Monday, May 8, 2017

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MONDAY EDITION

ADDISON COUNTY

INDEPENDENT

Vol. 29 No. 4

Middlebury, Vermont

Monday, May 8, 2017

40 Pages

$1.00

Effort to rein in river gains Tracking Midd bridges steam in East • Ahead of Thursday’s public Middlebury hearing, a two-page spread examines how the RR project evolved. See Pages 28-29.

Building a new business plan

• Some former Connor Homes workers have found a new home at a design and building firm they have started. See Page 2.

Edgewater shows local paintings • An exhibit of work by Middlebury’s Kate Gridley opens this week. See Arts Beat on Page 10.

By JOHN FLOWERS EAST MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury residents next year will likely be asked to support a bond issue of around $2 million to finance a project aimed at preventing future flooding of the Middlebury River in East Middlebury. It’s called the “East Middlebury Flood Resiliency Project,” an effort of more than three years to design, and obtain funding for, a series of construction projects designed to keep the river within its banks. “If we can give the river the room it needs to dissipate its energy before it gets into the heart of the village, the chances of having those catastrophic failures is significantly less,” said Amy Sheldon, a natural resource planner and river scientist based in East Middlebury. Sheldon, who is also one of Middlebury’s representatives in the Vermont House, is leading the town’s flood resiliency efforts. Residents living along Route 125 in Ripton and East Middlebury have contended with flooding a couple of times during the past decade in the aftermath of major storms, such as (See River, Page 25)

COUSINS NIKITA SALMON, left, and Chas Smith produce SAP!, maple sap and birch sap beverages, using the Woodchuck Hard Cider facility in Middlebury. The company, first launched in 2015, sources all its birch sap and most of its maple sap in Addison County. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Tapping trees for a new brew Middlebury-based SAP! makes maple drinkable

By GAEN MURPHREE ADDISON COUNTY — Cousins Chas Smith and Nikita Salmon, both 28, are bottling seltzer and soda with a unique Vermont twist. Their beverages, produced out of the Woodchuck

production facility on Exchange Street in Middlebury, are made with pure, sweet maple and birch sap — most of it tapped right here in Addison County. “We saw an opportunity collectively to hopefully (See SAP!, Page 39)

Eye for art comes from Big Apple to Little City Proprietor of Rochester gallery brings fine artwork exhibition space to Main St. in Vergennes

Teams have slate of rivalry games

• VUHS baseball and softball visited Mount Abe, and Tiger girls’ lax hosted longtime foe South Burlington. See Page 22. ANNI MACKAY, OWNER of BigTown Gallery in Rochester since 2003, is opening a new BigTown Gallery in Vergennes. The new gallery is in the Main Street storefront previously occupied by artist Peter Fried.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — Anni Mackay, who has shown and sold high-end art at her BigTown Gallery in Rochester for more than a decade, has roots in the art world of the Big Apple. Now she has brought those skills and that history to the Little City. She recently opened BigTown Gallery Vergennes at 245 Main St., next to Vergennes Laundry, and will hold an official grand opening this Saturday, May 13, 3-6 p.m. Mackay has promoted art, artists and community in Rochester, and successfully run BigTown Gallery there since 2003. When the the spot in Vergennes opened up, it caught her eye. The Main Street storefront had been occupied until recently by painter Peter Fried, some of whose work now hangs in BigTown Vergennes. But he emailed his friends in the art world that he wanted to give up the place. Given the nature of the artwork that her clients come from as far away as Montreal and northern New York, as well as Burlington, to see, Mackay was intrigued by (See Gallery, Page 18)


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Monday, May 8, 2017 by AddisonPress - Issuu