Published in the Addison Independent
MIDDLEBURY - A fire at Middlebury College's Center for Educational Technology closed sections of Court Square Monday afternoon. The center, which has been undergoing restoration, caught fire in the cupola of the landmark building, which was the Addison County Courthouse through 1995.
Middlebury Fire Chief Rick Cole said he understood the fire had started when painters were peeling paint with heat guns as part of the restoration work. He said the fire, which was the first in the building in at least 25 years, was fairly small but complicated due to the structure and the new construction.
"You have to take it slow and easy," Cole said.
The freshly restored cupola roof, completed just days before the fire, proved an obstacle to the firefighters because of the newness of the construction.
Cole called out most of the Middlebury Fire Department to fight the fire. He said the New Haven Fire Department was called to assist at the scene as well as to cover the Middlebury station while the department was at the old courthouse. When he decided he wanted an additional ladder truck, Cole called Vergennes, which responded with the one ladder truck requested.
Cole said there were no injuries to firefighters. Damage to equipment in the high-tech building was also minimal.
Inside the building, the firefighters had covered computers and office desks with plastic, which saved most of the computers from water damage resulting from the firefighters and sprinkler system.
A couple of offices in the front of the building were destroyed by water damage, but the main teaching spaces and most offices were damp but not seriously affected, according to Marsha DeBonis, assistant director of Project 2001, the college organization that occupies the building.
"We're trying to dry things out," DeBonis said. "The front offices got hit badly."
The offices will be repaired within 10 days, DeBonis said. The computer equipment was working well, she said.
"Everything came back up (Tuesday) morning beautifully," DeBonis said. "It could have been a lot worse."
Showing posts with label AddisonIndependent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AddisonIndependent. Show all posts
Thursday, September 21, 2000
Monday, August 14, 2000
Demolition derby rocks county fair
Published in the Addison Independent
NEW HAVEN — A junkyard was parked in the mud. The crowds were gathered to watch the ultimate battle, a fight to the mechanical death. The last one to need a repair shop wins — except they all could already use some body work, and maybe a few new parts.
A coat of paint? Definitely.
But then, this is the Addison County Fair and Field Days demolition derby, where muscle and steel count for everything and things like windshields and mufflers don't even exist.
Fire crews and an ambulance stand ready to rescue drivers whose cars get destroyed — or rather, finished off. Seventy vehicles are in the lineup for the night, in six heats with a final feature smash-up for the big money.
Without the traditional Field Days rainstorm, the Vergennes Fire Department had to pre-soak the ground to ensure the proper degree of mud for the first night of competition on Wednesday. The destruction began with four heats of big six-cylinder cars.
Here is a look at how the action went.
In the first heat, Thadeus Sorrell in the No. 41 car took several long high-speed runs, reversing into the mass of cars at one end of the ring or the other. But his fortune turned against him when several cars seemed to gang up on him, reducing his car to a smoking hulk with massive bends in its frame.
Matthew DeBisschop in car 70 took Madeline Martell in car 57 and Travis Forbes (car 45) on a long ride most of the length of the ring, pushing Forbes over the concrete barrier at the edge.
"Number 51 is now a compact," the announcer said, after a big multi-car collision.
The heat winners were Chad Steady (car 99) and Mike McGrath in car 11. Wendell Mason in car 21 was third.
The top two in a heat win money and are eligible to appear in the final feature of the night. The third driver is also eligible for the final, though the driver wins no money for the heat.
As the smoke cleared, two Bobcats and a forklift entered the ring to begin removing the steaming, smoking wrecks. Most of the drivers were able to steer their cars; some were able to move under their own power after being extracted from other cars or the barrier edging the ring.
The second heat started with Pat Deering (car 12) nicking part of the log barrier on his way into the ring.
Nathan Bingham (car 9) was quickly driven up high on the barrier. Thomas Sattus (car 38) hit Troy Goduo (car 30) heavily, but was then pinned by three disabled cars. Eric Huestis in car 55 cleared Goduo with a heavy hit.
Derrick Dykstra (car 81) got stuck in a corner for a while, but managed to make it out eventually. Because his car was protected from the early carnage, Dykstra was able to make some long damaging runs later in the heat.
Goduo put a huge hit on Deering, lifting both cars off the ground. Car 55 had destroyed its rear end, but Heustis continued smashing competitors with the back seat.
When action resumed after a fire was extinguished, Nathan Bingham took his No. 9 on a long run, pushing Harry Chamberland (car 22) high up onto the barrier. Chamberland was able, though, to spin his wheels enough to get unstuck.
VanDeWeert and Chamberland were the top two in the heat, while Bingham also survived to be eligible for the final round.
In the cleanup, Garrett Given's No. 77 pushed Matt Deering (car 13) out of the ring.
As the cars entered the ring for the third six-cylinder heat, Phillip Stevens' No. 63 died before even getting past the barrier. Stevens, obviously frustrated, was towed away, but would return in the fourth heat.
This round was characterized by several cars pushed up on the barrier very quickly, and by the massive fishtail tactics of Boomer LaFountain in the No. 57 car.
For a time, Kenny Lussier in No. 2 was sandwiched between LaFountain and Gerard Grant in No. 71, but escaped and slammed Jeffrey Sampson's into the wall.
Sampson got stuck in the corner behind Jody Bartlett's No. 72. Sampson kept backing into Bartlett, hammering away trying to get out, but eventually the engine had enough and quit in a massive cloud of smoke and steam.
LaFountain and Lussier won the heat, with Ben Paquin (car 69) in third.
"It was my first time out there," Lussier said, "I just keep hittin' and hittin' and hittin'."
In trying to remove David Parker's car 51 from its position on the barrier, the Bobcat drivers nearly flipped it. When they did get it unstuck, though, Parker was able to drive out of the ring without a problem.
Stevens got his car 63 into the ring for the fourth heat, but only took one run at an opponent before it died.
The No. 35 car, driven by Roxie Hall, caught fire and Hall got out quickly. Safely in the crowd, she could still see the flames in her head.
"I had watched the fire long enough," she said.
Gregory Manchester in No. 52 and Michael Gill in No. 32 set up a joint attack on Mike LaFountain's car 84, but it went awry. Gill successfully hit LaFountain, but was immediately hit by Manchester.
Bruce Putnam, in No. 50, had some serious trouble with his partially-detached bumper. No matter where he headed, he had to drive over his own bumper to get there. It made for a rockier ride than usual for Putnam, whose car later caught fire.
The final three were locked in battle for a long time. Manchester and LaFountain sandwiched Tim Tenney's No. 44, compressing it from both ends simultaneously. When Tenney finally escaped, his car was crippled.
LaFountain executed a smooth evasion of a threat from Manchester, but was hit by Tenney's crawling car in a last-gasp effort to keep car 44 in the running.
In the back lot, work was frantic. Drivers who won their heats were trying to fix up their vehicles to give them a good chance in the final.
"They're just rippin' stuff off, ripping fenders off, changing tires, chains and that," said Mike McGrath. He didn't have much work to do, though.
"I just tried to plug up the radiator so it won't leak," he said.
In the meantime, the four-cylinder cars were lined up to drive each other to bits in two heats.
Jason Paquette in No. 42 was first off the line, but Chris Bearor in car 9 stole the early stages with a long sweeping run piling up several cars on the rear end of his.
Todd Huestis in No. 75 had a flashing light atop his car. After a few hits, though, the light quit flashing and just stayed on.
Jeremy Markwell in No. 65 smashed into Bearor, putting both through the barrier.
"It's crunch time at the Addison County Field Days," the announcer said.
Melissa Smith in No. 31 went head-to-head with Kevin Wedge in No. 17. Smith, granddaughter of legendary demo derby driver Wally LaFountain, took a huge evasive swing and drove Wedge into the wall for the win.
In the second four-cylinder heat, John Bannon, Jr., in car 22, didn't get off the line.
The other cars did, though, and soon bumpers, tires and car parts littered the mud, popping tires and adding to the mayhem.
In a tribute to the American automotive industry, several cars took head-on collisions and kept moving, with their drivers unhurt.
Mike Paquette in No. 19 and Steve Miller in No. 33 were the last two. Miller's car was much stronger, but Paquette's was more agile and outmaneuvered its opponent for the win.
FINAL FEATURE
The final feature heat brought back the winners in the six-cylinder class. Some were in the same cars, while others had traded up to better cars for the final.
Mike McGrath in No. 11 dominated the final, making hard hits on Jason VanDeWeert in No. 25 and Mike LaFountain in No. 49. LaFountain and Harry Chamberland in No. 78 spun their tires into cinders and smoke.
LaFountain and McGrath were the last two, engaged in a dance for the cash. They spun in circles, went back and forth, side by side. McGrath's dashboard warning lights were all lit up.
In the haze and smoke the two drivers eyed each other, each aiming to disable the other's car without a fatal blow to his own. After several attempts, McGrath got free and set up for a crushing reverse blow. He delivered it and went back for another, both of which landed solidly.
LaFountain's engine caught fire, and it was all over.
McGrath came over to the stands, waving his trophy to the adulation of his fans. His most enthusiastic supporter, though, was Dave Musante, who gave McGrath the car.
"When I first came here in 1998, I drove into a snowbank," Musante said. "Mike pulled me out and said it looked like a good car for the derby. I told him, 'It's yours when I get rid of it.'"
On Thursday, the action continued, with Dave Holbrook outlasting everyone and taking the championship.
NEW HAVEN — A junkyard was parked in the mud. The crowds were gathered to watch the ultimate battle, a fight to the mechanical death. The last one to need a repair shop wins — except they all could already use some body work, and maybe a few new parts.
A coat of paint? Definitely.
But then, this is the Addison County Fair and Field Days demolition derby, where muscle and steel count for everything and things like windshields and mufflers don't even exist.
Fire crews and an ambulance stand ready to rescue drivers whose cars get destroyed — or rather, finished off. Seventy vehicles are in the lineup for the night, in six heats with a final feature smash-up for the big money.
Without the traditional Field Days rainstorm, the Vergennes Fire Department had to pre-soak the ground to ensure the proper degree of mud for the first night of competition on Wednesday. The destruction began with four heats of big six-cylinder cars.
Here is a look at how the action went.
In the first heat, Thadeus Sorrell in the No. 41 car took several long high-speed runs, reversing into the mass of cars at one end of the ring or the other. But his fortune turned against him when several cars seemed to gang up on him, reducing his car to a smoking hulk with massive bends in its frame.
Matthew DeBisschop in car 70 took Madeline Martell in car 57 and Travis Forbes (car 45) on a long ride most of the length of the ring, pushing Forbes over the concrete barrier at the edge.
"Number 51 is now a compact," the announcer said, after a big multi-car collision.
The heat winners were Chad Steady (car 99) and Mike McGrath in car 11. Wendell Mason in car 21 was third.
The top two in a heat win money and are eligible to appear in the final feature of the night. The third driver is also eligible for the final, though the driver wins no money for the heat.
As the smoke cleared, two Bobcats and a forklift entered the ring to begin removing the steaming, smoking wrecks. Most of the drivers were able to steer their cars; some were able to move under their own power after being extracted from other cars or the barrier edging the ring.
The second heat started with Pat Deering (car 12) nicking part of the log barrier on his way into the ring.
Nathan Bingham (car 9) was quickly driven up high on the barrier. Thomas Sattus (car 38) hit Troy Goduo (car 30) heavily, but was then pinned by three disabled cars. Eric Huestis in car 55 cleared Goduo with a heavy hit.
Derrick Dykstra (car 81) got stuck in a corner for a while, but managed to make it out eventually. Because his car was protected from the early carnage, Dykstra was able to make some long damaging runs later in the heat.
Goduo put a huge hit on Deering, lifting both cars off the ground. Car 55 had destroyed its rear end, but Heustis continued smashing competitors with the back seat.
When action resumed after a fire was extinguished, Nathan Bingham took his No. 9 on a long run, pushing Harry Chamberland (car 22) high up onto the barrier. Chamberland was able, though, to spin his wheels enough to get unstuck.
VanDeWeert and Chamberland were the top two in the heat, while Bingham also survived to be eligible for the final round.
In the cleanup, Garrett Given's No. 77 pushed Matt Deering (car 13) out of the ring.
As the cars entered the ring for the third six-cylinder heat, Phillip Stevens' No. 63 died before even getting past the barrier. Stevens, obviously frustrated, was towed away, but would return in the fourth heat.
This round was characterized by several cars pushed up on the barrier very quickly, and by the massive fishtail tactics of Boomer LaFountain in the No. 57 car.
For a time, Kenny Lussier in No. 2 was sandwiched between LaFountain and Gerard Grant in No. 71, but escaped and slammed Jeffrey Sampson's into the wall.
Sampson got stuck in the corner behind Jody Bartlett's No. 72. Sampson kept backing into Bartlett, hammering away trying to get out, but eventually the engine had enough and quit in a massive cloud of smoke and steam.
LaFountain and Lussier won the heat, with Ben Paquin (car 69) in third.
"It was my first time out there," Lussier said, "I just keep hittin' and hittin' and hittin'."
In trying to remove David Parker's car 51 from its position on the barrier, the Bobcat drivers nearly flipped it. When they did get it unstuck, though, Parker was able to drive out of the ring without a problem.
Stevens got his car 63 into the ring for the fourth heat, but only took one run at an opponent before it died.
The No. 35 car, driven by Roxie Hall, caught fire and Hall got out quickly. Safely in the crowd, she could still see the flames in her head.
"I had watched the fire long enough," she said.
Gregory Manchester in No. 52 and Michael Gill in No. 32 set up a joint attack on Mike LaFountain's car 84, but it went awry. Gill successfully hit LaFountain, but was immediately hit by Manchester.
Bruce Putnam, in No. 50, had some serious trouble with his partially-detached bumper. No matter where he headed, he had to drive over his own bumper to get there. It made for a rockier ride than usual for Putnam, whose car later caught fire.
The final three were locked in battle for a long time. Manchester and LaFountain sandwiched Tim Tenney's No. 44, compressing it from both ends simultaneously. When Tenney finally escaped, his car was crippled.
LaFountain executed a smooth evasion of a threat from Manchester, but was hit by Tenney's crawling car in a last-gasp effort to keep car 44 in the running.
In the back lot, work was frantic. Drivers who won their heats were trying to fix up their vehicles to give them a good chance in the final.
"They're just rippin' stuff off, ripping fenders off, changing tires, chains and that," said Mike McGrath. He didn't have much work to do, though.
"I just tried to plug up the radiator so it won't leak," he said.
In the meantime, the four-cylinder cars were lined up to drive each other to bits in two heats.
Jason Paquette in No. 42 was first off the line, but Chris Bearor in car 9 stole the early stages with a long sweeping run piling up several cars on the rear end of his.
Todd Huestis in No. 75 had a flashing light atop his car. After a few hits, though, the light quit flashing and just stayed on.
Jeremy Markwell in No. 65 smashed into Bearor, putting both through the barrier.
"It's crunch time at the Addison County Field Days," the announcer said.
Melissa Smith in No. 31 went head-to-head with Kevin Wedge in No. 17. Smith, granddaughter of legendary demo derby driver Wally LaFountain, took a huge evasive swing and drove Wedge into the wall for the win.
In the second four-cylinder heat, John Bannon, Jr., in car 22, didn't get off the line.
The other cars did, though, and soon bumpers, tires and car parts littered the mud, popping tires and adding to the mayhem.
In a tribute to the American automotive industry, several cars took head-on collisions and kept moving, with their drivers unhurt.
Mike Paquette in No. 19 and Steve Miller in No. 33 were the last two. Miller's car was much stronger, but Paquette's was more agile and outmaneuvered its opponent for the win.
FINAL FEATURE
The final feature heat brought back the winners in the six-cylinder class. Some were in the same cars, while others had traded up to better cars for the final.
Mike McGrath in No. 11 dominated the final, making hard hits on Jason VanDeWeert in No. 25 and Mike LaFountain in No. 49. LaFountain and Harry Chamberland in No. 78 spun their tires into cinders and smoke.
LaFountain and McGrath were the last two, engaged in a dance for the cash. They spun in circles, went back and forth, side by side. McGrath's dashboard warning lights were all lit up.
In the haze and smoke the two drivers eyed each other, each aiming to disable the other's car without a fatal blow to his own. After several attempts, McGrath got free and set up for a crushing reverse blow. He delivered it and went back for another, both of which landed solidly.
LaFountain's engine caught fire, and it was all over.
McGrath came over to the stands, waving his trophy to the adulation of his fans. His most enthusiastic supporter, though, was Dave Musante, who gave McGrath the car.
"When I first came here in 1998, I drove into a snowbank," Musante said. "Mike pulled me out and said it looked like a good car for the derby. I told him, 'It's yours when I get rid of it.'"
On Thursday, the action continued, with Dave Holbrook outlasting everyone and taking the championship.
Thursday, August 10, 2000
Field Days kicks off with kids: From dairy cows to the call of the carnie, fair has it all
Published in the Addison Independent
NEW HAVEN - Over at the Addison County fairgrounds, the chairs and awnings are set up, the lights are on and the merry-go-round is turning. Kids and adults of all ages roamed from the calliope to the Christmas trees, and between the handmade candles and flashing electric lights.
It was the first day of the Addison County Fair and Field Days.
At the booth displaying the machines of Middlebury's Champlain Valley Equipment, things were quiet in the early afternoon.
"Nighttime is better," Matt Deering said. He and his brother Pat and their boss, Jerry Gordon, were waiting for customers to appear for their tractors, barbecue grills and other equipment.
The threesome were in good spirits and enthusiastic about their products, and were looking forward to increased traffic later in the day.
Tom Verner is performing his magician's act for the first time at Field Days. He does two shows
each afternoon. His first show drew a good number of spectators, including a group from Camp Keewaydin.
"It gets bigger as the week goes on," Verner said.
Up on the midway, Mike Greenhalgh's voice rings out.
"Rollaball racin'. Firstclowntotheendwins. It's a rrrraace!"
He is reaching out for potential competitors, without a lot of success, so far.
"It's day one," Greenhalgh said. It's his first time in Vermont, and he's glad to be here.
"Rolling hills. I love 'em," he said.
His computerized game does much of the work for him, but he has to attract the people.
Two 10-year-old girls approached and asked about the game. They looked a bit uncertain, but Greenhalgh is a salesman. He told them what they want to know, showed off the stuffed-toy prizes and suggested they go get a few more friends to race against.
"The more racers the nicer the prize," he said.
The girls left, with a promise to return with a bigger group.
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL
With all the people the Field Days draws, politicians can't be far behind. Even Bernie Sanders showed up to campaign in the evening.
The Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force was collecting signatures for its "marriage resolution."
"Ultimately the idea is equality," said task force statewide coordinator Dorothy Mammen, who is running for a House seat representing Middlebury. She said a lot of people had come by the booth.
Take it to the People was also there. "We're urging people to get out and vote," said booth staffer Jean Smith. The booth had a "petition to repeal civil unions."
"We're not pushing it," Smith said. "But people who do come by usually have a strong opinion."
The Democratic and Republican parties were also there, with candidates, balloons, bumper stickers, buttons and signs.
Several people, including some out-of-staters had come by the Democratic booth, according to Fran Putnam.
"Everybody's excited about the Gore-Lieberman ticket," Putnam said.
Bette Trucott of Barton drove down from the Northeast Kingdom to staff the Take Back Vermont booth, where things were fairly quiet.
"They come in clusters," Trucott said. "The Take Back Vermont sign gets a lot of interest. We're a nonpartisan group."
AROUND THE GROUNDS
At the peewee cattle show, Allie Orlando of New York showed Pee-Wee, a calf owned by her cousins, the Weavers of Rochester. She had done this once before, as have most of the other competitors in her group, the kids who will show in 4-H next year.
The judge, Jim Gilmore of the University of Vermont, asked each youngster a few questions about their calves. He also passed along a few tips.
"You oughta give 'em a name," Gilmore said. "You want to walk slow so she looks nice. And keep her head up."
Allie did fairly well and didn't have the mammoth struggle others endured to keep their stubborn calves walking around the ring.
The Addison County Dairy Board's booth was giving away both white and chocolate milk, but only one of those was really moving.
"People love chocolate milk," said Charlie Huizenga. "It's about five to one. They come around here just for the chocolate milk."
At the Home and Garden display, the flowers and vegetables were alongside beautiful baked goods and textiles.
"We have quite a large number of entries," Carol Morrison said. The awards ceremony for the home and garden is 8 p.m. Thursday.
"We have a lot of winners," Morrison said.
Devon Karpak, Ripton's "Balloon Man," was in the 4-H building making complex art forms out of inflated rubber. A few kids could be spotted wearing his creations, though most just had the normal helium-filled balloons tied to their wrists.
Karpak is a self-taught balloon artist whose skills are well-known among his peers.
"Give it to anybody out there that's my age," he said, "and they'll know."
Anthony Mastergeorge of AJ's Catering has been making fried dough at fairs throughout the Northeast for 47 years. This fair, he said, is his favorite.
"It's the most courteous fair of the year," Mastergeorge said. "There's more families that come to this fair. Everybody says 'please' and 'thank you.'"
Mastergeorge, from Connecticut, also appreciates the esthetics of the fair and its surroundings.
"The scenery is beautiful," he said.
But more importantly, he said, it's the right kind of fair.
"They stay with the agriculture," Mastergeorge said. "Once they change that, it just becomes another carnival."
NEW HAVEN - Over at the Addison County fairgrounds, the chairs and awnings are set up, the lights are on and the merry-go-round is turning. Kids and adults of all ages roamed from the calliope to the Christmas trees, and between the handmade candles and flashing electric lights.
It was the first day of the Addison County Fair and Field Days.
At the booth displaying the machines of Middlebury's Champlain Valley Equipment, things were quiet in the early afternoon.
"Nighttime is better," Matt Deering said. He and his brother Pat and their boss, Jerry Gordon, were waiting for customers to appear for their tractors, barbecue grills and other equipment.
The threesome were in good spirits and enthusiastic about their products, and were looking forward to increased traffic later in the day.
Tom Verner is performing his magician's act for the first time at Field Days. He does two shows
each afternoon. His first show drew a good number of spectators, including a group from Camp Keewaydin.
"It gets bigger as the week goes on," Verner said.
Up on the midway, Mike Greenhalgh's voice rings out.
"Rollaball racin'. Firstclowntotheendwins. It's a rrrraace!"
He is reaching out for potential competitors, without a lot of success, so far.
"It's day one," Greenhalgh said. It's his first time in Vermont, and he's glad to be here.
"Rolling hills. I love 'em," he said.
His computerized game does much of the work for him, but he has to attract the people.
Two 10-year-old girls approached and asked about the game. They looked a bit uncertain, but Greenhalgh is a salesman. He told them what they want to know, showed off the stuffed-toy prizes and suggested they go get a few more friends to race against.
"The more racers the nicer the prize," he said.
The girls left, with a promise to return with a bigger group.
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL
With all the people the Field Days draws, politicians can't be far behind. Even Bernie Sanders showed up to campaign in the evening.
The Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force was collecting signatures for its "marriage resolution."
"Ultimately the idea is equality," said task force statewide coordinator Dorothy Mammen, who is running for a House seat representing Middlebury. She said a lot of people had come by the booth.
Take it to the People was also there. "We're urging people to get out and vote," said booth staffer Jean Smith. The booth had a "petition to repeal civil unions."
"We're not pushing it," Smith said. "But people who do come by usually have a strong opinion."
The Democratic and Republican parties were also there, with candidates, balloons, bumper stickers, buttons and signs.
Several people, including some out-of-staters had come by the Democratic booth, according to Fran Putnam.
"Everybody's excited about the Gore-Lieberman ticket," Putnam said.
Bette Trucott of Barton drove down from the Northeast Kingdom to staff the Take Back Vermont booth, where things were fairly quiet.
"They come in clusters," Trucott said. "The Take Back Vermont sign gets a lot of interest. We're a nonpartisan group."
AROUND THE GROUNDS
At the peewee cattle show, Allie Orlando of New York showed Pee-Wee, a calf owned by her cousins, the Weavers of Rochester. She had done this once before, as have most of the other competitors in her group, the kids who will show in 4-H next year.
The judge, Jim Gilmore of the University of Vermont, asked each youngster a few questions about their calves. He also passed along a few tips.
"You oughta give 'em a name," Gilmore said. "You want to walk slow so she looks nice. And keep her head up."
Allie did fairly well and didn't have the mammoth struggle others endured to keep their stubborn calves walking around the ring.
The Addison County Dairy Board's booth was giving away both white and chocolate milk, but only one of those was really moving.
"People love chocolate milk," said Charlie Huizenga. "It's about five to one. They come around here just for the chocolate milk."
At the Home and Garden display, the flowers and vegetables were alongside beautiful baked goods and textiles.
"We have quite a large number of entries," Carol Morrison said. The awards ceremony for the home and garden is 8 p.m. Thursday.
"We have a lot of winners," Morrison said.
Devon Karpak, Ripton's "Balloon Man," was in the 4-H building making complex art forms out of inflated rubber. A few kids could be spotted wearing his creations, though most just had the normal helium-filled balloons tied to their wrists.
Karpak is a self-taught balloon artist whose skills are well-known among his peers.
"Give it to anybody out there that's my age," he said, "and they'll know."
Anthony Mastergeorge of AJ's Catering has been making fried dough at fairs throughout the Northeast for 47 years. This fair, he said, is his favorite.
"It's the most courteous fair of the year," Mastergeorge said. "There's more families that come to this fair. Everybody says 'please' and 'thank you.'"
Mastergeorge, from Connecticut, also appreciates the esthetics of the fair and its surroundings.
"The scenery is beautiful," he said.
But more importantly, he said, it's the right kind of fair.
"They stay with the agriculture," Mastergeorge said. "Once they change that, it just becomes another carnival."
Thursday, August 3, 2000
Taking a look at how county legislators voted the issues
Published in the Addison Independent
Editor's note: This report does not include information from the 1999-2000 legislative session. The state Legislative Council has not finished compiling and publishing all of the data regarding legislation proposed and passed during the most recent session. That information will be available on-line by September and in bound form by November, according to the Legislative Council office.
Method: Using the Vermont Legislature's web site at www.leg.state.vt.us, the Addison Independent looked at the record of all Addison County legislators at the state level. The web site lists bills by primary sponsor and then by co-sponsors, who frequently sign on to a bill after it is written. The Addison Independent looked only at bills whose primary sponsor was an Addison County legislator, and examined the outcomes of those proposed bills.
ADDISON COUNTY - In judging the performance of Addison County's legislative delegation, like an annual job performance review, one objective measure is to review the legislation that has been enacted with their influence.
The Independent researched the number of proposals each member of the county's delegation has authored - from the date the legislator was first elected - and whether any of those proposals made it out of committee, through the House and Senate, and into law.
While it is only one measure of a legislator's performance, the types of legislation proposed and the success of those proposals is, at least, indicative of how effective the county's delegation has been.
Comments from each legislator were sought to allow them to reflect on what they considered their most effective role to be, as well as to comment on their legislative records.
TONY DOMINICK
Rep. Tony Dominick, I-Starksboro, wrote one bill during his first two-year term in 1997-98, which proposed restructuring Vermont's electrical utility industry to allow Vermont residents to choose their electrical company. That bill died in committee.
Dominick said the local government committee, on which he sits, isn't a big newsmaker. "They don't make a lot of headlines, which is fine with me," he said.
He is pleased with the campaign finance reform law, which is now beginning to make itself felt as state elections get going.
"As far as statewide impact, I think that was the most challenging and rewarding for me," Dominick said.
Despite that success in committee, he is concerned that legislators spend too much time in meetings and involved in committee work.
"We should spend more time on the (House) floor," Dominick said. "There's a tremendous amount out there that we have to get informed about."
Writing legislation is not his priority, he said, though this past session he sponsored bills benefiting Starksboro and Lincoln residents.
"I don't go around looking to write bills because there are so many out there now," Dominick said.
His electrical restructuring proposal, he said, didn't have a good outlook, even at the beginning.
"It was doomed from the start," Dominick said.
But he said the regulatory work is constraining proper business practices; he expects electricity rates to keep climbing as a result. Dominick said he also expects restructuring to happen in Vermont, but on a slower timetable than it would have been under his proposal.
ANNE GINEVAN
Rep. Anne Ginevan, R-Middlebury, sponsored no bills in her first term in the House in 1997-98. She was on the Education Committee and helped pass a bill that helps parents save for their children's post-secondary education.
"It's doing quite well," Ginevan said, "better than they had expected."
She said she was part of efforts to increase the funding for the state's institutions of higher education. The total budget for University of Vermont, the state colleges, and the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, Ginevan said, went up 7 percent in that year's budget.
Ginevan has supported elderly services, environmental issues and helping revitalize downtown areas throughout the state. She is also concerned about health care including prescription drugs and mental health, she said.
Ginevan said she represents her constituents well.
"I will certainly sponsor legislation that my constituents ask me to," she said, adding that she is planning to introduce some constituent-requested bills in the next session. She would not give details, though, saying the form of the bills is not yet final.
CONNIE HOUSTON
Rep. Connie Houston, R-Ferrisburgh, proposed having seat belts in school buses in the 1993-94 legislative session. That idea, and six other Houston-sponsored bills, never made it to the House floor. Her proposal to expand coverage of the working farm tax credit was approved by the House, but did not make it past the Senate Finance Committee.
In the 1995-96 biennium, Houston was the primary sponsor of eight bills, none of which made it past the House. Those proposals included requiring government agencies to report on the economic impact of their proposals, restructuring property taxes, requiring additional grading and regulation of schools, and mandating motor vehicle owners have insurance. In 1997-98, Houston again sponsored the latter bill, which again died in committee.
"I don't really care if I pass a bill," Houston said. "All I really care about is representing my constituents."
She said he has assisted members of her constituency with state bureaucracy in matters ranging from the Act 250 permit process to health insurance.
"My priority is the people," Houston said.
She has, she said, also worked to reduce taxes and protect the Northeast Dairy Compact. "We appropriated money to keep the compact continuing," Houston said.
BRUCE HYDE
Rep. Bruce Hyde, R-Fayston, proposed one bill during his first session, limiting to one the number of bear a hunter can take in a season, and shortening the bear-hunting season from 16 weeks to just four. During his second year, his proposal giving state consent to the United States Forest Service buying land in Vermont passed the House but died in a Senate committee. None of his proposals were enacted.
"I've been on the Natural Resources committee for six years," Hyde said.
He advocates simplifying the Act 250 permit process to better coordinate with the Agency of Natural Resources and the Water Resources Board, which also often issue permits for projects requiring Act 250 clearance.
"One agency doesn't know what the other agency is doing," Hyde said. "It just seems that things take forever."
TOM MCGRATH
Rep. Thomas McGrath, R-Ferrisburgh, proposed four bills in his first biennium, 1997-98, two of which dealt with regulations on emergency vehicles' license plates and colored lights.
Three never escaped discussion in committee, but the other passed the House. That bill proposed allowing Vermonters to display a Fraternal Order of Eagles commemorative license plate on the front of their cars, much like the Vermont bicentennial commemorative plate issued in 1991. That bill, however, never left the Senate Transportation Committee.
"I feel pretty comfortable that I do represent my constituents," McGrath said. "The biggest thing is being able to serve."
BETTY NUOVO
Rep. Betty Nuovo, D-Middlebury, wrote four bills in 1997-98, her first term in the House after taking several years off from politics. She wanted to double speeding fines for people who drive too fast in construction areas, and to give $50,000 to the Addison County Career Development Center to build and addition and renovate some existing space. None of Nuovo's proposals made it out of committee to a second reading on the floor of the House.
"There's lots of bills that get pieces through in other ways," Nuovo said. "It takes several years to get things through."
She was, she said, able to help get some money for elderly services and for the Middlebury sewer plant, but she is happiest with her stands on recent statewide issues.
"I've been most proud of the civil unions and Act 60," Nuovo said.
HARVEY SMITH
Rep. Harvey Smith, R-New Haven, was new in the 1999-2000 legislative session. He sat on the House Agriculture Committee, and worked to get relief for apple growers hurt by last year's summer drought and autumn winds. That work was unsuccessful in the Senate, but Smith also helped deal with big agricultural concerns.
"The permitting process for large farms is permanent now," Smith said.
Smith said he also helped to broaden the range of input into the state's educational planning system, including putting a student on the state Board of Education.
He said he is concerned with giving adequate money to programs the Legislature deems worth funding.
"They have several good programs out here," Smith said, "but they seem to be chronically under-funded."
PATRICIA SMITH
Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Sudbury, is not running for re-election. She used her first term in 1997-1998 to propose funding for an experiment to control Eurasian water milfoil in Burr Pond using a combination of chemical and non-chemical methods. The bill proposed the experiment should happen during the summer of 1999. This bill passed the House, but never left the Senate Natural Resources and Energy committee. The bill passed in the 1999-2000 session and the experiment was carried out in the summer of 2000. Results are not yet available.
BILL WISELL
Rep. Bill Wisell, D-Bristol, started slowly in 1991-92, sitting quietly without proposing any legislation. But the following year that observation paid off.
He proposed two bills, both of which were enacted into law. One, of which he was the primary sponsor, was a collaborative effort of a committee on which Wisell sat. It required Vermont motorists to wear seat belts. The other successful bill that year was part of the combination of the village and town of Bristol.
In 1995-96, he did not propose any legislation. In 1997-98, he proposed three bills, none of which made it out of committee.
"I haven't introduced many bills," Wisell said. "My feeling is that there's enough of it."
His main work, he said, is "trying to represent in the general Legislature what I think is in the interest of the people of Bristol."
MARK YOUNG
Rep. Mark Young, R-Orwell, sponsored one bill that became law in his first session in 1993-94, bringing $15,000 in state funding to the Shoreham school district for its heating system. Since then, he has proposed six bills, one of which extended workers' compensation to volunteer firefighters undertaking department fund-raising activities. That bill passed the House but stalled in a Senate committee during the 1997-98 session. All of his other proposals failed to pass the House.
"I've served eight years on the Commerce Committee," Young said, acknowledging his work has been not as visible as some other legislators. He said his work has been more valuable on a statewide basis than directly to his constituents.
Young said he sometimes votes across party lines, to be in accord with what he feels is best. This, he said, sometimes confuses members of both parties, who expect him to stick more to the party's position.
"I keep them all guessing," Young said.
Young said he has tried to help with road projects in Shoreham and the sewer project in that town. He said he is running to bring some experience back to the House, though he expects about half of next session's representatives to be new.
"There needs to be somebody back there," Young said, stressing the value of continuity in the House. "It helps to have some legislators with a track record and some time there."
TOM BAHRE
Sen. Tom Bahre, R-Addison, has proposed a total of 59 bills, seven of which have become law. In 1991-1992, his first term, Bahre proposed a referendum on the death penalty, as well as a bill entitled "Fetal Homicide and Other Crimes." Three of his 15 proposals were enacted that session, including a bill giving a 20-year permit for Shorewell Ferries of Shoreham to operate a ferry across Lake Champlain at Larrabee's Point.
In 1993-94, among his 19 bill proposals, Bahre proposed requiring bicycle owners to pay a $25 registration fee. He also proposed a bill to require parental notification of a minor's abortion. Both of those failed in committee.
Bahre was able to secure nearly $8,000 for the Addison Central School to defray the 1991 expenses the town had incurred to install a modular building. The other bill he proposed that was enacted in 1993-94 established statewide programs for helping children at risk of school failure.
In 1995-1996, Bahre's third term, he proposed 14 pieces of legislation, one of which became law, establishing increased controls on commercial waste haulers. He also proposed a bill to base property tax appraisals on present use, rather than potential development use.
In 1997-1998, Bahre sponsored 11 bills, one of which was enacted, designating a portion of Route 22A in Vergennes as Kayhart Crossing, in honor of Roger Kayhart, a longtime county legislator. Bahre also proposed that a part of the old Burlington-Vergennes highway in New Haven be designated as part of a historic roadway.
Bahre, who sits on the Senate Agriculture, Transportation and Finance committees, said he is able to benefit the county in the context of the statewide issues those committees handle.
"I do the county some good by being able to be there," Bahre said. As examples, he mentioned the road improvement projects on Route 22A in Vergennes, the intersection of Cider Mill Road and Route 125 in Cornwall and Route 125 in Addison.
"I've been a voice for infrastructure maintenance and repair," Bahre said. "I maintain some attention to those in the agency (of transportation)."
Since the 1991-92 failure of his proposal to consider the death penalty in Vermont, Bahre has not proposed it again, because, he said, he is concerned that the state's judicial system won't handle a capital case properly.
"I've lost quite a lot of my confidence in the courts," Bahre said.
He has other major concerns now, though: primarily health insurance and prescription drug prices.
"Being in a minority in my committee, I couldn't stop the foolishness of the prescription drug proposal," Bahre said. "The state of Vermont has loused up health insurance for people."
He said has worked to oppose what he calls "social medicine," state support of health care, and to increase the number of companies offering health care in Vermont, as well as legislation allowing Vermonters to set up medical savings accounts.
"The health insurance trouble is getting worse on a daily basis here in Vermont," Bahre said.
As for his bicycle registration fee, he remains adamant. "The concept of bicycles paying for public infrastructure isn't a bad idea," Bahre said.
Bahre said he has been effective, though not always through directly authoring legislation. As an example, he cited his work to reduce license plate fees for local emergency vehicles. He proposed eliminating the fee, which was phased out over several legislative sessions, ending with its elimination as a rider to another bill.
"If I wasn't there holding their feet to the fire it wouldn't have happened," Bahre said.
He said it doesn't matter whether legislation gets passed in its own bill or as part of another, as long as it does, in the end, succeed.
ELIZABETH READY
Sen. Elizabeth Ready, D-Addison, has proposed 89 bills, 10 fewer than all of the county's other incumbent state legislators combined. Ready has served one more term than Bahre, the next most senior elected official from the county.
In her first term, 1989-90, Ready wrote four bills that became laws, allowing administrative enforcement of some environmental laws and establishing a statewide commission to discuss the future of Lake Champlain, as well as other issues. One of her proposals that failed was a state equivalent of the federal Clean Air Act.
In 1991-1992, Ready wrote nine bills that were enacted, including giving additional power to the citizen committee to address issues regarding Lake Champlain, set up procedures for converting mobile home parks to condominium-style organizations, and increased energy efficiency of state government offices. Ready proposed a state Clean Air Act again, which again did not make it out of the House.
Her third term, 1993-94, saw the only gubernatorial veto of a bill proposed by a sitting Addison County legislator. Ready proposed regulations for water and sewer systems at mobile home parks, which was approved by the House and the Senate but vetoed by Gov. Howard Dean. Four other of Ready's 26 proposals during the 1993-94 legislative session, were enacted, including screening of children for lead poisoning, preventing people convicted of certain crimes from being professional waste haulers, and to prevent monopolies in the waste hauling business. She proposed requiring using recyclable packaging for certain types of products, and establishing a security fund protecting milk producers from defaulted payments from milk handlers.
In 1995-96, Ready proposed increasing control on motor vehicle emissions, but that and six other of her proposals failed. She did successfully write and pass an act streamlining some permitting for waste haulers.
Her fifth term, in 1997-98, saw her propose 22 bills, of which three became laws. One was a moratorium on the use of herbicides in commercial forestry. Another act Ready wrote was to help large farms deal with their animal waste and methane emissions. She also effected the identification of the northern leopard frog as the official state amphibian.
Some of her proposals that failed to be enacted included requiring lobbyists in Montpelier to wear badges identifying their employers, and expanding the beverage container deposit law to juices and other drink containers.
Ready, a 12-year member of the Senate Natural Resources committee and its chairwoman for four years, said she has made her priorities environmental issues and the quality of life of working people.
"Those are the areas that I really came to the Senate to work on," Ready said.
In her second term, she said, she became involved in prioritizing spending for those issues and others.
"We found ourselves really awash in a whole sea of red ink during the deficit years," Ready said. "I became part of the team that balanced the budget and retired the deficit."
She is proudest of a collection of bills about environmental issues, including use-value appraisal for some property taxes, energy efficiency.
"A lot of these are first-in-the-nation bills," Ready said.
The Clean Air Act proposal was not a complete failure, she said, explaining that other laws enacted small segments of the larger proposal.
"We ended up doing it in bits and pieces," Ready said.
Her biggest legislative disappointments, she said, have been difficulties passing comprehensive utility restructuring and prescription drug price controls.
Editor's note: This report does not include information from the 1999-2000 legislative session. The state Legislative Council has not finished compiling and publishing all of the data regarding legislation proposed and passed during the most recent session. That information will be available on-line by September and in bound form by November, according to the Legislative Council office.
Method: Using the Vermont Legislature's web site at www.leg.state.vt.us, the Addison Independent looked at the record of all Addison County legislators at the state level. The web site lists bills by primary sponsor and then by co-sponsors, who frequently sign on to a bill after it is written. The Addison Independent looked only at bills whose primary sponsor was an Addison County legislator, and examined the outcomes of those proposed bills.
ADDISON COUNTY - In judging the performance of Addison County's legislative delegation, like an annual job performance review, one objective measure is to review the legislation that has been enacted with their influence.
The Independent researched the number of proposals each member of the county's delegation has authored - from the date the legislator was first elected - and whether any of those proposals made it out of committee, through the House and Senate, and into law.
While it is only one measure of a legislator's performance, the types of legislation proposed and the success of those proposals is, at least, indicative of how effective the county's delegation has been.
Comments from each legislator were sought to allow them to reflect on what they considered their most effective role to be, as well as to comment on their legislative records.
TONY DOMINICK
Rep. Tony Dominick, I-Starksboro, wrote one bill during his first two-year term in 1997-98, which proposed restructuring Vermont's electrical utility industry to allow Vermont residents to choose their electrical company. That bill died in committee.
Dominick said the local government committee, on which he sits, isn't a big newsmaker. "They don't make a lot of headlines, which is fine with me," he said.
He is pleased with the campaign finance reform law, which is now beginning to make itself felt as state elections get going.
"As far as statewide impact, I think that was the most challenging and rewarding for me," Dominick said.
Despite that success in committee, he is concerned that legislators spend too much time in meetings and involved in committee work.
"We should spend more time on the (House) floor," Dominick said. "There's a tremendous amount out there that we have to get informed about."
Writing legislation is not his priority, he said, though this past session he sponsored bills benefiting Starksboro and Lincoln residents.
"I don't go around looking to write bills because there are so many out there now," Dominick said.
His electrical restructuring proposal, he said, didn't have a good outlook, even at the beginning.
"It was doomed from the start," Dominick said.
But he said the regulatory work is constraining proper business practices; he expects electricity rates to keep climbing as a result. Dominick said he also expects restructuring to happen in Vermont, but on a slower timetable than it would have been under his proposal.
ANNE GINEVAN
Rep. Anne Ginevan, R-Middlebury, sponsored no bills in her first term in the House in 1997-98. She was on the Education Committee and helped pass a bill that helps parents save for their children's post-secondary education.
"It's doing quite well," Ginevan said, "better than they had expected."
She said she was part of efforts to increase the funding for the state's institutions of higher education. The total budget for University of Vermont, the state colleges, and the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, Ginevan said, went up 7 percent in that year's budget.
Ginevan has supported elderly services, environmental issues and helping revitalize downtown areas throughout the state. She is also concerned about health care including prescription drugs and mental health, she said.
Ginevan said she represents her constituents well.
"I will certainly sponsor legislation that my constituents ask me to," she said, adding that she is planning to introduce some constituent-requested bills in the next session. She would not give details, though, saying the form of the bills is not yet final.
CONNIE HOUSTON
Rep. Connie Houston, R-Ferrisburgh, proposed having seat belts in school buses in the 1993-94 legislative session. That idea, and six other Houston-sponsored bills, never made it to the House floor. Her proposal to expand coverage of the working farm tax credit was approved by the House, but did not make it past the Senate Finance Committee.
In the 1995-96 biennium, Houston was the primary sponsor of eight bills, none of which made it past the House. Those proposals included requiring government agencies to report on the economic impact of their proposals, restructuring property taxes, requiring additional grading and regulation of schools, and mandating motor vehicle owners have insurance. In 1997-98, Houston again sponsored the latter bill, which again died in committee.
"I don't really care if I pass a bill," Houston said. "All I really care about is representing my constituents."
She said he has assisted members of her constituency with state bureaucracy in matters ranging from the Act 250 permit process to health insurance.
"My priority is the people," Houston said.
She has, she said, also worked to reduce taxes and protect the Northeast Dairy Compact. "We appropriated money to keep the compact continuing," Houston said.
BRUCE HYDE
Rep. Bruce Hyde, R-Fayston, proposed one bill during his first session, limiting to one the number of bear a hunter can take in a season, and shortening the bear-hunting season from 16 weeks to just four. During his second year, his proposal giving state consent to the United States Forest Service buying land in Vermont passed the House but died in a Senate committee. None of his proposals were enacted.
"I've been on the Natural Resources committee for six years," Hyde said.
He advocates simplifying the Act 250 permit process to better coordinate with the Agency of Natural Resources and the Water Resources Board, which also often issue permits for projects requiring Act 250 clearance.
"One agency doesn't know what the other agency is doing," Hyde said. "It just seems that things take forever."
TOM MCGRATH
Rep. Thomas McGrath, R-Ferrisburgh, proposed four bills in his first biennium, 1997-98, two of which dealt with regulations on emergency vehicles' license plates and colored lights.
Three never escaped discussion in committee, but the other passed the House. That bill proposed allowing Vermonters to display a Fraternal Order of Eagles commemorative license plate on the front of their cars, much like the Vermont bicentennial commemorative plate issued in 1991. That bill, however, never left the Senate Transportation Committee.
"I feel pretty comfortable that I do represent my constituents," McGrath said. "The biggest thing is being able to serve."
BETTY NUOVO
Rep. Betty Nuovo, D-Middlebury, wrote four bills in 1997-98, her first term in the House after taking several years off from politics. She wanted to double speeding fines for people who drive too fast in construction areas, and to give $50,000 to the Addison County Career Development Center to build and addition and renovate some existing space. None of Nuovo's proposals made it out of committee to a second reading on the floor of the House.
"There's lots of bills that get pieces through in other ways," Nuovo said. "It takes several years to get things through."
She was, she said, able to help get some money for elderly services and for the Middlebury sewer plant, but she is happiest with her stands on recent statewide issues.
"I've been most proud of the civil unions and Act 60," Nuovo said.
HARVEY SMITH
Rep. Harvey Smith, R-New Haven, was new in the 1999-2000 legislative session. He sat on the House Agriculture Committee, and worked to get relief for apple growers hurt by last year's summer drought and autumn winds. That work was unsuccessful in the Senate, but Smith also helped deal with big agricultural concerns.
"The permitting process for large farms is permanent now," Smith said.
Smith said he also helped to broaden the range of input into the state's educational planning system, including putting a student on the state Board of Education.
He said he is concerned with giving adequate money to programs the Legislature deems worth funding.
"They have several good programs out here," Smith said, "but they seem to be chronically under-funded."
PATRICIA SMITH
Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Sudbury, is not running for re-election. She used her first term in 1997-1998 to propose funding for an experiment to control Eurasian water milfoil in Burr Pond using a combination of chemical and non-chemical methods. The bill proposed the experiment should happen during the summer of 1999. This bill passed the House, but never left the Senate Natural Resources and Energy committee. The bill passed in the 1999-2000 session and the experiment was carried out in the summer of 2000. Results are not yet available.
BILL WISELL
Rep. Bill Wisell, D-Bristol, started slowly in 1991-92, sitting quietly without proposing any legislation. But the following year that observation paid off.
He proposed two bills, both of which were enacted into law. One, of which he was the primary sponsor, was a collaborative effort of a committee on which Wisell sat. It required Vermont motorists to wear seat belts. The other successful bill that year was part of the combination of the village and town of Bristol.
In 1995-96, he did not propose any legislation. In 1997-98, he proposed three bills, none of which made it out of committee.
"I haven't introduced many bills," Wisell said. "My feeling is that there's enough of it."
His main work, he said, is "trying to represent in the general Legislature what I think is in the interest of the people of Bristol."
MARK YOUNG
Rep. Mark Young, R-Orwell, sponsored one bill that became law in his first session in 1993-94, bringing $15,000 in state funding to the Shoreham school district for its heating system. Since then, he has proposed six bills, one of which extended workers' compensation to volunteer firefighters undertaking department fund-raising activities. That bill passed the House but stalled in a Senate committee during the 1997-98 session. All of his other proposals failed to pass the House.
"I've served eight years on the Commerce Committee," Young said, acknowledging his work has been not as visible as some other legislators. He said his work has been more valuable on a statewide basis than directly to his constituents.
Young said he sometimes votes across party lines, to be in accord with what he feels is best. This, he said, sometimes confuses members of both parties, who expect him to stick more to the party's position.
"I keep them all guessing," Young said.
Young said he has tried to help with road projects in Shoreham and the sewer project in that town. He said he is running to bring some experience back to the House, though he expects about half of next session's representatives to be new.
"There needs to be somebody back there," Young said, stressing the value of continuity in the House. "It helps to have some legislators with a track record and some time there."
TOM BAHRE
Sen. Tom Bahre, R-Addison, has proposed a total of 59 bills, seven of which have become law. In 1991-1992, his first term, Bahre proposed a referendum on the death penalty, as well as a bill entitled "Fetal Homicide and Other Crimes." Three of his 15 proposals were enacted that session, including a bill giving a 20-year permit for Shorewell Ferries of Shoreham to operate a ferry across Lake Champlain at Larrabee's Point.
In 1993-94, among his 19 bill proposals, Bahre proposed requiring bicycle owners to pay a $25 registration fee. He also proposed a bill to require parental notification of a minor's abortion. Both of those failed in committee.
Bahre was able to secure nearly $8,000 for the Addison Central School to defray the 1991 expenses the town had incurred to install a modular building. The other bill he proposed that was enacted in 1993-94 established statewide programs for helping children at risk of school failure.
In 1995-1996, Bahre's third term, he proposed 14 pieces of legislation, one of which became law, establishing increased controls on commercial waste haulers. He also proposed a bill to base property tax appraisals on present use, rather than potential development use.
In 1997-1998, Bahre sponsored 11 bills, one of which was enacted, designating a portion of Route 22A in Vergennes as Kayhart Crossing, in honor of Roger Kayhart, a longtime county legislator. Bahre also proposed that a part of the old Burlington-Vergennes highway in New Haven be designated as part of a historic roadway.
Bahre, who sits on the Senate Agriculture, Transportation and Finance committees, said he is able to benefit the county in the context of the statewide issues those committees handle.
"I do the county some good by being able to be there," Bahre said. As examples, he mentioned the road improvement projects on Route 22A in Vergennes, the intersection of Cider Mill Road and Route 125 in Cornwall and Route 125 in Addison.
"I've been a voice for infrastructure maintenance and repair," Bahre said. "I maintain some attention to those in the agency (of transportation)."
Since the 1991-92 failure of his proposal to consider the death penalty in Vermont, Bahre has not proposed it again, because, he said, he is concerned that the state's judicial system won't handle a capital case properly.
"I've lost quite a lot of my confidence in the courts," Bahre said.
He has other major concerns now, though: primarily health insurance and prescription drug prices.
"Being in a minority in my committee, I couldn't stop the foolishness of the prescription drug proposal," Bahre said. "The state of Vermont has loused up health insurance for people."
He said has worked to oppose what he calls "social medicine," state support of health care, and to increase the number of companies offering health care in Vermont, as well as legislation allowing Vermonters to set up medical savings accounts.
"The health insurance trouble is getting worse on a daily basis here in Vermont," Bahre said.
As for his bicycle registration fee, he remains adamant. "The concept of bicycles paying for public infrastructure isn't a bad idea," Bahre said.
Bahre said he has been effective, though not always through directly authoring legislation. As an example, he cited his work to reduce license plate fees for local emergency vehicles. He proposed eliminating the fee, which was phased out over several legislative sessions, ending with its elimination as a rider to another bill.
"If I wasn't there holding their feet to the fire it wouldn't have happened," Bahre said.
He said it doesn't matter whether legislation gets passed in its own bill or as part of another, as long as it does, in the end, succeed.
ELIZABETH READY
Sen. Elizabeth Ready, D-Addison, has proposed 89 bills, 10 fewer than all of the county's other incumbent state legislators combined. Ready has served one more term than Bahre, the next most senior elected official from the county.
In her first term, 1989-90, Ready wrote four bills that became laws, allowing administrative enforcement of some environmental laws and establishing a statewide commission to discuss the future of Lake Champlain, as well as other issues. One of her proposals that failed was a state equivalent of the federal Clean Air Act.
In 1991-1992, Ready wrote nine bills that were enacted, including giving additional power to the citizen committee to address issues regarding Lake Champlain, set up procedures for converting mobile home parks to condominium-style organizations, and increased energy efficiency of state government offices. Ready proposed a state Clean Air Act again, which again did not make it out of the House.
Her third term, 1993-94, saw the only gubernatorial veto of a bill proposed by a sitting Addison County legislator. Ready proposed regulations for water and sewer systems at mobile home parks, which was approved by the House and the Senate but vetoed by Gov. Howard Dean. Four other of Ready's 26 proposals during the 1993-94 legislative session, were enacted, including screening of children for lead poisoning, preventing people convicted of certain crimes from being professional waste haulers, and to prevent monopolies in the waste hauling business. She proposed requiring using recyclable packaging for certain types of products, and establishing a security fund protecting milk producers from defaulted payments from milk handlers.
In 1995-96, Ready proposed increasing control on motor vehicle emissions, but that and six other of her proposals failed. She did successfully write and pass an act streamlining some permitting for waste haulers.
Her fifth term, in 1997-98, saw her propose 22 bills, of which three became laws. One was a moratorium on the use of herbicides in commercial forestry. Another act Ready wrote was to help large farms deal with their animal waste and methane emissions. She also effected the identification of the northern leopard frog as the official state amphibian.
Some of her proposals that failed to be enacted included requiring lobbyists in Montpelier to wear badges identifying their employers, and expanding the beverage container deposit law to juices and other drink containers.
Ready, a 12-year member of the Senate Natural Resources committee and its chairwoman for four years, said she has made her priorities environmental issues and the quality of life of working people.
"Those are the areas that I really came to the Senate to work on," Ready said.
In her second term, she said, she became involved in prioritizing spending for those issues and others.
"We found ourselves really awash in a whole sea of red ink during the deficit years," Ready said. "I became part of the team that balanced the budget and retired the deficit."
She is proudest of a collection of bills about environmental issues, including use-value appraisal for some property taxes, energy efficiency.
"A lot of these are first-in-the-nation bills," Ready said.
The Clean Air Act proposal was not a complete failure, she said, explaining that other laws enacted small segments of the larger proposal.
"We ended up doing it in bits and pieces," Ready said.
Her biggest legislative disappointments, she said, have been difficulties passing comprehensive utility restructuring and prescription drug price controls.
What it takes to be a strong legislator: Veterans say time, compromise key
Published in the Addison Independent
What makes a good legislator? All voters ask some form of that question as Election Day approaches. Two area politicians have some suggestions.
Former Gov. Madeleine Kunin emphasized individual resources and personality traits as two major identifiers of good candidates.
"It's important to have a legislator who has time to do the job well," Kunin said. "The most effective legislators are those who know how to build a consensus and a coalition for the support of an issue that they are advocating."
That said, the part-time nature of the Vermont Legislature has its benefits both for members and their constituents.
"Vermont has a citizen legislature," said Kunin, who served in the Vermont House from 1973 to 1979 and was lieutenant governor from 1979 to 1983 before winning the state's top post. "Most legislators like to think they're not professional politicians."
Respect in the Legislature, she said, can come to any type of person, no matter his or her background or prior experience. It's a matter of them doing their homework and being well-informed about issues before the Legislature.
Peg Martin largely agrees. Martin, a former Democratic representative from Middlebury and current Middlebury selectman, said courage and balance are also important parts of the mix.
"You want somebody who is not afraid to stick their neck out if that's appropriate," Martin said.
While Martin said she sees a place for extremism in the House and Senate ("You need to have extremes in the Legislature so you can find the middle"), consensus is the real factor in making things happen under the Golden Dome.
"It's when you get many people to buy into a solution that it has a chance of working," Martin said.
DOING THE LEGWORK
And, she said, the people who propose the legislation are not always the ones who do the legwork to help it succeed.
"I'm not personally convinced that the individual who proposes the most legislation is necessarily the most effective," Martin said. "There's a lot of glue," she said, referring to legislators who work behind the scenes to build support for bills.
Voters must determine individually what issues and character elements they value, and members of the various parties will differ dramatically. But all voters should expect their representatives to be intelligent enough and skilled enough to carry out the basic requirements.
In a companion piece in this issue of the Addison Independent is the legislative record of area legislators since first elected. It serves as a reference to the level of accomplishment in this one area of a legislator's duty. The types of legislation proposed as bills reflects the quality of thinking each legislator has exhibited while in office. No guide is, of itself, a determining factor for whether a candidate is qualified, but it does grade the legislators for their level of accomplishments and the quality of their efforts.
What makes a good legislator? All voters ask some form of that question as Election Day approaches. Two area politicians have some suggestions.
Former Gov. Madeleine Kunin emphasized individual resources and personality traits as two major identifiers of good candidates.
"It's important to have a legislator who has time to do the job well," Kunin said. "The most effective legislators are those who know how to build a consensus and a coalition for the support of an issue that they are advocating."
That said, the part-time nature of the Vermont Legislature has its benefits both for members and their constituents.
"Vermont has a citizen legislature," said Kunin, who served in the Vermont House from 1973 to 1979 and was lieutenant governor from 1979 to 1983 before winning the state's top post. "Most legislators like to think they're not professional politicians."
Respect in the Legislature, she said, can come to any type of person, no matter his or her background or prior experience. It's a matter of them doing their homework and being well-informed about issues before the Legislature.
Peg Martin largely agrees. Martin, a former Democratic representative from Middlebury and current Middlebury selectman, said courage and balance are also important parts of the mix.
"You want somebody who is not afraid to stick their neck out if that's appropriate," Martin said.
While Martin said she sees a place for extremism in the House and Senate ("You need to have extremes in the Legislature so you can find the middle"), consensus is the real factor in making things happen under the Golden Dome.
"It's when you get many people to buy into a solution that it has a chance of working," Martin said.
DOING THE LEGWORK
And, she said, the people who propose the legislation are not always the ones who do the legwork to help it succeed.
"I'm not personally convinced that the individual who proposes the most legislation is necessarily the most effective," Martin said. "There's a lot of glue," she said, referring to legislators who work behind the scenes to build support for bills.
Voters must determine individually what issues and character elements they value, and members of the various parties will differ dramatically. But all voters should expect their representatives to be intelligent enough and skilled enough to carry out the basic requirements.
In a companion piece in this issue of the Addison Independent is the legislative record of area legislators since first elected. It serves as a reference to the level of accomplishment in this one area of a legislator's duty. The types of legislation proposed as bills reflects the quality of thinking each legislator has exhibited while in office. No guide is, of itself, a determining factor for whether a candidate is qualified, but it does grade the legislators for their level of accomplishments and the quality of their efforts.
Monday, June 26, 2000
Middlebury Planning Commission pans college parking plan
Published in the Addison Independent
MIDDLEBURY - The Middlebury Planning Commission rejected one proposal, but left the door open for a smaller version of a proposed parking lot at Middlebury College during its meeting Wednesday night.
The meeting represented the third discussion on the project to expand the parking lot at the College's Center for the Arts by 149 spaces, and was met by significant neighborhood resistance.
In a split decision, the commission rejected the proposal for 149 spaces by a 5-1 vote, but postponed action on whether to consider a smaller proposal when the vote was deadlocked at 3-3.
The project would require the relocation of Porter Field Road, a college-owned road which is open to public traffic. The road will be moved roughly 65-feet closer to neighboring houses.
As part of the plan, the college said it would build an earth berm between the new road site and the adjoining residences in Chipman Park. The college also said it would make other modifications to the project to allay residents' fears of speeding cars and dangerous traffic.
Those changes, college facilities planner Tom McGinn said, include speed bumps and realigning the curve in Porter Field Road to be a squared 90 degrees, as well as a stop sign at the corner for traffic heading east on the road.
Plantings, berms and traffic controls like speed bumps, according to town planner Fred Dunnington, are normally considered to be "mitigating factors," elements which lessen the overall impact of the project on its surrounding area.
Despite having met earlier with college officials on the issue, one complication of the proposal was the resistance of local residents to those mitigating factors.
"We didn't agree to any berm. A seven-foot berm would make us feel like we were being bunkered in," said Chipman Park resident Greg Tomb.
"We also didn't agree to speed bumps," said Doris Dutton, another Chipman Park resident.
The college's proposal was further complicated by wanting to breach what it had earlier stipulated as a 100-foot buffer around the neighborhood. The edge of the road, at the new intersection, would only be 88 feet from the property lines in Chipman Park.
Chipman Park resident Barbara Tomb read a statement of opposition signed by 21 people, representing 16 property owners, including owners of all properties directly adjoining the project's proposed site.
The issues, Tomb said, were both existing problems which were not acceptable, and the expectation that the additional parking and road relocation would make the existing problems worse. New concerns, Tomb said, are pedestrian safety, property values and aesthetic imbalance in the area.
Other neighbors' concerns included noise and air pollution from the cars, light pollution from the parking lot lights, and traffic safety.
South Street resident Ruthe Ayres asked about the logic of adding extra spaces to a parking lot that is rarely used.
"That parking lot's not full most of the time," Ayres said.
The college has recently closed two of its major parking lots for planned construction. It also intended to expand the parking lot west of Ridgeline Woods, but currently lacks state approval for construction in that area, which is a wetland.
There was some indication from McGinn that the college might be close to a deal with the state. That added to the planning commission's uncertainty about the wisdom of approving parking near a residential area, when time might result in a new parking lot in a place with less impact on residents.
"You're bursting at the seams, and I think imposing on the neighborhoods is not the way to go," planning commission member Natalie Peters told McGinn.
Peters, however, was not the only strong voice among the commission.
"I think it's not unreasonable for them to do what they're doing," said commission member Bill Kenerson.
Kenerson recommended requiring reduction of the number of parking spaces and more green space, as conditions of approving the plan.
Commission chair Susan DeWind thought making so many changes to the proposed design was too much to approve without seeing it.
"You should not be designing a site plan," DeWind said.
McGinn and engineer Gary Fern wanted to know whether a smaller proposal might have a chance, or whether building a parking lot in the proposed location will not be approved by the board.
The board initially voted 5-1 to draft a denial of the plan with 149 spaces, but after further discussion split 3-3 on whether a reduced application might have a chance at success. Board member John Barstow was not present.
After a three-hour meeting on this one application, the board voted to recess the discussion until July 5.
McGinn was frustrated by the board's inability to decide.
"What we want to hear is some direction," McGinn said.
He was uncertain as to the future of the college's plans for development near Chipman Park.
"There's no guarantee they're not going to change," he said.
MIDDLEBURY - The Middlebury Planning Commission rejected one proposal, but left the door open for a smaller version of a proposed parking lot at Middlebury College during its meeting Wednesday night.
The meeting represented the third discussion on the project to expand the parking lot at the College's Center for the Arts by 149 spaces, and was met by significant neighborhood resistance.
In a split decision, the commission rejected the proposal for 149 spaces by a 5-1 vote, but postponed action on whether to consider a smaller proposal when the vote was deadlocked at 3-3.
The project would require the relocation of Porter Field Road, a college-owned road which is open to public traffic. The road will be moved roughly 65-feet closer to neighboring houses.
As part of the plan, the college said it would build an earth berm between the new road site and the adjoining residences in Chipman Park. The college also said it would make other modifications to the project to allay residents' fears of speeding cars and dangerous traffic.
Those changes, college facilities planner Tom McGinn said, include speed bumps and realigning the curve in Porter Field Road to be a squared 90 degrees, as well as a stop sign at the corner for traffic heading east on the road.
Plantings, berms and traffic controls like speed bumps, according to town planner Fred Dunnington, are normally considered to be "mitigating factors," elements which lessen the overall impact of the project on its surrounding area.
Despite having met earlier with college officials on the issue, one complication of the proposal was the resistance of local residents to those mitigating factors.
"We didn't agree to any berm. A seven-foot berm would make us feel like we were being bunkered in," said Chipman Park resident Greg Tomb.
"We also didn't agree to speed bumps," said Doris Dutton, another Chipman Park resident.
The college's proposal was further complicated by wanting to breach what it had earlier stipulated as a 100-foot buffer around the neighborhood. The edge of the road, at the new intersection, would only be 88 feet from the property lines in Chipman Park.
Chipman Park resident Barbara Tomb read a statement of opposition signed by 21 people, representing 16 property owners, including owners of all properties directly adjoining the project's proposed site.
The issues, Tomb said, were both existing problems which were not acceptable, and the expectation that the additional parking and road relocation would make the existing problems worse. New concerns, Tomb said, are pedestrian safety, property values and aesthetic imbalance in the area.
Other neighbors' concerns included noise and air pollution from the cars, light pollution from the parking lot lights, and traffic safety.
South Street resident Ruthe Ayres asked about the logic of adding extra spaces to a parking lot that is rarely used.
"That parking lot's not full most of the time," Ayres said.
The college has recently closed two of its major parking lots for planned construction. It also intended to expand the parking lot west of Ridgeline Woods, but currently lacks state approval for construction in that area, which is a wetland.
There was some indication from McGinn that the college might be close to a deal with the state. That added to the planning commission's uncertainty about the wisdom of approving parking near a residential area, when time might result in a new parking lot in a place with less impact on residents.
"You're bursting at the seams, and I think imposing on the neighborhoods is not the way to go," planning commission member Natalie Peters told McGinn.
Peters, however, was not the only strong voice among the commission.
"I think it's not unreasonable for them to do what they're doing," said commission member Bill Kenerson.
Kenerson recommended requiring reduction of the number of parking spaces and more green space, as conditions of approving the plan.
Commission chair Susan DeWind thought making so many changes to the proposed design was too much to approve without seeing it.
"You should not be designing a site plan," DeWind said.
McGinn and engineer Gary Fern wanted to know whether a smaller proposal might have a chance, or whether building a parking lot in the proposed location will not be approved by the board.
The board initially voted 5-1 to draft a denial of the plan with 149 spaces, but after further discussion split 3-3 on whether a reduced application might have a chance at success. Board member John Barstow was not present.
After a three-hour meeting on this one application, the board voted to recess the discussion until July 5.
McGinn was frustrated by the board's inability to decide.
"What we want to hear is some direction," McGinn said.
He was uncertain as to the future of the college's plans for development near Chipman Park.
"There's no guarantee they're not going to change," he said.
Thursday, June 8, 2000
Trash service gallops ahead: Horses enter fourth year as contract faces new review
Published in the Addison Independent
BRISTOL - Bristol's unconventional garbage collection is moving into its fourth year at a steady, trotting clip-clop pace.
New Haven carpenter Pat Palmer spends his Tuesdays driving a pair of draft horses around Bristol, pulling a custom-designed wagon, slowly filling it with trash and recycling.
The entire run, Palmer said, is about 11 to 13 miles, depending on how many trips he has to take, and lasts five to six hours.
It's an intricate route through Bristol's small roads, weaving through the downtown residential area's one-way and dead-end streets.
"We start way away and then we get closer," Palmer said. He serves up to 300 homes, not all of whom use the service every week.
He does some of the pick-ups in his truck before taking the horses out, in a couple of hilly areas and dangerous spots near the Lord's Prayer rock.
In between stops to throw bags and boxes of trash and recycling onto the back of his wagon, Palmer discussed his experience running a national rarity: a public service powered by draft horses.
The past three years have been fairly eventful, he said. Not only have tourists and national media organizations shown interest, but the weather and the seasons have made it an enjoyable adventure as well.
"We've done it in rain, snow, sleet, sunshine and sometimes all in the same day," Palmer said, showing his easy, wide grin.
He shrugs off the media attention, though. Palmer considers the media attention as much of a public spectacle as the TV stations think he is.
"It was kind of interesting when "Good Morning America" was here, and we had Trent (Campbell, the Addison Independent's photographer) taking pictures of them taking pictures," Palmer said.
"It comes in droves. Now and again we get reporters or independent writers, doing their own story to sell," Palmer said of the media interest.
Horse-drawn trash collection was a national news story when he got the contract, but it's not such a big deal at home, where even Palmer isn't sure what will happen next week when the town contract comes up for review.
The choice, he said, is for the town to make. That choice is between having him continue to make pick-ups or making everyone take their own trash to the town dump.
According to Town Manager Bob Hall, the selectboard will be discussing the issue at the board's next meeting on June 19.
Not surprisingly, Palmer thinks it's become a great part of life in Bristol, though he doesn't flatter himself.
"I think people want to keep it," Palmer said. "I don't think people care much about me. It's basically about the horses."
Cost is an important issue, though. Until recently, town refuse charges were $1.50 per bag for the pick-up and $2 per bag at the dump. But people complained that the self-serve dump was subsidizing the pick-up, so the town selectmen raised pick-up costs to $3 per bag.
Recycling is free.
"We had difficulty financing the pick-up under those conditions," said Bristol selectman David Sharpe. "We may discontinue. Obviously, we don't want to do that."
The increased rate cut Palmer's load, from 4,000 pounds to about 3,200 per week. Now he sees a lot of recycling put out, and not so much trash. He's concerned that the pick-up service may not be able to pay for itself with the rates so different.
"In order to keep (the service), they may have to lower the difference between taking it to the dump and getting it picked up," Palmer said.
"It's worked pretty well, but it just needs some adjusting," Sharpe said.
But Palmer is still more than willing to do the job, "as long as they want," he said. "This is a perfect town to do it in because it's generally flat."
It has its own rewards, beyond the fiscal.
"I just like the constant interaction with the horses," Palmer said.
And he's good with them. Chief and Spud are a team of brothers he bought in January. Together, they weigh nearly 4,000 pounds in harness. Palmer gets them moving with a soft-spoken, "Okay, giddup."
He's very calm around them, and works with them easily.
"Some people when they drive they have to raise their voices to get to the horses, but he's very gentle," said Ashley Oosterman, who sometimes helps with the driving.
Palmer has the horses so well-trained that they can basically do the route without him at the reins. But, he warns, "they like to cut corners."
That can be dangerous with small spaces and with fire hydrants and other obstacles ready to snag the wagon if Palmer isn't careful. When at the reins, though, he can maneuver the wagon in very tight areas, with only inches to spare between it and a parked car or a telephone pole.
His trash-collection service has the support of many town residents, he said.
"Everybody tells me they look for it," Palmer said. "There are two or three people who leave carrots out for them every week." And one woman leaves a couple of buckets of water at the curb for the horses.
Palmer and his helpers are on the lookout, too, watching the changes in town at one-week intervals.
"You get some really nice yards and the houses are all fixed up," said Bill Oosterman, who has helped Palmer with the route for about a year.
Palmer has had tourists along on the wagon from Kansas and Miami. A couple of those visitors were also waste professionals. A recycling coordinator from Detroit came along on a sleigh ride and saw a picture Palmer has up of the horses. "He stayed an extra day so he could ride around with me and take pictures," Palmer said.
He's bemused by the attention, and keeps his high spirits at an infectious level. Halfway through the day, Oosterman carefully balanced a box of cardboard atop the burgeoning load.
Oosterman lifted an eyebrow at it, and then at Palmer, who grinned.
"Oh, it'll stay," he laughed. It did.
BRISTOL - Bristol's unconventional garbage collection is moving into its fourth year at a steady, trotting clip-clop pace.
New Haven carpenter Pat Palmer spends his Tuesdays driving a pair of draft horses around Bristol, pulling a custom-designed wagon, slowly filling it with trash and recycling.
The entire run, Palmer said, is about 11 to 13 miles, depending on how many trips he has to take, and lasts five to six hours.
It's an intricate route through Bristol's small roads, weaving through the downtown residential area's one-way and dead-end streets.
"We start way away and then we get closer," Palmer said. He serves up to 300 homes, not all of whom use the service every week.
He does some of the pick-ups in his truck before taking the horses out, in a couple of hilly areas and dangerous spots near the Lord's Prayer rock.
In between stops to throw bags and boxes of trash and recycling onto the back of his wagon, Palmer discussed his experience running a national rarity: a public service powered by draft horses.
The past three years have been fairly eventful, he said. Not only have tourists and national media organizations shown interest, but the weather and the seasons have made it an enjoyable adventure as well.
"We've done it in rain, snow, sleet, sunshine and sometimes all in the same day," Palmer said, showing his easy, wide grin.
He shrugs off the media attention, though. Palmer considers the media attention as much of a public spectacle as the TV stations think he is.
"It was kind of interesting when "Good Morning America" was here, and we had Trent (Campbell, the Addison Independent's photographer) taking pictures of them taking pictures," Palmer said.
"It comes in droves. Now and again we get reporters or independent writers, doing their own story to sell," Palmer said of the media interest.
Horse-drawn trash collection was a national news story when he got the contract, but it's not such a big deal at home, where even Palmer isn't sure what will happen next week when the town contract comes up for review.
The choice, he said, is for the town to make. That choice is between having him continue to make pick-ups or making everyone take their own trash to the town dump.
According to Town Manager Bob Hall, the selectboard will be discussing the issue at the board's next meeting on June 19.
Not surprisingly, Palmer thinks it's become a great part of life in Bristol, though he doesn't flatter himself.
"I think people want to keep it," Palmer said. "I don't think people care much about me. It's basically about the horses."
Cost is an important issue, though. Until recently, town refuse charges were $1.50 per bag for the pick-up and $2 per bag at the dump. But people complained that the self-serve dump was subsidizing the pick-up, so the town selectmen raised pick-up costs to $3 per bag.
Recycling is free.
"We had difficulty financing the pick-up under those conditions," said Bristol selectman David Sharpe. "We may discontinue. Obviously, we don't want to do that."
The increased rate cut Palmer's load, from 4,000 pounds to about 3,200 per week. Now he sees a lot of recycling put out, and not so much trash. He's concerned that the pick-up service may not be able to pay for itself with the rates so different.
"In order to keep (the service), they may have to lower the difference between taking it to the dump and getting it picked up," Palmer said.
"It's worked pretty well, but it just needs some adjusting," Sharpe said.
But Palmer is still more than willing to do the job, "as long as they want," he said. "This is a perfect town to do it in because it's generally flat."
It has its own rewards, beyond the fiscal.
"I just like the constant interaction with the horses," Palmer said.
And he's good with them. Chief and Spud are a team of brothers he bought in January. Together, they weigh nearly 4,000 pounds in harness. Palmer gets them moving with a soft-spoken, "Okay, giddup."
He's very calm around them, and works with them easily.
"Some people when they drive they have to raise their voices to get to the horses, but he's very gentle," said Ashley Oosterman, who sometimes helps with the driving.
Palmer has the horses so well-trained that they can basically do the route without him at the reins. But, he warns, "they like to cut corners."
That can be dangerous with small spaces and with fire hydrants and other obstacles ready to snag the wagon if Palmer isn't careful. When at the reins, though, he can maneuver the wagon in very tight areas, with only inches to spare between it and a parked car or a telephone pole.
His trash-collection service has the support of many town residents, he said.
"Everybody tells me they look for it," Palmer said. "There are two or three people who leave carrots out for them every week." And one woman leaves a couple of buckets of water at the curb for the horses.
Palmer and his helpers are on the lookout, too, watching the changes in town at one-week intervals.
"You get some really nice yards and the houses are all fixed up," said Bill Oosterman, who has helped Palmer with the route for about a year.
Palmer has had tourists along on the wagon from Kansas and Miami. A couple of those visitors were also waste professionals. A recycling coordinator from Detroit came along on a sleigh ride and saw a picture Palmer has up of the horses. "He stayed an extra day so he could ride around with me and take pictures," Palmer said.
He's bemused by the attention, and keeps his high spirits at an infectious level. Halfway through the day, Oosterman carefully balanced a box of cardboard atop the burgeoning load.
Oosterman lifted an eyebrow at it, and then at Palmer, who grinned.
"Oh, it'll stay," he laughed. It did.
Thursday, June 1, 2000
A New Zealand perspective: New Zealanders' way of life conflicts with growth, tourism
Published in the Addison Independent
Editor's note: Jeff Inglis, a 1995 Middlebury College graduate and a reporter at The Addison Independent when not traveling, was in New Zealand for seven months of 1999 exploring life in small communities as part of a graduate degree program in journalism. He files this report on the struggles of a few small New Zealand communities (not unlike some in New England) to retain their cultural heritage in the face of growth and change, along with some commentary on the meaning of community.
Of all the signs, notices and posted messages I saw in seven months in New Zealand, only two truly demanded my attention.
The first was one the road leading into Waihi, a Maori village, home to some of New Zealand's indigenous people. It read, "Private village. Do not enter." The second was on the fence outside the home of prominent New Zealand author Keri Hulme: "If I don't know you, or you haven't already contacted me, please do not come in."
These signs, attempts to screen the outside world from community and personal refuges, intrigued me. The world is often described as "shrinking" as a result of invasions of technology into private lives. Furthermore, the space between the shrinking world and the expanding individual mind is lessening, leaving many people in modern societies - especially in smaller, more isolated communities - with a feeling that the world is encroaching on their lives, fracturing the cultural heritage, and causing what some call "the loss of community."
It often results in complaints over coffee or around the house. But I wondered why it had reached such a level of frustration that a physical "keep out" notice to the world was the next logical step?
Known for openness
New Zealand is a country mostly wide open to outsiders. It has an extensive network of hotels, backpackers' hostels, bed-and-breakfast places and campgrounds, all of which serve an international clientele year-round. These are spread throughout the country, as much in small towns as in the few big cities.
Free speech and a free press are as much priorities in New Zealand as in the United States. World hunger, the World Bank, and United Nations peacekeeping policies are topics on which everyone has an opinion. But it is New Zealand's "small-town feel" that New Zealanders perceive as most under threat.
As singer Christy Moore once said about a village in Ireland, "Everyone knew everyone, and everybody else as well."
But in New Zealand's small communities, as in little towns all over the world, change is slowly coming. Some things are constants, though, and are carefully guarded.
Neighborly trust is important, and often implicit. Growth is a concern. Weather is more than just a topic of idle conversation, but instead has dollar amounts hidden just below the surface. Too cold, and somebody's losing money. Too warm, and the neighbors are hurting.
Discussions of the inexorable change are cloaked in the language of war: The town's residents "defend" their territory (physical, emotional and intellectual) against "invading" ideas and people from elsewhere.
In Albert Town, Central Otago, in the South Island, the year-round residents were engaged in a series of interrelated disputes with the town's seasonal tourist population. In an inversion of the stereotypical conflict, the residents wanted paved roads and a tavern and shop to be built in a now-vacant lot. It was the visitors who didn't want these "extraneous amenities, incursions of modernization, to change their beloved vacation spot.
But nobody in Albert Town was suggesting they just cut themselves off from the outside the way Waihi and Hulme have tried to do. They had accepted that change would come and were trying to control it in what ways they could.
At a time when several of the town's residents were grandchildren of the town's founders, the plans for Albert Town in the 21st century were being laid.
Alison and Bruce Hebbard, the brother-and-sister team who were planning to build the Albert Town tavern and shop, saw their work as helping preserve the community. If they didn't bring business to Albert Town, Bruce Hebbard said, "It'll all go to Wanaka," the larger town nearby.
Maori views
But the debate in Albert Town was very different from a similar discussion in Parihaka, an all-Maori village.
The Maori are New Zealand's native people. Albert Town is populated almost entirely by people of European descent, who tend to use decision-making processes involving bureaucratic-style mechanisms, like committees and councils, as is done in the United States.
But the Maori ideas about community are ones most Westerners would consider progressive. The Maori, and even "urban Maori" who have fled to cities, consider all family friends to be actual members of the family. One 9-year-old told me, "I have four fathers and five mums." She hadn't learned to count high enough for all of her aunts and uncles.
An increasing number of Maori are returning from the cities to the more rural villages where their parents and grandparents grew up, putting pressure on the available living and meeting areas.
I met a community architect from the University of Auckland who was helping Parihaka plan a little better. The architect and his students surveyed the village and helped the community choose locations which could host new houses or increased community meeting space.
The Parihaka "planning commission" was composed of every resident in town, including the children. These meetings would go on for entire days, broken only by eating, sleeping and prayer. Even the infants were present, though they - like many of the adults - would doze off for a time as conversation continued. The goal? Unanimity. Which did not mean everyone was happy at the end, but that everyone was only a little bit unhappy.
Parihaka's efforts, like Albert Town's, were aimed at keeping the village's heritage and traditions intact in the face of change they recognized as impossible to resist.
The Maori residents of Waihi, though, were reluctant to talk about their closed village. Nata, the village's spokesman, told me, "We don't tell people any more about the village than we have to."
The land itself, because of the vagaries of New Zealand land law regarding Maori ownership, is, in fact, private. The residents, like most Maori, live in regular houses like most people in the U.S., have running water and electricity, and speak English as a first language. But in Waihi, they value their privacy so much they use their special landowner status to protect their land and its culturally significant buildings and open spaces from any uninvited disturbance.
Keri Hulme's sign may be evidence of a reclusive author seeking to avoid public attention, but the effect, which cannot be ignored and certainly was not unintended, is to keep all outsiders away. She uses her own private land as a buffer against a world that might encroach on her existence.
Facing change
As the far corners of the world get closer to small communities everywhere, the Waihi reaction may become more common. But it is not entirely a good idea.
Albert Town has accepted that change will come. The residents there are working to choose which parts of their town's character they are most concerned about protecting. In that process, they are also selecting those elements which they are less worried about losing.
Moira Fleming, secretary of the Albert Town Community Association, said they were effectively bargaining with their town's heritage. What they keep will be all the more valuable for the lost parts it represents. But they would rather lose some of it, Fleming said, than risk everything. It is a sad concept, but one which, the residents hope, will ensure Albert Town's participation in the wider community of New Zealand.
Waihi, on the other hand, has taken the extremist approach of "all or nothing." They may survive as a community, but one which risks being increasingly out of touch with the rest of the world, and, therefore, less able to share their wisdom with the rest of us. Their learning will be lost to the world, as long as it remains behind the sign outside the village.
That is the real loss of community.
Editor's note: Jeff Inglis, a 1995 Middlebury College graduate and a reporter at The Addison Independent when not traveling, was in New Zealand for seven months of 1999 exploring life in small communities as part of a graduate degree program in journalism. He files this report on the struggles of a few small New Zealand communities (not unlike some in New England) to retain their cultural heritage in the face of growth and change, along with some commentary on the meaning of community.
Of all the signs, notices and posted messages I saw in seven months in New Zealand, only two truly demanded my attention.
The first was one the road leading into Waihi, a Maori village, home to some of New Zealand's indigenous people. It read, "Private village. Do not enter." The second was on the fence outside the home of prominent New Zealand author Keri Hulme: "If I don't know you, or you haven't already contacted me, please do not come in."
These signs, attempts to screen the outside world from community and personal refuges, intrigued me. The world is often described as "shrinking" as a result of invasions of technology into private lives. Furthermore, the space between the shrinking world and the expanding individual mind is lessening, leaving many people in modern societies - especially in smaller, more isolated communities - with a feeling that the world is encroaching on their lives, fracturing the cultural heritage, and causing what some call "the loss of community."
It often results in complaints over coffee or around the house. But I wondered why it had reached such a level of frustration that a physical "keep out" notice to the world was the next logical step?
Known for openness
New Zealand is a country mostly wide open to outsiders. It has an extensive network of hotels, backpackers' hostels, bed-and-breakfast places and campgrounds, all of which serve an international clientele year-round. These are spread throughout the country, as much in small towns as in the few big cities.
Free speech and a free press are as much priorities in New Zealand as in the United States. World hunger, the World Bank, and United Nations peacekeeping policies are topics on which everyone has an opinion. But it is New Zealand's "small-town feel" that New Zealanders perceive as most under threat.
As singer Christy Moore once said about a village in Ireland, "Everyone knew everyone, and everybody else as well."
But in New Zealand's small communities, as in little towns all over the world, change is slowly coming. Some things are constants, though, and are carefully guarded.
Neighborly trust is important, and often implicit. Growth is a concern. Weather is more than just a topic of idle conversation, but instead has dollar amounts hidden just below the surface. Too cold, and somebody's losing money. Too warm, and the neighbors are hurting.
Discussions of the inexorable change are cloaked in the language of war: The town's residents "defend" their territory (physical, emotional and intellectual) against "invading" ideas and people from elsewhere.
In Albert Town, Central Otago, in the South Island, the year-round residents were engaged in a series of interrelated disputes with the town's seasonal tourist population. In an inversion of the stereotypical conflict, the residents wanted paved roads and a tavern and shop to be built in a now-vacant lot. It was the visitors who didn't want these "extraneous amenities, incursions of modernization, to change their beloved vacation spot.
But nobody in Albert Town was suggesting they just cut themselves off from the outside the way Waihi and Hulme have tried to do. They had accepted that change would come and were trying to control it in what ways they could.
At a time when several of the town's residents were grandchildren of the town's founders, the plans for Albert Town in the 21st century were being laid.
Alison and Bruce Hebbard, the brother-and-sister team who were planning to build the Albert Town tavern and shop, saw their work as helping preserve the community. If they didn't bring business to Albert Town, Bruce Hebbard said, "It'll all go to Wanaka," the larger town nearby.
Maori views
But the debate in Albert Town was very different from a similar discussion in Parihaka, an all-Maori village.
The Maori are New Zealand's native people. Albert Town is populated almost entirely by people of European descent, who tend to use decision-making processes involving bureaucratic-style mechanisms, like committees and councils, as is done in the United States.
But the Maori ideas about community are ones most Westerners would consider progressive. The Maori, and even "urban Maori" who have fled to cities, consider all family friends to be actual members of the family. One 9-year-old told me, "I have four fathers and five mums." She hadn't learned to count high enough for all of her aunts and uncles.
An increasing number of Maori are returning from the cities to the more rural villages where their parents and grandparents grew up, putting pressure on the available living and meeting areas.
I met a community architect from the University of Auckland who was helping Parihaka plan a little better. The architect and his students surveyed the village and helped the community choose locations which could host new houses or increased community meeting space.
The Parihaka "planning commission" was composed of every resident in town, including the children. These meetings would go on for entire days, broken only by eating, sleeping and prayer. Even the infants were present, though they - like many of the adults - would doze off for a time as conversation continued. The goal? Unanimity. Which did not mean everyone was happy at the end, but that everyone was only a little bit unhappy.
Parihaka's efforts, like Albert Town's, were aimed at keeping the village's heritage and traditions intact in the face of change they recognized as impossible to resist.
The Maori residents of Waihi, though, were reluctant to talk about their closed village. Nata, the village's spokesman, told me, "We don't tell people any more about the village than we have to."
The land itself, because of the vagaries of New Zealand land law regarding Maori ownership, is, in fact, private. The residents, like most Maori, live in regular houses like most people in the U.S., have running water and electricity, and speak English as a first language. But in Waihi, they value their privacy so much they use their special landowner status to protect their land and its culturally significant buildings and open spaces from any uninvited disturbance.
Keri Hulme's sign may be evidence of a reclusive author seeking to avoid public attention, but the effect, which cannot be ignored and certainly was not unintended, is to keep all outsiders away. She uses her own private land as a buffer against a world that might encroach on her existence.
Facing change
As the far corners of the world get closer to small communities everywhere, the Waihi reaction may become more common. But it is not entirely a good idea.
Albert Town has accepted that change will come. The residents there are working to choose which parts of their town's character they are most concerned about protecting. In that process, they are also selecting those elements which they are less worried about losing.
Moira Fleming, secretary of the Albert Town Community Association, said they were effectively bargaining with their town's heritage. What they keep will be all the more valuable for the lost parts it represents. But they would rather lose some of it, Fleming said, than risk everything. It is a sad concept, but one which, the residents hope, will ensure Albert Town's participation in the wider community of New Zealand.
Waihi, on the other hand, has taken the extremist approach of "all or nothing." They may survive as a community, but one which risks being increasingly out of touch with the rest of the world, and, therefore, less able to share their wisdom with the rest of us. Their learning will be lost to the world, as long as it remains behind the sign outside the village.
That is the real loss of community.
Monday, May 22, 2000
Milfoil growth concerns residents: Champlain homes note big changes
Published in the Addison Independent
BRIDPORT - Summer is coming, and owners of Lake Champlain waterfront property are preparing for another summer of weed-choked shoreline.
Twenty-eight owners of lakefront property from Benson to Ferrisburgh met in Middlebury last Thursday to discuss the problem of Eurasian water milfoil, a non-native shallow-water plant that lake-shore owners say prevents them from enjoying the water.
The problem, according to Bridport resident Frank Russell, began in the mid-1990s. In 1992 and 1993 there was no real evidence of a plant invasion of the shoreline, Russell said.
But after that, Russell said, "It was almost geometric growth." Last year Leonard's Bay, next to which Russell's property sits, was covered with the weed, as well as algae and some water chestnuts.
"In six years it has obliterated Leonard's Bay," Russell said.
The chairman of the as-yet-unnamed group, Judy Reed, criticized the state's reaction to the problem.
"They have no program in the works to get rid of the milfoil," Reed said, "but that's not the biggest problem in the lake."
Reed, who lives in Chittenden and has a camp in West Addison, is concerned about her property value: "We're being taxed for waterfront that's full of glop."
The group is meeting to discuss ways of dealing with the problem, and is exploring the various means of controlling milfoil. They are also working to get the word out to other lake-shore landowners to enlist their support in the effort.
The group has not formally set upon a strategy yet. Reed expects the group to work for about a year before anything really gets moving. But she is determined to lobby the towns and the state to help in the fight against the plant, which Vermont classifies as an "aquatic nuisance" in the same category as zebra mussels and water chestnuts.
A potential stumbling block for the group's efforts is state regulation, including permit restrictions and the bureaucratic process for approving methods of milfoil control.
The state has refused to issue a permit for an Ohio company to introduce Ohio-raised milfoil-eating weevils into Vermont, citing concerns over foreign genes and the method of transporting the weevils into Vermont, which could risk bringing foreign plants into Vermont waters.
Sallie Sheldon, a professor of biology at Middlebury College, has done extensive research on controlling milfoil with weevils. The weevils, she said, are species-specific. When the weevils have eaten so much milfoil that they can't support their population, they die off, Sheldon said. "They don't go after other plants."
Sheldon understands the state's concerns about genetic stock and "hitchhiking" plant invaders, "but there are ways around that," she said. "The answers are all there," Sheldon said.
The reason people - including state researchers - have had less success than they hoped, Sheldon said, is a lack of understanding of the biological principles involved. The distributions tend to be of too few weevils across too wide an area, Sheldon said. They have been tested in Lake Bomoseen.
She warns that inadequate and under-informed use of weevils can be harmful to future work.
"If they're not put out well, then people say they don't work," Sheldon said, and are therefore reluctant to use weevils again.
Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation has an annual budget of $175,000 for controlling aquatic nuisances. According to Holly Crosson, an aquatic biologist with the DEC, much of that money is spent on controlling water chestnuts.
That plant is the high priority for state officials because they believe they can control its spread and prevent it from becoming a larger problem, like zebra mussels and milfoil, which are expensive to attack lake-wide.
"A control program on that massive a scale, no one could afford," Crosson said. "The state cannot afford to target both species."
And already they're letting one species get away unchecked due to lack of funds: "We're not doing anything to control zebra mussels," Crosson said.
Crosson said, though, that the state is helping a community group near South Hero place weevils into the lake.
She said the citizens' group is on the right track and encouraged them to ask their politicians to spend money on the milfoil problem.
"It has to come from the people. We (DEC) can't ask for more money, because we'll never get it," Crosson said.
Russell talked about raising money from the landowners along the lake-shore, but also wants some public money.
"Given the tax that we pay here for waterfront, I would think the state could be part of it," Russell said.
It's not cheap. Gerald Smith, aquatic biologist and president of Aquatic Control Technology Inc. of Sutton, Mass., said mechanical cutting machines cost at least $50,000, with annual operating expenses around $30,000. Or they can be hired for $150 to $160 per hour, with transport fees and minimum operating times raising the price per use to close to $5,000.
"This lake is a wonderful lake, and it's a shame that the state isn't taking more active care of it," Russell said. "Leahy wants to call it a Great Lake, but he should call it the Great Sargasso Sea, or the Everglades of the North."
The group, which is open to anyone interested in the health of the southern section of Lake Champlain, will next meet on June 9 at 7 p.m. in the Ilsley Library in Middlebury.
BRIDPORT - Summer is coming, and owners of Lake Champlain waterfront property are preparing for another summer of weed-choked shoreline.
Twenty-eight owners of lakefront property from Benson to Ferrisburgh met in Middlebury last Thursday to discuss the problem of Eurasian water milfoil, a non-native shallow-water plant that lake-shore owners say prevents them from enjoying the water.
The problem, according to Bridport resident Frank Russell, began in the mid-1990s. In 1992 and 1993 there was no real evidence of a plant invasion of the shoreline, Russell said.
But after that, Russell said, "It was almost geometric growth." Last year Leonard's Bay, next to which Russell's property sits, was covered with the weed, as well as algae and some water chestnuts.
"In six years it has obliterated Leonard's Bay," Russell said.
The chairman of the as-yet-unnamed group, Judy Reed, criticized the state's reaction to the problem.
"They have no program in the works to get rid of the milfoil," Reed said, "but that's not the biggest problem in the lake."
Reed, who lives in Chittenden and has a camp in West Addison, is concerned about her property value: "We're being taxed for waterfront that's full of glop."
The group is meeting to discuss ways of dealing with the problem, and is exploring the various means of controlling milfoil. They are also working to get the word out to other lake-shore landowners to enlist their support in the effort.
The group has not formally set upon a strategy yet. Reed expects the group to work for about a year before anything really gets moving. But she is determined to lobby the towns and the state to help in the fight against the plant, which Vermont classifies as an "aquatic nuisance" in the same category as zebra mussels and water chestnuts.
A potential stumbling block for the group's efforts is state regulation, including permit restrictions and the bureaucratic process for approving methods of milfoil control.
The state has refused to issue a permit for an Ohio company to introduce Ohio-raised milfoil-eating weevils into Vermont, citing concerns over foreign genes and the method of transporting the weevils into Vermont, which could risk bringing foreign plants into Vermont waters.
Sallie Sheldon, a professor of biology at Middlebury College, has done extensive research on controlling milfoil with weevils. The weevils, she said, are species-specific. When the weevils have eaten so much milfoil that they can't support their population, they die off, Sheldon said. "They don't go after other plants."
Sheldon understands the state's concerns about genetic stock and "hitchhiking" plant invaders, "but there are ways around that," she said. "The answers are all there," Sheldon said.
The reason people - including state researchers - have had less success than they hoped, Sheldon said, is a lack of understanding of the biological principles involved. The distributions tend to be of too few weevils across too wide an area, Sheldon said. They have been tested in Lake Bomoseen.
She warns that inadequate and under-informed use of weevils can be harmful to future work.
"If they're not put out well, then people say they don't work," Sheldon said, and are therefore reluctant to use weevils again.
Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation has an annual budget of $175,000 for controlling aquatic nuisances. According to Holly Crosson, an aquatic biologist with the DEC, much of that money is spent on controlling water chestnuts.
That plant is the high priority for state officials because they believe they can control its spread and prevent it from becoming a larger problem, like zebra mussels and milfoil, which are expensive to attack lake-wide.
"A control program on that massive a scale, no one could afford," Crosson said. "The state cannot afford to target both species."
And already they're letting one species get away unchecked due to lack of funds: "We're not doing anything to control zebra mussels," Crosson said.
Crosson said, though, that the state is helping a community group near South Hero place weevils into the lake.
She said the citizens' group is on the right track and encouraged them to ask their politicians to spend money on the milfoil problem.
"It has to come from the people. We (DEC) can't ask for more money, because we'll never get it," Crosson said.
Russell talked about raising money from the landowners along the lake-shore, but also wants some public money.
"Given the tax that we pay here for waterfront, I would think the state could be part of it," Russell said.
It's not cheap. Gerald Smith, aquatic biologist and president of Aquatic Control Technology Inc. of Sutton, Mass., said mechanical cutting machines cost at least $50,000, with annual operating expenses around $30,000. Or they can be hired for $150 to $160 per hour, with transport fees and minimum operating times raising the price per use to close to $5,000.
"This lake is a wonderful lake, and it's a shame that the state isn't taking more active care of it," Russell said. "Leahy wants to call it a Great Lake, but he should call it the Great Sargasso Sea, or the Everglades of the North."
The group, which is open to anyone interested in the health of the southern section of Lake Champlain, will next meet on June 9 at 7 p.m. in the Ilsley Library in Middlebury.
Sunday, July 5, 1998
Lincoln rebuilds
Published in the Addison Independent
LINCOLN - The clean-up effort began even before the water receded. Volunteers who had been up all Friday night ensuring residents' safety were back at work on Saturday and Sunday dealing with the aftermath.
In addition to the town residents, the Starksboro Fire Department was on the scene quickly, setting up road blocks and helping direct traffic around washouts. Also responding quickly was the Army National Guard from Vergennes.
The biggest turnout for a single effort was at Burnham Hall, where the Lincoln Community Library lost 80 percent of its collection, despite a desperate midnight rescue effort mounted by town residents.
"When I got there it was already up to the windows," said Lincoln Constable Art Pixley. He had been out helping residents evacuate from their threatened houses.
The library was a lost cause. As daylight broke Saturday, residents - already awake - came out to assess the damage.
"The first book I saw was Sidney Sheldon's 'Nothing Lasts Forever,'" said Reed Prescott of Lincoln.
Floating on the lawn was a copy of "New England's Weather Disasters," he said.
Liam and Ike Mulqueen-Duquette were among the children helping clean out the library. They put the books in a trailer which would be hauled to the dump, but not before the kids had had last looks at the pages of their ruined treasures. Kids went through the children's book section, saying "I remember this story!"
Ike Mulqueen-Duquette sorted the books, throwing the "Haven't read it" group into a different area of the trailer than the "Read it" group.
Bill Purdah was a volunteer helping with the book disposal. He said he initially felt bad throwing them all away but realized that they weren't really books anymore.
"It's a sodden mass of mud and paper," he said.
Charlie Piasecki of Bristol Insurance came up to look at the damage to the library and to help the clean-up.
"They're very fortunate that they had the foresight to take out flood insurance," he said. The insurance adjuster was scheduled to come Monday morning to survey the damage.
Burnham Committee member Nancy Stevens was saddened by the fact that the flood coverage for the contents of the building was not very high, but she was optimistic about the future of the library.
"The town of Lincoln will come forward," she said.
Up at French Settlement, the road was mostly washed away. Anne Parfitt and Don Brumfield made it down to the Lincoln General Store on foot.
"The river came, swirled around and took a new course," Parfitt said. "We're totally wiped out up there."
Several residents, including drivers from Atkins Trucking, as well as Bill Jesdale and Bill Masterson, helped the repair work by dumping and spreading dirt over where French Settlement Road had been.
Gerold Kandzior, who lives at the bottom of French Settlement Road, had some friends helping to clean out the 6 inches of mud on the floor of his barn. He suspected at least one septic tank upstream from him had ruptured because of the stench from the mud. The yard he used to mow was totally covered with stones from the river and roadbed. The river, which had flowed past his barn, has a new course now, about 10 feet further out.
Saturday morning, though, the whole place was filled with water. Only an old rusty holding tank, which floated over to the house from beside the barn, saved the house from being demolished by the rocks and branches.
Kandzior was evacuated by the fire department early in the morning on Saturday because there were propane tanks further up the road which officials feared might float down and explode. The tanks didn't end up on Kandzior's property, though a neighbor's motorcycle was upended and covered in mud and grass next to the barn.
"Messy, messy, messy," Kandzior said.
Central Vermont Public Service crews were on the scene Sunday, driving in from Rutland and Middlebury. The damage to the power lines was surprisingly light, they said. They had brought several bucket trucks as well as other equipment to repair the damage.
"We had no idea what to expect, so we came loaded for bear," one crewman said.
Ed Trombley, a crew chief, said that the power was ready to go on in the Lincoln area. All that remained was for the connection to be made by the Twin Bridges and then some small areas would be brought on later. He said that power could be on the Lincoln area by as soon as Monday. Two poles by the Squirrel's Nest Restaurant were the village's link with the outside power grid. When those gave way, Lincoln was darkened.
LINCOLN - The clean-up effort began even before the water receded. Volunteers who had been up all Friday night ensuring residents' safety were back at work on Saturday and Sunday dealing with the aftermath.
In addition to the town residents, the Starksboro Fire Department was on the scene quickly, setting up road blocks and helping direct traffic around washouts. Also responding quickly was the Army National Guard from Vergennes.
The biggest turnout for a single effort was at Burnham Hall, where the Lincoln Community Library lost 80 percent of its collection, despite a desperate midnight rescue effort mounted by town residents.
"When I got there it was already up to the windows," said Lincoln Constable Art Pixley. He had been out helping residents evacuate from their threatened houses.
The library was a lost cause. As daylight broke Saturday, residents - already awake - came out to assess the damage.
"The first book I saw was Sidney Sheldon's 'Nothing Lasts Forever,'" said Reed Prescott of Lincoln.
Floating on the lawn was a copy of "New England's Weather Disasters," he said.
Liam and Ike Mulqueen-Duquette were among the children helping clean out the library. They put the books in a trailer which would be hauled to the dump, but not before the kids had had last looks at the pages of their ruined treasures. Kids went through the children's book section, saying "I remember this story!"
Ike Mulqueen-Duquette sorted the books, throwing the "Haven't read it" group into a different area of the trailer than the "Read it" group.
Bill Purdah was a volunteer helping with the book disposal. He said he initially felt bad throwing them all away but realized that they weren't really books anymore.
"It's a sodden mass of mud and paper," he said.
Charlie Piasecki of Bristol Insurance came up to look at the damage to the library and to help the clean-up.
"They're very fortunate that they had the foresight to take out flood insurance," he said. The insurance adjuster was scheduled to come Monday morning to survey the damage.
Burnham Committee member Nancy Stevens was saddened by the fact that the flood coverage for the contents of the building was not very high, but she was optimistic about the future of the library.
"The town of Lincoln will come forward," she said.
Up at French Settlement, the road was mostly washed away. Anne Parfitt and Don Brumfield made it down to the Lincoln General Store on foot.
"The river came, swirled around and took a new course," Parfitt said. "We're totally wiped out up there."
Several residents, including drivers from Atkins Trucking, as well as Bill Jesdale and Bill Masterson, helped the repair work by dumping and spreading dirt over where French Settlement Road had been.
Gerold Kandzior, who lives at the bottom of French Settlement Road, had some friends helping to clean out the 6 inches of mud on the floor of his barn. He suspected at least one septic tank upstream from him had ruptured because of the stench from the mud. The yard he used to mow was totally covered with stones from the river and roadbed. The river, which had flowed past his barn, has a new course now, about 10 feet further out.
Saturday morning, though, the whole place was filled with water. Only an old rusty holding tank, which floated over to the house from beside the barn, saved the house from being demolished by the rocks and branches.
Kandzior was evacuated by the fire department early in the morning on Saturday because there were propane tanks further up the road which officials feared might float down and explode. The tanks didn't end up on Kandzior's property, though a neighbor's motorcycle was upended and covered in mud and grass next to the barn.
"Messy, messy, messy," Kandzior said.
Central Vermont Public Service crews were on the scene Sunday, driving in from Rutland and Middlebury. The damage to the power lines was surprisingly light, they said. They had brought several bucket trucks as well as other equipment to repair the damage.
"We had no idea what to expect, so we came loaded for bear," one crewman said.
Ed Trombley, a crew chief, said that the power was ready to go on in the Lincoln area. All that remained was for the connection to be made by the Twin Bridges and then some small areas would be brought on later. He said that power could be on the Lincoln area by as soon as Monday. Two poles by the Squirrel's Nest Restaurant were the village's link with the outside power grid. When those gave way, Lincoln was darkened.
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