On April 8, as the moon moved in front of the sun, more than 700 eclipse-glasses-clad people looked to the sky at the Shelburne athletic fields while Pink Floyd’s album “Dark Side of the Moon” played over the speakers. It was a long-planned moment by Pierson Library’s Michael Hibben, who co-organized the town event at the athletic fields with the devel-
Year in review
Education
opment review board coordinator Kit Luster.
The hype was well called for. The last time Vermont was in the path of a total solar eclipse, it was 1932. The next one won’t be until 2106.
This was special.
The town, and in particular Hibben and Luster, had been planning for months. Different reports
See ECLIPSE on page 10
financing shapes discourse, voter sentiment
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
There was arguably one thing on everyone’s mind in 2024: education financing.
The issue, along with the battle for affordability in a state that saw an average 14 percent property tax hike, became one of the most heated and debated topics last year for local and state leaders.
Both South Burlington School District and Champlain Valley School District suffered innumerable consequences due to a law
that has become, in some ways, infamously known as Act 127. The law, while meant to further equalize education, caused massive headaches for leaders at the two school districts last year. Not only did the law not work in their favor, but it was also incredibly complex and was altered in the 11th hour by the Legislature just weeks before Town Meeting Day.
Beginning last year, Act 127 employed those new pupil weights
See EDUCATION on page 11
MARKET
COURTESY PHOTO
The Shelburne Museum’s Winter Lights exhibit has brought flashes of color to the long nights since November. The displays will continue to shine through this weekend. Shine
Year in review
Shelburnites look for balance between growth, environment
PATRICK BILOW STAFF WRITER
The Shelburne Planning Commission quietly worked on rewriting the town’s bylaws throughout the year.
As with most municipal projects, the bylaw rewrite is linked to Shelburne’s town plan, the most recent version of which was published in 2019.
The plan anticipates growth in Shelburne and identifies areas within the town’s municipal service district where growth is most appropriate. New proposed zoning districts within the growth area will field the brunt of future development, but the planning commission is working to clean up bylaws within those districts before growth takes off.
Planning commission chair Steve Kendell said the rewrite will improve the consistency of Shelburne’s bylaws and give the town more confidence as it reviews future applications for development.
Priorities for the project include paths for residential and economic growth, stewardship of the environment and Shelburne’s culture and better integration with surrounding communities.
A major discussion about forest blocks emerged during the project this year.
Forest blocks are contigu-
ous forest areas unfragmented by roads, development or agriculture. They are often considered alongside habitat connectors, which describe how different forest blocks are linked.
To secure environmental stewardship as a priority in the future, the planning commission is working with Arrowwood Environmental to identify forest blocks in Shelburne and will incorporate them in the new bylaws.
In many cases in Shelburne, the forest blocks and habitat connectors identified by Arrowwood overlap with the town’s service district, creating consternation between landowners, who fear restrictions of land use, and environmental groups, who seek to protect the forest blocks from development.
“It’s all about finding a balance,” Rendell told the Shelburne News, alluding to a “political decision” on the table about how the forest blocks will influence land use.
The bylaw rewrite ate up the last several planning commission meetings in 2024. The group has discussed the project biweekly for months and initially hoped to finish a draft by the end of the year.
During its last meeting, however, the commission voted to finish the draft in 2025, at which point it will go out for public review. The selectboard will have the final say on their future.
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Shelburne Town Manager Matt Lawless reviews plans for a pipe connecting the town’s wastewater treatment facilities. It would run beneath the Ti-Haul recreation trail and along Bay Road toward Lake Champlain. The pipe would be phase one of a $38 million project to consolidate and renovate Shelburne’s wastewater system. Voters, by a two-to-one margin, approved the bond on Election Day.
Year in review
Wastewater, pedestrian bridge project comes to fruition
PATRICK BILOW STAFF WRITER
Shelburne this year made progress on infrastructure projects for wastewater management and recreation that were years in the making, but there is still a lot more to come.
In November, voters approved
a $38 million bond to consolidate the town’s wastewater treatment facilities and update the system’s equipment.
Shelburne currently operates two wastewater facilities, one on Turtle Lane off Harbor Road and another on Crown Road on the shore of Lake Champlain, a system
that stems from when Shelburne had two fire districts that ran the wastewater systems.
The town took over operations in the mid-1990s.
Wastewater employees have
Year in review
Town, O’Brien Brothers negotiate agreement on big development
PATRICK BILOW STAFF WRITER
In 2024, Shelburne became one of the first towns in Vermont to grapple with Act 47, a state law passed in 2023 to spur housing development known as the HOME Act, and a significant number of people weighed in on that review.
O’Brien Brothers, a South Burlington development company, has for decades owned a 175-acre parcel in Shelburne, where they plan to build what could be the largest development in the town’s history.
A lot of people in Shelburne were at least familiar with the project, but a petition by the company in May to leverage Act 47 to build at a higher density thrust the project onto the main stage as residents came out in droves to voice concerns.
Act 47 gives developers whose projects are served by municipal infrastructure the ability to include more units. Although the O’Brien property lies directly outside Shelburne’s sewer district, the company has argued that because of its proximity to infrastructure, including a sewer line and manhole cover only 50 feet away, it should be included in the district.
The property is currently zoned as rural, limiting development to one unit per five acres, but as part of the sewer district, the allowed density would increase to five units per acre under Act 47.
The company’s petition sparked months of public meetings and legal review, and varying interpretations of a new law that has not yet
been tested in the courts. Countless residents, two law firms and a legislator weighed in on the debate, which could be nearing its end.
One of the architects of Act 47, Chittenden Southeast Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, was an early voice in the debate. During interviews with the Shelburne News, she said Act 47 was designed for projects like O’Brien’s and allowing the company to build at a higher density would help curb Chittenden County’s housing crisis.
Residents, however, continued to express concern during public meetings and in letters to the editor about a large development that could change the makeup of Shelburne. They also questioned whether the selectboard even had the legal authority to amend the sewer district to include O’Brien’s property.
The selectboard responded to public input by postponing a decision and launching a thorough legal review of Act 47 and the town’s bylaws, even though some members already favored O’Brien’s inclusion in the district.
That review began with Shelburne’s lawyer but eventually branched out to another firm in Burlington. At the time, town manager Matt Lawless said the selectboard was taking its time and seeking a second opinion.
Two weeks ago, the second firm delivered its findings and confirmed the selectboard’s authority to amend the sewer district and recommended such action.
Backed by an extensive legal review, two members of the board last week expressed their desire to
amend the district in guest perspective that ran in the Shelburne News and introduced a new pre-development agreement for the project that was drafted in collaboration with O’Brien.
The agreement etches in stone certain agreements should the project ever break ground, without undermining the normal review process with Shelburne’s development review board, according to its proponents.
The latest version of the agreement asks more of O’Brien Brothers than the first one, including more affordable housing, public access to parks and paths on the property and reimbursement of town legal fees related to the project, a cost estimated at $80,000, including future expenses.
“Fixing the housing crisis is a marathon, not a sprint,” selectboard members Chunka Mui and Andrew Everett said in their perspective. “We support the Shelburne Selectboard doing its small part by granting the O’Brien sewer petition, conditioned by the pre-development agreement’s requirements and limitations on the property.”
Although the agreement is ready, the selectboard won’t issue a ruling until after the public has had another chance to give feedback. There are two public meetings scheduled for January.
Further progress is hinged on public approval. During an interview in December, Lawless said he is confident that the public will prefer the new agreement, but admitted “there’s always a possibility we will have to make adjustments.”
FILE PHOTO
Scores of Shelburnites gathered this fall to discuss the O’Brien Brothers property proposal, which could test Vermont’s HOME Act.
Shelburne Police Blotter: Dec. 16-22
Total reported incidents: 69
Traffic stops: 11
Warnings: 10
Tickets: 1
Arrests: 2
Dec. 16 at 12:13 a.m., police issued warnings to motorists violating the winter parking ban on Bacon Drive, Boulder Hill, Elmore Street, Grove Lane, Hedgerow Drive, Hillside Terrace, John Street, Lakeview Drive, LaPlatte Circle, Maplewood Drive, Martindale Road, Olde Orchard Lane, Pierson Drive, Pinehurst Drive, Stokes Lane, Summit Circle and Woodbine Road.
Dec. 16 12:02 p.m., someone reported the theft of items from their motor vehicle on Route 116. The case is under investigation.
Dec. 17 at 9:06 a.m., a caller reported that Barkeaters’ rear door was unsecured, but officers just located a person cleaning the restaurant.
Dec. 17 at 12:39 p.m., someone reported being assaulted at the Countryside Motel. The person refused transport to the hospital and declined to provide a statement.
Dec. 17 at 1:38 p.m., a caller reported trees vandalized at Shelburne Farms. Police are investigating.
Dec. 19 at 2:19 p.m., more winter parking ban warnings were issued to drivers on Birch Road,
Cardinal Way, Green Hills Drive, Hedgerow Drive, Heritage Lane, Martindale Road, Munroe Drive, Thompson Road and Village Vale.
Dec. 19 at 5:15 p.m., someone reported a burglary at an undisclosed location on Shelburne Road.
Dec. 19 at 2:54 p.m., a retail theft was reported at the Route 7 Deli. Heath Odell, 18, of Middlebury, was arrested for retail theft and released.
Dec. 19 at 6:10 p.m., an individual was issued a trespass order for refusing to leave Village Mobil.
Dec. 20 at 9:09 a.m., a caller reported that their residence or vehicle on Harbor Road was vandalized. The case is pending.
Dec. 20 at 12:32 p.m., a caller reported items were being stolen from their room at T-Bird Motel.
Dec. 20 at 10:02 p.m., a caller reported a loud noise coming from a neighboring unit on Ockert Lane. Officers checked the area but couldn’t hear anything.
Dec. 21 at 2:31 p.m., someone reported that a man broke into their room at the Quality Inn. Ameer Muhammad, 22, of Massachusetts, was arrested for unlawful trespass and released.
Dec. 22 at 12:21 a.m., more winter parking warnings were issued to cars on Hawley Lane, Hullcrest Road, Juniper Ridge, Lakeview Drive and Olde Orchard Lane.
Shelburne News
Serving the community of Shelburne A publication of Vermont Community Newspaper Group LLC shelburnenews.com
Advertising submission deadline: Friday at 5 p.m. advertising@shelburnenews.com classifieds@shelburnenews.com
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Contact: 1340 Williston Road South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 985-3091
COURTESY PHOTO
Stannard’s look back to 2024
Guest Perspective
Bob Stannard
Like every year, a whole lot happened in 2024. Wars, trips to outer space, assassination attempts, a solar eclipse and still the price of groceries have not come down. Here’s my take on 2024, so pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy the ride.
January: The year kicked off with the release of Jeffery Epstein’s “associates.” The list included Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Steven Hawking, Michael Jackson and Prince Andrew of Britain. It was forgotten three days later.
NASA helicopter Ingenuity flew its 72nd and final flight on Mars. At government expense the copter was used to seek out building sites for Elon Musk’s new home. Musk said it was an entirely appropriate use of U.S. taxpayer’s dollars and denied that he was a socialist, saying he was more of a fascist.
Woman wins Ugliest Lawn contest. Winner Kathleen Murray said, “I’m all for guilt-free weekends, especially since my ex-husband left with the lawnmower back in 2016.”
Putin’s three-day invasion of Ukraine enters its third year.
February: A city that existed 2,500 years ago in Ecuador was discovered. The city was larger than both the Aztecs and Mayans. They were finally able to take down the “Have You Seen This Missing City” signs.
Greece legalized same-sex marriage and adoption, becoming the first Orthodox Christian Country to do so. Homophobe Stephen Miller cancels his trip to Greece. The Odysseus moon lander, operated by Intuitive Machines, was the first U.S.owned spacecraft to land on the moon in over 50 years. The landing wasn’t a total success, though, as the lander ended up tipping on its side during the process. Musk was furious at having to look at sideways pictures of his other, taxpayer-funded home site.
March: Vladimir Putin won re-election with 88 percent. The remaining 12 percent remain unaccounted for. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, who only won by 71 percent, places a phone call to Putin to see how he pulled off 88 percent. The call went straight to voicemail.
Joe Biden wins the primary in Vermont. He’s 100 percent confident that Vermont will put him back in the White House.
Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses after being hit by a cargo ship. Lyrics to his song changed to, “Oh say can you not see my bridge.”
Montpelier gets hit with another flood. GOP declares climate change a hoax.
April: Coming under the that’s-quitea-buzz category a 3-year-old claimed to hear monsters in her wall. Her parents said
monsters aren’t real. They found a giant honeycomb and 50,000 bees living in the toddler’s bedroom wall, proving, once and for all that monsters ARE REAL!
Taylor Swift becomes the first musician to become a billionaire solely from songs and performances.
May: Around 2,500 crazed monkeys invaded a town in Thailand. They were trapped and put back in cages. In Vermont an equal number of crazed creatures were running around begging people for votes. Some got elected. We’re told that none was caged.
Vermont State University recently awarded Max the Cat a doctorate of litter-ature for his exceeding friendliness. Confident he can topple Phil Scott, Max announces his run for governor in 2026.
Robert Kennedy Jr. discloses that he had a worm in his brain. No one was surprised.
The International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for war crimes committed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Gallant and three HAMAS leaders, for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsified business records. It seems no one cared.
June: Mexico elected its first female, Jewish president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Biden had the best debate of his career against Trump. Said. No one. Ever.
July: There were many losers, a few winners at the Paris Olympics. Top winners: Snoop Dog and Martha Stewart. Hurricane Beryl trashes northern Vermont. GOP again declares climate change a hoax.
August: Tom Cruise closes the Olympics by stunt jumping from a roof. Vermont gets flooded by Hurricane Debby. GOP re-re-declares climate change a hoax. Kennedy admits he put a dead bear in New York’s Central Park.
September: RFK Jr. investigated for sawing off a whale’s head. Says, “This is all about the weaponization of our government against political opponents.” The whale disagreed. Norway became the first country in the world where electric cars outnumbered petrol cars. No more Tupperware parties. After 80 years the company files for bankruptcy.
October: Lebron and Bronny James became the first father-son duo to play in an NBA game together. 250 Vermont towns got mad at Stowe for being named No. 1 as the “Top Best Places to See Fall Colors in the United States” by USA Today. (The leaves were quite pretty in Manchester.)
Lower ed tax rate hikes offer some relief, but not enough
Guest Perspective
Ben Kinsley
As a property taxpayer, I was relieved to see that the Dec. 1 letter from the Vermont tax commissioner did not warn of another double-digit tax increase. However, as a public policy advocate, that relief dissipated as I dug into the details.
While education spending is not projected to increase as steeply as it did last year, there is still $115 million in new education spending
predicted from school districts. On top of that, there is $69 million in one-time funds that the Legislature used last year that will fall to property taxpayers this year. In total, that means $184 million in new pressure on taxes, or an 8 percent increase.
When compared to last year’s increase of $182 million in new spending, we realize there is no meaningful change. Yes, new spending is down this year, but the total increased liability for taxpayers is indistinguishable. So, if the increase in total
tax liability is the same, why are property taxes not up double digits again? There are a couple factors, but it mostly deals with economic drivers. First, there is a $33 million surplus that is projected from fiscal year 2025 as revenues from current taxes are higher than expected.
The second reason is that projected consumption tax revenues are up $21.9 million for 2026. Finally, a hefty 14.7 percent increase in property values that are not evenly distributed around the state will also help mitigate
Paging Orson Welles: America faces crisis of information literacy
Guest Perspective
Walt Amses
I’m feeling nostalgic remembering when UFO sightings happened on dark, wooded country roads in places like New Hampshire as Barney and Betty Hill learned in September 1961 in what became known as the “Hill Abduction” incident. Their chilling account of being abducted by extraterrestrials near Lincoln as the “Old Man in the Mountain” looked on grimly, began with Betty noticing a point of light she initially thought was a falling star until it moved upward while growing bigger and brighter, flashing multicolored lights as it crossed the face of the full moon.
As the craft descended and the Hills realized it wasn’t an airliner heading for Burlington or Montreal, their lives took a dramatic and haunting turn that would remain the stuff of nightmares for the rest of their lives and many of ours as well. Their experience has, of course, never been corroborated, which is precisely why the “what ifs” still enthrall, sending shivers down our spines if we see a strange light on the nighttime snow or the cat’s head suddenly swivels toward the door as if she’s expecting visitors.
The mesmerizing power of the unknown and its ghastly possibilities has haunted us since rattling in the tall grass triggered the natural fight-or-flight response driven by a still primitive sympathetic nervous system. Depending on past experiences, our response to perceived threats, according to The Cleveland Clinic, may manifest in different ways. If an unexpected shower had ruined a picnic or two, we’d probably begin packing up the potato salad at the first hint of a cloud. If we shared the ecosystem with lions
and tigers and bears, Oh My, our departure might be marked by more urgency.
When the Hills arrived at their destination, they had no explanation why the trip took seven hours — two or three longer than the 178-mile drive should have taken — what ufologists referred to as “missing time.” They remembered almost nothing of the estimated 35 miles of highway between Lincoln and Ashland except the image of a fiery orb sitting on the ground, which they both for some reason assumed must have been the moon, which had set much earlier in the evening.
It was through individual hypnosis the frightening details emerged. The couple recalled having been taken aboard the craft and examined by the strange looking occupants. Less than dignified bodily probes ensued. Alien beings spoke and mumbled in languages impossible to understand. And glowing eyes coming closer and closer.
Barney explained: “All I see are these eyes. I’m not even afraid that they’re not connected to a body. They’re just there.”
The Hill’s terrifying experience spawned a series of books, movies and television shows in the middle of the cold war, prompting debunkers to claim sightings were “misperceptions,” and Cold War hysteria. Believers thought UFOs were extraterrestrial craft on a mission to save humankind from an atomic war.
The Air Force’s “Project Bluebook” spent 17 years collecting, analyzing and reporting on thousands of sightings with “no evidence of extraterrestrial vehicles,” which did nothing to quell our fear of the vast universe, not to mention Russia.
Irrational fear is on the rise again with numerous reported
the increased tax burden on some households, unless you are one of the unlucky ones at the high end of the increasing grand list values. Additionally, new tax sources like the short-term rental surcharge and the cloud tax are part of the calculation this year and were not a factor last year. That artificially decreases pressure on property taxes despite the appetite for spending.
sightings of flying objects over New Jersey, most of which were identified as either commercial or recreational drones, fixed wing aircraft or helicopters. While some official explanations were more hilarious than conspiratorial, MAGA lost its mind anyway, social media clutched its pearls, and no one seemed to realize Jersey’s status as the most densely populated state might realistically mean a single object could easily generate hundreds of calls.
One government spokesman may have contributed to the panic by suggesting early on that the objects were difficult to track, especially when “they turned the lights off,” prompting concern over who “they” might be and wondering if all an enemy aircraft need do to become virtually undetectable was flick the switch. Complicating matters is the fact that drones are not playthings of the fabulously wealthy; you can buy a credible drone with sufficient blinking lights to terrorize the neighbors for under $50.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported over 383,000 commercial drones were registered in the U.S. to go along with another 392,000 recreational drones, generating revenue of $1.4 billion. Not an alien invasion by any stretch but certainly fertile ground for conspiracy theories generated by the usual suspects.
Even King Donald weighed in, taking time from sequestration at Mar-a-Lago and having his ass kissed by shameless tech toadies and basking in the misinterpreted “honor” of joining Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin, Adolph Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini as Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
While the president-elect offered, “something strange is
While it is tempting to consider, in the context of last year, a 5.9 percent increase in Vermonter’s property tax bills a victory, when we reframe the context around what that means for the household budgets of our friends and neighbors, the story changes. The U.S. inflation rate for the fourth quarter was 2.3 percent. Looking ahead to the third quarter of 2025, when property taxes would go into effect, it is projected to be the same. This means that the increased tax burden is 2.6 times higher than inflation, which is a strong indicator that incomes will not keep pace with this tax increase.
“Educators, administrators and policymakers have been constantly distracted by new shiny objects.”
The average property tax bill in Vermont is $4,697 annually, which translates to another $277 that taxpayers can expect to shell out for the upcoming school year. That is more than a full week’s worth of groceries for a typical Vermont family. It’s also more than two months’ worth of electricity.
For a family that is not income-sensitized, the increase is even more pronounced. On a $500,000 home in South Burlington, for example, a family paying based on their property value instead of income could expect to see a $534 increase in their property tax bill next year.
As pointed out by Tom Pelham, Tom Pelham, a co-founder of Campaign for Vermont and former independent House representative,
STANNARD continued from page 5
November: Somebody got elected to something. A lot of people were happy. A lot of people were unhappy.
December: For the third straight year, the leading cause of death in America for children and teens, ages 1 to 17, was guns. Firearms killed more kids than car crashes and cancer. Vermont had no mass shootings, but 66 people died from guns.
the reason we are in this mess to begin with is that we have consistently seen annual increases in education spending in the double digits over the last five years — a total spending increase of 30 percent between 2019 and 2024. Federal funds and the growth in sales taxes have masked this skyrocketing spending, but it’s now catching up with us in the form of higher property taxes. Fixing this propensity for spending requires structural reform that introduces more accountability and transparency into our education funding system. We spend the second most per student out of any state in the country, yet our results are far from second best. What we have is a distribution of resources problem. The resources we have are not making it to the right places to improve — or even maintain — outcomes for students. Educators, administrators and policymakers have been constantly distracted by new shiny objects. The good news is that this is fixable if policymakers set a laser-focus on the common outcomes we all want — improved test scores, post-secondary readiness, college placement — and create the incentives to hit them and empower folks on the ground to strive for greatness. Today, too many of the incentives are misplaced, which leads to disproportionately high spending and declining outcomes. I hope legislators are up to the task.
Ben Kinsley has over a decade of non-profit experience shaping public policy in education, elections and ethics. He currently serves as the interim executive director for Campaign for Vermont, a non-partisan advocacy group seeking to grow the state’s middle class.
To all my faithful readers I’d like to say thank you for continuing this ride with me. I will keep writing — 20 years they tell me — as long as you keep reading. Happy New Year.
Bob Stannard has been a Vermont political commentator for over two decades. He is an author, musician and former state legislator and lobbyist.
New York City-based DragonBoot String Quartet will play in Vermont on Saturday, Jan. 11, at 3 p.m., at the United Church of Christ/Waterbury Congregational Church, 8 North Main St., Waterbury.
DragonBoot, a quartet of musicians poised at the brink of promising careers, will perform music of two familiar composers, and will also introduce the audience to the work of a contemporary American composer. The program will include Haydn’s String Quartet Op.33 No. 1, Caroline Shaw’s Three Essays for String Quartet and Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18 No. 4.
The quartet includes violinists Cate Carson and Katya Moeller, violist Sydney Whipple and cellist Lila Holyoke. Built on a foundation of deep musical relationships,
the members of this ensemble have fostered musical connections that have survived the test of time.
Carson and Whipple first played together at the California Summer Music Festival over 10 years ago. Holyoke and Moeller have performed together in chamber ensembles for three consecutive years.
The DragonBoot String Quartet is the ultimate fusion of avid chamber musicians, finally coming together at The Juilliard School. They are currently in the Honors Chamber Music Program at Juilliard, coaching with former Cavani Quartet member, Merry Peckham and Juilliard Provost and violist, Adam Meyer.
Tickets are available at elevachamberplayers.com or at the door.
Community Notes
Shelburne Age Well hosts two luncheons
St. Catherine of Siena and Age Well are teaming up to offer luncheons on Tuesday, Jan. 14, and Tuesday, Jan. 21, for anyone 60 or older in the St. Catherine of Siena Parish Hall, 72 Church St., in Shelburne.
The check-in time is 11:30 and the meal will be served at noon. There is a $5 suggested donation.
Jan. 14 menu: pork chop with pineapple sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, green and black beans, wheat bread and pears. The deadline to register is Jan. 8
Jan. 21 menu: macaroni and cheese, green beans, stewed tomatoes, wheat roll and an apple. The deadline to register is Jan. 15. Contact Molly BonGiorno, nutrition
coordinator at 802-662-5283 or mbongiorno@agewellvt.org
Tickets are also available at the Age Well Office, 875 Roosevelt Highway, Suite 210, Colchester.
Cathedral hosts pancake breakfast
The Cathedral’s Bishop DeGoesbriand Council will serve a pancake breakfast in the parish hall, 29 Allen St., Burlington, on Sunday, Jan. 12, from 9-11:30 a.m.
Feast on all your favorites: blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, French toast and more. Coffee, juice, and
COMMUNITY NOTES on page 8
Corrections department offers free college classes to prisoners upon release
The Community College of Vermont and the Vermont Department of Corrections are expanding the Corrections Post-Secondary Education Initiative partnership, which delivers free college courses to corrections staff and Vermonters who are incarcerated.
Beginning on Jan. 1, vouchers will be available to any Vermonter ending a sentence or continuing their education upon release. Benefits will extend for a full year after release, and students will be eligible for two class vouchers per semester.
“We commend the Department of Corrections for their vision and leadership in extending this benefit,” CCV President Joyce Judy said in a press release. “We know that education offers hope, purpose and the chance to develop skills that will open doors to new connections and opportunities. Making college classes accessible during re-entry will go a long way toward supporting Vermonters as they return to their communities.”
The partnership was designed with the goal of reducing Vermont’s recidivism rate and supporting work-
COMMUNITY NOTES
continued from page 7
real maple syrup are included.
The cost is $ 10 per person, $5 for kids and $ 25 per family of four. Take-out containers available.
Bike groups offer tips on winter commuting
Local Motion has two events coming up for people who want to learn more about winter bicycle commuting.
Jan. 9 from 6:30-7:30 p.m., watch an online stream featuring Local Motion’s bike fleet lead mechanic preparing a couple of bikes for winter commutes and answering questions about winter bike commuting.
Jan. 14, Local Motion and Old Spokes Home present an evening of discussion with a panel of seasoned Vermont commuters at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, from 6-7 p.m. Bring a mug, because there will be hot chocolate.
WHY GO LOCAL?
force development. The program is supported by a federal grant from the Department of Justice and the office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Since launching the program in 2023 for all staff and individuals incarcerated in Vermont, the program has extended its benefits to families of corrections department staff and embedded curriculum directly into the Vermont Correctional Academy for new employees of the department. The re-entry voucher serves as a continuum of the partnership’s efforts to deliver free, accessible higher-education courses to those who intersect with Vermont’s correctional system.
“Research shows education, particularly at a college level, strengthens the workforce and gives individuals the tools they need to succeed — and stay — in our communities,” Nicholas Deml, commissioner of the department of corrections, said. “Re-entry vouchers are an important step forward in offering free college education for incarcerated people in Vermont and supporting their success in the community.”
After the holidays are over,
Go, tennenbaum: creative ways to recycle your Christmas trees
DEBRA HELEBA
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT EXTENSION
More information, localmotion. org/shop_talk_on_winter_riding.
Vermont Invention Fair urges students to register
Students in grades K-8 are invited to participate in the 3rd annual Vermont Invention Fair on Saturday, Feb. 8 at BETA Technologies.
To participate, students come up with an invention idea, build a prototype and showcase their idea. Past invention ideas have included cat carriers, book pullers, egg washers and more — the sky’s the limit.
To learn more and register, visit vtdayschool.org/inventionfair. Participants are encouraged to register by Jan. 18 to receive an inventor’s journal and t-shirt.
The Vermont Invention Fair is co-hosted by Vermont Day School and BETA Technologies (pre-registration is required).
If your holiday includes a live, cut Christmas tree, you may be wondering what to do with it after the festivities are over. Many towns, civic clubs, and solid waste districts across Vermont now have disposal programs in place. Most offer curbside pick-up of spent trees so long as all decorations, including tinsel, have been removed. This is a convenient way for you to recycle your tree.
If you are not yet ready to give up your tree or are looking for other ways to use it, there are several options to consider.
Create a respite for birds. Move your tree outdoors and decorate it with edible ornaments that birds and other wildlife can enjoy. You can hang suet in the tree, out of reach of dogs, and make homemade decorations of peanut butter-covered pinecones. An outdoor tree feeder can be enjoyable for birds
and birdwatchers alike.
Remove branches and use them to cover tender perennials. Branches can help protect your overwintering plants from snow and ice, providing them with a bit of cover and helping to maintain consistent winter temperatures.
Rent a chipper on your own or with neighbors. Chipped mulch is a valuable carbon source for your compost pile. Remember that composting works best when you use about a three-to-one ratio recipe with three parts browns (carbon sources like chipped mulch) to one part greens (like food scraps).
Balancing your compost pile with enough carbon will also help keep down odors that may attract unwanted wildlife.
Use as fill for new raised beds.
Referred to as hügelkultur, this method has been used in Europe for centuries and is an old-fashioned take on the popular lasagna-style gardening practice. Here, logs form the base of the bed, and then branch-
Shape the community’s character
Vermont Community Newspaper Group
es, twigs and leaves are layered on top. These are topped with compost or garden soils. The logs and other debris decompose over time, replicating a forest ecosystem, providing rich garden soils for your bed. It can take a full year before the bed is ready to plant using this method, but it is an affordable and ecological option to consider.
Speaking of the environment, if you have the space and interest, simply letting your tree decompose naturally can provide habitats for all types of creatures — from mammals like rabbits to bees and other beneficial insects — while returning the tree’s nutrients back to the soil.
Whichever option you choose, your Christmas tree can be a gift that keeps on giving back to nature and your gardens long after the holidays are over.
Debra Heleba is the UVM Extension Community Horticulture Program director.
The business next door donates nearly twice as much as big-box stores and online retailers to local non-profits, events and teams.
PHOTO BY DEBRA HELEBA
there are many environmentally friendly ways to recycle a Christmas tree from placing it outdoors as a haven for birds to chipping it up into mulch for the compost pile or for fill for raised beds.
John Rodgers’ party switch results in a political rebound
EKATERINA RAIKHOVSKI COMMUNITY NEWS SERVICE
Grandchildren running around his 1840s farmhouse isn’t the only thing keeping John Rodgers’ hands full these days. There’s the masonry business the West Glover 59-year-old has run for the last two decades, the hemp farm he’s managed for the last few years, and he even works plowing snow from driveways.
Now the former Northeast Kingdom legislator has added another commitment to the list: Serving as Vermont’s next lieutenant governor.
Following a race this fall decided by about 6,000 votes, according to state records, incumbent Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman conceded to Rodgers on Nov. 7 and paved the way for the Democrat-turned-Republican to re-enter politics after losing his Statehouse seat in 2020.
Rodgers spoke to the Winooski News ahead of his Jan. 8, 2025, start date about his plans for the role and his path toward it.
political ambiguity and experience will help him navigate his new role. “I’m a Vermonter first, and you are part of a party, but you shouldn’t let it dictate who you are and who you work with,” he said. “I see my role as lieutenant governor as being nonpartisan. I’m elected to work for all Vermonters.”
Democrat in the Kingdom
While Rodgers grew up in a Democratic family and had consistent electoral success running as a Democrat in the Kingdom, he switched parties ahead of the 2024 election and ran on the Republican ticket.
“The Democratic Party had shifted way too far to the left, and they don’t appear to understand blue collar Vermonters,” he said.
A self-proclaimed Yankee, Rodgers said he felt the party had moved away from him and other working-class Vermonters, finding that many moderate Republicans still represented the communities he hails from.
“I want to be a bridge.”
Rodgers’ election as lieutenant governor was something of a surprising achievement for someone who, early in his career, was hesitant about getting involved in politics.
— John Rodgers
“I had young kids, my own business, and it’s just really hard to justify taking the amount of time off my business during construction season to campaign because it’s a money losing proposition,” he said. “But they convinced me that there was no time like the present, and I went for it.”
As a Democrat, Rodgers first sought a seat in the Orleans-Caledonia 1 House district in 2000 and lost by about 130 votes. But two years later he edged out one of the incumbents by 16 votes and won a seat in the Vermont House. He’d keep his spot in office until 2010 — when he lost by fewer than five votes — before serving eight years as a senator for the Essex-Orleans district.
The 2020 election threw a wrench into his winning streak. Rodgers missed the deadline to file his paperwork for the Democratic primary, forcing him to run as an independent instead after nearly two decades representing the party. He’d finish fifth out of five candidates that year.
“I think there’s too many people who vote for a D and R and don’t really know who the candidate is,” Rodgers said. “I really underestimated how badly that hurt me.”
These days, he is hopeful his
Lt. Gov.-elect John Rodgers, center left, in discussion with outgoing Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman.
The role of lieutenant governor is one that may be inconspicuous to many Vermonters.
The official duties of the position entail running the Senate, voting only as a tiebreaker, and sitting on the three-person panel that decides committee assignments in the chamber.
But the statewide platform of the position has Rodgers excited to jump into the role.
“I want to be a bridge between Vermonters and the Statehouse, because I feel that Vermonters’ voices aren’t being heard enough in the building,” he said. “We want to get out in the communities and have town hall meetings where people can say these are the issues we’re facing, and these are the ideas we have. This is what we would like to see and be able to bring that back to the Legislature.”
Former gubernatorial candidate James Ehlers, an outspoken water activist who Rodgers recently tapped to serve as his special advisor, emphasized the hands-on effort with Vermonters taken on by Rodgers during his campaign.
Gov. Phil Scott endorsed Rodgers during the campaign. Amanda Wheeler, his press secretary, said in a statement that Scott hopes to
have a good working relationship with his future counterpart, even if the role is mostly ceremonial.
“The governor and lieutenant governor-elect have known each other for many years during their time serving as legislators,”
See RODGERS on page 10
Guiding you home
“John worked to get every single one of those votes, and when I say work, that means he spent the hours in the car and on the phone. He didn’t have to work at who he is,” Ehlers said, adding that the “dirt under his fingernails is real, and that willingness to get hands dirty is absolutely what is going to be necessary to ensure that the voice of working Vermonters and those downstream is heard.”
PHOTO COURTESY JOHN RODGERS
RODGERS
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Wheeler said, adding that Scott is “always open and willing to work with others to make Vermont more affordable, protect the most vulnerable and grow the economy.”
Rodgers came into the race feeling the odds this election season were stacked against him.
He was a Republican in a year when Vermonters would reject the party’s presidential candidate by a 2-to-1 margin. It was his first time running as a statewide candidate as well — and against a Progressive/Democratic incumbent in Zuckerman. The last time someone became lieutenant governor by defeating the incumbent in a general election was 1815, according to VTDigger.
“It gives me hope that there are still enough people out there that are willing to think about the person, and that’s what I’ve always tried to get people to do when there’s good people in both parties,” he said.
Rodgers said he is hopeful that once in office, he will be able to show Vermonters that he’s the right man for the job no matter what letter sits beside his name on the ballot.
“That really provides me with a huge amount of excitement to do that, go out and do the work on the ground and meet people, discuss issues and do everything I can to help Vermont be a place where everybody can afford to live,” he said.
The position has always been attractive to Rodgers, but he felt he couldn’t take the jump from senator to lieutenant governor due to financial constraints. That’s too large a factor affecting who serves in Montpelier, he said.
“We need a better cross-section of the Vermont population in that building if we want a true representative government,” he said.
Why’d he decide to run this year?
“I just felt like the stakes were different, with what happened over the last two years and the cost of living here,” Rodgers said. “I felt like it was time to step up and give it a shot for the big stage and see if I could help turn things around.”
Looking forward to the Legislature convening early in January, Rodgers spoke about how he plans to manage his new role alongside his existing responsibilities. “You grow up on a farm, and there’s just always something to do, so you just put one foot in front of the other and just keep getting things done.”
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
ECLIPSE
continued from page 1
warned of an influx of more than 200,000 visitors to the state and roads too crowded to drive on. The highway department’s signs warned: “hunker down” and “stay in town.” Shelburne’s police chief and town constable encouraged residents to get around by bike or on foot if they could, and Shelburne’s Heart of the Village Inn, like most other hotels in Chittenden County, was booked solid by the beginning of the year.
The eclipse turned mud season into something it had never been before: tourist season. Hibben encouraged restaurants that might usually close on Mondays to remain open, and
many chose to lean into the celebration. Barkeaters dreamed up some eclipsed themed specials and Fiddlehead Brewing planned a Beer of the Totality Party. Local stores and businesses also prepped for the wave of visitors. Visitors came to Shelburne from as far away as Florida and Georgia and as close as just down the road. With Chittenden County schools closed for the day in anticipation of the event, families flocked to
The eclipse turned mud season into something it had never been before: tourist season.
athletic fields and other nearby venues to take in the magic. Local food trucks and vendors set up, and the day took on the feel of a kind of festival.
And when the moon moved across the sky, residents and visitors all peered up, anticipating the same moment.
Some people used special devices to view the celestial event. They not only donned special glasses to protect their
eyes but brought along state-ofthe-art telescopes to track the moon’s progress.
And then, it got darker. And darker. Until, for a few minutes, the sun was completely blocked by the moon, a kind of mid-afternoon twilight. Sure, there might be some specific mathematical and physical reasons for eclipses, but we all know what they really are: magic.
And in a year that also brought flooding and a tumultuous national election, it was nice to have something to bring us all together, something to remind us that we’re small and the universe is massive. To all feel awed together. That’s its own kind of magic.
FILE PHOTO
David Danese and his dad, Anthony, traveled to Vermont from New Jersey for April’s total eclipse of the sun, using their Dobsonian telescope to catch a perfect view the show.
EDUCATION
continued from page 1
to distribute state education dollars based on student needs. The new formula updated the state’s equalized pupil-weighting system and gave more “value” to students from lower-income families, English language learners, students from low-population districts and small schools in sparsely populated districts.
In other words, if a district is more heavily weighted, Act 127 would allow those districts to spend more with less effect on local tax rates.
To soften the blow in communities like South Burlington and the towns that make up Champlain Valley School District, the law also implemented a 5 percent cap for taxes for the next five years. But for that discount to be effective, the district would have needed to spend less than 10 percent more per pupil over current spending.
For the South Burlington School District, for example, that meant the budget could have been as low as $64.7 million and as high as $71.4 million with the same effect on the residential homestead tax rate.
Most school leaders opted to max out the spending cap to preserve critical programs and staff, but legislators took issue with that aspect of the law early in the 2024 legislative session, arguing that districts throughout the state were taking advantage of the spending mechanism.
As a solution, a new bill was fast-tracked through the Statehouse in February — weeks before Town Meeting Day and after school districts had already voted on their budgets — which replaced the 5 percent cap with a one-cent tax rate discount for every percent lost in the district’s taxing capacity since Act 127’s implementation.
Still, the towns that make up the school districts were staring down an 18 percent tax rate increase.
While the new law also gave schools the option to postpone the Town Meeting Day vote to reconfigure their spending plans, leaders in both school districts opted to still present budgets at the March meeting.
This queued up a new battle for school officials: Getting a budget passed.
“It’s extremely unprecedented,” South Burlington superintendent Violet Nichols told voters in February. She added that boards and educators, at the time, were having “extremely taxing conversations looking at decimating schools and programs that we’ve dedicated our lives to developing for the benefits of students in our community.”
The law, which many say is well-intentioned, was confusing for voters to grasp and highlighted the unique tug-of-war between
local and state control when it comes to education funding in Vermont. Residents still vote on school budgets and maintain some level of local control, but those numbers ultimately have a massive effect on how the state’s education fund fares overall.
“What’s happened is that the money for education funding has been redistributed by the state and local taxpayers have been asked to vote on whether they are willing to pay for the system they have,” Noah Everitt, co-president of the South Burlington Educators Association and 12-year staffer with the district, told The Other Paper in May. “I don’t think that has really been well communicated by the Legislature.”
Ultimately both school districts’ initial budgets — and a third of school budgets statewide — failed on the first go-around in March and left leaders to make some tough decisions around programming and staffing.
For Champlain Valley School District that meant reducing the $105 million budget voted down in March by $4 million and cutting nearly 42 full-time positions within the district. That budget passed in April. Still, residents in the towns that make up the district saw double-digit tax increases this year.
For South Burlington School District, the work was far from over when its initial budget failed. As fate and voters would have it, the budget failed on a second try, too.
Parents, staff and students took to the streets in the weeks leading up to the third — and ultimately final — vote urging people to vote yes. Advocacy groups like the one dubbed SOS, short for Save our Schools, coordinated honk-andwave events across the city, and even students took matters into their own hands by staging a walkout during school hours in May.
“I think I can speak for all of us when I say that these programs and the educators that make them happen are what makes our school one worth fighting for,” Molly Leavey, a student at the high school, said at the demonstration in May. “To any community members out there, this is us fighting. This is us asking you to do what you have always done so well and support us and our schools.”
The final budget slightly over $68 million was finally approved by voters in May and residents saw an 8 percent tax rate increase associated with the spending plan this year.
The South Burlington School District was able to make out better than some of its neighbors when it came to tax increases, mostly due to the $2 million in surplus money
the board opted to use to pass a budget. But with those funds no longer available to the district this year, that poses a new set of problems for the district.
Both school districts, still reeling from the tumultuous year, have some big decisions to make with initial budget projections looking at cutting more than 30 positions at Champlain Valley School District and 16 full-time equivalent positions at South Burlington School District, although nothing has been
INFRASTRUCTURE
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for years reported issues with the current system and conversations about an overhaul date back nearly a decade. Dated and faulty equipment costs the department thousands in overtime hours and operating two discharge sites — one of which is a small brook big enough to step over — makes it difficult to meet state environmental mandates.
Despite consternation among some leading up to November’s vote, including concerns about cost, filtration and capacity, voters approved the wastewater bond handily, kickstarting a multi-year project that will start with detailed design work this winter.
The project will consolidate treatment and discharge on Crown Road. The Harbor Road facility will serve as a pump station. The first step will be to install a pipe between the facilities that will run beneath the Ti-Haul Recreation Trail and Bay Road toward Crown Road.
officially adopted by either board.
While the issue affected local school districts drastically, it also helped overturn the Democratic supermajority in the Statehouse this November, with many Republicans centering their campaigns this year on affordability and education reform.
The state has already tasked the newly formed Commission on the Future of Public Education, with studying Vermont’s public education system and making
recommendations to the Legislature on how to ensure “all students are afforded quality educational opportunities in a sustainable, and equitable education system.”
“It’s easy to point the finger,” Brian Minier, Chittenden-11 and a member of the House Committee on Education, said. “The truth is, yes, you have to look hard at spending at the local level. But it’s also our job to say, is there a better way to structure education finance?”
Even after the approval, Shelburne town manager Matt Lawless noted that all plans will be subject to a state and local review process before construction can begin.
Shelburne reached another infrastructure milestone by unveiling the Falls Road pedestrian bridge over the LaPlatte River in November, a project that’s been talked about since at least 2010.
Before the bridge, pedestrians on Falls Road had to hop off the sidewalk onto the narrow shoulder of the road to cross the bridge, creating “a sketchy situation,” according to residents.
The bridge now connects a network of sidewalks from neighborhoods on Falls Road into the village and links woodland trail loops that follow the LaPlatte River. Residents at the unveiling ceremony were elated about the bridge and relieved not to have to mingle with fast-moving traffic on Falls Road anymore.
The bridge is in line with Shel-
burne’s town plan, which calls for vast improvements to pedestrian pathway connectivity throughout town. But with a price tag of $1 million and a timeline of 14 years, several projects were put on the backburner while the bridge was constructed.
The selectboard’s vote to accept a bid for the project last December was not unanimous for those reasons. Matt Wormser voted against the project, saying that the bridge is only one small part of a greater vision.
Nonetheless, Bike and Pedestrian Paths Committee member Kevin Boehmcke said the bridge is a big win for pedestrian safety in Shelburne.
“There were numerous times throughout the 14 years where we thought this was going to die on the vine,” Boehmcke said during the ceremony in November. “But with persistence and community support, we were able to make this happen.”
FILE PHOTO
Cast members from last February’s “Finding Nemo KIDS” included Nora Plasse (Marlin), Josephine Webster-Fox (Nemo) and Nora Guidice (Dory).
Bread winners
Vermont Day School students held their annual Gingerbread Structure contest, moving well beyond simple houses with all manner of creations, all revolving around this year’s theme, “Your Favorite Decade.” The edible art is currently on display at the Pierson Library. As seen here, the children in grades K-8 presented structures sure to evoke nostalgia among their parents and grandparents — a boom box, a TIE fighter in pursuit of an X-Wing, an old-school record player and, ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles.
Motel voucher program turned away homeless
Vermonters in December
CARLY BERLIN VTDIGGER
This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
Vermont’s motel voucher program for people experiencing homelessness has turned hundreds of people away so far this month because it lacks enough rooms to shelter them. That comes as temperatures are forecast to plummet into the single digits this weekend.
The Department for Children and Families turned away 344 eligible households between Dec. 1 and 16, according to Miranda Gray, the deputy commissioner of DCF’s economic services division.
executive director of the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont.
“We want to have a capacity that’s sufficient to serve unhoused individuals, but we don’t have a full capacity to do that.”
— Rep. Theresa Wood
The 344 households include those the department considers the most vulnerable under a new policy meant to prioritize available rooms for them when space is limited.
“For example, we have families that we aren’t able to offer a space to every day,” Gray said. Advocates for unhoused Vermonters called the situation “deeply concerning.”
“The notion that we’re turning away people who the state recognizes as vulnerable at a time when the weather is as extreme as it is in the Vermonter winter — I mean, that can be a death sentence, and has been a death sentence for people,” said Frank Knaack,
The day before Thanksgiving, Tammy and Lucas Menard were found dead in a tent in Wolcott. The cause of their deaths is still under investigation, according to Kyle Casteel, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health. Another individual died at an encampment behind a shopping center in Berlin several days later. The Berlin Police Department has not yet provided additional information about them. This winter is not the first time unhoused people have been turned away from the motel program, which acts as a backstop when traditional homeless shelters are full.
Last December, 330 households were rejected because of the lack of space, Gray said. This winter, however, the program’s criteria for entry are more restrictive than in years past, and fewer rooms are available.
As of Dec. 19, the state listed 10 out of 12 regions as having no rooms available at participating motels or hotels, or having “extremely limited” capacity, defined as five rooms or fewer.
About 1,400 rooms are currently in the state’s motel voucher system, down from about 1,600 last year, Gray said. Some advocates and lawmakers have questioned why the number of rooms has dropped.
“We want to have a capacity
that’s sufficient to serve unhoused individuals, but we don’t have a full capacity to do that,” Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, said. In several instances, Gray said earlier this month, hotels and motels have diminished their participation in the program because of new caps on how much the state will pay them. In some cases, owners, municipalities and state officials understand that using fewer rooms puts less strain on first responders and local services, she added. Some hotels and motels have been sanctioned for health and safety issues, including the Cortina Inn in Rutland, which was placed under a 60-day suspension by state health officials earlier this month.
Burlington is one area where DCF has struggled to meet the need for shelter, Gray said. Some motels around the city have been converted into affordable housing in recent years — a great development, Gray said, but one that means fewer rooms are available for someone with a motel voucher. While efforts to bolster Vermont’s emergency shelter
capacity continue, some seasonal shelters are still not up and running. A winter warming shel-
AMSES
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going on and for some reason they (the government?) don’t want to tell the people,” he left the brunt of the heavy lifting to MAGA minions, always at the ready to spread the gospel.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, posting on the oxymoronic “Truth Social,” volunteered her services in unintentionally threatening syntax: “I’ll shoot the drones down myself along with every other red-blooded, freedom-loving American if they try to tell us all to stay inside, stay home, shelter in place FOR OUR SAFETY from the drones, there is no way in hell I will comply with that bullshit.” Greene prefers batshit.
Staunchly MAGA Roseanne Barr cites “Project Blue Beam,” a 1990s theory originated by Canadian journalist Serge Monast and frequently touted by Alex Jones that warns of a government
ter is currently in the works in the Queen City but isn’t expected to open until mid-January.
initiative to fake an alien invasion to abolish religion and install a new world order — or something like that. State Sen. Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania posting on X from a galaxy far, far away, shared a photo captioned “breaking news … crashed drone retrieved from water … taken to undisclosed location for further investigation.”
The “further investigation” determined Mastriano’s hair was ablaze over a prop from the Star Wars franchise, prompting the Texas Observer’s Steven Monacelli to point out America’s real problem: “Our nation is facing a crisis of information literacy.” Barney and Betty Hill are likely out there somewhere. Laughing at us.
Walt Amses is a Vermontbased writer.
Harbor Place, formerly the Day’s Inn, on Shelburne Road is a motel owned and operated by Champlain Housing Trust.
Vermont’s outdoor recreation value tops $2.1 billion this year
AUDITI GUHA VTDIGGER
Many Vermont residents value the outdoors. What they may not know is just how much the Green Mountain State’s outdoor recreation economy is worth.
Outdoor recreation contributed $2.1 billion in value added, or 4.8 percent of the state’s gross domestic product in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. That means it made up the second-highest percentage of state GDP, after Hawaii.
Since the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis started tracking this data a few years ago, Vermont has maintained its position near the top, said Rebecca Washburn, director of the lands administration and recreation division of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation in Vermont.
For Washburn, the data underscores that the state is a great place for people to live and visit. And it helps departments such as hers think about how and where to invest strategically in outdoor recreation, she said.
accessible to all — including those who have physical challenges, children and seniors — and often fields questions from other states at national conferences on how Vermont does it.
“Everyone knows that Vermont is leading the charge in the outdoor sector so it is pretty cool,” he said.
He is particularly passionate about promoting outdoor access and has this year helped assess 10 different trail systems for biking and 21 water access spots across the state.
“Everybody deserves the opportunity to recreate and play in Vermont and enjoy the Green Mountains and what we have here,” he said.
“It’s pretty awesome we’re up there with Hawaii — and we don’t have an ocean.”
According to the federal data published last month, outdoor goods manufacturing increased by 15 percent reaching $135 million in 2023, accommodation and food services grew 9 percent to $733.5 million, retail sales climbed 4.5 percent to $412.8 million and employment in the outdoor recreation sector rose 4 percent from 2022.
— Jeff Alexander
Vermont’s outdoor recreation economy depends on businesses and organizations across the state — from bike repair shops and guide services to high end ski resorts and retail.
The data found that snow activities — such as skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, dog mushing and snowshoeing — contribute the most, adding a whopping $220 million to Vermont’s GDP in 2023, up from $170 million in 2022, according to a release from the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing. RVing, areas providing tennis, golf and water recreation follow.
Jeff Alexander, a former NFL mascot who is now director of strategic partnerships and business development at Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports, said his organization has seen “tremendous growth” over the last decade and last year provided 5,300 outings for residents and visitors in Vermont.
“It’s pretty awesome we’re up there with Hawaii — and we don’t have an ocean,” he said.
A member of the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative, Alexander said he works on making trails
To support the sustained growth of the state’s outdoor recreation economy, the collaborative is spearheading a Move Forward Together Vermont initiative to create a shared vision and an action plan for the next five years, according to the release.
“Outdoor recreation is not just an integral element of our visitor economy, but it is baked into the Vermont experience enjoyed by residents and visitors alike,” Commissioner Heather Pelham from the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing said in the release.
It’s heartening to see the numbers soar despite devastating flooding in the past two years, said Washburn.
“People are still looking to recreation for all the things that it provides to them, and the more we think about how we can support the resilience of outdoor recreation and the businesses that are focused on it, the more we as a state will be able to weather those changes in climate and the intensity of some of those weather events,” she said.
As the snow fell on Tuesday before Christmas Day, Washburn encouraged people to “go outside, enjoy the snow and be grateful.”
