The Greensboro Association will hold its Annual meeting in 2020 on August 6 at 4pm. More information will be available regarding the location and the program closer to the date.
The Greater Greensboro Watershed Committee and the Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District would like to invite interested Caspian Lake shoreland owners to participate in the Vermont Lake Wise Program this summer! The Lake Wise Program is a Vermont Agency of Natural Resources initiative that awards lake-friendly shoreland properties, both public and private. The program offers free technical assistance to lake shoreland owners who would like to learn more about how to make their property as lake-friendly as possible.
According to the Department of Environmental Conservation Lake Score Card for Caspian, spring total phosphorus and summer total phosphorus trends are “significantly increasing” and “highly significantly increasing” respectively. Phosphorus pollution can result in algal blooms that are harmful to animals and people, and can decrease the economic, ecological, and recreational value of the lake. Caught early, intervention may stop or slow down this trend.
Lake shoreland owners have an important role to play in reducing shoreland erosion, improving lakeshore habitat, and keeping Caspian Lake clean. If you choose to participate, Lake Wise evaluators will spend up to an hour and a half assessing each property and providing technical advice in four categories – shorefront, recreation area, driveway, and structures and septic. If the property passes in all four categories, it will receive the Lake Wise Award sign. If the property does not pass, a detailed evaluation is provided to the landowner with recommendations on how to become Lake Wise certified in the future. Lake Wise is a voluntary program, and the recommendations are suggested, not mandated. Common recommendations include rain gardens, water bars, establishing no-mow zones, planting lakeshore vegetation, and establishing pathways.
If you are interested in a free assessment this summer, please contact Emily Finnegan at the Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District – [email protected] or 802-624-7022. For more information about the Lake Wise program, please see the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation website – https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/lakeshores-lake-wise.
An example evaluation form is also available here – https://dec.vermont.gov/sites/dec/files/wsm/lakes/Lakewise/docs/lp_evaluationforms.pdf.
Finally, the DEC Lake Scorecards can be found here – https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/data-maps/scorecard.
Thank you for your very generous support of the Greensboro Association’s Community Relief Fund.
If you are considering making a donation, now would be a great time to do so. We are happy to announce that a very thoughtful summer resident, Rhodes Boester, has teamed up with a wonderfully generous anonymous donor to sponsor a matching program for the Community Relief Fund. Please support Rhodes’ effort, and the Greensboro Association Community Relief Fund, and have your gift doubled, through a very generous anonymous matching gift!
Hello,
My name is Rhodes Boester, and I am in eighth grade. I live in Rye, NY with my parents and two brothers. During my time at home during this pandemic, I began to think of ways to help people in the Greensboro Community impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic. I spent some time looking at organizations that help those hit hard during these times. One group and cause stood out to me: The Greensboro Association Community Relief Fund. I chose it for many reasons. First, I have spent a lot of time in Greensboro throughout my life, and know how special the community really is. Secondly, it is a small organization, and is likely to not have the resources to help people as large charitable organizations have. There are many small businesses and people who are struggling to make ends meet, and this group is helping them. Please consider a donation, however big or small, to this organization. There are two ways to donate: Either send a check to Greensboro Association, Community Relief Fund, PO Box 59, Greensboro VT. 05841, or visit their website (https://www.greensboroassociation.org/covid/). An anonymous donor will match all donations, up to a sum of $10,000. When donating, mention my name to have your donation matched.
Thank you,
Rhodes Boester
More information on the Relief fund and on Rhodes’ appeal is available in this May 2 letter to our membership from Vince Cubbage.
May 2, 2020
Greensboro Greetings!
Thank you for your very generous support of the Greensboro Association’s Community Relief Fund. Your GA Grants Committee has been working nonstop with community leaders to assess local needs and overall resource availability to determine where our assistance can be most impactful.
To date, five frontline local organizations have been awarded meaningful GA grants to help them address their critical needs:
Going forward, your Greensboro Association committees will continue to work closely with local officials and the Greensboro/Stannard Emergency Response Team to assess the evolving needs of the community and make further grants to these and other important local organizations as long as Community Relief Funds are available.
If you have donated to this effort, I sincerely thank you on behalf of the Greensboro Association and the many local organizations being assisted.
If you are considering making a donation, now would be a great time to do so. We are happy to announce that a very thoughtful summer resident, Rhodes Boester, has teamed up with a wonderfully generous anonymous donor to sponsor a matching program for the Community Relief Fund. Quite simply – any gift received between now and July 31st will be matched, up to a total sum of $10,000! Your $50 donation becomes $100, or $100 donation becomes $200, simply by referencing Rhodes Boester’s name or the matching program.
Please see Rhodes’ message on our website [here] and support his effort to raise funds for the Greensboro community through our Community Relief Fund if you are able.
We hope you are safe and well and look forward to seeing everyone in the coming months!
Sincerely,
Vince Cubbage
Please read this updated EXECUTIVE ORDER from Governor Phil Scott with important information for people traveling to Vermont from other states. It is important to note that anyone crossing the Vermont state line MUST quarantine for 14 days. As of APRIL 10, the Governor has extended STAY HOME/STAY SAFE order to May 15. The current status of Vermonts approach to Covid 19 is available from these Press Releases from the Governor.
April 12, 2020
On Sunday April 5, after a week of meetings, the Greensboro Association (GA) formed the Community Relief Fund and launched its campaign to raise funds to financially support local organizations on the front line of the Corona Virus battle. The GA chose to focus grants on organizations that address extraordinary medical, food and transportation needs due to the pandemic.
An ad hoc committee staffed by treasurer Rick Lovett, Fund for Greensboro chair Becky Arnold and grants chairman John Schweizer in consultation with Tim Nisbet, Mike Metcalf and other members of the Greensboro-Stannard Emergency Response Team, was directed to identify and vet front-line community organizations and speed funding to them.
The ad hoc group identified the five following organizations and delivered their first relief checks on April 11.
Each organization is experiencing a downturn in revenues and funding while experiencing an increase in a demand for their essential services. GA Relief funds will be used to purchase unbudgeted protective gear for their staff and clients plus necessary supplies and extra staffing to support their services.
Going forward, our ad hoc committee foresees the pandemic and its repercussions extending through the summer and fall. Therefore, continuing financial support from the GA and community members will be essential to continue the battle.
John Schweizer
Chair-GA Grants
April 3 Update
GREENSBORO/STANNARD EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM
April 3, 2020
Dear Neighbors,
We hope this note finds you safe and well.
Our Greensboro/Stannard Emergency Response Team has been meeting daily since Governor Scott’s Covid-19 Emergency Declaration on Friday, March 13, 2020. Together we are actively planning and implementing strategies that serve to protect and support our community.
In accordance with State of Vermont orders:
We ask that returning community members shelter in place for two weeks after arrival. The Greensboro Town Health Officers strongly suggests the use of face masks by everyone.
We will deliver supplies and groceries to you. Please telephone Smith Store at 533-2631 and/or Willey’s Store at 533-2621 to place your order. They will coordinate with a volunteer ‘runner’ who will leave your items on the front porches of your homes. All you need to do is to stay home and to give the store a shopping list. Or notify one of us to facilitate this important process on your behalf. Walgreens Pharmacies and Kinney Drugs are both offering free delivery as well.
After the first two weeks of your arrival or retreat, please continue to maintain a social distance and stand six feet apart, congregate virtually, and don’t risk illness to others. We stand together in our hearts.
Sincerely,
Greensboro/Stannard Emergency Response Team.
For further information:
On Friday, March 13, 2020, Vermont Governor Phil Scott filed a Covid-19 Emergency Declaration regarding the COVID 19 Corona virus in Vermont. The Greensboro Emergency Response Team has been meeting daily since then to actively plan and implement strategies that serve to protect and support our community during these extraordinary and, now, unbelievable times.
Effective March 25, 2020 at 5:00 p.m., Vermont Governor Phil Scott issued a “stay home, stay safe” order effective until April 15, 2020. The Governor’s order directs Vermonters to stay at home, leaving only for essential reasons, critical to health and safety. All businesses and not-for-profit entities not expressly exempted in the order must suspend all in-person business operations. Operations that can be conducted online or by phone, or sales that can be facilitated with curbside pickup or delivery only, can continue.
Please go to the town website for important information about the Greensboro Emergency Response Team and the efforts to protect and support our Greensboro family during this time. https://www.greensborovt.org/ Please share this information widely.
In addition, the Greensboro Emergency Response Team is asking current residents of Greensboro (both seasonal and full-time) to complete this Emergency Response Team survey to support efforts to organize our community in response to the novel Coronavirus. Your response and contact information is critical to efforts to develop effective local, community-wide communications systems and preventative responses. Please share widely.
If you know someone who is unable to access the internet, please fill this form out on their behalf. (Hard copies are also available at Willey’s, Smith’s, or by request).
To complete this form, click: https://forms.gle/qqpwC5e2ZE7YoLmb9
If you know someone who would like to be added to our email list for further updates, please use this link. Join our mailing list
For further information:
https://www.healthvermont.gov/
http://nekcollaborative.org/covid19/
https://sites.google.com/view/nekmutualaid/home?authuser=0
https://www.greensboroassociation.org/
In celebration of Earth Day 2020, and to promote shoreland practices that protect our lakes, the New England Chapter of the North American Lake Management Society (NEC NALMS) is hosting a webinar on Best Management Practices (BMPs) for lake-friendly development. This webinar will cover Shoreland Best Management Practices; Ecological Designs for Lake Wise Living; and Bioengineering Installations to restore living shorelands and create a new trend towards lake- friendly practices. For information and to register please go to the NALMS website at https://www.nalms.org/…/webinar-restoring-living-shorelands/
During this time of Social Isolation, after you have taken your solo outdoor walk, your closets and drawers are neat and clean, and you’ve finished every jigsaw puzzle in your home, you might enjoy this web site: www.greensborohistoricalsociety.org. If you missed the program by Linda Radtke on March 1st at Fellowship Hall, “From the Parlor to the Polling Place —Stories from the Suffragists”, you will find it here. (Did you know that 60 Greensboro women signed up to vote at their first opportunity, in the 1920 Presidential Election?)
The video of the Greensboro Town Meeting on March 3rd is there, as are two recent summer programs by Bobby Farlace-Rubio of the Fairbanks Museum: “The First Vermonters: Indigenous Peoples“ and “Abenaki Nations Past, Present and Future.” Did you miss hearing Janet Long, Tim Nisbet, Anne Hanson, and Jacquie Molleur speak about “The History of Greensboro Garages” or the entertaining talk by Steve Perkins, Director of the Vt. Historical Society, “Treasures from the VHS attic? Check them out…
Kyle Gray’s chat with our oldest citizen, 103-year-old Jane Sprenger, is a delight, as are audio tapes with past citizens including Philip Gray with Esther Kesselman, Laurette and Ida Perron, and Donald Drown (under “Research Aids”)
The GHS is indebted to Kyle both for recording these videos and for making our web site a fun place to visit. We hope you will enjoy it!
The Greensboro Emergency Response Team has been meeting daily since Governor Scott’s Covid-19 Emergency Declaration on Friday, March 13, 2020. As part of their effort, they are asking CURRENT RESIDENTS OF GREENSBORO (both seasonal and full-time) to complete this Emergency Response Team survey to support efforts to organize our community in response to the novel Coronavirus. Your response and contact information is critical to efforts to develop effective local, community-wide communications systems and preventative responses. Please share widely.
If you know someone who is unable to access the internet, please fill this form out on their behalf. (Hard copies are also available at Willey’s, Smith’s, or by request).
To complete this form, click: https://forms.gle/qqpwC5e2ZE7YoLmb9
For more information about the Greensboro Response to the novel Coronavirus, please visit the Town Website at https://www.greensborovt.org/
The Willey’s Store is accepting phone in orders for pickup at the store. Please consider avoiding the store in person and taking advantage of this feature. It is in everyone’s interest to protect Willey’s and its staff from any infection due to its central and critical role in the Town.
A delivery service run by town volunteers is in place for those who cannot get to Willey’s to pick up their orders.
The Aging in Place gathering to be held on March 19, 2020 is being canceled.
It is very important that measures be taken to mitigate the spread of Covid19. Once we as a community have reached the other side of this challenging virus, a new date will be set. In the mean time, learn all you can about this virus. Your knowledge will help to protect yourself, your family and your community.
Be safe,
Bobbie Nisbet for the Aging in Place Committee
By John C. Stone III
Connected Greensboro & Community Broadband Survey
The “Connected Greensboro” task force is one of four local task forces which have come together in recent months through the help and guidance of the Vermont Council on Rural Development and the Vermont Community Foundation. The task force seeks to achieve maximum broadband and mobile/cellular coverage and connectivity at affordable prices for full and part-time residents of Greensboro.
We are exploring broadband providers and solutions including fiber and hybrid networks to maximize coverage and connectivity. Later in 2020, we plan to expand activities to evaluate area mobile/cellular coverage providers, issues and challenges.
An important initiative the task force has been working on in recent months is organizing Greensboro to join the NEK Community Broadband Communication Union District (CUD). CUD membership can further our efforts to bring high-speed internet access, commonly called “broadband” to every 911 address. Membership in the CUD poses no financial risk to the Town of Greensboro or to its taxpayers, and CUD member towns can benefit from working collectively to seek funding through the State of Vermont, the federal government and revenue-based securities to deploy broadband infrastructure in the region. While it will still take time to realize an affordable broadband solution in Greensboro, the CUD offers us a powerful opportunity to accelerate these efforts.
Good news! At town meeting, Greensboro, along with towns across the Northeast Kingdom, voted to join the NEK CUD! Carol Fairbank led this effort on behalf of our committee. Please express your appreciation to Carol and other members of the Connected Greensboro Committee!! The next step is for each town’s selectboard is to appoint a resident to the CUD board. The CUD Board will hold its first meeting on May 12th.
We want to hear from you. Please complete the following survey (one per household please) to help us understand what qualities are most important to our community. Connectivity? Speed? Reliability? Cost? Affordable broadband coverage and connectivity is vital to Greensboro’s economic sustainability, safety and quality of life.
Committee members include: Carol Fairbank, Pal Bickford, Fred Mann, Dave Stoner, Mary Metcalf, Joan Feffer, Ken Johnston, Stew Arnold, Michael Hoffman and John Stone (Chair).
10th Annual GFD Caspian Lake Fishing Derby
Saturday, February 8th, 4am- 2pm
Adult class (16 yrs and older) $15.00
Junior class (15 yrs and under) $5.00
50/50 Raffle and other prizes
All children entered must be fishing with an adult registered in the fishing derby
PRE-REGISTRATION OPENS JANUARY 11TH AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS:
Willey’s Store, Greensboro, VT;
Riteway Sports, Hardwick, VT;
The Old Fishing Hole Gun Shop, Morrisville, VT;
or at Caspian Lake Beach the morning of the derby
