BOLTON, Vt. -
A warning from the town of Bolton.
"Now you don't want to park there because your car will be gone when you get back," said Ron LaFreniere, chair of the Bolton select board.
LaFreniere says parking on and along Route 2 in Bolton near the potholes, a popular summer spot, has always been a problem. It's also illegal-- not that that's stopped anyone, at least until now.
"The towing is the worst part of the parking situation," John Musella said.
Musella sent us a picture from a recent Saturday at the potholes where the road was lined with cars. He says nearly all of them were towed by Spillane's in Burlington.
"It's not even a local company," Musella said. "A lot of the kids coming here don't even realize that your car isn't even going to be in town when you come out of the river, it's going to be 25 miles up Route 2."
"We tried with a couple different towing companies, no one was willing to take it on because of how dangerous that spot is," LaFreniere said.
That's why the town asked Spillane's to step in. As LaFreniere will tell you, they have tried other options. In the summer of 2011, the town of Bolton put up no parking signs, but people didn't obey. So this summer they put in a guard rail. Again, people continued to park on the road. So this past week they put in metal stakes.
"It's unfortunate. The potholes has always been a favorite swimming pool around here, but too many people ruin a good thing," said Duncan Galbraith, who lives nearby.
Galbraith complains tourists have ruined his lawn and it's not just the parking that's a problem.
"I prefer not to say some of the things, but obviously there's glass bottles, beer cans, trash from whatever they're eating," LaFreniere said.
What LaFreniere preferred not to say on camera? That they've found people urinating, defecating, leaving used condoms, dirty diapers and syringes at this family spot, but parking is all they're allowed to enforce.
"The problem is it's private property and the town has no control over private property," LaFreniere said.
A predicament that's outgrown the property, forcing the town of Bolton to aggressively enforce a ban that has been in place for years.
The Vermont River Conservancy is considering buying the land surrounded the Bolton potholes. They're meeting with townspeople to discuss property management concerns should the owner agree to sell.
