MONDAY EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 28 No. 1
The fuel of the future? • Muscle cars are making room for a new generation of electric cars. Read about all things automotive in our Car Care special section on Pages 19-26.
Learn more about how kids learn • A pediatrician explains how some skills help youngsters be independent. See Page 13.
Tiger girls’ lax hosts rival Wasps • The weather cooperated to allow MUHS to play its home opener. See Sports, Page 28.
Middlebury, Vermont
Monday, April 11, 2016
Sanders book nets funds for Parent/Child Center By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — A marathon speech delivered by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., more than five years ago is now paying some big dividends to the Addison County Parent/Child Center. It was on Dec. 10, 2010, that Sanders — now in a battle for the Democratic nomination for president — took to the podium in the U.S. Senate chambers and launched into an eight-and-a-half-hour filibuster decrying the preservation of the Bushera tax cuts for the highest wage-earners. It was a speech that garnered a lot of publicity, to the extent that the publishing company Nation Books asked for Sanders’ permission to transcribe his impassioned oratory into a book. Sanders agreed, and in 2011, “The Speech” was released. (See Royalties, Page 34)
44 Pages
75¢
Farmers upset over clean water rule proposal Some say small farms off the hook
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS addresses the crowd at his presidential campaign announcement in Burlington last May as Addison County Parent/Child Center Co-director Donna Bailey, in sunglasses at Sanders’ immediate right, looks on. Sanders has donated more than $47,000 in royalties from his book “The Speech” to the Parent/Child Center. Independent file photo/Angelo Lynn
By GAEN MURPHREE ADDISON COUNTY — As the latest revision of proposed farming practice rules loosens requirements on an estimated 1,000 Vermont farms, some in the agriculture community are wondering what happened to the rallying cry “All in!” on Lake Champlain cleanup. “We went into this water quality understanding that “If you have we (farmers) own 40 percent 49 cows you of the problem. And we are don’t have to in, and we are working,” said Marie Audet of Bridport’s file a letter Blue Spruce Farm at a recent certifying your luncheon with county legis- interest in being lators. in compliance But, she added, “The same … that’s what rules have to apply across has a lot of the the board if we’re going to achieve the results that we farm community upset.” need to achieve.” — Harvey Smith After the Legislature approved the Vermont Clean Water Act last spring, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets last fall issued the first draft of the Required Agricultural Practices, or RAPs, which directly change some aspects of how farming is done in order to improve water quality. All farms of at least four acres must follow the RAPs, but the way the rules are (See Regulations, Page 16)
Salisbury eyes early 2017 for landfill closure
Voices to soar in Met simulcast • The operatic imagination will soar in a Met production screened in Middlebury. See Arts Beat on Page 10.
By JOHN FLOWERS SALISBURY — Salisbury’s unlined landfill could cease accepting trash by the end of this year. The local selectboard is preparing to close the community landfill in the aftermath of a Town Meeting Day referendum that saw Salisbury residents vote 229 to 98 to shut down the facility. In the meantime, Salisbury will pursue membership with the Addison County Solid Waste Management District, which coordinates the solid waste and recycling needs for the vast majority of towns in the county. “I don’t know of anyone on the (select) board that’s against closing the landfill,” said Tom Scanlon, vice chairman of the panel and its liaison for landfill issues. Salisbury currently operates the last unlined landfill in the state. The facility ran a deficit of around $31,000 last year, Scanlon noted. (See Salisbury, Page 42)
Fun with friends RIPTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL students Addison Dunakin, left, Charlotte Christner and Naomi McConville break each other up while making their puppets interact during a puppet-making workshop at the school last week with the No Strings Marionette Company.
Independent photo/Trent Campbell