Tomasi Meadow, a wide field at the base of Mount Mansfield, is beloved by Underhill residents. It’s so popular that in October, the Mansfield Nordic Club, a ski group that voluntarily grooms the trails, asked: Why not make it better by adding lights that could extend the hours along the trail two evenings a week?
Not so fast. Dozens of people turned up at an October town meeting about the lights and even more spoke out on Underhill’s Front Porch Forum, according to messages forwarded to VTDigger. Commenters brought up issues of light pollution, potential energy costs — even though the lights were donated and ran off a generator — and whether the lights would attract more people, increasing upkeep.
Robin Farrell, a resident near Tomasi Meadow said she and her husband adamantly opposed the lights. “The lights are BLINDING,” Farrell wrote on Front Porch Forum. She called the impact “extreme and unnecessary.”
“We are against them for many reasons – wildlife, impact on our peace, the message to the people who don’t ski that the field belongs to others, light pollution,” she wrote.
After the backlash, the plan to light up the meadow was abruptly extinguished Wednesday. The issue highlights a fact of life in small Vermont towns: Change is not always met with open arms, especially when it comes to land use. In a state that prides itself on conservation, issues of development, like solar or housing, are often contentious.
Had the plan gone through, it would have brought 20 floodlights, donated by a ski club member, covering about a quarter of the public property owned by the Jericho Underhill Land Trust. The selectboard planned to offer a preview of the lights on Thursday evening for the town, and to take public comment a week later. There was no cost to the town, according to Bob Stone, chair of the Underhill Selectboard.
“Traditionally that field has been dark,” Stone said. “So this is a change. It’s never been done before. That’s really the heart of the matter.”
About 24 hours after VTDigger reached out to local leaders involved in the decision process, and after weeks of pushback in selectboard meetings and on message boards like Front Porch Forum, the Mansfield Nordic Club decided to step away from the night lights.
“We met a surprising amount of negative pushback and it does not seem that the community is open to a trial run of lighted community trails,” Jenn Carlson, president of the Mansfield Nordic Club, said in an email Wednesday morning.
The change happened so quickly that Stone said he was unaware of the group’s withdrawal.
“You’re telling me something for the first time,” Stone told a VTDigger reporter.
The day before, Adam Terko, executive director and head coach of the Mansfield Nordic Club, said the lights were exciting for their club.
“Daylight is sparse in Northern VT in the wintertime, and having lights at Tomasi Meadow would expand and extend recreation options while also increasing safety,” Terko said in an email. “I feel it is a relatively low-impact way to have a positive impact on the community.”
The club’s quick switch was in response to public opinion. The lighting itself was fairly straightforward: Light was an allowable use for the meadow, and no town permits were required because of the temporary nature of the lights, according to Anton Kelsey, chair of the town’s recreation committee who spoke during an October selectboard meeting. The lights would be on Tuesdays and Thursdays; they would be turned off by 7 p.m. They were also free, according to Stone.
“It’s zero cost to the taxpayer or the town,” said Stone, who added he was initially against the lights. But he wanted to stay open minded, so he opened up the proposal to public comment.
One resident brought up the potential concern of PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, in ski waxes, making their way into the local water supply. The potential pollutants brought into question whether the meadow be used for skiing at all, they asked. Another resident argued that darkness increased the solemnity of night skiing.
Kelsey said in an email that the reason the proposal was removed was that “the groups involved felt the negative energy and support around the project was not worth the benefits involved.”
“How we use common land is an important discussion,” Kelsey said. But in a draft message he prepared for Front Porch Forum, he asked his community members to stick to the facts. He added that ski wax used in Vermont should not contain fluorocarbons, a PFAS substance that was banned in the state in 2023.
For now, the field will continue to be used for skiing, sledding and other winter activities by the light of the sun and the moon. Or as Carlson said in an email: “Back to headlamps for everyone!”
