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Districts face tough calls on next year’s budgets

V ER MO NT ’S INDE PEN DENT VO IC E OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026 VOL.32 NO.8 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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Oh, Canada Historic ties between Vermont and Québec communities are fraying. Reporting on both sides of the border suggests they could break. BY L UC Y TO MP K INS , PAGE 2 6

GRAVE CONCERNS

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Private equity buys up funeral homes

PERKING UP

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MOST POPULAR ITEMS ON SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Essex may have to vote again on a local option tax after officials failed to properly notify residents ahead of the November 3 election. Whoops.

3. “Essex Experience Goes Up for Sale, but Longtime Owner Peter Edelmann Plans to Stay Involved” by Ken Picard. The retail center, a hub of locally owned businesses, has been listed for $27.8 million. Edelmann plans to focus on a few passion projects already in the works. 4. “Burlington Mayor Taps Anthony Geraci as City’s Next Police Chief” by Aaron Calvin. See story on this page. 5. “Electricity Costs Are Soaring in Vermont” by Kevin McCallum. Shocking as they are, price increases here are lower than in the rest of New England.

WEATHER OR NOT In a new report, UVM researchers have determined that the state is not, as once thought, a climate refuge. When it rains…

AT A LOSS Democrats have struggled to field candidates for many legislative seats in Rutland County, VTDigger reported. A Republican stronghold.

TOWN CRIER

L O C A L LY

SOURCED

NEWS

Officials Urge Residents to Make a Voting Plan At a press conference on Monday, Gov. Phil Scott and Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said state officials are preparing for any “unforeseen circumstances” during the November 3 general election, the Times Argus reported. Copeland Hanzas said clerks have been dealing with agitated residents who have been misinformed by federal officials about the safety and security of elections. She asked that people turn the temperature down. Read more at timesargus.com.

THAT’S SO VERMONT

GOOD APPLES Wildbranch Cider owner Cedar Hannan typically sources apples himself and turns them into the award-winning concoctions for which he’s become known since his first harvest in 2020. This fall, he changed his process when he launched the 500 Bottles Project, a new community cidermaking fundraiser in the Northeast Kingdom. During two drop-off days, locals brought backyard apples to Wildbranch or volunteered to pick them for those who couldn’t. “Pretty much everybody had a story about picking the apples or reminisced about an apple tree from their childhood,” Hannan said. He then pressed the 35-bushel harvest, which is currently fermenting in a 300-liter tank, and plans to turn it all into the prom-

ised 500 bottles of cider this spring. The effort, which Hannan said was inspired by collaborative fundraisers in the beer world, is expected to raise roughly $5,500 that he’ll split between the Craftsbury Public Library and Craftsbury Food Share. Hannan thought he might have to take some “poetic license” with the cider, adding juice from other pressings to balance the blend. The contributed apples were a mix of varieties, including wild apples and crab apples, but what’s in the tank “tastes pretty good,” he said. The finished bottles will be sold next summer at farmers markets and 25 northern Vermont retailers; Wildbranch will keep $2 of the $13-per-bottle average price to offset some production costs. While 500 bottles are “a pretty big chunk” of Wildbranch’s overall production, Hannan said,

giving up space in his tiny Craftsbury cidery is worthwhile to support local organizations doing good work. And the project is already succeeding with two other goals: to create a fundraiser that’s accessible for all and get folks to appreciate the hundreds of apple trees that dot former farmsteads around town. So far, 15 individuals or families have participated in the project. Hannan hoped to hit 20, but there’s still time: In the spring, he’ll need help bottling the cider. He’s looking for a local artist to donate artwork for the label. The finished cider should be for sale in May. Hannan will throw a party for participants to celebrate its release. Learn more at wildbranchcider.com and follow @500bottles on Instagram for updates. JORDAN BARRY

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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Bob Furrer

SHELBURNE

FOUNDERS

C I R C U L AT I O N : 3 5 , 0 0 0 Seven Days is published by Da Capo Publishing Inc. every Wednesday. It is distributed free of charge in greater Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, the Northeast Kingdom, Stowe, the Mad River Valley, Rutland, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury and White River Junction. Seven Days is printed at Quebecor Media Printing in Mirabel, Québec. DELIVERY TECHNICIANS Harry Applegate, James Blanchard, Joe Bouffard, Pat Bouffard, Colin Clary, Elana Coppola-Dyer, Hypatia Forest, Matt Hagen, Penny Libercent, Nat Michael, Frankie Moberg, Dan Nesbitt, Dan Oklan, Ezra Oklan, Danielle Schneider, Isobel Hope Straub, Jenna Trexel, Teddy Waszazak, Andy Watts, Tracey Young With additional circulation support from PP&D. SUBSCRIPTIONS 6- 1 : $158. 1- 1 : $250. Please call 802-865-1020, ext. 132 with your credit card, contact circ@sevendaysvt.com or mail your check to: Seven Days, c/o Subscriptions, 255 S. Champlain St., Ste. 5, Burlington, VT 05401 Seven Days shall not be held liable to any advertiser for any loss that results from the incorrect publication of its advertisement. If a mistake is ours, and the advertising purpose has been rendered valueless, Seven Days may cancel the charges for the advertisement, or a portion thereof as deemed reasonable by the publisher. Seven Days reserves the right to refuse any advertising, including inserts, at the discretion of the publishers.

[Re “Attorney General Under Fire for Charging ICE Protesters,” September 24, online]: I’m somewhat dismayed by the opinion held by certain state and local representatives that our attorney general should not prosecute the seven clergy members who protested the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on September 4 by intentionally subjecting themselves to arrest. My opinion, in brief: I completely and wholeheartedly support the actions of Rev. Karen Johnston and other clergy that led to their arrest and subsequent arraignment on October 20. Their actions were brave, necessary and warranted. Many thanks to them all! I also commend, completely understand and wholeheartedly support the subsequent arraignment and prosecution of those arrested. Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark was 100 percent correct when she stated that the prosecution of these actions was included in her job responsibilities. Many thanks to Attorney General Clark! I disagree with those who believe that supporting the protesters and our AG represents a conflict of interest. Supporting both the protesters and our AG is illustrative of a healthy, robust and strong democracy!

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Luke Awtry, Daria Bishop, Sean Metcalf, Tim Newcomb, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Pamela Polston, Paula Routly

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7

SUPPORTING DEMOCRACY

HIDDEN GEMS

There were a few diamonds in the “Art at a Crossroads” issue of Seven Days [September 23] that made my day and reminded me that if life is not exactly Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it is sometimes pretty close. Who can wear the same socks for what could be called almost an infinite number of days [True 802: “Darn Nasty”]? Might not be the most pressing human problem, but at least I think the achievement is worthy of some space in a paper. Advertising an old, rusty, state-owned bridge online for free [“BurlingtonWinooski Bridge Posted on Craigslist — for

CORRECTION

A photo caption on the “True 802” story in last week’s paper, “Biotech Training,” misidentified the building where researchers were photographed. They were in the University of Vermont’s Firestone Medical Research Building.

Free”] is probably an exercise in futility, yet it affirms that Vermont is full of dreamers trying to reach the impossible. And if there were a Pulitzer Prize for a paragraph, or just a sentence, I would nominate the beginning of “Art at a Crossroads” and this sentence: “Months ago, measurements were taken [to move a boat one floor up] and mock-ups made to avert this scenario [not to damage walls], but sometimes this building must make itself known.” Of course, obituaries are always a source of pleasure [“Life Lines”], because there are no more interesting lives than the lives of dead people. I occasionally read English, Canadian, German and Czech papers, but American journalism rocks. Evzen Holas

BURLINGTON

‘GRATEFUL FOR SEVEN DAYS’

Reading “Feedback,” I often wonder why people are writing in with bitchy complaints. I feel so grateful for Seven Days. Not every town has a free paper, much less one with such great writing, pictures and stories. Love the crossword puzzles. So much talent, and I know no one is getting rich. One good thing about the complaints is that it reminded me to make a donation. Thanks! Eve Wrigley

WAYLAND, MA

IMPORTANT ISLAND

Having grown up in Plattsburgh, N.Y., in a history-loving family, I appreciated the excellent and thorough treatment of the Battle of Valcour [“Of Glory & Gunpowder: The Champlain Valley Remembers the Most Important Revolutionary War Fight You’ve Never Heard of: the Battle of Valcour Island,” October 7]. It hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves because the 99-day-old U.S. lost. But as Jim Carrier points out, that loss helped us win the war (albeit five years later). Two factors that are often overlooked contributed to America’s Pyrrhic success: British overconfidence — the vaunted Royal Navy didn’t really have to prepare for a bunch of farmers in souped-up rowboats! — and their failure to account for the climate until they realized they could be frozen in for the winter, and so they had to retreat to Canada instead of dividing and conquering. Historian Jack Kelly does a deep dive into both in his outstanding book Valcour. I also appreciated the nuanced examination of Benedict Arnold’s behavior [“Hero Complex: A Vermont Historian Reflects on the Complicated Legacy

I’m running to be your taxpayer watchdog in Montpelier. Because Vermonters deserve excellence from state government.

Learn more at TimAshe.com Return your ballot by November 3rd! PAID FOR BY TIM ASHE FOR STATE AUDITOR, 45 LAKEVIEW TERRACE, BURLINGTON, VT 05041 | JANET ANCEL, TREASURER 6h-TimAshe102826.indd 1

10/13/26 4:56 PM

Passumpsic Bank Presents of America’s Most Notorious Traitor, Benedict Arnold,” October 7]. That article demonstrates why history should be left to historians, not politicians. Neal Burdick

SHELBURNE

RELATED THOUGHTS

[Re “Culturally Relevant: Seven Things I Think I Think,” October 21]: I really think having Dan Bolles writing his “Culturally Relevant” column is genius. He’s an entertaining writer, and serving as an editor has hidden that talent. And this avenue for him to share his witty and quirky opinions is funny, interesting and adds something that has been missing from Seven Days since the political column was put out to pasture. It should be noted that Dan is a pretty accomplished bowler, so I look forward to him sharing tips on picking up the dreaded 7-10 split in future columns. I think. Ric Cengeri

I am a lifelong Burlingtonian and, until recently, a left-leaning Democrat. No longer. Our local and state politics have become hellishly liberal. I believe in the dignity of every human being. That’s not the same thing as supporting anythinggoes vulgar politics. And worse, intentionally denying a child a mommy or a daddy in a same-sex marriage. This is what caused me to think more deeply about it. At a large gathering I asked a young 10-year-old child who her mommy and daddy were. She very sadly said to me, “I don’t have a daddy.” Her many cousins have mommies and daddies. It broke my heart. I’ve thought about it many times since. It still troubles me. You tell me: Is it moral/ethical for same-sex couples to intentionally deny a child a mommy or a daddy? It’s true that lots of children are forced to live without a parent. But to do it intentionally?

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Marianne Ward

BURLINGTON

FEEDBACK

[Re “Emoji That: The Princeton Review Has Ranked UVM as the No. 1 LGBTQFriendly College in the Country,” September 30]: That certainly is no badge of honor. I’d guess it’s greater than just the college and that Vermont is the No. 1 LGBTQ-friendly state in the country as well. I’d also guess that it didn’t happen organically — that it was orchestrated by outside money like the overwhelming takeover of our now extremely dysfunctional liberal politics.

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Oh, Canada

Historic ties between Vermont and Québec communities are fraying. Reporting on both sides of the border suggests they could break. BY L UCY TOM PK I N S

26 COVER DESIGN REV. DIANE SULLIVAN • IMAGES © CHRISTOPHE BOISSON, © MEGALOMANIAC | DREAMSTIME

NEWS+POLITICS 14 Hard Times for Hemp

Vermont’s CBD producers take different approaches to a new federal law that threatens their livelihoods

State Leaders Boost Heating Fuel Subsidies Rough Cuts

Vermont’s school districts face difficult decisions as they begin crafting next year’s budgets

Burlington Councilors Seek to Compromise on Public Safety Debate

STUCK IN VERMONT

Vermont Pub & Brewery to Close

COLUMNS 11 Magnificent 7 13 From the Publisher 39 Side Dishes 46 Movie Review 56 Album Review 89 Ask the Reverend

SECTIONS 32

FEATURES 26

ARTS+CULTURE 40

In the Black

Haunting Season

As Vermont’s aging morticians retire, private equity firms are quietly buying up their funeral homes and crematories

Online Thursday

Book review: Alice Sees Ghosts, Daisy Rockwell

Essex Experience Goes Up for Sale The Twin Paradox

22 Life Lines 34 Food + Drink 40 Culture 46 On Screen 48 Art 52 Music + Nightlife 58 Calendar 70 Classes 71 Classifieds + Puzzles 85 Fun Stuff 88 Personals

A new book tackles an age-old question: Why are Vermont and New Hampshire politically so different?

Dark Seeds

A show at BCA Center presents the unsettling side of flowers

True Grit

Musician, producer, poet and landscape architect Kristina Stykos overcomes hardship to continue sowing creativity

Award-winning author M.T. Anderson found his home a decade ago on a dirt road in rural Vermont. The 18thcentury cottage is the oldest surviving house in Calais and is rumored to be haunted. Seven Days Eva Sollberger got a candlelit tour and heard some tall tales.

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10/15/26 11:11 AM

GERALD

MALLOY for US Congress Vermont Vermont First West Point Graduate, Combat Veteran, MBA

Fix Health Care. Stop Fraud. No Tax & Spend. Term limits.

We have

Find a new job in the classifieds section on page 77 and online at jobs.sevendaysvt.com. Paid for by Gerald Malloy for US Congress, Limited SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026 8v-GeraldMalloy093025 1

9 9/25/26 12:14 PM

VOTING ON PROPOSAL 3?

Vermonters already have the right to unionize. Know what the amendment actually changes:

LESS CHOICE

LESS FLEXIBILITY

LESS CERTAINITY

Prop 3 gives union leadership more protection while limiting choices for individual workers. Under Prop 3, Unions could permanently force Vermonters to pay union fees as a condition of employment.

Prop 3 hands unions control over public employees’ pay and beneﬁts. Lawmakers would lose their ability to rein in costs, leaving you to foot the bill through higher property taxes.

Prop 3’s broad language may conﬂict with existing labor law, meaning expensive litigation, uncertainty for employers, and added costs for taxpayers.

FOR WORKERS.

FOR TAXPAYERS.

FOR EMPLOYERS.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO LEARN MORE

or visit rightforvermontfoundation.org/issue/proposal-3

VOTE NO ON PROPOSAL 3

Workers deserve a choice. Taxpayers deserve a break. Paid for by Right for Vermont Foundation. 10

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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LOOKING FORWARD

MAGNIFICENT MUST SEE, MUST DO THIS WEEK BY RE BE CCA D RISCOL L

THURSDAY 29

Made Well At Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, fans of hardworking garments settle in for “Built to Last: A Fireside Chat With Carhartt’s Archive Dave,” a companion presentation to the venue’s ongoing “Farm Fashion” exhibit. With a closetful of artifacts, expert Dave Moore covers all the details of the workwear company’s history, legacy and continuing influence on modern ag apparel. SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 60

FRIDAY 30

Winging It

AMERICAN GOTHIC

There’s no such thing as oversharing when you’re onstage! Inspired by the popular storytelling series “The Moth,” Middlebury College presents “Cocoon” at Mahaney Arts Center. The theme of “Curveball” ignites an evening of unscripted true tales, told live by students, faculty members and locals. One thing is certain: Expect the unexpected.

Quoth the raven: Local theater, evermore! Lost Nation Theater pays homage to the master of the macabre with the resurrection of “An Edgar Allan Poe Halloween” at Montpelier City Hall. The company’s fiendish fundraiser boasts treats, a costume contest, and petrifying performances of fittingly creepy poems such as “The Raven” and “Spirits of the Dead.”

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 60

FRIDAY 30 & SUNDAY 1

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 61

Fit for a King The Burlington Baroque Festival Singers and period instrument orchestra L’Harmonie des saisons present “Requiem for a King” at Holy Angels Church in St. Albans and College Street Congregational Church in Burlington. The early music masters’ program includes 17th-century French composer Jean Gilles’ rediscovered Messe des morts, performed at Louis XV’s funeral. SEE CALENDAR LISTINGS ON PAGES 61 AND 66

SATURDAY 31

Make Your Millennium

SATURDAY 31

Fangtastic Friends

Pooches parade their most fetching duds down Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace at the highly anticipated Howl’ween Dog Costume Contest. Spectators ooh and aw from the sidelines as masked maltipoos and decked-out dachshunds (and their humans!) strut their stuff for prizes in categories such as Silliest, Most Original and the coveted Best in Show. SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 62

It might surprise you to hear that the old schoolhouse featured in Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic Beetlejuice is not only real but still standing — right here in Vermont. The sold-out Beetle Ball summons “strange and unusual” costumed carousers to Miss Shannon’s School House in East Corinth for a spooky, kooky fundraiser to help restore and transform the iconic structure into a regular events venue. SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 62

CLOSES SATURDAY 31

Dark Arts In Burlington, the SEABA Center’s seasonally appropriate group exhibit “Night Shades” taps into all things weird, witchy and whimsical. Works by 75 Vermont artists in a range of mediums — from block print to sculpture — showcase darker content, styles and color palettes to emulate October’s eerie vibe. SEE GALLERY LISTING AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/ART

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

There’s something different about this week’s Seven Days: In the middle of the newspaper is a 12-page report written and designed by the staff of VTDigger, one of our chief competitors in the Vermont media business. The story, produced with support from the award-winning PBS documentary program “FRONTLINE” through its Local Journalism Initiative, is the culmination of the online news outlet’s yearlong investigation of recent flooding in Vermont and the state’s natural-disaster resilience. It’s a uniquely ambitious, non-duplicable example of local journalism that deserves a wide readership. That’s why VTDigger CEO Brendan Kinney took the unusual step of approaching Seven Days with the idea of creating a print version of the piece — or at least the first story of three — to be inserted in our paper. A former longtime leader at Vermont Public, Kinney knows that every publishing platform has its strengths and weaknesses: Digger commands statewide attention online; Seven Days is a tangible product with a longer shelf life that offers what we like to call “the serendipity of print.” “This reporting is incredibly important, and we know the Seven Days audience is smart, curious and engaged,” Kinney said. He reasoned that combining forces would “ensure these stories have the broadest possible reach.” I embraced the idea because our reporters aren’t working on anything like it — and have no plans to — and I knew this information would be of great interest to our readers. Also, collaboration makes increasing sense in a state that values good journalism but has finite business and philanthropic resources to support it. For example: Two and a half weeks ago, Seven Days and VTDigger copresented an evening with New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton — one of the team of journalists who broke the story about the security failings of the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One and got subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice for it. A University of Vermont alum, Lipton was in Vermont at the invitation of the school’s Community News Service but generously made time for a public appearance at the Delta Hotels in South Burlington. Digger organized the event; we marketed and sold tickets for it. Whenever a speaker mentioned that it was our first time working together, the sold-out audience cheered. Next up is an experiment with our calendar of events: Digger will soon begin publishing Seven Days’ Magnificent 7 column weekly on its website, where it will reach even more eyes. Kinney says Digger readers want the online news outlet to provide information about things to do where they live; at Seven Days, we go to great lengths — and expense — to compile the most comprehensive event listings in the state. If sharing some of that with other outlets makes it possible for us to keep doing it, we’re all ears. There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel. For almost 200 years, competition has fueled the media business, and the result has been good for consumers. Nothing

DARIA BISHOP

Mutual Aid

Eric Lipton, a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner and investigative reporter for the New York Times, at an event copresented by Seven Days and VTDigger

motivates a reporter to work faster or harder than knowing a colleague at another outlet is hot on the same story. But that model is predicated on a healthy media ecosystem, with outlets of all sizes covering community news. It breaks down if a diminishing number of reporters is chasing the same stories at the expense of others that don’t get covered at all. Last week the New York Times published a story headlined “Alaska’s Journalists Join Forces to Cover the Midterms.” The subhead explains: “The state’s challenging geography and newspapers’ broader economic struggles have stretched reporters in Alaska, just as its competitive U.S. Senate race has grabbed national attention.” On Monday morning an email from the trade publication Editor & Publisher landed in my inbox with an equally provocative subject line: “Could your newsroom’s biggest rival become its best partner?” Maybe. Seven Days has had a partnership with WCAX-TV for more than a decade; our reporters appear regularly on the station’s broadcasts. Several of our award-winning investigative projects have resulted from partnerships with Vermont Public. For almost a year, we’ve made our stories available to newspaper publishers in southern Vermont, beyond our print circulation area, for free. Seven Days was also instrumental in getting the cross-platform Vermont Journalism Coalition off the ground. Why? Because this media moment requires a new approach if local news is going to survive the next 200 years.

MEDIA COLLABORATION MAKES INCREASING SENSE IN A STATE THAT VALUES GOOD JOURNALISM

BUT HAS FINITE RESOURCES TO SUPPORT IT.

Paula Routly If you like Seven Days and can help pay for it, become a Super Reader! Look for the “Donate” button at the top of sevendaysvt.com. Or send a check with your address and contact info to: SEVEN DAYS, C/O SUPER READERS P.O. BOX 1164 BURLINGTON, VT 05402-1164

Need more info? Want to give from a donor-advised fund or through a qualified charitable contribution? Contact Sarah Sieber: 802-865-1020, EXT. 115 SUPERREADERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

FILE: JULIANNA BRAZILL

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

news

ECONOMY

State Leaders Boost Heating Fuel Subsidies B Y K E V I N MC C A LLUM kevin@sevendaysvt.com

Tori Bastress checking bags of dried hemp flower at Sunsoil in Hardwick

Hard Times for Hemp

CANNABIS

Vermont’s CBD producers take different approaches to a new federal law that threatens their livelihoods B Y K E N PI CA RD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

n 2015, Alejandro Bergad and Jacob Goldstein cofounded what would become Sunsoil, a Hardwick company that grows, processes and sells organic, hemp-derived products. The new company burned down an old shed on its property to make room for a new, large barn for drying hemp — and within a few years had become a major manufacturer of cannabidiol, or CBD, wellness supplements. Its certified-organic products are sold in 2,500 stores nationwide and through direct-to-consumer marketing. But Sunsoil could soon see its business razed, as it and other CBD companies face the biggest threat to their livelihood since Congress legalized hemp production in 2018. A new federal law, scheduled to take effect on December 11, closes a legal loophole that inadvertently allowed hemp 14

companies to sell products that contain intoxicating tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, with few, if any, restrictions or oversight. THC is the primary component of cannabis that induces a user’s high and the one that distinguishes recreational weed from CBD and hemp products. With a deadline looming, Vermont’s hemp businesses are weighing whether to stay the course — or reformulate their products by stripping them of THC completely. Bergad blamed the new mandate on some hemp producers who have exploited the loophole to sell products with high levels of THC, skirting state restrictions on cannabis and prompting Congress to tighten the law. “The greed that helped birth an emerging market has also helped take it down,” he said. To understand what the buzz is all about requires wading into the weeds

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

of plant chemistry. Hemp and cannabis are the same plant species — Cannabis sativa — and differ only in their respective concentrations of delta-9 THC. Nonintoxicating hemp contains 0.3 percent or less THC, whereas cannabis typically contains levels ranging from 5 to 30 percent. The federal distinction between hemp and cannabis created a legal gray zone. The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill legalized the production and sale of hemp-derived goods such as paper, rope and textiles, as well as CBD supplements, oils, tinctures and salves. CBD, a nonintoxicating chemical in hemp, is widely used for health and therapeutic purposes such as relief from chronic pain, anxiety, inflammation and sleep problems. Many CBD products typically contain trace amounts of THC but are not intoxicating. HARD TIMES FOR HEMP

» P.18

Low-income Vermonters who qualify for fuel assistance will be protected from soaring prices this winter after lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott agreed last Friday to boost subsidies for heating oil and kerosene. Scott and legislative leaders will set aside an additional $15.3 million to cover the higher fuel costs, which have spiked dramatically since the United States’ war with Iran. As of earlier this month, the average cost of residential heating oil in Vermont had risen 79 percent, from $3.41 per gallon to $6.10, compared to the same time last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Kerosene is up 61 percent over a similar time period. The spike in costs means last winter’s $22.6 million in federal fuel assistance isn’t going to be nearly enough to provide the same support to the 14,872 households who received it. On average, those households each got about $1,210 last year to help pay their heating fuel costs. Eligible fuels include heating oil, propane, kerosene, natural gas, wood or wood pellets, and electricity when used as a primary heat source. The Emergency Board, which is composed of the governor and the chairs of four legislative committees focused on state finances, is empowered to adjust the state budget when the legislature is out of session. The state leaders agreed to add $12.7 million in state funds to the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The money had already been set aside in anticipation of the federal government reducing benefit programs. They also agreed to add $2.6 million to the state’s crisis fuel fund, which supports low-income people who are close to running out of heating fuel in winter. Rep. Robin Scheu (D-Middlebury), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, stressed that if the federal government were to boost federal heating assistance, then the state funds would go back in reserves. Scott agreed, calling the increase “the right thing, at this point.” ➆

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Vermont’s school districts face difficult decisions as they begin crafting next year’s budgets BY ALISON N OVAK • alison@sevendaysvt.com

ust two months into the school year, districts are already facing tough decisions about next year’s budgets. That’s because a new law has lowered the amount per student that districts can spend without facing a stiff tax penalty. The policy change means that some school boards will have to decide in the coming months whether to close or reconfigure schools, cut a substantial number of staff, or scale back programming in order to present budgets on Town Meeting Day that stay below what’s known as the excess spending threshold. “For all of us in the public school system, we just want to know, Are our kids going to be OK?” said Hartford School

THE REDUCTIONS REALLY ARE SUBSTANTIAL

IF WE DON’T DO ANYTHING TO REDUCE OUR FOOTPRINT. M I K E LEICHL IT ER

District superintendent Caty Sutton, who estimates that her district may have to cut up to $5 million from next year’s budget. “That seems to be the thing we have less and less control over, and that is frightening.” Act 170, which calls for voluntary school district mergers and the formation of regional district partnerships, was the most high-profile education law passed this year. But a different piece of legislation — Act 169 — presents more immediate concerns for administrators and school boards. That law changed the amount per student that districts can spend above the statewide average — which is estimated at around $16,500 for this year — without facing a double tax on those extra dollars. Last year, districts could spend up to 118 percent of the average statewide amount before facing a tax penalty. But Act 169 lowered that to 115.5 percent, with an

additional drop of 1 percentage point in each of the next four years. The ratcheting down was intended to pressure higher-spending districts to cut their budgets and ease them into a new funding system, known as the foundation formula. The spending protocol gives the state, rather than local taxpayers, the power to determine how much money school districts receive. The education reform bill passed this year calls for the formula to go into effect in July 2029, though the legislature must meet a number of contingencies for that to happen. The change in the excess spending threshold, combined with declining student enrollment and inflation, means that some districts must make consequential changes to how they operate — and quickly. Harwood Unified Union School District, which serves students in Waterbury, Warren, Waitsfield, Moretown, Fayston and Duxbury, has 18 percent fewer students enrolled now compared to the 2009-10 school year. Over the past three years, the district has eliminated the equivalent of more than 53 full-time positions and reduced spending by more than $7 million across its four elementary schools, two middle schools and high school. Even if the district maintained a level-services budget for next year, preliminary estimates suggest it could face a property tax penalty of up to $2.7 million, according to district officials who presented at an October 14 school board meeting. To stay under the excess spending threshold, the district is contemplating cuts of approximately $3.3 million. The district is considering a plan to close two of its elementary schools and consolidate its two middle schools into one to avoid a scenario in which it would need to eliminate most student transportation, extracurricular activities and prekindergarten offerings. The school board must decide whether to move forward soon, so that it could warn its budget in January ahead of

EDUCATION

ROUGH CUTS

» P.16

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a vote on Town Meeting Day. The district is also contemplating the purchase and renovation of Cabot Creamery’s former Waitsfield headquarters to become its sole elementary school, though that would be a longer-term plan. “The reductions really are substantial if we don’t do anything to reduce our footprint,” Harwood superintendent Mike Leichliter said in an interview last week. Under the evolving school-consolidation proposal, the district would save money by having fewer buildings to maintain, Leichliter said. But the bulk of the savings would come from reducing staff. Leichliter said he understands the legislature’s rationale for lowering the excess spending threshold to tamp down spending. But he said the state should have taken aim at spending that districts can’t control, such as health insurance costs, before imposing such stiff financial penalties. Leichliter also said it doesn’t make sense to lower the excess spending threshold when committees exploring voluntary school district mergers and forming regional partnerships have barely begun their work. “It seems like it’s a flipped process,” Leichliter said. “The redesign [of school districts] should have been in place before the funding mechanisms were tightened.” The associations representing Vermont’s school boards and superintendents made similar points in testimony to the legislature earlier this year. They warned that a rapid reduction in the excess spending threshold could prompt aggressive cuts to programs and staff that would adversely affect the quality of education. Closing multiple elementary schools without a deliberative process is also a jarring proposition for parents. Sarah Nagle has two children; her older son attends prekindergarten at Moretown Elementary. Deciding whether to close an elementary school within a matter of months is “extremely abrupt and completely unfair,” Nagle said. “Decisions like this should be made super carefully and be informed by research — not just numbers but impact on kids.” Nagle blames the legislature for passing a law “without really considering what the implications are.” She is among a group of Moretown parents organizing to try to save their elementary school. In Hartford, budget decisions are also weighing heavily on the community, according to Sutton, the superintendent. The district, which serves students

from Wilder, White River Junction, West Hartford, Hartford and Quechee, passed a $58.7 million spending plan on the first try earlier this year. But the district estimates it may have to cut $5 million from next year’s budget to stay under the excess spending threshold. That translates to cutting one-quarter

“People are emotional about this,” Sutton said. “There’s a feeling of anxiety and grief in relation to ... a reduction of this magnitude, the loss of colleagues, what it means for kids ... This is not something we would ever want to happen or would envision happening here.”

ONE OF THE BIGGER CHALLENGES WE’RE FACING AS A STATE, AND THAT WE’RE FACING IN INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS,

IS A LACK OF CLEAR DIRECTION. ADAM BU NTING

of the district’s workforce, Sutton said. The scale of the cuts needed means an elementary school closure is on the table for next year, just as it is in Harwood. So are other structural changes, such as moving fifth graders to the middle school and housing all prekindergarten students in one building. After information about those options was presented at a school board meeting last week, the board directed administrators to come back with more detailed financial information to determine whether a closure can be averted.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

What makes the situation even harder, Sutton said, is her belief that the state lacks a coherent vision for education that’s focused on improving the experience for students. “We as superintendents want to get behind this, be invested in a shared vision ... and be able to articulate it to our communities,” Sutton said. “But absent of that, I feel rudderless.” In the Champlain Valley School District, the largest in the state, superintendent Adam Bunting shares the sentiment.

“One of the bigger challenges we’re facing as a state, and that we’re facing in individual school systems, is a lack of clear direction,” he said. His district, which serves students in Williston, Shelburne, Hinesburg, Charlotte and St. George, is considering substantial cuts to stay below the 115.5 percent threshold for next year and avoid a fiscal cliff in subsequent ones. Over the past three years, the district has cut $9 million in spending and the equivalent of 82 full-time positions. Last week, the Champlain Valley school board’s finance committee recommended a budget of $112.5 million for next year, a 4.3 percent increase but $2.5 million less than what the district would need to spend to keep services level given declining enrollment and the impact of inflation. Meghan Metzler, the board chair, said the district isn’t contemplating any school closures. But getting to the target budget number will undoubtedly mean cutting more staff, though no decisions have been made about specific positions. “This has not been laid out in a way that makes sense or on a timeline that makes sense,” Metzler said. “We’re really rushing to solve a property tax problem without thinking about the impacts on kids.” ➆

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Burlington Councilors Seek to Compromise on Public Safety Debate B Y A ARO N C ALVI N • calvin@sevendaysvt.com FILE: COURTNEY LAMDIN

As their meeting dragged on Monday night, Burlington city councilors appeared headed for yet another deadlock over Democrats’ contentious public safety proposal, which seeks to address what they and local business owners see as the city’s inadequate response to homelessness and drug use downtown. Instead, shortly after midnight, councilors agreed by a 9-3 vote to form a new ad hoc committee composed of Democratic and Progressive members, plus the mayor, to expedite a compromise. “If I’m listening to the best angels on everybody’s shoulders, I see the possibility of a fruitful conversation,” said Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2), who proposed the committee. It will include Bergman, the Prog caucus chair; Councilor Allie Schachter (D-East District), the Dem caucus chair; City Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5); and Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak. Monday’s agreement requires the committee to report back to the full council at its December 7 meeting. But there’s no guarantee that the committee will deliver a fully realized compromise for a resolution that Democrats first unveiled back in July. It was a surprise twist after more than an hour of acrimonious debate. Dems came into the meeting with a revised version of the resolution but had agreed ahead of time to table a final vote until December after Mulvaney-Stanak asked for more time to reach a compromise. Still, the mayor on Monday appeared unhappy with the tenor of the discussion and lashed out at the council’s Democrats. “It makes me disturbed about how entrenched the partisanship has become here in Burlington, and it makes me question why people choose to live here and choose to be in an elected role to represent this city,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. “The way in which you’re all describing the city is not a group of leaders looking to find an inspired and collaborative approach for it, and it makes me very sad.” The sides have been negotiating terms of the resolution since August, when the council’s Democratic majority passed the measure with the understanding that it would be altered based on feedback from the public and other officials. The wide-ranging resolution, known as “Burlington Forward,” would put more police on patrol downtown and increase enforcement of the city’s drug laws. New needle exchanges and a planned overdose-prevention site would be barred from opening downtown. It includes calls for greater resources and shelter space but contains no specifics on how to fund

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Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak them. Additionally, the plan would ask city employees to patrol public spaces and would create sanctioned outdoor campsites. Mulvaney-Stanak, Progressives on the city council and their supporters immediately labeled the initial resolution “Burlington Backwards.” They criticized the proposal as an attempt to further criminalize homelessness by using an outdated, punitive approach to addressing public drug use. They also accused Dems of politicizing public safety issues by crafting and introducing the resolution without conferring with Progs, the mayor or city staff, including the police and fire chiefs. The Dems have denied this. Before Monday’s meeting, a coalition of unionized Howard Center workers, along with University of Vermont Medical Center nurses and support staff, announced their opposition to Burlington Forward. There’s been a quieter revolt among the local AFSCME chapter that represents more than 300 city workers. Chapter president Colby Delaire said his members oppose the resolution as currently written and have major concerns about the proposal for patrols of public spaces, which would require union staff to work outside of their job descriptions. Traverse plans to meet with union leadership this week to pitch them on the resolution and address their concerns, Delaire said. The Dems wrote the resolution in response to Mulvaney-Stanak’s declaration in June that “Burlington is back.” They had hoped to quickly approve the measure to address the issues of homelessness and open drug use downtown. Some councilors have been frustrated by what they see as Progs’ continued unwillingness to engage. “I’m really just so tired of my colleagues across the table using their time here to critique process and claim that things are politicized while our city is going down the tubes right outside our door, and they’re never bringing those alternative ideas to the table,” Councilor Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6) said on Monday. ➆

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The 2018 law defined hemp as “the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant ... with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.” But hemp also contains other forms of psychoactive THC — delta-8 and delta-10 — not mentioned in the law. That oversight inadvertently allowed companies to sell hemp-derived products containing those other compounds. The U.S. hemp market has subsequently grown into a $28 billion industry. “What we’ve seen play out since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill is just an explosion of highly intoxicating, unregulated THC products that are masquerading as hemp products,” said James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board. Many of these goods, which are sold through the mail or in gas stations and convenience stores, aren’t tested for safety or potency and would be illegal to sell in Vermont’s cannabis dispensaries. One such product sits on Pepper’s desk: a 12-ounce can of seltzer, manufactured in Florida, containing 50 milligrams of hemp-derived THC per serving — five times Vermont’s legal limit for a THC beverage. Such products are illegal to sell in Vermont, and the state Attorney General’s Office has the authority to level hefty fines against retailers who do. But for those sold through the mail, “There’s no cop on the beat as far as selling it to kids or anyone else,” Pepper said. Since 2022, Pepper’s board has had the authority to regulate the sale of all products, including hemp, that contain cannabinoids. According to its website, a “THC concentrate that contains more than 0.3% THC by weight … is cannabis for purposes of state law, and buying and selling it without a CCB cannabis establishment license violates state drug laws.” Nevertheless, such sales abound. To address the legal loophole, Congress last year rewrote the federal definition of hemp to cap “total THC” in products at 0.4 milligrams per container. The problem for Vermont hemp growers is that the new definition also swept up nonintoxicating CBD supplements whose THC content is less than 0.3 percent per serving, but would exceed the legal limit per bottle or package. In fact, hemp industry estimates suggest that about 95 percent of the hemp-derived products currently on the market would be illegal under the new definition. Manufacturers who violate the new standard risk prosecution under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The State of Vermont no longer oversees hemp processors; those licenses are issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to Vermont hemp businesses interviewed for this story, the vast majority sell to out-of-state customers. Congress has already delayed the implementation of the new law, and some speculate that it will be reconsidered before the December effective date. Given the uncertainty, Vermont’s CBD producers have adopted varying approaches. Sunset Lake Farms in South Hero has sold CBD supplements since 2019. Its sister company, Sunset Lake Cannabis, grows and sells regulated cannabis. Though the two companies are separate legal entities, CBD accounts for about 30 percent of their combined revenues, according to marketing director Rev Baker. Unlike its cannabis, which cannot be sold across state lines, Sunset Lake’s CBD products are primarily sold outside Vermont, in 49 states and several U.S. territories.

THE GREED THAT HELPED BIRTH AN EMERGING MARKET

HAS ALSO HELPED TAKE IT DOWN. A L EJA N D R O B ER G A D

After the new law passed, Sunset Lake Farms determined that about 60 percent of its CBD supplements would not comply, Baker said. In response, the company began reformulating and rebranding its products to remove any trace of THC, at a cost of about $100,000. “This is a bummer for us as a company,” Baker said. “There are millions of Americans who rely on full-spectrum CBD products for their well-being.” “Full-spectrum” CBD refers to products that contain as much of the whole plant as possible, allowing all of its constituent chemicals to work together in what’s called the entourage effect. Many customers prefer full-spectrum CBD products to “broad-spectrum” ones, which have had the THC removed. Some products are refined even further into “isolates,” which contain only CBD. Sunset Lake Farms produces both full-spectrum CBD and isolates. One of its soon-to-be-illegal products, Vibe Gummies, each contain one milligram of THC per gummy and 30 milligrams of CBD. Though the product doesn’t get the consumer high, it will soon be illegal. The feds “have thrown the baby out with the bathwater,” Baker said.

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

SEVEN DAYS IS THE BEST NEWSPAPER THAT VERMONT HAS!

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To protect its bottom line, Sunset Lake has expanded into non-CBD offerings. It recently teamed up with an herbalist in Randolph to develop new tinctures that contain no hemp. It is also working with another Vermont firm to develop a line of supplements containing non-psychedelic mushrooms such as reishi, lion’s mane and Cordyceps. These products are taken for promised health benefits such as increased focus, energy, relaxation and immune support. “We made the decision early on that it’s in our best interest to act as though the ban is going to take effect and plan accordingly,” Baker said. Sunsoil, the Hardwick company, has adopted a somewhat riskier approach. While it, too, has expanded into mushroom wellness products in addition to non-CBD vitamins, the company has no plans to reformulate its full-spectrum offerings. It will continue selling these products outside Vermont but in smaller containers so as not to exceed the federal THC cap. “We are absolutely committed to selling the exact same products the exact same way,” said Bergad, who added that all Sunsoil products comply with Vermont’s THC laws. “I don’t know if this will be the end of us or if we’ll be the last pizza shop in New York … But we will not compromise our standards.” Upstate Elevator in Burlington was among the first companies in Vermont to sell CBD products after hemp was legalized. According to company founder and CEO Dylan Raap, Upstate stands to lose about 90 percent of the products it currently sells if the law isn’t changed. But so far, Upstate has not reformulated any of its offerings.

Instead, it has added others that contain “mood-lifting” botanicals such as kava, which contains mild psychoactive compounds, and kanna, which acts as a naturally uplifting serotonin re-uptake inhibitor. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration considers both to be dietary supplements. Raap is banking on Congress and the national hemp lobby to find a legislative fix before the December 11 deadline. Upstate’s best-selling hemp product is Yuzu Lemonade Spritz, a beverage that contains 10 milligrams of THC per can. Raap sees this issue as the latest fight between the industry and “prohibitionists.” “If you choose to eliminate a market rather than regulate a market, you just divert all that revenue to the black market. Not a very sensible strategy,” Raap said. But the sale and shipment of hempderived products could soon get more difficult. In August, the payment app Square announced that it will no longer process those transactions on its platform. “What is UPS gonna do? What is FedEx gonna do? What are the U.S. Postal Service and credit card companies gonna do?” asked Pepper, the Cannabis Control Board chair. Even if there is little federal enforcement, Pepper questioned whether any national company would risk the reputational damage of transporting products that violate the Controlled Substances Act. Pepper said he had assumed the feds would provide more clarity by now about the new standard. Instead, he said, the industry and regulators continue to operate in a haze of uncertainty. ➆

– Janet Sluzenski, Montpelier

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On Tuesday, November 3, voters in Vermont will choose their candidates in the midterm elections — if they haven’t already. Read on for some last-minute letters. [Re “Home Stretch: Gov. Phil Scott Has Handily Defeated Opponents for a Decade. But Political Newcomer Amanda Janoo Is Mounting a Credible Challenge,” October 14]: I’m ashamed of Vermont. Instead of addressing our spending, many have decided we should confiscate money from the perceived-rich second-home owners. Supporters of this initiative likely believe this will only affect out-of-staters, yet Vermonters owning second homes will also pay the tax. The Progressives again think the answer to Vermont’s inability to change is to find more people to tax. This fiscal tax grab will also hurt Vermont. Tourism is an important economic driver for the state. Visitors — those with vacation homes and those who rent homes — spend money here. They visit restaurants, buy groceries, ski at our resorts, hike and bike our trails. There is a tipping point where they’ll vote with their feet, selling their second homes and visiting elsewhere, forever damaging Vermont’s economy. Candidate Amanda Janoo and others believe the fallacy that these second homes will become long-term housing. If these homes were suitable as primary homes, why didn’t Vermonters buy them? The answer is simple: These homes are often remote, located in areas with low-paying resort jobs, too large or too small, expensive to maintain, and have high property taxes. Vermont should focus on reducing spending, not extending its tax base. Let’s support the state with revenues from within the state, not seek to steal from the perceived rich who drive so much of the economy. Robert Perry

WARREN

We support Amanda Janoo for governor because, as “Home Stretch” [October 14] makes clear, she welcomes and responds to community — i.e., citizen — input. The incumbent, by contrast, has demonstrated that he operates differently, often to the benefit of commercial interests. Three examples come to mind. One is that Vermont has an outdated and inadequate bottle bill because Gov. Phil Scott vetoed an exhaustively debated revision. Consequently, the state today denies deposit and return status for many bottles that are returnable elsewhere, like in Maine and Oregon. We understand that trash haulers such as Casella prefer that status quo. 20

Second, despite a decade of Scott’s tenure, Vermont has ongoing turmoil with funding and administration of K-12 education. And the state has an education secretary whom the legislature rejected and who lacks public support. Third, strong legislative work for restrictions on data centers, with widespread public support, encountered a Scott veto — a further expression of his arrogance toward the public and the legislature. We urge voters to elect Amanda Janoo for responsive leadership. Cynthia and Hugo Liepmann

MIDDLESEX

Sometimes people say things that are just so bizarre, one wonders how any rational person could make such a statement. That strange reality with the spoken word sometimes aligns itself with publications, where an included picture leaves one shaking one’s head, wondering: WTF? A recent “top story” in Seven Days was about a popular bakery moving from Waitsfield to Montpelier [“Mad River Donuts to Move to Montpelier From Waitsfield,” October 16, online]. It included a picture of a baker holding a tray of doughnuts. The doughnuts certainly looked delicious, but their looks also indicated a monstrous level of sugar and probably fat. This was especially interesting because Alison Novak recently wrote a “gaga” piece in Seven Days on Amanda Janoo’s candidacy for governor [“Home Stretch,” October 14]. I found the contrast noteworthy because candidate Janoo’s major platform —other than increasing taxation on the richest 1 percent of tax filers, who already pay around 33 percent of all of Vermont personal income taxes — is free primary health care for all Vermonters as a step toward universal health care. That’s not going to solve Vermont’s health care cost issues as long as publications like Seven Days visually profile the consumption of a food product that no reasonable person would list as nutritious — and then refer to the article as a “Top Story.” Gerry Silverstein

SOUTH BURLINGTON

Editor’s note: Editors don’t choose “Top Stories.” It’s an indication that the story is gaining traction with our online audience. [Re “‘Defend the Guard’ Bill Gets Shot Down,” March 10, online]: As a veteran of the Vermont Air National Guard, I understand that military service is not simply about following orders. It also involves sacrifices by those who serve and the families who stand behind them.

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VER M O N T ’S IN D EP EN D EN T VO ICE OCTOBER 14-21, 2026 VOL.32 NO.6 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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the Democratic Party and the Progressive Party. Amanda Janoo will make a wonderful governor for Vermont. Cindy Weed

ENOSBURG

[Re “A Civil Debate Showcases the Differences Between Scott, Janoo,” October 21, online]: As I watched the gubernatorial debates this week, it was apparent that Amanda Janoo is highly intelligent; has some very VISION QUEST MORE THAN TACOS GET LOST good ideas; and recognizes that individual villages, towns and municipalities must have the I served four years in the Guard. My opportunity and responsibility to chart husband was also serving while we were their own futures. For example, she underraising our family. I chose to leave because stands that saving small, rural schools is I did not want to risk an overseas deploy- critical for maintaining civic engagement ment and its impact on our family. My and attracting young families. Supporting husband continued to serve. meaningful local control is key, as nobody That experience is one reason I am likes dicta handed down from on high from concerned about Gov. Phil Scott’s failure Montpelier — such as, for example, Act 181. to respond to a letter signed by 27 Vermont However, it is also clear that Ms. Janoo veterans, retired military officers and Guard does not have the experience necessary to family members calling on him and state manage the complex bureaucracy of the legislators to support the Defend the Guard state government. Even Gov. Phil Scott, Act. The letter raised concerns about deploy- who has decades of experience navigating ing Vermont National Guard members into the relationships between the governor’s overseas combat without prior Congres- office, legislature and public, still struggles sional authorization and called for a public with identifying practical new solutions to legislative hearing. It was publicly reported old problems. on August 20. To date, there has been no If Mr. Scott were reelected, I think he response from the governor. should immediately invite Ms. Janoo to Reasonable people can disagree about join his staff and task her with developthe legislation, and a governor is entitled ing creative approaches for the state to to explain his position. But when veter- work with individual localities on housans and military families raise serious ing, school funding and property taxes. concerns, they deserve more than silence. I sensed that these two people have the Leadership does not require agree- mutual respect required for effectively ment; it requires listening. It requires working together and that they have being willing to explain decisions to the complementary skills that could greatly people affected by them. benefit Vermont. Wouldn’t it be novel for I know that service comes with obliga- politicians to listen to different points of tions. Our elected leaders have obligations, view and work together to improve the too. lives of all Vermonters? And, perhaps in Lonnie Poland a few years, Ms. Janoo would be ready to MILTON take over the reins of the governor’s office and lead Vermont into the future. Thank you for your in-depth and interestNicholas Heintz ing article about gubernatorial candidates BOLTON Amanda Janoo and Phil Scott [“Home Stretch,” October 14]. I was surprised that In the article “Home Stretch” [October you missed the fact that Janoo is running 14], Alison Novak writes: “[Scott] posias a Democrat/Progressive, nominated by tioned himself as a rare breed of moderboth major parties. It’s printed in black ate Republican, a check on the excesses and white on every Vermonter’s General of a Democrat-controlled legislature.” Election ballot! While Ms. Novak may have been meanAs a reminder, the Vermont Progres- ing to paraphrase Gov. Phil Scott’s words, sive Party is the most successful third they weren’t presented as a direct quote, party in the country. We’ve had elected meaning she chose to use the pejorative representatives serving in the Vermont and grammatically incorrect “Democrat” Statehouse for decades, so we’re naturally as an adjective. The correct phrasing is excited that Janoo was nominated by both Democratic-controlled legislature.

Home Stretch PAGE 34

Visiting the “Eye of Québec”

Gov. Phil Scott has handily defeated opponents for a decade. But political newcomer Amanda Janoo is mounting a credible challenge. B Y A L I S O N NO VA K , PA GE 2 8

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Two new unlikely Mexican spots

PAGE 54

A photog’s abandoned Vermont

Calling the Democratic Party the “Democrat Party” is a political tactic that dates back to the McCarthy era, and I want to make sure we are not inadvertently, let alone intentionally, permitting that sort of doublespeak to become commonplace. Johanna Polsenberg

STANNARD

Proposal 3 would guarantee the right to collective bargaining in our state constitution. Collective bargaining is simply the process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees. It allows workers to negotiate wages, hours, workplace safety and other working conditions with their employers. Putting this in our constitution is not some crazy, radical, left-wing idea: Five states (Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri and New York) include this right in their constitutions. Illinois added it in 2022. This amendment was passed by the Vermont House of Representatives by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 125 to 15 and by the Senate unanimously, 29 to 0. The Fiscal Alliance Foundation, which is spending big to stop this from passing, is a Massachusetts-based “dark money” group. It’s registered as a nonprofit 501c3, which means that the superrich and big corporations can donate unlimited funds anonymously and get a tax deduction for every nickel they contribute. Despite the propaganda from this group, the results are clear: Union members and other workers in states that allow collective bargaining have better wages, better health care and safer workplaces (see “‘Right-to-Work’ States Still Have Lower Wages” by the Economic Policy Institute, 2015). Please vote yes on Proposal 3.

address problems of unfair and unjust discrimination. Proposal 4 changes this by addressing historical gaps in our constitution and strengthening civil rights. Amending Vermont’s constitution to include Prop 4 expands upon the principles of equality and liberty and protects all Vermonters from discrimination by ensuring the government does not create or perpetuate legal, social or economic inferiority of any class of people. Prop 4 would: • Serve as a foundation for protecting the rights and dignity of historically marginalized populations and address existing inequalities. • Add to existing protections by explicitly specifying the government must not deny equal treatment under law on account of a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, disability, national origin and sex — including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. • Ensure the strongest legal protection for all Vermonters with comprehensive and inclusive equal protection. This is significant because we can no longer count on the federal government or U.S. Supreme Court to provide adequate protection against discrimination. Enshrining Prop 4 in the state constitution would be a victory for all who believe in equality. Vote yes for Prop 4, because it is clear our founding document stands for everyone who calls Vermont home.

Robert Fireovid

Russell Aminzade

Marguerite Adelman

[Re “Prop Drop,” Voters’ Guide, October 14]: I’ve noticed that a group called the Fiscal Alliance Foundation has been running large ads in Seven Days telling Vermonters to vote no on Proposal 3 in the upcoming election. I’ve also seen a flood of ads from the same group on my social media.

[Re “Prop Drop,” Voters’ Guide, October 14]: Vermont’s constitution does not have an equal protection clause that prohibits discrimination based on a person’s race, sex, religion or other characteristics. Article 7, the Common Benefits Clause, serves as the constitutional protection against unequal treatment but does not

Adelman is the vice president of the League of Women Voters of Vermont.

SOUTH HERO

FILE: SARAH CRONIN

Kevin McCallum’s piece “Prop Drop: Voters Will Decide This Fall Whether to Enshrine Labor Rights and Antidiscrimination Measures in the Vermont Constitution” [Voters’ Guide, October 14] lacks critical information that voters need before casting their vote. The third sentence of Proposal 4 (the so-called “equality of rights” amendment) enshrines government discrimination in favor of “historically marginalized groups,” in perpetuity. It is not an equal rights amendment. Proposal 4 would provide the legal framework to defend Vermont’s existing diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucracy and laws — and expand them — all at taxpayer expense. However, affirmative action programs, now known as DEI, would be struck down in federal court because they’re discriminatory; the House and Senate judiciary committees’ own expert witness, professor Peter Teachout of Vermont Law & Graduate School, stated such in his testimony. These lawsuits would cost taxpayers money. Government is not supposed to provide preferential treatment for anyone, yet that is what Proposal 4 is designed to do. Proposal 3 does more than protect union bargaining. It would stop lawmakers from setting limits on public-sector union negotiations. That would give those unions more power at taxpayers’ expense, and it could make laws that control costs unconstitutional. It would also ban Vermont, forever, from giving private-sector workers the choice to join or pay a union without risking their job. And it might deter business growth when Vermont businesses are already under pressure. Voting no takes nothing away from union workers. Vermont already has more labor laws per person than any other state, and every current right to collective bargaining would stay in place if the proposal were to fail.

BURLINGTON

[Re “A Race for the Ages: Aiden Otterman, 18, Is Running Against His Great-Uncle and a Selectboard Chair to Become Vermont’s Youngest Legislator,” Voters’ Guide, October 14]: Apparently Seven Days

writers are now merely scribes, simply repeating a politician’s words as fact. Aside from spouting generic corporate Democratic talking points, Mr. Otterman may or may not be the youngest person elected to the Statehouse “in modern history,” whatever that means. Five minutes’ worth of research reveals that Greg Reed of St. Albans was elected as a state representative in 1970 at age 18, and he was 19 when he became a member of the House. Since I don’t know the birthdays of either man, I can’t confirm which would be the youngest. However, that’s your job to do, not mine. Also of note, Greg Reed went on to be convicted of arson and murder 10 years later and was paroled in March 2005. Let’s hope Mr. Otterman has a brighter future. Dan Mahoney

COLCHESTER

Editor’s note: As stated in the story, Otterman, then 17, voted for himself in the primary election in August. He’ll be 18 when he’s sworn in — if he wins. [Re “Q&A: 2026 Candidates for Vermont Lieutenant Governor,” Voters’ Guide, October 14]: Molly Gray is by far our best candidate for lieutenant governor. She has experience in the position, having previously served alongside Gov. Phil Scott, and was by all accounts highly effective in the role. She’s also spent her career advancing human rights: as an assistant attorney general in the Vermont attorney general’s criminal division; for the International Committee of the Red Cross, working on human rights issues; and most recently at the Vermont Afghan Alliance, an organization helping Afghan allies who supported our troops resettle in Vermont. Her long history of fighting for what is right and for the rights of others is consistent and inspiring. Molly is also committed to a cause I am passionate about: universal primary care. This could and should be the first step toward reducing health care costs in Vermont by eliminating the insurance middlemen who add cost but no value. Imagine providing preventative care and screenings to every Vermonter so that diseases are caught early or prevented entirely. The current fragmented lack of a system in Vermont and across the country costs us all not only in dollars but also in human suffering. I have seen it every day of my 35-year career as a physical therapist in nonprofit health care. We all deserve better. Molly’s experience and commitment to this cause gives me confidence that we can improve quality of life in our state. Julie Adams

FERRISBURGH

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

lifelines

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES Edward E. “Ed” Stygles

AUGUST 16, 1934-OCTOBER 21, 2026 JERICHO, VT. Edward E. “Ed” Stygles, 92, of Jericho, Vt., passed away peacefully at the University of Vermont Medical Center on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Born in Burlington, Vt., on August 16, 1934, Ed was the son of Everett and Marjorie (LaCasse) Stygles. A proud fifth-generation Vermonter, he grew up in a farming family and learned the value of hard work at an early age. He lived a long life filled with farming, family and friends. Ed married the love of his life, Jane (Jones) Stygles, and together they built a life in Jericho rooted in family and hard work. For many years, they worked side by side as dairy farmers, operating a farm of approximately 270 acres. Ed often

Ray Atwood

APRIL 3, 1941-FEBRUARY 18, 2025 BOLTON, VT., AND UMATILLA, FLA. Ray Atwood, 83, of Umatilla, Fla., (formerly of Bolton, Vt.) passed away on February 18, 2025. Born on April 3, 1941, in New York City, Ray lived a life of adventure, dedication and service. Ray proudly served in the U.S. Air Force as a weapons mechanic, receiving an honorable discharge. His passion for automobiles led him to own and operate Ray’s Auto Body from 1977 to 2017. A dedicated member of his community, he was named Citizen of the Year in Bolton in 2004 and actively participated in the Chittenden County Fish & Wildlife Club and the Vermont 1st Wildlife Club. He was also a volunteer firefighter and served on the Bolton Selectboard and the Regional Planning Commission for Chittenden County, Vt. Ray had many passions, including riding motorcycles — especially dirt bikes — sailing from Burlington, Vt., to the Florida Keys, building model cars and flying model

IN MEMORIAM credited Jane for much of their success. Together they raised their two sons, Kenneth “Kenny” and Raymond Stygles, and created a home filled with family and memories. Ed was a familiar face throughout Jericho and the surrounding communities. Known for his strong opinions and determination, he was never one to shy away from a conversation or a good deal. Although he could be stubborn about accepting help himself, he was always willing to lend a hand to others. He served as Jericho’s town constable for many years and helped countless neighbors and community members along the way. His generosity and willingness

to help others were a lasting part of his presence in the community. For decades, Ed was a familiar voice on local radio, calling WOKO’s “Sunday Flea Market” each week and participating in WDEV’s “The Trading Post.” He also frequented local field days, enjoying the farming equipment, familiar faces, and chance to catch up or make a deal. Affectionately known as “Eddy” to the ladies, he had a sense of humor and personality all his own. Ed was predeceased by his beloved wife, Jane; son Kenneth “Kenny” Stygles; parents, Everett and Marjorie Stygles; sisters, Beverly (Stygles) Ward and Shirley

(Stygles) Davis; and brother Carroll Stygles Sr. He leaves behind his son Raymond (Kimberly) Stygles and brothers David (Kathy) Stygles, Dickey (Hellen) Stygles and Billy (Karen) Stygles. He is also survived by his grandchildren through Raymond: Elizabeth (Gary) Mumley, Shayna Stygles, Brooke (Dustin) Francis, Trisha Stygles, Christian Stygles and Steevie Stygles; and by the children of his son Kenny: Ken (Darla) Stygles and Dylan (Alanna) Stygles. Ed was a proud grandfather and great-grandfather, leaving behind 13 great-grandchildren. He will be remembered for the years he devoted to farming, the life he built with Jane, the family they raised, and the many friends and neighbors he came to know. His family will carry on the stories and memories of a life well lived. A private burial will take place in the spring or summer of 2027.

airplanes. He cherished time with his family and was known for his adventurous spirit, generosity and unwavering loyalty. He loved the Green Mountain State of Vermont and later enjoyed his retirement in Umatilla, Fla. His beloved wife of nearly 65 years, Patricia Atwood, passed away on August 28, 2026. He is survived by his children, Corine Nicholson of Umatilla, Fla., Mark Atwood (Tina) of Roebuck, S.C., Stephen Atwood of Patchogue, N.Y., and Kristie Maddox of Greenbelt, Md.; as well as 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Ray was preceded in death by his mother, Ruth Atwood; father, Walter Atwood; and sister, Jeanne Schwiecke. He is also reunited with his longtime close friend John Sheehan. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2026, 12:30 p.m., at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Montpelier, VT. A luncheon will follow. Ray will be remembered for his adventurous heart, his willingness to help others, and the lasting impact he had on his family, friends and community.

Patricia “Patty” Atwood

children and their accomplishments, and she cherished the special relationships she shared with her loved ones. She attended the Methodist Church in Altona, Fla., and was a woman whose warmth and caring spirit touched many lives. Patty was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Ray Atwood; her sister, Judy Mayville; and her brother, Larry Caron. She is survived by her loving family, including Corine Nicholson of Umatilla, Fla.; Steve Atwood of Patchogue, N.Y.; Mark Atwood and Tina Atwood of Roebuck, S.C.; and Kristie Maddox of Greenbelt, Md.; along with 18 grandchildren and numerous other relatives and friends who will forever cherish her memory. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2026, 12:30 p.m., at Green Mountain Cemetery in Montpelier, Vt., with a luncheon after. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the humane society. Patty leaves behind a legacy of love, kindness, family and treasured memories. She will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered by all who knew her.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

JANUARY 23, 1943AUGUST 28, 2026 BOLTON, VT., AND UMATILLA, FLA. Patricia “Patty” Atwood, 83, peacefully passed away on August 28, 2026, in Mount Dora, Fla., surrounded by the love of family and friends. Patty was born on January 23, 1943, in Hartford, Conn. She married the love of her life, Ray Atwood, on March 17, 1960. She was a proud owner of Ray’s Auto Body of Bolton, Vt., alongside her husband, Ray, beginning in 1977. Patty will be remembered as a kind, compassionate, loving and gentle woman who treasured her family and friends. She was a wonderful cook and especially enjoyed making chocolate chip cookies and other delicious treats from scratch. She loved long car rides, exploring new places, going to thrift shops, getting a creemee and spending time with the people she loved. She was also a trivia queen and enjoyed a good word search. Patty was very proud of all her

Mel Buss 1954-2025

The plum tree you planted two years ago blossomed this spring and was covered in plums by midsummer. How I wish you could have seen it! I made my first plum clafoutis and thought of you with each delicious bite. I miss you every day — more than I can say — and carry you in my heart always. With my love, Nina

Josephine Marie Cartier 1934-2026

Josephine Marie Cartier, age 92, passed away peacefully on October 14, 2026. A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, October 31, 2026, 10 a.m., at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, 29 Allen St., Burlington, VT, followed by a luncheon in the church hall. A complete obituary can be found at funeralfolio.com/ obit/josephine-66vc.

OBITUARIES Carolyn Subin JUNE 17, 1942SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 JERICHO, VT.

Carolyn Subin died on September 17, 2026, two months after being diagnosed with an aggressive stomach cancer. With gratitude towards Vermont’s death with dignity law, Carolyn died as she lived — on her own terms. She was at home, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, sharing wisdom and laughter through her final moments. Carolyn was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 17, 1942. The child of RussianJewish parents, she was the second of four sisters. Carolyn grew up in New York and in Palm Beach, Fla. She was attending Oberlin College when she was forced to withdraw because of her father’s death. She transferred to George

Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she completed her BA. It was also in D.C. where Carolyn met Harry Subin. They were married for nearly 50 years. And for 50 years they were each other’s best friends. They had four kids in four years between 1965 and 1969. The family moved to the suburbs of New York City in 1966, where Carolyn lived until

Harry died in 2011. She then relocated to Jericho, Vt. Carolyn dedicated the first chapter of her professional career to teaching. She received a master’s in education from Manhattanville College. She worked mostly in special education in public schools and most often with children that had the greatest needs. She also cofounded a progressive early childhood learning center and brought experiential education to troubled teens on ropes courses and rock faces in the ’70s and early ’80s. Carolyn left teaching to pursue a career in social work. She received a master’s in psychiatric social work and a PhD in clinical social work from New York University (1990, 2000). She worked as a therapeutic social worker in psychiatric hospitals around New York and ultimately

became the chief of the mental health unit at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only maximumsecurity prison for women in the state of New York. She worked with and learned from the women of Bedford for almost 15 years. She went on to a private psychiatric social work practice in Vermont and saw patients until just a few weeks before she died. Carolyn worked with individuals but also cared about communities. She marched on Washington in 1963 and heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. share his dream with the world. She was marching still, alongside her children and grandchildren, through her final year. Carolyn’s expansive volume of work was coupled with a fierce appetite for adventure and play. She traveled extensively around the world. Among endeavors too

numerous to list, she bungee jumped and skydived. She trekked in Nepal, climbed Machu Picchu and scuba dived in the Red Sea. She ran 17 marathons, including qualifying for the elite Boston Marathon, which she ran at the age of 63. Later in her life she paddled dragon boats, skied, hiked and biked. Her last trip, in June, found her on the fjords of Norway. Although she had to be encouraged to admit it, Carolyn was an accomplished artist. She worked primarily in watercolors but explored many other mediums, always inspired by the works of others, famous or not. Her work was shown in a variety of settings around Vermont. All of these accomplishments notwithstanding, Carolyn’s greatest joy and the source of her deepest pride was her family. The legacy she built with Harry

includes her four children, her eight grandchildren and their partners. Her first great-grandchild is expected in April. She was a matriarch beyond comparison. The family is planning a celebration of Carolyn’s incredible life to be held in July. They are accepting donations in her honor at the Carolyn Subin Memorial Fund at the Pennywise Foundation (pennywise.org/ donate-1-1-1-1). It will support causes she cared about deeply and advocated for fiercely throughout her life — including access to mental health services, justice, and support for incarcerated women and the right to choose. In remembering her, it is certain that Carolyn would want all to keep in mind one of her favorite quotes: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” (Mae West)

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OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES William John Callnan

FEBRUARY 17, 1949OCTOBER 14, 2026 MIDDLESEX, VT. William (age 77), best known as “Bill” to friends and “Billy” to his seven siblings, grew up in Houlton, Maine, on a potato farm. Bill was the second-oldest of seven siblings. Together with his six brothers (Dennis, Paul, Tim, Andy, Peter and Jim) and one sister (Jane), he enjoyed the freedom and independence that a farm provides. Wild and harrowing stories of brothers being “planted” in the fields, driving a Farmall and ice-skating on rivers captivated many at the dinner table as he retold his childhood adventures. Bill was Houlton High School’s 1967 valedictorian and class president.

He received a master’s in mathematics at Boston College and became a Fellow of the Societies of Actuaries (FSA). With these credentials, Bill landed his first job at National Life in Montpelier, Vt., where he worked for 26 years. During his tenure at National Life, he secured the position as vice president of actuarial services. In 1996, Bill

retired early from National Life and founded Actuarial Services of Central Vermont with Carla Lawrence. Carla and Bill ran this successful Waterbury, Vt., business for 20 years. Near to Bill’s heart was his work for the Gary Home, a residential care home in Montpelier. Bill was chair of the board and was proud of Gary Home’s West View Meadows and Gary Home Residence expansions. The focus was always providing the best care for residents, not on making profits. One of Bill’s most defining traits was that of a family man. He adored and was the biggest fan of his children: Brian, Pam, Linda and Will. Days growing up in the Middlesex Callnan household meant weekends camping, dips in the brook, summer trips to Lake Memphremagog

and Lake Seymour, and hiking Mount Hunger. Bill also loved cross-country skiing with his family in their backwoods, gardening, picking fiddleheads, playing golf and sitting on the deck looking out at the field. Middlesex and community were very special to Bill. He coached Little League and Rumney’s girls basketball team for many years, focusing on skill development and collaboration. Bill also volunteered at the town corn roasts and spent many late nights covering Rumney’s rink with new ice. As Vermont winters became less fun to shovel out from, Bill and Sandy acquired a Florida condo in Delray Beach. Here, Bill loved to swim in the pool, visit with friends at the club house and teach folks how to play bridge. Bill and Sandy are

a credentialled medical laboratory technician through tutoring at the bench, never stepping foot in a classroom. By her late forties she had found and cherished the classroom — but she had become more interested in studying thought, behavior and writing than analyzing blood cells and chemistry. In 1994 her proud family celebrated her graduation from Vermont College. She brought lightheartedness, collegiality and professionalism to her

work, initially for 23 years in the laboratory at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont. Then, after taking a leave to care for her ill mother, she welcomed her call to a second career with hospice. Sybil was a house manager then operations manager at Vermont Respite House for the first 17 years following its opening. Her son, Eric Durett, centered her life; she was so proud to be his mom. Sybil’s siblings cherished their big sister. She is survived by them — Churchill Hindes (Marilyn), Teresa Didehbani (Jahangir, deceased) and Christopher Hindes (Claire) — and their children and grandchildren. Sybil’s spouse, Richard Hearn, predeceased her in 2025, also from dementia. Her mother passed in 1990 and father in 1973. Before last year’s move to Williston, she was a longtime resident of Burlington and South Burlington. She and Dick split their retirement

years between Vermont and Sarasota. As a postwar GI’s daughter, she had nine home addresses before finishing high school. She felt blessed to have lived her adult life within a single extended community. Sybil loved life and family, laughter and dance, beauty read and beauty seen. She loved being a red-dirt Vermonter, her family camp at Mile Point, the Florida sun and shore, and travels to faraway places. She wrote beautifully. She was deeply committed to hospice and end-of-life care. Disposition of her ashes and a memorial gathering will be at a later time and place to be determined by her family. Sybil’s family is indebted to the skilled and caring staff at Memory Care at Allen Brook, Cathedral Square Assisted Living, and the University of Vermont Home Health & Hospice. Her arrangements are through Ready Funeral Home.

Sybil Wilmoth Hindes Hearn APRIL 5, 1944OCTOBER 24, 2026 WILLISTON AND MILE POINT, VT.

Sybil Wilmoth Hindes Hearn of Williston and Mile Point, Vt., died on October 24, 2026, in the comfort of her residence in Memory Care at Allen Brook following an extended challenge with dementia. She was born on April 5, 1944, in Cleburne, Texas, to Vesta Shultz Hindes and Major James Gordon Hindes. Her mother was a girl from the red-dirt plains of West Texas, and her father was a deeply rooted New Englander raised near Boston. Sybil was an amalgam of the two, equally comfortable in the wide open spaces out yonder and the lake and hills of her homeland. Sybil was determined. Shortly after graduating from high school she became

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truly thankful for their Florida friends. Friends have always been important. As a young married couple, Bill and Sandy were fortunate enough to create “the Supper Club” with lifelong friends Abe and Andy Lewis, the Lawrences, the Rivetts, and the Redmonds. Together, they shared many meals and watched their children grow up. Bill’s health declined in his final years with the symptoms of multiple system atrophy, and he spent his final days at home on Shady Rill with close family and friends. Bill is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Sandra “Sandy” Callnan; son Brian (Orsolya) Callnan; daughter Pamela (Justin) Hartman; daughter Linda (James) McCuen; son William John Callnan III (Nicole Ballere); brothers Timothy (Susan)

Callnan, Paul ( Cindy) Callnan, James ( Cheryl) Callnan and Peter Callnan (husband John Hennessey ); brother-in-law, Richard Mitchell II; eight grandchildren; and many more extended family and friends. Bill was predeceased by his parents, Donald and Evelyn Callnan; brothers Andy and Dennis Callnan; and sister, Jane Mitchell. The family sends their deepest appreciation to all of those that have supported them during this difficult time. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, November 7, 2026, 1 p.m., at Saint Augustine’s Catholic Church in Montpelier, Vt. Arrangements are in the care of Guare & Sons Funeral Home. To see the full obituary, please visit guareandsons.com.

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EMERGENCY: STOP PROP 4 Not what you thought, not what WE thought The legislators’ own constitutional expert, Peter Teachout, warned them about the unclarity on January 30, 2024. They approved the wording anyway. The Vermont Progressive Party has endorsed Proposal 4 for protecting Q, I, A, 2, S, and + rights that have "historically been subject to discrimination." That would include for instance public speech by women, interracial love, lesbian and gay love, that were all once taboo and now are protected rights. But some things should stay taboo: for instance, the Queer idea, “QIA2S+ ... Z” ! without limit. BCS brought these concerns to the Selectboard on Tuesday (10/20/2026). Member Evans-Franz googled and read aloud part of the last paragraph of the amendment. Member Nell Mayo tried to help, explaining each letter of the QIA2S+, but not the +, and she pointed out a discriminated group that is not mentioned in the amendment. Actually, women aren’t mentioned either. Neither of them was familiar enough with the amendment to be of much help.

Q, I, A, 2, S and + are not defined in the amendment. Actually, they are not defined anywhere in Vermont Law. It is naïve to think that people under taboo won’t have their own interpretation. The point is that QIAS2+ people and anyone that can claim historical taboo will claim civil rights in court. The amendment is self-contradictory: we should admit that gender rights conflict with womens’ rights. Instead of protecting womens’ rights, this amendment protects gender identity, which puts sex on a spectrum and means to erase the concept of women. Again, the words “woman” and “women” DO NOT APPEAR in the new law. It creates civil rights for taboos. This morning I met a man who wanted civil rights for everything, including pedophilia, he emphasized This law can force you to share your rented home with an undefined + or use tax money to pay for whatever services a + person demands. READ IT.

SPREAD THE WORD!! NO on Prop 4

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SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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PHOTOS: DARIA BISHOP

Signs along Canusa Street in Beebe Plain, Vt.

Oh, Canada

Historic ties between Vermont and Québec communities are fraying. Reporting on both sides of the border suggests they could break. BY L UC Y TO MP K INS • lucy@sevendaysvt.com

long Canusa Street, American and Canadian homes face one another across an invisible border. For about a third of a mile, Canusa — named for the two countries it splits — marks the international divide between Beebe Plain, a community in Derby, and sister village Beebe, Québec. Here, neighbors standing on front lawns in different countries can easily chat across the two-lane road. Crossing the street, however, requires a detour to a tiny border checkpoint at the end of the road. For generations, these communities have lived a blended existence. They share drinking water and sewer systems. Firefighters on either side assist their foreign counterparts when called upon. Many 26

Lynn Rublee

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residents have relatives on the other side and travel back and forth multiple times a week to buy bread, pump gas and visit friends. “A lot of us feel we’re one community here,” said Lynn Rublee, 70, who grew up nearby on the Vermont side of Lake Memphremagog, which straddles the border, and runs a small bed-and-breakfast. “We depend on each other and really always have.” As the once-friendly relationship between Canada and the U.S. erodes, however, that way of life is disappearing. Canadians, incensed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada as the 51st state, have boycotted or cut back on travel to the U.S., crippling the border towns that have long depended on their business.

Tensions between the two nations peaked in August, when trade negotiations collapsed and Trump imposed staggering 50 percent tariffs on hundreds of Canadian goods. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney struck back with his own retaliatory tariffs, matching Trump’s “dollarfor-dollar” and announcing that Canada will pursue a closer relationship with the European Union. The fallout has already hit Vermont’s economy. Canadian credit card spending in Vermont dropped by nearly half in 2025 and was just beginning to recover this spring and summer before the latest political rupture. But in the towns and villages in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where daily life is shaped by proximity to the border, something much more profound — and less easily measured — is at stake. On Canusa Street, some American homes fly Canadian flags from their porches as a message of apology to their neighbors. Lawn signs proclaim: “I stand with Canada.” Yet Trump won in every one of Vermont’s border towns in the 2024 election. Nearly two years into Trump’s second term, Canadians’ initial shock over his attacks has hardened into something that could be far more enduring. In late August, as the trade talks were failing, Steve Wright, president and general manager of Jay Peak Resort, posted a statement on the ski area’s Facebook page appealing to the Canadians who make up nearly half of the resort’s skiers, reminding them that they are “part of this place” and always welcome. Wright had released a similar statement a year prior, after Trump’s “51st state” comments sparked outrage north of the border. This time, he signed off by inviting Canadians to “drop him a line” and shared his direct email address. Nearly 6,000 messages poured in over the next four days. Thousands more replied to the post on Facebook. Many expressed fury. “Last year, Canadians were disappointed. They were disillusioned. They were sad,” Wright said during a September 1 roundtable discussion organized by U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). “This year, around trade policies, they’re angry. And you can’t talk to anger.” Seven Days traversed the border region for several days this month to learn how deteriorating relations between the U.S. and Canada are transforming daily life on the ground. Conversations with residents, local leaders, historians and artisans revealed that the political tensions have divided families, communities and economies whose close ties were long taken for granted. Many residents on both sides

Newport Mayor Rick Ufford-Chase

When you have a partner — whether it’s a personal partner or business partner — if they’ve betrayed you in some way, the trust will never come back 100 percent. S TANS TE AD MAYO R J O D Y S TO NE

Mayor Jody Stone

expressed regret and a hope that things might one day return to how they used to be. Others wondered if it was already too late for that. “I don’t think it’ll ever go back to the way it was,” said Jody Stone, the mayor of Stanstead, a Québec town of fewer than 3,000 people just across the border from Derby Line. He remembers walking across the border as a boy to attend swimming lessons in Vermont with just a wave to the American customs officer. “When you have a partner — whether it’s a personal partner or business partner — if they’ve betrayed you in some way, the trust will never come back 100 percent.”

Mayor to Mayor

Stone’s American counterpart, Newport Mayor Rick Ufford-Chase, dashed into his bright downtown office and snatched up a bumper sticker he had designed himself. “Canada, on vous respecte,” the sticker reads in French. Canada, we respect you. “I wouldn’t go into Canada without it,” said Ufford-Chase, an animated 62-yearold with tousled gray hair and ruddy cheeks, a leather satchel slung over his shoulder. The sticker is his personal attempt to improve international relations in his northeast Vermont town.

Newport’s brick-clad downtown, perched on the shore of Lake Memphremagog, is full of such symbols of conciliation. Above the doorway of the historic Montgomery Ward building, which is home to a popular natural food store, Canadian and American flags hang side by side. Ufford-Chase, who assumed office in March 2025, thought hard about his sticker’s message. He’d seen signs in some storefronts declaring love for Canadians but thought they struck the wrong note. “It’s not about whether or not we love them,” he explained. “It’s the lack of respect that really is driving the current crisis. They’ve been badly dissed by the country they thought was their closest friend and ally.” Since 2021, Ufford-Chase has been working to revitalize Newport’s struggling economy, first as executive director of the nonprofit Newport Downtown Development and now also as part-time mayor. From his Main Street office above the natural food store, he looks out over a vacant, overgrown lot where decrepit buildings were razed 10 years ago. “The pit,” as it’s called, has come to symbolize the city’s stagnation. The loss of Canadian visitors hasn’t helped. “The impact on our retail has been huge,” he said. “And the lack of knowledge of where this is all going to go is as hard as anything.” Ufford-Chase has plenty of experience cultivating cross-border relationships during troubled times. He spent 20 years working along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, where he cofounded a nonprofit called BorderLinks during the 1980s; he helped launch another in 2004 called No More Deaths. Both grew out of the faithbased sanctuary movement in response to increased U.S. border enforcement and the deaths of hundreds of migrants in remote stretches of the desert as they sought to skirt beefed-up defenses on foot. He has also held the top elected leadership position at the Presbyterian Church (USA). That work across divides has proven unexpectedly useful in Newport. As tensions between the Trump administration and Canada mounted, Ufford-Chase began talking more often with Stone. Both mayors say the political strife has strengthened their relationship. “We’re thinking long term,” said Stone, 48, a Stanstead native who has been mayor for five years. “When this stuff is over, we want to continue to be great neighbors.” In addition to his role as mayor, Stone owns a company with his wife that manufactures and distributes industrial lubricants. Stanstead sits on the border. Walking on the sidewalk on the Canadian side of OH, CANADA

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DARIA BISHOP

Oh, Canada « P.27

One Community

In June, the local history museum in Stanstead unveiled an exhibition about life on the border. The timing — amid a diplomatic firestorm — was pure coincidence, museum director Samuel Gaudreau-Lalande said. 28

The international border line on the floor of the Haskell Free Library & Opera House

People stopped buying American oranges. They would simply rot on the shelves of supermarkets.

LUCY TOMPKINS

Canusa Street on a recent sunny morning, Stone peered at the Canadian flags and apologetic lawn signs that had sprouted on the American side in recent months. “This is all new,” he said. Like many of his neighbors, Stone is trying to figure out how best to protest. His family recently vacationed in Maine, a place Stone said he loves too much to boycott. But he no longer fills his gas tank in the U.S. or goes out to fancy dinners in Newport. “We pick and choose more carefully what we do,” he said. Because Stanstead shares a water system with Derby Line that is comanaged through a binational entity known as the International Water Company, Stone has always maintained open lines of communication with local leaders on the U.S. side. In these conversations, he tries to put national politics aside. “I’m a local leader — I like to think that they are, too,” Stone said. “Federal politics really should not have an impact on how we make decisions on the ground level.” Yet the repercussions of federal decisions can be difficult to avoid. Tourism and granite processing are Stanstead’s two main economic drivers, Stone said, and Trump’s tariffs have already hurt local companies that export granite countertops to the U.S. He’s aware that some Derby leaders he works with voted for Trump but doesn’t take it personally. Stone believes Trump’s popularity was motivated by other issues, such as immigration: The number of migrants detained trying to cross the northern border into the U.S. reached record highs during the Biden administration. “I don’t feel that because there’s strong Trump support in the northern part of the state, that necessarily means they have something against Canadians,” Stone said. “None of them I’ve spoken to ever felt mistreated by Canadians in any way or that we were anything other than good neighbors, good partners and good clients.” But something has been broken, he said. “I think everybody feels the same,” Stone said. “We feel mistreated.”

S A M U EL G AU D R EAU - L A L A N D E

Samuel Gaudreau-Lalande at the Colby-Curtis Museum in Stanstead

The Colby-Curtis Museum, housed in a 19th-century granite villa off this border town’s main drag, had chosen the theme in 2023. Staff members set out to interview locals about the evolution of their relationship to the border and their connections to the other side. Those questions soon took on new weight. The exhibition, spread across three rooms on the museum’s second floor, tells the story of a once-fluid frontier that gradually has become less permeable. Photographs of contemporary cross-border singing groups and curling clubs hang on the walls, alongside historical maps depicting Stanstead and Derby Line as what appears

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to be a single village — their main streets spanning the border in a continuous line. Visitors can listen to recordings of residents reminiscing about the days when Canadian women crossed into the U.S. to give birth because that’s where the nearest hospital happened to be. The town doctor in Stanstead had medical licenses in both countries. “What really struck me was how the two communities were very, very integrated” through the 1980s, GaudreauLalande said as he guided a visitor around the room. “It was part of their daily life to go to the U.S. They didn’t think of the border as a border.”

That began to change as security tightened after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and then again when passports became a requirement to cross in 2008. Then the COVID-19 pandemic halted cross-border travel altogether for months. Border communities were just recovering when this latest rift drove them apart again. Gaudreau-Lalande said many Canadians are expressing their displeasure with the American government using the only leverage they have — by withholding their spending. “People stopped buying American oranges,” he said. “They would simply rot on the shelves of supermarkets.” Gaudreau-Lalande has joined the campaign. He moved his fall camping trip from Vermont to Québec this year. Unfortunately, he acknowledged, the loss of commerce from such boycotts tends to

DARIA BISHOP

general Election results show November 3 @ 7:30 p.m. Up-to-the-minute results Voter voices from the polls Conversations with newly elected representatives

YOU POWER DEMOCRACY Kathy Curtis at her home in East Stanstead, Québec

most hurt businesses close to the border, “which are the ones with whom Canadians feel a sense of community.” On the other hand, he’s noticed a renewed commitment to keeping the cross-border connections alive. As an example, he cited the Haskell Free Library & Opera House, a building famous for straddling the border in Stanstead and Derby Line that serves as the cultural center for both villages. For more than a hundred years, Canadians were allowed to walk across the border unchecked to enter the building’s main entrance on the American side. But last year, American officials announced that Canadian patrons would have to go through an official border checkpoint down the road first, citing security concerns. The change made news around the world. Locals on both sides banded together to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate an entrance on the Canadian side so that members of both communities could continue entering the library without having to pass through customs. The new entrance opened in June, at a ceremony attended by officials from both countries. “It made people more aware that they took this access for granted,” Gaudreau-Lalande said, “and that this is something you have to cultivate, or it will go away.” Since the Haskell found itself in the political spotlight, the number of visitors has shot up. Some 400 people from both sides of the border, most of them tourists, visited on a recent Saturday. Volunteers have been working double time to give tours while continuing to check out books for locals. The building has also become a cultural refuge amid the political

tensions. On October 20, best-selling Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny held a sold-out event in the Haskell Opera House to celebrate the release of her latest book, Miss Wolcott’s Ghost. Penny lives in Québec’s Eastern Townships, and her immensely popular novels are heavily inspired by the border region. In March 2025, however, Penny announced that she would no longer hold in-person events in the U.S., in protest of Trump’s tariffs and threats toward Canada. The Haskell’s neutral ground is the one exception.

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Elbows Up

Kathy Curtis hasn’t been to Vermont since January 19, 2025 — the day before Trump’s inauguration. She never imagined staying away for so long. Curtis, 63, and her husband live on a small beef farm in Stanstead. A large Canadian flag flutters from the porch of their white farmhouse. She used to cross the border often to buy gas in Derby Line, get dinner in Newport and stock up on groceries at the Walmart in Derby. “We didn’t think about it all that much,” she said. “It’s just part of who we are and where we live.” Now, she sees crossing as a political act — one that would tacitly convey that she approves of Trump’s rhetoric toward Canada. Most of her neighbors aren’t crossing either, she said. Some have even pledged never to return. Curtis hasn’t gone quite that far, but she no longer feels the kinship she once did with communities in the Northeast Kingdom, or the U.S. as a whole.

OH, CANADA

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Oh, Canada « P.29

Republicans Divided

In downtown Newport, two Republican shop owners differ over Trump’s policies. Chris Hamblett, 54, and his brother run the Pick & Shovel — a massive hardware and general store their father founded 50 years ago. Hamblett voted for Trump, and while he said he understands the emotional toll that tariffs and harsh rhetoric are taking on his neighbors to the 30

Chris Hamblett helping a customer at the Pick & Shovel in Newport

LUCY TOMPKINS

“I realize now just how different our countries are,” she said. Curtis has reshaped her daily habits. At the grocery store, she looks for items with a maple leaf label that signals they’re Canadian-made. She no longer buys U.S. products. Curtis is not alone: Across Canada, people have come together in common cause, she said. “Elbows up,” an expression borrowed from ice hockey to suggest a willingness to fight back, has become a national rallying cry for Canadians standing up to the U.S. There’s a renewed sense of national pride, she said. “I don’t know if the American people know how that united our country,” she said. But Curtis claims no pleasure in cutting America out of her life. She and her husband retired a year ago with plans to travel to Washington and Oregon. Those plans are now on hold. The two no longer visit relatives in Vermont and feel hurt that every town along Vermont’s border voted for Trump. “It is painful,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be like this. At first, I thought, When he’s gone, things will go back to normal. Now, not so much.” “This doesn’t mean I don’t care about the United States,” Curtis said. “If I didn’t care so much, it wouldn’t bother me so much.” Curtis said she’s thrilled when she sees American visitors in Canada and hopes they feel welcome and “see what good neighbors and allies we’ve always been.” As much as Curtis would like to resume crossing the border, the appeals she hears from American leaders often sound flat. “It always seems to come across like, ‘We miss our Canadian friends,’” she said. “But do they really understand what we’re standing up for?” A few weeks ago, Curtis went grocery shopping for Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls in October. As she walked the aisles, she checked the labels on each item. Much to her delight, she found locally grown celery, which is often imported from the U.S. She threw a few extra bunches in her cart to freeze for winter.

Michael Marcotte at the Jimmy Kwik Store in Newport

north — his wife is a dual citizen, and the couple visit Québec often — he supports the administration’s goals. “Part of me feels it’s a necessary evil,” he said. “It’s easy to get angry at the tariffs, but maybe there’s a greater vision that in the long term will benefit us all.” Hamblett’s store was bustling on a Thursday afternoon in mid-October. Customers lined up outside the ice cream window on one side of the shop, basking in a warm fall day. Hamblett — wearing a button-down, blue jeans and a red vest embroidered with his name — worked the counter in the sugaring department, which was having a sale. The Pick & Shovel is a certified distributor for CDL Sugaring Equipment, a Québec company with a location in St.

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Albans. Vermont companies used to make the equipment, Hamblett said, but over the years Canada has slowly “monopolized” that market. He lamented the loss of local producers. “Will this spark a new U.S. manufacturer to be able to grow and strengthen?” he asked of the new tariffs. “It’s hard to say.” Prices of some equipment Hamblett sells, such as storage tanks for maple sap, have gone up as much as 50 percent in the past few years, he said. But he attributed that to a mix of shifting tariffs, general inflation and increased fuel prices. As for the drop in Canadian visitors, he noted that the current exchange rate is unfavorable for Canadians — 100 Canadian dollars is worth $71. “Our country is not in great shape and is headed deeper into debt if we don’t

make changes,” he said. “At this point, I’m willing to accept anyone trying to make a change.” Just down the road, a fellow Republican, Michael Marcotte, has come to a different conclusion. Eight years after casting a ballot for Trump in 2016, the owner of Jimmy Kwik Store, a gas station and convenience store, voted for Democrat Kamala Harris. Marcotte, 68, who identifies as a moderate, has served 22 years in the Vermont House, from which he will retire in January. He’s grown increasingly disillusioned with Trump’s hard-line brand of MAGA Republicanism. As chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, Marcotte said, he’s heard from many Vermont business owners in a panic over the loss of Canadian visitors. Rising prices are already hurting his constituents, he said, and some worry about having to choose between paying for heating oil or food this winter. “The governments have a lot to lose,” Marcotte said, “but it’s the businesses and the people, right down to the single person, that are going to lose the most.” Marcotte traces his own family roots across the border. His grandparents migrated from Québec to Newport, where they ran a beauty salon for 50 years. His wife is from Québec, and his in-laws still live there — and now refuse to visit. Marcotte said he doesn’t expect to see trade — or the trust it was built on — restored during his lifetime. “Some people here have bought into the idea that Canada has been playing the

DARIA BISHOP

U.S. all these years, which I think is sad,” Marcotte said. “When things are repeated and repeated, they become factual, and they’re not.”

LUCY TOMPKINS

Catherine Durand in the cheese caves at Fromagerie La Station in Compton, Québec

Mateo Kehler at Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro

Across the Whey

In September, cheesemakers from both sides of the border gathered in Vermont to celebrate the end of the harvest season. Mateo Kehler, 56, cofounder and head cheesemaker of Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, hosted peers from Québec’s Fromagerie La Station in Compton, an hour north. The two artisan cheese companies are strikingly similar. Both are run by brothers and have been making cheese at small family farms on opposite sides of the Vermont-Québec border for about two decades. Both make some of the very best cheeses in North America and have top awards from the American Cheese Society to prove it. Another commonality: The two had just begun building their markets abroad before the trade war erupted. Kehler spent a decade trying to break into the highly regulated Montréal cheese market. Soon after he found an importer and began shipping to Canada, Trump took office for his second term, and the orders stopped cold, he said. Tensions seemed to be easing this summer, and Kehler’s Canadian importer reached out with an order for the winter holidays. Within a few weeks, though, the trade war inflamed things anew, and the order was canceled. That one order was small, Kehler said, but it represented a toehold in “a milliondollar market.”

There’s no economic philosophy underpinning the Trump administration’s actions. Who’s winning? It’s nobody around here. MATE O K E H L E R

“There’s no economic philosophy underpinning the Trump administration’s actions,” he said on a recent afternoon at Jasper Hill’s cavernous cheese cellars, which are tucked into the hillside. “Who’s winning? It’s nobody around here.”

Up north, Fromagerie La Station experienced a parallel nightmare. After starting to gain momentum in the U.S. market during the past few years — selling its cheeses in specialty stores in Boston, New York City and California — Trump’s tariffs suddenly made its cheese

unaffordable to Americans. The orders dried up. These wounds were still fresh in September, when three representatives of La Station drove to Jasper Hill for the party. Along with them was a special treat: the American Cheese Society’s Best of Show trophy — the continent’s highest cheesemaking honor. Like a cheese world’s version of hockey’s Stanley Cup, the trophy gets passed from one winner to the next each year. La Station won it twice in a row, in 2024 and 2025. This year, Jasper Hill took the crown for its creamy Winnimere, made with raw milk from its own cows and wrapped with a fragrant ribbon of spruce bark. The trophy usually gets shipped to the new winner. This year called for a more personal delivery, Kehler said. “We probably would have invited them one way or the other,” Kehler said, “but the fact that there was all this economic bullshit going on made it seem even more apropos and important to celebrate that we have the winningest cheeses in North America right here.” Under a party tent in a field, the cheesemakers tapped kegs of local Hill Farmstead Brewery beer and scooped up Jasper Hill mac and cheese, which blended its clothbound cheddar, velvety Whitney and nutty variety called Alpha Tolman, named for a dairy farmer who lived in the area more than a century ago. Nearby, a towering bonfire made from two years of accumulated scrap wood burned through the night and days after. When the time came to exchange the trophy, Simon-Pierre Bolduc, La Station’s head cheesemaker, delivered a speech in labored English celebrating the two groups’ mutual passion for the craft, Kehler said. “There’s no bitterness; there’s no anger,” Kehler said later, reflecting on the party. “There is an acknowledgement of this almost artificial line that runs across our landscape that separates our economies — and it’s real. But the work that we’re doing on both sides of the border is the same, and we’re doing it for the same reasons.” In other words, the artisans share a bond across borders that might serve as an antidote to politics — a hard-earned knowledge of what it takes to make a damn good cheese. ➆ Lucy Tompkins covers immigration, the border and new American communities in Vermont for Seven Days. She is a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Find out more at reportforamerica.org.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

In the Black

As Vermont’s aging morticians retire, private equity firms are quietly buying up their funeral homes and crematories B Y K E N PI CA RD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

iz Robertson Little and her husband, Robert Little, are on the youngish side for funeral directors in Vermont. Both are 33, in a state where the average mortician is in their mid-fifties. They work for Liz’s parents, Helen and Stephen Robertson, who own Sayles Funeral Home in St. Johnsbury and Guibord-Pearsons Funeral Home in Lyndonville. The Littles expect to take over the family business, Caledonia Life Services, when the Robertsons retire in the next 10 years. For more than a century, it was a common practice for a mortician to leave their funeral home to one of their children or sell it to a younger associate. Today, that’s rare. Robertson Little knows of only one other funeral director in Vermont who plans to take over the family mortuary. Increasingly, when funeral directors retire, they either close their doors, or they sell to a private equity firm that likely operates dozens of other death-related businesses across multiple states. Most of the time, the public never notices the change of ownership because the name on the building and website remains the same. But in some parts of Vermont, including the Barre-Montpelier area, nearly all the funeral homes are owned by one of two out-of-state private equity firms: Milestone Funeral Partners, in Auburn, Maine; and Rollings Funeral Service, in Peachtree City, Ga. Rollings owns more than 90 death-care businesses in 18 states, according to its website. Consumer advocates warn that consolidation in Vermont’s death-care industry could lead to higher prices and fewer options for customers, as has happened in other states. But some funeral professionals see potential upsides to private equity’s entry into Vermont, including more lucrative retirement options for aging morticians who don’t have succession plans and better compensation and working conditions for their younger employees. “I’m trying to keep an open mind,” Robert Little said. “I don’t necessarily view what’s happening right now as a terrible thing or a great thing. It’s just what’s happening.” Private equity firms are investment management companies that pool the money of wealthy individuals and

BUSINESS

JIM DUVAL

institutional investors to purchase and run a business, streamline its operations, then (usually) sell it at a profit a few years later. In recent years, private equity firms have expanded into virtually every sector of the U.S. economy, including preschools, mining, restaurant chains, water treatment plants, youth sports leagues and mobile home parks. In Vermont, they’ve bought up nursing homes, addiction treatment centers and, as Seven Days reported in June, veterinary clinics. Among the state’s private equity-owned vet clinics, prices have largely gone up. From an investment standpoint, death care offers long-term earning potential. Funeral homes and crematories have virtually recession-proof revenue streams, and many towns and cities have at least one. (Vermont’s Office of Professional Regulation lists 50 registered funeral homes, though some of those have multiple

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

locations.) As most funeral directors will attest, their livelihood is based primarily on proximity and word-of-mouth recommendations. Unlike customers of other businesses, theirs rarely shop around for the lowest price; instead, they go to the nearest funeral home or the one that handled a relative or friend in the past. Death care is anything but a dying industry, given the state’s aging demographics. According to U.S. Census data, nearly 25 percent of Vermonters are 65 or older, a figure that is projected to grow in the coming decades. With the oldest baby boomers entering their eighties, private equity firms, which only moved into Vermont’s deathcare industry in the past five years, seek to reap profits in funeral homes, crematories, cemeteries, casket manufacturers and alternative burial options. Funeral homes and crematories are also ripe for consolidation. Nationally,

about 75 percent of them are small and independently owned, and most employ fewer than five people, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. These mom-and-pop operations are facing economic pressures. In recent years, consumers have soured on traditional funerals and burials in favor of direct cremation, eroding funeral homes’ profit margins. Whereas a traditional full-service burial in Vermont costs, on average, $8,200, direct cremation runs about $2,300, according to the consumer advocacy website Funeralocity. As a result, many independent funeral homes are saddled with debt and maintenance costs on infrastructure — buildings, hearses, embalming rooms — that are used far less often than in years past. When Chris Palermo, former president of the Vermont Funeral Directors Association, entered the mortuary profess ion

LIGHTING in the 1970s, 90 percent of his work was traditional funerals and burials; cremations accounted for only 10 percent. By 2020, when he retired and sold his business, Perkins-Parker Funeral Home in Waterbury, those numbers had nearly reversed: 80 to 85 percent of his clients chose direct cremations, he said, a reflection of national trends. Of the state’s 15 crematories, seven have been purchased by out-of-state corporations or private equity firms. Perkins-Parker is now owned by Milestone Funeral Partners, a private equity firm that operates 119 funeral homes, crematories and cemeteries throughout New England and upstate New York, including 12 in Vermont. Milestone’s largest shareholder is Rosewood Private Investments, the private equity arm of Rosewood Corporation, a multibilliondollar enterprise headquartered in Dallas. Rosewood’s other holdings include companies that provide services in IT, nutrition and wellness; fuel equipment distribution; and aerospace and defense contracting. Milestone CEO Michael Martel is a licensed funeral director in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. He and his partner, Timothy “TJ” Smart, cofounded the firm in 2021 after decades in the funeral industry. Martel spent 23 years at Service Corporation International, North America’s largest provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services. (SCI was heavily satirized in the HBO hit series “Six Feet Under” for its aggressive practices of buying up, or driving out of business, small, family-owned mortuaries.) But Martel, whose firm entered its first partnership in Vermont when it purchased Pruneau-Polli Funeral Home in Barre in December 2021, paints Milestone as a kinder and gentler company, one that’s in it for the long haul. “We’re both country funeral directors, and we saw an opportunity there,” Martel said. By buying up small, rural and suburban funeral homes and consolidating their operations — accounting, billing, purchasing, embalming — with others nearby, he explained, operators can reduce overhead, enabling Milestone to offer perks that most independent funeral homes cannot: paid internships, tuition reimbursement for mortuary school, health insurance and continuing education opportunities. Milestone even allows its funeral directors to earn equity in the company and become partners. “We think that we offer something that is hard to come by in the industry,” Martel added. Like many consumer-facing businesses, Vermont funeral homes struggle

to find workers. And in a profession where the owner-operator may be on call 24-7, maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be difficult. Consolidation has allowed Milestone to provide workers with predictable schedules and more time off. “Those modest gains, when put together, lead to a stabilizing of a business,” Martell added. But not everyone sees private equity’s arrival in Vermont as a good undertaking. Tom Harty, vice president of the Vermont Funeral Directors Association, was working for Hale Funeral Home & Cremation Care in Bradford when it was acquired by Milestone a few years ago. He left shortly thereafter and is no longer practicing.

YOU LOSE FLEXIBILITY AND ABILITY TO SERVE YOUR FAMILIES THE WAY YOU’D LIKE TO SERVE THEM. YOU SERVE THEM THE WAY THE CORPORATION WANTS YOU TO SERVE THEM. TO M H AR TY

“It’s like any other consolidated industry,” Harty said. “It all hinges on the dollar.” Hale noted that all the funeral homes in the Barre-Montpelier area are now owned by Milestone. If a consumer wants to go with an independent one, he said, “You have no other choices except to leave town.” Among the first things private equity firms do, he said, is raise prices. For years, the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit industry watchdog group once based in South Burlington, conducted annual price surveys in Vermont, but it no longer has a chapter in the state. However, anecdotal reports suggest that funeral and burial prices have been rising faster than inflation. Rachel Bishop, a funeral director at the independently owned Day Funeral Home in Randolph, heard from colleagues in the Barre-Montpelier area that cremation services there shot up from $1,995 to $3,500 in two years. Bishop knows of one funeral home client in Northfield whose mother’s funeral, in 2025, cost $4,000 more than the father’s in 2023. Bishop previously worked for LaVigne Funeral Home in Winooski, which owned

a group of funeral homes that Milestone has since purchased. She said she left because she “saw the writing on the wall” as the company consolidated its operations with other funeral homes in the region. There were other changes that troubled her. To reduce overhead, the company got rid of its prep room in its Northfield funeral home. If Bishop picked up a body in Northfield that marytapogna.com • Lyndonville, VT needed to be embalmed and casketed, the body had to be driven more than an hour to Winooski for preparation. That not only added transportation costs, she16t-hailmary102826.indd 1 10/23/26 2:07 PM said, but also meant that more people were responsible for the deceased, increasing the chance of errors. Different employees would often take the initial phone call from the bereaved family, pick up the body and prepare it for burial. “You’re slowly losing touch with the people sitting across the table from you. 14 East Street, Waterbury, VT 05676 That was concerning,” Bishop said. “It’s 3 bedroom, not what I got into this business to do.” 2 bath, April St. Onge, who runs the Funeral .48 acres Consumers Alliance in North Carolina, fields complaints from all around the Raised Ranch in wonderful country. The most serious ones, she said, neighborhood and not in the flood zone. Near schools, typically involve large corporate- or shopping, world class skiing, private equity-owned funeral homes that biking, breweries, and dining. showed a lack of care for families or didn’t honor prepaid contracts. “From a consumer standpoint, when Call Filomena Siner at 802-498-5407 these large corporations buy up small or filomenasiner@vtregroup.com mom-and-pop funeral homes, the bottom line changes,” she said. “They’re mostly looking at their return on investment.” 12v-filomenasiner102128.indd 1 10/15/26 5:39 PM Harty, at the Vermont Funeral Directors Association, recognizes that private equity firms offer older morticians a way to recoup their investments, especially if there’s no family member or young associate to buy them out. But almost every owner-operator he knows who’s gone to SAT., NOVEMBER 7 • 10AM-4PM work for a private equity firm has left after a short period of time. Hazen Union High School, Their model has become “cookie Hardwick, VT cutter,” he said. “You lose flexibility and RAFFLE TO BENEFIT THE ability to serve your families the way LAMOILLE AREA CANCER NETWORK you’d like to serve them. You serve them Reiki • Massage • Bodywork the way the corporation wants you to VT-Made Wellness Products serve them.” Healing Stones • Jewelry • Aura Photos What about the more regular hours Tarot or Angel Card Readings and better pay they promise? Astrology • Individual Medium “That was one of the lures hung out Sessions & more! there that never materialized,” Harty For vendor info, contact Monica at said. “I don’t know a single person who monicalmorrissey@gmail.com. switched to Milestone who isn’t working harder and longer hours for less money.” As for Liz Robertson Little at Cale9/9/26 10:45 AM donia Life Services, she noted that her12v-intuitivewellness102826.indd 1 say you saw it in parents received a sales pitch from Milestone to sell their business. Their reply, she said: “No, thank you.” ➆

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food+drink

Café Culture Sampling Chittenden County’s latest batch of coffee shops

B Y J O R D AN BAR RY, MELISSA PASAN E N & CAROLYN S H AP IR O • food@sevendaysvt.com

hat makes a good café? The criteria depend on the coffee drinker. Maybe you’re a purist who’s obsessed with direct sourcing of single-origin beans. Maybe you’re a nerd, in which case you’re all about the latest laboratory-like brewing method. Or maybe you prefer a place that serves up sweet and seasonal drinks, with comfy couches upon which to plop and enjoy them. The latest batch of cafés to open around Chittenden County isn’t fussy. None of them has a pour-over on the menu or a siphon behind the bar. But they all make a good cup of coffee — or tea, if that’s your thing. And alongside the lattes and local pastries, they serve a big dose of charm, from interactive art to stacks of books. We headed to five spots that opened this year to sip seasonal lattes, dirty sodas, classic espresso drinks and cold-foam chai. At each, we found a bonus element — something beyond the beverages — that helps bring people in.

Owner Michael Chase, 31, is a painter himself, and he spent nearly a decade serving in restaurants. With his taller-than-it-is-wide café, which opened in the former Cosmic Grind and Speeder & Earl’s Coffee space in August, he’s bringing a bit of quirk back to Church Street, along with what he calls “the three Cs.” “We’re all about coffee, community and connection,” Chase said. Two months in, Artemus already feels like it’s been there forever: Objets d’art cover every available surface, giving the place a lived-in look that usually takes decades to accomplish. I stopped by on a rainy Wednesday and found Lyden rocking out to the It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown soundtrack. I ordered a Miel latte with cinnamon and honey ($7.75, no upcharge for oat milk), which Lyden served with the foam poured into a pumpkin design instead of the standard latte-art leaf. They presented it with a flourish before topping my drink with extra cinnamon and local honey. I slowly sipped the cozy drink, forgoing one of the three small tables to browse the gallery walls. Sometimes, Chase told me, people come in just to look. While the café technically funds the museum, there’s no purchase necessary — and admission is free. I’ll go back, for both the coffee and the art. Artemus uses beans from Brio Coffeeworks, and the Burlington roastery’s pros have trained the team well in steaming milk and pulling shots. A small food selection — mostly pastries — includes Haymaker Bun’s brioche buns on the weekend. In the spring, Chase hopes to add a creemee machine. He’ll also add a bit more indoor seating this winter — whatever will fit. “It’s all to keep the art going,” Chase said.

ARTEMUS ALREADY FEELS LIKE IT’S BEEN THERE FOREVER.

The Art of Coffee Artemus Café, 104 Church St., #1A, Burlington, artemuscafe.com

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SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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At the newest coffee shop on the Church Street Marketplace, Quigley Lyden juggles the tasks of order taking and coffee making. The barista is also, literally, a juggler: Lyden often performs in front of Artemus Café, using a touch of circus magic to draw customers into the tiny spot. Once inside, the curious will find more than coffee: Artemus is also home to the Burlington Art Mini Museum. Its 380 square feet — mostly vertical — are covered in paintings, pottery and other pieces from 22 artists, about a third of which are for sale. Prompts on an easel out front encourage customers to express their creative side, such as the recent seasonally apropos directive to “draw something spooky.”

LUKE AWTRY

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Quigley Lyden juggling coffee cups outside Artemus Café

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BREWERIES

Vermont Pub & Brewery to Close The trailblazing Burlington brewpub was the first of its kind in Vermont. It will close next month after 38 years. B Y J O RD AN BARRY • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

Vermont will soon be without the trailblazing brewpub that helped launch the state’s craft-beer movement. On Monday, the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington announced that it will close at the end of service on November 14, just days after its 38th anniversary. “Since 2020, we’ve struggled to get back to the level of business that is necessary to sustain our operation, and unfortunately we just don’t have the resources to hold out any longer for that day to come,” the social media post said. When Greg and Nancy Noonan opened the Vermont Pub & Brewery at 144 College Street in fall 1988, there were only 11 brewpubs in the United States. The business model — brewing and serving beer for immediate consumption in the same facility — had been outlawed in Vermont since Prohibition. Greg Noonan and the late Bill Mares, then a state legislator, drafted changes to state law that made brewpubs legal when they were passed in spring 1988. “VPB was a mecca and a classroom for home brewers,” Seven Days wrote on the occasion of its 25th anniversary in 2013. It also helped launch the careers of many Vermont brewers, including the Alchemist’s John Kimmich and Glenn Walter of Burlington’s Three Needs Tap Room & Pizza Cube, both of whom worked for Noonan in the mid-1990s. Noonan died from cancer in 2009 at age 58. After his death, his longtime friend and business partner Steve Polewacyk kept the spacious corner restaurant and its 14-barrel brewery

buzzing. Vermont Pub & Brewery is now co-owned by longtime employees Elise Pecor and Scott Gawitt, who is also its brewmaster. “It’s hard to tell the story of Vermont craft beer without starting with Vermont Pub & Brewery,” Vermont Brewers Association executive director Emma Arian said in a tribute to the business posted on Monday night. “And while Greg’s legacy is an important part of VPB’s story, so are the people who have carried it forward.” The brewpub’s owners did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At an August meeting of Burlington business owners and Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, Pecor was outspoken about the challenges the brewpub was facing. Pecor “described an impossible task of keeping their patio clear and staff safe,” WCAX-TV reported. “‘We’ve had someone defecate on our patio three days in a row,’ Pecor said, adding that foot traffic is down 20% from last year, which was already a bad year.” For customers looking to sip a final pint of Burly Irish Ale, Forbidden Fruit or Handsome Mick’s Irish Stout, the brewpub will offer beer and food specials in its final days. “Greg’s legacy does not end with the closing of VPB,” the social media announcement said, “but he will live on in our hearts and in every sip of Vermont craft beer and beyond.” ➆

INFO

Learn more at vermontbrewery.com.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Café Culture « P.34

From left: A dirty soda, orangealmond-olive oil cake and a macchiato at Café Napoli

Cake and Community Café Napoli, 163 Cherry St., Burlington, cafenapolivt.com

PHOTOS: LUKE AWTRY

Dante Seguino is both surprised and not at all surprised to find himself the owner of an Italian-accented coffee bar in his hometown. The 33-year-old grew up hearing stories about his grandfather’s Neapolitan roots and the Italian restaurants his grandparents ran in Maine. In his twenties, Seguino rose from barista to manager of the former Speeder & Earl’s Coffee outpost on Church Street (now home to Artemus Café) and then worked at Burlington’s Trattoria Delia. Hospitality was “part of the character of all the people in my life,” he said. But Seguino never imagined he’d become a small business owner. “My mom’s a Marxist economist,” he said with a grin. “I called them ‘small business tyrants’ when I was growing up.” Still, when Seguino decided to open a café on Cherry Street in the space most recently occupied by the Lucky You dispensary, his mom, retired University of Vermont professor Stephanie Seguino, was all in. Since Napoli’s Memorial Day weekend opening, Stephanie has contributed cakes baked in her inspected home kitchen. These include a tender, zesty orange-almond-olive oil cake

($4.50 per slice), which happens to be gluten and dairy-free; a gluten-free lemon-pistachio cake ($5.50 per slice); and an apple-yogurt cake ($3.50). Other baked goods come from nearby Belleville Bakery & Catering. Coffee drinks, such as the perfect

foam-dolloped macchiato ($4) I had on a recent visit, are skillfully pulled on a high-end, Italian-made La Marzocco machine and brewed with beans from Montgomery’s Big Jay Roasting. Among non-caffeinated options, Napoli offers dirty sodas — a concoction featured on

Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” — made with soda, flavored syrup and heavy cream. Instead of soda, the café uses plain seltzer. Dante recommended his favorite bitter orange and coconut syrup blend ($5 for 12 ounces) and explained he’s no bandwagon

Kind Fortune

a blender. The layered effect looks particularly good online, and “they took off,” Amaya said. “We were shocked.” “We ran out of so much heavy cream,” she added. “I bought everything they had at Shaw’s and Market 32.” Cold foam has remained popular ever since, Amaya said. The café offers marshmallow, pumpkin and salted maple flavors for fall. I’m usually a black iced coffee person, but I let myself be influenced and, despite the ubiquity of all things pumpkin spice this time of year, ordered a pumpkin spice chai ($7.50 for small, $8.50 for large). Made with excellent masala chai concentrate from Fairfax’s Sweet Alchemy, the iced drink, topped with pumpkin cold foam and an extra dusting of autumnal spice, was anything but basic. Clover’s seasonal drinks aren’t the only thing that’s sweet: At the recommendation of a regular, the café installed a “kindness board” over the summer. The

Clover Café, 510 Shelburne Rd., South Burlington, clovercafevt.com

Clover Café is on my commuting route, but before I saw the lights on inside, I learned that it had opened from TikTok. The chic, white-tiled café — with pops of shamrock green in the furnishings — appropriately launched on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. Owned by siblings Amaya and Wolf Baustert, 28 and 30, Clover serves Brio Coffeeworks espresso drinks and local treats from Haymaker Bun, Sweet Alchemy, Krin’s Bakery, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Honeymoon Kitchens and other Vermont businesses. But the most popular item at Clover is cold foam. In the café’s second week, I saw a social media influencer’s video on TikTok highlighting one of Clover’s iced lattes topped with the smooth, dense cloud of heavy cream, which baristas combine with seasonal flavors and gently whip in

CLOVER’S SEASONAL DRINKS AREN’T THE ONLY THING THAT’S SWEET.

A pumpkin spice chai at Clover Café

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

food+drink

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Dante Seguino serving a customer

COFFEE DRINKS ARE SKILLFULLY PULLED ON A HIGH-END, ITALIAN-MADE LA MARZOCCO MACHINE. fan: He was first introduced to dirty sodas about a decade ago by Mormons he met at wilderness therapy camp in Utah. “They helped me at a difficult time of my life,” he said. Dante aims to support young people in his own way. He fondly remembers

spending lots of time as a teen at the long-gone 242 Main and downtown mall. He hopes his café, with its hangawhile atmosphere and unlimited Wi-Fi, can “grow into a good little community space.”

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M . P.

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bulletin board is covered with note cards representing drinks or treats purchased by customers for a future recipient, such as “a coffee for someone who lost a pet recently” or “a cold latte for someone who did something brave this week.” Anyone is welcome to take a card that

resonates, Amaya said. And people do, at least a couple of times a day. The board has been so well received that she had to add pushpins to the heavy cream on her online shopping list.

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Café Culture « P.37

French toast with a side of bacon and a dirty chai

Wake and Bake Meadow Roast Café, 1 Market Pl., Building 3, Unit 25, Essex, 802-662-5352, meadowroastcafe.com

PHOTOS: MELISSA PASANEN

Meadow Roast Café owner Toney Edmonds is glad he doesn’t have to get to work at his new coffee shop until 5:30 or 6 a.m. Compared to the many 2 and 3 a.m. starts over his long restaurant career at national chains such as the French-style bakery and café la Madeleine, “That’s sleeping in,” he said. The day still starts pretty early at Meadow Roast, which opened in late March in the Essex Towne Marketplace off Susie Wilson Road. Rare among local cafés, the small team makes all

the pastries in-house daily. Beautifully moist and spiced dark rum-and-pumpkin mini loaves ($5.25) and chunky, chocolate-studded “brookies” (half brownie and half chocolate chip cookie, $3.75) fly out of the case, said Edmonds, 55. The café usually stocks one or two items, such

as a lemon-thyme mini loaf ($5.25), made without gluten. The full kitchen also turns out hot, cooked-to-order breakfasts, such as a substantial breakfast bowl ($9.25) of scrambled eggs, roasted sweet potatoes and cheddar. At lunch, choices include

CAROLYN SHARPIRO

DARIA BISHOP

Toney Edmonds with housemade baked goods at Meadow Roast Café

Above left (clockwise from left): A grilled veggie focaccia sandwich, an iced salted-caramel latte with maple sugar, blueberry lemonade, a chocolate croissant, a lemon-lavender-honey cupcake, a brown-butter tart and a latte at Wild Meadows Books & Café. Right: A display of books

Perks and Pages Wild Meadows Books & Café, 27 Market St., Williston, 802-755-5986, wildmeadowsbooks.com

Books take up most of the floor space at Wild Meadows Books & Café, but the coffee drinks and food are hardly a postscript. The café brews beans from 38

Mocha Joe’s Roasting in Brattleboro and serves pastries, snacks and a few sandwiches, including a selection made especially for the shop by South Burlington’s Mirabelles Bakery. The drink menu also includes wine and beer, and the café hosts a full calendar of evening events and gatherings.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Susan and Rick Cote, owners of the Williston Observer weekly newspaper, opened Wild Meadows in late June in Finney Crossing shopping center. Susan, 65, knows coffee. She worked for 10 years at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, now Keurig Dr Pepper, and scoured Vermont for the roaster that suited her for Wild Meadows.

“We tasted a lot of really good coffee,” said Rick, 59. Mocha Joe’s, they discovered, wasn’t on the menu at most other Chittenden County cafés. Wild Meadows emphasizes seasonal drinks infused with syrups, most made in-house from scratch. The early fall menu included a rosemary-cardamom

food+drink

M . P.

MELISSA PASANEN

SIDEdishes SERVING UP FOOD NEWS

Onyx Tonics to Make Downtown Burlington Move After a Decade JASON GONZALEZ is moving his 10-year-old ONYX TONICS from its current downtown

C. S.

Burlington spot at 126 College Street to 77 Pine Street, less than two blocks away. The new location was an outpost of KESTREL COFFEE ROASTERS from March 2022 until mid-April of this year. The two-time United Kingdom coffee-tasting champion said he was drawn to the Pine Street café for its “tall ceilings and nice big windows.” Gonzalez, 42, anticipates that the move to a slightly smaller space than his current one will allow staff to refocus on coffee over other offerings, such as pastries. “We’re a good coffee shop but a bad café,” he joked. Onyx uses a broad range of singleorigin beans sourced from Vermont roasters, including ABRACADABRA COFFEE in Woodstock, BRIO COFFEEWORKS in Burlington, DUCHESS COFFEE in Brattleboro and LITTLE SEED COFFEE ROASTERS in Middlebury. Gonzalez also recently launched his own line of beans, which he sells by the bag at the café. He selects and

CONNECT Follow us for the latest food gossip! On Instagram: Jordan Barry: @jordankbarry; Melissa Pasanen: @mpasanen.

roasts what he called “rarer” coffees, such as Granja Paraíso 92’s orange bourbon variety from Colombia, which he described as “floral, aromatic and sweet.” Onyx beans are roasted at CARRIER ROASTING’s Waterbury facility in an electric roaster, which Gonzalez said has environmental benefits over more traditional gas-powered roasters. Wednesday, October 28, is the café’s final day of operation on College Street; Gonzalez said he hopes to reopen in the new space the week of November 9.

Customers enjoying glasses of wine on the Westford Provisions porch

M E L I S S A PAS AN E N

FILE: STEVE MEASE

and a salted caramel latte. When I visited, I’d just seen a Wild Meadows Instagram post promoting its London Fog, a tea latte made with lavender syrup, which inspired me to order an iced honey-lavender espresso version with oat milk ($7.25). My drink wasn’t too syrupy. The flavors were subtle and well balanced — not always the case with specialty lattes, which can sometimes taste more like the enhancements than the coffee. I paired it with an irresistible fall offering: pumpkin bread pudding ($5.50). It was amazingly light and moist, offsetting the squash with cinnamon-spiced sweetness. This treat, whipped up in-house, stood up impressively to the Mirabelles baked goods. On another recent visit for an evening event, I skipped the caffeine to savor a cold apple cider, topped with a delightful, pillowy foam of slightly sweetened coconut milk and drizzled caramel ($6.75). I plopped onto a couch in the café area, where the comfy furniture and ample tables encourage lingering, sipping and, of course, reading — making the most of Wild Meadows’ coffee-books combo.

North Main Street in St. Albans in a former location of Feldman’s Bagels. Feldman’s closed that location and its flagship Burlington bakery on Pine Street abruptly on June 18. TAMARA and KYLE FERSING owned a bagel business in Colorado before moving to Vermont and buying the Burlington Bagel Bakery on Shelburne Road in South Burlington more than 25 years ago. They have since been joined by their daughter, AVERY, and son, HAYDEN, and have bought and converted the former Bruegger’s Bagels on Burlington’s Church Street and the Bagel Market Bakery & Café on Essex’s Susie Wilson Road to their brand. Their Williston bakery was formerly a Friendly’s. Avery said the family is renovating the St. Albans space and hopes to open this winter.

Jason Gonzalez at Onyx Tonics

COURTESY

classic sandwiches, salads and a rotation of from-scratch soups and chilis, from vegetarian coconut curry ($7.75) to a hearty meat-and-bean tailgate chili ($8.75). (The latter, Edmonds noted, is quite spicy.) Due to capacity constraints, the café’s 12 seats are in the darker rear section of the otherwise bright, large-windowed spot. I sat down to a hefty plate of French toast ($9) and found that the very thickly cut Stewart’s Bakery challah could have used a slightly longer soak in its batter. But I drenched it with maple syrup and relished the side of crisp bacon ($4.50), along with Edmonds’ recommendation of a dirty chai ($7 for 16 ounces). After his years working in national chains, Edmonds delights in the chance to celebrate local connections in his first solo venture. He sources beans from Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea in Waterbury Center and mugs from Luke Iannuzzi Pottery in Warren. When customers ask if the maple syrup is from Vermont, he often quips, “Isn’t that a law here?”

Hayden Fersing of Burlington Bagel Bakery

Crumbs: Burlington Bagel Bakery Adds St. Albans Location; Westford Provisions Closes The FERSING FAMILY has announced it will open a fifth BURLINGTON BAGEL BAKERY, its first outside Chittenden County. The newest addition will be located at 133

Westford Provisions, the country store near Westford Town Common, closed permanently on September 30. Kimberly Harris and Jim Salimeno launched the biz in June 2025 with local specialty food and beverages, a deli, a bakery, Ruby’s Ice Cream, and the Black Orchid Coffee bar. This summer, offerings expanded to include a seasonal outdoor bar on the wraparound porch. In a comment on the social media post sharing the news, the co-owners wrote, “We are so sad and heartbroken to take this magical little store away from the community. We have done everything possible to keep our doors open.” Harris told Seven Days that the closure was due to “economic circumstances,” including rising food and fuel costs, paying adult employees a living wage and trying to keep prices affordable for customers. “It just didn’t line up,” she said.

M.P. & JO RDAN BARRY

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

COURTESY OF BEOWULF SHEEHAN

culture FROM ALICE SEES GHOSTS Since her early childhood, Alice had always disappointed her mother with her steadfast self-sufficiency. “She’s like a goddamned independent nation-state,” she had once overheard Clare complaining to someone at a party. This independence of Alice’s had seemed a further affront to Clare after her husband had left her. He had not needed her, and neither had her daughter, her supposed dependant. Clare desired to be needed by someone, or to be needed for something, but her corrosive wit and apparent disdain for her fellow man made true intimacy nearly impossible. In addition, Alice felt Clare had always considered herself above work of any kind. She had not received any education or training beyond secondary school, for which she’d had a rudimentary finishing-school education. Rather than training her mind or teaching her skills, her education had simply provided a thin lacquer that had hardened and grown brittle over time. It was this brittleness that contributed to Alice’s independence. She had always sensed that if she asked too much of her mother, Clare might crack, and then Alice would be left with no one to sign permission forms, and no one to enroll her in school, when she went.

Daisy Rockwell

Haunting Season Book review: Alice Sees Ghosts, Daisy Rockwell B Y M ARG OT HAR RI S ON • margot@sevendaysvt.com

an haunting be benevolent? That’s the question posed by Alice Sees Ghosts, the second novel from Bennington author, visual artist and translator Daisy Rockwell. Despite its Halloween-adjacent U.S. release date, the book is more comedy of manners than horror tale. But it does evoke an eerie sense that everything we do is haunted by the specters of our forebears. The novel opens with three generations of one family living in a “huge, peculiar, decaying house in the woods of western Massachusetts.” Alice Bloodshaw clings to her beloved dying grandmother, Nanette, while trying to avoid her abrasive, alcoholic mother, Clare. While Nanette’s speech has been impaired by strokes, Alice recently began talking again after a “lengthy spell” of muteness brought on by the toxic motherdaughter dynamic. Ronit Roy, the psychiatrist hired to treat Alice, instead fell in love and proposed to her. He’s naturally concerned when his fiancée tells him she recently met the ghost

BOOKS

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

of her grandfather while rambling through the family manse. Grandfather, Alice believes, wants to send her a message. Ronit tries to distract her, fearing for her sanity — until he learns the ghost was pointing to a map of India, where Grandfather ran a business while alive. Real or not, the specter has given Ronit the perfect pretext for a trip home to Kolkata so Alice can meet his own family — and find out what the ghost meant. After Nanette’s death, the couple set off, and the novel’s pace speeds up. Clues lead Ronit and Alice to a Himalayan cottage, where they make a discovery that precipitates a train of other revelations and, eventually, helps heal rifts in Alice’s strange and secretive family. Rockwell clearly knows something about the weight of legacy. The granddaughter of artist Norman Rockwell, in 2012 she released a work called The Little Book of Terror — featuring painted portraits of terrorists — that inspired conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s website the Blaze to accuse her of not “following in her grandfather’s footsteps.” In a Seven Days interview at the time, the artist challenged that right-wing interpretation of her famous

grandfather’s legacy, noting that some of his later works evoke the cultural turbulence of his era. Rockwell is also a renowned Hindi-Urdu translator, winner of such honors as the Bukhman International Booker Prize. The descriptions in Alice Sees Ghosts are full of authority and acumen, whether she’s writing about Indian street vendors, a grubby American diner or the elites of both cultures: Ronit’s loving, scholarly family and Alice’s repressed, deeply fractured one. For Alice, legacy is a mixed blessing: She’s sole heir to the dregs of the family fortune, but the stuffy lifestyle of those who amassed it is foreign to her. With equal parts wit and bemusement, Rockwell chronicles the eccentricities of “New Englanders of patrician mien and crumbling pedigrees” — their horror of emotions, their response to all delicate questions with “sarcastic ripostes that tended to lead one ever further from the truth.” Despite Alice’s unconventional upbringing by the unstable Clare, she remains a product of that patrician ethos, from her “impenetrable” affect to her knee-jerk dislike of modern conveniences such as the internet. Having “had very little exposure to people who were employed,” we learn, Alice is baffled whenever Ronit expresses reluctance to drop everything and chase her obsessions: “She had a hard time understanding things like work ethic and the responsibilities of a doctor.” With tart asides like that, Rockwell keeps Alice Sees Ghosts from becoming as detached from reality as Alice herself is. Shifting third-person narration grounds the story, with tension and humor arising from the contrast between Alice’s whimsy and Ronit’s pragmatism. “In [Ronit’s] imagination,” Rockwell writes, “Alice spent much of her time wandering about the apartment, a novel held loosely in her hand, dreaming about her next obsession.” Romantic as that may sound, both Ronit and the reader will learn that Alice’s oddness is a trauma response as much as a choice. In many ways, the pair are opposites, yet Ronit loves Alice for her icy remove, which reminds him of his HAUNTING SEASON

» P.44

FILE: LUKE AWTRY

Peter Edelmann

BUSINESS

Essex Experience Goes Up for Sale B Y KE N P I C ARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

Peter Edelmann, longtime owner of the Essex Experience, has put his shopping center on the market for $27.75 million. The entrepreneur and developer, who transformed a dying outlet mall into a vibrant retail hub, plans to stick around and focus his energies on several passion projects already in the works. They include a new entertainment complex at the Essex Experience as well as a foodand medicinal plant-themed retreat at the nearby Essex Resort & Spa, which he also owns. “I’m aging out,” said Edelmann, who is 73. “There are things I want to see happen that I could do if I stayed with it, but then I’d be 80. There are too many other things I want to do.” Edelmann isn’t selling the entire shopping center, now made up of locally owned shops, salons, cafés, a cidery and a brewery-distillery. He will continue to own and operate Essex Cinemas, which he plans to upgrade, and the Double E performance center, a music venue and entertainment space. “Money’s the driver for sure,” he said of the planned sale, noting that he has built up a lot of equity but struggled with cash flow, especially during the pandemic. Edelmann has also invested heavily in upgrades at the nearby resort, with renewable energy projects and a new banquet hall and event space. He will maintain minority ownership stakes in several of the shopping center’s businesses, including Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Uncommon Coffee, Purple Salt Spa & Salon, the Bramble restaurant, and Magic Mann Premium Cannabis. “The children are all growing up,” he said with a chuckle, referring to the businesses he helped incubate. “I want to

make sure that whoever buys it is … going to hold true to what we’ve done.” Edelmann’s latest projects include a new entertainment center, called Phun, now under construction in 15,000 square feet of space next to the Hannaford supermarket at the Essex Experience. Phun will feature duckpin bowling; Krazy Darts, a high-tech dart game involving video projections; an arcade with both modern and retro video games; and a sports bar and dining room. He described the theme of Phun as “competitive socializing.” At the Essex Resort & Spa, Edelmann has broken ground on a retreat center that will include culinary and medicinal gardens. He is collaborating with Rosemary Gladstar of Milton, whom he called “the fairy godmother of the herbal world.” Business owners in the Essex Experience have been notified that the shopping center is for sale, though no interested buyers have come forward. “I will still be a tenant, and we’ll all be in the same boat,” Edelmann added. “I want to make sure that whoever buys it will have a few guardrails … and [tenants] will not be priced out.” Edelmann purchased the financially beleaguered inn and then-dying strip mall in 1993 and began trying various approaches to make those spaces more community-oriented and commercially viable. That evolution took decades, but today the Essex Experience is filled almost entirely with locally owned businesses. Edelmann’s focus on sustainability and renewable energy has attracted international attention, and he said he is regularly contacted by out-of-state developers who want him to replicate the Essex Experience model. Edelmann emphasized that after 33 years as a landlord, he’s not slowing down, just shifting his priorities. As he put it, “I’ve been a shepherd long enough.” ➆

INFO

Learn more at essexexperience.com.

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culture

The Twin Paradox

A new book tackles an age-old question: Why are Vermont and New Hampshire politically so different? BY K E N P IC AR D • ken@sevendaysvt.com

ermont’s state motto is “Freedom and Unity.” New Hampshire’s is “Live Free or Die.” Those seven words speak volumes about the differences between the New England neighbors, which share a watery border and similar topography but little else. Vermont, home to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has no Dairy Queen outlets, whereas New Hampshire has more than a dozen. New Hampshire has more places to buy a HarleyDavidson motorcycle; the Green Mountain State, twice as many stores to buy Birkenstocks. But the differences extend far beyond hogs and sandals. In New Hampshire, someone can buy a motorcycle without paying sales tax, then drive it through a billboarded landscape sans helmet, a reflection of the state’s libertarian leanings. Vermont, which banned billboards in 1968, has among the country’s highest tax burdens — and one of its most generous social safety nets. Vermont now votes reliably blue, with independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders zigzagging the country to campaign on behalf of progressive-leaning candidates, many of whom identify as democratic socialists. Meanwhile, New Hampshire remains a purple swing state, drawing national attention as the first state to vote in presidential primaries. Like Vermont, it has a Republican governor and a Democratic Congressional delegation. But unlike Vermont’s, its state legislature is controlled by Republicans. How did the two neighbors, which fit together like yin and yang and are strikingly similar in size, shape and demographics, develop such divergent political tendencies? In his new book, Twin States, Different Paths: The Politics of New Hampshire and Vermont, author Brian L. Porto argues that those identities were forged from different “raw materials of political culture” back in the 18th century. The early divergence still manifests in each state’s priorities today, with New Hampshire prizing freedom from government and Vermont, community and cooperation. “In New Hampshire they fight taxes,” he said in an interview. “In Vermont, Walmarts.” Porto, 74, is a professor emeritus of law at Vermont Law & Graduate School and has worked in both states. A New York native who moved to Vermont in 1990, he has published several previous books on legal topics. Seven Days spoke to Porto recently from his home in Windsor.

BOOKS

How did Vermont and New Hampshire differ early on in their history? For one, New Hampshire was settled almost 150 years before Vermont. And each state got very different gifts from Mother Nature. New Hampshire is essentially a large river valley. You’ve got the Piscataqua River in the east, the Merrimack River in the center and the Connecticut River in the west. 42

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

New Hampshire got great water power but lousy soil. So New Hampshire’s farmers gave up the ghost pretty early. By the middle of the 19th century, there began to be a large exodus off the farms. The boys tended to go west for better land, and their sisters often went to work in the mills of Lowell, Mass., or Nashua and Manchester, N.H. Vermont remained agrarian much longer. Because Vermont’s small farming towns couldn’t support their schools, roads and other services, after the Civil War they began demanding help from the state in a big way. That didn’t happen to the same extent in New Hampshire. It became more industrial, especially having access to seaports. And the presence of the seaport had a couple of big consequences: One was that, beginning in the colonial era, New Hampshire developed social cleavages.

Ship captains and merchants got very wealthy and built palatial homes that you can still see if you take a tour of Portsmouth, whereas farmers in the interior were generally poor and doing subsistence agriculture. That created a social discord in New Hampshire that didn’t exist in Vermont. It’s why the back-to-the-land folks in the 1960s and ’70s mostly didn’t go to New Hampshire. They went to Vermont because they wanted to do old-fashioned agriculture. Have New Hampshire and Vermont always been so different? They haven’t always been as different as they are now. Both were overwhelmingly Republican states for over 100 years, beginning in the 1850s. In the late 1950s Vermont started to make slight moves to the left. Robert Larrow, the gubernatorial candidate for the Democrats in 1952, lost, but he got a much higher percentage of the vote than any Democratic candidate had for 100 years. In 1958, Democrat William Meyer won the U.S. House seat for the first time in over a century. Then, in 1962, Phil Hoff became the first Democrat to win as governor since 1853. And then we launched into an interesting scenario whereby every time a long-term incumbent governor of one party retired, they were replaced by a member of the opposing party. It started when Hoff retired in 1969 and was replaced by Deane Davis, a Republican. We have continued that pattern ever since.

IN NEW HAMPSHIRE THEY FIGHT TAXES.

IN VERMONT, WALMARTS. BR IAN P O R TO

When did New Hampshire become a “purple” state? It started to change in the 1960s and ’70s, brought on by high-tech industries leaving Massachusetts and going to New Hampshire. New Hampshire had a lot of migration, with most migrants coming from Massachusetts. Many were tax-weary corporate executives, and a lot of them were Democrats. By about 1980 the gap in registration between Republicans and Democrats had been cut in half. So you started to see more Democrats being elected, especially to Congress.

TES

The “raw materials of political culture” you mention in the book also include each state’s advertising and place reputation. Can you explain it? Vermont was the first state to have a publicity bureau, beginning in 1911. The two states have since marketed themselves very differently. New Hampshire has tended to push its low cost of living. Later, it promoted the number of golf courses and other amenities it has, such as a racetrack, which makes sense. If you’re trying to appeal to people from Boston and New York City, you don’t want them to think that moving to New Hampshire is going to be one endless camping trip. Vermont was entirely different. It promoted its rural way of

Paws life, that this is a wonderful place to walk in the woods and think, write and paint. So that’s who we got: a lot of professors who had time off in the summer, as well as artists and writers. So the two states’ respective personalities are very much reflected in the way they promoted themselves, and that has perpetuated itself. New Hampshire is often assumed to be more libertarian, though not always. Two things actually surprise me about New Hampshire where it hasn’t acted in a very libertarian way. One is the cannabis issue, and the other is medically assisted suicide. Vermont has provided a way for people to do [both], and New Hampshire has not. For this book I focused on common problems that the states have — housing and school finance — and how they’re responding differently. Vermont has been trying to transform its school funding system, and New Hampshire has been trying to avoid carrying out the state supreme court’s mandate to alter its school funding system. Those issues have been going on for quite a while, and both states need to solve them pretty soon because they’re facing serious problems because of them. Vermont needs workers but is having trouble getting them because we can’t house them. In New Hampshire last year, the median price of a house was $565,000. How many people can afford that? School funding is related to the housing crisis because people want to live in communities with good schools. But if the schools are funded inequitably, where the poorer towns cannot provide the same school offerings as wealthier ones, then inevitably you end up with a system where people gravitate to the wealthier towns. You describe some of New Hampshire’s libertarian tendencies as self-defeating. Are some of Vermont’s more progressive tendencies also self-defeating? Vermont’s big challenge is how to continue to meet people’s needs and be bold in making policy without going too far and overtaxing and overregulating people to the point where they rebel. Act

181, the land-use law that passed in 2024, is a good example. Nobody objected to the part of the law that said we’re going to make it easier to build apartments in town centers. But the second part of the law set up three tiers of land within the state. Tier one was for downtown development; tiers two and three were for more rural areas. To do things in tier two and three, which covered the most rural and ecologically sensitive areas, you had to go through the Act 250 land-use process. The complaint from a lot of folks, particularly in the Northeast Kingdom, was that if you’re very wealthy and you’re building your palatial second home, you can probably afford to go through the Act 250 process. But a lot of Vermonters don’t have that kind of wherewithal. So it was easy for people in the Kingdom to say, “Oh, it’s those damn liberals from Chittenden County trying to tell us again how to live our lives.” And so those parts of Act 181 were repealed. What can Vermont learn from New Hampshire, and vice versa? In situations like Act 181, if legislators had solicited more opinions from the people most likely to be affected, they might have learned the views of people who didn’t share their conservation ethic. New Hampshire could certainly learn from Vermont on the school funding issue. Vermont had one supreme court decision, in Brigham v. State, that dealt with it back in 1997, and the Vermont legislature didn’t say, “How can we fight this?” They still haven’t gotten it right 30 years later, but they’re working on it. What New Hampshire has done is to shoot the messenger and essentially say, “We know the state supreme court was wrong in 1993. It was wrong in 1997. It was wrong in several other decisions that said it’s the state’s responsibility to fund education.” Some 30 years later, they’re still shooting the messenger — and they’re still 50th in the nation in terms of state contributions to education. ➆

INFO

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Twin States, Different Paths: The Politics of New Hampshire and Vermont, University of Massachusetts Press, 264 pages. $99 hardcover; $30.95 paperback.

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EVA SOLLBERGER

culture

M.T. Anderson

HALLOWEEN

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M.T. Anderson’s Haunted House A decade ago on a dirt road off a dirt road in the rural hills of Vermont, award-winning author M.T. Anderson found his ideal home. The 18th-century cottage is the oldest surviving house in Calais, and it looks like it, too: It has wide plank floors that creak, 12-over-12 windows with wavy glass, an enormous fireplace — and a rumor that the house is haunted. Anderson doesn’t believe

Haunting Season « P.40 childhood fixation on Olympian Dorothy Hamill, rather than despite it. His mission is not to fix his ethereal fiancée but simply to help her function. And the doggedness with which he supports her makes us root for their makeshift relationship, too. Alice Sees Ghosts is perhaps a rarity in current literary fiction: It begins in a dark place and becomes progressively happier, indulging its characters’ foibles rather than tormenting them for their flaws. Alice is rewarded for her wild leaps of faith, her eagerness to believe in communication from beyond the grave, and so is Ronit for his willingness to give her fancies the benefi t of the doubt. Step by step, discovery by discovery, the two of them transform a comically dysfunctional family unit into a thriving one in which artistic and spiritual affinities take precedence over biological kinship.

in ghosts, but that doesn’t stop him from gleefully relaying spooky stories about his abode. Anderson won the National Book Award for the first volume of his Octavian Nothing saga, The Pox Party, a historical novel that takes place in Revolutionary War-era New England. He said he’d “always dreamed of owning an 18th-century house.” Anderson has written five books there, including Elf Dog & Owl Head, which was inspired by walks in the woods with his late dog LaRue. In the latest episode of “Stuck in Vermont,” Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger got a candlelit tour and heard some tall tales. Seven Days has been airing the awardwinning video series “Stuck in Vermont” since 2007. Watch the new episode on sevendaysvt.com this Thursday or on the WCAX-TV evening news on Friday.

Some readers might object that Alice Sees Ghosts could use more material conflict — that it too speedily solves the problem of the angry and sometimes terrifying Clare (see excerpt), who menaces Alice and Ronit’s happiness. But the novel is such a pleasure to read, with its buoyant prose, entertaining twists and likably oddball characters, that this reader found its lightness of spirit to be well earned. The ancestral ghosts of gothic fiction may be harbingers of doom, visiting retribution on their descendants, but Rockwell’s ghosts are a refreshingly different breed — specters with a sincere desire to see the next generation figure things out. ➆

INFO Alice Sees Ghosts by Daisy Rockwell, Galiot Press, 314 pages. $24.99 paperback; $9.99 ebook. Rockwell will read from the book on Thursday, November 19, 1 p.m., at Manchester Community Library in Manchester Center.

ai179310708541_1t-BurgerWeek102826.pdf

10/27/26

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Put on your patty pants and bite into Seven Days Burger Week! coming…

november 6-15 During Burger Week, participating restaurants are serving up specials that you’ll really flip for. Think breakfast burgers, triple-deckers, veggie burgers and, of course, good ol’ beef patties. The biggest burger fanatics will win epic prizes for sharing photos of their adventures. Always remember: Calories don’t count during Burger Week!

2 02 6 b u r g e r h e r o e s ( s o fa r ) * = New to Burger Week

Archie's Grill, Shelburne

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Backyard, Stowe

Kraemer & Kin, North Hero*

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Leunig's Bistro & Café, Burlington

Barkeaters, Shelburne

Park Squeeze, Vergennes

Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex*

Piecasso Family Pizzeria, Stowe

Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling Company, Essex*

Postive Pie, Montpelier*

Black Radish at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans

Schaefer's, Richmond*

Butter Bar & Kitchen, Burlington

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Church Street Tavern, Burlington

The Skinny Pancake, Burlington

Copper at Dorset, South Burlington

Switchback Beer Garden & Smokehouse, Burlington

Déco Restaurant and Bar, Warren* The Farmhouse Tap & Grill, Burlington & Williston* Fire & Ice Restaurant, Middlebury Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski Grazers, Williston The Harborvale, Burlington*

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brought

you

AND

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

You Can See Everything ★★★★★

hen was the last time you saw a full house for a documentary? For me, it was the 2007 opening of Michael Moore’s Sicko. Exposés like Moore’s fell out of fashion, however, and these days, it’s rare to see nonfiction in commercial multiplexes at all. Until You Can See Everything, codirected by Lance Oppenheim (Primetime) and postmodern comedy phenomenon Nathan Fielder. At a matinee on a sunny Saturday, Vermonters jockeyed for seats for the nearly three-hour film, which is suddenly at the center of award-season conversation.

REVIEW

The deal

It’s 2023, and Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for defrauding investors in her tech startup. Claiming she’d invented a device that could run a raft of blood tests on a finger-prick sample, she partnered with Walgreens, became a celebrity and silenced her critics — until everyone learned the hard way that her invention didn’t work. Holmes has refused most interviews since the scandal broke. With just 34 days of freedom left, however, she invites a documentary crew to share a beachside condo with her; her partner, Billy Evans; and their two young kids. On his Comedy Central show “Nathan for You,” Fielder concocted creative — some would say absurd — business strategies. Holmes and Evans seem to see him as a potential ally. His off-the-cuff interview style makes it clear he’s neither scientist 46

nor investigative journalist, just a regular guy trying to grasp how Holmes rose so fast and fell so far. When Holmes insists her fraud was merely a misunderstanding, however, Fielder gives her the pained look most people reserve for door-to-door evangelists. Searching for shreds of self-awareness, he makes Holmes watch Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” sketch and Amanda Seyfried’s performance as her in the Hulu series “The Dropout.” Holmes is not amused. Despite such contretemps, Fielder insinuates himself into the household as an acerbic friend of sorts. But after his subject goes to jail, things get weird.

Will you like it?

At the start of Season 2 of his HBO show “The Rehearsal” (see sidebar), Fielder has an existential crisis over whether a comedian can address real-world problems. “Maybe,” he concludes hopefully, “a clown can change the world after all.” Later in the season, he muses, “I’ve always thought that sincerity is overrated. It just ends up punishing those who can’t perform it as well as others.” Those two quotes tell us a lot about Fielder’s relationship with Holmes in the documentary. She’s fully committed to her performance of sincerity — the unblinking stare, the tears. And he’s a clown trying to change the world, equipped with an ornery suspicion of anyone trying to play on his sympathies. Fielder may not be able to demolish Holmes’ bad science, but he knows how to get her and Evans

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

COURTESY OF A24

on screen

Disgraced Silicon Valley star Elizabeth Holmes gives comedian Nathan Fielder her best “Would I lie to you?” face.

comfortable enough to reveal the cracks in their perfect-family façade. You Can See Everything is not a “gotcha” doc with a smoking-gun revelation. Its central question is not “Did Holmes commit fraud?” — the evidence is readily available — but “What kind of person commits this fully to a deception?” That’s a question the film nudges us to answer on our own, along with “Would I have been duped?” Like Fielder’s TV series, You Can See Everything pushes the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, making us question what we’re really seeing. While the footage of Holmes has a fly-on-the-wall quality, Oppenheim’s extreme close-ups and highcontrast, cinematic lighting make us feel as if we’re watching an award-worthy thriller, as does the brooding soundtrack by Ari Balouzian. At my screening, the audience’s laughter at Fielder’s sardonic delivery gradually melted into uneasy quiet. The interpersonal tension is so high in every scene that the run time flies by. The film’s second half features reenactments of pivotal off-camera moments and scripted-feeling scenes in which Fielder attempts to process what he’s seen. The effect is to throw us off-kilter again — how much of this is real? Are we approaching the truth about Holmes, or moving away from it? In an unprecedented move for a documentary, distributor A24 has submitted You Can See Everything for Oscar consideration in the categories of Best Picture and Best Actress. (The latter’s identity is a spoiler, but suffice it to say she becomes the film’s most likable figure.) Given all this intertwining of fact and fiction, some viewers

may ask whether You Can See Everything is bringing us truth or just true-crime entertainment. Are we, in fact, seeing everything, or nothing much at all? Maybe we’re learning to see our world better — a world in which politicians and online influencers routinely use their raw charisma to bulldoze facts and brush aside inconvenient realities. Whether you find Holmes’ turn as a misunderstood victim convincing or not, people fall for similar performances every day. Sometimes it takes a clown to remind us to keep our eyes wide open. MARGO T HARRI S O N margot@sevendaysvt.com

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY… “THE REHEARSAL” (two seasons, 202225, HBO Max, YouTube Primetime, rentable): In this bizarrely earnest reality series, Fielder constructs elaborate “rehearsals” to prepare people for difficult social interactions. “THE DROPOUT” (2022; Disney+, Hulu): The fact-based dramatization of Holmes’ story is an indispensable companion to You Can See Everything. THE INVENTOR: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019; HBO Max, YouTube Primetime, rentable): Alex Gibney’s more traditional documentary will get you up to speed on the facts of Holmes’ fraud. Or read Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, the journalist who broke the story, along with his thoughts on the film in the New York Times.

NEW IN THEATERS BREEDER: A poodle breeder has sinister designs on a broke young man in Alex Goyette’s horror comedy, starring Daniel Doheny and Dot-Marie Jones. (98 min, R. Partizanfilm) CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES: A family wonders why their sinister new neighbors celebrate the holiday year-round in this horror comedy from Kevin Lewis, starring Ron Livingston and Rachel Bilson. (98 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Paramount) FJORD: In the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or winner, Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan play a conservative Romanian-Norwegian couple who are accused of mistreating their kids. Cristian Mungiu (Beyond the Hills) directed. (146 min, R. Savoy) THE MONGOOSE: Liam Neeson plays an unjustly accused war hero who leads cops on a cross-country high-speed chase in Mark Vanselow’s action flick, with Marisa Tomei. (98 min, R. Essex, Majestic) THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK: John Turturro plays a veteran thief on a mission to retrieve a stolen object in Noah Segan’s crime drama, also starring Giancarlo Esposito. (88 min, R. Majestic, Partizanfilm)

CURRENTLY PLAYING CLAYFACEHHH A Hollywood actor (Tom Rhys Harries) becomes the subject of a disturbing experiment in this DC Comics horror thriller. (108 min, R. Bijou, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Paramount, Star, Stowe, Sunset, Welden) CRAWLERS: Spiders terrorize an apartment complex in Ángel Gómez Hernández’s horror flick, starring Matilda Lutz. (81 min, R. Sunset) FORGOTTEN ISLANDHHH1/2 Two friends get trapped in a world that steals their memories in this DreamWorks animation. (109 min, PG. Majestic) HEART OF THE BEASTHHH1/2 A Special Forces officer (Brad Pitt) and his dog must survive in the Alaskan wilderness in David Ayer’s adventure drama. (101 min, PG-13. Majestic) LATE FAMEHHHH An obscure, working-class poet (Willem Dafoe) finds himself unexpectedly celebrated by a group of hipsters in Kent Jones’ comedy-drama. (96 min, NR. Catamount) OTHER MOMMYHH An 8-year-old (Arabella Olivia Clark) has a nice mom and a monstrous one (both Jessica Chastain) in this adaptation of Josh Malerman’s supernatural horror novel. (93 min, R. Majestic, Sunset) PRACTICAL MAGIC 2HHH Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock reprise their roles as sister witches in Susanne Bier’s legacy sequel. (110 min, PG-13. Capitol; reviewed 9/16)

WILDWOODHHHH1/2 In acclaimed studio Laika’s new fantasy animation, a young girl (voice of Peyton Elizabeth Lee) seeks her missing brother in the wilderness. Travis Knight directed. (132 min, PG-13. Big Picture, Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Playhouse, Star) YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHINGHHHHH Maverick filmmaker Nathan Fielder interviews convicted tech fraudster Elizabeth Holmes on her way to prison in this documentary, codirected with Lance Oppenheim. (174 min, R. Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Partizanfilm, Savoy, Star; reviewed 10/28)

OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (Sunset) THE GOONIES (Sunset) THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (VTIFF, Fri only)

GOVERNOR OF VERMONT 1937-1941

THE LOST BOYS (Sunset)

UNITED STATES SENATE 1941-1975

MOCK TRIAL (Playhouse, Thu only) NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (Catamount, Fri only) A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (Sunset) ROADS TO OLYMPIA (VTIFF, Sun only) THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Majestic) V FOR VENDETTA 20TH ANNIVERSARY (Essex, Sun only) WILD AT HEART — UNRATED (Essex, starts Fri)

OPEN THEATERS (* = upcoming schedule for theater could not be confirmed at press time) *BIG PICTURE THEATER: 48 Carroll Rd., Waitsfield, 496-8994, bigpicturetheater.info. Closed through April 29.

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*BIJOU CINEPLEX 4: 107 Portland St., Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com CAPITOL THEATER: 93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com CATAMOUNT ARTS: 115 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-2600, catamountarts.org CITY CINEMA: 137 Waterfront Plaza, Newport, 334-2610, citycinemanewport.com ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

Topnotch Fall Spa Specials

MAJESTIC 10: 190 Boxwood St., Williston, 8782010, majestic10.com MARQUIS THEATER: 65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITYHHH1/2 Two sisters must seek husbands in director Georgia Oakley’s new take on the Jane Austen classic. (131 min, PG. Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Star, Stowe, Welden)

PARTIZANFILM: 230 College St., Unit 13, Burlington, 276-4588, partizanfilm.org. Reopens October 30.

PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA: 241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE: 11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com

VERITYHH1/2 An author (Dakota Johnson) uncovers sinister doings in Michael Showalter’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s thriller. (114 min, R. Big Picture, Essex, Majestic)

THE SCREENING ROOM @ VTIFF: 60 Lake St., Ste. 1C, Burlington, 660-2600, vtiff.org

WHALEFALLHHH When a grieving diver (Austin Abrams) is swallowed by a whale, he has just one hour to escape in this survival thriller. (106 min, PG-13. Bijou, Essex)

*STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

WICKERHHH1/2 In a small village, a lonely fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) gets herself a very special husband (Alexander Skårsgard) in this fantastical comedy from Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. (105 min, R. Capitol, Essex, Majestic)

— George Aiken

GHOSTWATCH (VTIFF, Sat only)

RESIDENT EVILHHHH Cowriter-director Zach Cregger offers his cinematic take on the zombie horror game franchise. (90 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Sunset; reviewed 9/23)

STREET FIGHTERHH Two estranged fighters reunite for a dangerous tournament in this martialarts action flick based on the video games. (119 min, PG-13. Bijou, Majestic, Stowe, Welden)

I’m not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need more owls.

A DAY AT THE SPA DAY PASS + $25 LUNCH CREDIT Monday through Thursday: $75 Friday through Sunday: $95

AUTUMN RESET Slow down after a day of exploring Stowe with a restorative massage, customized facial and lunch at Topnotch. $350 Available Monday through Thursday only

FALL SPA ESCAPE Embrace the season with a little time for yourself. Enjoy a 50-minute facial, a refreshing wash and blow-dry, and a $25 lunch credit to complete your relaxing fall escape. $255 Available Monday through Thursday only

STAR THEATRE: 17 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-9511, stjaytheatre.com

SUNSET DRIVE-IN: 155 Porters Point Rd., Colchester, 862-1800, sunsetdrivein.com *WELDEN THEATRE: 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

802.253.6463 • 4000 Mountain Road • topnotchresort.com All services must be booked on the same day and for the same person. A 22% service charge will be charged on the full value of the services. The lunch credit does not have any cash value and cannot be applied toward service charge. This credit must be used the same day as the services/day pass. Offers valid 10/26-12/21 4t-topnotchresort101426 1

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

10/12/26 5:42 PM

ALICE DODGE

art

Dark Seeds

A show at BCA Center presents the unsettling side of flowers B Y A L ICE D OD G E • adodge@sevendaysvt.com

ES AG

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

REVIEW

a suite of paintings from New York City artist Alina Bliumis called “Plant Parenthood.” Flowers are, after all, reproductive organs, as Bliumis makes clear with her straighton, confrontational compositions of blooms. Each painting portrays a species that has historically been used to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Bliumis’ use of watercolor on wood creates a textural effect that makes the images look almost like crayon or colored pencil. While they reference watercolor botanical illustration, the style gives them a folk-art flavor. Each work is framed with velvet in shades evoking old-fashioned ladies’ room décor. The overall effect is one of defiant softness — an acknowledgement that women have long maintained networks of botanical and activist knowledge to control our own bodies within patriarchal systems of oppression. Stowe artist Marcie Scudder’s installation “My Mother’s Garden” likewise explores women’s relationships and intergenerational knowledge. According

vastly so — there are no man-eating Audreys or killer tomatoes or zombie funguses here. Rather, the artists play on the sense of unease, alienness and darkness that has long been the subtext of flowers’ association with the feminine. The most overt works in this regard are

hink of works with a slightly sinister cast within the vast history of botanical art, and you may recall Dutch master Rachel Ruysch’s luminous bouquets in shadowy spaces, Henri Rousseau’s ominous jungles or Vincent van Gogh’s vases of intense, manic-depressive blooms. Unless you are Seven Days music editor Chris Farnsworth, who, when told of the exhibition “Dark Botanica” at BCA Center, immediately referred this writer to Christopher Walken’s classic 2008 “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Indoor Gardening Tips From a Man Who’s Very Scared of Plants.” It’s hard to say who is more adorable in the bit — an understated Walken, afraid that his cactuses will stab him or his ferns choke him in his sleep — or his collection of house plants adorned with googly eyes. But he succinctly sums up something few have articulated: “The only way to know where you stand with someone is to look into their eyes, right? Normally, plants don’t have eyes, so it’s hard for me to trust them — hence, googly eyes. Still, a good rule of thumb is, don’t turn your back on a cactus.” Like Walken’s, the plants in “Dark Botanica” are all a little unsettling. Not

Clockwise from top: “Poetic Ecologies Series, Listening for the Lyrics” by Cameron Davis; “Dark Botanicals 8” by Megan Bogonovich; “Sudden Peak” by Sage Tucker-Ketcham

to its label, Scudder’s mother, a Holocaust survivor, planted a large garden as an act of healing; the artist inherited it and now maintains it on her own. She has cut, folded and sewn her photographs of plants into garlands of geometric paper flowers that drape down from the ceiling like bougainvillea. Yet we never really get a full picture of the landscape. The work references the craft traditions and gardening know-how that are commonly passed from mother to daughter — but also easily lost. New Yorker Dylan Griffin and British artist Sian Fan take the botanical in a

ART SHOWS

A still from “Stinger” by Sian Fan

Embrace Your Inner Artist Find joy in self-expression with support from encouraging instructors. Enrolling all levels for Drawing, Painting, and Fused Glass Classes.

sleeker, shinier direction. Griffin’s still lifes draw on his background as a commercial product photographer. “Spanning” and “Zuhur” present flowers arranged with metal wire or bits of tubing, sharply defined by exquisite lighting. “Velo” masks a bouquet with a chartreuse blur; in “Frukt,” a backlit silhouette of flowers and rocks emerges from metal grids, its glow suggesting an LED screen. The images position the cut flowers as objects within a seamless ecosystem of natural and human-created forms. Each of these still lifes has the personality, mystery and aesthetic hyper-perfection of a model

THE ARTISTS PLAY ON THE SENSE OF UNEASE, ALIENNESS AND DARKNESS THAT HAS LONG BEEN THE SUBTEXT OF

FLOWERS’ ASSOCIATION WITH THE FEMININE.

in a high-fashion ad, and each gives the impression that it’s selling something. Fan’s two 30-second animated videos, “Dream Diver” and “Stinger,” offer magical, glowing flowers that look plucked from a video game. Fan based her compositions on large-scale paintings by Kate Bickmore, “sculpting” the flowers in virtual reality, according to her website. The blossoms unfurl and close up with smooth, mathematical movements, petals and stems swinging around each other in a fluid dance of folding shapes that resemble crumpling origami. Ambient soundtracks by Ben Dixon augment the drama. The work is ambiguous but feels narrative, the flowers like characters ready to sap or restore a viewer’s vitality, depending on how the story goes. Mystical, otherworldly vibes continue with large-scale paintings by Cameron Davis and Sage Tucker-Ketcham, both of whom live in Charlotte. Davis’ “Poetic Ecologies Series, Listening for the Lyrics” is a three-panel piece almost 7 feet high by 15 wide. The primarily metallic gold

composition organizes a chaos of welldefined, representational leaves, with drips, stains, shadows and extemporaneous marks. Taken together, they can be read both as abstract and as a reasonable representation of the forest floor. Davis’ palette rewards longer looking with burgundy, turquoise, peach, green and orange that emerge slowly from the overall gold haze. The painting’s deceptiveness comes from its lack of ground. The composition offers the occasional solid foothold, such as the panel breaks, but it’s as unstable as a carpet of leaves floating on a pond. Three vertical 3-by-5-foot works by Tucker-Ketcham anchor the back gallery in parallel to Davis’ work in the front. Two years ago, Tucker-Ketcham presented a solo show with a blue-green palette; the paintings displayed here use a red-togreen spectrum instead. Delicate fronds, grasses gone to seed and tangles of weeds stand right up at the picture plane, as though the viewer is in a near-impenetrable field. Red blobs are equal parts blossoms and old wounds. Pops of pale blue sky peek through dark green shadows and an orangey miasma so familiar it almost smells of late-afternoon October. These works present the scrub at the edge of the garden as a realm that is fantastical yet real, beautiful yet unglamorous. Megan Bogonovich’s ceramic sculptures, while a little further from recognizable, fully celebrate biological weirdness. Works from her “Dark Botanicals” series cluster on a table, reef-like. Some have flowers, some knobby appendages such as eggs or ears or spikes. Glazes range from black to opalescent; textures, from raised scales to painted stripes to spongelike holes. Many seem to reference reproductive organs, reminding us that, stereotypes aside, some parts of flowers are male. The works are goofy but inscrutable; they might hide just a hint of threat behind their bright colors. Next time, I’ll bring googly eyes. ➆

DAVISSTUDIOVT.COM • 802-425-2700 • 916 SHELBURNE ROAD • SOUTH BURLINGTON 6H-davisstudio022824.indd 1

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INFO “Dark Botanica,” on view through January 23 at BCA Center in Burlington. Panel discussion, January 14, 6 p.m. burlingtoncityarts.org 3V-middcollart102826.indd 1

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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COURTESY

art OCT. 28-NOV. 4 OPENINGS + RECEPTIONS

Burlington, Tuesday, November 3, 6:30-8:30 p.m. By donation. ‘UNDERSTANDING COLOR’: A hands-on workshop with Sabrina Fadial exploring color in gouache, watercolor, pencil or collage. Open to all levels. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Tuesday, November 3, 7-9 p.m. $15 suggested donation.

CAI XI: “Light” series, paintings from 1989 to 1992 devoted to the artist’s mother, who had stomach cancer during that time. CX Silver Gallery, Brattleboro, through May 22. ‘FARM FASHION’: An exhibition exploring how agricultural workwear shaped contemporary style. Created in collaboration with the Vermont Historical Society, Vermont Flannel, Carhartt, Warren, Mahshu and other Vermont partners. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, November 1-February 28.

CALLS TO ARTISTS ARTFUL ICE SHANTIES: The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and Retreat Farm are seeking proposals from artists, ice fishing enthusiasts, tiny house aficionados and design-builders of all ages and experience levels for ice shanties to be displayed on land in February. Shanties can be traditional or conceptual, functional or wacky, permanent or temporary, but must be able to withstand weather, being moved and a week of visitors. This year’s optional theme is “Illumination.” Apply at brattleboromuseum.org. Deadline: December 15. Retreat Farm, Brattleboro. Free.

GABRIEL TEMPESTA: “At the Edge of the Road ... and Into the Woods,” photorealistic watercolor and oil paintings and drawings of wildlife and the natural world. Reception: Sunday, November 1, 3-5 p.m. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, October 30-November 29. AJ HUMPHREY: New abstract mixed-media works. Island Arts South Hero Gallery, November 2-30.

ARTS CONNECT JURIED MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION: Accepting submissions of up to three works per artist for the annual show, which runs from December 31 through April 4. Works can be in any medium and must have been created within the past three years. Three cash prizes and six honorable mentions will be awarded. Submit works at catamountarts.org. Deadline: November 15. Catamount Arts Center, St. Johnsbury. $50 membership renewal.

‘VAPA AT 50’: An exhibition considering the history and future of the college’s iconic Visual and Performing Arts Center, designed by architect Robertson Ward Jr. The exhibition features archival documents and architectural models and is curated by architecture faculty emeritus Donald Sherefkin and Garrick Jones ’94. Reception: Tuesday, November 3, 5:30-7 p.m. Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington, through December 5.

‘PERFECTLY SQUARED’: An invitation to artists working in all mediums to submit up to four works for a holiday exhibition and sale celebrating creativity and benefiting the organization. Artwork must measure 12 by 12 inches, including any frame, and be ready to hang and priced at $250 or less; artists receive 70 percent of sale price. Deadline: November 1. River Arts, Morrisville. Free.

BEN RAYMOND: “Little Traces,” an exhibit of mixedmedia drawings of Vermont’s animal wildlife by MFA candidate Ben Raymond. Reception: Thursday, November 5, noon-2 p.m. Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Vermont State University-Johnson, November 2-20. BO MOORE: “Snake Wisdom,” a show of folk artinspired mixed-media paintings by the “Eat More Kale” artist. Reception: Friday, November 6, 5-7 p.m. Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery, Waterbury, through November 21. RAIN MARSH: “Eclecticism,” an exhibition of illustrations and drawings by MFA candidate Rain Marsh. Reception and artist talk: Thursday, November 19, noon-2 p.m. Susan Calza Black Box Gallery, Visual Arts Center, Johnson, November 2-20.

“It’s Okay, I’ll See You Amongst the Grasses Again” by Ana Koehler

EXHIBITIONS

VISUAL ART EVENTS

Decomposition Notebook

EXQUISITE CORPSE WORKSHOP: A collaborative surrealist game, hosted by art history professor Sarah Parrish and held in conjunction with the exhibition “A Place Visited Only in Dreams”, in which participants add to hidden drawings. AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, N.H., Wednesday, October 28, 4-6 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

Decay is in the air this season, made manifest in “(Un)Becoming,” a show of works by Ana Koehler and Hannah Cieri at Soapbox Arts in Burlington. Koehler presents collaged, figurative paintings on panel of women in violent but symbiotic-seeming relationships with the garden: one pricked by thorns, another ripping tulips from the ground, a third feeding crows with her own blood, in the style of an old-school saint. The artist complements these with photographic images of plants, hair and body parts pressed directly onto a scanner bed, with accents sewn on in gold thread. The effect is both technological and witchy, the images reveling in the organic and tactile. That vibe flows through Cieri’s porcelain sculptures as well. Starting from classical thrown vessels in greens and grays, her forms are stretched and gouged, each piece seemingly invaded by shelves of fungus, like a rotting log. Whorls and bubbles interrupt the smooth surfaces, supplanting the human with something less tame. Cieri, who is also a floral designer, has tied the show together with masses of dried plants that undulate through the space. The exhibition balances a whiff of mortal danger with the surprise and brightness of a new pile of leaves, enticing you to leap.

MUSEUM LECTURE: SAVANNAH MARQUARDT: “Afterlives of South Italian Vase Painting: Restoration and Fabrication of Ancient Art in Eighteenth-Century Naples,” a talk about how the red-figure vases now recognized as “Ancient Greek” first began to be systematically removed from graves in Southern Italy in the 18th century and “restored” by wealthy collectors. Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, Thursday, October 29, 4:30-6 p.m. Free. LIFE DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event for artists working with the figure from a live model. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Thursday, October 29, 7-9 p.m. Free; $15 suggested donation. OPEN STUDIO: GRETCHEN VERPLANCK’S SCARY MONSTERS: An open studio event to see, meet and purchase “Scary Monsters” via silent auction or lottery. Sale goes live online and in person starting at 4 p.m. Big Girl Company, Burlington, Friday, October 30, 4-7 p.m. Free. GREEN MOUNTAIN WOODCARVERS CARVE-IN: The organization’s annual meeting and an opportunity to see carvers at work and ask questions. Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington, Saturday, October 31, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free with museum admission.

‘(UN)BECOMING’ On view through November 14 at Soapbox Arts in Burlington. soapboxarts.com

SOCIAL SUNDAY: An opportunity for children and caregivers to stop in and complete a 15- to 30-minute activity during the two-hour workshop. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, Sunday, November 1, 1-3 p.m. Free. PORTRAIT DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event where artists can practice skills in any

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

medium. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Monday, November 2, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; $15 suggested donation. OPEN STUDIO: A guided meditation followed by an hour of art making in any medium and concluding with a share-and-witness process. Many art materials available. In person and online. Expressive Arts

‘THE RIVER WE CALL HOME’: Seeking submissions for a curated group exhibition honoring the Connecticut River watershed, produced in partnership with the Connecticut River Conservancy. Artists may submit up to three works via the online form at brattleboromuseum.org. Deadline: November 1. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. SEABA’S CREATIVE COMPETITION: Seeking artists in all ages working in all mediums to enter artwork in the competition; reception visitors vote on their favorites, and the winner takes half of the entry fees and all of the bragging rights. Complete submission form at pci.jotform.com/form/262944378961169 prior to drop-off; reception is November 6. Deadline: November 1. The SEABA Center, Burlington. $10 entry fee. ‘SMALL WORKS’: Seeking works for the annual holiday exhibition, which features 12-by-12-inch or smaller two-dimensional works and threedimensional works that would fit inside an imaginary 8-inch cube. Exhibition runs from November 13 to December 19. Deadline: October 31. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret. ‘SOUL FOOD’: Seeking works for a salon-style group show celebrating the power of art to keep our souls alive. All mediums welcome; works may be suspended or wall-mounted, but no pedestals are available. Works will be exhibited November 6 through December 31; half of sales proceeds go to the artist and half to the gallery. Submit images online or email joseph@thephoenixvt.com. Deadline: October 30. The Phoenix, Waterbury. Free. YOUNG CREATORS AWARDS: Now accepting submissions from students in ninth through 12th grades for the awards, which recognize exceptional high school students from around the world who are writing stories, creating art, composing music, exploring AI or developing new ways of understanding the world. Each award is free to enter and offers cash prizes up to $2,000; recognition, publication or showcase opportunities; and scholarships for students who enroll at Bennington College. More information at bennington.edu/yca. Deadline: November 1. Bennington College. Free. ➆

THANK YOU, JAMMERS!

ech Jam this year was full of REAL people and REAL things, and we are REAL-ly grateful! Thank you to everyone who attended and all of our fantastic exhibitors. Huge thanks to Hula, our presenting sponsor and generous host for the past six years.

Thank you to our wonderful community partners: Beta Champlain College Data Innovations GBIC GlobalFoundries Hazelett Marvell Northfield Savings Bank

Norwich University Simmonds Precision UVM Office of the Vice President of Research Vermont State University Vermont Tech Council VTel

Our supporting partners: The Targeted Resume and the Harborvale and our media partners, WCAX-TV and Vermont Public Enormous thanks also to FIRST Robotics, Storyworkz, Preppi Eatery, Brio Coffeeworks, Chocolate Thunder, Atomic Pro Audio, Curb, Sam Randlett, Awesome Graphics, Daria Bishop and speakers Kayln Bixler, Matt Riley and Hany Farid. See you on October 23, 2027 for the next Tech Jam!

PHOTOS: DARIA BISHOP

PRESENT

C O M M U N I T Y PA RT N E R S

S U P P O RT I N G PA RT N E R S

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10/27/26 4:56 PM

music+nightlife

So, what becomes of the singer who’s lost her voice? My feelings of inadequacy caused me to take my first engineering courses, play harder and begin hanging out in places 52

[In the studio] a producer should understand music with a special kind of intensity and know enough about engineering to figure out how to put things into motion that are derived from the imagination. Top-level producing requires a sophisticated understanding of music, artists and engineering, all at once. And in the end, the more musical fluency one has as a producer, the better the result. But losing my vocal capacity and range has never stopped being a reality which must be compensated for with innovation and humility. Would you say that constraint has had a positive impact on your musicianship? Originally, singing allowed me to explore more nuanced and sophisticated places with melody and improvisation than I was perhaps able to reach instrumentally. Having had to redirect myself to other instruments, it helped take a lot of that frustrated vocal energy and ring out deeper experiences through chords, harmonies and arrangements.

Kristina Stykos showing her portraits in Jack Rowell’s Photographs

True Grit

XENIA TURNER

he title of the final poem in 2024’s Ridgerunner: One Hundred Poems From Rural Vermont is fitting when you consider its author: prolific singer-songwriter Kristina Stykos. Five lines long, with sentiments bitter and sweet, “Sing” reads like a redemption song, but that’s hardly the whole story. Stykos, a record producer and owner of Pepperbox Studio in Lincoln, lives with spasmodic dysphonia, a chronic voice disorder that affects the larynx, or voice box. Named “Best Songwriter of 2013” by the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, Stykos had released six albums before being diagnosed in 2017. Mining her own experience for raw material, Stykos infuses the existential poem with a sense of comedic irony, without sacrificing its elegiac tone or losing its optimistic outlook: “I fell into a world / where nothing / made sense / but what I had lost / & so, I began to sing.” Ever the lyricist, Stykos knows how to pack a melodic phrase full of meaning, but the ability to give voice to those deep emotions — the butter to the singer-songwriter’s bread — doesn’t come with a lifetime guarantee. She describes the deep frustrations that creep in at the worst of times, such as when she can’t sing the harmony line she hears in her head during a client’s recording session. But she’s not the type to wallow in the hard stuff; in true Vermont fashion, Stykos gets right back to work. These days, inspiration comes to Stykos, 68, in the most elemental aspects of rural life. When she’s not working her day job as a landscape architect, engineering a recording-studio session for her Thunder Ridge Records label or connecting with subscribers through her personal blog, Vermont Ridgerunner, she’s sitting at her corner desk, typing out the frictions of the day in its fading light. You might also find her chewing on a bit of wisdom from the old-timer at the country store or cursing the near-constant struggle that is making ends meet as a Vermont artist. On the cusp of a new year that promises to bring Stykos’ myriad creative projects to fruition, including her second book of poetry with Korongo Books, a small press based in Randolph, Seven Days spoke with her about writing, freedom from the tyranny of melodies and making a record with her daughter, Freya Yost.

Musician, producer, poet and landscape architect Kristina Stykos overcomes hardship to continue sowing creativity BY X E NIA TUR NE R

where I could shed some of my folkmusic pretensions. And yes, my personal experience of being knocked off my perch as a singer made me feel angry and sorry for myself. But as is often the case, hard feelings can motivate one to excel in other areas. Your foray into the literary arts seems a natural articulation of your lyrical gifts. What are some of your preoccupations as a writer? Every writer has their own places of habitation lyrically. I’ve tended to write about getting in a mess and having to sort it out, whether it’s a relationship or a storm. Without melodies to worry about, writing has become my remedy to all these issues and obstacles I’ve encountered. I’m

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

not sure what the future will bring, but when you can’t sing, you have a different relationship to lyrics. You’ve written six albums’ worth of music in the span of a decade, as well as penned several short stories and published a book of poems. Considering how polymorphic voice can be, has your diagnosis given you more “vocal range”? I don’t refer to myself so much as a writer as a woman of letters, because that’s kind of how I write — to somebody. I’ve spent so much time with so many people from different walks of life. It’s really important to me that my voice be accessible to all kinds of people.

Let’s talk about Thunder Ridge Records. What was it like to work on Los Lorcas’ 2026 album, Wild Island? I love those guys. Two of them are actually poets — Partridge [Boswell], who was the winner of the 2025 National Poetry Prize, and Peter [Money], his cohort, who’s a great slam poetry performer. They incorporate some of that into their songs, and there’s some recitation over the music, but most of it Partridge has turned into songs that he sings. It’s a great fit for the studio, because I’m so into words and poetry, and these guys are just the ticket. You produced, recorded and mixed Freya Yost’s 2024 album, Delicate Elements. What was it like making an album with your daughter? One interesting thing that happened was that she decided that she wanted to cover one of my songs. Despite being determined to sing it like me, she didn’t really understand some of the musical choices I had made, and we recorded a lot of takes as we struggled over the melodic phrasing. Afterwards, I sent her downstairs while I edited the vocal. When I called her back up, it was an incredible experience to hear her singing my song — a song I wrote as a very young woman about her dad. Listening to it together turned out to be a really special experience for us. TRUE GRIT

» P.54

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Cricket Blue

GREAT VIBES.

ALL DAY! Find your groove for any mood.

COURTESY

Country Hits. Party Central.

Big D & Bubba bring the morning laughs, House keeps the midday party rolling and Betty B. turns up the drive home. Your all-day lineup for the hottest country hits!

On the Beat According to my Celtic ancestors, the veil between the living and the dead gets pretty thin on October 31. It’s a good time to either communicate with the spirit world or dress up to hide from it. There might be more to it — I don’t know; I was raised to demand candy from strangers and fling toilet paper into trees on Halloween, a proper feral American youth. So heritage aside, I’m no spooky expert. What I am very good at, however, is letting all my readers and homies know where to properly celebrate Samhain — Nos Calan Gaeaf, if you’re nasty. Halloween falling on a Saturday is always cause for celebration — who wants to be hungover at work the next day? — because it essentially creates a Halloween weekend. So drop some bucks at Old Gold or slap something together from the closet and get your costume on. Then follow me on a scary tour through some of this weekend’s offerings around Burlington and beyond. In South Burlington, Higher Ground has a slew of Halloween-themed shows lined up, starting on Wednesday, October 28, with Burlington folk duo CRICKET BLUE’s re-creation of the music from the 2014 cartoon “Over the Garden Wall.” Since originating as a live stream during the pandemic, the show has become an annual event featuring musicians and fans alike dressed as characters from the Cartoon Network miniseries. After stints at Radio Bean and the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, the tribute graduates to the Ballroom this year and should not be missed by fans of chamber folk or quirky cartoons. The following night, Thursday, October 29, Burlington indie-pop outfit MADAILA play the Showcase Lounge in what is becoming another holiday

Country comfort. Turned up.

Listening In (Spotify mix of local jams)

Your favorite country throwbacks from the ’80s through the 2000s—the songs you know by heart and sing out loud! Kim Ashley in the morning, Dayna D. midday and House taking you home.

1. “THE LAST RODEO — LIVE AT TANK RECORDING STUDIO”

by Matt Hagen 2. “WITH HAMMERS”

by We’re Here! to Kill 3. “CAUGHT UP” by Acqua Mossa 4. “GENERAL DOLLAR”

Rock muscle. Alternative edge.

by Justin LaPoint 5. “ALL GOOD NAZIS KILL THEMSELVES” by Michael Gormly

Kick off your day in rockin’ style with Greg & The Morning Buzz—New England’s #1 weekday morning show. Jam out with Betty B’s Lucky Lunch, then let House & Hammer ride shotgun on the drive home!

6. “END OF EVERYTHING”

by Colepitz 7. “CHANGE YOUR MIND” by Eustis

Scan to listen sevendaysvt. com/playlist

Chill tradition since they re-formed in 2024 after a hiatus. They’re joined by soul and R&B band ACQUA MOSSA. But the big Halloween show at Higher Ground this year features a band that is seemingly always playing dress-up: PINK TALKING FISH. You guys are smart; you don’t need me to go through what they do, right? The first 100 or so fans through the Ballroom doors on Saturday, October 31, receive specialedition “Wolf Man” pins designed by ROUGH FRANCIS singer — and Higher Ground employee — BOBBY HACKNEY JR. Looking to add a little sophistication to your scary? Check out the VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’s performance of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” at the Flynn ON THE BEAT

» P.54

Hits

Ease back and sing along.

Start the day smiling with The TJ Show, then settle into the Champlain Valley’s handpicked diverse mix of feel-good hits from the ’80s to today.

Listen Anywhere!

APPLE

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SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

10/6/26 1:43 PM

music+nightlife True Grit « P.52

I’M NOT SURE WHAT THE FUTURE WILL BRING,

BUT WHEN YOU CAN’T SING, YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP TO LYRICS. K R IS TINA S TYKO S

So, you’re related to one another? Steve is my second cousin. We met by chance when he was playing in Bow Thayer’s band. That was a surprise to me. My dad [Joseph Stycos] was also a very accomplished musician, although he preferred to sing jazz standards and show tunes at parties. He was a famous academic who spent a lot of time in Latin America, and he’d also sing in Spanish. He was quite the character, a total show-off.

guitar and not have to try to fit into a band or a solo act. I don’t like to be the center of attention, but I can go do it privately, then put out a record where I’m the center of attention. It’s a different thing completely. Speaking of records, do you have any new music in the works? My next album is instrumentals. It’s called Forest Mirror and will be released in January 2027. I play acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, bass, and keyboards, with support from Jeff Berlin on drums, Bow Thayer on banjo, Steve Mayone on lap

I’m imagining a Greek American father-daughter version of the ’90s film Postcards From the Edge. Well, I’m not totally unlike my father. When I got into recording, it was a way for me to do what I wanted to do on the

On the Beat « P.53

steel, Patrick Ross on fiddle and Seamus Egan’s low whistle. It seems like 2026 has been a busy year for Pepperbox Studio. There’s never a dull moment, and it’s always different. I probably have seven different projects that are in some stage. I might be in a certain groove for a few months in the winter, but then landscaping gets really busy and I’m out four days a week, so I have to fit in recording sessions on the weekends. Other times, I’m like, I don’t have anything to do; I better go write another book. I just make it up every week.

SHEBAD

COURTESY

in Burlington on Halloween. The matinee — gotta leave time for trick-or-treating later, duh — not only features the classic PAUL DUKAS composition but also selections from Symphonie fantastique by HECTOR BERLIOZ, as well as MICHAEL ABELS’ film score for the Jordan Peele horror film Nope. The BURLINGTON ELECTRONIC DEPARTMENT has once again delighted its board with another banger of a seasonal program. B.E.D. Halloween starts this Friday, October 30, and goes until the wee hours of the morning of Sunday, November 1 — don’t forget to set your clocks back. The killer lineup includes Toronto electropunks SLASH NEED, St. Louis synth act the MALL, URIAN HACKNEY’s dub alterego UZUKI MONTOYA and B.E.D. founders ROOST.WORLD. The shows were originally scheduled for the currently closed Radio Bean and now, in the spirit of Halloween tricks and treats, will happen at a secret location in Burlington — find out when you purchase tix. I’m not personally scared by surf rock, but in case you are, avoid Foam Brewers in Burlington on Friday. Locals the WET

ONES will be rocking out to beach anthems with support from Montréal punkabilly act BLOODSHOT BILL and DJ ZOMBEAT AND DIE. Canadian funk-jazz crew SHEBAD and New York City psychedelic groove merchants PSYMON SPINE headline the waterfront brewery’s Halloween show on Saturday. Costumed acts are obviously big for

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

COURTESY OF JACK ROWELL

Do you come from a musical family? I grew up in an academic family, so I certainly knew how to fancy up language and even obscure meaning through a bunch of, you know, too much talking, basically. But I’ve striven to simplify and pare language down. My younger brother is a musician in New York City who owns the audio company Dangerous Music. He helped me get the studio started at the original spot in Chelsea. A few years after that, I started making records with Steve Mayone under the moniker the Cousins Project.

the holiday, and Winooski has them in spades this year. At Standing Stone Wines on Thursday, October 29, local surf-rock stalwarts BARBACOA take on the music of the RAMONES, followed by the MISFITS tribute WE BITE. Across the rotary, the Monkey House has ’90s tribute act LAZER DAD on tap on for Halloween proper.

Do you have any parting wisdom to give other working artists? I think a day job is really healthy and important. You’ve got to have the right day job, and I wouldn’t trade my alternate jobs to do this all the time. It’s much healthier to have adventures out in the world that I bring back to the studio. Secondly, life does change over the decades. I’ve had all kinds of different jobs, and I’ve had to figure out how to keep a consistent creative practice. I’ve been a single parent, and I’ve been married. Having achieved what I set out to do — which is to create a compound with a lot of artistic opportunities and a place where my kids can live and people can visit — took a lot out of me. Losing your voice is all about not being able to sound beautiful, and it makes me mad at myself, illogically. But I know this will resonate with anyone who has lost any kind of ability due to sickness, injury, trauma or aging. It’s just plain old triggering sometimes, but that’s OK. We’re only human. That gives me the drive to go in the studio, try something different and work harder to say what it is I want to say. ➆ This interview was edited for clarity and length.

INFO Learn more at kristinastykos.com and pepperboxstudio.com.

What is it with Halloween and surf rock these days? Is there a correlation between hanging 10 and evil spirits that I’m unaware of? If such an evil surf-rock band existed, it would have to be the TSUNAMIBOTS, a crew of self-proclaimed robot musicians hell-bent on eradicating organic life on Earth. They play Saturday at Charlie-O’s World Famous in Montpelier. Also outside Chittenden County, Barre Opera House hosts Acorn Youth Arts’ Sleepy Hollow: The Musical from Friday through Sunday. That’s a full-on rock-musical reimagining of the classic Washington Irving tale, so I expect some kind of headbanging incident to be the cause of the initial decapitation in the story. That’s just the tip of the freaky iceberg, y’all. It’s shaping up to be an epic Halloween weekend, so whatever you choose, be safe, be disguised, and be open to the veil between our world and the next slipping for a night. Also, don’t smash pumpkins, do dress warmer than you think you should, and stay hydrated out there!

C HRI S FARN S W O RT H

live music WED.28

COURTESY

CLUB DATES

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

SAT.31 // ‘POSSESSED!’ [COMEDY]

Barbacoa (surf rock) at Upper Pass Beer, South Royalton, 7 p.m. Free.

The Ruminations (post-punk, psych) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free. Secret Sound System (funk) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free. SHEBAD, Psymon Spine (soul, psych) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. $20/$25.

The Barr Brothers, SOAK (roots) at Stone Church, Brattleboro, 8 p.m. $31.

Sticks & Stones (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Nights (bluegrass) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

TRS Live Presents: Amystera (prog rock) at Tank Recording Studio, Burlington, 8 p.m. $25-$80.

‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’: A Halloween Spectacle (live film score) at Three Needs Taproom & Pizza Cube, Burlington, 6 & 8 p.m. $20.

Tsunamibots, the Jagaloons, Strelka (surf rock) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Cricket Blue Play ‘Over The Garden Wall’ (folk, tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $15.

Upstate, Hayley Jane (folk) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $20.

Dobbs’ Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

The Wormdogs (bluegrass) at the SEABA Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $12-$20.

Halloween on the Rocks with the VSO (classical) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. $15.

Yacht Rocky Horror Show (yacht rock) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $15/$18.

SUN.1

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Nathan Hartswick as Suzy Eddie Izzard

Justin Martin (singer-songwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free. Michael Perry (singer-songwriter) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery Sure, anyone can catch

The Theta Waves Trio (rock) at the Tunbridge General Store, 5 p.m. Free.

a Beatles tribute act, hear a Sublime cover band or even go see a drag version of the Grateful

The Wet Ones, Bloodshot Bill, Zombeat and Die (surf rock, DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $15.

Dead. But what if you never got the chance to see George Carlin do standup? Never fear — the local comedy scene has you covered. Now something of a tradition, the “POSSESSED!” comedy

SAT.31

Tyler Daniel Bean, Jack M. Senff & the Heartland Mission, Yabai! (rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $12.

THU.29

Barbacoa Play the Ramones (tribute) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 8 p.m. $5. Bob Cotton (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free. ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’: A Halloween Spectacle (live film score) at Three Needs Taproom & Pizza Cube, Burlington, 6 & 8 p.m. $20. The Easy Cure, Broken Faces (Cure, Pixies tribute) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $10. Funk Jam (funk) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. The Gringos, MOMDAD (alt-rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $15/$24. Justin Martin (blues) at CharlieO’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free. Lincoln Sprague (piano) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free. Madaila, Acqua Mossa (indie rock, soul) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $20.

show returns for Halloween, featuring a slew of Queen City comics impersonating their favorite funny people, living or dead. It’s a rare thing to see comedians “cover” others’ material — that’s usually called joke stealing — but just for Halloween, everything goes. The sidesplitting séance takes place on Saturday, October 31, at Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington. Rusty K Boose (bluegrass) at Shelburne Vineyard, 6 p.m. Free. Spirits Night with Milton Busker & the Grim Work (Americana) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. $39. We Bite (Misfits tribute) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 9 p.m. $5.

FRI.30

90 Proof (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Barbacoa (surf rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free. Barbie N Bones (rock) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 5 p.m. Free. Bearly Dead, Tourtoise (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $25/$30. Carol Hausner (singersongwriter) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. The Complaints (rock) at Gusto’s, Barre, 8 p.m. Free.

Bearly Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Stone Church, Brattleboro, 8 p.m. $30.

Saru (jazz fusion) at Shelburne Vineyard, 5 p.m. Free.

Cirque du Funk: Haunted Disco (funk, DJ) at Afterthoughts, Waitsfield, 9 p.m. $15. Graviton, Chararum, Swine Christ (metal) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 8 p.m. $15.

Devil Master, Diabolus (metal) at Stone Church, Brattleboro, 8 p.m. $25/$31.

Mitch & Devon (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Done Gone (folk) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

Monachino, Jarrett & Stats (folk) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Jesse James DeConto, Andriana Chobot, Milton Busker (singersongwriter) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. $15.

Moonbird (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

John Lackard Blues Band (blues) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 6 p.m. Free.

OK Commuter (indie) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Just Us (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Interwoods (rock) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 8 p.m. Free.

Reed Foehl (folk) at Shelburne Vineyard, 6 p.m. Free. Super Stash Bros (rock) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

Jonathan ‘Doc’ Kaplan (piano) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Surf Sabbath (Black Sabbath tribute) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 5 p.m. Free.

Justin Martin (singer-songwriter) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

Uncle Jimmy (rock) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

The Music of Hey Arnold! Live! (tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $31. Myra Flynn (R&B, soul) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $25.

Madigan Linnane (singersongwriter) at Switchback Beer Garden & Smokehouse, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free.

DSM-5 (rock) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Mowgli Gianitti (singersongwriter) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 3 p.m. Free.

Bad Luck Bliss (rock) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 8 p.m. Free.

Dead Man Strumming (Grateful Dead tribute) at River Roost Brewery, White River Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Doom Service, Vallory Falls, Dead Street Dreamers, Violet Crimes (punk) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $15.

The Florring Stones, Big Star, Limp Bitzkit (tribute) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. $20/$25.

Half Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Shelburne Vineyard, 5 p.m. Free.

Lazer Dad (tribute) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8:15 p.m. $10. Night Shift, DJ Craig Mitchell (tribute, DJ) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 6 p.m. Free. Pink Talking Fish, Dobbs’ Dead (tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $30.

Seth Yacovone (acoustic) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 4 p.m. Free. Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m. Wine & Jazz Sundays (jazz) at Shelburne Vineyard, 5 p.m. Free.

TUE.3

Big Easy Tuesdays with Jon McBride (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. Clutch, Slomosa, Blood Vulture (hard rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $40. Dead Is Alive with Dobbs’ Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15. Elsa Kennedy, the Face Turners (indie) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free. Giles Corey, Kathryn Mohr, Val Acton Loper (singer-songwriter) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $25.

LIVE MUSIC SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

» P.57 55

music+nightlife

REVIEW this The Suitcase Junket, To Go On

(BAD CHEF RECORDS/SYMPHONIC, CD, DIGITAL, VINYL)

The Suitcase Junket

COURTESY

“Oh, death, what’s there to say? / ... Oh, but death, my friend, walk with me a while.” Thus begins the new album from Massachusetts singer-songwriter and sonic chameleon Matt Lorenz, aka the Suitcase Junket, and thus begins a lonely yet musically gorgeous trip through the halls of grief and memory. Lorenz wrote the songs on his new album, To Go On, in response to the death of his sister and frequent musical collaborator, Kate Lorenz, who died in 2022 at the age of 42. Over the course of 11 tracks, he moves through the stages of his grief, from “More Time,” a lament about how quickly things disappear, to the reluctant acceptance of “I Know,” on which Lorenz wonders: “Why are we always losing what we need?” The mystery of death is everywhere on To Go On, as is the need to make peace with absence.

The record finds Lorenz back at his roots as a oneman band. His sobriquet, the Suitcase Junket, derives from his use of found items and repaired instruments to create his brand of off-kilter indie-rock, roots and folk music. He expanded that sound on 2020’s The End Is New, a fuller sonic work, produced by Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin, that colored in all the margins and offered a slicker version of the music. To Go On is once again a universe of sounds from one man, from the muted, ghostly percussion on “Yardsale” to the reverb-drenched guitar on “Blindside Memory.” For a record that stares directly into the abyss, it rarely feels somber or morose. Rather than delving straight into loss and misery like Mount Eerie’s haunting A Crow Looked at Me, or questioning the very nature of death and departure like David Bowie’s final opus, Blackstar, To Go On picks up the pieces to find the sunlight, all while tightly holding on to memory. The record’s sound reflects this positivity, with anthemic indie rock on “Born Wolves” and the raucous country jam “Silver Linings.” “I thought I heard you call me / across the wired empty of every burning memory / that made us who we were,” Lorenz sings to his sister on “Don’t Worry.”

“Don’t worry, Katie / we can hold it all together / Don’t worry, Katie / we’re holding on / You don’t have to worry anymore,” he promises her over a softly plucked fingerstyle guitar, with barely-there strings giving shades of color to the ballad. Death is far from the main character of To Go On, but the specter lingers behind every note. Grief may not be rare subject matter for folk music, but Lorenz approaches it in an idiosyncratic and utterly human way. To Go On is available now on major streaming services. The Suitcase Junket performs at Zenbarn in Waterbury Center on Sunday, November 15. CHRIS FARNSWORTH

LUKE AWTRY

Eye on the Scene A photographic highlight of the past week in live music

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BOW THAYER’S AIM IS TRUE: Central Vermont singer-songwriter BOW THAYER threw a release party for his new album, Ninevah, last Friday at Burlington’s SEABA Center. With a six-musician backing band, the banjo wizard known for playing with ’90s blues and roots-rock band Elbow and bluegrass act the Benders performed brand-new songs. His sweeping concept record is, according to a press release, all about “a planet in transition and a species trying to understand its place on it.”

say you saw it in

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

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TUE.3 CONTINUED FROM P.55

COURTESY

live music Irish Night With RambleTree (Celtic) at Two Brothers Tavern, Middlebury, 7 p.m. Free. Bluegrass Nights (bluegrass) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

Porch Light, Nautics (rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $20.

WED.28

Sierra Hotel, New Speaker (indie rock) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7:30 p.m. $5.

TwoSev, JP Black, Xavier, Chaston (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Vinyl Night (DJ) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free. Vinyl Thursdays (DJ) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.30

All Hallows Dance Party (DJ) at Cousins Brewing, Waitsfield, 7 p.m. $10. DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free. DJ Taka (DJ) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 11 p.m. $10. Ecstatic Dance Vermont (DJ) at Capital City Grange, Berlin, 7 p.m. $10 donation. Friday Night at Specs (DJ) at Specs Cafe & Bar, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free. Halloween Dance Party (DJ) at the Depot, St. Albans, 9 p.m. Free. It’s a 2000s Party (DJ) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 9 p.m. $30. SOLD OUT. TwoSev, Ron Stoppable, Lucky Luc, Aras (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

SAT.31

DJ Big Dog (DJ) at Thingz From Yaad, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. DJ LaFountaine (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 8 p.m. Free.

SUN.1

Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

McMaple (folk rock) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Thirsty Thursday (DJ) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

TUE.3

Challenge Wheel (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $5.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

THU.29

SAT.31

WED.4

Dead Sessions Lite (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

DJ Blanchface (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free.

SAT.31

All That Jazz Open Mic Comedy (comedy) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Danny Roda (folk, blues) at the Tunbridge General Store, 5 p.m. Free.

WED.28

Live Band Karaoke and Costume Contest (karaoke) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 6 p.m. Free.

‘Possessed!’ (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $20.

WED.4

djs

Mind Magic: A Night of Laughter and Astonishment (magic, comedy) at Hardwick Town House, 7:30 p.m. $35.

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free. Karaoke with Cam (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

FRI.30 // DEVIL MASTER [METAL]

Trivia (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Lucifer in the Sky With Diamonds Formed in 2015, Philadelphia’s DEVIL MASTER live up to their name, with album titles such as Satan Spits on

Children of Light and Inhabit the Corpse and band members who go by Darkest Prince and Hades Apparition. The quartet, often disguised in the requisite corpse paint favored by black metal acts, is heavily influenced by early Japanese hardcore music but also draws inspiration from Greek and Andean folk. Devil Master’s latest record, Bloody Dreams, incorporates punk and psychedelic rock into the band’s massive, brutal sound. Catch them on Cabbage Night, Friday, October 30, at Stone Church in Brattleboro. New Hampshire hardcore act DIABOLUS kick off the show. Flow State, Hallows Eve Edition: Fever Dreams, Snakefoot, Fishmando (DJ) at the Phoenix, Waterbury, 7 p.m. $15. Havoc at the Cinema (DJ) at Stowe Cinema 3Plex, 8 p.m. $20. Mr. Cheng, Aras, Raul, Matt P (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free.

TUE.3

Bashment Tuesday (DJ) at Akes’ Place, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

THU.29

Open Mic (open mic) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

SUN.1

Olde Time Jam Session (open jam) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, noon. Free.

MON.2

Monday Night Open Mic (open mic) at Pearl Street Pub, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

open mics & jams

TUE.3

WED.28

Comedy Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Summer Street Tavern, Barre, 7:30 p.m. Free. Jazz Jam (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. Open Mic (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free. Doug’s Open Mic (open mic) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

WED.4

Jazz Jam (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. Open Celtic Session (open jam) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free. The Ribbit Review Open Mic & Jam (open mic) at Lily’s Pad, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy WED.28

Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

THU.29

Improv Class Show (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

FRI.30

Trivia (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.29

Country Line Dancing (line dancing) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7:30 p.m. Free. Karaoke (karaoke) at Gusto’s, Barre, 8 p.m. Free. Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free. Karaoke in the Alley (karaoke) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free. Trivia Night (trivia) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free. Trivia Night with College (trivia) at Bent Nails Roadhouse, Middlesex, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.30

Boogie Bingo (bingo, DJ) at the Alchemist, Stowe, 5 p.m. Free. Emoji Nightmare Presents: Cherry Pop (drag open stage) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $5/$10.

All That Jazz Comedy Showcase (comedy) at the 126, Burlington, 6:45 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Galloween (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Karaoke with DJ Big T (karaoke) at McKee’s Original, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

Queeraoke with Lizzie Murderz (karaoke) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free. Family-Friendly Karaoke (karaoke) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 5 p.m. Free. Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 5:30 p.m. Free.

MON.2

Retro Game Night (gaming) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 6 p.m. Free. Trivia Monday (trivia) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free. Trivia Monday with Top Hat Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Original, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia with Brain (trivia) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free. Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.3

Karaoke with DJ Vociferous (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free. Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free. Trivia Night (trivia) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6:30 p.m. Free. Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.4

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free. Karaoke with Cam (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Two Heroes Brewery & Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. ➆

➆

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

calendar

O C T O B E R

WED.28 agriculture

WEDNESDAYS WITH FARMER FRED: The site’s resident farmer and storyteller demonstrates historical agricultural tools and techniques, including sheep shearing, rye harvesting and cider pressing. President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, Plymouth, noon-2 p.m. Regular admission, $4-12; free for kids under 6.

business

‘HIRING YOUR FIRST EMPLOYEE’: A panel of Vermont Law & Graduate School professors and students explains ways to navigate the complexities of employment, from onboarding to handling taxes. A Q&A follows. 10 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister. HULA STORY SESSIONS: ‘A PEEK BEHIND THE SEVENTH GENERATION CURTAIN’: Cofounder and former CEO Jeffrey Hollender shares the personal and professional journey behind the sustainabilityfocused company’s growth. Hula, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free; preregister.

climate crisis

LEAHY PUBLIC POLICY FORUM: ‘HOPE AND ACTION: CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS FOR OUR SHARED FUTURE’: Climate leaders, policy makers, scholars and innovators convene for two days of conversation and collaboration focused on sustainability efforts. Various Burlington locations, 5-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

community

COFFEE & CONVERSATION: Licensed therapist Sarah

2 8 - N O V E M B E R Morrison Yates hosts a weekly opportunity for neighbors to chat over a cup of joe. Coffee and snacks provided. St. George Historic Schoolhouse, 10 a.m.-noon. Free. CURRENT EVENTS: Neighbors have an informal discussion about what’s in the news. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.noon. Free. VERMONT WOMEN’S MENTOR TRAINING: Offering a steady hand and a fresh start, volunteers step up to pair with formerly incarcerated individuals and help navigate the road to community reentry. Mercy Connections, Burlington, 5:307:30 p.m. Free.

crafts

YARN & YAK: A weekly club for fiber fanatics of all skill levels makes knitting and crocheting more sociable. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, 5-7 p.m. Free. YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: A drop-in meetup welcomes knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and other fiber artists. BYO snacks and drinks. Must Love Yarn, Shelburne, 5-7 p.m. Free.

dance

THE QUEEN CITY SQUARE DANCE: Swing your partner round and round! Live music by Jenny Monfore, Chris Hollis and Sarah Gibson soundtrack an evening of sashaying for all abilities. A beginner lesson is offered at 6:30 p.m. The SEABA Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $10-20; preregister. SQUARE DANCE CLUB: Swing your partner ’round and ’round! The Cast Off 8’s club leads the way at an introductory session in an inclusive setting. Lothrop Elementary School, Pittsford, 6:30-8 p.m. $7.

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE! All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper. Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent. Seven Days calendar writer Rebecca Driscoll selects and writes calendar spotlights. To help process the hundreds of event submissions we receive each week, some listings are compiled with the help of AI. Driscoll reviews, edits and verifies every entry before publication.

2 0 2 6

etc.

BRAVE LITTLE STATE MIXER: Fans of the people-powered Vermont Public podcast mix, mingle, ask their burning questions and take part in a live voting round to select a future episode’s topic. The Miller’s Toll Dinner Club & Lounge, Bennington, 5:30-7:30 p.m. $10. ‘THE MOUNT’S FINEST DAY’: History buffs commemorate a pivotal moment on Oct. 28, 1776 — when the Northern Army’s garrison sent general Guy Carleton’s fleet back to Canada for the winter — at a celebratory day of trail walks and expert-led talks. Mount Independence State Historic Site, Orwell, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Regular admission, $1-8; free for children under 6. STATEHOUSE HAUNTINGS TOUR: Intrepid visitors dare to embark on a guided walkthrough outlining the capitol building’s spirit-filled history and spooky secrets. Vermont Statehouse, Montpelier, 6, 7 & 8 p.m. Free; preregister. TOASTMASTERS OF GREATER BURLINGTON: Those looking to strengthen their speaking and leadership skills gain new tools. Virtual option available. Generator Makerspace, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section. ‘NO COUNTRY FOR MOTHERS’: Raeshem Nijhon’s 2026 documentary tracks a growing grassroots movement uniting American moms to demand systemic support. Greenway Campus, Montpelier, 6 p.m. Free; preregister. ‘NOSFERATU’: Filmmaker and Duxbury resident Scott

FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE: art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

4 ,

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

Tuft introduces a screening of the bone-chilling 1922 silent German expressionist horror flick based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Duxbury Historical Society, South Duxbury, 6 p.m. By donation; preregister.

PARLIAMO ITALIANO: The Vermont Italian Cultural Association hosts an evening for speakers — both beginner and native — to practice the language of love. Pearl Street Pizza, Barre, 5-8 p.m. Free; preregister.

Vermont’s historic preservation landscape with interesting case studies and anecdotes. See yestermorrow.org for details. Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Waitsfield, 6:30 p.m. Free.

‘SAVING WALDEN’S WORLD’: This 2024 documentary film follows Jim Merkel — a former military engineer turned sustainability activist — as he explores women-led climate resilience across the globe. A Q&A with Merkel follows. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 6 p.m. $12-15.

lgbtq

SOCIAL JUSTICE SPEAKER SERIES: KENNETH S. STERN: The director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate joins virtually to present on “Antisemitism Definitions and Free Speech.” Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING: Helping hands join up with the nonprofit’s staff and volunteers to make a yummy meal for distribution. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. CUPPA ON CAMPUS: Community members mingle over tea and coffee, swapping bright ideas for the future of the property. The Creative Campus at Goddard, Plainfield, 8-10 a.m. Free. VEGAN IN VERMONT: Those following a plant-based diet connect with others, explore recipes and listen to guest speaker Mateo Block, owner of Prophecy Chocolate in Morrisville. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister.

games

‘THE PRICE IS RIGHT LIVE!’: Randomly selected contestants “come on down” at an interactive, live stage version of the legendary television game show. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7:30 p.m. $49-69.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m. Free. MIDWEEK DHARMA: Spiritual seekers enjoy some solo meditation time, then gather round to delve into topics relating to Buddhist philosophies and practices. Shambhala Meditation Center, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free; donations accepted. RECOVERY DHARMA: Individuals struggling with addiction gather weekly for an evening of meditation, topical readings and open discussion in a supportive environment. First United Methodist Church, Burlington, 6-7 p.m. Free.

language

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Practitioners sharpen their skills and connect with neighbors at a bimonthly meetup facilitated by a native speaker. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10-11 a.m. Free. LANGUAGE LOUNGE: Lunch breaks transform into global conversation circles as participants hone their multilingual abilities. See kellogghubbard.org for details. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon. Free.

THE ALL-INCLUSIVE DYKETACULAR: A weekly get-together and listening party celebrates the LGBTQ+ community with feel-good tunes, dancing and drinks. Doma Bar, Burlington, 5-10 p.m. Free; cost of food and drink.

music

CHORAL EVENSONG: The student choir offers a program of contemplative and mindful music appealing to people of many faiths — or none at all. Hepburn Zoo, Hepburn Hall, Middlebury College, 8:30-9 p.m. Free.

outdoors

THE AMAZING CORN MAZE: Five full acres of puzzling twists and turns challenge families’ directional skills, followed by a sweet reward of maple creemees. Silloway Maple, Randolph Center, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $10.

politics

MIDTERM ELECTION FAIR: At this pivotal moment before the Nov. 3. vote, community members hear directly from local candidates. Barstow Memorial School, Chittenden, 1-2 p.m. Free.

seminars

FAMILY-TO-FAMILY CLASS: NAMI Vermont hosts an informative weekly seminar for individuals with a loved one who is struggling with mental health. 6-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: Ping-Pong players block, chop and lob in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership.

talks

ACADEMIC SPEAKER SERIES: DEVON PRICE: A social psychologist, author and professor delivers a timely talk titled “Neurodiversity and Authentic Self-Expression and SelfAdvocacy.” Landmark College, Putney, 5 p.m. Free. FALL SPEAKER SERIES: Local experts construct a picture of

tech

WORDPRESS HELP DESK: A casual, collaborative meet-up invites users to troubleshoot website-building challenges together. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-6 p.m. Free.

THU.29 activism

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL & SURVIVOR SPEAKOUT: Flames in hand, attendees remember those who lost their lives to domestic violence, while survivors share their experiences and offer hope for the future. First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, 5-7 p.m. Free.

agriculture

‘ROOTED & RESILIENT: WOMEN, LAND AND LEGACY’: Vermont Land Trust and Vermont Commission on Women cohost a gathering to celebrate female leaders in farming and land stewardship. Green Mountain Girls Farm, Northfield, 10 a.m.noon. Free.

business

SMALL TOWNS, BIG IDEAS PITCH EVENT: Tech startups compete for cash prizes in a celebration of the entrepreneurship happening across rural America. A reception follows. Virtual option available. Hanover Inn, N.H., 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. ‘WORK SMARTER: MAKING TECH WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS’: A conference for business owners offers practical tools, real-world strategies and fresh ideas to support and sustain growth. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. $99-150.

climate crisis

LEAHY PUBLIC POLICY FORUM: ‘HOPE AND ACTION: CLIMATE

These community event listings are sponsored by the WaterWheel Foundation, a project of the Vermont band Phish.

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

community

FRIENDS OF THE ATHENAEUM MEETING: Interested folks link up with a volunteer group that promotes the library’s resources and services, provides hospitality for programs and events, and helps with fundraising efforts. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 9:3010:30 a.m. Free. OUR OWN WAY HOME MEETING: A free parent-led network helps local families of adults with developmental disabilities find each other and create residential options together. 7-8 p.m. Free; preregister.

crafts

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS: Crafters of all skill levels spin yarn into community warmth by stitching hats and scarves for the South Burlington Food Shelf. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2-5 p.m. Free. KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of every experience level get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free. WOODWORKING LAB: Visionaries create a project or learn a new skill with the help of mentors and access to makerspace tools and equipment. Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center, Middlebury, 5-8 p.m. $7.50.

environment

BTV CLEAN UP CREW: Good Samaritans collect and dispose of needles, trash and other unwanted objects. BYO gloves encouraged. Top of Church St., Burlington, 7:30-10 a.m. Free.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section. ‘PENGUIN ISLAND 3D’: Shot on the dramatic, uninhabited sub-Antarctic Crozet Archipelago, this thrilling documentary short zooms in on a lone male suitor seeking his special someone among a colony of rivals. ECHO 3D Theater, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $1723; free for members and kids 2 and under.

OCT. 29 & 30 | THEATER

COURTESY OF JONATHAN COUTURE

CHANGE SOLUTIONS FOR OUR SHARED FUTURE’: See WED.28, 9 a.m.-noon.

games

CHESS FOR FUN: Sharp minds select an opening gambit, go on the attack and protect their king in friendly competition. Cobleigh Public Library, Lyndonville, 5-8 p.m. Free. DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: Snacks and coffee fuel bouts of a classic card game. Burlington Bridge Club, Williston, 12:30 p.m. $6.

‘SEA OTTERS: A WILD FAMILY ADVENTURE 3D’: First-time mom Bella teaches her pup how to survive on the wild British Columbia coast in this unforgettable cinematic journey. ECHO 3D Theater, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. ‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: A highstakes investigation into the underwater realm reveals how humanity’s future hinges on the fate of the ocean’s toothiest inhabitants. ECHO 3D Theater, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. ‘WILD RESCUE 3D’: Dedicated wildlife rehabilitation teams rescue and release injured and orphaned animals back into nature in this heartwarming documentary short. ECHO 3D Theater, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

food & drink

MONSTERS BALL ADVENTURE DINNER: Gather your coven! A

FAMILY FUN Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages. • Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun. • Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

WED.28

burlington

BIPOC FAMILY DINNER: Multiracial and blended families gather for an evening of connection, shared food and community-building hosted by the Vermont Professionals of Color Network and Dad Guild. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 5-7 p.m. Free. ‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: Curious minds dive into the science and history of Vermont’s most iconic legend at this family-friendly exhibit featuring interactive games, a design studio, multimedia displays, a 30-foot sculpture and photo ops. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5

ghoulish night for epicureans features potent potables, manic mocktails, and a five-course meal inspired by classic creatures. Adventure Dinner Clubhouse, Colchester, 6-9 p.m. $75.

FRIENDLY GAME OF BRIDGE: Strategic thinkers have a blast with the popular card game. Heineberg Senior Center, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free.

The 2014 Girls Nite Out production of The Prima Donnettes

Goodnight, and Good Luck All good things must come to an end. Female-forward theater company Girls Nite Out Productions takes its final bow with “Farewell to GNOP” at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. The nonprofit was born when local actors Jennifer Warwick and Janet Stambolian reached an empowering conclusion: The best way to provide high-quality roles for women was to stage shows themselves. From 2010 to 2025, GNOP mounted 16 works, affording countless on- and offstage opportunities to locals. Friends, fans and members toast an unforgettable run at an evening packed with performances, live music and memories. Cheers to 15 years!

‘FAREWELL TO GNOP’ Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 7:30 p.m., at Black Box Theater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, in Burlington. $55. Info, info@girlsniteoutvt.com, girlsniteoutvt.com.

p.m. Regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. PICTURE-BOOK PUMPKIN PAINTING: Seasonal snacks fuel creative kids ages 4 and up as they transform orange squash into familiar faces straight from the pages. Materials provided. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. PODCAST, POLICY & PIZZA PARTY: The nonprofit’s brand-new youth-led podcast, “Transmission of Truth,” is celebrated with an opportunity to hear the first episode, followed by a shared meal and a lively Q&A with the creators and guests. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister. STORIES & SONGS FOR LIBRARY LITTLES: Tots get their bodies moving and brains firing with books, music and unstructured social time. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. ‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: Young bookworms revel in colorful hands-on installations that transform the beloved author’s stories into interactive journeys of discovery. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under.

chittenden county

BABYTIME: Lullabies and lap play set a gentle rhythm as infants and their caregivers sing, rhyme and connect. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. CHILDREN’S STORY TIME WITH CHRISTINE: Young bookworms wiggle, sing and turn pages at an interactive session led by a former early childhood educator. Wild Meadows Books & Café, Williston, 10:30 a.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

BABY & CAREGIVER MEETUP: Wiggly ones ages birth to 18 months play and explore in a calm, supportive setting while adults relax and connect on the sidelines. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:3011:30 a.m. Free. BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: A drop-in hangout session welcomes kids ages 12 to 17 for lively games, arts and crafts, and snacks. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 2-6 p.m. Free.

upper valley

DR. RAJ PANJABI: A physician, professor and former White House official shares his guide for navigating crises, Safer: A Playbook, in conversation with Vermont

author Matt Hongoltz-Hetling. The Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free. STORY TIME: Early literacy takes center stage as infants and toddlers engage in a melodic mix of books and songs. Norwich Public Library, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free.

PEER SUPPORT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Beginners wanted! Players get lost in the fantasy-filled tabletop role-playing game while focusing on teamwork, connection and community building. Morgan House, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. WEEKLY CHESS FOR FUN: Players of all ability levels face off and learn new strategies. United Community Church, St. Johnsbury, 5:30-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

health & fitness

COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS: Volunteer coach Andrea Marion leads a weekly practice for stress reduction, followed by a discussion and Q&A. 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. SEATED TAI CHI: Adina guides at-home THU.29

» P.60

chittenden county

TODDLERTIME: Little wigglers enjoy a storytime with catchy songs and rhythmic fingerplays. For ages 1 and up with an adult. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 9:15-9:45 & 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

THU.29

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See WED.28.

burlington

BABY & ME CLASS: Parents and their infants ages birth to 1 explore massage, lullabies and gentle movements while discussing the struggles and joys of parenthood. Greater Burlington YMCA, 9:45-10:45 a.m. $10; free for members. ‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28. GROW PRESCHOOL YOGA: Colleen from Grow Prenatal and Family Yoga leads kids ages 2 to 5 in songs, movement and other fun activities. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. MINECRAFT MEETUP: Fans of the sandbox game from ages 7 to 12 gather with fellow enthusiasts to play on the library’s private server. Snacks provided. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 5-6:15 p.m. Free.

STORY TIME: Kids and their caregivers meet for stories, songs and bubbles. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 2nd Floor, Children’s Library, Montpelier, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: Caregivers bring kiddos under 4 to a new sensory learning experience each week. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free.

mad river valley/ waterbury

BUSY BEES PLAYGROUP: Blocks, toys, books and songs engage little ones 24 months and younger. Waterbury Public Library, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28. FRI.30 SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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participants — including those with limited mobility or difficulty standing — through a sequence of slow, connected movements. Sponsored by the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 1 p.m. Free; preregister.

holidays

‘HAUNTED CINEMA: FILMS ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL’: Just in time for Halloween, local film historian Rick Winston presents a program of clips that explore the paranormal as depicted in movies. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 6:30 p.m. Free. QUEEN CITY GHOSTWALK: DARKNESS FALLS TOUR: Paranormal historians highlight spooky happenings throughout Burlington at this perennial favorite hailed by Yankee Magazine as one of New England’s best haunted walks. 199 Main St., Burlington, 7 p.m. $25; preregister.

language

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Parla Italiano? Language learners practice pronunciation and more at a friendly gathering. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. LANGUAGE LOUNGE: See WED.28.

music

LISTENING PARTY: Classical music fans convene to hear a recording of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s recent concert, “Charity, Sylvia & Cleopatra,” featuring music inspired and created by powerful women. The Phoenix, Waterbury, 6 p.m. Free; preregister. ‘SING ALONG BROADWAY’: Musical theater lovers, shower singers and show tune fanatics gather to belt out hits from the Great White Way. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7:30 p.m. $29.

outdoors

THE AMAZING CORN MAZE: See WED.28.

seminars

AARP TAX-AIDE OPEN HOUSE: Volunteers learn how to provide free tax filing help to those who need it most. AARP Vermont State Office, Burlington, 3-5 p.m. Free. ESTATE PLANNING WORKSHOP: A panel of experts provides invaluable financial insight on how to begin, refine or confirm your legacy strategy. A Q&A follows. Light refreshments provided. Greater Burlington YMCA, 5-7 p.m. Free.

talks

‘BUILT TO LAST: A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH CARHARTT’S ARCHIVE DAVE’: Digital asset manager Dave Moore presents a show and tell of historical items from the enduring American clothing company’s archives. A Q&A follows. Refreshments provided. Billings

Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 6-8 p.m. $20 suggested donation; winter clothing items accepted. RED BENCH SPEAKER SERIES: BILL FARRELL: In “When the Wax Ran Right: The History of the Johnson State College Ski Team, 1966-1974,” a former member shares his memories of the Alpine racing program, bolstered by newly digitized 8mm film and photographs. Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, Stowe, 6:30 p.m. $10; preregister.

COURTESY OF STORYWORKZ

THU.29

OCT. 31 | HOLIDAYS

SPOTLIGHT 802: JULIA KERN: ABC22/FOX44 account executive Erin Cofiell interviews the New England native and two-time Olympian about her journey to the world stage. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5:30-7 p.m. Free.

tech

BURLINGTON HARDWARE MEETUP: Designers, engineers, founders and investors get together for a night of talks, demonstrations, refreshments and new connections. Bare Innovation, Richmond, 5-8 p.m. Free; preregister. TECH HELP: Users with digital dilemmas seek expert guidance about everything from smartphone settings to ebook downloads. Norwich Public Library, 1-4 p.m. Free.

theater

‘ALMOST, MAINE’: Middlebury College professor Alex Draper directs John Cariani’s romantic comedy containing eight separate vignettes exploring love lost and gained. Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. $5-15. ‘AN EVENING OF COMEDY’: Three one-act comedies presented by the White River Valley Players get audience members giggling. The Hub Auditorium, Rochester, 7:30 p.m. By donation. ‘FAREWELL TO GNOP’: Girls Nite Out Productions closes the curtain on 15 years making high-quality theater with special performances, live music, and sharing of photos and memories. Proceeds benefit the Stambolian/Warwick Girls Nite Out Fund. See calendar spotlight. Black Box Theater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $55.

words

ANN DÁVILA CARDINAL: A Vermont author shares her new book, Hear the Dead, an edgy, genre-bending thriller following a retired photographer who begins to hear the murders of people she knew in her youth. Stowe Free Library, 7 p.m. Free. CINDY ELLEN HILL: A Middlebury writer, musician and gardener launches her new gothic novel, Leeds Point, following a woman accused of witchcraft in early colonial New Jersey. The Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free. CREATIVE WRITING SERIES: Expert Marguerite Dunlop hosts a weekly opportunity for aspiring wordsmiths to hone their craft,

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Creepin’ It Real What better way to get pumped for trick-or-treating than with a concert of haunting hits performed by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra? At the Flynn Main Stage in Burlington, the crowd-favorite ensemble summons spine-tingling sounds with its seasonally appropriate program, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Classically creepy works — ranging from two movements of early Romantic master Hector Berlioz’s whimsical Symphonie fantastique to contemporary composer Danny Elfman’s hair-raising “Nightmare Before Christmas” suite — conjure chills and thrills for listeners of all ages and musical tastes. Those looking to dig deeper into the program’s lore shouldn’t miss an illuminating preconcert discussion at 2 p.m.

VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Saturday, October 31, 3 p.m., at the Flynn Main Stage in Burlington. $12-67. Info, 802-863-5966, flynnvt.org. swap constructive feedback and pick up fresh techniques. Refreshments provided. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 1-3 p.m. Free; preregister. ELIZABETH WELLINGTON ROLLINS: A local author shares her debut novel, The Three Graces of Pearl Street, following three generations of Italian American women who must confront long-held family secrets. Cohosted by Bridgeside Books and the Vermont Italian Cultural Association. 7 p.m. Free; preregister. GEORGE’S MYSTERY BOOK GROUP: Patrons chat about this month’s twisty page-turner with resident whodunit expert George Spaulding. Kellogg-Hubbard

Library, Montpelier, 6:15-8 p.m. Free. HORROR BOOK CLUB: Readers dig into Shirley Jackson’s classic gothic novel, The Haunting of Hill House, about a group of people investigating paranormal phenomena at a notoriously malevolent mansion. Wild Meadows Books & Café, Williston, 6-8 p.m. Free. PATRICIA WARD: A local author reads from her newest thriller, Mercy, a contemporary mystery that delves into a small town’s supernatural, multigenerational curse. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 5:30 p.m. Free. TURNING PAGES WITH MARY: Local radio favorite Mary Cenci of Star 92.9 guides bookish banter centered on Alice Hoffman’s beloved 1995 fantasy novel,

Practical Magic. Phoenix Books, Essex, 5:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

other guests to solve a crime. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, 7 p.m. $50; cash bar.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section. ‘THE HAUNTING’: Local historian Rick Winston introduces this 1963 supernatural horror flick following a group of people hired to examine odd phenomena at a sinister mansion. A discussion follows. Maple Corner Community Center, Calais, 6:30 p.m. $5-10. ‘THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL’: Ti West’s 2009 breakout indie horror flick follows a struggling college student who takes a bizarre babysitting job for some extra cash. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $6-12.

FRI.30

‘PENGUIN ISLAND 3D’: See THU.29.

‘COCOON’: Listeners take in true tales, told live and without notes, inspired by popular storytelling phenomenon the Moth. The theme: “Curveball.” Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. $5-15.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.29.

etc.

games

community

‘MURDER AT THE MUSEUM: A STORYBOOK MYSTERY’: Costumed sleuths uncover secrets and work with (or against!)

‘SEA OTTERS: A WILD FAMILY ADVENTURE 3D’: See THU.29.

‘WILD RESCUE 3D’: See THU.29.

food & drink

MONSTERS BALL ADVENTURE DINNER: See THU.29.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.29, 10 a.m.

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

health & fitness

GUIDED MEDITATION ONLINE: Dorothy Alling Memorial Library invites attendees to relax on their lunch breaks and reconnect with their bodies. Noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. WEEKLY MEDITATION: Expert Zac Ispa-Landa shares tools to quiet the mind, slow down and reset. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 8-8:45 a.m. Free.

holidays

COMMUNITY NIGHT: FRANK & STEIN: Costumes are encouraged at this benefit for Migrant Justice, featuring a chef-curated hot dog menu, autumnal beverages and pastries, classic candies, and a spooky screening projected on the wall. August First, Burlington, 5-8 p.m. Free. ‘AN EDGAR ALLAN POE HALLOWEEN’: Lost Nation Theater celebrates the master of the macabre with a dark carnival of spooky and kooky thrills conceived by late director Tim Tavcar. Virtual option available. Lost Nation Theater, Montpelier City Hall, 7 p.m. $20-25. GLOW IN THE DARK ADVENTURE: Revelers get their Halloween fix with spooky mountain roller coaster rides and glowing mini golf games. Jackson Gore Inn, Okemo Mountain Resort, Ludlow, 5-8 p.m. $10-48. HAITIAN HALLOWEEN DANCE PARTY: Powerhouse collective Lakou Mizik soundtrack this costumed holiday bash with infectious rhythms. Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, 7 p.m. $10-40; free for kids under 12. HALLOWEEN HORSEBACK ADVENTURE: Saddle up for a spooky trot through decorated trails before warming up with post-ride cocoa, pony petting and apple bobbing. Better Days Ranch and Equine Services, Vergennes, 5:30-9 p.m. $60. QUEEN CITY GHOSTWALK: DARKNESS FALLS TOUR: See THU.29. ‘REST IN SLEAZE: BURLESQUE HALLOWEEN VARIETY SHOW’: Something wicked this way shimmies! Green Mountain Cabaret presents a hauntingly delightful evening of tricks and teases. Montpelier Performing Arts Hub, 8 p.m. $20-25; preregister.

language

FRENCH SOCIAL HOUR: The Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain Region hosts a rendez-vous over cocktails. Hilton Garden Inn Burlington Downtown, 5:30-7 p.m. Free; cash bar. LANGUAGE LOUNGE: See WED.28.

lgbtq

RPG NIGHT: Members of the LGBTQ community get together weekly for role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons

and Everway. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:308:30 p.m. Free.

music

ANA GUIGUI: An acclaimed pianist and vocalist entertains listeners with a wide variety of styles and genres. The Brandon Inn, 7-9:30 p.m. Free. ANNEMIEKE MCLANE & CAMERON BROWNELL: In “L’automne,” an award-winning pianist and a local tenor perform works by French composers that reflect on the changing of the seasons. Proceeds benefit Malayaka House. Charlotte Congregational Church, 7 p.m. $20 suggested donation. BURLINGTON BAROQUE FESTIVAL SINGERS AND L’HARMONIE DES SAISONS: Distinguished vocalists and period instrumentalists join forces to perform “Requiem for a King,” a poignant program of early music masterworks, including Jean Gilles’ “Messe des morts,” which was played at Louis XV’s funeral. Holy Angels Church, St. Albans, 7:30 p.m. $10-80; free for kids under 18; preregister. CAMEO BAROQUE: Listeners are transported back in time at this stirring performance of compositions from the 17th and 18th centuries. Proceeds benefit Good Samaritan Haven. Hedding United Methodist Church, Barre, 7 p.m. By donation. DARTMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Filippo Ciabatti directs the student ensemble in a repertoire of timeless classics. Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 7 p.m. $25. DRUM CIRCLE WITH JEAN JACQUES MAURY: From mastering basic techniques to building a shared rhythmic vocabulary,

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music. Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

an all-abilities music-making session taps into a deep mindbody connection. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 6-7 p.m. Free. KIMAYA DIGGS: An indie-pop singer-songwriter presents her third studio album, Green, a love letter to New England that showcases powerful vocals and honest lyricism. Virtual option available. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7:30 p.m. $10-25.

Joy of Home is moving! Details at

joyofhomevt.com

LIVE FROM THE MEADOW: MUSIC FRIDAYS: A new weekly music series invites community members to spend a relaxing evening listening to live tunes by talented local artists. Wild Meadows Books & Café, Williston, 6:30-8 p.m. Free.

outdoors

THE AMAZING CORN MAZE: See WED.28.

politics

EDUCATION & ENRICHMENT FOR EVERYONE FALL LECTURE SERIES: MATTHEW DICKINSON: A Middlebury College professor of political science presents “Forecasting the Midterm Elections: An End to Unstable Majorities?” Faith United Methodist Church, South Burlington, 2 p.m. $8 cash or check; free for members.

theater

(802) 488- 9037

‘ALMOST, MAINE’: See THU.29. ‘CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, A COMEDY’: Essex Community 8v-joyofhome102826.indd 1 Players takes on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s turn-of-the-century masterpiece, reimagined as a 90-minute romp with five actors playing more than 50 zany characters. Essex Memorial Hall, 7:30 p.m. $23-25.

10/26/26 9:13 AM

‘AN EVENING OF COMEDY’: See THU.29. ‘FAREWELL TO GNOP’: See THU.29. ‘TWO TENTS’: Set in a campground in summer 2015, Canadian playwright Ross Murray’s comedy digs into relationships, the great outdoors, and the danger and allure of midlife nostalgia. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 7 p.m. $25.

words

AMBER ROBERTS & LINDSAY LOVISE: Two authors dive into conversation about their spine-tingling paranormal titles, followed by a Q&A with listeners. Wild Meadows Books & Café, Williston, 6-9 p.m. Free.

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community

SISTERHOOD CAMPFIRE: Women and genderqueer folks gather in a safe and inclusive space to build community through journaling, storytelling, gentle music and stargazing.

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Thinking About an ADU? Start with a Plan. November 11 & 12, Burlington Get expert guidance on local requirements, timelines, costs, and next steps. Practical worksheets and resources to start planning are included. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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Leddy Park, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. Free. ‘THE THINNING VEIL’: A gentle yet powerful communal story-sharing ritual invites participants to honor their deceased loved ones with photos, artifacts and anecdotes. Refreshments provided. The Grief Center of Vermont, Essex Junction, 10 a.m.-noon. $25 suggested donation.

etc.

AGING IN PLACE WITH PETS VOLUNTEER DAY: Helping hands provide elderly or disabled program participants with the emotional and physical assistance necessary to help them keep their pets. 345 Pine St., Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free; donations accepted. MONTHLY SWAPORTUNITY: Collectors and enthusiasts trade, sell and showcase their nerdy goods, from vintage video games to rare figurines. Old Town Cafe & Comics, Williston, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

fairs & festivals

ARTIST FESTIVAL: Creativity and community take flight at this showcase of more than 45 makers, as well as live music, demos, tarot readings and a drumming circle. Reading Greenhouse Farm Market, Felchville, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section. ‘PENGUIN ISLAND 3D’: See THU.29. ‘SEA OTTERS: A WILD FAMILY ADVENTURE 3D’: See THU.29. ‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.29. ‘WILD RESCUE 3D’: See THU.29.

food & drink

BURLINGTON FARMERS MARKET: Live local music lends flair to dozens of stands overflowing with seasonal produce, flowers, artisanal wares and prepared foods. 345 Pine St., Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. CHAMPLAIN ISLANDS FARMERS MARKET: Talented artisans and vendors showcase their farmfresh veggies, meats, eggs, flowers, honey and other goodies. St. Joseph’s Church, Grand Isle, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. NORTHWEST FARMERS MARKET: Browsers stock up on produce, preserves, baked goods and other treasures to the beat of live music. Taylor Park, St. Albans, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. ST. JOHNSBURY FARMERS MARKET: Growers, bakers, makers and crafters gather weekly at booths centered on local eats. Pearl St. & Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. THE ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE TASTING: Store experts guide sweet tooths on a sensory tour of the world through a flight

of cocoa confections. Lake Champlain Chocolates Flagship Store, Pine St., Burlington, 2-3 p.m. $16.

games

CHESS CLUB: Proficient players of all ages face off and learn new strategies. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m. Free.

COURTESY OF ELSIE SMITH

calendar Elly Craig

D&D & TTRPG GROUP: Fans of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop role-playing games embark on a new adventure with a rotating cast of game masters. Virtual option available. Waterbury Public Library, 1-5 p.m. Free. LEARN TO DM: Experienced players and beginners alike gain helpful tips and tricks for becoming a successful Dungeons & Dragons master. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-2 p.m. Free.

health & fitness

AUTUMN ONION: All ages and abilities work up an appetite for candy at this costumed footrace through the Capital City’s downtown. Onion River Outdoors, Montpelier, 9-10 a.m. $10-20.

holidays

BEETLE BALL: SOLD OUT. It’s showtime! An inaugural Beetlejuice-themed costume party held in the movie’s now-famous East Corinth filming location features drag and burlesque shows, a deadly dance party, DJ sets, and photo booth opportunities. Ages 21 and up. Miss Shannon’s School House, East Corinth, 7:30 p.m. $50; cash bar. CIRCLE DANCE FOR SAMHAIN: Revelers honor the thinning of the veil with traditional Celtic steps, followed by a shared snack. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 2-3:30 p.m. Free. ‘GHOSTWATCH’: Spooky seekers revel in a Halloween-night screening of the once-banned 1992 English television special that triggered 30,000 horrified phone calls to the BBC. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $6-12. GLOW IN THE DARK ADVENTURE: See FRI.30, 4-9 p.m. GORY DAZE PARADE & GUTTER BALL: Costumed characters of all ages whoop it up with a trunkor-treat, live music, and ghoulish dancing. Main Street Museum, White River Junction, 6-11 p.m. Free. HALLOWEEN CONTRA DANCE: A costumed edition of the beloved community-building shindig features calling by Qwill Duvall and music courtesy of Aaron Marcus, Tory Horner and Rosemary Powell. A beginner lesson is offered at 7:45 p.m. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 8-11 p.m. $5-20. HALLOWEEN IN WINOOSKI: A killer holiday bash showcases 1,000 spooky jack-o’-lanterns, carnival games, tarot and astrology readings, and live music.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

STARTS NOV. 1 | FAIRS & FESTIVALS outdoors

Hanging Out The state of the world is pretty topsy-turvy right now. Why not lean into it? The New England Center for Circus Arts shows the way at the Vermont Circus Festival, a scintillating showcase of big-top entertainment spanning venues across Brattleboro — a town that’s no stranger to such spectacles. (Archival photos dating back to the mid1800s show elephants walking off trains as circuses arrived by rail at the spot where the Amtrak Station is today.) The weeklong affair serves up a variety of astonishing acts, as well as exhibits, a themed storytelling event and more than 60 workshops on subjects ranging from mime to flying trapeze.

VERMONT CIRCUS FESTIVAL Sunday, November 1, through Sunday, November 8, at various Brattleboro locations. Various prices. Info, info@necenterforcircusarts.org, necenterforcircusarts.org.

THE AMAZING CORN MAZE: See WED.28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. OCTOBER BIRD MONITORING WALK: Avian aficionados monitor meadows and forests for the telltale flap of feathers. BYO binoculars. Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington, 8-9 a.m. $5-15 suggested donation; preregister.

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

Rotary Park, Winooski, 4-9 p.m. Free.

Barn at Boyden Farm, Cambridge, 6:30-10 p.m. $20-45.

a raucous crowd. Partizanfilm, Burlington, midnight. $10.50-12.

art

HALLOWEEN SING-IN: Green Mountain Gilbert & Sullivan Singers lead concertgoers in a seasonal sing-along of the Victorian-era theatrical duo’s greatest hits. Bethany United Church of Christ, Randolph, 2 p.m. $7-30; preregister.

HALLOWEEN-O-THON: ‘LEAF CREEPERS’: Costumed spooky seekers settle in for an evening of locally made horror shorts with a theme of “Somebody’s Watching Us...” Junction Arts & Media, White River Junction, 6 p.m. Free; preregister.

SPOOKY SATURDAY: Folks of all ages get ghoulish at a holiday happening filled with activities, from trick-or-treating and pumpkin decorating to a costume contest and the annual Witch’s Dance. Taylor Park, St. Albans, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

film

‘HALLOWEEN VARIETY SHOW’: Between the Willows presents an evening of frightening fabulousness and scary showstoppers performed by local talent of all types. Ages 18 and up. Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, Burlington, 7 p.m. $14-35.

HOWL’WEEN DOG COSTUME CONTEST: Area pooches win prizes for their silly, spooky and downright adorable getups. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, noon-1:30 p.m. Free.

VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Andrew Crust conducts the ensemble in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” featuring spooky selections by Danny Elfman, Paul Dukas and other masters of spine-tingling tunes. A preconcert discussion is offered at 2 p.m. See calendar spotlight. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 3 p.m. $12-67.

‘HALLOWEEN, REWOUND’: Dust off those jelly bracelets! Golden Hour Social Club hosts a costumed dance party for people who peaked when Blockbuster did, complete with DJ sets, games, pizza and candy. The

QUEEN CITY GHOSTWALK: DARKNESS FALLS TOUR: See THU.29. ‘THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW’: Costumed audience members screen this over-thetop 1975 cult classic as it was meant to be experienced: at midnight on Halloween and with

music

ANA GUIGUI: See FRI.30.

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music. Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

SENSING THE SEASON: Nature lovers hone their observation abilities to study seasonal shifts at this self-guided outdoor stroll ending in shared discoveries. Rock Point Center, Burlington, 10:30 a.m. Free; preregister. WEEKLY BIRD WALK: Featheredfriend seekers join expert Lachlan Ziegler for a morning trek to sharpen their identification skills. Rock Point Center, Burlington, 8-10 a.m. Free; preregister.

seminars

‘SKILLS FOR DISAGREEING BETTER’: An interactive workshop hosted by Braver Angels Chittenden County Alliance equips attendees with skills for listening, understanding and sharing perspectives. Essex

words

Police Department, 9-11 a.m. Free; preregister.

sports

NEISA OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: Sailing teams from across New England navigate unpredictable winds as they battle for the coveted Professor Erwin Schell Trophy at this thrilling Lake Champlain regatta. Various waterfront locations, Burlington, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Free.

theater

‘ALMOST, MAINE’: See THU.29, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

STEVEN C. SCHLOZMAN: The University of Vermont psychiatrist and author shares his 2011 sci-fi horror, The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks From the Apocalypse, about a team of doctors seeking a cure for a global plague. Wild Meadows Books & Café, Williston, 4-7 p.m. Free. WRITE NOW!: Wordsmiths of all experience levels hone their craft in a supportive and critique-free environment. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 10 a.m. Free.

‘CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, A COMEDY’: See FRI.30, 2 p.m.

SUN.1

fairs & festivals

VERMONT CIRCUS FESTIVAL: A celebration of aerialists, acrobats, mimes and more offers workshops, performances, seminars, exhibits and a themed storytelling event. See necenterforcircusarts.org for full schedule. See calendar spotlight. Various Brattleboro locations. Various prices.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section. ‘LOST NATION’: History buffs watch local filmmaker Jay Craven’s Revolutionary War drama about Ethan Allen and

‘TWO TENTS’: See FRI.30.

Lucy Terry Prince, set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont. A Q&A with the filmmaker follows. Westford Common Hall, 4 p.m. Free; donations accepted. ‘PENGUIN ISLAND 3D’: See THU.29. ‘SEA OTTERS: A WILD FAMILY ADVENTURE 3D’: See THU.29. ‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.29. ‘WILD RESCUE 3D’: See THU.29.

food & drink

SUNDAY WINE TASTING: Oenophiles swirl and sip their way through a rotating selection of vinos while learning about the producers and regions behind the pours. Bar Renée, Burlington, 1-4 p.m. $5-8.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.29, 1 p.m.

health & fitness

BURLINGTON INSIGHT MEDITATION COMMUNITY: Certified instructors lead hourlong sessions of the ancient contemplative practice rooted in compassion and generosity. Hood Plant, Burlington, 5:306:30 p.m. By donation. DAD GUILD RUN CLUB: Fathers hit the pavement — rain or shine — at this weekly 3.5-mile morning jaunt through the Queen City. Burlington Greenway, 7:30 a.m. Free. SUN.1

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Great Expectations What’s your idea of Assisted Living? Fresh local foods, close-knit friends, and a stress-free lifestyle — our community is not what you expect. Add a little care, and great Assisted Living can mean greater independence.

Write your next great chapter! Independent, Assisted & Memory Care Living Now also in:

Essex Junction | 802-760-6018

S. Burlington | 802-489-7627

Middlebury | 802-231-3645

Shelburne | 802-992-8420

23t-ExploreComm(LCB)101427 1

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

10/8/26 12:33 PM

calendar

THU.29

FAMILY FUN

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FRI.30

burlington

BURLINGTON FNG: Self-identified LGBTQ+ and questioning youths ages 13 to 19 gather weekly to socialize in a supportive environment. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. ‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28. DROP-IN: An afterschool hangout space invites teens ages 13 to 19 to relax, connect, grab a snack or browse the nonprofit’s clothing closet. Outright Vermont, Burlington, 2:30 p.m. Free. FAMILY FRIDAY WITH LINDA BASSICK: Caretakers and wee ones enjoy a weekly morning mashup of muffins and music played by the local legend. Pingala Café North Avenue, Burlington, 9-9:30 a.m. Free. ‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

chittenden county

LEGO BUILDERS: Creative minds stack, connect and build their way to structural masterpieces using interlocking blocks.

Recommended for ages 8 and up, or 6 and up with an adult helper. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. TRUNK-OR-TREAT: Families come in costume to collect candy from festive vehicles while food trucks serve up hearty fare. Bombardier Recreation Park, Milton, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See WED.28. ‘SLEEPY HOLLOW: THE MUSICAL’: The Headless Horseman rides again in Acorn Youth Arts’ rock-music reimagining of the harrowing folkloric tale by Washington Irving. Barre Opera House, 7 p.m. $10-50 sliding scale; free for kids 10 and under. STORY TIME & PLAYGROUP: Tots ages birth to 6 stretch their imaginations and legs at this weekly offering of storytelling, sing-alongs, crafting and open play with youth librarian Sasha McGarvey. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free.

middlebury area

TRICK-OR-TREAT AT THE MUSEUM: Little ones have a fang-tastic time exploring the grounds for all things spooky and sweet. Costumed canines welcome. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, 3-5 p.m. Free.

rutland/killington

SPOOKTACULAR FAMILY MASK MAKING: Ghouls of all ages drop in for creepy crafts, Halloween-themed games and frightfully good times. Stone Valley Arts, Poultney, 3-5:30 p.m. Free.

champlain islands/ northwest

HALLOWSEVE HAUNTED HALLWAY: Local businesses and organizations hand out spooktacular sweets to costumed kiddos at this plaza-wide trick-or-treating bash. Highgate Commons Shopping Center, St. Albans City, 6-8 p.m. Free.

SAT.31

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28. FAMILY PLAYSHOP: Youngsters boost early literacy and school readiness through hands-on activities, songs and storytelling. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10-11:30 a.m. Free. ‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

chittenden county

upper valley

HALLOWEEN ON THE GREEN: Costumed tykes canvass a farmers market-style lineup of community tents to gather up goodies. Volunteers Green, Richmond, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

northeast kingdom

TEEN HORROR FILM FESTIVAL: Aspiring filmmakers ages 13 to 18 bring their spooky shorts to the big screen at this marathon of homemade movie madness. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 2-3:30 p.m. Free.

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in tales, tunes and playtime. Latham Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Youngsters and their caregivers delight in beautiful books, silly songs, creative crafts and unplugged play in the library’s cozy children’s room. Craftsbury Public Library, Craftsbury Common, 10 a.m. Free. SENSORY-FRIENDLY HALLOWEEN EVENT: Sensory-sensitive youths and their families celebrate the holiday with treats, crafts and quiet activities in a calm, welcoming space. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 5-6 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

DOWNTOWN TRICK-OR-TREATING: State, Main and Langdon streets light up with Halloween happenings and candy collecting for costumed little ones. Downtown Montpelier, 4-5:30 p.m. Free. ‘SLEEPY HOLLOW: THE MUSICAL’: See FRI.30, 2 & 7 p.m.

middlebury area

OTTER CREEK CHALLENGE RACE: Spectators cheer on local middle and high school rowing teams in a variety of heats as they paddle for the crown. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, 8 a.m.-noon. Free.

champlain islands/ northwest

SPOOKY YOUTH FUN RUN: Goblins and ghouls of all ages don costumes to tackle a 1/3-mile loop around town. Taylor Park, St. Albans, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

SUN.1

burlington

BAM! COMICS LAB FOR KIDS: Expert Jon Chad teaches budding illustrators ages 8 to 12 how to turn blank pages into panel-by-panel stories in this six-part series. Fletcher Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3:30-5 p.m. Free; preregister. BUILD IT BIG: SECOND STORY: Aspiring engineers ages 7 to 12 work together to create towers, forts, vehicles and anything else they can dream up with the library’s giant Rigamajig toy. Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3:30-5 p.m. Free; preregister. ‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

A H T I W T S I L Y A PLA

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A LT E R N AT IV E

SINGER-SONGWRITE

A M ER IC A N A

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Stream at PointFM.com

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

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LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

MUSIC TIME: Local musicians Jessie and Lisa guide families through a morning jam session, followed by opportunities for open-ended play and community connection. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 11 a.m.-noon. Free.

PLAY GROUP: Families of all backgrounds are welcome at this weekly offering for children ages birth to 5, complete with toys, books, music and snacks. Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, Burlington, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

upper valley

‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

STORIES & CRAFTS: ANIMAL ANTICS: Children ages 2 to 6 and their caregivers unleash their inner creature at a handson story session spotlighting a new critter each week. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:45 a.m. Free.

northeast kingdom

chittenden county

CHILDREN’S STORY TIME WITH CHRISTINE: See WED.28. SOCIAL SUNDAYS: Families participate in fun and educational art activities with diverse mediums and themes. All supplies and instruction provided. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, 12:302:30 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

‘SLEEPY HOLLOW: THE MUSICAL’: See FRI.30, 2 p.m.

middlebury area

DADS & KIDS PLAYGROUP: Local fathers and their littles link up for a morning of indoor play, community building and connection. Nest & Gather, New Haven, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

burlington

ACORN CLUB STORY TIME: Youngsters 5 and under play, sing, hear stories and color. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

chittenden county

NATURE PLAYGROUP: Kids up to age 5 and their caregivers experience the wonders of the great outdoors at a guided exploration and story time led by a naturalist. Green Mountain Audubon Center, Huntington, 9:30-11 a.m. Free; preregister.

barre/montpelier

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See WED.28.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TODDLER TIME: Little kids ages 5 and under have a blast with songs, stories, rhymes and dancing. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free.

MON.2

STORY TIME WITH BETH: An engaging bookseller and librarian reads picture books on a different theme each week. The Norwich Bookstore, 10 a.m. Free.

JAKE CHESSUM/THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

TUE.3

burlington

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28. DADS’ NIGHT OUT: BOARD GAME NIGHT: Rad dads show up ready to play at this spirited evening of friendly competition and fun hosted by Dad Guild. The Guild Hall, Burlington, 7-9:30 p.m. Free; preregister. SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with the local musician. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. ‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

chittenden county

STORY TIME: Youngsters from birth to 5 enjoy a session of reading, rhyming and

singing. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free.

supportive environment. Hosted by Dad Guild. 8:45-10 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

burlington

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See WED.28. THE NEST: Good Beginnings of Central Vermont hosts a baby-friendly space where prenatal and postpartum families can connect. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. STORY TIME: See THU.29.

upper valley

LEGO TUESDAYS: Youth architects tackle construction challenges or follow their own blueprints at a creative building session complete with snacks. Norwich Public Library, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free.

northeast kingdom

LAPSIT STORY TIME: Babies 2 and under learn to love reading while singing and playing with their caregivers. Siblings welcome. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See FRI.30.

WED.4

CO-PARENTING DADS: Experiencing separation, divorce or long-term co-parenting? Fathers assemble virtually to connect, build community and share experiences in a

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28. STORIES & SONGS FOR LIBRARY LITTLES: See WED.28. ‘VERY ERIC CARLE’ EXHIBIT: See WED.28.

chittenden county

CHILDREN’S STORY TIME WITH CHRISTINE: See WED.28. POST-HALLOWEEN CANDY SWAP: Participants trade their unwanted or overstocked trick-or-treating spoils for new confections. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3-6 p.m. Free.

barre/montpelier

BABY & CAREGIVER MEETUP: See WED.28. BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See WED.28.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TEEN QUEER READS: LGBTQIA+ and allied youths get together each month to read and discuss ideas around gender, sexuality and identity. Waterbury Public Library, 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister.

upper valley

STORY TIME: See WED.28. K

“I’m encouraging you to support any news organization that’s dedicated to original reporting. If that’s your local newspaper, terrific — local newspapers in particular need your support.” A.G. Sulzberger Publisher, The New York Times

Support your local newspaper:

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Send checks to: Seven Days c/o Super Readers, PO Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402. Info: superreaders@sevendaysvt.com, 802-866-1015, ext. 115

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SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

10/27/26 5:18 PM

calendar SUN.1

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KARUNA COMMUNITY MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE (FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. NEW LEAF SANGHA MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: New and experienced meditators alike sit together in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Hot Yoga Burlington, 6-7:45 p.m. Free.

music

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10/27/26 4:00 PM

obsessed? Find, fix and feather with Nest Notes — an e-newsletter filled with home design, Vermont real estate tips and DIY decorating inspirations. Sign up today at sevendaysvt.com/enews.

BURLINGTON BAROQUE FESTIVAL SINGERS AND L’HARMONIE DES SAISONS: See FRI.30. College Street Congregational Church, Burlington, 4 p.m. $10-80; free for kids under 18; preregister. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE GLEE CLUB: Student choral singers draw on their ever-expanding repertory for an uplifting performance. Rollins Chapel, Dartmouth College, Hanover N.H., 2 p.m. $20. ‘FABULOUS FLUTE FAVORITES’: Flutist Anne Janson, pianist Mary Jane Austin and special guest Elias Galligan perform a sparkling repertoire of works by Cecile Chaminade, Franz Doppler and Charles-Marie Widor. The University of Vermont Recital Hall, Burlington, 4:30 p.m. Free. SKYLARK: The trailblazing Vermont string quartet performs an eclectic selection of jazz, classical, American folk and Celtic tunes. First Congregational Church of Essex Junction, 3-5 p.m. $20; free for kids under 12; preregister. WILLIAM LEE ELLIS: An acclaimed guitarist plays toe-tapping Americana and blues tunes. Deborah Rawson Memorial Library, Jericho, 2 p.m. Free.

sports

words

BURLINGTON LETTER WRITING GROUP: Pen pals draft dispatches, swap stationery and exchange ideas at a monthly gathering honoring the lost 4/6/21 11:55 AM

MON.2

environment

‘ECOLOGICAL BELONGING: THE INTEGRATED ROOT PRESENTATION’: Through storytelling, somatic practice and herbal wisdom, Unearthing Wellness founder Brooke Marie Bridges helps participants tap into their sense of belonging on Earth. Virtual option available. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 6 p.m. Free; preregister.

fairs & festivals

VERMONT CIRCUS FESTIVAL: See SUN.1.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘SHARK KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.29.

‘WOMEN+ ON THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY’: Original short works probing the current state of American democracy take the stage as part of a nationwide civic action. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 3 p.m. Free; preregister.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

‘REAL VERMONTERS DON’T MILK GOATS’ CELEBRATION: Locals flock to the 43rd-anniversary edition tour of the best-selling book of humor by Frank M. Bryan and the late Bill Mares. The Horace W. Bailey Club, Newbury, 4 p.m. Free.

SUNDAY POLO MATCH: Pack a tailgate picnic and prepare to experience the fast-paced thrill of the traditional equestrian team sport. Amdez Polo Club, Shelburne, 3 p.m. $10-20.

‘TWO TENTS’: See FRI.30, 3 p.m.

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IN CONVERSATION SERIES: BIANCA STONE & MARK WUNDERLICH: Two acclaimed writers discuss life’s enduring questions through the lens of literature, history, memory and place. The Campus at Marlboro Music, 4 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister.

‘PENGUIN ISLAND 3D’: See THU.29.

‘AN EVENING OF COMEDY’: See THU.29, 2 p.m.

DR. RANDALL BALMER: A historian, priest and Dartmouth College professor shares his 2025 book, America’s Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State, which explores the Constitution’s role in shielding the American government from religious factionalism. Bridgeside Books, Waterbury, 3 p.m. Free; preregister.

NEISA OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: See SAT.31, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

theater

Sponsored by:

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Goofy would love to live with a friendly,

high-energy canine companion. He is looking for a home without cats and would prefer a home without young children. Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday-Friday, 1-5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 802-862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

Jobs »

NO SCAMS, ALL LOCAL, POSTINGS DAILY

NEW STUFF ONLINE EVERY DAY! PLACE YOUR ADS 24-7 AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS. SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Post ads by Monday at 3 p.m. sevendaysvt.com/classifieds Need help? 802-865-1020, ext. 143 classifieds@sevendaysvt.com music. I have 20 years’ teaching experience & am at a new South End piano studio. Be in touch! Info, randal. pierce@gmail.com, randalpiercemusic.com.

Buy y & Sell e

Community C ommunity mmuni y

MISCELLANEOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS 2021 TOYOTA PRIUS PRIME LE Very good condition. 1 owner prior to me. Hybrid/electric. Carfax report avail. 82K miles. $20,000. Info, 802-8297074, village_greens@ yahoo.com. ALL-SEASON TIRES Set of four 22-inch all-season tires. Minimal use on Acura ZDX. $150/OBO for set. Call 802-558-4798.

PETS & SUPPLIES YELLOW LABRADOR RETRIEVER PUPPIES 4 yellow female Lab puppies. $1,500. Contact 802-291-2995, soossmiles1111@gmail. com.

SLAVIC LIFE The Slavic Life Movement is an organization dedicated to the preservation & evolution of Slavic culture.

Musicians M cians & Ar Artists ts

MUSIC LESSONS LEARN PIANO ON A STEINWAY GRAND Piano lessons avail. for beginner through advanced players. All ages & all genres of

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

Rentals R e als & R al Est Real Estate Esta

APARTMENTS & HOUSES FOR RENT FIVE SISTERS 1-BR APT. 83 1/2 Catherine St., Burlington. Unfurnished 1-BR, 1-BA apt. in the Five Sisters neighborhood, 700 sq.ft. Avail. Dec. 1. Super cozy w/ backyard views from the windows. W/D in unit. Gas heat & oven. Ground-floor apt. w/ 2 apts. above. Responsive, caring landlord who wants you to love living there. Beautiful shared garden on the lawn. Close to the South End & downtown. Off-street parking for 1 car. NS. No pets. $1,600. Contact to schedule a showing: 802-540-0525, oogslumiere@proton. me. COZY 1-BR APT. FOR RENT IN WINOOSKI Unfurnished 1-BR apt. for rent w/ enclosed porches front & back. Large fenced-in yard. Gas heat. Very clean. NS. Private parking. HDWD, new windows. Pictures upon request. $1,500. For more information, call, text or email: 802-355-4099, skyhorse205@yahoo. com. S. BURLINGTON CITY CENTER 3-BR, 1-BA APT. FOR RENT 195 Hinesburg Rd., S. Burlington. Unfurnished, 3-BR, 1-BA, 1,000 sq.ft. This unique, fully renovated older apartment incl. a large

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 OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Buy & Sell, Community, Musicians & Artists, Vehicles 1-week combo: $12 All print combos include 2-week combo: $22 30 days free online! 4-week combo: $42

eat-in, fully applianced kitchen & W/D. Among the unique features is a large 3-season porch, spacious backyard & covered parking for 2 vehicles. The location is very convenient & walkable to S. Burlington amenities incl. schools, shopping & restaurants. Rent incl. trash, recycling, water/ sewer. $2,400/mo. Avail. Nov. 1. Contact mnealy16@gmail.com, 802-735-7860.

HOUSEMATES

Rentals & Real Estate 1-week combo: $25 2-week combo: $45 4-week combo: $85

Services 1-week combo: $15 2-week combo: $25 4-week combo: $45

1-Bed, 2-Bath Bungalow Home on 0.13± Acres

LIVE AUCTION: FRI. | NOV. 20 | 11AM

OPEN HOUSE: WED. | NOV. 4 | 11AM-1PM

Buying or Selling this Fall?

68 Catherine Street Burlington, VT 05401

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HOME & GARDEN

NEED A We’ve CAR? Got You!

FINANCIAL & LEGAL

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ELECTRONICS HOME INTERNET Connect to the best wireless home internet w/ EarthLink. Enjoy speeds from 5G & 4G LTE networks, no contracts, easy installation, & data plans up to 300 GB. Call 855-873-2215. (AAN CAN)

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10/23/26 11:49 AM

LEGALS »

Show and tell. Sudoku View and post up to

Calcoku SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS »

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

30x

4x 16x

2 5 1 7

48x

1 2

9 8

2÷ 1-

numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

3 15x

2 8

4 8 6 1 5 5 2 6 4 4 8 3 7

Difficulty - Medium

CALCOKU

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HH

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 one-box cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

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 4 nine. 8 The6 same 2 numbers 5 7 the numbers 3 one to cannot be repeated in a row or column.

crossword

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Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test.

Difficulty: Medium

SUDOKU

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

Extra! Extra!

Post & browse ads Complete the following puzzle by using the at your convenience. 6 photos per ad online.

Open 24/7/365.

1 9 6 1 7 8 9 3 2 4 5 ANSWERS ON2P.745 9 1 7 4 8 6 3 H = MODERATE HH = CHALLENGING HHH = HOO, BOY! 9 6 5 2 3 7 4 8 1 8 2 4 9 6 1 5 3 7 GIVE P’S A CHANCE 7 3 1 4 5 8 9 2 6 ANSWERS ON P. 74 » 5 7 2 3 8 6 1 9 4 1 9 3 7 4 2 6 5 8 4 8 6 5 1 9 3 7 2

See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

say you saw it in

mini-sawit-white2024.indd 1

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

7/31/24 4:41 PM

Legal Notices STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION ESSEX UNIT DOCKET NO.:26-PR-04939 In re ESTATE of Lorraine C. Odell NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the creditors of: Lorraine C. Odell, late of Lunenberg, Vermont. I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date 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. Dated: 10/19/2026 Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Michael Odell Executor/Administrator: Michael S. Odell, Executor Mailing Address: 1979 Kiowa Rd., Lyons, CO 80540 Phone Number: 303-601-5432 Email: mikenchris1@gmail.com Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 10/28/2026 Name of Probate Court: Vermont Superior Court, Essex Probate Unit Address of Probate Court: 75 Courthouse Drive, Guildhall, VT 05905

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 121.

Code E21 Electronic Communications Use & Retention - Adoption Copies of the above policies may be obtained for public review at the Office of the Human Resources Dept. in Shelburne, VT.

The project is generally described as an upgrade to existing site lighting and construction of a 60 square foot addition enabling the existing kitchen to operate year-round. The project is located at 5531 Spear Street in Shelburne, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont.gov/) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C1312-2.”

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.:26-PR-05875 In re ESTATE of BARBARA GIGLIOTTI NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the Creditors of: Barbara Gigliotti late of South Burlington I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date 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. Dated: October 20, 2026 Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Launa L. Slater Executor/Administrator: Mark Gigliotti Mailing Address: c/o Launa L. Slater, Wiener & Slater, PLLC 110 Main Street, Suite 4F Burlington, VT 05401 Phone Number: (802) 863-1836 Email: launa@wsvtlaw.com

WARNING POLICY ADOPTION CHAMPLAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 10/28/2026

The Board of School Directors gives public notice of its intent to act on local district policies dealing with the following at its meeting scheduled on November 17, 2026: Code G4 Complaints about Instructional Materials - Repeal Code G5 Selection of Instructional Materials - Repeal Code G1 Curriculum Development & Coordination and Selection of Instructional Materials - Adoption Code G10 Teaching Controversial Issues - Adoption Code H4 Gifts - Adoption

Name of Probate Court: Chittenden Probate Court Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05402-0511

No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before November 17, 2026, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont. gov/documents/party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@ vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing. For more information contact Stephanie H. Monaghan at the address or telephone number below. Dated this October 20, 2026. By: Stephanie H. Monaghan District 4 Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 802-261-1944 stephanie.monaghan@vermont.gov

ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION 4C1312-2 10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 - 6111

VARIOUS RFP’S FOR ESSEX WESTFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT

Application 4C1312-2 from RAN Investments Vermont, LLC, dba Kwiniaska Golf Club, P.O. Box 1329, Shelburne, VT 05482 was received on October 7, 2026 and deemed complete on October 13, 2026.

Essex Westford School District is seeking bid proposals for Premium Gasoline Delivery, Waste Removal Services, Snow Removal Services and Landscaping Services.

PUZZLE ANSWERS FROM P.73 2

For additional information about the RFP’s and the bid process, please refer to EWSD’s website at https://www.ewsd.org/page/purchasing-bids NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE, JERICHO MINI STORAGE 25 NORTH MAIN STREET, JERICHO, VT 05465. The contents of the following self storage unit will be sold at public auction, by sealed bid, on November 2, 2026 at 12:00 PM. Mason Young #131. Units will be opened for viewing for auction, sale by sealed bid to the highest bidder, cash only. Contents of entire storage unit will be sold as one lot. NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE 14312 ROUTE 116 IN HINESBURG, VERMONT By virtue and in execution of the power of sale contained in a certain Mortgage from CNE Property Services LLC. (“CNE”) to Vermont Federal Credit Union (“Lender”) dated October 7, 2021 and recorded in Book 279, Page 91 of the Town of Hinesburg Land Records, as well as a Mortgage from CNE to Lender dated October 7, 2021 and recorded in Book 279, Page 107 of the Town of Hinesburg Land Records, conveying to Lender, with power of sale, certain property known as 14312 Route 116 in Hinesburg, Vermont and more particularly described in the Mortgage (“Property”), of which Mortgages Vermont Federal Credit Union is the present holder: TIME AND PLACE OF PUBLIC SALE: For breach of the conditions of and for the purpose of foreclosing said Mortgages, the Property will be sold at Public Auction on November 5, 2026 at 11:00 am at 14312 Route 116 in Hinesburg, Vermont. The Public Auction may be adjourned one or more times for a total time not exceeding 60 days by announcement of the new sale date to those present at each adjournment or by posting notice of the adjournment in a conspicuous place at the location of the sale. Written notice of the new sale date shall also be given by first class mail, postage prepaid, to any person who received notice of the sale pursuant to 12 V.S.A. § 4965.

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Being all and the same land and premises conveyed to CNE Property Services LLC by Warranty Deed of Frost Properties, LLC dated October 7, 2021 and recorded at Book 279, Page 89 of the Hinesburg Land Records. Being all and the same land and premises, together with improvements thereon, conveyed to Frost Properties, LLC, by Warranty Deed of Reginald L. Blaise and Brenda F. Blaise, dated November 18, 2003, and of record in Book 167 at Page 152 of the Town of Hinesburg Land Records.

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SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Interested Vendors may request a walkthrough for any of the RFP’s by emailing Krista Luchini, kluchini@ewsd.org.

PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: The Property being sold is all and the same lands and premises described in said Mortgages, to wit:

All proposals shall be emailed to Krista Luchini, kluchini@ewsd.org, or delivered to our office by 3pm on Friday, October 30th, 2026.

Being all and the same land and premises, together with improvements thereon, conveyed to Reginald L. Blaise and Brenda F. Blaise by Warranty Deed of Robert F. Beauregard and Eileen B. Beauregard dated March 1, 1982, and of record in Book 47, Pages 512-514 of the Town of Hinesburg Land Records, and being therein partially described as follows: All and the same land and premises conveyed to the within grantors by warranty deed of William V. Mallow and Ina Mae Mallow dated June 1, 1976, and of record in Volume 39, Page 45, of the Hinesburg Land Records, and described therein as follows: Being a parcel of land, with combination dwelling house and store, pool and all other improvements thereon, said property located adjacent to and westerly of Vermont Route 116, so-called, where said Route 116 intersects with the Hinesburg-Huntington Road, said property equaling 1 1/8 acres, more or less.

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS

Being all and the same land and premises conveyed to the within Granters by Warranty Deed of William H. and Gladys Mallow dated the 12th day of September, 1962 and of record at Volume 31, Page 59A of the Town of Hinesburg Land Records, and being the land conveyed to within grantors dated the 18 day of May, 1964 by one Casey of record at Volume 31 Page 242 of the said town land records. Included in this conveyance are any pumps, pipes, tanks and easements and rights of way thereto, as reserved in a deed to the State of Vermont dated June 17, 1952 and recorded in Volume 29 at Page 190 of the Hinesburg Land Records. Without making any warranty with respect thereto, the hereby conveyed parcel of land is believed to be bounded as follows: Northerly by land now or formerly of Royden Layn and Muriel Layn; Easterly by the right-of-way of Vermont Route 116; and Southerly and Westerly by land now or formerly of Francis L. Casey and Grace C. Casey. Reference is hereby made to the above-mentioned instruments, the records thereof, the references therein made, and their respective records and references, in further aid of this description. The description of the Property contained in the Mortgages shall control in the event of a typographical error in this publication. TERMS OF SALE: To qualify to bid, prospective bidders must tender to the Auctioneer before the sale the amount of $10,000.00 (the “Bid Qualifying Deposit”) in cash, certified funds, bank check, or other primary bank obligation, unless the parties agree on some other amount. The Property shall be sold to the highest bidder, and the high bidder’s Bid Qualifying Deposit will be held as a non-refundable deposit, and will be considered reasonable liquidated damages if the highest bidder fails to close on the purchase of the Property. All other bidders’ Bid Qualifying Deposits shall be returned to the unsuccessful bidders who supplied them. The successful bidder will be required to sign a “no contingency” purchase and sale agreement at the conclusion of the Public Auction. The sale is “AS IS, WHERE IS,” subject to all liens, encumbrances, unpaid taxes, municipal assessments, and other matters which take precedence or priority over the Mortgages. The closing shall be held, and the balance of the purchase price shall be due and payable in cash, certified funds, bank check, or other primary bank obligation, upon the delivery of a Foreclosure Deed to the purchaser within forty-five (45) days after the sale, unless such date is mutually extended by the parties. The mortgagor and all junior lienholders are hereby notified that at any time before the foreclosure sale, the mortgagor and all junior lienholders have a right to petition the Civil Division of the Superior Court for the county in which the Property is situated, with service upon the mortgagee, and upon such bond as the Court may require, to enjoin the scheduled foreclosure sale. Failure to institute such petition and complete service upon the foreclosing party, or the party’s agent conducting the sale, prior to sale shall thereafter bar any action or right of action of the mortgagor or any junior lienholder based on the validity of the foreclosure, the right of the mortgagee to conduct the foreclosure sale, or compliance by the mortgagee with the notice requirements and other conditions of 12 V.S.A. §§ 4961 et seq. An action to recover damages resulting from the sale of the Property on the date of the sale may be commenced at any time within one year following the date of the sale, but not thereafter. The mortgagor is entitled to redeem the Property at any time prior to the sale by paying to the mortgagee the full amount due under the Mortgages, including the costs and expenses of the sale.

Show and tell.

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Date: 9/1/26 By: /s/ Addie Cusick-Loecher Addie Cusick-Loecher SHEEHEY FURLONG & BEHM P.C. (802) 865-6323

Publication Date: 10/28/2026

VERMONT SELF STORAGE LIEN AUCTIONS

NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE - WHITE OAK SELF STORAGE - 27 & 38 LEE COURT, COLCHESTER, VERMONT 05446 - AN ONLINE SALE/AUCTION FOR THE FOLLOWING STORAGE UNITS ON OCTOBER 31, 2026 AT 12:00 PM EST

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-03670 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of David Clark. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-01326 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of Sherry & Sean Provost. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-03514 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of Michael Straight. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-03105 located at 28 Adams Drive , Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of Danielle Bean. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNITS 02-00310, 02-00318 & 02-00319 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of Torrey Allard. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 02-00238 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of Theresa Bither & Keith Sampere. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 02-00211 located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 7th of November 2026 to satisfy the debt of Moruthane Mashobane. Person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION WASHINGTON UNIT DOCKET NO.:26-PR-04942 In re ESTATE of Richard Alexander Hyde NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the creditors of: Richard Alexander Hyde, late of Calais, Vermont. I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date 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.

Other terms to be announced at the Public Auction. Inquiries may be made with the Thomas Hirchak Company, 1878 Cadys Falls Road, Morrisville, VT 05661. Telephone: 802-888-4662. Email: info@ THCAuction.com

Dated: 10/8/2026 Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Marilyn Hyde Executor/Administrator: Marilyn Hyde, Administrator Mailing Address: c/o Stackpole & French Law Offices PO Box 819, Stowe, Vermont Phone Number: 802-253-7339 Email: marlene@stackpolefrench.com

VERMONT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

Name of Publication: Seven Days

Name of Probate Court: Vermont Superior Court, Washington Probate Unit Address of Probate Court: 65 State St, Montpelier, VT 05602

Notice is hereby given that the contents of the selfstorage units listed below will be sold at an online auction. This sale is being held to collect unpaid storage unit occupancy fees, charges, and expenses of the sale. The entire contents of each self-storage unit listed below will be sold, with the proceeds to be distributed to White Oak Self Storage for all accrued occupancy fees (rent charges), late payment fees, sale expenses, and all other expenses in relation to the unit and its sale. White Oak Self Storage will be having an online sale/auction on October 31, 2026 at 12:00PM EST. The auction will occur online at www.storagetreasures.com. The highest bidder on the storage unit must remove the entire contents of the unit within 48 hours after notification of their successful bid. Purchase must be paid in advance of the removal of the contents of the unit. White Oak Self Storage reserves the right to accept or reject bids. The contents of the following tenant’s self-storage units will be included in this sale: Unit 1 - Eric Lindholm - Contents of Storage Unit 1 Unit 40 - Eric Lindholm - Contents of Storage Unit 40 Unit 17 - Kevin Foerster- Contents of Storage Unit 17 Unit 33 - Kevin Foerster- Contents of Storage Unit 33 NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENGINEERING SERVICES IN SWANTON, VT (HOMESTEAD ACRES COOPERATIVE) The Cooperative Development Institute’s Water Infrastructure Support Program is seeking Statements of Qualifications from qualified engineering firms on behalf of Homestead Acres Cooperative, Inc, located in Swanton, Vermont to improve their water, wastewater, storm water and electrical infrastructure and to develop new housing on underutilized portions of the co-op’s property. Required professional services will include, but are not limited to, feasibility analysis, surveying, permitting, engineering assessments, additional preliminary engineering services, design- and construction-related services, preparation of bidding and contracting documents, participation in evaluating bids received, and construction administration to ensure compliance with plans and specifications. Procurement of said services will be in accordance with 2 CFR 200.320(b)(2)(iv). Qualified entities interested in being considered must submit (1) a letter of interest; (2) a statement of qualifications and experience of the firm and associates to be involved with the project; (3) references; (4) related prior experience, including similar projects; and (5) experience with funding sources including CDBG, PRICE, and SRF. Submit the requested information to wisp@cdi. coop no later than December 1st 2026 to be considered. Please visit https://cdi.coop/rfqhomestead/ to view the full Request for Qualifications. IN ACCORDANCE WITH VT TITLE 9 COMMERCE AND TRADE CHAPTER 098: STORAGE UNITS 3905. Enforcement of Lien, Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC shall host an online auction on BID13.COM for the following units on or after November 21, 2026: Contents: household goods Location: 2211 Main St. Colchester VT 05446 Kyla Smith: #867 Darrell Langworthy: #561 Beverly Campbell: #737 Sonya Walters: #846

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For auction info please email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC reserves the right to reject any bid lower than the amount owed by the occupant or any bid that is not commercially reasonable as defined by statute. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur. Auction to take place at: BID13.COM ACT 250 NOTICE MINOR APPLICATION 4C1121-2,4C1341-2 10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 - 6111 Application 4C1121-2,4C1341-2 from Town of Essex 81 Main Street, Essex, VT 05452 was received on October 9, 2026 and deemed complete on October 16, 2026. The project specifically authorizes Contract No.1 of the Fort Ethan Allen Waterline Replacement Project, which involves the installation of 3,520 linear feet (LF) of 8” C900 polyvinyl chloride (PVC), 160 LF of 6” C900 PVC, and 425 LF of 4” C900 PVC, and associated appurtenances via open trench excavation. All watermain construction will occur within the existing roadway. Services will be replaced to the edge of the right-of-way, or fully replaced if lead or galvanized materials are encountered. The project is located at Barnes Avenue, Ethan Allen Avenue, and Hegeman Avenue. in Colchester, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont.gov/) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C1121-2,4C1341-2.” No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before November 17, 2026, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont. gov/documents/party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@ vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing. For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below. Dated this October 23, 2026. By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes Kaitlin Hayes District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD MEETING AGENDA NOVEMBER 11, 2026, AT 7:00-9:00 PM THIS IS A HYBRID MEETING WITH ON-SITE/REMOTE ACCOMMODATIONS. Join In Person: 3rd Floor Room A, 203 Bridge Street, Richmond, VT 05477. Join Electronically via Zoom: https://us02web. zoom.us/j/89057870483. Join by Phone Call: +1 (305) 224-1968 (US) // Meeting ID: 890 5787 0483. Materials: https://www.richmondvt.gov/calendar/ meeting/development-review-board-11-11-26. OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS: A. Final Decision on AP2026-003. B. Final Decision on SB2026-003. C. Rescheduled Training on Permit Amendments and Appeals.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

LEGALS » 75

Legal Notices

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 142.

[CONTINUED]

located in the Agricultural Residential Zoning District.

PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS:

5. SK2026-005. Ernie Buford & Cath Burns. Parcel ID: WM0117. Applicants seek input on a proposed sketch plan for a two-lot subdivision of 117 West Main Street, located in the Village Residential Commercial Zoning District.

1. VA2026-001. Kenan Heco and Lejla Merina. Parcel ID: AP0020. Continued Hearing. Variance request from front setback requirements at 20 Apple Tree Lane, located in the Agricultural Residential Zoning District and Greystone Estates Neighborhood. 2. SB2026-004. David Sunshine & Carol Jordan. Parcel ID: JR1582. Applicants seek approval for proposed subdivision amendments to 1582 Jericho Road; including reducing the number of lots from three to two, changing the wastewater system location, & reverting the rural road back to a private driveway. 3. SK2026-003. Alexander Belensz. Parcel ID: HU3260. Applicant seeks input on a proposed sketch plan for a two-lot subdivision of 3260 Huntington Road, located in the Agricultural Residential Zoning District. 4. SK2026-004. Barbara & George Ward. Parcel ID: EM0595. Applicants seek input on a proposed sketch plan for a three-lot subdivision of 595 East Main Street,

Note: your participation in any of the preceding hearing(s) is prerequisite to the right to appeal. STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.:26-PR-06088 In re ESTATE of Jedidiah Batchelder NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the creditors of: Jedidiah Batchelder, late of Charlotte. I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date 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.

Support Groups A CIRCLE OF MEN The ManKind Project (MKP), a 4-decade-old international organization focused on self awareness, personal growth & community service, holds space for men in meetings online, in person, & at trainings & events. Founded in 1984, MKP is nonreligious, nonpolitical, & aims to help men of all backgrounds live w/ integrity, authenticity & accountability. Info, 802-770-2664, runninghungrydog@gmail.com, mankindproject.org. A CIRCLE OF PARENTS SUPPORT GROUPS Please join our professionally facilitated peer-led support groups designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes! Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS If you want to drink, that’s your business. If you want to stop, that’s ours. Call the Vermont statewide anonymous hotline: 802-802-2288. Alcoholics Anonymous holds daily meetings all over Vermont, both in person & online. For meetings & events throughout Vermont, see aavt.org. ANXIETY RELIEF GROUP Anxiety Relief Group is a safe setting for relaxing & exploring your feelings w/ others through gentle socialization & self-expression, building up what makes you centered & strong. Wed., 4-5:30 p.m. Online. Email us for the Zoom link & more info: morgansplace@pathwaysvermont.org. BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP Vermont Center for Independent Living offers virtual monthly meetings, held on the 3rd Wed. of every mo., 1-2:30 p.m. The support group will offer valuable resources & info about brain injury. It will be a place to share experiences in a safe, secure & confidential environment. To join, email Linda Meleady at lindam@vcil.org & ask to be put on the TBI mailing list. Info: 800-639-1522. BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR DRAGON BOAT TEAM Looking for a fun way to do something active & health-giving? Want to connect w/ other breast cancer survivors? Come join Dragonheart Vermont.

We are a breast cancer survivor & supporter dragon boat team who paddle together in Burlington. Please contact us at info@dragonheartvermont.org for info. CHARLOTTE ALZHEIMER’S CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP Free. No registration req. Are you caring for someone w/ Alzheimer’s? Do you know someone who is? Please join us for our monthly Caregivers Support Group at the Charlotte Senior Center, 212 Ferry Rd., on the 2nd Wed. of each mo., 3-4 p.m. The meetings provide a safe place for caregivers, family & friends of persons w/ dementia to meet & develop a mutual support system. For additional information, please contact Louise Fairbank: louisefairbank67@gmail. com. CHARLOTTE MEMORY CAFE The cafe is held at the Charlotte 50+ Community Center, 212 Ferry Rd., on the 3rd Wed. of every month, 1:15-2:15 p.m. This free event provides a welcoming & supportive space for individuals living w/ memory loss, along w/ their caregivers, friends & loved ones. Registration appreciated. Call 802-425-6345. CONVERSATIONS ABOUT SUICIDE Conversations About Suicide is a judgment-free & open space to talk about personal experiences of suicidal ideation. The group is facilitated by peer support staff w/ lived experience of suicidality. Thu., 3:45-4:45 p.m., at Morgan’s Place, 50 S. Willard St., Burlington. Email us for more info: morgansplace@ pathwaysvermont.org, pathwaysvermont.org/ programs/peersupportcenter. DISABILITY SUPPORT GROUP Do you have lived experience w/ a mental or physical disability? Looking to connect w/ a community of your peers? We are a hybrid group of peers coming together to share stories of our struggles & our successes in living w/ our individual mental or physical differences. There are no forms to fill out ahead of time & no eligibility requirements to meet. Come as you are for a relaxed, informal session of supportive sharing. Info, 802-777-0961, edward@ pathwaysvermont.org pathwaysvermont.org/ programs/peersupportcenter.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Dated: 10/26/2026 Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Kristi Batchelder Executor/Administrator: Kristi Batchelder Mailing Address: 3108 Lake Road Charlotte, VT 05445 Phone Number: (802) 373-6572 Email: kbatcheldervt@gmail.com Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: October 28, 2026 Name of Probate Court: Chittenden Probate Court Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 CHILD FIND NOTICE Champlain Valley School District (including the towns of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George, and Williston, Vermont) is required by federal law to locate, identify and evaluate all children with disabilities. The process of locating, identifying and evaluating children with disabilities is known as child find.

who may require special education and related services in order to access and benefit from public education. If you have, or know of any CVSD resident who has a child with a disability under the age of 21 or a child who attends a private school located in Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George, or Williston, Vermont, we would like to hear from you. Sometimes parents are unaware that special education services are available to their children. Please contact the School Principal (Charlotte Central School – 802-425-2771, Hinesburg Community School – 802-482-2106, Shelburne Community School – 802-985-3331, Williston Central/Allen Brook Schools – 802-878-2762) or the Director of Student Support Services, Anna Couperthwait at 802-482-7503.

Champlain Valley School District schools conduct Kindergarten screening each spring; parents may also call to make an appointment to discuss their concerns at any time. As the school district of residence, CVSD has the responsibility to identify and provide services to any child with special needs

CONTACT CLASSIFIEDS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM OR 802-865-1020 EXT. 115 TO UPDATE YOUR SUPPORT GROUP

FCA FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP Families Coping With Addiction (FCA) is an open community peer support group for adults (18+) struggling w/ the drug or alcohol addiction of a loved one. FCA is not 12-step-based but provides a forum for those living the family experience, in which to develop personal coping skills & to draw strength from one another. Our group meets every Wed., 5:30-6:30 p.m., live in person in the conference room at the Turning Point Center of Chittenden County (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington), &/or via our parallel Zoom session to accommodate those who cannot attend in person. The Zoom link can be found on the Turning Point Center website (turningpointcentervt. org) using the “Family Support” tab (click on “What We Offer”). Any questions, please send by email to tdauben@aol.com. GRIEF SUPPORT GROUPS IN ESSEX JCT. The Grief Center of Vermont in Essex Jct. offers grief support circles, workshops & educational events for all forms of grief & loss. Monthly Monday Meetups are grouped to create communities of people w/ similar experiences (i.e. grieving death by suicide or substance use; grieving death of spouse or parent) in addition to general programming each week. All are welcome. See website for most current schedule & range of offerings. Info, 802-404-2144, info@ griefcenterofvermont.com, griefcenterofvermont. com. HARD OF HEARING SUPPORT GROUP New support group for the hard of hearing. Beginning Mon., Sep. 14, 3-4:30 p.m., in the Quiet Reading Room at the South Burlington Public Library on Market Street. Please join us to share technology, struggles & coping strategies in your hearing-loss adventures. Group will be on the first Mon. of the mo. & the following Mon. if on a holiday. Info, 802-999-8005, buffett402@aol.com. HEARING VOICES SUPPORT GROUP This Hearing Voices Group seeks to find understanding of voice-hearing experiences as real lived experiences that may happen to anyone at any time. We choose to share experiences, support & empathy. We validate anyone’s experience & stories about their experience as their own, as being an honest & accurate representation of their experience, & as being acceptable exactly as they are. Tue., 2:30-4 p.m. Morgan’s Place, 50 S. Willard St., Burlington.

Email us for more information: morgansplace@ pathwaysvermont.org, pathwaysvermont.org/ programs/peersupportcenter. KINDRED CONNECTIONS PROGRAM OFFERED FOR CHITTENDEN COUNTY CANCER SURVIVORS The Kindred Connections program provides peer support for all those touched by cancer. Cancer patients, as well as caregivers, are provided w/ a mentor who has been through the cancer experience & knows what it’s like to go through it. In addition to sensitive listening, Kindred Connections provides practical help such as rides to doctors’ offices & meal deliveries. The program has people who have experienced a wide variety of cancers. For further info, please contact info@vcsn.net. LIVING THROUGH LOSS The Volunteer Chaplaincy Program of Gifford Medical Center sponsors a weekly meeting of its “Living Through Loss” grief support group. Anyone who has experienced a significant loss over the past year or so is warmly invited to attend the free weekly meetings every Fri., 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. For info, contact the Rev. Tim Eberhardt, Gifford’s spiritual care coordinator, at 802-728-2107. MYELOMA SUPPORT GROUP Area myeloma survivors, families & caregivers have come together to form a Multiple Myeloma Support Group. We provide emotional support, resources about treatment options, coping strategies & a support network by participating in the group experience w/ people who have been through similar situations. 3rd Tue. of every mo., 5-6 p.m., on Zoom. Info: Kay Cromie, 655-9136, kgcromey@aol.com. NARCANON BURLINGTON GROUP Group meets every Mon. at 7 p.m., at the Turning Point Center, 179 S. Winooski Ave., Suite 301, Burlington. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of addiction in a relative or friend. Info: Amanda H., 338-8106. NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS Narcotics Anonymous is a group of recovering addicts who live without the use of drugs. It costs nothing to join. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using. Held in Burlington, St Albans, Morrisville, Barre & Stowe. Info, 833-4366166 or cvana.org.

77 OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO:

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) GILLIAN COMITO, 802-341-3060 GCOMITO@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL SOURCE. JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM Frame Shop & Gallery Assistant

Network Coordinator Join our passionate wilderness team! Northeast Wilderness Trust seeks a Network Coordinator to be a connector and organizer of a multi-organization effort focused on forests and natural climate solutions and the science of wildlands ecology.

Visit jobs.plattsburgh.edu & select “View Current Openings”

Visit newildernesstrust.org/about/employment to learn more.

SUNY Plattsburgh is an AA/EEO/ADA/VEVRAA committed to excellence through diversity and supporting an inclusive environment for all.

Marketing and10/15/26 3:28 PM Communications Coordinator

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Vermont Housing & Conservation Board VHCB AMERICORPS

Therapeutic Supports Senior Manager

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Part-time, Hybrid/In-Person

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY! LAND STEWARDSHIP

The Marketing and Communications Coordinator reports directly to the Interim Co-Executive Director and leads the daily operation of the Fairbanks Museum’s communications and marketing across print, digital, and media channels. Responsible for upholding organizational branding standards, this role actively informs and engages the public regarding upcoming events, exhibits, and strategic initiatives. Working collaboratively across departments, the Marketing and Communications Coordinator takes ownership of generating creative, high-impact content that advances the museum’s mission, expands audience reach, and directly supports fundraising goals.

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

The Fairbanks Museum is a non-profit natural history museum located in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Starting salary range for this 20-hour position is $22,500 to $25,000 annually.

Open positions around the state serving with non-profit orgnizations.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING SERVICES HOMEBUYER EDUCATION

To Apply: Please submit a cover letter and resume to Allison at agulkamillard@fairbanksmuseum.org.

• $31,000 living allowance • $7,395 education award • Health insurance • Training opportunities • Leadership development Service Term: January 12, 2027 through December 10, 2027 vhcb.org/vhcbamericorps/

The ideal candidate will have strong knowledge of clinical supports for people receiving services, familiarity with Vermont’s developmental services system and demonstrated leadership, supervision & team building skills. Lead a team. Strengthen services. Make a lasting impact. Join our team. ccscareers.org

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Join the Flynn & be part of a team striving to make the community better through the arts. All backgrounds encouraged to apply. This is a part-time, exempt, benefit eligible position.

ACCOUNTANT

HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN Full-time, part-time, or per diem Compensation: $26-31/hour

The Flynn seeks a focused, dependable Accountant who takes pride in accurate work, follows through on commitments, and is ready to contribute in a high-volume, deadline-driven environment. Working as part of the Finance team, this position supports daily accounting operations, tracks show expenses against budgets and provides timely financial information to support decision-making.

strong differentials in place for working evening ($4.50/hr), overnight ($9.00/hr), and weekend hours ($4.50/hr)

On-call may be included For more information or to apply, visit: copleyvt.org/careers or scan here:

For complete job description and to apply, please visit: https://www.flynnvt.org/about-the-flynn/ our-people/join-our-team/

9/29/264t-FlynnAccountant102826.indd 2:28 PM 1

10/20/26 9:59 AM

Copley Hospital Copley Hospital is is now now hiring hiring a

No phone calls, please. E.O.E.

4v-VHCB-093026 1

10/22/26 2:54 PM

Provide clinical leadership, supervision, and therapeutic consultation to a team of Service Coordinators supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. In this role you will serve as a key team leader to develop, plan and implement comprehensive, person centered services for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Join Our Team!

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For 11 months of service, you’ll receive:

Art Works Frame Shop & Gallery is looking for an upbeat artist or art enthusiast for a fun & casual part-time position. If you have an eye for color, detail & passion for art & want to jump into the local art scene hands first then please forward your resume! artworksvt@gmail.com

PRODiG+ FellOw, ClusteR HiRe inDiGenOus stuDies AssistAnt PROFessOR, ACCOuntinG

10/22/26 4t-CopleyHealth102826.indd 11:55 AM 1

Make a Difference When It Matters Most

10/22/26 3:03 PM

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT GILLIAN COMITO: GCOMITO@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Procurement Administrator U.S. District Court

The United States District Court is seeking a qualified individual with excellent analytical, organizational, bookkeeping, and computer skills capable of functioning in a dynamic, team-oriented environment. The duty station is Burlington, Vermont. Full federal benefits apply. Complete job description and formal application requirements are found in the official Position Announcement available from court locations in Burlington and Rutland and the court’s web site: WWW.VTD.USCOURTS.GOV 5h-OtterWaters101426 1

10/20/26 11:44 AM

Town Clerk

Got the Write Stuff? Seven Days is seeking freelance writers to contribute to our award-winning Vermont journalism on an as-needed basis. We’re looking for expertise in several areas:

Freelance Culture Writers

Love to write about events, theater, dance, books, visual arts, music, interesting people and more? We want to talk to you! You must be an excellent writer with reporting experience and a unique voice, a passion for the arts, a sense of humor and curiosity about Vermont’s creative sectors. Responsibilities include finding and contributing lively stories in the form of arts news, features, previews, reviews or interviews. Tell us your location, your availability and how you think you can contribute to Seven Days. Please email your résumé, cover letter, two story ideas you’d like to pursue for us and at least three published articles (web links are acceptable) to culture@sevendaysvt.com by Friday, October 30.

Freelance Kids VT Contributors

Are you always looking for family-friendly activities and Vermont destinations that the kids in your life will love? Are you a person who recommends the best places to shop for kids’ clothes, toys, books or school supplies, or sends parenting-related video clips and other tips to your friends on the group chat?

The Town of Fairfax has a rare opportunity for a highly organized, self-motivated, and professional individual with exceptional customer service skills to join our municipal team as Town Clerk.

As a highly visible, public-facing position, the Town Clerk serves as a primary point of contact for residents, visitors, Town staff, and the broader community. The ideal candidate will be careerminded, possess strong organizational and communication skills, demonstrate attention to detail and sound judgment, and have a genuine commitment to providing exceptional public service. The expected salary range for this position is $65,000-80,000, commensurate with qualifications and experience, and includes a generous benefits package. For a complete job description, please visit fairfax-vt.gov/jobs. Interested candidates should email their resumes or questions to Human Resources humanresources@fairfax-vt.gov. Initial review of resumes will begin on October 30, 2026.

THE GRIND GOT YOU DOWN? See who’s hiring at jobs.sevendaysvt.com

No phone calls or drop-ins, please.

9/28/26 10:14 AM

Director Of Stewardship & Public Relations

In Fairfax, the Town Clerk is an appointed position rather than an elected office and is responsible for the overall administration, leadership, and statutory duties of the Town Clerk’s Office. Key responsibilities include maintaining municipal and land records, overseeing elections, managing vital records and licensing, and ensuring compliance with applicable Vermont laws.

Kids VT, Seven Days’ parenting publication, is looking for you! We’re seeking writers, photographers and content creators of all kinds to help fill our pages and add to our website and 5v-Fairfax102826.indd 1 other channels. Tell us your location, your availability and what you think you can bring to Kids VT. Please email your résumé, cover letter, three topics you’d like to explore and the format you’d use to approach them (article, email newsletter, video, etc.) to cathy@sevendaysvt.com by Friday, October 30.

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E.O.E.

The Director of Stewardship & Public Relations plans, supervises, and executes the membership, fundraising, grant-writing, stewardship, public relations, and marketing functions of the Vermont Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This is an exempt, full-time, permanent position reporting to the Executive Director. Salary equivalent to Vermont State Pay Grade 27 (starting $74,000) with full benefits, including definedbenefit pension. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent training with at least six years’ progressive experience in a professional fundraising setting. Knowledge of Salesforce software and history/cultural organization experience preferred. To apply, send cover letter, resume, and three references as one pdf to director@vermonthistory.org.

10/22/263v-VTHistoricalSociety061224.indd 2:48 PM 1

PERK UP!

Browse 100+ new job postings from trusted, local employers.

10/15/26 12:56 PM

Visit us at Facebook/ sevendaysjobs

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

79 OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

SEE THE HEART OF THE MATTER Join the Flynn & be part of a team striving to make the community better through the arts. All backgrounds encouraged to apply. This is a full-time, non-exempt, hourly, benefit eligible position.

TRIVIA HOSTS

BOX OFFICE SUPERVISOR

AND OTHER PUB ACTIVITIES Seeking responsible, engaging, quick witted and charismatic individuals to host weekly trivia night programs and other events! We’ll provide everything needed to run a successful trivia night, including proper training. Hosting is a great way to earn some fun money, entertain a crowd, and become a “local celebrity.”

The Flynn seeks a dependable, customer-focused Box Office Supervisor to lead daily ticketing operations, support and train staff, and help deliver an excellent customer experience. The ideal candidate is organized, solutions-oriented, and comfortable balancing staff supervision, customer service, and administrative responsibilities. Experience with ticketing software and previous supervisory experience are preferred. For complete job description and to apply, please visit: https://www.flynnvt.org/about-the-flynn/ our-people/join-our-team/ No phone calls, please. E.O.E.

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To apply, please email resume to: INFO@PUBGEEKS.COM.

Transportation Fiscal Analyst Legislative Counsel Attorney The Legislative support offices are currently hiring. The nonpartisan offices are an interesting, challenging, and exciting place to work. You will be part of a highly professional collegial team that is proud of, and enthusiastic about, the mission of the state legislature. To apply, please go to ‘Career Opportunities’ legislature.vermont.gov

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Qualifications: RDCS or RCS certification required • BLS required • Minimum of one (1) year of echocardiography experience required Why NVRH? Excellent benefits • Competitive pay • Student loan repayment Tuition reimbursement • Generous PTO • 401(k) match

Outreach Representative/ Caseworker

10/22/26 4t-NVRH072926.indd 11:58 AM 1

Planning & Zoning Assistant THE CAPITAL CITY OF MONTPELIER, VERMONT (pop. 8,000) is seeking a responsible and independent individual to provide permit assistance to the public, administrative work for the Department of Planning & Community Development, and to manage small programs for the City. This person will report to the Director of Planning and Community Development and work closely with the Planning and Zoning Administrator, Community & Economic Development Specialist, and the Building Inspector. A detailed job description is available at montpeliervt.org/Jobs.aspx?JobID=85&CommunityJobs=False&UniqueId=108. The P & Z Assistant handles administrative support for the permit process, manages the departmental operations, and performs other duties such as being the City’s E-911 coordinator and FEMA- CRS (Community Rating System) Coordinator. The position involves regular contact with the general public, department personnel, and staff in other City departments. Having experience in a position working with the public is important. A degree in land use planning or related field and/or demonstrated experience in land use related issues is preferred. Having the ability to read plans and drawings related to construction projects is also important. This is a full-time, classified position (Grade 5) within the City with a starting pay rate between $28.69/ hour to $30.14/ hour with an excellent benefits package. Please submit a cover letter and resume to Mike Miller, Director of Planning & Community Development, City Hall, 39 Main Street, Montpelier, VT 05602-2950 or email same to mmiller@montpelier-vt.org by Friday, October 30th at 5:00PM. Montpelier is an equal opportunity employer.

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Help patients see the full picture of their heart health while building a rewarding career in the heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. NVRH is seeking an Echocardiographer to join our Diagnostic Imaging team. Perform diagnostic cardiac ultrasound studies, collaborate with physicians and care teams, and make a meaningful impact on patient care every day.

Apply today: nvrh.org/careers

We are looking for hosts in the following areas: SOUTH BURLINGTON, ESSEX ST ALBANS, STOWE, QUECHEE Compensation: This is a part time position. Competitive pay with opportunity to host additional accounts.

Echocardiographer at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH)

10/15/26 2:11 PM

7/24/26 11:10 AM

The Office of Congresswoman Becca Balint is seeking eligible applicants for a full-time position in her Vermont office. The person selected for this position will serve as an Outreach Representative & Caseworker, assisting Vermonters in navigating federal agencies and programs, attending local meetings and events on behalf of Congresswoman Balint, staffing at her events around the state, and coordinating closely with team members to ensure Vermonters’ needs are reflected in legislative priorities. The position will be based primarily in our Burlington, VT office but requires travel around the state including to our Brattleboro office as needed. The expectation is that the person filling this position will divide their time 50/50 between outreach and casework. 5+ years of relevant professional experience is preferred. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and references to balintresumes@mail.house.gov with the subject line “Outreach Rep Caseworker- [applicant’s last name]” Applications will be considered on a rolling basis through November 6, 2026 at 5:00pm.

Finance Director The Finance Director steers the financial engine behind Vermont Housing and Conservation Board’s statewide affordable housing and conservation work. Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer and serving as their strategic backup, you’ll direct daily fiscal operations, supervise and mentor the finance team, and ensure the integrity of multi-fund revenue streams, including major federal awards. You’ll lead the annual audit cycle, shape organizational budgeting and financial modeling, oversee a substantial loan portfolio, and liaise with banking partners and state financial systems. Requires CPA or equivalent and deep knowledge of nonprofit or governmental fund accounting, GAAP, and federal Uniform Administrative Guidance, with a track record of clean audits and confident team leadership. Based in Montpelier with some remote flexibility. Applications due November 9, 2026.

Send resume and cover letter to jobs@vhcb.org. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. To learn more, visit vhcb.org/careers | VHCB is an E.O.E.

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT GILLIAN COMITO: GCOMITO@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

80 OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

FINANCIAL COORDINATOR

SPECIAL EDUCATOR Full-Time | In-Person | $56,500 - $60,526 annually

The Stern Center for Language and Learning, a nonprofit dedicated to learning for all, seeks a full-time Special Educator to join its experienced and collaborative instructional team. Each year, we serve more than 700 children and adults through customized instruction and psychoeducational evaluations, and we provide professional learning to over 1,500 educators. Responsibilities: • Provide evidence-based, one-to-one instruction in reading, writing, and/ or mathematics • Administer assessments, develop individualized goals, and monitor student progress • Communicate collaboratively with families, schools, and educators Qualifications: • Special Education experience required; two years preferred • Master’s degree preferred • Vermont Special Education licensure or eligibility strongly preferred • Excellent communication skills and a student-centered approach Join a supportive team where educators are encouraged to grow and make a lasting impact on the lives of students. Please send a cover letter & resume to hcastillo@sterncenter.org or visit sterncenter.org. The Stern Center is an E.O.E.

Are you a highly organized and detail-oriented administrator who loves working with spreadsheets? Are you interested in leveraging your skills and experience to support a violence-free Vermont?

Youth Shelter Coordinator, St Albans

The Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence is seeking an experienced administrator who wants to be a part of the movement to end gender-based violence to be our part-time Financial Coordinator. The ideal candidate is highly organized with a keen attention to details, has experience doing administrative work preferable for a grant-funded, non-profit organization, fluency in Excel, some experience with accounting software or ERP systems, willingness and ability to learn new systems, and the ability to work in a highly collaborative team setting.

Youth Coaches:

St. Albans Drop-In Center St. Albans & Burlington Supported Housing Full & part time shifts available

Young Adult Peer Navigator

The Vermont Network is an amazing place to work – we prioritize the wellbeing of our staff, take our culture seriously, think big and orient toward what is possible. For additional details, salary information, and the full job description, click here: 7dvt.pub/FinCoord

Respite Staff

Submit cover letter and resume to Katie Shanley, katie@vtnetwork.org. The deadline for applying is November 15, 2026. The Vermont Network is an equal opportunity employer.

GO HIRE.

Scan QR code to apply.

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10/16/26 1:01 PM

Job Recruiters: •

Post jobs using a form that includes key info about your company and open positions (location, application deadlines, video, images, etc.).

•

Accept applications and manage the hiring process via our applicant tracking tool.

•

Easily manage your open job listings from your recruiter dashboard.

Get a quote when you post online or contact Gillian Comito: 802-341-3060, GComito@sevendaysvt.com. jobs.sevendaysvt.com

Job Seekers: • Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type. • Set up job alert emails using custom search criteria. • Save jobs to a custom list with your own notes on the positions. • Apply for jobs directly through the site.

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5/19/26 2:27 PM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

81 OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) We are currently looking for a Maintenance Technician within our Building Operations. This is an excellent opportunity to join the Housing Retention Services team, where you can gain a deep understanding of our business , make a difference in people’s lives every day, and advance your career. Who We Are: Burlington Housing Authority serves the greater Burlington community with housing that is affordable, rental assistance, and support services. Our mission is to provide low-income, vulnerable members of our community access to safe, affordable housing and retention support services in ways that encourage stability, improve quality of life, end homelessness, and foster vibrant neighborhoods. BHA serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus! Position Overview: The Maintenance Technician performs general maintenance work in BHA owned and managed properties. This includes building exteriors, common areas, apartments, building systems, fixtures, and grounds. Our Building Operations Techs are required to participate in the on-call rotation, which covers night and weekend emergencies. Current rotation is once every 6-7 weeks. Work Location and Other Requirements • This position is an in-person in Burlington, VT. • A valid driver’s license is required to carry out the duties of this position Qualifications: While all applicants need to demonstrate a passion for supporting our residents and helping advance Burlington Housing Authority’s mission, we recognize that some applicants may not possess all qualifications listed. We are willing to consider individuals who demonstrate comparable life experience and education in lieu of specific requirements, and/or the will, ability, and initiative to grow into new areas of responsibility. Knowledge and Experience • Qualified candidates should have a minimum of two years of work in general building maintenance or building trades. The ideal candidate would have a demonstrated proficiency in building trades including carpentry, electrical, painting, plumbing, grounds keeping, and snow removal. • The physical activities for this position include squatting, ascending and descending ladders, scaffolding, and stairs, working in small or confined spaces, twisting and lifting up to 100 pounds, often repeating motions with wrists, fingers, and hands. This position works in all environmental conditions. • Technicians must be detail oriented, efficient, be able to work within time sensitive parameters, and able to work independently, as well as part of a team. • Having strong interpersonal skills and being sensitive to the needs of the elderly, disabled, and very low-income households is a must. • Completed high school or equivalency, or any equivalent trade school along with a combination of training and maintenance experience. • Must have the ability to perform painting and janitorial work, perform minor electrical and plumbing repairs, and to get along well with fellow employees and Residents. Physical Requirements Occasionally: • Ascends and descends ladders, stairs, scaffolding, ramps, poles and the like • Remaining in a stationary position, often standing or sitting for prolonged periods of time Constantly: • Moving self in different positions to accomplish tasks in various environments including tight and confined spaces • Moving to accomplish tasks or moving from one job site to another • Adjusting or moving objects

• Repeating motions that may include the wrists, hands, and/or fingers • Operating machinery / heavy equipment and/or power tools • Operating motor vehicles • Assessing the accuracy, neatness and thoroughness of the work assigned • Communicating with others to exchange information Environmental Conditions Occasionally working in: • Low and high temperatures • Outdoor elements such as precipitation and wind. • Noisy environments • Hazardous conditions • Poor ventilation • Small and/or enclosed spaces Physical Demands: Occasionally: • Sedentary work that primarily involves sitting and/or standing • Light work that includes moving objects up to 20 pounds • Medium work that includes moving objects up to 50 pounds • Heavy work that includes moving objects up to 100 pounds or more Total Compensation Base wages Pay range is between $24.00 - $26.00 per hour. PLUS, a $1,500 sign on bonus – paid in two installments. This is a full time position with benefits. Benefits • Health Insurance (BHA covers between 80% to 83% of the premium for employees) or a $6,000 opt-out payment in lieu of BHA health insurance. (To qualify for the OptOut, proof of health insurance is required.) • Health Reimbursement Account. BHA pays 90% of the deductible as the insurance is being used. That’s up to $2,880 for single enrollment and up to $5,760 for twoperson and family • Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Accounts • Dental and vision insurance (Voluntary plans offered at a discounted group rate.) • Short and long term disability coverage (BHA pays 50% of discounted group rate) • Basic life insurance and accidental death (provided at no cost to employees) • Retire plan is a defined contribution plan. BHA makes annual contribution equal to 10% of base wages • Section 457 plan. BHA employees can contribute to this retirement plan • Employee Assistance Plan • Generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays and 2 (paid) floating cultural holidays • Annual Performance Bonus Interested in this career opportunity? Send a cover letter and resume to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org. Human Resources, Burlington Housing Authority 65 Main Street, Suite 101, Burlington, VT 05401 Find more info about these career opportunities at burlingtonhousing.org. BHA is an E.O.E.

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT GILLIAN COMITO: GCOMITO@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

82 OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) We are currently looking for a Housing Retention Specialist within our Housing Retention Services department. This is an excellent opportunity to join the Housing Retention Services team, where you can gain a deep understanding of our business, make a difference in people’s lives every day, and advance your career. Who We Are: Burlington Housing Authority serves the greater Burlington community with housing that is affordable, rental assistance, and support services. Our mission is to provide lowincome, vulnerable members of our community access to safe, affordable housing and retention support services in ways that encourage stability, improve quality of life, end homelessness, and foster vibrant neighborhoods. BHA serves a diverse population of tenants and partners with a variety of community agencies. To most effectively carry out our vision of delivering safe and affordable housing to all, we are committed to cultivating a staff that reflects varied lived experiences, viewpoints, and educational histories. Therefore, we strongly encourage candidates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and women to apply. Multilingualism is a plus! Position Overview Housing Retention Specialist: Provides assistance to residents who have barriers to maintaining housing and/or subsidy. The Housing Retention Specialist works with residents in Chittenden County for the most part and will occasionally provide support to neighboring regions. The Housing Retention Specialist works collaboratively with community service agencies and providers in addition to Section 8, Property Management and Inspection Staff and reports to the Director of Housing Retention and Services. Permanent Supportive Housing Specialist: Provides assistance to community members within Chittenden County who are without housing and have significant medical/mental health barriers to locating and securing housing in Burlington Housing Authority’s service area. Work Location and Other Requirements These positions are in person in Burlington, VT. A valid driver’s license along with reliable personal transportation, with vehicle insurance and registration, is required to carry out the duties of this position Qualifications: While all applicants need to demonstrate a passion for supporting our residents and helping advance Burlington Housing Authority’s mission, we recognize that some applicants may not possess all qualifications listed. We are willing to consider individuals who demonstrate comparable life experience and education in lieu of specific requirements, and/or the will, ability, and initiative to grow into new areas of responsibility. Knowledge and Experience • Bachelor’s degree in social work (or related field) with two to five years of direct service experience, including experience with mental health and substance use supports. • Must have experience with diverse and vulnerable populations.

• Must have a patient and compassionate approach to working with the most vulnerable populations Total Compensation This is a full time position with benefits Base wages Housing Retention Specialist: $24.00 - $26.00 per hour PLUS $2000 SIGN ON BONUS Permanent Supportive Housing Specialist: $26.00 - $27.00 per hour PLUS $2000 SIGN ON BONUS Benefits • Health Insurance (BHA covers between 80% to 83% of the premium for employees) or a $6,000 opt-out payment in lieu of health insurance • Health Reimbursement Account. BHA pays 90% of the deductible as the insurance is being used. That’s up to $2,880 for single enrollment and up to $5,760 for two-person and family. • Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Accounts • Dental and vision insurance (Voluntary plans offered at a discounted group rate.) • Short and long term disability coverage (BHA pays 50% of discounted group rate) • Basic life insurance and accidental death (provided at no cost to employees) • Retire plan is a defined contribution plan. BHA makes annual contribution equal to 10% of base wages

Office Administrator We are a tax preparation business in Shelburne seeking a full-time office administrator. Ideal candidates will have strong attention to detail, excellent interpersonal and written communication skills, and be able to take initiative and work independently. Prior administrative and tax/ financial experience a plus. Compensation is $28/hour. Please send resume and cover letter outlining what you would bring to this position to admin@birchtreetax.com.

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• Section 457 plan. BHA employees can contribute to this retirement plan • Employee Assistance Plan • Generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays and 2 (paid) floating cultural holidays. • Annual Performance Bonus Interested in this career opportunity? Send a cover letter and resume to: humanresources@burlingtonhousing.org. Human Resources Burlington Housing Authority 65 Main Street, Suite 101 Burlington, VT 05401 Find more info about these career opportunities at burlingtonhousing.org.

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• Effective verbal and written communication and knowledge of the social services network in the greater Burlington area. • Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and internet navigation preferred. • Excellent organizational skills required. • Must be adept at fostering positive and collaborative relationships with staff, residents, vendors and community agencies

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Qualifications: 3-5 years experience in a consumer brand marketing agency or inside a consumer brand firm, a strong understanding of the consumer brand space, modern marketing practices and today's omni-channel landscape, and experience managing relationships with multiple complex deliverables on budget and within deadline. Media Factory Production Select has immediate opportunities within our Technician (Part-Time) Bachelor degree preferred. production department. The right individual must

Production

have the ability to work well in a creative, fast Work with production personnel paced environment and manage several tasks to record high quality video simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail. productions and to support the needs of Media Factory Qualifications: Prior experience preferred, but we Apply: community producers and radio will train the right candidate. programmers with technical careers@selectdesign.com support and gear check outs. Competitive salary based on experience & capabilities. Shifts including evenings and Benefits include 401K, profit sharing, medical and weekends. FullCompensation Listing:range dental plans, and an exceptional work environment. of $17.20 - $21.00/hr depending on Select creates products and www.selectdesign.com/careers tasks, and paid time off. To apply, platforms built for ongoing email your resume, cover letter, consumer engagement. and links to previous video work To learn more check out to careers@mediafactory.org 208 Flynn Ave., Burlington, VT (802) 864.9075 selectdesign.com. by November 6, 2026.

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Join us at Lake Champlain Waldorf School to deliver a holistic and developmental approach to education.

Open Position:

• Front Office Manager

mbelanger@ vtcatholiccharities.org

United States Probation Receptionist District of Vermont at Burlington (CL-23/24/25) $41,170 - $81,903 Full Time Permanent United States Probation in Burlington, Vermont, is seeking an energetic individual to provide receptionist duties, clerical and procurement support to our office. High school diploma, two years of general experience, proficiency with WORD, data entry, report generation and strong interpersonal skills are required. A background investigation and fingerprinting are mandatory before appointment. Starting salary range is from $41,170 - $66,971 with promotional potential to CL-24 (Probation Support Technician) and CL-25 (Probation Services Assistant). For further information and application instructions visit vtp.uscourts.gov/career-opportunities. Deadline for complete applications is the close of business October 30, 2026.

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• Guaranteed paid employment on day one of training

T.S. Peck Insurance is one of the largest locally owned independent insurance agencies in Vermont, serving personal and commercial clients from its local office in South Burlington. Founded in 1869, the agency has a long history of understanding the unique Vermont business market and acting as a local advocate for policyholders. T.S. Peck provides a ﬂexible & supportive work environment for its team.

Salary/Benefits: • Salary starting at $55k/year • Full health, dental, vision, disability benefits • 401K match/profit sharing Application Email: jakehynes@tspeck.com.

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10/5/26 5:23 PM

Apprenticeship Program

The Commercial Lines Processing Agent is a part-time, hybrid role based in South Burlington, VT. This position is responsible for supporting the commercial lines team 2v-LakeChamplainWaldorf102826 1 10/22/26 Full-Time Evening RN 3:11 PM by processing new business, renewals, endorsements, cancellations, and policy changes accurately and within St. Joseph Residential established timelines. Day-to-day tasks include data Care Home is seeking a entry into agency and carrier systems, preparing and compassionate, detailoriented RN to provide issuing certificates of insurance, handling billing and medication administration, policy document requests, and maintaining complete and daily care support, resident organized client files. The agent communicates with carriers monitoring, and timely and internal staff to resolve discrepancies, obtain missing documentation in a welcoming, information, and ensure policies reflect correct coverage team-oriented senior care details. This role also assists with basic client service community. Current RN inquiries, follows agency procedures for compliance and license required; senior living documentation, and contributes to smooth office operations or long-term care experience and a positive client experience. preferred. Competitive pay, comprehensive benefits for eligible employees, and a $3,000 sign-on bonus. Apply today to make a meaningful difference in residents’ lives.

OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

U.S. Probation Receptionist

Commercial Lines Processing Agent

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• Team environment • Full Benefits

INVEST IN YOURSELF Our apprenticeship program is a paid opportunity to become a Sterile Processing Technician with no experience required.

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APPLY NOW jobforward.org/ sterileprocessingtech REGISTRATION DEADLINE Wednesday, Nov. 11th, 2026

Questions? Call or Email 802-497-6968 lida.hope@jobforward.org

University of Vermont Health (“UVMH”) will not discriminate against apprenticeship applicants or apprentices based upon their age (40 and older), ancestry, color, disability, gender identity, marital status, national origin, place of birth, race, religion, genetic information, sex, and sexual orientation. UVMH will take affirmative action to provide equal opportunity in apprenticeship and will operate the apprenticeship program as required by Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 30; Title 21 Vermont Statutes Annotated, Labor, Ch. 13, Apprenticeship, and the Vermont State EEO Plan. This workforce product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA). The product was created by the recipient and does not necessarily reflect the official position of DOL. DOL makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership. This product is copyrighted by the institution that created it.

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Working with Seven Days, I always know our job listing will be prepared quickly and accurately. I appreciate how their design team creates a post that looks great, and candidates begin to reach out almost immediately. Our nonprofit works to benefit Vermont State Parks, and many Vermonters and Vermont businesses support our organization. We shop local to show our gratitude. That is why we always choose to work with Seven Days. SARAH ALBERGHINI WINTERS Vermont Parks Forever, The Foundation for Vermont State Parks, Montpelier

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY REAL OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 4 TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): How do the

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21)

This is your high holy season, Scorpio, which also happens to be the time when the veil is thinnest between this world and the other world. Others find this eerie, but you’ve always been at home here. You know how to explore the deepest depths, how to abide with what’s buried and hidden, and how to find treasure in the dark. In the coming weeks, your natural power to perceive what’s concealed will be amplified. For Halloween, be a psychopomp: a keeper of the threshold, a soul guide draped in shadow and starlight who walks comfortably between the living and the dead.

oldest trees live for so many years? What’s their secret to longevity? They’re very adaptable. During storms, they bend without breaking. During droughts, they slow down their growth. Cultivating alliances with fungi is one of their brilliant tactics. You’re in an opportune phase to favor this approach to strength and endurance, Taurus. Here’s what I propose: Weave gleaming strands of buoyant resilience into your fervent willpower. Experiment with yielding strategically rather than resisting reflexively. Boost your soulful power through flexibility and adaptability. For Halloween, be an ancient oak tree, forest guardian or mushroom spirit.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): When archaeologists unearth a fresh batch of ancient artifacts, they never find a complete civilization in one dramatic moment. Each object or bone fragment helps explain another. A piece of pottery illuminates the meaning of an inscription. A broken staircase reveals why buildings were constructed as they were. Through educated guesswork and chains of association, knowledge accumulates. I invite you to wield your curiosity in the same way, Gemini. Treasure the sequence of little discoveries that gradually reshape your overall understanding. Have eager faith that every clue will lead you to further clues. For Halloween, be an archaeologist, paleontologist or investigator of crime scenes. CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): Researchers

ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): For centuries,

Japanese craftspeople have cultivated an ethos called shokunin kishitsu: a devotion to skilled work, lifelong learning and continual refinement. The pursuit of perfection is less about reaching a final state than about bringing ever-greater care and precision to the work. In traditional carpentry, this can mean years of learning to make joints whose quality resides in their strength and durability even though no customer will ever notice. I suggest you try out this attitude, Aries. Pour extra focus into details, regardless of whether anyone will applaud them. For Halloween, be a blacksmith, artisan or eccentric inventor.

studying wolves have found that play remains essential to them throughout their lives. Mature wolves wrestle, chase, and invent games that strengthen trust and sharpen cooperation. They never graduate from joyful experimentation. I hope their friskiness inspires you to remember, dear Cancerian, that serious responsibilities don’t require a terminally serious personality. That’s especially crucial to keep in mind now. I invite you to bring maximum amounts of playful intelligence into everything you value. Laugh during challenging conversations. Invent rituals that nobody else would think of. Observe the true rule: Amused delight generates an atmosphere where meaningful work may become exceptional. For Halloween, be a playful wolf.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): Peacocks’ extravagant

feathers are beautiful displays that also communicate health, vitality and genetic resilience. They’re excellent role models for you. You should never apologize for expressing your charisma with style and theatrical flair. As long as your outer brilliance reflects inner vitality, your radiance will nourish rather than intimidate others. Authentic glamour is a public service. For Halloween, be a sun deity, lion monarch or glamorous ringmaster.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): “Dear Oracle: I am obsessed with improving things. I tinker with systems that already work fine. I wake at 3 a.m. and catalog details I could have done better. My results are never ultimate enough. Please offer tips to help me find rest. — Drooping Purist.” Dear Drooping: The autumn season is your teacher. The harvest is in; the fields are meant to lie fallow. Nothing more can be improved by force. Growth happens underground, invisibly. In that spirit, I invite you to practice the radical art of leaving at least one thing gloriously alone so it can work its magic outside the reach of your conscious awareness. For Halloween, be a scarecrow who stands serenely in the harvested field, watching over everything, accomplishing its whole purpose by being present. LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): If you’ve spent years regretting the moment a friend took credit for your best idea, that sting may finally lose its hold on you. If an opportunity you earned was handed to someone else, you may soon receive recognition in a form you never anticipated. And if an ancient family legend claims you were doomed to repeat the same mistake forever, you can now break that pattern. The days ahead favor overdue adjustments. Watch for turns of fortune that don’t erase what happened but change what it means and what becomes possible next. For Halloween, be an exorcist. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Early balloonists had little control over the direction of their flights. They couldn’t steer horizontally. But they found that changing altitude allowed them to catch different winds moving in different directions. The smartest way to change course was to rise or descend.

Keep that image close, Sagittarius. If you can’t alter external circumstances directly, shift your perspective or your social environment. A new current may be waiting higher or lower than where you’ve been drifting. For Halloween, be a hot-air balloon pilot, comet rider, sky pirate or bird god like the Hindu Garuda.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Life

must both perpetuate itself and surpass itself. Capricorn philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said that. We need continuity, but we also need transcendence. This beautifully encapsulates your assignment in the coming months. Your fun job will be to continue honoring the commitments that anchor your life while also making room for an exhilarating experiment or two. Make stability your launching pad rather than your destination. For Halloween, be the person you will be three years from now.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Inventors often describe breakthroughs arriving after weeks or months of seemingly unproductive tinkering. Clearly, their subconscious minds kept working on the puzzles even while their conscious minds felt frustrated. Eventually, a fresh arrangement appeared as if by magic. I suspect you’re approaching a threshold like that. Your experiments have been subliminally educating your intuition. The solution that’s searching for you may be cleverer than the one you’ve been searching for. For Halloween, be a time traveler, benevolent extraterrestrial or eccentric professor. PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20): Travelers crossing dark marshes on foot may report eerie, flickering lights hovering over the bog. Science explains these will-o’-the-wisps as gases from decaying matter that ignites in the night air. Folklore provides other theories: They’re spirit lanterns, fairy lights, the lamps of the dead or beckoning wanderers. I believe you’re in a similar liminal zone these days. Science and magic are both at work. Truth may take the form of both inexplicable mystery and fascinating anomalies that light your way. Be open to both! For Halloween, be a will-o’-the-wisp made flesh: a glowing spirit of the marsh draped in mist and lantern light, beautiful and uncanny.

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

Respond to these people online: dating.sevendaysvt.com WOMEN seeking... MEET AT THE LAKE? Things do not need to be complicated: an easy conversation, a great workout, a fascinating book, a beautiful encounter, a meaningful observation. Peace and harmony are important to me; staying fit is key. I love a great cup of coffee, a good laugh and a long embrace. HereAndNow, 60, seeking: M, l READY FOR A NEW ADVENTURE! Looking to meet someone with the same mindset and outlook: respectful, kind, lighthearted, adventurous, with a “why not?” attitude, and curious to explore everything from hiking paths and new cities to new eateries. If you’d like to meet a new friend who appreciates good conversation, banter, wit and intellectual curiosity — and who doesn’t take themselves too seriously — reach out. OnTheFlipSide, 65, seeking: M CREATIVE AND EMPATHETIC CONNECTOR I value the environment and kind treatment of all people. I enjoy traveling, writing, casually making art and spending time in nature (especially stopping to look at interesting plants/critters). I love fostering human connection through hosting get-togethers (such as game and movie nights) but also deeply appreciate chill time alone (or with people who don’t drain me, maybe you!). TreeHugger24, 25, seeking: M, l

WANT TO RESPOND? You read Seven Days, these people read Seven Days — you already have at least one thing in common! All the action is online. Create an account or login to browse hundreds of singles with profiles including photos, habits, desires, views and more. It’s free to place your own profile online. photos of l See this person online. W = Women M = Men TW = Trans women TM = Trans men Q = Genderqueer people NBP = Nonbinary people NC = Gender nonconformists Cp = Couples Gp = Groups

FUN, FIT, ATTRACTIVE; LIVES PASSIONATELY Tango dancer seeks travel partner, maybe more. I’ve loved every minute of my adventurous life; now it’s time to take a break (a little). Share my playful spirit and some new adventures if you are a kind, emotionally mature and spiritually grounded man, 64-72. Join me for adventure or quiet time together? Dinner on me if you can guess my age. tangogypsy, 54, seeking: M, l

LAID-BACK FUNNY GIRL I’m a curvy girl who enjoys cuddly but confident men. I enjoy reading, hiking and cooking. I love lazy mornings with a hot cup in my hand and a cozy blanket. Looking for someone to be the big spoon to my little spoon. Bookbunny, 39, seeking: M

FUNNY, DRIVEN SUNSHINE LOVER I love to laugh and wish I did it more. I like tennis, taking art classes, being outside. I ski in the winter, am learning to sail in the summer. I am career driven, and it occasionally takes over until I rein it back in. I’m looking to meet some smart, funny, kind people. Sunnyand75, 51, seeking: M

RETIRED ANTHROPOLOGIST, UNRETIRED CURIOUSITY Field notes from a life well traveled. Decades in East Africa taught me to listen closely and question my assumptions. Now I’ve traded savanna for Vermont forest — and pursue off-the-beaten-path adventures wherever I can. Avid reader and serious Nordic noir fan. Looking for someone not afraid of a woman who asks “Why do people do that?” for a living. RiftValleyRambler, 64, seeking: M, l

QUIET OUTDOORS LOVER Retired from a retail environment. Am quiet until I’m comfortable around someone. Love to hike and walk trails and roads, both winter and summer. Like to be outdoors. Like to be busy. Looking to spend time with someone just doing and sharing simple things — making meals, chores, a laugh, a hug, a kiss; learning, but also getting time independently. Spud, 69, seeking: M, l

CURIOUS WANDERER, COLLECTS EXPERIENCES I like to gather passport stamps, weird hobbies and conversation topics that go one layer deeper. Looking for someone who’d rather dig into a new idea than talk about the weather and who considers exploring new places a routine activity. Bonus points if you’re a lifelong learner and love to swap stories. LuceStellare, 40, seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, l

ECLECTIC EDUCATOR SEEKS FUNCTIONAL COMPANIONSHIP Looking for company in my efforts to stave off the Void (the ever-encroaching primordial ooze of unfulfillable yearning, existential dread, etc.). That sounds dark, but in reality this consists largely of swimming, camping, collecting rocks/ bugs and annual Lord of the Rings viewings. More concretely, I want a house in a field with chickens, sheep, and a mean goose or two. cloverthistle, 33, seeking: M, TM, Q, NC, NBP, l

GRACEFUL AGGIE I’m an active, well-educated woman seeking a kind, honest, intelligent man for companionship and fun. I’m a writer and editor working in regenerative agriculture. I love to dance, deejay, hike and garden, and my silly side appreciates dad jokes, board games, dogs and cats, concerts, plays, other languages, new foods, and sitting around doing nothing. Want to join me? Graceful_Aggie, 64, seeking: M, l

WEIRD, QUEER, KINDHEARTED LEFTY I love chopping it up with just about anyone. I like listening to and telling stories. I enjoy the company of people who are both sharp and kind. Generosity, community, good food and silliness are very important to me. I love digging around in the dirt. Looking for people to love. word_girl, 22, seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, l MULLET BABE SEEKING TRUE LOVE Trimmed my mullet today, and it put me in a good mood. Looking for a man who looks exactly like me but with facial hair. Must be gentle. I enjoy gossip, roadkill, light beer, reading memoirs and charming snakes. I’d like to learn new skills. If you have a truck or a bike rack, I’ll be there. slopjoe, 21, seeking: M, l KIND HEARTS, ACTIVE MINDS ONLY My happiest moments are spent with family, my Labs and people I care about. I love warm sunny days, swimming, the ocean, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, live music, sports, and plenty of laughter. With retirement on the horizon, I’m excited to travel, try new adventures, and hopefully meet someone kind, affectionate, easygoing and fun to share them with. njoylife, 58, seeking: M, l

SEVEN DAYS OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 4, 2026

MEN seeking... FUNNY Funny and a good time. BK, 19, seeking: W, Cp, Gp, l NOT A GLASS-HALF-FULL TYPE I am a leftist and have read and continue to read a lot of the lefty literature. I enjoy craft beer and horror movies. vted, 58, seeking: W, l STAY ’TIL THE JOB’S DONE Seeking affection — literally starving for affection. I have so much to give. Big on massages: feet, back, shoulders, whatever. And beyond that, I love foreplay and anything up to the act of sexual intercourse, which I do not prefer. If you want it, I am happy to provide, but play is preferred. Just want to feel appreciated. PressureTransducer, 42, seeking: W LUDDITE GARDEN DWELLER I’m a 38-y/o man who enjoys outdoor recreation and outdoor work. I am open-minded and interested in what others have to offer. Looking for an active woman to enjoy relaxing picnics and hikes that get the blood moving. Letuscanoe, 38, seeking: W

FREE SPIRIT LOOKING FOR LOVE I’m a cross between hippie, country, and rock and roll! I live my life like every day could be my last, and I don’t take anything or anyone for granted! I’m focused on positivity and being a good human being. I spend as much time as possible in the woods hiking, skiing, hunting, fishing and snowmobiling. Searching for my soulmate. Treeman42, 42, seeking: W, l

BRUNCH? Let’s enjoy some company. Dirtfarmer, 64, seeking: W, l

HI Let’s get to know each other. Adventure10, 48, seeking: W

KIND, EARTHY HUMANIST Worked hard to get where I am, living a happy life in my own home in the country. I love music, theater, reading and writing, intelligent people of all sorts, animals, the Earth. Retired teacher. Deeply rooted in Vermont. Wants to meet kind, smart lover of food, art (theater, ballet, fine arts, poetry, orchestra, sculpture) and travel. Triumphant survivor of a TBI. baldandold, 55, seeking: W, l

COFFEE AND A CHAT? I’m going to keep this simple for now. I like to enjoy the moment. Staying fit is important, and keeping chaos and stress to a minimum. I’m often told that I act much younger than I am. I miss feeling a natural connection. daybyday, 61, seeking: W LIVING A LIFE OF GRATITUDE Living my dream in the hills of Vermont, playing and writing music. Gardening and landscaping is a constant. Looking for an authentic lover that “goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on ... ’till the end of time.” Mahalo, 76, seeking: W, l

LOVING, CARING AND LONELY! I am hoping to find a man who has the same interests as me! Hiking, cooking, going to new places and walking hand in hand. Looking for honesty, loyalty and a good lover! Marcey, 68, seeking: M

I’M LAID-BACK, ENJOY LIFE I am down-to-earth, love life and all people. Love all animals and love taking long vacations. Blackhawk185, 54, seeking: W

TRANS WOMEN seeking...

RELATION AU MARIAGE Je suis africain sympa et honnête. J’ai 36 ans. Je cherche une femme pour me marier, fonder une famille, vivre une vie stable simplement. Josephh, 36, seeking: W, l

I NEED A DANCE PARTNER! I’m new to all this. I love the outdoors, kind people and good food. I love to dance! But I need a dance partner! Is that you? It’s a great place to start! Sportymiss, 57, seeking: M, l

SENSITIVE, CARING, KIND Just a kid from Connecticut who fell in love with Vermont when I came here for college. I love gaming of all types but mostly video games and board games. I love anime and make time each year to work for Anime Boston. I’ve been working out more now that I have a workout buddy, but I wouldn’t mind another. Reeb0kNinja, 35, seeking: W, l

LOVING, GIVING, OPEN Hi! I am a fit, attractive, sexy, non-op (so far) transsexual woman. 60 but look 50. Looking for similar physical attributes in a partner for dating, FWB and maybe more. Would love to hear from you and exchange pictures to see if there is any spark. Susan123, 61, seeking: M, W

I AM PASSIONATE I am looking for a person who is clean, takes care of himself and wants to spend quiet time together. Who has passion and love to give, as well as receive; everybody has problems. Everybody has struggles to deal with, and sharing them is what makes a person. Jcumman, 63, seeking: M, W, TM, Cp, Gp RGT48 Live, laugh, love. RGT48, 75, seeking: W, l WHO DARES, WINS Chivalrous, energetic, patient, emphatic, smart, modest(?), 64-y/o young man from the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire who knows what he wants. Seeking connection with two women interested in each other and in him. A dynamic built on trust, respect, mutual desire and complete communication. Shows up fully. Discreet when called for, otherwise unabashed in life. Aircool, 64, seeking: W, l OLDIE BUT A GOODIE! ROCK I have lived in Vermont since 1991. I wanna find someone to be with until I pass away. I’m 61 and looking for someone who can appreciate companionship and sex, on occasion! eatmydots69, 61, seeking: W OLD-WORLD HIPPIE, COMPASSIONATE SURVIVOR Mediator; nature lover; cynic, but pretty funny and never cruel. Laughing matters, especially at myself if I get pretentious. Love talking about the universe (me, you, us, everything connected). Ever seeking to slow down and take it, and me, less seriously — it’s an eternal journey. Bergamo, 73, seeking: W, l

NONBINARY PEOPLE seeking... CONTRA BABE LOOKING FOR LOVE Funny, kind, playful, curious, nurturing, horny, emotionally intelligent, happily fat. Seeking same! I’m looking for a life partner who wants kids and can match my freak. Take me to the park and play with my balls (bouncy balls, that is), or come along to a dance with me, and I’ll spin you around. Thrustfaultcove, 27, seeking: W, TM, Q, NC, NBP, l SCRAPPY BUT SWEET — HI Hairy and awesome, I like to fight with sticks at the river and ride mopeds and eat yummy food. I like my friends, dancing and music. I’m looking to meet cool people and do fun adventures or whatever. Life is life, and love is wonderful. Just getting lunch is cool, too. LuckyDragon, 22, seeking: W, NBP, l

COUPLES seeking... LOOKING FOR A PLAYMATE! Bi hubby and wife looking for a clean, respectable gentleman for her (okay, us, hehe) in the boudoir. Husband is 40, 6’3”, chubby yet very rugged and handsome. Wife is 33, 5’11”, blond, curvy. We are completely new to this kink but eager to explore. Any questions, just ask! Looking4a3rd, 40, seeking: M DOWN-TO-EARTH ESTABLISHED COUPLE Looking for an open-minded woman or couple to join us in a new chapter of life. Both are early 60s, active, love the outdoors, forestry, gardening, dogs and the right moment to chill. He’s straight; she is bi but hasn’t been with a women for a while. Looking for someone with similar interests to enjoy adult entertainment and lifestyle dating. Muffy, 64, seeking: Cp

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KEVIN, GORGEOUS BLUE EYES I often see you where I work out. I always check you out, and I think you know this. You always look so serious, but we always chat for a bit. You’re an attractive man. You have gorgeous eyes, a hot, beefy body and a nice rear. I hope you read this. My clue: I love PRL, and I wear an Aristocrat. When: Sunday, October 18, 2026. Where: in Rutland at the gym. You: Man. Me: Man. #916680 CANS IN MILTON You and I spoke very briefly at Rene’s in Milton while standing at the bottle and can redemption doorway. You: a blonde with a white pickup; Me: a dude with a bag of cans and a white beard. I’d sure like to talk to you. Please? I sure do hope so! When: Friday, October 9, 2026. Where: Rene’s in Milton. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916679 HOT OR ICED? For weeks, you provided me with delicious recommendations outside of my norm, but also provided me with beautiful latte art atop my “oacha.” Your presence is missed — hope you come back to the OG location. When: Thursday, October 1, 2026. Where: behind the coffee bar. You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916678 ART TEACHER WITH RETROFITTED VOLVO Your 2019 Volvo 270 pulled us into the St. Albans car meet this weekend. I pointed out that rebuilding a car has a degree of art to it. I think it would be fun to hear more. When: Saturday, October 3, 2026. Where: St. Albans car meet. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916675 HOTTIE AT MARIA’S BAGELS Younger lady with a killer body who couldn’t resist flirting while we were waiting. When: Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Where: Maria’s Bagels. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916670

LEATHER JACKET CUTIE To the cutie I spotted wearing an all-brown outfit with an analog camera draped over them: I wanted to say hi when we passed each other outside at City Market/ Zabby’s, but we both had earphones in, and I didn’t want to disturb your peace. Wanna disturb mine? When: Friday, October 9, 2026. Where: S. Winooski Ave. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916677 I THOUGHT IT WAS YOU Two Friday nights ago, I sat on a bench near the bottom of Church St. with a soda. (Slurpee place was closed.) But when I saw you walking by with your two friends, it seemed like why I was there! Out of context, I wasn’t sure it was you. Next time I’ll sneeze so big it echoes down the block. When: Friday, September 25, 2026. Where: Church St. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916676 SALAD BANTER AT TRADER JOE’S You tossed me a question in the salad section: “What are you getting?” I confessed I was a top-shelf kind of gal. I went for red butter lettuce; you went for little gems. Respect. I liked your energy and support making life’s hardest decisions. I was tired and grotty, otherwise I would’ve asked, “Want to eat salad together sometime?” When: Saturday, October 3, 2026. Where: South Burlington Trader Joe’s. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916674 HEY RAHWEY He told you my name is / Molly like the drug / But you know that isn’t true / I was quiet / mostly listened / The guy I was with / Last night is not Ok / He may not be humane / We sleep together / But sometimes if I / Try to get too close / He kicks me out / Of bed and puts / Me in a cage When: Friday, October 2, 2026. Where: Ake’s Place. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916673

Ask REVEREND 

Irreverent counsel on life’s conundrums

Dear Reverend,

My roommate has recently gotten into tarot cards, and it’s all she ever talks about. She keeps asking to do a reading for me, and I just don’t want her to. I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of tarot cards, but I’m definitely not a fan. I also don’t think she knows what she’s doing. Should I just let her read my cards and get it over with so she’ll quit bugging me about it?

Queen of Cups

(WOMAN, 25)

HOTTIE ON CLARA BOW? I was desperately lost on the Clara Bow trail when your bright red hair pulled me in like a beacon. You shared your warm meal with me and let me sit in your chair, reluctantly. I don’t remember your name, but I think you had a friend named Norman. Same time, same place next week? When: Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Where: Clara Bow Trail. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916672 EXIT WITH A SPARKLING SMILE You, attractive blonde in blue outfit and sensible shoes, made a quick visit to the rest area and smiled as you entered the building. As you departed, you exited a different door. I, one of the state employees, pointed to the exit you desired and couldn’t help wonder if I should have at least said hello and introduced myself. When: Thursday, September 24, 2026. Where: Sharon Welcome Center. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916671 HERE COMES THE AIRPLANE Trans diva who queened out with me during my STI appointment: When you asked if I needed a countdown for taking my blood, I said no, but you could pretend it was an airplane. You were game and even made noises. Adorable. When: Friday, September 18, 2026. Where: Planned Parenthood of Burlington. You: Genderqueer. Me: Trans woman. #916668 SILVER FOX AT CITY MARKET You: pulling a turquoise BMW out of the downtown parking lot at 2:20. Me: the CR-V that waited to let you leave. Your firm wave of thanks indicated good manners. That, plus a well-groomed beard and presumptive good taste in food, is all I need to see. If you’re looking, I’m looking at you. When: Tuesday, September 15, 2026. Where: City Market downtown. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916667 SOUTH END CITY MARKET We passed in an aisle, said hi, exchanged nice smiles. I found you striking! You have long gray hair and a nose piercing — maybe you’re around my age, early forties? I have shortish curly brown/ gray hair, glasses, was wearing a shirt with lemons on it. We didn’t have a chance to talk, but I’d love to know you! When: Sunday, September 13, 2026. Where: South End City Market. You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916666

Dear Queen of Cups,

MAYBE YO-YOING IS A FLEX? We joked around at the toy store, and you impressed me with your yo-yo skills. We were both with our kids, so I felt too shy to ask for your number. Want to hang out sometime? When: Saturday, September 19, 2026. Where: Montpelier. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916669 TREKKINGCOUPLE WHAT’S UP? Hey there, I got your flirt and inadvertently deleted it. (Easy to do with one wrong move — poof!) I found your profile pretty vague. Can you give me a little more on what you are looking for? Not sure how this will go, so I will leave it at that. When: Thursday, September 10, 2026. Where: Seven Days Flirts. You: Couple. Me: Man. #916665 AS YOU WISH Hurts more now than when it did two years ago, when this all started. Who knew so many were seeking what could’ve been theirs, in their own way, but they demanded it be from someone else? When: Monday, August 17, 2026. Where: in the paper. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916664

LUNCH LADY OF MY DREAMS I miss having the chance to see you during lunch at school. School’s back in session — let’s get together and talk about what’s on the menu? When: Monday, June 1, 2026. Where: school. You: Woman. Me: Gender nonconformist. #916662

A lot of people think tarot cards are creepy: There’s a Death card in most traditional decks, for goodness’ sake. Getting that card in your reading doesn’t mean you’re going to die — it represents a transition or transformation — but it can certainly be disconcerting. Tarot cards came about in the 15th century as a parlor game for rich people. In 1781, a French guy named Antoine Court de Gébelin made up a tale that tarot cards held secret Egyptian wisdom. Long story short, that fib caught on: The cards were redesigned and started being used for divination and fortune-telling. The cards have gotten their bad rap mostly through TV shows and movies that use tarot readings as a plot tool to foretell something bad. In the real world, the

PEACH PURSE AT BREAD AND PUPPET Exchanged big smiles as you were walking up the aisle. Beautiful red/ brown hair; there with your parents and friend? You had a little brown purse with a peach. I grow peaches! Tried to find you after, to no avail. I was there with my mom, too. Would you want to connect and talk political activism, art and hanging with our parents? When: Friday, August 28, 2026. Where: Flynn Theater. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916658 YOU ARE SO VERY HANDSOME You came straight toward me; I was awestruck with your physique. Your gray shirt fit you perfectly. I couldn’t help but push my glasses up. I had things in my hands and realized too late that I used my middle finger. My mind was like, Oh, no, for many reasons. I know you saw me clearly. Clearly vulgar! No offense. When: Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Where: Hannafords NNE. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916656

MYSTICAL MUSIC FAN I spied you over my shoulder as we took in Sierra Ferrell’s performance. We had a chance for small talk, and you said you would be crossing the lake for another visit Thursday. You had a sweet smile, long hair and a clear backpack with pink trim. I wanted to say more, but you slipped away into the starlight night. When: Friday, September 4, 2026. Where: Shelburne Museum concert. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916663

MIDDLEBURY CO-OP, SO MANY SMILES You were gorgeous dressed in all black as we exchanged multiple big smiles and eye contact. I saw you drive away in a white Mazda. I tried talking to you on your way out, but perhaps you were shy, too, as opposed to involved with someone else? Would love the opportunity to have a real conversation and connect again. When: Sunday, August 30, 2026. Where: Middlebury Co-op. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916660

SHELBURNE QUEEN CITY CONTRA DANCE Met you last night at the Shelburne Queen City Contra Dance. You are an architect in Burlington. We talked about design, writing and sailing. I taught you how to waltz. Would you like to get a cuppa coffee? I regret not finding you before you departed. When: Friday, August 28, 2026. Where: Shelburne Queen City Contra Dance Hall. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916659

ON THE BACK ROADS TO WORK … in your maroon Toyota, you said you were hoping to see me again. You asked the time; I, glancing at my watch, said, “What time should it be to sit and talk?” My attempted teasing only turned more obtuse and borderline rude. I’m sorry for souring a sparkly moment and betraying your intuition, but thank you for taking a chance. When: Sunday, August 16, 2026. Where: between Marshfield and Montpelier. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916655 GMP DRIVE-BY You drove by in the passenger seat of the yellow Green Mountain Power truck. I was sitting on my front steps and saw you and couldn’t look away. I have contemplated breaking shit so you have to come fix it. When: Friday, August 21, 2026. Where: Maple Street, Waterbury Center. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916654

cards are given a lot of spiritual and energetic meaning, but they are nothing more than pieces of cardstock printed with pictures. I say this as someone who won’t even touch a Ouija board. Do I really believe it can open a portal for bad spirits? Maybe not, but you’re not bringing a Ouija board into my home, and I’ll leave a party if somebody busts one out. I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m being silly; it’s just the way it is. You should never feel forced to participate in something that makes you uncomfortable. If you don’t want your roommate giving you a tarot reading, don’t do it. Tell her that you’re glad she’s found a new hobby, but you aren’t going to participate. Just like with a lot of situations in life, no means no, and that’s that. Good luck and God bless,

The Reverend

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Single woman, 67, seeks an adventurous, respectful man of similar age and positive outlook to share outdoor activities, movies, concerts. Primary desire is friends first. Middlebury area. Hike, bike, travel, share meals. I’m an active, artistic, friendly introvert and thoughtful, intelligent Vermonter. #L1983 I’m a female in my early 70s seeking a male, 60-plus. I’m a retired teacher. I like to go on long walks, love coffee and love to travel. I like to sketch and sometimes paint, read a lot, watch Netflix, and love to eat out, but I can cook. I love to listen to music and visit museums. #L1980 69-y/o lesbian NS/ND Buddhist enjoys humor, dogs, cats, birds, yoga, walks/hikes, day road trips, nature, bakeries and Louise Penny novels. Seeking 63- to 73y/o lesbian for occasional social outings. #L1981

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139 PEARL ST. ESSEX JUNCTION, VT 05452 For Ages 21+ and medical cannabis patients. Cannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age and older or registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry signiﬁcant legal penalties in some jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the inﬂuence of this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

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