The Citizen - 12-22-22

Hinesburg hires strategic safety plan consultant

Postpones Richmond police merger talks

COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER

The Hinesburg selectboard has approved the hiring of a consultant to conduct its public safety strategic plan, moving ahead with the comprehensive overview of its rescue services while postponing a move to combine police services with Richmond.

The company, the Center for Governmental Research based in Rochester, N.Y., will conduct the town’s first overview of its public safety services since 2008 — an effort that began earlier this year to craft a vision for its police, fire and EMS services as the town’s population is set to grow by more than 15 percent in the coming years.

Municipal Resources, Inc., which conducted Hinesburg’s 2008 study of its police department, was, along with Center for Governmental Research, the highest ranked of the six proposals that were received and reviewed by the town.

The proposals were ranked by town manager Todd Odit, assistant town manager Joy Dubin Grossman, police chief Anthony Cambridge, fire chief Nick Baker

and selectboard member Dennis Place.

But the town ultimately opted for the Center for Governmental Research at its Dec. 7 meeting. The company submitted an original bid of $76,500 but agreed to drop the price to $71,500. The company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices were the leading factor for their approval, officials said.

“I know they’re quite a bit of money, but I have a gut feeling they might save us money in the end,” said selectboard member Dennis Place. “I think it’s a good investment.”

The town had asked Municipal Resources, after it submitted its bid, if they could include diversity, equity and inclusion “as a lens to this,” Grossman said. “And we didn’t really get an affirmation of yes. We got a lot of talking along the subject, but not an answer to it ... we felt that was an important piece.”

The Center for Governmental Research, according to its proposal, “has conducted numerous public safety studies and delivered more technical assistance to

See CONSULTANT on page 12

Split Rock Tree Farm puts down deep Charlotte roots

LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER

Lauren and Matt Daley, along with their three children, are helping to create holiday traditions for the residents of Charlotte and

the surrounding area at their new Christmas tree farm, Split Rock Tree Farm.

The tree farm is nestled at 4224 Greenbush Road and welcomes everyone. Although the passion for Christmas tree farming wasn’t

initially in the cards for the family, it has become a way for the family to build community and spread joy throughout the holiday season.

“My college roommate’s

See TREE FARM on page 12

PHOTO BY LIBERTY DARR

Matt and Lauren Daley with their three children, Greta, Owen and Griffin at their Charlotte tree farm.

CV school district faces years-long staff shortage

COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER

Stephanie Dupras began as an intensive care educator at the Shelburne Community School, eventually going to Champlain Valley Union High School in 2020. It’s a job she adores, and one that, despite the day-to-day difficulties, she “gets so much joy out of.”

But in her 7-year career, she’s hard pressed to remember a time when either of the schools she’s worked at had a full staff of intensive special needs para-educators. In the past three years, with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on school districts’ workforces, the shortage has only worsened, creating an educational dilemma for kids who need it the most.

“It’s a staffing crisis for our most vulnerable students,” Anna Couperthwait, CVSD’s director of student support services, said at a recent school board meeting. “It’s really been a struggle.”

Para-educator is an umbrella term for all the educational support professionals within the district, including bus drivers and food service employees, as well as behavior specialists, non-intensive support staff and intensive needs educators.

These intensive need para-educators work specifically with students who have disabilities, be it medical, emotional, developmental or educational. A child with Down Syndrome, or one who has medical seizure disorders, for example, would be assigned a one-to-one para-educator like Dupras.

At CVU, these positions have been depleted — the school last year started off with 20 vacant positions.

“Of all of those categories, we are seeing the biggest challenge filling the special education support

staff positions and that was the case last year as well,” Couperthwait said.

The school “is in dire straits, I’m just going to be blunt,” she said. “They are pulling everywhere they can.”

In October, the district sent a letter home to parents of students with these individualized education plans, or IEPs, “to acknowledge the situation.”

“Vermont schools continue to experience severe staffing shortages and our district is no exception,” the letter, signed by CVU principal Adam Bunting and the school district’s director of special education Jessica Hoskins, read. “Despite our best efforts to advertise and attract candidates, we are unable to fully staff every position within CVU.”

“We will maintain records of those school days that are unable to fully staff your child’s IEP and the nature of the shortfall,” the letter reads, adding they would take “reasonable steps to mitigate the impact of that shortfall.”

The result, officials and educators say, is a “trickle-up effect” on staff to ensure the roughly 30 CVU students who need one-on-one assistance are not left alone without an adult.

Para-educators are stretched thin, burnt out and likely sick due to their daily proximity around kids. As a result, call outs are a regular occurrence. As those para-educators call out, magnifying the already vacant positions, case managers and general support staff are pulled from their regular responsibilities to support those students. Regular classroom teachers then must work in extra time to prep for the inconsistencies.

“The lack of consistency just really affects the total care of our students and their education,”

Vermont business leaders voiced their economic concerns and urged action on workforce and housing initiatives at a recent roundtable discussion with Chittenden County Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale. The meeting, hosted by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, centered on the top issues facing the business community in advance of the legislative session. “Vermont industries are the backbone of many communities and I hope to make the essential investments in workforce infrastructure to ensure a sustainable economic future for our state,” said Ram Hinsdale. “Workforce housing, continued pandemic recovery and strategic investments in initiatives to recruit and retain a diverse workforce will all be areas of focus for me this upcoming session.”

Dupras said. “It creates a juggling act of trying to fill those holes throughout the day and these kids are not getting the consistency of the knowledge of their program and thus affecting their overall education.”

“We’d be lying if we said it wasn’t having an impact,” Hoskins said in an interview. “Multiple years in a row of this level of stress creates a level of burnout that we are trying to figure out how to address in a way that keeps our staff healthy and able to show up and do their jobs.”

“We’re mitigating it the best that we can. I stand by that we’re doing a really good job of mitigating it as best we can,” she said. “But I’d rather not be mitigating.”

Admittedly, things have improved since the beginning of the pandemic, Hoskins and Couperthwait said. There are roughly 83 para positions in Champlain Valley

School District with 13 unfilled one-to-one positions throughout the district, “which is a huge improvement over even a few weeks ago, so it feels like the workforce is coming back,” Couperthwait said.

Champlain Valley School District, it should be noted, is not in as bad shape as other districts throughout the state — where even full-time special education positions are vacant.

“We’re fortunate at CVU, in that we are fully staffed for our professional level positions,” Hoskins said. “We are in a better position than other schools in the state for sure.

“But we definitely have had fewer applicants in the last two to three years for special educator positions,” Couperthwait added. “We’ve still been able to fill positions, we just have a lot fewer applicants.”

The district is still one of the

higher paying districts in the state for para-educators. Non-intensive paras currently make anywhere $17 to $19 an hour, while intensive paras make $20 to $22 an hour. The district is set to raise those wages by $2 an hour in January.

But for some, the compensation for the high-stress work leaves much to be desired.

“It borders on an actual living wage, and a lot of para-educators that I see in this field — it’s a lot of moms that are back to work after having kids, or single moms like myself that need those kid friendly hours in order to raise the kids,” she said. “We’re paid hourly so if there’s a snow day, we lose a day of pay. The holiday weeks we’re not compensated for. It’s not necessarily treated as a professional, salary-based position.”

Despite the stress, educators say

COURTESY PHOTO

Around the table with Ram Hinsdale

Canada geese make their way south, a common sight this time of year.

Walk-in vaccine clinics expand

If you haven’t gotten your annual flu shot or updated COVID19 booster yet, state health officials say now is the time to take advantage of expanded hours at vaccination clinics — where you can walk in, with no appointment necessary.

New hours include more evenings and weekends through the end of December, making it easier for those who work or go to school to get vaccinated quickly and easily. Starting as early as Monday, Dec. 19, many clinics will also offer the updated bivalent COVID-19 vaccine newly approved for eligible children 6 months to 5 years old. Visit healthvermont.gov/myvaccine for more details.

“Check getting vaccinated off your to-do list and you’ll have a better chance for a healthier start to the holidays and the new year,”

STAFF SHORTAGE continued from page 2

the work is incredibly rewarding.

“That is pretty consistent with most of the para-educators that I know: despite the challenges, despite all of the hardships, despite the salary even — that’s a whole ‘nother challenge — we get to work with these amazing students, and also amazing special educators and supervisors and case managers,” Dupras said. “I feel like I’m constantly learning and continuing my education with every single year and with every single student, and then ultimately, the family that

said Vermont Health Department immunization program manager Monica Ogelby.

Getting vaccinated is especially important for those at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 or the flu, including people ages 50 and older and those with certain medical conditions, she said.

Babies and young children under 5 are also at higher risk of getting very sick from the flu.

Starting in January, walk-in clinics will transition to more limited hours and close by Tuesday, Jan. 31. Vaccines will continue to be widely available, at no cost to the patient, by appointment at doctors’ offices, pharmacies or other locations where vaccines are offered.

Vermonters who do not have a health care provider or access to a pharmacy can reach out to their local health office to be vaccinated.

The department will also continue to work with partners to vaccinate homebound Vermonters, English language learners and immigrant or refugee community members.

For people seeking the updated bivalent vaccine for the youngest children, the type of vaccine they received earlier will impact whether they can get a booster. Review eligibility carefully before going to a walk-in clinic.

Children 6 months to 5 years old are eligible for the updated vaccine if they have received both doses of the original Moderna vaccine at least two months ago or if they have only received two of the three original Pfizer doses.

Updated boosters are not recommended at this time for children under 5 who have received all three doses of the original Pfizer vaccine.

we support.”

Hoskins, who began her career as an intensive needs para-educator in the district, said “the job description sometimes scares or makes people nervous.”

“The skills that you need in order to do this job well are empathy — it grows your ability to be empathetic — flexibility and care and compassion. When you work with kids who have communication challenges and these significant needs, you are required to develop those things,” she said. “As we’re

talking about how hard this is, and talking about call outs all of that, I don’t want to lose the fact that the people who are doing this work are so committed to our kids and are so, so good at what they do.”

Dupras, a Hinesburg resident with two kids of her own in the district, says she and others have stayed with the job “because we do love it.”

“We know we’re making a difference in so many of these kids’ lives. “That’s the most rewarding factor.”

PHOTO BY GORDON MILLER

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Celebrating Chanukah

Monday, Dec.

Hinesburg Police Blotter

Total incidents: 27

On Dec. 13 at 6:25 p.m., an officer responded to Ledgewood Drive for a single-car crash.

On Dec. 14 at 8:53 a.m., a welfare check was conducted on Hillview Terrace.

On Dec. 14 at 10:20 a.m., a 911 hang up on Richmond Road was investigated.

On Dec. 15 at 6:45 a.m., an officer responded to Richmond Road for a single-car accident.

On Dec. 15 at 8:20 a.m., a citizen was assisted with fingerprinting for employment purposes.

On Dec. 15 at 3:35 p.m., an officer

responded to CVU Road for a three-car crash.

On Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m., an officer investigated a deer hit by motor vehicle on Charlotte Road.

On Dec. 15 at 7:00 p.m., an officer attempted to serve court paperwork to a resident on Hollow Road.

On Dec. 16 at 7a.m., an officer investigated a single car crash on Charlotte Road.

On Dec. 16 at 9:50 a.m., fraud is being investigated.

On Dec. 16 at 2 p.m., police received a 911 hang up from Jourdan Street.

On Dec. 16 at 2:35 p.m., officers

responded to Hayden Hill West for a two-car crash.

On Dec. 16 at 7:05 p.m., officers attempted to locate a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run incident in Williston, reported to be in the area.

On Dec. 16 at 9:15 p.m., an officer assisted Shelburne police with a single-car crash on Shelburne Falls Road.

On Dec. 19 at 8:15 a.m., officers attempted to locate an individual for New York State troopers, who was reported to be in the area.

On Dec. 19 at 11:03 a.m., found property was turned into police..

PHOTO BY LEE KROHN

On

19, more than 75 people gathered around a well-lit menorah to celebrate the second night of Chanukah, which celebrates the victory of the Jewish people against the ancient Greeks and the jug of oil that lasted for 8 days. It’s been a tradition in Shelburne for more than five years to display a menorah on the town green and have a celebration sponsored by Chabad of Vermont on one of the nights of Chanukah.

Not always the words, but heart behind them

Poor Elijah’s Almanack Peter Berger

It’s been half a century since Poor Elijah first spent Christmas Eve with Ebenezer Scrooge. Even though he’s an English teacher and therefore expected to prefer Dickensian prose, my friend is heart-andsoul partial to the 1951 movie version of “A Christmas Carol.” In the old days, when televisions came with antennas, he could only hope a local station would air it sometime between late Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning.

Here in the age of streaming, he could probably catch it at his convenience on his Apple watch, provided he had one, which he predictably doesn’t. He did, however, pick up a DVD at the local video store, when there were local video stores, so now he can watch it whenever he wants. It even offers a choice between black and white or glorious colorized, but being an old-fashioned kind of guy, Poor Elijah prefers Scrooge in traditional Christmas gray at traditional Christmas time.

Anyway, early in the story before Scrooge sees the light, his nephew drops by to spread a little Christmas cheer. Scrooge replies that if he had his way, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

They’ve been suing about everything from manger scenes in New Jersey school plays to a Texas student’s right to hand out “religious viewpoint gifts” at his class holiday party. Among the gifts were candy canes with an attached message that explained how the peppermint was shaped like a J for Jesus and the red stripe stood for blood.

Of course, if you’re concerned about Christmas traditions, it’s worth noting that Jesus’s name actually began with the equivalent of our letter Y, which wouldn’t have hung nearly as well on the pagan fir trees that Prince Albert brought from Germany and first made part of England’s Christmas, and ours, when he married Queen Victoria a couple of millennia after the wise men traveled to Bethlehem, which almost undoubtedly didn’t happen in December.

For many of us, Christmas is part of the pageant of redemption. But Christians need to recognize that Christmas was never solely, or initially, a religious observance. In fact, the Puritans went so far as to outlaw it as un-Christian, in part because so many of the traditions we’re presently battling over, from Christmas trees and Yule logs to eggnog and red and green holly, and napkins, were borrowed from older celebrations that marked the depth of winter and offered hope against the cold.

Puritans outlawed Christmas as unChristian, in part because so many of its traditions were borrowed from older celebrations.

When Dickens wrote his story in 1843, you didn’t need a footnote to figure out that Scrooge was the villain in the scene, and that his objection to Merry Christmas was, well, Scrooge-like. Today you can’t jump to that conclusion. In 21st-century America some of our most enlightened arbiters of right and wrong are telling us pretty much the same thing as Uncle Scrooge. Naturally, being socially enlightened, they aren’t threatening Christmas greeters with pudding and holly. They prefer restraining orders and lawsuits.

Public schools have felt the heat. One district recalled 11,000 lunch menus after the nutrition services department went berserk and printed “Merry Christmas” on them. A high school canceled its performance of “A Christmas Carol” because it would have raised unseemly questions about “public school and religion.” Elsewhere, officials have excised red and green napkins and even instrumental versions of traditional carols.

At the opposite, non-secular extreme of the holiday spectrum, champions of the true spirit of Christmas are going to court, too.

Don’t misunderstand. As I write this, I’m listening to Handel’s “Messiah,” and its chords that resonate in me aren’t all secular. But my personal, private sentiments aren’t the point.

Nobody’s are. Because we’re not talking about private devotion and faith. We’re talking about public conduct. Nobody should expect a Christian to leave the Christ out of Christmas. At the same time, Christians can’t expect others who don’t share their Christian faith to insert Jesus of Nazareth into their celebration of winter, charity and good cheer.

Christmas supporters rightly point out that Christmas often and increasingly gets shut out of schools in the name of sensitivity and multiculturalism, while Islam’s Eid and Kwanzaa, which wasn’t even invented until 1966, are deemed perfectly acceptable for classroom holiday consumption.

Even if you endorse multiculturalism, being the majority culture shouldn’t be a disadvantage. On the other hand, the Virginia mother who decided to make a point by sending her first grader to school with a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” cake didn’t help matters. All she did was encourage

Journey for full LGBTQ rights isn’t over just yet

Guest Perspective

Walt Amses

President Joe Biden invited multitudes to the White House in celebration of his signing into law the Respect for Marriage Act, landmark bipartisan legislation protecting gay marriage extraordinary on its own.

But even more compelling is considering the distance we’ve traveled since the seismic response to Vermont codifying gay relationships in 2000.

Called “a momentous legal victory” by the American Civil Liberties Union, the civil union bill was based on the state Supreme Court ruling that the benefits and protections of marriage must be extended to same-sex couples.

As I recall, none of that was nearly as simple as it sounds. Laws can be changed with the stroke of a pen. Minds take a little longer — 20-plus years in this case — and despite how far we’ve come on paper, we’re still not done.

Writing in support of civil unions and later gay marriage in the Times Argus and other local media outlets, I vividly recall the unbridled loathing leveled at the LGBTQ community and anyone advocating equality and acceptance of same-sex unions, some of it aimed in my direction.

One thing I learned that continues to play out two decades later is that demonizing the gay and trans community still pays political dividends in certain circles, so consequently remains a potent wedge issue, especially for evangelicals, who claim essentially that hate crimes and religious liberty go hand in hand.

While sexual orientation is a protected category along with race, color, national origin and religion in federal anti-discrimination laws, gay couples continue to experience bigotry in several ways, especially from conservative-owned businesses. In a case currently before the Supreme Court, a Colorado web designer argues that her websites constitute art and are “one of a kind, unique” as she explained to National Public Radio: “I cannot create something

that violates the core of what I believe,” which is that marriage should be only between a man and a woman.

Citing the state’s public accommodation law as a “violation of her right to free speech and expression,” she is petitioning the court to protect her right to impose her religious beliefs on others — creating wedding websites that are “consistent with my faith” — which she cannot legally do while offering services to the public. Imagine a business owner similarly discriminating against any other group with protected status.

It’s unthinkable that the court would countenance a business open to the public that refused to serve Jews, or African Americans, or Muslims, so why might it be an open question whether the LGBTQ community is entitled to similar protections? That the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case at all is troubling enough, but indications, according to some legal experts, imply that the conservative justices are sympathetic to the web designer who most likely brought the case at least in part based on the makeup of the court, gerrymandered by Mitch McConnell into an ironclad far-right majority.

The progress of gay rights, particularly marriage, over the past two decades is undeniable. As recently as 2004, according to The Washington Post, “Polls showed the majority of Americans — 60 percent — opposed same-sex marriage while only 31 percent were in favor.” The Pew Research Center reported four years ago that those numbers had reversed to 61 percent across multiple demographic groups now supporting, marking a near unprecedented shift in attitudes unique to this issue.

Despite decades of progress, though, equality is “not within reach and often not even within sight” for those impacted by violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the United States, claims Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the U.N. independent expert on protection against such violence and discrimination.

His conclusion following a 10-day visit

was that the LGBTQ community in the U.S. continues to face significant inequality in relation to health, education, employment and housing, as well as being disproportionately impacted by violence.

Even as the president signs protections for gay couples into law, the LBGTQ community is reeling after another targeted mass shooting at the Club Q in Colorado Springs, where five died and 25 others were wounded by a 22-year-old gunman who almost certainly would have killed more if not for the heroism of patrons at the bar, long considered a safe haven.

Gay Americans have become convenient scapegoats and easy targets for bullies of all stripes, from the camouflaged, gun-toting bigots who show up at Pride Parades to GOP stalwarts like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who would have his constituents believe trans youth and comprehensive sex education are the biggest problems facing the state. Anxious to burnish his conservative bona fides for an expected 2024 presidential campaign, DeSantis caters to the ever-increasing radicalism of the Republican base with atrocities like his Don’t Say Gay bill, which appears designed to keep the state’s students as ignorant as he

pretends to be.

With same-sex marriage now codified by federal law, especially considering 12 Senate Republicans having joined the majority with another 47 voting yes in the House, it would seem a celebration is in order.

But while we’re patting ourselves on the back, we should keep in mind that the Respect for Marriage Act is a specific victory, in a specific battle in an ongoing war against the discrimination LGBTQ individuals face in health care, housing and employment, which often threaten physical and mental health along with financial well-being.

This journey isn’t over, and the magnitude change necessary will not come easily or quickly, but we’re on the road and have been for 50 years. Since the Stonewall riots launched the modern gay rights movement in 1969, the community has fearlessly taken giant steps, relentlessly pushing the envelope, demanding the right to be themselves, educating everyone else in the process, always with a life-affirming resilience that will eventually win the war.

Walt Amses is a Vermont-based writer.

Want to solve public safety problems, address root causes

Guest Perspective

James Lyall

As John Jay College’s advisory group on preventing community violence reminds us, “community violence is more prevalent in neighborhoods where residents face severe and chronic financial stress.” A mountain of data and research back that up — public safety hinges on the economic well-being of the community at large and when we address extreme economic inequality and invest in community resources and support networks, crime goes down.

The fact is, we have been neglecting to invest enough in communities for decades and it’s showing. The global pandemic has only compounded those strains and stresses even further.

And yet, that part — the fact that economic and racial injustices in our communities determine how stable, resilient and safe those communities are going to be — is often left out of our conversation about public safety and policing.

Meanwhile, we have seen the resurgence of “tough on crime” narratives in places like Burlington, where the mayor is calling for more punitive criminal laws and opposing residents’ efforts to strengthen police oversight on the dubious theory that calling for police accountability will hinder police recruiting efforts.

Putting aside the obvious questions of what kind of police culture the mayor is trying to create and what kind of officers he hopes to recruit, the fixation on criminalization and prisons is also deeply misguided.

It’s the same approach that has led to an

explosion of mass incarceration and racial profiling in Vermont and nationwide. It has cost billions of dollars and ruined countless lives. It hasn’t made us safer. Decades of history, experience, research and data tell us it’s a dead end and a massive public policy failure.

Not only does it not work, but it also distracts attention from the real solutions that are available to address the root causes of the many serious challenges facing our communities and that could make our cities and towns more stable and therefore safer for all of us. That includes badly needed investments and policy reforms in affordable housing, mental health care, addiction treatment, youth programs and education. We have drastically underfunded these things for decades.

Indeed, as spending on law enforcement has ballooned over the past three decades, many areas that support healthy communities and strengthen our social fabric have been cut or level funded. For all the talk of defunding, Vermont has defunded its social safety net and the public programs and supports on which our public safety relies.

The tough on crime narrative also distracts attention from how our leaders are managing, or mismanaging, existing public safety resources as well as longstanding problems in police practices and culture that still need to be addressed. Whether that’s racial profiling, abuse of power or lack of accountability — all of which undermine the public trust on which community policing is said to rely — there is much unfinished business that has been sidelined amid the police backlash against

Idealistic capitalist, steward of land and people, Will Raap dies

Will Raap, community visionary and iconic entrepreneurial activist, loving husband, father and friend, died unexpectedly Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, at the age of 73.

He accomplished so much and set in motion so much still to be done.

How to describe Will? His intelligence, his humor, his practicality, his grace, his ease. His deep love of the natural world. His lack of emphasis on his legacy and his total lack of pretense. The adjectives pile up. But mostly his deep belief in and respect for the worth of every person, a belief in the power of an individual to make a difference, and for the power of the collective to change the world. Will lived this, as comfortable packing boxes and pulling weeds and sweeping up pigeon poop alongside his family and co-workers, as speaking at conferences and petitioning politicians to get on board and make something happen.

Will redefined and modeled what it was to be a leader in society or should be. Yes, he was driven, highly charismatic, highly competitive and held high expectations. But this was rooted in collaboration, emotional openness, compassion and empathy. A generous mentor to so many, Will believed in you.

A native Californian, Will lived much of his life as a dedicated Vermonter and always as a global citizen. He completed his education at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, and what he subsequently experienced working in planning in the Central Valley very much shaped his life’s mission. Seeing the effect of large-scale agriculture and the patent idiocy of compromising the environment to ship a hard tasteless tomato across the country or around the world, Will envisioned

a future rooted in local business and local agriculture.

He did not find fulfillment in a traditional career path, so he headed to Scotland to join the Findhorn intentional community, based in spirituality, ecology and cooperative operation. This was a marked experience in Will’s life, learning to run things seeing the power of collective action.

It was there he also met his wife Lynette, who would be his guide, his co-conspirator and his life and spiritual partner for the next 45 years.

Upon returning to the United States, Will and Lynette landed on the East Coast where Will joined Lyman Wood at Garden Way, a business founded to promote a living-off-the-land ethos.

Lyman had a vision for a different kind of business, one that made a positive difference for society, and of management through collaboration and shared ownership. Unfortunately, an internal coup led to extensive downsizing.

At the time Will was working at a division called Gardens for All, which promoted home gardening and published National Gardening magazine. Forced to figure out a means to better monetize their readership, Will began selling products through the pages of the magazine. Will would subsequently spin this activity off into an independent catalog business, and in 1983 Gardener’s Supply was born.

This was a time when specialty cataloging was young, and despite some early business neardeath experiences, that rising tide lifted all boats — including Gardener’s Supply.

Gardener’s Supply was not founded to merely sell stuff through catalogs, it was founded out of Will’s belief that business should be the strongest force for good in our society, and that through Gardener’s Supply the team could improve the world through gardening.

The concept of socially responsible business hardly existed; as would often be repeated, his vision was ahead of his time.

Will sought a new form of business organization, one that not only rewarded the financial capital invested, but also the labor and contributions of all employees who were creating enterprise value. Rooted in his deep respect for the contribution of every employee, only four years after founding Gardener’s Supply Will steered the company toward employee ownership through the early adoption of an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Although the business

Obituary

grew in value and Will could have sold it for a premium, he stayed committed to keeping business in the Vermont community. He would eventually sell the entire company to the employees; Gardener’s Supply became 100 percent employee owned in 2009. Gardener’s Supply has grown to more than $100 million in annual sales and 300 year-round employees.

It was one afternoon in the early 1980s when retrieving his stolen and abandoned car that Will became acquainted with the Intervale, which was literally “the wrong side of the tracks.”

It was there that Will saw the unrealized agricultural potential of the fertile soils. The Intervale was home to the last dairy farm in Burlington, acres of cow corn, abandoned tires and petty crime. In the belief that a good use would chase out bad, Will moved Gardener’s Supply there in 1986.

He promptly formed Intervale Farm and Garden, which would become the non-profit Intervale Center, with the mission of incubating new farms and new farmers, reimagining post-dairy Vermont agriculture, and locally growing 10 percent of Burlington’s fresh produce.

Today the Intervale Center is reinventing agriculture across the country.

Will’s passion for starting things would never relent. He went on to form many other businesses, ranging from commercial greenhouse sales to wood products manufacturing (Serac Corporation in Georgia, Vt.) to ecological wastewater treatment and many more; some successful, others not. When he left the day-to-day management of Gardener’s Supply, he collaborated with his kids to start the highly successful Green State Gardener and Upstate Elevator Supply Company, and just recently to assemble a team to launch Steep Hill Labs, a leading Vermont cannabis testing facility.

At the age of 72, he undertook his greatest challenge, acquiring the former Nordic Farm in Charlotte, and embracing a dynamic ecosystem of agricultural startups, a living demonstration project for a re-envisioned future for specialty agriculture in Vermont. Renamed Earthkeep Farmcommon, that vision lives on.

Will’s impact reached far beyond Vermont and the U.S. He and Lynette had deep ties to Costa Rica, where Will replicated similar for-profit and non-profit initiatives to support ecological entrepreneurship. He brought the same ethos to business partnerships around the world, building ties

and socially responsible sourcing throughout Europe, India and Asia.

In Costa Rica Will was also at his most relaxed, he and Lynette generously hosting and sharing with others the beauty and wonder of that country.

Yes, Will grew ideas and businesses, but he also grew people. Foremost are his creative and caring children Dylan, Kelsy and Addison, independent souls all, the true expression of the practicality, persistence and spirit of Will and Lynette.

Will would also be a true and lifelong mentor to many others. A charismatic leader, he believed in the potential embodied in everyone. Will was generous with his time, unsparing with his opinions, and modeled confidence without pretense, wrapped in modesty. He was a model of “servant leadership,” never asking of anyone something he would not do himself. He related to his staff as he would his friends, one to one, with compassion and empathy.

Will’s confidence was coupled with his selflessness; he would see an issue and develop a working model that others could follow — enabling the good work to spread. And it has, with courage and persistence.

Will had a “why not?” attitude to taking risks. The more you told Will “you can’t” the more deter-

mined he was to prove that “you can.” This did not always serve him best, he sometimes held onto ideas, businesses and even relationships too long. But out of every setback came learning, and a new path to a better outcome.

His family feels immeasurable gratitude for the profound love he showed them — and the love he taught them to cultivate as concern for the welfare of others; that every problem has a win-win solution and how to dedicate themselves to improving conditions for our shared home, Planet Earth. While his absence feels unbearable, they are grateful for the outpouring of support and know that his impact is enduring.

He will live in spirit in all who were lucky enough to have been touched by his presence.

In addition to his wife and children, Will is survived by two adoring sisters, Linda Kramer of Lafayette, Calif., and Sherrie Crumpler of Malibu, Calif.

A celebration of life will be planned for Earth Day, Will’s favorite holiday, with details to follow.

In lieu of flowers or gifts and to further Will’s work, please contribute to the Raap Family Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation online at vermontcf. org/raapfamilyfund. Checks can be mailed to 3 Court Street, Middlebury VT 05456.

CVSD Early Education Programs News

Preschool Lottery is now open for 2023-2024!

The CVSD Early Education Program is now accepting applications for a random preschool lottery drawing for the 2023-24 school year. This lottery is for an opportunity to enroll in one of our school-based classrooms which run 10 hours per week. Our schoolbased preschool classrooms are 5 STARs, licensed early education programs that provide play-based, developmentally appropriate environments for all children in an inclusive setting. Our curriculum is based on the Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS).

Our programs follow the CVSD school calendar. Children who will be age 3 or older bySeptember 1, 2023, who have not enrolled in kindergarten, and live in the communities of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George, and Williston are eligible to enter the lottery. Families who are selected for the lottery and choose to enroll their child in a CVSD program access their Act 166 publicly funded pre kindergarten funds for the school-based program.

All applications must be received by February 3, 2023, and are located on the CVSD EarlyEducation website under 2023-2024 Preschool Lottery . Paper applications are available upon request.

For additional information, questions about our program, or any concerns about your child’s development, please visit our website or contact Director of Early Education, Erin Gagne at egagne@cvsdvt. org. Our Early Education team is also available for developmental screenings in the areas of communication, social-emotional development, motor skills, adaptive development, and cognition.

Will Raap

Animal personality plays role in the forest

Each of Vermont’s tens of thousands of native species fills an ecological niche, influencing its environment and the species around it in different ways. While an important component of managing for healthy, biologically-diverse forests includes managing for species diversity —different species of wildlife trees and plants — there are also differences in behavior between individuals of the same species.

The emergent study of intraspecific behavioral variation, also known as animal personality, has illuminated the behavioral diversity within individual species. Studies of animal personality focus largely on five traits: boldness/shyness, aggressiveness, activity, exploratory behavior and sociability. Across a growing body of scientific literature, species from birds and grizzly bears to worms and salamanders exhibit a range of personalities that influence the way that they forage, reproduce, rear their young and more.

A recent study by researchers from the University of Maine (detailed in the New York Times) examined animal personality by looking at synzoochory, the dispersal of seeds by seed-caching animals. Synzoochory is thought to be a mutually beneficial relationship between trees and the animals which cache their seeds.

While some animal personality traits may seem to be “better” than others, it is suspected that a behavioral diversity exists because different personality traits are beneficial at different times and in different situations, and because there are trade-offs associated with different traits. For example, a bolder deer may be more successful at eating backyard apples — a highly-valuable food resource — but more likely to be killed by a hunter. A shyer deer may be better at avoiding predators but less successful at mating and foraging at times when boldness is necessary.

Biodiversity is key to forest resilience and adaptability, providing different pathways forward as ecosystems and species face both the harmful legacies of the past and an uncertain future. Researchers now suggest that behavioral diversity is important for the same reason: that a diversity of personalities affords a species more ways to respond to a changed and changing world.

We also need to encourage landscape-level diversity: a landscape which is a connected mosaic of forests of different ages and in different stages of development and which are managed in different ways.

This study found that some deer mice and red-backed voles were more mutualistic — more likely to spread and cache viable acorns — while others were more antagonistic or more likely to consume acorns or to cache them in places where they would be unable to sprout.

Research into animal personality has given rise to another fascinating concept: the keystone individual. Many of us are aware of the idea of a keystone species — a species, like beaver, whose behavior supports an array of habitats and natural processes. A keystone individual is a single animal whose behavior is disproportionately valuable to the ecosystem that it inhabits, to other species, or to groups of their own species.

For instance, the mice and voles which were more likely to cache viable acorns could be called keystone individuals because they distributed and planted oaks across the forest, thus serving an invaluable ecological role. In social animals from birds to fish to spiders, keystone individuals have also been observed to change the personality and the behavior of colonies, flocks and schools of their own species.

In our relatively young and simple forests, we have skewed animal personalities toward certain traits which are adaptive under these conditions. To encourage behavioral diversity, we need to invoke many of the same practices that we also use for a variety of other objectives: from providing habitat for declining songbirds to improving the climate resilience of our forests. Managing forests to be more diverse and complex, with different species of trees, different sizes and ages of trees, some big old trees and lots of dead wood on the forest floor will help encourage a diversity of animal personalities.

We also need to encourage landscape-level diversity: a landscape which is a connected mosaic of forests of different ages and in different stages of development and which are managed in different ways. Managing for habitats which may be underrepresented across our landscape — such as early successional forest — is important, as is encouraging some areas of unmanaged forest.

Animal personality is yet another example of the many intricacies of forest communities, and another testament to the importance of managing them thoughtfully. As is the case with so many things, diversity is crucial both for protecting what we have and for moving into the future.

Ethan Tapper is the Chittenden County forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. See what he’s been up to, check out his YouTube channel, sign up for his enews and read articles he’s written at linktr.ee/chittendencountyforester.

Into the Woods

Ethan Tapper

PHOTO BY GARY STURGIS

Different species play different roles in keeping forests ecologically diverse.

Pines,

“Look there,” the retired sheep farmer said as he slowed down and pointed to a ledgy, overgrown hillside. “That’s what I was talking about, see the white pines and junipers?”

We were driving along a back road as he was telling me the story of his dairy farming neighbor’s struggles, and how I could read some of the chapters of that story in the plants.

In years past, he told me, the scrubby hillside had once been an open pasture where the dairy farmer had run all his cows and heifers. The animals had kept the grass and other greenery well grazed, except for the prickly-leaved plants they avoided, like white pine tree saplings and juniper shrubs. What the cows didn’t eat, the farmer clipped out so they wouldn’t shade out any of the valuable grass.

But the dairy industry’s latest market pressures were pushing his neighbor to either size up or shut down his milking operation, and he finally decided to sell his cows. The pasture was empty. A second neighbor down the road asked the farmer if he could lease the empty pasture for his heifers. The pasture was too far away from the other neighbor’s barn to walk the milking cows back and forth twice a day for milking, but the heifers that were too young to be milked could graze there without much trouble. The second neighbor would then be able to increase the number of milking cows on his own pasture once his heifers were moved.

The first neighbor agreed, and the heifers were brought down the road and happily grazed in the pasture that summer. Over the following years, the heifers continued to grace, though there were fewer of them than before. With no more pressure to maximize the grazing area, the regular clipping of the prickly-needled saplings ended.

Now that the pasture was undergrazed, the prickly tree and shrub seedlings had established themselves. Eventually, the second neighbor decided to shut down, too, and the pasture no longer had any grazing farm animals. But the white pine trees the heifers hadn’t eaten had a head start on the other plants that started coming in as the pasture transitioned toward forest.

After the sheep farmer clued me into this landscape history story, I started to look for this pattern in my other research projects. Where I could, I watched for pastures that were still being used, those being undergrazed, and those recently abandoned, and looked at the kinds of trees that were first coming in and their relative ages.

At sites further along in their forest regrowth, I looked at aerial photos I could find from decades past to reconstruct the stages of their landscape histories.

I noticed that not all abandoned pastures went through an undergrazing stage, but those that did showed this pattern repeatedly: in the undergrazed pasture situations, the prickly white pines, especially, stood out above the goldenrod and other early meadow plants. The head start the white pines had over the poplars, birches and other early species that came in after grazing stopped is visible even many decades later. In the areas of the Champlain Valley with limy soils, red cedar trees were the ones getting the head start. The large white pines and the red cedar trees then became good clues for me to watch for.

With this new focus, I also noticed that other farmland uses, such as old corn fields and hayfields, often had different reforesting patterns than the old pastures. When I tuned into the subtler differences, I found I could also use those forest patterns

as clues to reconstruct a more detailed history of the past land use on research sites.

With 80 percent of the Vermont landscape having been cleared of forest the late 1800s, and a significant percentage of that open land in pasture, there are lots of places where the pasture abandonment stories have played out. In Vermont, we are currently losing pastureland at a higher rate than

other land uses. As dairy farming is transitioning to feeding cows inside year-round now rather than pasturing them, the next chapter in pasture abandonment is being written.

During stick season, I find myself looking for the green foliage of the white pine trees and red cedars standing out against the mostly brown forests — looking for other signs of abandoned

pasturing. When I find them, I also think about the generations of dairy farmers’ decisions about their land that can be read in patterns decades later.

Jane Dorney is a consulting geographer who does research and education projects to help people understand why the Vermont landscape looks like it does. See more at janedorney.com.

Jane Dorney

PHOTO BY JANE DORNEY

SPORTS

LAUREN READ CORRESPONDENT

Girls’ basketball

Champlain Valley 62, Mount Anthony 12: Champlain Valley beat Mount Anthony Saturday in the North-South Tournament.

Addi Hunter led all scorers with 11 points and eight rebounds for the Redhawks, who move to 2-0. Shelby Companion added 10 points and Lauren Vaughan chipped in eight.

Boys’ basketball

Champlain Valley 81, Mount Anthony 46: Champlain Valley scored 33 points in the third quarter to beat Mount Anthony in the North-South tournament Saturday.

Sam Sweeney netted 18 points to pace the Redhawks (2-0), while Alex Provost added 13. Russell Willoughby (12 points) and Kyle Eaton (10 points) also hit double-digits for CVU.

Girls’ hockey

Champlain Valley-Mount Mansfield 8, Rutland 0: The Champlain Valley-Mount Mansfield girls’ hockey team moved to 4-0 with a win over Rutland Monday, Dec. 19.

KB Aldrich and Karina Bushweller each tallied twice for the CougarHawks, while Tess Everett, Riley Erdman, Livia Brochu and Mackenzie Rivard each added a goal. Grace Ferguson earned the shutout.

CVU-MMU also beat South Burlington on Saturday, Dec. 17, beating the Wolves 3-1.

Megan Rexfod (one assist),

Clark Clark and Sophie Brien each had a goal for the CougarHawks (3-0). Miles Brien added a helper and Ferguson stopped 17 shots.

The CougarHawks also won Wednesday, Dec. 14, beating Harwood 4-0. Everett, Megan Rivard, Bushweller and Eva Lewis

each had a goal for CVU-MMU, while Ferguson made 13 saves in the shutout.

Boys’ hockey

Champlain Valley 2, Burr and Burton 1: The boys’ hockey

team rebounded from two losses with a win over Burr and Burton on Saturday.

Brady Jones and Shamus Phelan both scored for the Redhawks, who move to 2-2.

Trevin Keefe and Nick Menard each added an assist, while Jason

Douglas stopped 32 shots. The Redhawks took a loss to South Burlington in the Beech Classic at Leddy Park on Wednesday, falling 3-2.

Travis Stroh and Nic Menard each had a goal for CVU, while Jason Douglas stopped 26 shots.

PHOTO BY AL FREY

The Champlain Valley boys’ basketball team boys get in some warm-up exercises at this year’s recent basketball try-outs.

Community Notes

Shelburne church hosts  January blood drive

St. Catherine of Siena Parish is partnering with the American Red Cross to host a Shelburne Community blood drive on Tuesday, Jan. 17, noon to 5 p.m., 92 Church St.

For more information or to make an appointment, call 800-733-2767 or sign up online at redcrossblood.org with sponsor code Shelburne.

Lyric kickoff, auditions   for ‘Shrek The Musical’

Calling all actors, dancers, singers, artists, builders, craftspeople, musicians and more — Lyric Theatre Company needs you for its upcoming production of “Shrek The Musical.”

Whether you’re a seasoned theater pro or have never stepped foot on or behind a stage, Vermont’s premier volunteer nonprofit theater company welcomes all to an informational meeting and auditions.

“Shrek the Musical” is a one-of-a-kind fairy tale in which curses are reversed, monsters get the girls, donkeys and fire-breathing dragons find love and princesses are beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Based on the 2001 Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film, “Shrek The Musical” is a Tony Award-winning fairy tale adventure, featuring songs from Jeanine Tesori and book by David Lindsay-Abaire.

The kickoff meeting is Wednesday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m. at the Lyric Creative Space, 7 Green Tree Drive in South Burlington. This will include an introduction of the production team, a presentation of the show vision by the artistic team, and information about auditions and backstage opportunities for volunteers. Attendance of this meeting is recommended but not required to audition or volunteer.

Auditions are in-person only and will be held at the Lyric Creative Space Sunday through Thursday, Jan. 8-12. Auditions will consist of movement/dance, singing and reading/acting. Vocal and reading selections are available at lyrictheatrevt.org/shrek. Dance and vocal workshops will occur during the audition process. Only one day of auditioning is required per person; callbacks may be held and will take place Friday, Jan. 13.

To enter the creative space, proof of full COVID-19 vaccination is required.

Pre-registration is strongly encouraged and can be completed at the kickoff meeting Jan. 4, or online at lyrictheatrevt.org/shrek beginning on Jan. 5.

The show will be performed April 13-16.

For audition and kickoff-specific questions, email stage manager Becky Millard at beckystagemanager@gmail.com.

Enjoy Age Well meals at Charlotte Senior Center

The Age Well meal pickup for Thursday, Dec. 22, is from 10-11 a.m., Charlotte Senior Center, 212 Ferry Road, and features macaroni and cheese, carrots, peas and mushrooms, wheat dinner roll with butter, pumpkin cookie with Craisins and white chips and milk.

You must have pre-registered by Monday, Dec. 19, with Kerrie Pughe, 802-425-6345 or kpughe@ charlotteseniorcentervt.org

The meal on Dec. 29 features beef stroganoff with onions and mushrooms, rotini noodles, brussels sprouts, dinner roll with butter, seasoned apples with cinnamon and milk.

The suggested donation is $5. Check the website for last-minute cancellations at charlotteseniorcentervt.org.

Charlotte Library’s  mitten tree is up

Are you a knitter, crocheter or just like to shop?

The mitten tree is up at the Charlotte Library and waiting to be decorated with handmade and new cold weather gear. Warm socks, work gloves and thermal tops and bottoms are especially in need this year.

The library is also a designated food shelf drop-off location. All items collected will go to a local nonprofit organization.

Charlotte Congregational Church Christmas events

Charlotte Congregational Church has announced its 2022 Advent and Christmas offerings, open to all to gather, rejoice and find solace in the season.

• Christmas Eve, Saturday, Dec. 24, offering at all services will be used to support the church’s missions and ministries. Outdoor family carol sing, 4 p.m. in the front of the church. Indoor services of lessons and carols, 5 and 7 p.m.

• Christmas Day, Sunday, Dec. 25, 10 a.m.

All worship services will be livestreamed except the outdoor carol sing and the 7 p.m. Christmas Eve indoor service. Indoor services are limited to 150 in the sanctuary. The vestry will accommodate overflow.

Masks will be required while singing indoors. See the website for a full list of events at charlotteucc.org.

Beethoven’s Ninth

Rotary offers high   school speech contest

The Charlotte Shelburne Hinesburg Rotary Club will hold the club round of the Rotary District 7850 High School Speech Contest on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 am at the Shelburne United Methodist Church.

This year’s topic is “Why is Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Important?”

Students must prepare and

deliver a five-minute speech, either in person or on Zoom, that relates this topic to their life, school and Rotary values.

The winner of the local round will receive $200 and can win up to $1,750 at the district level. winner. Here’s the schecule for 2023:

• Club round 1, $200 prize, Feb. 8 at 7:30 a.m., Shelburne United Methodist Church.

• Area round 2, $300 prize, Feb. 28 at 7:45 a.m. Strong House Inn, Vergennes.

• District round 3, two $500 prizes, April 1, Northern Vermont University, Lyndonville.

• District round 4, $750 prize, winner, and $500 prize, runner-up, April 29, Jay Peak Resort.

Participants in the first round must be high school-aged students who live in Charlotte, Shelburne or Hinesburg.

Email youth coordinator Amanda Vincent, at amandarosevincent1@gmail.com to register or with any questions.

continued from page 5

extremists at the other pole.

Tolerance doesn’t enforce religion. It also doesn’t exclude it. Ardent secularists are quick to quote Jefferson and his wall of separation between church and state. Except they conveniently forget that the unalienable rights he cited when he wrote the Declaration of Independence were, in his words, gifts from his Creator, that the legitimacy of the new nation he was writing about rested on the laws of God, and that he appealed to Divine Providence and pleaded his case before the Supreme Judge of the World.

Surely Tom wouldn’t object to a chorus of “White Christmas” at school.

On the retail front Lowe’s,

turning diversity backflips, once rechristened its Christmas trees holiday trees until pro-Christmas consumers threatened a boycott.

Somehow, I don’t think that’s what Jesus or Jefferson had in mind.

Sensitivity is good. That’s why if I bumped into Benjamin Netanyahu, King Abdullah or the Dalai Lama, I probably wouldn’t wish them a Merry Christmas. And if some neighbors and passersby prefer wishing me a happy holiday, I don’t mind at all.

What I do mind is living in a world where anyone presumes to tell me how I prefer to be greeted, where Christian nationalism is mistaken for the faith Jesus preached, where sensitivity has

boiled over into hypersensitivity, where we’re more offended by the wrong pair of words than we’re honored and comforted by the generosity and goodwill they express.

So, whether or not he’s in fashion today, I’ll accept Tiny Tim’s blessing. I won’t turn down a blessing from any sincere soul. Because what matters aren’t the words, but the heart that’s behind them.

In hope and with best wishes from Poor Elijah and me.

Peter Berger has taught English and history for 30 years. Poor Elijah would be pleased to answer letters addressed to him in care of the editor.

COURTESY PHOTO

The Green Mountain Mahler Festival presents a New Year’s concert featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on Sunday, Jan. 1, at 3 p.m. at the Elley-Long Music Center, Colchester. Daniel Bruce conducts the Green Mountain Mahler Festival Orchestra and Chorus, along with vocal soloists Stefanie Weigand, Nessa Rabin, Kevin Ginter and Erik Kroncke. Proceeds benefit the Vermont Foodbank. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit vtmahler.org.

BERGER

TREE

FARM

family has a huge Christmas tree farm in Massachusetts, and even after college we would go down there and experience all of it,” said Lauren.

Their 11-acre property was purchased in 2016 with the intention of cultivating the land for tree planting and building their home. “We bought this with the intention of planting that first spring

and then later broke ground on the house,” the couple explained.

Although the team had modest agriculture experience, Matt took a University of Vermont extension course and sourced information on the ins and outs of tree farming from local experts.

“I called Dave Werner, a tree farmer down in Middlebury, and said ‘you don’t have to pay me, but

I’ll come down and work for you, just lead me through the process.’ He and his family are great,” said Matt.

Although “tree farmer” isn’t their job title, the duo doesn’t lack an ounce of dedication for their passion project. When they aren’t at the farm, Matt is a Vermont State Police officer and Lauren works as a school counselor.

year, they outsourced trees and wreaths.

“This was our first year selling trees and we really had no idea what to expect,” said Matt. “So, only having 100 trees was perfect, we could kind of figure out what people wanted.”

had the lights going, the music going and fire going outside,” said Matt. “It was really cool.”

Request For Proposals (RFP) Bylaw Modernization for Housing

The Town of Hinesburg seeks proposals from qualified planning professionals to analyze Hinesburg’s land use regulations, and help us make minor revisions to better enable the creation of more housing. For details, see the complete RFP on the Town website (www.hinesburg.org) or contact the Director of Planning & Zoning (aweinhagen@ hinesburg.org, 802-482-4209). Proposals are due by 6pm on December 29, 2022.

The family spent the pandemic digging holes, planting trees and building the foundations for their business.

“In 2020, the kids and I would go out and dig the holes for a couple hours,” Lauren explained. “I have pictures, it was really cute.”

Although their planted trees weren’t quite ready to sell this

The year proved to be better than they anticipated — not only did the couple sell out, but they also had to restock their wreath supply midway through the season.

In addition to tree selling, they also offered hot chocolate, candy canes, wooden ornaments handmade by Matt and featured local vendors such as the Gilded Elephant gift shop and Elli Parr jewelry.

“We started to do what we called Friday Night Lights, so we

Split Rock Tree Farm has 6,000 planted trees, mostly balsam firs with some Fraser firs, which will be set for cutting in 2024. Until then, the couple plans on outsourcing trees next year to keep up their momentum.

The endeavor has been a family affair since the beginning — even for their English mastiff, Phoebe — and Matt and Lauren hope that the tradition endures for years to come.

“Everyone seemed to really be having a great time and that’s the hope that we can get people from Shelburne, Hinesburg, South Burlington and have it become a family tradition,” said Matt.

CONSULTANT continued from page 1

regional and local governments on these issues than any organization in the Northeast, with extensive experience in New York.”

“Our work in the past 10 years alone includes dozens of municipal services, budgetary and planning restructuring engagements, as well as service delivery redesign efforts,” the proposal reads.

The 2008 study largely focused on appropriate staffing levels based on an average number of annual calls per officer. This time around, the town hopes to include more residents in the process to develop a community-wide approach to policing.

The efforts to craft a broad

public safety plan were first catalyzed in March, when town voters rejected its $815,483 police budget.

By the time the town had finalized a revised budget, three of the department’s six officers had left for neighboring departments.

The town explored several options, including merging its police department with Shelburne, and has had several meetings with Richmond and seemed to be in the process of creating a municipal entity to share services between the two towns, but officials indicated during their last meeting that talks would be postponed — at least until Hinesburg’s public safety plan is complete.

“We had a lot of discussion about that, whether to include Richmond, whether Richmond would do that, and I think peripherally Richmond will be included somehow,” selectboard chair Merrily Lovell said. “But we decided to not meet again until the study was completed.”

“We’ll probably have a check in with Richmond maybe in March or April, but the towns agreed not to take any steps in collaboration at this point,” Lovell said.

“It’s too bad that we can’t keep the process moving forward, but it does make sense to do the study first,” said selectboard member Phil Pouech. “Things take time.”

Local businesses and restaurants need your support more than ever. Whether you visit stores, get delivery or shop online, keep your spending local and keep your community healthy.

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LYALL continued from page 6

the Black Lives Matter movement.

We all want thriving communities. That’s what people love about Vermont, that tradition of communities supporting one another and working toward collective solutions together. It’s

a big part of what makes this state so special.

That’s why we should all be committed to finding solutions that prevent crime from occurring in the first place.

Vermont has made admirable progress toward smarter,

CHARLOTTE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD

Will hold a public hearing on the following applications during its regular meeting of Wednesday, January 11, 2023:

7:25 PM 22-265-SPA Vermont Commons School – Site Plan amendment to relocate driveway entrance @ 2369 Spear St.

8:00 PM 22-278-SD Curler – Final Plan review for proposed 2-lot subdivision/PRD at 2600 Guinea Rd.

For more information contact the Planning & Zoning Office at 802.425.3533 ext. 208, or by email at: pza@townofcharlotte.com.

fairer criminal justice policies in recent years and there is far more work still to be done. That is what the people of Vermont have continually and consistently said they want — data-informed, effective criminal justice policies and investments that support our neighbors and community members so that they don’t struggle.

Our hope for 2023 is that more state leaders inside and outside of law enforcement will reject the failed, punitive approaches of the past, focus on root causes and come together to prioritize effective solutions.

Their constituents should keep urging them to do just that.

James Lyall is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.

CLASSIFIEDS

Town of Hinesburg

Public Hearing Warning

FY24 Draft Operating and Capital Budgets

On Wednesday January 4, 2023 at 7:00 PM, the Selectboard will hold a public hearing to solicit the public’s input on the draft FY24 Operating and Capital Budgets. Both documents can be inspected at the Town Hall, located at 10632 Route 116 in Hinesburg and on the Town’s website at www.hinesburg.org. The hearing will be held at the Town Hall and can be attended in-person or remotely. For remote meeting information, see the Selectboard agenda for Wednesday January 4, 2023 on the Town’s website.

Questions about the hearing or the budgets can be directed to the Town Manager’s office via phone at 802-482-4206 or via email at todit@hinesburg.org.

Positions include a sign on bonus, strong benefits package and the opportunity to work at one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont”.

Service Coordinator: Continue your career in human services in a supportive environment by providing case management for individuals either for our Adult Family Care program or our Developmental Services program. The ideal candidate will have strong clinical, organizational & leadership skills and enjoy working in a team-oriented position. $47,000 annual salary, $1,500 sign on bonus.

Residential Program Manager: Coordinate staffed residential and community supports for an individual in their home. The ideal candidate will enjoy working in a team-oriented position, have strong clinical skills, and demonstrated leadership. $45,900 annual salary, $1,500 sign on bonus.

Direct Support Professional: Provide 1:1 supports to help individuals reach their goals in a variety of settings. This is a great position to start or continue your career in human services. Full and part time positions available starting at $19/hr, $1,000 sign on bonus.

Residential Direct Support Professional: Provide supports to an individual in their home and in the community in 24h shifts including asleep overnights in a private, furnished bedroom. You can work two days, receive full benefits and have five days off each week! Other flexible schedules available, starting wage is $20/hr, $1,000 sign on bonus.

Shared Living Provider: Move into someone’s home or have someone live with you to provide residential supports. There are a variety of opportunities available that could be the perfect match for you and your household. Salary varies dependent on individual care requirements. $1,000 sign on bonus.

Join our dedicated team and together we’ll build a community where everyone participates and belongs https://ccs-vt.org/current-openings/

https://ccs-vt.org/current-openings/

Champlain Community Services, Inc.

Buying Sports Cards

Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Etc.

Hyper Relic Sports Cards

Bob Trautwine

Cell/Txt: 802-233-1451 • Office: 802-497-1681 Hyperreliccards@gmail.com www.hyperrelic.com

Why not have a job you love?

Make a career making a difference and join our team today!

ARIES

March 21 - April 20

Don’t fret, Aries. No news is good news while you’re waiting around to hear about something important. Give it a few more days and your waiting time will be over.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 21

If you are thinking about changing careers, you probably should wait until the holidays are over. No one’s mind is on the job these days, so waiting is the wiser move.

GEMINI

May 22 - June 21

Consider all sides of a situation before you offer your opinion, Gemini. This way you have the facts and will not inadvertently alienate someone.

CANCER

June 22 - July 22

When someone turns to you for help, you do not hesitate to do all that you can, Cancer. Just be sure you do not to overwork yourself. Take on only what you can manage.

LEO

July 23 - Aug. 23

You’ve bitten off quite a lot lately, Leo. Fortunately, you have a good support system that can help you out when you need a helping hand. Rely on them as much as necessary.

VIRGO

Aug. 24 - Sept. 22

Take a few days to sit back and rest and recharge. It will afford you an opportunity to plan for the future, as this may be a period of unrest for you.

LIBRA

Sept. 23 - Oct. 23

You’ve been placed in a new role and you’re loving every minute of it, Libra. Enjoy the moments while they last. This may be what you’re meant to do.

SCORPIO

Oct. 24 - Nov. 22

Scorpio, you might want to take it easy and stick close to home for the time being. You need to regroup and focus anew. You can do that more easily without distractions.

SUDOKU

Here’s How It Works:

Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

CROSSWORD

SAGITTARIUS

Nov. 23 - Dec. 21

Sagittarius, your to-do list might be growing longer, but tackle one thing at a time rather than getting overwhelmed. Reach out to a loved one for assistance.

CAPRICORN

Dec. 22 - Jan. 20

Success is within reach, Capricorn. Do not be surprised if others are a bit jealous of your accomplishments and want to pull you down. Ignore the naysayers.

AQUARIUS

Jan. 21 - Feb. 18

You have a plan but others are not falling in line right now, Aquarius. It may take time before others come around to your way of thinking. Be a little more patient.

PISCES

Feb. 19 - March 20

It’s a fine balance between work and play right now for you, Pisces. You’re tempted to forego all responsibilities, but that wouldn’t be smart.

Sparkle!

Forest, parks commissioner to leave top post

Business Notes

Michael Snyder, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, will leave his job at the end of December.

Snyder was first appointed in 2011, and Gov. Phil Scott extended his appointment when taking office in 2017.

Prior to serving as commissioner, Snyder spent 14 years working as the Chittenden County forester with the department.

“I want to extend my sincere appreciation for commissioner Snyder’s 12 years of service as commissioner of the Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation,” said Scott in a prepared statement. “Michael has been a strong advocate for our forest economy, outdoor recreation and so much of what makes Vermont special. I’m grateful for his efforts and wish him all the best.”

As commissioner, Snyder played a critical role in championing several policy initiatives concerning Vermont’s working and natural forestlands. Snyder has also been a champion of Vermont’s role as a regional and national leader in sustainable outdoor recreation.

During his tenure as commissioner, annual attendance at Vermont state parks grew by nearly 40 percent, from 800,000 visitors annually in 2011 to more than 1.1 million visitors this past summer.

“Serving as the commissioner of forests, parks and recreation, with its dedicated and talented staff and its critically important mission, has been the highest honor of my career,” Snyder said.

Grocery store chain’s shopping bag campaign rakes in $2 million

The Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program has generated more than $2 million in donations to community organizations throughout New England and New York, the grocery store chain announced.

For each special fight hunger and community reusable shopping bags shoppers buy, the company donates $1 to a local hunger relief agency or non-profit organization in the store’s community.

Since its inception in 2014, more than 2.7 million reusable bags benefitting more than 5,600 nonprofit organizations have been sold, replacing the need for more than 82 million single-use plastic bags. Additionally, nearly 9.4 million meals have been provided through the purchase of the bags.

Among the beneficiaries of the program is Age Well, advocates for the aging population of northwestern Vermont. For nearly 50 years, Age Well has provided Vermont residents with the support to manage daily living needs, with the goal of keeping them active, healthy and independent. The reusable bag program supports Age Well’s Meals on Wheels program.

“Hannaford’s support comes at a time when we are facing unprecedented numbers of aging Vermonters needing meal deliveries and the support that accompanies Meals on Wheels,” said

Tracey Shamberger, Age Well director of business development and communications. “For many older Vermonters, their Meals on Wheels volunteer may be the only person that they see on any given day. This connection combats social isolation and adds a layer of safety, but more importantly it reminds those we serve that they are not forgotten.

Hickok & Boardman picked as outstanding business of 2022

Hickok & Boardman Insurance Group won the 2022 Outstanding Business of the Year Award from the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Business magazine.

The company will accept the award at the Vermont Economic Conference on Monday, Jan. 30, at the University of Vermont Dudley H. Davis Center.

The award is presented annually to the Vermont business that demonstrates commitment to community, workforce well-being, environmental stewardship and growth in sales or employment.

Hickok & Boardman is a leading broker in Vermont for business and personal property and casualty insurance. Their mission of developing long-term relationships with clients, employees and communities has served them well for over two centuries as their business has grown and their client services have expanded.

“Hickok & Boardman has been a keystone of the Vermont economy since 1821,” said Vermont Chamber of Commerce president Betsy Bishop. “Their record of dedication to Vermont as a service provider, employer and community leader sets a high bar for doing business in Vermont.”

Hickok & Boardman hires picks Miller and Ward

Hickok & HR Intelligence has hired client managers Jessica Miller and Rachel Ward.

Miller joined Hickok & Boardman in November and is working to support large-organization clients alongside leadership, developing account leads and assisting senior client managers with client benefit needs.

Previously, Miller came from the talent acquisition and recruitment strategies department at the University of Vermont Health Network. Miller, a graduate of William James College and the University of Vermont, will use her abilities and skills to support clients, carriers and vendors in her day-to-day work.

Ward now works within Hickok’s small-group division, where she works closely with members of her team of executives, senior client managers and account leaders by providing direct support to our clients.

She works remotely from upstate New York.

A mother of two, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking with her dog, taking trips to the ocean, watercolor painting and volunteering with the Best Buddies program.