Via Community News Service, in partnership with Vermont State University Castleton
After 65 years of mystery and discussion, Munger Road in Fair Haven is being reinstated as an official town road.
At the Feb. 18 Select Board meeting, the board passed a resolution to officially sign a memo to the state of Vermont stating that Munger Road was never discontinued and is a class-four road.
The most recent discussion of the mystery began in 2022, when the sitting Select Board raised the question of why Munger Road was missing on town maps.
When that question was brought to the attention of six-year Fair Haven Selectman Glen Traverse, he immediately began digging through past meeting minutes and files.
“I did my research by looking at past Select Board minutes and found that some were digitized. A lot I had to go into the vault, pull the hard copy, and research the minutes from the hard copy,” Traverse said in a recent interview.
It appeared that in 1946, there was an error made that failed to recognize the forward half of Munger Road on official state maps. The section of road that now houses the Fur Haven Dog Park, to the northbound side of Sheldon Road, had ultimately disappeared, Traverse said.
In the 1960s, Fair Haven officials began looking deeper into what caused the original mistake, but the information from their study was lost and unable to be found for the current board.
Up until the 2000s, all previous Select Boards were unable to re-classify Munger Road, which let the case go cold.
In 2007 and 2008, the board and town officials discussed at length a plan to fully discontinue Munger Road, according to past meeting minutes.
To discontinue the road, however, would mean the town would stop maintaining it, which could later cause problems for walkers, hikers, and even those who are willing to take a car on it.
From May to early July of 2008, the Select Board planned logistics to discontinue the road, with a Public Hearing set for July 15 to take place at the Rutland County RC Flyers Airfield.
At that public hearing, the town put up a fence at the south end of Munger Road, only allowing traffic for individuals. A motion was made to finally discontinue the road and reassign it as a recreation trail.
The motion passed 3-0 with two members abstaining, but an agreement afterward needed to be met by the legal teams of the town and the state, according to meeting minutes.
In early August of the same year, the “Notice of Discontinuance” from Fair Haven’s attorneys had issues that needed to be resolved. For the rest of 2008, Munger Road failed to be discontinued properly and was tabled to the next meetings until it was no longer being brought up.
“From 2008 to February 2022, it fell into an abyss. They couldn’t move forward, didn’t have any action. Therefore, it never had the formal meeting to be made into a trail or anything,” Traverse said.
In 2022, the problem with Munger Road was brought to the attention of the current Select Board, and they got to work on the matter.
In November of last year, Town Manager Joe Gunter found the missing 1960s study that had been packed away in the town offices, unlabeled.
“The Munger Road information was vital and we did need that. It seemed like there was no real rhyme or reason why things were stored the way they were stored or when they were stored,” Gunter said in an interview.
Traverse reminds residents that Munger Road being reinstated as a class-four road allows it to be a valuable access road to Sheldon Road, which later connects to Vermont Route 22A.
“It adds to the total road mileage. It also means we have to keep it maintained one season a year, which is summer,” said Bob Richards, Fair Haven Selectboard Chairman.
Empty land near Munger and Airport Road will also be home to a new solar project in the near future, and the change allows the front end of Munger Road to be accessed.
After recently presenting the state with the lost information on Munger Road, there was plenty of facts to solve this Fair Haven mystery.
“I got confirmation from the state that they will put Munger Road back on our town highway maps. We found the original survey for Munger Road from 1918, which they said ‘Yeah, that’ll do it.’ After 65 years, we’ll finally be able to put the last nail in that casket,” said Gunter at the Feb. 18 meeting.
“I’m looking forward to seeing it on the map,” Traverse said.
In other news:
- The Fair Haven Hometown Heroes Banner project has launched and is doing exceedingly well. Kelly Donaldson spoke at the meeting to share that the project now has its own P.O. box and email. Veteran banners are to be hung on telephone poles on town-maintained roads only. The price for a banner is $190 and can be paid by check or money order to honor a veteran.
- American Legion Post 49 would like to spend $6,000 to install a gazebo in the memorial triangle. Concerns from the community included questions about the size of the gazebo, placement within the green, and how it will be maintained. The board will go back to the Legion to ask for a diagram of the placement and size of the structure.