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House panel confronts ‘eye-popping school construction costs
Local skater wins gold at international event
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Volume 53 Number 4
shelburnenews.com
January 25, 2024
Open space fund ballot vote doubles
Tap dance
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
The Shelburne Selectboard has approved a Town Meeting Day ballot asking to set aside $100,000 for the town’s open space fund — double the amount usually voted on by residents. The conversation has led to an even bigger question: how should the town fund the open space moving forward? The board originally mulled a $173,000 request — or a penny for every tax dollar paid by residents — which would have been triple the amount historically asked of voters. “How do we want to continue to fund it?” selectboard chair Mike Ashooh asked at a meeting last
week. “I recommended that maybe we just want to build in a permanent mechanism of a penny on the dollar. There’s a lot to discuss here and and a lot of this discussion needs to happen subsequent to this one. There is a really good question about how we want to go about funding our open space.” But the selectboard feared the sticker shock of such a large number would dissuade residents from voting in favor of it. Should the ballot item be voted down, the Natural Resources and Conservation Commission would be left with zero dollars going toward their fund this year. “I have always felt that putting See OPEN SPACE FUND on page 12
Dog park committee snoops for solutions LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY DANA BISHOP
Rachel Kessler places the first tap of the year at Shelburne Farms, in preparation for maple sugaring season. Shelburne Farms has about 2,600 taps in its sugarbush. Vermont’s Spring Maple Open House weekend is March 23-24.
Life for Shelburne’s dog park committee has been anything but easy over the last decade, and a recent decline in pups frequenting the park has some committee members fearing what might be next. The committee is again considering whether to investigate a new location for the park, but the conversation re-opens old wounds from nearly a decade ago. With the property’s Class II wetland designation from the state, the committee has been limited on just how thoroughly it can maintain the space, making conditions less than agreeable for those visiting the area.
“People knew that, but they went ahead and created the park, put up the fence and it was a very active park,” said Karen Medsker, co-chair of the committee, noting that she tried bringing her pooch to the park after a big rain a few months ago and sank to her ankles in mud. “Volunteers went in there and mowed the park to keep the weeds down. Well, the state found out about us and said we can no longer mow or take down any of the undergrowth in the park. So every summer it grows chest high with weeds and underbrush.” As the park returns to its natural state, with little to no mainSee COMMITTEE on page 13