February 26, 2007

Editor’s note: The candidates for mayor and the Vergennes city council spoke in a forum hosted by American Legion Post 14 on Thursday night. This article focuses on the two mayoral candidates. An article in our Thursday edition will focus on the five candidates for three seats on the city council.

By ANDY KIRKALDY

VERGENNES — At a forum at American Legion Post 14 on Thursday night, two Vergennes mayoral candidates with long public service résumés — incumbent April Jin and challenger Michael Daniels — differed on approaches to financial questions, the amount of time each could devote to the job, and the future role of volunteerism in solving some of the city’s problems.

February 26, 2007

By MEGAN JAMES

MIDDLEBURY — Voters in 17 Addison County towns on March 6 will vote on the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center’s $3,079,821 budget, a 0.16 percent increase that keeps the spending plan technically level-funded. Voters will also be asked to approve an additional $143,261, next year’s budget for the Adult Technical Education Program, which has increased by 4.1 percent.

Career Center director Lynn Coale said the major contributing factor to next year’s level-funding was the reduction in the center’s debt related to last spring’s $4.3 million North Campus addition off Mainelli Road.

According to the Career Center’s business manager Mark Bouvier, as a result of the construction the center’s budget last year included $85,000 in short term borrowing funds as well as the project’s annual principal payment of $110,000 plus interest — the Center bonded a total of $2,170,000.

February 26, 2007

By CYRUS LEVESQUE

BRISTOL — The Slow Food movement — as a counter to the “fast food” movement — isn’t about slow service in the same way that “fast food” is about the speedy delivery of mass produced foods. But it is about producing foods with local products, celebrating local kitchen culture, and observing the importance of quality foods in our lives.

At a recent gathering in Mary’s at Baldwin’s Creek, a Bristol restaurant, invited guests relished an evening of dining produced primarily from locally-raised foods at a reunion of people devoted to the cause of slow food.

According to John Elder of Bristol, Middlebury College professor of environmental studies and maple sugar maker, Slow Food International “celebrates and promotes the value of traditional food in local cultures.”

February 22, 2007

By ANDY KIRKALDY

BRIDPORT — A heartfelt debate on the pros and cons of a bill in the Legislature that would stop the practice of Vermont dairy farmers paying milk hauling fees enlivened Monday’s Legislative Breakfast, which was held at the home of the series’ sponsor, Bridport Grange No. 303.

The bill, now in the Senate Agriculture Committee, would make it illegal for farmers to pay “hauling and stop” charges to the companies that deliver their milk, as has been the practice for decades. Essentially, farmers, who are facing growing financial pressures and historically low milk prices, are the ones who pay to have their milk picked up when they sell it, not the companies that buy it.