Cavendish board adopts five-year Capital Plan Winter event planned for Svec Green

By Lorien Strange
©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The Cavendish Select Board adopted the town’s five-year Capital Plan for fiscal 2027-2032 at its Monday, Oct. 20 meeting, following several years of development and discussion with the Mount Ascutney Regional Planning Commission.

Kicking off the evening with a public hearing, the Select Board discussed the plan, which includes replacing many of the town’s current road work vehicles in phases over several years as well as evaluating and improving the state of the town’s water and sewer systems, schedules for repaving roads, repairing sidewalks and culvert projects.

The plan “isn’t set in stone,” Town Manager Richard Chambers explained. “It definitely should be revisited every year, at least during budget season” to reflect any changes in expected costs and revenue over the years.

For example, to budget properly for operating costs and improvements, the Capital Plan recommends a 23% increase in town water rates and 7.5% increase in sewer rates. But, Chambers clarified, these numbers are based on figures prior to this year’s rate increases.

Those numbers also wouldn’t cover pump station improvement costs and the rising cost of sludge removal—which, if the town began setting aside money for beginning in 2027, would come out to about $92.70 per user per year over the next nine years.

“That’s a big hit,” Chambers said, that “may put us in a different position” than the town had initially expected. But the town won’t really know what that position is until more old water meters get replaced.

“Anyone who needs a new meter can call the Town Office,” Chambers said, explaining that the town was having trouble reaching people to schedule meter installations with the previous rollout method the town had used.

Cavendish is also gearing up for winter activities, including a new festival inspired by Ullr Fest, a Norwegian inspired festival that originated in Breckenridge, Colo. Trevor Barlow, representing a group of volunteers putting it together, gave the Select Board more details about the plans so far and to ask permission to use the Svec Green. This will be the first year of what they hope becomes an annual celebration.

He said what he had in mind was “pretty low key” as far as activities on the green were concerned: some local vendors, and perhaps some luminous decorations on the street and in trees in collaboration with Cavendish Streetscapes.

“The goal is to create a reason for people to get outside, get downtown and have some fun,” Barlow said, and also to coordinate with as many local groups as possible.

He said that Margo Caulfield of Cavendish Connects is coordinating with Cavendish Town Elementary School and the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library for some activities for kids, and maybe even have a parade down Depot Street complete with DIY paper lanterns—part of the plan that is “rough around the edges, admittedly,” Barlow said.

Barlow added that they’d decided against some initial ideas of having part of the event in the woods, so as to not interfere with hunting season. Not that kind of party, the Select Board chuckled.

The Select Board approved the use of the green for the event on Saturday, Dec. 13. Barlow added that while ideally, the events on the green would take place from 4 to 6 p.m., additional activities are being planned beyond that time off of town property.

Also, the Select Board approved a request by the Cavendish Green Mountain Snow Fleas to use several sections of town roads as part of snowmobile trails from Dec. 16 through April 15.  The annual request includes trails and road crossings marked on a map given to the Select Board for consideration.

Before the ice and snow set in, Cavendish’s Cemetery Sexton Bruce McEnaney has at least one more burial to do prior to his retirement from that position, which Chambers is anticipating to be open starting in January.  The board thanked McEnaney for his many years of service to the town in various positions.

Chambers also reminded everyone that the town’s annual Winter Parking Ordinance will be in effect from Nov. 1 to April 1, banning parking on town property between midnight and 6 a.m. This includes parking around the Green.

The Select Board also set a fee for Flood Hazard Permit applications to limit the cost burden on taxpayers, approved the purchase of audio and video equipment for the Town Office’s meeting room, and thanked Cavendish Town Elementary School’s 5th and 6th graders and the Black River Action Team for some clean up work.

The Cavendish Select Board’s regular meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on the second Monday of each month, at the Town Office, 37 High St.