February 15, 2017 by Polly Lynn

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 1

Mounta in Times Volume 46, Number 7

Rutland County SUs

I’m FREE - Pick me up and be prepared. Paper beats rock.

Feb. 15-21, 2017

Windsor County SUs

Act 46 votes Many school communities will be voting on various plans for district unification to comply with Act 46 (an act relating to making amendments to education funding, education spending, and education governance) either on Town Meeting Day or shortly thereafter. See an outline of the leading plans in each of the Supervisory Unions within Rutland and Windsor Counties. Page 22-23

By Dave Young, Killington Resort

Skiers and riders line up at Killington early Sunday and Monday for fresh powder turns after nearly a foot of snow fell across the region.

Gov.Scott proclaims “Powder Day”

Called on out-of-state employers to “pardon” employees for a snow day to take advantage of weekend storm, extend their stay in Vermont

KMS’s Hannah Soar competes in first World Cup event Killington Mountain School senior Hannah Soar, a member of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, competed in her first World Cup, traveling to Deer Valley, Utah, the first weekend in February to compete in Singles and Duals events. Her finishes were solid: in Singles she placed 19th and in Duals she placed 15th. Page 30

With Vermont’s biggest snow storm of the year rolling across the region Sunday through Monday morning, Feb. 12-13, Governor Phil Scott declared Monday a “Powder Day” and urged regional winter enthusiasts to take full advantage of the excellent conditions. “Tourism is a critical contributor to Vermont’s economy,” said Gov. Scott, who encouraged out-of-state skiers and snowmobilers to stay an extra day or two in Vermont, make plans to visit Vermont mid-week or book a Vermont getaway for the upcoming Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. Ski resorts, inns and hotels around the state are offering deals to encourage extended stays and mid-week guests. Some ski areas have made operational adjustments, such as extended lift hours, to accommodate guests extending trips due to the weather. “For those who visited Vermont this weekend, it’d be a shame to Powder Day, page 2

Raising the minimum wage? Workers and businesses split By Erin Mansfield, VTDigger

living A.D.E.

Living A.D.E. What’s happening? Find local Arts, Dining & Entertainment Pages 37-52

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is a community newspaper covering Central Vermont that aims to engage and inform as well as empower community members to have a voice.

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By Dave Young, Killington Resort

A skier sinks deep in fresh snow at Killington earlier this week.

Courtesy of Rutland Rec & Parks Dept.

Snow sculpture coloring and teddy bear carrying are two popular contest at the upcoming WinterFest celebration in Rutland.

Rutland Rec expands Winter Fest to a full week

Feb. 17-25—RUTLAND—The 15th annual Winter Fest will take place Feb. 17-25 with many activities and opportunities to be part of the community. The event starts off on Friday, Feb. 17 with a community skate at

Giorgetti Arena and concludes on Feb. 25 with a Wonderfeet Winter Dance at The Palms Restaurant. During the week there will be a snow sculpture contest, snowshoeing, teddy bear carry competition, a Frosty Feet 5K run/walk Winter Fest, page 3

Workers say raising the minimum wage will help them spend money at local businesses, but local businesses say paying workers more will cause them to raise prices. Those were the competing messages of witnesses who spoke at a public hearing on the minimum wage Thursday, Feb. 9, hosted by the House Committee on General, Housing, and Military Affairs. The committee has been considering two bills, H.64 and H.93, which would incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour either by 2020 or 2022, respectively. The bill calling for the fiveyear time frame has more than 50 sponsors, who are almost all Democrats. Gov. Phil Scott has made clear he opposes raising Vermont’s minimum wage at a rate faster than inflation. Betsy Bishop, the chief executive officer for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, says

raising the minimum wage again would break a deal she and other business interests made with Gov. Peter Shumlin, former House Speaker Shap Smith, and former Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell in 2014. As part of that agreement, according to Bishop, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce agreed to support raising the minimum wage to $10.50 by 2018, as long as leaders in the Legislature did not try to pass paid sick leave or raise the minimum wage again after 2018. The minimum wage will be $10.50 in 2018. Paid sick leave has also become law; and more than 50 Democrats in the Legislature are supporting an increased minimum wage. “We would prefer to see the Legislature allow the current law to be enacted, letting the rate increase annually with inflation after the scheduled increase next year to $10.50 an hour,” Bishop said in a statement. “This has Minimum wage, page 5

LOCAL NEWS

2 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

Longtime Killington Market employee fondly remembered By Evan Johnson

o R t h o pa e d i c c a R e t h at u n d e R s ta n d s y o u R d e s i R e f o R a h e a lt h y, a c t i V e l i f e

For 17 years, visitors picking up a morning coffee on the way to the mountain or a sandwich for the long drive home could count on a friendly face at the Killington Market. According to her friends and co-workers, Ann Seibert was reliable, friendly and hardworking. In 2011, when Tropical Storm Irene devastated portions of the state, she was one of the first people to find a way from Pittsfield to Killington, driving over a washed-out culvert to make it to work. She loved golf and skiing, cribbage, the Denver Broncos and an occasional Gran Marnier. Seibert died at home on Feb. 10. She was 61. Seibert was born in Defiance, Ohio, and she graduated from St. Wendelin School in Fostoria, Ohio, in 1973. She graduated from Rhode Island College in 1980. She moved to Colorado in 1984 and worked as a psychiatric nurse until 1986. She returned to Ohio briefly before moving to Vermont in 1987. A passionate photographer, she worked as a photographer for Reflections of Killington. It was during this time that she met her husband, Jim Creed. They were engaged to be married

ANN SEIBERT until he was killed in a car accident in 1993. When Reflections closed, she began working at the Killington Market, where she did everything from making sandwiches to working in the front of the store. She came to know many regular customers on a first-name basis. “She would help anywhere she needed to help,” Killington Market owner Steve Durkee said. “She enjoyed the store, the customers and we enjoyed her.” When she wasn’t at work, her other two great passions were the Denver Broncos and her golf game. She golfed regularly at the White River Golf Course and eventually came to work there parttime.

On Monday, Durkee said he and the rest of the staff at the Killington Market were still processing the news. “She was a key part of our team at the market and a very good friend,” he said. “She is very, very badly missed by all of us.” She was pre-deceased by her father Roger and mother Joanne. She is survived by her family: Daniel Seibert of Fostoria, Ohio; William Seibert of Middlebury, Vt.; David Seibert of South Lyon, Mich.; Catherine Seibert of Belle Center, Ohio; Richard Seibert of LaGrange, Ind.; Jean Seibert also of Belle Center; and Timothy Seibert of Livonia, Mich. She is also survived by two nieces and eleven nephews, eight grand-nieces and seven grand-nephews, two great grand-nieces and one great grand-nephew. There will be a Catholic Mass held for Seibert at St Mary’s parish in Middlebury on March 4 at 10 a.m. There will be a celebration of her life at the White River Golf Course in Rochester, Vt. 1-4 p.m. Charitable donations can be made to The American Heart Association, the Killington Fire and Rescue squad or local food shelf.

Go hard. ( We’ll help keep you on course.)

Submitted

Killington 100 Day Club

On Saturday, Feb. 11, Killington loyalist Jackie Nimal and Rob Kovalesky (center of photo in red and pink jackets) celebrated their 100th day on the slopes with family and friends. The day marked personal milestones for them in the Killington Resort’s 100 Ski Day Club for the fifth consecutive ski season, Kovalesky said. “I was proud to present Jackie with her 100 Club Cap for the 2016/2017 season,” he said.

Powder day: Gov. says “don’t pass up the great snow!”

VERMONT

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continued from page 1 miss the fresh powder on Monday and Tuesday, so we invite all to stay an extra day and take full advantage of the excellent conditions. For those who have been thinking about visiting, this is the perfect opportunity to come see us mid-week or over the upcoming holiday. I’ve ‘proclaimed’ Monday an official powder day,” said Gov. Scott. “And, while I can’t grant official pardons out-of-state, I certainly hope all will be granted a ‘snow day’ pardon. Visitors can feel free to tell their boss Vermont’s governor asked them to stay.” Gov. Scott also urged all visitors and Vermonters to stay safe on roadways, and follow all travel and trail advisories during the storm.

LOCAL NEWS

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 3

The

FOUNDRY at summit pond

THURSDAY

2.16

JOEY LEONE DUO • 8PM Submitted

Tin Skoric is reading his story in “We Are One Rutland.”

Local youth celebrate “We Are One Rutland” RUTLAND—The Boys and Girls Club of Rutland celebrated the launch of the book, “We Are One Rutland,” a book created by Rutland Youth, exploring diversity in Rutland and how it enriches the community. Many youngsters at the Boys and Girls Club of Rutland were interviewed, photographed and wrote stories for the newly released book. The cover and layout design was done locally at Stafford Digital Arts. The club on Merchant’s Row in downtown Rutland held a celebration for the release Friday, Feb. 10, at 5:30 p.m. Then on Saturday, Feb. 11, Phoenix Books on Center Street featured the book for $15 for the 56-page hardcover limited edition. Proceeds from the sale of the book and all donations go to the Boys and Girls Club of Rutland County.

Mayoral candidates debate issues By Lani Duke

The four candidates for Rutland City’s mayor outlined their qualifications for the job on PEGTV Feb. 9. Mayor Christopher Louras touted his record, while Alderman David Allaire opposed that record and Rutland Downtown Partnership Executive Director Michael Coppinger presented himself as the candidate most likely to make change; the final contestent Kam Johnston said he is the sole candidate intending to cut the budget. Candidates answered questions about infrastructure developments and attracting young people. Louras views the 10 years he has led the city as that of “unrivaled and ongoing positive transformation” for the city, including combating the city’s drug problem. Allaire targeted what he called a “lack of leadership,” rife with controversies about refugee resettlement and fire department restructuring, plus an “unsustainable” budget. Allaire has served the city as alderman for 19 years, six of those as board chairman. Coppinger praised the work done by both Louras and Allaire but said it is time for a change from the mistrust and poor communication between the public and city government. Johnston said he represents the average citizen, saying, “I’m you, John Q. Public.”

Winter Fest:

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2.18

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SUNDAY

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MONDAY

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BLUES NIGHT WITH JOEY LEONE • 6PM

TUESDAY

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MUSIC FROM MEMBERS OF OAK TOTEM EDWARDS, ABRAHAM & TOLSTOI — "EAT" • 8 PM

Celebrating winter

continued from page 1 for Autism Awareness, night-time sledding down Center Street, showings at the Paramount Theatre including “Finding Dory” and a Warren Miller film, plus horse drawn carriage rides, sledding, snowboarding, cross country skiing, snow activities, food and much more. New this year will be a Freeze Frame youth film contest open to grades K-12. Participants enter a creative five-minute film on everything to love about winter. The contest encourages young individuals, or groups, to produce a short film (five minutes maximum) of any style (live action, music videos, documentaries, stories told with photographs, etc.). The premiere will take place Wednesday, Feb. 22, 6:30-8:30 and will show the top seven films from each age category (K-6, middle school, high school). Winners in each category for individuals and groups will be announced that evening. A panel of judges will determine the winners at the premiere. All the submitted videos will be shown on PEGTV after the contest. Deadline to submit a film has passed—Feb. 8. Activities take place in and around the Rutland area. For a complete schedule of events, visit winterfestvt.com or call 802-773-1822. See also the ad in this paper.

Tickets available at Sk ate Ren t al s Avail abl e

Serving Monday through Thursday: 3pm – 10pm Friday & Saturday: 11:30am – 11pm • Sunday: 11am – 10pm 63 Summit Path

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4 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

LOCAL NEWS

By Gareth Henderson, Vermont Standard

Kristian Preylowski, Kari Meutsch, Susan Morgan, MikeDeSanto and Renee Reiner pose in front of the 82-year-old Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock.

Phoenix Books buys Vermont’s oldest bookstore

WOODSTOCK—Yankee Bookshop first opened in November 1935, making it Vermont’s oldest continuously operated independent bookshop. This month, the owners of Phoenix Books, a Vermontowned bookstore with locations in Essex, Burlington, Rutland and Chester, purchased Woodstock’s Yankee Bookshop. Michael DeSanto and Renee Reiner met with Susan Morgan, who bought the shop in 2001, for the closing on Feb. 1. “After 15 years of 24/7 ownership doing everything, including cleaning the toilet, I realized the bookshop needs fresh eyes and fresh passion to continue to be one of Woodstock’s keystone businesses,” said Morgan. “I’m tuckered out! Yankee Bookshop deserves owners who are media savvy. I want to see the Yankee Bookshop

Submitted

Vermont Vapor in Castleton is closing because of an enforcement action by the attorney general’s office, according to owner Adam Tredwell.

E-cigarette seller faces $50,000 fine over marketing

By Adam Federman, VTDigger

hit its 100-year mark and still be going strong. I know it can’t happen with me as its owner, but when it happens I hope I’m here to see it!” While DeSanto said that a few alterations may be made as the new owners bring their own taste, style and interest to the selection of offerings and to the floor plan, they won’t be making any drastic changes to the venerable bookshop. “We’ve signed a lease for the next three to six years,” he said, “so we are not moving. We’re keeping the name, Yankee Bookshop. Susan Morgan has passed on a thriving and successful bookstore; our job is to keep that going!” To aid in the transition in ownership, Morgan will stay on in the store for a few months and will be available for consulta-

CASTLETON—The owner of an e-cigarette store in Castleton says he will close his business rather than pay a $50,000 civil penalty the attorney general’s office is seeking. Adam Tredwell, owner and president of Vermont Vapor, said claims that he violated the Consumer Protection Act’s prohibition against “unfair or deceptive acts and practices in commerce” are unfounded. Tredwell provided VTDigger a copy of a proposed settlement his lawyer received Feb. 1 from the attorney general’s office. It alleges that Vermont Vapor, through its website and Facebook page, repeatedly made misleading or false claims about the virtues of using e-cigarettes. The attorney general’s office says Vermont Vapor “makes smoking cessation claims” on its website even though e-cigarettes are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a tool to help consumers quit smoking. Vermont Vapor was also accused of claiming “e-cigarettes don’t generally fall under smoking bans” and providing free samples in its store, a practice now banned under federal law. The state also took issue with Tredwell’s description of himself as “Dr.” even though he does not have a medical degree. Tredwell, who disputes all of the AG’s claims, said he has a law degree from Temple University and started his company in 2009 while he was still in school. “If you have a doctorate that’s what ‘doctor’ means,” Tredwell said. “I never claimed I was a medical doctor.”

Phoenix Books, page 17

E-cigarettes, page 29

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 5

STATE NEWS

Court reversal means refugee resettlement will resume in Vermont, Rutland unknown By Adam Federman, VTDigger

A ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a Seattle judge’s decision reversing nearly all of the provisions of the Trump administration’s executive order on immigration means that refugee resettlement will continue in Vermont. However, the program is still operating under a cloud of uncertainty and it remains unclear if any additional Syrian refugee families will be resettled in Rutland. The ruling, issued Thursday, denied the administration’s request to temporarily reinstate the ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries as the case makes its way through the courts. The government argued that an emergency stay on the ban should be instituted because of national security risks and also stated that the court had no standing to review the executive order in the first place. The three-member panel rejected both of those arguments. The executive order had also suspended the refugee resettlement program for 120 days and indefinitely blocked Syrian refugees from entering the country. Before Trump assumed office, Vermont was expecting to resettle about 450 refugees in the current fiscal year, including about 25 Syrian families bound for Rutland. The first two Syrian families arrived in Rutland the week before the executive order was signed but, even with the recent court rulings, it is unclear if any more will follow. “I would say there is still a lot of uncertainty,” said Stacie Blake, director of government and community Relations with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Matt Thompson, program coordinator with the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, said they were expecting 13 Bhutanese refugees to arrive in Vermont today and roughly the same number next week. According to aid agencies, the process of rebooking flights for refugees scheduled to arrive before the ban went into effect has been complex and time consuming. Asked if any Syrian families were on their way to Rutland, Thompson said, “We’re hopeful. But we don’t have any information either way.” According to the Worldwide Admissions Processing website, which incorporates data provided by the State Department, 359 Syrian refugees arrived in the country this week. Fifty-one were resettled in New York state, eight in Connecticut, and six in Massachusetts, according to the website. A provision of the executive order not affected by the court’s decision is the overall reduction in the number of refugees who will be admitted into the country through September. Under the Obama administration

Minimum wage:

that number was set at 110,000; Trump has said he will cut that down to 50,000 and, according to the latest figures, the U.S. has already admitted close to 35,000 refugees for the current federal fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Thompson said the uncertainty over the executive order has been especially troubling for refugee families here in the country awaiting the arrival of relatives from overseas. “But we just have to keep doing what we do everyday,” he said. “Trying to serve our clients the best we can and have the best possible outcomes for clients and the community.” Since the executive order was signed, Gov. Phil Scott has sharply criticized the travel ban and earlier this week introduced legislation that would prohibit state law enforcement from participating in the creation of federal registries based on national origin or immigration status among other categories. Vermont was one of 15 states and the District of Columbia that supported the lawsuit brought by Washington state and Minnesota against the Trump administration’s executive order. The 9th Circuit Court’s three-judge panel voted unanimously to uphold the Federal District Court decision reversing the ban and argued that the government had failed to demonstrate that a “stay is necessary to avoid irreparable injury.” According to the decision, “The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.” James Lyall, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the court had demolished the administration’s argument that not reinstating the ban posed a threat to national security. The ACLU filed an amicus brief supporting the lawsuit and is involved in a number of other court cases challenging the executive order. Though Trump immediately took to Twitter after the ruling was issued and suggested that the government would appeal the decision—“SEE YOU IN COURT,” he wrote, “THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”—it is unclear what the administration’s next step will be. At a press conference with Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, Trump said additional measures addressing national security would be announced next week. “We will continue to go through the court process,” he added, “and ultimately I have no doubt that we’ll win that particular case.”

Employees and employers split on raising minimum wage

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Table of contents Opinion...................................................................... 6 Calendar..................................................................... 8 Music Scene............................................................. 12 Rockin the Region................................................... 13 Just For Fun.............................................................. 14 Ski Shop Showcase.................................................. 15 News Briefs.............................................................. 18 Columns................................................................... 24 Pets........................................................................... 26 Mother of the Skye................................................... 27 Service Directory..................................................... 28 Sports....................................................................... 30 Classifieds................................................................ 31 Real Estate................................................................ 32 Living A.D.E.............................................................. 37

Mounta in Times The Mountain Times is an independently owned weekly newspaper serving residents of, and visitors to Central Vermont Region. Our offices are located at 5465 Route 4, Sherburne Flats, Killington, Vt.

continued from page 1 been the plan for several years and changing that strategy now introduces uncertainty to already struggling businesses.” On Thursday, Mark Vandenberg, the owner of Sun & Ski Inn and Suites in Stowe, which belongs to the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, opposed raising the minimum wage. He said the raise would “obliterate” local businesses that work with profit margins of $150,000 or less. He said businesses would see their bottom lines shrink “across the board,” and the smaller businesses will be hurt the most. Mark Frier, owner of the Reservoir Restaurant and Tap Room in Waterbury, also opposes the increase. He said restaurant owners want wages to go up, but don’t know how much it will cost them. Frier pointed to tipped employees—especially servers—who are paid half the minimum wage from the employer and get the rest of their pay from customers. He said some are making $30 an hour, and raising the tipped wage would increase that. Frier said the restaurants would raise menu prices to pay for the increase in the tipped wage, and those increased menu prices would give servers an additional raise because they are tipped based on the prices. But restaurant workers say they need a raise, and the U.S. Department of Labor says raising the minimum wage will not hurt restaurants or cause job losses. Emma Schoenberg, 24 of Montpelier, said she’s worked for minimum wage in the past. It was only when she started earning a higher wage that she was able to save money and pursue her aspirations. “Here in Vermont, if we are going to continue to have conversations about business-friendly economics and affordability, we must remember that the worker is the base of all business, and I would say, not the business,” Schoenberg said.

Paula Schramm, a retiree from Enosburg Falls, said she can’t live off the payments she gets from Social Security so she works part time. When she got a raise from $10 an hour to $14 an hour, Schramm said she started shopping more at local businesses. “I was so happy to be able to just spend some money there and get some things,” Schramm said. “So it is true that when you … can meet your bills and afford to live, everything that you make extra gets spent locally and does help increase the economy, does help the local economy.” When they introduced the bill, Democrats estimated that 85,000 people would see a raise if Vermont’s minimum wage were raised. “That will be 85,000 more people spending money in their local economies,” Schramm said. Mike Lantagne, a history teacher at Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington, also testified in favor of raising the minimum wage. Lantagne said historically the debates over child labor laws, hourly limits on workweeks, safety regulations, and whether to establish a minimum wage have all been similar—one side argued about human dignity; the other side warned about imperiling businesses. “If we look at history, we’ve always been faced with what we know and then what we’re afraid of,” Lantagne said. He asked lawmakers to consider the stories of Vermonters who are having trouble surviving. “What we know are the situations people are living in right now in Vermont because we don’t have a $15 an hour minimum wage and we’re not working toward it,” he said. “What we don’t know are these mysteries of what will happen in terms of ‘will some jobs have to be cut’ and things like that.” “We face that same dilemma over and over again in history, and I ask you just to consider that as we consider the current question,” Lantagne said.

©The Mountain Times 2015 The Mountain Times • P.O. Box 183 Killington, VT 05751

(802) 422-2399

www.mountaintimes.info Email: editor@mountaintimes.info

Polly Lynn-Mikula ----------------------- Editor & Co-Publisher Jason Mikula ---------------------- Ad Manager & Co-Publisher Erica Harrington ------------------------------ Business Manager

Evan Johnson----------------------- Assistant Editor & Reporter Siobhan Chase ---------------------------------- Graphic Designer Melinda Noel ----------------------------------- Graphic Designer

Lindsey Rogers ----------------------------- Sales Representative Patricia Harvey------------------------------ Sales Representative Curtis Harrington-------------------------- Distribution Manager Julia Purdy---------------------------------------------- Copy Editor Royal Barnard ------------------------------------ Editor Emeritus

- Contributing Writers/Photographers Jimmy Britt Karen D. Lorentz Brett Yates Brady Crain Karrie Etzler Dave Hoffenberg Patricia Minichiello

Stephen Seitz Julia Purdy Cal Garrison Kyle Finneron Dom Cioffi Mary Ellen Shaw Lani Duke Paul Holmes Marguerite Jill Dye Lee Crawford Robin Alberti Flag photo by Richard Podlesney

6 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

OPINION OP-ED

LETTERS

Regional marketing plan solicits countywide support By Lyle Jepson and Mary Cohen

Imagine a future for Rutland County in which young families move into efficient new homes close to highpaying advanced manufacturing jobs … recent college graduates shop downtown for “first day of work” wardrobes before starting jobs with local companies where they worked as student interns. … construction workers in hardhats renovate and build new commercial space to accommodate growth in our health care and value-added food manufacturing sectors. These are some of the images people share with us as we travel around Rutland County asking community members and business leaders what they hope our future will bring. We believe this future is possible and that it can happen right here. But it will not happen by accident. We agree with those who celebrate Rutland County as a model of how other places in Vermont can create momentum and positive energy by working together. Now we need to leverage this momentum to address the many challenges we face. Vermont is losing population, and its workforce is shrinking. The Vermont Futures Project estimates that Vermont will need nearly 11,000 new workers each year for the next 15 years to fill job openings created by retirement and out-migration. Rutland County could lose 1.4 percent of its population by 2020 if the economy remains steady, and up to 5.2 percent if the economy stagnates, according to a 2013 Agency of Commerce and Community Development study. Some communities could see even steeper declines: Rutland city could face declines of 4.5 percent to 10.1 percent. Local business owners and managers already tell us that they have more job opportunities than they can fill. They tell us that they want help finding the talent they need to grow and to operate their businesses efficiently. Our low unemployment rate — approximately 3.1 percent — means that employers will continue to have difficulty replacing the many talented people who are retiring. We cannot let a thin labor pool turn back our economic recovery, or put our tax base, property values, and industries at risk. We need to reverse this trend by attracting people to our region to live, work and raise their families. Our plan Rutland Economic Development Corporation (REDC) and the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce are working together on a regional marketing initiative that will improve our economy by growing tourism to our region, increasing the population of growing families and working-age people, and retaining high school and college students. We launched this initiative in November 2016 by issuing a request for proposals from marketing firms that could help us achieve these goals. We received 52 inquiries from across the country. By the December proposal deadline, 18 firms, including nine Vermont businesses, submitted proposals. Our regional marketing committee was pleased by the quality of the proposals and invited four firms to make in-person presentations to the committee in January. A highly respected and energetic firm has been chosen. This is urgent work. It must be high-quality, and it must be delivered consistently and professionally, with a substantial budget. We are well on our way: we have raised OP-ED, page 16

Correction:

In last week’s edition, Feb. 8-14, it was inaccurately stated that Intrawest owned Mountain Creek, in the article by Karen D. Lorentz titled “From Stratton to Stowe, Burke and Jay, ski resort ownership may change.” Mountain Creek was purchased by Intrawest in 1998 but was sold to a group that ran Crystal Springs Resort in 2010. In June 2015, the Koffman family, one of four partners that purchased Mountain Creek in 2010 and had been part of the original ownership group, became the sole owner of the resort. Since 2009, Intrawest has sold Copper (2009) and Mountain Creek (2010) in the U.S. and Panorama (2010) and Whistler Blackcomb (2016) in Canada. They now own three areas in the U.S. (Snowshoe, Steamboat, Stratton,) operate Winter Park, and own two in Canada (Tremblant and Blue Mt.).

Increase in minimum wage needed Dear editor, Raising the minimum wage is not a new idea. But we need to get serious now. There is a bill before the legislature that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. There are many benefits to this. It would help Vermont workers. It would help families. It would help the Vermont economy. And, yes, it would help businesses in Vermont. Many people of all ages work for $12.50 per hour. The numbers are sobering. Nearly 45 percent of all Vermont women earn less than $12.50 per hour. And 10 percent of Vermonters live in poverty. A rise in the minimum wage helps to give everyone a fair chance. It helps children living in homes where the primary provider earns less than $15 per hour. In fact, 43,000 Vermont children live in such a home. Children in households with higher incomes are healthier, do better in school, and earn more as adults and have happier, more successful households themselves. Children deserve the best chance we can give them. When people make more money they spend more, and money circulates throughout the economy. Employees that make more money change Minimum wage, page 16

Windsor Central finance committee report FY18 Dear Editor, My name is Jim Haff. Around four months ago I was appointed to be the chair of the finance committee. I’ve worked hard with both principals at the middle and high schools and Richard Seaman, director of finance and operations for the Windsor Central Supervisory Union. The total proposed budget for FY18, $11,698,853, which is an increase of 0.6 percent from FY17 budget. The main drivers of our budget continue to be salaries and benefits. Our health insurance saw an increase of 3.7 percent, from $1,516,792 in FY17 budget to $1,572,839. Many employees switched to a Comp 1200 plan, which is fully paid FY18 budget, page 16

Options tax needs revision Dear editor, Despite the various and differing views printed here on a weekly basis, our community has come a long way to come together in a short few years. In the early 2000s our town identified a problem in Killington. Simply put, our community was not united. We were lacking a sense of community in our town, and our residents and businesses were suffering for it. In 2008, our town leaders met with Paul Castello from the Vermont Council Rural Development, looking for resolutions. This organization works throughout the state to foster community development and build local business. What we learned in these meetings, is that we needed to work together, create more for our town, and ultimately build a community in which others would want to work and reside. Being left no other funding mechanism to bring this to fruition, we became the first town in the state to vote in the 1 percent option taxes for the purpose of economic development. In the years that followed, the funds collected were added to the town’s general fund. The options tax funds originally intended for economic development are now being

used for various other town expenses, and not what we had originally purposed the tax. Since all of this has taken place, there has been some success we can attribute to implementing the options tax. Our business community and the Killington resort have worked together to unify and enhance our winter business, and also develop a plan to drive summer tourism. A positive change in leadership at the resort proved to be a great catalyst in stimulating this change, and summer business has grown tremendously in the past five years. From the promotion of concerts, races, mountain biking, weddings, golf, events and the outdoor adventure center our town has seen a massive increase in summer traffic. We should all be aware that some of these changes have come from investments made through option tax dollars, and a lot of the changes have also stemmed from major investments made by Killington Resort from their own funds. Residents of Killington are now looking at an article on our town ballot that has the potential to further support our growing community, by fixing the flaws in the rules of the options tax. Positive change, page 7

“Kick Butts Day” educates youth about dangers of tobacco Dear editor, More than 480,000 people in the United States will die this year from a tobacco-related disease. Each day, more than 1,000 kids become new, regular smokers; roughly one-third of them will die prematurely from a tobacco-related disease. On March 15, 2017, Kick Butts Day, thousands of young people and adults across the country will take part in a national day of activism to empower student leaders in an effort to stop youth tobacco use and to give kids a fighting chance against nicotine addiction. We know that 90 percent of smokers start using tobacco regularly by the time they are 18. Our youth have the power to help raise awareness about the problem, encourage peers to be tobacco-free, and support effective solutions to reduce tobacco use. Participants help raise awareness through events such as creating anti-tobacco posters to be hung in the community, hosting edu-

cational events, or cleaning up and displaying cigarette butt litter from community areas. Teachers, youth leaders and health advocates, you can help by organizing events to motivate youth to reject Big Tobacco’s deceptive marketing, stay tobacco-free, and urge elected officials to take action to protect kids from tobacco. While Kick Butts Day is officially held one day each year, our hope is that every day will be Kick Butts Day in the fight against tobacco. By making every day Kick Butts Day, we can win the fight against tobacco use, the number one preventable cause of death. For more information about Kick Butts Day, visit KickButtsDay.org, or contact Rutland Area Prevention Coalition at 802-7754199 or email us at rap@ rmhsccn.org. Tina Vanguilder is the program director and a certified prevention specialist with the Rutland Area Prevention Coalition.

We need more Bradys Dear editor, If the audacious comefrom-behind win pulled off by the New England Patriots at this year’s Super Bowl has taught us anything, it is that no matter what, we should never stop believing in our abilities to succeed, even in the face of overwhelming odds. This win is one for the ages; and without a doubt, many across the country, and indeed the world, felt for certain that the Atlanta Falcons would, shockingly, become the Super Bowl champions for 2017. After all, they scored the game’s first four touchdowns and by the start of the third quarter, were leading the New England Patriots by a whopping 25 points. Just imagine the emotions that were overflowing in Brady’s brain, as his team wallowed in impending defeat. Being a quarterback, he carried the great responsibility of seeing the Patriots to victory. Just think too on how he must have felt when in the second quarter of the game, a Falcons defender intercepted the ball and ran it straight into the end zone, with not a Patriot in sight to successfully challenge him. We saw Brady sitting on the bench, holding his head down and, just maybe, the opposing team saw this as a sure sign that the Patriots were defeated. But giving More Bradys, page 16

The right side of the option tax proposal Dear Editor, In response to last week’s letter to the editor from Diane Scappaticci Rosenblum regarding the local option sales tax vote to rescind. First I’d like to start off by saying I have a lot of respect and regard for Mrs. Rosenblum, so Diane, please don’t take this as an attack. While reading your opinion, which I take with respect, I noticed you’re question is: “If the local option tax contributes approximately $400,000$500,000 to the general fund, who do you think is going to make up the difference if it is rescinded?” You went on to state: “You and me and our property taxes.” Diane, the fact and the truth is there’s a second part to this proposal of rescinding the one percent option sales tax. I’m not sure if our board or town has clearly explained this Right side, page 7

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 7

CAPITOL QUOTES “Exorbitantly pricing potentially life-saving medications that should be widely available for a fraction of the price hinders patient access and drives up costs for the entire health care sector.” Said Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Md), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a letter to Marathon Pharmaceuticals Monday, Feb. 13, demanding answers about its plan to charge $89,000 per year for deflazacort, a drug that is widely available abroad for approximately $1,000 per year. Deflazacort, used to treat a deadly genetic muscle deterioration disorder that affects about 15,000 Americans, has long been available outside the United States.

“Some of us haven’t seen this kind of storm in a couple years.” said Shawn LaFountain, a transportation area maintenance supervisor with VTrans. Plow drivers are on the road for 16-hour shifts, but despite the tough work, many get a rush as they see the snow flying off the side of the truck. “Snow is so much better than rain or slush,” the drivers all agree. The Vermont Agency of Transportation says the fluffy snow is easy to move, but that means the possibility of drifts. Up to a foot and a half of snow fell across the state from Sunday into Monday morning. And a record number of schools, 603, were closed Monday.

LETTERS

Fact checking important details of the 1 percent local option sales tax repeal By Mike Solimano

“The 1 percent local option sales tax expenses. The resort and KPAA will take component of the options tax contributes over and pay for these marketing and event approximately $400,000 to $500,000 expenditures, leaving no gaps in summer to the annual General Fund programming and no negative imbudget. Who do you think is pact to the town’s general fund. going to make that up if it is Many in the town have argued rescinded? You and me in that the town should not be our property taxes. As it in the “events” business, and is, we have an increase the repeal of the “sales and this year, with the full use” portion of the option options tax a part of the tax would allow the town to budget,” was stated in a focus on public infrastrucrecent letter to the editor. ture improvements and There’s been some municipal services and shed confusion around this that obligations for future events I’d like to clarify. Currently, and marketing. All the while, the the town spends $280,000 on town’s general fund continues to MIKE SOLIMANO marketing and events benefit from the growth (funded by the 1 perof the “meals and rooms” cent option tax), and this year’s proposed portions of the 1 percent option tax, which budget includes an additional $100,000 to will remain intact and continue to grow support the 2017 World Cup, should the each year in tandem with the resort’s sumresort hold that event (and only if). This mer business levels. brings the town’s events and marketing “The other question I have is, why 2018? contribution to a total of $380,000 for fiscal Is it possibly so that when building the year 2017– and this general fund expense village, no sales tax will have to be paid on would be removed from the town’s budget all the materials needed? Whose interests is entirely in fiscal year 2018 if the “sales and our Select Board looking after? I don’t think use” portion of the 1 percent option tax is they are looking after mine,” the letterrepealed. The World Cup contribution is writer continued. not a new tax expense to the town, rather There’s a simple explanation as to why a reallocation of the approx, $160,000 the Select Board is looking to the next fiscal scheduled reduction in payments against year (July 2018) for the tax change, and it the Green Mountain National Golf Course has nothing to do with the proposed Kildebt, which the Select Board determined in lington village. When citizens raised the 2011 qualified as “economic development” issue of this tax repeal at a Select Board spending. This means the currently promeeting a few months ago, the original proposed $380,000 in economic development posal sought to move forward for fiscal year spending for the coming fiscal year does 2017. The Select Board decided it would be not feature an increase of $100,000, but most prudent to delay for one year as the rather a reduction of $60,000 from last year. 2017 budget was already nearly complete With the 1 percent option tax, it’s and the extra time would allow for proper important to understand that 1/3 of all planning, debate and education, which is money collected goes, by law, to the state what we’re seeing in the community now. of Vermont and that money is spent in I want to be clear: this tax change is other towns. The average tax revenue to the expected to have little to no effect on most town of Killington from the “sales and use” residents and local businesses, aside from portion of the 1 percent option tax over the 1 percent in savings on most purchases. If past 7 full years was $445,000, and if this the repeal is passed, the entire Killington portion of the option tax is repealed for community will retain several hundred fiscal year 2018 the town of Killington will thousand dollars annually to be better also be relieved of $380,000 of general fund invested in our community.

Positive change:

Removing the sales option tax benefits all

continued from page 7

“Rebecca has shown a fierce commitment to improving Vermont’s education system with a focus on outcomes and the experience of our kids. As my administration works to rethink the system, building a cradle-to-career approach that fosters innovation and supports educational and economic goals, Rebecca will be a strong leader and champion for creating more value for our students throughout the entire spectrum.” Said Governor Phil Scott, Monday, Feb. 13, announced the re-appointment of Rebecca Holcombe as secretary of education. With the appointment of Secretary Holcombe, who was selected from a list of candidates recommended by the state Board of Education, Gov. Scott has now filled all Cabinet-level positions. She was first appointed to the role in January 2014.

Our townspeople should vote to repeal a portion of the option tax that has been flawed since its inception. Currently, the way the tax is structured, our towns businesses collect 1 percent on all sales & use, and on rooms & meals and alcohol. This tax is collected by our businesses, and paid to the state of Vermont, who then retains 30 percent of these funds. Our town only sees 70 percent of the funds collected. If we can repeal this flawed portion of the

Right side:

way this tax is written, our town has the opportunity to retain our current level of funding for both the EDT and KPAA events, without it costing the town’s consumers and resort such a large amount of money. It makes far greater sense for property and business owners in Killington to retain the dollars they contribute to sales and use. The resort and the KPAA can handle the financial burden of promoting summer and community events without

this 1 percent. The options tax on rooms and meals, however, is necessary to continue to pay the golf course debt and fund other growth initiatives for our town. If we can vote to fix these flaws, these changes would first have effect on the 2018-2019 town budget. It is my hope that the voters in our town can come together to sunset the sales & use options tax. Christopher Karr, Killington,Vt.

Clarification on sales option tax off-set

continued from page 7 other part, which is simple: The town no longer would fund the marketing and events and employees for this department that was created with the option tax funding. So with $400,000$500,000 less in revenue one must realize in order for this to work there would be $400,000-$500,000 less in expenses.

So, Diane, there may be a difference to make up by taxpayers, but no where near $400,000 to $500,000. The truth may be under $100,000, as I see it. But let’s remember, we’re not allocating money as expenses for our town manager and other departments spending time with special events, marketing

and other items hidden in the budget away from EDT. Sorry, I had to do this in a letter to the editor, but your letter went out first without the understanding of the expense and revenue side. Once again, just making sure that we are looking at all sides of the equation. Thanks, Jim Haff, Killington

CALENDAR

8 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

** denotes multiple times and/or locations.

WHAT TO DO IN CENTRAL VERMONT THURSDAY Lego Club

3:15 p.m. Sherburne Memorial Library offers Lego Club every Wednesday during the school year, 3:15-4:15 p.m. Ages 6 and up welcome. 2998 River Road, Killington. Info, 802-422-9765.

Ice Skating

4 p.m. Ice skating at Summit Pond is open 4-10 p.m. Rentals available. Tickets available at Mad Hatter’s Scoops next door. 400 Summit Path, off Killington Road. Info, 802-4223335.

By Ru tla nd Rec . De partm ent

Rutland Wellness

FEB. 17-25

Rotary Meeting

TUESDAY FEB. 15

6 a.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Wednesdays: 6 a.m. & 12 p.m. 1 hour Bikram hot; 4 p.m. hot power flow; 5:30 p.m. 1.5 hour Bikram hot. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-747-6300.

Story Time

10 a.m. Maclure Library offers two preschool story hours, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Parents and care givers are encouraged to bring children from birth to 5 years old. This is a great chance for children to socialize and parents / care givers to make new friends, share concerns, joys, ideas, and experiences and to learn from other parents. Today, Christine Tate reads book, sings songs, then snack. Small, intimate group. Info, 802-483-2792. 840 Arch St., Pittsford.

Tyke Skate

10 a.m. Tyke Skate provides a times to introduce skating to kids ages 6 and under. Every Wednesday at Giorgetti Arena, 2 Oak St. Ext., Rutland. $6 per family; $1 skate rentals. Warming room, concessions, rentals/sharpening. Info, 802-775-7976; rutlandrec.com/giorgettiarena

Ski Bum Race Series

6 p.m. The Killington-Pico Rotary club cordially invites visiting Rotarians, friends and guests to attend its weekly meeting. The club meets Wednesdays at the Summit Lodge 6-8 p.m. for a full dinner and fellowship. Call 802-773-0600 to make a reservation. Dinner fee $19. KillingtonPicoRotary.org

Table Tennis

6 p.m. Green Mountain Table Tennis. Play twice as a guest for free. $30/ year membership. Knights of Columbus/Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County gym, 21 Merchants Row, Rutland. 7-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Info, 802-2475913.

Alzheimer’s Awareness Series

6 p.m. RRMC presents free Alzheimer’s Awareness Series Feb. 1, 8, 15, and 22, 6-7:30 p.m. in CVPS/Leahy Community Health Ed Ctr, 160 Allen St., Rutland. This week, “Effective Communication Strategies” with Pamela Beidler, Vt. Chapter Director of Programs and Outreach. Registration required at rrmc.org or 802-770-2400.

Figure Drawing

6 p.m. Chaffee Art Center hosts figure drawing sessions, 6-8 p.m. Live model. Bring drawing materials & paper pad. Boards & benches provided. Advance registration required to 802-775-0062. Members $10; Non-members $15. 16 S. Main St., Rutland. chaffeeartcenter.org

Bingo

6:30 p.m. Bridgewater Grange Bingo, Wednesdays nights, doors open at 5:30 p.m. Games start 6:30 p.m. Route 100A, Bridgewater Corners. Just across bridge from Junction Country Store. All welcome. Refreshments available.

10 a.m. Dos Equis Ski Bum race series at Killington Resort, Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Local teams of skiers, snowboarders, and tele skiers race down Highline in pursuit of Ski Bum glory and bragging rights. Highline Trail at K1. Post race party at Snowshed Lodge’s Long Trail Pub, open to registered racers only ($5 for a guest). Info, killington.com.

Write Now

Sleigh Ride Week

Sip N Dip

10 a.m. Billings Farm & Museum holds Sleigh Ride Weeks, Feb. 11-26, daily, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Featuring horse-drawn sleigh rides, tours of the dairy farm, family-centered activities, Pres. Day themed activities, programs, film showing, and more. Admission. 62 Old River Road, Woodstock, half mile north of Woodstock Village Green on Vt Rt 12. billingsfarm.org.

Learn to Knit **

10:30 a.m. Green Mountain Fibers holds Learn to Knit classes Wednesdays through Feb. 22, 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Learn basic knitting skills, cast on, knit and purl stitch, cast off. Free with purchase of yarn and needles; $10 to others. 259 Woodstock Ave., Rutland. Info, 802-775-7800.

Active Seniors Lunch

12 p.m. Killington Active Seniors meet for a meal Wednesdays at the Lookout Bar & Grille. Town sponsored. Come have lunch with this well-traveled group of men and women. $5/ person. Info, 802-422-2921. 2910 Killington Road, Killington.

Volunteer Meet N’ Greet

2 p.m. Chaffee Art Center offers Volunteer Meet N’ Greet, two sessions: 2-3:30 p.m. and 5-6:30 p.m. Connecting interested volunteers to Chaffee Art Center. 16 S. Main St., Rutland. Info, 802-282-3387, info@chaffeeartcenter.org.

Farmers Market

Wednesday Workout

5:30 p.m. Wednesday Night Workouts with Joani at Lothrop School Gym, 3447 US Route 7, Pittsford. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Incorporates aerobic conditioning, strength, legs training and abdominal work. The cardio-kickboxing portion is a dynamic, low/high impact aerobic workout combining boxing techniques that strengthen the upper and lower body, with punches, jabs, and kicks. Beginners and all residents welcome. $6 per class. Bring mat or towel. Info, 802-483-6500 x 17.

RUTLAND’S WINTER FEST

Bikram Yoga **

5 p.m. Education and support for people who are struggling emotionally. Focus on tools and methods for improving our lives mentally and physically. Wednesdays, 5-7 p.m., Grace Congregational Church, 8 Court St., Rutland. 802-353-4365.

3 p.m. The Rutland Downtown Farmers Market is inside for the season, 3-6 p.m. at Vermont Farmers Food Center, 251 West Street, Rutland. Info and vendors, vtfarmersmarket.org.

6:30 p.m. Release your inner writer’s block with prompts and guidance from facilitator Joanna Tebbs Young. All writer styles and skills welcome to Chaffee Art Center, 16 S. Main St., Rutland. $15 members; $20 public. RSVP required to 802-775-0356. Info, chaffeeartcenter.org. 6:30 p.m. Chaffee Art Center offers Sip N’ Dip painting class with local artist. It’s Arts Night Out! Materials provided; bring a good friend and a bottle of wine or beer for an evening of fun and creativity. BYOB. $25/$30. RSVP required to 802-775-0356. 16 S. Main St., Rutland. chaffeeartcenter.org.

Pool League

7 p.m. Pool league at the Clear River Tavern, every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Open to the public. 2640 Rt 100 North, Pittsfield. clearrivertavern.com.

Free Public Presentation

7 p.m. Free public presentation by Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D., as the Scholar-in-Residence for students in their Master of Food Science in Sustainable Food Systems of Green Mountain College, in Green Mountain College’s Ackley Hall. “Food System Literacy: Thinking Beyond Our Plates to Find Food Truth (A Moral Imperative).” Poultney.

Song Circle

7:15 p.m. Song circle and jam session at Godnick Adult Center, 7:15-9:15 p.m. Welcomes singers, players of acoustic instruments, and listeners. Donations welcome. Info, 802-775-1182.

Open Swim **

FEB. 16

8 a.m. Enjoy the warm water at Mitchell Therapy Pool at Vermont Achievement Center, 88 Park St., Rutland: 8-9 a.m.; 5-7 p.m. Call for more times & info, 802-773-7187.

Smoking Cessation

9 a.m. Rutland’s stop smoking program, including patches, gum, and lozenges, at Rutland Regional Behavioral Health, 1 Commons St., Rutland, Thursdays, 9-10 a.m. Register at 747-3768 or rrmc.org. Free!

Bikram Yoga **

9 a.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Thursdays: 9 a.m. & 4:30 p.m. 1.5 hour Bikram hot; 6:15 p.m. 1 hour Bikram hot. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-747-6300.

Story Hour

10 a.m. Promoting early literacy and socialization skills in a fun setting. Stories, songs, movement, craft. No registration. Ages 2+. Fox Room, Rutland Free Library, 10-10:45 a.m. 773-1860.

Story Time

10 a.m. Maclure Library offers two preschool story hours, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Parents and care givers are encouraged to bring children from birth to 5 years old. This is a great chance for children to socialize and parents / care givers to make new friends, share concerns, joys, ideas, and experiences and to learn from other parents. Today, Rutland Parent Child Center hosts. Snacks, crafts, stories, open playtime, dance, songs. Info, 802-483-2792. 840 Arch St., Pittsford.

Story Time

10 a.m. Story time at the West Rutland Public Library. Thursdays at 10 a.m. Bring your young children to enjoy stories, crafts, and playtime. Info, 802-4382964.

Killington Bone Builders

10 a.m. Bone builders meets at Sherburne Memorial Library, 2998 River Rd., Killington, 10-11 a.m. Mondays and Thursdays. Free, weights supplied. For info, 802-422-3271.

Drop In Art

10 a.m. Drop In Art Thursday and Friday, at Killington Art Garage, by appointment only. $25 gets 1.5 hours studio/project time. All ages welcome, kids and adults. RSVP to 802-422-8844. 2841 Killington Rd., Killington.

Bone Builders

10 a.m. Bone builders meets Thursdays at Mendon Methodist Church basement. Info, 802-773-2694.

RAVNAH Clinic

10 a.m. RAVNAH blood pressure/foot care clinic at Maple Village, Rutland. $10 foot clinic. Info, 802-775-0568.

Sleigh Ride Week

Pico Ski Races

1 p.m. Pico Mountain welcomes return of weekly Thursday fun races. Teams or individuals race down giant slalom at Pico. Jan. 26-March 16, 1-3 p.m. picomountain.com for details. 73 Alpine Drive, Killington.

Heart Fair and Showcase

3 p.m. Rutland Heart Center presents Affair of the Heart: A Heart Fair and Showcase, 3-7 p.m. at CVPS/Leahy Community Education Center at RRMC, 160 Allen St., Rutland. Cardiac experts and other exhibitors/speakers brought together for overall heart health and wellbeing.Educational talks in classrooms, blood pressure checks, more Free, open to the public. Registration requested (not required) at rrmc.org, 802-772-2400.

Ice Skating

4 p.m. Ice skating at Summit Pond is open 4-10 p.m. Rentals available. Tickets available at Mad Hatter’s Scoops next door. 400 Summit Path, off Killington Road. Info, 802-422-3335.

Level 2 Yoga

5:30 p.m. Level 2 Yoga at Killington Yoga with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 3744 River Rd, Killington. Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-422-4500.

Bridge Club

6:30 p.m. Marble Valley Duplicate Bridge Club meets at Godnick Center Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. Sanctioned duplicate bridge games. Info, 802-228-6276. 1 Deer St., Rutland. Please join.

Open Gym

7 p.m. Town of Killington Rec. Dept. holds open gym for ages 18+. Tonight, soccer game 7-9 p.m. at Killington Elementary School, through March 28. $2 per night. Schoolhouse Road, Killington. Info, 802-422-3932, killingtontown. com.

Open Mic

7 p.m. Open mic with Jim Yeager at ArtisTree Community Arts Center, Pomfret. Free. All levels, all abilities, relaxed environment. Info, artistreevt.org. 2095 S. Pomfret Rd., Pomfret.

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 9

Momix: Opus Cactus

7 p.m. Dancer-illusionist company Momix presents Opus Cactus performance at Paramount Theatre, focusing on human form and beauty of nature. Tickets $32, $42 at paramountvt.org, 802-775-0903. 30 Center St., Rutland.

FRIDAY Vermont Flurry

FEB. 17

The Vermont Flurry snow sculpture contest, held on the Green, Woodstock. Feb. 17-19, artists will create snow sculptures from large blocks of snow. This event is weather dependent, and could be cancelled last minute. Confirm at pentanglearts.org.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Great Backyard Bird Count, worldwide event, Feb.17-20. Count birds anywhere you are, for as long as you want. Rules and info at birdcount.org. Local info, rutlandcountyaudubon.org. Fun for all ages and families!

Open Swim **

8 a.m. Enjoy the warm water at Mitchell Therapy Pool at Vermont Achievement Center, 88 Park St., Rutland: 8-9 a.m.; 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Call for more times & info, 802-773-7187.

Level 1 Yoga

8:30 a.m. Level 1 Yoga at Killington Yoga with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 3744 River Rd, Killington. Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-422-4500.

Bikram Yoga **

9 a.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Fridays: 9 a.m. 1.5 hr. Bikram hot; 12 p.m. 1 hour Bikram hot. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-747-6300.

Drop In Art

Sleigh Ride Week

Story Time

10:30 a.m. Sherburne Memorial Library holds story time Fridays, 10:30-11 a.m. Join for stories, songs, activities. Babies and toddlers welcome! Info, 802-422-9765.

Sports of All Sorts

3 p.m. Killington Rec. Dept. offers Sports of All Sorts programs in Killington Elementary School gym: an intro to sports in a fun and instructional way. Open to any child from any school. This week, TBA. Fridays through Feb. 24. Pre k - 6th grade, 3-4:30 p.m. Aftercare available from 4:30-5 p.m. $35. Register at killintonrec.com.

Magic: the Gathering

Author Appearance

6:30 p.m. The Vermont community is welcome to attend the free public presentation by national best-selling author, master storyteller and musician Michael Caduto where he will share stories from traditional cultures found throughout the world. Green Mountain College’s Gorge Basement of the Withey Building.

Winterfest

6:30 p.m. Rutland Parks & Rec Dept. holds 15th annual Winter Fest, Feb. 17-25. Today, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Friday Night Community Skate at Giorgetti Arena, 2 Oak St. Ext., Rutland. Skating, activities, snacks, cocoa. Free.

3:15 p.m. Sherburne Memorial Library holds Magic: the Gathering after school Fridays, 3:15-4:30 p.m. Ages 8+, all levels welcome. 2998 River Rd., Killington. 422-9765.

SATURDAY

Ice Skating

4 p.m. Ice skating at Summit Pond is open 4-10 p.m. Rentals available. Tickets available at Mad Hatter’s Scoops next door. 400 Summit Path, off Killington Road. Info, 802-422-3335.

Opening Reception

4 p.m. Opening reception for exhibit “Prelude to Spring: Botanical Art in Vermont” at Compass Music and Arts Center, 333 Jones Drive, Brandon. 4-7 p.m. Featuring works of Vt. botanical artists Bobbi Angell, Susan Bull Riley, and Stephanie Whitney-Payne. Exhibit through April 1. Info, cmacvt.org.

Artist Reception

5 p.m. Chaffee Art Center holds artist reception for opening of “Release and React” exhibit featuring three artist groups: Brush Stroke Studios, EMMA, Vt. Abstract Connection. 5-7 p.m. Exhibit through March 31. 16 S. Main St., Rutland. chaffeeartcenter.org

Chester Winter Carnival

5 p.m. Chester Winter Carnival, Feb. 17-19. Tonight, 5-8 p.m. dinner and a movie for kids at CAES. Paint night for adults at Endless Creations, $35/ person; $60/ couple. Light snacks.Info, 802-236-2608.

Branch Out Teen Night

6 p.m. Branch Out Teen Night at ArtisTree, in collaboration with Spectrum Teen Center. Potential snow sculpture collaboration/project during Vt. Flurry, on the Green, Woodstock. ArtisTree Community Arts Center, 2095 Pomfret Rd., S. Pomfret. artistreevt.org.

Cajun Night

6 p.m. Chandler Music Hall holds Cajun Night featuring band Yankee Chank, cajun food, music, and dancing, 6-10 p.m. Food at 6 p.m. Brief dancing instruction at 7:30 p.m. Cash bar available, cajun food by Bill Koucky. Admission: $8 for dinner, RSVP to 802-728-6464. $10 for the music and dancing; $15 for both. Tickets at chandler-arts.org. 71 Main St., Randolph.

Vermont Flurry

FEB. 18

Bikram Yoga **

7:30 a.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Saturdays: 7:30 a.m. 1 hr. Bikram hot; 9 a.m. 1.5 hr. Bikram hot; 4 p.m. hot power flow. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-7476300.

Mindful Movements

8 a.m. Rise and shine with mindful movements, gentle stretches and chair yoga to awaken the body and settle the mind. 60 minutes of self care. First and third Saturday mornings of each month, 8-9 a.m. at Plymouth Community Center, 35 School Drive, Plymouth. Donations in the way of dana accepted, but not expected. Contact/RSVP to instructor Susan Mordecai, smordecai6@gmail.com.

Winter Marsh Walk

8 a.m. Monthly bird monitoring walk at West Rutland Marsh. Meet at Price Chopper parking lot in West Rutland, 8 a.m. 3.7 mile loop around the marsh, or go halfway. Help tally species, meet and learn from local bird experts. Info, birding@rutlandcountyaudubon.org.

Chester Winter Carnival

8 a.m. Chester Winter Carnival, Feb. 17-19. Today, Breakfast at American Legion 8-10 a.m. Disc golf and XC skiing and sledding at Pinnacle, 11 a.m. Sleigh rides with Smokeshire Farm at Pinnacle 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Food sales to benefit CAES 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Pie tasting at Southern Pie Company, 12-4 p.m. Broom Hockey at Pinnacle 1-4 p.m. Nightime snowshoe hike with bonfire, music, skating at Pinnacle, 6-8 p.m. Info, 802-236-2608.

Mixed Level Yoga

8:30 a.m. Mixed level yoga at Killington Yoga with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 3744 River Rd, Killington. Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-422-4500.

Gun Show

9 a.m. Diprete Promotions presents gun show at The Fireside Inn, 25 Airport Rd., West Lebanon, N.H. (I-89, Exit 20) 9 a.m.-5 p.m. $9 admission. Info, dipromo.com; 603-225-3846. 125 tables!

Women’s Pickup Basketball

9:30 a.m. Adult women’s pickup basketball Saturday mornings, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Vt. Police Academy, 317 Academy Rd, Pittsford, VT. Info, 802-483-6500 x 17.

Farmers Market

10 a.m. The Rutland Downtown Farmers Market is inside for the season, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Vermont Farmers Food Center, 251 West Street, Rutland. Info and vendors, vtfarmersmarket.org.

Drop In Art

10 a.m. Drop In Art at Killington Art Garage. $25 gets 1.5 hours studio/project time. All ages welcome, kids and adults. RSVP to 802-422-8844. 2841 Killington Rd., Killington.

Sleigh Ride Week

VINS Great Backyard Bird Count

10 a.m. VINS’ Great Backyard Bird Count at Nature Center Campus, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Workshops, raptor programs, feedings, live bird programs, and more. Feb. 18-20, daily. vinsweb.org. 6565 Woodstock Rd., Quechee.

Winterfest

VERMONT FLURRY ON WOODSTOCK GREEN FEB. 17-19

10 a.m. Rutland Parks & Rec Dept. holds 15th annual Winter Fest, Feb. 17-25. Today, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Snow Sculpture Contest in Main Street Park, plus skating, marshmallow roasting, hot dogs, kids activities. Free for spectators. Register sculptors at rutlandrec.com.

10 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

Bridge Club

12 p.m. Marble Valley Duplicate Bridge Club meets at Godnick Center Saturdays, 12-4 p.m. Sanctioned duplicate bridge games. Info, 802-228-6276. 1 Deer St., Rutland. Please join.

Kitten Adoption Event

12 p.m. Springfield Humane Society shows Hallmark Channel’s Kitten Bowl IV during adoption event, 12-4:30 p.m. Offering 50 percent off all cats over age 5; $20 off all dogs over age 5. Refreshments and giveaways!401 Skitchewaug Trail, Springfield.

9 a.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Sundays: 9 a.m. & 4:30 p.m. 1.5 hr. Bikram hot. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-747-6300.

Gun Show

9 a.m. Diprete Promotions presents gun show at The Fireside Inn, 25 Airport Rd., West Lebanon, N.H. (I-89, Exit 20) 9 a.m.-2 p.m. $9 admission. Info, dipromo.com; 603-225-3846. 125 tables!

Killington Section GMC

2 p.m. Ice skating at Summit Pond is open 2-10 p.m. Rentals available. Tickets available at Mad Hatter’s Scoops next door. 400 Summit Path, off Killington Road. Info, 802-422-3335.

9:30 a.m. Killington Section Green Mountain Club holds hike to Merck Forest, Rupert. Hike to Thoreau’s Cabin site at Merck Forest and view progress of construction. Moderate, 4 miles. Bring water and a lunch. Wear sturdy shoes, and dress for the weather. For info, call leaders Larry Walter and Vivian Bebee, 802-775-3855.

Author Signing

Vinyasa Flow Yoga

Ice Skating

2 p.m. Vermont author, ski writer, and journalist Karen Lorentz will be signing books at The Book Nook, 2-4 p.m. Info, 802-228-3238. Books available for purchase, or bring your own copy. 136 Main St., Ludlow.

Happy Hour Yoga

4:30 p.m. Happy Hour Yoga at Base Camp Outfitters with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 2363 Route 4, Killington. Ski, then yoga! Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-4224500.

Open Swim

5 p.m. Enjoy the warm water at Mitchell Therapy Pool at Vermont Achievement Center, 88 Park St., Rutland: Tues., Thurs., Saturday 5-7 p.m. Call for more times & info, 802-773-7187.

Date Night Childcare

5:30 p.m. Killington Rec Dept. has February date night childcare! Drop off kids for sledding, pizza party, dance party, movie on big screen, fun, games, crafts, at Green Mountain National Golf Course, Barrows Towne Rd., Killington. 5:30-11 p.m. Extended hours for Pico Ski Club Silent Auction. Ages 2-12. $30/ child; $5 additional children. Limited spots.Register at killingtonrec. com.

Ski & Ride Movie

7 p.m. Teton Gravity Research’s latest film “Tight Loose” showing at Killington Resort’s Snowshed Resort Center, 7 p.m. $5 tickets benefit Vt. Adaptive Ski & Sports. killington.com for details.

OMS Winter Festival

7 p.m. Okemo Mountain School holds 7th annual OMS Winter Festival, 7-10 p.m. at Willie Dunn’s at Okemo Valley Golf Club. Casual evening. $25 advance; $30 at the door. Sampling of wine and beer, hors d’oeuvres, silent auction, DJ spinning music. Adults only. Info, okemo.com.

Michele Fay Band

7:30 p.m. The Michele Fay Band performs at Brandon Music, 62 Country Club Road, Brandon. Featuring original and Americana music. $20 tickets. brandonmusic.net.

Torchlight Parade & Fireworks

7:30 p.m. Okemo Mountain hosts torchlight parade of skiers and riders traversing Open Slope trail around 7 p.m. followed by fireworks at 7 p.m. Gather at Clock Tower Base Area. Kids parade prior. Register in advance at 802-2281600. Also, guided snowshoe tour will get you to a great spot to see the show! Meet at Okemo Express Rental Shop at 6 p.m. for snowshoe fitting, or bring your own. Tours depart 6:30 p.m. RSVP to 802-228-1558. okemo. com

SUNDAY Vermont Flurry

FEB. 19

10 a.m. Vinyasa flow yoga - all levels, everyone welcome! With Whitney Berra. Meditative and heat building flow of movement with breath, to cultivate strength, space, and grounding. $10 for non-Mountain Top guests; 6 classes $50. Call to sign-up or drop-in. Yoga Studio at Mountain Top Inn & Resort, Chittenden. 802-483-2311.

Sundays with Maurie

10 a.m. Sundays with Maurie, drop in watercolor class, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. at Killington Art Garage. All ages, all abilities. $30 includes instruction and materials. Coffee/tea and sweet plate included. RSVP to 802-422-8844. 2841 Killington Rd., Killington.

Drop In Art

10 a.m. Drop In Art at Killington Art Garage. $25 gets 1.5 hours studio/project time. All ages welcome, kids and adults. RSVP to 802-422-8844. 2841 Killington Rd., Killington.

Sleigh Ride Week

Chester Winter Carnival

10 a.m. Chester Winter Carnival, Feb. 17-19. Today, Hockey Games at Pinnacle, 10 a.m. until they are over! Info, 802-236-2608.

VINS Great Backyard Bird Count

Winterfest

10 a.m. Rutland Parks & Rec Dept. holds 15th annual Winter Fest, Feb. 17-25. Today, Go Play Day 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Giorgetti Arena, 2 Oak St. Ext., Rutland. Snow shoeing, skating, teddy bear carry, fatbike demos, and more. Free!

ARC Valentine’s Dance

1 p.m. ARC Rutland Area holds Valentine’s Day Dance at Elks Club, Pleasant St., Rutland, 1-4 p.m. For people with developmental disabilities, their families, and friends. Get out and socialize with others to gain best health! DJ & dancing, food & drink, socializing and fun! arcrutlandarea.org. Rescheduled from Feb. 12.

FEB. 20

Bikram Yoga **

6 a.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Mondays: 6 a.m. 1 hour Bikram hot yoga; 9 a.m. 1.5 hour Bikram hot yoga; 4 p.m. hot power flow; 5:30 p.m. 1.5 hour Bikram hot yoga. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-747-6300.

Level 1 & 2 Yoga

8:30 a.m. Level 1 & 2 Yoga at Killington Yoga with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 3744 River Rd, Killington. Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-422-4500.

Go Green Scavenger Hunt

9 a.m. Resort-wide, Killington holds the Go Green Scavenger Hunt, where Cow Power logos will be hidden/scattered on green circle trails around the resort. Redeem them for prizes at Snowshed Lodge. Registration 9 a.m.-12 p.m. at Snowshed. Hunt through 3 p.m., resort wide. Teams or individuals. killington.com.

Sewing Art Camp

9:30 a.m. More Sewing Creations Art Camp Feb. 20, 21, 23, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Gallery at the Vault, 68 Main St., Springfield. Marbleize fabric then sew pillows from the cloth. Ages 7+, $30. Preregistration required at dkemble@vermontel.net. Info, galleryvault.org.

Killington Bone Builders

10 a.m. Bone builders meets at Sherburne Memorial Library, 2998 River Rd., Killington, 10-11 a.m. Mondays and Thursdays. Free, weights supplied. For info, 802-422-3271.

Sleigh Ride Week

VINS Great Backyard Bird Count

Winterfest

11 a.m. Rutland Parks & Rec Dept. holds 15th annual Winter Fest, Feb. 17-25. Today, Frosty Feet 5K Run/Walk for Autism Awareness at Rutland Country Club, Grove St., Rutland. $5 pre-registration at rutlandrec.com or $10 onsite.

Open Swim

11:30 a.m. Enjoy the warm water at Mitchell Therapy Pool at Vermont Achievement Center, 88 Park St., Rutland: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Call for more times & info, 802-773-7187.

Rutland Rotary

12:15 p.m. Rotary Club of Rutland meets Mondays for lunch at The Palms Restaurant. Learn more or become a member, journal@sover.net.

Dance Your Way to Health

Open Gym

Smoking Cessation

2 p.m. Ice skating at Summit Pond is open 2-10 p.m. Rentals available. Tickets available at Mad Hatter’s Scoops next door. 400 Summit Path, off Killington Road. Info, 802-422-3335. 5 p.m. Town of Killington Rec. Dept. holds open gym for ages 18+. Tonight, pick up basketball games, 5-7 p.m. at Killington Elementary School, through March 27. $2 per night. Schoolhouse Road, Killington. Info, 802-422-3932, killingtontown.com.

Chandler Film Society

6:30 p.m. Chandler Film Society presents screening of the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. $9 general admission. Info, 802-431-0204. 71-73 Main St., Randolph. 7 p.m. Upper Valley Curling Club plays each Sunday at Union Arena, Woodstock. 7-9 p.m. $25 per person. All ability levels welcome to join the club. On the grounds of Woodstock UHS, Route 4, Woodstock. Info, uppervalleycurling.org. Games begin at 7 p.m.

Let It Be

7 p.m. Let It Be, A Celebration of the Music of the Beatles showing at Paramount Theatre. Live performances of early tracks. Tickets $49, paramountvt.org, 802-775-0903. 30 Center St., Rutland.

Ruin & Rose

7 p.m. Check out the latest film from Matchstick Productions, “Ruin & Rose” being shown in Northstar conference room at Killington Grand Hotel, 228 East Mountain Road, Killington. Details and tickets at killington.com.

FEB. 17-19

President’s Day

Ice Skating

Weekly Curling

CHESTER WINTER CARNIVAL

MONDAY

Bikram Yoga **

4 p.m. Dance Your Way to Health at Castleton Community Center, 4-5 p.m. Aerobic dance components designed to burn calories and build heart strength. Work at your own pace. Info, 802-468-3093. 2108 Main St, Castleton. 4:30 p.m. Rutland’s stop smoking program, including patches, gum, and lozenges, at RRMC Foley Cancer Center Conference Rm. on Mondays 4:30-5:30 p.m. Register at 747-3768 or rrmc.org. Free!

Smoking Cessation for Pregnant Moms

5 p.m. Rutland’s stop smoking program for pregnant mothers, including patches, gum, and lozenges, at Rutland Women’s Healthcare, 147 Allen St., Rutland. Mondays, 5-6 p.m. Register at 747-3768 or rrmc.org. Free!

Gentle Yoga

5 p.m. Gentle yoga - all levels, everyone welcome! Call to sign-up or drop-in. Yoga Studio at Mountain Top Inn & Resort, Chittenden. 802-483-2311.

Open Gym

7 p.m. Town of Killington Rec. Dept. holds open gym for ages 18+. Tonight, volleyball game 7-9 p.m. at Killington Elementary School, through March 28. $2 per night. Schoolhouse Road, Killington. Info, 802-422-3932, killingtontown. com.

Live Raptor Encounter

7 p.m. VINS presents a live raptor encounter—falcons, hawks, and owls—at the Killington Grand Hotel, 228 E. Mountain Rd., Killington. Hands-on materials and artifacts, learn about raptors. Free. killington.com.

Hop Growing Discussion

7 p.m. Rutland County Master Gardeners host Julian Post, UVM Extensionist, for talk on growing hops in Vermont, at Godnick Center, 1 Deer St., Rutland.

Drop In Basketball

7:45 p.m. Rutland Rec Dept offers co-ed drop in basketball, 7:15-9:15 p.m. at Rutland Intermediate School. Men and women age 18+. $5 fee. Self organized, self policed! Balls and pinnies provided. Info, 802-282-2054. 65 Library Ave, Rutland.

Citizenship Classes

Vermont Adult Learning will offers free citizenship classes. Call 802-7974045 and learn if you may qualify for citizenship at no cost. 16 Evelyn St., Rutland. Also, free classes in reading, writing, and speaking for English speakers of other languages. Ongoing. 16 Evelyn St., Rutland

TUESDAY Open Swim **

FEB. 21

8 a.m. Enjoy the warm water at Mitchell Therapy Pool at Vermont Achievement Center, 88 Park St., Rutland: 8-9 a.m.; 12-1 p.m.; 5-7 p.m. Call for more times & info, 802-773-7187.

Yin Yoga

8:30 a.m. Yin Yoga at Killington Yoga with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 3744 River Rd, Killington. Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-422-4500.

Preschool Story Time

10:30 a.m. Norman Williams Public Library holds 45-minute story time for kids ages 3-6 featuring three, thematically related books along with craft or activity reinforcing theme. 802-457-2295. 10 the Green, Woodstock.

Learn to Knit **

Smoking Cessation

Legion Bingo

Family Playgroup

11 a.m. Circuit Works at Castleton Community Center, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Targets all major muscle groups with strength and flexibility exercises. Bands, tubing, weights, bike and treadmill, exercise ball and mats. Class size limited. Info, 802-468-3093. 2108 Main St, Castleton.

Bone Builders

10 a.m. Bone builders meets Tuesdays at Mendon Methodist Church basement. Info, 802-773-2694.

Sleigh Ride Week

Wildlife Program

10 a.m. Friends of Fair Haven Free Library hosts visit from Southern Vt. Natural History Museum, “Vermont Wildlife” with live animals, furs, skulls, and more, for an exploration of local animal life. All ages welcome. Free. 107 N. Main St., Fair Haven.

Vinyasa Flow Yoga

5:45 p.m. Vinyasa flow yoga - all levels, everyone welcome! With Whitney Berra. Meditative and heat building flow of movement with breath, to cultivate strength, space, and grounding. $10 for non-Mountain Top guests; 6 classes $50. Call to sign-up or drop-in. Yoga Studio at Mountain Top Inn & Resort, Chittenden. 802-483-2311.

Art Workshop

10 a.m. Rutland Co. Parent Child Center holds playgroup, at Mount Holly Town Library, Belmont. Tuesdays, 10-11:30 a.m. Informal gatherings for families who share a common thread of wanting a supportive experience for their child. For info, rcpcc.org.

5:30 p.m. Level 1 Yoga at Killington Yoga with Karen Dalury, RYT 500. 3744 River Rd, Killington. Info, killingtonyoga.com, 802-422-4500.

10:30 a.m. Green Mountain Fibers holds Learn to Knit classes Tuesdays through Feb. 21, 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Learn basic knitting skills, cast on, knit and purl stitch, cast off. Free with purchase of yarn and needles; $10 to others. 259 Woodstock Ave., Rutland. Info, 802-775-7800. 11 a.m. Rutland’s stop smoking program, including patches, gum, and lozenges, at Rutland Heart Center, 12 Commons St., Rutland, Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-12 p.m. Register at 747-3768 or rrmc.org. Free!

10 a.m. Annie’s Art Workshop, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Tuesdays at Sherburne Memorial Library, Killington. Open art workshop - collaborative artist group welcomes all levels, interests, mediums. Free. In memory of Ann Wallen. Info, 2991777.

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 11 Level 1 Yoga

Circuit Works

Bikram Yoga **

6:15 p.m. Brandon American Legion, Tuesdays. Warm ups 6:15 p.m., regular games 7 p.m. Open to the public. Bring a friend!

Chess Club

7 p.m. Rutland Rec Dept. holds a chess club at Godnick Adult Center, providing a mind-enhancing skill not only to the youth but adults as well. The club will teach anyone who is willing to learn. All ages are welcome; open to the public. Tuesday evenings, 7 – 9 p.m. 1 Deer St., Rutland.

Paint and Sip

12 p.m. Bikram Yoga holds classes Tuesdays: 9 a.m. & 4:30 p.m. 1.5 hr. hot Bikram yoga; 12 p.m. hot yin; 6:15 p.m. 1 hour hot Bikram. 1360 US-4, Mendon. Info, 802-747-6300.

7 p.m. Paint and sip at the Roundhouse at Jackson Gore, at Okemo Mountain, 7-9 p.m. No experience needed, follow along with a local artist instructor. Come early to grab a drink, sorry, no outside alcohol allowed. Doors open 6:45 p.m. $50, space limited, okemo.com.

Ludlow Rotary Club Meets

Freelance Family Singers

12:15 p.m. Ludlow Rotary Club service area includes Ludlow, Mt. Holly, Cavendish, Plymouth with members from these communities. Meets for lunch & fellowship Tuesdays. Club activities fund scholarships for area students, support local not-for-profit organizations and contributes to other local & international humanitarian efforts. ludlowrotary.com

OneCare Health Initiative

4 p.m. Sandy Soho, Nurse Clinical Consultant for OneCareVT, discusses hopes and dreams for promoting healthy living. Community welcome to spread the word about healthy behaviors and celebrate what is good. At Norman Williams Public Library, 10 the Green, Woodstock. 4-5 p.m. Info, 802-4572295.

TOPS Meeting

5 p.m. TOPS - Taking Off Pounds Sensibly meets every Tuesday at the Trinity Episcopal Church, 85 West Street, Rutland. Weigh-in 5-5:25 p.m. Meeting 5:30-6:30 p.m. For additional information call Robin at 802-483-2967.

7 p.m. Freelance Family Singers community chorus of Woodstock begin practicing for May concerts Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 36 Elm St., Woodstock. All ages, no auditions. Small participation fee, scholarships available. Info, 802-457-3980.

Winterfest

7 p.m. Rutland Parks & Rec Dept. holds 15th annual Winter Fest, Feb. 17-25. Today, night sledding on Center Street, Downtown Rutland, 7-9 p.m. Bring your own sled. Plus music and cardboard sledding challenge. Free!

Broomball

7:45 p.m. Giorgetti Arena offers broomball Tuesdays, 7:45-9:15 p.m. Helmet and clean, rubber sole shoes needed. Sticks and balls provided. $4 Rutland residents; $5 non. 2 Oak St. Ext., Rutland. rutlandrec.com.

Courtesy of VINS

A female cardinal is easy to spot with its distinct features, though not quite as bright and obvious as her male counterpart.

VINS celebrates the Great Backyard Bird Count

Feb. 18-20—QUECHEE—Join the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) for the Great Backyard Bird Count at the Nature Center campus Saturday, Feb. 18 through Monday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Become a citizen scientist for a day, and help VINS count the wild birds that visit their feeders. VINS invites birding novices and experts alike to join them in the morning for a Bird ID and Binoculars workshop in which bird enthusiasts will learn to identify those feathered visitors to their backyard and practice with tools that will help them become a real birder. On Saturday and Sunday, build a nest box and take home a safe place for songbirds to raise their families this spring (an additional $10 for materials). Also on Saturday and Sunday, discover the intelligence and playfulness of crows as VINS Educators introduce you to resident crow Crowie—a “crowgram” not to be missed! Offered Saturday through Monday, VINS’ own Meet a Raptor program will intro-

duce visitors to the origin and importance of the Great Backyard Bird Count and explain how they can play a role in the largest bird survey ever conducted. Guided Bird Walks with a VINS Naturalist will be available Saturday through Monday, as well. Each day of the celebration will feature Predators of the Sky, one of VINS’ uniquely fascinating live bird programs. Raptor feeding time will be held at 2:45 p.m. each day. Special interactive activities for families will take place. All events are included with admission to the VINS Nature Center. General admission to the VINS Nature Center is free for members; $14.50 for adults; $13.50 for seniors 62 and over; $12.50 for youth ages 4 to 17; and free for children 3 and under. For more information, visit vinsweb.org or call 802-359-5001, ext. 223. The VINS Nature Center is open to the public seven days a week, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. It is located at 6565 Woodstock Road, Quechee.

12 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

[MUSIC Scene] WEDNESDAY FEB. 15

KILLINGTON

2 p.m. K1 Base Lodge Daniel Brown

6 p.m. Liquid Art Open Mic w/ Ricky T

9 p.m Outback Pizza Comedy Night

POULTNEY 6:30 p.m. Taps Tavern Jazz Night

THURSDAY FEB. 16

KILLINGTON

2 p.m. K1 Base Lodge Chris Pallutto

2 p.m. Snowshed LT Pub Tony Lee Thomas

4 p.m. Liquid Art

Vinyl Revolution w/ DJ Drewcifer

8 p.m. Outback Pizza Clay & Pat

8 p.m. Pickle Barrel Bruce in the USA

8 p.m. Santa Fe Steakhouse Bob Kennedy

8 p.m. The Foundry Joey Leone Duo

9 p.m. JAX MB Padfield

10 p.m. Wobbly Barn

1:30 p.m. Pico Base Lodge

2 p.m. Snowshed LT Pub

10 p.m. Wobbly Barn

2 p.m. K1 Base Lodge

4 p.m. The Foundry Duane Carleton

10:30 p.m. Pickle Barrel Crow’s Nest

Chris Pallutto

Tony Lee Thomas Duo

2 p.m. Snowshed LT Pub Joey Leone Duo

4 p.m. The Foundry Just Jamie

5 p.m. Outback Pizza Guy & Wayne

6 p.m. Wobbly Barn Jenny Porter

7 p.m. O’Dwyers Public House Daniel Brown

7:30 p.m. McGrath’s Irish Pub Curraugh’s Fancy

8 p.m. The Foundry Duane Carleton

8 p.m. Pickle Barrel Never In Vegas

Clay & Pat

Jazz Trio

PITTSFIELD 7 p.m. Clear River Tavern Open Mic Jam

RUTLAND 7 p.m. Paramount Theatre MOMIX: Opus Cactus

9 p.m. Center Street Alley DJ Mega

Laura Lea & Tripp Fabulous

Jamie’s Junk Show

LUDLOW

DJ Dave’s Apres Ski Dance Party

3 p.m. The Chophouse

6 p.m. Preston’s Jenny Porter

PITTSFIELD

6 p.m. Wobbly Barn

8 p.m. Clear River Tavern Clear-aoke w/ Caitlin

7 p.m. O’Dwyers Public House

RUTLAND

7:30 p.m. McGrath’s Irish Pub

9:30 p.m. The Venue

Tony Lee Thomas Trio

The County Down

Curraugh’s Fancy

8 p.m. Pickle Barrel Never In Vegas

8 p.m. Santa Fe Steakhouse David Soltz: Acoustic Soul

The Idiots

Aaron Audet Band

8:30 p.m. Outback Pizza

Wayne Canney

7 p.m. Paramount Theatre Let It Be

Open Mic w/ Chris Pallutto

STOCKBRIDGE 11 a.m. Wild Fern

Cigar Box Brunch w/ Rick Redington

MONDAY FEB. 20

9 p.m. JAX

9 p.m. JAX Food & Games

KILLINGTON

Joey Leone Trio

1 p.m. K1 Base Lodge

9 p.m. Moguls Sports Pub

9 p.m. Moguls Sports Pub Super Stash Bros

4 p.m. The Foundry

10 p.m. Wobbly Barn

7 p.m. Outback Pizza

Just Jamie

Dos Equis All Request Dance Party w/ DJ Dave

10 p.m. Wobbly Barn Men of Horses

PITTSFIELD 6 p.m. Clear River Tavern Fritz Gun

8 p.m. Clear River Tavern Gully Boys

7:30 p.m. Hop ‘n’ Moose

6 p.m. Red Clover Inn

5 p.m. Outback Pizza

8:30 p.m. Outback Pizza

David Soltz: Acoustic Soul

LUDLOW

MENDON

Jamie’s Junk Show

8 p.m. The Foundry

RUTLAND

Karaoke & Video Show w/ DJ Evan

4:30 p.m. Pickle Barrel

8 p.m. Santa Fe Steakhouse

Sonic Malfunktion

9 p.m. Mangiamo Ristorante & Nightclub

Joey Leone Trio

Aaron Audet

Laura Lea & Tripp Fabulous

PITTSFIELD 8 p.m. Clear River Tavern Rick Redington and The Luv

RUTLAND 10 a.m. Farmer’s Market Daniel Brown

9 p.m. Center Street Alley DJ Mega

9 p.m. Center Street Alley

9:30 p.m. Downtown Tavern

WOODSTOCK

Sling Shot

DJ Dance Party

WOODSTOCK 8 p.m. Bentley’s

Dancing After Dark w/ DJ Chris Powers

SATURDAY FEB. 18

BOMOSEEN

Karaoke w/ Tenacious T

8 p.m. Bentley’s Dancing After Dark

SUNDAY FEB. 19

KILLINGTON

11 a.m. The Foundry JD Tolstoi Brunch

Duane Carleton Just Jamie

Karaoke and Music Vid Nite w/ DJ Evan

7 p.m. The Foundry Joey Leone’s Blues Night

9 p.m. JAX Food and Games Primo & Johnson

LUDLOW 3 p.m. The Chophouse Wayne Canney

PITTSFIELD 7 p.m. Clear River Tavern Clay Canfield and Pat Navarre

RUTLAND 9:30 p.m. Downtown Tavern Jenny Porter

WOODSTOCK 8 p.m. Bentley’s

Open Mic w/ Brian Warren

TUESDAY FEB. 21

6 p.m. Iron Lantern

1 p.m. Bear Mountain Base Lodge

BRANDON

1 p.m. Pico Base Lodge

2 p.m. K1 Base Lodge

Open Mic w/ Jim Yeager

7:30 p.m. Brandon Music

Duane Carleton

2 p.m. K1 Base Lodge

STOCKBRIDGE

The Michele Fay Band

8 p.m. Outback Pizza

LUDLOW

Kenny Mehler Band

2 p.m. Snowshed LT Pub

8 p.m. The Foundry

9:30 p.m. Downtown Tavern DJ Dance Party

SOUTH POMFRET 7 p.m. Artistree

7 p.m Wild Fern Rick Redington

WOODSTOCK 8 p.m. Bentley’s Arthur James

FRIDAY FEB. 17

BOMOSEEN

6 p.m. Iron Lantern John Lyons

KILLINGTON 1 p.m. Bear Mountain Base Lodge Duane Carleton

Gerry Grimo

3 p.m. The Chophouse Wayne Canney

9 p.m. Mangiamo Ristorante & Nightclub DJ Dance Party

Guy Burlage

Tony Lee Thomas

4 p.m. McGrath’s Irish Pub Extra Stout

4 p.m. Pickle Barrel Jamie’s Junk Show

KILLINGTON Daniel Brown Andy Lugo

Edwards, Abraham & Tolstoi – “EAT”

8:30 p.m. Domenic’s Pizzeria

Name That Tune Bingo w/ DJ Dave

5 p.m. The Foundry

9 p.m. JAX Food & Games

Daniel Brown

6 p.m. Outback Pizza

POULTNEY

1:30 p.m. Pico Base Lodge

6 p.m. Wobbly Barn

Bluegrass Jam w/ Poultney Bluegrass Society

KILLINGTON 1 p.m. Bear Mountain Base Lodge

Chris Pallutto Band

Jazz Night w/ Oak Totem

DJ Dave’s Apres Ski Dance Party Tony Lee Thomas Trio

Annie in the Water

9 p.m. Taps Tavern

2 p.m. K1 Base Lodge

8 p.m. Pickle Barrel

WOODSTOCK

2 p.m. Skyeship Base Lodge

8:30 p.m. Outback Pizza

Underground Ministries w/ Speaker Nate Mispel & DJ Casey

Master Cylinder

Guy Burlage

NOV. 25-27

The Nerds

Rick Redington and The Luv

9 p.m. JAX

Duane Carleton

6 p.m. Little Theater

ROCKIN’ REGION

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 13

Rockin’ the region with Men of Horses Make sure you head to the Wobbly Barn this Friday night for an awesome new band, Men of Horses. It’s one night only, but they’ll be back there March 10-11. They are so good that you’ll want to see them all three nights. Expect something different, said drummer/ singer Eric Pensa. “We’re rockin’ the region not going to play the same type of songs that all the by dj dave other bands that come up hoffenberg play. We’re familiar with a lot of those Jersey bands and the whole point of this band was to play different songs. We have bartenders, managers and even bouncers say to us that they’re glad we don’t play all the same songs most bands play. We based this whole band around not doing that. But then again, we also play good songs that people know and want to hear. There are only a handful of songs, little niches you can find, that’s our thing. We play those songs that everyone knows whether they’re old, classic, new, 90s, 80s, whatever. People will know the songs and we’ll get them fired up. They’ll be songs the band the night before didn’t play or the night after. That’s kind of our goal and mission.” Pensa and singer/acoustic guitar player Ron Jervis have been playing together since 2011. Unfortunately, their bass player passed away from colon cancer this past November. It was a devastating blow to the band and almost broke them up, but they continue to play in his honor. Pensa said, “He was an amazing bass player and bass players are hard to find. We ended up getting lucky because a kid I went to high school with had been touring with a band and decided he didn’t want to live in a van anymore and this happened right at the same time. He’s really good.” That kid is Eric Fornelious and they’re joined by Pensa’s brother, Cory, on guitar, keys and vocals. All the guys are in their early 30s. Pensa met Jervis at a local bar in the town where they grew up. Jervis was always playing solo acoustic, and one night, Pensa asked if he and his friend could get up and jam with him. He was cool with it and the place went crazy and wanted them back. The three of them ended up playing six shows together there. Eventually, they realized that they had a band, grabbed a bass player and have been playing shows ever since. When they first started out, they were a little jammy, but grabbed some members that were more alternative rock and now they are heavier. The band plays all kinds of different genres. They’ll do a hip-hop-rap song like “Must Be The Money” by Nelly; then they’ll go into a classic rock song like The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” but they’ll do a heavy rock version. Then they might go into something new from The Weeknd. Pensa said, “It’s kind of all over the place but we won’t really go through the same genre. If we’re going to do an older song, we’ll change the sound of it to make it kind of new-age so people like it. We’re definitely not the type of band that is playing the songs that we’re covering that sounds exactly like the CD. We ‘horsify’ it, is what we call it, since we’re Men of Horses. It’s the ‘horsification’ of a song.” I’ve seen this band a couple of times in New Jersey and they’re one of my favorites. What I like best is they’re playing the song, not messing with samplers and sequences. They remind me of a great Philly band back in the day called Steamroller Picnic who

used to play their first set acoustic and then would rock out. Pensa said, “That’s another thing we didn’t want to do. A lot of these bands, you go see them play and they’re not playing—they’re playing the backing track. Most people don’t even know that. We feel that’s cheating. It’s like producing a CD with a million different vocals and auto-tune. Then you go see the band play and they suck live because they’re not playing to those tracks because they physically don’t have all those parts. We are strictly straight musicianship. If we can’t play it ourselves, it doesn’t get played.” Pensa and his brother grew up seeing their dad, Frank, play in bands. He had a recording studio in their house and his band practiced there. Pensa recalled, “When we were little, we would go down in the basement and there would be drums, PAs, guitars, amps—the whole thing. Me and my brother would just dab around with whatever was there. We each can play a little bit of everything. My main thing is the drums, him the guitar, and my dad played bass. We used to play as a trio. I was five when I started. Basically as soon as I could sit at a drum set and physically be able to move my arms, and my feet almost touched the pedals—that’s pretty much when I started playing.” Neither Pensa nor his brother have ever taken lessons, but both teach lessons now. Pensa’s lessons when he was little were just watching, taking visual notes. That’s how he learned. “Being around it so much and absorbing all that good stuff made me think to myself, ‘I can do that.’” Pensa’s dad was in a few bands in the mid 80s, Tupelo Road and Out of the Blue. Pensa has a few musical influence drummers like Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band). His favorite drummer of all time is Darren King from Mutemath. Pensa mentioned he listens to pretty much everything. He likes the heavy rock band Bring Me The Horizon and then right to John Mayer. “If there’s not a band playing, I don’t really get into it. If a guy is playing through a drum machine, I lose interest. I’m a drummer, I wanna see someone play drums. Anything metal to the rock with a drummer, I’m pretty much into it,” Pensa said. Men of Horses is a straight cover band but Pensa and his brother play in an original alternative rock band called Nine Circles. They’ve been compared to a mix between Fuel, Fall Out Boy and Jimmy Eat World, if you smashed them all together. They write music and have been putting out albums since 2000. They always had access to the studio since their dad had it at the house and never had to pay for studio time or anything that goes with it. Pensa said they’ve been hoarding their last album, but will try and get it out this year. They’ve been playing so many cover shows, they have not had the time to do it. I asked Pensa what he loved best about playing with Men of Horses and he mentioned how they weren’t even supposed to be a band. It wasn’t like they said “Hey, let’s start a band.” It just kind of happened because of the people’s reactions, and they loved it. Pensa said, “It makes us want to do it because we know people are having such a good time. We get them excited enough that they get in a car to drive and come see us. Overall, the crowd’s reaction to what we do does it for us. When our bass player died last fall, there’s no way we wanted to go on, but we didn’t want to let down our fans. We can’t stop playing. The magic, so to speak, when we play—the crowd gives it all back to us. It’s awesome. It totally drives the whole situation.”

Courtesy of Dave Hoffenberg

MEN OF HORSES

14 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

• SUDOKU

just for fun

• MOVIE TIMES

• CROSSWORD

the MOVIE diary

SUDOKU

Lost in La La Land

By Dom Cioffi

Each block is divided by its own matrix of nine cells. The rule for solving Sudoku puzzles are very simple. Each row, column and block, must contain one of the numbers from “1” to “9”. No number may appear more than once in any row, column, or block. When you’ve filled the entire grid the puzzle is solved.

This week’s solution is on page 27

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

CLUES ACROSS 1. Package 7. Wear away 13. Joins a leaf to a stem 14. Worsen 16. Promotes international cooperation (abbr.) 17. Your folks 19. Publicity 20. Moves up 22. Dept. of Labor 23. Physicist Enrico 25. Whitney and Manning are two 26. Human foot (pl.) 28. Coral is an example 29. Extended error correction 30. Small amount 31. Dash 33. The greatest of all time 34. Middle Eastern country 36. Ravine 38. Cup-like cavity 40. Chemical substances 41. Extremely stupid behavior 43. He built Arantea 44. Beverage beloved by Brits 45. Cereal plant 47. Signal 48. A bar bill 51. Comedienne Faris 53. Preface to a book 55. Stores grain 56. In a way, medicated 58. Small island (British) 59. An Indiana-based hoopster 60. Measures width of printed matter 61. Riders use this to transport goods 64. Once more 65. Thin layers 67. Says again 69. Cleans thoroughly 70. Warnings

CLUES DOWN 1. Relating to male organ 2. Indicates position 3. Covers with frost 4. Makes a soft murmuring sound 5. Wood 6. Type of fuel 7. Confused 8. Where you go at night 9. Canadian flyers 10. Type of birch tree 11. Beloved Welsh princess 12. Coated 13. Smooth substance of crushed fruit 15. Improves intellectually 18. A sign of assent 21. Island-based Italians 24. Pragmatic 26. Peter’s last name 27. A bag-like structure in a plant or animal 30. Mexican city 32. Sir Samuel __, Brit. statesman 35. Summer Olympics were just here 37. Fiddler crabs 38. Southern military academy 39. Tumors 42. Speaks incessantly 43. Sacred sound in Indian religions 46. Transactions 47. Et-__ 49. Reminders 50. Doesn’t interest 52. Norse gods 54. Canola is one type 55. Beloved sportscaster Craig 57. Irish mother goddess 59. Daddy 62. Press against lightly 63. Sound unit 66. Master of Ceremonies 68. Morning

Solutions on page, 27

Back in the late 1950s, Dr. Paul Janssen and his team of scientists at Janssen Pharmaceuticals first started synthesizing a new drug for pain management. The extremely potent, synthetic opioid they developed was known for its rapid onset and short duration of action. They eventually realized it was also 100 times more potent than morphine and heroin. They called the new drug fentanyl and released it for medical use in hospitals as a general anesthetic. It’s popularity skyrocket and led to a number of copycat compounds. In the mid-1990s, a new line of fentanyl was introduced for palliative use (pain management) with the fentanyl patch. A decade later a fentanyl lollipop was developed, along with dissolving tablets and a sublingual spray that is absorbed through the skin inside a patient’s mouth. Because of its effectiveness with intense pain, fentanyl is generally used on cancer patients and individuals experiencing severe chronic pain like spine injuries. Unfortunately, I have an intimate knowledge of fentanyl since I was on it for several months during and after my recent cancer treatments. I was first given the drug via a transdermal patch that would slowly release the active agent into my bloodstream over the course of three days. I was initially given a small dose, but as the intensity of my pain grew, so did the potency of my patch. By the time I had topped out – just prior to the end of my treatments – I was ingesting 150 mg of fentanyl every three days. This is considered a very potent level, but it was the level required due to the extreme pain I was experiencing. To be honest, I don’t remember much during this period–I was in a hazy, zombie state that rendered me fairly useless. I continued at this level for a month after my treatments ended. During this time, I was back at home, but hardly comfortable. I was becoming more and more aware of fentanyl’s adverse effects on me. While it did handle my pain beautifully, fentanyl wreaked havoc on me in other ways. For one thing, I developed overly-heightened senses. This may not sound bothersome initially, but I can tell you from experience that it is not something to wish for. Any minor sound my wife or son made was super-intensified. A pot being washed in the sink or an abruptly shut front door felt like a bullet to the back of my head. Particular foods or fresh laundry smelled so strong that I would have to leave the room. In fact, the outside world was simply too painful so I spent the better part of my first month of recovery locked away in my bedroom with no TV or radio. It was just me quietly sitting in a recliner in the corner waiting for the day to pass. I would slide in and out of

LA LA LAND

sleep throughout the day, dreaming of a time when I wasn’t dealing with cancer. And then it came time to wean off the fentanyl. It took me a little over six weeks to “titrate down” from a 150 mg patch to a 12 mg patch and in that time I experienced a constant and ever-changing slew of maladies. Once the human body gets a taste of Fentanyl, it becomes very angry when you take it away and makes you pay for it in a variety of ways. There were so many times when I just wanted to maintain the milligram level I was at for a couple weeks just so I could fend of the withdrawal symptoms for a little while. But I stuck to my plan and persevered and constantly reminded myself that there was an end in sight and one day I would not be sick. That day turned out to be Jan. 17. I had put my last three-day, 12 mg patch on a week earlier. When I awoke that morning, I crawled out of bed and walked into the kitchen. I stood there for a moment analyzing my health until finally concluding: I don’t feel sick! My dance with fentanyl was over. I took a walk that afternoon and as the warming sun shone down upon me I nearly broke down with joy and gratitude for just feeling normal. I’m thankful that the fentanyl was there to aid me when I needed it, but I was even more thankful to get away from the dependency my body had developed. My days drifting through La La Land were over and I was ready for the next stage of my recovery. This week’s film also features a La La Land, but in this case it refers to the sunny and exciting environment of Southern California. “La La Land,” starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, is a musical love story that follows the relationship ups and downs of two star-struck Hollywood minions as they reach for the fame and fortune that the big city promises. Check this one out if you love a musical with catchy tunes and a bouncy storyline. And with the Oscars just around the corner and this film already making waves with its Golden Globe’s Best Picture win, it’s definitely one of the required films to see. A dopey “A-” for “La La Land.” Got a question or comment for Dom? You can email him at moviediary@att.net.

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 15

Ski Shop Showcase Meet Killington Director of Golf and Snow Sports Dave Beckwith By Karen D. Lorentz

Growing up in Plainville, Conn., Dave Beckwith first skied at Mount Southington. “I was 4 and hated it,” he admitted, noting the next time he went he was 10. “I was watching cartoons on a Saturday and Dad asked if I would like to go skiing. I said no. A few minutes later he turned off the television and said, ‘we’re going skiing.’ By the end of the day I was linking turns on the bunny hill and loving it. Then it became a career!” Mount Southington is a family area with a 400-foot vertical where both his parents were ski instructors. By age 16 Beckwith was also teaching there, continuing during college as well. After getting his bachelor’s degree in management and two associates degrees, he entered a graduate program in recreation and leisure studies at the University of Northern Iowa. “They had a program running camps for kids whose parents were in the military and I worked summers in Japan, Korea and Italy for Camp Adventure,” Beckwith said, calling the travel and learning about the economies and cultures an “amazing experience.” But with the “calling to ski too strong,” he left after two years to follow his dream to ski in the West. Q&A with Dave Beckwith Mountain Times:What was the route to your current job? Dave Beckwith: I went to Lake Tahoe and taught at Homewood but it closed for a lack of snow in 1995, so I moved to Boreal and eventually became ski school director. Then I served as ski school director at the Summit at Snoqualmie (Wash.). I heard Killington was looking for a director and Chris Nyberg [Killington’s president and GM at that time] had been at Snoqualmie so I got an interview. It was a homecoming to come back to New England where my family still lives, and Killington was the one resort I would come back East for. MT: Did you go through the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) certification process? DB: I began at sixteen with Level 1, Level 2 while in college, and Level 3 when I moved to California and made the PSIA Tech Team, Western Division. I served on the Divisional Staff for PSIA-NW and on the PSIA National Advisory Council when working in Washington state. As a member of the NAC I was a part of rewriting the stan-

dards for the Alpine Technical Manual. I’m also certified in snowboarding. MT:What do you enjoy most about being a ski and snowboard school director? DB: Working with the diversity of people, from folks in their first job to the veterans with many years of experience. We share a common ground of being passionate about skiing and snowboarding. I live vicariously through the staff, but in my position I am able to positively impact more people in the industry through the learn-to programs. Watching staff and guests connect — when teaching clicks for them — is a source of joy and reward. I love it. MT: Killington has Terrain-Based Learning areas at Snowshed (at three-quarters of a mile long the largest in the country) and at Ramshead since 2014-15. How did that come about? DB: I connected with Snow Operating [the company that founded terrain features to facilitate beginner skill development] when we went to the Conversion Camp at Jiminy Peak. We were introduced to TBL for learn-to programs. We skied through the special terrain features, and I found TBL to be innovative and making learning easy. We brought the program to Killington in 2014-15, and it has exceeded expectations. The TBL concept was designed to give beginners the confidence they need in a new sport and complemented our Discovery program efforts to truly enhance the first-time experience. That year we won the National Ski Areas Association Conversion Cup recognizing Killington as having the best beginner practices in the Nation. MT: Is teaching skiing or snowboarding an art or science? DB: The art is in connecting with people and being able to reach desired outcomes. There’s science in being able to assess a student’s learning style, evaluate their movement patterns, and create an action plan for providing an outstanding on-snow experience. Instructing can be complex because there are mental and physical components to a lesson. Instructors are educators who are responsible for guests’ safety, happiness, and their physical performance. A skilled instructor will give markedly different lessons based on the make-up of their guests. That’s where it is truly an art.

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MT:What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? DB: I got into woodworking when my wife wanted a farm table and I found out how much they cost. I watched a YouTube video and built us one. From there friends wanted one — I’ve done 15 in the last year and a half. I started playing ice hockey in the men’s league in Woodstock this winter. When I got out on the ice I gained a newfound respect for my daughters (ages 11 and 5) who play ice hockey. It’s a ton of fun and a great work out. MT: Favorite/recent book or movie you’d recommend? DB: “Rogue One,” the Star Wars movie. I watched it with my 8-year old daughter and it was a great way to connect with her. We’re both huge Star Wars nerds. I’m not a big fan of musicals but we streamed “La La Land” and I strongly recommend it. Its premise is about relationship and dreams and it takes place in Los Angeles where my wife is from, so it resonated with us. It’ll move you, and anything that moves you is worth sharing — it’s great. MT: Do you have a philosophy/wisdom to share? CB: Dream, believe, persevere, and balance. I try to balance work, life, and family. It’s not always easy and persevering can be the hardest part, but I feel blessed to be successful in this industry and love being at Killington where we do things really well.

JUMPS

16 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

FY18 budget: Vote “yes” for the Windsor Central budget

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continued from page 6 by the district including all out of pocket expenses, but at the same time has saved the district on the total premium payments. The increase could have been a lot higher than the 3.7 percent. We’ve increased the tuition for school choice students by 3 percent to $16,480 per student. We’ve added a curriculum director to the budget, which should help set a curriculum for 7-12. At the same time, we’ve increased our technology cost by $16,000 for bringing our Internet to today’s standards. We’ve had a reduc-

OP-ED:

tion in equalized pupils, which are in-district student count, by 10.53 students according to the state’s calculation. But at the same time, we have an additional 10 tuition students to make up this difference. At first glance, we were wondering why we were loosing equalized students and gaining tuition students, looking into the data what I see is that we had a few families move out of district to school choice towns and those children are tuitioning back in. On Town Meeting Day in March we have Plymouth currently as a school choice town

voting to join our district, which if passed I believe will reverse the above trend. Just this week, we also discussed our new governor’s proposal for level-funding to FY17. We, as a board, feel that 0.6 percent increase, while adding a curriculum director and the technology, is much needed and a low cost to the budget. Please on Town Meeting Day, vote “yes” for the middle school/high school budget. Thanks, Jim Haff, Killington, WUHSMS chair of the finance committee

Regional marketing plan launches

continued from page 6 over $200,000 from businesses and communities around the region, all of which recognize the urgency of our workforce challenges. We thank the following businesses for donating $10,000 each: Carpenter & Costin, Casella Resource Solutions, Foley Family of Companies, Green Mountain Power, Heritage Family Credit Union, Mountain Times (in-kind), REDC, RRCC, and Rutland Regional Medical Center. Castleton University, Russell Construction, and VELCO each donated substantial funds as well. Killington Resort, the state of Vermont, and many volunteers from around the county have also devoted funding and time to building a regional tourism brand called Killington Valley. We thank the Rutland City Board of Aldermen, which granted $100,000 over two years to this effort from the city’s Zamias Fund, and we thank the towns of Fair Haven, Pittsford, and West Rutland, which have put money for this effort into their town budgets. We ask the voters in Rutland Town, Clarendon, Killington, Mendon, and Middletown Springs to also support the effort on their ballots on Town Meeting

day. We will ask each community in our county for financial support (about one dollar per resident). We visited Proctor, Pawlet and Castleton; we will visit Wells and Middletown Springs soon. We invite towns and community members to participate in the effort through our subcommittee work on tourism, increasing our population, and retaining students. If you don’t see your town’s name on this list, it is because we will be calling you soon. We will need everyone’s help to make this effort sustainable. The reception we have received during our visits to towns and businesses has been both gracious and positive; we feel a stronger connection with each visit. We want to hear from you. Please contact us with your questions and ideas at 802-773-2747 or at chamber@rutlandvermont.com. And please, support this effort on Town Meeting day. Mary Cohen is executive director of the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce. Lyle P. Jepson is dean of Entrepreneurial Programs at Castleton University and executive director of the Rutland Economic Development Corporation.

More Bradys: Super Bowl win is a lesson in perserverance continued from page 6 up was the last thing on the indomitable Brady’s mind. “It took a lot of great plays and that’s why you play to the end,” Brady said later at a press conference. “It’s a 60-minute game. At half-time, we weren’t down at all, we were disappointed in the way we played and knew that we could go out and do a lot better in the second half.” Like Brady, there are many other great men and women who, by their triumphs over adversity, have shown us the power of perseverance.

Vermont’s internationally renowned skier Robby Kelley is one such person. At the recently held Alpine Skiing World Cup in Austria, Kelley lost control of his skis and crashed on the ice, sliding downhill to land within yards of the finish line. At this point, Kelley knew that there was no hope of winning the race, but he didn’t concede defeat either. Picking himself up from the ice, Kelley hiked back uphill to where he began his fall and from there, he triumphantly finished his race.

Minimum wage:

Basketball great Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team for being a poor player. He did not allow this to dampen his love for the game or deter him from conquering it. We all know the story of his many successes in basketball. So whenever we feel thoughts of self doubt and impending defeat, perhaps we can reflect on Super Bowl of Sunday Feb. 5, 2017, and perhaps we can choose to be a Brady. Karrie Etzler, West Rutland

Advocating for $15 minimum wage

continued from page 6 jobs less frequently. Less turnover means less recruitment and training costs. So what’s the downside? Whenever raising the minimum wage is proposed the reflexive response is it will cost jobs. Employers will cut their workforce. Rather than getting a raise, workers will lose their jobs. These dire predictions never materialize. There may be a few jobs lost but they are quickly regained. The benefits far outweigh the negatives. After all, the minimum wage has been gradually raised over many, many decades. Has the sky fallen? No. But the benefits are real and measurable. We should do this now. There are bills before the legislature. I urge every fair-minded Vermonter to contact his or her legislator to express support for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Bill Kuch, Springfield

LOCAL NEWS

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 17

Proctor bike path gets rolling

By Evan Johnson

PROCTOR—Cyclists and pedestrians in the town of Proctor are looking for a safe way to get around, and in the coming months, a new bike path may become a reality. Last year, the town received a $27,000 VTrans Bicycle and Pedestrian Program grant to perform a scoping/ feasibility study for shared use bicycle and pedestrian paths that would connect the village center, the terminus of the Pine Hill Carriage Trail at the skating rink, and Beaver Pond. At a public meeting on Feb. 8, residents viewed the resulting scoping study report prepared by Dufresne Corp., P.C., which included resource impacts, right-ofway impacts, utility impacts, cost and other factors. While residents agreed on the need for a safe place to ride or walk, Proctor Town Manager Stan Wilbur said most of the discussion centered on how the project would be paid for. The project will now go on to the state for approval. If approved, the town can pursue a design and construction grants available from VTrans that become available in fall and July. “The question isn’t what we’re going to do, it’s how we’re going to pay for it,” Wilbur said.

Select Board backs expansion of GMNF By Evan Johnson

KILLINGTON—At its Feb. 7 meeting, the Killington Select Board unanimously approved a measure to sell a 229acre parcel of forest to the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF). Kate Wanner, a project manager for the Trust for Public Land (TPL), and Chris Mattrick, district manager for the Rochester Ranger District, presented a plan at the meeting that would purchase three parcels of

Phoenix Books:

Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock changes hands

continued from page 4 tion after that. now Phoenix Books Misty Valley, in Chester. For day to day operations and onsite owner “We believe that local, bricks-and-mortar bookmanagement, DeSanto and Reiner have teamed up shops offer something very important to a comwith their assistant manager, Kari Meutsch, and her munity — a physical place to go to discover and fiance, Kristian Preylowski. Meutsch has worked for exchange ideas, to have conversations with neighPhoenix Books for five years. bors, and to gather as community members,” said “From the beginning, Mike and I were impressed DeSanto. “It is part of our mission at Phoenix Books by Kari’s ability to make customers feel welcome, her to ensure that local bookshops continue to be a vital determination to make sure she always did the best part of Vermont’s communities — and to engage with job possible, her intelligence and creativity in facing and serve the communities where we do business.” the challenges of a retail business, and her genuine Preylowski and Meutsch met seven years ago love for books and bookselling,” said Reiner. while working in a bookstore and have close to Mike DeSanto added, “Renee and I — and the twenty years of experience in bookselling between team at Phoenix Books — are excited to support our “WE BELIEVE THAT LOCAL, BRICKS-AND-MORTAR local owner-managers by BOOKSHOPS OFFER SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO A providing both the stability of being associated COMMUNITY — A PHYSICAL PLACE TO GO TO DISCOVER with an established group AND EXCHANGE IDEAS, TO HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITH of businesses and access our management group. NEIGHBORS, AND TO GATHER AS COMMUNITY MEMBERS,” As excited as we are that SAID DESANTO Kari and Kristian will be in Woodstock as our business partners, we will all miss them. “We’ve both spent our lives working in the her pretty desperately in Burlington and Essex.” service industry, and understand what it means to DeSanto and Reiner founded Phoenix Books in serve our community,” said Meutsch. “Woodstock Essex in 2007 and, in 2012, opened a second locahas a beauty and vibe that we find inspiring. We are tion in Burlington using a Community Supported excited to continue the work of an existing business Enterprise model. Following a recruitment effort by that has so much history within the community and Green Mountain Power, the city of Rutland and the the state; both of us have a deep respect for indepenDowntown Rutland Partnership and the addition of dent businesses that have survived and thrived over local partners Tricia and Tom Huebner, DeSanto and time, and we cannot wait to do our part to keep the Reiner opened Phoenix Books Rutland in September tradition of the Yankee Bookshop alive for years to 2015. In May 2016, they acquired Misty Valley Books, come.”

panding mountain bike networks around the state, the property could link existing trail networks. The cabin would be available to travelers throughout the year and would be managed by the Green Mountain Club. Recently the land was posted, meaning no trespassing is permitted. “One thing we would really like to see is reopening public access for hiking, hunting and

A 229-ACRE PARCEL IN KILLINGTON AND ANOTHER 509-ACRE PARCEL IN MENDON WERE BOUGHT BY THE STATE IN 2003 IN AN EFFORT TO PROTECT THE LONG TRAIL. property in Chittenden, Mendon and Killington. The plan centers on a property known as Rolston Rest after the restored Long Trail shelter. It consists of 2,792 acres with 2,522, or 90 percent of that acreage, located in Chittenden. The parcels contain three miles of the Long Trail, two miles of the Catamount Trail and a four-season cabin above South Pond. A 229-acre parcel in Killington and another 509-acre parcel in Mendon were bought by the state in 2003 in an effort to protect the Long Trail. Wanner said adding the property to the national forest could grow recreation opportunities in the future. As the Vermont Mountain Bike Association explores ex-

recreation,” Wanner said. To cover the costs associated with the purchase, TPL must raise private funds privately, including winning a grant from the Lintilhac Foundation. Funds for GMNF’s acquisition would come from the federal Bureau of Land Management’s Land & Water Conservation Fund for FY18. TPL has partnered successfully with public lands in the past, most recently the Jim Jeffords State Forest in Mendon and Shrewsbury. In Chittenden, the measure will go before the residents in a separate ballot vote after Town Meeting Day. Visit the town website for details and dates.

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NEWS BRIEFS

18 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

By Lani Duke

Castleton mom questions school snacks list CASTLETON—Nicole Wilkins told the Castleton School Board the school snack policy needs revision, when the board met Feb. 1. The school sends parents a list of snacks that students may bring to school with them, and offers snacks that children may buy at school for one dollar. However, numerous products that students may not bring with them are available for students to buy once they are at school, while those same products are available at local grocery stores for far lower prices, Wilkins said. She agrees with the ban on products that contain peanuts and shellfish. She shared the 11-page Safe Snack Guide, which documents “allergy-friendly products to help keep allergens out of the classroom and the home,” available online through SnackSafely.com. School board member Julie Finnegan noted that food offered at school is guaranteed to be manufactured in a peanut-free facility, whereas that may not be true of food purchased through a mass merchandiser. A growing number of students at the school do have severe peanut allergies and carry EpiPens®. Castleton Elementary Principal Kathleen Cotton and School Nurse Diane Hubbard outlined some of the procedures aimed at both improving nutrition and protecting students with allergies. The list of products is updated every two weeks, they noted, and cottage cheese and deli meat are recent list additions. Safety is the primary concern, Hubbard stated. Students who have a nut allergy are allergic to more than the nuts themselves, but also to oils from the nuts. Students are expected to wash their hands after lunch and snacks.

School staff comings and goings

Castleton Elementary custodian Walt Brown has submitted a letter of resignation effective March 1, moving up the previously accepted resignation date of the end of the year. He has worked at the school for 24 years. Custodian Holly Ross also resigned at the Feb. 1 Castleton-Hubbardton School Board meeting. Amanda Felion has accepted a custodial position of up to 40 hours a week, at a wage of $11 an hour. At Fair Haven Grade School’s Feb. 2 School Board meeting, guidance counselor JoAnna Surething submitted a letter of resignation, and instrumental band director Dave Etzler submitted a letter of retirement. On the other hand, the Castleton-Hubbardton board approved a contract with Kelsey Towslee for becoming sixth grade assistant girls’ basketball coach.

Teens recognized for outstanding volunteering initiative Pawlet’s Riley Callen, 14, is the middle-school state honoree in the 2017 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. The eighth-grader at Dorset Elementary School founded an annual “hike-athon” that has raised more than $250,000 toward finding a cure for brain tumors, a condition for which she had undergone two major surgeries. Also recognized was 18-year-old Maria Wiles of Brandon, named a distinguished finalist at the high school level. A Girl Scout and senior at Middlebury Union High School, she led an effort to build a learning center, held a book drive that collected 700 books for low-income children and created a website on youth volunteer opportunities.

Town manager settling into new job POULTNEY—After threeplus months, Paul Donaldson is getting his “sea legs” as Poultney’s town manager. Looking ahead, it’s hard to speculate how long Donaldson will continue to be known

as the “new” town manager. He is following Jonas Rosenthal, who held the position for 34 years. Donaldson was one of 27 applicants from as far away as Florida and Michigan. The

attorney brought a diverse but relevant resume to his new position, with a practice that encompassed real estate, land use, and zoning as well as some municipal law. Nor is he a stranger to Poultney

lifeways, having moved to the community in 2008 and serving on the Village Board of Trustees. His short commute meets one of his chief career change search requirements, “to keep

me closer to the kids,” he said recently. He’s pleased with the dayto-day variety. No one day is like another. In that respect, it’s a lot like practicing law, he noted.

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NEWS BRIEFS

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 19

Acupuncture arrives in Wallingford Looking at Town Meeting Day changes The first Tuesday in March has been Vermont’s Town Meeting Day since before Vermont became a state. Bennington held the first one in 1762. Vermont was admitted to the Union on Town Meeting Day, March 4, 1791. These public forums are face-to-face, direct democracy, where neighbors meet, discuss both their town’s governance and other issues of the day, elect local officials, and set their community and school budgets for the upcoming year. Now, some 200-plus years later, economic forces have altered the schedules of many communities’ town meetings. According to the 2008 Secretary of State publication “A Citizen’s Guide to Vermont Town Meeting,” the state permits towns to hold Town Meeting on days most convenient for the townspeople, but Australian balloting must be done on the official date. Each town has a slightly different structure for how its citizens approach the issues facing them in the coming fiscal year, when and how the topics are discussed, and the form that voting itself takes. Towns typically hold an a general informational meeting before Town Meeting day and the School Boards typically present as well. Vermont law requires that all local officials be elected by paper ballot, unless the town uses Australian ballots for all voting. Australian balloting, first employed in Vermont in 1892, is secret voting by paper ballot. Officials running for office and organizations wanting to be considered for funding or voter approval of a political statement must have collected a certain number of petition signatures and turned them in no later than the sixth Monday before Town Meeting Day. The state contains 255 municipalities: 237 towns, nine cities, five unincorporated areas, and four gores. (Unincor-

porated towns originally had charters, but their population became so small that the state legislature revoked their charters. Gores are unincorporated areas not part of any town, with limited self-government; originally they often were the result of surveyors’ errors, lying between two towns.) Only about 40 of the state’s towns continue to have full town meetings with floor discussion and open voting by a show of hands. All others rely partially or totally on Australian ballot procedures. In Castleton, residents will gather Monday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. to act on Articles 1 through 5 then and on Tuesday, March 7, starting at 10 a.m. residents will vote by Australian ballot on Articles 6 through 50 at the Town of Castleton Public Safety Building (Fire Station). Polls close at 7 p.m. On Monday the five articles will include: reviewing the Town Report as printed, authorizing tax payment to the town in quarterly installments, authorizing the Select Board to borrow money in anticipation of taxes, discussing the budget for the coming fiscal year, and acting on any business coming before the meeting. On Tuesday, voters will cast a ballot for the issues and electable officials for and against what folks have been politicking for the last couple of months. In Castleton, Article 6 determines town officials; articles 7 and 8, school district directors; and articles 9 through 50 are to give consent to the spending of specific amounts of money for specific tasks and departments. Fair Haven takes care of all but one article in the Tuesday balloting held at Fair Haven Legion Post #49. The Monday discussion and Article 23, “To transact any other business properly to be done at the annual Town Meeting” occur Monday at the Fair Haven Grade School.

WALLINGFORD—Marc and Lisa Williams have opened The Village Community Acupuncture, located at 271 South Main Street in Wallingford. Acupuncture as a healing modality dates back over 2,000 years, and can provide relief from pain, infertility, depression, anxiety, digestive issues, arthritis, as well as help with smoking cessation, addiction and other conditions. Treatments are available on a sliding scale of $20-50 per treatment, in a community setting. The Williams also offer acupuncture facial rejuvenation treatments on the same sliding scale. For more information visit thevillagecommunityacupuncture.com.

Cannoli shop opens in Chester Vermont Cannoli will be open at its new location at 145 South Main Street in Chester, Vt. for President’s Day weekend. Hours are Fridays from 3-7 p.m. and Sundays from 11-4 p.m.

“AFTER SEVERAL YEARS AT THE SUMMER FARMER’S MARKETS IT WAS TIME FOR A PERMANENT LOCATION,” MARINO SAID. Authentic Italian cannoli is are made with handdipped, homemade ricotta. Overstuffed small and large cannoli come in three flavors: traditional with chips of pistachio, almond, and Vermont maple walnut, made with local maple syrup. The shop sells cannoli chips and cream, as well as cannoli kits. Owner/Baker Catherine Marino said, “After several years at the summer farmer’s markets it was time for a permanent location. People love homemade cannoli and want it year round, not just in the summer.”

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NEWS BRIEFS

20 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

By Lani Duke

School choice applications accepted at MRUHS

WALLINGFORD—Mill River Union High School is accepting school choice applications from any high school student in grades 8 through 11 who is interested in attending a public high school outside his or her home district during the 2017-2018 school year. Students who wish to take advantage of this opportunity must give an application to their home school principal by March 1.

Light turns red on stoplight scofflaws RUTLAND—Rutland City’s Board of Aldermen voted during the board’s Feb. 6 meeting to prohibit drivers from dashing through a parking lot to avoid a red light. Such maneuvers are common, Police Chief Brian Kilcullen told the Aldermen. After discussion, the Aldermen drafted an ordinance to prohibit driving on sidewalks, driveways, parking lots or private property to “avoid an intersection with a traffic control device or a stop sign.” Once the law is published in an official notice, it takes effect in 21 days. It can be stopped, however, if 5 percent of city voters petition.

Dialysis unit marks 20 years of operation RUTLAND—The University of Vermont Medical Center and Rutland Regional Medical Center (RRMC) observed 20 years of collaboration to deliver dialysis services to patients in the end stage of kidney failure on Feb. 6. The nine stations at UVM Rutland Dialysis can deliver their life-saving services to as many as 54 patients a week. Before the joint venture was established, many patients had to travel to Burlington several times a week for a

process that may take three to four hours. UVM Dialysis Rutland is the state’s only outpatient dialysis center to be awarded a five-star rating from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency within the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. That ranking is accorded to only 10 percent of the nation’s dialysis centers, based on such health statistics as mortality, hospitalizations, and blood transfusions.

Eat soup, take the handmade bowl home

RUTLAND—Local schools are participating in the 11th annual Soup Bowls for Hunger March 30, sponsored by the women educators’ honor society Delta Kappa Gamma. Rutland High hosts the fundraiser

for local food shelves this year in its cafeteria. Last year, 19 professional potters and students attending Rutland, Rutland Town, and Proctor turned out nearly 500 bowls that participants got to take home. This year’s event

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features three seatings, at 5, 6, and 7 p.m. West Rutland School art classes have joined the pottery-making brigade. Over the past six years, the Rutland County event has raised more than $50,000.

Dog park considered for startup and maintenance funding RUTLAND—Parks for Paws organizer David Dress told the aldermen Feb. 6 that his organization has received 501(c)(3) non-profit status, secured sites in both the city and West Rutland, and gathered $140,000 in services and merchandise pledges from local businesses, since he last spoke to the board. The group is asking the city for $10,000 to build a dog park on Rutland Regional Medical Center grounds near the hospital walking path. The town of West Rutland has already promised land near its soccer field near Clarendon Avenue, Lyndsi

Fischer said, noting that development of the West Rutland park would be less expensive than the one planned for the city. Hospital requirements mandate a “little more fancy” park, she commented. Act 250 requirements call for an impervious walkway to connect the dog park to the walking path, Dress said. The group asks for a $2 addition to the city dog license fees and that the city use $1.50 of each license fee for maintaining the park, while retaining the other 50 cents. It is making the same request of West Rutland Town government.

Rutland crime down overall; residents feel safer RUTLAND—Progress against drug abuse shows up in lowered property crimes, said Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen Feb. 8. The drop in “cash-ready crimes” like shoplifting indicates addiction is waning in the city, he explained. Shoplifting dropped from 134 incidents to 88, or 34 percent. Thefts from motor vehicles is down from 90 to 64 or 29 percent; thefts from buildings, from 78 to 63, or 19 percent, in recent years.

Although burglaries rose from 82 to 88, they are far below the 123 in 2014. Bicycle thefts are steady at 19. Cmdr. David LaChance said drug overdoses were up in the city, but no figures were available. Cmdr. Matthew Prouty discussed how the police department’s overall mission has shifted toward reducing overdoses and otherwise getting people help. A recent Northwest Neighborhood survey conducted by Neighbor-

Works of Western Vermont found that, from 2013 to 2016, the people saying they felt “very safe” in their homes during the day rose from 15 to 80 percent; those feeling somewhat or very unsafe dropped from 30 to 5 percent. A night, those reportedly feeling very safe at home rose from slightly more than 20 percent to slightly more than 60 percent; those feeling unsafe dropped from 20 to 10 percent. Satisfaction with police response also improved.

NEWS BRIEFS

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 21

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Students interact with a log on Forest Friday at Barstow Elementary.

Barstow students get their hands dirty CHITTENDEN—American naturalist John Muir stated, “Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” While students at Barstow Memorial School cannot spend an entire week in the woods, they are frequently “washing their spirits” clean and engaging in the natural world around them. Living in Vermont provides unique learning experiences in nature for our children and students to spend a sizeable amount of their learning outside. On Friday mornings, Mrs. Manney’s and Ms. Freemole’s kindergarten and first-grade students are outside in all types of weather, traipsing around the forest and East Creek, in an effort to learn about their natural world and themselves. They’ve spent time studying the weather, using engineering skills to create forts and bridges; chosen “sit spots,” a specific spot from which to observe their surroundings and how things change over time as well as to use their nature journals to record observations. Students have constructed a word rock garden consisting of their “sight words” on stones and made a border around them, studied changes in the environment, namely the trees and animal signs, built bird feeders, and used tracking and other identification guides. To make this possible,

the teachers received money from the Four Winds Nature Institute to put towards science units and materials. These were used to purchase Grundens brand waterproof bib pants for each child, as well as teaching resources, like field guides, naturethemed books, and other recommended texts in the field of outdoor education. One of the aspects of this program that teachers feel is the most beneficial and meaningful is the

this program is its studentcentered approach in the framework of developing a community. Teachers ask questions more than provide answers, in both learning about the environment itself and in creating rules. For example, if a child is throwing rocks in the river, the teachers would ask her, “What do you need to think about in order to be able to do this safely?”, thereby co-establishing safety rules. The group

STUDENTS HAD TO SELECT A LONG FALLEN LOG AND, USING TEAMWORK, DRAG IT TO WHERE THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD BEST WORK. social-emotional development within the children. The forest setting demands not only self-control in order to be safe and successful, but also collaboration and teamwork to accomplish specific learning tasks. Some of the examples for this include setting up a “forest theater” with a viewing area and stage. Students had to select a long fallen log and, using teamwork, drag it to where they thought it would best work. These learning efforts require a lot of communication, collaboration and trial and error and they provide the younger students with the opportunity to have fun while building these skills that they will take into later grades and experiences. A unique component of

has the opportunity to voice support for the rules or whether one needs to be revisited. Another aspect is where the group circles up and students are invited to share what they considered successes and any issues that need addressing, helping to foster a strong community. In moving forward with this program, the two educators hope to increase the amount of time spent outside with their students and to encourage other grades in Barstow and around Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union to follow suit. Ms. Freemole said, “I feel that the excitement and anticipation of ‘Forest Friday’ that we see in all the kids each week speaks to the benefit of this program more than anything else.”

Snowboarder dies at Killington A New Jersey man died from injuries sustained while snowboarding at Killington Resort on Saturday morning. According to police, James Meyers, age 26 of Toms River, N.J. was

snowboarding with friends Feb. 11 at Killington when he left the trail and collided with a tree. He was not wearing a helmet. He was transported to Rutland Regional Medical Center by ambulance, where he died of injuries from the collision.

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NEWS BRIEFS

22 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

Act 46 Implementation progress in Rutland and Windsor Counties

By Evan Johnson and Polly Lynn

Act 46 is designed to encourage the a whole vs. independent components, state’s 277 school districts to voluntarily we believe that we can better construct unite into larger units in an effort to a PK-12 system which maximizes address dramatic declines in the number the potential of all our students,” of students attending Vermont’s schools. wrote the Windsor Central Act 46 merger incentives include Unified Union School District Act the maintenance of the “BY THINKING OF OURSELVES small schools grants and the preservation of the AS PARTS OF A WHOLE VS. hold harmless protection INDEPENDENT COMPONENTS, (phantom students), which will be revoked if districts WE BELIEVE THAT WE CAN don’t vote to comply with BETTER CONSTRUCT A PK-12 the law in some capacity before June 30, 2017. (Plans SYSTEM WHICH MAXIMIZES must be implemented by THE POTENTIAL OF ALL OUR July 1, 2019.) Before an Act 46 STUDENTS,” WROTE THE unification plan can go WINDSOR CENTRAL UNIFIED up for public vote, it must be approved by the State UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT Board of Education. ACT 46 STUDY COMMITTEE. The new unified districts are charged with educating all students, 46 study committee in its creating budgets, and creating equitable Final Report Jan. 18, 2017. policies districtwide. While voters have The main goal of the law is the authority to close a school, the unified quality education at a sustainable school board does not, on its own. The cost to taxpayers, now and in the years board, however, could also amend the to come. For some communities in the article to allow them to do so after four region, creating such a plan was fairly years. easy; for others the path forward was “By thinking of ourselves as parts of less desireable.

Rutland County

SU36

SU04

SU37

SU33 SU38

SU04, Addison Rutland Orwell, Benson, Hubbardton, West Haven, Fair Haven and Castleton Act 46 status: 2017 Town Meeting vote (revote) Structure changes: Last year, the six towns in the advisory union towns were labeled as “necessary.” Orwell was the only town that rejected the plan, causing Act 46 to fail. This year, the towns are labeled as “advisable,” not “necessary,” meaning that only four of the six towns need pass the measure for unification to pass. If four or five towns vote yes, they will become a “Modified Unified Union District” while the remainder of towns will remain their own entities and retain their boards but not re-

ceive all the tax incentive benefits and potentially lose their small school grant. The proposed 18-member union school district board of school directors will include three representatives from each town serving a one-, two-, or three-year term. Voters in the member towns will vote on the same slate of candidates. The articles of agreement allow small schools to not be closed for four years. After that time, it would take 75 percent of the school board plus a vote from the municipality of the town where the school is located.

Educational changes, opportunities: Students will go to the same school they attend now at least through the 2018-2019 school year. Students will attend elementary school and middle school according to their town of residence. The board of school directors may adjust student enrollment based on individual student circumstances and needs of the district. Teachers and staff will become employees of the new unified district. Schools could share personnel or assign them to a different school depending on the needs of the district.

SU36: Rutland Northeast Brandon, Chittenden, Goshen, Leicester, Mendon, Pittsford, Sudbury, and Whiting Act 46 status: Successful vote 2016 Structure changes: Voters approved school consolidation in January and July 2016. Two new unified districts went to work: Mendon and Chittenden have merged into Barstow Unified Union District, which has Barstow Memorial School with K-8 and school choice

for high school. The budget is shared across the two towns. Pittsford, Brandon, Goshen, Leicester, Whiting and Sudbury formed the Otter Valley Unified Union District, which has five elementary schools and one high school. Educational changes, opportunities: In the Barstow Unified Union District, the two

towns had an existing agreement, which isn’t changed by Act 46. Starting next fall, students in grades K-8 from Pittsford, Brandon, Goshen, Leicester, Whiting and Sudbury will be able to attend their choice of the five elementary schools in the district. Students feed into Otter Valley Middle and High School.

SU 38 Rutland Southwest Wells, Middletown Springs, Rutland Town, West Rutland, Proctor, Poultney, Ira Act 46 status: Study committee: Study committees for Wells Springs, Quarry Valley, as well as Rutland Southwest and Rutland Central supervisory unions. Structure changes: Rutland Southeast hopes to merge seven school districts into four, and two supervisory unions into one this spring. Rutland Southwest would merge West Rutland, Proctor and Poultney into a prek district called Quarry Valley. Wells and Middletown Springs are hoping to form a pre-k - 6 district called Wells Springs and tuition out students in middle and high school. If mergers move forward, each school district would operate as they currently are for another

year. A new board for the supervisory unions would create policies, set budgets and negotiate collective bargaining agreements for 2019. The Quarry Valley board will be comprised of four Poultney representatives, three Proctor residents and three West Rutland representatives. The Wells Springs board will have three Wells representatives, three Middletown Springs representatives and one member “at large” from either Wells or Middletown Springs. Both mergers have received approval from the state board of education. All towns in the supervisory union are listed as “necessary,” meaning towns must unanimously pass unification for the merger to pass.

If both mergers move forward, Rutland Central and Rutland Southwest would attempt to be merged into a new supervisory union and that would include alternative school districts of Rutland Town and Ira. This is pending approval from the state in April. Closure of a school requires the unanimous vote of the board approval from the community where the school is located. Educational changes, opportunities: Students will be able to participate in courses between schools such as languages or AP courses. Staff will become employees of the new district and all assets and liabilities would also be property of the new districts.

SU37: Rutland Central Proctor, Rutland Town, West Rutland Act 46 status: Study committee: Committee received approval from the state in January. Structure changes: On Town Meeting Day, voters in Proctor, Rutland Town and West Rutland will vote to enter a supervisory union that

combines with Rutland Southwest. Proctor and West Rutland would enter the pre-k-12 Quarry Valley Unified School District that includes Poultney. Rutland Town would remain a standalone district with prek-8 and full 9-12 choice. Educational changes,

opportunities: Students will be able to participate in courses between schools such as languages or AP courses. Staff will become employees of the new district and all assets and liabilities would also be property of the new districts.

NEWS BRIEFS

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 23

SU51, Windsor Central Killington, Bridgewater, Woodstock, Pomfret, Barnard, Reading, Pittsfield, (Plymouth)

Windsor County SU30

SU54

SU51

SU52

Act 46 status: 2007 Town Meeting Vote Structural changes: The proposed unified school district would restructure the Barnard and Reading elementary school campuses to be pre-K-4, and host fifth and sixth grades at the larger campuses of Woodstock, Killington, and Prosper Valley. The new unified board would be comprised of 18 representatives total: six from Woodstock and two each from Reading, Bridgewater, Pomfret, Barnard, Killington, and Plymouth. Through its own exploratory study, Pittsfield has determined that it wishes to remain a non-

operating, tuition district (school choice). As such, it cannot join an operating, pre-k-12 unified union district. Plymouth will vote on whether to give up its school choice and join the Windsor Central Unified District. If the residents vote “yes” it would be a full member of the new unified district. Currently, over 80 percent of Plymouth students attend schools (K-12) in Windsor Central; those attending other schools will be permitted to stay out their high school years there (grandfather clause). If only four of the seven forming districts vote for unification, a Modified Unified Union District

(MUUD) can be created. Educational changes, opportunities: No school will reduce services and quality for the purpose of achieving equity. The district will work to equalize opportunities in all elementary schools for: technology access and programming, world languages, performing and visual arts, health, wellness, and physical education. The new district will develop a plan for intra-district elementary school choice (K-6) among the current districts of the WCSU that is educationally sound, practicable, and sustainable.

SU52, Windsor Southeast Windsor (K-12), Weathersfield (K-8), Hartland (K-8), and West Windsor (K-6)

Act 46 status: Merger Study Committee Structural changes: Either the towns would have to give up middle school/high school choice to establish a regional high school to fit into an allowed merger model, or create a side-by-side arrangement that would

SU63

have the choice districts merge and Windsor join with another K-12 operating school district such as Hartford or Springfield. Neither Hartford nor Springfield is required to merge under Act 46, and would have to be willing to partner. Educational changes, opportunities:

Considering intra-district elementary school choice. Policies must apply to everyone equally, but can be designed to meet the operational needs of the district. Allow for the creation of core programs at elementary schools and/ or magnet schools with offerings that are not all the same.

SU63, Two Rivers SU30, White River Valley South Royalton, Bethel, Rochester, Stockbridge, Hancock, Granville, Tunbridge, Chelsea, Stafford, Sharon Act 46 status: Merger study committee. Plan will be presented to the Board of Education on Feb. 17. Merger vote planned for April 11. Structural changes: “Model 1”: One high school in South Royalton, a middle school in Bethel, and experiential, outdoor education center in Rochester. All elementary schools K-6 will remain in each town. All three towns (South Royalton, Bethel and Rochester) will be considered “necessary”

rather than “advisable” members, which means all must vote yes for the proposed merger to pass. (Although this has been debated and could change.) Stockbridge, Hancock, Granville, Tunbridge, Stafford, and Sharon do not currently operate a high school and have school choice. Chelsea is considering closing its high school and voting whether to designate a high school or vote for high school choice. The draft proposal

will include choice. Educational changes, opportunities: More educational opportunities and equity should be seen with consolidated schools, especially given the cuts required in recent years to keep the schools operating, and the additional penalties in the form of revoked small school grants and hold-harmless provision (“phantom students” credits) if the schools do not comply with Act 46 by the next deadline.

SU33-Rutland South SU33- Rutland South: Clarendon, Tinmouth, Shrewsbury, Wallingford Structure changes: After receiving approval from the Vermont Board of Education in December, 2015, voters on Town Meeting Day approved a plan to merge five school districts into the Rutland South Supervisory Union. The new

structure includes an 11-person board with representation based on population (Tinmouth - 1, Shrewsbury - 2, Wallingford - 4, Clarendon - 4) that oversees its function. A single budget is developed for the operation of all schools. Curriculum changes:

Kids continue to attend their town’s elementary school before attending Mill River High School. All children are eligible to participate in the elementary school choice program and the existing statewide 9-12 public high school choice program.

Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish, Chester, Ludlow, Plymouth and Mount Holly Act 46 status: Merger Study Committee. Working on a plan, the earliest possible vote would be mid-May and there is a deadline on June 30. Structural changes: The towns of Cavendish, Chester, Andover and Baltimore hope to create a Regional Education District (RED) together. The per pupil spending in Ludlow, Plymouth and Mount Holly is higher and makes it difficult to join with those districts in a single unit as it would increase taxes in the other towns; however, options are still being discussed. In order to be accepted as a RED it is unclear if Baltimore must join to qualify or if it can be an optional member. Almost half of Baltimore students attend Chester schools currently. The move to join the RED would re-

duce Baltimore residents’ tax rate and give them a seat on the board that educates their children, rather than just paying tuition to those towns in which their students attend, the study committee advised in its Jan. 31 meeting. Ludlow and Mount Holly are still searching for good paths forward for their students, looking to join other districts or qualify for an alternative structure without losing incentives/incurring penalties for not meeting Act 46 minimum requirements. Mill River or the Quarry Valley Union District may provide a good fit. In December the Two Rivers Supervisory Union Act 46 Study Committee voted to go forward with an option that would dissolve the Ludlow-Mount Holly school district and

unify the middle and high schools. It would allow Mount Holly to join with Mill River – if approved by those voters – and would most likely mean closing Black River High School and sending Ludlow secondary students to Green Mountain Union High School in Chester. Educational changes, opportunities: No much would change for student opportunities if Cavendish, Chester, Andover and Baltimore formed a RED. For Ludlow and Mount Holly there are still too many options on the table to determine their specific effects. One possibility, however, is instead of BRHS, it could remain open as a humanities academy, a specialized learning center, a magnet school and/or for sporting events, such as hockey or night soccer/ softball/baseball games.

SD54, The Hartford School District White River Junction, Hartford, Quechee Act 46 status: The Hartford School District is not required to merge under Act 46 as it already meets the necessary requirements of a school district under the law.

24 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

First tracks

I’ve written here before about the uneasy relationship between my

generation y by brett yates

passion for skiing and my longstanding tendency toward early-morning sluggishness. Simply put, skiing is not the sport for lazy people (I think that title may belong to bowling, no offense intended to bowlers)—it is not the sport for those whose bodies, on days off from work, demand a gentle easing into the day; those whose first inclination is to take shelter with a book when the weather is harsh; those who don’t feel their hardy spirits stirred by the friendly challenge of the outside world at each sunrise. I’m an indoorsman by nature, as much as I cherish the outdoors. Basically, I wasn’t made for this: I mean not my body, which has served me pretty well and without serious injury for 27 ski seasons, but my inner self, which, when I’m not actually skiing, almost can’t fathom the task of hurtling down a slippery mountain or even of driving over there in a car that will take a while to heat up. But we don’t always get to choose what we love, and I love skiing—the act itself, not its occasionally somewhat harsh exigencies— more than just about anything else. It’s an act of will for me to remember this when I wake up on a snowy day. When there’s fresh powder on the mountain, I have to abandon all my natural instincts, forgo my usual lingering in bed, and start gearing up before my actual desire to ski has materialized. I’ve gotten better at this over time and have missed through lethargy fewer hours of pristine early conditions in my later 20s than I did in my early 20s. Following an accumulation of any significance, I will—if I can—show up before the chairlift has begun loading, but something occurred to me the other day: I have never once gotten the nearmythical “first chair” on any lift on a powder day, by which I mean that I’ve never shown up so early that there was not already at least a small line of more devoted and energetic people in front of me, waiting to be carried up the mountain. Have you ever gotten the first chair? What does it feel like? I worry that I may

never know. What is it like to get “first tracks” in the truest sense, being not just the first skier on a particular trail but the first skier on the hill when its new covering of white is fully intact on all sides, from top to bottom? When I consider that it might actually be worth it, someday, to rise at so grim an hour as to make possible this Edenic experience, I remind myself that certainly the ski patrol has already touched the terrain before the first chair for the public has made climbed the liftline: nature’s spell, if there is one, has already been punctured. And does even the ski patrol get to know the magic that I imagine? Before they’ve reported for work, some admirable Brady Crain-type has already skinned up and skied down. And of course, on the parts of the resort that I usually forget about on powder days, the snowcats have been prowling in the dark, meaning that the mountain perhaps is never left unattended long enough to be restored to a truly virginal state. For those who fetishize the untracked wilderness, it may be necessary to take up the more demanding backcountry sport of skitouring. That stuff is a little beyond me, at least for now, but I wonder whether, amid the untouched powder of a more distant mountain that bears none of the marks of civilization, a greedier hunger might assert itself: what might it be like, then, to be not just the first skier on a particular day on a particular untrammeled hill, but the first skier ever to ascend and descend that hill, previously regarded as an unknown, impassable, and perhaps even unfriendly lump of winter by whoever lived nearby? Did the early skiers have it best, when one didn’t have to travel to the remotest Himalayas to find a peak that hadn’t already been conquered— or not “conquered” (which isn’t the right word) but, in any case, embraced by the gentle tickle of a pair of skis? Obviously not: we have it better today, when relatively lazy people like me can still be skiers. What’s amazing is how well even a very popular ski resort, if it has a fair amount of acreage, can recreate the exploratory thrill and tranquility of finding a new world in the woods. On a powder day, your deeds always feel more heroic than they really are, but it is important to get there kind of early, I think.

COLUMNS

Popular diets over the decades Well, we are now into the second month of a new year. Did you make any

Looking Back by mary eellen shaw

resolutions? If so, how are they going? It’s no surprise that weight loss and fitness are the goals that many of us hope to achieve. I am among those who are motivated as the calendar flips each year. Unfortunately, I get unmotivated as the days roll along. I was talking recently to a childhood friend who reminded me of something back when we were kids in

the 1950s. I was one of the skinniest kids on the block. My mother was always trying to put a few pounds on me and a friend’s mother was always trying to take a few pounds off her daughter. That made it tough when we were together and I was encouraged to eat something that was considered fattening and my friend was encouraged to avoid it. As life would have it, our situations are now reversed and I am the one with some extra pounds! How did that happen? By high school everyone who had even a few extra pounds wanted them off. Girls started to be more conscious of their figures. Talks of dieting were common among us. By the time I got to college, the “freshman 15” was the topic of conversation.

Our cafeteria food was not all that healthy. However, today schools seem to be making an effort to serve nutritious meals. I went to college in Burlington back in the 60s and “comfort food” seemed to abound in the cafeteria line. Across the street from the campus was a restaurant called Dan’s. You did not go there to get healthy! You went for burgers, fries and milkshakes. If you were lucky enough to have a friend with a car, you went to The Lure on Williston Road for the exact same things. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I had a friend with a car. With no time to spare before our 10 p.m. curfew, we would put on trench coats over our nightgowns and head to The Lure. There were usually five of

us squashed into a small VW. By the time I graduated from college the slim, trim 110 pound body with which I had entered college could have used some serious dieting. Recently I watched Oprah Winfrey tell TV viewers about her success with Weight Watchers. My mind wandered back to the many weight loss products and fad diets available to people over the decades. So what was popular in the 1950s? The Grapefruit Diet, also known as the Hollywood Diet, was one option. You were required to eat a grapefruit at every meal. The Cabbage Soup Diet was also popular then. The diet claimed that if you ate cabbage soup for a week along with fruits and vegetables you could Looking back, page 28

An alternate American reality “This is not reality TV we’re watching,” a homemade sign from the Women’s March read. “Men of quality do not fear equality,” another sign said. We were duped, though some of us were wary from the start. We’ve been on a fast, bumpy rollercoaster ride since the inauguration. It Mountain isn’t the outcome we on Meditation expected. Many are holdBy Marguerite te ing onto the safety rail for Jill Dye dear life, terrified of falling off, while others fear crashing or its total collapse. Some have been escorted off and sent away, while others stand by, cheering and watching, waiting for their own reward. How long before the safety committee comprehends the dangers of its own creation and shuts down this dangerous ride? “Make America think again.” “Shock, divide, and fatigue,” a friend warned on Facebook. “This is their strategy” to wear down opponents. While the resistance foments and builds, some need a break from the strain. “Overwhelmed” and “under assault” many feel after reacting to the barrage of ignorant faux pas and blatant attacks on our freedom and democracy in the new regime’s first days.

But there’s a method to their madness, and they’re successfully marching toward authoritarian/ totalitarian control. Creating shock fatigue through reality TV is one of Trump’s specialties, so it wasn’t difficult for him to transfer his strategy from reality TV star to his role as “reality politician.” (A headline in the Financial Times recently read: “Reality TV shock fatigue aids Trump, Rise of genre has inured people to humiliation as entertainment”). With altright Steve Bannon by his side in the White House and a Republican majority in the Senate and House, the transformation (disfiguration) of America is well under way. The only question is, will it be an America we can live with? So far the changes have elicited a resounding “No!” “Make America sane again,” some cry out. But I also wonder if some of our countrymen and women would actually prefer to live in a monarchy, or perhaps an oligarchy? My fear is that the search for the American dream may be launching us toward a dictatorship. That’s what the Trump family portrait in their gilded tower resembles. Who else lives like that? The 1 percent? I doubt it. King Louis XIV in Versailles, or the Russian imperial Romanov Family before the Revolution? Mad King Ludwig? Thanks to (un)reality TV (one business our new president can be credited with boosting), many ordinary Americans, not billionaires, escape their struggles and fulfill their desire for opulence and luxuries in life by beholding people like the Trumps, Mountain Meditation, page 28

The only thing between me and a powder day? Injury... Well, campers, the skiing has been outrageously good. With a series of Nor-Inchers, we continue to get nearly nightly refreshers in the woods and on the trails, and the skiing is delightful. That is the good news. Here is the bad news: I am not able to take much advantage of it, because it turns out I have some major long term damage to my spine. This damage started as a herniated disk in my younger years, and as I have told you all about (at great length and with great enthusiasm), I have done physical therapy daily for the last 28 years keeping my spine moving. This injury was exacerbated by a motorcycle wreck in the year 2000, when I noticed that part of my spine stuck out more than other parts, making crunches on hard surfaces difficult. It didn’t hurt, so I just kept doing what I was doing. After a couple more ski wrecks, I turtled a mountain bike on a steep downhill (so I landed a couple of feet below where my front tire touched the ground) onto uneven schist with my phone in a hard case

in the back pocket of my cycle jersey. I wrote about that accident, in fact. In other words, I beat the crap out of my spine. But though it was more painful than before, I was functional until December when I just made a wrong step (I stepped off a step that I didn’t think was a step), and was suddenly in excruciating pain. I have been writing about this pain and the pulmonary inflammation that is slowly suffocating me, since. It’s gotten to the point where I have trouble standing on concrete for work, I have trouble standing up long enough to play a music show. I can lift heavy things (I pick things up, I put them down), I can do all sorts of athletic activity including some grueling long distance trail run/hiking, but ask me to stand still for a minute, or walk around on concrete, and I am suddenly in excruciating pain, which goes away almost instantly when I sit or lie down, and especially if I get into Child’s Pose for five minutes. As I saw from the X-Ray of my spine (taken earlier this week), there is basically no disc left in one of my

Altit Altitude Sick Sickness By br brady crain intravertebral spaces. There are places where there is apparently bone to bone contact—there’s even a worn groove. I now feel like my spine has tiny fingernails on a tiny chalkboard, inside it. Further, one of the vertebra is clearly displaced a quarter to a half inch out from where it should be. The pain has been bad enough that I thought I must have a bad hip. Merry Christmas, the X-Ray shows beautiful, perfect hips. Don’t worry Brady, its just your spine… This explains a great deal, including the first fingers of panic rising into my stomach like misplaced flames licking around the outside of a furnace boiler. I feel like I am on the wrong side of a Hunter S. Thompson novel. I am now all raw edges and apprehension, taking a few weeks off Altitude sickness, page 29

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 25

COLUMNS

Stay calm and open a Health Savings Account Healthcare. Retirement. Those may be two of the most stressful words in the English language today. Especially when you include them both in the same sentence. For instance, a married couple that saves $326,000 has a 90 percent chance of having enough money to pay healthcare expenses in retirement. A single man would need to save $116,000 for retirement healthcare expenses, and a single woman about $131,000 to have the same odds, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Health. Savings. Account. Those three words can help reduce the stress of retirement healthcare expenses. A Health Savings Account, or HSA, is a taxadvantaged account that can be opened by anyone who is enrolled in a high deductible health plan (with a deductible of at least $1,300 for individuals or $2,600 for families for 2016). Typically, HSAs offer three significant tax benefits: • Tax-free withdrawals. If you use HSA savings to pay qualified medical expenses, the withdrawals are income tax free. • Pre-tax (or tax-deductible) contributions. Contributions to HSAs are federally taxdeductible up to certain limits. For 2016, the limits are $3,350 for a single person and $6,750 for a family. If you’re age 55 or older, then you can save an additional $1,000 a year in the account. • Tax-deferred growth. Any interest earned in an HSA grows tax-deferred. Generally, HSA contributions go into an account at a bank, credit union, or other financial institution that is an HAS-approved custodian. However, those savings can also be invested. It’s not a Flexible Savings Account HSAs have been around for a decade, but relatively few Americans understand how

MONEY MATTERS BY RJ THEISSEN

they work. In fact, many confuse them with Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs). While there are some similarities between the two accounts – both allow pre-tax contributions and both can be used to pay qualified medical expenses – there are significant differences. For example, you set up and own an HSA. Any money left in the account at the end of the year, remains in the account to be used in the future. There is no “use it or lose it” provision. In contrast, your employer sets up and owns an FSA. If money is left in the account at the end of the year, it is forfeited to the employer. Savings can be used to pay qualified medical expenses Money set aside in HSAs can be used to pay health insurance deductibles, as well as qualified medical expenses, health insurance premiums (if you’re receiving unemployment benefits), and long-term care premiums. However, it’s not always easy to know what qualifies and what doesn’t. The New York Times explained: “Under a change enacted with the Affordable Care Act, most over-the-counter drugs, like common allergy medications or pain relievers, are HSA-eligible only if you get a prescription for them from your doctor. On the other hand, items like sunscreen and contact lens solution are eligible for purchase – without a prescription – with your HSA funds.” When funds are used for non-qualified expenses, the withdrawal is taxed as ordinary income and, if the account holder is younger than age 65, a 20 percent penalty tax is owed. Savings can also be used for retirement income The best incentive for saving as much as possible in an HSA is this: if you reach age 65, and have savings in your account, the money can be used for living expenses as well as qualified medical expenses. Withdrawals that are used to supplement income may be taxed as ordinary income. It’s possible to accumulate quite a significant amount of savings in an HSA because any earnings grow tax-deferred, just like earnings in a 401(k) plan. According to EBRI: “A person contributing for 40 years to an HSA could save up to $360,000 if the rate of return was 2.5 percent, $600,000 if the rate of return was 5 percent, and nearly $1.1 million if the rate of return was 7.5 percent, and if there were no withdrawals.” Unfortunately, few accountholders are taking advantage of HSAs’ tax-deferred growth Money Matters, page 28

By Declan McCabe

The curious case of the “cute face” crane fly

An email chirped in my inbox, “Check out the cute face on this insect we found.” I opened the attachment (yes, from a reliable source). My colleague

THE OUTSIDE STORY

Professor Peter Hope had taken a spectacular photograph through his microscope. The larva in question had fallen into a pit trap set by our first-year Saint Michael’s College students in Camp Johnson in Colchester. The “face” seemed to have two very circular black eyes, a downturned smile, and a wild cartoonish hairstyle sprouting from lobes radiating in five directions. My esteemed colleague, a gifted botanist, had photographed the rear end of a crane fly larva. In fairness, any reasonable person might have made this mistake, especially because the front of the insect doesn’t look like a front, its head pulled so far back into the body as to be invisible. More than 14,000 crane fly species make up the family Tipulidae, the largest true fly family. They are often called “daddy-long-leg flies” because the larger species, with three-inch wing spans, sport spectacularly long legs. When I’m asked to identify a “huge mosquito,” the answer is usually “crane fly.” Smaller species, as little as an eighth of an inch in length, more easily escape notice. Summer flying adult crane flies are fascinating, but much important biology happens during larval stages, which can be as short as six weeks or as long as five years depending on the species. Aquatic larvae continue to grow throughout the winter, feasting away in cold temperatures that put many of their fish predators in a torpor. Students collecting river and stream samples are always impressed when their nets yield insects the size and shape of pinky fingers. Innards visible through translucent skin add to the fas-

cination or to the “ick” factor, depending on the student’s viewpoint. These are the larvae of large crane fly species, and they are often found in streambeds, where they consume submerged leaves. Smaller crane flies, in the genus Antocha, fasten silk homes to submerged rocks and are far less conspicuous. Although small, they gather and consume large quantities of organic debris and collectively can help to improve water quality. Regardless of their food source, crane flies in or near water risk becoming fish food and are of interest to anglers who, as described in Thomas Ames’ book “Fishbugs,” tie “gangle-leg” flies to mimic the adult form. Fish are by no means the only predators pursuing crane flies. Amphibians and reptiles also partake in the tipulid feast. A study in New Hampshire revealed that the adults are common menu items for little brown bats. Barn swallows and other birds also frequently snack on these insects. Crane flies are among the largest insects eaten by some species of swift (first cousins of swallows), making them a most valuable prey item during the nesting season. Although crane fly larvae are best known as aquatic insects, there are also terrestrial species that occupy habitats from tundra to desert. For example, a type of crane fly larvae dubbed “leatherjackets” cause yellowing and bald patches in European lawns by devouring both roots and grass blades. Unfortunately, two European leatherjacket species have been detected in central New York and in Long Island and may well munch their way through the Northeast in coming years. These new pests have also been

in Ontario since the 1990s. According to Pam Charbonneau of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, starlings and skunks do additional lawn damage in search of the juicy little moveable feasts. Large numbers of the larvae are sometimes forced to the surface after heavy rain and might be a gardener’s first clue to the cause of their yellowed lawn. Regardless of habitat or food habits, crane fly larvae tend to have distinctive “facial” features on their rear ends. (To help students instantly identify the larvae, a grad school colleague liked to say “tipulids have traces of faces round their anus”). The dark “eyes” are in fact spiracles, or the openings to the insect’s respiratory system. The mane-like lobes that surround the spiracles, or form a crown shape, are prehensile in some species and used for movement and other functions. One aquatic

species uses water-repellent hairs on its lobes to contain a buoyant cup of air that suspends the larva from the water surface while also facilitating respiration. While preparing an insect identification cheat sheet, I recently asked Professor Hope to resend me the photograph as an example for students. This time the subject line read, “Fly butt photograph.” It seems that Peter is learning his insects faster than I’m learning my plants. Declan McCabe teaches biology at Saint Michael’s College. His work with student researchers on insect communities in the Champlain Basin is funded by Vermont’s EPSCoR Grant NSF EPS Award #OIA1556770 from the National Science Foundation. The illustration for this column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine, northernwoodlands.org, and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, wellborn@nhcf.org

PETPersonals

26 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

AARON

3-year-old. Neutered male. Domestic Short Hair. Gray and white. I’m Aaron! I love people very much but I prefer to have my own space than share with other cats! I can be playful and I can’t wait to have a home with lots of room to roam. TINSEL

1-year-old. Spayed female. Domestic Short Hair. Gray and white. I’ve had quite the adventure. I was brought to the shelter because I was hit by a car. I’ve finally begun my physical therapy and I can walk around a room for a few hours and stretch my legs. MOMMA

Female. Standard Rat. Black. I’m about 1-year-old and I like other female rats. My previous owner said I’m friendly, curious, and very fast! Like most rats, I like a place that’s not too noisy or drafty and maybe a nice hiding place. MAISY

6-year-old. Spayed female. Domestic Short Hair. Tortoiseshell. I was brought to the shelter in the beginning of January because I wasn’t getting along with the other animals in the house. I’m a lovely girl, but I just want to be queen of the castle. CHIP

1-year-old. Neutered male. Retriever/Labrador mix. I think an experienced dog owner who will continue to work with me will be important. You see, I’ve been adopted and returned a few times because I have no manners and I need a lot of guidance and exercise. BOB CAT

8-years-old. Neutered male. Domestic Short Hair. Black. I’m Bob Cat! I am a shy, loving guy. As you probably guessed from my name, I don’t have a tail, just a little bob. I was adopted for a short while recently but it didn’t work.

DUKE

3-year-old. Neutered male. Rottweiler mix. I’m an outgoing, goofy fella and I can be a bit of a rascal! I’m pretty cute when I’m chasing after tennis balls because I kind of pounce on them as they’re rolling along.

Featuring pets from:

RUTLAND COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY LUCY MACKENZIE HUMANE SOCIETY SPRINGFIELD HUMANE SOCIETY

Springfield Humane Society

PRINCESS

7.5-year-old. Spayed female. Domestic Short Hair. Brown and black tabby. I’m Princess and boy, do I ever live up to my name! I’m a big gal, and as much as I hate to admit it, I could probably benefit from a kitty diet plan. I really am a sweet girl and I just love to be petted. KEVIN

2-year-old. Neutered male. Domestic Short Hair. Brown tabby with white. I’m a big guy, and I have tons of energy! I love to play, and I’m super-duper vocal! I love attention and I love people. I’m currently residing in the community cat room, making new feline friends. TIKE

Male. Standard Rat. Black and white. I love to jump and play. I’m social, smart, and friendly. I’m also very trainable and would love someone to adopt me who would like to teach me some tricks.

BERNIE Beagles lovers had the best news in the world for you!!! On Valentines day we were taking in 3 beagles and 2 beagle mixes from Virginia. Handsome Bernie was one of them and he was very excited to come to Vermont, as he had never found a home in Virginia. The kennels will be closed Feb. 15, but will reopen Feb. 16 at noon, so come on in and claim your very own Valentine beagle!! For more information contact us at 802-885-3997. Do not forget to shop Wag Sale every Friday and Saturday from 10 to 3.

Lucy Mackenzie Humane Society

EMERY

1.5-year-old. Spayed female. Domestic Short Hair. Gray and brown tabby. Hi, I’m Emery! I arrived at RCHS in September because my owners were moving and they were unable to take me with them. I am very hopeful I will find my forever home soon! TIPPY

9-month-old. Neutered male. Labrador Retriever mix. Oh, I’m a funny, goofy fella! So far my record is to have three toys in my mouth at the same time but with a little more effort I know I can stuff more in than that.

All of these pets are available for adoption at

Rutland County Humane Society

765 Stevens Road, Pittsford, VT • (802) 483-6700 Tues. - Sat. 12-5p.m., Closed Sun. & Mon. • www.rchsvt.org

TEX Howdy! My name’s Tex and I’m an 8-month-old neutered male looking for a home to call my own! There are many

things I love in life, including playing, hanging out with my cat friends, and sleeping. Oh, and I also like cuddle time with my human friends. I’m a very playful and fun fella that that is sure to bring lots of laughs and love your way. If you’ve been thinking about adopting a new sidekick, stop in and meet me today! Lucy Mackenzie Humane Society is located at 4832 Route 44, West Windsor, Vt. We’re open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 12 - 4 p.m. Reach us daily at 802-484-LUCY. Visit us at www.lucymac.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. We hope to see you soon!

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 27

The power of love, and chocolate

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye

This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of Virgo Moon. Starting at 7:30 a.m. (EST), it will turn Void-of-Course and remain in that mode until it enters Libra, at 3:30 p.m. (EST). With Valentine’s Day at hand, instead of dwelling too much on the aspects, and the impact of planetary changes on the course of world events, it might do more good to get back to square one and focus on the power of love. I have discovered that the creation process begins inside us, in a tiny space that lies hidden inside the heart. Whenever we enter that space, the visions that appear form the “stuff” that our dreams and our lives are made of. Like the sap that rises into the trees, those visions flow upward, and whatever they consist of gets projected via the pineal and pituitary glands out onto the spheres of consciousness that create and define our reality. At this moment in time Mother Earth is deeply engaged, on a planetary scale, in the very same process that we use whenever we have a desire, or a dream, or a prayer. Her heart is wide open; the valentines, and the chocolates, and the preoccupation with romance are there to remind us that she is in love, stirring up the juice that feeds and nourishes everything in creation. For the next 33 days all of that female passion will rise up and increase until the Vernal Equinox, when the Goddess and the Sun come together at the Aries Point. If we wanted to we could spend the coming weeks exchanging love notes and playing the games that people play whenever Saint Valentine and Cupid arrive on the scene. Anything done in the name of love would be enough, I suppose; but in this year that looks like it’s stacking up to be the year of all years, if we truly are “The ones we have been waiting for,” doesn’t it seem a little stupid to keep doing the same old thing? Knowing what we know, could we take the customary rituals to a whole new level? Could we use this time of hearts and flowers to go into resonance with the Great Mother and begin stirring up the visions of the coming year? Give it some thought. The heart is always there and it is timed to her rhythms. All of us have a desire, or a dream, or a prayer. The flood of love that is already pouring out of the Great Mother is full of life. This carrier wave has enough raw female power to turn on the Sun. Seen in that light, there is no better time than now to include everything we envision, for ourselves and for the planet, in with the love that is flowing out of her heart. Keep that in mind, let it come to life in your world, eat some chocolate for me, and enjoy this week’s ‘scopes.

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Aries

Cancer

Libra

Capricorn

March 21 - April 20

June 21 - July 20

September 21 - October 20

December 21 - January 20

alancing things is less about going up and down than it is about finding your center. You bring more to this situation than anyone in it. If you are thinking in terms of balance, you might start by leveling off with the need to overdo everything. And if this has anything to do with finding your center, do you know where it lies? It doesn’t matter which mast you decide to tie yourself to, the road ahead is opening up, but there is no guarantee that it will be paved with gold, or love, or whatever it is that you’re shooting for. Like I said; find your center. It knows what you want.

ou can do this with your eyes closed, so stop worrying about how it’s all going to turn out. Your dexterity applies to a million different things. Your best qualities get axed when it comes time to focus. As far as what’s up right now is concerned, you have to figure out how to do it all and stay clear. If I were you I’d keep my nose to the grindstone and be careful not to sink into a sense of overconfidence. You’ve got tons of support and you’ve earned the trust of people who count, but what really matters at the moment is your ability to stay humble and keep the light on.

he fact that you’ve been able to stretch yourself this far has something to do with expedience. Many of you had no choice but to take on more than your share of the work; either that or there was no way you could say “No.” For the next few weeks you need to put your time in and stop wishing you were somewhere else. In and around the repetition you’ll be able to carve out a place for the part of you that needs something other than your responsibilities to give your life meaning. Look for this in the small things and remind yourself that every moment is perfect.

nxious by nature, the bigger part of you thinks you need to hold the reins and keep everything under control. You understand that it would be better for you to chill out every now and then, but you’re hardwired into thoughts that make productivity more sacred in your world than anywhere else. The burning desire to stay busy, work your butt off, and play “round-and-round we go” is a great way to connect with yourself. But there are times when it’s where you go to hide. The greater part of you could use a break. It shouldn’t take much; give yourself a day or two of rest.

Leo

Scorpio

Aquarius

April 21 - May 20

July 21 - August 20

October 21 - November 20

January 21 - February 20

ou’ve got a lot of well meant advice making it very difficult for you to see what you need to do. In the course of looking at things from every possible angle, you forgot about your own! The truth is you don’t know what you want. Somehow or other that concept got lost under a pile of distractions that have left you confused. For someone who thought they had it all figured out, you are now wondering how much you will have to sacrifice before this is over. This never needed to get nuts. Maybe it’s time to go back to square one and tune in to what’s true for you.

ou keep looking at this from every possible angle. If it never seems to work, it’s not necessarily due to any lack of desire. Sometimes circumstances and timing issues make it nearly impossible to connect. In your current situation a choice needs to be made. Instead of calculating the odds, or continuing to fret over what’s going to happen if you wind up seeing the worst of it, start picturing what it is that you really want out of this. If you can do that, you just might be able to work around the obstacles - and if you can’t, or are no longer willing to push it, that’s OK too.

oving on to bigger and better things has altered the scenery just enough for you to see how much things have changed since all of this began. It’s feeling good or bad, depending on how you’ve conducted yourself in the last nine or ten months. Those of you who know what it means to be accountable are most likely being held high by your friends, your connections, and your efforts to make what’s good about life even better. Those of you who are prone to self deception are mired in a crisis that won’t abate until you come to terms with your toughest blind spots.

Gemini

Virgo

Sagittarius

Pisces

May 21 - June 20

August 21 - September 20

November 21 - December 20

February 21 - March 20

ou have more than one option. It doesn’t matter which one you choose because they carry an equal amount of opportunity. Don’t rush into decisions. Within a week or two the dynamics in your situation will change and you will be looking at a different set of variables. If others try to pressure you to go one way or another, ask them to give you a reason why. It looks to me like a few of your associates keep stacking the deck in their favor. Their machinations could lure you into thinking that you need their support when in fact they have more to gain from this than you do.

ou fret too much over things that make you wish you hadn’t taken on all this responsibility. Don’t get all worked up about it. The weight of things doesn’t have to be a burden. As far as other people go, you can’t ignore them and you can’t afford to spend too much time making them feel ok about driving you nuts. Tough love might be in order. Just enough to make everyone understand that you are in no mood to be messed with. Opportunities for travel and healing, or for educational purposes, are lining up to give your mind a boost and take your spirit for a ride.

ou’re not exactly delighted with the way things are going. If you’ve got half a brain you are aware that all of this is in divine order. No matter how it looks, on some level it works for you to have it be the way it is. Those who know you well could tell you that you keep repeating this pattern again and again. By now it has to be clear to you that your dissatisfaction has more to do with the idea that nothing can ever measure up than it does with the thought that there’s any sort of problem. You need to calm down enough to restore a sense of peace to your “too big” life.

Mother of the Skye

he web of intrigue gets more interesting by the day. You have wound up in a situation where the direct approach isn’t going to work. Too many complexities make it hard to have any certainty about where others want this to go. Before you decide to hook up, consider any elements that might lead you to believe you’re being exploited. In the long run all of your actions will benefit through a policy of restraint. In your human relations, there should be no rush either. It takes a wise soul to see past appearances to the truth of where others’ motivations really lie.

Mother of the Skye has 40 years of experience as an astrologer and tarot consultant. She may be reached by email to cal.garrison@gmail.com

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Taurus he pressure to conform is feeling like a weight that you haven’t had to deal with since you came of age. I don’t know how it’s working out for you on an individual basis, but the themes that were active about five years ago are needing a few adjustments—or at least a little review—because life has gotten too small. Either that or you’re getting too big for whatever’s going on, and whoever or whatever is trying to contain you doesn’t want to things to change. This is your life. Ask anyone who tries to keep you in your place if they have enough love in their hearts to set you free.

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28 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

Beverly Anderson to officially retire after upcoming service KILLINGTON—Beverly Anderson is retiring from the Sherburne United Church of Christ on Sunday, Feb. 26. Her final worship service will be at 9 a.m., followed by a coffee/fellowship hour afterwards at the church. An afternoon event to celebrate Beverly’s retirement will also be held Sunday from 2-5 p.m. at the Summit Lodge. The Killington community is warmly invited to both celebrations. For more information, call Brenda Naylor, 802-422-5465.

Money Matters:

Benefits of a Health Savings Account

continued from page 25 potential. At the end of 2014, there were about 13.8 million HSA accounts in the United States. The accounts held about $24 billion but just a fraction of that amount ($3.2 billion) was invested. Make the most of your HSA Clearly, HSAs offer some attractive benefits for Americans with high-deductible insurance plans. In addition to offering a triple tax-advantage and helping Americans pay current and future medical expenses, these accounts can be used to supplement retirement

Mountain Meditation:

income. If you have an HSA and the funds are invested in a low interest rate account, like a checking or savings account, you can transfer the funds to a different HSA provider. Learning all the benefits and seeing the numerous advantages of an HSA should tell you one thing: making the most of this savings plan may position you well for many of life’s short-term and long-term events. Kevin Theissen is the principal and financial advisor at Skygate Financial Group, LLC.

We must reject authoritarian rule

continued from page 24

Beverly Anderson

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the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, and billionaire house hunters and home visits on TV. Let’s face it America. Our only “royalty” is the “countess” on the “Real Housewives of New York.” On such “reality” television shows many unrealistic expectations of life are born. If such shows have duped the American people, can you imagine the image of life in America that it’s given people around the globe? “Make America caring again.” “No one is free when some are oppressed.” “Support the least, last, lonely, and lost.” “Unite families, don’t separate us!” more signs remind us. Instead of press shots with fake props and an orbit of irrelevant ado and attention to keep us distracted (from outrageous orders being signed and sealed at lightning speed), perhaps it would serve our new leader well to put aside his perilous tweets and address the real needs of our nation, ungilded, unadorned, without pretense and insatiable need for attention. He could focus on jobs instead of lifting regulations to allow coal mine contamination to be dumped in America’s streams, selling off our National Park land, and dropping sanctions against Russia that sacrifices the Ukraine in order to steal its oil and pocket the profits. Trump and his cohorts banned Muslims from entering the U.S. from countries from which none of our terrorists have hailed (protecting their own business and oil interests in cradles of terrorism such as Saudi Arabia). They banned Syrian refugees who’ve been vetted for two years before being approved to come to Vermont. Fortunately our judicial system is functioning to uphold our Constitution by examining the administration’s “intent.” “Our lives begin to end when we’re silent about things that matter.” “Silence is consent.” “I march for those without a voice.” Citizens cry out. The list of disastrous orders is already immense and our rights are being signed away. Since sanity and justice are too much to expect, the American people will not sit idly by and leave our future is in his hands. We’ll roll up

Looking Back:

By Marguerite Jill Dye

“Partyocracy,” cut-paper assemblage our sleeves and take a stand through Indivisible.com, the ACLU, Sierra Club, NAACP, U.N. Refugee Agency and other efforts to save our country from an alternative American reality. On a positive note, I am reminded that people saying “no” to the negative are affirming the positive good. Their energy is growing in unison to bring about change on earth. I will take part in the change and do what I can to help usher the new day in. I hope you will join me. Marguerite Jill Dye, author and artist, believes in the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and that everyone has an innate divine spark and deserves to be treated with justice, kindness, compassion, and respect. She lives in Vermont and Florida with her husband.

Diet fads through the decades

continued from page 24 lose 10-15 pounds in one week. I would definitely have passed on the cabbage soup! If there were an award for “grossness” it would go to the Tapeworm Diet. You swallowed a pill that had a parasite in it. No thanks on that one also! In 1963 the much acclaimed Weight Watchers came along. I know many people who have tried that over the years. It is based on counting points throughout the day. The sensibility of the diet has kept it popular up to the present time. After all, if it works for Oprah, it should work for the rest of the world! The 1970s must have been the decade when people were really into

trying various dieting techniques. Nutrisystem debuted in 1972. The company provides meals that are delivered to your door. No guessing with this diet! Just a couple of years ago, Marie Osmond told the world about her success with this method. The “sweetest” diet of the 70s was the Cookie Diet where you ate cookies made with a blend of amino acids. In 1977 Slim Fast hit the shelves. I even tried that one. You had a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and a sensible dinner. The chocolate shakes were quite tasty but they lost their appeal after awhile. The 1978 Scarsdale Diet

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was also popular. It was a diet of percentages: 43 percent protein, 22.5 percent fat and 34.5 percent carbohydrates. The book detailing food choices to meet the requirements was very popular. And last, but not least, in the 70s was a pill introduced in 1979 by the name of Dexatrim. A friend tried this and told me it felt like her feet weren’t touching the ground when she walked. How’s that for a fast metabolism? When a study showed that this pill could have a connection to increased strokes, its popularity waned. Glad I passed on this one, too! In the 80s a candy called Ayds hit the shelves but

didn’t last long, as its name and the disease AIDS were not a match for sales. As you can see from all the above options, people want an easy way out when it comes to dieting. But we all know that a common sense approach is what will work longterm when it comes to losing weight. A lifetime change to healthy choices in the foods we eat will be far more beneficial than the fad diets of any decade. I am doing my best to select the proper foods to eat. Maybe next year at this time, I will take a look back on 2017 and have some good results to report. Wish me luck!

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The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 29

E-cigarettes:

Purveyor found in voilation of consumer protection laws

continued from page 4 The proposed agreement “in lieu of instituting an Elsewhere on the site Vermont Vapor asserts that eaction or proceeding against Vermont Vapor Inc.” calls cigarettes are “much better for a person than smoking” for the company to end the alleged violations and pay a and “a new alternative to smoking.” $50,000 penalty. Other businesses describe e-cigarettes as an alternaThe attorney general’s office declined to comment on tive to smoking. the settlement offer or acknowledge that an investigation Valley Vape, an e-cigarette lounge and juice bar in Essex was underway, but did provide information on the vaping Junction, says on its website its mission is to “help you industry and the impact of e-cigarettes on public health. quit smoking cigarettes.” “This is an area that is increasingly under scrutiny by NEK Vapor, which has stores in Lyndonville and Newfederal regulators,” said Christopher Curtis, chief of the port, says it opened in 2014 to “provide smoking alternapublic protection division in the attorney general’s office. tives to people looking for an alternative to smoking ciga“Certainly states have an interest in protecting the health rettes.” However, the company points out, “E-Cigarettes and welfare of their citizens, and consumers have a right are not considered cessation devices and NEK Vapor does to know what is in a given product and what the longnot make any claims that you will be able to quit cigarettes term implications of use may be.” if you use our products.” E-cigarettes deliver a vapor of flavored liquids, nicoThe public health impacts of e-cigarettes remain tine and other ingredients. Use of the devices, especially unclear even as use, especially among teens, continues among teenagers, has risen dramatically over the past to rise. According to the FDA, between 2011 and 2015 five years, although their health e-cigarette use among high school impacts are unclear. In August students jumped from 1.5 percent ACCORDING TO THE FDA, the FDA finalized a rule to reguto 16 percent. BETWEEN 2011 AND 2015 late e-cigarettes like any tobacco An October 2015 advisory product. from the Vermont Department of E-CIGARETTE USE AMONG Last year the Legislature Health warned of the dangerous HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS passed a law that treats eeffects of nicotine on the carcigarettes like tobacco for the diovascular and central nervous JUMPED FROM 1.5 PERCENT purposes of smoking bans. systems and referred to an FDA TO 16 PERCENT. However, an effort to tax the sale study suggesting that e-cigarette of e-cigarettes like tobacco fell samples contained tobacco-speshort. cific nitrosamines and toxic chemicals. For years the FDA has been advising e-cigarette comIn a more recent report the surgeon general’s office said panies not to make smoking cessation claims, said Ameri- e-cigarette use among teens could reverse gains made to can Vaping Association President Greg Conley. However, combat smoking over the last couple of decades. he couldn’t recall anyone in the industry being targeted The current enforcement action is not Vermont Vapor’s for doing so. first interaction with personnel connected with the at“In terms of going after a company for daring to allow torney general’s office. customers to truthfully tell their story, this is the first Tredwell said he learned sometime in 2015 that Assisinstance of that,” Conley said. tant Attorney General Toni Hamburg-Clithero had started Tredwell said he first learned of the attorney general’s an online e-cigarette business under the name Vermont investigation in early January when he received a request Vapors. Tredwell’s lawyer sent her a cease-and-desist letfor documents and information about the company. ter, arguing the name was so similar to his company’s that Through his attorney, Tredwell refused to comply with it was a violation of trademark law. most of the state’s requests on the grounds that they were Correspondence Tredwell supplied to VTDigger shows “unduly burdensome” or would result in the disclosure of that Hamburg-Clithero disagreed and requested $1,000 proprietary information. to cover the costs of a new domain name and rebranding As long as he’s been in business, he said, it has been of her company. Tredwell threatened to sue and says he unlawful to advertise e-cigarettes as a smoking cessanever heard back. tion product. “We don’t anywhere, and we never have,” The Vermont Vapors website and Facebook page no Tredwell said. longer exist. Reached by phone, Hamburg-Clithero said In the FAQ section of its website Vermont Vapor adshe wasn’t sure “if it’s appropriate to talk about it.” dresses the question directly: “The electronic cigarette Tredwell said he has no intention of signing the enis an alternative to smoking and is not a smoking cessaforcement agreement or paying the $50,000 fine. He said tion device. Some people have quit smoking using the he plans to retire and leave Vermont for good. electronic cigarette but we make no such claims as to In a letter to his customers announcing that the store effectiveness for that purpose and e-cigs are not sold for was closing, he wrote, “I’ve fought the good fight for eight that purpose.” years and I’m not fighting anymore. I quit.”

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Altitude Sickness: continued from page 24 from work to do physical therapy (anyone have a pool I can walk in?) and see the chiropractor twice a week. I would like to get this back to the point where I can take a walk in good sneakers on pavement. I am going nuts on my bike trainer and googling disc replacement surgery, which is apparently a thing. As for Pip (“The Impaler”), he finally seems to be on the mend. We have had to stop all treats, all vegetables but for a tiny slice of carrot and a small piece of lettuce, supplement him with vitamin C, cycle him through two types of antibiotics, and feed him only hay and water, but ... his diarrhea (very dangerous for pocket ruminants like guinea pigs and rabbits) is slowly fading away. His anger at being fed hay instead of tasty treats on the other hand, is not fading away. He is biting more, although I have been handling him more, holding him while the vet gives him shots, putting antibiotics in his mouth, all without reward. I hope though, that I can get at least one of us healthy soon!

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30 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

SPORTS

St. Joseph basketball looks to improve

Courtesy of KMS

HANNAH SOAR

KMS senior balances World Cup performance with academics By Amy Allen

Many high school seniors speak of the legitimate demands on their time, which include gaining acceptance into college, challenging academics, participation in sports, time spent with friends and family, a social life ... the list goes on. Killington Mountain School senior Hannah Soar manages to balance all of those aspects of life, all while also being a member of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, which requires its own intense level of commitment and focus, and she does so adeptly and admirably. This past weekend, Soar competed in her first World Cup, traveling to Deer Valley, Utah, to compete in Singles and Duals events. Her finishes were solid: in Singles she was 19th and she was 15th in Duals. When asked about the experience, Soar said, “It was really cool!” When it came to nerves, Soar explained, “I was the most nervous on the first training day because I was one of only three girls doing a back full, and it takes awhile to build up to that. You have go through the progression … first you do a middle section run, then a top to bottom of straight airs, then back tucks in sections, and then finally a back tuck and back lay in full run, full to lay a couple times in sections, and then one full lay in a full run. If the full isn’t going well, it can be really stressful, but I did what I needed to do, so it was a good day, but yeah, I was nervous!” Soar then talked through the comp days, to give someone who hasn’t ever competed at this level a feel for what it’s truly like. “On Singles day, I got to sleep until 9 a.m.; I didn’t set any alarm clock. It was amazing. It’s good to be occupied during the day when you

have a nighttime event, so I usually hang out with teammates. We played cards and Bananagrams and just kept things lighthearted to keep our minds somewhat relaxed and distracted.” Hannah then explained that warmups were at 1:30, and at that point, the time to focus and home in on the task at hand had really arrived. Training was at 3:15, and her comp run was about 4:30 p.m. “I went

“AFTER MY RUN, I FINALLY REALLY KNEW I BELONGED THERE,” HANNAH SAID. last,” Soar said, “and it was really snowy; we kept having fog holds, and you couldn’t see judges. Overall, I skied slow and somewhat conservatively, but I landed my full and skied out decently well. I had a good layout on the bottom, my turns were nice, and I was really just happy to ski a top to bottom run, and it scored decently.” Soar said it was nice to have her first World Cup competition run behind her, and the takeaway was exciting. “After my run, I finally really knew I belonged there,” Hannah said. “It felt good to have the recognition and the internal knowledge that I really belonged at the comp and on the team.” Once her run was completed, Soar said it was very fun to watch the rest of the day of competition. Friday was a training day, with the opportunity for night training, which Soar said was really helpful to ski the course in the pitch black

dark under the lights. Saturday was Duals, in front of a big crowd, estimated at 10,000 people. The competition started just after 5 p.m., and Hannah’s first Dual was in a round of 32 against Regina Rakhimova, 11th in the world. Soar recounted her run: “We both had top to bottom runs and I won, so that was really cool!” Finals were at 7 p.m., and since Soar was the 31st seed in the comp, she had the one seed vs. women’s Freestyle legend, Brittney Cox. “That didn’t go as great,” Soar laughed. “I blew out and I was disappointed because the way the scoring worked, if I hadn’t, I could’ve finished higher overall. But still, it I felt good overall.” Soar said once her competition was complete, it was really great to just spend time with her U.S. Ski Team teammates, take a photo with the entire crew, mingle with her family and friends in the energetic crowd, and that overall, her World Cup experience was “really memorable, super cool” and that she can’t wait to do it all again. “Killington’s NorAm is this weekend,” Hannah said, “which will be awesome, and I’m looking forward to bringing my Deer Valley experience to future World Cups!” The determination and poise it takes to achieve goals like this, all while keeping up with challenging academic work is no small task. Soar has stayed on top of her studies by getting ahead in her classes while on campus, and by connecting with faculty remotely while she’s gone training with the team, via Google Classroom, email, and videoconferencing software. In addition, she’s applied to and waiting to hear back from a slew of outstanding colleges and universities.

It was a relatively slow week for College of St. Joseph Athletics, with only one of two games being played. The men’s and women’s basketball teams hosted Fisher College on Feb. 11 and neither came out victorious. The men’s basketball team has now dropped to 12-14 overall, while maintaining a solid Yankee Small College Conference record of 9-5. They have lost their last three games, hitting a rough patch at the wrong time, considering there’s just one game left in the regular season. The men’s team is currently ranked No. 16 in the USCAA Power Rankings and have dropped out of the top 20 in the Week 9 Coaches’ Poll. The Lady Saints have an overall record of 11-11 and a YSCC record of 9-5. They have also lost their last three games and are searching for ways to improve going down the stretch of the season. The women’s team currently ranks No. 12 the USCAA Power Rankings and No. 15 in the Week 9 Coaches Poll. Both the men’s and women’s teams have earned the fifth seed in the YSCC Elite 8 Tournament hosted by Southern Maine Community College starting on Thursday,

Feb. 16. The women will play against the fourth-seeded University of Maine at Augusta and the men will face the fourth-seeded Vermont Tech. Feb. 11 The Lady Saints were taken down by the Fisher Falcons on Saturday in a one-sided affair that ended with a final score of 75-47. CSJ looked out of sorts from tip-off and ended up committing a staggering 26 turnovers. The Saints also shot just 27.1 percent from the field and an even worse 8.7 percent from threepoint range. Senior forward Imani Stephenson had a nice performance for the Lady Saints. She scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down five rebounds. The men’s team kept it close, but eventually came up short against the Fisher Falcons, leading to a final score of 86-75. The story of the game was the free-throw line. The Saints committed 22 fouls, which led to the Falcons scoring 26 points from the charity stripe, compared to just five for CSJ. Senior guard Kyle Houston played well for the Saints, scoring 15 points, taking down seven rebounds and dishing out six assists.

Submitted

The Killington Aquatic Club swimmers who qualified for Regionals swam this past weekend at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center in West Lebanon.

Local swimmers advance in meets Heidi Alf who attends Woodstock Middle School, qualified in all her events, her best event; the 50 and 100 Backstroke; Emma Blodorn, who attends Killington Elementary School, is a first year competitive swimmer qualified in over 5 events. Ethan Courcelle, who attends Christ the King, qualified in eight individual events and his strongest event is the 50 and 100 Backstroke. Paige Fieldhouse, who attends Killington Elementary School, had a strong swim in the 50 Backstroke. Paige Harned, who attends Barstow Elementary, had a very strong season qualifying in seven individual events. Pema Kerins, who is an 8 and under, qualified her second year in a row. Logan Knox, who attends Stockbridge Elementary school, qualified also a second year in a row and

specializes in breastroke. Sophia Nisimblat, who attends Killington Elementary school, qualified in all events and has moved onto the next qualifying meet, Age Groups. Sophia is only the second KAC swimmer to make an age group cut. Justine Peters, who attends Rutland Middle School, improved in her 100 butterfly to receive another Qualifying cut. Mattie Peters, who attends Rutland Intermediate School qualified in all her events and went personal best in all her event this weekend, receiving second place out of 70 swimmers in the 50 Backstroke. Phoebe Sargeant and Nova Wang, both of Rutland

High School, qualified this weekend, but were unable to compete. Earl Saunders, who attends Rutland Town, qualified for his second year, and Pippa Scott, who attends Killington Elementary School, was unable to attend due to a snowboarding race. Bailey Peters, senior at Rutland High School, has qualified for all Regionals, Silvers, and will compete at Age groups March 2-5. All these athletes put in the hard work throughout the season and will be winding down this year. Congratulations to all the athletes and good luck to Sophia, Bailey, Justine, Mattie, and Heidi on their last qualifying meets.

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The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 31

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ERA MOUNTAIN Real Estate, 1913 US Rt. 4, Killington - killingtonvermontrealestate.com or call one of our real estate experts for all of your real estate needs including Short Term & Long Term Rentals & 04/1/11 4:31 PM Page 1 Sales. 802-775-0340.

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THE KILLINGTON GROUP Rentals/ Property Management. Individually tailored programs including concierge. Bob Montgomery, Broker & Owner. killingtongroup.com, 802-422-2300. KILLINGTON PICO REALTY Our Realtors have special training in buyer representation to ensure a positive buying experience. Looking to sell? Our unique marketing plan features your very own website. 802-422-3600, KillingtonPicoRealty.com 2814 Killington Road (next to Choices Restaurant). KILLINGTON VALLEY Real Estate PO Box 236, 2281 Killington Road Killington, VT 05751. 802-422-3610 or 1-800-833-KVRE. Email: kvre@vermontel.net LOUISE HARRISON REAL ESTATE Sales & Vacation Rentals: professional guidance and representation to buyers and sellers in the greater Killington, Mendon, Rutland area. Independent Broker. We negotiate variable commissions and work with FSBO’s by appointment 7 days a week. Now located at 8 Mountain Top Rd, Chittenden,VT 05737. LouiseHarrison.com, 802-7759999, 802-747-8444. PEAK PROPERTY Real Estate, 505 Killington Rd., Killington. VTproperties.net. 802-775-1700, 802-353-1604. Marni@peakpropertyrealestate.com. Specializing in homes/condos/land/commercial/investments/winter rentals. Representing sellers & buyers all over Central Vt. THE PERFORMANCE GROUP real estate 1810 Killington Rd., Killington Vt. 05751. 802-422-3244 or 800338-3735, vthomes.com, email info@vthomes.com. As the name implies “WE PERFORM FOR YOU!” PRESTIGE REAL Estate of Killington, 2922 Killington Rd. Specializing in the listing & sales of Killington Condos, Homes, & Land. Call toll free 800-398-3680 or locally 802422-3923. prestigekillington. com. SKI COUNTRY Real Estate, 335 Killington Rd, Killington, VT 05751 802-775-5111, 800877-5111. SkiCountryRealEstate.com - 8 agents to service: Killington, Bridgewater, Mendon, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Rochester, Stockbridge & Woodstock areas. Sales & Winter Seasonal Rentals. Open 7 days/wk, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

HOMEXAUTOXBUSINESSXFARMXUMBRELLA Since 1915 Co-op has been providing complete protection for individuals, farms and businesses providing fast and fair claims service, expert loss prevention and affordable rates. At the Co-op, you’re not just a number.

Local agent with a Vermont product supporting your community and businesses.

Curtis Insurance Agency, Inc. 335 Killington Road Killington, VT 05751 (802) 775-0521 w w w. c u r t i s i nsu r an c e a ge n c y. n e t Representing

w w w. c o - o p i n s u r a n c e . c o m

FOR SALE ESTATE COLLECTION OF MG CARS Many makes, many models. Buy one, buy ‘em all. Clem, 518-798-5034.

DRY, WELL SEASONED cord wood. $250/ cord delivered. 802-770-8074.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES COMMERCIAL BUILDING for lease on Route 4, Killington across from Post Office. 4,500 s.f. of retail or office space. Currently divided in 2 spaces of 3,000 & 1,500 s.f. Ample parking, great visibility. Can be rented separately. 1-802773-8800. BUY MULTI-FAMILY house, live rent free, pay mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance plus earn $12-16K per year with rental income. Low interest mortgage available. leorentfree@aol.com. C O M M E R C I A L S PA C E AVAILABLE with another well established business. Small or large square footage. Close to ski shop, restaurant and lodging. Great location for any business. Call 802-345-5867. K I L L I N G TO N M A L L f o r sale, 4-apartments, 2-stores, 1-nightclub/restaurant, 1-50s diner restaurant. 4 acres plus building. Call office 800-6942250 or cell 914-217-4390. Ron Viccari. KILLINGTON RESTAURANT FOR SALE. Corner lot, high visibility, operating since the 1960s! Killington is going year round be a part of the renaissance! 98 seats plus 4 apartments offer unique opportunity to help cover expenses or build a great staff. After 30 years its time to hang up my tongs! Offered for sale by owner as realtors want 10% and have never even served a salad! If you cant appreciate a 10% savings? The restaurant business is not for you! Save 15% on assessed value, offered at $509,500. Contact killingtonrestaurant@gmail.com.

RUTLAND-EP MANAGEMENT Corp is accepting applications for efficiency and one-bedroom units at The Bardwell House. Wheelchair accessible building. Wheelchair accessible laundry on site. Meals on Wheels congregate meal site Monday-Friday. Services Coordinator on staff. 24-Hour emergency maintenance. Downtown location. Income limits apply. Tenant pays approximately 30% of monthly income toward rentutilities included. Must be 62 years of age or older or disabled. Verification of eligibility required. For application call 802-775-1100 ext 2 or e-mail lisa@epmanagement.com. EHO. KILLINGTON ROYAL FLUSH Rentals/Property management. Specializing in condos/ winter & summer rentals. Andrea Weymouth, Owner. www.killingtonroyalflush.com, 802-746-4040. WOODSTOCK VILLAGE Awesome Location—200 yards from Woodstock Green! Walk to shopping, restaurants, etc. Brand new totally renovated studio available for rent! Beautiful kitchen w/granite counters & stainless appliances. New Murphy bed. New bath w/jetted tub. Off street parking! Sleeps 2. No pets or smoking. 6-month or 12-month lease. $850 per month. Call Marni 802-353-1604. RUTLAND 1 and 2 bdrm units. Unfurnished, pet considered. $825 + utilities. LouiseHarrison.com, 802-747-8444. CHITTENDEN RETREAT available by the week or weekend. 6 bdrm, 3.5 baths, HOT TUB, screened porch on six acres. Close to Chittenden reservoir for swimming, hiking, and kayaking (kayaks provided). Scenic Mountain Top Inn nearby via water entry or short drive. LouiseHarrison. com, 802-775-9999.

SERVICES

KILLINGTON - Room, $450650. Deposit required. Dan 908-337-1130.

SNOW SHOVELING Roofs, walkways, etc. 802-558-6172.

KILLINGTON - 3 rooms, $1250 includes electric, heat, plow, trash. Deposit required. Dan 908-337-1130.

ADVANCED PRO PAINTING. Interior/Exterior. Exc Quality, Best Prices. References. 802989-5803 Schedule Now! BEAUREGARD PAINTING, 25 years experience. 802436-1337. PRIOR FOR HIRE - Handyman services, carpentry and yard. Call Jeremy Prior, 802353-1806.

LouiseHarrison.com Real Estate

FOR SALE

2345 East Mountain Road Turn Key $299K WEEKEND RENTAL $550 per night

RENTALS

Louise Harrison 747-8444

Lynn Acker 345-0264

Buyer and Seller Representation

802-775-9999 | 8 Mountain Top Rd, Chittenden, Vt.

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY All real estate and rentals advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 as amended which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, family status, national origin, sexual orientation, or persons receiving public assistance, or an intention to make such preferences, limitation or discrimination.”

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertisement which is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. If you feel you’ve been discrimination against, call HUD toll-free at 1-800-669-9777.

WANTED NOW BUYING High quality watches, precious metals, coins & paper money, stamps and historic paper, objects of art and virtue. If it’s rare, fun and beautiful I can help. Member NAWCC, ANA, APS, NEAA and Vermont’s first legally licensed precious metals dealer. Trading worldwide in the very best personal property, since 1972. Legitimate sellers ONLY and by appointment only. Royal Barnard 802-775-0085 or email rbarn64850@aol.com.

EMPLOYMENT DREWSKI’S On The River is hiring a F/T or P/T waitress. Call or email for an interview 802-422-3816 or info.drewskis@gmail.com. PARKING ATTENDANTS needed at Killington/Pico Ski Resort. Direct traffic, guide guests to park in a smooth and efficient manner. Must have excellent customer service skills. Weekends/holidays required. Full time-seasonal. Apply online at www.killington.com/jobs or in person at Killington Human Resources. 4763 Killington Rd. Killington, VT 05751. 800-300-9095. EOE. DISHWASHER and bus person needed. Apply in person or call Pasta Pot, 802-4223004. INN AT LONG TRAIL is looking for year round help. Breakfast waitstaff/ housekeepers and experienced line cook (scratch made kitchen). Pay commensurate with experience. Email Resume or brief work history, to set up interview appointment to patty@ innatlongtrail.com. LIQUID ART is hiring cooks. Must be available early mornings, holidays and weekends. Must have 2 years experience cooking in a restaurant environment. E-mail resume to beth@liquidartvt.com or drop off in person. PART-TIME/ FULL-TIME: Bartenders, waitstaff, dishwashers, and line cooks; and door person at Moguls in Killington. Apply Thursday through Sunday in person or call the restaurant at 802422-4777. Calling all Foodies: FT DELI POSITION: 40 hours/ wk.Excellent Pay. Nights 12pm-8pm. Food service experience preferred. PT DELI: 32 +hours/wk. PT CASHIER: 24+hours/wk. Weekends. Apply in person. 5680 US ROUTE 4, Bridgewater Corners Country Store.

real estate

32 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

RUTLAND—The H.E.A.T. Squad, a home health, safety, and energy efficiency program of the non-profit NeighborWorks of Western Vermont, has facilitated energy improvement projects in almost 6 percent of the owner-occupied homes in Rutland County (over 1,000 houses). These weatherization projects save those households almost a million dollars every year in energy costs and as a result can decrease asthma-related visits to the doctor or emergency room. The program provides wrap-around customer

service to Vermonters of all incomes to help them make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. The H.E.A.T. Squad conducts lowcost energy audits with a same-day, detailed report prioritizing energy efficiency, health, and safety upgrades. These include air sealing, upgraded insulation, heat pumps, replacement of old furnaces, upgraded hot water systems, and solar. The H.E.A.T. Squad then helps homeowners connect with trustworthy local contractors and access up to $2,500 worth of rebates from Efficiency

Vermont. NeighborWorks of Western Vermont offers unsecured energy loans with interest rates from 0-4.99 percent, based on income, loan term, and use of proceeds for energy efficiency improvements. In 2009, 588 home energy improvement projects had been completed throughout Vermont. Now, aided by the H.E.A.T. Squad, over 1,000 homes in Rutland County alone are healthier, safer, more efficient, and more affordable for homeowners. The H.E.A.T. Squad has expanded to serve five counties in southern Vermont.

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

UPSCALE RESTAURANT KILLINGTON REGION • 100+ seats • Well maintained 3,200 sf Period Bldg • Attractive wood-paneled bar/lounge • 1.5 Acres with ample parking • Real estate included

A REAL VALUE at just $345,000

FOR SALE

2. KILLINGTON RESTAURANT w/ Great Visibility on Year-round route, includes real estate. ..................................................$ 295,000 3. 14-ROOM LODGE 3 MINUTES FROM KILINGTON BASE: Fully Equipped & Furnished, 3 acres ........................... $595,000 4. KILLINGTON AREA RESTAURANT w/ Large upstairs apartment, ample parking on 2.7 acres ........................... $195,000 5. BRICK RETAIL BLDG ON CORNER LOT: 3,990 sf bldg with apt up and 3 retail tenants; facing park ............................... $298,500 6. PROFITABLE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS BUSINESS: Confidential, $250K cash down ........................................... $950,000 7. BRICK DOWNTOWN RETAIL/OFFICE BLDG: Adjacent Parking Garage & Transit Center, a bargain! ..............................................$ 259,500 8. 1,200 SF OFFICE CONDO: 6-Rm professional office, beautiful setting, ample on-sit parking ..........................................$90,000 SOLD 9. ATTRACTIVE 8,400 Sq. FT. BRICK OFFICE BLDG: ample on-site parking, near downtown ........................................ $299,000 10. - 12. MEDICAL OFFICE CONDOS- 1,500 to 5,500 SF: NEAR HOSPITAL ..................................................... Priced from $120,000 13. 9,700 SF BRICK DOWNTOWN RETAIL STORE: Just a few miles from interstate highway ........................................ $595,000 14. DOWNTOWN 29,000 SF OFFICE BLDG w/ Bank drive-in, Adjacent Parking Garage & Transit Ctr. ....................... $895,000 15. BEAUTIFUL RETAIL/OFFICE BLDG w/ State of the Art Heating System; warm, modern interior ............................ $395,000 16. COMM'L INCOME PROPERTY: 16,000 sf Downtown Retail/ Office Bldg 90% Rented .............................................. $450,000 17. SMALL RETAIL BLDG ADJACENT DOWNTOWN PARK & WATERFALLS: End-cap of brick complex ..................... $105,000

Wonderful, well maintained &amp; Spacious 2 Br 2 Ba Telemark Village Townhouse, cathedral ceiling, floor to ceiling brick fireplace, deck, tiled entry mudroom, master bedroom walk-in closet master bath, whirlpool tub, sauna, loft area, skylights, finished walkout lower level, large family room, additional sleeping, wood burning stove. Close to both Killington &amp; Pico ski areas. $239,000

Well maintained 2 Bedroom, 2 Bath village condominium located at The Woods. Many amenities available at the Terra Median which is located close by. Indoor lap pool and regular pool and a fully equipped exercise room are include plus many other features. Excellent rental history $149,499

FOR LEASE

PLUS: Over 30 More Office, Retail and Industrial Spaces For Lease

Kyle Kershner Broker/Owner

Ault Commercial Realty, Inc. P.O. Box 6306, Rutland, VT 05702

Ray@AultCommercial.com • Web:www.aultcommercial.com

Cozy 3 Br, 2 Ba Chalet, large wrap around deck &amp; shed on 2 ac. wooded lot, natural surroundings. Open floor plan, one bedroom and bath on the first floor &amp; two Bedrooms, bath, &amp; bonus room upstairs. Great location, only minutes from Killington slopes, hiking trails, Kent Pond, &amp; other recreational activities. $189,000

www.3654EastMountainRoad.com Custom Built, Never Rented, One Owner Contemporary. Nearly 5,000 square feet of living space, including, master suite, separate guest suite, great room w/cathedral ceilings, expansive stone hearth & chimney w/woodstove, a gourmet eat-in kitchen w/cherry cabinets, stainless appliances, granite counters & butler’s pantry, family room, formal dining room, mudroom entry, loft and two car garage. An enormous walk-up basement could be finished to provide even more living area. Quality finishes include solid wood, six-panel doors, natural wood trim and hardwood floors. Located between the Skyeship and Bear Mountain base lodges and offering magnificent long range views. Offered at $649,000

www.269RoaringBrookRoad.com Sweeping Mountain Views from Pico to Killington Peak. This 5BR/4.5 bath, architect-designed home features arched doorways, curved walls, naturally flowing spaces and a sunny, southern exposure. Main level: open floor plan living room w/maple floors, vaulted ceilings and massive stone fireplace; gourmet kitchen w/cherry-topped breakfast bar, granite countertops and expansive central island, dining area and study w/oak floors, built-in bookcases and fireplace, two bedrooms, mudroom and laundry. Upper level: master bedroom suite, two ensuite guest bedrooms, media room, loft and steam room. Lower level includes a generous family room. Offered at $1,395,000

www.KingsPines.com

18. 2,500 Sq. Ft. RETAIL SPACE: Center of downtown, adjacent Parking Garage & Transit Center .................... $6.50/SF, NNN 19. 3,300 Sq. Ft. RETAIL /OFFICE SPACE: Adjacent McDonald's Restaurant, ample on-site parking ................. $9.00/SF, NNN 20. 1,250 - 2,250 SF RETAIL /OFFICE SPACE: On US 7, great visibility with on-site parking .............................. $8.50/SF, NNN

Ph: 802.773.0600

This lovely secluded 4 bedroom 3 bath, two level, contemporary style home with a very good rental potential and views is priced to sell. Located just minutes away from Killington. Freshly painted exterior and attached garage. It has use of an adjoining pond and is being sold furnished. It is set up so it can be used as a 2 unit house. $259,000

“...cozy fireplace season is here...”

REAL ESTATE SHOWCASE

H.E.A.T. Squad completes weatherization projects in Rutland County

1810 Killington Road • Killington, VT 05751 Phone: 800-338-3735 • Fax: 802-422-3320 www.vthomes.com • email: info@vthomes.com “It’s All About Performance”

G. RAY AULT, REALTOR® REALTOR

King’s Pines: An Exclusive, On-Mountain. Located in the Heart of Killington. Seven units available to choose from, offering 3200 square feet of living space on three levels. The tiled mudroom leads to the main living area w/soaring cathedral ceilings, a massive stone-faced fireplace, a gourmet kitchen, open dining area and private, sunny deck. Upper level: master suite and second bedroom suite. Walkout level: family room, guest room, full bath and laundry room. Beautiful finishes are featured throughout: granite counter & vanity tops, hardwood floors, cabinets and solid wood doors w/upscale hardware. Photos are of model unit w/similar floor plan and special upgrades. Offered at $549,000

2814 Killington Rd., Killington, VT • www.KillingtonPicoRealty.com 802-422-3600 • info@KillingtonPicoRealty.com

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 33

SkiCountryRealEstate.com • 802.775.5111

Serving Killington, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, Mendon, Chittenden, Bridgewater & Plymouth 1-LEVEL LIVING

• 3BR, 1BA, 1 AC • Gas heat • Entry-Mud Room • W/dryer • Winter Pico Ski Trails • Large 1-car Garage • New 2016 Roof - $160K

POST & BEAM CONSTRUCTION

• 4BR, 3BA, 36 Ac, VAST trail • Updated baths, heat exchangers • Covered porch, walkout basemt • Flat access, pond, great room $370K

“RUSTIC CONTEMPORARY” CHARMER • *3BR/2BA, 2.5 Ac • 3 fireplaces, • Hot Tub, Workshop, • Town Road • babbling brook • generator • $260,000

INCOME PRODUCING

• Side-by-side Duplex • 10BR/4BA or 5BR/2BA • Furnished Rec. Room • Flat Access • Skimobile trail at driveway • $375K = side by side Duplex or $199K = Rt Side

A REAL CHARMER

SKI IN & SKI OUT CONDOS PICO VILLAGE

SUNRISE

STUDIO: $53 - 59K 1 BR: $63K 2 BR : $135K POOL & SPORTS CENTER

2 BR: $199K 3 BR: $300K FURNISHED POOL & SPORTS CENTER

SKI IN OR SHUTTLE OUT CONDOS HIGHRIDGE TRAIL CREEK 2 BR: $175-198K WOOD BURN F/PLACES FURNISHED INDOOR & WHIRLPOOL

1 BR + LOFT: $165K 2BR: $169K INDOOR POOL OUTDOOR WHIRLPOOL MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL

WHIFFLETREE

PINNACLE

1BR: $50K-$60K 3 BR / 2 BA 1-LVL $135K FURNISHED, GAS F/P COMMON W/ DRYER TENNIS & OUTDR POOL

1 BR: $115-$117K SUMMER POOL & WHIRLPOOL (IN & OUTDOOR) TENNIS PAVED PARKING

SHUT TLE TO & FROM CONDOS MTN GREEN #3

MTN GREEN #1&2

1BR: $48K-$66K 3 BR: $110-121 K WOOD BURN F/PLACES FURNISHED INDOOR & WHIRLPOOL

2 BR: $83-112K WOOD BURN F/PLACES FURNISHED INDOOR & WHIRLPOOL

FOX HOLLOW - opposite PICO

THE WOODS

• 2BR: $124K-$130K • 3BR, 3.5BA, 2 Level $222K Corner Unit • Flat & paved parking. • Wd burning fireplc, bar • Sports Center with indoor pool & Exercise equipmt. Tennis courts.

• 2BR/2BA 1300 SF $148K 3 BR: $164K • Pool & Tennis • Wd Burning Fplc. • Furnished

EVERYTHING & MORE

• 4BR/ 3BA on 3 Acres • Large Master Suite • Den, Sauna, Whirlpool • 2+ Car Garage • Deeded ROW to Kent Pond $399K

ARCHITECTURALLY DESIGNED

• 5BR/4BA, southern exposure • Open floor plan, yr-rd mtn views • 7.5 Ac., privacy, elevator • Large kitchen w/a pantry room • 2 stone fireplaces in living rooms • Furnished & equipped

$649K

PITTSFIELD - HILLTOP SETTING

• 3BR/3BA, 2776 sq.ft., 4AC • Bright & open kitchendining-living • Finished basement, hot tub on back deck • Metal roof, 2-car garage • Close to VAST trails $369,000

HOME + ADJACENT BUILDING LOT

1-LEVEL & YEAR ROUND VIEWS • House w/ Lrg Detached Apartmt • Huge living-dining • Stone Fireplace • 3231 SF • 2+ Car Garage • Paved Driveway $385K

• 3BR/3BA,4.5 Ac, renovated • Enclosed bridge to living space over garage. Radiant heat, • ATV to nearby ski trail, • Oversized garage, rec room $675K

Lenore Bianchi

‘tricia Carter

Meghan Charlebois

Pat Linnemayr

Peter Metzler

Daniel Pol

Katie McFadden

335 Killington Rd. • “First” on the Killington Road • Open Daily, 9-5 • #1 since 1989 Sales & Winter Seasonal Rentals MLS MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE

REALTOR

• 3BR/2.5BA, 2+ Garage • Adjacent buildable lot (sewer connect available) • 700 ft. on year-roundstream, 3 AC • Wine cellar, 2 St. Fireplaces • Guest Suite, Loft, Radiant Heat $595K

The Most Distinctive Slopeside Home in All of Killington This exceptional residence was designed as the ultimate ski home, featuring authentic hand-made mortise and tenon red oak timber frame with the most imaginative detail possible, from the pewter snowflake cabinet hardware to the original Killington Gondola cabin suspended from the towering peak of the great room ceiling. On the main level, a gourmet kitchen with granite and a stunning oak bar flank the great room, surrounding the massive, three-story granite fireplace. Four bedrooms including an expansive master suite with whirlpool tub and separate full body steam shower, dining room and game room loft complete the upper two levels, while the walkout/ski-out lower level offers three heated garage bays, a formal entry, fantastic family room with fireplace, ski cubbie room and utility room. Outside you’ll experience mature perennials in summer and ski on/ski off trail access in winter. Builder owned and never rented, this is a unique opportunity to own a distinctive trailside home. Please visit: www.647TrailviewDrive.com Offered at $2,999,000 2814 Killington Rd., Killington, VT • www.KillingtonPicoRealty.com • 802-422-3600 • info@KillingtonPicoRealty.com REALTOR

34 • The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017

Need a gift? Give the Gift of Memories, History and FUN!

The Killington book is a one-size-fits-all collector’s item by award-winning author. 364 pages, 250 b/w photos, 40 pages in color. Available in Killington at: Accents and Images, Basin Ski Shop, Base Camp Outfitters, and Killington Sports, Also at: Book King, Rutland; Book Nook, Ludlow; Northshire Bookstore, Manchester; Yankee Bookshop, Woodstock; Vermont Ski Museum, New England Ski Museum. More info or mail order: email Kloren03@me.com

VTPROPERTIES.NET

IDEAL PROPERTIES CLOSE TO KILLINGTON, OKEMO OR WOODSTOCK!

PRIME INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY MINUTES TO KILLINGTON! The Amee Farm Lodge is a fully restored post & beam farmhouse w/15 guest rooms and is relaxed country elegance at its best. The property boasts over 37 acres w/two ponds, a waterfall, endless hiking & biking trails, active working farm w/multiple large barns & spectacular views from any corner of this fine Vermont estate. Amee Farm hosts VT weddings, family reunions, corporate events, retreats & private parties. Call for price.

802.775.1700

HOMES | CONDOS | LAND COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT | RENTALS

Marni Rieger 802.353.1604

Rick Gaspar 802.342.0693

Tucker A. Lange Heidi Matusik 303.818.8068 860.637.1243

Info@PeakPropertyRealEstate.com 1995 U.S Route 4, Killington VT

PRIVATE RETREAT! 60 ACRES W/VIEWS CLOSE TO KILLINGTON OR WOODSTOCK! Hot tub room, 3 Car Garage! Direct to VAST! ZERO ELECTRIC BILLS! 4 Bed/ 3 Bath $625K

Minutes to Killington! Magnificent 4 bed/5 bath post & beam BEAUTIFUL RESTORED 4 BED/2 BATH RETREAT chalet has exposed beams from old New England barns,hand ON ECHO LAKE! LOCATED A FEW MILES FROM scraped style floors, wonderful chef’s kitchen, 2 luxurious master OKEMO/JACKSON GORE! Enjoy your own private suites, fabulous rec room w/ jetted tub & sauna. MUST SEE! $499K dock with 160 feet of lakefront! $499k

Prestige Real Estate of Killington Exclusively Killington!

Condos

Featured Properties

SKI IN SKI OUT Topridge: 3‐bedroom 4‐bath starting $645K Sunrise: 1‐bedroom 1.5 bath $115K 2‐bedroom 2 bath starting $159K 4‐bedroom townhome $225.9K Pico Village: 1‐bedroom+loft 2‐bath $132.5K Pico Slopeside: 3‐bedrom 2‐bath $159K

Alpine Court

Barrows Towne

Ski in ski out at Pico 4BR/3BA 2500 sqft $425K

Large contemporary near golf on pond $499K

Spruce Glen

Topridge

Land

Ski Home Shuttle Out Highridge: 1‐bedroom+loft 2‐bath $139K 2‐bedroom 2.5‐bath $239K Whiffletree: 1‐bedroom 1‐bath $55,000

(4) 2‐bed units ON ski trail $775K

Million $ views Ski on/off townhomes Start at $649K

Bear Mt Road

Tanglewood Dr

Family retreat in ski in ski out community $1.15 mil

Million $ view on 10+ acres $1.25 mil

Shuttle to/from Mountain Pinnacle: 2‐bedroom 2‐bath starting $139K Killington Basin The Woods: 2‐bed 2‐bath starting $105K 3‐bedroom 3.5 bath townhome $215K

The Vistas

Off Mountain Winterberry: 3‐bedroom 4‐bath $469K

NEW LUXURY Ski on Ski off ‐ $1.295 mil www.vistasatsunrise.com

Great Eastern trailside: (3) ski in ski out 1/3rd acre lots w/septic design ‐ $500K each Mini Drive: (2) ski in ski out ½ acre lots w/septic design ‐ $425K each Pico West: 14 acres trailside at Pico can support up to 9 lots ‐ $399K ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Trailview Drive: ½ acre lot w/septic design ‐ $299K Tanglewood: Stunning 10+ acres with driveway and septic field ‐ $249K

Located at the Basin Sports complex, upstairs from The Lookout Tavern 2922 Killington Road 802-422-3923 www.prestigekillington.com/mtn

The Mountain Times • Feb. 15-21, 2017 • 35

ERA DISTINCTIVE PROPERTIES Serving Killington, Pico, Pittsfield, Bridgewater, Plymouth, Mendon including Rutland and Windsor Counties

www.KillingtonVermontRealEstate.com Slopeside at Killington Killington’s Best Slopeside Address Killington: One of a kind 8 bedroom, 5.5 bath, with 2 car garage property on the Killington Road. Seller is a Vt R E Broker. $450,000

Killington: Great 4 bedroom house with winter views. Located in the north end of town near the public Green Mountain National Golf Course, close to Killington. $190,000

Killington: A 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with a screened patio and a 2 car garage and a private tennis court on 2.78± acres $398,000

CONDOS

Killington Killington Killington Killington

Sunrise Cambridge Grand Resort Penthouse Pico VillageSquare Fall Line

1 Br/1 Ba 3 Br/3 Ba 3 Br/2 Ba 3 Br/3 Ba

CENTRAL VERMONT LAND

Pittsfield: Magnificent 20 acre retreat tucked away high on Wilcox peak. This gorgeous home with long & short-range views overlooks the majestic Green Mtns. $725,000

Killington Killington Killington Rutland Town

Killington: Very nicely maintained side-by-side 6 bedroom duplex in the heart of Killington. This is the ideal home: live on one side and rent out the other side. $295,000

Killington: This 4 bedroom, 5½ bath solar heated home, with mountain view, was designed for quiet, energy-efficient comfort in ski country. This house has an open floor plan. $725,000

THE KILLINGTON GRAND RESORT QUARTER-SHARE CONDOS Everything you could want, from valet parking to pool and spa to Preston’s gourmet restaurant, is located right at the base of the ski area.

$139,900 $149,000 $175,000 $209,000

$525,000 $399,000 $100,000 $92,500

Chittenden: Built by Master Craftsman, Adi Staudinger on two acres with a 4,000 sf workshop. 4 bedroom, 4 bath Austrian Chalet. $312,000

Killington: Newly constructed 3 bedroom, 3 bath resort house with a loft, cathedral ceiling, radiant heat and wood stove. Beautiful kitchen with granite countertops. $325,000

Bridgewater: Unique OFF-GRID dream home in the famed Chateauguay/No-town wilderness area. Original 1790 log cabin on a new foundation & addition. 3 bdrms, 1 ba on 12 acres. $158,500

2.17 ac: commercial 400 acres 1.0 acres 2.04 acres

Killington: Traditional 7 bedroom, 7 bath European ski lodge that sleeps 20, with 6 of the bedrooms having private baths with updated showers. $400,000

Stockbridge: VIEWS, VIEWS, VIEWS!!! Opportunity to own one of Vermont’s finest! 3 bedroom, 3 bath home on 5 acres! $493,000.

Killington: Well maintained with a myriad of improvements: 3 bedrooms & 4 baths with beautiful gardens, lawns, and a brook. $289,000.

STUDIO UNITS start at $18,000 per quarter 1 BEDROOM UNITS start at $26,500 per quarter 2 BEDROOM UNITS start at $39,999 per quarter 3 BEDROOM PENTHOUSES start at $139,000 per quarter

ERA Mountain Real Estate

Main Office: 1913 US Route 4 Satellite Office: Slopeside at the Killington Grand Resort

800-422-2261

Greg Stefurak 802-345-9375

Kaitlyn Hummel 802 353 6665

Doug Quatchak Walter Findeisen 802 558 4645 802 770 0093

C O N S T R U C T O R S I N C. KILLINGTON, VT.

New Roofs Reroofing Repairs Killington, VT | 802.786.5200 www.allroofvt.com

QUALITY

our commitment to you from concept to completion 802.786.5200 | ROARINGBROOKCONSTRUCTORS.COM

A division of Roaring Brook, Contructors, Inc.

802.786.5200

Judy Findeisen 802 775 0340

36 â&#x20AC;˘ The Mountain Times â&#x20AC;˘ Feb. 15-21, 2017

Unlimited Turns, Unlimited Spring Valid March 17, 2017 through closing.

SPRING PASS

189

Signature Spring Events

The Hibernation Park Jam, April 1 Dos Equis Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, April 8 Dos Equis Pond Skimming, April 15 Dazed and Defrosted Festival, April 22 Killington Triathlon, April 29 May Day Slalom, May 1 *Price increases to $209 on Mar. 17, 2017. 7% Vermont State and local sales tax not included.

#beast365 killington.com/springpass 800.621.MTNS