Richmond Select Board Continues Balderdash Permit Hearing, Approves Green Burials

RICHMOND -- January 6, 2021, Richmond Select Board continues Balderdash Cellars noise hearing, unanimously approves green burials. The board voted January 6 to push its special permit hearing for farm events venue Balderdash Cellars to January 20, with town counsel Elizabeth Goodman and applicant attorney Alex Glover still negotiating language on the town's right to modify conditions in future years. Agreed conditions include an 89-decibel exterior music cap measured three feet from any speaker, a 180-degree acoustical curtain, no exterior amplified sound after 8 p.m., interior music permitted until 11 p.m. once the barn is enclosed, and a cap of 15 events per year with 100 or more attendees at a limit of 175 people. Abutters from Richmond Pond shores and the Orchard Circle neighborhood both raised sound concerns during public comment. The board also approved green burials in town cemeteries, with an additional fee to be set by cemetery superintendent Steve Parsons, estimated at $200 to $400, and granted a cremation burial request for Nick Basabrasso, a descendant of the historic Buell family, contingent on Parsons's sign-off, which he gave during the same meeting.