By Lani Duke
posted
Oct 4, 2012
ART & CULTURE
The Carving Studio & Sculpture Center in West Rutland recently
announced it has obtained two-thirds of what it needs for a
matching grant from the Vermont Arts Council. The money will enable
finishing three new, ADA-accessible classroom spaces as part of its
Winter Studios project.
Work has begun on flagging trails onsite and marking out the old
marble railroad bed, a process that will culminate in a planned
pedestrian walkway and marble sculpture garden along the old line.
Thanks go to Lyman Orton (Vermont Country Store founder), Bill Nutt
(former CSSC board president) and Robert Black (president of the
CSSC board) for their physical labor and many for financial
generosity.
Classical music lovers can hear their passion 24 hours a day
with Vermont Public Radio's expansion of its network into the
Rutland area. FM listeners can pick up the station at 92.5, in a
territory that extends to Castleton, Fair Haven, Pittsford, and
Proctor.
DOWNTOWN PARKING
Should the city assume responsibility for the downtown parking
deck? Does that initiative cost more than it's worth? The aldermen
considered those two questions as they contemplated a study
indicating that running the deck would cost the city nearly three
times more than it does the state. The state loses about $23,000 a
year, but city management would cost nearly $60,000.
The city has maintained that it is willing to assume
responsibility for the deck only if the operation breaks even.
Can't be done, consultant Andrew Hill told the aldermen, especially
not if the city is to expand hours, add staff, replace equipment
and do the maintenance the state has been putting off doing.
There are mitigating factors: the state could keep on paying for
the elevator repair and maintenance, parking in the structure could
grow because parking fees increase in city-owned lots and
streetside meter charges go up.
However, whatever changes take place must not discourage
downtown shopping activity, Downtown Rutland Partnership director
Mike Coppinger cautioned. The aldermen have been considering
lowering charges for using the deck, a change that Hill noted would
increase the deck's deficit.
WATER QUESTIONS
If Rutland uses chloramine to purify its water, dangerous
byproducts are less likely to result compared to some areas, recent
testing indicates. Rutland water currently lacks precursors for
toxic byproducts of chloramine, according to Public Works
Commissioner Evan Pilachowski.
Voters in November, will weigh in on a $5.5 million water system
bond to build a new filter system. If the bond fails to pass, the
city will have to switch from chlorine to chloramine in its water
treatment process.
Flooding that has scoured stream banks may have given the city
extra breathing room in its battle to lower haloacetic acids in
treated water, because those same incoming waters no longer contain
as much organic matter. The organic material's reaction with the
chlorine used for water treatment results in the haloacetic acids.
A new filtering system would remove the organic matter, keeping the
city's treated water within federal standards.
The city may also have another plus factor in that battle,
sticking more closely to a schedule for replacing filtering sands
in the current system.
DOWNTOWN APPEAL
The Community and Economic Development Committee recommends that
the aldermen grant tax stabilization for the Vermont Farmers Food
Center, formerly the Mintzer lumberyard, on West Street. If
granted, municipal tax assessment would stay at its current level
($366,300) for the next five years. The city is also looking at
improvements to the surrounding area, to add more appeal to this
western gateway to Rutland's downtown.
In an effort to improve the ambiance at Depot Park, city crews
removed the benches and trimmed down the taller hedges. City
officials referred to a number of "undesirables" who had made the
park seem threatening for other users.
INCREASING ENROLLMENT
Mount St. Joseph Academy will increase its enrollment by one-fifth,
or from 80 to 100 by next year, if new principal, Sandra Wilkes, is
successful in recruiting additional students. Over the following
few years, she hopes for an increase of even more, brought in with
transportation incentives and other recruiting strategies,
including a promise to make them "150 percent prepared" for
whatever college they desire to attend.
HONORING HISTORY
Volunteers recently completed a four-year cleanup effort at the
poor farm cemetery, off Woodstock Avenue near the transfer station.
Cemetery commissioner Tom Giffin led the effort, pushed, he's fond
of saying, by his dad Cliff.
The workers cleaned up the brush and installed a new fence.
Artistic Memorials of West Rutland donated a memorial stone for the
unrecorded persons buried there. Stafford Tech students built an
informational kiosk. Department of Corrections crews will maintain
the property.
INSIDE THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY
Congratulations to Sandi and Scott Switzer, whose company Video
Unlimited recently premiered a documentary about life in the
Charterhouse of the Transfiguration, the Carthusian monastery on
Mount Equinox. The film is run during the monastery visitor
center's open hours, to let visitors know what life is like on the
inside, in an environment from which visitors are barred and the
only Carthusian monastery in North America.
LANI'S PICKS
Friday, October 5 - Timeless comedian Bob Newhart visits the
Paramount stage. Television fans likely remember his three sitcoms;
one supposedly located in a Vermont inn or, more recently, his role
as library head Judson in The Librarian made-for-TV movies. Others
think of his numerous comedy albums, or numerous movie appearances.
If he's true to form, expect a sell-out crowd. 775-0903
Saturday, October 6 - Harvest Fest, downtown Rutland, includes
Trash 2 Art 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday, October 6 - Boulder's Big Head Todd & the Monsters at
the Paramount in Rutland. 775-0903.
Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7 - Chaffee Art Center's 51st
annual Art in the Park Fall Festival, Main Street Park, Rutland.
775-0356. And more art across and around Rutland during Fall Open
Studio Weekend. Pick up brochures at the Chaffee.
Wednesday, October 10 - The movie As Goes Janesville, documentary
of a community as its General Motors plant closes followed by
post-film Q&A. 773-1860.
