Fixing Philo
Rocking Rokeby
Work will continue to stem environmental degradation
Museum plans new educational offerings
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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
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April 7, 2022
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
thecitizenvt.com
Hinesburg addresses ‘failing’ town hall roof
Junior chefs
Project presents opportunity to look at other possible additions to building COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Hinesburg town officials have formed a committee to address the town hall roof, which is “failing” and may cost up to $500,000 to fully repair. The committee, which had its first meeting last month, will eventually make a recommendation to the selectboard on how to address the issue. “The roof will at some point fail. It’s failing,” said Phil Pouech, a Hinesburg selectboard member
who is part of the committee. “It potentially could be — and I call it ‘scabbed’ — together to keep it from failing, but we’re even unsure about that. The cost just for that is roughly $250,000.” Hinesburg’s town hall is more than 120 years old — it was built in 1901 — and the span that the century-old lumber crosses in the main hall is very long. There hasn’t been any structural work done on the building since 1993, according to assistant town manager Joy See ROOF on page 13
New legislative districts give edge to S. Burlington AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY AND COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITERS
PHOTO BY MADELINE WATERMAN
A Jr. Iron Chef Vermont team from Champlain Valley Union High School prepares a meal for this year’s competition. See story and more photos, page. 8.
South Burlington is set to be a heavyweight in Vermont’s newly redrawn legislative maps, gaining another state representative and cornering a third majority in a new Senate district. But the city’s gain could also potentially overshadow several smaller Chittenden County towns like Shelburne, Hinesburg and Charlotte lumped into those new districts. In the House, the city will share a fifth state representative with a portion of Williston and could rule one of three new Chittenden County Senate districts should Gov. Phil Scott lend his signature to the maps, which headed to his desk last week. “We will be well represented,”
South Burlington city clerk Donna Kinville said. “Not to displace anybody else, but I mean, technically we are kind of the largest municipality in this group, and therefore have the possibility of possibly having three senators.” The Legislature has broken up Chittenden County’s six-member Senate district, replacing it with two proposed three-member districts and one single-member district: Chittenden Central, Chittenden North and Chittenden Southeast. Two Chittenden County senators who currently reside in South Burlington, Thomas Chittenden and Michael Sirotkin, both Democrats, would keep their seats, alongside Sen. Ginny Lyons of Williston in the new three-member Chittenden Southeast district. “For many of us who have See DISTRICTS on page 12