Bernie returns to Vermont roots after competitive Super Tuesday
By Ariadne Will | March 5, 2020“[This campaign] is about transforming this country,” Bernie Sanders told the crowd on Tuesday. “This movement started right here.”
Local
Beloved Ferrisburgh camel, Ollie, dies at 17
By Hattie Lefavour | March 5, 2020Oliver “Ollie” the camel, for years an unlikely Route 7 celebrity and Vermont’s resident two-humped treasure, died on the evening of Feb. 21 at his farm in Ferrisburgh, Vt. He was 17 years old. Ollie, a seven-foot-tall, 1,500-lb Bactrian camel often described as a “ham for the camera,” prompted ...
School consolidation: how did we get here?
By Ariadne Will | March 5, 2020This is the second article in a series on school consolidation. Read the first article in that series here. Over the last three years, Middlebury and the surrounding towns have shifted from conversations about district consolidation to school mergers and closures. Act 46, the 2015 legislation that ...
College staff brace for summer road closures in town
By Lucy Townend | March 5, 2020The Middlebury Bridge and Rail Project, promising a passenger rail from Rutland to Burlington by 2021, will necessitate road closures on Merchants Row and Main Street between May 4 and Aug. 5. The town is currently working with Middlebury College administrators, in conjunction with the College’s 15-member ...
Count committee to aid Census Bureau for county-wide enumeration
By Tony Sjodin | March 5, 2020The Campus reported last week that the college was collaborating with a local committee to ensure a complete headcount for the 2020 Census. The Middlebury/Addison Complete Count Committee, established last spring to directly aid the U.S. Census Bureau, is conducting similar efforts across all of Addison ...
Amending the constitution: Vermont senators consider Green Amendment
By Kaitlyn Girouard | March 5, 2020The Vermont Senate read a proposal to add the right to a clean environment to the state constitution this month. This “Green Amendment,” sponsored by Senator Christopher Bray (D-Addison), would give Vermonters the “right to clean air and water and the preservation of the natural, scenic, and cultural ...
Middlebury voting guide
By Hattie Lefavour | February 27, 2020This voting guide answers typical questions about the primary process and voting in Middlebury.
Activists flood Burlington City Hall to halt future ICE collaboration
By Sophia Mcdermott-Hughes | February 27, 2020BURLINGTON — Over 130 activists, including 20 Middlebury students, rallied in support of a proposed resolution to end collaboration between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Burlington City Police Department at the Burlington City Council Meeting on Feb. 18. The resolution aims to ...
Planned Parenthood of Northern N.E. continues to provide health care after federal cuts
By Becca Amen | February 27, 2020After the Trump administration enacted updates last August to Title X funding stipulations in a move to severely limit access to abortion care, Vermont refused to yield. The Vt. Department of Health Services and the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) made the choice to forgo federal ...
No country for powder hounds: warmer temps threaten Vermont’s ski industry
By Florence Wu | February 27, 2020It’s a fact no ski resort, snow maker, liftie or snow hobbyist wants to hear: the temperature profile of Green Mountain winters is changing. Vermont has seen a decrease in average annual snow coverage since 1960, with the average high winter temperature rising at 0.64°F per decade, according to the ...
Investigations into last month’s Mac’s Market robberies continue
By Lucy Townend and Kari Henken | February 27, 2020Investigations are ongoing as police look for suspects in an armed robbery in East Middlebury. The initial incident occurred on the night of Jan. 6, when a man wearing green and dark-colored clothing, carrying a handgun, entered Mac’s Convenience Store a few minutes before 9 p.m. The suspect fired ...
Middlebury’s town meeting is on March 2. What should you expect?
By Hattie Lefavour | February 20, 2020The town meeting, a Vermont tradition conceived earlier than the state itself, is fast approaching. Occurring annually in nearly every Vt. town, the meetings provide Vermonters a chance to congregate as a local community to deliberate and vote on budgets, election of town officials and civic issues. ...
Vt. youth turning to state mental health services in record numbers
By Anna Wood | February 20, 2020The number of children using mental health services in Vermont has doubled over the past two decades, according to a recent task force report from Building Bright Futures, a Williston-based non- profit. The report found that in 1999, roughly 1,700 children ages nine and under used mental health services ...
Sitting down with the new Director of Addison County Restorative Justice Services
By Courtney Crawford | February 20, 2020Jean Stone, Addison County Restorative Justice Services’ (ACRJS) new executive director, hopes to recruit new volunteers to help with the organization’s rehabilitative practices. Restorative justice, at its core, grapples with the concept of community and every citizen’s role in it. As a process ...
Stonecutter Spirits serves last drinks
By Haeun Park | February 13, 2020Stonecutter Spirits ceased its gin and whiskey production, permanently closing both its Middlebury tasting room and its Burlington cocktail bar, Highball Social. According to co-founder Sivan Cotel, the company began evaluating its options in the fall of 2019 and officially closed their two locations ...
School consolidation movement divides rural VT
By Ariadne Will | February 13, 2020Rural Vermont schools are consolidating with larger schools under the guidelines of Act 46, a bill passed in 2015. “It is the conclusion of a multiyear process to create more sustainable and efficient school governance structures and improve access to quality PreK-12 education for all Vermont students,” ...
Wild Mountain Thyme closes after 48 years
By Haeun Park | February 13, 2020After 48 years of supplying the town of Middlebury with handpicked clothing and eclectic thrift finds, Wild Mountain Thyme closed its doors on Sunday, Jan. 9. Paula Israel ’76, the boutique’s owner, cited retirement as the reason for its closure. “I’ve known I wanted to transition to retirement ...
Love…Really: Bundle attendees share amor through stories and song
By Charlotte Crutchlow | February 13, 2020Bundle hosted the second installment of the Middlebury Underground storytelling series on Friday, Jan. 24, where students, professors and locals shared short, Moth-style stories. The subject of these stories was love, chosen by organizers Lisa Mitchell, Matt Laux and Kelly Hickey. “The theme ...
Considerations from the capital: Vermont legislative updates
By Kaitlyn Girouard | February 13, 2020Electronic cigarettes, climate change, marijuana, the safety of sex workers and paid family-leave are all topics that have come before the Vermont General Assembly this year. The topics have caused consequential debates about what is, and what is not, best for the state. Electronic cigarettes and vaping ...
College solar farm proposal ignites town-wide debate
By Jack Summersby | February 13, 2020Middlebury College is developing a new five megawatt solar farm south of campus in an effort to reach 100% renewable energy usage. The solar installation, which will cost between 8 and $9 million, is being built in collaboration with Encore Renewables, a Burlington-based energy services company, and ...