This Week in History (8/12 - 8/19)

10 years ago:
Former Whitingham School Principal John Doty was appointed to an open position on the Whitingham School Board. Doty was principal at Whitingham School for 17 years, from 1982 to 1999.
At Pettee Memorial Library, Martin Kasindorf presented his documentary on the history of the house he and his wife Irma Hawkins own on Castle Hill in Wilmington. The cottage, a former schoolhouse, has the distinction of being the only house on the shore of Harriman Reservoir. Hawkins’ family has owned the cottage since the 1950s. The former School District No. 14 schoolhouse was built in the 1840s, and was in use until the 1920s, when the Deerfield River was dammed to create the reservoir.

15 years ago:
The Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce board of directors hired Laura Sibilia as chamber executive director. Sibilia was well known in the community thanks to her years as a waitress at Dot’s Restaurant, as well as her tenure as a Dover School Board member. When Sibilia took the top spot, the chamber was in the midst of planning a major marketing effort targeting the Philadelphia area. Sibilia also vowed to increase the number of local events and celebrations, and bring residents and second-home owners together. Today Sibilia is the director of economic and workforce development at Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, a Vermont legislator, and still serves on the Dover School Board.
Halifax lost their bid for an injunction against Art on the Mountain at Honora Winery, after Judge Thomas Durkin said the town failed to meet its burden of proof demonstrating immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage resulting from the additional six days of the event. Honora owner Patricia Farrington testified that the local permit process had been fraught with confusion and misinformation.

20 years ago:
Wilmington and Whitingham school board members met in the first of what they said would be “several” sessions to discuss ways the school districts might work together to share some assets and expenses. Whitingham School Board Chair Doug Bartlett said Whitingham wasn’t ready for a “merger,” but if the two boards “started smaller, in eight or 10 years we might be able to merge.” The talks led to the creation of the Twin Valley joint school district.
Opponents of a proposed community center in Wilmington filed a complaint in court against the town for not considering a petition that would require a two-thirds majority to pass a planned unit development zoning amendment. The action required a third vote on the amendment, which had already been passed a second time after the group petitioned for reconsideration of the first vote.

25 years ago:
Wardsboro students learned they would start the school year in the Town Hall while they waited for a new addition to the school to be finished.
Super Saver Groceries opened in West Dover, located next to the Perfect Cup in the Dover Retail Center. Owner Michael Jordan (no, not that Michael Jordan) said shopping at his store could cut a grocery bill in half.
Alcohol abuse and the lack of 24-hour physician care coverage were listed as the valley’s top health care concerns according to a study conducted by a consulting firm working for Putnam Memorial Health Corporation.

30 years ago:
The Vermont Agency of Transportation called the junction of routes 9 and 100 in Wilmington Village a “failed intersection, putting future development in the Valley into question.
The Wilmington Selectboard decided not to pave a section of Ray Hill Road after residents expressed concerns that the road would become an alternative access road for Haystack and Mount Snow, resulting in an increase in traffic.
In Dover, planning commissioners and selectboard members got into a shouting match over the proposed town plan.

35 years ago:
A West Dover homeowner started a fire in his house when a propane torch fell over. Thinking he had shut the torch off, the man left the house and went to Bromley Mountain for the day, stopping at Stratton for lunch. The fire burned undetected for several hours, according to fire officials, until a neighbor noticed smoke coming from the house.
A Dover Design Review Board member called a proposed design for a post office on Route 100 in West Dover “an embarrassment” to the town of Dover. The builder said the “federal government did not provide for aesthetics.”
Randy Schoonmaker was nominated to serve as president of the Mount Snow/Haystack Chamber of Commerce at the annual dinner at the Viking Motel.

40 years ago:
New England Power Company announced improvements to the downstream slope of Harriman Reservoir. The work included removal of the top soil on the lower three-quarters of the slope, installation of a 3-foot-thick gravel layer, and a compacted earth overlay up to 15 feet thick. NEPCO said that, although there were no safety concerns, the work would bring the dam up to the “rigorous standards” of the Army Corps of Engineers.

50 years ago:
Haystack constructed a large “tower-like” sign at the corner of Route 100 and Coldbrook Road, and asked the town to take ownership of the structure. Under the state’s off-premise sign law, or “billboard law,” Haystack would likely be ordered to remove the sign. The state might not order the town to remove the sign, Haystack officials believed. Selectboard members hadn’t yet made a decision, but Wilmington Town Manager John Plonski said the odds were not good that the town would establish such a precedent.

100 years ago:
The Deerfield Valley Times reported that the New England Power Company was preparing to build a dam across the river in Somerset, just below the ledges on Somerset Road. “From (there) the water is to be conveyed in a 10-foot pipe to some place down the stream – rumor says the Medbury place or the Heather place.”
One man was killed and another was badly injured when they were electrocuted while working at the New England Power plant in Florida, MA. The two men were enveloped by an “electrical flash,” according to the report, that stripped the clothes right off their bodies. The two men were rushed to North Adams by train, where one of them died.
W.M. Vogel, of Wilmington, wrote in to advise “If the party or parties who called at my cooler Tuesday night and relieved me of hams, lard, and sausage will ask for the key next time they come, it will save me the expense of buying new locks.”