April 26, 2018 • The Essex Reporter • 1
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{ Thursday, April 26, 2018 }
Liquor department disciplines Essex bar and owner By MIKE DONOGHUE The Backstage Pub and Restaurant will lose its liquor license for three days next month and must pay a $350 fine to the Vermont Liquor Control Department due to an intoxicated patron and the owner drinking on duty, state records show. The bar’s owner, Vincent Dober, a former Burlington city councilor, also has agreed to submit to a breath test upon
request by law enforcement, including liquor control investigators, any time he’s on the premises at 60 Pearl St., according to the settlement agreement for a state investigation. And there may be more trouble for Backstage – and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6689 with which Dober is affiliated – when the Essex Selectboard considers the annual renewal of liquor licenses at a special meeting at 7 p.m.
Wednesday night at the town offices. Essex Police is recommending “if the license for both bars are approved that the selectboard schedule a hearing to consider denial, suspension or restrictions to the liquor licenses,” Chief Rick Garey said in a memo to municipal manager Evan Teich. Garey wrote the police department has concerns about Backstage and the VFW Post because of “multiple state li-
cense violations.” Dober is listed as a director for the VFW at 73 Pearl St. on the club’s license renewal. The club is located across the street from the single-story shopping center that houses Backstage. Garey said Backstage has had more than 20 policerelated incidents since its last license renewal. The memo did not outline the type of violations at either establishment. See LIQUOR, page 2
The Backstage Pub and Restaurant will lose its liquor license for three days next month and must pay a $350 fine to the Vermont Liquor Control Department.
Community outreach team assembled
Selectboard picks how to proceed in firearms process Board hopes to implement any changes by this hunting season
By MICHAELA HALNON
By COLIN FLANDERS The selectboard unanimously voted to forgo creating a taskforce to study a firearms ordinance, instead agreeing to have staff curate a report after engaging with the public. The decision came after staff presented the board with two options: One would have the board’s facilitator work with staff to perform community outreach before crafting a specific plan, and the other would form a community advisory team charged with creating a “more nuanced” recommendation. Members unanimously favored the former, which staff said would fast-track any potential changes before this fall’s hunting season. “This board has escaped by having two incidents of bullets in houses, and I’m not willing to wait for a third,” selectman Michael Plageman said. “The sooner we can get this resolved, the better.” A timeline included in the board packet shows the board’s facilitator, Jennifer Knauer, will spend the next month organizing a schedule and materials for at least one public forum, an online survey and, if necessary, outreach groups, to cull input from those who might not feel comfortable attending the meetings in person — a selectboard concern stemming from feedback on previous firearms forums. Those are tentatively planned for sometime in June. Knauer and the staff advisory team will then distill the information for the selectboard and public in July, and the following month, the selectboard will potentially make its decision on whether to enact any changes to the current ordinance and warn a hearing to do so. That would leave September and October for the board and town staff to publicize whatever changes are made before deer rifle season begins in early November.
PHOTO BY MIKE DONOGHUE
spread and could benefit from the support of “a small school like Westford.” They asked teachers to talk with students beforehand so they understand why the flag is raised, adding they’d be happy to present the topic in classrooms. The board plans to make its decision at its May 1 meeting. School board members took the opportunity to ask questions of the trio. Liz Subin asked the students how long they would like to see the flag raised. “I personally would like to see it stay forever,” Belle said. “But long enough that we can get the message across that we support Black Lives Matter and for people come and see it and be able to witness it.” “Long enough that it matters and it makes a difference,” Rosie added. Board member Patrick Murray thinks this would be the first instance of a K-8 school raising the BLM flag in the country. He referenced the response high schools like Montpelier saw, including death threats from some people around the country, and
Four full-time social workers will take to the streets of six Chittenden County towns by the end of this month, ready to help area police departments and businesses respond to citizens with unmet social service needs. The new “community outreach specialists” are employed by the Howard Center and will each bring a different skillset to the pilot program, said Brandi Littlefield, assistant director of the center’s First Call for Chittenden County. Take outreach specialist Rachel Castillo, a former community justice center volunteer and paralegal who was fed up with the lack of legal resources to proactively help people in need. “At the point I was interacting with them, there was little I could suggest to allow them … to have a different life for themselves,” Castillo said. And Marlon Fisher, a former military man who was once tasked with disrupting and destroying enemy support networks. “This job, with my passion for working with people and wanting to help them in positive ways, is kind of the opposite of that,” Fisher said. Earlier this month, Castillo, Fisher and fellow specialists Jeff Cook and Mike Muery gathered at the Colchester Police Department for another installment of their extensive training regiment. Their morning lesson included a discussion of implicit bias in policing led by CPD Chief Jennifer Morrison. That afternoon, they changed into sweatpants and T-shirts for a physical self-defense course. Since their hiring date, the foursome has also attended a host of Howard Center programs available to the public to better grasp what services they’ll be referring people to out in the field. “Since we got to experience so many different programs … when we’re interfacing with people in different stages of crisis, we can
See BLM, page 3
See OUTREACH, page 3
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
From left, Virginia Cobb, Rosie Whitney and Belle Pitcher present in front of the school board before asking it to raise the Black Lives Matter flag at the Westford Elementary School. The board plans to make its decision Monday.
Westford students ask board to raise Black Lives Matter flag By COLIN FLANDERS Westford Elementary School could become the third Vermont public school to raise the Black Lives Matter flag after a trio of students approached the school board with a proposal. Board members have referenced a petition circling Essex High School that calls for a similar proposal, but the April 17 meeting marks the first time an official request has made its way before the board. The three students — sixth-grader Virginia Cobb and seventh-graders Rosie Whitney and Belle Pitcher — said they want Westford to be a supportive community for those suffering from social and racial injustices. “By raising the flag, we raise awareness that this important work isn’t finished,” their presentation said. The students said the movement shouldn’t be viewed as “anti-police,” but rather about helping “dismantle systemic racism in our culture and institutions.” They said while racism is happening in their own community, the issue is wide-
See FIREARMS, page 2
INDIAN BROOK CLEANUP
FD: Grass fire started by young child with lighter By COLIN FLANDERS
PHOTO BY KYLE ST. PETER
Volunteers hit Indian Brook last Saturday for the annual spring cleanup. See more photos from the day on page 4.
The Essex Jct. Fire Department responded to a large grass fire today that fire officials say was accidentally started by a young child playing with a lighter. The department responded to a residence at Old Colchester Road just before 3 p.m. to find the fire had consumed several pieces of equipment, including a lawn mower, and burned about a quarter-acre. They closed the road for about an hour as firefighters worked to put out the fire. The total loss is estimated to be over $50,000, the department says. There were no reported injuries. Essex Fire and Colchester Fire provided mutual aid.
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
An Essex Jct. firefighter sprays down a lawnmower that caught fire in an Old Colchester Road backyard on Monday afternoon.