As the mercury has risen in recent weeks, so too have the tempers of residents living along Bolton Valley Road near the Bolton Potholes. The usual crush of summertime visitors to the popular swimming hole has brought with it an unusual amount of public annoyances and safety concerns, including broken bottles, uncollected trash, illegal parking, fireworks and public urination and defecation. Several residents living near the falls have even reported been sworn at and verbally harassed by swimming hole visitors.
In response, the Bolton Town Selectboard is putting its foot down. According to newly appointed town selectman David Parot, the board has scheduled a special meeting for Monday to discuss ways of closing access to the swimming hole, which is located on private property.
“All of us on the selectboard, our phones have been ringing off the hook through this heat wave,” says Parot. “It’s been a disaster.”
According to Parot, traffic along Bolton Valley Road is now down to one lane of traffic every day due to all the cars parked on the town’s right of way. Last week, Parot says, he nearly T-boned another vehicle as it was turning around on a blind curve. However, he says state police can’t be expected to spend all their time trying to deal with this problem.
Photo credit: Matthew Thorsen.
The selectboard is looking for creative solutions. One proposal to be discussed on Monday is to rent concrete “Jersey barriers” that would prevent drivers from parking along the town’s right of way, and urging swimming hole visitors to park in the Smilie Memorial School a stone’s throw from the falls. However, Parot points out that at an estimated cost of $15,000 to rent those barriers, that solution may be impractical.
Likewise, the prospect of towing cars, though not off the table, is less than desirable, as it’s costly and less effective at keeping visitors away.
There are no plans to consider designating the falls as a town park due to safety and liability concerns.
In the meantime, the board is appealing to the public to be more considerate to Bolton property owners and if they pack it in, pack it out — be it dirty diapers, cigarette butts, beer bottles or other debris.
“We don’t want to play the heavy, but at some point you have to lay down the law,” Parot adds. “We have an obligation to our taxpayers to not see their quality of life diminished.”
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2010.
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In answer to the question,regarding the elimination of parking on the “downhill” side;the Selectboard made this decision,last year,for safety reasons.Persons parking,on both sides,still continued to park on “paved road area” partially;this caused a severe restriction for safe travel(say nothing of fire/rescue vehicles).Also,persons parked on that downhill side,were leaving doors open,children in the road & crossing to reach the “potholes”;it just made sense to try to eliminate some of the hazards. When school is out,parking in Smile School lot is a safe option. PARKING ON TRAVEL PORTIONS OF THE ROAD(Pavement) is illegal;towing/ticketing is an option. We will continue to depend on our State Police to keep the road open & safe!PS…We are having a “special meeting” this coming Monday to set our tax rate.The “potholes” was on our agenda at the last meeting;it will continue to be a monitored issue.Thanks
“We as a Select Board have more important things to get done…”Yet here you are blogging about this. As long as you are Mr. Parot, what say you to the earlier comment:“As somebody who has lived in BV for 10 years, I knew this summer was going to be a problem when the select board decided to do away with all the parking on the downhill side of the road, eliminating half the available parking spaces for the potholes. This also created less space to turn around, so people are forced to try and park further up the road, or turn around using private driveways on blind corners.”Did the selectboard eliminate half the parking? If so why? And did this action contribute to the problems? BV_Local’s comments seemed worthy of addressing.
The town of Bolton was chartered in 1763. We have 26,000 acres of land. We have an excellent turnout for town meeting . And we are a close knit community. What we are not is a door mat that people wipe their feet on coming in and going out. So when i read NIMBY in a comment it makes me a little frustrated.There are thousands of preserved acres in our little town of 900 plus. Some of which include Preston pond a wonderful mixed use natural area. The Sarah Holbrook property along the Winooski river a wild place in a very natural untouched setting. CRAG VT maintains a rock climbing area that the town helped with.We have the Long Trail, the Catamount Trail, and thousands of acres enrolled in the Current Use program. We also have a great snowmobile club that maintains some of the best riding in the state.OOOPs and i almost forgot we entertain 225,000 skier visits a year on top of thirty summer time weddings . So we have a lot of stuff going on in our BACKYARDS .We will not have Valet parking, restrooms , free trash disposal,and don’t forget maid service to clean up after people at the potholes.Plain and simple. This issue is strictly about legal parking on the access road. Bolton taxpayers and residents have a right to go to and from their homes safely with out delay and that is not happening. If folks that come to our town don’t like it, tough. And anyone that doesn’t like can go jump in the LAKE. We as a Select Board have more important things to get done like Budgets, setting the tax rate, trying to keep taxes down so people can stay in their homes and getting FEMA flood regulations finished. we have better things to do than baby sit people with poor behavior. David Parot
This is the same BS as people who live near the airport and complain about noise from jets and F16’s. Did you not know you were buying a house near an airport when you bought your house? Airports are loud. Jets are loud. F16s are really loud. Same is true for Bolton Potholes. The potholes have been there long before any of these NIMBY locals started bitching, and they’ll be there long after the NIMBY locals are gone. Embrace reality and find solutions. Don’t just bitch. People will always find a way to enjoy the potholes, no matter what limits are put on the access. People will just walk further and bushwack through the woods behind Smiley School. Make it safe, put trash cans up, park at the school, make a path, and ask people to contribute money to help pay for the stuff. Believe me, they’ll pay. They love the place.
People need to respect the locals. I have seen theabuse of the Bolton pots get worse over the years. If users of the swimming hole cannot visit low-impact, thenI say take away access.
Its not about disuading people from coming, it’s about safety and respect! The people who live near the potholes have the right to not have to deal with the trash, people crapping in the woods behind their houses and being sworn at. Are we going to wait until somebody’s child is hit because they’re standing in the road before we take this seriously. The selectboard members are constantly receiving complaints from BV residents and they are simply trying to find a solution to this issue. Why is it so hard to understand that you shouldn’t park or hang out in the road and that you should clean up after yourselves. Come on people!!
If there were garbage cans and bathrooms, that would help with some of the issues. I don’t know how much they spent on the parking barriers they already put in place on the downhill side of the road, but that money could have been better spent elsewhere.
BV_Local for selectboard! Your position is exactly correct.
As somebody who has lived in BV for 10 years, I knew this summer was going to be a problem when the select board decided to do away with all the parking on the downhill side of the road, eliminating half the available parking spaces for the potholes. This also created less space to turn around, so people are forced to try and park further up the road, or turn around using private driveways on blind corners.When it gets hot, people are going to come and swim. That isn’t going to stop. The select board should just accept that and figure out a way to maximize the parking area they have, rather than blocking more of it off. Turn the potholes into a park, create a real parking area, and drop the NIMBY attitude so we can welcome people to the community rather than try and dissuade them from coming by ticketing and towing.
If the state police are the responsible force for dealing with traffic on the road, then the state police must be expected to deal with the situation. While I realize state police have more pressing issues than dealing with swimming hole jumper traffic violators they also have more important issues in the winter than dealing with senseless drivers on ice covered mountain roads, such as this road.If it is really a problem and people are affected, take action tow the violators, and get over it.After all the swimming is free it is not like a lot of tax dollars will be lost to businesses because you tow illegal parkers.More tax dollars would be lost if state police patrolled the area heavily, issued tickets and ticked people off in the winter than towing these violators.