FREE
Take one
ECRWSS PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID NEW MARKET PRESS/ DENTON PUBLICATIONS P.O. BOX 338 ELIZABETHTOWN, NY 12932 POSTAL CUSTOMER
September 2, 2009
A New Market Press Publication
Adoptions
Outside
Let’s dance
Longfellow is a sweet, charming Basset Hound who loves to play fetch.
Hikers are happy Killington is as much of a challenge in summer as in winter.
Get your feet moving at the Slate Valley Museum Barn Dance.
Page 2
Dems eye Douglas’ seat Governor plans to retire in 16 months From Eagle Staff & News Reports Smacking its lips like a lion hovering over a pinned wildebeest on the Serengeti, the Democratic Governors Association is moving Vermont into its top tier of targeted 2010 liberal pickup races, as Gov. Jim Douglas, a long-time moderate Republican of Middlebury, announced his retirement last week. Douglas was Addison County’s first governor to serve in Montpelier since the 19th century. Douglas had faced overwhelming Democrat opposition and vetoes, especially on budgetary issues. “Vermont voters have always embraced common sense leaders who are willing to deal with problems like creating jobs, improving transportation, protecting the environment, expanding health care access and strengthening schools,” said the DGA’s Nathan Daschle. “Democrats in the state have long responded to those problems with the sort of the practical solutions and progressive values that Vermonters embrace. We believe that Vermonters are eager for Democratic leadership from the governor ’s office.” “The Democratic candidates running for this open seat have long records of public service to the people of Vermont,” Daschle said. “With such strong leaders in this race, we have an excellent opportunity to win back Vermont’s governorship. As a top-tier pickup opportunity for our organization, we are committed to ensuring that a Democrat wins this race in 2010. Our political program will dedicate the same attention and
Page 3
Page 7
From the editor:
‘Feral housing’ comes to Vermont Feral housing is a relatively new term derived from the world of urban decay. Feral houses are abandoned homesteads, overrun by weeds, shrubs, and vines. In some places—such as inner city Detroit where the term was coined—feral houses are often used by the homeless, gang members, illegal drug users, and abandoned pets. Now, the term is being applied to what appears to be an increasing number of abandoned structures right here in postcard Vermont. You can see these neglected homesteads in Burlington and Rutland, even in touristy Woodstock. Elsewhere, quasi-rural places such as Ferrisburgh and Bristol sport a few feral houses and farms of their own. In Vermont, abandoned houses and farms have been blamed on everything from high taxes and unsettled estates to the current recession and Acts 60/68. In the case of the dairy business, the continued decline in family farming has resulted in a number of abandoned farms across the state. Let’s look at an unlikely place for feral housing: Woodstock. This gentrified community, which sports sidewalk dining, art shops, and ersatz sheep grazing on a hillside, has been cited in the news recently as a place where affluence and abandoned buildings manage to coexist, though maybe not so peacefully. In a recent Vermont Standard commentary,
A feral house on East River Road in Lincoln. Photos by J. Kirk Edwards
See HOUSING, page 5
Weekly newspaper starts New ‘Messenger’ published by New Market Press
GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE—A field of sunflowers along Route 7, near McConnell Road, in Brandon recall a popular inspirational by Louise Grunewold: “Live life like a sunflower. Reach for the sky. Stay open. Bend with the breeze. Brighten someone’s day. Bloom where you’re planted. Grow from the rain. Turn your face to the Sun.” Photo by Shawn Pemrick Photography
See DOUGLAS, page 7
R. Brown & Sons
INC
Mobile Car Crushers 608 Plains Rd. Pittsford, VT 05763 802-483-2802 Fax 802-483-2864
Recycling VT for Over 75 Years
Less than seven weeks after Eagle Publications and the Twin State Valley Media Network of Claremont, N.H., announced that the company went bankrupt—instantly closing the doors of the Eagle Times daily and the weekly Message for the Week, the Connecticut Valley Spectator and the Weekly Flea—most of the staff of the defunct Message of the Week are now involved with a new southern Vermont newspaper—the Messenger. The Messenger ’s 32-page first issue hit the streets Aug. 25. Co-edited by Robert Smith and Joe Milliken, the former coeditors of the Message for the Week, the Messenger is published by New Market Press of Middlebury, Vt. New Market Press publishes the Eagle, of Addison and southern Chittenden counties, and the Rutland Tribune. The Messenger will be distributed every Wednesday, with a direct mailing of over 20,000 copies to the paper ’s core towns, including Ludlow, Londonderry, Chester, Springfield, Rockingham and Westminster. Another 5,000-plus copies will be dropped at key distribution centers in Walpole, Charlestown and Claremont in New Hampshire, and from Brattleboro north and west as far as Rutland, making it southern Vermont’s largest weekly. Like other New Market Press publications, the Messenger is a positive news and lifestyle paper with an emphasis on local community events, local sports, arts, entertainment and food.
Paying CASH For Scrap Metal
38270