Parade Ground joke lands flat

An idea to revamp the historic Parade Ground has stirred up the Shelburne community since June, and although the dust had seemingly begun to settle, things began to swirl again last weekend after selectboard chair Mike Ashooh wrote a joke online that has dozens of residents up in arms again.

In a post titled, “Shelburne Dunking Booth at Shelburne Days,” he wrote, “Yes, that’s right! You can pay $10 to pitch a baseball and dunk your favorite selectboard member at this Saturday’s Shelburne Days at the Farmers Market! All proceeds go to help fund the Parade Ground upgrades! Because of Open Meeting Laws, you can only dunk one selectboard member at a time.”

His post, meant as nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek bit to bring a little humor to the situation, has pushed some residents to such fury that they are questioning how to remove him from the selectboard.

“Is there a way to remove someone from the selectboard?” asked Susan Declue, prompting follow-ups that outline what the town charter says about removing elected officers.

“As for a joke, the Parade Ground upgrade is not funny,” Bob Birkett wrote. “It was conceived entirely within our town government, nurtured in relative obscurity, and then when it comes to public knowledge, all negative comments are brushed aside. Still the selectboard plows ahead with this misbegotten errand.”

Contrary to those public opinions, however, plans have not moved forward except for an initial review by the selectboard and open discussion where dozens of residents aired opposition to any plan to change the Parade Ground.

The town’s historic preservation and design review committee must review the project before it could, hypothetically, move to the development review board.

The original, unofficial plan would erect a 28-foot by 14-foot pavilion that would sit toward Falls Road. Other changes include the addition of benches, Adirondack chairs, and a 3-foot-high fence consisting of granite posts and a black metal chain.

At a historic preservation and design review committee meeting earlier this month, members voted against the idea of putting any sort of gazebo on the historic parade grounds, and although the committee is not a quasi-judicial board, projects located within the Historic Preservation and Design Review Overlay district are required to go through this review before moving to the development review board for approval.

“The development review board would look at an application to determine compliance with the zoning regulations,” Aaron DeNamur, the town’s planning director, said. “The historic preservation and design review committee’s opinion on something like this in no way requires the development review board to agree or enforce the (committee’s) recommendation.”

But Dorothea Penar, a member of the committee, said that she doesn’t recall a time when the development review board ever recommended something different or rejected the committee’s recommendation.

“We usually look at a permit so in detail that everything’s ironed out before it comes to them,” said Penar.

She did note that for this recommendation, the committee did not directly look at the pavilion sketch that has been put forward simply because they saw this review more as a two-part recommendation.

“It was a preservation issue and the aspect of just its presence, not its particular design,” Penar said. “If they decide or the development review board recommends a different thing and the selectboard wants to go ahead with the project, we will have to review the pavilion as presented.”

The basis of the vote to not recommend any structures on the grounds — which passed 5-1 with one abstention — came solely on the basis to preserve the grounds at all costs. Penar said that this topic is not new to the committee, as more than 30 years ago there were suggestions to place a bandshell on the property.

“We talked a lot about the history and the background of that property and its connection to the military history of the village,” Penar said. “That space is also on the National Register along with the whole village area. We are, of course, not going to have a militia marching there, but we try to at least maintain the important aspects and the openness was important.”

Selectboard members will now have to decide on whether to bring it for review to the development review board or nix the project altogether.

As for the joke that sent the town into a spiral, two selectboard members, Andrew Everett and Matt Wormser, agreed that Ashooh may not have a career as a stand-up comedian, but the aggressive response from residents is astounding.

“How sincere attempts on the part of the town to explore ways to make the Parade Ground more useful and welcoming have spun — in the eyes of some — into an all-out assault by the Board on the foundations of our town will always elude me,” Wormser said.