Car club hardly misses, Local News
Car club scarcely misses
Caleigh Cross
The Stowe Antique and Classic Car Showcase often features more than seven hundred cars
A duo of the cars the auto enthusiasts used to reach the auction site.
- Caleigh Cross
Dan Noyes, president of the Vermont Auto Enthusiasts, and other club members face off against a representative of the auction company treating the sale of Nichols Field in Stowe.
- Caleigh Cross
Worried members of the Vermont Auto Enthusiasts confer as the bidding goes higher at an auction for Nichols Field, where the club has held most of its fifty nine Stowe Antique and Classic Car Shows.
- Caleigh Cross
Two thousand dollars. That’s the difference inbetween how much the Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts bid on the land that has long hosted its annual car demonstrate in Stowe, and how much the winning bidder paid.
At an auction last Friday, the Nichols Field property went for $288,000 to a man from Fresh Jersey who possesses a distinguished house on Stowe’s Main Street and who said he plans to permit the car demonstrate to proceed using the field at least another year.
And, despite dire concerns about the car show’s future, the fresh possessor seems agreeable to work something out. He and the car club president plan to meet this weekend to discuss the show’s future in Stowe.
The 37-acre property was listed for foreclosure earlier this year after a court ruling permitted The Manor Inc., the nursing home based in Morrisville, to go after it for restitution after the death of Kathryn Nichols, who left behind a $196,000 debt to the Manor.
The Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts hit their spending cap just $Two,000 brief of the winning bid.
You could have shattered the pressure in front of the lodge with a stone or two kicked up from the late-model Honda Civic that pulled up to the auction, followed closely by what looked like a late 1940s Plymouth. The two vehicles found their places amid the swirling dust inbetween a 1920s Ford mail truck, a BMW X-Series and an 1980s Saab convertible.
Their drivers came in impractically black jackets, in sunglasses, in matching polo shirts and driving gloves, boys, women and a child or two blinking into the late June sunshine.
They circled around the Nichols Lodge and its adjoining barn, field and campground. The Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts formed a taut pack, flanking their president, Dan Noyes, whose responsibility it was to bid — and to stop bidding, when the time came.
They desired that land keenly for their annual showcase, and have been in negotiations for it for months, Noyes said.
“We met with The Manor, we talked to Ed French [the attorney treating the auction], we attempted to put together a deal,” he said. “But we couldn’t come to an agreement.”
The auction, Noyes said, was the only way for someone to lay claim to the land, and it wasn’t as ordinary as buying the thirty seven acres valued at $484,900 that auctioneer Thomas Hirchak described as “the gateway to Stowe.”
Protected land
Just over thirty one acres of the land is protected from development by a conservation easement with Stowe Land Trust and is open to the public for outdoor activities such as running, biking, birdwatching, cross-country skiing, fishing, trapping and wildlife observation. No buildings, no signs, no billboards, no driveways, no roads or utility lines may be erected there. The land is hayed every year by the Percy farm family.
“The purpose of the easement is to protect the agricultural value of the property. It’s protected open land,” Stowe Land Trust’s director Caitrin Maloney said.
The easement, however, permits one commercial event every year after Aug. 1, albeit it does not mandate it. Historically, that one event has been the Stowe Antique and Classic Car Demonstrate, in its 59th year this year. Whether it will reach its 60th at Nichols Field is now anybody’s guess.
Anybody’s, that is, but the auction winner.
The land trust could have had the land if it wished; the easement gives it the right of very first refusal, which Maloney said means Stowe Land Trust could have matched the price and bought the property. It waived that right; Maloney said the land trust isn’t interested in wielding more land. It would rather it sell to a farmer, someone who will work it and steward it.
And they’d like the car display to proceed there, albeit Maloney called it a compromise. The showcase does cause soil compaction, but it’s a “valued community event,” she said. “We make these concessions. We’re entirely comfy with that.”
It happened prompt
The sputtering of electronics and the boom of the auctioneer’s voice called the crowd to attention. The air swirled, all of a sudden, with an electrical charge of money and high warmth and the continuous smell of gasoline and cracked leather from ancient cars, relics.
What will it smell like next year?
“Sometimes, messy things come to apocalyptic endings,” sighed Chandler Matson, the Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts’ attorney.
And then the bidding began.
It went quick, and without much fuss, to James Casey of Morristown, N.J., for $288,000. The car club stopped its bidding at $286,000.
“I’m disappointed and heartbroken,” Dave Sander, the club’s chairman, said after the gavel went down. “We all pool our vacation time. We live here for two weeks before the demonstrate. We set it all up and we run the showcase. We’re not making any money.”
Later, after the display, Sander wrote about the auction on Facebook.
“The Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts has donated many thousands of hard-working hours every year to pull this demonstrate off, providing funding to many needy Vermonters, who, without our help, would not be able to afford an education in the automotive technology field, and the Stowe Area Association has liked profiting handsomely from our efforts,” Sander wrote.
According to Noyes, by the Stowe Area Association’s numbers, the car demonstrate has historically brought $1.7 million annually to the local economy.
“Now, I feel like we were just punched in the face,” Sander continued on Facebook. “Where was the town of Stowe to help us today, and over the last year? I am so frustrated and disappointed right now.”
“It was the right decision for Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts not to saddle its 501(c)Trio with debt so we can do our mission,” Noyes said, explaining that the club would rather concentrate its energy and resources on its charitable and educational outreach programs for teenagers interested in pursuing careers in the automotive field.
“I’m disappointed, but I know we’ll be able to work with the buyer to have the car showcase in Stowe,” he said.
Manor made entire
The Manor is blessed to have its outstanding balance paid, Jennifer Colin, the attorney signifying the nursing home, said Tuesday.
“I think my client’s going to be made entire,” Colin said. “That’s all they wished over the last four years of pursuing this debt. The Manor provides an significant service to this county, taking care of our elderly.”
And where is Casey in all of this?
He and his wifey, Alison, own property in Stowe already — the cheerful blue Painted Lady at Main and Park streets. They have a soft spot for the town and are excited to own more of it.
“My spouse and I indeed love Stowe,” Alison Casey said Tuesday. “Our kids have kind of grown up coming here on vacations.”
Casey said she and her hubby don’t have solid plans for the property yet, but the car showcase will be part of its future.
“They’re still going to have a place to have the display because we think it’s good for the town,” Casey said. “We plan on spending a lot of time here in Stowe. We’re committed to the town.”
So, this year, Noyes knows, the car demonstrate is safe. The permits have all been applied for and granted, but he can’t suggest any ensures for future years, albeit he hopes to keep the demonstrate right here at home.
“It’s [Casey’s] field now, and he could say ‘no trespassing,’” Noyes said. “However, I’m sure we’ll be able to come to an agreement with him.”
Noyes has been investigating other options, just in case. He’s received an suggest from Waterbury to host the display there, he says, and he’s looked into other fields in Stowe, too — he wants to keep it here, if at all possible.
Stowe Planning Director Tom Jackman says the club doesn’t have many options, however. Fields big enough to host the car demonstrate — at least forty acres — and that are zoned to hold events are few and far inbetween in Stowe.
“All the other fields are in rural residential districts,” Jackman said. “They can’t have events.”
Topnotch is too puny, Jackman said. The club’s best bet, aside from Nichols Field, is to consider either the Mayo Farm Events field, using another property for parking, or Stowe Mountain Resort.
