WOLCOTT – At its January 3 regular meeting, the Wolcott Select Board voted to add a property to the buyback program, made final changes to its draft budget for next fiscal year and accepted bids for work to be done on town buildings.
At its February 7 meeting, the Wolcott Select Board authorized expenditures on trucks, approved a cannabis business license application and had a detailed discussion about the proposed wastewater system.
Bids were received for the Town Hill Road/Tamarack Brook Box Culvert project. J.A. McDonald submitted the low bid of $599,000 the board voted to accept the bid only if FEMA agrees to reimburse the town.
March 12, the school celebrated with an annual “Ikidarod”. Students spent the last hour-plus of their school day outside in late-winter snowpack and warm temperatures, putting on their own sled dog races, playing snow soccer, sledding, and sharing cookies and hot cocoa.
Fifth and Sixth grade students at Wolcott Elementary School were featured in a WCAX broadcast on Thursday, May 23, as they released brook trout fingerlings into the Lamoille River.
Wolcott’s sixth grade class graduated June 12.
Wolcott received 4.58 inches of rain on July 10 and 11. The Lamoille County Sheriff’s Dept. reported at 5 p.m. that Route 15 between Morrisville and Wolcott was open. Gulf Road was not passable, North Wolcott Road was closed, with parts washed out, Elmore Pond Road washed out in spots and where it connects to Route 15 closed, Corley Road washed out, School Street washed out near the town garage, East Elmore Road washed out in spots.
The town website reported road closures July 13 on Vt. Rte. 15 by the Nazarene Church and by Morrisville Used Auto, Corley Road, Elmore Pond Road by the bridge, Gulf Road between the gravel pit and dump, School Street from the fire department to Flat Iron Road and East Hill by Bear Swamp.
A new 735-acre Community Forest, within walking distance of the Wolcott town center, was permanently protected as of September 5.
The Preservation Trust of Vermont (PTV), Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD), and the Vermont Community Foundation announced Wolcott was among the first communities selected for the Village Trust Initiative. It will help create a village trust to take on the schoolhouse rehabilitation project.
Wolcott voters approved plans in September at a second vote for the town’s first-ever municipal wastewater system.
Wolcott 4-Her Amalie Pratt was Vermont’s sole delegate in the 4-H dog show at the West Springfield, Mass., fairgrounds, September 27 to 29.
Wolcott firefighters showed fifth graders the Jaws of Life and how they are used at a safety event.
A culvert was being replaced under School Street on Halloween, October 31, by Gravel Construction.
Ten-year-old Wolcott resident Kezia Warfisch was the first-place winner of the secretary of state’s inaugural “I Voted” sticker design contest.
Wolcott Town Clerk Belinda Harris Clegg reported high voter turnout November 5: “Turnout has been very good. We had a line at 8 o’clock. We really haven’t had that before. Not since 2020, I would say. And not a big line then because it was Covid-19. So this was more. People waited actually from 7.30 on.”
Lamoille Fiber-Net held a ribbon cutting in November to announce future fiber-optic internet service through a partnership with Fidium Fiber.
Bill Morrison, owner of a 286-acre property on Pond Brook Lane, off East Hill Road in Wolcott, executed a conservation easement with the Northern Rivers Land Trust in November. A Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation worked with Jean Ballantyne and Jerry Fox to protect 17 acres for the Lamoille and Wild Branch rivers to meander, boosting flood resilience and wildlife habitat.
Lucas and Tammy Menard were found dead in a Wolcott tent on Jones Road, November 27.
A vigil was held in Montpelier November 30 for Lucas and Tammy Menard.
Maryann Manning of Wolcott, was sentenced in December to two years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $119,978 to the Social Security Administration after pleading guilty to a felony theft charge of receiving stolen government money from her brother’s payments.
