By Brett Yates
The Chittenden Select Board applied for a construction permit for a new porch and entrance at the grange hall on Sept. 26.
The project cost estimate was $6,000. The town, however, has not yet solicited bids for the job. “If we were to find out that the contract was more than we had in the budget, it could be rolled over to next fiscal year,” Selectman Andrew Quint said.
The board hopes to see the completion of the work sooner than that. In 2001, at the request of the Chittenden Historical Society (CHS), the town began to allocate municipal funds annually toward a long-term renovation of the building, and in 2020, the CHS blog described the project as “nearly finished, lacking only some trim paint around the windows, a proper front entrance porch, and parking lot lighting.”
Chittenden has since made progress on these matters. The 2021 Town Report noted that volunteers had repainted the grange hall, and this summer saw the delivery of new lampposts for the parking lot after the Select Board accepted a bid from CDP Electric for $5,690. The board subsequently allocated $1,300 to replace the exterior lighting on the building itself.
Constructed as a church in 1833, the grange hall once served as the de facto town hall for the village of North Chittenden, before modern roads connected the upper and lower halves of the town. It now hosts various community events.
