Vermont Rep brings Moliere to Williston’s cultural calendar
BY SUSAN COTE Observer staff
Costumes and wigs and laughs. Along with a bit of singing and dancing, that’s what Vermont Repertory Theatre’s upcoming production of Moliere’s “The Miser” promises to deliver to audiences during the show’s June run at the Isham Farm Barn in Williston.
“‘Bridgerton’ meets ‘Schitt’s Creek’ in 17th century Paris,” is how director and Williston resident Mike Fidler likes to describe the play. His wife, Chloë Fidler, is the play’s producer.
“Moliere is called the father of farce. You get all the misunderstandings and mistaken identities,” said Mike.
“It’s kind of the best of a Shakespearean comedy, but without having to mentally translate from the Elizabethan English. Because the ‘The Miser’ was originally in French, the translations are in clean English, not Elizabethan English,” said Mike.
“So even though it’s a period play, the language we’re dealing with is pretty modern. It’s very, very entertaining.”
Chloë Fidler says the story, which centers around the title character who cares more about his money than the desires of his children, proves that “nothing’s changed in 400 years. If you like ‘Modern Family,’ you’ll like this.”
She thinks the farce is a good fit for the rustic barn venue and that the front-of-house experience is part of what’s important for them to deliver.
“The [Isham] barn is such an amazing space, an exciting space that can be transformed into anything.
“We hope people will come and have a picnic, get their picture taken with the wigs,” said Chloë.
Vermont Repertory Theatre was founded in 2023, and the nonprofit is formally based in Williston. Of nine board members, five are Williston residents. Besides the Fidlers, that includes Helen Weston, who
developed the Isham Farm Barn into a performance venue.
“What Helen’s been trying to do at the barn I found very inspiring from the start. That was very much hand in hand with beginning this whole enterprise,” said Mike.
Chris Ziter, who plays the lead role of Harpagon in “The Miser,” is also a Williston resident. A native Vermonter, Ziter spent part of his childhood in Williston, then returned with his family in 2010.
Ziter describes his character as a “cranky old, miserly fellow who’s just hyper-focused on his money.”
“A lot of the action and
situational comedy happens around his decisions and his antics,” said Ziter.
In addition to acting a role, Ziter composed music for three numbers that are part of Vermont Rep’s version of the play.
Ziter was involved in theater throughout his high school and college years, but after college focused on his music. After graduating from UVM, he and some friends formed a band that toured for several years.
Now with a day job in digital marketing, Ziter is more interested in writing music for musicals or plays that need music than in writing for a band
anymore. “As you get older touring isn’t as easy it was,” he said.
“I’ve really enjoyed in this post-COVID era getting back into theater. It has an incredibly social aspect. I do digital marketing as my day job, but it’s all done at home. So getting out in the evenings for rehearsals and ultimately shows, it’s been a great re-emergence from the COVID period,” said Ziter.
An impetus for the formation of Vermont Repertory was Mike Fidler’s belief that there was space for a new organization that focused on slightly different things than other local theater companies.
Given a background in highend theater and event productions in the UK, Mike envisioned a company with a focus on production values, on creating the opportunity to bring out the talents of those who are behind the scenes, to optimize design, lighting, costumes and stage sets.
With their passion for visual
stage in June
Connor Kendall as Cleante; Christopher Ziter as Harpagon; and Hannah Normadeau as Elise in the upcoming production of Molier’s “The Miser,” being performed by the Vermont Repertory Theatre at the Isham Farm Barn in Williston on June 11-14.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY OWEN LEAVEY
Around Town
Beaver documentary gets repeat showing at DAML
Due to high community interest, Williston resident Jim Heltz’s documentary film “New Neighbors: The Beavers of Allen Brook” will have a second screening followed by a discussion at the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library on Saturday, May 24 at noon.
The 29-minute film on the Allen Brook beavers highlights the origin of the species in the Eocene period, their effect on the landscape and the need for them amidst the climate crisis we face today. Heltz is also hosting several screenings across Vermont during the summer. The documentary will air on the Maine PBS station in mid-June.
Library Friends seek donations, volunteers for book sale
The Friends of the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library will hold their annual book sale fundraiser on Thursday, July 3 from 4-6 p.m. and Friday, July 4 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at Williston Central School.
Book donations for the sale will be accepted at the library starting June 2 on weekdays from noon-2 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-7 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Donations are limited to three boxes per person per day.
Needed are hardcover and paperback books, children/young adult books, reference or travel books that are less than 5 years old and foreign language books. Please no dictionaries, textbooks, magazines, music CDs, sheet
music, maps, puzzles, games or software manuals. Donations will be screened by a member of the staff or a volunteer and any unacceptable items will be returned.
Also, starting on June 2, people can sign up to volunteer at the book sale on a sign-up sheet at the library or by calling the library at 802-878-4916 or emailing daml@damlvt. org. Volunteers are needed to set up tables, transport books, check out patrons and break down the sale. Volunteers get early access to shop the sale on July 3.
Rotary to host Williston CVU student speaker
Clay Nicholson, a CVU junior from Williston and captain of the school’s robotics team, will be the guest speaker at the Thursday, May 29 breakfast meeting of the Williston-Richmond Rotary Club. Nicholson was awarded top honors at the 2025 Vermont Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Fair in March, earning a trip earlier this month to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, a gathering of 1800 students from 75 countries, in Columbus, Ohio.
The meeting will take place at 7:15 a.m. Thursday, May 29. If
interested in joining in person or via Zoom, email RotaryClubofWillistonVT@gmail.com for details.
Green Up Day haul tops previous years
The Williston Planning Department announced that over 400 community members contributed to Green Up Day efforts this year. Volunteers collected 3.13 tons of trash and recycling from Williston’s roadsides, exceeding the 2.47 tons picked up in 2024 and 1.79 tons in 2023.
Spring birding event this Saturday at Catamount
Green Mountain Audubon invites community members to enjoy the return of migrating birds on a walk at the Catamount Community Forest, Saturday, May 24 from 7:30-9:30 a.m. The wide variety of habitats found in the town’s forest provide birders the opportunity to observe a diversity of species. The songs of brightly colored warblers in their finest breeding plumage promise to make this an enjoyable morning for all. Participation for this free event is limited and advance registration is required at: www.greenmountainaudubon.org/events.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
EMAIL EVENT LISTINGS TO EDITOR@WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
SATURDAY, MAY 24
“New Neighbors: The Beavers of Allen Brook” film and talk ♦ 12–1 p.m. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. Filmmaker and Williston resident Jim Heltz presents his new documentary. Bird walk with Green Mountain Audubon ♦ 7:30-9:30 a.m. Catamount Community Forest. Preregistration required at greenmountainaudubon.org/ events.
MONDAY, MAY 26
Memorial Day Observance ♦ 9 a.m. Williston War Memorial between Town Hall and Town Hall Annex. Remarks, music, reading of names to honor deceased veterans. Followed by refreshments. Hosted by WillistonRichmond Rotary Club.
TUESDAY, MAY 27
Development Review Board meeting ♦ 7 p.m. Town Hall Meeting Room. Agenda and Zoom instructions at town.williston.vt.us
THURSDAY, MAY 29
Williston-Richmond Rotary Club breakfast and speaker ♦ 7:15 a.m. Clay Nicholson, captain of CVU robotics team, speaks about STEM experiences. Williston Federated Church. RSVP to RotaryClubofWillistonVT@gmail.com.
SATURDAY, MAY 31
Bird walk with VT Master Naturalist Terry Marron ♦ 8-10 a.m. Catamount Community Forest. Preregistration required at www.damlvt.org.
Kids Fest Rescheduled ♦ 12-2 p.m. Family-friendly activities and food at Village Community Park. First 100 families receive a free kite to decorate and fly.
Local filmmaker Jim Heltz addresses a full house at the April 5 screening of his new beaver documentary at Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. A second Williston showing is scheduled for May 24 at noon.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Fire destroys South Road home
A single-family home at 3020 South Road in Williston was consumed by fire in the early hours of Sunday. Williston firefighters responded to the scene at 4:22 a.m. after a caller on Oak Hill Road reported a large fire. They arrived to find fire involvement throughout all floors of the home.
Given the size of the blaze, several area departments joined the response, including the Hinesburg, Richmond, South Burlington, Essex Town, Essex Junction, Jericho/Underhill and
Vermont Air Guard Fire departments, as well as Richmond Rescue and Williston Police.
Although firefighters acted swiftly to control the fire, the structure was a total loss.
“Our teams demonstrated exceptional coordination and efficiency this morning,” said Lt. Tony Simanskas of the Williston Fire Department. “Their rapid actions ensured the fire was suppressed as quickly as possible.”
There were no reported injuries. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Hazardous chemical spill causes temporary road closure
Avenue D in Williston was closed to traffic for several hours on Monday as the Williston Fire Department worked to manage a hazardous materials incident at BSP Transportation, located at 245 Avenue D.
Arriving at the scene, firefighting crews discovered a 53-foot tractor-trailer leaking a reactive liquid into the roadway. Approximately 55 gallons of a chemical, later confirmed to be a corrosive oxidizing liquid, had leaked from a drum that failed during offloading.
Firefighters quickly donned protective breathing apparatus and structural firefighting gear to isolate the spill and began search and evacuation operations within the BSP terminal.
After ensuring all employees were accounted for, responders worked with company representatives to identify the leaking substance. Due to multiple chemicals on board, the Vermont Hazardous Materials Response Team was called to assist. A safety perimeter was established to protect bystanders, and containment measures were implemented to prevent the substance from entering the stormwater system.
The HazMat team, wearing specialized chemical-resistant protective gear, neutralized the
spill using advanced mitigation techniques. They were supported by the Vermont Urban Search and Rescue Team, who aided in the retrieval of neutralizing supplies.
Avenue D was closed for more than five hours with traffic control assistance from the Williston Police and Public Works Departments. The scene was turned over to the property owner around 5:30 p.m., and BSP staff coordinated with a
private contractor to complete the cleanup.
The Williston Fire Department reminds the public to observe road closure signs and traffic control devices. These measures are in place for everyone’s safety. During this incident, a member of the public disregarded road closure barriers, driving through the active scene and contaminated area — highlighting the need for greater public compliance.
Williston Fire Department crews don protective gear to manage a hazardous chemical spill that shut down Avenue D on Monday.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Firefighters were unable to save this home, above, on South Road, finding it fully ablaze upon their arrival. Williston Fire Department vehicles on South Road early Sunday, left.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE WILLISTON FIRE DEPARTMENT
Sen. Bernie Sanders raises alarm on cost of health care in Vermont and nationwide
BY OLIVIA GIEGER VTDigger
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joined a group of state legislators, health care officials and advocates in Burlington Monday morning to raise the alarm on what they called Vermont’s health care affordability crisis.
“Everyone knows that our health care system, nationally and in the state of Vermont, is broken. It is dysfunctional, and it is wildly expensive,” Sanders said.
The press conference at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport was set against the backdrop of Congress’s attempts to push through a mega spending bill that is expected to include work requirements for Medicaid recipients and limit the extent to which state governments can use health care provider taxes to cover their portion of Medicaid funding.
Back at home, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont sits in financial jeopardy, having lost $152 million over the past three years. The nonprofit insurer has asked the Green Mountain Care Board to approve double-digit percentage increases to the premiums of plans sold in 2026 on the Vermont Health Connect — the state-run federal Affordable Care Act marketplace.
“I’m not sure how anybody is going to be able to afford that,” Sanders said.
While he did not touch on the
specifics of how the state or federal governments can support the state’s only Vermont-based health insurer and protect it from insolvency, Sanders outlined areas where he thinks further investment can lead to lower health care costs for Vermont in the long term. Those included expansions of primary health care facilities and of nursing education programs that allow the state to rely less on traveling nurses, as well as increased support for home health care and nursing homes. He cited efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs as a key area that can lower
costs for hospitals, and thus, reduce the costs that get passed onto insurers and individuals.
All of this falls under a need for a broader cultural change, Sanders said, from a health care system that is focused on profit to one that supports health care as a human right.
“It’s a culture that says (if) we want people to stay in Vermont, we’re going to work day and night to lower the cost of health care, provide health care to all of our people. It’s a different culture,” Sanders said. “We’ve got to radically reorient our priorities.”
Lisa Ventriss, co-chair of the newly formed advocacy group Vermont Health Care 911, put a finer point on it at the press conference: She suggested that shifting spending to patient care, rather than to administration or management, would open up “ample room for savings in Vermont,” while curbing the “gobsmacking” premium rate hikes the state has seen.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, and Rep. Alyssa Black, D-Essex Town, who chair the health care committees in their respective chambers, also touted the bills that lawmakers are
trying to pass this session to reduce health care costs in Vermont.
Namely, the legislators highlighted S.162, which seeks to keep hospital charges in line with Medicare reimbursement rates (called “reference pricing”), and H.482, which would give the Green Mountain Care Board the ability to lower reimbursement rates paid to health care providers by an insurer in danger of insolvency.
“We’re saving our Blue Cross and Blue Shield domestic insurer from insolvency. We’re stabilizing access to primary care, family medicine,” Lyons said. “We are now working to allow people to access food, rent and health care without having to make choices for one over the other.”
Still, progress at the state level is quickly dwarfed by the potential threat of federal changes to Medicaid. Most worrisome, Black added in an interview following the press conference, is the threat from President Donald Trump’s administration to undo the socalled 1115 waiver program. That waiver gives states the ability to cover services beyond what federal statute outlines as required coverage under Medicaid. Vermont has become a particular leader on finding innovative ways to use this waiver.
“It’s a huge amount of our Medicaid spending,” Black said.
Sanders said he and Senate Democrats are trying to do “everything that we possibly can, in every possible way, to defeat this awful piece of legislation,” with regard to the spending bill’s impact on Medicaid in Vermont.
He called the congressional bill a “Robin Hood proposal in reverse.”
“You take from the poor and you give to the very rich. This is a disastrous piece of legislation, we’ve got to defeat,” he explained. The real solution, he suggested, is guaranteed health care for all, but for now he lauded the state’s efforts in “trying to begin to address this crisis.”
“What we’re doing today is trying, at least to develop a sense of urgency in the state of Vermont. The status quo cannot continue. It is failing — failing small business. It’s failing patients. It’s failing everyone,” Sanders said.
Senator Bernie Sanders held a press conference alongside Vermont healthcare leaders on May 19 to advocate for programs and policy to make healthcare more affordable in the state.
PHOTO BY OLIVIA GIEGER/VTDIGGER
Deaths from opioid overdose declined significantly in 2024
Data shows first sustained annual decrease since 2019
New data from the Vermont Department of Health shows a significant decline in opioid overdose deaths last year. According to the newly released Fatal Opioid Overdoses Among Vermonters Report, 183 Vermonters died from an opioid-related overdose in 2024, a 22% decrease from 2023 when 236 people died. This marks the second consecutive year of a decline in overdose deaths, after a slight drop in 2023.
“We’re grateful to see this decline,” said Health Department Deputy Commissioner Kelly Dougherty, who oversees Vermont’s substance use programs. “At the same time, people are still dying due to opioid overdose, and we must not forget the lasting impact these losses have on families and communities. We must continue strengthening our partnerships and systems of care to respond to these challenges.”
While fatal overdoses involving fentanyl decreased by 25% between 2022 and 2024, fentanyl continues to be the number one substance involved in opioid-related deaths, accounting for 93% of opioid fatalities in 2024. Cocaine involvement in deaths increased significantly – from 60% in 2023 to 70% in 2024 – and remains the second most common
drug involved in fatal overdoses. Xylazine was involved in 42% of fatal overdoses in 2024, up from 32% in 2023.
Vermont last saw a significant decrease in opioid fatalities in 2019, when 115 people died, down from 131 in 2018. However, the COVID-19 pandemic increased many risks related to substance use disorder, including isolation, unemployment and health disparities, leading to record numbers of deaths —244 in 2022 alone. The 2024 decrease also aligns with national trends: on May 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a nearly 27% decline in U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024, the steepest such drop since 2020.
While the factors contributing to this decline are complex, public health efforts that support prevention, treatment and recovery are helping save lives. This includes strategies such as offering fentanyl test strips and the statewide naloxone distribution program, which helps ensure people have access to life-saving medication. The Health Department distributed more than 70,000 doses of naloxone to community partners in 2024.
The Health Department said the new overdose data reflects the work of a vast network of partners across the state to expand access to community-level prevention, recovery and treatment
services, including through the hub-and-spoke system of care and its strong foundation among Vermont’s primary care providers. While there is still more work to be done, Health officials thanked primary care providers, other clinical providers, syringe services providers, recovery resources, public safety and EMS responders and other health care partners for their vital role in this work.
Officials also emphasized that outreach and resources remain critical through campaigns such as KnowOD (healthvermont.gov), and VTHelplink (vthelplink.org), a free and confidential support and referral service, available 24/7.
“Vermont’s communities know the lasting toll the opioid epidemic has taken in our state,” Interim Health Commissioner Julie Arel said. “Seeing this decline in overdose deaths is heartening, but we can’t take our foot off the gas. We must continue to make our systems of prevention, treatment and recovery stronger so that we can meet the needs of people struggling with substance use disorder and build safer, healthier communities for all.”
The 2024 Fatal Opioid Overdoses Among Vermonters Report can be read on the Vermont Department of Health website at healthvermont.gov.
GUEST COLUMN
Abundance in my backyard
BY BEN KINSLEY
I read Miro Weinberger’s recent opinion editorial “A future of building abundance” (Observer, May 1, 2025) with excitement. I too recently finished reading Ezra Klein’s new book, “Abundance,” and its relevance to Vermont is unquestionable.
Klein points to the “politics of scarcity” that we have fallen into over the past few decades. It’s a mindset where resources are limited and political debates revolve around who should get those limited resources. It’s akin to dividing up a pie and trying to decide who should or should not get a slice, instead of growing the pie so everyone can participate.
Klein is not talking about raising taxes here, he’s talking about growing the economic base, growing our housing base, and growing our clean energy base. In one of the examples he provided for this, he pointed to the decline in housing production in California after passing statewide zoning and land use regulations that enabled NIMBYs (not in my back yarders) to control where housing was (not) developed. Nearly every other state passed California in housing production in the decades that followed, housing
prices rose rapidly, and homelessness followed.
As Weinberger points out, “he could be talking about Vermont’s housing shortage. Because we’ve created a system that makes it incredibly hard to build the homes we need. Our state faces a critical housing shortage, yet the pathways to create more homes are gauntlets of redundant state and local rules, costly government mandates and a permit appeals system that enables obstructionists.”
We have become better at stopping things from being built than actually building them. Klein contrasted this with China, a country that seems to have an insatiable appetite for building things and the political will to make it happen. The US used to be like that, but somewhere along the way we lost it.
Vermont is a microcosm of
this. Perhaps it was the hippies who moved here in the 60s, or the old guard trying to keep the flatlanders out, or the flatlanders trying to close the door behind them, but whatever the reason, our state is more obstructionist, protectionist, and NIMBY than most.
If we don’t reject a scarcity mindset, the consequences are clear. As Weinberger calls out, “The alternative is a Vermont that becomes increasingly unaffordable, where only the wealthy or those receiving aid can live, where our schools continue to empty, where our rural communities are hollowed out, where our workforce shortage worsens, and where more Vermonters find themselves without homes.”
Maintaining policies that don’t allow the middle class to survive will turn Vermont into
Questions for our “nonprofit” healthcare system governing
BY BILL SCHUBART
As healthcare costs in Vermont gobble up more and more expendable resources needed for housing, education, property tax abatement etc., it’s time to ask hard questions and hold providers and their governing boards ethically and legally accountable for honest answers and transparency instead of further mission-failure and PR psychobabble.
Key to understanding the current healthcare crisis today is its history. Established in 2011, the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN), formerly called Fletcher-Allen Partners, by 2018 had acquired three New York hospitals and two more Vermont hospitals, Central VT Medical Center in Berlin and Porter Hospital in Middlebury, and also the former Chittenden/Franklin County Visiting Nurse Assoc. (VNA).
It’s important to understand that UVMHN is not a hospital but rather a lucrative healthcare business aggregator acquiring and running hospitals and healthcare service institutions to expand market share. The stated goal was, through collaboration and cost-efficiencies across the network, to lower costs, improve access, and enhance the service quality. But what has emerged from all this is a bloated monopoly that has skyrocketed healthcare costs and reduced access for Vermonters and Vermont businesses, while failing to achieve “cost efficiencies.”
Latest available 2019 data from PubMed, a division of the National Institutes of Health, shows $584 million worth of annual waste embedded in UVMMC on the administrative and management side and a total of $1.038 billion in waste across all Vermont hospitals. So much for systemic cost-efficiencies.
Vermont healthcare employees fall into two groups: hands-on healthcare providers (clinical) and system managers and administrators (overhead). When the $1.9 billion budget of UVM Medical Center (UVMMC) is broken into these two categories, it ranks among the worst ratios of any of the similar-sized academic medical
centers in the country. A 2023 analysis of federal data by Rees Partners, LLC, showed UVMMC’s ratio of clinical care to admin/ management to be 1.38 against a 2.30 mean among 44 comparable academic medical centers, or 40% worse than the mean.
While Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBS-VT) teeters on the brink of insolvency with less than two weeks of cash reserves to pay claims, UVMMC charges to all commercial insurers rose by
Many Vermonters concerned about the runaway costs of healthcare in Vermont… have come together to form a coalition to suggest ways to make our healthcare infrastructure affordable, accessible, and sustainable while retaining service quality.
$400 million in FY 2024 – 74% of which were BCBS-VT claims. In the recent court settlement of a suit brought by the UVMMC against our state regulator, the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB), the plaintiff agreed to offer $12 million back to the BCBS-VT, adding insult to injury. On May 15, BCBS-VT filed a rate increase request with the GMCB of 23.3% in the individual market and 13.7% in the small group market, increases needed to survive the ongoing overbilling.
Meanwhile, UVMMC lost $119.5 million on Medicare reimbursements in FY2022 while 82 of 106 comparable academic medical center peers broke even or earned positive margins from Medicare. The average annual net profit in this group was $5 million. Over the past 10 years, UVMMC
has lost an average of $54.5 million a year caring for Medicare patients.
The latest analysis by Rees Partners of 2018 & 2019 audits by Price Waterhouse Coopers and in 2020 to 2024 by Ernst & Young found “board-designated” and “board-restricted” funds in 2018 of $897,484, escalating 220% to $1,942,529 in 2024. The UVMHN Board owes us an explanation of what the “terms and conditions” are for actually using these funds to provide healthcare to Vermonters rather than squirreling money away from accounting scrutiny.
We must be clear that the declining number of healthcare professionals in the system work tirelessly to care for and help heal and control pain among those suffering adverse health events. MDs and nurses (RNs & LPNs), physician assistants (PAs), techs, mental-health counselors, addiction specialists, primary-care docs, hospitalists and specialists for the most part work in the system because they believe in the goal of universal healthcare for all, even as our country doesn’t. These “better angels” of the system deserve better. Non-specialists are generally under-compensated for their professions. Many techs, nurses and PAs can’t afford to live in the communities they serve and leave either by choice or necessity. The term we often hear is “moral injury,” meaning that the lofty goal of caring for those needing help is confounded by the system in which one works.
By regulation, all Vermont hospitals must be nonprofit. Nonprofit board governance is legally and ethically accountable for its institution’s delivery-on-mission, as well as its ethical and financial integrity. The president serves solely at the will of the board, which must hold him or her accountable in an annual performance review. The board is also accountable for compensation and benefits. Is $2+ million including bonus and benefits the appropriate compensation for the president of an institution whose climbing costs and declining access are a matter of record and whose quality was just downgraded by Medicare because of an increase in hospital-acquired infections, though these are not reflective of the quality of care but
rather of poor facility hygiene.
Given the dire financial numbers cited above, it’s a stretch to assume that the governing boards of our healthcare institutions are doing their jobs according to the rule of law.
Isn’t it time to hold the intermingled governing boards of our UVMHN hospitals to ethical and legal account for their own governance failures? Here are their names: UVMHN Board. UVMMC Board.
Many Vermonters concerned about the runaway costs of
healthcare in Vermont and how those costs have put healthcare insurers at grave risk or simply caused them to leave the Vermont market have come together to form a coalition to suggest ways to make our healthcare infrastructure affordable, accessible, and sustainable while retaining service quality. Made up of business and nonprofit leaders, a former governor and president of the Vermont Business Roundtable, four statewide service unions, AARPVT and Vermont Businesses for see HEALTHCARE page 8
Farce
continued from page 1
theater, “we’re creating budgets for designers to show what they can do,” said Mike.
“We are very lucky to have Lyn Feinson, VP of product design and development at Darn Tough Vermont, as our costume designer and maker. Lyn is also on our board,” said Chloë. Feinson has designed all of the Vermont Repertory’s costumes to date.
Possibly the most challenging and complex prop so far, the transforming barber’s chair for “Sweeney Todd,” was made by Paul Ledak from Williston from a single oak plank.
Vermont Repertory’s production of “Sweeney Todd” last February and March has been their most successful to date, having sold out all performances at
Main Street Landing in Burlington.
The choice to stage “The Miser” now is in part to create a balanced season. “‘Sweeney Todd’ is so dark. ‘The Miser’ is funny, frivolous, colorful...,” said Chloë.
Mike, too, noted that their success with prior shows has given them confidence to put on a play that might not automatically sell itself the way better known shows would.
In addition to “Sweeney Todd,” past Vermont Repertory productions have included favorites “Spamalot,” “The Comedy of Errors” and “The Tempest.”
“When we first started Vermont Rep I wanted to do ‘The Miser,’ but we thought that we had to wait until we could get enough of a reputation where people might come to see a 400-year-old play they’ve never heard of,” said Mike.
Abundance
continued from page 6
a playground for the wealthy, with the working class barely hanging on. It’s a system of haves and have-nots.
We still have time to avoid this dystopian future, but we need to act now.
“Affordable” housing projects costing $500 per square foot will not get us there. One out of every four renters paying more than half their income on rent will not get us there. A housing market without starter homes will not get us there.
There are a number of policy decisions we can make to expedite housing development, manage costs and reduce roadblocks. Policymakers are coming around to some of them and we should keep up the pressure. But there are also things we can do as individuals. Be an agent of change, be a yes-in-my-backyarder (YIMBY). Show up
Heathcare
continued from page 7
Social Responsibility, Vermont Health Care 911 was formed and is working across party lines to achieve these shared goals.
In deference to the “common good,” nonprofits are not required to pay taxes and donors to their causes can deduct their contributions. Were the combined retained earnings of UVMMC and UVMHN taxed, what would that contribute to Vermont’s stressed budget? Were the vast Burlington property holdings of these institutions taxable as properties in Chittenden County, how much would that revenue contribute towards the creation of affordable housing for those who work there?
Having chaired 13 statewide Vermont organizations in my long lifetime, including Fletcher-Allen Health Care two decades
to that local planning meeting and voice support for that new housing project in town, you know the NIMBYs will be there to oppose it.
An affordable housing developer shared a story about a project in Middlebury where, in a public hearing, an old lady who lived across the street stood up told the room that the project should be an additional story taller, exclaiming “we’re in the middle of a housing crisis you know!” We should all be like that woman.
The politics of NIMBYism leads to scarcity; we know that now. Our housing crisis is something we created. We can do better.
Ben Kinsley is executive director of Campaign for Vermont Prosperity (CFV), a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to the vision of a more prosperous Vermont and growing middle class.
ago, shortly after the president of the hospital was charged with “lying to its regulator, BISHCA” (now the Dept. of Financial Regulation), and who was then remanded to two years in a federal prison, I wonder if it’s time for a thorough audit of our leading medical institution by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and/or the Vermont State Auditor. Remember, the difference between a nonprofit organization and a business, simply put, is delivery-on-mission rather than lucrative business expansion.
We must ask these questions, but more importantly, the boards of these institutions must ask these questions, and we must hold them accountable.
Bill Schubart, former chair of the VT Business Roundtable and FletcherAllen Health Care, is a current board member Vermont Health Care 911.
A scene from Vermont Repertory Theatre’s production of “Spamalot” last summer at the Isham Farm Barn.
Turtles on the roadway need your help
Drivers should be alert, especially near ponds and wetlands
Vermont’s turtles are on the move, and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking for the public’s help in keeping them safe.
Female turtles will soon be looking for places to lay their eggs, and they sometimes choose inconvenient or dangerous locations. For example, turtles often lay eggs in gravel parking lots and driveways and along road shoulders, which puts them at risk of being hit by motor vehicles.
“Turtles commonly cross roads as they move to nesting sites and summer foraging habitats,” said Luke Groff, biologist for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. “Many of the turtles killed on roads are mature breeding females, so not only is the female taken from the population but so are her future
offspring. Turtles grow slowly and females of some species may not reproduce until 10 or even 17 years old. So, for small, isolated populations, the loss of mature breeding females may have population-level effects.”
Turtle nesting activity peaks between late May and June, and drivers are urged to keep an eye out for turtles on the road – especially when driving near ponds, rivers and wetlands.
“Turtles are usually slow to move, so they have a tough time safely crossing roads. If you spot a turtle on the road, please consider helping it across but be sure you’re in a safe spot to pull over and get out of your car. Human safety comes first,” said Groff. “If you’re going to move a turtle off the road, always move it in the direction it was traveling. They know where they’re going.”
Most turtles can be picked up and carried across the
road. However, snapping turtles have long necks and a powerful bite, so people should be alert and know what the species looks
like. If the turtle is large or if it lacks colorful lines, spots, or other markings, then it may be a snapper. Instead of picking up
snappers with your hands, try gently lifting them with a shovel or pulling them across the road on cardboard or a car floor mat.
Turtles, like this painted turtle, are on the move and may be encountered on roads. Drivers are urged to keep an eye out for them and, if safe to do so, help them cross the road.
VERMONT FISH & WILDLIFE PHOTO BY LUKE GROFF
GREEN
THINKING SUSTAINABLY • ACTING RESPONSIBLY
Combating plastic waste at the source
Innovative alternatives to single-use plastics
BY REED PARKER Williston Energy Committee
On May 3, hundreds of Williston residents gathered on Green Up Day to clean the roadsides of our beautiful town. This was a monumental effort, resulting in over three tons of trash being collected just here in Williston. What struck me about the trash was how little recyclable material was on the roadside. There were few returnable cans and bottles and little metal or cardboard. It was all plastic and primarily single use, non-recyclable plastic used for packaging food.
Plastic waste is one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century. With over 400 million tons of plastic produced annually worldwide — half of which is designed for single use — landfills, oceans and ecosystems are overwhelmed by plastic pollution. The convenience of single-use plastics like straws, bags, cutlery and packaging comes at a steep environmental cost: These items can take hundreds of years to decompose and often break down into harmful microplastics. In response, innovators, industries worldwide and forward-thinking governments are mobilizing to find and implement sustainable alternatives that can help curb this global crisis.
BIODEGRADABLE AND COMPOSTABLE NON-PLASTICS
One of the most active areas of research and development focuses on biodegradable and compostable non-plastics made from renewable resources. Unlike traditional plastics derived from petroleum, these alternatives are designed to break down naturally in industrial or even home composting environments.
Polylactic Acid (PLA) is one such material, derived from cornstarch or sugarcane. PLA is widely used in food packaging, disposable tableware and 3D printing. Companies like NatureWorks (NatureWorksllc.com), one of the world’s leading producers of PLA, have been supplying this material to businesses across sectors. Similarly, Novamont (Novamont. com) in Italy has developed Mater-Bi, a family of biodegradable plastics used in compostable bags, catering products and agricultural films.
PetNPet (petnpet.us), a manufacturer of pet waste bags and related items (which we use for
our dog), states that their pet bags break down naturally in a composting environment and meet international standards (ASTM) for compostability.
Based in Vermont, Bee’s Wrap (beeswrap.com) makes food wrap which is made from beeswax. These products replace plastic wrap and are easily reusable by gently washing them in cool water and mild soap.
There are still challenges to compostable non-plastics, which require specific composting conditions to break down and may not always degrade effectively in landfills or natural environments. We have seen this locally as Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD) is no longer accepting non-plastic compostable tableware in the compost stream. To solve the problem of effective composting, a greater focus needs to be made on not just material innovation but also waste management infrastructure.
EDIBLE PACKAGING - HAVE YOUR SPOON AND EAT IT TOO
Pushing the boundaries of sustainability, companies and researchers are creating edible packaging — products made from materials like seaweed, rice, or starch that can be consumed or biodegrade harmlessly. Evoware (rethink-plastic.com), a startup based in Indonesia, uses seaweed to make sachets and wraps for food and personal care products. These products not only reduce waste but also support seaweed farmers and marine biodiversity. Similarly, Notpla, (notpla. com), a UK-based startup, has created seaweed-based pods and films for liquids. These have been used for water and sauce pouches at events like the London Marathon, replacing plastic bottles and sachets.
Bee’s Wrap is a food wrap product that was created to take the place of plastic wrap and sandwich bags. Each wrap is made from organic cotton coated with responsibly sourced beeswax, organic plant oil, and tree resin. This combination of ingredients creates a malleable food wrap that can be used again and again. COURTESY PHOTO
REUSABLE AND DURABLE ALTERNATIVES
The push to eliminate single-use plastics also includes a revival of reusable materials. Stainless steel, glass, silicone and bamboo are being used to create reusable straws, food containers, water bottles and bags. Replacing single use water bottles is critical as currently an estimated 600 billion are produced annually, a vast majority of which end up in the trash. With almost everyone carrying a refillable bottle now, we should be able to significantly reduce the use of single use plastic water bottles.
Retailers and food chains are responding to growing consumer demand. Some coffee chains, including Starbucks, offer discounts for customers who bring reusable mugs. Keurig, which revolutionized the way we make coffee, are responsible for producing billions of single-use K-Cups each year that are difficult to recycle. As an alternative, you can purchase reusable K-Cups and compostable paper filters and fill them with your choice of coffee. As a coffee drinker, I switched to this method two years ago, avoiding the purchase of well over 500 K-Cups per year.
POLICY AND INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Government policies are playing a crucial role in accelerating the shift away from single-use plastics. The European Union has banned a range of single-use plastic items including straws, cutlery and polystyrene food containers. In the U.S., states
GREEN
including Vermont, California and New York have enacted bans on plastic bags, and Canada implemented a federal ban on several single-use plastics in 2022.
Industry giants such as Unilever and PepsiCo initially supported the concept of making all their plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. As completely effective recycling and composting still need significant work, these goals have been pushed out a few years.
Green tips
Tea
with plastic?
Some people enjoy their tea with milk, others will lemon or honey. Most probably aren’t expecting their cup to come with a dose of microplastics.
The quest to avoid using – or consuming – plastic needs to include one’s choice of tea.
A recent study found that tea bags can leach plastic into the cup while tea steeps due to the presence of plastic in tea bag material or sealants. This includes some higher end brands offering “silken” pyramid tea bags that are made of plastic.
To avoid plastic in your tea water you can use loose leaf tea in a metal tea strainer. You can also seek out tea brands that use no plastic in their tea bags. Bigelow Tea bags and Republic of Tea sachets are two widely available brands that re port they use no plastic.
the next few years before moving on to soft (film) plastics later.
THE ROAD AHEAD
While no single solution will eliminate
plastic waste overnight, the combined momentum of innovation, policy and consumer behavior is generating real progress. As alternatives to single-use plastics become more viable, affordable and widespread, society moves closer to a circular economy — one that values durability, resource efficiency and environmental stewardship. What is most important is that we all think about the way in which we use and dispose of plastic. Before throwing away a plastic product, ask yourself, “Is it Recyclable?” and if not, “Why Not?” In our area, please investigate the plastic recycling options at CSWD.net. Let’s all make Green Up Day 2026 a little easier by never disposing of plastic on our roadsides.
To participate in Williston’s energy future, reach out to your Williston Energy Committee at energy@willistonvt. org or attend a public meeting held on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. The agenda for upcoming meetings is posted on the Town of Williston website (www.town.williston. vt.us). For more information, visit: https:// www.willistonvtenergycommittee.org.
They are now targeting hard plastics for
Looking at the results of Williston’s Green Up Day efforts this year, it seemed to mostly consist of non-recyclable materials. OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
Dead trees keep surprisingly large amounts of carbon out of atmosphere
New research from UVM suggests that fallen logs in streams are unsung climate heroes, locking up heretofore-unrecognized stores of climate-warming carbon.
Living trees absorb carbon, aiding climate change mitigation. But what role do dead trees play in carbon storage? UVM researchers found that large, downed trees in streams tie up tremendous stores of carbon— and this pool of carbon storage is growing over time. Moreover, large trees in streamside forests proved important for recruiting carbon into streams over time— reflecting the environmental value of big, old trees.
“We know that about 20% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions come from land use and deforestation,” University of Vermont professor and study author Dr. William Keeton said, “but we can also use forests and other land cover as what we call a
natural climate solution—finding ways to sequester and store more carbon in vegetation.” Keeton had long suspected that water-bound wood in old-growth forests was surely storing carbon—but how much? Turns out, quite a lot.
“Old-growth forests stored four to five times more carbon in the wood lying in the streams than mature forests did,” said lead author and University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources graduate student Stephen Peters-Collaer. “And in mature forests, this in-stream, dead-wood carbon pool is about 50 to 60% larger than that stored in downed wood in an area of equivalent size on the forest floor.”
He noted that although upland streams take up less space than land in forests, by focusing on large pieces of wood in streams, the study, published in the journal Ecosystems, found a key missing
piece of the carbon-storage calculation in these ecosystems—one that hadn’t been measured before.
“One of the reasons that we were interested in this question is
because there’s been increasing realization in recent years that wood in streams, lakes and other aquatic systems stores carbon, but that carbon storage wasn’t
well-quantified,” Peters-Collaer, a Gund Institute for Environment Graduate Fellow, said.
The field sites, which had
Dead wood in streams has been found to lock up significant, previously unrecognized stores of climate-warming carbon.
PHOTO BY UVM PROFESSOR BILL KEETON see CARBON page 13
established research histories that provided extensive context for their data, were Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, and old-growth forests in the Adirondack State Park of New York Keeton has studied for years.
Large fallen logs and branches can be significant carbon sinks, Keeton said, because their lower surface-area-to-volume ratio leaves less access for decomposing agents to break down the wood, especially when submerged, so they release stored carbon more slowly. Such logs can also fully span small upland streams, Keeton added, forming persistent dams, accumulating ever more wood and other organic materials, and compounding their carbon-banking effect.
While headwater streams are often relatively small and narrow, they account for 70% of total river miles—and their upland location leaves them typically undeveloped, Peters-Collaer said.
Taken together, these factors mean these carbon-hoarding soggy logs might be a significant carbon sink. Yet researchers had no idea how much carbon this stream-bound wood might be holding onto, or how it might vary between mature and oldgrowth forests, Peters-Collaer noted.
In part, Keeton muses, this is because “scientists will often study either the streams or the forest, but not both, or they won’t look at the relationships between them.” This is a relationship that is constantly changing, Keeton emphasized. “The connection between stream and forest is not static but dynamic. One of our major messages is that we must take a long view, and we must think of these as dynamic systems.”
Researchers, joined by UVM undergraduate field crews, spent three summers tramping a total of 4,500 meters of headwater streams at Hubbard Brook, carefully surveying the wood in streams, measuring their size to calculate the amount of carbon they held, and inventorying the surrounding streamside forests.
“We found that a forest that’s developing toward old-growth condition is accruing more wood in the stream than is being lost through decomposition,” PetersCollaer said. “As long as the wood recruitment rates exceed the loss rates, you have a net increase in total carbon stored. Large trees were especially important in this respect.”
The effect will continue in
“We can… use forests and other land cover as what we call a natural climate solution—finding ways to sequester and store more carbon in vegetation.”
Dr. William Keeton UVM Researcher
coming decades, Keeton said, because many mature New England forests are only about halfway through their long recovery from 19th- and 20th-century clearing
for timber and agriculture. As mature forests like Hubbard Brook approach old age like the Adirondack forests the researchers examined, they’ll continue to suck up and accumulate stored carbon for many decades to come.
“We can expect the carbon pool stored in these forests to increase substantially,” Keeton said. “We’ve quantified a type of carbon storage that had been missing from previous global carbon models—an important part of understanding natural climate solutions.”
The work provides notable insight for Vermont landowners—80% of Vermont’s forested lands are privately owned—who may include carbon storage and natural climate solutions in their land-use plans. This is a valuable aspect of this USDA-funded research, said Keeton: serving Vermonters with valuable knowledge to guide sustainable land management.
“This is something that we’re very proud of—when our work has benefits for the community,” Keeton said. “That’s part of the University of Vermont’s landgrant mission.”
Redhawks taken down by Wolves
CVU’s Baylee Yandow, above, slides into second ahead of the tag during the Redhawks’ 7-6 loss to the South Burlington Wolves May 14 in Hinesburg. Tegan Scruggs, right, lines up her pitch. Below, Mackenzie Yandow gets the start as the ‘Hawks’ pitcher. OBSERVER PHOTOS BY AL FREY
Seven to nought
CVU’s Nolan Sandage, top, Kyle Krieger, above, and Jacob Graham, right, all contributed to the Redhawks’ 7-0 win over the Mount Mansfield Cougars on May 12 in Shelburne.
Double digits
CLOCKWISE (l to r): CVU’s Zoey McNabb concentrates on the two-handed capture during the Redhawks’ 15-3 Ultimate win over the Burr & Burton Bulldogs May 7 in Hinesburg. Avery Antonioli fights off a Burr & Burton defender to make the catch. Kaitlyn Jovell catches the disc while sprinting downfield.
OBSERVER PHOTOS BY ALL FREY
SPORTS
Won by one
CLOCKWISE (l to r): CVU’s John Deyo gets a pitch to hit during the Redhawks’ 4-3 win over the Mount Mansfield Cougars May 1 in Hinesburg. Noah Musgrave catches an infield pop up behind second. Tommy Barnes dives safely back to first. Pitcher Quinn Vincent records a complete game win.
OBSERVER PHOTOS BY AL FREY
When summer is right around the corner, we start dreaming of all the free time we’ll have. Eager readers start making their lists of good books to fill that time!
Let’s dive right into the pool of great new kids’ books on the shelves.
•For children who have experienced being a newcomer in a country, “Outsider Kids” by Betty C. Tang will seem familiar. Three siblings from Taiwan have to overcome language and cultural barriers, plus try to get along with their stuck-up cousin.
•Have you ever played “Ticket To Ride”? Now this popular board game has an adventure-filled book to accompany it. “Ticket To Ride: An Unexpected Journey” by Adrienne Kress tells the story of 12-year-old Teddy, who wins a crosscountry trip on the Excelsior Express — a trip that becomes more than he expected.
•It’s 1939, and 12-year-old Atlas Wade and his father are slated to climb Mount Everest just as World War II is getting underway. In “One Wrong Step,” Jennifer A. Nielsen tells the breathtaking story of how
Mini Fact: Your local librar y has a summer reading program. Check it out!
Atlas and his fellow climbers must survive the extreme conditions and try to save others from a dangerous avalanche.
•If you know about Mark Twain’s book “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” you might remember “Mary-Jane, the red-headed one.” Author Hope Jahren brings Huck’s friend to life in “Adventures of Mary Jane,” as she makes her own trip down the Mississippi River, conquering challenges and adventures along the way.
•Readers who are intrigued with geography and history will sink their teeth into “The Wild River and the Great Dam” by Simon Boughton. The Hoover Dam, finished in 1936, was the biggest engineering success in the country at that time, and it forever changed the landscape in the southwest United States. Boughton’s account also includes the personal side of the dam’s construction.
• “Mawson in Antarctica: To the Ends of the Earth” by Joanna Grochowicz tells the story of the explorer during his harrowing 1912 expedition to the bottom of the Earth.
Words that remind us of summer reading are hidden in this puzzle. Some words are hidden backward, and some letters are used twice. See if you can find:
Award winners
This year’s winner of the John Newbery Medal for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature is “The First State of Being” by Erin Entrada Kelly.
Next Week: Our states: Iowa
The Newbery Honor Books are:
• “Across So Many Seas” by Ruth Behar
• “Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All” by Chanel Miller
• “One Big Open Sky” by Lesa ClineRansome
• “The Wrong Way Home” by Kate O’Shaughessy
The 2025 winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished American picture book for children is “Chooch Helped,” illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz and written by Andrea L. Rogers.
The Caldecott Honor Books are:
• “Home in a Lunchbox,” illustrated and written by Cherry Mo
• “My Daddy Is a Cowboy,” illustrated by C.G. Esperanza and written by Stephanie Seales
• “Noodles on a Bicycle,” illustrated by Gracey Zhang and written by Kyo Maclear
• “Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei,” illustrated by Yuko Shimizu and written by Anita Yasuda
The Coretta Scott King Author Book winner is “Twenty-four Seconds From Now ...” by Jason Reynolds.
The King Illustrator Book winner is “My Daddy Is a Cowboy.”
Ethan: Why does an elephant use her trunk as a bookmark?
Eleanor: Then she nose where she stopped reading!
Founded by Betty Debnam
Try ’n’ Find
Words that remind us of summer reading are hidden in this puzzle. Some words are hidden backward, and some letters are used twice. See if you can find:
The King Illustrator Book winner is “My Daddy Is a Cowboy.”
Mini Jokes
Ethan: Why does an elephant use her trunk as a bookmark?
Eleanor: Then she nose where she stopped reading!
Eco Note
2. Heat bacon in microwave according to package directions. Allow bacon to cool and crumble into small pieces.
3.Stir both cheeses and crumbled bacon into biscuit mixture.
4.Divide dough by 12 spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
5.Bake in 450-degree oven for 10 minutes until golden brown. Serves 6.
7 Little Words for Kids
1.know well (10)
2.you blow them with gum (7)
3.shirt part on your arm (5)
4.you write it for school (6)
5.mom or dad (6)
6.create (6)
7.without end (7)
Use the letters in the boxes to make a word with the same meaning as the clue. The numbers in parentheses represent the number of letters in the solution. Each letter combination can be used only once, but all letter combinations will be necessary to complete the puzzle. Answers: understand, bubbles, sleeve, report, parent, invent, forever.
*You’ll need an adult’s
A new study finds that caribou migration paths have significantly decreased in recent decades, with habitat loss and dwindling populations disrupting routes. A University of British Columbia Okanagan study found that southern mountain caribou herds have shortened their migratory distances, durations and changes in elevation. This is said to be primarily due to landscape disturbances caused by human activities rather than climate shifts.
For later:
Look in your newspaper for notices about library programs scheduled for this summer.
Teachers: Follow and interact with The Mini Page on Facebook!
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
What websites or apps can you recommend to help older people find employment opportunities? I’m 60 and have been out of work for nearly a year now and need help.
Seeking Employment
Dear Seeking,
There are a number of job-search websites and apps specifically tailored to older workers Here are 10 great options that are recommended by U.S. News & World Report for 2025.
AARP Job Board (jobs.aarp.org):
SAVVY SENIOR
Top Job Search Resources for Older Job Seekers
Designed for workers 50 and older, AARP’s job board allows users to search by job title, keyword, company or location. The platform also offers search filters for fulltime, part-time and remote work opportunities. Employers who are part of AARP’s Employer Pledge Program are committed to hiring older workers.
CareerOneStop (careeronestop.org): Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, you can use this site to explore career opportunities, access training programs and jobsearch resources. You’ll also find help looking for a remote job, filling out a job application, getting started as a self-employed person and choosing a path that’s right for your stage in life.
Indeed (indeed.com): One of the largest job search engines in the world, Indeed will help you sift through millions of available positions. You can include a variety of specifications to find a job, including whether you want to work remotely, your salary requirements, preferred location, experience level and education. If you upload your resume, employers can find you as well.
LinkedIn (linkedin.com): If you don’t
have a LinkedIn account, create one to showcase your experience, knowledge and skills. You can gather news and insights related to your industry by looking at what others are posting and share your content as well. The site allows you to conduct job searches and set alerts for new opportunities.
NEW Solutions (newsolutions.org): This site connects professionals aged 55 and older with part-time and full-time positions in government agencies. Users can browse openings by state, apply online and receive guidance through the hiring process.
Rent A Grandma (rentagrandma.com):
If you want to work as a nanny, chef, domestic staff or pet care provider, this site is a great resource, but they do charge a $25 registration fee. It also offers opportunities for tutors and personal assistants. After you sign up, clients can contact you about job opportunities.
Retired Brains (retiredbrains.com):
This site can help you find remote, flexible, freelance and work-from-home jobs. You’ll also be able to access resources to start a business. You can search by location, keyword or job title and access career advice on resume building and interview preparation.
RetirementJobs (retirementjobs.com):
This site specializes in job opportunities for workers over 50, with retail, caregiving, transportation, sales and finance listings. It also features certified age-friendly employers and offers webinars on job searching, networking and overcoming age bias. You can learn how to utilize LinkedIn, improve your interview skills and understand how your job could impact Social Security benefits.
Seniors4Hire (seniors4hire.org): For job seekers aged 50 and older, at this site you can register for free, post your resume and search for jobs. Employers use the platform to find experienced workers for part-time, full-time and remote positions.
Workforce50 (workforce50.com): At this site you can view jobs specifically posted by companies looking for older workers. You’ll also be able to access resources related to resume building, shifting from military to civilian life and finding a federal job.
Send your questions or comments to questions@savvysenior.org, or to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
TODAY’S HISTORY:
• In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was indicted for treason.
• In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full rights to nearly all Confederate sympathizers.
• In 1947, President Harry Truman signed the Truman Doctrine, appropriating military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey to combat the spread of communism.
• In 2017, a bomb exploded at Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert, killing 23 people.
TODAY’S FACT:
• On this day in 2011, an EF5 tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 and causing $2.8 billion in damages. It remains the costliest and seventh-deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
SOLUTION FOUND ON PAGE 22
Flowering annuals can attract beneficial insects
BY BONNIE KIRN DONAHUE Special to the Observer
Looking to boost the health of your vegetable garden? Consider adding annual
Donating to the Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity ReStores helps support affordable housing construction. Our ReStores are locally run and benefit VT families!
We accept furniture, hardware, appliances, electronics, and more. Donate at one of our three locations or schedule a FREE donation pick-up for large items or large quantities of goods. Donate your new or gently used items today!
flowering plants that will attract beneficial insects to help support and protect your plants from pests.
Insects that are beneficial behave either as predators or parasites. They will prey on
other insects like aphids or lay their eggs on a host species.
There are many beneficial insects that can be attracted to your garden, including different kinds of wasps, ground beetles, lady beetles, flies and some bees. Annual flowering plants that attract beneficial insects might have a particular flower shape, size, structure, color or scent.
Dill (Anethum graveolens) is one of the most fascinating plants to observe when in bloom as insects flock to the delicate, parasol-shaped flower clusters (umbels). Dill grows 18 to 48 inches tall and 8 to 10 inches wide with wispy leaves that resemble tiny ferns. Preferring full sun, dill can be planted as soon as the soil has thawed and can take more than 45 days to develop flowers.
French marigolds (Tagetes patula) are lovely flower balls of red, orange and yellow that add a lot of interest to a vegetable garden. Growing 8 to 12 inches tall and 12 to 18 inches wide, French marigolds prefer full sun and take about 50 days to bloom from seed. Seedlings can be planted after the threat of frost is gone.
Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a delicate plant with copious terminal heads of white flowers. These grow 8 to 16 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide and prefer full
sun to part shade. They take up to 50 days to produce flowers when planted by seed. Seeds can be planted once the ground has thawed.
Ideally, plant clumps of three or more of each flower species throughout the garden to maximize their impact by providing a critical mass of pollen, nectar or habitat. Try not to plant the species too close together, however. I have planted marigolds and sweet alyssum so close that the marigolds grow over the top of the alyssum, causing them to die too early in the season.
It’s important to remember that most insects found in the garden are not problems. They might be helping with pollination or having a neutral impact on your garden. It is best to assume that the insects you see are beneficial, unless proven otherwise.
How can you tell which insects are beneficial and which are problematic?
Reach out to the University of Vermont (UVM) Extension Master Gardener Helpline at https://go.uvm.edu/gardenhelpline or call (802) 656-5421 on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon through October 30.
Bonnie Kirn Donahue is a UVM Extension Master Gardener and landscape architect from central Vermont.
Sweet alyssum and French marigolds are two annuals that add interest to the garden as well as serve as a food source for bees, lady beetles and other beneficial insects that protect other plants from pests. Beneficial insects are also attracted to the delicate, parasol-shaped flower clusters of dill.
PHOTO BY BONNIE KIRN DONAHUE
Dorothy Alling Memorial Library hours:
• Monday and Wednesday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Visit www.damlvt.org to apply for a library card and register for programs. Need help? Call 878-4918 or email daml@ damlvt.org.
Please note the library will be closed Monday, May 26, in observance of Memorial Day.
We are excited to announce the theme of the 2025 Summer Reading Program: “Color Our World.” We invite you to embark on a journey of art and creativity, celebrating the myriad ways in which art enriches our lives. Our program is designed to inspire and engage readers of all ages through a diverse array of artistic expressions.
YOUTH PROGRAMS
Children 4th grade and younger must be supervised by someone over 16 years of age.
TEEN NIGHT: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Friday, May 23, 4:30-5:55 p.m. Ages 12-18. Join our Teen D&D campaign.
STORYTIME
Tuesdays, May 27 & June 3, 10:30-11 a.m. Outdoors when weather permits.
AFTER SCHOOL BOOK CHATS
Wednesday, May 28, 2-3 p.m. Snack and chat about your favorite books.
MUSIC AND PLAYTIME
Thursdays, May 29 & June 5, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Outdoors when weather permits.
SPECIAL FIRE SAFETY STORYTIME
Friday, May 30, 10:30-11
a.m. Drop in for a fire safety Storytime with Nicole from State Farm. Participants will leave with themed swag.
SATURDAY MUSIC
Saturday, May 31, 10:30-11
a.m. Outdoors when weather
permits.
BABY TIME
Wednesday, June 4, 10:30-11 a.m. Ages 0-18 months. Drop in for gentle bonding and socializing activities.
AFTER SCHOOL GAMES
Wednesday, June 4, 2-3 p.m.
Have fun with board games after school.
MULTI-AGE PROGRAMS
READ TO A DOG (LOLA)
Thursday, May 29, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Register for a 10-minute session with Lola the Therapy Dog.
CRAFT CIRCLE
Monday, June 2, 5-6 p.m.
Bring a craft and work on it in the company of other crafters. In the Vermont Room this month.
ADULT PROGRAMS
For online programs or to join a book club, email daml@damlvt.org.
PUZZLE SWAP - ALL MAY
Take as many puzzles as you can carry. This ends May 31.
“NEW NEIGHBORS: THE BEAVERS OF ALLEN BROOK” DOCUMENTARY AND DISCUSSION
Saturday, May 24, 12-1 p.m. Jim Heltz, film documentarian, will be here to show and discuss his 29-minute film.
READER’S ROUNDTABLE
Tuesday, May 27, 12:301:30 p.m. “Gather” by Kenneth Cadow.
CURRENT EVENTS
Wednesday, May 28, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Drop in to talk with community members about timely topics.
CATAMOUNT BIRD WALK
Saturday, May 31, 8-10 a.m. Join VT Master Naturalist Terry Marron at Catamount Community Forest for a
bird-spotting outing. Bring binoculars if you have some. Prior registration is required at www. damlvt.org.
SPICE CLUB FOR JUNE: AMCHOOR/AMCHUR
Pick up this month’s sample with information about tasting notes, suggestions for use, and a few recipes to try. While supplies last.
TECH TUTOR
Tuesday, June 3, 1-4 p.m.
Call for a 1-hour session for help with tech questions.
ADULT CRAFTERNOON: DECOUPAGE HERB CANS
Tuesday, June 3, 2-3 p.m. Bring a clean tin can and go home with a beautiful herb container to have at your fingertips in the kitchen. Prior registration is required at www.damlvt.org.
SPANISH CONVERSATION (ONLINE)
Wednesday, June 4, 5-6 p.m. Brush up on your conversational language skills.
Janet C. Burritt
Jan (MOM) passed after a short but sudden illness at the McClure Miller Respite House the day after Valentine’s Day 2025, a day she loved to be a part of.
She was predeceased by her husband Ervin (Pudge), sister Shirley, brother Robert, brother Carlton (Stub), sister-in-law Marge (MIMI), father Enos Colby, mother Wilma Colby, father-in-law Basil Burritt, mother-in-law Fern Burritt.
She is survived by her children and grandchildren, brother Randall, sister Jean and husband, and brothers and sisters-in-law.
Jan spent the last ten years at the Whitney Hill Senior Homestead in Williston where she reacquainted with old friends and made many new friends that she cherished and loved spending time with.
A grave site service is to be announced at a later date.
Ready Homes Available | THE ANNEX | Williston, VT
• Something for Everyone | 3-story townhomes, 2-story paired villas & 1-level carriage homes
• Modern Design | Efficient, innovative homes; main level owner’s suites
• In the Heart of Williston | Access to town bike paths; Close to shopping
• Focus on Fun | Park, pool, and bike paths
THE HOME THAT FITS YOUR NEEDS TODAY!
Townhomes, Paired Villas & Carriage Homes Starting from the upper $500s
Hindsight
continued from page 24
resident George Munson, whose great-grandfather built it. The repairs cost approximately $7,000, added to the $15,000 purchase price the Historical Society is paying in installments.
“It’s a wonderful historical piece,” Macaig said. “It’s unlikely that any other town, at least in Vermont, would have this type of thing to display.”
June 7 marked the first time the clock has been reassembled since it was taken apart for repair and restoration in 2010—and the first time it has been on display.
Next week, Esmond is set to install the clock’s unique music box, which plays a different Civil War-era song each day of the
week, including “Yankee Doodle” and the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Nancy Fratti of Canastota, N.Y.—a music box restoration expert—spent two months restoring the piece.
“It’s entirely different from anything else I’ve ever worked on,” said Fratti, who has specialized in repairing music boxes for 46 years. “It’s a combination of Swiss technology, American ingenuity and a very creative imagination… his imagination was fantastic.”
Esmond, who repaired the clock mechanisms, and Ringer, who carefully cleaned 150 years worth of grime and tobacco smoke from the walnut case, have also worked on the town clock in the Williston Federated Church steeple. Restorer Martha Smallwood of Dallas, Ga. was recruited to
“It’s a wonderful historical piece. It’s unlikely that any other town, at least in Vermont, would have this type of thing to display.”
Terri Macaig Williston Historical Society
repaint the peeling clock face.
Ringer, a retired engineer whose clock restoration work is a labor of love, called the clock’s workmanship “top quality.”
“It’s a piece of local history. It survived all these years, in relatively good shape,” Ringer said. “There were some pretty special people with special talents that have passed through Williston over the years.”
The clock is dedicated to the unification of the United States after the Civil War. The phrase “Our Union Forever, U.S.A” is spelled out in bold wooden letters.
On a glass door over the pendulum, etchings show two women, each holding a flag. The women, emblazoned with the words “Justice” and “Freedom” represent the North and South—one with short sleeves and one with long, presumably to protect her
from chilly Vermont winters.
Munson created the glass etchings with hydrofluoric acid—placing wax where he wanted the glass to remain intact and pouring acid over the rest to create the etchings.
Though Munson was a farmer by trade, he was a well-known tinkerer and inventor in his day. He created numerous other time pieces, as well as fiddles, pianos, music boxes, guns and farming equipment.
Also on display in the Vermont room is an antique music box built by Munson, which still plays music when cranked. George Munson’s cousin, Albert Haseloff, gave the melody box to the historical society shortly after it acquired the clock. The music box features intricately carved woodwork of farm tools and animals, as well as drops of silver said to be from melted-down dimes.
The clock was admired in its day, too. Munson even brought it on a tour, charging 25 cents admission and advertising it as a unique timepiece made by “an old Vermont Yankee Farmer.”
“Don’t smile, thinking that it is some rough jack-knife production, for man is not necessarily a numskull because he tills the soil, but go and see it and you will be astonished as you never was before,” reads an undated advertisement.
The clock is displayed in the library’s Vermont room, which is open during regular library hours.
CLASSIFIEDS
YARD SALES
GARAGE & BAKE SALE — Saturday, May24, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., 147 Windridge, Williston. Our daughter is running this as a fundraiser; all sales will be donated to fight human trafficking. Toys, clothes, home goods, craft supplies, Disneyana, free pile and more.
COMMUNITY YARD SALE
Saturday May 31,from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in Mountainview/Eastview Estates across from VIP Tire and True Value Hardware. Rain date will be June 1st.
LEGAL
TOWN OF WILLISTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD AGENDA
Tuesday, May 27, 2025 – 7:00 PM Town Hall Meeting Room (Town Hall, 7900 Williston Road, use rear entrance) or Zoom Meeting ID 846 5863 3532 on zoom. us/join or call 1-646-558-8656
DP 25-10 Pre-app CSWD c/o Krebs & Lansing requests pre-application review of a proposed Materials Recycling Facility on a 38.5-acre lot at 432 Redmond Rd in the Industrial Zoning District East (IZDE).
WDB April 2025 Amendments Overview & Training
Project details and site plans are available on the website, town.williston.vt.us, under “Public Records and Documents”, then “Agendas & Minutes”, and “Development Review Board”. Contact Planning & Zoning Office for more information: 802-878-6704 or email planning@willistonvt.org
TREE PLANTING RFP
The Town of Williston has issued an RFP for Fall & Spring Tree Planting. The RFP can be found by visiting the town’s website at www.town.williston.vt.us/ and clicking on “General Information.”
SECTION:
RABIES BAIT
continued from page 2
The week-long bait drop is a cooperative effort between Vermont and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to stop the spread of the potentially fatal disease.
RABIES BAIT
continued from page 2
Rabies is a deadly viral disease of the brain that infects mammals. It is most often seen in raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bats, but unvaccinated pets and livestock can also get rabies. The virus is spread through the bite of an infected animal or contact with its
The week-long bait drop is a cooperative effort between Vermont and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to stop the spread of the potentially fatal disease.
Rabies is a deadly viral disease of the brain that infects mammals. It is most often seen in raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bats, but unvaccinated pets and livestock can also get rabies. The virus is spread through the bite of an infected animal or contact with its
saliva. If left untreated, rabies is almost always fatal in humans and animals. However, treatment with the rabies vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective when given soon after a person is bitten by a rabid animal.
So far this year, 23 animals in Vermont have tested positive for rabies, and 14 of those have been raccoons.
SHELBURNE DAY
According to wildlife officials, rabid animals often show a change in their nor mal behavior, but you cannot tell whether an animal has rabies simply by looking at it. People should not touch or pick up wild animals or strays – even baby animals.
saliva. If left untreated, rabies is almost al ways fatal in humans and animals. However, treatment with the rabies vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective when given soon after a person is bitten by a rabid animal.
continued from page 4 face Towards burne-Hinesburg head the Golf depending land. Rotary’s
Shelburne Historical Society will have a display and president Dorothea Penar will lead a cemetery tour at 1 p.m. Food vendors round out the event with everything from coffee and lemonade to burgers and creemees. Kids will enjoy meeting animals from Shelburne Farms, craft projects, and
So far this year, 23 animals in Vermont have tested positive for rabies, and 14 of those have been raccoons.
According to wildlife officials, rabid animals often show a change in their nor mal behavior, but you cannot tell whether an animal has rabies simply by looking at it. People should not touch or pick up wild animals or strays – even baby animals.
Shelburne Historical Society will have a display and president Dorothea Penar will
SHELBURNE DAY continued from page 4 face Towards burne-Hinesburg head the Golf depending land.
or email
Rotary’s
Antique clock comes home
Civil War-era clock back in Williston after restoration
BY STEPHANIE CHOATE
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article appeared in the June 13, 2013 issue of the Williston Observer.
With remarkable ease, clock restorer Mert Esmond popped the 40-pound pendulum—made of wood and lead, but expertly painted to mimic marble—into the
gothic grandfather clock, standing more than 8 feet high. Slowly, deliberately, the pendulum began to move back and forth, keeping track of the passing moments just as it did 150 years ago.
After two years of restoration in the hands of experts nationwide, the unique clock, created by Willistonian Russell D. Munson during the Civil War, has come home. It now stands in the Vermont room at Dorothy Alling Memorial Library.
Esmond and fellow restorer Fred Ringer reassembled the clock
on June 7, as Williston Historical Society members Terry Macaig and Ginger Isham looked on and passing tours of students oohed and aahed over the clock, commenting on its size and beauty.
“I think this is much more special than anything we have in our collection,” Isham said. “We have very few artifacts from the Civil War that were connected to a local person. And I don’t think we have anything as valuable.”
The historical society acquired the clock in 2010 from Williston
Mert Esmond, clock restorer, replaces the pendulum in a unique clock, created by Willistonian Russell D. Munson during the Civil War.
