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Page 10 Page 5
May 5, 2022
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
thecitizenvt.com
Charlotte negotiates new rescue, fire contract Committee members keep mum on details COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Charlotte is in the process of working out a new memorandum of agreement with the Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service, the first time the agreement would be updated since January 2019. The agreement, originally inked by the town and the service in 2014, was supposed to be renewed every two years but was put on the back burner due to COVID-19 protocols as well as work on the town’s Development Review Board. But officials are now working toward getting a draft agreement ready for both parties to review. “(Selectboard member Frank Tenney) and I had a productive conversation with the subcommittee members at CVFRS last week,” selectboard member Matthew Krasnow said at the selectboard meeting last week. “Although I was hoping to have some language for us to look at in a draft form, we have agreed on four basic areas to work on in the memorandum of agreement that we all agree would be mutually agreeable and beneficial.” Selectboard members declined to comment on what specifically was being worked on due to the ongoing negotiations. The service operates as a private corporation that receives both public and private funds and it has been providing fire and rescue services to the town for years. Although it is partially funded by taxpayer money, the selectboard has little authority over its managerial or operational decisions. See CHARLOTTE on page 2
COURTESY PHOTO
The Vermont Community Newspaper Group staff took home 34 awards for writing, photography and ad design from the annual New England Better Newspaper Competition, held in Boston over the weekend. From left, designer Kristen Braley, news editor Tommy Gardner and reporters Avalon Styles-Ashley, Corey McDonald and Aaron Calvin have their hands full with an array of first-place editorial awards.
Newspapers collect press association awards Editor, publisher named to hall of Fame at trade show convention STAFF REPORT
Hall of Fame
Greg Popa, editor and publisher of the Vermont Community Newspaper Group, was inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame over the weekend, and the publications he oversees received dozens of awards for writing, photography and design. Popa was one of six journalists inducted into the hall this year, as part of the annual New England Newspaper Convention, held in Boston and organized by the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Vermont Community Newspaper Group publications also received 33 awards during the association’s annual Better Newspaper Competition.
Much like the head chef at a restaurant who started his career as a dishwasher, Popa rose through the ranks by doing it all. He started as a photographer at the Stowe Reporter in 1986 and has, at various times, been a photographer, reporter, editor and advertising manager. He became publisher in 2014, shortly before the Stowe Reporter bought the neighboring News & Citizen, which has been covering greater Lamoille County since 1881. Popa applied the same methods of design, writing and photography — Lamoille County readers got to see their paper in full color for the first time — that made the Stowe Reporter
an annual awards earner at the New England Better Newspaper Competition. He later replicated that company consistency to what is now known as the Vermont Community Group, with Chittenden County papers The Other Paper of South Burlington, the Shelburne News and The Citizen, which serves Charlotte and Hinesburg. Popa was also at the helm when the company ceased publication of the Waterbury Record. Popa has for decades nearly single-handedly — with a talented stable of photographers, writers and designers — produced the twice-yearly Stowe Guide and Magazine, a See AWARDS on page 3