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MONDAY EDITION ADDISON COUNTY Vol.INDEPENDENT 31 No. 26 Middlebury, Vermont Monday, November 11, 2019 40 Pages $1.00 Donations sought to boost Condos stresses downtown Midd. activities transparency in Folk giant By JOHN FLOWERS WinterFest — that county residents have MIDDLEBURY — For the first time come to enjoy through the years. local government to perform in its history, the Better Middlebury The BMP’s financial crunch has become By JOHN FLOWERS Partnership (BMP) is asking for out- more acute in recent years because it has MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Secretary • Tom Rush brings his of-town donations to help subsidize the had to drop a few popular fundraising of State Jim Condos brought his “2019 guitar and hit songs to the special holiday and recreational events events that have been key in underwriting transparency tour” to Middlebury on Tuesday, (See Condos, Page 27) THT on Nov. 14. — like the annual Spooktacular and (See Middlebury, Page 26) See Page 10. Local firms bag $60k in grants • Money will help meat processing business, furniture maker, and others. See Page 2. Field hockey sought repeat • Middlebury hosted the NESCAC final four seeking a second straight title and NCAA bid. See Page 24. White out AN UNTOLD NUMBER of snow geese fly above the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Addison on Nov. 2. The agricultural fields on the WMA provide important feeding areas for geese and other wildlife. Clover, trefoil, alfalfa and grasses are eaten by deer, rabbits and woodchucks, as well as Canada and snow geese during migration. Photo by Jeannette Armell of Vergennes ‘Commoners’ take on conservation Surgeon stays Groups consider water, air, wildlife on cutting edge By CHRISTOPHER ROSS Conservation Congress at Mount • Porter’s Dr. Elya Vasiliou BRISTOL — Melody Walker Abraham Union High School. “I Brook, a citizen of the Elnu is advancing new protocols thought my entire identity was Abenaki Tribe, never thought she gone.” to get patients home sooner. would move away from Vermont When Brook arrived in See Page 3. and the land of her ancestors. Virginia she thought, There But when her husband, a military are no hawks here. No turtles. policeman, was transferred to Nothing. SANDRA MURPHY CHATS with Elnu Abenaki Tribe citizen Virginia, she went. “But then a big hawk came Melody Walker Brook, who appeared via videoconferencing at the “I’ve been on an incredible and sat right out in my garden, Commons Conservation Congress at Mount Abe on Nov. 2. Brook, journey,” she said by video link on the post,” she said from her who spoke from her home in Virginia, emphasized the importance of helping people understand their connection to “place.” on Nov. 2 during the Commons (See Conservation, Page 30) Photo by Jonathan Blake PAGE 2 — Addison Independent, Monday, November 11, 2019 Grants to boost four county businesses MIDDLEBURY – Four Addison County businesses will benefit from a combined total of $59,600 in grants through the state’s “Building Community” program, money that will be used for such projects as creating a meat processing facility off Middlebury’s Exchange Street and upgrading a donut-making operation in Shoreham. The Addison County Econom- ic Development Corp (ACEDC) applied for, was awarded, and will administer the grants, which come through the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services. The Building Community program requires that the funds be essential to each project’s success, that they be “shovel ready,” demonstrate job REP. AMY SHELDON (D-Middlebury) and five other members of the Vermont Legislature’s Climate Solutions Caucus convened creation or retention potential, a climate policy forum at the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society in Middlebury on Thursday evening. The Climate and that each receiving business Caucus has been working since last May to develop legislative solutions to the climate crisis and are traveling the state to report match their grant dollar for on their progress. Independent photo/Christopher Ross dollar. The four funded Addison County businesses and projects include: Legislators hold climate policy forum • $14,000 to Agricola Meats, LLC, Middlebury, to renovate By CHRISTOPHER ROSS framework for preventing and equip space on Exchange MIDDLEBURY — Members global average temperatures Street for specialty meat pro- of the Vermont Legislature’s from reaching 2 degrees Celsius cessing. Climate Solutions Caucus cutlines 11 11 19 Climate Solutions Caucus are above pre-industrial levels, • $15,000 to Bristol Bakery & editor’s folder organizing a series of climate which scientists say would lead Café Wholesale, LLC, to invest policy forums all over the to catastrophic and irreversible in new equipment for packaging. state to share their legislative climate disruption. • $15,000 to Champlain Or- priorities for 2020 and bring Pearson noted that last week, chards in Shoreham to upgrade more Vermonters into the after the Trump Administration its donut-making operation. climate conversation. announced that it had begun the • $15,600 to Wooden Hammer, On a snowy Thursday formal process of withdrawing LLC, of Monkton, to renovate evening, six caucus members from the Paris Agreement, and equip space to expand wood- convened at the Champlain Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and 24 working and cabinetry activities. Valley Unitarian Universalist other state governors pledged to “We are extremely apprecia- Society in Middlebury to share uphold the agreement anyway. tive of the continued support their work. According to the current provided by ACEDC and this “Climate work is all draft of the GWSA, Vermonters grant,” said Alessandra Rellini, improvised on some level,” would have the right to sue owner of Agricola Meats. “Cured said Sen. Chris Pearson the state if it falls down on its meat is becoming a major trend (P-Burlington). “Nobody has obligation, Pearson noted. in the country and through this shown us what to do. We have “We need to mean this if we’re project we are able to highlight snippets all around the world going to accomplish it.” the exceptional work our farmers that we can draw from, and Pearson was joined by local do and place Vermont on market some right here in Vermont, but legislators Sen. Chris Bray shelves throughout New England nobody has offered us a neat (D-Bristol), Rep. Mari Cordes and beyond, while supporting package of legislation and said (D-Lincoln), Rep. Caleb Elder SEN. CHRIS BRAY (D-Bristol) and other Vermont lawmakers answered climate policy questions during a public forum in our current landscape. It is a ‘do this and you’re good.’” (D-Starksboro), Rep. Robin Middlebury Thursday evening. Organized by the Legislature’s win-win-win situation.” The caucus is working on Scheu (D-Middlebury) and Rep. Climate Solutions Caucus, the forum was one of several planned “These funds have been criti- some key pieces of legislation, Amy Sheldon (D-Middlebury). throughout the state in coming weeks. cal to the on-boarding of a new, however, including the Scheu outlined the caucus’s Independent photo/Christopher Ross large customer with specialized Global Warming Solutions overarching values and of origin or color of skin. • Our polices are data-driven packaging needs,” said Kevin Act (GWSA), which takes the principles: • We strive to represent and grounded in science. Harper, Owner of Bristol Bakery. emissions reduction goals from • The cost burdens of a shift all voices in our solutions, • Solutions drive improved “Now we can provide a full range the 2015 Paris Agreement and to a climate economy need to sit especially those who are most jobs and sustainable economic of manufacturing services from puts them into Vermont law, with those who have the greatest impacted. growth. our ovens to the retail shelf.” Pearson said. ability to pay. • We examine the secondary • Any new legislation we Champlain Orchards owner The Paris Agreement outlines • Climate refugees are and tertiary effects of our propose strives at a minimum to Bill Suhr was also excited about a scientific and regulatory welcome, regardless of country policies. (See Climate, Page 3) (See Programs, Page 7) Addison Independent, Monday, November 11, 2019 — PAGE 3 Effort speeds patients’ healing Climate Porter surgeon (Continued from Page 2) contained a two-cents-per gallon uses new technique do no harm. tax increase on heating fuel, • Vermonters are supported which was intended to raise $4 By JOHN FLOWERS as they transition to new million to shorten the 52-year MIDDLEBURY — Tiny employment or living patterns waiting list for low-income Porter Hospital is making as a result of what we’re trying weatherization, Bray said. giant strides in adopting new to do. That increase was vehemently patient-care techniques that The caucus worked through opposed by Gov. Scott and are allowing patients to better the summer to identify several others, and was eventually prepare for, and recover from, legislative priorities, explained omitted. major surgery. Cordes, who sits on the caucus’s Ironically, Bray pointed The Middlebury medical center communications workgroup. out, “While we were debating is practicing a new health care pro- Those priorities include: that two-cents increase, every tocol dubbed Enhanced Recovery • transportation weekend, when I was home After Surgery, or ERAS, which is • building efficiency from Montpelier, I’d fill up at primarily being applied to those • the green economy the gas station at Maple Fields, undergoing colorectal surgery. • regional cooperation right over there. And every week Piloted with great effect at Johns • land use/resilience (the price of gas) went up. For Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, • advancing renewable energy five weeks in a row it went up ERAS represents a departure generation seven cents (each time). No one from such traditional strategies • accountability in budgeting said a peep about the 35-cent as prescribing ample bed rest and and revenue increase.” dispensing narcotic painkillers A number of caucus If those gas prices hold, Bray following colorectal surgery.