Jericho, VT. Planning Toll Booths

 

Jericho is Planning Toll Booths

by correspondent Bernie Paquette of the Jericho News Tablet

April 1, 2025

Jericho has come up with an innovative approach for speed control and to recoup costs for road maintenance. 

“Road maintenance is a large part of the town’s budget”, a town representative declared. “With more and more thoroughfare traffic, passers through need to contribute to the upkeep.” 

The town planning and road departments and a volunteer group interested in speeding countermeasures met monthly over the winter to discuss ideas. 

One plan is complete, with installation expected by mid-spring.

Phase one includes installing permanent pneumatic road tubes to collect traffic data, including vehicle counts, speeds, and vehicle classification/identification. 

Phase two will install toll booths on each end of Skunk Hollow Road and Browns Trace. 

The gate at the tool booths will remain open to traffic traveling within the speed limit as measured by the road tubes further up the road. Any car that goes over the road tube faster than the speed limit will activate a signal to close the gate when that car approaches the toll booth.

Tolls will be assessed based on how much over the speed limit that car was going. 

*Passers through = Folks from other towns.

April 1 Local News brought to you by 

Bernie

Who reminds us all to 

Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good. 

Editor’s note: This story, quite appropriately,  was written entirely, and just in time for April Fool’s Day.

Choose the Letters to Make Your Day

Choose the letters to feed your day

- Bernie Paquette

Got up

read the paper

my Alphabet cereal

spelled D O O M

I dunked the D

an N rose

swirled and twirled

turned them around

to spell Moon

Got up

read the paper

My Alphabet cereal

spelled Disaster 

I ate it all down

burped in Despair

milk bubbles 

out my nose.

Got up

newspaper’s great for Starting a Fire

My house is now warm

though frosty out there.

Left the Alphabet cereal in the cupboard

forecast calls for record highs

Toast burnt

I am covered in a  Jam

Got up

A bit later than usual

oatmeal is cold and lumpy

but cinnamon atop is spicy

Sun 

homemade date squares

placate

rise and shine

Stay in bed?

I might as well be dead

pancakes lumpy

River of maple syrup, I’m no longer grumpy

Got up early

left the newspaper at the door

Breakfast will wait

spelling my own words today

Planting O A K Trees

Acorn breakfasts soon

Planting berry bushes

Strawberry, BB, Raspberry, berry, berry, berry good

Rise and shine

I tell the sun

Catch up with me

Grow me a tree.

The day is young

The day is promising

I am hungry

for what Nature

Spells out for me.

My trees and shrubs

grow leaves

A Caterpillar’s breakfast

some.

A bluebird delighted my morning view

swooped down

to breakfast

caterpillar for her young.

Buds and blooms

spell summer 

a bowl of 

perfumed butter.

This is news of life

no matter rain 

no matter clouds

no matter thunderstorms

no matter the forecast.

My breakfast bowl 

laden with fruit and nuts

Every day I get up 

Earlier

Watch the S combine with U, combined with N

Makes me smile

At night, the trees are dunked in darkness

The moon floats up - their night light

I get up

Pick all my letters 

Outside

Breakfast has never been so good

News can be sharp enough to cut

Choose your letters carefully

and make your way

into every day

delightful.

Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good

Bernie

A Lot of Snow and a Little Hyperbole - Jericho, Vermont

 My brother Mike lives in WA state. Where he lives the winters are wimpy, mild compared to VT winters.

I told him it has been snowing here about every three days; when I go outside my shovel comes running to greet me.

He wrote back and asked, "I am still wearing running shoes; what's a [snow] shovel?"

To which I responded, 

 A shovel is an instrument to strengthen your resolve and embolden your desire to move to AZ, kill your back before you get a chance to move, and works like a steam shovel except you have to provide the steam.

I expect he will mail me a bunch of snow spoons!

I hope he sends TABLESPOONS because it snowed From Sat afternoon until early Monday morning. 

My cousin [in NC] informs me, "I like to think that all of that snow & cold builds character!
Keeps your cheeks (all of them!) nice & rosy too!!"

I wrote again to my brother, "If the definition of crazy is when you throw a shovel full of snow 12 feet in the air (to reach the top of the snow bank you have built up) and the gusts of wind blow half the shovel load back at you and you keep at it until you get the driveway cleared - if that is the definition of crazy, then what is this called; 

When you go inside for a half hour to drink some hot cocoa and thaw your blue fingertips, then look out the window to see the 12-foot pile reduced to 7 feet and you realize the wind drifted snow higher than before onto the driveway?"

To which he responded, "Just a note to say that the medical field has said that more men died from shoveling snow, first thing in the morning than do red ants swallowed by an anteater.

Wait till noon, and then shovel."

I responded, "OR maybe I will wear RED pANTS when I shovel to shovel in the morning.

More correspondence with neighbors, "Speaking of bucket loader, I shoveled up a vole or mole yesterday - I bet that was exciting for that little creature.

Today I shoveled the road in front of the mailbox and shoveled UP the mailman. The mail-person said it felt like they were delivering AIR Mail!"

It might be time to resurrect the idea for a Mountain Resort in Jericho https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2018/03/mountain-resort-seeks-jericho-vermont.html

Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good

~ Bernie

Today I Feel Alive

 It is so easy to repeat the same stories (both in my head) and to others over and over again. 

So very refreshing to take time out to listen to others.

And then to step outside in the early morning, discarding the walls, and warmth for the wonder of cold that stills, quiet that awakens, pinkish sky on the eastern horizon, along with pure white faux sun (the moon), earlier than yesterday and the day before light, birds practicing their spring songs, the white clean-slate land surrounded by grandfather trees (who have been through and will see more history than I have or will) - is to clear the head, open the mind to the beauty and immensity of life - not just human, but of all life. 

Though history is fascinating, and today's challenges are immense; TODAY is when we are most alive. 

Today is the best day to find joy, experience laughter, love, and friendship, and feel the earth the cradle of our existence.

Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good

Bernie

Valentine's Day Jericho Posts & Gratitude

Gratitude

Feb 14, 2025

I am thankful for the many people I have interacted with in Jericho, Underhill, and Richmond.

Here are a few of the reasons why:

>Residents being attuned to our neighbors and community members.

> Efforts to maintain the unique identity of a community, including its history and the impression it leaves on residents and visitors. Improving our community's character and quality of life.

>Behavioral recipes of ideas and views combining many ingredients mixed together.

> People demonstrating they want to share and celebrate, more so than compare and compete.

>I am thankful for the many COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS; Building my sense of human connection and a sense of belonging.

>A resounding understanding that Community is not static. Community needs to be developed, sought after, and nourished.

> Acts of kindness, sharing of thoughts on sidewalk jaunts.

> Jericho Families in Nature (JFiN) volunteers and participants for our exploration of nature together.

> Great selection of books in the Little Free Library

Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good

Bernie

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