Monday, June 5, 2017

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MONDAY EDITION

ADDISON COUNTY

INDEPENDENT

Vol. 29 No. 8

Middlebury, Vermont

Monday, June 5, 2017

• The former president of the Dunmore Hose Co. is battling a dread disease, and the Brandon community helps. See Page 3.

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Middlebury’s Neila becomes Officer Austin’s new partner

Middlebury begins bridges project • Workers this week will start putting in two temporary bridges to kick off a four-year project. See Page 3.

Vt. Gas paying for killing flowers • Regulators fine Vermont Gas $25,000 after pipeline workers destroyed rare sunflowers in Monkton. See Page 25.

Playoffs heat up over weekend

•Among the many quarterfinals were games hosted by the No. 1 Tiger girls’ lacrosse and Eagle softball teams. See Pages 16-18. MIDDLEBURY POLICE OFFICER Bill Austin sits with his recently acquired 12-week-old Belgian Malinois dog Neila. Austin and Neila will be qualified to be patrol partners after completing a 16-week course at the State Police Academy this summer.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

• Red Hot Juba will bring its good-time music to Lincoln Peak Vineyard on Friday. See Arts Beat on Pages 10-13.

32 Pages

Police puppy ready to grow into patrol job

Firefighter fights cancer

Band belts out hip-shakin’ tunes

By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Police Department’s newest recruit isn’t striking fear in the hearts of would-be criminals — at least not yet. At 12 weeks old, weighing around 20 pounds and eager to give out kisses, Officer Neila is melting her share of hearts as she prepares to grow into the role of Middlebury PD’s new police dog. Toward the end of this year, she’ll be helping Middlebury “Right now, we’re police take a bite out of crime. At this point, the only thing starting she’s interested in biting is the with simple stuffed toy duck that she carries obedience around in her tiny chocolate and muzzle. “I’ve had to sew it up a few socialization” times already,” her handler and along team member, Officer Bill Austin, with potty said of his adorable sidekick’s training. favorite plaything. — Middlebury It was on Town Meeting Day Police Officer this past March that Middlebury Bill Austin voters agreed to spend $30,620 to re-establish a K-9 program for their local police department. This money helped pay for the purchase of Neila from some nationally renowned breeders of Belgian Malinois in the Boston area. The town resources will also help cover some of the significant, first-year expenses of the program. Austin and Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley expressed gratitude to local voters and to the many area businesses and individuals who have agreed to donate additional dollars for K-9 program necessities ranging from dog chow to a special, climate-controlled compartment in Austin’s cruiser in which Neila will ride. She and Austin in late July will begin a 16-week training course at the Vermont Police Academy. The duo will be drilled in a variety of tactics to ensure they (See Neila, Page 31)

Fans & folksingers rally to restore Utah’s caboose Benefit aims to aid a Monkton landmark By GAEN MURPHREE MONKTON — When Stephen Pilcher and wife Deb Gaynor bought their Monkton home 30-some years ago, they didn’t just buy a house and land, they bought a legend. From 1973 to 1982, the former dairy barn at 126 Covered Bridge Road was the recording studio and administrative headquarters for Philo Records, renowned in folk

circles as a label where musicians could make their own music, their own way, with their own integrity. Just across the lawn from the barn-turned-recording studioturned-home stood a distinct part of the Philo legend: Utah’s caboose. Itinerant singer-songwriter Bruce Duncan “Utah” Phillips recorded at Philo in the 1970s. He bought the (See Caboose, Page 32)

STEPHEN PILCHER, LEFT, and Rik Palieri stand in a caboose where legendary singer-songwriter Utah Phillips lived while he was cutting albums for Philo Records in the 1970s. Independent photo/Trent Campbell


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