Organ man
Snake eyes
13-miler
Emory Fanning has been tickling the ivories for 50 years. Read his story in Arts + Leisure.
Biologists are asking people to help them track Vermont’s 11 species of snake. See Page 5B.
Lynch shrugged off the heat and the competition to win Sunday’s half marathon. See Page 1B.
ADDISON COUNTY
Vol. 71 No. 39
INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont
Thursday, September 28, 2017 40 Pages
$1.00
Middlebury officials weigh in on pot
Board backs modified VLCT position By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury selectboard on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a slightly modified version of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns’ (VLCT) current position
on legalizing marijuana, stating that cannabis should be OK’d for recreational use only after related “public safety, public health and local regulatory and budgetary concerns are adequately addressed.”
The board’s vote comes in wake of a recent townwide survey in which 71 percent of the 773 respondents said they believed Vermont should legalize recreational marijuana. But individual board members said the survey shouldn’t become their only compass in staking out a position
on the marijuana issue, citing their collective responsibility of ensuring public safety when it comes to a drug that can — just like alcohol — impair the judgment and reaction time of drivers. “I feel an obligation to make (See Middlebury, Page 12A)
THE VERGENNES WASTEWATER overflow problems center on the Macdonough Drive pump station, which can’t handle heavy rain or snow runoff events, and is forced to discharge untreated sewage into Otter Creek. City officials are taking steps to solve the problem. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Looking below at overflows
ETHAN SONNEBORN, A 13-year-old eighth-grader from Bristol, has declared his candidacy for Vermont governor. Sonneborn is one of three teenagers running for governorships across the United States.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Bristol teen speaks up for a generation By GAEN MURPHREE BRISTOL — In his run for governor of Vermont, candidate Ethan Sonneborn of Bristol is organized, and he’s serious. He’s also just 13 years old. “Yes I am running to win,” said Sonneborn, an eighth-grader at Mount Abraham Union High School. “We need to really show that young people inherit this planet and this country. And we need to advocate for it now, so that we can make sure that the world and country we get is not irreparably damaged. “I realize that sounds pessimistic, but frankly I have real concerns that that could
be true.” Sonneborn said when he meets potential voters, many tell him they hope he can inspire other young people to engage in the process. “That’s what I want to do. I want to get young people active in politics,” he said. “We need to fight for (the country) now so that it’s in at least a decent shape when we get it.” The drive to enter politics is “not my parents,” said Sonneborn. He said his mom, Jenna Sonneborn, runs the Junebug resale shop and nonprofit in Middlebury and his dad, Dan Sonneborn, is an IT consultant. The younger Sonneborn said he first became interested in
public service as a five-year-old when he read about Robert F. Kennedy in an encyclopedia of American history he found at a garage sale. “I became obsessed with RFK and decided I wanted to become a politician,” said Sonneborn, who said he especially admires the late RFK’s ability to build effective populist coalitions. What prompted his Aug. 17 declaration to run for governor, though, were mid-August events in Charlottesville, Va., when a protester against racism was killed, apparently by a white nationalist sympathizer. (See Sonneborn, Page 10A)
Board OKs new Tractor By the way Supply store Hard work and determination paid off for the 30 4-H dairy members chosen by University of Vermont Extension to represent Vermont in the dairy show at Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Mass. New Haven’s Karissa Livingston and Sarah Hill, along with Weybridge’s Matthew Ouellette, were among those earning top-five finishes in the dairy show. Hill and Ouellette finished first and second, respectively, for showmanship (See By the way, Page 11A)
Index Obituaries................................. 6A Classifieds........................ 6B-10B Service Directory............... 7B-8B Entertainment.........Arts + Leisure Community Calendar......... 8A-9A Arts Calendar.........Arts + Leisure Sports................................. 1B-4B
Stormwater infiltration plaguing city sewers; issue seen as complex
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series. By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — Vergennes wastewater treatment plant operator Rick Chaput said what he and his crew found under a Main Street manhole during a recent rainstorm typified how hard it is to solve the city’s problem of untreated wastewater, including human waste, overflowing into Otter Creek. That visit was part of just one Chaput’s department’s ongoing efforts to solve that issue, which centers on the Macdonough Drive wastewater pump station — and which city officials blame on too
much water getting into the system during heavy rains or major snow melts. On that day Chaput and company were inspecting a manhole that collects water just uphill from Otter Creek, and from which stormwater and wastewater flows to the pump station just north on Macdonough Drive. They found five pipes flooding that single manhole, and three in particular that Chaput said were “really ripping.” Those pipes, he said, had in turn collected both wastewater from both private sewer lines and city mains — some of which are clay and between 60 and (See Vergennes, Page 12A)
Some merchants angry about decision
By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Development Review Board on Monday gave its unanimous approval to a 19,113-square-foot Tractor Supply retail store off Foote Street, to be sited on a 6.5-acre parcel located behind the A&W Restaurant. The plan must now win an Act 250 permit in order to proceed to construction, which could happen as soon as next spring for a store opening by September or October 2018. Monday’s approval was hailed by representatives of the 1,600-store company, but lamented by the owners and employees of smaller local enterprises with which Tractor Supply figures to compete. “We are very pleased the DRB unanimously approved this project,” said Frank Alexander Jr., project director for Primax Properties LLC, the North Carolina-based company seeking to construct the new building and lease it to Tractor Supply. “We’ve been working with the town over the (See Tractor Supply, Page 10A)
Victory dance
LAUREN MANDIGO, DAUGHTER of Middlebury College football’s defensive coordinator Doug Mandigo, dances past the Wesleyan football team after the Panthers beat the Cardinals, 30-27, on Youngman Field on Sept. 16. Photo by Steve James