Christmas Eve singing

Do you want to sing on Christmas Eve at the Ripton Church? Nola Kevra will be having a singing practice at her house on Wednesday December 24th at 1:00. Cookies provided! Call Nola if you would like to come, or for more information, 388-6107.

Ripton survives the storm

We survived this week's storm. Lots of hard work by CVPS, tree services, and our own selves carries us through the winds and fallen trees.

Windstorm sweeps Ripton

Ripton has been hammered by a tremendous windstorm. Power is out across our town. Trees have been toppled, some across power lines, others into yards or across roads.

Here's the latest from CVPS: 298 people (households?) are out, as of 4:25 pm today.

If you have images or video to share, please do! Comment here, or send email to bryan dot alexander at gmail dot com.

Presentation Night & Band at Ripton Elementary

The Ripton community is cordially invited to Presentation Night & Band at Ripton Elementary School, Wednesday December 2 at 6:30pm. Come and see what the children have been learning about music and Vermont History this fall.

A Ripton traffic stop leads to Homeland Security

An unusual traffic stop in Ripton:

...a car pulled up with a lone male at the wheel. He was not giving his
name and it became apparent that the license plate was fake. The driver was
briefly taken into custody. The U.S. Forest Service brought in a search dog
trained to sniff out illegal drugs. When the dog got to the trunk, it let his
partner know that he had found something.

Finally, the man handed over a passport that police say checked out
valid. But it also brought a warning over the police radio to be careful around
him. Senior Game Warden Dale Whitlock explained, "When I ran it through
dispatch, it came back with multiple convictions of driver's license suspended.
And a caution. Sometimes dispatchers will issue a caution to us to use
care."

the car was suspicious enough, as well as its driver, to warrant further
attention. The feds were expected to run the man's name through Homeland
Security.

Even the law enforcement people here called this a very unusual day,
and we're not talking fish and wildlife violations.

WCAX did some digging:

Our check of the Internet shows the man belongs to a group called the
Embassy of Heaven, an elusive church group based in Oregon that
renounces government, issues its own license plates, has been raided for
non-payment of taxes and, according to the Anti-Defamation League, has ties to
anti-government militias.

Notes from the November flood mitigation meeting, part 2

Notes from last night's town flood mitigation meeting:
*These notes are rough. We welcome amendments and corrections!
The first part of these notes can be found in this blog post.

Part III: the plan
Roy Schiff then described the proposals for mitigation flood damage.

1. Shoring up riverbanks, or "armoring" them, with stones. These stones, called riprap, should have a mean diameter of three feet, will be obtained from rocks already on site, as far as possible.
2. Emplacing a "grade control structure" to further stabilize banks. This will be a large rock structure, situated on the riverbed.
3. Excavating a flood chute across the stretch of land enclosed by the river's bend. This chute can carry extra water straight across that land, drawing it away from the road. The chute already exists, as we can tell from sand repeatedly appearing after rains and high water on the western edge of the land; this excavation will deepen the chute, letting it pull more water from the river. Digging won't stretch the whole length of the chute, but will focus on the first third, east/above the village, since the middle third of the land is already low enough to serve.

Part IV: discussion and questions from the community

Amy and Roy fielded questions and comments throughout the meeting. I didn't catch 'em all in these notes, so please don't hesitate to add yours in comments!

Question: what's the timeline?
Answer: over winter, the plan is put out for bidding. Permitting should happen in early 2010 (with the Army Corps of Engineers, among others). Work should start - roughly - in July. Timing depends on a lot of factors, of course (including V-Trans schedules).

Question: who pays for this, and how much will it cost?
Answer: FEMA and the state of Vermont have agreed to support this, which should cover much of the cost. The town might have to pay some. Some affected landowners may also be approached to contribute. It's very hard to cost the project out at this stage, given complexity and fluid (sorry) circumstances.

Question: what will cover the flood chute?
Answer: it apparently won't look that different, a mix of rocks and foliage. More of the former will be exposed through digging, while more of the latter will be planted for cover.

For more information, please contact Amy Sheldon. We'll also blog this story as it unfolds in the coming months.

Notes from the November flood mitigation meeting, part 1

Notes from last night's town flood mitigation meeting:
*These notes are rough. We welcome amendments and corrections!

I. Introduction
Warren King introduced the session by describing the planning process and background. After the disasterous 2008 floods, Ripton sought to reduce damage from future events. The emerging plan runs counter to current wisdom about river management, but is best suited to Ripton's conditions.

Timeline for the project: In March 2009 the subject came up at town meeting. Community involvement grew, grown by a May publish meeting to mull options. Contacts with Vermont river professionals led to the development of a plan, and winning funding from FEMA and the state of Vermont.

The purpose of this meeting (November 17) is to share developments with the town, while eliciting community responses and reflections.

II. Managing an unruly river
Next, Amy Sheldon explained the content of river management. When the 2008 floods struck, she and others were already working to improve the Middlebury river corridor's sustainability.

The current state of the art in river management holds that the best way to reduce flood damage is to let waters find their own equilibrium, shifting human construction and habitation accordingly. The state of Vermont is transitioning to this view, but the Ripton case is exceptional, due to local conditions (the closeness of village to water, plus costs).

Some work has already been done for the whole Middlebury River. For example, an East Middlebury bridge now has a properly sized span. A group has also purchased land on the south side of the river there, in order to led futures floods have room to carry water and silt. Upslope, this group is also working with landowners on the middle branch of the river.

In Ripton, the group is now working with landowners east/above the town to acquire land in order to allow future floods to run off there.

(The meeting continued with another presenter; see next post.)