Special Ancient Roads Meeting 11-5-08

Special Ancient Roads Meeting
November 5, 2008, 5 p.m.
Town Clerk’s Office

Present: Maryann Beaupre, Ilene Douglas, Brian Gray, Larry Labor, Ken
Whitehill, Allan Wooley & Guest: Tracy MacIntyre from NVDA

The Chair, Brian Gray, called the meeting to order at 5:11 PM and
introductions were made. Tracy MacIntyre came up from the Northeastern
Vermont Development Association based in St. Johnsbury to check where we were
in our efforts and to advise us in regards to the mapping which he handles for
NVDA. He was not able to bring the free reader version of his software,
because it had just been upgraded and he had not had time to work with it.
His regular program, the full editing version, costs $6000 and then requires
an annual license of $3000; this explains why NVDA charges $65 an hour for map
work rather than the regular $50 an hour for other work.

After looking at our compilation map and the four early surveys that I had
transcribed and drawn with MapDraw, he said 1) that we were far ahead of most
other town in our efforts, but 2) that he would recommend that we finish the
research phase of our work before we contracted with NVDA and then we should
send him the bulk of our material then. He suggested that it would be good to
try to find all the roads that had been thrown up/discontinued first, even if
we wanted them drawn on the map for historical reasons. He also mentioned
that Lyndon State has a cartographical department that is often looking for
projects for its students and that they would work more inexpensively, if they
needed a project. Brian took down the official contact and will contact them
officially, while Allan and/or Ilene will contact them through other channels.

The question of how much money there still was and how much longer we had
before it was no longer available. Larry said that he did not have that
information with him. Brian asked Allan how much time (or how many hours) it
would take to finish the research; Allan said that he had no idea. He pointed
out that it would be considerably less if we had the inventory and if it
listed the road surveys. As it was, no one knew how many volumes of records
there were (there are 5 volumes of Town Records, of which the road surveys
from volumes 1 & 2 have been copied; 68 volumes of Land Records in which there
may be deeds/assignments of rights of way or easements, mention of roads in
the deeds, and some maps of the position of power and telephone poles [e.g. in
vol. 16]; several volumes of Journals with payments to road commissioners
etc.). Allan had given a wild estimate of time per volume and multiplied it
by an erroneous number of volumes. With the inventories, the state town road
maps from 1930 on, and just having to cover the remaining 3 volumes of the
Town Records (on the assumption that all the surveys and such are there), it
would not be an over-demanding job. Of course, this is on the assumption that
the surveys and the discontinuances are all clearly marked and all in the five
volumes of Town Records. That assumption is likely to have holes, but it
still is not an impossible job, especially if we start with that basic
minimum: inventory, 1930 state road map, and just the remaining three volumes.

A good deal of time was spent looking at the compilation map and then at the
multitude of maps that Tracy brought and gave to the town for free. We gave
him a copy of our compilation map to take with him for NVDA and to use if we
get to the point of hiring him and NVDA. Maryann offered the use of her light
table for our map work.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Allan Wooley