Sledding, Sipping and Slapping
Bethany Birches Camp in Plymouth, held a Winter Family Fun Day of festivities on Sunday. Broomball, tubing and refreshments were among some of the activities offered.
Rick Russell Photos

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PLYMOUTH NOTCH – The memorial service for Wayne E. Blanchard, 75, who died Feb. 3 after a prolonged illness, will be held Saturday, Feb. 9 at 11 a.m. at Union Christian Church in Plymouth Notch, followed by a gathering at Plymouth Town Hall. Private burial will be at a later date in Plymouth Notch Cemetery.
He was born Nov. 22, 1937, the son of James E. and Vivian Moore Blanchard of Plymouth Notch.
He graduated from Woodstock High School in 1955 and attended UVM for a time.
Mr. Blanchard was drafted in 1960 and assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers as a heavy equipment operator.
He enjoyed his career as operating engineer for almost 50 years.
Survivors include his wife of 46 years, Janet; three children, Todd, Millissa and Tiffany; three siblings, Phyllis Martin, Beverly Johnson and Nelson Blanchard; five grandchildren; and several nephews and nieces.
In lieu of flower, memorial contributions may be made to Visiting Nurses and Hospice in care of Cathy Hogan, PO Box 976, White River Junction, 05001.
This obituary first appeared in the Feb. 4, 2013 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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The Tyson Ladies Aide group will hold a holiday brunch at the Wilder House in Plymouth Sunday, December 9 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. with chili, a variety of soups, hotdogs, pie and other baked goods. A memory tree lighting will take place at 3 p.m.

The Plymouth, VT, Post Office is offering a special stamp cancellation to mark the town’s 2012 Annual Coolidge Holiday Open House.

A unique pictorial postmark which reads “Holiday Station, Plymouth, VT 05056, Dec. 9, 2012” is designed by John Lutz, a local artist who has designed this postmark for over 10 years.

The special cancellation is a wonderful way to take home an inexpensive souvenir of this celebration and will appeal to stamp collectors and others from all over New England.

By request it will be applied free of charge to postcards and letters bearing postage on Sunday, Dec. 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside the Florence Cilley General Store at the old Plymouth Post Office. The event is sponsored by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Admission is free.

Customers can also request the special postmark free-of-charge by mail for 30 days after the event by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope containing the letter or envelope they wish to be cancelled to: Postmaster, 236 Coolidge Memorial Drive, Plymouth, VT 05056-9998.

“We will be happy to cancel and return by mail any letters that our customers mail in,” said PMR Melissa Lynds. “Customers may also bring in their own stamped envelopes to obtain a postmark that they can take home as a keepsake.”

For more information, customers may call PMR Melissa Lynds at the Plymouth, VT Post Office at (802) 672-3615.

A chainsaw and a leaf blower were stolen from Hawk Mountain Resort in Plymouth on Oct. 30, according to state police.

The chainsaw, a Stihl 359, has a serial number of 21020061300560, and the leaf blower has a serial number of 290195668. Anyone with any information can contact the Vermont State Police at 802-234-9933.

As of 9 a.m. Green Mountain Power is reporting the following outages in our area:

Barnard – 242

Bridgewater – 19

Hartford – 231

Hartland – 120

Killington – 149

Reading – 2

Pomfret – 30

Plymouth – 25

West Windsor – 4

Woodstock Village – 1

Woodstock Town – 106

The President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site hosts the Plymouth Cheese And Harvest Festival on Saturday, Sept. 22, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Held annually since 1997, the day features wagon rides, traditional craft demonstrations, special presentations, seasonal culinary treats, and activities for the entire family.

For further information about the Plymouth Cheese And Harvest Festival, contact the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, 802-672-3773.  For information about the Vermont State-owned Historic Sites, visit: www.HistoricSites.Vermont.gov.

Folks and the Blues
Stars from Vermont and nationally known musicians teamed up for an exciting two-day festival of folk and blues music performed in the pure country air of historic Plymouth Notch at President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.

A Vermont Standard Production
Rick Russell Video

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Folks and the Blues

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Stars from Vermont and nationally known musicians teamed up for an exciting two-day festival of folk and blues music performed in the pure country air of historic Plymouth Notch at President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.
Rick Russell Photos

A portion of these photo first appeared in the September 7, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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Michael Clarke, designed and built his home with Frank Lloyd Wright as one inspiration and natural landscape as another.
Gwen Stanley Photos

By Virginia Dean
Special To The Standard
PLYMOUTH— Town Select Board members and a handful of residents struggled to understand the recent increase in property reassessments despite listers’ explanations at a recent Select Board meeting Aug. 6.
“I have had a lot of complaints,” said Select Board Chair Ralph Michael. “People are unhappy, and I need to find out why.”
There are currently 127 grievances filed out of 1,266 parcels, according to lister Carol Ackley who added that during the last town reappraisal in 2009, there were 400 grievances filed out of which 200 went to the local Board of Civil Authority.
“We have had letters thanking us from people who have spent time with us,” said Ackley. “No one likes to pay taxes. You’re not going to please everyone, not if they have to pay taxes.”
Residents are appealing the results of a statistical reassessment completed by the town’s Board of Listers in June.
The listers asked the state for permission to reappraise properties to help get them closer to fair market value and balance owners’ share of property taxes.
The state mandates all towns to be at 100 percent of total valuation, according to town lister Tom Marrone. Plymouth’s common level of appraisal, or CLA, was about 118 percent when listers suggested the reappraisal, indicating that most of the properties in town were appraised higher than their true value, Marrone said.
“The three of us put our heads together about a year ago,” explained Marrone. “The CLA was at 118 percent. In 2009, it was at 95 percent, and, in 2010, it went up to 100 percent. We had to make a decision. Had we done nothing, we believed it would have gone even higher.”
But Michael said that when the Select Board approved the reappraisal, it was unclear about its intent.
“One person’s property went up by over 200 percent,” noted Michael. “He had not done anything to his land since the last appraisal. I’ve seen others with property that has now been valued at a 100 percent to 200 percent increase as well. How do we explain this to people?”
Select Board member Andy Crossman and lister Carol Ackley noted that when the last town reappraisal was done in 2009, there was a conflict between the appraiser and the listers, implying that the old values might be questionable.
“They did want us to be part of the reassessment”, said Ackley. “We were kept out of the process, so we don’t know what they actually did. We now have corrected a lot of what we saw, so that may be why some of the appraisals went up.”
Ackley mentioned that there were also allocations given to certain properties when there was no reason for them. Some residences along unmotored lakes, for example, were given a 50 percent reduction.
Michael, however, was still perplexed.
“It’s now three years later and the economy is worse,” he said. “There was a hurricane that damaged a lot of properties, hardly anyone has touched their land, and the price of timber certainly has not gone up. How can you change the appraisal to up to two times as much?”
According to the 2012 Grand List, some property values in Plymouth have increased by as much as $230,000.
The increase is not surprising to Burlington’s reappraisal consultant Russell Beaudoin who was hired by the listers to complete the 2012 reassessment.
“Some properties remain the same, some lower and some higher,” he said. “It depends on the market segment and how it’s fairing. It’s not a simple formula.”
Beaudoin said that when a reappraisal is done, a new market model is devised.
“You have to run new statistics,” he explained. “You apply that model to the properties that are sold. It’s different from the one applied in 2009 because when you do a reappraisal, you have to start from scratch. You start all over again. And, there is no one value for each property. Rather, there is a range.”
Beaudoin added that the listers have abided by state requirements and procedures.
“The state has guidelines, and they followed them,” he stated. “The listers cannot just make an arbitrary decision about a piece of property. If someone has a hundred acres, for instance, the listers cannot speculate on what to do with that. Everyone must be treated the same way.
Marrone agreed.
“When we took this job as listers,” he said, “the one thing we had to do other than to maintain the Grand List was to operate under the principle of equity. We have to treat everyone the same. We cannot show any favoritism. That’s the way the job has to be done. If one person’s property is reappraised, then everybody gets reappraised. This is a decision that we made.”
Marrone said that the 2012 Grand List has dropped by 5.2 percent. Of the newly-assessed properties, the taxes for the appraised values have dropped by two-thirds and increased by a third.
Nonetheless, Michael asserted that he would follow up on the reasons for the upsurges.
“All I can tell you is that we have a lot of unhappy people,” he remarked. “I need to find out why.”
Michael said that he will work with the state tax department to find his answers. Beaudoin added that he would also help in that endeavor even though state statistics indicate that a typical percentage of grievances run about 10 percent, a proportion that Plymouth is currently at.

Police are looking for a man who was performing a lewd act near a girls summer camp area in Plymouth.

Witnesses told police they saw a clean-shaven, blonde-haired white man in his 20s shouting profanities and engaging in an indecent act on himself while standing near the Woodward Reservoir off Route 100 on Aug. 7 around 9:15 p.m.

State police are asking anyone with information to contact trooper Erik McNeice at 234-9933.

Plymouth Old Home Days
On a very hot, typical summer day in August, the town of Plymouth hosted a good old-fashioned Old Home Day at the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site. The many that braved the heat and humidity were treated to a fun-filled festival of wagon rides, chicken barbecue to benefit the Plymouth Volunteer Fire Department, sheep shearing and traditional Vermont craft demonstrations.
Nancy Nutile-McMenemy Photos

A portion of these photo first appeared in the August 9, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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Calvin Coolidge Summer Speaker Series – Annual Fundraising Gala Event
The Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation In Plymouth Notch held their Annual Fundraiser Gala August 2, and the guest of honor was Steve Forbes. The Gala is part of the Summer Speaker Series.
Rick Russell Photos

A portion of these photo first appeared in the August 9, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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Motdel T’s in Plymouth
The Calvin Coolidge Foundation hosted many Ford Model ‘T’s on the estate recently.
Rick Russell Photos

A portion of these photo first appeared in the August 2, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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The Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation In Plymouth Notch is holding an Annual Fundraiser Gala August 2, and the guest of honor is Steve Forbes.
Forbes, who is Chairman and Editor and Chief of Forbes Magazine, is appearing as part of the Foundation’s 2012 Summer Speaker Series.
The event will take place at the Coolidge Homestead, with cocktails at 6 p.m. and the gala will be held at 7 p.m. Forbes will be available to sign books after speaking.
Forbes is a one-time presidential candidate and sits on the board of the Heritage Foundation, a public police organization.
The Summer Speaker Series is sponsored in part by the Tuck School of Business and Dartmouth College. For more information, visit calvin-coolidge.org or call (802) 672-3389.

Police report that at about 12:30 this afternoon,Sunday, July 22, 2012, a death occurred at Amherst Lake at Hawk resort, on Route 100 in Plymouth.
Michael Bivins, 48, of Bridgewater Corners, was fixing a large floating trampoline as part of his job as groundskeeper for the resort. A witness called 911 when they saw Bivins thrashing about in the water, and he was transported to Springfield Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police say no foul play is suspected. Bivins’ body is now at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiners Office for an autopsy, which is scheduled for July 23.

Plymouth 4th – Calvin Coolidge Ceremony
Calvin Coolidge Historic Site, celebrated Independence Day as well as the birthday of Coolidge. A presidential wreath is part of the ceremony.
Beth Robinson Photos

A portion of these photo first appeared in the July 19, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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Police say a Ludlow man totaled his truck yesterday at about 3:55 a.m. In Plymouth.
Vermont State Police received several calls about a motor vehicle accident on Scout Camp Road in Plymouth, and upon arriving they found that Austin Strong-Lawson, 20, of Ludlow had crashed his truck and rolled down over a bank and into a tree. Police observed empty beer cans at the scene.
Strong-Lawson was transported to the hospital for minor injuries and a sample of blood was obtained from Strong-Lawson for suspicion of DUI.

TYSON — A memorial service for Elizabeth (Hill) Jarvi who passed away on July 1, 2012 at her home following a brief illness will be held at the Tyson Church on July 6 at 11a.m. The family will meet friends at the church in the hour before the service. A reception will be held following the service. Burial will take place at the Plymouth Cemetery in August.
Betty was born in NYC on August 11, 1925, daughter of Ethel (Hunt) and John Alexander Hill of Westfield NJ.
She attended schools in VT, NJ, Long Island, and graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn, NY in 1943. Following her graduation from Bates College in Lewiston ME in 1947 she returned to Tyson where her mother had owned property since 1917, and accepted a position as a social worker with the Children’s Division of the VT Dept. of Social Services.
On September 18, 1948 she married Voitto William (Bill) Jarvi at the Tyson Church.
She continued to work for the Children’s Services until 1951 when she became a full-time mom. She later worked part-time as a social worker at the VOTC in Proctorville and the Homestead in Woodstock.
In 1972, Betty became the first social worker at the new Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center in Windsor. She developed the Social Work Dept. there as the facility grew and expanded. After retiring in 1986 she worked briefly as a part-time social worker at Merton’s House in Woodstock.
Always an active community servant, Betty was involved in 4-H work for many years, locally as leader of the Ninevah Brook 4-H Club, as a member and later chairman of the Windsor County Advisory Board, and as trustee and then chairman of the VT 4-H Foundation. She was past president of the Tyson School Club, the Plymouth School Club, and was an originator of the Tyson (now Plymouth) Strawberry Festival, serving as Chairman for 14 years. Other involvement included early work on the Plymouth Land Use Plan and 20 years on the Town Zoning Board of Adjustment, the last 5 years as chairman. She served on the Plymouth School Board for 12 years, on the Board of Listers for 12 years, and as Trustee of Public Funds for 9 years. Betty was a Justice of the Peace and served on the Board of Civil Authority. She also was Town Service Officer and Health Officer. Betty was on the first Board of Directors of the VT-NH Visiting Nurse Association.
More recently Betty has been volunteer curator and an officer of the Plymouth Historical Society and volunteer librarian at the little Tyson Library which is supported by the Tyson Ladies’ Aid, of which she was a past president and member since 1948. She was also on the Board of Directors at the Black River Valley Senior Center, and secretary of Bates College Class of 1947.
Before and after retirement Betty traveled extensively in the United States and abroad. She continued to be an enthusiastic supporter of her family and community.
She leaves her husband Bill; two daughters: Kristen Jarvi and her companion David Montgomery of West Rutland, and Lauren Jarvi and her husband Leonard Gerardi of St. Johnsbury; four grandchildren: Kristen’s sons Tyler Scofield of Columbia SC and Luke McQuillen and his wife Laura of Palm Bay FL; and Lauren’s children Julian Tyson Gerardi of Bozeman MT and Hillary Gerardi of Grenoble France; and one great-granddaughter Jenna Leigh McQuillen. She is predeceased by her parents and her brother- and sister-in-law Elwin and Irene (Jarvi) Phillips of White River Junction and FL.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Tyson Library, c/o Marge Harlow, 867 Rt. 100 North, Ludlow, VT 05149; or the Tyson Church, c/o Margo Marrone, 39 Dublin Rd, Ludlow, VT 05149.
Arrangements are in the care of Aldous Funeral Home in Rutland VT.
This obituary first appeared in the July 2, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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