Dorr Drive saga continues
Site issues have continue to drive back the opening of Dorr Drive; the road remains closed north of the River Street intersection through the end of September. Crews began pouring concrete on the bridge deck on Aug. 20. More work must wait until all the concrete is poured and then the concrete must cure, a 10-day process. Sidewalk and rail work will re-commence after the cure period.
The entire community will breathe a collective sigh of relief when all the various tasks being undertaken are complete. River Street and Dorr Drive will be paved with curbing as appropriate. Sewer lines will be new. The Ripley Road Bridge will be able to accommodate larger vehicles and two-directional traffic.
Listening for leaks
Whew! Rutland City crews caught a water leak before it failed completely. This one was on a Church Street main, caught by consultant Austin Deaver of Matchpoint Inc, a North Carolina firm contracted to perform 50 days of leak-seeking across Vermont. The Church Street leak was the largest of five caught in a survey of areas with the highest typical pressures and highest incidence of water breaks. Matchpoint’s high-tech listening equipment helps find running leaks, which spill an estimated 69,000 of the 2.5 million gallons a day passing through the city’s water system. Rutland is hoping to get more time from the company. The city was allotted only 5 of the 30 days on the state contract, but 20 of the 50 contracted days remain unassigned.
TLC for an old-timer
The restored 1913 Rutland Railway coach car on the Vermont Farmers Food Center property at the intersection of West St. and Forest St. will receive a covering to protect it from the weather, courtesy of the Rutland City Board of Aldermen and the Zamias mall-impact fund. The coach was donated to the city by Green Mountain Railroad Corp. two years ago. The board voted unanimously to spend up to $33,000 to build the surrounding structure.
RRMC closes Occupational Office
Rutland Regional Medical Center closed its Occupational Office on Aug. 14. Its focus had been aiding workers injured on the job and/or in workers’ compensation-related treatment.
Family physician Bruce Bullock, M.D., is taking on most of the services formerly supplied by RRMC, while others are to be available through Rutland Area Visiting Nurses Association and the community health centers, as well as the hospital’s emergency department. RRMC will continue to offer physical therapy and treatment at the Vermont Orthopaedic Clinic. Bullock will offer his services in the building formerly used by the hospital’s Occupational Health department.
Leypoldt takes the reins at PEGTV
PEGTV Channel 15 program coordinator Tom Leypoldt is scheduled to step into the position of executive director on September 15. He has worked at the organization for 20 years.
Vermont Fair reports harassment
Members of the Rutland County Fair Association have been working hard to bring an enjoyable eight-day festival to the community. Recently one or more people have begun harassing RCAS board members and people in the fair offices with foul-language phone calls. Association president Roland McNeil said the calls seem to be coming from six different phone numbers in different cities. The Rutland City Police Department is investigating. Other phone calls have been trying to discourage carnival companies from working with the fair. In spite of these irritants, optimism remains high. Tickets are selling well for the Pink Floyd tribute band The Machine, on Sept. 11.
Rutland Town eyes improvements to historic town office building
West Rutland has had great success with its relatively new town hall refurbishing, but, to the east, Rutland Town is looking to create more space for town offices and bathrooms. The Select Board has mulled over the project while considering the possibility of financing it from an existing $50,000 account set aside for maintenance. Blueprints have been completed and the project stands at the awaiting-bid-release stage. NBF Architects’ John Berryhill worked with the former 1910 schoolhouse, whose classrooms had been converted to town offices in the late 1960s. His design expands the 117-square-foot police office to 300 square feet, including a 20-square-foot evidence area or “vault,” and increases the town administrator office from 182 square feet to 240, drawing from the division of one of the long-ago classrooms. Partitions will come out of the building’s two-stall restrooms, making each a single-occupant facility; they receive mosaic tile on floor and walls.
