The Charlotte News | September 19, 2019

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Charlotte News Thursday, September 19, 2019 | Volume LXII Number 06

CharlotteNewsVT.org

Charlotte News

The

Vol. 62, no.06

September 19, 2019

Vermont’s oldest nonprofit community newspaper, bringing you local news and views since 1958

Teens and vaping: CVU is part of a national crisis Chea Waters Evans NEWS EDITOR

The Juul nicotine vaporizer seems innocuous enough: It looks like a USB thumb drive, it’s small enough to hide in your hand, and when a user blows the vaporized nicotine out of his lungs, it can have the smell of candy or mint. It’s far from harmless, though. In recent weeks and around the country, teens have been reported as suffering from serious lung issues, and Champlain Valley Union High School students are just as current with this national trend as they are with Vans sneakers and Supreme T-shirts.

The Vermont Department of Health announced Monday that the first case of vaping-related illness was confirmed in Vermont and that five other cases are under investigation. The message on their web site is clear: “Until we know more about the cause of these illnesses, do not vape, dab or use e-cigarette products.”

Symptoms of the illness include cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, fever and weight loss. The illness can progress over the course of only days, or it can take weeks.

The Juul website says on the home page, in bold capital letters, “We don’t want anyone who doesn’t smoke, or already use nicotine, to use Juul products. We certainly don’t want youth using the product. It is bad for public health, and it is bad for our

“

I don’t care what clique you’re in, it tends to be everywhere he said.

“It’s through all social groups, which is unique.

”

Tim Trevithick, CVU Student Assistance Program counselor

mission.”

While this may be the case, certain other factors indicate that the opposite might be true. Juul, and other popular nicotine vaporizers like The Drop and Stig, have increased in popularity among young people over the last two years.

Each year, the Vermont Department of Health surveys middle and high school students across the state in a Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Study to assess behavior and track changes over time. The latest year data is available is from 2017.

According to the Department of Health’s web site, the YRBS for that year “shows see VAPING page 3

Agenda shifts with Selectboard chair absent Several items deferred to future meetings, short-term rentals discussed Juliann Phelps Monday’s Selectboard meeting started with Vice Chair Frank Tenney at the helm and an agenda ahead of schedule.

With Chair Matt Krasnow absent and the presentation on the upcoming tractor parade not quite ready, several agenda items were deferred to a future meeting, including the repurposing of the old playground equipment still at the Town Beach, discussion of the Recreation Commission mission statement and improving accessibility to Town Hall.

Short-term rentals With most agenda items being approved

Honoring those we lost

quickly, the bulk of the meeting focused on whether the town should consider regulating short-term rentals, an issue brought before the Selectboard by Michael Wool of Hills Point Road. He appeared in person, along with several interested property owners, and shared concerns about traffic, noise and littering from adjacent landowners renting their properties, some going for $1,500 a night. “It’s a difficult balancing act between property rights and what you can do with your property, and the balance of maintaining an integrity of a neighborhood,” he said, “We raised this issue two years ago and had a productive discussion with the Planning Commission.

The ball was going to be kicked over to the Selectboard and nothing really happened.”

Selectboard member Louise McCarren asked Wool what he would like to see in an ordinance, and he responded the board see SELECTBOARD page 2

On Sept. 11 Charlotte firefighter Jordan Paquette stood with the flag at half-mast in honor of the first responders who lost their lives during and since the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001. Jordan was accompanied by his service dog, Hank. Jordan is a veteran who served tours in Iraq. He continues to serve our community as a member of CVFRS. Photo by Moe Harvey

More Charlotte break-ins Chea Waters Evans

A spate of thefts and break-ins occurred in Charlotte recently. According to Vermont State Police, the office of Treeworks on Hinesburg Road and two cars at the Charlotte Wildlife Refuge hiking access on Greenbush Road were broken into.

Through a press release, state police said that windows in two cars were smashed in the parking lot of the popular hiking area around 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7. “Two windows were smashed with an estimated value of $500-$600 in damages. A check book containing 25 checks was stolen out of one of the vehicles.”

The Treeworks office burglary alarm was activated Sunday, Sept. 8, just before midnight. In a press release, VSP wrote, “Upon trooper’s arrival it was

determined an entry door was forced open. The offender(s) were no longer on the property. At the time of this release, no property is reported stolen.”

These break-ins followed a weekend overnight break-in at Spear’s Store on Spear St. and Hinesburg Rd. just over two weeks ago and three residential burglaries in East Charlotte this summer.

Though a suspect was arrested and stolen merchandise found in a vehicle search, according to VSP Sergeant William Warner, no arrests have been made in those burglaries yet.

Anyone with information about any of these crimes or who remembers “seeing suspicious persons or vehicles in the area” should contact Vermont State Police at 802-878-7111, and “Troopers remind citizens to please not leave valuables in their vehicles while hiking or recreating this fall.”

2 • September19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Town SELECTBOARD continued from page 1 could consider language modeled after Ashville, North Carolina, which set a minimum of 30 days' stay. Town Administrator Dean Bloch added that it’s common to rent camps on Thompson’s Point for a week, saying, “I agree with the definition of the minimum stay is important.

I think it can potentially be different for different parts of town—and that could be decided through a public input process.”

The discussion moved on to whether the process of regulating short-term rentals should be added to the zoning bylaws or town ordinance. Tenney firmly recommended several times the zoning bylaws, saying, “I look at the bylaws as how we regulate a lot of things.” He continued, “It is easier to define it and incorporate into our zoning bylaws than come up with an ordinance, even if we use an ordinance from another town to try to manipulate it to fit Charlotte.”

McCarren asked, “What’s the best vehicle to get input?” Board member Fritz Tegatz suggested establishing a committee to provide recommendations to the Planning Commission and Selectboard, similar to

the West Charlotte Village Wastewater committee. No motion was made, though the board asked town staff to research the Ashville ordinance and the minutes of the Planning Commission on the subject. Wool added, “If the Selectboard were to take action and if a regulation was adopted …

Charlotte would be right at the top in terms in the State of Vermont of actually doing something, which is probably a good thing.”

Zoning permit issue Resident Phil Barone of Meadowside Drive appeared in front of the board after his initial appearance on Aug. 26. He again presented his concerns that a zoning permit (19-94-ZP) was incorrectly issued to his neighbors Charles and Cynthia Burns by the previous zoning administrator. Barone, reading from a letter accompanying the permit, said the permit allowed the landowner to replace a round, above-ground pool with a rectangular in-ground one, 10 feet from the property line. Both Tenney and Tegatz said they were unprepared to talk about the issue and were “looking for more (paperwork).” Tenney added, “I wanted verification of the location on property, not on the paperwork we’ve got. I would like to see what the actual is.” Both said

they wanted to visit the Burns property and gather more information to bring back to the Selectboard and provide an update.

Other business The Selectboard authorized the Thompson’s Point Association to apply for conditional use review and for a zoning permit to construct a water treatment and storage facility. Members of the association and an engineer from Otter Creek Associates were present to answer questions.

The board selected Dubois and King as the contractor for the Monkton Road engineering project, with Bloch and Tegatz tasked with working with the contractor to come up with a “whittled down” contract.

The Selectboard then approved waiving the zoning permit application for the Charlotte Library addition, signed the amendments to the Motor Vehicle and Traffic Regulation Ordinance to create a 40mph speed limit on Church Hill Road, set the date for meeting on the budget process with all town committees for Monday, Sept.

16, and planned their next site visit to the Burns property and Town Beach.

The next regularly scheduled Selectboard meeting will be held Sept 23 at 6 p.m.

Planning Commission considers updates to driveway standards Juliann Phelps The Sept. 5 Planning Commission agenda featured only two items and four members: a sketch plan review and a discussion about updating the 1997 driveway construction standards. The commission deferred a joint discussion with the Selectboard about Act 143 and the Charlotte Land Use Regulations concerning agricultural businesses to Sept. 19 because two members of the Selectboard were not able to attend the Sept. 5 meeting, though representatives from Philo Ridge Farm did appear for the discussion and provided written input to the board before departing.

The sketch plan review was for property located at 730 Whalley Road (PC-19-140SK Pete) owned by Theresa and Richard Pete. The Petes applied to subdivide

their 16 acres into two lots, one a fiveacre parcel containing an existing threebedroom ranch. Chair Peter Joslin noted that this is the second time the landowners applied for a subdivision, after letting their previous 2017 application expire.

According to the application, the owners want to sell the land to a “young couple.”

After minor discussion regarding a right of way dating back to the early 1900s, the motion to close sketch plan review was unanimous.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to discussing an update of the town’s road and driveway construction standards. This agenda dovetailed into the Vermont Roads and Bridge Standards adopted by the Selectboard on Aug. 26.

According to Town Administrator Dean Bloch, in order for towns to receive federal

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and state grant funding, the standards must be adopted by the town. Town Planner Daryl Arminius circulated a town document, titled the “1997 Recommended Standards for Development and Homes” among commission members, noting that the most recent suggested updates were from CVFRS in 2018. Chair Peter Joslin said the topic is now under discussion because “we need a broader document that speaks to road standards.” Planning Commission member Marty Illick agreed, saying, “We need one document for an applicant to review and guide road designs…but allow some flexibility for staff to make decisions.”

Selectboard Vice Chair Frank Tenney suggested incorporating a variance procedure to address possible scenarios outside the standards, which the commission took under consideration.

Commission member David Kenyon expressed concern at the number of potential scenarios and CVFRS “dictating the final requirements.” Shawn Coyle agreed. In addition to asking Arminius to ask CVFRS for additional input, the commission recommended removing the word “recommended.” No motion was made, and the topic will be put on a future agenda for continued discussion.

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ON THE COVER Dapper Denton is ready for fall.

Photo by Edd Merritt

The Charlotte News • September 19, 2019 • 3

Town VAPING continued from page

1

that, on average, Vermont middle school and high school students are more likely to have tried electronic vapor products like e-cigarettes in 2017 compared to 2015, increasing from 7% to 9% for middle schoolers and from 30% to 34% for high schoolers.”

CVU Principal Adam Bunting said this information came out well before he noticed a boom in e-cigarette usage at CVU, and he suspects that usage rates are much higher now. “It hit a peak about a year and a half ago,” he said. “The challenge is that not only is vaping easily hid but it’s prevalent across the student population.”

It’s everywhere Tim Trevithick, the Student Assistance Program counselor at CVU, agrees. “I don’t care what clique you’re in, it tends to be everywhere,” he said. “It’s through all social groups, which is unique.”

Teens are often under the impression that because there’s no smoke involved, like there is with cigarettes, vaping is healthier than smoking. Headlines have increased in recent months, reporting young people with what The New York Times called a “mysterious lung illness.” In stark contrast to the home page of Juul Labs, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration website home page is a large photo of vapor mist and the headline, “Lung Illnesses Associated with the use of Vaping Products.”

Of particular danger are vaping products that contain THC—these pods are often purchased on the black market, and the contents are not regulated like they would be for legal cannabis products. They often contain vitamin E, which is harmful when inhaled directly into the lungs.

E-cigarette and tobacco use is very much on the minds of state lawmakers. A bill raising the purchase age of tobacco products from 18 to 21 took effect on Sept. 1, and Trevithick said he thought this change will significantly reduce teen vapers. “We had 18-year-olds, on senior privilege, go down to the Jiffy Mart and buy pods for kids.

There was big distribution around accessing Juuls…seniors would buy a lot of Juul pods and sell them to freshmen and 10th graders.”

Stig, The Drop and Juul pods come in

Stock image

flavors like Lush Ice and Mango Bomb, and because they are small and fit in a hand or pocket easily, students can also easily conceal them from parents and adults at school. Trevithick said students vape not only in the bathrooms at school but in the hallways and on school buses.

Stig’s website claims, “The STIG is easy to pocket and take anywhere you go, so you can enjoy your active lifestyle and keep discovering your inspiration all day long with STIG!” The Drop comes in colors like Slime Green and Super Stealth Black, and its website says, “After your buddies receive a peek at the brand new teardrop shape, you can be certain that they will want to give it a try for themselves. And they won’t be disappointed.”

Communication is key for parents who are worried that their tweens and teens will be or already are vaping. Trevithick said, “I’m a big believer of having an open dialogue, presenting information, and letting them process. The thing parents need to get away from is judgment, judgment, judgment.”

He also said to listen and make sure “students are getting talked to, instead of talked at, and are part of the conversation, and have the option to opt out of the conversation.”

School policy and consequences The consequence at school for students caught vaping is the same as the smoking policy. “You’re sent home for the day, you have to basically start smoking-cessation work, and it’s a fine from the police.” The

CVU Handbook outlines it as such: “Any student found in possession of any tobacco or e-cigarette product will be considered in the same manner as those actually found in the process of using.

Vermont State law requires the school to

The

Charlotte News

report underage smoking violations to The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV will charge violators a fine for the first offense. The fine increases for subsequent offenses.

“Consequences: Determined by the administrator (example: loss of unscheduled time, sent home) and includes a referral to the SAP counselor. Repeated offenses may result in suspension and a parent/guardian meeting. Students caught distributing tobacco or e-cigarette products will be suspended up to three (3) days. Repeated distribution may be cause for a suspension of up to 10 days.”

“It’s not the culture we want here,” Bunting said he told students at a kickoff assembly for the new school year. He also pointed out to students that whatever addiction and financial hardship they experience because of a vaping habit goes directly to corporations. “The kids were surprised because I said, ‘What pisses me off is that someone is walking you toward addiction and walking you toward other health consequences,’” he said.

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4 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Around Town Achievements Will Edwards and Ingrid Larson of Seattle, Washington, were married on Whidbey Island on June 29. Will grew up in Charlotte, attending CCS and CVU. The couple met in Washington, D.C., while both were students at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Will is the son of Georgia Edwards of Shelburne, who has been at the Charlotte Library since 2004 and is currently the cataloging librarian, and John Edwards of Quebec City.

Ingrid is the Will, Ingrid and Ella, the daughter of Flower Girl Richard Larson and Elizabeth Murray of Lexington, Massachusetts.

Peter Carreiro of Charlotte, and his Rise ‘n Shine milk delivery business, located at the intersection of Church Hill Road and Route 7, were featured as the cover story in the September 4 Burlington Free Press.

Peter and his wife and children moved to Charlotte in 1997 from Rhode Island, where they had also been milk deliverers.

They vacationed frequently in Vermont and decided to come here permanently. While still using milk as his main delivery item, he has added other food-and-drink options, including meat, pizzas, fresh eggs and Clif Bars. He delivers around the area and even into New Hampshire, making around 60 stops per day. He soon plans to open a farm stand on his Church Hill property that will include Charlotte-made honey. Does it sound as though Peter is “bringing back the milkman?”

Christina Asquith of Charlotte, is the cofounder and editor in chief of the Fuller Project, a nonprofit news organization that supports “investigative, explanatory and solutions-driven reporting” that focuses on the issues that most affect women globally and in the United States. On August 22, a Fuller Project story, “Low Wages, Sexual Harassment and Unreliable Tips. This Is Life in America’s Booming Service Industry,” was featured as Time Magazine’s cover story on “The Left Behind Economy.” The story can be read at time.com/5658442/tipped-restaurantworkers-american-economy. Christina is a member of the Board of Directors of The Charlotte News.

Kelly Brush Ride cycles through Charlotte

Obituaries Janet Patricia Klumpp of Hinesburg passed away Aug. 28 at the age of 90.

She and her husband, Edward, moved from New York City to Charlotte in 1966 and opened a shop in North Ferrisburgh called Red Sled Antiques. She is survived by three daughters, six grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren as well as a brother-in-law and sister-in-law. A private celebration of her life will be held at a future date.

Catherine Jean Davis of Belgrade, Maine, died Sept. 4 at the age of 60.

After working in child development services for a number of years, most recently as a practice manager for Maine Child Psychology, her ALS became an impediment to continuing the task. Her surviving family includes her sister Mary Cheney of Charlotte. The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations in Catherine’s memory be made to support needy people in Zambia, Africa, through Joy Mission, 1139 Tasker Road, Augusta, ME 04330 or online at joy-mission.org.

Cyclists and handcyclists rolled through town in the 14th Annual Kelly Brush Ride, powered by VBT Bicycling Vacations on Sept. 7, 2019. The annual ride, which starts and finishes in Middlebury and winds through the Champlain Valley, drew 940 cyclists and 27 handcyclists from 20 states, the highest participation in the ride’s history. The event raised $675,000 for adaptive sports and ski racing safety.

Photo courtesy Kelly Brush Foundation

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School Safety protocols in the district’s schools announced On Monday, Sept. 16, the Champlain Valley School District sent the following email to all CVSD families describing important changes to safety protocols in the district’s schools.

Dear Parents/Guardians, As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our learning community safe, this year CVSD will be adopting a new protocol for responding to an active threat in our schools. At the recommendation of the Vermont Governor’s School Safety Council, the Agency of Education, and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, we will begin the transition to what is known as an “options based” response protocol for addressing the unlikely presence of an active threat in our schools. An optionsbased protocol empowers people to choose a response to an active threat situation based on the information they have in the moment, known as situational awareness. It teaches individuals to use the information at their disposal to do what they think is best to keep themselves and others safe.

In a few weeks, our PreK - 12 staff and high school students will be learning about the options-based protocol, “Run / Hide / Fight”. The training, which will occur through the fall and winter, will consist of facilitated group discussions about the protocol and how to apply it to various scenarios. We feel strongly that while older

students are aware of the possibility of school violence and can benefit from this training as an important life skill, younger students need only be instructed - as they are now - to follow the direction of their teacher as quickly and quietly as possible.

Therefore, in our PreK - 8th grade schools, these facilitated discussions will involve adults only and will take place during staff professional development time. Though PreK-8 students will participate in the regular and required “lockdown” drills throughout the year, for now, these drills will look and feel the same as in previous years.

High school parents will be notified before and after each training session involving students. Our school counselors and guidance departments will be providing accommodations for students who may be especially sensitive to these discussions.

The District will be hosting an information session for parents on October 7th to provide an overview of the protocol and answer any questions you may have. You can also find more information on our website.

School violence is not something anyone wants to think about, but in today’s world we must do the best we can to be prepared.

Thank you for your support in this effort and continue to look for further communications from us in the next few weeks.

Elaine F. Pinckney CVSD Superintendent of Schools

CCS reunion (Classes 1959-1961)

The group gathered at Sarah and Davin Larson’s home on Lake Road on Aug. 3 and reminisced about growing up in Charlotte and attending CCS. Scott Kingsland of Shelburne, CCS Class of 1961 David Schermerhorn of Charlotte, CCS Class of 1960 Tom Larson of Charlotte, CCS Class of 1961 Stan Lane of Hernando, FL, CCS Class of 1959 Jack Kerr of Charlotte, CCS Class of 1961 Jonathan Foote of Surprise, AZ, CCS Class of 1959 Reggie Garen of Charlotte, CCS Class of 1960 Photo by Sarah Larson

Implementation of Special Education Law (Act 173) delayed Nancy Richardson The implementation of the new Vermont Special Education Law (Act 173), designed to provide schools with more flexibility and reduced costs in delivering special education, is being delayed because of problems in the state’s definition of what constitutes special education and because of the Agency of Education’s guidelines on the allowable uses and tracking of federal special education funds.

The federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), is one of three federal laws that guarantee education for students with disabilities. Along with IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are civil rights acts that work in concert with IDEA to ensure student rights.

The origins of IDEA date back to court cases in the 1960s to ensure that students with disabilities would gain access to public education. Until these cases, students with disabilities were routinely barred from attending public school or placed in highly segregated settings. Years of implementation struggles, court cases and rule changes have created federal rules that seek to ensure that students with disabilities are properly identified and provided education in the “least restrictive environment” possible. The rules encourage education in the regular classroom and curriculum.

The reason an emphasis has been placed on educating children in the regular classroom and curriculum is that long-term outcome studies of special

education indicated that students with disabilities educated in separate special education classes fared more poorly than students who had been educated in regular classrooms. Because the federal regulations of IDEA work in concert with Section 504 and the ADA, the rules are considered to be important civil rights protections and states must be in compliance with them.

A recent report on Vermont’s Act 173 implementation by the Federal Education Group, PLLC, a Washington, D.C. law firm, states that through Act 173 and the draft Agency of Education Fiscal Rules, Vermont has too-narrowly defined special education as a service that cannot be provided within the school’s standard instructional program. This definition then leads to a narrow understanding of how school supervisory unions may spend IDEA funds and to a misunderstanding of the process for determining excess costs.

These implementation problems could lead to more restrictive placement for special education students, more paperwork for schools trying to track special education costs and a reduction in funding for special education at the local level.

Because of these problems, an advisory panel of education organizations in Vermont has asked the Legislature to delay implementation until these problems can be fixed and Vermont can maintain its compliance with important federal education and civil rights laws.

The Legislature has voted to delay implementation for one year.

The Champlain Valley School District maintains its guidance both for providing supports in the regular classroom for

students having difficulty with the instructional program and for referrals to special education at any time for students with disabilities. CVSD encourages such programming in the regular curriculum and

classrooms. These practices are unlikely to change, particularly if the implementation of Act 173 by the Vermont Agency of Education can be improved.

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6 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Calendar Events

We welcome appropriate community event listings with a maximum of 100 words. Print fees may apply to community events outside of Charlotte.

Email your events to ads@ thecharlottenews.org.

Sunday, September 22 Plein Air Poetry of Nature Walk

at Ethan Allen Homestead, Burlington.

Do you love words and the outdoors?

Do you like to write and create stories?

Being outside in nature is one of the most inspiring and fun ways to make stories through poems. Discover your poet within on an easy 1-hour all-ages, family-friendly walk with a nature-loving poetry adventure guide as we explore new experiences and write a poem.

No experience necessary. Children welcome and encouraged! FREE EVENT. See https://poartry.org/nature-walks for information.

Tuesday, Sept. 24 Charlotte voters who support the Democratic Party are invited to attend the reorganization meeting of the

Charlotte Democratic Committee

to be held as required by law every two years. This meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Charlotte Town Office. The purpose of this meeting is to elect a town committee, to elect officers of the town committee and to elect delegates to the county committee. The number of members a town committee may have is unlimited. Officers to be elected are a town chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer. Anyone interested in serving as an officer, including chair, can selfnominate at the caucus. The Chittenden County Democratic Committee will hold its reorganization meeting in October.

Join us in supporting government that is inclusive, not divisive, and that respects and works for everyone. If you’d like more information, contact the current Chair, Mike Yantachka, at 233-5238.

“Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives.” - U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN)

Wednesday, Sept. 25 Charlotte Republican Party caucus

will be held at 7 p.m. at the Charlotte Town Hall. We are encouraging everyone to attend.

Sunday, Sept. 29 Hands to Honduras Tela gears up

for February Service Trip. A volunteer meeting will be held at 5 p.m. at the Shelburne Town Office, 2nd floor. This meeting is for returning and new H2HT volunteers and interested community members. All aspects of the upcoming February 2020 trip will be discussed along with information about H2HT’s projects over 15 years. Two additional volunteer meetings will be held in November and January. Dates for the 2020 H2HT service trip: February 8–15 and February 15–22.

Volunteers can participate for one week or two. For information, contact Linda Gilbert at lindaggilbert@gmail.com or call 425-3838.

Town

A language beyond culture Susan Crockenberg Having connected at the VT African Diaspora Artists’ Summit at the Clemmons Farm earlier this summer, Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees of Hinesburg and Mikahely Rakuto Rozafy (Mika) of Burlington have embarked on a collaboration that joins her visual artistry with his musical scoring to explore vocables as the language of our shared consciousness. At their open studio at the Clemmons Farm on September 8, I had the pleasure of talking with these two artists, viewing and listening to their work as it unfolds.

TwoTrees’ idea of a secret language that inspires her painting evolved from the similarity between vocables— words composed of various sounds or letters without regard to meaning—in many indigenous traditions. Vocables communicate, she suggests, at the boundaries of thought and language where deep sensing occurs. Growing up in a family where people remember their connection to the natural world through vocables imbedded in song may have primed TwoTrees to reach out for and catch this idea when it first flickered into awareness. Discovering in 2016 the story of a village in southern India where chants handed down orally for thousands of years bore no relation to any known language helped solidify her idea and prompted her to create a series of graphics, visual vocables, which became a larger body of 40+ paintings.

TwoTrees’ paintings are the imagery for the libretto/score Mika is creating

Left to right: Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees and Mikahely Rakuto Rozafy.

for his valiha, the national instrument of Madagascar, Mika’s home until just two years ago when he came to Vermont so his wife could attend graduate school. Asked how he composes his music, Mika says he watches the paintings, now on video, and the sound just comes.

Could we hear a bit? Mika brought out his valiha, a tube zither of local bamboo, placed his fingers on the strings, and played, producing a sound both beautiful and clear—a match for Kaylynn’s imagery.

Kaylynn TwoTrees’ paintings are the inspiration for their final installation,

Photo by Chol Dhoor

performance and video, now in the works, that will also include vocals by Heidi Wilson and Gideon Crevoshay. These creations, she says, are meant to evoke a deep remembering in the viewer that invites us to consider the hard boundaries of the culture-based languages that divide us. To which Mika adds that “paintings and music talk together,” offering a way back to our cosmic connection.

I wondered, as I am sure you must, when we might anticipate the release of their works. They are in discussion with Burlington City Arts about an exhibition in 2021. We’ll be waiting.

Charlotte Park and WildlifeRefuge Discovery Day Celebrating open space, nature, birds, vistas and more Come join the fun on Sept. 28 from 9:30 to noon (rain date Sept. 29) for the Park Discovery Day in the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge (formerly known as “Demeter Park”). After last year’s successful scavenger hunt, the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge Committee and the Charlotte Land Trust are excited to cosponsor an expanded event to include not only a nature scavenger hunt for children but also scenic horse-drawn carriage rides along the ridge of the park, as well as bird walks specifically geared to kids (ages 6 and up) and separate walks for adults to be led by two knowledgeable experts.

Participants can learn about various native bird species that can be found in the refuge.

A variety of interesting trees will be tagged for people who want to work on learning their tree species. Folks will also be on hand to discuss how active agriculture in the park is managed. In addition to these events, if you’ve ever found yourself wondering about the beautiful barn that rests at the top of the refuge on Route 7, Jenny Cole will be available to answer questions and present facts about the historic Thorpe Barn.

Photo contributed

The festivities will start at 9:30 a.m. and end at noon. Parking and a shuttle to bus people to and from the event will be located at the Charlotte Central School.

The shuttle will be starting at 9:15 a.m.

The event will mostly take place in the eastern part of the park, along the scenic Thorpe and Byington trails. No parking will be available at the top of the Refuge, as this is not a public entrance. If you want to park at the Greenbush Road entrance, you will need to walk up to the festivities, which could be about a half-hour walk.

Please keep in mind that this is a

wildlife refuge where numerous native plants and animals make this part of Charlotte their home, so please no bikes and no dogs. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. Each participant is encouraged to register at the town website (charlottevt.org) under the “Recreation” tab before the event. Registration forms will also be available at the Town Hall and on the day of the event.

We hope to see you there! The “Discovery Day” promises to be a very special event and a lot of fun for all ages.

The Charlotte News • September 19, 2019 • 7

Food Shelf News Susan Ohanian

First day of a new school year: back to basics You’re off to great places. Today is your first day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way! – Dr. Seuss Most of us remember the start of a new school year: New hopes mingle with very real uncertainties. Very aware of these mixed feelings, the Food Shelf works to help kids get on their way to great places at Charlotte Central with a smile—and a new backpack.

The Food Shelf also organizes the ShoeIn project. Years ago, Charlotte Central started a program to help kids get gym shoes—to be in compliance with the school rule that only gym shoes could be worn on the gym floors. Over time, the Food Shelf has assumed responsibility for this ShoeIn program and expanded it a bit. School counselor Betsy Lloyd sends out a letter to parents making them aware that scholarships are available for gym shoes or new school shoes. The Food Shelf then supplies gift cards for Olympia Sports. So you see, with your help, we are involved with food for the body, food for the spirit and occasional footwear.

Contributions It has been a difficult gardening season, and we want to say “Thank you!” to everyone who donated fresh garden produce.

This culinary delight is always most appreciated by families.

Thanks for financial contributions go to Anne Castle, Meg Berlin, and Karen and Bill Doris in honor of Jim and Kathy Manchester, and to Jim and Kathy Manchester.

Overall, donations to the Food Shelf have been down nearly 20 percent. This brings special concern because we are worried about the life expectancy of our giant refrigerator, which malfunctioned recently.

Obviously, this refrigerator is a crucial part of our food distribution system, as milk, eggs, yogurts and other items need to be kept cold between the time our shoppers do their work and our distribution times. We recently had to replace the thermostat but have fingers crossed that the refrigerator will hold up.

Aware that some people would rather give a physical gift than a check, please know that we currently need size-4 and size-5 diapers.

Important distribution dates at the Charlotte Congregational Church Wednesdays, Oct. 10 and Oct. 24: 5–7 p.m.

Thursdays, Oct. 11 and Oct. 25: 7:30–9 a.m.

Financial assistance As a reminder, the Food Shelf has some funds available for emergency assistance with fuel and electric bills. You may contact Pat Rodar at 425-3083 if you need assistance.

We are available to all community residents. Privacy is very important and respected in our mission of neighbor helping neighbor.

For emergency food call John 425-3130.

For emergency assistance (electricity, fuel) call Pat at 425-3083.

For more information call Karen at 4253252.

Donations

The Food Shelf is again teaming up with the Grange in a winter-wear drive. We will take any winter wear that is gently used: coats, snow pants, boots, hats, gloves, scarves, warm pajamas, socks, sweaters. You name it—we can put it to very good use for children. Items can be dropped off any time at the Charlotte Library or at the Grange during the rummage sale drop off times the first week in October.

Watch for posts on Front Porch Forum for specific times. For newbies in town, the Grange is located at 2898 Spear Street.

In an average year we provide nearly 20 kids with warm winter clothing. Parents submit sizes, and volunteers sort through donated items so that everything is available for try-on prior to the rummage sale. All items are given to the families free of charge. If we are not able to match donations to kids we will purchase items for them, usually snow pants as these see the most wear and tear with outdoor play! Families are notified of the date and time of the try-on night, and it’s a very fun time for the kids.

We are a volunteer organization, so all donations you make to the Food Shelf go directly for food and assistance to our local neighbors in need. Should you wish to honor someone with a donation, a special acknowledgement will be sent to that person.

Checks may be mailed to Charlotte Food Shelf & Assistance, P.O. Box 83, Charlotte, VT 05445. Thank you.

Donated food drop-off locations All nonperishable food donations may be dropped off at the Charlotte Library, the Charlotte Congregational Church vestry, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church (main entrance) or at the Food Shelf during the distribution mornings. Please check expiration dates. We request that all fresh foods be dropped off at the Food Shelf before the Wednesday distribution hours or before 7:30 a.m. on the Thursday distribution mornings.

The Charlotte Food Shelf is located on the lower level of the Charlotte Congregational Church vestry. Distribution days and times are posted on bulletin boards in the Charlotte Congregational Church Hall, at the Charlotte Library and at the Charlotte Senior Center. You may also call the Food Shelf number (425-3252) for a recording of the distribution times.

8 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Town

How to deter property crimes This letter was sent to the community by the Shelburne Police Department to address an increase in local thefts.

Since the beginning of August, bicycle thefts, thefts from motor vehicles and burglaries have all increased. Community assistance is valuable in not only preventing these crimes, but in gathering information for the identification of offenders.

•

•

• •

Please consider the following:

• •

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Providing Repair, Refinishing, Restoration and Transport

George & Pam Darling P.O. Box 32 Ferry Road, Charlotte, VT gdarling@gmavt.net

•

Secure your residence. Many thefts are crimes of opportunity. Take care to ensure your house and your garage are closed and locked.

Consider the use of exterior lighting at night. This is not only a deterrent to criminal activity but allows better visibility for our patrols.

Lock your vehicle and secure any valuables. Most items are taken from unlocked vehicles.

Do not leave valuables in plain sight. Thieves know that a cord may lead to a hidden electronic device, such as an I-pad or cell phone. Whenever possible, do not store these items in your vehicle.

Many bicycles that are stolen are left lying about and/or unlocked.

Consider recording serial numbers of valuables. This can aid in the recovery of property should it be stolen. If a serial number is not available, consider marking or etching the items with a unique number.

Alarms, video surveillance equipment and other investments are helpful in both deterring and investigating crime. Many internet-based notifications can notify the homeowner directly about activity at their residence and at an affordable cost.

“If you see something, say something.”

Neighborhood residents know best what normal activity is in their neighborhood and can assist in identifying unusual activity. And note: Many residential burglaries occur during the daytime.

Please report any suspicious activity to the Shelburne Police Department at 802-9858051. If it is an emergency, call 911.

Discussion and screening of “Lake Effect” Glynda McKinnon and Kate Kelly LEWIS CREEK ASSOCIATION

Lewis Creek Association held a successful screening of “Toxic Puzzle” in January 2019. LCA now invites you to a screening and discussion of the locally produced documentary “Lake Effect,” which explores the research of Dr. Elijah

Stommel, professor of neurology at the Geisel School of Medicine DartmouthHitchcock, into a possible connection between cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms that are fed by excess phosphorus in lakes and the neurodegenerative diseases ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The documentary team (father and daughter) has a direct connection with ALS, having had three family members die from

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the disease, and will be present at the screening.

He will be joined by UVM professors Dr. Jason Stockwell, professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the director of UVM’s Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain; Dr. Rachelle Gould, assistant professor at UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural resources; and Ph.D. student Natalie Flores, who is studying the impacts of cyanobacteria blooms on the environment.

Refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to all and will be held at the Ferrisburgh Town Offices & Community Center, 3279 Route 7, Ferrisburgh on Thursday, Oct. 17, from 5:30–8 p.m.

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The Charlotte News • September 19, 2019 • 9

Town

Unity Farm: Unifying farm work, animals, people and nature

520 DAKIN ROAD

Courtesy photo

Cathy Wells and her boys at Unity Farm.

Vera Moroney To meet Cathy Wells at Unity Farm on Higbee Road is to enter the world of a true dynamo. Ordinary multitaskers would be put to shame.

Cathy started the farm originally as a home for her then four English Shire draft horses, partly to give them meaningful work.

These she refers to as “her boys.” Pete is sadly no longer with us, but Jaguar, General and Rocket are. More important, Cathy started the Unity Farm to unify all aspects of farm work, animals, people and nature.

Cathy grew up in Indiana, loves the land and has a passion for farming. Unity Farm sells organic spinach, kale and salad-mix produce at Shelburne Market, Lantman’s, Healthy Living and Philo Ridge. A fall crop has been planted so there will be a continuing supply. The goal, which the farm achieves, is to grow “nutritious, vibrant, great tasting, long lasting” produce. Truly worth seeking out. Flowers are available through a flower share CSA that you can subscribe to and pick up at the farm or at Edo’s in Shelburne (the hair salon next to the Bearded Frog).

A visit on a cold late winter day revealed large hoop houses containing a bounty of spinach, kale and salad mix, almost ready to harvest. A more recent visit revealed a riot of flowers ready to pick and prepare into bouquets. As Cathy worked on removing the leaves from the flowers (they last longer in bouquets) she did allow, looking over her flower kingdom, that “flowers are like little brats”—that is, they sometimes do not behave as gardeners want them to.

To reduce the use of pesticides, Unity Farm uses integrated pest management (IPM) to control pests. In part, IPM relies on beneficial insects, such as praying mantises and lady bugs, to attack (eat) pests, such as scale, mealy bug and thrips.

There are, of course, many challenges to farming. One is securing the help needed for the diverse activities on the farm. The work is hard but rewarding, and anyone could learn a great deal from Cathy. A second challenge, shared by other small farms and businesses, is the cumbersome and sometime lengthy permitting process in Charlotte. In a small town such as ours it is imperative that the folks who issue permits are proactive and problem solvers.

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10 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Town A garden of whimsy wins big at the Champlain Valley Fair Chea Waters Evans You might think that perfect vegetables come from a perfect garden or that prizewinning tomatoes are grown under the strictest of circumstances. Rosemary Zezulinski of Charlotte, however, tips that wheelbarrow on its side. She went home from the Champlain Valley Fair this year with over two dozen ribbons for things she grew in a place she said resembles “Dr. Seuss’s garden.”

This first-time entrant into the fair’s competitions yielded a bounty similar to zucchini in late summer: Zezulinski won Best in Show, Best in Class and Judge’s Favorite, as well as 19 first-place ribbons, 7 second-place prizes and one third place.

Zezulinski works her magic in a 200x100-foot organic garden plot at her home on Ferry Road. She also grows in a greenhouse and starts almost all of her flowers, herbs and plants from seed.

Because of her land’s logistics, she had to hand-deliver four truckloads of organic soil down a hill in a wheelbarrow to her garden, and before this year, she spent hours a day watering by hand. This gardening season, a new irrigation system made life a little easier.

Submitting produce to the Champlain Valley Fair isn’t as simple as putting a potato on a plate and hoping for the best— there are strict rules for presentation, and entries are assessed based on four criteria, according to the official entry handbook.

Produce is judged on “Quality: marketable size, characteristic color, typical shape, appropriate stage of development or maturity; Condition: cleanliness, proper trimming, freshness, attractiveness of entry; Freedom from injury: free of mechanical injury, pest injury, blemishes, cracks, disease; Uniformity: consistent shape, size, color, stage of maturity, true to type or variety.”

Finding and preparing produce for competition is harder than it looks.

Zezulinski said it’s difficult to find multiple samples of the same size. “I was out five times in one day measuring a zucchini until it hit nine and a half inches,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is insane.’”

Zezulinski said she had no expectations going into the competition and that she submitted her items after a friend urged her to compete in the Addison County Field Days and she won three first-place ribbons, which gave her the confidence to enter at the Champlain Valley Fair. When she got there, she was intimidated.

The condition aspect of the competition was especially daunting, she said, since, although cleanliness of entries is part of the judging, washing the vegetables is against the rules. She used a toothbrush and a cloth diaper she bought at a yard sale to clean her entries—and wondered a bit about her mental health. “It’s 11:30 at night, and I’m still shining this potato,” she said, “And then I’m like, does anyone else do this?”

The Champlain Valley Fair is big time.

Citing some pristine, snow-white garlic, Zezulinski said, “It was amazing watching the other competitors. I didn’t think I had a

Rose used a toothbrush and a cloth diaper she bought at a yard sale to clean her entries—and wondered a bit about her mental health. “It’s 11:30 at night, and I’m still shining this potato,” she said. “And then I’m like, does anyone else do this?”

shot; these people are so serious. I want to know what she did to get it that white.”

Zezulinski said when she came out on top, she was floored. “I couldn’t believe it.

I got all the big ones!”

Her biggest coup was Judge’s Favorite, which was given to a basket she arranged and submitted in the Sustainable Farming category. It included herbs, edible flowers, squash, organic broccoli, squashes and other treats, and a little sign she wrote welcoming viewers.

Zezulinski said, “The woman who was running it [said] it’s so great I called it Welcome to My Garden,” she said, “and she goes, ‘You invited everybody for a glimpse into your garden and they just want to be a part of it.’ Which is really sweet.”

Though part of her wants to still enter a few categories next year, Zezulinski said she might retire. “Where am I going to go from here?”

Another reason she’s not keen on repeating her sweep is that the items submitted for the fair go to waste. “I grow stuff to eat,” she said. “The produce went to the pigs after the show.” She doesn’t have a farm stand, just donates her goodies to

Rosemary Zezulinski cleaned up at this year’s Champlain Valley Fair, bringin home 30 ribbons.

Photos by Rosemary Zezulinski and Chea Waters Evans

food shelves or shares them with friends or “people I know who could use some good fresh produce.” She also has a pumpkin patch, and she donates the pumpkins to the Halloween party for Partners in Adventure, which runs programs for adults with special needs.

As she celebrates her big win, Zezulinski is still toiling away in her Dr. Seuss garden,

with tomatoes and cucumbers still coming up, and honeybells and spaghetti squash on the horizon.

“I get up at 5:30 in the morning,” she said. “There are hummingbirds, butterflies and a bunny that lives in the garden—but we made peace with each other. It’s just fun…I have such a good time with it, and I pick dinner every night.”

The Charlotte News • September 19, 2019 • 11

Expansion and Fundraising Update Construction of the library addition is slated to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 1. We plan to continue to offer programs and to keep the library collection and resources available to all library visitors. However, there will be a few changes in access.

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The library driveway will close permanently on Sept. 20.

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Patrons will access the library through the current entrance until construction starts but are asked to park either at Town Hall or in the Little Garden Market spaces across Ferry Road. Provision will be made for handicapped visitors to park at the end of the driveway.

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After Oct. 1, all visitors will enter the library via the library porch, either from the north end or across the Town Green.

We ask for your patience as we begin this exciting new chapter in the library’s history!

While the building may be changing, our fundraising goals remain. We are closing in on the $600,000 goal, with just under $70,000 left to raise. We hope you’ll consider supporting us if you haven’t already and we would like to thank the generous donors who have helped us get this far in our efforts: Chuck & Missy Adams and their children, Charlie & Margot David & Jane Allen Sage J. Alpert Randy Archer Katherine B. Arthaud Elizabeth Bassett & John A. Pane Tom & Lorna Bates Victor & Wanda Bean Barbara & Bill Benedict and family Meg Berlin Robert & Nancy Bloch The Bohlin Family Lynne Bond & David Watts Kristin Borquist Cricket & John Braun Kai, Emmanuel & Matthew Burke and Polly Price Laura Cahners-Ford Carol and Owen Clay Jaina P. Clough & Zechariah Gardner Lynne & Greg Cluff The Cohen Family Jenny & Dan Cole Jacqueline Coleburn Diane & Emile Cote Susan & Vince Crockenberg Elizabeth Hager Cullen Chris & Susanne Davis Raven Davis Amy DeGroot The Dwight Family Hal & Chea Evans Louise & Jonathan Fairbank Susan Fitzpatrick Kathleen Fleming & Mark Franceschetti Teena & Ric Flood

Lell Forehand Rebecca Foster & Kevin Burget Donna Fraser-Leary & Dean Leary Janice Garen Walter Gates Valerie Graham Carolyn Greene The Hackerman Family The Harcourt Family Linda S. Hamilton in Memory of Arcola Boomer John & Dorrice Hammer Kathleen McKinley Harris James & MaryEllen Sprague Hebert Janice & Tom Heilmann in Memory of John Walker Tina & John Helzer in Memory of Peggy Thatcher Carl & Carlanne Herzog Shanley Hinge & Gary Franklin Jim & Susan Hyde Stephen, Will & Noah Kiernan Julian Kulski Mary Anne Kyburz-Ladue Peter & Libby Laino Kate Lampton The Langfeldt Family Richard & Juliette Latimer Bud & Barbara Lawrence Alexandra Lehmann Lindsay Longe & Christopher Mack Karyn Lunde Jeanie MacDonough Lee Macik Jim & Kathy Manchester Nan & Ben Mason Thomas McAuliff and Janella Pennington Louise McCarren & Ed Amidon Meaghan & Ethan McLaughlin Danielle Conlon Menk & James Menk Edd & Beth Merritt Bob & Kate Mesaros Nancy & Andrew Milliken Robert & Toni Monsey The Moore Family Janet & Lane Morrison

Laurie Moser Meredith Moses Brooke & Barry Mossman Nigel Mucklow, New England Floor Covering The Murphy Family Bethany Myrick Pat Nestork David Palmer Norman & Dorothy Pellett Jessie Price & John Streng Nancy & David Pricer Waverly Purdham Robert Ramsey & Jane Butler A Revolutionary Press Joe Rivera & Martha Barton-Rivera John & Nancy Rosenthal Erin Ross Ann L. Schofield Ebeth & Tom Scatchard Wolfger Schneider Metz Family Foundation The Silverman/Whitfield Family Susan Sim in Memory of Craig Sim Gregory & Fraya Smith Meg A. Smith Martin-Smith Family Deborah Squires Robbie & John Stanley Debra Stone Ruah Swennerfelt & Louis Cox Mark Taylor & Kris Root Peter & Wendy Trono Jared Ulmer & Laurel Lakey Tim & Mary Volk Brenda Waters The Whalen Family Nancy E. Wood Margaret & Charles Woodruff Mike & Janet Yantachka 47 anonymous donors We apologize if we missed including anyone’s name on this list. Please contact Margaret at margaret@ charlottepubliclibrary.org to correct any errors.

Upcoming at the Library Great Decisions: Cyber Conflict and Geopolitics Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m.

In Our Own Voice: NAMI Presentation Thursday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m.

Story Time Begins Oct. 1!

Seed Library Potluck: Slow Food Gardens Wednesday, October 2 at 5:30 pm Frog Hollow Artists Series: Carol MacDonald Thursday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m.

For more information about these and all our library programs and activities, visit our website: charlottepubliclibrary.org.

12 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Sports Report Edd Merritt

Redhawk football makes a comeback, then not

After taking a hard hit from Rutland in its opening season game under new coach, Rahn Fleming, the Redhawks recuperated and came back for a week-two win over Mount Mansfield, 27-18. Charlotte’s Seth Boffa seemed to be the running back of choice as he made up for a fourth-quarter fumble to score the final touchdown for CVU, which assured the victory. Angelos Carroll set up Seth’s run by sneaking under several tacklers, and with a minute left in the game, Seth broke through another several defenders to score. It was his second TD of the game. Ryan Canty was active defensively, particularly in the second half when it counted most. He forced the MMU quarterback to scramble and miss his passes on several occasions.

Unfortunately, the Kingdom was not a friendly environment for game three as St. Jay shut out the Redhawks 49-0, leaving them at 1 win and 2 losses through three weeks in the season. Seth Boffa was again the leading Hawk rusher with 48 yards.

Congratulations go to CVU athletes

The Sept. 10 Burlington Free Press showed nominations for male and female “Athletes of the Week.” One of each came from CVU—Alicia Veronneau for her cross-country running and Jami Lashua for his soccer scoring.

Alicia finished August by winning the Essex Invitational race and began the next month across the lake gaining runner-up glory at the Ed Springstead (Shaker) Invitational and fourth place in the Adirondack Invitational Meet in Queensbury.

Jami scored four goals and an assist in soccer shutouts over Rice and Rutland in the Jay Brady Kickoff Classic held in Essex. As a result, he earned the “Tournament MVP” honor.

The Sept. 14 issue of Free Press confirmed that Alicia’s achievements were worthy of recognition, as she was named the “Woman Athlete of the Week” by voters.

Shaker Invitational cross-country results

While Alicia placed second among runners from four schools in the Shaker

Invitational in Colonie, New York, six other CVU women runners finished among the top 25 finishers, giving the Hawks the top team score. Alice Larson, Finn Mittelstadt and Jasmine Nails placed 5, 6 and 7. Sadie Holmes and Lila Taylor took 9th and 10th, and Isabel Mittelstadt, 14th.

The men’s team placed third, with Mathew Servin and Parker Soares the top Redhawk finishers—Matt in 10th, Parker in 11th. Skyler Heininger, Gavin Schaaf, Mathew Ireland, Andrew Burley and Ben McAuliffe all finished among the top 25.

Once again across the lake

The past weekend saw CVU crosscountry runners in New York again, this time running in the Queensbury Adirondack Invitational Meet. On the women’s ledger, Alicia Veronneau again came across the finish as the first Redhawk.

She placed fourth, ahead of 147 others.

Alice Larson, Finn Mittelstadt, Jasmine Nails and Sadie Holmes were all among the top 30 runners. Due to their efforts, CVU finished first among the 21 schools in the race.

The men’s team finished sixth among 22 other teams. Matt Servin was the leading CVU runner, finishing 26th with Skyler Heininger, Caleb Nye and Parker Soares in the top 50. Andrew Buley, Matt Ireland and Ben McAuliffe rounded out the Redhawk runners, all finishing among the top 80.

Charlotte CVU running back Seth Boffa carries through the Mount Mansfield defense.

Field hockey makes it tough on opponents

This year’s field hockey team seems to be bringing a new level of play to the sport at CVU. As of this week, the team stands at three wins and two losses, with a shutout over Burr and Burton, a 2-1 win over Mount Mansfield, plus Friday’s 6-0 rout of Burlington, a game in which the Redhawks scored four goals in the first half. Their two losses came at the hands of Rutland and South Burlington, both being 3-2 victories for the opponents. In the B & B win, five different players hit the net, showing that offense is not a single-handed matter. The same occurred against Burlington, with a sixth scorer added to the lot.

Golfers travel around northern Vermont

Yes, it is true; Kwiniaska’s original first six holes are turning into hay, apparently to make way for a housing development.

Meanwhile CVU men golfers felt

Redhawk sophomore Jonas Kein (33) sets for junior Devin Rogers (22) to spike against Vermont Commons School.

Photos by Al Frey

comfortable on the new front nine as they scored 12 shots under Colchester on Sept.

10. Redhawk Finn O’Brien earned medalist honors with a 39, followed three strokes back by Cam Saia and four strokes out of first by the pair of Ayden Forando and Freddy Marshall.

Three days earlier Cedar Knoll was the site, and CVU also found it to its liking, shooting 25 strokes better than St. Jay and 100 strokes over Milton. This time Nate Godbout’s 37 led the field, with Evan Forrest two strokes behind him. Austin Igler at 43 was ahead of any players from the other two schools, and Ayden Forando and Cam Saia were just a stroke behind him.

Then last week the golfers moved to Lang Farm (women) and Newport (men for the North Country Invitational). CVU’s Courtney Vincent was a co-medalist for the nine-hole Lang Farm match, and the men took top honors among 17 schools in the 18-hole Invitational. Nate Godbout was the low-ball hitter for the Hawks, only two strokes behind the medalist from Rice.

CVU finished 27 strokes ahead of secondplace South Burlington.

Oh—did someone mention soccer?

Well, it has been the start of just another soccer year for both CVU varsity teams

that stand undefeated as of last weekend.

The men added to their 21-game win streak with three shutouts in their first three games of the new season. They began by bagging Burr & Burton 6-0 and followed up by winning the Jay Brady Tournament sponsored by Essex with a 5-0 win over Rice and a 6-0 defeat of Rutland. Friday the 13th proved not to be bad luck for the Hawk men as they won a close game against Burlington, 1-0 on a goal by Jami Lashua from an assist by Henry Bijur. CVU out shot BHS 9-4.

The women had to dig a bit deeper in a game against Colchester that went into overtime before CVU scored the winner on a tip-in by Edie Wright from Olivia Zubarik. The closeness of the contest is not surprising as CVU defeated the Lakers for the Division I state championship last year, and Colchester looked for revenge. The Hawk women also sank Rutland 11-1 and Mount Anthony 4-0 to stand 3-0. Against Rutland, Avery Sleeper led the way with three goals, with Josie Pecor providing a goal and four assists. In the Mount Anthony game CVU goal scorers were Maggie Gannon, Gillian Magnier, Pecor and Zubarik. Ella Polli was asked to make only two saves in goal.

Page 14  August 17, 2017  Shelburne News

The Charlotte News • September 19, 2019 • 13

Book Review face painting.

Wild at Heart by Alice Outwater

Towards the end, the Charlotte-Shelburne-Hinesburg Rotary invites folks to ll have a head to the Little League field next to nature and modified it to meet humanity’s Edd Merritt Penar will the Fire Station for the annual Rotary desires, often for business gains—whether ood vena chance prizes farming, tourism, plantations or in pursuit How Golf natureBall and Drop human and nature interact to win of corporate Alice Outwater (the daughter of verything depending onyounger where the numbered ballsprofits (including guns, by the Aliceland.

Outwater senior) has published hersales way)—that rgers and Proceeds from ticket help funderased nature.

In her opening chapter Outwater fourth book, Wild at Heart (St. Martin’s g animals Rotary’s many projects through the year. discusses how many Native Americans Press). In it she looks at the interplay ects, and used property as a bartering agent or, in between the natural world that she calls

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other instances, such as the locally based “wildness” and what human nature has Abenaki, had shamans living in forests, done to modify it in order to make parts traveling between nature and human of it what she terms “wilderness.” We society in a trance to help heal or generate have taken what is wild, exploited it for productive weather or provide food that our benefit, and now, she says, we need to the natives hunted. While in a trance, the redeem what we have done. shaman’s spirit left its body and entered Outwater grew up in Burlington and the supernatural world. Outwater says it Charlotte where her mother was a longwas the beliefs of these tribes (thankfulness time contributor to The Charlotte News. of the Chinook, reverence of the Hopi, Alice Jr. studied engineering at UVM and restraint of the Abenaki) that “reflect a at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. : call 985-3091 relationship with nature that models the In addition to writing, she consults on sustainable balance we are trying to create water quality and now lives in Colorado. advertising@shelburnenews.com today.”

Wild at Heart is a historical treatise She continues, chapter by chapter, to on the interaction between the natural show what we have tried to accomplish environment and the humans in it, often and how it often detracts from the natural going back decades, if not centuries.

Her Landscape / Lawncare world. thesis is that mankind has taken a world of (I must throw in a personal pitch here.

herapist

In her chapter on “Protecting Nature” Outwater describes our country’s reliance on whale oil and blubber during the 19th and early 20th century. As a summer visitor to Cape Cod and the islands for the past 48 years, I have witnessed the remnants of that industry, particularly in the Portuguese residents whose ancestors were the whaling immigrants.)

She does end the book on a hopeful positive note. She says there is debate between those who want to change the habitat for personal gain and those who want to protect wilderness as it creates itself naturally. “Unless we reduce the human footprint on the world, we will destroy its diversity and beauty. …

Protecting ecosystems is not just for humans but for the Earth itself.”

Drawing from Dennis and Donella Meadows, authors of Limits to Growth, Outwater says that instead of “overpopulation, over consumption, pollution, and the resulting societal collapse . . . we could live within limits that allowed wildness to exist. We could live, and let live.”

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She ends by citing aboriginal attitudes toward wildness, which many people have adopted: “Like the Hopi, we must sign up to be nature’s guardians. Like the Abenaki, we seek balance. Like the Chinook, we give thanks.”

saliva. If left untreated, rabies is almost always fatal in humans and animals. However, treatment with the rabies vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective when given soon after a person is bitten by a rabid animal.

So far this year, 23 animals in Vermont have tested positive for rabies, and 14 of those have been raccoons.

According to wildlife officials, rabid animals often show a change in their normal behavior, but you cannot tell whether an animal has rabies simply by looking at it. People should not touch or pick up wild animals or strays – even baby animals.

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14 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

On Books Katherine Arthaud A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I took a summer’s-end jaunt up to Montreal.

It was a lovely, short trip. We discovered such a good restaurant, Jatoba, that we went to it both nights we were there, saw the Thierry Mugler exhibit (but only once) that a friend of mine had raved about, and wandered around the Plateau area, as well as Old Port. On one of the afternoons, my daughter opted to rest for a bit, and I (not one for resting much) headed out to (you guessed it) a nearby bookstore (Indigo, on Sainte-Catherine Street).

Wandering the aisles, I was surprised to come upon a fresh new book by Louise Penny, A Better Man. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t aware that a new one had been born! But yes, oui, he is back. He has returned. Armande Gamache. Back as head of the homicide department, a job he will share temporarily with his previous second-in-command and son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.

I confess I have only just begun it, but finding this book felt like running into an old friend. “The man they saw at

the door was in his late fifties. Tall, not heavy but sturdy. Clean-shaven. And while not classically handsome, he was more attractive, certainly more distinguished, than the pictures on social media that morning had led the younger agents to believe. (His) hair, once dark, was mostly gray and slightly wavy. His complexion was that of someone who’d spent hours in open fields, in damp forests, in knee-deep snow, staring at bodies. And tracking down those who’d made them…”

A Better Man is the 16th in a series of mystery novels set in the Canadian province of Quebec. I have read all of them and highly recommend the lot. They are unusual for their genre: very descriptive, with vivid and finely etched characters you will crave, when the book has ended, to meet again. I am so glad to be once again plunged back into this world (though the weather on the first few pages is nasty). Interestingly, Louise Penny is also a good friend of Hillary Clinton and opened for her a few years back at an event in Montreal, just after Hillary’s book had come out. That was another trip, another surprise…but if you haven’t ever read Louise Penny and you like mysteries, do give this series a try.

Another surprise of a similar order happened (that same afternoon) when I came upon a bright blue paperback volume by another favorite, Lisa See. The Island of Sea Women. What?! Again, I had no idea. I

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snatched it up, along with the Penny, began it right away and found myself quickly transported to a world so different from the ones I have known. Have you read any Lisa See? The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane? Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? Peony in Love? I’ve read and loved them all. Most focus on the lives of Chinese or Chinese-American women, but The Island of Sea Women is set on the Korean Island of Jeju and follows the lives of two girls (unlikely friends) from very different backgrounds, both of whom work from childhood to old age as haenyeo, female divers. Their story spans a number of decades, from the 1930s to the present. It is fascinating, violent and heartbreaking at times, and all in all, eye-opening the way it immerses one in a culture where women are the breadwinners, diving in frigid waters, subjecting themselves to all kinds of dangers, while the men watch the children.

This story begins at the end, with an old woman sitting on a beach, “a cushion strapped to her bottom, sorting algae that’s washed ashore.” I love how See opens her tale this way, with her main character all grown up, on a lonely shore, and then takes us back like a riptide to the beginning. I also love the descriptions of the diving itself—women disappearing into the inky chasms of the sea canyons in search of sea urchins, abalone, octopus…sometimes reaching twenty or more meters on a single breath, resurfacing with the sound of a deep sigh (sumbisori), hauling their prize to the boat, then taking another series of deep breaths and going back down, down, lungs full of salty air, into the cold waters once again. In temperatures that make you reach for a muffler just to think about. Highly recommend Lisa See, and this new one is terrific.

The Red Daughter is another book I discovered in Montreal (quite a store of treasures from my afternoon “dive”), mainly because it was one of the bookseller’s’ recommendations and because I noticed Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach, and Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting For Stone, had both given it good shout-outs on the back cover. It isn’t the happiest book I’ve ever read, but it’s interesting, and different, and well written. It is based on a true story, but then embellished and imbued with the author’s

imaginations and thoughts.

What is true is that (as the author’s note explains), “in the spring of 1967, a young New York lawyer named Alan U. Schwartz traveled to Switzerland under CIA cover to meet a Russian woman and escort her secretly into the United Sates. The woman, Svetlana Alliluyeva, was the only daughter and surviving child of Joseph Stalin, Ruler of the Soviet Union from the mid 1920s until his death in 1953 and unquestionably among the most lethal, ruthless, and monstrous dictators the world has ever known.” The young lawyer was the author’s father. Through private papers and extensive research, John Burnham Schwartz recreates the story of a complicated, sensitive, intelligent and (understandably) troubled woman trying to do the next right thing for herself and her two children (whom she leaves behind) in a new country where she knows next to no one, balancing as best she can a future with a devastating past. Unusual, very good book.

Last but not least is a collection of essays by a local author (and a good friend of mine), Made Holy by Emily Casey. An excellent read, one that takes you into the author’s thoughts and memories, her childhood and life as a wife and a mother, and leads you onto icy Minnesota ponds and wooded paths and dad-made log cabins, all the time reminding you how complicated and deep and rich being a human being really is. Mothers, fathers, siblings and cousins make appearances, along with the darkly shimmering thread of the family disease of alcoholism—all steeped somehow in gorgeous, evocative, healing, grounding descriptions of nature and how the author is so profoundly connected to and shaped by it.

I happened to be reading this book recently when I visited southern Vermont, where I grew up, to do a wedding and spend a night at my parents’ house. It was an even shorter jaunt than the one my daughter and I took to Montreal, but it gave me some time to visit with my parents and walk in the woods, fields and hills of the land where I spent the first two decades of my existence.

Casey’s book opened me up to depths and nuances I might have skimmed over had I not been reading it at the time. It is a brave, honest and inspiring work that I found challenged me to go deeper, to surrender just a little more to the vastness of memory and what it means to belong and to be here, fully, now. It rooted and expanded me in ways difficult to describe. It is a book that probably should be read more than once.

Excellent. Highly recommend.

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The Charlotte News • September 19, 2019 • 15

Out Takes

War, from Da Nang to Madison and back again Edd Merritt

And it’s 1, 2, 3, what are we fightin’ for?

Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam And it’s 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates.

Well there ain’t no time to wonder why WHOOPEE … we’re all gonna die.

Vietnam Song – Country Joe and the Fish Oh yes, I remember now. It was Woodstock 50 years ago, and for me it was also Vietnam three years before that.

I managed to hit both places at a time in my and my country’s life when the toll of these phenomena on what had been a longstanding culture was visibly alive and swayed differently in the minds of citizens. One said, “Go kill an evil enemy.” The other said, “No, that in itself is evil. If you’re going to kill anyone, make it one of those so-called leaders who feel it incumbent to make killing and dying a badge of honor.”

I just finished a book by David Marannis that added another dimension to that time period and, moreover, to the tragedy of war that we have felt so often is inevitable and a way to correct evil brought about by others.

Like so much we promote, it had a political basis. The party or individuals who call themselves leaders of our country believed to kill was correct, to die was heroic, and we, in turn, honored the heroes. Does it sound a bit familiar to what is happening today?

The book, They Marched into Sunlight (Simon and Schuster, 2003), shifts its setting between Vietnam and the cataclysmic ambush of an American battalion, the 2/28 Black Lions, and the campus of the University of Wisconsin with its divided protests over the war, particularly the use of napalm and its manufacture by Dow Chemical Company, who wanted to recruit UW graduates to work in its factories. Both sides of the story

happened in the late 1960s.

I had been discharged from the Navy in 1968, had driven to New York City and attended Woodstock the following year. I spent a summer of undergraduate school at the University of Wisconsin and knew the campus, even though I was not there at the time in the book. In the fall of 1968, I was pursuing a masters at Columbia and participated in some demonstrations against the war, so I saw the student/government confrontation in an up-close and personal way.

The main difference between the Madison, Wisconsin, and New York City student demonstrations was that in Madison it was police who attempted to disrupt the demonstrators and chose to do it through violence, clubbing them when they got out of order. In New York, members of the CIA infiltrated the demonstrating students, but they were easily identifiable. They were the members of the crowd dressed in white shirts, black suits and ties. If you saw one of them, you headed to another end of campus.

Short of Country Joe’s anthem to the wrongness of Vietnam, Woodstock attendees wanted to simply live out on the land and set their souls free. By and large we were not there to denounce our country. We were there to bring the dream of oneness between people and land together, and music played a major role in doing so. You know, “Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last. . . Hello lamppost, what ya knowin? I come to watch your flowers growin’.”

The commonality that Maraniss points to in his book is the violence that lies in war and in protest. Military training focused on ways to capture and kill the enemy. Protest control came in beating American college students into submission. He sees a commonality in both efforts—although the war zone was more horrific. It was a foreign land coupled with foreign soldiers for whom the best American was a dead one.

I remember body counts being the way our generals and politicians measured whether the U.S. was winning in Vietnam. As one soldier noted, his commanding officer asked for a body count, but the GI was a radioman, and he thought it strange that the count request came since he was having enough trouble giving a “reasonably accurate accounting of his own men.”

Fighting in the hills and jungles was another matter. Maraniss describes in his ambush chapter how faulty technology overcame soldiers’ minds. Forced to fight with a faulty M-16 rifle that had jammed, one company soldier became “too scared to think clearly.”

The VC hung from the trees and ambushed the Americans at will. It was the “killing fields” trails and forests, and as often as our president and his commanders said otherwise, we were losing people and country from those who claimed to be its rightful owners. As

crosscut.com Maraniss says, the men of Delta Company “were pinned down, confused, woozy with fright, fighting to save themselves and their buddies.” Their lives were at stake, not a political construct. That belonged to those who were not there.

In situations like these, war is about soldiers not countries, about human beings living and dying, not about democracy or communism. Many of those who volunteered to serve in Vietnam did not know this and gave up their bodies for what they thought was a greater good. Many of them died in the forests and swamps and never saw that greater good.

One believes that the Black Lions left alive finally understood this as they came out of the ambush area. For those who took the enemy fire, their lives became their principal assets; their minds focused on living. Too many Lions never saw their short-timer calendars run their complete gamut.

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16 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Slovenian bee buildings provide a peek into the lives of honeybees Chea Waters Evans Slovenian Bee Building sounds like the name of a cool band or a drink for sale at Starbucks. What it is, though, is a method of beekeeping that has been around for eons but never on a large scale in Vermont. Peter Demick of Charlotte has one, and the results are fascinating.

Demick’s farm is tucked back on a long driveway, hidden from the road, on East Thompson’s Point. He says he doesn’t welcome many visitors, and his bees aren’t a business venture—just an expensive hobby, but one that provides hours a day of entertainment.

A traditional beehive typically seen across the U.S. and Vermont is called a Langstroth hive. It consists of painted boxes stacked vertically; Demick said he had them for a dozen years before he decided to build the Palm Beach mansion for bees that is currently filled with 800,000 happy and, yes, busy residents.

The outside of the Slovenian bee building looks like a regular shed or farm outbuilding from one side; the south side, though, looks like something out of a fairy tale. The entrance and exits of the hives themselves are about four feet off the ground, their exteriors painted with primary colors. Inside, the building is light and airy and smells like

freshly cut wood; a large picture window building. Demick said, “The best part is, looks out onto a field of sunflowers. Though when you have a Langstroth hive, you it’s noisy and abuzz on the outside of the can’t actually see what’s going on in your building, the buzzing is muted and almost beehive, because there’s only the entrance peaceful on the inside. and you’d have to stick a scope up there to The advantage of the Slovenian hive see.” structure is that instead of stacking the bees There’s a screen on the back of each on top of each separate hive; other, their Demick’s honeycombs contains are slid side space for 12 by side into separate hives, the hive. but currently “Everything’s only 10 are on a stainless occupied. A steel slide so little wooden you can pull door protects them in and the back of out,” Demick each hive, and said. opening one This enables reveals a loud the beekeeper buzz and a The fun of a Slovenian bee building is that it allows a look to disrupt, if inside the hive.

Photo by Chea Waters Evans peek into the need be, one world of the section of honeybees. the hive at a time, instead of picking up the There’s a chamber on the bottom for whole thing just to get to one of the hives the queen and a grow chamber for her on the bottom. This makes the bees less minions to live above her without her going stressed, and less angry, and therefore less “upstairs,” as Demick said, to disturb them. likely to sting.

Demick uses a flashlight to peek in on Another perk of this system is the screens the bees and see what they’re up to and put over the back of the hive inside the said he can spend a couple hours a day just

watching them and observing their behavior.

“The coolest thing is that you can sit and watch, and actually, if you turn a light right, you can see them all working. You can look way back into the hive…you can’t do this with any other kind of hive.”

An overhang above the outdoor entrance to the hive protects the bees from rain and midsummer heat. When it’s rainy or too warm, Demick said, the bees just hang out “like a beard” outside the entrance, but they don’t get wet. He said that Langstroth hives sit on the ground and can absorb moisture that comes from rain and snow and can develop mold and mildew. In the Slovenian bee building, there’s barely any moisture that makes its way into the honey. “My honey has between 11 and 15 percent less water,” Demick said.

The funny thing is, Demick doesn’t even eat honey. He said he gets “about three to four hundred quarts of honey a year; we get 60 pounds of honey out of one setup.” He gives the honey to friends and neighbors.

The joy of beekeeping comes for him not from making money but from helping a struggling bee population recover from recent drops that occurred from pesticides and Varroa bees, which are parasites that live on honeybees. see BEES page 17

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The roof overhang on Demick’s building allows the bees to hang out outside during hot or rainy weather.

Photo courtesy Peter Demick

BEES continued from page

16

He also gets a kick out of watching them. “They’re fascinating little things,” he said. To keep his bees in a good mood, Demick also recently planted 15 pounds of wildflower seeds. “That helps make them happy.”

This hobby isn’t an inexpensive one, at least when the bee condo on your farm is, as Demick said, “the largest one in America.”

The building was formerly located on the Foote Farm, which is now the site of Philo Ridge Farm in Charlotte. Demick, who is a stone mason professionally—“I play with rocks,” he said—created the stone fireplace and rock walls there.

All told, Demick estimates that he spent about $35,000 on the project, which includes insulating the building so that it doesn’t get below 20 degrees or so in the winter.

“Langstroth hives are subject to the wind, the rain; even if you put a blanket around there, when it’s 20 below, those bees are cold. Fully insulated to R40 and floors to R60. And they love it.” He also noted that the other type of hive needs to be brushed from snow in the winter so the bees don’t suffocate.

Demick acknowledges with a smile, “For a hobby, the building’s a little over the top,” which could be the reason why Slovenian bee hives haven’t taken off for beekeepers in the U.S., but it’s well worth it. He just loves the bees and the work they do.

“It’s stunningly incredible,” he said.

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18 • September 19, 2019 • The Charlotte News

Carolyn Kulik

SENIOR CENTER DIRECTOR

“When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it—a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand—as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic.

If there’s a clash between the two, it’s bad art.” ~ Marc Chagall And, on the other side of the coin we have surely had the experience of driving on winding Vermont roads and feeling as though we were in a painting.

Special info

On Oct. 3 at 12:15, there will be an A.E.D. review (automatic external defibrillator); please sign up for that in advance by calling the Center. And that same day, from 2 to 7 p.m., the Senior Center will host a Blood Drive in affiliation with the American Red Cross. To register to donate, please contact RedCrossBlood.org. The Senior Center is famous for its friendly hosts, great snacks and comfortable atmosphere.

On Monday, 10/7, from 10:30-11:30 a.m., tickets to the Age Well Universal Restaurant Ticket Program will be available at the Senior Center for the first time. Pat Long, nutrition coordinator, will be in to dispense tickets for this popular program. You must be 60 years old, and Pat will be able to register you on the spot.

Suggested donation for each ticket is $5, good for one year at participating restaurants on certain days. Please bring cash or check.

This program will be offered on the first Monday of every month.

Courses starting soon

French for Travelers starts on Tuesday, 9/24, and meets at 1 p.m. for eight weeks.

It is intended for those who know little or no French but would like to be able to use it when dining or traveling. (Do you know there are more than 25 countries where French is spoken?) Of if you can already converse in the language, there is the French Conversation Circle that meets at 2:15.

On Friday, 9/27, Moving Better, Living Better returns at 9:30 a.m. every week. This gentle exercise/movement class utilizes music and is a little hard to categorize, but it is definitely worth a visit. It aims to build strength, stamina, flexibility and postural stability, while learning how to move fluidly without causing injury. Please note that, as with most of the Center’s exercise classes, you may visit one time to see if it is right for you at no charge; fee is $10 per class.

Starting on Wednesday, 10/2, a weekly book discussion group meets from 1011:15 throughout the month. It will take a guided look at Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying by Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush. The authors are two masterful teachers who offer practical guidance on “how death gives us an unparalleled opening to cultivate gratitude, compassion, mindfulness, and an abiding joy in the simple beauty of living.” The group will be led by Margaret Woodruff, Charlotte Library director, and Pam MacPherson, community advocate for end-of-life care for over three decades. Registration required. No fee. Meets at the Senior Center.

The popular watercolor classes with Lynn Cummings are back again, starting with Watercolor: Painting the Colorful Autumn. It begins on Tuesday, 10/8, and runs for six weeks, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Explore colorful, autumn-themed subjects while practicing traditional and nontraditional techniques. Some experience with watercolor necessary. Please note that payment of $185 for this first session must be received by 10/1.

Starting on Friday, 10/4, for six weeks, is Italian for Travelers (Armchair or Otherwise) with Nicole Librandi. If you don’t plan to travel and just want to be more knowledgeable about Italian language, food and culture, this is for you. It meets at 1 p.m., 10/4–11/18; fee is $60 for the series.

Outdoor activities

On Tuesday, 9/24, join Fall Hike #1 with

SENIOR CENTER MENUS Suggested donation for all meals: $5

Monday Munch

Wednesday Lunch

September 23

September 25

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

No reservations required.

All diners eat at noon.

Reservations required.

Fresh tomato pie Greens Crème-fraiche chocolate chunk Cookie bars

Asparagus quiche Carrot & raisin salad Homemade dessert

Curried citrus quinoa Greens Chocolate zucchini cake

Crispy cinnamon chicken Roast potatoes, steamed broccoli Homemade birthday cake & ice cream

September 30

October 3

Thursday Gents Breakfast

7:00–9:00 a.m. Reservations required.

September 26 and October 10 Menu: TBA | Topic: TBA

(Keep up to date on Menus at our website, CharlotteSeniorCenterVT.org, and on Front Porch Forum, as they sometimes change.)

Mike Yantachka. It starts at the Center at 8:45 a.m. for carpooling and heads to Raven Ridge in Monkton. There are a total of 5 hikes on Tuesdays—with one as a rain date.

Each hike goes to a different location and has varying levels of difficulty. Fall Hike #2, on 10/2, goes to Rattlesnake Mountain, Willsboro and meets at 8:30 a.m. for the ferry. For more information, please call the Senior Center or drop in.

At 10 a.m., on Wednesday, 9/25, you have an opportunity to go Strolling in Charlotte with Janet Yantachka. Sign up for a date and meet up at the Senior Center to carpool for a leisurely walk on the Town Link Trail—a flat, gravel path. Call for weather updates after 9 a.m. Registration is requested for each week. No fee.

The last Kayaking for Women trip is on Friday, 9/27, and is headed for the Chittenden Reservoir. For more information and to sign up, contact Susan Hyde directly at susanfosterhyde@gmail.com. If you missed these trips this year, make a note for next summer, 2020. Exercise, adventure and fun are somehow all squeezed into them.

This next item fits somewhere between an outdoor activity and an art event. On Saturday, 10/5, at 9:30 a.m. is a trip to Lemon Fair Sculpture Park in Shoreham.

Frank and Elaine Ittleman’s outdoor art can be seen on the 1.5-mile loop that passes about a dozen large-scale pieces. With Frank as our guide, enjoy both the scenery and the artwork. Bring water, wear sturdy shoes; head home around noon, or stop in nearby Middlebury for lunch. Registration is necessary. No fee.

Wednesday Afternoon Events at 1 p.m.—after lunch

9/25: Artists Reception & Gathering Artists whose work is in the 13th Annual Senior Center Community Art Show gather to discuss their pieces and their creative process. All are invited to the reception with light refreshments at 1 p.m. The show will be ending after this, as artists pick up their work.

10/2: Cycling Along the Dutch Coast with John Hammer ~ Have a look at what a cycle-barge trip along the Dutch Coast is like with visits to some cities and tips on museums. ~ The best times to see the art exhibit in September ~ Mon. at noon, Tues. after 12:30, Wed. 9:30-noon, Thurs. after 12:30, Fri. after 12:30.

Please call the Center during the week to check on Sunday availability.

Do visit our website, CharlotteSeniorCenterVT.org, for more details and menus. If you have questions or would like to register, please call 425-6345, M-F from 9-4. We are at 212 Ferry Road, Charlotte, right across from the post office.

The Senior Center’s mission is to serve those 50 and up. Residents from other communities are always welcome. Stop in and say hello.

See you soon! ________________ Charlotte Senior Center (802) 425-6345

The Charlotte News • September 19 • 19

Classifieds Reach your friends and neighbors for only $12 per issue. (Payment must be sent before issue date.) Please limit your ad to 35 words or fewer and send it to The Charlotte News Classifieds, P.O. Box 251, Charlotte, VT 05445 or email ads@thecharlottenews.org.

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Charlotte Planning Commission Regular Meeting Agenda Thursday September 19, 2019

At the Charlotte Town Hall – 159 Ferry Road

For information please call the Planning and Zoning Office at 425-3533.

Application materials are available online at www.charlottevt.org.

Reasonable accommodation shall be provided upon request to ensure this meeting is accessible to all individuals regardless of disability.

Times are approximate 7:00 p.m. Public Meeting Call to Order

Approval of Regular Agenda Public Comment Period

Review of the previous Planning Commission meeting minutes

Consent Agenda 7:05

Next steps for the East Charlotte Village (ECV) – To view the deliberative information regarding the 2019 East Charlotte Village district boundary, please visit: https://is.gd/qrBQLB. To review the 2010 “East Charlotte Village Planning Project” document, please visit: https://is.gd/EGupHF.

7:45

Act 143 applied to the Charlotte Land Use Regulations – Selectboard and Planning Commission discussion on possible updates to the local land use regulations related to accessory on-farm businesses. For more information, visit: https://is.gd/O378ZQ

8:45

Update of the 1997 “Recommended Standards for Developments and Homes” – for future Road and Driveway construction standards – Planning Commission discussion.

9:15

Other business Adjourn

NOTICE: TO APPEAL ANY DECISION OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION, INTERESTED PARTIES MUST PARTICIPATE IN THE REGULATORY PROCEEDING (24 V.S.A. SECTION 4471) Reasonable accommodations shall be provided upon request to ensure this meeting is accessible to all individuals regardless of disability.

Planning Commissioners: Peter Joslin (Chair); Charlie Pughe (Vice Chair), Marty Illick, Gerald Bouchard, Jim Faulkner, David Kenyon, and Shawn Coyle. Staff: Daryl Arminius, Town Planner; Lynn Monty, Recording Secretary

Please do your part to support the paper If you enjoy the stories and the news we publish in each issue of The Charlotte News, your financial gift to the paper will ensure that we continue to provide for your reading pleasure in 2019.

All contributions—and we welcome them in any amount—are tax deductible.

Donate online at www.charlottenewsvt.org/donate-to-the-charlotte-news Or send a check made out to The Friends of The Charlotte News, PO Box 211, Charlotte, VT 05445.

Thank you, from all of us at The News.

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Sacred Hunter Autumn: A hunter’s greatest blessing Bradley Carleton

Bradley Carleton with a giant puffball mushroom.

out on a limb and sits, flicking his big tail side to side, chewing on a nut. He has presented himself to me, and it is time to claim his spirit as my own. As I squeeze the trigger, I say out loud “Thank you, brother.” Tonight, we will have a Brunswick stew with sautéed puffball mushrooms.

Bradley Carleton is executive director of Sacred Hunter.org, a nonprofit that seeks to educate the public on the spiritual connection of man to nature.

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As September slips away, summer releases its warm grip. Days begin to cool off, and the Canada geese fly with joy for their migration. Gray squirrels scamper across the forest floor, picking through the white and red acorns and the occasional hickory or butternut. The leaves begin to show the promise of fall as they turn miraculous shades of gold and red, draping canopies over the backroads.

To stroll down a dirt road with walls of gold, orange and reds feels like walking in the hallway of an ancient castle. Evenings start to get downright chilly, and hunters of all types can be seen quickening their pace to get those last summer chores finished. Autumn is a hunter’s greatest blessing. There are puffball mushrooms, hen of the woods and chicken of the woods to be discovered in the shaded woods.

Maybe even a chaga.

I like to walk through the hardwoods with my .22 rifle and find a majestic old oak to sit under. I slow my breathing and begin observing the world around me. The smell of the forest floor, musty and pungent. I breathe in deeply, the smell of fresh earth stinging my nostrils. With a west wind I can smell the lake turning over its cold water, exchanging it for the warmer surface water. The fragrance of hickory nuts and beechnuts are welcome harbingers of autumn. In the distance, woodsmoke from someone’s firepit, celebrating the last rites of summer. A cerulean sky above me, I begin to drift into a transcendental state.

Suddenly, above me, I hear a chip-chip-chipping sound and see the large, still-green leaves rustle at the top of the tree across the path.

My eyes strain to seek the maker of this movement. Small pieces of brown dust float down to the ground from on high. I know what it is that makes these movements. Squinting,

I can make out a flicker of a gray tail between the crotch of a branch and the trunk of the old tree. I raise my .22 and peer through the 4x power scope. Searching through the leaves, I cannot see my target. Out of the silence that binds the two of us, a loud trilling sound emerges from the highest branches. I can hear him. I can see his movements shaking the leaves and branches to knock the epicurean delights from their stems, sending them plummeting to the ground.

Plunk. Plunk. One of the acorns lands right in my lap and I laugh to myself.

What if this old bushytail scurries down the tree and tried to take this morsel right off my leg?

These little clowns of the hardwoods are so gregarious when they are without fear. My big guy lights up the woods with a loud chattering, telling all the other gray squirrels that this is his territory and he’s got dibs on all these luscious acorns. Soon the woods around me begin to echo with squirrel chatter, each bushytail claiming its own boundary. It feels as though I am surrounded. I hear scampering and scratching on the forest floor behind me, then to my left, then to my right.

The feed is on!

Patiently, I begin to practice my breathing. Slowing it down. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Quietly. Steadily. As my blood pressure builds inside me, my breathing keeps me calm and prepared. On the tree in front of me I get a glance of a gray head peering around the side of the oak about 30 feet up on the trunk. He stares right at me, but I do not move. I am covered head to toe in 3D camouflage. Only my eyes move, and then I try not to blink. The head disappears and spirals around the back side of the trunk.

I raise my rifle and wait. Breath in.

Breathe out. Steady hands. Right eye just ½” behind the eyepiece of the scope. I scan the tree trunk and wait.

Suddenly, ten feet higher, he walks