Monday, May 28, 2018

Page 1

MONDAY EDITION

ADDISON COUNTY

INDEPENDENT

Vol. 30 No. 5

Middlebury, Vermont

Monday, May 28, 2018

32 Pages

$1.00

Hallquist seeks to oust Scott

Songs capture Gubernatorial candidate touts her business background JOHN FLOWERS in the nation’s history. prevail on an Aug. 14 Democratic life on the road ByMIDDLEBURY — Christine The 62-year-old Hyde Park Primary that includes announced • Caroline Cotter will perform her travel-inspired songs at Brandon Music. See Arts Beat on Page 10.

Beeman picks new principal • Utah native and Bristol resident Travis Park moves from Addison Central. See Page 2.

Hallquist enjoys a challenge. Democrat recently sat down with Like taking over the the Independent top job at the Vermont “We need to take to discuss her Electric Cooperative health care out background, (VEC) 13 years ago campaign and when it was staring of the cost to the positions on various into a financial abyss. employer.” issues that she and Like quitting her — Christine Hallquist her fellow candidates job on March 2 to will be asked to run for governor this weigh in on for the next five November, making her the first months leading up to the Nov. 6 transgender gubernatorial candidate General Election. She must first

candidates James Ehlers, director of Lake Champlain International, and Ethan Sonneborn, a 13-yearold Bristol resident. Major party candidates have until May 31 to file their paperwork with the Vermont Secretary of State’s office. Incumbent Gov. Phil Scott is expected to run for re-election, and Hallquist wants to relegate him to one term. (See Hallquist, Page 16)

Dairy farmers face insurance deadline

USDA program guarantees checks; low milk prices still hurt producers

Bristol expanding its hiking options

By CHRISTOPHER ROSS ADDISON COUNTY — For qualifying Vermont farmers, this year’s Margin Protection Plan for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) could amount to free money. But only for those who sign up for it by June 1. While some farmers and dairy industry watchers have been “It’s going to critical of the program, which help us some, aims to help dairy farmers get by when milk prices are low, most but it won’t be welcome the support offered in that much of some recent changes to MPP- a shot in the Dairy. arm.” Vermont dairy famers have — Loren Wood of seen prices plummet for the milk Woodnotch Farm they produce. Farm gate prices in Shoreham went from a high in September 2014 of around $24 per hundredweight — 100 pounds of milk, or a little more than 11 gallons — to $19.70 in February 2017 to $15.90 in February 2018. MPP-Dairy is designed to protect dairy farmers by paying them when the difference between the price (See Dairy farmers, Page 31)

• Only a year old, the Bristol Trail Network plans to add more opportunities to get outdoors. See Page 3.

City eyes skate park upgrades

• Vergennes aldermen are also seeking to keep on top of maintenance. See Page 14.

City recycling center could be shut down

Eagles rally past MUHS softball

• Mt. Abe earned the top D-II seed; other teams jockeyed for playoff slots in the season’s final week. See Pages 18-20.

CHRISTINE HALLQUIST

Rotary color

THE MIDDLEBURY ROTARY Club is planting 48 crabapple trees – one per member – in Middlebury’s Recreation Park as part of an international environmental project. Read more on Page 3. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — The future of the Vergennes recycling and trash drop-off center is in doubt after city officials learned this past Tuesday that Casella Inc. in July would increase by 47 percent the cost of processing recyclables brought to the center. That increase, due to larger market forces, would boost the annual cost of the Canal Street center — an expense that is shared by the surrounding towns of Ferrisburgh, Panton, Waltham and Addison — by about $34,600 to roughly $107,600, according to City Manager Mel Hawley. (See Recycling center, Page 15)


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