MONDAY EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 28 No. 4
Middlebury, Vermont
Monday, May 2, 2016
36 Pages
75¢
Dancers catch fire • Two Middlebury College seniors wrap up a year of study with their thesis concert. See Arts Beat on Page 10.
A different take on landscapes • Edgewater Gallery is featuring colorful depictions of the world around us. See Page 27.
CAPTAIN GREEN UP strikes a pose in Middlebury last week in anticipation of this coming weekend’s Green Up Day. Captain Green Up has been leading trash pickup events at Middlebury Union Middle School for 33 years. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Be a hero – Green Up Vermont!
Middle school gets county pumped for annual statewide trash pickup By GAEN MURPHREE MIDDLEBURY — Captain Green Up flew in to Middlebury Union Middle School last Friday, with his signature supersonic boom, to lead the entire MUMS student body, staff and faculty in his never-ending battle for a cleaner, greener, litter-free Vermont. For the past 33 years, Captain Green Up (to-
Sports season hits full swing • The weekend saw a busy slate of high school baseball, softball and lax games. See Pages 18-20.
gether with mild-mannered middle school social studies teacher Peter Brakeley, his close friend and confidant) has spearheaded the MUMS Green Up Day effort. In conjunction with Vermont Green Up Day, which this year falls on Saturday, May 7, the duo have organized the entire school to close shop early on a Friday afternoon and marshal all 300
or so students, staff and faculty on the school’s annual Green Up campaign. “As a social studies teacher, I’m always looking for some way to practice what I preach, you know, ‘Let’s go out there and do a community service project.’ And I kind of like the concept of ‘Let’s pick up the mess,’” Brakeley said. “We (See Captain Green Up, Page 15)
Group seeks herbicide HOPE planting seeds for to fight Dunmore milfoil fall harvest of free food By JOHN FLOWERS SALISBURY — After more than two decades of using machinery and manpower to remove Eurasian milfoil from parts of Lake Dunmore and Fern Lake, an association of local property owners wants to employ a new ally to eradicate the nuisance weed: Herbicide.
The Lake Dunmore Fern Lake Association (LDFLA) has applied for permission from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to apply an herbicide known as Renovate (Triclopyr) to the most milfoil-infested areas of the lakes. In Dunmore, that would mean applying Renovate (See Milfoil, Page 22)
By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Officials at the social services agency Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, or HOPE, this spring are quietly planting the organizational seeds for what they hope will be a massive fall harvest of healthy produce for Addison County’s low-
income residents. Based in Middlebury, HOPE offers food, clothing, shelter and other emergency assistance to area residents of modest means. The nonprofit operates a sizable food shelf at its Boardman Street headquarters, which benefits from (See HOPE, Page 23)