MONDAY EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 29 No. 28
Buying a car? Here are tips • Experts offer suggestions on what questions car buyers should ask. See the story in “Car Care,” Pages 17-24.
Vergennes still mulling new tax • City Council members consider what work they could do if they levied a local option tax. See Page 15.
Middlebury, Vermont
Monday, October 30, 2017
Pioneers tell real-life story of desegregation Black & white classmates recount history By GAEN MURPHREE MIDDLEBURY — Fifty-one years ago, Rose Strayhorn Bell, sisters Donnie Copeland Meadows and Fernanda Copeland, and Jim Grimsley showed up for the first day of sixth grade at Alex H. White Elementary in Pollocksville, N.C. That morning Strayhorn Bell and the Copeland sisters broke the color
barrier at what had been an allwhite school. Grimsley had never attended school with African American children. The four North Carolinians told their personal story of desegregation in a presentation at Middlebury College this past (See Color barriers, Page 25)
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Group readies town for climate change economy By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Advancing public transportation, hiring more local staff to coordinate energyrelated activities and helping farmers transition to organic and more sustainable agricultural practices should become Middlebury’s top priorities in its efforts to shape a stronger economy and community in the
face of climate change. A group of more than 50 Middlebury leaders, entrepreneurs and residents mapped out those priorities on Thursday during the latest gathering of the Greater Middlebury Climate Economy Initiative. That initiative, coordinated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (See Middlebury, Page 39)
City ‘Laundry’ gets new owner • An award-winning chef is taking over at a Vergennes restaurant. See Page 14.
VIETNAM WAR VETERAN Dale Tucker and his dog Abby stand with Michelle LeBlanc and Sila in the Middlebury Dog Park last week. LeBlanc is director of Vermont Paws & Boots, a program that trains service dogs for military veterans and first responders.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Teams battle in playoff games
Program enlists dogs to help area veterans
• Mt. Abe, MUHS, VUHS and OV squads all saw action between Thursday and Saturday. See Pages 26-28.
‘Vermont Paws & Boots’ is making a difference By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Dale Tucker scooped up a tennis ball and sent it hurtling into the teeth of an unseasonably warm wind that was swirling around the new Middlebury dog park last Tuesday. His beautiful young German shepherd, Abby,
dutifully gave chase. Abby kept one eye on the ball and the other on Tucker, the center of her universe. Her bond to Tucker is being strengthened through a program called Vermont Paws & Boots, which trains service dogs to aid military veterans and first responders who need a constant companion for savings that can be life-saving. Launched in 2015 by Vermont State Police Cpl. Michelle LeBlanc and her mom, Ann LeBlanc,
Vermont Paws & Boots has already graduated four service dog teams and is schooling a new crop of recruits, including Abby and Tucker, a U.S. Army veteran who lives in Bristol. “It’s been a big help,” said Tucker, who served a 15-month tour in Vietnam during the late-1960s and who now suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and arthritis. LeBlanc, who is assigned to the VSP’s New (See Veterans, Page 38)