Editorial

Connecting and Cooking

by Lucas Hall and Ginger Bowley, Community Journalists HARDWICK – We are students in a class at Hazen Union called “Recipe for Human Connection” which is based on connecting and cooking with your peers. On Thursday, January 18, Ginger and I helped with the community lunch for part of our[Read More…]

Flood Recovery and FEMA Maps Led the Agenda

MONTPELIER – Returning to the State House for the 2024 Legislative Session, the biggest priority on everyone’s mind was flood recovery. We heard testimony about it in both Natural Resources and Energy and in Government Operations . Beyond the immediate needs of making those devastated by the floods whole, I’m[Read More…]

Us and Them or We?

How we think of those around us sometimes makes a big difference in how we treat them. In recent years we’ve watched as our national political dialogue has become more about preventing the opposition from succeeding than in having a plan for creating a vision to address real issues faced[Read More…]

Right-to-repair is a Pro-common-sense Bill

by Rep. Anne Donahue (R), Northfield and Rep. Katherine Sims (D), Craftsbury MONTPELIER – Vermont has the opportunity to do the right thing for our farmers and loggers and to do it the Vermont way. Last year the Vermont House passed a pro-farmer, pro-logger, pro-market, pro-commonsense piece of legislation with[Read More…]

Power and Paradox

SHELBURNE – In the early eighties, I developed and led leadership workshops for government employees. “The Paradox of Managing Change” and my support for Madeleine Kunin’s gubernatorial campaign in Vermont got me on Reagan’s blacklist. Madeleine won the election, and I was prohibited from working with federal employees. Is change[Read More…]

The Session Begins

by Rep. Avram Patt, Lamoille-Washington District, Morristown, Elmore, Woodbury, Worcester and northern Stowe WOODBURY – The 2024 session of the Legislature began on July 3. It being the second half of a two-year biennium session, we will be dealing with a lot of new issues and bills, but we will[Read More…]

A House is Not a Homeless Shelter

Affordable housing and homelessness are hot topics in Vermont these days. Vermont Governor Scott said in his State of the State speech earlier this month, that “Decades of studies and data show it’s too expensive, too complicated and too slow to buy, rehab and build in Vermont.” The Governor continued,[Read More…]

Bridging Divides and Focusing on Solutions

Mandy L. Draper, community member and parent HARDWICK – I am writing this piece as a community member. These views are my own personal views and are not that of the school board. My writings are not endorsed by the school board or anyone in the district: these are my[Read More…]

Vermont House Considers Bills for Votes

CRAFTSBURY – We’re back at the statehouse and moving full steam ahead on a number of key issues including housing, flood recovery and climate resiliency, and affordability. Already, in the first two weeks, we’ve had several bills come to the House floor for votes, powerful testimony on bills under consideration[Read More…]

Your Town Meeting Needs You

I recall feeling a sense of being part of an engaged and connected community at my first Vermont Town Meeting on the first Tuesday in March of 1990. Greensboro residents Jane and Sig had grand plans for a recycling center behind the old school building that then served as the[Read More…]

Challenges Face Cabot School

by Rebecca Tatistcheff, Ed. D., Principal, Cabot School CABOT – Vermont has some of the most progressive education legislation in the country. Laurie Gagnon of the Aurora Institute recently wrote, “What’s especially important about Vermont’s approach is that it sets a vision for shifting the education system as a whole[Read More…]