October 4, 2018 • The Essex Reporter • 1
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{ Thursday, October 4, 2018 }
Police find missing boy in N.Y. with 17-year-old By COLIN FLANDERS Police are seeking an arrest warrant for a Wisconsin teen suspected of unlawfully restraining a 14-year-old Essex boy reported missing September 26. The two were located in a vehicle this morning outside of Utica, N.Y., four hours away, Essex police said last Thursday. Ryan Devenney, 14, was last seen leaving home on his bicycle around 6 p.m. on Sepember 26. Police believe he met the suspect – a 17-year-old male – a half-hour later near Essex Cinemas, where they later found his bike, Chief Rick Garey told reporters. Police believe the two minors were communicating online and may have planned to meet up last week. Garey said their destination hadn’t been verified, but he believes they may have been heading back to Wisconsin. “This could be a very serious case,” Garey said, “which is why we had people all night working on it and why it was a top priority.” Garey declined to disclose the suspect’s name until the arrest warrant is granted. He planned to cite the suspect with unlawful felony restraint, a crime that carries a punishment of up to five years in prison and a $25,000 fine, and said additional charges may be forthcoming. “We could be looking at a kidnapping, we could be looking at a luring,” Garey said. “That comes back to interviews and determining [the suspect’s] motive.” He added the case could possibly go federal because the suspect crossed state lines. Essex police worked with local and state authorities in both New York and Vermont during the search. EPD identified the suspect through interviews and entered his license plate into an automatic recognition system. New York State Police located the vehicle last Thursday morning and made contact around 11:30 a.m. EPD was on the verge of issuing an Amber Alert when authorities in New York reported
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
Bill Black retired from Essex Auto last month, 33 years after opening the local auto repair shop. He sat down for an interview with The Reporter last Thursday in his second-floor office, surrounded by baseball memorabilia of his lifelong team, the Boston Red Sox.
The people business At retirement, Bill Black looks back on 33 years at Essex Auto and shares his formula for success: It's all about the people.
See MISSING, page 12
By COLIN FLANDERS
A
uto repair is a fickle business. There’s the reputation, of course: Shops are out to nickel and dime the people who know little about what’s under the hood and less about how to fix it. But cars are often one of our most valuable possessions, and the hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to keep them on the road is a lot easier paid to someone you like – and more importantly, trust. That’s why Bill Black has spent more than 30 years sweating the small stuff: Because in his world, first impressions are everything. “You're going to get a customer in that wants to try you, but if they have a poor experience they're just not coming back,” Black said during an interview last Friday at Essex Auto, which he opened more than 33 years ago. Black, 77, officially retired from the company last month, a move that comes after several years of winding down his time in the shop. He owns a place in Florida, allowing him, as he puts it,
‘Capitol for a Day’ brings Montpelier to CTE By MADELINE CLARK Montpelier got a little closer to Essex Jct. last Wednesday when members of Gov. Phil Scott’s cabinet visited the Center for Technology Essex as part of the governor’s “Capitol for a Day” initiative. “I call it a listening tour,” Vt. Department of Labor commissioner Lindsay Kurrle said. “There have been many instances on our tour that we’ve learned about little barriers that are easy to fix … it’s shown me how important it is to regularly get around the state.”
The tour began in June and will take the governor and his cabinet to all 14 counties. According to Kurrle, its crux is to examine the state’s workforce and support its workers. “We want to keep Vermonters in Vermont,” she said. The CTE visit helped Kurrle and fellow administration officials witness different paths to careers. “There are so many excellent careers in Vermont that require trades training,” Kurrle said, adding she was inspired by the CTE students’ focus and dedication to their studies.
For CTE director Bob Travers, the visit was an opportunity to help put a face to both his and the center’s name for cabinet members. “Tech centers are a lot more dynamic than what can be conveyed in conversation,” he said, adding the tour is more impactful than correspondence he’s had with the state. “I want to show them programs that typify our relationship with employers that have had success in preparing our students for college and career,” he added. Travers paraded cabinet mem-
to “live the best of both worlds” (he will strongly encourage you to do the same.) Black recently agreed to sell the Pearl St. property to David Pearson, owner of the next-door Harley Davidson shop, who will lease the land back to Black’s son, Rob, and his business partner, Justin Green. The changing of the guard comes three decades after Black and his own business partner, David Brassard, purchased the land, tore down the three existing buildings there and built a shop from the ground up. Brassard retired in 2013. The Essex Jct. shop was Black’s second endeavor in Chittenden County, an expansion from his shop in South Burlington. At one point in his career, he owned a total of four shops, including one in Keene, N.H, though he later consolidated his business down to the local headquarters. The shop became an “instant success” upon opening June 30, 1985, Black said, aided by the steady stream of customers during the three-shift cycle in IBM’s heyday. See AUTO, page 3
Something fiShy Tropical fish fanatics find advice, friendship in local club
By MADELINE CLARK Something fishy is going on in the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Pearl Street. Each month, around 50 people descend upon the space to swap fish tales, advice and gear at Tropical Fish Club Burlington’s meetings. “When you're starting out yourself, it's hard to know
See CTE, page 11
who to talk to, who to trust and what information is right,” club member Ann Whitman said. “That's where the Tropical Club comes in.” See FISH, page 11
Nine-year-old Essex Jct. native joins SMC swim team By COLIN FLANDERS
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
Delaney Johnson, 9, finishes a lap in the St. Michael's College pool alongside senior swim and dive team captain Patty Kohn. Delaney, an Essex Jct. native who suffers from alternating hemiplegia of childhood, became the team's newest member last Friday.
A large group of college students waited notso-quietly in the St. Michael’s College athletic building lobby last Friday. They were there to punctuate another week of classes with a trip to the pool – a frequent occurrence as members of the swim and dive team – but first, they had to meet their newest teammate. Such an energetic group could be intimidating to even the most seasoned high school swimmer, so head coach Eileen Hall gently asked her welcoming committee to keep that in mind. Introducing her recruit a few minutes later, however, Hall found she had little to fear. “We are here,” she said, “because we are welcoming –” “Me!” yelled Delaney Johnson, a 9-year-old Essex Jct. native, to the delight of the crowd. And with that, the SMC swim and dive team had welcomed its youngest member in college history.
The signing was the latest iteration of a partnership between SMC and Team Impact, a Boston based non-profit that connects children facing serious and chronic illnesses with local college athletic teams. Since 2011, Team IMPACT has matched nearly 1,600 children with more than 500 colleges and universities in 48 states, reaching more than 50,000 student-athletes. During her ceremony, Delaney penned a letter of intent and patiently posed for pictures with family and her new teammates. Then, she and her two younger sisters, Mara and Nina, hit the pool, and the college students struggled to keep up. Delaney was diagnosed with alternating hemiplegia of childhood, or AHC, at 10 months old and has battled the condition nearly all her life. Children with AHC experience a range of paralysis, from acute numbness in an extremity to full loss of feeling and movement. The attacks can last anywhere between minutes to days. See SWIM, page 2