Monday, June 16, 2014

 

News to Know June 2, 2014

BERLIN NEWS TO KNOW  June 2, 2014
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This  communication is put together and distributed on a volunteer basis by resident Corinne Stridsberg simply in an effort to share information and build community, it is not from the town of Berlin.
Please share this with your Berlin friends and neighbors.  If you're not already receiving this news directly by email, send an email to request this to corinnestridsberg@gmail.com.
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Check out the "Berlin, Vermont" Community News page on facebook to find bits of current news, some not included here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berlin-Vermont/205922199452224

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Notes:

Previous posts of News to Know can be found at www.socialenergy.blogspot.com
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Regarding the petition to ban all recreational activities on Berlin Pond, the deadline to submit comments to the state is on Tuesday, June 3rd - see more below
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The Concerts in the Park in Waterbury (mentioned below) include Slant Sixx scheduled for June 12 - this is the band my husband, Michael Stridsberg, plays bass in. 
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If you haven't called to reserve your spot for the community yard sale /flea market on Sat. June 7th call 552-0613 or email FriendsofVermontDogs@gmail.com.  The event will be 8am - 2pm at the VSECU parking lot on the Barre-Montpelier Road.  (See previous posts for more details)

Below you will find:

PERMANENT FISHING / HUNTING LICENSE
AQUATICS DIRECTOR JOB OPENING
PLANT SALE JUNE 7TH
TOUCH-A-TRUCK AT MONTPELIER HIGH SCHOOL
VERMONT DAYS JUNE 14 & 15  FREE  FREE FREE
CIVIL AIR PATROL (CAP) PROGRAM FOR CENTRAL VT YOUTH
VERMONT HISTORY EXPO
HOUSING WORKSHOP
HIGH WATER MARK SCAVENGER HUNT: Enter for a chance to win a prize!
FUN IN WATERBURY
LOOK INSIDE THE NEW STATE HOSPITAL, OPENING IN JULY
INTERESTED IN BERLIN POND HEARING?  COMMENTS ON LINE
DRINKING WATER INFORMATION INCLUDING "DRINKING WATER WATCH" LINK
BERLIN POND HEARING GENERATES PASSIONATE PLEAS
SPEAK UP ABOUT POND
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PERMANENT FISHING / HUNTING LICENSE
If you have a new child or grandchild, it's the best time to buy them a permanent fishing / hunting license. Check out the details here:http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/other%20licenses.cfm
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AQUATICS DIRECTOR JOB OPENING
First in Fitness is looking for an Aquatics Director. If you or anyone you know is interested, please contact Dave Pickel at dpickel@firstinfitness.com. They are looking for someone with a great attitude and the desire to serve customers.
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PLANT SALE JUNE 7TH
Central Vermont UVM Extension Master Gardeners’ Annual Plant Sale. Saturday, June 7 from 9 a.m. to noon at the North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm St., Montpelier.
Come and choose some lovely, healthy perennials for your garden (vegie starts, shrubs, and houseplants, too!). Don’t know where to plant them or how to care for them? Ask us! Master Gardeners and Master Composters will be there to answer your questions. Bring family members. Bring a picnic! There is something of interest for all ages. If the weather cooperates, you can take a tour of one of our Master Gardener project gardens and learn about plants that attract pollinators. See you there! Questions or more info? – contact us at CtVtEmgs@gmail.com.
To get to North Branch Nature Center:
http://www.northbranchnaturecenter.org/directions.html
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TOUCH-A-TRUCK AT MONTPELIER HIGH SCHOOL
Saturday, June 14th from 11am m- 2:30pm 9th annual event sponsored by Montpelier Recreation Department for Central Vermont kids.  Families $8, Adults $3, kids $2.  Admission will include a free one day pool pass.  The types of vehicles which may be there include a fire truck, ambulance, back hoe, snow plow, dump truck, garbage truck, and semi.  Other activities include clowns and a bounce house.  Concessions available.
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VERMONT DAYS JUNE 14 & 15  FREE  FREE FREE
FREE fishing on June 14th - no license required, open to residents and nonresidents.
FREE day-use at Vermont State Parks all weekend
FREE Entry at State Historic Sites
FREE Admission to Vermont History Museum in Montpelier
Find all the details here: http://www.vermontdays.com/
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CIVIL AIR PATROL (CAP) PROGRAM FOR CENTRAL VT YOUTH
Even though they meet in Northfield, CAP is a program for all central Vermont youth. Their main Squadron headquarters are at Knapp Airport in Berlin.
Looking for a great community organization? The Civil Air Patrol cadet program is for youths 12-18 years old with an emphasis on leadership training, aerospace education, character development and physical fitness. Some of the unique opportunities available to cadets include orientation flights aboard CAP aircraft, drill and ceremonies, model rocketry, encampments, and emergency services training. CAP is not a military recruiting program. However, cadets who choose to pursue military careers will benefit from previous CAP experience. Approximately 10% of the US Air Force Academy cadets were formerly CAP cadets.
Adult members in CAP have a wide variety of jobs to specialize in. Some serve as instructors and mentors to cadets, others serve as pilots, radio operators, Chaplains, public affairs officers, legal officers, information technology specialists, etc. There is a niche for just about anyone who is willing to volunteer their time and serve their community as a CAP member. All adult members must pass a FBI background check as part of the application process to ensure the safety of all of our members.
CAP meets every Tuesday evening from 6:00 to 8:30 pm in Northfield. If you are interested contact them at capitalcomposite@yahoo.com for detailed directions to the meeting facility.
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VERMONT HISTORY EXPO
The Vermont History Expo in Tunbridge is coming up on June 21st and 22nd 10am to 5pm.  Reduced price tickets on line before June 13th.  Buy a family weekend pass for $20 or come for half price admission if you dress in period costume.  More details at vermonthistory.org/expo
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HOUSING WORKSHOP
Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission (CVRPC) will be hosting a Housing Workshop on Tuesday, 6/17/14 at the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce from 4-6pm. The workshop will include a panel presentation, a Q&A session, and a break-out discussion, in which participants will provide feedback on the Housing Profile and the draft Housing goals. The panel features presenters from the VT Housing and Conservation Board, the VT Community Development Program, the Central VT Community Land Trust, the Central VT Chamber of Commerce and CVRPC. The event is free and open to all. Please RSVP by e-mail to norris@cvregion.com or by phone at (802) 229-0389. More details can be found here: http://plancentralvermont.org/event/spring-housing-workshop-june-17-2 Who should attend? Municipal board members, staff, and residents (homeowners and renters)
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HIGH WATER MARK SCAVENGER HUNT: Enter for a chance to win a prize!
   From the Flood of 1927 to Tropical Storm Irene, flooding has consistently been a threat to property, public infrastructure, and human life. The Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission (CVRPC) will be including an extensive Flood Resilience component in the Regional Plan, Plan Central Vermont. To kick-off this effort, we’re launching our High Water Mark Scavenger Hunt!
   There are many high water marks throughout the Region, from official signs to markings on buildings, bridges, poles, etc. Can you help us find them all? To enter the contest, take a photo of a high water mark and submit it to CVRPC in one of three ways:
   -Post it on the Community Input Map under Flood Resilience (http://plancentralvermont.org/participate/community-input-map, please be sure to include your e-mail address) 
  -Post it to our wall on the Facebook page (www.fb.com/centralvtplanning) 
  -E-mail it to us at cvrpc@cvregion.com
   Please include a brief description of the high water mark’s location. Each person who submits a photo by June 30 will be entered into a random drawing to win a $50 gift certificate to the Central Vermont restaurant of their choice or a season’s family pass to Wrightsville Beach!
   To learn more about Plan Central Vermont, visithttp://plancentralvermont.org/ or contact Stephanie Smith, smith@cvregion.com, (802)229-038
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FUN IN WATERBURY
Check out this website full of mostly FREE fun for the family if you're interested in driving to Waterbury:
http://www.waterburyvt.com/fileadmin/files/Recreation_files/Family_Events_Catalog_2014_03_20_2014.pdf
Guided Tour of CCC Camp on Tuesday, June 3rd and also July 22nd at 10am, two hour guided walk along a mile long trail
Weekly concerts in the Rusty Parker Park, Thursdays 6pm June 5th - Aug 21
Kids Fest June 7th 9am - 1pm - FREE in the Rusty Parker Park
Stargazing June 27th 9pm - 10pm Hope Davey Park Pavilion Waterbury Center
Independence Day parade June 28th 10am
Waterbury Arts Fest July 11th & 12th (Friday 6pm - 9:30pm and Saturday 10am - 4pm) on Stowe Street
Note: the Waterbury Farmers Market is on Thursdays from 3-7pm rain or shine.
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LOOK INSIDE THE NEW STATE HOSPITAL, OPENING IN JULY
Check out the coverage WCAX had on the new state hospital set to open in July.
http://www.wcax.com/story/25643559/a-look-inside-the-new-berlin-mental-health-facility
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INTERESTED IN BERLIN POND HEARING?  COMMENTS ON LINE
Didn't make it to the Berlin Pond public hearing? You can still listen to it and also your feedback can still be given. A link to the audio of the Berlin Pond public meeting has been made available on the Vermont DEC Watershed Management website. Written comments will be accepted up to June 3, 2014. Comments may be emailed to Laura.Woods@state.vt.us.
Here is a link to where the audio can be found:
http://www.watershedmanagement.vt.gov/rulemaking/htm/petitions.htm
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DRINKING WATER INFORMATION INCLUDING "DRINKING WATER WATCH" LINK
Thanks Heather for posting this information and the link for the "Drinking Water Watch"... I think everybody has more of an interest these days in learning about drinking water! -
Please help access to Berlin pond for non-motorized recreation stay open by submitting your comments to Laura.Woods@state.vt.us.
Just a little info regarding the Montpelier Drinking Water Treatment Plant. They are a surface water treatment, meaning they are designed to treat surface water. Their source protection area encompasses Paine Turnpike south, Brookfield Rd, Mirror Lake Rd, and I-89. What do you think carries a larger threat to the pond, the recreational paddler or the runoff from these roads?
Below is a link to Drinking Water Watch which you can use to look up any public water system in the State and see their current testing and results, including violations of Maximum Contamination Levels (MCLs) of Microbial and Chemical analytes. There has not been a single exceedance since access to the pond was opened two years ago, but there was before access was granted! 
Did you know that most of the communities in Chittenden County including Burlington, Colchester, Milton, Essex, and Williston drink Lake Champlain surface Water??? That's right; they filter and treat surface water as does the Montpelier Water treatment plant does! And they do not have MCL violations either and there is a hell of a lot more happening on Lake Champlain than kayaking, fishing, and swimming! (you can use the same link below to search these Chittenden County Water Systems, all of which are supplied by Lake Champlain through Champlain Water District CWD)
Know your facts people! Allowing kayaking and fishing on a pond is not going to grant access to people to poison the water. They can do that without stepping foot in the water.
https://anrnode.anr.state.vt.us/DWW/JSP/Violations.jsp?tinwsys_is_number=504&tinwsys_st_code=VT
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Letter to the Editor
Pub 6/2/14 Times Argus
WHERE'S THE SCIENCE?
   In the last election, voters in the town of Berlin overwhelmingly supported nonmotorized access to Berlin Pond.
   I was in favor of access two years ago, and I stand even more convinced on the issue today. Leading up to the vote, a small group of landowners and preservationists began circulating a list of “talking points” in an effort to convince the Berlin voters that it is far too “risky” to consider allowing the public to paddle about the pond. “Paddling causes turbidity,” they say. “Look at the science,” they say. I am still waiting for the science. Here’s a question: How much turbidity do 50 Canada geese create? Should we be counting the geese? The majority of voters in Berlin were not coerced, and neither was I. 
   At the public hearing Tuesday, I asked an anti-access leader to list the top five contaminating substances that would most likely be introduced by a kayaker or angler. “Did you read the 300-page petition?” the leader replied.
   “Yes, I read the petition. Can you name at least one substance that would likely be introduced? I didn’t see it listed,” I said.
   The leader paused for a moment to summon an answer, then blurted, “turbidity, and another substance would be human skin because we carry deadly toxins. Didn’t you know? They fall off your skin every day.”
   I said, “You mean somebody swimming?”
   “No, just putting your hand in the water,” was the response.
    This same group of people also feels that allowing paddlers on the pond will invite terrorists who wish to attack Montpelier’s drinking water.
   This so-called environmental group has petitioned the Agency of Natural Resources to prohibit the public from paddling on the pond. Although they want you off “their” pond, they are encouraging outdoor enthusiasts to recreate on other nearby ponds that serve as a drinking water supply.
   You can (politely) tell ANR that the public has a right to paddle on Berlin Pond by sending a comment by email to: Laura.Woods@state.vt.us.
   The deadline to make a comment in regard to the petition to ban all recreational activities is June 3.
   Nathan Smead, Berlin
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BERLIN POND HEARING GENERATES PASSIONATE PLEAS
Pub. 5/29/14 Times Argus by Amy Ash Nixon
   BERLIN — A majority of the speakers at an occasionally tense public hearing Tuesday evening supported a petition to restrict recreational use of Berlin Pond and to restore protections afforded the water source for nearly 100 years.
   More than 200 people crowded into the library at Berlin Elementary School for the hearing on the Citizens to Protect Berlin Pond petition, which saw impassioned speakers arguing about access versus protections for the public water supply before the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
   The petition is seeking a rule change by the Agency of Natural Resources. A ban on recreational use of the pond had been in place for decades until three sports enthusiasts challenged the restriction and lost in a court case brought by Montpelier. The trio later prevailed when the state’s highest court ruled the city did not have the power to restrict use on Berlin Pond, which would require a ruling by the state.
   Citizens to Protect Berlin Pond brought a 340-page petition to the state in January, urging that the water source for Montpelier and parts of Berlin, including Central Vermont Medical Center, be safeguarded and the pond left undisturbed for the sake of wildlife.
   Sportsmen in favor of access argued that the pond is not pristine and that there are public uses, cars, homes and human noise in the area all the time. They argued that kayaks and canoes will not cause any level of pollutants not already there, and that people should have a right to enjoy the body of water.
   Those in support of the petition argued that invasive species from people’s boats will end up infecting the pond more and harming the intake valve for the filtration plant. Some suggested more pollution will inevitably follow increased human activity on the pond. More pollution will mean more chemicals to treat the water, they argued.
   “Chlorine and the byproducts of chlorine are proven to be cancer causing,” said Melissa Perley, president of Citizens to Protect Berlin Pond. “At best, the purity of Berlin Pond’s water will gradually or perhaps not so gradually need more and more disinfectants.”
   Nate Smead, a spokesman for the Friends of Berlin Pond group, which advocates access, said thousands of people support the use of the pond that has been in place since the Vermont Supreme Court ruling.
   “If somebody wanted to do harm intentionally to the pond, they do not need to go out in a boat to do that,” he said in response to several comments that terrorism directed at the water supply was a potential risk. “To throw up the red herring that someone is going to do something intentionally to damage our water supply ... that boat doesn’t sail with me,” he said.
   Montpelier Police Chief Anthony Facos is one of the divers who check on the intake valve at the pond. He said it is in very shallow water, “and if there is a direct introduction of hazardous material, we might never find out until it is in the drinking water. ... We have no additional way to protect this body of water as it exists. We have one opportunity to protect the water as is.”
   Montpelier also has a petition pending before the state agency seeking some restrictions on the pond’s recreational uses, but not as sweeping as what the citizens group is advocating. A hearing on that petition earlier drew fewer participants.
   Montpelier Mayor John Hollar said Berlin Pond is “a unique ecological resource,” where “wildlife has flourished in the absence of human activity.”
   The state has what he called a stark choice: “We can adopt policies to ensure that our water remains safe ... or we can allow untrampled human access and inevitably degrade the natural habitat that developed over the last century. Let’s allow one of the few places in central Vermont to remain a place of wild and natural beauty.”
   Montpelier City Manager William Fraser said of the state Supreme Court ruling, “Banning recreational use of the pond is permissible. It just says the city can’t do it. ... It placed the regulatory authority with the state, and that’s what this hearing is for.”
   Naomi Leary, a community organizer with the Toxics Action Center, said it was time for the state to protect the residents of Montpelier and their water supply.
   “Contamination will happen and will increase with time, and it’s just a matter of time,” said Leary. “Protection of the citizens of Vermont should happen before contamination happens.”
   Maxine Leary, an 84-year-old Montpelier resident, said older people in particular are more sensitive and that increased chemicals could harm their systems faster.
    “I need clean water, and I beg you again, please give us older people clean water. We need it for life,” said Maxine Leary to cheers.
   Tami Calliope, of Montpelier, said that with more than three dozen bodies of water within a 30-mile drive of Berlin Pond, the argument that sportsmen need this pond reminded her of a toy box fight among children.
   “It’s like a child who says, ‘I know that I have all these toys, but I want THIS ONE,’” she said, raising her voice and stamping her foot. “Sorry, kids, ... you can’t have it, and I hope you won’t let them have it.”
   amy.nixon @timesargus.com

Letter to Editor
May 29,2014
SPEAK UP ABOUT POND
   On Tuesday evening, a hearing on the petition submitted by Citizens to Protect Berlin Pond was heard at Berlin Elementary School. The petition would reinstate recreational restrictions that preceded the Supreme Court decision that transferred the control of use of the pond from the city of Montpelier to the state of Vermont.
   A multitude of issues was discussed, but none trumped that of safe drinking water. There is no scientific evidence to prove otherwise.
   This water is the safe supply for the city of Montpelier, Central Vermont Medical Center and some Berlin residents.
   Most citizens attending the hearing favored passing the petition.
   The Agency of Natural Resources will make the decision and is taking comments until June 3. Please make your comments known to one of the following by letter, email or telephone:
   Letter: Deborah L. Markowitz, Secretary, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life Drive, Davis 2, Montpelier, VT 05620-3901.  Email: deb.markowitz@state.vt.us
   Phone: 828-1294
   Letter: Leslie Welts, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life Drive, Main 2, Montpelier, VT 05620-3521.     Email: leslie.welts@state.vt.us  Phone: 490-6103

Barbara White, Montpelier
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