BARRE TOWN — This year saw a new town manager with a familiar face take over, the addition and then subtraction of a new head of the ambulance service and the town is still dealing with flood damage from this past summer.
In January, the town announced Chris Violette would take over as town manager, replacing Carl Rogers after Rogers’ retirement.
Rogers had served the town since he was hired in late September 1991. He was recognized by the town for his 31 years of service at an event in April and the town dedicated a granite bench to him in front of the municipal building at a ceremony in October.
The resolution recognizing Rogers for his service stated he maintained “the utmost professional and ethical standards throughout his tenure as town manager and has served as an exemplary role model to all municipal employees, and throughout his successful leadership, has directly contributed to the retention of many long-term employees.”
Violette had been serving as the town’s planning and zoning administrator for 24 years, and on the fire department for 35 years, 18 of them as chief. The town has since promoted Andrew Lange to fire chief and hired Brandon Garbacik as planning and zoning administrator.
Also in January, the town announced it had hired Paul Ginther to take over the town’s ambulance service after Chris LaMonda resigned to refocus his career on education. Ginther, who retired from a fire and rescue department in Florida, was then hired as Killington’s fire chief in June. He had applied to both the Barre Town job and the Killington job at the same time, but didn’t get the Killington job initially and reapplied when it opened again and was hired.
While the town had hoped to hold onto Ginther for longer than few months because town officials said he was doing a good job, Violette said he understood better than most that those in fire service have a tremendous draw to stay in that field.
David Danforth now serves as interim director of the town’s ambulance service. The town also entered into a contract with Williamstown earlier this month, where the town would take over ambulance service there. It’s was a controversial decision, with those on Williamstown’s ambulance crew asking to keep the service going. But Williamstown officials reached out to Barre Town with the proposal because Williamstown’s ambulance service was dealing with chronic staffing issues.
In May, the town honored Jack Mitchell for his 50 years of service. Mitchell retired from the select board earlier this year and the town named this year’s spring bulk trash day “Jack Mitchell Day.” Mitchell had run the town’s bulk trash events for years.
He was shocked to learn at his recognition that he had been serving the town for over 50 years, starting when he was first elected as a justice of the peace in 1970.
The resolution honoring him noted Mitchell is “known by all to be of sound judgment, fine character, generous spirit and jovial temperament.”
Also in May, the town announced Dwight “Harry” Harrington was this year’s Wendell F. Pelkey Citizenship & Service Award winner. The award is named after a man who served for years on the select board and has been given out to a standout resident in town since 1991.
Harrington has served on the town’s cemetery commission since 2002. He also served for nearly 37 years in the military.
At his recognition, it was stated that Harrington excels as commission secretary and is known to produce detailed minutes of commission meetings. The resolution said he is “always going above and beyond what is expected of a commissioner. Including the extra effort of occasionally working with the cemetery crew doing regular maintenance and clearing of overgrowth at various cemeteries, making monuments that had been obscured visible again.”
The town fared better than its neighbors following flooding in July, but it did see some significant washouts and erosion. Much of the damage has since been fixed, but the town did have to replace a flooded police cruiser that was in downtown Barre when floodwaters hit and officials are working to fix an area of Camp Street before early April in order to secure full federal funding for the fix.
A section of Camp Street about 200 feet before Camire Hill Road has been closed for the winter as of last month because a 150-feet-long and 20-feet-high portion of embankment there has been sloughing downward. Officials have reported the ground there is still moving. Because that stretch of road now poses a safety hazard, officials decided to close the road last month rather than risk residents driving on it or the town plowing it.
Last week, the select board was told that the town needs to repair the road by April 4 in order to receive full federal funding for the fix. The town has 270 days from the event to repair the road so that it can receive emergency funding through the Federal Highway Administration.
If the town can’t meet the April 4 deadline, then the project will likely start from scratch with full federal regulations needing to be addressed. Town officials were told this route could see the project take a couple of years to complete and would cost the town about $42,000 in the form of grant matching funds that the town would not be on the hook for if the town can complete the fix by April 4.
eric.blaisdell
@timesargus.com
