Back in the day
Unbeaten
Some locals look back 21 years to the time they acted in an all-kid play. See Arts + Leisure.
Good defense and balanced scoring help the Panther women get off to a good start. See Page 1B.
Sleep out Around 40 people spent a cold night near Otter Creek Falls to help the homeless. Page 11A.
ADDISON COUNTY
Vol. 71 No. 49
INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont
Thursday, December 7, 2017 42 Pages
$1.00
Bray suggests a per-parcel fee to fund clean water
State officials differ on payment plan By JOHN FLOWERS State officials in 2015 approved MONTPELIER — Debate in the Clean Water Initiative (Act Montpelier surrounding efforts to 64), aimed at addressing federal clean up the state’s waterways has concerns about pollution in been surging like the Otter Creek Vermont’s waterways. Federal in April, but legislative authorities regularly action on funding for call upon states to those efforts has been “This proposal develop “Total Daily moving at a glacial says, per Maximum Load pace. (TMDL)” thresholds parcel, With that in mind, for their impaired let’s collect Sen. Chris Bray, waters. TMDL D-New Haven, is the money identifies the maximum suggesting Vermont through that amount of a pollutant adopt a per-parcel (local tax) bill. that a body of water fee that would yield can receive while still $18.8 million of the Add a new meeting water quality estimated $30 million line item to it.” standards. the state will need to — Sen. Chris Bray While state officials raise during each of have zeroed in on the the next 20 years as its water quality problems share of a federally mandated, $2.6 and potential solutions, they have billion cleanup of Lake Champlain yet to agree on a 20-year funding and related waterways. plan for the work that needs to be “Vermonters want clean water, done. Individual lawmakers have faster,” Bray said. “We owe it to sought to protect their respective them to figure out how to get it constituencies as much as possible done.” (See Sen. Bray, Page 12A)
Puttin’ on a show
CHANCE KOENIG, LEFT, Ava Schneider, Ella Kozak, Asa Baker-Rouse, Thea Jackson and Sophie Mason rehearse a scene from the Middlebury Community Players’ production of “How to Eat Like a Child” Tuesday night. The show opens Friday night in the Middlebury Union High School auditorium and runs through Sunday. For more photos see Pages 2A and 4A.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Hundreds gather to honor beloved county firefighter
FIRETRUCKS AND CARS line up along Route 7 in Ferrisburgh before the start of a ceremony honoring Bob Jenkins at the Ferrisburgh fire station Sunday.
Photo by Mark Bouvier
By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Firefighters from all corners of Addison County and beyond converged on Ferrisburgh this past Sunday, Dec. 3, to help one of their own celebrate a national tribute earned through years of selfless service to others. They wore different uniforms, but they were all part of the same family, honoring Bob Jenkins — a 49-year member of the Ferrisburgh Fire Department and a man who has helped train generations of area firefighters. “He was like a father to the firefighters of the county,” Dean Gilmore, New Haven’s assistant fire chief, said of Jenkins. And many of his “children” looked on while a tragically frail Jenkins — who is battling cancer — was read a recent entry into the U.S. Congressional Record acknowledging the legendary firefighter’s contributions to public safety in the county he has cherished. (See Firefighters, Page 14A)
Diplomat offers hope to Mexican dairy farm labor By GAEN MURPHREE MIDDLEBURY — Microphone in hand, Consul General Emilio Rabasa addressed Mexican nationals at a mobile consulate event in Middlebury last Saturday, exhorting an assortment of Mexican dairy farm workers to know their rights — rights guaranteed by federal law and the U.S. Constitution. Later that afternoon he stood in a Middlebury barn chatting with two local dairy workers about their lives both at home and here in Vermont. Both workers, as it turns out, were from the state of Chiapas — near where Rabasa himself grew up. “My grandfather had a farm in Chiapas. He raised dairy cattle and pigs. I used to go for vacations,” Rabasa said. “My best gift from my parents during the summer would be to send me with my grandpa to stay at the (See Dipolmat, Page 11A)
$2.5 million fund drive launched for theater’s future THT endowment would support facility upkeep, artistic director
By the way The Mount Abraham Unified School District Board anticipates seeing a draft budget for the coming school year when it meets on Dec. 19 at the Bristol high school. Earlier this fall the MAUSD Board instructed Superintendent Patrick Reen to develop a fiscal year 2019 spending plan that maintains level funding per equalized pupil. The decision to start with (See By the way, Page 14A)
Index Obituaries................................. 6A Classifieds.......................... 6B-9B Service Directory............... 7B-7B Entertainment.........Arts + Leisure Community Calendar......... 8A-9A Arts Calendar.........Arts + Leisure Sports................................. 1B-3B
By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Town Hall Theater officials are midway through a $2.5-million fund drive that would permanently endow a new “artistic director” position as well as ongoing maintenance at Middlebury’s historic downtown hub for community arts and entertainment. Organizers on Monday went public with what they’re calling the Doug and Debby Anderson Endowment. If “It would realized, the $2.5 million nest be a dream egg would generate enough come true, annual interest income to cover an artistic director’s salary and to walk into a litany of annual upgrades to this building 1884-vintage THT building every day and the at the corner of Merchants Row just do what and South Pleasant Street. I was trained Plans call for Doug Anderson — the THT’s first executive to do, which director — to transition to the is to create new artistic director post. That productions would follow what would likely and events.” be a nationwide search for a new — Doug Anderson chief administrator for what has become a thriving venue showcasing local, regional and national talent. “I’m leaving, but I’m not going anywhere,” Anderson quipped during a recent interview in the THT lobby. The change in positions would extend Anderson’s run with an artistic institution he imagined and then spearheaded two decades ago. It was in 1997 that he went on an initial walk-through of what was then the local (See Anderson, Page 13A)
TOWN HALL THEATER boosters are midway through a $2.5 million fundraising effort that will, in part, allow for the creation of a new artistic director position, to be taken by current THT Executive Director Douglas Anderson, seen here.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell