EHS wins inagural Academic WorldQuest state championship
Officer ticketed for violation in 2016 crash at heart of lawsuit An Essex police officer was ticketed for failing to stop at a stop sign moments before hitting a bicyclist.
The group will travel on an expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. to compete against teams from across the U.S.
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Thursday, April 25, 2019
Count on it
GMT board votes to maintain some service following public outcry
Census Bureau estimates town could be undercounted by 14 percent By COLIN FLANDERS The U.S. Census Bureau has recommended the town of Essex form a committee to help engage traditionally hard-to-reach populations in next year’s census tally after estimating the town’s population could otherwise be undercounted by 14 percent. The decennial census count is a constitutionally-mandated head count of everyone who lives in the United States. It’s used to determine apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, define legislative and school districts, inform redistricting efforts and direct an estimated $880 billion in yearly federal funding to local and state governments. The state of Vermont receives about $2.5 billion of that money every year, which based on the state’s population of about 623,000 works out to be roughly $4,000 per person, according to Bob Stock, a Vermont-based Partnership Specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. Much of that money goes toward programs that impact “the most vulnerable of our population,” Stock said, such as Medicaid, SNAP, student lunches and Section 8 housing, among others. Based on an estimated undercount of 14 percent in Essex, Stock said the impact “would work out to be a little over $12 million a year” over the next decade. Enter these so-called Complete Count committees, which are comprised of community leaders with See CENSUS, page 3
By COLIN FLANDERS The Green Mountain Transit board voted last week to maintain some level of service to Sand Hill Road and River Road following a public outcry from residents who now rely on the bus to get to work and school. The cuts, part of a system-wide proposal, would have allowed GMT to combine the No. 4 and No. 10 routes and create an all-day trip between Essex Jct. and Williston,
See GMT, page 3
Former EPD officer denies allegations of impropriety By COLIN FLANDERS A former Essex police officer who resigned from the department last month is denying allegations of impropriety related to his prior employment at the Brattleboro Police Department. Sean Wilson began working for the Essex Police Department in
November 2018 – two months after the Windham County State’s Attorney’s office sent a letter to defense attorneys across the county highlighting a concerning relationship Wilson had with his Rockingham landlord, Lorenzo Deconinck, who was indicted in March 2018 on federal drug charges related to cocaine. Windham County State’s Attorney
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with a goal of creating a more efficient and user-friendly service. But based on feedback at a meeting earlier this month, where more than a dozen residents urged the bus company to reconsider eliminating the route, GMT staff altered their final proposal prior to sharing it with the company’s board of directors on Tuesday. The new plan is to provide bus service along the two town roads
EssEx REpoRtER | THURSDAY, ApRil 25, 2019
Tracy Shriver told the Brattleboro Reformer – which broke the news of her letter on Sunday – that she had an ethical obligation to inform defendants and their attorneys of any potentially exculpatory information “that may be used to impeach a law enforcement officer.” The SA’s letter said Wilson wrote See OFFICER, page 5
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Vol. 18 No. 17