Seven Days, March 12, 2025 by Seven Days

COMPILED BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN

BABY FOOD DESERT

A baby formula manufacturing plant that employs 420 people in Georgia, Vt., will close, according to Perrigo, the Ireland-based company that runs it.

e company plans to phase out production and close the plant in 2027, said Brad Joseph, vice president of global investor relations and corporate communications.

“For decades, our Vermont facility has played a critical role in feeding millions of babies,” Joseph said in a statement. “However, due to its age and evolving regulatory requirements, long-term maintenance and investments are not cost-effective. Perrigo considered multiple options for the Vermont facility, which unfortunately are not viable.”

Perrigo says it’s the third-largest maker of baby formula in the U.S.-Canadian markets. Its Georgia plant is situated about 40 miles south of the international border.

Tim Smith, executive director of the Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation, said Perrigo had considered expanding its Georgia plant before concluding that the investment would be too expensive.

“ ey focused on a Wisconsin site instead,” Smith said. Early in the pandemic, Perrigo had trouble meeting demand for its 17 brands of formula. In 2022, the company purchased a Nestlé plant in Eau Claire, Wis., investing $170 million there.

Smith added that many displaced workers should be able to secure new jobs with other local manufacturers

that have been trying to ﬁnd employees. He noted that the region went through a smaller loss in 2013 when the Energizer plant in St. Albans closed, putting 70 people out of work.

“At the time, Mylan Technologies was hiring, as was Vermont Precision Tools,” Smith said. “Many of those employees were absorbed into the economy.”

Since then, the unemployment rate has plummeted, and many manufacturers have said a lack of workers is holding back their growth. Other large Franklin County manufacturers that are hiring include Ben & Jerry’s, which has an ice cream plant in St. Albans; the St. Albans chocolate maker Barry Callebaut; and Franklin Foods in Enosburgh.

“I am conﬁdent that all these people will have more than enough opportunity to ﬁnd jobs in the region,” Smith said of the Perrigo workers.

A Perrigo spokesperson did not return Seven Days’ calls and emails.

Another factory might take Perrigo’s place. Smith noted that manufacturing space is in very short supply in Franklin County.

“We’re optimistic there will be a buyer, maybe not for baby formula, but maybe a value-added food industry,” he said.

ANNE WALLACE ALLEN

WEEKLONG SPAN

Gov. Phil Scott has signed a proclamation that creates “Covered Bridge Week” this coming August. So Vermont-y.

STICK SEASON

The Stowe Foliage Arts Festival won’t return this year because a windstorm last October caused considerable damage. Tough loss.

COP OUT

Richmond backed out of hiring former Hinesburg police chief Anthony Cambridge amid allegations of misconduct at his last job. A lot we still don’t know…

TRASH AND TREASURES

The Chittenden Solid Waste District has found a site for a new recycling center after another location fell through. Reusing some land.

That’s how many misconduct complaints against Vermont State Police troopers were investigated over a six-month period last year.

TOPFIVE

TOWN

CRIER

LOCALLY SOURCED NEWS

Newbury Farmer Headed to Masters World Cup

As a young man, Bob Gray competed in Nordic skiing events in two Winter Olympics. Now, at age 85, the Newbury farmer is in Switzerland at a cross-country ski race that brings together the best senior skiers in the world, the Journal Opinion reported.

AI FOR THE PEOPLE

An entrepreneurial Essex couple have created an artiﬁcial intelligence chatbot that uses local selectboard minutes to answer questions about town governance. Local Minutes, the tool developed by software engineer Duane Millar Barlow and his wife, Allison, can answer questions about a town’s policy history and what happened in a selectboard meeting in mere seconds.

at’s promising news, since many municipal websites aren’t easy to navigate.

Local Minutes was in beta testing for months and launched publicly two weeks ago. It’s free and accessible at localminutes.org.

Duane came up with the idea for Local

Minutes as a novice member of Essex’s Conservation and Trails Committee. Tasked with writing the committee’s meeting minutes, he discovered how valuable those notes can be for informing discussions.

e problem was, combing through past meeting minutes for relevant information was a slog. Duane found that researching decisions other towns made was even more challenging. Duane’s solution: training an AI chatbot to pull information from public documents.

Because the data is drawn from a limited pool of information, the tool is almost entirely accurate, according to Duane.

So far, Local Minutes can answer questions about the 50 most populous municipalities in Vermont, representing 70 percent of the state’s population. Duane and Allison hope to cover the entire state eventually, ﬁnanced by donations from regular users while keeping the website free.

Duane now uses the tool in his conservation committee meetings and says it “feels like having a superpower.” A member will mention a development project, and Duane can generate a “summary of all of the challenges that committee faced with the project over the past 10 years,” he said.

RACHEL HELLMAN

Allison and Duane Millar Barlow

© ELENA NICHIZHENOVA | DREAMSTIME

According to Vermont Fish & Wildlife: "Pets caught in foothold traps can be easily released without harm."

Why then do trappers call game wardens for help when they trap their own dogs?

From a Vermont warden's report: "On 12/7/2024, I was contacted by (trapper's name redacted) who advised he had trapped his own dog in a foothold trap. He advised the trap was legally set and was just looking for assistance releasing the dog.”

There is NO WAY to easily release a pet unharmed from a leghold trap. Don't believe the humane-washing.

Don Eggert, Colby Roberts NEWS & POLITICS

Matthew Roy

Goldstein

Ken Ellingwood, Candace Page

Hannah Bassett, Derek Brouwer, Colin Flanders, Rachel Hellman, Courtney Lamdin, Kevin McCallum, Alison Novak, Anne Wallace Allen

ARTS & CULTURE

Dan Bolles, Carolyn Fox

Chelsea Edgar, Margot Harrison, Pamela Polston

Jen Rose Smith

Alice Dodge

Chris Farnsworth

Rebecca Driscoll

Jordan Barry, Hannah Feuer, Mary Ann Lickteig, Melissa Pasanen, Ken Picard

Alice Dodge, Angela Simpson

Katherine Isaacs, Martie Majoros DIGITAL & VIDEO

Bryan Parmelee

Eva Sollberger

James Buck

Je Baron DESIGN

Don Eggert

Rev. Diane Sullivan

John James

Je Baron SALES & MARKETING

Colby Roberts

Robyn Birgisson

Michelle Brown, Logan Pintka, Kaitlin Montgomery

Carolann Whitesell ADMINISTRATION

Marcy Stabile

Matt Weiner

Andy Watts

Gillian English

Madison Storm CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Jordan Adams, Justin Boland, Alex Brown, Erik Esckilsen, Steve Goldstein, Amy Lilly, Bryan Parmelee, Suzanne Podhaizer, Samantha Randlett, Jim Schley, Carolyn Shapiro, Xenia Turner, Casey Ryan Vock CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Luke Awtry, Daria Bishop, James Buck, Tim Newcomb, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur FOUNDERS

Pamela Polston, Paula Routly CIRCULATION: 35,000

Seven Days is published by Da Capo Publishing Inc. every Wednesday. It is distributed free of charge in greater Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, the Northeast Kingdom, Stowe, the Mad River Valley, Rutland, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury and White River Junction. Seven Days is printed at Quebecor Media Printing in Mirabel, Québec.

DELIVERY TECHNICIANS

Harry Applegate, Joe Bou ard, Pat Bou ard, Colin Clary, Julie Copley, Elana Coppola-Dyer, Matt Hagen, Russ Hagy, Karissa Hummel, Nat Michael,Frankie Moberg, Liam Mulqueen-Duquette, Dan Nesbitt, Dan Oklan, Ezra Oklan, Matt LaDuq Perry, Danielle Schneider, Andy Watts, Tracey Young With additional circulation support from PP&D.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

NO ‘BREEZE’

[From the Publisher: “Getting There From Here,” February 19] aptly describes traveling by air in February to escape the Vermont winter as “Russian roulette.” I was rattled by my ﬂ ight down to Florida on February 7, during which smoke filled the cabin. An attendant mumbled that there was a “ﬁre up front.” The pilot explained that he had to “put the plane down as soon as possible.” There was a quick descent, oxygen masks dropped, and someone behind me said, “We’re fucked.” Landing in North Carolina, we were met by emergency vehicles. Made it to Miami by 4:30 p.m. No sweat, right?

I headed home to Vermont on February 11, the very same day Paula Routly passed on flying into Washington, D.C., and took a nonstop Breeze flight the next day. A few flakes were falling in D.C. at 3:30 p.m. when we taxied out for “de-icing.” Waited, waited, waited. At 7 p.m. the flight crew “timed out” under some Federal Aviation Administration rule. Back to the gate. Waited, waited, waited. A new crew materialized, whereupon we waited, waited, waited. We boarded the plane at 9:30 p.m. to wait, wait, wait, de-ice, wait, wait, wait. At 11:15, a sawdust-like cookie appeared on my tray table with a napkin emblazoned with “Cheers.” At 11:50 p.m. the flight was canceled, and we taxied back to the gate. At 1 a.m., in an airport hotel, I pathetically inhaled a can of Pringles. Made it back to Burlington on February 12.

I think I’ll drive to Florida next February in a Lincoln Town Car with snow tires and four-wheel drive.

CORRECTIONS

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Please call 802-865-1020, ext. 132 with your credit card, contact circ@sevendaysvt.com or mail your check to: Seven Days, c/o Subscriptions, 255 S. Champlain St., Ste. 5, Burlington, VT 05401

Seven Days shall not be held liable to any advertiser for any loss that results from the incorrect publication of its advertisement. If a mistake is ours, and the advertising purpose has been rendered valueless, Seven Days may cancel the charges for the advertisement, or a portion thereof as deemed reasonable by the publisher. Seven Days reserves the right to refuse any advertising, including inserts, at the discretion of the publishers.

Last week’s cover story, “Axed Out,” contained an error. Mill River Lumber in Clarendon is not closed. The operation reopened earlier this year with a new owner.

The image of protesters that accompanied last week’s “Powder to the People” writeup on the Last 7 page did not have a photo credit. Carolyn Lessard of Waitsﬁeld shot the picture.

Matt Daly BURLINGTON

LEFTIST OLIGARCHS

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders loves to rant about Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg [“Bern Rekindled,” February 26]. But when someone mentions George Soros, Oprah Winfrey or George Clooney, Bernie hastily says, “It’s not about individuals.” That is so transparently disingenuous. Even Bill and Hillary Clinton have amassed enough money to be oligarchs. Bernie loves leftist oligarchs.

Dick Mills SOUTH BURLINGTON

POLICE ASSIST

[Re “Shawn Burke to Serve as Interim Burlington Police Chief,” February 12]: Many thanks to the Burlington Police Department for once again offering the Community Academy program to those who live and work in Burlington. I recently completed the course and found it to be a basic yet thorough introduction to the many facets of the department and the way those facets interact with the diverse individuals within the community.

To further explain my interest: Since 2012, I’ve worked for a welcoming, inclusive and compassionate organization in the heart of Burlington. An ongoing goal has been to ensure that the atmosphere on the grounds and in the buildings reflects, projects and nurtures the three aforementioned admirable and objective traits. I’ve found this goal to be rewarding and educational in a positive and engaging way.

There have been isolated occurrences in the past when my communication and mediation skills have been insufficient when reasoning with an individual or group of individuals. In situations like these, when I’ve thought that life

With a furrowed brow and disgust, I saw “EXEMPLIGRATIAMARSHALL.” Is this some mental version of the rack? Another plaguing example in that puzzle was “Classic toothpaste brand.” For this five-letter answer, confidenti exudia! “CREST,” right? Are you kidding me — “IPANA”?

Gregory Hennemuth NEWPORT

‘GREAT SPORTS WRITING’

I just wanted to write to tell you how much I enjoyed Joe Sexton’s [“Year of the Dogs,” January 29] in Seven Days regarding the University of Vermont soccer team. It was ambitious, and Sexton nailed it.

safety standards may be compromised, I’ve contacted the BPD for assistance. I’ve been pleased with its professional, reasonable and decisive response to the situation at hand. It was those positive experiences, and an ensuing sense of civic responsibility, that prompted me to enroll in the program.

Again, thanks to all BPD personnel who contributed to the program. Special thanks to training coordinator Constance Crisp, whose organizational skills allowed for a fluid progression of topics, regardless of unanticipated conflicts.

Bob Furrer SHELBURNE

THOROUGHLY PUZZLED

I cannot explain to you why I torture myself with your crosswords! I have a habit of using a pen, which inflicts more pain. I am also quite the plodding thinker, so it is not a 30-minute sit-down; these are days-long epic struggles.

On one of those 21-letter crossword spans in the January 22 puzzle, “Expansion Team,” “MARSHALL” formed on the line for “Actor who was always providing precedents.” Using the clue, I thought about “THOROUGHGOODMARSHALL” without luck. Nothing seemed to work. Using one of my best crossword strategies, I turned to my phone. I was correct about Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, but still no luck.

My spouse thinks that I do well on crosswords. I recently discovered that the answers are directly on the back of my crossword puzzle cutout! Discreetly and maintaining some honor, I flipped it over and focused on just that answer.

I’m a Vermont-born Catamount fan who lives in North Carolina. In 2022, a buddy of mine up in Charlotte told me that I had to start watching UVM soccer games. This came as quite the surprise, but I took his word for it and have followed the magic carpet ride ever since. I’m lucky enough to live an hour away from Cary, and watching that game was truly the most exceptional sports experience of my life. I found myself bawling in the bleachers and hugging strangers in the aftermath.

With all that said, I have watched the team from afar. I’ve never felt like I really knew the personalities of the players until I read Sexton’s story. You brought them closer to us — the mark of great sports writing.

Charlie Pogacar BURLINGTON, N.C.

HIRING OP?

After taking a closer look at the firms mentioned in [“Vermont Aid Workers Reel in Wake of Rapid USAID Cuts,” February 12], I am struck by how many Vermonters affected by canceled USAID programs have the critical knowledge, skills and experience our state urgently needs. Vermont faces pressing challenges in environmental protection, health care

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ARE YOU READY TO START OR TO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS? Our Spring Session runs from March 17 to May 30. We offer classes at all levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), meeting in person, via Zoom, or hybrid.

FEEDBACK » P.22

If We Don’t Have It, You Don’t Need It

Lying Low

Gov. Phil Scott’s subdued response to President Donald Trump is frustrating some Vermonters

Vermont Reports Case of Measles in Child

War of Words

A campaign-trail spat over Israel and Gaza could complicate city council business in Burlington

Third-Space

Sonic

a new job in the classiﬁeds section on page 73 and online at jobs.sevendaysvt.com.

MAGNIFICENT

MUST SEE, MUST DO THIS WEEK COMPILED BY REBECCA DRISCOLL

FRIDAY 14 & SATURDAY 15

Frost Bites

e annual Hotel Vermont Ice Bar returns to Burlington for a 13th year of frosty, fun-ﬁlled festivities. Chilled-out party people nosh on snacks, grab craft drinks from intricately sculpted outdoor bars, get creative in the photo booth, engage in friendly ice games and dance their mittens off to tunes spun by DJ Cre8.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 60

OPENS FRIDAY 14

THE FUN

Burlington Irish Heritage at Burlington City Hall

Day vibe up a notch. Members of the McFadden Academy of Irish Dance step to sprightly tunes played by the Young Tradition

while attendees join in the participation rounds and a

Masters of Madcap

Su Reid-St. John directs the Shelburne Players in an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s zany, fast-paced 18th-century comedy e Servant of Two Masters at Shelburne Town Center. Expect a hybrid of traditional Italian commedia dell’arte and postmodern vaudeville, uniting the slapstick physicality of Charlie Chaplin with the comedic wit of Woody Allen.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 61

SATURDAY 15

Get in Gear

Love roller derbies? How about 19th centuryinspired retrofuturistic fashion? en this is the event for you! e Steampunk Skater’s Ball at Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction has all of the above, with goggles on. Partygoers don gadgets, gizmos and gears to delight in hors d’oeuvres, bid in a silent auction and boogie the night away — all to beneﬁt the Upper Valley’s own Twin State Derby.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 61

SATURDAY 15

Sizzling Septet

Finland’s ﬁrst-rate musical export Frigg comes to Vermont State University’s Alexander Twilight eatre in Lyndon to lift spirits with captivating, feel-good tunes. Named after the Norse goddess of motherhood and marriage, the septet has carved out its own genre of music — “Nordgrass” — which seamlessly fuses Nordic folk and American bluegrass for a striking sound.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 62

FRIDAY 14

Men in Black

ONGOING

Spring Awakening

Known around the world as the deﬁnitive Johnny Cash tribute band, arrive at Barre Opera House to remind us why. Commanding front man Jay Ernest brings the booming timbre and raw, resonant vocals, while his bandmates capture the country legend’s spirit through sound — just one of many reasons the group was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2021.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 60

Artistree Community Arts Center’s “MUD (season)” exhibit in South Pomfret ushers in the eagerly anticipated thaw with a showcase of works by more than 60 Vermont and New Hampshire artists. Viewers take in cautiously optimistic signs of spring such as running sap, rutted roads, rousing birds and bears, and everyone’s favorite hopeful harbinger — melting snow.

SEE GALLERY LISTING AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/ART

Five Years … and Counting

I don’t think it’s an overstatement to describe the COVID-19 pandemic as a collective trauma. It was in Vermont, anyway. Five years ago this week began a chain of history-making events that most of us would rather forget — the psychological term is dissociative amnesia. A new history of Vermont’s experience of the global public health crisis, gleaned from audio interviews conducted by the state historical society, ensures that we will always remember.

In Life Became Very Blurry: An Oral History of COVID-19 in Vermont, journalist and author Garrett Gra assembled the ﬁrstperson testimonies of some Vermonters who vividly recall PCR tests, quarantine, contact tracing, PPE, and slogans such as “Stay home, stay safe” and “Flatten the curve.” Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine, who directed Vermont’s medical response to the virus, is just one of many voices in the collection. He recalls “14-hour days and sleepless nights” ﬁlled with worry about keeping hospitals functional, reducing infection risk in long-term care and correctional facilities, and even “How do we make sure people have enough food to eat?”

LIFE BECAME VERY BLURRY IS BOTH PAINFUL AND GRIPPING TO READ — A TESTAMENT TO ITS ACCURACY.

The ﬁrst third of the book chronicles the e orts of Levine and other state leaders to understand the threat, develop policies to contain it and communicate those protocols to the public. The tale proceeds to document the impact of the shutdown on everyone else. After providing minimal context at the start of each chapter, Gra gives the ﬂoor to caregivers, parents, pastors, town o cials, hair stylists, hoteliers, truckers, journalists, midwives and grocery store workers to describe the experience in their own words.

The result is both painful and gripping to read — a testament to its accuracy and Gra ’s editing.

We thought about excerpting Life Became Very Blurry as this week’s cover story, but you really have to read the whole thing to appreciate its cumulative power. Instead, Ken Picard wrote a feature about the book and the broader three-year documentary research project.

Seven Days is also part of the story. Last summer, deputy publisher Cathy Resmer and I sat down with veteran journalist Mark Johnson, one of four ﬁeld interviewers the Vermont Historical Society hired to solicit and collect pandemic stories. At a safe distance from March 13, 2020, we tried to recount the terror of navigating an independent newspaper, then funded almost entirely by advertising, through unprecedented perils: revenue free fall, layo s, reporting on the

pandemic and worker safety, to name a few. Some of our two-hour convo made the cut.

There’s also a chapter in the book about the Converse Home, an assisted-living facility in Burlington, and everything its sta ers did to protect their residents — including my mother, who died of cancer there, conﬁned to her room, two and a half months into the pandemic. I shared that experience in real time through this column. While I started writing it to communicate with and reassure our

readers, I ended up weaving in what was happening in my own life. I was surprised by how much the personal stu resonated, whether it was about the importance of getting exercise or memorializing the dead. In some cases, I think I managed to capture the communal experience we were all sharing.

The history project motivated me to go back through the past ﬁve years of “From the Publisher” columns in search of the pandemic-related ones. I found 76 that are now part of the historical society’s

archive. You can also read them at sevendaysvt.com/ pandemic-publisher-series, if you want to relive the drama.

Five years out, Vermont is still grappling with the e ects of the pandemic: worker shortages and an outsize homeless population, to name just two. Vermonters in their imposed isolation changed their spending patterns, staying home and buying stu online — trends that are now doing a number on local businesses.

Including this one. It may not look like it, but Seven Days’ advertising revenues still have not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. We also can’t produce some of our previous revenue-generating publications and events. For example, our annual dining guide and Restaurant Week are on indeﬁnite pause because most local food businesses don’t have the money or sta to participate in either.

The COVID-19 crisis may have ended, but Seven Days is one of many Vermont enterprises that hasn’t fully recovered.

We’re forging ahead anyway, pinching pennies and taking advantage of new revenue streams wherever we can find them. The outpouring of reader appreciation and financial support we’ve received has been the best part of the past five years. If you want us to be there for the next five, please keep it coming.

Paula Routly

If you like Seven Days and can help pay for it, become a Super Reader!

Look for the “Donate” button at the top of sevendaysvt.com. Or send a check with your address and contact info to:

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Suzie McCoy (left) and Paula Routly visiting their moms at the Converse Home in March 2020

Covers of Seven Days during the pandemic

A worker helping to evacuate Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center patients in March 2020

ED SECRETARY’S SECOND GO

POLITICS

Lying Low

Gov. Phil Scott’s subdued response to President Donald Trump is frustrating some Vermonters

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM • kevin@sevendaysvt.com

Cate Starmer rolled her eyes when Gov. Phil Scott said in November that Vermonters should give President Donald Trump the “opportunity to do better” than in his ﬁrst term.

She shook her head when Scott issued a statement welcoming Vice President JD Vance and his family to a ski vacation at Sugarbush Resort earlier this month and urged Vermonters to “be respectful.”

And she is still fuming over Scott’s refusal to denounce Trump’s firing of federal workers, threats of mass deportations or proposed budget cuts.

The Waterbury resident — who voted for Scott — is a cofounder of the grassroots group Camel’s Hump Indivisible. She says she’s fed up with Scott’s passive approach and wants the governor to take a stand against Trump policies that are already hurting Vermonters.

“We’ve moved beyond ‘wait and see’ as an acceptable response to the current situation,” Starmer told Seven Days last week.

A number of elected officials in Vermont have already enlisted in the resistance to Trump 2.0. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been barnstorming across the Midwest on a “Fight Oligarchy” tour.

I DON’T WANT TO GIVE THE ADMINISTRATION WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR.

GOV. PHIL SCOTT

Attorney General Charity Clark, a Democrat, has joined in six lawsuits to challenge

Vermont Reports Case of Measles in Child

BY COLIN FLANDERS colin@sevendaysvt.com

e Vermont Department of Health said on Tuesday that it has conﬁrmed a case of measles in a school-age child from Lamoille County.

e child, who had recently traveled internationally with family, was evaluated at Copley Hospital in Morrisville on Sunday and has since been isolated, the health department said, describing the threat to the public as “low.” It’s unclear whether the child was vaccinated against the virus.

ose who were at Copley’s emergency department between 3:15 and 6 p.m. on Sunday should conﬁrm they’ve been vaccinated against measles by calling their health care provider or requesting their health records, the health department said. ey should also monitor themselves for symptoms through the end of the month and contact a health care provider from home if they become symptomatic.

“DO NOT go to the doctor’s ofﬁce, the hospital, or a clinic without ﬁrst calling to let them know about your symptoms and possible exposure,” a press release said.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can cause serious illness, especially in young children. Symptoms typically start with a cough, runny nose, watery eyes and a high fever. A spotted rash then breaks out on the head before spreading to the rest of the body.

Trump policies she calls unconstitutional. And U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) boycotted Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress last week, denouncing his “lies.”

So far, Vermont’s moderate Republican governor has taken a more measured approach to Trump’s second term. He has expressed respect for the office and a desire to work with the president when possible and has only opposed him occasionally, such as when Trump falsely declared that Ukraine started the war with Russia.

“I don’t want to give the administration what they are looking for. They love upheaval. They love controversy,” Scott said last month.

Scott’s comparatively subdued response reflects the fine line he has

e new case marks the ﬁrst in Vermont this year following two in 2024 and one in 2018. It’s not related to the ongoing measles outbreak in Québec, the health department said, nor is it connected to outbreaks occurring in and around Texas and New Mexico that have led to more than 250 reported cases and two deaths, including one unvaccinated child.

e news comes amid growing concerns among public health experts about America’s declining vaccination rates. Such fears have only grown in the weeks since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as secretary of Health and Human Services.

A well-known vaccine skeptic, Kennedy has been accused of downplaying the seriousness of the Texas outbreak. Rather than urging people to get vaccinated, he has expressed support for unconventional treatments, such as ingesting cod liver oil. ➆

War of Words

A campaign-trail spat over Israel and Gaza could complicate city council business in Burlington

BY COURTNEY LAMDIN • courtney@sevendaysvt.com

On October 7 last year, four Progressive Burlington city councilors wore keffiyehs to a public meeting in silent recognition of the death toll in Gaza. The wardrobe choice, on the oneyear anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel, angered and upset some Burlington Jews, who wrote a letter to the councilors that impugned their motives for wearing the Palestinian scarves.

“While long a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, [keffiyehs] have since October 7 become a symbol of support for the terrorist activities of Hamas,” the emailed letter read. “You have chosen to align yourselves with those who dismiss Jews at best and wish us dead at worst.”

The letter went public during the recent election season, spurring personal and political attacks that eventually prompted the mayor to get involved. One of its signatories, Allie Schachter, went on to win her first-time race for city council.

A week after the vote, the dust hasn’t settled. The ongoing discussions about what happened during the campaign make clear that the intractable conflict in the Middle East will likely prove a source of continued friction among Burlington councilors as they also try to overcome differences on matters closer to home.

movement against Israel was pulled at the last minute after heated debate. The shooting of three young men of Palestinian descent on a Burlington street in November 2023 — just weeks after Hamas’ attack and the start of Israel’s extensive bombardment of the Gaza Strip — revived the issue.

Progressive councilors and proPalestinian activists have each introduced a ballot item to declare Burlington an “apartheid-free community.” But council votes on the issue have followed party lines, with majority Democrats blocking the measure each time, arguing, in part, that it would make Jewish residents feel unsafe.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAKING UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS RIGHT AND TRYING TO TAKE DOWN YOUR NEIGHBOR.

COUNCILOR BECCA BROWN MCKNIGHT

“There’s a certain reality here that all of us on the council are going to have to find ways to work together,” Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) said. “I anticipate that I’m going to be working with my colleagues on the council and with the mayor’s office to support that.”

The council has debated the IsraeliPalestinian conflict for several years and appears no closer to any real consensus. Each time the issue comes before the body, dozens of community members show up at meetings to make their voices heard.

In 2021, a proposal to endorse the global boycott, sanction and divest

At those meetings and several others, Progressive councilors have worn keffiyehs. But doing so on October 7 was a step too far for the Shalom Alliance, a pro-Israel nonprofit whose members emailed the councilors several days later asking for “constructive dialogue” about the issue.

Besides Schachter, signers included Mike Kanarick, a manager at the Burlington Electric Department, and David Geddes, the Temple Sinai synagogue board president. One of the recipients, Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2), fired off a sharp response.

The letter “was anything but respectful or constructive,” wrote Bergman, who is Jewish and wore a kippah head covering that night, in addition to the scarf. “I find it to be bullying, weaponizing anti-semitism.”

Months later, Schachter was running as a Democrat in the East District against Kathy Olwell, a Progressive whose campaign platform included support for the apartheid-free ballot item. In late February, Councilor Melo Grant (P-Central District), who was running for reelection unopposed, made a post on Front Porch Forum that urged people not to vote for Schachter.

“Someone who would claim to want to engage someone in a constructive

EDUCATION

Voters Approve Most School Budgets

BY ALISON NOVAK alison@sevendaysvt.com

Vermonters last week overwhelmingly said yes to their school budgets, marking a pronounced turnaround from last year, when voters rejected one-third of spending plans across the state due to a steep increase in property taxes.

According to preliminary results collected by the Vermont Superintendents and Vermont School Boards associations, 104 school budgets passed and nine school budgets failed on Town Meeting Day.

walked since Trump won the presidency. On one hand, Scott may fear that directly criticizing Trump would give the volatile president a reason to train his ire on the Green Mountain State. On the other hand, if Scott appears too deferential, he risks angering a large swath of voters who revile the president and are deeply unnerved by his return to o ce. Trump won just 31 percent of the Vermont vote in November, while Scott won a ﬁfth term with 73 percent of the vote.

“I think he is in a di cult spot,” Rep. Jim Harrison (R-Chittenden) said. “What can he do to tell Vermonters that he’s protecting them?”

Another nine districts, including Essex Westford, Orleans Central and Windham Southeast, will vote on their school budgets in the coming months.

e 92 percent success rate was much more typical than last year’s poor showing, according to Sue Ceglowski, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association. She called the results “a vote for moving Vermont public education forward.”

is year, budgets did not increase as much as they did last year, and school boards were especially cognizant of approving spending plans that taxpayers could support while also maintaining high-quality education for students, Ceglowski said.

Administrators started the budgeting process “very early” and “were incredibly thoughtful and involved their communities throughout the whole process,” added Chelsea Myers, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association.

It remains to be seen whether the favorable results will slow a proposal now before the legislature that would totally transform Vermont’s education system.

In January, the Scott administration announced a plan that would change the way schools are funded and consolidate the number of districts from 119 into ﬁve regional ones.

Gov. Phil Scott, Education Secretary Zoie Saunders and some lawmakers have urged quick action on the proposal, pointing to last year’s budget failures and sky-high education property tax increases. ey’ve billed the overhaul as a way to build a more equitable, sustainable and high-quality system of education. Some parts would be implemented within two years.

In recent weeks, the plan has faced resistance from education leaders who have questioned whether such largescale transformation is warranted or would actually beneﬁt students. ➆

Starmer argues that the rising tide of anti-Trump activism in the state underscores just how out of step Scott has fallen with most residents, including many who voted for him. Last week, she sent a letter urging the governor to hold an in-person town hall meeting to let Vermonters hear how he plans to protect them from the cavalcade of threats streaming from Washington, D.C.

“You did an admirable job of informing Vermonters during Covid,” she wrote. “We have reached another emergency situation, and we need your assurance that you will protect the rights of Vermonters and protect the Vermont Constitution.”

Scott, who holds weekly press conferences, told reporters that he had no immediate plans to hold a town hall.

“I don’t believe that creating more anxiety across the board and trying to answer questions we have no answers to would be in the best interests of Vermonters at this point,” Scott said.

His administration’s job is to “distinguish between rhetoric and reality” when it comes to information coming out of Washington, Scott said. “We cannot chase every single issue that comes our way over the next four years, because it seems to change on a daily basis.”

His team is focused on gathering facts in a deliberate way and responding with practical solutions once it can assess the actual impact of changes in federal policy or budgets, he said. For instance, he recently convened a task force to examine the potential e ect of the tari s Trump has recently implemented. Canada is Vermont’s largest trading partner.

“When it becomes real and it’s something that doesn’t work for Vermont, we’ll push back,” he said. “If it’s something that beneﬁts Vermont, we’ll be there at the table to help foster it along.”

While Scott hasn’t always been Trump’s sharpest critic, he has been one of his most steadfast. In 2016, he said he couldn’t support someone who “exploits

fear for political gain.” Scott told reporters that he voted for former president Joe Biden in 2020 and former vice president Kamala Harris in 2024. Scott was also the ﬁrst Republican governor to call for Trump to resign after the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

HIS JOB IS TO BE THE GOVERNOR OF VERMONT, NOT TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF A CRAZY GUY WHO HAPPENS TO BE PRESIDENT.

HOWARD DEAN

Scott has not been completely silent since Trump won a second term. He says he supports Vermont’s decision to stand by its policy of allowing trans athletes to participate in sports, despite a Trumpordered prohibition on the practice. And Scott said the mass ﬁring of federal workers “doesn’t seem like the right approach, from my standpoint.”

But even when he expresses disagreement with Trump, Scott has repeatedly stressed his preference for ﬁnding ways to work with the administration whenever possible. “I just see this being a long four

years if we’re going to set this up for having so much controversy,” he said.

That even-keeled approach may have worked before Trump’s ﬂurry of executive orders, Starmer said. But the governor can no longer dismiss Trump’s aggressive rollout of the Project 2025 agenda as idle rhetoric, she said.

“It’s not just a tweet anymore,” she said. There are now 17 groups in Vermont a liated with Indivisible, a nationwide movement whose mission is “to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda.”

Heather Wood, also of Waterbury, is a member of Starmer’s group. She noted that Trump’s policies are directly a ecting Vermonters. Scott’s failure to forcefully address the matter is as if the governor ignored one of the recent ﬂ oods to hit Vermont, she said.

Putney resident Laura Chapman circulated a resolution on social media calling on Scott to guard against “federal overreach”; at least eight communities expressed support for a version of the measure at last week’s Town Meeting Day.

The governor needs to do a better job reassuring fearful residents, she said. “I feel like what I’ve heard from him has not been very clear on how he will protect Vermonters from the chaos we’re seeing,” said Chapman, who works at a Brattleboro social services agency heavily dependent on Medicaid.

While Scott says it is premature to

President Donald Trump at a rally in January 2025

convene town halls, Vermont Treasurer Mike Pieciak is holding two on Saturday, March 15. The events in Brattleboro and South Burlington are meant to outline the state’s response to federal policy changes and give Vermonters a forum to express their concerns.

Pieciak, who is widely seen as a future Democratic candidate for governor, also attended an event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday with other state treasurers to decry the impacts of possible cuts to Medicaid.

Scott’s already had some face time with the president. Last month, he attended a luncheon of the National Governors Association in D.C., where he shook hands with Trump.

The normally staid event had a viral moment when Trump threatened Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, for her state’s policy of allowing trans athletes to play on girls’ sports teams.

After Trump told Mills she had “better comply” with the administration’s wishes, Mills replied, “See you in court.”

Scott later told Vermont reporters that Trump’s exchange with Mills, a former attorney general, was “a little awkward” and struck him as unnecessary. He would not have responded that way, Scott noted.

“He’s our president, and we have to respect that,” Scott said. “I respect that.”

Soon after the event, former lieutenant governor David Zuckerman took to social media to needle the governor, noting that Scott “could have stood up and said something but surprise! Silence.”

Scott’s approach of “staying below the radar” may seem like a shrewd way to avoid calling attention to his state. Vermont, after all, is heavily dependent

on federal dollars and programs, from Medicaid to funding for clean water.

But history has shown that remaining silent in an effort to “appease authoritarians” does not end well, Zuckerman told Seven Days.

“The bottom line is there is a time and place to stand up on the right side of history, and if this isn’t it, I don’t know what is,” Zuckerman said.

Scott alone may have little influence with Trump, but if he joined forces with other Republican governors, they could collectively wield significant influence with lawmakers, Zuckerman argued.

Harrison agreed. He recalled that in 2017 a similar effort by Trump to slash Medicaid died in part because of pushback from governors.

“It was Republican governors that said, ‘Hey, you’re gonna really bring harm to constituents in our states,’” Harrison recalled.

Howard Dean, a Democrat who served five terms as Vermont governor, said some Republican governors may hold such sway, but Scott isn’t one of them.

“What leverage do you think [Scott], as the governor of a state of 600,000 people, has over this guy who’s lost his mind?” Dean said, referring to Trump.

Publicly challenging Trump or trading barbs with him is neither Scott’s job nor likely to accomplish anything positive for Vermonters, Dean said. Scott has plenty else on his plate, his predecessor noted. Constituents should judge him for local issues on which he’s failing to deliver.

“His job is to be the governor of Vermont,” Dean said, “not to take a bite out of a crazy guy who happens to be president.” ➆

ADVENTURE CAMP

EDUCATION

Feds Warn Middlebury College Amid Antisemitism Probe

BY RACHEL HELLMAN • rachel@sevendaysvt.com

Middlebury College is one of 60 colleges and universities that received a letter on Monday from the U.S. Department of Education warning of “potential enforcement actions” if they fail to “protect Jewish students on campus.”

The letter, from the federal agency’s Office for Civil Rights, went to every institution of higher education that is the subject of an open investigation into antisemitism on campus. In a statement, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon threatened to pull federal funding from colleges and universities that don’t comply with antidiscrimination laws.

StandWithUs — a pro-Israel advocacy group — filed a complaint against Middlebury in February 2024, leading to a federal probe that began the following month. In a statement, a Middlebury spokesperson said the college is “fully cooperating” with the investigation.

“We are committed to our educational mission, and that includes supporting all students with no tolerance for discriminatory behavior on our campus,” the statement said.

In a 20-page complaint, StandWithUs alleges that when Jewish students attempted to organize a vigil to honor victims in the days after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Middlebury administrators “immediately attempted to hamper their efforts” and that the school “failed to respond adequately to reports about Students for Justice in Palestine harassing Jewish students.”

The group also claims that Middlebury has prevented students from starting a chapter of Chabad — a Jewish organization — on campus.

Shortly after the complaint was filed, the college launched a web page titled “Middlebury’s Educational Approaches to the War in Israel and Gaza,” outlining its commitment to supporting open dialogue. The college campus was also the site of a pro-Palestinian encampment that sprouted in April 2024.

The warning letters were the latest foray of President Donald Trump’s administration into campus politics. Last Friday, Trump announced he was pulling about $400 million in federal funds from Columbia University, citing the school’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Over the weekend, the Trump administration detained and attempted to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is married to an American. Khalil was a spokesperson for pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia’s campus during his time there as a graduate student, drawing the ire of pro-Israel groups. ➆

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conversation in one breath then call them a terrorist in the next is not someone who will be collaborative on the city council,” Grant wrote.

Schachter, in her own forum post, dismissed Grant’s accusation while accusing her and other Progressives of attempting to smear her reputation so close to an election. Schachter wrote that she has no problem with councilors wearing ke yehs — only that they did so on October 7 — and that she had reached out to Grant to discuss the matter but never heard back.

Grant denies the contention, and provided Seven Days with emails showing that she had previously offered to discuss Israeli-Palestinian issues with Schachter but that she was the one who never responded.

The candidates’ preelection exchange prompted a flurry of forum posts and a mass email from the Burlington Democratic Committee, in which Council President Traverse called the Progs’ campaign tactics “Trumpian,” referring to Grant’s post and to other Progs who had criticized Schachter for accepting donations from real estate developers. In a separate email blast, outgoing Councilor Joan Shannon (D-South District) accused Grant of harassing Schachter.

The East District covers student-heavy wards 1 and 8. On March 2 — two days before the election — the UVM Students for Justice in Palestine group posted on Instagram, calling Schachter a “racist, Zionist, police-bootlicking apartheid supporter.” An image depicted the candidate with red laser eyes superimposed on a photo of Gaza under siege. The following day, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, took to Instagram to condemn the “harmful and divisive rhetoric” in council campaigns.

Schachter, in a follow-up email to Seven Days , said she’d been targeted by others besides Grant who misconstrued her positions, heckled her at events and made her feel unsafe. “I felt repeatedly demonized and dehumanized,” she wrote.

When Schachter won on March 4, speech after speech at the Dems’ victory party that night condemned the attacks on Schachter.

The Progs and their allies resorted to “nasty personal attacks, outright lies and just bizarre accusations,” Councilor Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6) said to cheers. “There is a di erence between speaking up for what you believe is right and trying to take down your neighbor.”

Grant, meanwhile, appeared near tears during a live election night interview on Town Meeting TV.

“I talked about a way a candidate

I’M NOT FEELING GOOD ABOUT WORKING WITH PEOPLE WHO OPENLY LIED ABOUT ME, AND I WON’T BE SILENT ABOUT IT.

COUNCILOR MELO GRANT

treated me, and I told the truth,” she said. “I’m not feeling good about working with people who openly lied about me, and I won’t be silent about it.”

Trolls on Reddit lambasted Grant for having a “meltdown” on television. Others labeled her “unhinged, crazy and narcissistic,” she said.

hip-hop DJ — and handed the councilor a bouquet of ﬂowers.

In a subsequent interview with Seven Days, Grant said she stands by her social media post and decision to wear the keyeh, saying she meant no o ense.

Schachter, meantime, walked back her association with the Shalom Alliance’s email, saying the draft she signed didn’t equate the keffiyeh with support for Hamas. She said she hadn’t seen the final version before it was sent out but that the expression of pain behind the message, however imperfect, was legitimate.

In a follow-up email, Schachter added that she is both concerned about antisemitism and pro-Palestinian.

“To me, these are not at odds,” she wrote. “Holding both of these concerns alongside each other is essential to bringing about lasting peace.”

The unresolved conﬂict could continue into the council’s new term, which begins April 7. Democrats and Progressives are already frequently at odds, particularly over public safety matters. In recent months, Dems have expressed frustration that Mulvaney-Stanak hasn’t more quickly addressed spiking crime and homelessness and have introduced resolutions meant to push the pace. But Progs say the other party doesn’t always consult with the mayor — or with Grant, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee — leading to some prickly debates at city hall.

The Israeli-Palestinian issue, too, could very well resurface. Organizers of the twice-failed apartheid-free ballot item pledged to try again.

Traverse, the council president, acknowledged that the tension between Grant and Schachter could make for a rocky road. But he thinks there will be opportunities to smooth things out.

“We all see the same issues before Burlington right now,” he said. “With everything going on at the federal level, it’s going to be important that we stand together for the beneﬁt of Burlington.”

Neither Grant nor Schachter has contacted the other, though both separately told Seven Days that they’d be willing to meet — Grant with more hesitation than her Dem counterpart. Schachter has also reached out to the city’s Community Justice Center about ways to mediate a resolution.

Several speakers during public forum at Monday’s city council meeting defended Grant against attacks she endured on social media, saying the councilor “tells things like they are.” Rachel Siegel took out her phone and queued up a song from the Wu-Tang Clan — one of Grant’s favorite groups and a nod to her longtime gig as a

Bergman seems willing to give Schachter a chance, noting that they had a lengthy and productive meeting not long after the email about the ke yehs went out.

“I will use that conversation as a counter to what I thought was an outrageous letter,” Bergman said. “I would like me and other people to be able to move to a place where we are really working for a common good.”

Councilor-elect Allie Schachter

Councilor Melo Grant wearing a kefﬁyeh on October 7

Committee Again Recommends Saunders for Education Secretary

STORY & PHOTO BY ALISON NOVAK • alison@sevendaysvt.com

For the second time in 11 months, Zoie Saunders sat in front of the Senate Education Committee and explained to its members why she deserved to have the top education job in the state.

Last year, as a newcomer to Vermont, she spoke about her experience working in Florida. This time around, on Tuesday, she made the case that she has improved the Agency of Education during her tenure leading it.

For the most part, the six legislators on the committee seemed to like what they heard. Five of them — three Republicans and two Democrats — voted to advance Saunders’ nomination as education secretary. Just one, Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden-Southeast) voted against it.

Saunders is now expected to face a vote of the full Senate on Thursday. It will be an opportunity for her to win majority support from the 30-member body, which rejected her nomination last year by a 19-9 margin. Gov. Phil Scott appointed her on an interim basis anyway, then named her to the permanent position in November.

Under state statute, the education secretary appointment is subject to the advice and consent of the full Senate. That means she needs the body’s sign-off, even though she’s technically already held the position for a year.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Saunders spoke for 30 minutes about how she had strengthened the agency in four key areas: providing support to the field, improving data quality, addressing compliance issues and building a positive culture.

“I see my confirmation as a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of the Agency of Education over the past year,” Saunders told lawmakers.

Saunders said that since she began serving in the secretary role, she had done what she had promised.

“I have listened. I have learned. I have led on things that matter most to Vermonters,” Saunders said. “Despite all the noise and distraction, I have been resolute in my focus on showing up every day for Vermont students and educators.”

The line of questioning from most Senate Education Committee members was friendly.

Before he began, Sen. Nader Hashim (D-Windham) told Saunders that he would vote to advance her nomination — a reversal from last year.

“From my perspective, when it comes to voting for these confirmations, it’s not necessarily, Do I agree with whatever policies are coming out?” Hashim explained. “I think, more so, it’s a focus on, Is the person able to do the job? Do they communicate clearly? Do they have a background in this? And Are they a leader?”

Hashim said he appreciated that even after his no vote last year, Saunders came to Windham County and was helpful and communicative.

The toughest questions came from Ram Hinsdale, who was not on the committee last year. Ram Hinsdale said she’s found that when Vermonters lack faith in candidates, then change their minds, they let their legislators know.

“I struggled to find those kinds of comments going into this hearing,”

Ram Hinsdale said. She said she heard from many educators in the field that they are concerned about how the Agency of Education is functioning and the governor’s education transformation plan, which Saunders has worked to promote over the past several months.

Ram Hinsdale asked Saunders what grade she would give herself as secretary and what grade she thought educators would give her.

Saunders said that “from a growth perspective,” the agency was “ranking at an ‘A’” for being able to identify and address long-standing, complex problems. Saunders acknowledged that teachers still needed additional support but said she was working to “realign” the agency so it can better deliver on that.

Ram Hinsdale asked whether Saunders would provide the names of five people, including superintendents and teachers, who could speak to how the agency is functioning better under her leadership.

Saunders declined.

“I don’t want to politicize our work,” Saunders said. “I understand that I have to operate in that political space, but I really work to protect our team and the field from having to be in that position.”

Saunders said people had offered to write letters of support for her and she told them not to.

“I don’t think that that’s appropriate,” Saunders said. “I think we need to be focused on the work. I think the results and the initiatives we’ve been able to accomplish stand on their own.” ➆

Zoie Saunders speaking with members of the Senate Education Committee

Job of the Week

BUSINESS

Burke Receiver Nears Sale as Other Investors Beg for a Shot

BY ANNE WALLACE ALLEN • anne@sevendaysvt.com

Corporate Development Coordinator

Part time

Vermont Parks Forever, the nonprofit foundation for Vermont State Parks, is seeking a part-time Corporate Development Coordinator to join our small and mighty team in handling many aspects of corporate partnerships, fundraising, and communications through social media. This 20 hour/week remote position will manage and grow our existing business partnership program and contribute to our overall development strategy. Please submit a cover letter describing your interest, resume, qualifications and your favorite VT State Park experience, to info@vermontparksforever.org. Position open until filled. Priority given to applications received by March 16th. Full description at vermontparksforever.org

The

Scoop on Vermont Parks Forever

Sarah Alberghini Winters, Executive Director

What are some speciﬁc challenges of this position?

e corporate development coordinator will need to excel at (and enjoy!) wrangling the many moving parts of the role, such as building strong relationships with dozens of local businesses, using creative social media to share Vermont Parks Forever’s (VPF) work and being a positive contributor on VPF’s small team. is position is critical for sustainable funding and directly impacts VPF’s ability to make the 55 state parks even better. Every day will be different!

What is unique about working for Vermont Parks Forever?

VPF is currently a team of three working remotely from different areas of Vermont. We collaborate with awesome partners at Vermont State Parks and our amazing board of directors to create a lasting impact on the park system and everyone who enjoys it. We work hard, laugh a lot and wish we could spend even more time in the beautiful state parks. Who doesn’t?

The Florida lawyer in charge of selling the beleaguered Burke Mountain ski area says he is close to a deal with an unnamed buyer. But that hasn’t stopped two investors from trying to publicly make the case that they should be allowed to buy the resort.

Todd Firestone and his business partner, Mark Greenberg, are pressing bankruptcy receiver Michael Goldberg to hold a public auction for the property.

“This should be a public process,” Firestone said last Friday at a meeting organized to rally locals to their cause. Several dozen people showed up to the Burke Community Center and approximately 75 tuned in on Zoom. None seem too enthused by the investors’ presentation.

And Goldberg, in a statement released on March 5, made clear he wants nothing to do with Greenberg and Firestone.

“To set the record straight, I directly dealt with the Firestone Group for nine months in 2023-24 and at the last minute they attempted in bad faith to renegotiate a lower price after we had already reached agreement on terms and spent thousands of dollars finalizing a contract,” Goldberg wrote.

Instead, Goldberg said he is working with a “much more credible and financially capable” potential buyer who is offering a higher price than Greenberg and Firestone.

Goldberg was appointed by a judge in 2016 to sell the resort, one of several tied up in a far-reaching financial scandal involving EB-5 visas and several Northeast Kingdom properties.

Firestone acknowledged last Friday that his group had lowered its original offer, saying that difficulty in communicating with Goldberg’s office caused delays that eroded the value of the ski area. The investors previously told Seven Days that Goldberg ignored them after that point. Firestone later walked back that claim.

“I think he was speaking a little colloquially,” Firestone said of his partner. “He’s frustrated.”

Now the pair seem eager for a second chance.

Greenberg appealed directly to Goldberg from the podium of the community center. He noted that the receiver sold Jay Peak, another property involved in the EB-5 fraud, at auction for $76 million.

“If I was talking to Goldberg, I’d say, ‘You just had a very successful sale at Jay; it went for a really good price,’” he said. “Let’s just do that here and see what happens.”

Several members of the public stood to question the pair about their planned improvements for the resort, which has a hotel and conference center. The two have outlined proposals for hotel, lodge and lift improvements and a snowmaking overhaul.

A couple of attendees used the word “uncomfortable” to describe their reactions to the purchase pitch.

“It sounds like the receiver is at the finish line with a group that has deep, deep connections with the community already,” said Abby Long, executive director of Kingdom Trails, a mountain biking network headquartered near the ski resort.

She said an auction might introduce prospective buyers who have no local ties.

“I look back at all the different owners the mountain has had, some not so great for the community,” Long said. “I hope you recognize there is some fear and anxiety involved in going to auction.”

The overall response at the meeting was tepid, with only a few people offering comments or questions.

Afterward, Firestone said he had hoped for a little more enthusiasm.

“I get it — they’re skeptical,” he added. “There’s been a lot of failure over the last 50 years.” ➆

Burke Mountain Resort

ANTARCTICA

FEEDback

and clean energy — areas where these professionals could make a real difference.

Montpelier should act swiftly to create programs that retain and harness the talents of these resourceful and innovative individuals. As the Chinese proverb says: “A crisis is an opportunity riding a dangerous wind.” Let’s turn this challenge into an opportunity for Vermont’s future.

Yatman Lai SOUTH BURLINGTON

MORE TO SEE IN BRATTLEBORO

Continuing with your theme of Brattleboro being a cultural hub [“Extremely Brattleboro,” February 5], I wanted to corroborate writer Chris Farnsworth’s findings and augment them further.

Brattleboro has one of the more active and vibrant visual art scenes in our state. There are more art galleries in relation to the size of the population base than any other community I can think of. Among the notables: Mitchell Giddings Fine Art, a professional, well-developed space with a carefully curated roster of artists that the gallery represents; Gallery in the Woods, a wonderful combination of Latin American Indigenous work, self-trained “outsider” artists, well-executed crafts and jewelry; the Harmony Collective Artist Gallery, a large grouping of predominately local artists working in a wide range of mediums; and, finally, the CX Silver Gallery, a true gem hiding in plain sight. It is just enough off the beaten path to not be a direct hit for the unaware visitor to town. It is, however, worth a specific visit, having both a substantial roster of artists and exhibitions as well as an extensive publication program, all nestled around a takeout dim sum purveyor. Additionally, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, which received a few comments in your recent article, has a very adventurous and pioneering exhibitions program, making it a must-see either when in the area or as an intentional destination to ensure viewing. Opening on March 22, we will be curating an exhibition there entitled “Nye Ffarrabas: Truth IS a Verb!” This will be the first museum survey for the 92-year-old Nye, one of the few surviving first-generation Fluxus artists. Her 93rd birthday occurs during the run of the exhibition and will be celebrated in the “spirit of Fluxus.” We encourage interested folks to come down to see this exhibition as well as the other concurrent shows on view at BMAC. While in town, please take in the many cultural attractions there.

Mark S. Waskow BARRE

Waskow is president of the Northern New England Museum of Contemporary Art.

BACKWARD PHOTO?

I am a regular reader of Seven Days and am very pleased with your overall level of proofreading. Almost nothing grits me more than an obvious misspelling in a good article, but something that is at the same level of angst is a picture that is obviously printed backward, especially when it involves a business name in a featured article. A good example of such is the business sign in the larger picture on page 13 of the March 5 story “Feeding the Local Economy.” How could you possibly have missed that one — especially in a “From the Publisher” essay?!

David Keenan ESSEX

Editor’s note: The image is correct. The Café HOT. has side-by-side signs. One is written backward, as shown in the published photo.

HEALTH CARE COSTS TOO MUCH

[Re “State Treasurer Pieciak Proposes Medical Debt Relief Program,” January 21]: At the Vermont Office of the Health Care Advocate, we see the toll that medical debt takes on families.

When we interviewed Vermonters across the state about the impact of medical debt on their lives, the message was clear: They appreciate the care they received; they like and trust their providers and want them to be paid but often simply do not have the money.

State Treasurer Mike Pieciak recently put forward a proposal — S.27 — to eliminate up to $100 million of medical debt with a one-time investment of just $1 million. Requiring no additional state spending, the program would provide immediate relief to thousands of

Fridays but currently has a Wednesday “seasonal” flight operating. I’m planning to do more flying back and forth by myself in the coming year. It will be nice to have flights that I can depend on. Thank you, Breeze, for sparing me any more traumatic layovers, especially at JFK!

Many Vermonters fly Allegiant between Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Punta Gorda, Fla., especially those headed to the Venice/Sarasota area of Florida. However, between having to cross the lake and Allegiant’s propensity to randomly cancel flights, I think we will see Breeze pick up many of its passengers — my last flight from BTV to RSW had many people who didn’t find out their Allegiant flight was canceled on a Sunday evening until they arrived in Plattsburgh. They were thrilled to find out about Breeze!

Vermonters. The bill would also protect Vermonters’ credit scores from being impacted by medical debt.

No one chooses to get sick or injured, and yet our health care system too often punishes people for getting the care they need. The fact that the United States has at least $220 billion of medical debt makes clear that this is a problem with our health care system, not individual failing.

We hope the fact that Vermonters have at least $100 million in medical debt to be forgiven is evidence enough of the need for bold, systemic reform to fix our broken health care system.

Vermont must urgently reduce health care prices to ensure that all Vermonters can get the care they need at the right place, at the right time.

Mike Fisher BRISTOL

Fisher is Vermont’s health care advocate.

WAY TO FLY

[Re From the Publisher: “Getting There From Here,” February 19]: Breeze airline has become our lifeline between BTV and Fort Myers, Fla., aka RSW. My husband has progressing Parkinson’s disease, making traveling very difficult for him. We cannot risk layovers or missed planes at any airport in between because he would become extremely anxious and miserable. I book long in advance so he has a frontrow seat, as he cannot get up from the inner-row seats. The short flight, usually three hours, is a blessing. As I travel with a cat, I can’t sit with him, but his seatmates are always willing to help open packages and drinks and even help him out of his seat if necessary.

It looks like most of the year Breeze will fly to and from RSW on Mondays and

DO UNTO DOGE

[Re “Vermonters Brave Harsh Weather to Protest Trump,” February 17, online]: For the past few weeks — since January 20, to be exact — “DOGE” is the word that captures the attention of the printed and broadcast press and the public. But how best to declare the meaning and pronunciation of this amalgamation of letters? (Lexicographers, please take note.)

It certainly is not an official government agency, nor department, nor commission, nor whatever, as Congress never created it nor granted it authority. But it is, apparently, in Washington, D.C., the seat of our government of, by and for the people — or that town used to be.

As for the sound the letters make when pushed out together, as with any acronym that tries to squeeze or scramble a group of words into a new sound with a new meaning, I suggest (now, step carefully!), for the sake of clear enunciation, let’s add a few letters. Let’s now call DOGE what it is: DOGEE DOO.

Ross Connelly HARDWICK

POINTED QUESTIONS

[Re “Burlington City Council to Study Needle-Exchange Program,” October 28, 2024, online]: The Department of Health appears to be living with its head in the sand. In December, it issued an RFP to fund additional “syringe services programs” throughout Vermont. Despite the failure of the large program operated by Howard Center in Burlington, the RFP places no requirement for a needle exchange, for users to seek treatment, or

Victoria Ross COLCHESTER

The Café HOT. in Burlington

for placement away from schools and residences. Minimizing impact on the community is a major omission. The department seems content to replicate the damage the Howard Center program is doing to Burlington — 15,000 needles a month dumped in Burlington and open drug use on its Clarke Street property — in other parts of Vermont. In addition, the RFP states that an advisory board made up only of supporters must be established.

Where are the voices of the residents affected by the center, of the police responsible for drug enforcement, and of the EMTs reviving overdoses and dealing with fatalities? If the target communities knew how badly Howard Center’s Safe Recovery center in Burlington is managed and the devastating impact it is having on the community, they would protest the creation of these drug abuse magnets in their communities.

Robert Perry WARREN

GOOD DEAL?

[Re “Fired Migrant Workers Protest at Lumberyard,” February 7, online]: In this article, I noticed that the number of employees was not listed, so I counted the number of people in the picture. Minus the “20 supporters,” it looked like five workers, though it could have been as many as eight.

They made $16 per hour and had housing, including heat and electricity, for free

The value of that would actually put the compensation for their job at well over $20 per hour.

I think someone was egging the workers on to stage the standoff, and I hope they are going to help them get another job and housing. Their response of “That’s humiliating” to the rehire offer of $14.50 is exactly what they were trying to do to Lamell Lumber.

Lillian St. Hilaire COLCHESTER

GOV DESERVES BETTER

Tim Newcomb’s editorial cartoon in your February 26 issue is very unfair in its depiction of Gov. Phil Scott. The implication that he is a DOGE stooge, stealing food from children, misrepresents his concern that school meals are subsidized for all, regardless of family income.

No one resents paying to feed children in genuine need; buying the meals of children of better-off families, however, is an unnecessary burden on taxpayers and, indeed, a subsidy for taxpayers who least need one.

Perhaps a universal meal voucher, free to low-income families and assessed on a sliding scale on the state income tax form, would address the issue of sensitivity and stigma to which poorer students might be subjected. Tarring the governor as a heartless Musketeer was a cheap and inaccurate shot.

Charles Siegchrist JERICHO

Nerio Jimenez leading the protest by migrant workers

VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

Mark E. Sikora II

OCTOBER 5, 1946MARCH 8, 2025

RICHMOND, VT.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Mark E. Sikora II on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Mark was born in Burlington, Vt., on October 5, 1946, to Mark E. Sikora and Elizabeth (Guyette) Sikora. Mark attended Rice Memorial High School and graduated in 1964. He attended Champlain College and graduated in 1969. He was a member of the Vermont Air National Guard for almost 20 years. Mark met Kathleen (Kathy) Oak in Plattsburgh, N.Y., in 1966, and they were married in 1968. eir ﬁrst son was born while living in an apartment in Burlington

John William Paeplow, DVM

FEBRUARY 5, 1941FEBRUARY 21, 2025

GEORGIA, VT.

above Sikora’s Shoe Repair, where he had worked through high school and college with his grandfather and uncle. Mark and his family moved to Long Island, N.Y., for two years, where he worked for an auto parts company. Mark returned with his family to his beloved Vermont in 1971,

John William Paeplow, DVM passed away peacefully at Woodbridge Rehabilitation and Nursing in Berlin, Vt., on Friday, February 21, 2025. John was born on February 5, 1941, to William and Jane (Cummings)

Paeplow in Buffalo, N.Y. He spent his childhood in Snyder, N.Y. He enjoyed playing sports with friends and neighbors, ﬁshing with his father, and family vacations in the Zoar Valley. His fondest memories were of spending parts of his summers with his Canadian cousins, Bill, Dick and Harold (Ozzie) Miller, on their farm in Guelph, Ontario. He developed a sincere admiration for his uncle, Dr. Henry Miller. Later in life, he would

where they welcomed their second son while living in South Hero. ey moved to Richmond in 1973.

In 1971 Mark and Kathy started Sikora Auto Parts, which was a successful business. In the early years, Mark would sell auto parts out of his truck, and in 1987 they opened a retail store in Richmond. ey sold the business to Maynard Auto Supply in 1994. Mark continued seeing his customers, many of whom became friends, until May 2024, when he ﬁnally had to retire from Fisher Auto Parts due to health complications. He always considered himself a “wagon peddler” rather than a salesman. He loved working. As their children grew, they took up golf, something they both enjoyed. Mark

often tell people that he patterned his life after him. One of his favorite stories about Dr. Miller was how the man would administer his services based on a sliding fee scale, then donate the surplus funds to needy people around Guelph. Whenever John helped a neighbor or donated his own time or resources to some community project or initiative, it was probably Henry’s inﬂuence weighing on him.

John was an accomplished athlete at Amherst Senior High School.

Following graduation, he attended Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. ere, he pursued a bachelor’s degree in agronomy, followed by a doctorate in veterinary medicine.

John moved to northern Vermont to start his practice. He began his career as a large-animal specialist, which gave him the opportunity to visit the dairy farms and meet the people throughout the region. Being a real “people person,” John truly enjoyed these interactions. However,

and Kathy were longtime members at the West Bolton Golf Club and played courses throughout Vermont, the U.S. and Canada. Golf was often the reason for or part of their vacations. Mark wouldn’t have said he loved to travel, but he did enjoy the destinations and experiences shared with family and friends. eir last road trip was in September 2024, to visit their grandson in Colorado and see parts of the U.S. and Canada they had never seen before. Major trips included Bermuda, Costa Rica, Margarita Island, and a river cruise through the Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland. Mark was a lifelong ﬁsherman and hunter. He looked forward to annual hunting trips to New York and

after a few years of driving through whiteout blizzards in the middle of the night to deliver a calf or tend to a colicky horse, John began exploring the merits of hosting a small-animal practice.

John married eresa Isabel Duffy of Milton, Vt. ey settled in Georgia, Vt., and took great joy in watching their three active sons, John William (“Bill”), Patrick and Martin, grow up. In the summer, they travelled extensively. e highlight of the winter was ﬂooding their tennis court to form a hockey rink that was enjoyed by many in the community. John has several happy memories of these years surrounded by his immediate and extended family, as well as the many friends he made along the way.

Although veterinary medicine was the focus of his professional interests, John’s passion for folk music, especially the banjo, lasted a lifetime. In his later years, he was happiest strumming his banjo and singing along. He also drew a sense of fulﬁllment from working Belgian draft horses, as well as the succession of German shepherd dogs he owned over the years.

Late in life, John battled through serious health challenges. He faced these with the same “never give up, never give in” mantra he lived his

Pennsylvania with his son, grandson and best friend, Jimmy Dattilio. Mark often greeted you with a smile or a joke and usually with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He was a friend to many.

Mark is survived by his wife, Kathy; sons, Mark and Matthew (Heather Gibbs); grandsons, Johnathin (Liza Sikora) and Tyler; greatgrandchildren, Lukas Ladieu, Mackenzie Ladieu, Ace Sikora and Sophia Sikora; siblings, Netti (Jerome Rand), Jeffrey (Kathleen Malaney) and Jill (Robert Cain); nieces and nephews Nolan Cain, Sikora Cain, Molly Dedes (Alex), Kristen Winningham (Nico) and Jay Rand (Charlotte); aunt, Patricia Sikora; and many cousins, friends, neighbors and customers.

entire life by. e nurses, along with the entire staff, of the Woodbridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center were steadfast allies in this ﬁnal battle. ey went far above and beyond the call of duty consistently and certainly demonstrated themselves to be testaments to their professions. To list them all by name would become oppressive to the reader while risking omission.

John is survived by his sons, Bill of Georgia, Vt., Patrick of Goffstown, N.H., and Martin (Dez-Ann) of Manchester, N.H.; his grandchildren, Julien Paeplow and Lesly Zapata; and his sister, Margaret (Richard) Viehe of Newport Beach, Calif., and Chautauqua, N.Y.

John’s family will receive family and friends on Saturday, March 15, 2025, 10 a.m. to noon, at the Heald Funeral Home, 87 South Main St., St. Albans, VT. A memorial service will be held at noon, with the Reverend Dr. Russell Willis ofﬁciating. In lieu of ﬂowers, donations may be made in John’s memory to Franklin County Animal Rescue, 30 Sunset Meadow, St. Albans, VT 05478.

Assisting John’s family is the Heald Funeral Home, where messages of condolence are welcome at healdfuneralhome.com.

He was predeceased by his parents, Mark and Elizabeth Sikora; his mother- and father-in-law, Molly and Jack Oak; and niece Chelsea Sikora.

Visiting hours will be on Saturday, March 15, 2025, 4 to 6 p.m., at Ready Funeral Home, 68 Pinecrest Dr., Essex Junction, VT. A gathering for his friends and family will be announced at a later date.

In lieu of ﬂowers, please make contributions to the Green Mountain Conservation Camp Endowment Fund, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept., 1 National Life Dr., Davis 2, Montpelier, VT 056203702, or Machia Wilderness Camp, 703 Dorset St., South Burlington, VT 05403. Please visit their websites for donation information.

Pat transitioned peacefully on March 1, 2025, at the McClure Miller Respite House, with his son Brad by his side. A loving father and brother, he was also a character — opinionated, quirky, a dedicated scientist and EQ wizard.

Underhill was his home for the last 40-plus years. Walk in the woods to remember him.

Alex Barrett Katrick

JUNE 19, 1990FEBRUARY 20, 2025 WINOOSKI, VT.

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Alex Barrett Katrick on February 20, 2025, in Winooski, Vt. Born on June 19, 1990, in Oregon, Ohio, Alex was the beloved son of Kimberly Daniels and Mark Katrick. Growing up in Ohio and Vermont, he graduated from Montpelier High School in 2008 and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston.

A gifted musician, Alex had a remarkable ability to master new instruments with ease, especially the guitar and trumpet, and loved experimenting with electronic music. Whether composing, jamming with friends or immersing in new sounds, music was his heartbeat — an

Mark Vanyush

FEBRUARY 22, 1955MARCH 8, 2025

MILTON, VT.

Mark Vanyush, 70, of Milton, Vt., passed away on March 8, 2025, surrounded by loved ones at the McClure Miller Respite House after an eight-year battle with prostate cancer. He was born on February 22, 1955, in Springfield, Pa., to Benedict and Alene Vanyush. Mark grew up in South Burlington, Vt. He graduated from South Burlington High School in 1973 and from the University of Vermont with a degree in education in 1977. Mark was a lifelong educator, having taught history at Mater Christi School before teaching woodshop and design and technology in the Milton Town School District. His teaching career as “Mr. V” spanned more than 40 years, and he will be fondly remembered for his sense of humor, his interesting projects and his crazy ties. As a side job to teaching, Mark was also a wedding DJ for more than 20 years, sharing his love for all types of music.

A master craftsman,

endless source of expression and resilience in the face of chronic illness.

Alex’s sharp intellect and boundless curiosity led to explorations of mathematical theory, programming and experimental physics. He loved video games, philosophical debates and thought-provoking conversations. Alex had a unique way of seeing the world — blending humor, insight

Mark handcrafted beautiful custom bookshelves, tables, beds, Adirondack chairs, a wedding blanket chest for his daughter, toys for his grandchildren and a one-ofa-kind door inspired by The Hobbit for his grandson. Mark could fix anything and was willing to take on any project you asked of him. Mark was also an avid antique radio collector and loved the challenge of refurbishing them. He was always tinkering and loved spending his weekends working on his farmhouse, fixing up his cars with his son and coming up with project ideas to do with his grandson.

Mark was a dedicated family man and a doting

and a passion for discovery. Though prolonged illness sometimes created isolation, those who knew Alex will always remember a mind that never stopped seeking, a spirit that never stopped creating and a heart that left an indelible mark.

Alex is survived by his parents, Kimberly Daniels of Marlboro, Vt., and Mark Katrick of Newark, Ohio; siblings, Nikolas Katrick of Marlboro, Robin Katrick of Burlington, Vt., and Nik’s spouse, Trey Wentworth of Marlboro; as well as loving aunts, uncles and cousins. Alex was preceded in death by his cherished grandparents, Albert and Clare (Wright) Katrick and Robert and Barbara (Barrett) Daniels, along with other beloved relatives.

A private celebration of Alex’s life will be held on June 21, 2025, in Marlboro.

grandfather. He was a great cook, and some of his favorite moments were enjoying Sunday dinners and holidays with his family, as well as taking yearly trips to Cape Cod. He loved his family with his whole heart, and he made fast friends with everyone he met. Mark is survived by his wife of 47 years, Renee; his son, Collin, and wife Sarah; his daughter, Anna DeGraff, and husband Javan; and his two grandchildren, Robert (6) and Valerie (1) DeGraff. Mark will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him, and his time with us was truly a blessing.

Per Mark’s wishes, a private celebration of life will occur at a later date. In lieu of flowers, his family asks for donations in his name to the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester, Vt. The family would also like to give thanks for the wonderful care he received from the UVM Hospice team, Dr. Paul Unger and staff, and from Dr. Pamela Dawson. His wish was to stay at home as long as he could, and they all helped make that possible. The family invites you to share your memories by visiting awrfh.com.

Want to memorialize a loved one?

TIf We Don’t Have It, You Don’t Need It

BY SEVEN DAYS STAFF

he Benson General Store was the kind of place you would go to pick up a roll of paper towels and leave hours later, having enjoyed a long conversation with a neighbor you hadn’t seen in weeks. It was the post o ce, the gas station, the grocery store, the food shelf, the bus stop and the watering hole.

“It was the beating heart of our village,” said Linda Peltier, who has lived for 43 years in Benson, a quiet farm town of 974 in northern Rutland County. Then, in 2019, the store burned down. The impact was devastating. “People were crying in the street,” Peltier remembered.

In the years since, residents have gotten used to commuting 40 minutes roundtrip to get groceries — but they haven’t adjusted to losing the store where much of the town’s communal life took place.

The story isn’t over. Peltier and her friend Jean McKeever founded the Benson General Store Community Enterprise in 2023 to rebuild the burned-down store. They’ve assembled a committee of 29 supporters, won a $475,000 grant to get started, raised $45,000 in donations and have plans for a capital campaign. Their goal is to break ground this year.

“I don’t feel like we’re doing this alone,” Peltier said. “We’re part of a cohort of Vermonters revitalizing general stores.”

The traditional role of the general store has been staunchly utilitarian: to sell groceries and dry goods — essentials — and turn a proﬁt for the owners. Modernity has threatened that model. Storekeepers must contend with aging buildings that require expensive upkeep, the di culties of succession planning, the challenges of keeping prices low in rural places and the ease of online shopping — why stop by the

general store when one can order paper towels with the click of a button? Many owners can no longer count on earning a good living from their 60-hour workweeks — a recipe for burnout.

These days, it can even be hard to deﬁne exactly what a general store is. By generous definitions, Maplefields or Dollar General might qualify. On the other end of the spectrum are more tourist-oriented places such as the Warren Store.

Certainly, general stores are places where one can buy necessities. (“If we don’t have it, you don’t need it” said a sign that hung for years in the window of Wayside Country Store in West Arlington.) More than that, when general stores are done right, they’re places that residents feel belong to them . So, as Peltier said, in recent years when an owner has announced that a village store may close,

to save the Lincoln General Store last fall. And in Stra ord, Lauri Berkenkamp, mother of singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, is helping lead a community effort to purchase Coburns’ General Store.

To survive, the new owners bring change to their shelves — whether that’s adding new products, such as a community thrift shop above the West Townshend Country Store, or events like wine tastings at Pierce’s Store in North Shrewsbury.

One thing is apparent: Vermont’s 70 remaining general stores are precious to their communities, and they won’t be allowed to disappear without a ﬁght.

“You can’t go into the Craftsbury General Store and not feel a little tinge of, Oh, I wish I lived here ,” said Ben Doyle, president of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, which has helped about 10 towns sustain their general stores through community-supported enterprises.

That sense of collective ownership, of shared space and intent, is a critical part of the general store formula — and of what is at stake for communities.

“They’re one of the last great egalitarian places we have,” Doyle said.

communities often step up to keep the place open.

The examples are myriad: When Buxton’s Store in Orwell announced in October that it would shut its doors after 57 years in business, residents started fundraising to reopen the store as a community-supported enterprise. Katie and Kyle Clark of electric aviation company Beta Technologies stepped in

Seven Days reporters visited a sampling of these places across the state. Each spot has adopted a di erent approach to keeping the business aﬂoat and o ers a distinct look at what it takes for general stores to stay alive in the modern age — and why it’s so important that they do.

Ultimately, general stores o er something rare in these isolating times: a place to do the messy, mundane and often profound work of being neighbors.

RACHEL HELLMAN

Pierce’s Store in North Shrewsbury

COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY

Pierce’s Store, North Shrewsbury

The phone rings a lot at Pierce’s Store. Shrewsbury residents call to find out if the plow has come through yet or if a particular item is in stock. Some just ask for Martha. (Cell service in town is pretty bad.)

Personal phone calls are usually frowned upon while working. But it’s easier to get away with when you’re a volunteer, as many are at the circa-1865 general store in North Shrewsbury. Volunteer labor supplements the six paid staff, with community members doing everything from running the register to cutting fish. Everybody pitches in — the same spirit that brought the store back to life 15 years after the Pierce family closed its doors in 1993.

When Marjorie Pierce died in 2001, she bequeathed the store to the Preservation Trust of Vermont with the goal that it would once again serve the town. Using the Adamant Co-op as inspiration, a group of roughly 25 residents worked with the trust to form the Shrewsbury Cooperative at Pierce’s Store and reopened in 2009. By the end of its first year, the co-op had 175 members. Today, it’s 181 and still growing. At least 10 work regular shifts; others help with trash removal and plowing.

Membership costs $20, same as when the co-op began. Members’ product requests — from a particular brand of beer to canned mushrooms — inform what general managers Elena Gleed, 28, and Harry DiPrinzio, 29, stock. The old sign out front says “W.E. Pierce Groceries,” and the shelves are mostly that, with a small yet diverse selection — including mayonnaise, bulk spices, frozen rabbit meat, Shrewsbury’s Blueberries and an entire shelf of marshmallows — plus a smattering of essentials such as WD-40, Benadryl and New York Times -lauded maple fudge.

One morning in February, a group gathered in the store for Fish Friday — when 20 or so customers pick up a variety of fresh fish, all preordered and sold near wholesale price. The weekly event has happened for at least 15 years, Lavinia Seide said, and it makes for a busy day. She worked in the store’s small kitchen, portioning and weighing each order.

Throughout the day, other volunteers ran the register behind the long, low original counter, took deposits to the bank and offered feedback on lattes

Everybody pitches in — the same spirit that brought the store back to life.

from the temporary espresso machine, procured for a pop-up the following day.

“I’m usually here at least once a week,” Jean Marie Walker said, ringing up items and marking the total on

“I feel like I’m playing store,” Walker said, “and I get to socialize for a few hours.”

Larry Abelman, the 77-year-old retired retail director of Okemo Mountain Resort, is a former board member and current volunteer. He usually asks visitors if they know the tale of the moose who fell for a cow — a 76-day local love affair that made national news in 1986.

“I tell that story about four times every Saturday,” he said.

Events such as the espresso pop-up, annual chili cook-off, wine tastings and wood-fired pizza nights help draw folks to the store’s out-of-the-way location. And, at the encouragement of Sally Dyer Deinzer, a driving force in the co-op’s formation, managers Gleed and DiPrinzio urge people to “shop at Pierce’s first” before heading the 10 miles into Rutland for a major grocery store.

The couple are working with distributors to expand the store’s inventory and lower prices, turning it from an “emergency stop with prices to match” to a fully stocked grocery, Gleed said.

She and DiPrinzio, who both have extensive kitchen backgrounds, took over the store’s management last August. DiPrinzio was a teenager when Pierce’s reopened; back then, he sold his fresh pasta at the store.

Now, he makes Pierce’s sourdough bread, available by the loaf and in premade sandwiches. As he and Gleed think about how to get Pierce’s to a more sustainable economic model, expanding bread production— and even selling it to other stores — could help.

“But that’s a $15,000 investment for a new mixer and specialized oven,” DiPrinzio said, and it can be tricky to make changes in the historic building, which is still owned by the Preservation Trust.

That idea — and others, such as expanded shelving, a walk-in cooler, and an espresso or creemee machine — could be funded by a recent capital campaign, which will also help the store’s general operating budget. Like the initial call for investment when the co-op formed, the campaign was well received by the Shrewsbury community, raising $62,500.

“People are supportive of wanting the store, even if they don’t shop here all the time,” volunteer Helen Richards-Peelle, 72, said.

a customer’s account balance without needing to ask her name. A retired social worker, she moved to town five years ago and started volunteering not long after.

“It’s better than the empty building that sat here for 15 years,” Seide added.

JORDAN BARRY

Elena Gleed and Harry DiPrinzio Groceries at Pierce’s Store

Lavinia Seide portioning fish

Larry Abelman and Harry DiPrinzio by the borrowed espresso machine

FOOD ON THE SHELVES

Johnson General Store

Mike Mignone juggled his infant daughter from one arm to the other as he surveyed the former smoke shop that will soon become Johnson General Store. The 1,100-square-foot space was in varying states of work in progress: A replacement toilet sat near where a new oven would be installed; salvaged shelves lined one wall, ready to be filled; scrap plywood was stacked haphazardly in the future kitchen.

“We’ve just been scrambling,” said Mignone, who is opening the general store with his fiancée, Haley Newman, 30. With his salt-and-pepper beard and snapback hat, the 42-year-old looked the part of the New York City transplant that he is. “I think as long as we have food on the shelves, people will be happy,” he concluded.

He’s probably right. In the public imagination, Vermont general stores are hallowed for their role in creating community, as places where neighbors can count on running into one another and “there’s, like, six old dudes just standing around, drinking coffee for 20 minutes,” as Mignone put it.

But his project is a reminder that a general store’s reason for being is to serve a more fundamental need — for essential, accessible food. Johnson residents have been without a grocery store since 2023, when torrential flooding devastated the town and permanently closed Sterling Market.

Its absence has affected everyone, including Mignone, who lamented that later that day he’d have to drive to Morrisville — 30 minutes round trip — to get the tomatoes he needed. And he considers himself lucky. In Johnson, which has one of the highest poverty rates in the state, it can be a struggle for those without a car to shop for fresh, affordable food.

In fact, just 500 feet down the road, two older men — Richard Whittemore and Tom Foley — lamented the price of eggs while clutching coffees at the Maplefields gas station-convenience store, which offers a small assortment of groceries, though very little fresh produce.

“Everybody’s really excited about the general store,” Whittemore, who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat, told Seven Days. “We really need it pretty badly.”

Both the town and the village of Johnson have loaned Mignone money for the store. “One of the things that struck me was how community-minded Mike is,” said Randall Szott, the town’s community and economic development specialist. “We want to see this store be a success, given all of the struggles that we’ve had since the flood.”

Mignone said he’s relied heavily on the Johnson community, which has offered all sorts of unsolicited help. A member of the town’s Food Access and Awareness Action Group launched a GoFundMe, raising about $4,000 for the store. A carpenter friend donated his time to install counters, and another plowed snow, free of charge. A battalion of twentysomethings helped clean out the

space in exchange for 6-foot bongs and psychedelic posters — remnants of the space’s former life as a smoke shop.

“The support has been kind of overwhelming,” Mignone said. “Things get frustrating and discouraging, but then I have a conversation with somebody that puts me back on the path, and I remember how badly we need to get this project up and running.”

Mignone grew up in Manhattan as part of a restaurant family and spent much of his twenties working at bars and restaurants. He had always wanted to open his own place and came one step closer last fall, when he launched Hangry Mike’s food truck in Johnson.

When he moved to town 21 years ago, he didn’t have a car. He remembers walking to Grand Union, a grocery store that closed after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and “hearing people playing music on their porches and congregating,” he said. “This town used to be very, very vibrant.” He hopes his store will help bring back some of that vitality.

Mignone plans to offer a wide variety of affordable prepared foods and a balance of low-priced and local groceries. The challenge excites him. “This might sound weird, but I love inventory,” he said.

But first come renovations to the building — a few doors down from the Johnson Woolen Mills store on Main Street — which has been a bigger job than he expected.

“I knew building a store from the ground up would be difficult,” Mignone said. “But if I knew what it would really entail, I might have thought about it a little bit harder first.”

Nevertheless, he is already in conversations with the owner about buying the building someday. In the meantime, he is leasing the two-story structure, which has an upstairs apartment that he rents out as an Airbnb to help offset his costs.

Johnson General Store is planned to open by the end of March. But if Mignone can’t get the entire space ready by then, he intends to open a small grocery section. It won’t make him much money, he said, but it will make all the difference for his neighbors.

Haley Newman and Mike Mignone with Elliot, Anne and Harper

Mike Mignone working on the store interior

The future Johnson General Store

LIVING WITH GHOSTS

Jericho Country Store

When Valerie Sodano bought the Jericho Center Country Store, which billed itself as “Vermont’s longest running store, in the heart of Jericho Center since 1807,” she knew what to expect from the 218-year-old building. Like the Timberholm Inn, the Stowe bed-and-breakfast she owned and operated until 2022, this one creaks and groans like a rusty hinge.

“And sometimes, the ghosts chime in,” said Sodano, 40, who lives upstairs with her 12-year-old daughter and has been awakened at night by what sounds like eerie voices and jingling keys.

Ghosts aren’t the only ones who feel that the building belongs to them. General stores provide locals with a sense of constancy and connection to the past — and each other.

Some old-timers still call the store “Desso’s,” referring to Gerry and Lillian Desso, who owned it from the 1960s to 1990s. Soon after taking over from the St. Amour family, who ran the business on the village green for 22 years, Sodano realized how hard change can be in a small community. Even minor alterations, such as new shelves or a fresh coat of paint, can make waves.

The first change on her watch was major: Soon after she took possession in June, the U.S. Postal Service closed the store’s post o ce, which leveled a double whammy. Sodano lost the rent income as well as the foot tra c of more than 100 post o ce box owners who stopped in daily for their mail and who might also buy milk or eggs and a creemee.

Most people knew the closure wasn’t Sodano’s doing, even as they mourned the loss. Chuck Lacy, 68, who lives several doors away, said his elderly mother grieved when it disappeared. It had contributed to “her own sense of place,” he added.

Then Sodano began making her own changes, which included dropping the word “Center” from the store’s name for brevity when sta answer the phone. Some customers say they’re less bothered by that than by Sodano’s new o erings, which seem to them to cater more to tourists than locals.

Drawing on her background in marketing, Sodano brought in Vermont gift items — tote bags, co ee mugs, commemorative dish towels — for the out-of-town skiers who stop on their way to and from Bolton Valley and Smugglers’ Notch, and for the visiting soldiers who train at the nearby Ethan Allen Firing Range. That shift in focus meant dropping some previously available grocery staples. When you just need a lemon or some hydrogen peroxide,

You need a sense of humor and a thick skin.

one regular said, you don’t want to drive ﬁve miles to the nearest supermarket.

Sodano also installed a digital register and reorganized the floor plan to brighten the aisles, improve customer ﬂow, and provide more space for strollers and wheelchairs. She upscaled the wine o erings, added an oven for baked goods and expanded the deli menu. The store’s best-selling item is now a panini called the Vermonter, with ham, apples, honey mustard, onions, tomato and cheddar cheese.

When Sodano removed most of the antiques from the walls — vintage cookie tins, a candy scale, a black-and-white

photo of Model T Fords parked outside — and repainted the shelves pink, it created more hubbub. Almost every day, a customer asked worriedly if she’d sold or tossed them. She hadn’t. Sodano had taken them upstairs to clean and was slowly putting them on display again.

How do customers feel about the changes now?

“They deﬁnitely dragged their heels a little bit at ﬁrst, but people have come around,” said Easton Randall, 19, a college student who’s worked there for three years.

Not everyone is sold. Chris Cleary, a 48-year-old sculptor who lives within

walking distance and still comes in regularly, misses the days when Jon St. Amour would call to let him know the night crawlers were in or the Moosehead beers were running low.

“The inventory has changed. It used to have all the country store staples,” he said. “Now, it’s more of a craft wine establishment.”

Sodano has accepted all the scrutiny with grace. As she learned from running the inn, “You need a sense of humor and a thick skin,” she said. “You’re in a ﬁsh bowl.”

On a recent Friday, two 25-year-old carpenters, Austin Jerome and Brody Snow, waited for their sandwiches by the deli counter. The men, who’ve been building a house in Jericho for months, come in twice a day for meals and snacks. Jerome described the burgers as “phenomenal.”

“It’s the only place around here that does hot food for lunch,” Snow added. When he found that the menu lacked the English mu ns he wanted for breakfast, Sodano added them.

For his part, customer Lacy is rooting for her success.

“That store is the center of the village,” he said, pointing out that it was on the market for years. All general stores are “a game of nickels,” he added. If some change is required to survive, so be it.

KEN PICARD

VALERIE SODANO

e old post ofﬁce boxes and upscaled wine selection

Valerie Sodano (center) at the Jericho Country Store

PHOTOS: KEN

A TALE OF TWO STORES

C Village Store & Deli and Craftsbury General Store

In the Northeast Kingdom town of Craftsbury, two general stores share the same road. With the help of a strong wind, Christmas tree farmer Steve Moffatt said, “You could almost spit the distance” between C Village Store & Deli and Craftsbury General Store. The former occupies a building that has hosted a shop for more than a century; the Genny, as the latter is nicknamed, is almost twice as old.

The Genny sits conveniently next to the post office, while C Village has gas pumps and the game reporting station. Both once carried hardware and opened before dawn for farmers and craftsmen, but they’ve changed with the times, as has Craftsbury itself. C Village stocks fishing worms beside Monster Energy drinks. The Genny carries Hill Farmstead Brewery beer and has a pair of kombucha taps.

“We’re the new Stowe,” observed Harry Miller, a 66-year-old builder and town lister who has watched property values climb.

Craftsbury’s roughly 1,300 residents are closely watching another recent change: In mid-January, the family that owned C Village for 17 years sold to out-of-staters who are originally from India. Transitions of beloved institutions always bring uncertainty, but several locals shared deeper concerns about how people might accept the new owners — “the racial stuff,” as Miller put it. Everyone is hoping for the best and that the sale won’t compromise Craftsbury’s unusual capacity to support two stores at a time when many rural communities struggle to hold on to one.

When asked how their small town has managed this feat, most locals credit the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The year-round destination for cross-country skiing, sculling, running and cycling annually attracts tens of thousands of visitors, some of whom put down seasonal roots. More of those folks favor the Genny — as evidenced by many skibooted customers on a recent Friday — but the town benefits broadly, and each store has carved its own slice of the expanded economic pie.

Together, the two stores employ about 30 people, a reason that Miller and Moffatt said they and many neighbors patronize both. “It reflects our commitment to supporting local jobs, local people in those jobs,” Miller said.

On February 21, Nancy Frohwein stopped by the Genny, as she usually does after picking up her mail. Clutching a container of kale salad and a banana, the 85-year-old said that during a recent snowstorm, she called the store for shoveling help and a customer soon volunteered. Though Frohwein frequents

C Village stocks fishing worms beside Monster Energy drinks. The Genny has a pair of kombucha taps.

the Genny, she said she buys her eggs at C Village because she knows the guy who raises them.

Both stores run busy deli-bakeries pumping out sandwiches, pizzas, to-go meals and sweets. The Genny sells 1,000 salted brown butter-Belgian chocolate cookies a month. C Village bakers are known for pie. “My plumber loves the maple cream,” Miller said.

But the stores diverge to meet the community’s diversity of tastes. A customer will find an array of tobacco products behind the C Village counter but none at the Genny, where the shelves behind the register hold $30 bottles of pinot noir. The Genny also carries local apples and potatoes alongside organic mangoes. C Village sells bags of frozen peas near paper-wrapped burger meat.

He said the Craftsbury store’s strong deli and “very good staff” appealed to them.

Soon after Patel arrived, Moffatt, the 57-year-old tree farmer who grew up buying candy from the store, said he came in to introduce himself. “If anybody’s willing to step up and do the work, I wish them all the success in the world,” he said.

So far, little has outwardly changed. Ten longtime employees still churn out cream pies, whip up steak-and-cheese subs, and grab packs of smokes for regulars without needing to be told the brand.

Miller and Moffatt, both former school board members, expressed concern about the expanded selection of vapes, including fruity flavors. Patel said he added more tobacco products and low-alcohol liquor nips because those sell briskly in Massachusetts. Phone chargers, another new item, are popular, said 17-year-old cashier Sage Sweeney, the former owners’ niece, before she fed a devoted regular — a pit-boxer-hound mix named Zeke — his daily ice cream sandwich. Patel watched, clearly tickled.

The dog belonged to Tony Jones, 62, one of Craftsbury’s three remaining dairy farmers. “I’m here all the time,” he said, and strongly recommended the raspberry crumb bars. He shops the Genny, too, for the “really cold Barq’s root beer.”

Iva Wright, 27, has worked in the C Village kitchen since she was 16 and said the sale was “nerve-racking,” partly because she’d never worked for anyone else but also because of the language barrier when she talks with Patel, who is still mastering fluent English. Front-end manager Tracy Washer, 40, keeps a yellow sticky note bearing phonetically spelled words in Gujarati so she can say hi to Patel’s mother on the phone. She bridges the cultural gap by gently teasing her boss about his long-distance girlfriend and how often his mom calls. “He’s like my little brother,” she said.

“We’re just really different animals,” said Genny co-owner Emily Maclure, 45, who grew up in nearby Orleans and bought the store in 2012.

Maclure and her business partners, Kit Basom and Jana Smart, also operate the Albany General Store in a building leased from a community nonprofit. There, Maclure noted, “We are the store” — and they sell cigarettes.

C Village had been for sale for several years before the Patel family bought it for $474,233, according to the real estate listing. Wearing duck boots and an earpiece for his phone, which warbled a Bollywood ringtone, 24-year-old manager Nik Patel said he started working in his family’s store in Gujarat when he was 13. The family owns two Springfield, Mass., convenience stores.

The new co-owner seems willing to listen and learn. “He can make pizza like no tomorrow,” Washer said. When kids came in after a bowling league win, staff explained that the previous owners donated pizzas to local teams. Patel gave the youngsters four pizzas.

The Patels’ purchase was likely motivated by some of the same reasons Maclure bought the Genny 13 years ago. It represented “staying power,” she said, and made money. To keep doing both is the perpetual challenge.

In their shared pursuit to serve Craftsbury, the Genny and C Village have historically had a mutually supportive relationship, which Maclure expects will continue. The stores cohost a July 4 block party for which they close down their road and cook a free barbecue dinner together. Patel said he’s excited for that.

MELISSA PASANEN

From left: Kit Basom, Jana Smart and Emily Maclure outside the Genny

Nik Patel and Tracy Washer at C Village Store & Deli

THIS OLD STORE

e Elmore Store

The Elmore Store dates back to the early 1800s and has always been a popular gathering place in the rural lakeside town north of Montpelier. The store had a number of owners over two centuries before it was purchased in 2021 by the Elmore Community Trust. That long history has revealed itself to the store’s new operators in surprising ways.

Becca and Tim Lindenmeyr, entrepreneurs who also run Farm Craft VT, a seed-to-soap herb farm in Shelburne, will lease the building, which they envision as a multiuse community hub. Tim, 53, grew up in Elmore and is acting as the general contractor for the store’s renovations. The building has been stripped to the studs and is being completely redesigned.

The renovation has unearthed artifacts from the ﬂoors and walls — signs of earlier times. For her next episode of “Stuck in Vermont,” airing Thursday, March 13, Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger met Tim for a tour and got to see some of the salvaged relics.

When the building reopens in late spring or early summer, it will have two public rooms upstairs: a coworking space and a wellness area for massage. The downstairs will serve as a general

store and post o ce, but there will also be a public bathroom, a seating area with a view overlooking the lake and an expanded outdoor area that will include a creemee window.

Sollberger spoke with Seven Days about ﬁlming the episode.

How is the renovation going?

There were five people hard at work when I arrived — six if you include Tim Lindenmeyr, who was waiting on a cabinet delivery. The building was a hub of activity, and during our interview you can hear bursts from the compressor, table saw,

reveal that the space has probably always been a general store. It was built to be an open room.

Upstairs, in addition to the two new public spaces, there will be an apartment that the Lindenmeyrs will occupy. Tim joked that this would make it easier for him to start the store’s co ee at 6 a.m.

hammers, drills and a nail gun.

Everything has been opened up, and three or four layers of old ceilings have been removed from the main level. The walls are lined with hand-split lath and pine sheathing. In some areas, you can see the majestic 4-by-8-inch joists that stretch 28 feet across the ceiling. Tim said these massive timbers

What artifacts has Tim found?

In the walls and floors, he’s discovered a penny pipe, checks and ledger books from the 1920s, newspaper clippings from the Civil War, antique toys, a leather cup, metal signs, a “toilet soap” wrapper for a scent called “Love Among the Roses,” old tax returns, a whiskey bottle from 1897, and a chalkboard sign advertising 18 pounds of sugar for $1. As Tim said, “It’s quite a little time capsule.”

The Lindenmeyrs plan to display this treasure trove in the renovated space, which will hopefully remain a beloved community hub for another few centuries.

Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger has been making her award-winning video series, “Stuck in Vermont,” since 2007. New episodes appear on the Seven Days website every other ursday and air the following night on the WCAX evening news. Sign up at sevendaysvt.com to receive an email alert each time a new one drops. And check these pages every other week for insights on the episodes.

Episode 736: e Elmore Store

Packaging for “toilet soap” among the found artifacts

Tim Lindenmeyr at the Elmore Store

GATHER ROUND

Wayside Country Store, West Arlington

If you want to know something in Arlington, somebody at the round table will have the answer.

Six mornings a week, locals ranging in age from 6 months to nearly 90 years pull up chairs — or a lap, for the youngest — inside the Wayside Country Store. They chat about hay supplies, real estate prices and who plows whose driveway.

“We try to stay away from politics,” Phil Sherwin said. The first time a newly elected state representative showed up, “everybody left,” he added.

Phil, 89, and his sons Rich and Keith, both in their sixties, sat at the table on a recent Tuesday morning. Promptly at 9:30, Phil got up. His wife’s travel mug had been waiting to be filled for more than an hour.

“You can’t escape the conversation, but Mom will be looking for her coffee,” Keith said, adding, “I just try to get out before lunch.”

The red-painted general store is a beacon in West Arlington’s rural Battenkill River Valley, so classic that it could be the scene of a Norman Rockwell painting. (The artist famously lived across the covered bridge just down the road.) The Wayside represents the flip side of news about the closing, sale or failure of general stores: Over the past 41 years, the Tschorn family has been its steward, keeping its community spirit and creaky floors while adding air conditioning, cinnamon rolls and craft beer. Three generations now work behind the counter, with young members of the fourth nearby. Between the communal round table and the family presence, entering the Wayside feels like coming home.

Nancy Tschorn, 86, bought the circa1850 store with her husband, Doug, in 1984. They were drawn to its location: 3.5 miles west of Arlington and Route 7, 3.5 miles east of the New York border, and half a mile to the road that goes to tiny Sandgate, where they lived.

“It’s the only place you could get ice cream and get home without it melting,” she joked.

Nancy calls herself the “official greeter” and owner of record now. She’s also the resident historian, evidenced by her 2021 book, The Wayside Story: A Look Back at the History of a Vermont Country Store. She works Sunday mornings, while the dayto-day operations fall to her daughter-inlaw, Suzanne, 58, and Suzanne’s daughter, Chelsea, 35. Chelsea’s infant son, Miles, bounces near the deli case when he’s not adding his voice to the round-table conversation. Suzanne’s husband, Allan, provides legal and financial advice.

The store went from “Mom and Pop” to “Mom and Mom and Mom.”

When Doug died in 2014, the store went from “Mom and Pop” to “Mom and Mom and Mom,” Nancy wrote in her book.

The family dynamic “isn’t troublefree,” Nancy said, “but the troubles are fairly minor. We capitalize on people’s strong points and don’t worry too much about their weak points.”

Chelsea didn’t intend to run the store, though she’s been on payroll since 2003.

She might have stayed in Rhode Island, where she studied business management in college, had she not met a local guy who brought her home in 2010. That relationship didn’t last, but she’s worked full time at the Wayside ever since.

One of Chelsea’s three sisters, 38-yearold Rachelle Durrschmidt, joined the staff two years ago. Their grandparents would never insist that a family member work at

the store, Chelsea said, but there was always a job ready if someone wanted it. She’s taking a similar approach with her kids, though her older two had to help at the register as their daily math lesson during the pandemic. It’s a challenging time for stores like theirs, Nancy said, “but we’re doing OK, and we’re all on the same page about how to remain viable.”

General stores always get stamped with the personality of their owners, she continued. She maintains a jewelry display, while Suzanne has shaped the organic food offerings and created a section for her handmade knitwear. The pharmacy and toy shelves — with four types of baby wipes and almost as many squirt guns — speak to Chelsea and Rachelle’s experience as moms of young kids.

But it’s just as important to respond to customer requests, big and small. To meet increased demand for prepared meals, the Tschorns built a new deli in 2018. That renovation moved the round table from a tucked-away spot behind the register to the heart of the store, where it belongs. Different customers fill the table’s eight wooden seats at lunch, dining on deli sandwiches and bowls of chili. After school, kids sit and sort their penny candy — now $6.99 per pound. On Tuesday nights, Suzanne’s knitting group holds court.

The multigenerational model, the store’s location and its role as a community hub “are our magic mix,” Chelsea said.

“Some days we look at each other like, ‘So, when are we selling the store?’” she added with a chuckle. “But those are just the hard days.”

JORDAN BARRY

Chelsea and Nancy Tschorn with baby Miles

From left: Derick, Andrew, Lucas and Sam Pike at the round table during hunting season Wayside Country Store

Viral Stories

The Vermont Historical Society unveils its COVID-19 oral history project with a new book edited by

BY KEN PICARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

In spring 2020, as a deadly new virus raged worldwide, upending lives in countless ways, some Vermonters turned to local historians for insights on how the state weathered its last major pandemic: the global influenza outbreak of 1918 that killed more than 50 million worldwide.

When Amanda Gustin, director of collections and access at the Vermont Historical Society, delved into the archives, she found some letters, diaries, newspaper articles and other ephemera but little else that captured the full scope and significance of that traumatic event. Within a year, more than 2,100 Vermonters died of the disease, more than three times the number of those killed in World War I. Yet much of that history, especially firsthand accounts from everyday Vermonters, was never documented. It was as if Vermonters experienced collective amnesia about the catastrophe and went on with their lives.

Realizing that we were living through another tumultuous time in Vermont’s history, Gustin told her staff that once life began returning to normal, they would start to gather the kind of stories that were lost or forgotten from 1918. Beginning in 2022 with a $137,000 federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, she launched a three-year oral history project to chronicle Vermonters’ experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic, recorded in their own words.

“I kept thinking of the me from 50 or 75 years from now,” Gustin said. “Who do I wish they would have talked to? And what kind of experiences do I wish they would have documented?”

The result of that effort is the largest and most comprehensive oral history of COVID-19 compiled to date anywhere in the country. To mark this week’s fifth anniversary of the first lockdowns, the Vermont Historical Society is publishing Life Became Very Blurry: An Oral History of COVID-19 in Vermont, edited by Garrett Graff. The book hits physical and digital bookshelves on March 25.

One of Vermont’s most prodigious and respected journalists and historians, 43-year-old Montpelier native and Pulitzer Prize finalist Graff was Gustin’s first choice for the job. The author of nine books, including two previous oral histories, on the D-Day invasion and the attacks of 9/11, he had the experience

and skills to distill nearly 200 hours of recordings into a cohesive and readable narrative.

Life Became Very Blurry draws from interviews with more than 110 Vermonters, including state and municipal officials, health care workers, journalists, store clerks, artists, students, nursing home residents, teachers, and clergy. The book is but one component of the larger history project, which will also include a podcast and a searchable online database of the complete audio archive.

The project began with the hiring of four field interviewers, all of whom were trained by Vermont Folklife and traveled the state from 2022 to 2024 recording people’s stories and recollections. While certain individuals were chosen for their central roles in shaping the state’s official pandemic response — among them

Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine, Department of Financial Regulation commissioner Mike Pieciak and Department of Health Laboratory acting director Helen Reid — others were selected because of where they lived, the nature of their jobs or some other unique life circumstance.

The interviewees ranged in age from students who were in middle school at the start of the lockdowns to nursing home residents in their eighties. Interviews typically lasted from 30 to 90 minutes. One question was asked of everyone: “What has the experience of COVID-19 been like for you?” Otherwise, the subjects steered the interviews almost entirely themselves. As Gustin put it, “Stories belong to the people who tell them.”

Because of the prolonged and allencompassing nature of the pandemic,

the interviewers often heard stories that were completely unexpected. Field interviewer Mark Johnson, a Vermont journalist since 1982 who is best known for his 25-year stint as radio host of “The Mark Johnson Show,” interviewed almost two dozen people. Among them was Ashley Van Zandt, director of development and communications at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury.

Johnson arrived at the interview expecting Van Zandt to talk mostly about the challenges of working for a live events venue at a time when large indoor gatherings were prohibited. Instead, she spoke at length about her experience with long COVID and the loss of her sense of taste and smell.

“She couldn’t eat anything but pasta. Everything else tasted like the bottom of a compost bucket,” he said.

Garrett Graff

EXCERPTS FROM LIFE BECAME VERY BLURRY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF COVID-19 IN VERMONT

Gwen Louise Tuson, tax preparer, White River Junction, VT:

It felt like there was a hippopotamus sitting on top of my chest. I couldn’t move my chest cavity to breathe. It was horrible. It was still fairly early on with Covid, so at the ER, they put me in one of those hermetically sealed, zipped-up little boxes. The inside of the tent said it was designed for people with smallpox, measles, or West Nile virus. I don’t know how many of those they had at Dartmouth-Hitchcock [Medical Center], but they had me in one of those in the ER as they did tests. Eventually they sent me home because even though I was having trouble breathing, my oxygen levels were sufficient, so that I wasn’t actually having a breathing emergency. ey said, “ is is not lifethreatening. We’re not admitting you.”

Eric Rossier, trailer-truck driver, Timberland Distribution:

It was beyond interesting to be on the road during the time that the border was closed. e product that I transported was hay and straw to dairy farms and to goat farms, beef operations throughout New York and New England. at caused me to cross the border three times a week.

...People that have animals at their homes don’t always have the carrying capacity on their land to feed those animals; you can imagine their uncertainty.

They knew all the hay we transported was coming from Canada. They wanted to know whether they were going to be able

Johnson also interviewed Tom Kelly, then a deputy state’s attorney in Lamoille County who was ﬁred for refusing to get vaccinated or wear a mask. Johnson said he had to check his journalistic instincts to challenge some of Kelly’s statements and instead just “hear his story and his truth.”

Gustin, who also conducted some of the interviews, was struck by how emotional many of the subjects became, not just the ones who lost family or friends to COVID-19 but also those who missed important milestones such as graduations, weddings and births.

“In fully half of the interviews, I was holding back tears while I was doing them,” she said. “A hundred years from now, people are going to be listening to

to feed their animals. When we would show up with a trailer-truck load of big square bales, they would just start crying. When we showed up, they knew that it was going to be okay—whatever we were facing, we were going to continue to show up at their house, at their farm, and they wouldn’t have to slaughter or ship their animals.

Jane Trevaskis, resident, Converse Home: Nobody came to visit me. Nobody could come from outside and people from inside were encouraged not to, so I only saw people delivering trays. It was more loneliness—not having anybody to talk to. When the staff would come in in their yellow outﬁt, they’d be on purpose, on target, do their business and get out. Dear Lord, all those yellow plastic coat outﬁts—I see them in my sleep!

many of these interviews and at some point become emotional.”

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Some participants talked about the experience of forming pandemic-safe social circles, or “pods,” and the joy of spending extended time with family and friends preparing meals, playing board games, making music or walking in the woods. Some expressed a sense of gratitude tinged with guilt for the positive changes the pandemic had wrought. A few called it “a gift.”

In all, the interviews took about two years to compile, at which point Gra received the entire written transcript, which totaled nearly 3,000 pages.

Viral Stories « P.35

As he explained in an interview, synthesizing Vermonters’ experiences with COVID-19 posed a fundamentally different challenge than his previous books When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day and The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11. Unlike those historical events, in which people remembered vividly where they were when they first heard the news, the pandemic was more amorphous and offered few common or unifying experiences.

“FLATTEN THE CURVE!” THAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR ENTIRE LIVES FOR THREE WEEKS IN MARCH 2020.

GARRETT GRAFF

for three weeks in March 2020,” he said. “And then we moved on to something else.”

Graff recounted one story that he said will stick with him for the rest of his life. Eric Rossier was a truck driver who delivered grain and hay from Canada to Vermont farms. In his interview, Rossier talked about how the pandemic was the first and only time in his career when people expressed genuine appreciation rather than annoyance for the work he was doing. (See sidebar on page 35.)

“I was tearing up the first time I read that,” Graff said. “I never could have told you that that was the story I wanted to read. To me, this is the most powerful story in the book.”

One takeaway for Graff, who spent most of the pandemic at his Burlington home, was how much better Vermont fared relative to other states. Vermont had among the highest rates of vaccination and lowest caseloads in the country. This was largely because citizens placed enormous trust in their state officials and the science they relied on to inform their decisions.

Indeed, while Vermont suffered the same economic and societal traumas as the rest of the country, it did not experience the same political divisiveness over mask mandates and school closures. As Graff pointed out, “There weren’t militias marching on the state capital to force Phil Scott to reopen the barbershops.

“The thing that comes through in interview after interview is how Vermont communities rallied together to take care of neighbors,” he added. “That, to me, is the overarching theme of the entire book.”

“There were so many factors that went into how each of us experienced the pandemic,” Graff said, noting the role played by one’s occupation, health, family circumstances, geography, socioeconomic status and political viewpoint. “Even when you get down to the same street in the same town in Vermont, you have people who had wildly different experiences.”

Graff organized the book both chronologically and thematically, grouping interviews based on the subject matter: the state’s response, the care of hospital patients and nursing home residents, and the actions taken by schools, towns, essential workers and faith leaders.

Life Became Very Blurry concludes with a chapter called “How We Changed.” In it, Vermonters reflect on the pandemic’s lasting impact. Graff makes it clear that, even as our lives have mostly returned to normal, we have yet to fully process the trauma and grief of COVID-19. The country’s trajectory was irrevocably altered by the pandemic, he said, and its enduring legacy will not be fully understood for years or decades to come.

While reading the transcripts, Graff said, he was surprised by how the different phases of the pandemic and their terminology had already been condensed and simplified in his mind — or forgotten altogether. He was reminded of the state travel maps that would indicate which counties were safe to visit and the buzzwords that briefly took on outsize importance: “stop the spread,” “open by Easter” and “turn of the spigot.”

“‘Flatten the curve!’ That was the most important thing in our entire lives

“This is effectively a first draft. We’ve laid the groundwork and got a good start,” Gustin said. “But our grandkids are going to be interviewing us about what life was like during COVID-19.” ➆

INFO

Life Became Very Blurry: An Oral History of COVID-19 in Vermont, edited by Garrett M. Graff, published by the Vermont Historical Society, available March 25. 244 pages. $24.95. vermonthistory.org

Celebrate 75 years of history, connection, and unforgettable experiences at von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort. Vermont residents are invited to enjoy special rates this March and April—an opportunity to discover the charm and hospitality that have defined our resort for generations. Come for our story. Leave with your own. Vermont ID required at check-in to receive the discount. Valid on new reservations only.

R estrictions and blackout dates apply.

food drink

Put a Pin in It

e Pinwheel brings cowboy cuisine to Essex with a new version of the owners’ shuttered Burlington restaurant BY

MELISSA PASANEN

• pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

From 2014 until 2021, the Swingin’ Pinwheel slung plate-size hash browns, pressed-waffle sandwiches and cowboy coffee in downtown Burlington. Regulars from the restaurant’s early days might recall seeing the owners’ infant son in a playpen behind the counter. These days, weekend customers at Wendy Piotrowski and Andrew Machanic’s reborn Pinwheel in Essex might spy that same kid, now 11, helping out in front of the counter.

Waylon Machanic joins his mom and dad at the recently opened breakfast and lunch spot most Saturdays and Sundays starting at 7 a.m. He said he’s happy to pitch in mopping ﬂoors, cleaning tables and rolling silverware in napkins. That his contributions are loosely tied to his weekly allowance doesn’t hurt, the young

FOOD LOVER?

man added, but he seems genuinely proud to contribute.

“Not that many kids get this amazing opportunity to have their parents, like, have a whole restaurant,” Waylon told Seven Days. (His parents swore they had not coached him.)

Waylon and his two half-siblings from Andrew’s previous marriage — including 15-year-old Amelia, who also sometimes helps at the Pinwheel — were a key reason the couple took a break from the intensity and long hours of running their own restaurant. In the intervening years, they operated the Sweet Wheels Donuts bus near their Essex Junction home and Andrew, 56, plied his chef skills in other kitchens.

But the couple said they always expected they’d get back into the restaurant ownership game. “We both are drawn to being entrepreneurs,” said Wendy, 42.

And the Western-inﬂuenced menu from their original Center Street spot kept calling. “It was just sort of asleep, hibernating,” Andrew said.

The husband-and-wife team opened Pinwheel in mid-February in the spot vacated by Cody’s Irish Pub & Grille roughly a year prior. It has about double the seats of the Burlington original and a streamlined name. People mostly called it the Pinwheel, anyway, Andrew said, or mistakenly dubbed it the Spinning Pinwheel — which he acknowledged made sense since pinwheels do spin.

“We always liked to say that ours swings because we do things a little di erently,” Andrew said. “And we played a lot of Western swing,” his wife added.

The couple still play swing music and do things a bit di erently. Their restaurant décor is an unusual ode to the American West in Vermont, with antlers, cacti, stirrups and other ephemera sprinkled about the two-section dining room.

The collection includes a classic enamel cowboy co ee pot, though cowboy co ee is one popular menu item that did not make the move from Burlington. It was hard enough to juggle three pots on the stove to meet demand for the steeped, strained co ee in the original, smaller restaurant, Andrew said.

The rest of the menu will be familiar to those who dined in Burlington, with some additions for lunch. A case holds the

A savory Wafﬂini with spinach, red onion, red pepper and feta

Andrew Machanic and Wendy Piotrowski at the Pinwheel in Essex

SIDEdishes

SERVING UP FOOD NEWS

Hatchet in Richmond Closes and Is for Sale, as Is the Big Spruce

Owner GABRIEL FIRMAN confirmed that, after close to 10 years in Richmond, Hatchet served its final meals on March 2. Firman, 51, said he is exiting the restaurant business and abandoning previously announced plans to launch a new concept in the space formerly occupied by his second restaurant, the shuttered Big Spruce, across the road at 39 Bridge Street.

“Every day takes a concerted effort in this industry to exist. What prompted me to close is not one thing,” Firman said. “This business is death by a thousand cuts.”

Firman opened Hatchet at 30 Bridge Street in July 2015. In late January 2020, he announced plans for a second restaurant across the street, this one “taco-focused, Mexican-influenced.”

The Big Spruce launched in November 2020, initially for takeout only. Firman closed it in October 2024 to focus on Hatchet, while working with that restaurant’s culinary director, chef CHRISTIAN KRUSE, on a new concept for the Big Spruce space.

Firman now plans to sell both restaurants. “My time as a restaurant operator has run its course,” he said. “These establishments and this community

We now o er catering for corporate luncheons!

Delivery available within a 3-mile radius.

would be best served by me passing the reins.”

Kruse, 40, who worked with Firman for a year at the Big Spruce and then Hatchet, said he is investigating the possibility of buying the 39 Bridge Street restaurant.

A 2022 James Beard Foundation semifinalist in the Best Chef: Northeast category, Kruse said he is not sure what kind of restaurant he would launch there. But if he does buy the former Big Spruce, he’ll aim to reopen its creemee window by May.

“That is a must,” he said. Melissa Pasanen

The Holt Restaurant Opens in Vergennes’ Kennedy Brothers Building

The café inside the Kennedy Brothers building at 11 Main Street in Vergennes reopened as the HOLT, a family-friendly breakfast, lunch and dinner spot, on March 7. Maple Café, which preceded it, closed last year.

The counter-service restaurant serves everything à la carte, both to keep prices affordable and to minimize waste, co-owner ADAM NEFF said. The Holt’s menu features classic dishes

Hatchet in Richmond

signature jam-dolloped pinwheel pastries ($4), fat apple dumplings ($5.50), glazed cinnamon rolls ($4.50) and muffins ($3.75).

The kitchen churns out fluffy popovers stuffed with eggs ($14); flaky biscuits with eggs and bacon gravy ($15); and eggs Cassidy with corn cakes, Mexican-style braised beef, poached eggs and a lemony house hollandaise ($17.50). Due to high egg prices, the restaurant is currently charging 50 cents extra per egg.

Moving through the day, dishes range from the waffle-panini mashup called Wafflini ($9 half/$16 whole); to substantial salads, such as spinach apple-pecan with goat cheese and house-baked rosemary focaccia ($14); to an expanded sandwich selection including a burger ($16) and achiote grilled chicken sandwich ($16) with Pepper Jack, avocado salsa and lime crema. All the bread is baked in-house except for the English muffins and the gluten-free bread, which comes from West Meadow Farm Bakery a few doors away.

Overall, the Pinwheel menu reflects Andrew’s years of cooking and living out West on guest ranches and resorts in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, starting with summers in his late teens.

“I was raised by a pack of wild cowboys in Wyoming when I moved out there at 17,” he said with a grin.

That image of pure Americana, Andrew noted, is, like all things in this nation, a cultural mix of those who settled there. His Basque Breakfast ($14) with a spicy tomato stew and Manchego cheese, for example, is an ode to the Basque shepherds of Wyoming. The housemade cheesy spaetzle ($17) pays homage to the many Germans he met out West, as well as his German mother.

“It just wraps up my entire experience of food,” Andrew said of his menu.

The chef was actually raised in the Washington, D.C., area, but his father was originally from Burlington and Andrew came to Vermont to earn a degree from New England Culinary Institute in 1993. After heading west again, he returned in 2011 and soon encountered Wendy, a Burlington native who had a tea shop downtown.

Neither can recall what style of music was playing when they met dancing at Nectar’s. “I usually break into swing dancing no matter what the music is,” Andrew said.

Hank Williams was crooning over the sound system on a mid-February Friday while Matt Milewski, 36, of Jericho

lunched with his almost year-old daughter, Valley. Milewski said he lived in Utah for 13 years and was delighted to “randomly find a little taste of the West here.”

By the family’s second visit, he said they’d already settled on a “usual” order: the Haystack Hashbrown topped with melted cheese and an egg ($9 plus $2 for the egg) for him and a buttermilk pancake ($5) for his daughter. Despite the amount of pancake on the floor below her high chair, “she gives it a five-star review,” Milewski said. He added that the server had remembered them and brought extra orange slices for Valley before he’d asked.

gummy or crumbly gluten-free pastries she endures.

The apple dumpling is among the recipes with a family connection. It starts with Andrew’s mom’s recipe for a rich, buttery yeast dough wrapped around chunks of apple. Each tray of dumplings is baked on a luxurious bed of butter and sugar and then flipped to display its caramelized underside.

I WAS RAISED BY A PACK OF WILD COWBOYS.

devour. That evolved into the Wafflini sandwiches, for which two pieces of the pastry dough are pressed around fillings such as prosciutto, Gouda and honey (another Waylon pick); turkey, cheddar and cranberry-apple chutney; and spinach, red onion, red pepper and feta.

“Oh, I love that,” Waylon piped up as his dad explained the recipe, “especially the French toast.” That permutation ($14) involves egg-battered and fried slices of apple dumpling served with extra sautéed apples and whipped cream.

ANDREW

The Haystack was a Burlington Pinwheel go-to for me, and it was my inaugural order at the new spot, topped with additional bacon ($3.75) and a poached egg. The crisp nuggets of bacon and crunchy hash brown exterior under melty cheddar and a molten-yolked egg rang all the comfort bells for me.

In the name of research, I also ordered a popover with maple butter ($4.50), a signature flaky pinwheel jam-hearted pastry and a warm apple dumpling with vanilla sauce. After taking a couple test bites of each, I was torn about which to polish off and which to save for later, should I ever become hungry again.

The friend to whom I brought a housebaked, gluten-free almond-cranberry scone ($4) for evaluation had the same problem. “I planned to just have a bite and ate the entire scone,” she texted, praising its texture in contrast with the often

MACHANIC

The flavor combo is one of Waylon’s faves, honored by the menu’s Waffle for Waylon ($12.50) topped with apple compote and a fluff of cream. Waylon noted that the dish’s namesake “could be me and also the country singer,” referring to the late Waylon Jennings.

The waffle is not made with a standard batter but traces its lineage to another Machanic heirloom. Andrew recounted how his mother made a buttery, quick puff dough for holidays and other special occasions and shaped it into the charming pinwheels that have become the restaurant’s eponymous delicacy.

Occasionally, his mom rolled the same dough thin and baked it in a waffle iron to make what Andrew described as a “delicious, crispy, crunchy, flaky pastry,” which he would dust with powdered sugar and

On my second visit for lunch, a friend and I shared three dishes, including the spinach Wafflini. Each crunchy bite of the savory sandwich was dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with a balsamic glaze. My friend picked our second sandwich, the new TBLT ($18), piled satisfyingly high with baked trout, thick-cut smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato and lemon-sage mayo between sturdy, lightly toasted slices of house white bread. It came with a heap of fresh-cut, deeply bronzed fries.

The combo had intrigued me, and it worked with the mild trout subbing in beautifully for turkey — reminiscent of a club sandwich. Andrew later said he’s surprised by how much trout he’s selling, noting that the cornmeal-crusted, pan-fried rainbow trout with eggs and fried cheddar scallion grits ($16.50) is popular, too.

While I was happy to share both sandwiches, I definitely regretted giving up any of the chewy, Swiss cheese-topped spaetzle dumplings fried with ham, mushrooms and red onion and their excellent side of vinegary, tart-sweet red cabbage.

Next time I swing on through, it will be all mine. ➆

INFO

The Pinwheel, 4 Carmichael St. #106, Essex, thepinwheelvt.com

From left: A trio of pinwheels, the Haystack Hashbrown with fried egg and sausage, coffee, and a Waffle for Waylon

BY JORDAN BARRY • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

Pi Day is a perfect holiday. Observed annually on March 14 — 3.14, get it? — it’s got something for math nerds and pun lovers, and all you have to do to celebrate is eat a slice of pie. It might be irrational, since I can only recite the never-ending number a few decimal places, but appreciating the signiﬁcance of π while cutting into a perfectly round baked good makes it one of my favorite days of the year. I could go on and on.

is year, March 14 also brings the ofﬁcial launch of the Sisters of Anarchy Bakery on Fisher Brothers Farm in Shelburne. Its new product? Pie, of course.

Value-added treats have always been a constant for Becky Castle and Bob Clark’s fruit farm on Spear Street, which now boasts 35,000 row feet of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, elderberries, Aronia berries and grapes. eir ice cream biz, Sisters of Anarchy, has churned out clever fruit-ﬁlled ﬂavors such as Raspberry Beret and Respect Your Elders since 2016.

But even with steady growth of pints, single-serve cups and ice cream sandwiches — including wholesale and nationwide shipment — there’s more fruit to use.

“Pie just seemed to make sense,” production manager Amy McKinney said.

With more staff, Castle estimated they’ll make 100 pies per day.

Later this spring, Castle and Clark will turn a small barn into a year-round retail store, stocked with fresh-baked or frozen take-and-bake pies, pints of ice cream, and wellness syrups. Several mornings a week, they plan to open at 8 a.m. with breakfast pastries and coffee from longtime partner Kestrel Coffee Roasters. e new space will also feature a scoop shop, broadening the months when customers can enjoy a cone on the farm. ey’re targeting a mid-May opening, Castle said.

e scoop-shop offering I’m most looking forward to is an individual-serving 3-inch pie, heated and topped with ice cream. I’ll probably double down on blueberry, with a scoop of Crystal Blue Persuasion — my favorite Sisters of Anarchy ﬂavor — atop an adorable cinnamon-ﬂecked blueberry pie. But McKinney put in a strong argument for the zingy blackberry-ginger pie with Plain Jane, the honey-sweetened homestyle vanilla.

Pi Day doesn’t fall during the growing season in Vermont. In past years, I’ve relied on storage apples, stuck to maple cream or gone savory with chicken pot pie. But Fisher Brothers freezes all of its fruit the day it’s harvested, storing much of it at Vermont Commercial Warehouse in Williston. at step helps prevent waste, Castle said, and lets Sisters of Anarchy produce its full line of ice cream ﬂavors all year long — and now, peak-summer pies.

“We call our ice cream ‘farm-to-cone,’” she said. “I guess the pie is ‘farm-to-tin.’”

With one additional Pi Day special, they’re also tin-to-pint. After talking to Castle and McKinney, I brought home a container of their March ﬂavor: 3.14159, a vanilla ice cream swirled with big raspberry and lemon pie chunks. It’s not a traditional way to celebrate the holiday, but I think it counts. ➆

INFO

Putting her bakery background to use, she started developing recipes last fall, when the full seasonal staff was around to taste test. After eating “almost too much pie,” she landed on five filling flavors: blueberry, red raspberry, yellow raspberry, blackberry-ginger and mixed berry, with blueberries, red raspberries and blackberries ($25 to $28 each). Customers can choose a cinnamon-brown sugar oatmeal crumble topping or classic double crust, mixing and matching as they please.

Sisters of Anarchy Bakery, 4947 Spear St., Shelburne. Preorders for Pi Day pickup are due on ursday, March 13, by 9 a.m. Order at sistersofanarchyicecream.com/sistersof-anarchy-bakery.

For now, a preorder system with scheduled pickups on the farm lets McKinney handle the pie production solo in the farm’s bright new 15-by-30foot bakery space, which looks out onto rows of grapes.

Yellow raspberry pie with a scoop of Plain Jane ice cream

SIDEdishes

such as eggs and French toast in the morning; salads, sandwiches and homemade soups throughout the day; and lasagna, coconut-curry shrimp, falafel, shepherd’s pie, burgers and roast chicken for dinner.

“Plus tacos at every meal,” co-owner TERESA BOUCHER added, noting that Ne is from the San Francisco area and “really loves tacos.”

It’s the ﬁrst restaurant that Boucher, 58, and Ne , 53, have owned, though Boucher has worked at Ferrisburgh’s BASIN HARBOR and the now-closed Bar Antidote in Vergennes. She’ll soon retire from her other career as a math educator. Ne has a background in IT but “loves to cook,” he said.

The Holt is open Friday through Tuesday, starting at 6 a.m. on weekdays and staying open late on weekends.

Sunday features a brunch bu et. The multilevel dining space will soon host events such as live music, a “kids’ zone” with movies and crafts, and weekly game nights.

Boucher bakes bread in-house, including her locally famous pepper-cheese bread, made with hot Hungarian wax peppers. Ingredients such as eggs and herbs will be sourced directly from the couple’s Panton farm, FARMHOUSE TABLE.

“We’re trying to create a sense of community, a place to hang out and socialize,” Ne said. “Something for everyone.”

Jordan Barry

Entrées and Exits: Restaurant and Café

Closures in Burlington, Stowe and Montpelier

Wild Meadows Books and Café Coming to Williston

SUSAN and RICK COTE plan to open a bookstore and café in a new building under construction in Williston’s Finney Crossing. The couple, who also own the Williston Observer, are targeting late summer for the launch of WILD MEADOWS BOOKS AND CAFÉ. The same building will host the previously announced SPAGHET

RED SAUCE JOINT, a new restaurant concept from proliﬁc Chittenden County restaurateur JED DAVIS.

The Cotes said they love bookstores and believe the business aligns with the community-building mission of their local newspaper.

“We felt like it would be a great addition to the Williston community,” said Susan, 63. “Our town can use more gathering places.”

Wild Meadows café will have a full kitchen in which a team will produce soups, salads, sandwiches and small plates to accompany beer or wine in the evening. The Cotes aim to create a place for “people to enjoy a snack or a beverage with a friend or alone,” Susan said, and provide a “nice, cozy environment” for bookstore events.

“There’s a lot of white space there we can explore,” said Rick, 57.

M.P.

CONNECT

20 post on the venue’s Instagram account conﬁrms that it is “closed indeﬁnitely.”

When Seven Days visited in December, Manhattan’s was open but under construction. JASON STERLING, who introduced himself as the new owner at that time, could not be reached for comment on the closure.

Manhattan’s, a Burlington staple on the corner of Church and Main streets, is “closed until further notice.” A sign on the door noting the shuttering “per order of the city ﬁre marshal” is dated January 17, 2025. The recent history of the longtime watering hole, formerly known as Manhattan Pizza & Pub, includes social media controversy, a sta walkout, and a brief stint as Rincon Pizzeria and Tapas Bar. In late 2024, the bar and pizza spot reopened under new ownership as Manhattan’s, moving its focus to live music. A February

Last week, NBC5 reported that the recent construction and associated electrical work had been “done without the proper permits,” according to Burlington ﬁre marshal Matthew Stone. Complete inspections will be required for Manhattan’s to reopen.

Stowe recently saw the closure of Nocturnal, a brewpub and barbecue restaurant associated with North Carolina’s Nocturnal Brewing. In early March, its building at 140 Cottage Club Road was listed for sale for $2 million.

The Vermont location, which opened in the former Sunset Grille & Tap Room in March 2024 after an extensive renovation, served beer brewed at Nocturnal’s headquarters near the North CarolinaGeorgia border.

After a four-month run, the collaboratively managed Access Café at 64 Main Street in Montpelier closed with a “See Ya Later” party on February 23.

The ﬁve member-owners of the café and community gathering space wrote on social media that high utility costs and the risk of future ﬂooding contributed to their decision. They plan to continue their community support e orts through pop-up collaborations with local organizations.

Jordan Barry & Melissa Pasanen

Adam Neff and Teresa Boucher in the dining area of the Holt

Rick and Susan Cote in front of the future site of their Wild Meadows Books and Café in Williston

culture

Third-Space Odyssey

Barre Social Club offers a new coworking spot and after-hours hangout in the Granite City

BY KEN PICARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

The idea for the Barre Social Club germinated in Nick Allen’s mind over more than a decade of upheavals. His wife, Cat, worked for a software company that relocated them as often as every three months. The Atlanta-area couple lived in nine states and Puerto Rico over an 11-year period, with few opportunities to make lasting friendships.

During that transient phase of their lives, Nick worked remotely, setting up his laptop wherever he could ﬁnd a table, chair and reliable Wi-Fi connection, in libraries, co ee shops, bakeries and pizza parlors. But he envisioned something better: a coworking place that doubles as a so-called “third space,” or gathering spot outside one’s home and workplace.

After Cat’s work brought them to Montpelier in 2021, she found a new job with a di erent software company, and the couple decided to put down roots. They settled in Barre in summer 2022 and fell in love with the city.

“We think this is a great place to live, and we’re excited about its future,” said Nick, 40, who manages the business. “And because we moved so much and never got tied to one place, we needed to invest ourselves in our new community.”

That investment is the Barre Social Club, the Granite City’s new coworking space for freelancers, gig workers, independent contractors and other o celess laborers. As the name implies, the business doesn’t limit itself to nine-to-ﬁve, employment-related activities.

Located in a historic 2,900-squarefoot storefront on North Main Street that was once a Woolworths, the Barre Social Club is one of half a dozen new businesses that the city’s young entrepreneurs have opened in recent years, breathing new life, energy and community pride into the once-depleted downtown.

On a weekday afternoon in February, a smattering of club members gazed intently at their laptops while soft jazz lilted unobtrusively in the background. The ambience of the bright and airy room suggested a combination of an Ivy League library and a 1920s speakeasy: large wooden tables, Persian rugs, coal-colored wainscoting, recessed bookshelves, comfy sofas, and secluded nooks for holding meetings and conference calls.

TO BE ABLE TO WORK AND MEET PEOPLE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS ... I FIND IT VERY INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING.

SHANNON ALEXANDER

Why call it a social club?

“We knew we had to be unique and couldn’t survive on just coworking,” Nick explained, referring to a business model that is common in much larger cities — think Hula or Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies in Burlington — but has just begun to appear in Vermont cities and towns outside Chittenden County. “And because we moved around so much, we never allowed ourselves to go out and meet new people.”

To make that easier, the couple sought to create a place where people can also congregate after work and meet those with shared interests for art talks, trivia and game nights, political fundraisers, wine tastings, and other informal gatherings.

In addition to the coworking membership, which starts at $179 per month, the club o ers an after-hours social membership for $50 per month and hosts free and low-cost public events. On a recent visit, a chalkboard listed a book club, a movie night, a Barre business mixer and a gathering of the networking group Vermont Womenpreneurs. Just inside the front door, a small retail shop sells Vermont-made goods such as pieces from Farmhouse Pottery and Ursa Major skin care products, as well as stickers and T-shirts that read “Granite City”

Nick and Cat Allen at the Barre Social Club

and “Believe in Barre.” None of the shop’s merchandise is available in other downtown businesses, Nick said.

“The Allens are geniuses,” said Shannon Alexander, a local photographer who also serves as marketing manager for the Barre Partnership, a community revitalization group. She is among the 50 people who have joined the Barre Social Club since it opened in late January, exceeding the Allens’ expectations. “They’re just so capable of vision and design and community-mindedness.”

A Barre native, Alexander moved away to work in the hospitality industry in San Francisco and New York City and later returned to raise her kids. Though she didn’t like Barre when she was growing up, she said she found a hipper, more creative vibe upon her return.

Alexander had set up her laptop at the back of the storefront, in a room with exposed brick walls, the original tin ceiling, a long wooden bar and a kitchen prep area that’s concealed behind a hidden bookshelf door. The space, which previously housed the Vermont Bicycle Shop, now can be used as coworking space, as a venue for pub-like events or as a rental area for parties.

The bar will come in handy: Now that the Barre Social Club has its liquor license, the Allens, who lease the storefront, can supplement their income with beer tastings, wine pairings and private affairs with bar service.

Club members can get charcuterie and cheese boards when the bar is open on Friday and Saturday nights. The club is also serving a Saturday brunch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Open to the public, it features a small menu of Southerninspired dishes such as chicken and waffles, biscuits with jam, and butter and grits. Upcoming dinner events include a supper club starting on April 5 with a four-course meal prepared by Stefano Coppola at nearby Pearl Street Pizza.

“I’m a very aesthetic and visual person,” Alexander said. “To be able to work and meet people in a place like this, where I’m constantly working on creative projects, I find it very inspiring and motivating.”

Alexander pointed to this and other businesses that have sprouted recently downtown — AR Market, Tally pool hall, Slowpoke Exchange and Foxy’s café — as signs that Barre is putting its blemished reputation in the rearview mirror and attracting a new generation of entrepreneurs.

“There’s a lot of new energy and enthusiasm,” she added, “and it’s coming from young people who know that Barre is not really a scary place.” ➆

INFO

Barre Social Club, 105 N. Main St., Suite 102, Barre, 242-1398, barresocialclub.com

FILM

Green Mountain Film Festival Brings Political Movies to Montpelier

BY TRACY BRANNSTROM

Politically minded movies are at the core of this year’s Green Mountain Film Festival — a program that includes 19 feature films, 21 shorts and a handful of other events. The festival runs from Friday, March 14, through Sunday, March 16, in Montpelier, with films playing at either the Savoy Theater or the Capitol Theatre and satellite events scattered across the city.

While the festival organizers didn’t set out with any predetermined themes, GMFF programmer Sam Kann said she was drawn to films with explicitly political subject matter and those that feature historically marginalized voices — especially considering policies enacted by the current presidential administration that target LGBTQ, immigrant and other minority communities.

“We’re showing a lot of films that take a hard look at our country and many that are uplifting those whose civil rights, both here in the United States and elsewhere, are under threat,” she said.

On opening night, the festival screens the Serbian drama 78 Days. Directed by Emilija Gašić, the film follows three sisters creating a video diary with a handheld Sony camcorder. Set in 1999, their video-play unfolds against the backdrop of the Kosovo War, when NATO carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia.

Another festival highlight is Seeds, a documentary that follows Black farmers and their families in the rural American South as they struggle over land ownership — at one point traveling to Washington, D.C., to protest in front of the White House.

Directed by Brittany Shyne, Seeds won a U.S. Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and, according to Kann, is “gorgeously shot” on black-andwhite film.

Four groups of short films are in the festival mix, with queer, coming-of-age and Vermont themes, as well as selections from the Mothership Monthly Film Festival, a DIY series in Burlington.

Each block will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers. Among them is Fiona Obertinca, visiting from Los Angeles with her short film “Dandelion,” about 1970s-era youth advocate groups that identified LGBTQ kids in the U.S. foster system and tried to place them in queer homes.

That history is “totally radical, and nobody knows about it,” said Obertinca, who made the film in a master’s program at LA's American Film Institute.

Beyond film screenings, attendees can listen in on a Sunday evening panel about creating feature-length films in the Green Mountain State. Vermont Production Collective, a nonprofit that supports new and established artists in the film industry, hosts the discussion.

Audiences can also take part in a “work in progress” screening — a new feature of the festival — on Saturday afternoon. They’ll watch and weigh in on Burlington, This is You!, an unfinished documentary by Burlington codirector Myles David Jewell that traces the history of the city’s community media center, CCTV.

Throughout the weekend, the Crumb Factory artist collective will host “APOLIS Departure/Return,” an exhibition of documentary shorts and audiovisual installations exploring the Asian diaspora. Visitors can stick around for two all-vinyl dance-floor sets on Friday and Saturday night.

The festival's closing night features The

and

mentary leans heavily on archival footage to examine the history of how climate change became a partisan battle at the federal level.

Founded in 1997, the GMFF took a fouryear pandemic-induced hiatus beginning in 2020, returning with an all-new team last year. In addition to this year’s political bent, the films focus on community, Kann said. For instance, a discussion about civic engagement and democracy is scheduled to follow a Saturday afternoon screening of Pete and Rebecca Davis’ documentary Join or Die, about the work of political scientist Robert Putnam.

“It’s as important to think about largescale human rights abuses as it is to build our local communities,” Kann said. “Tying these things together is, I think, one of the greatest beauties of the festival.” ➆

INFO

Green Mountain Film Festival, Friday, March 14, through Sunday, March 16, at various locations in downtown Montpelier. $50-90 festival pass; $10-12 per film. gmffestival.org

White House Effect, from directors Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos

Jon Shenk. The docu-

From top: Stills from The White House Effect, "Dandelion" and Seeds

on screen

Mickey 17

If a gonzo satire of autocrats and oligarchs might give you relief from the blood-boiling quality of the daily news, consider the latest ﬁlm from South Korean writer-director Bong Joon Ho. While his Best Picture-winning Parasite was a class-war drama set in the real world, Bong also explored inequality in the 2013 dystopian epic Snowpiercer . So it’s no surprise that he chose to adapt Edward Ashton’s 2022 sci-ﬁ novel Mickey7, which likewise foregrounds the plight of the proletarian — this time in outer space.

The deal

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) never wanted to ﬂy to the stars. His dream was to launch a fast-food empire based on macarons (tag line: “Macarons are not a sin”). But when business goes south, he and his best bud (Steven Yeun) land in the crosshairs of a sadistic loan shark.

To escape a gruesome death, Mickey signs up for an off-world colonization mission led by a grandiose failed politician (Mark Ru alo) with the backing of a mysterious religious organization. His new job, as it turns out, is to endure many gruesome deaths. He’s been hired as an “expendable,” who can be cloned using 3D-printing technology and implanted with a backup of his own memories. This secular form of immortality, illegal back on Earth, makes it “acceptable” to put Mickey in situations where other crew members wouldn’t be risked.

Mickey is a good sport about his frequent deaths, mainly because he’s found love on the spaceship with security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie). He dutifully explores the ice planet Niﬂheim, o ering himself as bait for the giant centipede/ mole inhabitants known as Creepers.

Then one day, the 17th iteration of Mickey returns from a mission he wasn’t expected to survive to find the 18th iteration already sleeping in his bed. The scientists jumped the gun on cloning him, and now Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 must cooperate to avoid perma-death. Problem is, they hate each other’s guts.

Will you like it?

If this all sounds broad and goofy, it is. Mickey 17 is a wild sci-ﬁ yarn in the vein

of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with breakneck pacing, a time-jumping narrative, and a Looney Tunes commitment to its premise. Mickey’s frequent demises are a recurring gag. So are the chipper stoicism with which he endures them (Wile E. Coyote would be envious) and the casual incompetence of the scientists who oversee his resurrections.

While the “body-printing” technology is inherently sinister, this is no chilly, control-freak dystopia. Instead, think Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Absurdity, sloppiness and human error dominate Bong’s futuristic vision, never more obviously than in the scenes involving Ruffalo’s Nero-esque mission leader and his scheming wife (Toni Collette). Both are so devoted to grandstanding over substance that it’s a wonder the space mission ever got o the ground.

Mickey’s bosses speak unabashedly of practicing eugenics on their new “Pure Planet” — and, in case you were wondering, their supporters sometimes wear red hats. Subtle Mickey 17 is not. But it’s also scattershot enough in its satire to apply to a whole raft of modern, TV-ready demagogues.

The movie is all over the place, but Pattinson’s everyman performance glues it (more or less) together. When we meet Mickey, he’s already died 16 times, and his

scratchy, nasal voice-over conveys just how exhausting that’s been. Never the sharpest tool in the shed, the likable Mickey has resigned himself to letting others steer his narrative — the opposite of a traditional leading man. All he has going for him are loyalty to his friends and a cockroach’s determination to survive to die again.

If Mickey 17 — our protagonist — represents the underclass crushed into nearsubmission, Mickey 18 is the devil on his shoulder, who mocks him for his passivity and dares him to resist. Did a glitch in the cloning process produce this divergence, creating the possibility of revolution? Or is Mickey 18 only a rebel because he’s the ﬁrst Mickey who’s ever had to confront himself, and he doesn’t like what he sees?

Mickey 17 never gives these questions an answer, nor do the two Mickeys get the sort of meaty scene together that might yield one. While Pattinson makes the two iterations amusingly distinct, their encounters are more slapstick than philosophical. The issue of what it takes to transform a meek fall guy into a pissed-o ﬁrebrand gets lost in the many subplots involving romantic rivalries, misunderstood aliens and palace conspiracies.

Though Bong’s ﬁlm falls short of the potential of its premise, it remains an entertainingly ludicrous and heartwarming tale that a rms the value of everyone’s

humanity (yes, even the aliens’) against a technocratic calculus of worth. If it troubles you to hear people in power unironically refer to their fellow humans as “parasites,” Mickey 17 has your number.

MARGOT HARRISON margot@sevendaysvt.com

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY…

SNOWPIERCER (2013; PLEX, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Tubi, YouTube Primetime, rentable): One of the most inventive sci-ﬁ epics of recent times, Bong’s ﬁlm about climate crisis survivors on a high-speed train spawned a TV series of the same name (four seasons, 2020-2024; AMC+, SlingTV, YouTube Primetime, rentable).

THE HOST (2006; Max, YouTube Primetime, rentable): While the Creepers in Mickey 17 are more Jim Henson than kaiju, they rouse memories of Bong’s excellent monster movie, in which a workingman ﬁghts to rescue his daughter from a pollution-born river cryptid.

“SEVERANCE” (two seasons, 2022-2025; Apple TV+): Here’s your daily reminder to watch a groundbreaking sci-ﬁ show about workplaces that do bizarre, dehumanizing things to us. Season 2 is currently wrapping up.

Robert Pattinson is double the trouble as a young prole for whom death is a way of life.

NEW IN THEATERS

BLACK BAG: Double-dealing threatens the marriage of two secret agents in this espionage thriller starring Michael Fassbender, Gustaf Skårsgard and Cate Blanchett and directed by Steven Soderbergh. (93 min, R. Essex, Majestic)

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES

MOVIE: Porky Pig and Daffy Duck battle alien invaders in this animated adventure directed by Peter Browngardt. (91 min, PG. Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Paramount)

GREEN MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL: Catch films such as 78 Days The Balconettes and the documentary Seeds in downtown Montpelier. (Capitol, Savoy and other venues, Fri-Sun only)

NOVOCAINE: An introvert who can’t feel physical pain (Jack Quaid) sets out to save his crush from kidnappers in this action comedy costarring Amber Midthunder. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen directed. (110 min, R. Capitol, Essex, Majestic)

OPUS: A young writer finds danger on the compound of a pop star who disappeared for 30 years in this thriller, the directorial debut of Mark Anthony Green. Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich and Juliette Lewis star. (103 min, R. Essex, Majestic)

CURRENTLY PLAYING

ANORAHHHH The Best Picture Oscar went to this comedy-drama about a sex worker (Mikey Madison) who marries a Russian oligarch’s son. (139 min, R. Capitol, Majestic; reviewed 11/20)

BECOMING LED ZEPPELINHHH1/2 Bernard MacMahon’s documentary tells the story of the rock band through 1970. (121 min, PG-13. Savoy)

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLDHH The stars-and-stripes shield passes to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). (118 min, PG-13. Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Paramount, Star, Welden)

A COMPLETE UNKNOWNHHH1/2 Timothée Chalamet plays the young Bob Dylan. (141 min, R. Bijou, Majestic)

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTOHHHH Pierre Niney stars in a new French version of Alexandre Dumas’ classic swashbuckling revenge tale. (178 min, NR. Catamount)

DOG MANHHH A half-canine hero pursues a cat supervillain in this animated adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s kids’ books. (89 min, PG. Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Welden)

I’M STILL HEREHHHH1/2 Three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, went to this historical drama from Brazil about a mother (Fernanda Torres) facing the threat of military dictatorship. Walter Salles directed. (137 min, PG-13. Playhouse, Savoy; reviewed 2/26)

LAST BREATHHHH1/2 In this survival thriller, deepsea divers fight to save a friend trapped underwater. Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu star. (93 min, PG-13. Capitol, Essex, Star, Stowe)

MICKEY 17HHHH In this dark sci-fi comedy from Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Robert Pattinson plays a clone who dies repeatedly in service to his overlords. With Steven Yeun and Naomi Ackie. (137 min, R. Bijou, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Paramount, Star, Stowe, Welden; reviewed 3/12)

THE MONKEYHHH A wind-up toy wreaks mysterious havoc on the lives of two brothers in this adaptation of the Stephen King story from Osgood Perkins (Longlegs). Theo James and Tatiana Maslany star. (98 min, R. Essex, Majestic)

MUFASA: THE LION KINGHHH Disney’s follow-up to its 2019 “live-action” version of The Lion King explores the backstory of Simba’s dad. (120 min, PG. Majestic)

NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE: Zoo animals battle zombies after a meteor spreads plague among their kind in this animated horror comedy. (91 min, PG. City Cinema)

PADDINGTON IN PERUHHH1/2 The intrepid bear and his adopted family are embroiled in a mystery on a visit to his Aunt Lucy. Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw star. (106 min, PG. Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Star, Stowe)

RIFF RAFFHH1/2 In this comedy, a former lawbreaker must reconcile two lives when his old criminal family shows up to settle scores. Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris and Bill Murray star. (103 min, R. Majestic)

RULE BREAKERSHHH A college student in Afghanistan forms a robotics team for girls in this fact-based inspirational drama. Bill Guttentag directed. (120 min, PG. Capitol, Essex, Majestic)

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIGHHHH An Iranian judge struggles with paranoia in this Oscar nominee, directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. (167 min, PG-13. Savoy; reviewed 2/12)

OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS

THE CHEAT (Catamount, Wed 12 only)

HOT SATURDAY (Catamount, Wed 19 only)

JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (VTIFF, Sat only)

LA DOLCE VITA (VTIFF, Fri only)

METROPOLITAN OPERA: FIDELIO (Essex, Sat only)

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (VTIFF, Wed 12 only)

THE SHINING (Catamount, Fri only)

TOKYO STORY (VTIFF, Sat only)

OPEN THEATERS

(* = upcoming schedule for theater was not available at press time)

*BIJOU CINEPLEX 4: 107 Portland St., Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com

*CAPITOL SHOWPLACE: 93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com

CATAMOUNT ARTS: 115 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-2600, catamountarts.org

*CITY CINEMA: 137 Waterfront Plaza, Newport, 334-2610, citycinemanewport.com

ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

MAJESTIC 10: 190 Boxwood St., Williston, 878-2010, majestic10.com

MARQUIS THEATER: 65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com

*PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA: 241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE: 11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com

SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com

THE SCREENING ROOM @ VTIFF: 60 Lake St., Ste. 1C, Burlington, 660-2600, vtiff.org

*STAR THEATRE: 17 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-9511, stjaytheatre.com

*STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

*WELDEN THEATRE: 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

Woody Harrelson in Last Breath

Front-Runner

Glen Coburn Hutcheson collabs with colleagues at the Front

BY ALICE DODGE • adodge@sevendaysvt.com

Many hands make light work. That’s usually said to mean a task will be made easier with more people. Reinterpret it, and you might catch a di erent message: Many hands make more work, but it’s airier, more joyful and less predictable.

That definition befits Glen Coburn Hutcheson’s “Solo Group Show,” on view this month at the Front in Montpelier. The exhibition includes a few works Hutcheson created on his own and many made in collaboration with other artists. The gallery, which Hutcheson started out of what was once his studio in a small storefront on Barre Street, is marking its 10th anniversary this spring, and this unusual approach to a solo exhibition ﬁts the occasion perfectly.

REVIEW

The Front is a collective owned by its artist-members — there are currently 23 — who divide rent and other costs, contribute their skills to everything from patching drywall to filing taxes, and display their work in alternating monthly group and solo shows. Fifty-eight central Vermont artists have been members, each for anywhere from a few months to the full decade.

As a member of the gallery for six years until 2022, I saw ﬁrsthand much of its evolution from a loose bunch of artists to a more formal business. It is still essentially a volunteer e ort — art sales, Hutcheson said, can’t fully support costs, and members don’t expect them to. But it

is also remarkable that a consensus-based effort run by individuals with strong personalities has managed to sustain itself this well for this long.

“We haven’t made any internal enemies,” Hutcheson said, “and we haven’t bounced any checks. All of that feels like a complete win.”

Hutcheson’s work has always straddled a line between traditional artistic forms — ﬁgure drawing, landscape — and something more process-driven. And he’s been fascinated by collaborations of di erent kinds. In art school, Hutcheson tried drawing by holding someone else’s hand, he said, but it was a frustrating experience: “It was like, This is an interesting idea, but let’s never do it again.”

During the pandemic, Hutcheson conducted a di erent experiment, teaming up with Scrag Mountain Music cofounder Evan Premo. Building on the central Vermont chamber music organization’s successful Zoom performances, the pair live streamed Premo playing upright bass while Hutcheson made paintings in oil stick. Hutcheson felt like Premo’s presence and music imbued the paintings — they were still his, but di erent. Two of those are on view in the exhibition; they are abstract, loose and exuberant.

In 2024, Hutcheson started making a series of works on panel with 12 other members of the Front. To begin, he scored and snapped each panel in half, keeping one piece and giving the other to his collaborator. They each worked on one part at a time, swapping back and forth

every month or so for a year. The artists didn’t discuss any plans or add notes but responded instead by altering what they were given, each person finishing the other’s work. The pairs of 9-by-12-inch panels are displayed on plexiglass shelves, leaning against the wall almost as though they’re still in progress.

The results are unpredictable, even knowing many of these artists’ styles and sensibilities. “Glen-Kate panel” and “KateGlen panel,” both with Kate Ruddle, have political undertones: Ruddle covered one panel with a mesh fabric sleeve, painted to

reference the American ﬂag. It also sports a spiky cartoon hedgehog; that may be why, in response, its twin has what looks like a Statue of Liberty, pointy crown toppled and sticking out of the earth à la Planet of the Apes

Other iterations are more abstract, though they still speak to each other. Ned Richardson’s pixelated images and geometric forms peek through on one panel; its neighbor looks like a window exploding with blobs and sweeps of spattered ink.

Hutcheson teamed up with Sam

From left: "Glen-Sam panel" and "Sam-Glen panel" (collaboration with Sam urston); "Self Portrait"

Thurston on two figurative pieces, one a double portrait and one that seems to reference classi cal Roman sculpture. Though both artists’ sense of proportion and technical skill come through, their compositions are strangely jumbled. Both paintings feel destabilized, causing the viewer to question what’s going on.

Hutcheson’s collab oration with Elisabeth Mazzilli, who typically works in hooked rugs, includes collage, text, googly eyes and a figure reminiscent of Francisco Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son.” The panels are at once haunting and funny, deeply layered and lighthearted.

In this and in “Clown Plinth 2: Puss in Boots,” on display in the window, Hutcheson said he’s experimenting with the idea of a plinth — of what it takes for an insubstantial sculpture, such as the ones he’s been making with clothing for several years, to hold something up.

Hutcheson’s use of his own old clothes puts something from himself — his history, his body — into his sculptures. Nowhere is that more apparent than in his “Self Portrait,” painted on a stretched linen shirt. Immediately recognizable, it falls into place as the key to the show, asking the viewer to question the idea of “self” in the portrait.

In art and in running a small business — both enterprises that traditionally put individuality and originality first — placing yourself in a position to abide by others’ choices is a novel approach. Hutcheson said it’s a way to integrate different conceptions of oneself. By checking his artistic impulses against someone else’s, he has to think about what’s valuable in an alternative way.

These mesh well with three sculptures Hutcheson included in the show. “Clown Plinth 1: Home Tree” combines old clothes, a shoe, a broken chair, a pot of geraniums, blue paint and a string of deflated balloons into a remarkably coherent form. There’s a single, gestural movement to the work, like the swirl of a brushstroke, starting with the arm of a T-shirt and unfurling to the point of a squashed sneaker. The almost-hovering broken chair doesn’t seem capable of holding up the flowerpot, yet it does.

Or as he put it: “All of the things that my collaborator does are these weird mysteries, or roadblocks, or revelations that continue to

illuminate me.” ➆

Alice Dodge was a member of the Front from 2016 to 2022.

befuddle

“Glen Coburn Hutcheson: Solo Group Show,” on view through Sunday, March 30, with an artist talk on Thursday, March 20, 6 p.m., at the Front in Montpelier. thefrontvt.com

Above: "Glen-Elisabeth Panel" (collaboration with Elisabeth Mazzilli); below: "Clown Plinth 2: Puss in Boots"

EXHIBITION

Topsy-Turvy Timeline

STORY & PHOTOS BY ALICE DODGE adodge@sevendaysvt.com

According to widespread internet speculation, we’re living in the "darkest timeline." So much has changed radically in the past five years — from the social solidarity and racial justice movements of the early pandemic to the current backlash against both — that it seems like as good a theory as any. With "Future Casting," her show at the Red Mill Gallery at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Nina Buxenbaum asks us to examine alternate paths.

"Topsy Turvy Transition," the largest work in the show at 55 by 42 inches, is also its strongest and most developed. The mixed media drawing depicts a Black woman looking up at the viewer from underneath the voluminous skirts of a white Southern belle type. The pair exist within an architectural setting where the outlines of a pillar are filled with a landscape — the outside inside, leaving blank space where a vista should be.

The piece is part of a body of work Buxenbaum started almost 25 years ago, which uses a Topsy-Turvy doll as its central metaphor. The dolls, which originated during the era of American slavery, feature a white baby on one side and a Black one on the other; flipping the skirt reveals the other side.

Buxenbaum uses that imagery with realistically drawn adult figures to convey the complicated nature of her own biracial identity. The two figures seem both oblivious to and dependent on each other; everything in this world, including the landscape, is indeed topsy-turvy.

According to her artist statement, Buxenbaum has shifted her focus in recent years to the environment and our relationship to the land. "Possible Future Dyptic" 1 and 2 offer up two paths. A pastel-colored future in which hands plant seeds, a figure harvests dandelions and purple mountains merge with a reclining pregnant figure contrasts with an India ink vision of dead trees and a decomposing skeleton.

"Imagining the Food Forest" shows a bountiful urban farm taking root outside the buildings of CUNY York College, where Buxenbaum teaches. In "Plastic Landscape," a figure recedes into a dark mountainscape, ghostly plastic bottles

CALLS TO ARTISTS

2025 ARTIST MEMBER SHOW: Submissions open to artists in all genres and mediums. Artists may submit up to five pieces for consideration. Apply online at tinyurl.com/sva25. Stone Valley Arts, Poultney. Deadline: April 1. Free for members; $50 new or renewal membership fee. Info, stonevalleyartscenter@gmail.com.

in the foreground signaling an ominous future. While the imagery certainly gets the artist’s point across, it’s missing the rich complexity that makes "Topsy Turvy Transition" so compelling.

Two paintings, "YAMECAH Food Forest ‘What is, and what could be’" 1 and 2, convey the conflict between different visions of the future on a more pragmatic level. According to the exhibition text, Buxenbaum made the paintings as part of advocacy for an on-campus agroforestry project that failed to come to fruition. Over lush gardens of flowering trees, she has sketched white contour lines to indicate the ugly construction site that now exists in the same space.

These are confusing but intriguing pictures that successfully convey uncertainty about which timeline we occupy and which future lies ahead. With recent reporting suggesting that CUNY is projecting increased enrollment even as the current presidential administration cuts education funding, we can only hope that whatever’s being built in the garden will include a new path. ➆

INFO

“Future Casting” by Nina Buxenbaum, on view through March 28 at the Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson. vermontstudiocenter.org

OPENINGS + RECEPTIONS

SEEKING ARTISANS AND ARTISTS: The Stowe gallery, under new management, is seeking Vermont artists for inclusion in its roster as regular and featured artists. Inquire via email or at northwoodgallery.com. Northwood Gallery, Stowe. Info, info.northwoodgallery@gmail.com.

‘SKYSCRAPERS BY THE ROOTS: REFLECTIONS ON LATE MODERNISM’: An exhibition that explores the long life of late modernism in the field of architecture by bringing together a series of works created over the past decade by Shannon Bool, Kapwani Kiwanga, Rachel Rose and Jonathan Schouela; a new film

installation by David Hartt; and works by Lynne Cohen and François Dallegret produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Montréal Museum of Contemporary Art, through August 10. Info, 514-847-6226.

GABBY FARINEAU: “Just a Little Bug,” a solo show presented by the artist as part of a senior capstone project in the Art and Design program. Reception: Thursday, March 13, 6 p.m. McCarthy Art Gallery, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, through March 14. Info, bcollier@smcvt.edu.

= ONLINE EVENT OR EXHIBIT

Clockwise from top left: "Imagining the Food Forest"; "YAMECAH Food Forest #1: 'What is, and what could be'"; "Topsy Turvy Transition"; "Plastic Landscape"

JACK HURLEY: “Cline,” a light-based art installation presented as part of a senior capstone project in the Art and Design program. The installation will be located in the Trap Door Theater of the McCarthy Arts Center, which is below the McCarthy Art Gallery.

Reception: Thursday, March 13, 6:30 p.m. in the Trap Door Theater. McCarthy Arts Center, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, through March 14. Info, bcollier@ smcvt.edu.

‘SCALY, SLIMY, SMOOTH AND SLITHERY’: A juried group show exploring the world of frogs, toads, salamanders, turtles, snakes and lizards through the eyes of 32 Vermont artists in painting, printmaking, photography, pastels, colored pencil, ink, fiber arts and ceramics. Reception: Friday, March 14, 4-6 p.m. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, through June 27. Info, 229-6206.

‘GROUND TRUTH’: An exhibition at the Planetary Art Institute of works by Kurt Budliger, Daryl Burtnett, Erin Harris, Niall McCallum, Katie O’Rourke and Samantha Lightner, along with local live-edge furniture. Reception: Friday, March 14, 4-7 p.m. Camp Meade, Middlesex, through May 11. Info, 496-2108.

FINNIE TRIMPI: “Fierce Females,” a project seeking to empower women through portraiture. Reception: Friday, March 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret, through April 5. Info, 457-3500.

‘MUD (SEASON)’: An exhibition of works by more than 60 local artists inspired by the melting snow, running sap, returning birds, awakening bears, longer days, rutted roads and special light of mud season. Reception: Friday, March 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret, March 14-April 19. Free. Info, 457-3500, info@artistreevt.org.

‘FILAMENTS’: An exhibition of works by fiber artists Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, Maggie Neale, Almuth Palinkas, Leslie Roth, Kep Taylor, Jane Wass and Lucy

Wollanger. Reception: Saturday, March 15, 1-3 p.m. Adamant Co-op, March 15-April 15. Info, 223-5760.

‘THE ART OF HEALING’: A pop-up exhibit featuring works from the museum’s collections inspired by themes of hope, justice, love and transformation, presented alongside the Healing Through Hope Inclusive Excellence Symposium at UVM. Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont, Burlington, March 18-22. Info, 656-0750.

KATHERINE COONS: “Underground Outside,” mixed-media installations by Katherine Coons, on view in the third floor gallery. Reception: Saturday, March 22, 4-5:30 p.m. Studio Place Arts, Barre, through April 19. Info, 479-7069.

ROBERT WALDO BRUNELLE JR.: “Walls & Windows,” paintings by the Vermont cartoonist and illustrator, on view in the second floor gallery. Reception: Saturday, March 22, 4-5:30 p.m. Studio Place Arts, Barre, through April 19. Info, 479-7069.

‘SILVER LINING’: A celebration of the organization’s 25 years with the color silver, featuring sculptures, assemblages, paintings, jewelry and photographs. Reception: Saturday, March 22, 4-5:30 p.m. Studio Place Arts, Barre, through April 19. Info, 479-7069.

‘SHAPE/SHIFT: OBJECTS AND NON-OBJECTIVES’: An exhibition of nonobjective art — a term coined in the 1960s referring to abstract, nonrepresentational forms — by 37 artists from Vermont and New Hampshire. Reception: Friday, April 4, 5-7 p.m. AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon N.H., March 14-April 26. Info, 603-448-3117.

ART EVENTS

ARTIST TALK & DINNER: TRACY BURTZ: The artist discusses her autobiographical paintings, followed by dinner. Guests asked to arrive between 5 and 5:30 p.m. Presented by Edgewater Gallery; call the Pitcher

Inn to reserve. The Pitcher Inn, Warren, Thursday, March 13, 5 p.m. Talk is free; dinner at menu prices. Info, 496-6350.

LIFE DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event for artists working with the figure from a live model. T.W. Wood Gallery, Montpelier, Thursday, March 13, 7-9 p.m. Free; $10 suggested donation. Info, 262-6035.

‘DEPARTURE/RETURN’ SCREENING & MUSIC

PROGRAM: A weekend-long sampling of documentary shorts and audiovisual installations curated by Apolis and the Green Mountain Film Festival and exploring the Asian diaspora. DJs spin vinyl sets on Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively. Crumb Factory, Montpelier, Friday, March 14, 7 p.m., and Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16, 1 p.m. $10-15. Info, sevendaystickets.com.

ARTIST TALK: MELISSA RUBIN AND AMY BEECHER: A discussion of “Field Notes,” Rubin’s exhibition of mixed-media and sculptural works, by the two artists, followed by a Q&A with the audience. CX Silver Gallery, Brattleboro, Saturday, March 15, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 257-7898.

SOCIAL SUNDAY: An opportunity for children and caregivers to stop in and complete a 15- to 30-minute activity during the two-hour workshop. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, Sunday, March 16, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 891-2014.

PORTRAIT DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event where artists can practice skills in any medium. T.W. Wood Gallery, Montpelier, Monday, March 17, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; $10 suggested donation. Info, 262-6035.

WINTER WATERCOLORS WITH PAULINE NOLTE: Weekly workshops for painters of all abilities; no experience necessary. Register via email. Waterbury Public Library, Tuesday, March 18, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free. Info, judi@waterburypubliclibrary.com.

OPEN STUDIO: A guided meditation followed by an hour of art making in any medium and concluding with a share-and-witness process. Many art materials available. In-person and online. Expressive Arts Burlington, Tuesday, March 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m. By donation. Info, 343-8172.

DRINK & DRAW: A drop-in event organized by the T.W. Wood Gallery; no experience necessary; drawing materials provided. Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, Wednesday, March 19, 5-7 p.m. Free; $10 suggested donation; cash bar. Info, 262-6035. ➆

music+nightlife

Sonic Temple

The light from a low winter sun streamed in through the windows of the massive tracking room at Tank Recording Studio in Burlington, illuminating the wood bones of the old building. Standing in a shaft of sunlight like a house cat was Ben Collette, his tall frame and long brown hair glowing for a moment as he smiled in appreciation of the musical legacy contained in the room.

“Those ba es are from the old White Crow studio Todd Lockwood used to run,” Collette said, gesturing toward the barriers he uses to redirect sound waves while recording bands. “That organ was in Dan Archer’s old studio. The upright piano was Gordon Stone’s. And, man, there’s so, so much old Phish gear in here — just a lot of local music history right in this room.”

And more is being made there every week. Since opening the Old North End

studio — familiarly known as “the Tank” — with his then-business partner Rob O’Dea in 2007, Collette has cut records with an exhaustive list of local acts, from twee indiepop outﬁt the Smittens to jam band Dopapod to experimental musician Greg Davis to the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to rocker Grace Potter.

O’Dea left in 2020, and Collette moved the studio from its original, cozier North Winooski Avenue location to a 3,000-square-foot building just down the street.

“Local Music Showcase” on WNCS-FM the Point, on Sundays at 6:30 p.m., featuring music recorded at the studio and performances from TRS Live.

I LOVE THE LOCAL SCENE. I WANT IT TO SOUND AS GOOD AS IT DESERVES TO.

Those endeavors, born equally of the financial realities of running a pro studio in the age of GarageBand and a desire to contribute something good to his community, have made Collette and the Tank pillars of the local music scene.

BEN COLLETTE

Since then, Collette has begun hosting a unique concert series, TRS Live, where fans can watch their favorite local bands cut live records. And he’s partnered with musician and radio DJ Arty LaVigne to broadcast

“I’ve definitely had to redefine what success means to me,”

Collette, 42, said. “There was a time when I dreamed about bringing in all these international and touring acts, and while that might still happen, I’ve learned to focus more on this community and music scene.

Which is really a full-circle kind of thing for me, since this is my home.”

Collette, a South Burlington native, started taping shows to his DAT machine when he was just 16 years old. In 1998, he began an internship with the Vermont jam band Strangefolk. But it was two years later — when his father, a music journalist, suggested he directly contact Phish for a job — that things really started to happen.

Collette took a job at the Burlington jam kings’ merchandise wing, Phish Dry Goods. He was there for two years while working toward a small business degree at the University of Vermont. After graduation in 2004, he asked the band for a full-time gig. He got it, but his timing was terrible.

“My literal first day as a full-time employee of the band, and they gather us together for an announcement,” he recalled with a rueful grin. “The band was

Ben Collette helps Vermont artists make the records of their dreams at the Tank

CHRIS FARNSWORTH • farnsworth@sevendaysvt.com

Ben Collette at Tank Recording Studio

breaking up. I couldn’t believe it. My heart just sank.”

The heartbreak didn’t last long. Soon after, the band’s guitarist, Trey Anastasio, informed Collette, “Hey, you work for me now.” It began a relationship that has proved fundamental to Collette’s career.

As in-house audio engineer and archivist for Anastasio — and, once they re-formed in 2009, Phish — Collette has worked on dozens of records within the band’s orbit. He’s worked beside some of the best record producers in the world, including Steve Lillywhite and Bob Ezrin, all while honing his skills — Anastasio even sent him to New York City to get Pro Tools-certiﬁed in 2006.

The following year, feeling ready to start recording beyond the Phish world, Collette went into business with O’Dea.

“Part of the reason for starting a studio was the need to sharpen my skills,” Collette explained. “But really, I just wasn’t thrilled with the quality of the production I heard on a lot of local records. And I love the local scene. I want it to sound as good as it deserves to.”

Sure enough, high-proﬁ le Vermont acts such as Swale, Ryan Montbleau and Kat Wright have tracked some of their best-sounding work at the studio. But Collette is just as adept at helping lesserknown acts ﬁnd their voice.

Singer-songwriter Reid Parsons, 31, recorded at the Tank in 2018 after winning studio time at the Advance Music Singer/Songwriter Contest the year before. Recording that debut album was such a formative experience that Parsons decided to lay down a brand-new LP with Collette — the ﬁrst single from Back to Back drops this Friday, March 14.

“I was a younger, inexperienced musician when I ﬁrst started working with Ben,” Parsons said. “It might have been

Listening In

(Spotify mix of local jams)

1. “YEAR OF THE GYPSY MOTH” by Jack O’ e Clock

2. “RUNAWAY TRAIN” by Kyle Chadburn

3. “LOST IN TRANSLATION” by THUS LOVE

4. “STOCKHOLM SYNDROME” by Caroline Rose

5. “HOTTER” by Select Sound System

6. “BEAUTIFUL DAY” by Another Sexless Weekend

7. “MOSAIC” by Samantha Mae

Scan to listen

sevendaysvt. com/playlist

easy to dismiss what I had to say, but he was always so supportive and easy to collaborate with. It took any anxiety away.”

That attention and encouragement are part of why Parsons opted to return to the Tank rather than record at home.

The Tank’s day rate for recording, editing, mixing and mastering is $1200, though Collette knocks that down to $900 for local artists. But for Parsons, the choice was about more than money.

“Recording at an actual studio isn’t cheap, and you can get a decent sound by yourself at home if you know what you’re doing,” Parsons acknowledged. “So if

you’re going to spend the money to use a studio, you really want to make sure you get the best engineer you can ﬁnd — and that’s Ben. Anyone can learn Pro Tools, but not everyone has those kinds of ears.”

Collette’s reputation in the Vermont music scene certainly helps bring in clients. But especially given the increasing ease and sophistication of home recording software, he’s had to be clever about making the Tank ﬁnancially stable.

“When I was a senior at UVM, one of my projects was to draw up a pitch for a recording studio as a business,” he recalled. The pitch was quickly scuttled after he realized the plan was a horrible money loss on paper. He thought to himself, “There’s no way I’ll ever do this. It’s completely unfeasible.” But, he said, “Twenty years later, and I’m writing up a business plan to renovate a 3,000-squarefoot space in the middle of a pandemic while my wife is pregnant with our ﬁrst child. Brilliant, Ben!”

He realized he needed to do more with the Tank than just be the go-to studio in the area. And he wanted to engage with Burlington’s musicians on an even deeper level. So last year he launched TRS Live, an intimate series that, for the ticket price of $35, allows just 40 fans the opportunity to see their favorite band play — and record — live. The series has hosted the likes of Emma Cook & Questionable Company, LaMP, and Matt Hagen.

The TRS arrangement is a pretty sweet deal for local artists. While they don’t get paid for the gig, they get a fully mixed and mastered recording of their live performance, as well as a full-song video edit and a photo gallery from photographer Luke Awtry. And the entire show gets

SONIC TEMPLE » P.54

music+nightlife

broadcast on the Point’s “Local Music Showcase.”

The radio collaboration is another way Collette is diversifying what the Tank does. The idea for a local music program came to LaVigne, 74, while he was tracking a record at the Tank last year with his own group, the Arty LaVigne Band. The station’s local music show had recently ended, and LaVigne was looking to shine a light on Vermont musicians.

producer Willverine holds court. The following week highlights Americana act Kyle Chadburn & the Earthbound Spirits, who recorded a TRS Live set on March 8.

“I have to tip my hat to Ben,” LaVigne said. “He’s so locked into the local music scene and has so many great ideas for artists we can feature. He’s such a talented, genuine guy who really cares about local music and wants it to sound as good as it can. And that is invaluable to a scene like ours.”

“When I started in broadcasting, I was in school in San Francisco and loved programs like ‘Live [at] the Record Plant,’” LaVigne said, reminiscing about the 1970s show on Bay City station KSAN-FM where artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Warren Zevon recorded live albums in its famous studio in Sausalito. “So I inherently love when radio showcases live music like that.”

Together with Collette, LaVigne dreamed up “Local Music Showcase,” where the Point could play songs recorded at the Tank. Some weeks feature an entire TRS Live set, as will the Sunday, March 16, episode when electro

As Collette walked around the upstairs tracking room at the Tank, mapping out how he was planning on miking up nine players in a jazz ensemble that was due to come in, he paused, looking at the empty room that would soon be full of musicians and gear.

“I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but it makes me feel so good when I realize that the space I’ve created is being used,” he said. “Because I’m not sure some of these things would be happening if the Tank didn’t exist.” ➆

INFO

Learn more at tankrecording.com.

Eye on the Scene

Last week’s live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

THE WET ONES!, ORIGINAL SKIFF, HOTEL CHAMPLAIN, BURLINGTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 7:

The ice has finally been broken for live bands at Hotel Champlain’s bar and restaurant. The Wet Ones!, a three-piece instrumental surf-rock band hailing from Starksboro, will forever have the honor of having played the first riff at Original Skiff. Even travelers in the hotel lobby could not escape the Wet Ones! Shout-out to guitarist JOHN FLANAGAN and bassist AMY WILD for their level of authenticity. They both rock classic all-Fender surf rigs — Flanagan an Ocean Turquoise Jazzmaster guitar with a 1960s Silverface Bandmaster amplifier and Wild an Olympic White Mustang bass with a huge Fender Bassman 100 stack to cover the low end. With BOBBY HACKNEY JR. on drums, the trio ripped through two sets of tunes. With a hint of ocean fare wafting and cocktails served in fish-shaped glasses, the SoCal vibes were strong enough to make me forget that it was very much still winter outside.

CLUB DATES

live music

WED.12

BBQ and Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

David Karl Roberts (singer-songwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

THU.13

James McMurty, BettySoo (singer-songwriter) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. SOLD OUT.

Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind (blues) at Retro Live, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 7 p.m. $20.

Jazz with Alex Stewart and Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jenny & the Bets (indie) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 7 p.m. $10.

Kraatz Carromato (jazz) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Milton Busker & the Grim Work (Americana, folk rock) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Satyrdagg, Fossil Record (jazz, funk) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

TopHouse, the Wildwoods (bluegrass, rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $25/$30.

FRI.14

Anachronist, Tabarnak (indie rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $10.

Bella & Bob (jazz) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Chris & Erica (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Cleary, Gagnon & Saulnier Jazz Residency (jazz) at the Phoenix, Waterbury, 7:30-8:30 p.m. $15-30 sliding scale.

Corner Junction Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Damian Musto, Moondogs (psych rock) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 6 p.m. Free.

Dan Tomaino (singer-songwriter) at Switchback Brewing’s Beer Garden & Tap House, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Dave Keller Band (R&B, swing) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 9 p.m. Free.

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

Dust to Dust

As a founder of the influential ’90s band Kyuss, Brant Bjork helped launch so-called “desert rock” into the lexicon. He left the group in 1994 after the album Sky Valley, but Bjork has remained prolific, performing with the likes of Mondo Generator and Fu Manchu, as well as launching Duna Records and his current label, Low Desert Punk. His brand-new BRANT BJORK TRIO are a lean and mean outfit featuring Fatso Jetson bassist Mario Lalli and Mondo Generator drummer Mike Amster. Touring behind its 2024 debut, Once Upon a Time in the Desert, the trio visits the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington on Monday, March 17.

Drumstick Bossman with the Blue Ribbons (reggae, funk, jazz) at the Underground, Randolph, 7:30 p.m. $14.

Duncan MacLeod Trio (jazz) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7 p.m. Free. God Street Wine (jam) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. SOLD OUT.

Ian Mack Trio (jazz, pop) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Jerborn (acoustic) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road (bluegrass) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $15/$18.

Mark Gwinn & D Davis (jazz) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Nancy Johnson (singersongwriter) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

Paul Webb (piano) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Rap Night Burlington (hip-hop) at Drink, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5. Rubblebucket, Toth, Hannah Mohan (indie) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. SOLD OUT.

Ryan Sweezey & the Midnight Walkers, Jesse Taylor Band,

Audrey Pearl (indie pop, rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $15/$20. Sabo, Angelique Moore (rock) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Scott Campbell (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

Swamp Frog (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Swell (folk rock) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Toast (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

The Zoo (covers) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. $10.

SAT.15

Salsa Class & Alma Picante in Concert (salsa) at the Double E Lounge at Essex Experience, 6 p.m. $22-$27.

Baby Fearn, Hill House, Frankie & the Fuse (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $12/$15.

Braden Lalancette (bluegrass) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

Chest Fever, Mrs. Henry (the Band tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $18.

Cowboy Bebop LIVE (jazz) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $34/$39.

Dave O., Mike Schuster (folk) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7 p.m. Free.

The Eye Traps, Osage Orange (indie rock) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

GuitFiddle (rock, swing) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Hazlett, Abby Powledge (singer-songwriter) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. SOLD OUT.

Last Kid Picked (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Lincoln Sprague (jazz) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

Live Music Saturdays (live music series) at Dumb Luck Pub & Grill, Hinesburg, 7 p.m. Free.

Minced Oats (bluegrass) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free.

Native Tongue (rock) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Oobleck, the Sarah Whitehair Band (funk) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $10/$15.

Paper Wolves, Born Cursed, the Path, Miles of Fire, Geeked Out (metal, hardcore) at the Lounge at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. $15.

Paul Webb (piano) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Raised by Hippies (covers) at Stowe Cider, 8 p.m. $10.

The Tenderbellies, Dan Johnson and Windy Mountain (bluegrass) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10/$12.

Throne, Burial Daze, Reign Havoc, Shiny New Toyz (metal) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. $10.

The Zoo (covers) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. $10.

SUN.16

The Buck Hollers (Irish music) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 5 p.m. Free.

Dan Ryan Express (jazz) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 1 p.m. Free.

Spafford (jam) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8-11 p.m. $20/$25.

Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

TR3 with Tim Reynolds (jam, rock) at Stowe Cider, 7 p.m. $40. Wine & Jazz Sundays: Chris Peterman & Mike Hartigan Duo (jazz) at Shelburne Vineyard, 5 p.m. Free.

MON.17

90 Proof (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free. Andris Berry (folk, rock) at Poultney Pub, 5 p.m. Free. Brant Bjork Trio (rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $20/$25.

The Buck Hollers (Irish music) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 11 a.m. Free.

The Cobras (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 4 p.m. Free. Forest Station (bluegrass) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $10.

One More Time (Irish) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free.

TUE.18

Allison Mann & Ira Friedman (jazz) at Three Penny Taproom, Montpelier, 6 p.m. Free. Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free. Fun Dip (Americana) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

Grateful Tuesdays (Grateful Dead tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

Honky Tonk Tuesday with Pony Hustle (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10. Lean Tee, Hand in Pants, Will Keeper (indie) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10. Mike Paternoster (piano) at Monkey House, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

WED.19

BBQ and Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Mike Chapman (singer-songwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free. Trans & Reproductive Rights Benefit Show (benefit) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $5-$24.

UVM Songwriter’s Circle Showcase (singer-songwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

MON.17 // BRANT BJORK TRIO [ROCK]

Breathwork, Amber

(MUSIC LAB RECORDS, DIGITAL, VINYL)

In theory, music is an inﬁnite canvas rendered in 12 tones. In practice, even the broad horizons of “jazz fusion” tend to veer uncomfortably close to jam band excess. Granted, the bar for the former is set exponentially higher for sheer chops, and the demographic for jazz concerts is far less likely to be arrested at the venue. While it may seem unfair to compare powerhouses such as Return to Forever to, well, Twiddle, both aesthetics lean heavy on long, meandering solos.

chops are not enough to stand out from the pack. You need a vision, a voice Drawing from a wealth of world music inﬂuences and a lifetime of deep genre study, Naylor has carved out a supple but unmistakable style.

However, Burlington guitar guru Xander Naylor is something special. In a post-YouTube world full of fretboard technicians replicating the greats, mere

Getting dozens of email pitches every day leads to a certain amount of cynicism in a music critic. The best part of this job is proving that lazy, jaded reﬂex wrong. When I saw PR copy for Naylor’s new album about “blending” rich traditions such as “Americana, Country, and Jazz,” I was only expecting some bloodless adult contemporary snoozefest.

Instead, Amber kept me riveted. The album marks the debut of jazz fusion trio Breathwork, Naylor’s latest side project. The opening title track sets the tone as

Samantha Mae, Reverie

(MUSIC LAB RECORDS, DIGITAL)

Burlington singer-songwriter Samantha Mae wrote her ﬁrst song when she was 12, just after the death of her mother. She sat at a piano she didn’t know how to play and let her raw emotion pour out, which she describes in the bio on her website as her “ﬁrst experience with the healing power of songwriting.”

Mae nurtured her early proclivity for music by performing in vocal groups and choirs throughout high school and college, but she never tried making her own music or performing outside of school. She wouldn’t write again until her wedding, when she set her vows to music. According to her bio, that experience woke something in Mae, and she decided to ﬁnally pursue being a songwriter.

The result of that epiphany is Mae’s debut LP, Reverie. You might expect a lo-ﬁ bedroom recording from a ﬁrst-time artist, especially one who has a day job and family and is completely unknown on the local scene. But the album is both expertly produced and beautifully arranged.

a lovely, low-key ballad that unfolds into surprising depths. Pat Markley’s bass work is a marvel of restraint, endlessly creative but never obtrusive. But Ethan Snyder’s dynamic ingenuity on the drums is perhaps the band’s greatest weapon.

After many spins, “Forgotten Lovers” has emerged as my favorite cut. More than anything else here, it nails the mission statement, blending classic Blue Note Records and Nashville to perfection. The melody is so haunting I assumed it was an old standard, but it turns out to have been written by Markley, who has sadly since departed the band.

The album’s undeniable centerpiece is the slow burn of “Old Man,” an instrumental arrangement of Neil Young’s 1972 classic. It’s one of the best versions of the song I’ve heard from anyone, a warm mix of Leo Kottke’s skill and Lyle Lovett’s cool.

It’s followed by “Tu e,” a hard left

That’s partly a reflection of Mae’s songwriting skill and the strength of her vocal prowess. She possesses a warm, intimate style of singing, somewhere between a pop crooner such as Lana Del Rey and an indie rocker like Neko Case. From the easygoing pop of “My My Baby Goodbye” to the alt-rock-influenced “Mosaic,” Mae’s songs lack any trace of amateurism. She can e ortlessly move into country terrain, as on “She’ll Know,” or go full balladeer with “Porch Light,” the song she wrote for her wedding. “You love me in spite of my flaws / you faced my demons and you rose above /

turn into straightforward rock. The transition felt too jarring upon ﬁrst listen, but it’s since grown on me. The contrast also enhances the impact of closing track “Benaulim Dawn,” an extended, playful conversation that makes the most of the trio’s experience and range.

Naylor does not lack for accomplishments. In recent years, he’s toured multiple continents, been praised in the pages of Rolling Stone and soundtracked an independent movie, Hayseed. Yet with Breathwork, he and his collaborators have forged something truly special. Whether it’s reuniting with Markley or moving ahead with someone new, the electric ESP interplay between Naylor and Snyder is a revelation that demands further study.

Amber is available on major streaming platforms and on limited-edition vinyl at breathworktheband.bandcamp.com.

JUSTIN BOLAND

so thank you for giving me a life worth telling, a story of under that porch light,” she sings, her voice full of warmth amid subtle melodic shifts.

The other secret to the album’s slick, professional sound is VT Music Lab, a relatively new studio in Essex Junction founded by Dwight + Nicole drummer Ezra Oklan and Cooked bassist Drew Holland. Oklan assembled a top-notch session band consisting of himself on drums, Leon Campos on keys, and Dan Bishop and Nashville musician Rob Calder on bass — an impressive backing band for a debutant. Along with engineer Calvin Winzler-Lane and Breathwork guitarist Xander Naylor (see above review), a Lab employee whose six-string wizardry is all over the album, the studio puts its best foot forward on Mae’s LP.

Reverie is the ﬁrst album to drop on the studio’s nascent label, Music Lab Records. According to Oklan, the label is currently only releasing music recorded at the Lab, but he and Holland hope to expand its operations.

For a ﬁrst o ering both from the label and the artist, Reverie is a home run. Mae displays range in her songwriting; she can go supersweet on the album’s more romantic numbers just as expertly as she channels rage and remorse on the darker tracks. Raw feeling powers her music, making for an impressive debut.

Reverie is available on major streaming services. CHRIS FARNSWORTH

Samantha Mae

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

djs

WED.12

DJ Blaine (DJ) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 5 p.m. Free.

DJ Chalango, DJ Tarzana Salsa Night (DJ, salsa) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

The Mid Week Hump with DJs Fattie B and Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.13

DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ JP Black (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

DJ Two Sev (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 11 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.14

Blanchface (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

DJ Craig Mitchell (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

DJ CRE8 (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

DJ Two Rivers (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Nilz (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, midnight. Free.

Rile (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Ron Stoppable (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

SAT.15

Disco Fresca, DJ Chia (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 10 p.m. $10/$15.

DJ Ara$ (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Mr Cheng (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Sparkomatik (DJ) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. $10.

SUN.16

Mi Yard Reggae Night with DJ Big Dog (reggae, dancehall) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

SAT.15 // THE TENDERBELLIES [BLUEGRASS]

Green Mountain Breakdown

Plenty of modern bluegrass acts embody the genre’s traditional characteristics. But the TENDERBELLIES are a different beast altogether. The Burlington sextet formed at Champlain Valley Union High School more than a decade ago and brings a nuanced and energetic mix of bluegrass, Americana, jazz and even shades of progressive rock to the stage. A better-late-than-never 2022 debut, One by One, finally captured the group’s dynamic sound and near-telepathic interplay. The Tenderbellies show off those qualities with a performance at ArtsRiot in Burlington on Saturday, March 15. Americana outfit DAN JOHNSON AND WINDY MOUNTAIN open the show.

open mics & jams

WED.12

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic With Danny Lang (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.13

Old Time Jam (string instrument open mic) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Artie (open mic) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

SAT.15

Monthly Pub Sing (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7:30 p.m. Free.

SUN.16

Olde Time Jam Session (open jam) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, noon. Free.

MON.17

Open Mic (open mic) at Despacito, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.18

Venetian Soda Open Mic (open mic) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.19

Lit Club (poetry open mic) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy

WED.12

2nd Wednesday Comedy Jam (comedy) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

March Madness: Prelims (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5. Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

THU.13

Kate Sisk (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $25.

What Else, What Else? (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5.

FRI.14

Kate Sisk (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

Wit & Wine (comedy) at Shelburne Vineyard, 8 p.m. $10.

SAT.15

Brewhaha with Mike Hanley (comedy) at Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7 p.m. $40. Good Clean Fun (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 5 p.m. $5/$10.

Kate Sisk (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Dumb Luck Pub and Grill Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.13

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

FRI.14

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Untapped: A Night of Drag & Burly-Q (drag) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $15. Women’s History Month Trivia! (trivia) at wit & grit., Randolph, 5 p.m. Free.

SUN.16

Karaoke with DJ Coco Entertainment (karaoke) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 5 p.m. Free.

Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon. Free.

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.17

Trivia Monday (trivia) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Monday with Top Hat

Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Original, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Barr Hill, Montpelier, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Brain (trivia) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.18

Karaoke (karaoke) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.18

Open Mic Comedy with Levi Silverstein (comedy open mic) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.19

March Madness: Quarterfinals (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10. Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Tuesday Trivia (trivia) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.19

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

WED.12

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Lil’s Food & Beverage Trivia (trivia) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Singles Mixer (dating) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 6:308:30 p.m. $35.

Trivia (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Dumb Luck Pub and Grill Winooski, 7 p.m. Free. ➆

calendar

MARCH 12-19, 2025

WED.12

agriculture

GRAIN GROWERS

CONFERENCE: Red Hen Baking founder Randy George keynotes this agricultural gathering centered on the theme “The Links of a Local Grain Supply Chain.” The Essex Resort & Spa, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. $50-85. Info, 524-6501.

business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS

NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: Savvy businesspeople make crucial contacts at a weekly chapter meeting. BCA Center, Burlington, 11:15 a.m.1 p.m. Free. Info, 829-5066.

SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUR SCHEDULE:

Winfield Creative chief inspiration officer Brittany Winfield guides small business owners in simple, effective strategies to help maximize their time on social media.

Hosted by Women Business Owners Network of Vermont. 8:30-10 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 503-0219.

climate crisis

M.D. USHER: In “Fire Sermons: Shakyamuni, Seneca and Thoreau on Climate Trauma,” a University of Vermont professor draws from his new book to explore human-driven

natural disasters. Virtual option available. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 4-5 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-6955.

community

CURRENT EVENTS: Neighbors have an informal discussion about what’s in the news. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 878-4918.

‘JOIN OR DIE’ SCREENING & MIXER: Vermont Public hosts a screening of Pete and Rebecca Davis’ highly acclaimed 2023 documentary about declining social engagement, followed by a community-building social hour. Vermont Public, Colchester, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, jvasquez@ vermontpublic.org.

crafts

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAPTER OF THE EMBROIDERERS’ GUILD OF AMERICA: Anyone with an interest in the needle arts can bring a project to this monthly meeting. Holy Family Parish Hall, Essex Junction, 9:30 a.m.1 p.m. Free. Info, gmc.vt.ega@ gmail.com.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: A drop-in meetup welcomes knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and other fiber artists. BYO snacks and drinks. Must Love Yarn, Shelburne, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 448-3780.

These community event listings are sponsored by the WaterWheel Foundation, a project of the Vermont band Phish.

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE!

All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper. Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent

Listings and spotlights are written by Rebecca Driscoll Seven Days edits for space and style. Depending on cost and other factors, classes and workshops may be listed in either the calendar or the classes section. Class organizers may be asked to purchase a class listing.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

NXT ROCKUMENTARY FILM

SERIES: ‘THE BEATLES: THE FIRST U.S. VISIT’: This riveting 1991 documentary by the Maysles brothers captures the Fab Four in an intimate, unguarded way. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7 p.m. $8. Info, 387-0102.

‘THE ROOM NEXT DOOR’: Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star in Pedro Almodóvar’s 2024 psychological drama about two women immersing themselves in their pasts. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $6-12. Info, 660-2600.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING:

Neighbors join up with the nonprofit’s staff and volunteers to make a yummy meal for distribution. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 777-8691.

games

CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities test their skills with instructor Robert and peers. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

lgbtq

QUEER WRITERS’ GROUP: LGBTQ authors meet monthly to discuss their work, write

from prompts, and give each other advice and feedback. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

music

FARMERS NIGHT: THE VERMONT SYMPHONIC WINDS: Music director Lisa Jablow conducts an ensemble of musicians and vocalists in a vibrant performance of classical and contemporary selections. House Chamber, Vermont Statehouse, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 262-2626.

seminars

GREEN SCREEN LIGHTING TECHNIQUES: Film students observe how to ensure clean extractions and realistic background integration to give their projects a polished, professional look. The Media Factory, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 651-9692.

NORTHEAST KINGDOM COUNCIL ON AGING PRESENTATION: Curious folks learn more about the council’s services and how it supports older adults in the community. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 1:30-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

SUSTAINING THE RENT WORKSHOP: The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity helps renters develop the knowledge and skills needed to meet their housing needs. Noon-1:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 660-3456.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE

TENNIS CLUB: Ping-Pong players swing their paddles in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership. Info, 247-5913. talks

ARMCHAIR NATURALIST

SPEAKER SERIES: KIRK

WEBSTER: Buzz, buzz! In “Beekeeping in Addison County, Yesterday and Today,” a renowned Champlain Valley Bees and Queens apiarist focuses on why the region is ideal for pollinators. New Haven Town Hall, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 363-4789.

NIKKI MATHESON: A local French teacher guides listeners on a virtual tour of Paris’ lesser-known sites. 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 922-3971.

theater

‘COME FROM AWAY’: This Tony Award-winning musical tells the stirring true story of a small Newfoundland town that hosted 7,000 stranded travelers on 9/11. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $70.50-105.50. Info, 863-5966.

‘WAITRESS’: A playful score by Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles lends boundless joy to this Broadway smash hit about making big changes. Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 7:30 p.m. $5-94. Info, 296-7000.

words

ANGELA PATTEN: An Irish American poet joins forces with the venue’s standing Irish Traditional Music Session to share readings and recitations. ArtsRiot, Burlington, 6-9 p.m. Free. Info, 363-6330.

DAVID MARTIN: A Lyndon author launches his collection of five gripping nonfiction tales, David’s Stories. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

FFL BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP: Fletcher Free Library patrons gab about Ann Napolitano’s heart-wrenching family drama Hello Beautiful 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov.

POETRY POTLUCK: Folks who are well versed in meter and rhyme gather to swap dishes and words in a welcoming environment. Whirligig Brewing, St. Johnsbury, 7-9 p.m. Free. Info, acampbell@ catamountarts.org.

THU.13

business

GROW YOUR BUSINESS: Shelburne BNI hosts a weekly meeting for local professionals to exchange referrals and build meaningful connections. Connect Church, Shelburne, 8:30-10 a.m. Free. Info, 377-3422.

crafts

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR: All ages and abilities knit or crochet hats and scarves for the South Burlington Food Shelf. Materials provided. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2-5 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

Junction VFW Post, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 372-8716.

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: Audience members are guided through an exploration of stunning animal worlds, from frozen snowy forests to the darkest depths of the ocean. Dealer.com 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: Never-beforeseen footage brings audience members to the farthest reaches of the coldest, driest, windiest continent on Earth. Dealer. com 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: Andy Serkis narrates the journey of a lifetime into the realm of the world’s largest mammals and the scientists who study them. Dealer.com 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘HIS GIRL FRIDAY’: Viewers delight in Howard Hawks’ 1940 workplace dramedy about a hardcharging New York newspaper editor his investigative reporter ex-wife. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: Incredible CGI and revelations in tyrannosaur paleontology help to chronicle a remarkable discovery in the badlands of Hell Creek. Dealer. com 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE: art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art. film

See what’s playing in the On Screen section. music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

= ONLINE EVENT

= GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

LEAGUE OF WOMEN

VOTERS LECTURE SERIES:

WILLIAM CLARK & CABOT

TEACHOUT: Two attorneys flesh out a recent Supreme Court ruling and current legislative action related to gun regulations in Vermont. Hosted by KelloggHubbard Library. 7-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 229-4737.

SPRING SPEAKER SERIES:

ARTHUR CHUKHMAN & ERIC

MORROW: Two seasoned local architects present a deep dive into the form and detailing of passive architecture. Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Waitsfield, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 496-5545.

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of all experience levels get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

WOODWORKING LAB: Visionaries create a project or learn a new skill with the help of mentors and access to tools and equipment in the makerspace. Hannaford Career Center, Middlebury, 5-8 p.m. $7.50. Info, 382-1012. etc.

TROPICAL FISH CLUB OF BURLINGTON MEETING: Aquatic enthusiasts gather to make new friends, network, listen to presentations and win prizes. Essex

food & drink

WINTER BEER DINNER: Foodies cozy up to a curated menu of plated and family-style courses, thoughtfully paired with housemade brews. Idletyme Brewing Company, Stowe, 5:30-9 p.m. $60. Info, 253-4765.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: Snacks and coffee fuel bouts of a classic card game. Burlington Bridge Club, Williston, 12:30-4 p.m. $6. Info, 872-5722.

WEEKLY CHESS FOR FUN: Players of all ability levels face

FAMI LY FU N

Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages.

• Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

WED.12

burlington

LEGO TIME: Mini makers ages 4 to 11 design and build original, colorful creations. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 11 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 863-3403.

STEAM SPACE: Kiddos in grades K to 5 explore science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics with fun and engaging activities. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

TODDLER TIME: Librarians bring out books, rhymes and songs specially selected for young ones 12 to 24 months. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

BABY TIME: Infants and their caregivers enjoy a slow, soothing story featuring songs, rhymes and lap play. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

GAME ON!: Kids take turns collaborating with or competing against friends using Nintendo Switch on the big screen. Caregivers must be present to supervise children below fifth grade. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

PLAY TIME: Little ones ages birth to 5 build with blocks and read together. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 1010:45 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

PLAYGROUP & STORY TIME: Caregivers and kids through age 5 listen to stories, sing songs and share toys with new friends. Richmond Free Library, 10 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 434-3036.

barre/montpelier

HOMESCHOOL BOOK GROUP: Kids ages 10 to 15 who learn at home bond over books. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

THU.13

THE VERMONT GRADUATION

READINESS TOOL: Vermont Family Network hosts a virtual workshop to help parents and guardians better understand when students with disabilities should graduate. 1-2 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 876-5315.

burlington

BABY & ME CLASS: Parents and their infants ages birth to 1 explore massage, lullabies and gentle movements while discussing the struggles and joys of parenthood. Greater Burlington YMCA, 9:45-10:45 a.m. $10; free for members. Info, 862-9622.

BABY TIME: Pre-walking little ones experience a story time catered to their

Pique Your Interest

Whether you’re in Stowe for a short ski trip or a local looking for some mid-March merriment, Peak Weekend at the Lodge at Spruce Peak has you covered. Four days of live entertainment, culinary specials and outdoor activities transform the resort into a wintry wonderland for all ages and interests. Winter sports fans choose from a bevy of adventures such as a twilight snowshoe hike and a snow bike tour, while more relaxed offerings include s’mores and cocoa by the fire, afternoon tea at Tipsy Trout, and Pico Taco’s pop-up margarita station.

PEAK WEEKEND

Thursday, March 13, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday, March 14, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday, March 15, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday, March 16, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at the Lodge at Spruce Peak in Stowe. Various prices. Info, 760-4700, sprucepeak.com.

infant interests. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

GROW PRESCHOOL YOGA: Colleen from Grow Prenatal and Family Yoga leads kids ages 2 to 5 in songs, movement and other fun activities. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

MIDDLE SCHOOL MAKERS: COOKING: Students in grades 4 through 8 make delicious homemade dishes. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4041.

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA

BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire guides wee ones ages birth to 5 in indoor music and movement. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

PRESCHOOL PLAY TIME: Pre-K patrons play and socialize after music time. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

STORY TIME: Little ones ages birth to 5 learn from songs, crafts and picture books. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

POKÉMON CLUB: I choose you, Pikachu! Elementary and teenage fans of the franchise — and beginners, too — trade cards and play games. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

ROBIN’S NEST NATURE PLAYGROUP: Youngsters ages birth to 5 and their caregivers learn through exploration, song, themed crafts and storytelling. This program is outdoors. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 10 a.m.noon. Free; donations accepted. Info, 229-6206.

STORY TIME: Kids and their caregivers meet for stories, songs and bubbles. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

stowe/smuggs

PEAK WEEKEND: Four days of live entertainment, outdoor adventures and culinary treats promise something for everyone in the family. See sprucespeak. com for full schedule. See calendar spotlight. The Lodge at Spruce Peak, Stowe, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Various prices. Info, 760-4700.

WEE ONES PLAYTIME: Caregivers bring kiddos under 4 to a new sensory learning experience each week. Morristown

chittenden county

‘INSIDE OUT 2’: Mini movie lovers grab some popcorn and enjoy this 2024 animated coming-of-age flick about growing up and experiencing new emotions. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3:30-5:15 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

LEGO BUILDERS: Little makers explore and create new worlds with stackable blocks. Recommended for ages 6 and up. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

MUSICAL STORY TIME WITH MS. LIZ: Wee ones ages birth to 4 wiggle and dance to familiar songs and rhymes. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

PI DAY PIZZA PARTY: Andrew Grant of Green Mountain STEM Tutoring hosts an informative and fun-filled celebration of the shape that makes the world go round. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2:45-4:45 p.m. Free. Info, 781-974-4243.

barre/montpelier

LEGO CLUB: Budding builders create geometric structures with snap-together blocks. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

STORY TIME & PLAYGROUP: Participants ages 5 and under enjoy themed science, art and nature activities. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

SUGAR ON SNOW: Families delight in the traditional Vermont delicacy featuring hot maple syrup, crushed ice, a genuine raised doughnut and ... pickles! Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, Montpelier, noon-4 p.m. $8.95. Info, 223-2740.

stowe/smuggs

PEAK WEEKEND: See THU.13, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

upper valley

Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853.

mad river valley/ waterbury

BUSY BEES PLAYGROUP: Blocks, toys, books and songs engage little ones 24 months and younger. Waterbury Public Library, 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

northeast kingdom

ACORN CLUB STORY TIME: Youngsters 5 and under play, sing, hear stories and color. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:1510:45 a.m. Free. Info, 745-1391.

FRI.14

burlington

STUFFIE SLEEPOVER: Pajama-clad patrons drop off their beloved stuffed toys, tuck them in and say goodnight, then head home to sleep. The following morning at 10 a.m., wee ones return to the library to collect their fuzzy friend and view a slideshow of their nighttime antics. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in tales, tunes and playtime. Latham Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

northeast kingdom

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Youngsters and their caregivers delight in beautiful books, silly songs, creative crafts and unplugged play in the library’s cozy children’s room. Craftsbury Public Library, Craftsbury Common, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 586-9683.

SAT.15

burlington

RAPTORS UP CLOSE: Budding ornithologists learn more about predator-prey relationships at a firsthand encounter with live falcons, hawks and owls. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 12:15 & 1:30 p.m. $16.50-20; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

chittenden county

KIDS CHESS CLUB: Little library patrons face off in the abstract game of strategy. No instruction provided. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, nliuzzi@southburlingtonvt.gov.

off and learn new strategies. United Community Church, St. Johnsbury, 5:30-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, lafferty1949@gmail.com.

holidays

COMMUNITY DINNER: Neighbors gather for live music, activities, and a veggie-powered St. Patrick’s Day meal of shepherd’s pie, colcannon, Irish soda bread and chocolate stout cake. O.N.E. Community Center, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 598-3139.

language

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP:

Semi-fluent speakers practice their skills during a conversazione with others. Best for those who can speak at least basic sentences. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

music

COMMUNITY COFFEEHOUSE

CONCERT SERIES: Beloved local musicians Bob Amos, Steve Wright, Jim Karns and Kim Darling play acoustic folk tunes in an intimate setting. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church of St. Johnsbury, 7 p.m. $15-20 suggested donation. Info, 748-2600.

seminars

WINTER WEBINAR

SERIES: ‘WASTED FOOD: FEEDING PEOPLE, NOT LANDFILLS’: Chittenden Solid Waste District hosts an informative session offering practical tips and impactful solutions to reduce waste and make a difference. 6-6:45 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, kmoody@ cswd.net.

sports DRAGON BOAT INFO SESSION: Prospective athletes learn more about competitive and noncompetitive dragon boating and meet with members of Malia Paddling and Racing Club. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 989-5030.

talks

RED BENCH SPEAKER SERIES: HUBERT SCHRIEBL: In

“Celebrating 60 Years of Stratton Photography,” the ski town’s official photographer shares his stunning images and the incredible stories behind them. Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, Stowe, 6:30-8 p.m. $10. Info, 253-9911.

TARA DOWER: An ultrarunner regales listeners with tales from her experience setting the new overall speed record for the Appalachian Trail. Hosted by the Green Mountain Club. 7-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7037. tech

BURLINGTON HARDWARE

MEETUP: Designers, engineers,

founders and investors get together for a night of talks, demonstrations, refreshments and new connections. Rigorous Technology, Williston, 5-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 870-3700.

theater

‘THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY’: Middlebury Acting Company raises the curtain on Celeste Lecesne’s oneman show about the disappearance of a tenacious and flamboyant 14-year-old boy in New Jersey. See calendar spotlight. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 7:30 p.m. $20-39. Info, 382-9222.

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.12.

‘SHE KILLS MONSTERS’: The school’s Pegasus Players mount Qui Nguyen’s comedic romp into the world of fantasy role-playing games. Mack Hall Auditorium, Norwich University, Northfield, 7:30 p.m. $5; free for students, staff and faculty. Info, 485-2423.

‘WAITRESS’: See WED.12.

words

J. KEVIN GRAFFAGNINO: The historian discusses his latest book, Ira Allen: A Biography, shining new light on the politician’s prominent role in Vermont’s formative years. Shelburne Town Hall, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 479-8500.

FRI.14

crafts

FIBER ARTS FRIDAY: Knitters, crocheters, weavers and felters chat over passion projects at this weekly meetup. Waterbury Public Library, noon-2 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

etc.

FREEDOM INK FUNDRAISER: Neighbors gather at the pub for a chance to win prizes, including a massage session and a flash tattoo. Proceeds benefit Ukrainian NGO South Coast. JP’s Pub, Burlington, 7 p.m.-1 a.m. $5 cover; $1 per additional raffle entry. Info, jdm18457@gmail.com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.13.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.13.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

GREEN MOUNTAIN FILM

FESTIVAL: An annual cinematic celebration enthralls moviegoers with a diverse lineup of screenings and events. See gmffestival. org for full schedule. Downtown Montpelier. $10-15. Info, hello@ gmffestival.org.

‘LA DOLCE VITA’: Federico Fellini rocketed to mainstream success with this 1960 dark comedy portraying the seductive lifestyles of Rome’s rich and glamorous. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $6-12. Info, 660-2600.

OPENS MAR. 13 | THEATER

Jersey’s Boy

At Town Hall Theater, Middlebury Acting Company raises the curtain on author and playwright Celeste Lecesne’s tenacious tour de force The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. Terrence O’Brien directs the solo show starring local actor and Middlebury College alum Andrew Ritter as a determined detective investigating the disappearance of a flamboyant 14-year-old boy — as well as all the colorful New Jersey townspeople helping to unravel the mystery. Grab some tissues and a friend or two and witness what the Los Angeles Times called “an affecting and entertaining testament to the beauty of a world in which difference is celebrated rather than denigrated.”

‘THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY’

Thursday, March 13, and Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, March 15, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, March 16, 2 p.m., at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. See website for future dates. $20-39. Info, 382-9222, townhalltheater.org.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

‘UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE’: Viewers take in Matthew Rankin’s 2024 dramedy about three seemingly unconnected stories that mysteriously intersect. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 7 p.m. $5. Info, cinemahaskell@gmail.com.

food & drink

COZY & CANDLELIT: PI(E) NIGHT: Foodies enjoy an epic feast celebrating the value of crispy crusted delights, sweet treats and a wintry bar menu. Adventure Dinner Clubhouse, Colchester, 6-9 p.m. $75. Info, sas@adventuredinner.com.

HOTEL VERMONT ICE BAR: Party people chill with ice sculptures, sip frosty cocktails, compete in ice games and hit up the photo

booth. 21-plus. Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 5:30-9:30 p.m. $75. Info, 855-650-0080.

LENTEN FISH FRY: Community members anticipate Easter over all-you-can-eat haddock, fries, coleslaw and dessert. Bristol St. Ambrose Parish, 5-7 p.m. $9-50. Info, 453-2488.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.13, 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

health & fitness

GUIDED MEDITATION

ONLINE: Dorothy Alling Memorial Library invites attendees to relax on their lunch breaks and reconnect with their bodies. Noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@ damlvt.org.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION:

Community members gather for an informal session combining stimulating discussion, sharing and sitting in silence. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 1:15-2:15 p.m. Free. Info, 777-8691.

PEOPLE WITH ARTHRITIS CAN EXERCISE: Folks get their bodies moving with a low-impact program that keeps joints flexible and muscles strong. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 241-4840.

lgbtq

RPG NIGHT: Members of the LGBTQ community get together weekly for role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Everway. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:308:30 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

music

ANOTHER TEQUILA SUNRISE: Welcome to the Hotel California! A New England tribute band rocks audience members with classics and deep cuts from the Eagles’ studio collection. Lebanon Opera House, N.H., 7:30 p.m. $27-40. Info, 603-448-0400.

CHURCH OF CASH: The iconic Man in Black’s spirit lives on with this Johnny Cash tribute concert featuring the resonant vocals of front man Jay Ernest. Barre Opera House, 8 p.m. $39. Info, 476-8188.

ETHAN SETIAWAN & FINE GROUND: A virtuosic mandolin champion performs commanding original compositions with his bluegrass quintet. Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, 7 p.m. $10-40 sliding scale; free for kids. Info, 728-9878.

PUTNEY COMMUNITY SINGALONG: Local musician Rich Grumbine leads neighbors in a lively lineup of tunes spanning from golden oldies to gospel, with lyrics projected on the big screen. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7:15 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 387-0102.

outdoors

OWL PROWL: Snowshoers listen for raucous noises in the night and discover the secret lives of the nocturnal residents. Ages 13 and up. Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Quechee, 5:30-7 p.m. $17.50-20; preregister. Info, 359-5000.

Terrence O’Brien and Andrew Ritter

seminars

PEER LEADER TRAINING:

The Get Healthy North Country Community Integrated Health Network hosts a virtual seminar for community members interested in helping others recognize the signs and symptoms commonly linked to chronic health conditions.

9-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 315-261-4760, ext. 239.

talks

‘WE HAVE A PLACE FOR YOUR WASTE’: A panel of experts offers practical tips and impactful solutions to reduce waste. Faith United Methodist Church, South Burlington, 2-3 p.m. $8 cash or check; free for members. Info, 343-5177.

tech

PHONE & TECH SUPPORT:

Perplexed patrons receive aid from library staff on a first-come, first-served basis. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 10 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 863-3403.

theater

‘THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY’: See THU.13.

‘THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS’: The Shelburne Players mount a modern adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s zany, fast-paced 18th-century comedy. Shelburne Town Center, 7 p.m. $20. Info, 343-2602.

‘SHE KILLS MONSTERS’: See THU.13.

‘WAITRESS’: See WED.12.

words

FRIENDS OF THE RUTLAND FREE LIBRARY BOOK SALE: A broad selection of used, rare and antique books goes on sale to benefit the library. Rutland Free Library, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 773-1860.

VERMONT POETRY OUT LOUD

FINALS: Vermont high school students recite works by famed poets at a celebration of the written word. Virtual option available. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 5-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-5966.

SAT.15

dance

BERLIN CONTRA DANCE:

Dancers of all ages and abilities learn at a gathering that encourages joy, laughter and friendship. Bring clean, softsoled shoes. See website for callers and bands. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 8-11 p.m. $5-20 sliding scale. Info, 225-8921. EAT, DRUM, DANCE!: Shidaa Projects hosts an authentic African meal, followed by an evening of music and movement in celebration of Ghana’s Independence Day. First Church in Barre, Universalist, 5:30-9 p.m. $20 suggested donation;

preregister for meal. Info, 617-780-2458.

etc.

FREEDOM INK FUNDRAISER: See FRI.14.

ROTARY HOME & RECREATION

EXPO: Homeowners hunt for inspiration at a two-day gathering of more than 150 vendors. Collins Perley Sports and Fitness Center, St. Albans, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 324-3933.

SISTERHOOD CAMPFIRE: Women and genderqueer folks gather in a safe and inclusive space to build community through journaling, storytelling, gentle music and stargazing. Leddy Park, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. Free. Info, sisterhoodcampfire@ gmail.com.

THE STEAMPUNK SKATER’S BALL: Partygoers dressed in their best Victorian outfits, gadgets and gizmos gather for a night of dancing and merriment to benefit Twin State Derby. 18plus. Hotel Coolidge, White River Junction, 7-11 p.m. $20; cash bar. Info, 295-3118.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.13.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.13.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.13. GREEN MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL: See FRI.14.

‘JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES’: Chantal Akerman’s 1975 masterpiece features Delphine Seyrig in the titular role of a widowed housewife whose routine is disrupted. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 2-5 p.m. $6-12. Info, 660-2600.

MET OPERA IN HD: ‘FIDELIO’: Soprano Lise Davidsen headlines an all-star cast in the Metropolitan Opera’s striking live production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s rarely performed work. Loew Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover N.H., 1-4 p.m. $22. Info, 603-646-2422.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

‘TOKYO STORY’: Viewers take in Yasujirô Ozu’s 1953 psychological drama about an older couple who visit their children in the city but receive little attention. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $6-12. Info, 660-2600.

food & drink

CAPITAL CITY WINTER

FARMERS MARKET: Locavores sip cocktails while perusing root veggies, honey, crafts and maple syrup at an off-season showcase of locally grown food. Barr Hill, Montpelier, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 472-8000.

HOTEL VERMONT ICE BAR: See FRI.14.

MAPLE MAGIC: Store staff guide sweets lovers on a sensory exploration of maple-based confectionary delights. Lake Champlain Chocolates, Stowe and Burlington, noon-4 p.m. Free. Info, 864-1807.

SNOWCAT RIDE WITH DINNER:

Foodies embark on a one-of-akind dining excursion featuring a riveting ride to the mid-mountain lodge for a decadent fivecourse meal. Stratton Mountain Resort, 5:15 p.m. $225-275; preregister. Info, 800-787-2886.

games

CHESS CLUB: All ages and abilities face off and learn new strategies. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

D&D & TTRPG GROUP: Fans of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop role-playing games embark on a new adventure with a rotating cast of game masters. Virtual option available. Waterbury Public Library, 1-5 p.m. Free. Info, judi@ waterburypubliclibrary.com.

LEARN TO PLAY MAH-JONGG: Expert tile trader Pauline Nolte leads players through the Chinese and American versions of the ancient game. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, judi@ waterburypubliclibrary.com.

music

ANNALISE SHELMANDINE: In “Strength in Song: The Power of Women in Opera,” a virtuosic soprano explores stories of courage, devotion, love and loss through music. Waterbury Congregational Church, 4-5 p.m. By donation. Info, annalise. shelmandine@pm.me.

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

ONLINE

GET

Don’t take chances. Visit KOB Kitchen before you buy anywhere else.

FRIGG: A Nordic septet performs feel-good folk tunes with immaculate musicianship. Alexander Twilight Theatre, Vermont State University-Lyndon, 7-9 p.m. $35; free for students. Info, 748-2600.

PRYDEIN: A Burlington band combines Celtic traditions with hardrock energy for an electrifying performance. The Opera House at Enosburg Falls, 7-10 p.m. $15. Info, 933-6171.

SOL Y CANTO TRIO AND THE SOUBRETTES: Latin rhythms and vocal harmonies take center stage at a double bill featuring two exceptional ensembles. Virtual option available. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7:30 p.m. $10-25. Info, 387-0102.

TERRY BARBER: An acclaimed countertenor reacquaints listeners with characters from Cats Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera and beyond in his program, “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber & More.” Lebanon Opera House, N.H., 7 p.m. $25-49. Info, 603-448-0400.

TURNMUSIC PRESENTS: NOW

ENSEMBLE: A dynamic group of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music perform vibrant works by Michi Wiancko, Mark Dancigers, Judd Greenstein and Patrick Burke. See calendar spotlight. Flynn Space, Burlington, 7-8:30 p.m. $33. Info, 863-5966.

outdoors

BEAVER MEADOW TRAIL: Adventurers join up with the Green Mountain Club for a moderately paced loop hike. Microspikes and snowshoes required. Beaver Meadow Trailhead, Morristown, 8 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 413-884-5932.

BIRDING MEETUP: Enthusiasts explore varied habitats to observe and track changes in bird populations. Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Quechee, 8-8:45 a.m. Free. Info, 359-5000.

MARCH BIRD MONITORING

WALK: New and experienced avian aficionados join a slowpaced stroll to identify birdsongs, practice using binoculars and contribute to the eBird database. Green Mountain Audubon Center, Huntington, 8-10 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 434-3068.

seminars

MEDIA FACTORY ORIENTATION: Curious creatives and multimedia enthusiasts get a tour of the facilities and check out available gear. The Media Factory, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 800-728-5508.

sports

24 HOURS OF STRATTON: Winter enthusiasts ski and ride around the clock to fight children’s poverty and hunger in Vermont. Stratton Mountain Resort, 9 a.m. Funds raised; free for kids 11 and under. Info, 297-2096.

A DAY FOR JAKE: Snowboarders celebrate the legacy of Jake Burton Carpenter with group

riding, photo ops and a commemorative toast. Killington Resort, 11:30 a.m. Price of lift ticket; preregister. Info, 800-734-9435.

VERTICAL CHALLENGE: Winter sports fans hit the slopes for a lighthearted competition replete with awards and a victory party. Pico Mountain, Killington, 10 a.m. Price of lift ticket; preregister. Info, 866-667-7426.

tech

PHONE & TECH SUPPORT: See FRI.14. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington.

theater

‘THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY’: See THU.13, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS’: See FRI.14.

‘SHE KILLS MONSTERS’: See THU.13.

‘WAITRESS’: See WED.12, 6:30 p.m.

words

BAKE & BOOK SALE: Lit lovers browse an array of titles and treats to benefit of the church’s mission work. United Church of Fairfax, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free; price of books. Info, 849-6313.

FRIENDS OF THE RUTLAND FREE LIBRARY BOOK SALE: See FRI.14.

MIKE BURNS: In “To Shorten the Road,” an Irish storyteller enthralls listeners with an afternoon of spellbinding tales inherited from his father and grandmother. Phoenix Books, Burlington, 3-5 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 363-6330. WRITE NOW!: Lit lovers of all experience levels hone their craft in a supportive and critique-free environment. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 10 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 223-3338.

WRITERS’ WERTFREI: Authors both fledgling and published share their work in a nonjudgmental setting. Virtual option available. Waterbury Public Library, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister. Info, judi@waterburypubliclibrary.com.

SUN.16

community

COMMUNITY TRASH PICKUP: Good Samaritans join up for coffee and a jaunt through town to clear waste and make Burlington beautiful. Vivid Coffee, Burlington, 9-10 a.m. Free. Info, 610-906-5941.

HUMAN CONNECTION CIRCLE: Neighbors share stories from their lives and forge deep bonds. Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3-4:30 p.m. Free; preregister; limited space. Info, humanconnectioncircle@ gmail.com.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.12, 1-3 p.m. etc.

ROTARY HOME & RECREATION

EXPO: See SAT.15, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Fresh Tracks

Local performing arts organization TURNmusic presents dynamic chamber music group NOW Ensemble at Flynn Space in Burlington with a thought-provoking program of works for and by folks of the 21st century. Known for premiering contemporary compositions by groundbreaking new composers, the ensemble takes the stage to share music by acclaimed violinist Michi Wiancko, as well as NOW artists Mark Dancigers, Judd Greenstein and Patrick Burke. Through novel instrumentation, diverse backgrounds and fresh perspectives, the group brings a different vibe to classical music traditions — while simultaneously fostering equity, inclusivity and cultural vibrancy in the Green Mountain State and beyond.

TURNMUSIC PRESENTS: NOW ENSEMBLE Saturday, March 15, 7-8:30 p.m., at Flynn Space in Burlington. $33. Info, 863-5966, flynnvt.org.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.13.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.13.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

GREEN MOUNTAIN FILM

FESTIVAL: See FRI.14.

MNFF SELECTS NOIR SERIES:

‘NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN’: Three men are drawn together by a deadly crime in this acclaimed Coen brothers’ neo-Western from 2007. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 3 p.m. $17. Info, 382-9222.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

food & drink

VIRTUAL PASTA COOKING CLASS: Gastronomes learn how to make delicious dishes that blend Italian tradition with fresh New England

ingredients. Hosted by Trenchers Farmhouse. 5 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 650-224-5533.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.13, 1-4:30 p.m.

health & fitness

KARUNA COMMUNITY

MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE (FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, mollyzapp@live.com.

NEW LEAF SANGHA

MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: New and experienced meditators alike practice together in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Hot Yoga Burlington, 6-7:45 p.m. Free. Info, newleafsangha@ gmail.com.

holidays

BURLINGTON IRISH HERITAGE

CEILI: McFadden Academy of Irish Dance and Young Tradition Vermont Fiddleheads team up for a lively St. Paddy’s Day show featuring step dancing, penny whistles, pipes and a bodhrán. Burlington City Hall Auditorium, noon-2 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 363-6330. music

30TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY

BASH: The Upper Valley Music Center marks three decades of community-driven creativity with a special program highlighting the center’s faculty. Lebanon Opera House, N.H., 4 p.m. $3-2,500. Info, 603-448-0400.

HINESBURG ARTIST SERIES: Conductor Rufus C. Patrick leads the South County Chorus and the HAS Orchestra in a varied program, including selections from George Frideric Handel’s Messiah Hinesburg St. Jude Catholic

Church, 2 & 4:30 p.m. $25. Info, 373-0808.

THE MURPHY BEDS: A duo plays traditional and original folk songs with close harmonies and deft instrumental arrangements on bouzouki, guitar and mandolin. Burlington City Hall Auditorium, 4-7 p.m. $25 suggested donation. Info, 363-6330.

SPENCER LEWIS & PAPPY BIONDO: Two musicians perform introspective, bluegrass-tinged tunes with inimitable guitar picking and epic banjo riffs. Plainfield Town Hall Opera House, 4-5:30 p.m. $20 suggested donation. Info, plainfieldartsvt@gmail.com.

WESTFORD MUSIC SERIES: THE OLEO ROMEOS: Musical veterans Jerry Bowers, Will Patton and Tyrone Shaw tease and laugh their way through a diverse program of folk, rock, swing and blues. Westford Common Hall, 4-5 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 879-4028.

sports

24 HOURS OF STRATTON: See SAT.15.

theater

‘THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY’: See THU.13, 2 p.m.

‘THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS’: See FRI.14, 2 p.m.

‘WAITRESS’: See WED.12, 5 p.m.

MON.17 agriculture

NOFA CAMPAIGN UPDATE: The Northeast Organic

NOW Ensemble

Farming Association of Vermont hosts an informative update about its current efforts, next steps, and the tools and resources needed for food and farm security. 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 434-4122.

conferences

PEACE & WAR SUMMIT: Military experts gather to discuss this year’s theme, “Latin America in the 21st Century: Retreat or Progress?” See norwich.edu for full schedule. Mack Hall Auditorium, Norwich University, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 485-3138.

crafts

FUSE BEADS CLUB: Aspiring artisans bring ideas or borrow patterns to make beaded creations. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

HAND-STITCHING GROUP:

Embroiderers, cross-stitchers and other needlework aficionados chat over their latest projects. Waterbury Public Library, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, northwaringa@ gmail.com.

dance

CELTIC CATS: The University of Vermont’s Irish and Scottish dance group assumes the spotlight for a tap and soft-shoe céilí. Pierson Library, Shelburne, 6:307:30 p.m. Free. Info, 985-5124.

etc.

FLY TYING FOR CHARITY: Participants follow a leader’s instruction to create flies for local fishing-related organizations. No experience necessary; supplies provided. Woodstock Nordic Center, 5:30-7 p.m. Free; cash bar. Info, 800-448-7900.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.13.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.13.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

games

BURLINGTON ELKS BINGO: Players grab their daubers for a competitive night of card stamping for cash prizes. Burlington Elks Lodge, 6 p.m. Various prices. Info, 802-862-1342.

holidays

ST. PATRICK’S DAY BREAKFAST: Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce honors community member and contributor Kim Bolduc over delicious fare at the top o’ the morning. Barre Elks Lodge, 8-9:30 a.m. $25; preregister. Info, 229-5711.

language

GERMAN LANGUAGE LUNCH: Willkommen! Speakers of all experience levels brush up on

conversational skills over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

lgbtq

BOARD GAME NIGHT: LGBTQ tabletop fans bring their own favorite games to the party. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

seminars

IMPROV/VARIETY WORKSHOP: Jokesters come together to try something new and engage with others who share a love of the performing arts. Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, chris@offcentervt.com.

PEER LEADER TRAINING: See FRI.14, 1-3:30 p.m.

VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE: EXHIBITS — EDUCATION & INTERACTIVES: The Vermont Historical Society hosts a lunchtime exploration of best practices for creating exhibitions. Noon. Free; preregister. Info, 479-8500.

talks

‘THE FENIAN BROTHERHOOD IN VERMONT’: Listeners learn more about Vermont’s “Irish rebel” John Lonergan and his involvement in Fenian attacks on Canada. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, 363-6330.

words

ORAL HISTORY WRITING

WORKSHOP: Author Mark Pendergrast leads this weekly workshop in which participants interview family members and friends, then transcribe and edit their recordings into readable histories. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

TUE.18 community

CURRENT EVENTS DISCUSSION GROUP:

Brownell Library holds a virtual roundtable for neighbors to pause and reflect on the news cycle. 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6955.

conferences

PEACE & WAR SUMMIT: See MON.17.

dance

SWING DANCE PRACTICE

SESSION: All ages and experience levels shake a leg in this friendly, casual environment designed for learning. Bring clean shoes. North Star Community Hall, Burlington, 8-9:30 p.m. $5. Info, 864-8382.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.13.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.13.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

‘FRIDA’: Julie Taymor’s 2002 docudrama stars Salma Hayek as the eponymous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 540-3018.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.13.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.13.

GAME NIGHT: Neighbors gather in the beer garden to play one of many tabletop games in stock or bring their own to share with the group. Switchback Brewing’s Beer Garden & Tap House, Burlington, 5-9 p.m. Free. Info, 651-4114.

health & fitness

COMMUNITY MEDITATION: All experience levels and ages engage in the ancient Buddhist practice of clearing the mind to achieve a state of calm. First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, 5:15-6 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 862-5630.

language

FRENCH CONVERSATION GROUP: Francophones and language learners meet pour parler la belle langue. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

ITALIAN LANGUAGE LUNCH: Speakers hone their skills in the Romance language over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

FOMO?

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online: art

Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film

See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife

Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

music

ALAN CHIANG: An accomplished pianist from South Burlington plays rousing works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms. Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 864-0471.

VERMONT’S FREEDOM & UNITY

CHORUS: Singers come together for a weekly rehearsal inspiring positive change through the power of music. Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 7-9 p.m. $35 annual dues. Info, vermontsfreedomandunitychorus@ gmail.com.

seminars

FINDING HOUSING

WORKSHOP: Prospective renters learn how to build an apartment-search tool kit, presented by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. Noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 660-3455, ext. 205.

talks

LIZ THOMPSON: In “Spring Wildflowers: Harbingers of Hope,” an ecologist sheds light on local floras and how to identify them. Hosted by Vermont Land Trust. 7-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, sam@vlt.org.

words

THE DEEP CUTS BOOK CLUB: Emma Kaas leads readers in a

discussion about Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid’s overlooked novella from 1990. The Norwich Bookstore, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114. NOT THE END OF THE WORLD BOOK CLUB: Readers meet monthly for a thoughtful conversation about books on the environment and climate change. Tea and cookies provided. Virtual option available. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister for Zoom link. Info, bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov. VIRTUAL WINTER BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP: The Rokeby Museum hosts a chat about Joseph McGill Jr.’s 2023 biography with coauthor Herb Frazier, Sleeping With the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 877-3406. WRITING CIRCLE: Words pour out when participants explore creative expression in a low-pressure environment. Virtual option available. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 4-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 777-8691.

WED.19 agriculture

SEED STARTING COOL WEATHER CROPS: Expert grower Angela deBettencourt teaches participants how to use a calendar to identify ideal dates for starting crops such as broccoli, kale, cabbage, cilantro and lettuce. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

FAMI LY FU N

TEEN ANIME CLUB: Fans in grades 6 through 12 watch their favorite shows with friends and snacks. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

SUGAR ON SNOW: See FRI.14.

stowe/smuggs

PEAK WEEKEND: See THU.13, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

upper valley

GAIL DONOVAN: An award-winning children’s author shares her new book, Sparrow Spreads Her Wings, followed by a themed craft. The Norwich Bookstore, 2 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

SUN.16

burlington

STEAM PLAY & LEARN: Youngsters ages 4 to 12 explore science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics at a

business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS

NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: See WED.12.

community

HERSTORIES: A DISCUSSION OF INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM & THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

MOVEMENT: Attendees celebrate Women’s History Month with a community dialogue about how the long fight for voting rights continues. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

LET’S TALK ABOUT: SUPPORTING YOUTH TO THRIVE & PREVENTING SUBSTANCE

MISUSE: Neighbors gather for a community dinner and conversation about creating a healthier future for our youths. Edmunds Middle School, Burlington, 5:307:30 p.m. Free. Info, bianka@ burlingtonpartnership.org.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.12.

etc.

CHAMP MASTERS

TOASTMASTER CLUB: Those looking to strengthen their speaking and leadership skills gain new tools. Virtual option available. Dealer.com, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, champmasterstm@gmail.com.

OPEN HOUSE: Prospective patrons step into the South End tech hub for tours, a provided lunch and happy-hour networking opportunities. Hula, Burlington, 9

station-based weekly drop-in program. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 2-4 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

SOCIAL SUNDAYS: Families participate in fun and educational art activities with diverse mediums and themes. All supplies and instruction provided. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 891-2014.

barre/montpelier

SUGAR ON SNOW: See FRI.14.

stowe/smuggs

PEAK WEEKEND: See THU.13, 9 a.m.-5 p.m..

MON.17

burlington

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Bookworms ages 2 to 5 enjoy a fun-filled reading time. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

MINUTE-TO-WIN-IT HUNGER GAMES: Teens ages 13 to 18 challenge friends to a variety of not-so-daring games in honor of Suzanne Collins’ new novel, Sunrise on the Reaping. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

a.m.-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 540-8153.

PREVIEW PARTY: Theatergoers mix, mingle and enjoy live entertainment at this exciting sneak peak of Lost Nation Theater’s upcoming season. Montpelier Performing Arts Hub, 6:30-8:30 p.m. $5-10. Info, 229-0492.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN FILM SERIES: ‘TWYLA MOVES’: Steven Cantor explores legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp’s storied career and creative process in this 2021 documentary. Virtual option available. Burlington City Hall Auditorium, 6 p.m. Free. Info, adfilmseries@gmail.com.

GREAT ART WEDNESDAY SERIES: ‘DAWN OF IMPRESSIONISM: PARIS, 1874’: Ali Ray’s 2025 documentary offers a captivating look at the Musée d’Orsay’s exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first impressionist show. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 11 a.m. $15. Info, 382-9222.

‘THE THIN MAN’: Film fans grab some free popcorn and fix their eyes on this 1934 whodunit starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING: See WED.12.

stowe/smuggs

ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN STOWE: Everyone’s Irish at a day filled with a festive parade, dining and shopping specials, and themed activities for all ages. See stowevibrancy.org for full schedule. Stowe Village, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Free. Info, 730-3573.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TODDLER TIME: Little tykes ages 5 and under have a blast with songs, stories, rhymes and dancing. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

TUE.18

burlington

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with Linda. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 1111:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

CRAFTYTOWN: Kiddos express their inner artist using mediums such as paint, print, collage and sculpture. Recommended for ages 6 and up. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

GMBA GROUP: Students in grades 9 to 12 swap thoughts about this

games

CHESS CLUB: See WED.12.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: See WED.12.

language

SPANISH CONVERSATION: Fluent and beginner speakers brush up on their vocabulario with a discussion led by a Spanish teacher. Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@damlvt.org.

music

FARMERS NIGHT: ONE MORE

TIME: A six-piece band plays traditional Irish and folk tunes featuring guitar, fiddle, banjo and button accordion. House Chamber, Vermont Statehouse, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 262-2626.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.12.

talks

DECLAN MCCABE: In “Turning Stones: Discovering the Life of Water,” an aquatic ecologist dives into facts about the many stunning organisms found in Vermont waterways. Virtual option available. Goodrich Memorial Library, Newport, 7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 334-7902.

REBECCA RUPP: A local author reveals the rocky evolution of table manners and other interesting foodie-driven facts in “Soup to Nuts: An Eccentric History of

month’s Green Mountain Book Award title. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 1:30-2:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-6956.

RED CLOVER AWARD BOOK GROUP: Students in grades K to 4 gather to discuss two titles on the award list, followed by an activity. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-6956.

STORY TIME: Youngsters ages birth to 5 enjoy a session of reading, rhyming and singing. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

TODDLER TIME: Wiggly wee ones ages 1 and up love this lively, interactive storybook experience featuring songs, rhymes and finger plays. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 9:15-9:45 & 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

barre/montpelier

STORY TIME: See THU.13.

northeast kingdom

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See FRI.14.

WED.19

burlington

STEAM SPACE: See WED.12.

TODDLER TIME: See WED.12.

Food.” Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

SPRING SPEAKER SERIES: BRIAN CALI: A local homeowner provides an overview of his journey retrofitting a circa-1782 farmhouse building. Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Waitsfield, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 496-5545.

theater

‘PRIMARY TRUST’: Vermont Stage mounts University of Vermont alumna Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about new beginnings. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $34-54 sliding scale. Info, 862-1497. ‘WAITRESS’: See WED.12, 11 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.

words

DON HERZBERG: A local author reads stirring selections from his new memoir, The Things She Said The Norwich Bookstore, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

GINA TRON: Lit Club presents a discussion with the award-winning journalist, poet and author of Suspect. Radio Bean, Burlington, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 660-9346. VERMONT READS BOOK

DISCUSSION: Vermont Humanities scholar Dr. Alan Berolzheimer leads a community discussion about Kenneth M. Cadow’s celebrated coming-ofage novel, Gather. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291. ➆

chittenden county

BABY TIME: See WED.12. GAME ON!: See WED.12. HAFTY CRAFTY DAY: Kiddos ages 6 and up partake in a fun-filled hands-on activity. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140. KIDS PUZZLE SWAP: Participants leave completed kids’ puzzles (24 to 125 pieces only) in a ziplock bag with an image of the finished product, then find something new to take home. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

LEGO FUN: Crafty kiddos build creations with colored blocks for display at the library. Children under 9 must be accompanied by a caregiver. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

PLAY TIME: See WED.12.

PLAYGROUP & STORY TIME: See WED.12.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TEEN HANGOUT: Middle and high schoolers make friends at a no-pressure meetup. Waterbury Public Library, 3-6 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7036. K

©SAMLAMOTT

Anne Lamott

PHOTO:SYLVIEROSOKOFF

Ashley C. Ford

Damon Tweedy, MD

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.

art

DAVIS STUDIO ART CLASSES:

Discover your happy place in one of our weekly classes, where joy and community blossom. Art is a powerful way to connect, express, and grow, together. We offer afterschool and weekend classes for youths and specialized drawing, painting and fusedglass classes for adults. Enroll today and let your creativity shine! Location: Davis Studio, 916 Shelburne Rd., S. Burlington. Info: 425-2700, davisstudiovt.com.

culinary

MAPLE-THEMED COOKIE

DECORATING: Learn the art of outlining and ﬂooding the perfect confection. Class participants will decorate ﬁve maple-themed sweets, gaining a grasp on icing consistency and dimension. Each student will leave with their desserts, a cookie goodie bag and a guide to re-create your favorites all over again at home! u., Mar. 13, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $70. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 914-610-5275, sevendaystickets. com.

dance

Info: Scott, 425-502-5564, tango.elcamino@gmail.com.

herbs

HERBAL ROOTS

$30 for class series (3 1-hour classes in 1 week). Location: Fire Dance Studio, 65 Cambrian Way, Burlington. Info: 802557-7226, dancingwithdavid@ gmail.com, facebook.com/ dancingwithdavid2025.

LEARN TO DANCE ARGENTINE

LEARN TO WALTZ IN A WEEK!

Are you ready to fall in love with dancing? Have you been away for a while, and would you like to brush up on your moves? Learn to waltz in three easy lessons in one week. No partner needed! Space is limited, so please call or text to reserve your spot. Mon., Wed. & Fri., 6:30-7:30 p.m. Cost:

TANGO: If you can walk, you can tango! Join us every Wednesday starting Mar. 5. We will offer an intermediate class and an intro class, followed by a practice session. No experience or partner required. Cash or Venmo. Hope to see you on the dance ﬂoor! Every Wed., 7-9:30 p.m. Cost: $10/class. Classes are 45 min., followed by 1 hour of practice. Location: 802 Fusion Dance, 1881 Williston Rd., S. Burlington.

APPRENTICESHIP: Hands-on learning for folks who want to weave herbs into their daily lives. Learn to grow and harvest, prepare remedies, and apply plants to common complaints safely and effectively. Learn about basic physiology, traditional energetics and herbal justice. Take home a kit of remedies, seeds for next year, skills for self-care and a community of herb friends for life! Every Mon. from Apr. 14 to Nov. 3, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Cost: $2,730 for 188-hour course. Location: Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, 123 Pitkin Rd., Plainﬁeld. Info: 224-7100, info@vtherbcenter.org, vtherbcenter.org.

martial arts

INCLUSIVE MARTIAL

ARTS: Offering martial arts that will strengthen your body and your mind, we foster a collaborative community for a diverse range of individuals. Our practices

include Muay ai, Brazilian jiujitsu, and Filipino and ai combat arts. We offer four weekly classes and themed mini classes such as improvised weapons, knife defense, Filipino dirty boxing and more. Location: Green Mountain Martial Arts Collaborative, Burlington. Info: 316-8896, info@ greenmountainmartialarts.com, greenmountainmartialarts.com.

meditation

INSIGHT MEDITATION CLASS: Focus your mind for clear vision. is is an ancient Buddhist practice of sustaining your attention on a sensory experience instead of a thought. It awakens your senses, concentrates your energy, focuses your mind, eases chronic anxiety, and enables sustained clarity and contentment. Open to beginner and experienced meditators. 4 Sun. in Apr., 4-6 p.m. Cost: $100 for 4 2-hour meditation classes. Location: Stillwater Landing, Panton/Vergennes. Info: Practical Presence, Miles Sherts, 535-2079, practicalpresence1@ gmail.com, practicalpresence. org/insight-meditation-class.

nature

RECLAIMING TRADITION:

SHROUDING: Join end-of-life doula Lindsey Warren for a cross-cultural history of shrouding, followed by an introduction to green burial and practical tips for those interested in shrouding for home funerals and green burials. After a lunch break, we join together in a hands-on shrouding practice. Sat., Apr. 5, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost: $40 for 4-hour workshop. Location: ReTribe, 14 Maple Leaf Rd., Underhill. Info: 498-5700, lindseywarrendoula@gmail. com, lindseywarrendoula.com/ workshops.

well-being

CONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION

COURSE: Conscious communication is made up of supportive listening and assertion, a set of skills that enable you to express yourself honestly without blame and listen to understand another person without judgment. ese will be interactive workshops led by Miles Sherts and include demonstrations and interactive role-plays. Attend one or both workshops! Supportive Listening workshop: Sat., Apr. 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Assertion workshop: Sat., Apr. 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Cost: $90 for 1 6-hour workshop (Supportive Listening or Assertion); $75 if you register w/ a friend. Location: Stillwater Landing, Panton/ Vergennes. Info: Practical Presence, Miles Sherts, 535-2079, practicalpresence1@gmail.com, practicalpresence.org/ conscious-communicationclass.

PARTNER THAI BODYWORK:

Bring a special someone, partner, family member, friend or neighbor or work with another participant for a fully guided ai bodywork exchange experience in community. Each

person will have an opportunity to both give and receive a 45-minute session. Sat., Mar. 29, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Cost: $51.

Location: Laughing River Yoga, Chace Mill, 1 Mill St., Burlington. Info: aiBodyworkVT, Kristin Borquist, kristin@ thaibodyworkvt.com, thaibodyworkvt.com.

writing

ONLINE POETRY WORKSHOP:

Would you like to learn more about different forms of poetry and what makes a poem different than prose? Consider being a part of a supportive microcommunity where we’ll brainstorm, read and compose a variety of poems to access one’s imagination and move a rough draft into a polished piece. Every Mon. from Apr. 7 to Apr. 28, 5-6:30 p.m. Cost: $60/1.5-hour class. Location: Online. Info: e Revisionist, Susan Sanders, 595-1227, susansanders773@ gmail.com, therevisionist.online.

housing » APARTMENTS, CONDOS & HOMES

on the road » 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

Leia

AGE/SEX: 1-year-old spayed female

ARRIVAL DATE: February 18, 2025

SUMMARY: Could the Force be strong with this girl? We think so! Leia is a loving, playful soul who’s ready to bring her unique charm to a special family. She’s a true companion: Loving and affectionate, she thrives on attention and bonding with her people. Having been through a lot, Leia may take some time to adjust to new situations, but she’s incredibly resilient. With a little patience, Leia will open up to show just how sweet, adventurous and loyal she truly is. If you have room in your heart and home for Leia, visit her at HSCC to see if she could be your new best friend!

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Leia is dog-social. Her history with cats is unknown. She may be most successful with older children, teens and adults.

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. or Saturday from 12 to 4 p.m. Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

DID YOU KNOW?

Dogs are creatures of habit and feel most comfortable when their schedule is predictable. You don’t need to change your schedule to ﬁt their needs, but try to keep mealtime, exercise and bedtime as consistent as possible.

of Chittenden County

Sponsored by:

CLASSIFIEDS

housing

HOUSEMATES

ENJOY ISLAND LIVING

Grand Isle: Artistic woman in her sixties who enjoys creating stained-glass art, caring for her horse, British dramas. Reduced rent of $400/mo. in exchange for help in house & yard. Horse enthusiast would be welcome! Call 802-863-5625 or visit homesharevermont. org for application. Interview, refs. & background checks req. EHO.

GREAT WINOOSKI LOCATION

Share Winooski apt. w/ woman in her thirties w/ a disability. Enjoys part-time work, time w/ family, theater. Seeking housemate who can mentor her in the kitchen & initiate activities together,

in exchange for no rent. Private BA. Call 802-863-5625 or visit homesharevermont. org for application. Interview, refs. & background checks req. EHO.

ser vices

AUTO

DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY

Running or not! Fast, free pickup. Maximum tax deduction. Support Patriotic Hearts. Your car donation helps veterans! Call 1-855402-7631. (AAN CAN)

OVERPAYING FOR AUTO INSURANCE?

A recent survey says that most Americans are overpaying for their car insurance. Let us show you how much you can save. Call now for a no-obligation quote:

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

references sec. dep. security deposit

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

1-866-472-8309. (AAN CAN)

ENTERTAINMENT

VT PRINCESS PARTY

Choose the princess that matches the magic of your princessthemed party. Call 806-336-0529 or visit vtprincessparty.com to book a date!

FINANCIAL/LEGAL

DISABILITY BENEFITS

You may qualify for disability beneﬁ ts if you are between 52-63 years old & under a doctor’s care for a health condition that prevents you from working for a year or more. Call now! 1-877-247-6750.

GET TAX RELIEF

Do you owe more than $10,000 to the IRS or state in back taxes? Get tax relief now. We’ll ﬁght for you! Call 1-877-7036117. (AAN CAN)

HOME/GARDEN

24-7 LOCKSMITH

We are there when you need us for home & car lockouts. We’ll get you back up & running quickly! Also, key reproductions, lock installs & repairs, vehicle fobs. Call us for your home, commercial & auto locksmith needs! 1-833-237-1233. (AAN CAN)

AGING ROOF? NEW HOMEOWNER? STORM DAMAGE?

You need a local expert provider that proudly stands behind its work. Fast, free estimate. Financing avail. Call 1-888-292-8225. Have the zip code of the property ready when calling! (AAN CAN)

ARBOR HILL TREE FARM

services: $12 (25 words) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x121

Info, 802-309-4063, arborhilltreefarm@ outlook.com.

BATH & SHOWER

UPDATES

In as little as 1 day! Affordable prices. No payments for 18 mos. Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & military discounts avail. Call 1-866-370-2939. (AAN CAN)

NEED NEW WINDOWS?

Drafty rooms? Chipped or damaged frames? Need outside noise reduction? New, energyefﬁ cient windows may be the answer! Call for a consultation & free quote today: 1-877248-9944. You will be asked for the zip code of the property when connecting. (AAN CAN)

PEST CONTROL

Protect your home from pests safely & affordably. Roaches, bedbugs, rodents, termites, spiders & other pests. Locally owned & affordable. Call for service or an inspection today! 1-833-237-1199. (AAN CAN)

PRUNING TREES

MycoEvolve offers fully insured pruning services at reasonable rates to maximize air & light for the health & productivity of fruit & nut trees in Vermont. Visit mycoevolve.net for details.

TREE REMOVAL & TRIMMING

Serving Chittenden County & beyond!

Working all year round, fully insured, free estimates. Call or text 315-420-6859 & ask for Evan.

WATER DAMAGE

CLEANUP & RESTORATION

com, & please browse our reviews & jobs on Facebook & Front Porch Forum.

buy this stuff

ANTIQUES/ COLLECTIBLES

TOP CASH PAID FOR OLD GUITARS 1920-1980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico, Stromber + Gibson mandolins & banjos. Call 1-855-402-7208. (AAN CAN)

FURNITURE

FURNITURE FOR SALE

2 king beds, 1 queen, 2 twins, 2 daybeds, 2 upholstered swivel chairs, ottoman, 2 dressers w/ mirrors, 3 nightstands. Lake Elmore, 802-888-9819.

WANT TO BUY

PAYING TOP CASH FOR MEN’S SPORT WATCHES Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Heuer, Daytona, GMT, Submariner & Speedmaster. Call 888-320-1052. (AAN CAN)

print deadline: Mondays at 3:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classiﬁeds

W/D washer & dryer for

Live trees. Potted & ﬁ eld-grown. 2 to 20 feet. Hardwood, evergreen, fruit trees, berry plants. Grown in Eden. State inspected. 1-year warranty.

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

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

A small amount of water can lead to major damage & mold growth in your home. Our trusted professionals do complete repairs to protect your family & your home’s value! Call 24-7: 1-888-290-2264. Have zip code of service location ready when you call! (AAN CAN)

MOVING/HAULING

MARKOSKI’S MOVE & HAUL

Markoski’s has established a local reputation for being a team of friendly professionals who treat their customers like family. Based out of Chittenden County, we go across Vermont & out of state. Contact Rick at rickmarkoski@gmail.

music

INSTRUCTION

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). 233-7731, pasbell@ paulasbell.com.

FSBO $1,100.00/month

Spacious commercial kitchen on organic farm in Monkton. Fully equipped and perfect for start up or expanding food business. Dry storage space and walk-in coolers. Available April. Contact (802) 349-7369

FSBO $39,000. Well-established ramen restaurant on Route 302. Everything included upon purchase. Staff willing to train new owners. Plenty of opportunity to expand cuisine options, grocery section, and more! Serious inquiries only. Contact (802) 299-8241. for sale by owner

Sudoku

CLASSIFIEDS » Show and tell. View and post up to 6 photos per ad online.

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

Complete the following puzzle by using the numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

Open 24/7/365. Post & browse ads at your convenience. Extra! Extra! There’s no limit to ad length online.

WANT MORE PUZZLES?

Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test. NEW ON FRIDAYS:

CALCOKU BY JOSH

REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HHH

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 one-box 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.

SUDOKU BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HH

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 ON P.70 H = MODERATE H H = CHALLENGING H H H = HOO, BOY!

See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

Legal Notices

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT

PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT

DOCKET NO.: 25-PR-01108

In re ESTATE of Elizabeth Drew

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Elizabeth Drew, late of Essex, 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 within the four (4) month period.

Dated: March 3, 2025

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Ruth C. Martel

Executor/Administrator: Ruth C. Martel, C/O Norman C. Smith Law Office, PO Box 24, Essex Junction, VT 05453

Phone number: 802-288-9088

Email: john@normansmithlaw.com

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 03/12/2025

Name of Probate Court: State of VermontChittenden Probate Division

Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401

TOWN OF WESTFORD REQUEST FOR BIDS

BROWNS RIVER COVERED BRIDGE REPAIRS

Full RFP available at the Town Office & online at https://westfordvt.us/careers-rfps/ The Town of Westford is seeking bids from qualified contractors to repair damage to the historic Browns River Covered Bridge located near the Westford Town Common on Cambridge Road in Westford, Vermont. Bids shall include

an introduction, estimated timeline, and cost estimates broken down into materials and labor.

Review historical repair work:

• https://www.vermontbridges.org/chittenden_county_westford.shtml

• https://www.vermontbridges.com/preserve. htm

• https://www.lostbridges.org/details. aspx?id=VT/45-04-05&loc=n

• https://www.vermontbridges.com/westfrd2. htm

A site visit is recommended prior to bid submission. The bridge is located at the end of Cambridge Road where it connects with Route 128 in the Westford Town Center.

Questions must be submitted in writing by Friday, March 28, 2025, to Holly Delisle, Town Administrator, townadmin@westfordvt.us.

Scope of Work

• Ensure compliance with grant requirements from the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation by meeting the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.

• Repair structural damage to Burr arches, bolster beams, bearing blocks and joists, as well as flashing and sheathing utilizing protective measures to prevent future damage.

• Select materials for durability & longevity based on location & exposure to elements.

Insurance Requirements:

The Contractor shall at their own expense provide and maintain all applicable insurances. See the full RFB for more details:

Bid Submission Instructions

Proposals must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 7, 2025, by one of the following methods. Late bids will not be accepted:

• Electronically via email to townadmin@ westfordvt.us; or

• USPS/UPS/FEDEX - Town of Westford, 1713 VT Route 128, Westford, VT 05494; or

• Hand delivered to the Westford Town Office. There is a drop box available for after hours. (Proposals should be clearly labeled “Westford

Town Office ADA Compliant Ramp & Stairs” with the contractor’s name.)

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT

PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT

DOCKET NO.: 25-PR-01099

In re ESTATE of Alfred LaFrance

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Alfred LaFrance, late of Essex, Vermont.

Dated: 03/05/2025

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Dori Belle Richards

Executor/Administrator: Dori Belle Richards, c/o John J. Mahoney, Esq., 76 Lincoln St., PO Box 24, Essex Junction, VT 05453

Phone: 802-288-9088

Email: john@normansmithlaw.com

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 03/12/2025

Name of Probate Court: State of VermontChittenden Probate Division Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401

ACT 250 NOTICE

MINOR APPLICATION 4C1106-5A 10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 - 6111

Application 4C1106-5A from O’Brien Eastview LLC, 1855 Williston Road, South Burlington, VT 05403; O’Brien Brothers, LLC, 1855 Williston Road, South Burlington, VT 05403; O’Brien Family Limited Liability Company, 1855 Williston Road, South Burlington, VT 05403; and O’Brien Home

Farm, LLC, 1855 Williston Road, South Burlington, VT 05403 was received on November 14, 2024 and deemed complete on February 19, 2025. This permit specifically authorizes the following:

1. Subdivision of one additional .17 acre lot from previously approved 1.15 acre open space Lot 18. The new .17 acre lot will be Lot 59, Lot 18 will now be .98 acres.

2. Construction of 14 residential dwelling units in two-family structures along O’Brien Farm Road extension on Lot 31, in an area previously reserved for these homes. These units were originally included in the Permit application for 4C1106-5, but were removed in response to issues with City of South Burlington permitting that are now resolved

3. Modification of the parking areas associated with the cottage home clusters on Lot 16 and Lot 36 of the previously approved development, to add a surface parking space next to each planned garage structure.

4. Alteration of the parking area for the Barn Lot open space on Lot 33, to regular (nonporous) pavement for easier maintenance.

5. Alteration of the footprint sizes for Lots 37-1 to 37-3, 35-11 to 35-15 and 34-8 and 34-10, from a previously approved depth of 57 feet, to a new depth of 76 feet. These residential units will utilize the Trillium or Aster floor plan.

6. Interior construction hours shall be limited to Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM, with no construction on Sundays or federal holidays, with the exception of Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, Columbus Day, Juneteenth, and Veteran’s Day. Interior construction may occur on these days, within the approved hours depending upon the day of the week.

The project is located at 500 Old Farm Road in South Burlington, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont.gov/) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C1106-5A.”

No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before March 26, 2025, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c) (1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont. gov/documents/party-statuspetition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@ vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this March 5, 2025. By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes Kaitlin Hayes District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

ACT 250 NOTICE

MINOR APPLICATION 4C0978-12A 10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 – 6111

Application 4C0978-12A from Richard Cowles PO Box 291, Jonesville, VT 05466 was received on April 4, 2024 and deemed complete on February

26, 2025. This permit specifically authorizes building a 36-ft by 30-ft five bedroom single family home with a 34-ft by 50-ft attached barn, 100-ft of driveway, and associated infrastructure on Lot 23 of the Greystone Estates subdivision. The project is located at 1764 Cochran Rd. in Richmond, Vermont. The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont.gov/) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C0978-12A.”

No hearing will be held and a permit may be issued unless, on or before March 26, 2025, a party notifies the District 4 Commission in writing of an issue requiring a hearing, or the Commission sets the matter for a hearing on its own motion. Any person as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c) (1) may request a hearing. Any hearing request must be in writing, must state the criteria or sub-criteria at issue, why a hearing is required, and what additional evidence will be presented at the hearing. Any hearing request by an adjoining property owner or other person eligible for party status under 10 V.S.A. § 6085(c)(1)(E) must include a petition for party status under the Act 250 Rules. To request party status and a hearing, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont.gov/ documents/party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@ vermont.gov. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law may not be prepared unless the Commission holds a public hearing.

For more information contact Kaitlin Hayes at the address or telephone number below.

Dated this March 5, 2025. By: /s/ Kaitlin Hayes Kaitlin Hayes District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

TOWN OF ESSEX NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CODE OF ETHICS INVESTIGATION AND ENFORCEMENT ORDINANCE

MARCH 17, 2025, 6:35 PM

The Selectboard of the Town of Essex, Vermont hereby gives notice that a public hearing to consider final passage of Chapter 1.05 Code of Ethics Investigation and Enforcement Ordinance, a new provision to Title 1 of the Essex Municipal Code. The hearing will be held in person and online via Zoom: • Monday, March 17, 2025, 6:35 PM at the Town Offices at 81 Main St., Essex Junction and online or by telephone (dial (888) 788-0099 and enter meeting ID: 98785691140, passcode: 032060

CONCISE SUMMARY

The Selectboard of the Town of Essex hereby ordains changes to the Municipal Ordinance, Title 1, General Provisions. The purpose of the Ordinance is to enact procedures for the investigation of complaints that allege a municipal officer has violated Vermont’s Municipal Code of Ethics and the enforcement in instances of substantiated complaints, including methods of enforcement and available remedies.

The full text of the Ordinance may be viewed on the Town of Essex website at www.essexvt.org and examined at the Town of Essex Town Office at 81 Main Street, Essex Junction, Vermont and may be examined during regular office hours.

CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO PETITION FOR VOTE

Title 24 V.S.A. § 1973 grants citizens the right to petition for a vote at a special or annual Town Meeting to disapprove ordinances adopted by the Selectboard. To exercise this right, citizens must present to the Selectboard or the Town Clerk a petition for a vote on the question of disapproving the ordinance signed by not less than five percent (5%) of the Town’s qualified voters. The petition must be presented within forty-four (44) days following the date of the adoption by the Selectboard.

PERSON TO CONTACT

Additional information pertaining to this Ordinance may be obtained by contacting Deputy Manager Karen Adams at 81 Main Street, Essex Junction, VT 05452, by calling (802) 878-1341 during regular office hours, or by emailing at manager@essex.org.

Posted at: Essex Town Office, Essex Free Library, Essex Public Works, Essex Experience kiosk, Essex Discount Beverage, Essex Post Office, and Town Website.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth are requesting proposals from construction management firms for the new construction of four multi-family buildings totaling 36 units on one 2.77 acre site, located at the corner of VT Route 116 and Riggs Road in Hinesburg, Vermont. Site improvements will include parking, an entrance road, walkways, stormwater retainage, and a community geothermal system. Construction Management firms must have comparable experience with new construction of multi-family housing and a bonding capacity of at least $13,500,000. For additional information or to obtain a response form, contact Devon Weston at Evernorth, dweston@evernorthus.org or (802) 923-6846. Completed qualifications are due by March 25th at 2pm. Davis Bacon residential wage rates will apply. The construction manager is required to comply with Build America Buy America (BABA). Minority-owned, women-owned, locally-owned and Section 3 businesses are strongly encouraged to respond.

BURLINGTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD

TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2025, 5:00 PM

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

Hybrid & In Person (at 645 Pine Street) Meeting

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/832256962 27?pwd=SGQ0bTdnS000Wkc3c2J4WWw1dzMx

UT09

Webinar ID: 832 2569 6227

Passcode: 969186

Telephone: US +1 929 205 6099 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 669 900 6833 or+1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799

1. ZP-25-43; 29-35 Church Street (FD6, Ward 3) Nick & Morrissey Development, LLC / Ryan Nick Proposed variance request for after-the-fact installation of loading dock gate.

Plans may be viewed upon request by contacting 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.

The City of Burlington will not tolerate unlawful harassment or discrimination on the basis of political or religious affiliation, race, color, national origin, place of birth, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, disability, HIV positive status, crime victim status or genetic information. The City is also committed to providing proper access to services, facilities, and employment opportunities. For accessibility information or alternative formats, please contact Human Resources Department at (802) 540-2505.

TOWN OF BOLTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW

BOARD AGENDA

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2025

6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

The DRB for the Town of Bolton will meet at 3045 Theodore Roosevelt Hwy on March 27, 2025. The meeting will commence at 6:30pm at the Bolton Clerks’ Office. The meeting will also be accessible

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom Look To Us For Your Basic Phone Service

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom is the designated “Eligible Telecommunications Carrier” for universal service purposes in its service area. The goal of universal service is to provide all citizens with access to essential telecommunications services.

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom provides single-party residence and business service at rates which range from $24.95 to $31.75 per month per line (excluding all taxes and additional fees that are required by state and federal government agencies) This includes:

• Voice grade access to the public switched network

• Unlimited minutes of local usage

• Access to emergency services (E911)

• Toll limitation services to qualifying low-income customers

• Complying with applicable service quality standards and consumer protection rules.

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom offers qualified customers a monthly telephone discount through the Lifeline Program If your household income is less than $21,127.50 for a single person household, or less than $28,552.50 for a two-person household, (add $7,425.00 for each additional person in your household), you may be eligible.

For more information on these services and benefits, please contact Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom at 800-496-3391 or visit www.wcvt.com

6h-WaitsfieldChamplainValleyTelecom031225 1

remotely by electronic means. Please join the meeting on your computer, tablet or smart phone: Town of Bolton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Town of Bolton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Development Review Board

Time: Mar 27, 2025 09:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88563331532?pwd= FBqFKg2aBfLCeTZuAR0Pvn7lEvqD7n.1

Meeting ID: 885 6333 1532

Passcode: 103645

One tap mobile

+16465588656,,88563331532#,,,,*103645# US (New York) +16469313860,,88563331532#,,,,*103645# US

Meeting ID: 885 6333 1532

Passcode: 103645

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom. us/u/kdCVjpVSTn

6:30 PM Introductions, Adjustments to Agenda & Public Comment

6:35 PM Warned Public Hearings: 6:35 PM 2024-16-DRB SUBDIVISION REVIEW

Applicant & Property Owner: James, Kim & Jacob Kilpeck; 895 Duxbury Road., A three-lot subdivision. (Parcel #1-036.000)

7:30 PM Zoning Administrator Report 8:00 PM Meeting Minutes: Review & approve 8:10 PM Adjourn.

Spencer Nowak, DRB Chair

Please Note: Application materials for items on this agenda can be reviewed in advance of the meeting upon request. To obtain a copy of these materials via email, contact Zoning Administrator Kelly Diglio: phone (802) 434-3064 x225 or via email at: zoningbolton@gmavt.net.

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 01-02421, Located at 28 Adams Drive, Williston, VT, 05495 Will be sold on or about the 27th of March 2025 to satisfy the debt of Cody Flaugh, 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, VERMONT FY 2026 PAVING PROGRAM

The Town of Essex invites you to prepare a Bid for the Town of Essex, Vermont FY 2026 Paving Program. Bid packages are available at the Town Public Works Office, 5 Jericho Road, Essex Center.

The Two RiversOttauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) is seeking firms to undertake an outreach effort that is primarily meant to assist flood-affected towns in better managing floodplain development to reduce flood risk. This effort is funded by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VTDEC), with funding from FEMA.

Legal Notices

[CONTINUED]

Friday, April 11, 2025. Questions can be directed to the Town Public Works Office at (802) 878-1344.

TOWN OF BOLTON

PUBLIC HEARING ON TOWN PLAN

The Bolton Town Plan has been updated over the past year as it reaches the end of its eight-year statutory lifespan. The purpose of the changes is to update data, maps and information in the plan

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 142.

to be as current as possible, to align the plan with the HOME Act of 2023 and discuss Act 181 municipal implications, to revisit the implementation strategy, to improve and streamline actions in the plan, and to remove the hamlet designation for the West Bolton area.

Geographically, the changes touch all areas of the town. As with the existing version, the organization of the town plan is in five sections titled Vision, People, Prosperity, Place, and Implementation. Full text of the plan and a summary of the changes can be found online

Support Groups

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS FOR MOTHERS OF COLOR

Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Thu., 5:15 p.m., via Zoom. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org. family-support-programs.

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS FOR SINGLE MOTHERS

Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes! Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Fri., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS W/ LGBTQ+ CHILDREN

Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes! Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Mon., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

AL-ANON

For families & friends of alcoholics. Phone meetings, electronic meetings (Zoom) & an Al-Anon blog are avail. online at the Al-Anon website. For meeting info, go to vermontalanonalateen.org or call 866-972-5266.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

If you want to drink, that’s your business. If you want to stop, that’s ours. Call the Vermont state-wide anonymous hotline: 802-802-2288. Alcoholics Anonymous holds daily meetings all over Vermont, both in person & online. See burlingtonaa.org for meetings, news & events in Chittenden & Grand Isle counties. For meeting & events throughout Vermont, see aavt.org.

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION SUPPORT GROUPS

Support groups meet to provide assistance & info on Alzheimer’s disease & related dementias. They emphasize shared experiences, emotional support & coping techniques in care for a person living w/ Alzheimer’s or a related dementia. Meetings are free & open to the public. Families, caregivers & friends may attend. Please call in advance to confirm the date & time. The Williston caregiver support group meets in person on the 2nd and 4th Tue. of every mo., 5-6:30 p.m., at the the Old Brick Church in Williston. Contact support group facilitators Molly at dugan@cathedralsquare. org or Mindy at moondog@burlingtontelecom. net. The Middlebury support group for individuals w/ early stage dementia meets the 4th Tue. of each mo., 3 p.m., at the Residence at Otter Creek, 350 Lodge Rd., Middlebury. Contact is Daniel Hamilton, dhamilton@residenceottercreek.com

or (802) 989-0097. The Shelburne support group for individuals w/ early stage dementia meets the 1st Mon. of every mo., 2-3 p.m., at the Residence at Shelburne Bay, 185 Pine Haven Shores, Shelburne. Contact is support group facilitator Lydia Raymond, lraymond@residenceshelburnebay. com. The telephone support group meets the 2nd Tue. of each mo., 4-5:30 p.m. Preregistration is required (to receive dial-in codes for toll-free call). Please dial the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24/7 Helpline, 800-272-3900, for more info. For questions or additional support group listings, call 800-272-3900.

ANXIETY RELIEF GROUP

Anxiety Relief Group is a safe setting for relaxing & exploring your feelings w/ others through gentle socialization & self-expression, building up what makes you centered & strong. Wed., 4-5:30 p.m. Both in-person & Zoom options avail. In-person meetings are held at the Pathways Vermont Community Center at 279 N. Winooski Ave. in Burlington. Email us for the Zoom link & more info: pvcc@pathwaysvermont.org.

BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP

Vermont Center for Independent Living offers virtual monthly meetings, held on the 3rd Wed. of every mo., 1-2:30 p.m. The support group will offer valuable resources & info about brain injury. It will be a place to share experiences in a safe, secure & confidential environment. To join, email Linda Meleady at lindam@vcil.org & ask to be put on the TBI mailing list. Info: 800-639-1522.

BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR

DRAGON BOAT TEAM

Looking for a fun way to do something active & health-giving? Want to connect w/ other breast cancer survivors? Come join Dragonheart Vermont. We are a breast cancer survivor & supporter dragon boat team who paddle together in Burlington. Please contact us at info@ dragonheartvermont.org for info.

BURLINGTON MEN’S PEER GROUP

Tue. nights, 7-9 p.m. in Burlington. Free of charge, 30 years running. Call Neils 802-877-3742.

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP

The Champlain Valley Prostate Cancer Support Group meets online on the 2nd Tue. of the mo., 6-7:30 p.m., via Zoom. Whether you are newly diagnosed, dealing w/ a reoccurrence or trying to manage the side effects of treatment, you are welcome here! More info: Andy Hatch, group leader, ahatch63@gmail.com.

CENTRAL VERMONT CELIAC SUPPORT GROUP

Last Thu. of every mo., 7:30 p.m. in Montpelier. Please contact Lisa Masé for location: lisa@ harmonizecookery.com.

THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS SUPPORT GROUP

The Compassionate Friends international support group for parents, siblings & families grieving the loss of a child meets every 4th Tue. of the mo., 7-9 p.m., at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, 160 Hinesburg Rd, S. Burlington. Call/email Alan at

at https://boltonvt.com/documents/zoningordinance-information/. Paper copies can be obtained at the Bolton Town Office during normal business hours.

A public hearing to obtain feedback on the proposed changes to the town plan will be held Tuesday April 1, 2025, at 6:00 pm in the Smilie School gym (2712 Theodore Roosevelt Highway). The meeting will also be accessible remotely by electronic means; connection information is available at the website address listed above. If you need assistance accessing this, please

CONTACT CLASSIFIEDS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM OR 802-865-1020 EXT. 115 TO UPDATE YOUR SUPPORT GROUP

802-233-0544, alanday88@gmail.com, or Claire at 802-448-3569.

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT SUICIDE

Conversations About Suicide is a judgment-free & open space to talk about personal experiences of suicidal ideation. The group is facilitated by peer support staff w/ lived experience of suicidality. Thu., 4-5 p.m., at Pathways Vermont Community Center, located at 279 N. Winooski Ave. in Burlington. Email us for more info: pvcc@ pathwaysvermont.org.

DISABILITY SUPPORT GROUP

Our group is a space for mutual support, open to anybody who identifies as disabled, differently abled or having a disability. Whether your disability is visible, invisible, physical or cognitive, this group is for you! The group meets every Mon., 1:15-2:15 p.m., at 279 N. Winooski Ave., Burlington & online on Zoom. Email us for the Zoom link & more info: pvcc@pathwaysvermont.org.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SUPPORT

Steps offers a weekly support group w/ drop-in options for those who have experienced or who have been affected by domestic violence. Women’s Support Group meets every Tue. (virtual), 5-6:30 p.m. Gender Inclusive Support Group meets every Thu. (virtual), 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Both groups offer a safe, supportive & confidential place to connect w/ others, heal & recover. For more info, call us at 802-658-1996 or email steps@stepsvt.org.

FAMILY & FRIENDS OF THOSE EXPERIENCING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

This support group is a dedicated meeting for family, friends & community members who are supporting a loved one through a mental health crisis. Mental health crisis might include extreme states, psychosis, depression, anxiety & other types of distress. The group is a confidential space where family & friends can discuss shared experiences & receive support in an environment free of judgment & stigma w/ a trained facilitator. Wed., 7-8:30 p.m. Downtown Burlington. Info: Jess Horner, LICSW, 866-218-8586.

FIERCELY FLAT VT

A breast cancer support group for those who’ve had mastectomies. We are a casual online meeting group found on Facebook at Fiercely Flat VT. Info: stacy.m.burnett@gmail.com.

FOOD ADDICTS IN RECOVERY ANONYMOUS (FA)

Are you having trouble controlling the way you eat? FA is a free 12-step recovery program for anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating or bulimia. Local meetings are held twice a week: Mon., 4-5:30 p.m. via Zoom. For more info & a list of additional meetings throughout the U.S. & the world, call 603-6301495 or visit foodaddicts.org.

G.R.A.S.P. (GRIEF RECOVERY AFTER A SUBSTANCE PASSING)

Are you a family member who has lost a loved one to addiction? Find support, peer-led support group. Meets once a mo. on Mon. in Burlington. Please call for date & location. RSVP to

contact the Town Office and direct your request to either the Town Administrator at townadmin@ boltonvt.com.

If you are participating remotely and you wish to make a public comment, but do not have the ability to comment remotely during the meeting, please email your comment to townplan@ boltonvt.com.

If you have difficulty accessing the meeting, please email townplan@boltonvt.com on the night of the hearing.

mkeasler3@gmail.com or call 310-3301 (message says Optimum Health, but this is a private number).

GRIEF & LOSS SUPPORT GROUP

Sharing your sadness, finding your joy. Please join us as we learn more about our own grief & explore the things that can help us to heal. There is great power in sharing our experiences w/ others who know the pain of the loss of a loved one & healing is possible through the sharing. BAYADA Hospice’s local bereavement support coordinator will facilitate our weekly group through discussion & activities. Everyone from the community is welcome. 1st & last Wed. of every mo. at 4 p.m. via Zoom. To register, please contact bereavement program coordinator Max Crystal, mcrystal@ bayada.com or 802-448-1610.

GRIEF SUPPORT GROUPS

Meet every 2nd Mon., 6-7:30 p.m., & every 3rd Wed. from 10-11:30 a.m., at Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice in Berlin. The group is open to the public & free of charge. More info: Diana Moore, 224-2241.

GRIEVING A LOSS SUPPORT GROUP

Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice in Berlin offers two 6-week support groups. Surviving the Loss meets on Mon. from 4-5:30 p.m. There are four different six-week offerings: Feb. 3, 10, 17, 21, Mar. 3, 10; May 5, 12, 19, Jun. 2, 9, 16; Sep. 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6, 13, 20; Nov. 17, 24, Dec. 1, 8, 15, 22. Spouse/ Partner Loss meets on Wed. 10-11:30 a.m. There are three different six-week offerings: Apr. 16, 23, 30, May 7, 14, 21; Aug. 6, 13, 20, 27, Sep. 3, 10; Nov. 12, 19, 26, Dec. 3, 10, 17. They also offer an 11-week Journaling Through Grief support group. Please call 802-224-2241 to preregister. Contact Diana Moore at 802-2224-2241 or dmoore@cvhhh.org w/ questions. Groups may meet in person or over Zoom.

INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS/PAINFUL BLADDER SUPPORT GROUP

Interstitial cystitis (IC) & painful bladder syndrome can result in recurring pelvic pain, pressure or discomfort in the bladder/pelvic region & urinary frequency/urgency. These are often misdiagnosed & mistreated as a chronic bladder infection. If you have been diagnosed or have these symptoms, you are not alone. For Vermontbased support group, email bladderpainvt@gmail. com or call 802-735-5735 for more info.

INTUITIVE EATING SUPPORT GROUP

Free weekly peer-led support group for anyone struggling w/ eating &/or body image. The only requirement is a desire to make peace w/ food & your body. Meeting format is: a short reading from Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch, 4th edition, followed by open sharing & discussion. Come find community through sharing struggles, experience, strength & hope. Located at the Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Sun. 1-2:30 p.m. Contact 202-553-8953 w/ any questions.

350VT is hiring! Join us to support Vermont’s grassroots climate justice movement. Current openings:

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

POST YOUR JOBS AT: JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB PRINT DEADLINE: NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) FOR RATES & INFO: MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Apply by March 19 at 350vermont.org/ jobs-internships

Middle and High School Teachers: Humanities, Science & Math, Spanish

Join our small creative alternative school! Pacem School is hiring part-time positions for the fall in high school humanities, middle school science and math, and mixed level Spanish. Experience working with students ages 10 to 18 and a love of teaching your subject required. Apply: pacemschool.org/about/employment 2h-PacemSchool031225.indd

DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING ASSOCIATE

Copley Hospital, located in Morrisville, VT, is seeking a full-time Development and Marketing Associate to assist with fund raising projects, events, and priorities that support our mission.

The ideal candidate will have experience with fund raising, donor cultivation, and solicitation strategies.

For more information or to apply go to copleyvt.org/careers or contact Kaitlyn Shannon, Recruiter, at 802-888-8144 or kshannon@chsi.org.

Program Manager

Make a difference when it counts.

Bring your skills in program design, outreach and volunteer management to contribute to our mission of supporting choices in end-of-life care.

Three quarter to full-time position with flexible schedule.

Study our mission at PatientChoices.org

Scan to see full job description and how to apply. 4-Patientchoices-030525.indd

MU LTIPLE POSITIONS OPEN!

Are you our next Guest Services Representative? Buyer? Produce Associate?

ST AFF CURATED BENEFIT S Apply online at healthylivingmarket.com/careers

Join the Community Kitchen Academy!

Community Kitchen Academy (CKA) is a 9-week job training program featuring: Hands on learning, national ServSafe certification, job placement support and meaningful connections to community. Plus... the tuition is FREE and weekly stipends are provided for income eligible students! At CKA you’ll learn from professional chefs in modern commercial kitchens and graduate with the skills and knowledge to build a career in food service, food systems and other related fields. Throughout the course, you’ll develop and apply new skills by preparing food that would otherwise be wasted. The food you cook is then shared with neighbors via community food shelves and meal sites. CKA is a program of the Vermont Foodbank, operated in partnership with Capstone Community Action in Barre.

Next session starts March 31 in Barre. Apply: vtfoodbank.org/cka

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Now Hiring!

IT SYSTEMS ANALYST

We are excited to announce the opening of a new position at Lake Champlain Chocolates and the expansion of our IT team! We are looking for an IT Systems Analyst who will play a critical role in analyzing and enhancing our enterprise systems. The IT Systems Analyst will ensure that systems are supported in a way that furthers LCC’s continued operations and strategic goals. They’ll provide administration, integration, and optimization of the Company’s enterprise applications while also performing traditional system administration duties, reporting/analytics, and managing IT-related projects. This role is critical to aligning technology solutions with business objectives for LCC’s three business segments: wholesale/manufacturing, ecommerce and retail.

Ready to apply?

Visit LakeChamplainChocolates.com/careers for additional job details and to submit your application.

Environmental Well Driller

Position entails the operation of environmental well drilling equipment for the advancement and installation of soil borings and monitoring wells. The candidate should be capable of lifting and carrying heavy loads (greater than 90 lbs), troubleshooting diesel engine and hydraulic systems, operating heavy equipment in an efficient and safe manner, and working in all weather conditions. A background in geology or environmental sciences is helpful, but not required. This position entails travel both in Vermont and greater New England. Compensation is based on experience and performance; this position includes a comprehensive benefits package.

Environmental Well Drillers Assistant

Position entails assistance to the drill rig operator for the advancement and installation of soil borings and monitoring wells. The candidate should be capable of lifting and carrying heavy loads (greater than 90 lbs.), troubleshooting diesel engine and hydraulic systems, and working in all weather conditions. This position entails travel both in Vermont and greater New England. Compensation is based on experience and performance; this position includes a comprehensive benefits package.

Send your application to Mjordan@platform-env.com

Platform Environmental Drilling and Remediation Services (Platform) provides geotechnical and environmental drilling services for the purpose of, monitoring well installation, soil boring advancement, and application of several direct sensing subsurface technologies. We provide implementation assistance for the construction of environmental remediation systems. Our current staff has a diverse background in geological sciences, engineering and construction which enables us to complete complicated drilling and remediation projects successfully.

OIN OUR TEAM IN SOUTH BURLINGTON!

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

• Certified Master Electrician or in progress of Master Certification

• Five years or more of experience working in the field.

• Ability to support multiple apprenticeships.

• Desire to teach high school students career and college readiness skills.

• Passion to integrate academic, technical, and employability skills into a program.

• A 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 all students.

If you have a thirst to learn, the desire to engage students in hands-on learning, and a passion to prepare students with the skills to succeed in post-secondary education and beyond, we encourage you to apply.

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.

In accordance with Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title 1F of the Higher Education Act of 1972, Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Green Mountain Technology and Career Center does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, handicapping condition and/or disability, marital status, or sexual orientation in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.

Trusted, local employers are hiring in Seven Days newspaper and online. Browse 100+ new job postings each week. Follow us on Facebook /sevendaysjobs for the latest postings

Finance Coordinator

The Vermont Foodbank is seeking a Finance Coordinator. This full-time hourly position includes maintaining A/R and assisting the staff accountant and CFO. An ideal candidate is confident, comfortable making independent decisions, able to maintain confidentiality, can provide a high level of quality customer service and problem solving. The starting pay for the position is set at $26.87 with eventual potential range ($52,793 to $71,425) placement based on years of experience within VF compensation equity roadmap.

To apply for this position, please visit: bit.ly/vtfoodbankjob 3-VTFoodbank-030525.indd 1

Shop Assistant

Seeking motivated and energetic assistant to help run an evolving fabrics and furnishings shop in South Burlington. Strong customer service, administrative, and technology skills a must. Experience with home textiles and/or design a bonus. This is a growth opportunity for the right person who would like to learn the industry and be trained in all aspects of selling custom fabric work. Seeking someone who is reliable, can balance following instructions with good judgement, has a strong work ethic, and wants to help grow this business. 20 hours/ week (flexible), more hours possible in the future. $18-22/ hour starting wage.

Send resume & cover letter to alisa@joyofhomevt.com. Job description at joyofhomevt. com/work-at-joh

Position open until filled. 3v-JoyofHome031225.indd 1 3/6/25

Lawncare/Garden Technician

Oak and Ember Landscapes provides high quality lawn and garden care. We believe in developing a strong team culture and have year round work available for those interested in working winters. We offer paid holidays, sick and vacation days, a clothing/boot stipend and training reimbursement. We believe in growing the team from within and are looking for long term team members to train and develop a career in landscaping.

The right candidate will have a working knowledge of standard lawncare equipment or background in horticulture and be able to take direction and work independently on the job site. Duties include weeding, installing, pruning and maintaining plants, trimming grass, blowing off grass clippings and mowing with a zero turn as well as spreading mulch and removing leaf, brush and other debris. Each day starts and ends at the shop in New Haven and includes equipment cleanup and basic maintenance. While the position includes both gardening and lawncare duties, focus of work will be based on candidate’s background and area of interest. Pay: $20-$25+.

For information & to apply: oakandemberlandscapes.com/employment

Grant & Program Administrator

The Leahy Institute for the Environment at Saint Michael’s College invites applications for the Grant & Program Administrator position. This position will provide crucial administrative support for a vibrant and growing team at Saint Michael’s. This position includes the coordination of large federal grant administration, flagship programming and special projects, advisory board coordination, and annual report data collection.

For a full job description, please scan QR code here.

CCS has been voted one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont for the seventh year in a row and we would love to have you as part of our team.

Work at CCS and support our mission to build a community where everyone participates and belongs. E.O.E.

Administrative Specialist

The Administrative Specialist provides clerical and administrative support to the Feeding Champlain Valley Team, monitors purchasing expenses, assists with data entry and generates reports for managers, funding sources, service recipients and other stakeholders. Assesses need for new technology and resources in coordination with CVOEO IT department. Works with the Associate Director to improve fiscal and program documentation and works with CVOEO’s fiscal office to process invoices and bills.

Requirements: Associate’s degree in business or human services or combination of education and experience in human services or other appropriate disciplines, which include 2-4 years’, related experience from which comparable knowledge and skills have been acquired. Strong organization skills, basic administrative and supervisory skills desired; experience with accounting software is a plus. A willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends is required. Clean driving record, valid driver’s license and access to reliable private transportation must be maintained.

When you come to work for CVOEO you’re getting so much more than a paycheck! We offer a great working environment and an excellent benefit package including medical, dental and vision insurance, paid holidays, generous time off, a retirement plan and discounted gym membership.

Interested in working with us? To apply, please include a cover letter and resume with your application. We are one of the 2025 Best Places to Work in Vermont! Join us to find out why! Visit: cvoeo.org/careers

SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR

Systems Administrator District of Vermont at Burlington (CL-28/29)

$70,894 – $137,032 Full Time Permanent U.S. Probation is accepting applications for a full-time Systems Administrator. The Systems Administrator is responsible for testing and performing routine upgrades of hardware and software, maintaining technical and user documentation for assigned systems and applications, providing technical support for all systems, ensuring integrity and safety of office data and performing or coordinating IT support services necessary for the successful operation of all IT systems. AO-78 form required from all applicants.

Salary range: $70,894 - $137,032 (CL 28 to CL 29), depending on qualifications. For further information and application instructions visit vtp. uscourts.gov/career-opportunities

Deadline for complete applications: Close of business, March 21, 2025.

Financial Controller

Kria Botanicals, a leader in THC and CBD manufacturing, is seeking a skilled Financial Controller to help shape our financial strategy and ensure the continued growth and stability of our organization. In this role, you will lead financial planning, reporting, compliance, and risk management, all while supporting our mission to harness the full potential of cannabis-derived compounds for health and wellness. If you have a passion for financial excellence, leadership experience, and a deep understanding of financial regulations, we would love to hear from you!

Please submit resume and cover letter detailing your qualifications and interest in the role to: elissa.galvez@ kriabotanicals.com

Infusion Nurse Practitioner

We’re seeking a dedicated Nurse Practitioner (NP) who is passionate about helping patients manage chronic diseases and acute illnesses. If you’re an NP with exceptional IV skills and a heart for patient care, we want you on our team!

What We’re Looking For:

• Licensed Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) in Vermont with strong IV skills

• ACLS and BLS certification

• Preferred: Experience in infusion nursing or a passion to learn and grow in this specialty.

• Outstanding communication skills and a warm, approachable demeanor.

• A proactive team player with exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.

What We Offer:

• Full-time opportunities in our premier outpatient infusion centers.

• Competitive salary and benefits, including health, vision, dental, PTO, and more.

• A supportive and collaborative work environment that values your expertise.

• Opportunities for professional development and career advancement.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time

Send resumes to: dgiliberti@thrivewellinfusion.com

“Seven Days sales rep Michelle Brown is amazing! She’s extremely responsive, and I always feel so taken care of. I can only imagine how many job connections she has facilitated for local companies in the 20 years she has been doing this.”

CAROLYN ZELLER, Intervale Center, Burlington

Corporate Development Coordinator

Vermont Parks Forever, the nonprofit foundation for Vermont State Parks, is seeking a parttime Corporate Development Coordinator to join our small and mighty team in handling many aspects of corporate partnerships, fundraising, and communications through social media. This 20 hour/week remote position will manage and grow our existing business partnership program and contribute to our overall development strategy.

Please submit a cover letter describing your interest, resume, qualifications & favorite VT State Park experience, to info@ vermontparksforever.org

Position open until filled. Priority given to applications received by March 16th. Full description at vermontparksforever.org

3v-VTParksForever031225.indd 1 3/7/25 2:22

Shared-Living Provider

Join Home Base Inc. in supporting an older woman with developmental disabilities as a Shared-Living Provider. We are seeking someone who owns a home (preferably in/ around Burlington/Shelburne area) with an extra bedroom on the first floor. This woman lives semi-independently (can be alone for up to 3 hours at a time) and receives community supports from Home Base staff. At home, she enjoys relaxing and keeping to herself but also values company and conversation. Provide assistance with grocery shopping, meal & medication prep, home care. Generous tax-exempt monthly stipend and room and board payment for opening your home and providing care for this woman. Training and ongoing support provided. Send resumes to: rachel@homebasevt.org

Customer Service Representative

Julbo Eyewear is a manufacturer of top-quality outdoor sunglasses and goggles. As a Customer Service Representative in our mellow, dog-friendly office, you’ll manage customer relations, support sales, resolve warranty and repair issues, answer questions, enter orders and make sure all customers receive quality care. Company Health plan; PTO and 401k match after 6 months. Send resumes to: careers@julbousa.com

REGULATORY PARALEGAL

Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C., a full-service law firm, located near the scenic Burlington waterfront, is hiring

Key Responsibilities:

• Monitor and manage regulatory case activity, ensuring timely compliance with deadlines.

• Develop a deep understanding of Vermont Public Utility Commission procedures and regulatory frameworks.

• Support the firm’s work regarding regulatory compliance, development of energy infrastructure, renewable energy policy issues, rate proceedings, and other energy matters.

• Analyze & interpret complex regulatory policies and procedures.

• Draft templates and letters, proofread legal documents, manage electronic and mailed filings, and maintain organized case files.

Ideal Candidate Qualifications:

• Strong reading comprehension, analytical skills, attention to detail.

• Experience in regulatory, energy, or related legal field preferred.

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a team-oriented environment.

• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.

This is an exceptional opportunity to be part of a respected firm while contributing to meaningful regulatory & energy law initiatives. Competitive pay & comprehensive benefits package offered.

To apply, please send your cover letter and resume to hiring@sheeheyvt.com with the subject: “Regulatory Paralegal.”

5v-SheeheyFurlong&Behm030525.indd 1

Operations Manager

Developmental Disability Services DIRECTOR

The Developmental Disability Services Director is a leadership role within the Vermont Care Partners (VCP) network, responsible for providing strategic guidance, advocacy, and coordination of developmental disability services across network agencies. This hybrid position will have an increased in-person presence during the legislative session. Apply vermontcarepartners.org/ we-are-hiring

The Housing Advocacy Program (HAP) Operations Manager is responsible for the ongoing operations, monitoring, and evaluation of the statewide HAP Housing Stabilization and Retention Services program (HSRS). Collaboration is a key part of this position, including cultivating and maintaining relationships with partners from outside organizations, federal and state agencies and actively supporting our mission in promoting inclusive, affordable housing for all. This is a hybrid position located in Burlington VT.

Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Social Services, Community Development, Business Administration or other related field, plus three years of work experience, or a combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and skills are acquired. Effective supervisory, management and training skills required. Ability to deal effectively with a broad range of individuals, groups, and organizations in carrying out all assigned functions; requiring basic counseling and good mediation and negotiation skills.

Advertising Sales & Marketing Specialist

We are seeking an entrepreneurial professional with sales and marketing expertise who will work closely with our staff team to take The Bridge to the next level of earned and contributed revenue.

• 32 hour per week position; remote and in-person flexible hours

• $41,600 base salary

• 5% commission on all ad sales ($185,000 ad sales in 2024).

• Year-end bonus for exceeding annual sales goals.

• Flexible benefits plan starting at $10K (growing to $20K in year three); paid time off and sick time.

Apply at montpelierbridge.org/job-opportunities

4t-MontpelierBridge030525

Maintenance Technician

Job Summary: Redstone maintenance team members are critical, front-line members of our team directly impacting property management operations. This role maintains property appearance, responds to service requests, and collaborates with a range of colleagues and vendors. A professional attitude and team focused mind-set are essential.

Normal Hours: 40 Hours per week. Note, Redstone maintenance personnel are required to assume duties for after hours on an on-call basis where over-time pay is provided. Current on-call rotation for this position is approximately every six weeks/eight shifts per year.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: Performs minor or routine maintenance or repair involving the following on a daily basis:

Electrical & plumbing (water lines)

A/C and heating systems

Appliances (when applicable)

Stairs, gates, fences, patios, railings

Tile, carpet, flooring

Roofing, gutters, fasteners

Interior/exterior lights

Gas fixtures and appliances (where applicable)

Ceiling leaks

Shutters, doors, cabinets, windows, sliding glass doors

Door locks; Security systems (where applicable)

Some janitorial and ground duties, including debris and trash removal

Light carpentry and drywall

Painting

• Assists with preparing apartments for new residents by following unit turnover check list

• Constant need (66% to 100% of the time) to be on feet

• Must have valid driver's license free of major moving violations

Benefits: We offer competitive benefits including: medical, vision, dental insurance; 401K match; 3 weeks paid vacation to start and can earn up to 5 weeks; paid sick leave; paternity and maternity leave; twelve paid holidays and a paid day off on your birthday. All positions are also eligible for discretionary and longevity bonuses.

Visit redstonevt.com for a full job description and to apply.

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Sr. Mechanical Systems Tech-Electrician

Sr. Mechanical Technician- Plumber

Sr. Maintenance Tech 4t-VTStateUniversity031225.indd

Benefits include: Medical Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision Insurance, Retirement Plan, Tuition Waiver to Vermont State Colleges, Tuition Waiver to UVM* (for dependent children) Long Term Disability, 14 Paid Holidays, Paid Medical, Personal, and Vacation Leave.

Learn more and apply: vermontstate.edu/about/careers

BUSINESS INSTRUCTOR

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

• Business, Hospitality, or Tourism experience.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business or a related field.

• Expertise with the Microsoft Office Suite, Quickbooks, and project management platforms.

• Desire to teach high school students career and college readiness skills.

• Passion to integrate academic, technical and employability skills into a program.

• A proven ability to collaborate and build strong relationships with community partners.

CHEF

Small Established Restaurant with a pub-style family setting in Montgomery Center, VT. We have been a local favorite for over 50 years, serving great food. We are looking for a Chef to lead our kitchen, ensuring that our staple items are consistently prepared to the highest standards while also developing exciting specials.

Cabinet Maker

This role requires someone who is a strong leader, organized and able to manage a small high-volume kitchen efficiently.

Reputable custom kitchen cabinet company seeking full time carpenter to join our team. Experience with basic woodworking skills a must, but will provide additional training for the right candidate. Please email (only) experience and references for more information.

Send application to peter@ pomerantzcabinetry.com

CLERICAL SUPPORT STAFF

Vermont Legal Aid seeks a highly organized team player, with a desire to further our mission, for a full-time position in either Montpelier, VT or Burlington, VT (preference for Montpelier).

We encourage applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, and welcome information about how your experience can contribute to our work and to serving our diverse client communities. Applicants are encouraged to share in their cover letter how they can further our goals of social justice and individual rights. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to a discrimination-and-harassment-free workplace. Please read our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: vtlegalaid.org/commitment-diversity-inclusion

Responsibilities include general office management and front desk duties (answering phones, client contact, data entry, typing, file/document/database management), as well as supporting the work of one or more projects with multiple attorneys and paralegals. Experience as a legal assistant or formal clerical training is preferable. Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite required. Fluency in French, Spanish, Swahili, Kirundi, Somali, Arabic, Nepali, or Burmese is a plus.

See vtlegalaid.org/montpelier-support-staff-2025 for additional job description.

Base salary is $47,179 with salary credit given for relevant prior work experience. Four weeks paid vacation, retirement, and excellent health benefits.

Application deadline is March 23, 2025. Send cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references as a single PDF file with the subject line “Support Staff March 2024” to hiring@vtlegalaid.org. Please tell us how you heard about the position.

VP of Conservation Programs

Join our ambitious wilderness team! Northeast Wilderness Trust seeks an experienced VP of Conservation Programs to provide leadership to advance our mission at a time of strong organizational growth. Visit newildernesstrust.org/ about/employment

2v-(NEWT)PtarmiganAbbott-030525.indd 1 3/3/25 12:34 PM

Project Engineer/ PE Development Program

A project Engineer at NCC is an engineering professional with unique skill set & desire to develop their career through the full lifecycle of project experience from pre-construction through post-construction closeout. The PE maintains a heavy focus on documentation, quality control, information flow and project coordination in support of the Project Management Team.

The NCC Development Program allows you to grow into your desired professional role through a wide-range of unique and challenging project experiences. This team-based experience includes opportunities to explore project management, field management, and project engineering rotations.

Training and skill development will focus on safety program support, project information flow, trade and vendor support, scheduling and overall project coordination. The goal is to develop individuals that are an integral part of the project team and provide a critical support role for Superintendents and Project Managers.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or Construction Management

• Familiarity with construction management software

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office

• Field experience a plus

• Good communications skills/Strong

Taproom Operations Lead/ Maintenance Technician

Lawson’s Finest Liquids crafts and delivers the finest and freshest beer to delight our fans. We are a B Corp certified values-driven company with a focus on excellence, cultivating & supporting vibrant communities, and having fun. We are passionate about delivering world-class brews throughout our eleven-state Northeast region and beyond. We are hiring for two positions.

Learn more about each role and apply directly through our Careers page lawsonsfinest.com/about-us/careers

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA)

Are you interested in a job that helps your community and makes a difference in people’s lives every day? Consider joining Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) in Burlington, VT to continue BHA’s success in promoting innovative solutions that address housing instability challenges facing our diverse population of low-income families and individuals.

We are currently hiring for the following positions:

Housing Retention Services – Site

Based: Responsible for supporting those who have mental health and substance use challenges and/or who have moved from homelessness to Bobbin Mill, Wharf Lane, and other BHA properties. The position works closely with property management and other site-based staff to identify challenges and respond with appropriate direct service and coordination of community services, with a goal of eviction prevention and facilitating a healthy tenancy.

Offender Re-entry Housing Specialist: Provides support to men and women under the VT Department of Corrections supervision from prison back to Chittenden County. The ORHS focuses on high-risk men and women who are being released from jail and graduating transitional housing programs and in need of permanent housing. The ORHS provides intensive retention and eviction prevention services and works collaboratively with the Burlington Probation and Parole Office. Additionally, the ORHS works with various case workers, Re-Entry staff and the Administrative Staff from the VT Department of Corrections and the broad network of COSA staff as necessary throughout Chittenden County.

Preventative Maintenance Specialist: Administers and implements comprehensive preventative maintenance activities at all BHA properties, ensuring the systematic upkeep of building components. The PMS will establish a maintenance schedule, as well as overseeing and coordinating with contractors for key building systems and areas related to the upkeep of buildings.

Resident Manager at South Square: Attends to various resident requests, assisting with emergency service, and light

cleaning duties. The Resident Manager is required to live on property. The Resident Manager is provided with an apartment along with free utilities in exchange for being on call after BHA business hours and on weekends.

Our robust benefit package includes premium medical insurance with a health reimbursement account, dental, vision, short and long term disability, 10% employer funded retirement plan, 457 retirement plan, accident insurance, life insurance, cancer and critical illness insurance.

We provide a generous time off policy including 12 days of paid time off and 12 days of sick time in the first year. In addition to the paid time off, BHA recognizes 13 (paid) holidays and 2 (paid) floating cultural holidays.

Interested in this opportunity? Send cover letter/resume to: humanresources@ burlingtonhousing.org

Human Resources

Burlington Housing Authority 65 Main Street, Suite 101 Burlington, VT 05401

To find more information about these career opportunities, please visit: burlingtonhousing.org

BHA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Creative Content Manager

We’re hiring a Creative Content Manager to drive Julbo Eyewear’s brand presence & revenue growth in the US market. This high-impact role focuses on performance-driven content and marketing to grow Julbo’s e-commerce revenue. You’ll lead digital initiatives across Meta, Google, email, and social media, developing strategies that drive traffic, conversions, and brand engagement. Send resumes to: careers@julbousa.com

Greenhouse Grower

Creative Gardens and Nursery of Jericho, Vt. is seeking a self-motivated, hardworking reliable individual to lead in the growing of bedding plants, hanging baskets, vegetable starts, and perennials in our greenhouses and nursery. Our ideal candidate is ﬁt, has good communication skills, ability to delegate tasks, organized, able to work with and train other team members in watering and general care of plants. We are open seven days a week, some weekend days are required.

E.O.E. Pay commensurate with experience. Send resume or email. Creativelgc@gmail.com

Residential Support - Community Support Program

The Community Support Program (CSP) division of Washington County Mental Health Services (WCMHS) provides comprehensive community based support to persons with intensive and persistent mental health needs. We are currently hiring for entry-level positions to work as Residential Support with salary ranges starting from $20.05/hour based on education and experience. Competitive shift differentials offered for evening, weekend and holidays. If you would like to learn more about the Residential Support position, or any position within Washington County Mental Health please visit our website at wcmhs.org

We are seeking both full-time and hourly folks to join our team. This is an awesome opportunity for those looking for truly rewarding work for just a few hours a week, or for those who are looking to start a career within the mental health ﬁeld.

•MANDARIN•

We’re seeking to hire servers and bartenders to join our hardworking and energetic team. If you’re interested in the opportunity, drop off a resume in person, or email to: lawrence@mandarinvt.com

GO HIRE.

Job Recruiters:

• Post jobs using a form that includes key info about your company and open positions (location, application deadlines, video, images, etc.).

• Accept applications and manage the hiring process via our applicant tracking tool.

• Easily manage your open job listings from your recruiter dashboard.

Get a quote when you post online or contact Michelle Brown: 865-1020, ext. 121, michelle@sevendaysvt.com.

Job Seekers:

• Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type.

• Set up job alert emails using custom search criteria.

• Save jobs to a custom list with your own notes on the positions.

• Apply for jobs directly through the site. jobs.sevendaysvt.com

fun stuff

“Mama,

set an extra plate!”

JEN SORENSEN

HARRY BLISS & STEVE MARTIN

MAT BARTON

PISCES

(FEB. 19-MAR. 20)

I’m not exactly sure where you are going, Pisces, but I’m certain you are headed in the right direction. Your instincts for self-love are at a peak. Your ability to see your best possible future is lucid and strong. Your commitment to gracefully serving all that gracefully serves you is passionate and rigorous. I will congratulate you in advance for locating the exact, robust resources you need, not mediocre resources that are only half-interesting.

ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): What can you do to show how much you care about everyone and everything that deserves your love? Now is a fantastic time to unleash a flood of gratitude and appreciation that takes very practical forms. Don’t just beam warm and fuzzy feelings toward your favorite people and animals, in other words. Offer tangible blessings that will actually enhance their lives. Find your own personally meaningful ways to nourish all that nourishes you.

TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): Ancient Egyptians loved the color blue. The mineral azurite and the semiprecious stones turquoise and lapis lazuli satisfied their fascination to some degree but were rare and difficult to work with. So the Egyptians decided to fabricate their own pigment. After extensive experimentation, using copper, silica and lime, they succeeded. The hue they made is known as

Egyptian blue. I heartily endorse a comparable process for you in the coming weeks, Taurus. Identify the experience, substance or feeling you really, really want more of and then resolve to get as much of it as you really, really want.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): Dandelions germinate quickly and grow fast. Because of their deep taproots, they are hardy. Once they establish their presence in a place, they persist. Dandelions are adaptable, too, able to grow anywhere their seeds land, even from cracks in concrete. Their efficient dispersal is legendary. They produce large quantities of lightweight seeds that are easily carried by the wind. Bees love dandelions in the spring, when there are few other flowers yet to provide them with nectar. I propose we make the dandelion your symbol of power in the coming weeks, Gemini. Be like them! (PS: They are also beautiful in an unostentatious way.)

CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): About 36,000 years ago, humans created remarkable drawings and paintings in the Cave of Altamira, located in what we now call Spain. When an early discoverer of the art published his findings in 1880, he was met with derision. Experts accused him of forgery, saying such beautiful and technically proficient works could not have been made by ancient people, who just weren’t that smart. Eventually, though, the art was proved to be genuine. I propose we meditate on this as a metaphor for your life. It’s possible that your abilities may be underestimated, even by you. Hidden potentials and unexpressed capacities may be close to ripening, but they will need your full confidence and boldness. Don’t let skepticism, either from your inner critic or others, hold you back.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): In 1977, NASA launched two Voyager probes to study our solar system’s outer planets. Their original mission was designed to last a few years. But in 2025, they still continue to send back useful information from the great beyond, far past Uranus and Neptune, and into interstellar space. I suspect that now is also a good time for you Leos to seek valuable information from adventures you began years ago. Even if those

past experiences have not yielded relevant revelations recently, they may soon do so. Be alert for ways to harvest new riches from old memories.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): About 3,775 years ago, a Babylonian man named Nanni wrote a crabby letter to Ea-nasir, a merchant who had sold him substandard copper ingots. Nanni was also upset that his servant was treated rudely. It is the oldest customer complaint in history. With this as our touchstone, I remind you that maintaining high standards is always crucial for your long-term success. Others may be tempted to cut corners, but your natural integrity is one of your superpowers. Please redouble your commitment to providing highest value, Virgo. And ask for it from others, too.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): Blogger Yukiko Kisaki writes about the Japanese concept of ma. She says it’s “the emptiness full of possibilities, like a promise yet to be fulfilled. It’s the purposeful pauses in a speech that make words stand out; the quiet time we all need to make our busy lives meaningful; the silence between the notes that make the music.” According to my analysis, Libra, you will be wise to make ma a central theme in the coming weeks. I invite you to research the power of pauses. Rather than filling up every gap, allow space for pregnant blankness. Trust that in being open to vacancy, you will make room for unexpected riches.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The literal meaning of the Japanese word yohen is “kiln mutation.” It refers to a type of glaze that undergoes unpredictable variations in color when baked in a kiln. The finished pottery that emerges displays patterns and hues that are blends of the artist’s intention and accidental effects created by the heat. I would love to see you carry out metaphorical versions of yohen in the coming weeks, Scorpio. Suggested meditations: 1) Collaborate to create beauty with energies that aren’t entirely manageable. 2) Undertake projects that require both careful preparation and a willingness to adapt to shifting conditions. 3) Engage with opportunities that will have the best outcomes if you relinquish some control.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A big party is under way in your astrological House of Self-Understanding and Self-Definition. The near future will be a favorable time to discover yourself in greater depth and bring your identity into clearer focus. I see this mostly as a task for you to carry out in intimate conversation with yourself. It’s also fine to solicit the feedback of allies who have insight into your nature, but I urge you to rely heavily on your private investigations. How can you deepen your knowledge of the reasons you are here on Earth? Can you learn more about your dormant potentials? Who are you, exactly?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila was selected by his country to compete in the 1960 Rome Olympics. But the honor was offered shortly before the games began, and he had to scramble to get there in time. When he arrived for the main event, he couldn’t find any running shoes in local stores that fit comfortably. So he decided to go barefoot for the 26.2-mile race. Success! He won, setting a new worldrecord time. I propose we make him your role model, Capricorn. May he inspire you to respond to an apparent scarcity or deficiency by calling on earthy alternatives. May you adjust to a problem by deepening your reliance on your natural self.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): After being part of two journeys to Antarctica, Aquarian explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) assembled a team to try what no one had ever done: crossing the entire continent on foot with pack dogs and motorized sledges. But the proposed 1,800-mile expedition failed soon after it began. That’s when Shackleton did what he is most famous for. His leadership during the harrowing struggle to survive became legendary. I don’t think you will face anything remotely resembling his challenges in the coming weeks. But I suspect that your response to tests and trials will define your success. As you encounter obstacles, you will treat them as opportunities to showcase your resourcefulness and adaptability. You will inspire others to summon resiliency, and you will bring out their best as together you engage in creative problem solving. Trials will become triumphs.

e Elmore Store is getting a massive facelift this winter thanks to Becca and Tim Lindenmeyr, its new operators. Elmore Community Trust owns the store, which will be reopened as a multiuse community hub in late spring or early summer. Seven Days’ Eva Sollberger got a tour and saw some salvaged relics.

HAPPY, GRATEFUL, CONCERNED, INDEPENDENT RETIREE

I am a 74-year-old, recently divorced, retired physician and father of three grown sons. I hope to keep an open mind in seeking a new relationship with a woman who would enjoy sharing affection, conversation, music, service to others, travel and outdoor activities. ProudPop, 74 seeking: W, l

Respond to these people online: dating.sevendaysvt.com

WOMEN seeking...

QUIRKY WIRKY OF ART

Conversationalists, conservationists, men with insight, men in granite, knights in armor bent on chivalry. Please: no oldies just trying to give their Cialis a spin, men who just want to talk about how great they were two decades ago or men who swing with other dudes’ wives. Don’t tell me who you were, tell me what you are. BlondieO 55, seeking: M, l

BUBBLY, ADVENTUROUS FOODIE

I love meeting new people and trying new things. On a given Saturday night you can either find me dancing the night away at bars or staying at home in my PJs, reading a thriller. murphjo99, 25 seeking: M, l

JASMINE FOR YOU

I’m a youthful, independent, confident, financially secure, 77-years-young widow who is very comfortable in her own skin! I am upbeat, love to smile and make others happy. You will find me to be joyful, positive, intelligent, loyal and monogamous. Well traveled, I enjoy skiing, hiking, road trips, biking, cooking and cozy evenings at home. Jassy1948 77 seeking: M, l

LONELY LOOKING FOR ?

Looking for someone kind. I know no picture. Life’s a gamble. Self-sufficient woman here, at least I think so sometimes. I enjoy nature and good sex, like I can remember. Physically active. Not perfect. Silly_wabbit, 54, seeking: M

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You read Seven Days, these people read Seven Days — you already have at least one thing in common!

All the action is online. Create an account or login to browse hundreds of singles with profiles including photos, habits, desires, views and more. It’s free to place your own profile online.

l See photos of this person online.

W = Women

M = Men

TW = Trans women

TM = Trans men

Q = Genderqueer people

NBP = Nonbinary people

NC = Gender nonconformists

Cp = Couples

Gp = Groups

LAID-BACK

Serious relationship. Mira1a 31, seeking: M, l

LOOKING FOR CONNECTION

I’m considerate, kind, compassionate, curious and always looking for new adventures. I would love to meet someone to share in my enthusiasm. Connect with me if you are not afraid to be real. katya, 58 seeking: M, l

CARING, COMPASSIONATE, OPTIMIST

I am an active, energetic person with an optimistic view of life. I enjoy being out in nature and appreciate all seasons. I hope to find someone who’s up for new adventures and enjoys time alone and time together. Good communication, trust and compassion are very important to me, and I hope to find someone who shares these values. KindredSpirit63, 63, seeking: M, l

HONEST, LOYAL, INTENSE

Science and tech geek seeks similar. Dark sense of humor, still kind of a goth at heart. If I’m not home on Saturday nights, I’ll be at a bar or movie, not the theater. Shy, quiet and serious at first, looking for my opposite: someone carefree and joyful. But in the end, it all comes down to chemistry, right? labrat, 47, seeking: M, l

ACTIVE, CARING AND FUNNY

Active woman who enjoys dancing, hiking, biking. My new partner is passionate about life and wants to spend time building a relationship. DancingQueen, 60 seeking: M, l

TEAM PLAYER SEEKS COCAPTAIN

Forty-nine years old/young, living in Stowe with my young daughter, our little dog and a kitten. Two-plus years of transition to single-mom living, and finally considering how a man might fit into my life. Honestly, still unsure, but hopeful for a partner with wit, creativity, non-arrogant ambition, humor and new adventures. I love people, kids, nature, saunas/plunges, skiing! Mountain_Mama, 28, seeking: M, l

LOVING EVERY MORNING!

I, first and foremost, want honesty! If you don’t feel it, just tell me and go! It’s OK! I want laughter, fun, peace, enjoyment, no drama, no lies (big with me!) and to enjoy whatever “we” are doing! I am a very fast thinker but forget stuff. My life can be chaotic at times. I like my Jeep, ’93 Mazda. MaMa_Me 71, seeking: M, l

ENERGETIC, SARCASTIC AND LAID-BACK!

Not good at this. Let’s just give it a go and see what happens! Looking for a buddy, someone to hang and spend some time with. ForgingNewPaths, 37, seeking: M

SEEKING TALL NICE GUY

Nice gal seeks nice guy for fun: conversation, travel, meals. I like fiction, cooking garden-to-table, conversation. I don’t like motorcycles, football, TV. Please be 5’10” or taller, nonsmoker, financially secure, emotionally and physically healthy. swimwstars, 68, seeking: M

IN SEARCH OF YOU!

ISO companionship or LTR for social activities such as long walks on nature trails, browsing art galleries, attending lectures, long country back-road trips. I enjoy dining out but would prefer cooking healthy meals at home. Cozy evenings at home reading, playing board games by a roaring fire with great conversation. Biking and nightly walks, holding hands. Sunsets, farmers markets, live music. JeezumCrow, 73, seeking: M, l

GENUINE, FRIENDLY, LOYAL AND TRUE

I am single and live independently. Now retired but work part time remotely. I love nature and watching birds. I enjoy art, consignment and antique shops, music, and good movies. Looking for long-term friend and companion to love, share life, cook good food, talk, entertain and travel. Redwing 75, seeking: M, l

ACTIVE, OUTGOING, ADVENTUROUS

I am a caring, independent, professional female who loves traveling, being outdoors (skiing, hiking, biking, paddle boarding, gardening), being with friends and family, or reading a great book. Ideally I would like to meet someone who is smart, has a good sense of humor, shares some of my interests and enjoys great conversation. Hopefully they are out there and will reach out. Oreodog 61, seeking: M, l

CURIOUS, ADVENTUROUS, CREATIVE

Most likely to cut in line at a buffet: independent, kind, impatient. Love a good road trip, museums, general stores, art and overseas travel. Group travel and cruises aren’t for me. Love cities, the seaside and forests. Not a fan of November to February in Vermont. Love great food — it doesn’t have to be complicated. Movies, history and architecture intrigue me. Jensen 60 seeking: M, l

CREATIVE SOUL, EASYGOING, AUTHENTIC

Openhearted, loving and kind, I bring my authentic self to everything I do. What you see is what you get. I am an artist with a creative heart and open mind. Looking for a dynamic relationship with someone who is ready to “step up to the plate” with someone they can care about. turtleheart, 69 seeking: W, l

MEN seeking...

HONEST, TRUSTWORTHY, LOYAL

Single for six years, seeking a fun, compatible woman. Mature, handy and humorous, I crave connection and laughter. Ready for a partner to end this loneliness and explore a deeper bond. Cob802, 42, seeking: W, l

HERE I GO AGAIN

Just moving back to the Burlington area, been away a long time. Looking for a serious partner who I can cook for and then snuggle up on the sofa with. Not into any drama — I’m loyal and kind. Take a chance, I might surprise you. Diesell67, 57 seeking: W, l

INTROVERTED, ORGANIZED, RELIABLE

I care more about living my values than submitting to social norms, and so I find myself living on a homestead, far more self-sufficient than anyone you are likely to encounter in this time and place. I’m looking for company; a woman who appreciates all I have to share but doesn’t necessarily share my interests or skills. nonconformist, 43, seeking: W, l

ADVENTUROUS STALWART

I would describe myself as an introspective, thinking type who desires a grounded and uncomplicated committed partner. I am a thoughtful, well-read and loyal man. I’ve had my share of life’s tragedies but so far have remained on the side of hope and optimism. I seem to wear my heart on my sleeve, as my demonstrative nature can attest. Gasman 66, seeking: W, l

I’M YOUR HANDYMAN

Hard to sum myself up. Used to be a jazz musician and taught jazz ensembles, guitar and bass lessons at private schools near Boston. Nowadays, I mainly do my handyman “side gig” since I moved to Vermont. I don’t even know what I’m hoping to find, but my wife died more than a year ago, and it sucks being alone. eccentric 62, seeking: W, l

I AM VERY UNIQUE

I am looking for someone to be there for me, and I will be there for them. texan05 69 seeking: W

HEALTHY, ACTIVE EMERITUS PROFESSOR/SCIENTIST

At 85-plus with a healthy lifestyle, I’m expecting lots more quality years, shared with a new best friend and partner for daily company, thoughtful conversation, travel near and far, music/ theater/art, and of course, affection and intimacy. Family and friends are important — yours and mine. Also, I’m just looking for serendipity! SingingBill 83, seeking: W, l

LAID-BACK, HANDY AND KINDHEARTED

I have been alone for quite some time now, and am looking for an attractive lady who is kindhearted and generous. daved 55, seeking: W

MASCULINE, FUNNY, KAYAKING ARTIST EXPLORER

Divorced bachelor in the boonies looking for new friends and playmates. Kayaking, thrifting, day trips, festivals, concerts, camping, dinners, movies and more! I love sharing pics and memes. Selfemployed Scorpio who loves Halloween. Artist802 44 seeking: M, W, TW, Cp, l

RELENTLESSLY SEEKING CONTENTMENT

I’m just here hoping to find someone to get to know. I’m looking for longterm love, and I know I need to meet a lot of people to find that kind of connection. Do you want to meet right now to say hello? Just talk a little bit for, like, 30 minutes or so? No obligations. No expectations. Coffee? moon, 50, seeking: W, TW, l

LOVING ,UNDERSTANDING, LOOKING FOR SAME

Let’s check one another out. Love to find someone like-minded to share my life with. ugotit123 65, seeking: W

ENJOYING LIFE

I’m here to meet people and date. If I connect with someone, great; I’d love to see where it goes. I’ve shared my life with a partner before and would enjoy doing that again. I’ve been hiking more, dancing more, and writing and playing music with an amazing group of people. stuffnthings 52, seeking: W, l

RESPECTABLE, REFINED, GENTLEMAN, LOYAL, ROMANTIC

Looking for my darling dearest. I’m Skyler, 19, seeking a genuine connection with someone my age who values kindness, authenticity and lasting companionship. I’m posting here because I respect others too much to inquire directly, as it makes me feel brash. If you know someone my age who shares these values, I’d appreciate the chance to connect. Theoldsoul, 19 seeking: W, l

AUTHENTIC, INTUITIVE, KIND, WOKE Time in nature is essential for me throughout the year. In the woods, on the waters, skiing (a few varieties), paddling, swimming, roaming the woods, lying on a rock under summer sun. Artist dreamer type, open mind, active, young for my years. Authentic, quiet, kind, quirky. Active imagination, curious nature, seeking kindred spirit. quietwaters, 70 seeking: W, l

HELLO, LADIES

Hello, ladies. My name is Jonathan but everyone calls me Jay. I’m 5’6”, I weigh 135. I am a fun-loving guy who loves to be around a special woman who loves to have sex and fun — all in one — so hit me up if that’s you. jayondamove87, 37, seeking: W, Cp, l

ACTIVE, CURIOUS AND ENTERTAINING

Recently single, retired professional seeking fun-loving companion who appreciates laughter, outdoors, travel, dining, music and hanging with friends. I embrace Vermont, especially Lake Champlain, on which I live. Skiing, biking, hiking and gym are all part of my routine. Grandkids and family are central but not local. Most importantly I seek a special person to share conversation, new adventures and good times. Catman 74, seeking: W, l

NONBINARY PEOPLE seeking...

OUTDOORSY, TALKATIVE, CREATIVE Hi, I am pretty fun. I listen to a lot of music. I hike a lot, backpack and garden in the summers. I’m intersex, so I’m doublegendered totally and prefer men. I like to draw a lot. I’m very creative; think of myself as a drawer of African animalistic settings, Vermont animals and astrology. Hailuithair, 30 seeking: M, l

COUPLES seeking...

ENJOYING LIFE

We are an attractive, fun-loving, professional couple enjoying life together in Vermont (she, 49; he, 51). Looking for couples or the occasional single guy for fun experiences in and out of the bedroom. Onlylivingonce, 51, seeking: M, Cp, Gp

LOOKING FOR FUN PEEPS

Fun, open-minded couple seeking playmates. Shoot us a note if interested so we can share details and desires. Jackrabbits, 61, seeking: W, Cp

HEALTHY LIVING

You offered to walk me from behind the salad bar to the bread aisle, and I don’t know why I turned you down. Want to meet up for a longer walk?

When: Friday, March 7, 2025. Where: Healthy Living, South Burlington. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916267

EYES IN THE MONTPELIER

STREETS

I was on the corner of State and Main, hat and rose-tinted glasses. We locked eyes and said tentative hellos. You caught my eye walking in your Vermont garb — quilted skirt and leggings, Blundstones, I think. Can we meet for coffee or a beer sometime?

When: Friday, March 7, 2025. Where: Montpelier, corner of State and Main. You: Man. Me: Man. #916266

BOHEMIAN BOOK BEAUTY

You were set up reading and coffeeing with your back to me, and I ended up sitting nearby. I couldn’t help but notice your beautiful presence, posture and ﬂowy pants. Wanted to say hi but let the moment pass. Books and coffee sometime soon?

When: Friday, March 7, 2025. Where: Bohemian Bakery, Montpelier. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916265

TALL HOTTIE NORTH AVE.

Saw you twice walking your dog along North Ave. I think I even beeped! (Silver Ford Expedition) You: black puffy coat and New York Yankees hat. en I passed you twice in Hannaford! Me: black boots, long brown jacket, dark curly hair. Single? You’re gorgeous! When: Tuesday, February 25, 2025. Where: North Ave. Hannaford. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916264

CASA GRANDE

If you’ve been spied, go online to contact your admirer!

Young, handsome, dark-haired man wearing a Snap-on hoodie. You caught my eye downing a football-size burrito and a pitcher of frozen banana margaritas. I would love to drink some margaritas with you sometime. When: Monday, February 24, 2025. Where: Casa Grande. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916263

GRAM CENTRAL IN MONTPELIER

You: lovely blonde in rebel cap. You recognized me from running in Hubbard Park, and we share being blessed with extra energy. You hike more than run, and we both like the hills. Reach out if you’d like a bit of company out in these beautiful woods. When: Friday, February 21, 2025. Where: Gram Central, Montpelier. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916262

BEJEWELED BEAUTY

You had sparkly cheeks in line at Ulta and high-ﬁved me after I got a great deal. Let’s keep celebrating — me and you against the world! Hit me up, I’d love to take you out. When: ursday, February 20, 2025. Where: Ulta. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916261

BE(ER) MY VALENTINE AND MORE

Your unique look caught my eye as you heaved heavy kegs and cases about. I noticed your strong physique and wondered if I should ask you out. Your handsome brown eyes were ﬁlled with delight as you performed your job, efﬁcient and sharp. Won’t you be my valentine and bring me back to life to save me from the dark? When: Friday, February 14, 2025. Where: downtown Burlington. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916255

ere’s a local spot that I frequent for drinks and snacks. I’ve recently become aware that the owner’s political beliefs don’t align with mine. It’s a small place, and I’ve gotten to know the staff fairly well. ey’re all great people, so I’m torn. I don’t want to give the owner my business, but I don’t want the staff to suffer a loss of income. What should I do?

SB B-DUBS

I was there with my kids; we interacted several times. While leaving, your comments about interactions and seeing us interacting together and us being good/kind people were appreciated. I was slow to react, but they came at a good time; comments made me feel like we’re on the right track. I’m proud of my kids and think they’re good people, too. Hearing someone say so unsolicited was impactful. Saying something positive and considerate can make a difference. I wanted to say thank you and return it — please don’t change. When: Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Where: Server at Super Bowl Buffalo Wild Wings. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916259

TRADER JOE’S TEA

Girl with the red hair: You let me know about your upcoming visit with a friend, sharing a cup of tea and perhaps talking the tea? You departed on the winds of a cold February afternoon. Would you a care for a visit and tea with me?

When: Monday, February 3, 2025. Where: Trader Joe’s, South Burlington. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916256

PRICE CHOPPER

You were a nice Black woman, getting dizzy and nauseous in the supermarket. I held your hand and walked you outside to your car. I asked you to wait about ﬁve to 10 minutes before taking off. I asked you if you would like me to get you something from the store. I hope you are doing well. I would like to see you again. When: Friday, February 7, 2025. Where: Price Chopper supermarket, South Burlington. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916254

HUNGER MOUNTAIN CO-OP INTRIGUE

Hi! Me: woman in her forties at the checkout line wearing blue coat and pink hat. You: guy in his ﬁfties by the candy wearing green coat and brown hat. You looked at me like you knew me or wanted to. I was hoping you would come over and say hello — maybe you can start the introduction here. When: Sunday, February 2, 2025. Where: Hunger Mountain Co-op, Montpelier. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916253

De Put-Oﬀ Pa on,

Supporting businesses that align with one’s values has been in the zeitgeist lately — as evidenced by the recent economic boycotts of many larger companies. When it comes to small businesses, however, boycotting can be a stickier wicket.

RUNNING ON THE RAIL TRAIL

You were out running. I was on my snowmobile and stopped to help you grab your adorable pup Maple. Running into you was the most delightful event of my day. Care to run the trails with me sometime? When: Monday, February 3, 2025. Where: St. Albans Rail Trail. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916257

BOOK BANTER AT BARRIO

You were reading A Court of orns and Roses (book three) in a cozy gray sweater. I was reading Crying in H Mart Before you left, we chatted brieﬂy about your book, mine and the bright winter sunshine. You piqued my interest from the very ﬁrst page. When: Saturday, February 8, 2025. Where: Barrio Bakery. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916252

J. AT SPECIAL SERVICES

TRANSPORTATION AGENCY

Found out recently you left the company. You were an irreplaceable asset to them. May this year bring you only good things. When: Saturday, March 2, 2024. Where: only spoke on the phone. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916251

SOUTH BURLINGTON DUNKIN’ GUY

Kept making eye contact with this one guy in a Dunkin’ in South Burlington. He was with two other guys (I was with two other girls). We were slightly loud/obnoxious. I think we would hit it off, honestly. Hit me up. When: Wednesday, January 15, 2025. Where: South Burlington Dunkin’. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916250

SEPTUAGENARIAN EYES

Mesmerize green eyes / Beguile, Betray Bats Burro / Reconcile swap smile. When: Sunday, February 9, 2025. Where: running from fate. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916249

ST. ALBANS TRACTOR SUPPLY

We were both shopping, and by the third time we crossed paths, there clearly was mutual curiosity with enough sparkle for me to decide to write this. No big deal, and we might as well connect just for the fun of it. I can’t get there next Saturday, which would be an easy plan B, otherwise. When: Saturday, February 8, 2025. Where: St. Albans Tractor Supply.

HOLDING DOOR IN ESSEX

JUNCTION

A week or so ago, as I was leaving Fairground Beverage in Essex Junction, you held the door open for me. I just wanted to say that I think you’re a class act. anks. When: Monday, January 27, 2025. Where: Essex Junction. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916247

$30 LOAF OF BREAD

Beauty — wisdom — humor! Dark hair, parted right to left, round glasses, beautiful smile! At 2:40 p.m., we discussed the complexities involving a $30 loaf of bread. Me: long, dark curly hair. I’d love to meet you for coffee somewhere or go for a walk with the dogs — or ? So hope you see this and reach out! When: ursday, January 30, 2025. Where: East Warren Community Market. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916246

TO MY VALENTINE

Curly hair, don’t care. Brown eyes, give me butterﬂies. Britain or England, I’ll take you there. You are beautiful and perfect for me in every way! I love you and want to spend my life with you — and NB with GT! XoXO When: Friday, February 14, 2025. Where: Williston. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916245

HANDSOME GUY AT BENT NAILS

E, thanks for making my night. I was in my groove and caught off guard — I thought you were on a date. Now I’m wishing I’d come over. Let me buy you a drink? When: Friday, January 31, 2025. Where: Bent Nails Bistro. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916243

BIRTHDAY ON 28, LOVES TIRAMISU e way you threw your shoulder left me feeling sore. You said you loved tiramisu, could I ask for more? Yapping with you is never a bore. I can’t believe you’re not 24 anymore. When: Sunday, January 26, 2025. Where: With the goats. You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916242

SALT & RIND WATERBURY

You were with friends from N.C. I was with someone. Wanted to sit at your table; still do. — Cute guy at the bar thinking about your pretty face. Now what? When: ursday, January 23, 2025. Where: Salt & Rind Waterbury. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916240

your favorite server or bartender, order something small, and give them a nice tip. Heck, just order water and give them $5 if you want to. e owner won’t be seeing that money.

Perhaps the “correct” answer is to tell you to spend your money elsewhere, but that is often easier said than done — especially if you live in a small town or people you care about depend on your patronage. It’s a very personal decision. Whichever side of the political fence you’re on, there are many things to take into consideration. Does the owner actively participate in things that you feel harm people or believe are ethically or morally wrong? Or did they just not vote for the same person as you did? ese days, it may seem nearly impossible to make that distinction, but I think it can be done.

We all know someone with whom we

don’t agree on politics but who isn’t a completely horrible human. How much money do you spend at this place? If you’re there multiple times a week, dropping hundreds of dollars a month, you may want to rein it in. Instead, stop by once a week to visit

Speaking of the owner, have you considered having a conversation with them about why you want to take your business elsewhere? It could be done with a phone call or in person, but writing a letter or email may allow you to present your thoughts more clearly.

It’s not very likely that anything you say will change the owner’s political stance. But how they respond — or don’t — will certainly help you decide how to put your money where your mouth is.

Good luck and God bless,

2025. Where: St. Albans Tractor Supply. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916248

Bist du mein B.G.G (Big Gentle German)? I am a 40-y/o female, auf der Suche nach meinen Deutschen Traummann. Du solltest respektvoll, bewusst sein, ehrlich sein, liebevoll, geduldig, freundlich, gesund und entspannt sein. Eine zweisprachige Familie zwischen den Vermont und Deutschland gründen. I am direkt, playful, kreativ, honest, healthy, patient and kind. I love to be in the Nature und ein bissel sportlich (aqua ﬁtness, pilates). #L1834

I’m a 75-y/o lady seeking a 70- to 80-y/o old man for companionship and possible relationship in the Essex Junction area. #L1825

Seventy-y/o divorced male, retired entrepreneur looking for a lady to start a long-term relationship with; must be willing to get to know each other ﬁrst. Good conversation, laughing, warm and open, caring, friendly, and talkative. Please send phone number. #L1832

City girl loves Vermont. Well traveled and will go nearly anywhere. Happy! But looking for love. You are a sincere older gentleman, serious but can laugh at yourself and lovingly at me. Socially conscious, aesthetic, intellectual, despise this administration. Sexy. #L1830

HOW TO REPLY TO THESE LOVE LE ERS:

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PAYMENT: $5/response. Include cash or check (made out to “Seven Days”) in the outer envelope. To send unlimited replies for only $15/month, call us at 802-865-1020, ext. 161 for a membership (credit accepted).

PUBLISH YOUR MESSAGE ON THIS PAGE!

1 Submit your FREE message at sevendaysvt.com/loveletters or use the handy form at right.

We’ll publish as many messages as we can in the Love Letters section above. 2

Interested readers will send you letters in the mail. No internet required!

In quest of a gentle woman (5868). Come sit here beside me, on the lush mossy bank near the river’s edge. We will share our joys and sorrows. Be ﬁt, wholesome, happy and humble. I will wait for you. #L1833

Looking for a femboy or a transgender woman, the more female, the better. I’m straight but comfortable. Can we chat and see if we are a ﬁt? anks. #L1831

I’m a male, 66, seeking woman around same. Hardworking man needs woman to cuddle and caress slowly! I don’t care about size or color — I’ll look at you as you! I want to love and be loved; that takes time, which I have a lot of. Please call. #L1826

Retired, happy, healthy, ﬁt and active male seeking erotic female friend. Let’s test and explore our sensual pleasures together! #L1824

I’m a 34-y/o male seeking a mature female, women couple or couples for FWB. Open to exploring. I love the outdoors. I love to laugh. 420 OK but no cigarettes, please. #L1823

September (M) seeks April (F) for baroque music and bicycles, les patinoires de Montréal, Apollo and Dionysus (skip the wine), and every chakra — high and low. Too innocent: ready to explore the dance of passion and vegan restos de Paris. #L1827

Int net-Free Dating!

Reply to these messages with real, honest-to-goodness le ers. DETAILS BELOW.

I’m a male seeking a male who loves to dress up in very sexy silk panties and loves oral and anything else. Would love to bring you the newspapers and get on my knees and dictate to you in my mouth. #L1828

I’m a 65-y/o fun-loving and outgoing GWM seeking new friendships with other gay men. Enjoy dinners in and good conversation. Best friend material here! is is not an ad seeking sexual contacts or conquests. Looking for long-term friendships. Looking forward to hearing from you! #L1821

Single woman, 59. Wise, mindful. Seeking tight unit with man, friend, love. Country living, gardens, land to play on. Emotionally, intellectually engaged. Lasting chats. Appreciation for past experience. Please be kind, stable and well established. Phone number, please. #L1813

SWF, 50, seeking a SWM, 48 to 58, to homestead and live a quiet life. I am sincere, ready to settle down, artistic and love dogs. #L1818

Describe yourself and who you’re looking for in 40 words below: (OR, ATTACH A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER.)

I’m a

GWM looking for strong tops for playtime with fun and adventurous bottom. Age not really an issue: forties and ﬁfties a plus, will consider all ages. Will host. Talk or text. #L1822

ree men, ages 50 and sixties. One bi, two gay. Get-together once a week at my place in Burlington. Looking for another guy to join us. Safe, sane and discreet. If interested, send phone number. Play with us! #L1820

I’m a SWF, 71 y/o, seeking a white or Black man 50 to 70 y/o. I want companionship, movies, warmth; I love music and live in Woodstock. Phone calls only. #L1815

I’m a 60-y/o SWF seeking a 55- to 70-y/o SM. Retired, healthy, ﬁt and outdoorsy. ISO a kindred spirit with whom to share Vermont’s trails. I enjoy mountain and gravel biking, cross-country skiing, and yearround hiking, as well as a good Vermont brew, current events, reading and eating as locally as possible. Self-deprecating sense of humor a plus! #L1816

AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL) seeking a AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL) Required conﬁdential info:

(MORE)

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THIS FORM IS FOR LOVE LETTERS ONLY. Messages for the Personals and I-Spy sections must be submitted online at dating.sevendaysvt.com.

Old Spokes Home Bike Mechanics 101

6-Part Series: Thursdays 6 - 8 PM

THU., MAR. 13

OLD SPOKES HOME, BURLINGTON

Maple Themed Cookie Decorating Class

THU., MAR. 13

RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY VILLAGE

Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind

THU., MAR. 13

RETRO LIVE, PLATTSBURGH, NY

Hotel Vermont Ice Bar 2025

FRI., MAR. 14 & SAT., MAR. 15

HOTEL VERMONT, BURLINGTON

APOLIS x GMFF 2025 - "Departure / Return" Film & Music Program

FRI., MAR. 14-16

CRUMB FACTORY, MONTPELIER

Drumstick Bossman with the Blue Ribbons

FRI., MAR. 14

THE UNDERGROUND, RANDOLPH

Cleary/Gagnon/Saulnier Jazz Trio feat.

Patricia Julien

FRI., MAR. 14

THE PHOENIX, WATERBURY VILLAGE

French Macarons 101

SAT., MAR. 15

RICHMOND COMMUNITY KITCHEN

Prydein

SAT., MAR. 15

OPERA HOUSE AT ENOSBURG FALLS

French Macarons Featuring Small Oven Pastries

SUN., MAR. 16

RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY VILLAGE

Hula Open House

WED., MAR. 19

HULA, BURLINGTON

THU., MAR. 20

ELLI PARR, SOUTH BURLINGTON

The Art of Scent: A Botanical Perfume Blending Event

Carton with Featured Friends and the Way North

FRI., MAR. 21

THE UNDERGROUND, RANDOLPH

Ethiopian and Eritrean Cuisine Takeout Dinner

SAT., MAR. 22

O.N.E. COMMUNITY CENTER, BURLINGTON

Thai Feast: Fresh and Fast! with Chef Ariel Voorhees

SAT., MAR. 22

RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY VILLAGE

Bruce Sklar, Jeremy Hill, Josh Bruneau Play a Benefit for Paul Morris

SAT., MAR. 22

THE PHOENIX, WATERBURY VILLAGE

The Art of Scent: A Botanical Perfume Blending Event

SAT., MAR. 22

THE MANOR, HOLDERNESS, NH

MCO Presents: Spring Notes

SUN., MAR. 23

CITY HALL AUDITORIUM ARTS CENTER, MONTPELIER

Female Founders: Olympians

MON., MAR. 24

HOTEL VERMONT, BURLINGTON

An Evening with Kevin Burt

FRI., MAR. 28

RETRO LIVE, PLATTSBURGH, NY

Fern mounting and seed starting and plant propagation, oh my! Our garden centers have some fun, educational March events coming up— and you’re invited!