News Flash

Another April is in the books. It’s been said April is the cruelest month – with winter’s icy tendrils still holding on, and the promise of warmer weather so close, and yet so far. This year was no exception. April snowed, gusted, and showered, but hopefully we’ll start to see some May flowers soon! In the meantime, I’m eager to share all the good work happening around town.

Spring Paving and Catch Basin Cleaning Underway

Our team was eager to get outside this April, despite the cool weather. We worked on projects like: 

• assessing and addressing plow damage from winter operations, 
• filling potholes on our dirt roads, and 
• improving roadside ditching for drainage on town roads. 

The request for proposals (RFPs) went out for FY23 paving, and we received several bids which are currently under review. We anticipate paving will occur early in the season. An additional RFP went out for catch basin cleaning and we contracted for the cleaning and inspection of 110 catch basins around town. 

We Will Soon Launch Our Chapter of Adopt-a-Drain

This initiative encourages community members to “adopt” a drain on their street, volunteering time each month to clear trash and debris from the drain to help protect local waterways. Participants can then enter an estimate of the amount of debris they cleared into the Adopt-a-Drain site to help measure the positive impact of this effort across the town. Those interested in signing up or learning more can visit: https://vt.adopt-a-drain.org/#how-to-adopt-a-storm-drain

Our Parks Are Ready for Warmer Weather – Thanks To Volunteers!

It’s a wonderful time of year for our recreation department. We’ve been cleaning up our parks and preparing for warmer days ahead. A big thank you to the volunteers who pitched in on Park Spruce Up Day. Your sunny dispositions despite the dreary weather were a true inspiration. 

With the Spruce Up Day volunteers’ help we were able to pick up trash, set up our new tennis court benches and attend to other park projects. We kept the spirit of celebration and park clean up going with Green Up Day last week. Residents picked up free Green Up bags from the town offices, and then on Saturday, May 7, they went to Bombardier Park East Pavilion between 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. to help clean the park and town roadsides. Coffee, hot chocolate, and donuts were provided at the event, and all had a great time cleaning up our town!

The Inaugural Inclusion Festival Welcomed All to Milton

Also on May 7, we hosted the Town’s inaugural Inclusion Festival, to celebrate “Belonging in Milton”. The festival launched Vermont's Inclusion Week and marked the first anniversary of the signing of Milton's Declaration of Inclusion. The event celebrated diversity with food, music, dancing, and other forms of art. It also highlighted minority-owned businesses and social groups representing our incredible Milton community. This celebration welcomed community members of all ages at Bombardier Park West, and we all had a wonderful time. We look forward to planning next year’s event! 

The Community Garden is Awakening

Outside the town offices, our Community Garden is awakening, and we are gearing up to make it bigger and better this season. We will soon launch a garden club for community members interested in helping us sow and maintain the garden. Our team is also preparing to expand the fruit tree grove with 11 new trees and 5 berry bushes. We can’t wait to see the garden and grove thrive this summer. 

Gearing Up for Recreation’s Summer Programming 

Our Recreation Department has been hard at work preparing our summer programming lineup, as well as summer camps. Camp registration opened on April 1 and by day’s end we had 70 kids enrolled. We continue to work on processing registrations, as well as scholarship applications for camp. Please visit miltonvt.gov/Recreation to learn more about this and other great summer programming.

Disc Golf Kits Now Available for Rent

Our disc golf course saw a decent amount of use last month, and we anticipate it will only grow in popularity as the weather improves. New this spring, we have disc golf kits available for rent. Go to miltonvt.gov/recregister and then click on Equipment Rentals at the top of the page. It’s a great way to test out the sport without investing in equipment. We hope those interested will come try out the course soon. 

The Town Clerk’s Office Has Been Busy with Everything from Water Bills to Redistricting

Our Town Clerk’s office has been occupied with processing water bills, which were due on Monday, May 2. The staff conducted routine operations such as helping visitors with research, processing land records, DMV registration renewals, and answering residents’ questions. Despite making a case to the state to retain our two current voting districts, Milton has now been divided into three voting districts. The decision was made based on our population. As such, our town clerk has been compiling a list of Milton streets and assigning them to their new voting districts in the state’s voter registration system. 

Library Now Open 6 Days-a-Week

We are thrilled to announce the library will now be open 6 days-a-week. The new library hours are: 

• Monday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Tuesday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Wednesday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Thursday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Saturday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 

Curbside pickup will no longer be offered. We appreciate the community’s patience as our library undergoes updates and materials are shifted. There will be no public computers available while these updates take place. We hope to have the electrical work completed shortly. In the meantime, those looking to print items can either call the library or ask at the front desk. 

As always, I look forward to seeing you in our offices or around town soon. If you would like to receive text or email notifications when these monthly Manager's Messages are posted, sign up for "Community News" at miltonvt.gov/notifyme.

Don Turner, Jr.

Milton Town Manager