In case some of you have noticed an oily sheen along the eastern shore of the pond, it apparently came from an overturned oil can due to high water in the boathouse at the John Allen cottage. We were alerted to it yesterday and had all kinds of authorities on alert, but the can has been removed and whatever oily substance there was has been dispersed and diluted and as far as we know, no harm was done. Thanks to Andy Rudin and some others on that road, it was noticed and reported, the source was located and measures taken to correct it. Mert Leonard, Danville's health officer, was contacted and also the Agency of Natural Resources. Mert was going to inspect the site this morning, and since we've heard no more from anyone today, we believe all is well.

I had a message this morning from Claudia Sacuk who has a cottage in the "swamp" just off the rail trail. Not only did much of the wetlands surrounding her camp float away, she had water in her cottage. Here's what she wrote:

Jane, I have read in your blog about the Natural Resources Dept and the the water level debate. I know that there were other lakes in Vt that successfully avoided last weekends flood by letting the water level down in anticipation.  Having had hurricane warnings well in advance,  it is inexcusable not to be able to lower the pond a bit.  Considering the level was "accidentally" dropped about a month ago with no terrible effects.  My swamp camp on the North end unfortunately had over a foot of water inside and much was ruined.  We spent all of Saturday mucking it out. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time water had invaded my rustic abode in its over 60 year history. What can be done?  I would love to get involved in another dialogue on this issue with GMP and the State.  My home in Brownsville on the Mill Brook came very close to flooding last Sunday, my Swamp Camp flooded, and it's pouring out now.  This has been a most unfortunate week.  Thanks for listening.  Claudia Sacuk

She later told me she has tried to find someone to raise the cottage enough to get it out of harm's way during high water. Here's what she said about that:

I would love to raise up my camp but being inaccessible to any sort of equipment is a problem.  Since we've owned it we had a couple of people look at doing that and after looking at the project no one signed up.  If you know of any one who would do that sort of work I would love their name and contact info.  For now we use the rail bed for access on our infrequent camping adventures.  VTrans has thus far refused my requests for access once the rail trail is up and running.  My understanding is that was supposed to get underway soon from Channel Dr to St J.  Now that VTrans is so busy dealing with the flooding I don't know where the rail trail fits in.  I wish we could raise the camp before they gate it.

Getting equipment there to raise the camp would be a problem, but perhaps someone could come up with a workable idea to help these folks out. If anyone has some ideas, contact Claudia at Claudia.C.Sacuk@hitchcock.org I'm sure she'd be grateful for any help anyone could come up with. Maybe the work could be done in the winter? Perhaps build the base and bring it there on skids. I'm betting someone could come up with a solution. There are lots of creative contractors, builders, carpenters and/or handymen around here and I bet someone can help.

Most of you know that Fred is webmaster for our website, and some of you know that he builds websites on a volunteer basis from time to time (other than for me). He has a partner, "Frankie" who lives in Florida. Anyway, there was an article in the Burlington Free Press about them this morning:
www.burlingtonfreepress.com
Pretty cool, huh?

We were saddened to learn of death of the co-owner of the Hardwick Gazette,
Here is the notice: Susan Jarzyna
She was a lovely, talented lady and the community will miss her very much.