Seven Days, January 27, 2021 by Seven Days

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MAJOR FALLOUT B Y C H EL S EA ED G A R , PA G E 26

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FALLOUT B Y CHELS EA ED GAR, PAGE 26

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From the Publisher

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Weather the Storm

The Governor’s Gambit

Scott seeks to rewrite Act 250 — without the legislature

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area, where the mere forecast of snow reliably caused mass panic. Before moving to Vermont, my exposure to winter sports consisted of skating around and around a very crowded indoor ice rink. I might have been the only student at Middlebury College who never skied at the Snow Bowl. But while I was there, I learned a Nordic thing or two. I taught myself to cross-country ski on the golf course — and eventually graduated to trails on the Bread Loaf Campus in Ripton. I took up snowshoeing, too, and spent the longest, coldest night of my life winter camping alone on the Long Trail near Brandon Gap. It didn’t take long to figure out: The best way to make it through a Vermont winter is to embrace it. Especially this year, while we’re all waiting for a shot at the coronavirus vaccine, I recommend multiple doses of sledding, snowboarding and skating. Some like to ski downhill fast, but I prefer to slide through the awesome beauty of a frozen forest, where the only sounds are the crunch of snow underfoot, the occasional rustle of wind and my beating heart. Working up a sweat in arctic temps makes everything else feel manageable. As she did for most of 2020, Mother Nature is cooperating this year. Last week there was finally enough white stuff to ski in the Burlington Intervale. My partner and I took off from the Ethan Allen Homestead, flying atop farm fields and navigating the Wildway trail along the Winooski River, rejoicing in the fact that we live five minutes from this urban floodplain paradise. Two days later, we ventured to Camel’s Hump Nordic Ski Area in Huntington, which has a shocking amount of snow. By some miracle of wind protection, that day the trees were fully laden with it, down to the most delicate branches. “Winter wonderland” does not adequately describe the blackand-white spectacle, intricate as an etching. Camel’s Hump is run by a group of volunteers and operates on an honor system. I signed up for the daily e-newsletter, hoping it might motivate me to go there again. On Monday, president Dave Brautigam emailed, “Yesterday was the busiest day we’ve ever had, as it was sunny and the snow was divine. Today it will again start cold and moderate into the 20s with partly sunny skies for another great ski day. We will likely be grooming again by mid-week and then again for next weekend to keep conditions refreshed. Enjoy!!” Good advice. The February Staytripper inserted in the center of this issue suggests exploring Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Its vast network of trails leads skiers over hill, dale and frozen lake to other idyllic spots, such as Highland Lodge in Greensboro — and the Highland Center for the Arts, which Interested in becoming a Super Reader? currently offers an outdoor sculpture trail for Look for the “Give Now” buttons at the top of cross-country skiers and snowshoers. sevendaysvt.com. Or send a check with your One year, skiing between the two towns, we address and contact info to: met a group of people who spontaneously invited SEVEN DAYS, C/O SUPER READERS P.O. BOX 1164 us to join them for brunch at a house in the BURLINGTON, VT 05402-1164 woods. We glided right up to it. That won’t happen this year, of course, but it For more information on making a financial illustrates that in the so-called “dead” of winter, contribution to Seven Days, please contact Vermont is anything but. Corey Grenier:

COURTESY OF PAULA ROUTLY

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IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG TO FIGURE OUT:

THE BEST WAY TO MAKE IT THROUGH A VERMONT WINTER IS TO EMBRACE IT.

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VOICEMAIL: 802-865-1020, EXT. 36 EMAIL: SUPERREADERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

FAIR GAME OPEN SEASON ON VERMONT POLITICS BY DAVE GRAM

Fraud Squad

Why Rob Roper won’t stop talking about election tampering in Vermont

POLITICS

TIM NEWCOMB

wo weeks after president DONALD TRUMP’s lies about a rigged election culminated in a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Vermont’s own pied piper of voter fraud, Ethan Allen Institute president ROB ROPER, was still at it, trying to foment fears of rampant election crimes in the Green Mountains. “Town clerks shed light on election fraud in Vermont,” read the headline on Roper’s piece last week in True North Reports, an online publication devoted to conservative fever dreams. It’s the same outlet that warned last June: “In towns on Vermont border, Massachusetts State Police watch for Antifa.” The only “town” mentioned in the story was Pittsfield, Mass., which actually is a city, where the mayor had issued a memo saying there might be a stepped-up state police presence. That was in response to a claim that antifa forces might be spreading out from large cities to smaller places. Police later traced the bad info to a white supremacist group. And as for right-wing media’s grasp on the facts, Pittsfield isn’t on the Vermont border. It’s 27 miles from it. It turns out the “election fraud” on which “light” is being shed looks a lot like those antifa forces massing on Vermont’s southern border last summer. Republicans have been espousing for some time the theory that high voter turnouts help Democrats and lower ones help the GOP. Last March, a fascinating Washington Post analysis quoted Republican leaders in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin saying that new laws requiring voters to show photo IDs had improved the party’s prospects by lowering electoral participation. The news hook for the Post story was an interview Trump had just given on “Fox & Friends” in which he talked about reducing funding sought by Democrats for mail-in voting amid the pandemic. “The things they had in there were crazy,” Trump said of the Democrats’ stimulus proposal. “They had things — levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that fears that mail-in voting helps Democrats are bunk, according to a study by the Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University. The study “concluded that mail balloting modestly increased voter turnout but that both parties benefited more or less equally from the surge,” the Times said, adding that “Other academic studies have reached largely similar conclusions.”

Vermont and other states pushed hard for mail-in voting to reduce or eliminate Election Day exposure to the coronavirus. In Vermont’s general election, Republicans picked up three seats in the House and one in the Senate, and Republican Gov. PHIL SCOTT coasted to reelection over Progressive/Democrat DAVID ZUCKERMAN. Roper was a man on a mission last summer and fall, repeatedly issuing dire warnings on “Common Sense Radio,” the show the Ethan Allen Institute pays my former employer, WDEV Radio, to air. He also made it a favorite theme in his writings for True North Reports, VTDigger.org, the Ethan Allen Institute newsletter and other publications. “Election officials have too few and too weak tools for ensuring that the voter to whom ‘one vote’ is being attributed is actually the ‘one person’ who filled out the ballot,” Roper wrote in an opinion piece that appeared on VTDigger. “Our Secretary of State JIM CONDOS has no safeguards in place to ensure one person one vote,” he warned on WDEV. When town and city clerks in Vermont detect any evidence of fraud, they alert the Secretary of State’s Office, which investigates to see whether it can be chalked up

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

to administrative error, voter confusion or some other non-sinister cause. If it still looks suspicious, the Secretary of State’s Office sends the matter across the street to the state’s top prosecutor. Attorney General T.J. DONOVAN told Fair Game he got the handoff in seven cases connected with the November election, and exactly one was found “actionable,” meaning worthy of prosecution. Donovan wouldn’t provide details, saying the case is nearing resolution but isn’t there yet. He described the perpetrator as a “provocateur” who was “trying to test the system” of mail-in voting — and got caught. So there you have it: one case of attempted, but thwarted, election fraud out of a highest-ever total of about 374,000 ballots cast. For all of Roper’s claims that there are no defenses against voter fraud, I can think of two. First, most people are decent and honest and are not yearning to lie and cheat in an election. Second, for those who are tempted, every mail-in ballot requires a voter’s signature under the words “I swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury” that the voter is a resident and on the checklist of the town or city in which they are casting a ballot and is not registering, requesting a ballot or voting anywhere else in the United States. Perjury is a felony with a potential 15-year prison term.

Those who break the law and get away with it get to bump a favored candidate up from, say, 187,376 votes to 187,377. With a risk-benefit ratio like that, can you see why voter fraud might be rare? It looks like mail-in voting has a future in Vermont, at least through March. The legislature recently passed a measure allowing cities and towns to use mail-in balloting on Town Meeting Day, and it earmarked $2 million to help municipalities do so. You’d think that after Vermont’s stellar performance running the November election in the middle of a pandemic, and after baseless allegations of election fraud brought our nation to the brink of civil war, Roper would take a breather. But nope, he’s back for more. Roper’s headline about the clerks shedding light was based on legislative hearings in which lawmakers reviewed how last year’s elections went. His piece came days after he produced another missive, titled “Vermont director of elections testifies to how easy mail in ballot fraud is.” In the hearings, recordings of which are available on YouTube, elections director WILL SENNING, who testified before the Senate Government Operations Committee, and several town clerks who appeared before that panel’s House counterpart, had three main points to make about voter fraud. First: Defenses against voter fraud are weak, and clerks lack tools and training to

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block such fraud. Second: Systems meant to catch it especially where voting by mail to prevent it often end up denying legiti- is concerned, and our top election officials mate voters their right to cast ballots. And — and media folks like yourself — actively third: There’s really little to no voter fraud try to hide this fact from the public. This is in Vermont. governmental malpractice,” he wrote. There are other types of malpractice. Now here’s where True North Reports and similar conservative organs diverge There’s the malpractice of organs such as from journalism and become propaganda: True North Reports, which push a specific All of the quotations Roper included in the ideological agenda and call it “news.” pieces referred to the first of those three There’s the political malpractice of ginning statements but not the other two. It’s an up fear and suspicion way beyond what’s age-old technique called out-of-context justified in a country that needs to calm cherry-picking. down. He quoted Barre City Clerk CAROL DAWES: Condos called it “crying-wolf stuff. “There isn’t any way in our current system It’s what created the environment [that that would preclude somebody making led to] an attempted coup in Congress, at a request and then voting on behalf of the Capitol. These tactics by opponents someone who doesn’t want to vote on that of voting rights are … really not helpful to … That is an opportunity that’s out there.” democracy,” he said. Roper left out some other things she said, including, “I’m afraid that if we try to find Media Note: Done Digging solutions to problems that don’t really Two key staffers have departed VTDigger exist, like voter fraud, that we’re going to in recent weeks, following a tough year disenfranchise some of our voters.” of long hours covering the news during a Roper twice quoted Montpelier City pandemic. Clerk JOHN ODOM saying, “We can’t necesCATE CHANT left last Friday, telling Fair sarily stop” alleged fraudsters, but he Game she was going into “pretirement” failed to add that Odom also noted, “Right but would continue editing audiobooks now, as I said, there is part time. Chant had virtually no voter fraud. been with VTDigger It is a tiny, tiny thing,” nine years, from its or quote his comments early days as a fledgling that clerks would be the online news source first to call for changes to its current powerin Vermont’s voting house status. She was systems if fraud started essentially a copy desk to become a problem. chief but too modest to One thing I’d say in claim the title. She also defense of the mainwrangled commentaries. stream media and even Founder and editor “alternative” outlets ANNE GALLOWAY, who had AT TORNEY GE NERAL T. J . DONOVAN such as Seven Days is worked with Chant at that we try to get our the Rutland Herald and facts right. Roper flubbed both Dawes’ and the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, called Odom’s titles, calling each a “town clerk.” her remarkably dedicated. “I will sorely Montpelier and Barre — like Pittsfield, miss her,” Galloway said. Mass. — are cities, and the mistake is even Digger also lost MARK JOHNSON, a widely worse in Barre’s case, because there’s a respected journalist and broadcaster who separate municipality called Barre Town, took a senior editor job there five years with its own clerk-treasurer, DONNA KELTY. ago. His career has included stints as a Both Donovan and Secretary of State Burlington Free Press reporter, co-owner Condos had the same basic question for of WDKR 107.3 Radio and talk-show host Roper: Where’s your proof? “If he has facts on WDEV Radio for 25 years. or evidence supporting his allegations, he Galloway said Johnson’s mentorshould produce them,” Donovan said. ing had been “essential to reporters on our When I relayed their question to him, staff who, with his support, wrote gameRoper made clear he didn’t want to answer changing stories, such as the series on the it, accusing me in an email of “governmen- politics behind the F-35 fighter jet basing tal malpractice” even though I’ve never and sexual harassment at the Vermont worked in government. National Guard.” “You want the argument to be ‘show Johnson told Fair Game he left his job me evidence of voter fraud.’ But the last month to take a break after helping lead argument I am making and have been VTDigger’s coverage of the pandemic and for some time is that we have a system other news. Johnson, 60, said he hoped in which voter fraud can’t be detected if to return in some capacity to Vermont and when it occurs — where Clerks aren’t journalism, “though probably not 70-hour trained to spot it, mechanisms don’t exist weeks.” m

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MORE INSIDE

LEAHY HOSPITALIZED PAGE 16

NEWS

Bernie’s Mittens Spawn Memes — and Money for Charities

VT’S UNEXPECTED $210 MILLION SURPLUS PAGE 17

B Y S A L LY P O L L A K sally@sevendaysvt.com

Scott seeks to rewrite Act 250 — without the legislature B Y K E V I N MCCAL L UM • kevin@sevendaysvt.com

hen Gov. Phil Scott outlined his $6.8 billion budget on Tuesday, he proposed spending $500,000 to modernize Act 250, the state’s 51-yearold land-use law. Act 250 reform efforts are nothing new. But how he first proposed those changes — with a surprise executive order issued January 14 that c i rc u mve n t s the legislative process — has raised the eyebrows of lawmakers and the ire of environmentalists. “It’s a little bit of a high-noon-in-thecorral kind of move,” Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison) said of Scott’s order. The proposal set off a flurry of activity in the legislature as committees from both the House and the Senate scrambled to understand and respond to the order — and the shot clock it started. Scott employed a type of order intended to reorganize state government “for efficient administration,” which can only be issued before January 15 of a new biennium and which goes into effect 90 days later — unless lawmakers object. The governor has used such reorganization orders before. The legislature has allowed some, such as his 2017 order creating the Agency of Digital Services. That same year, the body rejected two others, including one that proposed combining departments to create an Agency of Economic Opportunity. The other would

STATEHOUSE

have merged the Department of Liquor Control and the State Lottery Commission — a measure the legislature later passed, anyway. Just how far Scott can go to reorganize state government using executive authority is a gray area, but the Act 250 reforms he seeks are clearly significant, said Luke Martland, the legislature’s top attorney. “The impact of these organizational changes is broad, and it does hit a number of different areas,” Martland told lawmakers last week.

IT’S A LITTLE BIT OF A

HIGH-NOON-IN-THE-CORRAL KIND OF MOVE. S E N. C H R IS BR AY

Act 250 permit applications are decided by nine district commissions composed of volunteers who may have different ideas about what’s appropriate for their communities. The problem, according to the Scott administration, is that this decentralized model results in inconsistent decisions and unpredictable outcomes for developers. It also leads to costly, duplicative and time-consuming appeals, the administration contends. Scott’s order would strip these commissions of most decision-making power and

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

shift it to a new, statewide board of three full-time, paid professionals appointed by the governor. Board members would be full-time staff experienced in environmental and land-use law. For a major case, two local volunteers would also be seated to review and vote. Scott is playing hardball to get the regulatory reforms he believes are crucial to create a more business-friendly climate in the state, but some lawmakers viewed the move as a misguided gubernatorial power grab. In addition to using a tactic that pressures the legislature to act, he is also using some suspect legal maneuvering. State law allows either the House or the Senate to block reorganizational orders. But Scott’s legal team is arguing that the law is unconstitutional and that both chambers must act to do so. Martland told lawmakers that the governor’s claims were “inaccurate.” “It is unclear if the Governor’s Office’s misrepresentation of the law is mistaken or intentional,” Martland wrote in a January 19 memo to lawmakers. Asked about the legal controversy last week, Scott said he had “a lot of faith” in THE GOVERNOR’S GAMBIT

» P.16

TIM NEWCOMB

The Governor’s Gambit

Joe Biden is the president, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is an icon. The image of Vermont’s junior senator at last week’s inaugural ceremony is now officially everywhere after Photoshoppers the world over superimposed Sanders in just about every situation imaginable. Huddled in his big mittens with his legs crossed, Sanders can be seen aging in a Vermont cheese cave, riding up the Single Chair at Mad River Glen ski area and sitting on the concrete steps outside of 242 Main Street in Burlington. He’s in a waiting room at the University of Vermont Medical Center and hanging out with the kitties at the Humane Society of Chittenden County. The U.S. Senate’s most meme-able member has done it again. In an interview with Seven Days last Friday, Jane O’Meara Sanders called the re-creations of her husband’s image “really cute.” A number of versions made her “laugh out loud,” she said. “I like all of them,” O’Meara Sanders said. “I liked him with the steelworkers up in the air. He always stands with the steelworkers, so he might as well sit with them.” And now there’s more to the story. The Sanders campaign created a Chairman Sanders crewneck sweatshirt bearing the image and put it online. The $45 piece of clothing sold out in an hour — and 100 percent of the proceeds went to Meals on Wheels Vermont. A T-shirt version sold out, too, and will benefit local charities. Meanwhile, the creator of the mittens, Essex Junction teacher Jen Ellis, is world-famous — as is her handwear. Bidding on a pair she donated to Outright Vermont had reached nearly $4,000 Tuesday in an auction to benefit the LGBTQ organization. Another pair she donated to benefit Passion 4 Paws dog rescue was going for about $2,000 on eBay. Earnings from a third pair, according to Ellis, will go to her daughter’s college fund. “I am so flattered that people want my mittens and I wish I could make them for everyone,” she wrote. PHOTO: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / GETTY IMAGES

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single positive test put Riverbend Residential Care Home on a knife’s edge. Jennifer Doyle operates the small, homelike eldercare facility in Chelsea that her parents owned before her. A selfdescribed “drill sergeant” about COVID19 precautions, Doyle nearly made it through 2020 without a case, until the last batch of twice-weekly test results came back on the evening of December 30. This time, of the home’s 20 residents and 20 or so staff, one person’s test came back positive: hers. Only time could tell whether Doyle had unknowingly seeded an outbreak. In the interim, the home would need to undertake new, even stricter measures to limit any spread. Employees would need to calm anxious residents while donning unfamiliar layers of personal protective equipment. And they would have to keep the home functioning without the physical presence of either the home’s owner or its coadministrator, who had been ordered to quarantine as Doyle’s close contact. “You take off the two leaders,” Doyle said, “and then … oh, gosh.” Vermont officials understood what was at stake. In their first virtual meeting

HEALTH

with Doyle on the evening of her positive test, they developed a plan to manage the situation. Crucially, the state also lent a literal helping hand in the form of a licensed practical nurse who reported for duty the next morning. Backup staffers have been in desperately short supply for eldercare homes stricken by the coronavirus, which together account for 60 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Vermont. As each outbreak unfolds, homes suddenly lose employees to infection, quarantine or resignations, leaving them with dangerously few hands to keep residents safe and limit the virus’ spread. Conditions can and have deteriorated dramatically. Inside Elderwood at Burlington, the state’s largest nursing home, patients languished in soiled bandages and undergarments, without their proper medications, following a 127-case outbreak that began around Thanksgiving, a recent federal inspection revealed. On December 11, as a new wave of outbreaks engulfed Vermont’s eldercare industry, the state launched an initiative to help minimize future catastrophes. The Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living signed a $1.4 million CALLING FOR BACKUP

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

1/13/21 3:22 PM

news The Governor’s Gambit

U.S. POLITICS

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Leahy Briefly Hospitalized After Feeling Ill B Y COL I N FL A ND ERS colin@sevendaysvt.com FILE: PAUL HEINTZ

Sen. Patrick Leahy

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) was taken to a Washington, D.C.-area hospital Tuesday afternoon after feeling ill at his Capitol office and was sent home hours later. Leahy spokesperson David Carle wrote at 6 p.m. that the senator had been examined by the Capitol’s attending physician while suffering from an undisclosed ailment and went to George Washington University Hospital “out of an abundance of caution.” Leahy underwent tests and an examination, then headed home. “He looks forward to getting back to work,” Carle wrote in a statement at 8:30 p.m. “Patrick and [Leahy’s wife] Marcelle deeply appreciate the well wishes they have received tonight.” Those wishes came from friends and colleagues, including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Grassley called Leahy a “tough Vermonter.” “Barbara & I send our prayers + know he will be back to work as soon as he can,” Grassley tweeted. Leahy, who will turn 81 in March, is the chamber’s longest serving member, having been first elected in 1974. He currently chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and is often credited with steering significant amounts of federal funding to his home state. Leahy’s health has long been a matter of speculation due in part to his gravelly voice, which his staff has long blamed on chronic laryngitis. He has already received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine. His hospitalization comes at a pivotal time for both the Senate and his role in it. Vermont’s senior senator was sworn in as president pro tempore last week — placing him third in line for the presidency — and he was chosen to preside over former president Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial. The senator presided over the body while his colleagues voted on rules for the upcoming trial on Tuesday afternoon.

his general counsel, Jaye Pershing Johnson, and was confident the administration’s position was correct. “I think it’s quite clear, if you do the analysis, that it has to be turned down by both bodies,” Scott said. “And we just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that going in.” Skeptical lawmakers gave the order a chilly reception. “I’m still not sure what the problem is we’re being asked to fix with this executive order,” Sen. Dick McCormack (D-Windsor) said last Thursday during a hearing of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Scott’s order would make a change similar to one floated last year by the administration and the Vermont Natural Resources Council, which agrees that Act 250 needs a major overhaul to prepare it for new threats such as the climate crisis. This time around, however, VNRC is not on board. “We don’t feel the executive order is the way to go,” said Brian Shupe, the group’s executive director. “It’s too complicated. It’s too controversial. It’s too significant of a change. It needs to go through the legislative process.” That process was about as messy as it gets last biennium. In 2019, the House struggled to draft a bill that included many of the recommendations made by the Commission on Act 250, a six-member panel of lawmakers who had spent more than a year examining the law with an eye toward its next 50 years. After a Scott administration and VNRC compromise meant to jump-start the process went nowhere, the Senate narrowed the scope of the effort last year during a session largely devoted to COVID-19. It ultimately passed a bill that skipped the district commission issue entirely, addressing only protections for large forest blocks and rules for permitting recreational trails. In the run-up to the current remote legislative session, new leaders of both the House and the Senate stressed that they planned to focus almost exclusively on COVID-19 relief. Scott’s order made it clear he didn’t want to see Act 250 reform shelved. In his State of the State speech at the session’s start, he framed Act 250 reform as an economic development issue. He said he hoped “to eliminate duplication and reduce costs, making it easier to revitalize downtowns and village centers in places like Newport, Springfield and Rutland.”

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Asked last week how Act 250 hinders economic growth in the state, Scott said the inconsistency of district commission decisions was “evident.” He didn’t explain further. “I don’t think that there is going to be a lot of conversation about that,” Scott said. Actually, that’s all anyone was talking about last week. Lawmakers, environmental advocates and district commissioners alternatively questioned whether there is inconsistency and, if so, whether anything is wrong with that. “What did Emerson say? ‘A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little

IT’S TOO COMPLICATED. IT’S TOO CONTROVERSIAL. IT’S TOO SIGNIFICANT OF A CHANGE. IT NEEDS TO GO THROUGH THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS. BR IAN S H UP E

minds,’” Bray told Seven Days last week, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous essay “Self-Reliance.” “I don’t know if we’re aiming for a consistency that is desirable or that would actually kind of steamroll the entire state into one flat view of what it should look like.” Passed in 1970 in response to unchecked growth that followed the completion of Vermont’s interstate highways, Act 250 was structured as a statewide law that would preserve local control of major projects through district commissions that reflected community input. It makes sense that a project in a Northeast Kingdom town such as Maidstone, population 208, would get a different reception than a project in suburban South Burlington, Bray said. “Inconsistency may be a matter of perspective,” he said.

What critics call inconsistency is, in fact, intentional and appropriate flexibility that has helped make the state what it is today, said Annette Smith, founder of Vermonters for a Clean Environment. “I think Act 250 was designed, by its nature, to have each region reflect its regional differences,” Smith said. The tension between consistency and local control is as old as the law itself, and the governor’s criticisms are neither new nor accurate, Smith said. “We’re living in Groundhog Day,” Smith told the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. “This is something we’ve heard over and over again.” Tim Taylor, a district commissioner from Thetford, argued that Act 250 is bound to result in varying decisions because some of the law’s guiding criteria are inherently subjective. For example, criteria addressing “Aesthetics, Scenic and Natural Beauty” counsels commissioners to consider whether a proposed project “offend(s) the sensibilities of the average person.” “It’s an average-person standard,” Taylor told the committee. “This doesn’t require experts.” Act 250’s decentralized structure is its strength, because when hearings are conducted properly, developers and community members feel heard, Taylor said. “That’s what the process is largely about,” Taylor said. “It’s listening and hearing and being empathetic, being neighborly, being Vermont.” Another district commissioner, Fred Baser of Bristol, told lawmakers that project proponents often benefit from decisions made by the local commissioners. In one case, his commission was able to significantly reduce the “handsome, fivedigit” traffic fees a developer would have had to pay for a project in Middlebury by taking a close look at the likely traffic patterns. Baser, a former Republican state representative, took offense at Scott’s suggestion last week that district commissions face “very, very technical, legalistic decisions” and might not be up to the task. “When I first heard that, I said, ‘You know, do they think we’re stupid?’” Baser said. There is, however, significant turnover on district commissions, and Fish & Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter said his staff spend an inordinate amount of time educating new members.

A professional board would help, he said. “You will have consistent application from the full-time board members, and you will also have input from those who know the local area and community best,” Porter said. Clean water advocate James Ehlers thinks he has a simple solution to the turnover. “Pay them,” he said. Currently, citizen commissioners get $50-a-day stipends to hear applications, which he called “an insult.” “Who in this day and age can dive into these super complex ecological and social issues for $50 a day?” Ehlers said. Well-trained, fairly compensated commissioners would serve longer and accrue the experience that would make them better at their jobs, he said. But that’s not in the cards, because Scott views Act 250 as an impediment to growth. “This is not about protecting the environment,” Ehlers charged. “This is about making things more efficient for developers.” The debate over the Act 250 reforms could be decided neither by the legislature nor Scott, but in the courts. Bristol attorney James Dumont has already challenged Scott’s order on constitutional grounds. Further, if one chamber of the legislature attempts to nix the order on its own, Pershing Johnson said, the governor could challenge that. A 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down one-chamber vetoes, she said. “When we have two branches of government with different positions on the law, it seems to me prudent to let the third branch decide,” she told lawmakers. m

STATEHOUSE

With a Budget Surplus in Hand, Scott Unveils His $6.8 Billion Spending Plan B Y KEV IN MC C AL L UM • kevin@sevendaysvt.com Gov. Phil Scott on Tuesday outlined his $6.8 billion budget proposal for the coming year, noting in his annual address to the General Assembly that the state was sitting on an unexpected $210 million surplus. The rosy budget picture, buoyed by federal COVID-19 relief funds, was in stark contrast with dire predictions made earlier last year of a major deficit. But Scott, a Republican, urged lawmakers to spend the one-time windfall wisely and to avoid the temptation to expand programs the state may be unable to Gov. Phil Scott afford once the infusion of federal relief funds dries up. The governor told legislators to seize the opportunity to invest in broadband and schools, build new housing and revitalize downtowns, and pursue other initiatives to put the state on better economic footing to recover from the pandemic. “If we’re cautious, we can solve problems and fund projects that have been stalled for years, improving communities, services, outcomes and state government itself, and lay the foundation for an economic resurgence around the state, without having to ask more from taxpayers to do so,” Scott said. The fact that the state has a budget surplus is remarkable given the grim forecasts state economists made last spring. With businesses shut down and unemployment soaring in May, they predicted a $430 million plunge in revenues. But the infusion of billions of federal dollars, including Paycheck Protection Program

grants to businesses and direct cash relief for families, have spilled over into betterthan-expected corporate and personal tax returns. Sales taxes have also gotten a particular boost from higher e-commerce sales as more people shop online during the pandemic. The state has newfound ability to tax such sales, which Department of Taxes Commissioner Craig Bolio called “huge” during a call with reporters before Scott’s address. E-commerce sales taxes are up about $10 million from the prior year, he said, a trend that is expected to continue. As the months passed, forecasts improved, culminating in a recent economic update that blew away the remaining clouds on this year’s budget horizon. “At the end of last week, we were quite surprised to see … our revenue upgrade far exceeded anything that any of us had expected, including our economists,” Administration Secretary Susanne Young told reporters. As a result, the state will not have to dip into its reserves, leaving the surplus available for the governor’s strategic investments. Though relieved, administration officials stressed how important it was for lawmakers and the public to understand how fleeting the good news could be. Thanks to that federal infusion, Scott proposed spending the surplus in a number of ways, including:

• $53 million to modernize the state’s aging IT system • $25 million for weatherization efforts for low- to moderate-income residents • $20 million to expand broadband connectivity, including $16 million to local utility districts • $20 million to the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board to boost affordable housing funds • $10 million to boost outdoor recreation, with $5 million for parks and trail improvements and $5 million for recreation infrastructure • $10 million to support community solar projects designed to make solar more affordable • $1 million in additional tourism spending Reaction to the address from legislative leaders was generally positive but mixed. Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint (D-Windham) said she was pleased to hear Scott reflect on the violence in Washington, D.C., and to acknowledge the need for a return to a spirit of bipartisanship. “He said it’s a conversation between the two branches — that is music to my ears, and I hope that he will stick to that,” Balint said. She stressed, however, that the legislature has an important oversight role. While many of the programs Scott cited are certainly needed, Balint said, lawmakers may make different choices, especially if there’s additional federal dollars from a new president and Democratically controlled Congress. Republican members of the House applauded Scott for his focus on leading the recovery from COVID-19 and growing the economy, particularly doing so within the state’s means. “Governor Scott’s commitment to not raising taxes on Vermonters during an economic downturn is a position widely shared by House Republicans,” House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy (R-Poultney) said in a statement. m

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

1/22/21 10:57 AM

news Calling for Backup « P.15

“Attracting those people to Vermont, where we cannot pay that, has been a huge challenge,” Basha said. The program’s online recruitment page depicts a nurse donning a superhero cape and assures prospective caregivers that experience is not required. Basha said the platform has proven less fruitful than TLC’s traditional recruitment networks. OLIVER PARINI

contract with a South Burlington-based staffing agency, TLC HomeCare, to recruit a pool of emergency health care workers from around the country who can be deployed to Vermont facilities faced with a possible coronavirus outbreak. In the six weeks since, the program has sent 55 people to 14 long-term-care homes for periods ranging from one shift to two weeks, according to DAIL. Recruiting workers has proven difficult, and so has maintaining them. These traveling workers have wrecked their cars on Vermont’s icy roads and contracted COVID-19 themselves. But state officials and facility operators say the emergency pool has been a lifeline to homes in crisis. The program’s benefit hinges on its fast response. The state’s contract guarantees a pool of 20 full-time health care workers who can be dispatched as needed, plus up to 20 per diem workers. TLC already supplies staff to Vermont’s eldercare industry, CEO and registered nurse Mohamed Basha said, but it wasn’t equipped to handle the unpredictable, short bursts of demand that appear in the first hours of facility outbreaks. Without the funding to hire a dedicated group of emergency responders, TLC often needed a week or more to send help, which is usually too late. “There was just no way to do that without the state stepping in,” he said. With the state contract in hand, TLC began recruiting health care workers in Vermont and across the country. Before the pool was established, members of the Vermont Department of Health’s rapid response team helped marshal emergency staffing for homes by calling in favors from hospitals. Those efforts had mixed results, with some hospital recruits ill prepared or unwilling to do it, as Seven Days reported last spring. As a result, facilities such as Birchwood Terrace Rehab and Healthcare in Burlington resorted to asking infected employees to work on makeshift COVID-19 units. The state first looked to TLC last spring when it was considering establishing emergency locations to treat patients, Basha said. Those never materialized because cases waned. A post-Halloween resurgence renewed the need for staffing support at long-term-care homes. It took more than a month for the current program, modeled after a similar one in Minnesota, to come together, DAIL operations director Monica White said. The state considered other options but found them lacking. The small number of clinicians in the Vermont National Guard already had day jobs in health care, White said, and couldn’t meet the need if

redirected to long-term care. Similarly, the state’s volunteer Medical Reserve Corps hasn’t proven nimble enough to reliably respond on a moment’s notice to homes in all corners of the state. The TLC pool, meanwhile, functions as an around-the-clock standby service in concert with the broader health department-led response. Requests for staff support come in at all hours, with

Katelynn Audette of TLC HomeCare

employees in many cases needed the same day, said Katelynn Audette, TLC’s operations manager, who coordinates the assignments. The state program seeks to entice workers with crisis wages that start at $25 per hour for unlicensed personal care assistants and go up to $55 per hour for registered nurses. The rates may be higher than what

THE MOST DANGEROUS THING

DURING THE OUTBREAK FOR US WAS STAFFING LEVELS. C L AYTO N C L AR K

full-time workers make at Vermont’s longterm-care homes, but they’re relatively low for the national market in which the state is competing during the pandemic, Basha said. Registered nurses can earn upwards of $100 per hour in some other locations, which is one reason only six registered nurses have been deployed through the Vermont program so far.

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

“We had a couple people that did sign up willing to work in a kitchen or do laundry and things like that,” he said. “But then, when push comes to shove and you call them to go to work, [they say,] ‘I’m rethinking this whole thing. I’ll do it once I get my vaccination.’” Fear of getting COVID-19 wasn’t a concern for Ashlynn Pittman, a caregiver from Columbia, Miss., who has already caught the disease once. “I’m pretty used to the work,” she said. “Nothing too difficult being thrown at me.” Nor was it a deal breaker for Atlantabased Ni’Keyla Craft, a nursing assistant who is working in exposed homes for the first time as part of TLC’s pool. “When I chose health care as my choice of a career, I knew I would have to deal with sicknesses, outbreaks, diseases,” Craft said. “So to me, it comes with the territory.” Multiple staffers in the pool of mostly out-of-state workers have tested positive since the program began, Basha said. Five TLC recruits were in car accidents in just four weeks, mostly slide-offs involving unfamiliar icy conditions. For those reasons, the pool could quickly deplete, especially if Vermont sees another spike beyond the 19 current

outbreaks in long-term-care homes. White said last week that the state was planning to email its entire database of licensed nurses and assistants in an effort to deepen the bench. The arrival of even a couple of staffers can make a significant difference to an eldercare home dealing with COVID-19 cases. Will Fritch, a team lead for the health department’s Health Care Outbreak Prevention and Response program, said those resources can help avoid the “crisis” stage of staffing strategy, in which the usual standards of care and infection control begin to break down. The Converse Home, a nonprofit residential care home in Burlington, made use of three outside staffers over the course of its outbreak, which began December 6 and eventually infected nine residents and eight employees. “The most dangerous thing during the outbreak for us was staffing levels,” said executive director Clayton Clark. Converse was one of a handful of facilities to make use of a Medical Reserve Corps volunteer. The home added a volunteer social worker to its memory care unit, where the outbreak was discovered. The volunteer was able to help discourage residents from wandering and further spreading the virus, Clark said. As the outbreak entered its second week and the state launched its emergency staffing pool, Converse obtained a caregiver who could work the thinly staffed overnight shifts, as well as an assistant who came twice weekly to help conduct building-wide COVID-19 testing. While Clark said the help was “critical,” Converse also took its own measures to stem a more severe crisis. The home added an additional layer of eye protection for employees as soon as the City of Burlington detected higher traces of COVID-19 in the city’s wastewater, which ultimately reduced the number of employees who had to quarantine once the outbreak was discovered. Clark also added $5 hourly hazard pay for all employees upon detection of the first cases, which helped retain anxious staff. The home lost five residents to the virus in one unit but managed to stop it from spreading beyond that, Clark said. The outcome at the Riverbend residential care home in Chelsea early in the New Year was even more encouraging. Owner Doyle and her coadministrator continued to work remotely, guided by advice from the state’s rapid-response team, while a TLC nurse worked with the staff inside the home. Follow-up testing revealed that no one besides Doyle had gotten infected. An outbreak was averted. m

WEEK IN REVIEW

P.7

In this time of crisis, UVM does need to adjust, but not by abandoning its vision. Learning the ancient roots of our civilization (classics), human spirituality and religious practices (religious studies), foreign cultures (Greek, German, Latin, Italian), and our Earth (geology) is not optional for Vermonters. We need to have not just the superficial knowledge of introductory classes, but also the deep knowledge about these things that departments and programs offer the state and our students. Jacques Bailly

BURLINGTON

Bailly is an associate professor in the UVM classics department.

GOOD FOR GRAM

I was delighted to read that Dave Gram has joined Seven Days [From the Publisher: “‘Fair Game’ On,” January 13]. As a WDEV Radio listener, I can say that he has been missed! And how wonderful to have “Fair Game” back! That has also been missed. Congratulations on both counts.

the need for greater control of social media to prevent foreign interference in elections, publication of fake news and expression of extremist political views. The federal government needs to step in and establish guidelines for what can and cannot be posted online. Violations would result in severe monetary penalties and/or jail time, depending on the severity of the infringement. This would require the creation of a new agency, perhaps named the Department of Information, to monitor social media and other news outlets for compliance. While this would be costly, it would be an investment in freedom and democracy and would ensure that only accurate news and mainstream political views were published. Only with these changes can the U.S. join the ranks of other great nations, like Russia and China.

Dave Gram’s first column PAGE 12

RADIO

HEAD BY PAUL A ROUTLY, PAGE 36

CAPITOL GROUNDLESS

PAGE 15

Trump loyalists cling to conspiracies

HEAD START

PAGE 48

PAGE 34

Meet new Flynn exec Jay Wahl

David Maher

BURLINGTON

Jill Smith

MORALE-BOOSTING MENU

Thank you so much for the article about University of Vermont Medical Center executive chef R. Leah Pryor [“Kitchen Prescription,” January 20]. In the fall of 2018, I was hospitalized for several days at UVM Medical Center with pneumonia. Initially, I was very sick and wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Thanks to excellent care, I was able to begin a rapid recovery. And as my appetite returned, I was astounded by the choice and quality of food the hospital offered. Before every meal, I placed my order from a severalpage menu, which, I was happy to note, included lots of vegetarian choices. (I am a vegetarian.) And when I placed my order, the person on the other end of the phone would often make helpful suggestions, just like a server in a fine restaurant. It’s no fun being sick, but it’s hard to describe what a wonderful morale booster it was to have great meals as I started to get better. Thank you, chef Pryor! Leigh Dolin

SOUTH BURLINGTON

SOCIAL DISORDER

[Re “In Trump They Trust,” January 13]: Recent events, such as Donald Trump’s inflammatory tweets, have highlighted

RADIO FEET

[Re “Radio Head,” January 13]: Any article about the inimitable Jane Lindholm is incomplete without mention of the totally stylin’, kickin’ shoes she showed off at the Vermont Symphony Orchestra concert at Higher Ground on October 26, 2019. We are not worthy! Jay Furr

RICHMOND

TWO MORE JANE STORIES

What a great piece on one of our most talented and authentic Vermont luminaries [“Radio Head,” January 13]. I’m sure many Vermonters have a story about their interaction with Jane Lindholm. Mine is when she came to Green Mountain Coffee and effortlessly slid into fluent Spanish, delighting the coffee farmers from Columbia whom she was interviewing in the cupping lab. She went to my husband’s shop at Burton to interview him for a “But Why?” segment about the connection between snowboarding and skateboarding. Her first remark — that he wasn’t wearing any shoes — made it to the air. It is wonderful stories like this that help get us through. Sandy Yusen

WATERBURY

Some diet in January; we doughnut

Mary Adams

GARLAND, MAINE

COURTESY OF JAY FURR

DUXBURY

Gov. Phil Scott set the stage for the insanity of turning against Trump, but Beck is taking a bad idea and making it worse. If state party chair Deb Billado did not support the Republican president, then Turning the mic around on Rep. Beck might have a point Jane Lindholm, in asking her to move out of voice recognizable most VPR’s her position, but to call for her resignation because she does support the Republican president is contrived insanity! The same kind of self-immolation of the Republican Party is going on right now in Washington, D.C. Trump gave the GOP new life by broadening the base and reflecting the concerns of average Americans. His accomplishments on behalf of the American people put the accomplishments of his critics to shame. “Trump HOLE FOODS lovers” see that he has steered America away from totalitarian “globalism” and back to putting the interests of America first. Rep. Beck’s idea of his leaving the party sounds good, because the path blazed by Trump is one of more prosperity and freedom (local control, not global control). Beck’s path is one of infighting. If Billado supports the grassroots voters of Vermont by championing the vision and actions shown for four years by Trump, then she’s in just the right spot. I wish her well in the crazy chaos caused by Vermont never-Trumpers.

FAIR GAME RETURNS

VOL.26 NO.15 SEVENDAYSVT.COM VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT VOICE JANUARY 13-20, 2021

FEED back «

Jane Lindholm at the VSO concert

Adams is the 40-year Republican town chair of Garland, Maine.

TAKING NAMES

RECRUIT LINDHOLM

[Re “Radio Head,” January 13]: Wouldn’t it be great if we could get Jane Lindholm and her varied talents into Vermont state politics? Dave Crane

JEFFERSONVILLE

BECK VERSUS BILLADO

[Off Message: “Republican Lawmakers Call for VTGOP Leaders to Condemn Trump or Resign,” January 12; Fair Game: “Grand Old Parting?” January 13]: Rep. Scott Beck (R-St. Johnsbury) has found a way to alienate and divide Vermont Republicans. He’s “calling for the resignation of the Trump-loving leaders of the state’s GOP if they can’t support removing the president from office.” Probably

[Re “Nothing to Siege Here,” January 20]: The reasons given by those Vermont legislators who voted against condemning the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol abound in gross denial of civic responsibility and in abject denial of truth and the rule of law. These comments befit one who turns their back on the U.S. Constitution and an America that suffered a bloody Civil War against slavery and another bloody World War II against racism and fascism. I urge these legislators to reflect deeply on the consequences of what they say, both as humans of the privileged class and as Vermont lawmakers, and on their purpose in their one precious life. Hugo Liepmann

MIDDLESEX

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

lifelines

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES

David Watts

Jean Oliver Koch

Jean was a member of the Our Lady of the Snows church, the Mountain Gardeners Club, the Valley Singers and the Fayston Historical Society, and she volunteered for Meals on Wheels and the Valley Food Shelf. She managed the Mad River tennis courts and worked short stints as a school teacher, Realtor and bank teller and on the Mad River Ski Patrol. She is survived by her children, Steve Koch of Brandon, Vt., Susan Koch (aka Nema Nyar) of Honesdale, Pa., and Jennifer Koch and her husband, Gregg Blasdel, of Burlington, Vt., her brother Paul Oliver and his wife, Audrey, of Portland, Ore.; and her dedicated caregivers Carol Bourque, Jessica Blais, Danielle Hampton, Karen Campbell, Jacci Van Alder, Tina White and Tracy Flint, among others. She is predeceased by her husband, Joseph Koch; her brother Peter Oliver; and her many cherished cats and dogs. A memorial service will be held at Our Lady of the Snows when it is safe to gather. Contributions can be made to your local humane society in lieu of flowers.

Want to memorialize a loved one in Seven Days? Post your remembrance online and in print at sevendaysvt.com/lifelines. Or contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt.com or 865-1020, ext. 10. 20

a dear lifelong connection; Omar Granados became an “honorary son.” David got such joy from his family and friends, and from their families and friends. The circle was ever-expanding, and David ever-welcoming. A day on the ski slopes, camping in the woods, canoeing and roaming the world with friends and family, especially his sons, brought David pure delight. He got such joy from people; what he loved best about his occupation as a lawyer was his opportunity to “learn everyone’s stories.” Nothing satisfied him more than working with family,

believed. The majority of his law practice was shared with Stephen Blodgett, an important partner, mentor and friend. Paul Volk subsequently joined their firm, as well. David was “thinking about retiring” next December 2021 (at age 76!). Of David’s many community and volunteer activities, perhaps most important to him was his shared leadership of Volunteer Vermont. In response to the racist arsons of many southern Black churches during the mid-1990s, David helped to organize youth and adult service trips from Vermont to Summerton, S.C., for 15 years, to rebuild community centers and places of worship. He was also instrumental in founding the nonprofit, Volunteer Vermont, LLC, to raise money for building supplies and trip expenses. Given the pandemic, no formal gathering or celebration of David’s life is currently planned. We know David would encourage donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU and any local food shelf.

Combat Team (Mountain), with a part-time job as patient administration specialist at Vermont State Medical Command (1996-2005). Beginning in 2005, he was medical records clerk/patient administration at the Office of the Deputy State Surgeon, which required secret security clearance. In November 2009, Sgt. McKenney was awarded the

Army Achievement Medal: “Because of his dedication to duty and selfless service, Sgt. McKenney is a credit to himself, the Vermont Army National Guard, and the United States Army.” In spring 2010, he was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. His job with medical records included assisting with wounded and fallen soldiers. Steve joined Berlin Family Health as coding/front desk clerk (1997). Thereafter, he held medical records positions at Gifford Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center. In 2019, he was promoted to senior patient access navigator at CVMC. Steve was a voracious reader, especially fond of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. He enjoyed computer gaming, playing

guitar, music recording/mixing, woodworking projects and gardening/landscaping with his stepfather. Steve did everything with great thoughtfulness, love and care. He dedicated his life to serving people: 23 years with central Vermont hospitals and more than 20 years with the U.S. Army and Vermont National Guard. During the pandemic, he ran errands and made necessary repairs for his aging parents, all before and after long workdays. His passing has left in shock and sorrow his mother, Susan Jones-McKenney; stepfather, Thomas McKenney; domestic partner, Renée Flint; cousins; aunts; uncles; colleagues; and friends. Memorial contributions may be made to Make-A-Wish Vermont, 431 Pine St., #214, Burlington, VT 05401, 802-864-9393.

APRIL 23, 1945JANUARY 16, 2021 CHARLOTTE, VT.

MAY 9, 1937JANUARY 14, 2021 FAYSTON, VT.

Jean Oliver Koch passed peacefully at home, surrounded by family, on January 14, 2021. An avid skier, tennis player, singer and gardener, she treasured her family, friends and beloved pets. Her full life began to shrink in the last decade as it became clear she was struggling with Alzheimer’s disease. Jean was born in Teaneck, N.J., to Hedwig and Frank Oliver, who were avid hikers. Gifted in ballet, she danced the lead role in her school’s rendition of Swan Lake and later studied in New York City. Her grace was evident on the ski slopes and tennis courts. She decided early on not to marry a hiker. After receiving a bachelor’s in education from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, she married Joseph Koch, a fun-loving, spirited skier, on December 26, 1959. They settled in North Haldon, N.J., where their son, Steven, and daughter Susan were born; they moved to Franklin Lakes in 1965, where Jenny was born. From there, the family trekked almost every winter weekend to their favorite ski area, Mad River Glen. In 1975, they moved to South Burlington, Vt., and two years later to Fort Wayne, Ind., before settling into their beloved home in Fayston, Vt., in 1989. In each place, she made a comfortable home and excelled in learning all the roads and shortcuts in town.

friends and clients to find ways for life to flow more justly and smoothly. Born in Middletown, Conn., on April 23, 1945, to Fay Bennett and Rowland Watts, David grew up in Usonia, N.Y., an experimental, collaborative community his parents helped to shape. The commitment of Usonian community members to social justice and equity profoundly affected David’s goals and actions throughout life — his pursuit of a legal career and volunteer activities focusing on social justice, economic and housing equity, developmental disabilities rights, and family law, as well as his generosity and skills in collaboration, especially supporting those with limited resources. A graduate of Haverford College (1967) and Antioch School of Law (1975), David established strong friendships that remained central to his adventures and soul-searching conversations throughout life. He began his legal practice at Vermont Legal Aid, acting on what he preached and

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

On January 16, 2021, David died in his sleep on the couch with the New Yorker magazine at his side. His heart appeared to fail him after 75 active years. If you knew David at all, you knew him entirely; he was just as he appeared: generous, kind, enthusiastic, principled, optimistic and loving — no pretension and a real mensch. The best day of his life — David stated often and emphatically — was the day he became a father. He adored his three sons, Tucker, Ethan and Brooks Bond-Watts, and his wife, Lynne Bond — partner and collaborator in parenting and adventure. Delighted as his family grew, David dearly loved Tucker’s wife, Kristen; Brooks’ wife, Diana; and their children, Katie (4) and Misha (3). His niece Molly was like a daughter to him; his brother Lanny Watts was his very best friend; his sister Linda Watts was

Stephen T. McKenney

MARCH 27, 1971DECEMBER 31, 2020 BARRE, VT. Stephen T. McKenney, 49, died suddenly at home of heart failure on December 31, 2020. Born on March 27, 1971, in Bridgeport, Conn., he lived most of his life in central Vermont. He enlisted in the Army upon graduation from high school (1989) as a member of 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg. Steve saw active duty in Panama (1989) and the Gulf War (1990-91). At the Heidelberg, Germany, support hospital, he was admissions/dispositions clerk, then patient administration specialist (1993-96). He joined the Vermont Army National Guard, HHC 86th Infantry Brigade

READ, POST, SHARE + COMMENT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LIFELINES

OBITUARIES

Paul Sprayregen APRIL 3, 1949DECEMBER 14, 2020 PALM BEACH, FLA., AND CHARLOTTE, VT.

Paul Sprayregen, 71, of Palm Beach, Fla., and Charlotte, Vt., died suddenly on December 14, 2020. Born in Stamford, Conn., he spent summers with his family sailing the northeast coast. After his father’s passing in 1959, he and his brothers spent summers in rural France (his mother’s country of birth), creating adventures and a lifetime of memories. In 1967 he moved to Burlington to attend the University of Vermont, drawn by the natural landscape of Vermont. Paul always knew he would build a business of his own, and not long after graduating in 1971, he founded Investors Corporation of Vermont (ICV), a real estate development firm. Over the

course of nearly 50 years, his projects transformed Burlington and the surrounding communities. Never one to be idle, by the 1980s Paul began developing projects in Hartford, Conn.; East Hampton, N.Y.; and Palm Beach, Fla. Later he added projects in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Lebanon, N.H. While Paul’s defining legacy is ICV, his greatest love

was his family and time spent together on Lake Champlain and the Florida coast. He was predeceased by his parents, Richard Sprayregen and Monique Sprayregen Eastman. He is survived by his beloved wife, Emeline, of Palm Beach, Fla.; his sons Robert Sprayregen (Dina) of Palm Beach, Fla., and Richard Sprayregen (Anna) of Charlotte, Vt.; his daughters, Mary Sprayregen (David Schilling) of Shelburne, Vt., and Stephanie Sprayregen (Calle von der Lancken) of New York, N.Y.; and his brothers Peter Sprayregen (Lucy) of Lincoln, Mass., and Philip (Laurie) Sprayregen of New York, N.Y.; as well as four grandchildren, three nephews and one niece. The family asks those wishing to honor Paul’s life to consider donating to the American Cancer Society or the American Heart Association.

Mark your family’s milestones in lifelines. sevendaysvt.com/lifelines

Ethan Wyatt Bisbee MAY 16, 1928JANUARY 10, 2021 SHELBURNE, VT.

Born the fourth of six children by Dorothy Winsor Bisbee and Elliot Walter Bisbee in Concord, Mass., Ethan was well educated at home alongside his five siblings: Ricky, Alice, John, Joyce and Tom. He attended the Fenn School and graduated from the Middlesex School in 1946. He continued his studies at Harvard University, receiving his AB in government cum laude in 1950 and AM in history in 1961. Typically and thankfully, he repaid these gifts many times over, teaching diligently at Milton Academy from 1953 to 1993. Ethan married Mary Susan Gongaware on September 10, 1955, and they were delighted to raise Ann Scheffler, Liz Bisbee and Fred Bisbee. Arriving just before the Great Depression and too young for service in the Second World War, Ethan was definitive of his generation. He valued thrift, reserve, responsibility and community, believing that citizenship is a job, not a grant. Though born in the flatlands of Massachusetts, his heart surely belongs to his family home, Fisher Hill, in Vermont. This is where so much family history, and little else, takes place. Most summer evenings would find him there “holding court,” if not literally grasping a tennis racquet or croquet mallet, then perhaps a drink on his lovely terraced porch. Summer days were well spent, as Ethan could leave few tasks untried and fewer unfinished, and he was brave enough to share them. Whether Ethan was putting up firewood or vegetables, or advancing a trench, argument or stonewall, the hours passed easily and richly in his cheerful presence. At Milton Academy, Ethan

started somewhat green, with great colleagues, and learned the job on the job. He never stopped learning, and so excelled. He taught history, both U.S. and world; brought current events into discussion; and tried to draw out the reluctant speaker or student as a worthy equal. Always a coach, long an adviser, he went on to teach economics and to chair the history department. Committed to the notion that one must “earn his keep” and trusting himself enough to think he had something to offer, Ethan contributed much. He sought opportunities to meet students he might never teach, attending a tea, lecture or performance; supervising a film; proctoring an exam; or simply timing his crossing of the street. Amazingly, looking back, Ethan and Sue even housed students, outnumbered at times. Ethan loved his wonderful office with its doors opening to the hallway and classroom, and he often welcomed visitors there with his long-faced, toothy grin. In retirement, Ethan and Sue spent winters in Westerly, R.I., and summers in Fayston, Vt. For years, both enjoyed each other, their larger family and the longer growing season, and they led active, fit lives. Ethan maintained woodland walking trails in Westerly, volunteered in Mystic at the Seaport Museum (mostly employed in the woodshop and its adjacent lumber yard), and assisted the Vermont Historical

Society in researching and archiving. For a few good years, Ethan could taunt his younger brother Tom and his wife, Marty, about the impending school year, but he tried to be mindful of this same fate befalling his faithful daughter Liz. Retirement allowed Ethan more time to connect with friends, and he loved doing so. He kept well informed and helped raise four grandchildren. After his wife Sue died, Ethan — acutely aware of her vast absence and his many deficiencies — began life at the retirement community of Wake Robin in Shelburne, Vt. He was much welcomed there by many, greatly and repeatedly in many small ways, but most by his brother John and his wife, Brenda. A year later, Ethan lost his eldest daughter, Ann, to cancer. Though he worked through much grief and continued to stay involved, he was never the same. He died independently and peacefully, having fulfilled a noble career and a happy life. Ethan is survived by his brother John Bisbee and his wife, Brenda; his brother Tom Bisbee and his wife, Martha; and his sister-inlaw Emily Patten. He leaves several cousins; 17 nephews; 10 nieces; his son-in-law Ed Scheffler; his daughter Liz Bisbee; his son and daughter-in-law Fred and Lisa Bisbee; and his grandchildren Ted Scheffler, Ethan Scheffler, Eloise Bisbee and Quinn Bisbee. Much thanks to John Woodruff of PerkinsParker Funeral Home of Waterbury, Vt. Though no service is planned, the family will gather to celebrate Ethan when conditions permit. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that gifts could be directed to a worthy local need. For those who knew him through Milton Academy, he would probably most wish to support the faculty or their development. The address remains 170 Centre St., Milton, MA 02186.

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

arts news

Close Contact

Christal Brown and Lida Winfield collaborate on new dance video B Y E LIZ A BET H M. SEY LER • elizabeth@sevendaysvt.com

HRISTAL BROWN and LIDA WINFIELD are

DANCE

themselves and those in the center and use it to their own advantage. Though Same but Different offers commentary related to contemporary cultural issues, “It’s not a response or a reaction to our current moment,” Brown said. Seeds for the collaboration were sown in 2016 when she and Winfield taught at the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine. Brown suggested they create the piece when she noticed that the two shared similar values.

OS Y

S TE UR

CO OF SU JH IA

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

explaining the clip, “but what I saw was that I could see the whole playing field, decide which position I wanted to take and play the game my way.” Winfield had a different perspective: “It doesn’t always feel like that.” In her experience, those on the margins aren’t necessarily aware that they can gather information about

added: “Clearly that’s something that’s r e a l l y needed” these days. Through movement and spoken word, Brown and Winfield explore topics such as race, age and gender. For example, in a short rehearsal clip, they move between the center of a studio and its edges, exploring what it means to be marginalized. “Many people may have seen me as marginalized,” Brown said while

OT PH

friends and colleagues, and they’re curious about each other: How are they similar? How are they different? Professionally, both are accomplished independent dance artists and faculty in the Middlebury College dance program. But Brown is also chief visioning officer of Steps & Stages Coaching, Facilitation, Consulting and the leader of the Middlebury College Anti-Racism Task Force. Winfield is also an independent educator; a creator of theater, storytelling and visual art; and an instructor in Middlebury’s Educational Studies Program. Their temperaments are similar: “We both work a lot and like our work,” Winfield said, “and we’re both talkers.” But the women’s backgrounds and life experiences are quite different. Brown grew up in the South and is Black; Winfield was raised in the North and is white. “As children, Christal was considered a genius and Lida was labeled dumb,” state the performance notes for a new dance video work that the duo has created to explore who they are. Same but Different premieres online on Saturday, January 30, produced by the FLYNN and created with support from the Middlebury Performing Arts Series and the National Performance Network. “Our main goal is for the audience to see what it means to be curious about another person,” Brown said in a recent interview with Winfield and Seven Days.. It’s “a human-to-human investigation of how we continue to know about ourselves by asking questions about each other.” The work is also about friendship, Winfield

See Same but Different creation in progress at sevendaysvt.com.

Both believe dance is a vehicle for change and are not “so into [dance] that it becomes more important than the people,” Brown said. We “place people first,” Winfield concurred, by “valuing the people in the room, really teaching to who’s there … and [being] interested in deep transformation with the tool that dance is.” Already in the same safe pod during the pandemic, Brown and Winfield began creating the piece last summer in Brown’s home studio. Inspiration came from improvised performances they gave at professional development workshops for educators, well before the coronavirus arrived in Vermont. In these performances, educators in the audience would call out four words they wanted the duo to address, and Brown and Winfield would dance and converse using those words, on the spot, for seven minutes. (See their clever riff on the words “sunshine,” “boys,” “waffle” and “darkness” posted in April 2020 to the Middlebury Dance Program’s Facebook page.) To build on this structure, the women mined their dance backgrounds. Brown is a formally trained dancer who can precisely recall and reproduce any movement sequence; Winfield is a master improviser with boundless inventive capacity. Combined, their skills allow them to ask of anything they create, “What is it, and what could it be?” Brown said. “That’s how we build phrase material together.” As they’ve built phrases and riffed in conversation, the pair has amassed a large archive of raw audio recordings and movement videos for

GOT AN ARTS TIP? ARTNEWS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM Christal Brown (left) and Lida Winfield in Same but Different

FILM

Dreaming Deep

THE CAMERA WORK GETS REALLY CLOSE,

SO IT FEELS PERSONAL AND INTIMATE TO THE BEST OF OUR ABILITY.

PAMELA POLSTON

pamela@sevendaysvt.com

INFO

View “While We Wait” beginning Monday, February 1, at thequarryproject2020.com. COURTESY OF JULIA BARSTOW

use by other artists MATTEO MORETTI involved in creating was assistant Same but Different. photographer. Monthly since “The camera September, direcwork gets really tor of photography close,” Winfield SAM KANN, a Middlesaid, “so it feels bury College senior, personal and has spliced recordintimate to ings and footage the best of to create oneour ability.” minute shorts on Brown the work’s progcalled the ress. Brown and video a Winfield have “beautishared them ful hybrid on Facebetween storytelling book and Instagram. narrative Kann has also created more detailed, and physical interaction that puts the five-minute versions of the monthly videos lens in places you would only notice if you for patrons who purchase what Brown were watching it live.” and Winfield call a “process pass.” For a “So much of that credit goes to the partone-time fee of $100, pass holders are kept ners that we’ve picked,” Winfield affirmed, abreast of the work’s progress and invited noting another thing she and Brown have to give feedin common: back. They also “really wantreceive tickets to ing always to a pre-premiere have a team reception with and to work the artists and to with others the premiere and and respect the Q&A discussion, expertise that which Flynn different folks artistic director bring.” LIDA WINFIELD STEVE MACQUEEN The women will host. Process anticipate that passes are still available. ($20 tickets grant the video will reach many more viewers access to the premiere and Q&A only.) than would a live performance. They Feedback from process-pass holders plan to engage with communities across and other viewers has informed the piece’s Vermont and the U.S. through the video, development, as have the women’s own workshops and seven-minute improvised experiences of watching the videos. performances like those that formed the “We’re constantly trying to see … what foundation for Same but Different. the public needs to see, rather than just Will they keep developing the piece? what we think is important,” Brown noted. “We’re going to have opportunities to “We can shoot the same section five times continue to deepen and grow it and think and take the best one, and that gives us a about it,” Winfield said. “Based on who real kind of non-ephemeral lens.” Christal and I are, it will always continue Six more artists, alongside Kann, have to change.” contributed to Same but Different. Professional musicians Philippe Bronchtein of INFO Nashville, Tenn., and Zimbabwe-born Same but Different premieres online on and Brooklyn-based Farai Malianga Saturday, January 30, at 7 p.m., followed composed the score. Middlebury person- by a live Q&A. $20; tickets and viewing are nel MICHOLE BIANCOSINO, JENNIFER PONDER available through Saturday, February 6. and CAROL WOOD served as dramaturge, flynnvt.org. Learn more about process lighting designer and costume designer, passes at christalbrown.com/invest respectively. And Middlebury senior and lidawinfield.com.

Like so many other events planned for 2020, The Quarry Project was felled by the pandemic. Vermont choreographer HANNAH DENNISON previewed her sitespecific dance-theater piece for the public in August 2019, promising a fully realized performance a year later; it’s now rescheduled for August 2022. And, yes, that performance will take place in a quarry — the Wells Lamson Quarry in Websterville, to be precise. Now defunct and flooded, it forms a dramatic, granite-walled theater for the ensemble’s floating stages. Supporters who have followed the project’s four-year preparation — from fundraising to rehearsals with a 33-member troupe — are familiar with the striking visuals. Think women in bright red dresses, rafts stacked with straight-backed chairs, sparkling water and that ancient, looming stone. Montpelier-born, Brooklyn-based film director Lukas Huffman has captured all this and more in “While We Wait,” which will be released publicly on February 1. The 20-minute video might mollify those disappointed by the postponement — audiences and performers alike — and help sustain interest in a performance still more than a year away. “While We Wait” also offers glimpses into the lives of the sidelined dancers, who — like the rest of us — have been largely homebound. Huffman doesn’t take a literal approach to this material. The piece is artful, abstract and devoid of all but fragments of human speech. It is a dance of images, shot at the quarry and the homes of the dancers during lockdown. Beyond bits of expository text, the video leaves interpretation to the viewer. But the context is clear: deeply felt togetherness followed by isolation, virtual connections and hope. ANDRIC SEVERANCE composed the film’s hypnotic music. Huffman’s job was to weave together

a variety of images, from professional camera and drone footage to iPhone snippets. The overall objective was to create “a 2020 scrapbook of The Quarry Project,” he said in a phone call. Huffman has worked with Dennison since filming “Dear Pina,” her 2012 production at the Shelburne Farms Breeding Barn. “This year it was so evocative to see people hugging [in the rehearsal footage],” he said. “Any other year that might have seemed trite, but they were some of the most powerful images in 2020.” Huffman’s digital production studio typically works on documentary and commercial projects. “Once a year I get to do a film project with Hannah, and … it’s such a pleasure; the format can be very experimental,” he said. In a phone call from her home in Chelsea, Dennison confirmed that she gave Huffman free rein in creating “While We Wait.” In her view, the purpose of the video is still evolving. “I’ve never done a piece that’s taken this long, so it’s given me time to look at it [more],” she said. In addition to sharing the work with the public, she noted, Huffman is submitting it to film festivals. “He has more of a handle on that than I do,” Dennison said. “I think we’ll just spread it far and wide so people can see what we’re up to.” As for the disappointment of not performing last summer, Dennison said she never thought of it as canceling, just postponing. And 2020 had its bright spots: Dennison won both the annual Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts and the VERMONT ARTS COUNCIL’s Walter Cerf Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts. “While We Wait” reflects what Huffman called Dennison’s “severe perseverance” even as it promises another remarkable achievement worth waiting for.

The Quarry Project in development

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

arts news

PAGE32 Equal Is Equal, Fair Is Fair: Vermont’s Quest for Equity in Education Funding, Same-Sex Marriage, and Health Care Allen Gilbert, Onion River Press, 140 pages. $12.99.

The legislature went into overdrive. Serving as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont from 2004 to 2016 gave ALLEN GILBERT a front-row seat at many of the state’s legal battles during the period. After he retired, he set out to write a book that explores the major equity issues of the past 25 years of Vermont legislation and court rulings. Gilbert describes the “common benefit clause” of the Vermont Constitution as a significant factor in the state’s ability to make advances on such issues. That clause reads, in part: “The government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people…” From there, arguments for a whole slate of rights were born. Blessedly brief and readable, Gilbert’s book provides a comprehensible window into complicated policy issues and Vermont’s successes and shortcomings in pursuing a more equitable future. MARGARET GRAYSON

Short Takes on Five Vermont Books Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a sleuth of black bears. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book just a

The Search for Christopher Gordon

Poems From the Wilderness

Dream Makers: Book One

The Lost Grip

Gordon R. Lawrence, Onion River Press, 296 pages. $12.99.

Jack Mayer, Proverse Hong Kong, 100 pages. $22.

Michael A. Richards, All Things That Matter Press, 272 pages. $16.99.

Eva Zimet, Rootstock Publishing, 94 pages. $14.95.

Chris had been hired as an orderly at Queen City General Hospital the summer after his sophomore year in college.

The trail has become my enduring house of worship,

I’ll inject the chip into your head, and I can connect to it wirelessly.

stacked two-high those garbage tires will do

stained glass foliage praising forest saints.

With degrees in environmental studies and architecture, MICHAEL A. RICHARDS has a professional passion for sustainable building and has published a book on the topic. Larry Martin, the protagonist of Richards’ first novel, shares those academic pursuits, but his other experiences are presumably fictional: In addition to anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Martin has precognitive dreams — and many of the bad ones come true. Dream Makers begins with a nightmare vision: the end of the world, courtesy of colliding meteors and massive fireballs. Though it’s hard to see how the story could go on from there, it does, in a matter-of-fact backstory narrative (occasionally marred by spelling and punctuation errors). While suffering through grad school, Martin meets a psychic researcher who convinces him a brain implant will allow him to manipulate his dreams — and thereby the course of events. Not surprisingly, things get very complicated. Though imperfectly executed, Dream Makers has a fascinating premise, and its subtitle, Book One, suggests that Richards isn’t done bending minds.

A longtime high school history teacher in a city much like Burlington, Chris Martin finds himself “near the end of a career, when most look back on their accomplishments and smile.” For Chris, though, everything is “in turmoil.” A friend and colleague has died, forcing him into the unwanted role of department chair. To recertify his credentials, he must spearhead an innovative project, not easy for a man who’s fallen into a groove of teaching from the textbook. As he researches an ancestor — Christopher Gordon — who might have fought in the Civil War, Chris confronts the choices and accidents that shaped his own life. Like his protagonist, Williston author GORDON R. LAWRENCE has taught in Vermont schools, and his knowledge shows in the details with which he fills his easygoing narrative. Chris’ memories offer a rich time capsule of growing up as a baby boomer in Burlington, from freewheeling frat life to joyful days and nights on the lake. Especially poignant is the relationship of Chris and his longtime friend Jack, a downtown bartender, fisherman and artist who dreams of escape. While the revelations yielded by this “search” may not make history, they always feel true to life. MARGOT HARRISON

little and quote a single representative sentence from, yes, page 32. Inclusion here implies neither approval nor derision on our part, but simply: Here are a bunch of books, arranged alphabetically by authors’ names, that Seven Days readers might like to know about.

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

In the ’60s, JACK MAYER was arrested for antiwar activism. In the ’70s, he established the first pediatric practice in eastern Franklin County. Falling in love with Vermont, he embarked on 40 years of hiking the Long Trail, where it’s his habit to compose verse and inscribe it in the trail logbook under his trail name, “Mountain Poet.” Those poems and others appear in the Middlebury resident’s first verse collection, winner of Hong Kong’s Proverse Prize. Some of these accomplished poems deal unsentimentally with Mayer’s work as a rural doctor and his participation in the hospice singing group WELLSPRING. Many others record his life on the trail, mixing sharp, concrete observations of nature (“Green-eyed dragon-fly / Warming on a sun-drenched boulder…”) with metaphysical wonderings about what it all means. Wielding both colloquial and lyrical language with ease, Mayer celebrates nature in approachable verse that it’s easy to imagine his fellow hikers pausing to read. After a day in the wilderness, he writes, “I am camperized, / a line of honest dirt in my heart, / the sole sound the forest.” M.G.

PAMELA POLSTON

… Maybe

for next year, if we’re here. EVA ZIMET is a Montpelier-based

multihyphenate: a writer, dancer, illustrator, law school graduate, and yoga and meditation instructor. The Lost Grip is her first poetry collection, featuring short works of free verse and her own doodle-y illustrations. Each poem gives the reader just a moment in Zimet’s mind, but she makes the most of a few words to communicate the depth of her emotions and perceptions. “The rasping breath / the spasmed chest / I don’t need you. / I do,” reads the entirety of a poem titled “Hold Me.” Zimet’s focus usually lands on nature or interpersonal relationships, and her word choice is deliberate yet playful. Some poems touch on painful moments. But, as indicated by the page 32 quote from a poem describing her use of makeshift garden pots instead of neat garden beds, she doesn’t take the world around her too seriously. M.G.

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MAJOR FALLOUT

UVM scholars argue that cuts to the humanities would imperil the university’s mission

B Y C HEL S EA ED G A R • chelsea@sevendaysvt.com

n December 15, Jamie Williamson learned that the coming spring semester, the 30th of his career on the English department faculty at the University of Vermont, would be his last. Fifteen years ago, Williamson, now 61, achieved the rank of senior lecturer, a title that generally confers the aura, if not the promise, of job security. His annual salary, just shy of $60,000, is on the upper end of nontenured faculty earnings. By his own calculations, Williamson has taught somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 students. His online reviews suggest that he is a generous, rigorous, endearingly disheveled instructor with a loyal fan base. “Professor Williamson looks like something of a cross between the stereotypical mad scientist and a tousled but kind hobo, and his personality and teaching style somewhat matches the former,” one student review reads. “My classes are always full,” Williamson said. “I have a prizewinning book published. I could go down the gamut. Within the big, big framework of the institution, I’m quite costeffective.” In addition to first-year writing seminars and American literature survey courses, Williamson teaches several popular classes on Indigenous American literature, a subject no other UVM faculty member offers. Last spring, the UVM administration announced that the course assignments of some nontenuretrack faculty, the most precariously employed contingent in the university, would be reduced by 25 percent to defray a projected $15 million in pandemic-related costs. Williamson managed to avoid having his teaching load cut in the fall, but he took little comfort in that reprieve. “When you work someplace for 30 years, you kind of become aware of how they operate,” he said. Then, on December 2, dean Bill Falls dropped a bomb on the College of Arts and Sciences: He proposed phasing out 12 of its 56 majors, 11 of its 63 minors and four of its 10 master’s programs — all told, a fifth of the college’s offerings. The affected departments weren’t consulted about the proposal, nor were they forewarned. All 322 faculty and 4,468 students found out at the same time, via email. With the exception of geology, the proposal targeted the humanities. Classics, religion and geology would cease to exist as departments and majors; the Asian, European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Italian studies majors would also be eliminated. Graduate studies in Greek, Latin and geology would be discontinued, along with a master’s degree in historic preservation. These particular programs were selected for termination, according to Falls, because of their chronically low enrollment — less than 0.5 percent of all students in the College of Arts and Sciences. The dean framed the proposal as both a strategic, data-driven initiative and a necessary austerity measure. But eliminating majors and departments does not, on its own, balance the books. The bulk of the anticipated cost-savings — somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000 per year, by Falls’ estimate — would come primarily from cutting faculty positions. Williamson was not the only faculty member to find out on December 15 that his contract would not be renewed. That day, the deadline for notifying senior lecturers of reappointment, two such faculty members in the departments of history and geology, who had served for 12 and 28 years, respectively, also learned they would be laid off after this academic year.

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PHOTOS: JAMES BUCK

Ira Allen Chapel on the UVM campus

UVM is developing a reputation as being at the forefront of destroying the liberal arts. J U L I E ROBER T S

Williamson, who had planned to retire in 2025, will not receive severance. When he asked Falls why he was being let go, Williamson said, Falls told him that the decision was “strictly budgetary.” The layoffs caused an immediate outcry among the faculty. “I don’t think these nonrenewals are evidence of any strategy whatsoever, except ‘These people are up for renewal, and the deadline is here to tell them whether or not they’re going to be renewed, so I’m just going to act on it,’” said Julie Roberts, a linguistics professor and the president of the faculty union. While the university has so far cut only lecturers, who lack the protections of tenure, dissolving departments, as Falls has recommended, would provide a mechanism for eliminating tenured professors, too. According to Roberts, the fear of dismissal has already seeped far and wide into the university community: “It has been absolutely devastating to faculty morale.” Some of her colleagues, she said, have begun to think about leaving. Falls’ proposal and the incipient winnowing of faculty in the College of Arts

and Sciences have provoked sharp criticism both within the institution and without. The timing of the announcement — at the end of the semester, during the hectic week before finals, in the middle of a pandemic — immediately registered as suspicious. “It came at a time when everyone was busy and wouldn’t be able to gather and strategize,” said Cobalt Tolbert, a senior majoring in English and philosophy. “It was deliberate and strategic, and that was lost on no one.” Among faculty and students, the prospect of the cuts has fomented an atmosphere of rancor and distrust. At the heart of the opposition is the sentiment that the budgetary crisis is, in the words of English professor and faculty organizer Nancy Welch, a “manufactured” crisis, the foreordained result of a slow, intentional divestment from the humanities. “The only reason I can think of that they would take what has been the heart of UVM’s reputation — the liberal arts core, the idea that you can come here and have all of the advantages of a research university, but with the rigor and individual attention and intellectual excitement of a liberal arts college — is that the long-term vision is to reorient UVM as a technical institute, like a Purdue, like a Rensselaer Polytechnic,” Welch said. Roberts put it more darkly: “UVM is developing a reputation as being at the forefront of destroying the liberal arts.” Within hours of the announcement, Katherine Brennan, a senior religion major, launched a Change.org petition to save her department, which received more than 1,700 signatures in a single day. In the weeks that followed, UVM United Against Cuts, an alliance of faculty and students that had coalesced last spring to protest the lecturer pay reductions, organized a car rally and a press conference. The English department voted no confidence in the administration and called for Falls’ resignation; the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Anthropological Association and the American Academy of Religion issued statements chastising UVM’s administration. What comes next is unclear. The university has a contractual obligation to allow all students who have declared majors in the affected subjects to finish their degrees, but that commitment doesn’t preclude the administration from forging ahead with more layoffs. Nontenured faculty are already bracing themselves for March, when another crop of lecturers’ contracts will come up for renewal. In the coming months, the faculty senate, an elected body charged with reviewing and implementing academic policies, will begin vetting Falls’ proposal MAJOR FALLOUT

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MAJOR FALLOUT « P.27 — a process that, given the general atmosphere, seems poised to drag on for months. But even if the faculty senate rejects the proposal, said Roberts, a former faculty senate president, the administration could proceed with the cuts without faculty buy-in. In the interest of avoiding an acrimonious stalemate, Falls has asked faculty in the departments slated for closure to submit their own counterproposals. “Positively, we could say that he’s asking for our engagement,” said religion professor Thomas Borchert, who will become president of the faculty senate at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. “Negatively, the reading might be, ‘Come up with your own firing plan.’”

‘LATIN SAVED ME’

When Annaliese Holden, a 19-year-old classics major from Hinesburg, toured UVM as a high school senior, she didn’t hear anything about Greek or classics or any specific humanities offerings. She did, however, hear a great deal about “Wellness Environments” — substance-free dormitories featuring in-house mindfulness and yoga classes, Peloton bikes, and TRX training equipment. Other well-covered topics were the planned $95 million athletic facility and the general concept of STEM, a curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “It was definitely like, ‘Look at our clean community!” Holden said. Holden had done an independent study in Greek at Champlain Valley Union High School and loved it, so she signed up for a course in ancient Greek in the fall of her first year, even though she had already declared a psychology major. A year later, she dropped psychology for a double major in Greek and classical civilization. “To me, the classics offer everything — you’ve got history, language, the arts, literature, gender, sexuality and women’s studies, politics,” Holden said. “And the thing that saddens me most is that when the classics get removed from public universities, and the only places left to teach it are private institutions and Ivy League schools, it becomes a lot less accessible for the kind of diversity that the discipline really needs.” Jessica Penny Evans, a lecturer in the classics department, has thought a lot about elitism. She grew up in Stowe, raised by a single mother who struggled to support her two children on one income. 28

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What does this say about who belongs at UVM? J E S S IC A P E NNY E VA N S

George D. Aiken Center on the UVM campus

In high school, Evans spent her free periods in the bathroom, chain-smoking cigarettes and trying to make sense of Virgil in Latin. “To say that Latin saved me would be an understatement. It gave my life meaning; it gave me something to focus on besides the shame of poverty and my desire to disappear,” Evans wrote in an open letter to the UVM administration, which she published online in early December. After high school, Evans enrolled at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., then transferred to UVM, where she majored in classics. She eventually earned her master’s in UVM’s classics program, which the proposal would eliminate. “It was so reassuring to me that I could come home and study what I loved,” she said. “That’s what I’ve been thinking about since the cuts were announced: What does this say about who belongs at UVM?” Since Evans joined the classics faculty in 2011, she’s watched her department gradually shrink, from seven tenured faculty and two lecturers to four tenured professors, plus her. One of the frustrating ironies of the timing of Falls’ announcement is that her particular area of research — the misuse of Hellenic motifs in white supremacist fight clubs at mixed martial arts gyms — has assumed new relevance in the past month. Among the paraphernalia sported by the right-wing extremists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 were Spartan helmets and flags bearing the Greek characters ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ, or molon labe, a defiant rallying cry for gun-rights activists that translates, roughly, as “come and take them.” “There’s a culture in mixed martial arts of subscribing to a very Spartan lifestyle and a no-holds-barred type of fighting that has its origins in ancient Greece, called pankration,” Evans said. “There’s a lot of appropriation of antiquity among those communities, which tells me how important it is to have people with expertise, who can pass on the knowledge that the ancient world wasn’t what white supremacist groups would have everyone believe.” Evans has one more year left in her contract; this spring, she’ll be eligible for promotion to senior lecturer. But she’s afraid to hope that she’ll even keep her job. The uncertainty lingers over her like a cloud. “It’s the first thing I think about every morning when I wake up,” she said. “I dream about it. It’s always in the background — even when I’m not thinking about it, the physical and emotional sensations of processing it are just always there.”

UNFAIR SHARE?

UVM isn’t the only flagship university undergoing a pandemic-hastened fiscal and existential reckoning. In recent months, the University of Colorado Boulder, Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of NebraskaLincoln have all initiated programs to eliminate tenured faculty, cut degrees or slash funding for the arts and sciences. Complicating UVM’s situation is a longstanding lack of state funding. According to a 2018 national study by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, a nonprofit research and policy organization, Vermont ranks third lowest in the country in percapita state support for public colleges and universities. As a result, UVM relies more heavily than almost any other public research university on tuition revenue, 73 percent of which comes from higherpaying out-of-state students. Attendance, consequently, is not cheap: UVM’s out-ofstate tuition is the fourth highest among public universities, and in-state tuition ranks sixth highest. With fewer than 11,000 undergraduates, UVM is decidedly on the smaller end of the state university spectrum, a size that has allowed it to market itself to prospective students as a research institution with the academically cozy feel of a liberal arts college. The university consists of seven colleges for undergraduates, including a school of engineering, mathematics and statistics; a school of business; and a school for environmental studies. The largest, by far, is the College of Arts and Sciences, which averages 4,485 students and generates some $67.3 million in tuition for UVM’s $741 million annual operating budget. When Falls became dean in 2016, he inherited the financial fallout of the Great Recession. From 2010 to 2015, the college’s enrollment declined by 17 percent, which translated into a proportional dip in revenue. Enrollment has stabilized in recent years, albeit at lower numbers than pre-2010, but costs, Falls said, have not. “In 2016, we had staffing levels that were more commensurate with 1,000 more students, like we had in 2010. And that’s what’s contributed to this everwidening budget gap,” Falls said. “Our costs keep rising, and we’ve tried to keep tuition down” — UVM is currently in its second consecutive year of a tuition freeze — “and so we set our course to say to the faculty, ‘Hey, we’re not going to replace everybody who retires or decides to leave.’ But that just hasn’t been enough.” In 2016, the university adopted a funding stratagem called incentive-based MAJOR FALLOUT

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MAJOR FALLOUT « P.29 budgeting, a model that has gained popularity in higher education over the past decade. Known at other institutions by a similarly inscrutable moniker, “every tub on its own bottom,” the model theoretically makes each academic unit in a university responsible for its own costs and revenues — in effect, turning each of UVM’s seven colleges into largely selfcontained enterprises, managed by their respective deans. Each year, in UVM’s budgetary system, $40 million gets subtracted from the colleges’ combined revenue and placed into a centrally managed pool of money, which is then redistributed among the various programs. Because the lion’s share of UVM’s revenue is undergraduate tuition, and the College of Arts and Sciences generates more undergraduate tuition than any other college, the logical assumption, in the view of faculty union treasurer Joe Kudrle, is that the college would receive a corresponding amount of the pooled funds. But when Kudrle, a senior lecturer in math, reviewed five years of budget documents, he found that the College of Arts and Sciences contributed $88 million to the $200 million pool and received only $54 million in return. By contrast, Larner College of Medicine, which generated slightly more than $5 million in undergraduate tuition revenue, took in $67 million. In addition to funding other programs, Kudrle calculated, the College of Arts and Sciences has subsidized the salaries, benefits and bonuses of the university’s 131 top administrators to the tune of $23 million. “Obviously, some of those tuition dollars need to go to support portions of the university that don’t generate as much revenue, like the libraries and student services,” Kudrle said. “I have no issues with this, as long as you don’t start harping on units for not bringing in enough money when they’re expected to heavily subsidize other units. The issue, in my opinion, is that they could make any unit look like it’s running a deficit, based on how they’re diverting the money.” Falls acknowledged that the College of Arts and Sciences contributes more money to other programs than it receives; the budget model allows UVM, as he put it, “to support different priorities at different times.” “I guess someone could decide that the College of Arts and Sciences doesn’t need to make any changes and that we’re just going to take money from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural 30

Bill Falls

Resources,” Falls said. “But they’ve got to balance their budget, too, so then they would have to make cuts.” Falls rejects the widely echoed charge that his college’s funding crisis has been manufactured. Even if the funds were allocated differently, he insisted, the school would still face a multimillion-dollar deficit: “There simply isn’t enough money at the university to support the College of Arts and Sciences as it’s currently formulated.” This belt-tightening rhetoric rings false to many of the college’s faculty, including Phil Baruth, an English professor and a

average, $250,000 in 2021. UVM president Suresh Garimella, for instance, took a 5 percent salary reduction and opted to forgo a month of pay, which brought his earnings, including additional compensation, down from more than $560,000 in 2020 to just more than $480,000 in 2021, according to salary data from UVM. Last year, men’s basketball coach John Becker received a $240,820 bonus, more than the three combined salaries of the lecturers whose contracts weren’t renewed in December. (A spokesperson for UVM said that Becker’s 2020 bonus also included a payout from

on why he’d let Williamson go, given his years of service and the popularity of his courses. “Basically,” Baruth said, “he told us, ‘It was a roll of the dice.’”

LOSING RELIGION

To determine which programs to eliminate, Falls analyzed enrollment trends over the last three years for each of the College of Arts and Sciences programs, then selected the ones that failed to attain a certain threshold. Each of the 12 majors he chose for termination has enrolled 25

At the top end, there hasn’t been a commensurate reduction in administrative positions. P H IL BAR UTH

state senator representing Chittenden County who has served as chair of the Senate Committee on Education. “At the top end, there hasn’t been a commensurate reduction in administrative positions,” he said. Even senior administrators who took the maximum pay cuts during the pandemic — a mandatory 5 percent salary reduction, plus an optional 3.3 percent — will earn, on

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2019 for meeting “performance goals,” including “the academic and competitive success of the team and program revenue generation.”) These disparities, Baruth said, have alienated UVM faculty from their own institution: “It’s the exact same mistrust that exists in corporate culture.” When Falls recently met with the English department, Baruth said, the faculty pressed him

or fewer students over the last three years or graduated, on average, fewer than five students per year. Falls, a professor of psychology whose research background is in the neuroscience of fear and anxiety, said he agonized over the decision. “There was no real faculty consultation in that proposal, because I didn’t know how to manage that,” he confessed. “But we’ve also had

things like Greek and classical civilization and religion, so the absence of those majors won’t deter them from enrolling. He maintained that the program cuts won’t eliminate those areas of study from the curriculum altogether. “It’s not our intention to never offer a course on, say, classical civilizations again,” he said. “But if we didn’t have that major, I could deploy some of those faculty to teach other courses that would generate more student credit hours.” Fewer faculty means fewer, larger classes, which translates to more revenue per hour of faculty time. “What worries me,” Atkins said, “is that a lot of schools know their costs, but they don’t really understand how their revenue works. As a result, they can make big mistakes in what they cut, especially if they’re using program size as a rule. And if you make weak decisions, you’ll face enormous resistance, and when push comes to shove, you don’t have the data to prove that they’re wrong. And that makes things even harder.”

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Since early December, Falls has spent lots of time on tense Zoom calls, absorbing backlash from faculty members. Eleanor Miller, a sociology professor and a previous dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, suspects that he’s wrestling with an unpleasant mandate. “Dean Falls is a really good person, a person with integrity, a nice guy,” Miller said. “I am sure he is really struggling to respond to pressures at the university level.” Garimella, who was the executive vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue University before becoming president of UVM in 2019, has remained conspicuously silent since the announcement of the cuts. Faculty members who have emailed him with their grievances and concerns say they have received no reply; the university declined to make him available for an interview for this story. Falls, by default, has become the public face of the proposal, a role to which he seems queasily resigned. “I really don’t want to make this about me at all,” he said, “but the hardest part of all of this, for me, has been knowing how angry and confused and anxious and upset I’ve been making my colleagues.” Despite her sympathy for Falls, Miller questions both the necessity and the prudence of his proposal. “I did a quick back-of-the-envelope as soon as I saw what was being cut, and these things are a drop in the bucket,” she said. “They cut

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conversations about these budget issues and low enrollments for four years. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to my colleagues in classics and asked, ‘Can you please change what you’re doing?’ I feel badly for my colleagues in religion, who heeded my warnings. They did what they could, but we still couldn’t get more students to major in religion.” In fact, religion did see a “modest increase” in majors over the past few years, as Falls noted in a memo to faculty — from 19 majors in 2017 to 41 at present. But because of “pending retirements,” he explained, the department would soon have insufficient staffing to support those majors. This catch-22 illustrates what critics view as the fait accompli of the budgetary model: If the college doesn’t have enough funding to replace instructors who leave, certain departments inevitably become weaker. (At the same time, faculty members are also encouraged to show their thrifty ingenuity by devising new programs with no institutional support. “After we lost Major Jackson in our department, we were told to keep on trying to imagine launching an MFA program, even without a nationally recognized poet,” said Welch, the English professor.) Targeting programs based on size alone carries significant risks, according to Bob Atkins, CEO of Gray Associates, a higher education consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass. Atkins has worked with institutions comparable to UVM in terms of enrollment and location; in general, he said, the vast majority of a university’s small programs actually contribute to the bottom line. “It’s true that all programs that lose money are small,” Atkins said, “but not all small programs lose money.” Lowering costs inevitably involves cutting jobs, he acknowledged, but eliminating majors doesn’t typically improve a university’s financial situation: Costs will decrease in the short term, he said, but so will revenue. “If you’re a Greek major, two-thirds of your courses aren’t going to be in Greek. You have to take English, you have to take math, you have to fulfill general requirements, so you’re attending lots of big classes that are very contribution-positive,” Atkins explained. Likewise, English majors might take classics or religion courses. In other words, faculty members teach many more students than the number of majors in their departments might suggest; in the 2017-18 academic year, for example, the UVM religion department taught a total of 851 students. That figure, faculty members have argued, offers a clearer picture of the program’s reach within the university. Essentially, Falls’ bet is that students aren’t drawn to UVM specifically to study

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MAJOR FALLOUT « P.31 gerontology, which is a very small program that has no low-enrollment classes and costs almost nothing, in a state that’s really old. Why would you cut gerontology?” Miller, who was charged with recruiting new faculty when she came to UVM in 2005, has been dismayed by the slow atrophying of the programs she helped build. Her own department has shrunk by 50 percent in the last decade, from 18 faculty members to nine, almost entirely from retirements. “That’s a very bad way to downsize, because it’s so random,” she said. “And not renewing lecturers’ contracts when they happen to be up just because you need to make cuts is more of the same. If I saw what their rationale was, if they were saving a lot of money, I wouldn’t be happy about it, necessarily, but I’d understand. But I just don’t understand.” In her view, not having a classics department at a flagship state university would be “an embarrassment.” Miller worries about the future of higher education in Vermont. The financially beleaguered state colleges, separate from UVM, include Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, Vermont Technical College and Community College of Vermont. Hobbled by declining enrollments and a chronic lack of funding, the system has struggled to keep its campuses open. “Vermonters don’t have a lot of choices for a four-year degree,” Miller said. “And we offered them a really solid education that was both broad and pretty deep.” As Falls sees it, liberal arts institutions have hamstrung themselves by trying to market subject-area degrees on the merits of their potential career applications. “I think we got trapped in this notion that, somehow, the major is career training,” he said. “We would tell students, ‘This is what you can do with a history degree’ or ‘This is what you can do with a psychology degree.’” His current mission, as he put it, is to “de-emphasize the major” and focus instead on instilling “core competencies” — a phrase, imported from management theory, that refers to the résumé-ready skills students will have honed upon graduation. These “competencies,” enumerated in a section of the College of Arts and Sciences website, include ethical reasoning and decision making, analytical and critical thinking, and creative expression and innovation. Each area of competency features testimonials from UVM grads explaining how their major helped them in their chosen fields. The page also prominently displays a Steve Jobs quote: “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is 32

What worries me is that a lot of schools know their costs, but they don’t really understand how their revenue works. BO B ATK INS

not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.” Classics department chair John Franklin finds this utilitarian messaging ominous. He likens it to what Garimella describes as “exposure to the humanities” in his vision statement for UVM, a slippage from UVM’s call for a “comprehensive commitment to a liberal arts education” in its own mission statement. “The Neoliberal Arts — where students learn not ‘how to,’ but only ‘about,’” Franklin lamented in a December blog post for the Society of Classical Studies. “I know this is hard for my colleagues to hear, and I’ve spoken to many of them over the last several weeks who have said, ‘Bill, the major is sort of our identity,’” Falls said. “And I totally get that. The problem is that when you have to bring finances into the equation, you’ve got to make compromises.”

HUMAN TIES

Humanities scholars have long struggled to plead their case to those who hold the purse strings, a situation that the Great

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Recession did little to improve. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of bachelor’s degrees in career-oriented STEM fields, such as biomedical engineering and computer science, increased by 43 percent between 2009 and 2016; over that same period, the number of humanities degrees fell by 0.4 percent. In response, universities have invested massively in STEM programs and infrastructure, fueling a kind of highereducation arms race to compete for a generation of students who grew up with the messaging that STEM is the future. In 2019, UVM completed a $104 million, 250,000-square-foot STEM complex, the most expensive construction project in the university’s history. “I’d say that in the last 10 years, growing STEM has been an important priority here, and I don’t disagree with that at all,” said Luis Vivanco, a professor of anthropology and codirector of the UVM Humanities Center, which provides funding for faculty projects and research. But at the national and university levels, funding opportunities for scholarly work in STEM tend to be much more robust, he

pointed out, a distinction that the zerosum game of UVM’s budget model, which rewards certain forms of productivity, doesn’t seem to compute. “Scientists get grants and publish research all the time, but a scholar of history or classics might work on something for 10 years before it comes out,” he said. “If there’s fast food and slow food, the humanities are definitely slow food.” Vivanco worries that killing programs in subjects like classics and religion, which students often discover by happenstance, would foreclose the open-ended spirit of intellectual curiosity that has inspired decades of aspirational taglines for liberal arts institutions. Katherine Brennan, a senior religion major from Cape Cod, entered UVM thinking she would be a political science major. But after she took a comparative religion class on a whim, in the second semester of her first year, she switched immediately. “Religion is the study of governments and systems and societies, but also of the people who are driving those institutions. I feel like a lot of people say that their story of coming into a religion major sounds like, you know, finding religion,” she joked. “But it was just this moment of, like, ‘Oh, man, people. Individual people actually matter.’” Which is another way of saying that the study of individual and collective human experience matters not solely as an academic pursuit, but as a means of making sense of the present moment. In disorienting times — say, during a global pandemic, or when a sitting president refuses to concede defeat in an election and right-wing extremists storm the U.S. Capitol at his behest — the contemplative disciplines can offer the long view, the institutional memory of the human condition that serves as a corrective to the frantic misapprehensions of social media. “What we do in our department is to think about how religion works in society and how it’s often invisible until it’s not, like we witnessed at the Capitol,” said Borchert, the professor of religion and incoming president of the faculty senate. “For the last four years, we’ve been seeing white evangelicalism weaponized by the Trump administration, a kind of nationalism that’s tied up with religion, which is part of a century and a half of history in the United States, if not more. That’s why religion matters.” Vivanco agreed. “Who do you turn to when a group of insurrectionists take over the Capitol?” he asked. “You don’t turn to the engineer or the clinician — you turn to the historian, to the scholar of religion, to those who make sense of the meaning of these things.” m

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

1/21/21 11:38 AM

BOTTOM LINE BY KEN PICARD

A Viral Solution

Vermont tech firm THINKMD spreads its COVID-19 screening tool worldwide

COURTESY OF THINKMD

n 2014, University of Vermont pediatrician Dr. Barry Finette cofounded the tech startup THINKMD with the goal of preventing millions of children in low- and middle-income countries from dying each year from treatable conditions such as pneumonia, malaria and dehydration. Working with tech entrepreneurs and software developers in Vermont, as well as international aid groups such as Save the Children and UNICEF, THINKMD spent more than two years designing, testing and distributing a diagnostic and treatment app, downloadable on virtually any laptop, tablet or smartphone. Then, when the coronavirus first appeared in the United States in January 2020, the company immediately shifted its focus to developing a similar screening and education tool for COVID-19. Using its existing technology, as well as its partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and mobile network operators in Africa and Asia, the company took just eight weeks to get its new coronavirus product into the field, in 14 languages. Since last March, THINKMD’s COVID19 mobile triage app — which enables users to identify symptoms of the disease, determine when to seek medical care and learn how to prevent its spread — has been downloaded in more than 80 countries. Though THINKMD operates as a for-profit entity, Finette said that the Burlington-based firm decided early on to provide its app for free. Because it’s registered as a public benefit corporation — a type of for-profit business entity with a legally mandated social mission — THINKMD is committed to its core humanitarian mission of eliminating preventable deaths, something the app clearly aims to accomplish. But that doesn’t mean the pandemic hasn’t posed a real threat to the company’s own existence. “From a big-picture standpoint, we had to determine how we were going to stay alive,” Finette said. “We’re a growing tech company … We don’t have deep pockets.” In a sense, the pandemic has been a double-edged sword for THINKMD. On one hand, all public health funding “switched on a dime” to combating COVID-19. But at the same time, Finette noted, “Everything else was forgotten,” as public health ministries and NGOs around the world hit the pause button on adopting

THINKMD staff

new technology aimed at addressing other critical lifelines. Last spring, it secured a federal Paycheck Protection Program public health crises. “That put us in a really challeng- loan of $144,000. And, as part of its ing position,” he said. “We were able to efforts to fight the pandemic, THINKMD continue and renew our contracts and was awarded a UBS Optimus Foundaget some new ones. But so many groups tion COVID-19 Response Fund grant of and agencies were staring like deer in the $500,000, one of several such grants the headlights, unsure what to do next.” company received. THINKMD also faced the challenge From a clinical and technical standpoint, of distinguishing its own products from the coronavirus itself posed some unique challenges to “the noise,” as Finette put it. As T H I N K M D, the pandemic too. Because so spread, dozens little was known of individuals, about COVID-19 organizations in February 2020 and businesses when the app began flooding was in developD R . BAR RY F INE T TE the health care ment, Finette market with their own digital technologies and his team had to constantly monitor aimed at addressing the disease. the medical literature about the emergent Meanwhile, THINKMD has faced most disease, including how it affects different age of the same challenges as other companies groups and subsets of the population. in the midst of the pandemic — namely, And, because THINKMD is commitkeeping its staff of 12, most of whom are ted to making recommendations that are based in Vermont, healthy, employed and consistent with those from the World productive. Finette, who still works at Health Organization and the U.S. Centers the UVM Medical Center and teaches at for Disease Control and Prevention, the Larner College of Medicine, has had the app, which also can be used on the most of his employees working remotely company’s website, has gone through for months, with all foreign and domestic several different iterations as those agentravel effectively halted. cies’ recommendations evolved over time. The company has been thrown a few One fascinating component of COVID-19

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

FROM A BIG-PICTURE STANDPOINT, WE HAD TO DETERMINE HOW WE

WERE GOING TO STAY ALIVE.

that’s likely to be studied for years to come, Finette noted, is that it hasn’t hit low- and middle-income countries nearly as hard as it has higher-income countries. “And nobody knows why,” he said. One possible theory, he suggested, is that countries such as those in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have been dealing regularly with epidemics — including dengue, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and Ebola — for years. “So they respond to these things with significant respect and with appropriate public health measures — wearing masks, social distancing and all that,” Finette said. He spent years working as a physician for international aid groups in the developing world. Another possible explanation: In many poorer countries, children comprise more than 50 percent of the population, and thus far they have been less affected by COVID-19 than adults. Indeed, even when accounting for the underreporting of COVID-19 cases in the developing world, as well as less widespread testing, Finette said that rates of hospitalizations and deaths in many poorer countries have been lower than those in the U.S. and Europe. In order to understand and better respond to this pandemic and future ones, researchers need data — something THINKMD can readily provide. Like the previous app, its COVID-19 tool gathers data that can be used to identify where the disease is spreading fastest, allowing public health officials and international aid agencies to deploy personal protective equipment and other medical supplies to that region. The data also can be aggregated to build predictive models of where the disease is likely to spread next, allowing health agencies to speed their responses to the pandemic. This technology could find a local market in the years to come, as U.S. health care providers, including the UVM Health Network, continue using methods adopted during the pandemic, such as remote triaging and home patient assessments. In short, saving the lives of others has the added bonus of keeping THINKMD alive, too. m

INFO Bottom Line is a series on how Vermont businesses are faring during the pandemic. Got a tip? Email bottomline@sevendaysvt.com.

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

1/26/21 5:46 PM

Weather the Storm Sterling College offers virtual course Surviving the Future B Y M ARG A RET G RAYSON • margaret@sevendaysvt.com ROB DONNELLY

n January 6, a few hours before news broke that right-wing insurrectionists had taken over the U.S. Capitol, students in Sterling College’s Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time course met for their first webinar to discuss the end of the world as we know it. “As we know it” is a key part of that sentence, guest lecturer Nate Hagens explained. In his view, the growthcentered global economy is rapidly depleting natural resources and headed toward an inevitable and painful decline, a thesis he illustrated by clicking through slides full of colorful clip art during the Zoom session. Hagens, a fellow with the Post Carbon Institute, said he believes that global peak oil production is already past, demonstrating the point with graphs shaped like an upside-down letter V. Our task now, he argued, is to manage the economy’s descent, minimizing the damage where we can and building communities to withstand the changes. We need to see ourselves as “navigating the pathway between fantasy and doom,” he suggested. “Before you do anything else, you have to cope with this reality, and it’s hard. It takes time to process,” Hagens said. “I grieved 15 years ago for this. And I still grieve every day.” The webinar kicked off the second iteration of Surviving the Future, which drew participants from as close as Vermont and as far as Germany, Chile and Hawaii. It’s the first of a new slate of online classes to be offered by Sterling, which was founded in 1958 as a boarding school and moved into higher education in the 1970s. Offering bachelor’s degrees in ecology, environmental humanities, sustainable agriculture and food systems, and outdoor education, Sterling enrolls just 125 students on its Craftsbury campus. It’s a federally recognized work college, meaning that students offset part of their tuition with a campus job. And the school has a long association with grassroots environmental activism, hosting programs and speakers devoted to causes such as food sovereignty. The first Surviving the Future course launched in April 2020, shortly after the onset of the pandemic. The timing was coincidental but appropriate.

EDUCATION

“We are not alive in normal times,” course facilitator Shaun Chamberlin said in the January 6 webinar. “This is an incredibly exceptional moment in the history of the planet.” Chamberlin lives in England and has never been to Vermont — he swore off flying in 2002. A writer and environmental activist who uses the moniker Dark Optimism, he connected with Sterling over the work of his late mentor, David Fleming. The course takes its name from Fleming’s book Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy, which Chamberlin edited after Fleming’s death in 2010. Vermont’s Chelsea Green Publishing released it in 2016, and a copy landed on the desk of Sterling president Matthew Derr. The book arrived at a time when Derr was beginning to think beyond simply forestalling the impact of a warming planet.

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

“There’s going to be a significant climate change ahead of us, and we’re going to have to live into that, as well,” Derr said in a phone interview. “What are the kinds of places and communities that we need to either conserve or create that are diverse and welcoming, and also connected to long-standing place and tradition? [Fleming’s] writing is really interesting from that perspective.” A year after the book’s release, Sterling held a symposium to discuss it, kicking off conversations that Derr wanted to continue. Sterling was developing an online education platform accessible to nondegree students, backed by a $1.5 million donation from an anonymous foundation. Surviving the Future fit as the first course offering. The 2020 course enrolled 265 students from 27 countries. This year, Sterling limited enrollment to 100 and filled every spot. Participants paid for the course on a

sliding scale, from $99 to $299, some with scholarships. Chamberlin said in an interview that the course provides space for discussion among people who might live on opposite sides of the globe while sharing roughly the same concerns about the planet’s future — although they may not agree on how to address those concerns. After hearing about the storming of the U.S. Capitol, Chamberlin said, the first thing he did was log on to the course forum to chat with participants, particularly those in the U.S., about what they were thinking and feeling. Echoing many commentators, he suggested that polarization has produced a situation in which people have no shared consensus on reality. “Some people act in ways which seem completely unthinkable to other people, because they’re acting in response to a different perceived reality,” Chamberlin

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& PRESENT

THE MAYORAL MATCHUP Who will be Burlington’s next mayor? Ali Dieng, Max Tracy, Miro Weinberger, Haik Bedrosian, Patrick White, Will Emmons and Kevin McGrath get specific about their plans to run Burlington. This virtual debate will be moderated by Sasha Goldstein and Matthew Roy of Seven Days. Watch live on Town Meeting TV’s cable channels (Comcast 1087 and Burlington Telecom 17 or 217) or stream it online at sevendaysvt.com.

Friday, February 5, 5:30-7:15 p.m.

Have questions for the candidates? Ask at sevendaysvt.com/btvmayor21

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

1/26/21 3:50 PM

FILE PHOTOS: OLIVER PARINI

food+drink

Pressure Cooker

‘Fighting for the Dream’

The impacts of COVID-19 on restaurant workers

BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

Maya’s Kitchen

DARIA BISHOP

aya Gurung-Subba and her husband, Suk Subba, had high hopes for 2020. On January 24, 2020, their small restaurant in Burlington’s New North End, Maya’s Kitchen, celebrated a year in business. They had developed a loyal following for their regional Himalayan dishes, including chicken choila with chickpeas and crispy rice, fried pork-chile momos served in a spicy tomato sauce, and chunky vegetable curry. The couple did everything themselves: sourcing specialty ingredients, cooking, washing the dishes. Maya’s Kitchen broke even by the end of its first year, a notable achievement in the notoriously tough restaurant sector. “It was really good in 2019. It was really, really busy,” Gurung-Subba said. “Our big American dream in 2020: We were hoping to buy a house.” But 2020 had other plans. Months of pandemic-dampened sales forced the couple to dig into their savings to cover expenses. COVID-19 disrupted school, daycare and family childcare options for their two young children. Desperate, the couple tried bringing them to the restaurant. “It didn’t work,” GurungSubba said. “The kids [were] running here and there.”

Maya Gurung-Subba as a student in the Community Kitchen Academy in 2018

In January 2021, one week shy of what would have been the restaurant’s second anniversary, the couple announced on social media that they were closing Maya’s Kitchen for good. Since spring 2020, the Vermont Department of Labor has reported significant monthly job losses for the Food Services and Drinking Places sector compared to 2019. While there has been some recovery from April’s nadir, the most recent available payroll employment data from November 2020 show 11,800 jobs in that

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

“We don’t know how this ends,” said Gordana Huizenga, a full-time server at Winooski’s Waterworks Food + Drink, which closed temporarily on November 16 due to the pandemic.

Caitrin Roesler in front of Pascolo Ristorante

sector, down 8,000 from the previous November. Behind most of those lost jobs is a Vermonter grappling with financial and psychological uncertainty. Even the “lucky” ones who still have jobs often are coping with fewer hours and more workplace stress. For a rare few, a forced hiatus has opened new windows of opportunity. And all who have made their careers in restaurants and bars are asking themselves when, if ever, the industry they love will return to normal.

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Gurung-Subba, 36, was 5 years old when her family was forced to leave their native Bhutan for a refugee camp in Nepal; she was 23 when they were finally able to immigrate to the U.S. Her husband has a similar background. The couple married in 2010 and had two children, now 3 and 9. Subba, 38, worked in Burlington restaurants while Gurung-Subba was employed as a licensed nursing assistant in an assisted living facility. They dreamed of opening their own restaurant. Gurung-Subba enrolled in the 12-week Community Kitchen Academy offered at Feeding Chittenden in partnership with the Vermont Foodbank. There she learned both professional culinary technique and business skills. But nothing prepared the couple for the challenges of a pandemic. Throughout last summer and fall, they put in long hours trying to stay afloat. “We [were] working, fighting for the dream,” Gurung-Subba said. They closed the restaurant temporarily on November 7 when a relative tested positive for COVID-19. “We [were] trying to go back,” Gurung-Subba said, but the question remained: “Who is going to take care of the kids?” Subba took it especially hard, his wife said: “He was really, really depressed. He [was] not talking … He [was] not ready to give up.” A new restaurant, Gurung Restaurant & Bar (operated by relatives but not immediate family of Gurung-Subba), opened last week in the North Avenue space vacated by Maya’s Kitchen. (See Side Dishes on page 39 for more on the new restaurant.) For now, the couple has revised their dream. Subba is working daily to renovate the former Nepali Dumpling House at 78 North Street into a store. Maya’s Mini Mart & Deli will require only one person on-site. From its small kitchen, the couple will offer limited prepared foods, including momos and fresh-baked flatbreads. “We can still chase our American dream,” Gurung-Subba said resolutely. “Maybe one day we’ll have a restaurant

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It’s been a whirlwind of a year for ROSIE’S CONFECTIONS, which launched as a CBD edibles company in January 2020. When EMMA ROSE made her initial production run, she planned to sell her infused sweets at stores around Vermont. The pandemic changed those plans. After a year of e-commerce and selling chocolates from a temperature-controlled display case at farmers markets, Rose, 22, will open a shop of her own in time for Valentine’s Day, just off the Winooski circle at 7 West Canal Street. With a background in baking, Rose started making CBD-infused chocolates when her father, Paul, was battling cancer. With Rosie’s Confections, she aimed to fill a gap in the CBD edibles market for products handcrafted with high-quality ingredients. She added the chocolate line as she learned more about the industry. Rosie’s Confections, which Rose described as a “direct-trade marketplace,” will be a retail

THURSDAYS > 10:30 a.m. outlet for the chocolatier’s two product lines: the original CBD-infused edibles and handcrafted chocolates and candies, such as truffles, bonbons, caramels and pralines. “It’s a chocolate shop first,” Rose said of her new shop. “I’m hoping to make my mark as a chocolate company that’s really focusing on supporting ethical practices in that industry.” The market will eventually sell cheese, wine, meat and other local products from small businesses, focusing on transparency in sourcing and fair compensation for farmers, Rose added. The shop will have a soft opening the weekend of Friday, February 12, through Sunday, February 14, selling chocolates and serving coffee, tea, hot chocolate and pastries for takeout. After Valentine’s Day, it will be open on weekends until a grand opening at Easter. Jordan Barry

New Noodles NEPALI-INDIAN RESTAURANT OPENS IN BURLINGTON’S NEW NORTH END

On January 21, married couple SITA MONGER and DADDY GURUNG opened a Nepali-Indian restaurant, GURUNG RESTAURANT & BAR,

COURTESY OF DADDY GURUNG

Sweet Spot

Daddy Gurung and Sita Monger of Gurung Restaurant & Bar

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at 1130 North Avenue in Burlington. The new restaurant took over the space previously occupied by Maya’s Kitchen & Bar, which announced it was closing for good on January 16. The former owners of that restaurant, MAYA GURUNG-SUBBA and her husband, SUK SUBBA, are working to open MAYA’S MINI MART & DELI at 78 North Street in Burlington (see “Pressure Cooker,” page 38). Gurung Restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner and offers only takeout for now, the co-owners said. Their broad menu of Nepali and Indian specialties includes Nepali dumplings known as momos, thukpa noodle soup and stir-fried rice noodles, multi-dish vegetarian and meat thali, and a variety of goat or lamb curries. Melissa Pasanen

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Running the Pass Waitstaff on Wheels delivers dinner — and jobs — in the Mad River Valley B Y J O R D AN BAR RY • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Waitstaff on Wheels workers outside Stoke Ramen, from left: Mimi Bain, Jenna Rossbach, Doug Barnes, Jennifer Mozdzier and Bella Singleton

PHOTOS: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

group of furloughed restaurant and DoorDash impractical; none of those industry employees in the Mad national networks currently operates in the River Valley is giving a whole new Mad River Valley, Bain added. meaning to the greeting “We’ll “Mileage reimbursement is pretty funky be your servers this evening.” Rather than in mountain towns,” she said. “There’s a carrying plates to tables, they’re driving federal set fee, but when you’re going up insulated bags all the way to customers’ a 40-degree pitch in brine and ice, that 56 cents a mile doesn’t really seem worth it.” homes for Waitstaff on Wheels. When the restaurant where Jenna RossWhen they built Waitstaff on Wheels, bach had been working returned to indoor Rossbach and Bain took into considerdining in the fall, she decided not to stay ation two different viewpoints: the delivon there. “It just wasn’t feeling great,” she ery driver’s and the restaurant’s. While the explained. “So I had this idea about doing national delivery apps charge restaurants delivery service. Looking around, it seemed between 15 and 30 percent of each order, like Mimi [Bain] and Colby [Miller] at Stoke Ramen were the only people doing delivery in the Valley.” Rossbach called Bain to ask if the restaurant might be interested in contracting out its delivery. “We had actually stopped doing delivery because our car was in such terrible shape,” Bain said. “So when Jenna reached out to us, I was like, Yes! This would be a fabulous way not to put more miles on my poor 2005 Forester.” Rossbach and Bain teamed up and launched Waitstaff on Wheels in late December 2020. The courier service has created jobs for seven restaurant industry employees who lost their jobs during the pandemic. (For more on how restaurant workers are facEggs n’ Bacon appetizer ing an uncertain future, see ”Pressure at Stoke Ramen Cooker” on page 38.) Waitstaff on Wheels delivers food Thursday through Sunday to Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield and Warren. For customers outside those towns, drivers will deliver Waitstaff on Wheels doesn’t cost restauto meeting points at Mad River Glen, the rants a penny. Warren Store, the East Warren Community With this model, customers place their Market and the Moretown General Store. orders directly with the restaurant, as they The service delivers food from partner do any other takeout order. Then they head restaurants centrally located in downtown to Waitstaff on Wheels’ website to place a Waitsfield: American Flatbread, Canteen delivery order, selecting the restaurant they Creemee, the Mad Taco, Pizza Soul, Stoke ordered from and the time they were quoted Ramen, Tucker Hill Inn and the Worthy for pickup. Burger Too. Customers pay $20 per delivery, and “The trick with delivery in a rural situa- Waitstaff on Wheels’ dispatch takes over tion is that everyone lives so far away from the logistics from there. Dispatch workthe restaurants,” Rossbach said. That geog- ers are tipped out as if they were hosts, and raphy makes delivery apps such as Grubhub the drivers get the rest of the delivery fees.

THE TRICK WITH DELIVERY IN A RURAL SITUATION

IS THAT EVERYONE LIVES SO FAR AWAY FROM THE RESTAURANTS. J EN N A R O S S B A C H

Waitstaff on Wheels collects only taxes and credit card fees. “We don’t see any loss from having somebody else do [delivery],” restaurant owner Bain said. “And being able to support our friends and colleagues right now, rather than pay astronomical fees to Grubhub or DoorDash, is a complete win-win.” Another plus: The people picking up the orders are all seasoned restaurant employees who understand the flow of busy kitchens and the flexibility required to speed food efficiently to customers. “We’re all coming from an industry background, thinking,

The food is dying in the window,” Rossbach said with a laugh. The goal is to get bowls of ramen, pizzas, burgers and fried chicken to customers as hot and fresh as they possibly can be — while observing road safety, a must in a mountainous rural area. A disclaimer on the Waitstaff on Wheels site acknowledges that the service asks “for an amount of planning that skirts the other side of ‘convenient.’” But, in a region where delivery has never really been feasible, the added step and the $20 fee “actually show the value of not having to go into town and back,” Bain said.

food+drink For now, the service is set up to receive two orders per 15-minute window; Rossbach estimates that it could handle 20 deliveries per night at current staffing levels. In its first two weeks, Waitstaff on Wheels has already earned repeat customers. The service delivers directly to the parking lots at Mad River Glen and Sugar-

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You must be a people person to work front of house in restaurants. “Humans are social creatures. If KTB To-Go Dinner Pickup you’re in the service industry, you’re Wednesdays-Saturdays! probably a little extra social,” said Jeff Baumann, general manager for the joint Zero Gravity Craft Brewery and Great Northern operation on Burlington’s Pine Street. This personality trait can add extra strain for many laid-off restaurant Snack on the workers. BITE-CLUB NEWSLETTER “I’ve always been a social butterfor a taste of this week’s fly,” said Huizenga, the Waterworks flavorful food coverage. server, explaining why she made a career in restaurants. The 43-year-old It’ll hold you over lives by herself, which has exacerbated until Wednesday. her isolation during the restaurant’s two temporary closures — the current SUBSCRIBE AT Closed Sunday - Tuesday one and another at the start of the sevendaysvt.com/enews pandemic. @kitchentablebistro Huizenga tries to get outside daily and connect with friends and family online, but “I’m definitely struggling with that part a lot,” she said. “Our 8V-BiteClubfiller.indd 1 12/21/208V-KitchenTable012721.indd 6:12 PM 1 1/26/21 9:41 AM world is so small right now.” Caitrin Roesler, who was laid off from her full-time front-of-house job at Pascolo Ristorante when it closed temporarily in mid-November, feels similarly isolated. She lives in Moretown with her chef-husband, who is still going to work at the Pitcher Inn in Warren. Heading into the holidays, Roesler, 37, stayed busy making knitwear for her Etsy shop, but now she finds herself at loose ends and lonely during her husband’s long shifts. When her dryer recently broke, Roesler joked that it gave her an excuse to pop over to her neighbors to visit and borrow theirs. She was hoping to take some digital art classes online but can’t justify the expense. “I have way less things to do and way less drive to do them,” Roesler lamented.

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bush Resort, an arrangement that helps skiers unboot at their cars without starving and delivery drivers stay busy in the slower 4 to 5 p.m. time slot. The service has also started delivering heat-and-eat meals from Waitsfield’s Inn at Round Barn Farm during that time slot on Thursdays and Sundays; it will add prepared Saturday dinners from Morrisville-based Sustainable Kitchen starting on January 31. “We started from a waitstaff and restaurant perspective,” Rossbach said of the new business model. “But it also supports those who are traveling here and really trying to quarantine and do the right thing.” m

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“Bending over and scrubbing, my body got wrenched,” Baumann said. “I’d have these moments in the dish pit wrapped up in my thoughts. I went to a couple dark places, [thinking]: I’ve been in this industry 20 years. What else was I gonna do?”

WE CAN STILL CHASE

OUR AMERICAN DREAM. MAYA GUR UNG- S UB B A

Gordana Huizenga picking up free weekly groceries from Waterworks Food + Drink

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FILE: LUKE AWTRY

For those still on the job, stressors are both similar and different. Nico Gee, 28, started in kitchens as a dishwasher when he was 17 and worked his way into cooking. He grew up mostly in foster care in Vermont and New Hampshire. Restaurant work was something to rely on, and he liked the pace and focus. “I always thought that no matter where I go, I’ll always be able to find a job,” Gee said. “Now, that’s not so true.” Prior to the pandemic, Gee was a line cook at Our House Bistro in Winooski. He left that job during the summer for non-pandemic-related reasons and cobbled together full-time hours working at Waterworks and Sneakers Bistro, also in Winooski. As of November, Gee is down to cooking at Sneakers the three days it’s currently open. He also started a pop-up

Nico Gee preparing food in the kitchen at Sneakers

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Pancakes and Dish Pits

benefits from her kids’ late father while Jade made countless calls to the state unemployment office. She worried about how she could safely get to the laundromat and the grocery store with kids in tow. A Burlington neighbor helped by offering her unlimited laundry loads for $5 a week. In April, Clemmons Family Farm reached out to Jade about its teaching artist training program. The Black-owned farm and African American cultural center in Charlotte has been building a roster of

JAMES BUCK

dyed her naturally dark blond hair pink, and then purple. “I just needed some color,” she said. The grocery assist also enables Huizenga to keep her “bottom of the barrel” health insurance, which went up $20 a month this year. “Twenty dollars is a lot right now,” she said. She could let her insurance lapse, but it seems especially important during a pandemic. Huizenga said she felt safe working when the restaurant was open, but she recognizes the risk. “When you approach a table, you are always thinking, What if ?” she said. Roesler concurred that she felt safe at work — even though she has multiple sclerosis. She lost access to affordable health insurance when she was laid off, and then experienced what she thinks was an MS flare-up in early January. “With MS, it’s hard to know if it’s MS or stress,” Roesler explained. She tries not to think about how long it could be until she is insured again. “If I keep speculating, I’ll go insane,” Roesler said.

dinner chef collective called New Burlington Society. “I was working a solid 70-plus hours. Now I work a solid 18,” he said ruefully. Gee is making do on one-third of his normal income and is trying to collect unemployment. “I’ve been calling and calling,” he said. “Nobody has the same answer.” Recently, Gee has struggled to pay rent on time. “I text [my landlord] frequently to let him know I’m working on it,” he said. “I’m living very thin,

which is very stressful.” At home, Gee makes a lot of tuna sandwiches and risotto with chicken and frozen spinach; at work, he eats a lot of pancakes. Baumann, 48, built a successful career as a bar manager. He has worked for the business partnership behind Zero Gravity and the Great Northern for about six years. He thrives on the creativity of building a bar program and the performance aspect of serving bar customers, but COVID-19 dealt that job a mortal blow. The bar manager went from salary to hourly wages and knew he was lucky to be on payroll at all. From summer through fall, Baumann’s weekly hours seesawed wildly between about 30 and half that. He did whatever was needed: prep cooking, packaging takeout orders and batching to-go cocktails. But mostly, he did lots and lots of dishes. It took a physical and mental toll.

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Jeff Baumann pouring negronis into to-go bottles at the Great Northern

Baumann was promoted to general manager and put back on salary in December. He’s still covering the dish pit when needed.

Time for Art

Musician, spoken-word performer and comedian Omega Jade worked in restaurants for about five years, always squeezing her art in around her day job. “The shit-talkin’ in the kitchen was amazing and helps me with a lot of material,” Jade, 42, said with a laugh. After regaining custody of her three children in November 2019, Jade cut her hours from five days a week to two as a banquet prep cook at the Hampton Inn Colchester. She was laid off last March, at about the time schools were closing for her 8-yearold son and 6-year-old twin girls. “It was kind of impeccable timing,” she said wryly. The family managed on survivors’

artists to share and teach about African American and African diaspora history and culture. The relationship generated several freelance gigs and support that landed Jade a $1,000 artist grant to help her equip a home recording studio. She recently signed a two-year contract with Clemmons Family Farm for its newly launched Windows to a Multicultural World curriculum. Jade is hoping that will provide income consistent enough to allow her to continue focusing on her art. “I guess I miss the stability of having a regular job,” Jade said. But, she added, “Being laid off forced me to try to figure out a way to use my art to pay my way and take care of my family.”

‘Step Back’

Restaurants and bars provide places for us to unwind, to enjoy the company of friends, to savor a world of flavors. For millions around the country, and thousands in Vermont, the industry also provides a living and a career — even a path to the proverbial American dream. Among other lessons, the pandemic has prompted many of us to reevaluate what we take for granted. Baumann of Zero Gravity and the Great Northern said he misses stopping by T. Rugg’s Tavern for a drink and a chat with the bartender on his way home from work. Gee, the Sneakers cook, put it this way: “It’s given me a chance to step back. It’s made me grateful for the work I do.” m

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‘A ZEALOT’ ADOPTS THE CAUSE

Good Citizen Stories

PASSING VERMONT’S BILLBOARD BAN

Anti-billboard sentiment in Vermont dates back to the 1930s, according to a 2012 feature on the billboard ban in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Writer Mark Bushnell explained that as cars became more popular, billboards aimed at drivers began to proliferate along Vermont roadways. A number of social organizations spoke out against them, including the Rotary Club, the Grange and the Daughters of the American Revolution, but businesses and the farmers who proﬁted from hosting them welcomed the signs. A 1939 law put some limits on them, but Bushnell noted that legislative eﬀorts to ban

military man who served during World War II, as well as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. In 1952, he purchased Savage Island in Lake Champlain. He also bought a float plane and started flying up to Vermont to spend weekends there; he moved his family to South Burlington in 1961. Vermont Republicans soon recruited him to run for office in his Democratic-leaning district — and in a special election in 1965, he won. Though Riehle was a lifelong Republican — and a Rush Limbaugh fan — he had a passion for environmental conservation. His eldest son, Ted Riehle III, describes his dad as “a little bit of a rebel” in his party.

BY CATHY RESMER

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

COURTESY OF RIEHLE FAMILY

f you’ve lived or traveled outside of Vermont, you’ve surely seen plenty of billboards. These giant signs appear in red states and blue states alike, towering over farm ﬁelds and assailing passersby from atop skyscrapers. Today they’re often digital and animated to catch your eye. But you won’t ﬁnd any such outdoor advertisements in Vermont — the Green Mountain State outlawed them in 1968, one of only four states in the U.S. to do so; the others are Hawaii, Alaska and Maine. Vermont’s billboard ban was championed by a persistent Republican legislator and signed into law by a Democratic governor. The story behind its passage is instructive in this deeply divided time, an example of how government can work.

Governor Phil Hoff signing the billboard bill into law. Ted Riehle is standing on the right. Then-representative Tom Salmon, House minority leader, is standing on the left.

billboards in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s all failed — “until Ted Riehle took up the issue.” The law is Ted Riehle Jr.’s greatest legacy. In 1997, the former lawmaker described its passage to Paula Routly for a feature in Seven Days: “I am no good at doing a bunch of things at the same time,” he said, “but I can sink my teeth into something and go for it. That’s exactly what happened with the billboard law.” When Riehle died in 2008, the Associated Press gave him credit for the law in the ﬁrst sentence of his obituary. Riehle was a native New Yorker — an engineer, inventor, pilot and

Riehle believed that banning billboards in Vermont made good economic sense and would help attract tourists, remembers son Ted. “‘He said, ‘People come up here not to look at a billboard but to look at cows and mountains and a ﬁeld.’ He was a zealot about this issue.”

‘IT WAS NOT POPULAR’ Although the billboard ban is a beloved part of Vermont’s identity now, many people initially opposed it. “It was not popular right out of the gates,” remembers son Ted. Riehle’s law didn’t just cover signs; it also banned ﬂashing lights, such as

THE LAW WAS CHAMPIONED BY A REPUBLICAN LEGISLATOR AND SIGNED BY A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR. those on the Flynn Theatre marquee and on directional signs advertising sales. Business owners were adamantly opposed. Some even called it a communist plot to undermine the rights of property owners. A national group advocating for outdoor advertising got involved. “He knew he was up against big money,” Ted says of his dad. Ted remembers his dad receiving a call to the house from someone claiming to “make it worth his while” to kill the bill. Ted, like his father, served in the Vermont legislature and puts the debate in perspective: “It was almost as controversial, or even more so, than civil unions,” he says, “just because it was people’s pocketbooks.”

‘ONE BY ONE’

In the end, House Republicans strongly supported the bill, and then-state senator Jim Jeffords helped get it through the Republican-controlled Senate. Ted notes that many Democrats at the time were wary of his dad and “didn’t know what to make of him.” But he had support from Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird. In a letter the First Lady sent him dated August 9, 1967, she wrote: “It is my hope that State and local officials as well as a beauty-minded citizenry will work together to preserve and restore the beauty of our land, and I am grateful for your efforts.” Ultimately, Democratic governor Phil Hoff signed the legislation. He realized that “this was far too important an issue” to be sidelined by politics, Ted says. How can we cultivate this kind of approach in our current divided times? Helen suggests that we all need to “turn down the volume” on our political disagreements and to approach each other with “understanding and respect.” We have to be willing to “take the time and talk,” she says. And ultimately, Helen concedes, “People have to be willing to listen.” 

ILY

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SUPPORT FROM BOTH SIDES

COURTESY OF RIEHLE FAM

Ted says his dad overcame the opposition by talking to people — a lot of people — and persuading them. “How he did it was one by one,” he says. The elder Riehle met privately with fellow lawmakers at his Montpelier apartment. “I would not be surprised if it was over a cocktail or two,” Ted quips. He also wooed journalists, according to writer Bushnell. And Riehle spoke in public. Ted drove his dad around the state at the time to address all sorts of audiences; he says the elder Riehle spoke about the legislation on 125 diﬀerent occasions. “It really was just going to every little group,” he says. Residents of southern Vermont were generally more receptive than those who lived north of Rutland. Ted recalls one particular appearance in the Northeast Kingdom when his dad instructed him to stay in the car and keep the motor running, in case they had to make a quick getaway. Son Ted’s wife, Helen Riehle, who has served in the state House and Senate and currently chairs the South Burlington City Council, remembers

that her father-in-law found great success outside of purely partisan groups. “He went to every single garden club throughout the state,” she recalls. “The garden clubs really embraced it.” And, she adds, “it was an easy listen.” Her father-in-law was a charismatic guy, she says, talented, funny and a good speaker.

GOOD CITIZEN STORIES

is a series that celebrates Vermont residents who work together across partisan divides to make a positive impact on the state. It’s part of the Good Citizen Challenge, a civics initiative from Seven Days and Kids VT that encourages participants to learn about history, government, community service and news literacy. The current At-Home Challenge, produced with support from the Vermont Community Foundation, includes more than 40 activities kids and families can do to learn about and practice being Good Citizens. Find details at goodcitizenvt.com. SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

music+nightlife

Pitz Quattrone at the former Didgeridoo Vibroacoustics studio

FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

S UNDbites

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene B Y J O R D A N A D A MS

Didge You See ‘The Tonight Show’ Last Week?

COURTESY OF THE ROOTS

Once in a while, our humble lil state makes it to the big-time. Vermont music had a brief taste of the national limelight last week, and I’m not talking about Pitchfork’s Sunday review of country singer-songwriter IRIS DEMENT’s 1992 album Infamous Angel, a product of legendary North Ferrisburgh folk label Philo Records. But that was neat, too. I’m referring to Vermont didgeridoo master PITZ QUATTRONE’s, for lack of a better word, appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring JIMMY FALLON.” OK, Quattrone didn’t physically appear on the program. But his music and likeness did. Fallon included — and roasted — Quattrone’s 2013 track “Electric Tan!” as part of the show’s ongoing “Do Not Play” segment on January 18. The recurring bit features crowdsourced music that’s, well, perhaps worthy of being put on a playlist

The Roots

called “Do Not Play.” Let’s just leave it at that. For those unfamiliar with Quattrone, he’s Vermont’s undisputed didgeridoo authority. In addition to playing and teaching lessons, he operated the

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Didgeridoo Vibroacoustics studio in Berlin from 2016 through 2017. In fact, I went to a few of his workshops during my first year of reporting for this publication. Not only did I learn how to drone on

one of his handcrafted instruments, I received a short vibroacoustic treatment, which involved lying on a “sound table” fitted with massive transducers that blasted prerecorded and live didgeridoo bass tones through my body. It was one of my most memorable and, to be honest, physically pleasurable stories. Fallon’s “audience” — presumably composed mostly of the crew and his house band, the ROOTS — cracked up when Quattrone’s face first appeared on-screen. “He looks like he’s kind of surprised to see us,” Fallon quipped to his chuckling band as he displayed an image of a bug-eyed Quattrone blasting a rattling tone from his didge. Indeed, Quattrone was surprised. “I’ve been trying to get my music on ‘The Tonight Show’ for years, because QUESTLOVE and the Roots are Philly guys,” Quattrone, a former Philadelphian, told Seven Days by phone. He specifically referred to submitting his completely over-the-top “Cheesesteaks and Tastykakes,” a novelty track and music

GOT MUSIC NEWS? JORDAN@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

video about two Philly delicacies. He dropped both in 2018 to coincide with the Philadelphia Eagles’ ascent to Super Bowl LII, which the team went on to win. Was there a connection between the two events? Who can say? After unsuccessful attempts to get some attention from the NBC variety show for “Cheesesteaks and Tastykakes,” Quattrone discovered “Do Not Play” about a year ago. “I’m thinking, Hmm, that could be me,” Quattrone said. It’s simple enough to submit to “Do Not Play.” You just have to send a quick email to DoNotPlay@tonightshow. com with your track. Quattrone sent in “Electric Tan!” along with a recent cover of DEEP PURPLE’s “Smoke on the Water.”

IT WAS LIKE A

“TWILIGHT ZONE” EPISODE. PIT Z QUAT TRON E

Quattrone didn’t receive notification that his song had been selected. Instead, he stumbled upon the segment while channel surfing away from “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” during a commercial break. “It was like a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode,” he said, recalling the bizarre feeling of suddenly seeing his face on national television. “Here’s why I don’t like it,” Fallon said after playing a few seconds of “Electric Tan!” “I feel duped. I feel like a fool, because I came for the didgeridoo. He gives one taste of didgeridoo, and then it’s like a rock song … It sounds like the Muppets should be singing it.” I’ve got some news for you, Mr. Fallon. Your production staff duped you, not Quattrone! What’s heard in the clip played on the show is actually a slickly edited version of the song. The original features about a minute and a half of didge before evolving into Fallon’s aptly noted DR. TEETH AND THE ELECTRIC MAYHEM vibes. (Although, in my opinion, the song would be better coming from the more socially conscious subterranean denizens of “Fraggle Rock,” given that it’s essentially a public service announcement about the dangers of skin cancer and tanning beds.)

Quattrone wasn’t fazed by the comparison. In fact, he’s used to people being taken aback by his melding of sounds and cultures. “Some people have a preconceived notion when they hear [the term] ‘didgeridoo music,’” Quattrone said, defending his unconventional choice of mixing the ancient Aboriginal instrument with, as Questlove put it, “RICK DEES”-style rock. “Some people think [of ] the meditation thing, or new age, and that’s cool, but that’s not what I do. I grew up on rock and roll and funk and soul.” The Roots’ reaction was especially hilarious, by the way. In particular, seen at the 2:58 mark of the YouTube upload, the gobsmacked expression on guitarist “CAPTAIN” KIRK DOUGLAS’ face as the song continues to defy expectation and sails off the rails is utterly priceless. It’s a reaction GIF in the making. Folks itching to get more of Quattrone’s idiosyncratic work should check out his upcoming television program on Onion River Community Access Media. Described as a monthly musical variety show, “The Music Zone With Pitz Quattrone” will feature performances and interviews from local and nonlocal musicians. The premiere, with bluesman and frequent collaborator DAVE KELLER as Quattrone’s guest, is likely to air in early February. For Quattrone, his “Tonight Show” appearance was a huge honor, even if he was the butt of the joke. And, for what it’s worth, I don’t imagine just any singer-songwriter could make it to “Do Not Play.” Terrible or otherwise, I’d say you’d have to be pretty damn special. Said Quattrone, “If the Muppets covered my song, I would be a happy didgeridoo guy.”

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Listening In If I were a superhero, my superpower would be the ability to get songs stuck in other people’s heads. Here are five songs that have been stuck in my head this week. May they also get stuck in yours. YOUNG GALAXY, “Sleepwalk With Me” LÅPSLEY, “Ligne 3” ANDREW GOLD, “Final Frontier” MIAMI HORROR, “Holidays (featuring Alan Palomo)” WILD BELLE, “Rocksteady”

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REVIEW this Chicky Stoltz, Camp Recording #4 Fantastic (SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

CHSLV is now Lamoille Health Partners We have a new name and a new look! Community Health Services of Lamoille Valley (CHSLV) is excited to announce that we are re-branding as Lamoille Health Partners. While our name is changing, our commitment to providing comprehensive, premier health services to all our neighbors in the Lamoille Valley is stronger than ever.

Long before the pandemic necessitated isolation, artists have been holing up in the mountains to write and record music. Self-imposed solitude sparks creativity, so they say. Most folks return to their hectic lives once the work is done, but I have a feeling Chicky Stoltz is perfectly happy to remain the hermit this publication cast him as in a 2014 review of his second album, Camp Recording #2 - The Roebuck. Vermont is full of Chicky Stoltzes — that is, reclusive types who quietly write and record everything solo at home and rarely play live or make a peep on the internet. Yet as Stoltz demonstrates on his new LP, the perfunctorily titled Camp Recording #4 -

Julian Gerstin, Littoral Zone

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(SELF-RELEASED, CD, DIGITAL)

Creating and executing a concept album is always a tightrope act. Doing so as a solo artist is effectively like working without a net. So it’s doubly impressive and delightful any time some brave soul pulls off a concept album in style. Such is the case with Littoral Zone, an oddball gem from Brattleboro-area percussion expert and educator Julian Gerstin. Gerstin is one of Vermont’s many hidden talents, keeping a modest profile despite his world-class chops and constant gigs. He’s a session pro and a music educator at the Vermont Jazz Center, as well as a human encyclopedia of global music styles and history. He is also the coauthor, with Ken Dalluge, of the excellent textbook The Musician’s Guide to Rhythm, which presents a wide-ranging mix of theoretical and practical ideas.

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Fantastic, his music is often just as thrilling as that of acts who gig all the time and are active on social media. In other words: Don’t judge artists by their public profiles, especially when the industry keeps telling you to do just that. Camp Recording #4 - Fantastic is an eclectic rock album with a robust Americana core. Wilco are an obvious comparison, but Stoltz does plenty to distinguish himself, such as the lounge-tastic, bossa nova opener “bed stuy suite.” Full of slinky mallets and swishy percussion, the track sets Stoltz up as a verbose storyteller. With a near-literary flair, he describes a chance encounter of two ruined people and casually draws a comparison between existential and banal anxiety: “Can’t find love / Can’t find anything to wear,” he sings. Through some clever vocal trickery, Stoltz becomes his own pitch-jacked choir of backup singers on “electric eye.” With

effective production and layering electric guitar over a faint foundation of organ, he captures live energy. “Mining town” and “election cycle 2 (king baby mix)” zero in on the Americana-lite, gray-sky blues that Wilco so effectively produced in the 2000s. But the following cut, “orange cones,” snaps into a mechanized, black-hat groove. Stoltz intermittently brandishes flashy guitar chords over the tune’s sparse orchestrations. Stoltz rides the vibe of the previous song into “friendship heights,” a darktoned, bluesy workingman’s banger. The clouds part on closer “mona lisa,” another airy pop-Americana jam whose mildness befits the thin, signature smile of its namesake. Stoltz’s songs are undeniably catchy, even when they don’t hinge on traditionally catchy hooks. In addition to grooving along, listeners should expect to get lost in his stories and dwell on the scenes set within. Camp Recording #4 - Fantastic is available at chickystoltz.bandcamp.com.

All of which is to say that Gerstin is well qualified for the demanding task of carrying a concept album mostly solo. The album in question, Littoral Zone, is focused on another of his obsessions: marine life. If you’re unfamiliar, a “littoral zone” is the transitional space closest to the shore of a large body of water. These zones contain vibrant, psychedelic ecosystems teeming with life. Gerstin’s album, which he hails as “percussion for mollusks,” is focused on ocean tide pools, some of the most diverse littoral zones on Earth. Each track is a tribute to a different species, using their names, shapes and habits as launching pads for syncopated portraits. So while the project is rooted in jazzy polyrhythms, it’s also off in its own galaxy, a purely interpretive journey. The album’s sly sequencing evokes the cycles of the coastal tides, with high-energy tracks such as “Dentalium elephantium” or “Hexaplex radix” framed by calming interludes. There are also truly remarkable textural experiments, such as “Spirula spirula,”

which resembles some of Aphex Twin’s ambient work. Befitting the oceanic vibe, the album includes some lovely, lazy fantasias. The soothing “Grimpotheusis,” one of my favorite tracks, features marimba work from Steve Rice. His deft chops show up on two other songs, “Purpura” and “Argonauta argo.” “Corculum cardissa” presents another guest spotlight, this time a sinuous clarinet solo from Brattleboro educator Anna Patton. Gerstin’s range is immense, and he draws on all of his experiences and techniques to keep things interesting and evolving. He also breaks out a tremendous tool kit for the job, incorporating dozens of different instruments, both traditional and improvised. His compositions are layered but loose, and his approach makes for an immersive listening experience. Despite being both an aquatic concept LP and rendered almost entirely in hand percussion, Littoral Zone is a deeply enjoyable journey. Each of these tracks is a carefully crafted soundscape. That’s a testament to Gerstin’s chops, certainly, but what really carries this project is his playful, endlessly inventive imagination. Littoral Zone is available at juliangerstin.bandcamp.com.

GET YOUR MUSIC REVIEWED:

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021 1/21/21 11:41 AM

JORDAN ADAMS

JUSTIN BOLAND

ARE YOU A VT ARTIST OR BAND? SEND US YOUR MUSIC! DIGITAL: MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM; SNAIL MAIL: MUSIC C/O SEVEN DAYS, 255 S. CHAMPLAIN ST., SUITE 5, BURLINGTON, VT 05401

Here is the thing about life: There is no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days you need a hand; there are other days when we are called to lend a hand. — PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, JANUARY 20, 2021

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SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

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movies Silence & Darkness ★★★★

REVIEW

ur streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. This week, I watched a possible first in cinema history: an indie film shot in rural Vermont that is not remotely soothing, healing or pastoral. Silence & Darkness is the feature debut of New York-based director Barak Barkan, who shot it over three weeks in Waitsfield and Warren. Locals may recognize locations, such as the Big Picture Theater & Café, and two cast members: musician Ariel Zevon and Sandra Gartner of Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theater. Barkan told me in an email that “The

entire Mad River Valley community … supported the film.” Silence & Darkness is available to rent or buy on various streaming services, including iTunes, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video.

NEW IN THEATERS

NOW PLAYING

THE LITTLE THINGS: Denzel Washington and Rami Malek play LA cops on the trail of a serial killer in this dark crime drama directed by John Lee Hancock (The Highwaymen). With Jared Leto. (127 min, R: Essex Cinemas, Stowe Cinema, Sunset Drive-In)

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE★★★ In this sequel to the animated comedy hit, a prehistoric family finds itself forced to cohabit with its more evolved neighbors. (95 min, PG. Essex Cinemas, Sunset Drive-In)

THE MAD HATTER: Students: If your psych professor invites you to participate in a weekend study at a place called the Mad Hatter Mansion, maybe don’t. With Armando Gutierrez and Nick Miller; Catherine Devaney directed the horror flick. (90 min, R; Essex Cinemas) SUPERNOVA: Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci play life partners, one with early-onset dementia, who take a road trip across England to revisit their past. Harry Macqueen (Hinterland) wrote and directed. (93 min, R; Essex Cinemas)

The deal

Two sisters — perhaps teens, perhaps older — live in a house in the woods with their Father (Jordan Lage). Anna (Mina Walker) is blind; Beth (Joan Glackin) is deaf. They communicate in a sign language of their own apparent devising that relies on touch, their hands frequently entwined. While the sisters cooperate to perform

THE MARKSMAN★★ Liam Neeson plays an Arizona border rancher who protects a young Mexican from cartel assassins in this action thriller. (108 min, PG13; Essex Cinemas, Stowe Cinema, Sunset Drive-In) MLK/FBI★★★★ This documentary from Sam Pollard (Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me) uses newly declassified materials to illuminate the FBI’s treatment of Martin Luther King Jr. (104 min, NR; Savoy Theater)

COURTESY OF BARAK BARKAN

SHOUT OUT Glackin plays a young woman growing up under her father’s thumb in a disturbing indie drama shot in the Mad River Valley.

daily tasks, each has her own passions: Anna loves music; Beth, gymnastics. What they don’t have is any sort of life outside the sphere of Father, a doctor who lectures them (and anyone who will listen) on the dangers of germs. At night, Father drugs his daughters. Why? We aren’t told. We may not want to know. But the girls are starting to doubt the wisdom of Father. A visit from a neighbor inspires Anna to wonder what really happened to their mother, putting the members of this strange household on a collision course.

Will you like it? A movie about people who rely on one sense in default of another, Silence & Darkness makes us ultra-conscious of our own sensory input or lack thereof. If someone set out to prove that you can make an intensely unsettling film without any of the usual horror-movie manipulations of sight and sound — no shocking visions, no loud jump scares, not even a musical score — this might be the result. Barkan uses the eerie beauty of springtime in rural Vermont as a blank slate on which he encourages us to draw untold horrors — with our imaginations. In lengthy shot after lengthy shot, often from a distance, we watch the sisters go through their daily routines: playing records, doing cartwheels, cooking, setting the table. Much of their dialogue is silent; we can only guess at the meaning of glances and interwoven hands. These scenes can be alienating, tempting us to tune out. But the sense that something is not right in this scenario — very not right — keeps pulling us back in. Because Barkan leaves so much to the viewer’s imagination, reactions to Silence & Darkness may depend on how dark our imaginations are. Mine is dark, and I was queasy. Still, I wish Barkan (who wrote as well as directed) had spun out the threads

NO MAN’S LAND★★1/2 A young man (Jake Allyn) flees into Mexico after the accidental killing of an immigrant on his dad’s border ranch in this modern Western. (114 min, PG-13; Essex Cinemas) PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN★★★1/2 Carey Mulligan plays a med school dropout who has a few lessons to teach men about the concept of consent in this dark satirical thriller. (114 min, R. Essex Cinemas, Savoy Theater) THE WAR WITH GRANDPA★★ Forced to share a room with his grandfather (Robert De Niro), a kid (Oakes Fegley) goes on the offensive in this family comedy. (94 min, PG; Sunset Drive-In)

MONSTER HUNTER★★ The Capcom video game becomes an action adventure starring Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa. (99 min, PG-13. Essex Cinemas)

WOLFWALKERS★★★★1/2 An apprentice wolf hunter in Ireland discovers a different point of view in this family animation from the makers of The Secret of Kells. (103 min, PG. Savoy Theater; reviewed by M.H. 1/13)

NEWS OF THE WORLD★★★1/2 In this Western from director Paul Greengrass, Tom Hanks plays a Civil War vet who travels hundreds of miles to return a girl raised by the Kiowa to her family. (118 min, PG-13. Essex Cinemas, Savoy Theater, Sunset Drive-In)

WONDER WOMAN 1984★★★ Sixty-odd years after her first film showcase, the Amazon princess (Gal Gadot) faces Max Lord and the Cheetah in the latest DC Comics adventure. (151 min, PG-13. Essex Cinemas, Stowe Cinema)

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

of mystery or delved deeper into the story’s implications. Thematically, it’s impossible not to compare Silence & Darkness with the Greek cult film Dogtooth, which goes further in exploring the absurdist potential of a simple premise: What happens when parents intentionally create an alternate reality for their children? In this movie, the same premise is more sketched than fleshed out, with many questions about the family unit’s functioning left unanswered. While Silence & Darkness doesn’t quite click as a story, it’s a unique and powerful experience because of Barkan’s commitment to the formal minimalism implied by the title, letting the background trilling of insects and the two lead actors’ connection do the work. It’s also an anomaly in the annals of Green Mountain film; you may never look at a greening Vermont landscape the same way again.

If you like this, try...

• Dogtooth (2009; Kanopy, Tubi, Mubi, rentable): Before Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos courted awards attention with The Favourite, he made this intensely messed-up movie about teenage siblings who live in a fake world of their parents’ creation. • Room (2015; Showtime, rentable): Though the sisters in Silence & Darkness have a certain amount of free range, I couldn’t stop thinking of claustrophobic movies like this one, in which Brie Larson plays an abductee raising her child in captivity. • Goodnight Mommy (2014; Tubi, Pluto TV, rentable): Two brothers and their mother enjoy the isolation of the picturesque Austrian countryside, until the boys start to suspect that Mommy may not actually be Mommy. Like Silence & Darkness, this horror film uses the seemingly benign rhythms of country living to get under your skin. MARGO T HARRI S O N

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OLDER FILMS DR. NO (Fathom Events; Essex Cinemas, Sun only) GROUNDHOG DAY (Essex Cinemas) KUNG FU PANDA (Sunset Drive-In) THE MEG (Sunset Drive-In) MINIONS (Sunset Drive-In)

OPEN THEATERS ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com THE SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com SUNSET DRIVE-IN: 155 Porters Point Rd., Colchester, 862-1800, sunsetdrivein.com

CLASS PHOTOS + MORE INFO ONLINE SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSES

classes THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS FOR AS LITTLE AS $16.75/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE). SUBMIT YOUR CLASS AD AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS.

Access CVU

Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt. org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com. HOME & GARDEN: Vermont’s Winter Duck Show, Managing Forests for Wildlife, Spring Beauty, and Beekeeping Basics! Lots of virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt. org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com.

Over 150 New Virtual Classes. Something for Everyone! 53 classes starting in February. Sign up TODAY to reserve your spot! Full class descriptions at cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com or Google Access CVU. Register online, call 482-7194 or email access@cvsdvt.org. FINE ARTS & CRAFTS: Clay, Fire and Glaze, Oh My!, Painting on Bisqueware Tiles, Intro to Bookbinding, Mala Bead Necklace Workshop, Beginners Acrylic Painting for Adults, Acrylic Painting Party, Drawing Nature with Rachel Mirus, and Watercolor Studio with Ginny Joyner. All virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt. org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com. FITNESS, DANCE, YOGA & MINDFUL MOVEMENT: Women’s Monday Yoga Hour, Intro to Yang Tai CHi, and Morning Yoga with Jean. All virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt. org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com. FOOD & DRINK: Ethiopian Injera with Alganesh Michael. Decadent Desserts, Focaccia and Minestrone Soup, Tiramisu with Adele Dienno. Wonderful virtual cooking classes for the whole family! Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 4827194, access@cvsdvt.org, cvsdvt. ce.eleyo.com. HEALTH, WELLNESS & HOLISTIC LIVING: Rethinking Sugar, Intro to Therapeutic Massage, Cell Phone Mindfulness, Natural Ways to Improve Wellness, Intro to Buddhism, Transform Yourself in 2021 through Wellness Habit Change. Chakra Workshop, Tarot Card Adventure, and Feng Shui for Everyone with Lydia Solini. All virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU.

KIDS & TEENS: Beginner’s Acrylic Painting for Kids, and Intro to Ukulele for Kids. Virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt.org, cvsdvt. ce.eleyo.com.

master teacher Gail Salzman instructs students to create small portraits on primed panels. Class includes eight hours of instruction and all materials you will need in a kit, including panel, paints and brushes. Tue., Jan. 19-Feb. 9, 1-3 p.m. Cost: $200/person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Zoom. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. COLLAGE NIGHT WITH JESS GRAHAM: Ages 13 and up. Two students max. Get creative at home with Vermont artist Jess Graham. Learn tips and techniques to make a unique collage with newspaper clippings, magazine pages, scraps of paper and more. Includes two hours of instruction and a kit with all the materials you will need. Fri., Feb. 12, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $50/person; $45 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org.

LANGUAGES & LITERACY: Introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) Parts 1 and 2, French 102, French Conversation: French Films for Foodies (intermediate to advanced speakers), Spanish for Beginners Parts 1 and 2, Spanish Conversation: Advanced Level, German for Beginners, Italian for Beginners, Journaling to Relax and Let Go, and Access Virtual Book Club! February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt. org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com. MUSIC: Intro to Ukulele for Adults, Guitar for Beginners Parts 1 and 2, Let’s Get Singing, and Harmonica for Adults. Virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@ cvsdvt.org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com. PHOTOGRAPHY & TECHNOLOGY: Community Tech Help, Using Zoom, Using Google Meet, and Mastering Photographic Composition with Sean Beckett! Virtual classes. Read full descriptions and register online. February. Location: Access CVU. Info: 482-7194, access@cvsdvt. org, cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com.

BCA Studios

Burlington City Arts winter/spring class registration is now open! Find these classes and many more at burlingtoncityarts.org. BCA HOME STUDIO: PORTRAIT PAINTING: Ages 13 and up. Six students max. Prerequsite: Figure drawing/oil painting experience recommended. Local artist and

DARKROOM INSTITUTE: Ages 12-18. Limit: four. Experience the magic of a traditional photographic darkroom. Go on guided photo shoots in the South End of Burlington with a manual 35mm SLR film camera and learn how to print photographs in our blackand-white darkroom. All materials (including a camera) are provided. Option 2: Mon., Jan. 11, 25, Feb. 1, 8 (no class Jan. 18), noon-3 p.m. Cost: $200/person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. DARKROOM PHOTO: Ages 9-12. Limit: four. Experience the magic of a traditional photographic darkroom. Go on guided photo shoots in the South End of Burlington with a manual 35mm SLR film camera and learn how to print photographs in our blackand-white darkroom. All materials (including a camera) are provided.

HOME STUDIO: FAMILY CLAY: All Ages. 10 families max. Our clay experts lead you through a fun, family-friendly hand-building clay project. After class, BCA will glaze and fire your beautiful clay creations for you to keep forever! A ticket includes supply kit, Zoom demonstration, and glazing and firing for 4 pieces. 5:30-6:30 p.m.; Option 1: Fri., Jan. 22; Option 2: Fri., Feb. 5; Option 3: Fri., Feb. 19; Option 4: Fri., Mar. 5; Option 5: Fri., Mar. 19. Cost: $25/family; $22.50 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org.

8 a.m.-3 p.m.; Option 6: Wed., Jan. 13, 20, 27, Feb. 3; Option 7: Wed., Feb. 10, 17, 24, Mar. 3. Cost: $400/ person; $360 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. DEVELOPING A PERSONAL BRAND: Ages 18 and up. 20 students max. Your brand is more than a logo or product; it’s an emotion that influences your relationships with customers. Join Mieko Ozeki, Vermont Womenpreneurs Cofounder and Radiance Studios branding consultant, to learn the concepts and tools for building a brand that markets your message. Wed., Jan. 27, 2021, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $25/ person; $22.50 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 8655355, jflanagan@burlingtoncity arts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. DRAW, PAINT & PRINT INSTITUTE: Ages 12 to 18. Limit: nine. Explore drawing, painting and printmaking in our professional studios. Students develop a deeper understanding of 2D artistic techniques and create drawings, paintings and prints to add to their portfolios. All materials provided. Option 2: Mon., Jan. 11, 25, Feb. 1, 8 (no class Jan. 18), noon-3 p.m. Cost: $200/ person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. GRAPHIC NOVEL: Prerequisite: Basic drawing experience is encouraged. Ages 18 and up. Six students max. Learn the art of visual storytelling through this immersive class in the comics discipline. Students learn a broad range of techniques for communicating with both words and pictures, with an emphasis on using pen and ink. Tue., Feb. 16-Mar. 9, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $200/ person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. HOME STUDIO: CLAY COACHING: Ages 13 and up. Eight students max. Join local clay artist Sarah Camille Wilson to create clay work at home. This class is designed for students with some clay experience who are interested in growing their own creative voice and trying more advanced techniques in either wheel- or hand-building work. Mon., Jan. 25-Feb. 22 (no class Feb. 15), 6-8 p.m. Cost: $200/person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlington cityarts.org. HOME STUDIO: DRAWING: Ages 13 and up. 12 students max. Learn

a variety of drawing techniques including basic perspective, compositional layout and use of dramatic light and shadow, all from the comfort of your home. Local artist Ashley Stagner leads students through a variety of drawing exercises and group discussions over Zoom. Mon., Jan. 25-Feb. 22 (no class Feb. 15), 6-7:30 p.m. Cost: $150/person; $135 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org.

HOME STUDIO: FAMILY CARDMAKING: Ages 6 and up. Six families max. Join us via Zoom tools to create handmade cards to share with those you love. Class includes one hour of instruction and all the materials you will need. Prior to the session, participants will pick up material kits at BCA Studios. Sun., Feb. 7, 11 a.m.-noon. Cost: $25/ person; $22.50 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 8655355, jflanagan@burlingtoncity arts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org.

HOME STUDIO: HANDBUILDING: Ages 13 and up. 10 students max. Join local artist Sarah Camille Wilson in a Zoom class live at home. Explore basic hand-building techniques and tips for creating texture and decoration. Includes four hours of instruction, materials (including a bag of clay and hand tools), glazing, and firing. Wed., Jan. 27-Feb. 17, 6-7 p.m. Cost: $100/person; $80 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlington cityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. HOME STUDIO: LINOCUT: Ages 13 and up. Eight students max. Artist Ashley Stagner teaches you to make beautiful designs with the relief technique of linoleum block printing. Print blocks by hand and then add watercolors. Please have ideas or sketches (8” x 10” or smaller) ready. Includes eight hours of instruction and materials. Wed., Feb. 3-24, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $200/person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlington cityarts.org. HOME STUDIO: SCREEN PRINTING: Ages 13 and up. Eight students max. Four-week-long introduction to silk screening taught by local artist Kate McKernan. Discover how screen printing works and how to print your own design. Create personal artwork through drawing or tracing images. Includes four hours of instruction and materials, including paper and a tote bag. Tue., Jan. 26-Feb. 16, 6-7 p.m. Cost: $100/person; $90 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlington cityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. POTTERY INSTITUTE: Ages 12 to 18. Limit: eight. Create bowls, cups, sculptures and more through wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques. Learn surface design and decorating tips to make your pieces amazing. All items will be food/dishwasher/ microwave safe and lead free. All materials provided. Option 2: Mon., Jan. 11, 25, Feb. 1, 8 (no class Jan. 18), noon-3 p.m. Cost: $200/ person; $180 for BCA members. BCA STUDIOS

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CLASS PHOTOS + MORE INFO ONLINE SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSES

BCA STUDIOS

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Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org. STILL LIFE PAINTING: Six students max. Prerequisite: Drawing and oil painting experience is recommended. Create dynamic compositions with vibrant color using contemporary still-life as your subject. Find beauty and personal meaning in common household items. Gail Salzman leads a live Zoom class with painting demos, examples, lots of tips and encouraging feedback. Tue., Feb. 16-Mar. 9, 1-3 p.m. Cost: $200/person; $180 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, Zoom class. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org.

Want to memorialize a loved one? We’re here to help. Our obituary and in memoriam services are affordable, accessible and handled with personal care.

YOUTH POTTERY: Ages 9 to 12. Limit: eight. Create bowls, cups, sculptures and more through wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques. Learn surface design and decorating tips to make your pieces amazing. All items will be food/dishwasher/ microwave safe and lead-free. All materials provided. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; Option 6: Wed., Jan. 13, 20, 27, Feb. 3; Option 7: Wed., Feb. 10, 17, 24, Mar. 3. Cost: $400/ person; $360 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine St., Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlingtoncityarts.org.

Share your loved one’s story with the local community in Lifelines.

YOUTH STUDIO ART: Ages 6 to 9. Limit: nine. Explore a variety of art projects, including drawing, painting, printmaking and craft while also getting time for outdoor activities. All materials provided. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; Option 6: Wed., Jan. 13, 20, 27, Feb. 3; Option 7: Wed., Feb. 10, 17, 24, Mar. 3. Cost: $400/ person; $360 for BCA members. Location: BCA Studios, 405 Pine Street, Burlington. Info: John Flanagan, 865-5355, jflanagan@ burlingtoncityarts.org, burlington cityarts.org.

drumming DJEMBE & TAIKO DRUMMING: JOIN US!: Hybrid classes (Zoom and in-person) starting January 4, 5, 6! Taiko Tuesday and Wednesday. Djembe Wednesday. Kids and Parents Tuesday and Wednesday. COVID-19-free rental instruments, curbside pickup, too. Private Hybrid Conga lessons by appointment. Let’s prepare for future drumming outdoors. Schedule/register online. Location: Online and inperson at Taiko Space, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 3G, Burlington. Info: 999-4255, burlingtontaiko.org.

lifelines

empowerment

Post your obituary or in memoriam online and in print at sevendaysvt.com/lifelines. Or contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt.com or 865-1020 ext. 10.

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

2v-Obit House Filler.indd 1

9/12/19 3:05 PM

MEETING YOUR INNER PARTNER: Discover the inner men and women living in your “inner city” who deeply influence your relationships and love life in this workshop full of hands-on

experiential material. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author. Wed., Feb. 3, 10, 17, 24, 7-9 p.m. Cost: $60/person via PayPal or check. Location: Zoom. Info: Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences, Sue Mehrtens, 2447909, info@jungiancenter.org, jungiancenter.org.

22, every Monday for 10 weeks. 6:30-8 p.m. Main textbook: Japanese for Busy People I. Level 1 covers the first half of the book, and Level 2 covers the second half. Level 1: Wed., starts Feb. 17, 6:30-8 p.m.; Level 2: Mon., starts Feb. 22, 6:30-8 p.m. Location: Japan-America Society of Vermont , Colchester. Info: jasvlanguage@gmail.com, jasv. org/v2/language. KOREAN LANGUAGE CLASS: Learn to speak Korean! Beginner Korean language class offers online instruction on Korean alphabet, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for basic conversation. Saturday, Mar. 6-May 15 (no class Apr. 3), 9:30-11 a.m. Cost: $100/person. Location: Green Mountain Korean Culture School, 130 Maple St., Essex Junction. Info: Young Shin, 917-923-6337, gmkcsvt@gmail.com.

language EXPERIENCED NATIVE PROFESSOR OFFERING ONLINE SPANISH CLASSES: Premier native-speaking Spanish professor Maigualida Rak is giving fun, interactive online lessons to improve comprehension and pronunciation and to achieve fluency. Audio-visual material is used. “I feel proud to say that my students have significantly improved their Spanish with my teaching approach.” -Maigualida Rak. Read reviews on Facebook at facebook.com/spanishonlinevt. Location: Maigualida Rak, Online. Info: Maigualida Rak, spanishtutor.vtfla@gmail.com, facebook.com/spanishonlinevt. JAPANESE LANGUAGE CLASSES: Offering beginning Japanese language courses. Level 1 starts Feb. 17, every Wednesday for 10 weeks. Level 2 starts Feb.

LEARN SPANISH LIVE & ONLINE: Broaden your world. Learn Spanish online via live video conferencing. High-quality, affordable instruction in the Spanish language for adults, students and children. Travelers lesson package. Our 15th year. Personal small group and individual instruction from a native speaker. See our website for complete information or contact us for details. Location: Spanish in Waterbury Center, Waterbury Center. Info: 585-1025, spanishparavos@gmail.com, spanishwaterburycenter.com.

yoga EVOLUTION YOGA: Bring your body and mind toward balance and find connection in community. All are welcome. Find support you need to awaken your practice. Offering livestream and recorded classes. Give the gift of yoga with a gift card on our website. Flexible pricing based on your needs; scholarships avail. Contact yoga@evolutionvt.com. Single class: $0-15. Weekly membership: $10-25. 10-class pass: $140. New student special: $20 for 3 classes. Location: Evolution Yoga, 20 Kilburn St., Burlington. Info: 864-9642, evolutionvt.com. LIVESTREAM YOGA AT THE YOGA BARN: Bring movement back into your life with livestream yoga. The Yoga Barn offers daily group and private classes online. Organize a private class and practice with friends from afar. Peruse our schedule at theyogabarnstowe.com. Sliding-scale rates for those experiencing financial hardship. Questions? Email us at: theyogabarnstowe@gmail.com. Location: The Yoga Barn, Online classes. Info: The Yoga Barn, Erica Sussman, 825-585-1356, theyogabarnstowe@gmail.com, theyogabarnstowe.com.

Humane

Athena AGE/SEX: 6-year-old spayed female

COURTESY OF KELLY SCHULZE/MOUNTAIN DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

ARRIVAL DATE: January 17, 2021 REASON HERE: She was transferred to HSCC from Hall County Animal Services in Georgia. SUMMARY: With her big, bright smile and soulful eyes, you can see her personality a mile away! Athena may not be a puppy, but she’s got plenty of pep in her step. She has done well on walks with other dogs but so far would rather social distance than get up close and personal with them. Not so for people, though: She’s happy to snuggle right up with you. She’s very attentive and eager to learn — especially if you’ve got a handful of cheese ready for her. This gorgeous girl is new to Vermont and on the lookout for a home where she’ll get all the love she deserves! Schedule a visit with Athena at hsccvt.org/dogs to find out whether your home could be the one!

Society of Chittenden County

DID YOU KNOW?

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Athena has no known experience living with other dogs, cats or children.

NEW STUFF ONLINE EVERY DAY! PLACE YOUR ADS 24-7 AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

APARTMENTS, CONDOS & HOMES

on the road »

Last year, HSCC found homes for 365 animals from high-volume shelters in the South and other organizations in Vermont! Transports give animals in need a significantly higher chance of being adopted and help us to keep up with the high demand for pets in our area. We typically welcome 1 or 2 transports each month, so stay tuned to our website and social media for new arrivals!

Sponsored by:

housing »

CARS, TRUCKS, MOTORCYCLES

pro services »

CHILDCARE, HEALTH/ WELLNESS, PAINTING

buy this stuff »

APPLIANCES, KID STUFF, ELECTRONICS, FURNITURE

music »

INSTRUCTION, CASTING, INSTRUMENTS FOR SALE

jobs »

NO SCAMS, ALL LOCAL, POSTINGS DAILY

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

CLASSIFIEDS We Pick Up & Pay For Junk Automobiles!

on the road

CARS/TRUCKS

Route 15, Hardwick

802-472-5100

3842 Dorset Ln., Williston

housing ads: $25 (25 words) legals: 52¢/word buy this stuff: free online services: $12 (25 words)

KEEN’S CROSSING IS NOW LEASING! 1-BR, $1,054/mo.; 2-BR, $1,266/mo.; 3-BR, $1,397/mo. Spacious interiors, fully applianced kitchen, fi tness center, heat & HW incl. Income restrictions apply. 802-655-1810, keenscrossing.com.

802-793-9133 PINECREST AT ESSEX Joshua Way, Essex Jct. CASH FOR CARS! Independent senior We buy all cars! Junk, living for those 55+ high-end, totaled: It sm-allmetals060811.indd 7/20/15 1 5:02 PM years. 1-BR avail. now, doesn’t matter. Get free $1,260/mo. incl. utils. towing & same-day & parking garage. NS/ cash. Newer models, pets. 802-872-9197 or too. Call 1-866-535rae@fullcirclevt.com. 9689. (AAN CAN)

RECREATIONAL VEHICLES 2006 KEYSTONE OUTBACK 27RSDS Travel Trailer RV, 2 slide-outs, 1 awning, 1 A/C unit. $2,000. heinv@gmx.com, 802-952-0032.

housing

FOR RENT AFFORDABLE 2-BR APT. AVAIL. At Keen’s Crossing. 2-BR: $1,266/mo., heat & HW incl. Open floor plan, fully applianced kitchen, fi tness center, pet friendly, garage parking. Income restrictions apply. 802-655-1810, keenscrossing.com.

CLASSIFIEDS KEY appt. appointment apt. apartment BA bathroom BR bedroom DR dining room DW dishwasher HDWD hardwood HW hot water LR living room NS no smoking OBO or best offer refs. references sec. dep. security deposit W/D washer & dryer

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and similar Vermont statutes which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, handicap, presence of minor children in the family or receipt of public assistance, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or a discrimination. The newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate, which is in violation of the law. Our

TAFT FARM SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY 10 Tyler Way, Williston, independent senior living. Newly remodeled 1-BR unit on the ground floor, w/ restricted view avail., $1,110/mo. incl. utils. & cable. NS/pets. Must be 55+ years of age. cintry@fullcirclevt. com, 802-879-3333. TAFT FARM SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY 10 Tyler Way, Williston, independent senior living. Newly remodeled 2-BR unit on 2nd floor avail., $1,410/mo. incl. utils. & cable. NS/pets. Must be 55+ years of age. cintry@fullcirclevt. com or 802-879-3333. TAFT FARM SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY 10 Tyler Way, Williston, independent senior living. Newly remodeled 1-BR unit on the main floor avail., $1,200/ mo. incl. utils. & cable. NS/pets. Must be 55+ years of age. cintry@ fullcirclevt.com or 802-879-3333. $1600.00 2-BR, 1-BA LAKE VIEW COTTAGE Enclosed porch + large deck. Shed. Small yard. Boat ramp, beach access, short walk to causeway. NS/pets. Colchester. $1,600/mo. + utils. 310-6770. Avail. now.

readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any home seeker who feels he or she has encountered discrimination should contact: HUD Office of Fair Housing 10 Causeway St., Boston, MA 02222-1092 (617) 565-5309 — OR — Vermont Human Rights Commission 14-16 Baldwin St. Montpelier, VT 05633-0633 1-800-416-2010 hrc@vermont.gov

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

display service ads: $25/$45 homeworks: $45 (40 words, photos, logo) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x21

OFFICE/ COMMERCIAL OFFICE/RETAIL SPACE AT MAIN STREET LANDING on Burlington’s waterfront. Beautiful, healthy, affordable spaces for your business. Visit mainstreetlanding.com & click on space avail. Melinda, 864-7999.

services

ADOPTION COUPLE HOPING TO ADOPT Kind & fun-loving VT couple can provide a safe & loving home for your baby. If you are pregnant & considering adoption, we would welcome hearing from you. jonandtessa.weebly. com, 802-272-7759.

AUTO DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY Receive maximum value of write off for your taxes. Running or not! All conditions accepted. Free pickup. Call for details. 855-9780215. (AAN CAN)

BIZ OPPS

BOOKKEEPING SERVICES Full-service bookkeeping avail. I have 28 years’ experience & would like to put my skills to work for you. Please email me at bookkeeping.gail@ gmail.com. DO YOU OWE OVER $10K to the IRS or state in back taxes? Our firm works to reduce the tax bill or zero it out completely fast. Let us help! 855-955-0702. Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-5 p.m. PST. OVER $10K IN DEBT? Be debt-free in 24-48 mos. Pay a fraction of what you owe. A+ BBB rated. Call National Debt Relief: 877-590-1202. (AAN CAN) SAVE BIG ON HOME INSURANCE! Compare 20 A-rated insurances companies.

ATTENTION ACTIVE DUTY & MILITARY VETERANS! Begin a new career and earn your degree at CTI! Online computer & medical training avail. for veterans & families! To learn more, call 855541-6634. (AAN CAN)

FINANCIAL/LEGAL AUTO INSURANCE Starting at $49/mo.! Call for your fee rate comparison to see how much you can save. Call 855-569-1909. (AAN CAN)

Get a quote within mins. Average savings of $444/year! Call 844-712-6153! Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Central. (AAN CAN) SAVE YOUR HOME! Are you behind paying your mortgage? Denied a loan modification? Is the bank threatening foreclosure? Call Homeowners Relief Line now for help: 1-855-4395853. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sat.: 8 a.m.-1 p.m. All times Pacific. (AAN CAN) STRUGGLING W/ YOUR PRIVATE STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT? New relief programs can reduce your payments. Learn your options. Good credit not necessary. Call the Helpline: 888-670-5631. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET. (AAN CAN)

HEALTH/ WELLNESS GENTLE TOUCH MASSAGE Specializing in deep tissue, reflexology, sports massage, Swedish & relaxation massage for men. Practicing massage therapy for over 14 years. Gregg, gentletouchvt.com, motman@ymail.com, 802-234-8000 (call/ text). Milton. HEARING AIDS! Buy 1 & get 1 free! High-quality rechargeable Nano hearing aids priced 90% less than competitors. Nearly invisible. 45-day money-back guarantee! 1-833-585-1117. (AAN CAN)

Kelman, Underhill. 30+ years’ experience. Also energy healing, chakra balancing, Reiki, rebirthing, other lives, classes, more. 802-899-3542, kelman.b@juno.com.

buy this stuff

GARAGE/ESTATE SALES PET GROOMING BUSINESS 11-y/o, well-established pet grooming business for sale. Details in online ad. 802-893-3434.

PSYCHIC COUNSELING Psychic counseling, channeling w/ Bernice

BUY THIS STUFF »

64± Ac. w/Elmore Mountain Views Tuesday, February 16 @ 11AM VT-12, Elmore, VT

Mostly wooded parcel near Lake Elmore. Walk the land any time (park at boat launch across street). Please do not go past right of way signs or enter neighboring property. THCAuction.com  800-634-7653

BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! We edit, print & distribute your work internationally. Untitled-34 1 We do the work; you reap the rewards! Call for a free Author’s Submission Kit: 844-511-1836. (AAN CAN)

EDUCATION

print deadline: Mondays at 4:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classifieds questions? classifieds@sevendaysvt.com 865-1020 x10

Buyer or Selling? Let’s make it happen. NOW IS THE TIME! Robbi Handy Holmes • 802-951-2128 robbihandyholmes@vtregroup.com Client focused Making it happen for you!

Homeshares 1/21/21 16t-robbihandyholmes011321.indd 11:45 AM 1

1/8/21 11:12 AM

BURLINGTON

Share an apartment with avid sports & music fan in his 50s. No rent/utilities in exchange for evening assistance with a light meal, household tasks, and occasional errands. Shared BA.

WILLISTON Woman in her 80s who enjoys French TV, news & family time, seeking housemate to provide evening companionship, cooking 4-5x/week & light housekeeping. No rent/utils. Private BA.

ADAMANT Beautiful, older farmhouse to share w/ independent artist in her 60s. Seeking tidy housemate to help w/ household chores & provide a bit of companionship. Shared BA. $300/

Finding you just the right housemate for over 35 years! Call 863-5625 or visit HomeShareVermont.org for an application. Interview, refs, bg check req. EHO Homeshare-temp2.indd 1

1/22/21 3:52 PM

Calcoku SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS »

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

2÷

14+

13+

3÷

24x

2÷

2÷ 2÷

2÷

CALCOKU

8 4 5

5 6

1 2 5 3

9 6 8

7 2-

7 2

9 3

Open 24/7/365.

View and post up to

Post & browse ads Complete the following puzzle by using the 6 photos per ad online. at your convenience. numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

11+

Show and tell. Sudoku

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

No. 672

SUDOKU

Difficulty: Hard

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HHH

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HH

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. The numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A onebox cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers one to nine. The same numbers cannot be repeated in a row or column.

ANSWERS 6 ON8P. 563 2 7 9 4 1 5 H = MODERATE HH = CHALLENGING HHH = HOO, BOY!

4 9 TECH BUZZ 1 ANSWERS ON P. 56 » 2 8 7 3 5

crossword 5 1 6 3 4 2

5 1 6 7 3 9 4 2

2 7 5 4 9 6 1 8

There’s no limit to ad length online.

Fresh. Filtered. Free.

6 7

Difficulty - Hard

Extra! Extra!

8 4 3 1 6 5 7 9

1 5 8 9 2 3 6 4

3 6 4 5 7 2 8 1

9 2 7 6 1 8 5 3

7 3 9 8 5 4 2 6

6 8 2 3 4 1 9 7

What’s that

buzz?

Find out what’s percolating today. Sign up to receive our house blend of local news headlines served up in one convenient email by Seven Days.

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/DAILY7 8v-daily7-coffee.indd 1

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

1/13/14 1:45 PM

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/_Graham Keegan

Corey F. Wood, Esq. PO Box 174 Essex Jct, VT 054530174 802-879-6304 cwood@bpflegal.com

Graham Keegan 630 N. Occidental Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90026 keegan.graham@gmail. com (802) 338-2173

Name of publication Seven Days

Name of Publication: Seven Days

Publication Date: 1/27/21 Address of Court: Chittenden Unit, Probate Court P.O. Box 511 Burlington, VT 05402

Dated: 1/10/2020

Publication Date: 1/27/21

FROM P.55

8 3 2 2÷ 5 2 8 12 ÷ 7 3-4 6 5 3-3 7 4 1 3 9 6 9 6 5 4 1 7 2 8 9

6 4 29 ÷ 1 2 11+ 8 7 3 5

14+

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7 9 4 1 5 1 3 9 7 6 5 6 5-2 3 8 8 4 57 92- 2 9 5 6 8 3 21- 7 1 5 4 3 2 8 Difficulty 4 - Hard 1 6 8 5 2 9 4 1 3 6 7

13+

24x

2÷ 1

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

Calcoku

No. 672

Name of Publication: Seven Days

2 Difficulty: Hard

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Address: 570 So. Pinnacle Road Waterbury, VT 05676

c/o Bergeron, Paradis & Fitzpatrick

sevendaysvt.com

Executor: Kenneth Rocheleau

Say you saw it in...

Executor/Administrator: Melisa Semprebon

Webinar ID: 81701436630

Signature of Fiduciary

BASS, GUITAR, DRUMS, VOICE LESSONS & MORE Remote music lessons are an amazing way to spend time at home! Learn guitar, bass, piano, voice, violin, drums, flute, sax, trumpet, production & beyond w/ pro local instructors from the Burlington Music Dojo on Pine St. All levels &

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom. us/j/81701436630?pwd =N2x1ai93M2pKcnRHcn hmcXh1RGdadz09

PUZZLE ANSWERS

/s/ Melisa Semprebon

INSTRUCTION

REHEARSAL SPACE Safe & sanitary music/ creative spaces avail. by the hour in the heart of the South End art district. Monthly arrangements avail., as well. Tailored for music but can be multipurpose. info@ burlingtonmusicdojo. com, 802-540-0321.

BURLINGTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH, 2021, 5:00 PM PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE REMOTE MEETING

Auction pre-registration is required, email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com to register.

/s/ Kenneth Rocheleau

music

STUDIO/ REHEARSAL

ARTIST STUDIO AVAIL. 517 sq.ft. artist’s work studio (not living space). $495/mo. All utils. & Wi-Fi incl. Beautiful location. Converted dairy barn w/ art community of 15 artists in situ. Plenty of free parking. 20 mins. to downtown Burlington.

Dated: 1/19/21

Date: January 25, 2021

PET GROOMING BUSINESS 11-y/o, established pet grooming business for sale, located in Milton, Vt. 802-893-3434.

CREATIVE SPACE

Melissa Bouffard, last known address of 135 Pecor Ave. Essex Junction, VT 05452 has a past due balance of $1,312.00 owed to Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC since 7/31/20. To cover this debt, per lease dated 8/30/13 the contents of unit #092 will be sold at private auction on 2/6/21.

PETS

GUITAR INSTRUCTION Berklee graduate w/ 30 years’ teaching experience offers lessons in guitar, music theory, music technology, ear training. Individualized, step-by-step approach. All ages, styles, levels. Rick Belford, 864-7195, rickb@rickbelford.com.

art

To the Creditors of Peter Gerald Keegan, late of Burlington.

HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET Finally, no hard data limits! Call today for speeds up to 25mbps as low as $59.99/mo! $75 gift card, terms apply. 1-844-416-7147. (AAN CAN)

GUITAR INSTRUCTION All styles/levels. Emphasis on building strong technique, thorough musicianship, developing personal style. Paul Asbell (Big Joe Burrell, Kilimanjaro, UVM & Middlebury College faculty, Daysies). 233-7731, pasbell@ paulasbell.com.

tacting the Department of Permitting & Inspections between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Participation in the DRB proceeding is a prerequisite to the right to take any subsequent appeal. Please note that ANYTHING submitted to the Zoning office is considered public and cannot be kept confidential. This may not be the final order in which items will be heard. Please view final Agenda, at www. burlingtonvt.gov/dpi/ drb/agendas or the office notice board, one week before the hearing for the order in which items will be heard.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

DISH TV $64.99 For 190 channels + $14.95. High-speed internet. Free installation, smart HD DVR incl., free voice remote. Some restrictions apply. Promo expires Jul. 21, 2021. 1-855-380-250.

Come share in the music! burlington musicdojo.com, info@ burlingtonmusicdojo. com.

I have been appointed executor of this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period.

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT CASE NO. 20-PR-01985 In re ESTATE of Peter Gerald Keegan

ATTENTION, VIAGRA & CIALIS USERS! A cheaper alternative to high drugstore prices! 50-pill special: $99 + free shipping! 100% guaranteed. Call now: 888-531-1192. (AAN CAN)

I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented as described within the four (4) month period.

6/6/16 4:34 PM upon request by con-

To the creditors of Benjamin Rocheleau, Essex, Vermont.

Plans may be viewed

styles are welcome, incl.

Untitled-26 1 absolute beginners.

To the creditors of David C. Auclair, late of Williston, Vermont:

865-1020 x10, homeworks@sevendaysvt.com

Catherine Knowlton, last known address of 235 Belknap Road Berlin, VT 05602 has a past due balance of $698.00 owed to Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC since 9/30/20. To cover this debt, per lease dated 6/10/20 the contents of unit #046 will be sold at private auction on 2/6/21.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Call or email today to get started:

2. 21-0601CU; 327 South Winooski Avenue (RM, Ward 6S) John and Maria O’Brien Establish one bedroom shortterm rental (bed and breakfast).

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

4G LTE HOME INTERNET Now avail.! Get GotW3 w/ lightning-fast speeds + take your service w/ you when you travel! As low as $109.99/mo.! 1-888-519-0171. (AAN CAN)

1. 21-0589CU; 19-21 Monroe Street (RH, Ward 3C) Henry Stark Establish short-term rental (bed and breakfast) in apartment.

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CHITTENDEN UNIT PROBATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. 21-PR-00081 In re Estate of Benjamin Rocheleau

MISCELLANEOUS

List your properties here and online for only $45/ week. Submit your listings by Mondays at noon.

Probate Court: Vermont Superior Court, Chittenden Unit, Probate Division 175 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO. 318-3-20 CNPR IN RE: ESTATE OF DAVID C. AUCLAIR

buy this stuff [CONTINUED]

PRIVATE AUCTION OF STORAGE UNIT CONTENTS Chloe Brock, last known address of 111 Broadlake Road Colchester, VT 05446 has a past due balance of $940.00 owed to Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC since 8/30/20. To cover this debt, per lease dated 3/4/19 the contents of unit #229 will be sold at private auction on 2/6/21.

There’s no limit to ad length online.

homeworks

Telephone: +13017158592 or +13126266799 or +19292056099 or +12532158782 or +13462487799 or +16699006833

Extra! Extra!

Post & browse ads at your convenience.

Password: 842557

Open 24/7/365.

View and post up to 6 photos per ad online.

Show and tell.

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS

Publication Date: 1/27/2021 Vermont Superior Court, Chittenden Unit Probate Division 175 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO. 20-PR-01347 In re ESTATE of: STUART SEIDEL NOTICE TO CREDITORS TO THE CREDITORS OF THE ESTATE OF STUART SEIDEL LATE OF WINOOSKI, VERMONT: I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the Court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented as described above within the four (4) month period. DATED: January 25, 2021 /s/ Jennifer E. Faillace, Esq. for Executor Robert A. Seidel Address: Getzinger & Faillace, PLLC P.O. Box 515, Waitsfield, VT 05673 Telephone: (802) 496-6763 faillace@gmavt.com Name of Publication: SEVEN DAYS Publication Date: January 27, 2021 Name and Address of Probate Court: VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CHITTENDEN UNIT, PROBATE DIVISION PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 175 MAIN STREET MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. BOX 511 BURLINGTON, VT 05402

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.: 20-PR-02098 In re ESTATE of Brian McNeil NOTICE TO CREDITORS To the Creditors of Brian McNeil, late of Colchester.

I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the Court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period. Dated: Tuesday, January 12, 2021 Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ William McNeil Dinse PC 209 Battery Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 864-5751 mlangan@dinse.com Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 1/13/21 and 1/20/21 Probate Court: Vermont Superior Court, Chittenden Probate Division P.O. Box 511 Burlington, VT 05402

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 0200208 LOCATED AT 48 INDUSTRIAL DRIVE, WILLISTON VT, 05495 WILL BE SOLD ON OR ABOUT THE 11TH OF FEBRUARY 2021 TO SATISFY THE DEBT OF RYAN MCKINLAY. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

TOWN OF ESSEX TOWN PLANNING COMMISSIONS AGENDA FEBRUARY 11, 20216:30 P.M. COVID-19 UPDATE: Due to the COVID-19 / coronavirus pandemic, this meeting will be held remotely and recorded via Microsoft Stream. Available options to watch or join the meeting: Join via Microsoft Teams. Depending on your browser, you may need to call in for audio (below). Join via conference call (audio only): (802) 377-3784 | Conference ID: 590 879 654 # Public wifi is available at the Essex municipal offices, libraries, and hotspots listed here: https://publicservice.

vermont.gov/content/ public-wifi-hotspotsvermont

Meeting ID: 859 8059 2903 - Passcode: Q0zMmU

1. Public Comments Discussion:

2. Draft Zoning Regulations Work Plan 3. Minutes: January 28, 2021 4. Other Business Note: The Village of Essex Junction Planning Commission is invited to this meeting. Please visit our website at www. essexvt.org to view agendas, application materials, and minutes.

PUBLIC HEARING FOR CAPITAL BUDGET AND PLAN 2022-2026 TOWN OF ESSEX PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE FEBRUARY 1, 2021 6:35 PM Proposed FY2022 – 2026 Capital Budget and Five-Year Plan The Town of Essex Selectboard will hold a public hearing on the FY 2022 -2026 Capital Budget and Five-Year Plan on Monday, February 1, 2021 at 6:35 PM online. Visit www. essexvt.org to connect via Microsoft Teams or join via conference call (audio only): 802-3773784 – Conference ID: 817591504# The purpose of the public hearing is to solicit public comments on the proposed FY2022 Capital Budget and Five-Year Plan. The proposed FY2022 Capital Plan shows capital tax additions of $538,580, spending of $1,479,856, and an ending balance of $3,068,352. Complete details can be found at www.essexvt.org.

TOWN OF WESTFORD: SELECTBOARD NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 7:00PM This is a Zoom Meeting. When accessing the meeting, please identify yourself by typing in your name NOT an email address or phone number. This info is needed for the minutes. To join the Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom. us/j/85980592903?pwd =cmRJSGJBMFhhNEovT 0tGYmRUL3Azdz09

Dial 1-646-558-8656 Meeting ID: 859 8059 2903 - Passcode: 004399 Notice is hereby given to the residents of the Town of Westford, Vermont that the Westford Selectboard will hold a hearing Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom to receive public comment on the Westford, Vermont 2021 Town Plan pursuant to Chapter 117 of Title 24, Section 4387 and 4384, Vermont Statutes Annotated.

thinking.

By state statute, municipalities must prepare and update their town plan every eight years; the current Westford Town Plan is set to expire 90 days after the end of the COVID-19 State of Emergency per Act 92 (the plan would have otherwise expired on May 14, 2020). The plan update affects the entire geographic area of town and focuses on the following: to add an enhanced energy plan to conform to the standards in 24 V.S.A. §4352, to pursue additional designations, programs and services to support town center area revitalization, to improve multimodal transportation options and safety, to update data and information in the plan to be as current as possible, to create an implementation strategy, and to incorporate goals and policies that will make Westford a more flood resilient community.

for all.

The Westford, Vermont 2021 Town Plan contains 10 chapters, which include: Introduction; Historic Features; Population, Housing & Existing Land Use; Facilities, Utilities & Services; Economic Development; Transportation, Public Land & Trails; Energy; Natural Resources & Features; Future Land Use; Implementation Plan. This plan is intended to be consistent with the goals established in Title 24, Section 4302. The Westford, VT 2021 Town Plan can be viewed at https://westfordvt. us/town-plan/ or by requesting a copy by emailing townclerk@ westfordvt.us or calling (802) 878-4587. 2v-free.indd 1

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ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO:

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X21, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL SOURCE. JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST VTDigger is expanding our dynamic business team We're currently seeking a Creative Director to take our brand to the next level and an Account Executive to help our sales reach new heights.

stowecraft.com/jobs.html

Learn more at vtdigger.org/jobs/ or apply now at cutt.ly/vtdjobs 3h-VTDigger012021.indd 1

1/19/21 11:48 AM

LITIGATION LEGAL ASSISTANT

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Gravel & Shea PC, a law firm in downtown Burlington, Vermont, is looking for a legal assistant for its litigation department. The ideal candidate will have experience working as a litigation legal assistant, knowledge of Microsoft Office software, and experience with preparing documents for filing in Vermont courts. In addition, this position requires a strong work ethic, eagerness to learn and acquire new skills, and excellent typing skills. Communication skills are a must, as Gravel & Shea legal assistants work as a team with paralegals, lawyers and other legal assistants. Minimum qualifications include an Associate’s degree or a minimum of three years of experience as a legal assistant. We offer a competitive salary and benefits package including health insurance, 401(k) and Profit Sharing. Please e-mail cover letter, résumé and references to: fmiller@gravelshea.com. GRAVELSHEA.COM E.O.E.

MANUFACTURING OPERATORS!

Education Assistance: Eligible after 6 months. • Up to $5,250 per year in a degree related field.

Lareau Farm Bed and Breakfast, home of American Flatbread, located in Waitsfield, VT is looking for a year round managing innkeeper to join our team. This position would encompass all the daily tasks needed to operate our inn, including preparing a full country breakfast for up to 30 guests. If you are a friendly, detail oriented person who enjoys meeting new people, we would love to talk with you.

Apply online at globalfoundries.com/about-us/careers or for more information email jobs@globalfoundries.com.

Salary based on experience. alison@americanflatbread.com.

Location: Essex Junction, VT Night Shift: 7pm to 7am Pay Rate: $17.44 (includes shift differential) Schedules: Work approximately 14 Days per Month!! • Includes long, 4-day weekends every other week! Eligible for Benefits on Day 1: • Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage. • Paid Vacation Time: Approximately 3 weeks per year (accrued). • Paid Sick Time: 80 hours per year • 401k Investing Options.

The Lake Champlain Basin Program and NEIWPCC seek candidates for paid internships:

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Sign On Bonus - Up to $2,000 with a starting salary of $15 an hour.

Responsible for the cleaning of all areas of the facility with the exception of the OR. Must know how to handle cleaning issues or know the appropriate resources available to solve the specific problem.

The City of South Burlington is seeking several qualified candidates for the following positions: Water Quality Operator, Mechanic, Public Safety Dispatcher, Public Safety Executive Assistant and Director of Physical Plant.

individuals to deliver aquatic invasive species spread prevention messages and conduct voluntary watercraft inspections and decontaminations. Stewards will work at Lake Champlain boat launches in New York and Vermont to collect survey information Thursday through Monday and holidays from Memorial through Labor Day/Mid-September. Please send resume, letter of interest with relevant experience, and two references in .pdf or Microsoft Word format by February 5th, 2021 to jobs@neiwpcc.org, and reference position number 21-LCBP-001 in the subject line.

LEARN MORE & APPLY: uvmmed.hn/sevendays 4t-UVMMedCenter093020.indd 1

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LAKE CHAMPLAIN BOAT LAUNCH STEWARDS – seeking up to 12

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE WORKER

Managing1/26/21 8:34 AM Innkeeper of Bed and Breakfast

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For further information and job descriptions please use our website: southburlingtonvt.gov. To apply, please send cover letter and resume to Jaimie Held, Human Resource Manager at jheld@sburl.com.

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1/25/21 12:59 PM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

SEASONAL PARKS POSITIONS

SHIFT BREWERS

Park Maintenance Technicians:

SCHOOL BUS AIDE/ BACKUP BUS DRIVER

40 hours, $16.50/hour Start 3/26

Summer Laborers: 40 hours, $14/hour Qualified applicants should apply! E.O.E. Colchestervt.gov for job description & application.

59 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Burlington School District (BSD) Property Services Division has the following Job Opportunity: The Bus Aide will also be the backup school bus driver in the event the regularly scheduled driver is not available. CDL Bus Endorsement is a requirement for permanent employment; however, BSD will offer training and support for an individual to receive any such required school bus licensure. Starting wage $16.00-$18.00 per hour, full time, school year position with competitive benefits and retirement plan. To apply, visit www.bsdvt.org and click on “careers” for current listing of employment opportunities or call 802-864-8453. Equal Opportunity Employer.

Shift Brewers are responsible for executing and monitoring all brewhouse and cellars processes during regularly scheduled shifts. This fast paced position requires a detail oriented, high energy multi-tasker with a strong work ethic and a team-focused, positive attitude. The work is a combination of manual and automated tasks which need constant monitoring and adjustment. This role will include brewhouse and cellars work on a rotating basis. Packaging Operators are part of the warehouse, bottling, canning, and kegging production teams. Qualified candidates will be responsible for all aspects of beer packaging, warehousing, and shipping/receiving. The first packaging shift generally runs from 7:00 am to 3:30 pm; the second shift runs from approximately 1:00 pm to 9:30 pm. Shift differential is available for those working second shift. Packaging operators cross-train on all production line activities and processes. Forklift experience/certification is a plus.

Send resumes to: ed.york@longtrail.com.

PARKS LABORER 40 hours per week

CARING PEOPLE 1/10/21 4t-BurlingtonSchoolDistrictBUS012021.indd 7:21 PM 1 WANTED 6 & 10 month positons available

Positions open until filled 2h-ColchesterParks&Rec011321.indd 1 Apply Today! EOE

MULTIPLE POSITIONS OPEN

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Call 264-5640 or visit

Craftsbury & Burlington COLCHESTERVT.GOV

Home Instead, a provider of personal care services to seniors in their homes, is seeking friendly and dependable people. CAREGivers assist seniors with daily living activities. P/T & F/T positions available. 12 hours/week minimum, flexible scheduling, currently available. $14-$18.50/hour depending on experience. No heavy lifting. Apply online at: homeinstead.com/483 Or call: 802.860.4663

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital has a variety of positions available, including:

AFFORDABLE HOUSING STAFF ACCOUNTANT Evernorth has created a new position for a Staff Accountant to join our amazing Finance & Administration team. This position reports to the Controller and includes a range of bookkeeping, accounting, and financial analysis functions. The successful candidate will be an excellent communicator with exceptional skills in Office 365, have a bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance and 3-5 years of related experience. At Evernorth, we believe in equal access to affordable housing and economic opportunities; the power of partnerships based on integrity, respect, and professionalism; a collaborative workplace with professional, skilled, and dedicated staff. Please send a cover letter and resume with salary requirements to Dave Graves at hr@evernorthus.org.

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EVENT CHEF

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CUSTOMER SERVICE REP/ DELIVERY TECHNICIAN Seeking a full time Customer Service Rep/Delivery Technician. This duel position will work both in the retail branch and go out and set up oxygen, hospital beds and other durable medical equipment in the customer’s home. We will train for this long term career position. Weekdays MonFri and opportunities for on-call overtime in a rotation with other co-workers. Great opportunity to advance with raises every 6 months, 9 paid holidays, vacation after 6 months and much more. Send resumes to: spushee@keenemedical.net.

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RNs, LNAs, Radiologic Technologists, MT or MLT, Administrative, Information Services and more!

Full-time, part-time and per diem schedules available. Shift differentials and per diem rates offered. FT and PT employees are eligible for excellent benefits including student loan repayment, generous paid time off, wellness reimbursement, low cost health insurance and 401k with company match! APPLY TODAY AT NVRH.ORG/CAREERS.

Procurement Administrator

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Lareau Farm, home of the original American Flatbread, is seeking a qualified Event Chef to join our team. The successful candidate will have experience in restaurant and/or catering kitchens with a focus on purchasing from local, organic and sustainable sources and creating seasonal menus that highlight local ingredients. Simple, delicious, seasonal food is a must and use of our wood-fired cookery (smoker, grills and oven) is just part of the fun! For a complete overview of the requirements please visit our website. Salary based on experience. About Lareau Farm and American Flatbread:

Lareau Farm is a 25-acre farm located along the Mad River in scenic Waitsfield, VT. We operate a 12-bedroom B&B, host weddings & events, operate an offsite catering wood fired oven, and are home to the original American Flatbread restaurant, serving farm to table flatbread baked in a wood fired earthen oven. Send resumes to: alison@americanflatbread.com.

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1/22/21 5:24 PM

1/15/21 2:40 PM

U.S. District Court The United States District Court is seeking a qualified individual with excellent analytical, organizational, bookkeeping, and computer skills capable of functioning in a dynamic, team-oriented environment. The duty station is Burlington, Vermont. Full federal benefits apply. Complete job description and formal application requirements are found in the official Position Announcement available from court locations in Burlington and Rutland and the court’s web site:

www.vtd.uscourts.gov

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An EOE

1/19/21 11:35 AM

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

60 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

MEDICAL SOCIAL WORKER

LAND STEWARD The Land Steward at Knoll Farm - an organic farm and retreat center in Fayston, Vermont - takes care of our retreat center buildings, trails and grounds, and contributes to the farming operation, orchards, livestock, firewood harvesting and managing volunteers. Send resume and cover letter, and fill out online application: knollfarm.org/ work-with-us/land-steward.

Lamoille Home Health & Hospice seeks an experienced Medical Social Worker to join our team. This full time position evaluates and assists clients/ families in adjusting to social and emotional factors related to health challenges. Bachelor’s Degree or Master prepared in social work is required. For more details visit lhha.org and complete an on-line application. $2500 sign-on Incentive (available for a limited time). 802-888-4651

INFORMATION SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR Berlin Operations Center Northfield Savings Bank, founded in 1867, is the largest banking institution headquartered in Vermont. As an Essential Workforce in Vermont, we strive to serve our employees as well as our communities. Due to growth in the department, we are looking for a professional to join our IT team as an Information Systems Administrator in our Berlin Operations Center. This position offers a strong opportunity to work for an established and growing premier Vermont mutual savings bank.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES & REQUIREMENTS

The Keewaydin Foundation seeks to hire a Coordinator of Alumni Relations/Records, a key member of the successful Keewaydin Foundation Development Team. This staff member is responsible for managing specific projects in the areas of database management, fundraising, communications, and constituent relations (e.g., donor, alumni, parent, and friend relations). Applicants are required to have a minimum of three years’ recent database management; Raisers’ Edge experience a plus. The successful candidate will work out of our Keewaydin Foundation Office in Salisbury, VT. Some weekend and evening work is required. Applicants will need to send in a cover letter, resume and three references to Mary Welz at mary@keewaydin.org by February 26.

OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH

• NSB has training opportunities to engage employees and assist with personal development within our company. • Average Years of Service at Northfield Savings Bank is above 9! If you’re looking for a career in Banking, this is a great place to start!

WHAT NSB CAN OFFER YOU

Read the full job description: keewaydin.org/employment.

1/25/21 12:22 PM

Executive Chef/Food Service Director

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Coordinator https://bit.ly/2XaX07W

• The Information Systems Administrator develops, optimizes, and maintains the bank’s client/server environment. TOW N O R Y 7:12 PM 1 F D U X B U1/10/21 • We are looking for someone who is a great team player that can 2v-Spectrum011321.indd also work well independently. HIGHWAY • A successful candidate with have effective communication skills DEPARTMENT and offer a high level of customer service to both internal and MAINTENANCE external customers. • A bachelor’s degree in a technical field is required. WORKER

1/22/21 2:44 PM

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Part-Time

There is no better time to join NSB’s team!

Coordinator of Alumni Relations and Records

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Is currently seeking:

• NSB offers a competitive compensation based on experience. • Benefits package including medical, dental, combined time off, 10 paid holidays, a wellness program and more! • Profit sharing opportunity and an outstanding employer-matching 401(K) retirement program. • NSB offers professional development opportunities, and a positive work environment supported by a team culture. • Hours of operation are Monday – Friday, generally 8:00am to 5:00pm. We understand the importance of having evenings and weekends with our friends, families, and our community.

Please submit your application and resume in confidence to: Careers@nsbvt.com (Preferred)

Highgate Springs, Vermont

Or mail to:

Full-time, 40 hours per week position with benefits. Looking for a team player. Candidates must have Class B, CDL with manual endorsement, and must be able to operate a manual tandem truck, wheeled excavator, and loader. Main duties involve plowing with and without a wing, operating all town equipment, and hauling material for the Town. Full job description and application can be found on the town website duxburyvermont.org. Pick up an application at: Duxbury Town Office 5421 VT RT 100 Duxbury VT 05676 Call first: 802-244-6660, or email appilcations to duxburyforeman@gmail.com.

Northfield Savings Bank - Human Resources Seeking a seasonal (April-September) Executive Chef experienced in P.O. Box 7180, Barre, VT 05641-7180 large banquet style service who can further enhance our reputation for fresh, simple, delicious, Vermont inspired meals. Position is E.O.E./Member FDIC responsible for entirety of kitchen including menu development, training and supervision of 30 employees and overseeing meals to 72 families and 100+ staff, utilizing two satellite kitchens to prepare and 6t-NorthfieldSavingsBank020520.indd 1 1/26/213v-TownofDuxbury011321.indd 9:08 AM 1 distribute meals. See online ad for more detail.

1/11/21 11:40 AM

Pay/Benefits: Competitive salary, including free on-site housing (if needed), plus meals, use of resort facilities and bonus. Qualifications: Previous leadership experience in kitchen, excellent cooking and training skills, experience with banquet style, hardworking, organized, excellent communication skills, team player, excited about good food. Please submit cover letter and resume to tasney@tylerplace.com.

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350VT IS HIRING A FULL-TIME Lead Organizer to join our staff collective of grassroots climate justice organizers! Learn more and apply by Feb. 15: 350vermont.org/opportunities.

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY

WEATHERIZATION SUPERVISOR

Join a team of dedicated energy professionals at an organization committed to employee and customer satisfaction. We are expanding our weatherization services and are looking for the right individual to manage the day to day field operations of multiple weatherization crews. 1t-360VT012021.indd 1

61 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

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Reporting to the General Manager, the Weatherization Supervisor is responsible for the supervision and oversight of crews that are installing weatherization upgrades in residential homes. This individual will provide leadership, supervision, and education to the field crews while ensuring safety and quality benchmarks are exceeded on all projects.

Hayes, Windish & Badgewick is seeking an associate attorney to join our team. Preference is given to those with 3-5 years’ experience in civil litigation, but those just starting with strong work ethic and motivation will be considered too. We are a small general practice firm with an emphasis on civil litigation, insurance defense, and workers’ compensation matters. We seek a candidate who is interested and has high ethical standards, strong skills in research and writing, along with the patience and desire to learn the profession. Competitive pay and benefits offered. Position to remain open until filled. Please send your resume and cover letter electronically to:

Stowe Land Trust, a local land conservation organization in Stowe, VT, is seeking a Summer Penny Webster, Office Manager Naturalist. This VHCB Download the full job description here. https://www.ecvt.net/ HAYES, WINDISH & BADGEWICK AmeriCorps position offers sites/default/files/ecvt_weatherization_supervisor.pdf pwebster@woodstockvtlaw.com an exciting opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience with a solid land 1 1/25/21 4t-HayesWindish&Badgewick012021.indd 11:55 AM conservation organization &4t-EnergyCoOpofVT012721.indd 1 successful team. Visit stowelandtrust.org for position description and information on how to apply.

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Vermont State Parks Maintenance Positions

Vermont State Parks is hiring for 5 full-time, year-round Park Maintenance positions to work in some of the most scenic locations in Vermont.

Seeking individuals that are diversely qualified in trade skills that can work independently as well as collaboratively on a team. Positions are responsible for the maintenance of state park facilities, structures, equipment, and water and wastewater 1/17/20 9:55 1/19/21 4:17 AM PMsystems. Successful applicants must be flexible, willing to work in public settings, be customer oriented and enjoy the outdoors.

COURT OFFICERS

Locations: Parks Facility Manager – Rutland Parks Facility Manager – Killington Parks Maintenance Foreman – Marshfield Parks Maintenance Technician – E. Dorset Parks Maintenance Technician – North Hero

Recruiting for temporary Apply at: https://humanresources.vermont.gov/careers employees with primary responsibility for courtroom operations and security in 4t-VTForestsParks&Rec012721.indd 1 1/25/21 12:47 PM the court house. The position provides general assistance, security and safety to all users of the court. BSD Property Services Division has Located in Burlington,VT. High School graduate and two years in a responsible position required. Starting pay $17.11 per hour. Go to: vermontjudiciary. org/employmentopportunities/staffopenings for more details and to complete application. These positions are open until filled. The Vermont Judiciary is an E.O.E.

1/19/21 11:09 AM

the following Job opportunities:

• DAY & EVENING CUSTODIAL • MAINTENANCE UTILITY STAFF * Starting wage $16.50-$18.00 per hour plus an additional $1.30 per hour for 2nd Shift positions. * Excellent Benefits and Retirement Package For more details about the available jobs and/or to apply, visit www.bsdvt.org and click on “careers” for current listing of employment opportunities or call 802-864-8453. Equal Opportunity Employer

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100% EMPLOYEEOWNED

Join the team at Gardener’s Supply Company! We are a 100% employee-owned company and an award winning and nationally recognized socially responsible business. We work hard AND offer a fun place to work including BBQs, staff parties, employee garden plots and much more! We also offer strong cultural values, competitive wages and outstanding benefits!

Contact Center Supervisor We’re searching for a supervisor to join our Contact Center team! As the supervisor you will support and supervise a team of Sales & Service Specialists, coaching the team to continuously improve performance. This position will also maintain a high degree of availability for questions to be able to assist in resolving operational or customer service issues. Our ideal candidate will have previous leadership experience within a customer contact center and have strong interpersonal & communication skills. The shift is Sunday - Thursday, with closing responsibilities. Interested? Please go to our careers page at www.gardeners.com/careers and apply online!

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1/11/21 1/11/21 10:44 9:46 AM AM

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

62 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

WHERE YOU AND YOUR WORK MATTER...

CLERICAL ASSISTANTS (Job code 21001)

Recruiting for several temporary Docket Clerk positions, which will specialize in customer service, records keeping and data entry involving one or more docket areas.

When you work for the State of Vermont, you and your work matter. A career with the State puts you on a rich and rewarding professional path. You’ll find jobs in dozens of fields – not to mention an outstanding total compensation package.

Locations –Burlington, St.Albans, Middlebury and serval locations throughout the state.

INSURANCE EXAMINER III – HOME BASED

High School graduate and two years of clerical, or data entry experience required. Starting at $17.11 per hour. Go to vermontjudiciary.org/employmentopportunities/staff-openings for more details and to complete application.These positions is open until filled. The Vermont Judiciary is an equal opportunity employer.

The Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) – Captive Insurance Division is seeking two experienced professionals to join our world class regulatory team. The positions involve the performance of examinations and financial analyses of Vermont Captive Insurers to ensure financial solvency and compliance. The positions are home-based, but work may occasionally be performed at a DFR or Captive Insurer office. For more information, contact Dan Petterson at dan.petterson@vermont.gov. Status: Full Time. Location: Burlington. Job Id #11004 or #11201. Application Deadline: February 7, 2021.

Learn more at: careers.vermont.gov

The State of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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1/22/21 4:30 PM

1/22/21 5:19 PM

Nutrition Outreach

Specialist

30 hours/week, Barre, VT

HEALTH POLICY ANALYST

Exciting position in innovative social service agency serving older Vermonters. Be part of a dedicated team of professionals working to support older Vermonters to live with dignity and choice.

Vermont Legal Aid seeks candidates for a full-time health policy analyst within the Office of the Health Care Advocate (HCA) based in either Burlington or Montpelier (post COVID). The Policy Analyst advocates for a transparent, affordable, high quality health care system through policy analysis, legislative and administrative advocacy, and participation in Vermont’s health care regulatory process.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

We encourage applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, and welcome information about how your experience can contribute to serving our diverse client communities. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to a discrimination- and harassment-free workplace. Responsibilities include participation in health care regulatory proceedings by reviewing budgets, preparing questions and working with stakeholder groups; researching, writing, and publishing formal policy papers on a variety of health care-related subjects; and supporting HCA legislative efforts, including some work at the State House (post COVID). The successful candidate must have an extensive knowledge of the health care system, including financing, payment and delivery models, and health policy trends. Graduate degree in public administration, finance, public health, health care delivery, law, or related field; or a minimum of four years’ equivalent work experience required. Base salary is $52,411 with salary credit given for relevant prior work experience. Four weeks’ paid vacation, retirement, and excellent health benefits. Application deadline is February 1, 2021. Your application should include a cover letter, resume, three references, and a writing sample, combined into one pdf, sent by e-mail to Betsy Whyte at bwhyte@vtlegalaid.org with “HCA Position” in the subject line. Please let us know how you heard about this position. Visit our website for more information about the position and our organization and complete application instructions: vtlegalaid.org. 9t-VTLegalAid012021.indd 1

• Provide application assistance for 3SquaresVT. • Assess needs for home delivered meal recipients. • Enter nutrition recipient data and survey responses into database. • Work with agency staff to refer clients to appropriate services. • Help create and distribute nutrition outreach materials We’re looking for a dedicated employee who has an Associate’s degree or equivalent experience in human services, nutrition, or other relevant field, who has great communication and people skills, is well-organized, has experience working with Microsoft office and is willing to learn new database applications, and who is able to maintain confidentiality. Most work will be phonebased but occasional home visits may occur, so access to reliable transportation is necessary. CVCOA offers a family-friendly organization with flexible hours. Paid time off, holidays and health benefits are included with this position as well. Salary is based on experience. Central Vermont Council on Aging is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer. Applications from veterans, mature workers, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, and people from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds are encouraged. For more information about Central VT Council on Aging, view our website: cvcoa.org. To apply, please send resume, cover letter and the names of three references to jobs@cvcoa.org by February 17, 2021.

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New, local, scamfree jobs posted every day!

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

TOWN OF CHARLOTTE Zoning Administrator/ Wastewater Control Officer/ Health Officer/E911 Coordinator The Town of Charlotte is accepting applications for a Zoning Administrator/Wastewater Control Officer/ Health Officer/E-911 Coordinator. The primary responsibility of this position is to administer land use permitting. The position is also responsible for enforcement of the Charlotte Land Use Regulations, wastewater system permitting (with the assistance of a Licensed Designer), performance of the statutory duties of the Health Officer, and issuing E911 addresses. The position is a permanent position approved for 32-40 hours per week, to be determined at time of hire. Compensation is in accordance with the Town of Charlotte Salary Administration Policy. The starting wage rate is between $22.00 and $24.89, based on qualifications and experience. Generous health benefits are offered.

HESTER

A job description can be viewed at charlottevt.org; see right-hand sidebar. To apply, please send a resumé and cover letter to dean@townofcharlotte.com. The deadline for submitting an application is February 5, 2021. E.O.E.

CATIONS ATOR

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Requirements: Bachelor’s degree and two years of relevant experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience in communications/public information. Hiring range is $42,394 - $44,685 depending on qualifications and experience, plus a competitive benefit package. For consideration please submit application, cover letter, resume, and references to Sherry LaBarge, Human Resource Director at: slabarge@colchestervt.gov. Deadline is February 9, 2021. For full job description: colchestervt.gov/321/Human-Resources. The Town of Colchester is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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PSYCHOTHERAPIST Short-term solution focused counseling with adults, mostly struggling with reactions to everyday life stressors. Debrief groups of employees following traumatic workplace events. Our dynamic employee assistance program (EAP) provides preventionoriented assistance to help employees before their daily problems turn into critical life events. Join our supportive, collaborative team. Generous benefit and retirement package, even for half-time. Apply at: careers.vermont.gov/job/ Home-Based-Employee-Assistance-Program-SpecialistVT/695554000. Equal opportunity employer. We are part of the State but operate as an independent and creative enterprise.

PROGRAM MANAGER

The Town of Colchester is seeking a Communications Coordinator to develop and manage outreach, engagement, and public information to assist our residents and businesses through various media types. This individual will have excellent writing and advanced editing skills, including the ability to develop own content based on reading, learning and interviewing. This position also supports the Town Manager’s office and the Selectboard.

jobs.sevendaysvt.com

Centers for Wellbeing

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COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

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The Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center seeks a mission-driven, experienced sailor to join our small team in Burlington, Vermont. For 25 years the Community Sailing Center has provided recreational lake access, sailing programs and educational opportunities for the local community and visitors alike through diverse programming. The Program Manager position is responsible for overseeing our adult programs, assisting with our youth and year-round sailing programs as needed. An ideal candidate will be friendly, courteous, and enjoy working with children and adults out on the water. This candidate must know how to sail and be a US Sailing certified instructor. The work schedule of this position is flexible and may require weekend availability during the summer season. To apply, please email Cover Letter and Resume to Kay Gallagher at kay@communitysailingcenter.org.

GRANTS MANAGER Join our development team! The Grants Manager will help sustain and grow the Community Sailing Center’s (CSC) annual philanthropic revenue through the development and implementation of an annual strategic foundations and grant strategy. This position works closely with our Executive Director and Development & Communications Manager to support our work. Qualified candidates will have an exceptional eye for detail, strategic thinking, knowledge of the grant application process, and strong grant writing background. This is a contractual, part-time position, averaging around 15 hours per week. To apply, please email Cover Letter and Resume to Owen Milne at owen@communitysailingcenter.org.

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1/18/21 1:28 PM

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

64 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

EMAILED ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISING INSERTION ORDER FROM: Lisa Rowell The Preservation of VermontCompany is looking for an energetic, ThomasTrust Hirchak Phone: 802-888-4662 collaborative, and highly organized development professional to advertising@THCAuction.com play a key role in supporting the work and mission of the organization.

SEEKING FINANCE MANAGER

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Busy auction house is looking for a dynamic, detail-oriented individual for a full-time position at our Morrisville office who is capable of completing functions with precision. Overnight Asleep Staff Responsibilities include maintaining the accounting system, preparing Pride Support and Services is and reviewing financial reports and forecasts, communication with The PTV Development Director will work closely with the President and the Board of Directors a small agency that works with company CPA and officers, overseeing AR/AP, payroll and employee individuals with Traumatic Brain to ensure effective, personalized, and professional implementation of our fundraising plan. TO: Michelle Brown benefits, payroll taxes, sales tax, ensuring legal compliance. Injury. We are seeking an individual Ideal candidate will possess a strong understanding of confidentiality, To learnTODAY’S more visit PTVERMONT.ORG/DEVDIRECTOR to work 3-4 overnight shifts per DATE: 01/21/2021 be proficient in Quickbooks and Microsoft Office, be organized and week in the Barre/Berlin area. NAME OF FILE: FinanceManagerSD thorough with strong quantitative skills, have the ability to multi-task, Hours are 10 pm to 7 am. This is a DATE(S) TO RUN: 01/27/2021 have a keen attention to detail, be adept at analyzing detail, and strong vigilant asleep overnight position. 2h-PreservationTrustofVT012021.indd 1 1/19/21 10:01 AM SIZE OF AD: 4T (3.83 x 3.46) decision making skills. The right person must be alert and EMAILED TO: Michelle Brown able to respond to the individual’s Must have BA or BS in economics, finance, accounting, economics, or michelle@sevendaysvt.com needs quickly when necessary if he related field and have 3-5 years financial management experience. awakens. Excellent hourly pay rate. Competitive salary, 401k, vacation, holiday, and health insurance. Candidates need to be comfortable For publication in: SEVEN DAYS Please submit a letter of interest, resume providing personal care and pass and current references to: Info@THCAuction.com

CONTROLLER

background check. Experience

St Michael’s College Finance Department is seeking helpful but willing to train the right applicants for the position of Controller. Reporting to the candidate. Please send resume: Director of Finance, the Controller will oversee the day to day mcorrow@pridetbi.com. THCAuction.com • 1878 Cadys Falls Rd., Morrisville, VT fiscal operations of the college and provide leadership to the accounting team in its daily, weekly, monthly, and annual 4t-ThomasHirchakCo012721.indd 1 1/22/21 4:08 PM processes. The Controller will be accountable for general 2v-PrideSupports&Services011321.indd 1 1/12/21 10:32 AM ledger closings, coordination of the annual audit, and provides oversight to tax preparation and reporting. Applicants should Small Dog Electronics have an advanced degree in accounting, finance, or businessis looking for a skilled related field with 7-10 years of increasingly responsible Bookkeeper to maintain professional experience in a higher education or similar our financial records, including purchases, sales, receipts institution and hold a CPA License. and payments. The bookkeeper will work closely with our For the full job description and to apply, please visit management team to create and analyze financial reports, smcvt.interviewexchange.com. process accounts payable and receivable and manage invoices and tax payments. Our ideal candidate holds an accounting degree and is familiar with accounting software packages.

BOOKKEEPER

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RESPONSIBILITIES • Record day to day financial transactions and complete the posting process • Process accounts receivable/payable • Complete sales tax forms and filing • Reconcile bank statements • Enter data, maintain records and create reports and financial statements • prepare checks, payments and bank deposits • prepare and submit payroll to processor bi-weekly • Bring the books to the trial balance stage • Understand and comply with GAAP REQUIREMENTS • Proven bookkeeping experience • Able to multitask, prioritize, work under pressure and meet deadlines • Hands-on experience with spreadsheets and accounting software • High degree of accuracy and attention to detail • Associates degree in Finance, Accounting or Business Administration preferred • Strong communication skills

1/26/21 12:45 PM

Agriculture Programs Manager

The Vermont Association of Conservation Districts seeks a full-time Agriculture Programs Manager to develop and oversee statewide programs that help agricultural producers protect and enhance soil and water quality, strengthen farm viability, and comply with state water quality regulations. This is a statewide position managing grants and contracts with Conservation Districts. 3-5 years of program management experience required, including grant management, training and supervision of others. Knowledge and experience in agriculture, agronomy, conservation planning, water quality issues, and BA required.

Our mobile-friendly job board is buzzing with excitement. Job seekers can: • Browse hundreds of current, local positions from Vermont companies. • Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type. • Set up job alerts. • Apply for jobs directly through the site.

Starting salary range $48,000-$52,000 commensurate with experience. Home-based position with generous beneﬁts.

WORK HOURS & BENEFITS: This is a full-time position located in Burlington. Partially remote work is possible after training period. This position includes a full benefits package including 401K, Health and Dental Insurance along with paid time off.

Visit www.vacd.org for detailed job description. Send resume, cover letter, three references, and brief writing sample in a single PDF by 8 am Monday February 8th to clare.ireland@vacd.org.

EMAIL RESUMES TO JOBS@SMALLDOG.COM.

EOE

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Looking for a Sweet Job?

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Start applying at jobs.sevendaysvt.com

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4/14/20 2:06 PM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Growing hearts and minds, for a better today and tomorrow: every way, every day, every one.

Domestic Violence Response

Project Director

The Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence is seeking a Domestic Violence Response Project Director. This role will coordinate efforts to analyze, evaluate and innovate the systems which respond to individuals who use violence in their intimate partner relationships. The Domestic Violence Response Project Director is funded through a federal grant for 3 years, with the intention of continued funding. This is a 32 hour/week position. Required qualifications include any combination of experience and education equal to a bachelor’s degree, and a minimum of four years professional experience in related field. Knowledge of domestic and sexual violence required. Applicants must have demonstrated project or grant management experience, exceptional cross-disciplinary collaboration skills, and excellent communication and facilitation skills. Applicants must have demonstrated commitment to antioppression work, racial equity and ending violence against women. Knowledge of legal and/or restorative justice responses to people who use violence preferred but not required.

The Essex Westford School District (EWSD) is student centered educators and other school staff who are committed to the success of every child and understands the importance of integrating social and emotional learning within the classroom and in their interactions with students. We are committed to fostering professional growth and teacher efficacy through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). EWSD believes that when we deepen our commitment to each other and to continuous growth for every one, then our practices create equitable, authentic, inclusive learning experiences that benefit all students. EWSD is committed to building a culturally diverse and inclusive environment. Successful candidates must be committed to working effectively with diverse community populations and expected to strengthen such capacity if hired. If you believe you have what it takes to be successful in one or more of these positions, you are encouraged to apply.

The Vermont Network offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits including health insurance, generous paid time off, a flexible work environment and an intentional organizational culture which fosters collaboration, growth and leadership. Submit cover letter and resume to Sarah Robinson, Deputy Director, at sarahkr@vtnetwork.org by February 10th.

We currently have the following long-term substitute positons available during the 2020-21 school year. These positions pay $260/day: • Music Teacher, Thomas Fleming School (grades 4-5) • Music/Art Teacher, Summit Street School (grades K-3) • Special Educator, Albert D Lawton School (grades 6-8) • School Nurse, Summit Street School (grades K-3) We are also seeking other full-time positions that are available immediately as follows. Excellent benefits package available:

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• Behavior Interventionists, various schools - Pay starts at $19.81/hour • Crossing Guards – Pay starts at $24.00/hour (one hour shifts in the AM and/or PM) • Custodians, various schools – Pay starts at $15.64/hour • Mainstream Instructional Assistants (part-time and long-term sub), Founders Memorial School – Pay starts at $16.32/hour • Minivan Driver (part-time) – Pays $18.00/hour

Seve Issue Due: Size: Cost

1/25/21 12:14 PM

Engaging minds that change the world

Seeking a position with a quality employer? Consider The University of Vermont, a stimulating and diverse workplace. We offer a comprehensive benefit package including tuition remission for on-going, full-time positions. Medical Office Specialist - Center for Health and Wellbeing #S2662PO - We are looking for a friendly, energetic and organized person to work in our Student Health Services (SHS) in the Center for Health and Wellbeing. This position is responsible for scheduling appointments and providing information to students, staff and the public on the telephone and in person in a professional and respectful manner. Responsibilities include: scheduling appointments, utilizing our electronic health record system and checking students in and out of appointments. This position is also responsible for supporting the process for billing and immunization review, in adherence with federal compliance laws. Minimum qualifications include an Associate’s degree, and at least 2 years of related work experience in a medical office. Experience with electronic health records. Ability to organize work priorities, plan, and adhere to structured regulations. Ability to adhere to confidentiality and ethical standards and maintain a high level of discretion. Promote and support the philosophy, policies, and procedures for comprehensive university health services that incorporate multicultural diversity, inclusivity, and social justice concepts and principles to support student wellbeing. Responsible for supporting the mission and philosophy of the Center for Health and Wellbeing, Division of Student Affairs and the University of Vermont. This is a 12 month full time position. Salary is commensurate with experience and includes a full benefit package. For more information about CHWB, please visit our website at www.uvm.edu/health. For further information on this position and others currently available, or to apply online, please visit www.uvmjobs.com. Applicants must apply for positions electronically. Paper resumes are not accepted. Open positions are updated daily. Please call 802-656-3150 or email employment@uvm.edu for technical support with the online application.

Our 2021-22 teaching and administrative posted vacancies currently include the following. Teaching salaries range from $49,246 (BA/step 1) to $94,211 (M+30/ step 18) based on 1.0 FTE: • Director of Student Support Services, Essex High School – Pay starts at $101,000 • Elementary Teaching Positions, Summit Street School (grades K-3) • English Language Arts Teachers, Albert D. Lawton School (grades 6-8) • Music Teacher (0.80 FTE), Hiawatha and Summit Street Schools (grades K-3) • Physical Educator Teachers, Essex Middle School (grades 6-8) • Spanish Teacher, Albert D. Lawton School (grades 6-8) Other vacancies that will posted be in the near future include Elementary Principal, Science (9-12), Social Studies (9-12) and Speech Language Pathologist (9-12). For information about these positions and others, or to apply, please visit our website. More positions will continue to be posted: www.ewsd.org/jobs. Essex Westford School District, 51 Park Street, Essex Jct., VT 05452 EWSD is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a focus on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion 12t-EssexWestfordSchoolDistrict012721.indd 1

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The University of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity/Afﬁrmative Action Employer.

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YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

66 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Otter Creek Associates

Looking for a meaningful job that offers a comprehensive approach to both employee and client satisfaction? Champlain Community Services, named one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for two years in a row, wants you as part of our team. Our current openings provide opportunities to make a positive impact on someone’s life, and in yours.

LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIANS

Direct Support Professional Join our Direct Support Professional team to work one-on-one with individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism. Feel good about what you do, enjoy your job, receive a comprehensive benefits package (including $100 sign-on bonus!) and feel a deep sense of appreciation from your employer. This is an excellent job for applicants entering human services or for those looking to continue their work in this field. Send cover letter and application to Karen Ciechanowicz at staff@ccs-vt.org.

Program Manager Coordinate residential and community supports for a humorous woman who leads an active life and likes to spend time outside. The ideal candidate will enjoy working in a team-oriented position, have strong clinical skills, and demonstrated leadership. Client therapeutic needs require a female program manager and two overnight shifts are required for this position. Send cover letter and resume to Gabriela Puma, gpuma@ccs-vt.org.

Sought to join established, interdisciplinary mental health practice. Opportunities for both full and part-time clinicians in our Burlington, South Burlington, Essex, Williston, Richmond, Shelburne, Middlebury, St. Albans, Brattleboro and Montpelier offices. We have a particular need for both full and part-time child and adolescent clinicians. Our practice serves children, adolescents, adults and families. We offer individual, couples and group therapy services. We work with all payors and managed care intermediaries. Credentialing, intake and billing services available. Please respond by CV. If you’re interested in joining a friendly, collaborative outpatient group practice, please respond by CV to: Practice Manager, c/o Otter Creek Associates 86 Lake Street, Burlington, VT 05401 or by email to alesia@ocamhs.com.

Shared Living Provider Open your home to an individual with an intellectual disability or autism. The following positions include a generous tax-free stipend, ongoing supports, assistance with necessary home modifications, respite and a comprehensive training package: • Support a humorous gentleman with autism who enjoys getting out and about, creating puns, crunching numbers and relaxing. • Support a young gentleman who enjoys gaming, having an active social life and being a part of a family dynamic in the greater Burlington area. Contact Jennifer Wolcott at jwolcott@ccs-vt.org for more information.

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www.cvabe.org

Two Full–time Teacher/Community Coordinators:

Work for a place where we are ‘Building a Community Where Everyone Participates and Belongs’ both within the workplace and out in the community. Visit ccs-vt.org, click on Join Us and apply today! 7t-ChamplainCommunityServices012721.indd 1

1/26/21 12:15 PM

LNAs/EXPERIENCED CAREGIVERS SIGN ON BONUS OF $2,000

The Arbors at Shelburne, a Benchmark Senior Living, offers our employees an extensive beneﬁts package, award beneﬁts as well as employee appreciation days each month.

ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: sevendaysvt.com/ postmyjob

The Arbors at Shelburne is currently recruiting for licensed nursing assistants or experience caregivers. We have full and part time openings on our day and evening shifts, in our community dedicated to seniors living with memory challenges. We offer competitive shift and weekend differentials. Salary up to $21.00/hour based on experience. The Arbors at Shelburne Attn: Human Resources 687 Harbor Road Shelburne, VT. 05482 (802) 985-8600 avanslette@benchmarkquality.com Equal Opportunity Employer

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FOR RATES & INFO: Michelle Brown, 802-865-1020 x21

Candidates must have:  High levels of independence, spirit, drive and capacity for student recruitment, outreach and organizing community involvement to support student success;  Strong familiarity with the service area; [Preference will be given to residents of the service area]  Proven capacity for teaching and guiding basic skills instruction for adults and teens in:    

Reading, writing, math, computer and financial literacy; English Language Learning and U.S. Citizenship prep; High school diploma and GED credentialing; Career and college readiness.

 Experience with developing personalized education and graduation education plans;

 Experience with recruiting and managing volunteers.

Please submit cover letter, resume and three references by February 12 to:

michelle@ sevendaysvt.com

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM 1/22/21 12:45 PM

 One based in Waterbury with responsibility for outreach throughout the identified service area;  One working in the Randolph and Bradford communities with responsibility for outreach throughout the identified service area.

CVABE, a community-based, nonprofit organization has served the residents of Washington, Orange and Lamoille counties for 55 years. Hundreds of central Vermonters enroll annually to improve basic literacy skills, pursue alternative pathways to high school completion, learn English as another language, and gain skills for work and college.

PRINT DEADLINE: Noon on Mondays (including holidays)

Please email to schedule an interview.

1/22/21 4:54 PM

Executive Director Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Inc. 46 Washington Street, Suite 100 Barre, Vermont 05641 info@cvabe.org

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1/22/21 4:43 PM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

AUTOMOTIVE PROGRAM INSTRUCTOR:

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Providing Innovative Mental Health and Educational Services to Vermont’s Children & Families.

RESIDENTIAL COUNSELOR *$500 Sign on Bonus Shelburne House Program, Williston, VT

Green Mountain Technology & Career Center is seeking candidates for its Automotive program. Desired skills and responsibilities of the Automotive Instructor include:

The Shelburne House Program of NFI Vermont is seeking a Residential Counselor to join our team. Shelburne House is a trauma-informed residential treatment program, which provides assessment and stabilization services to adolescent males, ages 13-18. Counselors provide supervision, support, guidance and role modeling to the youth in order to help facilitate healing and growth. Other responsibilities include helping with activities of daily living and building independent living skills. Experience working with teenagers with emotional and behavioral challenges, or a BA in psychology or a related field required. Candidates should possess excellent interpersonal skills, the ability to function well in a team atmosphere and a valid driver’s license. This position includes a comprehensive benefits package, with tuition reimbursement, and a $500 sign on Bonus. Please apply online at nfivermont.org/careers.

• ASE Master Technician • Five years or more of experience working in the field of auto mechanics. • Dealer certifications. • Desire to teach high school students career and college readiness skills. • Passion to integrate academic, technical, and employability skills into a program. • Proven ability to collaborate and build strong relationships with community partners. Qualified candidates will also demonstrate the ability to build strong and supportive relationships with students, and the capacity to create positive and inclusive cultures and environments for learners of all ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, and genders.

CULINARY ARTS PROGRAM INSTRUCTOR:

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and celebrate the diversity of our clients and staff.

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1/25/21 9:39 AM

Green Mountain Technology & Career Center is seeking candidates for its Culinary Arts program. Desired skills and responsibilities of the Culinary Instructor include: • Five years or more of experience working as a chef in a restaurant or hotel. • An Associate’s degree or better in Culinary Arts. • Desire to teach high school students career and college readiness skills. • Passion to integrate academic, technical, and employability skills in to a program. • Proven ability to collaborate and build strong relationships with community partners.

STUDENT LIFE MANAGER Full Time; Benefits eligible; $20/ hour

Goddard College seeks a resourceful and creative Student Life Manager to collaborate with students, staff, faculty, academic leaders, and College administrators to develop, deliver, and assess student support services. This position will work with our non-traditional students on community life agreements, wellness counseling, student leadership and engagement, and crisis response and preparedness. The Student Life Manager will manage sensitive and confidential information, and interact with multiple constituents within the College.

Qualified candidates will also demonstrate the ability to build strong and supportive relationships with students, and the capacity to create positive and inclusive cultures and environments for learners of all ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, and genders. Green Mountain Technology & Career Center (GMTCC) is a cutting edge career and technical education center, where eligible students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades are prepared for college and career through the acquisition of real-world skills, practical knowledge, hands-on experiences, mentoring, and networking. In addition to earning requirements for high school graduation, students have the opportunity to earn free college credits and may obtain industry certifications in their field.

Qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree plus experience understanding crisis response, competence in working effectively with diverse cultures and populations, ability to work independently and as part of a team, excellent listening skills, strong communication and organizational skills, experience working with confidential information and maintaining confidentiality, computer literacy, the ability to document, research, analyze data, and write reports, a valid driver’s license and the ability to safely operate vehicles in inclement weather. Periodic weekend work is required. The primary work location for this position is our Plainfield, Vermont campus. Partial telecommuting is optional when students are not on campus.

GMTCC is committed to maintaining a work and learning environment free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital/civil union status, ancestry, place of birth, age, citizenship status, veteran status, political affiliation, genetic information or disability, as defined and required by state and federal laws. Additionally, we prohibit retaliation against individuals who oppose such discrimination and harassment or who participate in an equal opportunity investigation. Send a current resume and letter of intent specifying the job to eremmers@gmtcc.net.

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1/25/21 3:22 PM

ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO:

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To apply please visit our website to review the complete position description and submit a cover letter and resume goddard.edu/about-goddard/employment-opportunities. Goddard College is committed to creating a college representative of a diverse global community and capable of creating change. To that end, we are actively seeking applications from qualified candidates from groups currently underrepresented in our institution for this position. This institution is an equal opportunity provider, and employer.

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTMYJOB NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X21, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

ACCOUNTING MANAGER LEGAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Sheehey Furlong & Behm, an established, growing law firm located near the Burlington waterfront, is accepting applications for a legal administrative assistant. The successful candidate will be detail-oriented, possess strong written and verbal skills and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment. Proficiency in MS Office applications is required and 1-3 years of legal experience is preferred. Competitive pay and benefits. Forward cover letter and resume to hiring@sheeheyvt.com, subject “Legal Admin.”

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Come join Spruce Peak Arts Center! Are you someone who loves numbers, is highly competent in all aspects of nonprofit accounting, likes working as part of a small team, has a flexible schedule, and is looking for 20-24 hours per week? If so, look no further! This position was designed for you. Can be remote or onsite in our Stowe, VT offices. The Accounting Manager has primary responsibility for the accounting operations of the Spruce Peak Arts Center Foundation, including accounts payable, cash management, general ledger, financial reporting, forecasting and analysis, coordination of annual financial review and Form 990 process with external accounting firm, coordination of budget/forecast process with Executive Director, and other ad hoc projects. This position is year-round, part-time, 20-24 hours/week on average (will be higher during year-end). Please email cover letter, resume, and 3 references to Hope Sullivan, Executive Director, at hsullivan@sprucepeakarts.org. No phone calls, please.

Farm & Forest Viability Program Manager

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DISSEMINATION COORDINATOR Join our leadership team to direct information dissemination for the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion (CDCI) at the University of Vermont. This involves working closely with CDCI personnel across approximately 20 projects to support dissemination of their activities and share the stories of their work. Dissemination is a core function of our federal center grant. The broad goal of this work is to demonstrate that CDCI and its projects are resources for university, state, national, and international audiences. We are especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of our Center and university. Applicants are required to include in their cover letter information about how they will further this goal. SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES: • Ensure resources are accessible for diverse audiences using principles of universal design for learning, federal standards, and cultural and linguistic competency. • Develop digital/print publications, presentations, curricula, and other resources to meet the needs of diverse audiences. • Produce multimedia narratives to advance disability education and advocacy in partnership with people with disabilities, their families, allies, and other groups. • Develop and maintain websites for CDCI and our projects following all university standards, policies, and processes and accessibility guidelines. • Manage and regularly update CDCI’s social media. Develop and execute social media campaigns to advance CDCI goals. • Support writing of state and federal grant applications and reports in plain language to share with diverse audiences. • Design accessible in-person and virtual events for diverse audiences. • Represent our Center at UVM, in Vermont, and with our national and international partners to communicate our work.

Find jobs on

1/25/21 2:37 PM

VHCB's Viability Program provides business planning and technical assistance to farm, food, and forest sector businesses to increase business success. We are seeking a Program Manager to maintain strong relationships with farm and forest sector partners and to advance initiatives to help grow and improve the Viability Program. Applicants should be detail oriented, with excellent organizational and interpersonal skills, and experience providing business assistance to the working lands sector and in program administration and management. The Viability Program delivers services to 150 businesses annually, coordinated through a network of partners. The Program Manager works closely with businesses to enroll them in the program and monitor their progress, evaluate effectiveness of the program, manage contracts, and conduct fundraising and grant reporting. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Assistant Controller Join our financial team, producing monthly financial statements, assisting in grants management, requisitioning funds, and supporting the payroll process. Manage state, federal, and private funding sources for programs that create affordable housing and conserve agricultural and recreational land, forestland, and historic public properties. Never a dull moment, a supportive environment to work in, and a great mission to support! Skills and Qualifications: a degree in accounting and a minimum of three years’ experience in accounting functions; additional experience may be substituted for a degree. Working knowledge of fund accounting, GAAP, governmental and/or not-for-profit accounting, and experience with federal grant administration and regulations. Stellar attention to detail and concern for accuracy; ability to work as part of team during periods of high demand; good organizational and time management skills, and ability to work well independently. Proficiency with spreadsheet applications, accounting software, PDF and word processing software is required; experience with databases and document management systems helpful. Full-time positions with competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. Read the job description at: vhcb.org/about-us/jobs. EOE. Please reply with cover letter and résumé to: jobs@vhcb.org. Positions will remain open until filled.

Apply online: uvmjobs.com/postings/42794

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8/6/18 4:17 PM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

NOURISH in St. Albans, VT is Hiring!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR With the retirement of our long-serving CEO, Disability Rights Vermont, our state’s non-profit protection & advocacy system, is seeking a skilled, responsible Executive Director. DRVT lawyers and advocates protect the rights of people with disabilities at systems level and we investigate abuse, neglect, and rights violations. The position includes active connection with the disability community statewide, advocacy with the state administration and the legislature, management of contracts, and all agency operations and development.

~ Full-Time Baker ~ Part-Time Baker ~ Full-Time Cooks/Chef ~ Part-Time Cooks/Chef ~ Plant-Based Cheese Style Products Maker We are looking for fun, customer oriented and respectful individuals with upstanding values to join us at NOURISH. Individuals with experience in baking and cooking with a creative side. You have worked in a Bakery, Cafe or Restaurant and have a track record of good performance and creativity, You may also be a recent graduate of a culinary school. We are a Whole Foods, Plant-Based, and Vegan bakery. We are looking for people who are interested in learning more about the food & health We want to make health statement and build a community surrounded by the beliefs of being healthy, helping people, environment, and animals.

Applicant must have excellent communication, computer, and organizational skills. Ability to work respectfully with a full range of community partners and clients is a must. Experience with disability is a definite plus. Master’s Degree/professional credentials preferred, management experience required. Details on how to apply can be found on the DRVT website, DisabilityRightsVt.org, and must include a letter of application, résumé and references. Direct questions to Sarah Launderville, DRVT Board President at slaunderville@outlook.com. DRVT is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Send Resume & Cover Letter to ric@nourishwfbp.com.

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Our Lady of Providence is a Residential Care Community whose mission is supporting the spiritual, emotional, and physical well being of those entrusted to our care.

We are seeking Resident Care Assistants for day and night shifts to support residents in managing their day to day physical, emotional and psychological care needs. The Resident Care Assistant will provide personal care services to residents who are functionally, physically or socially impaired under the direction of the shift nurse. Previous experience working with the elder population is preferred. Pay is based on experience. We offer benefits including health, dental, vision, short term, and accidental insurance, paid time off, discounted meals while you are working, and a wonderful atmosphere in which to work. We are on the bus route and have on-site parking available. Our Lady of Providence is a nonprofit organization providing housing and services to seniors in a residential care community in the heart of Winooski, VT.

RN/LPNs We are seeking RN/LPNS to complete our team of talented and caring nurses. Day and night shifts are available The ideal candidate will have experience in geriatric nursing and staff supervision. The nurse will ensure the provision of care and services to residents who are functionally, physically, or socially impaired as stated in the individualized plan of care. This nurse is responsible for working with the Director of Nursing to support, mentor, and empower the wonderful team of caregivers under their supervision. We offer a strong benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance, paid time off, and meals while working, parking on-site and we are on the bus route. Pay is commensurate with experience. Must possess a valid and unencumbered Vermont RN or LPN license. Experience in long term care setting preferred. Send resumes to: mbelanger@ourladyofprovidence.org.

1/12/21 10:46 AM

OFFICE MANAGER AND REAL ESTATE MARKETING COORDINATOR

RESIDENT CARE ASSISTANTS

LOCATION: Montpelier, Vermont RESPONSIBILITIES: Fountains Land is an industry leader specializing in real estate and land sales, including timber land, large acreage parcels, estates, houses, and recreational property, with offices located from Georgia to Maine. This full-time position will provide office manager duties and general marketing support for the northern real estate team. REQUIREMENTS: We are seeking a highly motivated individual with the ability to work independently as well as in a team environment. Must possess an organized and methodical approach to work and be proficient with computers and office software, including Microsoft Office 365 and working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign and Photoshop. The ideal candidate will have experience with WordPress, Constant Contact, and a CRM database such as Salesforce or ACT! The ideal candidate will also have excellent writing skills, strong attention to detail related to proofreading and be able to accurately transcribe and relay information. Finally, the ideal candidate will possess good layout and design skills and basic bookkeeping skills. General knowledge of the real estate business, social media networking and web-based marketing is a plus. Essential Functions: This position is primarily responsible for assembling and editing marketing property reports, maintenance of files, record keeping, research, database entry, MLS systems, management of online advertising, database management and maintaining company branding standards. Marketing duties include coordinating with our Fountains Land Marketing Associate to assist with general marketing efforts and social media. Education and Experience: A minimum of 3 years of experience as an office manager or similar job function. Marketing skills and experience in the real estate industry a plus, with associates or higher degree preferred. SALARY: Commensurate with experience and education starting above $40,000 per year. Benefits include health insurance, paid vacation, sick time and holidays. DURATION OF POSITION OPENING: Until position is filled. CONTACT: Submit resumes/cover letters via email to jobposting6@fwforestry.com. 9t-F&WForestry012721.indd 1

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1/25/21 3:15 PM

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

70 JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) and its component unit

DIRECTOR OF STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES GRADES 9-12 ESSEX WESTFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT

VERMONT AGRICULTURAL CREDIT CORPORATION (VACC) Join our team of agricultural lending staff who serve Vermont’s farm and forest industries:

Essex High School, part of the Essex Westford School District, is seeking an experienced special education leader for its highly regarded 9-12 high school serving over 1200 students.

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT ANALYST

(Location flexible)

Essex High School has a population of approximately 190 students eligible for special education and 100 students eligible for 504 plans all of which fall within the responsibility of this position. The position will serve as LEA for IEP meetings, participate and ensure compliance with 504, and be a key leader on the administrative team in collaboration with teacher leaders. The position will regularly collaborate with outside agencies providing services to students with disabilities. The selected candidate will work with a talented leadership team of school and central office based educators and administrators and provide continued service, support, and leadership to the students, faculty, staff, parents, and communities.

Motivated individual to support agricultural loan officers by providing credit investigation and analysis of loan applications and servicing requests. Duties include entering data to financial accounting software, preparing and analyzing spreadsheets, and drafting credit memorandums and letters. Knowledge of agricultural and/or forest industry is required. Previous experience as a credit analyst or similar position and an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in a related field preferred.

AGRICULTURAL LOAN OFFICER

(Junior or Senior Level; based in Middlebury)

The District desires a student-centered, collaborative, dynamic, visionary leader who will promote high levels of equity, inclusion, high-quality mental health services, continuous improvement in student achievement, safe and respectful learning environments. The ability to be innovative, stay calm under pressure, and be facile with technology and meeting facilitation will be critical skills. Candidates will possess a wealth of knowledge around multidimensional intervention, crisis management, and data analysis. Preferred candidates will have successful leadership experience in special education. Candidates must be licensed or be eligible for a license as a special education director in Vermont.

Experienced professional to visit farm and forestry applicants and borrowers, analyze loan requests, prepare loan write-ups, service a diverse loan portfolio and perform annual financial analyses. Knowledge of agricultural and/or forest industry, strong written and verbal skills and excellent customer service are required. Previous agricultural lending experience, proven team approach and a bachelor’s degree in a related field preferred. Leadership experience is a plus. Successful candidates will have a positive customer service attitude, strong written and verbal skills and attention to detail. Computer literacy and ability to learn financial database software is required. Each position includes travel within the State of Vermont.

EWSD is committed to considering out-of-state candidates who are eligible to hold a Vermont educator license but do not yet hold a license in this state. EWSD is committed to building a culturally and linguistically diverse and inclusive environment. Successful candidates must be committed to working effectively with diverse community populations and expected to strengthen such capacity if hired.

VEDA/VACC offers a competitive salary and benefits package and is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Please submit your resume and cover letter to: chouchens@veda.org. or mail to: VEDA, Attn: Cheryl Houchens 60 Main Street, Suite 202 Burlington, VT 05401 10v-VEDA012721.indd 1

If you are committed to the success of all students but do not meet all qualifications listed above, you are still encouraged to apply. For consideration, please apply electronically through schoolspring.com (Job ID 3418252). 1/25/21 11:27 AM

New, local, scam-free jobs posted every day!

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1/15/21 3:44 PM

sevendaysvt.com/classifieds 5/28/18 3:10 PM

NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY! JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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1/25/21

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Seeking a Program Ofﬁcer If you're a community-minded, big-picture VT - we have a job for you! Community Investments team and focus on the Foundation's work to close the opportunity gap for Vermonters so that everyone has a chance to get ahead in life. engagement, grantmaking, evaluation and coordination of directly with other teams within the Foundation to help track impact.

vermontcf.org/careers for a complete job description and instructions for applying by Friday, February 19th.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR PROGRAMMING

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Reporting to and working closely with the Executive Director, as well as the Administrative Manager, the Associate Director for Programming at Artistree is a leadership role responsible for developing, supporting and ensuring the effective delivery of a diverse variety of year-round multi-disciplinary adult and children’s arts programs. The Associate Director for Programming supports the strategic vision established by the Executive Director and leads a collaborative approach to program planning and management that brings together all of Artistree’s multidisciplinary programming to advance community engagement and student learning. Because programming is at the heart of Artistree and drives all aspects of operations, the Associate Director for Programming must serve as a collaborative leader, be responsive to the needs of all constituents across the organization and have very strong financial and management abilities and experience. This is a full-time salaried position with benefits, including vacation and sick leave, health plan, and retirement plan. Salary is commensurate with experience. To apply, please submit a resume and letter of interest noting why you think you would be a strong candidate to: manager@artistreevt.org. Please visit artstistree. org for information about the organization. Untitled-10 1 5v-Artistree011321.indd 1

1/8/21 4:02 PM

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fun stuff

RACHEL LINDSAY

SEVEN DAYS JANUARY 27-FEBRUARY 3, 2021

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CALCOKU & SUDOKU (P.55) CROSSWORD (P.55)

HARRY BLISS