Shelburne News - 8-3-23

Selectboard considers downtown designation

Officials are weighing the pros and cons of implementing a downtown designation in Shelburne — an economic development initiative that has been under consideration since 2019.

“It goes back in Vermont history to the desire to strengthen and enhance the traditional downtowns, preserve rural environments and prevent unpleasant sprawl,” town manager Matt Lawless said.

According to research done by town planning director Aaron DeNamur, there are currently 24 designated downtowns in the state — including Middlebury, Montpelier, Stowe and Vergennes —- with most municipalities on the list having a significantly smaller population than Shelburne.

Both DeNamur and Lawless explained that the 2019 Town Plan has a bit of inconsistency on its recommendations regarding downtown designations. Although it specifically says to maintain the town’s current village center designation, there are also many other strategic actions where the downtown designation could offer additional resources and funding sources.

“I think there’s a town plan argument to be made either way,” Lawless said.

This year alone, the transportation fund through the state has helped to finance a slew of pocket parks, pedestrian bridges and sidewalk and pedestrian enhancements in downtowns throughout the state, said DeNamur, with some grants exceeding $100,000.

Municipalities with a designated downtown receive priority consideration for a number of state grants — State Historic Preservation grants and Transportation Alternatives grants — along with priority when

St. J beats Champlain in dramatic fashion

COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER

If there ever was a little league baseball game to watch, it was Sunday afternoon’s edge-of-your-seat, winner-take-all matchup that went to the bottom of the ninth — three innings past regulation.

Or perhaps it was Saturday’s game, where the 10-to-12-year-old Little League baseball all-stars from St. Johnsbury and Champlain Valley battled through rain and thunder before a late homer forced the decisive Sunday game.

Or even Friday, when St. Johnsbury won out 6-4 over the Lamoille County All Star team after a back-and-forth game that was decided in the fifth inning.

There was no shortage of dramatics this weekend — where St. Johnsbury went on a three-game winning streak to beat Lamoille and Champlain Valley to advance to the New England Region Tournament in Bris-

tol, Conn. That’s the last stop before the Little League World Series, played Aug. 16-27 in Williamsport, Penn.

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Champlain team, which at more than one point throughout Sunday’s game built those kind of dramatic comebacks that only baseball can produce.

“It was an emotional time for all of us,” Champlain head coach Mike Niedbur said. “I told them to try not to hang their heads and how proud we were of them.”

Lamoille v. St. Johnsbury

St. Johnsbury’s weekend run toward the Little League World Series began on Friday, where a close matchup with the Lamoille all-stars made for a great game.

The Lamoille team got on the board early when leadoff batter Stevie Barnes smacked a solo home run to left field for the first play of the game.

The scoring didn’t stop there. St. Johns-

bury responded in the bottom of the first after Lamoille walked in a runner. Then, a single by Owen Ruane drove in a run to give Lamoille a 2-1 lead in the top of the 2nd inning.

Landon Mosier tied the game for St. Johnsbury at 2-2 after driving in a run but Lamoille then retook the lead in the 3rd inning when Stevie Barnes hit a hard ground ball to first, scoring Conner Mayo.

Both teams were tied 4-4 entering the fifth inning when St. Johnsbury pulled ahead. Maddox Stacey’s two-run homer to center field put the team up 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth. Tayton Goodwin then struck out three batters to close it out.

“While the loss really stings, they are a great group of boys and tremendous ballplayers and should be proud of what they accomplished together,” Rick Stram,

PHOTO BY AL FREY

St. Johnsbury’s Barrett Somers slides safely into third as Champlain Valley’s Isaac Russell tries to play the ball during a 9 inning, 8-5 state championship win over the Champlain Valley All Stars in the 10-12 Little League final held at Burlington’s Schifilliti Park Sunday.

LIBERTY DARR

STAFF WRITER

Woman hopes her story helps to destigmatize cannabis therapy

COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER

Peggy Dippen was living with her roommate in Monkton when she was offered a hit of weed.

At 36 years old, it was her first experience smoking pot, having stayed away from it for much of her life. But she decided to hell with it, her life was in shambles, and she was feeling suicidal — so why not.

“I thought, what the heck, it can’t make it any worse,” she said. “Within a few seconds, I was like ‘Oh, it’s not so bad.”

For a moment, she was jolted out of her regular thought patterns — the feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness subconsciously arranged over a lifetime — and briefly thrown out of “that thought process of negativity” that was “imprinted at such a young age.”

It was a pivotal moment, one that would eventually lead her to explore using other substances like MDMA, ketamine and psilocybin — the naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced in magic mushrooms — as part of a journey unraveling long-held childhood trauma. It was, she said, “the first time that I felt beautiful and lovable, and that I had the capacity to love myself, which I had never been able to do.”

A longtime public-school teacher, Dippen has shifted her work a bit. She’s spent the past several years training as a real dialogue specialist with the Institute for Dialogue Therapy, and is a mindfulness-based psychedelic therapist and cannabis-assisted psychedelic therapist — having trained at the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness in Boulder, Colo.

Since cannabis’ legalization in Vermont, Dippen, a Hinesburg resident, has worked with at least 40

patients in her practice — helping guide patients through their own spiritual journeys, using cannabis as a catalyst to help folks tackle their own trauma. Now, she’s begun advocating for further research into psychedelic’s medical use.

Her first public presentation was held last week in Hinesburg. By talking about psychedelics, and by talking about her own journey, she hopes to help destigmatize the use of psychoactive substances that growing research shows contain untapped potential in treating a variety of mental illness — from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to generalized anxiety.

“I hope that being vocal about it now and advocating and talking about how it’s transformed my life within the last five years can help continue the forward movement around psychedelics helping with transformation and healing,” she said.

Demystifying psychedelics

It’s a Tuesday evening, and Dippen is with a group of about a dozen residents in the Carpenter-Carse Library chatting about why they think psychedelics are experiencing their current resurgence.

“Well, there’s certainly a lot of trauma,” one person said, a sense of “really feeling useless.” Another resident suggests it’s all part of the timeless human “quest for finding real meaning in life.”

Dippen listens with a half-smile as the group speaks.

Using psychedelics in ritualistic settings is nothing new, she explains, scrolling through slideshows of psychedelics’ use in history. The first use of cannabis dates to 2800 BCE, for example, and there are multiple examples of books

and authors who have supported its use, and recent medical literature reveals its potential in treating a range of conditions.

After decades of anti-drug campaigns, mind-altering compounds like MDMA, LSD, magic mushrooms — even cannabis — are having a moment in the medical and psychiatric community for their potential in treating mental health issues.

Perceptions have shifted on many drugs that remain federally illegal, and in the medical community, which has made little progress in the treatment for mental disorders. Top medical universities, meanwhile — Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, for example — recently established psychedelic research divisions or are planning to do so, according to reporting.

Residents of Oregon and Colorado, in 2020 and 2022, respectively, voted to legalize the use of psilocybin. Cities like Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., have decriminalized it. Soon, according to the New York Times, the Food and Drug Administration could approve psilocybin and MDMA, or ecstasy, to treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cannabis, a much gentler medicine in terms of psychedelic intensity, has research supporting its potential mental health benefits when used in a controlled, therapeutic setting. A study, published in February 2023, said that cannabis-assisted psychotherapy could serve as “a novel treatment” for dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Health benefits

This is all unsurprising for Dippen. She’s experienced the benefits of all these substances

firsthand.

Dippen’s entry into our world is unique. Born in Ohio, her mother was an unwed nun who left the convent after getting pregnant, she tells the residents in the Carpenter-Carse Library. She was put up for adoption and has no idea where or with whom she spent the first month of her life.

She was eventually reunited with her mother — who raised her very Catholic — and never did let her forget that she was a mistake.

“Growing up, I had this idea that I didn’t have worth, I didn’t have value,” Dippen said.

She found some of that in school and in basketball, eventually landing in a division 2 basketball program. But she struggled nonetheless through her adolescence

and did a suicide gesture when she was 15.

She stayed on Prozac up until her 30s. She moved around and married twice before eventually landing in “a place of full surrender.” While living in Colorado, she “allowed herself to participate” in taking different substances in controlled therapeutic settings.

High doses of psilocybin, she said, led her to have an “ego death” — a complete lapse of subjective self-identity — allowing her to see herself impersonally, taking her outside of herself, reorganize her thought patterns and, in effect, give herself the ability to confront her trauma head on.

A particularly memorable experience with psychedelic cannabis, she said, involved feeling her “entire chest and ribcage kind of splitting open, and all of this lava and flames came out.”

“Because for a majority of my adulthood, I didn’t have this sense of self and courage to say no, because I just wanted so much to be liked and appreciated,” she said. “I was choosing that, but I wasn’t choosing it consciously — I was choosing it based on my upbringing and my pattern of behavior. So, it was another releasing of all the anger and rage that I never expressed to the people that I allowed to do things to me.”

Dippen’s presentation was the first in a new series hosted by the Hinesburg Counseling Collaborative. Now entering its second year, the group — founded by Nicole Grubman and Denise Daly — was formed to address “a real need for in person counseling that was accessible to people in the more

COURTESY PHOTO

Peggy Dippen

Champlain Valley student gets $2,500 scholarship

Champlain Valley Union student Kassidy Jay has been awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the Foundation for Rural Service, the philanthropic arm of the Rural Broadband Association, of which Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom are members. The scholarship program awards one-time scholarships to students from rural communities for their first year of college, university or vocationaltechnical school. Each student is sponsored by a Rural Broadband Association member company, and his year a total of $124,000 was awarded to students across the country.

Shelburne Selectboard sets wastewater, stormwater rates

of impervious surface — roads, driveways, rooftops — contained on the parcel.

The Shelburne Selectboard finalized the town’s wastewater and stormwater budgets, and in both cases, residents can expect to see significant rate increases.

Both budgets are managed and approved separately from the town’s general fund.

For this fiscal year, the town’s stormwater budget is set at $899,073, with a majority of the expenses being capital improvements and the addition of a new stormwater coordinator position. Revenues come mostly from user fees, and customers should expect to see 52 percent rate increase — as the final part of the gradual phased-in rate increase plan that began in 2021.

Rates will go from $3.43 to $5.20 per month per residential property based on the amount

The square footage of impervious surfaces on a single-family residence property — in this case, 3,801 square feet — is used as the base billing unit.

Although not every property has water or sewer service, every property owner pays a stormwater fee in order to reduce runoff and keep Lack Champlain clean from water pollution, town manager Matt Lawless said. “Nobody likes to see a bill increase. In this case, however, the town is acting responsibly to plan ahead for the future. In infrastructure, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”The $2,478,308 wastewater budget has gone up 8.7 percent over the previous year, mainly related to construction costs of the new consolidated wastewater treatment plant at the Crown

Road facility. Revenues also come primarily from user fees and rates will increase 9.1 percent from $14.91 to $16.27 per 1,000 gallons used.

“In a survey of 74 utility systems in Vermont Water, Shelburne is mid-tier for user costs and sends a strong conservation signal,” Lawless said. “Wastewater and stormwater are all capital-intensive: large parts of the budget go to heavy machinery, pipes and buildings. That’s different from a police department, for example, where most of the budget is personnel costs. The biggest upcoming infrastructure project in town is the wastewater plant consolidation.”

The board also authorized the replacement of the wastewater department’s 2012 pickup truck at a cost not to exceed $60,000 with future debt services to be paid from the wastewater fund.

COURTESY PHOTO

CRIME & COURTS

Shelburne Police Blotter: July 24 - 30

Total reported incidents: 75

Traffic stops: 22

Warnings: 13

Tickets: 10

Medical emergencies: 29

Mental health incidents: 1

Suspicious incidents: 3

Agency assists: 2

Citizen assists: 4

Welfare check: 1

Motor vehicle complaints: 1

Automobile incidents: 5

Car crash: 3

Animal problem: 2

Theft: 10

Fraud: 1

Alarms: 3

Pending investigations: 10

July 24 at 9:08 a.m., a Shelburne Road resident told police items were taken from their home, and police are now investigating.

July 24 at 3:36 p.m., a two-car crash was reported on Shelburne Road. Some injuries were reported, but everyone refused transport to the hospital.

July 24 at 8:01 p.m., police found an unused campsite near Shelburne Road after a

resident called the police.

July 25 at 4:55 p.m., Aubuchon Hardware reported a retail theft.

July 26 at 6:05 a.m., police were called to deal with an intoxicated person near the Shelburne Shopping Park.

July 26 at 7:21 a.m., police received several reports of items stolen from residents’ cars on Falls Road throughout the day.

July 26 at 2:20 p.m., a retail theft was reported at the Route 7 Deli. Police are investigating.

July 26 at 3:53 p.m., a retail theft was reported at Kinney Drugs and is under investigation.

July 26 at 4:40 p.m., a two-car crash with no injuries was reported on Shelburne and Falls roads.

July 28 at 1:01 p.m., a bear was reportedly hanging around the entrance of Shelburne Town Beach.

July 28 at 6:28 p.m., a caller reported some items had been stolen from their storage unit at Route 7 Climate Storage.

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Man who threatened court officials gets 20 months in jail

MIKE

DONOGHUE CORRESPONDENT

A South Burlington man, who authorities said made threats to kill a state judge and defense lawyer and to rape a prosecutor, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for three felony charges involving the intimidating phone calls.

Joshua P. Puma, 36, of Williston Road, called a Vermont Corrections Department reporting line on Sept. 30, 2021, to say he would kill a state judge and a defense attorney, U.S. District Court records show.

The indictment also charged him with making a similar call in October threatening to kill a state judge and to sexually assault a prosecutor. The third charge stems from a phone call in November 20231 to say he planned to kill a state judge.

Puma, formerly of Shelburne, made close to 300 calls to the special recorded phone line that is available for jailed inmates, officials said.

Puma made clear that once he was released from prison, he had specific intentions to kill and maim those state officials, along with killing or harming other members of the legal community, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller.

Puma from prison while the felony charges were resolved. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in court papers there are no known conditions of release that “would assure the safety of the community, especially the safety of the people Puma threatened to kill, assault, and maim.”

Puma has been in custody since about September 2020 when arrested on state charges. The threats came when Puma was detained at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield after his arrest by South Burlington Police on a stalking case, records show.

of orders of hospitalization for 90 days to further check Puma’s mental status.

Puma was never sent to the state mental hospital in Berlin due to a federal detainer filed against him. The detainer came when a federal grand jury in Burlington indicted Puma on the three felony charges for threatening the public officials during the fall of 2021.

The biggest difference between the federal and state incompetency procedures is how the defendant gets returned to society.

The state has a process that eventually allows the mental health commissioner to privately make the release call. There is no notification requirement for the public.

The federal system normally has the defendant’s case remain in a public court setting and the community is informed about any planned release. Any release conditions for a defendant is a public record.

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Puma has had ongoing mental health issues and had been ordered hospitalized at least twice by the state court.

While the federal sentencing guidelines had proposed a stiffer penalty, Chief Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford said he would take the defendant’s past mental issues into consideration.

Puma pleaded guilty to the three felony charges in U.S. District Court in Rutland on Feb. 2.

Crawford told Puma, who once punched his public defender in the face, that he will be on federal supervised release for three years after he is discharged from prison.

He could receive up to five years in federal prison on each of the three death threat charges and fines up to $250,000 on each case.

Crawford and Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle both turned down requests from the defense during the prosecution to release

Sarah Reed, his state public defender, was the intended target of one death threat, officials said.

During Puma’s arraignment, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George was identified as the target for the rape threat.

Puma punched Reed in the face while she was representing him in state court in September 2019, Fuller has said. The punch caused Reed to fall to the ground and it took five security officers to restrain Puma, Fuller told the court.

He later pleaded guilty to assaulting his attorney and was sentenced to 4-12 months to serve, Fuller said.

In March 2022, Puma was found incompetent to stand trial on state charges for two criminal cases in Chittenden County.

Vermont Superior Court Judge A. Gregory Rainville issued a pair

Puma is well known to police, especially in South Burlington and Shelburne. South Burlington police arrested him for stalking that involved a complaint from a neighbor on Williston Road.

Shelburne police made a welfare check call at his parents’ home in December 2015, records show. Officer Brian Fox reported police responded to a report about a possible suicidal man.

Upon arrival officers found a broken window in the garage area and while checking police spotted Puma through a window with a rifle and a knife in his hands inside the residence, Fox said.

Police got Puma to leave the residence without incident. Puma was taken into protective custody and transported to University of Vermont Medical Center for evaluation, police said.

He was later jailed for a probation violation and ordered into court on reckless endangerment and unlawful mischief charges, Fox said.

Joshua P. Puma

Sarah Reed, Puma’s state public defender, was the intended target of one death threat, officials said, while state’s attorney Sarah George was threatened with rape.

Judge sides with paper in suit seeking records

TOMMY GARDNER STAFF WRITER

A judge last week ruled that the town of Stowe could not withhold information about a police officer who was terminated last winter just because it sent that information to a statewide political body inclined to keep that kind of thing under wraps.

Judge Daniel Richardson ruled in Vermont Superior Court in Hyde Park that documents the town had sent to the Vermont Criminal Justice Council could not be shielded by the town.

“The fact that the town contributes material that the Council considers and keeps confidential for its own purpose does not extend this bubble of confidentiality to the Town as originator and supplier,” Richardson wrote in his July 26 entry order.

The judge’s ruling effectively ended a public records request that the Stowe Reporter filed against the town of Stowe and a lawsuit the town filed against staff writer Aaron Calvin and the newspaper’s parent company, the Vermont Community Newspaper Group.

Richardson, in noting the “undercurrent” to the case is the need for the public to see how government agencies are performing, quoted the Roman poet Juvenal’s line “Who watches the watchmen?”

“It is openness, public awareness, and access to information for the benefit of the general public that does this work by dispelling rumor, myth, conjecture, and conspiracy with the cold hard facts of objective reporting and good government process,” Richardson wrote.

“Over too many years, the public and the press have seen too many local officials shielding records that are clearly public,” said Greg Popa, editor of the Vermont Community Newspaper Group, which publishes Shelburne News. “It’s a disturbing trend we will continue to see, that is unless the Legislature gets serious about transparency and clarifies the state’s public records laws. We will continue to fight for the public’s right to know what its public officials are up to.”

The court case began when Calvin reported in March and April that former Stowe Police Department patrolman Benja-

min Cavarretta had left the department under mysterious circumstances, and the Lamoille County State’s Attorney, Todd Shove, issued a so-called Giglio letter — such letters are issued when an officer’s conduct is called into question.

Shove, in the letter, called Cavarretta “untruthful,” specifically when referring to a Dec. 5, 2022, traffic stop he conducted in Montpelier. (See related story, page 1)

On April 17, Calvin filed a public records request with the town, which the town either denied, or produced with such heavy redactions that it was impossible to determine what was in them. Calvin appealed the decision and the town of Stowe sued Calvin and the newspaper.

The newspaper’s lawyer, Matthew Byrne, argued in his court filings that the town of Stowe was obliged to produce incident reports involving Cavarretta, specifically documents regarding the Dec. 5, 2022, traffic stop that led to his termination; the termination letter sent to him; any final administrative investigation reports; and court records that the town produced in redacted form.

The latter was particularly egregious, Byrne argued, since those same court records with lines of blacked-out text are easily available, and unredacted, at the courthouse.

“The Lamoille County State’s Attorney said that Officer Cavarretta was ‘dishonest,’” Byrne wrote in his July 5 motion for access filed in Lamoille County Superior Court, civil division. “The people deserve to know why the State’s Attorney drew that conclusion. Yet, the Town of Stowe is hiding the truth behind a mountain of claimed exemptions to the Public Records Act.”

Police chief Donald Hull argued that the town sent “certain documents” regarding the investigation into Cavarretta to the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, and thus couldn’t even confirm or deny such documents existed.

That was despite his initial revelation to Calvin that there was indeed such an internal investigation, “before the lawyers got to him,” as Byrne put it.

The Vermont Criminal Justice Coun-

See LAWSUIT on page 12

Flood recovery: Thinking fast, slow

From the Senate

Last week, the House Committee on Commerce and Senate Committee on Economic Development had a heavy, but enlightening hearing about the economic state of the families, small businesses and downtowns in our communities affected by the floods.

What became clear is that this current moment is highly consequential. We are in a race against the clock as mold overtakes buildings, deadlines loom for federal relief and families and businesses are asked to make major decisions that deeply impact their future while they struggle through grief and trauma. Still, in this context, many are asking us to maintain a longer time horizon and seize this pivotal moment to build resiliency and ensure we can and will recover stronger.

Here are some of my major observations and takeaways:

Thinking fast

Families and businesses are already leveraged from the pandemic and cannot absorb high interest loans.

• Help is here and more is on the way, but the need for grants and zero interest loans is much higher than the amount of capital available in that form.

• Small Business Administration loans can carry up to 8 percent interest after the first year. Regardless of the outcome, Vermonters should file for any federal or state aid for which they may be eligible to document the need and bring them into the flow of information and resources.

• Of the $733 million accounted for in Irene recovery, over $500 million was from federal sources.

• The more need demonstrated, the greater case the federal delegation can make for supplemental disaster relief.

• Most impacted Vermonters are eligible for either regular unemployment insurance or Disaster Unemployment Assistance and should make a claim in the next 30 days.

Unique challenges of this disaster include workforce shortages, housing crisis, interest rates and mold.

• There will need to be a massive marshaling of labor or no recovery can take place.

• We lost 4,000 units of hous-

ing in an already existing crisis and will need to expedite availability of temporary and permanent housing.

• High interest loans are far more expensive to buy down in this lending market.

• Many communities experienced level three contamination that will require significant mold remediation and health inspections.

Thinking slow

Lessons from Irene have resulted in climate resilient infrastructure and more efficient disaster response where rebuilding occurred, but the road to recovery was and is long, and those at the margins are more likely to expe-

rience life-altering, compounded impacts.

• Waterbury, Brandon and Brattleboro are examples of communities that were devastated in Irene but rebuilt their infrastructure and public buildings with hydraulic pressures and floodplain management in mind.

• Renters, immigrants and mobile home park residents are in danger of being left behind once again as resource flows are designed and disseminated without them at the table.

• A lack of clarity, misinformation and malicious scams are causing additional stress and confusion, and the antidote is access to patient, informed, in-person support with appropriate lingual

The Moss-covered Rock

A Trickster Spider

A Traditional African Folk Tale & more presented by Hands on Puppets

The McClure Room

Trinity Episcopal Church

Rte 7 (Shelburne Road) Shelburne, Vermont

and cultural translation services.

• We cannot dismiss deep socioeconomic disparities during a crisis — in fact, that is when we must lean into identifying and closing them.

We can be a national model for rural resilience in our climate adaptation, inclusion and nimbleness as we anticipate continuing to face numerous crises in quick succession.

• Our sense of community and volunteerism already puts us ahead of most places in terms of compassionate disaster response.

• Recovery will take years of investment in assessing, planning, and building differently.

• We have an opportunity to rebuild our communities and infrastructure in a climate-friendly, recovery-friendly and inclusive way.

• We need to move resources to our flood-affected communities to allow them to be experiment stations for the future of rural resilience.

Our committee is looking at a hearing in mid-August on housing and one further out on climate resilient infrastructure, and we look forward to partnering with all stakeholders to meet the enormity of this moment. As I will continue to say, the challenge is great, Vermonters are greater.

Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a Democrat from Shelburne, serves the towns of South Burlington, Shelburne, Charlotte, Hinesburg, Milton, Burlington, St. George, Westford, Underhill, Jericho, Richmond, Winooski, Williston, Essex and Bolton in the Legislature.

Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale

Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale

PHOTO BY SEN. KESHA RAM HINSDALE

A scene of downtown Montpelier, one of the hardest hit towns during July’s flooding.

Debate over income inequality finally over

Guest Perspective

John McClaughry

The evil of inequality has always been a rallying point for advocates of socialism. In 2013 the publication of “Capital in the Twenty First Century” by French economist Thomas Piketty stimulated a new wave of debate.

The title was a takeoff from Karl Marx’s seminal “Capital,” published in three volumes between 1867 and 1894.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a proud socialist, has raged against income inequality throughout his adult life. In 2015, running to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, Sanders told voters that “the most important issue facing the American people is the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality.”

His speeches almost inevitably demand that inequality be remedied by having the government force the unworthy rich to pay “their fair share,” although I can’t recall Sanders ever offering an actionable definition of fair share beyond lots more.

The debate following the appearance of Piketty’s book featured heated attacks and counterattacks among socialist and free-market economists. The most telling counter argument focused on Piketty’s use of income inequality without considering the value of government transfer payments and government reduction of income via taxes.

Now comes Phil Gramm to conclusively settle the debate, at least in the U.S. Gramm was professor of economics at Texas A&M for 12 years before serving 23 years in Congress and chairing the Senate Banking Committee.

He enlisted two acknowledged firstrank experts in U.S. economic statistics, Robert Ekelund and John Early. They set out to plunge into the official economic data compiled by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find out just how much inequality of income exists in our economy. They quickly discovered that the data from those agencies is unfortunately not in agreement.

The result of their research — exhaustively documented — is, in three admirably succinct paragraphs, this: “Remarkably, the Census Bureau chooses to count only $0.9 trillion of that $2.8 trillion in government transfer payments as income for the recipients of those transfers, counting only eight of the more than one hundred federal transfer programs and only a select number of state and local transfer programs. Excluded from the measurement of household income are some $1.9 trillion of government trans-

fers — programs like refundable tax credits, where beneficiaries get checks from the Treasury; food stamps, where beneficiaries buy food with government debit cards; and numerous other programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, where government directly pays the bills of the beneficiaries.

“Americans pay $4.4 trillion a year in federal, state and local taxes, 82 percent of which are paid by the top forty percent of household earners. Even though most households never see this money, because it is withheld from their paychecks, the Census Bureau doesn’t reduce household income by the amount of taxes paid when it measures income inequality…”

“In this book (‘The Myth of American Inequality’) we will show that when all transfer payments, not counting government’s administrative costs in making the transfers, are counted as income of the recipients of those payments and when all taxes paid are counted as income lost to the taxpayers, the measurement of income inequality in America is profoundly altered. Accounting for all transfer payments and taxes yields a measure of income inequality that is only one fourth as large as the official Census measure … The ratio of income for the top 20 percent of households to the bottom 20 percent is 4.0 to 1 rather than the 16.7 to 1 ratio found in official Census numbers.”

Mastering the factual argument supporting this copiously documented conclusion is difficult going for non-economists, but the conclusion is iron-clad, and needs to be kept clearly in mind when Sanders and his allies declaim against “obscene” income inequality.

Some of the book’s policy recommendations are, of course, debatable. What is not debatable is the need for government to start reporting income inequality correctly. In this book, the important question of wealth inequality is only glancingly addressed.

The co-authors propose to reduce income inequality, not by confiscating the earnings of the unworthy rich and bestowing them on the poor, but by reshaping policies and programs to promote self-sufficiency. (Forgive me for mentioning that in 1990 I wrote a book describing the Oregon Full Employment Plan to do just that.)

As Gramm and his co-authors put it, “When we as individuals lend a helping hand, we help others up. But if all our government does is provide subsidies to those who have fallen, it is letting them down and too often keeping them down.”

John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute.

Reduce income inequality, not by confiscating the earnings of the unworthy rich and bestowing them on the poor, but by reshaping policies and programs.

This page, clockwise from top:

The Champlain Valley All Stars after losing to St. Johnsbury Sunday.

The St. Johnsbury team celebrates its 8-5 state win in the 10-12 Little League championship final held at Burlington’s Schifilliti Park.

Champlain Valley’s Evan Dore makes the throw from short during the 9 inning loss.

Champlain Valley’s Max Strauss swipes second during Saturday play.

Next page, from top:

Jamie Nassar reaches for an outside pitch during Champlain Valley’s rain-shortened game against the St. Johnsbury All Stars Saturday afternoon. Play resumed Sunday.

Braden Cook pitches in relief of Reid McAvey.

PHOTOS BY AL FREY

LITTLE LEAGUE

continued from page 1

Lamoille’s head coach, said. “It has been a privilege and great pleasure to coach them during this journey and we have become a family. While our journey isn’t continuing as we had hoped it would, we are very proud of them as people and as ballplayers, and of how hard they worked to get to this point.”

Champlain v. St. Johnsbury

Saturday’s game at Schifilliti Field in Burlington had hardly begun when the rain came, and it continued throughout the afternoon. Despite the weather, Evan Dore, of Charlotte, pitched well — striking out 10 batters through five innings.

Dore ran into a bit of trouble in the fourth, hitting a batter and walking two to load the bases with two outs before striking out the final batter of the inning.

The Champlain team’s offense had some early trouble against St. Johnsbury’s pitcher, Tayton Goodwin, who kept the team at bay through the early innings with his arsenal of off-speed pitches.

That didn’t last very long, however. Champlain’s offense came alive in the third when Tyler Niedbur of Hinesburg doubled to center, scoring Holden Rodliff to give the team the lead.

As the rain grew heavier, St. Johnsbury responded in the fifth when Caleb Decker launched a two-run homer to give the team the lead, 2-1.

By then, the heavy rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning, forcing officials to call the game for St. Johnsbury — setting up for some Sunday dramatics.

Scoring in this game started right away, with St. Johnsbury driving in three runs in the first two innings before Champlain responded in the second, putting up two runs off the bats of Pete Stephen of Hinesburg and Braden Cook of Charlotte.

Champlain was backed into a corner in the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and Carl Giangregorio of Charlotte on first base when Dore ripped a double to center field —missing a game-winning home run by mere feet but scoring Giangregorio on a game-tying double, with the Champlain crowd erupting in the bleachers.

Both teams dueled through the seventh and eighth innings. St. Johnsbury would add a run off the bat of Caleb Decker, but the Champlain team responded in the bottom half, scoring two runs from a costly error.

But a three-run homer in the top of the ninth by St. Johnsbury’s Maddox Stacey dealt an insurmountable lead for the team. With runners on in the bottom of the ninth, a double play clinched the win for St. Johnsbury, giving the team its first Vermont state title since 1985.

The team will now face Massachusetts in the regional tournament on Saturday, Aug. 5 — televised on ESPN+.

After the loss, Niedbur said the players “weren’t as sad about the loss as we were about the fact that this journey and our time together had come to an end.”

“We reminded them about how much we loved them, how much fun we had over the past couple of months working together, watching them grow as baseball players, but, most importantly, the friendships they forged that will last a lifetime.”

Community Notes

Rokeby Museum holds pie, ice cream social

Having a great day will be as easy as pie at Rokeby Museum’s annual pie and ice cream social, Sunday, Aug. 13, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Yards and yards of homemade pies, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, live music from Bob Recupero and Young Tradition Vermont, raffle baskets, croquet and badminton on the lawn will be part of the day, and historic house and museum exhibitions will be open to the public.

Admission is free. Pie and ice cream is $8 per serving, $2 for ice cream and $1 for beverages. At the end of the event, if any pies are still available, they will be sold for $20.

Shelburne Age Well hosts Grab and Go

meal

Age Well and St. Catherine’s of Siena Parish in Shelburne are teaming up to provide a meal to go for anyone age 60 and older on Tuesday, Aug. 8.

The meal will be available for pick up in the parking lot at 72 Church St. from 11 a.m. until noon and are available for anyone 60 or older. Suggested donation is $5.

The menu is: chicken and biscuits, gravy, red mashed potatoes, mixed beans, biscuit, pineapple and oranges and milk.

To order a meal contact Kathleen at agewellstcath@gmail.com or 802-503-1107. Deadline to order is Wednesday, Aug. 2. If this

is a first-time order, provide your name, address, phone number and date of birth.

More at agewellvt.org.

Senior Center hosts blood drive today

The Red Cross holds a blood drive at the Charlotte Senior Center on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2-7 p.m. Visit redcrossblood.org and enter Charlotte to schedule an appointment.

Shelburne Trinity Church presents a puppet show

On Saturday, Aug. 12, at 2 p.m., Hinesburg puppeteer Peg Jarvis will present a show about Anansi the Spider who, although a beloved folk hero, is a mischievous rascal who plays pranks on his animal friends.

The show is free for all and will be performed in the McClure Room, Shelburne Trinity Church, 5171 Shelburne Road. Children under six should be accompanied by an adult.

Not only does Jarvis direct and perform in the shows but she makes the puppets, prepares and paints the set, designs the costumes and, together with help from her husband Jim, builds her stages. She was 6 years old when she and her mother together learned the

See COMMUNITY NOTES on page 11

Community meets

More than 200 Shelburne residents attended the first meeting in a three-month community building initiative in partnership with the Vermont Council on Rural Development under the tagline Shelburne Forward Together. Topics ranged from infrastructure and housing to climate resilience and preserving natural resources. Discussions on varying topics were followed by a big communitystyle dinner and live music in the firehouse.

COURTESY PHOTO

Rokeby Museum holds a pie, ice cream social on Aug. 13.

At left, Vermont Council on Rural Development executive director Brian Lowe.

PHOTOS BY LEE KROHN

Shelburne Parks & Rec News

Fall youth soccer

Registration closes on Friday, Aug. 4. No Registrations will be accepted after this date, and kids will be placed on a waitlist and put on a team only if space allows.

The Shelburne Recreation Soccer League is for students entering grades one to six in the fall. All teams will be assigned one practice night during the week and will compete in games

COMMUNITY NOTES

continued from page 10

ancient art of puppeteering at a School for the Deaf in Bangkok, Thailand.

She also has given many workshops in schools, libraries and churches.

Substance abuse summit returns to Essex Junction

The second annual Coming Together substance use addiction summit will be held Friday, Aug. 11, at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction.

The summit takes place from 10-11:30 a.m., with informational, resource booths and breakout

on Saturdays. Kids in grades one to four will play all games at Shelburne Community School on Saturday mornings. Fifth and sixth grade teams will play other town recreation teams, home and away. Travel in the area is required. Games may be any time on Saturdays, morning or afternoon. Find more program and event details at www.shelburnevt. org/160/parks-recreation.

Obituary

rooms from noon to 4 p.m. Booth and breakout rooms cover the science of addiction, addiction and corrections intersection, recovery family support and more.

The event is open to the public and no registration is required.

Speakers include health commissioner Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont Department of Health; Matthew Prouty, Project Vision; keynote, Maureen Cavanagh, author of the book “If you love me”; Peter Mallary and Jeff Moreau, Vermont Alliance for Recovery Residences; Greg and Dawn Tatro, Jenna’s Promise; and others.

Dorothy M. Warren

Dorothy M. Warren, 91, a resident of Wake Robin in Shelburne, died on Monday, June 12, 2023. She was predeceased by her husband, John Hutton, originally of Brattleboro, father, T. Edgar Warren, mother, May Warren (née Lees), and brother, Alexander Warren, a World War II veteran, all of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Dorothy was born on March 17, 1932, in Hamilton, Ontario, and raised in St. Catharines. Her English and Scottish parents went to Canada on their honeymoon and stayed.

Dorothy’s time at Syracuse University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, convinced her that the United States was worth investigating and she took a trip to New York City, where she worked for a few years in the world of advertising. She enjoyed the city’s many cultural activities, including a stint at the Art Students League. Fun and friendship generated fond memories, such as horseback riding in Central Park with her apartment mates.

Dorothy returned to Canada in the 1960s and taught for 25 years, mostly eighth grade math, English and art. During this time, she completed another degree, in

English literature, through McMaster University’s extension program in Hamilton. Following her passion as an artist, in the 1970s Dorothy traveled to Belgium and painted full-time for a year at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Liege.

At about the time she was preparing to retire from public school teaching, Dorothy married Vermont attorney John Hutton.

Dorothy and John lived in Warren in Vermont’s Mad River Valley for many years, where she was an active member of the art community. A past member of the Vermont Watercolor Society, she showed her work in a variety of venues in northern Vermont. Her paintings are in private collections

in Canada, Scotland, England, Belgium and the United States.

Dorothy was also a talented writer. As one of the Mad River Poets, she contributed to the poetry collection they published, “Pebbles from the Stream,” and created the painting that adorns the cover of that volume.

Dorothy and John moved to Wake Robin in 2007. There she continued writing poems and enjoyed taking part in a weekly discussion group known as Talking About Poetry. She also continued painting. She was an inspiring, gifted, and purposeful teacher who, for eight years, shared her knowledge and generous spirit with Wake Robin residents who attended the classes she taught in watercolor painting and in drawing.

Her calm dignity, spiced with sparkling humor and sociability, is deeply missed.

John predeceased Dorothy in 2018. She leaves behind cherished family and friends, including a cousin, Jennifer Biro of St. Catharines.

A circle of remembrance for Dorothy will be held at Wake Robin in Shelburne at a later time.

Corbin and Palmer of Shelburne is in charge of private burial arrangements.

Dorothy M. Warren

SELECTBOARD

continued from page 1

the State Building and General Services Department looks to construct or lease new buildings.

“The state recognizes that the designated traditional downtowns are where they want to try to focus those things,” Lawless said. “This was an interesting point to me. I hadn’t thought of this before, but the state wants to try to support those designated downtowns by locating its own facilities in them.”

In addition to opening doors for additional revenue, a downtown designation could enhance the pedestrian accessibility of the town by allowing for speed limits less than 25 miles per hour.

“Right now, we don’t have the

legal authority to reduce our speed limits on town roads less than 25 miles an hour,” Lawless said. “And that’s come up in questions from town residents before.”

Additionally, Act 250 projects within a designated downtown pay no permit fees and go through a special process while some mixeduse housing projects within the downtown are exempt from Act 250 review altogether, which Lawless said helps “with the idea of focusing compact, walkable development in the traditional downtown area and thereby preventing sprawl.”

Act 250 is state law that

SHELBURNE

Assistant to the Town Manager

Join

Shelburne has an outstanding culture of volunteerism and a full suite of public services, from parks and police to sewage and streets. The Town Manager’s team implements the vision of the Selectboard and leads the Town government. This position requires interpersonal, administrative, and project management skills. They support everything from the Town’s Annual Report to committee meetings, grant reports, procurement, and community events. This is local government at its best!

The Assistant to the Town Manager must be a versatile administrator with both technical and people skills. We are looking for a mix of education and experience showing strong communication and organizing skills, multitasking, and understanding of local government context and ethics. Government experience is a plus, but skills from the business, nonprofit, and education sectors transfer well.

Our pay range for this position is $22 to $27 hourly, depending on qualifications. The Town’s strong benefits include excellent healthcare and pension, leave and holidays, and more.

A complete job description is available at www.ShelburneVT. org/Jobs To apply, send a Town application and/or resume to SCannizzaro@shelburnevt.org. Our review begins immediately. Equal Opportunity Employer.

provides a process for reviewing and managing the environmental and other consequences of major developments.

But David Webster and Dorothea Penar, members of the Historical Preservation and Design Review Committee, see this limited review as a slippery slope within the town.

“Harrington village (a 78-unit residential building), something of that scale, would be exempt from review, and I don’t consider that a pro,” Webster said. “I consider that a con and something to be weighed very carefully. There aren’t a lot of potential lots of that size, but that’s what we have to consider: Is this paving the way to accumulating lots and raising structures with nothing in place to prevent that?”

Penar said this could quickly give way to losing the character of the town’s “village.”

“When you just simply let

LAWSUIT

continued from page 5

cil is a 25-person body currently headed up by former attorney general William Sorrell and a half dozen other governor-appointed council members, along with the state commissioners for Vermont’s public safety, corrections, motor vehicles, fish and wildlife and mental health departments, as well as representatives from various law enforcement, human rights

historic buildings go or you buy a bunch of them and you tear them down, we can quickly lose the character of our village if we’re not careful,” she said. “I would hate to sort of give another way that that could happen.”

This conversation comes at a time when many residents are already casting a wary eye at the selectboard after members agreed to pursue the potential development of a small pavilion on the Parade Ground in the village. The idea has caused a massive discord among residents with many equating the project to “paving paradise to put up a parking lot.”

But board member Matt Wormser assured that this discussion “by no means is a blueprint to suddenly become this giant urban center in Shelburne. It just allows us to be able to take better take advantage of state initiatives.”

“I think we need to do a little

more research about those types of things like what we want or not want,” board member Luce Hillman said. “I don’t want to have another Parade Ground (situation).”

“I did not see a requirement that there be a bandstand on the Parade Ground as part of the application,” Wormser joked.

The selectboard made no final decisions at last week’s meeting but agreed to pursue the concept further since this was one of the main recommendations to the town in an economic development report that was commissioned three years ago, board chair Mike Ashooh said.

“We’ve talked about densifying our living patterns and housing patterns in the core,” he said. “It seems to me that that this does align with what we want to do, but we have to have that conversation.”

and municipal assistance organizations.

Its job, by statute, is two-fold. One task is to assist local, county and state government with law enforcement training.

The other is to maintain professional conduct standards for law enforcement officers by tracking complaints, adjudicating charges of misconduct and imposing sanc-

SHELBURNE

1ST FY 23-24 PROPERTY TAX INSTALLMENT

Due Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Payments must be POSTMARKED or RECEIVED in the TOWN OFFICES by MIDNIGHT, August 15, 2023. Late payments are subject to penalty and interest. Payments can be left in lock box at Police Department Dispatch until Midnight, August 15, 2023.

PLEASE NOTE: The Police Department cannot provide any information regarding your tax account or receipts for payments.

Office hours for payment in person are Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm

If any questions, please 985-5120

tions on bad cops.

It is not, Byrne argues, an “escape hatch” for police departments and towns to send internal investigations to shield them from the public seeking such information. He noted that Vermont law only places a confidentiality requirement on the Vermont Criminal Justice Council and its staff.

“The plain language places no limitation on the Town of Stowe and what it can do with the material that the Stowe Reporter seeks,” Byrne wrote.

In a series of motions over the past month, the town’s lawyers — John Klesch and Beriah Smith of the firm Stitzel, Page & Fletcher — attempted to slow down the proceedings, arguing that the newspaper waited two months after its initial records request to file a public records act “enforcement” lawsuit and was asking the court to “jump the PRA suit to the front of the line,” ahead of the town’s countersuit seeking declaratory judgment.

The town was seeking a ruling on whether Vermont state law regarding the Vermont Criminal Justice Council also applied to the town.

The lawyers argued skipping that part could “unnecessarily expose” the town to paying the Stowe Reporter’s attorney’s fees.

“The state recognizes that the designated traditional downtowns are where they want to try to focus those things.”

— Matt Lawless, Town manager

PSYCHEDELICS

continued from page 2

rural parts of Addison and Chittenden counties.”

On the third Tuesday of every month, the group will be holding free seminars on a variety of alternative health practices to “give people the opportunity to think about mental health and alternative treatments for emotional well-being, and to have those kinds of conversations,” Grubman said.

Next month, for example, someone will be doing a seminar on mindful breathing exercises. Another will be centered on practicing open dialogue.

“It’s not like we’re promoting those kinds of lifestyles, we’re just giving people information and understanding about how there’s different ways of evolving as a person that is out of the box. There are many different ways to do that,” Grubman said. “One is therapy. One would be like meditation. Another one could be psychedelic.”

Legislative action

While cannabis has been legalized in Vermont, there’s been a gap between the use of it recreationally and the study of it for medical benefits.

“As cannabis has become decriminalized, and we’re seeing more and more medical use of cannabis, there’s more and more data indicating that it is an effective treatment for certain condition,” Vermont Sen. Ginny Lyons, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, said. “(But) as we’ve been looking at it, the medical community has actually been less involved than has cannabis community.”

One bill passed this past year, Lyons said, asked the state’s Cannabis Control Board “to work with the medical school and others to look at the outcomes and the benefits associated with cannabis use for various conditions, so that we’re moving forward on medical use.”

Other substances like magic mushrooms remain illegal on the state level. But that could change soon.

Lyons, one of several sponsors on a senate bill that would

decriminalize psilocybin in the state and establish the Psychedelic Therapy Advisory Working Group, said that psilocybin “has a long track record with Native American use, and the shamans have been using it for many years. Now we’re seeing that there are stories that people are telling about how important it has been for them.”

The Senate bill was joined by a similar bill on the House side, crafted by Rep. Chip Troiano, D-Stannard. The chair of the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee, Martin LaLonde, a Democrat from South Burlington, directed its members to return to the matter next year.

While both bills did not gain momentum in this year’s legislative session, there remains interest from senators who are sponsors, “but I think they would agree with me that there are steps that we can take to decriminalize, but at the same time, to ensure that it doesn’t become used inappropriately,” Lyons said.

“Our basic goal is to make sure that if and when it’s decriminalized, we are following the right steps, and that we’re going to see some medical outcomes — whether that include counseling or other treatments that go along with benefit,” she said. “It’s not just taking the drug. It’s a broader treatment process.”

For Dippen, there’s an inherent risk to being so open about her work and her story, “but at the same time I’ve found that personally, and from my own experience, it’s been so transformational, that my fear of sharing it is less than the potential of how it can be used to transform other people’s existence and lives,” she said.

“What I’m advocating for is not misuse or recreational use of these medicines,” she said, “but that they have been transformational for me, and if people want to seek them out for their own healing, they can go to places where it’s legal to do so.

“I just have my story, and I’m hoping it offers some kind of hope or inspiration to continue to seek help.”

Wake Robin honored for environmentalism

Wake Robin in Shelburne has been recognized for its ongoing work in sustainability and environmental stewardship.

Casella Waste Systems named Wake Robin one of its 2023 Sustainability Leadership Award recipients, honored for the community’s integration of zero-sort recycling, compost and municipal waste services into its 136-acre campus. It has also created a green committee and climate action task force to identify and address new ways for the community to further its environmental activism.

Earlier this year Wake Robin received the Excellence in Environmental Stewardship Award during the 2023 LeadingAge annual conference in South Portland, Maine, for its continued efforts to expand conservation practices.

Acknowledging that his age group was part of a “throw-away” society, resident Steve Silverman said moving to Wake Robin changed his perspective and inspired him to make sure younger generations can grow up in a better environment.

Wake Robin’s ongoing environ-

mental stewardship work ranges from on-site maple production, growing drought-resistant pollinator plants and utilizing gardening waste and refuse into its compost

for a complete cycle, to eliminating junk mail to cut paper consumption and focusing on the reduction of food waste from the about 600 meals served daily on campus.

COURTESY PHOTOS

Wake Robin earlier this year received a Stewardship Award for its environmental programs and activism.

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 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.

According to wildlife officials, rabid animals often show a change in their normal 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.

ARIES

March 21 - April 20

Aries, someone in your life says they’re making changes, but when you look closely it seems like much of the same. A little encouragement on your part can help this person along.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 21

Tread lightly if you broach a dif cult conversation with someone close to you, Taurus. These are tricky waters you are navigating and you want to maintain the relationship.

GEMINI

May 22 - June 21

Problems may seem to you to be bigger than they really are, Gemini. Step back, take a few breaths and then look at things from another perspective. Ask for a second opinion as well.

CANCER

June 22 - July 22

Look for the double meanings in conversations you’re having with coworkers this week, Cancer. They could be trying to tell you something, so read between the lines.

LEO

July 23 - Aug. 23

Leo, you are typically good at reading others’ moods, so use that skill this week when placed in a sensitive situation. It will help guide you on what to say and what to keep quiet for now.

VIRGO

Aug. 24 - Sept. 22

There is a lot of socializing going on in your life right now, Virgo. Enjoy the excitement while it lasts and maximize all of the events you can attend. Things may start to slow in a few weeks.

LIBRA

Sept. 23 - Oct. 23

It’s probably best to keep your head down for the next few days and just go about your normal routine, Libra. Don’t get pulled into anyone’s drama or offer your take on things.

SCORPIO

Oct. 24 - Nov. 22

Scorpio, it is time to be more proactive about getting what you want. Make a list of the things that most interest you right now, and then devise a plan to make things happen.

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 ll each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can gure 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

Figure out which stance you want to take right now, Sagittarius. Are you seeing the glass half full or half empty? Perception can affect your daily life in many ways.

CAPRICORN

Dec. 22 - Jan. 20

Good news is on the way, Capricorn. This will leave you oating on air for some time afterwards. Surround yourself with the people you love this week so that they can share the good fortune.

AQUARIUS

Jan. 21 - Feb. 18

There is a lot that you have been juggling for some time, Aquarius. Unless you take a break or ask for help, one of those balls are going to fall and that could have a domino effect.

PISCES

Feb. 19 - March 20

Pisces, you have every right to express your opinions. Others will just have to accept what you say even if they don’t agree with it.

CLUES ACROSS

1. Indicates tire pressure

4. Request

7. Clairvoyance

10. 007’s creator

11. Adult male

12. Scandinavian god of battle

13. Cloths spread on a cof n

15. Breeze through

16. Lady sh genus

19. It’s good to take them

21. Noble-governed territory

23. Members of U.S. Navy

24. Card game resembling rummy

25. Affected by injury

26. Member of a Semitic people

27. Left 30. Woman’s cloak

34. S. American plant 35. Prohibit 36. Offense

41. Dish soap brand

45. Ottoman military commanders

46. Ancient Greek City

47. Makes unhappy

50. Discuss again

54. Medical instrument

55. Promote

56. A beloved carb

57. Tag the base runner to get him out

59. Prehistoric people

60. Large African antelope

61. Vehicle

62. Georgia rockers

63. Scienti c instrument (abbr.)

64. A major division of geological time

65. Attempt

CLUES DOWN

1. Plant of the nettle family

2. Fit to be sold

3. Rather

4. Collected

5. A baglike structure in a plant or animal

6. Patella

7. Ageless

8. Lists of course requirements

9. Pokes at

13. TV network

14. They __

17. Cooking hardware

18. U.S. Army title

ANSWERS

20. Iron-containing compound

22. Swiss river (alt. spelling)

27. Former French coin

28. Electronic countermeasures

29. Taxi

31. Helps little rms

32. Woeful

33. Midway between northeast and east 37. Glowing 38. Tasks which should be done

39. An informal body of friends 40. Intrinsic nature 41. Neural structures 42. Brews 43. Where ships unload cargo 44. Singer 47. Sino-Soviet block (abbr.) 48. Southwest Scotland town 49. Most worthless parts 51. Viscous 52. Put to work 53. Old world, new 58. Swiss river

Business Notes

Union Bank pledges $100K to help flood victims

Union Bank has pledged $100,000 to help local individuals, families and businesses affected by catastrophic flooding in July.

Lamoille County, where Union Bank has been headquartered since 1891, sustained heavy flood damage. Flooding was so severe in the county that it impacted many properties without flood insurance because they were outside the 100-year flood zone and were not required to have coverage.

“The flooding in our home market of Lamoille County was substantial,” said David Silverman, president and CEO of the bank. “We don’t know how long it will take for FEMA grant funds to become available but expect that these funds will not provide all that is financially needed for the flood victims.”

The $100,000 to be split between the United Way of Lamoille County, the Vermont Community Foundation and other local nonprofit organizations responding to flood victim’s needs. The United Way contribution will include a direct donation of $25,000 as well as an additional $25,000 to be used as matching funds to help spur additional donations.

Union Bank’s contribution to Vermont Community Foundation will be made through the American Bankers Association, which is mounting a national effort to raise funds for Vermont flood assistance.

Pursue Your Passions

PHOTO BY LEE KROHN

Dappled, morning light creates a picture-perfect scene at Shelburne Museum.