Update as of September 20, 2024
There was an error in the article entitled “Selectboard agrees to partial funding for foliage food request” printed in the September 19 edition of the Standard.
In fact, the Woodstock Town Selectboard did not approve a $2,900 grant recommended by the advisory Economic Development Commission (EDC) to fund both a printed and digital “wayfinding” brochure to help visitors identify the locations and hours of restaurants, public restrooms, and public parking spaces during foliage season. The board instead directed the EDC and the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce to move forward with a web-only version of the wayfinding tool as a pilot test for this season. EDC Chair Jon Spector told the governing body that the digital program could be implemented this fall at no cost to the town.
September 19, 2024
By Tom Ayres , Senior Staff Writer
The Woodstock Town Selectboard on Tuesday evening approved less than 30% of the grant funding requested by the Village Board of Trustees and the Town Economic Development Commission (EDC) to support food infrastructure initiatives in the community during the upcoming peak foliage season.
The town governing body okayed just $2,000 of the $7,000 in foliage food funding requested by the trustees and the EDC solely to facilitate the Village’s purchase of six picnic tables and accompanying umbrellas to be used for outdoor dining on The Green and The Gore adjacent to the Norman Williams Public Library in the heart of Woodstock throughout the annual foliage tourism onslaught beginning Sept. 21-23 and continuing through October. In acting on the grant request for foliage food funding, the selectboard opted to deny an additional $5,000 in funding to support aesthetic enhancements to the picnic tables, including staining, and the provision of rented portable toilets in Woodstock Village during foliage time. The governing body also voted down additional funding for unanticipated “contingency costs” for food infrastructure during the foliage season tourism influx.
The selectboard action on the funding request followed a heated discussion in which town selectboard chair Ray Bourgeois, vice chair Susan Ford, and selectperson Laura Powell all expressed strong consternation with the processes by which the EDC brings grant proposals forward to the selectboard for its consideration.