MONDAY EDITION ADDISON COUNTY Vol.INDEPENDENT 31 No. 21 Middlebury, Vermont Monday, December 16, 2019 40 Pages $1.00 Early Mount Abe budget Kory George charged contains 1.8% increase with murdering step- By ANDY KIRKALDY At a Dec. 10 school board meeting, It’s time to BRISTOL — The Mount Abraham Superintendent Patrick Reen emphasized father, David Auclair Unified School District Board this week that the spending plan is “far from By CHRISOTPHER ROSS sing out will continue work on a budget for the anything set in stone.” MONKTON/BURLINGTON — Williston coming school year that, in its current The board must adopt a final district- • The public is invited to resident Kory Lee George, 31, on Friday state, proposes roughly $31.5 million in wide budget in January to put before voters pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree join in the annual singing spending. That represents an increase of in the five district towns in March. The murder in the July 11 killing of his stepfather, of Handel’s “Messiah.” See $557,000, or 1.8 percent, over the current MAUSD board will meet this Tuesday at 6 David Auclair. Arts Beat on Pages 10-11. Fiscal Year 2020 budget, which passed by p.m. at New Haven’s Beeman Elementary George, formerly of Monkton, also pleaded just 13 votes on Town Meeting Day this School, and the budget will again be on (See Murder charges, Page 19) past March. (See Budget, Page 18) ACSD joins Juul lawsuit Investigator’s • Multiple school districts report clears are seeking damages from the maker of e-cigarettes. Vt. Gas pipeline See Page 2. By ELIZABETH GRIBKOFF VTDigger.org An independent investigator MUHS Nordic hired by the state found the Addison County Natural Gas opens at Rikert Pipeline to be “generally” in compliance with state and • The Tiger cross-country federal requirements with a few skiers took to their home exceptions. trails on Saturday. See In a report filed this past Sports on Pages 24-26. Wednesday with the state Public Utility Commission, the investigator confirmed that construction plans for the pipeline were not stamped by a professional engineer and that parts of the pipeline under a swamp were not buried as deeply as required. But the report also says that Vermont Gas “was diligent in Sugary sculpture their efforts” to comply with THIS SUBMISSION TO the Vermont Folklife Center’s 21st annual Gingerbread House state regulators and federal safety Competition and Exhibit certainly puts viewers in the holiday mood. Check out this sweet regulations, often exceeding creation and a few dozen more on display at the center at 88 Main St. in Middlebury through those standards. Friday. See more photos on Page 20. Independent photo/Steve James Three months after the pipeline (See Pipeline, Page 15) Services plan Recreation land sale hinges on public access By LEE J. KAHRS proposed $1.5 million sale offered meeting this past Monday, Dec. of income for the town. The for the season PROCTOR — If there is a by Florida resident John Gerlach 9, where language related to timber harvested from the land • Many churches in greater public vote on the potential sale for the 1,600-acre Chittenden proposed voting articles was in accordance with the town’s Addison County have of prized town-owned watershed watershed parcel, word of the discussed following the public forestry management plan nets planned special Christmas land in Proctor, it will happen at offer has spread beyond Proctor comment period. roughly $250,000 every 10 years town meeting in March. to multiple outdoor recreation Proctor’s drinking water ran in timber sales. events. See Pages 28-29. Voters also will decide whether organizations, individuals and through the watershed until 2014, Gerlach’s attorney William any sale should hinge on keeping nature conservation groups in when the town discontinued Meub has said his client recently the land open to public use and Addison County and beyond. using the Chittenden water bought 574 acres of land adjacent protect the town’s resources. A number of people treatment plant. The land is also to the watershed parcel. Meub As the selectboard weighs representing those interests rich in hardwood timber, which has also stated that Gerlach has the investment potential of a attended the board’s regular has provided a steady source (See Proctor land sale, Page 14) PAGE 2 — Addison Independent, Monday, December 16, 2019 ACSD joins lawsuit targeting e-cigarettes Damages are sought from Juul By JOHN FLOWERS U.S. Surgeon General’s website. MIDDLEBURY — The Addi- The nicotine in e-cigarettes is son Central School District board addictive. Besides nicotine, the has signed on to a class action Surgeon General states e-ciga- lawsuit that seeks to recover dam- rettes can include such potentially ages from vaping device maker harmful ingredients as: Juul “regarding the presence at • Flavorings like diacetyl, a unacceptable detection limits of chemical linked to lung disease. the chemicals” in the company’s • Ultrafine particles that can be e-cigarettes. The board recently inhaled deep into the lungs. signed a contract with the law • Volatile organic compounds. firms of Frazer PLC; Maley and • Heavy metals, such as zinc, Maley PLLC; and Lynn, Lynn, lead, nickel and tin. Blackman & Manitsky P.C. Earlier this fall e-cigarettes The ACSD is only one of many were blamed for a spate across school districts throughout the the nation of injuries that led in country to sign onto the lawsuit, some cases for states to temporar- which has no guarantee of yield- ily ban sale of the devices. ing a financial windfall for the Juul’s namesake e-cigarette plaintiffs. But board members has become one of the more on Nov. 25 unanimously agreed popular vaping devices, in part there was nothing to lose in join- because it’s compact and easy to ing the legal action. Participating hide. A Juul e-cigarette cartridge districts won’t be on the hook for (also known as a “pod”) gives legal fees if the lawsuit fails. That the smoker around 200 puffs and said, the lawyers will be owed a transmits about as much nicotine total contingency fee of 33% of as a pack of cigarettes, according any settlement, with the plaintiffs to the federal Food and Drug divvying up the balance, accord- Administration (FDA). ing to the agreement. The federal Centers for “I thought it was a good idea, Disease Control and Prevention given the impact of (e-cigarette website reported 2,291 cases of use among students) and the insid- people having been hospitalized ious nature of it,” Superintendent nationwide for lung injuries Peter Burrows told the board, stemming from e-cigarette use as adding the ACSD’s participation of Dec. 3. The CDC reports — allows it to “make a statement” also as of Dec. 3 — a combined on the dangers of vaping. total of 48 deaths in 25 states and Sounds of Advent E-cigarettes are devices that the district of Columbia associat- CORNWALL RESIDENT EMILY Sunderman performs Mozart’s String Quartet K 421 in D heat a liquid into an aerosol that ed with vaping. Minor, along with fellow members of the Addison String Quartet, during this past Thursday the user inhales. The liquid usu- The Independent last Decem- Noon Advent Concert Series at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Middlebury. Sunderman ally has nicotine and flavoring in ber published an extensive article also directs the quartet. it, and other additives, according about e-cigarette use in Addison Independent photo/Steve James to information gleaned from the County. Contacted on Thursday, Mid- dlebury Union High School Reg- istered Nurse Kelly Landwehr said she believes vaping among MUHS students has declined Bridport, VT Homeowner slightly since last year, based on what she’s seen and from anecdot- Recommends Bristol Electronics al feedback she’s received from Middlebury School Resource The solar system that Bristol Electronics installed in 2016 has Officer Connor Sousa, a police paid entirely for the power at my home and my tenants’ home officer stationed in the schools. since they installed it. In addition to our general electricity needs, Landwehr hasn’t seen any stu- we have also used heat pumps extensively in the summer for air dents needing medical attention for acute respiratory ailments conditioning and in the fall and spring for heating. I haven’t paid a associated with vaping. But she’s “light” bill since we put the solar panels up. noted other disturbing symptoms. I made it clear that I like even rows. Since I only needed (32) “One thing I have seen, in panels they centered the bottom row. It came out beautiful. I look a handful of cases, is students at it and I am proud of how it looks. come in and they’ll be having Bristol Electronics was nice to work with and very thoughtful of symptoms of feeling really anx- my wishes throughout the project. ious — shaky, jittery, almost like Art Provencher – Bridport, VT they’re having a panic attack,” she said. “And some of them had recently been using an electronic 802 . 453 . 2500 vaping device. We definitely have BristolElectronicsVT.com students using (e-cigarettes), FREE SITE EVALUATIONS (See Vaping, Page 3) Addison Independent, Monday, December 16, 2019 — PAGE 3 ‘Longest Night’ service set Middlebury seeks a screener CORNWALL — With the curity of unemployment, the ourselves in.” intention of helping those weariness of ill health, the pain Position would Sheldon was among a group of who find the holiday season of isolation – all can create an Addison County lawmakers that difficult, the Cornwall Con- intense feeling of loneliness free up police met with Porter Medical Center gregational Church will hold and isolation in the midst of By JOHN FLOWERS officials on Wednesday, Dec.