Archive
July 30th, 2009
By JOHN FLOWERS
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury selectmen are backing off their original pitch to state officials for a temporary span to take traffic from the Pulp Mill Bridge when it closes for extensive repairs, possibly in 2011. They will instead lobby for paving and intersection improvements to handle the extra traffic that will hit downtown during the project.
By CHELSEY PLETTS
MIDDLEBURY — The Addison County Humane Society has rarely turned away an animal during its 34-year history as a safe haven for the lost, abandoned, abused or surrendered.
Now, however, the shelter is seeing a critical number of cats pouring into the facility at a rate that Executive Director Jackie Rose is concerned they cannot keep up with.
“We are facing a cat overpopulation crisis,” Rose said. “The number of cats and unwanted cats that are in our communities is reaching really epidemic proportions.”
By KATHRYN FLAGG
ADDISON COUNTY — A Vermont Milk Commission meeting last week ended in much the same way that many conversations about Vermont’s flagging dairy industry have ended this year: with state officials looking once again to Washington.
The commission’s July 23 meeting culminated with a resolution thanking Vermont’s Congressional delegation for its work in trying to increase prices paid to dairy farmers, and asking those delegates to convey to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget the “emergency nature of the needed aid” for dairy farmers.
By KATHRYN FLAGG
MIDDLEBURY — Bridget Butler is paddling into uncharted territory, searching out the headwaters where new media, local storytelling and ecological stewardship converge.
The St. Albans resident and ECHO Center conservationist is heading up a two-year project that has her scampering around Lake Champlain in person and online to collect stories about the lake that she hopes will inspire stewardship efforts.
Mow no more — or, at the very least, less. The grounds crew at the Middlebury College has reduced the amount of lawn they mow by 20 acres this summer, allowing pockets of the landscape to return to flower-filled meadows. Previously, the school has mowed roughly 75 acres of lawn on the main campus each summer — which took seven employees moving for three full days to complete one mowing cycle.
July 29th
A weekly blog about everything from farming food to cooking it
The late afternoon sun is hot, but inside the brick walls of 51 Main a group of people sits on the leather couches in the corner, talking and laughing in the cool air. When I walk in, sweaty from the heat and feeling as though I’ve just run 10 miles, I look around and feel a little out of place. I should be relaxing, cool drink in hand.
July 27th
MIDDLEBURY — Longtime Middlebury Union High School varsity football coach Peter Brakeley will return to the sidelines this fall and lead a Tiger squad, but will not return to the same post he left a year ago for medical reasons.
Instead, Brakeley, a cancer patient who also in January returned to his Middlebury Union Middle School teaching job after a medical leave, will take the reins of the MUHS junior varsity football team. He will replace his son, Gus Brakeley, who will assist the Middlebury College football program.
The Bristol Planning Commission took a welcome stance last week when it staked out a more thorough process to solicit public comment on gravel and resource extraction that would be included in its revised town plan. The revisions have been ongoing for the past couple of years and the planning commission hopes to have the proposed draft completed for selectboard review this fall. It has finally put a full-court press on gathering public opinion on this controversial topic — but, hey, better late than never.
