Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor John Rodgers is threatening his tiny hometown of Glover with legal action if the selectboard doesn’t concede a public dirt road to him personally. Rodgers Road, about two miles of gravel track in a bucolic corner of a largely rural state, apparently runs through his property. But it’s also been a public right-of-way for the lifetime of everyone involved.
The road in question is not a critical piece of infrastructure; travelers have an easy alternative road to get from one end to the other, just a little to the north. That’s not really the point, though. Most of the road is considered “Class 3,” while a small section in the middle is “Class 4.” An important distinction between road types is that Class 3 roads must be maintained for year-round travel by the town, while Class 4 roads do not. But they’re both town highways.
That small stretch of Class 4 in particular is what Rodgers is trying to seize, according to Glover’s selectboard meeting minutes from May 5. As those notes specify: “[Rodgers] has proposed making a class four section of Rodger’s Road a trail and stated that if this is done, he will not pursue legal action against the town. Alternatively, he stated that if he were to file a suit in court, and succeed, he would close the road to motorized vehicles.”
I wasn’t able to quickly confirm exactly why the road already shares the Lt. Governor’s last name, but it’s possible that his ancestors were early residents when the track was first cut.
Rodgers isn’t even the only one with property there—there are eight other houses on Rodgers Road, according to a local newspaper. “James and Hella Coe own property on the class four section of the road and don’t want to lose access,” writes The Newport Daily Express. No kidding!
Glover’s attorney reportedly “advised the town that all documented evidence shows Rodgers Road as a Class 4 town road and the Selectboard asserted that the section is a long standing right of way used by other residents.”
A week later (Thursday, May 22) the town had another selectboard meeting in which “almost 20 neighbors who say they need to access that section of the road signed a petition asking the town to maintain control of the road,” according to WCAX, the CBS affiliate in Orleans County, where Glover is.
The Lt. Governor hadn’t responded to the local news for comment as of midday Friday, so it remains to be seen whether he wants to make good on his threats of judicially beating the town into submission on the matter.
WCAX had previously shared some of a Zoom meeting earlier this month between Glover’s selectboard and Mr. Rodgers, who seemed to be trying his hardest to come off like a villain in the first act of a Pixar movie. “I’ve spent a lot of money on lawyers, and I’ll spend more if I have to … If I win. I’m going to shut the road down completely. There’ll be no access. If you win, you’re going to spend a whole bunch of money on lawyers and then have to spend money fixing up the road,” Rodgers said.
Glover Selectboard Chair Phil Young’s response concisely articulates the opposing view: “It doesn’t make sense to me to give up a right-of-way that we’ve had for 200 years.”
WCAX did some real journalism and dug up emails recounting contentious encounters between Mr. Rodgers and town road crews, reporting: “… a road crew member alleges that Rodgers called him a moron.” and that Rodgers said, “I have over 20 years of public service serving this town and this area. To have these lowlifes discriminating against me is a serious slap in the face.” I’m not sure what he means by discriminating, but slinging personal insults at the public works crews in a town of about 225 people doesn’t seem like a prudent way to politic.
As it stands, the town and the state’s Lt. Governor seem to be at an impasse. “If we don’t negotiate, we’ll go to court … I can close a section of the road and you can sue me,” the local county paper quoted Rodgers saying. He apparently “contends the class four section of the road hasn’t been a road since the horse and buggy.” That’s very easily disproven, as a Google Street View car cataloged the whole thing just last summer.
I guess I can see why Rodgers would want the road to himself—sure, I’d like the road in front of my house to be my own private property too, why not? But his apparent tactic of strongarming the town seems so bizarrely short-sighted and high-risk, low-reward. I’ve actually been to Glover, Vermont (it’s lovely), and I’d be surprised if as many as a dozen different cars trundle down that two-mile stretch of dirt road any given week. So, best-case scenario, he gets that down to zero, at the cost of all his legal fees and indefinite bad blood with all his neighbors? Just let the people have their dang dirt road, man.
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