Ripton volunteers planning emergency response

Ripton's volunteer squad is rethinking emergency response plans, a year after hurricane Irene. According to VPR:

Ripton's Select Board has decided to create an inventory and database of the Addison County town's resources - something that town officials hope will be updated often.

At a select board meeting earlier this month, town and rescue officials identified those areas of town most vulnerable to floods as well as other natural disasters.

The group looked at how Irene cut off nearby Rochester from the rest of the state for more than three days as it considered what resources would be available if Ripton were cut off for a similar amount of time. The town also discussed establishing neighborhood communication hubs with two-way radios, the importance of social media and the likelihood that the town would be without power.

Now, Ripton is charting alternative ways in and out of town in the event of another storm like Irene.

j

This season in the Ripton community church

Here's what's going on in the Ripton community church over the next few months:

Sunday, May 13th @ 4:00PM. Middlebury College Professor James Calvin Davis will talk on “Politics, and Civility: Can These Three Things Really Go Together?” The talk will explore incivility in American Politics and ask whether religion is a cause or a solution to the problem. Included in the talk will be some examples of religious communities trying to chart a different course for our political debates.

Sunday, May 20th @ 4:00PM. Traditional service open to all faiths with Pastor, Rev. Dr. Mary Kay Cavazos. The topic to be announced.

June 1st @ 7:00PM. Frost & Fire presents traditional Celtic & New England music, plus their own tunes. The line-up includes Addison residents Viveka Fox (fiddle & percussion) and Peter Macfarlane (fiddle, low whistle & vocals) of the well-known local band Atlantic Crossing. They are joined by Aaron Marcus from Montpelier (piano, concertina, banjo, vocals & feet) of The Turning Stile and Giant Robot Dance, and Hollis Easter from Potsdam, NY (flute, whistles, bagpipes, guitar & vocals), formerly of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. All four musicians are inspired by the joy of sharing the music which they love.

Sunday, June 10th @ 4 pm. Warren King will use slides to present “Birds of Ripton”. Warren is a conservation biologist with a background in ornithology. He worked as an ornithologist for the Smithsonian Institution, which published his book The ICBP Bird Red Data Book: The Endangered Birds of the World in 1980. He serves on the board of Audubon Vermont and the board of the Otter Creek Audubon Society. He also serves on the board of the Vermont chapter of The Nature Conservancy and was chair from 1998 to 2000. His interests include botanizing, bird watching, animal tracking and canoeing. He has received numerous awards and recognition from Audubon, Nature Conservancy and the State of VT.

Sunday, June 17th @ 4:00PM. Traditional service open to all faiths with Pastor, Rev. Dr. Mary Kay Cavazos. The topic to be announced.

(thanks to Charles Billings)

Long Trail education site launched

A new Web resource on the Long Trail just launched. www.LongTrailBound.org offers information for students, teachers, and hikers in general.

One local educator's opinion:

Ripton teacher Susan Ogilvie, an educator who has utilized the Long Trail Bound activities, said, “I find the Long Trail Bound guide to be extremely useful in teaching my third and fourth grade students about the Long Trail. The lessons give each hike a focus making them a powerful learning experience.”

Here's one video introducing the project: