BRATTLEBORO-Selectboard members heard from the Hinsdale, New Hampshire, town administrator that that town's Selectboard would consider only two options regarding the defunct Anna Hunt Marsh and Charles Dana bridges: that Brattleboro buy the Dana bridge and the island it's located on, or that the town support Hinsdale's petition to the state to raze both bridges.
Instead, about two hours after Katherine Lynch visited in person and conveyed that message, the Selectboard voted 3–2 to support keeping the bridges open for bikes and pedestrians.
The motion further directed Town Manager John Potter and staff to advocate for same and reopen dialogue with Hinsdale town officials.
"I move that Brattleboro affirm as its official position that the Charles Dana and Anna Hunt Marsh bridges be restored and kept open for pedestrian and bicycle access as described in the Hinsdale bridge project plan, grant applications, and interstate agreements," said Selectboard Vice-Chair Oscar Heller in his motion.
He also moved "to direct the town manager and staff to advocate for that position with the town of Hinsdale, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT), and any other relevant entities, to advocate for continued pedestrian and bicycle access across both bridges, and to reopen discussions with the Hinsdale Selectboard about a mutually satisfactory resolution to the Hinsdale bridge project."
The two spans, each more than a century old, were closed to vehicular traffic in November after the new, $62 million General John Stark Memorial Bridge was opened just downriver on the Connecticut.
Just before voting, the motion was read again, and board member Peter Case noted the difficult position its passage would put Potter in with Hinsdale town officials after they've expressed their seeming bottom line on the matter.
"This is not our bridge […] this bridge is starting to become this little bit of a wedge," said Case. "I want a bridge of flowers, I want a bridge of lights, I want this clean thing where you can go out there and grab a sandwich. But it would be like [me] doing that every day on my neighbor's deck."
Board members Amanda Ellis-Thurber, Evans-Frantz, and Heller voted for the motion. Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin voted against it, and Case abstained.
View from the bridges
Earlier this year, some Selectboard members attended a meeting in Hinsdale and, after discussion back in Vermont, agreed to send a letter to the Hinsdale Board of Selectmen asking if they'd like to give feedback to the NHDOT.
Since then, officials heard back that the Hinsdale board is not interested in co-signing a letter but asked instead for support to petition NHDOT to remove the bridges or that Brattleboro take steps to acquire and manage the bridges and island property.
Meanwhile, according to minutes of the June 30 Board of Selectmen meeting, its five members unanimously voted to send a letter to NHDOT requesting gates on the bridges.
On July 8, Lynch and Hinsdale Police Chief Melissa Evans (wife of Brattleboro Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Evans) met in Brattleboro with the Selectboard, enumerating public safety and maintenance concerns.
The town recently took steps to prohibit folks from being on the bridge by erecting no-trespassing signs and blocks across it, some of which were removed by the public, presumably.
Evans also pointed out that just 7% of the bridge lies in the state of Vermont.
She noted that while the two old bridges, now closed, have been slated for a $9.37 million minimal rehabilitation in accordance with historic preservation standards, no maintenance plan has been put forth by the state. Construction is scheduled to start until 2027 and take two seasons.
"Maybe they'll be nice for 10, 20 years, but someone's going to have to take responsibility of continuing with the repairs and upkeep of the bridges," Evans said. "The board didn't want that liability."
Evans noted an increase in problems and the need for increased police presence due to an escalation of drug use and the presence of drug paraphernalia and litter, as well as unauthorized camping on the island.
While a local group cleans occasionally, she said, that's not enough to keep up with the number of people living on the island and the dirty needles and other trash from substance use.
Whether the bridge is repurposed as a rehabilitated pedestrian bridge or left dormant, Evans added, the tax burden will fall on Hinsdale and necessitate adding two additional police officers to the force.
Lynch said that when she learned at the opening of the new bridge that the rehabilitation of the other two spans wouldn't occur for another two years, she knew then that her town was "at risk of reaping all the negative behavior" and said "this is exactly what has occurred."
She noted tent encampments under the bridges, "vicious" dog fights, and drug use, adding that a man was arrested under one bridge who had a Brattleboro address and a motel voucher for the program since ended - plus an active bench warrant.
"We refuse to put a label on it as being a 'homeless' issue," Lynch said, adding that Hinsdale officials "will not stand by and have it become what the parking on Flat Street in Brattleboro was."
Regarding her board's ultimatum that Brattleboro's support removing both bridges and replace them with historical markers or buying the island and the Anna Marsh bridge from the town, Lynch said Hinsdale "will not and cannot move forward with any other decisions."
Brattleboro reaction split
After proposing the motion, Heller said he feels "a strong responsibility for keeping the bridges open because that has been the premise and promise of the project for 10 years."
He noted his frustration that "at the 11th hour" the Hinsdale board is saying that long understanding now won't work for their town.
"It's pretty clear that if this Selectboard says, 'Ah, we should just take them [the bridges] down, that's what would happen,'" he said, adding that his motion was aimed to keep options open, not resolve every issue that doing so might present.
Board Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin spoke against keeping the bridges.
"I believe Hinsdale can, and probably will, act without us and it would be nice to work with them. […] I consider their reasons that they are more than hesitating are real," she said. "Other towns do not have the problems that the town of Brattleboro has."
McLoughlin went on to say, "That's why we can't have nice things," but she said that she does think the town could have one nice thing: a waterfront park.
That's what she recommended as appropriate "for all this energy and effort."
"I think that's what we should be energized about, and raising money for, and making the best of, and stop chasing this windmill idea for a bridge that is not ours to plan," she said.
"You got the cards; we got 7%, and I respect that," she told Evans and Lynch.
Isaac Evans-Frantz, a board member who helped organize an outing on the bridges on July 4, called the spans an "incredible resource," saying he anticipates that more foot traffic on the bridge - and thus more eyes on what's happening there - would discourage illegal activity.
"When there's more energy around a place, that shifts how it's used," he said, saying he'd like to see options for Vermont or Brattleboro to buy the bridge and/or island and learn what interest there is in private investment in such a vision.
Case predicated his sense of the complex issue on geography.
Saying he feels "a sincere ownership to those bridges because we have to look at them every day," he added that "it's like looking across my yard to see something that my neighbor has that I would like to have but I don't."
"I don't feel like we can tell you what to do in your backyard," he told Evans and Lynch, adding he would hope the two boards could "come to an arrangement to take another hard and fast look at it."
Case then asked the two if they thought the Hinsdale Selectboard would entertain offering a little more time to the matter before asking the state to raze the spans.
"The Hinsdale Selectboard was pretty firm," Lynch said.
"We only have 7% of this conversation, so I feel like my back's against the wall […] it's your backyard," Case said.
Public weighs in
A few dozen community members were present in person and via Zoom for the July 8 discussion.
Michael Fairchild, a West Brattleboro native, said that he has attended the earliest discussions about the bridges, and that he lives and canoes on the river, so he sees the "homeless situation." He said he's advocated to remove the bridges from the start and that his concerns have come to pass since vehicular traffic on them ceased.
"It's not a safe place, and I have no belief that somehow miraculously it's going to get safer," he said.
Former Selectboard member Dick DeGray, noting voters just approved a 12% tax increase, said he's not in favor of preserving the bridges, regardless of who owns them.
Clare Gillis said that pinning the reason not to preserve the spans on Brattleboro's problems is "utterly disingenuous" and that the town's problems have been around for a long time. She also noted the agreement between Hinsdale and Brattleboro officials to rehabilitate the bridges has been in the pipeline for a decade.
Entrepreneur Paul Belogour, owner of the former Whetstone Station, now the Rail and River, said he's interested in leasing the bridges and perhaps the island from the state of New Hampshire.
"The irony is we need all participants to get this project moving," he said, adding the bridges and the island "could become a destination" and be developed with his new restaurant, which could be extended onto the bridge.
"I do believe that losing this chance of having the bridges and the island would be a massive detriment," Belogour said.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.