Reservoir logging project goes ahead

The town-owned Weathersfield Reservoir is going to be logged. The long-awaited project was put out to bid last week, Springfield Town Manager Robert Forguites said Monday.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20111011/NEWS02/710119923

Weathersfield Reservoir logging project goes ahead

By Susan Smallheer - Published: October 11, 2011

Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The town-owned Weathersfield Reservoir is going to be logged.

The long-awaited project was put out to bid last week, Town Manager Robert Forguites said Monday.

Forguites said that about 500 trees on the property have been marked for logging by state forester Rick White.

Forguites said a minimum acceptable bid had been set at $10,000 by White. He said he didn’t know how much the timber might be worth, since the price fluctuates for saw logs.

“There are certain trees marked, I think there’s 500 trees. It’s not clear-cutting and the loggers can only cut the trees that are marked,” he said.

He said the entire 92 acres would not be logged, and that most of the cutting was being concentrated in a 20-acre area.

“Rick White put the whole thing together and sent it out for bids,” Forguites said.

He said no one knows for sure how long it has been since the land has been logged, but he said it was probably in the mid-1980s.

The logging project has been discussed for years, as a means of raising money to repair the reservoir’s dam.

Forguites said the logging project wouldn’t start until the ground was frozen, probably December or January.

Springfield town meeting voters in 2010 refused to approve a push by the Springfield Select Board to sell the dam and the acreage, which is in two lots.

Last month, the board approved a $23,000 contract to have a detailed study made of the dam to determine what needed to be done to make the dam safe.

State officials have been after the town for years to do something about the dam, which was last used for the town’s drinking water in the 1970s.

The dam was built in 1903 and at one time held 56 million gallons of water. In the 1980s, the town approved $100,000 toward its upkeep, but nothing was done at that time. The fund, minus taxes to the town of Weathersfield and other expenses, now stands at about $125,000.

The town manager said engineers with DuBois & King are now studying the dam, and he said it would be two to three months before their report is in hand.