MONDAY EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 29 No. 29
Middlebury, Vermont
Monday, November 6, 2017
28 Pages
$1.00
ANESU voters reject Mt. Abe bond Acoustic performance • Singer-songwriter Grant Stinnett will strive to create a “full-band sound” with his lone guitar. See Arts Beat, Page 10.
Addison septic work advancing
• A 10-year effort to build a system to serve town buildings and a church, and revive town hall, continues. See Page 2.
Officials promise third try at project
By JOHN FLOWERS BRISTOL — Addison Northeast Supervisory Union residents on Thursday rejected a $36.6 million renovation plan for Mount Abraham Union High School by a 1,261 to 1,168 tally. The close, 93-vote margin of defeat has provided project proponents with a silver lining sense that a third vote could be the charm for getting five-town residents to endorse major repairs to their almost 50-year-old secondary school building. District voters in 2014 defeated the previous, $32.6 million Mount
out what our next Abe repair plan by steps are,” Pearsall a more substantial, said. “We believe in 3,328-to-1,239 making changes at margin. An estimated Mount Abe and we’re 32 percent of the not going to give up.” registered voters in the The plan defeated Addison Northeaston Thursday would member communities have provided for of Bristol, Lincoln, some major additions Monkton, New Haven and many repairs to and Starksboro cast basic infrastructure ballots on Thursday. (see box on this page), “We’re not done,” among other things. said Kris Pearsall, The project also leader of the REEN included various MAUHS Renovation code, safety and Committee that helped improvements, develop and publicize the bond maintenance including making the stairways, proposal. ADA-compliant; “We’re going to regroup and figure bathrooms
Addison County among hardest hit by this past week’s storm
Elder community gets new leader • Melanie Dunn brings 12 years of management experience to The Residence in Middlebury. See Page 28.
Key late contests on sports docket • Panther football and men’s soccer and two local high school girls’ soccer teams saw action. See Pages 16 and 17.
U.S. REP. PETER Welch, third from left, and Middlebury vegetable farmer Spencer Blackwell, second from left, listen during a gathering in Middlebury last week as Shoreham orchardist Scott Douglas raises an issue about the 2018 farm bill Congress is putting together. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
East meets West in Middlebury
• Fifteen Japanese high school students visited Hannaford Career Center last week. See Page 3.
installing a new sprinkler system to serve the entire building; putting in new fire alarm and security systems; replacing and/or refurbishing of the entire heating and ventilation system; and removing and replacing lighting, the electrical system and various plumbing fixtures. It’s a long list of improvements, and project proponents argued they were all needed. Pearsall said renovation committee members knew they were talking about “a lot of money” when architects presented cost estimates back in August. But committee members decided it would be fiscally irresponsible to parse them out over the years and watch the inflationary (See Mt. Abe, Page 27)
Locals, Welch share farm priorities Congressman gathering data for update of federal farm bill By GAEN MURPHREE MIDDLEBURY — “It’s a mess in Washington,” Congressman Peter Welch told a group of Champlain Valley specialty crop farmers who gathered in Middlebury last week to share their wish lists for the 2018 farm bill. But, despite the dysfunction
in much of the nation’s capital, the Vermont Democrat said there is still hope because there tends to be bipartisan support to “get a decent farm bill.” Key to building that support, he said, is first gathering specific concerns and recommendations from constituents.
“A lot of my colleagues, Republican and Democrat, will be having similar meetings with folks like you in their communities,” Welch said. “The purpose of this meeting today is to get input from you as to what I should be doing on the farm bill.” (See Crops, Page 15)
By ANDY KIRKALDY ADDISON COUNTY — As of Friday night Green Mountain Power was expecting to have service restored to all but a handful of its Addison County customers, even though 400 homes, businesses and farms were still making do without electricity on Friday morning. GMP spokesperson Dorothy Schnure said the company was focusing on Addison County “We have on Friday because made only another roughly 200 of incredible its customers progress elsewhere in and Vermont still expect to lacked power get all our after Monday customers morning’s major windstorm turned back on off electricity to tonight, more than 118,000 except for GMP customers maybe and snapped 100 a few power poles in half. “We have made calls with incredible progress extreme and expect to get damage.” all our customers — Dorothy back on tonight, Schnure except for maybe a few calls with extreme damage,” Schnure said in an email. “We have a concentration of crews there — 90 lineworkers and tree trimmers in (See Storm, Page 28)