2018 Update #59
More Drone Footage, Landscape Design Update, Peace
Several people let me know they enjoyed the drone footage of downtown that I shared just before Thanksgiving so I thought I would post a second video.
This one, also provided by VTrans Aviation, follows a freight train as it passes southbound through Middlebury and includes brief overhead views of the Launch Pit and Receiving Pit 3.
You can link to the YouTube video here. Like the previous video, this one was shot on Tuesday, November 7.
Your Weekly Construction Update
More early-season snow this week but work continued as Kubricky poured the concrete headwall at the outlet of the drainage system. In the photo below, the crew is insulating the just-poured concrete; it has to stay above 50 degrees for 7 days to cure.
Next week, ECI will install carrier pipes inside the steel casing that connects Receiving Pits 2 and 3 to the Launch Pit and then grout the space between the carrier pipes and steel casing.
Update on Landscape Design Concepts for Triangle Park and Printer’s Alley
On Thursday, Middlebury’s Planning Commission and Design Advisory Committee convened a special meeting at the Selectboard’s request to review and comment on the revised landscape design concepts for Triangle Park and Printer’s Alley.
VHB’s Director of Land Planning and Landscape Architecture, Mark Hamelin, presented the latest iterations of the landscape plans while members of the two boards asked questions about aspects of the design and suggested changes that they believe would benefit the town.
Those ideas that gained traction during the two-hour meeting, which was also attended by 20 members of the public, will be reflected in a revised concept to be presented along with the two current options at a third and final public meeting that will take place on Wednesday, December 5, at 7 PM in the Town Offices. That meeting will be jointly hosted by the Town of Middlebury and the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
You can view the two concepts that were presented Thursday and read through the designer’s narrative notes here.
VHB and VTrans will ask the Selectboard to endorse its final recommendation at the Selectboard’s Tuesday, December 11, meeting.
The Planning Commission is chaired by Barbara Saunders, the Design Advisory Committee by Natalie Peters. You can learn more about the Planning Commission here and the Design Advisory Committee here. Jen Murray, our Director of Planning & Zoning, is staff advisor to these two citizen advisory boards.
In related news, at its Tuesday meeting the Selectboard passed a motion declaring its intention to name the new Printer’s Alley green space Lazarus Park in honor of the Lazarus family, whose department store occupied the space between Main Street and Marble Works alongside the rail line for some 75 years.
Peace Be With You
The fifth and final panel in the Neighbors Together/Town Hall Theater public art project adorning the chain-link fence surrounding Triangle Park arrived on a cold day earlier this month. Featuring the dove of peace, this latest installment was designed by Nancy Malcolm and constructed with able assistance from Jane Schoenfeld, Linda Schiffer, Kathy Reynolds, and Linda Horn.
A Drowsy Chaperone
If you’re looking for a way to reduce the stress of the holiday season with a few laughs, you might want to catch The Drowsy Chaperone, the Fall production of the Middlebury Community Players. Billed as “the funniest musical you’ve never seen,” this send-up of 1920s movie musicals that won five Tony Awards on Broadway is playing the next two weekends at Town Hall Theater. More info here.
That’s all for today. See you downtown.
Please keep your comments and questions coming. Send me an email at jgish@townofmiddlebury.org and I’ll try to cover it in my next update.