More or less
Seasonal opening
The Logger’s likes and dislikes have changed over the years.
Historic Shelburne Farms to open for the season before Mother’s Day.
Serving Addison and Chittenden Counties
May 7, 2011
newmarketpress@denpubs.com MIDDLEBURY — Vermont may get a Right to Repair Law if businessman Steve Dupoise gets his way. Dupoise is the new president of the NETSA, the New England T ire and Service Association. He’s also owner of County T ire, a tir e and auto servicing center in Mid dlebury. Dupoise, who was elected president of NETSA last week, said the regional business association is supporting an effort to pass a Right to Repair bill in the Massachusetts State House. “If the effort succeeds,” said Dupoise,” it will probably be intr oduced here in Vermont.” According to NETSA, through electr onic technology, auto manufacturers—both domestic and foreign—are increasingly “locking out” car owners and independent repair shops like Dupoise’s County T ire fr om servicing work. According to industry data, Vermont's aftermarket business employed 3,531 people r epresenting 1.2 per cent of the state’s total workfor ce in 2010. And the Green Mountain State has mor e than 629,000 private and commercial vehicles on area r oads. For a small state, annual aftermarket sales in Vermont is big— close to $701 million. In addition to regional efforts such as NETSA ’s, the big auto-service organizations have been on the national band wagon See RIGHT TO REPAIR, page 2
Senate OKs health care
Mud Season
By Lou Varricchio
newmarketpress@denpubs.com MONTPELIER — Vermont moved one step closer to a single-payer , statewide health car e plan April 26. The Vermont Senate voted 21-9 in favor of H.202, a bill that should pave the way to a government controlled single-payer health care system. State Sens. Clair e Ayer (D-Weybridge) and Harold Giard (D-Bridport) voted in favor of the bill. Both Ayer and Giard have been a longtime advocates of socialized health car e. Ayer is chairwoman of the Vermont Senate Health and Welfare Committee. She has been instr umental in supporting Gov. Peter Shumlin’s drive to cre ate universal health care in the state. Unlike the critics of H.202, Giard said he doesn’t believe physicians will move out of state once universal health care is in place. The Senate vote is the start of a long legislative pr ocess that may not see the final bill in place, as law, until 2015. During that time, there will be both national and state elections. Republican critics in Montpelier claim V ermont is incapable of funding universal health care without raising taxes significantly; such increases, most GOP lawmakers claim, will negatively impact Vermonters in a variety of ways.
STUCK IN THE MUD — It’s no fun when a big rig gets mir ed in a muddy field. This big tractor at a farm in Salisbur y off U.S. Route 7 awaits a push to firmer ground after spreading liquid manure to fertilize the soil for a sowing of feed corn seeds last week. Photo by Lou Varricchio
Health care, U.S. debt focus of Sanders forum Public forum at MUHS
By Lou Varricchio
newmarketpress@denpubs.com
Phil Fiermonte, an aide to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), speaks at the MUHS cafeteria April 28. F iermonte said Republicans in C ongress are only interested in protecting the nation’s wealthiest.
THE WORLD’S FASTEST LAWN MOWER
Photo by Lou Varricchio
Summer will be here soon! Be ready for it!
MIDDLEBURY — Supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were gathered in force to hear Vermont’s lone elected independent speak at Middlebury Union High School’s cafeteria April 28. “Health Car e is a Right!” advocates displayed their pr e-printed placards and passed out information sheets to guests showing r easons to support Gov . Peter Shumlin’s pr oposed, contr oversial singlepayer health care plan. Members of “Health Care is a Right!” also mar ched on Montpelier earlier this week. While waiting for Sanders’ arrival, a fr ee pasta and salad dinner, prepared by staffers of the Addison County Parent-Child Center, kept attendees focused between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Shortly after 7 p.m., Phil Fiermonte, a Sanders aide, announced to guests that the senator was being delayed at New York’s JFK Airport due to local thunderstorms. Fiermonte said the senator would attempt
to call in later in the evening and answer questions from the group. Waiting nearly 90 minutes for the senator, several attendees were seen leaving the cafeteria heading for home. The MUHS gathering had a decidedly anti-Republican, anti-conservative tone with Fiermonte and others taking the speaker ’s podium to criticize the GOPRyan Budget plan which would strip $6 trillion in entitlements. While Fiermonte lamented the nation’s widening $14 trillion debt, his solution to correct the crisis was “tax the wealthiest Americans” not paying their “fair share” of federal taxes. Fiermonte offered no other solutions to er duce the debt or trim spending on social and medical entitlement programs. On April 20, Sanders wr ote in a news r elease that new national surveys show that Congress is “way out of touch with the American people” on how to er duce deficits. “At a time when not a single Republican in Congress is pr epared to ask the wealthiest people in this country to pay a little more to help bring down deficits, an overwhelming See SANDERS FORUM, page 2
Summer will be here soon! Be ready for it!
0% for 60 Months on most in stock Dixie Chopper Mowers Dixie Chopper now comes with 5 Year Bumper to Bumper Warranty! 2394 Route 30, Cornwall, Vermont 05753
802-462-2468
www.champlainvalleymotorsports.com
2011 Arctic Cat ATVs are in stock and priced to move!
www.champlainvalleymotorsports.com 2394 Route 30, Cornwall, Vermont 05753 • 802-462-2468
82983
By Lou Varricchio
P.O. BOX 338 ELIZABETHTOWN, NY 12932 POSTAL PATRON
See page 13
See page 6
Right to Repair Law: coming to Vermont?
FREE
ECRWSS PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID NEW MARKET PRESS/ DENTON PUBLICATIONS
Take one