Seven Days, March 22, 2023

BY ALISON

Car payments, insurance, gas or charging, maintenance – it all really adds up. But do you know the true total? Find out with our free, easy-to-use online calculator:

carsharevt.org/cost

GRIM TALLY

WEEK IN REVIEW

MARCH 15-22, 2023

emoji that FINAL WIN

A terminally ill Connecticut woman can use Vermont’s aid-indying program after she successfully sued the state.

CLASS DISMISSED

A developer plans to turn the former Southern Vermont College campus into a luxury resort. Just what we need!

That’s how many inches of snow were measured on Monday at Mount Mansfield’s summit — 12 inches more than the historical average.

TOPFIVE

MOST POPULAR ITEMS ON SEVENDAYSVT.COM

1. “Seasonal Beer Garden the Pinery Coming to Burlington’s South End” by Jordan Barry.  e popular Friday night food truck gathering will return, this time with an expanded block-party vibe and an outdoor beer garden.

2. “Woman Wonder: e U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame Recognizes Stowe Adventurer Jan Reynolds” by Steve Goldstein. Skier Reynolds, a “feat-seeking missile,” is finally getting her due.

3. “In Waterbury Center, Chef Jimmy Kennedy Takes Over Zenbarn Kitchen” by Melissa Pasanen. e Mississippi native will offer pulled pork, fried catfish and other favorites from his repertoire.

Fatal overdoses involving opioids rose again last year in Vermont, reaching their highest point since the state began tracking the untimely deaths more than a decade ago.

At least 237 people died from accidental opioid overdoses in 2022, data released on Monday show. at’s an increase of 20 over the previous year, which itself had nearly 60 more deaths than 2020. e tally could grow as the Vermont Department of Health reviews another two dozen pending death certificates.

Southern Vermont was hit particularly hard. Rutland, Windsor, Bennington and Windham counties all reported at least 45 deaths per 100,000 people — higher than the state average of 38.  e death rate was highest among people in their thirties and forties.

In an interview on Tuesday, Health Commissioner Mark Levine described the growing death toll as a lingering symptom of the pandemic — “the social isolation involved, and the increase in using drugs alone.”

e spike also reflects national trends and the increasingly dangerous drug supply. Powerful fentanyl is the primary opioid for sale, and new hazards are growing. Among them: xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that traffickers sometimes add to fentanyl in what’s thought to be an attempt to prolong its effect. e drug causes skin wounds

that, if untreated, can lead to amputation. Postmortem testing shows that 68 people who died from fatal overdoses last year had xylazine in their systems.

e data add urgency to the work of a study committee tasked with recommending how Vermont should spend more than $100 million headed its way in the coming years from legal settlements with major opioid manufacturers and distributors. e committee sent its first proposal to lawmakers earlier this month, recommending that the $7.5 million the state has already received be aimed at immediately curbing overdose deaths.

It recommends that $2 million be used to expand efforts to distribute the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, including through new vending machines and public boxes; $2 million would go to expanding access to opioidaddiction medication.

Another $2 million would fund the creation of roughly 25 new outreach positions across the state, and an estimated $850,000 would expand access to contingency management treatment — an approach that essentially involves offering people rewards such as prepaid debit cards when they meet certain treatment goals. A pilot program under way in Burlington has shown promising results.

Read Colin Flanders’ full story at sevendaysvt.com.

WARM WELCOME

After a winter storm pummeled Vermont with a few feet of snow last week, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power, Rick Holloway’s first thought was: How can we help?

A facilities manager at Chroma Technology, Holloway knew his employer was better prepared than most to weather the storm.

e Bellows Falls manufacturing company has a generator strong enough to power its entire facility — including a 3,000-square-foot room used to host blood drives and other community events. So after making a few calls, Holloway an-

BREACH OF TRUST

A former Vermont State Police trooper was arrested for allegedly stealing more than $40,000 in seized property, including a Rolex watch. Stain on the badge.

BEARS WATCHING

With the weather warming, wildlife o cials warn that hungry bears are emerging from hibernation. Secure your food, trash and birdseed.

4. “For Victims of Home Improvement Fraud, ere’s No Clear Path to Restitution” by Anne Wallace Allen. e system for addressing contractor fraud claims can be frustrating to navigate and is largely toothless.

5. “Burlington Council Denounces Transphobia

Amid ‘Stickering’ Campaign” by Courtney Lamdin. e council unanimously condemned anti-transgender rhetoric.

tweet of the week

@VTStateParks

Hello from Vermont!  #StillWinter

nounced on March 14 that the company would open an emergency shelter for anyone who needed a place to warm up, use the bathroom, charge their devices or get some coffee. Employees and local firefighters volunteered for shifts over the next 48 hours to ensure that the space was available overnight.

e effort caught the attention of Vermont Telephone Company CEO Michel Guite, who learned a thing or two during the power outage. “I hadn’t realized when the electric was off, you can lose water, as well, if you have a pump,” he said.

Luckily, he lived within walking distance of his generator-powered office. But he wondered how other families were faring. Inspired by Chroma, Guite called

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the Springfield Fire Department and asked about setting up his own warming shelter. Firefighters swung by the next morning and approved VTel to host up to 10 people at a time at its Springfield office. e company offered use of its small kitchen, as well. e two shelters ultimately had only a handful of visitors — a testament, Guite said, to the resourcefulness of Vermonters. But both companies have vowed to offer similar services in the future.

In fact, Chroma is now coming up with a new emergency plan that will help it respond even more quickly next time. “We’ll then reach out to the town and work with them so that they know what we can do in the future,” he said.  COLIN FLANDERS

COMPILED BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN & MATTHEW ROY

A downed power line during last week’s winter storm

A kit with the overdosereversing drug naloxone

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NO EASY SAVE

[Re “On Life Support,” March 1]: Your excellent article on the plight of rescue squads and EMTs highlights another crisis point in our crumbling health care system, and any solution will, necessarily, be complex. We must be realistic about what we need and how much we’re willing to pay in both dollars and time. It will require hard choices and, likely, unpopular regulations to change our overall trajectory.

The challenges facing ambulance services speak volumes about our eldercare, self-care, challenges of scattered family units, volunteerism, earning power and inequities in access, to name just a few.

The remedy will be slow and require a seismic shift in attitudes, behaviors, and the collective will to make the change and endure the bumpy road of transformation. We need to begin yesterday and do more than just throw dollars at the problem(s).

Monique Hayden WILLIAMSTOWN

REYNOLDS ‘VERY DESERVING’

I mentioned to my friend Mike from Cornwall that my cousin many times removed, Jan Reynolds, was in Seven Days [“Woman Wonder,” March 15]. He remembered her as “a great skier and adventuresome” at Middlebury Union High School!

Congrats to Jan on a diverse group of accomplishments. She’s a very brave lady with an incredible legacy. Very deserving!

Stephen Halnon WEST LINCOLN

COUNTING TREES

[Re “Burlington Considers Kicking Fossil Fuels to the Curb,” March 1]: The Burlington Electric Department’s claim — that over the past two decades, 20 million tons of carbon have been added to the forests from which the McNeil Generating Station gets the wood it burns — is meaningless without context. Let me give it some.

1) BED does not say how many trees were cut down and when they were harvested to achieve the 20 million tons. It has been harvesting for 37 years, not 20. It is also claiming credit for the regrowth of trees that were not used to fuel McNeil.

2) Trees take 80 to 100 years to reach maturity. The first trees harvested for McNeil in 1985 have not even regrown to half their mature size.

3) Burlington says it will be carbonneutral by 2050. All the trees harvested from today through 2050, around 27 years, will have a net regrowth of less than 15 percent over that time span.

4) The forests that have regrown over the past 37 years since McNeil started up have a net regrowth of about 20 to 25 percent. That is what the 20 million figure represents.

5) The loss of mature forest carbon absorption capabilities, as well as the slow regrowth of harvested forests, also needs to be accounted for.

6) Taken in context, burning wood on an industrial scale to generate electricity is not a renewable activity in any time frame that is relevant to the efforts to address CO2 production and slow down climate change.

Steve Goodkind BURLINGTON

FIRST STEP TO CARBON NEUTRALITY

In [“Burlington Considers Kicking Fossil Fuels to the Curb,” March 1], Burlington resident Nick Persampieri claims that the carbon fee is a false climate solution because the electricity used for the buildings would be generated by biomass. While I agree that biomass is a nonideal electric source, he misses the point that electrification as a climate solution is inherently a two-step process. You need to electrify the buildings, cars, etc. that currently use fossil fuels, and you need to ensure that the electricity is generated cleanly.

Expressing opposition to a measure that would very explicitly solve one part of the problem is just kicking the can down the road to some hypothetical future. It is a tactic widely used by fossil fuel-backed entities to delay climate action. Furthermore, even if all the electricity were generated via natural gas or biomass, it would still be more efficient and climate-friendly than burning the equivalent fuels in individual buildings.

Griffith Keating HINESBURG

‘READ YOUR BIBLE AGAIN’

“Love your neighbor as yourself” has been warped so that Mid Vermont Christian School can refuse to recognize the trans athlete of another school as legitimate [“Religious School Booted From Sporting Events for Refusing to Play Trans Athlete,” March 14, online].

Bravo to the Vermont Principals’ Association for banning this school from competing.

ON OVER TO FIND TREATS FOR YOUR BASKETS:

Read your Bible again. You are getting a giant F.

Sean Moran SHELBURNE

DON’T PERSECUTE CHRISTIANS

[Re “Religious School Booted From Sporting Events for Refusing to Play Trans Athlete,” March 14, online]: Hooray for the Mid Vermont Christian School for standing up to the insanity that comes from the LGBTQ movement — and being persecuted for it! Not to mention for believing that God simply made us all male and female.

The so-called “transgender” player is simply a male who is so sexually confused by this invasion of our culture that he thinks it’s OK to pretend he’s just another girl out on the court. Do you think the real female athletes like this new arrangement, and would it matter to the school boards if they don’t?

There is still freedom of speech in America (until somebody is offended)! If you want to hear hateful words, then just speak up against the LGBTQ folks. They invented words like “homophobic” and “transphobic” and use words like “bigot” to make you back down, hoping you’ll publicly confess the sin of thinking for yourself.

So, instead of persecuting us Christians, join up! If you don’t eventually do so, you are forfeiting not merely a game or a season, but your forever! Jesus Christ paid the death penalty for our sins, and no one is excluded! (Is that considered inclusion?)

Chris Leicht COLCHESTER

LEFT DOCTOR-LESS

As a person with UnitedHealthcare and now no doctors in network in the University of Vermont Health Network, I was surprised to learn about the rate contract falling through. I was not notified by UnitedHealthcare or the UVM Medical Center. I read it in Seven Days [“UnitedHealthcare, UVM Health Network Fail to Come to Terms on New Contract,” February 21, online].

The resulting hours of phone calls between UVM and UnitedHealthcare, spent trying to find a doctor who is in network, were ridiculous. I’ve been wait-listed for six months to a year to see a primary doctor, or I will need to travel over two hours to New Hampshire. When insurance companies and health care networks break contracts, the patients pay the price and their health is compromised.

What sort of monsters are these decision makers who leave people without care?

Jennifer Barr MONTPELIER

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NEWS+POLITICS 14

No Return

Vermont Lawmakers Are Preparing to Double Their Salaries

STUCK IN VERMONT

SUPPORTED BY:

Pepperoni is a 21-year-old miniature horse who used to entertain audiences during equestrian events at Plainfield’s Breckenridge Farm. Two years ago, he lost an eye and stopped performing, but he’s since found new purpose as a painter. He used to pick up roses in his mouth; now he picks up paintbrushes. His nickname? PoNeigh (rhymes with Monet).

more than 30 local writers, most readings and meet and greets. A cash bar keeps the party going all afternoon.

SATURDAY 25

Glass Waffle Houses

Burlington’s AO Glass throws an unmissable party for Swedish Waffle Day — Våffeldagen to those in the know — featuring the eponymous breakfast food courtesy of the Waffle Wagon food truck and a sampling of Runamok’s infused maple syrups. Attendees can even press their own glass waffle after watching the expert glassblowers at work.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 66

THURSDAY 23 & FRIDAY 24

Happily Everest After

Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest is one of the films traveling the state during Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival’s MNFF Vermont Tour this week. Stopping at Rutland’s Paramount eatre and Burlington’s Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center Film House, this 2022 documentary tells the story of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first known Indigenous Nepali woman to summit the world’s highest mountain.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 65

FRIDAY 24 & SUNDAY 26

Living in Harmony

Toronto-based acoustic duo Basset takes audiences at Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts and Richmond Congregational Church on tuneful journeys through forests, prairies and silent cities after dark. Songs from the pair’s debut album, In the Clay, are deeply inspired by nature in all its diverse and ever-changing forms.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 66

SATURDAY 25 & SUNDAY 26

Two in the Sugar Bush

During the first of two Maple Open House Weekends, sugar makers across the state open their doors to visitors interested in the tapping, making and tasting of all things sweet and sticky. From sugar bush tours to sugar on snow to sap boiling demonstrations, there’s something everywhere and for everyone.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 66

WEDNESDAY 29 Short

Stories

Vermont Symphony Orchestra presents A Night at the Movies at Castleton University, the first of three performances celebrating animated and documentary short films made or scored by Vermonters. Matt LaRocca conducts a chamber orchestra in the soundtracks to stories ranging from a reimagining of “Hansel and Gretel” to a child’s perspective on her undocumented farmworker family.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 69

0NGOING

Great White North

Northern Vermont artist Elizabeth Nelson presents a solo show, “NORTH,” at the Front in Montpelier. Nelson’s paintings ruminate on the harsh, wintry landscapes of the Green Mountain State, Iceland and Norway, harnessing light and texture to evoke the beauty and fragility of these locations.

SEE GALLERY LISTING ON PAGE 54

BROWSE THE FULL CALENDAR, ART SHOWS, AND MUSIC+NIGHTLIFE

e cover photo of

’s Issue.14 at Tourterelle

COMPILED BY EMILY HAMILTON

Write of Passage

I didn’t expect this “From the Publisher” column to last for so long. Three years ago, when the pandemic dealt a near-death blow to Seven Days, I felt I had some explaining to do: In my first letter, published on March 25, 2020, I listed some steps we’d taken in the previous week to keep from going under, from starting Good To-Go, an online directory for local restaurants offering takeout, to the sad necessity of laying off seven employees.

It was a terrifying time to be in business. Specifically, in this business: a free weekly newspaper funded almost entirely by advertising. Overnight we lost most of our clients, the source of our revenue. Many of the retail outlets that made the paper available to readers promptly closed.

But Seven Days could not shut down; there was a historic public health crisis to cover. How could we do it without money to pay for the operation, while also keeping our reporters, drivers and other public-facing employees safe?

It quickly became one of my jobs to explain how the pandemic affected the newspaper, which, along with pharmacies and hospitals, was considered an “essential service.” In subsequent missives, I wrote about the precautions our drivers were taking when officials still thought the coronavirus lived on paper; I explained how we economized by inserting our parenting publication, Kids VT, inside Seven Days, instead of keeping it as a separate issue — a practice that continues to this day. I chronicled our efforts to secure Paycheck Protection Program loans. At the end of 2020, I thanked the local businesses that ran ads just to support us.

There was a column titled “Extra, Extra! Effort” about our creative circulation strategies, which included getting residents to host racks in their front yards and biking around the city, tossing a paper to anyone who wanted one. Starved for news, and the community connection the paper provides, lots of people did.

I wrote about more personal topics, too, such as how it felt to turn 60 one month into the pandemic. When my 93-year-old mom was locked down in an assistedliving facility, and then diagnosed with terminal cancer, I described the pain of saying goodbye to a loved one in isolation.

Specific as they were, in some cases, my accounts of life during the pandemic seem to have resonated with readers. Many have also expressed appreciation for the behind-the-scenes intel. Most media companies are notoriously bad at telling their own stories. On November 10, 2021, I called attention to Storm Lake, a documentary film about an imperiled newspaper in northwest Iowa, and drew connections to Vermont’s media landscape. Explaining what

we do, how we do it and why has never been more important.

To that end, over the past 36 months, I’ve had a chance to feature some of the amazing people at Seven Days. I keep thinking I will run out of ideas, but life has a way of delivering them. When our server crashed a month ago, for example, it became a chance to for me to explain the digital side of our operation and the man who keeps it all whirring: creative director Don Eggert. Town Meeting Day was the right time to shine a light on Burlington reporter Courtney Lamdin. Being able to marry the storytelling skills I developed as a journalist with my experience as an editor and publisher — in 500 words or so — week after week has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career.

As hard as it is sometimes to conceive and write a column in the midst of everything else, I’m going to keep doing it as long as there are angles to explore, even though the pandemic is officially over. Deputy publisher Cathy Resmer will pinch-hit for me on occasion. She also deftly edits my work.

The ultimate goal is to show what it takes to put out this newspaper — a national anomaly for its consistent size and quality. The challenges keep coming. Against all odds, we’ve done some of our best journalism in recent years, including the “Locked Out” housing series and a cover story documenting long wait times at the University of Vermont Medical Center, which prompted a state investigation.

You can help us keep going with a recurring monthly donation. We’ll be better prepared for the next disaster if the people who value Seven Days are pitching in to pay for it. Think of it as a subscription, like the ones you might have to Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max or Disney+, only Seven Days is streaming your story, this state, our lives.

Paula Routly

If you like Seven Days and can afford to help pay for it, become a Super Reader! Look for the “Give Now” buttons at the top of sevendaysvt.com. Or send a check with your address and contact info to:

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I KEEP THINKING I WILL RUN OUT OF IDEAS, BUT LIFE HAS A WAY OF DELIVERING THEM.

No Return

Motel owners are withholding security deposits meant to benefit homeless tenants

BY CHELSEA EDGAR • chelsea@sevendaysvt.com

When Brenda Ouellette moved into Room 107 at the Brattleboro Quality Inn last fall, the paint was peeling, the bathroom was rife with black mold, and the sink was separating from the wall. These weren’t the worst conditions Ouellette had seen at the Quality Inn, where she’d been living since January 2022 through a state program that assists Vermonters experiencing homelessness by placing them temporarily in motels. Her fellow guests, all of whom were in the program, regularly went without heat or a working microwave, the only cooking appliance allowed in their rooms, Ouellette said. Ouellette, who also worked at the hotel during her stay, said management often took weeks to respond to maintenance requests — if it responded at all.

On at least one occasion, Ouellette said, management told her to hide live wires above ceiling tiles in anticipation of a visit from the fire marshal. Toilets frequently backed up and overflowed; a Vermont

Department of Health complaint filed by a social service worker in November 2021 alleged that many of the mattresses were stained with blood. Ouellette briefly lived in a room with such a bad bedbug infestation that she had to see a doctor for the bites. For these accommodations, the hotel was billing the state roughly $3,880 a month per room, almost triple the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Brattleboro.

In October, Ouellette was approved for a subsidized apartment in West Brattleboro. After two years of homelessness, she was relieved to finally have a place to call her own. “I thought, I don’t have to worry about all the bullshit,” Ouellette said.

For Ouellette and the roughly 1,730 other households enrolled in the program between July and October 2022, the state paid motels a $3,300 security deposit. Because of an agreement she’d signed with the Quality Inn, Ouellette knew she should be eligible to collect the deposit when she moved out in early November. Ouellette

su ers from chronic health problems, and that money could have allowed her to buy a winter coat without skimping on other necessities, or get ahead on her rent in case she ended up in the hospital.

Ouellette said she took care to leave her room cleaner than she found it. She scrubbed the furniture with Simple Green, stripped her bed, vacuumed the carpet, scoured the mini fridge and microwave inside and out, wiped the grime and dust from the heater vents, and disinfected the bathroom. A hotel employee inspected her room, Ouellette said, and didn’t note any problems.

When Ouellette called the front desk the day after she moved out to see whether she’d forgotten anything, she said, she was told that someone else had already moved in.

But nearly five months later, Ouellette still hasn’t gotten her security deposit,

Vermont Lawmakers Are Preparing to Double eir Salaries

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM k evin@sevendaysvt.com

Following a historic level of turnover in the Vermont legislature last year, lawmakers are considering giving themselves a big raise next biennium. Under a bill advancing in the Senate, Vermont’s 180 lawmakers, who currently make $14,610 per year, would earn just under $30,000. ey’d also become eligible for medical benefits.

Several lawmakers testified in favor, arguing that the changes are overdue and crucial to ensuring that the legislature isn’t made up only of people who can afford to serve.

Rep. Ashley Bartley (R-Fairfax) testified that she lost her job as a human resources manager at a South Burlington property management company due to the challenges of juggling work and her service in Montpelier. “We couldn’t and can’t survive on one income. It’s not possible,” she testified of her young family.

“Vermont working families deserve a voice here in these walls,” she added.

“We are truly resetting the compensation package,” Sen. Ruth Hardy (D-Addison) told Seven Days. She noted that the last time lawmakers revised their own pay was 20 years ago. e bill, S.39, won unanimous approval last week in the Senate Government Operations Committee, which Hardy chairs, and this week heads to the pivotal Appropriations Committee.

It would boost lawmakers’ weekly pay during the typical 18-week session from $811 to $1,210 beginning in 2025. Post-session, lawmakers would earn a day’s pay each week for meetings, calls, emails and contacts with constituents.

In addition, the bill would enable lawmakers to access the medical benefits that state workers enjoy.

Finally, the bill calls for reimbursement of up to $1,600 per year for childcare for households making $75,000 or less.

e total cost of the bill is still being calculated by the Joint Fiscal Office, but the salary component alone would exceed $2.7 million. ➆

Former hotel resident Michael Hutchins outside the Brattleboro building where he lives

ZACHARY P. STEPHENS

A center for people facing mental health crises is proposed for the NEK

BY COLIN FLANDERS • colin@sevendaysvt.com

Urgent care for the mind — that’s the idea behind a new proposal to improve mental health care in the Northeast Kingdom.

A nonprofit mental health agency in the region wants to launch a treatment center for people suffering from panic attacks, suicidal thoughts and other psychiatric crises. They would be able to walk in off the street without an appointment, see a trained clinician and even stay a few days for observation, if necessary.

As Vermont grapples with a mental health crisis that has strained local resources, the proposal is envisioned as a way to serve people before they land in a hospital emergency room to languish for days, or even weeks, awaiting treatment — tying up precious beds in the process.

The problem is especially pronounced in rural areas, where hospitals typically have small emergency rooms and no psychiatrists on staff. At North Country Hospital in Newport, mental health “boarders” — those who are awaiting treatment — sometimes fill nearly half of the 11-bed emergency room. “The only thing we’re really doing is keeping them safe,” said Megan Sargent, the hospital’s vice president of patient care services.

Sargent said the logjam forces people with medical emergencies to wait longer for care. Some end up leaving without being seen.

The proposed center, which would be named the Front Porch, is based on a model from the National Alliance on Mental Illness that’s proven successful elsewhere.

Walk-ins would be assessed by mental health professionals, who could determine how to stabilize them. That might mean talking to a therapist and returning for follow-up sessions. Those feeling suicidal who do not want to be alone could also choose to stay overnight. The center would eventually have up to six beds that it could use to observe people for as many as 10 days.

The administration of Gov. Phil Scott supports the idea and has proposed spending $1.6 million in Medicaid dollars to cover costs, a request that lawmakers would need to approve.

“If this goes well, we’d like to spread it elsewhere,” said Alison Krompf, deputy

commissioner of the Vermont Department of Mental Health.

That might include Chittenden County, where the Howard Center and the University of Vermont Medical Center say they are collaborating on a program. “We anticipate support from the state and look forward to bringing a program on-line in the near term,” said Bob Bick, the Howard Center’s CEO, in a statement.

The concept for the NEK proposal came from Chris and Betty Barrett, a Newport Center couple who have spent years calling for better mental health services in their rural slice of Vermont. Theirs is an advocacy born of grief: In 2004, the couple’s son, Michael, killed himself while living out of state. That led Betty to join a local suicide prevention group.

Years later, a brief stint at North Country Hospital inspired Betty to adjust her efforts. She was moved out of a room in the ER to an overflow space because staff members needed the bed for an incoming mental health patient — their fourth that day. She later learned that people were routinely housed in the ER because there were no dedicated psychiatric beds available anywhere in the state.

Betty, who had long struggled with depression and spent time in psychiatric units during her forties, was incensed: Chaotic emergency rooms were the last place psychiatric patients should be. She arranged a meeting with the hospital’s CEO and later testified before the legislature to call for a new mental health facility in the NEK. But nothing came of it.

Frustrated by the state’s inaction, the Barretts eventually went straight to the top. Betty wrote to Scott last year asking

A THIRD OF PEOPLE SEEKING EMERGENCY MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN THE NEK GO TO HOSPITALS, SUGGESTING THEY DON’T KNOW WHERE ELSE TO TURN.

Lawmakers Won’t Overhaul State Job Program, Order Study Instead

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM kevin@sevendaysvt.com

nor has the Quality Inn’s owner, Anil Sachdev, returned her calls and texts.

In December, Ouellette contacted Legal Services Vermont, a nonprofit that helps low-income Vermonters with civil issues; two months later, a Legal Services attorney, Mark Hengstler, sent Sachdev a letter ordering him to release Ouellette’s security deposit or explain his reasons for withholding it within 10 days. Sachdev has not replied, and Ouellette is now preparing to sue him in civil court, because the state won’t intervene. “I did everything right,” Ouellette said. “The state knows this guy is robbing them of their money, and I don’t understand why they’re not jumping in to hold him accountable.”

Lawmakers have backed away from a major revamp to Vermont’s main job creation initiative, settling instead for making the program more transparent and creating a task force to figure out what kind of economic incentives really work.

A bill in the House would have halted the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive program whenever the state unemployment rate fell below 5 percent. (The state’s unemployment rate was 2.9 percent last week.) Backers of the bill questioned whether Vermont should be paying companies to expand when many can’t fill the job openings they already have.

But it soon became apparent to lawmakers that reforming the program was neither as necessary nor as easy as some had assumed, according to Austin Davis, a lobbyist for the Lake Champlain Chamber.

Since it began in 2007, VEGI has spurred $1.1 billion in capital investments and created 8,812 new jobs that have generated $515 million in payroll, according to the program’s annual report.

But the program has been criticized for not providing detailed information about the individual grants. State Auditor Doug Hoffer said the lack of transparency makes it impossible to be sure that the state isn’t giving away tax dollars for jobs that were going to be created here anyway.

The new version of H.10 would increase the reporting requirements. Companies that receive the grants would need to provide more public detail about the number of jobs and salary ranges created. The measure also includes more robust conflict of interest protections and clarifies when the council overseeing the program can go into executive session.

The bill would create a five-member Task Force on Economic Development Incentives to explore the “purpose and performance of current State-funded economic development incentive programs,” with a report on alternatives due by January 15, 2024. ➆

Sachdev did not respond to multiple attempts to arrange an interview. In reply to a text message last week, Sachdev wrote that he was in India, “with limited phone coverage.” He didn’t return a follow-up message, nor did he reply to a list of emailed questions. Seven Days attempted to reach him again on Monday, after one of his associates indicated he had returned, and got no response.

He told VTDigger.org that his staff members work to fix problems promptly, but he blamed residents for delaying repairs by insisting that motel staff give them notice before going into their rooms. He added that he’ll have to invest heavily to make his properties suitable for tourists again when funding for the motel housing program runs out at the end of May.

Since March 2020, Vermont has spent upwards of $180 million to shelter more than 6,000 households in hotels. An infusion of federal aid during the pandemic allowed the state to transform a decades-old program that paid for motel rooms for unhoused Vermonters on the coldest winter nights into a provisional solution to twin crises: the state’s dire housing shortage and its rising rate of homelessness, now the secondhighest per capita in the country.

The security deposits represent a small fraction of Vermont’s spending on the motel program, amounting to just under $6 million. But the state did little to prevent motel owners from exploiting its largesse, nor did it create any mechanisms to ensure that former residents would receive the funds that were meant to help them get on their feet.

Most of that cash, along with the rest of the money the state has poured into the motel program, has wound up in the hands of private business owners such as Sachdev, a principal in seven Vermont hotels whose chief source of revenue is unhoused, low-income guests. Since July, his properties have collectively brought in close to $20 million in monthly payments

from the state, according to data from the Department for Children and Families, which administers the motel program. That equals roughly one-third of the department’s total spending since April on the program, which encompasses more than 70 lodging establishments.

As affordable housing remains in critically short supply, the state has become increasingly dependent on motels to provide shelter for its growing unhoused

population. In summer 2022, DCF revised the motel program to more closely resemble a rental arrangement, with a contract between owners and occupants that guaranteed three months of housing at a time, for up to 18 months. To encourage motels to participate, the state threw in an extra enticement: the $3,300 security deposits.

If residents leave the motel after less than four months, according to the contract, hotels are supposed to return the deposits to DCF, minus any damages. Residents who stay four months or longer are eligible to collect the deposits when they move out, as long as their rooms are in good condition.

These rules were intended to offer greater stability for long-term occupants, with a crucial caveat: Motel tenants would be exempt from renter protections under state law, a condition that was spelled out in the Budget Adjustment Act that year. The program guidelines explicitly state that DCF will not get involved in a security deposit dispute between a motel and a resident, nor does the department require motel owners to document their damage claims. DCF confirmed that it only

Brenda Ouellette

The maintenance request board at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro

tracks the $1.4 million in security deposits due back to the state. The remaining $4.3 million, ostensibly for people who leave the program, is being held entirely at the discretion of motel owners.

Hengstler, Ouellette’s attorney, said DCF officials have been referring people with security deposit complaints to Legal Services. Taking a motel owner to court can present an enormous hurdle for a person who used the program, Hengstler said: “If I’ve been homeless and I’m exiting a motel, the moment I most need that $3,300 is the minute I step out the door.”

Ouellette’s Quality Inn room inspection form, which Hengstler shared with Seven Days, noted that “the cost of repairs can be adjusted towards [the] security deposit,” without making a distinction between existing damages and damages caused by the occupant. That form, which came from the management of the Quality Inn, doesn’t align with the program’s stipulation that damage must have been caused by the tenant in order for a motel to withhold the deposit.

Since November, Hengstler has fielded two or three calls a week from former motel residents who say their security deposits have been wrongfully withheld; a substantial number of those calls, Hengstler said, have come from past occupants

of Sachdev’s properties, which include the Hilltop Inn in Berlin; the Cortina Inn, Quality Inn, Pine Tree Lodge and Econo Lodge in Rutland; and the Econo Lodge in Montpelier. The state hasn’t had much luck getting its money back, either. As of mid-March, Sachdev’s hotels still owed almost $310,000 of roughly $380,000 they received in deposits for guests who left after less than four months, according to data provided by DCF.

“Somebody like Anil is the product of the state’s creation,” Hengstler said. DCF, he contends, could have required motels to submit detailed damage claims, mandated that deposits be held in escrow and imposed sanctions on hotels for improperly withholding deposits. “It was a mistake to not create safeguards to get this money to people,” he said. “And now that we all see that it’s a mistake, I think that we should expect our government to acknowledge it and work to correct it. And that’s not what’s happening.”

According to Hengstler, Mark Eley, who until recently served as director of the general assistance program at DCF, has acknowledged privately that Sachdev “doesn’t follow the rules.” “But his position appears to be, ‘There’s not much we can do about it. He’s got rooms, and we need rooms.’” (Eley did not respond to questions about these remarks.)

In an interview in February, thenacting DCF commissioner Harry Chen said he was “concerned” about the motels’ failure to return security deposits to former residents. In January, DCF sent letters to motel owners encouraging them to document damages, but beyond that, Chen maintained that the department had limited leverage. “The obvious challenge is that these motels don’t have agreements with us,” said Chen, who

IF I’VE BEEN HOMELESS AND I’M EXITING

MOTEL, THE MOMENT I MOST NEED THAT $3,300 IS THE MINUTE I STEP OUT THE DOOR.

The Quality Inn in Brattleboro

stepped down at the end of last month. “I don’t know that we have another legal framework on which to do anything other than to put the landlords on notice.”

To pay for the program, he explained, the state used funds from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which required a contract between a building owner and an occupant. The department saw no need to add guardrails to prevent motel owners from abusing the system, because “we weren’t exactly sure that would necessarily be a challenge,” said Katarina Lisaius, a senior adviser to the DCF commissioner. “So we’re mitigating as best we can in real time.”

On the whole, Chen said, the motel program has been an imperfect solution to a pressing problem; in deciding how to deal with owners who don’t follow the rules, he suggested that the state has to carefully weigh the consequences. “We have people who are not being housed every day, because there aren’t enough hotel rooms,” he said. “So, you have to balance the need with the supply.”

Some motel owners have taken full advantage of DCF’s willingness to do business at practically any cost. Before the state imposed a monthly rate cap of $5,250 per room in September, the Bradford Motel was charging $8,000 a month for its rooms while occupants went without air conditioning, an amenity the owner offered only to “regular” paying guests, VTDigger recently reported. The owner told VTDigger that DCF officials encouraged her to name a price that would offset the risk she felt she was assuming by taking in statefunded guests, whom she largely blamed for the problems at the motel.

Between July and September 2022, the Vermont Department of Health received 20 complaints about unsafe and unsanitary conditions at motels in the program, ranging from bedbug-riddled sheets to a lack of heat and hot water for residents. In October, after months of warnings, the health department sanctioned the Colchester Quality Inn for failing to contain a raging bedbug infestation and capped the number of rooms it could rent through the state. During a February visit to Sachdev’s Cortina Inn in Rutland, which has raked in more than $5.6 million in state money over the past eight months, inspectors found pools of raw sewage in two rooms. The inn has been such a frequent destination for the town’s first responders that, in fall 2022, Sachdev agreed to pay the municipality $22,500 a month, plus a one-time sum of $75,000, to defray the cost of emergency services.

In Berlin, town officials struggled for years to get Sachdev to address their

concerns about persistent crime and drug use at the Hilltop Inn, one of Sachdev’s highest-grossing properties. After Berlin Police Chief James Pontbriand successfully petitioned DCF late last year to limit the number of rooms the motel could rent to people in the state housing program, Sachdev and his associate, Uday Dholakia, agreed to regular meetings with Pontbriand and Berlin officials, with the goal of reaching an accord that would allow the Hilltop to operate at full capacity.

Earlier this month, after a dramatic decline in 911 calls involving guests at the hotel, the Berlin Selectboard agreed to let Sachdev fill all 80 rooms, up from around 60. During a recent meeting of town officials, Hilltop management, DCF and social service workers, Dholakia attributed this sudden turnaround, in part, to “a beautiful camera right in the front parking lot.”

“Once people are here, we want them to stay here for as long as they’re able to,”

Dholakia said at the meeting. “We provide so many things that other hotels don’t. You are very fortunate to come here.” In exchange for lifting the room cap, Sachdev will pay the town $400 a month, plus $70.75 an hour for every police officer and ambulance worker who responds to the motel.

Pontbriand said he takes no pleasure in accepting money from a private business owner, though he thinks there has been some improvement in Sachdev’s willingness to cooperate with the town.

A young child looking through the window and tattered screens at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro

Cars filled with personal items and open shipping containers in the parking lot of the Quality Inn

At the end of last month, the Hilltop took in several guests who “no sooner hit the ground here and started stealing cars and stealing stu from Walmart,” according to Pontbriand. “We had a conversation with them, like, ‘Hopefully, these people aren’t going to stick around long,’ and they removed them from the hotel within 24 hours. And that’s not been my experience dealing with them in the past.” But in Pontbriand’s view, Sachdev’s sudden responsiveness is the result of wanting to increase his monthly billings.

“There’s a real financial incentive for them,” Pontbriand said. “And there’s very little money being put back into that hotel. No one would pay to stay there.” The Hilltop’s overall condition, in his estimation, is “deplorable.”

Just last month, Pontbriand had to confront Sachdev about another issue: The Hilltop management was evicting

“They would just tell us to clean it up and get them in there, because they need that money! They need those vouchers! They need those vouchers! Gotta keep those vouchers up!” When someone left the hotel before the end of the month, Trujillo said, Sachdev simply wouldn’t report it to DCF so he could continue to collect money for the room; at the same time, he’d rent it out to someone else.

Both Trujillo and Ouellette acknowledged that some guests do trash their rooms. But Trujillo feels that the owners use that as an excuse not to put money back into the property, and then they blame tenants for problems caused by their lack of maintenance. When she lived there, Trujillo said, the top floor flooded every time it rained because of a leak in the roof. “There are so many rooms in there that have mold that’s just not gonna go away, no matter how many times you spray it with bleach,” she said.

Estimated Costs of Paid Family Leave Soar, Leading to Rival Bill

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM • kevin@sevendaysvt.com

people and telling them that if they didn’t get o the premises, the police chief would shut down the hotel and force everyone out onto the street. Pontbriand — who doesn’t have the power to do that — said that kind of fearmongering erodes trust between the town and motel residents, who often need help from first responders for mental health crises, overdoses and other emergencies.

“That’s been my chief heartache since the inception of this program — you’re placing people here with a lot of needs, and you didn’t put any kind of support structure in place, which is a real burden for the municipality,” the chief said. At a meeting with town o cials in February, Sachdev apologized to Pontbriand for throwing him under the bus and assured him that it wouldn’t happen again.

At the Brattleboro Quality Inn, Sachdev would instruct his sta to tell residents that their rooms had been treated for bedbugs when they hadn’t, said Bobbie Trujillo, who lived and worked there as a housekeeper and manager between December 2020 and June 2022. “They would rent rooms out where they knew that the plumbing didn’t work or something else was wrong,” Trujillo said.

While Ouellette was living at the Quality Inn, at least nine people died in their rooms, mostly from drug overdoses, according to records from the Brattleboro Police Department. In one case, someone had been dead at least four days before her body was discovered, the medical examiner’s report noted. Rather than hire a professional hazmat crew, Ouellette said, the hotel management would instruct its own sta — most of whom, like Ouellette, were residents themselves — to clean the rooms where the bodies had been found, so they could be turned over as quickly as possible to the next guest. “They treated us as subhuman,” Ouellette said. Trujillo shared that assessment. When she quit her job at the Quality Inn in June, six months after moving into her own apartment, she started going to therapy. “I was pretty traumatized by the stu I’d seen,” she said.

Michael Hutchins, another former Quality Inn resident, has been in the dark about his security deposit since he left the hotel in December. All of his attempts to reach Sachdev have been unfruitful. “He’s a ghost,” he said. Mostly, Hutchins is frustrated by the indignity of having to chase down money that the state, in theory, had promised him. His caseworker from Groundworks Collaborative, a local social service provider, got him the papers to file a small claims suit against Sachdev, but the courthouse is in Newfane, a 20-minute drive from Brattleboro. Hutchins doesn’t have a car, and there’s no public transportation that would get him there.

“I’d be willing to go without the money to know that that guy doesn’t have it,” Hutchins said, referring to Sachdev. “It’s the principle of the thing. You shouldn’t be able to make money, hand over fist, on people who can’t do anything about it.”

A House bill that would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave for workers continues to grow in size and scope, raising concern among some lawmakers and the governor that the costs may outweigh the benefits.

e bill, H.66, passed the Ways and Means Committee by an 8-4 vote last week, with Republicans united in opposition and even some Democrats admitting sticker shock.

e bill would pay workers 90 percent of their salary to take up to 12 weeks to care for a newborn, address a medical condition or escape domestic abuse. It would offer two weeks of bereavement pay. Lawmakers received updated cost estimates shortly before the vote.

It would now require $112 million in startup costs, including the hiring of up to 65 state employees, and cost $117 million to run annually.

“ is is a lot of one-time money,” Rep. Katherine Sims (D-Craftsbury) said. “I guess I see this as an investment in Vermont and our workforce.”

Startup costs would be paid for out of state coffers, while operating costs would be funded by a future 0.55 percent payroll tax.

For a worker making $50,000, the 0.55 percent tax would cost $275 per year. An employer would be required to pay half, or $137.50. at would leave workers on the hook for the other half. Employers could opt to cover the entire cost for workers, and some have said they would.

e payroll taxes would be sent to the state treasurer, whose office would run the new Division of Family and Medical Leave.

A previous estimate had put the annual program cost at $94.4 million. e figure was recently updated to reflect inflation’s effect on a program that would not be operational until July 1, 2026.

e legislature passed a more modest bill in 2020, which would have provided 12 weeks of leave for new parents and eight weeks of medical leave. But Gov. Phil Scott vetoed it, citing the burdens of what was then envisioned as a $29 million payroll tax.

e new House proposal, which has expanded beyond child and medical leave

and lengthened the time off for the latter from eight to 12 weeks, is almost certain to be vetoed by Scott. His spokesperson, Jason Maulucci, said Scott “remains deeply concerned” about the “regressive payroll tax” to build and maintain a “large new bureaucracy” at a time when state government has trouble filling the vacancies it has.

Scott has proposed a voluntary leave program anchored by state workers but open to any worker or employer willing to pay on their behalf.

“We are continuing to move forward and implement the Governor’s paid family and medical leave program, which every working Vermonter and employer can choose to opt-in to, without the need for a payroll tax, or dramatically growing a bureaucracy and assuming higher risk for the State,” Maulucci wrote in an email.

Senate Democrats are also clearly concerned about growing cost estimates. Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) has proposed a more modest 12-week parental leave program that would be offered through the Department for Children and Families.

How much Kitchel’s program would pay has not been determined, but it would be available to families making 600 percent of the federal poverty level, or $180,000 for a family of four. e benefit would only be available to one parent per household following a birth or adoption. e plan was hastily tacked on to S.56, a childcare subsidy bill that the Senate Health and Welfare Committee has been working on for weeks.

If the Senate passes a bill with her program, that would likely set up a tense negotiation between the two chambers. House leaders have called this issue one of their top legislative priorities.

Kitchel also told colleagues her program would be simpler to administer. “It doesn’t take an army of eligibility workers to process,” she said, in a not-so-subtle swipe at the House version.

e new workers needed to administer that plan — 45 to 50 in the treasurer’s office and another 15 in the tax department — would drive the annual administrative costs up to $13.5 million. ➆

SINCE MARCH 2020, VERMONT HAS SPENT UPWARDS OF $180 MILLION TO SHELTER MORE THAN 6,000 HOUSEHOLDS IN HOTELS.

House Ways and Means Committee

Walk-Ins Welcome « P.15

that his administration fund a new mental health treatment center in their region. To her surprise, Scott responded, writing that he would put the Department of Mental Health on the case.

Not long afterward, Krompf, the department’s deputy commissioner, began to look into whether the Northeast Kingdom needed more mental health services — and if so, whether the state could afford them.

Krompf knew that some of the state’s highest rates of suicide were in two NEK counties: Orleans and Caledonia. And recent data showed that roughly a third of people seeking emergency psychiatric care in the region went to hospitals instead of the local mental health agency, suggesting that people didn’t know where else to turn.

In talking to the Barretts, Krompf sensed that they had been dismissed over the years because officials thought the couple was asking for a new inpatient facility, which could cost tens of millions of dollars. But she quickly realized that they simply sought a place outside of the hospital for treating urgent mental health needs — and that seemed doable.

“They’ve been talking about this for a long time, but they just didn’t have the technical language to explain it,” Krompf said in an interview.

Still, a big hurdle remained. The most logical choice for an organization to run the center was the nonprofit Northeast Kingdom Human Services, which contracts with the state to provide mental health services in the area, but the Barretts were leery. Long waiting lists and gaps in service had

DON

plagued the agency, and state officials had placed it on a probationary license.

But at Krompf’s urging, the Barretts agreed to meet with the agency’s newly hired executive director, Kelsey Stavseth. They came away impressed. Less than a year later, they learned that Scott had included the project in his proposed budget.

“It’s amazing how much has happened so quickly,” Betty said.

A similar center for children opened in Bennington a few years ago and has proven successful. School staff members now routinely call Psychiatric Urgent Care

for Kids, or PUCK, when a child is in crisis. More often than not, those children are stabilized at the urgent care center, allowing them to stay out of the ER. The year after the program launched, Southwestern Vermont Health Care reported 40 percent fewer pediatric mental health emergency cases.

A federal grant will help Northeast Kingdom Human Services construct a new building for the center once state funding is approved. The House Committee on Health Care has endorsed the idea, strengthening the likelihood that it

would be included in the final budget that lawmakers will vote on later this spring. Stavseth said he would then look for a place where Northeast Kingdom Human Services could launch a temporary version of the urgent care program this summer while he figures out where to locate the new one. That process could prove a heavy lift, he said, because the stigma surrounding mental illness often makes residents wary of such programs in their neighborhoods. But he’s optimistic that he’ll succeed.

Said Chris Barrett: “We plan to be at the ribbon cutting.”

Betty and Chris Barrett holding a photo of their son, Michael, who killed himself in 2004

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or text VT to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line.

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Uncovered

Rising insurance rates threaten Vermont bars, clubs and restaurants

BY CHRIS FARNSWORTH • farnsworth@sevendaysvt.com

When Emily Morton and Karyn Jacobs decided last year to buy the 126, the small Burlington nightclub where they worked, they had a carefully thought-out financial plan. The first-time business owners meticulously researched staffing, music booking and other operational costs.

“There were so many things to take in consideration and budget for,” Morton said recently, as she and Jacobs sat in their office at the 126. “But insurance was one of the things we weren’t worried about.”

As it turned out, finding insurance for their bar was a big problem. Their landlord initially demanded they take out a million-dollar liquor liability policy, in case a drunken customer of the club later caused an accident or injuries to someone. Vermont’s so-called Dram Shop law allows the landlord, as well as the bar itself, to be sued in such a case, making many landlords trepidatious when it comes to their tenants’ insurance coverage.

So Jacobs and Morton went shopping, expecting to pay similar rates as the previous owner had for coverage. But despite submitting more than 25 applications to different brokers, at the national and state levels, the women had no luck.

“It wasn’t about how much the coverage would be,” Jacobs said. “We couldn’t even find coverage. No one, not a single insurer in the state, could offer us a plan.”

The women also discovered they were not alone: Vermont bars, nightclubs and other establishments that serve alcohol were facing sharp, often unaffordable, increases in the cost of insurance — if they could find a company to provide it at all.

The cost of liability insurance, including liquor liability, has been rising steadily across the country. A recent survey by the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers found that in the final quarter of 2021 alone, medium-size businesses saw an average insurance premium increase of 10.6 percent; small businesses saw an average 6.3 percent rise. The council attributed the increases to inflation, bigger lawsuit awards, an uptick in cybercrime and other factors.

But Vermont’s difficulties are compounded by the state’s own liquor liability law, passed in 1987. Its provisions mean Vermont is one of the states where insurers run the greatest risk of big payouts in liquor liability lawsuits, according to the Insurance

BUSINESS

“We set out to strike a balance, and I think we did strike a balance,” he told the committee as it prepared to vote out the measure last week. “[The bill] continues the incentives for good behavior by servers, by bartenders and by establishments, and it allows harm to be compensated. And hopefully — and this is the big question, and we’ll find out in the next six months or so — it makes insurance more available at a more reasonable cost in Vermont.”

LaLonde also said he sees the requirement that all bars carry insurance as an important step.

“We did hear that there are bars that don’t have liability insurance, and without that liability insurance, individuals who are harmed are more exposed,” he summed up.

Rep. Logan Nicoll (D-Ludlow), the sponsor of H.288, said the relative speed with which the bill is moving through the House is evidence that lawmakers have listened to bar owners. The bill is scheduled for a final vote within the House early this week before it can cross over to the Senate for debate.

“Hopefully the Senate doesn’t take too much time with it,” Nicoll said over the phone. “Because I’m worried about some of our bars.”

Service Office, which is based in New Jersey. Its assessment, used by insurance companies to make business decisions, means liability insurance has become expensive and hard to obtain for Vermont establishments.

“We are quickly approaching a critical point for restaurants, clubs, bars and music venues,” said Amy Spear, vice president of tourism at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. “When it comes to access to liquor liability, it’s not even a question of affordability right now. It’s whether or not a business can even get a policy.”

Hearing the cries of bar owners, the Statehouse has begun to respond. Last week the House Judiciary Committee unanimously endorsed a bill that members hope would make liquor liability insurance more available, without too narrowly limiting the ability of victims to sue for damages if, for example, a bar patron drove drunk and caused an accident.

The measure, H.288, would change the liability standards that apply when a bar is sued. Currently, according to the ISO, when it comes to serving alcohol, Vermont’s statutes and case law make it a “strict liability” state. That means someone can sue a bar successfully without having to prove that the establishment was negligent in serving a customer who later caused harm. And Vermont doesn’t cap the damages an injured person can win.

The ISO calculates the risk that insurers take on by writing policies in each state.

On a scale of one to 10, Vermont scored a not-so-perfect 10 — a distinction, along with Alabama, of posing the very highest risk. By comparison, Maine’s rating is 4; Massachusetts’ is 6.

As drafted by the House Judiciary Committee, the bill would more explicitly move Vermont to a “negligence” standard for most liquor liability cases (except those involving sales to a minor or outside legal hours). It also removes language

Case in point: the Pickle Barrel nightclub in Killington.

“My carrier came to me last year and basically said that they just didn’t want to write coverage for me or my businesses any longer,” said Chris Karr, who owns the club, as well as five other restaurants and bars in the Killington area.

According to Karr, the insurance company was dropping him strictly because his nightclub is located in Vermont. As he shopped around for new coverage, one insurance agent confided that if his club were in New Hampshire, he would have gotten a new plan with no problem.

“If you look at Maine and New Hampshire, their [ISO ratings] are much lower than Vermont’s,” Karr explained. “You can see that it isn’t the businesses or anything like that — it’s the state.”

that allowed landlords to be held liable. It does not cap damage awards but does require that bars and restaurants carry liability insurance starting in 2024. Some of the language in the statute would mirror Maine’s law.

House Judiciary Committee chair Martin LaLonde (D-South Burlington) said he believes the ISO has been misinterpreting Vermont’s existing law. Nevertheless, the committee’s bill includes adjustments to meet the industry’s concerns while still allowing room for injured people to recover damages, he said.

Karr said the cost of insuring the Pickle Barrel has risen significantly over the past few years. Now he faces the likelihood that when his policy expires at the end of the year, his businesses will be without liability insurance. After hearing that other bars face the same threat, Karr joined other owners, including Morton and Jacobs of the 126, in asking lawmakers for help.

“You could see how eye-opening it was,” Karr said of the owners’ testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. “The legislature saw that we weren’t a bunch of bar owners just trying to dodge liability. We want and need insurance, and we should be able to get that for our businesses.”

IT’S NOT EVEN A QUESTION OF AFFORDABILITY RIGHT NOW. IT’S WHETHER OR NOT A BUSINESS CAN EVEN GET A POLICY. AMY SPEAR

Emily Morton (left) and Karyn Jacobs

LUKE AWTRY

As Morton and Jacobs raised the alarm with other businesses about a possible insurance apocalypse, they found most owners weren’t aware of the issue or believed they were facing it alone.

“We all thought it was just us!” Morton said.

Once they established that they weren’t alone, Morton and Jacobs’ focus shifted to supporting H.288, on which they’ve pinned their bar’s hopes for survival.

“Here we are, one of the only bars owned by women in the state,” Morton continued. “We’re first-time business owners but came into this with a clear plan, the blessing of the former owner and a great relationship with the landlord. But the whole thing was almost kiboshed because our landlord needed to protect himself and we couldn’t get insurance.”

The duo persuaded their landlord to allow them to buy a $500,000 policy, as opposed to the million-dollar one for which he initially asked. They then found short-term coverage for the year by paying significantly more than they had planned. While Morton and Jacobs declined to discuss the previous owner’s rates, they revealed that the only policy they were able to find cost double what the rates had been. They also pointed out that just to get a plan twice the cost of the previous one took months of working with multiple insurance brokers who advocated for them with the insurance companies.

“If [H.288] isn’t passed, I think it will definitely put out quite a few small businesses in Vermont,” Jacobs said, noting that she and Morton have only a temporary fix for their problem.

Karr agrees. Although he said he is optimistic that H.288 will pass, he will close his bars if it does not. “Personally, if I can’t find coverage, I’m not going to take the risk [of being uninsured],” he said.

Nicoll said he is confident lawmakers can provide some relief for the beleaguered businesses: “A lot of my colleagues are very supportive of trying to address this problem in the session. There’s a lot of political capital to getting something done here.”

Karr described the situation as a race against time — can lawmakers act before insurance renewal? Those dates vary from one bar to the next, and “time is not in our favor,” he said.

“Bars and restaurants, we all made it through COVID and managed to get our doors open again,” Morton said. “The state was so huge in helping us then. We know that we’ve done literally everything in our power to change the situation. We just need help.”

lifelines

OBITUARIES

Dorothy Saba

SEPTEMBER 1, 1930MARCH 15, 2023

BURLINGTON, VT.

Dorothy Saba, 92, of Burlington, Vt., passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Dorothy was born on September 1, 1930, in Methuen, Mass., the daughter of Bessie and Ernest Hobica. She grew up in Methuen and graduated from Methuen High School. Dorothy grew up amid the beginnings of the Great Depression and, as a young girl, lost both her mother and only sibling, Edna, to tuberculosis. With the love and guidance of her father, who would later become an adored grandfather, Dorothy rose beyond her childhood tragedies and chose not to let adversity define her.

Following high school, she began work as a bookkeeper at an insurance firm. It was there that Dorothy met her future

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

husband and the love of her life, Herbert, after being introduced by Herb’s best friend and her employer. ey were married for 39 years and operated Saba’s Pharmacy together. She made a life for herself in Vermont for almost 30 years after his passing in 1994, and they are now joined together again.

ough she stood at four feet, 11 inches, her love and devotion for her family made her a giant in our eyes.

Dorothy was an avid golfer and enjoyed going to the library to find new books, solving puzzles and doing a variety of crafts. Her greatest treasures in life, besides her husband, were her children and grandchildren.

Dorothy is survived by her sons, Mark Saba and his wife, Karen Paul, of Burlington, and Keith Saba and his wife, Tricia Saba, of Freedom, N.H. She leaves her beloved grandchildren, Andrew, Adam and Caroline Saba of

Helen Margaret Place

MAY 24, 1941-MARCH 11, 2023

JERICHO, VT.

Helen Margaret Place, 81, of Snowflake Drive in Jericho, Vt., died on March 11, 2023, following a long illness. She was born on May 24, 1941, to Clark and Edith Kocher Patton of Stull, Pa. On February 11, 1967, she married Ronald J. Place in the United Methodist Church in Tunkhannock, Pa.

Helen was a lifelong athlete and excelled at tennis, volleyball, softball and Jazzercise, as well as running and biking. She maintained her fitness throughout her life, and as a young woman, she acquired a deep knowledge of healthy eating and physical labor. Her love of gardening was on full display on their beautiful property.

She is survived by her dear husband, Ron; daughter, Kimberly, and her husband, Brad, of

John Mech

Burlington and Kristopher Saba of Wellington, Fla.

Dorothy’s family is grateful to the dedicated team of doctors and nurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center and gives special thanks to Betsy MaGee, Heidi Karic, Tonya Broomfield, Jamie Broomfield, Maureen Kolich and Dalia Elhashami, who were her caregivers in the last few weeks of her life. eir devotion to her care made it possible for Dorothy to be at home surrounded by her family.

Dorothy had a tremendous faith in God. It was a gentle, quiet faith that sustained her throughout her life and, with the compassion of Father Timothy Sullivan, gave her comfort and acceptance in her final days.

At her request, the family will have a private graveside service, where she will be laid to rest at the United Lebanese Cemetery in Lawrence, Mass., beside her beloved husband. In lieu of flowers, gifts in Dorothy’s memory may be sent to the UVM Health Network, Home Health & Hospice, 1110 Prim Rd., Colchester, VT 05446.

Arrangements were made by Kenneth H. Pollard Funeral Home.

FEBRUARY 1, 1942-MARCH 7, 2023 BURLINGTON, VT.

Champagne Johnny took his bottles to the sky on March 7, 2023, after spending the last few months analyzing his illness through the lens of a pathologist — always realistic and forever curious. He died peacefully at home when prostate cancer finally took over.

Dr. John Mech was born on February 1, 1942, son of Frederick and Angela (Nelva Kulikowski) Mech. He grew up in Irvington, N.J., surrounded by a vibrant extended family, the source of many stories John and his brother, Stan, would reminisce about as they grew older.

the party was about to get good when John walked into a room with a bottle of excellent Champagne under each arm. One friend noted, “John was the most generous man I ever met, a great listener, fun, full of life and so willing to just be who he was.”

In 2007, John met Deb Ellis. ey married in 2013, bringing together a diverse set of experiences, interests and friends. Together, they built a warm home, cooked, drank wine, grew more friends and dreamed. ey enjoyed many late summer days and raucous evenings at a camp he rented for years on Starr Farm Beach in Burlington. When that chapter ended, they spent more time in Nantucket walking the beaches.

Jeffersonville, Vt.; son Brian and his friend, Sandy, of Fletcher Vt.; son Kevin living at home; and grandson, omas, who is a shining light to all. She is also survived by her sister Patricia and her husband, Vincent; sister Peggy; and many kin, all of Noxen, Pa., and the surrounding area; and Ron’s brother, Gary, of Wilmington, Del. ere will be a service and celebration of life on ursday, March 23, 11 a.m., at the United Methodist Church, Route 15, Jericho, VT. e church is handicap-accessible. A social gathering with refreshments will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a memorial donation in Helen’s name to the EJUEM Food Shelf, P.O. Box 65, Jericho, VT 05465.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Cremation Society of Chittenden County, a division of the Ready Family. To read a full obituary and send an online condolence to the family, please visit cremationsocietycc.com.

John graduated as the valedictorian from Archbishop Walsh High School and later attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a year, he transferred to Cornell University, where he earned his BS degree in chemistry. Following graduation from Cornell, John was accepted to the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at omas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he received his MD degree in 1968. He spent a yearlong internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle before completing his residency in pathology at the University of Vermont Medical School in 1975. Dr. John remained in Vermont for the entirety of his career, covering pathology at Copley Hospital in Morrisville, as well as stints in St. Albans and other Vermont hospitals. His work was considered at the highest level of competency by his peers. He retired from practice in 2018.

John knew something about just about everything, especially history. He liked football and was especially knowledgeable about the NFL’s earliest beginnings. As an above-average guitarist in his younger years, his love of music never waned. He was profoundly interested in wine, especially French wine. In addition to reading widely, he traveled to the French wine country to see, experience (taste) and study firsthand the complex processes involved.

John’s first marriage ended in the early 1970s. Subsequently, he practiced a fervent bachelor life. His friends knew

John continued an active life to the end, engaging in deep conversations with old friends and making new connections with members of his care team. He managed to cook (e.g., telling Deb how to make sauces or combine spices), act as a master mixologist titrating medications to suit his needs and creating his own version of the once-ubiquitous “Brompton’s Cocktail.” John never stopped the magic. He possessed an aura of formality and properness but was never stuffy. You just felt good being around him.

He leaves many friends and family, including his wife, Deb Ellis; stepson, Kiah Ellis; brother, Stan Mech; parents-in-law Nancy and Russ Ellis; brother-in-law, David Ellis (Natalie Camus); sister-in-law Betsy EllisKempner (Paul Kempner); sister-inlaw Rebecca Ellis (Mike Rossi); the Copley gang; his Lakewood neighborhood family; Cam Page and family; his “adopted daughters” Jessica and Amanda; his friend and caretaker, Zoltan Keve; and his Wednesday caretaker, Lamiae. We are especially grateful to the University of Vermont Home Health & Hospice team for the extraordinary care with which it surrounded the household.

Although a transplant from Jersey, Dr. John became a true Vermonter. A gathering in memory of John will be planned at a later date. In the meantime, keep your eyes open, and you may see that cute smile and sweet wink peek around a corner, especially at a gathering of friends. What a good egg.

Samuel (Sam) B. Feitelberg

FEBRUARY 1, 1930MARCH 16, 2023

SHELBURNE,

VT.

Samuel B. Feitelberg, 93, of Shelburne, Vt., passed away on the night of March 16, 2023, at the McClure Miller Respite House. The son of Dr. Abraham and Rose Feitelberg, Sam was born in the Bronx, N.Y., in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. His life was shaped by his love for his family and his belief that every human being has the right to strive toward their highest creative potential.

Sam earned a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University in 1952, a certificate of physical therapy from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1953, and a master of arts from Columbia University Teachers College in 1954. Sam holds a certificate of labor administration from the Harvard University graduate School of Business (1980) and an honorary doctorate of science degree from Utica College (2015).

From 1954 to 1956, Sam served in the U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps, assigned to Walter Reed Army Hospital, where he served

Laura Merit

APRIL 7, 1926-JANUARY 15, 2023 BURLINGTON, VT.

as a staff physical therapist. It was there that he was inspired to help move physical therapy into its own professional realm. Discharged in the midst of the polio epidemic, he returned to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center as its chief pediatric physical therapist. He began his academic career in 1959 as an instructor in the physical therapy program at Columbia University. From 1965 to 1970, he was chair of physical therapy at Downstate Medical Center, SUNY Brooklyn. He then went on to establish and direct two schools of physical therapy: the University of Vermont in Burlington (1969 to 1996) and the School of Science, Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. (1997 to 2011). He was awarded the title of

Our beloved mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother and wonderful friend, Laura Merit, passed away on January 15, 2023, at the McClure Miller Respite House at the age of 96, with her family at her side.

Laura lived an exceptionally full life with her family and friends. She was a woman of extraordinary vitality and style. She had a keen sense of social justice and was dedicated to social causes all of her adult life.

Laura was born and raised in New York City. She and her late husband, Don Merit, raised their three daughters in the Bronx and Manhattan. She worked as an administrator at Walden School and a hospital administrator at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Laura and Don moved to Vermont in 1996 to be closer to family. They created an active and engaged life.

professor emeritus at the University of Vermont (1996) and Clarkson University (2011).

Sam was an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association since 1953 and served as president of the section for education (1986 to 1989), a member of the nominating committee (1986 to 1989) and a member of the board of directors (1990 to 1993). In 1997, he was named as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow by the APTA. He was also the recipient of the Lucy Blair Service Award in 1983, the Vermont Chapter Distinguished Service Award in 1990 and 1997, and the Diversity 2000 Award in 1996.

Sam dedicated himself to strengthening cultural equity, respect and understanding in his work and personal life. He worked tirelessly to suffuse diversity ethics and cultural proficiency into campus life, physical therapy education and patient services as essential to developing a responsive and compassionate society. He created opportunities for young people from marginalized communities to attend schools of physical therapy. His work lives on in the Samuel B. Feitelberg Endowed Scholarship established by Clarkson University

In Vermont, she found a community of like-minded friends who provided her with joy and support until the day she died. Always engaged in social causes, Laura was a longtime volunteer worker at Steps to End Domestic Violence.

She will be greatly missed.

Her spirit and energy to make the world a better place continue with her family. She is survived by family on two continents. Here in Vermont, she is survived by her daughter Roberta Soll and son-in-law Roger Soll; grandsons Gregory and Ben; daughter-inlaw, Tara Bubriski; and great-granddaughter, Ramona. In Europe, she is survived by her daughter Beth Merit; grandsons Matthew and Jason of Denmark; and son-in-law Look Hulshof Pol of the Netherlands.

A memorial service will be planned for the summer.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Steps to End Domestic Violence at P.O. Box 1535, Burlington, VT 05402.

to benefit a physical therapy student who shares his commitment for service and advocacy for underserved or culturally diverse populations. Sam’s vision of physical therapy included its application in national and global pursuits. He worked with NASA at the Langley Space Center in Virginia, developing programs to assist astronauts performing tasks in a weightless environment. That research became incorporated into therapy for people with Parkinson’s disease. Sam delighted in bringing teams of people together. He spoke humbly of how much he learned from his patients. He revered his faculty and found tremendous promise in the future in his students. His wisdom came from what others taught him through their experiences together. Some of Sam’s proudest achievements came later in life, when, in conjunction with Rotary’s Hands to Honduras, he helped establish the Oscar Edgardo Pineda Castro Rehabilitation Center for children in Tela, Honduras. For over 16 years, Sam was inspired and forever grateful to the wonderful staff and patients in Tela and to all those who traveled and supported the center and its mission.

In 2007, he was named

Justin Lemay

OCTOBER 11, 1991-JANUARY 24, 2023 COLCHESTER, VT.

a Paul Harris Fellow by the Shelburne-CharlotteHinesburg Rotary Club. Sam was a devoted Rotarian and treasured the many friendships he made within his chapter. Sam also played a pivotal role in the construction of the Shelburne Veterans’ Monument. He was honored to have participated in this project and loved the camaraderie of his fellow veterans. He treasured Saturday morning fundraising for the monument under the veterans’ pop-up tent at the Shelburne Farmers Market. He was extremely grateful to the dedicated committee that helped make the project come to life and to the Town of Shelburne and everyone who contributed to the project. Being a veteran truly touched his heart.

Sam enjoyed restoring old boats, cars, houses and his extraordinary collection of Lionel trains. A day well spent was sitting by the lake with family and friends at the family’s summer cabin on Lake Champlain.

Sam was fortunate to spend almost 70 years with the love of his life, his wife, Gail, and their four children: Cher, Debbie (Poulin) and son-in-law Tony, Lisa (Davison) and son-in-law, Mark, and son Michael and daughter-in-law Dana. Sam’s

At the end of January, the lives of Justin Bradley Lemay’s friends and family changed forever. We must learn to live without him, but we do so with a heavy heart and countless wonderful memories.

Justin was a caring, compassionate person who always stood up for the underdog and did everything in his power to help others. His friends describe him as someone who was brilliant and mastered everything he chose to learn, an amazing friend who stepped up in every way whenever he was needed, an avid lover of Audis and the finer things in life, and someone who was not afraid to tell his friends out loud that he loved them.

To his family, he was funny, smart, sensitive, compassionate and kind. He reminded us of a line in the song “Vincent,” written by Don McLean: We could have told you, Justin, “This

grandchildren, Kyle Coulam; Adam, Jordan and Sophie Davison; Daniel Feitelberg; and Lena Biggs, Shane and Shannon Poulin, were an endless source of pride for all they have accomplished and the wonderful people they have become. The family will forever miss his wonderful stories, lessons, sense of humor and unconditional love.

Visiting hours for Sam will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2023, 4 to 6 p.m., at Ready Funeral Service, South Chapel, 261 Shelburne Rd., Burlington, VT. A celebration of Sam’s life will take place later this spring.

We would like to thank the University of Vermont Medical Center and the McClure Miller Respite House for their love, respect, dignity and excellent medical care. In lieu of flowers, please consider honoring Sam with a donation to either the Samuel B. Feitelberg Physical Therapy Endowment Scholarship, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Ave., Potsdam, NY 13699; or the Shelburne Veterans’ Monument Fund, P.O. Box 88, Shelburne, VT 05482.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Service. To send an online condolence to the family, please visit readyfuneral.com.

world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.” Justin struggled with anxiety and depression from the time he was 8 years old. He was extremely sensitive, in a world that can be cold and uncaring. Cumulatively, he was deeply affected by the many losses he experienced throughout his life. He was a grandson, son, brother, brotherin-law, uncle, nephew and cousin who loved his family and his dog, Farrah, more than life itself.

With the help of everyone who loved him, Justin fought the good fight for as long as he was able. We are blessed to have had him in our lives for 31 years, and he will be dearly missed by so many.

Justin’s family will hold a celebration of his life on Saturday, April 1, 2023.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to NAMI Vermont, c/o NAMIWalks Vermont (Mudgie’s Minions), 600 Blair Park Rd., Williston, VT 05495; Turning Point CenterChittenden, 179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT 05401; or Humane Society of Chittenden County, 142 Kindness Ct., South Burlington, VT 05403.

BY ALISON NOVAK alison@sevendaysvt.com

Driving all three situations is an ambitious and unprecedented plan, mandated by the legislature, to test more than 300 older schools across the state for airborne PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. The compounds were once commonly used in commercial building materials such as window caulk, paint and tile glue. PCBs were outlawed in 1979 because of the harm they cause to humans and the environment.

Vermont began testing in June, using standards set by the state Department of Health that are much stricter than the federal ones. If deemed at risk, schools must embark on an expensive and time-consuming mission to identify and remove the sources. Of 22 schools tested so far, eight have levels that require further action.

In a league of its own is Burlington High School, where officials discovered PCB levels above the state standards in 2020. The school’s plight is what prompted the legislature to require statewide testing and local voters to approve a $190 million rebuild.

While lawmakers allocated $4.5 million for testing in 2021 and $32 million for remediation the following year, the full cost of addressing the PCBs is unknown. Nor is it clear whether or how much cash-strapped schools would have to contribute. That uncertainty has caused school superintendents to push back, arguing that it would divert funding from educational programs.

With some schools facing large, nonnegotiable expenditures, legislators are asking hard questions about the program — most importantly, whether it should continue. Last Friday, the House Education Committee greenlighted a measure that would pause PCB testing and roll the program into a broader, evolving school construction initiative. That could defuse a potential financial crisis set in motion when the state adopted strict PCB standards and mandated the testing. But it won’t assuage the public health concerns that sparked the testing in the first place.

House Education Committee chair Peter Conlon (D-Cornwall) said he

believes pausing the program would allow the legislature to more thoughtfully integrate PCB testing with longerterm goals for Vermont’s aging school facilities. Does it make sense, for example, to prioritize a costly PCB-remediation project in an old school that needs major renovations?

But Conlon’s counterpart in the upper chamber, Senate Education Committee chair Brian Campion (D-Bennington), thinks questions like that miss the point of the testing program.

“When it comes to kids, I’m going to be on the side of caution,” he said. “I want to make sure that kids are safe in these school buildings that they’re going to every day.”

As lawmakers are debating the issue, local school officials are paying

close attention. Caledonia Central Supervisory Union superintendent Mark Tucker calls himself a “PCB pioneer” because the new testing program’s first hit was in the gym of Cabot School, in his district. Subsequent tests, taken during the school year while the ventilation system was operating, returned lower PCB levels, and the room was reopened.

Seven months later, Tucker said, he still doesn’t know how to fix the underlying problem. Adding to the challenge, he recently learned that two more Caledonia Central schools have levels in several rooms that will require remediation.

“Our students didn’t put PCBs in the school buildings, and they didn’t tell us to take them out,” Tucker said. “Yet if some communities are forced to solve the

problem by taking away funding from our education mission, it will be our kids who are paying the price.”

‘Canary in the Coal Mine’

On March 15, district and city officials, school board members, and construction contractors gathered outside the former Burlington High School for what they described as a “groundbreaking.”

VIPs grinned under ill-fitting commemorative hard hats that were emblazoned with the school’s seahorse mascot. Some supporters held up signs that read “Our Future Is Bright” as superintendent Tom Flanagan, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and others marked the beginning of a new chapter in the school’s history.

In fall 2020, environmental testing undertaken in advance of a $70 million renovation project detected elevated levels of airborne PCBs in some of the high school’s classrooms, including especially high concentrations in a building that housed the technical center’s welding, construction and automotive classes.

That led to a cascade of decisions. Administrators, following health officials’ guidance, shuttered the school. The district rented and revamped a former Macy’s department store in downtown Burlington to serve as a temporary high school — albeit one with no kitchen, gym or auditorium, and with an annual rent of more than $1 million. Tech center programs were scattered in temporary spaces throughout the city.

At a March 2021 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the makeshift high school, Sen. Philip Baruth (D/P-ChittendenCentral) suggested that other schools could also be contaminated with PCBs, calling Burlington “a canary in the coal mine for the state of Vermont.”

After additional testing revealed that PCBs had spread into the old high school’s building materials, the district decided to demolish it and build a replacement.

Last fall, Queen City voters approved a $165 million bond to pay for a new school. It includes roughly $16 million for remediation and removal of the PCB-laden materials in the defunct building; Burlington administrators and elected officials are hoping to offset some of those expenses with money from the state and, possibly, PCB manufacturer Monsanto.

In December, the school district sued the chemical company, alleging that Monsanto encouraged customers to use PCB mixtures in construction materials despite knowing they would leach into

t Cabot School, the gymnasium was closed for the first few months of the school year. In Brattleboro, Oak Grove School faces an unforeseen window replacement project that’s likely to cost more than $300,000. In Chittenden County, the food service workers at Charlotte Central School can’t make full use of the kitchen, so they prepare mostly cold lunches for students.

FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

A GROUP OF BURLINGTON PARENTS QUESTIONED WHY VERMONT’S PCB GUIDANCE WAS SO MUCH STRICTER THAN THE FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY’S.

Superintendent Mark Tucker and principal Rebecca Tatistcheff in the Cabot School gymnasium

the air and interior surfaces. Another lawsuit against Monsanto, filed by two former Burlington High School educators last fall, claims that workplace exposure to PCBs caused them to suffer serious health problems, including reproductive issues and hyperthyroidism.

At the Burlington High School event last week, Weinberger addressed a crowd of around 50 people.

“We’re in the midst of a critical legislative session, where the district, the city, our local legislators are all working very hard to ensure that the cost of this facility, which is going to be a regional asset, is not entirely borne by the people of Burlington,” he said.

Teachers’ union president Beth FialkoCasey struck a warmer note. She recalled the formative moments — first bells, first solos and first loves — that have unfolded inside the building for generations of students and teachers.

“We are here to remember that while this building may be toxic, our achievements and our memories are not,” Fialko-Casey said.

When that toxicity was discovered in August 2020, the state’s only numerical guidance for regulating airborne PCBs was its “screening level” of 15 nanograms per cubic meter. (A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.) The level was set by the Vermont Department of Health a decade ago in preparation for a small PCB pilot study in four schools. The health department defined the level as “the chemical concentration below which no additional actions are recommended.”

Vermont’s screening level — the only of its kind in the country — was significantly lower than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s

HOW’D

WE GET HERE?

A PCB timeline

guidance for airborne PCBs. The EPA’s acceptable “exposure levels” range from 100 nanograms per cubic meter for 1- to 3-year-olds to 600 nanograms per cubic meter for 15- to 19-year-olds. The EPA cautions that its levels “should not be interpreted nor applied as ‘bright line’ or ‘not to exceed’ criteria, but may be used to guide thoughtful evaluation of indoor air quality in schools.” Using EPA guidance, only seven of the 49 rooms with elevated PCB levels at Burlington High

School would have been flagged. All were in the tech center, known as Building F.

A group of Burlington parents questioned why Vermont’s PCB guidance was so much stricter than the EPA’s. But state health officials stood by their guidance, explaining at a school board meeting in late September 2020 that Vermont has historically set the “gold standard” for environmental regulation of toxic chemicals.

“This is a tradition at the Department

of Health over many, many years,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said during a presentation at the meeting.

Levine and state toxicologist Sarah Owen, formerly known as Sarah Vose, also outlined the risks from PCB exposure, including breast, liver and skin cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and negative effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. Owen explained that

FALL 2020

In advance of a planned $70 million renovation of Burlington High School, environmental tests detect airborne PCBs. The findings exceed Vermont’s very low “screening level.” Students are already attending classes remotely due to the pandemic.

2020

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Burlington school commissioners vote to lease the former downtown Macy’s department store as a temporary school for three and a half years while the district decides what to do.

SPRING 2021

Vermont legislators approve spending $4.5 million to test for PCBs statewide in schools that were constructed before 1980.

2021

MAY 4, 2021

The Burlington School Board votes to abandon the PCBcontaminated high school.

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

After considering various sites, the Burlington School Board votes to build a new high school on the old campus off North Avenue

NOVEMBER 2021

The Vermont Department of Health establishes “school action levels” that, when discovered, require steps to identify the source of PCBs and remediate.

Burlington School District superintendent Tom Flanagan and Mayor Miro Weinberger (center) leading the “groundbreaking” for new construction at Burlington High School last week

the state’s screening levels di ered from the EPA’s for two reasons.

First, state health o cials decided it was unacceptable to allow levels that increased cancer diagnoses by an estimated one case per million people exposed. (The EPA accepts a greater cancer risk.) Second, the state’s screening values were based on maximum exposure to the chemicals — which o cials estimated for teachers at 11

due to COVID,” Cunningham recalled. “When Mark Levine dropped the word ‘cancer,’ it incited panic, but the reality is, so many medical issues are questions of scale and dosage.”

But in a written statement on Monday, Levine defended his advice, saying it was “based on the information available” at the time. One test in a tech center classroom measured 6,300 nanograms per cubic meter, Levine

created more prescriptive regulations for airborne PCBs. In November, the health department quietly released new “school action levels” — measurements that, should a room test above, would require a school to identify and remove the source of PCBs. Those levels, ranging from 30 to 100 nanograms per cubic meter depending on grade level, are still more stringent than the EPA’s exposure levels but slightly relaxed from what Vermont had before.

A health department memo describing the new calculations acknowledged that its original 15 nanogram screening level “is close to the background PCB concentrations in air.” By that standard, the memo continued, “the testing of several hundred schools in Vermont may result in frequent exceedances due to the prevalence of low levels of PCBs in the indoor environment.”

What Are PCBs?

hours per day, 250 days per year for 30 years — while the EPA based its levels on the average amount of exposure. (The Vermont school year typically runs 175 days; the extra 75 days in the state’s calculation accounted for summer camp and any other additional time spent in the school.)

Dan Cunningham, a Burlington parent who called for the high school to stay open, is angry about how the health department handled the situation. Levine and Owen’s presentation gave little context about the risks of airborne PCBs, he said, and the state did not consider the consequences for students of closing the building.

There was “a tremendous amount of medical fear in the air at that point

said, “one of the highest levels of PCBs in indoor air anywhere in the U.S.”

“Since BHS was tested before our current framework was in place, there was no assurance that the untested rooms were suitable for occupancy,” Levine said.

News of the PCB problem in Burlington spread quickly to the Statehouse. In spring 2021, the legislature passed Act 74, which included $4.5 million for PCB testing.

The provision was tacked on at the very end of the legislative session — with little deliberation about the program’s details or how it might a ect school operations, according to Vermont Superintendents Association executive director Je Francis.

Later that year, state o cials

Several months later, the health department released additional guidance, dubbed “immediate action levels.” Those new regulations stated that if rooms had airborne PCB concentrations of more than 90 nanograms for prekindergarten students; more than 180 nanograms for K-6 students; and more than 300 nanograms for seventh graders through adults, they could not be used until the PCBs were removed.

At the close of the 2022 legislative session, the general assembly passed Act 178, which set aside $32 million for the investigation, testing, assessment, remediation and removal of PCBs from schools. It also called for three state departments — education, natural resources and health — to

PCBs are polychlorinated biphenyls, chemicals that were manufactured starting in 1929 for use in products such as electrical equipment, televisions and refrigerators. ey were common in window caulk, tile glue, paint and fluorescent light ballasts in buildings constructed in that era. After concerns about the environment and public health emerged, the United States banned importing and manufacturing PCBs in 1979. PCBs are considered toxic and are probable human carcinogens.

People can be exposed to PCBs by eating foods such as meat or fish that contain the chemicals, by skin contact, or by breathing indoor air in older buildings constructed with materials that contain the chemicals.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

FEBRUARY 2022

Shortly before statewide testing is to begin, the health department releases new "immediate school action levels" for PCBs that indicate when a room is not usable. e standards are more restrictive than federal guidelines.

SPRING 2022

e legislature allocates $32 million from the education fund surplus to pay for PCB remediation in schools.

JUNE 2022

Statewide PCB testing commences.

AUGUST 2022

e first actionable PCB results come back from Cabot School and Brattleboro’s Oak Grove.

OCTOBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022

e Burlington School District sues Monsanto, alleging that the company encouraged customers to use PCB mixtures in construction materials, despite known health risks.

e Vermont Emergency Board approves $2.5 million in funds to be released for PCB mitigation in schools — with the state paying 80 percent and schools paying 20 percent. To date, no funds have been released to schools.

MARCH 2023

A bill to pause the state testing program is introduced in the Vermont House.

WHAT’S NEXT?

OCTOBER 2022

Two former Burlington High School educators sue PCB-maker Monsanto, saying exposure to the chemicals led to serious health problems.

Testing has begun, and data has been returned for 22 schools. Eight of them had at least one sample that exceeded school action levels. In all, approximately 320 schools must be tested by July 2025, though officials have indicated that they may ask for more time — and more money — for testing.

CHEMICAL CROSSROADS » P.30

I’M NOT SAYING PCBS ARE HARMLESS, AND I’M NOT SAYING THEY ARE NONTOXIC, BUT COMPARED TO THESE OTHER MATERIALS, THEY ARE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS HARMFUL.

submit a plan for distributing the money by January 15 of this year.

Ultimately, though, lawmakers must decide who qualifies for the cash. After weeks of debate, they face a bigger dilemma: how to start fixing the problem without knowing the extent of it — or how much it will cost.

How Dangerous Are PCBs?

In the past decade, PCB contamination has been found in schools from Hartford, Conn., to Malibu, Calif. But Vermont is unique in both its stringent regulatory standards for the chemicals and its program to test for and remediate them in schools.

Keri Hornbuckle, director of the University of Iowa’s Superfund Research Program, has been studying airborne PCBs for decades and consulted with Vermont o cials. She considers Vermont a trailblazer in addressing the risks of the chemicals in schools, which she characterizes as a nationwide problem.

Most studies that show adverse health e ects from PCBs involve feeding or injecting lab animals with the chemicals. “They’re carcinogens, they’re endocrine disruptors, they’re neurotoxins, and they mess with how our bodies metabolize and manage fat,” Hornbuckle said. However, “these chemicals don’t a ect you immediately. It’s subtle, and it’s over a long period of time, and because they a ect everybody di erently, it’s impossible to predict who could be harmed and who won’t be harmed,” she said.

In other states, wealthy school districts typically have the resources to deal with airborne PCBs while poorer ones do not, Hornbuckle said, calling that “hugely unjust.” Vermont’s approach has created the opportunity to address the problem equitably, Hornbuckle said.

Vermont’s decision to set its own action levels for PCBs is appropriate, she said. She believes that the EPA has been reluctant to do the same in part because of the magnitude of the cost.

Nationally, 100,000 schools likely have significant PCB contamination, she said: “If EPA sets a level for which remediation needs to occur … the dollar amount that they’re putting on the table is so large. So there is an incentive for EPA not to do it, because someone’s going to have to pay for it.”

Environmental toxicologist Jim Okun has a di erent interpretation. Since 2016, he’s worked with public schools in Worcester, Mass., to remediate airborne PCBs in several schools that exceeded the

EPA’s exposure levels. The fixes have cost tens of millions of dollars.

Okun believes that airborne PCBs present a far lower risk than other toxins in schools, such as asbestos, lead and radon. (Last year, Vermont completed a lead remediation program for schools and childcare centers, and all Vermont schools are required to test for radon by June 30 of this year).

“To my knowledge, there are still no human studies that unambiguously link known PCB exposures to severe human health e ects, except in the case of occupational exposures involving PCBs in paint on heated surfaces,” Okun said.

“I’m not saying PCBs are harmless, and I’m not saying they are nontoxic, but compared to these other materials, they are significantly less harmful.”

Removing contaminated building materials is di cult and expensive, he noted. Okun believes that improving a

school’s air-handling, or HVAC, system, is a better, easier and cheaper method for lowering airborne PCB levels. It also helps protect against airborne viruses such as COVID-19.

That’s not been the approach in Cabot, where upgrades to the school’s HVAC system, funded by a $316,000 federal grant, are on hold until the scope of the PCB work is determined. Tests that cost $32,000 have found the chemicals in the gym’s ceiling paint; a second round, to cost $17,000, will reveal whether PCBs have leached into ceiling components. Remediation could cost several hundred thousand dollars. Okun suspects that replacing the HVAC system would be a more e ective and cost-e cient solution for addressing the contamination.

Okun said he believes that Vermont

“has opened Pandora’s box” by testing hundreds of schools for airborne PCBs without devising su cient plans to address what those tests reveal. Unlike Hornbuckle, he doesn’t understand why Vermont has set its PCB action levels so much lower than the EPA’s, which he believes are already “very protective.”

“By setting the action levels as low as they did, the o cials set themselves up for a more di cult path to finding solutions,” Okun wrote in an email. For some, the going is already getting expensive.

In Windham Southeast Supervisory Union’s K-8 Oak Grove School, testing found that PCBs are o -gassing from classroom windows. This spring, the district will install plexiglass over the windows to temporarily contain the PCBs, a $13,000 Band-Aid. And in the summer, the district will replace the windows, which will likely cost more than $300,000.

Nine other schools in the district must be tested for PCBs.

“It is unclear to us how the origins of this legislative mandate (scientific basis, rationale, capacity of various sectors to assess and remediate) were contemplated without considering how precarious this is for public schools,” the district’s business administrator, Frank Rucker, wrote in an email. It seems, he added, that there’s a disconnect between the Agency of Education’s need to provide public

IT IS LONG PAST TIME TO TEST FOR THIS ENVIRONMENTAL POISON IN OUR SCHOOLS AND ADDRESS WHERE THE PROBLEMS EXIST.

Crossroads

DARIA BISHOP

A cleanup crew working at Burlington High School

WALLACE-BRODEUR

education and the very real potential that a classroom or school could be shuttered if it exceeds the state-created PCB levels.

Some legislators applaud Vermont’s unique and aggressive approach. Senate Education Committee chair Campion noted that Vermont led the nation with its aggressive PFAS levels for drinking water. Other states have adopted the standards, he said, and the EPA just last week recommended new federal standards that would be even tougher than Vermont’s.

“It is long past time to test for this environmental poison in our schools and address where the problems exist,” Campion said of PCBs.

This Old School

The majority of Vermont’s schools were built decades ago, and many are in poor condition. Woodstock Union High School & Middle School, for example, was constructed in 1959, and its sewage, water and heating systems are failing, according to Windsor Central Supervisory Union superintendent Sherry Sousa. In testimony last month, she told lawmakers that her district “is one toilet flush away from closing a school of 450 students” and backed it up with a slideshow featuring a photo of the decrepit sewage pipes.

Like many schools in the state, Woodstock has deferred maintenance, renovation and construction projects in large part because of their costs. Vermont imposed a moratorium on state aid for school facilities 16 years ago due to a backlog of projects. While nearby states such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island provide robust aid for local school buildings, Vermont does not.

That has led to unsafe and unhealthy learning environments for many and disparities between wealthier and poorer districts. In 2021, the legislature passed Act 72, which called for a school facilities inventory report, in which districts selfreported the deficiencies in their buildings, and a statewide school facilities assessment, done by an outside contractor.

Released last April, the inventory report found “an aging portfolio of key systems” in schools across the state. The facilities assessment, which will look more closely at the condition of school buildings, is due in October.

Senate Education Committee vice chair Martine Gulick (D-Chittenden-Central), who also sits on the Burlington School Board, recently introduced a bill that would take another step: the creation of a school facilities task force. If passed, the panel would meet this summer to “examine, evaluate and report on issues relating to school construction aid” and

submit a report with its findings and recommendations next legislative session.

“What we don’t want to happen is for schools to start sinking money into their buildings only to have to tear them down or do a massive renovation in a few years,” Gulick said earlier this month. “That seems a really irresponsible way of handling taxpayer money.”

Conlon noted in an interview that, when PCBs are found today, remediation plans are whipped up without considering the long-term needs of a building.

“It continually hampers long-term planning as people sit by and say, ‘Oh, my God, what if they find PCBs?’ before we move ahead with whatever bigger construction plan they have,” Conlon said.

allow any PCB testing currently under way to continue, and the state would cover expenses stemming from PCB mitigation or remediation thus far. The bill would also earmark as much as $16 million to defray the costs of PCB abatement at Burlington High School.

“I think there’s a strong argument to be made that this $190 million rebuild of Burlington isn’t 100 percent of their own making,” Conlon said, suggesting that state-set PCB levels are partly to blame for the situation.

Gulick declined to comment on the House bill. But, like Conlon, she wants the state to take responsibility for what happened in the Queen City.

“It was so disheartening when the level was at 15 nanograms per cubic meter back when Burlington was first examined. That number was so incredibly low,” Gulick said. “Sadly, there has been no acknowledgment of wrongdoing or mistakes made, and there’s been no attempt to try to speak to the harm caused.”

If enough House members vote for Conlon’s bill, it would go to the Senate.

Senate Education Committee chair Campion acknowledges that there are still important questions to hash out this legislative session when it comes to the specifics of funding the PCB program. But, he said, that doesn’t mean the program should be put on hold.

“I mean, what if the next school has a dangerous level and kids are literally going to school every day?” he said.

Sen. Baruth said he agreed that a pause doesn’t make sense, noting that the testing program was designed to root out toxins that impact kids’ health.

“We need that data,” he said. “Are there other schools like Burlington that have extremely elevated counts?”

How Much Is Too Much? PCB standards in Vt.

Federal and Vermont officials provide guidance for exposure to airborne PCBs in schools. Because they consider the potential effects over time, figures are set by grade level or age. Here’s a look at how they compare.

For a decade, Vermont has had a screening level of 15 nanograms per cubic meter, which the Vermont Department of Health says is “the chemical concentration below which no additional actions are recommended.” (A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.)

e figure is so low, state officials acknowledge, that it is comparable to the background level of PCBs in the air.

ese U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exposure levels for evaluating PCBs in schools are not “bright line” or “not-to-exceed” criteria, the agency cautions, but are instead meant to guide thoughtful evaluations.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Some questions should be answered before testing proceeds, he said. For example, should aging schools be required to test for and remediate PCBs when they only have a few years of use remaining? His proposed legislation, to pause the testing, would use the task force in Gulick’s Senate bill to examine the program and determine whether it should be redesigned — or shelved for good.

“This PCB testing program essentially was created without a clear path forward,” Conlon said. “And at the same time, we’re trying to have a much more strategic look at our school construction in general, and the two, I feel, can’t go on in their own silos.”

The House Education Committee voted last Friday to move Conlon’s legislation forward. The measure would

Baruth said the state should “very substantially” help communities that are dealing with PCB contamination but declined to specify whether school districts should be required to cover some percentage of the cost.

O cials in the Agency of Education and Department of Health are also against a testing pause.

“PCBs are a health concern for students, teachers, and other school community members, and pausing testing does not reduce or remove the risk,” Health Commissioner Levine said in his statement. “We plan to continue our work with schools — and the legislature — to address this complex situation, however delaying testing seems counterintuitive to our shared goal.” ➆

Derek Brouwer contributed reporting.

In November 2021, the Vermont Department of Health established “school action levels.” When reached, the state requires that the source of the PCBs be identified and remediated.

In February 2022, the Vermont Department of Health released “immediate action levels” for airborne PCBs that are triple the school action levels. Students and staff cannot occupy spaces with these amounts of PCBs:

THIS PCB TESTING PROGRAM ESSENTIALLY WAS CREATED WITHOUT A CLEAR PATH FORWARD.

REP. PETER CONLON

Raging Belle

Vermont teen Cora Thomas wins her second national boxing title

BY STEVE GOLDSTEIN • sgoldstein@sevendaysvt.com

As for the sport known to its followers as the “sweet science”? You could say boxing found Thomas — rather than the other way around.

Over the past decade, boxing has jumped the ring ropes and set up shop in fitness centers, enjoying a renaissance on the exercise A-list along with yoga and indoor cycling. Large franchise operations, such as Title Boxing Club, as well as neighborhood gyms, offer classes that attract the young and not-so, gym rats, trend chasers, and folks who just want the physical skills to defend themselves.

Self-protection and confidence building were Kim Thomas’ goals for Adele, her younger daughter, when she took her to a fitness center in 2018. Cora tagged along, and gym owner Mariah Yates suggested that she put on some gloves and try spar-

Get in a boxing ring with Cora Thomas. Stand three feet away from her, dead center in the ring, well away from the refuge of the red, white and blue ropes. Hold up your hands, ensconced in thickly cushioned target mitts, and invite the teenager to whale away. Feel what seems like an electric shock run up your arm, dissipating in your jaw.

At five feet, seven inches tall and 125 pounds, slender as a whippet, Thomas, 16, doesn’t physically intimidate opponents. Until they get hit, that is. And hit again. With her steely determination to persevere, Thomas looms large in the ring.

Last month, in Independence, Mo., the Fairfield teenager won her second national title, the National Silver Gloves boxing championship, beating the top-ranked fighter in her 15- to 16-year-old, 125-pound division. Considering the only glove she wore before taking up boxing five years ago was a softball pitcher’s mitt, Thomas has had a meteoric ascent.

“At 11 years old, she was punching harder than most 14-year-old boys,” said Hans Olson, who trains her at Rail City Boxing Club in St. Albans. “She’s got real

serious natural power, God-given power, something that you can’t really teach.”

Cora’s father, Charlie, said he first saw her potential when his then-6-year-old daughter was doing gymnastics. “She had strength and athletic ability beyond her years,” he said. “She’s determined and

strong-willed — not just physically but mentally.”

And boxing is not even her best sport. Thomas is the star shortstop and pitcher for Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, good enough that the junior may attract college scholarship offers.

ring. After the session, Olson, whose boxing operation is at the same gym, said Yates pulled him aside and told him, “This kid, she’s pretty good. She hits really hard. She retained everything I told her.”

Olson sparred with Cora, then told Charlie and Kim that she had potential and he was willing to train her. “Hans knew right away that Cora was a talent that doesn’t walk through the doors all the time,” said Charlie, who owns Thomas Pride Trucking in Fairfield. “So Hans was very excited.” A licensed boxing coach himself, Charlie knew what he was in for. “It is a commitment,” he told Seven Days. “It’s a financial and time commitment. There’s lots of traveling. Hans told us as much, but we were like, ‘We’re all for it. We are in 100 percent.’”

Olson was introduced to boxing by his father, who boxed in the Navy and later trained his son. After trying wrestling and hockey and flirting with going on the road with his rock band, Olson moved to Canada and resumed serious training as a boxer. When injuries forced him out of the ring, Olson moved to St. Albans and, with local trainer Luke Tatro, established Rail City Boxing Club in 2018 to acquaint local youths with the sport.

Under Olson’s tutelage, Thomas progressed quickly. “It is such a good workout,” she said. “People really don’t understand how much goes into it. It really keeps you focused.” Apart from the fitness aspect, Thomas said, boxing has taught her sportsmanship and brought new friends into her life.

AT 11 YEARS OLD, SHE WAS PUNCHING HARDER

THAN MOST 14-YEAR-OLD BOYS.

HANS OLSON

Cora Thomas training with her coach, Hans Olson

Cora Thomas

PHOTOS: JAMES BUCK

The rap on boxing tends to be how dangerous it is. After all, success depends on your ability to inflict more pain than you receive. Were Cora’s parents concerned about the risk of injury to her? Charlie Thomas drew a comparison between his daughter’s competition and other contact sports that often pit large bodies against smaller ones.

“There are not many sports where the athletes competing are within two years in age of each other and within six pounds of one another,” he noted. “There are five judges, a doctor and a referee, with the athletes wearing padded gloves and headgear.”

USA Boxing did not recognize female boxers until 1993. As the body that governs the sport in the U.S., it now sponsors many events, including several for women amateurs. Among the latter is the prestigious Silver Gloves, the junior version of the venerable Golden Gloves.

Thomas first entered the Silver Gloves in 2019. Apart from the competition, which she relished, Thomas appreciated the sense of community among boxers. After being defeated in the first round of that 2019 tournament by a boxer named Zoe Griffith, Thomas told the St. Albans Messenger, “I lost the fight, but we became best friends. The irony is that best friends met each other by punching each other in the face.”

The Silver Gloves provided Thomas her moment straight out of the first Rocky movie. No, not running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but using a crushing loss — Rocky went down to Apollo Creed — as a learning experience and motivational tool.

At the 2020 national tournament, Thomas faced Ayhnae “the Beast” Harte of Chesapeake, Va. During the bout, Thomas took a standing eight count — meaning the referee temporarily halted the fight to see if she was fit to continue. Harte was the decisive winner. “It was a

tough loss,” Olson reflected. “That was probably the only time where she’s been soundly defeated “

Thomas immediately told Olson she wanted to fight Harte again.

Then COVID-19 hit, and it was a year and a half before tournament boxing resumed. Thomas went to the 2022 Silver Gloves nationals, and fate put the Beast squarely in her path in the first match. At the time, Harte was ranked second in the country in her weight division of 15- to 16-year-olds, Olson said.

Thomas showed up with something more than improved footwork or a better hook: resolve. “The first fight fueled me rather than took me down,” Thomas told Seven Days. “I knew my talents. I knew what I could do.” Thomas watched film of Harte and found a vulnerability she thought she could exploit.

Once the bell rang, there was no doubting Thomas, who had a plan to “stun” Harte with power. The decision was close, but Thomas prevailed. “It was a great win,” Olson recalled recently. “Just a really great way to get redemption against the girl that beat her most decisively. Thomas won her next two bouts and claimed her first title.”

In early February, Thomas repeated as national Silver Gloves champ, beating USA Boxing’s top-ranked Yazmin Rosales of Milwaukee, Wis. Now, Thomas is focused on the upcoming softball season and perfecting her windmill delivery to baffle hitters. After a recent trip to explore colleges, she’s decided to pursue a career as a forensic psychologist.

Though she has aged out of Silver Gloves and boxing scholarships from colleges do not exist, Thomas said she will find her way back into the ring. “The next big thing would be Golden Gloves,” Thomas explained. “But I have to be 18 and my birthday is really late, so I have two years to wait. I’d love to find a club team in college. I want to find a gym that offers boxing every day.” ➆

Cora Thomas

By George

Farmer-filmmaker George Woodard premieres The Farm Boy

BY SALLY POLLAK • sally@sevendaysvt.com

Henry Woodard grew up in front of his father’s camera. As a kid on his family’s Waterbury Center dairy farm, Henry was a “guinea pig,” he said, for short movies made by his dad, farmer-filmmaker George Woodard. In one little movie, Henry played a boy who goes into the woods to get a Christmas tree. Back home, his grandmother is waiting for him with an apple pie. Henry wore a wig and played the grandmother, too.

“He was doing a little filmmaking back then,” Henry said of his father. “What better subject than your 7-year-old son?”

Henry is now a 30-year-old landscaper and sugar maker and the star of his father’s new movie, The Farm Boy, which premieres at the Hyde Park Opera House on Saturday, March 25. This is not a short practice reel made for kicks but a two-anda-half-hour feature film set during World War II, in which Henry plays a character loosely based on his paternal grandfather, George Woodard Sr.

The black-and-white movie is the second feature film written and directed by George Jr., who is 70 but likes to say he’s “close to 80.” The first, which also starred Henry, is the 2009 coming-of-age western The Summer of Walter Hacks. Henry was 11 when that movie was shot.

“He knows how to pretend,” his father said. “When he hits it, he hits it.”

The new movie, like George’s first one, took about six years to make, with production shaped around his life as a farmer. He lives and works on the hill farm that his grandparents purchased in 1912.

“If you’re gonna be a small farmer, there’s one thing you have to know: You have to know how to do everything,”

George said, noting that the same is required of a small moviemaker. “I think that’s a strong point for me. That, and I have a 200-acre back lot.”

In The Farm Boy, Henry’s character, serviceman Calvin Dillard, falls in love with a young woman he meets at a barn dance. (That’s where George’s parents met.) Dillard and his movie sweetheart, Mary Small, played by Grace Woodruff of Waterbury

Center, get married when he’s home on a two-day pass; then he returns to boot camp.

Like the real-life serviceman from central Vermont on whom he’s based, Dillard is a crack mechanic who serves at the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944. He’s working on an Army truck near the Belgian battleground when the rig is hit by a shell and blows up, hurtling him (and the truck) down a snowy embankment.

The woods where Henry is currently tapping maples are about 200 feet from trees at the Woodard farm that stand in for the Belgian forest. Shooting the scene two years ago, Henry managed to stay uninjured through four or five takes barreling down a hill, avoiding a battering by trees.

“Sometimes I see why stuntmen are stuntmen,” he said.

But what happens to Dillard in The Farm Boy?

Back home in Vermont, Dillard’s wife is informed that her husband is missing in action. She’s working as a telephone operator — as George’s mother did — when she hears the news. Then the movie pauses for an intermission. (When was the last time you watched a movie with an intermission?)

The ensuing action takes place mostly in Belgium, though it was shot in Vermont. (“Belgium is too far to get back in time for milking,” George said.) On both sides of the Atlantic, there’s a woman.

“The story only works if you have two women who are absolutely wonderful,” George said. “It’s a conflict for the audience.”

Along with Henry, the other leading actors in The Farm Boy are Coco Moseley — who speaks French in her role as Renee, a member of the French Resistance — and Woodruff. George met Moseley at a photo shoot in his barn; he spotted Woodruff dancing in a high school production of Oklahoma! It turns out she grew up by a field George hayed for 40 years.

Moseley, director of the Lawrence Memorial Library in Bristol, was pregnant during one season of shooting. Her daughter is now 4.5 years old.

“Movies are long and slow, and they require a great deal of patience,” Moseley, 37, said. “Ten hours in the woods working on this project in March, [set] in World War II, in wool tights, a skirt and uninsulated boots, was really grueling.

“One of the things that kept me coming to the project with George,” she added, “was his incredible creativity and love and passion for the project. [It] was so inspiring.”

The filmmaker is the third of four children of the late George and Teresa Collins Woodard. His father stopped milking cows when George was 9 and went to work operating heavy machinery on crews that built Interstate 89.

Henry Woodard and Seth Marineau in The Farm Boy

George Woodard

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

George became interested in drama and performance as a student at Harwood Union High School and later was active in community theater. But he also loved farming and brought cows back to the farm in the mid-1970s. He stopped shipping milk more than a year ago but still raises beef and young stock with a herd of 25 cows. He milks one cow once a day.

On his big “back lot,” George and his crew built sets for The Farm Boy, including a farmyard in the Ardennes with a farmhouse, barn and chicken coop. They used hay wagons for the buildings’ foundations. The crew included George’s niece, Suzanne Woodard, who pitched in as a stunt double.

“He’s very focused on film days when he’s shooting,” Suzanne, 32, said of her uncle. “He knows what he wants, and he brings it to fruition.”

In this film, George wanted to evoke a particular time in the past — in both feel and story. He achieves that through “conventional filmmaking” and the use of one camera and wide-angle lenses. He watched many movies made between the 1930s and ’60s to emulate their style, employing filmmaking techniques that don’t rely on “tricky stuff,” he said.

Writing the screenplay, George made use of letters his father wrote from boot camp. For the dialogue, he borrowed phrases that he recalled his parents saying. For example, his father used to talk about the Dodge flatbed truck he drove to pick up milk at local farms: “It’ll

go downhill like a jackrabbit,” he would say, “but going uphill, it wouldn’t pull a hat off a churchgoer.”

George used that line in The Farm Boy, along with “swear words” such as “Judas Priest” and “Gol Dang.”

“Whenever somebody says that, the mother says, ‘Watch your language,’” George noted.

In his own youth, George enjoyed the company of his mother and father so much that when he went off to school at Vermont Technical College, he returned home on weekends to hang out with them.

“I came home ’cause I didn’t want to miss anything,” he said. “They were a good audience; you could get ’em laughing.”

He ventured farther from home — to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s — to work in the movie industry. He got acting jobs and other gigs, including work as a grip and a set builder. George returned to Waterbury Center after a few years with singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie’s beat-up guitar case, which holds his acoustic Gibson, and started milking cows again on Loomis Hill.

“I didn’t want to bail on the farm,” George said. “And I realized there’s nothing they’re doing [in California] that I couldn’t do back home — as long as you have a camera, lights, some actors and a good story.”

Last week, George was working on finishing touches in time for the movie’s premiere in Hyde Park. He’ll be at the opening screening, and Henry will be there, too, if sugaring allows. Henry will dress for the occasion.

“I’m not going to wear overalls,” he said.

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT KEPT ME COMING TO THE PROJECT WITH GEORGE WAS HIS INCREDIBLE CREATIVITY.

COCO MOSELEY

George Woodard editing The Farm Boy

Game Time

Vermont students are learning about tennis — and life — through Kids on the Ball

Approaching the entrance to the gym at Thomas Fleming School in Essex Junction, you could hear that class was in session. Sneakers pounded the wood floor, balls bounced, kids whooped.

Inside, a group of 18 fourth graders were playing a game called “Top Dog.” Four portable tennis nets bisected the gym, creating four miniature courts, each with an adult instructor and a single student — the Top Dog — on one side and a line of young hopefuls on the other. Everyone clutched a tennis racket.

The instructors gently hit balls over the net; one by one, the kids in line took turns swinging at them. If they scored two points in a row, they could switch sides and replace the Top Dog. A lot of the time, the kids’ returns smacked the net, or bounced into another court, or ricocheted off the wall.

No one seemed to mind — least of all the guy in charge, tennis pro Jake Agna.

At 69, Agna was the oldest person in the room, but his black tank top, Lululemon Bermuda shorts and New Balance tennis shoes projected a youthful vigor. He was also projecting his gravelly voice — he started wearing a microphone and speaker to amplify it after a recent throat surgery.

in!” he said excitedly, before lobbing her another and urging her to hit it overhand. “Yes!” he cheered when she smacked it down. The new Top Dog hustled to his side of the court, beaming. “She’s back!” he said. “Let’s go!”

Agna was leading PE class that February day along with three younger coaches from Kids on the Ball, a donation-funded nonprofit Agna started in 2000 to make tennis accessible to all; the group was nearing the end of a two-week residency at the school.

But Kids on the Ball isn’t just about tennis.

WE BELIEVE KIDS LEARN THROUGH PLAY.

“Our mission is to play games,” Agna explained in a phone interview before the class. Kids these days don’t play enough of them, he said. Agna is on a mission to get every child playing games and having fun.

“We believe kids learn through play,” he said. “We see kids deal with their fears, grow and self-discover through play. It’s amazing the changes you see in kids when they start having fun.”

Agna effortlessly swatted balls to his line of fourth graders while keeping up a constant stream of encouraging banter.

“Let’s go!” he cheered, as a girl with long blond hair stepped up. She hit the ball over his head. “That was

The fourth graders at Fleming seemed to be having a blast. They were all bouncing around eagerly, though clearly paying attention. When Agna told them to put their rackets on the ground, they complied.

“Now everybody pick up 11 balls!” he yelled. They immediately scattered.

Jake Agna’s Kids on the Ball program with second and third grade students at Champlain Elementary School in Burlington

Jake Agna with students at the program

Cody Tran giving a thumbs-up to a student

Jake Agna

As her students retrieved stray tennis balls, Fleming physical education teacher Kelly McClintock said this was her second time working with Kids on the Ball. The classes the group leads are her students’ favorite.

“He’s the best,” she said of Agna. “I want him back every year.”

EXPANDING ACCESS TO TENNIS

Agna would love to oblige. He knows that most Vermont students have limited exposure to tennis, which has traditionally been an exclusive and expensive sport.

It was big in the community where Agna grew up, though — Yellow Springs, Ohio, home of Antioch College. “Everybody was playing tennis,” he said. “It was like the religion of the town.”

Agna has been evangelizing for it in Vermont since he moved here in 1983, after landing a job as a tennis instructor at a Burlington-area fitness club. A year later, he started coaching the girls’ tennis team at South Burlington High School, which has since won 16 state championships.

In 2000, Agna founded Kids on the Ball to broaden the reach of the sport in Vermont; he got it off the ground by raising money from the tennis community. His first move: offering free summer camps every weekday morning at Roosevelt Park in Burlington’s Old North End. Kids from the neighborhood would show up and play. Partnering with Burlington’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Agna gave the kids rackets and started playing games with them.

The program was a hit. Over the past 23 years, thousands of young people have participated in it. Some of them stuck with the sport, including Kids on the Ball coaches Cody Tran, 20, and Jack Nguyen, 21, both Roosevelt Park alumni. Coach Jasmina Jusufagić started playing for Agna in second grade and was on the SBHS team. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 2020, she went to work with him.

Over the years, Kids on the Ball has launched programs in other states, even building tennis courts in Cuba. But during the pandemic, Agna and his group started focusing closer to home — specifically on

Vermont schools. The social isolation students experienced during years of remote and hybrid schooling intensified a growing youth mental health crisis.

Kids on the Ball doesn’t offer a cure, but its tennis clinics get kids active and interacting with each other and engaged adults. Its coaches

ENCOURAGING ALL KIDS TO PARTICIPATE

Part of Kids on the Ball’s secret sauce: relentless positivity, Jusufagić said. She played several sports growing up and had coaches who were tough on their athletes. Not Agna. “I could always count on good vibes from Jake,” she said.

that he applied to other areas of his life, Jusufagić said. His skills had improved, too. “You could tell he’d spent some time hitting the ball against the wall.”

Jusufagić has lots of stories like that. “It really does make an impact,” she said.

LEARNING TO WIN AND LOSE

take a nontraditional approach that prioritizes social-emotional learning. Rather than giving lots of instruction, coaches facilitate games and encourage kids to ask questions. And smacking tennis balls can be a healthy way of working out anger and frustration.

Kids on the Ball now visits 25 Vermont schools every year, in addition to running afterschool programs in Burlington. The group’s coaches work with more than 150 kids a day — nearly 1,000 each week. Agna proudly pointed out that in two years, they’ve never missed a single school day.

Through its fundraising efforts, Kids on the Ball is able to offer these sessions to schools for free, equipment and all.

She’s seen how his upbeat approach draws kids in. She offered an example: During a clinic at Otter Valley Union Middle and High School in Brandon a year ago, one teen sat out. Agna walked up to him and invited the young man to be his partner in a game. He got up and played.

“Afterwards, the teacher told us, ‘That kid hasn’t participated in my class in four years,’” she recalled. At the end of their residency at Otter Valley, the student asked Agna for his own racket, and they gave him one.

When Kids on the Ball returned this year, they encountered the young man again, but this time he was in the front of the group with his peers, contributing to the conversation. The tennis games and support helped him find something within himself

At the end of the class at Fleming, Agna asked the kids to put down their rackets and huddle up. “I want to thank you for going fast when you needed to,” he said. “You guys got a good class.”

Afterward, one of the students approached Agna. “Did you have a good day?” the coach asked. “Yeah, I did,” the boy answered, holding out his fist for a fist bump.

When he walked away, Agna explained that he had partnered with that young man earlier, and they’d played a game. Agna pointed out that games set up crises for players, forcing them to act, to confront a situation where they might win or might lose. Doing that over and over again teaches them to live with either outcome.

“It helps their whole life,” he said. 

COMMISSIONED AND PAID FOR BY:

Students playing tennis at Jake Agna’s Kids on the Ball program in February

PHOTOS: DARIA BISHOP

Not long after April’s Maple started producing syrup in Canaan in 2013, owner April Lemay got a call from her mother.

“She and my dad were running the sugaring while I still had my corporate job,” Lemay recalled. “She said, ‘Jeez, there are some snowmobilers that keep finding their way down to the sugarhouse. What would you think if I serve them some hot dogs?’”

Lemay gave the go-ahead, and soon snowmobilers were eating hot dogs and watching the family boil. That summer, she turned the evaporator room into a makeshift ice cream stand serving tourist tra c from the nearby lakes.

A decade later, April’s Maple is home to a bustling year-round café that serves breakfast and lunch every day except Tuesday. Nearly everything on the menu counts maple as an ingredient, from maple dogs and maple sugar pancakes to maple-barbecue pulled pork tacos and maple creemees.

The café is one of several faces of the

Sap It to Me

April’s Maple serves a sugaring-season feast in Canaan

BY JORDAN BARRY jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

woman-owned, family-run maple business in the northeasternmost part of the Northeast Kingdom. Depending on the season, Lemay and her “Maple Ladies” — the business’ all-female crew — might be serving hungry snowmobilers, twisting creemees for campers, selling gallons of syrup to leafpeeping tourists or making maple candy in whimsical shapes for holiday season wholesale accounts.

The uninitiated might think that sugaring season, which April’s Maple is in the midst of now, is the busiest time of year.

“But they’re all busy,” Lemay, 48, said with a laugh.

When Lemay started April’s Maple, she didn’t plan on the business being her fulltime gig. Living in Boston, she was in the midst of a 17-year career at Deloitte, the large international accounting and consulting firm. But her mother and her five aunts had inherited an 813-acre plot on Canaan’s Cole Hill from their parents, and it was becoming a financial burden.

“There wasn’t anything on the property, and they were thinking about selling it,” Lemay said. She had spent time on the plot while growing up in Canaan, particularly around sugaring season. Every Easter, Lemay recalled, the family would trek into the woods to her grandfather’s sugarhouse. The kids grabbed buckets o the trees, and they all boiled the sap in a wood-fired evaporator with a ham hanging over it, letting the space — and the ham — slowly fill with maple steam. They finished the day with sugar on snow, of course.

April Lemay

Clockwise from top: Maple sugar pancakes, maple dog, tacos with maple-apple coleslaw, maple-barbecue pulled pork sandwich and April’s Maple syrup

SIDEdishes

SERVING UP FOOD NEWS

BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

Cloud 9 Caterers Absorbs Pop-Ups and Launches Murphy’s Doughnuts

Over the past 18 months, STEPHEN COGGIO has run two pop-up dinner series — RICO TAQUERÍA and MIMI’S ITALIAN EATS while also working as executive chef of CLOUD 9 CATERERS. Now Coggio plans to fold his pop-up concepts under the Cloud 9 umbrella to give customers more casual catering options — while adding a new series. On April 1, Coggio and Cloud 9 executive sous chef MITCHELL will host the inaugural pop-up of MURPHY’S DOUGHNUTS at the cater ing company’s headquarters at 142 Hegeman Avenue in Colchester.

Coggio became co-owner of Cloud 9 about six months ago in partnership with his mother, founder-owner

This winter, Coggio and his team have focused on Mimi’s, which the chef described as “a nod to traditional Italian cuisine that leans into Italian American bastardization.” Dishes such as rich pasta carbonara made with cream and cured pork jowl are “what you wanna eat here in the winter,” he said, while his taco menu is more popular in warm weather.

Mimi’s next event will be at in Burlington on April 25, followed by a collaborative dinner at STARRY NIGHT CAFÉ in Ferrisburgh with executive chef SMITH III on April 30. Information will be posted on Instagram @mimis_italian_eats.

Murphy’s Doughnuts was inspired by the Italian bomboloni that Mitchell has made for Mimi’s. Mitchell, who met Coggio when he and his wife took @mpasanen.

Sean Mitchell (left) and Stephen Coggio of Cloud 9 Caterers MELISSA

Raising Dough

Greek Orthodox church congregants bake for charity

BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

In 1968, Theodora Contis left the Greek island of Chios to move to New Jersey, where her older sister had previously settled. Among the treasured possessions the then-21-year-old carried was a cookbook that still sits on a shelf in her Williston kitchen.

The book’s title translates to The New Cooking and Baking Book of the Greek Home, but Contis, 76, rarely refers to its pages. She long ago committed to memory the traditional recipes she makes for family, friends and semiannual bake sales at the Dormition of the Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church in Burlington.

On a recent morning, the retired physics teacher demonstrated one of those recipes as she made the Greek Easter bread called tsoureki. It's on the menu for the Easter bake sale; preorders are under way for pickup on April 8.

The benefit events are organized by the congregation’s chapter of the Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society, which Contis joined when she and her husband moved to Vermont in 1977 for his job at what was then IBM.

Proceeds, which average $7,000 per sale, are donated to a carefully chosen list of charities, according to Contis, who serves as the organization’s treasurer and bake sale chair. They range from Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter to World Central Kitchen, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that provides freshly cooked meals to those dealing with natural or man-made crises around the globe. “Our job is to help the poor and needy,” Contis explained.

About 10 bakers contribute a variety of specialties, such as syrup-soaked baklava, savory spanakopita, custardy phyllotopped galaktoboureko, glossy loaves of tsoureki and kourambiethes butter cookies rolled in drifts of powdered sugar.

Like many culinary heirlooms, Contis’ bread recipe carries the unique flavor of her heritage. As she kneaded, braided, and brushed the loaves with egg wash

sweetened with honey and a little orange blossom water, she explained that each Philoptochos member has her own approach. “Not one is the same as the other,” she said.

Enriched with eggs, butter and milk, the yeasted dough is often seasoned with mahleb, a bitter-edged floral spice ground from the seeds of a species of cherry. When Contis bakes tsoureki, she adds finely chopped candied orange peel, which she makes during annual trips to Greece.

She also uses a distinctive flavoring from her native Chios. The baker held up a bag of what appeared to be small, dusty white stones from a grade-schooler’s rock collection. They were nuggets of mastic, a piney, slightly bitter tree resin.

The tree grows best in the southern part of the island, Contis explained. Although her family lived in the north, “my grandmother had a few trees, enough for the family.”

Contis grinds mastic fresh for her bread, as she does the cherry seeds. “Sometimes people buy it pre-ground,” she observed, “but that’s not as good.”

A bite of the fresh bread was sweet and soft with a whisper of musky, floral woodsiness.

For her own Easter table, Contis will make a large round tsoureki with hardcooked, naturally dyed red eggs nestled in the center. (Bake sale loaves do not include hard-cooked eggs.)

“It would not be Easter without Easter bread,” Contis declared. ➆

INFO

The Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of the Dormition of the Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church in Burlington will take bake sale orders through March 30, or as supplies last, for pickup on April 8. Proceeds benefit local, national and international charities. Learn more at greekphiloptochosvt.org.

The family hoped to find a buyer for the land “who would continue to honor my grandparents’ values: love of land and appreciation for family, traditions and history,” Lemay said. As they brainstormed possible buyers, her mom mentioned that there might be enough sugar maples on the property to support a syrup business.

“I never had an unhappy moment to do with maple syrup,” Lemay said. “Just like that, April’s Maple was born.”

The property has its fair share of gravel pits and a relatively low percentage of maples per acre. But a consultant assured Lemay that there were enough to support at least one person. She bought the land in 2012 and hired her parents, Donna and Serge Lemay, as her first two employees. They built a sugarhouse with a small store and a kitchen for cooking maple products.

Lemay thought that would be the extent of the business: a seasonal operation selling syrup and a few other basic confections. As she spent more time back in Canaan, she reconnected with a high school classmate, Sage D’Aiello.

“We started dating, then got married,” Lemay said. “I didn’t want to be in two places at the same time.”

The sugarhouse business was picking up, too, so Lemay approached the head of her department at Deloitte to talk about her “little project” in Vermont and to let him know she was thinking of leaving the firm. Instead, he offered her a yearlong leave of absence.

“That made it safer for me,” she said. “I knew if I got in trouble, I could go back and have a paycheck. But I had an inclination that this was my destiny, so I took the leap.”

She never went back to that job. Now, April’s Maple employs 10 people in the café and product sides of the business and another four each winter in the sugar bush, where D’Aiello manages the tree tapping and line maintenance. It’s considered a midsize farm, with more than 300 miles of tubing connecting 14,000 trees and an average production of 3,800 gallons per year.

This time of year, when she’s not snowshoeing into the woods or busy boiling, Lemay is in the café’s kitchen making vats of soup and experimenting with maple as an ingredient. The extensive breakfast and lunch menu features expected sugar-shack fare, such as stacks of pancakes sprinkled

with maple sugar; maple corn bread; and a Vermonter sandwich with cheddar cheese, maple cream and apples.

Everything is homemade, and almost everything has maple in it — even the salad dressing, the chili, the butter and the rolls. Lemay once had a customer who was allergic to maple; it took some finagling to make a breakfast sandwich she could eat.

“Maple is so much more than a breakfast treat,” Lemay said. “We’ve found all these ways to incorporate it, sometimes more subtly than others.”

Word of the maple-coated menu got me in the car on a recent bluebird day, with a GPS estimate of three hours and 13 minutes to Canaan. The drive provided views of New Hampshire’s White Mountains and took my husband and me close

enough to Canada that my phone threatened roaming charges.

When we pulled across the bridge into the parking lot, it was clear we’d taken the wrong form of transportation. The lot was full of snowmobiles.

For years — since the hot dog days — trail groomers in the local club have maintained the runs down to the sugarhouse. As of this year, April’s Maple is an official trail on the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers system.

Inside the shop, metal racks labeled “Snowmobile Gear Here” were loaded with diners’ helmets. The café was packed, so we put in our name for a table and browsed shelves full of syrup jugs, chocolate-maple truffles, butterfly-shaped maple candies, scone mixes and souvenirs.

After a short wait, we sat down in the cozy dining room. We already knew our order: a breakfast-lunch hybrid of maple sugar pancakes ($6 for two), a maple hot dog with maple mustard ($3), a maplebarbecue pulled pork sandwich ($8) and a side of maple-apple coleslaw ($3).

Lemay comes from a long line of cooks on both sides of her family, and many of the

From left: Serge and Donna Lemay; April Lemay; and her husband, Sage D’Aiello

Theodora Contis

dishes are based on recipes that have been passed down through generations.

“The menu leans towards what I like to cook and what I like to eat,” Lemay said. The pancakes are an exception: Her husband urged her to offer them, but she pushed back at first. For many years, the kitchen didn’t have a grill; to make stacks of pancakes, she hooked up two-by-three electric griddles from Walmart. The pancakes took forever to cook, which prompted Lemay to add an “allow 10+ min” warning to the menu.

There’s a real grill in the kitchen now, and our pancakes came out well before 10 minutes, steaming hot, fluffy and glistening with maple sugar. Honoring some sort of proper meal order, we dove into them first.

diners and the Maple Ladies’ friendly service, the sweet feast felt like a perfect celebration of sugaring season. After all, if you’re going to eat a meal full of maple, why not do it at the source?

The only thing sweeter was dessert, which we couldn’t resist. I ordered a piece of double-crust, custardy maple syrup pie ($5) for the road, a maple-chocolate milkshake ($6) for my husband and a maple creemee in an April’s Maple cone for myself ($3.50 for a small).

I may have been supremely sugared up, but the creemee was among the best I’ve ever had. The creemee itself is made with a 10 percent butterfat base and nothing but April’s Maple — no extract for extra color or flavor. The special cone takes it to the next level: a cake cone with maple cream around

I slathered the slightly sweet maple dog in maple mustard and took a bite before handing it over. It tasted like the hot dogs we traditionally boil in sap during a backyard DIY boil, without all the work.

The pulled pork was a perfect combo of savory and slightly sweet, topped with melty cheddar on a nicely griddled homemade bun. I snuck a bit of the coleslaw onto the sandwich for extra tang.

Between the café’s rustic wooden décor, the shuffle of our snow pants-clad fellow

the upper edge and down the inside, rolled in big granules of maple crunch.

“It’s decadent beyond decadence,” Lemay said. It’s no surprise the creemees are in demand year-round.

I missed out on one of Lemay’s favorite maple-season treats: a Monte Cristo sandwich (French toast with ham and cheddar cheese) dipped in hot syrup fresh off the draw. But there’s still time, Lemay reassured me. It’s early in the sugaring season in the NEK; March 14 was only the second boil day this year, and given the wintry weather, she didn’t expect to boil again for a week.

“Every year, you’re just waiting to see what happens, but I try not to worry about it,” she said. “I know that we will make maple syrup because spring has always come in the past.” ➆

April’s Maple, 6507 Route 114, Canaan, 2669624, aprilsmaple.com. Want to check out a sugarhouse near you? Vermont’s Maple Open House Weekend runs March 25 to 26 and April 1 to 2. Learn more at vermontmaple.org/ mohw.

Snowmobilers enjoying maple creemees outside April’s Maple

Salad Days

Dreaming of the beach with Tiny Thai’s som tam

BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

I have been entranced by the green papaya salad called som tam ever since my first visit to Tiny Thai Restaurant, in fall 2004, shortly after it opened in what is now the Essex Experience.

The classic Thai street food hits all my culinary buttons; each bite delivers crunch, sourness, salt and funk in kaleidoscopic spades.

Eighteen and a half years and two restaurant locations ago, the salad cost $3.95. Today, it’s a still-reasonable $6 and continues to delight with the same refreshingly punchy, bright combination of flavors and textures that I have called “addictive” in print several times.

Tiny Thai moved to its current Winooski home at 293 Main Street after 15 years in the center of town. When I went earlier this month, I tried to remain open-minded about which dish might earn the spotlight for our monthlong series of “forever faves” at enduring local restaurants.

Friends and I ordered several dishes to share, including the soothing, sweet coconut milk massaman curry ($15 with chicken) and the bracingly spicy pad krapow moo grob stir-fry with bacon-y chunks of pork belly, fried basil leaves and crisp green beans ($18). The latter dish appears on the “genuine” Thai menu that co-owner Paul Ciosek and his wife, Pui, who grew up just outside Bangkok, added more than a decade ago.

Those choices are good, as are the pad kee maow, also called drunken noodles ($14 to $16 depending on protein); and the nam tok waterfall beef ($16), grilled flank steak

tossed with tomatoes, bell peppers, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar, then sprinkled with ground roasted rice and served with sticky rice.

But if I had to choose only one dish at Tiny Thai, who am I kidding?

Som tam wins hands down.

Som means sour, and tam is the act of pounding, which is key to the recipe, the Cioseks explained during a chat last week. Tiny Thai kitchen staff use a special vegetable peeler with a ridged blade to julienne long strips of green papaya.

In a mortar, they bruise garlic and chiles, then tomato chunks and raw green beans, and, at the end, the papaya — just enough to get the juices going, Paul explained: “You don’t want to turn it to mush.” Finally, cooks add the dressing of lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar and shower the salad with peanuts.

Paul, who lived for several years in Bangkok after meeting Pui at the University of Colorado Boulder, loves cooking, but he mostly manages the front of the house while his wife stewards the kitchen. With their latest restaurant move, the Cioseks finally own their building, which has about 30 indoor seats and more outdoors during warm weather.

They are looking forward to celebrating Tiny Thai’s 20th anniversary next year, although they said looking back makes them feel “old” (Pui) and “tired” (Paul). Despite that, Pui added, “We both still enjoy being here.”

When they get away to Thailand, where Pui’s elderly mother lives, Paul looks forward to eating som tam on the beach.

“Ladies come by with a mortar and pestle and a yoke over their shoulders holding all the ingredients,” he described. “They make it right there and serve it with sticky rice.” For a full meal, Paul said, he might buy charcoal-grilled chicken from another beach vendor.

New life goal: Eat som tam and grilled chicken on a beach in Thailand. ➆

INFO

Tiny Thai Restaurant, 293 Main St., Winooski, 655-4888, tinythairestaurant.net

Som tam salad with Thai iced tea and a side of sticky rice

SUBSCRIBE AT sevendaysvt.com/enews

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Go to sevendaysvt.com/aloud and click on the article you want to hear.

When the article loads, scroll down past the first photo and find the prompt to “Hear this article read aloud.”

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CLASSICAL MUSIC

Taking the Baton

Andrew Crust is the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s new music director

BY AMY LILLY • lilly@sevendaysvt.com

After a three-year search; seven finalists’ concerts; and extensive surveys of musicians, audiences and board members, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra finally has a new music director. Andrew Crust, 35, a native of Kansas City, Kan., will take the podium in September for the first concert of the 2023-24 season. He follows Jaime Laredo, whose tenure lasted 20 years.

Crust, who is also music director of the smaller Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, was the final candidate of the seven to guest-conduct the VSO, on February 4. He led a diverse program of new music — a birdsong-inspired piece by Canadian Jocelyn Morlock and a percussionheavy work by Puerto Rican Roberto Sierra featuring electric violin soloist Tracy Silverman. The fi nal piece was a Romantic-era Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky symphony.

Crust maintains a busy schedule guestconducting around the U.S. Reached by phone in Vancouver, where he currently

lives, he said he is “just overjoyed” to be joining the VSO, an orchestra with “an incredible 89-year legacy.”

During his guest-conducting visit, Crust said, he noticed a well-established sensibility among the musicians.

“Despite the fact that they come from all over the place, there’s really a feeling of family there,” he said. “They really wanted to work hard and are concerned with having a great artistic quality.”

He added, “When we performed Sierra’s piece” — a co-commission of the VSO — “it was the third performance in the world. I could tell that this orchestra has a healthy experience with new music. They grasped the style right away. They appreciate trying new repertoire that’s outside of the canon.”

For her part, VSO executive director Elise Brunelle said she is “smiling all the time” at the thought of the new director.

“All the things you need in a music director — an understanding of musicians’ needs, knowing repertoire, being able to

talk to anybody [from] kids to donors — he just ticks every single box,” Brunelle said. “Plus, he loves and knows Vermont. He has an honest desire to be here and work specifically with our musicians.”

Concertmaster Katherine Winterstein, one of three VSO musicians on the search committee, which also included administrators and board members, praised Crust’s conducting skills.

“We [musicians] talk about stick technique; he’s clear and easy to follow. And he’s a beautiful musician. I want my conductor to have a good concept of the overarching e ect [of a piece] and good grasp of the details,” she said. “And [Crust] seems to know which details are important to manage and which are not, which is not the case with most conductors.” Winterstein also serves as the Boston Pops concertmaster and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra associate concertmaster, and she plays in Boston Ballet.

Principal oboist Nancy Dimock, also

on the search committee, commented that Crust was “incredibly charming and very e cient. That’s one of the things we look for when we’re evaluating conductors, because we have such limited time.”

The orchestra has just four rehearsals per concert. “He told us what he wanted,” Dimock said, “but he was also generous and kind.”

“I think he’s going to be wonderful,” second flutist Anne Janson agreed. “He’s young. He’s ready to take it on. He’s really optimistic.”

Janson added, “It sounds like he wants to work with the community in every way he can, [including by] bringing in people with connections to Vermont and playing Vermont composers’ music.”

Crust has had an impressive amount of experience for a conductor of his age. After obtaining a master’s and doctorate in orchestral conducting from McGill University in Montréal and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively, he held his first job, as assistant conductor of Maine’s Portland Symphony Orchestra, from 2016 to 2018.

He went on to hold the same position at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (where he also conducted the Memphis Youth Symphony Program), then served as associate conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (“the other VSO,” Crust joked) until he landed the Lima Symphony’s top job in 2020. Music directors typically hold two or occasionally even three top positions simultaneously, and Crust will retain the Ohio directorship while leading the VSO.

Crust has also spent significant time conducting opera, ballet, pops and film music with organizations such as Opera McGill, Ballet Memphis and the Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band. He has conducted numerous concerts abroad and assisted venerated conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.

Music education — something Crust studied as an undergraduate at Wichita State University — is a priority for him. In Lima, he initiated and runs a program for children called “Mornings With the Maestro,” and he has created and scripted numerous educational programs for full orchestra.

Also a visual artist, Crust said he enjoys the tactility and creativity of making art — elements missing in conducting — and even sells his work. His watercolors and ink drawings are inspired by Viennese fin de siècle artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. On his art website and his Instagram account, @stick.and.brush, he notes that studying those artists’ work helps him understand composers of the

Andrew Crust conducting the VSO

COURTESY OF MACAULAY LERMAN

period, such as Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg.

The young conductor has even caught the attention of Hollywood. In the Oscarnominated Tár, Todd Field’s meticulously researched movie about the downfall of a famous conductor, Crust’s name is dropped along with those of Marin Alsop and “Lenny,” or Leonard Bernstein. That was a surprise for the conductor.

chamber music, films, video games — and I don’t put one form above any other,” he added.

Crust grew up in a family that exposed him to “every kind of music,” including the Beatles, jazz, classic rock, funk, musical theater and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. (He said his mother would play the last one so loud that it drowned out the vacuum cleaner.)

“It’s vital that we support contemporary music,” he said, noting that “people respond in visceral ways to new music” and that many orchestras, along with the Metropolitan Opera, are finding that new music sells more tickets.

“Luckily, the VSO already has a rich tradition of playing and commissioning new music,” he said. At the same time, Crust added, “I’m not going to stop doing Beethoven.” At the top of his list of favorite nonliving composers are “Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky … and, lately, Lili Boulanger.” (She was the first female composer to win the Prix de Rome.)

MUSIC

The Wailers to Kick Off Double E 2023 Summer Concert Series

BY KEN PICARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

“A friend saw the premiere in LA and immediately texted me,” Crust said. “I have no clue how it happened.”

Crust already has ties to Burlington. While living in Montréal during the four years of his master’s program, he “came down a lot,” he said. “I love … the mountains, the lake, the fact that Burlington is a college town but also low-key and relaxed.” And several VSO musicians previously played under Crust with the Portland Symphony.

In describing his plans for the VSO, Crust stays general. He hopes to “collaborate with as many local groups as possible while also engaging world-class soloists.” He’s keen to create “more access to more people, trying to not only increase ticket sales but bring younger people in and expand the diversity of programming.

“Different people have different access points to orchestral music — through pops,

To attract younger audiences, Crust is considering ideas such as “after-work concerts at an earlier time than usual, new venues, late-night concerts.” He commended the VSO on its Jukebox series, which brings quartet performances to unusual venues, such as South Burlington’s Higher Ground nightclub. At the Portland Symphony, Crust curated a program for under-40-year-olds called “Symphony and Spirits”: Young people got discounted tickets, were seated together and could enjoy a music-themed cocktail.

“The trouble [with the younger crowd] is competition from not only other live music but Netflix and Hulu,” he noted.

The new music director said he’ll take his time launching new initiatives at the VSO.

“I still have a lot to learn,” Crust said.

“The good news is that things have been going well. You don’t want to immediately rearrange the furniture, because [the VSO has] a culture and history that’s built up over decades. They’ve been in good hands with Jaime … I have big shoes to fill.” ➆

Learn more at vso.org, andrewcrust.com and art.andrewcrust.com.

Calling it a “go-big-or-go-home year,” Double E Performance Center general manager Jesse Rivers unveiled the lineup for the 2023 Old Stage Summer Series at the Essex Experience last Friday, announcing the music venue’s largest list of live outdoor concerts to date. The partial list of shows included a dozen national touring acts whose genres range from classic rock and hip-hop to Southern blues and instrumental dub. Another six to eight acts are expected to be announced in the coming months.

The third annual outdoor concert series kicks off on April 20 with some classic reggae beats when the Double E welcomes the Wailers, Bob Marley’s legendary band. An after-party follows the family-friendly, all-ages show, featuring jazz-fusion band the Most Wanted, along with a 4/20 screening of the 1936 pot-paranoia classic Reefer Madness

Other national acts announced on Friday include Melvin Seals & JGB (July 7); Keller Williams (August 6); the North Mississippi Allstars (July 29); and classic rock tribute bands EagleMania (June 17), Back in Black (July 2) and Tusk (July 8). The last three bands perform the music of the Eagles, AC/DC and Fleetwood Mac, respectively.

“We’re hitting all types of genres ... At the end of the day, we’re trying to build community, and it takes all kinds of people to make community work,” Rivers added. “I truly think this is the year the Essex Experience acquires a national name.”

The concert series will complement other outdoor happenings at the Essex Experience, including 10 Trucks, Taps and Tunes events, held every Wednesday starting on June 14 and featuring six to eight local food trucks, beer and free live music.

Friday’s announcement, held at the Double E, is part of a larger effort by Essex Experience owner Peter Edelmann to transform the shopping mall into a town center and Vermont-centric tourist attraction.

The press event also featured other news about the Essex Experience, including the groundbreaking of a new event space at the nearby Essex Resort & Spa, which will involve enlarging its village green to host live concerts and other outdoor events.

Also in the works is a proposed expansion of Magic Mann, a cannabis dispensary at the Essex Experience. If approved by the Town of Essex Selectboard at its May 1 meeting, the expansion would involve converting two adjacent retail spaces into a cannabis grow, extraction and edible-processing facility, all outfitted for a publicly accessible factory tour.

Pointing to the enormous success of Ben & Jerry’s factory tour in Waterbury Village, which draws tens of thousands of tourists to Vermont each year, Edelmann said the Magic Mann tour would enable the public to see how cannabis is cultivated and processed into THC-infused edibles. Assuming the proposal is approved by the town and the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, the cannabis factory tour would be the first of its kind in Vermont.

“We’re trying to educate people on beer, on wine, on coffee, on art and on music here,” Edelmann said, referring to other retail outlets at the Essex Experience. “We want to educate people on cannabis, as well.

“We’re not sure if we’ll charge for that tour or give a [THC] gummy at the end. We might,” he added. ➆

Learn more at essexexperience.com.

HE’S YOUNG. HE’S READY TO TAKE IT ON. HE’S REALLY OPTIMISTIC.

ANNE JANSON

Andrew Crust

The Wailers

COURTESY OF RICHIE LUBATON

The economy that worked just fine for their parents and grandparents is breaking down for factory workers Tracey and Cynthia. Their kids, in their twenties and just starting out, will have it worse. In 2000, management can win any battle with labor by moving jobs o shore. Lynn Nottage’s harrowing play Sweat focuses on nine residents of Reading, Pa., one of the poorest cities in America and about to get poorer.

The play won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Northern Stage presents it with fine performances that capture Nottage’s ability to express big ideas through the small actions of complex characters. Sweat is a tragedy capable of shattering the viewer, but, like all tragedies, it’s also a light left on in the darkness to show us the way back out.

The play’s main setting is a favorite bar where everyone drinks too much and stays too late. Most of the story occurs in 2000, but the script sometimes flips forward to 2008 to present outcomes that we must reconcile with the lives we’ve seen the characters living before. Though the story is told with the characters at the forefront, it’s the economy that drives wedges between them, forcing them to pick sides when no side is right and nudging them toward hatred and mistrust.

Cynthia, who is Black, and her white best friend, Tracey, work on the floor at a steel tubing plant. The jobs are physically demanding, but both women expect to hold them all their lives. Tracey’s father and grandfather did, and her son Jason is just starting on the same path. Cynthia’s son Chris has been considering college, but he opts for the plant for now. College costs money.

Most days end with a drink at the watering hole where Stan presides as bartender, gossip and peacekeeper. Everyone ignores Oscar the dishwasher, an immigrant they see as beneath them. Jessie might pass out from too many gimlets; Cynthia’s ex, Brucie, might show up on payday hoping for a handout. The bar is where they’re all happy, celebrating birthdays with frosted cake and shots. Then Cynthia and Tracey apply for the same management job, and Cynthia gets it. The fuse is lit.

Nottage presents people we think we know and makes us stop to see them. The play starts with a fl ash-forward to 2008, in which we see Jason as a tightlipped smart-ass with his parole o cer. Jason’s jailhouse white power tats are ugly smudges on his pale, drawn face. The parole officer then checks in on Chris, who’s living in a church rectory and struggling to restart his life after prison. When we see the two men in the next scene, set eight years earlier, they’re robust buddies who root for the Sixers

Blue-Collar Blues

eater review: Sweat, Northern Stage

BY ALEX BROWN • alex@sevendaysvt.com

Stori Ayers portrays Cynthia as both stalwart and playful, with an underlying strength that looks like just enough to survive everything life throws at her.

Anne Torsiglieri gives Tracey a firecracker volatility that’s thrilling to watch. The life of the party when all’s well, Tracey can glower like the darkest of foes when she feels pushed.

As Jason, Robert David Grant plays a striving young man with heart and then pulls deep inside his shell as an ex-con; it’s an agonizing contrast. Playing Chris, Christopher B. Portley lets the character’s hopefulness shine brightly as he recalls how union strikers looked to him like warriors when he was a kid. As an adult, he discovers how powerless they are.

Matthew Henerson makes Stan the good-natured bartender everyone takes for granted, and Marcus Raye Pérez lets Oscar simmer very quietly until he has to erupt. Anna O’Donoghue plays Jessie in a mist of alcohol and memories. Greg Alverez Reid doubles as the seen-it-all parole o cer and a truly a ecting Brucie who gently sinks lower and lower as the play progresses.

Scenic designer David L. Arsenault creates a warm bar and runs the iron beams of a factory above it, a yellow crane hook dangling. In the window, a huge flag is a reminder that Reading has pledged allegiance to an American dream.

Sound designer Melanie Chen Cole kicks off each scene with sound bites from the news, but they frustrate, flying by too fast for the audience to place them. Costumes by Jaymee Ngernwichit fastidiously re-create the period, often with a little wit.

Nottage shows that policies such as NAFTA put a corporation’s freedom to earn a higher profit above a worker’s freedom to earn a living. Workers can’t see the businessmen and politicians who make those rules, so they turn to the faces in front of them. The enemies they find are competing for jobs, too, but they look di erent or came from somewhere else or tried to climb the economic ladder. Society’s betrayal of the workers is complete once they begin fighting among themselves.

and have lots to hope for. We must watch them through the lens of their ruined future.

Nottage captures the rhythm and language of the working class, and director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley seeks a parallel realism in her staging of the play. She gives the characters little things to do as they speak or hang in the background. Stan tallies receipts; Jessie makes lean-tos

of coasters; Chris and Jason chat while bouncing quarters in a glass, applying beer pong shot-drinking rules. These actions confer authenticity, making a story onstage ring with truth. But the deeper proof is in the performances. The actors never hit false notes by playing a moment too big and pushing the viewer out of the play to admire it. With nuance and clarity, they play people, not pathos.

Because Sweat compresses a year into episodes, the audience sees the characters’ downward trajectory more clearly than they can. But the play challenges us to watch them with empathy. To stand on their level, right where they fall. ➆

INFO

Sweat, by Lynn Nottage, directed by Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, produced by Northern Stage. rough March 26: Wednesday and Friday, 7:30 p.m.; ursday and Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, 5 p.m., at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. $19-69. northernstage.org

THE ECONOMY DRIVES WEDGES BETWEEN THE CHARACTERS, NUDGING THEM TOWARD HATRED AND MISTRUST.

e cast of Sweat

Stori Ayers and Anne Torsiglieri in Sweat

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KATA SASVARI

“

With animation, you can literally do anything,” said Kate Renner, assistant professor of visual art at Northern Vermont University in Lyndon. “You can make animals fly. It’s pretty magical that way.”

This weekend, Vermonters will experience some of that magic at the eighth annual Vermont Animation Festival. The two-day event — Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25, at various locations on the NVU campus — includes a panel discussion on the animation industry in northern New England, workshops with industry experts, and a screening of animated shorts from emerging and veteran animators. While the festival is run by and largely intended for NVU students, it is open to all animators, from the professional to the aspiring.

In addition to celebrating the wizardry of animation, the fest is also an opportunity for local animators to learn from the pros, said Renner, the festival director. On Saturday, she leads a workshop called “Analog to AR: Creating Augmented Reality Animation,” which aims to teach animators how to make films using simple tools.

“A lot of people think you need a fancy app or computer or ... Adobe Creative Cloud, and you don’t,” she said. “You can create really amazing work with a phone and some household objects. It doesn’t need to be really resource-intensive.”

Renner suggested that participants will be pleasantly surprised that animation “isn’t necessarily Pixar” and that it’s something they can do themselves at home. The workshop will be available both in person and virtually on Zoom.

Friday evening features the fest’s keynote speakers, animators Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter. The married couple both

Toon In

Northern Vermont University hosts eighth annual Vermont Animation Festival

BY COLLEEN GOODHUE

teach at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and were nominated for an Academy Award for their 2017 short film, “Negative Space.”

Porter said they plan to share some of the behind-the-scenes work from the Oscar-nominated stop-motion film and will o er a sneak preview of Porcelain Birds , a feature-length film that they’ve been working on for four years. Their new project is loosely based on

Kuwahata’s experience coming from Japan to the United States as a foreign exchange student in the late 1990s.

Kuwahata and Porter will also facilitate a workshop called “Sensory Character Development.” As Porter told Seven Days, the workshop was developed around sensory prompts “to help people get to that ideating phase quicker based on observation, memory and embodied experience.” Porter and Kuwahata ask

participants to come up with character concepts based on various senses — smell, taste, touch, etc.

“The goal of the workshop is to get people more comfortable creating their own characters and bringing their ideas to life,” Porter said.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn from veteran animation story artist Kevin Harkey. A California native, Harkey has lived in Vermont since 2002. His work has provided the blueprints for a long list of animated classics, from Beauty and the Beast (1991) to Frozen (2013).

His Saturday afternoon workshop will focus on storyboards, the series of drawings that determine how the visual story of an animated fi lm will progress through framing, camera perspective and character movement. The sketches are often loose and simple but must be interpretable by the rest of the animation team.

“I was taught to almost make the drawings be another language so that people would instantly understand what I was trying to communicate in drawing form,” Harkey explained.

The workshop, Harkey noted, will focus on the fundamentals of making a storyboard. “A lot of times, it gets daunting and overwhelming,” he said. “I’m just going to try to break it down to where somebody can do it on their own and have a beginning, middle and end to a story.”

Both Harkey’s and Renner’s workshops are open to young animators — Renner’s to ages 10 and up; Harkey’s to as young as 12.

“Animation is very collaborative at every step of the process,” Renner said, noting that families sign up for workshops together. “Kids have some really great ideas, and sometimes their parents help them with the more technical aspects. Last

Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter

A still from “Negative Space” by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter

Northern Vermont University students filming

COURTESY OF VERMONT ANIMATION FESTIVAL

KATE RENNER

year we did a workshop and didn’t put an age limit on it; we’ve had kids as young as 4 do them.”

The festival also provides a unique opportunity for students and emerging artists to have their work screened

alongside that of industry veterans. Renner said the screening, which follows the keynote on Friday, is a special event for the Northeast Kingdom and a chance for students and hobbyists to get their work in front of an audience, often for the first time.

Said Renner: “Many of the films have never been seen by anyone except the folks who created them.” ➆

INFO

The Vermont Animation Festival runs Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25, at various locations on the Northern Vermont University campus in Lyndon. Admission to workshops is a $5 suggested donation; admission to other events is free. For a full schedule, visit vtanimationfestival.org.

Still from a film by Alec Longstreth from the 2022 Vermont Animation Festival

Squared Away

Everything is relative in Josef Albers’ iconic screen-print experiments at the Fleming

BY AMY LILLY • lilly@sevendaysvt.com

The University of Vermont Fleming Museum of Art’s primary exhibition right now is a collection of modestly sized, stringently abstract screen prints, titled “Formulation: Articulation.” Upon first glance, viewers might be forgiven for missing the wow factor in these iterative prints of nested squares, rectilinear line compositions and other hard-edged forms in a variety of colors and shades of black and gray.

Yet these meticulous formal experiments in color and perception are the work of an artist who has had a profound impact on art making: German-born, Bauhaus-trained Josef Albers (1888-1976), who, through a lifetime of teaching, influenced artists from Robert Rauschenberg and Kenneth Noland to Chuck Close and Eva Hesse.

The show, courtesy of Landau Traveling Exhibitions, is a selection of 66 screen prints from Albers’ 1972 publication Formulation: Articulation , a limitededition set of two folios containing 127 prints. Albers arranged them singly, in pairs or in groups of four and appended brief, declarative commentaries. Booklets available at the Fleming reproduce the comments he wrote for the selected prints, as well as excerpts from his lectures and other sources.

It’s best to think of the exhibition as instructions in how to see. Often Albers groups two or four prints in order to show how colors look di erent depending on which colors surround them. He pursued this idea most obsessively in his “Homage to the Square” series — nested squares of three or four different colors, with mathematically precise placement of the squares.

Some examples demonstrate that the squares’ behavior varies: They appear to pop or recede, or even lose their edges. Folio II, No. 14 pairs two “Homage to the Squares”: a black central square surrounded by two greens and a blue on the left, and a nested array of yellows that Albers calls “extra citric and ripe” on the right.

In the latter, the central square’s shade

of yellow is not that far o from its adjacent shade, so the square appears to have softly blurred edges. The black square, however, is di erent enough from its green neighbor that it has a hard-edged appearance — even though both central squares actually have the same precise edge.

In other groupings, it’s hard to believe one is looking at the same color. The four vertically oriented rectangular prints

of I:6 repeat a pattern of overlapping horizontal gray lines on backgrounds of yellow, green and two different blues. The green background surprisingly turns the gray lines faintly pink, far from the solid dark gray they appear against yellow.

What Albers was getting at was that “color is relational, experiential. You never see a color in isolation; everything is

relative to everything else,” as Burlington artist Steve Budington put in it a recent visit to the exhibition with Seven Days. “It’s radical,” he added. “His works are about relationships and contexts.”

Budington, a UVM associate professor of painting, earned his master of fine arts at Yale University, where Albers taught for the last eight years of his career. Budington took Albers’ color class from one of the

From left: “Formulation: Articulation, I:5” (detail); “Formulation: Articulation, I:6” (detail)

master’s own students, Richard Lytle, who “taught it as Albers did.”

The class wasn’t required, but it was too famous to miss, Budington said: “I was like, I’m not going to Yale without taking Albers’ color class.”

Budington also worked as a teacher’s assistant to the late Robert Reed, another of Albers’ students who became the Yale School of Art’s first tenured Black professor. Reed’s first job in the department, as a student there in 1960, was to mix colors for the screen prints in Albers’ fi rst publication, Interaction of Color — a limited-edition folio set published in 1963 that remains a teaching tool in art schools around the world. Reed had to match Albers’ original examples. It was an essential task for an exacting boss.

Albers grew up learning carpentry, painting and stained glass work from his craftsman father before studying for three years at the Bauhaus, a German experimental school that was founded in Weimar in 1919. He taught there another 10 years, until the Nazis shut it down in 1933. Faced with persecution, he and his wife, Anni Albers — another Bauhaus artist who became famous for her weavings — immediately fled to the U.S. He was 44 and knew no English.

Albers taught at the newly formed art school Black Mountain College in North Carolina from 1933 to 1949, then at Yale from 1950 until his retirement in 1958.

The year Albers started at Yale was also the year he made his first “Homage to the Square” — the series for which he is best known. He continued to explore iterations of “Homage” until he died in 1976, producing more than 1,000 of them.

For Albers, exploring the relativity of color was simultaneously an exploration of humanity. In an interview recorded by Katharine Kuh in the early 1960s, he

said, “Color, in my opinion, behaves in two distinct ways: first in self-realization and then in the realizations of relationships with others … [like a person] must combine both being an individual and being a member of society. I’ve handled color as man should behave … And from all this, you may conclude that I consider ethics and aesthetics as one.”

Albers’ work has a political context, Budington pointed out. The refugee from the Nazi system “saw modern life as brutal and hierarchical. Art was a freedom from that, a protest,” Budington opined. The artist produced work that was democratic, accessible: He used ready-made aluminum frames (similar to the ones in the Fleming show) and painted on cheap Masonite with a humble palette knife.

Albers’ scrupulous minimalism — his use of form solely to study color — has prompted other artists to explore his ideas in less rarified contexts, including in relation to social concepts. The Fleming show includes a number of prints, selected by curator Kristan Hanson from the permanent collection, that push Albers’ ideas beyond his self-imposed limits.

One is a print of Black American artist Glenn Ligon’s 1990 work “Untitled (I Feel Most Colored When I Am Thrown Against a Sharp White Background).” Ligon stenciled the title’s quote, from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1928 essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” in repetition, creating a page-long paragraph. The black letters begin as crisp against the white background but become increasingly smudged as the sentence is repeated, suggesting that racial identities both make and influence each other through their interaction.

While this newspaper tries its best to reproduce art accurately, Albers would no doubt have been appalled at the inaccuracies of his art in newsprint. It’s best to see “Formulation: Articulation” in person, testing out Albers’ ideas on one’s own eyes through these iconic prints. ➆

“Josef Albers: Formulation: Articulation” through May 20 at the Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont, in Burlington. uvm.edu/fleming

NEW THIS WEEK barre/montpelier

CINDY LEE LORANGER: Vibrant pop-style and abstract mixed-media works with a jazz-appreciation theme. March 29-May 15. Info, 479-0896. Espresso Bueno in Barre.

mad river valley/waterbury

GREGG BLASDEL & JENNIFER KOCH: “Side by Side,” collaborative woodcut prints by the married artists. By appointment on Sundays. Reception and studio launch party: Friday, March 24, 5-8 p.m. March 24-June 10. Info, joseph@waterburystudios.com. Waterbury Studios.

‘REFLECTING ON REFLECTIONS’: An exhibition of photography by members of the central Vermont collective f/7: Annie Tiberio, Sandra Shenk, Rob Spring, Lisa Diamondstein, Elliot Burg and Julie Parker. Reception: ursday, March 23, 5-7 p.m., with artist talk at 5:30 p.m. March 22-April 27. Info, 496-6682. e Gallery at Mad River Valley Arts in Waitsfield.

middlebury area

‘EARTH’S MATERIALS: PERENNIAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE ARTS’: A curated exhibition of works by 12 artists that reflect and respond to the Earth, our roots and relationships; a project of Town Hall eater and Middlebury College’s New Perennials, which explores the restorative powers of perennial thoughts and actions in farming, education, wellness, sacred practice and the arts. Reception: Friday, April 7, 5-7 p.m., with a panel discussion from 6-7 p.m. March 27-April 15. Info, 443-3140. Jackson Gallery, Town Hall eater, in Middlebury.

northeast kingdom

‘TEETERING BETWEEN’: Paintings, photography and sculpture by Molly Boone, Linda Bryan, Harrison Halaska and Mike Howat, curated by Samantha M. Eckert of AVA Gallery and Art Center. Reception: Saturday, April 15, 4-5:30 p.m. March 28-June 4. Info, 748-2600. Catamount Arts Center in St. Johnsbury.

ART EVENTS

ARTIST TALK: ESPERANZA CORTÉS: e Colombia-born artist discusses the works in her current exhibition, “Tierra Dentro.” e Current, Stowe, ursday, March 23, 5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 253-8358.

ARTIST TALK: THOMAS GREYEYES:

Vermont Studio Center hosts a virtual presentation by the artist, who uses site-specific installations, print and video to convey intertribal autonomist messages to the dominant society. Register at vermontstudiocenter.org to receive Zoom link. Online, Monday, March 27, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 635-2727.

ARTS ACCESS SUMMIT: Inclusive Arts

Vermont and guest presenters present a day of learning and conversation on accessibility in arts organizations; keynote speaker is art activist and educator Jen White-Johnson. For access needs, email heidi@inclusiveartsvermont. org. Online, Tuesday, March 28, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Info, 404-1597.

FAMILY ART SATURDAY: Adults and their kiddos get creative and make art together, inspired by current exhibitions. BCA Center, Burlington, Saturday, March 25, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7166.

FIGURE DRAWING SOCIAL: Live model, BYOB, bring your own supplies. Limited to 20 participants. RSVP at wishbonecollectivevt.com. Email if any questions. Wishbone Collective, Winooski, Wednesday, March 22, 6-8 p.m. $15. Info, hello@wishbonecollectivevt.com.

OPEN STUDIO: Draw, collage, paint, move, write and explore the expressive arts however you please during this drop-in period. Available in studio and via Zoom. Most materials are available in the studio. All are welcome; no art experience necessary. Expressive Arts Burlington, ursday, March 23, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Donations. Info, info@ expressiveartsburlington.com.

OPEN STUDIO: Make art alongside other artists, socialize, get feedback and try out new mediums. No experience required; art supplies provided. Hosted by the Howard Center Arts Collective, whose members have experience with mental health and/or substance-use challenges. ONE Arts Center, Burlington, Monday, March 27, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, artscollective@howardcenter.org.

PANEL DISCUSSION: ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF AI: A moderated discussion with speakers from the disciplines of philosophy, religion and literature on the potential benefits and detriments of artificial intelligence to human society. In conjunction with a current exhibition. BCA Center, Burlington, Wednesday, March 29, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7166.

TALK: ‘A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE POSTER’: Angelina Lippert, chief curator of Poster House in New York City, discusses the birth of posters in the mid-1800s, major stylistic movements and important moments in printing history. In conjunction with Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Optional registration at brattleboromuseum.org. Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, ursday, March 23, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 257-0124.

VIRTUAL ART AUCTION: A curated selection of works from internationally renowned artists, local favorites and emerging talent; sales benefit art-learning programs at Burlington City Arts. Online. rough March 26. Info, 865-7166.

ONGOING SHOWS

burlington

‘ALL THE FEELS’: A group exhibition of works that project joy, angst and/or humor by local artists. rough March 25. Info, 578-2512. e S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington.

ART AT THE HOSPITAL: Acrylic paintings by Matt Larson and Julio Desmont (Main Street Connector, ACC 3); photographic giclées by Jeffrey Pascoe (McClure 4 & EP2 Healing Garden); photographs by Sharon Radtke (EP2); and oil paintings by Judy Hawkins (BCC). Curated by Burlington City Arts. rough May 31. Info, 865-7296. University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

ART AT THE MALTEX: Paintings by Pievy Polyte, Shannon O’Connell, Nancy Chapman and Ashley MacWalters and photography by Brian Drourr and Robert Fahey. rough April 8. Info, 865-7296. e Maltex Building in Burlington.

‘ART/TEXT/CONTEXT’: An exhibition of art objects that prominently feature words, images, symbols, and gestural or abstract marks, and that considers their power to prompt critical reflection or spur social action. JOSEF ALBERS:

“Formulation: Articulation,” featuring studies by the late German American artist (1888-1976) that show how perception of color is affected by the environments in which it is viewed. SHANTA

LEE: “Dark Goddess: An Exploration of the Sacred Feminine,” large-scale black-and-white photographs that encouraging inquiry beyond the limited roles to which society assigns women. rough May 20. Info, 656-0750. Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont, in Burlington.

‘BLACK FREEDOM, BLACK MADONNA & THE BLACK CHILD OF HOPE’: Designed by Raphaella Brice and created by Brice and Josie Bunnell, this mural installed for Burlington’s 2022

IT’S BEST TO THINK OF THE EXHIBITION AS INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO SEE.

‘Urban Cadence: Street Scenes From Lagos and Johannesburg’

From half a world away, Africa has come to Vermont. That is, in the form of a touring exhibition of photographs and videos from Lagos, Nigeria, and Johannesburg, South Africa, to the Middlebury College Museum of Art.

The continent’s cities are the fastest-growing in the world, according to exhibition text, with Lagos a metropolis surpassing 15 million residents and Johannesburg an industrial center of more than 5 million. The images by nine contemporary artists featured in “Urban Cadence” do more than offer glimpses of those burgeoning cities; they also represent the evolution of African photography in recent decades from exclusively journalism to a creative art form, and from predominantly portraiture to personal expressions of place.

Moreover, photography has been increasingly available to Black artists since the dismantling of apartheid in the early 1990s. Only two photographers included in “Urban Cadence” are white — Jodi Bieber and Jo Ractliffe, both from South Africa.

The concept of cadence in the exhibition title is manifested in multiple ways, according to wall text: as the “ebbs and flows of residents navigating Lagos and Johannesburg and the movement of artists registering this urban flow,” and also in “the rhythms an artist creates when visually telling a city’s myriad stories.”

One of those stories is about overwhelming congestion. In “Each Passing Day,” by Nigerian photographer Akintunde Akinleye, a perspective from an overhead walkway looks down on teeming masses of vehicles, pedestrians and the colorful umbrellas of street vendors. Adjacent to this sea of humanity is a row of well-worn multistory buildings,

tangles of electrical wire and shouty billboards. For claustrophobes, it’s a terrifying scene.

Other images depict city dwellers simply going about their business, such as Sabelo Mlangeni’s “Woman and City.” In the black-and-white shot, the South African photographer catches a professionally dressed woman’s eye as she weaves through traffic. Perhaps on her way to or from work, the young woman looks unruffled by the chaos around her.

Some of the photographers have focused on changing infrastructure, whether decaying or emerging. Bieber’s “Diepkloof Hostel Conversion Project,” for example, shows a development in the sprawling suburb of Soweto: colorful, townhouselike family dwellings going up against a background of drab workers’ barracks.

Akinbode Akinbiyi’s black-and-white photo “Aguda, Lagos Island, Lagos” captures the evolving neighborhood through the “cacophony of wires” competing for space on an electrical pole. According to the Nigerian photographer, the image “shows the almost desperate will of people living in the vicinity to somehow tap illegally into the practically defunct electrical power supply of the authorities.”

Fellow Nigerian photographer Uche OkpaIroha seeks to expose the living conditions of impoverished migrants to Lagos — some 275,000 of them per year, according to text for his photo “American Dream.” A selection from his “Under the Bridge” series, it shows a pair of young boys walking through an area below a bridge “which becomes a place of business to some during the day — and home to many at night.” An American flag printed on one boy’s T-shirt inspired the photo’s title.

The cadences of everyday life in African cities

include literal rhythms, too, captured in photos such as Bieber’s portrait of the Black heavy metal band Ree-burth. Kelechi Amadi-Obi’s “Captain Rugged” series depicts Nigerian musician Keziah Jones as the “superhero for Lagos.” He variously poses with a ridiculously futuristic car or his guitar, and occasionally in flight with a red cape billowing above him.

“Urban Cadence” is a project of the Californiabased initiative Touring Exhibitions of Contemporary Artists of Africa, whose mission is to bring the work of African artists to college museums in North America. The Gund Gallery at Ohio’s Kenyon College shepherded this exhibition, which includes a handsome catalog. The collected images, whether sobering or exuberant, invite viewers into myriad scenes of contemporary African city life. A music video (offered via QR portal) enhances the visit.

“Urban Cadence” is on view through April 23. Learn more at middlebury.edu/museum.

PAMELA POLSTON

Clockwise from left: “Captain Rugged 8” by Kelechi Amadi-Obi; “Alternative Rock Band Ree-burth” by Jodi Bieber; “American Dream” by Uche Okpa-Iroha

ART SHOWS

Juneteenth celebration features a Haitianinspired image of liberation. Through June 18. Info, 865-7166. ‘LET’S BUILD A ROOF OVER THE WORLD’: Original paintings and drawings by children and young adults, ages 6 to 22, from Ukraine, Moldova and the Republic of Georgia, curated by the Fermata Arts Foundation. Through March 30. Info, 540-7214. Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.

CHARLIE HUDSON: “A Place I Go,” new landscapes in oil and acrylic. Through April 22. Info, 324-0014. Soapbox Arts in Burlington.

‘CO-CREATED: THE ARTIST IN THE AGE OF INTELLIGENT MACHINES’: Interactive projects that examine how artists are engaging with the rapidly changing field of artificial intelligence and its uniquely collaborative character. JULIA

PURINTON: Nature-inspired abstract oil paintings, in the LBG Room. SARAH STEFANA SMITH: “Willful Matters,” photographic and sculptural black-andwhite abstractions that explore ideas of Blackness and boundlessness by the contemporary artist and scholar. Through May 6. Info, 865-7166. BCA Center in Burlington.

‘CONNECTIONS’: Howard Center Arts Collective presents an art installation of painted mailboxes and mosaics, inviting viewers to reflect on the benefits of old-fashioned mail delivery and to consider whether mailboxes have become relics of the past. Through July 31. Info, artscollective@ howardcenter.org. Howard Center in Burlington.

HOWARD CENTER ARTS COLLECTIVE: A spring show features work in a variety of mediums by more than 20 artists. Through April 28. Info, artscollective@howardcenter.org. City Market, Onion River Co-op in Burlington (South End).

KEN RUSSACK: “House Portraits,” recent studio and plein air oil paintings by the Burlington artist. Through March 30. Info, 863-6458. Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery in Burlington.

‘RIP: RELATIONSHIPS IN PROGRESS’: An exhibit in a variety of mediums by 14 area artists. Through March 26. Info, hello@thekarmabirdhouse.com. Karma Bird House Gallery in Burlington.

chittenden county

‘ABENAKI CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE VERMONT COMMUNITY’: A series of murals designed by Scott Silverstein in consultation with Abenaki artists Lisa Ainsworth Plourde and Vera Longtoe Sheehan and members of Richmond Racial Equity; the 10 panels celebrate the Abenaki origins of practices still important to Vermont culture. Through May 31. Info, radiate.art.space@gmail.com. Richmond Town Hall.

CHRISTINE SELIN & ALISON SAUNDERS: Sculptures in wood and clay and acrylic landscape paintings, respectively. Through March 26. Info, 899-3211. Emile A. Gruppe Gallery in Jericho.

ELIZABETH NELSON & MICHELLE TURBIDE:

Acrylic paintings of Iceland and pastoral landscapes, respectively. Curated by Burlington City Arts. Through April 13. Info, 865-7296. Burlington International Airport in South Burlington.

GREG NICOLAI: Black-and-white and color photographs. Curated by Burlington City Arts. Through June 23. Info, 865-7296. Pierson Library in Shelburne.

MARGARET KRAUSE: “The Loop, “ abstractexpressionist paintings by the SMC art and design major that were inspired by a road trip from the western U.S. back to Vermont. Through March 31. Info, 654-2851. McCarthy Art Gallery, Saint Michael’s College, in Colchester.

barre/montpelier

‘BEACON OF LIGHT’: A group exhibit exploring current topics with installations, constructions and more. Main-floor gallery. ‘MUD SEASON IN FIBER & PHOTOS’: Artworks by Nancy Banks and

Roz Daniels. Second-floor gallery. ‘QUEER VISIONS’: Work by LGBTQ+ artists. Third-floor gallery. Through April 29. Info, 479-7069. Studio Place Arts in Barre.

CAMERON DAVIS: “Poetic Ecologies,” paintings based on an ecological, scientific and spiritual narrative to reveal relationships that transform life. Through March 31. Info, 279-5558. Vermont Supreme Court Gallery in Montpelier.

DMITRI BELIAKOV: “On the Margins of Europe: A War Before the War,” a retrospective of 55 photographs from war in Ukraine, 2014 to 2019, by the Russian photojournalist now based in Vermont. Through April 3. Info, 485-2000. Kreitzberg Library, Norwich University, in Northfield.

ELIZABETH NELSON: “NORTH,” paintings that explore the climate and landscapes of Vermont, Iceland and Norway. Through March 31. Info, 552-0877. The Front in Montpelier.

GAAL SHEPHERD: “Over Time,” nature-inspired paintings by the Vermont artist. Through April 19. Info, moetown128@gmail.com. Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin.

GABRIELLE DIETZEL & HOWARD NORMAN: “Beyond the Plovers, Flat Clouds,” 3D collages and shadow boxes created by Dietzel as a visual response to literature about birds; and poems, historic and scientific documents, memoirs, and quotes collected by Norman for an anthology. Through March 27. Info, 229-6206. North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier.

JAY HUDSON: “Winter in the Northeast Kingdom,” oil and acrylic paintings of landscapes and inhabitants of the region by the Glover artist. Through March 31. Info, 223-2328. Vermont Natural Resources Council in Montpelier.

‘LET’S COLLAGE ABOUT IT!’: An exhibition of works in varied mediums by Kris Bierfelt, Liz Buchanan, Anne Cummings, Holly Hauser and Cariah Rosberg. Through April 8. Info, 207-373-8099. Center for Arts and Learning in Montpelier.

NITYA BRIGHENTI: “Side Streams in Art,” portraits, landscapes and cityscapes by the Italian painter living in Barre. Through March 27. Info, 479-0896. Espresso Bueno in Barre.

PATTY CORCORAN & MASON YOUNG: “Shared Spaces,” multimedia landscape paintings and abstract wood sculptures, respectively. VERMONT

PASTEL SOCIETY: “Let It Snow,” a group exhibition by central region members of the art organization. Champagne reception: Saturday, March 25, noon-3 p.m. Through March 25. Info, 262-6035. T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier.

SUSAN CALZA: “Our Demons Are Translucent,” large-scale, mixed-media drawings created over 10 years, influenced by the artist’s travels in Nepal, and assemblages. Through March 25. Info, 224-6827. Susan Calza Gallery in Montpelier.

VERMONT ART EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION: “Vermont Voices,” the first-ever member exhibition, featuring one work of art by each participant in a range of styles and mediums. Through March 31. Info, dpeeples@vermontartscouncil.org. Spotlight Gallery in Montpelier.

stowe/smuggs

DEB PEATE: “Whimsical Heads,” featuring William Morris textile designs and vintage jewelry. Through May 7. LEGACY COLLECTION: A showcase exhibition of paintings by gallery regulars as well as some newcomers. Through December 23. SMALL MEMBERS’ GROUP SHOW: An exhibition of works by 16 member artists, curated by the artists themselves. Through May 7. Info, 644-5100. Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville.

ESPERANZA CORTÉS: Sculptures, paintings and installations by the Colombian-born artist, whose work considers social and historical narratives, colonialism, and the politics of erasure and exclusion. Through April 8. Info, 253-8358. The Current in Stowe.

CALL TO ARTISTS

2023 CORNISH CCS RESIDENCY

FELLOWSHIP: Applications are now open for the fall residency in Cornish, N.H., and the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. Dates are October 17 to November 17. For details and application, visit cartoonstudies.org. Online. Through April 1. Info, 295-3319.

2023 WATERBURY ARTS FEST

COMMEMORATIVE POSTER: Revitalizing Waterbury is seeking an image to feature on its first commemorative poster. All Vermont artists are eligible to enter. Any medium is acceptable as long as the image meets our printing criteria. The chosen artist’s name will appear on the poster, and the artist will be asked to sign some posters for sale. Specifications at waterburyartsfest.com. Deadline: April 14. Online. Info, info@ revitalizingwaterbury.org.

2024 SOLO EXHIBITION PROPOSALS: AVA’s exhibition committee of artists, art curators and art professionals seek proposals for solo shows from artists with strong connections to New Hampshire, Vermont and the greater New England region. Details at avagallery.org. Deadline: March 31. AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, N.H. $50. Info, 603-448-3117.

ART IN THE GARDEN: Horsford Gardens & Nursery in Charlotte invites artists to apply to teach in its gardens this summer. The nursery is free of charge to use and artists receive all portions of their class cost. An application is at horsfordnursery.com. Deadline: March 26. Online. Info, 425-2811.

ART IN THE PARK: The Chaffee Art Center in Rutland invites applications for the 2023 festivals featuring fine artists, craft persons and specialty foods. Show dates are August 12 and 13 and October 7 and 8 in Main Street Park. Application at chaffeeartcenter.org. Online. Through April 1. Info, artinthepark@chaffeeartcenter.org.

ARTISTS NEEDED: Musical and visual artists are invited to perform and exhibit at the University Mall space. Email for details. Arts So Wonderful Gallery, South Burlington. Through March 31. Info, artssowonderful2@gmail.com.

‘AN ASSEMBLAGE OF BREATHS’: AVA Gallery and Art Center is seeking submissions that convey healing, comfort, togetherness and community, as well as works that encourage us to pause, reflect and breathe. An upcoming exhibition is in collaboration with West Central Behavioral Health. Application at avagallery.org. Deadline: April 17. Online. $15. Info, 603-448-3117.

BTV MARKET: Applications are open to artists, makers and vendors for the 2023 market in Burlington City Hall Park, Saturdays from June 3 to September 30. Details at btv-market.mymarket.org. Deadline: March 27. Online.

CABOT ARTS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL: Cabot

Arts seeks artisan craft vendors to table at the festival on Saturday, July 29. Only 12 spaces are available, so sign up early at cabotarts.org/vend. Online, Through April 30. $50. Info, 793-3016.

CREATION GRANTS AVAILABLE: The Vermont Arts Council is accepting applications for this annual grant, which supports artists in creating new work. Grant funds may be used to compensate artists for time spent creating new work, to purchase materials, or to rent equipment or space for the process. New this year: the People’s Choice Creation Grant. Find info and application form for both at vermontartscouncil. org. Deadline: April 3. Online. Info, 402-4614.

FUNGUS ARTWORK: The nature center is seeking mushroom/fungus-related artwork for a fall exhibition; any medium and artists of all levels are welcome. If interested, email chelsea@ northbranchnaturecenter.org. Deadline: June

1. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier. Info, 229-6206.

‘LITTLE LANDSCAPES’: We’re looking for framed 2D artwork that captures big spaces in little images — 3 by 6 inches or smaller — for an upcoming exhibit. Email an image of your artwork, title, medium and unframed dimensions to artworksvt@gmail.com. Details at artworksvt.com. Deadline: April 7. Art Works Frame Shop & Gallery, South Burlington. Free. Info, 660-4999.

MURALIST NEEDED: Arts So Wonderful seeks a volunteer artist to recreate four downtown Burlington murals. Arts So Wonderful Gallery, South Burlington. Through May 8. Info, artssowonderful2@gmail.com.

‘ONE + ONE IS MORE THAN TWO’: This show is about multiple artworks by an artist that relate to each other as a group, in some cases using repetition of pattern, form, shape, color and comparative imagery. Show dates: May 10 to June 24. Deadline: March 25. Details at studioplacearts. com. Studio Place Arts, Barre. $10; free for SPA members. Info, submissions.studioplacearts@ gmail.com.

PAINT-BY-NUMBER COW: Purchase a paint-bynumber cow kit and submit your version to the museum for an upcoming exhibition. Instructions at mainstreetmuseum.org. Deadline: April 15. Main Street Museum, White River Junction. Info, info@ mainstreetmuseum.org.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR WATERBURY MURAL: Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition is seeking submissions from experienced Vermont-based artists to design and work with the community on a mural to be installed at the back of Stowe Street Café. Designs should reflect the coalition’s mission: to create a community where every person can fully experience freedom, belonging and love on a daily basis. Details and application at waterburyantiracism.com. Deadline: April 16. Online. Info, waarcpublicartproject@gmail.com.

RFQ FOR STOWE STREET ALLEY: Revitalizing Waterbury and a host of volunteers have been working for more than a year to reclaim and transform an alley that is central to Waterbury’s historic downtown district. The committee is looking for artists to create a medallion and a gateway to the alley. Details at revitalizingwaterbury.org. Online. Free. Info, karen@revitalizingwaterbury.org.

SAPPY ART SHOW: An exhibition with the theme “Maple, the Heart of Vermont” is open to Vermont artists working in any 2D or 3D medium and will be displayed during the Vermont Maple Festival. More info and instructions for application at vtframeshop. com/sappy. Village Frame Shoppe & Gallery, St. Albans. Through April 15. Info, 524-3699.

SPONSOR APRIL ARTS FOR ASYLUM

SEEKERS: Would you like to receive a poem or visual art in your inbox every day in April? Local creatives are helping to support families going through the asylum-seeking process via the Chittenden Asylum Seekers Assistance Network. By sponsoring an artist’s participation in our fundraiser, your donation helps pay for asylum seekers’ rent, food, legal representation and other living expenses. See the list of participating creatives and sign up to sponsor at casanvermont. org. Deadline: April 5. Online.

SYLVIA BARRY ART CONTEST: The annual competition for students is designed to encourage the artistic endeavors of local youth. Open to permanent residents of Grand Isle County in grades K-8 attending GISU or home schools. Details at islandarts.org. Deadline: May 19. Online. Info, islandartscontest@gmail.com.

‘WHEELS!’: The Museum of Everyday Life invites wheel-related contributions to an upcoming exhibition: personal artifacts accompanied by a narrative, raw ideas for displays, fully realized art objects, theoretical writings and more. To contribute, or for more info, contact Clare Dolan via the “contact us” form at museumofeverydaylife. org. Online. Through May 12.

HARLAN MACK: “A Constellation of Friendships,” wall-hung artworks utilizing interconnecting pieces made from reclaimed boards to reference imagery and bonds of longtime friends. Through April 16. Info, 635-2727. Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson.

‘HOME AND HOW WE MAKE IT’: An exhibition of 30 miniature rooms, as well as woodworking, textiles and paintings that define visually and conceptually what home means. Through June 1. Info, 888-1261. River Arts in Morrisville.

KELLY HOLT: “Black / Blur,” new mixed-media photography by the Vermont artist. Reception: Wednesday, March 22, 3 p.m. Through April 14. Info, 634-1469. Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Northern Vermont University, in Johnson.

PATTY HUDAK: “Gyring, Spiring,” a solo exhibition of nature-inspired oil paintings by the Vermont artist. Reception: Sunday, March 26, 2-3 p.m. Through May 6. Info, 646-519-1781. Minema Gallery in Johnson.

SCOTT LENHARDT: An exhibition of graphic designs for Burton Snowboards created since 1994 by the Vermont native. Through October 31. Info, 253-9911. Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe.

mad river valley/waterbury

KIMBERLY HARGIS: “Close to Home: Photography From a 30-Mile Radius,” images from the natural world and human community around Thetford. Through March 31. Info, 244-7801. Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery in Waterbury.

MIREILLE CLAPP: A retrospective of artworks by the late artist and mechanical/industrial engineer, featuring mixed-media wall sculptures and freestanding abstract pieces of welded metals. Through March 25. Info, 496-6682. Mad River Valley Arts Gallery in Waitsfield.

middlebury area

HANNAH SESSIONS: “Collective Vision: Beauty in Transitions,” land- and farmscape paintings by the Vermont artist. Reception: Friday, March 24, 5-7 p.m., with an artist talk and live music by Lowell Thompson. Through April 30. Info, 877-2173. Northern Daughters in Vergennes.

KEILANI LIME: An exhibition of recent and new abstract paintings by the Vermont artist, who lives with Classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. One hundred percent of sales will go toward her medical debt incurred from multiple surgeries. Through March 31. Info, keilani.lime@gmail.com. Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury.

LYNN JOHNSON: “As I See It,” large-scale still life works on canvas and paper. Through March 22. Info, 989-7419. Edgewater Gallery on the Green in Middlebury.

MEL REA: “Just Minding My Business Picking Your Flowers,” paintings that feature deconstructed botanical forms. Through April 18. Info, 458-0098. Edgewater Gallery at the Falls in Middlebury.

‘PARENTHOOD’: A group exhibition of photographs that addresses the constantly changing state of mind in parent and child. Through March 24. Info, photos@photoplacegallery.com. PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury.

‘URBAN CADENCE’: Photographs of street scenes from Lagos and Johannesburg that represent the complex issues facing these cities. Through April 23. Info, 443-5007. Middlebury College Museum of Art.

rutland/killington

LARGE WORKS: A pop-up exhibition of members’ works in a variety of mediums that express magnified perspectives. Through April 30. Info, 247-4956. Brandon Artists Guild.

upper valley

ABRAHAM DUNNE: “Finds on a Hartland Farm,” relics compiled by the Sharon Academy first-year student. Through March 31. Info, info@mainstreetmuseum. org. Main Street Museum in White River Junction.

STEPH TARAO: Fantastical landscape paintings embedded with anxiety about climate change. Through April 1. Info, 347-264-4808. Kishka Gallery & Library in White River Junction.

northeast kingdom

CHUCK TROTSKY: “Vocabulary,” paintings by the Vermont artist. Through May 9. Info, 525-3366. Parker Pie in West Glover.

‘COMING CLEAN’: An exhibition that considers bathing practices throughout time and across cultures, including religious immersion and ritual purification, bathing as health cure, methods of washing in extreme environments, and much more. All kinds of bathing and scrubbing implements are on display. Through April 30. Info, 626-4409. The Museum of Everyday Life in Glover.

MARDI MCGREGOR: “Angel Dances: An Ancestry of Art,” paintings and collages inspired by the artist’s grandparents and travels around the world. Through April 29. Info, 748-0158. Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild Backroom Gallery in St. Johnsbury.

OPEN AIR GALLERY: Outdoor sculptures by 14 area artists line a 1.8-mile trail open to cross-country skiers and snowshoers. Through March 26. Free. Info, 533-2000. Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro.

‘STORY-BOARD’: Mixed-media works that address how narrative and memory alter over time; and sculptural assemblages made of found and repurposed objects, respectively. Through March 31. Info, 229-8317. The Satellite Gallery in Lyndonville.

brattleboro/okemo valley

APRIL M. FRAZIER: “Frame of Reference,” a pictorial representation of familial influences and experiences that shaped the photographer’s life and provide an alternate narrative of the African American experience in Texas and beyond. Through April 30. Info, 251-6051. Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro.

‘KEITH HARING: SUBWAY DRAWINGS’: Samples from the more than 5,000 chalk drawings the New York City artist made from 1980 to 1985 in subway stations. Through April 16. CATHY CONE: “Portals and Portraits,” modified tintypes and mixed media by the Vermont photographer that speak to the power and limitations of memory.

Through June 11. DANIEL CALLAHAN: “En-MassQ,” works from two series in which the Boston-based artist painted his own face and the faces of others and detailed the performances with photographs, writing, and audio and visual vignettes. Through June 11. JUAN HINOJOSA: “Paradise City,” collaged figures made from found objects that reflect on the challenges of immigrants creating a new home in a new place. Through June 11. MITSUKO BROOKS: “Letters Mingle Souls,” mail art that incorporates imaginary letters addressed by survivors to their deceased loved ones and explores the impacts of mental illness and suicide . Through June 11. OASA

DUVERNEY: “Black Power Wave,” a window installation of drawings by the Brooklyn artist, inspired by images of Chinese Fu dogs, the cross and the Yoruba deity Èsù. Through May 6. Info, 257-0124. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.

JOHN R. KILLACKY: “Flux,” an exhibition of objects from a wordless, process-based video inspired by scores, propositions and performative actions of Fluxus-era artists; cinematography by Justin Bunnell, editing by C. Alec Kozlowski and sound composition by Sean Clute. Through August 30. Info, 257-7898. CX Silver Gallery in Brattleboro.

SIMI BERMAN: “Other Worlds,” paintings in mixed media. Through May 14. Info, 387-0102. Next Stage Arts Project in Putney.

THE SPRING SALON: Artwork in a variety of mediums by 35 area artists. Through June 3. Info, 289-0104. Canal Street Art Gallery in Bellows Falls.

manchester/bennington

ART FROM THE SCHOOLS PRE-K-12: Hundreds of drawings, paintings and sculptures created by students from more than 20 area schools and homeschools. Through April 23. Info, 367-1311.

Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum, Southern Vermont Arts Center, in Manchester.

SPRING SOLO EXHIBITIONS: Artworks by Domenica Brockman, Janet Cathey, Priscilla Heine, Rose Klebes, Lorna Ritz, Elise Robinson, Angela Sillars, Courtney Stock, Gregg Wapner, Susan Wilson and Chloe Wilwerding. Through May 7. Info, 362-1405. Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester.

randolph/royalton

AMY SCHACHTER & THE RANDOLPH RUGGERS: Abstract paintings, tile work and sculpture; and hooked rugs, wall hangings and handbags, respectively. Through March 26. Info, artetcvt@ gmail.com. ART, etc. in Randolph.

JASON MILLS: “Digestive,” a retrospective of abstract paintings by the Vermont artist. Reception: Sunday, March 26, 1-3 p.m. Through May 19. Info, 889-9404. Tunbridge Public Library.

online

‘ACTION FIGURES: OBJECTS IN MOTION’: A virtual exhibition from the Shelburne Museum that explores the theme of movement and action in art. Through April 30. ‘RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE’: The Shelburne Museum presents children’s printed textiles from the collection of J.J. Murphy and Nancy Mladenoff, featuring 21 playful, colorful handkerchiefs with motifs including insects, alphabets, circus clowns, shadow puppets, the solar system and a lumberjack beaver. Through May 13. Info, 985-3346. Online.

outside vermont

‘CHIAROSCURO’: A group exhibition featuring artwork in a range of mediums depicting light and shadow, both formally and allegorically, by Janet Van Fleet, Leslie Fry, Henry Isaacs and other artists from New Hampshire and Vermont. Through April 1.

‘FROM THE HEART’: Artworks by Sachiko Akiyama, Chris Chou and Kayla Mohammadi, curated by John R. Stomberg, director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. Through March 31. LYNDA

BRYAN: “Deeper Than Blue,” photographs by the Vermont artist. Members Gallery. Through April 28.

TOM FELS: Cyanotypes, drawings and watercolors, curated by John R. Stomberg, director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. Through March 31. Info, 603-448-3117. AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H.

NELSON HENRICKS: Immersive video installations by the Montréal artist in which visual and sound editing create a musical dynamic, and which explore subjects from the history of art and culture. Through April 10. Info, 514-847-6226. Montréal Museum of Contemporary Art.

‘PARALL(ELLES): A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN DESIGN’: A major exhibition celebrating the instrumental role that women have played in the world of design, featuring artworks and objects dating from the mid-19th century onward. Through May 28. Info, 514-285-2000. ‘VIEWS OF WITHIN: PICTURING THE SPACES WE INHABIT’: More than 60 paintings, photographs, prints, installations and textile works from the museum’s collection that present one or more evocations of interior space. Through June 30. Info, 514-235-2044. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts.

‘¡PRINTING THE REVOLUTION! THE RISE AND IMPACT OF CHICANO GRAPHICS, 1965 TO NOW’: A Smithsonian American Art Museum traveling exhibition featuring 119 artworks by more than 74 artists of Mexican descent and allied artists active in Chicanx networks. Through June 11. Info, 603-646-2808. Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N.H. ➆

music+nightlife

Get Back

Despite all the years of music lessons I took and all the wonderful instruction I received from a host of school music teachers, it was DAVID BOWIE, the Thin White Duke himself, who gave me the best advice on making music. OK, he didn’t give it directly to me, per se, but in the excellent documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years, which chronicles the British singer’s final album before his death in 2016, Bowie o ered an essential tip for any artist.

“If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area,” Bowie said, referring to artists’ e orts to fulfill fans’ expectations. “Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

I’ve never had much patience for musicians who keep releasing the same record over and over, never changing their sound or challenging their fans. I’d much rather see an artist step outside their comfort zone, even if they fail. (Shout-out to T-PAIN, who released an Auto-Tune-free album of covers this week, including the rapper’s take on BLACK SABBATH’s “War Pigs.” Who saw that coming?)

That sort of risk-taking is one of the (many) reasons I love the new KING TUFF record so much. Brattleboro’s own indie rock royalty released his latest LP, Smalltown Stardust, earlier this year. The album is full of mentions and callbacks to the Green Mountains that King Tu (real name KYLE THOMAS) left years ago to reside in Los Angeles. As he dreamed of a return to more rural settings, his sound followed suit: The stoner metal and psych-rock tendencies of his earlier work shifted into harmony-rich, ’70s folk-rockinspired tones. The result is an album drenched in thick sunlight and the smell of pine needles, a get-back-to-nature catechism for post-COVID-19 nomads.

“I think I’ve been trying to get back to the woods ever since I left them 12 years ago,” Thomas told me from the road as he prepared for a homecoming show at the Stone Church in Brattleboro on Friday, March 25. “The woods seem to be calling louder than ever before, but it’s like I have some mission I need to accomplish before I can rightfully go back.”

The sense of wonder and peace in the

natural world that permeates Smalltown Stardust has been on Thomas’ mind for a while.

“I’ve wanted to make this record for a long time,” he revealed. “I wanted to make a real Sunday morning kinda record. Just something nice and warm and easy.”

Listening In

SUND

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene

Thomas received invaluable help on his mission to folk out from his LA housemate, singer-songwriter and producer SASAMI ASHWORTH, who performs as SASAMI. The two have been collaborating since they moved in during the pandemic, cowriting and coproducing each other’s albums.

“She really helped bring it to fruition with her sweet sense of melody and harmony,” Thomas said of Ashworth, also praising “her skills at arranging. It feels like the record 40-year-old King Tu needed to make.”

Even his longing for Vermont may have rubbed o on Ashworth. Thomas said the California native fell in love with heavier music after he took her to see some of his fellow Brattleboro musicians, the metal outfit BARISHI

“She wasn’t in the mood to go to a show, but I dragged her to it anyway,” he recounted. “The minute [Barishi] started playing, I turned around, and she was just losing her mind.”

Ashworth channeled her newfound love of metal into her highly regarded 2022 album, Squeeze. She also took Barishi out on the road as her backing band. Thomas described seeing a band he’d known since its members were kids playing stadiums with Sasami as a “joy” — and another distinction for a small Vermont town whose music scene

continues to punch above its weight.

“I honestly don’t know what it is about Brattleboro,” Thomas said. He described the town of just over 12,000 people as feeling like both the “center of the universe, somehow” and “nowhere, but in a good way.”

Playing a show at the Stone Church, a venue Thomas considers one of his favorites in the country, should bring an extra layer of feel-good vibes to his upcoming visit. While he has no immediate plans to return home for good, he envisions himself in a less urban setting than LA.

“My ultimate dream is to buy a small wooden hut in the forest with a painting studio and many plants and books,” he said. “I’d paint by day and write weird little tunes all night. Then the gnome will truly be home.”

On the Beat

PUTUMAYO is preparing to celebrate its 30th year. The New York City-based record label, which now partially operates out of Charlotte, took its name from a Latin American handicraft shop that DAN STORPER opened in 1975, after the then-23-year-old returned from a trip to Colombia’s Putumayo River valley. Seeing Afrobeat outfit KOTOJA at a 1991 performance in San Francisco’s

1. “Big Fight (Bejenec Remix Remix)” by Roost.World, Bejenec

2. “Last Fall” by Tyler Mast

3. “Cookie” by Matthew Mercury

4. “Muzzle” by Father Figuer

5. “Like is Like at” by Jon Dix, ierry Kronental, Boxguts

6. “ under” by Honey & Soul

7. “Mama Song” by Myra Flynn

com/playlist

King Tuff

Golden Gate Park inspired Storper to turn Putumayo into a world music label, which he and cofounder MICHAEL KRAUS launched in 1993.

As well as releasing records from around the globe, Putumayo has contributed more than $500,000 to nonprofits where its releases originate.

FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL acknowledged those efforts in 2021 with the Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Award.

To kick off the anniversary celebration, Putumayo will release the new collection African Yoga on April 28. Cocurated by Storper and New Orleans musician and yoga instructor SEÁN JOHNSON, the album offers soothing melodies to soundtrack a yoga session. The physical package also includes a 16-page booklet of information about the artists and the history of yoga and music.

Happy (almost) birthday to Putumayo!

When musician PETE SUTHERLAND died in November, the fixture of Vermont’s folk music scene left behind a legacy of teaching and supporting young musicians. As artistic director of the touring group of YOUNG TRADITION VERMONT, a program dedicated to teaching folk music to young people, Sutherland touched the lives of

generations of Vermont musicians.

To honor that legacy, the SUMMIT SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND CULTURE will hold Mud Season Spectacular, a showcase of young traditional musicians on Friday, March 31, at the Capital City Grange in Berlin. The group will play

Eye on the Scene

Last week’s live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE IRISH DRINKING SONGS BAND AT RED SQUARE, BURLINGTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 17: It’s 3:30 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day. I step into Red Square and immediately am alerted that the band is throwing things. Something shiny flies overhead, followed by something else. I can’t tell what the objects are, but I want one. I make it to the front, where Sully — Seven Days art director the Rev. Diane Sullivan — smiles at me. I get a few shots off before being struck in the chest by one of the projectiles, which is denser than I expected. It’s warm, and it smells good. I’ve been pelted with a baked potato! When the band calls me out and breaks into AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” I turn bright red, but in that lighting, no one can tell. The band only exists for one day a year, so … see you next year, Everybody’s Favorite Irish Drinking Songs Band. And thanks for the potato.

a set before holding a Balfolk dance, a European-style folk dance that will be played by multi-instrumentalist

NICHOLAS WILLIAMS and a group of visiting Québécois youth musicians. For tickets, visit summitschool. wixsite.com/summitschool. ➆

On the Air

Where to tune in to Vermont music this week:

“WAVE CAVE RADIO SHOW,” Wednesday, March 22, 2 p.m., on 105.9 the Radiator: DJs Flywlkr and Gingervitus spin the best of local (and nonlocal) hip-hop.

“EXPOSURE,” Wednesday, March 22, 6 p.m., on 90.1 WRUV: Indie rockers H3adgear play live in studio.

“ROCKET SHOP RADIO HOUR,”

Wednesday, March 22, 8 p.m., on 105.9 the Radiator: Host Tom Proctor plays the best of local music.

“THE SOUNDS OF BURLINGTON,”

Thursday, March 23, 9 p.m., at wbkm.org: Host Tim Lewis hosts singer-songwriter AliT.

“CULTURAL BUNKER,” Friday, March 24, 6 p.m., on 90.1 WRUV: Host Melo Grant plays local and nonlocal hip-hop selections.

“ALL THE TRADITIONS,” Sunday, March 26, 7 p.m., on Vermont Public: Host Robert Resnik plays an assortment of folk music with a focus on Vermont artists.

Pete Sutherland and Emmett Stowell

CLUB DATES music+nightlife

live music

WED.22

Bluegrass & BBQ (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Double You (rock) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Elderbrook with ford., EREZ (electronic) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $20/$25.

Jazz Jam Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Les Dead Ringers (bluegrass) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Troy Millette Presents: Sample Sets (singer-songwriter) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead covers) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $5.

THU.23

Alex Stewart & Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Burlington Electronic Department with Dari Bay (DJ set), Debby Nights, Guthrie Galileo, HISSSS, Luisa Mel, Telly, Vanish Works (electronic) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $5/$10.

Goldman & Hammack (folk) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Good Gravy (bluegrass) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Grace Palmer and Socializing for Introverts (rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Hilltop, the Apollos (rock) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

Ira Friedman & Friends (jazz) at Hugo’s Bar and Grill, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Lincoln Sprague (jazz) at the Venetian Soda Lounge, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free.

Mitch Terricciano (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Point of Order (rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Ryan Montebleau Band (singersongwriter) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. $20/$25.

Ryan Osswald (jazz) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Ryan Sweezey (singer-songwriter) at Filling Station, Middlesex, 6 p.m. Free.

Evil Eye

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

The Conniption Fits (covers) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

The Duo (jazz) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Ethan Setiawan with Darol Anger (roots) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $15/$20.

Eugene Tyler Band, Dirty Bird (bluegrass) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

G-Family Band (rock) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 6 p.m. Free.

George Nostrand (folk) at Babes Bar, Bethel, 8 p.m. Free.

Hill Top Band (rock) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Honey & Soul, All Night Boogie Band (folk, blues) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Jordan Sedwin (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Les Dead Ringers (bluegrass) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

A band shrouded in mystery, San Francisco’s the RESIDENTS have been the lords of all things strange since forming in 1971. Existing somewhere near the intersection of rock and roll, performance art, and underground film scores, the band has continued evolving over the decades. On its current tour, the group is screening its film Triple Trouble, which tells the story of a priest-turned-plumber investigating fungus with an AI-enhanced drone. The Residents present the flick before their live set on Monday, March 27, at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington.

Singer-Songwriter Series: Josh Glass (singer-songwriter) at the Skinny Pancake, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

WD-40’s (acoustic) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.24

Carol Hausner & Jonathan “Doc” Kaplan (singer-songwriter) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Chris Lyon Band (rock) at Moogs Joint, Johnson, 11 p.m. Free.

Dan Ryan Express (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Dave Mitchell’s Blues Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Dead Flowers: Rolling Stones

Tribute (tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

Death Before Dishonor, Blood

Tithe, Voices In Vain, Old North End, Dead Solace (metal) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $15/$20.

Eugene Tyler Band (bluegrass) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

Genderdeath (electronic) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10/$15.

Grace Palmer (singer-songwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free.

High Summer (groove) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Incahoots (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Jaded Ravins, Bow Thayer Band (Americana, folk) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $10/$12. King Me (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free. Kyle Stevens (singer-songwriter) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free. Lush Honey (rock) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Mark Legrand & Sarah Munro (singer-songwriter) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Mike Bjella Trio (jazz) at Hugo’s Bar and Grill, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Peter Wayne Burton (singersongwriter) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

RVR, Aida O’Brien, Green Mountain Cabaret, the New Erotics, H3adgear, tip/toe, Beneath Black Waves (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10/$15.

Shane Murley Band (covers) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Shanty Rats (sea shanties) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free. Soulo, Davis & Goldman (jazz) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Tiffany Pfeiffer Carr (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Tinyus Smallus (rock) at CharlieO’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Wendigo (rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

White Wedding (covers) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 9 p.m. Free.

Zach Nugent’s Dead Set (Grateful Dead tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $17/$20.

SAT.25

Baked Shrimp with Squeaky Feat (jam) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

Brandsback (rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Christine Malcolm and the Kate Brook Romp (singer-songwriter) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

Cody Sargent (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

MON.27

The Residents (experimental) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $35/$38. Satsang (folk rock) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $25/$30.

TUE.28

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

The Dale and Darcy Band (folk) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

Grateful Tuesdays (tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $20.

Honky Tonk Tuesday with Pony Hustle (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

John Paul Arenas & Jeremy Harple (singer-songwriter) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Mamma’s Marmalade (bluegrass) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Mullets of Rock (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Philip Hyjek Trio (jazz) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Rick Carnell & Looper Guy (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free. The Romans with Girls On Grass (rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5/$10.

Ryan Sweezey (singer-songwriter) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Suburban Samurai, NRVS, What Makes Sense (pop punk) at the Underground, Randolph, 7:30 p.m. $12/$15.

Terry Youk & Nerbak Brothers (rock) at Hugo’s Bar and Grill, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

White Wedding (covers) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. Free.

SUN.26

Baked Shrimp (jam) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 7 p.m. $10/$15.

JJ Presents: Spring Fest 2023 (hip-hop, pop) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $10.

The Music of the Grateful Dead for Kids (tribute, children’s music) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 11 a.m. $15/$17.

Steve Hartmann (singersongwriter) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 1 p.m. Free.

Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

RambleTree (Celtic, folk) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Tournesol (funk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5.

WED.29

Austin Meade, Sarah King, Dillan Dostál (singer-songwriter) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $17/$20. Bluegrass & BBQ (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Double You (rock) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. GRRRLS to the Front with Jesse Taylor Band, Andriana & the Bananas, DJ Ivamae (rock, pop) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Les Dead Ringers (bluegrass) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free. Motherhood, Greaseface, Rockin’ Worms (rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $12/$15.

UVM Watertower Fundraiser with Brunch, Benway, Quiz Kid (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6 p.m. $5/$10.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead covers) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $5.

djs

WED.22

The Mid-Week Hump with DJ Fattie B and Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.23

DJ broosha (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

MON.27 // THE RESIDENTS [EXPERIMENTAL]

DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 11 p.m. Free.

Goth Night with Sage Guggenheim (DJ) at Paradiso Hi-Fi, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Mi Yard Reggae Night with DJ Big Dog (reggae and dancehall) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.24

DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Kata (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ LaFountaine (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

Queer Takeover (DJ) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

SAT.25

Crypt Goth Night (DJ) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

DJ A-Ra$ (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, midnight. Free.

DJ CRE8 (DJ) at Paradiso Hi-Fi, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

DJ Rice Pilaf (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, noon. Free.

DJ Rice Pilaf (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

K-Pop Night (DJ) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $15/$20.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Silent Storm Headphone Party (DJ) at Club Metronome, Burlington, 10 p.m. $10.

SUN.26

Ryan Forde and Scott Mou (DJ) at Paradiso Hi-Fi, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.27

Tad Cautious (DJ) at Paradiso Hi-Fi, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.28

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

WED.29

DJ Two Sev (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, midnight. Free.

Queer Bar Takeover (DJ) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

open mics & jams

WED.22

Irish Sessions (Celtic, open mic) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with JD Tolstoi (open mic) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.23

Open Mic (open mic) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

SUN.26

Open Mic Night with Justin at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m.

MON.27

Open Mic Night (open mic) at Despacito, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.29

Irish Sessions (Celtic, open mic) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with JD Tolstoi (open mic) at Taps Tavern, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy

WED.22

March Madness: Two-Prov (Quarterfinals) (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $5.

Standup Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

Whales Tales (comedy) at Club Metronome, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

FRI.24

Sam Tallent (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

SAT.25

Sam Tallent (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

Stealing from Work: Gaslight at the End of the Tunnel (comedy) at Vergennes Opera House, 7:30 p.m. $15.

SUN.26

Eleganza & Espresso: A Drag Brunch (drag) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 11 a.m. $20.

WED.29

Standup Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

WED.22

Barrel Room Trivia (trivia) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Nerd Nite Trivia (trivia) at Citizen Cider, Burlington, 6:30-9 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.23

4Qs Trivia Night (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewery, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at McGillicuddy’s Five Corners, Essex Junction, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Babes Bar, Bethel, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Thursday (trivia) at Spanked Puppy Pub, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free.

SUN.26

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at the Venetian Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.27

Trivia with Brain (trivia) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.28

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at the Depot, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at Nelly’s Pub & Grill, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

Tuesday Night Trivia (trivia) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.29

Nerd Nite Trivia (trivia) at Citizen Cider, Burlington, 6:30-9 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at the Venetian Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. ➆

REVIEW this music+nightlife

Caroline Rose, The Art of Forgetting

(NEW WEST, CD, DIGITAL, VINYL)

There’s nothing so disquieting as the doom of an impending breakup. You feel it coming like a thunderstorm and brace for the new reality: They don’t want me anymore. When will they tell me? Please direct me to the nearest cli .

Defeatism and depression are unavoidable pit stops on Highway Heartbreak. But beyond them can be an opportunity to experience or create something beautiful, like Caroline Rose did with their fifth LP, The Art of Forgetting. Reeling from a relationship’s end and, according to press materials, other di cult events, the Austin, Texas-based former Burlingtonian gets more confessional than they’ve ever been. The record is also their most inventive and boundary-pushing — and by far their longest, at just over 50 minutes.

Rose has become something of a queer icon in recent years, amassing a loyal fan base of fringy LGBTQ listeners. The music video trilogy that accompanies the album is as gay as it gets. Rose and a lover, played by model-actress Massima Bell, have a whirlwind (and toxic?) romance in Part 1, “Miami.” Su ce it to say, things do not go well. Spoiler alert: Rose ends up sad-masturbating on a dingy motel bed. It’s tragic and oh-so-relatable for anyone who’s ever been abandoned mid-fling.

The Art of Forgetting is an enriching and satisfying listen, and it continues the artist’s push into the experimental rock and pop seen on 2020’s Superstar The new album’s production and subject matter are full of exploration. Rose searches for answers, mostly inside themself. For instance, the baroque-pop tune “Jill Says” analyzes bits and pieces seemingly pulled from therapy sessions. (Fun fact: Rose’s therapist is actually named Jill.)

As producer and primary instrumentalist on the new LP, Rose employs as much studio magic as they do good ol’ fashioned musicianship. They play guitar, ukulele, tiple, all manner of keys, percussion and some bass. Pretty much the only building block they don’t seem to do themself is drumming, leaving that to collaborators Riley Geare, James McAlister and Mike Dondero.

2018’s Loner and 2020’s Superstar were a narrative diptych. As Rose told Seven Days in a 2020 interview published mere days before the pandemic’s onset, “I wanted [ Superstar ] to feel kind of like a sequel [to Loner ], where you had this loner or loser character who decides that they’re destined to become a big star.”

Both records circled serious themes of anxiety, sexual harassment, social pressure, self-destructive behavior and depression. But Loner was full of musical whimsy (see the curlicue ri s on “Money”), and Superstar kept its head above water with spry production techniques (see the wonky electro warble of “Command Z”). And the themes seemed universal,

written for the listener to ascribe them to their own experiences as much as the artist’s.

In contrast, the lyrics on The Art of Forgetting are deeply personal to Rose and jibe more with the album’s musical architecture — though not always. Sometimes Rose opts for contrast between dark themes and bright composition.

And they’re still the queen of “wrhymes,” a portmanteau of “wry” and “rhymes” I just invented. A perfect example: “Shu e the cards / But it’s all the same / Cuz only the jokers get to play this game,” they sing on climactic closer “Where Do I Go From Here?”

One of the album’s biggest changes, or perhaps advances, is the way Rose sings. Frequently hushed and meek, it’s a big change from their usual spiky blare. Odyssean ballads and an emphasis on misty, synthforward atmospherics are new developments in the Rose canon, too.

Mostly, we hear confessions that might be hard to stomach if Rose were your child or friend. The elegiac opener “Love / Lover / Friend” sets up the album’s placid register. Rose’s words are vapors that float over a rippling ether.

The tone brightens somewhat on subsequent cut “Rebirth.” Its clattering, syncopated beats convey turmoil and percolation as we hear defeat become renewal: “I crawl into a black hole / Curl up like a baby and lay down to rest / I wake, I wake with a bang.”

The album touches on some of the classic stages of grief. “I just wanna lay here / In this bed forever / Just me and my dreams / Alone in my head together / Where everything is comfort / And everything is warm,” they sing on the contrastingly peppy “Everywhere I Go I Bring the Rain.” A sonic remedy for the depression heard in the lyrics, the song’s brightly strummed guitars shimmer under Rose’s fingers as a whoosh of spring-rain synths glisten around them.

And “Stockholm Syndrome” is a lo-fi, bedroom-pop bargaining song. “I just wanna write a song / That keeps you in my arms forever,” Rose sings on a track that’s as soft and loving as it is slightly threatening.

The Art of Forgetting is a reaction and remedy to a specific time in the artist’s life. But it feels decidedly incomplete. When the final moments of closer “Where Do I Go From Here?” evaporate in a soft hum, Rose all but admits they have no idea what will come next.

And that seems like a great place to be. Much better than a black hole.

The Art of Forgetting will be available on Friday, March 24, at carolinerosemusic.bandcamp.com and all major streaming platforms. Rose performs on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 4 and 5, at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington, with support from frequent collaborator and local artist Hammydown.

JORDAN ADAMS

Caroline Rose

COURTESY OF CHRISTINA FISHER

on screen

“Swarm” ★★★★

What if you told a story about American culture as seen through the lens of a seriously unwell person, like Joker or Taxi Driver, only you made your protagonist a young Black woman who is very, very committed to her favorite musical artist? That’s what cocreators Donald Glover (“Atlanta”) and playwright Janine Nabers have done in their new limited series, “Swarm,” which takes a darkly comic look at the unhinged extremes of fan culture. All seven episodes are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The deal

Dre (Dominique Fishback) and Marissa (Grammy nominee Chloe Bailey) make an odd roommate duo. While Marissa has a boyfriend, an active social life and career plans, Dre is awkward and reclusive. All her hopes and dreams are wrapped up in her adoration of R&B star Ni’Jah (Nirine S. Brown), whom she and Marissa have idolized since their teens.

REVIEW

On the night that Ni’Jah releases a new album, the roommates have a fight that ends in tragedy. Driven to despair by doubts about her boyfriend’s fidelity, Marissa dies by suicide. Dre channels her grief and guilt into a new mission: punish the enemies of Ni’Jah.

Dre cuts a bloody swath from Houston to LA to Atlanta, stalking and bludgeoning anyone with a history of trashing the “Queen Bee” on social media. Her calling cards as a serial killer are a fondness for junk food and an innocuous question: “Who’s your favorite artist?”

Will you like it?

“Swarm” is hyperreal and hyperbolic in every way, from its colorful neo-grindhouse aesthetic to its absurd plot twists. For some viewers, the quotient of violence and outréness will be too much. Others will be exhilarated by the show’s combination of technical polish, strong acting and unpredictable plotting — a refreshing find in the streaming landscape. Every episode opens with a title card that announces, “This is not a work of fiction,” seemingly daring the viewer to disagree. In interviews, Nabers has explained that the show’s various subplots

grew from internet rumors and lore surrounding Beyoncé’s fandom, which is legendary for its fierce protectiveness of “Queen Bey.” Marissa’s death, for instance, is based on a persistent (but not substantiated) rumor about one fan’s reaction to Lemonade

Each episode of “Swarm” finds Dre in a di erent milieu — a suburban mall, a strip club, Hollywood — except for one, which breaks the format to introduce the detective tracking our protagonist (Heather Simms) in a spot-on parody of true-crime documentaries.

In another episode, while trying to see Ni’Jah at Bonnaroo, Dre crashes with a suspiciously friendly group of women led by a creepy, dulcet-voiced Billie Eilish. For all their talk of self-actualization, they soon reveal themselves to be a cult, clearly based on the real-life NXIVM. But they’ve picked the worst possible recruit, because Dre has already sworn allegiance to a cult of her own.

The series is half character study and half picaresque, as Dre’s travels and transformations give Glover and Nabers the opportunity to satirize a range of aspects of American life. The central conceit is that Dre gets away with murder — repeatedly and sloppily — because Black women who aren’t megastars like Ni’Jah are still overlooked in America, a dark joke that

recalls Ralph Ellison’s classic Invisible Man.

Even when we’re frustrated by our protagonist’s refusal to face reality, Fishback’s chameleonic performance keeps us riveted. In the first episode, Dre seems to be sleepwalking through life — until her love for Marissa and Ni’Jah turns her into an avenging angel. After that, she shows many faces, switching in an instant from wide-eyed innocence to sullen apathy to a full-on homicidal glare that all her victims notice too late.

Fishback plays these transitions with skill, giving us an intimate understanding of the simple and brutal logic that drives Dre to slay her idol’s social media enemies. She lives in a cyber dreamworld in which harsh words have become acts, punishable by real-world violence. If you think people like her don’t exist, you haven’t spent much time online.

“Swarm” doesn’t o er a definitive statement on toxic fandom, let alone a solution. Being both wildly ambitious and fairly brief, it spins out a host of promising story strands that don’t all come to fruition. Dre’s character arc has gaps, only some of which feel deliberate. (At one point, a character practically breaks the fourth wall to inform us that we will not learn her sordid childhood backstory.)

But “Swarm” is still a trip to watch. Like

Get Out, it puts its B-movie thrills in quotation marks, using shock value to make its points. One thing is clear: Angry young white guys may inspire a million think pieces, but they aren’t the only Americans who live in an unsettling state of alienation from anything real.

MARGOT HARRISON margot@sevendaysvt.com

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY...

“ATLANTA” (2016-22, 41 episodes; Hulu, rentable): Glover and Nabers first collaborated on this Emmy-winning comedy series that he created and stars in, set in the Atlanta hip-hop scene. Like “Swarm,” it sometimes takes a surreal bent.

ZOLA (2020; fubu, Kanopy, rentable): Internet rumors and tall tales fuel the narrative of “Swarm” — and of this absurdist comedy based on a viral Twitter thread and set in the seedy milieu of southern strip clubs.

INGRID GOES WEST (2017; HBO Max, Kanopy, rentable): While stories about disturbed, obsessive people are nothing new, social media has given them new life. In this indie, Aubrey Plaza plays a loner who stalks her Instagram idol.

Fishback plays a fan devoted enough to kill for her idol in Glover and Nabers’ wonderfully wild limited series.

NEW IN THEATERS

THE BLUE CAFTAN: In this Moroccan nominee for the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, the arrival of a new apprentice alters the relationship between a shopkeeping couple. Maryam Touzani directed. (122 min, NR. Savoy)

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4: Keanu Reeves once again plays a hit man battling a global organization with Byzantine rules in Chad Stahelski’s stylized action flick. With Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård and Laurence Fishburne. (169 min, R. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Star, Welden)

RETURN TO SEOUL: A French woman (Park Ji-min) travels to her native South Korea hoping to find her biological parents in this award-winning drama from Davy Chou. (115 min, R. Savoy)

CURRENTLY PLAYING

65HH An astronaut (Adam Driver) crash lands on a strangely familiar planet full of prehistoric monsters in this action adventure directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. (93 min, PG-13. Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy)

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIAHH1/2

The titular Marvel superheroes (Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly) get tangled up in the Quantum Realm. (125 min, PG-13. Essex, Majestic, Palace)

CHAMPIONSHH1/2 Woody Harrelson plays a washed-up basketball coach who is court ordered to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities in this comedy from Bobby Farrelly, featuring Vermonter Casey Metcalfe. (123 min, PG-13. Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Star, Welden)

COCAINE BEARHH1/2 Elizabeth Banks directed this comedy-thriller about a bear that terrorizes the countryside after going on a coke binge. (95 min, R. Big Picture, Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Stowe; reviewed 3/8)

CREED IIIHHH1/2 In this sequel directed by star Michael B. Jordan, the boxing champion faces a new rival. Tessa Thompson and Jonathan Majors also star. (116 min, PG-13. Big Picture, Essex, Majestic, Palace)

INSIDEHH1/2 Willem Dafoe plays a thief who finds himself trapped in a penthouse with priceless artworks after his heist goes awry in this thriller from Vasilis Katsoupis. (105 min, R. Roxy)

JESUS REVOLUTIONHH1/2 Hippies in the 1970s spread the gospel in this inspirational period piece from the team behind I Can Only Imagine. (120 min, PG-13. Capitol)

MOVING ONHHH Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin play estranged friends who team up to get revenge on the man who wronged them (Malcolm McDowell) in this comedy. (85 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Palace, Savoy)

ONE FINE MORNINGHHHH1/2 A single mom (Léa Seydoux) juggles an aging dad and a new affair in the latest award-winning drama from Mia HansenLøve. (112 min, R. Catamount)

THE QUIET GIRLHHHH1/2 A shy 9-year-old (Catherine Clinch) blossoms when she’s sent to spend the summer with relatives in Colm Bairéad’s Oscar-nominated drama. (95 min, PG-13. Roxy, Savoy; reviewed 2/15)

SCREAM VIHHH Can a move to New York save the survivors of the Ghostface killings in this horror sequel? Melissa Barrera, Courteney Cox and Jenna Ortega star. (123 min, R. Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Paramount, Roxy, Star, Stowe, Welden)

SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODSHH1/2 Foster kid Billy Batson must assume his superhero alter-ego (Zachary Levi) to foil a trio of rogue gods as the DC Comics saga continues. (130 min, PG-13. Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Palace, Paramount, Roxy, Star, Stowe, Welden)

OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS

THE AUTOMAT (Catamount, Sun only; Playhouse, Sat only)

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (Majestic)

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCEHHHHH (Majestic, Roxy, Savoy)

GKIDS PRESENTS STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2023: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO 35TH ANNIVERSARY (Essex, Sat through Wed 29 only)

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH (Capitol, Majestic, Palace)

RUTH STONE’S VAST LIBRARY OF THE FEMALE MIND (Catamount, Playhouse, Sat only)

TEA WITH THE DAMES (Catamount, Wed 22 only)

OPEN THEATERS

(* = upcoming schedule for theater was not available at press time)

*BIG PICTURE THEATER: 48 Carroll Rd., Waitsfield, 496-8994, bigpicturetheater.info

*BIJOU CINEPLEX 4: 107 Portland St., Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com

CAPITOL SHOWPLACE: 93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com

CATAMOUNT ARTS: 115 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-2600, catamountarts.org

ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

*MAJESTIC 10: 190 Boxwood St., Williston, 878-2010, majestic10.com

MARQUIS THEATER: 65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com

*MERRILL’S ROXY CINEMAS: 222 College St., Burlington, 864-3456, merrilltheatres.net

*PALACE 9 CINEMAS: 10 Fayette Dr., South Burlington, 864-5610, palace9.com

PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA: 241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

*PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE: 11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com

SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com

STAR THEATRE: 17 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-9511, stjaytheatre.com

*STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

WELDEN THEATRE: 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

Note: These capsule descriptions are not intended as reviews. Star ratings come from Metacritic unless we reviewed the film (noted at the end of the description). Find reviews written by Seven Days critic Margot Harrison at sevendaysvt.com/onscreen-reviews.

Michael B. Jordan in Creed III

MARCH 22-29, 2023

WED.22 business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS

NETWORKING

INTERNATIONAL GROUP: Local professionals make crucial contacts at a weekly chapter meeting. Burlington City Arts, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 829-5066.

community

CURRENT EVENTS: Neighbors have an informal discussion about what’s in the news. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 878-4918.

SPRING MENTOR TRAINING:

Community members prepare to be matched with incarcerated and court-involved women in order to coach them in transitioning to life in northwest Vermont and Chittenden County. Mercy Connections, Burlington, 5:307:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 846-7164. etc.

LIFE STORIES WE LOVE

TO TELL: Prompts from group leader Maryellen Crangle inspire true tales, told either off the cuff or read from prewritten scripts. Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 2-3:30 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 878-4918.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

BOOK FLICKS: Bibliophiles enjoy the beloved 1990s film Clueless alongside its inspiration, Jane Austen’s Emma Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

COLOR CORRECTION WITH DAVINCI RESOLVE: Aspiring editors learn how to use lighting and color adjustments to make their footage pop.

RETN & VCAM Media Factory, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 651-9692.

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: National Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s drama about the Salem witch trials streams live from the London stage. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 11 a.m. $15. Info, 382-9222.

‘EATING UP EASTER’: Sustainable Woodstock virtually screens this documentary on the impact of tourism on Easter Island’s Indigenous culture and environment. Free. Info, 457-2911.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: An adventurous dolichorhynchops travels through the most dangerous oceans in history, encountering plesiosaurs, giant turtles and the deadly mosasaur along the way. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘TEA WITH THE DAMES’: A 2018 documentary invites viewers to join acting legends Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright on their weekend in the country. Catamount Arts Center, St. Johnsbury, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 748-2600.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: Viewers are plunged into the magical vistas of the continent’s deserts, jungles and savannahs. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience,

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE!

All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper. Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent

Listings and spotlights are written by Emily Hamilton Seven Days edits for space and style. Depending on cost and other factors, classes and workshops may be listed in either the calendar or the classes section. Class organizers may be asked to purchase a class listing.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: Sandhill cranes, yellow warblers and mallard ducks make their lives along rivers, lakes and wetlands. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $14.50-18; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

food & drink

FRENCH WINE PAIRING

DINNER: A five-course seasonal menu pairs perfectly with libations sure to satisfy any Francophile foodie. Edson Hill, Stowe, 6 p.m. $195; preregister. Info, 253-7371.

GREEK PASTRY SALE: The Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of the Dormition of the Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church sells pastries, cookies and Easter bread to benefit local and international charities. Preorder through March 30; pickup April 8. Prices vary. Info, 552-0107.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

language

ELL CLASSES:

ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE

FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE:

art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

= ONLINE EVENT

Lights, Camera, Action

Cinephiles, don’t decompress from Oscars season just yet. White River Indie Film Festival 2023 offers movie lovers four days of fun, screening 10 feature films, shorts from locales both nearby and far-flung, brunches, panels, and parties. Attendees can catch offerings as varied as The Butterfly Queen, an indie fairy tale filmed entirely in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom; The Quiet Girl (pictured), an Irish language comingof-age drama that was nominated for best international film at this year’s Academy Awards; Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, which blends fiction and documentary; and Racist Trees, a documentary that tackles a Palm Springs Black community’s fight against segregation with honesty and humor.

WHITE RIVER INDIE FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday, March 23, 5:30-9:30 p.m.; Friday, March 24, 5 p.m.-midnight; Saturday, March 25, 10 a.m.-midnight; and Sunday, March 26, 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m., at Briggs Opera House in White River Junction. $15; $100 for festival pass. Info, 295-6688, uvjam.org.

STUDENTS: Learners of all abilities practice written and spoken English with trained instructors. Presented by Fletcher Free Library. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@ burlingtonvt.gov.

IRISH LANGUAGE CLASS: Celticcurious students learn to speak an Ghaeilge in a supportive group. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

lgbtq

TIMOTHY LAHEY: A UVM Medical Center doctor answers questions about HIV medication PREP. Presented by Pride Center of Vermont. 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 860-7812.

montréal

‘ENGLISH’: For four Iranian students, an English class devolves into a quagmire of questions about language, identity and assimilation in this coproduction with Soulpepper Theatre. Sylvan Adams Theatre, Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montréal, 1 & 8 p.m. $25-67. Info, 514-739-7944.

music

FARMERS NIGHT: BRYAN BLANCHETTE AND THE BLACK BEARS: The Abenaki

singer-songwriter and his band offer up traditional and contemporary music and dance. House Chamber, Vermont Statehouse, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 828-2228.

MUSIC OF ANOTHER WORLD:

MUSIC IN TEREZIN: This third in a series of presentations on the music made under the constraints of the Third Reich focuses on pieces composed by the Austrian inmates at the Terezin concentration camp. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1:15-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

outdoors

AMPHIBIAN ROAD CROSSING PROGRAM:

North Branch Nature Center specialists teach concerned citizens how they can help Vermont’s frogs and salamanders cross roads safely during their annual spring migrations. 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 229-6206.

SMUGGS 55+ SKI CLUB: Seniors who love to ski, snowboard and snowshoe hit the slopes after coffee and pastries. Smugglers’ Notch Resort, Jeffersonville, 9 a.m.-noon. $30 for annual membership. Info, president@ smuggs55plus.com.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: Every day in March, locals take free outdoor and online classes on everything from thermodynamics to glassblowing to ice skating. See betheluniversityvt. org for full schedule. Various Bethel locations. Free; preregister. Info, betheluniversityvt@gmail.com.

PURCHASING YOUR FIRST ELECTRIC VEHICLE: New England Federal Credit Union financial experts teach drivers about the costs and benefits of going gas-free. Noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 764-6940.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE

TENNIS CLUB: Ping-Pong players swing their paddles in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership. Info, 247-5913.

talks

ALL HAIL THE DRIVERLESS CAR: Local Toastmasters International chapters host a virtual Oxfordstyle debate on the merits and downfalls of self-driving vehicles. 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 518-256-0889.

COURTESY OF BREAK OUT PICTURES

theater

‘SWEAT’: A decline in the manufacturing industry unravels decades-old ties in a Pennsylvania factory town in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play presented by Northern Stage. Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 11 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. $5-69. Info, 296-7000.

‘AIRNESS’: A 1980s-inspired feel-good comedy, presented by Vermont Stage, follows a woman who finds community in the air-guitar competition circuit. Black Box Theater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $31.0538.50. Info, 862-1497.

words

CHRISTINE KENNEALLY: The journalist behind a viral 2018 BuzzFeed article on St. Joseph’s Orphanage launches her book, Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence and a Search for Justice. Phoenix Books, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 448-3350.

MATTHEW OLZMANN: The acclaimed author of Constellation Route reads from his poems. Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 635-2727.

SHANTA LEE: In conjunction with her exhibits “Dark Goddess” and

“Object-Defied,” the poet, artist and curator reads from her latest collection, Black Metamorphoses. Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 656-0750.

THU.23 community

OPEN HOUSE — THETFORD

USER’S MANUAL: Townsfolk stop by to discuss what a comprehensive guide to their community might look like. Latham Library, Thetford, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

crafts

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS: Yarnsmiths create hats and scarves to be donated to the South Burlington Food Shelf. All supplies provided. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of all experience levels get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

environment

ALYSSA BENNETT: The state wildlife biologist updates locals

FAMI LY FU N

Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages.

Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun

• Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

WED.22

burlington

BABYTIME: Librarians bring out books, rhymes and songs specially selected for young ones. Pre-walkers and younger. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

CRAFTERNOON: Crafts take over the Teen Space, from origami to stickers to fireworks in a jar. Ages 11 through 18. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 540-2546.

STEAM SPACE: Kids explore science, technology, engineering, art and math activities. Ages 5 through 11. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

BABYTIME: Teeny-tiny library patrons enjoy a gentle, slow story time featuring songs, rhymes and lap play. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

GET YOUR GAME ON: Countless board games are on the menu at this drop-in meetup for players in grades 6 through 12. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 2:30-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

on Vermont’s nine bat species and how we can help them.

Ferrisburgh Town Office & Community Center, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 434-7245.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘EATING UP EASTER’: See WED.22.

‘MARIUPOL: THE PEOPLE’S

STORY’: This new BBC documentary tells the stories of the residents of a once-thriving Ukrainian city that has become a war zone. Reception, 6-6:30 p.m. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 7 p.m. $14-16. Info, 382-9222.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR: ‘PASANG:

IN THE SHADOW OF EVEREST’: Pasang Lhamu Sherpa becomes the first known Nepali woman to summit the world’s highest mountain in this 2022 documentary. Q&A with producer Christy McGill follows. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7 p.m. $12-15. Info, 775-0903.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22. WHITE RIVER INDIE FILM FESTIVAL: Films from Iran, Ireland, Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and beyond make for an overflowing buffet of viewing experiences. See uvjam.org for full schedule. See calendar spotlight. Briggs Opera House, White

LEGO BUILDERS: Elementary-age imagineers explore, create and participate in challenges. Ages 8 and up, or ages 6 and up with an adult helper. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

PLAY TIME: Little ones build with blocks and read together. Ages 1 through 4. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 1010:45 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

CHESS CLUB: Kids of all skill levels get one-on-one lessons and play each other in between. Ages 6 and up. KelloggHubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

mad river valley/ waterbury

LEGO CHALLENGE CLUB: Kids engage in a fun-filled hour of building, then leave their creations on display in the library all month long. Ages 9 through 11. Waterbury Public Library, 3-4 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

upper valley

PEABODY AFTERSCHOOL FUN FOR

GRADES 1-4: Students make friends over crafts and story time. George Peabody Library, Post Mills, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 333-9724.

THU.23 burlington

PRESCHOOL YOGA: Colleen from Grow Prenatal and Family Yoga leads little ones in songs, movement and other fun activities. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

River Junction, 5:30-9:30 p.m. $15; $100 for festival pass. Info, 295-6688.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22. ‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

food & drink

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

games

UNPLUGGED GAME NIGHT: Players nosh on pizza and play one of the library’s many board games (or one of their own). Latham Library, Thetford, 5-7 p.m. Free; preregister for pizza. Info, librarian@thetfordlibrary.org.

health & fitness

ONION CITY (SLOW) RUNNING CLUB: All experience levels are welcome at the inaugural run of this new community group. Wishbone Collective, Winooski, 5:30-6:15 p.m. Free. Info, hello@ wishbonecollectivevt.com.

music

ARTS & CULTURE SERIES: DAVID CHILDS: The jazz pianist plays a program of standards. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 745-1393.

chittenden county

LEGO TIME: Builders in kindergarten through fourth grade enjoy an afternoon of imagination and play. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA

BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire leads little ones in indoor music and movement. Birth through age 5. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

PRESCHOOL PLAYTIME: Pre-K patrons play and socialize after music time. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Books, songs, rhymes, sign language lessons and math activities make for well-educated youngsters. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

TEEN NIGHT: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The Teen Advisory Board meets over pizza to brainstorm ideas for library programming. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-4918.

barre/montpelier

FUSE BEAD CRAFTERNOONS: Youngsters make pictures out of colorful, meltable doodads. Ages 8 and up. KelloggHubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Energetic youngsters join Miss Meliss for stories, songs and lots of silliness. KelloggHubbard Library, Montpelier, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: Caregivers bring kiddos 3 and younger to a new

outdoors

DREW CLYMER: The Green Mountain Club Bread Loaf Section hosts a talk by a state coordinator on Vermont’s search and rescue system. Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, Middlebury, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, gmcbreadloaf@ greenmountainclub.org.

politics

THOUGHT CLUB: Artists and activists convene to engage with Burlington‘s rich tradition of radical thought and envision its future. Democracy Creative, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, tevan@democracycreative.com.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

NAVIGATING HOME MAINTENANCE:

Homeowners learn from a local home inspector how seasonal walkthroughs and checklists can help nip any issues in the bud. Presented by New England Federal Credit Union. Noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 764-6940.

VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE:

COMMUNITY

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Museum workers discuss how to connect with locals. Presented by the Vermont Historical Society

sensory learning experience each week. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853. mad

river valley/ waterbury

PRESCHOOL PLAY & READ: Outdoor activities, stories and songs get 3- and 4-year-olds engaged. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

FRI.24

chittenden county

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Imaginative players in grades 5 and up exercise their problem-solving skills in battles and adventures. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

KIDS ZEN RETREAT: Teen volunteers lead kids in mindfulness activities. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

KIDS’ MOVIES IN THE AUDITORIUM: Little film buffs congregate in the library’s Katie O’Brien Activity Room for a screening of a G-rated movie. See southburlingtonlibrary.org for each week’s title. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

barre/montpelier

SUGAR ON SNOW: Families make cold candy with maple syrup straight from the sugarhouse, alongside old-fashioned doughnuts and pickles. Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, Montpelier, noon-4 p.m. $8.95. Info, 223-2740.

WINTER STORY TIME & PLAYGROUP: Participants ages 6 and under hear stories, sing songs and eat tasty treats between outdoor activities. Jaquith

and the League of Local Historical Societies & Museums. Noon. Free; preregister. Info, 479-8500.

theater

‘SWEAT’: See WED.22, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘AIRNESS’: See WED.22. words

‘VERMONT ALMANAC: STORIES FROM & FOR THE LAND, VOL. III’: RESCHEDULED. Contributors Edith Forbes and Chuck Wooster, alongside editors Virginia Barlow and Patrick White, get together for an evening of storytelling. Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

EVENING BOOK GROUP: Readers discuss She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan in a relaxed round-robin. Virtual option available. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

VIRTUAL POETRY OPEN

MIC: Wordsmiths read their work at an evening with local performance poet Bianca Amira Zanella. Presented by Phoenix Books. 7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 855-8078. A VISITING WRITER CRAFT TALK WITH MATTHEW OLZMANN: The

Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

upper valley

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in stories, songs and silliness. Latham Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

northeast kingdom

ACORN CLUB STORY TIME: Kids 5 and under play, sing, hear stories and take home a fun activity. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10-11 a.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 745-1391.

SAT.25

burlington

BIRDING IN BURLINGTON FOR YOUTH: Avian enthusiasts ages 5 through 11 learn via crafts, stories and birdwatching around the library. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

CURIOUS GEORGE VERMONT PUBLIC

DAY: Kids and grownups alike enjoy a local radio-curated day of fun with everyone’s favorite silly monkey. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission, $14.50-18; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

FAMILY PLAYSHOP: Kids from birth through age 5 learn and play at this school readiness program. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

RUG CONCERT: Vermont Youth Orchestra enthralls its youngest concertgoers with

poet talks shop with listeners interested in the art of writing. Mason House Library, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, 10-11 a.m. Free. Info, 635-2727.

FRI.24 dance

MASTER CLASS IN SYMBOLOGY OF ORIXAS: Instructor Rosangela Silvestre teaches dancers how to harness sacred symbolism and the body’s connection with nature. Cohen Hall. University of Vermont, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, danceprogram@uvm.edu. etc.

POWERPOINT PARTY: Neighbors share a 10-slide, five minute presentation on their favorite obscure topics. Spark Coworking Space, Greensboro, 6:30 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, spark@ruralartsvt.org.

fairs & festivals

VERMONT ANIMATION FESTIVAL:

Over two days of talks, workshops and ceremonies, animators of all ages learn about storyboarding, augmented reality, character development and beyond. See vtanimationfestival.org for full schedule. Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, Lyndonville, 1-11 p.m. Donations; preregister; limited space. Info, kate.renner@ northernvermont.edu.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘EATING UP EASTER’: See WED.22.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR: ‘PASANG: IN THE SHADOW OF EVEREST’: See THU.23. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 5:15 p.m. $6-12; free for VTIFF All Access members. Info, 660-2600.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR: ‘RUTH

STONE’S VAST LIBRARY OF THE FEMALE MIND’: A discussion with director Nora Jacobson follows a screening of this intimate portrait of a Vermont poet’s life and work. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7 p.m. $12-15. Info, 775-0903.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR: ‘THE

AUTOMAT’: A 2021 documentary recounts the lost history of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, featuring interviews with luminaries such as Mel Brooks and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:15 p.m. $6-12; free for VTIFF All Access members. Info, 660-2600.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22.

WHITE RIVER INDIE FILM

FESTIVAL: See THU.23, 5 p.m.-midnight.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

Urine Trouble

Who says a play can’t feature commentary on capitalism and a whole lot of immature pee jokes? The Wild Goose Players present the best of both worlds in Urinetown, the Tony Award-winning musical satire that sends up greed, the dystopian genre and musicals themselves. In a future where an unending drought has led the government to ban private toilets, the only way to go No. 1 is to pay the Urine Good Company a hefty fee to use its public bathrooms. Naturally, the poor start questioning the status quo, and the corporate pissants attempt to stave off revolution in a hilarious story that may just have audiences you-know-what-ing their pants.

‘URINETOWN’

Friday, March 24, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, March 25, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, March 26, 2 p.m., at Bellows Falls Opera House. See website for additional dates. $12-42. Info, 463-3964, ext. 1120, bellowsfallsoperahouse.com.

food & drink

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

health & fitness

ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION

EXERCISE PROGRAM: Those in need of an easy-on-the-joints workout experience an hour of calming, low-impact movement. Waterbury Public Library, 10:3011:30 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

GUIDED MEDITATION

ONLINE: Dorothy Alling Memorial Library invites attendees to relax on their lunch breaks and reconnect with their bodies. Noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@ damlvt.org.

language

ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE

ITALIAN CONVERSATION: Semifluent speakers practice their skills during a slow conversazione about the news. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE OF THE LAKE CHAMPLAIN REGION GALA

DINNER: Francophiles savor a French-inspired meal alongside retired senator Patrick Leahy, his wife Marcelle, and local and international dignitaries. Copper at Dorset, South Burlington, 5:30-9

p.m. $100; preregister; limited space; cash bar. Info, gala@aflcr. org.

SOCIAL HOUR: The Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain Region hosts a rendez-vous over cocktails. Armory Grille and Bar, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, btvescargot@gmail.com.

lgbtq

PRIDE SNOW DAY: Pride Center of Vermont invites queer and trans skiers and snowboarders of all experience levels to enjoy an evening of discounted lift tickets, lessons and group fun. Bolton Valley Resort, 3-10 p.m. Price of lift tickets and rentals; preregister. Info, phoebe@pridecentervt.org.

music

BASSET: The Toronto-based acoustic duo take listeners on a timeless journey through cool forests and quiet city streets. Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, 7-9:30 p.m. Pay what you can. Info, 728-9878.

‘LIVING WATER’: Counterpoint singers raise their voices in a program celebrating sacred music by composers of African descent. First Church in Barre, Universalist, 7:30 p.m. $5-20. Info, 540-1784.

‘THE SOMEWHAT TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD’: The Shelburne Players’ 40th production follows a bumbling Robin Hood in a funny, family-friendly retelling of the classic stories. Shelburne Town Hall, 7-9 p.m. $20. Info, 343-2602.

‘URINETOWN’: The Wild Goose Players present this Tony Awardwinning satire that takes place in a dystopian future where water — in all its forms — is worth its weight in gold. See calendar spotlight. Bellows Falls Opera House, 7:30 p.m. $15-40. Info, 463-3964, ext. 1120.

SAT.25 agriculture

MAPLE OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND: Visitors are in for a sweet weekend packed with tours, demonstrations and delicious treats. See vermontmaple.org for all participating locations. Various locations statewide. Free. Info, 777-2667.

dance

REGGAETÓN DANCE PARTY: Movers and shakers enjoy Puerto Rican grooves from DJ Chele, hot empanadas from Nando’s Moon & Stars, and company around a bonfire. Main Street Museum, White River Junction, 8 p.m. $10. Info, info@mainstreetmuseum.org.

SPRING EQUINOX DANCE: All dances are demonstrated and no experience is necessary at this celebratory springtime shindig. Bobbin Mill Community Center, Burlington, 2-4 p.m. Free. Info, 777-4414.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

YOUR PODCAST, YOUR WAY: Queen City citizens with something to say learn how to develop, record, conduct interviews for and distribute their own audio show. RETN & VCAM Media Factory, Burlington, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 651-9692.

theater

‘SWEAT’: See WED.22, 7:30 p.m. ‘AIRNESS’: See WED.22.

‘THE COUNTRY WIFE’: This 17thcentury comedy, controversial in its own time for its sexual explicitness, is given new life courtesy of the St. Johnsbury Players. Fuller Hall, St. Johnsbury Academy, 7:30 p.m. $5. Info, stjplayersweb@ gmail.com.

‘THE GOOD DOCTOR’: Chekhov’s stories are brought to charmingly absurd life in this intimate BarnArts production. Woodstock Town Hall Theatre, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $15-20. Info, info@barnarts.org.

‘KING LEAR, THE WESTERN!’: Very Merry Theatre presents a musical, Wild West twist on the Bard’s classic tale. O.N.E. Community Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. Free. Info, ben@verymerrytheatre.org.

WHITE RIVER INDIE FILM

FESTIVAL: See THU.23, 10 a.m-midnight.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22. ‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

food & drink

ADVENTURE DINNER SUGAR

SHACK POP-UP: Mocktails and maple barbecue are available for purchase at this drop-in celebration of all things syrupy. Shelburne Farms, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 248-224-7539.

ETHIOPIAN & ERITREAN CUISINE

TAKEOUT: Foodies from the Old North End and beyond sample Mulu Tewelde’s spicy, savory, succulent meals. Vegetarian options available; bring your own bag. 20 Allen St., Burlington, 4 p.m. $523; preregister. Info, tewmlde@ yahoo.com.

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

WAFFLE DAY: The Swedish celebration of waffles gets a Vermont twist with Runamok’s infused maple syrups and interactive glassblowing activities. AO Glass, Burlington, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, hello@aoglass.com.

WOODBURY PIE BREAKFAST: Neighbors catch up over sweet and savory desserts. Live music and a silent auction are the cherry on top. Woodbury Elementary School, 8-10:30 a.m. $4-7; free for kids under 4. Info, woodbury vermontlibrary@gmail.com.

games

SWING TIME!: Partygoers move and shake to the music. Wear clean, soft-soled shoes. Beginners’ lesson, 7 p.m. Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center, 7:30 p.m. $5. Info, 244-4168.

fairs & festivals

FERMENT FEST: Locals indulge in all kinds of funky food and drink during a day of talks, live music, SCOBY and starter swaps, and a vendor fair. See calendar spotlight. The Soda Plant, Burlington, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. Info, 503-0344.

VERMONT ANIMATION FESTIVAL: See FRI.24, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT’:

Rabbi David Edleson of Temple Sinai leads a discussion after this Academy Award-winning 1947 film that addressed antisemitism in America. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 8-9:30 p.m. Free. Info, 862-5125.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR: ‘RUTH

STONE’S VAST LIBRARY OF THE FEMALE MIND’: See FRI.24. Catamount Arts Center, St. Johnsbury, 2 p.m. $12. Info, 748-2600.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22.

CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities face off and learn new strategies. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

health & fitness

MAPLE RUN 5K: The whole fam runs a race through school grounds and a sugar bush to celebrate the start of spring. Prizes, snacks and sugarhouse tours follow. Proceeds benefit World Central Kitchen’s relief efforts in Turkey. Rock Point School, Burlington, 9:30-11:30 a.m. $5-15. Info, 863-1104.

lgbtq

PRIDE HIKES: SUGAR ON SNOW: All ages, orientations and identities are welcome to experience a private tour of the sugar bush and sample syrups. Green Mountain Audubon Center, Huntington, 1-3 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, sarah. hooghuis@audubon.org.

QUEER SANGHA: LGBTQ folks of all experience levels meditate, learn and discuss together. Laughing River Yoga, Burlington, 4:30-6 p.m. Free. Info, hayden. boska@gmail.com.

montréal

‘ENGLISH’: See WED.22, 8 p.m.

music

CHAMPLAIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA: Matt LaRocca conducts a program featuring works by Aaron Copland, Ludwig van Beethoven and Duke Ellington,

COURTESY OF IRA WILNER

as well as the premiere of a new piece by Vermont composer Kyle Saulnier. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 7:30 p.m. $6-17. Info, 382-9222.

JENNI & THE JAZZ

JUNKETEERS: The Vermontbased vocalist lends her voice to classic songs by the indomitable women of jazz. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

‘LIVING WATER’: See FRI.24. Norwich Congregational Church.

ROCK INTO SPRING: Local acts Bodenbender and End User usher in springtime. Brandon Town Hall, 7-10 p.m. $10. Info, mjviscido3@gmail.com.

UMASS PERCUSSION

ENSEMBLE: The college group hits it out of the park under the direction of marimbist Ayano Kataoka. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, 7 p.m. $5; free for members and kids under 18. Info, 257-0124, ext. 101.

‘VIENNA 19C: HAUSMUSIK’: The Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society presents an intimate night of Austrian classical works. Live stream available. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 7 p.m.

$15-35. Info, 760-4634.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

NAMI VERMONT MENTAL

ILLNESS & RECOVERY

WORKSHOP: Family, peers, professionals and community members at this National Alliance on Mental Illness seminar brush up on symptoms, treatment methods, coping strategies and crisis prevention. Essex Police Department, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 876-7949, ext. 100.

theater

‘SWEAT’: See WED.22, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘AIRNESS’: See WED.22, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘THE COUNTRY WIFE’: See FRI.24.

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online: art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

‘THE GOOD DOCTOR’: See FRI.24.

‘KING LEAR, THE WESTERN!’: See FRI.24, 2-4 & 7-9 p.m.

‘THE SOMEWHAT TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD’: See FRI.24, 2-4 & 7-9 p.m.

‘URINETOWN’: See FRI.24, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

words

POETRY EXPERIENCE: Local wordsmith Rajnii Eddins hosts a supportive writing and sharing circle for poets of all ages.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

POETRY MONTH KICKOFF: Local verse enthusiasts get in the mood for April with a group reading by some local wordsmiths.

Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, noon-1:30 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

SUN.26

agriculture

MAPLE OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND: See SAT.25.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR: ‘RUTH STONE’S VAST LIBRARY OF THE FEMALE MIND’: See FRI.24. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 2-4 p.m. $12. Info, 533-2000.

MNFF VERMONT TOUR:

‘THE AUTOMAT’: See FRI.24. Catamount Arts Center, St. Johnsbury, 2 p.m. $12. Info, 748-2600.

MOTION STATE DANCE FILM SERIES: SEASON FIVE: The traveling festival of short choreography films stops in southern Vermont. Q&A with curators follows. Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, 4 p.m. $10. Info, 387-0102.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22.

WHITE RIVER INDIE FILM FESTIVAL: See THU.23, 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

food & drink

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

MAPLE BREAKFAST WITH PHOENIX HOUSE CATERING:

After smothering pancakes and french toast casserole in syrup, diners head to the sugarhouse for demos and tastings. Georgia Mountain Maples, Milton, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. $6.95-17.95. Info, 933-8400.

health & fitness

KARUNA COMMUNITY

MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE (FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, mollyzapp@live.com.

lgbtq

MOMENTUM COFFEE & CONVERSATION: LGBTQ Vermonters ages 55 and up chat over warm drinks. Uncommon Coffee, Essex Center, 11 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, eeka@pridecentervt. org.

PRIDE WALK: Rutland County Audubon, Outright Vermont and Come Alive Outside lead a low-key nature sojourn for LGBTQ community members and allies. Whipple Hollow Trail, West Rutland, 1-3 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, birding@ rutlandcountyaudubon.org.

SEXUAL HEALTH FOCUS GROUP: UVM medical students gather confidential information from members of the LGBTQ community for use in a research project. Participants are entered in a raffle for an Earth + Salt gift card. Pride Center of Vermont, Burlington, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 860-7812.

montréal

‘ENGLISH’: See WED.22, 2 & 7 p.m.

music

‘OPERA IN THE AFTERNOON’: Dog River Trio plays works for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano by composers including Mozart, Vivaldi and Mahler at its inaugural show. Christ Episcopal Church, Montpelier, 3-4 p.m. $25 suggested donation. Info, 249-2631.

BASSET: See FRI.24. Presented by Valley Stage Productions. Richmond Congregational Church, 4-6 p.m. $15-25. Info, 434-4563.

‘THE FRENCH CONNECTION’: Flutist Karen Kevra and pianist Jeffrey Chappell hit all the right notes in a program including high-octane showpieces galore. Plainfield Town Hall Opera House, 4-5 p.m. $20 suggested donation. Info, 498-3173.

JAZZ CONCERT: Christopher McWilliams on piano, Denise Ricker on flute and Dov Michael Schiller on percussion present an afternoon of the music of Claude Bolling. Bethany United Church of Christ, Montpelier, 2 p.m. $25 suggested donation. Info, 223-2424.

PLAY EVERY TOWN: Prolific pianist David Feurzeig and guest cellist Linda Galvan continue a four-year, statewide series of shows in protest of high-pollution worldwide concert tours. Donations benefit 350 Vermont. First Congregational Church Essex, Essex Junction, 3 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 321-614-0591.

outdoors

FEMINIST BIRD CLUB OF NORTHERN VERMONT OUTING: The inaugural birdwatching walk of this northern Vermont chapter is open to anyone interested in feathered friends. Waterfront Park, Burlington, 9-11 a.m. Free;

preregister. Info, northern vermontfbc@gmail.com.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

theater

‘SWEAT’: See WED.22, 5 p.m.

‘AIRNESS’: See WED.22, 2 p.m.

‘THE COUNTRY WIFE’: See FRI.24, 2 p.m.

‘THE GOOD DOCTOR’: See FRI.24, 2-4 p.m.

‘URINETOWN’: See FRI.24, 2 p.m.

words

‘ZIG ZAG LIT MAG’ ISSUE.14

RELEASE PARTY: Hot off the press, the latest issue of the Addison County arts and literature magazine debuts with a reading and a meet and greet.

Tourterelle, New Haven, 2:30-4 p.m. Free; cash bar. Info, info@ zigzaglitmag.org.

MON.27

agriculture

STARTING SEEDS WITH EASE: Laura Oliver of the Jericho Seed Library teaches gardeners how to grow strong seedlings indoors. Community Center, Jericho, 6-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 829-8168.

business

FEMALE FOUNDERS SPEAKERS

SERIES: VERMONT’S NEW

MANUFACTURERS: Diane

Abruzzini of Rigorous, Jane Sandelman of Cannatrol, and Carey Strobeck of Fourbital Factory and 4T2D discuss some of our state’s newest industries: clothing, cannabis and robotics. Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. $15; cash bar. Info, sam@vcet.co.

crafts

FIBER ARTS FREE-FOR-ALL:

Makers make friends while working on their knitting, sewing, felting and beyond. Artistree

Community Arts Center Theatre & Gallery, South Pomfret, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, theknittinkittenvt@ gmail.com.

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS: See THU.23.

etc.

SMALL TALK ANTIDOTE // DIALOGIC CIRCLES: Life coach Maris Harmon facilitates biweekly virtual philosophical discussions designed around collective support. 6-7:30 p.m. $10; preregister. Info, maris. harmon@gmail.com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

GREEN SCREEN LIGHTING: Students learn how to transport their films to the deep sea, deep space and beyond using simple special effects. RETN & VCAM Media Factory, Burlington, 6-8

p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 651-9692.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22.

‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

food & drink

FOUR-COURSE FARM DINNER WITH FROG HOLLOW

FARMSTEAD: A carefully curated gourmet meal features local nosh from Switchback Beer, Jasper Hill Farm and Wild Hart Distillery. Local Maverick, Burlington, 5:307:30 p.m. $75; preregister. Info, info@localmaverickus.com.

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

health & fitness

ADVANCED TAI CHI: Experienced movers build strength, improve balance and reduce stress. Holley Hall, Bristol, 11 a.m.-noon. Free; donations accepted. Info, jerry@ skyrivertaichi.com.

LAUGHTER YOGA: Spontaneous, joyful movement and breath promote physical and emotional health. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, chrisn@pathwaysvermont.org.

LONG-FORM SUN 73: Beginners and experienced practitioners learn how tai chi can help with arthritis, mental clarity and range of motion. Holley Hall, Bristol, 11 a.m.-noon. Free; donations accepted. Info, wirlselizabeth@ gmail.com.

YANG 24: This simplified tai chi method is perfect for beginners looking to build strength and balance. Congregational Church of Middlebury, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, wirlselizabeth@gmail.com.

language

ENGLISH CONVERSATION CIRCLE: Locals learning English as a second language gather in the Digital Lab to build vocabulary and make friends. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online: art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT

Pass the Bubbly

Foodies celebrate all things fizzy and foamy at the inaugural Ferment Fest. Local vendors sell and offer samples of their lip-smackingly sour wares, including coffee, wine, beer, yogurt, sauerkraut, cheese, kimchi, mead and kombucha. Attendees learn more about the art and science of fermentation from a lineup of speakers; exchange sourdough starters, kombucha SCOBYs, vinegar mothers and kefir grains at the community swap; and enjoy the tangy, briny tunes of the Dirty Forks while snacking on cheese boards and sourdough doughnuts.

FERMENT FEST

Saturday, March 25, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Soda Plant in Burlington. Free. Info, 503-0344, pitchforkpickle.com.

ITALIAN BOOK CLUB: Intermediate and experienced Italian speakers read and discuss Giovinette: Le Calciatrici Che Sfidarono Il Duce by Federica Seneghini. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:15-11:15 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

lgbtq

NONBINARY SOCIAL GROUP: Genderqueer, agender, gender nonconforming and questioning Vermonters gather for a virtual tea time. Presented by Pride Center of Vermont. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, trans@ pridecentervt.org.

montréal

‘ENGLISH’: See WED.22, 7 p.m.

politics

LEGISLATIVE FORUM: State representatives discuss the upcoming session with their constituents. Virtual option available. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

theater

PLAYMAKERS: Playwrights develop new work in a collaborative setting. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, playmakersvt@gmail.com.

words

ADDISON COUNTY WRITERS COMPANY: Poets, playwrights, novelists and memoirists of every experience level meet weekly for an MFA-style workshop. Swift House Inn, Middlebury, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, jay@zigzaglitmag.org.

TUE.28 activism

WE’RE ALZ IN THIS TOGETHER: DESTIGMATIZING DEMENTIA IN ADDISON COUNTY: Advocates from Age Well and other local organizations speak up for Vermonters with Alzheimer’s

College, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-5822.

SWING DANCING: Local Lindy hoppers and jitterbuggers convene at Vermont Swings’ weekly boogie-down. Bring clean shoes. Beginner lessons, 6:30 p.m. Champlain Club, Burlington, 7:309 p.m. $5. Info, 864-8382.

education

STEPHANIE SHONEKAN:

The dean of the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities discusses her innovative programs for training junior faculty and promoting diversity and inclusion. Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 5:306:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-5221.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘RAISING ARIZONA’: Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter star in the Coen brothers’ 1987 cult classic about an ex-con and an ex-cop who tackle parenthood. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Info, mariah@mainstreetlanding.com.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22. ‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22. ‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

food & drink

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

GUEST CHEF DINNER: Chef Will Gilson serves up a skillful culinary experience featuring New England fine dining and expert beverage pairings. Tipsy Trout, Stowe, 6:30-10 p.m. $175; preregister. Info, 760-4735.

montréal

‘ENGLISH’: See WED.22, 8 p.m.

music

and other forms of dementia. Vergennes Congregational Church, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 377-1419.

agriculture

MIKE LIZOTTE: “The Seed Man” teaches home growers how to transform small areas of yard into miniature meadows that benefit wildlife and soil quality. Faith United Methodist Church, South Burlington, 1 p.m. Free. Info, 238-4213.

community

CURRENT EVENTS

DISCUSSION GROUP: Brownell Library hosts a virtual roundtable for neighbors to pause and reflect on the news cycle. 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6955.

dance

MOVEMENT MATTERS: JU-

MATATU M. POE: A multidisciplinary artist shares “Transitions Into Terrestrial,” a performance incorporating dance, video, poetry and images. Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury

STEPHANIE SHONEKAN: A professor of ethnomusicology discusses seminal Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s album Sorrow, Tears and Blood. Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-5221.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

tech

DROP-IN TECH HELP: Experts answer questions about phones, laptops, e-readers and more in one-on-one sessions. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

theater

FROM LIPS TO STAGE: CREATING DOCUMENTARY THEATER: A workshop teaches playwrights how to transform interviews into stageworthy dialogue and stories. Norwich University, Northfield, 5:30-6:45 p.m. Free. Info, 485-2423.

words

BROWN BAG BOOK CLUB: Readers digest American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse over lunch. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 12:301:30 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

NONFICTION BOOK

DISCUSSION: The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford takes readers on a deep dive into urban society from ancient times through the present. Presented by Latham Library. Noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

POETRY GROUP: A supportive verse-writing workshop welcomes those who would like feedback on their work or who are just happy to listen. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 846-4140.

VIRGINIA WOOLF BOOK

DISCUSSION: The Burlington Literature Group reads and analyzes the foundational author’s novels Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and The Waves over nine weeks. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, info@ nereadersandwriters.com.

WED.29 business

INTRO TO CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS FOR

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS: Webinar attendees learn how to connect with customers and the community in tough times. Presented by Mercy Connections. Noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 846-7081.

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS

NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL

GROUP: See WED.22.

community

SPRING MENTOR TRAINING: See WED.22.

crafts

WEAVING POEMCITY POETRY INTO ART: MAKING MAGICAL

DANISH WOVEN PAPER

HEARTS: Patrons practice the Scandinavian craft of julehjerter with pages of poetry from National Poetry Months past. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

dance

MOVEMENT MATTERS: ‘THE SWITCHING’: jumatatu m. poe leads a master class in evolution, shapeshifting and inner learning for dancers. Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury

SUN.26 burlington

an interactive hour of music and meet and greets. Elley-Long Music Center, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 11 a.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 655-5030.

SATURDAY STORIES: Kiddos start the weekend off right with stories and songs. Ages 3 through 7. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

SUGAR ON SNOW: See FRI.24.

stowe/smuggs

MUSICAL STORY TIME: Song, dance and other tuneful activities supplement picture books for kids 2 through 5. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853.

northeast kingdom

SATURDAY CREATIVE FAMILIES

INITIATIVE: ‘TIME OUT’: The Rural Arts Collaborative leads artsy activities for creative kids ages 6 through 12 while parents socialize over tea and coffee on the second floor. Grass Roots Art and Community Effort, Hardwick, 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, info@ruralartsvt.org.

THE BAFFO BOX SHOW: Performed in a one-of-a-kind combination suit and stage, this Modern Times Theater show fuses puppetry, ventriloquism and standup comedy. York Street Meeting House, Lyndon, 7 p.m. $15-20; free for students. Info, 748-2600.

College, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-5822.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘LIFE AFTER YOU’: A talk-back with the film crew and community members follows this 2020 drama about the opioid epidemic. Proceeds benefit Jenna’s Promise. Marquis Theatre & Southwest Café, Middlebury, 3:15 & 6:30 p.m. $10. Info, 388-4841.

‘A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES’: Vermont Symphony Orchestra musicians score seven animated and documentary shorts, from a reimagining of “Hansel and Gretel” to the story of an undocumented family. Castleton University, 7 p.m. $10-30. Info, 864-5741.

‘THE PRINCESS BRIDE’: “Inconceivable!” A young woman and her true love battle the evils of a mythical kingdom to be reunited in this 1987 fairy-tale film. Catamount Arts Center, St. Johnsbury, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 748-2600.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D’: See WED.22.

‘TO BE FAIR’: A new documentary follows Vermont State’s Attorney Sarah George as her progressive public safety policies are put to the test in a county election. Grand Maple Ballroom, Davis Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 825-8173.

FAMILY CONTRA DANCE: No experience is necessary at this all-ages line dance featuring live tunes by Maeve Fairfax and Brian Perkins. StudiOne Dance, Burlington, 1:30-3:30 p.m. $8-20 suggested donation. Info, calling.luke@ gmail.com.

barre/montpelier

SUGAR ON SNOW: See FRI.24.

MON.27 burlington

STORIES WITH SHANNON: Bookworms ages 2 through 5 enjoy fun-filled reading time. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

LIFE-SIZE BOARD GAME: Kiddos become game pieces in this fun afterschool activity. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

TEEN NIGHT: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Local wizards and warlocks ages 12 and up play a collaborative game of magic and monsters. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 878-4918.

northeast kingdom

ACORN CLUB STORY TIME: See FRI.24, 2-2:30 p.m.

DANCE PARTY MONDAYS: Little ones 5 and under get groovy together. Siblings welcome. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10-10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 745-1391.

‘WILD AFRICA 3D’: See WED.22. ‘WINGS OVER WATER 3D’: See WED.22.

food & drink

GREEK PASTRY SALE: See WED.22.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: See WED.22. MEDICARE 101: Experts clear up common questions about enrolling in state health insurance for seniors. Presented by University of Vermont Health Network and MVP Health Care. Noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, socialmedia@ uvmhealth.org.

language

ELL CLASSES: ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS: See WED.22. IRISH LANGUAGE CLASS: See WED.22.

montréal

‘ENGLISH’: See WED.22.

music

AL STEWART: The Scottish folk revival singer-songwriter takes the stage alongside his band, the Empty Pockets. Double E Performance Center’s T-Rex Theater, Essex Junction, 7-11 p.m. $50-55. Info, 876-7152.

TUE.28 burlington

PIZZA AND PAPERBACKS: Teen bibliophiles discuss their latest reads over a slice. Ages 11 through 18. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 540-2546.

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with Linda. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

AFTERSCHOOL DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Elementary-age kids learn to play D&D and build their teamwork and problem-solving skills. Ages 8 and up. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 3-4 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, 878-4918.

CRAFTYTOWN!: From painting and printmaking to collage and sculpture, creative kids explore different projects and mediums. Ages 8 and up, or ages 6 and up with an adult helper. ADA accessible. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

LEGO ROBOTICS: CARNIVAL GAMES: Over four weeks of workshops, builders in grades 3 through 5 learn how to combine their favorite blocks with a knowledge of computer coding. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3:15-4:15 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-6956.

PLAYGROUP & FAMILY SUPPORT: Families with children under age 5 play and connect with others in the community. Winooski Memorial Library, 10-11 a.m. Free. Info, 655-6424.

FARMERS NIGHT: GERRY

GRIMO & THE EAST BAY JAZZ

ENSEMBLE: The 10-piece swing band transports audience members back in time. House Chamber, Vermont Statehouse, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 828-2228.

outdoors

MARTHA MOLNAR: Listeners learn how important meadows are for birds and insects from the author of Playing God in the Meadow: How I Learned to Admire My Weeds. Grace Congregational Church, Rutland, 7-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, birding@ rutlandcountyaudubon.org.

SMUGGS 55+ SKI CLUB: See WED.22.

seminars

BETHEL UNIVERSITY: See WED.22.

GROW YOUR AUDIENCE: Artists and content creators learn how to build and connect with a fan base. Presented by Media Factory. 3-5 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 651-9692.

WHO WILL GET YOUR IRA ASSETS?: New England Federal Credit Union experts explain the importance of designating your beneficiaries. Noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 764-6940.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Little ones enjoy a cozy session of reading, rhyming and singing. Birth through age 5. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

TODDLERTIME: Kids ages 1 through 3 and their caregivers join Miss Alyssa for a lively session of stories, singing and wiggling. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 9:15 & 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

barre/montpelier

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See THU.23.

ROBIN’S NEST NATURE PLAYGROUP: Outdoor pursuits through fields and forests captivate little ones up to age 5 and their parents. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; donations accepted. Info, 229-6206.

mad river valley/ waterbury

ISSUES AND IDENTITIES BOOK GROUP: Using current and past Golden Dome Award nominees, readers ages 9 through 12 discuss social issues such as race, gender and disability. Waterbury Public Library, 3:45-5 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

northeast kingdom

RED CLOVER BOOK CLUB: Readers ages 6 through 10 discuss a book and do an art activity each week. Siblings welcome. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 1:30 p.m. Free. Info, 745-1391.

WED.29

burlington

BABYTIME: See WED.22.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.22. talks

LUNCH AND LEARN: CLAIRE

JERRY: The National Museum of American History gives a lunchtime address titled “Persuasion, Presidents, Propaganda: The United States Goes to War.” Sullivan Museum & History Center, Norwich University, Northfield, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 485-2183. tech

MATTHEW PRICE: A professor discusses new innovations in using smartphones and other mobile devices to diagnose and treat PTSD. Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building, University of Vermont, Burlington, 4:30-6 p.m. Free. Info, 656-1297.

theater

‘BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL’: UVM theater and dance students present a hilarious horror satire about embracing your inner beast. Royall Tyler Theatre, University of Vermont, Burlington, 7:30-10 p.m. $10-25. Info, rtttickets@uvm. edu. ➆

CRAFTERNOON: See WED.22.

STEAM SPACE: See WED.22.

chittenden county

BABYTIME: See WED.22.

CREATE A FORT AND READ: Young bookworms build a perfectly cozy reading fortress out of chairs and blankets. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 2:30-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

LEGO BUILDERS: See WED.22.

PLAY TIME: See WED.22.

SPECIAL PLAY TIME WITH FOUR WINDS: Little ones ages 1 through 4 have messy fun in the mud with Four Winds Nature Institute. Dress appropriately. Siblings welcome. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:45 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

CHESS CLUB: See WED.22.

MAKE NEW FRIENDS: Girls preparing for kindergarten or first grade make friends and learn core linguistic, cognitive and emotional skills over four weeks. Presented by Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 603-627-4158.

upper valley

PEABODY AFTERSCHOOL FUN FOR GRADES 1-4: See WED.22.

northeast kingdom

TWEEN BOOK CLUB: Book lovers ages 10 through 14 share their favorite recent reads at this monthly meeting. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 745-1391. K

THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS FOR AS LITTLE AS $16.75/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE). SUBMIT YOUR CLASS AD AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS.

agriculture

LEARN THE CRAFT OF BEEKEEPING : Swaying Daisies Honeybee Farm presents e Art & Science of Beekeeping. Join us this season for a hands-on beekeeping workshop experience at our apiaries. Weekly hands-on spring workshops Mar. 26 through May 21. Who can learn beekeeping? Anyone! Workshops are for both new-bees and seasoned beekeepers. Every other Sun. beginning Mar. 26, 10-11:30 a.m. Cost: $35/1.5-hour hands-on beekeeping workshop. Location: Swaying Daisies Honeybee Farm Apiary, Hinesburg. Info: Karen Posner, 375-7298, swayingdaisieshoney@gmail.com, swayingdaisieshoney beefarm.com/learn-the-craftof-beekeeping-a-hands-onexperience-begins-march-26-2023.

art

DAVIS STUDIO ART CLASSES:

Discover your happy place in one of our weekly classes. Making art boosts emotional well-being and brings joy to your life, especially when you connect with other art enthusiasts. Select the ongoing program that’s right for you. Now enrolling youths and adults for classes in drawing, painting and fused glass. Location: Davis Studio, 916 Shelburne Rd., S. Burlington. Info: 425-2700, davisstudiovt.com.

culinary

BERRY GALETTE WORKSHOP: In this workshop, we will tackle making an extra-flaky homemade pie crust and a delicious filling from your choice of berries and fruit! You’ll go home with your own custom galette and the recipe to make it again on your own at home. We will also get the chance to eat a slice during the class. Fri., Apr. 14, 6 p.m. Cost: $10-45. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 203-400-0700.

SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI

BOLOGNESE: Join Janina in making this heartwarming soul food to keep you and yours warm this winter! is recipe can easily be gluten-free, vegan and/ or dairy-free. You will receive an accurate ingredient list, list of supplies, and the Zoom class info via email. Sun., Mar. 26, 5 p.m.

Cost: $25. Location: Online. Info: 203-400-0700.

dance

SWING TIME: Beginner lesson from 7-7:30 p.m. Dance begins at 7:30 p.m. $5 for lesson and dancing. Cash or check at the door. No partner necessary. All welcome!

Please wear clean, soft-soled, nonmarking shoes. Sat., Mar. 25, 7 p.m.

Cost: $5. Location: Grange Hall Cultural Center, 317 Howard Ave., Waterbury Center. Info: 244-4168.

martial arts

AIKIDO: THE POWER OF HARMONY: Discover the dynamic, flowing martial art of aikido. Relax under pressure and cultivate core power, aerobic fitness and resiliency. Aikido emphasizes throws, joint locks and internal power. Circular movements teach how to blend with the attack. We offer inclusive classes and a safe space for all. Visitors should watch a class before joining. Beginners’ classes 5 days/week. Membership rates incl. unlimited classes. Contact us for info about membership rates for adults, youths & families. Location: Aikido of Champlain Valley, 257 Pine St., Burlington. Info: Benjamin Pincus, 951-8900, bpincus@burlingtonaikido.org, burlingtonaikido.org.

VERMONT BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU: We offer a legitimate Brazilian jiu-jitsu training program for men, women and children in a friendly, safe and positive environment. Julio Cesar “Foca” Fernandez Nunes; CBJJP and IBJJF seventh-degree Carlson Gracie Sr. Coral Belt-certified instructor; teaching in Vermont, born and raised in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! A two-time world masters champion, five-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu national champion, three-time Rio de Janeiro state champion and Gracie Challenge champion. Accept no limitations! 1st class is free. Location: Vermont Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 55 Leroy Rd., Williston. Info: 598-2839, julio@ bjjusa.com, vermontbjj.com.

language

ADULT LIVE SPANISH E-CLASSES: Join us for adult Spanish classes this spring, using Zoom online videoconferencing. Our 17th year. Learn from a native speaker via small group classes or individual instruction. You’ll always be participating and speaking. Four different levels. Note: Classes fill up fast. See our website or contact us for details. Beginning week of Apr. 3. 10 classes of 90+ min. each week, 1/week. Location: Online. Info: 585-1025, spanishparavos@ gmail.com, spanishwaterbury center.com.

SPANISH CLASSES FOR ALL

AGES: Premier native-speaking Spanish professor Maigualida Rak is giving fun, interactive online lessons to improve comprehension and pronunciation and to achieve fluency. Audiovisual material is used. “I feel proud to say that my students have significantly improved their Spanish with my teaching approach.” — Maigualida Rak. Location: Online. Info: 881-0931, spanishtutor. vtfla@gmail.com, facebook.com/ spanishonlinevt.

massage

CHINESE MEDICAL MASSAGE: is program teaches two forms of East Asian medical massage: Tui Na and shiatsu. We will explore Oriental medicine theory and diagnosis, as well as the body’s meridian system, acupressure points, and yin-yang and five-element theory. Additionally, Western anatomy and physiology are taught. VSAC nondegree grants are available. FSMTBapproved program. Starts Sep. 2023. Cost: $6,000/625-hour program. Location: Elements of Healing, 21 Essex Way, Suite 109, Essex Jct. Info: Scott Moylan, 2888160, scott@elementsofhealing. net, elementsofhealing.net.

meditation

SPRING CLEANING SOUND BATH: Lie down, relax and enjoy this sonic cleansing, releasing the past and calling in your dreams, allowing the magical sounds of planetary gongs and crystal bowls to wash over you and the vibrations of bronze bowls

to wash through you! Great to relieve stress and pain. No experience required. Fri., Mar. 24, 7-8:30 p.m. Cost: $35/90-minute class. Location: Mothership VT, 19 Church St., Upstairs, Suite 1, Burlington. Info: Evolvlove Sound erapy, Kirk Jones, 510697-7790, love@evolvlove.com, evolvlove.square.site.

movement

BARRE & JUICE WITH DANIELLE HAVENS AND ECOBEAN: is class is focused on small, low-impact movements that strengthen and tone your entire body. Danielle guides you through a class set to upbeat music and aims to leave you feeling inspired, empowered, and connected to your body and breath. BYO yoga mat! All levels. After class, enjoy kombucha and smoothie samples from Ecobean. Sun., Apr. 16, 9 a.m.

Cost: $25. Location: Maverick Market at 110, 110 Main St., Burlington. Info: info@local maverickus.com.

music

DJEMBE & TAIKO DRUMMING:

JOIN US!: New classes (outdoors mask optional/masks indoors).

Taiko Tue. and Wed. Djembe Wed.; Kids & Parents Tue. and Wed. Conga classes by request!

Location: Taiko Space. Info: 999-4255, spaton55@gmail.com.

outdoors

THE ONE-NIGHT STAND: BICYCLE

CARE: Having an understanding of your bike and how to care for it is empowering to both you and your ride. e One-Night Stand will cause neither regret nor shame; instead, it will help you stay safer, keep your bike running longer, and give you confidence in either getting what you need at the bike shop or on your own. Wed., Mar. 22 & 29; and Apr. 5, 12, 19 & 26. Cost: $50.

Location: Old Spokes Home, 331 N. Winooski Ave., Burlington. Info: 863-4475.

women

FEMALE FOUNDER SERIES:

“Clothing, Cannabis and Complex

Robotics: Vermont’s New Manufacturers” features Diane Abruzzini, cofounder of Rigorous; Jane Sandelman, cofounder of Cannatrol; and Carey Strobeck, founder of Fourbital Factory and 4T2D. Enjoy an evening that will inspire and energize. Snacks and a cash bar are provided. While the series features female-identifying founders, all are welcome.

Mon., Mar. 27, 5:30-7 p.m.

Cost: $15. Location: Hotel Vermont, 41 Cherry St., Burlington. Info: sam@vcet.co.

yoga

AYURVEDIC INTEGRATION

PROGRAM: Learn to integrate Ayurveda as lifestyle medicine that can prevent or reverse chronic disease; increase energy; promote longevity; and reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Specialized seasonal and daily Ayurvedic routines, holistic nutrition, stress-reduction techniques, and self-care will be taught. Sat. & Sun., 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 2023: Oct. 14-15, Nov. 4-5, Dec. 2-3; 2024: Jan. 6-7, Feb. 3-4, Mar. 9-10, Apr. 6-7, May 4-5, Jun. 8-9, Jul. 13-14.

Cost: $2,895/200-hour program. Location: e Ayurvedic Center of Vermont, 34 Oak Hill Rd., Williston. Info: Allison Morse, 8728898, info@ayurvedavermont. com, ayurvedavermont.com.

POSTPARTUM

DOULA TRAINING: Serve women and families in your community during a time of huge transition and growth by becoming an Ayurveda postpartum doula. You will learn about pregnancy, birth and postpartum through the lens and language of Ayurveda while receiving training in traditional postpartum care practices, balanced with practical understanding for modern women. Apr. 3-7, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Cost: $995/weeklong workshop w/ VSAC grants avail. Location: e Ayurvedic Center of Vermont, 34 Oak Hill Rd., Williston. Info: Allison Morse, 872-8898, info@ayurvedavermont.com, ayurvedavermont.com.

Kitty

AGE/SEX: 1-year-old spayed female ARRIVAL DATE: January 9, 2023

SUMMARY: This gorgeous gal is looking for a new home to call her own! She’s a playful, energetic pup who loves doing zoomies in the play yard, romping in the snow and getting all the scritches from her favorite people! Kitty will appreciate plenty of opportunities to stretch her legs and could be a great running or hiking companion. Though it may take Kitty a bit to warm up, she’ll be sure to show you her loving and goofy side once she is comfortable. You won’t be able to resist her big, brown puppy dog eyes when she’s asking for just one more cookie!

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Kitty has done well in playgroups at HSCC and can likely live with another dog. She has lived with a cat and children and coexisted well.

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

DID YOU KNOW?

All HSCC dogs are available for foster-to-adopt! When you foster-to-adopt a dog, you have a oneweek trial period to bring the dog home and get to know them before committing to adopting them (and if it isn’t a good fit, we can make an appointment for the dog to come back to HSCC).

Sponsored by:

Humane Society of Chittenden County

CLASSIFIEDS

ESSEX ARTIST HOME TO SHARE

Essex: Educated artist in her 80s looking for upbeat guest willing to cook a few meals each week.

housing FOR RENT

BURLINGTON

Burlington Hill Section, furnished, single room, on bus line. No cooking. No pets. Linens furnished. Utils. incl. Call 862-2389.

HOUSEMATES

CHARLOTTE SHARE

W/ VIEWS

Picturesque views in Charlotte! Host in his 60s enjoys music, writing & art. $650/mo. + utils.

Seeking tidy vegetarian willing to lend a hand w/ snow & yard duties.

Must be dog-friendly!

Private BA, BR & sitting room. 863-5625 or homesharevermont.org for application. Interview, refs., background check req. EHO.

Private BA. Must be cat-friendly! Familiarity w/ memory loss is a plus. No rent. 863-5625 or homesharevermont.org for application. Interview, refs., background check req. EHO.

OFFICE/ COMMERCIAL

OFFICE SPACE TO LEASE

Great offi ce space avail. 10x14’ w/ high ceilings, exposed beams, brick walls & large window. Located in a spacious suite in Winooski’s historic Woolen Mill. Suite is welcoming w/ a beautifully appointed waiting room, kitchen/ staff room, group meeting rooms & 5 offi ces, each occupied by women practitioners (counseling, massage, coaching). On CCTA bus line, free parking, wheelchair accessible, internet. $314/mo., incl. utils. Avail. Apr. 1.

CLASSIFIEDS KEY

housing ads: $25 (25 words) legals: 52¢/word buy this stuff: free online

Call or text Katherine Penberthy at 802-3187886 or Dianne Coffey at 802-654-7600.

OFFICE/RETAIL SPACE AT MAIN STREET LANDING on Burlington’s waterfront. Beautiful, healthy, affordable spaces for your business. Visit mainstreetlanding.com & click on space avail. Melinda, 864-7999.

SPACE AVAIL.

AT CAMP MEADE

2 lovely renovated spaces avail. 1,635 sq.ft. w/ new display windows, $2,730/mo. 647-sq. ft. space is $1,294/ mo. Both are great for the next artist, creative, maker or shop owner looking to grow & contribute to the vibrant community of Middlesex. Contact info@campmeade.today or call 802-496-2108.

ser vices

FINANCIAL/ LEGAL

APPEAL FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Denied Social Security disability? Appeal! If you’re 50+, filed SSD & were denied, our attorneys can help. Win or pay nothing!

Strong recent work history needed. Call 1-877-311-1416 to contact Steppacher Law

Offi ces LLC. Principal offi ce: 224 Adams Ave., Scranton, PA 18503.

(AAN CAN)

BEHIND ON YOUR TAXES?

Are you behind $10,000 or more on your taxes?

Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled tax returns, & payroll issues, & resolve tax debt fast. Call 844-836-9861.

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and similar Vermont statutes which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, handicap, presence of minor children in the family or receipt of public assistance, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or a discrimination. The newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate, which is in violation of the law. Our

services: $12 (25 words) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x121

print deadline: Mondays at 3:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classifieds questions? classifieds@sevendaysvt.com

865-1020 x115

readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any home seeker who feels he or she has encountered discrimination should contact:

HUD Office of Fair Housing 10 Causeway St., Boston, MA 02222-1092 (617) 565-5309

— OR —

Vermont Human Rights Commission 14-16 Baldwin St. Montpelier, VT 05633-0633

1-800-416-2010 hrc@vermont.gov

Hours: Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.-5 p.m. PST. (AAN CAN)

HEALTH/ WELLNESS

CASH FOR CANCER PATIENTS

Diagnosed with lung cancer? You may qualify for a substantial cash award - even with smoking history. Call 1-888-376-0595. (AAN CAN)

MASSAGE FOR MEN BY SERGIO

I’m back after a long vacation & taking clients. Time for a massage to ease those aches & pains. Contact

me for an appointment: 802-324-7539, sacllunas@gmail.com.

PSYCHIC COUNSELING

Psychic counseling, channeling w/ Bernice Kelman, Underhill. 40+ years’ experience. Also energy healing, chakra balancing, Reiki, rebirthing, other lives, classes & more. 802-899-3542, kelman.b@juno.com.

HOME/GARDEN

BEAUTIFY YOUR HOME

Get energy-effi cient windows. ey will increase your home’s value & decrease your energy bills. Replace all or a few!

Call 844-335-2217 now to get your free, no-obligation quote. (AAN CAN)

HOME ORGANIZER/ DECLUTTERER

Refresh for spring w/ Declutter Vermont! Experienced & professional. Clients recommend! Services: organizing by room/ home, downsizing for moves, selling/donating items, etc. For free consultation, email decluttervermont@ gmail.com.

INTERIOR PAINTING SERVICE

S. Burlington-based painter seeking interior projects. Quality work, insured w/ solid refs. On the web at vtpainting company.com or call Tim at 802-373-7223.

NATIONAL PEST CONTROL

Are you a homeowner in need of a pest control service for your home? Call 866-616-0233. (AAN CAN)

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES

In as little as 1 day! Affordable prices. No payments for 18 months! Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & military discounts avail. Call 1-866-370-2939. (AAN CAN)

GUTTER GUARD INSTALLATIONS

Gutter guards & replacement gutters. Never clean your gutters again! Affordable, professionally installed gutter guards protect your gutters & home from debris & leaves forever! For a quote, call 844-499-0277. (AAN CAN)

REPAIRS FOR HOMEOWNERS

If you have water damage to your home & need cleanup services, call us! We’ll get in &

work w/ your insurance agency to get your home repaired & your life back to normal ASAP. Call 833-664-1530. (AAN CAN)

MOVING/ HAULING

LONG-DISTANCE MOVING

Call today for a free quote from America’s most trusted interstate movers. Let us take the stress out of moving!

Call now to speak to 1 of our quality relocation specialists: 855-7874471. (AAN CAN) buy this stuff

APPLIANCES/ TOOLS/PARTS

BCI WALK-IN TUBS

BCI walk-in tubs are now on sale. Be 1 of the 1st 50 callers & save $1,500. Call 844-514-0123 for a free in-home consultation.

ENTERTAINMENT/ TICKETS

SCOUT PANCAKE BREAKFAST

Scouts BSA Troop 658 Pancake Breakfast, Sun., Apr. 2, 8:30 a.m.-noon. St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski. Cost is donation.

MISCELLANEOUS

4G LTE HOME INTERNET Get GotW3 w/ lightningfast speeds + take your

service w/ you when you travel! As low as $109.99/mo. 1-866-5711325. (AAN CAN)

MALE ENHANCEMENT

PILLS

Bundled network of Viagra, Cialis & Levitra alternative products for a 50 pill for $99 promotion. Call 888-531-1192. (AAN CAN)

SWITCH TO DIRECTV

By switching to DIRECTV, you can recieve a $100 visa gift card! Get more channels for less money. Restrictions apply. Call now! 877-693-0625. (AAN CAN)

SPECTRUM INTERNET AS LOW AS $29.99

Call to see if you qualify for ACP and free internet. No credit check. Call now! 833-955-0905 (AAN CAN)

DISH TV $64.99

$64.99 for 190 channels + $14.95 high-speed internet. Free installation, Smart HD DVR incl., free voice remote. Some restrictions apply. 1-866-566-1815. (AAN CAN)

WANT TO BUY

MEN’S WATCHES WANTED

Men’s sport watches wanted. Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Here, Daytona, GMT, Submariner & Speedmaster. Paying cash for qualifi ed watches. Call 888-3201052. (AAN CAN)

WE’LL BUY YOUR CAR

Cash for cars. We buy all cars! Junk, high-end, totaled, it doesn’t matter! Get free towing and same day cash, newer models too! 1-866-5359689. (AAN CAN)

music INSTRUCTION

GUITAR INSTRUCTION

Berklee graduate w/30 years’ teaching experience offers lessons in guitar, music theory, music technology, ear training. Individualized, step-by-step approach. All ages, styles, levels. Rick Belford, 864-7195, rickbelford.com.

1- 6x 3÷232÷4-43- 24x 1 17+

1- 1-

2- 24x 2÷

CALCOKU

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★★

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. e numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A one-box cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

2 1 7 4 2 16 4 1 89 13 75 8 8 956 4 9 7

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★★

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers one to nine. e same numbers cannot be repeated in a row or column.

ANSWERS ON P.74

★ = MODERATE ★ ★ = CHALLENGING ★ ★ ★ = HOO, BOY!

ANSWERS ON P.74 » STUDY

WANT MORE PUZZLES?

Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

Guess today’s 5-letter word. Hint: It’s in the news!

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

SUDOKU BY JOSH REYNOLDS

Legal Notices

ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION 4C04711F,4C0155-4 10 V.S.A. §§ 6001 - 6111 Application 4C0471-1F,4C0155-4 from Cynosure, Inc. P.O. Box 786, Burlington, VT 05402 was received on January 9, 2023 and deemed complete on March 8, 2023. The project is generally described as placement and stabilization of +/-10,900 cy of fill material on two adjoining parcels owned by Cynosure, Inc. located at 480 Roosevelt Hwy (Hayward Tyler) and 480 Hercules Dr (Fab-Tec). The area to be disturbed equals 0.90 acres. Future use of filled area to be determined. Material source will be nearby construction projects (e.g., the Exit 16 Diverging Diamond Interchange). The project is located at 480 Roosevelt Highway / 480 Hercules Dr in Colchester, Vermont. This application can be viewed online by visiting the Act 250 Database: (https://anrweb.vt.gov/ANR/Act250/Details. aspx?Num=4C0471-1F,4C0155-4).

No hearing will be held, and a permit will be issued unless, on or before April 4, 2023, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://nrb. vermont.gov/documents/party-status-petitionform, and email it to the District 4 Office at: NRB. Act250Essex@vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this March 13, 2023.

PUZZLE ANSWERS

By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes Kaitlin Hayes District Coordinator

111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084

kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION 4C0637-2B

10 V.S.A. §§ 6001 - 6111

Application 4C0637-2B from The University of Vermont & State Agricultural College 31 Spear Street, Burlington, VT 05405 was received on March 8, 2023 and deemed complete on March 16, 2023. The project is generally described as the demolition and removal of the BioResearch Laboratory building, including the demolition, removal, and disposal of the existing building, foundation/footings, and the abandonment/removal of the existing utilities supplying the building. Fill will be added as necessary and finished with 4” of topsoil and hydro-seeded. The area to be disturbed during construction is 41,700+/- square feet (the Project). The Project is located at 655 Spear Street in Burlington, Vermont (the Project Tract). This application can be viewed online by visiting the Act 250 Database: (https://anrweb.vt.gov/ANR/ Act250/Details.aspx?Num=4C0637-2B).

No hearing will be held, and a permit will be issued unless, on or before April 7, 2023, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c) (1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub- criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://nrb.vermont.gov/documents/

party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: NRB.Act250Essex@vermont. gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this March 17, 2023.

By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes

Kaitlin

Hayes

District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS TOWN OF JERICHO, VERMONT General Notice

Town of Jericho (Owner) is requesting Bids for the construction of the following Project:

Skunk Hollow Road Improvements

Bids for the construction of the Project will be received at the Town Garage located at 510 Browns Trace Road, PO Box 39, Jericho, VT 05465, until April 11, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. At that time the Bids received will be opened and reviewed.

The Project includes the following Work: Paving and roadway improvements.

Engineer’s construction cost estimate is $400,000 to $500,000.

Obtaining the Bidding Documents

The Issuing Office for the Bidding Documents is: East Engineering, PLC 13 Jolina Ct, 2nd Floor, Richmond, VT

Prospective Bidders may obtain the Bidding Documents at East Engineering, by appointment

FROM P.73

only, and may obtain copies of the Bidding Documents from the Issuing Office as described below. Partial sets of Bidding Documents will not be available from the Issuing Office. Neither Owner nor Engineer will be responsible for full or partial sets of Bidding Documents, including addenda, if any, obtained from sources other than the Issuing Office.

Printed copies of the Bidding Documents may be obtained from the Issuing Office by paying $100 (non- refundable). PDF electronic sets of the Bidding Documents are available free of charge to Contractors and $100 (non-refundable) for third-parties/plan holder rooms/construction publications.

Pre-bid Conference (Mandatory)

A mandatory pre-bid conference for the Project will be held on March 28, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at the project site. Meet on the shoulder of Skunk Hollow Road at the Route 117 intersection – please park on Skunk Hollow, not on Route 117. Bids will not be accepted from Bidders that do not attend the mandatory pre-bid conference.

Instructions to Bidders

Contractors interested in the project shall contact East Engineering for pre-qualification prior to obtaining bid documents or attending the pre-bid conference. For all further requirements regarding bid submittal, qualifications, procedures, and contract award, refer to the Instructions to Bidders that are included in the Bidding Documents.

This Advertisement is issued by:

Owner: Town of Jericho Engineer: East Engineering, PLC

AN INVITATION TO BIDDERS

PROJECT: LAKE AND MAPLE APARTMENTS

175 Lake Street St. Albans, VT 05478

OWNER: Lake and Maple LLC

10 Maiden Lane, Apt. 505 St. Albans, VT 05478

ARCHITECT: Jutras Architecture

50 Main Street Winooski, VT 05404

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER: Wright & Morrissey, Inc. 99 Swift Street, Suite 100 South Burlington, VT 05403 Phone: 802-863-4541

Email: dyoung@wmorrissey.com & bids@wmorrissey.com Fax: 802-865-1253

BID DUE: Wednesday, April 5th, 2023 @ 2:00 p.m.

• Wright & Morrissey, Inc. is seeking qualified subcontractor bids for all trades for the above reference project. Women and minority owned businesses, small locally owned businesses and Section 3 businesses are strongly encouraged to apply. Contract security in a form acceptable to the Construction Manager may be required. All potential bidders shall demonstrate the ability to provide such security.

• This project is subject to all requirements of the City of St. Albans, MBE/WBE/Section 3, Vermont Prevailing Wages, Payroll reporting, Certification for Contracts, Grants, Loans & Cooperative Agreements, Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion, and Certification of Lobbying Activities.

• This project involves the new construction of a new 72-unit, 4 story multi-family housing building built on a podium slab with a parking garage underneath and associated site work. Contact Wright & Morrissey, Inc. for bid packages.

• Any bidding subcontractor without a prior

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 142.

working history with Wright & Morrissey, Inc. is asked to submit an AIA-305 Contractors Qualification Statement or equivalent references sufficient to indicate the bidding subcontractor is qualified to perform the work being bid.

ANNUAL FINANCIAL AUDIT SERVICES REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

Lamoille North Supervisory Union is seeking proposals for annual financial audit services for the Supervisory union and its school districts. Lamoille North Supervisory Union invites qualified, independent Certified Public Accountants, licensed to practice in the State of Vermont, to submit proposals to conduct annual audits of the financial accounts for Lamoille North Supervisory Union, Lamoille North Modified Unified Union School District and Cambridge Town School District. Proposals will be due at the Lamoille North Supervisory Union, 96 Cricket Hill Rd, Hyde Park, VT by April 7, 2023, at 3:00 PM.

The full RFP can be obtained by contacting Deb Clark 802-851-1161 (dclark@lnsd.org), or Lynda Brochu (802) 851-1163 (lbrochu@lnsd.org).

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY SELF STORAGE AUCTION

In accordance with VT Title 9 Commerce and Trade Chapter 098: Storage Units 3905. Enforcement of Lien, Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC shall host

a live auction of the following units on or after 9am 3/31/23:

Location: 78 Lincoln St. Essex Junction, VT 05452

Mitchell Harpin, unit #201: household goods

Amy Bevins, unit #227: household goods

Auction pre-registration is required, email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com to register.

FRANKLIN NORTHEAST SUPERVISORY UNION

Enosburgh-Richford UUSD is soliciting separate proposals for site work, concrete, structural steel, electrical, and plumbing related to a new sugar house at Cold Hollow Career Center. Interested bidders should contact Vern Boomhover (vernon. boomhover@fnesu.org; 802-848-7661; c/o FNESU, PO Box 489, Enosburg Falls VT 05450) for a copy of the Request for Proposals. Proposals will be accepted until 12:00 P.M. Monday, April 7, 2023.

MUTUAL HOLDING COMPANY

NORTHFIELD

NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING

The Annual Meeting of the Corporators of the Northfield Mutual Holding Company will be held on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 beginning at 5:30PM at the Capitol Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, 100 State St. Montpelier, Vermont. The matter to be considered include the election of Corporators

STUART AVENUE APARTMENTS

111 Stuart Avenue, Colchester, VT 05446

and Trustees and a review of corporate activities. Please call (802) 871-4492 for information.

NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO BROWNFIELDS REUSE AND ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY LIMITATION ACT PROGRAM

Please take notice that Winkledom, LLC whose mailing address is 227 Main Street, Burlington, VT, is applying to the Vermont Brownfields Reuse and Environmental Liability Limitation Program (10 V.S.A. §6641 et seq.) in connection with the redevelopment of property known as 227-235 Main Street, Burlington, VT. A copy of the application, which contains a preliminary environmental assessment and a description of the proposed redevelopment project is available for public review at the Burlington City Clerk’s office and at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation offices in Montpelier. Comments concerning the application and/or the above referenced documents may be directed to Sarah Bartlett at (802) 249-5641 or at Sarah.Bartlett@ vermont.gov. Comments may also be submitted by mail to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Waste Management Division, 1 National Life Drive – Davis 1, Montpelier, VT 05620; attention: Sarah Bartlett.

NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE EXIT 16 SELF STORAGE 295 RATHE RD COLCHESTER, VT. 05446

Notice Is Hereby Given That the Contents of the Self Storage Units Listed Below Will Be Sold at Auction

NAME

property is located at 76 Mill Pond Road, Account #26-005003-0000000.

March 22, 2023

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR SERVICES

CONTRACT SERVICES FOR THE DESIGN AND PLAN FOR BIKE/PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TOWN OF SOUTH HERO, VT

ISSUE DATE: March 10, 2023

DUE DATE: April 20, 2023

ADDRESS FOR BID SUBMISSION:

Email: donna@champlainislands.com OR LCIEDC, P.O. Box 213, North Hero, VT 05474 ATTN: S.H.O.R.E. Project Coordinator

All interested firms are hereby notified that proposals may be submitted electronically to donna@champlainislands.com subject: S.H.O.R.E. Project by the close of business (4:00PM) on Thursday, April 20, 2023 OR mailed to: Lake Champlain Islands Economic Development Corporation, P.O. Box 213, North Hero, VT 05474. ATTN: S.H.O.R.E. Project Coordinator which must be received by 4:00PM on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Those interested are cautioned that it is their responsibility to start and complete the process of sending proposals to ensure that their proposal is received by the due date. Late or incomplete proposals will not be considered.

A. Introduction The Lake Champlain Islands Economic Development Corporation (hereinafter “LCIEDC”) seeks a Recreation Consultant/ Planner for consulting and design services for the S.H.O.R.E. (South Hero Overland Route Exploration) Project to Create a Cyclist & Pedestrian Friendly South Hero, a Model for Vermont Communities funded by a Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaboration (VOREC) Grant. An essential part of this Project is ensuring that local recreation assets are accessible to residents and improving the bike/ walkability of the community for everyday use.

B. Contact

All communications regarding this Request for Proposal for Services are to be addressed in writing or email to the attention of:

AUCTION WILL TAKE PLACE: SATURDAY APRIL 1ST at 9:00 AM at EXIT 16 SELF

STORAGE 295 RATHE RD COLCHESTER, VT. 05446

Units Will Be Opened for Viewing Immediately Prior to the auction.sale Shall Be by Live Auction to the Highest Bidder.

S.H.O.R.E. Project Coordinator, Donna Boumil LCIEDC PO Box 213, North Hero, Vt 05474 Phone: (802) 372-8400, Email: donna@champlainislands.com

The total State funding (VOREC Grant) anticipated for the requested services is equal to or less than $20,000. LCIEDC intends to sign a contract that begins with the date of acceptance and runs through October 2023.

PROPERTY FEATURES

„ Rent includes: heat, hot water, trash, and snow removal

„ Not included in rent: electricity

BRAND NEW one, two and three bedroom apartments in Colchester’s newest development AVAILABLE JULY 2023

Champlain Housing Trust’s Shared Equity Program enables buyers to purchase homes at a lower cost and with no down payment needed!

„ Laundry: on-site

„ Parking: on-site

„ Other features: elevator, wifi, and bike storage

PRICING*

„ 1 bedroom apartment > $900-$1,213

„ 2 bedroom apartment > $1,025-$1,562

„ 3 bedroom apartment > $1,210-$1,944

*Rents subject to change. Income limits apply. Section 8 may be available.

For an application and additional information, visit us online at www.getahome.org/StuartAve or call 802.862.6244

Contents of the Entire Storage Unit Will Be Sold as One Lot.

All Winning Bidders Will Be Required to Pay a $50.00 Deposit Which Will Be Refunded Once Unit Is Left Empty and Broom Swept clean. The Winning Bid Must Remove All Contents From the Facility Within 72 Hours of Bid Acceptance at No Cost to Exit 16 Self storage. Exit 16 Self Storage Reserves the Right to Reject Any Bid Lower Than the Amount Owed by the occupant. Exit 16 Self Storage Reserves the Right to Remove Any Unit From the Auction Should Current Tenant Bring His or Her Account Current With Full Payment Prior to the Start of the Auction.

PUBLIC HEARING COLCHESTER DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD Pursuant to Title 24 VSA, Chapter 117, the Development Review Board will hold a public hearing on April 12, 2023 at 7:00pm to hear the following requests under the Development Regulations. Meeting is open to the public and will be held at 781 Blakely Road.

a) FP-23-18 ALAN CLARK: Final Plat Application to subdivide an existing 8.54 acre parcel in the Residential 1 (R1) District into three lots: Lot 1 to be 0.98 acres in size with no development proposed at this time, to be served by the existing access on Mill Pond Rd; Lot 2 to be 2.18 acres in size with the existing three-bedroom dwelling unit and 2-bedroom accessory dwelling unit served by the existing access on Mill Pond Rd, in-ground wastewater system and municipal water; and Lot 3 to be 5.38 acres developed with an 8-bedroom duplex dwelling unit served by an upgraded access on Blakely Rd, a new shared in-ground wastewater system and a shared on-site drilled well. Subject

Bid documents are available at: shore.champlainislands.com or via email: donna@champlainislands.com

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CIVIL DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET # 22-CV-02338

SPECIALIZED LOAN SERVICING LLC

Plaintiff

v.

DAVID E. DAUER AND VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF TAXES

OCCUPANTS OF: 124 Wildwood Drive, Burlington VT

Defendants

SUMMONS & ORDER FOR PUBLICATION

THIS SUMMONS IS DIRECTED TO: David E. Dauer

1. YOU ARE BEING SUED. The Plaintiff has started a lawsuit against you. A copy of the Plaintiff’s Complaint against you is on file and may be obtained at the office of the clerk of this court, Chittenden, Civil Division, Vermont Superior Court, 175 Main Street, Burlington, Vermont. Do not throw this paper away. It is an official paper that affects your rights.

2. PLAINTIFF’S CLAIM. Plaintiff’s claim is a Complaint in Foreclosure which alleges that you have breached the terms of a Promissory Note and Mortgage Deed dated September 18, 2002. Plaintiff’s action may affect your interest in the property described in the Land Records of the Town of Burlington at Volume 752, Page 375. The

Legal Notices [CONTINUED]

Complaint also seeks relief on the Promissory Note executed by you. A copy of the Complaint is on file and may be obtained at the Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for the County of Chittenden, State of Vermont.

3. YOU MUST REPLY WITHIN 41 DAYS TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. You must give or mail the Plaintiff a written response called an Answer within 41 days after the date on which this Summons was first published, which is March 15, 2023. You must send a copy of your answer to the Plaintiff or the Plaintiff’s attorney, LORAINE L. HITE, Esq. of Bendett & McHugh, PC, located at 270 Farmington Avenue, Ste. 151, Farmington, CT 06032. You must also give or mail your Answer to the Court located at Chittenden, Civil Division, Vermont Superior Court, 175 Main Street, Burlington, Vermont 05402.

4. YOU MUST RESPOND TO EACH CLAIM. The Answer is your written response to the Plaintiff’s Complaint. In your Answer you must state whether you agree or disagree with each paragraph of the Complaint. If you believe the Plaintiff should not be given everything asked for in the Complaint, you must say so in your Answer.

5. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR CASE IF YOU DO NOT GIVE YOUR WRITTEN ANSWER TO THE COURT. If you do not Answer within 41 days after the date on which this Summons was first published and file it with the Court, you will lose this case. You will not get to tell your side of the story, and the Court may decide against you and award the Plaintiff everything asked for in the complaint.

6. YOU MUST MAKE ANY CLAIMS AGAINST THE PLAINTIFF IN YOUR REPLY. Your Answer must state any related legal claims you have against the Plaintiff. Your claims against the Plaintiff are called Counterclaims. If you do not make your Counterclaims in writing in your answer you may not be able to bring them up at all. Even if you have insurance and the insurance company will defend you, you must still file any Counterclaims you may have.

7. LEGAL ASSISTANCE. You may wish to get legal help from a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you should ask the court clerk for information about places where you can get free legal help. Even if you cannot get legal help, you must still give the court a written Answer to protect your rights or you may lose the case.

ORDER

The Affidavit duly filed in this action shows that service cannot be made with due diligence by any of the method provided in Rules 4(d)-(f), (k), or (l) of the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure. Accordingly, it is ORDERED that service of the Summons set forth above shall be made upon the defendant, David E. Dauer, by publication as provided in Rule[s] [4(d)(l) and] 4 (g) of those Rules. This order shall be published once a week for 3 weeks beginning on or before March 15, 2023 in the Seven Days, a newspaper of the general circulation in Chittenden County, and a copy of this summons and order as published shall be mailed to the defendant, David E. Dauer, at 124 Wildwood Drive, Burlington, VT 05408.

Dated at Burlington, Vermont this 3rd day of March, 2023

/s/ Helen M. Toor

Hon. Helen M. Toor

Presiding Judge

Chittenden Unit, Civil Division

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CIVIL

DIVISION RUTLAND UNIT CASE NO. 23-CV-00665

IN RE: ABANDONED MOBILE HOME OF NEAL HIER

NOTICE OF HEARING

A hearing on Windy Hollow Mobile Home Cooperative, Inc.’s Verified Complaint to declare as abandoned the mobile home of Neal Hier located at the Windy Hollow Mobile Home Park, 609 River Street, Lot #37 in Castleton, Vermont and authorize the sale by auction has been set for April 4, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. To participate in this remote hearing, the WEBEX Login Information is as follows:

App: Webex Meeting Website: https://vtcourts.webex.com

Meeting Number (access code): 179 381 8436

Password: civilonhill

If you do not have a computer or sufficient bandwidth, you may call 1-802-636-1108 to appear by phone. (This is not a tollfree number). You will then enter the meeting number listed above, followed by the pound symbol (#). You will be prompted to enter your attendee number (which you do not have). Instead, press pound (#). If you have technical difficulties, call the Court at (802) 775-4394.

Date: 3/15/2023 Nichol McKeighan, Deputy Clerk

VERIFIED COMPLAINT FOR ABANDONMENT PURSUANT TO 10 V.S.A. § 6249(h) (Auction)

NOW COMES Windy Hollow Mobile Home Cooperative, Inc. (“Windy Hollow”), by and through its counsel Nadine L. Scibek, and hereby complains as follows:

1. Windy Hollow, a Vermont cooperative corporation with a principal place of business in Castleton, County of Rutland, State of Vermont, is the record owner of a mobile home park known as the Windy Hollow Mobile Home Park (the “Park”) located in the Town of Castleton, Vermont.

2. Neal Hier (“Hier”) is the record owner of a certain mobile home described as a 1985 Champion Titan, 14’ x 70’, bearing serial No. 196-397-2555 (the “Mobile Home”), located at the Windy Hollow Mobile Home Park, 609 River Street, Lot #37 in Castleton, Vermont. See attached Vermont Mobile Home Uniform Bill of Sale.

3. Hier leased the Lot in the Park from Windy Hollow for his mobile home pursuant to an written lease. No security deposit was paid. See attached Member Occupancy Agreement.

4. Hier’s last known mailing address is 609 River Street, Lot #37, Castleton, VT 05735.

5. The mobile home has been abandoned and is empty. The last known resident of the mobile home was Hier and he was evicted from the Park for non-payment of rent on October 19, 2022. Judgment was entered against him on September 16, 2022 in the amount of $1,090.00. Pursuant to Paragraph 7 of the Court Order, Hier had until January 3, 2023 to sell or remove the Mobile Home from the Park, otherwise the Mobile Home would be deemed abandoned. See Windy Hollow Mobile Home Cooperative, Inc. v. Hier, Vermont Superior Court, Rutland Civil Unit, Case No. 22-CV-02689. See attached Stipulated Judgment Order & Order of Possession, Writ of Possession and Sheriff’s Return of Service.

6. Park’s Counsel communicated in writing with Hier on November 3, 2022. On January 3, 2023 Hier contacted the Park and requested an additional 30 days to remove the Mobile Home from the Park. Hier has still failed to remove the Mobile Home from the Park and has not contacted Windy Hollow since. See attached.

7. The following security interests, mortgages, liens and encumbrances appear of record with respect to the mobile home:

a. Property taxes to the Town of Castleton are current according to the Town Clerk. See attached Tax Bill.

8. Licensed auctioneer Uriah Wallace is a person disinterested in the mobile home and the mobile home park who is able to sell the Mobile Home at a public auction.

9. Mobile home storage fees continue to accrue at the rate of $360.00 per month. Rent due Windy Hollow as of February, 2023 totals $1,810.00. See attached accounting. Court costs and attorney’s fees incurred by Windy Hollow exceed $1,000.00.

10. Windy Hollow sent written notice by certified mail to the Town of Castleton on January 5, 2023 of Plaintiff’s intent to commence this action. See attached.

WHEREFORE, the Park Owner respectfully requests that the Honorable Court enter an order as follows:

1. Declare that the Mobile Home has been abandoned;

2. Approve the sale of the Mobile Home at a public auction to be held within fifteen (15) days of the date of judgment, pursuant to 10 V.S.A. § 6249(h); and

3. Grant judgment in favor of the Park Owner and against the Mobile Home for past due rent and mobile home storage charges through the date of judgment, together with the Park’s court costs, attorney’s fees, publication and mailing costs, auctioneer’s costs, winterization costs, lot cleanup charges incurred in connection with this matter and any other costs incurred by Park herein.

DATED this 15th day of February, 2023.

WINDY HOLLOW MOBILE HOME COOPERATIVE, INC.

BY: Nadine L. Scibek Attorney for Windy Hollow

I declare that the above statement is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief. I understand that if the above statement is false, I will be subject to the penalty of perjury or other sanctions in the discretion of the Court.

February 15, 2023

By: Silvia Iannetta

Duly Authorized Agent for Windy Hollow

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT

ENVIRONMENTAL DIVISION DOCKET NO. 23-ENV-00017

In re. Allen & Nadia Dacres and Sabrina Parton, Final Plat and Site Plan Applications // FP-23-15 SP-23-22

NOTICE OF APPEAL

NOW COME Applicants Allen and Nadia Dacres, Jasmin Saric, Sabrina Parton and Lakeshore Construction, LLC (“Applicants”), by and through their counsel, MSK Attorneys, and hereby appeals, pursuant to 24 V.S.A. §4471 and 10 V.S.A. Ch. 220 to the Vermont Superior Court, Environmental Division, the Town of Colchester Development Review Board’s February 13 th , 2023 decision, denying the Final Plat and Site Plan applications for a minor four-unit Planned Unit Development to construct 2 one- bedroom dwelling units above the existing two-story detached garage on a lot occupied by an existing duplex dwelling unit. A copy of the DRB’s decision is attached hereto. Applicants have a right to appeal pursuant to 10 V.S.A chapter 220 as the applicants and owners of the subject property.

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: In order to participate in this appeal, you must enter an appearance in the Vermont Environmental Court within twenty-one (21) days of receiving this Notice of Appeal. Notices of Appearance should be mailed to Jennifer Teske, Court Office Manager, Vermont Superior Court—Environmental Division, 32 Cherry Street, Suite 303, Burlington, VT 05401. DATED at Burlington, Vermont this 8th day of March, 2023

Respectfully submitted,

MSK ATTORNEYS

By: /s/ Alexander LaRosa Alexander LaRosa, ERN 5814 275 College Street, P.O. Box 4485 Burlington, VT 05406-4485 Phone: 802-861-7000 (x119)

Fax: 802-861-7007

Email: ajlarosa@mskvt.com

Attorneys for Applicants

TOWN OF COLCHESTER SELECTBOARD PUBLIC HEARING

Pursuant to Title 24 VSA, Chapter 117, the Colchester Selectboard will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 6:35 P.M. at the Colchester Town Offices, 781 Blakely Road, for the purpose of considering amendments to the Colchester Development Regulations. The proposed amendments are as follows:

a. Update and clarify sections pertaining to water and wastewater infrastructure, as necessitated by warned changes to Chapter 8 of the Colchester Code of Ordinances [2.04E, 2.05J, 2.07E, 2.14, 2.15, 3.06B, 3.07B, 4.05E, 7.03C, 7.04E(3), 9.02B(1), 9.05A, 9.05G, 9.05H, 9.07C, 10.14, 11.01, 11.02, 11.03B, 11.04A, 11.05A and 12];

b. Reorganization of application requirements for Site Plan, Conditional Use, and Subdivision applications; add language regarding responsibility

of adjoining landowner notifications [8.05D, 8.05G, 9.04D, 9.04E, and Appendix G];

c. Add language regarding required setbacks from public infrastructure [2.07, 2.19C, (2.15 and 11.02 also relate to this purpose but are already included in ‘a’ above)];

d. New definitions, including “Appurtenances,” “Degree of Encroachment” and “Footprint” [Article 12].

e. Add to Appendix B a figure illustrating “Degree of Encroachment.”

These are a summary of the proposed changes. Copies of the adopted and proposed regulations can be found at the Town Offices at 781 Blakely Road and may also be reviewed online at https:// bit.ly/Supplement45. To participate in the hearing, you may 1) attend in person or 2) send written comment to the Colchester Selectboard via USPS at the address herein or via email to Cathyann LaRose, clarose@colchestervt.gov.

COLCHESTER SELECTBOARD

Publication date

March 22, 2023

TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM NOTICE

Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired gives notice that, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 5311 Non-Urbanized Transportation Program, Preventive Maintenance Program, Rural Technical Assistance Program and Marketing; Vermont State Operating Assistance Program; 49 U.S.C. § 5310 Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities Program, the opportunity is offered for a public hearing on a proposed Public Transit Program in the state of Vermont.

Projects are described as follows: volunteer driving, transit buses, vans, and taxis at an estimated total cost of $90,000 to provide transportation services to blind and visually impaired persons.

Persons desiring a hearing to be held should submit written requests to the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired and to the Vermont Agency of Transportation at the addresses below within 14 days of publication of this notice. Upon a receipt of a request, a date will be scheduled and a notice of hearing will be published. A copy of the proposal may be seen at the Project Manager’s Office. Persons desiring to make written comments should forward same to the addresses below within 14 days of publication of this notice.

Transit Provider: State Agency:

Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Vermont Agency of Transportation 60 Kimball Avenue Public Transit Section South Burlington, VT 05403 Barre City Place, 219 North Main Street Barre, VT 05641

Dated at South Burlington, County of Chittenden, State of Vermont this 14th day of March, 2023.

Steven Pouliot Project Manager

FRANKLIN NORTHEAST SUPERVISORY UNION

Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union is soliciting proposals to lease alternative school program space starting with the 2023-2024 school year, for a term of at least three years. Interested bidders should contact Morgan Daybell (morgan.daybell@ fnesu.org; 802-848-7661; c/o FNESU, PO Box 489, Enosburg Falls VT 05450) for a copy of the Request for Proposals. Proposals will be accepted until 4:00 PM, Tuesday, April 11, 2023.

VERMONT SELF STORAGE

The contents of storage unit 01-04901 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 6th of April 2023 to satisfy the debt of Corey Longfellow. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

The contents of storage unit 01-01331 located at 28 Adams Drive , Williston VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 6th of April 2023 to satisfy the debt of Jamie Peters. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

POST YOUR JOBS AT: JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB

PRINT DEADLINE: NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) FOR RATES & INFO: MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL SOURCE. JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

SEASONAL SOUS CHEF

The Tyler Place Resort in Highgate Springs, Vermont is seeking a creative and energetic Sous Chef passionate about great food and experienced in buffet presentation who can further enhance the Tyler Place’s reputation for fresh, simple, delicious, Vermont-inspired meals. Position begins mid-May through mid-September. Must be able to supervise staff and work one weekend day. Great working conditions, exciting environment and competitive salary. Housing provided, if needed. Please submit cover letter and resume to tasney@tylerplace.com. For more information contact chefdave@tylerplace.com. Or visit tylerplace.com and submit the online application.

Medical Lab Scientists: Consider Copley’s Alternative Lab Schedule Spend more time doing what you love:

VERMONT PUBLIC IS HIRING!

We are Vermont’s unified public media organization (formerly VPR and Vermont PBS), serving the community with trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and diverse educational programming.

Current openings include:

• Production Technician

• News Producer, Morning Edition

• Event Producer

• Digital Producer

• Data Journalist

We believe a strong organization includes employees from a range of backgrounds with different skills, experience, and passions.

To see more openings & apply: vermontpublic.org/careers

Must be able to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Vermont Public is a proud equal opportunity employer.

• Work in our lab for two 12-hour weekend shifts and get paid for 36 hours

• Full-time benefits!

• Spend the rest of your time skiing, hiking, bicycling, mountain climbing or dining out in our beautiful region—one of the most beloved in New England

Call J.T. Vize at 802-888-8329

Goddard College, a leader in non-traditional education, has the following full-time, benefit eligible and part-time position openings:

ACCOUNTING MANAGER

ASSISTANT DEAN OF COMMUNITY LIFE

ASST. DIR. OF ENROLLMENT SERVICES & LEARNING MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

MAINTENANCE GENERALIST II

PART-TIME KITCHEN STAFF (SERVERS, LINE COOKS & DISHWASHERS)

To view position descriptions and application instructions, please visit our website: goddard.edu/about-goddard/employment-opportunities/

Bookkeeper/AR Specialist

We are a rapidly growing team currently looking for a full-time Bookkeeper/AR specialist to help with the construction side of the business. Please send your resume to office@vermontconstructioncompany.com.

Explore opportunities like:

Area Coordinator

champlain.edu/careers

View opportunities here

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATORS

The Keewaydin Environmental Education Center (KEEC) is seeking environmental educators for our spring session beginning April 16th running through June 2nd.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Teach & work with small groups of 5th & 6th grade students Monday through Friday, in 5-day, 4 night, residential program focusing on human, plant and animal communities. Lead intensive field investigations & evening programs in natural science, local history, human impact, and land-use. Other responsibilities include daily dining hall meals and bi-weekly overnights in student cabins.

COMPENSATION: $500/week plus room & board. Staff housing is in simplistic wood cabins close to the lake.

Email Tim Tadlock via tim@keewaydin.org

for more information or to apply.

WHY NOT HAVE A JOB YOU LOVE?

Plus, have a benefit package that includes 29 paid days off in the first year, a comprehensive health insurance plan with your premium as low as $13 per month, up to $6,000 to go towards medical deductibles and copays, a retirement match, and so much more.

And that’s on top of working at one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for four years running.

Become a Direct Support Professional ($19-$20 per hour) at an award-winning agency serving Vermonters with intellectual disabilities and make a career making a difference.

Apply today at ccs-vt.org/current-openings/.

CARPENTER

The Facilities Department at Saint Michael’s College is inviting applications for a full-time Carpenter. This position supports the department in maintaining a comfortable, safe, and efficient environment by maintaining the functionality and appearance of all campus buildings. The successful candidate will provide general repairs and maintenance to campus buildings and components, paint interiors and exteriors, perform small carpentry projects, and identify issues that need carpentry attention around campus. The ideal candidates should have 3-5 years of carpentry and painting experience, a valid driver’s license, and the ability to pass a driving record check. This position will require regular work hours, as well as occasional on-call evening, weekend, and holiday times.

For a complete job description, benefits information, and to apply online, please visit: bit.ly/SMCFTCa

4t-StMichaelsCollegeCARPENTER032223.indd 1

General Manager

The Upper Valley Food Co-op (UVFC) of White River Jct, VT is a community-supported natural foods market which supports the local economy, is committed to sustainability, and enriches lives through education.

We Did It Again!

We Did It Again!

Development Manager

30-40 hours per week

Yestermorrow Design/Build School is seeking a talented, selfmotivated individual to bring our development e orts to the next level. This person will work closely with the Executive Director to cultivate existing donor relationships and to provide insight, direction and leadership to our school’s fundraising initiatives, which include special events, major gifts, grant writing and more.  Prior fundraising experience, especially at a nonprofit, is required. Experience organizing events and coordinating volunteers is preferred. Some remote work available.

Base Pay Starting at $23/hour plus generous benefit package. For a more detailed job description visit our website at yestermorrow.org/jobs

The General Manager is responsible for the oversight of operations to maintain the financial solvency and community centeredness that our Co-op is known for, while expanding our impact and resilience into the future. $7585K plus benefits.

Full description at: uppervalleyfood.coop/ employment. Desired start 6/15/23.

Submit resume & cover letter to UVFCsearch23@gmail.com E.O.E.

Mobile Home Program Resident Organizer

CCS is thrilled to be voted as one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for the fifth year in a row and we would love to have you as part of our team.

CCS is thrilled to be voted as one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for the fifth year in a row and we would love to have you as part of our team.

Join Us!

CVOEO’s Mobile Home Program is seeking an experienced, energetic, and committed individual with a high degree of initiative to join our team.

Work at CCS and support our mission to build a community where everyone participates and belongs. Apply today at www.ccs-vt.org

Join Us!

Work at CCS and support our mission to build a community where everyone participates and belongs.

Apply today at www.ccs-vt.org

Champlain Community Services, Inc.

Housing Stewardship Coordinator

Support the long-term sustainability of affordable housing developments across the state as the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board’s Housing Stewardship Coordinator. VHCB offers a competitive salary and generous benefit package. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and candidates from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. To learn more, visit vhcb.org/about-us/jobs. To apply, reply to jobs@vhcb.org with your cover letter and resume.

We are looking for a motivated, problem-solver to provide education, support and outreach to residents of Vermont’s mobile home parks. Our ideal candidate will have the ability to work closely with our clients and community demonstrating strong communication & facilitation skills as well as learning & maintaining a working knowledge of related statutes & regulations.

Please visit cvoeo.org/ careers to submit cover letter, resume, and three work references.

Sales Associate

Looking for motivated, reliable, hardworking individuals. Neat and clean appearance. Must be able to communicate well with customers. Must be able to lift at least 50lbs.

Duties include assisting customers, filling phone orders, checking-in and putting away freight, mixing paint, deliveries. 40 hours per week, paid vacations, health insurance.

Send resumes to: vtpaintw@gmail.com

2v-VTPaintCompany031523.indd 1

4th/5th grade Elementary Educator

Do you...

... value deep thinking? ... welcome creativity?

... advocate for social and environmental justice?

The Schoolhouse Learning Center in S. Burlington has an opening for a teacher in our 4th-5th grade multiage classroom. The ideal candidate enjoys teaching children to be independent, understands child development and is passionate about student-centered education. You should have experience with or a willingness to learn progressive approaches to learning and teaching, and embrace our interdisciplinary, nature-based philosophy. This is an unusual and exciting opportunity to join a team of creative, skilled educators in a progressive school with a 50-year track record of success.

Find out more and apply: www.theschoolhousevt.org/ employment

802-658-4164

Parish Administrator/Bookkeeper

St. James Episcopal in Essex Junction, VT is seeking a part-time Parish Administrator/Bookkeeper. This is an excellent opportunity for candidates who are familiar with or would like to learn about parish life in a setting that is occasionally quiet and occasionally very lively. St. James has a Half-time Rector and strong lay leadership.

Responsibilities: record-keeping, bookkeeping and other support to the Finance Team and Treasurer, internal and external communications, and coordination of buildings and grounds activity. Desired qualifications: excellent people skills; good writing and verbal communication skills; accounts receivable and accounts payable experience; proficiency with Microsoft Office programs, QuickBooks, and OneDrive; experience with on line marketing tools; experience with data entry and report generation, and social media experience.

Please send a cover letter and resume to: Office@Stjamesvt.org with the subject line: Parish Administrator/Bookkeeper position.

JOB TRAINING. WELL DONE.

Join the Community Kitchen Academy!

Community Kitchen Academy (CKA) is a 9-week job training program featuring: Hands on learning, national ServSafe certification, job placement support and meaningful connections to community. Plus... the tuition is FREE and weekly stipends are provided for income eligible students!

At CKA you’ll learn from professional chefs in modern commercial kitchens and graduate with the skills and knowledge to build a career in food service, food systems and other related fields. Throughout the 9-week course, you’ll develop and apply new skills by preparing food that would otherwise be wasted. The food you cook is then distributed through food shelves and meal sites throughout the community. CKA is a program of the Vermont Foodbank, operated in partnership with Capstone Community Action in Barre and Feeding Chittenden in Burlington. Next sessions start April 3rd in Barre and July 17th in Burlington.

APPLY ONLINE: vtfoodbank.org/cka

PROJECT MANAGER

Affordable Housing Design/Construction

Evernorth is a nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing and community investments in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. We have an exciting opportunity for a construction Project Manager to join our real estate development team in Vermont. This position manages all aspects of design development and construction for our affordable housing projects from predevelopment through construction completion. The successful candidate will be an excellent communicator, team builder and problem solver with strong experience in construction project management & commitment to our mission. We believe in equal access to affordable housing and economic opportunities; the power of partnerships based on integrity, respect, and teamwork; and a collaborative workplace with professional, skilled, and dedicated staff. To apply, go to bit.ly/EvernorthPM

Evernorth is an Equal Opportunity Employer

JOB FAIR

Saturday 4/1/23, 11am - 2pm Farm Store

1611 Harbor Rd. Shelburne, VT First building as you enter the farm.

Seasonal Opportunities (May-October):

• Children's Farmyard Educators and Summer Camp Educators

• Welcome Center Sales Associates and Farm Cart Cashiers

• Inn & Restaurant Staff

• Buildings & Grounds Staff

Year-round opportunities:

• Entry-Level Cheesemaker

• Program Administrative Assistant & Registrar

To apply go to: shelburnefarms.org

STUDENT SUCCESS ADVISOR

The Office of Purposeful Learning at Saint Michael’s College is inviting applications for the position of Student Success Advisor. Student Success Advisors work closely with Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and the Boucher Career Education to provide holistic, proactive mentorship and student support. Student Success Advisors guide students’ transition to and through college, foster academic and co-curricular planning and programming to support long-term personal and career goals, and work directly with students on strategies for success and overcoming academic and personal challenges.

For a complete job description, benefits information, and to apply online, please visit: https://bit.ly/SMCSSA2

Work with motivated students who are choosing education! Vermont Adult Learning seeks compassionate and versatile candidates interested in working with students on their educational journey with VAL and beyond.

Learn more about current opportunities at vtad u I tiearn in g&rg/a bout-us/#careers

To apply, submit a cover letter and resume to Rebecca Campbell Human Resources Director rcampbell@vtadultlearning.org

Are you interested in working on community scale projects that help improve water quality or address transportation needs? Do you like working in the field to identify project opportunities? Are you a collaborator who can work with partners to ensure a project is well designed and constructed according to plans? You could be a great fit for the Northwest Regional Planning Commission’s new Project Manager position. The Project Manager will work with municipalities and partners on project development and implementation in water quality, transportation, stormwater, natural resources, community facilities and energy.

The Project Manager will have strong technical skills and a mix of education and experience that shows the ability to succeed at this position.

A more detailed job description, desired qualifications and other information is available at nrpcvt.com. Please send a cover letter explaining your interest in the position, a resume and three references to Catherine Dimitruk, Executive Director at jobs@nrpcvt.com, or 75 Fairfield Street, St. Albans, VT, 05478. This position will remain open until filled; interviews will begin in April, 2023.

JOIN THE TEAM AT GARDENER’S SUPPLY!

Through gardening, our customers control their access to safe and a ordable food, and grow food to share with their neighbors. At Gardener’s Supply, we are committed to doing everything we can to help our customers keep gardening, but we need your help.

We’re hiring for SEASONAL POSITIONS AT ALL LOCATIONS:

•Pick/Pack customer orders at our DISTRIBUTION CENTER IN MILTON

•Provide exceptional customer service in our CALL CENTER - Remote options available

• Help customers with their gardening needs at our WILLISTON & BURLINGTON, VT GARDEN CENTERS

We are 100% employee-owned and a Certi ed B Corporation. We o er strong cultural values, competitive wages and outstanding bene ts (including a tremendous discount!). Please go to our careers page at www.gardeners.com/careers and apply online!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Friends of the Mad River (FMR) is seeking a dynamic, community minded leader to work with the FMR board of directors as the organization’s Executive Director.

The Executive Director is the leader and chief administrator of the Friends of the Mad River (FMR), a non-profit based in Vermont’s Mad River Valley dedicated to stewarding the Mad River Valley’s healthy land and clean water for our community and for future generations.

The Executive Director oversees the work of Friends of the Mad River including administration, fundraising, the Mad River Watch and Storm Smart programs, volunteers, communications, and events. The Executive Director represents the organization at public events, meetings, and on community boards to help build diverse partnerships of neighbors, businesses, towns, and other organizations to restore and enhance the health of the Mad River and the watershed’s valued natural resources.

Position and Benefits:

• Executive Director, Full Time

• Salary Range: $65,000-$70,000

• Full benefits package including health care and retirement.

• Reports to FMR Board of Directors

Full job description at friendsofthemadriver.org/jobs

Williston Recreation & Parks

Seasonal Job Opportunities

PARKS MAINTENANCE WORKER

30 hours per week, April-October

Monday-Friday, starts at 7:00am Hourly Rate: $18.50

DAY CAMP STAFF

Jr. Counselors, Counselors & Head Counselors

40 hours per week

June 19- August 18

Project Manager Environment & Transportation OPERATIONS SUPPORT

Hourly Range: $13.25-$15.00 (dependent on position) For detailed info and to apply: town.williston.vt.us/employment

True North Wilderness Program is seeking Operations Support people. The ideal candidate is an adaptable team player with a positive attitude who is willing to work both indoors and outdoors performing a variety of tasks associated with the logistics of running our program. Tasks including food packing and rationing, gear outfitting, transportation and facilities maintenance. Candidates must be willing to work weekends and occasional evenings. A clean and valid driver’s license is required. Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits offered. Benefits include health, dental, vision and accident insurance, an employee assistance program, a Wellness Fund, student loan repayment reimbursement, and a SIMPLE IRA.

Please apply at: truenorthwilderness.com

"Vermont Adult Learning opens the door to a world of possibility for our students."

- Maureen, VAL employee of 33 years

We are hiring for the summer season!

We have several openings beginning in May:

• TEAM MEMBERS & LEADS

For the Trailside Center Bike Rentals in Burlington

• CAPTAIN, DECKHAND, & DOCKSIDE AMBASSADOR

At the Bike Ferry in Colchester

• TEAM MEMBER

For Valet Bike Parking

Be a part of making it safe, accessible, and fun for everyone to bike, walk, and roll in Vermont!

Visit our website for more details: localmotion.org/ join_our_team

Program Support Generalist

UVM AHEC Educational Loan Repayment Programs For Healthcare Professionals

Provide administrative support for the Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program and its Vermont Educational Loan Repayment Programs for Healthcare Professionals. Provide exceptional internal and external customer service. This position requires attention to detail and ability to work within deadlines. Ability to exercise discretion when working with confidential or sensitive information is required.

Apply online: uvmjobs.com/ postings/59015

PARK MAINTENANCE

Work outdoors in beautiful parks! General maintenance of parks, beaches, athletic fields and other municipal grounds including, mowing, trimming, pruning, leaf and trash removal. Seasonal positions available from March - November 7am - 3pm, 40 hrs./week, $18.50/hr.

Visit: colchestervt.gov/321/ Human-Resources for job description and application.

E.O.E.

REGIONAL MANAGER

HireAbility Vermont is seeking a Regional Manager that will supervise exceptional teams in both the Barre and Morrisville districts. This management position is responsible for day-to-day collaborative supervision and support, staff development, personnel management, and fiscal oversight of a regional budget. The Regional Manager coordinates closely with the HireAbility central office staff, other community-based public and private human services programs as well as local business. Ongoing collaboration with local high schools, training providers and higher education centers is expected.

SERVICE COORDINATOR

Join our team of professionals providing case management for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism. In this position you will work with individuals to create and realize goals while supporting them in maintaining a safe and healthy lifestyle. Compensation package is $47k annually plus mileage, on call stipend and $1500 sign on. Position includes affordable health insurance, 20 paid days off plus 12 paid holidays, retirement match, dental plan and so much more. In addition, CCS has been voted as one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont for five years in a row! Continue your career in human services in a compassionate & fun environment. Join us today and make a career making a difference. Send resume to Karen Ciechanowicz at staff@ccs-vt.org ccs-vt.org E.O.E.

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH PROGRAM MANAGER

Centers for Wellbeing

Counselor/Social Worker

Invest EAP is seeking a skilled, licensed Master’s-level counselor or social worker for 20 hours/week.

We’re a dynamic team with diverse and engaging responsibilities. Our dedicated counselors work collaboratively to provide shortterm solution-focused counseling, resources, and support. This position will support Vermonters who are recovering from opioid use as they find employment, start a career, and overcome barriers to self-sufficiency. This position is based in Burlington. Experience and training in recovery and substance use treatment a plus.

Please email Marc Adams at marca@investeap.org with your cover letter and resume or apply at the State job website.

Accepting applications until April 9. Steady salary with high-end health and retirement benefits. E.O.E.

HireAbility Vermont is committed to a diverse and equitable workforce. We highly encourage people from historically underrepresented groups to apply, including persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous and People of Color. For more information, contact Hib Doe at hibbard.doe@vermont.gov

Location: Barre. Status: Classified, Full Time. Job Id: 46606. Application Deadline: 3/27/2023.

Job Openings - Want to work for one of the best organizations in Vermont? JOIN OUR TEAM! The City of South Burlington has a wide variety of positions open:

Digital Specialist - Libraries

Public Service Specialist Public Works Dept

Summer Bike Patrol

Police Department

City Planner Planning & Zoning Dept

Transportation & Open Space Project Manager Public Works Dept

Communications & Outreach Coordinator - Administration

IT Operations Manager

IT Department

We offer very competitive salaries, excellent benefits, leave time and so much more!

For details and to apply: southburlingtonvt.gov/jobopportunities

Are you an experienced LICSW or LCMHC interested in advancing your career? Are you motivated by mission-minded work supporting quality healthcare for all? Community Health Centers is seeking a Behavioral Health Program Manager to join our team at Riverside Health Center in Burlington, VT! This position provides administrative and clinical oversight to a tight-knit team of Licensed Social Workers. This role operates in partnership with CHC’s Director of Mental Health and Substance Use Services and ensures our community of patients receives high quality care. Compensation is commensurate with experience within the range of $76,948-$98,651 annually.

Learn more and apply online at: chcb.org/careers

We are an equal employment opportunity employer, and are especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the organization.

WHERE YOU AND YOUR WORK MATTER

SENIOR ASBESTOS AND LEAD ENGINEER – BURLINGTON

This position educates, advises and enforces Vermont asbestos and lead control regulations to ensure safe work practices in buildings. This is a dynamic position that includes both desk and field work and collaborates with state and local building professionals. Inspects worksites, provides compliance assistance to contractors about health-protective work practices, investigates non-compliance, builds enforcement cases, and audits training courses. Training provided to the right candidate. For more information, contact Amy Danielson at amy.danielson@vermont.gov. Department: Health. Location: Burlington. Status: Full Time, Limited Service. Job Id #46435. Application Deadline: April 3, 2023.

ENERGY & UTILITIES ANALYST – MONTPELIER

Put your analytical skills to work to help develop and implement policies that decarbonize Vermont’s electric, transportation, and building energy sectors. The Public Service Department seeks candidates with skills in Excel and similar tools to do an economic and environmental analysis, rate design, utility rate, and siting cases, energy planning, regulatory compliance, testimony before the Public Utility Commission and legislature, and related initiatives. Hybrid telework arrangements are considered. For more information, contact Anne Margolis at anne.margolis@vermont.gov. Department: Public Service. Location: Montpelier. Status: Full Time. Job Id #45793. Application Deadline: March 28, 2023.

CLIMATE PROGRAMS

– BARRE

The Vermont Agency of Transportation is seeking a highly motivated professional to join the newly created Environmental Policy and Sustainability team. This position presents an exciting opportunity for public service-minded individuals keen to apply their financial skills toward tackling climate change through the sound management of tangible public investments. For more information, contact Patrick Murphy at patrick.murphy@vermont.gov. Department: Transportation. Location: Barre. Status: Full Time, Limited Service. Job Id #46444. Application Deadline: March 29, 2023.

Join Our Auction Team

RN to administer VT CNA certification exams

Prometric is seeking Registered Nurses with experience in long-term care to administer the Certified Nursing Aide (CNA) Exam. This is an exciting opportunity for RNs with an active nursing license who are seeking to leverage their skills outside of the hospital setting. Locations in: Burlington, Franklin County, St. Johnsbury, Rutland & Bennington. Please visit prometric.com/careers to apply for a part-time position.

Community Bankers Chittenden County

Part Time Opportunities - 10am-2pm shifts available

BUILDERS | MAKERS | DOERS®

There is no better time to join NSB’s team!

Northfield Savings Bank, founded in 1867, is the largest banking institution headquartered in Vermont. We are committed to providing a welcoming work environment for all. Consider joining our team as a Part-time Community Banker!

Relevant Skills:

• Customer Service

• Cash Handling (we’ll train you!)

• Even better… if you have prior banking experience, we encourage you to apply!

• If you are 18 or older and have a high school diploma, general education (GED) degree, or equivalent, consider joining the NSB Team!

What NSB Can Offer You:

• Competitive compensation based on experience

Profit-Sharing opportunity.

• Excellent 401(k) matching retirement program.

• Positive work environment supported by a team culture.

• Opportunity for professional development.

Please send an NSB Application & your resume in confidence to: Careers@nsbvt.com

E.O.E. Member FDIC

Director of WonderKids Afterschool Program

Job Summary:

The WonderKids Afterschool Program has been serving students in Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union (OSSU) since October 2022, and is ready to formalize into a stand-alone program offering comprehensive afterschool enrichment to all students in OSSU. We are seeking a Director of Afterschool and Summer Programming. Ultimately responsible for executing the WonderKids mission through oversight of all programmatic, budgetary, and community relations aspects of a comprehensive, three-site afterschool program. The Director’s primary focus is on the long-term sustainability of out-of-schooltime programs for youth in the OSSU.

The Director will be an employee of Rural Arts Collaborative and must work closely with OSSU, community partners, and families to provide students with these enriching programs.

Qualifications and Application Process: Please view the full job description at https://ruralartsvt.org/employment Applications along with a cover letter, resume, and three professional references should be emailed to Sarah Mutrux at director@ruralartsvt.org.

Start Date: Immediately.

We offer competitive wages & a full benefits package for full time employees. No auction experience necessary.

OPEN POSITIONS:

• Sales & Marketing

Director: Develop, grow, & sustain our forty-fouryear brand reputation of providing amazing results for our commercial, auto, and real estate clients. Have experience in email, print, & digital marketing? Adobe Creative Cloud & Microsoft Office skills are essential, web & SEO knowledge a huge plus. Bring your knowledge and passion, you’ll find something to explore - we sell it all!

Thomas Hirchak Company is an at will employer. See details at: THCAuction.com Email

The State of Vermont is an Equal

Highway Foreperson

The Town of Hinesburg is seeking an individual to serve as the Highway Foreperson. This is a supervisory position that is responsible for overseeing the maintenance of the town’s highway infrastructure. A valid VT issued CDL Class A license is required. Required skills include proficient operation of a road grader, excavator, front-end loader, backhoe, and tandem plow truck. The pay is competitive and dependent on qualifications. Benefits include: health, dental and disability insurance; paid time off; pension plan; and 13 paid holidays.

To learn more about this opportunity, please contact the Town Manager at todit@ hinesburg.org or 482-4206

For job description and highway employment application, visit: hinesburg.org. The position is open until filled and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Landscape

Gardener

Mama’s Gardens is a garden maintenance and installation company working in Grand Isle County at homes both large and small. We have full-time and part-time openings for gardeners/ laborers for the 2023 season beginning April 3 and ending approximately November 3.

Duties include: Mulching, weeding, pruning, edging, digging, planting, watering and general garden maintenance. Prior experience working in the horticultural field is highly desirable. Knowledge of plant id, weeding and deadheading practices is a plus. Applicants must be able to lift 50 lbs. Applicants must have reliable transportation. The ability to work independently as well as with others is key. Send resumes to: mamasgardens@gmail.com

Sun Ray Fire & Security & Vermont Central Vacuum were established in 1989 with a goal of meeting Security & Fire Alarm System & Central Vacuum System needs for both Residential & Commercial customers. We are a well-established/progressive company located in Essex Junction, VT.

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Seeking a Reliable, Conscientious “team player”.

Attributes to include Professional Customer Service Skills.

Attention to Detail & a Positive Personality. Multi-tasking a Must and Accurate Office/Computer Skills required.

Quick Books/Accounting experience Required. Position requires A/R & A/P, Invoicing, Proposals and Collections, Human Resource Issues and Business Associated Taxes; Ordering Equipment & Inventory for future jobs; Shipping, etc. This is a Full Time Position, 40 Hours per week, Monday-Friday.

We offer Health & Dental Insurance, Retirement Plan, Paid Vacation and Paid Holidays. Salary Commensurate with Qualifications.

FIRE & SECURITY ALARM TECHNICIANS

Join an established company of Team Players. We are seeking a reliable employee with good customer service skills to install, inspect and service: Security/Fire Alarm Systems - CCTV - Access Control, etc. Experience necessary and a valid driver’s license is a must.

Martha Benway, 1 Marketplace, Unit #29, Essex Junction, VT 05452 or call Ray at 802-878-9091 or 802-233-2991

SOCIAL WORKER FULL TIME

Elderwood at Burlington is seeking a skilled and compassionate Social Worker to service our valued resident population.

Social Worker Pay Rate Range : $23.52 - $35.28 / hour (Earn more with experience)

NEW, Gas Allowance Benefit for Full and Part-time positions! As we work to build our team - we are seeking a skilled and compassionate Social Worker to join our team and make a difference in the lives of our residents.

Elderwood at Burlington Benefits:

• Gas Allowance Stipend

• NEW LEADERSHIP

• Full Benefits Package, including 401K PLUS EMPLOYER MATCHING

PRODUCTION TECHNICIAN

Imio is looking for a Production Technician to increase the output of our novel microbial inoculants that we have developed to increase sustainability and reduce environmental harm in the agriculture industry.

On an average day, you’ll...

• Propagate, culture, and harvest microbes, working closely with the Senior Production Manager

• Prepare and ship products to customers

• Document each production run

• Wash and sterilize glassware and microbial media

• Collaborate & communicate with the scientific & business teams

Requirements:

• B.S. in a scientific field

• Experience with sterile technique, 5S/Lean Manufacturing, microbes, and/or brewing is a bonus

• Currently living in or willing to relocate to the Burlington, VT area

View full job description: linkedin.com/jobs/view/3521893342

To learn more about our values, mission & team, visit us at imio.co

Imio is an equal opportunity employer and includes “Diversity is Excellence” as a core value. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

• Ferry Reimbursement

• Much More!

Social Worker Position Overview:

• Social Worker team members assist with ensuring the health and well-being of our residents by providing social services for residents.

Social Worker Qualifications:

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in social work, human rehabilitation counseling or psychology from an accredited institution; and services/field work including but not limited to sociology, gerontology or special education.

• One year of supervised social work experience in a health care setting working directly with individuals

• Experience in casework required.

• Valid Drivers License and clean driving record required.

• Work experience in the admission or discharge area of social work very desirable.

• Desire and ability to work with the elderly and to cooperate with other staff members necessary.

Elderwood expects all current and new employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. If hired, you will be required to provide proof of vaccination. Employees may request a medical exemption from vaccination.

Apply online: www.elderwoodcareers.com

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Multiple Positions Open

BUILDING BRIGHT FUTURES is hiring!

We have four new positions all open immediately, three of which are grant-funded positions through Dec. 31, 2025, and one of which (Regional Manager) is a permanent position. All are full-time and home-based, with some in-person meetings and/or travel required. BBF is a great place to work; we are a small, vibrant, and collaborative team. We offer a range of benefits including health insurance, retirement contributions, and generous paid time off (including Fridays off in the summer!) Check out these positions and application requirements at www. buildingbrightfutures.org/jobs

Delivery Driver/Sales Non-CDL

We are looking for a part time delivery driver for a small family business specializing in fresh fish and shellfish.

Join one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont 2023! As a nonprofit organization with nine distinct yet interconnected programs, CVOEO and its staff provide individuals and families with the basic needs of food, fuel, and housing support in times of crisis, and help people acquire the necessary education, financial skills, and assets to build stable futures.

Seeking: CRM Manager

CVOEO’s Philanthropy and Communications Team seeks a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Manager to oversee all fundraising operational functions, including gift processing, donor acknowledgements, reporting, and reconciliation. In addition to managing the CRM system, they will identify technical solutions to support fundraising and operational goals, and work collaboratively to develop fundraising revenue projections and provide support for various appeals and communications initiatives.

Explore all career opportunities at cvoeo.org/careers

Family Leadership Coordinator: BBF believes family voice matters. The Family Leadership Coordinator will bring organization and a warm, culturally responsive, and supportive approach to empowering family leaders. They will support the Building Bright Futures Families and Communities Committee by providing administrative, organizational and technical support. This person will bring creative outreach strategies, a desire to expand family leadership opportunities at BBF, and support the team in measuring the impact of family partnership.

Regional Manager (Central Vermont and Lamoille Valley): The Regional Manager is a collaborative leader with a proven ability to foster coordination and cooperation among diverse partners. The Regional Manager will support the BBF Regional Early Childhood Councils in Lamoille Valley and Central Vermont regions to communicate priorities, gaps and needs experienced by children, families, and partners to improve outcomes for children and families.

Tuesday/Thursday (Adding Fridays late Spring). Hours are typically 10-7 with option for 1-7 shi . Excellent job for people with part time schedules. Fun job, good pay, good people.  Check us out at: WoodMountainFish.Com for more information!

Engaging minds that change the world Seeking a position with a quality employer? Consider The University of Vermont, a stimulating and diverse workplace. We offer a comprehensive benefit package including tuition remission for ongoing, full-time positions.

Join the team at the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB), an innovative and award-winning organization working to ensure affordable housing, farmland, jobs, and recreational assets for every generation of Vermonters.

Several Open Positions!

Housing Stewardship Coordinator

Clean Water Program Director

Communications Director

Housing and Community Development Specialist

Conservation Stewardship Assistant

Excellent comprehensive benefits package including health care plan, dental coverage, life insurance, long- and short-term disability insurance, retirement plan, generous paid time off, employee assistance program, and more.

VHCB is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Candidates from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. To read position descriptions and apply, visit vhcb.org/about-us/jobs.

PDG Early Childhood Systems Evaluator: The PDG Early Childhood Systems Evaluator will focus on evaluating Vermont’s complex early childhood system in partnership with BBF’s Research and Data Team and network of stakeholders (regional, state, public, private), ensuring robust evaluation of Vermont’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG).

Vermont Early Childhood Fund Grant Manager: The VECF Grant Manager will bring keen project management skills to their oversight of the distribution and compliance of the Vermont Early Childhood Fund, with $1.9M in grants annually going to communities. In this new role, the VECF Grant Manager will take a flexible and collaborative approach to administering equitable selection of grantees, fund management, and clear communication with grantees.

Email resume to: kmobbs@buildingbrightfutures.org

Employer Partnership Program Manager - Career Center#S4199PO - Join our fun and dedicated team in preparing UVM grads for career success! Advance the Career Center’s mission through focused efforts to connect students to opportunities through our newly launched Employer Partner Program (EEP). The EPP supports employers in building brand awareness on campus, developing internships, and recruiting Catamounts. The EPP Manager serves existing employer partners, secures new partners, facilitates partner engagement on campus, and evolves program offerings.

The position requires exceptional skills in relationship development and event coordination; facility with technology; demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion; and a Bachelor’s degree plus two years of experience (or equivalent). Sales and marketing experience a plus. Application review begins April 3, 2023.

For further information on this position and others currently available, or to apply online, please visit www. uvmjobs.com Applicants must apply for positions electronically.

Paper resumes are not accepted. Open positions are updated daily. Please call 802-656-3150 or email employment@uvm.edu for technical support with the online application.

The University of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

Seven

Issue:

Due:

Size:

Cost:

Communications Director

VHCB funding supports housing development, land conservation, and historic public properties. Use your creative skills to increase public awareness of our programs and success stories. Develop press releases, website and social media content, publications, reports, newsletters, legislative presentations, contacts with the press and partners, public information campaigns and events.

VHCB is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we strongly encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply. To learn more, visit vhcb.org/about-us/jobs. To apply, reply to: jobs@vhcb.org with your cover letter and resume.

Public Works Director

The Town of Hinesburg, Vermont is seeking qualified applicants for the position of Public Works Director. The Town of Hinesburg has a population of approximately 4,700 residents and encompasses approximately 40 square miles. Hinesburg is a growing community, located 10-miles from downtown Burlington, the University of Vermont and Lake Champlain.

The Town of Hinesburg maintains 55 miles of road, 870 water connections, and 650 wastewater connections. Nearly 500 new housing units are expected within the next 8-10 years. Construction of a new sequential batch reactor wastewater plant is slated to begin in 2023. The addition of a well to the town’s drinking water system is in the preliminary engineering phase. The Town Hall has a structurally compromised roof and the Fire Station is inadequate for future needs so replacement of both structures is currently in the early planning phase. A new highway garage was completed in 2018.

The Town offers a comprehensive benefits package and a starting salary of $85,000 - $105,000 depending upon qualifications and experience. For full job description visit: Hinesburg.org. To be considered for the position, submit a resume and cover letter to Todd Odit, Town Manager via email to todit@hinesburg.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

The Town will consider applicants who are interested in this position on a part-time or full-time basis. The Town of Hinesburg is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion hiring goals to create a diverse workforce within the community.

Open Positions: Monday-Friday 7am-3:30pm (40 hours)

IMMEDIATE HIRE!

MIG WELDERS: Experienced, to join our production line. Accurately read work orders, ability to read and interpret drawings from customers and salespeople. Lay out, position, align, and secure parts prior to assembly. Solid math skills, ability to lift 75 lbs.

MECHANIC: To upfit cab & chassis with various truck body types. Hydraulic experience desirable. Install wiring for lights & equipment per specifications. Fit and weld replacement parts into place, using wrenches and welding equipment, and other tools. High school diploma or equivalent required.

PAINT TECHNICIAN: To assist lead painter. Auto body paint experience a big plus.

PREP WORKERS: Prepping truck bodies for painting which includes sandblasting/sanding as part of the prep work. Experience preferred but will train the right candidate.

HANDYMAN/JANITOR: Looking for someone to perform janitorial cleaning work in shop and office, general small repairs and light groundskeeping. Knowledge of chemicals & solvents. Driver's license required.

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: This position will support the activities of the accounting, receiving and sales departments. Responsibilities include, not limited to; answer multiple phone lines, greet customers, data entry, filing, purchase order receiving, and other various office duties as assigned. Previous office experience required. Monday-Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm (40 hours)

Company Benefits Include: Health Insurance w/company contribution, 401K w/company match to 5%, Paid Vacation, Paid Holidays, Paid Life Insurance/AD&D, Short Term, Long Term Disability Paid Sick Time

Forward resume to: joannef@iroquoismfg.com, or apply in person: Iroquois Mfg. Co., 695 Richmond Rd. Hinesburg, VT

COMMUNITY BANKERS: CHITTENDEN COUNTY BUILDERS | MAKERS | DOERS

There is no better time to join NSB’s team!

Northfield Savings Bank, founded in 1867, is the largest banking institution headquartered in Vermont. We are committed to providing a welcoming work environment for all. Are you looking to start or continue a career in the finance industry? Consider joining our team as a Community Banker!

JOB

RESPONSIBILITIES & REQUIREMENTS:

This frontline position is crucial in creating a positive, welcoming and inclusive experience for NSB customers. The successful candidate will have exceptional customer service and communication skills. The Community Banker will be responsible for receiving and processing customers’ financial transactions as well as opening and maintaining customer accounts and services. We are looking for someone who can develop and maintain relationships with our valued customers, protect bank and customer information, and uphold customer confidentiality.

A high school diploma, general education degree (GED), or equivalent is required. If you have customer service, previous cash handling, or banking experience we encourage you to apply!

OPPORTUNITY

FOR GROWTH:

NSB has training opportunities to engage employees and assist with professional development within our company. The average years of service for an NSB employee is 9! If you’re looking for a career in an environment that promotes growth, join our team!

WHAT NSB CAN OFFER YOU:

Competitive compensation based on experience. Well-rounded benefits package. Profit-Sharing opportunity. Excellent 401(k) matching retirement program. Commitment to professional development. Opportunities to volunteer and support our communities. Work-Life balance! We understand the importance of having evenings and weekends with our friends, families, and our community.

Please send your application with resume in confidence to: Careers@nsbvt.com

Or by Mail: Northfield Savings Bank Human Resources

P.O. Box 7180, Barre, VT 05641-7180

Equal Opportunity Employer / Member FDIC

Manufacturer of custom truck bodies is looking for career minded, talented individuals to grow along with the company.

Multiple Positions Now Open!

Hayward Tyler, a leading manufacturer of industrial pumps & motors in Colchester, is seeking candidates to fill the following positions:

PROJECT MANAGER

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/project-manager/

MECHANICAL DESIGN & SUPPORT ENGINEER

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/ mechanical-design-support-engineer/

TECHNICAL SERVICES ENGINEER

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/ technical-services-engineer/

MECHANICAL DESIGNER

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/mechanical-designer/

ELECTRO-MECHANICAL ENGINEER

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/ electro-mechanical-engineer/

LEAD AFTERMARKET DESIGN ENGINEER

haywardtyler.com/job_listing/ lead-aftermarket-design-engineer/

We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits package.

If you meet our requirements and are interested in an exciting opportunity, please forward your resume & salary requirements to:

Hayward Tyler, Inc. – Attn: HR Department

480 Roosevelt Highway PO Box 680, Colchester, VT 05446

Email: Careers@haywardtyler.com

Equal Opportunity Employer

STAFF ATTORNEYS

Vermont Legal Aid seeks full-time Staff Attorneys for our Elder Law Project, Medical-Legal Partnership, Mental Health Law Project, and Victims’ Rights Project

We encourage applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, and welcome information about how your experience can contribute to serving our diverse client communities. Applicants are encouraged to share in their cover letter how they can further our goals of social justice and individual rights. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to a discrimination-and-harassment-free workplace. Please see our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: vtlegalaid.org/commitment-diversity-inclusion

General responsibilities: interview prospective clients, assess legal problems, and identify legal advice; individual and systems advocacy in a variety of forums on behalf of clients; conduct factual investigations and analysis; legal research; prepare briefs and argue appeals; become proficient in law handled by the specific law project.

See vtlegalaid.org/work-at-vla for job description details and vtlegalaid.org/our-projects for specific project information.

Starting salary is $59,800+, with additional salary credit given for relevant prior work experience. Four weeks paid vacation and retirement, as well as excellent health benefits. Attorney applicants must be licensed to practice law in Vermont, eligible for admission by waiver, or have passed the UBE with a Vermont passing score. In-state travel in a personal vehicle required.

Application deadline is March 28, 2023. Positions open until filled. Your application should include a cover letter and resume, bar status, writing sample, and at least three professional references with contact information, sent as a single PDF.

Send your application by e-mail to hiring@vtlegalaid.org, include in the subject line your name, which project(s) you are applying for, and April 2023. Please let us know how you heard about this position.

PCC Technical Openings

PCC is a 40 year-old, Vermont owned and operated software and services company. We specialize in practice management and EHR software and related services for pediatricians. We are looking for an experienced Linux systems administrator to join our Client Technical Services (CTS) team which supports 250+ pediatric practices nationwide. CTS installs and supports our application servers and clients’ networks.

PCC offices are a casual, but professional work environment located in Winooski, Vermont. We offer a competitive salary and fantastic benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, generous paid time-off, 401(k), tuition reimbursement, a hybrid work environment, and numerous other perks. Please visit our website at pcc.com/careers/ for more information, or email your resume and cover letter to jobs@pcc.com.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR

The ideal candidate will have excellent customer service skills, great attention to detail, and like to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. We require three or more years experience supporting Linux servers and TCP/IP networks in a professional context. Your skillset should include experience with CentOS/Rocky Linux, shell scripting, Dell servers, Google Cloud, Nagios monitoring, Fortinet security, Proxmox, ZFS, and UniFi switching and wireless. This position requires some domestic travel.

WEB DEVELOPER

Hands-on experience with either Ruby on Rails or PHP is preferred. If you have any full stack experience utilizing other web-based technologies, or have created responsive front-end web applications using HTML, CSS, Javascript, or any front-end framework such as React, Angular or Vue, we would also love to hear from you!

For details and to apply go to: pcc.com/careers AA/EOE

FULL TIME ATTORNEY POSITION

Bergeron, Paradis & Fitzpatrick PC seeks a full-time associate to join our team. Our ideal candidate must have excellent legal, organizational and writing skills along with a great sense of humor. We offer competitive pay & benefits and a supportive, friendly and professional work environment. Must be admitted or eligible for admission to the Vermont Bar. Applicants should email a cover letter and résumé to Robin Beane at rbeane@bpflegal.com

HQS INSPECTIONS TEAM LEAD

Are you interested in a job that helps your community and makes a difference in people’s lives every day? Consider joining Burlington Housing Authority in Burlington, VT. We’re seeking candidates to continue BHA’s success in promoting innovative solutions that address housing instability challenges facing our diverse population of low-income families and individuals.

We’re looking for a HQS Inspections Team Lead to work as a liaison with landlords and participants to resolve ongoing HQS challenges, provide oversight to all aspects of HQS inspections activities, and coordinate inspections in accordance with HUD regulations. The HQS Team Leader also provides day-to-day supervision and support to HQS Inspectors, ensuring that they have the training and supplies needed to complete their tasks. This is a full time (40 hours per week) position.

The ideal candidate will have an Associate’s Degree in business, public administration, or other related fields. Formal education may be substituted for extensive previous, relevant program administrative experience. Three years of direct supervisory experience is preferred. Candidates should have considerable knowledge of building construction systems, including structure, wiring, plumbing, heating, fire safety and equipment, and energy efficiency measures, including lighting, insulation, air sealing, indoor air quality, maintenance, repair and upgrading of buildings and systems.

Exceptional communication and customer service skills, attention to details, and an ability to work independently is also required. Sensitivity to the needs of elderly, disabled and low-income housing is a must.

This position requires a valid state motor vehicle operator license, a reliable vehicle, as well as the ability to meet the physical requirements of the position, including continual standing, twisting, squatting, and climbing stairs. Candidates must be able to work well in all environments, including exposure to outside weather conditions, unsanitary apartments, attics, basements, cramped areas, and other adverse conditions.

Burlington Housing Authority serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus!

BHA offers a competitive salary, commensurate with qualifications and experience. Our robust benefit package includes premium medical insurance with a health reimbursement account, dental, vision, short and long term disability, 10% employer funded retirement plan, 457 retirement plan, accident insurance, life insurance, cancer and critical illness insurance.

We provide a generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, Burlington Housing Authority recognizes 13 (paid) holidays. Interested in this career opportunity?

Send a cover letter and resume to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org

BHA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

FLORAL MERCHANDISER

Burlington, Milton

PT, 3 mornings per week, approximately 15-20 hours. Fun and flexible job perfect for a creative person who likes to work independently

Please contact Nathalie at the number below: 518-420-3786

WE ARE HIRING FOR TWO FULL-TIME POSITIONS! NEK Broadband is a Communications Union District (CUD) building Lightning Fast Local Fiber Internet throughout the NEK and Wolcott. THE WAREHOUSE/MATERIALS HANDLER must be able to be licensed on a forklift, and will be responsible for material handling daily tasks, and assisting with daily inventory and the deployment of materials to our contractors. Interviews will begin April 10.

THE LOGISTICS MANAGER will be responsible for managing the warehouse, procurement, and deployment of materials to our contractors. We hope to fill this position prior to the end of March. Go to nekbroadband.org/careers to see the full job descriptions on our website. To apply, send a resume and cover letter to careers@nekbroadband.org

Right People. Right Business. RIGHT JOB FOR YOU!

Rhino is hiring like crazy to meet the summer demand for all our delicious products and we need you to join us!

Check out our website for all job listings, which include:

Production 3rd shift, $18.50/hr.

Maintenance Techs 1st & 3rd shifts, $20-$35/hr DOE

Earn

some “Dough” at Rhino Foods!

rhinofoods.com/about-rhino-foods/jobs-and-careers

Check out these openings and others on our career page:

*Rhino Foods does run sex offender checks on all employees

HUMAN RESOURCES IS GROWING!

Do you want to work for an Agency that positively impacts the lives of over 20,000 individuals?

The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) addresses fundamental issues of economic, social, and racial justice and works with people to achieve economic independence by “bridging gaps and building futures.” We are a part of the communities in which we work and live and together we create belonging and connection.

Become a part of our Human Resources team! Our Administration program seeks full-time motivated Human Resources Generalist professionals with a passion for our mission for the following positions:

Senior Human Resources Generalist

You will have the opportunity to develop a motivated, diverse and engaged workforce by providing support in a variety of areas including: employee recruitment, hiring and onboarding, and employee relations. Building and maintaining strong relationships with employees and external customers, this position works closely with the Human Resource Director to address agency needs in regards to Human Resources. Hiring range: $56,422$70,528. Bachelor’s degree and 4 – 6 years of Human Resources experience.

Human Resources Generalist

You will have the opportunity to provide administrative support in a variety of areas including: employee recruitment, hiring and onboarding, maintaining confidential Human Resources files and systems, answering employee questions, and other administrative duties as needed. This position works closely with the Human Resources team to address agency needs in regards to Human Resources. Hiring range: $47,221- $59,027. Associate’s degree and 3 years of Human Resources experience.

When you come to work for CVOEO you’re getting so much more than a paycheck! We offer a great working environment and an excellent benefit package including medical, dental and vision insurance, paid holidays, generous time off, a retirement plan and discounted gym membership.

Interested in working with us? To apply, please visit cvoeo.org/careers to submit a cover letter and resume.

We embrace the diversity of our community and staff. CVOEO is interested in candidates who can contribute to our diversity and this goal. Applicants are encouraged to include in their cover letter information about how they will further this goal. Review of applications begins immediately and will continue until suitable applicants are found.

CVOEO is an Equal Opportunity Employer

RAPID REHOUSING SPECIALIST

Are you interested in a job that helps your community and makes a difference in people’s lives every day? Consider joining Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) in Burlington, VT. We’re seeking candidates to continue BHA’s success in promoting innovative solutions that address housing instability challenges facing our diverse population of low-income families and individuals.

Currently, we’re looking for a full time (40 hours per week) Rapid Rehousing Specialist in our Housing Retention and Services department. This position provides assistance to community members who are without housing and have barriers to locating and securing housing in the community. This grant funded position works closely with our Rental Assistance department and Chittenden County Coordinated Entry and is a part of a skilled team that focuses on assessment, intervention, and service coordination of at-risk households.

Bachelor’s degree in Human Services or related field and three years of experience working with home-based service provision to diverse populations is required. The ideal candidate should be highly organized with strong written and verbal communication skills and positively contribute to a collaborative team. A valid driver’s license and reliable transportation is preferred.

BHA serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus!

BHA offers a competitive salary, commensurate with qualifications and experience, and a sign on bonus of $2,000!

Our robust benefit package includes premium medical insurance with a health reimbursement account, dental, vision, short and long term disability, 10% employer funded retirement plan, 457 retirement plan, accident insurance, life insurance, cancer and critical illness insurance.

We provide a generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays. Interested in this career opportunity? Send a cover letter and resume to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org

Human Resources - Burlington Housing Authority 65 Main Street, Suite 101 Burlington, VT 05401 burlingtonhousing.org, BHA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

fun stuff

CALCOKU & SUDOKU (P.73) CROSSWORD (P.73)

JEN SORENSEN

HARRY BLISS

“Honey, look at the moon and that guy with a chain saw.”

fun stuff

JULIANNA BRAZILL

ARIES

(MAR. 21-APR. 19)

If we were to choose one person to illustrate the symbolic power of astrology, it might be Aries financier and investment banker J.P. Morgan (1837-1913). His astrological chart strongly suggested he would be one of the richest people of his era. The sun, Mercury, Pluto and Venus were in Aries in his astrological house of finances. Those four heavenly bodies were trine to Jupiter and Mars in Leo in the house of work. Further, sun, Mercury, Pluto and Venus formed a virtuoso “Finger of God” aspect with Saturn in Scorpio and the moon in Virgo. Anyway, Aries, the financial omens for you right now aren’t as favorable as they always were for J.P. Morgan — but they are pretty auspicious. Venus, Uranus and the north node of the moon are in your house of finances, to be joined for a bit by the moon itself in the coming days. My advice: Trust your intuition about money. Seek inspiration about your finances.

TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): “The only thing new in the world,” said former U.S. president Harry Truman, “is the history you don’t know.” Luckily for all of us, researchers have been growing increasingly skilled in unearthing

buried stories. Three examples: 1) Before the U.S. Civil War, six Black Americans escaped slavery and became millionaires. (Check out the book Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills.) 2) Over 10,000 women secretly worked as codebreakers in World War II, shortening the war and saving many lives. 3) Four Black women mathematicians played a major role in NASA’s early efforts to launch people into space. Dear Taurus, I invite you to enjoy this kind of work in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time to dig up the history you don’t know — about yourself, your family and the important figures in your life.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): Since you’re at the height of the Party Hearty Season, I’ll offer two bits of advice about how to collect the greatest benefits. First, ex-basketball star Dennis Rodman says that mental preparation is the key to effective partying. He suggests we visualize the pleasurable events we want to experience. We should meditate on how much alcohol and drugs we will imbibe, how uninhibited we’ll allow ourselves to be, and how close we can get to vomiting from intoxication without actually vomiting. But wait! Here’s an alternative approach to partying, adapted from Sufi poet Rumi: “The golden hour has secrets to reveal. Be alert for merriment. Be greedy for glee. With your antic companions, explore the frontiers of conviviality. Go in quest of jubilation’s mysterious blessings. Be bold. Revere revelry.”

CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): If you have been holding yourself back or keeping your expectations low, please STOP! According to my analysis, you have a mandate to unleash your full glory and your highest competence. I invite you to choose as your motto whichever of the following inspires you most: raise the bar, up your game, boost your standards, pump up the volume, vault to a higher octave, climb to the next rung on the ladder, make the quantum leap, and put your ass and assets on the line.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): According to an ad I saw for a luxury automobile, you should enjoy the following adventures in the course of your lifetime: Ride the rapids on the Snake River in Idaho; stand on the Great Wall of China; see an opera at La Scala in Milan; watch the sun rise

NEW

over the ruins of Machu Picchu; go paragliding over Japan’s Asagiri highland plateau with Mount Fuji in view; and visit the pink flamingos, black bulls and white horses in France’s Camargue Nature Reserve. The coming weeks would be a favorable time for you to seek experiences like those, Leo. If that’s not possible, do the next best things. Like what? Get your mind blown and your heart thrilled closer to home by a holy sanctuary, natural wonder, marvelous work of art — or all the above.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): It’s an excellent time to shed the dull, draining parts of your life story. I urge you to bid a crisp goodbye to your burdensome memories. If there are pesky ghosts hanging around from the ancient past, buy them a one-way ticket to a place far away from you. It’s OK to feel poignant. OK to entertain any sadness and regret that well up within you. Allowing yourself to fully experience these feelings will help you be as bold and decisive as you need to be to graduate from the old days and old ways.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): Your higher self has authorized you to become impatient with the evolution of togetherness. You have God’s permission to feel a modicum of dissatisfaction with your collaborative ventures — and wish they might be richer and more captivating than they are now. Here’s the cosmic plan: This creative irritation will motivate you to implement enhancements. You will take imaginative action to boost the energy and synergy of your alliances. Hungry for more engaging intimacy, you will do what’s required to foster greater closeness and mutual empathy.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio poet Richard Jackson writes, “The world is a nest of absences. Every once in a while, someone comes along to fill the gaps.” I will add a crucial caveat to his statement: No one person can fill all the gaps. At best, a beloved ally may fill one or two. It’s just not possible for anyone to be a shining savior who fixes every single absence. If we delusionally believe there is such a hero, we will distort or miss the partial grace they can actually provide. So here’s my advice, Scorpio: Celebrate and reward a redeemer who has the power to fill one or two of your gaps.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Poet E.E. Cummings wrote, “May my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple.” That’s what I hope and predict for you during the next three weeks. The astrological omens suggest you will be at the height of your powers of playful exploration. Several long-term rhythms are converging to make you extra flexible and resilient and creative as you seek the resources and influences that your soul delights in. Here’s your secret code phrase: higher love

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Let’s hypothesize that there are two ways to further your relaxation: either in healthy or not-sohealthy ways — by seeking experiences that promote your long-term well-being or by indulging in temporary fixes that sap your vitality. I will ask you to meditate on this question. Then I will encourage you to spend the next three weeks avoiding and shedding any relaxation strategies that diminish you as you focus on and celebrate the relaxation methods that uplift, inspire and motivate you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Please don’t expect people to guess what you need. Don’t assume they have telepathic powers that enable them to tune in to your thoughts and feelings. Instead, be specific and straightforward as you precisely name your desires. For example, say or write to an intense ally, “I want to explore ticklish areas with you between 7 and 9 on Friday night.” Or approach a person with whom you need to forge a compromise and spell out the circumstances under which you will feel most open-minded and openhearted. PS: Don’t you dare hide your truth or lie about what you consider meaningful.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20): Piscean writer Jack Kerouac feared he had meager power to capture the wonderful things that came his way. He compared his frustration with “finding a river of gold when I haven’t even got a cup to save a cupful. All I’ve got is a thimble.” Most of us have felt that way. That’s the bad news. The good news, Pisces, is that in the coming weeks, you will have extra skill at gathering in the goodness and blessings flowing in your vicinity. I suspect you will have the equivalent of three buckets to collect the liquid gold.

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WOMEN seeking...

A HARDWORKING, PLAYFUL SOUL

I love to be curious about life but realistic. I enjoy laughing at myself. I love my animals and enjoy time with them. I am a great cook and love making a good curry. Music is important to me. I love all kinds of music. I am looking for an honest and openhearted man willing to learn and grow together. sheshe61, 58 seeking: M, l

REAL LOOKING FOR REAL

I love to laugh, love music and am attracted to intelligent, strong men who can get things accomplished. I love the stillness of the morning hours, nature, and traveling and learning about different cultures. Hoping to meet a gentleman who enjoys the same. daylily 62 seeking: M, l

KINDNESS

I enjoy warm, creative people. A sense of humor and radical politics are necessary. Do you love music and have a curious, open mind? Let’s be friends. ComicMellow, 45 seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, Gp, l

CLEAN AND SIMPLE CRAFTER

Hello, gentlemen. I am a creative maker looking for a good friendship. I don’t imbibe nor inhale smoke. I enjoy clean, quiet, thoughtful conversation. I’m happy with my life and hope to find a pal to share short hikes or a relaxed cup of tea. If we enjoy each other’s company, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it! Quiet_quality, 55 seeking: M, l

WANT TO RESPOND?

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All the action is online. Create an account or login to browse hundreds of singles with profiles including photos, habits, desires, views and more. It’s free to place your own profile online.

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W = Women

M = Men

TW = Trans women

TM = Trans men

Q = Genderqueer people

NBP = Nonbinary people

NC = Gender nonconformists

Cp = Couples

Gp = Groups

OLD-SCHOOL R&B LOVER

COVID-19 has left me feeling alone — hoping to get my groove back. Building a friendship is at the top of my list. Love R&B, dancing and music. Clean up well. Very independent and social. Artistic and crafty. Looking for someone to go on walks and bike rides, a hike in the woods, movies and dinners out. RareBean13 71, seeking: M, l

HOPE, LIGHT, LOVE

Am looking for that special man — the one who understands that love is unconditional yet has healthy boundaries. That it’s sometimes inconvenient and equally timeless. If you’re that guy, let’s talk. Prospect 57, seeking: M, l

IT ALL BEGINS WITH HELLO

Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Now to tell you a bit about myself: I’m a kind (treat people the way I’d like to be treated), happy, hardworking, financially self-sufficient, inquisitive, romantic, humble, dramafree, non-helicopter parent, makeup or not, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of girl. Oh, and I’m searching for “the one.” Daisies36 53 seeking: M, l

READY, SET, GO

Honestly, after 68 years of life and a major upheaval, I am learning about who I am now. The things I know are: I am honest, sincere, thoughtful, flexible and hardworking. I seek justice and truth in this jumbled-up world. I love to travel but also love my home in Vermont. dontknowaboutthis, 68, seeking: M, l

NEK, ADVENTUROUS, INTELLIGENT, WELL-ROUNDED

Looking for a kind, self-confident guy with whom to explore our worlds. A nice mix of homebody and adventurous spirit would be ideal. Travel near and far, time spent on the water, a social life. Traveling into Québec is always interesting. French speakers welcome. Call now for a free set of Ginsu knives! Stemtostern, 74, seeking: M, l

HAPPILY MARRIED, HAVING SOME FUN

I’m just looking for low-drama physical fun, and my husband is delighted to watch, participate or just know that I’m out having a good time. The_Lemon_Song, 41, seeking: M, TM, Q, NC, NBP, l

FIRST, LET’S TALK

A devoted VPR listener. Love gardening, almost all music, museums, movies, theater, flea markets, trips to nowhere and travel. I don’t need someone to “complete” me or support me, just someone to talk to, hold hands, share adventures. I am short and round — not sloppy fat, but definitely plump. I love to laugh and sing, preferably with others — hence this endeavor. ZanninVT 73, seeking: M, l

EYE-TO-EYE IN ALL

Love to cook, garden, travel, write, photograph, cross-country ski, hike, bike, watch movies, read, walk my dogs. Wish to share all that with a kind, grounded, warm and self-reflective man who can communicate — key to a strong relationship. I’m still working part time in private practice. I’m looking for a healthy, long-term, monogamous relationship. RumiLove, 73, seeking: M, l

FUN, FUNNY AND FIT

Attractive, athletic woman interested in casual dating/connections. Kids are getting older, and work is winding down. Looking for new adventures. Love to travel, see new places, experience new things. Never bored or boring. I enjoy music, dancing, yoga, weight lifting and soccer. Not a fan of drama. If you are healthy, fit, nice, funny and easy on the eyes, reach out. Yolo50 50, seeking: M

FUN, KIND AND LOVING

Recently I relocated to Vermont and am looking for someone to enjoy Vermont life with. I’ve been divorced/single long enough to know myself and enjoy my own company. I would like to be in a long-term, healthy, monogamous relationship. So let’s be friends first and see where it goes! CoachKaty7, 53, seeking: M, l HOPEFULLY YOURS?

Charismatic, adventuresome woman seeks man for friendship, LTR, shared and mutual interests! I am kind and fun, seeking the same to enjoy and share life! HopeVT 63, seeking: M, l

MONTRÉAL WIFE IN OPEN RELATIONSHIP

Longtime married, very attractive, in open relationship. Desire playmate in Burlington area. I like confident, experienced, athletic, smart, welleducated, charming men. I am not looking to develop a relationship. Would like a regular playmate who is very discreet. My wonderful husband may be around for first meet, so need to be comfortable with that. He does not participate. MontrealWife 54, seeking: M, l

MEN seeking...

‘COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY’

Steely Dan. racine24, 69, seeking: W

AN EMPATHETIC, HARDWORKING, DRIVEN PROFESSIONAL

35 years in golf industry sales and marketing. Lasping22, 47, seeking: W

SINCERE New in town, looking to expand social network. AfricanAmericanMan 37, seeking: W, l

BALD AND FUNNY, LOOKING

A catch, even for non-fisherman. Educated, broadly open-minded, practitioner of many hobbies including reading, playing and listening to music, singing, writing, farming, fishing, hiking, camping, weeding, exercising, working, blah-blahing, performing arts, and poetry, ah, poetry. Seeking friends with probable benefits to make me a better person and interest me considerably.

P.S. I love good food and beautiful people. 1Tenor1971 51 seeking: W, l

HONEST, LOYAL, AFFECTIONATE AND CARING

I like to think I’m a very honest and loyal person who cares a little too much at times. I’m looking for a best friend to fall in love with who can be honest even when it hurts or doesn’t look pretty.

Zaileaopollo 39, seeking: W, l

GREAT GUY SEEKING

A solid, confident, stable guy here looking for the same in a lady. I love a mutual relationship filled with compassion, love and care. I am very outgoing and have great manners. I highly respect women’s rights and appreciate women’s success in life. Are you that woman, too? Would love to hear from you. Just_a_good_guy, 55 seeking: W, l

SILLY, POSITIVE AND GOOD LISTENER

I have completed some college. I’m going to get a job in the tech industry, and I am a very caring and honest person. I always strive to do my best and am OK with imperfections. I’m looking for friends or more! Feel free to contact me! Meeting on here would be a good story. Serotonin 23, seeking: W, l

LAID-BACK COUNTRY MAN

I’m a widower trying to enjoy my life. I work hard, play hard. Like car shows; fishing; swimming; tubing; being on the beach under an umbrella on a hot, sunny day; taking the motorcycle out for the weekend; road trips; and a good movie at home. Sand1959 63 seeking: W, l

CREATIVE SONGWRITING MUSICIAN

Looking to connect with somebody who shares the same interests, such as cosmology, other sciences in general and being on the fringe of these philosophically. artfun 59, seeking: W

HSV2

I’m trying something different. Tired of traditional dating sites, where you always have to have a talk, which is very uncomfortable, and most times does not go well. I’m here with HSV2 — not because I want to be but because I trusted someone to do the right thing. I was not given a choice, so here I am. MIGHTBU 66, seeking: W

OLDER, WISER, FUN

Still hot, still horny, still 420-friendly, still striving for self-sufficiency in a pastoral setting next to a river in the mountains. Sugaring with 400 taps right now, large garden, berries, fruit trees, commercial garlic and flower operation in the summer. Looking for an intelligent, attractive cohort in crime to help enjoy and get it all done. Give me a shot. You won’t regret it! StillHot, 73 seeking: W, l

OLD-FASHIONED, HARDWORKING, HONEST MAN

Honest man looking for a partner to enjoy life’s simple joys with. Five-foot-sixinches tall, looking for nice lady to share the ups and downs of life. Animal and nature lover. Love to cook and garden. Vermontgardener 65 seeking: W, l

MELLOW, EASYGOING AND FRIENDLY

My eyes don’t smile? My warmth comes from talking with me. I love to have a good time, and it shows wherever I go. I enjoy working on my house (quite the project), creating models in motion and learning the piano. I’ve been told I look like Carmine from “Laverne & Shirley,” Buddy Holly and Elvis Costello. Vinijackson, 59, seeking: W, l

PROUDLY NEURODIVERGENT, LAID-BACK POET

Proudly neurodivergent, laid-back poet who appreciates the quirky and wondrous. Inhabit a 54-y/o, cis male (he/him) body of pan-Celtic, English, German and a trace of Penobscot heritage. Enjoy writing, making art, music of all kinds, gardening, camping, cooking/baking, reading and cats. Seeking friendship or romantic relationship with 25- to 45-y/o hetero or bisexual woman — or friendship with anyone who respects the dignity of every human being and can deal with unconventionality.

Dan_o_Shanter, 54, seeking: W, l

GO WITH THE FLOW

I’m looking for someone just like me — someone who works hard, cares about others and the world we live in but is missing something in their life and/or partnership and wants to find that spark of excitement. I also live a busy life, so spontaneity is desired but oh so challenging. Anybody out there that fits the mold? my_fungi_ username 45 seeking: W, l

FUN LOVER SEEKING MEANINGFUL CONNECTION

Young-at-heart (and looks), funloving hopeless romantic looking for physical and spiritual connection with a woman. I enjoy getting together with friends and family, traveling, seeing live shows and movies, and being active. What I’m looking for in a lady is someone who is kind, curious, caring and playful (frisky?). If this sound like you, reach out! Pictures available upon request. Batterout 50, seeking: W

TRANS WOMEN seeking...

ILLUSTRIOUS, FILLED WITH LONGING, CHRONICALLY OFFLINE

My little booklet is my little prayer / Poured gold into a cast of well wishes / And forgotten pasts / The ones that beckon to be remembered / For you to be a one and the one / To be me and not mine / The eyes that saw when no one looked / My knees, turned to sea / My mind, mine, my heart, yours. Transient 25 seeking: M, l

GENDER NONCONFORMISTS seeking...

SEEKING WOMAN OR COUPLE

Mature man seeks relationship to share my fem side. Seeking married or committed couple in a long-term relationship, or a single woman, to visit periodically perhaps once a month, to share friendship and explore a service role. Sincerity, discretion, a sense of humor, a twinkle in the eye and maturity are desired attributes. Mellow_Fellow, 73, seeking: W, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp

COUPLES seeking...

SNOW AND SUN

EQUAL FUN

Borders and boundaries are sexy. We’re pretty cute. We like to have fun, and we bet you do, too. Happily married couple (W, 35; M, 45), open-minded and looking to explore. Love playing outdoors. Looking to meet a couple, man or woman for fun and adventure. Ideal meetup is a cottage in the mountains with great food and lots of great wine. SnownSun 46, seeking: Cp, l

LOVERS OF LIFE

We are a 40s couple, M/F, looking for adventurous encounters with openminded, respectful M/F or couples. Looking to enjoy sexy encounters, FWBs, short term or long term. sunshines, 42, seeking: M, W, Q, Cp

LOOKING FOR OUR MAN!

Ideally hoping for a throuple/FWB situation. Us: established M/F couple. DD-free. (She: 44, straight BBW; he: 46, bi MWM). Drinks, 420-friendly, fires, get outside, music, Netflix and chill, always horny. You: DD-free, clean, masculine bi male (30ish to 50ish) who works and knows how to enjoy life! A little rough/hard (top, real man, etc.) with a compassionate heart and a bit of a snuggler. Connection is key. Let’s chat and get to know each other, then play! ginganddaddy 46, seeking: M

Y

PRANCING PRINCE ON NORTH STREET

contact your admirer!

dating.sevendaysvt.com

PAID FOR MY MCDONALD’S

FIDIUM GUY AT THE LOCAL

I had you in my peripherals the entire time I was wine tasting. You walked by and gave me the brows and smile. I was too chicken to talk to you. Wanna meet for a drink? I was the only girl in the room wearing sparkles. When: ursday, February 16, 2023. Where: the Local. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915715

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

LIFE DRAWING AT KARMA BIRD HOUSE

OLD POST BLONDE, BAD BAND

You were running down the street. I was playing with friends at Pomeroy Park. You caught my eye with your gold-tipped, pink knit crown. You had a fluffy green pullover to match, and you had some serious pep in your step. Have you ever been to Guatemala? Let’s quit our jobs and take a trip together! When: Sunday, March 19, 2023. Where: North Street.

You: Woman. Me: Genderqueer. #915724

KALEIDOSCOPE OF BUTTERFLIES

When we walk in nature, the animals show themselves to us. I feel in love with the moss before you. Now it has grown thick, dripping with pleasure. You are a treat in the morning when the sun hits your body. A dream to wrap myself around in the evening. e days are rich when we share them together. XOXO. When: Monday, December 31, 2018. Where: in everything.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915723

SKI-WITH-ME ON MATCH

Hi. I saw your profile, but I’m not a member. I am also looking for someone to ski with. And kayak, and hike, and all kinds of fun outdoor activities. Say hello? And what ski area do you prefer? Maybe we can meet there. When: Monday, February 27, 2023. Where: Match. com. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915721

JUMP-STARTING

YOUR MOM’S VAN

I brought the jumper cables and noticed the tires on your Volvo were bald. Was too shy to ask you out in front of your mother. You seemed nice. Would like to get to know you. Meet me for a coffee sometime? Would be happy to show you the sights in the Capital City. When: Saturday, February 18, 2023. Where: Montpelier City Hall parking lot. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915720

I spy a very kind man who paid for my order at about 8:15. at was very kind and generous. As a single woman, I don’t get a lot of special things in my life. You made my day and made me feel special. ank you. When: Tuesday, February 21, 2023. Where: McDonald’s, Barre. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915719

BOLD AND SILKY

You: rich amber-haired City Market clerk. Me: chatty customer, green-and-red plaid shirt, gray jacket, beret. When: 3:42 p.m. You were working the right-hand 15-items-or-less checkout; I bought dinner and then the “bold and silky” chocolate bar, and we chatted. You are intriguing in many ways, and I’d like to get to know you. If you’re a 4/20 kind of woman or like quirky poets, get in touch and we’ll see what flowers. When: Monday, February 20, 2023. Where: City Market checkout lane. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915718

IF YOU’RE DUE NORTH

I know discretion is important, so I’ll keep it brief. We chatted for a bit, tried to make plans but I had something come up, and you called me a phony and seemingly disappeared. I’m still utterly devoted to the idea of getting together with you, so let’s reconnect and I’ll prove I’m no phony yet. When: Sunday, February 19, 2023. Where: chatting on an app. You: Man. Me: Man. #915717

I LOOK LIKE JIMMY FALLON?

Your eyes, warm and curious, catch mine twice. You ask me if anyone’s told me I look like Jimmy Fallon. I’m shocked at a compliment out of the blue and answer that, yes, in fact they have. Uninspired response, for sure. Maybe you’ll see this, and we’ll find a time to meet when I’m not in a rush?

When: Sunday, February 19, 2023. Where: City Market hot bar downtown.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915716

REVEREND Ask

De Rev end,

I really hate using condoms, but the woman I’m dating insists that I do. She also doesn’t want to go on birth control. How can I make her understand that sex isn’t as good for me when I wear one?

Wild Willie

(MAN, 24)

I saw you over cocktails a few months back in Winooski in a black beanie. I am more curious if this is the first iSpy you have seen for you. Hope you have booked the flight to Italy and have a copilot ready for the ride. Hope this made you smile. When: Wednesday, December 14, 2022. Where: celebrating the holiday.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915714

OGE/WALGREENS MEET-CUTE

We were leaving OGE at the same time, skis in tow. It was raining — we both groaned and smiled. A minute later, we saw each other again in the Walgreen’s lot, which we agreed is the best place to park for a quick run into OGE. Want to go skiing and show me the best runs? When: Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Where: OGE/Walgreen’s lot. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915712

RE: MISSING MY TWINFLAME

I needed time and space to become the best version of myself and to attend to matters I could never explain. Where I went, you could not follow. I tried to tell you tête-à-tête, but it wasn’t in the cards. I still keep that Jack close, and I keep warm with the thought of being in your arms. Soon. When: Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Where: the astral plane.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915711

VTHOMESTEADER

ank you for the iSpy! I’m still interested in checking out the paradise you have created in Hardwick, and I would like it if we can finish our novel we have started. If all goes well, perhaps I can be your Papa Ganoush! When: Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Where: un-Hinge.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915710

BEAUTIFUL BROWN EYES

Dear woman, I miss you. ough you are just three houses down the street, it seems you are 1,000 miles away. I miss you and would love to move beyond the past to a brighter future with you. Always! When: 2014 to present. When: Monday, January 30, 2023. Where: central Vermont.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #915706

De Wild Willie,

Dude. What year is it where you live, 1973? If the person you’re having sex with wants you to wear a condom, then that’s what you do. No glove, no love.

If sex doesn’t feel as good to you when you’re wearing a condom, you’re most likely using the wrong kind. Condom technology is far more advanced than it used to be, resulting in all sorts of sizes and styles. ere’s tons of information available online about how to find the one that’s right for you. Check out condom-sizes.org, condomjungle.com or good ol’ trojanbrands.com.

Condoms don’t require a visit to a doctor or a prescription, and they aren’t all that expensive. ey don’t have any of the side effects of many female birth

You were drawing, super focused. IDK if you even noticed me, but I love how seriously you take your craft, and you’re sooooo cute! You: blue hair and septum piercing. Me: 30-y/o woman, overalls, backward cap. Sometime in the beginning of January on a Tuesday night. Come back to class! I go most weeks. We could draw each other. When: Tuesday, January 3, 2023. Where: Karma Bird House.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915709

UNTAPPED, TOO NERVOUS TO SPEAK

Hi! I was too shy surrounded by my friends at Friday’s Untapped show to strike up a conversation. You kept checking people into the show, and my friends hung out at the bar. But you seemed like a lovely person and also someone who may possibly enjoy grabbing a beverage and conversation sometime? When: Saturday, February 11, 2023. Where: Winooski circle. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915708

REDHEADED WONDER, TAKE TWO

I saw you having lunch with two other women. I think I also saw you at Shanty on the Shore a few weeks earlier. If you are the same woman from the airport a few months ago with the white Mercedes, maybe we could have lunch together sometime. You name the place, and I’ll be there. When: Wednesday, February 8, 2023. Where: Grazers.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915707

MUDDY WATERS SMILE

I saw you when I walked in around 4:30. You were sitting by the window in a multicolored crocheted hat. I had my hair in two pigtails, and you smiled at me on your way to the bathroom. You look really thoughtful and introspective.

I’d love to get to know you more. When: Friday, February 3, 2023. Where: Muddy Waters. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915705

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIER IN HUBBARD PARK

We crossed paths while skiing and chatted for a bit while I was waiting for my friend to catch up to me. I enjoyed talking with you! Care to meet up for a ski together? When: Friday, January 27, 2023. Where: Hubbard Park. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915701

We spoke briefly as you and your friend were about to leave. I asked you about talking in a place more conducive to conversation. Here’s another invite to talk. Interested? I could try and catch up with you again at Old Post but would rather see you elsewhere — dinner or drinks? I know your name; it starts with an M. When: Monday, January 30, 2023. Where: the Old Post. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915704

BRIGHT-EYED, ENERGETIC SUNFLOWER

You give me the goosebumps. Your eyes are light like water, but your mind is strong and driven — like a freight train. I can’t see myself anywhere else but with you. Why don’t we share some red grenadine? Down by the black, muddy river, perhaps. I hope you see me here, and I hope you see me today. When: Saturday, January 28, 2023. Where: close by, but I’d love to say “in my arms.” You: Woman. Me: Man. #915702

DENNY’S BEAUTY

You were our server this morning and told me to eat a pancake bite for you. When I offered you one, you said you couldn’t because you’re watching your figure. You don’t need to. I tipped you personally before I left. Would love to hear from you!

When: Wednesday, January 25, 2023. Where: Denny’s, South Burlington. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915700

TRADER JOE’S CASHIER QUEER

You: working at Trader Joe’s, shaggy haircut with brown, blond and purple. Me: buying almond butter, pink hair, wearing post-dance class sweats. You rang up my groceries and asked about my pink dye. I tried to play it cool, but when you said I had a nice laugh, I couldn’t meet your eye. Let’s bleach each other’s hair sometime? When: Tuesday, January 24, 2023. Where: Trader Joe’s. You: Genderqueer. Me: Woman. #915698

BELLA’S BARTOK AT ZENBARN

You wore a jean jacket. I wore a derby and the eye. We chatted after the show around the fire, and on our way to leave you told me your name. I regret not giving you my phone number. I’d love to reconnect sometime.

When: ursday, December 29, 2022. Where: Zenbarn, Waterbury. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915697 for

control methods — such as headaches, nausea, weight fluctuations, depression and mood swings. I can’t blame your girlfriend for not being excited about her birth control options, which are all much more complicated than slipping on a condom when it’s go time. Not to mention dealing with the consequences if the best-laid plans fail.

Condoms are also very effective at preventing pregnancy with the added benefit of protecting against sexually transmitted diseases. As a person with a penis, instead of complaining, you should really be thanking your lucky stars that you got the easier end of the birth control stick. And remember: Sex with a condom feels better than no sex at all.

Good luck and God bless, The

If you’ve been spied, go online to

Irreverent counsel on life’s conundrums

Male mountain lion hunting for female mountain lioness to den up with. Wild but house-trained. Experienced. Does not bite hard. Likes to dig dirt. Will lick plate clean. Cat’s eyes. Scratch out a note and come over to see the home territory. #L1650

I’m a 75-y/o male seeking a female, 50-plus, to come and live with me to do housework and cooking. Help to take care of my two dogs and go for walks together. I have a nice house to share. #L1649

I’m a GWM seeking others for NSA fun. Looking for tops. I’m fun and adventurous. 40 to 60ish is preferred. Call or text. #L1643

You are a kind, clever, worldly woman who’s always down for a harebrained adventure or a night in streaming something you’ve seen twice before. I am an idiot, seeking another to be an idiot with. Be willing to commute. #L1648

54-y/o full-figured woman who wants love. I am pretty, confident and ready to be loved! In search of a male, 49 to 60, who will treat me well. Should like to travel, camp and make love in all places. Please write me! #L1647

I’m a 74-y/o male looking for a female to wine and dine. I have money and compassion. #L1641

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PUBLISH YOUR MESSAGE ON THIS PAGE!

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You are a man in his 60s who’s tired of online dating but still believes there is someone out there who will strike a chord deep within you. Someone expansive, alluring, interesting, reverent and irreverent. Reach out and find me. #L1646

58-y/o male seeking a fullfigured woman. You can be yourself and not worry. I love the company of full-figured women. I’m the guy who loves bigger women. Let’s see what happens. Write to me with a phone or text number. #L1645

I’m a 71-y/o W male seeking a very mature woman in her 70s or 80s desiring a sensual relationship with a passionate man. Maturity is your beauty and allure. Please give me a try, and maybe sparks will fly. Phone number, please. #L1644

We are three guys: two gay and one bi; one in his 40s and two in their 60s. We get together about once a week at my place in Burlington for men-to-men fun. Looking for another male to join us. If interested, leave a contact number. #L1642

I’m a male, 60s, bi, seeking another male. Any race, any age. I’m fit, clean, disease/ drug-free. Fun guy, open to everything, but mostly a bottom. Reply with phone and time to call. #L1639

Int net-Free Dating!

Young-looking, attractive, principled woman, 66, seeks man, 50 to 78, for companionship. Treat man with empathy, kindness, love and respect, and expect the same in return. Enjoy the arts (except dance), cooking, reading, quiet chats, walks, television. Phone number, please. #L1636

I’m a 70-y/o GWM seeking a 60-plus male for some fun. I’m fit and drug- and disease-free, looking for the same. Discreet fun only. Send stats and contact number. I’m in the Barre/ Montpelier area. #L1637

ISO “gingandaddy, 46, seeking M.” Did you find your man? Nontech-connected guy would like to discuss possible connection. #L1635

I’m a young-looking, 65-y/o male seeking a female over 45 who likes cattle ranching, working together, auctions and gardening. Must be active, fit, good-looking, financially secure, healthy and a good cook. No smokers or drugs. #L1632

Describe yourself and who you’re looking for in 40 words below:

(OR, ATTACH A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER.)

I’m a AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL) seeking a AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL)

Man of letters/amateur artist seeks companionship of thoughtful, considerate woman, mid-50s to low 70s. Share fine cinema, literature, classical music and discussions concerning spiritual/ metaphysical subjects. I’m healthy, 71, creative, curious, a good listener, appreciate the feminine soul and mysteries of existence. #L1638

Gentle, affable, fit, humorous, principled, educated man (67) seeks tender alluring woman (52 to 66) who relishes a life of organic gardening, animals, hiking, biking, Scrabble and pillow talk. Land conservation and off-grid living are also interests of mine. #L1630

I’m a 47-y/o male seeking a male for some fun. I’m attractive, fit and drug/diseasefree; have perfect hygiene; and am looking for the same. Discreet fun only. Let’s watch each other cum and help each other out. Send stats with contact number. #L1629

Required confidential info:

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MAIL TO: SEVEN DAYS LOVE LETTERS • PO BOX 1164, BURLINGTON, VT 05402 OPTIONAL WEB FORM: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LOVELETTERS HELP: 802-865-1020, EXT. 161, LOVELETTERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

THIS FORM IS FOR LOVE LETTERS ONLY. Messages for the Personals and I-Spy sections must be submitted online at dating.sevendaysvt.com.

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