Two signs will be placed next spring to let people know that Stowe village is historic, the Stowe Select Board hopes.
It approved a request from Stowe resident Leah Hodari, who owns Stowe Counseling on Maple Street, to put two 18-by-24-inch signs in Stowe, one at each entrance to the village district on Route 100.
One sign, facing drivers coming in from Waterbury, would be near the public safety building; the other would be in front of the house at 311 Maple St.
Hodari’s original designs state the year the town was settled, 1763, note that it’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and read, “Slow Down and Enjoy.”
Select board member Neil Van Dyke took issue with the final part.
“My initial reaction is that the purpose is to get people to slow down,” not to welcome them, Van Dyke said. “To me, it has a negative connotation, instead of being welcoming. … I don’t know that this is the right format for that message.”
The board agreed to remove “Slow Down and Enjoy” from the signs.
Debate was also sparked over whether 1763 is the correct year that Stowe’s historic village was settled. The town was chartered in 1763, but Hodari said Stowe Historical Society’s Barbara Baraw doesn’t believe that’s the year the town was settled.
Charlie Lusk, part of the historical society, thinks it was actually 1794.
“I always was of the opinion, when I was on the select board, that 1763 was a rough period in which a colonial governor wholesale handed down charters,” Lusk said. “There’s nothing really particularly distinctive about that date. In fact, the date when we were first settled is way more relevant than the date when a bunch of charters were handed down.”
Board member Lisa Hagerty wondered if the year could be confirmed by finding the oldest building in town, but some of the buildings in town aren’t accurately dated, Hodari said.
The board approved placing the two historic district signs at the entrances to the village once the Stowe Historical Society nails down the most accurate date, without “Slow Down and Enjoy.”
Each sign will cost $415, and be printed in high-resolution, with a wooden stake.
Hopeful on highway budget
Early snows have meant Stowe’s plowing, sanding and salting crews have been out on the roads, working long hours, much earlier in the year than expected.
Town Manager Charles Safford says it’s too soon to tell whether the early winter weather will drain Stowe’s highway budget early, since the town buys sand, salt and gravel in bulk and stockpiles it for the winter. And, the weather is fickle.
“We obviously have had winter set in earlier than we have had in recent years. However, it depends on the overall winter on how it impacts the highway budget,” Safford said.
“We are always going to take care of our roads in a safe manner and we have to work the rest of our budget around meeting that objective.”
Other board business
Also Monday night, the select board:
• Appointed Adam Davis to the Stowe Board of Listers. Davis was a member of the Stowe Select Board until 2016, when he stepped down.
• Approved snowmobile use of all or part of 33 streets and bridges during the winter, including segments of Weeks Hill Road, Luce Hill Road and Shaw Hill Road.
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