HARDWICK – Neighbor to Neighbor (HNtN) presented a forum in the Hazen Union School cafeteria where roughly 50 community members, town officials and emergency response representatives met Monday, Sept. 16, to hear about the town’s flood response efforts and discuss proactive ways to support one another during emergencies.
The invitation noted HNtN volunteers stepped in to help after July’s torrential rains. They ran the supply and support center on High Street for 11 days, lending equipment and providing cleaning kits to nearly 80 people affected by flooding. They now provide various forms of assistance to neighbors throughout the year and are working to help develop the town’s emergency management plan.
David O’Brien moderates the Hardwick Neighbor to Neighbor Forum on Monday, Sept. 16 where Town Manager David Upson and Zoning Administrator Kristen Leahy updated attendees on Hardwick’s response to flooding the past two years and plans for future flood mitigation.
David O’Brien moderated the meeting, beginning by laying out goals and ground rules to ensure a productive gathering.
Regina Wdowiak shared a brief poem and shared thoughts about honoring our strength and resilience.
Town Manager David Upson and Zoning Administrator Kristen Leahy then offered a comprehensive look at past, present and future town work on flood recovery, mitigation and resilience, which attendee Mike and Joe Brochu said afterward, helped them understand how the town is dealing effectively with its immediate problems, while looking toward the future in a more detailed way than select board meetings and reports offer.
Area emergency response organizations then spoke, with Neal Glassman from Team Rubicon sharing work they did to evaluate and muck out properties in July’s flooding and work being done with HNtN to prepare for the future.
The site of the former Inn by the River, east of Hay’s Service Station is now gone. The western portion of the Inn fell into the Lamoille River in flooding July 9-11, 2023 and was demolished several days before the July 10, 2024 flooding a year later took the site and began to eat into the bank near Hay’s.
Hardwick Electric Department’s (HED) Interim Manager Scott Johnstone shared his thoughts on ways the organization prepares for weather events, but can also get better at anticipating them. He noted that HED’s least expensive hydro power from the Wolcott dam has been unavailable since it was inundated by seven feet of mud in the July 2023 flooding. That has necessitated replacing it with the most expensive power purchased on the spot market before repairs can be completed, which will have an impact on future rates.
Johnstone mentioned the six other HED dams that don’t produce power and that the utility is evaluating who best to own them.
Mary Hall spoke for the Hardwick Rescue Squad, noting recent flooding events have made hospitals in all four directions unreachable from the area. They are in discussion with Northern County Health Care’s Hardwick Area Health Center about the possibility of making arrangements to use the private treatment facilities there in emergencies instead of open areas at the Hazen Union School emergency shelter.
She said, because there were few calls for emergency medical assistance in recent events, the Rescue Squad has been able to transport those needing shelter to Hazen Union, freeing other emergency responders for tasks they are best suited for.
Hardwick Interim Police Chief Michael Henry explained the department has staged staff around town to be better able to respond to areas that might be cut off during floods.
Helen Beattie with HNtN then walked everyone through a comprehensive project happening with assistance from Cynthia Stuart and Karen Horn from the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD), who were in attendance. It’s a short-term project to create an emergency management plan that goes beyond the boilerplate structure many towns use by tapping into unique capabilities of area organizations.
HNtN is offering their services to work with VCRD, providing forward looking capabilities while town administrators and departments are deep in flood response activities and still working to keep up with the day-to-day activities required to keep the town functioning.
The plan Beattie laid out continues HNtN activities, linking them through Local Emergency Management Planning with other area organizations and some new functions to add required capabilities.
HNtN’s activities will continue to include neighborhood gatherings, communications and staffing of the library helpline, answering and documenting incoming calls and emails requesting and offering assistance. That work will include mobilizing recruiting and managing volunteers.
HNtN will continue to staff and manage the Emergency Supply and Support Center, maintaining inventory, recruiting and supporting volunteers.
New positions are being created to assist with emergency communications, support emergency shelter needs, mobilize local volunteers, Team Rubicon and other area service groups.
Everyone was asked to write questions down, but there was little time to get through them all before the allotted 90 minutes was up. Questions that did get asked were about opening Jackson Dam, adding floodgates upriver from town and ice related flooding issues.
Residents in low-lying areas near Wolcott Street and Cooper Brook asked about emergency notification in the middle of the night and comments were made about the town’s inability to sound the former fire siren, which has been disabled.
A question was asked about whether Team Rubicon might help with mold mitigation, but Glassman said that’s a task best left to professionals.
Several agenda items didn’t get covered in the depth organizers had hoped for. Those included the story of Cottage Street neighborhood support strategies; answering lingering questions, or directing them to where help can be found; scheming about ways to be better prepared ourselves and strengthening our own neighborhood’s emergency response
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
