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A.C. Hathorne Co. 252 Avenue C Williston, VT 802-862-6473
VERMONT
March 16, 2019
Published by Denton Publications, Inc.
Serving Addison, Rutland & Chittenden Counties
Middlebury voters OK climate, bag-ban ideas By Lou Varricchio EDITOR
SAVED BY THE BELL: When the owners of the 150-yearold Monkton General Store announced the business would close if $20,000 couldn’t be found by last Saturday, residents jumped into action. “Without everyone who gave on the GoFundMe page, shopped in the store or online, the doors of our beloved store would not open tomorrow (March 10) or ever again,” said co-owner Sam Alderman. “With great happiness and overwhelming joy we will be open next week and beyond... Darcee (Alderman) is working happily and diligently to fill the orders as she has to make everything. Our finished chocolate inventory was completely depleted.” Pictured: Darcee and Sam Alderman and happy customers. Photo courtesy of the MGS
MIDDLEBURY | Middlebury’s Town Meeting Day 2019, held at the Middlebury Union High School auditorium on March 4, will likely be remembered by residents as a day for a changing of the guard (regarding town moderator) as well as a day the town’s majority populace further embraced left-leaning politics which now includes an expressed desire for adoption of a statewide equivalent of the Democrats’ “Green New Deal” which would eventually lead to a ban on new fossil-fuel infrastructure and the elimination of plastic shopping bags. Middlebury residents also approved $400,000 of surpluses, collected by the town’s option tax on the Cross Street Bridge, be used to pay for several municipal infrastructure projects including improved bicycle and pedestrian access through the Exchange Street industrial park sector. The option tax, once promised by local officials to be a temporary plan, now appears to have a life of its own, becoming a longterm means by which to generate revenue for the municipality. Effective March 4, town moderator Jim Douglas, Vermont’s former four-term governor, ended his service as Town Meeting Day moderator which started in the mid 1980s. The Middlebury Selectboard honored Douglas during his last town meeting as moderator with a citation for outstanding public service in both local and statewide government. Selectboard Nick Artrim praised Douglas for embodying the epitome of citizen democracy in Vermont. » Middlebury voters Cont. on pg. 3
Free reusable shopping bags were available to Middlebury voters as a reminder to vote “yes” on Article 12. Photo by Lou Varricchio
Rutland voters re-elect mayor, look ahead By Lou Varricchio EDITOR
RUTLAND | For voters in the City of Rutland, this year’s mayoral race was a surprise conservative buffet. Both candidates, Republican Mayor David Allaire and his challenger, realtor Michel Messier, are self-proclaimed conservatives. And just four months after Vermont’s antiTrump, backlash mid-term election which shrank Republican and conservative presence in Montpelier, the Town Meeting 2019 election provided Rutland County’s GOP leadership with cautious encouragement. Republican Allaire was re-elected for a second term on March 5 with voters approving his disciplined city budget of $21 million, a school budget of $54 million and bonds of $10 million. Unlike other communities in Vermont, the City of Rutland does not conduct a public Town Meeting Day gathering of citizens for a voice vote. Instead, all municipal agenda
Rutland voters re-elected Mayor David Allaire to second term. Photo by Reelect Dave Allaire Campaign items including budgets as well as local elective offices, are voted on by secret Australian ballot day after Town Meeting. By mid-evening hours on March 5, it was clear that Allaire had defeated Messier, who also lost the city treasurer’s race against Mary
Markowski, with 1,707 votes versus 657 votes. Allaire, who has been an upbeat champion of Rutland City’s long-in-coming comeback, congratulated Messier for running a positive campaign for mayor. Perhaps the differences between Allaire and Messier, who claims to be a descendant of 17thcentury French explorer Samuel de Champlain, weren’t dramatic enough; ultimately, it was Allaire’s experience, as both mayor and a veteran city alderman, plus having earned citywide visibility in the heated 2017 mayoral race, which put him back in the mayor’s office for another term. Messier’s campaign was not unlike Allaire’s although as a realtor, the challenger stressed that more efforts were needed to increase property values within city limits. Allaire used the campaign to place his two years in office in perspective. “I wanted everyone to think back to February 2017,” the mayor said. “The city was in turmoil. The city budget was late… and it had a substantial increase that was provided by the
mayor (Christopher Louras)… the fire department had all sorts of leadership issues and we were divided by the refugee issue. Fast forward to today: there is hope and there is optimism in the future. Projects are being completed, such as White’s Pool… and the Center Street Market Park which had been languishing for years. “We got it completed and it’s a great space. New businesses are open… a new sit-down restaurant downtown, Starbucks is moving forward, and there’s an Indian restaurant moving in. All positive. And a new hotel project for downtown Rutland.” Addressing Messier’s comments about city hall staff, Allaire admitted that there are some challenges there. In the weeks leading up to Town Meeting, the 56-year-old Messier expressed disappointment that Allaire wasn’t as fiscally conservative as he had once thought. Building up Rutland has been a major job for Mayor Allaire. » Rutland mayor Cont. on pg. 2
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