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Village Conservancy asks boards to greenlight public feedback and outlines stepwise process for initiatives
Summary
The Village Conservancy presented a structured, multi-step roadmap to shepherd community initiatives — including a proposal to rehabilitate the town green — and asked the select board and trustees to permit a summer public feedback session and use of municipal communications to announce it.
The Village Conservancy presented a step-by-step process to the joint select board and village trustees May 28 and requested permission to solicit public feedback on concepts for rehabilitating the town green this summer.
Wendy Marronin, speaking for the Conservancy, described a staged process from idea generation through an initiative-outline, leadership-team refinement, municipal staff review and then board approval. She said the Conservancy has limited capacity — "we have 10 members" — and that each initiative would be scoped separately with an initiative outline that would list goals, stakeholders, potential permits, a timetable and next steps. "So what I'm calling step a is idea generation," she said. "The idea is that, ideas can come from the municipality, from community members, from conservancy leadership team, from anywhere." The Conservancy proposed specific initiatives including "Branch Out Woodstock" (a tree-planting program), a volunteer "Conservancy Corps" and rehabilitation of the Green.
Conservancy leaders asked boards to allow publication of a notice on municipal channels and for the Conservancy to hold a public feedback session at Town Hall this summer. Wendy said prior outreach has included stakeholder meetings and a Market on the Green survey and that the planned public sessions would refine concepts and review materials and costs. "What we want to ask the select board and the trustees is to, agree to let us publish, on listserv as soon as possible and announce the public feedback session and to conduct that feedback session sometime this summer," she said.
Board members signaled support for taking the Conservancy’s requests to upcoming formal agendas rather than voting tonight; the select board will consider the items June 2 and trustees on June 9. The town manager and trustees also clarified that the parties currently operate under a letter of agreement describing roles and that any contractor hired to perform physical work on town property would be contracted by the town because the town holds liability for municipal land.
