VERGENNES — City Manager Mel Hawley told the Vergennes City Council members at their meeting last Tuesday that Vergennes had been awarded a $37,500 grant through a Vermont Agency of Transportation program that will fund pedestrian-triggered flashing lights at five city crosswalks.
By next spring those lights should be installed along Main Street at its intersection with Panton Road, Macdonough Drive and Maple Street, and at Vergennes City Hall.
The fifth set will be placed on New Haven Road near its intersection with Green Street, a crosswalk heavily used by Vergennes Union Elementary School students.
Hawley credited the Vergennes Partnership and its marketing and development coordinator, Amy Bodette Barr, and planning commission chairman Shannon Haggett for their work writing the grant.
In other business, the council:
•  Discussed the question raised by resident Sarah Stroup of whether the council should do anything about dogs at crowded events on the city green in the wake of a serious dog bite on Sept. 31 that Stroup said left a child scarred. Stroup, a dog owner herself, said it might not be appropriate to permit dogs at “very stressful environments” on the green.
No action was taken, but Hawley said organizers of major events had the right to ban dogs, or the council could at some point change its city green use policy if it wished.
•  Discussed another issue raised by Stroup, city pool maintenance, particularly needed re-caulking along the edge of the pool. It is something the council has discussed devoting a $14,000 surplus to accomplishing.
Hawley said he has already devoted $2,000 to another project and is obtaining an estimate for the caulking work, which he called “not a $2,000 job.” He also noted Watershed Fund proceeds are already devoted to the pool, and the council could decide to dedicate more money if necessary.
•           Appointed Aldermen Lowell Bertrand as the city’s Green Up Day Coordinator and donated $150 to that cause.