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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Bolton is not alone in having these kinds of problems and facing these kinds of questions. The island of Maui, one of the Hawaiian islands, has faced these exact same issues with their waterfalls, after the increase of tourism and the increase of tourist awareness of those waterfalls. Many of them were used by the locals for decades, until they started coming up in tourist brochures.These days, some of those waterfalls, many of which are also on private land, have been completely destroyed because of overuse.As to the NIMBY complaints, that has nothing to do with private use of private property. NIMBY refers to an absurd amount of resistance by neighbors to (often) reasonable corporate, public, or governmental use of an area, such as building a highway, power facilities, or other construction or land use. Wanting to keep one’s private property clean and healthy and safe has nothing to do with it.
Wow. As an out of state visitor, who loves Vt, has spent quite a bit of time there with friends and family, and hopes to move there someday…I am truly disgusted at what is going on at the potholes. I have been to other swimming holes in Vt, never visited the potholes…but it was on my list…not so much now. Why do I want to hang out with a bunch of people who have no respect for their environment or community? I feel sorry for the residents that have had to but up with this crap, literally. What they have been dealing with is unbelievable. Who are these assholes trashing the place?? How hard is it to respect other people’s property and the environment. Carry in carry out. ANYONE who visits the potholes should be respectful of adjacent property owners and the river. My hope is that the disrespectful lazy ones are really in the minority, and that most people do care about this place. As much as I don’t think the town should have to provide porta pottys and garbage cans, maybe that is the way it will have to go.
I use to live next to the pot holes. When I moved in I thought it was going to be great. Then people went to the bathroom in front of our house, let their attack dogs run up to my toddlers, dogs go to bathroom in my garden, blast their boom boxes right in front of my house. People party there 24 hours a day and most nights a week. Then they get trashed, which is not big deal with me. That is until they get hurt, they assumed I was a 24/7 mergency response volunteer. I would rather live next to an airport runway then go through the pot holes experience again.
Well half the problem here is that the people who go to the potholes are complete rednecks, (NOT THE LOCALS, THEY’RE NOT THE PROBLEM) and don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment. They bring their beer and hound dogs, and end up leaving both of them, literally. I’m sick of these people who don’t give a crap about anything. One day there was a damn dog swimming around trying to attack people, and ended up injuring a little girl. Where was the owner? Out drinking beer of course. He didn’t show up for another hour. I’m pretty sure there’s a leash law in effect, and a law about littering in the state of VT. Littering carries a $500 fine, and I don’t understand why the potholes seem to be the exception. As for all of us ‘Nimbys’ who complain, we’re the ones who end up cleaning up all your damn trash, and calling 911 when some drunk redneck cracks his head open, which has happened a number of times. A single member of the community has committed their time and effort to clean up over 650 gallons of trash during the months of May, June and July, and July isn’t even over yet! That shouldn’t be our job, its yours. That’s 650 gallons of littering. Us locals want you to come, just be f***ing responsible! Don’t throw your damn diapers in the water (which happens all the time, and guess who picks them up?) and go crap on your own lawn. And all you people complaining about putting up trash cans, people did, and they went missing. And putting up a restroom? And you expect us to pay for it too, so all you nice, responsible visitors can keep coming and swear at us for being Nimbys and tell us we can’t park in our own driveways. I really, really want to make sure your needs are met, especially since you give absolutely nothing back. I honestly don’t care what you say; it’s not your land. I think you forgot the potholes are on private property, and it’s not our job to babysit your needs. You should be the ones pleasing us unless you want access taken away. Keep it up people, a meeting has been held. Clean up your act or get evicted. There’s a fairly good chance that access to the potholes are going to be even more restricted in the future. Parking may be all but eliminated in an attempt to reduce the number of violations, but more likely there will be a police officer giving parking tickets and other tickets for littering and other violations. Hey, it’s your own damn fault. Maybe some of these people should come live on this street and see how they like it.
PHEW! This blog is hotter than the temps over the last few weeks! We, as BV residents, who DID do our homework when purchasing our places, are only asking for simple cooperation, respect for land and residents, and safety. 10 years ago when I purchased my home, this situation did not exist…At least not to the level to which it has risen. As a new father, nothing scares me more than some unfortunate circumstance injuring my daughter because of a lack of respect. We only ask for people to not park on the street, not to leave trash, and to act with respect, courtesy, and maturity. Not difficult. Please visit our area! Please have fun! Please visit the surrounding businesses, spend your dollars and help out the mom and pop shops, but follow the golden rule: Do unto others…Parking barriers, signs, more police action, etc. sounds like a band-aid on a compound facture. Some of these emasures may be neccessary in the short-term in order to get our point across. This should be ONE STEP in a multi-step process to make improvements that we all desire. Why do we always turn to increasing security measures as a society? HUMANS need to be more responsible for our actions? Evolution is change that progresses a species forward in some fashion; the situation at the potholes is change, but not evolution. Yes, the potholes will be here for a lot longer than any of us…until the next period of glaciation anyway.
Ted, I NEVER offered to crap on your lawn! And, you sir sound like your one of the culprits, as well an ass! Way to be part of the problem Ted!!! You must be so proud! I will give you this Ted, your right, the potholes will be around long after I and other locals have come and gone, but will it be a place you want to swim at? Since you failed to get the message….this is EVERYONES problem! STOP TRASHING VERMONT. That includes you Ted!
Kim, did you actually go see the house on the Bolton access road before you rented/bought it? If you had, you would have noticed the beer bottles, parking mess, drunk locals, etc. You sound like a person who moved in next door to a nuclear power plant and then bitched when your kid grew a third arm. You are sounding strangely naive and very NIMBY. Thanks for the offer to come crap on my lawn, but no thanks. That’s why I chose to live in a place where it doesn’t happen. I will say it again, the potholes will be around long after Kim, John T, and BV Local are long gone. Right now you sound like a bunch of sniveling NIMBY crybabies. I can’t wait to pee in Kim’s yard the next time I’m there, and I’ll be bringing a group of 30 additional cars of new visitors, all of whom want to check out the ‘holes since reading how fun the place is. See you this weekend!
People are disgusting.
Hey 7days…thanks for providing a map!!
Whoaaaa! Maybe Ted should spend some time cleaning up the trash at the potholes for a solid week!!! Maybe get a clue Ted….