Lost Item & Cabot Road Damage Report

Patty Coffrin at the narrows between 2nd and 3rd ponds, wrote this:

I’m still missing a red Adirondack plastic chair. It blew off our dock Saturday night. Please call me if found. Thanks! 802-272-5437.

 

I'm sure there will be other items "lost" and "found" in the next few days. If you were not at your cottage during all that wind and rain and arrive here to find thing missing, I will post the information here . It is likely someone has or will find your runaway item.

 

The owner of the swim raft that was on the far northeast shore got in touch and was going to retrieve it - good news, and thanks to Jim Farnsworth for posting the picture of it. That was a big help.

I remember years ago when these storms happened it took several days of searching likely spots for lost items. One had to calculate the wind direction and head out, usually in a fishing boat with a small  outboard motor, traveling close to shore to try to find the item. In the 1950s and 60s, there were many cottages without phone service, and of course nobody had ever heard of cell phones or the internet, so it was more difficult to find things that had floated away. Some items went over the dam each year, and some were simply lost forever. Items can still sometimes make it all the way to the dam, but perhaps tie-ups are more secure now than they used to be. We had lots of wooden docks either supported by 50 gallon drums or posts driven into the ground, and if the decking was not well secured, it simply floated away when there was high water. The dock systems today are much better in so many ways. 

 

Boats tied at docks (not as many boathouses then, either) often filled with water and sank in place, or sometimes slipped their moorings as the water came up and floated them off. This picture is of Don Walker's boat when the pond flooded in 1973.This wasn't the only boat that got filled with water that year. Some had low sterns with heavy motors, and others were tied too securely to their docks so when the water level came up it just poured into them.

Something to still watch out for is floating debris after a storm like this. It might be a partly submerged piece of dock or waterfront, a piece of lawn or deck furniture, or parts of trees that were blown into the water. Just be vigilant so you don't run over anything and damage your boat or prop.

The weather today has surely been close to perfect. I actually got a few things done outside this morning, and this afternoon had to make a quick trip to Hardwick. Susan Socks did some trimming and moved a small cedar for me - and she cut down the aged, lovely trimmed cedar that died suddenly earlier this spring. I think it was because it lacked water after a gutter downspout was relocated, but who knows. Susan confirmed it was not going to come back to life, no matter how much water I gave it, so I let her take it down. I really hated to see it go - but it was time. It's now on the brush pile in the fire pit - and will no doubt make a spectacular display when touched off. I need to have a fire there soon - it's getting pretty filled up. It will take some time for everything to burn down to good marshmallow cooking size! I'm hoping no critters have built homes in that brush.

 

I just found this notice from our Cabot road foreman: 

 

Minor Flooding and Road Closures

Sid Griggs • VT Rte 232, Cabot

Good evening everyone. We received here again some washouts from the storms yesterday afternoon which closed Blodgett road and Jug Brook roads, as well as made Coits Pond on the Woodbury end one lane, among other spots that need some attention in that area.

Blodgett road was opened back up at 11am Monday morning. Jug Brook was worked on and will be open tomorrow, which is Tuesday June 25th after 10am. Coits Pond Road on the Woodbury end will be closed tomorrow for multiple culvert replacements in lieu of the washouts.

The closure of Coits Pond Road will begin at 9am and open at 4pm.

The road closure on Cabot Plain is being postponed due to this emergency work that needs tending to right away.

Thank you,
Cabot road foreman