Woodstock officials planning for annual influx of leaf-peepers
Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer
In perhaps the most quoted of his vaunted Yogi-isms — the unique and witty observations he became renowned for — Yogi Berra, the late Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees, said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
The quip referred to back-to-back homers hit by Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris during the storied baseball season of 1961 — but it could just as easily refer to the annual mid-September deliberations of the Woodstock Village Trustees and the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce about how to deal with perennial foliage season issues regarding the availability of sufficient public restrooms, dining establishments and food purveyors, signage, and paid greeters/ambassadors in the Village core. It calls to mind another adage, adapted from a fabled children’s game, as it applies to the autumnal onslaught of leaf-peeping tourists on Woodstock and the surrounding environs:
“Ready or not, here they come!”
At their regular meeting on Tuesday evening, Sept. 12, the Village Trustees rehashed many of the same foliage season-related topics they’ve discussed for the past several years. The night’s agenda called for a discussion of bathrooms, signs, and the greeter program. Traffic control, dining options, and other considerations for town folk and visitors alike were on the docket as well. It’s a seemingly redundant rite of passage for Village leaders, who annually must wrestle with all the issues that arise during the peak foliage season, which runs from the first day of autumn on Sept. 21 through Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend — Oct. 6-9 this year — and on through the following weekend, ending Oct. 15 this time around.
“Every year, similar things happen for foliage time,” Trustees Chair Seton McIlroy said at the outset of the Village governing body’s discussion on Sept. 12. “We get similar comments and complaints. It’s a very busy time. I’ve talked with [Town of Woodstock Selectboard Chair] Ray Bourgeois, [Municipal Manager] Eric Duffy, [Chamber of Commerce Director] Beth Finlayson, and with all of you,” McIlroy told her fellow Trustees. “We’ve had a lot of discussion about how we can manage foliage better for residents, businesses, and visitors. The main areas that we have talked about are possibly adding additional bathrooms, better signage, greeters, and then anything else we can think of.”
The “anything else” turned out to include its yearly discussion about how to provide more food options in the Village, particularly on Sundays and Mondays, when many eateries are closed.
On the bathroom front, McIlroy reported that she had reached out to local portable toilet purveyors to get an estimate of bringing a high-end, multi-bathroom trailer to the Village, at least for the three busiest days of foliage season over the Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend. The cost to the Village for that option, which included three cleanings over the course of the weekend, was $3,300, which McIlroy deemed too expensive. Following further discussion, the Trustees chair agreed to explore the cost of renting several individual port-a-lets for the fall holiday weekend as well. They would likely be placed behind the Windsor County Courthouse, as was done for the Bookstock literary festival in June. McIlroy also said that Village authorities and the Chamber were trying to be sensitive to regular concerns voiced each year by the staff of the Norman Williams Public Library that the library’s restrooms are overrun and frequently damaged each year by leaf-peepers seeking to go to the bathroom.
The question of adequate signage during foliage season — particularly signage that directs visitors to the tucked-away-from-public-view Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center and its information desk and public restrooms on Mechanic Street — was also up for discussion again last week. Finlayson noted that signage size and sandwich boards are strictly governed by the Village zoning regulations, so added or improved signage continues to pose challenges, especially during a time when thousands of out-of-towners descend upon the community that markets itself as the quintessential New England village. Better means of demarking crosswalks off the Village Green are also needed, Finlayson said. McIlroy raised the issue of what can be done to prevent people from stopping their cars and parking in nearby no-parking zones to snap photographs of the iconic Middle Covered Bridge. The Trustees and Municipal Manager Duffy are exploring options for monitoring and controlling traffic in the vicinity of the covered bridge with Woodstock Police Chief Joe Swanson.
In response to a question from Trustee Jeff Kahn, Finlayson said she had yet to line up official greeters to work in the Village during foliage season, particularly on weekends. The greeters, who are paid a stipend for hours served, are knowledgeable locals who stroll the downtown core and The Green, answering questions and helping guide visitors to public restrooms, dining establishments, and nearby tourist attractions. Finlayson said that based on the number of phone calls she has fielded about greeter opportunities for this season, she is confident that she’ll have a solid stable of town ambassadors assembled by the time foliage starts to turn significantly.
Lastly — and perhaps of the most significant import for Village residents, businesses, and tourists alike — the Trustees once again agreed to explore the possibility of having food vendors operating on The Green on Sundays and Mondays during the three-to-four-week foliage period. There is a dearth of dining opportunities in the Village on those two days, when many restaurants, cafes, sandwich shops, and other eateries are closed. In a deviation from the last two years, during which, per the Village’s zoning regulations, only non-profit organizations were able to sell food on The Green, the Trustees and Duffy are exploring means of granting variances and permits to enable up to three for-profit purveyors to sell food on the Village’s verdant centerpiece this leaf-peeping season. A call to non-profit organizations interested in providing foliage-time food service has been posted to the town website and on local listservs, while Duffy has reached out to potential for-profit providers to solicit their interest in serving on The Green.
“There has been a healthy response from both nonprofits and for-profits interested in providing food on Sundays and Mondays this year,” Duffy said Tuesday afternoon. “The Trustees are currently reviewing a potential process for granting a variance and allowing permitting. They’re likely to schedule a special meeting on the subject soon because foliage is almost upon us.”
Cloudland Road closure
At the regular Woodstock Town Selectboard meeting on Tuesday evening, the board rapidly agreed to the fall foliage season closure of Cloudland Road in Woodstock, subsequent to neighboring Pomfret’s decision to close the road and stem the hordes of leaf-peepers, social media shutterbugs, and Instagram fashion photo aficionados who annually descend upon Pomfret, Sleepy Hollow Farm and Jenne Farm by the thousands each year to document what is widely believed to be the most photographed single location in Vermont — a setting surrounded by private properties that have been increasingly vexed by uninvited, autumnal visitors in recent years.
Woodstock officials will alert potential foliage visitors and photo snappers to no-parking restrictions at the intersection of Old River Road and Cloudland Road in the town via signage to be erected near Billings Farm & Museum this weekend. Meanwhile, Cathy Emmons, the co-proprietor of Cloudland Farm and its attendant farm-to-fork restaurant in South Pomfret, said local residents and officials in Pomfret would be happy to collaborate with Woodstock town officials to post additional no-parking signage near the cemetery and parking area that demarcates the intersection of Old River Road and Cloudland Roads in Woodstock to discourage would-be shutterbugs from walking into South Pomfret and Sleepy Hollow Farm from that location.
EDC tourism survey continues
An EDC survey of Woodstock community members to help Town and Village officials understand local experiences with tourism is now available online at tinyurl.com/edc-community-survey. If you’d rather fill in a paper survey, printed surveys are now available at the Woodstock Town Hall. According to the organizers, the survey should take no more than five minutes to complete.
“With the community survey we’re trying to understand what you have actually experienced and the impact tourism has had on you,” EDC Chair Jon Spector said in a statement issued earlier this week. “In October and November, we’ll share the results of all three surveys (community, visitors and merchants) and seek your input on what actions you think the EDC and/or the Town and Village should take,” Spector added.
“Our objective in undertaking this process is to determine how we can provide the best experience for the Woodstock community, for our local merchants, and for our visitors. You can help by participating in the community survey and coming to the meeting(s) we hold in October and November to share your points of view,” Spector concluded.