Thursday, April 13, 2017

Page 1

Spring sports

Arts + Leisure

Gauntlet

Our special section inside offers a comprehensive look at spring athletics at local high schools.

A Vt. Choral Union concert at Middlebury College will include a grad’s piece. See Arts+Leisure.

Kayakers challenged a difficult whitewater course at the New Haven Ledges. See Page 1B.

ADDISON COUNTY

Vol. 71 No. 15

INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont

Thursday, April 13, 2017  52 Pages

Lake cleanup to result in tax increases By JOHN FLOWERS WEYBRIDGE — Addison County lawmakers on Monday converged on the Weybridge Congregational Church to continue a debate that has been reverberating in the Statehouse: How to pay the state’s share of the estimated $2.3 billion cost of cleaning up Lake Champlain and its tributaries. The discussion centered on Act 64, aka the Clean Water Act, a massive cleanup effort that involves

municipal sewer plants, farmers, and the many impermeable surfaces — including roads and parking lots — over which water can travel on its way to the lake. Vermont Treasurer Beth Pearce has estimated the state will need to come up with $25 million annually during the next 20 years to pay its share. She suggested this money be raised in part through a per-parcel fee assessed to property owners, which could be based on the amount

of impermeable surface on their land. The Legislature, meanwhile, has been considering a variety of other potential revenue sources — including a tax on coffee, or a bump in the rooms and meals tax — amid concerns the state’s share of the cleanup could rise if federal assistance is cut back. Gov. Phil Scott has already voiced concerns about state government instituting any new taxes this year. Rep. Fred Baser, R-Bristol, is a

member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which drafts tax policy for the state. At Monday’s breakfast he said roughly $1 billion in various revenue sources have already been set aside for lake cleanup. He believes state officials will be able to give Vermonters a clearer picture on cleanup funding within the next nine months. “We are still quite short,” Baser said of Act 64 financing. “I think it (See Legislators, Page 11A)

Sugaring comes to a sweet conclusion

By EMMA COTTON ADDISON COUNTY — With a bout of summer-like weather early this week following a long, cold spring, Addison County’s sugarmakers are shutting down their evaporators and plucking taps from their budding maple trees. “Overall, it was a very good

year,” said Donna Hutchinson, co-owner of Mount Pleasant Sugarworks in Leicester. “It started early — for those who were prepared, they had a great time. For those of us who tapped normally, we missed a few runs.” Local sugarmakers generally were pleased with their season, (See Sugaring, Page 12A)

Districts, teachers hit contract impasses

Natural gas now flowing to Middlebury By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Gas on Wednesday, April 12, officially turned on the spigot to its 41mile Addison Natural Gas Project pipeline, sending its product to an initial four corporate users in Middlebury’s Industrial Park. The launch comes after more than six years of planning, protests and a still-pending case before the Vermont Supreme Court through which the plaintiffs are challenging the legality of Vermont Gas’s move to bury its pipeline under Hinesburg’s Geprags Park. Vermont Gas CEO Don Rendall said during a Wednesday phone interview his South Burlington company is anxiously awaiting a court decision but is now turning its attention to building distribution lines in Vergennes to begin natural gas service to Little City residents and businesses by the end of this year. “This is great news for the thousands of families and businesses who have waited patiently for the choice and opportunity of affordable natural gas service,” Rendall said of the pipeline activation, in a press release. “We are so pleased to offer service to our new customers. This has been an incredibly challenging (See Pipeline, Page 11A)

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Addison NW, Rutland NE talks break down

The women of spring

MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE SOFTBALL players gather together and cheer on teammate Erin Giles as she approaches home plate after hitting a grand slam homerun during Tuesday’s game against St. Joseph’s. Middlebury won the game, 22-2.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

By JOHN S. McCRIGHT and LEE J. KAHRS VERGENNES / BRANDON — School boards and teachers unions in two more local districts have declared impasse in their negotiations over teacher contracts. Negotiators in the Addison Northwest district in the Vergennes area and in the Rutland Northeast district in the Brandon area are both seeking the aid of third-party mediators to help them get over the hump in discussions to replace contracts that end July 1. RNeSU declared an impasse last week, Addison Northwest School District this Monday. The RNeSU board’s negotiating team is hoping that a mediator can be selected and approved by both sides in time to meet with the parties for a scheduled April 27 negotiating session. “If the parties are unable to resolve disputed issues through mediation, they will select a neutral fact finder to conduct a fact finding (See Contracts, Page 7A)

Teens, Bristol police team up to tackle sexting Young offenders fail to understand consequences

By GAEN MURPHREE BRISTOL — The Bristol Police Department has reached out to some of the county’s top experts on teen behaviors to create an outreach program to counter sexting — the practice of texting naked photos. The experts are teens themselves. A cadre of students from the Vermont Teen Leadership Safety Program (VTLSP) at Mount Abraham Union High School is working with the Bristol Police Officer Joshua Otey to create a short public service

announcement that could be posted on YouTube, shown in a PSA spot on the local TV news, run before a movie at local cinemas, or circulated in other venues. Otey said he turned to the VTLSP student group after witnessing an increase countywide in cases involving sexting, especially those in which the photo ended up far from the original sender and recipient. “Over the last six to eight months, I’ve noticed a big influx of cases that started with a kid-to-kid sexting

“We’ve had some cases locally where a local high-school-age girl’s picture ended up half way across the country.”

— Police Officer Joshua Otey

conversation, but eventually those pictures end up in other places,” said Otey, who’s part of an affiliate of Vermont’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. “So it’s

basically the manufacturing of child pornography between kids, but then that picture doesn’t just live with the one recipient. It gets sent to friends, and then it gets posted on the Internet, and then it can be downloaded by other people, including offenders throughout the country. “We’ve had some cases locally where a local high-school-age girl’s picture ended up half way across the country.” What most kids don’t understand, said Otey, is that just sending a naked picture of yourself to another teen is illegal (see story on this page). “The consequences of sexting are much greater than both children and adults realize,” said MAUHS junior Lexi Chickanosky, a VTLSP

member. “Once images are sent not only can/will your school, teachers and community see them, but also the nation. There are many sites now that allow for pictures to be uploaded anonymously and shared all over the country. Knowing the consequences would make fewer pictures be sent. Education is key.” Sharon Koller, VTLSP sponsor at Mount Abe and Student Awareness Program counselor, said that cell phones and computers play a huge role in how students these days communicate. “I do think there’s a lack of awareness about how risky it is to send something personal, whether it’s a statement or a photo (See Sexting, Page 14A)

By the way The Middlebury Highway Department will be burning the midnight oil between April 13 and 21. This Thursday night town workers will be washing stairways, ramps, crosswalks and bridge bump-outs in town parking lots. They are asking residents not to park overnight in downtown municipal lots or the Mary Hogan School or Memorial Sports Center lots. During the week of April 17 to 21 annual street sweeping will be performed, assuming this spring’s weather finally cooperates, and residents are encouraged not to park overnight on town streets. A complete list of affected streets is available at the town website under “Town of Middlebury Night Work” under the More News link at the town website (www.townofmiddlebury.org). (See By the way, Page 14A)

Index Obituaries................................. 6A Classifieds.......................... 5B-8B Service Directory............... 6B-7B Entertainment.........Arts + Leisure Community Calendar......... 8A-9A Arts Calendar.........Arts + Leisure Sports................................. 1B-3B

Mountain views

CONSTRUCTION IS NEARING completion of the Bristol Village Co-housing project on North Street. Eight of the project’s 14 units are spoken, for and tenants will be moving in this in June. For a full story see Page 2A. Independent photo/Trent Campbell


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Thursday, April 13, 2017 by AddisonPress - Issuu