sell to the community in time for the holidays each year. The 2016 calendar will be in production this summer and the organization is looking for sponsors. Sponsors can be businesses, or individuals can sponsor a page in honor of a group, an organization or a special person.

The 2016 calendar will be the eleventh annual calendar. “Each year we begin to sell the calendars around the greater Cavendish area in November, but need sponsors to sign up in the spring,” said Robin Timko, President of the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association. “We always have room for more sponsors. The money raised helps us produce a number of programs and events, including our nature talks and summer concerts.”

Sponsorship is $120 for a month or $65 for a shared month. Sponsors name and logo are prominently shown on the page. To sponsor a month, or for more information about the CCCA organization, please call Robin at 226-7736.

6. FISH FRIENDLY-A TALK ABOUT THE BLACK RIVER: The Cavendish Community and Conservation Association will hold another great lecture in their Walk and Talk Series of nature and conservation presentations on Wednesday, March 25th at 6:00 p.m. when Kelly Stettner of the Black River Action Team and Kenneth Cox, a fisheries biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife will present an evening of interesting information about Cavendish’s great natural resource, the Black River. The Black River Action Team has worked to achieve and maintain a thriving river eco-system since 2007. The Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Division is responsible for conserving and managing all fish and fish habitats throughout Vermont. Vermont's fisheries biologists are engaged in a wide variety of activities to ensure Vermont's valuable fisheries resources are sustained and enhanced through time. Kelly and Kenneth will discuss efforts to monitor the health of fish and their habitat in the Cavendish portion of the river.

The Walk and Talk Series consists of lectures and demonstrations aimed at presenting various aspects of our natural world in a learning environment. All talks center the topic in Vermont and as much as possible in Cavendish. Past events focused on raptors, amphibians, large game, bees, songbirds and many other topics of general interest. When the weather is good the instructor may meet in an appropriate outdoor setting as well, although the March 25th presentation will remain indoors.

The presentation of “Fish Friendly – A Talk About the Black River” will occur at the Cavendish town office meeting room on High Street in Cavendish. This is a free event although donations to defray costs are always welcome. For more information about this event, or about other upcoming Walk and Talk events, please call Robin Timko at 226-7736.

7. EVENTS: For information about upcoming events, go to the Cavendish Connects Calendar. For events in the area, see the Okemo Valley Calendar.

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Cavendish Select Board Meeting 3/9/15

Select board (SB) meetings are recorded by LPC-TV and are available at their website and on Comcast Television.  Written minutes are available at the town’s website. 

The following items were dealt with at the Select Board Meeting:

A. Selectmen Organizational Meeting: Many of the positions outlined on page 9 of the town report (Selectmen’s Organizational Meeting March 10, 2014) will remain the same. The following will be new for 2015:

• Animal Control Officer: Jillian and Matt Flinn and Seth Perry

• Weigher of Coal: Wayne Gilcris

• Solid Waste District Representative: Jillian Flinn, Rich Svec Alternate

• Town Planning Commission: The board will be as follows: Steve Birge (alternate for Regional Planning Council); Daniel Churchill; Etienne Ting,  Dan Willey, Robert Williams Sr, Joseph Marini, Tim Calabrese, and Janet Pipkin.

• Tree Warden: Tim Calabrese

B. Liquor License: Licenses were renewed for Mini Bees, Singleton’s, The Castle Hill, and Crown Pointe Hotel.

 C. Use of the Term Select Board: Wendy Regier motioned that since there are now two women on the select board, she and Jillian Flinn, the term "selectmen" be dropped and "select board" be used instead. Motion approved.

D. Town Wide Tag Sale: This year’s town wide tag sale will be July 25 (Saturday) and will be sponsored by Cavendish Connects. The focus of the sale will be on Main Street, the two village greens and the larger side streets of High Street in Cavendish and Twenty Mile and Depot Streets in Proctorsville. Motion was approved for use of village greens.

E. Internet Service: Margo Caulfield briefed the SB about activities since the February SB meeting-there has been no response from TDS representative Scott Brooks. Caulfield recommended that the SB ask Comcast to attend the April meeting to see about costs associated with connecting the most underserved areas of Cavendish. Since Google has stated they are willing to work with cities and towns to install fiber to the home, provided there is limited “paperwork,” it’s been suggested that since Cavendish does not have zoning, the town might make a good rural demonstration project. Matt Dunne, the area representative of Google, will also be asked to attend the April meeting. 

F. Solar: The Energy Committee requested the SB’s approval to submit an application to be part of the third round of Solarize Upper Valley, a project of Vital Communities.   Solarize Upper Valley consists of three main components:

- towns apply to become Solarize communities alone or in conjunction with other towns (Cavendish is working with Windsor, Weathersfield and Reading).

- Solar PV installers submit bids to partner with Solarize communities.

- Community leaders and volunteers partner with installers to help residents go solar. For 15 weeks, Solarize teams use workshops, open houses, tables at local events, newsletters, and other outreach to encourage residents to sign up for a free site evaluation to determine whether solar could work for them.

Each Solarize community selects partner installers competitively, with support from Vital Communities and an independent technical consultant. Their pricing, equipment, and service are carefully vetted so homeowners can be confident they're getting competitive pricing and good value. Solarize Upper Valley partner installers offer tiered pricing: As more residents sign up to go solar, the price drops for everyone. The SB approved the Energy Committee’s application to become one of the towns in Round Three of Solarize Upper Valley. 

 To the question of snow on the town’s 150K array solar panels, members of the Energy Committee explained that this winter has been one of the coldest and snowiest on record and many people have had issues with snow not sliding off panels. However, as the temps have warmed, the snow is melting and the panels are producing energy, which can be monitored at the Solrenview website. 

 G. Cavendish Gardening Projects

601 Main Street: Tim Calabrese, owner of Good Earth Landscape Company, in Proctorsville, presented a site development concept for 601 Main Street, the property next to the school. Features of the plan include:

• Increasing parking spaces from 20 to 31 and a designated spot for the bus

• Provides green space in the warm weather months and a place for snow in the winter

• The back of the property includes an existing spring, which is already in use by the 6th graders. This will be maintained with fencing for protection. This area will include an “upper terrace,” for passive recreation activities and gathering. This will include native and stone flagging incorporated seating and sculpture.

• There will be a walking path from the parking area at the front of the property through various landscaped features ultimately connecting to the existing outdoor classroom and trail.

• While a few trees will need to be removed, a combination of trees, shrubs, border plantings and perennials will be planted.

 The project will be done in phases. A rough estimate of cost was $13,000 to $20,000, was given, with the idea this could be considerably reduced by in-kind donations of time, materials, plants etc. Some of the work can be done by the town crew beginning this summer, with plantings taking place in 2016. There was also a discussion of people purchasing walk way pavers that could be used as a remembrance or in recognition of someone. There was also discussion about replacing Riley’s tree in this area (there are already funds for this project) and to add a placard recognizing Curtis Bidgood’s donation of the land.

 Greven Field Landscaping: Steve Ewald of the Cavendish Recreation Booster Committee requested funds from the town special accounts of The Greven Field Restoration Fund ($2,000) and $1,000 from the Tree Program Fund in order  to improve the overall appearance of the park. Plans include adding flowering fruit trees (4 apple/2 pears), shrubs (4 lilacs), non-invasive perennials, a wildflower meadow, as well two annual flower beds. Also in the plan is to identify, maintain and protect a number of existing trees that have great character, especially those along the nature trail. It was suggested that a portion of the park could be used as a tree nursery. Tim Calabrese would lead a team of volunteers to refine the landscaping plan and implement it beginning this spring.

 The SB does not want to use money from the Tree Program Fund for this project. There was considerable discussion about the use of plants and shrubs that could be donated by local gardeners. Calabrese has offered to do a rendering of the proposed plan and they will continue discussions with the SB and community.

 H. Use of Greven Field By GMUHS: Due to flooding, the girl’s softball teams at GMUHS are in need of fields for practice and games. The SB favored the use of Fletcher Farm fields for this purpose indicating the need to retain Greven Field and Recreation area for its intended purpose. No vote was taken on this matter.

 I. Citizenship Award: Before family and friends, Sara, Rhyan, Shannon & Chad Devereau and Brad Frye were presented with a Citizenship Award for their efforts in spearheading the playground restoration project in 2014. 

On-line Fundraising: How to Avoid Being Scammed

In the last week, there has been an incredible use of GoFundMe to help the Moniers  in Chester, Vt, who lost their home, contents and pets in a fire. Both of our volunteer fire departments responded to this event and many of our kids are friends with their children. A Facebook page  has also been set up in their name and is helping to let the community know what they need and how they can help.

Our GMUHS and BRHS French students are also using GoFundMe to help raise sudden last minute expenses for their exchange program in France. Students and faculty, both of whom are working hard to make this trip possible, set up this site.

At the same time, we sadly learned how a woman has been taking advantage of the death of Frank Silfes, who is well known to our fire departments, and many in our community Frank was the Program Coordinator for Crisis Services at HCRS in Springfield for 35 years and founded Green Mountain Critical Incident Stress Management team. His wife posted the following note on March 5, Please be advised that one Jackie Harris is posting on Claremont NH - On line Garage Sale site that she is taking a collection for Frank Silfies. We do not know this woman and I have been advised that she is scamming people out of money in my husband's name. Frank is well-known in the surrounding communities and would not want people giving her money in his name. Please DO NOT SEND MONEY TO HER SITE! In the comment section, a number of people noted that this individual had been involved in other fundraising scams.

 Please Note that Cavendish Connects checks carefully before we post these types of fundraising requests on Facebook or the Cavendish Update.

The Internet is a good way to help raise funds and awareness. “Crowd funding” sites, like GoFundMe can be a good way to raise money quickly, such as what we’ve seen for the Chester family and the French students.  Understand though there are terms and conditions with these sites, and they do take a percentage (in the case of GoFundMe it’s 5%). 

 Unfortunately there are people that can and will take advantage of family, friends and community’s generosity in emergent situations. In order to avoid scams and ensure that your donation will be used in the manner you intended, consider the following:

 • Only donate to causes and people you personally know and trust.

 • Do your research. Check out the organizer’s past accounts. Avoid giving money if solicited by phone or mass emails or letter-writing campaigns for which you cannot verify the organizer’s identity. Check out a charity or cause via the Better Business Bureau give.org site for reports of fundraising scams

 • Ask questions. If they take a long time responding, chances are greater it’s a scam. 

• Be cautious in evaluating causes that generate a lot of publicity, because they often attract scams. Breast cancer and animal rights causes are often targets for scams.

 Learn more about Crowdfunding and the best sites to use at Crowdsunite. 

 While “Crowd funding” has its purpose, you may want to consider these options as well:

• Donate directly to the individual or to a bank account that has been legitimately set up in their name.

• Give gift certificates for goods and services that are needed. For example, after Irene, Gethsemane Church distributed gift certificates to Home Depot and other stores utilized by those doing flood cleanup. Gas cards are always helpful, as are gift certificates to local restaurants. It’s also possible to give a Master or Visa card good for a certain amount.

• Help to organize a fundraiser for a specific need.

• Pace your giving. While there is immediate need, for a major loss, such as a fire, death or significant illness, the needs extend well beyond the initial burst of activity of a week to 10 days.

• Give of yourself. While money is certainly needed in many of these situations, there are a number of practical details, such as childcare, cleaning, lawn care, rides etc. that need tending to.

 Learn more at How to Respond When You Learn That Someone is Ill or Injured.  

Cavendish Select Board Mtg 3/9/15 Agenda

The Cavendish Select Board will meet on Monday, March 9, 6:30 at the Cavendish Town Office. The agenda will be as follows:

1. Call the Meeting to Order

2. Welcome and Introduction of new selectman

3. Conduct Annual Board of Selectmen Organizational Meeting including discussion of recent election results and Town posts which remain vacant.

4. Act upon minutes of the meetings of February 9th, 2015 and February 24th, 2015.

5. Sign Orders

6. Review Correspondence

7. Adjust agenda

8. Hear Citizens

9. Presentation of Citizenship Award (from Town Meeting) to Sara, Rhyan, Shannon & Chad Devereau and Brad Frye for their efforts in spearheading the playground restoration project in 2014.

10. Representatives of the committee formed to develop plans for the property at 601 Main Street (next to the school) present to review draft plans with the Select Board.

11. Update on Energy Committee activities and discussion of Cavendish participation in Solarize Upper Valley program in partnership with Reading, Windsor and Weathersfield.

12. Steve Ewald of the Recreation Committee present to discuss several recreation related items with the board.

13. Update on various town activities

14. Other business

15. Adjourn