GUILFORD — Nearly 50 people, including lawmakers and local activists, gathered on Saturday to protest the recent draining of Sweet Pond by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR).
Selectboard member Anne Rider said that she wanted to publicly thank the Save Sweet Pond organization, which organized the gathering, and its steering committee head, Linda Hecker, for working against the removal of the pond at the Sweet Pond State Park.
“This has been a pond for 300 years, and it's an incredible recreational resource for our town,” she said. “And for more than our town, this is a state park. There are people who live outside of Guilford who love and enjoy Sweet Pond. We heard from all over the country, people voicing their support for saving Sweet Pond.”
Rider told the crowd that the board was investigating several options and possibilities for saving the 18-acre pond.
The FPR awaits results from an ongoing study regarding the feasibility of repairing or replacing the current dam, as the Save Sweet Pond group begins efforts to raise money “in anticipation of a cost-sharing initiative between the state of Vermont and community groups” to restore the dam and the pond, the group has written.
Hecker, who also serves as a member of the town Conservation Commission, said she wanted to raise awareness and provide some perspective on what she feels is a loss to her community.
The controversy over Sweet Pond began when a 79-year-old dam that maintained the pond was deemed unsafe by the FPR [The Commons, May 18]. Potentially, the department said, the aging dam could fail and cause flooding that could imperil downstream properties.
But rather than repair the dam, the FPR elected to drain the pond, angering local residents who feel Sweet Pond is a long-standing part of the community.
According to an e-mail sent by Save Sweet Pond, “Generations of Guilford residents have used Sweet Pond for swimming, boating, fishing, ice skating, community Shakespearean theater and other recreational activities.”
After a picnic lunch near the site, now a series of cracked mud flats, a series of speakers and performers spoke about their reasons for wanting to restore the pond.
One of those people, journalist JoAnn Wypijewski of New York, has been coming to Guilford for the past 13 years to help run the Kopkind Colony, a retreat for political journalists, activists and artists that is located not far from Sweet Pond.
She called the pond “a place of terrific refuge for people who come to Guilford,” and spoke of the 200 or so people who have attended Kopkind and enjoyed the beauty of Sweet Pond, and who have carried those memories with them.
“We believe in preserving small beauty,” she added.
A current attendee at Kopkind Colony, Divad Durant, also of New York, took the microphone to sing a cover of “Yesterday” by the Beatles, certain lines of which were changed to reflect the issue (“Yesterday/Swimming was such an easy game to play...”).
Local musician Patty Carpenter and poet Verandah Porche sang an original, co-written duet called “Dam Gone.”
After the speakers and songs concluded, approximately 20 people took a guided tour around the former pond. Along the route, they read poems by second-grade students from Guilford Central School on Sweet Pond and its removal.
Each poem was read out loud as the tour progressed.
On Monday, the Guilford Selectboard created a six-member Sweet Pond Steering Committee.
The group will serve as the fiscal agent for the town as it oversees future fundraising and publicity for restoring the pond. The members are Town Administrator Katie Buckley, state Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon, Susan James, Richard Austin, Hecker, and Porche.
The town is seeking a seventh member for the committee. Anyone interested in serving may call the Town Office at 802-254-6857.