Bill would transfer state-owned cornfield to Waterbury for flood relief
March 19, 2025 | By Lisa ScagliottiA proposal related to a top flood-relief project for Waterbury gets a hearing today at the State House in Montpelier that will include testimony by the town manager eager to explain how the cornfield along the Winooski River could play a role in protecting the downtown including the State Office Complex in future floods.
Morning, July 11, 2024, looking across the Randall Meadow cornfield. The Randall Street neighborhood is on the bottom left, the State Office Complex at the top left and the Winooski River is top right. Photo by Gordon Miller
Municipal Manager Tom Leitz goes to bat before the House Corrections and Institutions Committee which will take testimony from 9 to 10 a.m. Leitz will join several officials from the Department of Buildings and General Services, including Commissioner Wanda Minoli, who are listed on the committee’s published schedule. They will be discussing H.471, a bill to allow the state to transfer the property to the Town of Waterbury.
State Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, attended the Waterbury Select Board meeting on Monday where town officials discussed the bill and plans for Leitz to testify. In addition to explaining the legislative process underway, Wood urged the board as well as community members to contact lawmakers on the House committee in support of the bill.
“It would be helpful for the committee to hear from citizens in Waterbury including the select board and anybody else who might be inclined,” Wood said, noting that comments are best directed to the committee Chair Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, and Vice Chair Rep. James Gregoire, R-Fairfield.
The committee needs to act on the measure vote to move it along in the legislative process and there are several paths the measure can take, Wood explained. The preferred option would be for lawmakers to incorporate it into the larger Capital Bill that encompasses a multitude of items related to state properties, she said. In any case, the House committee needs to take some action before the end of this week.
July 11, 2024 Looking from the corner of Randall and Elm streets to Randall Meadow. Hope Cemetery is on the right. Photo by Gordon Miller
The bill was introduced last week as a short-form piece of legislation, separated out from a much larger omnibus flood-relief bill as a matter of practicality, Wood explained. Dividing it made sense so that the necessary committees that need to review the various elements could do so more quickly than if the bill moved along as one piece of legislation.
Today’s testimony comes at the midpoint of the legislative session for “crossover” as bills in each chamber are voted on and then sent to the other body.
The bill so far consists of just a couple of sentences, the main being: “This bill proposes to complete the transfer of ownership of the Randall Meadow property in Waterbury, contingent upon the completion of engineering modifications to create a deeper floodway on the property.”
Wood said “Randall Meadow” is a historical term used to refer to the 60-acre property between the Winooski River and the Randall Street neighborhood and directly adjacent to the State Office Complex property.
The spot has been at the top of the list of sites where flood mitigation efforts might be employed to enlarge the floodplain by excavating sections of the field where sediment has built up over time due to flooding. The aim would be to spare the immediate residential area and ultimately protect other properties along South Main Street that have been damaged by flooding by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, in July and December 2023, and again in July 2024.
Modeling done following Irene indicated that there could be some benefit to downtown Waterbury if some of the land along the river was lowered. Town officials explored that possibility with landowners on the Duxbury side after Irene, but those talks didn’t find a receptive partner and the effort never gained traction. Interest in pursuing the idea was revived after the July 2023 flood among local and state officials and residents at public brainstorming sessions. This time the cornfield – a.k.a. Randall Meadow – has been the focus.
Leitz told the select board on Monday that data used in a 2013 modeling study has been updated with more recent flood observations that show a large portion of the field is now higher due to sediment from river flooding over the years. One “relatively modest project that would involve just lowering the hump that's formed by the latest few storms by 6 feet and filling in the swale on Randall” Street, Leitz said.
“But I’d say the significance of then lowering portions closer to the river gets you up to a foot of flood relief and that’s not just the immediate Randall and Elm street neighborhood. That would include about 7,000 feet upstream – so effectively all of South Main Street. That would also protect the State Office Complex,” he said.
Morning, July 11, 2024, looking from above the State Office Complex with the Randall Meadow cornfield at the top of the frame. Photo by Gordon Miller
Creating more capacity for the field to hold floodwater likely would also benefit the town stormwater system, Leitz added. Water rises through storm drains near Main Street before the river itself floods. The lowest point is a drain near the Wesley United Methodist Church and Perkins-Parker Funeral Home with water from it reaching nearby businesses and the fire station, he noted.
“The cornfield can be shaped such that there’s some improvement related to the storm sewer system,” Leitz said.
Former select board member Chris Viens, who runs an excavation company, shared a concern that removing the built-up silt could easily be “an opportunity for the next flood to fill it back in.” He said material removed would need to be tested for contaminants and could be expensive to dispose of. “The bigger issue is whether or not it’s a temporary fix,” he said. “I worry about throwing good money after bad.”
Wood acknowledged Viens’ point, but emphasized that she believes the approach is worthwhile. “I don’t disagree,” she said. “But when we have the opportunity to potentially have an impact in the downtown and potentially make our community more resilient – and yes, maintain ongoing maintenance at some level – that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try it.”
Wood said she and state Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, are hopeful that the House committee will see the importance and advance the legislation along a path so it can be approved by both the House and Senate this session. Given that its purview is legislation pertaining to state property and facilities, the Corrections and Institutions Committee works closely with officials at the Department of Buildings and General Services. Wood expressed some concern that Minoli, who became commissioner in October, “is not as excited about this as the previous commissioner was in terms of releasing the property.”
July 11, 2024, looking across the cornfield toward the Winooski River just after the river crested. Photo by Gordon Miller
Wood said she hopes that after hearing testimony from the town manager and input from others in the community, Buildings and General Services officials will support transferring the land to the town – not selling it – given that it is not desirable for development. “The property is of no use to the state,” Wood said.
Leitz confirmed that under the town’s current zoning, the parcel lies in a special flood hazard area. “You cannot build anything there,” he said.
At Monday’s meeting where the discussion tool place, Waterbury resident Valerie Rogers asked Wood if the state is reluctant to transfer the property to town ownership, could the town lease the land? “That’s a very creative idea,” Wood remarked.
Buildings and General Services Department spokesman Cole Barney in an email to the Waterbury Roundabout on Tuesday said that the property currently is leased to DeFreest Farms which operates a large dairy farm in Warren. “The department has had an active lease agreement on the property dating back to 2010 with different farmers,” Barney said.
Select board member Roger Clapp asked how the board and community could help with the process. The group decided that in addition to having Leitz testify, Chair Alyssa Johnson would write to the House committee leaders on behalf of the board.
Wood said those who might comment to the House committee should know that the measure has the best chance to pass during this year’s legislative session if it is included in the Capital Bill, so supporting that path would be helpful. Most important, however, is urging lawmakers to act this week. “Anything that’s going to pass this year needs to come out of that committee by Friday,” she stressed.
Mike Dacey is the executive director of the long-term flood-recovery organization Community Resilience for the Waterbury area. CReW, as it’s called, has ongoing work assisting dozens of flood-affected property owners regarding their rebuilding projects after recent floods and insurance and FEMA claims and appeals. Many are eager for news of progress toward mitigation that could make the next flood less punishing for them. He urged the select board and other officials to continue sharing information with the public regarding progress on this effort.
“Just the fact that there is some motion, some momentum, is really going to mean a lot to folks who haven’t heard anything in a while,” he said. “I encourage as much communication on this as you can, and people are going to be really appreciative.”
Watch the House Corrections and Institutions Committee livestream (and recordings afterward) online here. See the committee’s webpage with its agenda and member list with contact information here. Click the images below to enlarge.
Postscript: Why ‘Randall Meadow’?
View from Duxbury of Randall Meadow, circa 1900-1910. Photo courtesy of Skip Flanders
George Randall, undated photo courtesy of Skip Flanders
The “Randall Meadow” reference to what’s commonly today called “the cornfield” in Waterbury necessitated a check with a local historian. P. Howard “Skip” Flanders, who himself lives at the end of Randall Street and a stone’s throw from the cornfield responded quickly with the backstory.
The namesake of the street and the field is George Randall, the former property owner who was successful during the 1849 Gold Rush, after which he eventually returned to Waterbury. Below is a photo of Randall himself.
The newspaper clipping is from the Burlington Daily News, May 17, 1948. It tells the story of Randall’s house and farm. The home originally was built around 1831 for William Wellington Wells and his family including a son who became the Civil War Maj. Gen. William Wells.
Randall purchased the property in 1870 and lived there until his death in 1921 at the age of 96. The land that is now the Randall Meadow was later owned by C.C. Warren who sold the property to the state to build the State Hospital.
From the Burlington Daily News, May 17, 1948