Flood resiliency takes center stage at legislative forum in Weston Area residents anxious for solutions to persistent flooding

By Cynthia Prairie
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

WESTON

Flood resiliency and mitigation was the major topic addressed during a gathering on Saturday of about 30 residents of Weston and surrounding towns for a discussion with state Rep. Kelly Pajala, and state Sens. Alison Clarkson, Dick McCormack and Becca White.

McCormack, Clarkson and White represent Windsor County in the state Senate.

The event, held at Walker Farm Theater in Weston, was coordinated by the Weston organization New Thought Vermont and moderated by Geof Brown.

Right off the bat, Pajala, who represents Weston, Andover, Londonderry and Winhall in the State House, said, “Flood resiliency is .. at the top of everyone’s mind”  in her entire district. Weston and Londonderry, both with homes and businesses sitting along the West River, were hit exceptionally hard by the July floods. Pajala and several others in attendance had to evacuate from their homes as the river rose surprisingly high.

But Pajala said that conversations are now underway to help the communities with resiliency and mitigation work.

“Looking at the West River from the headwaters to Ball Mountain Dam, including Jamaica. Anything as far as mitigation needs to happen as a region,” Pajala said, since “whatever one does is going to affect those downstream.”

Anything as far as mitigation needs to happen as a region.
… whatever one does is going to affect those downstream.

State Rep. Kelly Pajala

Pajala, who sits on the House Committee on Human Services, added that child care will be an important topic in Montpelier in this coming session.

White, of White River Junction, said access to housing has been “the No. 1 issue that we have heard about … on a regional level (is) access to housing, affordability of housing and now, post flood, where is the best place to put that housing if it needs to be moved.” She said Senate Bill 100 invested lots of money in housing “and we are starting to see that take hold.”

Vermonters, she added, have made it “very clear” that child care was so expensive that it was “either keeping them out of the workforce or unable to provide child care for their children.” Among other topics addressed were housing and short-term rentals and the need for more immigration.

“But No. 1 for this team” in the upcoming session, said White, co-chair of the legislative Climate Solutions Caucus, is climate resiliency, including filling in the gaps where the federal government was unable to help. “We need to make sure Vermont has a stop gap” that would include a “climate resiliency fund.”

Clarkson of Woodstock, Senate majority leader, said “As we look at flood resiliency we are still going to continue to work to reduce our fossil fuel consumption … and our contribution to climate change.” “It’s going to be gobsmackingly expensive for us to help finance the effects of climate change into the future.” She added that they will ask for long-term plans from “our state partners” to working with the federal government to plan for mitigation 23 years in the future. “The West River is just one of hundreds of rivers in the state that need a plan.”

It’s going to be gobsmackingly expensive for us to help
finance the effects of climate change into the future.

State Sen. Alison Clarkson

As for the severely damaged Weston Playhouse, “who wants to invest another $2 million rebuilding that gorgeous building … if there isn’t a parallel plan for how to mitigate the effects of flooding at the West River?”

McCormack of Bethel, said “flood recovery, of course, is a priority and long-term planning for flooding. Every year we watch the state of Minnesota flood the state of Louisiana because they turned the Mississippi River into something like a canal.” He added that while riprapping, dredging, removing debris and other mitigations efforts can work, “the water doesn’t go away and the energy (of the river) doesn’t go away. What you do with these mitigation efforts is move the problem down stream. ”

“I actually worked to get Bethel Village re-riprapped.  … But Bethel Village should never have been built where it was built in the first place.” It’s that kind of dilemma is what we have to deal with. Where do you stabilize the stream banks, where do you let the river go out into the fields … instead of just rush downstream and wipe out parts of the village or people’s houses?”

Where do you stabilize the stream banks, where do you let
the river go out into the fields … instead of just rush downstream
and wipe out parts of the village or people’s houses?

Sen. Dick McCormack

Referencing the flood-damaged Weston Market across from the Walker Farm Theater, John Bigelow of Landgrove asked, “Can we make it a law to not offer future aid to rebuild properties in a flood plain? Water always wins.”

McCormack said that state law already bans building in flood plains, although “it probably needs to punched up. … There is a lot in Vermont that shouldn’t have been built in the first place.”

And Clarkson suggested that the Weston Market should be moved. “Clearly Weston needs a gas station and a convenience store. But I don’t think it should be rebuilt in the same spot. The river has spoken … the spot is unsustainable.”

Pajala said, “FEMA has standards that are flood corridor and floodway regulations that if adopted by a town in their zoning bylaws does significantly limit in some areas and prohibit in others any new development … Having those regulations in your zoning bylaws impacts what a municipality gets as a match from FEMA when you are doing mitigation work.”

One resident said that many in Weston are concerned about what will happen to the river, the dam and the bridge at Lawrence Hill Road that was severely damaged in July.

Pajala said Windham Regional Commission and Weston and Londonderry town governments and organizations are talking about a regional approach to the problem. Creating the plans, she indicated, will take years.

Deb Granquist of Weston said, “We are a little town and we have a lot of issues. We need a new fire department, we need a marketplace, we need a gas station, our day care was decimated, our playhouse was decimated and a lot of houses were decimated, so for us to have to wait three, four or five years to figure out what is the best flood resiliency program is, well, we’re screwed … we need to act ASAP to get these things done. … Not having guidance for five years doesn’t really help.”

We need a new fire department, we need a marketplace,
we need a gas station, our day care was decimated, our
playhouse was decimated and a lot of houses were decimated
… Not having guidance for five years doesn’t really help.

Deb Granquist of Weston

White cautioned that the community is more likely to get hit again hard with flooding if it rushes into the big decisions to rebuild where it was flooded.

And Pajala emphasized that studies are extremely important before undertaking the mitigation efforts. “For every change we want to make, you have to study it in various ways,” then work with all levels of government — town, region, state and federal.