Seven Days, March 25, 2020

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V ER MON T’S INDE P ENDE NT V OIC E MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020 VOL.25 NO.26 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

PAGE 44

Vignettes of Vermonters adjusting to life in a pandemic PA G E 26

BLAME GAME

PAGE 17

Police shooting scrutinized

MEDICINE MAN

PAGE 34

Vaccine researcher on COVID-19

DISASTER PREP

PAGE 38

Eateries pivot in a pandemic

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COVID-19 Up-to-date information from the experts at the UVM Health Network

TO HELP SAVE LIVES, STAY AT HOME In Vermont and across the nation, a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases requiring medical attention threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

But when each of us stays home, we slow down the rate of infection. That, in turn, will slow down the number of high-risk people getting sick at the same time.

“That means we are much more likely to save their lives,” said Tim Lahey, MD, an infectious disease expert at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

If you’ve seen #FlattenTheCurve on social media posts, that’s what it means: Stretching out the rate of infection over time so that hospitals will be able to provide enough respirators and other critical resources for people at high risk.

But, What If I’m Young and Healthy?

Dr. Lahey points out that, from what we know about COVID-19 so far, younger and healthier people infected with the virus will most likely show mild to moderate symptoms. Some might not even know that they have it.

But they could still transmit the virus to others, who would then pass it on. Staying home slows down that cycle.

Our Call to Action as Community Members The COVID-19 outbreak represents the worst public health crisis the world has seen in a century, presenting us all with a once-in-a-lifetime call to action that we all have a responsibility to answer.

“You need to save the lives of vulnerable people in your community by staying home,” said Dr. Lahey.

• Staying home, cleaning your hands with soap and water or sanitizer, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces and other good hygiene measures are all critical to help slow down the spread of COVID-19.

• If you must go out, make that trip as short and efficient as possible. Practice social distancing at all times.

• If you feel sick, but your symptoms are mild to moderate, stay home. If you have trouble breathing or are so sick that you can’t take care of yourself and need help, call your doctor for guidance.

As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread,

many are wondering what they can do to keep their families and their communities as safe as possible.

The good news is that, even as the situation continues to change rapidly, there are important things all of us can do to confront this pandemic. At the UVM Health Network, we’ve put together some trusted resources to help. In a time of unprecedented need, we’re all in this together.

John R. Brumsted, MD President and CEO The University of Vermont Health Network

UVMHealth.org/Coronavirus 2

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WEEK IN REVIEW

emoji that

MARCH 18-25, 2020

COURTESY OF BECKY BOUCHARD

COMPILED BY GILLIAN ENGLISH, SASHA GOLDSTEIN & MATTHEW ROY

HOLD IT

Suzie McCoy (left) and Paula Routly with their moms at the Converse Home

Vermont has closed its 16 interstate rest stops. One more reason to stay home.

GIVE NO QUARTER

Vermont U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan said she’ll prioritize cases involving COVID-19 scams or schemes.

Stay alert!

REPORTING WITH CARE

Journalism in the time of the coronavirus can be tricky. This week our reporters “visited” nursing homes through closed windows, stood six feet away from people picking up hand sanitizer made at repurposed Vermont distilleries and kept an awkward distance from media colleagues at Vermont Department of Health briefings.

We’ve reported a firehose of news: constant updates of COVID-19 cases and, eventually, deaths; more closures and restrictions; state and local government emergency legislation; bids to free Vermont inmates; rising food shelf demands; and plans for coping with a potential surge of patients.

Between print issues, Seven Days has published more than 40 stories online at sevendaysvt.com, and the week’s

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802much

not done yet. We’ve also run countless updates on what we call “rolling blogs,” letting you know, for instance, that the Vermont City Marathon & Relay has been postponed from May until October.

We’ve written about layoffs, too, at restaurants, arts organizations and media companies — including our own.

Seven Days laid off seven staff members on Monday because ad revenues have plunged. The hope, said cofounder and publisher Paula Routly, is to rehire those staffers in 10 weeks.

We’re as committed as ever to bringing you the news you need, with safety in mind. So eat some kale, wash your hands and keep reading. There’s a lot to know. We’ve still got you covered.

FACING IT

Vermonters are making face masks for doctors and nurses. Yankee ingenuity.

GOING OVERBOARD Ferry service between Charlotte and Essex, N.Y., has been suspended.

The Grand Isle to Cumberland Head, N.Y., route is still in service.

1 in 408

That’s how many Vermonters had been tested for COVID-19 as of March 24, according to the Vermont Department of Health. That’s 1,535 people in total.

TOPFIVE

MOST POPULAR ITEMS ON SEVENDAYSVT.COM

1. “Burlington Nursing Home Resident Tests Positive for Coronavirus” by Courtney Lamdin & Derek Brouwer. A resident of Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center tested positive for COVID-19, officials said on March 17.

2. “Outbreak Spreads at Burlington Nursing Home” by Derek Brouwer. Last Friday, the day after a patient died, health officials said four more residents had tested positive for the virus.

3. “Vermont Reports 20 New Cases; Seven More at Burlington Nursing Home” by Derek Brouwer. On Saturday the Vermont Department of Health announced 20 new cases of coronavirus, including at least seven more residents of a Burlington nursing home.

4. “Scott Orders More Businesses — Salons, Barbers, Gyms — to Close” by Sasha Goldstein.

Gov. Phil Scott ordered all “close-contact businesses” in the state to close by 8 p.m on Monday, March 23.

5. “Virus Claims First Vermonters: Nursing Home Resident, VA Patient” by Derek Brouwer. Two elderly Vermonters died last Thursday, Gov. Scott announced, including a resident of a Burlington nursing home.

tweet of the week Peter Brown @beerlington Honestly didn’t think “stay at home dad in a pandemic” would be my gig ten years later.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SEVENDAYSVT OUR TWEEPLE: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/TWITTER

WHAT’S WEIRD IN VERMONT

RIGHTING A WRONG NUMBER who dis?

Over the past year, Aimee Eberle has returned to her Bakersfield home many times to find messages on her answering machine from people trying to reach the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans.

She never thought much of it and never contacted the hospital.

“I figure I’m just going to get passed around 10,000 times because it’s an institution,” Eberle told Seven Days. “I just haven’t had the emotional bandwidth to do it — or care.”

Luckily for her, and people trying to reach

the hospital, the answer came a-callin’ — and just in time. Home from work last week because of the coronavirus pandemic, Eberle was finally around to answer a call intended for the hospital. The caller, Paddy Shea, let her know that she’d searched online for the medical center’s billing department and gotten Eberle’s number from an erroneous Google listing.

Shea was concerned that other patients were having similar issues. Knowing that would be “especially bad” during the coronavirus outbreak, Shea sprang into action.

She informed the hospital’s information technology department. She then reported the mix-up to Google and posted a photo of the error to a Vermont-based coronavirus Facebook group, asking its members to post it, as well.

Within hours, Google had fixed the error.

Eberle said she hasn’t received a hospital call since Shea’s post last Thursday. Shea, who said she initially joined the coronavirus group because she wanted to find out how she could help, was pleased to hear that hers was Eberle’s last errant call.

“Everyone should be doing whatever we can right now to be helping each other have access to health care,” she said.

COLIN FLANDERS SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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FEEDback READER REACTION TO RECENT ARTICLES

HARDSHIP POSTS

[Re “Vermont’s Defensive Line,” March 18]: Serving as board president of the Howard Center, Vermont’s designated agency for Chittenden County, and as a board member of Middlebury’s Porter Medical Center, a member of the University of Vermont Health Network, I have the privilege of working with the dedicated, innovative and self-sacrificing staff of these two august organizations. They truly live the mission and are the lifeblood of the communities they serve.

Both organizations have been and will be proactive in their respective approaches to COVID-19 readiness and action. We are expanding protocols, revamping guidelines and optimizing staffing models, all the while maintaining client safety and managing apprehensions. A special shoutout to the personnel of both places as they work to sustain high-quality services in the face of the hardships produced by the uncertainty of this pandemic.

As a board member and a member of the community, I salute you. Thank you!

Debra Stenner

FERRISBURGH

‘THANK YOUR BAGGER’

Thank you for profiling those defending Vermonters from COVID-19 [“Vermont’s Defensive Line,” March 18]. I thought I’d offer up another group that supports us: grocery store employees.

Grocery stores are now at the front line of a pandemic in Vermont. While the state has banned large gatherings, an exception remains for grocery stores and, thereby, their frontline employees: employees who are hourly, paid minimally and have constant contact with customers; employees who are often older or have disabilities; employees who now work with a level of danger that is unfathomable for the job. They aren’t being paid for the extra work they’re doing or the risk they’ve undertaken. They weren’t trained to face a pandemic.

And yet they continue to work thoroughly, kindly, and with integrity and purpose. They’re putting their health on the line to make sure our communities are fed, all without the protections and guarantees allotted to other professions.

I’m astonished by that courage and aware that many do not have the choice to stay home without a paycheck. In that, their personal risk becomes a mandate.

WEEK IN REVIEW

TIM NEWCOMB

supporting authors, independent booksellers and small publishers who will be particularly hard hit in these times. And remember: If you are confined to your home, at least you will have time — at last — to read a book!

CURBSIDE PICKUP & DELIVERY NOW AVAILABLE!

Charlotte Dennett

BURLINGTON

DEALS OF THE WEEK!

BUSINESS SIZE MATTERS

The corporations that own these grocery stores will make a profit from this crisis; the people you see while shopping — the ones offering you a smile as they restock your food and pack your groceries — will not. In fact, they may just get sick and die.

That’s why I spent this week writing to grocery stores asking when their employees will receive hazard pay. Maybe now you will, too.

Be kind. Wash your hands. Thank your bagger.

Is 90 percent outrageous? This is the same figure that was in operation when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president.

He was rich, too, but that 90 percent went into infrastructure, which involved millions of well-paying jobs.

We should stop our paint-ball shots at perceived Joe Stalins and be mindful of the very seductive look-alike Joe McCarthy cutouts.

Tom MacDonald

BURLINGTON

Kristen Mercure

SHELBURNE

RED-BAITING LETTER?

[Re Feedback, “Marxist Messiah?,” March 18]: Bernie Sanders a Stalinist?! This is the sort of divergent tactic that our “deranged” leader frequently indulges in. Socialized medicine a communist conspiracy?

Suppose it came from Scandinavia; would they get the Red smear, too, and shoot down our possibility of getting a model that works?

Some fact-checking is in order. We have attempts at laissez-faire capitalism here. It is, of course, in name only, since there isn’t a level playing field. Our Ayn Rand system favors those who “have” and some of those who make it up the ladder — then pull it away.

The Western Europeans, notably the Scandinavians, are very much capitalists, too, but by contrast the economic sector is regulated so that they don’t have the unequal — and unhealthy — distribution of wealth that we have. With a progressive tax of up to 90 percent for the rich, these people can have a secure system in place with guaranteed health care for all, paidfor education, shelter as a right, and even subsidized arts programs.

READ A BOOK

Thank you, Dan Bolles and Seven Days, for reviewing five new books by Vermont authors, mine included [“Page 32: Five New Books by Vermont Authors,” March 11]. Under normal circumstances, the release of a new book is an anxietycreating situation for authors who aren’t celebrities. We have a limited time to get our works known in order to generate sales and sustain “shelf life” in bookstores.

In this pandemic, book-reading events in some of the larger venues, such as conferences, are getting canceled, which restricts our ability to promote our books and share our ideas. It’s like a horse race — the books that make an immediate splash get noticed, and the others lag behind and eventually die.

Most authors write — and often spend years researching — because we have to, even if it amounts to the equivalent of earning five cents an hour. In short, book writing is a precarious profession under normal circumstances. So reviews are crucial to spreading the word. I say this as the former chair of the Book Division of the National Writers Union, representing freelance writers in the U.S. During this pandemic, please consider

[Re Off Message: “Scott Orders More Businesses — Salons, Barbers, Gyms — to Close,” March 21]: The Small Business Administration has declared a statewide disaster in Vermont, making loans available for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The loans offer up to $2 million with an interest rate of 3.75 percent per business.

These loans might be helpful to some, but is incurring new debt during the current crisis a viable option?

Many Vermont villages and towns, as well as neighborhoods in larger cities, are anchored by truly small businesses. Even before the pandemic, the number of vacant storefronts in our towns shows how difficult it can be to sustain a successful business.

What’s the reality of a loan being effective and helpful that charges 3.75 percent interest to businesses reduced to little or no income due to the pandemic? For many small business owners, depending on their business ownership structure, unemployment benefits are not an option.

Providing positive and effective relief for truly small businesses will require thinking outside the box and breaking away from the Small Business Administration’s definitions and regulations. The U.S. airlines are requesting nearly half their billions of bailout money in the form of grants. Why not offer grants for small businesses, as well?

These are challenging times, to say the least. Financial business assistance needs to be presented in a realistic manner that will allow for attainable solvency for the many Vermont-size businesses that anchor our communities and strengthen their fabric.

Bodo Carey

WORCESTER

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contents

LOOKING FORWARD

MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020 VOL.25 NO.26

NEWS & POLITICS

11

Letter to Our Readers

13

BY PAULA ROUTLY

12

Race to Contain

A nursing home is the epicenter of Vermont’s coronavirus outbreak

Scott Issues Stayat-Home Order as Coronavirus Spreads

Echo Chamber

A socially distanced Vermont Senate passes coronavirus relief bills

BY PAUL HEINTZ

14

BY DEREK BROUWER

12

22

UVM Students Won’t Return to Campus; Commencement Changes Expected

34

16

Newport Prison Staffer Tests Positive for COVID-19

44

FEATURES 26

Adaptation

Culture: Vignettes of Vermonters adjusting to life in a pandemic

BY DEREK BROUWER

17

‘Preventable’

Commission says the Howard Center shares blame for a 2016 fatal police shooting

BY SEVEN DAYS STAFF

34

Syringe Benefits

Health: A UVM researcher working on dengue and Zika vaccines offers insights on COVID-19

BY DEREK BROUWER

BY MOLLY WALSH

15

BY COLIN FLANDERS

National Guard Setting Up Medical Facilities in Vermont

ARTS NEWS 20

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM

BY KEN PICARD

Safe Exposure

38

If you still want to stream pandemic movies, here’s an annotated guide

Recipe for Survival

Food + Drink: How Vermont eateries are navigating COVID-19

BY MARGOT HARRISON

VIDEO SERIES

Online Thursday

21

BY MELISSA PASANEN

From Hands-On to Online

39

With colleges closed, how to learn printmaking without a printer?

‘Don’t 86 Us’

Remote Access

Hackie CULTURE Soundbites MUSIC Album Reviews Movie Reviews Ask the Reverend ADVICE

SECTIONS 38 42 44 48 50 52 56 C1

Food + Drink Classes Music + Nightlife Art Movies Fun Stuff Personals Classifieds + Puzzles

BY JORDAN BARRY

Enterprising Vermonters go virtual with classes, tours and barnyard animals

44

In My Room

Music + Nightlife: New normal: Tips for doing livestream concerts

BY JORDAN ADAMS

BY KRISTEN RAVIN

48

Virtual Venues

Art: A new site brings art exhibitions to stuck-at-home viewers

BY PAMELA POLSTON

SHOWS MUST GO ON Tips for live-streaming concerts PAGE 44

Vignettes of Vermonters adjusting to life in a pandemic

SUPPORTED BY: March 25, 2020: Many Vermonters are stuck at home this week, keeping their distance from each other to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19. How are they coping? Eva Sollberger crowdsourced videos using socialmedia to find out.

PA GE 2 6

BLAME GAME

PAGE 17

Police shooting scrutinized

MEDICINE MAN

PAGE 34

Vaccine researcher on COVID-19

DISASTER PREP

PAGE 38

Eateries pivot in a pandemic

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Food + Drink: Chamber of Commerce, restaurants urge state action

BY KRISTEN RAVIN

22

COLUMNS + REVIEWS

V E RMON T’ S IN DE PEN D E NT V OI C E MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020 VOL.25 NO.26 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

Seven days have passed since our last print issue, but it seems like an eternity.

The coronavirus pandemic has upended all of our lives; this week Seven Days writers share glimpses into how Vermonters are coping and adapting. I contributed a vignette about Burlington’s Converse Home. That’s the back of my head on the cover, visiting with my 93-year-old mom through a window.

Thanks to cellphones, we can actually have a conversation. It’s heartbreaking but comforting to know she is as safe as can be.

Meanwhile, in the last week at Seven Days: •

We launched Good To-Go Vermont, an online directory of local restaurants offering takeout, delivery and curbside pickup — just hours after Gov. Phil Scott banned table service at restaurants and bars. Find it at goodtogovermont.com.

•

The editorial team published 40 stories, mostly about the pandemic, online at sevendaysvt. com. We created a coronavirus-specific newsletter — it has a whopping 73 percent open rate — for those who don’t want to miss any of that content.

•

Our circulation team is adjusting routes and delivering papers armed with latex gloves, hand sanitizer and the latest protocols from the Vermont Department of Health. Looking for a copy of Seven Days? Find an updated list of pickup points at sevendaysvt.com/delivery.

Even with a stay-at-home order in place, Seven Days will continue to be printed and delivered. It’s good to know that trusted journalism is considered an essential public service.

•

We found creative ways to help our advertisers tweak and deliver their messages on all of our platforms, including print. We thank them publicly on page 51. Look for a “native” campaign in next week’s paper, focused on how local retailers are finding ways to get by.

•

We shrank the page count of the paper, eliminating the events calendar and most of the listings to reflect the fact that venues are closed. That includes local movie theaters, so, after this week, film reviews will be temporarily discontinued.

•

Eva Sollberger crowdsourced videos from those staying at home. Watch her new Stuck in Vermont episode on Thursday at sevendaysvt.com/stuckinvt, or Friday on WCAX-TV.

•

We shifted our ticketing service to host digital events and virtual classes.

•

Our entire company, like so many others, pivoted virtually overnight to working remotely, holding conference calls and online meetings.

•

Many of us, including our entire leadership team, took significant pay cuts so that Seven Days can continue to keep Vermonters informed and our colleagues employed.

Despite those cuts, on Monday we were forced to lay off seven staff members, one from every department — temporarily, we hope.

What keeps us going through this terrible time? You, our readers. We know you are depending on our journalism.

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news

MORE INSIDE

HEALTH

UVM COMMENCEMENT GUARD GETS OFF? TO WORK PAGE 14

Scott Issues Stay-at-Home Order as Coronavirus Spreads

POLICE SHOOTING ‘PREVENTABLE’

PAGE 15

PAGE 17

JAMES BUCK

HEALTH

B Y C OLIN F L A N DER S

FILE: PAUL HEINTZ

Gov. Phil Scott has ordered Vermont residents to stay at home as much as possible over the next three weeks as the coronavirus is expected to spread through the state.

Scott announced the monumental step in a press release Tuesday evening, saying that people should only leave home for “essential reasons,” including grocery shopping; picking up medications; curbside pickup of goods, meals or beverages; medical care; exercise; caring for others; and work.

“We all must do our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 to minimize infections — particularly for those who are elderly or have underlying chronic health conditions — and prevent it from overwhelming

A worker helping to evacuate Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center patients on Tuesday

Race to Contain

Gov. Phil Scott

A nursing home is the epicenter of Vermont’s coronavirus outbreak B Y DER EK B R O UWER

F

or seven long days, Albert Petrarca shut himself away in his third-floor room at the Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center, hoping the deadly pandemic sweeping through the building would pass over his door.

The new coronavirus had infected at least 14 residents and two employees on the fourth and fifth floors, which hold the nursing home’s frailest residents.

Spared, seemingly, was the short-term rehab floor, where 70-year-old Petrarca was recovering from foot surgery. For him and other patients, every hour became a gut-wrenching waiting game. Had the virus already spread to other floors, undetected? If not, could they get out before it did?

It just so happened that one of the people asking those questions was an old-school Queen City radical who had spent years doggedly protesting a Church Street mural — in other words, a patient who wasn’t afraid to use his call button.

Petrarca grilled the staff about their response and even summoned the facility’s 12

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

director for answers. Then he began emailing city and state leaders with his urgent demand.

“How many more have to die before you get us the FUCK out of here,” he wrote in one message to Mayor Miro Weinberger, who was the first public official to raise alarm about the outbreak.

On Tuesday, as the facility’s fifth death was announced, Petrarca finally got his ticket out. The Vermont Department of Health began evacuating 10 or so patients from the Pearl Street home and taking them a little more than a mile away to the DoubleTree by Hilton on Williston Road. The University of Vermont Medical Center had agreed to take over their care at the hotel.

“This coordination will help to quarantine all discharging patients for a period of time before they can return to their home,” Burlington Health & Rehab’s parent company, Genesis HealthCare, said in a statement.

The chaos that COVID-19 caused at the nursing home showed how quickly

the disease can overtake a vulnerable population living in close quarters. In just about a week after the first case was announced on March 16, the Burlington facility became the epicenter of Vermont’s outbreak, accounting for at least 15 percent of the state’s 95 coronavirus cases and five of its seven deaths as of press time Tuesday evening.

Fear, confusion and frustration mounted with each new positive test, as state infectious disease specialists and facility managers scrambled to contain the spread. And at least 14 staff were quarantined at home for two weeks as a precaution, forcing Genesis to bring in replacement workers.

While the evacuations granted those patients some measure of relief, most of the 90 or so residents at the facility remained on the more vulnerable fourth and fifth floors. And just as the evacuations got under way, reports emerged that a resident at another local eldercare home — the Residence at Quarry Hill in South RACE TO CONTAIN

» P.16

our healthcare facilities,” Scott said in the press release. “The more Vermonters who take this seriously and stay home, the faster we can return to normal.”

Vermont businesses and nonprofits will also need to cease in-person business starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the order. Operations that can be done online or over the phone — or sales that can be done with curbside pickup or delivery — can continue.

The order includes a long list of exempted businesses deemed “critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security,” including grocery stores, news media, utilities and law enforcement.

Scott’s newest order, though unprecedented in recent memory, comes as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep through the United States. The country has nearly 52,000 cases and 668 deaths so far.

As of Tuesday, Vermont had confirmed 95 cases.

“I fully recognize the emotional, financial and economic impact of these decisions, but based on the best science we have available, these measures are necessary,” Scott said in a press release.

“I have tremendous faith in Vermonters and our ability to follow these guidelines, to save lives and support each other throughout — even as we are physically separated.”

Contact: colin@sevendaysvt.com

FLUSH WISELY!

Echo Chamber A socially distanced Vermont Senate passes coronavirus relief bills

We understand the use of sanitary & disinfecting wipes has increased, and would like to remind residents that only toilet paper should be flushed down the toilet. Even those wipes marketed as flushable do not completely dissolve in water and the fragments can get caught inside pipes or machinery. Let’s work together to avoid costly repairs to your plumbing and the City’s wastewater collection system.

BAN these items from your toilet:

ST ORY & PHOT OS BY PAUL HE I N T Z

• ALL wipes (including sanitary, makeup, baby, disinfecting, cleaning, etc.)

STATEHOUSE

• Paper Towels • Rags • Diapers • Sanitary products • Clothing

Dispose of these items safely by using the garbage.

Questions? www.burlingtonvt.gov/dpw/wastewater Lawmakers keeping their distance Tuesday in the Vermont Senate chamber

S

en. Dick Sears (D-Bennington) walked through a back entrance of the Vermont Statehouse on Tuesday, his left hand covered in blue plastic.

“It’s a poop bag,” the veteran senator explained. “Trying to keep myself safe. I use it to open doors and such.” He clarified: “It’s an empty one.”

Sears had journeyed north to Montpelier to take part in the most unusual session of his 28-year career — one marked by gravity, camaraderie and gallows humor. Eleven days earlier, the legislature had adjourned to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the cramped hallways of the Statehouse. Now, seven Vermonters were dead and 95 had tested positive for COVID-19.

To respond to the public health crisis and the economic meltdown it triggered, the Senate had returned to pass a series of emergency measures. The House was expected to follow suit on Wednesday.

During Tuesday’s session, a skeleton crew of senators signed off on legislation allowing hospitals and other health care facilities to treat more patients and waiving the “provider tax” they pay. The lawmakers voted to allow retired and outof-state health workers to treat Vermonters and to let providers perform their work by telephone or video. They moved to let workers collect unemployment if they quit over coronavirus concerns and waived a requirement that they continue seeking work. The legislators sought

flexibility to hold the 2020 election by mail and to allow local and regional authorities to do their work remotely.

Senate leaders hastened to say that they were only getting started. “The list of items that we have not resolved today would be a scroll that would reach to the floor,” Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) told his

Email water-resources@burlingtonvt.gov or call 802-863-4501

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THE LIST OF ITEMS THAT WE HAVE NOT RESOLVED TODAY WOULD BE

A SCROLL THAT WOULD REACH TO THE FLOOR. SE N. TIM A S H E

colleagues. “The heavy lifting is all ahead of us, and it’s going to require our patience, a lot of flexibility and a lot of hard work moving forward.”

When and how they will do that heavy lifting remains an open question.

Over the previous week, lawmakers had convened by conference call — occasionally drowned out by the echo of unmuted phones — to hammer out details of the legislation. During Tuesday’s session, senators moved to allow committees to vote remotely, but they held off on ECHO CHAMBER

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news Echo Chamber « P.13

EDUCATION

UVM Students Won’t Return to Campus; Commencement Changes Expected

BY M O L LY WA L S H

Students at the University of Vermont will not return to Burlington to finish out the rest of the school year, university president Suresh Garimella announced Monday.

He also ordered the 850 students still on campus to leave amid the widening outbreak of COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus. Those who move out by March 30 are eligible for a $1,000 housing credit.

Students with no other options can apply for emergency housing.

FILE: JAMES BUCK

The University of Vermont campus

“After March 30, no students, other than those approved for emergency housing, will be able to access rooms, their possessions, and associated facilities until further notice,” Garimella wrote in the message sent to students, faculty and staff Monday morning.

UVM spring break ended on March 16, but most students never returned to campus. Instead, the university switched to remote learning, which began on March 18. That method of study will continue through the end of the school year, Garimella wrote.

“It has become clear that the responsible course of action in light of the global public health challenge confronting us is to have our students leave campus,” his statement said.

About half of UVM’s 10,700 undergrads live off campus. Garimella urged those students, if they are not from the local area, to leave their rentals and move back home.

The university will make a final decision about commencement by March 30, Garimella wrote, but he added that it is “unlikely to proceed as planned.”

Commencement is currently scheduled for the weekend of May 16 and 17.

The emergency housing plans remain unclear. Some of the 850 students still on campus are international students who face travel restrictions and other obstacles in returning to their home countries.

“We understand that some students may not have viable alternatives; we will work with those who have challenging circumstances to provide emergency options for housing,” Garimella wrote. m

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

permitting the full Senate to conduct floor proceedings by phone.

Majority Leader Becca Balint (D-Windham) explained that she was working with Minority Leader Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) on a resolution to do just that. “If the crisis gets more serious and we are in some kind of lockdown, we want to have a safety valve to be able to vote,” she told her fellow senators. But, she added, it was critical to ensure that such a dramatic move would pass constitutional muster. “This could be perceived as the Senate moving too quickly on a very serious issue.”

When Sears and his colleagues arrived Tuesday morning, the Statehouse was a ghost town. Gone were the lobbyists, lawyers, committee assistants, activists, pages, police officers and members of the public who typically fill the place on a weekday in March. Only seven reporters were authorized to enter the building, and just three were permitted to enter the Senate chamber.

Even many senators weren’t welcome.

Ashe had arranged for only 16 of them to show — the minimum number required for the 30-member body to do its business.

He urged the rest of his colleagues to steer clear in the interest of public health. (In the end, a 17th senator — there to serve as a backup — was let into the chamber.)

To allow for those left behind to register their presence and approval, Ashe convened a conference call before taking to the floor. Senators who were in the building listened in from a first-floor meeting room — sitting more than six feet apart from one another — while the rest dialed in from home.

Sen. Jeanette White (D-Windham) said by phone that she had only missed two days, when her son broke his back, during her 18 years in the Senate. “I am very sad not to be there today, but I understand that it’s best for all of us,” she said before reflecting on the historic nature of the day. “When I walk into the chamber and sit down in my seat, I can feel the swirl of years and years of debate and stuff going on in the chamber, and this will be added to that swirl.”

Another remote participant, Sen. Randy Brock (R-Franklin), praised the nonpartisan manner in which the Senate had done its work. “In some parts of the country, we see continued political posturing and partisan divide, but here in Vermont, in this body, over the past two weeks, we’ve seen what makes the American political system, historically, the envy of the world,” he said. “You’ve made me very proud to serve in this body.”

When the telephonic session ended, the 17 senators filed out of the room, one by one,

and marched upstairs to the Senate floor.

There, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman gaveled them in and Sen. Debbie Ingram (D-Chittenden), an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offered a devotional.

“I have been waking up in the middle of the night anxious and upset more than I ever have in my life, and I am sure that I am not alone,” she said. “They say that there are no atheists in foxholes. Right now I would say we’re in a great big darn foxhole all together.”

Rather than sit side by side in the Senate’s three rows of desks, the members who were present scattered about the

person on the street” who had lost his or her job or whose profession, previously undervalued, had become essential to survival: grocers, cashiers, gas station attendants.

Benning expressed a note of optimism — that Vermont could survive the coronavirus pandemic. “We are about to embark on stormy waters as we get all signs that there is a storm coming, but we have a very solid ship of state,” he said. “It has a very strong bow and a rock-solid and well-tillered rudder.”

Sen. John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans) offered his own words of comfort — or, at least, a prescription for finding it. “After

Sen. Dick Sears

room in unconventional assigned seats: one in a corner, two on couches, three in window wells, four in the gallery. Senate Secretary John Bloomer wore a pair of black gloves.

To limit their time on the floor and avoid having to return in the coming days, senators had worked together and with their counterparts in the House to ensure that the emergency bills were acceptable to both chambers, all political parties and Gov. Phil Scott.

Members of the committees of jurisdiction explained the legislation from the floor, but questions were few and debate was limited. Within an hour and a half, they had dispensed with their business and sent a handful of bills and resolutions to the House.

As they prepared to adjourn, Benning took a moment to recognize “the common

hearing the devotional, I know lots of folks are having trouble with anxiety and sleeping in these tough times, and as a proud Vermont hemp farmer, I would just suggest that CBD helps tons of people with anxiety and with sleep.”

Soon thereafter, the Senate adjourned and its members filed out of the chamber.

Zuckerman donned his own pair of black gloves, pulled an N95 mask over his ponytail and followed them out the door. m Disclosure: Tim Ashe is the domestic partner of Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly.

Find our conflict-of-interest policy here: sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.

Contact: paul@sevendaysvt.com

Vermont National Guard members arriving at the University of Vermont Medical Center to set up tents

MILITARY

National Guard Setting Up Medical Facilities in Vermont ST O RY & P H O TO B Y KEVI N MC C A L L UM

More than a dozen Vermont National Guard members arrived in Humvees and other military vehicles in front of the University of Vermont Medical Center’s Emergency Department Tuesday afternoon.

A Guard medical unit is setting up a facility to provide additional medical care, according to Capt. Mike Arcovitch, a Guard spokesperson. Medics with the Northfieldbased 186th Brigade Support Battalion will set up tents in the hospital lot, he said.

“We’re sending medical personnel there to assist and augment the hospital in whatever way they are needed,” Arcovitch said. “We’ll be prepared to receive patients as soon as they need us and for as long as they need us,” he said.

Members quickly got to work setting up mobile generators and installing tents on wooden platforms beside four drive-up aide stations under construction. The little M.A.S.H. unit — Mobile Army Surgical

Hospital — was expected to be operational for “routine medical care” by the end of the day, Maj. Joseph Phelan said.

How many and what types of patients would be seen at the overflow center would be up to ER administration, he said.

Vermont is also preparing for a surge

in new COVID-19 patients by asking the Guard to help it establish three overflow medical facilities around the state.

Gov. Phil Scott announced the move at a press conference on Monday. “While we hope we don’t have to use them, we must be prepared for this possibility,” Scott said.

Arcovitch said the sites are UVM’s Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, the Collins Perley Sports & Fitness Center in St. Albans and the Barre Civic Center. m Contact: kevin@sevendaysvt.com

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news Race to Contain « P.12 Burlington — had contracted the virus after a stay at Burlington Health & Rehab.

A spokesperson for LCB Senior Living, which operates Quarry Hill and two other facilities in Vermont, said it was unknown whether the woman was exposed at the Burlington nursing home.

The Quarry Hill resident has been in isolation and has shown only mild symptoms, the spokesperson said.

Genesis, one of the largest nursing home operators in the United States, has sought to assuage the fears of family members, who haven’t been able to visit their loved ones for weeks, through twicedaily video calls with Burlington Health & Rehab management.

Peter Lavallee listened to several of the calls as he worried about his 80-year-old friend Robert Poulin, who lived on the fourth floor. The sessions began with managers detailing the latest number of cases and, eventually, deaths.

“I could hear people in the background go, ‘Oh, shit,’ and ‘Oh, no,’” Lavallee recalled.

“You could hear these sighs, like, ‘Oh, no, what’s happening?’”

Lavallee, who held power of attorney for Poulin, learned March 17 that his friend of many years and fellow Knights of Columbus member was among the first at the home to test positive. Staff asked him to confirm his friend’s advanced directives and said they were giving Poulin morphine for the pain.

On Sunday, the home called to say that Poulin had died.

By that time, Lavallee had seen photos on TV of a different resident who had also contracted the coronavirus. Lavallee said he recognized the man as Poulin’s roommate.

The outbreak erupted despite assurances from both Genesis and state health officials that proper protocols were enacted as soon as signs emerged that the virus had arrived on American shores. Staff have been “hypervigilant” and followed health department directives “to the letter” since the first case was reported, company spokesperson Lori Mayer said.

A state epidemiologist went to the Pearl Street facility on March 19 to review the protocols and assess the scope of the outbreak. Health Commissioner Mark Levine also sought assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even asking whether the federal health agency could send a team of experts to Vermont.

The feds didn’t believe such a visit was necessary, Levine said. “They continue to tell us that we have always been following their guidance and that we’re doing a fine job,” he said at a press conference Monday.

The emerging pandemic has already 16

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

HEALTH

proven devastating to elderly residents at nursing homes across the country. More than a quarter of all U.S. coronavirus deaths as of March 20 involved eldercare residents, according to a Washington Post analysis. Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington State was hit first; the virus has killed nearly a third of its 120 residents. At least 73 homes in 22 states have reported infections, the Post found.

“Kirkland, Wash., has been on my mind since I heard about this infection” at Burlington Health & Rehab, Mayor Weinberger said during a recent press conference.

Genesis owns hundreds of nursing homes and senior communities in 26 states, including nine in Vermont. The company reported $4.6 billion in annual revenue last year. Its declining stock, however, lost another third of its value last week, dropping to just $0.79 per share.

KIRKLAND, WASH., HAS BEEN ON MY MIND SINCE I HEARD ABOUT THIS INFECTION. MIR O W E INBE R GE R

On a March 17 earnings call held the same day Vermont officials publicly announced the first case at Burlington Health & Rehab, company leaders told investors that Genesis had just one infected resident among its 387 facilities.

“We’re doing everything humanly possible to protect everyone’s interest,” CEO George V. Hager Jr. said. “First and foremost, the interest of our patients and our employees and their safety.”

In the days that followed, some patients, family members and staffers at Burlington Health & Rehab have worried that the company hasn’t done enough to contain the infection. Their uncertainty is compounded by the fact that, even at the site of the state’s largest outbreak, some residents and employees weren’t eligible to be tested.

“After the situation in Kirkland, it should have been mandatory that when you’ve got a cluster like this, that you would automatically test everyone,” said Petrarca, who was swabbed Monday for the disease but had yet to receive the result. “We should have learned that.”

Most of the infected residents were still at the facility, per a health department directive that only those COVID-19 patients who require hospitalization may leave, according to Mayer. Dozens of others have been swabbed for testing, according to the health department — an indication that they were ill with flu-like symptoms.

One staffer, who asked to remain

anonymous because she is not authorized to speak to the media, said she worked directly with a resident who tested positive, but she was not immediately notified of that test result. She said she was later told her infection risk was low. She’d worn a mask and gloves, but not a gown, while caring for that resident. Staff weren’t wearing them until the first coronavirus case at the home was confirmed, she said.

There have been scattered reports from residents and staff of employees not wearing proper equipment or working while ill, but Genesis and Levine have disputed those claims.

“We have been screening all employees for fever and symptoms since March 6, 2020, and log every screening,” Mayer said. “Any employee who registers a fever or has symptoms is sent home immediately. In fact, we instituted this screening in advance of CDC guidelines in order to protect our patients, residents and employees as the pandemic heightened around the country.”

Levine told reporters that his department had “found no fault in their infectioncontrol practices or procedures.”

The sheer speed of infection has created further confusion. The state announced the facility’s first death, an elderly woman, before her positive test had even been publicly confirmed. Some families have been frustrated to learn of the latest developments through the media — or read news stories that don’t include the most current figures because they haven’t been announced.

Stacey Savage, whose mother was discharged from the third floor just hours before the home’s first COVID-19 case was announced, said she didn’t hear from facility administrators for days. When she eventually spoke to them, they told Savage that her mother’s chances of contracting the virus on that floor were “slim,” she recalled.

Others were relieved by the evacuation plan. Terry Melton’s father was swabbed for testing on March 20. The result returned negative three days later. She said she tried to remain optimistic during the anxious wait, joking with her dad, who also received rehab services on the third floor, that she wanted to “break him out” of the building by using a ladder.

Melton, of Milton, said she was happy with the therapy her father had received but was glad to hear he may soon get to leave.

“I’m hoping they get out of there,” she said. m Courtney Lamdin and Colin Flanders contributed reporting.

Contact: derek@sevendaysvt.com

Newport Prison Staffer Tests Positive for COVID-19 B Y DER EK B R OU WER

A Northern State Correctional Facility employee has the coronavirus, Department of Corrections Interim Commissioner Jim Baker said Monday.

The staffer did not work in the secure portion of the Newport facility, Baker said, but had been in close proximity to other employees who do. The department has cleaned the employee’s work area and was tracking staff who had contact with the individual.

Baker said no inmates had been tested for COVID-19 as of Monday but that the department was monitoring several with fevers. Just over 400 people are incarcerated at the prison, and 128 work there.

All correctional staff are being screened for respiratory symptoms and fever before entering state prisons, and those with symptoms are sent home.

Since the new coronavirus emerged in Vermont, criminal justice reform advocates and defense attorneys have been pressuring the state to release large numbers of inmates, fearing that a prison outbreak could be impossible to control.

“As COVID-19 progresses, it becomes increasingly urgent that as many people as possible be released from correctional facilities as quickly as possible,” Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform executive director Tom Dalton said on Monday. A “window of opportunity” was closing, he said.

Baker so far has rebuffed such appeals, though he pointed out that the department released 89 inmates within the previous week. The population across six Vermont prisons was 1,567 on Monday.

The state contracts with Centurion to provide medical services to inmates.

The prisons have some negativepressure rooms to isolate inmates — Baker wasn’t sure how many — and sufficient protective equipment such as masks, gowns and gloves “for the time being,” he said. “We are geared up to provide quality health care.”

Baker briefed a legislative committee on Saturday about the department’s precautions.

In-person visits have been curtailed, so inmates were being given additional entertainment privileges. That included a surprising special event at the Springfield prison the previous weekend.

“We allowed them to have a rock concert inside the facility,” Baker said. m Kevin McCallum contributed reporting.

Contact: derek@sevendaysvt.com

COURTESY OF WCAX-TV

Ralph “Phil” Grenon

We deeply care about our communities and we are dedicated to take the necessary

precautions to keep our community safe.

We are grateful to the many dedicated doctors, nurses, medical staff, scientists and community members who are responding to this health threat.

We appreciate the kindness Vermonters are showing each other and plan to give as much support to our community in the days and weeks ahead.

We plan to serve our clients throughout this crisis with care and respect while putting safety first.

We came into this challenging time strong and we will come out even stronger.

‘Preventable’

(802) 453-5232 vermontgreentree.com 4T-greentree032520.indd 1

Commission says the Howard Center shares blame for a 2016 fatal police shooting

Katrina Roberts Broker

3/20/20 11:22 AM

BY DEREK BROUWER

N

ine days before he died in March 2016, Ralph “Phil” Grenon left a loud, hostile voicemail for his Howard Center psychiatrist. The police were coming to his South Square apartment to kill him, the 76-year-old Burlington resident said, and he was going to defend himself with knives.

Such telephone messages were a feature of Grenon’s schizophrenia, which had regained its grip over him in the preceding months. His psychiatrist, who was on vacation at the time, alerted the center to the message, but staff there did not make note of it in Grenon’s medical record.

Had they done so, that crucial information would have been conveyed to city police when they responded to a noise complaint against Grenon later that month, according to a new report. Believing he was suicidal, seven officers entered Grenon’s apartment with riot shields and drawn weapons. They found him hiding in his shower with a kitchen knife in each hand. An officer fired his Taser, which was ineffective. Grenon charged; another officer shot him four times.

In the months and years since, the Burlington police faced plenty of criticism for their actions that day. And a new report based on two-year review of the deadly encounter does contain scrutiny of police tactics.

But the report also lays blame on the actions of the Howard Center, which had provided Grenon with help for years.

In essence, it says the center failed to intervene when its client stopped taking his psychiatric medication and spiraled into psychosis and crisis.

The Burlington Housing Authority, Grenon’s landlord, noticed his struggles and asked the Howard Center to check on him. The organization also copied clinicians on eviction notices it sent to Grenon, though the commission found that neither party followed up.

The last time a Howard Center staff member tried to visit Grenon was on February 26, more than three weeks before the shooting.

HEALTH

‘PREVENTABLE’

» P.18

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news ‘Preventable’ « P.17 “After Mr. Grenon left the March 12, 2016 voicemail message threatening to defend himself with knives should anyone come to his door, no attempts were made to contact him or engage him in treatment,” the report states.

The 63-page report was submitted to state lawmakers March 11 by the Vermont Mental Health Crisis Response Commission. Its members met monthly, interviewed a dozen witnesses and compiled documents to create the most complete narrative yet of the Grenon shooting.

“If there’s one thing that’s clear to me from this, it’s that his death was preventable,” said commission chair Wilda White, a former executive director of Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, a civil rights advocacy group for people receiving mental health services.

Grenon’s death was the catalyst for state lawmakers to create the commission in 2017. It’s tasked with studying police interactions with people who have mental illness. The law requires that police refer any incident that results in death or serious injury for review.

The commission took Grenon’s case as its first.

The 11-member commission produced two separate reports: a primary set of findings reached by a majority of members and a supplemental report signed only by White and Ed Paquin, a commission member and the Disability Rights Vermont executive director.

The majority report attributed Grenon’s death generally to a “breakdown in services and communication.”

Members found mistakes by all of the agencies involved, but the report focused on the Howard Center, a private, designated mental health care provider in Chittenden County where Grenon was a longtime client.

Grenon’s decline began when he lost his longtime Howard Center case manager, according to the report. He stopped taking his medication, lost weight, skipped appointments, and left hostile and threatening voicemails for his psychiatrist, who’d recently also assumed the role of case manager.

The behavioral pattern mirrored a similar decline in 2008 that led to his arrest for trespassing at a Kinko’s and a subsequent involuntary hospitalization.

On three occasions, Howard Center staff warned individuals of threats that Grenon had made against them in his voicemails. But the Howard Center did not seek to place Grenon in involuntary treatment, according to the report, and 18

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

did not create a written treatment strategy to address the heightened risk.

“To the Commission, patient behavior that triggers a mental health professional’s ‘Duty to Warn,’ also meets the ‘danger of harm to others’ criteria for involuntary treatment,” the report states.

“We’ve got good people in our mental health system,” said Paquin. “When people get overstressed, they miss things. Our system is overstressed.”

As a result, police arrived at Grenon’s apartment with “false and incomplete information” and “inadequate resources,” a majority of commission members found. As the four-hour standoff unfolded, police failed to consider how Grenon’s mental illness affected his ability to comply with commands or how it might shape his reaction to their actions.

MR. GRENON LIKELY THOUGHT HE WAS ACTING IN SELF-DEFENSE AT THE TIME HE WAS KILLED.

VE RMON T ME NTAL H E ALTH C R IS IS RES P O NS E C O MMIS S IO N

Nor did police consult with a Howard Center crisis clinician who was stationed in a nearby car as they devised a strategy to extract Grenon using pepper spray and Tasers.

“Given his mental state, each of their incursions likely heightened Mr. Grenon’s sense that he was under attack,” the report states. “Mr. Grenon likely thought he was acting in selfdefense at the time he was killed.”

Commission members suggested two dozen improvements for mental health agencies, police, public housing providers and others.

White and Paquin filed a supplemental report, called “The Other View,” that attributed the Burlington Police Department’s handling of the situation to implicit bias against people with mental illness. Their report detailed several policies they believed the department — and former chief Brandon del Pozo, in particular — failed to follow, including one that requires special consideration before using a Taser on someone with a “psychiatric disability.”

The decision to use the device to attempt to incapacitate Grenon inside his small bathroom led to the final, fatal encounter.

“There were command decisions that were made that put other officers in harm’s way,” White said.

Such bias is also evidenced in more recent city decisions, White and Paquin wrote, including when city councilors did not include a person with a mental illness on a recent committee that was tasked with reviewing how police use force. The commission members also cited what they claimed was a “policy” that bars people who have disclosed a history of mental illness from taking part in police ride-alongs. Their report compared the latter to the medical leave granted to del Pozo last July for mental health reasons. He resigned last December after admitting he’d created a fake Twitter account to troll a critic and lied about it to a Seven Days reporter in the days before he began his six-week leave.

“Surely, if former Chief of Police del Pozo can return to his position following a leave of absence for mental health treatment,” they wrote, “there is no rational basis for a blanket exclusion of individuals who have disclosed a history of mental illness from participating in police ride-alongs.”

Del Pozo did not respond to a request for comment. He has previously said the situation spiraled out of control when officers’ Tasers failed to subdue Grenon.

The case was featured in an American Public Media investigation into the nonlethal weapon’s reliability.

In a detailed statement, Burlington police Deputy Chief Jon Murad said the department agreed with the commission’s majority report and that its officers already abide by the report’s recommendations.

“The way we deal with people in mental health crisis is about de-escalation and deceleration — reining in emotion and slowing things down,” he said.

Murad disputed White and Paquin’s findings, including their critiques about a $150,000 emergency response vehicle the department purchased after Grenon’s death that is outfitted with nonlethal tools for crisis encounters.

“Our Emergency Response Vehicle and the vast array of training and tools that go with it are entirely dedicated to this philosophy, and is not, as the report’s minority opinion falsely claims, about ‘forcible extraction.’ That’s inaccurate, as is the minority report’s calumny that the Burlington Police Department operates with an implicit bias against people in mental health crisis,” Murad wrote.

Interim Chief Jennifer Morrison provided Seven Days with a copy of the department’s ride-along policy and liability waiver, which makes no direct reference to mental illness.

Participants must attest that they “have no medical condition that will be adversely affected by my participation in this program.”

“The minority report is factually incorrect in this regard,” Morrison said.

One organization faulted, the Burlington Housing Authority, has since moved to a “compassionate” eviction policy, according to the report.

But the Howard Center did not provide any evidence of reform to the committee, the report states.

On Monday, Howard Center CEO Bob Bick released a statement, saying he was grateful for the commission’s work. But he critiqued its approach.

“I will note that one of the recommendations made, consistent with legislative intent, was to improve communications among community partners; we believe that the way the investigation was conducted, hampered rather than helped this process,” the statement read.

State Rep. Anne Donahue (R-Northfield), who sponsored the bill that created the commission and edits Vermont Psychiatric Survivors’ Counterpoint newspaper, said the report confirms that Grenon’s death was preventable.

It also speaks to what she sees as a need to hold police accountable for decisions that put officers in situations where they need to kill. Donahue sponsored legislation this year that would narrow the circumstances in which police may use lethal force, but the bill hasn’t made it out of committee.

Given the coronavirus outbreak, it’s unclear when lawmakers might review the Grenon report, but Donahue expects they eventually will.

“We probably want to hear from the community agencies’ side,” she said, referring to providers such as the Howard Center. “How are they looking at some of these issues that were raised and identified?”

In the meantime, deadly encounters between police and Vermonters with mental illness are stacking up. In an article she wrote for Counterpoint last year, Donahue tallied five police shootings since Grenon’s that would appear to qualify for commission review.

At that rate, Donahue grimly noted, the commission won’t have time to review them all. m Contact: derek@sevendaysvt.com

ai158508083936_1t-countonyou-SR.pdf

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

19

arts news Safe Exposure If you still want to stream pandemic movies, here’s an annotated guide B Y M AR GO T HA R R I SON

Contagion (2011) •

• • •

•

•

• 20

THE DISEASE: MEV-1, a fictional virus that

causes encephalitis within 24 hours with a 25 to 30 percent mortality rate SOURCE: A jet-setting businesswoman (Gwyneth Paltrow) on a trip to Hong Kong WHERE IT MUST BE CONTAINED: It isn’t, though Minneapolis and Chicago are placed under quarantine.

DISTURBING PARALLELS: Panic buying.

Social distancing. Public unrest and disbelief. In my 2011 review, I wrote, “You will not want to touch your face after seeing this film. You will not want to enter crowded rooms. You may feel a sudden urge to relocate to a plastic bubble, or Antarctica.” It’s scarier now.

GOVERNMENT (IN)ACTION: Despite some friction among government officials, they’re the heroes of this tense procedural, which gained in realism from the expert advice of epidemiologist Larry Brilliant. The bad guy is a blogger who touts a miracle cure.

THE SOLUTION : [Spoiler alert!] A researcher defies orders and tests the vaccine prototype on herself. It works, but vaccinating the entire population is no finger-snap.

STREAM IT WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ON:

Cinemax

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

Flu (2013) •

• • •

•

• •

THE DISEASE: A mutated strain of avian flu

(H5N1) that kills within 36 hours with no incubation period SOURCE: Migrants smuggled from Hong Kong in a shipping container WHERE IT MUST BE CONTAINED: Bundang, South Korea DISTURBING PARALLELS: This high-budget Korean disaster film is even soapier than Outbreak; everything pivots around a movie-star-gorgeous doctor, her adorable kid and her budding romance with an emergency responder.

Amid the suds, though, there are nightmare images of airborne virus droplets and quarantine camps into which the infected and uninfected alike disappear.

GOVERNMENT (IN)ACTION: English-speaking World Health Organization authorities and local businessmen play the heavies, but South Korea’s president eventually stands up for human rights.

THE SOLUTION: [Spoiler alert!] Antibodies from the original carrier

E

arlier this month, the mostly forgotten 1995 blockbuster Outbreak suddenly leapt into the Netflix Top 10. That isn’t the only thriller about a deadly disease that Americans have been streaming in record numbers. In the Guardian, Charles Bramesco speculated that people are “flocking to these films for a sanctioned version of exposure therapy, in which an inconceivable menace can be experienced and survived.”

Not all medical disaster movies are created equal, though. Some offer an educational dose of likely scenarios; others distract us by reshaping our worst fears into an adventure with a Hollywood ending. Watching four high-budget pandemic movies, two from the U.S. and two from Asia, I found instructive parallels and differences, not to mention catharsis, insight and absurdity. Besides being included with subscriptions (as noted), all of the following movies are available for rent on various platforms.

Outbreak (1995) •

• • •

•

•

STREAM IT WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ON:

Amazon Prime

•

“Hemorrhagic fever” with a 24-hour incubation and a whopping 100 percent mortality rate SOURCE: A capuchin monkey smuggled out of Zaire by slacker stereotype “Jimbo” (Patrick Dempsey) WHERE IT MUST BE CONTAINED: The fictional small town of Cedar Creek, Calif.

DISTURBING PARALLELS: Most of Outbreak is “Hollywood” enough to be more fun than terrifying, but two scenes are exceptions. In one, virus droplets spread from a coughing man in a crowded theater; in the other, a nameless everywoman hugs her kids and goes into quarantine, never to be seen alive again.

GOVERNMENT (IN)ACTION: Donald Sutherland plays a general who’s itching to incinerate Cedar Creek and everyone in it.

THE SOLUTION: [Spoiler alert!] Antibodies from the original carrier. (In case you’re starting to wonder: Antibodies from recovered patients are a potential treatment for COVID-19, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, but they’re not the instant fixes depicted here and in Flu.) STREAM IT WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ON : Netflix THE DISEASE:

Virus (2019) •

•

• •

•

•

•

Nipah virus, which has a two-week incubation and (in this film) a 75 percent mortality rate SOURCE: While most of these movies start with Patient Zero, Virus is a detective story, focused on authorities struggling to trace the outbreak to its source.

WHERE IT MUST BE CONTAINED: The state of Kerala, India DISTURBING PARALLELS: Based on an actual 2018 outbreak, Virus is, like Contagion, an absorbing procedural that cleaves chillingly close to reality. With a plot involving overloaded hospitals, a respirator shortage and forced cremations of the dead, the movie could be … triggering. But it’s also full of stirring portraits of everyday heroism.

GOVERNMENT (IN)ACTION: The military is eager to treat the infection as an act of bioterrorism. The health minister and her colleagues must prove it happened naturally.

THE SOLUTION: [Spoiler alert!] Authorities manage to contain the disease after 17 deaths. There is still no vaccine or cure for Nipah virus.

THE DISEASE:

STREAM IT WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ON:

Amazon Prime

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FURNITURE FURNITURE video lectures and online tuto- one of three art history articles preselectedMUCH MUCH MORE MORE rials. But how can you remotely by Robertson and respond with short bennington bennington teach classes that require essays. They’ll also contribute definitions potters potters 127 college street, | call for hours | 802.863.2221 127burlington COLLEGE STREET, BURLINGTON making things by hand or with equipment to a printmaking glossary on the web.

127 college street, burlington | 11-5 call for802 hours 802.863.2221 127 COLLEGE STREET, BURLINGTON M-Fstreet, 10-9; SAT 10-6; SUN 863| 2221 * hours 127 college burlington | call for | 802.863.2221 not normally found in a college student’s Hands-on practice would typically 127 COLLEGE STREET, BURLINGTON M-F 10-9; SAT 10-6; SUN 11-5 * 802 863 2221 FREE GIFT WRAPPING WE SHIP ANYWHERE GIFT CERTIFICATES M-F 10-9; SAT 10-6; SUN 11-5 802 863 2221 * * home? Since colleges have been shut down take place in an on-campus studio with FREE GIFT WRAPPING * WE SHIP ANYWHERE * GIFT CERTIFICATES BENNINGTON POTTERY &* HOMESTYLE STORE FREE GIFT WRAPPING * WE SHIP ANYWHERE * GIFT CERTIFICATES to help contain the spread of COVID-19, ink, brayers, carving tools and multiple teachers and students are finding out. printing presses. But most of Robertson’s 1 4/16/18 PM BPN_Oct-2015_7Days.indd 1 3/30/18 12:00 9:51 AM Untitled-7 1Untitled-7 4/16/18 12:00 PM 1 Untitled-7 1 4/16/18 3/30/18 12:00 PM 9:51 AM At Northern Vermont University- students didn’t have time to retrieve theirBPN_Oct-2015_7Days.indd BPN_Oct-2015_7Days.indd 1 3/30/18 9:51 4T-BPN032520.indd 1 3/23/20 2:00 AM PM Johnson, adjunct faculty supplies before they left member and JULIAN SCOTT school. And, as he puts it, “Obviously students can’t MEMORIAL GALLERY director PHILLIP ROBERTSON is taking pull prints that require a the challenge in stride — press.” and he’s excited for the So he’s asking students opportunities that come to use the online learnwith a virtual art class. ing platform Canvas to When NVU announced post drawings that can be on March 12 that it would used as material for future suspend in-person classes prints when they return to PHILLIP ROBERTSON on its Johnson and Lyndonthe studio. Classmates will ville campuses, Robertson discuss their work online, says, he wasn’t alarmed by the idea of and Robertson will pose guiding questions. pivoting to virtual instruction, even for a Those who have the hardware can tactile class such as printmaking. document plates in progress. One student, In addition to his printmaking classes Robertson says, is working on a collagraph in Johnson, the Hardwick resident plate (“kind of like a collage that you then has been teaching drawing online for ink up”). Though she can’t print it, she can Community College of Vermont for nine document and discuss her progress online. years. Though he was initially skeptical, “[That’s something] we wouldn’t Robertson quickly came around to the normally be doing,” Robertson says, “so I notion of virtual art instruction. He recalls think that’s a whole other level of learning how, years ago, in his first week of using an that these students are getting.” online platform, he had a realization: “I’m As of press time, physical classes are like, ‘Oh! I’m empowering [students] to do scheduled to resume on April 6. But, the work at home on their own, which is should the university suspend in-person establishing good studio practices.’” learning for the remainder of the semester, Starting this week, he’s empowering Robertson will ensure that his artists have his NVU students to do the same. For two supplies in hand. “I will create a little bit weeks, Robertson’s 37 Johnson students, more academic content,” he says, “but I’ll including three interns and four doing try to keep it focused on the production, independent study, will follow his remote- which is what my class is all about.” m learning lesson plans, which combine academic and practical instruction.

Contact: kravin@sevendaysvt.com

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THAT’S A WHOLE OTHER LEVEL OF LEARNING

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Untitled-4 1

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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3/17/20 2:57 PM

arts news

CULTURE

Virtual tours at Woodstock's Billings Farm & Museum

Remote Access Enterprising Vermonters go virtual with classes, tours and barnyard animals

BY KRI S T E N RAV I N You’ve burned through your Netflix queue after a few days of social distancing. Now what?

Many Vermont organizations are taking their workshops, activities and exhibitions to the web, giving residents opportunities to move, learn and be entertained from the compulsory comfort of their homes. What follows is just a sampling of the virtual experiences now available in lieu of in-person gatherings. Whether you’re looking to make art, break a sweat or see cute animals, you won’t be bored.

Arts & Entertainment CIRCUS SMIRKUS, a Greensboro-based youth circus, introduces Smirkus@Home, an online initiative featuring paid virtual classes — think Hula-Hooping, juggling and clowning — for all ages. “While we planned to do this anyway, we kicked the process into high gear in response to the current situation,” wrote executive director Jen Carlo in a newsletter.

Details are at smirkus.org.

Exhibits, classes and studio hours are off-limits to in-person visitors at Burlington’s BCA CENTER through at least April 6. Instead, visual arts fans can engage with the center’s new Home Studio project, which features virtual-reality gallery tours, as well as prompts to inspire art making. Folks can then share their work with the BCA Home Studio Facebook group.

Health & Wellness The VERMONT CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE HERBALISM regularly offers student clinics, allowing individuals to receive affordable consultations from third-year clinical herbal interns. Normally held at VCIH in Montpelier and RAILYARD APOTHECARY in Burlington, the clinics are now done by phone and video chat. Consultations are available by appointment and cost between $10 and $30. Call 224-7100 for more information.

Remember to breathe! Active bodies stretch the stress away with virtual classes presented by SANGHA STUDIO and EVOLUTION

22

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

Untitled-22 1

3/23/20 9:18 AM

PHYSICAL THERAPY + YOGA. Both Burlingtonbased studios are using online platforms to help students stay on the mat. Schedules are available at sanghastudio.org and evolutionvt.com.

Science & Environment The MONTSHIRE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE in Norwich is closed until further notice, but scientific exploration is ongoing. Through its Facebook page, Instagram account and YouTube channel, the museum stimulates minds with online learning opportunities, such as DIY science projects, downloadable activities and video lessons for families. Each week highlights a different topic, such as chain reactions and cardboard creations.

Vermont- and New York-based solar company SUNCOMMON presented the first annual Climate Action Film Festival in February.

Those who missed it can join internet-based “town hall” screenings on March 26, 28 and 30, meant to replace in-person showings and discussions originally scheduled around the state. See suncommon.com/climate-actionfilm-festival/screenings for details.

Agriculture & Gardening YouTube and Facebook feeds offer access to the animals and historic farmhouse at the BILLINGS FARM & MUSEUM in Woodstock.

Running out of ideas for the kids? Locals can pick up craft and activity kits from a drivethrough station outside the visitor center.

The annual Baby Farm Animal Celebration is postponed, but there’s still plenty of cuteness to go around.

As planting season approaches, Hinesburg’s RED WAGON PLANTS offers seminars to get gardeners started. Houseplants 101 on March 26 and Beginner’s Guide to Planning the Medicinal Herb Garden on March 28 move from the greenhouse to the web, reaching participants through live video conferences.

Register at redwagonplants.com.

Contact: kravin@sevendaysvt.com

HACKIE

A VERMONT CABBIE’S REAR VIEW BY JERNIGAN PONTIAC

Fuhgettaboutit

L

ocated on Route 17 about two miles from the Champlain Bridge, the West Addison General Store is the real deal: a bona fide, old-school Vermont general store. That’s general as opposed to specific.

Yup, they carry everything from penny candy to baseball caps to fishing worms.

And the floor and shelves are made of wood.

But the core difference between a place like this and the more common so-called convenience stores of the modern world is that the West Addison General Store got soul. And that’s what draws me in whenever a taxi fare has me Champlain Bridge-bound.

On a sunny late-winter afternoon, I was gassing up at said Addison store when I heard a cacophony of bird talk from across the road. On a huge field of corn stubble, just barely devoid of its winter snow cover, a flock of geese had congregated. It was hard to tell whether they were looking for food or just chilling. I’m not exaggerating when I estimate their numbers at somewhere north of 200.

Before I went into the store to settle up — no paying at the pump at this trusting establishment — I moseyed over to the edge of the field and called, “Welcome back, guys!” Not a single bird took notice, but why would they?

Traversing the bridge into New York and following the route my customer, Ralph Vitiello, had given me, I soon pulled to a stop in front of his house in the town of Silver Bay. It was hard to miss: a oncestately Victorian gone to seed. Ralph had told me he rents a room there, living with three other men. The rambling porch and expansive frontWORD yard were filled with THE ARTFUL sundry items in various>states disassemWEDNESDAYS 9:00ofp.m. bly, if not decay. A Hollywood set dresser couldn’t have done a better job.

I gave a honk as instructed, and Ralph emerged from the front door, moving slowly. He was going to Burlington for some medical imaging of his right knee, which he told me would probably need replacing. He had shared a lot in his booking phone call.

“Yeah, I have noticed that. It’s like that ’80s movie Revenge of the Nerds. So, how’d you end up in the boonies of upstate New York?”

“Finances, my man. After my divorce — my third — I was left flat broke. A buddy of mine had this old family home in Silver Lake. He said I could come up and live

I FEEL LIKE I’M

IN WITNESS PROTECTION OR SOMETHING. As he eased into the shotgun seat I said, “Have you seen all those geese hanging around the bridge? There’s, like, a million of ’em.”

“You mean the ducks?” he replied. His expression was oddly deadpan.

“Jeez, I guess they coulda been ducks.

I thought they were geese, but what do I know? I grew up in Brooklyn. All we had were pigeons.”

“I’m just busting your balls, man,” Ralph said, cackling. I noticed the pronounced Long Island accent and the matching attitude. His hair was thick and lustrous, slicked back with — if I had to guess — Brylcreem. I can still remember the ubiquitous jingle from my youth: “Brylcreem — A little dab’ll do ya!’”

“And, yeah, I seen ’em and heard ’em,” Ralph continued. “They are some noisy sons of bitches.”

“That they are,” I agreed. “So, Ralphie, you said you grew up on Long Island, right?”

“Syosset,” he replied. “I went to high school with Billy Joel. We had rival bands.

I also was friends with Steve Cohen, the school’s AV nerd who went on to become Billy’s lighting director for his tours. You ever notice that the biggest nerds from back in the day are now running the world?”

there if I helped with the repairs and property management. So, I’ve been up here for five years now.”

“Wow, what a total change in lifestyle.

Do you like it?”

“I fuckin’ hate it! I feel like I’m in witness protection or something. There is, like, nothing going on up here. I’m going fucking stir-crazy. And don’t even get me going about the food. They wouldn’t know a pasta Bolognese if you dropped it on their lap.”

Ralph paused his rant to fish a letter out of a well-worn satchel he had brought with him. “Excuse me a minute,” he said. “This was just delivered certified and it’s from a court, so I better check it out.”

He ripped open the letter, looked at it and said, “Well, fuck me. I’m being sued for child support! Can you believe it?”

“One of your ex-wives?” I asked.

“No, I only had kids — my son and daughter — with the second one, and they’re both in their thirties now. This is from a chick who worked in accounting at the Chevy dealership where I worked before I moved up here. She was gorgeous and also, I came to learn, bat-shit crazy.

She claims I had a son with her who’s now 5 years old.”

“Holy shit!” I said, fully into the drama of the situation. “Could it be possible?”

“Well, of course it’s possible. Before things went haywire, we were banging, like, daily. I mean, fuhgettaboutit.”

“So, you got to show up in court on Long Island?”

“Yup, I’ve been ‘summoned to appear’ on, let’s see, April 14th.”

“Are you gonna?” At this point in the conversation I had reverted to the full Brooklynese syntax of my youth.

“Fuck no! How the hell am I gonna make it down to the Island with a wonky leg and no bread?”

I was working up an answer until I realized it was a rhetorical question and held my tongue.

“Plus, what can they do to me, anyway?” he continued. “I’m up here, flat broke without a pot to piss in. They can’t get blood from a stone, right?”

“I guess that’s your silver lining. Like Dylan said, ‘When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’”

“He got that right,” Ralph said, chuckling. “Coulda been writing about me.”

We hadn’t yet reached the bridge and Ralph had already relayed a couple of extraordinary stories. Here’s the thing: In the hour more that it took to get to Burlington, he shared at least five other stories from his life, each one juicier than the last.

Can I get an amen, somebody? Fuhgettaboutit! m All these stories are true, though names and locations may be altered to protect privacy.

INFO Hackie is a twice-monthly column that can also be read on sevendaysvt.com. To reach Jernigan, email hackie@sevendaysvt.com.

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COVID-19 PREPARATION GUIDE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

FEVER COUGH SHORTNESS OF BREATH

What to do if you are sick • Stay home and call your doctor.

Do not go to or visit any hospitals, emergency rooms or long-term care facilities unless absolutely necessary.

• Separate yourself from other people and animals in your home.

• Wear a face mask around other people and pets if you are sick.

• Clean all “high-touch” surfaces every day.

• Cover your coughs and sneezes and clean your hands often.

Should I get tested?

If you are ill, call your health care provider to find out if you can be seen for an evaluation. Not everyone needs to be tested.

24

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

How does COVID-19 spread?

THE VIRUS IS THOUGHT TO SPREAD MAINLY FROM PERSON TO PERSON. • Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).

• Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

How can you help prevent getting the virus?

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

• Stay home when you are sick.

• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcoholbased hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

20 secs.

Help #FlattenTheCurve.

Slowing the spread of the virus is crucial. A surge of patients will stress our health care system. The same number of infections spread out over a longer period of time will be easier to manage — and will keep us all healthier.

• 2 Tablespoons (33 mL) water

INFOGRAPHIC COURTESY OF DREW HARRIS

Take care of your mental health.

The news about the Coronavirus has been unsettling for many. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges during this time, here are a few tips to stay emotionally healthy: • Use technology to connect with family and friends.

• Do enjoyable activities: read a book, listen to music, cook a meal, learn a new skill, etc.

• Get adequate rest.

• Do enjoyable activities.

• 1 cup (250 mL) isopropyl alcohol (91%) • 1 teaspoon (5 mL) glycerol (or other moisturizer such as aloe vera gel, warm honey or olive oil)

WHAT EVERYONE CAN DO:

• Eat well and stay active.

DIY Hand Sanitizer

MENTALHEALTH.VERMONT.GOV/ CORONAVIRUS-AND-OUR-MENTAL-HEALTH

Add the ingredients in the order listed above to a clean container, mixing with a spoon. If using honey, stir until the honey is completely dissolved. Keep this mixture out of the reach of children.

The final concentration of isopropyl alcohol in this mixture is 75%, so keep it away from flames.

Based on a recipe from the World Health Organization

• Employ coping skills that nurture your spirit, like mindfulness exercises or prayer.

How can I prepare at home?

Older Vermonters and people with chronic conditions

• Plan ways to care for those in your home who might be at greater risk for serious complications, like older adults and persons who have underlying chronic (long-lasting) medical conditions.

Older adults and people with chronic conditions should take extra precautions, including:

• Choose a room in your home that can be used to separate sick household members from those who are healthy.

• Get support from others.

• Take care of the emotional health of your household members.

60% alcohol

or stronger

HAVE NEEDED SUPPLIES ON HAND • Necessary medications in case you need to stay home for a prolonged period of time.

• Over-the-counter medicines and supplies for fever and other symptoms.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CHECK OUT THESE RESOURCES:

• Enough household items and groceries on hand so that you will be prepared to stay at home for a period of time.

healthvermont. gov/covid19

STAY HOME AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AVOID CRUISE TRAVEL AND NONESSENTIAL AIR TRAVEL

CDC.gov Call 2-1-1

STAY AWAY FROM OTHERS WHO ARE SICK

PR OD UC ED BY 7D BR A N D S T U D IO — PA ID F O R BY V ERMO NT D EPARTMENT O F HEALTH

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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ADAPTATION Vignettes of Vermonters adjusting to life in a pandemic B Y J O RD AN B ARRY, D AN B O L L E S , CH E LS EA ED G A R , M A R G A R ET G R AY S ON , K E V I N M CCAL L U M , K E N P I CARD , S AL LY P OL L A K, PAUL A R OUT LY, CARO LYN S H AP I RO & M O L LY WAL S H

O

Paula Routly “visiting” with her mother, Angie, at the Converse Home. Also pictured: Sue Haman

n March 8, our little corner of the world fundamentally changed. That was the day state officials announced the first Vermonter infected with the novel coronavirus. The number of infections mounted as the days passed; the first deaths were reported. Businesses closed; schools and institutions of all kinds shut down. No one can say what the next weeks or months will hold.

As individual efforts to control the spread of the virus through social distancing and self-isolation increase, the daily routines Vermonters once took for granted are becoming distant memories.

Pop quiz: Do you remember the last meal you ate in a restaurant? How about the last grade your child got on a test? What did you talk about in that department meeting on March 7? It’s OK. We don’t really recall, either. The last few weeks have been a year.

Recently, Seven Days reporters set out to observe — from safe distances — how Vermonters are adapting to the new realities of life in a pandemic. We spoke with seniors socially distancing at a grocery store and through windows at a nursing home. We found families flocking to nature at Shelburne Farms. We observed the faithful flocking to God through an online Jewish service on Shabbat. Speaking of online connections, we laughed with comedians during a webcast and with friends over drinks via Zoom. One reporter got her water heater fixed, with barely a word from the repairman.

Most of all, we found Vermonters doing what they can to stay safe, and sane, in an extraordinary time.

And for the time being, that might be all any of us can do.

D.B

Contact: dan@sevendaysvt.com

COURTESY OF SUZIE MCCOY

Abby wagged her tail cheerfully as she jumped from a car at the Animal Hospital of Hinesburg last Thursday, oblivious to the needles in her future. Abby’s owner, Nita Ingham of Huntington, was bringing the 7-year-old Cavachon — a Cavalier King Charles spaniel/bichon frise mix — for routine vaccines. The fluffy beige bundle of energy seemed thrilled to be there.

“She’s a people lover,” Ingham said.

“My husband says, ‘I never thought we’d have a dog that tells us when it’s time to get up, when it’s time to go to bed and when it’s time to eat.’”

For the first time, Ingham had to wait in the parking lot while Abby had her shots. Beginning March 17, the animal hospital canceled all nonessential visits and implemented a policy of curbside service only.

When pet owners arrive, they phone the front desk, and a veterinary technician gathers medical histories and payment information. Pet supplies are delivered through open car windows. For those who can’t make it to the clinic during business hours, orders 26

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

KEN PICARD

DOGGIE DRIVE-THROUGH

From left: Nicole Nadeau, Abby and Nita Ingham

are left outside the door in pet-themed packages labeled with each animal’s name.

Within minutes, vet tech Nicole Nadeau arrived to usher Ingham’s dog inside. Abby’s posture switched from excited to noncompliant, as she flattened her belly to the pavement and resisted the tech’s gentle tug on her leash.

“What are you feeding her?” Nadeau asked, as she jotted notes.

“She’s a diva, so she only eats people food,” Ingham said. “I roast a chicken every week and a half.”

Nadeau explained that the vet would conduct a standard exam, test for tick-borne diseases and then bring Abby outside again.

Two more cars arrived as Ingham waited.

In one was Marge, a four-pound miniature gray poodle who quivered nervously in her owner’s arms. In the other sat Nitro, a 55-pound pit bull puppy with bad diarrhea. Nitro’s owner, a young woman who declined to give her name, seemed anxious about the visit, though not because of the coronavirus.

“He doesn’t like to go anywhere without me,” she said. Yet both pooches were soon shepherded inside without incident.

Fifteen minutes later, Patrick Leavey, one of seven veterinarians at the animal hospital, returned with Abby, who wagged her whole body and panted happily upon spotting Ingham.

After they left, Leavey explained that the curbside care was adopted primarily to protect clients and staff; dogs and cats don’t get ill from the coronavirus. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there’s no evidence that companion animals spread COVID-19 to humans. Dogs, he said, are believed to be “dead-end hosts.”

Nevertheless, there’s a possibility that a coronavirus-positive owner could touch an animal that then is touched by another human, who picks up the virus. To prevent

OUTSIDE ALONE, TOGETHER

On a gray, blustery Thursday afternoon, the parking lot of Shelburne Farms was almost full. In recent days, the only institution that hasn’t closed, canceled its season or pivoted to a takeout-only model is nature — which has the added perk of being free.

People gearing up at their cars to walk the farm’s trails said hi to each other with weird gusto; at a glance, it was impossible to tell strangers from friends. Even a pair of Muppetish-looking terriers, straining on their leashes to close the distance between their humans, inspected each other with unusual politesse: They, too, understood that the situation had changed.

A handwritten sign outside the park’s now-shuttered Welcome Center announced, in all caps, that the public restrooms were no longer available. Upon Elizabeth Brackett (center) and family seeing this, a woman cheerfully advised her apprehensive toddler: “If you have to go potty, you can use the Nalgene in the Raymond and Alexander Brior car now, or you can go in the woods later!”

Beyond the parking PAT T Y WES L EY lot, the ochre March hillsides seemed to be crawling with people on a pilgrimage — all walking in the same direction, staggered in loose clusters of two and three.

A startling number of joggers lacked earbuds, our species’ preferred bulwark against the present.

An equally startling From left: Amy Mellencamp, Maggie Mangham number of those joggers and Patty Wesley at Shelburne Farms appeared to be of school age. One of them, an of four is a technical services librarian at Three school employees handed out adolescent boy, was getting a pep talk from Northern Vermont University. the food as they listened to a Pandora his dad. (Father, panting: “Yeah, but isn’t He’s already lost hours at his second job playlist blaring mountain revival music by it great to be outside, though?” Kid, tossat nearby Smugglers’ Notch Resort, and Old Crow Medicine Show. ing bangs out of his eyes: “I don’t know. I he worries more losses could come if the It was fitting. Low clouds hovered guess.”)

COVID-19 threat lasts. over Madonna Mountain and Sterling Not far from the sheep barn, three “We live pretty tightly financially, so Peak near town. Evergreens dotting the women had formed an equilateral triangle that’s going to create problems if it persists distant peaks and the gray palette of the in the middle of the trail, as if they were for any period of time,” said Brior. overcast day were at once gloomy and about to play hacky sack. One triangle Despite the challenges, he knows his beautiful. point was Maggie Mangham, a nurse at family is better off than some. “You see the The mood was unambiguously upbeat, Community Health Improvement at the number of children who are food insecure though, as families exchanged cries of University of Vermont Medical Center, who maybe only get one good meal a day, “You take care” at the food stop. Between who recently started working from her or two, and it’s at school,” Brior said, “so the pickup sites at schools and student home in South Burlington. She said that I’m glad they’ve been able to do something bus stops, the Lamoille North Supervisory going for a walk in Shelburne in the middle to provide [food] service.”

Union delivered more than 500 meals on of the day still feels like an illicit pleasure.

The Briors live opposite the small- Thursday.

But Mangham said that her supervitown school, whose handsomely renoThe effort counts for Brior, who sors have been extra supportive: “They’re vated red clapboard section harks back summed up his plan to deal with the telling us to make sure that we take care of to an era when children carried lunch current crisis with a little help from school ourselves, you know, get outside, exercise, pails to class. lunches: “Knuckle down, push ahead, do yoga—” Along with the Briors, other parents don’t give up.”

M.W. walked to the meal pickup, as well. Elizabeth ADAPTATION » P.28

We’ll take care of each other.

that, Leavey and his techs wear gloves when they handle their patients.

After all, he said, “You can’t sanitize a dog.”

K. P.

SCHOOL FOOD HITS THE SPOT

As Raymond Brior and his 16-year-old son, Alexander, walked up the drive to Johnson Elementary School, a chilly March wind mussed the teen’s mop of dark curly hair.

The building was officially closed last Thursday, but they were there to pick up Vermont’s latest version of takeout: school food. The duo loaded up on brownbag lunches and breakfasts, as well as chocolate milk, the iconic school cafeteria beverage.

The ham-and-cheese sandwiches and cornmeal muffins are good for the stomach and the pocketbook, said Brior. The father

CHELSEA EDGAR

MOLLY WALSH

MOLLY WALSH

Brackett arrived pushing a stroller. With all public schools in the state shuttered until at least April 6, she said she’s grateful that school food programs have continued.

“It’s definitely a helpful program,” said Brackett. “It helps offset some of the income we might be losing.”

The full-time mother of four said her fiancé works construction, but his job “might be shutting down” due to COVID19. “We have some in savings, but we’re not sure how long, obviously, this is going to continue,” Brackett added.

During Thursday’s lunch pickup from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., vans, station wagons and pickup trucks cruised the school driveway past a sign announcing “Free Meals for Kids.” Traffic was moderate, with lulls between families; plenty of brown bags were left over at 1 p.m.

Two tables set up outside the building held cardboard boxes full of bagged meals.

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

27

“I’m trying to see one new person a day and get outside as much as I can,” offered one of the other women, Patty Wesley of Burlington. “When I think smaller — my city, my neighborhood, my community — I feel like we can get through this. We’ll take care of each other.”

A few yards ahead, a woman said to her power-walking companion, as their shoes kicked up little flecks of mud in tandem: “Aren’t we so lucky to live in Vermont right now?”

C. E.

GAMING THE SYSTEM

Natalie Miller had a problem: She was always losing her teeth. Fortunately, she also had a solution. “Lean into it,” she said, beaming, and proudly displayed a childish stick-figure drawing of her future self, mouth agape and toothless — a scribbly black hole.

Her assembled colleagues reacted with a mix of surprise and revulsion.

a virtual stand-in for the troupe’s weekly live show at VCC. The performers adhered to social distancing, broadcasting to a videoconference room from their homes around Burlington and beyond. Only Hartswick and Miller appeared together in the same room. (Their dogs, Tina Fey and Ellen, also made impromptu cameos.)

For those who tuned in via Zoom and Facebook Live — about 150 people, close to VCC’s real-life capacity — the free show offered 60 minutes of comic relief from the COVID-19 headlines.

Improv rarely translates beyond a live, in-person setting. The style is unscripted, and comics rely on audience suggestions — not to mention crowd energy and laughter — to conjure material.

“Improv teams all over are trying to do their normal live shows online, and it usually doesn’t work,” Hartswick explained by phone before the show.

So the Unmentionables didn’t do their normal show. Instead, most of the hourlong performance centered on the sevenmember troupe and special guests playing the video party game Patently Stupid. Play-

CAROLYN SHAPIRO

Adaptation « P.27

Amelia Frederick (left) and Alexis Pomerleau

Sobering yet still somehow laughinducing moments aside, it was all pretty stupid — which, of course, was the point.

Imagine playing Pictionary with good friends who also happen to be talented comedians.

“This is all new territory, trying to figure out how to do what we do in an online space,” Miller told the virtual crowd in her real-life pitch for donations to the club, noting that they’ll soon be adding streaming standup and sketch performances, daytime family-oriented shows, and classes. “But we’re having fun.”

They certainly weren’t the only ones.

D.B.

VIRTUALLY IN VOGUE Screenshot of the Unmentionables performing “Quaran-TEAM!”

“That’s one way to do it, I guess,” offered one. “Wow,” said another. “Just … wow.”

If that doesn’t exactly sound like supportive feedback, it’s not. Miller, whose teeth are just fine, is the co-owner with her husband, Nathan Hartswick, of the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington.

Her unsympathetic colleagues were fellow members of the Unmentionables, VCC’s house improv comedy team. Miller’s dental damnation was just a bit — and a funny one, too.

Like all local performance venues, the comedy club is closed indefinitely. So on Thursday, Miller and Hartswick launched an online series called “Quaran-TEAM! Game Night With the Unmentionables,” 28

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

ers were tasked with inventing products to solve ridiculous made-up problems — such as constantly losing teeth or being “always bamboozled.”

Performers drew sketches on digital cocktail napkins and then pitched their inventions, à la “Shark Tank,” with a name, tagline and lots of jokes. The audience voted on who got (fictional) funding. Most ideas were hilarious and absurd, though not all.

Aaron Paulsen, playing from Chicago, offered an invention called “Give Him 500 Dolla.” His tagline: “You don’t have to, but it’d be nice.” Paulsen also had a compelling pitch. “I just lost both of my jobs,” he said, deadpan. “So, yeah, give me $500.”

Alexis Pomerleau held up a white, openweave White + Warren sweater in front of a MacBook screen and called attention to its taupe-colored stitching and threequarter sleeves.

“This is one of my favorite sweaters in the store right now — adorable for going into spring,” she said to 31 viewers on Facebook Live.

At noon Thursday, with the doors of Jess Boutique on Church Street locked, five staff members gathered inside to host the Burlington clothing store’s first-ever virtual fashion show and online shopping event.

They set a laptop on a stack of shoe boxes atop a round glass table that held displays of floral satin pumps and beaded clutches. There was also a pitcher of orange juice and bottle of Champagne for mimosas. Sales associate Shannon Kamnik simultaneously livestreamed on Instagram to another 30 or so followers.

“We’re doing everything that we can to stay innovative and to stay on top of

everything and be able to still connect with our customers,” Pomerleau told viewers at the start of the event, which included clothes from Expressions, Jess Boutique’s sister store next door.

“We want to be able to provide our customers with the same service that they’ve always received, just in a different way,” she said.

After some technological stumbles and dropped Wi-Fi connections, the team switched to smartphone video. The Jess hostesses pulled blouses, jackets and “really, really comfortable jeans” off racks to show viewers.

“If you want something, you comment ‘Sold!’ when I hold it up,” Pomerleau instructed viewers. Staff would call later to take credit cards and arrange free shipping, local delivery or pickup at the front door.

The team and owner Jess Pomerleau decided to close March 16 after traffic dropped dramatically on Church Street, according to Erin Brennan, general manager of both shops. They brainstormed ideas to stem the losses.

Alexis Pomerleau, the owner’s cousin and store stylist, suggested the virtual fashion show. Jess Boutique and Expressions plan to host live events online at least once a week, including some at cocktail hour, when they suggest that customers dress up and sip wine while they watch at home.

“We cannot see you, I promise,” Pomerleau told the Facebook participants on Thursday. “So, if you’re at home in your pajamas with no makeup on, that’s OK.” In their online posts, customers made purchase after purchase: a drapey top, black jeans, a salmon-colored tunic. The Jess team recognized the buyers by name and knew the sizes they’d need and the styles they’d favor.

SALLY POLLAK

C. S.

reported no colds or sore throats, no fevers or coughing. She said that a service technician would come that day and would call in advance. I told her we’d leave the front door open, put the dogs in the mudroom and stay upstairs. There was no reason we’d have to meet.

Ray Merola called a couple of hours later, around noon, from his van in front of our house. I explained the problem and directed him to the cellar stairs. I suggested he text or call from the basement if he needed to reach me. Ray said he wouldn’t be bringing his phone into our house — part of the new protocols established to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. As he gathered his equipment, Ray waved to me from beside his van. I waved back from a second-floor window.

About 15 minutes later I heard his voice — live and in-person — from the bottom of the stairs. Dressed in noontime pajamas, I appeared at the top of

Ray waved to me from beside his van.

Ray Merola

RAY OF SUNSHINE

We had the handwashing thing down at our house, and we preferred to do it with hot water. That luxury appeared to be on the fritz for a few days last week. Enacting a mini version of what’s been playing out at the federal level — ignoring signs of trouble — I pretended our hot water was flowing fine. Then one night, I found myself filling the bathtub with successive pots of boiling water. The next morning, after our plumber diagnosed the problem but couldn’t fix it, I called Vermont Gas Systems.

The utility company was screening its calls for emergencies and other high priorities: having no hot water qualified.

The dispatcher asked a series of questions about the health of our household. I

I waved back from a second-floor window. our staircase. Ray wore company gear, plus blue latex gloves. He explained that he needed to get a part from the warehouse — the temperature gauge was old, weird and needed replacement — to fix the hot water heater. We maintained a suitable distance during this exchange: 16 steps and 13 vertical feet.

Later that afternoon, Ray let himself into our house and announced that he had procured the necessary part.

“Yay!” I yelled from upstairs. “We love you!”

In retrospect, I realize that might’ve been a bit more than Ray wanted to hear.

I did, however, follow it up quickly with another shout-out from the second floor.

“Ray,” I told him. “I’m just gonna ignore you.”

Silence from the first floor.

“Ray!” I said again. “I’m just gonna ignore you.”

From her bedroom, my daughter — exiled from college the last semester of her senior year — spoke her first words of the day: “Mom,” she said. “He’s ignoring you.”

I heard clanking and banging from the cellar.

About 20 minutes later Ray spoke again.

“You’re good to go,” he called from the bottom of the stairs. “You’ll have hot water in about an hour.”

I looked out the window and watched him load his gear into the van, still wearing those blue gloves.

COURTESY OF BECKY BOUCHARD

“Diane, I feel like that pink suede jacket would look fabulous over that white Trina Turk top,” Pomerleau told one online customer. Her colleagues expressed their enthusiasm and burst into excited laughter when Diane bought the jacket.

“Thank you all so much for supporting us,” Kamnik said. “We have the best customers.”

When the event ended around 1:45, the staff applauded one another. Customers’ orders had piled up around the Jess showroom. In less than two hours — without a single shopper in person — the store had tripled its daily sales goal, Brennan said. She declined to give exact numbers but said it would normally take three days to bring in the same amount.

“I’m so proud of you all,” she said, beaming.

She wanted to hug her staff but couldn’t. They were social distancing.

S . P.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

Francesca Aida Fortuna Fran Villemaire Villemaire was born in St. Albans on March 20, 1920 — just a few months after the two-year Spanish flu epidemic released its deadly grip on Vermont. Last Friday at Burlington’s Converse Home, she celebrated a century of life. Seated at her regular spot in the dining room, draped with a sash that proclaimed “100 & Fabulous,” the tiara-wearing centenarian looked pleased and a little embarrassed while staffers fêted her with balloons, rose petals and birthday cake.

Villemaire’s middle child, Mary Guerin, watched the merriment from outside the building, shielding her eyes to peer through the French doors that open from the dining room onto a backyard patio.

She had brought one of her mom’s favorite foods — lobster — for lunch and taped a handmade sign of congratulations to the window to mark the occasion. Guerin could hear only a muffled rendition of “Happy Birthday” through the glass.

Mother and daughter exchanged air kisses instead of hugs.

“This is not what we had in mind, but under the circumstances … it could be a lot worse,” Guerin said.

Converse was among the first eldercare facilities in Vermont to prohibit visitation to protect its 66 vulnerable residents from the coronavirus. On March 4, the lobby was closed off and repurposed as a screening area for everyone trying to enter the building. One week later, guests were banned altogether.

Converse has continued to allow its elders to eat together because “quarantining residents into their rooms would harm their minds and spirits,” director Clayton

Clark wrote in a March 19 email to family members. Less than 24 hours after Villemaire’s birthday luncheon, however, the home instituted greater social distancing at mealtimes, with two at a table instead of four and multiple seatings at both lunch and dinner.

On that same Saturday, Guerin returned to Converse with her younger brother, John, and six other relatives for another look at her mother. Sporting “Happy Birthday” signs and sparklers, they gathered outside a different window, where Villemaire could sit closer to the glass. With the aid of cellphones inside and out, she was able to have a real conversation.

“The things I have to put up with when I’m 99,” Villemaire said in her signature husky alto.

“But you’re 100!” a chorus of voices cried out in protest. Pleased with her joke and the response, Villemaire flashed a devilish, impossibly perfect white smile.

Born Francesca Fortuna to Italian immigrants, Villemaire grew up during the Depression, when women basically had two career choices: teaching or nursing.

She picked the latter, earning her RN at Fanny Allen Hospital, and didn’t marry until she was 32 — very late for a woman in those days.

“She was the only working mom in our neighborhood,” Guerin said of her childhood in Winooski. She said Villemaire worked the three-to-11 shift at the hospital, ADAPTATION SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

» P.30 29

PHOTOS: MOLLY WALSH

Adaptation « P.29 masterfully juggled the child-rearing and housework, and wore spiked heels until she was 80. Eleven years after she gave up the shoes, she moved into the Converse Home, where she had also worked into her seventies as a nurse.

After years of exercising religiously, Villemaire now needs a walker to get around. She uses oxygen to manage pulmonary fibrosis. Without extreme protections such as the ones Converse has imposed, she’s at high risk of contracting COVID-19. If the pandemic is over by summer, her family plans to come back for a real party.

“We love you, MeeMaw,” they called out to the white-haired matriarch in the window. “Bye.”

Cindy Carr

P. R.

SOCIAL-DISTANCE SHOPPING

looked frail, but a few younger people zipped through the aisles A man wearing a surgical mask put without masks or gloves. lettuce and carrots in his grocery cart in Numerous customers the produce aisle. In the pasta section, expressed gratitude to the store another shopper reached for macaroni for the reserved hour.

“It’s fabulous,” said Carol wearing rubber gloves. Cindy Carr was outfitted in both a mask and gloves as she Hosford of Waitsfield, who bought leeks, cabbage and bright red tulips has shopped at Mehuron’s for during the “social distancing” shopping decades. She declined to give hour at Mehuron’s Market in Waitsfield her precise age but said that, as last Friday. a senior, she was trying to avoid “I have to have something to cheer me crowds. “I’m hopeful that there up,” Carr, a real estate agent, said. Her eyes will be fewer people,” she said. crinkled to match her smile, hidden under Bob Keating of Duxbury was a pale blue mask stretched doing his shopping wearing over her nose and mouth. black rubber gloves.

Like other grocers around “I’m 65 years old. I’ve got the region, Mehuron’s had high blood pressure, a few invited any shoppers with other medical conditions,” he elevated risk factors for the said as he picked up ground COVID-19 virus to visit during beef, pasta and a few other BRU CE HYDE a designated hour. essentials — “just enough to Carr decided to take get by,” Keating said, adding, advantage due to her age: “I’m 74 and “I don’t want to be a hoarder.” self-isolating,” she explained as she stood Some shoppers kept their carts away near the cheese section. In addition, she from others, clearly trying to practice recently returned from a trip to Califor- social distancing. But by 8:40 a.m., a long nia and Denver and worried she might line had formed at the single cashier have increased her exposure to the virus. on duty and some patrons were close Although she feels fine, Carr put herself in together. a 14-day quarantine at home — except for It was so busy that store co-owner essential trips for groceries.

Bruce Hyde bagged groceries until a Mehuron’s designated 8 to 9 a.m. for second cashier arrived at 9 a.m. social-distance shopping. A notice posted Staffing is a major problem, Hyde said. by the front door explained the concept, Ten of the 44 full-time employees at the which was launched early last week. store are in high-risk groups and are no The store also promoted social- longer working. He hopes to hire them distance shopping on social media and, by back after the virus threat subsides.

Friday, locals definitely knew the routine.

Meantime, the labor crunch isn’t At least four people waited in cars before Hyde’s only challenge. He called on Gov. the doors opened; by 8:15 a.m. some 20 Phil Scott to help grocery stores obtain shoppers were inside. Many, though not masks for their employees, which are all, were senior citizens. Some individuals currently “impossible to find,” he said.

That’s kind of the new normal.

30

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

Bruce Hyde

But Hyde has become accustomed to seeing customers wearing masks, especially during the social-distancing hour.

“That’s kind of the new normal,” he said.

M.W.

VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR

“Your meeting attendees are waiting!” chirped the subject line of an email from Zoom, the videoconferencing app, at 8:02 p.m. last Thursday. I had been sitting in the same chair for almost six hours, marinating in my leggings, but right before our appointed 8 p.m. webcam happy hour, I’d had the inexplicable urge to change into jeans.

Zoom’s stock has risen almost 50 percent in little more than a month, according to MarketWatch, and not just because a significant percentage of the world’s workforce suddenly had to figure out how to do their jobs remotely. In this moment of social distancing, Zoom has also become the unofficial living room of cyberspace.

(The company recently created a whole new section of its website specifically

for the quarantined masses, with tutorials on distance learning, tele-health and hosting virtual parties.)

When I joined the chat, my face was slingshot into a grid of disembodied heads, like the opening credits of “The Brady Bunch.” On the screen, my friends were postage-stamp versions of themselves, little waving avatars in their domestic biomes.

In the upper-left quadrant was Vermont Public Radio reporter Liam Elder-Connors, drinking a Long Trail IPA in the bedroom of his parents’ house in Stowe. In the lower right, Lydia Brown, who also works at VPR, sipped from a can of Zero Gravity Conehead IPA, looking impossibly hip against a wall of exposed brick in her Winooski apartment. Between slugs of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Margaret Grayson, my colleague at Seven Days, was crocheting a beanie on her couch in Burlington, like a cute Madame Defarge.

At first, it was hard to know where to look, or how to signal that you were actually looking at someone. Without the sensory distractions of a shared physical space, it also felt strangely intimate.

“I feel like I’m making so much eye contact with you guys,” said Margaret. “If we were at a bar, I’d be looking around the room at other stuff.” There was a pregnant pause. For a few seconds, I thought everyone was pondering the weight of this observation; in fact, they were buffering.

As a bar qua bar, Zoom has some other shortcomings. For one thing, it doesn’t smell like stale popcorn, which is eau de Last Stop Sports Bar in Winooski, our group’s preferred destination for cheap beer. For another, the free version of Zoom only lets you Zoom for 40 minutes.

In one of the viewing modes, you can see a countdown on the chat screen, as if you’re about to self-destruct.

By the time we reached the 39-minute mark, we had just crested the hill of awkwardness. Nobody was ready to say goodbye.

“Wow. I actually feel a lot better,” said Liam.

“Me, too,” I said. “I’m really glad we decided to—” And then, without fanfare, everyone disappeared. Seconds later, our group text thread blew up. Margaret: “WOW.” Liam: “Ouch.” Margaret: “I forgot to ask you guys what your most unhealthy quarantine habit is.” Liam: “Here, I will bring us back.”

He sent out a new meeting invitation, resetting the clock of our togetherness.

C .E .

SHOP

LOCAL

Virtual happy hour

Say you saw it in...

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MARGARET GRAYSON

CHELSEA EDGAR

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Rabbi Amy Small

KEEPING FAITH

Rabbi Amy Small opened her arms wide, spreading the fringed prayer shawl draped around her shoulders. She seemed ready to pull her audience into an embrace, but instead of standing before a synagogue full of worshippers, she was looking at a computer screen. The faces of a couple dozen congregants gazed back, their own prayer shawls spread wide, as well. Small wrapped her arms around herself; on-screen, the congregants did the same.

“Did you feel the hug?” she asked.

This is Shabbat service in the age of social distancing. On Friday evening and Saturday morning, Small led members of Burlington’s Ohavi Zedek Synagogue through unprecedented virtual services.

It’s a big change, because Jewish law prohibits the use of technology on Shabbat. Synagogues across the country are grappling with this dilemma, the rabbi said in an interview. But Ohavi Zedek

leaders decided it was necessary to be flexible.

“Jewish culture is all about coming together. Judaism is not a personal religion; it’s a communal religion,” Small said. “We speak of ourselves in the collective. All of our religious language in our prayers is in the collective.”

In order to say the Kaddish, an important Jewish prayer, Jews need to assemble in a group of at least 10 adults, called a minyan. Before the coronavirus arrived, minyans were held daily at Ohavi Zedek, which has nearly 300 households in its membership. Now the synagogue holds minyans a few times a week on Zoom, the newly ubiquitous videoconference platform.

“We’re accustomed to this notion that we need each other in order to be able to access the communal spirit,” Small said.

“Therefore, to be apart from each other is a shocking shift in terms of Jewish culture itself.”

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PHOTOS: JORDAN BARRY

Adaptation « P.31 She said the switch to Zoom has offered surprising benefits. More people are attending the online weeknight minyans than she typically sees at the synagogue.

She’s also moved Hebrew study and adult education classes online.

For some older members, however, the transition to technology has been difficult.

Small assigned several members of the congregation to be tech buddies to those who might need help.

Shabbat service on Saturday included a few technical glitches. Some members didn’t know how to mute their microphones, so the service was occasionally interrupted by discussions about the morning newspaper. Jewish prayer often takes the form of song, and, while Zoom is good for many things, communal singing is not one of them. But the synagogue’s cantor, Steve Zeidenberg, led the group in prayers with his strong voice, which rang through clearly even on tinny computer speakers.

“I would love to hear just a cacophony of blessings,” said Zeidenberg, as he prepared to begin another prayer. “We’re going to do this together, in the beautiful chaos it will be.”

Henry Mizrahi (left) and Charlie Sizemore

M.G.

APOCALYPSE BURRITOS

A sign on the door of the Old North End’s Taco Gordo announced that, for now, the dining room is closed, replaced by takeout and delivery service. The restaurant’s cheerfully deranged pineapple logo, which previously suggested a friendly fruit that had slammed back too many margs, now appeared anxious and desperate to cope.

At 3 p.m. on Saturday, a small group kicked a soccer ball around the area where picnic tables and a meat smoker usually sit in the restaurant’s triangular lot at North Union Street and North Winooski Avenue.

Inside, the path to the register was wide open; previously, customers had to weave through tightly packed four-tops overflowing with tostadas and taquitos.

Piles of chairs were stacked in the corner, giving eerie new meaning to “you couldn’t find a seat if you tried.”

The self-serve toppings bar — where diners would balance baskets of tacos, waiting to slather them in housemade hot sauce, cabbage and pickled onions — was empty. All of the ingredients were safely stored behind the bar.

Paper bags ready for contact-less pickup were lined up on the counter. Right behind them, beers to go replaced frozen Ariana Grandes.

32

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

Carnitas burrito with guacamole

The place felt more like it did in its past life as a beverage redemption center than it has over the past year of buzzing bliss. After opening in December 2018, Taco Gordo quickly became a neighborhood hangout.

These days, it’s a whole new business.

“We were running a full-service bar that happened to have a dope taco shop inside of it,” owner Charlie Sizemore said.

“Now we’re a takeout and delivery tacoand-burrito joint.”

Taco Gordo was well positioned to pivot.

The food translates to takeout, the restaurant has a dedicated clientele, and the operation started as a food cart business. For four years, it did what Sizemore called “the prep and schlep” to events all over town.

Online orders were trickling in at midafternoon (because what are normal

mealtimes anymore?). A bare-bones staff was slinging tacos to go with Sizemore’s help between his stints as delivery driver.

He furloughed the front-of-house and part-time back-of-house staff on March 15, leaving just four full-time kitchen staff to prep the brisket and guacamole.

Still, the team was doing its best to keep the essence of Gordo alive. The music was as loud as ever, with an added reverb echoing from the empty dining room. The staff danced on the line, cracked jokes and greeted wary customers with a smile.

“Even in the uncertainty, we can still be ourselves,” Sizemore said.

The food — eaten at home — was also classic Taco Gordo, with the addition of a special burrito. Its delightfully chewy tortilla swaddled rice, carnitas, salsa roja, beans and cabbage, a crunchy interloper from the toppings bar.

Margaritas to go weren’t on the menu, despite the state’s temporarily relaxed booze laws. Sizemore said he’s working on the logistics of cocktail delivery, but without bartenders on staff, he doesn’t want to serve “garbage.”

On a Saturday afternoon in quarantine, though, even a garbage margarita would be a good margarita.

J.B.

BOOZE YOU CAN USE

Ruining perfectly good batches of booze and then giving it away to strangers might not seem like a great business decision. But turning handcrafted spirits into free hand sanitizer is winning Mad River Distillers mad props from residents trying to prevent a pandemic from spreading in their idyllic central Vermont valley.

“You are true heroes!” gushed Neile Eisner as she and her daughter, Anna Friedman, got their little bottles filled outside the distillery’s Waitsfield tasting room last week.

Friedman works in New York City and came to stay with her parents in Warren to escape the contagion gripping the city. There, stores are not only sold out of commercial sanitizer brands such as Purell but also of the ingredients for making your own. Friedman found some aloe and mixed it with isopropyl alcohol, but her concoction was “really runny,” she said.

So she appreciated that a local business was willing to whip up and give out sanitizer to anyone who wanted it, in contrast to recent tales of online profiteers.

“These guys are, like, the opposite of the guy in the New York Times article,” she said, referring to a story about a Tennessee man who hoarded 17,700 bottles of sanitizer in hopes of selling them online for a huge profit. The man later donated the bottles.

If this is something we can do to help relieve people’s anxiety in the short term, we’re happy to do it.

M I M I B U T T EN HEI M

Mad River Distillers, founded in Warren in 2011 to make small-batch bourbon, rye and rum, began making hand sanitizer when shortages began a couple of weeks ago, said co-owner John Egan.

(Other Vermont distilleries are doing the same.) Company employees distilled the spirits to a higher proof, added a little water, vegetable glycerine and hydrogen peroxide — following federal guidelines — and started using it themselves and giving it to sales reps.

When they learned local post office workers were required to stay on the job but couldn’t get any sanitizer, the distillery gave them some, too. And when bottles became scarce, employees asked people to bring their own.

“We can’t produce enough for the state, but we can produce enough for this valley,” Egan said.

Company president Mimi Buttenheim worried that crowds showing up for last week’s giveaway would violate socialdistancing guidelines but was pleased to see the long, well-spaced queue.

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One woman was concerned enough about contamination that she didn’t want the glove-wearing workers to touch her bottle. Most others were just grateful for the fill-up.

“I’m so thankful for people like them who are trying to do what they can to help,” Fayston resident Nela Higgins said after Egan’s son, Quinn, topped off her two bottles.

Buttenheim said some people mistakenly assumed the alcohol used in the sanitizer is a waste product. Actually, it takes more work than producing a batch of rum because the alcohol has

to be distilled twice to reach 180 proof, she said.

The distillery has started filling flasks with the hand hooch and will give them out in its Burlington tasting room. Because of the company’s small size and labor-intensive process, Buttenheim said it will not turn into a hand-sanitizer factory.

“If this is something we can do to help relieve people’s anxiety in the short term, we’re happy to do it,” she said.

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Syringe Benefits

A UVM researcher working on dengue and Zika vaccines offers insights on COVID-19 B Y K E N PI CA RD

S

34

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

HEALTH

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

ean Diehl likens the development of a new vaccine to the construction of a house. Before workers can turn a shovelful of dirt or hammer a nail, an architect must create a blueprint that shows how the building’s thousands of components fit together and in what order.

Similarly, vaccine researchers trying to stop the spread of a deadly virus must start by mapping its messenger RNA. Decoding that genetic blueprint allows them to construct a safe and reliable vaccine that, they hope, will provide immunity for decades.

This time, researchers are racing to devise a vaccine that will stop a pandemic that’s already upon us, using a neverbefore-tried method. It’s akin to erecting a storm shelter using a new construction technique just as a Category 5 hurricane makes landfall.

Diehl is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine.

Since 2008, he’s collaborated with the college’s Vaccine Testing Center on projects involving infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and vaccine development. In the past few years, Diehl’s laboratory has focused on developing new protections against rotavirus, which is one of the most common and deadly causes of childhood diarrhea, and two mosquito-borne viruses — dengue and Zika — which infect tens of millions of people worldwide each year.

The 44-year-old Shelburne resident agreed to an interview with Seven Days months before the novel coronavirus made headlines. Since then, Diehl has joined the global effort to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.

On that front, researchers are already working at breakneck speed. They began in late December, when health authorities in Wuhan, China, first reported the outbreak of a viral pneumonia of unknown origin. On January 12, Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organization announced that they had mapped the entire sequence of the new coronavirus genome and shared it with researchers around the world.

On March 16, the National Institutes of Health announced the launch of a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. In that study, being

Sean Diehl

conducted at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, 45 healthy volunteers, ages 18 to 55, were injected with different doses of an experimental vaccine to evaluate its safety and efficacy in inducing immune responses.

Diehl is not involved in the Washington study. But, using the expertise he gained from researching dengue and Zika vaccines, he explained how a COVID-19 vaccine will be developed, how long it could last and how we can create more effective versions in the future.

“This is a brand-new approach,” he said of the experimental coronavirus shot.

“There is no current vaccine that’s ever been developed this way.”

How long before the public can be immunized? That’s difficult to say. Diehl wouldn’t offer a prediction beyond saying that “there are some aggressive timelines being talked about.”

Ordinarily, vaccines involve years of research before human trials begin.

But advanced genetic technologies and reductions in bureaucratic red tape could

significantly shorten that timeline for COVID-19, with some estimates saying a vaccine could be available as early as this fall.

Several methods are used to create a vaccine, Diehl said. Under normal circumstances, the most common is to start with an attenuated, or weakened, version of a virus. Scientists inject this weaker version into laboratory animals, typically mice and nonhuman primates, hoping to trigger an immune response that doesn’t make the animal sick. Only after long and rigorous study do vaccine developers request approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to move on to human trials.

Consider the lengthy path that brought researchers to a vaccine for just one of four serotypes, or strains, of dengue (known as “Dengue 1, 2,” etc.). Versions of the deadly virus are found in more than 100 countries around the world, posing a risk to about 40 percent of the world’s population, or 3 billion people. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 400 million people are

infected with dengue each year, of whom 100 million get sick and 22,000 die.

Though dengue’s mortality rate is about 0.1 percent, comparable to seasonal flu, Diehl pointed out that its symptoms are much worse. “Dengue” may derive from the Spanish word for fastidious or careful, which describes the gait of a patient suffering from the disease.

The disease causes a very high fever that progresses into terrible joint, muscle and bone aches — hence its nickname, “breakbone fever.” Patients feel that their eyes are about to pop out of their heads.

Dengue is a particularly complicated disease to combat because of its four serotypes; an immunity to one offers no protection against the other three. If a person contracts Dengue 1 in, say, the Dominican Republic, they may recover without even knowing they were infected. However, if that person later travels to Puerto Rico and contracts Dengue 2, they have a greater chance of getting sick from the second exposure.

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Syringe Benefits « P.34 “For dengue,” Diehl said, “it’s taken, so far, 20 years and several billion dollars to get to the point of [having] the one vaccine that’s on the market right now, for a very limited use.”

What does this mean to researchers racing for a coronavirus vaccine? Speaking in “really broad brushstrokes,” Diehl said, the way genetic material is encoded in the coronavirus is “very similar” to the coding of dengue. Both viruses have one long, continuous string of nucleic acid, or mRNA, that is “read” as a series of letters representing its chemical components: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T).

In the case of dengue, that string is 10,000 letters long.

In COVID-19, Diehl said, it’s 25,000.

Working with a much longer string of information naturally presents more challenges. But, Diehl said, COVID-19 researchers don’t need a full understanding of how all 25,000 letters of the genome function. The novel approach they’re using to develop a vaccine is focused S EA N on the 3,000 to 5,000 letters that they believe may induce an early protective immune response. If they can pinpoint those letters, they will, in effect, buy themselves more time.

By now, most people who are following news of the unfolding pandemic have seen images of the COVID-19 virus, which resembles a fuzzy tennis ball riddled with darts or crowns. Those darts, which are called spike proteins, enable the virus to attach itself to a target cell, pass along its genetic material and reproduce.

A vaccine is essentially useless, Diehl said, if it triggers an immune response “post-fusion,” or after the virus binds to the cell. The aim of this experimental vaccine is to induce an immune response before fusion happens.

“If we can block that,” he said, “the virus has nowhere to go, and it dies.”

The good news: Vaccine developers now have machines that can rapidly synthesize and mass produce the crucial 3,000- to 5,000-letter sequences that can be used to induce a pre-fusion immune response.

The bad news: That immune response won’t last for long, because the mRNA used to produce it is an unstable molecule that degrades quickly in the body. “A good vaccine will last decades. This is probably single years,” Diehl said.

That may be enough, though. Here’s where Diehl joins the global effort: He

has submitted a protocol seeking permission to collect and study blood samples from patients who have recovered from COVID-19. Once researchers better understand how all 25,000 nucleotides work together, he said, they can move on to developing vaccine “versions 2.0, 3.0 and beyond” that will induce “immune memory.”

It’s no surprise that Diehl uses construction metaphors to describe the microscopic workings of cells and viruses; his father, who’s now retired, worked for years in construction. To his mother, a nurse, Diehl attributes his desire to work in a public health field and help others.

A native of Rome, N.Y., Diehl earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the State University of New York Geneseo. There, he developed an interest in immunology, and a professor suggested he pursue a doctoral degree. The first member of his family to attend a four-year college, Diehl hadn’t known until then that students could get funding to pursue graduate degrees.

Earning his PhD at UVM, Diehl met his now-wife, Sandra. When he completed the degree, they moved to the D I EHL Netherlands, where Sandra was born and raised.

After spending 2003 to 2008 at the University of Amsterdam, Diehl returned to Vermont and joined the faculty at UVM, where he’s been ever since. Sandra works as a pediatric nurse at the UVM Medical Center. The couple has two daughters, Jill, 11, and Vera, 9.

Diehl admitted that it’s frustrating to see vaccines demonized by the public when he knows how much “blood, sweat and tears” go into making them. He sees them as a “miracle product” that saves lives. “And then some people just choose not to believe in them.”

What keeps him interested in immunology?

“The fact that we’ll never figure it all out,” he said. Unlike the study of many processes in the human body, such as the cardiopulmonary system, immunology is constantly evolving and discovering new cell types. And those discoveries almost always have real-world health applications, whether it’s combating an autoimmune disorder or working to end a global pandemic. Given its complexity, COVID-19 could keep researchers busy for years to come.

“At the root of it,” Diehl said, “I always know that there’s so much still to be learned.” m

THERE IS NO CURRENT VACCINE

THAT’S EVER BEEN DEVELOPED THIS WAY.

Contact: ken@sevendaysvt.com

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

37

MELISSA PASANEN

food+drink

Recipe for Survival How Vermont eateries are navigating COVID-19

BY ME L IS S A PAS ANE N

A takeout order of mixed seafood dry pot from the Mandarin Chinese menu at China Max before the restaurant closed temporarily on March 19

S

everal weeks ago, when I first went to China Max on the basement level of CityPlace Burlington, my plan was to write about a special menu that caters largely to international students.

The family-owned restaurant has a popular, affordable lunch buffet of American Chinese favorites such as General Tao chicken and lo mein noodles. It was Vito Forte, one of my two dining companions on that inaugural visit, who told me about the alternative two-page menu, which exists only in Mandarin. He’d become a regular at China Max after learning about it through a University of Vermont graduate student. (As of fall 2019, UVM had more than 320 undergraduate and graduate students from China.)

Ordering that evening, Forte consulted with Yuki Wu, who owns China Max with her husband, Jay Lin. He asked for “the dish with corn and potato” made with tripe and took Wu’s suggestions for a few

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

other choices, including soy- and cuminglazed pork ribs and braised pig ears.

We ate in a little room with a sign on the door that read, “Reserved Area. Do not enter.” What the space lacked in atmosphere, it made up for with a fragrant aroma of five spice, heavy on the star anise. Dishes came on unmatched flowYUK I ered dishware with rice served in Styrofoam bowls.

The food was delicious and unlike anything I had eaten in Burlington.

“You kind of travel by going to a restaurant,” Forte said.

Much has changed in the intervening weeks.

For the foreseeable future, most Vermonters will be doing no international travel in real life and minimal virtual travel via local restaurant offerings. Like many

restaurant owners, Wu and Lin have been navigating the constantly shifting situation that is the current COVID-19 pandemic.

I wish I could urge you to support China Max right now by ordering takeout or delivery, but it is among the Vermont restaurants that have reluctantly decided to cut their losses. On ThursWU day, March 19, Wu texted me that the restaurant was closing: “We are worried about our health, and there are also less customers.”

I last chatted in person with Wu on March 16, when I picked up a takeout order of dry pot made with mixed seafood and crimson-brothed ma po tofu, chockfull of soft, custardy bean curd. Mayor Miro Weinberger had just directed all Burlington restaurants and bars to close for in-person dining and drinking; an

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expanded statewide order would follow shortly. We couldn’t ignore the pandemic.

Wu was hesitant to address directly the discrimination some Chinese restaurants have seen around the country since the spread of the coronavirus.

“I know some people call it ‘Chinese coronavirus,’ but it just started in China,” she said. “Most people are nice. You cannot control other people.”

Speaking more broadly, Wu said, “It is a tough time for every restaurant. But what can we do? Nothing.”

While restaurant owners can’t control external events, they do choose how to respond to them. For some, that means closing to conserve resources or take care of family members. For others, it has involved reinventing their business to meet current requirements and generate desperately needed cash flow.

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‘Don’t 86 Us’

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Chamber of Commerce, restaurants urge state action B Y J O R D AN BAR RY

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n March 19, Vermont Chamber Menard said. “Low-interest loans, and even of Commerce president Betsy grants, require lots of paperwork. We’ve Bishop sent a letter to Gov. Phil only got a few short days until everybody Scott urging further action to has to write a check, and this is an easy, support restaurants during the COVID-19 quick solution.” pandemic.

Canteen Creemee Company shut down The letter requests the immediate after service on March 15. Menard said he abatement of the February and March decided to close — and not pursue takeout meals and rooms tax payments, the Febru- or delivery options — for the safety of his ary installment of which is due on March team and the community, doing whatever 25. It also asks for the freezing of the unem- he can “to make this time shorter.” ployment insurance experience rating for Letting restaurants keep the revenue restaurants, an extension of the state tax from the meals and rooms tax would be an filing deadline by 90 days and an appro- easy way for the state to show its support priation of an extra $2 million in tourism for the industry, Menard said, even though advertising to draw visitors to Vermont in it might not be enough to keep some restaurants in business through these challengthe future.

The governor’s office declined to ing times. comment to Seven Days on the chamber’s requests, stating that it would respond directly to Bishop.

While the chamber of commerce represents all businesses in the state, including tourism, it is the only restaurant association in Vermont, representing more than 330 establishments. In the letter, Bishop wrote, “We are very concerned about the economic impact the closure of these businesses will have on our rural communities and downtowns.”

The Vermont meals and rooms tax is a 9 percent tax diners pay when purchasing a restaurant meal. Restaurants collect the tax and must remit it monthly — by the 25th day of the following month — to the state.

Charlie Menard, chef-owner of Canteen Creemee Company in Waitsfield, has been an outspoken advocate of abating the tax payment. Menard posted a message to the governor on his screenshot of #dont86us on Instagram, with Vermont restaurant’s social media chan- Achefs showing their support for the campaign nels on March 17, asking that restaurants be allowed to keep the tax due this week.

“Restaurants are delicate businesses, Menard had seen a similar post from and we need something immediate to help a chef in the Midwest. “I immediately us survive,” he said. “We’re a major compothought it was something that needed to nent of the economic system in Vermont, get in motion here in Vermont,” he told and it’s a simple way for the state to say, Seven Days. He contacted the chamber of ‘We’re with you. We want to help you.’” commerce to share the idea.

A social media campaign pushing for “Restaurants are always going to be the the tax abatement took off at the end of last last to be considered for any kind of bailout,” week, with chefs, employees and restaurant

owners around the state posting selfies with the hashtag #dont86us.

In a phone interview on Monday, chamber of commerce vice president of tourism Amy Spear told Seven Days that the #dont86us movement has gone SIMPLEROOTSBREWING.COM far and wide, with patrons posting their support along with people in the industry.

1127 NORTH AVE, BURLINGTON “Time is of the essence for the abateFOLLOW US ment,” she said. “At the Vermont Chamber, we feel that restaurants are an integral part of our communities, and Vermont really12V-SimpleRoots032520.indd 1 3/23/20 4:14 PM needs them to survive this crisis so they’ll be able to reopen, hire back employees, help the economy and support our farmers.”

Vermont farms rely on restaurants as a wholesale outlet, and restaurant shutdowns will affect rural communities across the state, as well as downtowns, Spear said.

For restaurants, the abatement would mitigate a mounting cash-flow problem. The industry operates on tight margins, and even restaurants that have elected to close have mounting expenses. is doing “Being shut down in this TAKE OUT, CURBSIDE manner, it’s important for us to try to get this investment OR PICK UP IN ENTRY WAY in neighborhoods and rural communities so that the restauMENU ITEMS INCLUDE: rants have the cash flow to Tacos, Noodle Pots, survive this,” Spear said.

Scallion Pancakes and more!

The chamber is also advocating freezing the unemployment Gluten Free and Vegan Options Available experience rating for restaurants.

That rating, Spear explained, Combined flavors of is tied to how restaurants use Latin & Asian foods unemployment. Given that so many have had to lay off employThursday - Tuesday ees due to mandated closures, Takeout hours 5-8pm | 802.253.9333 their ratings are likely to take a hit that would lead to increased 2160 Mountain Road, Stowe operating expenses. overthewallvt.com for our full menu “We’re asking for that rating to be frozen so that these restaurants don’t have yet another 3/20/20 11:54 AM cost associated with their busi-8v-overthewall032520.indd 1 ness because of this public health crisis that we’re in,” Spear said.

When asked about the likelihood of the state implementing these measures, Spear encouraged restaurants and diners alike to reach out to elected officials and share the message.

Say you saw it in...

‘DON’T 86 US’

» P.41

sevendaysvt.com SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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Recipe for Survival « P.38

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

COURTESY OF THE BOBCAT CAFÉ & BREWERY

has paid the menu prices, and most have paid extra.”

Wheeler and her husband and co-owner, Sanderson Wheeler, have been cooking with their longtime sous chef.

Two servers are helping out, with one volunteering to do delivery to Bristol and Lincoln.

“We’re doing it with no payroll,” Erin Wheeler said. “They’re all doing it out of the kindness of their hearts because they don’t want to see Bobcat go away.”

The team at the Bobcat Café & Brewery after finishing a night of takeout service

Country pâté packaged for takeout from Bistro de Margot’s Margot on the Go menu

She said she started taking the idea of social distancing and her restaurant’s role more seriously after Middlebury College announced on March 10 that it was sending students home for the rest of the semester. “First I was mad, and then I thought, They’re smart people. They didn’t do it for no reason,” she said.

“For a restaurant, it’s a totally impossible situation,” Wheeler continued. “We’re so in debt and so reliant on cash flow … It’s really up in the air whether or not we’ll survive.”

Wheeler said the team is learning every day and trying to manage the pickup process to maintain safe space between customers. She posted a photo on social media of the couple’s 7-year-old daughter: “This is Simone with a 6-foot stick.

That is how far we must stay away from each other even though we all want a hug real bad.”

The restaurateur is looking for a silver lining. “Restaurants are pretty unsustainable, but I’ve never felt brave enough to change anything,” Wheeler reflected.

“Now we have servers washing dishes and less separation between front and back [of the house]. It helps me to envision how things could be different. Maybe it will bring some protections for hospitality workers. Maybe it’s a start-over button.”

I, too, hope there is a future in which restaurant workers and small business owners have a reliable safety net, and when we will once again be able to enjoy China Max’s meaty pork ribs spangled with dark red dried chile peppers.

But for now, I will order a quiche Lorraine from Bistro de Margot and dream of China Max’s aromatic dry pot with meltingly tender sliced potato, first deepfried and then stir-fried with sweet corn disks cut crosswise from the cob, cabbage, cauliflower and thin ribbons of pleasantly chewy tripe in a lightly tongue-tingling Sichuan peppercorn sauce.

Although Wu could not project how long her restaurant would be closed, when we last spoke, she said, “We think we will be OK.” Before they locked the doors of Butch + Babe’s, Bush and Major wrote, “See you soon” on the restaurant’s front windows and let their kids add their own artistic touches. m Contact: pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

INFO COURTESY OF BISTRO DE MARGOT

teenagers cleaned the restaurant before locking it up and leaving, with no date set for their return.

In Burlington’s Old North End, Kortnee Bush and Jackie Major, owner and executive chef of Butch + Babe’s, respectively, were doing the same. After launching a well-received takeout effort at the beginning of the week, Bush and Major decided that closing was their best option.

Their children, ages 3.5 and 6, were perched at one of the restaurant tables watching TV on a laptop, Bush said on the phone as she scrubbed the toilet. Concerns about childcare and the risk of exposing their families to the virus were key reasons for closing. Major’s husband works in eldercare, which heightened their worries.

“We weren’t looking to make money, just break even and keep people employed and cover expenses,” Bush said. “We got close-ish, but it was too much to keep it up.

“If Jackie and I didn’t have kids, and it was just the two of us jamming, maybe we would have kept going,” she continued.

“Jackie says this feels really anti-feminist, but someone’s got to take care of the kids.”

Bush has heard from her bank that loan payments can probably be deferred. She hopes her rent can be reduced so she can keep as much of her savings as possible, but she understands that landlords have to pay their mortgages. “I think if it’s one month, we’ll be OK, but if we’re looking at three months with no income…,” Bush said, trailing off.

Chef-owner Hervé Mahé of Bistro de Margot in downtown Burlington said he has received supportive calls from his bank and landlord, but he doesn’t want to go into debt by deferring too many payments. “If we have to catch up, it’s going to be extremely difficult,” he said.

“To stay afloat,” as Mahé put it, he came up with a new takeout menu called Margot on the Go. Although it includes some favorites from his regular appetizer and dessert menu, most of the entrées are different: quiches, braises and stews such as coq au vin and boeuf Bourguignon that can be reheated well. “I didn’t want to send food like steak,” he said, “and stews are the ultimate comfort food for right now.”

The shift to new recipes and packaging has been almost like launching a restaurant, Mahé said. So far it’s been going well, giving him hope that he can keep his souschef and line cook employed, as well as one server who is coordinating orders. He is not currently offering delivery, but that may change if demand warrants, though insurance liability on the service can be tricky.

Gov. Phil Scott’s executive order of March 19 allowing restaurants and bars to

sell alcohol for off-premise consumption has been helpful, Mahé added. He has put his wine list online and hopes that business will grow enough to enable him to hire back a few more of his 10 former employees.

In Bristol, the Bobcat Café & Brewery has offered free meals from its new takeout menu to the growing ranks of the hospitality industry’s unemployed. Kids eat free, too. Everyone else is welcome to pay what they can, but chef and co-owner Erin Wheeler said that “so far, everybody

Bistro de Margot, 126 College Street, Burlington, 863-5200, bistrodemargot.com Bobcat Café & Brewery, 5 Main Street, Bristol, 453-3311, thebobcatcafe.com See Good To-Go Vermont (goodtogovermont.com) for Seven Days’ directory of takeout options during the coronavirus era.

food+drink ‘Don’t 86 Us’ « P.39 “I’ve always liked the phrase ‘Democracy goes to the diligent,’” she said.

“There will be moving parts that need to happen both in the governor’s office and in the House and Senate. The more you engage in discourse with elected officials, the more they’ll understand the struggles that restaurants — or any small businesses — are going through.”

RESTAURANTS ARE DELICATE BUSINESSES, AND

WE NEED SOMETHING IMMEDIATE TO HELP US SURVIVE. CH ARLIE MEN ARD

In a letter shared with Seven Days, Farmhouse Group owner Jed Davis echoed the need for immediate short-term cashflow assistance.

“Our government and communities need to understand that many restaurants simply don’t have the cash to handle this problem on their own,” he wrote. “Addressing the health crisis is paramount, but we also need strategies in place aimed at positioning small businesses to bounce back when the time comes. We’re only days in, and I already know of several Burlington restaurants that are done — and I mean for good.”

Already, the advocacy from restaurants and the chamber of commerce seems to have had some effect. According to a Monday

press release from the Vermont Department of Taxes, Gov. Scott has “directed the Commissioner of Taxes to exercise his authority to provide relief to Vermont businesses who owe Meals and Rooms Tax or Sales and Use Tax until further notice.”

The announcement states that businesses that cannot meet the March 25 and April 25 filing deadlines “will not be charged any penalty or interest on these taxes for late submissions.”

Instead of the abatement that the restaurant industry was pushing for, in other words, the state is offering a waiver of penalties for not remitting the meals and rooms tax payments on time.

“The waiver of penalties and interest is within the current authority of the Tax Commissioner,” said Secretary of Administration Susanne Young, according to the press release. “Realizing we must be prepared to provide additional relief, the Administration will work with the Legislature in the coming weeks to explore additional stimulus opportunities for our local businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The following is an excerpt from Davis’ letter addressing the stressors that currently face the state’s restaurant industry. He believes that his proposals “would offer much needed aid to those in my industry, impose no real long-term cost to society, help keep Vermont restaurants alive in the pandemic’s aftermath, and offer us a sense of hope.” The full text of the letter can be read in the online version of this story. m Contact: jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

CAN VERMONT RESTAURANTS SURVIVE THE COVID-19 CRISIS? Over the course of just a few days, Vermont restaurants painfully laid off several thousand employees, as we stared down the prospect of zero revenue for the foreseeable future, at a time of year when the well is already dry from the long winter. We discussed with heartfelt panic ‘what to do’ in group chats, and ultimately realized that a rapid transition to survival mode was the only option.

In 48 hours, my restaurant group went from about 230 employees to 5. And like others in our space, we pivoted to mass unemployment filings in an effort to get our staffs signed up for benefits as early as possible. The collective result is thousands of service workers without jobs, and the loss of millions of dollars in local food and beverage purchases that support so many others, particularly the state’s small farms.

Tragic pages can be written about the crisis occurring in our hospitals, and the shortages those patients and workers are experiencing. Or about our federal government’s unwillingness to acknowledge the scope of the crisis. I’m not qualified to speak to that — I’m a restaurant guy.

What I do know is that Vermont restaurants, and other small businesses, need help if we are to survive this unfolding crisis.

Federal, state and local authorities have required rapid changes to our lives to help “flatten the curve” and slow the spread of COVID-19 so that society can organize the needed public health response. This swift action was justified. A pandemic has engulfed the world, and everyone needs to do their part.

I raise these concerns about our restaurant industry not out of concern for myself — I have my health, a house and food, so I am among the lucky. But restaurant businesses such as mine are uniquely and tragically caught in the middle of this crisis. And our communities need restaurants to survive this. We are key buyers and marketers for Vermont agriculture. We are important community gathering places. But, above all, our value is the jobs and paychecks that we make possible. And the employment spigot will need to eventually turn back on just as quickly as it was turned off.

Excerpt from a letter from Farmhouse Group owner Jed Davis

Downtown St. Albans

DELIVERS FOR YOU!

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Beverage Mart ........................................(802) 527-7437 Catalyst Coffee Bar ...............................(802) 393-4404 Eastern Dragon ......................................(802) 527-9800 Feldman's Bagels...................................(802) 582-4540 Grazers St. Albans .................................(802) 782-8703 The Grind Café VT .................................(802) 393-8205 Jeff's Maine Seafood ...........................(802) 524-6135 Hometown Beverage...........................(802) 752-4130 La Casa and Nelly's Pub & Grill .......(802) 528-5945 Red House Sweets.................................(802) 393-8036 Tatro's Soup & Sandwich ...................(802) 524-7444 Tim's Place ................................................(802) 782-8417

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

In My Room New normal: Tips for doing livestream concerts

BY J O R D AN AD AMS

© SSSTOCKER | DREAMSTIME.COM

ow that Gov. Phil Scott has shut down bars, restaurants, nightclubs and every other place people typically gather en masse in Vermont, the world feels a whole lot smaller. Like, the size of one’s own home. But, oddly enough, home is now the best place to stay connected with local music and comedy scenes.

Livestream concerts and other kinds of events have exploded in the last week.

While broadcasting to followers in real time on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms is hardly new, the number of virtual concerts, open mics, comedy shows and music festivals available at a keystroke has increased exponentially since Vermont — and the rest of the world — shuttered its watering holes. A virtual concert might not match the gratifying energy of performing in a room with a captive, in-person audience, but it’s the best way to keep the party going until things get back to normal.

For some local artists, though, producing livestream shows is a new thing, and many are figuring out how to do it on the fly.

Having the right tools and following a few guidelines should help singer-songwriters, comedians and DJs succeed.

First and foremost, technical specs are everything.

“We use an ethernet cable,” advises Tristan Henderson, guitarist for folk band Pete’s Posse. “That’s the best way to livestream.”

He means that it’s ill-advised to rely on Wi-Fi or 4G when broadcasting. Having a wired connection to a computer ensures minimal disruption of signal.

Pete’s Posse played to more than 300 people during a recent livestream.

Henderson notes that the band used a professional omnidirectional microphone and auxiliary webcam for its recent show, which provided above-average sound and picture quality. That’s not to say that cameras and microphones already embedded in devices are crap. But they’re certainly not the best.

Patching audio signals directly into the computer is essential for good sound quality, too. Bassist Alex Budney, of the Seth Yacovone Band and Al’s Pals, is a

LIVESTREAMING IS SO NEW AS A MAINSTREAM THING. TH O MAS GUNN

professional musician who normally hosts a weekly open mic at the Localfolk Smokehouse in Waitsfield. With nothing but time on his hands now, Budney has taken to hosting DJ sets from his basement via social media. He feeds signals from his decks right into his computer, as well as from his bass, which he layers atop his funky selections, sometimes indistinguishably.

“A lot of people are really into it,” Budney says. “I’m just trying to find the silver linings.”

Choosing the right platform is important, too. If only one person is performing, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube should suffice. But groups of people banding together for a single event should consider using a service like Zoom.

Zoom allows multiple participants

broadcasting from different locations to appear to viewers in a visually pleasing grid. Vermont Comedy Club opted for this service in a number of recent events.

During a standup open mic, comics appeared side by side, recalling the set of the classic game show “Hollywood Squares.”

OBS Studio is another similar platform. It’s free and easily connects to YouTube and Facebook. Montpelier singer-songwriter Thomas Gunn opted for OBS Studio to mount an all-day virtual music festival and benefit for the Vermont Foodbank on Saturday.

“Livestreaming is so new as a mainstream thing,” says Gunn. “It’s something we’re developing as we go.” He counts himself lucky that his brother, Isaac, professionally produces live e-sports events using OBS Studio and was already familiar with the platform.

For the fest, the Gunns corralled more than a dozen Vermont-based artists, including Dave Keller, Danny & the Parts, and Julia Kate Davis, and the group turned out a professionallooking live event. Each artist appeared with an identifying graphic in the lower portion of the screen so viewers knew who was on the digital stage.

The online music marathon raised more than $2,400. Choosing a charitable cause and showing viewers how to donate has become a popular option for locals. Additionally, artists have been more adamant about monetizing themselves. Most clearly state how and where fans can drop a few dollars in the virtual hat — usually with existing services such as Venmo or PayPal. Others have embraced Patreon, a subscription platform that funnels money directly to the artist from patrons, who are then rewarded with special access to the artists’ creations.

Aside from technical considerations, actually performing a livestream concert remains more or less the same as playing a live gig: Artists play their tunes; some talk a little bit about what the songs IN MY ROOM

» P.46

GOT MUSIC NEWS? MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

themed revamp of his top hit, “Sweet Caroline.”

At this rate, the view count is likely to reach nearly half a million by the time this column hits the street. So how did what started as a half-serious way to blow off steam turn into a bona fide internet sensation?

After “someone posted my dumb video on redit [sic],” as Hackney pointed out shortly after it went live, Nirvana’s official Twitter account posted the video, which was subsequently retweeted by former Nirvana drummer DAVE GROHL’s band, FOO FIGHTERS. “I’m surprised they actually liked it,” Hackney said. “I guess it goes to show the sound is pretty on point.”

That’s perhaps the main reason the silly parody resonated so much with fans of Nirvana and the music community at large. Hackney’s production skills resulted in a pitch-perfect re-creation, with all of the instrumental and vocal tones sounding uncannily like the original track.

“A lot of what I do is explore other engineers’ techniques and sounds to offer more to my clientele,” he said.

FILE : LUKE AWTRY

Urian Hackney

S UNDbites

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene B Y J O R D A N A D A MS

Good, Clean Fun Now that COVID-19 is the only thing on anyone’s mind, it’s getting harder and harder to remember a time when we weren’t preoccupied with handwashing and maintaining a six-foot distance from others. But the new reality is also leading to an abundance of artistic creativity. For instance, livestream concerts are on a serious rise. Read all about that on page 44.

And some people are getting kind of famous for their coronavirus-related artistic projects, including Burlington’s URIAN HACKNEY. Forgive the untimely pun, but a new video from the ROUGH FRANCIS drummer has gone certifiably viral after he posted it online on Saturday.

Hackney reimagined NIRVANA’s “Stay Away,” a classic cut from the Seattle grunge band’s defining 1991 album, Nevermind. Dubbed “Stay Inside,” Hackney’s version is a social-distancing and sanitation anthem. He shot the video in his South End recording studio, the Box. Quick cuts show the multi-

instrumentalist playing guitar, bass and drums throughout the three-minute video, intercut with goofy shots of him brandishing Lysol toilet bowl cleaner and scrubbing doorknobs.

“Wipe every surface clean / I sanitize!” shouts Hackney, rewriting KURT COBAIN’s original lyrics, “Monkey see monkey do / I don’t know why!”

“It’s a song I’ve always been into, since I was a kid,” Hackney told Seven Days on Monday. “The only expectation I had was to send it to my dorky engineer friends and the dudes in my band.”

As of Monday afternoon, the video had accumulated more than 130,000 views, and more clicks were piling on with every page refresh.

Multiple culture sites have picked up on Hackney’s foray into the world of parody music. For instance, the A.V. Club posted a list ranking the top seven coronavirus-inspired song parodies, and Hackney’s landed at No. 1. He even beat out the legendary Neil Diamond, who recently uploaded a new, handwashing-

Stream Heat

Are you a Vermont-based artist planning to livestream a concert, open mic, DJ set, improv show or otherwise? Please let us know! Just as everyone is learning how to adapt to life under quarantine, Seven Days is figuring out how to make sure our readers can find out about virtual events that would normally fill up our local bars, restaurants, nightclubs, cafés, etc.

We’ll post a list of livestream events every Thursday on our Live Culture blog for the foreseeable future. Want your set to be included? Email music@ sevendaysvt.com with a link to your stream or an event page with the relevant details. If you’re just planning to play via Facebook Live and haven’t made an event page for your upcoming streaming concert, make one! It’s super easy. I realize that Instagram doesn’t have an event function, but I’ve found that some folks are making Facebook events directing people to Instagram.

One Step Further

While many folks are hopping on the livestream bandwagon, a group of music professionals out of Rutland is taking things a step further by prerecording a concert and broadcasting it online later this week.

“We’re trying to rally and come up with something that can help people make a few bucks and continue to make SOUNDBITES

S E V E N D AY S T I C K E T S . C O M

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S Healthy, non-smoking participants (18-30 years old) needed for a 4 visit UVM study on a chemical system in the healthy brain. Participants will receive $400 for completion of the study.

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When Life Was Simpler...

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...and The Music Was Better!

music,” said GEORGE NOSTRAND of rehearsal space and DIY recording studio A Sound Space.

Nostrand and a team of music professionals recently staged and shot a concert featuring the KRISHNA GUTHRIE BAND, which is fronted by the son and grandson of lauded singer-songwriters ARLO and WOODY GUTHRIE, respectively.

The video, which was created using multiple cameras and stage lighting, will be available to stream via A Sound Space’s Patreon page on Saturday.

Patreon is a paid artist subscription platform, so viewers will have to shell out a few bucks to watch the concert.

“A lot of people are throwing their phones on a table and playing into their phones,” Nostrand said. “We’re looking to do higher-quality productions.”

In My Room « P.44

THE ONE FOR MORE MUSIC!

101.7 NORTHERN VERMONT • CHAMPLAIN VALLEY • CENTRAL VERMONT

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mean, others are less chatty. Audience engagement also remains a critical part of the equation. However, online-crowd etiquette doesn’t follow the same established rules as a traditional in-person show.

For instance, during VCC’s open mic, host Natalie Miller encouraged viewers to show support in the comments section — even when the comics engaged in a round of “@midnight”style COVID-19 pop-cultural puns. Had the comics been riffing live onstage, this kind of audience participation could have been construed as heckling. But in the virtual space, it was necessary to keep momentum going.

“I’m actually connecting with people that I normally don’t,” says Budney of his comments section.

Henderson says that audience

Listening In If I were a superhero, my superpower would be the ability to get songs stuck in other people’s heads. Here are five songs that have been stuck in my head this week. May they also get stuck in yours.

LOVE AND JAPAN, “Call It Whatever You Want” ULTRAÍSTA, “Tin King” PHANTOGRAM, “Dear God” EBN EZRA, “Across the Green Steppe” MEN AT WORK, “Be Good Johnny”

engagement during livestreams feels similar to when Pete’s Posse plays house concerts, which comprise nearly half of their live appearances.

“People in the front row [at a house gig] throw out comments and spar with you,” he says, adding that online commenters are similarly uninhibited. “It’s surreal, and a really amazing experience, to have that conversation going.”

“People are still figuring out what it means to interact with chats,” says Gunn. “It’s definitely a learning curve we’ve all been thrown into together.”

One lesson he’s gleaned so far: “Even though we’re separated physically, we still have a strong sense of community in Vermont.”

INFO Check out “Almost There,” Seven Days’ online guide to local livestream concerts and events, at sevendaysvt.com.

COURTESY OF CHRIS LILLIE PHOTOGRAPHY

Participants Needed for a Research Study on the Brain

GOT MUSIC NEWS? MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

REVIEW this Love and Japan, Tears for Vanishing Ways (SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Anyone who’s rocked the mic at one of Edward Jahn’s Burlington karaoke nights knows the guy has a thing for Sting. Not only is he enthusiastic about the man who fronted the Police, his impression of the singer is uncanny. So it’s no surprise that his new project, Love and Japan, owes a great deal to the “Roxanne” singer and other new-wave bands of the early ’80s.

Compiled in a fivetrack EP, Tears for Vanishing Ways, Jahn’s music not only satisfies a nostalgic itch but solidly stands on its own as a rich and satisfying listen. It’s the work of someone who clearly loves but doesn’t just regurgitate a particular era. He absorbs the strains of artists such as Men at Work,

Keychains, Ornament (SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Look, I’ve put a lot of thought into what my listening habits might be while in a bunker. Between scavenging for scrap metal to make my own Mad Max car and fighting off mutants trying to steal my secret stash of Mexican Cokes — don’t try it, motherfuckers — I’d be spinning the best postapocalyptic tunes on my uber jukebox.

I never expected my first go at bunker life to be me in my bedroom with Spotify and lots of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Frankly, it’s all been a little underwhelming.

Thus, when Ornament, the debut album from indie-rock band Keychains, arrived in my inbox, I was perhaps more eager than usual to get into it.

Which really could have gone either way. Thankfully, the Burlington trio has produced an impressively energetic collection of scrappy, lean rock and roll.

“The Way” kicks off the album with a swaggering sense of abandon. Singer and guitarist Lucas Herrera-Mindell

the Pretenders and INXS, yet his output can’t be traced back to any one group in particular.

Jahn’s elastic voice allows him to reach absurdly high notes, and he writes tunes that show off his flexibility.

Reaching such heights adds to the emotional urgency of his songs, each a love letter in an unmarked envelope.

Jahn self-produced the EP and plays all of the instruments. He populates his music with eloquent and flamboyant phrases such as “We began at the close of the masquerade,” “Side street dope queen’s a horror scene” and “Cleansing sins on winter winds.”

Throughout, there’s a sense that the world might end at any second and that deep, life-defining romantic love is the only thing that can save it.

Jahn treads closest to Synchronicity territory on opener “Call It Whatever You Want.” Insanely catchy and moodsetting, its sweet-and-sour guitar riffs and prickly beats underscore Jahn’s desperate

wailings, coalescing into a chorus rich with counterpoint between the vocal melody and the lead guitar line.

Bleary with elliptical synth pulses, “Cold War” threads a delicately harmonized melody into brief moments of minor-key uncertainty. The tune’s title nods not only to tensions between the U.S. and Russia during the decade that inspired its sound, but aptly captures the strain on the romance it describes.

A prominent bass riff dominates “Moya Moya.” Cascades of spangled guitar wash over Jahn’s existential dread: “Moya moya moya / I’m afraid it’s terminal.” Moyamoya is a rare blood condition that can lead to stroke, but Jahn seems to liken it to lovesickness.

“Spider Rain” is a warning of some kind and finds Yahn at his most abstract and paranoid. “The circuits print out our dreams / ’Til only code remains,” he sings in throngs of cymbals and guitar pangs.

Deeply poetic and compulsively listenable, Tears for Vanishing Ways is a triumph. Stream and download it at edwardjahn.bandcamp.com.

fires off riffs and chords like cables being pulled taut before bassist Tyler Kraehling and drummer Carney Hemler follow up with a Buddy Holly-on-bong-hits kind of groove.

The band takes some cues from those fog-shrouded days of rock and roll. Like Holly, Keychains keep their songs short and to the point. “Red Pistol Hand” is about 80 seconds of ferocious incoherence.

“Tall Brick Wall” finds the band whipping through staccato riffs and a surfrocky sort of stomp — and also clocks in under a minute and a half.

Few of the 13 tracks go over two minutes, in fact. The effect of the band’s combined energy and Herrera-Mindell’s casual-yet-cool songwriting is an album that flies by but leaves an impact.

Ornament continues a promising trend of indie rock coming out of the city’s college sectors. Keychains fit nicely alongside Queen City contemporaries boys cruise and Don Rico, bands that play retro-leaning

styles of music with idiosyncratic twists. For Keychains, that twist takes the form of a sort of streetwise cool that colors their songs. “Flower Store,” for example, comes across like an updated British blues song for the 21st century, with Hemler’s driving beat.

As the record progresses, a few of the final tracks start to bleed together. That tendency toward brevity helps obscure uniformity, but Keychains sometimes exhibit a trait common to new bands — namely, not enough variance in their songwriting. Time and experience usually take care of that, and Ornament displays more than enough promise to excite local indie-rock fans Hopefully, we’ll all be out of our bunkers soon and can see these bands live again. (And when we do, don’t make fun of my beard or Cinnamon Toast Crunch gut, please.) Until then, head over to Spotify to check out a solid debut album from Keychains.

GET YOUR MUSIC REVIEWED:

NEED SOME ADVICE ON LIFE?

JORDAN ADAMS

the

REVEREND Introducing a sage and sassy adviser to answer reader questions on matters large and small.

What’s your problem?

Send it to: asktherev@sevendaysvt.com

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

ARE YOU A VT ARTIST OR BAND? SEND US YOUR MUSIC! DIGITAL: MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM; SNAIL MAIL: MUSIC C/O SEVEN DAYS, 255 S. CHAMPLAIN ST., SUITE 5, BURLINGTON, VT 05401

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art

“Picnic, Shaker Lake, Alfred, Maine” by Samuel Wood Gaylor

New site brings art exhibitions to stuck-at-home viewers B Y PAMEL A PO LSTO N

A

n article titled “2,500 Museums You Can Now Visit Virtually” has been holding steady as the No. 1 most read on the art newsletter Hyperallergic. For good, and obvious, reason.

With the exception of those heroic individuals providing essential services in the time of COVID-19, most of us have hours to fill while under quarantine at home. And looking at the world’s visual treasures can be one of the most transporting — and soothing.

Beginning this week, Vermonters can also get a peek at local exhibitions via Vermont Art Online. The platform, created by Sarah Laursen and Sarah Briggs of Middlebury College, allows viewers 360-degree virtual tours of participating venues. And the number of participants is rapidly growing.

A prototype of the site, which Laursen and Briggs began building just last week

CALL TO ARTISTS ‘THE FIVE SENSES’: Seeking works from current and potential members for an upcoming exhibit April 17 to May 15 that reflect how the five senses help us perceive and understand the world around us. Chaffee Art Center, Rutland.

Through April 11. Info, 775-0356, info@chaffeeartscenter.org.

‘FOR THE BIRDS’: Across Roads Center for the Arts with the Grange Hall Cultural Center will present a curated exhibition about and in appreciation of birds. Interpretations include their physical appearance, flight and migration patterns, songs, social structures and historical or regional significance. All mediums accepted.

Proceeds of the exhibit to benefit ARCA school scholarships. Deadline: April 15. Artwork drop-off: May 17. Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center.

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using thinglink.com, included the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont and Waitsfield’s Bundy Modern. As of press time, more than a dozen art sites around the state had come onboard.

“We’re using whatever people have available right now,” Laursen said. That might mean a video walk-through but no discrete photographs just yet. Some art institutions, such as the BCA Center in Burlington, already had high-quality virtual tours on their websites.

Laursen is an assistant professor in the History of Art and Architecture Department at Middlebury and the museum’s Asian art curator. Briggs is the museum’s Sabarsky Graduate Fellow; one of her primary projects has been applying her interest in arts education to the exhibit “Weimar, Dessau,

Free. Info, grangehallcc@gmail.com, grangehallcc.com.

GALLERY COOPERATIVE: The gallery cooperative is a collection of artists, each expert at their chosen medium, who display their artwork in monthly shows. The new rotation schedule begins in June. Artists interested in applying can learn more at strandcenter. org or contact gallery director David Monette at 518-563-1604 or david. monette@strandcenter.org. Strand Center for the Arts, Plattsburgh N.Y. Through June 1.

‘KNOTS’: The museum welcomes contributions of any kind for its 2020 exhibit about knots, from personal artifacts (crocheted doilies, prayer bracelet, a knot that saved your life?) or stories to fully realized art projects. The Museum of Everyday Life, Glover Through April 18.

Info, claredol@sover.net, museumofeverydaylife.org.

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

COURTESY OF FLEMING MUSEUM OF ART

Virtual Venues

Berlin: The Bauhaus as School and Laboratory.” But the museum, along with the rest of the college, shut down earlier this month to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The closure of the physical facility spurred Laursen and Briggs to digital action.

“Sarah had already been talking about putting things online [from the museum’s collection],” said Laursen in a Google Hangouts chat last week. “She has expertise with filmmaking and distance learning.”

“I was thinking about how every other museum is doing [virtual tours],” Briggs added, noting an interest in not just public viewers but online information for educators.

It helped that Laursen G I LLI A N had been teaching a course on digital methodologies for art historians, exploring precisely the kind of technologies that facilitate 3D imaging online. But rather than create a virtual product just for the Middlebury museum, the women envisioned taking the project to multiple venues statewide.

Enter the Vermont Curators Group, cofounded in 2016 by Fleming Museum curator Andrea Rosen and now composed of nearly 100 institutions and independent curators around the state. Laursen and Briggs reached out to the group to help spread the word about, and to populate, Vermont Art Online.

“It’s very unusual that all of the curators in the state are connected,” said Laursen.

“We are uniquely poised to do this because Vermont is so small.”

The initial focus for Vermont Art Online is museums and larger galleries; once the project gets off the ground, she noted, it will begin to engage smaller galleries, as well.

For now, Laursen and Briggs are gathering images — or “photo spheres” — and ancillary

information from the participating venues.

“We’re sewing everything together,” Briggs said.

The Vermont Curators Group itself undertook a huge project this year: 2020 Vision: Seeing the World Through Technology, which involves tech-adjacent exhibits and events at venues around Vermont throughout the year. The spring schedule, at the very least, has been canceled. And the irony is lost on no one that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to navigate the new reality with technology.

“I think a lot about what would be happening 10, 20 years ago, when we didn’t have these resources,” said 2020 project manager Gillian Sewake, who lives S E WA K E in Peacham. “In Vermont, this [pandemic] puts connectivity issues in stark relief. There is no more relevant time to be having this conversation.”

Sewake noted that the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities have announced financial support for the Vermont Art Online project.

The site is going live on Wednesday, March 25. One of its offerings is the Fleming Museum’s spring exhibit “Let’s Have a Ball: Wood Gaylor and the New York Art Scene 1913-1936.” Vermonters who did not have a chance to see the show in person will have high-tech and hands-on options: a virtual tour and a beautiful exhibition book authored by Rosen.

Stay tuned for more to come from both Vermont Art Online and the Vermont Curators Group.

THERE IS NO MORE RELEVANT TIME TO BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION.

Contact: pamela@sevendaysvt.com

INFO Learn more at vermontartonline.org and vermontcuratorsgroup.com.

LOOKING FOR ARTISTS: Seeking artists for second gallery in the University Mall.

Send photos of the work you’d like to submit to artssowonderful2@gmail. com. All forms of art welcomed and encouraged. Deadline: April 15. Arts So Wonderful Gallery, Burlington.

TRUCKIN’ TUESDAYS: Seeking family-friendly musicians to busk for at least one hour, 6-8 p.m., on Tuesdays through the summer. More info at vtapple@upickvermont.com. Adams Farm Market, Williston. Through April 30. Info, 879-5226.

SABLE PROJECT ARTIST RESIDENCY: The summer guest artist residency is for professional individuals or groups who will be asked to teach a workshop or present their work. Deadline: April 1. The Sable Project, Stockbridge. Info, info@ thesableproject.org, thesableproject.org.

VIRTUAL VOICING ART EKPHRASTIC POETRY READING SERIES: We are on virtually in this unprecedented moment.

Calling writers of all ages (including kids) and experience levels (including none) to submit and share one to four one-page original poems responding to the themes of “Connection” and “Interdependent - Independence Independent Interdependence” at our internationally livestreamed familyfriendly art poetry reading on April 18.

Submission deadline: April 17. Free. Info, poartryproject@gmail.com, poartry.org/ voicing-art.

‘SHADOWING ALFRED’: For an upcoming exhibition honoring the late gallery dog, Alfred, submissions accepted of artwork using images from his Instagram account, @alfredthehound, or honoring another beloved canine. Details at avagallery.org. Deadline: May 2. AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon N.H. Info, 603-448-3117.

WATERBURY ARTS FEST: The Waterbury Arts Fest is now accepting artist applications for its July event. One hundred artists and craftspeople are chosen for quality and range of art mediums, including painting, pottery, fiber art, weaving, glasswork, baskets, jewelry, woodwork and sculpture. Learn more at waterburyartsfest.com. Deadline: April 20. Downtown Waterbury. $15 application fee; $50 non-tented booth; $80 tented booth. Info, 793-6029.

WORLD BREASTFEEDING MONTH ART EXHIBITION: Seeking Vermont artists to contribute artworks on the exhibition theme, “Breastfeeding is central to our community.” Objectives are to promote breastfeeding and showcase the beauty of mothers and babies. Deadline: June 19. Central Vermont Medical Center, Berlin. Free. Info, 371-4415, cvmc.org, breastfeeding@cvmc.org.

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NEON

movies Big Time Adolescence ★★★★★

W

ell, the words “home movie” have suddenly taken on new meaning, haven’t they? Theater chains have fought against the generational shift to streaming for years, but the coronavirus would appear to have settled that contest for the foreseeable future, and Hollywood has wasted minimal time in pivoting to digital.

While the release of tentpoles such as No Time to Die and A Quiet Place Part II has been postponed indefinitely, a growing number of smaller titles (The Invisible Man, Emma. and The Hunt among them) is being rerouted by studios to video on demand and major streaming services. For the time being, home is where the film fun is.

A case in point: Pete Davidson’s Sundance hit Big Time Adolescence. Originally slated for theatrical release on March 20, the critically acclaimed coming-of-age comedy is now playing on Hulu instead. You’ve seen the “Saturday Night Live” star on your home screen before but, believe me, never quite like this.

There’s more to Davidson than the sketches and headlines have let on.

The enormously entertaining feature debut from writer-director Jason Orley tells the

REVIEWS

story of a suburban 16-year-old, Mo (Griffin Gluck), whose best bud happens to be his sister’s ex-boyfriend. That’s Davidson, turning in his first starring appearance as Zeke. Mo liked hanging out with the older couple and, when they broke up, simply continued hanging out with Zeke. Six years Mo’s senior, Zeke is such a stoner and arrested-development case that he’s oblivious to the age difference.

He’s also surprisingly good-hearted and guileless, which is against type for the comic but lends the proceedings an irresistible amiability. The mismatched pair spends much of their time at Zeke’s place, a bottle-strewn bro pad left to him by his grandmother. They’re usually in the company of Zeke’s hard-partying slacker pals (one of whom, Nick, is played by rapper Machine Gun Kelly) and his current girlfriend, Holly (Sydney Sweeney). I kept expecting Seth Rogen to walk in.

The plot is really set in motion, though, back at school. A classmate named Stacey (Thomas Barbusca) overhears Mo hurling in a bathroom stall one fateful morning. “I’m just a little hung over, dude,” Mo explains. The kid’s in awe: “On a Thursday? Dope!” (The dialogue is exceptionally clever.) Faster than he can say “McLovin,” Mo has accepted an invitation to a popular senior’s party, extended on condition that he bring the booze. That’s right — it’s

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT A high schooler and an older slacker share a funny, touching friendship in Orley’s smart coming-of-age comedy.

Stone? Let’s just say Mo and Sophie’s ending is more reimagining than remake.

And remember how the cops crashed the party in Superbad? They crash it here, too, but with an uproarious, almost Dadaist twist. You have to see it. Which is what I’m saying, I suppose, about this gem of a film across the board. With a cast this endearing and writing this dope, you owe it to yourself to revisit the agony and the ecstasy of adolescence. Big time.

Superbad’s central narrative mechanism updated and retooled for a new generation.

And I do mean retooled. As in Superbad, our high school-age hero has a crush on a smart, brassy fellow student. Sophie (Oona Laurence) is initially bemused by Mo’s approach — he actually phones her to say hi, for example, instead of texting. Of course, Mo’s approach is actually Zeke’s approach. Zeke is playing Cyrano and feeding his protégé moves that worked for him in the dark ages. That happy ending shared by Jonah Hill and Emma

RI C K KI S O N AK

The Mustang ★★★★ FOCUS FEATURES

T

his week, after watching four pandemic movies (see “State of the Arts” on page 20), I flailed around in search of something less horrifying to review. As regular readers know, I’m not a big fan of “comfy” or heartwarming movies.

But stories about taciturn, closed-off people bonding with animals get me in the feels. So when I spotted last year’s The Mustang on Cinemax, which has a handy one-week free trial, I gave it a try.

This first feature from actor-director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, executive produced

by Robert Redford, could easily double as a lyrically shot ad for wild horse inmate programs in the American Southwest. The film opens by informing us that, as the New York Times phrased it on March 22, “A Mustang Crisis Looms in the West.” Public lands are overpopulated with wild horses, and the Bureau of Land Management is out of palatable solutions. A small number of these mustangs, the movie tells us, are sent to prisons to be domesticated and trained by inmates, then sold at auction.

Matthias Schoenaerts plays Roman, who’s been incarcerated for 12 years, many of them in solitary. The air around him is dense with misery; for his first 10 minutes or so on-screen, the only line he speaks is, “I’m not good with people.” When his adult daughter (Gideon Adlon) visits him, so much time has elapsed since they last met that he doesn’t recognize her.

Assigned to shovel horse dung, Roland 50 SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

WILD HORSES Schoenaerts plays a convict who finds hope in an unlikely place in Clermont-Tonnerre’s directorial debut.

hears a mustang banging its hooves frantically against its carrier. The animal’s desperation speaks to him, and soon he’s training “Marquis,” learning from the horse how to read social cues, earn trust and draw boundaries without throwing punches.

The Mustang is essentially a film about rehabilitation, but Clermont-Tonnerre couches the message in non-preachy terms, guiding

her protagonist as gently and steadily toward redemption as he must learn to guide his horse. Belgian actor Schoenaerts (Bullhead) has a knack for conveying layers of anger and woundedness without theatrics. His powerful performance as a man in a haze of guilt and grief fills in the blank spaces in the screenplay.

Clermont-Tonnerre’s camera finds plenty of beauty in the desert setting, and the

supporting cast offers a lively counterpoint to Roland’s depression. Especially fun to watch are Jason Mitchell, as the gregarious fellow inmate who trains Roland, and Bruce Dern, as the acerbic rancher in charge of the program. Brimming over with sly humor, Dern seems to be having the time of his life; the performance is a fine companion to his darker turn as rancher George Spahn in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.

There’s a prison-intrigue subplot that feels a little half-assed and unnecessary; The Mustang isn’t “Oz,” nor does it need to be. The film’s true villain is the lack of funding that threatens rehabilitation programs like the one depicted here. I won’t lie: The film’s ending is more bittersweet than feel-good. But Roland is left with a germ of hope that feels earned.

If you go looking for The Mustang, be aware that there’s another excellent movie called Mustang (2015, on Netflix) about five free-spirited Turkish sisters who run afoul of the patriarchy. Named for a symbol of the untamed frontier, both of these movies are actually about physical confinement — and about the strength that comes from bonding with others.

The Mustang’s most powerful images are those of the wordless physical contact between Roland and Marquis — reminders that, even under conditions of voluntary or involuntary social distancing, people never lose the desire to connect.

MARGO T HARRI S O N

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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HARRY BLISS & STEVE MARTIN

“Too crowded. Let’s go.”

RACHEL LINDSAY

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY REAL MARCH 26-APRIL 1

had written 18 novels and many poems. His stuff was good enough to win him two separate nominations for a Nobel Prize in Literature. But during the last 32-plus years of his life, he never wrote another novel. According to one theory, it was because he was discouraged by the negative reviews he got for his last novel. I suspect you may be at a similar juncture in your life, Gemini. Maybe it’s time to give up on a beloved activity that hasn’t garnered the level of success you’d hoped for. APRIL FOOL! The truth is, it is most definitely not time to lose hope and faith. Don’t be like Hardy. Rededicate yourself to your passionate quests.

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19):

Your oracle comes from Aries poet Octavio Paz: “The path the ancestors cleared is overgrown, unused.

The other path, smooth and broad, is crowded with travelers. It goes nowhere. There’s a third path: mine.

Before me, no one. Behind me, no one.

Alone, I find my way.” APRIL FOOL! Although the passage by Octavio Paz is mostly accurate for your destiny during the rest of 2020, it’s off-kilter in one way: It’s too ponderously serious and melodramatic. You should find a way to carry out its advice with meditative grace and effervescent calm.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A century ago, fiery writer Maxim Gorky and hard-ass Taurus politician Vladimir Lenin were listening to a Beethoven sonata together. “I can’t listen to music too often,” Lenin told his companion. “It affects your nerves, makes you want to say stupid, nice things.” This is crucial advice for you to heed in the coming weeks, Taurus. You need to be as smart and tough as possible, so don’t you dare listen to music. APRIL FOOL! Lenin was half mistaken, and I half lied. The fact is, music makes you smarter and nicer, and those will be key assets for you to cultivate in the coming weeks. So yes, do listen to a lot of music.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): By the time he

was 55 years old, Gemini author Thomas Hardy

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian theologian John Wesley (1703-1791) was a Christian who embodied the liberal values that Christ actually taught. He advocated for the abolition of slavery, prison reform, the ordination of women priests, and a vegetarian diet. He gave away a lot of his money and administered many charities. To accomplish his life’s work, he traveled 250,000 miles on horseback and preached 40,000 sermons. Let’s make him your role model for the coming weeks. Be inspired by his life as you vividly express your care and compassion. APRIL FOOL! I lied a little bit. Although most of what I just recommended is a good idea, the part about traveling long distances, either on horseback or by other means, is not.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The neurotic but talented French novelist Marcel Proust observed, “Everything vital in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded religions and composed our masterpieces.”

With that in mind, and in accordance with current astrological omens, I urge you to cultivate your own neurotic qualities in their extreme forms of expression during the coming weeks. You’re due for some major creative breakthroughs. APRIL FOOL! I was kidding. The fact is, you can generate creative breakthroughs in the coming weeks by being poised and composed — not extra neurotic.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Leon Edel wrote a five-volume biography of renowned author Henry James. In the course of his research, he read 15,000 let-

ters that were written by James. He came to have a profound familiarity with the great man. In accordance with current astrological omens, I recommend that you choose a worthy character about whom you will become equally knowledgeable. APRIL FOOL! I half lied. It’s true that now is an excellent time to deepen your understanding of people you care about. But don’t get as obsessed as Edel!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): About 2,000 years ago, a Roman woman named Sulpicia wrote six short love poems — a total of 40 lines — that are still being analyzed and discussed by literary scholars today. I bring her to your attention because I think that in the next four weeks you, too, could generate a small burst of beauty that will still be appreciated 2,000 years from now. APRIL FOOL! I lied about the “small” part. The burst of beauty you create in the immediate future could actually be quite large, as well as enduring.

SCORPIO

(Oct. 23-Nov. 21): French poet Louis Aragon (1897-1982) was an influential novelist and a pioneer of surrealistic poetry.

Much of his writing had a lyrical quality, and many of his poems were set to music. He also had a belligerent streak. Before the publication of one of his books, he announced that he would thrash any writer who dared to review it in print. Success! There were no critical reviews at all. I recommend his approach to you in the coming weeks. Make it impossible for anyone to criticize you. APRIL FOOL! I lied. I would never suggest that you use violence to accomplish your aims. And besides that, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to solicit feedback of all varieties, even the critical kind.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I hesitate

to be so blunt, but it’s my duty to report the facts. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you should have as many orgasms as possible in the next 15 days. You need to tap into the transformative psychological power that’s available through monumental eruptions of pleasure and releases of tension. (P.S. Spiritual orgasms will be just as effective as physical orgasms.) APRIL FOOL! What I just said is true, but I left out an important compo-

nent of your assignment: Be loving and responsible as you pursue your joyous climaxes, never manipulative or exploitative or insensitive.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Ancient Greek orator Demosthenes was renowned for his skill at delivering powerful, charismatic speeches. While he was still learning his craft, he resorted to extreme measures to improve. For example, there was a time when he shaved just half of his head. It made him ashamed to go out in public, forcing him to spend all his time indoors practicing his speeches. Would you consider a similar strategy right now? APRIL FOOL! I was just messing with you. It’s true that the coming weeks will be a good time to minimize your socializing and devote yourself to hard work in behalf of a beloved dream. But shaving half your head isn’t the best way to accomplish that.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The coming

weeks will be a favorable time for you to tell as many lies as possible if doing so helps you get what you want. I hereby authorize you to engage in massive deceptions, misrepresentations, and manipulative messages as you seek to impose your will on every flow of events. APRIL FOOL! I lied. In fact, everything I just said was the exact opposite of your actual horoscope, which is as follows: You have a sacred duty to tell more of the truth than you have ever been able to tell before. As you dig deeper to discover more and more of what’s essential for you to understand and express, dedicate your efforts to the goal of gliding along with the most beautiful and interesting flow you can find.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Fifteen minutes before the Big Bang occurred, where was the matter that now constitutes your body and my body?

And if, as seems to be true, the Big Bang was the beginning of time, what time was it fifteen minutes earlier? Questions like these are crucial for you to ponder in the next two weeks. APRIL FOOL! I lied. The questions I articulated should in fact be very low priority for you. In the immediate future, you’ll be wise to be as concrete and specific and pragmatic as you can possibly be. Focus on upclose, personal questions that you can actually solve, not abstract, unsolvable riddles.

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CARING, HUMOROUS, AMBITIOUS, POSITIVE PERSON I’m very happy, positive, caring, ambitious, funny. Good sense of humor, and I love conversation. Working76, 61, seeking: W, l

Respond to these people online: dating.sevendaysvt.com WOMEN seeking...

LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE Ready for the next chapter in life and looking for a companion to see what life brings. I love spending time outside hiking, skiing or kayaking. I have a good sense of humor, a big heart and a strong back.

Would like to meet an emotionally mature, self-aware man with a good sense of humor. NorthernLights, 57, seeking: M, l CURIOUS OF LIFE AND HUMOR Sometimes I want to be among a lot of people, and sometimes I just want to be alone with my own company. Have always been curious about people and the world around me. Love learning new things, and currently working on how to play music. I have a great sense of humor and enjoy being outdoors all spring, summer and fall. daffodil19, 63, seeking: M, l CREATIVE, FUNNY, GREAT FRIEND Just looking to meet new friends. I am honest and creative and funny.

Enjoy cooking, dancing, hiking, music and museums. Looking for friendship and a fun someone to explore this life with. Artiste, 67, seeking: M COUNTRY GIRL ON THE WATER I’m passionate about being outside.

Walking, hiking, snowshoeing, paddling, horseback riding. I love food, going out or staying in. Wood fires on a snowy night.

Family time. Conversation about anything interesting. I’m enjoying renovating my house. I love Vermont but enjoy traveling.

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LUCKY IN LOVE AND NICARAGUA I loved being married. Sadly, he died young. I own gorgeous land in Nicaragua and want a partner to develop it with me as an artist/surfer retreat (as soon as we get rid of the small problem of a dictator killing his own people). A perfect life is Vermont in summer and Nica in winter, but only with a terrific man. You? W, 72, seeking: M, l MOUNTAINS, SUNSHINE, COFFEE, CONNECTION I am a fit, caring, down-to-earth person looking to share adventures. I hope to have honest and interesting conversations and maybe learn something in the process. I am also innately curious and will want to learn all about you. I have no interest in small talk — I’m looking for authenticity. I’m happy to chat and would like to meet in person. lovemountains, 54, seeking: M, l LIBERAL, MUSICAL, READER I love to read, listen to and make and write music, sing and talk with my friends, play the guitar, be with children, be outside, contra dance. A goal is to visit every library in Vermont. I am a conscientious composter, and I grow tomatoes. I am a retired kindergarten teacher and minister. Seeking a man for friendship/relationship. musicdance, 77, seeking: M, l ENTHUSIASTIC, EARTH-SPIRITUAL, GREGARIOUS DRAGONFLY LADY Namaste. I’m a naturalist/writer who enjoys hanging out with insect enthusiasts, woods walking, photographing wildlife by kayak, and enjoying time with close friends and family. I’m looking for a man to share passions with me, especially if they include exploring used book stores, artisan/new-age shops ... adventures we can discuss over surf and turf or sushi. Namaste.

DragonflyLady9, 71, seeking: M, l CENTERED, SENSUAL, TALL AND FIT If I could spend a day with any two men, they would be Freddie Mercury and Leonard Cohen. Sunday morning in bed — really hot black coffee, the paper and music. If you are a Trump voter, smoker or narcissist, we won’t hit it off.

If you love books, movies and my two favorite men listed above, we probably will. Zenda889, 66, seeking: M, l ENJOY LIFE TO THE FULLEST I enjoy gardening, animals and reading, and I split my own wood (electric splitter). I love cooking and contra dancing, and I have a new hobby: shape note singing. countrygirl1, 77, seeking: M, l HONEST, FUN AND HAPPY Hi! Thanks for reading this! I’m happy and satisfied with life — no regrets! Looking for that one person who has the right mix of drive, adventure and honesty to handle a secure, well-adjusted Boston sports fan. Life is definitely a glass half full! Love to travel and especially love the beach. Feel free to ask anything, and good luck! Phuntimes, 57, seeking: M, l

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

OUTDOORSY, HONEST, HEALTHY MUSIC LOVER Hi there! I’m an optimistic, funny, smart, nature- and animal-loving kind of gal.

Spending time together with someone who makes you smile, and has your back, is a gift. I’m a world traveler who has recently returned to Vermont. I am looking for a friend first to enjoy life and Vermont. If it turns into something more, bonus! Bella2020, 62, seeking: M, l NEW BEGINNINGS I am an honest, easygoing person with a great sense of humor. I am looking for a nice man who also has a great sense of humor. I am not into drama. So if you are into drama, don’t respond. I like to go to the gym, go for rides, and I am a girl who loves to fish and do a little traveling.

Newbeginnings52, 67, seeking: M, l FUNNY, CUTE, SHORT, EDUCATED, MULTIRACIAL “In a relationship, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things ... all of it, all of the time, every day.

You’re saying, ‘Your life will not go unnoticed, because I will notice it.

Your life will not go un-witnessed, because I will be your witness.”

ShortyBoots, 60, seeking: M, l INSIGHTFUL, CREATIVE, ADVENTUROUS Outdoorsy, attractive brunette. Poet, explorer of spirituality and personal growth, lover of nature. I love hiking, paddling, exploring new mountains, towns and ideas with others ... feeling what we’re drawn to along the way, sharing thoughts and impressions.

Fairly flexible and easygoing. Healthy minded; not big into alcohol, not into drugs. Waterpoet, 57, seeking: M, l

MEN seeking...

HOPE I CAN REWRITE THIS I like a woman with lotsa cash who drinks Bud Light by the case. I like to work on muscle cars that get 3 mpg. I like a woman who likes my greasy hands all over her. I like a woman who who can cook and sew and make flowers grow and clean up. Must be able to shovel snow. MarcwithaC, 63, seeking: W, l PATIENT, ATTENTIVE BI GUY Yep, life would be simpler if I were straight, but I’m not. Fit, energetic, discreet bi guy looking for safe, sane, well-endowed (just being honest) male FWB — someone who enjoys foreplay, not fastplay. Big request, I know. Even taller order is I’d really like to hook up with just one guy that shares same the interests and needs a discreet buddy. 2ndwind, 62, seeking: M HARDWORKING, FRONT-PORCH SITTING I am a steward of Small Hill Farm in Lincoln, Vt. I like working the land and have marketed a variety of crops over the years. I enjoy craft beer sampling — not interested in smoking or drugs.

Attend yoga once a week. 251 Club member. Etienne, 71, seeking: W, l

SEX, NIGHTCLUB, GAMING I am a positive person, and I try to live life as best as I can. I am an active and outgoing person, and I try to find time to try new things. I try to care about the people around me. I am determined, independent and I know what I want in life. Musictraveler, 35, seeking: W, l SOMEONE’S EVERYTHING Winter... Am a simple, outdoors guy. Haven’t found anything I don’t like as of yet. Work slots and enjoy my down time. Never pass up a day outside doing something. Love all seasons, as Vermont has so much to offer.

Am happy-go-lucky who always smiles. :) Lamborgini4me, 62, seeking: W, l OPEN-MINDED AND PLAYFUL Happy-go-lucky, open-minded guy looking to please and be pleased. Up for almost anything; tell me what to do, and I will accommodate. Put me on my knees and fulfill your needs and fantasies.

Iwanttoplay, 39, seeking: M, TM, TW THE BIG EASY Big on the outside, pleasant on the inside. Looking for long-term companion for dinner, theater, and just living life. I am a retired civil engineer with many interests, a good listener, easygoing, look much younger than my age. I enjoy Thai food, cooking for you, local travel,and sites, hiking and more. Ready to share everything with the right woman.

SpiritYoung, 68, seeking: W, l COUNTRY MUSIC TYPE OF GUY I am an easygoing person with a big heart who wants a friend and maybe a boyfriend, if we would want each other and get along with each other. Like to do things together with the right man. Bearliker, 64, seeking: M, Cp COMPASSIONATE, KIND, LIKE TO PLEASE I’m easygoing, down-to-earth and love to see others happy! Would love to meet a kind, compassionate yet firm, openminded person! Vtdandougherty, 59, seeking: M, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, l LOOKING FOR A GOOD MATCH I am interested in meeting someone who truly enjoys the sensation of long, passionate kisses. Slow, relaxed meetings to exchange physical pleasure. down_to_earth, 59, seeking: W SEEKING COOKING AND FOREST-BATHING FRIEND I like to spend time in the woods, biking, cross-country skiing, walking and more.

I work hard and have good friends, just not that special someone. If you are interested in learning more, please email me. I know you are out there. :) I would like to meet someone who is low-key and truly active. VTMTGUY, 55, seeking: W, l LOOKING FOR A LOVER Competent DIYer, DIYing, looking for a woman to do it with. I’m naturally kind. And brave. I’m still healthy and in good shape. Lucky. I bought a boat on Malletts Bay. Fixing it up now for sailing Lake Champlain this summer. It would be nice to have a cocaptain. Looking for friends first, and last relationship.

Unshellfish, 64, seeking: W, l QUIETLY EXPLORING LIFE I’m recently retired and looking forward to the next part of my life. Looking to meet someone who is open, easygoing, honest and likes to travel the back roads. MovingOn, 67, seeking: W, l

CREATIVE KINKY & POLY I live in rural Vermont and have a professional career in Burlington. I support all flavors of self-identification, sexuality and expression. Consent and respect are fundamental to me. I’m less likely to connect physically with those who don’t share an interest in kink in some way, shape or form. Please feel free to contact me if I’ve sparked your interest. SparkVT, 49, seeking: W, l

TRANS WOMEN seeking...

IS THERE ANY HOPE? I’ve been a closeted trans ever since childhood, but just starting transition now, at 63. So many regrets. Life has not been kind. Wondering if there’s anyone out there who can love me for who I am, and let me love them for who they are. LaydeeBird, 63, seeking: M, l SUBMISSIVE SEEKING...

Looking to expand my experiences.

I am open to many different scenes and roles. tina1966, 54, seeking: W, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, Gp GENEROUS, OPEN, EASYGOING Warm, giving trans female with an abundance of yum to share (and already sharing it with lovers) seeks ecstatic connection for playtimes, connections, copulations, exploration and generally wonderful occasional times together. Clear communication, a willingness to venture into the whole self of you is wanted. Possibilities are wide-ranging: three, four, explorations, dreaming up an adventure are on the list! DoubleUp, 62, seeking: Cp, l

COUPLES seeking...

TO MAKING IT COUNT! We’re a couple exploring and adding something exciting to our lives. She is 31 y/o, 5’6, curvy and beautiful. He is 32 y/o, 6’, average athletic and handsome.

We’re looking for friends and friends with benefits. We love movies, board games, hanging out, outdoor activities, stimulating conversation, sex, family and a bunch more. We’re clean, disease-free and tobacco-free. LetLoose, 31, seeking: W, Cp ONE NIGHT We are a really fun couple looking for a man to join us for a threesome. No sex, just oral, but will make it worth your while. Photos available if you’re interested, and will ask the same from you. WEX, 45, seeking: M SWINGER COUPLE Couple in early 50s looking to have fun with a male partner. Husband likes to watch but also join in. Wife is a knockout little hottie who likes to cut loose.

Looking for a male between 40 and 50 for some serious adult fun. Only well-hung men need apply — at least nine inches, please. Spaguy, 52, seeking: M, Gp LOOKING FOR SOMEONE AMAZING We are a couple in an open relationship seeking a bi male, gay male or couple to join us in play. We are two clean, professional adults. We are awesome, and we’d like to find another awesome person to expand our activities. Discretion given and expected. Message us. Let’s chat and meet for drinks and see where things go! vtfuncouple, 43, seeking: M, Cp EXPERIENCE SOMETHING NEW We are a loving couple of over five years.

Love to play and try new things. Spend free time at the ledges. Looking for people to play with. Perhaps dinner, night out and maybe breakfast in the morning. Looking for open-minded men, women or couples who enjoy fun times and new experiences.

2newAdventurers, 52, seeking: M, W, Cp, Gp

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FRIDAY, SOBBING AT CITY MARKET I nearly walked into you as you left the co-op. You were almost blind with tears, sobbing as you walked. I wish I had asked you what was wrong. Small comfort, but it is the least I can do to hope you see this and know that one stranger that day cared about you and carried your pain with them. When: Friday, March 20, 2020. Where: downtown City Market.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915018 AMOR I try to ignore my feelings for you, but I find myself not able to control them anymore. I love you, and I miss you! When: Friday, March 20, 2020. Where: in the night sky. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915017 LATE-MORNING LAKEFRONT WALK To the recent central Illinois transplant: Thank you for the impromptu latemorning lakefront walk and talk.

When: Thursday, March 19, 2020.

Where: Burlington waterfront.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915016 OAKLEDGE PARK WALKING BRITTANY SPANIEL Midafternoon. I was walking with my sister. You were walking with your dog, an elderly Brittany Spaniel, you told me.

I’d like to ask more questions, starting with your name. When: Friday, March 13, 2020. Where: Oakledge Park.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915015 NO MORE TIES I’ve done everything I promised and more. All our dreams could be a reality now. I’m sorry it’s too late and I wasn’t there for you as I should have been. I’ve been there every day for you and the kids, even though it’s not wanted, and will always be here. I love you, dudes.

When: Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

Where: passenger seat — hold my hand, kid. You: Woman. Me: Man. #915014

HARDWICK PARKING LOT, NOON You were soaking up some early spring sunshine. Radiant, with big silver hoops and long stray whisps of dark hair dancing in the wind. I had on an orange hat. You make my heart dance. Let’s soak up some sun together, at the beach. When: Monday, March 9, 2020. Where: Hardwick.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915013 YOU CAN’T HAVE ENOUGH KARMA Thank you for offering to help me out until I located my credit card by the coffees. Please say hi if you see me again out and about. When: Monday, March 9, 2020. Where: City Market.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915012 MATTY WITH THE BIG SMILE I was walking with my son on Rose Street last summer. Not sure what we saw in each other from so far away, but we both had shit-eating grins down the block.

You said I was gorgeous and that you hoped my man knew how lucky he was.

He didn’t. But that’s over! Would love to see that smile again. When: Thursday, August 1, 2019. Where: Rose Street.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915011 CHIROPRACTOR OFFICE ROMANCE I’ve seen you few times at my chiropractor’s office. It seems like we are flirting, but I can’t tell for sure. I am hoping we are, because I think you are quite cute. I’m not bold enough to ask you out unless I know you feel them same. I’ll do my best to remember your name this time! When: Friday, March 6, 2020.

Where: doctor’s office. You: Woman.

Me: Nonbinary person. #915010 BABY, BABY! No one wears those plaid pajamas like you do. I can’t wait for my next asparagus omelette. I love you so. When: Thursday, March 5, 2020. Where: in the kitchen.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #915006

Ask REVEREND 

Irreverent counsel on life’s conundrums

Dear Reverend,

I’ve been going out for a lot of walks lately.

Partially to get some exercise, but mainly to keep my sanity. I’m always mindful of staying at least six feet away from people. Everywhere I go — Centennial Woods, the Intervale, the waterfront, the Burlington Country Club — people are walking dogs without leashes. More than a few times, I’ve had a dog run over and jump up on my legs. I understand that the canines are oblivious to social distancing, but the fact that their owners are makes me irate.

Can COVID-19 be transmitted via dogs?

Hounded (MALE, 38)

FRIDAY A.M., CUMBY’S, RICHMOND, 3/6 Dressed in a gray jacket with leopardprint shoes, I looked in while you looked out. I said hello to Bill. You turned to leave, and we locked eyes. Time stopped.

Brown Tundra hunk, you followed me in my blue Dodge toward Hinesburg, and I was bummed when you headed away to Williston. You: tall, strong and instantly attractive! Wowser!

When: Friday, March 6, 2020. Where: Richmond Cumberland Farms, 7:15 a.m. You: Man. Me: Woman. #915009 HANKSVILLE WOMAN FROM GOOD HEALTH We met a few weeks ago. I have metal in my leg from too much football, and you have metal in your spine from California.

You spoke of taking care of your parents.

You were compassionate, positive and wonderful. I’ve been thinking of you since.

I’d love to get in touch. When: Thursday, February 20, 2020. Where: Good Health.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915008 CO-OP CUTIE You: in the craft beer aisle, searching for a special flavor. Me: in the next aisle over, doing the same. I found that flavor when I saw you in your red hoodie, gently picking up each can with those strong hands. Maybe sometime, somewhere we can sip a brew from the same glass. Would love to see you again. xoxo When: Friday, March 6, 2020. Where: Hunger Mountain Co-op.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915007 CITY MARKET ON 3/5 To the woman with great salt-andpepper hair, black jacket and cool boots: You reappeared, passing in front of my vehicle. Sometimes a seemingly insignificant encounter makes a difference. I just wanted to say, “Thank you.” When: Thursday, March 5, 2020. Where: City Market.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #915005 WE KINDA DANCED TO RHJ You are seeing someone now, which sometimes has me feeling guilty for feeling this way — but occasionally I wonder, is it wrong of me to want one night with you? Just to cuddle and badly sing along to our favorite songs? It’s not even sexual in nature. I just want a good last memory of holding you in my arms. When: Saturday, October 1, 2016. Where: Lake Champlain.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915001

Dear Hounded,

We’re living in very strange times. Stress levels are high, and everyone is on edge — for good reason.

Even though it’s best to stay home and avoid unnecessary excursions, getting outside is of the utmost importance for our physical and mental wellbeing. Of course, this must be done while keeping the safety of yourself and others in mind.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, cdc.gov, states, “At this time, there is no evidence that companion

COFFEE, THEN LOVE Not sure if I am that woman, but you sound an awfully a lot like a guy I just met, and he ghosted me. If this is him, then why don’t we throw in some Legos, too. When: Thursday, March 5, 2020. Where: Champlain Farms.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #915004

LYNDONVILLE LADY You paid for my meal surreptitiously and were gone when I discovered the fact.

Provide some details of that day in your response and permit me to reciprocate your coy kindness. When: Saturday, February 29, 2020. Where: Lyndonville.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #914998

DEAR BURLINGTONIANS Like many of us, I support democratic socialism. I draw the line at sharing foot stank. When you are in a public place, please for the love of Satan and Lady frikken Gaga, keep your dang shoes on. When: Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Where: coffee shops.

You: Group. Me: Man. #915003

YOU HAVE A NICE FACE You seemed a little lost, so I took it upon myself to redirect you to the bar. Your smile was captivating. This, paired with the phrase “You have a nice face,” took me by a lovely surprise. We shared a second smile as I left up the stairs. Would you care to share a third? When: Thursday, February 27, 2020. Where: Orlando’s open mic. You: Woman. Me: Genderqueer. #914996

THE FAITH THAT GROWS I’ll speak to you like the chorus to the verse / Chop another lime like a coda with a curse / Come on like a freak show takes the stage / We give them the games we play, she say / “I want something else to get me through this life, baby.” When: Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Where: the Velvet.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915002 WE POINTED AT EACH OTHER I just happened to be thinking of you when I saw you for the second time today. The coincidence surprised me, and I was compelled to point. There’s more to it than that, but I’ll tell you that some other time ... if we ever cross each other’s paths. You have a warm and inviting way about you. When: Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Where: on the street.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #915000 HANDSOME AT 5 A.M. I noticed you looking at the coolers of drinks. You asked what I was doing up so early while we both got our coffees.

Thanks for buying mine! Can I buy the next coffee?! When: Sunday, March 1, 2020. Where: Maplefields, Colchester.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #914999 I WISH YOU KNEW Every week I see you. I might seem unavailable, but secretly I wait for the day you tell me you’re leaving him. I’m able to tell you my biggest secrets, and you act like it’s no big deal I feel balanced with you. I’ll get the coffee, then let’s fall in love. When: Friday, February 28, 2020. Where: Vermont.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #914997

animals, including pets, can spread COVID-19.”

However, it also says: “This is a rapidly evolving situation. Guidance will be updated as new information becomes available.” My unscientific mind reads that as: “It’s probably fine, but maybe don’t go making out with strangers’ dogs for a little bit.”

A friend recently invited

BEAUTIFUL BARNYARD SERVER You: long blond hair tied in a pigtail, black pants, black shoes, tattoo on your arm.

Me: black sweater and tried to order a BBCO Need but settled for the Lunch. You have a stunning smile and are outright gorgeous. Too bad I didn’t have the courage to ask your name. Your smile at me made me knees weak. When: Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Where: Barnyard Pizza. You: Woman. Me: Man. #914995 CUTIE BLUE-EYED ANGEL 1234 You were holding your hands close to your face in a pinching shape, excited by the sun and beautiful day. I thought you must be the most endearing and scintillating woman I had ever seen. You had confidence I could feel, a heart God couldn’t make, eyes of an angel and the love of a saint. Be mine. When: Monday, February 24, 2020. Where: Golden Road. You: Woman. Me: Man. #914994 HEY THERE, GORGEOUS You: the gorgeous blue eyes and the cool shades that I commented on. We held hands. I know you probably forgot my number. When: Saturday, February 22, 2020. Where: McDonald’s drive-through.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #914993 FORGOT PURSE, MISERY LOVES CO. Friday evening. Very cute woman. You came back to your table for your purse, and we spoke together about my man-purse.

(I grew up in Montréal.) Kicking myself that I didn’t ask for your name. Would love to be in touch, maybe share a drink and learn more about each other. Hope we connect! When: Friday, February 21, 2020. Where: Misery Loves Co., Winooski.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #914992

dogs running up to me to meet him at a dog park. I asked how many them. Vermont has no people were there, and he statewide leash laws, said about a dozen but but most cities require dogs to be on a leash — that they were all staying far apart. I knew that if I with some exceptions, including dog parks. went, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off the There are always jerks dogs. So I stayed home. who don’t follow the Not because I was worried rules. Now is not the about getting the virus time to be a jerk. Please keep your dog on a leash from the dogs, but what if I have it and somehow when out and about and it got transferred to include them in your social distancing. their people? Maybe that’s not how it Good luck and God bless, works, but I figured, Why chance it?

Even in the best of times, there are people afraid What’s your problem? of unknown

The Reverend

Send it to asktherev@sevendaysvt.com.

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

57

Internet-Free Dating!

I am divorced of 34 years.

I am 5’11 and 230 pounds. I am a very positive person, happy, thoughtful. Like good conversation and caring, honest people. I like the outdoors. I work and would enjoy good company. #L1397 I’m a 47-y/o male seeking a woman 33 to 47. I am looking for a long-term relationship leading to marriage. I’m a gentleman, honest, loyal, looking for one woman to spend my life with. #L1395 I’m a 37-y/o man seeking a man. Pretty low-key guy.

Good-looking for my age.

Want to find the man who will complete me. Hope to hear from you! #L1394 Spring has sprung. Looking for guys to enjoy the change of season. I’m fun and intelligent, with varied interests. I like everything; mostly sub, but not always. No text/email. I want to talk with you. Central Vermont.

Bears are a plus. #L1399 GWM in late 60s, very friendly, honest, caring and understanding. I’m retired, home alone, and it is very lonesome. It’s been a long winter. Looking for a friend who can help me out once in a while.

I don’t look or act my age at all.

I have been recouping from surgery. I can tell you more later if you write. Should have a car.

Live in central Vermont. #L1398

Looking for a fun friend.

Me: woman 60 years young.

Active, adventurous, creative, fit, friendly, flexible, fun, generous, improvisational, independent, outdoorsy, silly, smart, stubborn. You: man, 45 to 60 years young. Charming, educated, fit, flexible, funny, generous, independent, kind, outdoorsy and happy. #L1396 A lady in jeans / prefers meat to beans / in the fall of life / not anyone’s wife / locally organic / not into panic / cooks on fire / Computer’s on a wire / well trained in art / a generous heart / spiritually deep / easy to keep. I’m a W, 52, seeking M. #L1398

HOW TO REPLY TO THESE LOVE LETTERS: Seal your reply — including your preferred contact info — inside an envelope. Write your penpal’s box number on the outside of that envelope and place it inside another envelope with payment. Responses for Love Letters must begin with the #L box number.

MAIL TO: Seven Days Love Letters

P.O. Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402

PAYMENT: $5/response. Include cash or check

(made out to “Seven Days”) in the outer envelope. To send unlimited replies for only $15/month, call us at 802-865-1020, ext. 10 for a membership (credit accepted).

PUBLISH YOUR MESSAGE ON THIS PAGE!

1

Submit your FREE message at sevendaysvt.com/loveletters or use the handy form at right.

2

We’ll publish as many messages as we can in the Love Letters section above.

3

Interested readers will send you letters in the mail. No internet required!

58

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

I’m a W seeking a M. I’d like to meet a happy man who focuses on the good things in the world and shares my interest in nature, animals, music, star/UFO gazing and possibly future tiny house living. #L1393 53-y/o virgin looking to meet cute girls between 23 and 43.

She’s gotta like to wrestle, be fun, be playful and like the outdoors. Be honest; no games. I don’t do drugs, drink, smoke or chew. Friends first. Been hurt too many times. Trust and honesty are important in friendships and relationships. Please write to me and send a picture. #L1392

Reply to these messages with real, honest-to-goodness letters. DETAILS BELOW. I’m a 56-y/o male seeking a male same age or older. I am a fella who likes interesting people. I like to think it could enhance life and make it more fun. #L1391

I’m a GWM, blonde/blue, seeking a GWM. Like everything but anal. Live near Ticonderoga, N.Y. Seeking between 45 and 70. #L1386

Gay white male looking for hookups, maybe more; see where it goes. 5’10 and a half, dark brown hair, good looking, brown eyes, slender. I clean and do windows for a living and run a rescue for animals and give them a forever home, so you have to be an animal lover. If interested, get back to me. #L1390

Senior bi male. Top seeking sub. Bottom. Keep me warm all winter. Horny day and night.

I’m clean and discreet. Oral is hot. I love to watch every drop.

Be my bitch. #L1385

I’m a single man looking for a single female, age 35 and up, with or without kids.

Someone who likes the outdoors and activities. I’m very romantic.

I’d like someone to go away with on the weekends, and I love to cuddle. I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs. I got a brand-new hot tub in the backyard. I don’t email often but prefer writing or phone calls. #L1387 He/him. Musician, athlete, woodsman, metalworker, sculptor, hunter, fisherman. #L1381

I’m a fella seeking interesting humans. Reasonable human searching for interesting people to act as momentary diversions on the road to the grave. Make life interesting! #L1383 We bumped butts about 8:00 at the Walmart in Berlin. You turned around and asked if I enjoyed that as much as you.

You wore rimmed glasses. You had cat food in your cart. I would really like to meet you.

Me: woman. You: man. #L1382 I’m a 60-y/o male seeking a male. Very fit and clean early senior looking for other seniors for relaxation and fun. #L1379

Describe yourself and who you’re looking for in 40 words below:

Required confidential info:

(OR, ATTACH A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER.)

__________________________________________

I’m a _________________________________________________ __ ____

NAME

AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL)

seeking a____________________________________________ ___________ AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL)

_______________________________________________________

__________________________________________ ADDRESS

__________________________________________ ADDRESS (MORE)

_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

__________________________________________ CITY/STATE

__________________________________________ ZIP

__________________________________________ PHONE

_______________________________________________________ MAIL TO: SEVEN DAYS LOVE LETTERS • PO BOX 1164, BURLINGTON, VT 05402 OPTIONAL WEB FORM: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LOVELETTERS HELP: 802-865-1020, EXT. 10, 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.

Respected. Accredited. Nonprofit.

Sending Hugs. And Hope.

Times are challenging right now. We’re all trying to figure out how to create a sense of normalcy as our lives are disrupted. Know that the Champlain College Online team is rooting for Vermonters, and our wider community.

We’ll be here, ready to support you, whenever you need us! onlinedegrees.champlain.edu/hugsandhope | 866.637.1102

[ Next Application Deadline: April 10 ]

Untitled-25 1

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

59

3/23/20 12:54 PM

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3/24/20 10:55 AM

Humane

Society of Chittenden County

Atari AGE/SEX: 1.5-year-old neutered male ARRIVAL DATE: February 19, 2020

COURTESY OF KELLY SCHULZE/MOUNTAIN DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

REASON HERE: He was brought to HSCC due to behavioral concerns in his previous home.

SUMMARY: He’s a smart, active dog on the lookout for an experienced owner who will help him be his best self. Atari is a young, energetic pup who loves running around outside, going for long walks and playing with his doggy friends. He was relinquished into our care due to his tendency to guard valued resources and needs an owner who will be patient, understanding and committed to helping Atari overcome this behavior with the support of our professional dog trainers. While in our care, he has been a fun and friendly boy who is eager to learn!

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Atari has done well with other dogs in the past.

He has lived with cats and done well with them. He needs a home without young children.

housing »

DID YOU KNOW? In light of the latest health guidelines concerning COVID-19, HSCC is not currently open to visitors, and we are not able to accept dropped-off donations.

Thanks to our community and dedicated staff, Atari and our other amazing animals are being cared for in foster homes and on-site as needed. They will be available for adoption as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and support during these uncertain times!

Sponsored by:

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, by appointment only due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more information.

NEW STUFF ONLINE EVERY DAY! PLACE YOUR ADS 24-7 AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

APARTMENTS, CONDOS & HOMES

on the road »

CARS, TRUCKS, MOTORCYCLES

pro services »

CHILDCARE, HEALTH/ WELLNESS, PAINTING

buy this stuff »

APPLIANCES, KID STUFF, ELECTRONICS, FURNITURE

music »

INSTRUCTION, CASTING, INSTRUMENTS FOR SALE

jobs »

NO SCAMS, ALL LOCAL, POSTINGS DAILY

CLASSIFIEDS

housing ads: $25 (25 words) legals: 52¢/word buy this stuff: free online services: $12 (25 words)

center, heat & HW incl.

Income restrictions apply. 802-655-1810, keenscrossing.com.

We Pick Up & Pay For Junk Automobiles!

on the road

Route 15, Hardwick

802-472-5100

3842 Dorset Ln., Williston

802-793-9133

BOATS

housing

FOR RENT

1- & 3-BR APTS., MIDDLESEX Two apts. between Red 2010 SEARAY 310 2009 TOYOTA MATRIX sm-allmetals060811.indd 7/20/15 1 5:02 PM SUNDANCER Hen & the Roots Farm 5-SPEED Super clean inside & Market, half a mile Manual, excellent out, 179 original hours, from Interstate Exit 9. condition, 111K miles, no only used in fresh accidents, Carfax report, Clean 1-BR & 3-BR apts. water. $24,800. Hurry. upgraded, painted & 1 owner, meticulously This one will not last. refurbished w/ separate maintained, service 802-289-0830. records, snow & summer entries. For showings, email paul@northland tires, nonsmoker. construction.net.

Passed Feb. 2020 inspection. $5,950.

1-BR NOW, 2-BR SOON elizabethmseyler@ 2 1-BRs now, each $770/ gmail.com.

2009 HONDA CRV, $8,500 mo., tenants pay utils.

Excellent condition 2-BR soon, $1,250/mo., CASH FOR CARS! w/ 76,500 miles, we pay building heat.

We buy all cars! Junk, 4WD, leather, silver Locations: Burlington high-end, totaled: It color exterior, black & Winooski. jc.intl@ doesn’t matter. Get free interior. 1 owner only. myfairpoint.net. towing & same-day Snow tires & all-season cash. Newer models, AFFORDABLE 2-BR APT. tires. 925-298-2677 or too. Call 1-866-535AVAIL. aocruz.2015@gmail.

9689. (AAN CAN) At Keen’s Crossing. com.

2-BR: $1,266/mo., heat & HW incl. Open floor plan, fully applianced kitchen, fi tness center, pet friendly, garage parking.

Income restrictions apply. 802-655-1810, keenscrossing.com.

CARS/TRUCKS

CLASSIFIEDS KEY appt. appointment apt. apartment BA bathroom BR bedroom DR dining room DW dishwasher HDWD hardwood HW hot water LR living room NS no smoking OBO or best offer refs. references sec. dep. security deposit W/D washer & dryer

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

C-2

BURLINGTON PEARL ST. VICTORIAN Well-maintained studio apt. close to downtown.

1 large unit on 1st floor now avail. BA has tub w/ shower. Heat, HW incl. in rent. $1,125/mo. NS/ dogs. 1-year lease. Refs. req. 372-1578.

IMMEDIATE OCCUPANCY Large, 2-BR, 1-BA apt. in NNE of Burlington. Incl. parking, refrigerator, stove/range. NS/pets. $1,600/mo. Contact kim@lipkinaudette.com.

KEEN’S CROSSING IS NOW LEASING! 1-BR, $1,054/mo.; 2-BR, $1,266/mo.; 3-BR, $1,397/mo. Spacious interiors, fully applianced kitchen, fi tness

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

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

display service ads: $25/$45 homeworks: $45 (40 words, photos, logo) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x21

PINECREST AT ESSEX 9 Joshua Way, Essex Jct. Independent senior living for those 55+ years. 1-BR avail. now, $1,240/mo. incl. utils. & parking garage. NS/ pets. 802-872-9197 or rae@fullcirclevt.com.

HOUSEMATES NEED A ROOMMATE? Roommates.com will help you find your perfect match today!

(AAN CAN)

services

BIZ OPPS ATTENTION, ENTREPRENEURS! TTBS can help launch your new business & help you realize your business startup.

Contact Terra Tax & Business Solutions at terrallc@aol.com or call 802-497-7437.

SENIOR SEEKS HOUSING 61-year-old man looking for housing in a friendly home. Furnished is a plus. Burlington area. Contact Gerhard 802-503-7922.

SMALL ROOM DOWNTOWN NOW In stylishly remodeled house. Respectful living w/ others. Wi-Fi, cable, W/D on-site, back porch, garden. Tobacco outside only. Inside: 420-friendly. Mo.-to-mo., $600/mo. + $100 dep.

Incl. all utils. Off-street parking +$100.

OFFICE/ COMMERCIAL 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.

PROFESSIONAL OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT Established law office in convenient & desirable Burlington location (free parking) seeks to rent space to attorney or other professional.

Features: furnished & wired; use of large conference room, 2 smaller conference rooms & kitchen shared w/ another office. $550/mo. Please contact Jenny Wilson at jwilson@dkzlegal.com if interested.

REVOLUTION PHOTO STUDIO Photographer, visual artist, image makers.

835-sq.ft. space for flexible share. Space incl. storage & availability to share equipment. Lots of natural light. Text 802-825-8155.

print deadline: Mondays at 4:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classifieds questions? classifieds@sevendaysvt.com 865-1020 x10

BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! We edit, print & distribute your work internationally. We do the work; you reap the rewards! Call for a free Author’s Submission Kit: 844-511-1836. (AAN CAN)

EDUCATION EDUCATORS’ SUMMER COURSE Discovering Community 4-day (Aug. 10-13) educators’ course.

Place-based education & media-making, project incubator & professional development. Barre’s Civic Center. Tuition &

500+ Lots of Antiques, Collectibles, Toys Online Auction with Lots Ending Tuesday March 31 @ 12PM 131 Dorset Lane, Williston, VT Preview Dates (call for appt.): Friday, March 27 from 10AM-1PM AND Saturday, March 28 from 1-3PM

Foreclosure: 4BR/3.5BA Cape Home on 10.8± Acres Thursday, April 2 @ 11AM Register & Inspect from 10AM 2229 VT-128, Westford, VT

(4) Rutland Multi-Unit Buildings Thursday, April 9 10:30AM: 158 South St., Rutland, VT 12PM: 157 State St., Rutland, VT 1:30PM: 9 Pine St., Rutland, VT 3PM: 75 South Main St., Rutland, VT

Thomas Hirchak Company THCAuction.com 800-634-7653

6v-hirchakbrothers032520 1

details at vtfolklife.org/ discovering-community, or 802-388-4964.

ENTERTAINMENT DISH TV $59.99 for 190 channels + $14.95 high-speed internet. Free installation, smart HD DVR incl., free voice remote.

Some restrictions apply.

1-855-380-2501. (AAN CAN)

FINANCIAL/LEGAL

1-STOP SHOP For all your catheter needs. We accept Medicaid, Medicare & insurance. Try before you buy. Quick & easy.

Give us a call: 866-2822506. (AAN CAN) PSYCHIC COUNSELING Psychic counseling, channeling w/ Bernice Kelman, Underhill. 30+ years’ experience. Also energy healing, chakra balancing, Reiki, rebirthing, other lives, classes, more. 802-899-3542, kelman.b@juno.com.

AUTO INSURANCE Starting at $49/mo.!

Call for your fee rate comparison to see how HOME IMPROVEMENT much you can save. Call SERVICES 855-569-1909. (AAN Specializing in CAN) EMAILED ADVERTISEMENT remodeling, bath renovations & general NEED HELP W/ handyman services.

FAMILY LAW? ADVERTISING INSERTION ORDER Exterior siding, painting Can’t afford a $5,000 & rot replacement Thomas Hirchak retainer?

Low-cost legal Company construction services. services: PayTerra as you Keene go, FROM: Decking remodeling, as low as $750-1,500. construction. Interior Phone: Get legal help800-634-7653 now! professional painting Call 1-844-821-8249, Advertising2@THCAuction.com services. Tile & HDWD Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-4 p.m. flooring. Contact Tom, PCT. familycourtdirect.

Ridge Home com/?network=1.

TO: Logan (AAN Bear Improvement, 802CAN) 343-2708, tfortin1007@ COMPANY: Seven Days gmail.com.

RECENTLY DIAGNOSED PHONE: 802-865-1020 x22 W/ LUNG CANCER FOR SELF1/16= 1C: 2.30 2.72; 1/12= 1C: 2.3 x 2C: 3.67 & 60+ years old?

Call x 1C: LOOKING STORAGE UNITS? now!

You & your fam1/8= 1C: 2.30 x 3C: 5.56; 1/6= 1C:Self 2.3 x 4C: 7.46 We have them! ily may be entitled to a Storage offers clean & significant cash award. affordable storage to Call 844-269-1881 today.

TODAY’S DATE: 03/20/2020 fi t any need. Reserve Free consultation. No today! 1-855-617-0876.

NAME OF FILE: 03252020_7D risk.

(AAN CAN) (AAN CAN) DATE(S) TO RUN: 03/25/2020 SAVE BIG ON HOME INSURANCE Compare 20 A-rated SIZE OF AD: 1/6 Vertical insurances companies.

EMAILED TO: logan@sevendaysvt.com; Get a quote within minutes. Average savRobyn@sevendaysvt.com ings of $444/year! Call 844-712-6153, Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Central.

SECTION: Class Auctions (AAN CAN)

HOME/GARDEN

buy this stuff

STRUGGLING W/ YOUR PRIVATE STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT? New relief programs can reduce your payments. Learn your options. Good credit not necessary. Call the Helpline: 888-670-5631, Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

EST. (AAN CAN)

HEALTH/ WELLNESS GENTLE TOUCH MASSAGE Specializing in deep tissue, reflexology, sports massage, Swedish & relaxation massage for men. Practicing massage therapy for over 14 years. Gregg, gentletouchvt.com, jngman@gmail.com, 802-234-8000 (call or text).

3/20/20 11:48 AM

APPLIANCES/ TOOLS/PARTS RINNAI DIRECT-VENT FURNACE Used Rinnai direct-vent wall furnace. Works fine.

8,200-20,700 BTU, incl. all parts & installation manual. $950/OBO. 540-226-4478, texts OK. rcserves@hotmail. com.

MISCELLANEOUS GUIDEBOOKS & MAPS to Vermont’s trout ponds, rivers, streams & brooks w/ local fly fishing information; fishy tales, too. Visit windknotpublishing. com.

Show and tell. » Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid

View and post up to SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDSCalcoku

6 photos per ad online.

WORK W/ KINDRED SPIRITS who are dedicated to guiding you to higher awareness, passion & purpose. Get unstuck w/ certified conscious coaches. mysoulrenity. com, 202-643-6396.

(AAN CAN)

music

INSTRUCTION BASS, GUITAR, DRUMS, VOICE LESSONS & MORE Remote music lessons are an amazing way to spend time at home!

Learn guitar, bass, piano, voice, violin, drums, flute, sax, trumpet, production & beyond w/ pro local instructors from the Burlington Music Dojo on Pine St. All levels & styles are welcome, incl. absolute beginners.

Come share in the music! burlingtonmusicdojo. com, info@burlington musicdojo.com.

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, rickb@rickbelford.com.

HARMONICA LESSONS W/ ARI Lessons in Montpelier & online. 1st lesson just $20! All ages & skill levels welcome.

Avail. for workshops, too. Pocketmusic. musicteachershelper. com, 201-565-4793, ari.erlbaum@gmail.com.

STUDIO/ REHEARSAL REHEARSAL SPACE Safe & sanitary music/ creative spaces avail. by the hour in the heart of the South End art district. Monthly arrangements avail., as well. Tailored for music but can be multipurpose. info@ burlingtonmusicdojo. com, 802-540-0321.

LEGALS »

using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

14+

144x

Open 24/7/365.

numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

11+

7 5

3÷

2-

11+ 2÷

12x

12+

2 4

5+ 3-

CALCOKU

5 7 9 2 1 9

5Difficulty - Hard

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★★

2

No. 629

SUDOKU

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: ★★★

5

1

6

4

2

3

4

3

1

2

5

6

6

5

4

3

1

2

2

3

4

4

5

6

1

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. The numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A onebox 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.

crossword1

8 1

5 3 4 9 8 1 8 1 7 3 2 5

4 4x

Extra! Extra!

Sudoku

Post & browse ads There’s no limit to at your the convenience. online.

Complete following puzzle ad bylength using the

2

6

5 »6 3 1

3

4

2

OUT OF THE ORDINARY ANSWERS ON P. C-4

5

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. The same numbers cannot be repeated in a row or column.

ANSWERS ON P. C-48 6 7 3 2 4 5 1 9 ★ = MODERATE ★3★ =4CHALLENGING 7 ★2= HOO, 6 BOY! 5 9 8 1★★

1 5 6 2 4 9 7

2 9 8 7 3 5 1

9 4 1 3 2 6 8

5 8 7 6 1 2 4

7 1 4 9 5 3 6

6 2 3 5 7 8 9

8 6 2 4 9 1 3

3 7 9 8 6 4 5

4 3 5 1 8 7 2

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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Plans may be viewed at the Department of Permitting & Inspections, (645 Pine Street, Burlington), between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Participation in the DRB proceeding is a prerequisite to the right to take any subsequent appeal. Please note that

Please contact Nathaniel Jamison, Owner’s Project Representative at nathaniel@pcivt. com or 802-999-4764 to express interest, access bid documents, and submit bids.

If State or local authorities issue further mitigation measures to address COVID-19, the pre-bid conference will be rescheduled, and the bid award schedule adjusted accordingly.

Minority-owned and women-owned businesses are encouraged to participate.

NOTICE OF LEGAL SALE View Date 04/02/2020 Sale Date 04/03/2020 Jaada Longmore Unit #208 Easy Self Storage, 46 Swift, South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 863-8300

A pre-bid conference will take place on April 1st, 2020, at 9:00am.

Location: 87 Elm St, Winooski, VT, 05404.

Electronic bids will be accepted by Winooski Housing Authority until 04/22/2020 at 2:00pm.

Bids will be opened publicly via video

Notice is hereby given that the contents of the self storage units listed below will be sold at public auction by sealed bid.

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

conference. Davis Bacon Wage Rates will apply.

Late bids will not be accepted.

NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE BURLINGTON SELF STORAGE, LLC 1825 SHELBURNE ROAD SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT 05403

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This project will take place at two family housing sites, totaling 18 buildings.

Scope: the complete removal of gutters and downspouts, the complete removal of distinct trim elements to be replaced with PVC equivalent, the selective repair or replacement of deteriorated siding and trim, and the selective repointing or replacement of brickwork.

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Dated at Essex Junction, Vermont this 13th day of March, 2020.

2. 20-0687CA; 15 Rockland St (RL, Ward 7N) James Daigle Construct new duplex.

Two-car garage under each unit. Each unit having own driveway, front porch and rear porch

INVITATION FOR BID The Winooski Housing Authority is soliciting bids from qualified contractors for the Family Housing Siding, Trim, and Masonry Repair and Replacement project, located at 87 Elm Street and 181 Franklin Street, Winooski, Vermont.

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Parties entitled to participate are the Municipality, the Municipal Planning Commission, the Regional Planning Commission, affected state agencies, and adjoining property owners and other persons to the extent that they have a particularized interest that may be affected by the proposed project under the Act 250 criteria.

Non-party participants may also be allowed under 10 V.S.A. Section 6085(c)(5).

The Burlington Development Review Board will hold a meeting on Tuesday, April 7th, 2020 at 5:00 PM in Contois Auditorium, City Hall 1. 20-0677CU; 52 Appletree Point Rd (RL-W, Ward 4N) William Kent Cassella Change of use to onebedroom bed and breakfast short-term rental

5

PUZZLE ANSWERS

If you have a disability for which you need accommodation in order to participate in this process (including participating in a public hearing, if one is held), please notify us as soon as possible, in order to allow us as much time as possible to accommodate your needs.

BURLINGTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD RESCHEDULED from Tuesday, March 17 to Tuesday, April 7th, 2020, 5:00 PM PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

ANYTHING submitted to the Zoning office is considered public and cannot be kept confidential.

This may not be the final order in which items will be heard. Please view final Agenda, at www.burlingtonvt.gov/ pz/drb/agendas or the office notice board, one week before the hearing for the order in which items will be heard.

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The District 4 Environmental Commission is reviewing this application under Act 250 Rule 51—Minor Applications.

A copy of the application and proposed permit are available for review at

No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before April 8, 2020, a person notifies the Commission of an issue or issues requiring the presentation of evidence at 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 to the address below, 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. Prior to submitting a request for a hearing, please contact the district coordinator at the telephone number listed below for more information. Prior to convening a hearing, the Commission must determine that substantive issues requiring a hearing have been raised. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared

If you feel that any of the District Commission members listed on the attached Certificate of Service under “For Your Information” may have a conflict of interest, or if there is any other reason a member should be disqualified from sitting on this case, please contact the District Coordinator as soon as possible, and by no later than April 8, 2020.

By: Stephanie H. Monaghan District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 802-879-5662 stephanie.monaghan@ vermont.gov

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ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION #4C0847-1 10 V.S.A. §§ 6001 - 6093 On March 10, 2020, the City of Burlington, 149 Church Street, Burlington, VT 05401 and City of Burlington DPW Water/Wastewater Department, 235 Penny Lane, Burlington, VT 05401 filed application number 4C0847-1 for a project generally described as construction of disinfection upgrades to the Burlington Wastewater Treatment Facility North Plant including replacement of existing chemical feed pumps and piping, construction of a 15 ft 9 in x 6 ft concrete pad and two exterior chemical storage tanks (located outside of the Control Building), and an extension of the existing pavement to allow vehicle access around the proposed storage tanks.

The project is located at 3080 North Avenue in Burlington, Vermont.

unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

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the office listed below.

The application and a draft permit may also be viewed on the Natural Resources Board’s web site (http://nrb. vermont.gov) by clicking on “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C0847-1.”

Name of Occupant Storage Unit Waggoner, Unit #313 Said sales will take place on 04/03/20, beginning at 11:00am at Burlington Self Storage (BSS), 1825 Shelburne Road, South Burlington, VT 05403.

Units will be opened for viewing immediately prior to auction. Sale shall be by sealed bid to the highest bidder.

Contents of entire storage unit will be sold as one lot. The winning bid must remove all contents from the facility at no cost to BSS, on the day of auction.

BSS, reserves the right to reject any bid lower that the amount owed by the occupant or that is not commercially reasonable as defined by statute.

NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE MALLETTS BAY SELF STORAGE, LLC 115 HEINEBERG DRIVE

COLCHESTER, VT 05446 Notice is hereby given that the contents of the self storage units listed below will be sold at public auction by sealed bid.

Name of Occupant Storage Unit Joshua Silverstein Unit #29D Said sales will take place on 04/03/2020, beginning at 10:00am at Malletts Bay Self Storage, LLC, (MBSS, LLC)115 Heineberg Dr, Colchester, VT 05446.

Units will be opened for viewing immediately prior to auction. Sale shall be by sealed bid to the highest bidder. Contents of entire storage unit will be sold as one lot. The winning bid must remove all contents from the facility at no cost to MBSS, LLC on the day of auction.

MBSS, LLC reserves the right to reject any bid lower that the amount owed by the occupant or that is not commercially reasonable as defined by statute.

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CIVIL DIVISION WASHINGTON UNIT DOCKET NO. 181-3-16 WNCV NORTHCOUNTRY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, Plaintiff, v.

JOHN NICHOLAS LECOUNTE ANDERSON and OCCUPANTS residing at 108 Folsom Hill Road, Marshfield, Vermont, Defendant.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE By virtue of the Judgment Order, Decree of Foreclosure and Order for Public Sale entered on July 19, 2019, and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain Mortgage given by John Nicholas LeCounte Anderson, dated July 10, 2015, and recorded in Book 94 at Pages 402-415 of the Town of Marshfield Land Records, which Mortgage NorthCountry Federal Credit Union is the present holder, for breach of the conditions of said Mortgage and for the purpose of foreclosing the same, the undersigned will cause to be sold to the highest bidder at Public Auction at 108 Folsom Hill Road, Marshfield, Vermont, at 11:00 a.m. on the 10th day of April, 2020, all and singular the premises described in said Mortgage.

The property is known as 108 Folsom Hill Road, Marshfield, Vermont.

The real estate is described in the aforesaid Mortgage is as follows: Being all and the same land and premises conveyed to John Nicholas LeCounte Anderson by Warranty Deed of Greg A. Breer dated July 10, 2015 and recorded in Volume 94 at Pages 399-401 of the Town of Marshfield Land Records.

Being a part of the same land and premises conveyed to Greg A. Breer by Quitclaim Deed of Irene L. Breer f/k/a Irene Rogers dated May 15, 2009 and recorded in Book 83, Page 126 of the Town of Marshfield Land Records.

Being further described as a parcel said to contain 2.01 acres together with improvements thereon and rights appurtenant thereto designated and commonly known as 108 Folsom Hill Road, Marshfield, Vermont and depicted as Parcel Lot #2 on a survey entitled “Subdivision of Land of Greg Breer Folsom Hill Road, Marshfield, Vermont” dated April 2015, prepared by Richard W. Bell, L.S. and recorded in the Town of Marshfield Records.

Reference is hereby made to the aforementioned instruments, the records thereof and the references therein contained, all in further aid of this description.

The description of the property contained in the Mortgage shall control in the event of a typographical error in this Notice.

TERMS OF SALE: The sale will be held at 108 Folsom Hill Road, Marshfield, Vermont. The property shall be sold AS IS, WITH ALL FAULTS, WITH NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, subject to all easements, rights-ofway, covenants, permits, reservations and restrictions of record, title defects, unforeclosed liens, environmental hazards, unpaid real estate taxes (delinquent and current), current and delinquent assessments in favor of homeowners associations, if any, and municipal liens, to the highest bidder for cash.

At the sale, the successful bidder, other than the Mortgagee, shall pay $10,000 down (nonrefundable) in cash or

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS bank treasurer check (or a combination thereof).

The deposit must be increased to at least 10% of the successful bid within five (5) calendar days of the public sale by an additional payment in cash or by bank treasurer’s check. The successful bidder shall execute a Purchase and Sale Agreement requiring payment of the balance of the purchase price within ten (10) days of entry of the court order confirming the sale. Before being permitted to bid at the sale, bidder shall display to the auctioneer proof of the ability to comply with these requirements. The successful bidder, other than the Mortgagee, must sign a NO CONTINGENCY Purchase and Sale Agreement satisfactory to Mortgagee at the sale.

Title will be transferred by the Order Confirming Sale. The person holding the sale may, for good cause, postpone the sale for a period of up to thirty (30) days, from time to time, until it is completed, giving notice of such adjournment and specifying the new date by public proclamation at the time

and place appointed for the sale, or by posting notice of the adjournment in a conspicuous place at the location of the sale. Notice of the new sale date shall also be sent by first class mail, postage prepaid, to the Mortgagor at the Mortgagor’s last known address, at least five (5) days before the new sale date. The public sale may be adjourned for a period of time in excess of thirty (30) days by agreement of the Mortgagor and Mortgagee or by order of the court. Other terms to be announced at the sale or contact Ward Law, P.C., 3069 Williston Road, South Burlington, Vermont 05403; (802) 863-0307.

The record owner is entitled to redeem the premises at any time prior to the sale by paying the full amount due under the Judgment Order, Decree of Foreclosure and Order of Public Sale dated July 18, 2019, and entered on July 19, 2019, including the costs and expenses of sale.

Dated at Bridport,

»

Show and tell.

View and post up to 6 photos per ad online.

Vermont this 27th day of February, 2020.

presented within the four (4) month period.

WARD LAW, PC Attorneys for Plaintiff By: s/ Cynthia R. Amrhein Cynthia R. Amrhein, Esq. 3069 Williston Road South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 863-0307

Date: Thursday, March 19, 2020 /s/ Andrew H. Montroll, Esq. Signature of Fiduciary Executor: Andrew H. Montroll, Esq., P.O. Box 1045, Burlington, VT 05401, (802) 540-0250, amontroll@mblawoffice.com

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CHITTENDEN UNIT PROBATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. 1366-1019 CNPR In re Estate of Jon E. Boise NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the creditors of Jon E. Boise, Huntington, Vermont.

I have been appointed executor of this estate.

All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not

Name of publication: Seven Days Publication Date: March 25, 2020 Name and Address of Court: Probate Division of Vermont Superior Court, Chittenden Unit, PO Box 511, Burlington, VT 05402 STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CHITTENDEN UNIT PROBATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. 320-3-20 CNPR In re Estate of Ernest G. Strong NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the creditors of Ernest G. Strong, Milton, Vermont. I have been appointed executor of this estate. All creditors having claims against

the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period.

Date: Friday, March 6, 2020 /s/ Eric E Strong, Signature of Fiduciary Executor: Craig A Strong, 515 Westford Rd., Milton, VT 05468, (802) 893-2162, cstrongrun@yahoo.com Name of publication: Seven Days Publication Date: March 25, 2020 Name and Address of Court: Probate Division of Vermont Superior Court, Chittenden Unit, PO Box 511, Burlington, VT 05402 VIRTUAL PUBLIC NOTICE NO IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE PERMITTED The State of Vermont’s Department of Housing and Community Devel-

Open 24/7/365.

Post & browse ads at your convenience. opment will be holding a virtual public hearing due to the current COVID-19 situation to get input from Vermont residents before finalizing the HUD 5-year Strategic Plan for 2020-2024. If you are interested in attending the hearing we ask that you register here https://secure.vermont. gov/ACCD/eventreg/ event.php?eid=97 and we will provide you with the information prior to the date of the hearing to participate with us virtually.

The hearing will be held on Monday, April 13, 2020 from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Accommodations for persons with disabilities and interpreters to meet the needs of non-English speaking persons will be made available upon request.

Requests for accommodations should be directed to Cindy Blondin at (802) 828-5219, or in writing to Cindy Blondin, Grants Management Analyst, Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development, 1 National Life Drive, Davis Building, 6th Floor, Montpelier, VT 05620 by 10:00 a.m. on

Thursday, April 9, 2020.

For the hearing impaired please call (TTY#) 1-800-253-0191.

This is the second public hearing after 4 Community Outreach meetings that were held to listen to residents’ views about the state’s housing, homelessness, public facility and service, and non-housing community development needs, as well as ideas for grant activities the State should consider funding for the next five years to establish the annual program year (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021) baseline.

The Department, along with the Consolidated Plan Advisory Committee, and the other State Agencies and Partners that receive HUD funding under the Consolidated Plan have developed the Draft Plan taking the comments received into account, and feedback through the online Survey that was open throughout the last several months.

Extra! Extra!

There’s no limit to ad length online.

provided to the State for the Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnership Program, and Emergency Solutions Grant program, and $3 million awarded to the State from the National Housing Trust Fund to develop housing that is affordable to extremely low- and very low- income households. Note: this also includes $753,000 of CDBG funds designated Opioid Recovery Housing that HUD has yet to finalize the Regulations.

The Plan also serves as Vermont’s application to HUD for these funds.

The goals of the Plan are to provide decent affordable housing, assure a suitable living environment, and expand economic opportunity for Vermont’s citizens.

More information on the plan and process is available on the Department’s website at https://accd.vermont. gov/housing/plansdata-rules/hud/how

The Plan outlines priorities for the use of approximately $11.7 million in federal funds

homeworks List your properties here and online for only $45/ week. Submit your listings

by Mondays at noon.

Call or email Katie Hodges today to get started: 865-1020 x21, homeworks@sevendaysvt.com Untitled-25 1

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Can’t find the paper?

Not that paper!

Seven Days is still publishing and distributing a print newspaper (you’re reading it!), but not every usual pickup spot is open for distribution. Find a list of current drop-off locations on our website at sevendaysvt.com/delivery.

Drivers are following health department protocols.

If you can’t find a copy, don’t flip out — flip through it instead.

Every week, we publish a digital version of Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/digital-edition. It’s just like the real thing — ads and all! Put on your bathrobe, grab a cup of coffee and read up on what’s happening in Vermont using your device of choice.

Subscribe to our newsletters and visit us online for daily content at a safe social distance.

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SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO:

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X21, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL SOURCE. JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM WE’RE LOOKING FOR A TEAM LEADER WITH A PASSION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE TO JOIN US AS OUR NEW

The Vermont Electric Power Company has an opening for an APPLICATION INTEGRATOR AND DEVELOPER. Please see the Careers section on our website, velco.com, for more information.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

VISITOR CENTER HIKING INFORMATION SPECIALIST

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE POSITION AND APPLY BY VISITING PJCVT.ORG/JOBS. APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED UNTIL APRIL 10, 2020.

3/12/202h-Peace&JusticeCenter031120.indd 3:42 PM LOOKING FOR WORK? WE’RE NOW HIRING! Immediate full & part-time permanent positions, in addition to temporary positions.

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3/9/20

OFFICE MANAGER 30 hours per week

GMC is seeking a friendly, dynamic individual to work 1-2 days a week from mid6:39 PM May to mid-October in our Visitor Center. Weekend and select holidays required. $11 to $13 per hour. Great working environment. EOE. For more information on how to apply visit

The Office Manager will support the primary administrative functions of the Learning Center, while also working closely with greenmountainclub.org/jobs prospective students. This position demands a commitment to exceptional performance as well as working successfully within a team environment. A positive attitude and friendly demeanor are essential; the Office Manager is the first point of communication for2v-GreenMountainClub031820.indd 1 3/13/20 3:18 PM anyone coming into the office. Working closely with the Regional Director and other support staff, this position requires flexibility, teamwork, out-of-the-box thinking, and excellent communication.

Call your local Hannaford for further details or apply online at Hannaford.com. (click on Job Openings at bottom of page)

To apply: Please send a cover letter, resume and three professional references (preferably supervisor or manager level) electronically to: rcampbell@vtadultlearning.org.

Or apply online: hannaford.com/about-us/careers.

Position is open until filled. Vermont Adult Learning is an E.O.E.

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OPEN POSITIONS - ALL SHIFTS

3/24/20 4t-VTAdultLearning031820.indd 10:26 AM 1

3/13/20

Lab Technician, Operations Technician VERMONT ENVIRONMENTAL CAREERS & OPPORTUNITIES (ECO) AMERICORPS is accepting applications for the 2020-21 program year. We are seeking highly motivated individuals with a background in environmental conservation, natural or agricultural sciences, environmental studies, engineering, government/policy, communications or other related fields. Preference may be given to applicants with a college degree. ECO AmeriCorps members serve at host sites across Vermont with a focus on projects to improve water quality and reduce waste in Vermont. Full-time: 40 hours per week, September 2020-August 2021.

Benefits include: an AmeriCorps living allowance of $17,300, paid in bi-weekly stipends; health insurance; child-care assistance; professional training and networking; student-loan forbearance; and a $6,195 AmeriCorps Education Award. Application deadline is April 17. Apply online, and learn more about ECO AmeriCorps at ecoamericorps.vermont.gov.

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At Vermont Creamery, our employees are our greatest resource. We are a community that empowers our team to engage and live our mission every day. We know that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and here, the whole is powered by a spirit of collaboration & transparency.

HR RECRUITER We are seeking an experienced talent acquisition professional to join our team! The HR Recruiter is responsible for recruiting & onboarding for all employed 11:01 AM positions at Porter Medical Center, while enjoying regular collaboration with human resources peers in The Univ. of Vermont Health Network.

For more information and to apply, visit UVMHealth.org/PMC and click on “Careers.”

Benefits matter; that’s why we offer a competitive package.

2v-PorterMedicalCenter032520.indd Our benefits program includes medical, vision & dental insurance, retirement plans & a total well-being approach.

Perks to keep you healthy & happy include a wellness program, time off & tuition assistance. A certified B Corp since 2014, we’re using our business as a force for good.

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3/20/20 1:20 PM

To apply, please call 802-479-9371 or apply online at: vermontcreamery.com/our-team.

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ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

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POST YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

03.25.20-04.01.20

OUTPATIENT CLINICIAN

Multi-Age Elementary Educator

Come see what makes Northwestern Counseling & Support Services, Inc. a great place to work! Are you interested in being a part of a group that includes a supportive team of therapists and coverage for after-hour emergencies? Join our Outpatient Team as one of our Clinicians!

Join our team of creative educators in a progressive academic environment.

We are hiring a Pre K & K/1 full-time teacher for the 2020-21 school year.

Creativity, experience and love of kids are key!!

Ideal candidate will have: • MSW/LICSW • Be trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) • Have experience working with a range of disorders, and be comfortable providing brief and group treatment models for adults This is a salaried position offering excellent benefits including Medical/Dental, wellness opportunities, tuition reimbursement, paid time off, retirement plan, and much more. Our clinic is located close to Interstate 89 and is a short commute from Burlington and surrounding areas.

Some evening hours are required. Please send cover letter and resume to careers@ncssinc.org.

The job description and information about applying is here: jobso.id/c5f1

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NCSS, 107 Fisher Pond Road, St. Albans, VT 05478 | ncssinc.org | E.O.E.

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T OW N O F J E R I C H O

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Highway Maintenance Worker The Town of Jericho is accepting applications for a Highway Maintenance Worker Level II. This is a fulltime position which requires a CDL and the ability to routinely work outside of regular working hours.

The ideal candidate will have at least two years of experience in highway maintenance, snow plowing, construction procedures and methods at the municipal level. Equipment operation experience is a plus.

The starting hourly wage is dependent on qualifications. The Town of Jericho offers excellent benefits, including health and dental insurance and a retirement plan.

An application and job description can be downloaded from jerichovt.org. They are also available at the Jericho Town Hall, at 67 VT Rt. 15, Jericho, M-F 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Completed applications can be submitted to Paula Carrier in person, via email at pcarrier@jerichovt.gov or via mail to PO Box 39, Jericho, VT 05465.

Position is open until filled.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SPECIALIST II Full Time; Benefits Eligible; $17.50/hr; Union BASIC FUNCTION:

The IT Support Specialist II provides support and instruction for the use of the intranet and technology resources and works collaboratively with the IT staff to ensure the optimal functioning of the College’s IT services. This position also acts as the focal point for managing end-user devices (laptops and PCs) and has primary responsibility for updating and maintaining the IT Asset Tracking system.

Looking for a Sweet Job? Our new, mobile-friendly job board is buzzing with excitement.

Job seekers can: • Browse hundreds of current, local positions from Vermont companies.

• Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type.

• Set up job alerts.

• Apply for jobs directly through the site.

For further information please visit: goddard.edu/about-goddard/employmentopportunities.

Goddard College is committed to creating a college representative of a diverse global community and capable of creating change. To that end, we are actively seeking applications from qualified candidates from groups currently underrepresented in our institution for this position.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider, and employer.

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Start applying at jobs.sevendaysvt.com

3/23/20 3v-jobFiller_workerbee.indd 10:41 AM 1

4/10/17 4:59 PM

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SEVENDAYSJOBS, SUBSCRIBE TO RSS, OR BROWSE POSTS ON YOUR PHONE AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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FULL TIME MLT or MT NVRH is looking for a full-time MLT or MT for the lab. If you are detail oriented, organized, and a team player, you will fit right in with the NVRH lab team. The MT/MLT will collect and process specimens, test performance of clinical laboratory procedures, identify problems that may adversely affect test performance or reporting results, and perform protocol for instrument maintenance.

NVRH offers competitive wages, shift differentials, and has a robust benefits package, including student loan repayment, relocation assistance, free gym memberships, annual wellness benefit, low cost prescriptions, 401k with company match, and more.

More info or apply online at: nvrh.org/careers.

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103 East Allen Street, Winooski, Vermont 05404

FedEx Delivery Driver Full time, $750/week.

Part-time option available.

Work seasonally or year round. Send contact info to: Vermontfedexdriver@ gmail.com.

Executive Director

Dismas of Vermont is seeking an Executive Director. Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for the staff, programs, sustainability, and execution of the mission of Dismas of Vermont. The Executive Director will develop and maintain deep knowledge of the field of post incarceration CUSTODIANS 1t-FedEx031820.indd 1 3/16/20 community reintegration, of the core strategies and programs 2nd shift of Dismas of Vermont, and of all operations and business plans.

1:21 PM

IMMEDIATE OPENINGS

Application review beginning immediately, and continuing until the position is filled.

Harwood Unified Union High School District is For full position description and contact information, please IMMEDIATELY seeking school see the Dismas of Vermont website, at dismasofvt.org. custodians for the 2nd shift.

Experience is preferred, but not Reconciling Prisoners with Society and Society with Prisoners Since 1986 required. Competitive rate of pay and benefits are offered. Please submit a letter of interest, resume 3/12/204t-DismasVT031820.indd 2:14 PM 1 3/16/20 2:15 PM and 3 letters of reference to:

WHERE YOU AND YOUR WORK MATTER...

Ray Daigle Harwood Unified Union S.D. 340 Mad River Park, Suite 7 Waitsfield, VT 05673 Position open until filled. EOE

P U B L I C H E A LT H N U R S E S U P E R V I S O R – S T. JOHNSBURY

The Vermont Department of Health is seeking an enthusiastic and experienced nurse to join a dedicated and caring interdisciplinary team that makes a difference in the health of communities in Vermont. Responsibilities include performance management of nursing and non-nursing staff, coordination and implementation of local public health programs, as well as providing clinical guidance to nursing and nutrition staff. Each district office works in a variety of community health areas including chronic disease prevention, immunizations, maternal and child health, healthy homes, infectious disease, substance abuse prevention, school health, and emergency preparedness. This is a unique opportunity to have a broad impact on Vermonters’ health and wellbeing through the delivery of essential public health services and programs. The work involves extensive relationship building with internal and external partners, from a variety of community sectors and helps foster community-level systems change to improve population level health. Duties are performed under the supervision of a Public Health District Director as part of a management team. For more information, contact Allison Reagan at Allison.Reagan@ vermont.gov or 802-881-9221. Requisition # 5205. Status: Full Time. Application Deadline: Open Until Filled.

P U B L I C H E A LT H S E R V I C E S D I S T R I C T D I R E C T O R – S T. JOHNSBURY

Do you want to be part of a team that is building a culture of health in VT communities? We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced, motivated leader who wants to guide dedicated and caring interdisciplinary Public Health Professionals with diverse expertise in the St. Johnsbury District Office. District Directors mobilize staff and partners to create healthy communities by assessing needs, capacity building, planning, implementing programs and evaluating outcomes to improve the health and well-being of Vermonters. At the local level, this person would need to build relationships with the healthcare, education, and business communities. We are looking for a visionary leader who consistently evaluates the needs of the community and responds to emerging trends in collaboration with community partners. For more information, contact Allison Reagan at Allison.Reagan@ vermont.gov or 802-881-9221. Requisition # 5243. Status: Full Time. Application Deadline: Open Until Filled.

S E N I O R P O L I C Y & I M P L E M E N T A T I O N A N A LY S T – WATERBURY

This position requires extensive writing, research, and organization skills. You must have experience in a policy related position; excellent project management skills; ability to balance competing demands; ability to work with policymakers, providers, and other professionals; and, strong oral and written communication skills, including experience preparing reports and presentations. For more information, contact Anne Corbin at anne.corbin@vermont.gov or 802-760-8077. Department: Corrections. Status: Full Time. Job ID #6469. Application Deadline: April 5, 2020.

Learn more at :

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Wake Robin: it’s good to remember the value of community, especially in times like these.Thank you to our amazing staff who are committed to facing any challenge with grace and dedication!

We take care of each other. Join us! We consider you “essential!”

We’re looking for people who are committed to doing work that makes a difference, now is the time.

Have you been down-staffed in the hospitality industry?

We’re happy to chat.

SECURITY (NIGHTS) LNA (EVENINGS) SERVERS (BREAKFAST) Wake Robin offers an excellent compensation and benefits package and an opportunity to build strong relationships with staff and residents in a dynamic community setting. Interested candidates can send their resumes to hr@wakerobin.com or fill out an application at wakerobin.com/employment. E.O.E.

The State of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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3/20/20 3:27 PM

SEXTON NEEDED Mountain View Cemetery Essex The Essex Cemetery Commission is currently in need of a sexton to oversee burial lot purchases and burials in Mountain View Cemetery. This position would be ideal for individuals who are readily available most of the time the cemetery is open (May 1 to December 1).

A small stipend of $2,500 annually is available. The ideal candidate must have good people skills.

Please send a letter of interest to Fran Kinghorn, Essex Cemetery Commission Chair, at Fran.Kinghorn@gmail.com.

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ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

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POST YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

03.25.20-04.01.20

New, local, scamfree jobs posted every day!

JOB FAIR

CANCELED (BUT YOU CAN STILL APPLY FOR SEASONAL JOBS!)

Exterior Painters W A N T E D

Green Mountain Painters is looking for talented individuals to join our growing team. Earn excellent pay working a great summer job. Plenty of room to grow and advance your career.

Please fill out application at vtpainters.com/jobs

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have decided to cancel our in-person job fair previously scheduled for March 28th.

Seasonal positions are still available (anticipated dates: mid-May to mid-October) for Buildings & Grounds, Events, Inn, Market Garden, Restaurant, and Welcome Center/Farm Store.

For more information about specific positions and to apply: shelburnefarms.org/about/join-our-team. Not sure what position is right for you or don’t have access to a computer? Give us a call at 802-985-8498 to discuss the options.

Shelburne Farms is an EOE, committed to fostering a culturally aware learning community open to multiple perspectives.

1611 Harbor Road, Shelburne, VT 05482

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HARDWARE ENGINEER

3/16/20 9:16 PM

We are looking for an experienced Design Engineer to join our R&D team in the development of embedded systems for use in medical devices and simulations. You will be responsible for detailed design and development of DSP and CPU based systems, along with FPGA and low-level interfaces, including USB and Bluetooth from conception to implementation, and will work as part of a cross-functional R&D team, building solutions for our OEM partners. This role requires someone with a proven record of architecting and implementing embedded hardware systems. The successful candidate will be highly organized, results-driven and effective at hardware design, implementation and testing.

The successful candidate will be joining our team of professionals at the Northern Digital office located in Shelburne, Vermont.

FIRMWARE DEVELOPER We are looking for a Firmware Developer to join our R&D team in the development of embedded systems for use in medical devices and simulations. As a member of a small dynamic team of engineers you will be responsible for design, development, integration, documentation and release of the real-time embedded control firmware and processing algorithms that power NDI’s advanced measurement systems. The work includes development of real-time control and data processing algorithms and communication protocols. The role involves extensive interaction with the Hardware Development team.

The successful candidate will be joining our team of professionals at the Northern Digital Inc. office located in Shelburne, Vermont.

Go to: ndigital.com/careers for full job descriptions and to apply.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

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to $4,000 may be

jobs.sevendaysvt.com

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FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @SEVENDAYSJOBS, SUBSCRIBE TO RSS, OR BROWSE POSTS ON YOUR PHONE AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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CHAMPLAIN VALLEY HEAD START INFANT/TODDLER EARLY CARE ADVOCATE EARLY HEAD START INFANT/TODDLER HOME VISITOR (Franklin EARLYCounty) HEAD

RESPIRATORY THERAPIST I This position provides professional respiratory care to patients in varying states of health and illness by assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating the plan of care.

LEARN MORE & APPLY: uvmmed.hn/sevendays 4t-UVMMedCenter032520.indd 1

3/24/20 10:29 AM

START (Otter Creek Children’s Center - Middlebury)

Provide in home-based to program participants education and Provide services or support center-basedsettings care of infants and toddlers so asto:tosupport enhanceprenatal their physical, services to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women; provide or support care of social, emotional, and cognitive development; provide social service visits for families tothe support infants and toddlers so as to enhance their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development; parents in the care, nurturing and coordination of health services for their infants and toddlers; support the carefamily and nurturing ofgoals. their infants and toddlers; and help parents move and helpparents parentsinaddress needs and toward self-sufficiency and independent living.

Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education or related education field and RequiRements: Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education or related relevant work experience including training in infant and toddler development or education a bachelor’sfield, with demonstrable experience and training inservices, the provision of services for infants and toddlers.

40 degree in social work, human services, family counseling or related field, and relevant work experience including training infant and toddler development.

Alsoofpreferred are experience in hours per week, 52 weeks perin year.

Starting wage upon completion 60 –working day period: curriculum planning and implementation, outcome assessment, and working with children $16.30 to 18.36/ per hour.

Health plan andchild excellent benefits. with special needs. 32 hours per week, full year. Starting wage upon completion of 60-working day SuCCESSful appliCantS muSt HavE: excellent verbal and written communication period: $20.28–24.22/hour, depending upon qualifications.

Health plan and excellent benefits. skills; skills in documentation and record-keeping; proficiency in mS Word, e-mail and internet; Skills: Successful applicantsskills must and haveattention excellenttoverbal and written communication skills– bilingual exceptional organizational detail. must be energetic, positive, mature, abilities a plus; skills in documentation and record-keeping; proficiency in Microsoft Word, professional, diplomatic, motivated, and have a can-do, extra-mile attitude. a commitmentemail to and internet; exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail. Must be energetic, positive, social justice and to working with families with limited financial resources is necessary. Clean mature, professional, diplomatic, motivated, and have a can-do, extra-mile attitude. A commitment driving record and access to reliable transportation required. must demonstrate physical ability to to social justice and to working with families with limited financial resources is necessary. Clean carry outrecord required driving andtasks. access to reliable transportation required. Must demonstrate physical ability to carry required tasks.and Please specify and submit resume cover letter with three Pleaseout submit resume cover lettersite/location with three work references viaand email to pirish@cvoeo.org. work references via email to: hdstjobs@cvoeo.org.

No phone No phone calls, please.calls, please.

CVOEO IS AN EQUALCVOEO OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER 7t-ChampVallHeadStart-093015.indd 1 7t-ChamplainValleyHeadStart020520.indd 1

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CAREER FIRE CAPTAIN COLCHESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT The Fire Captain will have the responsibility for motivating, supervising, training, and evaluating subordinate-level employees. This individual will be responsible for prioritizing, scheduling, and completing tasks associated with non-emergency response activities such as pre-fire planning, fire and life safety education, and training activities; will supervise and participate in the care and maintenance of fire stations, apparatus, equipment; and perform, assign, direct, and supervise firefighting and medical emergencies.

The Fire Captain will perform administrative duties assigned by the Fire Chief, Assistant Chiefs, or Town Manager, in the Fire Chief’s absence. This individual should have a genuine desire to become an active participant in the Colchester community.

Desired minimum qualifications are 6 years of service in an Officer’s position with a Fire Department, State Certified FF I, FF II preferred, Hazmat Operations level, ICS Certifications, State Certified EMT-A. Experience in managing employees in an accountable manner; experience in office technologies including Word and Excel; general knowledge of equipment and building maintenance; proficient in writing, math skills, and interpersonal skills.

See colchestervt.gov/321/Human-Resources for complete job description and to apply. Salary range is $52,432 - $55,228 plus a competitive benefit package.

Submit cover letter, resume and application by 3PM Friday April 3, 2020. E.O.E.

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Support Your Community:

Get It To-Go! GOOD TO GO FP

INTRODUCES SPONSORED BY

Vermont restaurants are off-limits to dine-in customers for the foreseeable future, but they are still making delicious food — for TAKEOUT, DELIVERY or CURBSIDE PICKUP. Adult beverage with that? Liquor-license-holding Vermont restaurants can also sell take-out wine, beer and spirit-based drinks for off-site consumption. Drink up! And don’t forget to buy GIFT CARDS! Check GoodToGoVermont.com to see what your favorite eatery is serving up.

G O O D T O G O V E R M O N T . C O M C-12

SEVEN DAYS MARCH 25-APRIL 1, 2020

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