Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016

Page 1

Tap your feet DaddyLongLegs spins out an exuberant mix of jazz, folk and blues on its new CD. See Arts+Leisure.

Holy days

Slow start

See our listing of the county’s special religious services for the holidays. Page 16A.

A young Panther men’s hockey team hit with injuries fell to 0-6 on Saturday. See Page 1B.

ADDISON COUNTY

Vol. 70 No. 49

INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont

Thursday, December 8, 2016  50 Pages

ANWSD teachers discuss new pact

Driver who killed biker sentenced to 7-16 years Family, friends crowd local courtroom By JOHN S. McCRIGHT the trial of George Dean Martin, who MIDDLEBURY — Twenty was convicted of capsizing his boat months ago mourners at the funeral on Lake Champlain while drunk, an of beloved local resident Kelly Boe incident that resulted in the deaths of filled the pews and spilled out of the two children. doors at St. Mary’s Church. Kelly Boe was 55 years old when On Monday locals packed the he died on April 14, 2015. He was house for Boe again. praised by those who This time it was at “Kelly Boe knew him — and the Addison County were many — as was selfless; there Courthouse, where a wonderful person, the man who was always husband, father, friend driving drunk when he interested and neighbor. He worked struck and killed Boe in everyone at Middlebury College was sentenced to a manger of the central else’s life and as substantial jail term. biomass heating plant. Judge Samuel Hoar wellbeing.” After work on that sent 29-year-old Nathan — Dan DaPolito Tuesday evening, he and C. Dearing to prison for wife Kathy were biking seven-and-a-half to 16 years. on Hamilton Road in Weybridge The courtroom gallery, which when a red 1997 Subaru Impreza seats 75, was full. Extra chairs were driven by Dearing crossed the center brought in to accommodate the line and hit Kelly Boe in plain view crowd. of his wife. Boe could not be revived “The only time I have seen that at the scene and was taken to Porter many people in the courtroom was Hospital, where he was pronounced in 2004,” Deputy State’s Attorney dead. Chris Perkett said. That was during (See Kelly Boe, Page 18A)

School board awaits union’s salary terms By JOHN FLOWERS VERGENNES — The Addison Northwest Teachers’ Association on Dec. 19 will present a salary counterproposal to Vergennes-area school officials in an ongoing effort to forge a new labor contract for district educators. It is the first negotiation since the five towns in the Addison Northwest school district voted last spring to consolidate governance and budgeting for the district’s four schools under the terms of Act 46. The teachers — who work at Vergennes Union High School, Vergennes Union Elementary School, and Addison and Ferrisburgh central schools — are in the final year of a three-year pact that expires on June 30. Negotiators confirmed they are currently talking about a new, oneyear deal that would span from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018. Both sides have thus far met three times in what has been a mainly public negotiation process. VUHS Guidance Counselor Susan Oliveira and VUES teacher Rose Wenzel are the lead negotiators for the Addison Northwest Teachers’ Association, known as the ANTA. “I think we have a long way to go,” Oliveira said of the gulf between the two sides’ contract aspirations. “But we’re moving ahead at a steady pace, which I am enthusiastic about.” “It’s been cordial,” Wenzel said of talks thus far. Mark Koenig is the leader of the Addison Northwest School District (ANWSD) board’s negotiating team. Based on interviews with Koenig, Oliveira and Wenzel — along with proposed contract terms and meeting minutes available for public viewing on anwsu.org — here is where (See Contracts, Page 17A)

BALD EAGLE

Checking her list

KAISA REMSEN, 4, of Shoreham goes through her Christmas wish list with Santa Claus at the Middlebury Community House Saturday morning. See more photos on Page 2A and 3A.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Bristol man delivers hurricane relief in Haiti By GAEN MURPHREE BRISTOL — Bristol resident Tyler Westbrook has just returned from two months in one of the most devastated places in the western hemisphere — Haiti. October’s Hurricane Matthew affected 2.1 million Haitians, leaving over 175,000 homeless and over 800,000 in need of food assistance,

$1.00

according to the United Nations. “I knew that I could help in some small way — not in a big way, but if you can help one family get through a disaster then that’s worth the trip,” said Westbrook, who first participated in Haitian disaster relief in the wake of the earthquake that devastated the struggling Caribbean island nation six years ago.

“The thing is that I know Haiti, I know how to operate in Haiti, and I speak Creole,” Westbrooke said. “So as soon as I knew it was going to hit Haiti, I started making plans to go.” In 2010, Westbrook set off from Vermont to Haiti, accompanying a contingent of Vermont nurses. He ended up staying nine months, learning the Haitian language,

A CREW OF local Haitian men hired by Bristol resident Tyler Westbrook begins to distribute packages of rice, beans and cooking oil out of the back of their truck to families affected by Hurricane Matthew. Westbrook and his crew delivered emergency food to 200 families and to a local orphanage. Photo courtesy of Tyler Westbrook

organizing and carrying out his own aid activities and creating a network of friends and associates. Fast forward to 2016: Westbrook got on a plane within a week of when Matthew struck Haiti. Before setting off, he had raised about $6,000 from Vermont, national and international donors. Westbrook used those funds to purchase packets of rice, beans and cooking oil for 200 families plus an entire orphanage full of children. He also used the money to build six houses and roof a seventh. Hiring a local crew to distribute food and hiring local builders to carry out the construction projects was important to Westbrook. But also key was paying above-rate wages and feeding those workers. Westbrook carried out his activities in the most close-to-the-bone way possible, renting his own truck “You can from which take a lot to distribute from them, food and living but not their as simply as dignity.” possible. — Tyler We s t b r o o k Westbrook worked in the vicinity of Les Cayes, a hard-hit region in southwest Haiti. He purposefully chose to work in rural areas because he felt those areas were a better fit for his smallscale operation. In addition to working closely with Haitians he’d met during his 2010 relief efforts, Westbrook partnered with a local university administrator in the area, who was able to help (See Haiti, Page 12A)

Photo by Mitch Moraski

Charismatic birds see record year for young County’s eagles, falcons, loons on the rise By GAEN MURPHREE ADDISON COUNTY — If you heard a loon’s wild cry, were lucky enough to spot one of Addison County’s three bald eagle nests or watched a peregrine falcon on the wing this past summer, you shared in the continued resurgence of three of the state’s most charismatic winged species.

Single budget presented for all schools in Middlebury area By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The Addison Central School District board on Monday began sailing into uncharted waters, launching what will be a month-long effort to devise a firstever, global spending plan for the district’s nine schools for fiscal year 2018. ACSD officials got a glimpse of their starting point: An estimate of $35,769,346 in spending to cover the combined needs of Middlebury Union middle and high schools, along with the elementary schools in Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge. Budget planners will get a more complete picture of the ACSD’s budget status after Dec. 15. That’s (See Budget, Page 14A)

Bald eagles, peregrine falcons and common loons — once endangered in the Green Mountain State — hatched chicks in record numbers in 2016, according to state wildlife experts. Bald eagles fledged 32 chicks statewide, nearly a 20 percent increase from the record 26 in (See Eagles, Page 20A)

By the way This Saturday brings the Middlebury College men’s hockey team’s annual “Skate With the Panthers” opportunity. After the Panthers’ 3 p.m. NESCAC game (See By the way, Page 17A)

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


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.