March 3 2016 a section

Senate run

Workshop

Carnival time

Addison Republican Peter Briggs will vie for one of the county’s two state Senate seats. See Page 3A.

A best-selling graphic novelist will share her insights at three local libraries. See Page 10B.

Middlebury skiers won twice on their home turf, and Tiger boys’ hockey played. See Page 1B.

ADDISON COUNTY

INDEPENDENT Vol. 70 No. 9

Middlebury, Vermont

◆

Thursday, March 3, 2016 ◆ 34 Pages

75¢

Two county school districts go big for mergers All seven ACSU towns back unification By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Addison Central Supervisory Union voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly endorsed a proposal to form a unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) that will govern all public schools in the seven towns and place them under a single education budget. Voters in Bridport, Cornwall, Mid-

County endorses Sanders, Kasich By JOHN FLOWERS ADDISON COUNTY — Addison County residents resoundingly picked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary for president, and narrowly selected Ohio Gov. John Kasich over New York businessman Donald Trump in the Republican Primary. Results collected from Addison County polling places showed Kasich came out on top with 1,144 votes, compared to 1,103 for Trump. Trump visited Burlington earlier this winter, while Kasich came to the Green Mountain State just before Tuesday’s elections. Trump finished on top in 13 of Addison County’s 23 communities, but Kasich took the overall win due mainly to his 209 to 88 edge in Middlebury. Marco Rubio finished third among Republicans in Addison County, with 751 votes, followed (See County, Page 20A)

dlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge also elected the 13-member ACSD board that will officially assume full oversight of the district on July 1, 2017. The existing nine school boards within Addison Central will continue to function, while ceding various responsibilities to the ACSD board during the transition to unified governance.

“I am completely thrilled,” said Ruth Hardy, co-chairwoman of the Addison Central Supervisory Union Charter Committee that laid the groundwork for Tuesday’s vote. “I couldn’t be happier about it.” Hardy noted ACSU has spent the past 53 years looking at ways of streamlining its governance struc(See ACSU, Page 10A)

Index Obituaries ................................ 6A Classifieds ......................... 5B-9B Service Directory .............. 6B-7B Entertainment ........................ 21A Community Calendar ........ 8A-9A Sports ................................ 1B-4B

District (ANwUD) and a 12-member board will operate it, with four members each from Vergennes and Ferrisburgh, two from Addison, and one each from Panton and Waltham. That board will operate the four district schools under one budget. Those board members were chosen in uncontested races on Tuesday. Existing boards will operate

for a year during a transition phase until the new Unified District Board takes over in July 2017 after a year of planning. The new ANwUD will at that point assume ownership of the four district schools and their contents and operate them under one contract with its teachers. Each school within the uni(See Vergennes, Page 10A)

VUHS plan gets nod in big turnout in ANwSU Margin is 125 votes among 2,845 cast

Town meeting 2016 BRIDPORT TOWN MODERATOR Tim Howlett, above, stands with members of the town’s selectboard and presides over town meeting Tuesday. Orwell resident Paul Stone, below right, makes himself heard at Orwell’s meeting Tuesday morning, and Ross Conrad, below left, stands at a microphone to ask a question at Monday night’s annual meeting in Middlebury. Read results from your town, Pages 12A-18A. Independent photos/Trent Campbell

By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — Addison Northwest Supervisory Union voters on Tuesday gave a $10,026,000 Vergennes Union High School budget proposal a narrow victory, 1,4951,370. The budget calls for a 2.23 percent cut from current spending. In percentage terms, the margin translates to a 52-48 percent decision in strong turnout in the five ANwSU communities. The presidential primary and the ANwSU unification vote (the measure passed; see story, above) helped bring voters to polling places, which exceeded 50 percent turnout in several towns. In a separate article, ANwSU residents voted 1,781-1,031, or 63-37 percent, to place $100,000 in a capital fund to help take care of longterm VUHS building improvement (See VUHS, Page 20A)

Bristol residents weigh in on fate of historic firehouse By GAEN MURPHREE BRISTOL — A highlight of Monday night’s Bristol town meeting was the extended discussion about how or if the selectboard should proceed with selling the old Bristol Fire Department building on North Street. Should the town save the beautiful old structure, and could residents afford the cost of restoring the centuryold building? Bristol had been discussing what to do with the circa 1900 relic on North Street for more than a decade when last July voters approved a $3.19 million bond to build the new (See Firehouse, Page 3A)

By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury residents on Town Meeting Day made resident Heather Seeley the top vote-getter in a five-way race for three seats on their selectboard. They also overwhelmingly agreed to participate in a new, unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) that will include all of the schools in the current Addison Central Supervisory Union. Seeley garnered 1,234 tallies to win her three-year term. Also making the cut were former selectman (See Race, Page 22A)

The clock is ticking on the old town offices in Middlebury. The old municipal gym, which hosted its last town meeting this past (See By the way, Page 3A)

By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — Residents in each of the five communities that make up Addison Northwest Supervisory Union on Tuesday approved by wide margins the plan to unify the district under the governance of one board, effective July 1, 2017. As of that date, ANwSU will become the Addison Northwest Unified

Town-by-town meeting reports

Seeley, Nuovo and Artim win seats on Middlebury board

By the way

Vergennes area supports one-board plan

Despite mild winter, ski area hosts succesful carnival By EVAN JOHNSON forcing organizers of some Nordic RIPTON — With two inches races to reschedule or relocate their of rain forecast late last week and events to snowier locations. rapid swings in temperatures, Mike The carnival — with Nordic racHussey faced a challenge getting the es at Rikert and alpine races up the cross-country ski racing course at the mountain at the Middlebury College Rikert Nordic Center in Snow Bowl in Hancock Ripton ready to go for “It’s hard to do — attracted racers from the Middlebury College anything with 15 member schools Winter Carnival. Unfor- the snow while from the Eastern Intertunately, such challengcollegiate Ski Associait’s raining.” ing conditions for ski tion, and there was snow — Rikert Center — plenty at the Bowl, areas have been almost Director just enough at Rikert. the norm this winter. Mike Hussey “It’s hard to do anyDespite the weather, thing with the snow Hussey and his crew had while it’s raining,” said Hussey, the Rikert’s 5K race course ready when director of Rikert, said on Middle- teams arrived on Friday (Nordic racbury College’s Bread Loaf campus ing was pushed back to Saturday and in Ripton. Sunday). Conditions were decidThe notable lack of snow this edly artificial. Hussey described the winter has tested the patience of ski- conditions as “99-percent manmade ers and snowboard riders, delaying snow with two inches of help from openings at alpine ski resorts and (See Season, Page 19A)

MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE FRESHMAN Sam Wood glides by the Rikert Nordic Center building during Sunday’s Winter Carnival. The center counted on snow-making machinery, as well as a little recent snowfall, to ensure the 5K trail was well covered. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

PAGE 2A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

What’s inside THE NEW MIDDLEBURY town offices are nearing completion and the town staff is scheduled to move in late March/early April. Demolition of the old town office building and gym will take place in June. An open house at the town office will take place in April. Independent photos/ Trent Campbell

School budgets OK’d in unified RNeSU districts By LEE J. KAHRS BRANDON — Voters in the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union overwhelmingly approved budgets on Tuesday for the new Otter Valley Unified Union School District and Barstow Unified Union School District formed under the state’s Act 46 school consolidation law. The state’s only side-by-side school district is now fully funded and among the first consolidated districts to be formed under the law, which passed last year. The OVUU spending plan of $22,604,806 passed by a vote of

1,920-846 by residents in Brandon, Pittsford, Goshen, Leicester, Whiting and Sudbury. Voters in Chittenden and Mendon easily passed the Barstow Unified Union budget, 679-179. The members of boards for each district were selected in a special election in January, when voters in all eight towns approved the formation of the side-by-side district. Rutland Northeast Superintendent Jeanne Collins, who shepherded the move toward consolidation over the last six months, said she was thrilled with vote

results Tuesday night. “It’s a very exciting night,” she said. “Phenomenal support on both the unified school district and the unified budget means we are ready to move forward as a unified community to support all of the children and Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union. I am deeply grateful to the eight towns for their strong support.” Now that each district has an approved budget, work will begin with an eye toward July 1, when the new districts and boards will be officially certified by Vermont Education Commissioner Rebec-

ca Holcombe. In the meantime, the district boards will elect a moderator, a treasurer and a clerk. The boards will then be sworn in by their town clerks and have their first reorganizational meeting and elect a board chair and board clerk. They will establish a meeting schedule and adopt a newspaper of record where district public notices and warnings will appear. After July 1, all new accounts will be created and the district treasurer and the new school districts will start dispersing education funds.

Bathroom fan is suspected origin of fire at Weybridge Street home MIDDLEBURY — Around 30 firefighters from three area departments battled a Saturday, Feb. 27, blaze at a Weybridge Street home that claimed the lives of three dogs and caused significant damage within the residence. Middlebury Fire Chief Dave Shaw said his department was informed that smoke was coming from the home at 141 Weybridge St. at around 3:30 a.m. Firefighters from Middlebury, Weybridge and Cornwall responded to the fire, which resident Faith Lowell initially believed to have started in the chimney, according to Shaw. The fire is believed to have started in a bathroom, possibly from a fan,

Shaw said. Responding firefighters immediately saw flames near the peak of the home’s roof. They made their way inside and were met with heavy smoke in the living room, Shaw said. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the living room, bathroom and a bedroom, according to Shaw. Tragically, Lowell’s three dogs perished in the fire, although no people were hurt. Fortunately, Lowell had been sleeping in another area of the house, Shaw said. Fire officials believe the home is salvageable. Shaw said Lowell has been able to stay with friends and neighbors while the damage is sorted out.

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 3A

Briggs launches state Senate bid Addison farmer to run as Republican By JOHN FLOWERS ADDISON — Peter Briggs is used to doing a lot of chores on his family’s farm in Addison, from milking to tilling. His to-do list just got a lot longer. Briggs, 25, confirmed this week that he will be a Republican candidate for one of the two seats in the Vermont Senate representing Addison County, Huntington and Buel’s Gore. That will mean a lot of door-to-door and public appearances throughout the spring and summer in a race that could include the two established incumbents: Democratic Sens. Claire Ayer of Addison and Chris Bray of New Haven. “I thought this would be a good opportunity to offer people a change,” Briggs, vice chairman of the Addison selectboard, said of his decision. In answer to a reporter’s question, Ayer and Bray both stated that, as of now, they plan on running for re-election this November. Briggs already has experience as a canPETER didate for the Legislature. In November of 2014, he fell less than 100 votes shy of winning one of Addison-3’s two seats in the Vermont House. Incumbent Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, was the top votegetter with 1,409 tallies, followed by incumbent Rep. Warren Van Wyck, R-Ferrisburgh, with 1,305. Briggs finished a close third, with 1,218 votes, followed by Addison Democrat John Spencer, with 1,166. He considered running for the House again this year, and believes he would be favored to win a seat. But Briggs decided to dial his political aspirations up a notch. He believes Addison County Democrats need some competition for state Senate. “For two election cycles, there hasn’t been any competition on the ballot,” he said of the lack of a local GOP candidate for the county’s two Senate seats in both 2012 and 2014. “I think it’s a good opportunity to offer the people of Addison County a change. I am young and ambitious, so I always like to reach for an opportunity to go higher. Nobody else was going to do it, and I am somebody who likes to get out and lead. “Sometimes I really like to do what nobody else is willing to do,” he added. Briggs cited school choice, health care reform and economic development as his main campaign priorities. He was candid in his criticism of Act 46, a new law that allows school districts to merge their governance into a unified board overseeing a single budget for all the schools in that union. Locally, the Addison Central and Addison Northwest supervisory unions both voted on unification and on the

formation of unified boards (see stories, Page 1A). Briggs’ hometown of Addison is part of the ANwSU. Unification through Act 46, Briggs contends, would eliminate school choice opportunities for some districts in Vermont. For example, Westford and Elmore are examples of two Vermont communities that no longer have access to school choice as a result of merging with non-school choice towns through Act 46, opponents of the new law note. “It is a huge concern of people in school choice towns,” Briggs said, adding he’s skeptical the new law will deliver on its promise to save money and lower property taxes. He believes the unified districts, as they get bigger, will have to hire more administrators. Act 46 critics, including Briggs, have also voiced concern about the elimination of local school boards in order to create a single panel for multiple districts. “The bigger these school systems get, the more the individual gets drowned out, or has less say,” Briggs said. “There will not be the same kind of local control.” He believes local residents should govBRIGGS ern their local school, as opposed to a larger panel that includes residents of other towns. “When suddenly, (a local school) becomes the responsibility of a combined board, there’s all kinds of different towns with different interests trying to manage our school,” Briggs said. “It’s just not the same. There isn’t the same kind of local control.“ If he is elected to the Senate, Briggs said he would advocate for expansion of school choice in Vermont. Specifically, he favors a voucher system through which parents could send their children to the public or private school of their choice. Home schoolers, he said, would be eligible for a tax break equal to what they are paying in education property taxes. Expanded choice, he said, would allow successful schools to prosper while forcing subpar schools to get better or close. “It’s the American way of doing things — competition and giving more than one option,” Briggs said. Streamlining the school system amid declining enrollment, Briggs said, is a major objective of Act 46. Expanding school choice would accomplish the same goal in a more inclusive fashion, he argued. “Under school choice, (closing schools) would happen in a free market, where the best solution would be reached through market forces, rather than state edict,” Briggs said. “We could very well see school consolidation under school choice, but it would happen in a way that students and parents would still be able to benefit from it.”

HEALTH CARE SYSTEM Briggs believes added competition would also create a better health care system in Vermont. He said the state should pull the plug on Vermont Health Connect (VHC), a platform through which uninsured or under-insured Vermonters can choose a health insurance plan. The VHC website has been fraught with technical glitches, presenting a challenge to some who have tried to register online for a health insurance plan or change the plan they got. “It’s gotten to a point where I don’t think VHC is ever going to work,” Briggs said. “I don’t think it’s the best system … I have serious doubts that it will ever be fixable.” Instead, Vermont could join the federal health exchange or find another suitable replacement system, according to Briggs. But he said Vermont might not have any choice but to stick with VHC if dropping it would trigger repayment of the approximately $200 million the federal government gave the state to implement its own exchange. “Ultimately, what I’d like to see is expansion of medical savings accounts and more options for people to purchase a wider variety of health care plans,” Briggs said, noting that only a handful of insurance companies currently do business in the Green Mountain State. Vermont has a community rating system that does not allow companies to cherry pick clients from its healthiest citizens. “Competition is the best way to bring down prices,” Briggs said. Vermont must become more aggressive in attracting new businesses and growing those that are already here, Briggs said. To that end, he would support streamlining development regulations and red tape that he said are thwarting some companies from laying down roots in Vermont. He believes solar energy proposals — which the state is promoting as a transition from fossil fuels to green energy — are currently enjoying a very favorable permitting route (through the Vermont Public Service Board). Briggs said conventional development proposals currently face a more rigorous permitting review, which he believes should be scaled back. “We need to protect Vermont, but it’s necessary to create jobs,” he said. Briggs noted the state Senate recently approved a bill that would allow adults to possess small amounts of recreational marijuana. The measure now goes before the House. Briggs said he would not have endorsed legalization of marijuana. The drug, he said, has been shown to negatively affect the intellectual development of youths. Opponents have also voiced concern about detecting drivers under the influence of pot and have pointed to marijuana as a gateway drug to other, more potent substances. “I don’t see how lifting the prohibition is going to solve those problems,” Briggs said. If elected, Briggs said he’d become a problem-solver. “I don’t see these problems getting fixed, and that’s why I’m running,” he said.

preserving the historic structure. Forty-five votes stood for a yea vote and 30 stood for nay. Among the nay votes were many of the strongest proponents of preserving and restoring the building.

The selectboard will take up further discussion on what to do with the North Street structure after the Bristol Fire Department moves into its new headquarters later this spring or early summer.

Firehouse (Continued from Page 1A) fire station off West Street. Firetrucks have been housed at various places around town and the building isn’t safe for hosting large meetings. During Monday’s meeting, Selectman Joel Bouvier noted that the North Street fire station is one of the two oldest fire stations in the United States still in active use. Fire Chief Brett LaRose pointed out that the Bristol Firehouse Design Committee, of which he is a member, recommended selling the building because of the steep price tag for renovation, which he said could be $500,000 to $800,000. Some decried the loss of a town’s identity when public places are lost. Ted Lylis reminded residents of the loss to the community in the demolition of such historic buildings as the Bristol Inn, the old high school and the old Saint Ambrose church. Zoning Administrator Eric Forand addressed the kinds of uses that could be allowed on North Street, and someone suggested selling the building for $1 to a new owner willing to preserve and renovate the historic structure. A final, non-binding straw vote on the fire station article was inconclusive, in part because of the wording of the article itself. It stated: “Will the voters advise the selectboard that the sale of 32 North Street (Bristol Fire Department) property be sold as is.” None of the speakers at the meeting in Holley Hall advocated allowing the building to be bought and torn down, for example. And those who spoke addressed both the desirability and the difficulty of somehow

LOCAL GROWERS GATHER at Tandem in Bristol for one of several regional grower meetings ACORN hosted this winter. As a result of feedback from those meetings, ACORN is holding its first producers’ and buyers’ forum on March 10 at Middlebury College.

Event to match growers with buyers MIDDLEBURY — All Addison er meetings around Addison County County growers are invited to attend in January and February. “What we the first ever “Producers’ and Buy- heard over and over again,” said Jonaers’ Forum: Where Buying, Selling than Corcoran, ACORN’s executive and Marketing Happens.” Hosted director, “was the need to develop and by ACORN, the forum open up new markets for will take place on Thurs- Three top food producers, including exday, March 10, from 8:30 and water ports. The forum will be a a.m.-1 p.m. at Middlebury great opportunity to develspecialists College’s Wilson Hall op new relationships and in the McCullough Stu- in Vermont stimulate new business.” dent Center. In addition, will tackle Registration for the ACORN will host a March regulations March 12 producers’ and 15 workshop on new and associated buyers’ forum opens at updated food safety and with safe food 8:30 a.m. A local foods water regulations. lunch will be served at The March 10 forum production noon. The cost is $10, includes a Buyers’ Round- and handling. and includes coffee, light table on emerging local refreshments and lunch. food market opportunities, breakout Purchase tickets at www.acornvt.org, sessions with buyers, and marketing as space is limited. insights from Skillet Creative, a Ver- FOOD SAFETY WORKSHOP mont firm specializing in food marACORN also heard from many keting. Panelists include buyers from farmers that they’d like clarity on Sodexo, Deep Root, Middlebury Col- new and updated food safety and lege, the Addison Northeast Supervi- water regulations. As a result, the orsory Union, the Abbey Group, Grow- ganization will host a workshop for ers’ Hub, and Middlebury Foods, farmers and food producers on Tuesamong others. day, March 15, from 9-11:30 a.m. at ACORN hosted four regional grow- UVM Extension, 23 Pond Lane in

Middlebury. Three top food and water specialists in Vermont will tackle regulations associated with safe food production and handling: · Laura DiPietro of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets will outline the newly proposed Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs), the minimum standards by which a farm must manage its agricultural operations for improving water quality; · Ginger Nickerson of the Center for Sustainability, UVM Extension, will focus her talk on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) geared to vegetable and fruit producers; and · Kristina Sweet of VAAF&M will provide an overview on updates to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and its implication for Vermont producers. The UVM Extension office is at the corner of Exchange Street and Mainelli Road. The workshop costs $10, payable by cash or check at the door, including coffee and light refreshments. RSVP to lindsey@acornvt.org as space is limited.

By the way (Continued from Page 1A) Monday, will be closed as of Monday, March 7. All activities will now be at the new recreation facility at 154 Creek Road. The Rev. Barnaby Feder of the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society in Middlebury was among a diverse group of more than a dozen clergy and faith leaders from across Vermont who last week submitted a letter to state senators expressing support for legislation that would end marijuana prohibition and regulate marijuana. Writers said they have “a moral obligation to support change” because the state’s current marijuana prohibition laws “have caused more harm than good for the people of Vermont.” The bill in question, S.241, would make it legal for adults 21 years of age and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and establish a tightly controlled system of licensed marijuana cultivation sites, testing facilities, and retail stores. The Senate passed the bill last week and sent it to the House, which is expected to take it up soon. Thousands of Vermonters across

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the state are getting calls from scam artists calling to try to break into their home computers, according to Dave Reville of AARP Vermont. The callers claim to be computer techs associated with well-known companies like Microsoft. They say that they’ve detected viruses or other malware on your computer to trick you into giving them remote access or paying for software you don’t need. As Reville points out, these scammers take advantage of your reasonable concerns about viruses and other threats. Once they have access to your computer they can access personal and financial information or hold your computers hostage until you pay them a fee. And AARP advises that if you pay with a credit card then they have that number too. So, just hang up!

With a growing recognition that Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADHD, presents particular challenges to mothers and fathers, Debbie Tracht of the Middlebury Center for Reading & ADHD tells us that she is reaching out to area residents to offer a seven-session course in how to parent a child with ADHD. For more information, contact Tracht at www.middleburycenter.com. Two Brothers Tavern in Middlebury is hosting a Relay for Life fundraiser on Saturday, March 12, at 1 p.m., during the eighth annual Vermont Chili Festival in downtown Middlebury. Stop in to hear live music by Snake Mountain Bluegrass, enjoy a quick brew and donate $5 to the fight against cancer.

PAGE 4A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

A DDIS ON INDE P E NDEN T

Letters

Editorials

to the Editor

Revolution in our schools? While Vermont’s junior senator Bernie Sanders is proclaiming a political revolution in his race for the Democratic presidential nomination, a quieter revolution is underway within Vermont’s schools. Act 46, passed last spring, is changing how our schools operate, hopefully for the better. The first step is unified governance, which was recently embraced by three area school districts, but that could be just the tip of the iceberg. One perspective of that story can be viewed through the lens of the Leicester Elementary School. Leicester, a town of 1,100 people in southern Addison County, has seen its student K-6 population drop from a peak of about 125 students 15 years ago to just under 50 this past year. The economic inefficiency today is obvious, with the cost per pupil ranging around $14,303. Gone are full-time art, foreign language or music teachers, supplanted by shared teachers from within the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union. And because costs were increasing and revenues decreasing, the school board was looking at further cuts to core programs in its $1.05 million budget. According to school board members at Tuesday night’s Town Meeting, without Act 46 the school’s future looked bleak. Act 46 became a lifeline for the school. Unification would secure Leicester’s small school grant, insure efficiencies of scale with the larger unified district, and allow the promise of improved academic performance with the district’s proposed $22.6 million budget. At the encouragement of the school board, the town joined the Otter Valley Unified Union School District this past November, which was approved by all member towns. The transition also meant that a unified district budget was voted on for the first time at Tuesday’s Town Meeting. The unified union budget passed overwhelmingly, and with it the Leicester Elementary School board held its last official annual meeting at the historic Leicester Town Hall with about 30 people in attendance. School board member Hannah Sessions noted the bittersweet moment. “It’s kind of sad,” she said of the transition to the single unified board that would henceforth operate under a single district budget, “but we know it’s the right thing to do and we’re really optimistic.” The discussion touched on what was next. Leicester will have two members (one representing the town and another at-large delegate) on the unified district board, giving the town good representation. And the existing elementary school board will stay in effect for the first year of the transition. After a few questions about the new board structure and community involvement, the discussion morphed into new opportunities: the prospect of elementary school choice in which a student from a small school (Sudbury and Whiting are smaller than Leicester, while the Neshobe Elementary School in Brandon has 400-plus students) could potentially attend a larger school and viceversa, if parents felt a child would better thrive in a small school; of taking Leicester’s project-based learning programs (which have received statewide recognition for excellence) and expanding them to potentially attract students from other schools; of being able to bring more extensive art, music, technology or foreign language programs back into the school’s academic offerings; of having all district elementary students arrive at the district middle school at similar learning levels. The transition happened spontaneously. From feelings of doubt and nostalgic melancholy sprung the excitement and energy of hope and promise, all in the matter of a few minutes at Town Meeting. Such is the source of creativity, innovation and transformation that could be the fruit of Act 46. More than just a measure to consolidate school governance, the law has the potential to revolutionize Vermont’s schools to match the needs of the 21st Century, if we are bold enough to let it happen. Angelo S. Lynn

Bernie’s not-so-bad Tuesday America, ‘Feel the Bern.’ Hillary, certainly, is feeling the heat. Consider that if Sen. Sanders had collected an additional half percentage point in Massachusetts he would have won five primaries to Clinton’s six on a day that heavily favored Clinton’s strongest base of support. But for that half percentage point, the headlines would have been dramatically different. Not that Vermont’s junior senator Bernie Sanders crushed it on Super Tuesday, but he survived a stacked deck of southern states in the Democratic primary by winning convincingly in Oklahoma, carried the Hispanic vote (and the state) in Colorado, and prevailed in the more-liberal caucus in Minnesota, while placing a close second in Massachusetts (50 percent to 49 percent). In terms of a change in momentum, it is Sanders who has been surging from behind since the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, and he has done it with a respectful debate of the issues. It’s still a long shot for Sanders, but Super Tuesday was not his Waterloo. Clinton did well, as expected. She doubled Sanders delegate count, and has a large lead in super delegates. And her substantial victories in the southern states highlight a real weak spot in Sanders’ path to the Democratic nomination. But in a general election, a Democrat is unlikely to capture the electoral votes in those southern states no matter what. What should matter is how the two candidates compete in Blue states and in swing states against the Republican nominee. If that is Republican front-runner Donald Trump, most current polls show Sanders doing better in a head-to-head contest than would Ms. Clinton. In that context and to counter the media’s narrative that Sanders had a bad day Tuesday, the fact he won four out of the 11 states and came within a whisker in Massachusetts gives Sanders real credibility as a national candidate. It also gives him the public support (and money) to keep going, as he says, all the way to the convention in July. Money is a big part of any campaign, and one of the surprising strengths of Sanders is his ability to raise millions quickly. In January, he set a record by raising $20 million in small donations. In February, he doubled that with $42 million. That is a remarkable feat few would have predicted a few months ago when Clinton was the presumed nominee. Clinton still has the advantage, but Tuesday’s results suggest her shield of invincibility has been pierced. The $64,000-question is whether there is time for Bernie’s message to resonate with voters who are just tuning in. Angelo S. Lynn

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Hospital issues debated on VPR The VPR radio show “Vermont Edition” ran a piece on Feb. 29 about Porter Hospital. It was moderated by Jane Lindholm, and can easily be listened to online. On the show the hospital spokesperson states that employees should have no reason to fear to speak their mind, or suffer retribution for doing so. With that in mind, I would like to say that I love Porter Hospital. I think it is a wonderful place, and I would like to do everything I can to keep it open, and to retain as many of our great and caring doctors, nurses and staff as possible. I hope the hospital board will listen to the VPR show, especially the comments from the doctor, the nurse and the public who phoned in. Morris Earle Jr. Middlebury

Drawbridges an excellent idea

It’s official A POLLING PLACE sign hangs off the front railing of the Orwell Town Hall on Town Meeting Day Tuesday. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Fear and the return to running On the morning of Jan. 31, I was in Marlboro, in southern Vermont, drinking tea with my parents in their living room. Conversation was halting and interspersed with tears and bursts of laughter. On the floor in front of us lay the family dog, wrapped in the blanket that was to be her funeral shroud. She had died early that morning. It wasn’t rock bottom but it was certainly material for a decent country song. I’m not the type to go all Hank Williams in the moment, so instead of picking up a guitar and a heavy heart, I picked through some photos, wrote a sentimental Facebook post, opened another tab on my Internet browser and registered for my first half marathon. The decision to sign up for the Middlebury Maple Run wasn’t exactly spur-of-the-moment. I had flirted with seriously picking up running again By Evan and what I needed was a reason to pull Johnson the trigger. I needed a goal. I wanted to put myself through something and see how I came out on the other side. I am now staring down two of my oldest and most formidable opponents: the practice of distance running and my own uncertainty at my ability to do so. It’s a twoversus-one, no-holds-barred brawl that’s been tearing me apart. Training started on a treadmill while the temperatures were well below freezing. I’ve since returned to running outside as the daylight hours have lengthened and the mercury now inches into the 30s and 40s (on some days). I was running sprints up South Main Street in Middlebury recently, past the Kenyon Arena and toward the Ralph Myhre Golf Course, my legs on fire and feeling like something was trying to claw its way out of my

chest, when the full scale of the task before me filled me with an overwhelming sense of capital-F Fear, a feeling of My God, what have I signed up for? It’s a feeling I’m intimately familiar with. While I consider myself to be in good physical health, the bright and brief flash of my athletic career was when I ran track and cross-country in high school, and I can still remember my first races. When a teammate never showed up for the 4x400 relay at a regional meet, I found myself selected to run anchor in his place. My father, who stood cheering at the starting line, still recalls the look on my face as I left the next runner behind me in the dust, wild-eyed and arms pumping hard. In my sub-minute tour through hell under the stadium lights, I found my single greatest motivator is fear — the knowledge that someone or something is moving hard and fast through darkness with the sole objective of overtaking you. On May 1, I’ll be running from something again, and this time it won’t be a long-legged track star from New Hampshire gunning for me; it’ll be my own doubt at my ability to run 13.1 miles and the fear of not living up to my own expectations. One of my favorite blogs characterizes this as “commitment remorse,” or the feeling that accompanies committing to a physical test and then realizing you have to train harder than you’ve ever done in the past to meet the challenge. That fear isn’t debilitating — if anything, it’s got me running harder than I thought possible. My workouts are in the early morning or late in the evening as I’ve (See Clippings, Page 5A)

Clippings

Support of Rubio could hurt Scott Last Friday, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott announced that he would vote for Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican primary. Less than a week before, Scott had introduced Gov. John Kasich at a campaign event in Colchester. When asked why he supported Rubio over Kasich, Scott replied that Kasich, as governor of Ohio, had signed a bill to prevent state funding of Planned Parenthood, an organization that, in Scott’s opinion, did “incredible work.” Scott added that Rubio “can build consensus within the party.” The Vermont political environment in 2016 is favorable for Scott. Gov. Shumlin is unpopular — a poll released by Vermont Public Radio last week shows his approval rating is 37 percent — and the Vermont economy has recovered from the great recession more slowly than the national economy. Every time the Vermont governorship has been open since 1968, it has By Eric L. Davis switched parties. If this trend continued in 2016, Scott, who is favored to win the Republican gubernatorial primary over Bruce Lisman, would be elected this fall. The three most recent elections resulting in partisan change in the governorship have been in non-presidential years: 1990, 2002 and 2010. Can a Republican candidate win an open-seat race for governor in a presidential year? The way Scott handled the Kasich-Rubio question illustrates his greatest vulnerability this fall: the Republican presidential candidate. Vermont Democrats may find it hard to defend Shumlin’s record, and the performance of the state’s economy, over the past six years. The Dem-

Politically Thinking

ocrats’ best strategy to retain the governorship could be generating a large voter turnout, and tying Scott to unpopular positions of the GOP presidential candidate. If Scott found Kasich’s record on Planned Parenthood unacceptable, what does he think about Rubio’s record on that issue? Since the Florida senator arrived in Washington in 2011, he has voted against Planned Parenthood on every roll-call that the National Right to Life Committee has identified as a “pro-life” vote. Rubio has also said that “an unborn child has a right to live irrespective of the circumstances by which they were conceived.” Thus, he would prohibit abortion in all circumstances except when the mother’s life is in danger, with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Although Scott’s position on abortion and Planned Parenthood is different from that of Rubio, by using Planned Parenthood as the reason for not supporting Kasich over Rubio, Scott opens himself to charges from his political opponents of both inconsistency, for abandoning the candidate he introduced just six days earlier, and of being willing to overlook what will likely be one of the most controversial aspects of Rubio’s record, should he become the Republican nominee. While Kasich certainly is a conservative, his views on some issues could make him the Republican who would do least badly in Vermont in November. He expanded Medicaid in Ohio after passage of the Affordable Care Act. He favors a path to citizenship for undocumented (See Davis, Page 5A)

What happened to the suggestion in a recent letter to the Independent for drawbridges? An excellent idea. The sides of the trench might need work but the tracks would not need lowering. The bridges need replacing anyway, so why not with drawbridges? Drawbridges with the same height might not need to be raised for several years, as the railroads say they won’t send double-decker trains for years. By then the bridges might rust shut for lack of use, but that would be easier to fix than building higher bridges when needed. So, lets talk up drawbridges as a fine solution for downtown Middlebury. Maybe with big overhead beams like a Van Gogh painting. Imagine the tourists that would bring. Peter Grant Bristol

Town must wait for Anbaric vote Reactions to my letter to the editor on the Anbaric proposal to New Haven of Feb. 4 suggest that some readers took it to mean that I was urging an early town vote before the details of the deal are fully tacked down. That was not at all my intent. On the contrary, it will be very important that such a vote only be called after formal negotiations with Anbaric have taken place and the results are in. At that point the selectboard should provide New Haven voters with: 1. The full and final text of Anbaric’s binding proposals to the town and its residents. 2. And, as importantly, an independent assessment of the pros and cons of key aspects of the proposed deal, including, among others, the noise, light and, if applicable, radiation it might generate, so that voters can make informed decisions. For what is at stake is arguably the most complex decision New Haven will be asked to make for some time. Whether the final decision is yes or no, its important that it be made on an informed basis by the voters of our community as a whole. George Jaeger New Haven

Changes at PMC to affect women Porter Medical Center recently announced that Tapestry Midwifery and Addison Associates will join their practices to create a single practice, Porter Women’s Health. The Addison Independent reported on Feb. 8, “In most circumstances, the nurse-midwives and physicians will continue to provide separate call coverage for their pregnant patients.” Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. At a recent appointment with my midwife, I learned that the midwives and physicians will share calls at Porter Birthing Center, 40/60. This means that women, like me, who have been visiting the midwives throughout our pregnancy will likely have a physician attending our birth. Likewise, if a woman has been visiting the physicians, she may instead have a midwife. Neither of these scenarios is acceptable. Every woman decides for herself what is the best prenatal care and birth setting for her, (See Audet letter, Page 5A)

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 5A

Many bills in legislative pipeline We are at the midway point in this of Vermont’s 250-plus school disyear’s legislative session. Two ma- tricts consider maximization of their jor bills have passed the House and operational efficiencies through Senate. One is Senate bill S.233 that managing, sharing and transferamended Act 46, last year’s educa- ring resources; in other words, talk tion measure. The second is House with other districts about mergers bill H.187, legislation that requires and other ways to cooperate with all Vermont businesses to have paid each other. In the first eight months sick leave for their employees. since enactment, some schools have There is another important bill that merged and taken steps to becoming is likely to emerge from the House more efficient. Commerce Committee Right here in Addison shortly that strives to County we have examples clarify who is an indeof this effort. Act 46 also pendent contractor and had a provision that aswho is an employee. signed “allowable growth Another bill that is belimits” to each school dising considered is H.702, trict. So school budgets that a bill I introduced in exceeded their limit would February. H.702 is a be assessed a one dollar bill crafted to kickstart penalty for each dollar they workforce housing conexceeded their growth limstruction. The prelimiit. This provision was denary reviews on the bill signed to control spending have been favorable. and thus positively impact So what exactly does by Rep. Fred Baser, property taxes. mandatory paid sick As schools began their R-Bristol leave mean? All employbudget work last fall, proers doing business or optests to legislators and the erating in the state of Vermont shall administration began to add up. As a be required to provide earned sick result, and with much back and forth leave to their employees. Eligible at the statehouse, an amendment to employees must be 18 years of age Act 46 was approved. It states that or older and work an average of no the growth limit will be raised by 0.9 less than 18 hours per week during percent for all districts. Low-spenda year. People who work 20 weeks ing schools, those that have peror fewer in a calendar year are not pupil spending below the statewide eligible. Employers can have a wait- average, will be exempt from pening period of up to one year prior to alty. Those districts above the stateeligibility. wide spending average, and exceed Employees will have a maximum their growth limit, will be assessed of five sick days per year begin- a $0.40 penalty on each dollar above ning in 2019. Allowable sick leave their target. includes caring for immediate famThe allowable growth limit proily members. There was a Senate vision of the Act expires in 2017. I amendment to exclude employers supported this amendment. I also with five or fewer employees from hope those working on the education the bill. This measure, which is the funding formula will come up with rule in most other states, was de- a fair, cost-controlling, and equitable feated by one vote. I supported this funding method for the future. amendment. Small businesses and Several years ago there was a court start-ups need more flexibility in decision that muddied the waters on these affairs. hiring independent contractors. As Act 46 was designed to have all a result, Vermont’s Department of

Legislative Review

Labor is defining who should be an employee versus a hired contractor in the strictest sense. After taking testimony from artists, people in the building trades, and the technology and agriculture sectors, the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee is working on a bill to more clearly define who is an independent contractor so people who choose to apply their skills in their own business can find work assisting those that need their skills on a temporary basis. We intend to have a bill out of committee by the end of March. Feedback from employers and others around the state has emphasized to the House Commerce Committee the need for developing workforce housing. Homebuilders are blunt in saying they cannot financially justify building homes that are affordable to Vermonters with a household income of $70,000 a year or less. H.702 was introduced to deal with this issue. H.702 addresses three of the major reasons this type of housing is not being built — the cost of land, permitting and infrastructure costs. This bill establishes Workforce Hosing Zones in close proximity to our town centers. These zones will require high-density home construction to minimize land costs. Act 250 will be waived in all but the largest projects. Town zoning will be revised, if necessary, to create the zones, and the Agency of Natural Resources permit process will be streamlined. Finally the state will provide the dollars for infrastructure build out (power, sewer hook-up, sidewalks, etc.). H.702 creates the funding for two pilot projects without impacting the state’s delicate financial picture. If these pilots are successful, more permanent funding will be developed. H.702 is designed to create construction jobs, help employers recruit and retain our essential workforce, and create pricing competition in the affordable housing arena.

Audet letter (Continued from Page 4A) whether a midwife or physician, at home, a birthing center, or a hospital. It’s all about what you’re comfortable with, unless it is medically indicated that you need care beyond what a midwife is able to offer. I support every woman’s right to decide what is best for her. Unfortunately, Porter is now diminishing our ability to make those choices in the name of reducing costs and increasing profits. This is a topdown decision at the expense of patient care, provider morale, and

our desire to work together to create the best outcomes. By forcing the midwives and physicians to share calls, Porter Medical Center is defeating the purpose of offering two different types of practitioners to its patients. This is a big step backward for prenatal care and birthing in Addison County. I find myself, at more than halfway through my pregnancy, having to explore other options for my prenatal care. A decision made several years ago after careful research is all for naught because the women

love again; it hurts like hell at first and you curse yourself and anyone who said this was a good idea or that you were capable of such a thing. You don’t realize how far gone you are until you’re six miles down the road with the sun on your face and the wind at your back. Slowly, it feels good, then great. Soon, you’d do anything for it. So here I am, having bitten off possibly more than I can chew and the clock ticking down to the starter’s pistol. My mileage is increasing incrementally and I’m feeling like I’m in the best shape of my life. By the time that gun goes off, I will have already crossed a different kind of finish line.

Davis (Continued from Page 4A) immigrants, and he opposes religious exemptions for public officials and businesses who refuse to provide marriage licenses and private services to same-sex couples. Lisman, who trailed Scott in the VPR poll, said he voted for Kasich in the primary because of the Ohioan’s record “as a competent manager who has helped to revitalize his state’s economy.” By emphasizing an aspect of Kasich’s record that would appeal to Vermont independents,

Editor’s note: This is the second the origin of religion in the human in a series of essays on Lucretius, imagination motivated by passion, an early philosopher who provides especially fear, “the terrors of the a link to “lost classics” through mind.” His philosophy of nature is his epic poem “On the Nature of offered as an antidote to this human disorder. Things.” According to EpiIn the prologue to curus, whose follower Book I of De Rerum he was, the best huNatura, Lucretius inman life consisted of troduces three main peace and tranquility, themes. They are the untroubled and giving system of the heavens, no offense to others. It the origin of all things, arises from knowledge and the nature of the of how things really Gods. The first two are are. In sum, Lucretius strictly natural themes was not an atheist. suitable for a naturalist: He was, however, an astronomy and physics. enemy of any instituThe third is curious, for religion and of Lucretius and his poem Lucretius: the tional priests, theologians and have been condemned down through the ages nature of things astrologers, whom, he believed, were responfor atheism and irreliAn essay by sible for great mischief, gion. Victor Nuovo causing trouble to indiYet Lucretius speaks well of the Gods: They Middlebury College viduals and nations. Therefore, it is surare immortals, who professor emeritus prising that, in the live the best of lives, of philosophy opening lines of his free from care, lacking poem, Lucretius innothing, abiding forever in an undisturbed part of the vokes the goddess Venus, and asks universe, enjoying perfect tranquil- her to be his muse, his divine patron ity. They epitomize the best imagin- and collaborator. He represents her able life. They are neither anxious as the smiling face of nature, most nor inclined to anger, and so they evident in springtime. She is the joy never have need to be praised or ap- and delight of all living creatures, peased, least of all by human beings their caring, nurturing mother; her on earth, about whom they have nei- infusions of vital power cause them, ther care nor interest, and of whom like flowers, to spring into existence they take no notice. Nothing that we and face the Sun; when she appears may do in their regard ever reaches the oceans laugh, the sky becomes them, or, if it did, would it concern clear, the winds, gentle, animals them. The very idea of religion is frolic, and all things on earth are bathed in light. foreign to the Gods. Literary scholars have observed This idea of the Gods is characteristically Greek. The ancient Greeks that it was customary for ancient believed that if we can imagine poets to begin their poems by insomething perfect, it must exist in voking a divine muse, and that Lusome respect, and because they also cretius was just following custom. supposed that to exist is to be some- This is so. But Lucretius had other where, the Gods must reside in a more urgent reasons. He was a Rofitting place, “over the rainbow,” a man citizen. His contemporaries place free of trouble or the uncer- were Julius Caesar and Cicero. He tainty of change, “where troubles wrote his poem during the Roman melt like lemon drops away above Republic’s time of troubles, which ended, after his death in 44 BCE, the chimney tops.” This tendency was embedded in the very year of Caesar’s assassinatheir grammar. Plato made it explic- tion, the end of the Republic, and it in his theology and his theory of the establishment of the Empire. Now Rome had two legendary ideas. Lucretius, whose philosophy differs radically from Plato’s, nev- founders. Romulus is supposed, acertheless wanted to present his read- cording to legend, to have founded ers with wisdom in a Greek fashion. the city in 753 BCE. According to He was bilingual and bicultural. So, its foundation myth, the city was it should be no surprise that he rep- embroiled in violence from the resented the Gods after the manner start, in murder — Romulus murdered his twin brother and rival of the Greeks. Lucretius rightly infers from all Remus — and civil war. Romulus this that if the Gods have no need and Remus were products of a virof religion, then they must not be gin birth: Their mother, Rhea Silvia, the originators of it. He locates was a Vestal Virgin who had taken

a vow of chastity. Mars, the god of war, raped her while she was tending the sacred fire. Mars became the patron of Roman militarism. However, the narrative of the Roman foundation myth also features a second, earlier founder: Aeneas, a Trojan prince, whose adventures after escaping the destruction of Troy led him to Italy. He was the progenitor of the Roman people, the Aeneadae. His mother was Venus, or as she was known to the Greeks, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and of all peaceable virtues and delights. In this light, Lucretius’ purpose becomes clear. If he could not rid Rome of religion, then at least he might pacify it, by exalting Venus above Mars. Thus he concludes his preamble, which I hope everyone will read, for it is truly lovely and still relevant, with a prayer to Venus that she might cause “the savage works of war to sleep and be still over all the land and sea.” To this end, he asks that she conquer Mars with love, by feeding his eager eyes with her incomparable beauty, so that, besotted by her charm, he would recline upon her lap and remain quiet or quiescent under her caresses. From all this, it should be clear. Lucretius was not an atheist. Indeed, he was, like Plato, a theological reformer, whose purpose was to rescue theology from religion, and to make it strictly philosophical. He was also an anti-militarist, and, perhaps, a pacifist. As the poem develops, it will become clear that he was deeply sensible to suffering, not just by humans, but all creaturely suffering. He was well aware that animals grieve just as much as we do, and so, he was sensitive to their welfare. Perhaps he was a vegetarian. Through all this, he pursued two goals: enlightenment and peace. Each depended on the other: War darkens the mind, and cruelty is nurtured in a darkened intellect, which religion, un-reformed and un-pacified by philosophy, inflames. Are there lessons here? One must be cautious when applying an ancient doctrine to modern conditions. Yet, with proper caution, there is something to be learned. Religion may indeed serve the purposes of living a good life, but only if it promotes joy and peace, and only if it repudiates all doctrines that evoke fear and induce violent passions. Now the only remedy for these disorders of the soul is truth, which resides in the nature of things. Truth alone enlightens the mind and calms the passions. We must all study physics.

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Clippings (Continued from Page 4A) been following one of the hundreds of training guides available online. I drink gallons of water and tea and shun most processed foods. My diet consists of mountains of kale, lentils and avocados. At night, I sleep like the dead. Running hurts. There are workouts where I finish feeling like I could throw up a lung and later fall asleep with a sense of dread that I’ll never cross the finish line. And despite all of this, I’m making friends with the pain and ignoring the voice in the back of my head that screams at me to quit. Returning to running, as I’ve found this late winter, is a little like falling in

whom I have grown to adore and trust may not be able to support me through labor and birth. Two of Porter’s competitors, the University of Vermont and Gifford Medical Center, have both midwives and physicians on call 24/7. What effect will it have upon Porter’s bottom line if patients take our bodies, our choices, and our dollars elsewhere? Sarah McGowen Audet Bridport

On Religion and Peace

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Lisman handled the matter of who he was supporting in the primary better than Scott. If Scott wants to be elected governor, he should learn from this example that he needs to convince Vermont independents, whose votes he will need in the fall, that he can separate himself from the most conservative and extreme aspects of the Republican presidential candidate’s record. Eric L. Davis is professor emeritus of political science at Middlebury College.

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Letters to the editor

The Addison Independent encourages readers to write letters to the editor. We believe a newspaper should be a community forum for people to debate issues of the day Because we believe that accountability makes for responsible debate, we will print signed letters only. Be sure to include an address and telephone number, too, so we can call to clear up any questions. If you have something to say, send it to: Letters to the Editor, Addison Independent, 58 Maple St., Middlebury, VT 05753. Or email to news@addisonindependent.com.

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PAGE 6A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

ADDISON COUNTY

Thor Pettersen, 90, Vergennes

Obituaries Edmund Sullivan, 70, Ripton

RIPTON — Edmund “Ed” F. Sullivan, 70, died Friday evening, Feb. 26, 2016. He passed peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends after a courageous battle with cancer. Ed was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church and the American Society of Safety Engineers. He served his country in Vietnam for the United States Air Force. In a life dedicated to service, he spent over 50 years filling multiple fire and rescue roles. He was a member of Ripton Fire and First Response, Brandon Area Rescue Squad, Middlebury Regional EMS and Vermont Farm Health Task Force. In addition, he was a respected mentor for students of the Middlebury College Emergency Response Team. Ed was employed by Middlebury College as the Safety Coordinator for 18 and half years, retiring from full-time work in May of 2013, and continued as a part-time instructor. In addition, Ed was employed at the Middlebury Regional Emergency and Medical Services. In his free time Ed was an avid outdoor enthusiast, enjoying skiing, hiking, camping,

kayaking, hunting, and also riding his Harley. He was also a member of the Red Knights Motorcycle Club. He was born Dec. 19, 1945, in Cambridge, Mass., the son of Daniel F. and Georgette (Gingras) Sullivan. He is survived by his wife, Kathleen (Billings) Sullivan of Ripton; his children, Erin Sullivan of West Boylston, Mass., Derek Sullivan of Fitchburg, Mass., and Edward “Ted” Raymond of Mesa, Ariz.; his grandchildren, Seamus Sullivan and Edward “J.J.” Raymond; and by several nieces and cousins. He was predeceased by his parents; his brother, Paul Sullivan; and his previous wife, Rosemary. A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, with the Rev. William Beaudin as the celebrant. The family requests that flowers be omitted and memorial contributions EDMUND F. SULLIVAN be made to the Brandon Area Rescue Squad at P.O. Box 232, Brandon, VT 05733, or Middlebury Regional direction of the Sanderson-Ducharme EMS, 55 Collins Drive, Middlebury, Funeral Home in Middlebury. VT 05753. Online condolences at www. Arrangements are under the sandersonfuneralservice.com. ◊

William “Jim” O’Connor, 72, formerly of Middlebury CAPE CORAL, Fla. — William James “Jim” O’Connor, 72, a Cape Coral, Fla., resident for the past five and a half years, formerly of Middlebury, Vt., passed away Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in Cape Coral. He was born in Duluth, Minn., to Willis and Emma O’Connor, now deceased. Jim was a graduate of Williams College. He pursued doctoral studies in American History at Cornell University, where he met his wife. After leaving Cornell they lived in Princeton, N.J., and then spent 33 years in Middlebury, Vt., retiring to Cape Coral, Fla., in 2010. Jim and Nancy traveled and lived in France

on many occasions, nurturing his love of all things French, most particularly cooking, good food, and fine wine. He was an avid reader and a fixture at the public library, and loved dogs and walking on the beach. He had a keen and quirky sense of humor that could be disconcerting at times. Last, but far from least, Jim was a passionate fan of the New England Patriots. He is survived by his beloved wife of 46 years, Nancy O’Connor of Cape Coral; a brother, Robert O’Connor (Monica Halas) of Boston, Mass.; a cousin, Thomas Jordan of Duluth, Minn.; brother-in-law, Christopher Myers of Carrboro, N.C.; as well as

two nieces, Genève Allison (Michael Murphy) of Melrose, Mass., and Emma Halas-O’Connor of Portland, Maine. No formal services are planned at this time. Memorial contributions in memory of William James O’Connor are suggested to Hope Hospice, 9470 Healthpark Circle, Ft. Myers, FL 33908. Friends are invited to send condolences via the online guest book, which can be found at www. MullinsMemorial.com. Mullins Memorial Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Cape Coral, is entrusted with final care. ◊

Harry Van Tuyl Jr., 86, Middlebury MIDDLEBURY — Harry Edward Van Tuyl Jr. of Middlebury, Vt., died at Porter Hospital in Middlebury on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. He was born on April 24, 1929, at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., where his father, a regular Army officer, was stationed at the time. As an Army brat, Harry moved with his parents every two or three years, and soon developed a lifelong passion for travel and new places. His early years included several East Coast cities and three years in the Philippines before the Second World War. He graduated from Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass., in 1948 and the University of Kansas in 1952, and then worked for Army Intelligence in Tokyo for two years. In 1954, he capped his travel experiences by sailing from Yokohama to Rotterdam on a Dutch freighter before returning to the United States and doing graduate work in geography at Clark University. Harry’s career was with the Central Intelligence Agency where he worked for some 35 years. He married Alice Hawkins in 1958, and was a proud and loving father of two daughters. A voracious reader, his main interests outside his family

were military history, biography and the history of the Western Plains, and continued travel in the United States and Canada. In 1987, he and Alice retired from Arlington, Va., to Addison, Vt. They tremendously enjoyed their life in the Vermont countryside, their friends, and the many trips they made here and abroad. One of his travel goals was to show his wife Alice every place he lived as a child, which spanned numerous locations and two continents. Harry was a loyal member of the Addison/Bridport Horse Thief Detective Society, and served on the boards of Project Independence, the John Graham Shelter and the Mt. Independence Coalition. He was a longstanding parishioner of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Middlebury. In later years, after moving to Middlebury from Addison, he was hampered by ill health, but never lost his interest in family and friends. He is survived by his wife, Alice; his daughters Sarah Ray (Mark) and Elizabeth Van Tuyl (John Soltis); and two grandchildren, Emily and James Ray. He will be deeply mourned by his family and many friends.

New Obituary Guidelines The Independent will publish paid obituaries and free notices of passing. Paid obituaries cost 25 cents per word and will be published, as submitted, on the date of the family’s choosing. The Independent offers a free notice of passing

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HARRY EDWARD VAN TUYL JR. A service of celebration of Harry’s life will be held at St. Stephen’s Church at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 4, 2016, with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 3 Main St., Middlebury, VT 05753. ◊

VERGENNES — Thor B. Pettersen, 90, of Vergennes died Friday, Feb. 26, from congestive heart failure. He was born in New York City on Dec. 20, 1925, to Karen and Thoralf Pettersen. He was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and flew out of Italy on a B-17 as a nose gunner. After the war Thor married his high school sweetheart, Mary Belski of Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1945 and lived in Brooklyn, Port Washington, and Mattituck, all on Long Island. They were married for 56 years. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary; his son, Gregg of Riverhead, N.Y.; and his sister, Lily Lewin of Port Washington, N.Y. He is survived by two daughters, Karen Pettersen, and Laura Woodhull; son-in-law Terry Woodhull; five grandchildren,

Julie, Stacy, Gregg Jr., Frank and Kristina; and three great-grandchildren, Aidan, Cameron, and Avery. Thor enjoyed hunting in the Catskills and Vermont, fishing on Long Island Sound and tending to his vegetable garden, especially his tomatoes. He was a machinist and tool designer for a variety of industries on Long Island, and later in life founded the Peconic Machine Corp. in partnership with a high school friend. Thor moved to Vergennes two years after his wife’s death. He was a member of the American Legion Post 14 in Vergennes and a member of the F&AM Dorchester Lodge in Vergennes. A service for the family was held at the Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island, N.Y., on March 1, 2016. His family would like to thank the staff at the Helen Porter Healthcare and Rehabilitation

THOR PETTERSEN Center for their kindness and attentiveness towards Thor during his last few months while recuperating from a broken hip. ◊

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Ferrisburgh NEWS

FERRISBURGH contact Silas Towler — The Lake at 425-3380. Champlain Maritime Free afterschool Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Kayak Program, VUHS, meals are availMuseum will have March 3: 6:30 p.m. an informational able for students meeting about the March 5, 12, 19 & 26: VUHS Rummage Sale Collection, 9 -11 a.m., at VUHS! The Champlain Discovery Addison Northwest Kennedy Brothers, Vergennes summer program March 5: Supervisory Union FCS Children’s Theater Performance, VUHS, 7 p.m. on Thursday, March is sponsoring the 3, at 6:30 p.m. in March 5 & 19: Ferrisburgh Grange King Pede Parties, 6:30 p.m. U.S. Department of the VUHS library. March 6: Agriculture-funded “Peter and the Wolf,” Bixby Library, 2 p.m. Champlain Discovery Child and Adult FCS Parent Teacher Organization, FCS, 6:15 p.m. is a co-educational March 7: Care Food Program 5-week summer March 10: Ferrisburgh Central School Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m., FCS at Vergennes Union program where High School. The March 12: Supermarket Bingo Fundraiser, FCS, 4 p.m. participants aged ANwSU Fusion 13-16 build their own March 12: “Baba Yaga” Presentation, Bixby Library, time TBA program that provides 17-foot sea kayak March 13: “Freedom and Unity” film showing, Ferrisburgh Historical care, educational and and then embark on enrichment activities Society, 2 p.m. a 10-day paddling for children will now adventure explor- March 14: VUHS Board Meeting, VUHS, 6 p.m. make available aftering Lake Champlain March 15: Ferrisburgh Selectboard Meeting, 6:30 p.m. school meals (dinner) from Whitehall, N.Y., for ALL students at March 23: ANwSU Board Meeting, VUHS, 6 p.m. to Burlington, Vt. no cost. Trinkets and Treasures Rummage Sale, VUHS Dates for Champlain April 2: This afternoon Discovery are June meal will be provided 20 to July 23. Financial aid is avail- Walter Parker. Windsong is composed instead of the regular snack, so any able for this program based on financial of five top-notch Vermont talents, student may come to the cafeteria at need. For more information, visit the including Vergennes musician and 2:45 p.m. The afterschool meal will be Champlain Discovery page on the mari- Vergennes Union High School music available Monday-Friday immediately time museum’s website at www.lcmm. teacher Susan O’Daniel. The program is after school ends and includes pizza or a org/education/champlain_discovery. appropriate for adults and children of all variety of sandwiches, fruit, vegetables htm or contact Nick Patch at nickp@ ages. Admission is free but space will be and milk. This is a great way for all lcmm.org. limited so arrive early. students, especially those getting on the On Saturday, March 5, at 7 p.m., the Also in March, as part of a three- bus or going to an afterschool activity, to Ferrisburgh Children’s Theater cast of library collaboration initiated by the fuel up at the end of a long school day. 30 students will be presenting “Wagon Orwell Free Library, author and illustraThe famous Treasures and Trinkets Wheels a-Rollin’” by Tim Kelly at the tor Marika McCoola will be offering a Rummage Sale is coming soon so bring Vergennes Union High School audi- graphic novel workshop on Saturday, your treasures on every Saturday in torium. The story, a fast-paced spoof March 12, at Bixby Library. Marika March (beginning Saturday, March 5) of the Old West, is about the woes that wrote the graphic novel “Baba Yaga’s between 9-11 a.m. to Kennedy Brothers fall upon Chuck’s Wagon Train and the Assistant.” Space in the workshop will in Vergennes (in the big white part of hilarious characters who live in tiny be limited and registration required. the building at 11 Main St.). Suggested town of Vinegar Bottle. The Ferrisburgh Contact Bixby Adult Services Librarian items for donation include household Children’s Theater, in its 16th year, is Muir Haman to sign up or for more goods, books, tools, clothing, furniture a 20-week after-school program for information: muir.haman@bixbylibrary. and jewelry — basically anything in Ferrisburgh students in fifth and sixth org. great shape that no longer fits in your grades. The public is warmly invited to The Ferrisburgh Historical Society life but may be great for someone else. come enjoy this well done production. will be hosting “Freedom & Unity: The Please no car seats, old suitcases, TVs, Tickets are available at the door and are Vermont Movie,” which is the first-ever computers or encyclopedias. $6 for adults and $3 for children. documentary series about Vermont. The Come on in to visit with friends and The Ferrisburgh Grange “King six-part film series explores the vari- neighbors, and help create an amazing Pede” card parties are scheduled for ous periods, and the various reoccur- sale this spring for continuing support to the Saturdays of March 5 and 19. These ring political and philosophical themes, enrichment opportunities for the students get-togethers are held at the Ferrisburgh in our state’s history. The FHS will be and teachers at VUHS. And mark your Town Hall and Community Center and showing Part Two of the Series, titled calendar for the actual rummage sale on begin at 6:30 p.m. with a sandwich “Under The Surface.” Saturday, April 2, at VUHS. supper and then on to an evening of fun This film digs beneath the surface of Ferrisburgh Central School PTO and card games. King Pede is an unusual Vermont’s bucolic image to explore the is planning a Supermarket Bingo for game that involves “trick-taking” tech- period from pre-Civil War until 2009. It Saturday, March 12, at 4 p.m. to be held niques such as in Hearts and Spades or chronicles the rise of labor unions and at FCS. This is a major fundraiser with Pitch. This is a game of fun and skill quarry work, the resulting labor wars, the goal of raising $4,500 for student so come prepared to use your strategic the marketing of Vermont, the state’s enrichment programs at FCS. The PTO thinking. reaction to New Deal policies, to Joe is inviting local businesses or organiBe sure to include the Bixby Library McCarthy, to urban émigrés (aka “flat- zations to contribute to this event with in your March schedule. On Sunday, landers” and “back to the landers”). donations of items or gift certificates. March 6, at 2 p.m., Sergei Prokofiev’s The film and discussion will be held on If you would like to contribute, please “Peter and the Wolf” will be performed March 13 at 2 p.m. at the Ferrisburgh email the PTO at fcspto@gmail.com. by the Windsong Woodwind Quintet Historical Society at the Town Offices And also, be sure to attend for a lot fun and narrated by VPR’s classical host on Route 7. For more information, for a worthy cause.

In loving memory of

Gayna Browne - 3/8/2011 If we could visit heaven on this our saddest day, maybe for a moment our pain would go away. We’d put our arms around you and whisper words so true, that living life without you is very hard to do. We cannot bring the old days back when we were all together, but loving thoughts and memories will stay with us forever. Love, Bonnie and Ronnie, Patrick, Carroll and Lori, Terri, Michael and Rachel

Cremation With A Service... A Celebration of Life, for those left behind, helps those family members and friends with closure. Even though your loved one says “I just want to be cremated– no funeral,” they forget the Celebration of Life service is not for them, but for the ones left behind. A service is a healthy way to say good-bye.

Sanderson-Ducharme Funeral Home 117 South Main St. Middlebury, VT • 388-2311 sandersonfuneralservice.com

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Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 7A

Fans should let coaches coach, and focus on cheering

Letters to the Editor Vermont is not yet ready for legalization of marijuana To all Vermont legislators, Law enforcement in Vermont is not divided on the question of whether Vermont should legalize marijuana this session. The Vermont Chiefs of Police, Vermont Sheriffs’ Association, Vermont Police Association and the Chittenden County Law Enforcement Executive Committee join the Vermont State Police in their opposition to the current legislative effort to legalize marijuana (S.241). A few outliers in the Vermont law enforcement community do not qualify as a division among Vermont law enforcement. Contrary to the opinion of certain politicians and bureaucrats, our opposition is based upon years of training and experience keeping our communities safe. We have legitimate public safety concerns. Science is on our side regarding the serious and lasting health consequences of marijuana use by people under the age of 25 and the danger posed by drivers and boat operators impaired due to marijuana. The Vermont Medical Society opposes legalization for this reason. Proponents of legalization do not dispute the serious health risks of marijuana when used by youth. No one, including the politicians and bureaucrats, argues against the danger posed by drivers or boat operators impaired due to marijuana. The main question is whether legalization of marijuana, coupled with increased access through the sale of marijuana by retail stores in our communities, will result in increased use by youth and an increase in impaired drivers on our roadways or boat operators on our waterways. We think the answer is “Yes” and we base this conclusion upon our collective training and experience. If S.241 passes, Vermont will be the only state in the Northeast to legalize marijuana (New Hampshire and Maine recently rejected legalization efforts). The Rand report predicts a significant influx of visitors to Vermont for the purpose of purchasing marijuana. A large percentage of those visitors will be driving home and we predict it’s likely that a certain percentage will drive home impaired. It appears that Gov. Shumlin and legislators supporting the bill share some of our concerns regarding increased highway safety risks since the bill attempts (unsuccessfully) to bolster Vermont’s highway safety efforts. Under S.241, marijuana will be sold to adults through retail stores, likely located in the heart of our downtown areas. That type of access means more avenues of availability to our kids and young adults under 21. The stigma of marijuana use evaporates with legalization so more people will think it’s OK to try it out. In Colorado, emergency room hospital visits due to marijuana use, highway crash data (marijuana involved) and youth use statistics trended upward since legalization. Proponents argue that these statistics are misleading. Our associations counter that at a minimum the raw data is concerning enough to justify

waiting until we have enough data to know what happens to youth use and highway/waterway safety when you legalize. Currently, Vermont law enforcement is not able to adequately enforce the threat posed by drug (including marijuana) impaired drivers and boat operators. We lack a scientifically and judicially accepted roadside/boatside test that can quickly establish probable cause that an operator is impaired due to marijuana. In addition, only a small percentage of Vermont law enforcement officers are ARIDE-certified to identify operators impaired due to drugs such as marijuana. Identification by ARIDE-certified officers is the first and most critical step in a robust highway/waterway safety program. The drug recognition experts (DREs) are also important, but you can’t use them if the officer making the stop is unable to detect an impaired driver — and more will if they are ARIDE certified. It will take years before a sufficient number of Vermont law enforcement officers are ARIDE certified, and with legalization, we will need more officers. Though the bill provides state agencies with resources such as money, personnel and equipment, it does not do the same for local agencies. For example, DPS Commissioner Flynn will receive additional troopers but your local municipalities will receive zero funding streams for hiring additional municipal police or boat patrol personnel. Federal law prohibits the cultivation, possession and use of marijuana. Federal law treats those who aid, assist or abet cultivators and distributors as they would the principal offender. Under S.241, our state will actively be aiding and assisting in the cultivation and sale of marijuana by issuing licenses, overseeing quality control of the marijuana product, and collecting excise taxes and licensing fees. A Vermont Police Association representative recently asked U.S. Attorney Miller if he would grant immunity to the state and its employees. U.S. Attorney Miller said he would not agree to grant immunity. Nor would U.S. Attorney Miller agree to waive the right of the federal government

to seize the money Vermont received from the taxes and licensing fees. Though U.S. Attorney Miller stated he would for now follow the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutorial guidelines (Cole Memorandum) which suggest no enforcement action, there are no guarantees. In short, the U.S. Attorney or DOJ could decide to enforce the federal laws at any time, and this is a real possibility with the election of a new president. Do we think that Vermont state employees will be arrested? No. But, we are bothered that the Legislature would pass a law that directs some of its employees to violate federal law. Once Vermont enacts a legalization bill the genie is out of the bottle and cannot easily be returned. That’s the true lesson from Prohibition. We choose to err on the side of protecting our youth and general public. We choose to not violate federal law. We urge legislators to wait until the federal laws permit states to regulate marijuana. We urge legislators to wait until data from states that have legalized is overwhelmingly supportive of the proposition that legalization and regulation poses no increased public safety risks, especially on our public highways and waterways or to our youth. In the meantime, we ask legislators to provide all of Vermont’s law enforcement agencies, medical community (including substance abuse and mental health providers) and educational institutions with the resources needed to address Vermont’s current substance abuse issue, and additional resources to provide information, treatment and support to our youth regarding marijuana use. Chief George Merkel of the Vergennes Police Department, president of the Vermont Police Association; Chief Paul Doucette of the Bennington Police Department, president of the Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police; Sheriff Bill Bohnyak of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, president of the Vermont Sheriffs’ Association; and Chief Jennifer Morrison of the Colchester Police Department, representative of the Chittenden County Chiefs Executive Committee

The 2015-2016 basketball season has come to a close with all three county high school boys’ and girls’ teams being eliminated from the playoffs. Even though this winter’s basketball season was not measured in a lot of ‘Ws’ for any of these six teams, one can reflect back over the season, regardless of records, Mount Abe versus Vergennes or Middlebury or Vergennes versus Middlebury, boys’ or girls’ games, there were a lot of competitive games between the three schools. I follow all of the high school teams mainly through this paper’s sports columns but the Mount Abe girls’ program I am the closest to as I am the significant other to the coach. Connie has been at the helm of this program for 26 years. Her focus is and always has been the players going through her program. Taking the hand she is dealt each year and meshing them together to maximize their talents for the good of the team. Along the way, Connie has been blessed with some talented teams. These teams have won three state championships and have been runners-up six times. There also have been some down years where the talent was not as good and the overall records reflected it. In 26 years, she has accumulated over 400 wins, but these wins are a reflection of the talent she has had and how they came together as a team. Many of her star players sacrificed their points, rebounds, assists, etc., for the overall good of the team success.

Her teams, winners or losers, have always had good team chemistry and displayed good cohesiveness as traits of a good team supporting one another. Connie can be 20-0 or 0-20 and there is at least one set of parents who have a gripe about something. I am sure I am echoing the same thoughts of each of the other five county coaches and maybe the other high school programs. Some parents take it to the extreme, where as others keep it to themselves and know the coaches are paid to coach, good, bad or otherwise. In the winter months, there are not a lot of ways for people to work off built up energy, but if they attend a basketball game held in a confined space called a gym with 10 players running around along with two or three officials, every whistle and every coaching decision is challenged. Playoff games are turned up a notch and bring out the good and bad in everyone. The Mount Abe girls lost their playoff game by a point to Lamoille. A game well played by both teams in a seesaw battle with the final basket scored with under 10 seconds to play. A lot of emotions and much effort were left on the floor by both teams, the officials and the coaches. An emotional draining 32-minute event. One team a winner and moves on to their next opponent, and the other prepares to turn in their uniforms after a long four-month season at six days per week. The home team was on the short

Former teacher taught student an enduring lesson George Motolanez was my ninth-grade world history teacher. I remember sitting next to Dave Rochon and Lauren Leroux in 1979 when Mr. Motolanez taught us something that still has a strong and helpful influence upon my view of how the world works. Up until that time I thought that the function of government was to represent people — all people. So even if my viewpoints were anti-commercial, for example, government’s job was to represent my views (in balance with all the other views of people out there).

Not so, Mr. Motolanez said, not at its core. The core function of government is to coordinate the economy in order to promote the economy. Governments have to be funded, they have to get paid or they will cease to exist. A person may be able to subsist off the land but governments subsist upon money and therefore they need to promote the economy or risk death. The implications of that lesson explained the animosity toward government of some of the old time Vermonters, often farmers

who were largely self-sufficient. They didn’t want the commercial economy to grow; that hurt them. It helped me to understand how the world works and why. He was a very good teacher. Mr. Motolanez taught me lots of other lessons, but this one really stayed with me. Thank you, Mr. Motolanez. You will be missed. Mike Sommers Oakland, Calif. Editor’s note: George Motolanez of Lincoln died Jan. 15 at the age of 82.

Letters to the Editor can be found on Pages 4A, 5A, 7A and 19A.

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Monkton voters made big splash Judging by the increased attendance and the number of new faces at Monkton’s first-ever Saturday town meeting, the decision, made at last year’s town meeting, to move our town meeting to a day when citizens do not have to take time off from work appears to have been a good idea. An informal count of 140 community members present — much greater than the 102 last year — clearly shows that it increased participation. This year, articles on the warning that voters wanted to discuss included the normal review of the municipal and highway budgets, recognition of Pete Aube and Charlie Huizenga for their years of service on the Recreation Committee, discussions of legal issues facing the town, and how to increase community engagement. In addition, the citizens of Monkton elected to add monies to the budget for the Monkton Museum and Historical Society. Thank you to all those who attended town meeting, for your questions and insights into the town’s business, and for your willingness to give up part of your weekend to have your voices heard. Thanks also to Bill Talbott, who stepped in as town moderator, and to our members of the Legislature, Claire Ayer, Chris Bray, Fred Baser and Dave Sharpe, for their updates on issues and for taking questions from the floor. Stephen Pilcher Monkton

end of this event. Many fans came to the coaches and players and tried to console them after a tough, emotional loss. Some fans took this moment to criticize the coaching staff saying they were outcoached and did not do their homework in preparation for this game. One thing these coaches did not do was miss field goals or free throws, throw the ball away or not play good hard-nosed defense. Being the “significant other” and on the outside looking into the team dynamics, I know what this coaching staff did to prepare for this game and each regular-season game. The coaching staff was prepared and so were the girls. The execution on the floor was not perfect. It is easy to sit in the stands and have all the answers, but it is hard to execute those answers from afar. As they say, if you can’t say anything good don’t say anything at all. For 26 years, Connie has represented her community and school well and has had the respect of her players, the school administration and most parents. The way society is today, it is all about ME and not WE! If you must criticize, be mature enough to make an appointment with the coach and do it sometime other than immediately after an emotional game. I hope I have spoken for all coaches. As many schools say, “Let the coaches coach, let the players play, let the officials officiate, and let the fans cheer!” Ron LaRose Bristol

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PAGE 8A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

community

calendar

Mar

3

THURSDAY

Introduction to “Peter and the Wolf” for kids in Vergennes. Thursday, March 3, 6-6:45 p.m., Bixby Library, Otter Creek Room. Kids in grades K-12 are invited to hear the story, listen to the music and be introduced to the musical instruments featured in this classical piece for children. This is a preparation for a March 6 concert at the library. Info: 877-2211 or rachel.plant@bixbylibrary.org. Twist O’ Wool Spinning Guild meeting in Middlebury. Thursday, March 3, 7 p.m., 49 Wilson Road. General meeting and show-and-tell, followed by a spin-in/knitin and/or a double-knit study group. Info: 453-5960.

Mar

4

Municipal staff will be moving to the new Middlebury Town Offices at 77 Main Street at the end of March. Given the magnitude of this move and to ensure public safety, it will be necessary to close the Municipal Building to members of the public from Wednesday, March 23rd through Friday, April 1st. If you anticipate needing the services of the Clerk’s Office, Treasurer’s Office, Listers’ Office or the Planning and Zoning Department during this period, please plan accordingly. The new Town Offices will be open for business at 77 Main Street on Monday, April 4th. All Town staff contact information will remain the same. Thank you for your patience and cooperation during this most important transitional period. Questions? Please contact the Town Manager’s Office, 388-8100 ext 202

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2016 ADDISON COUNTY

RABIES CLINICS A number of rabies vaccination clinics are being sponsored by the Addison County veterinarians during the month of March. Each clinic is open to all residents of all towns. Dogs should be leashed and cats in carriers for the safety of all. To avoid confusion and delay, please bring a copy of the pet’s most recent Rabies Certificate. Payment by CASH only, please no checks.

PLACES, DATES & TIMES BRISTOL • Bristol Animal Hospital . Weds., March 9 . 5:30PM – 6:30PM . $15 GOSHEN • Goshen Town Clerk’s Office . Sat., March 12 . 10AM – Noon . $12 LEICESTER • Leicester Town Office . Tues., March 15 . 5PM – 6PM . $12 VERGENNES • Vergennes Animal Hospital . Tues., Mar 15 . 5:30PM – 7:30PM . $15 SALISBURY• Salisbury Town Office . Tues., March 15 . 6:15PM – 7:15PM . $12 WHITING • Whiting Firehouse . Thurs., March 17 . 6PM – 7PM . $12 LINCOLN • Lincoln Town Offices . Sat., March 19 . 9AM – 10AM . $15 BRANDON • Brandon Fire House . Sat., March 19 . 10AM – Noon . $12 STARKSBORO • Starksboro Town Clerk’s Office . Sat., March 19 . 9AM – 11AM . $15 NEW HAVEN • New Haven Clerk’s Office . Sat., March 19 . 1PM – 2PM . $15 MONKTON • Monkton Town Fire Department . Tues., March 22 . 6PM – 7PM . $15 ORWELL • Orwell Firehouse . Fri., March 25 . 5PM – 7PM . $12 BRIDPORT • Bridport Firehouse . Sat., March 26 . 10AM – Noon . $12 SHOREHAM • Shoreham Firehouse . Tues., March 29 . 6PM – 8 PM . $12

FRIDAY

Senior luncheon with live music in Middlebury. Friday, March 4, 11 a.m., Middlebury VFW. CVAA invites seniors to its monthly First Friday luncheon, this month a noon meal of corned beef, cabbage and carrots, boiled potatoes, macaroni and cheese, dinner roll and St. Patty’s Day cake for dessert. Middlebury’s own Oh’Anleigh will perform Irish-American music. Bring your own place setting. Suggested donation $4. Reservations SORCHA CRIBBEN-MERRILL and Connor Garvey play acoustic folk at the Ripton Commurequired: 1-800-642-5119, ext. 1070. Free transportanity Coffee House on Saturday, March 5, following an open-mike set at 7:30 p.m. tion with ACTR: 388-1946. Info: www.cvaa.org. French culture festival in Lincoln. Friday, March 4, noon-2:30 p.m., Lincoln Community School. LCS with their parents for a developmental screening. Union High School auditorium. The Ferrisburgh students culminate their study of French culture with a Appointments: 382-1760. Also on March 10. Children’s Theater presents this play by Tim Kelly. family-style French luncheon at noon and a festival at Free foot care/blood pressure clinic in Bristol. Tickets $6 adults, $3 children, available at the door. 1:30 featuring a fashion show, exhibit of French intenWednesday, March 9, 10:30 a.m.-noon, American Carnevale Vergennes fundraiser in Vergennes. sive agriculture, display of French architecture, ballet Legion, 10 Airport Drive. Bring your own basin and Saturday, March 5, 7-11 p.m., Vergennes Opera performance and contra dance hosted by Lausanne towel. Offered by ACHHH. House. An unusual evening of entertainment, Allen and Rick Ceballos. Info and lunch reservations: costumes, flourish and flair. This year’s theme: “Marco “Release the Writer in You” writing class in 453-2119 or triley@anesu.org. Vergennes. Wednesday, March 9, 6-8 p.m., Bixby Polo Returns,” with Asian-style fare and Italian-style Lenten fish fry in Bristol. Friday, March 4, 5-7 p.m., St. Library. The first in a five-week series of writing desserts. Cash bar. Entertainment by Woody Keppel, Ambrose Church. Seventeenth annual Lenten fish fry. classes, led by Kristen Johanneson. Participants will internationally known performer, acrobat, juggler, All-you-can-eat meal includes fried or baked haddock, explore plot, setting, conflict and more, and study short actor and comedian, as well as the Hokum Brothers. French fries, coleslaw, beverage and dessert. Adults fiction, eventually creating their own inventive narraLimited tickets available, on sale March 1. Tickets $12.50, children 9 and under $6, tives. Space is limited. Register at 802-877-2211 or immediate family of five $37. Info: muir.haman@bixbylibrary.org. 453-2488. “Difret” screening at Middlebury College. Wednesday, Exhibit opening reception in March 9, 7 p.m., Dana Auditorium. When Brandon. Friday, March 4, Jirut is abducted in her rural MIDDLEBURY STUDIO SCHOOL — Adult: Fri. Figure Drawing- 14-year-old 5-7 p.m., Brandon Artists Guild. village’s tradition of kidnapping women Celebrating the opening of “Out Joe Bolger, Sat. Book Making, Thurs. Drawing, Mon. Oils, for marriage, she fights back, accidenon a Limb,” a guild members’ Freestyle Acrylics-Janet Fredericks, Pastels, Weds. Midday tally killing her captor and intended show that focuses on the unique Wheel, Weds AM Paint. Children: Mon. Wheel, Weds Young husband. Part of the Education Studies spirit and sculptural form of trees. spring film series. Free. See Artists & Weds. Clay hand building, Thurs. Clay hand building, Program’s Exhibit runs through May 3. www.difret.com. “Let Down Your March Hares” Small World. Contact Barb at 247-3702, ewaldewald@aol. Book club meeting in Bridport. benefit dance and cocktail party Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m., Bridport com, middleburystudioschool.org in Middlebury. Friday, March Highway Department Conference 4, 6-9 p.m., Stonecutter Spirits, Room. This month’s title: “The 1197 Exchange St. Fundraiser Moviegoer” by Walker Percy. Info: 758-2858. $50, available online at www.vergennesoperahouse. for the Addison County Parent Child Center featurorg or in advance at Classic Stitching, Everywear for ing storyteller Suzanne Schmidt, music by Station Everybody and Malabar. Mountain Band, and corn hole boards and games. Connor Garvey and Sorcha Cribben-Merrill in Silent auction, hors d’oeuvres, cash bar. Donations: concert in Ripton. Saturday, March 5, 7:30 p.m., $25 adults. Info and tickets: 388-3171. “Producers’ and Buyers’ Forum: Where Ripton Community House. The Ripton Community “NER Out Loud” live readings at Middlebury College. Buying, Selling and Marketing Happens” Coffee House welcomes this duo for an evening of Friday, March 4, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. at Middlebury College. Thursday, March 10, acoustic folk. Refreshments. The community house Middlebury College student orators will read selec8:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Wilson Hall, McCullough Student is wheelchair-accessible but the bathrooms are not. tions from the New England Review literary magaCenter. ACORN hosts this forum, which includes a Admission $10/$3 children, or $15 generous admiszine. “S’more Readings” reception follows. Free. Info: buyers’ roundtable on emerging food market opportusion. Info: 388-9782. 802-443-6433 or http://go.middlebury.edu/arts. nities, breakout sessions with buyers, and marketing Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band concert/ insights from Skillet Creative, a Vermont firm specializdance in Middlebury. Friday, March 4, 8 p.m., Town ing in food marketing. Registration at 8:30, local foods Hall Theater. Wright’s sultry and gritty voice is backed lunch at noon. Cost: $10, including coffee, refreshby a rock-solid rhythm section, a powerful three-piece Pancake breakfast in Cornwall. Sunday, ments and lunch. Reserve tickets at www.acornvt.org. horn section and a brilliant electric guitarist. Tickets March 6, 7-10 a.m., Cornwall School. Space is limited. $15, available at the THT box office, 382-9222, www. Pancakes, bacon, sausage and eggs, as well ACSU early education screening in Middlebury. townhalltheater.org or at the door. as hot and cold drinks. All you can eat. Ages 2-12 $4, Thursday, March 10, 9-11 a.m., Junebug Mother ages 13 and older $9. To benefit the school’s farm-toand Child. Children who live in Bridport, Cornwall, school programming. Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham or Weybridge “Ways of Seeing” conversation in Middlebury. who were born between Sept. 2, 2011, and Sept. 1, Sunday, March 6, 1:30 p.m., in the library room of 2013, are invited with their parents for a developmental Green Mountain Club cross-country ski EastView at Middlebury. Addison Independent “Ways screening. Appointments: 382-1760. outing in Ripton. Saturday, March 5, time of Seeing” contributor Johanna Nichols will host a Free foot care/blood pressure clinic in Middlebury. and meeting location TBA. The GMC Bread conversation on what you would like to hear God say Thursday, March 10, 9 a.m.-noon, The Commons, Loaf Section offers a moderate 3-hour cross-country at the pearly gates. Info: 989-7500. Buttolph Drive. For Commons residents 9-10 a.m., ski with rolling hills and moderate inclines. Bring water, Auditions for old-time radio plays in Brandon. open to the public 10 a.m.-noon. Bring your own basin ski gear and snack. Wear layers. Contact leader Sunday, March 6, 2 p.m., Brandon Senior Center, and towel. Offered by ACHHH. Anne Christie for details: achristie1026@gmail.com Route 73. Actors with good speaking voices are Blood drive in Middlebury. Thursday, March 10, 11 or 802-388-4347. More info: www.gmcbreadloaf.org. encouraged to audition for a June 4 performance of a.m.-4 p.m., Vermont Hard Cider, 1321 Exchange St. Schoolyard improvements workshop in Lincoln. old-time radio shows such as “Burns & Allen” and Appointments: redcrossblood.org or 1-800-733-2767. Saturday, March 5, 8:30 a.m.-noon, Lincoln “Dick Tracy.” Info: 247-6720. Also on March 13. “Healthy Soils, Crops and Livestock” field day in Community School. LCS has created a draft master Windsong Woodwind Quintet in concert in Ferrisburgh. Thursday, March 10, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., plan for a new and improved outdoor play space. This Vergennes. Sunday, March 6, 2 p.m., Bixby Library. Nea-Tocht Farm. A farmer-to-farmer discussion includmeeting marks the next step: a “Community Visioning The quintet performs “Peter and the Wolf” and other ing farm tour, guest speakers and experiences using Workshop.” Participants can view the draft plan, look short classical pieces. Refreshments follow. Info: alternative bedding, fertilizer, lime and more. Speakers: at photos of the current schoolyard, discuss ideas 877-2211 or jane.spencer@bixbylibrary.org. Willie Gibson of Casella Organics, and Howard, Sid from other community play and garden spaces, and Aurora School benefit gala in Middlebury. Sunday, and Raymond Vander Wey of Nea-Tocht Farm. Free more. Free. Childcare and food provided. Register at March 6, 2-6 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Aurora School lunch. Rain or shine. 453-2119 or triley@anesu.org. in Middlebury celebrates 20 years with live music by Lenten noon recital in Middlebury. Thursday, March Met Opera live in HD in Middlebury. Saturday, March 5, the Grift, Zephyr and others; food and drink; and silent 10, 12:15-12:45 p.m., St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. 1 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Live broadcast of Puccini’s auction. Family friendly. Tickets $20 adults, $10 chilTrio recital by vocalist Ellie Gebarowski-Shafer, flutist “Manon Lescaut,” the French tale, set in 1720, of a dren 12 and younger, $50 families. Info and tickets: James Berg and organist George Matthew Jr. You may beautiful young woman destroyed by her conflictwww.auroraschoolvt.org or 388-2637. bring a lunch. Light refreshments served. Part of St. ing needs for love and luxury. Run time: 3 hours, 33 Pianists Diana Fanning in concert at Middlebury Stephen’s annual Lenten recital series. minutes, with two intermissions. Free pre-show talk at College. Sunday, March 6, 4 p.m., Mahaney Center Global food insecurity conference at Middlebury 12:15 in the Byers Studio. Tickets $24/$10 students, for the Arts. A concert celebrating Fanning’s 40 years College. Thursday, March 10, 4:30-8:30 p.m., Robert available at the THT box office, 382-9222, www.townof teaching piano at the college. Program features A. Jones ’59 House Conference Room. Day one of halltheater.org or at the door. Brahms’ Variations, Handel’s Fugue on a Theme a three-day conference titled “Food Insecurity in a “Girlhood” screening at Middlebury College. and more. Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or Globalized World: The Politics and Culture of Food Saturday, March 5, 3 and 8 p.m. Dana Auditorium. 802-443-3168. Systems.” For specific session times and topics, visit Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school Community dinner in Vergennes. Sunday, March 6, go.middlebury.edu/foodinsecurity. prospects and the “boys’ law” in her neighborhood, 5-6:30 p.m., St. Peter’s Parish Hall. Enjoy a homeWandering Reel Traveling Film Festival screening Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of cooked meal. Free. This month’s menu: beef stew with in Middlebury. Thursday, March 10, 7 p.m., Marquis free-spirited girls. In French with English subtitles. Yorkshire pudding (pastry-like popovers), peas, appleTheatre. Screening of “A Call to Action.” This festiFree. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. sauce and angel food cake with berries and topping. val showcases compassionate and artful cinema Chamber music “play-in” in Middlebury. Saturday, Gluten-, dairy- and sugar-free servings available. for communities with limited access to such films. March 5, 3-5 p.m., Middlebury Community Music Followed by community discussion and Q&A led by Center, 6 Main St. Musicians of all ages and abilities festival director Michael Harrington. Info: www.wanderare invited to play chamber music they are reading for ingreel.org. the first time. Part of the Associated Chamber Music Players Worldwide Play-In. Info: 802-989-7538. Legislative breakfast in Ripton. Monday, The Laurentian Singers in concert in Middlebury. March 7, 7-8:45 a.m., Rikert Nordic Center. Saturday, March 5, 4 p.m., Congregational Church Breakfast at 7, program at 7:30 a.m. of Middlebury. This 28-member choir of St. Lawrence “Off the Wall” art discussion and Grant-writing workshop in Middlebury. Monday, University undergraduates will kick off a spring break luncheon at Middlebury College. Friday, March 7, 2-4:30 p.m., Vermont Folklife Center. The tour with a program of sacred music, classic British March 11, 12:15 p.m., Mahaney Center Vermont Arts Council is hosting a free workshop for folk songs, popular music from the ’60s and traditional for the Arts Room 125 and Lower Lobby. Gennifer Vermont nonprofit organizations and municipalities spirituals. Free. Info: www.stlawu.edu/music. Weisenfeld, professor of art history and visual studies interested in applying for FY2017 Cultural Facilities Eric Davis Memorial Spaghetti Dinner and Silent at Duke University, presents “Saito Kazo’s ‘Synthetic Grants. Grant deadline is May 2. Info: www.vermonAuction in Monkton. Saturday, March 5, 5-7 p.m., Art’: New Designs for Modern Japan.” Further convertartscouncil.org. Monkton Central School. The Monkton Boy Scouts’ sation over a light lunch. Free to college ID cardholdannual fundraiser, featuring regular and gluten-free ers; $5 suggested donation from others. Info: www. spaghetti, homemade sauces, tossed green salad, middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. fresh bread, homemade desserts and beverages. Global food insecurity conference at Middlebury Silent auction closes at 6:30 p.m. Blood drive in Middlebury. Tuesday, College. Friday, March 11, 12:30-5:45 p.m., Robert Line dancing lesson in New Haven. Saturday, March March 8, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Middlebury A. Jones ’59 House Conference Room. Day two of 5, 6-8 p.m., New Haven Town Hall. Addison County American Legion, 49 Wilson Road. a three-day conference titled “Food Insecurity in a Line Dancers present the first in an ongoing series of Appointments: redcrossblood.org or 1-800-733-2767. Globalized World: The Politics and Culture of Food line-dancing lessons. Cost $5, all ages welcome. Info: Systems.” For specific session times and topics, visit 802-989-6701 or Facebook.com/ACLineDancers. go.middlebury.edu/foodinsecurity. Classes will meet weekly. “Fry-day” night Lenten fish fry with live music in King Pede party in Ferrisburgh. Saturday, March 5, Vergennes. Friday, March 11, 5-7 p.m., St. Peter’s 6:30-8:30 p.m., Ferrisburgh Community Center and ACSU early education screening in Parish Hall. Live music, plus battered baked haddock, Town Hall. Sandwich supper followed by an evening Middlebury. Wednesday, March 9, 9 a.m.fries, macaroni and cheese, green beans, coleslaw, of fun and card games. Come planning to play King noon, Junebug Mother and Child. Children rolls, punch, milk and coffee. Adults $11, children under Pede or bring your own favorite card game. Requested who live in Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, 12 $6, immediate family $32. Info: 877-2367. donation: $2.50. Salisbury, Shoreham or Weybridge who were born Baked Potato Bar in Cornwall. Friday, March 11, 5:30-7 “Wagon Wheel’s a-Rollin’” children’s play in between Sept. 2, 2011, and Sept. 1, 2013, are invited p.m., Cornwall Congregational Church. Fifth annual Vergennes. Saturday, March 5, 7-9 p.m., Vergennes

Coffee house harmonies

Mar

THURSDAY

Mar

FRIDAY

10

Mar

SUNDAY

Mar

MONDAY

6

Mar

5

SATURDAY

7

11

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TUESDAY

Mar

WEDNESDAY

8

9

community

calendar

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 9A

fundraiser to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Addison County. Potatoes are $5 each, with choice of toppings: sour cream, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, broccoli, chives, chili, bacon, salsa and more. Fruit kebabs and local cider will round out the offerings. Info: 462-2012.

Mar

12

SATURDAY

Green Mountain Club walk in Ferrisburgh. Saturday, March 12, Kingsland Bay State Park, time TBA. The GMC Bread Loaf Section offers an easy 2-hour walk along the shores of Lake Champlain. Bring boots or snowshoes depending on weather conditions, plus water and snack. Contact David Andrews at vtrevda@ yahoo.com or 802-388-4894 for meeting time. More info: www.gmcbreadloaf.org. Global food insecurity conference at Middlebury College. Saturday, March 12, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Robert A. Jones ’59 House Conference Room. Day three of a three-day conference titled “Food Insecurity in a Globalized World: The Politics and Culture of Food Systems.” For specific session times and topics, visit go.middlebury.edu/foodinsecurity. Open swim in Bristol. Saturday, March 12, 9:30 a.m.noon, Mount Abraham Union High School pool. Music and fun for all. Cost $3 per swimmer. Children under 10 must be with an adult. Offered by the Bristol Rec Department on select Saturdays through April. Check dates at 388-5885, bristolrec@gmavt.net or on Facebook. “Wild Tales” screening at Middlebury College. Saturday, March 12, 3 and 8 p.m., Dana Auditorium. This Argentinean film presents a suddenly shifting reality as the backdrop to a lover’s betrayal, a return to a repressed past and the violence woven into everyday life. Its characters are driven to madness as they cede to the undeniable pleasure of losing control. Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Supermarket Bingo in Ferrisburgh. Saturday, March 12, 4 p.m., Ferrisburgh Central School. A fundraiser hosted by the FCS PTO, with the goal of raising $4,500 for student enrichment programs. Prize contributions welcome; email fcspto@gmail.com. Corned beef and cabbage supper in Vergennes. Saturday, March 12, 5-6:30 p.m., Vergennes United Methodist Church. Corned beef, cabbage, boiled potatoes, carrots, onions, rolls, dessert and beverage, served buffet-style. Adults $9, children $5. Takeout available. Info: 877-3150. Contradance in Cornwall. Saturday, March 12, 7-9:30 p.m., Cornwall Town Hall. David Kaynor calls to live music by Red Dog Riley. Cost: $5 per person. Info: 462-3722. “Rock On Film” series in Middlebury. Saturday, March 12, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall Theater. “A Hard Day’s Night,” the Beatles’ outrageous first movie. Part of a new THT series of the finest rock-and-roll films ever made. Tickets $10, available at the THT box office, 382-9222, www.townhalltheater.org or at the door. The Starline Rhythm Boys in concert in Lincoln. Saturday, March 12, 7:30 p.m., Burnham Hall. Part of the 2015-2016 Burnham Music Series. Doors open at 7 p.m., concert at 7:30. Admission $8 adults, free for kids and teens. See the Burnham Music Series Facebook page for full schedule of monthly concerts. Info: 388-6863. Vermont Virtuosi chamber concert in Brandon. Saturday, March 12, 7:30 p.m., Brandon Music. The foursome, on flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano plays a concert titled “Once Upon a Time.” Tickets $20. Reservations required: 802-247-4295 or info@brandon-music.net. Pianists Maria João Pires and Julien Brocal in concert at Middlebury College. Saturday, March 12, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. Each will play two Beethoven sonatas, and together they may play a work for four hands. Tickets $25/$20/$6. Info: www. middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168.

Mar

13

SUNDAY

Family breakfast in Hancock. Sunday, March 13, 8-9:30 a.m., Hancock Town Hall, 1097 VT Route 100. Hosted by the Community Church of Hancock and Granville. Donations taken. Repeats on March 20. Open barn in Weybridge. Sunday, March 13, noon-5 p.m., Duclos and Thompson Farm, Sheep Farm Road. Come see over 200 lambs at the farm’s 33rd annual open barn. Auditions for old-time radio plays in Brandon. Sunday, March 13, 2 p.m., Brandon Senior Center, Route 73. Actors with good speaking voices are encouraged to audition for a June 4 performance of old-time radio shows such as “Burns & Allen” and “Dick Tracy.” Info: 247-6720. “Freedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie” screening in Ferrisburgh. Sunday, March 13, 2 p.m., Ferrisburgh Historical Society. Showing Part 2 of this documentary series, titled “Under the Surface.” Info: 425-3380. Irish music concert and dancing at Middlebury College. Sunday, March 13, 4 p.m., Wilson Hall, McCullough Social Space. Timothy Cummings, along with Pete Sutherland (fiddle and vocals), Dominique Dodge (harp, vocals), Jeremiah McLane (accordion, piano), Mary Wesley (dance caller) and student guests,

MIDDLEBURY LIONS CLUB CASH CALENDAR WINNERS JANUARY 2016

The Wright stuff

d on its feet at ble Soul Band will get the crow KAT WRIGHT AND the Indomita March 4, 8 p.m. ay, bury’s Town Hall Theater on Frid

invite the audience to join in the singing of and dancing to traditional tunes from Ireland and Brittany. Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Free community dinner in Bristol. Sunday, March 13, 5-6:30 p.m., St. Ambrose Catholic Parish Hall. This month’s menu: macaroni and cheese, garden salad, rolls and dessert. Family dinner served second Sunday of the month. Syrian refugee crisis talk in Lincoln. Sunday, March 13, 7 p.m., United Church of Lincoln. Mari Cordes, RN, will talk about the work she did with Team Vermont in Lesvos, Greece, to help the refugees. Abigail Nessen Bengson and Shaun Bengson in concert in Middlebury. Sunday, March 13, 7 p.m., Town Hall Theater. The duo brings their blend of blues, world music, captivating melodies and energetic frenetic rhythms to create one-of-a-kind rock/art/ theater performances. Tickets $17, available at the THT box office, 382-9222, www.townhalltheater.org or at the door.

Mar

14

MONDAY

Governor’s lunch in Bristol. Monday, March 14, noon-1:45 p.m., Bristol American Legion. NER Vermont Reading Series in Middlebury. Monday, March 14, 7 p.m., 51 Main at the Bridge. Poets Jennifer Grotz and Sydney Lea and fiction writer Janice Obuchowski will read from their recent work. Light refreshments served. Free. “DamNation” documentary screening and panel discussion at Middlebury College. Monday, March 14, 7-9 p.m., Dana Auditorium. This award-winning film sheds new light on America’s dams. Screening followed by panel discussion on Vermont river health. Free.

Mar

15

TUESDAY

Food safety workshop for food producers in Middlebury. Tuesday, March 15, 9-11:30 a.m., UVM Extension, 23 Pond Lane. ACORN hosts this workshop with three guest speakers who will talk about new and updated food safety and water regulations. Cost $10, including coffee, light refreshments. Pay at the door. RSVP to lindsey@ acornvt.org. Space is limited. Free foot care/blood pressure clinic in Middlebury. Tuesday, March 15, 10 a.m.-noon, Russ Sholes Center. Bring your own basin and towel. Offered by ACHHH. Blood pressure/foot care clinic in Brandon. Tuesday, March 15, 11 a.m., Conant Square. Foot clinic $10. Info: 802-775-0568. “Ways of Seeing” conversation in Middlebury. Tuesday, March 15, 1:30 p.m., in the library room of EastView at Middlebury. Addison Independent “Ways of Seeing” guest writer Laurie Borden, program assistant at Hospice Volunteer Services, will host a conversation on overcoming our fear and grief to care for one another. Info: 989-7500. “Hackable Infrastructures” architecture talk at Middlebury College. Tuesday, March 15, 4:30 p.m., Johnson Memorial Building, Room 304. Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller, founding principals of AGENCY Architecture, discuss former and current projects, architectural systems and speculative urban research. Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Rabies clinic in Leicester. Tuesday, March 15, 5-6 p.m., town office. Cost $12, plus license fee of $11 for spayed/neutered pet, $15 not spayed/neutered. Rabies clinic in Salisbury. Tuesday, March 15, 6:157:15 p.m., town office. For dogs and cats; dogs must have current rabies certificate to be licensed. Fee $12.

Mar

16

WEDNESDAY Early education developmental screening in Bristol. Wednesday, March 16,

Girl power IN “GIRLHOOD,” MARIEME deals with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood by starting a new life with a group of freespirited girls. The film is showing at Dana Auditorium on the Middlebury College campus on Saturday, March 5, at 3 and 8 p.m. Admission is free.

Middle-

1-4:30 p.m., Bristol Elementary School. Free onehour screening for children in the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union who will be 3 years old by Sept. 1, or 4 years old but not previously screened. Children can come play in an early childhood classroom while parents share information about their child’s communication, social, play and motor skills. Info and appointment scheduling: 453-3674. MCTV annual meeting and roundtable in Middlebury. Wednesday, March 16, 4-5:30 p.m., Ilsley Library Community Room. A short business meeting of Middlebury Community Television will be followed by a roundtable discussion titled “Archiving Our Community in the 21st Century.” Info: 388-3062 or dthodal@middleburycommunitytv.org. Art history lecture on El Greco at Middlebury College. Wednesday, March 16, 4:30 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts, Room 125. Ellen Prokop presents “A Modern Old Master? Using Historical GIS to Chart El Greco’s Influence on the French Avant-Garde.” Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Crock pot dinner in New Haven. Wednesday, March 16, 6 p.m., New Haven Congregational Church. The New Haven Ladies Union serves hearty casseroles, bread, beverage and dessert. Cost: $8. Info: 453-5059. “Scheherazade’s Sisters: Edwidge Danticat and Julia Alvarez in Conversation” at Middlebury College. Wednesday, March 16, 7 p.m., Dana Auditorium. Two internationally acclaimed authors address a variety of issues ranging from the art and power of storytelling, human “w/righting” cross-culturally and transnationally, writing across languages, feminism and collaboration in organizations such as Border of Lights. Blues jam in Middlebury. Wednesday, March 16, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. Dennis Willmott from Left Eye Jump will provide lead guitar, bass and drums if you need backup, or take a break and let you play. Bring your instrument and get ready to jam. Info: www.go51main. com.

Mar

17

THURSDAY

Lenten noon recital in Middlebury. Thursday, March 17, 12:15-12:45 p.m., St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Dominique Dodge, harp, and Timothy Cummings, pipe, play a program of traditional Celtic music. You may bring a lunch; light refreshments will be served. Part of St. Stephen’s annual Lenten recital series. 40th Army Band in concert in Orwell. Thursday, March 17, 7 p.m., Orwell Town Hall. “Vermont’s Own” 40th Army Band will play traditional patriotic American tunes, as well as contemporary musical favorites. Info: 338-3480. “Creating a Shelter Belt” gardening presentation in New Haven. Thursday, March 17, 7 p.m., New Haven Town Office. Meghan Giroux, owner of Vermont Edible Landscapes, will talk about “shelter belts,” plantings that control erosion, protect crops and livestock, control odor for manure pits, create edible hedges and more. Part of the New Haven Conservation Commission’s Armchair Naturalist Speaker Series. Free. Info: percival@madriver.com.

L I V EM US I C Va-et-Vient in New Haven. Friday, March 4, 7:30 p.m., Lincoln Peak Vineyard. Dave & Billo in Middlebury. Friday, March 4, 8:3010:30 p.m., 51 Main. Hamjob in Middlebury. Friday, March 4, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Papa Greybeard in Middlebury. Saturday, March 5, 6 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Anthony Santor Jazz Group in Middlebury. Saturday, March 5, 8:30-10:30 p.m., 51 Main. The Bob MacKenzie Band in Middlebury. Friday, March 11, 6 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. The Blackberry Bushes Duo in Middlebury. Friday, March 11, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. Snake Mountain Bluegrass in Middlebury. Saturday, March 12, 1 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. BandAnna in Middlebury. Saturday, March 12, 5-8 p.m., 51 Main. The Horse Traders in Middlebury. Saturday, March 12, 5 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Revibe in Middlebury. Saturday, March 12, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Friends Union Band in Middlebury. Thursday, March 17, 7:30-9:30 p.m., 51 Main. Longford Row in Middlebury. Friday, March 18, 6 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. The Sky Blue Boys in Middlebury. Friday, March 18, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. About Time in Middlebury. Friday, March 18, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. The Bob Levinson Trio in Middlebury. Saturday, March 19, 6 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Cooie DeFrancesco in Middlebury. Saturday, March 19, 7:30-9:30 p.m., 51 Main. hi8us in Middlebury. Saturday, March 19, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Paul Asbell Jazz Group in Middlebury. Friday, March 25, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. The Remedy in Middlebury. Friday, March 25, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. DuPont Brothers in Middlebury. Saturday, March 26, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. The Grift in Middlebury. Saturday, March 26, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern.

See an extended calendar and a full listing of

O N G O I NG NGE E VE N T S

on the Web at

www.addisonindependent.com

Pame Daily, Kevin Unrath, Bob Anderson, Ronald G. Payne, John Nuceder, Dan Derora, Alice Grau, Stephen Truesdale, Ronald Viau, Cherle & Bob Devarney, Chris Dayton, Bree & Tali Cotroneo, Dick Thodal, Marion Desabrais, Catherine Forbes, Alan Holcomb, Randy Fairbrother, Joanne Desabrais, Iain Hoefle, Christopher Brown, Tom Ball, Joel Bouvier, Roger Desabrais Sr., Bradley Fallon, Harley Lane, Melissa George, Lindsay Cunningham, Jeremy Ward, Ron Childers, Austin Rule, Andrew Rainville

FEBRUARY 2016

Robert Duclos, Ben Paquin, Helen Bigelow, Mike Miller, Alan Mayer, Daphne Jensen, Janet Piper, Carrie Wry, Carol Jane Heinicken, Don Kaufman, Mose Desabrais, Gary Booska, Susan Swain, John Nuceder, Theodore Curran, Bill Laduc, Michael Little, Vickie Backus, Darlene Rheaume, Ingrid Jackson, Tom Jackman, Jeffrey K. Laberge, Sarah Kruk, Walker Whittmore, Fenn Daily, Todd Roscoe, Ray Boise, Art & Joan Huestis, Dennis Cassidy.

NADEAU’S PLAYSCHOOL SOUTH A 4-star Center trusted for 17 years to provide the quality care that families look for, and deserve.

Have Confidence in Your Child Care! Now accepting children 6 weeks to 5 years old at Nadeau’s 2nd location – Route 7 in North Ferrisburg

Visit our OPEN HOUSE on March 19th from 12-2pm Refreshments • Door Prizes (including movie passes) • Star 92.9 Live

Fun for Children & the Whole Family! Take a Tour and Experience our Child-Friendly Environment For a personal tour scheduled at your convenience, please call Yvonne or Bethany at:

(802) 539-2107 Now accepting resumes for qualified director and teachers.

Nadeau’s Playschool South 7056 Route 7 • North Ferrisburg

www.nadeausplayschool.com

PAGE 10A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

Addison Central School District Election * Bridport Suzanne Buck

* = contested race

Cornwall

Rick Scott

Peter Conlon

Victoria Jette

JP Rees

Jason DuquetteHoffman

* Ripton

Middlebury Ruth Hardy

Lorraine Morse

Steve Orzech

Josh Quinn

Bryan Alexander

Salisbury Shoreham Weybridge

Perry Hanson

Jerry Shedd

Jennifer Nuceder

Nick Causton

ACSD Merger Vote

Chris Eaton

YES

NO

Bridport

137

244

268

223

170

192

200

189

164

193

92

84

47

243

240

242

334

98

Cornwall

162

117

430

307

227

257

268

251

218

271

101

101

58

304

299

309

404

63

Middlebury

793

460

1,431

1,479

1,169

1,321

1,378

1,417

1,183

1,254

480

494

243

1,381

1,318

1,359

1,631

278

78

48

131

115

79

95

103

97

82

93

85

97

26

119

118

119

150

93

Salisbury

101

85

200

156

118

134

135

130

100

133

77

74

28

284

172

177

251

78

Shoreham

134

111

244

202

158

163

187

166

145

162

71

87

40

217

349

226

305

143

Weybridge

133

117

271

234

184

194

213

199

176

194

87

96

56

252

245

322

329

39

1,538

1,182

2,975

2,716

2,105

2,356

2,484

2,449

2,068

2,300

993

1,033

498

2,800

2,741

2,754

3,404

792

Ripton

TOTALS

ACSU (Continued from Page 1A) ture as a way of delivering public education more efficiently and costeffectively. Still, this most recent successful effort was spurred by Vermont’s Act 46, which provides financial incentives for school districts that consolidate their governance as a means of containing the rising costs of public education. Act 46 is currently encouraging school districts to unify their governance, but the state has served notice that it will compel all districts to join the unification effort by 2020. Governance unification passed by a combined total of 3,404-792 in all seven towns. The question passed 334-98 in Bridport; 404-63 in Cornwall; 1,631278 in Middlebury; 150-93 in Ripton; 251-78 in Salisbury; 305-143 in Shoreham; and 329-39 in Weybridge. Middlebury residents will hold seven of the 13 seats on the ACSD board. Bridport, Cornwall, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge will hold one each. All 13 members of the ACSD board were elected at-large on Tuesday. There were contested races for seats in Bridport and Ripton. In

those races, Suzanne Buck beat Rick Scott, 1,538 to 1,182, for Bridport’s seat, while Perry Hanson prevailed in a three-person race for Ripton’s seat. Hanson won with 1,033 votes, followed by Bryan Alexander with 993 and Jerry Shedd with 498. Hanson said he was pleased with his successful election. “I’m thrilled that it worked out for me,” Hanson said. Hanson is a Ripton school director and member of the ACSU Charter Committee and ACSU Strategic Plan Committee. He said a run for the unified board made sense for him as a logical extension of his work on those other panels. “It’s very exciting,” he said of Addison Central’s future under one board. Efforts to reach Buck were unsuccessful as the Addison Independent went to press on Wednesday. All other ACSD board candidates ran unopposed. They included Peter Conlon in Cornwall, Jennifer Nuceder in Salisbury, Nick Causton in Shoreham and Christopher Eaton in Weybridge. The seven candidates elected to Middlebury’s seats were Lorraine Morse, Josh Quinn, Steve Orzech, Jason Duquette-Hoffman, Ruth Hardy, J.P.

Rees and Victoria Jette. The Vermont Agency of Education will determine when the new unified school boards in the state will hold their first meetings. Those meetings are not likely to occur within the next 30 days, the window in which residents could petition to reconsider the governance merger referendum in their town. When the ACSD board does convene, Hardy said it will choose officers and turn its attention to such issues as drafting board policies and procedures, looking at how a global budget for all the member schools can be prepared, and discussing the need for a new teachers’ contract for ACSD educators. “I don’t think we’ll waste any time,” Hardy said. The ACSD will include the elementary schools in Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge, along with Middlebury Union Middle and High schools. Under Act 46 to date, 35 communities — representing 40 school districts — have voted to streamline themselves into nine unified districts. Locally, Addison Northwest and Rutland Northeast supervisory union are also among those that have opted

for unification. Orange, Addison, Rutland, and Franklin counties voted to consolidate district governance on Town Meeting Day, according to the Shumlin administration. “I’m proud of these communities and their school boards for their hard work to chart a course that will lead to a higher quality public education system,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said through a press release. “These larger districts will be able to provide more stability and support for their small, local schools. “One year ago these important conversations were not happening,” Shumlin added. “Today they are, because of Act 46, not despite it. The law has sparked communities around Vermont to have conversations about the future of their kids’ education and how to make it better. Those conversations are necessary because Vermont has over 20,000 fewer students than we did ten years ago.” UD-3 board member Peter Conlon of Cornwall was among the ACSU officials who worked on governance consolidation. He was pleased with Tuesday’s outcome. “The overwhelming support for unification was really incredible,” he said. “It shows the open mind our communities had going into this. It

also means a great responsibility for those of us on the new unified board to keep education moving forward and be responsive to all citizens in the district.” Tuesday’s unanimous approval of a unified board means all seven ACSU communities will be in line for some property tax breaks and grants to help with the transition to the new system. Financial advantages will include a decrease of 10 cents on the towns’ education property tax rates during the first year of the governance merger, followed by 8 cents in year two; 6 cents in year three; 4 cents in year four; and finally, 2 cents in year five. The ACSD will also receive a one-time “transition facilitation grant” of $150,000 and the ability to retain their Small Schools Grants, which for ACSU schools amount to a combined total of $470,000 annually. ACSU Charter Committee members have tentatively estimated that school governance unification will bring cumulative, five-year savings of $1.80 on Bridport’s tax rate, $1.60 on Cornwall’s rate, 80 cents for Middlebury, $2.30 for Ripton, $1.60 for both Salisbury and Shoreham, and $2.80 for Weybridge.

The cumulative, five-year savings on a $200,000 home would be $3,600 in Bridport, $3,200 in Cornwall, $1,600 in Middlebury, $4,600 in Ripton, $3,200 in both Salisbury and Shoreham, and $5,600 in Weybridge, according to an ACSU flier sent out this week. ACSU Superintendent Peter Burrows will soon deal with one governing board, instead of the current nine. But the underlying mission of district officials and parents will not change, he noted. “As the new board takes shape, our citizens still need to have the same passion for our community schools, the same commitment to what’s best for our students, and the same resolution to put students first,” Burrows said. “It’s what makes our communities unrivaled in Vermont, and what we will continue to grow in our new governance structure. “We are expanding our boundaries, and will work to focus on every student in ACSD with the same commitment and core belief that each student deserves an exceptional educational experience to set them up for success in the years ahead,” he added. Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.

This time around, in percentage terms, the smallest margin of victory came in Addison, where about 68 percent of voters favored the measure. Overall, voters in the five towns favored unification 76 percent to 24 percent. Town by town the vote went: • In Addison, 366-169. • In Ferrisburgh, 852-241. • In Panton, 181-46. • In Vergennes, 661-214. • In Waltham, 163-21. ANwSU Superintendent JoAn Canning said she was thrilled with the results, which she called a win for the district’s students. “I am feeling relieved and excited and so honored by the fact that these

results are so resounding and this community has understood this unification possibility is really going to have a positive effect on all our students,” Canning said. Act 46, passed a year ago by the Legislature, created incentives for districts that unified their governance before this summer. Locally on Tuesday, ANwSU and Addison Central Supervisory Union joined what is now a total of nine new unified districts created under Act 46 taking advantage of those incentives, according to a press release from Gov. Peter Shumlin. Those incentives include discounts of 10 cents off the local residential school tax rate in the first year after a

merger, 8 cents in the second year, 6 cents in the third year, 4 cents in the fourth year, and 2 cents in the fifth and final year. Also, ANwSU will receive a $150,000 grant to help plan the transition, and the district will retain its Small Schools Grants, a key factor in Addison, where the central school receives about $80,000 annually, about 5 percent of its budget. ANwSU also released estimates that over the next five years tax rates in all five communities would be lower under unification. But Canning said the successful vote this time was not just due to the financial incentives. She credited a process that involved citizens

as well as board members in the ANwSU’s unification study committee, and the word of mouth those involved created. “This time around we had board members and community members who were willing to reach out to individual community members and talk to them directly about the advantages of unification,” Canning said. “You can offer people an opportunity to come to a meeting, or you can hold a lot of meetings in your locations, but the biggest thing is to reach out and go to the people.” Canning echoed themes that unification supporters said during the run-up to the vote: That the ability to more easily share programs

and curriculum among the ANwSU elementary schools and, if necessary, move teachers from school to school, will benefit students and allow administrators to plan for what they expect to be declining enrollments. “I’m really excited about being able to share all of our school resources and be able to deal in a strategic way around our declining enrollment,” Canning said. “I’m not interested in reducing staff on a year-to-year basis. We need to understand where we need to go in five years, where we need to go six years.” Andy Kirkaldy may be reached at andyk@addisonindependent.com.

Vergennes

OM

AWOR K

S

(Continued from Page 1A) fied district will remain open for at least four years unless its host town votes to close it. After four years, a school can be closed by a majority vote of the Unified District Board. The new union will also assume school districts’ existing debt. Collectively, the plan passed, 2,223-691, in a strong turnout that ran at about 50 percent in the five towns due to the presidential primary as well as the unification vote. ANwSU had considered unification in 2005, 2010 and 2011. It had first passed in the latter two years in all five towns before losing in petitioned re-votes in Addison and Vergennes, respectively.

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Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 11A

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Goings on

TOWN

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What would God say to you?

“If heaven exists, what would plight Kingsolver can’t solve. The you like to hear God say when you dying monarchs are no joke. But arrive at the pearly gates?” James there is a harbinger of salvation for Lipton always asks this question the motherless Dellarobia whose when he interviews shocking discovery actors during teleof the monarchs on vised seminars of a mountain road “Inside the Actors behind her house Studio,” a program destroys and saves of Actors Studio her life. Into her life Drama School of comes an entomoloPace University. gist, who has devoted I was struck by his life’s work to the response of the monarchs, to Johnny Depp who study the alarming would want to hear phenomenon. When God say, “Wow.” he hires Dellarobia His response is as a lab assistant, her ambiguous. It could life takes flight. be interpreted in Asked by Larry many ways. Was King if he had faith, he serious, cleverly Depp replied, “Yes. I evading the queshave faith in my kids. tion, or joking? Life And I have — I have without contradicfaith, you know, that By Johanna Nichols tion is only half a as long as you keep life, said Carl Jung. moving forward, just Let’s say Depp was not joking. keep walking forward, things will be In the novel “Flight Behavior” all right …” (Oct. 16, 2011). (2012 Harper Collins), Barbara I didn’t have a dramatic adolesKingsolver’s character Dellarobia cence, but I arrived in my 20s on was “orphaned at an age to inter- the second wave of feminism. I nalize death as poor material for came of age during a cultural shift a joke. And likewise, salvation.” that opened wide the options for Depp has struggled and failed and women. I was in the Statehouse in succeeded his way through life thus 1973 when the Legislature voted far, as we all have. In adolescence, to ratify the federal Equal Rights he cut himself (self-harm), left high Amendment. It was a great disapschool, worked as a pointment that it fell musician, and was three states short a television idol. As of the 38 needed to an adult, he dropped ratify. A Vermont out to make movies Equal Rights that were box office Amendment was on bombs, became the Nov. 4, 1986, an award-winning ballot in Vermont movie star, owns where it was his own producdefeated. tion company, has In all the turbutwo children, and is lence of the time, it divorced. Wow? I’d was also a spiritual say Depp is fortuawakening for me. nate if he has come I came through with through in good a faith that if I made shape. It doesn’t a positive effort for always happen. the good, the world He credits his best would be a bit better friend Betty Sue, for everyone. his mother, whose There is hope for name is tattooed over his heart. all of us — with our own inner In Kingsolver’s novel, an ecologi- contradictions, our own ambigucal disaster flings colonies of monarch ity — in response to life. We come butterflies off course to overwin- through. We don’t do it alone. We ter in Appalachia. The monarchs have our own Betty Sues, if not our are up against climate change — a mothers, then, others with whom

Ways of Seeing

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Dedicated citizens DOTTIE AND TERRY Kline, center, pose with the Brandon selectboard at Monday’s Brandon Town Meeting. Shown from left, are Tracey Wyman, Ethan Swift, Devon Fuller, the Klines, Chair Doug Bailey, and Vice Chair Seth Hopkins. The Klines were honored with a dedication in the Brandon Town Report this year “for more than 35 years of quiet, peaceful citizenship and contributions to Brandon’s economic and civic life.” The Klines moved to the Residence at Otter Creek in Middlebury last spring, but are still regular visitors to Brandon. Brandon Reporter photo/Lee J. Kahrs

we have strong connections. I feel blessed beyond words for family, friends and colleagues in my life. I am grateful for my religious community that challenges and nurtures me to keep faith with myself. My faith calls me to stand on the side of love to support justice and equality for all beings and for the environment. Keep moving forward, just keeping walking forward. Susan Griffin wrote that it is the nature of love to upset the daily order of things. In my efforts to change the world, that is true, with all the ups and downs. In the larger sense, I have faith that love is a universal force that “includes when all else around us excludes” (Maya Angelou). That love set me moving forward on a path to serve others at all ages.

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Would you like to inform our community about an event? news@addisonindependent.com

If heaven exists, if I were to arrive at the pearly gates, if God were there to greet me, what would I like to hear? In 1967, John Lennon gave us the song “All You Need Is Love,” in which he sang there is “nothing you can do but you can learn to be you in time.” At this stage in my life, if I have succeeded in doing anything, I hope it is that I have learned to be myself — I know myself. Love has surrounded me. At the pearly gates, God might say something like this: “See what love can do.” Johanna Nichols is a retired minister who enjoys writing. She will host a conversation on this or any other column, open to anyone who would like to participate, on Sunday, March 6, at 1:30 pm in the Library at EastView at Middlebury. For information call 989-7500.

milestones births

• Karrie Provencher & Bill Sinks III, Weybridge, Feb. 22, a daughter, April Ann Sinks. • Mary & Christopher Taylor, Crown Point, N.Y., Feb. 22, a daughter, Christa Mae Taylor. • Nichole Fernandez & Tristin Coe, Waltham, Feb. 23, a son, Oxley Joseph Coe. • Archana Emayavaran & Emay Pandarakutty, Vergennes, Feb. 23, a daughter, Nila Emayavaran. • Abigail & Reuben Williams, Cornwall, Feb. 24, a son, Josiah JamesRobert Williams. • Michelle & Nichita Guidea, Bristol, Feb. 25, a daughter, Victoria Grace Guidea. • Melinda & Nicholas Rice, Fair Haven, Feb. 26, a daughter, Taryn Ann Rice. • Amanda Rogers-Wilson, Shoreham, Feb. 26, a son, Benham Roy Rogers-Wilson.

PAGE 12A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

Salisbury Vergennes Granville Addison Orwell Panton Bridport Whiting Lincoln Starksboro

Bristol

Monkton

Waltham

Weybridge

Town Meeting Results Shoreham

Hancock

Middlebury

Brandon

Cornwall Ferrisburgh

★ Addison ★ ADDISON — Addison residents on Tuesday supported town and elementary school spending and joined other Addison Northwest Supervisory Union towns in backing Addison Northwest Supervisory Union school governance unification. They also supported several measures to create town reserve funds and gave the selectboard the authority to borrow $50,000 to fund the next phase of developing the community sewer system, an item they approved by Australian ballot on Tuesday. At the annual town and Addison Central School meeting on Monday night, residents also agreed to authorize the selectboard to negotiate a land swap with the school board. Town and school officials have been discussing a land exchange that would move along the town’s effort to renovate the now-vacant former Addison Town Hall and use it as the town clerk’s office and community center. Town officials have been studying the idea for a decade. To do so, Addison would have to build a community septic system on land west of the school, a system that would serve the town hall, the church next to the town hall, and the town’s fire department. And the town must also clean up a patchwork of land ownership around the town hall, the existing clerk’s office and the central school, something the land swap would handle. On Tuesday, residents back the selectboard’s proposals for $325,261 for the town administration budget for the coming year and $732,236 for the highway department budget. Earning support were reserve funds for highway equipment, culverts, the town’s service bay/salt shed, and the town hall, all to be “funded with voter-approved budget appropriations” in the next year. Addison backed a full slate of candidates who ran without opposition. Incumbent Selectmen Roger Waterman and Steven Torrey won reelection, as did Town Clerk and Treasurer Marilla Webb and school board treasurer Jill Bourgeois. Two newcomers filed for seats on the ACS board, Jasmine Almeida and Michael Krause; they will serve for the next year as ANwSU transitions to one-board governance. Addison residents chose Vergennes Union High School board chairwoman Laurie Childers and ACS board vice-chairman George Lawrence for the town’s two seats on the Addison Northwest Unified District Board. Addison residents backed, 348192, a $1,606,375 ACS budget proposal that will make few changes to elementary school’s program and will raise spending by 4.12 percent, or about $63,000. That increase is almost entirely driven by contracted raises and an expected hike of roughly 8 percent in health insurance benefits, officials said. The school board had voted to use $100,000 of a projected fund balance from the end of the current school year to keep spending under the original dollar-for-dollar Act 46 penalty threshold. As for school spending, Addison residents voted against, 284-252, the proposed VUHS $10,026,000 spending proposal for the 2016-2017 school year that represents a 2.23 percent spending cut from current spending. They backed, 300-215, a separate VUHS $100,000 capital fund line item. VUHS spending will still be reduced by about by about $134,000, or 1.3 percent, including that fund. Addison residents supported ANwSU unification, 366-169.

★ Brandon ★ BRANDON — For the second year in a row, Brandon voters threw their support behind the town budget as proposed and all ballot items passed on Town Meeting Day. The $2,486,822 net municipal spending plan passed, 735-459; that figure represented a spending increase of $51,452, or 2.11 percent, over the current budget. The projected tax bill increase comes to $10.80 per $100,000 of property value. The average home in Brandon is valued at $170,000 and therefore the tax increase would amount to $18.36 for the year. Two large infrastructure bonds also passed, giving the town money for matching funds on several key downtown projects, as well as much

Every seat taken IT WAS STANDING-room-only in Orwell’s town hall for town meeting Tuesday morning.

needed upgrades to a section of the town wastewater system. Article I asked voters to approve an $835,200 bond to raise the matching funds needed for the Neshobe River overflow culvert, the Segment 6 upgrade of Route 7 through downtown Brandon, and the rehabilitation of Bridge 114 on Center Street at the foot of West Seminary Street. The bond passed by a vote of 892249. Article II addressed a need to upgrade a portion of the town’s wastewater treatment operation. Voters approved up to $680,000 for a 20year bond to finance improvements to the Champlain Street wastewater pump station, re-sleeving sewer pipes from the Champlain Street pump station to Park Village, and replacing the force sewer main from the pump station up to the area around the Brandon Baptist Church. Thanks to a pay-off in recent weeks of a previous wastewater bond, this new bond will not cost ratepayers any more than what they are currently paying. The bond passed, 885-255. With Tuesday’s voter approval, the town will now be able to apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan program and find out how much of the project, up to 45 percent, the federal government is willing to fund. The library appropriation of $85,000 was approved, as was $13,500 for the Brandon Senior Center and a $10,000 appropriation to the Brandon Boys & Girls Club. Brandon voters also approved: • Spending $100,250 for paving projects in cooperation with Fire District No. 1, 999-196. • Spending $24,000 for a grant match to replace a culvert on Wheeler Road, 872-306. • Allocating $18,000 for sidewalk work on Maple and Union streets in order to avoid paying back $78,000 in grant funds, 854-323. Voters overwhelmingly approved budgets on Tuesday for the new Otter Valley Unified Union School District formed under the state’s Act 46 school consolidation bill. The OVUU budget of $22,604,806 passed by a tally of 1,920-846 by voters in Brandon, Pittsford, Goshen, Leicester, Whiting and Sudbury. In candidate news, the only race this town meeting in Brandon was for town and school moderator. Challenger Bill Moore won the oneyear seat over incumbent Hanford “Skip” Davis, 727-489. None of the three selectmen running for re-election were challenged. Devon Fuller won another three-year seat with 1,023 votes, and board Chair Doug Bailey (961) and Selectman Ethan Swift (820) each won re-election to their oneyear seats. Sharron Kenney was re-elected to her three-year seat as Trustee of Public Funds (1,097) and to her two-year seat on the Brandon Free Public Library Board of Trustees (1,100). There were no challengers to Jeff Guevin’s bid for re-election to oneyear terms as town agent (959) and grand juror (956).

★ Bridport ★ BRIDPORT — Bridport at its town meeting this week agreed to join a unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) that will represent all seven Middlebury-area communities, and passed all of the money items on its warning. Townspeople also picked Joan Huestis over David Bronson, 202 to 194, in a two-person race for one spot on the selectboard. Bridport residents voted 334 to 98 in favor of the unified ACSD, which will govern all of the schools in the Addison Central Supervisory Union under a single budget (see related story, Page 1A). Townspeople also participated in the election of all 13 ACSD board members, and helped resolve a contested race for Bridport’s seat on the new panel. In that race, Bridport School Director Suzanne Buck defeated Addison Central Supervisory Union board Chairman Rick Scott by a 1,538 to 1,182 tally, with votes coming from all seven towns in the union. In Bridport, the polling went for Scott, 244 to 137. The proposed Bridport Central School budget of $1,562,807 for the 2016-2017 passed by a 298-135 vote. Residents OK’d, by voice vote, a combined town-highway budget for 2016-2017 that will require a property tax levy of $947,144. Also gaining voter approval were articles seeking: • A $315,000 replacement project for the Crown Point Road Bridge. The town has applied for up to $175,000 in state grants to help pay for the span, also known as the Sunderland Bridge. • Up to $217,000, in the form of a five-year loan, for the purchase of a new grader. • $10,750 for the purchase of a wood chipper. • A change in the town charter that would allow the selectboard to appoint the town clerk and treasurer, who will be able to reside outside of Bridport. The current town clerk and treasurer will be invited to continue in their respective jobs. • $12,500 for the Bridport Fire Department. • $8,000 for the Town Line First Response. • A combined total of $23,023 for various charities and nonprofits that benefit Bridport residents. Those running unopposed for local office this year included Earl Audet, selectboard, two years; Valerie Bourgeois, town clerk, one year; Irene Zaccor, town treasurer, one year; Paul Plouffe, Bridport school director, one year; and Rick Scott, UD-3 school director, two years. There were currently no takers for a two-year spot on the Bridport School Board.

★

Bristol

200 for Clark. Fox had served on the selectboard since 2013, when he won a race against John Moyers; previously, Fox had served five years on the Mount Abraham Union High School Board. Town meeting agenda items passed as proposed, with a few exceptions. Voting from the floor of town meeting on Monday night at Holley Hall, townspeople approved a general fund budget of $938,607 and a highway fund budget of $754,789. The general fund spending went up a whopping 21.67 percent — in large part to pay for the sorely needed new fire station — and the highway budget went up 5.71 percent — in large part to begin payments on the new South Street Bridge. This past July, Bristol voters approved a $3.19

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

million bond to build the new fire station. Four years ago, voters OK’d $300,000 to replace the South Street bridge. Town Administration Therese Kirby said the actual costs to replace the bridge came in at $115,000 and that voters would now begin paying on that amount. Monday night voters also approved an Arts, Parks and Recreation budget of $254,758, nearly identical to that approved at last year’s town meeting. Three small amendments carried by voice vote on Monday night. Interest on property tax was amended to be 0.75 percent per month for the first three months and 1.25 percent thereafter (down from the proposed 1 percent and 1.25 percent). Also by amendment, funds allocated to the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program

Ripton Leicester New Haven

were raised from $750 to $850, so that voters approved $85,050 total for social service agencies and other organizations. And during the school meeting, the salaries of Bristol Elementary School board members were raised to be the same as selectboard members, up from $200 per year plus $15 per meeting to $500 per year plus $15 per meeting. Voting by Australian ballot on Tuesday, townspeople approved a Bristol Elementary School budget of $5,020,933. The 2016-2017 spending plan represents a 2.1 percent increase from the 20152016 budget of $4,918,334, and would result in per-pupil spending of $14,739, an increase of 1.6 percent. This number is well under the Act 46 threshold for Bristol Elementary of 2.68 percent, and thus avoids the Act 46 tax penalty. Voters across the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union approved $13,389,914 for Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School. In 2015 voters rejected two proposed Mount Abe budgets before passing a $13.95 million spending plan in June; this year the Mount Abe budget passed out of the gate with 2,703 yes votes and 1,306 against. Addison County voters approved $3,521,263 for the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center. Residents in the Bristol Police District approved a budget of $415,999. In other voting by Australian ballot, all other local elections besides the Fox-Lylis-Clark race for selectboard were unopposed. Winners were: Peter Coffey, selectboard for two years; incumbent Jen Stetson Myers, town clerk and town treasurer for one year; incumbent Chris Scrodin, Bristol Elementary School Board for one year; Colleen Bouvier Wedge, Bristol Elementary School Board, one year (Wedge was appointed in November to replace Terri Mayer Thomsen); Allison Sturtevant, Bristol Elementary and Mount Abe school boards, three years on each (Sturtevant had been appointed in August 2015 to replace Bob Donnis on the MAUHS board); and incumbent Carol Eldridge, Mount Abe board, three years. One Bristol school board seat on the Mount Abe board still remains unfilled. (See Bristol Page 13A)

★

BRISTOL — In the only upset on the Bristol ballot, challenger Ted Lylis beat incumbent selectboard Chair Brian Fox and challenger Joshua Clark for a three-year term on the selectboard. The final vote was 504 for Lylis, 391 for Fox, and

On mic

MIDDLEBURY RESIDENT LINDSEY Hescock talks from behind a microphone during Middlebury’s town meeting Monday night. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 13A

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(Bristol continued from Page 12A) Monday evening’s town meeting also featured and extended discussion, and a nonbinding vote, about how or if the selectboard should proceed with selling the old Bristol Fire Department building on North Street. Many at the meeting wanted to keep the historic building but how to pay the high cost of upgrading it was a big question.

★ Cornwall ★ CORNWALL — Cornwall residents at their town meeting this week passed all of the money items on their warning and endorsed, by a 404-63 margin, forming a new unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) with six other Middlebury area communities (see related story, Page 1A). Residents also OK’d, by voice vote, the borrowing of up to $250,000 to be used to renovate their town hall. The $250,000 loan being sought to renovate the town hall would be paid back through future appropriations to Cornwall’s Capital Building Fund. The new, 13-member ACSD board will include one Cornwall resident — current UD-3 school board Chairman Peter Conlon. Conlon ran unopposed for a two-year term and received 430 tallies. All ACSD board members were elected at-large by residents of all seven towns. The proposed 2016-2017 general fund budget of $460,946 and highway budget of $403,050 both passed comfortably by voice vote, as did the proposed Bingham Memorial School spending plan of $1,479,162, representing a decrease of $18,136, or 1.21 percent, compared to this year. Residents also approved allocating $63,900 to help operate the local fire department; $4,000 to help subsidize the Cornwall Free Public Library; and a combined total of $22,929 to support various charities and nonprofits that benefit Cornwall residents. There were no contested elections on this year’s Town Meeting Day ballot. Those elected unopposed included Cy Tall, town moderator, one year; Magna Dodge, selectboard, three years; Brian Kemp, selectboard, one year; and Sarah Kemp and Gabe Hamilton, three years and two years, respectively, on the Cornwall School Board.

★Ferrisburgh★ FERRISBURGH — On Saturday at Ferrisburgh Central School, about 100 Ferrisburgh residents backed the selectboard’s $1,803,427 town spending proposal, agreed to spend $40,000 to buy a pickup truck for the highway department, and voted to make the delinquent tax collector an appointed and salaried position. Including charitable contributions approved by residents, the budget will total $1,834,267. The first payment on the pickup truck should add about another $10,000, depending on the final price. Saturday’s meeting and the following Ferrisburgh Central School meeting was moderated by selectboard appointee Paul Hoffman, who was challenged for the town and school board moderator posts on Tuesday by Bill Clark. Both men were seeking to replace longtime moderator Don Bicknell. Clark, the FCS board chairman, then prevailed on Tuesday in both races, 542-393 for the town moderator position and 509-413 for the school job. In the town’s only other contested race on Tuesday, former selectwoman and incumbent delinquent tax collector Sally Torrey prevailed in a three-way contest to retain her post with 418 votes, defeating former tax collector and town clerk Chet Hawkins (350 votes) and town treasurer Garrit Smits (215). Torrey will serve for one year, after which the residents’ decision to make the post one to be appointed by the selectboard takes effect. According to town officials, the switch to it being a salaried or hourly wage job, rather than one paid by a percentage of delinquent taxes collected, will be immediate. Earning election without opposition were incumbent selectboard members Steve Gutowski and Loretta Lawrence, FCS board newcomer Katherine Yarbrough (who will serve for one year as Addison Northwest Supervisory Union transitions to

one-board governance) and VUHS board incumbent Kristina MacKulin. Four candidates stepped forward to fill Ferrisburgh’s four seats on the new Addison Northwest Unified District Board and ran unopposed on Tuesday: current FCS director Laurie Gutowski; current Vergennes Union High School and FCS board member George Gardner; resident Finn Yarbrough, a newcomer to school board service; and MacKulin. In other voting on Tuesday, residents approved, 707-403, a $3,432,273 FCS budget that cuts almost $155,000 from the school’s current spending level. Board members worked hard to avoid a potential Act 46 spending threshold penalty. Ferrisburgh voters backed, 587509, the proposed $10,026,000 VUHS budget for the 2016-2017 school year that represents a 2.23 percent cut from the current spending level. Voters also supported, 686-366, a separate $100,000 capital fund line item for VUHS. VUHS spending will still be reduced by about $134,000, or 1.3 percent, with that article passing.

★ Goshen ★ GOSHEN — At Goshen’s town meeting on Monday night, residents passed town spending measures, but only after making cuts to selectboard proposals. They backed a general fund budget of $232,673, which was $500 less than proposed. An expected revenue increase from recycling income allowed most of that move, town officials said. Goshen residents also backed cutting $4,000 of materials and labor from the board’s proposed highway budget and eventually backed $187,200 of spending on the roads. Spending on both budgets is still significantly higher than a year ago. Residents chose candidates for town offices, cast presidential primary votes, and weighed in on the Otter Valley Unified Union School District budget via Australian ballot on Tuesday; school ballots were commingled. Voters overwhelmingly approved a budget for the new OVUU School District, formed under the state’s Act 46 school consolidation bill. The $22,604,806 OVUU spending plan passed by a tally of 1,920-846 by voters in Brandon, Pittsford, Goshen, Leicester, Whiting and Sudbury. Town candidates were unopposed. Among those re-elected to their offices were Dave McKinnon as a selectman, Rosemary McKinnon as town clerk and Vickee Whiting as treasurer. John Kasich was the top votegetter among Republican primary candidates in Goshen with 13, followed by Donald Trump, 4; Ben Carson, 3; and Ted Cruz and Marco

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Rubio, 1 apiece. Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Goshen on the Democratic side, 55-14.

★ Granville ★ GRANVILLE — On Tuesday evening, 55 voters in Granville meeting at the town hall passed town and school budgets as well as approved a number of measures. Voters OK’d a town spending plan of $360,787, which is $61,000 more than the figure that was approved at last year’s town meeting. That represents a 20.4 percent increase. In smaller appropriations, residents also voted to set aside $5,000 for building maintenance, $5,500 for fire protection in East Granville, $2,000 for the Plunkton Road culvert, and $2,500 for current and future conservation projects. Granville residents, who tuition all students to schools out of town, OK’d a plan to spend $623,031 educating the town’s youth. That represents an increase of $42,000, or 7.2 percent, from the $580,935 approved for the current year. Residents voted from the floor to elect town officials. Bruce Hyde unseated incumbent Cheryl Sargeant for a three-year term on the selectboard. Kathy Werner was re-elected to a three-year term as town clerk and treasurer. In other activity, residents voted to change the term of the town treasurer from one year to three years. Residents voted down a measure to give property tax exempt status to a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that owns property in Granville. In results for the presidential primary election, Granville residents threw support behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with 86 votes. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received five votes. Among the 12 ballots cast for Republication candidates, John Kasich got 5, Donald Trump received 4, Marco Rubio tallied two, and Jeb Bush got one.

★ Hancock ★ HANCOCK — At Tuesday morning’s town meeting, 84 residents of Hancock voted on town and school spending plans as well as a number of individual appropriations. For the town’s general and highway funds, residents approved a $417,460 spending plan, which represents a decrease of 5 percent from the $441,653 approved last year. Hancock lacks it own school and pays tuition for local children to attend schools in other towns. This year, voters approved a school budget of $965,213. The proposed budget will result in education spending of $17,314 per equalized pupil, which

MEMBERS OF GIRL Scout Troops 30033 and 30067, Boy Scout Troop 110 and Cub Scout Pack 123 in Brandon, along with Scout leaders Sarah-Lynne and Jeff Carrara, recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the Brandon Town Meeting at the Neshobe School on Monday evening. Brandon Reporter Photo/Lee J. Kahrs

is 2.7 percent lower than the current year. In several larger individual appropriations, voters approved $70,000 for repairing and repainting the Hancock Town Hall; $19,374 for services from the White River Ambulance; $2,583 for the QuinTown Senior Center; and $1,475 for the Visiting Nurse Association of Vermont and New Hampshire. Hancock elected people to 14 offices including Olivia Drury to a three-year term as town clerk and treasurer. Don Crickard was elected town lister. Voters also elected a constable, auditor, delinquent tax collector and representative to Valley Rescue. Voters re-elected incumbent Monica Collins to a three-year term on the selectboard; she won in a voice vote over lifelong Hancock resident Dan DeLorm. In town school district elections, voters tapped Stacey Peters and Kenneth Troumbley to two-year terms on the school board.

★ Leicester★ LEICESTER — After a little discussion from the floor of town meeting, Leicester voters on Monday evening approved a municipal spending plan of $595,192, which represents an increase of $20,908, or 7 percent, over the $574,283 spending plan OK’d last year. The municipal budget was warned in two parts: general expenses and highway expenses. The selectboard had asked for $272,856 for general expenses with $235,338 to be raised by taxes, and $322,335 for highway expenses with $241,857 to be raised by taxes. Compared to the budgets approved last year, these figures represent slight increases of $900 in general expenses and $20,000 in highway expenses. Also at Monday’s meeting, residents OK’d spending an additional $20,000 for road paving, and $20,000 for future culvert and

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bridge improvements. In Australian ballot voting on Tuesday, Leicester approved a $1,885 appropriation for Addison County Transit Resources by a tally of 248-58, and a $350 appropriation for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, 253-52. Those who attended Monday’s meeting had a discussion about how Leicester Central School will be integrated into the broader Otter Valley Unified Union school district, formed earlier this winter under the state’s new Act 46 school consolidation law. Residents were curious about the benefits and costs of the merged school, and also about the mechanics of the merger. Voters in six area towns overwhelmingly approved a budget for the new OVUU School District. The $22,604,806 OVUU spending plan passed by a tally of 1,920-846 by voters in Brandon, Pittsford, Goshen, Leicester, Whiting and Sudbury. (See Leicester Page 14A)

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PAGE 14A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

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(Leicester continued from Page 13A) Ten town officers were elected in uncontested elections, including two selectboard members (Diane Benware for three years and Ken Young for two), lister (Amy Quenneville, three years), Auditor (Donna Pidgeon, three years), Delinquent tax collector (Beth Ripley, one year), first constable (Jeff McDonough) and second constable (Mike Rakowitz). As in the rest of the state, Leicester Democrats heavily favored Bernie Sanders (153 votes) over Hillary Clinton (28) in presidential primary voting. On the Republican side, Leicester went for Donald Trump (52 votes) over John Kasich (27), Marco Rubio (17), Ted Cruz (16) and Ben Carson (3).

★

Lincoln

★

LINCOLN — Following an amendment proposed by Lincoln Community School board Chair Rebecca Otey, Lincoln residents voted to raise the elementary school spending plan by $17,400 on the floor of the annual school meeting at Burnham Hall Monday evening. The vote raised the final school budget to $2,216,122, which those at the meeting then approved. The increase in the total LCS budget raised spending per equalized pupil from $15,217 to $15,359 and raised the percentage growth in perpupil spending from 2.09 percent to 3 percent. The Agency of Education assigned Lincoln an Act 46 allowable growth percentage of 3 percent; so the increased budget brings no Act 46 tax penalty. All other items on Monday night’s town and school meeting agendas passed as warned. Townspeople approved a highway budget of $978,445, down $15,985 from last year, and a general fund budget of $341,269, up $15,720 from last year. Overall, the $1,319,715 in municipal spending approved for fiscal 2017 is $264 less than the $1,319,979 approved for the current year. Voters approved appropriations for various Lincoln organizations, identical to last year’s, including: • $5,000 for Lincoln Cooperative Preschool. • $44,000 for the Lincoln Library. • $2,000 for Lincoln Sports. • $55,896 for the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department. This year voters also approved $5,000 for the Lincoln Cemetery Association, which last year did not request town funds. The association had been budgeted between $2,500 and $5,000 in recent years. Appropriations for agencies outside of Lincoln saw a small increase to $17,760, resulting from a $115 uptick in allocations to the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. In Town Meeting Day voting Mark Truax retained his position as second

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constable against a challenge from Matthew Collins. Truax’s winning vote tally was 297 to 203. Elections to all other town offices were unchallenged and saw incumbents returning to their offices, with some slight shuffling of seats on the Lincoln selectboard. Will Sipsey won a three-year seat to the Lincoln selectboard, James Needham won a two-year seat, and Oakley Smith won a one-year seat. Sally Ober, Lincoln’s town clerk since 2006, won another one-year term. Lisa Truchon, first elected treasurer in 2012, returns for another year as treasurer. Lincoln Community School board Chair Rebecca Otey won another three-year term. Vice Chair Mary Beth Stilwell returns for another two-year term. Voters across the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union approved $13,389,914 for Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School. In 2015, by contrast, voters rejected two proposed Mount Abe budgets before passing a $13.95 million spending plan in June. This year the Mount Abe budget passed out of the gate with 2,703 yes votes and 1,306 against. Voters in the 17 Addison County towns (including Lincoln) that send students to the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center approved that institution’s budget proposal of $3,521,263.

★Middlebury★ MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury residents at their town meeting decided a five-person race for three seats on their selectboard and overwhelmingly endorsed forming a unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) with six other area towns (see related stories, Page 1A). Heather Seeley was the top votegetter in the selectboard race, garnering 1,234 tallies. Former Selectman Victor Nuovo was second, with 1,052 votes, followed by current selectboard Vice Chairman Nick Artim, who received 991 votes. Incumbent Selectman Gary Baker finished fourth and out of the running with 930 votes, and candidate Richard Terk rounded out the field with 654 tallies. School governance unification passed in Middlebury by a whopping 1,631 to 278 margin, in spite of the fact that the town stands to receive the least cost benefit from the move — at least initially. The measure also passed comfortably in the other six towns, and those results can be found in the individual town meeting wrap-ups and in the Page 1A story. Middlebury endorsed seven representatives for the new, 13-member ACSD board, with all of them running unopposed. They included Lorraine Morse (1,417 tallies), Steve Orzech (1,183) and Josh Quinn (1,254), each for three years; Jason Duquette-Hoffman (1,321) and Ruth Hardy (1,378), each for

Box after box BALLOT BOXES FOR a variety of paper ballots are lined up in Bridport’s Community Hall for Tuesday’s voting.

two years; and Victoria Jette (1,479) and JP Rees (1,169), each for one year. All 13 members of the ACSD board were elected at-large, with votes coming from all seven towns. Aside from selectboard, there were no other contested races on the Middlebury ballot. Those elected unopposed included James Douglas, town moderator, one year; Jason Duquette-Hoffman and Ruth Hardy, ID-4 school board, three years each; Lorraine Morse, UD-3 school board, three years; and Catherine Nichols, Ilsley Library Board of Trustees, three years. Middlebury voters at their annual gathering on Monday evening overwhelmingly endorsed, by voice vote, a proposed 2016-2017 municipal budget that will not require an increase in property taxes. The spending plan will require raising $6,943,658 in property taxes, which will translate into the same municipal property tax rate of 98 cents per $100 in property value that residents are currently paying for town services. A Mary Hogan Elementary School (ID-4) budget of $7,391,279 earned voter approval by a 1,718 to 401 tally. This was the first year that the ID-4 budget was decided by Australian ballot, a switch that had been requested by local voters. Historically, the budget has been voted at an ID-4 annual meeting held in early April.

Residents voted 1,517 to 122 to appropriate $6,500 for the Charter House Coalition to support the nonprofit’s emergency housing and daily food programs for people in need. Middlebury residents also agreed to: • Give town officials permission take out a five-year, $242,000 loan to bankroll a police cruiser and related equipment, a pick-up truck and related equipment for public works, a sprayer and power-drive unit for line painting for public works, and a trailer for public works. • Grant authority to collect local property taxes in three equal installments, due Aug. 15, 2016; Nov. 11, 2016; and March 15, 2017. • Set the penalty charged by the tax collector for delinquent tax payments as follows: No penalty for all payments made prior to the due date for the third and final installment; 1 percent on any balance not paid by the due date for the third and final installment; and an additional 7 percent on any balance not paid within 10 days of the due date of the third and final installment. • Eliminate the elected office of auditor. These positions have not been drawing candidates and the accounting chores in question have been delegated to a professional firm. A more detailed account of Middlebury’s Town Meeting Day results can be found on Page 1A.

Civics lesson ORWELL VILLAGE SCHOOL students take notes during Orwell’s town meeting Tuesday morning. The meeting took place in the school’s gym/ town hall.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

★ Monkton ★ MONKTON — One of the first actions at Monkton’s Saturday town meeting was to nominate an acting town moderator from the floor. Longtime town moderator Ken Wheeling, who’s served as moderator for more than 30 years and as zoning administrator for more than 40, could not be at town meeting as the result of a Feb. 18 car accident that still had him hospitalized last Saturday. Deputy Secretary of Education Bill Talbott accepted the nomination and moderated the meeting in Wheeling’s place. The move to a Saturday town meeting resulted in a 38 percent rise in attendance. Last year, town meeting drew 102 participants; this year it drew 140. Monkton had historically held its town meeting on the morning of Town Meeting Day. Voting from the floor on Feb. 27, townspeople approved all articles as proposed with one exception. The $900 allocation proposed for the Monkton Museum and Historical Society for fiscal year 2017 was amended from the floor to $1,000, bringing total municipal and road expenditures to $1,250,294. Overall, the FY 2017 $1.25 million budget represents a 6.9 percent increase from the current fiscal year’s total of $1,169,920, with increases in expenditures to salaries and general expenses, highway expenses, the fire department, and the agricultural and natural areas fund. The largest components of that $1.25 million in spending are: • $790,132 for highway expenses. • $348,512 for salaries and general expenses. Other components of the $1.25 million include: • $36,000 for the Monkton Volunteer Fire Department. • $20,150 for Russell Memorial Library. • $4,500 for the recreation fund. • $20,000 for the agricultural and natural areas fund. • $30,000 for the highway capital equipment fund. All proposed allocations for social service agencies passed as is, for a total of $22,539. Fiscal Year 2017 allocations for social service agencies remain identical to FY 2016, with the exception of an increase for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program from $285 to $400 and a new funding of $300 for the Monkton Mentors Program. Townspeople also approved $34,000 for the purchase of a replacement dump truck body for the road crew. Voting by Australian ballot on Town Meeting Day, Monkton residents approved a Monkton Central School budget of $2,813,920, a decrease of 0.1 percent from last year’s $2,816,780 spending plan. There were no contested local elections on this year’s ballot, and incumbents returned to all open seats. Selectboard incumbents Henry Boisse and Roger Parker won twoand three-year seats, respectively.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Sharon Gomez won another one-year term as town and school clerk. William Joos ran unopposed for another one-year term as town and school treasurer and another one-year term as delinquent tax collector. Monkton Central School Board Vice Chair Robert Radler won another three-year term. Incumbents Marikate Kelley and Sarah Rougier both won new one-year terms. For the Mount Abraham Union High School board, Chair Dawn Griswold won a second three-year term. Griswold was first elected to the Mount Abe board in 2013 and first became chair in 2014. Otto Funke, appointed to the Mount Abe board to replace Shawna Sherwin after she resigned last October, was elected to complete the remaining two years of Sherwin’s original term. Voters across the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union approved a $13,389,914 spending plan for Mount Abe. In 2015, by contrast, voters rejected two proposed Mount Abe budgets before passing a $13.95 million spending plan in June. This year the Mount Abe budget passed out of the gate with 2,703 yes votes and 1,306 against.

★New Haven★ NEW HAVEN — In two competitive races on Town Meeting Day, New Haven returned one incumbent selectboard member to her seat and in a separate race picked a challenger over an incumbent for a second selectboard seat. Selectboard Chair Kathleen Barrett defeated challenger Dan Monger, 425 to 220, to retain her threeyear spot. Selectboard newcomer John Roleau (a long-time New Haven resident and owner of Packard of Vermont) ousted incumbent Carole Hall and also beat challenger Bridget Kipp for the two-year seat. Roleau won with 303 votes, Hall garnered 205 and Kipp 141. The race caused ripples at town meeting itself on Monday evening with some townspeople raising concerns from the floor about selectboard member Doug Tolles’s Saturday posting to Front Porch Forum and his widely circulated email on Sunday night, both of which criticized Barrett. Some at Monday evening’s town meeting saw the electronic communications as unfair since they left Barrett almost no time to publicly defend her record. Moderator Pam Marsh declined to take up that discussion on the floor, characterizing it as a person-to-person attack outside the grounds of town meeting. Instead Marsh kept the Article 2 discussion of “non-binding business” focused on residents’ responses to Anbaric Transmission’s proposed Vermont Green Line, which would bring 400 megawatts of hydro and wind power by underground cable from upstate New York into the New England power grid, with a big converter station in New Haven. Among (See New Haven Page 15A)

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 15A

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(New Haven continued from Page 14A) the most important outcomes of the discussion were two straw polls by which townspeople unanimously declared that New Haven’s acceptance or rejection of the project should be brought to a town vote by Australian ballot, regardless of whether the selectboard itself ultimately decided to accept or reject Anbaric’s proposition. Unlike many surrounding towns, New Haven votes all aspects of its town budget by Australian ballot. All town budget and school budget articles passed on Town Meeting Day. New Haven residents approved the proposed $1,160,249 for the road budget, with $527,301 to be raised by taxes; a general fund budget of $737,737, of which $484,825 is to be raised for taxes; and the spending of $165,000 from the road equipment fund to purchase a new truck and body to replace the aging 2002 International truck used to handle snow, sand, gravel and other heavyduty tasks. Voters also approved a grand total of $23,902.25 for outside agencies. Allocations for each individual agency remain identical to the levels of support voted for at last year’s town meeting. New Haven residents said yes to the Beeman Elementary School budget of $1,884,124, up by $62,517 from the 2015-2016 Beeman budget of $1,821,607. Changes at the state level resulted in final per-pupil spending figures differing from the warned amounts for many Addison Northeast Supervisory Union schools. The updated figures showed that Beeman had the lowest spending per equalized pupil of all ANeSU

schools, at $14,201 per pupil. Addressing estimated education tax rates, Beeman Board Chair Brad Bull said, “This year the numbers are quite favorable ... The estimated tax rate for Beeman is going up by (2 cents or 3 cents), but that increase is offset by a substantial decrease in New Haven’s Mount Abe rate. The resulting combined education tax rate of $1.4922 is a full 10 cents lower than last year and very close to the lowest in the five towns. However, I emphasize these numbers are only estimates. The state will likely need to reduce the statewide yield number, and that would serve to increase all tax rates by close to (3 cents) from what was published at town meeting.” All town elections other than the races for the two selectboard seats were unchallenged. Pamela Kingman won another a three-year term as town clerk. Barbara Torian, treasurer for 20 years, won another three-year term as town treasurer and another one-year term as trustee of public funds. The position of town auditor was reinstated at last year’s town meeting. This year, Polly Darnell won the three-year and Iva Menard the twoyear auditor positions. Angie Dunbar won the one-year position with a write-in campaign. All three candidates have been serving the town as hourly auditor’s assistants. Beeman Elementary School board member Ed McGuire won re-election to his three-year seat. Voters across the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union approved a $13,389,914 Mount Abe budget. In 2015, by contrast, voters rejected two proposed Mount Abe budgets before passing a $13.95 million

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spending plan in June. This year the Mount Abe budget passed out of the gate with 2,703 yes votes and 1,306 against.

★

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ORWELL — Officials in Orwell expected a lot more discussion on a proposal to spend $160,000 on a new town truck than they got at Tuesday morning’s town meeting. But after folks asked a few questions about whether the old one could be fixed (too expensive, they were told) and if townspeople would be called on in the next year or two to put some money into vehicle replacement for the fire department or rescue squad (yes, that is quite likely), they approved the special allocation for a tandem dump truck to replace an 11-year-old truck currently used by the Orwell road crew. In the only other bit of drama on Town Meeting Day, Selectman Bob Fields was re-elected to a two-year term after being challenged for that spot by James A. Oldenburg Sr. and Daniel Redondo. Those running unopposed who won town offices included Walker James (three-year selectboard term), Elizabeth “Betty” Walker (one year as town clerk), Mark S. Young (one year as treasurer and trustee of public funds), Alyson Eastman (three years, school board), Sarah Tetzlaff (two years, school director), Stephen P. James (three years, lister), Barbara LaDue (five years, cemetery commissioner), Louis Hall (one year, first constable and town agent), Allen Ager (one year, second constable) and Michael R. Audet as town

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and school moderator. Residents approved a $978,950 municipal budget by voice vote. It is only $4,000 larger than the spending plan voters approved last year. At Monday evening’s annual school meeting, the Orwell Village School spending plan, pegged at $1,942,025 (a 7.3 percent over the figure approved for the current school year) was approved by voice vote as presented.

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Panton

★

PANTON — Panton residents decide on town spending and a selectboard member from the floor of town meeting on Tuesday morning at Panton Town Hall, and cast votes at the same site on school spending and Addison Northwest Supervisory Union Unification (see story on ANwSU merger, Page 1A). Selectman Howard Hall, who was appointed to the selectboard in 2015, was returned to office at the morning meeting. No one filed paperwork for Panton’s seat on the proposed 12-member Addison Northwest Unified District board. Panton’s selectboard will appoint the town’s representative. Panton residents backed the selectboard’s proposed $643,423 spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, and they also supported placing $59,000 into five capital funds, including $20,000 each into highway capital equipment and project funds and $15,000 into the Town Hall Restoration Fund. In Australian balloting, Panton residents voted against, 141-85, the

Listening LEONARD BARRETT, CHAIR of the Bridport selectboard, listens to a question from the floor of the town meeting Tuesday morning.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Vergennes Union High School’s proposed $10,026,000 budget for the 2016-2017 school year that represents a 2.23 percent cut from the current spending level. They supported, 135-86, a separate $100,000 capital fund line item for VUHS. VUHS spending would still be reduced by about by about $134,000, or 1.3 percent, with that article passing. Panton joined Vergennes and Waltham in supporting, 815-484, a $4.75 million Vergennes Union Elementary School budget that will increase VUES spending by 1.05 percent, or about $50,000. Panton backed ANwSU unification, 181-46.

★

Talking point ORWELL TOWN LISTER Cheryl Tudhope makes a point from the floor of the town’s annual meeting on Town Meeting Day.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Ripton

★

RIPTON — Town Meeting Day saw Ripton resident Perry Hanson score two big victories. He won a tight race over incumbent Selectman Richard Collitt, 116 to 112, for a three-year term on the town selectboard, and also prevailed in a threeway race for Ripton’s single seat on the new, unified Addison Central School District Board. Town officials on Wednesday afternoon said that a recount of the votes cast in the Hanson-Collitt race was requested and it will be done. The earliest the recount will happen

is Friday morning and the latest is Tuesday afternoon, the town clerk reported. Hanson won Ripton’s seat on the 13-member ACSD board with a combined total of 1,033 tallies recorded from all seven of the Middlebury school districts that the new panel will represent under a single budget (see related story, Page 1A). Finishing out of the running were Bryan Alexander, with 993 votes, and Jerry Shedd, with 498 tallies. Ripton endorsed the formation of the new unified ACSD by a 150 to (See Ripton Page 16A)

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PAGE 16A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

Salisbury Vergennes Granville Addison Orwell Panton Bridport Whiting Lincoln Starksboro

Bristol

Monkton

Waltham

Weybridge

Town Meeting Results Shoreham

Hancock

Visitin’ time MIDDLEBURY RESIDENTS VISIT before the start of Monday night’s town meeting in the town gymnasium.

(Ripton continued from Page 15A) 93 margin. There were no other contested races on the Ripton ballot. Unopposed candidates elected on Tuesday included Alison Joseph Dickinson, town clerk, one year; Carolyn Smith, town treasurer, one year; Kathleen Smith, delinquent tax collector, one year; Timothy Hanson, town moderator, one year; and Giles Alexander and Bryan Alexander, three years and two years, respectively, as Ripton school director. Residents approved, by voice vote, a 2016-2017 general fund budget of $263,601 and a highway budget pro-

posal of $313,100. The proposed 2016-2017 Ripton Elementary School budget of $953,106 also passed by voice vote, as did other articles on this year’s warning that sought: • $36,000 for the local fire department. • Approval of a locally funded agreement to reduce the property tax for the Silver Towers Camp owned and operated by the Vermont Elks Association Inc., to 33 percent of the total taxes that would be due. • A combined total of $19,214 for various charities and nonprofits that benefit Ripton residents.

★ Salisbury ★ SALISBURY — Salisbury voters at their town meeting decided a contested race for their selectboard and voted 229 to 98 in favor of exploring the feasibility of closing their municipal landfill. Former Selectwoman Ramona “Pedie” O’Brien beat incumbent Selectman Jonathan Blake in the race for a two-year term by a 168 to 135 tally, according to results provided by the Salisbury town clerk Wednesday morning.

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13-member committee that would govern all seven Middlebury-area school districts, along with Middlebury Union middle and high schools, under a single budget. Jennifer Nuceder was unopposed in her quest for Salisbury’s seat on the new ACSD panel. There were no other contested elections on the ballot. Candidates elected unopposed included Wayne Smith, town moderator, one year; Susan Scott, town clerk, one year; Paul Vaczy, selectboard, three years; and John Nuceder, Salisbury school board, three years. A twoyear spot on the Salisbury school board and a three-year term on the UD-3 school board had no takers. Voters on Tuesday approved all other articles on their warning, including: • The proposed 2016-2017 general fund budget of $194,573, by a 277 to 53 tally. • The proposed highway budget of $443,494, by a 263 to 69 margin. • A proposed Salisbury Community School budget of $1,765,719 (by voice vote) for the 2016-2017 academic year. • Rescission of a prior community vote to eliminate the office of town auditor. That rescission was OK’d by a tally of 153 to 147. • A combined total of $73,015 for various charities and nonprofit programs that benefit Salisbury citizens. Around $35,000 of that Independent photo/Trent Campbell total is earmarked for the Salisbury Volunteer Fire Department, and $19,000 is to be used for the Lake The landfill referendum was non- Dunmore/Fern Lake Association’s binding, but Salisbury officials milfoil prevention program. have been discussing the prospect of closing the town dump. Salisbury currently operates the only unlined landfill in the state of Vermont. Town officials believe state rules governing the Salisbury landSHOREHAM — Shoreham resifill will only become more rigorous and costly during the coming years, dents on Town Meeting Day apand they wanted local residents to proved all the items on their warnweigh in on the notion of keeping ing, including the formation of a it open or closing it. Closing the new unified Addison Central School landfill would mean joining the District (ACSD) that will include all Addison County Solid Waste Man- of the schools in the current Addison agement District and establishing a Central Supervisory Union. Shoreham approved the govertrash/recycling transfer station in nance merger by a 305 to 143 tally. town. Salisbury voted 251 to 78 in All seven towns approved the merger favor of joining a unified Addi- (see related story, Page 1A), which son Central School District with a calls for a single, 13-member ACSD

Ripton Leicester New Haven

board to govern all of the Middlebury-area schools under a single budget. Nick Causton was unopposed in his run for Shoreham’s spot on the new ACSD board. Residents also supported, by voice vote, the proposed 2016-2017 town highway budget of $681,890 and the general fund spending proposal of $287,479. A proposed Shoreham Elementary School $1,567,125 spending plan for 2016-2017 earned approval by a 312 to 129 margin. Residents also gave permission to school directors to use surplus funds to replace the school boilers and purchase a mobile computer lab. Other requests on the warning that earned approval included: • $13,150 from the town’s general fund balance to put in a “reserve fund for fire/rescue vehicles and equipment.” • $20,000 from the town’s general fund balance to put into a “building and grounds repair reserve fund.” • $20,000 from the 2015 highway (See Shoreham Page 17A)

★Shoreham★

Longtime service MIDDLEBURY SELECTMAN DEAN George speaks during Middlebury’s town meeting Monday night. George, who is retiring from his selectboard position, was recognized at the meeting for his 20 years of service to the town. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 17A

Salisbury Vergennes Granville Addison Orwell Panton Bridport Whiting Lincoln Starksboro

Bristol

Monkton

Waltham

Weybridge

Town Meeting Results Shoreham

Hancock

Middlebury

Brandon

Cornwall Ferrisburgh

Ripton Leicester New Haven

Everyone in their place ORWELL RESIDENTS PARTICIPATE in Tuesday’s town meeting inside the town hall.

higher spending than in the current year. Much of that increase is due to the $1.65 million that voters approved this past May to build a new town garage. Fiscal year 2016-2017 payments on the loan to build the garage will total $104,780. Fittingly, Road Foreman Tom Estey reported to the more than 175 townspeople assembled at town meeting that the construction crew expected to pour the foundation for the building on the morning of Town Meeting Day. Another big-ticket item in Starksboro’s $1.05 million general fund budget (which includes road expenses) is $200,000 to resurface States Prison Hollow Road, $160,000 of which would be paid for by a state grant. The state grant would raise the town’s income by 78 percent for FY ’16-’17. Selectboard Chair Susan Jefferies said that the town still needs to apply for that and that construction would be contingent on actually receiving the money. Voters approved the Robinson Elementary School budget of $2,921,471, exactly as proposed, afSTARKSBORO — Million-dollar ter about 20 minutes of discussion. town and school budgets passed relaAll articles up for a floor vote tively easily on the floor of Starks- passed, including: boro’s annual town meeting last • $43,353 for the Fire Equipment Saturday. The day’s greatest contro- Reserve Fund. versy and most intense debate cen• $88,188 for the Road Equiptered around the sale of 13 acres of ment Reserve Fund. the town’s gravel pit for $15,000. • $26,525 for the Starksboro PubStarksboro voters approved a mu- lic Library. nicipal spending plan of $1,049,094, • $41,425 for in-town agencies, which represents roughly 42 percent including the Starksboro Volunteer (Shoreham continued from Page 16A) fund balance to put into the “highway equipment reserve fund.” • A combined total of $22,295 for various charities and nonprofit services that benefit Shoreham residents. There were no contested elections on the Shoreham ballot this year. Elected unopposed were Will Stevens, town moderator, one year; Julie Ortuno, town clerk, one year; Kathleen Brisson, town treasurer, one year; Steven Goodrich, selectman, three years; Karen Shackett and Will Stevens, each for two years, on the Shoreham selectboard; Tanya Scuteri and Lance Wood, for terms of three years and two years, respectively, on the Shoreham School Board; and Laura Siebecker, library trustee, five years.

★Starksboro★

Looking for support KERRI DUQUETTE-HOFFMAN, executive director of WomenSafe, speaks during Middlebury’s town meeting Monday night. Selectman Dean George is seen behind her. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Fire Department, the Starksboro Cooperative Preschool and Project Read! • $28,168 for out-of-town social service agencies. • An authorization of up to $142,000 for the selectboard to purchase a replacement tandem truck. Townspeople ultimately said yes to selling 13 mined-out acres of the town’s 37-acre gravel pit to Sentinel Farm for $15,000, but only after close to two hours of deliberation that included intense debate from the floor and a vote by paper ballot. Those against the measure questioned the wisdom of selling a town resource that would be hard to replace and raised concerns that the town might at some point want to blast and crush gravel from the bedrock exposed at the mined-out site or might one day want to reclaim the acreage for recreational uses. Others argued the importance of preserving Starksboro’s few remaining farms, pointed to Sentinel Farms’ recreational offerings for children and youth, and described the landscape in question as a 13-acre “moonscape” of exposed bedrock unsuitable to most uses. The 13 acres are surrounded by Sentinel Farm on three sides and Sentinel owner Kerry Kurt plans to slowly reclaim the land for pasturing her beef cattle. Both Sentinel Farm and the town’s 37 acres are preserved through the Vermont Land Trust, with accompanying restrictions. The vote in favor of the sale was 98 to 64. After a brief discussion, townspeople also gave a clear show of hands, nonbinding, in support of the selectboard’s proposal to enlarge the board from three to five persons. Jefferies, the selectboard chair, said that the likely timeline for next steps would be to hold a special vote in December. That would give candidates time to declare themselves for the March 2017 ballot but minimize the time the three-person board would be required to vote unanimously to effect any actions. Once residents vote to increase the selectboard from three to five, the official size of the board increases instantaneously and three votes out of five are needed for all decisions. The biggest laugh of the meeting came when a resident questioned why the town office insisted on delivery rather than postmarking to determine whether taxes were paid on time or were delinquent. Long-time treasurer Celine Coons gave a lively description of the many missed and delayed deliveries she’s received from the U.S. Postal Service and concluded by saying, “It’s a real crap shoot when you use the mail.” At this, the crowd erupted in laughter. Starksboro had a last-minute contest for a three-year term on the selectboard. Devon Rochon launched a write-in campaign in the days leading up to Town Meeting Day, but the race went to Fire Warden and Assistant Fire Chief Tony Porter, who won his first election to the selectboard. All other Starksboro elections were uncontested. Caleb Elder, who was appointed last August to replace Dennis Hysko, won a three-year term on the Robinson Elementary School Board. Jodi Bachand won re-election to the Mount Abraham Union High School Board. On Town Meeting Day, Addison Northeast Supervisory Union voters passed the $13,389,914 Mount Abe budget by a vote of 2,703 to 1,306. (See Vergennes Page 17A)

Independent illustration/Trent Campbell

CINDY BELL ASKS a question during discussion on the town budget at Brandon’s town meeting on Monday evening at the Neshobe School. Brandon Reporter Photo/Lee J. Kahrs

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PAGE 18A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

Salisbury Vergennes Granville Addison Orwell Panton Bridport Whiting Lincoln Starksboro

Bristol

Monkton

Waltham

Weybridge

Town Meeting Results Shoreham

Hancock

Middlebury

Nearly full BRIDPORT RESIDENTS FILL the town’s Community Hall for Tuesday morning’s town meeting.

★Vergennes★ VERGENNES — On Tuesday, Vergennes residents supported school spending, Addison Northwest Supervisory Union unification, and two measures backed by the city council: to reroute northbound truck traffic via Route 17 and to confirm the council’s ability to use the Water Tower Fund to support capital improvements to city facilities and economic development in Vergennes. The advisory truck bypass measure, backed by a 588-244 margin, was one simple sentence that probably needs no further explanation: “Shall the voters support the City Council to encourage the Vermont Agency of Transportation to consider a proposal that would create a northerly truck route from Route 22A, east along VT Route 17, to U.S. Route 7?” The Water Tower Fund question, supported by 557-278, was more complex. City officials pointed out they have been able to use the roughly $100,000 a year it generates to leverage grant money, often netting $75 for every $25 spent, to, for example, complete downtown handicap-access and sidewalk projects. That money comes from cellphone companies who pay to hang broadcast equipment on the city’s former water tower, next to city hall. The council established a formal policy on how the money should be used, clarifying that it could be spent “For the purpose of economic development,” and then sought citizen approval. On the ballot, as well as a number of charitable requests, were a number of candidates running unopposed for office. Four candidates sought as many seats on the city council and received the following vote totals: elected incumbents Renny Perry (589) and

Lynn Donnelly (624); Mark Koenig, who was appointed in December (677); and newcomer Matt Chabot (537). No one filed for vacancies on the Vergennes Union High School or Vergennes-Panton Water District boards, and the city council will make appointments. John Stroup, who has not served previously on a school board, filed for a vacant seat on the Vergennes Union Elementary School board. Stroup was also one of four candidates for the four Vergennes seats on the proposed Addison Northwest Unified District Board. The others are current VUES board member Sue Rakowski, Koenig, and current VUHS board member Christopher Cousineau. All were elected without opposition. Aldermen will adopt the city’s 2016-2017 budget in June. Vergennes voters backed, 466-395, the proposed $10,026,000 VUHS budget for the 2016-2017 school year; it represents a 2.23 percent cut from the current spending level. Voters also supported, 553-298, a separate $100,000 capital fund line item for VUHS. VUHS spending would still be reduced by about $134,000, or 1.3 percent, with that article passing. Vergennes joined Panton and Waltham in supporting, 815-484, a $4.75 million Vergennes Union Elementary School budget that will increase VUES spending by 1.05 percent, or about $50,000. Vergennes backed ANwSU unification, 661-214.

★ Waltham ★ WALTHAM — Waltham residents on Monday returned several incumbents to office, chose a newcomer for a school post, and approved all pro-

posed spending measures, including a two-tiered town budget as Waltham plans to switch to a fiscal year system. In Tuesday Australian balloting, Waltham residents supported proposed Addison Northwest Supervisory Union unification and Vergennes Union High School spending (see stories on Pages 1A and 2A), joined Vergennes and Panton in backing a Vergennes Union Elementary School budget, and cast votes in Vermont’s presidential primary. Returned to office on Monday were Selectman Tim Ryan, VUES Director Steven Flint, Town Clerk Mary Ann Castimore and Treasurer Lucille Evarts, all unopposed after being nominated from the floor of the Monday town meeting. Residents in similar fashion on Monday backed the unopposed candidacy of Tom Borchert for VUHS director (replacing longtime director Jeffry Glassberg), and in Tuesday voting picked him as Waltham’s representative on the proposed Addison Northwest Unified District Board, also without opposition. Budget decisions were more complicated than usual on Monday following Waltham’s selectboard’s decision this past year to make a switch from the town’s former calendaryear budgeting process. That meant residents on Monday considered two sets of spending plans, one for the first six months of this year, and one for Waltham’s first fiscal year, 20162017. For this January to June, the board recommended $54,751 in administration and $42,625 in road spending. The board also suggested that residents approve $28,740 “from the carryover balance” to offset taxes in the current six months — residents approved both those recommendations. For the fiscal year, July 2016 to June 2017, the selectboard proposed

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

$98,254 of administrative spending and $144,525 of road spending, and residents backed the board. Residents also approved charitable requests, including a number of gifts in one article totaling $3,809, plus a Bixby Library request for $9,205 in a separate line item. Waltham voters backed, 105-41, the proposed VUHS $10,026,000 budget for the 2016-2017 school year that represents a 2.23 percent cut from the current spending level. Voters also supported a separate $100,000 capital fund line item for VUHS. VUHS spending would still be reduced by about $134,000, or 1.3 percent, with that article passing. The three VUES communities joined together to vote, 815-484, to approve a $4.75 million budget that will increase VUES spending by 1.05 percent, or about $50,000. Waltham backed ANwSU unification, 163-21.

Brandon

Cornwall Ferrisburgh

on the selectboard. Sutton’s vote count compared to 97 for Robert L. Foster and 27 for T. Charles Jordan. Alix O’Meara topped T. Charles Jordan, 211 to 107, for a one-year term on the board. There were no other contested local elections on the Weybridge ballot. Elected unopposed were Daniel James for a two-year spot on the selectboard, Spence Putnam for a oneyear term as moderator, and Justin Perdue and Jennifer Richmond for terms of one year and three years, respectively, on the Weybridge Elementary School Board. Joan Jordan and Kathleen Mason were elected to terms on the Weybridge Library Board of Trustees. Weybridge voters agreed to have their community become a full member of the Lemon Fair Insect Control District. The town has thus far been receiving insect control services as a client of the district. The road to full membership includes a requirement that Weybridge continue to pay $10,000 annually for services “until such time as (Weybridge’s) investment equals Cornwall’s and Bridport’s initial contributions of $40,000,” according to article 9 in the town meeting warning. “By 2019, the annual payment will go down to match the other towns.” The proposed 2016-2017 highway budget of $413,436 and general fund spending proposal of $119,913 both won approval by voice vote, as did the Weybridge Elementary School budget proposal of $1,177,459 for the 2016-2017 academic year. Weybridge residents also agreed to requests for: • Permission to apply $179,294 in surplus funds toward the purchase of a new municipal truck and/or tractor with roadside mower for the town’s highway department. • $128,000 to purchase a John

Ripton Leicester New Haven

Deere 6110M roadside mower for the highway department. • $25,000 to support the local fire department. • $13,000 to continue Weybridge’s volunteer recycling program. • A combined total of $21,600 to support various nonprofits and charities benefiting Weybridge and other Addison County communities.

★ Whiting ★ WHITING — Residents of Whiting decided only one race from the floor of their town meeting Tuesday evening. Selectboard Chair Ellen Kurrelmeyer was nominated for town and school moderator, along with Elizabeth Curran. Kurrelmeyer won by a show of hands, 19-12, according to Town Clerk Gail Quenneville. Curran was elected to a position as lister. Also approved from the floor of the meeting was the selectboard’s proposed town budget of $365,202. That is a hike of about $65,000, or 22 percent, over the town budget that was approved as warned at last year’s town meeting. This year’s town budget will require raising $162,449 through taxes. Residents weighed in on the Otter Valley Unified Union School District budget via Australian ballot on Tuesday; school budget ballots were commingled among the six towns in the district, which was created earlier this winter under the state’s Act 46 school governance consolidation law. The $22,604,806 OVUU spending plan passed by a tally of 1,920846 by voters in Whiting, Brandon, Pittsford, Goshen, Leicester and Sudbury.

★Weybridge★ WEYBRIDGE — Weybridge voters at this year’s town meeting decided two contested selectboard races and voted overwhelmingly to participate in a new, unified Addison Central School District (ACSD) that will include all of the schools in the current Addison Central Supervisory Union. Weybridge approved the governance merger by a 329 to 39 tally. All seven towns approved the merger (see related story, Page 1A), which calls for a single, 13-member ACSD board to govern all of the Middlebury-area schools under a single budget. Christopher Eaton had no rivals in his bid for Weybridge’s one seat on the ACSD board. Resident Megan Sutton, with 227 tallies, was the clear choice in a three-way race for a three-year term

Monumental discussion ORWELL RESIDENT BOB Martin makes a point during a discussion about a possible veterans’ monument proposed for Orwell during town meeting Tuesday morning. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Town voice ORWELL RESIDENT PETER Young speaks during town meeting in Orwell’s town hall Tuesday morning.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 19A

Law must encourage education savings Four shoppers needing a new se- it’s only $2,500 more than the middan walk onto a car lot and are greet- size for a vehicle valued at $5,000 ed by a salesperson who quickly more. sizes up their wallets — one is poor, The shopper with means, well, one has limited means, one has mod- they ask the salesperson where the est means, and one has means. luxury model is, and is pleasantly The salesperson takes the four surprised to learn that the luxury on a lot tour, first showing them an model has an even larger discount economy car — small, than the full-size — efficient to operate, few score! options and a sticker This parable explains price of $10,000. An how Vermont educaadditional premium of tion homestead tax This week’s writer $2,500 is required when is Rep. Scott Beck rates are assigned, and purchasing the econo- (R-Caledonia) of St. explains in large part my car for a total price Johnsbury, a memwhy our districts spend of $12,500. nearly twice the nationber of the House Next, the four are Education Commital average. Homestead shown a mid-size se- tee.. taxpayers from lowdan — roomier, more spending districts all costly to operate, more options and across Vermont pay rate premiums a sticker price of $15,000 with no to provide discounted rates to higher premium. spending districts. The net effect, we The group moves on to the full- have created a lot of high-spending size sedan — lots of room, even districts to the detriment of our lowmore costly to operate, lots of op- spending districts and their hometions, and a sticker price of $20,000 stead property tax payers. with a discount of $2,500, for a total For all of the good that Act 60/68 price of $17,500. accomplished across the Vermont After a few pleasantries, small education landscape, the glaring talk, and a free cup of coffee, the weakness has always been cost consalesperson asks the four which car tainment. Act 46 provides a path for they would like to drive off the lot. many districts to save on administraThe poor person says they will tive costs, but there is no guarantee grudgingly take the economy car, but that districts won’t spend the adminis upset that the price is $12,500 in- istrative savings in other areas, and stead of its $10,000 value and com- then some. ments he would prefer a mid-size, Some in the Statehouse want to but can’t afford the extra $2,500. blow up Act 46/60/68. Vermont The shopper with limited means doesn’t need to. By simply removcomplains about the $15,000 cost of ing the premiums and discounts the mid-size, but accepts it because given to low- and high-spending they get $5,000 more car for only districts, Vermont can provide $2,500. meaningful cost containment and The shopper with modest means increased equity for Vermont’s picks the $20,000 full-size because preK-12 students.

Community

Forum

Letters to the Editor Vermont Green Line project clarified The Vermont Green Line is a proposed direct current electric transmission project that will carry 400 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to the New England grid and bring numerous benefits to the region. As the developers of the project, one of the most important aspects of the project for us is that the project is supported by and delivers benefits to its host communities. We are proposing to build one of the Vermont Green Line converter stations in New Haven. We have been engaging with town officials and residents for many months now to make this a project that reflects our collaboration with the community. Unfortunately, several inaccurate statements were made about the project at New Haven’s recent town meeting and we wanted to take this opportunity to clear up any confusion that may exist. When we initially proposed the project our plan was to install two underground cables (one positive, one negative) with a total capacity of 800 megawatts. The converter stations were initially proposed to be built to convert 400 megawatts of power into the grid, leaving open the possibility of upgrading the converters to a capacity of 800 MW to match the line capacity at some point in the distant future. After hearing numerous concerns from

the residents of New Haven about the prospect of 800 megawatts going into the grid in New Haven, we modified our proposal in December so that we would be installing the two underground cables (again, one positive, one negative) with the total capacity of only 400 megawatts. This commitment has not and will not change. Information we handed out at our public meeting in February and on our website incorrectly stated the prior planned capacity of the line. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and are taking steps to confirm our commitment to build the proposed transmission line to 400 megawatts with no plan to increase the capacity in the future. We maintain our pledge that the Vermont Green Line will not move forward without the support of the town of New Haven. At Town Meeting Day we heard that most New Haven residents would like to have a vote of this project by Australian ballot, a process that we support and whose outcome we will honor. If you have any questions about the Vermont Green Line project please visit our website at www. vermontgreenline.com. Joe Rossignoli Director, U.S. Business Development National Grid Waltham, Mass.

Shoreham hunters broke no laws It blows my mind that an incident on Sunday, where a horse got worked up and sweaty with coydog hunters in the area, turns into Thursday’s “word on the street” that the hunters had shot through two houses and killed a heifer. Yes, the hunters were in the area using dogs with GPS collars. Yes, they had permission from the landowner to hunt coydogs on his property. Yes, they offered the coordinates from the dogs’ collars to prove the dogs had not been in her pasture. She refused to view the evidence and began an anti-dog hunting campaign. For someone that knows the law, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? Could it have been a coydog, a fox, or even her own dogs upsetting her horse? I have been following comments on Facebook that are very troubling to me. Apparently another individual has nothing better to do with herself than to slander respectable and responsible people. Calling the hunters drunks, thieves and drug dealers? Really? I have known nearly all of this hunting group and the people involved on this street for 20 years or more. Yes, there are a few “bad apples” out there but not in this group. If you feel the need for that much drama in your life then join

Trump’s campaign. I personally feel these hunters are doing a public service. The people opposed to them obviously don’t remember when the coydogs howling kept you awake night after night, or the attacks on pets and livestock. It was so bad at one point that a farmer had offered a bounty on coydogs. These animals have no fear of humans and will chase everything, including people. To abolish hunting with dogs would be a mistake as well as a sad loss of tradition. These hunters help control the population of not only coydogs, but also raccoons and rabbits. The chances of a rabies epidemic would seriously increase with the rise in the “varmint” population. Think about it for a minute. No one would be safe outside without a gun to protect themselves in rural areas. Do we really want untrained people out there taking “pot shots” at anything that moves? The Vermont Fish and Wildlife wardens told the hunters that they broke no laws. Please accept the facts and get on with your lives. There are so many other positive things that you could be doing instead of spreading hate and discontent. Linda Torrey Laberge Shoreham

SNOW CANNONS AT the Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton ensured that there was enough snow for the Middlebury College Winter Carnival, but outside their coverage area the snow was patchy.

Independent photo/Evan Johnson

Season (Continued from Page 1A) Mother Nature.” In good snow years, Rikert operates a network of 55 kilometers of trails. Two years ago the center installed its first artificial snowmaking equipment. This weekend, 120 Nordic racers used the 5K loop for their warm-ups as well as the races, which included distances of 5, 10 and 20 kilometers. For many of the skiers that made the trip, the course was the longest they had experienced that winter. While many schools were not forced to cancel their races, some were relocated to courses with more snow, or completed on shortened tracks. Williams College sophomore Jack Schrupp said that during 15or 20-kilometer races on short 2- or 3K loops, he sometimes forgets how many laps he has completed and

how many more he still has to go. snowmaking at Rikert, the Panther He said the Rikert course was a wel- team had been able to ski reliably come change. since Thanksgiving, putting them at “Given the circuman advantage. stances, this is a really Other teams weren’t great course,” Schrupp “It’s surprising, so lucky. said on Sunday, when because when “We’re feeling a little the temperatures hov- you look at the rusty,” said Dartmouth ered around 40 F. “It’s edges of the Nordic coach Cami surprising, because Thompson. “Since we trails, there’s when you look at the haven’t had any natural edges of the trails, (no snow).” snow, that means you — Williams have to travel more, there’s nothing.” College skier which makes people Given the lack of Jack Schrupp more tired. We just resnow, the Williams Nordic ski team had been ally would like to get training at ski areas close to their some good solid skiing.” campus in western Massachusetts, In place of skiing, the Dartmouth including Jiminy Peak in Hancock, skiers took spin classes and distance Mass. The Williams Winter Carnival runs. Dartmouth’s own Nordic races on Feb. 19-20 was moved to Nordic for their winter carnival were moved Trails around Lake Placid, N.Y. to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Middlebury Nordic skier Evan Craftsbury, Vt. Weinman said that, thanks to the Middlebury wrapped up the car-

nival season with a fourth-place finish this past weekend (see story, Page 1B). The races also doubled as the EISA Championship as well as an NCAA Regional. The Panther skiers are now off until the NCAA Championships, which are slated for March 9-12 in Steamboat Springs, Colo., which has had no lack of snow this year. UVM Senior Mary Kate Cirelli took second as part of a Catamount podium sweep in the 15K classic race, alongside Junior Iris Pessey, who took first, and senior Stephanie Kirk. Despite the less-than-stellar conditions for the early season, Cirelli said Vermont’s variable weather had prepared them for a strong finish to the season. “If anything, it’s been a mental challenge to see how we can adjust,” she said. “It’s kept us adaptable and we’re ready for Steamboat Springs.”

Otter Valley Union High School honor roll BRANDON — The following Otter Valley Union High School students were recognized for academic achievement during the third marking period of the 2015-2016 school year. GRADE 7 Principal’s list: Aidan Blier, Sarah Calvin, Ashley Carrara, Caleb Chisamore, Joseph Cijka, Grace Coolidge, Brittany Corey, Brennon Crossmon, Chloe Fuller, Dylan Gaboriault, Raychel Kemp, Cole Letourneau, Mallory Lufkin, Jessica Malbon, Madilyn Morgan, Rhys Pitner, Mia Politano, Anoushka Pschorr, Emaleigh Rowden, Rena Taylor, Parker Todd and McKenna White. Honor roll: Cole Blanchard, Kassidy Carvey, Grace Cole, Josie Cone, Carlee Cooper, Bradley Danforth, Melody Falker, Niya Hall, Elaina Harte, Alexander Lamoureux, Sawyer McCullough, Karlton McDonough, Bonnie Moore, Kinsey Moyer, Liam Murphy, Madeleine O’Connell, Shannon OudmanBlackwood, Brianna Stevens-Clark and Benjamin Walker. GRADE 8 Principal’s list: Livia Bernhardt, Caitlin Bixby, Morgan Daly, Julia Eastman, Alia Edmunds, Mary Kingsley, Edward Kopp, Carolynn Lafountaine, Morgan LaPorte, Jocelyn Noble, Renee O’Connell, Ian Ouellette, Kati Pelkey, Shayla Phillips, Sawyer Pierpoint, Elinor Ross, Kelsie Sunhawk, Logan Trombley, Nathan Wilder and Daniel Wiles. Honor roll: Nathanial Blake, Lauryl Blanchard, Tyler Boynton, Chrisma Brenenstuhl, Kiaria Corbett, Ashlynn Depatie, Evan Diaz, Emily Doty, Isabella Falco, Madison French, Ryan Harvey, Jordan Lemieux, Alyza McKeighan, Stephanie Palmer, Jacob Quenneville, Chelsea Ryan, Naya Sanborn, Samuel Scholar, Olivia White and Phoebe Wood. GRADE 9 Scholars’ roll: Joshua Beayon, Michael Bedard, Samuel Buswell, Ella Chaney, Hayden Gallo, Clay Hays, Nicholas LaCoille, Sophie Markowski, Patrick McKeighan and Ethan Sulik-Doty. Principal’s list: Meghan Chaney and Timothy Kittler. Honor roll: Justin Anderson, Madison Chicoine, Nathan Claessens, Nathan Depatie, Collin Elliott, Joshua Granger, Mickeen Hogan, Benjamin Klein, Chelsea Konarski, Lauren Lape, Julia Lee, Dylan Mackie, William Mattsson, Brenna

McCullough, Marcus McCullough, Chauncey Moncrief, Kele Parks, Kathryn Paynter, Reilly Shannon, Colby Smith, Terrance Stone, Aedan Taylor and Heather Wood. GRADE 10 Scholars’ roll: Owen Kulp, Brittany Stewart and Maxwell Williams. Principal’s list: Micah Bove and Hunter St. Armour. Honor roll: Sabrina Brown, Michael Daly, Olivia Gaissert, Tristanna Hinton, Brian Kilpeck, Courtney Lee, Brandi Leno, Benjamin Markowski, Gabriela Poalino, Justin Tremblay, Laura Wentworth, Payson Williams, Christa Wood, Wilson Worn and Cody Young. GRADE 11 Scholars’ roll: Brigid Enright,

Alyssa Falco, Angelo McCullough, Molly McGee, Ethan Nerney, Hannah Roberts, Ghislaine Robin and Sophie Wood. Principal’s list: Haley Palin, David Whitney and Shane Wood. Honor roll: Derek Aines, Jove Bautista, Courtney Bushey, Tyson Cram, Kayleigh DeRosa, Sarah Dolney, Chad Eddy, Molly Fisher, Jillian Flanders, Meghan Hallett, Wesley Harpe, Allison Lowell, Dominic McCullough, Colby McKay, Nicholas Moriglioni, Abigail Pinkowski, Courtney Randall, Michaela Ross, William Ross, Chloe Speyers and Charlotte Winslow. GRADE 12 Scholars’ roll: Emma Cijka, Alexis Hedding, Amy Jones, Jonna Keith,

Caitlyn Ketcham, Isabelle Kingsley, Alexis Lape, Alaisha Lucia, Sierra Norford and Kendra Stearns. Principal’s list: Amber Eastman, Jared Felkl and Makala Wright. Honor roll: Jacob Bertrand, Cheyenne Dayton, Marcel MJ Denis, Nathan Doty, Danielle Eddy, Maia Edmunds, Jamee Eugair, Emily Fox, Ben Francoeur, Haley Gearwar, Shana Houle, Alyssa Kennett, Keegan LaRock, Colton Leno, Austin McCullough, Cody McQueen, Trevor Peduto, Keenan Pratt, Nicole Rossi, MacGregor Shannon, Alyssa Sweatt, Lucas Tremblay, Annmarie Welch and Hannah Williams. UNGRADED Principal’s list: Cody O’Connell.

PAGE 20A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

Presidential Primaries 2016 Ben Carson

Town

Ted Cruz

John Kasich

Marco Rubio

Donald Trump

Hillary Bernie Clinton Sanders

Addison

17

33

51

56

66

40

251

Bridport

13

23

51

36

67

26

189

Bristol

16

44

98

71

124

76

822

3

12

54

34

31

78

290

19

55

117

83

105

90

622

Goshen

3

1

13

1

4

14

55

Granville

0

0

5

2

4

5

86

Hancock

2

1

1

6

11

2

60

Leicester

3

16

27

17

52

28

153

10

12

40

16

38

31

437

Middlebury

9

49

209

116

88

317

1,470

Monkton

5

38

54

44

65

46

524

Getting ready

New Haven

6

33

61

50

88

46

426

MIDDLEBURY RESIDENTS TAKE their seats in a darkened town gymnasium before the start of Monday night’s town meeting. This is the last year the annual meeting will be held in the old town gym.

Orwell

14

21

66

33

63

32

174

Panton

3

7

26

27

30

17

116

Ripton

1

5

10

4

13

26

190

Salisbury

6

19

24

15

45

34

192

Shoreham

4

24

30

28

37

32

266

Starksboro

9

27

54

25

61

30

422

Vergennes

16

26

83

49

71

54

568

Waltham

1

7

20

12

12

18

112

Weybridge

5

8

43

21

14

61

229

Whiting

0

9

7

5

14

8

79

165

470

1,144

751

1,103

1,111

7,733

Total

County

Republican President Primary Results

WITH THE ADDISON COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

DISCOVER & EXPLORE

(Continued from Page 1A) by 470 for Ted Cruz and 165 for Ben Carson. Sanders, meanwhile, topped Democratic frontrunner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a whopping 7,733 to 1,111 on the Democrat ballot in Addison County. Sanders out-polled Clinton in all 23 Addison County communities, including by 1,470 to 317 in Middlebury, 524 to 46 in Monkton, and 822 to 76 in Bristol. Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.

- 165

Lincoln

arson

Ferrisburgh

Ben C

Cornwall

Donald Trump - 1103

ruz Ted C

- 470

John Kasich - 1144

Marco Rubio - 751

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VUHS (Continued from Page 1A) and maintenance needs. Counting that $100,000, total VUHS spending would be reduced by about $134,000, or 1.3 percent, from the current level of almost $10.26 million. Because of ongoing school funding uncertainty in the Legislature, it is difficult to predict the tax impact in ANwSU of voter support for budgets at VUHS, Ferrisburgh Central, Addison Central and Vergennes Union Elementary schools, despite good-faith estimates made by ANwSU officials. ANwSU unification will not reduce the local property tax burden this year, but will offer a 10-cent discount on ANwSU tax rates in the 2017-2018 tax year, plus smaller discounts in the following four years. Voters backed the three elementary school budgets by solid margins on Tuesday. ANwSU Superintendent JoAn Canning said she was grateful for residents’ approval of proposed school spending. “I am so excited about the budgets passing. I so appreciate the community support of our schools,” she said. “Passing those budgets, and also passing unification, gives us a resounding support from the community that we are on the right track.” Canning acknowledged the vote was closest at VUHS, where the financial challenges have been greatest.

There, the board had proposed spending over Act 46 penalty limits because of several factors: a dramatic decline in state aid for special education, a decline in the number of equalized students that pushed perpupil spending higher, and the need to include $254,000 in the budget to pay off a special education funding deficit that followed years of poor accounting for those costs. “It was a closer vote because we were going over the threshold, obviously,” Canning said. “But also there’s been a history of the high school budget in the last two years having trouble passing. And people are wondering what’s going on, what’s happening at the high school, and why is it so hard, without understanding that we really are making the changes that the people in the community are asking us to make in terms of being fiscally responsible.” Complicating the VUHS vote was a ballot, dictated by state law, that indicated the per-pupil spending was rising by 10 percent, even though the actual student count had not changed (a rolling three-year average kicked in this year), and the board actually cut about $234,000 from the budget, not counting the capital fund article. Canning said some voters might not have been aware of the cuts, which will include $88,000 from eliminating the school’s in-house agriculture program. Canning said with a similar course offered at the Patricia Hannaford Career Center

and VUHS enrollment dropping, the course became a victim of numbers as outlined in the board’s class-size policy. Also on the administrators’ probable reduction list are not rehiring a principal’s secretary, which will save $53,700 in salary and benefits; cutting part-time English and science positions, saving about $44,000; reducing $22,000 apiece from extracurricular activities and Community Based Learning program transportation; lowering expected fuel costs by $35,000; and saving $17,500 by not hiring substitutes for custodians. Town by town, the voting on the VUHS budget was: • Addison: 252 yes, 284 no. • Ferrisburgh: 587 yes, 509 no. • Panton: 85 yes, 141 no. • Vergennes: 466 yes, 395 no. • Waltham: 105 yes, 41 no. Looking ahead, Canning said VUHS will have one more year of a large payment to retire the special education deficit. The fact that it will coincide with the first year of the 10-cent discount on local tax rates after ANwSU’s successful unification vote could give the VUHS board some help next winter while it crafts its final budget. “Absolutely it will have a very positive impact on our high school,” Canning said. “We’ll be given a little wiggle room to think how we need to be more strategic.” Andy Kirkaldy may be reached at andyk@addisonindependent.com.

Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016 — PAGE 21A

What to watch after the Oscar buzz? power of stories rooted in truth, try these: “Labyrinth of Lies.” An ambitious young German prosecutor insists on Hollywood’s plan for the public is probing the silence that envelops very clear at this time of year. The the Nazi hierarchy after World War 2015 Oscars have been awarded and II. If war is the language of man, he the best new movies will be held un- will at least hold mankind respontil the fall when we will be treated sible for indulging in savagery. to a wave of new wonders “Suffragette” is a movtheir makers hope will win ie of unrelieved darkness the 2016 awards. What are that resonates in the issues movie lovers supposed to of today. Facing Britain’s do between March and male power structure, September? women resorted to physiChildren and teenagcal aggression (“War is ers will delight in a sumthe only language men mer flood of blockbusters listen to”) to gain the right and animations. For the to vote. It was the opening rest of us, this may be the shot in the universal battle time we have to face up to for humanity in the treatlearning to navigate the ment of women. It would wide array of in-home de- By Joan Ellis be a rich learning experilivery systems that offer a ence as part of any high wide range of new and reschool curriculum. cent releases. For now, let’s look at “Testament of Youth” is a prothe moment. found look at the effect of World Of the Oscar contenders, see these War I on British families through if you missed them: “Brooklyn,” the experience of one wartime “Spotlight,” “Bridge of Spies,” nurse, played with grand defiance “Room.” Each is driven by superb by Alicia Vikander. The absence of acting that reminds us of why we gruesome battle scenes allows us to love to go to the movies. focus on the lives of the wounded Then, to experience the enormous and their families. Vera Brittain, au-

Animated movies to fill the summer void

Movie Review

Nothing but net WINNERS OF THE Knights of Columbus free throw championship on Jan. 23 line up on the court at Mount Abraham Union High School on Feb. 20 for the district tournament. Competing for their age divisions were, from left, Brett Sargent (13-year-olds), Sarah Heath (10-year-olds), Joe Graziadei (11-yearolds), Josh Lyman (10-year-olds) and Blake Bowen (9-year-olds). Thanks to his performance at that competition, Bowen will advance to the state championship, which will be held at Missisquoi High School in Swanton on March 5. Photo by Mark Bouvier

Group brings traditonal songs, a Midd native home MIDDLEBURY — The St. Lawrence University Laurentian Singers will kick off their spring break tour to Cleveland, Detroit and Toronto with a concert at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, at the Congregational Church of Middlebury. The concert is free and open to the public. Senior Laurentian singer and soprano soloist Carlie Wright hails from Middlebury and will sing the traditional songs of St. Lawrence along with invited alumni. The focus of the singers’ tour will be visiting high schools, sharing their music and connecting with students. In light of this and in celebration of its long history, the choral group will perform a selection of traditional choral fare. Sacred music from various traditions such as Lutheran Germany (Johann Sebastian Bach), Orthodox Russia (Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov) and contemporary America (Morten Johannes Lauridsen) will open the program. The opening will be followed by a set of classic British folk songs, including “Quick! We Have but a Second,” “Londonderry Air” (“Oh, Danny Boy”), “I Love my Love,” “Skye Boat Song” and “Drunken Sailor.” The choral group will then perform popular songs from the 1960s, including “Under the Boardwalk,” “Heat Wave” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” The concert will close with a set of favorite traditional spirituals that includes “Elijah Rock,” “Daniel, Daniel,” “My Lord, What a Morning” and “Great Day.” The Laurentian Singers, a select coeducational choir of 28 undergraduate singers, celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, continuing a tradition of choral excellence at St. Lawrence University. The group has won wide acclaim since its founding in 1946, and, in addition to their many performances on campus and in the community, the ensemble has toured extensively. In recent years, they have performed in New Orleans, Trinidad and Tobago, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, France, New York, Boston and Central Europe, singing for enthusiastic, packed audiences and meeting with other choirs. Their wide-ranging repertoire,

Hancock

Have a news tip? Call the Addison Independent at 388-4944. NEWS

HANCOCK — The Community Church of Hancock and Granville will be holding their family breakfast on the Sundays of March 13 and March 20 at the Hancock Town Hall, 1097 VT Route 100 from 8-9:30 a.m. The public is invited and is a donation event. We will be holding our Maundy Thursday Service on March 24 at the Hancock Town Hall starting with coffee at 6 p.m. followed by the service at 6:45 p.m. Our Easter Bake Sale will be held Saturday, March 26, at JD’s Quick Stop, 529 VT Route 100 starting at 10 a.m. and running till the food runs out. The Easter service will be Sunday, March 27, at the Hancock Sanctuary located at 1097 VT Route 100 starting at 9:30 a.m. We are on Front Porch Forum and Facebook as well.

drawn from music of many styles and countries, reflects the spirit of the liberal arts experience at St. Lawrence University. The Laurentian Singers includes undergraduate students who represent a wide variety of academic majors and interests. For more information, visit www. stlawu.edu/music.

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thor of the original book, said of her theme, “All of us are surrounded by ghosts.” “Trumbo” is an affecting mixture of newsreels and film clips of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the preMcCarthy era of the 1950s. After his destruction, he continued to write some of our best-known movies under a pseudonym. For total submersion in sublime fiction with inspired actors, see these: “Clouds of Sils Maria” unleashes astonishing portraits by Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart of two women ablaze as they try to navigate the layers of meaning in their own lives. “I’ll See You in My Dreams” deals bravely with the reality of the loss of partners, friends, home and companionship in old age. Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott hit no false notes in beautiful performances. The entire cast earns a salute for starting a conversation about a tough subject — the end of life. Along with the certainty that September will bring more movies of this quality, these good ones can help us through the summer.

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Free pre-show talk in the Byers Studio at 12:15

facilities manager

Applicants for this full-time, year Sun 3/6should 2pm $20/$10 and under/$50 per family round position havekids the12 ability to maintain and operate all theatrical systems (lighting, sound, projection), and have experience with set construction. Other responsibilities include: facilitate load-ins, runs, strikes and turnarounds; provide tech Live music, silent auction & hors d’oeuvres. for meetings and receptions; create Call 388-2637 for tickets. internship program in technical theater; maintain building by making repairs or hiring contractors. Sat 3/12 7:30pm $10 A janitorial service will clean the building, but this individual will ROCK ON FILM make sure that the theater, studio and gallery are ready each day for public use. This historic theater The Beatles star inwill their feature film debut, one of the re-open in July, 2008, so the position greatest rock-and-roll will be filled as soon as possible. comedy adventures ever. Limited benefits. Send cover letter and resume to: Douglas Anderson, Executive Director Sun 3/13 7pm $17 Town Hall Theater PO Box 128 Middlebury VT 05753 or email materials to danderson@townhalltheater.org Abigail and Shaun (of Night Fires fame) 802-388-1436 light up Town Hall Theater with

AURORA SCHOOL GALA

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spine-tingling vocals, energetic harmonies and intense creativity.

PAGE 22A — Addison Independent, Thursday, March 3, 2016

Race (Continued from Page 1A) Victor Nuovo, with 1,052 votes, followed by current selectboard Vice Chairman Nick Artim, who received 991. Incumbent Selectman Gary Baker finished fourth and out of the running with 930 votes, and candidate Richard Terk trailed with 654 tallies. Seeley, 42, is the business manager for Seeley Earth Moving. She ran for the selectboard previously in 2014. She currently serves on Middlebury’s Public Works Committee and is an alternate on the Middlebury Development Review Board. “I’m thrilled,” she said of her first-place showing. “I’ve got my work cut out for me.” Seeley believes her past run for the board — and a series of open houses, ads and mailings — helped her prevail this time around. “I’m ready to work with the other selectboard members to make Middlebury the best it can be,” she said. School governance unification passed in Middlebury by a huge margin, 1,631-278, in spite of the fact that the town stands to receive the least cost benefit from the move — at least initially. The measure also passed comfortably in the other six towns: Those results can be found in the individual town meeting wrap-ups and in a Page 1 story, this issue. Middlebury will have seven representatives on the new ACSD board. Seven Middlebury residents were elected unopposed for terms ranging from one to three years. They included Lorraine Morse, Steve Orzech and Josh Quinn, each for three years; Jason DuquetteHoffman and Ruth Hardy, each for two years; and Victoria Jette and J.P. Rees, each for one year. Residents OK’d, by 1,718-401, a proposed Mary Hogan Elementary School (ID-4) budget of $7,391,279 for the next academic year. This was the first year that the ID-4 budget was decided by Australian ballot, a switch that had been requested by local voters. Historically, the budget has been voted at an ID-4 annual meeting held in early April. There were no other contested races on the Middlebury ballot. Those running unopposed included James Douglas, town moderator, one year; Jason Duquette-Hoffman and Ruth Hardy, three years each for the ID-4 board; Lorraine Morse, UD-3 board, three years; and Catherine Nichols, Ilsley Library Board of Trustees, three years. An additional three-year term on the ID-4 board had no takers. Middlebury’s annual gathering on Monday evening was the last to be held at the town’s municipal gym. That deteriorating gym and adjoining municipal building at 94 Main St. will be demolished and removed this spring to make way for a public park. A new, 9,400-square-foot town office building at 77 Main St. and a new, 11,500-square-foot recreation facility at 154 Creek Road are replacing those buildings. The new recreation facility was officially inaugurated on Wednesday with an open house. A similar event is planned for the new town office building on Friday, April 29, from 3 to 5 p.m. Officials believe Middlebury’s will be only the second net-zero town office structure in the country (the other is in New York state). The town has invested in solar arrays to count toward the office building’s net-zero rating. “This thing is basically a brick thermos bottle,” Artim said. “The buildings are really exceeding our expectations.” Around 200 residents attended Monday’s gathering, where they quickly dispatched all eight articles on the warning. The proposed fiscal year 2017 municipal budget of $10,116,165 — which will require no increase in the town tax rate of 98 cents per $100 in property value — passed by voice vote after little discussion. Also passing by voice vote were articles that included: • Permission to take out a fiveyear, $242,000 loan to bankroll a police cruiser and related equipment, and a number of items for the public works department: a pick-up truck and related equipment, a sprayer and power-drive unit for line painting, and a trailer. • Elimination of the elected office of auditor. These positions have not been drawing candidates and the accounting chores in question have been delegated to a professional firm. Monday’s meeting saw two community leaders earn public service awards. Middlebury Selectboard Chairman Dean George was awarded a keepsake for his 20 years on the board.

MIDDLEBURY SELECTMAN NICK Artim talks about the retirement of longtime Selectman Dean George in the opening minutes of Middlebury’s annual town meeting Monday night. Artim won reelection to his seat during voting on Tuesday. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

He decided not to run for re-election this year. Artim, in presenting the plaque, joked that state statutes gave communities the right to decline a public official’s resignation if they had served for two decades. “Sorry, Alice, but it seems Dean belongs to all of us,” Artim said to George’s spouse. Artim credited George for being among the town leaders who helped further the Cross Street Bridge, a new wastewater treatment plant, a new police station, and the new mu-

MIDDLEBURY RECREATION DIRECTOR Terri Arnold, second from right, introduces Jutta Miska, center, as the recipient of this year’s Robert Collins Award during Middlebury’s town meeting Monday night. The award recognizes contributions to local youth.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

nicipal building and recreation facility. “It is impossible to state in just a few minutes how much Dean has done for us,” Artim said. George said he found the position rewarding. “It has been my privilege,” he said. The Middlebury Parks & Recreation Department awarded the an-

nual Robert Collins Award to Jutta Miska, credited for her many years as a champion for youth activities in town. She helped establish and run the Addison Central Teens center, and recently opened a store in downtown Middlebury called Buy Again Alley. Miska, in receiving the award from Parks & Recreation Director

Terri Arnold, said she got a lot of help along the way. “It takes a village, and without a village, I couldn’t have made the difference I was able to make,” she said. Monday’s meeting also included updates on the downtown rail bridges project and economic development efforts in town.

Representatives of Porter Medical Center’s nurses’ union passed out a flier just prior to town meeting voicing concerns about recent layoffs and cuts at the institution. The Independent will elaborate on the union’s concerns, and PMC administrators’ response, in its Monday edition. Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.