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Read about more than two dozen area churches and religious organizations in our directory.
Teenage girls talk very freely about dates, sports and their inner lives. See Arts + Leisure.
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22, 201 • March
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Vol. 72 No. 12
The owners of an unusual passive solar home were surprised. See our spring home improvement section.
ADDISON COUNTY
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INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont
Thursday, March 22, 2018 66 Pages
Bristol demonstration keeps focus on guns Residents gather with students to protect schools
By CHRISTOPHER ROSS A month later, addressing a shivering crowd on BRISTOL — The day after 17 people were shot the Bristol Town Green, Mount Abe senior Casey to death at a Parkland, Fla., school, last month Ober this past Saturday echoed that sentiment: as Fair Haven police investigated a Poultney “I say ‘I love you’ to my parents whenever I teen for planning a similar shooting walk out the door because my school at Fair Haven Union High School, “This was could be next, their office could be Mount Abraham Union High School next.” an amazing conducted a routine fire drill. Ober, along with about 125 other “That was scary,” sophomore start for our students and residents, braving 30 community. The mph gusts that brought the wind chill Emma Campbell later recalled. Senior Chloe Lyons agreed: near zero, gathered around the town conversation “Everybody was like, ‘I don’t want does not end bandstand Saturday to protest gun to go outside,’ because we knew that violence. here.” it’s a very common way to lure kids Mt. Abe Student Activists (MASA), — Chloe Lyons a group co-founded by Lyons and outside when there’s a shooting.” Before Parkland and Fair Haven, seniors Madeline Bernoudy and Mount Abraham students had viewed safety drills Molly Funk, had meant for the “Park Protest” as a kind of joke, Lyons said. “A lot of kids just took to coincide with the National School Walkout it as a time to get on our phones and hang out. But on Wednesday, March 14, but Addison County now there’s more of a sense of, ‘This could be us.’” (See Bristol, Page 11A)
ANSWERING A CALL from the group Mount Abe Student Activists to light a fire under those in charge of school safety, students and other community members gathered Saturday on the Bristol Town Green and vowed to continue their efforts to end gun violence. Above left, Mount Abe senior Molly Funk receives the applause of gun-control advocates for her work as a student activist. Independent photos/Christopher Ross
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Sale of dairy farm is sign of the times Hinsdale predicting more auctions to come
By ANGELO LYNN CHARLOTTE — Clark Hinsdale III’s family has been farming on Vermont’s soils for seven generations in Addison and Chittenden counties. On Wednesday, he auctioned off his herd of 250 milking cows, his farm implements and tools, his robotic milkers and all the agricutural trappings of a lifetime in the dairy industry at one of Vermont’s most iconic dairy operations. Hinsdale’s Nordic Farms, a symbol of Vermont’s dairy prominence and heritage, sits atop a prominent knoll in Charlotte just south of the Shelburne line on Route 7 overlooking Lake Champlain to the west and Camel’s Hump and Mount Mansfield to the east. Its bright red roof on a massive, snowy white barn with the Green Mountains as a backdrop has provided a visual clue (however mistaken that might have been) of the vitality of the dairy industry. But the past three years of depressed milk prices have taken their toll on Vermont’s small to midsize dairy farms. “Dairy farms with under 500 cows are over,” proclaimed Clark Hinsdale this Tuesday at his office in the white, two-story farmhouse in front of the dairy barn. Standing in this socks, jeans and plaid button-up, long-sleeve shirt, the six-foot-tall man in his early 60s who has spent the better part of 40 years advocating on behalf of dairy farmers, explained some of the economic forces that are making farming so difficult in (See Dairy farms, Page 1A)
Senate eyes funding path to clean water Panel would evaluate per-parcel fee By JOHN FLOWERS SHOREHAM — The Vermont Senate this week was set to take action on a bill that would lead to a funding scheme for the state’s share of an estimated $2.3 billion cleanup of the state’s waterways — including Lake Champlain. Bill S.260 would create an eightperson study committee that would be asked, among other things, to consider a per-parcel fee to collect the more than $26 million in annual
revenues over the next 20-plus years that is Vermont’s share of the federally mandated cleanup. The state Senate was slated to debate and potentially vote on S.260 as the Addison Independent went to press on Wednesday afternoon. If the bill clears the Senate, it will move to the House. “It’s been a long haul,” Sen. Chris Bray, D-New Haven, said during Monday’s legislative breakfast at (See Water quality, Page 11A)
Ferrisburgh looks to help By the way neighbors of dog rescuer
Three Addison County students were among 615 nationwide to receive a 2018 Horatio Alger State Scholarship, valued at up to $10,000 each. This annual scholarship recognizes outstanding (See By the way, Page 3A)
Index Obituaries........................... 6A-7A Classifieds.......................... 4B-8B Service Directory............... 5B-6B Entertainment.........Arts + Leisure Community Calendar......... 8A-9A Arts Calendar.........Arts + Leisure Sports................................. 1B-2B
By ANDY KIRKALDY FERRISBURGH — With at least 30 residents watching, the Ferrisburgh selectboard on Tuesday talked about three different approaches to handle longstanding neighborhood complaints about a Sand Road dog rescue operation that currently houses not only about 30 dogs and 10 cats, but now has a rat infestation. At issue is 2512 Sand Road, at which Sheila McGregor, 53, runs Heidi’s Haven dog rescue. McGregor says she finds homes for about 50 or 60 dogs a year that she saves from high-kill shelters, and her operation has been endorsed by clients and others in the rescue community. But not by her neighbors, who (See Ferrisburgh, Page 7A)
Yes, he’s intimidating!
MIDDLEBURY UNION HIGH School senior Duncan Crogan performs as Gaston with fellow cast members during rehearsal of “Beauty and the Beast” at the school Tuesday afternoon. The senior musical opens Thursday night and runs Friday and Sunday. For more photos from the show see Page 2A. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Cordes confirms 2nd bid for Addison-4 House seat Lincoln Democrat joining a crowded field By JOHN FLOWERS LINCOLN — Mari Cordes is hoping in November to reverse the order of results in her last race for Addison-4’s two seats in the Vermont House. In that 2016 election, the Lincoln Democrat finished a close
fourth among the four candidates competing for the right to represent Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton and Starksboro. It was Cordes’ first House run, and she’s using it as a learning experience to make her a more successful
candidate this time around. “I loved connecting with my neighbors and meeting new people,” Cordes, a longtime Registered Nurse, said of her initial foray into statewide politics. And she believes she’ll have to burn even more shoe leather this spring, summer and fall, canvassing homes
in all four Addison-4 communities, listening to constituent concerns and discussing ways to address those issues in Montpelier. She knows she’ll have to be on top of her game if she’s to win a seat in what promises to be a crowded field this fall. She’ll have to first run the gauntlet of a (See Cordes, Page 10A)