Select Board Meeting Agenda for 12/14/15

The Select Board's monthly meeting will be on Monday, Dec. 14, 6:30 pm at the Town office. The agenda will be as follows:

1. Call the Meeting to Order

2. Act upon minutes of the meeting of November 9th, 2015

3. Sign Orders

4. Review Correspondence

5. Adjust Agenda

6. Hear Citizens

7. Town Treasurer, Diane McNamara, present to offer Delinquent Tax Note Renewal documents for approval and signatures.

8. Consider application for liquor license for the Table 19 Restaurant which is scheduled to open at the former brew pub location on Route 103.

9. Brief update on activities of the Cavendish Telecommunications Committee.

10. Town Manager to discuss the FY 2016-2017 budget development process with the Board and distribute a January through March 2016 calendar of town government activities which will include statutory windows and deadlines for relevant activities and budget meetings.

11. As the first FY 2016-2017 budget activity there will be, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, External Appropriations Requests presentations by: Black River Good Neighbors; LPC-TV; American Red Cross; SEVCA; Reading/West Windsor Food Shelf; Visiting Nurse Association/Hospice; Green Mountain RSVP; Council on Aging/Senior Solutions; Black River Senior Center and VT Rural Fire.

12. Update on Transfer Station collection of E-Waste under the state E-Waste Program.

13. Update on Cavendish’s participation in the Vermont ERP (Ecorestoration Program).

14. Review of Cavendish Cemetery Regulations revisions draft update. Cemetery Sexton Bruce McEnaney will be present to explain proposed changes.

15. Updates on various town activities including: beginning of the winter road maintenance season; consideration of changes to lister activities; paving of High Street drainage repair, bottom of Bonts Hill Road and transfer station.

CU: 12/11/15 News/Poem/Events

                                                      Roof tops of Cavendish village.

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the town
Not a creature was stirring, not even a hound;
The snow sparkled in the cold frosty air,
While chimney smoke floated from here to there;
The villagers were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of high speed Internet danced in their heads.
 
Thanks to donations from Gray Muehlemann and George Thomson here are the next few verses.
But service was awful, it really did stink.
We’re in the Dark Ages, that’s what you would think!
 They’re blacked out on Tarbell, Knapp Pond, and East Road.
They’re lucky to log on and never download.
 They can’t get their Netflix or check on their pension,
Or download some stuff we had better not mention!
 If we can’t improve it would be such a pity.
Can’t we have speeds like some Korean city?
 
You’ll have to check out next week’s Update for more verses-based on donations received. You can support Cavendish Connects by:
 • Mailing a check to Cavendish Connects, PO Box 3, Cavendish VT 05142 or clicking the Support Button and donating on-line. 
• Make a donation for an issue of the Cavendish Update in someone’s name
• Organize a fundraiser
 
12/11/15 Cavendish Update
1. Cavendish Related News
2. Events
 
1. CAVENDISH RELATED NEWS
Coolidge Solar Project: Ranger Solar is proposing a 20 megawatt, 155 acre project on the former Barker Farm, which is in Ludlow, but abuts Cavendish land. This project would exceed by an order of magnitude the size of almost any other solar array in the state. According to Ranger, the Ludlow solar array will save ratepayers $4.5 million and will create 400 jobs. A video of the informational meeting held in November on the proposed Solar Project Proposal is now at LPCTV. According to a study released last week by the developer, the electricity is needed. However, those in attendance do not share this belief and in fact, Green Mountain Power, says the power isn’t wanted or needed. However, if the project is approved, GMP must purchase power from Ranger Solar. GMP filed a request with the Public Service Board a month asking the board to deny Ranger’s application. Ludlow select board Chair Howard Barton said that while the select board hasn’t reached an official stance on the project, there doesn’t appear to be much resistance among community members. At a recent informational meeting, only a handful of residents raised resistance to the proposal, he said. Gov. Peter Shumlin has in recent weeks disparaged large solar projects by out-of-state developers, both in general terms and in reference to Ranger Solar’s project specifically. VT Digger 
 
Do you like to sing? Cavendish Community Christmas Choir: Gethsemane Episcopal Church loves music and singing. Not having enough folks to form a choir on their own, they are extending an invitation to join them in forming a community Christmas choir that will sing a few special carols as a part of their Christmas Eve service-Dec. 24 (Thursday), 4 pm at the Church. A rehearsal is scheduled for the Sunday before Christmas (December 20) at 12:30pm for those who are interested in joining this community Christmas choir.  This will be the only rehearsal and will last about 90 minutes.  The music will be familiar and fairly simple to learn.  FMI: Todd Mckee, 603-667-5458 or e-mail gethsemanechurchvt@gmail.com 
 
New Resources Added to Paying for College, It’s Never Too Soon or Too Late: To help Cavendish kids pursue college or post secondary education, we continue to update The Dish’s special post on resources for Cavendish College Bound Students. It provides options beyond the typical 529 college-savings, prepaid plans, Coverdell Education Saving or Roth individual retirement accounts. Thanks to the digital age, there are some new, creative and painless ways to prepare for the expense of college whereby family, friends and even the students themselves can raise considerable money, even if they’ve already started college. The Dish 
 
Two Rivers Supervisory Union Superintendent and Associate Superintendent Announce Retirements: After several decades each in education, Two Rivers Supervisory Union (TRSU) Superintendent Bruce Williams and Associate Superintendent Linda Waite have announced they will retire from their respective positions, effective June 30, 2016. Press Release
 
2. EVENTS
Dec. 12-13 (Saturday-Sunday): Christmas Tree Sales continues at both Fire Departments. Santa is scheduled to arrive at the Proctorsville Fire Dept by 10 am on Saturday, with free donuts and coffee. Cavendish Fire Department is now offering free tree delivery-you pick it and they deliver it to you door.
 
Dec. 14 (Monday): Select Board Meeting, 6:30 Pm at the Cavendish Town Office. Agenda will be posted to The Dish when available. 

Do you like to sing? Cavendish Community Christmas Choir

Gethsemane Episcopal Church loves music and singing, as can be seen through out the winter as they host the Raise the Roof Concert series. Not having enough folks to form a choir on their own, they are extending an invitation to join them in forming a community Christmas choir that will sing a few special carols as a part of their Christmas Eve service-Dec. 24 (Thursday), 4 pm at the Church.

Jacob McLaughlin will be the organist and choir director for this service.  A rehearsal is scheduled for the Sunday before Christmas (December 20) at 12:30pm for those who are interested in joining this community Christmas choir.  This will be the only rehearsal and will last about 90 minutes.  The music will be familiar to many and fairly simple to learn.  

The Christmas Eve service will include a number of readings from scripture, mostly sections of the story of the birth of Jesus interspersed with related carols.  Some will be sung by the whole congregation and a few will be sung by the community choir.  Some of the service will be in candlelight, and will conclude with our traditional communion service (at which ALL are welcome).  There is no long sermon—and the service will last about an hour.

Todd McKee, the priest of Gethsemane, also notes, If there is a group of people who enjoy singing, the folks at Gethsemane are interested in organizing an ongoing community choir that could rehearse regularly in our space (we could pay a director with some grant money at first) and then the choir could share its music in various ways with the community and join us once in a while to provide some music in our church services.  If this appeals to you at all or if you have ideas related to this, please let me know.

 For more information, call Todd Mckee, 603-667-5458 or e-mail gethsemanechurchvt@gmail.com

Cavendish Update 12/4/15 News/Events/Donations

The Abundance Swap-Saturday, Dec. 5 at CTES in Proctorsville. Drop off starting at 9:30 (enjoy cookies and coffee while you wait) with the swap taking place from 10:00-11:30.

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the town
Not a creature was stirring, not even a hound;
The snow sparkled in the cold frosty air,
While chimney smoke floated from here to there;
The villagers were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of high speed Internet danced in their heads;
 
You’ll have to check out next week’s Update to see how this poem turns out. In the mean time, Cavendish Connects is doing it’s winter fundraising so that we can continue to provide the Update, Facebook, run surveys, and work with the state and the Telecommunications Committee in order to make “visions of high speed Internet” a reality. You can support Cavendish Connects by:
 
• Making a donation at the Abundance Swap on December 5 (9:30-11:30 at the school) 
• Mailing a check to Cavendish Connects, PO Box 3, Cavendish VT 05142 or clicking the Support Button and donating on-line. 
• Make a donation for an issue of the Cavendish Update in someone’s name
• Organize a fundraiser
 
12/4/15 Cavendish Update Contains:
1. Cavendish Related News
2. Events
 
1. CAVENDISH RELATED NEWS
High Speed Chase in Cavendish: On Thursday, Dec.3, there was a high-speed chase of two men which started at the Cavendish Gulf Rd and 103 intersection. The vehicle was abandoned as they took off on foot. They were captured in the Black River Commons area off Route 131. More information will be posted to Facebook as it becomes available.
 
TDS Problems with E-mail: If you are using TDS webmail, you may be experiencing problems and periodically receiving an “HTTP Error Message 502.” Basically, this has nothing to do with your computer. It is a capacity issue on the part of TDS and they are unsure how long it will take to resolve it.
 
BRAT Appears in New Documentary: Thanks to a trio of Dartmouth College film students, the Black River Action Team now has a way to tell their story in video. After many trips to Springfield over a six-week period this fall, the students Alex Moushey, Katie Toal, and Lily Morrison assembled a ten-minute documentary outlining the BRAT's mission.  Picturesque scenes of the river are interspersed with footage of a half-dozen BRAT volunteers conducting a variety of projects, from water quality monitoring, and shopping cart retrieval, as well as an ongoing project learning about contamination and mitigation options at an old Brownfield site along the river, done in partnership with Springfield Regional Development Corporation. Soon to be aired on local-access television, the video can be viewed on YouTube. 
 
VT Attorney General Warns of Ongoing Credit Card Fraud: Attorney General Sorrell reminds consumers to take steps to protect themselves from being the victims of credit card theft and fraud. Data security breaches and credit card fraud continue to be a significant problem, causing millions of dollars in losses each year. Protection steps include: Using virus scanning software when shopping on-line; never purchase on-line using a public Wi-Fi network or library computer; never respond to an e-mail request or unsolicited phone call that asks for your password; check credit card statements; use credit freeze if purchasing a new car or house; check credit reports. If you see anything suspicious and are unsure what to do, contact the Consumer Assistance Program at (800) 649-2424 or (802) 656-3183. Press Release
 
2. EVENTS
Upcoming events include:
Dec. 5 (Saturday): ABUNDANCE SWAP 9:30-11:30 at CTES
• Fire Departments Tree Sale: Both Cavendish (9-5) and Proctorsville (9-4) are selling Christmas Trees
• 14th Annual Holiday Fair: Proctorsville Fire Dept, 9-3
 
Dec. 6 (Sunday): Christmas Tree Lighting, Proctorsville Green, 6 pm
 
For more information on this and other events, go to the Cavendish Connects December Calendar.  For regional events, check out the Okemo Valley Chamber of Commerce Calendar.