Wells Hopes To Gain A Town Beach On Lake St. Catherine

(Host) The town of Wells is working with the Vermont Land Trust on a project that could give the tiny Rutland County town something it's wanted for a long time: public beach access to Lake St. Catherine.

VPR's Susan Keese has more.

(Keese) Lake Saint Catherine is five miles long, and approximately half of it is in Wells. Development around the lake is fairly dense.

Selectboard member Richard Strange says the lake is definitely the town's biggest attraction.

(Strange) "There's quite a few seasonal camps and houses, there's a lot of four season houses at this point on the lake, but it's kind of a seasonal population."

(Keese) In the summer, the lake offers all kinds of fun: boating, fishing, water skiing. The only thing in short supply are the town's full-time residents.

Strange says they have to pay a fee at Lake Saint Catherine State Park, in neighboring Poultney. The only public point of entry in Wells is a heavily used public boat launch.

(Strange) "It is kind of ironic that unless you knew a property owner... up on the lake..., you really couldn't legally access the lake just to go sit or sit at a picnic table to stick your feet in the water, that kind of thing."

(Keese) Which is why Strange and a lot of other people sprang into action when a "for sale" sign showed up on a 300-acre farm that included the last developable lakefront property in town.

Now the town is hoping to acquire almost two-thirds of the former Delaney Farm to create public beach, and perhaps a town forest as well.

Donald Campbell represents the Vermont Land Trust in southwestern Vermont.

(Campbell) "This is one of the most spectacularly gorgeous places you can imagine...a good portion of it open and agricultural, that goes right down to the edge of Lake St Catherine."

(Keese) Campbell started getting calls as soon as the "for sale" sign went up - that was on a Friday, he recalls.

That Monday, Campbell met with the agent for the property, along with Strange, representing the select board.

(Campbell) "I had brought with me, just in case, a purchase and sales offer. And so Rich and I quickly caucused about it and decided that we needed to make the offer on the spot."

(Keese) The land trust paid $750,000 for the land, from a revolving fund that will have to be paid back.

Campbell says such purchases are rare, but the organization had been waiting for this land to become available.

The farm has been part of the local landscape for generations. The elderly sisters who owned it had died a few years back. A local farmer rents the fields for hay and corn.

Campbell says about 100 acres will be kept in farming, and possibly sold to a farmer at an agricultural, rather than commercial rate.

(Campbell) "We're going to be putting out a request for proposals to the farm community for the right kind of farm business to own and operate that."

(Keese) The Land Trust is asking Wells to come up with $150,000 for its part of the bargain.

Selectman Strange says lakefront residents want to protect the resource and their investments. Year round residents need a beach. He says this effort could bring everyone in town together.

For VPR News, I'm Susan Keese