Vermont news

• Fall tuition bill? 4 steps to help keep the stress out of paying for school

  26-06-2024 19:57 via vtdigger.org
  
  Summer is in full force, but students and families will soon be facing an important deadline: paying the fall tuition bill. As you anticipate new courses, meeting friends, and living on or off campus, a crucial “to-do” before you start packing is determining how you’ll cover tuition and expenses. It can be overwhelming, especially when you don’t have the money on hand.But that’s where VSAC, Vermont’s nonprofit state agency for higher education, can help. VSAC
  
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• Edgar C. Gerwig

  28-06-2024 23:54 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born April 24, 1941Washington, D.C.Died June 23, 2024New London, New HampshireDetails of servicesA private family tribute to Ed’s life will be held this July 4 at Pleasant Lake.Beloved husband, father and grandfather Edgar C. Gerwig passed away peacefully Sunday, June 23, at his lakeside home in New London. He was 83.Ed was a highly successful banker, but he is best remembered by the many people who admired and loved him for his kindness, humility and devotion to his family.He began both h
  
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• Killington to receive $25M in federal funding for access road, infrastructure improvements

  28-06-2024 22:56 via vtdigger.org
  
  Killington’s welcome sign on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. Photo by Natalie Williams/VTDigger
  The U.S. Department of Transportation will commit $25 million to an infrastructure improvement project in Killington, according to Vermont’s congressional delegation.In a press release issued Friday, the delegation said the project will include a “full-depth reconstruction of the roadway,” as well as the construction of 2.7 miles of shared-use path and 1.4 miles of new sidewalk along
  
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• Vermont GOP votes to back Trump, waiving rule against supporting candidates convicted of felonies

  28-06-2024 22:31 via vtdigger.org
  
  According to Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame, committee members voted during a closed-door, executive meeting held over Zoom Wednesday night. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  The Vermont Republican Party is standing by former President Donald Trump.According to a Thursday evening press release from the party, its executive committee on Wednesday night voted by “a narrow margin” to excuse Trump from a state party rule that prohibits it from supporting candidates who have
  
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• Grid operators expect electric demand to increase by 23% in the next 10 years

  28-06-2024 21:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  ISO New England’s control room in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy of ISO New England
  New England’s grid operators are expecting the demand for electricity to grow by more than 20% in the coming decade, and they attribute much of that growth to new electric vehicles hitting the road, according to a new report.In fact, electric vehicles are likely to contribute more to the growth in electrical demand than any other factor, according to a new forecast by ISO New England, the non
  
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• Matthew Ira Katz

  28-06-2024 20:59 via vtdigger.org
  
  Born August 6, 1946New York, New YorkDied June 25, 2024Burlington, VermontDetails of servicesFriday June 28, 11 a.m. at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington.Matthew Ira Katz was born on August 6, 1946 to Abraham and Minnie Katz in New York City. They lived in Queens Village with his older brother, Sheldon. They spoke Yiddish and grew up surrounded by a large extended family.  Abe worked in the diamond district as a stone setter, while Minnie stayed at home.Matt graduated from New York City p
  
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• Torrential rains wallop Stowe, wrecking roads

  28-06-2024 19:26 via vtdigger.org
  
  In Stowe, Lance Purnell gestures at the damage to his property, which was overrun when the Gold Brook jumped its banks. Photo by Tommy Gardner/Stowe Reporter
  A powerful summer storm that settled Sunday afternoon over Stowe’s eastern flank brought about three inches of rain in 30 minutes, overwhelming the Gold Brook and its many tributaries, washing out roads, driveways, culverts and bridges and stranding folks literally cut off from the rest of town.According to Stowe Public Works Directo
  
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• Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters won’t be charged for trespassing on Dartmouth Green

  28-06-2024 18:40 via vtdigger.org
  
  Police and protestors face off during a demonstration on the Dartmouth Green on May 1, 2024. Photo by James M. Patterson/Valley NewsThis story by Christina Dolan was first published by the Valley News on June 27.HANOVER, N.H. — Hanover Police prosecutor Mariana Pastore has decided against filing criminal trespass charges against at least 28 of the people arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the Dartmouth Green last month, according to paperwork she filed in Lebanon District
  
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• In Johnson, many flood-damaged essential services remain in limbo

  28-06-2024 12:23 via vtdigger.org
  
  This is Part 2 of Downstream, a 9-part series looking at what’s changed — and what hasn’t — one year after catastrophic floods swept through Vermont.JOHNSON — Standing inside this town’s wastewater treatment plant on a recent afternoon, Thomas Galinat pointed to the cracks in the walls and jury-rigged electronics. The plant’s offices sit empty — never put back together, he said, after the building filled with eight feet of water during last July&r
  
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• Worcester residents speak out against proposal to close elementary school

  27-06-2024 23:50 via vtdigger.org
  
  Worcester residents gathered at Doty Memorial School to discuss the future of the small elementary on June 26, 2024. Photo by Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger
  WORCESTER — Pizza, nostalgia, tears: Residents packed the gymnasium of this small town’s small school, extolling the virtues of Doty Memorial in the face of its possible closure. About 100 people attended back-to-back community forums Wednesday evening, the first organized by concerned residents and the second by the Washington C
  
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• ‘Stole solely out of greed’: ValleyNet embezzler gets 27 months in prison

  27-06-2024 23:42 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Federal Building in Burlington houses the U.S. District Courthouse. File photo by Bob LoCicero/VTDigger
  BURLINGTON — A Northfield man will serve a little more than two years in prison for embezzling $558,000 over nearly a decade from a nonprofit organization working to extend broadband to the Upper Valley. Judge Christina Reiss handed down a 27-month sentence to 73-year-old John Van Vught during a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Burlington. He was also ordered to pay f
  
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• Payroll tax to fund child care subsidies will take effect July 1

  27-06-2024 23:30 via vtdigger.org
  
  Kids attending the Part 2 Kids childcare hub at the Allen Brook School in Williston get a breakfast as they arrive at school on Tuesday, September 15, 2020. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  A new payroll tax will take effect Monday to fund the expansion of Vermont’s child care financial assistance program, making more families eligible to participate and increasing the rates child care providers receive from the state.  Starting July 1, employers will pay a 0.44% tax on wage
  
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• Merged credit unions NEFCU and VSECU settle on new name: EastRise

  27-06-2024 23:10 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Vermont State Employees Credit Union branch in Burlington seen on Tuesday, September 26, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Two Vermont-based credit unions that merged in 2023 have announced a new name for the consolidated company: EastRise Credit Union.  On Jan. 1, 2023, New England Federal Credit Union and the Vermont State Employees Credit Union legally merged to form one entity that serves more than 160,000 members. Until now, the combined cooperative has remained name
  
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• State finds potentially harmful chemicals in two Hartford school buildings

  27-06-2024 22:02 via vtdigger.org
  
  State air quality testing identified potentially dangerous chemical contamination in 28 rooms in the Hartford High School and career and technical center buildings. Photo via Hartford High School
  This story by Christina Dolan was first published by the Valley News on June 26.HARTFORD — The school district is working with an environmental consultant to identify the sources of and limit exposures to potentially dangerous chemical contamination that state air quality testing identified this
  
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• Haviland Smith Jr.

  27-06-2024 21:29 via vtdigger.org
  
  BornAugust 25, 1929New York, New YorkDiedJune 20, 2024Monroe Township, New JerseyDetails of servicesNo service date set.Haviland Smith Jr., who was born in New York City in 1929, passed away peacefully on June 20, 2024 at his home in Monroe Township, New Jersey. His parents were Haviland Smith Sr. and Charlotte Adams Hawes. He subsequently lived with his maternal grandmother, Henrietta Houston Hawes, in Ridgewood, New Jersey and attended New England boarding schools — The Fe
  
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• Rep. Mike Mrowicki: Put away that credit card, governor

  27-06-2024 12:58 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Rep. Mike Mrowicki. He represents the Windham-4 district (Putney and Dummerston) in the Vermont House. He serves on the Government Operations Committee.
  Living off your credit card is never a good idea. It’s a sure sign of economic distress when you start buying groceries or paying bills, like property taxes, with plastic.Vermont is not in such dire straits to need to do so. We keep our state budget balanced and have created rainy-day reserves. We have tidied up our
  
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• Southern Vermont swift-water rescue team honored for flood response

  27-06-2024 12:54 via vtdigger.org
  
  Eric Wilson, left, Drew Hazelton and Tyler Boucher, pictured here at their Brattleboro station on June 21, were among seven Rescue Inc. volunteers who were honored for their response during the flooding last July. Photo by Graham Krewinghaus.
  Last week, the roads from Londonderry to Ludlow were calm and clear. It’s less than half an hour’s drive on Route 100 between the towns. But last summer, amid record flooding, Drew Hazelton and his team were told the route was entirely unnaviga
  
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• Roger Brown: On the potential nursing strike at UVMMC

  27-06-2024 12:02 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,Boy is this a depressing situation. The nurses are paid less than the traveling nurses working next to them, so they ask for more money or just end up leaving (some to become travelers working right where they started but at twice the salary), which leads to a shortage of nurses but more travelers (and costs) and reluctance to invest in the nursing staff. Meanwhile the hospital is building apartments since the housing shortage is an easy way to deflect the blame for nursing disc
  
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• St. Albans man settles for $175K after suing over right to give police the middle finger

  27-06-2024 00:56 via vtdigger.org
  
  Photo courtesy of Vermont State Police
  Is flipping the bird at a police officer protected by the First Amendment? The answer, according to a lawsuit settled earlier this month between Gregory Bombard and the Vermont State Police, appears to be yes. Bombard, who was arrested in 2018 after brandishing his middle finger and cursing at a state trooper, will receive $100,000 in damages from the state of Vermont. A further $75,000 will cover legal fees incurred by the American Civil Liberti
  
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• Best of the Vermont Conversation: The ‘courageous doctor’ who helped legalize abortion in Vermont

  26-06-2024 22:02 via vtdigger.org
  
  
  Jackson Beecham. Photo courtesy of Jackson Beecham
  The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify to hear more.
  This Vermont Conversation with Jackson Beecham originally aired in July 2022.When the U.S. Supreme Court ove
  
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• Dramatic win buoys plans for a new women’s soccer team in Vermont

  26-06-2024 21:43 via vtdigger.org
  
  Players on Vermont Green FC’s first-ever women’s team celebrate with fans at a game in Burlington on Saturday, June 22, 2024. Photo courtesy of Vermont Green FC
  Vermont Green FC’s women’s soccer team ended its first-ever match last weekend in what was, probably, the most dramatic way possible. After leading their opponent — FC Laval of Quebec — 1-0 for much of the second half, Vermont Green conceded a goal just minutes before the final whistle. That sent
  
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• Don Tinney: Political courage, not popularity, will build a stronger Vermont

  26-06-2024 17:59 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Don Tinney. He is a longtime high school English teacher and represents 13,000 educators as president of Vermont-NEA.
  No political insiders in Montpelier were surprised when Sen. Jane Kitchel condemned the Scott administration’s proposal to zero out the education fund reserves to provide short-term property tax relief, saying “that is a practice that we never ever had considered, or would consider, as fiscally responsible use of a reserve.”In her long, di
  
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• Neil Odell: Want lower taxes? It’s not so simple.

  26-06-2024 12:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Neil Odell of Norwich. He is on the steering committee of Friends of Vermont Public Education, and is a Norwich/Dresen school board member.
  Back in late February, I had to stand up at Town Meeting and tell my community that I anticipated our taxes would increase by double digits.
  It wasn’t fun.
  We’re looking at a 15% increase, and I’m not at all happy about it. I have to pay it, too. My town elected me to make decisions about our schools and about our tax
  
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• Neil Odell: It’s not so simple, Gov. Scott

  26-06-2024 12:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Neil Odell of Norwich. He is on the steering committee of Friends of Vermont Public Education, and is a Norwich/Dresen school board member.
  Back in late February, I had to stand up at Town Meeting and tell my community that I anticipated our taxes would increase by double digits. It wasn’t fun. We’re looking at a 15% increase and I’m not at all happy about it. I have to pay it too. My town elected me to make decisions about our schools and about our taxes
  
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• Neil Odell: It’s not so simple, Gov. Phil Scott

  26-06-2024 12:53 via vtdigger.org
  
  This commentary is by Neil Odell of Norwich. He is on the steering committee of Friends of Vermont Public Education, and is a Norwich/Dresen school board member.
  Back in late February, I had to stand up at Town Meeting and tell my community that I anticipated our taxes would increase by double digits.
  It wasn’t fun.
  We’re looking at a 15% increase, and I’m not at all happy about it. I have to pay it, too. My town elected me to make decisions about our schools and about our tax
  
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• Vermont flood anniversaries once brought revelry and relief. This summer will be different.

  26-06-2024 12:08 via vtdigger.org
  
  This is Part 1 of Downstream, a 9-part series looking at what’s changed — and what hasn’t — one year after catastrophic floods swept through Vermont.How do you commemorate one of the most destructive floods in state history? A year after 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene, Vermonters could count the ways.Brattleboro, for example, screened “Singin’ in the Rain” in a once waterlogged theater.Pittsfield hosted a potluck picnic on the green where all 546 tow
  
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• Shots for trees: Williston tries to stay one step ahead of invasive beetles

  25-06-2024 23:20 via vtdigger.org
  
  Kris Dullmer of Ash Tree Solutions, right, injects a pesticide into an ash tree named Big Jim in the Williston Town Forest to combat the emerald ash borer in Williston on Tuesday, June 25. Drilling and prepping the holes for the injection is Kevin Brewer of Arborjet, left. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  Latex gloves, alcohol wipes and needles are common tools for administering injections — even when the shots are for trees. On Tuesday, the Catamount Community Forest became a doctor&
  
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• As negotiations continue, UVM Medical Center nurses vote to allow strike

  25-06-2024 19:34 via vtdigger.org
  
  Deb Snell, head of the nurses union at the University of Vermont Medical Center, announces that union members have authorized the bargaining committee to call for a strike vote if negotiations with the hospital fail during a press conference in Burlington on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerNurses at the University of Vermont Medical Center have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike as they negotiate with hospital administrators for a new contract, union representativ
  
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• Burlington council gives unanimous approval to mayor’s $107.8 million budget

  25-06-2024 19:25 via vtdigger.org
  
  The Burlington skyline is seen on Thursday, January 2, 2020.Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
  The Burlington City Council has unanimously approved the city’s $107.8 million fiscal year 2025 budget, which marks a 7% increase over the current year’s budget and will bring a nearly 11% increase to the municipal tax rate.The budget, passed Monday night, closes a significant gap that ballooned from $9 million to $14.2 million. New revenue is being brought in through tax and fee increases, w
  
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• Max Tyler: The Vermont Legislature is exacerbating our affordability crisis

  25-06-2024 15:38 via vtdigger.org
  
  Dear Editor,This week, the Vermont legislature overrode Gov. Scott’s veto of H.887, the “yield bill,” which funds our public education system through property taxes. This bill will directly impact Vermont property owners, raising the average property tax by a significant 13.8%.It is crucial to understand that this tax increase is not an isolated event. It is a significant addition to the already heavy burden of the nation’s fourth-highest property tax rate, as reported by
  
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