April 25, 2016

Page 1

MONDAY EDITION

ADDISON COUNTY

INDEPENDENT

Vol. 28 No. 3

AIDS Quilt is on display • Middlebury College uses iconic memorial to explore how we construct public memories. See Page 2.

Writing teacher turns to poetry

Middlebury, Vermont

Monday, April 25, 2016

Bank teller, city police help feds track down a criminal By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — It was just a routine call to Vergennes police on a Monday morning, in this case Nov. 30, 2015, made by an employee of the Monkton Road branch of Merchants Bank — there were suspicious people outside the bank in a car. But because that call was made and because police followed up, 10 days later U.S. marshals arrested a New Jersey man, Arun Aftab, 33, on a federal felony weapons charge. Federal authorities found firearms and large

knives in Aftab’s home and, when they arrested him in a car in which he was about to flee, Aftab also had “several identification cards and paperwork” and $35,000 in cash, according to Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel. Merkel said this case illustrates how the law enforcement system is supposed to function, with cooperation at all levels from the tipster to local police on up to federal authorities. It was Merkel who took that call and started the investigation on that Monday morning (See City police, Page 22)

36 Pages

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Local lawmakers, UVM alumni talk fraternities tax By JOHN FLOWERS VERGENNES — Loud calls to reverse a legislative decision to subject fraternities and sororities to the property tax is raging in Burlington but reverberating in Addison County, where several prominent University of Vermont alumni reside. At issue is a decision by the 2014 Legislature to lift the property tax exemption on fraternities and sororities in Vermont, beginning Jan. 1 of next year. It is a move that some fraternity representatives said would result in the closing and sale of some buildings (See Tax, Page 34)

• Charles Sabukewicz taught students about good writing for years; now he’s got a new book for them to read. Page 3.

LCMM gets new shipwreck records • Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is working on a new exhibit around the collection of an expert nautical archaeologist. See Page 14.

WEYBRIDGE DAIRY FARMER Nate Miller stands with some calves in his Weybridge barn. Like other farmers in Addison County and Vermont Miller has scaled back his participation in the Federal Margin Protection Program because it hasn’t paid off like it has for farmers in other parts of the country. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Mount Abraham softball routs Rice • The Eagles improved to 2-0 and padded their stats with a big win. See Sports, Page 18.

Vt. farmers unhappy with dairy insurance By GAEN MURPHREE ADDISON COUNTY — For Weybridge dairy farmer Nate Miller, a federal program that provides insurance against wide swings in milk prices hasn’t made much of a difference to his farming operation — other than the money he’s laid out annually for premiums and administrative fees.

Miller’s operation is on the smaller end of the scale in Addison County with a total of 54 cows and milking around 30. But the story is the same for Bob Foster of Foster Brothers Farm in Middlebury, which milks around 432 cows and has a total herd of over 500. “It’s strictly an expense. That’s the way we look at it,” said Foster.

“The program just hasn’t worked out the way we thought it would.” Part of the 2014 Farm Bill, the federal Margin Protection Program is intended to protect dairy farmers from fluctuations in the price of milk and in the cost of feed by providing insurance against low “dairy margins.” The margin is calculated as the difference between the price

of milk and the cost of feed, according to a complex federal formula. The higher the margin, the further milk prices are staying ahead of the cost of production. The lower the margin, the closer farmers get to a year with low to no profits and more hard times. For an annual administrative (See Dairy insurance, Page 16)


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