[B]ENNINGTON — News coverage in 2016 was dominated for long stretches by the discovery of PFOA contamination in wells in Bennington and Pownal, and by efforts to merge local school districts under provisions of Vermont’s Act 46, which encourages district consolidations.
Proposed new State Board of Education rules for private schools accepting public school tuition, downtown and regionwide development plans; alternative energy projects, legislative elections and untimely deaths also generated considerable coverage.
Contaminated water
Extensive testing of private and public well water sources began in the county early in 2016, after similar PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) contamination was found in Hoosick Falls, N.Y. As in nearby New York communities, factory sites there considered the likely source of the chemical — a manmade substance widely used for many years in creating Teflon and other consumer products, which later was discovered in water supplies near similar sites in a number of states.
Suspected sources in Southwestern Vermont include a former Chemfab mill in North Bennington and a former Warren Wire/General Cable factory in Pownal. Both sites are now owned by successor companies.
As in the nearby New York towns, the discovery prompted a flurry of well water testing and blood testing for residents believed to have been exposed to elevated or high levels of PFOA. Short-term filtering of water supplies and long-term efforts to extend municipal water lines to affected properties have been ongoing for most of the year.
Thus far, water lines have been extended to 10 Bennington properties, with a much larger line extension project in the design phase, and more than 500 wells have been tested and about 250 individual well filtration systems installed.
In North Bennington and Bennington, the current factory property owner, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, hasn’t accepted responsibility for the contamination but has provided funding for water filtering units, bottled water and other costs and is in talks with the state Department of Environmental Conservation over future expenses. The planned larger water line project is estimated by the state to cost approximately $30 million.
In addition, a group of property owners in the affected areas is suing the company in U.S. District Court over alleged damage to their properties because of the contamination, and other suits are expected in state courts over alleged health effects stemming from exposure to PFOA.
In Pownal, an underwriter has paid for a temporary filtering plant at the Pownal Fire District No. 2 well site. The district has about 450 customers and water is supplied by a well drilled in the 1990s just east of the parking lot of the former wire factory on Route 346. A search is on to find a replacement well in another location.
Tests also are being conducted of water in private wells in sections of Pownal and North Pownal. The state has had talks over the long-term costs with the firm, American Premier Underwriters, of Cincinnati, which has taken on the liability for the property. The company has agreed to cover certain expenses in the ongoing process, state officials said, but has not accepted liability for the contamination.
Merging school districts
Committees studying whether and how local school districts might consolidate under Act 46 guidelines formed in both the Northshire and Southshire areas of Bennington County, but only the Manchester region effort has made progress.
A 17-person committee with representatives from nine towns worked throughout 2016 on an agreement to form a single district with a single school board.
That plan, to create what would be called the Taconic and Green School District, was approved by the group in November and approved by the State Board of Education in late December. It will now go before individual annual town meetings in the spring with the goal of approving the new district and it newly elected school board by July 1.
The towns are Manchester, Dorset, Londonderry, Danby, Sunderland, Mt. Tabor, Landgrove, Peru and Weston.
In the Bennington area, Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union towns formed an Act 46 study group but it disbanded in late summer without reaching a consensus on how to merge local districts, including Bennington, Pownal, Shaftsbury, North Bennington and Woodford.
An informal exploratory committee later was formed to study possible consolidations but no agreement has yet been reached.
Private school rules
Rule changes governing private schools that receive public tuition funding set off a firestorm of protest and intense lobbying after they were proposed by the State Board of Education. Opponents in the Northshire area contended the changes would force private schools to operate more like public schools and take on added expenses, which could lead to the closure of some and loss of school choice.
BOE members, who were barraged by scores of opponents speaking Dec. 12 against the proposal during a hearing in Manchester, contend the rule changes would not force onerous changes on private schools but would provide greater accountability for the expenditure of public funds for private school tuition.
Talks are ongoing to revise the language in the proposed rules to make them acceptable to both sides before the next stages in the rule adoption process, expected to play out during 2017.
Downtown turnaround?
The historic Putnam Hotel and surrounding buildings at the Four Corners intersection at the heart of downtown Bennington became a major economic development focus during 2016, after an ambitious redevelopment project was announced. It is estimated to cost up to $50 million in private and public funding and would renovate space in six buildings, totaling about 200,000 square feet, and include four acres near the buildings.
A local group called the Bennington Redevelopment Group, which includes representatives from local businesses, colleges, the hospital and local residents, is expected to decide by early 2017 whether to move ahead with a purchase of the parcels and buildings.
In Manchester in September, about 60 leaders from the public and private sectors throughout region met to address the issues of economic development, tourism and marketing, and collaboration and coalition building across community lines. The event was organized by the Shires of Vermont Regional Marketing Organization and the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce.
A follow-up summit was held in late November, and the entities involved are working to create a regional marketing and development strategy in 2017.
Alternate energy
Energy projects underway or completed during 2016 included the 15-turbine Deerfield Wind project on U.S. Forest Service land in Searsburg and Readsboro, which went to a groundbreaking in September after more than a decade in the planning and permitting stages. The project remained controversial throughout, and the groundbreaking and Gov. Peter Shumlin were protested and picketed as the ceremonial shovels went into the ground at a site off Putnam Road.
The wind towers are being erected in two sections on either side of Route 8. The eastern section is near an existing smaller wind project, completed in 1998.
Pownal saw one 2.2-megawatt solar array nearing completion in December off Northwest Hill Road and a .5-megawatt array expected to be completed off Dean Road early in 2017. Another .5-megawatt solar project is under consideration near the town wastewater treatment plant, also off Dean Road.
And what will be the county’s largest hydropower facility is under construction in North Pownal at a former factory dam and hydro site on the Hoosic River. Developer Bill Scully, of North Bennington, expects the revitalized power plant, capable of generating 500 kilowatts of electricity at capacity, to be brought online in the spring.
Elections
In electoral news, the county saw two new state representatives elected in November: Linda Joy Sullivan, D-Dorset, and Brian Keefe, R-Manchester.
Sullivan is replacing Rep. Patti Komline, R-Dorset, who did not seek re-election, and Keefe and Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, were elected in a three-candidate race for two seats in the Bennington-4 District, in which incumbent Rep. Steve Berry, D-Manchester, was defeated for another term.
Untimely deaths
On a sad note, the body of Bennington College student Hadil Marzouq, 21, was found by searchers in the Dorset quarry on Dec. 21, after she was reported missing three days earlier. The woman, a native of Palestine, had drowned, authorities said.
In November in Shaftsbury, State Police reported two men were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Police said Trevor Gardner of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., had driven to the residence of Olanda Fitz, of Shaftsbury Hollow Road, and shot him in the chest, before shooting himself following a dispute.
In criminal justice news, two Vermont men pleaded guilty in November in a New Hampshire court to dispensing heroin to a Manchester man who had overdosed and died. Daniel Fogg, 27, of West Townsend, received a sentence of six and a half to 14 years in prison, though a year of the minimum was suspended. Francis Mayhle III, 25, of Peru, was sentenced to serve 12 months.
The heroin was dispensed in November 2015 to Dakota “Cole” Kilburn, who later died. The sale occurred in New Hampshire.
