Three Years After Irene, Brandon Residents Want Town Office And Park Fixed

In downtown Brandon, the Neshobe River flows over a waterfall and under several historic buildings, including the town office. During Tropical Storm Irene the river raged up and through those buildings.

Three years later, several flooded businesses have come back stronger than ever. Yet the town office and nearby park remain closed, frustrating many in the community.

Inside the Brandon House of Pizza, the exhaust fans hum as owner Sheila Gearwar slides a just-assembled pie into the oven. 

Three years ago, she thought Irene pretty much wiped out the family-owned restaurant. “The river went under the building, so when the water got high enough it picked our building right up and floated it out into the road. It’s funny now,” she says, “but then, it was devastating.”

Gearwar was able to reopen nearby where she says business has doubled thanks to more seating and a separate room for parties.

Credit Nina Keck / VPR

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VPR

Across the street, the bakery, boutique and day spa are also doing well. Nancy Leary owns the historic two-story building that houses them. She says floodwaters during Irene tore through the red brick structure and she was amazed it remained standing. 

She says thanks to help from dozens of volunteers and a $30,000 Vermont Economic Development loan, she and her husband were able to reopen the building within weeks. 

While she says one tenant left because of the storm, they now have more tenants than ever and business is good. “Unfortunately our neighbor building is the town of Brandon office building, which is still uninhabited. And across the street is a park that the community built about 10 years ago.” Leary says “Those two spaces and where the pizza parlor used to be, nothing has happened.”

Concrete barriers stand in front of the gap where the restaurant once was. Across the street, a chain link fence prevents access to the eroded park, which many now call an eyesore.

Brandon Chamber of Commerce President Bernie Carr says many have offered to help fix the park, but bureaucratic red tape has gotten in the way.

“It’s frustrating,” he says, “because the private business owners were back in business within days and weeks and it seems that the town has had to jump through more hoops with FEMA and the federal government to get things done.”

 “It’s slow and I understand people’s frustration with this,” says Town Manager Robin Bennett.

Bennett was hired by the town a year ago. She says they’d hoped to begin repairing the park already, but issues with drainage and property boundaries have delayed federal emergency repair funds.

And she says, "If we do any work on that site then we lose 100 percent of the money that FEMA has already obligated which is just under $200,000." So, adds Bennett, “we have to tread lightly and play by their rules in order to get the money to fix it permanently.

Fixing the town office is more complicated she says because the building was neglected for years before the storm. After Irene, she says town officials began demolition work without a formal plan.

“I do think there were a few missteps, says Bennett. “I think it would be fair to say there was neglected maintenance at the building and part of the problem was people thought there would be more money from insurance to renovate it and it just wasn’t there.  Insurance just covered flood damage, and there was much more to be done to that building than just the flood damage,” says Bennett.

She says cleaning up leaking oil tanks they found on the town office property last year just compounded the situation. According to her most recent estimates, it’ll likely cost between $500,000 and $750,000 to repair and reopen. 

In a town that’s voted five times on its municipal budget this year and four times last year, money is tight. Bennett says the town is currently applying for a community development block grant to help. Meanwhile, she hopes Brandon residents will be patient.