MONKTON — Three new structures in Monkton are just steps from completion, according to Monkton selectboard Chair Stephen Pilcher.
They are:
•  The Park and Ride bus shelter, being built as an Eagle Scout project by Mason Wood.
•  The pavilion at Morse Park, being built by the Recreation Committee and spearheaded by Paul Low. This project is paid for by donation from the town for a Recreation Center some years ago; the project did not raise enough funds and the Recreation Committee and Selectboard agreed to build the pavilion, Pilcher explained.
•  The addition to the Monkton fire station, which will house the water rescue boat and related equipment, as well as provide an additional storage area. Residents voted to approve the funding at the March 2015 town meeting.
The Park and Ride bus shelter is part of larger improvements to the Monkton Park and Ride in the lower parking lot at the Monkton Central School, funded through a grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation. A large chunk of that $50,000 grant is going to four parking lot lights, which Pilcher expects to be installed by the end of September. According to Pilcher, the LED lights will conform to the dark sky initiative.
“They will go to half power after midnight and have a motion sensor that will restore full power between midnight and dawn,” he said.
The remainder of the VTrans grant has gone to such improvements as widening the lot, adding a second curb cut, and paving the area shared between the Park and Ride lot and the school.
Pilcher said the selectboard is also lobbying Addison County Transit Resources to add a Monkton bus stop at the Park and Ride, making it easier for residents to take public transit to Vergennes, Hinesburg or Bristol.
“Getting to any of these three communities would connect Monkton with the Burlington/Middlebury routes that already exist,” said Pilcher.
Reporter Gaen Murphree is reached at [email protected].