MONDAY Â Â EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 27 No. 31
Middlebury, Vermont
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Monday, October 19, 2015
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Rivals clash as season concludes
CADY  SCOUT  MCKIBBEN-ÂBAIER,  a  Cornwall  elementary  school  sixth-Âgrader,  stands  with  an  elephant  on  a  Thailand  wildlife  preserve.  McKibben-ÂBaier  and  her  mother  spent  six  months  in  Thailand,  some  of  the  time  volunteering  on  a  preserve  for  injured  and  elderly  Asian  elephants. Courtesy  photo
Call of the elephants Local  girl  helps  pachyderms  in  Thailand
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ACRPC clarifies criteria to improve town plans
Leadership in sustainability
Play portrays a chaotic household
40 Pages
Planners  weigh  in  on  solar  guidelines
Celebrating local nuptials
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By  JOHN  FLOWERS recently  returned  from  CORNWALL  —  Elev- a  six-Âmonth  sojourn  en-Âyear-Âold  Cady  Scout  in  northern  Thailand,  McKibben-ÂBaier  recounts  where  they  both  spent  how,  during  her  “younger  a  lot  of  time  caring  days,â€?  she  used  to  be  inter- for  around  40  ailing  ested  in  hyenas.  Of  course  pachyderms  at  the  re- that  was  a  loonnnnnng  nowned  Elephant  Na- time  ago,  when  she  was  in  ture  Park  in  Chiang  ¿UVW JUDGH Mai  province. Now  in  grade  6  at  Corn- It  was  a  cultural  wall’s  Bingham  Memorial  immersion  adventure  School,  Cady  Scout  is  all  that  also  saw  Cady  about  elephants. Scout  attend  an  in- “I  started  drawing  el- ternational  school  in  KAREN  GLAUBER,  LEFT,  Cady  Scout  McKibben- Thailand,  while  her  ephants,  and  I  just  loved  Baier  and  Andrea  Baier  are  spreading  the  word  about  them,  and  then  I  got  ob- the  dwindling  number  of  elephants  in  Asia  and  Africa. mom  focused  on  writ- sessed  with  them,â€?  she  Independent  photo/Trent  Campbell ing  projects.  They  said  in  an  interview  last  both  learned  a  lot  Thursday. about  Thai  culture  and  the  plight  of  Asian  elephants,  It’s  been  a  healthy  obsession  —  both  for  her  and  for  whose  ranks  have  now  dropped  below  30,000  speci- elephants.  Cady  Scout  and  her  mom,  Andrea  Baier,  (See  Elephants,  Page  31)
By  GAEN  MURPHREE MIDDLEBURY  —  As  the  pace  and  scale  of  solar  development  has  accelerated  in  Addison  County,  com- munities  have  become  increasingly  concerned  about  how  to  regulate  de- velopment  so  as  to  balance  the  need  for  renewable  energy  with  the  desire  to  preserve  Vermont’s  rural,  historic  and  natural  landscapes.  And  the  pres- sure  is  intensifying  as  industry  accel- erates  movement  toward  Vermont’s  goal  of  getting  90  percent  of  its  en- ergy  from  renewables  by  2050. “The  number  of  solar  installations  has  just  kept  growing  in  the  region,  and  the  concern  that  people  have  had  about  their  aesthetic  impact  has  been  heightened  with  that  growing  num- ber,â€?  said  Adam  Lougee,  executive  director  of  the  Addison  County  Re- gional  Planning  Commission.  In  response,  the  ACRPC  is  giv- ing  towns  new  tools  to  address  solar  development  sensibly  and  be  able  to  weigh  in  more  effectively  before  the  Public  Service  Board. The  commission  last  Wednesday  approved  two  short  documents  that  it  believes  can  have  a  big  impact.  7KH ÂżUVW LV D OHWWHU WKH $&53& ZLOO send  to  any  developer  who  proposes  a  solar  project  in  Addison  County  and  to  the  Public  Service  Board  in  reference  to  that  developer’s  application  for  a  &HUWLÂżFDWH RI 3XEOLF *RRG 7KH OHWWHU (See  Solar  array  siting,  Page  14)
Middlebury eyes traffic calming on three roads By  JOHN  FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY  —  Middlebury  RI¿FLDOV DUH VHHNLQJ SXEOLF IHHG- EDFN WR FRPH XS ZLWK VRPH WUDI¿F calming  measures  for  three  problem  roads  in  town. $W LVVXH LV D WUDI¿F FDOPLQJ VWXG\ coordinated  by  consultants  Dubois  &  King,  thanks  to  a  grant  through  the  Addison  County  Regional  Plan- ning  Commission.  The  town  chose,  as  study  subjects,  three  different  6HH 7UDI¿F 3DJH 13)