http://rutlandherald.com/article/20131017/NEWS02/710179986
Published October 17, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Springfield seeks grant for sidewalk project By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The town has applied for a state transportation grant to rebuild the sidewalk along South Street leading to Springfield High School. The Select Board this week unanimously approved the application to the state’s Transportation Alternatives grant program, which targets safety improvements to encourage students walking to school. The cost of the new sidewalk would be more than $406,000. The maximum amount of the grant is $300,000 with the town paying $106,000, according to Town Manager Robert Forguites. The town also applied for a $30,000 planning grant for a new sidewalk in the vicinity of Elm Hill School. An improved sidewalk was one of the requirements of the Act 250 permit for the rebuilt elementary school. The planning grant would require a 50 percent match by the town. The grant application was completed with help from Jason Rasmussen, a senior planner with the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission, and Everett Hammond, a Springfield engineer. The South Street sidewalk would be widened and improved to include crosswalks and access points for the handicapped, Rasmussen said. The length of the new sidewalk would be 2,400 feet and it would include granite curbing, stretching from Union Street to the high school. The Elm Hill School sidewalk issue is more complicated, and it will investigate the best route for the improved sidewalk, as well as determined rights of way, Rasmussen said. The current sidewalk runs along Hoover Street and involves a tall stone retaining wall. Hammond said the town should expect a decision on the grant in January, and it would be another two months before it is awarded. Rasmussen said that construction of the new sidewalk would likely not take place until 2015. “Construction won’t happen next summer,” he said. He said the sidewalk, which is currently 4 feet wide, would be expanded to 5 feet. Selectman David Yesman praised the quality of the grant application, said it was “easily understood.”
Is there nothing that "Grantfield" can afford to do on its own??? Take the $20k that you wastefully give to Springfield on the Dole, let your townies pick up some Quikrete and framing from The Home Depot (or ACE if you insist on buying local and paying the insipid sales tax) and get out there a build a damn sidewalk. Quit with the grants already!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 6:38, are you suggesting that Springfield should have any stance towards grants that is different than Burlington?
ReplyDeleteBrilliant question Jean! Obviously you are yet another suckler who can't bring yourself to be weaned from a steady flow of state and federal funding. The all-knowing, all-being government is the only provider you've ever known. And you're inference that "Hey, everyone else is doing, so why shouldn't we" is the most pathetically weak justification of all for getting another financial fix to treat Springfield's sad addiction.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 12:45, I will not stoop to your level of insults other than to say that you obviously missed the point. You are seriously suggesting that Springfield take what in your little mind is the high road by letting each and every other community apply for grant money in a competitive process and make infrastructure improvements? Is that how you would run the town if it were (God forbid) in your power? Has it not occurred to you that the money is made available through taxes?
ReplyDeleteTell you what, Anonymous 12:45, between my B&M business and properties that I own in VT, I probably pay more to the state in taxes than you make in a year. So I am fine with some of that money coming BACK to Springfield instead of being used elsewhere.
Jean, have you not figured out that if communities took care of themselves, we wouldn't be sending buckets of money to the state and federal governments, which waste a ton figuring out how much to send back to us? Keep it local. Starve the beast that is state and federal government. Then you could actually keep the money you earn.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 6:34, If you figure out how to take back our state I am all ears. You do remember that Killington wanted to secede to NH, right? Did they have trouble taking care of themselves too? Or why did they belly up to the trough to claim the $250,000 they got for similar work in 2011.
ReplyDeletehttp://governor.vermont.gov/http%3A/%252Fgovernor.vermont.gov/node/add/press-releases-transpo
I have not seen much evidence for Montpelier wasting a ton figuring out how to send the money back. It's more like "what state agency can Vermont expand or create to put more people in civil service jobs and waste more time and money of hardworking citizens." We have so many worthless state agencies it is downright criminal. You know the Vermont State Employees' slogan? "We make Vermont work." They got THAT right; they make the rest of us work so they can take it easy while making it difficult if not impossible for the rest of us to accomplish anything.
For now I'll be pragmatic and say I want some of the cash I send to Montpelier to come back home instead of being wasted on some Shumlin boondoggle, pay for more office chairs for our overpaid state employees to pass wind into, or help out poor struggling Killington.
Anonymous, you think that Springfield has the money that Boston does?
ReplyDeleteTaxes are an investment, not a burden. Taxes pay for the quality of life in Springfield. Now, I can't speak for Boston, but I can speak for Arlington, Virginia, where I have relatives. The tax on their $790,000 home was $400.
It was so low because Arlington happens to have a huge capital base-- lots of people live there, they make lots of money, and a lot of businesses thrive because of it. Therefore, property taxes don't have to be high.
If we relied on ourselves to fund things, the first thing we would do is say goodbye to half the school budget. I'll bet when you attended grade school, you had about 28 kids in most of the classrooms you were in. How would you have liked to have 58 kids in them? Also say goodbye to Meals on Wheels, the Senior Center and Adult Daycare. And goodbye to the "free" services at the hospital emergency room, the Community College of Vermont and most of the River Valley Technical Center. And goodbye to almost all the road repairs. And that's just a start, but I think you get the idea.
Now, let's go ahead and make it on our own. Of course, we'll be making do with the income of a population which averaged $35,000 for the bottom 85% back in 2010, and a town grand list which is as laden with high-profit businesses as the Sahara is with pine trees, which leaves only--- you guessed it-- property taxes.
Government's role is to empower and protect people, which is why the Federal government taxes the people of Boston and gives some of it to Springfield. Without that re-distribution of income, Springfield would not only have people who exercise the freedom to think like peasants, it would be loaded with families who were forced to live like peasants.
what about the ones leading to elm hill school.first n second graders walking in the road because they are so bad,
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea. Why don't you take the time to read the article!
DeleteHey Anon take your discourteousness elsewhere. If the sidewalks to Elm Hill were part of the Act 250 process then we shouldn't be reading about how they are going to be more complicated to deal with, they should have been dealing with the issue as soon as renovations were being made to the school. It seems reasonable to want ensure the safety and well being of these younger students who are walking to school by providing them safe avenues to get there. And the primary question falls to why are these things not successfully maintained every year. The sidewalk to Riverside on the bridge is a twisted ankle waiting to happen. Again a $10 bag of quickrete can't remedy this? Or some left over tar from tarring Gulf & Grove St. could have put down a nice cover that might have lasted more than a month or actually been put to use on more of the sidewalk to the high school. That sidewalk didn't end up like that over night...it's been years in the making with no maintenance.
Deleteits a state bridge
DeleteDear Chuck,
ReplyDeleteI believe you have it backwards, those powers not granted by the people to the government are expressly retained by the people. Rights are NOT granted from the government to the people, it's the other way around. Of course if you follow the Obama crowd, then you just do as you're told because we know what's best for you. I prefer my government let the people take care of themselves. Those that can't will be taken care of, but not in the spectacular manner that puts we, the people who ARE burdend by taxes, into the poor house. Oh, and by the way, my last FREE service at the hostpital cost me about $4 grand. I pay my way, I just don't like paying for EVERYBODY elses too - get it????
Ditto to that! Especially paying for all the free loading. Well put!
DeleteIt would be helpful to start with the freeloading at the top, which would be much more effective. Exxon, for example, has paid no taxes...
DeleteNow, don't respond by lecturing me about the welfare queens in Cadillacs! Wall Street is responsible for $7.3 trillion of our $13.2 trillion debt. If there are 111 million households in America headed by those welfare queens in Cadillacs, they would be averaging almost $66,000 a year. But there aren't. There do happen to be, however, 111 million households in America. Imagine what an extra $65,765 would do for each of them, if only Exxon paid its taxes...
By the way, 8:37, the people authorized the government to do things like set aside money for Social Security and the bank bailouts. You can read up on the work of Congress over the last 200+ years to find out what's happened.
If the Elm Hill sidewalk is such an issue, let's force the School Board to use that "left over" bond money to push that project along, rather than trying to buy the house adjacent to Union Street....Let's be smart people!
ReplyDelete