Leaders alerted to what April 2024’s total solar eclipse might bring
June 22, 2023 | By Greta Solsaa | CorrespondentIn 2017, a family of nine from New Hampshire booked the entire Moose Meadow Lodge and Treehouse in Duxbury for a visit in April 2024 despite the lodge usually being closed during mud season. The reason? A total eclipse of the sun on April 8, 2024 that will be visible in northern parts of Vermont.
Around “10,000 people” visiting Waterbury for the eclipse is a conservative estimate, said Karen Nevin, executive director of Revitalize Waterbury, during an online presentation to community members and business owners recently.
Nevin earlier this month also addressed the Waterbury Select Board about the need to prepare for the 2024 eclipse now. She began by handing out eclipse safety glasses to board members and Town Manager Tom Leitz as well as copies of a map showing the expected path of the eclipse that crosses the top portion of the state from southwest to northeast.
She told how she attended a conference in March where officials from Sweetwater, Tennessee, a town with just under 6,000 people, gave a presentation on what happened there when a total solar eclipse occurred in August 2017.
“I left scared to death,” Nevin said. “This sounds like it’s going to be fun, but it has great potential to impact our community significantly.”
Working estimates currently peg the potential influx of visitors to Vermont for the April 2024 eclipse between 50,000 and 200,000 people, Nevin noted.
Maps showing the path of the eclipse and estimated times of “totality” across Vermont courtesy Revitalizing Waterbury. Click to enlarge
Waterbury’s proximity to Interstate 89 will make it a convenient destination for travelers from points south such as Boston, southern New England and New York, she said.
This is a significant event as the next total eclipse will not occur in North America for two decades. The entire eclipse is expected to begin at 2:14 p.m. and end at 4:37 p.m., but the period of “totality” – when the sun is completely covered by the moon – is projected to last around 2 to 3 minutes depending on location. While not located along the path of the total eclipse, southern areas of Vermont will also be able to witness the partial eclipse.
In Waterbury, the period of “totality” will last 2 minutes and 30 seconds making the town a potential hotspot for eclipse tourism, Nevin explained. There is a large following of these kinds of astronomical phenomena, she said, so the community should anticipate that people from all over the country and even the world may visit northern Vermont for the event. That’s what happened in Sweetwater, Tennessee, she said.
So the community needs to prepare. “The impact on our town infrastructure is significant and therefore I feel it is really important to do some kind of planning,” Nevin said.
Based on what she heard from the Tennessee officials, Nevin painted a picture for the select board of what might transpire that day. “People will get out of their cars and sit in the middle of the road because, guess what? The middle of the road is where there aren't any trees,” she said. “They're going to stop on the interstate.”
During Nevin’s presentations, she expressed concerns over the lack of infrastructure in Waterbury to handle a large influx of visitors, and that local officials and community leaders should consider traffic, trash and recycling disposal, parking, public restrooms, and even toilet paper when getting ready for this event. “There was a run on toilet paper in Sweetwater,” she said. “We have no public bathrooms in this town.”
Nevin mentioned several other points to plan ahead on: media involvement, social media branding and presence, partnerships with other towns and the state, language barriers for visitors and even ensuring that street lights do not turn on during the eclipse. Nevin also suggested the possibility of closing Main Street in order to make space for viewing and creating a special gated viewing area for photographers.
In addition to those stopping to take in the phenomenon, others may need to make their way through a crowd, Nevin noted. “Our emergency responders – we’ve got to make sure our ambulances and fire trucks can get to where they need to go,” she said, adding that the Tennessee officials mentioned that communications were affected by cell towers that were overwhelmed.
Nevin said she’s had conversations with state tourism and marketing representatives to draw attention to the need for planning on a broad scale for the eclipse.
That effort is in the early stages. The 2024 eclipse “is something that is on our radar and we are talking about it internally in terms of what that event looks like and trying to support making it the best event for the most amount of people,” said Nate Formalarie, Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. The state is in the process of creating a total eclipse-specific newsletter that people can sign up for as the event draws nearer, Formalarie said. It’s also created a webpage with some eclipse-related information.
Formalarie said that “communities would be best served if they have a clear plan about where they want people to be and where they don't want people to be.”
Glasses, glasses, glasses
Waterbury Select Board members Alyssa Johnson (left) and Vice Chair Dani Kehlmann check out eclipse-viewing glasses handed out by Karen Nevin of Revitalizing Waterbury at a recent meeting. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Another concern discussed in the meeting with local business people is the potential for eye damage due to the eclipse.
American National Standards Institute and NASA recommend that solar eclipse onlookers use protective glasses that have been verified by an accredited testing laboratory to meet the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 12312-2, designed to protect during direct observation of the sun.
So, it will be important that everyone has access to eye protection that is ISO certified, such as eclipse glasses or rectangular viewers. While this eyewear will be useless during the few minutes of total eclipse, this eyewear will prevent eye damage during the hours of partial eclipse, explained Jack St. Louis, president of the Vermont Astronomical Society.
“Revitalizing Waterbury is not interested in going into the glasses business,” Nevin said. In attendance at the June 5 select board meeting when she spoke were owners of Bridgeside Books and Stowe Street Emporium who said they are looking into availability of eclipse glasses. “The trick is how do we support our businesses,” Nevin said.
Select Board Chair Roger Clapp asked Nevin if the Tennessee community made a profit from selling eclipse glasses. She replied that the town made about $90,000 on glasses and many other items. “They sold everything including parking spots,” Nevin said. “They also branded themselves as the only place to watch the eclipse in the state of Tennessee and promoted it to the ends of the earth.”
What should schools do?
Another factor to consider is the timing of the eclipse, Nevin said. It will fall on a weekday afternoon around the time when schools are dismissed. This presents an issue of school traffic as well eye safety for children when they leave school, Nevin noted.
“Do you want your kids getting on buses when there is a full total eclipse of the sun and they can ruin their eyes forever if they go outside and look at the sun?” Nevin asked. “So should the schools be closed that day?”
The Harwood Unified Union School District calendar for the 2023-24 school year was finalized this spring. Superintendent Mike Leichliter said school officials so far have not considered the eclipse in their planning for next year. Leichliter said it's possible that the district could amend its plans for that day. "But I don't think I want kids home alone" during the eclipse, he said. “I would want them in school with their teachers.”
Leichliter said he would make a note to bring up the topic with the group of superintendents around the region that he meets with regularly.
This event could be an opportunity for educational lessons for school students such as pinhole projector projects or other science and art projects regarding the eclipse, Nevin suggested.
St. Louis said that the astronomical society is a resource for the public regarding events such as eclipses. “Usually our members go out to libraries and schools asking for help, and we will station ourselves around as best we can … to help people view the eclipse who don't have the equipment or the filters to do it,” he said.
Another factor to consider for this event is the time of year when this will occur. Weather in early April is variable and conditions could be snowy, muddy or a combination of both. While there may be clear skies, there is also a good chance of cloud cover, rain or snow that may impact the viewing experience.
“This could be, for many people, a once-in-a-lifetime event, especially if it is clear, so we actually get to see it,” St. Louis said. But “even if it's cloudy, it's still a fun thing to do.”
One role the municipality could play might be to direct visitors to good spots for viewing, Nevin suggested. Locations such as the State Office Complex, Farr’s Field, Pilgrim Park, Dac Rowe and Hope Davey parks – “all of these would be great viewing locations,” Nevin said. “I still think somehow or another the schools should be canceled that day.”
Seeing business opportunities ahead
Regardless of the weather, businesses such as grocery stores and convenience stores should be prepared for the increase in foot traffic around the time of the eclipse. “There are great opportunities to benefit from this… for all of our retail and restaurants and lodging industry,” said Nevin.
Hotels and short term rentals such as Airbnb properties in Northwestern Vermont including Waterbury are already seeing an increase in bookings for April 7 and 8 next year.
Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott in Waterbury has only a dozen rooms out of 84 available for April 8 at this point, according to a front desk employee. Room rates range from $544 to $641 per night for April 7-8 compared with $250-300 in March, according to its reservation website. Likewise, the Best Western Plus in Waterbury has “limited availability” for the eclipse dates with rooms priced between $415 and $611 per night compared with $220-$434 per night for other days close to that time.
A search for rooms elsewhere in the region including Montpelier and Burlington finds pricey rates and reservations being snapped up and short-term rentals are already in short supply for April 7-8.
Christa Bowish, owner of the Old Stagecoach Inn, said that she started seeing people booking rooms for the eclipse around a year and half in advance and increased the pricing for rooms booked around April 8. Bowish said she is working on developing celebrations, programming and packages with other businesses to make guests’ visits to Waterbury for the eclipse special.
Other community members and businesses want to come together for the event, too.
Jen McCabe of the Paprika Catering Company is looking into getting permission to set up a pop-up stand in town and even creating a street fair with other vendors. McCabe said she and her partner “love sharing our food, so the thought of getting to share with people from all over and not having to leave Waterbury to do it – that's pretty spectacular.”
Nevin said the Waterbury marketing committee and community members, or possibly even an eclipse committee, should start planning for this event now so the town can put its “best foot forward [and so] that people who come actually discover how wonderful Waterbury is.”
Recalling Phish and Coventry
The Select Board listened but did not propose any action steps yet. Board member Mike Bard said Nevin’s remarks reminded him of a famous Vermont event that involved a very large crowd. “We had an experience like this not that many years ago in Coventry, Vermont, when the Phish concert happened,” Bard said, recalling the infamous August 2004 concert that drew nearly 70,000 people to mud-soaked fields in the Northeast Kingdom. “It’s going to be a swarm of people coming here, and there's going to be a possible bottleneck. So I think you've brought up some very applicable questions.”
“I've got a little level of anxiety, and I want you to be anxious with me,” Nevin said with a laugh.
Clapp offered a silver lining. “It seems in addition to a problem, it could be an opportunity,” he said.
“It is an opportunity. But the only way it's going to be a good opportunity is if we consider and solve the problems,” Nevin replied.
Board member Kane Sweeney offered some humor: “If we build big signs that point you to Grand Isle,” he said as the group broke into laughter.
“Exit 10 closed,” Clapp joked back.
Ending on a more serious note, Nevin said, “RW does not want to be in charge of this. I'm just panicked about it.” She promises that the local marketing and tourism group will continue to meet and discuss the topic in the coming months “Our goal is to make it a good experience for everybody in some fashion,” she said.
Some additional reporting looking ahead to the April 2024 eclipse can be found by Vermont Public and the Burlington Free Press.