Coming home
Weddings
Court stars A Tiger again leads the Addison Independent Girls’ Basketball AllStar Team. See Sports, Page 1B.
Singing is more than a pasttime for Moira Smiley. Before hearing her this weekend, read Arts+Leisure.
One local bride tells how she kept it low-key during wedding planning. See our special section.
ADDISON COUNTY
Vol. 71 No. 13
INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont
Thursday, March 30, 2017 52 Pages
Temporary spans set for downtown Middlebury in June
Marijuana bill still alive in Vt. House Lawmakers weigh in on legalization effort
By JOHN FLOWERS SALISBURY — Vermont House members this week continued to debate H.170, which would allow Vermonters to legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana and up to two mature plants. The handful of local lawmakers who turned out at Monday’s legislative breakfast in Salisbury gave a sense of where they stood on the issue. The state Senate passed a marijuana legalization bill last year, but the initiative didn’t make it through the House. Last week the House AYER Judiciary Committee sent the bill to the House floor, but, lacking enough support to pass, on Tuesday it was sent to the House Human Services Committee for its review. It is unclear if the full House will vote on the bill this year. Nevertheless, local lawmakers are giving it their consideration. “I plan to vote in favor of this,” said Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall. “As our surrounding states move to legalization, we probably need to have a plan in place.” Conlon said an estimated 100,000 Vermonters use recreational marijuana, and he believes H.170 “will reduce the conflict between law enforcement and citizens,” and “free up police to work on more serious and important matters.” (See Marijuana, Page 14A)
VTrans to perform rail bridges work By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The longawaited, $52 million effort to replace Middlebury’s two downtown rail bridges is not expected to begin until early next year, but area residents this June will get a sneak preview of the major work to come. That’s when the Vermont Agency of Transportation will take out the deteriorating Merchants Row and Main Street spans and replace them with temporary bridges. Vermont Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn on Monday issued an emergency order authorizing the VTrans to install the two temporary bridges in light of “evidence of accelerated deterioration” in the two spans, which date back to around 1920. “We have been monitoring these bridges closely,” Flynn said through a press release. “In view of the current project timeline and the rapidly evolving state of the structures, we feel it is prudent to install temporary bridges this summer, before we are
forced into a situation requiring an emergency closure. This declaration allows VTrans to prioritize our resources and accelerate the design to rapidly install these bridges.” Wayne Symonds, structures program manager for VTrans, gave the Middlebury selectboard some details on Tuesday evening about the design of the temporary bridges and a tentative timetable for their installation. He said his agency will accept input from Middlebury officials and residents prior to putting the temporary spans in place. It’s an undertaking that could save some time during the $52 million project to come, but Symonds said the temporary spans could cost the downtown more than 20 parking spaces while they are in place. “Getting these temporary bridges in as soon as possible is my primary goal,” Symonds told the selectboard. Symonds described the temporary crossings as being “lightweight steel truss modular bridges” that will have (See Bridges, Page 12A)
Khan tops the field in race for selectboard Feel the beat
RIPTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL first-grader Teagan Flinner, foreground, Hayden Dunakin, middle, and Mary Claire Landwehr, back, practice drumming during a Taiko drumming workshop at the school Tuesday afternoon. The entire school worked with a drummer from the Burlington Taiko Group over the past several days and staged a performance Wednesday night. See more photos on Page 2A. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Old motel sized up for new recovery center By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The Turning Point Center of Addison County is considering the purchase of the Greystone Motel on Route 7 South in Middlebury for use as a potential recovery facility and detox center for people battling substance abuse. Bill Brim, executive director of the Turning Point Center, or TPC, shared
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his organization’s preliminary plans for the property during an interview on Tuesday with the Independent and in a brief presentation to the Middlebury selectboard that evening. “I’m on a fact finding mission to see what the town wants to do about this,” Brim said of the potential acquisition of the Greystone Motel and how it could provide stays of
up to six months, and a variety of support services, for people trying to rebuild their lives as they recover from addiction. “I would like for this to be a community project.” The non-profit TPC is a member of the Vermont Recovery Network. It offers peer-to-peer support to people in recovery, or those
seeking recovery, from addictive substances and behaviors. Based at 54 Creek Road, the organization also dispenses Narcan emergency kits to people in an effort to prevent fatal opioid overdoses and offers visitors a safe, drug-free place to gather and associate. Turning Point officials have (See Recovery, Page 13A)
By JOHN FLOWERS choice of his new selectboard MIDDLEBURY — When Farhad colleagues, Tuesday’s appointment Khan emigrated from his native process was not without drama. India to the United States in 1991, he Middlebury selectboard Chairman had dreams of becoming a successful Brian Carpenter announced at the entrepreneur and one day outset that the board — starting a family. per the Vermont League On Tuesday evening, of Cities and Towns’ with his wife looking on, interpretation of the Khan took the oath of state’s Open Meeting office as a new selectman Law — could not in Middlebury, where he conduct a secret ballot owns and operates the vote on the candidates: One Dollar Market. former Selectmen Gary “I never, in my wildest Baker and Travis Forbes; dreams, expected this Jennifer Molineaux, kind of support from the director of finance for community,” Khan said the Addison County on Wednesday morning. Economic Development KHAN “I’m excited to be a Corporation; and Khan. part of this important board.” Because the board had on March Khan emerged as the top choice 21 interviewed the candidates, among four citizens vying to replace selectboard members on Tuesday former Middlebury Selectwoman quickly declared their preferences. Donna Donahue, who resigned Selectmen Victor Nuovo, Nick earlier this month. Artim and Carpenter initially voted While he ended up the unanimous (See Khan, Page 12A)
Free books for children build brains and spur achievement Program marks 10 years in Addison County
By the way The Bristol School Board on Tuesday chose two Bristol residents to serve on the fivemember elementary school board. Ryan Rossier and Ali Gibson were appointed to fill two recent vacancies on the board (See By the way, Page 14A)
Index Obituaries........................... 6A-7A Classifieds.......................... 4B-7B Service Directory............... 5B-6B Entertainment.........Arts + Leisure Community Calendar......... 8A-9A Arts Calendar.........Arts + Leisure Sports................................. 1B-3B
By GAEN MURPHREE Like more than 1,000 other kids ADDISON COUNTY — It’s throughout Addison County, Jensen Tuesday morning at the Lawrence is enrolled in the Dolly Parton Memorial Library and Jensen Ringey Imagination Library. Each month a is enjoying a good book the best book comes in the mail with his name way he knows how. on it, no charge and no The 13-month-old is strings attached. The sitting on his dad’s lap, “There is program serves kids enjoying the story his research, from birth to five. The only dad, Jameson, is reading data collected requirements: live in out loud. Addison County and in the U.S. and A little later, Jensen internationally, sign up. strikes out on his own, Dolly Parton launched gleefully turns some that indicates the Imagination Library pages and gently gnaws that children in 1996, in part as a a corner. He looks up who have had tribute to her beloved and beams, as only experiences with “daddy,” Robert a 13-month-old can. books at home Lee Parton, a hardThere’s nothing like a farmer and start school with working good book! construction worker “He’s definitely an advantage.” who never learned to — Mary Dodge read but who believed eating them,” said his mom, Jessie Ringey, 24, in her big dreams. The about Jensen’s early explorations of program initially served just Sevier the power of reading. “And now that County, where Parton grew up in he’s turned one, he’s turning the pages eastern Tennessee. It became available and letting me get all the way through nationwide in 2000 and today serves a book without him moving on to over 1 million kids in the United something else.” States.
In Addison County, the program is about to clock its first decade. In April 2007, Middlebury’s Ilsley Public Library began offering Parton’s tot-sized free book-of-the-month club to its youngest patrons — the first such offering in the state of Vermont. When Bridport resident Dinah Bain heard about Ilsley’s new program, she thought it was so important it should be expanded to serve all the county’s children. Bain got to work finding likeminded individuals and the organization Addison County Readers was born. Ten years later, the allvolunteer group is still going strong, putting Imagination Library books into the region’s littlest hands. Retired Ilsley children’s librarian Carol Chatfield remembers that when she first offered the program about 50 families signed up. Addison County Readers was organized and
operational by end of summer that same year and by January 2008, Bain said, the group had 451 children registered countywide. (See Books, Page 14A)
JENSEN RINGEY OF Bristol looks through the classic children’s book “Goodnight Moon” while sitting in the Lawrence Memorial Library in Bristol Monday morning. The Ringey family participates in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program. Independent photo/Trent Campbell