Thetford Town Newsletter
No. 35 January
2007
TOWN CLERK NOTES
1) Petitions for articles to be included on the
Town Meeting Warning are due to the Town Clerk by January 22, 2007. The petition requires signatures of 5% of the
checklist (approximately 110).
2) The following offices have terms that end on
March 6, 2007. This means anyone who
wishes to have their name on the ballot as a candidate for a position must:
Complete a nominating
petition (available at the Town Clerk’s office)
Get the necessary signatures
on the petition (approx. 25)
Return the petition to the
Town Clerk’s office by January 29, 5pm and complete the consent for nomination.
For information on the
various offices, please contact a Selectboard member or the Town Clerk at
785-2922.
OFFICE |
TERM |
Town Moderator |
1 year |
Town Clerk |
3 year |
Town Treasurer |
1 year |
Collector of Delinquent Taxes |
1 year |
Selectboard |
3 year |
Selectboard |
2 year |
Grand Juror |
1 year |
Agent to Prosecute/Defend Suits
|
1 year |
Agent to Convey Real
Property |
1 year |
Lister |
3 year |
Budget Committee |
3 year |
Budget Committee |
2 year |
Trustee of Trust Funds |
3 year |
Cemetery Commissioner |
3 year |
Latham Library Trustee (2
vacancies) |
4 year |
|
3 year |
School Moderator |
1 year |
School Director |
3 year |
School Director |
2 year |
School Director (2 yr term to complete 3
year term) |
2 year |
LATHAM LIBRARY JANUARY EVENTS
The Latham Trustee's Community Corner's intent is to promote a sense of
community through offering informal gatherings of town residents, town
issues and town government.
BRING A FRIEND AND JOIN IN THE COMMUNITY CORNER!
THURSDAY
January 11th at 7pm
Please join us for
an informal dialog with Police Chief Jim Lanctot. Topics will
include, but are not limited to: Thetford police department's
goals and concerns,
Bring your family, friends
and questions and get to know our Police chief.
THURSDAY January 25th @ 7pm
New Comer to
Thetford, Ray Chin, well known child psychologist in the
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SUNDAY AT THE MOVIES!
JANUARY 21st from 2pm -
4pm (the first in our movie series)
Join us for the biographical movie of Edward R Morrow "Good
Night and Good Luck".
Popcorn (of course) and
discussion to follow.
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On Sunday January 14th from 2pm – 4pm, everyone is invited to
attend a tea in celebration of the 35th year of the
Terry Osborne will read
from his new collection of Noel Perrin's essays.
A brief history of the Library Federation and the Thetford Historical society
will be given by Charles Latham.
Beautiful music by harpist Margaret Stephens
Refreshments by Latham
Trustees
Submitted by Gina Sonne
LATHAM LIBRARY BOOK SERIES
Looking for a good winter
read? This January and February, Latham Library will be hosting a Vermont
Humanities Council book discussion of Jane Austen's most beloved books.
There are multiple copies of Jane Austen's books available for check-out
at the library, courtesy of the Vermont Humanities Council. So come pick
up a book...and enjoy a good read!
The discussions are as follows. All occur on Monday nights, 7 pm.
Jan 8th, discussion leader Jean Gerber will explore Sense and Sensibility.
Jan 22, discussion leader Patricia Norton will analyze Pride and Prejudice.
Feb. 5, local scholar Jean Gerber will lead us through Emma.
Feb. 26, local scholar, Patricia Norton will conclude our series with Persuasion.
For more information, please contact Librarian Peter Blodgett at
785-4361.
THETFORD ENERGY COMMITTEE
SERIES
Warmth in the Winter: An Energy Education Series organized by the Thetford
Energy Committee.
* The first will be a showing of "An Inconvenient Truth," a
documentary featuring Al Gore about global warming and climate change, Sunday
Jan. 14.
* The second will be a showing of "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and
The Collapse of The American Dream," Sunday Jan. 21. This riveting
documentary asks "What does a peak in oil production mean for
* The third will be a first hand look at the consequences of town planning and
transportation choices on energy consumption, traffic and emissions. Thetford
resident and transportation expert Norm Marshall will lead us in playing a new
transportation game on Sunday Feb. 11.
All events will begin at 7PM at the First Congregational Church of Thetford on
Thetford Hill. Refreshments will be served. Following each event, there
will be a facilitated discussion of opportunities for change. All meetings are
free and open to the public - donations accepted.
For more information contact
Scott Zens, 802-785-4012, Michael.S.Zens@Dartmouth.EDU.
Submitted by Bob Walker
TA NOTES
*The Primary Partners Exhibit
is now on display at Latham Library. The works, a collaborative effort by
*The annual TA Winter Choral
Concert will be held on Saturday, January 6 at 7:00pm. The musical
offering will be presented at the First Congregational Church in Thetford.
*"Talk with TA,"
held in conjunction with the Trustees' Quarterly Meeting, will be held at
6:00pm in the library at TA. All are invited to attend this question and
information session.
*The Thetford Academy Drama
Department will present a series of 10-minute plays at 7:00pm on Thursday,
January 11. Additional performances of a different series of plays will be
offered at 7:00pm on Friday, January 12, and Saturday, January 13. All
shows will be in the Shark Tank Theater at the Academy. Seating is
limited, and reservations are recommended. Tickets, priced at $5.00 each,
may be reserved by calling 802-785-4805 x243.
*An art show of student work
will be hung in the Latham Library Gallery. The show is scheduled to open
January 19.
*Watch your mailbox for the
winter 2006-2007 issue of the "TA Times," coming soon. We look
forward to sharing more happenings and information with Thetford.
Submitted by Wendy Cole
SCHOOL BOARD NOTES
The Thetford School Board and
Strategic Plan Committee are seeking public input and review of the proposed
5-year Thetford School District Strategic Plan as the plan approaches adoption
in February 2007.
The plan is available online
by first selecting the “Strategic Plan” link on the
The Board and Committee have
encouraged comments and questions from the public. Communication may be submitted to the Board
by sending correspondence to the individuals listed below. In addition, the public is once again
encouraged to participate in Strategic Plan discussions by attending School
Board Meetings in the month of January (Tuesday 1/9, Tuesday 1/23). Comments concerning the Strategic Plan will
be accepted until the School Board meeting on Tuesday, January 23rd with
adoption of the plan scheduled for the February 13th Board meeting.
The Strategic Plan Committee
spent approximately 5 months working to develop a strategic plan using a vast
amount of community input and a wide array of relevant data to best represent
members of the community and priorities for the school district. The Strategic Plan has appeared on the
agenda, and has been an item for discussion, at every School Board Meeting
since a draft from the committee was submitted on June 27th 2006.
Members of the School Board
and the Strategic Planning Committee are always willing to offer more
information on this topic – their names are listed below, as well as the
upcoming meeting schedule.
Comments regarding the
Strategic Plan may be sent to:
Andy Boyce
Thetford School Board
andy_boyce@yahoo.com, (PO Box
57 Post Mills, VT 05058)
- and -
Darrin Clement
Strategic Plan Committee
dclement@maponics.com (
___________________
Thetford School Board: Robin
Brown, Kristen Downey, Jennifer Reining, Susan Weider, and Andy Boyce.
Strategic Planning Committee:
Darrin Clement, Alice Worth, Keith Thompson, Wanda Vaughan, Paul Twerdowsky,
Ann Swanson, Bethany Thompson, Lelia Mellen, Kathleen Cunneen
Submitted by Andy Boyce
CARING COMMUNITY PRESCHOOL
Caring Community Preschool in Post Mills, VT has openings for the 2006-2007
school year.
If interested, please call
Dawn Stever at 333-4819.
Submitted by Ann O'Hearn
TA HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
PRESENTATION COMMENTARY
On Monday, December 11,
fourteen
For photos of these Human Geography presentations at, please see:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DCelone/TAHumanGeography121106
Here's some information on what you may have seen (or missed if you
weren't there):
This was an excellent example of high quality original research, writing, and
presentation skills by TA students. I learned a fair bit about our
local community and the region, to say nothing of technology that's available
for internet access or the importance of focusing on wetlands in our
ecosystem when it comes to land conservation generally.
The topics and student presenters were;
1. Changes to the Thetford Academy
Campus: 1819 to Present by Jordan Bach-Lombardo and Matt Longwell (hot
topic with TA's new building expansion plans in play)
2. The Importance of Wetland
Preservation in Thetford by Emily Jabareen and Will Meglathery
(another hot topic resulting from the building boom in the region and in the
Town coupled with the importance of preserving the rural nature of the
community. (Very powerful presentation too.)
3. The Historical impact of Structural
Fires in
4. The Effect of Thetford's
Physical Geography on the Production of Maple Syrup by Tyler Mousley
and Sam Neirman (Great maps, facts, and statistics.)
5. Current Limitations of High
Speed Internet Access in Vermont by Ian Cleaves and Ian McDaniels
(Very powerful presentation and lots of community interest in this one.)
6. Where's the Water on Thetford
Hill? by Charley Ferguson and Leon Odell (Great maps created by the
students which the Town will use in the future and extremely strong
presentation skills.)
7. What is the Significance of
Community Nature Trails? by Carry Osborn and Matt Postler (Strong
presentation accompanied by a take away booklet that was informative and well
researched.)
Steve Niederhauser's Human Geography class is a senior elective at
Submitted by Dave Celone
CONSERVATION COMMISSION NOTES
Wildlife food shrubs
This is in response to a recent question regarding use of native shrubs to
replace invasive, non-native, bush honeysuckle. Many people think of
honeysuckle as beneficial because its huge crop of berries attracts birds.
Unfortunately the berry crop contains an even bigger number of seeds that are
spread by birds, leading to honeysuckle springing up everywhere in open spaces
where it out competes native plants and interferes with forest regeneration.
The Autumn and Russian olives are another group of plants that were once
recommended for wildlife but share the invasive nature of honeysuckle.
There are many choices among native plants that can be used instead. A great
reference is the book "American Wildlife and Plants: A Guide to Wildlife
Food Habits" first published in 1951. This is a compendium of plants that
are eaten by different wildlife species, including the approximate percent of an
animal's diet accounted for by a particular type of plant. The data are taken
from many years of painstaking analyses of stomach contents and animal scat,
and the results are tabulated by region.
Among shrubby native plants in the northeastern US the blackberry family (genus
Rubus) was the top plant type for providing wildlife food. However, a tangle of
thorny blackberry canes may not be everyone's idea of an ornamental. The wild
cherry family (genus Prunus) was a close second to blackberry. This genus
includes trees and also shrubs (pin cherries and choke cherries, not to be
confused with choke berries of the genus Aronia). Almost as popular was the
dogwood family (genus Cornus) that contains some of the best shrubs for
satisfying both ornamental and wildlife uses. Going down the list, grapes
ranked forth (though they are not shrubs) and blueberries were in fifth place.
All the above plants ranked very highly both for amounts consumed and for
number of species that eat them mostly songbirds but also a surprising number
of furbearers and game animals. Taking up the rear of this most-consumed group
was the sumac, which apparently is not a favorite food but provides important
winter nourishment because the fuzzy heads of berries persist after other foods
are gone. I was surprised that serviceberry (genus Amelanchier) and elderberry
(Sambucus) were further down the list for the Northeast, almost on a par with
alder. Hazlenut was also less prominent, apparently the nuts are thick shelled
enough to be edible only to rodents, although their twigs and catkins provide
forage for deer and gamebirds. Also ranking in this second tier were the
viburnums (including blackhaw, nannyberry, highbush cranberry) that are often
praised in catalogs for both their ornamental and wildlife value. However,
viburnum bushes have utility because, unlike many of the more highly ranked
plants, they will tolerate shade and moisture. Other bushes, the choke berry
(Aronia) and buttonbush that grow in wetlands, were consumed by a narrow spectrum
of wildlife, the nutlets of buttonbush in limited amounts by waterfowl.
Of course, the fruits are not the only parts of these plants that are eaten.
Many of these bushes are seen as forage by deer that eat terminal buds of a
variety of woody plants. Protection of the young plants from browsing will help
them grow into mature, fruiting shrubs that will beautify the landscape while
providing food and cover for birds and other wildlife. For more information,
the booklet "Backyard Wildlife Habitat In Vermont" is a 48-page guide
on attracting wildlife. It is obtained by sending $3.00 to the Nongame Wildlife
Fund, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, 103 So.
Submitted by Li Shen
Thetford Conservation Commission
CONSERVATION COMMISSION NOTES
Septic System Sense: when in doubt, pump it
out
Readers may wonder why the Conservation Commission would be concerned at all
about septic systems. After all, these are nasty places full of unmentionable stuff
that no-one wants to think about, let alone write about. However, as a
result of our water testing of the Ompompanoosuc east branch, we feel a little
septic awareness may be appropriate. The water tests showed high amounts
of E. coli bacteria in the river in
In towns like Thetford without central sewers, wastes empty into septic tanks.
Within a typical tank the contents separate into three layers. Substances
lighter than water float to the top, forming the 'scum layer.' Substances
heavier than water sink to the bottom and become 'sludge.' The two layers are
separated by a watery layer laden with dissolved waste substances, such as
phosphates and nitrogen-rich urea. Bacteria ferment wastes in the tank,
releasing gases that are discharged through the vent pipe that protrudes
through the roof. When wastewater from the house enters the tank it
displaces the water already there, causing it to flow to the leach field
through an outlet baffle that filters the effluent. In the leach field a system
of perforated pipes in a gravel bed spreads the wastewater out so it sinks into
the ground over a large area. Waste substances bind to soil particles and
are broken down by soil bacteria with release of nutrients that are absorbed by
plant roots hence the grass is often greener over a leach field.
The sludge layer in the tank accumulates faster than bacteria can break it
down, and if nothing is done it will reach the level of the outlet pipe. This
can clog the outlet baffle, resulting in untreated sewage backing up into the
house. A high sludge level also means that solids have less opportunity
to settle, allowing more solids to flow to the leach field. This may eventually
clog the filter bed. Many people do not realize that septic tanks should be
pumped clean, typically every THREE years. It is inadvisable to put solid kitchen
wastes down the drain, even with 'garbage grinder' sink attachments. Use of a
sink disposal can increase the amount of solids by as much as 50%. Along
the same lines, the toilet is not the place to dispose of diapers, cat litter,
feminine hygiene products, house paint, solvents, pesticides and other
hazardous substances. Many household chemicals can kill the bacteria that
ferment wastes in the tank and leach field. A heavy burden of oil and grease
can make the 'scum layer' thick. Animal fats in particular would become
floating solids at the temperature inside the average septic tank and may
eventually interfere with the outlet baffle.
Using commercial septic system additives does not eliminate the need to pump
out the tank, in fact some of these products are caustic and may kill tank
bacteria and be harmful to the leach field. In general it is not
necessary to enhance the bacterial fermentation taking place in the tank with
biological or chemical additives.
Each septic system is sized to accommodate a specific number of home occupants,
usually determined by number of bedrooms. If the number of occupants increases
post-installation, then the capacity may be too small and sludge will
accumulate rapidly, necessitating frequent pumping of the tank. It is also
possible to exceed the absorption rate of the leach field, for instance by
doing many consecutive loads of laundry, in which case water will seep to the
surface of the leach field. The life of a leach field can be prolonged by
reducing the amount of wastewater with low-flow showerheads and toilets.
Rain runoff from roofs and slopes etc. should be diverted away from the leach
field to reduce saturation of the ground since saturated soil cannot clean
wastewater, resulting in pollution of streams, lakes or groundwater.
Other causes of septic system failure include cracked tanks and pipes - do not
drive over a septic system. Pipes that are close to the surface may get
disconnected due to frost heaving. Since tree roots can grow into pipes,
only grass should be allowed on a leach field. When leach fields fail the
conventional remedy is to make a new leach field at a replacement site. This
can be quite expensive. I recently heard that it is now possible to construct a
new leach field in the same place as the old one, which can be cheaper by
several thousand dollars.
Management of a septic system is an easy, but often overlooked task. However
with a little attention our septic systems can last for decades and keep our
environment pollution free.
Submitted by Li Shen
Thetford Conservation Commission
RIVERFEST FUNDRAISER AT THE
GRANGE
NO STRINGS Marionettes -
"The Treasure Hunt"
Saturday, January 20, 2007 -
1pm at The Grange, Thetford Hill - Home of Parish Players - to benefit
Connecticut RiverFest
For more info: info@ctriverfest.org
802-333-3549 www.nostringsvt.com
Submitted by Bonna Wieler
4 WINTER WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
AND EVENTS AT
Hulbert Outdoor Center,
Fairlee VT
Saturday, January 6:
Winter Skills Day
Sunday, January 7:
Saturday, January 13: Vermont Ice Marathon
Sunday, January 14:
(More information on these
events listed below)
The Lake Morey Skating Trail
- longest groomed ice skating trail in the
OPEN IN JANUARY
****************************
WINTER SKILLS DAY
Pre-WinterFest skills workshops
Saturday, January 6, 2007
For more information and to pre-register contact
www.alohafoundation.org/hulbert or 802-333-3405
****************************
Sunday, January 7, 2007
10 AM - 4 PM
Contact: Deb Williams (deb_williams@alohafoundation.org), Bonna Wieler (info
@ctriverfest@org), Jamie Hess (Jamie@nordicskater.com)
Cost: $5. Families $15.
Sponsors: Connecticut RiverFest, Hulbert Outdoor Center, Montshire Skating
Club, Upper Valley Trails Alliance, The Nordic Skater, Eastern Mountain Sport
Celebrate, don¹t hibernate this winter! Get out with your friends and family
for this year¹s WinterFest at the
*************************************************
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Hulbert Outdoor Center,
**************************************************
4th ANNUAL LAKE MOREY SKATE-ATHON
Sunday, January 14, 2007 10AM - 3 PM
Hulbert Outdoor Center,
How far can you skate in a day? Come join us and discover your potential!
Site of the longest ice skating trail in the
Registration, awards and lunch at the
Donation $15 per person or $30 per family.
Proceeds benefit the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, Connecticut RiverFest,
Montshire Skating Club
Nordic skates available to try at the Hulbert Outdoor Center
Information: (802) 333-3549 or (802) 649-3939, info@ctriverfest.org,
http://www.nordicskating.org/skateathon
Directions: Interstate 91 to Exit 15 in Fairlee. Left under highway. Take first
right onto
Submitted by Bonna Wieler
The deadline for
submissions is the 20th of each month. Send news including contact name and
telephone number to Cathee Clement at 785-2668 or turtlepond@netzero.net.
Please list Thetford Town Newsletter in the subject line.