WOODFORD — The largest snowmobile club in the state turned 25 this winter and earned recognition from the General Assembly, which passed a legislative resolution congratulating the Woodford SnoBusters.

With arguably the best riding conditions in the state being the trails that stretch through the Green Mountain National Forest 2,300 feet above sea level in Woodford, the club has grown from a couple of dozen people in 1984 to thousands.

Betty Roark, who has been a SnoBuster from the beginning and is in charge of memberships, said the club has more than 2,600 members and has been as large as 5,000 members in 2001.

Roark said poor snow accumulation for a couple of years decreased that number after 2001, but in recent years membership has been on the rise again.

“Woodford probably has the greatest number of riders, more than any other place in Vermont … because of the accessibility from New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut,” Roark said. “It’s a snowbelt, we get snow when nobody else does.”

Roark said the majority of the club’s members come from surrounding states, and even some from the southern part of the country.

“Just like we go down there in the summer … they come up here in the winter to snowmobile,” Roark said.

The conditions have been the same over the years, but the riding conditions seem to improve each year, thanks to the work the SnoBusters put into the trails.

“Twenty-five years ago we didn’t have any trails. We went from no trails to quite an elite trail system that we groom,” Roark said.

In that first winter, trail grooming was done with snowmobiles and pipe drags before members pooled their money to buy a small track machine known as a Bombi.

Now, the club grooms more than 100 miles of trail, with a top-quality grooming fleet that consists of several Pisten Bullys and a high-end trail groomer.

Roark said over the years the popularity of the trails in Woodford has grown immensely, leading to overcrowding on many winter weekends.

As well as maintaining and grooming trails, the SnoBusters also sponsor a hot dog roast and the Very Special People Ride each winter to raise money for charities.

Rep. Bill Botzow, D-Pownal/Woodford, said he sponsored the legislative resolution congratulating the SnoBusters on its silver anniversary because of the service its volunteers have put in over the years to attract thousands of people to the area each winter.

“I was just impressed by the hard working, dedicated people who want to give their time so others can enjoy our forest,” Botzow said by phone Thursday. “(The SnoBusters) are a big piece of our local economy and they have made great progress in building buildings and maintaining the trails.”

Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at draspuzzi@benningtonbanner.com

Reprinted with permission from The Bennington Banner, Sunday April 18, 2010

BRATTLEBORO — For the past 26 years, a group of area real estate agents has raised more than $150,000 to meet the needs of area youth.

It started in 1983, when members of the Southeastern Vermont Board of Realtors learned the family of a Dummerston girl, who had serious medical issues, didn’t have the financial means to pay for her care.

The SVBR is now known as the Southern Vermont Board of Realtors.

As a result, Frank Martocci, Cathy Eakins, John Morrison and Al Carbone formed the Realtors Youth Benefit Corporation so they could donate funds to the family.

At first, they borrowed money from SVBR to pay for the medical care. They then established fundraising events to pay for RYBC’s charitable giving.

Those events included auto raffles and the construction of new homes, profits of which went to the fund. Along the way, they started a golf tournament to benefit the fund.

 “The golf tournament is our major fundraiser,” said David Brown, of Better Homes and Garden/Masiello Group, a member of the RYBC’s Distribution Committee.

Last September, the RYBC raised $6,250 as a result of the tournament, which is held at
Haystack Golf Course.

 The fund was originally established to meet medical needs that were not covered by insurance, said Brown. “We still do some of that,” he said, but much of the focus has been shifted to enrichment type programs for children living in difficult situations.

 “We have seen an increasing need for kids with special needs because of the changes in state laws,” said Brown. “It’s clear that there are needs not being met and we’re committed to helping fill in the gaps.’

 Ginger Gaudette, the mother of two young boys, said the RYBC helped her get them into summer youth programs.

 “I had to cobble together different activities and camps,” she said. “All that stuff costs money.” The RYBC was one piece of the puzzle.
Gaudette, who is divorced, receives a small monthly stipend from her husband, who is currently in prison.

If not for RYBC’s help, she said, she would have had to quit her job to care for her boys during the summer.

“Without the help of the community, I would have been in a real jam,” she said.

Cindy Coble, the mother of a 13-year-old autistic boy, Jack, thanked the RYBC for helping to pay his tuition to the New England Youth Theatre for the past seven years.

Coble, a single mother with three kids, wasn’t having financial difficulties until she was hit by a car while riding a bicycle, requiring seven surgeries.

“RYBC has been there consistently for Jack and I can’t express my gratitude enough,’ said Coble.

Jack’s health problems made school difficult for him, said Rebecca Waxman, the executive director of the New England Youth Theatre.

“This was a kid ready for success,” she said. Since his first foray onto the stage, Jack has excelled, said Waxman.

“His energy on the stage is limitless,” she said. “In every show he has been in he has been outstanding. It’s really delightful to watch him.”

Though the NEYT is rightfully proud of the work it’s done with Jack, Waxman said the credit belongs to his mother.

“I commend Cindy for doing an exhaustive search to help Jack get the help he needs,” said Waxman.

Brown said it has been a pleasure watching Jack’s progress with NEYT.

“He really thrives in that setting,” he said.

Over the years, the RYBC donated money to a number of young people for eye glasses, dental work, medical bills and tuition for camp and after school programs.

“We have great communication with the area service providers such as Youth Services, Brattleboro Parks & Recreation Department, River Gallery School, Green Mountain Girls Camp, YMCA Lewis Day Camp, Camp Waubanong, and New England Youth Theatre among others” said Brown.

In addition, the RYBC has worked with Mollie Burke and supported her summer arts project at Westgate Housing Community through her Art in Neighborhood organization, the Circus Arts Camp and the Therapeutic Horse Back Riding Camp.

To be eligible for funds, a child must be referred by an outside agency, such as a school or a health care provider.

By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff, The Brattleboro Reformer

The holiday season is fast approaching – and it’s almost time to pick out that perfect tree to place in your new Bennington Vermont home!

Head out to Pleasant Valley Tree Farm on Vermont Rte 9 and choose your fir while enjoying the view of the Green Mountains and nearby Taconic Mountains.

Pick up some evergreen boughs for decorating, or a potted tree for later planting! Go to www.pleasantvalleytrees.com or call 802-442-9071 for more information!

Tell them Troy Richardson sent you!

NORTH BENNINGTON — Anyone thinking about raising children in Vermont may want to consider North Bennington first. That’s what Business Week says in its recent “2010 Best Place to Raise Your Kids” ranking.

In the business magazine’s annual selection of the top municipalities in each state to raise children, the most heavily weighted criteria considered the affordability, safety and school test scores in each.
Also considered were the number of schools, household expenditures, air quality, job growth, family incomes, diversity, museums, parks, theaters and other amenities of each town.

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The following has been reprinted from the Battenkill Business Journal, November 2009.
By TRICIA N. HAYES

The possibility of generating hydroelectricity to power the Bennington College campus and some homes is a license away, if Bill Scully gets his way.

In June, Scully and wife Maria Scully purchased the former Vermont Tissue mill on the Walloomsac River next to the Paper Mill covered bridge.

The couple hopes to restore the historic 12,000-square-foot-building with 27-foot-tall ceilings, and refurbish the dam and hydroelectric power station to generate 250 kilowatts annually. The dam predates the entrance of Vermont into the Union as the 14th state. It powered the mill until its decommissioning in the 1950s.

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The second quarter of 2009 has more states recording positive growth, according to e-forecasting.com.  It was just last quarter where NO states had positive growth, and back to 2008Q4 only one state had recorded positive growth: Washington DC with 0.3% growth.  In the second quarter of 2009, we see that 25 states recorded positive growth. North Dakota beat out all other states in terms of GDP growth in the second quarter.  With a 6.1% growth rate over the previous quarter, it is double the growth of the runner-up: Mississippi.  Rounding out the top five are: Vermont, Montana and Washington, DC.

Read the full article on Vermont Business News website.

The second home market collapses, as formerly affluent out-of-staters suffer investment losses. Manchester stores start leaving for outlet malls closer to population centers, shopping meccas that are doing better because gas prices make long drives expensive.

Bennington, with its manufacturing base eroding like those in the Midwestern rust belt, has more holes in its downtown retail streets than its impoverished artists can decorate with unsold works.

Scenarios like this might have come true had the American economy slid into a true depression, but it didn’t. Not only are doom-and-gloom visions inappropriate, they are in some cases diametrically opposed to what has happened in the past year.

The ski areas had a good winter, and this summer they showed they were still valued as places for families to gather and enjoy a range of activities. Manchester took a hit in retail sales in 2008, but has seen new stores replace the few that left and seems likely to post a retail recovery in 2009.

Manufacturers in the Bennington area sometimes needed to downsize operations to weather the storm, but that sector has made more money in than expected and has been adding back jobs due to a lucrative military contract. And don’t mourn for downtown Bennington, which is enjoying a huge boom in tourism thanks partly to having added a herd of life-size, artistically decorated moose as an attraction in addition to its deer park.

The nation’s economic debacle showed the wisdom of diversifying investment portfolios. Bennington County, which is so diverse in character than the Northshire and Southshire are almost two different counties, likewise has shown that with more than one kind of bedrock strength, its takes more of an earthquake than breaking bubbles to demolish the economy.

See the full article on the VermonBiz website.

Here are two ways you can help the planet when you buy  Bennington, Vermont real estate!

•  Bennington’s Bright Idea, begun in 2007 by the Bennington Energy Committee in conjunction with Efficiency Vermont, encouraged residents to change their old-style light bulbs to energy conserving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Replacing 6 bulbs in your new home will save approximately 30 gigawatt hours of electricity, which would power 5000 homes for a year! Go to  http://www.benningtonenergy.org/home.php for more information. 
• CVPS customers can choose to receive all, half or a quarter of their electrical energy through Cow Power. Manure is held in a sealed concrete tank at the same temperature as a cow’s stomach. Bacteria digest the manure, creating methane and killing pathogens and weed seeds. The methane then fuels an engine/generator.  The process kills almost all manure odors, and provides a peat-moss-like material for bedding animals – and the cycle starts over! In 2008, “Power Magazine” named CVPS Cow Powerâ„¢ one of five “Top Plants” worldwide.

Go to http://www.cvps.com/cowpower/Cow%20Power%20home.html for more information!

The Bennington Museum is hosting a frighteningly good time at a Halloween Party on Sunday, October 25. from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. when admission is free!

Partially supported by Merchants Bank, the day offers events throughout the museum that provide excitement for children and adults of all ages.

Come in costume and join the fun with spooky crafts such as mini-graveyards and Halloween finger puppets. Play some ghoulish games like Ghost Waiter and see if you are brave enough to enter the giant spider web. There will be cemetery tours, guessing contests, gallery hunts and goodies to eat. At 3:30 p.m. join the costume parade through the museum. This event is free to all, so bring friends and enjoy a day at the museum!

The Bennington Museum is located at 75 Main Street (Rt 9), Bennington in The Shires of Vermont. The museum is just a short ride from Manchester, Williamstown, and eastern New York. The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed on Wednesday). Visit www.benningtonmuseum.org or call 802-447-1571 for upcoming events.

Developed and presented in collaboration with the Bennington Free Library, the Bennington Museum is pleased to announce a new program designed specifically for the younger set and their parents or care givers.

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