Reporter
May 4, 2017 • The Essex Reporter • 1
THE ESSEX May 4, 2017
Vol. 37, No. 18
Prsrt Std ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 266 Burlington, VT 05401 Postal Patron-Residential
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
The Essex Jct. trustees plan to use their economic development fund to fix up this temporary parking lot located behind Road ResQ property owner. Gabe Handy granted the village permission to use the lot for public parking last year. It's sat mostly empty since then.
One-cent fund to fix temporary lot By COLIN FLANDERS
The Essex Jct. trustees intend to dip into their 1-cent economic development fund for the first time to purchase decorative banners and spruce up a temporary parking lot on private land. The move comes a year after Gabe Handy granted permission for public parking on his property behind Road ResQ. The lot has sat mostly empty since then, water pooling in its center after a stretch of rainy April days.
“Because it’s so uneven, it looks like an abandoned area,” village president George Tyler said. “We wanted to tidy it up a little bit and make it more attractive for people to park there.” The village will temper its fixes since Handy can develop the land at any time, though Tyler said the developer has yet to submit any conceptual plans for the space. Community development director Robin Pierce estimated $5,000 for the rehab. He said the public works department will dump sure-pack gravel, a cheaper
blacktop alternative, to level the lot before painting 22 spaces. The estimate covers signs indicating a one-way system where drivers enter and exit from Pearl Street and a light from Green Mountain Power. Tyler advised the trustees double Pierce’s recommendation in case the project goes over budget and then return any leftover money to the fund. Though upgrading private land with public money is uncommon, it’s not unheard of, Tyler said. He pointed to the multiuse safety path that runs on railroad proper-
ty, to which the village contributed $100,000. Similarly, the village hopes the parking lot benefits village businesses. “It’s money going to a public good no matter whose land it’s on,” Pierce said. The trustees are also eying new fabric banners for the village center. Administrative assistant Patty Benoit requested $5,000 for 86 banners to replace the current stock and cover the Pearl St. missing link project. Benoit’s proposal also includes 20 vinyl banners commemorating See LOT, page 4
Essex author details career as innkeeper By COLIN FLANDERS
N
ancy Hinchliff woke up on a rollaway bed her first day as an innkeeper. She’d toured the old Kentucky mansion a year earlier, marveling at the high ceilings and low price, its brick exterior comparing favorably to the $2 million brownstones back in Chicago. At just $108,000, it was a steal. She had to have it. But five bedrooms seemed indulgent for a 64-year-old retiree who lived alone. “I'm going to be rattling around by myself,” she thought. Until a friend
‘Buffalo soldiers’: Vt. legacy recognized
Two local sites added to African American Heritage Trail Just over 100 years after its Fort Ethan Allen assignment ended, the U.S. Army’s first all-black post-Civil War regiment was honored with two historic markers on Vermont’s Afri-
can American Heritage Trail. Dubbed “Buffalo soldiers,” the Army’s 10th Cavalry was stationed at the Colchester fort from 1909 to 1913. The plaques are posted at the intersection of Route 15 and Ethan Allen Avenue in Essex and in front of the Elley-Long
Music Center in Colchester. “Black history is Vermont history,” said Curtiss Reed, executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity. “They are intertwined. We think this is a great opportunity to celebrate that history and See TRaIL, page 10
See aUTHOR, page 4
INSIDE:
PHOTO BY CATHRYN GRIFFITH
L to R: Dr. and Mrs. Jack and Lydia Clemmons pose next to Rev. Arnold Thomas, a Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity board member, and Curtiss Reed, executive director of the VPFD.
By TOM MARBLE
and colleague from her days teaching art and music in Chicago suggested she open a bed and breakfast. Hinchliff had little start-up cash and even less business experience, but she knew her pension wouldn’t last long in the Windy City. So in 1994, the Detroit native plunged into self-employment, becoming one of only a handful of innkeepers in Old Louisville, the nation’s third largest historic preservation district. Hinchliff, now 86, is a month away from releasing her first memoir, “Operatic
Renee Dall
Local volunteer earns American Cancer Society award See page 16