MONDAY Â Â EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 28 No. 18
Middlebury, Vermont
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Monday, August 8, 2016
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Tuesday is Primary Day There are competitive races for governor, lieutenant governor, state representative and more. See addisonindependent.com and then cast your ballot.
ANeSU property taxes could be cut $2.5M By  GAEN  MURPHREE BRISTOL  —  School  district  uni- ¿FDWLRQ FRXOG VDYH WD[SD\HUV LQ WKH ÂżYH $GGLVRQ 1RUWKHDVW 6XSHUYLVRU\ Union  towns  close  to  $2.5  million  in  SURSHUW\ WD[HV RYHU ÂżYH \HDUV DF- cording  to  a  report  just  released  by  GLVWULFW RIÂżFLDOV “We’ve  heard  from  members  of  our  community  who  are  really  feel- ing  the  pain  of  the  taxes  that  they  pay  for  education,â€?  said  Jennifer  6WDQOH\ FKDLU RI WKH $1H68 $FW Study  Committee.  “And  we  have  a  lot  of  comments  in  our  survey  from  people  who  said,  ‘I  need  you  to  make  my  taxes  lower,  and  I  need  \RX WR JHW WKLV GRQH Âś 7KDW ZDV GHÂż- nitely  a  strong  message.  “So  this  provides  an  opportunity  for  people  who  really  are  concerned  about  their  taxes  to  see  some  savings  over  the  coming  years.â€? The  report  analyzed  projected  tax  (See  ANeSU,  Page  27)
Business boasts bigger brewery • Big addition makes Otter Creek Brewing Vermont’s biggest beer maker. See Page 2.
New Haven road crew restructure raises eyebrows
Summer  barn
• A trio of Middlebury College alums represent the USA in Rio. See Sports on Page 18.
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Tax report: Unification would save towns money
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Three Panthers prowl for gold
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WILDFLOWERS  AND  PUFFY  clouds  surround  a  sunlit  barn  in  Addison  last  Tuesday  afternoon. Independent  photo/Trent  Campbell
By  GAEN  MURPHREE 1(: +$9(1 ² $W D KDVWLO\ called  meeting  late  last  month,  the  1HZ +DYHQ VHOHFWERDUG YRWHG WR restructure  its  highway  department  and  terminated  the  positions  of  road  foreman  and  highway  assistant,  ef- fective  immediately.  The  quick  action  has  left  a  key  town  department  understaffed  dur- ing  the  busy  summer  construction  (See  New  Haven,  Page  20)
College museum interns curate local landscapes By  CHARMAINE  LAM  MIDDLEBURY  —  Matthew  Gil- lis  held  a  ruler  up  to  the  wall,  me- ticulously  marking  a  line  that  he  and  his  fellow  interns  would  later  use  to  hang  up  the  photographs  in  their  art  exhibition.  If  the  line  were  to  be  even  slightly  crooked,  the  photo-Â
graph  would  hang  clearly  at  an  angle  unacceptable  to  the  team.  Gillis  is  part  of  a  group  of  six  in- terns  that  make  up  Middlebury  Col- lege’s  second  annual  MuseumWorks  summer  internship.  During  the  eight-Âweek  internship,  the  students  worked  in  curatorial  and  educational Â
positions  at  the  Middlebury  Col- lege  Museum  of  Art,  the  Vermont  Folklife  Center,  the  Henry  Sheldon  Museum  of  Vermont  History  and  the  Special  Collections  and  Archives  at  the  college’s  Davis  Family  Library.  Throughout  the  program,  the  six  interns  also  worked  as  a  team Â
to  assemble  their  own  exhibition.  They  titled  it  “Landscaped:  Altered  Environments  in  the  Photography  of  Timothy  Case.�  The  project  cul- minated  in  an  opening  reception  on  July  27  and  an  exhibition  in  the  Center  Gallery  at  Middlebury  Col- (See  Museum,  Page  17)