the bridge, october 17, 2012

We asked the six candidates from Wash-ington County:

1. What is an unmet or undermet need in Vermont that can be legislatively addressed, where you would buck party leadership and pick up bipartisan support, and what would be the common ground?

2. What historical figure would you love to have lunch with, and what would you dis-cuss?

Buddy Barnett I am a sixth-generation Vermonter and have

lived in Washington County most of my life and in Barre City since 1958. I spent my career in the granite industry, working my way up from an apprentice draftsman in high school to retiring from management in 2006. Most of those years were spent operating my own custom drafting service and later working for Rock of Ages and Rouleau Granite Company. I served six years in the Vermont Air National Guard and am the el-dest of eight siblings. My wife of 41 years, Jackie, and I have two sons and three grandchildren.

One of the greatest concerns in Wash-ington County is the growing crime rate. Although some of it is surely related to the softness in the job market, a very significant amount of crime appears to be drug related.

Another thing is that not all crime is for-mally reported by the victims. In many in-stances, mental illness, alcoholism and drug abuse are factors in crimes, especially among family members who are reluctant to report. In other instances intimidation or threats of violence preclude the complaint.

I believe the legislature needs to intensify the focus on dealing with this issue. Many perpetrators want to be and can be reha-bilitated and returned to productive society. Appropriations designated for this purpose should be viewed as investments, not expen-ditures.

I would support any sound and well-thought-out initiative that would attack this serious problem, and I would defend it from all critics, including any from within my own party.

I would love to have lunch with Benjamin Franklin. I would give him free rein to talk about whatever he wanted. I would be the intent listener with a single question, “How in the world did he find the time to ac-complish so much without an automobile or computer?”

Ann Cummings

I have lived in Montpelier with my husband, Regis, since 1975. While raising four children, I ran a small knitwear design business and served on local boards. I have served in public office since 1984, when I was appointed to

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Connecting Montpelier and nearby communities since 1993 | OCTOBER 17–31, 2012

IN THIS ISSUETHE POWER OF THE PANTRY

Feeding the hungry in central Vermont

9

SPENDING SUGGESTIONS

Budget committee returns with report

7

SMALL CAST, BIG SHOW

Reviewing Hamlet at Lost Nation Theater

14

YOUNG HEROESMen from Maine lend aid in

deadly Marshfield crash

23

cour tesy Kimberley Lashua

see SENATE CANDIDATES, page 4

PLEASE NOTE: Upcoming Schedule Changes at The BridgeOur first and second December issues will be released Thursday, November 29, and Thursday, December 13, respec-tively. Other issues will be published as usual on the first and third Thursday of each month.

State Senate

ALL EYES ON ELECTION DAY Talking to the Candidates

Candidates, clockwise from top left: Wendy Wilton and Beth Pearce, treasurer; William H. Sorrell and Jack McMullen, attorney general; Vince Illuzzi and Doug Hoffer, auditor; Peter Shumlin and Randy Brock, governor; and Dexter LeFavour, Ann Cummings, Anthony Pollina, Buddy Barnett, Bill Doyle and Jeremy Hansen, state senate. Photos courtesy their respective candidates.

• OCTOBER 17–31, 2012 THE BR IDGE

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THE BR IDGE OCTOBER 17–31, 2012 • PAGE 3

HEARD ON THE

STREETRomney Money Comes to Vermont

Mitt Romney’s joint fundraising committee, which has raised the lion’s share of the cash credited to his campaign, revealed last night “that it had transferred $44 million to

the GOP’s national congressional committees and the state parties in Idaho, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Vermont,” online news organization Politico reports. “The party commit-tees—none of them in swing states—have wide latitude in how and where they choose to spend the Romney cash. They are all controlled by Romney allies, and the funds will most likely be used for get-out-the-vote operations, but the recipient state party committees could technically spend it on TV ads or any other expense related to any federal election, and the congressional committees can’t directly coordinate their spending with Romney.”

East Montpelier to Consider Revised Bond

East Montpelier taxpayers will have an additional opportunity to hear about a revised school renovation bond, which will be on the ballot November 6. The revision reflects

reduced scope and cost. The information meeting is to occur on October 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the East Montpelier Elementary School. Dessert and beverages will be provided, along with childcare. The rethinking of earlier bonding proposals reflects reductions of over $2 million off the cost of the original plan. Project cost is reduced 20 percent from $10.3 to $8.17 mil-lion, and new square footage is cut by 30 percent—from 14,330 to 10,000. The new plan includes no new gym or preschool addition, “more efficient and reduced administration area, a smaller expansion for the library/technology center, reconfigured existing space, simplified construction layout and fewer site improvements.”

Girls’ State House Internships Available

In politics and government, we’re reminded by the Green Mountain Girl Scouts of their leg-islative internship program: “High-school age girls with an interest in government service

and advocacy are invited to apply for Girls Rock the Capitol (GRTC), a legislative internship. . . . No Girl Scout experience is needed. This intensive program links girls to female legisla-tors who act as mentors, while girls learn about and work on issues affecting the future of Vermont from inside the State House.” The scouts say, “Through GRTC girls become critical thinkers, work as a team to advocate for themselves and others, prepare for leadership roles in their schools and communities, and have a rich understanding of the Green Mountain State democratic process.” Applications are due October 31; contact Michelle Carignan at 888-474-9686, ext. 142, or [email protected].

—first item by Richard Sheir; all other items by Bob Nuner

P.O. Box 1143, Montpelier, VT 05601Phone: 802-223-5112 | Fax: 802-223-7852 montpelierbridge.com; facebook.com/montpelierbridge

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Copyright 2012 by The Montpelier Bridge

ADVERTISEin Our Upcoming Issues!

November 1: nonmailed issueadvertising deadline: Friday, October 26

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Now that the migrants are really coming through, we see how little food there is for them. The dry summer left us with no tree seed and no berries to speak of; weed

seed is scarce, often not filled out. White-throated and other sparrows flock to what little mixed seed we put down on the ground for them each morning. By noon it’s gone. The foods of absolutely last resort, highbush cranberry, buckthorn and honeysuckle, were stripped weeks ago. Flocks of siskins are roaming through from the west and north where it was even dryer. Mice are pouring into the houses. Even the hardware-store clerks say mouse traps are their current best seller. So if you’ve ever wanted to feed the birds, toss some mixed seed down on the ground. It will be gone before the bears can find it—and with no apples, they are hungry too.

—Nona Estrin

Nature Watch

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the Montpelier City Council. In 1990 I was elected mayor of Montpelier, a postition I held until 1996, when I was elected to the Vermont Senate, where I serve on the judiciary commit-tee and have chaired the finance committee for 10 years.

Washington County’s senate delegation includes a Republican, a Democrat and a Democrat/Progressive, and we usually vote together. If there is an issue facing our con-stituents, we work together to solve the prob-lem. If there is a challenge facing us that will test our unity, it is finding the answer to the crisis in health-care affordability. In the end, this will have to be a bipartisan solution. It is too important an issue to risk having it undone with every change in administra-tion. Our common ground is that the rapidly rising costs of health care are not sustainable, but people need access to health care if they are to lead productive lives. We have to find a solution that everyone can live with.

I’d like to have lunch with John Adams. There is a great deal of talk today about what the founders of this nation envisioned when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, especially about the role of religion. It would be interesting to be able to discuss that issue with someone who was a part of those original discussions.

It would also be fascinating to hear John Adam’s opinion of what we have become, and how he would approach some of our current civil liberties issues: gay marriage, freedom of speech that involves ridiculing another’s religion, abortion and the right to privacy.

Bill DoyleMy wife, Olene, and I live on Murray Road

in Montpelier and have three children and five grandchildren. I teach history and government at Johnson State College. I have served on the Montpelier school board, including as chair. I also coached the Montpelier High School boys’ tennis team.

My other activities include responding to constituents’ e-mails and phone calls, produc-ing weekly public-access programs and serving on the public-access board, and writing weekly columns for the World. I also conduct Town Meeting Day surveys so that the opinions of Vermonters are heard in the State House.

I serve on the Senate education and economic affairs committees.

My legislative goals are to create more job opportunities, improve our roads and bridges, support alternate forms of energy and affordable health care, and improve our cellphone and broadband coverage.

As a member of the Washington County Senate delegation, I have a positive rela-tionship with Senator Ann Cummings, a Democrat, and Senator Anthony Pollina, a Democrat and Progressive. We communicate on legislation that we feel would best further the interest of the state and Washington County. The committees that I serve on try to solve problems and think of the state’s interests first, regardless of party.

I admire Theodore Roosevelt for his lead-ership in conservation of natural resources and his attempt to regulate large corporate interests that had tremendous political influ-ence. I would also like to talk to him about overall health issues and particularly the nutritional value of locally grown food.

In 1902, President Roosevelt said about Vermont, “They hewed the state out of the wilderness, they held it against a foreign foe, they lay deep and stable the foundation of our State life, because they sought not the life of ease, but the life of effort for a worthy end.”

Jeremy Hansen I recently moved to Berlin from Montpelier

with my wife and two young children, and previous to that we lived in Barre City. I work at Norwich University, where I teach and do research in computer security with some out-standing students. In my time outside the uni-versity, I enjoy playing with my kids, reading, cooking, brewing beer, playing and listening to music, camping, fishing, and gardening.

Reintroducing the stalled bill to label food containing genetically modified organisms is an easy step with a large amount of public support. Surveys consistently show that 80 or more percent of respondents support such labeling. As one of the roughly 100 people who spoke in favor of the bill to the House agriculture committee at a hearing last April, I was disappointed by the lack of progress in the last legislative session. My motivation for running for the Senate stems from this lack of progress.

My goal is to improve communications

(in both directions) between legislators and citizens. If I am elected, I will not be tied to a party platform or predetermined positions on issues. I intend to accurately represent the opinions of the citizens of Washington County, even when my own opinion con-flicts.

I have always admired physicist Richard Feynman, not only for his staggering intel-ligence and contributions to science, but for his sense of humor, tenacity when solving a problem and brutal honesty. I’d ask about his ideas for making Vermont more self-sufficient and what roles food production, energy policy and social issues would play. He once wrote, “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public rela-tions, for nature cannot be fooled.”

In a state like Vermont, We have the op-portunity to put into place policies that both make sense economically and can help us to become more self-sufficient.

Dexter LefavourI live on Dolan Road in Middlesex with

my wife, Carol, and two of our four children. I am a registered professional engineer and president of Lefavour PC, Engineering and Environmental Services. I have enjoyed a long and successful career as an environmental engi-neer, conceptualizing and developing complex infrastructure and environmental projects in Vermont and throughout the U.S. In the latter part of my career, I have assisted local property owners with small land-development projects and have designed approximately 1,000 septic systems.

I operate Lone Elm Farm with my family and am a professional skier/snowboarder and emerging tennis player. My legislative goals are to work from a position that protects personal liberty and individual freedom, as provided for in the Vermont Constitution. I will put people first and principles before party.

The State of Vermont and the federal government underpay their obligations for services provided by many government health-care programs. I will work hard and buck party pressure to obtain greater or full payment of services under these programs at the state level, and will initiate efforts to accomplish the same at the federal level. The common ground is that both parties recognize the importance of providing these services to those in need. Both parties tend

to fund other pet programs at the expense of health care.

I would seek Ethan Allen’s view on the principles of liberty and discuss Vermont’s motto, “Freedom and Unity.” My favorite discussions with people right now are about how freedom and unity work together, how these two principles were so evident in the wake of Irene, and the particular attention made to liberty in the Vermont Constitu-tion.

Anthony PollinaCreating good policy that betters the life

of Vermonters is much more important than party politics. So I am pleased that in my first term, several bills I authored became law, all with bipartisan support and some with bipar-tisan sponsorship. Ensuring that Vermonters with autism get needed therapies. Requiring insurance companies to disclose how they are really spending our money. Making the State of Vermont do more local buying and hiring. Creating a Genuine Progress Indi-cator—a new way to set budget priorities and measure our economic, environmental and social well-being. Having the state use respectful language when referring to people with disabilities.

I also led the successful Senate debate making our legislature the first to tell Con-gress that corporations are not people and we need to overturn the Citizens United decision.

I was pleased when a Republican state senator, Kevin Mullin, said on the Senate floor, “[Senator Pollina is] the moral voice of the Senate.” And I was honored to be chosen Ally of the Year by Green Mountain Self Advocates for supporting Vermonters with disabilities.

We need to do more to lower the cost of health care, make childcare and our state colleges affordable, and put more money in the pockets of Washington County families. We will only have a real economic recovery when working families can pay their bills and support their families and local busi-nesses.

I would make dinner for Martin Luther King Jr. to gather strength from him and talk about how to empower citizens and build grassroots movements to create public policies that truly benefit the majority of our citizens.

SENATE CANDIDATES, from page 1


We asked Randy Brock: 1. If insurance companies were

to flock to Vermont to compete, why didn’t they do so during the Douglas ad-ministration? Would all insurance purchased from out-of-state sources have to cover all conditions dictated for insurance carriers in state? If they were to cover all conditions covered in Vermont state law, why would they enter the Vermont market now when they haven’t in the past?

2. What political figure do you aspire to be like, and why?

Randy BrockI served as Vermont’s

28th state auditor and am in my second term in the Vermont Sen-ate. Prior to entering public service, I was executive vice president for risk oversight for Fidelity Investments. I previously founded and served as CEO of one of America’s top 25 secu-rity service companies.

I served on the board of the Alzheimer’s Asso-ciation. I chair the Hodges University Founda-tion and am a trustee of the Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Law School. A Viet-nam veteran, I hold the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service.

My wife, Andrea, and I have one daughter. I have been a Vermont resident for over 40 years.

I proposed a bundle of ideas to encourage companies to come back and lower insurance rates for consumers. I support the patient protections that are included in the Afford-able Care Act. My goal is to ensure that 100 percent of Vermonters have access to quality health care at an affordable cost.

I propose to retain the soul of our current high-quality health-care system and system-atically reduce the high cost of that system, while empowering Vermonters, not govern-ment, to choose the health care and health-care plan best for them and their families.

We must identify each of the drivers of high health-care cost and act aggressively

to control them. These actions must be spe-cific, targeted, have the ability to be piloted and tested, implemented and measured, and, if they don’t work, abandoned. Wherever possible, we should select measures that have worked elsewhere, so that we are not guinea pigs for unproven ideas.

One of the best ways to remember an individual is by remembering the words that they have said. Theodore Roosevelt is one of my favorite Americans, because of many of the great things that he was able to do during his time as president.

We asked Peter Shumlin:

1. Vermonters feel sticker shock when they purchase items in Quebec because of the 15 percent sales

tax that covers single-payer. What would you say to a small business in a Vermont town near the border with New Hampshire, which has no sales tax? If single-payer is funded through an extention of the income tax, what reason do you have to believe that, during an era of lower profits, strapped busi-ness owners wouldn’t absorb the amount they currently pay in health care for business needs or profit and workers wouldn’t pay higher taxes without getting higher wages to do so?


Peter ShumlinI ask Vermonters to look at our health-

care challenge with our hearts and with our heads. In a state where we take care of our neighbors, we know that it is wrong to have 40,000 Vermonters uninsured and 160,000 underinsured. We also know that the rising cost of health care is crushing our families and small businesses. If Vermont continues to spend on health care what we spend today, in 10 years we will be spending an additional $5 billion a year.

Under my single-payer plan, we will get

this burden off the backs of our small busi-nesses and contain costs by making our health-care system more efficient. Under this system, all Vermonters will have access to quality, affordable health care.

Before we establish a funding mechanism for this system, we need to know how much it will cost. Right now, the Green Moun-tain Health Care Board is hard at work identifying those costs and building a cost- containment system. Keeping in mind that the system will not need to be funded until at least 2016, my administration will present the legislature with a set of public financing options this coming January, as requested.

I have been asked if I am frightened of the uncertainty of our plan. The truth is I am frightened of the certainty of the path we are currently on. We simply cannot afford to spend another $5 billion in 10 years on health care. It is unsustainable. We can do better, and we will on the single-payer path we have established.

Robert F. Kennedy had vision, compas-sion and a commitment to getting tough things done. Like Bobby Kennedy, I am de-termined to address issues—such as single- payer health care and corrections spend-ing—that many other politicians are afraid to tackle.

Governor

Elections We asked candidates Beth Pearce and Wendy Wilton:

1. Vermont has a number of small towns and school districts that lack the sophistication to set up bookkeeping systems sufficient to deter theft and em-bezzlement. Every year, there are stories of local indictments. No one knows the extent of the problem. The auditor’s office covers statewide management; should it offer tech-nical assistance to Vermont’s localities and school district that are overmatched to deter theft and embezzlement, or is this a potential responsiblity of the treasurer’s office? If it is a treasurer’s responsiblity, what would you approach the legislature asking to assume this function?


Beth Pearce I was appointed Vermont state treasurer by

Governor Peter Shumlin in January 2011. Prior to this, I served as Vermont’s deputy treasurer for seven and half years. I have over 35 years’ experience in public finances. My ex-pertise and disciplined financial management save taxpayers millions of dollars per year while maintaining Vermont’s triple-A bond rating, the highest in New England.

Like many Vermonters, I am alarmed with the instances of embezzlement in our state.

When taxpayer dollars are misused, it under-mines the good work of government. This is unacceptable. The treasurer’s office plays an important role in preventing and deterring fraud. We assist municipal officers by teach-ing them about effective cash management and internal controls. I am committed to partnering with the auditor’s office and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and other professional organizations to expand these sorts of services to prevent fraud. To-gether we can protect taxpayer dollars and strengthen confidence in municipal govern-ment.

In my long career in public finance, I have often turned to the example of Robert F. Kennedy. His rise to prominence was marked by privilege and struggle. Yet through it all he demonstrated a remarkable commitment to his country and public service. This was most evident during the tumultuous year of 1968.

Five years after the death of his brother, then-president John F. Kennedy, Robert identified with the nation’s struggles. He sought out the best in people, looking be-yond distinctions of race and socio-economic status to cut to the core of the American promise—that each individual deserves dig-nity and a fair shot at a secure life.

Treasurer

see TREASURER, page 6


We asked candidates Doug Hoffer and Vincent Illuzzi:

1. Vermont has a number of small towns and school districts that lack the sophistication to set up bookkeeping systems sufficient to deter theft and embezzlement. Every year, there are stories of local indict-ments. No one knows the extent of the prob-lem. The auditor’s of-fice covers statewide management; should it offer technical as-sistance to Vermont’s localities and school districts that are over-matched to deter theft and embezzlement, or is this a potential responsibility of the state treasurer’s office? If it is an auditor’s responsiblity, what would you approach the legislature asking to assume this function?


Doug HofferI have been a self-employed policy analyst for

19 years, including five years under contract to the state auditor. I have provided policy guidance for legislators dealing with the livable wage, economic development and related tax policies, among other issues.

I have a passion for challenging conven-tional wisdom. I’m a stubborn investigator who doesn’t take shortcuts.

Tracking the money is important, but the auditor must also determine if taxpayer money is being spent wisely. Are state programs cost- effective, and do they achieve the goals intended by the legislature? I’ve been asking these ques-tions for years. Asking difficult questions and speaking uncomfortable truths are exactly the tasks of the state auditor.

The state auditor’s office has limited re-sources and no authority over municipali-

ties per se. However, the auditor can cer-tainly respond to requests for information or technical assistance. And the auditor can work with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to provide training as needed.

As for schools, a small number of firms perform the annual audits for many of Vermont’s smaller school districts. The auditor could work with the de-partment of educa-tion and the audit-ing firms to make

certain all the parties are following best practices. Neither of these activities would require action by the legislature.

I do not think the treasurer’s office should take responsibility for local matters.

I greatly admire Phil Hoff and Bernie Sanders. They both expanded the politi-cal discourse so that some issues could be reframed in light of new information and changing values and so that ideas previously thought to be out of the mainstream (and therefore unwelcome) could receive a hear-ing and be debated. This is essential for the long-term health of our state and communi-ties, and we have benefitted immeasurably from the efforts of these two men.

Vincent IlluzziI was born in Montpelier, graduated from

St. Michael’s College in 1975, and received my JD from Vermont Law School in 1978. My wife, Eileen, and I have one son, Vincent. I have served in the Vermont Senate for 32 years, where I sat on all three Senate fiscal commit-tees—appropriations, finance and institutions.

Vermont has a problem with fraud. As state auditor, I will use my experience and knowledge of Vermont law, finance and gov-ernment to protect taxpayers in three ways:

a. I will use the power and discretion of the office to conduct audits or reviews of any disbursement of state or federal funds, including those flowing through contracts or grants to municipalities, schools and re-gional entities. When warranted, I would use this authority to inspect the systems of control over the millions that flow in state aid to education and in highway funds.

b. I will redirect existing resources to establish a fraud-detection unit—available to review any entity that administers state funds—in a vigorous effort to deter, detect and remediate fraud. This unit will offer training, publish guidelines and help the state’s partners establish proper controls and best practices. It will evaluate new technol-ogy aimed at reducing fraud and enhancing

performance. It will conduct unannounced reviews.

c. When it comes to transparency, the tone always begins at the top with management’s commitment to competence. Vermonters deserve internal-control environments that stress integrity and avoid risks. I will establish a system of strong control activities, informa-tion and communication that will encourage transparency from top to bottom.

As auditor, I will draw on 32 years of experience serving Vermonters to improve program performance.

I admire the late U.S. senator George Aiken because he transcended party labels and got the job done working across party lines.

We asked candidates Jack McMul-len and William H. Sorrell:

1. In hearing Citizens United, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the following during oral arguments: “[Judges] created cor-porations as persons, gave birth to corpora-tions as persons. There could be an argument made that that was the court’s error to start with . . . [imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics.” Do you concur, or do you believe, with the majority, that she is wrong in her reasoning? Do you believe the state should formally enter into challeng-ing the notion that corporations are legally people, either through an act of legislation or in a friend-of-the-court brief?


Jack McMullenI am a Harvard Law School graduate and a

member of the bars of New York, Massachusetts and District of Columbia, as well as of the asso-ciated federal courts. I was an informal adviser to Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) when the sena-

tor sought input on crime and pension reform issues. I was the 2004 Republican nominee for the United States Senate from Vermont, and I am a Navy veteran.

I do not agree with Justice Sotomayor and would not challenge the long-standing doc-trine of corporations as legal “people.” I quote an excerpt from a 2010 Harvard Law Review article for my reason:

One vision of free speech sees free speech as serving the interest of political liberty. . . . Members of the public are trusted to make their own individual evaluations of speech, and government is forbidden to intervene for paternalistic or redistribu-tive reasons. Ideas are best left to a freely competitive ideological market.

Old-fashioned as it may seem, I aspire to em-ulate George Washington, who led by example and shaped his own character to meet the high standards he set for himself. He suffered with his troops through the long years of the Revo-lutionary War, and he always expressed himself in a modest and dignified manner.

He was one of very few revolutionaries to voluntarily relinquish power when his fellow citizens would have welcomed his serving as president for life, or even being made a king. He insisted on being referred to as “Mr. President” in an age when heads of state had ornate and pompous titles such as “Your Most Noble High Mightiness.”

He almost always deferred to Congress as the root of sovereignty in a republic, even when he disagreed with it and even though he could have easily imposed his will on it.

William H. SorrellA native of Burlington, I have served as at-

torney general since 1997. I have twice been Chittenden County state’s attorney, spent 10 years in private law practice and was Gover-nor Howard Dean’s secretary of administration from 1992 to 1997. I am known for my ag-gressive work in the environmental-protection, consumer-protection and criminal-justice areas, and I have been recognized by my peers as the nation’s outstanding attorney general and by the Vermont Medical Society as its Citizen of the Year.

By a 5 to 4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the most controversial of the Roberts’ court decisions. In Citizens United,

as followed in the recent case striking down Montana’s law banning corporate contribu-tions in state elections, this slim majority of the court has opened the floodgates to huge expenditures in federal and state elections.

Justice Sotomayor sagely questioned the wisdom of the judiciary-bestowed rights of personhood on corporations. Rather than fight over a bestowing of First Amendment rights of freedom of political speech to corporations and other legally-created entities, she more fundamentally raised the issue of whether our courts long ago wrongly put us on the path leading to the Citizens United dispute.

I agree with the view that if our found-ers believed that creations of law should be entitled to the constitutional rights of human beings, they would have said so. I disagree with the majority’s decision. Vermont should be open to espousing legal arguments in court filings attacking the concept of corpo-rations as people.

I aspire to follow the lead of my mother, the late senator Esther Sorrell. Her intelli-gence, wisdom, integrity, fundamental con-cern for the well-being of average Vermonters and respect for the weighty responsibility of holding public office guide me in my role of being Vermont’s attorney general.

Attorney General

Advertise! 223-5112

Auditor

Wendy WiltonI have served as treasurer of Rutland since

March 2007, successfully managing the fi-nancial operations to convert a $5 million deficit to a $3.8 million positive fund bal-ance and attaining a clean audit for the first time in 32 years. Previously, I served as a Rutland County state senator, was a senior business adviser for the Vermont Small Business Development Center and worked in banking. I am a UVM graduate, and my husband and I have two children, both at-tending colleges in Vermont.

Working with local governments to as-sess or improve accounting and internal control is best handled by the state auditor’s office, based on its expertise in matters of accounting compliance and performance.

The treasurer, more skilled at finan-cial management, could best assist local governments in developing strategies to achieve financial strength and thus pre-paredness for the unexpected. I would do that as state treasurer. Specifically, I am

interested in working jointly with mu-nicipalities to develop a simple voluntary evaluation process called SAFE-T (Saving, Accounting and Financing for Emergen-cies Test) so that towns can assess their ability to respond quickly and effectively to such events as Irene. I would not want the state to assume responsibility for a troubled municipality or school district but pro-vide support to establish policies that will achieve and maintain financial success.

2. My choice is Consuelo Bailey (1899–1976). Bailey, a lawyer, was the first female speaker of the Vermont House and the first female lieutenant governor of any state, as well as the first woman to be admitted to practice before the Vermont Supreme Court. She was intelligent, in-dependent and intrepid. Her success also speaks volumes about the openness of the political environment of Vermont in the 1930s through the 1950s in that a woman was able to achieve accomplishments that might not have been possible elsewhere. I thought of her legacy when I took my oath as Rutland’s first female city treasurer.

TREASURER, from page 5

Elections


Council Votes to Hardwire Pump-Station Antennaby Steven M. Cliche

Tempers flared among city council members during their October 10 meeting as they moved to make a

decision on what to do about a pump station antenna on Hebert Road. In May, concerned citizens brought the issue to the council on the basis that high radiation levels expelled from the antenna could be causing adverse health effects within the community. Mont-pelier currently has eight sewage-pump sta-tions within the city.

Councilor Tom Golonka began the discus-sion by admitting that the committee that was put together to solve the issue had done everything within its power. The city recently spend many man-hours building a shield to block the emissions. Councilor Angela Timpone stated simply that the shield “didn’t work.”

Residents Jim Hutton and Lara Merchant reiterated that they believed that the best course of action was for the city to spend the $5,000 to hardwire the signal rather than spend any more time or money debating the issue. Hutton suggested the price was not ex-orbitant in comparison to many of the other expenditures of the council in the past year. Hutton also suggested that the difference in the particular antenna in comparison to the others is the placement of it in such close proximity to people’s homes.

Mayor John Hollar acknowledged the hard work that had gone into the discussions over the past months but argued that the impasse had been reached as a result of the council being against the idea of switching the pump over. Councilor Thierry Guerlain backed up this assertion by calling the issue an “imprac-tical problem.” He mentioned that the city had gone through state experts to measure the radiation emissions from the pump and that they had come in at 23 percent, well below what federal laws allow. He also ques-tioned the prudence of undoing a functional system at the cost of the city. Guerlain then suggested that the residents “take it to the FCC.”

Golonka said that he’d be willing to vote for a hardwire if the residents would help pay for the switch.

Timpone argued that the council would not be doing their job if they dismissed He-bert Road residents. She said that something that was protocol for the city might not be

suitable for all cases and that the job of the council was to “make accommodations for our citizens when necessary.”

Councilor Alan Weiss joined the discus-sion, saying that the city had wasted too much time and energy skirting the issue when it could have been solved months ago. He argued that not everything has to benefit everybody in the city to make it an important issue. He then moved for the city to spend the money to switch the pump over, with a quick second from Timpone.

Golonka said that he would vote for the motion as long as the city was not admitting

any liability as it pertained to any medical issues that may arise from antenna radiation. Guerlain reiterated that a vote for hardwiring would be an admission on the city’s part that the antenna was indeed a health risk.

Plainfield resident Daniel Stein spoke on the issue, saying, “I would be proud to live in a community where people actually thought about [the health risk] rather than rely on the opinions of the status quo.” Stein also said that the council had lost sight of the real issue, which was Merchant’s concern over how close the antenna is to her daughter’s bedroom window.

Guerlain said that he would vote to pass the motion if it were amended to include that all radio signals and cellphones within the city and the schools were to be turned off, since, he said, “that’s where the kids are.”

Councilor Andy Hooper, in his first foray into the discussion, apologized to Hebert Road residents, saying, “Thierry has scared me into abstaining from the vote.”

After much debate, in which the mayor urged the council to consider the “unfounded science” behind the issue, the council voted 4–1 to pass the motion, with Hooper ab-staining.

by Richard Sheir

The Montpelier Budget Review Com-mittee submitted their 88-page report to the city council on October 4 for

consideration for possible implementation. A total of 10 working subcommittees were formed in the course of drafting their report, with 28 subcommittee positions staffed by members of the committee. It is estimated that collectively the committee spent well over a thousand hours in the summer and early fall in their efforts.

The idea for the committee was first brought up during discussions before the city council in the midst of budget deliberations in late 2011, when some residents expressed serious concerns about the level of Montpe-lier property taxes and city spending. The idea received a positive reaction from Mayor Mary Hooper and members of the council. The idea of appointing a study committee to compare Montpelier’s municipal spending to that of other communities was revived by Mayor John Hollar and the current council, and the committee was formally appointed in early June.

As they set to their task of studying spend-ing across cities, the committee found itself unable to do line-item budget comparison with other cities and towns because of the lack of uniformity and consistency. Subcommit-

tees, however, were able to compare spending at the department level. What they weren’t able to do with their available resources was speak to the matter of effectiveness or cost effectiveness.

Their report contains the following sub-committee reports, each with recommenda-tions: administration and finance, budget process, data, debt and capital planning, health benefits, Matrix report, planning, public safety, and public works.

Montpelier’s levels of city spending drive the city’s effective municipal tax rate, which has long been the highest in the state. Other cities and towns of roughly the same size have far lower effective municipal tax rates. In contrast, the municipal effective tax rate for Montpelier city schools is exactly at the state average.

The report cites many reasons why Mont-pelier’s municipal taxes are higher than aver-age. Montpelier is a small town of less than 8,000, with public safety services and miles of paved roads and sidewalks not found in other rural towns of this size. Much of the town’s prime real estate—which otherwise might be developed and subject to taxa-tion—is owned by the state, by churches or by other nonprofit entities that do not pay taxes but do require services. Over the years, Montpelier has chosen to offer a broad range of optional municipal services, among them

our popular parks, recreation facilities and a large program for seniors from Montpelier and neighboring towns.

Some of the subcommittee reports show that certain levels of staffing in Montpelier are high compared to other cities and towns. That is covered in the report’s recommenda-tions and will be the subject of an article in the November 1 issue of The Bridge.

The committee’s report was widely praised for its sweep as well as its richness of detail. The city council promised the committee that the report will be given full consid-eration, beginning with having department heads comment on the findings and the rec-ommendations and take questions.

Hollar commented on the report’s imple-mentation, “This is an impressive piece of work from a diverse group of committed residents. They’ve given us a long list of ideas as to how city government can operate more efficiently. The council will be reviewing the recommendations in detail over the next few months.”

The city council will soon be shaping their approach to next year’s city budget. They are scheduled, at their next meeting October 24, to present a target budget figure to the city manager to shape his recommended city budget for council review.

Evaluating Montpelier’s Spending An Overview of the Budget Committee Report

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Growing Your Businessby Lindel James

Being a competent leader is a strategic skill one must have to grow a success-ful business, large or small.

Some of the most important leadership skills that business owners or managers must possess are visioning, goal setting and plan-ning. So many entrepreneurs I meet have great products or services to offer, but their enthusiasm for these products or services diminishes their development of real plan-ning competencies. They operate in a reac-tive mode, floating all over the place in their everyday activity, running helter-skelter and losing productivity.

When business leaders take the time to establish a concrete vision of how they want their business to grow and evolve for the future, they establish goals and action plans that support that vision. They reduce the chance of anxiety, resulting in a better op-portunity for success.

I’m not saying that you will never have to tweak your goals, but when it is necessary to do so you will refer to your vision or your plan to assure that any changes you make are aligned to your original vision. The vi-sion becomes your guide and your rudder that will help keep you focused on what’s really important.

There is so much noise in today’s business world. We are all subjected to ideas from every corner and in every medium about what you should be doing in your business to be successful. The noise at times becomes

deafening and confusing. We either are try-ing too many new ideas or we throw our hands up in despair and do nothing. Leaders and managers with a vision and a plan have a compass to help in their decision making about what to do or not do.

When business leaders create a well-thought-out plan, they are positioning themselves to act in a proactive rather than a reactive manner. They are aware that when change becomes necessary they can quietly and thoughtfully refer to the plan, assess the current environ-ment and make the necessary changes. The results will be decidedly superior to those changes made in a chaotic, reactive mode.

Thoughtful visioning and planning are skills that business leaders and managers need to possess, whether they are managing only themselves or many employees. Think about how you want to operate. How do you feel as a leader when you function on solid ground? Think about how your employees react to knee-jerk reactions, unsettled decision-making and needless changes. There is no question which mode keeps productivity and morale at its highest levels. Increased productivity and high employee morale lead to higher profits. The leader who plans is the leader with the highest probability of success.

Here’s to your success.

Lindel James is the founder and owner of Lindel James Consulting and the Center for Leadership Skills. She lives and works in Montpelier and can be reached at lindeljames.com or 778-0626.

Leadership and Business Development

ANN CUMMINGS

Experience Working For You

Re-Elect

STATE SENATE

Contact Ann at [email protected] for by Cummings for Senate, Regis Cummings, Treasurer


by Darryl Benjamin

When Cheryl Flanagan moved to Montpelier two and a half years ago, her husband was disabled.

She was working part time. Although her family of four was on food stamps, it wasn’t enough: Halfway through the month they ran out of food. For two weeks they would skimp by on little or nothing. To make mat-ters worse, Flanagan suffered from anxiety disorder and agoraphobia. “Our income was $1,800 per month,” she said. “We didn’t even come close to paying for our bills and food.”

Then they discovered the Montpelier Food Pantry. The food pantry is a nonprofit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty making ends meet.

Flanagan experienced an enormous sense of relief. “We were so grateful. They had beans, canned vegetables, butter, eggs, cheese, cereal and even boxed food like stuff-ing and pasta. They were very generous with the amounts,” she said.

Flanagan’s family had used a food pan-try in New Hamp-shire before moving to Vermont. “It was a totally different ex-perience,” she said. “I felt embarrassed. We felt like a herd of cattle. For one thing, you couldn’t pick and choose what you wanted. They bring the food to you. Here in Mont-pelier, I could choose the things our children wanted to eat.”

If You Build It, They Will ComeThe food-pantry concept is relatively new.

Started in the ’60s in the U.S., it is now in over 20 countries under the Global Food-banking Network. Here in the U.S., over 50 million people struggle with food insecurity. That’s a staggering one in six of the popula-tion.

From July 2011 to August 2012, the Mont-pelier Food Pantry served 365 households at least once, a total of 869 individuals. Who were these individuals? The numbers included 582 adults (including 80 seniors) and 307 children.

The Montpelier Food Pantry is open to every area resident. In fact, the only require-ment is residency. “We eliminate all barri-ers to getting help,” said Director Kimberly

Lashua. “We serve clients whether or not we perceive them to be deserving.”

During the year, a significant portion of the area population used the food pantry: 60 percent of households visited the pantry three times or less; 22 percent of households visited the pantry six times or more; 18 percent of households visited four to five times

What does it take to run a food pantry? For one thing, plenty of volunteers. Volunteers are key to the success of the pantry. It takes volunteers to glean, process, sort and acquire fresh foods. It takes volunteers to get the word out that food is available to help indi-viduals and families through rough patches or sustain them over longer stretches.

“It’s nice to know that real food is getting to people,” said Caroline Thompson, a NECI student who recently volunteered. Volunteers come from all walks of life and are all ages yet share a common desire to contribute to the Montpelier community.

“You can see the enthusiasm, joy and hope-fulness in the eyes of our volunteers,” Lashua says.

Giving BackIn August of 2012

Flanagan’s husband won a four-and-a-

half-year battle with the military to qualify as disabled. Their income substantially in-creased. “I am so grateful we’re now in a position to give back,” she says. “We’ve given cash donations, and we’ve started a box. We fill the box with two-for-one deals from Price Chopper. We’ve got a list from the food pan-try on what’s needed most, and we regularly buy those items.”

The food pantry receives food from a strik-ing variety of sources. These include individ-ual donors, area growers (notably, Dog River Farm), donations from the farmers’ market and even volunteer workers.

“It’s worth the extra effort in so many ways,” Lashua said. “We believe that access to healthy and nutritious foods is a basic human right.”

MisconceptionsThere is room for improvement. Miscon-

ceptions abound. Many people, for example, think the organization is government funded, which it is not. Many people confuse the food pantry with the Vermont Foodbank, a sepa-rate organization.

A food bank is a huge warehouse repository that accepts all types of products for redistri-bution. This includes food as well as nonfood products. Perishables are checked for qual-ity, stored in refrigerated rooms and quickly distributed before they reach their expiration date. Meats are put into deep freeze, and canned goods and dry staples are stored and shelved. Food banks generally don’t distrib-ute directly to individuals but rather to agen-cies or special programs that do.

A food pantry is one type of direct distribu-tion agency that distributes food to individu-als. Pantries are typically staffed by volunteers and sponsored by local faith communities. These volunteers may receive food through private donations, through the USDA com-modities programs, or through a food bank network. Some pantries are in church base-ments (the Montpelier Food Pantry is ad-

ministered out of Trinity Church, 137 Main Street, next door to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library), while others may be nothing more than a closet in a day-care facility.

Another challenge to fuller use of the food pantry is counteracting the shame or humiliation some people feel when receiving a charitable donation of food.

Perhaps more people would take advantage of the pantry if they listened to Flanagan. “The volunteers are so friendly, so without judgment; they practically take you by the hand and walk you through. They’re helpful, nice, chatty and answer any questions you may have. One needn’t feel embarrassed. It’s a heroic act to give and receive.”

Darryl Benjamin teaches at the New Eng-land Culinary Institute.

Heroism at the Montpelier Food Pantry

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New England Culinary Institute student Caroline Thompson processes food as part of the Mont-pelier Food Pantry’s Food Rescue program. Photo courtesy Kimberley Lashua.

Essay


Hands-On Gardenerby Miriam Hansen

It has been such a mild fall, the raspber-ries have budded up and a few have actually ripened! Soon we’ll cut back last

year’s canes. Hopefully next year’s will still produce a good crop.

The asparagus patch is a forest of feathery fronds. I’ve weeded, thrown compost around the plants and mulched with newspaper cov-ered with leaves between the rows. When the fronds yellow and die back we’ll pull them out. Leaving the fronds gives refuge to asparagus beetles, so make sure to have it all clean before we get a blanket of snow.

Folks are asking if I’ve put my garden to bed. It is a reasonable question to ask in October, but between season extenders like cold frames and greenhouses, and succession planting, the answer is a bit complicated. All the warm-weather crops, like tomatoes, pep-pers, celery, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and zucchini are in cans and the freezer. Onions, garlic, winter squash, potatoes and pump-kins have been harvested and cured. Curing means they’ve been washed thoroughly and left on the porch to dry. In the case of win-ter squash and pumpkins, they’ve also been wiped with a light bleach solution (1/4 cup bleach to 5 gallons of water) to kill surface bacteria and prevent mold during storage. We cured the sweet potatoes by placing them in the warmest spot in the house. This adds to their sweetness. The harvest was small but the texture was so creamy we might be tempted to grow them again. Some of the cold-tolerant crops like brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, chard, cabbage and broccoli will all survive mid-20s nights.

The brussels sprout are sizing up nicely. I finally tried the old trick of twisting the tops off to encourage the plants to put all their en-ergy into the sprouts. It works. I don’t think it hurt, either, that I finally gave each plant a little more room to grow. And where I didn’t exactly space them apart, the ninja wood-chuck was kind enough to do it for me.

The midsummer sowings of carrots and beets are now mature and will spend the winter under tarps folded over thick beds of leaves. When the snow lies deep on the garden, we’ll shovel off the top layer and pull the tarp back to dig the roots. It is a good idea to wait until November before cover-ing these vegetables with their leafy sleeping bags. If we cover too early, we invite all the little voles and shrews and mice who are now looking for a warm home to move in under the tarp and feast on our crops all winter long. Nice for them, but not so nice for us!

I’m trying to use up the Rossa Lunga di Tropea, a sweet, glossy purple onion shaped like a torpedo that is not rated as a winter keeper. Indeed, some of mine are beginning

to sprout, but many are still rock hard and hopefully will stay that way until January. The same is true for those gorgeous globes of Ailsa Craig, though I’ve heard of some stay-ing hard into February or March.

We’ll soon be planting garlic where we grew the spring peas. This seems to be a great marriage. Peas fix nitrogen in the soil and are generally harvested by early August. That gives us time to grow a cover crop of Canadian field peas, another nitrogen fixer. Once the Canadian peas flower, we till them in, sometime in late September. By the time we plant garlic in late October, we have a beautiful, loamy, weed-free bed. We plant in a grid, three inches deep, eight inches apart, in rows about a foot apart, covering the whole area with three to four inches of leaves. Over time, the leaves mat down to a couple of inches. Year after year growing garlic this way, we’ve only had to weed the garlic patch once before harvest.

I’ll harvest the last of the cilantro and cele-riac in a few weeks. Both will tolerate a few frosts. I dug the first parsnip for some soup and probably will leave a quarter of them until spring. If you harvest them early in the spring (before they get hairy), they have an unsurpassed sweetness. The parsley, which we’ll still be harvesting under a frosting of snow, looks so beautiful that I dug one up and brought it indoors. It drooped for an afternoon but soon perked up. I don’t bother bringing in any other herbs besides the ten-der rosemary, which cannot withstand a frost, but oregano, thyme and mint are three perennial herbs which will do well in a sunny window through the winter.

By the end of October or early November, we’ll have seeded all the empty parts of the garden with winter rye. As I’ve said many times, but it bears repeating, this is probably the best cover crop you can put on a garden over the winter. It adds nutrients to the soil, smothers weeds and, most valuably, sup-presses witch grass, the one weed that is very difficult to eradicate.

Lettuce, spinach and winter greens are growing in the cold frames and greenhouse. With any luck we’ll still be harvesting those in December, and they’ll rejuvenate in March. So, while much of the garden is put to bed, and even though days are short and the temperatures are falling, there are still vegetables that are very awake and slowly continuing to grow. Happy gardening!

Miriam and her husband, David, live in East Montpelier, where they grow most of their own vegetables, berries and meat on less than 1/4 of an acre. Your questions and com-ments are welcome. You can reach Miriam at [email protected].

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Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!


Tiny BitesSome like it hot—hot compost, that is. Highfields Center for Composting in Hard-

wick has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund research on a compost heat-recovery system. Compost heats up to 140 to 160 degrees, and that heat can be captured and trans-ferred for heating water, greenhouses and barns. This is new technology in the early stages of development, and Highfields is using Kickstarter to crowd-fund its research into this renew-able, regenerative energy source. To date, Highfields has raised a quarter of its $40,000 goal; the funding deadline of November 18 is fast approaching, so visit highfieldscomposting.org to learn more about the project, hear from Bill McKibben about why he supports the project, and donate. Or hang out at Positive Pie in Montpelier on Saturday, October 20, to hear the “smoking percussions and blazing brass” of D’Moja, who will play a benefit concert from 8 p.m. to midnight. $20 gets you all the pizza you can eat and supports the research, too.

Harvest season deserves a little celebration. Join Green Mountain Girls Farm in Northfield on Saturday, October 20, for cider pressing and a harvest supper, along with

farm tours that highlight the ultralocal provenance of the meal. Cider pressing and tours begin at 4 p.m., and supper begins at 5 p.m., with a menu to be announced that might well feature the farm’s organic pork or chevron (goat). Tickets, which include cider, tour and sup-per, are $15 for adults and $5 for kids. Musician Melissa Crabtree will perform in the barn at 7 p.m. (separate ticket). Details and directions at eatstayfarm.com.

What will it take to get farm-fresh Vermont food into every school cafeteria? Vermont Farm to School Salons combine delicious local food with juicy conversation about

the current essential questions of the farm-to-school movement. Your living room could be the perfect spot for one of these conversations! If you’d like to host a salon in your area during fall 2012 and winter and spring 2013, contact Anne Bijur from Vermont FEED at [email protected] or 985-0318.

Did you know that 97,000 Vermonters participate in 3SquaresVT, a federal nutrition program that gives low-income households money each month for food? While this

program makes a huge difference in the lives of many Vermonters, sometimes the benefits are too low to allow households to purchase nutritious food on a consistent basis. The aver-age participant receives just $1.80 per meal from 3SquaresVT. November 11 to 17, during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, take the 3SquaresVT challenge and try to live on a strict food budget of just $1.80 per meal. Visit hungerfreevermont.org to learn more.

The post office isn’t just for stamps and mail anymore. The new Post Office Café in Worcester Village is serving breakfast sandwiches and fresh baked goods like doughnuts,

cinnamon buns and apple turnovers, as well as fair-trade coffee from the Capitol Grounds Roastery in East Montpelier and fair-trade tea from Waterbury’s Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea Company. The café overlooks Worcester’s historic Ladd Haymeadow, making it a sweet spot for a cuppa’ with a friend. Located at 34 Worcester Village Road (Route 12), the café has plenty of parking and wireless Internet. Open 6 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday and 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday. You can also visit their website, postofficecafevt.com.

The Thrush lives on! The historic tavern-restaurant, home to many a legislative deal over the years, reopened as the Clean Slate Café in March and closed just a couple of weeks

ago. The space will reopen as the Vermont Thrush Restaurant in early November under the ownership of chef Cameron Moorby and Sarah Moos. Moorby’s kitchen experi-ence includes many years at both Single Pebble locations (Berlin and Burlington), and time at the Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond has prepared Moos for front-of-house duty. Moorby notes that diners can expect a smaller menu with more daily specials; the restaurant will serve lunch and dinner as well as brunch on the weekends. The Clean Slate’s Facebook page notes that the new restaurant will honor Clean Slate gift certificates.

—compiled by Sylvia Fagin; send food news to [email protected]

Central Vermont Food News

Fun-Raisin’ Wednesdays are back!

Every Wednesday, 6–8 pm. 10% of sales from 5 p.m. to close will be donated to a rotating environmental nonprofit.

On October 17: Live music by Alec Ellsworth; sales donated to the VT Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition

City Center building, 89 Main Street, MontpelierHours: 8 am–9 pm, seven days a week262-CAKE | www.skinnypancake.com

Community Herbalism Workshopsat Vermont Center for Integrative HerbalismClasses cost $10 members/$12 nonmembers and take place at VCIH (250 Main Street, 3rd floor, in Montpelier) unless otherwise specified. Please pre-register at 802.224.7100 or [email protected]. Class descriptions at vtherbcenter.org.

NOURISHING HERBAL SUPPORT FOR STRESSwith Angie Barger, VCIH clinical intern • Monday, October 22nd, 6–8 pm

TONGUE DIAGNOSIS with Brendan Kelly, Jade Mountain WellnessSaturday, November 3rd, 9 am–5 pm, at Touchstone Massage in Burlington

THE MAGIC OF SUPER FOODS with Aisling Badger, VCIH clinical internMonday, November 5th, 6–8 pm

STRESS LESS ABOUT IBS with Emily Irwin, VCIH clinical internWednesday, November 7th, 6–8 pm

IN THE WITCHES’ KITCHEN with Grace Hurley, VCIH clinical internMonday, November 12th, 6–8 pm • $5 materials fee


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Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!


by Cassandra Brush

As a Shakespeare fan, I don’t always get excited about productions of his plays, because it can be such a

crapshoot. Some thespians take him (and themselves) too seriously; there are scenes we all know so well it’s hard to hear them afresh; and many actors get stilted with the language. Shakespeare’s plays require excellent acting, an understanding that the bard was also a bawd and a willingness to let his language rule more than anything else—at least, those are my personal criteria. So it made my week to find that Lost Nation Theater’s production of Hamlet got it spot on, with an amazing cast, a spare stage and the ability to let the tragedy unfold while not forgetting the humor.

And what better play to bring us toward Halloween than one featuring ghosts, grave-yards, conversations with a human skull, death, betrayal and insanity?

Kudos, first of all, to Caleb Probst, who nailed it as Hamlet. No stranger to Shake-speare, Probst has performed with Lost Na-tion in Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as well as in Oscar Wilde’s the Importance of Being Ernest). Probst brought an intense and credible emotion to the char-acter—who suffers not only his father’s death but the swift marriage between his mother and uncle, feigns madness in order to exact revenge, and communicates with the dead. Probst delivered the well-known “To be or not to be” speech with authenticity, and his

dynamic style constantly brought freshness to the role.

Probst—and much of the cast—also used the effective tool of looking audience mem-bers in the eye. It’s hard not to believe some-one while he’s looking deeply into your eyes. He used the stage well, not neglecting any corner of the theater while speaking directly to specific (and surprised) audience members or to whole sections of the theater, with-out breaking us from the spell of the play. Indeed, that very trick is very Shakespear-ian—the play within the play—reminding us that “all the world’s a stage.”

Kudos also to the entire cast of eight—many of whom played multiple roles. I knew I’d see my Bridge colleague, editor Robert Nuner, on stage, but when he appeared in no fewer than seven roles (soldier, ambassador, acting troupe leader, player, army captain, messenger and gravedigger), I was floored, and by the time he excelled as the gruesome gravedigging clown, I thought I’d not seen so perfectly cast a role as that.

In fact, Director Kim Bent used well the fact that Shakespeare killed off all his char-acters. As soon as one died, the actor filled other roles, starting with Mark Roberts, who shone as Polonius, Claudius’s adviser. Rob-ert’s portrayal of the foolish wise man added much humor to the production—somewhat like A.A. Milne’s Owl in Winnie the Pooh. But Roberts also makes a chilling ghost, not to mention a crown prince, a sailor and a priest.

There didn’t appear to be a weak link in

the cast; some who stood out to this audi-ence member include Christopher Scheer as Rosencranz and Eric William Love as Guildenstern; like their compatriots, Scheer and Love played other characters as well, but they came across as especially loveable as the comic relief and pals to Hamlet. Scheer also shone as Laertes, Polonius’s son. In the scene where Hamlet confronts his mother, Queen Gertrude, actor Tracey Girdich pulls off a fully believable performance as a bewildered, grieving and freaked-out mother. Kate Ken-

ney bridged the gap from in-love to insanity without skipping a beat—and her real tears touched much of the audience deeply. And then—surprise!—after drowning in her own sorrows, Ophelia turns up as Young Osricke, a boy in the royal court of Denmark, and convincingly so (if we hadn’t just seen her descend into madness).

The only minor hiccup came with Paul Molnar’s portrayal of Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. Molnar acted the role excellently, but I found myself liking him too much to fully believe that he had committed mur-der. In fact, Hamlet’s emotional complexity came off as much more terrifying than the relatively simple motives of a power-hungry murdering brother. That said, part of Mol-nar’s technique may have been not to portray his role as the one-dimensional evil guy but to reveal a range of possibilities within the character.

A shout-out should be given to all the crew members who pulled off sound and lighting. It’s tough to pull off the vision of a ghost, and LNT did it well, with a flickering video apparition, dry ice and then the real thing, back-lit and echoing. Also impressive was Nancy Smith’s costume design. Each costume enhanced the role without overtly calling attention to itself and while remain-ing as simple as possible.

Hamlet plays Thursdays through Sundays, October 18 through October 28 at Lost Nation Theater. Go to lostnationtheater.org for tickets or more information, or call 229-0492.

LNT Rocks HamletSmall Cast Pulls Off Huge Range of Characters

Christopher Scheer as Laertes and Caleb Probst as Hamlet. Photo by Francis Moran Photogra-phy; courtesy Lost Nation Theater.

Caleb Probst plays Hamlet in Lost Nation Theater’s current production.

About 10 months ago, Director Kim Bent put the idea to Probst, saying, “It’s time for you to do Hamlet.” Probst said that he re-sponded, “Yeah, I think I could take on that challenge.” He spoke of playing the role as “flattering” and “humbling.”

Probst, 30, studied acting at Syracuse University. In 2002, he studied acting in London at the (new) Globe Theater. It was dur-ing his sixth months at the Globe Theater that Probst arrived at a critical turning point. “This is what I want to do for the rest of my career,” he said to himself.

In the fall of 2006, Probst played Romeo in Lost Nation’s pro-duction of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He played Lysander, one of the comic lovers lost in the forest, in last summer’s produc-tion of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Bent cast Probst as Hamlet based on the range of emotional, physical and vocal abilities that Probst brings to the role.

As he took up the text and prepared himself for his role, Probst was not sure he even liked Hamlet. “I’m not sure that he and I would be friends,” he said. But as he worked on the role and dur-

ing rehearsals the character of Hamlet began to make sense to him emotionally.

Bent said he sees an “everyman” element at the heart of Shake-speare’s play. While none of us are Danish princes, each of us has a mother and a father. If we live long enough, we will have to come to terms with our father’s death.

As why you should see Lost Nation’s Hamlet, even if you have seen the play on stage or on screen a dozen times before, “You have never seen this production,” Bent said. “You have to do the play that’s in the room. There’s a chemistry that’s specific to every cast.”

In Lost Nation’s production, three actors are playing a single role: Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius. Five actors are sharing the 26 other parts.

If anyone might wonder if eight actors can play all the roles in Hamlet, Kim Bent is unworried. He declared, “The essence of theater is to play different parts. Wow! People get to be kids again. Actors playing actors. Hey, it’s theater!”

—Nat Frothingham

About the Actor: Caleb Probst as Hamlet

Vermont State House Gift Shop Sale October 22–26, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

It’s the annual end-of-season sale of Vermont crafts, artwork, note cards, food products, t-shirts and souvenirs. Up to 30% off. Pro-ceeds used for the betterment of the State House under the direction of the Friends of the State House volunteers.

Recruiting volunteers for the shop and for educational and group tours for 2013. Please leave contact info with Jane Bishop (voice: 828-0386 or email: [email protected]) to receive infor-mation. Thank you!

Illustration by Tim Newcomb


Upcoming EventsTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 18Meeting on Disability Issues. Share stories and concerns. 1–3 p.m. Vermont Center for Independent Living, 11 East State Street, Montpelier. 639-1522 or 229-0501 (both are also V/TTY numbers). Event happens every third Thursday.Pumpkin Carving Contest. Carve a pumpkin for your home and enter the judging. Bring your own carving tools. All ages welcome; sign up in teams or as individuals. 5–7 p.m. City Hall plaza, Montpelier. $2; includes one pumpkin and one candle. montpelieralive.org.Embodying Practice. With Robert Kest. A look at the interface of the psychology of meditation and the psychology of the body as it relates to spiritual practice. 6–7:30 p.m. Hunger Moun-tain Coop community room, Montpelier. Free. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or [email protected] with the Forest: Agroforestry Practices for the Northeast. Permaculture and wilderness expert Connor Stedman talks about traditional forest management in the Northeast and worldwide, landscape assessment tools to evaluate a site’s potential for agroforestry, and a wide range of agroforestry systems and crops for our region. 6–7:45 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. 223-3338. Sponsored by Transition Town Montpelier.Science of Mind Principles. Study group for inquiring minds of all faiths. 6–8 p.m. Universal Rivers of Life, 28 East State Street, suite 4 (second floor), Montpelier. 223-3427 or [email protected]. Event happens every first and third Thursday.Third Thursday Travel Talks: Ireland—Plants, Food, People. Local herbalist Dana Woodruff shares her recent travels to the Emerald Isle. Light refreshments. 6:30 p.m. Cutler Memorial Library, Route 2, Plainfield. Free. 454-8504 or cutlerlibrary.org. Event happens every third Thursday.Songwriters’ Meeting. Meeting of the Northern VT/NH chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Bring copies of your work. 6:45 p.m. Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury. John, 633-2204. Event happens every third Thursday.Ecumenical Group. Songs of praise, Bible teaching, fellowship. 7–9 p.m. Jabbok Center for Christian Living, 8 Daniel Drive, Barre. Free. 479-0302. Event happens every first and third Thursday.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19How to Plan for Death Without Spending a For-tune. The Funeral Consumers Alliance of Vermont leads a session on consumer rights, affordable funeral options and how to ask the right questions when seeking assistance with death planning. Bring questions and lunch; beverages and dessert available. Noon–2:30 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 58 Barre Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-8140.Boomerfest: Living Well Over 50. Sample local foods and wines, check out a silent auction or dance to tunes by the Run-away Dog Band. Food 4:30–6:30 p.m.; silent auction 6:30–7 p.m.; band 7–9 p.m. Montpelier Elks Club, Country Club Road, Montpe-lier. $5 Community of Vermont Elders members, $25 nonmembers (includes membership fee). 229-4731 or vermontelders.org.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20Fall Crafting Workshop. Sue Premore leads adults and teens in fashioning beaded jewelry. 9–11 a.m. Waterbury Public Li-brary. Free; all materials provided. Registration required: 244-7036.Halloween Mask-Making. Make and decorate plaster bandage masks. Bring additional items to decorate your mask if desired. Kids under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. The Drawing Board, 22 Main Street, Montpelier. $25 adult, $40 one adult and one child, $60 one adult and two children, $75 two adults and two children. 223-2902 or drawingboardvt.com.Discover Goddard Day. Learn more about Goddard’s low-residency degree programs. Attend an information session, meet current students and faculty, and tour the campus and gardens. 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield. Free; lunch included. RSVP to 800-906-8312 or [email protected] Annual Homemakers Craft Bazaar. Local artisans and crafters offer a variety of handcrafted and homemade items and baked goods. Food available. 9:30 a.m.– 3:30 p.m. Barre City Auditorium. Free. Laura, 229-4351 or [email protected]. Sponsored by the Central Vermont Regional Homemakers.Rock Hounds Unite! Geologists identify rocks and fossils, lead mini geology field trips and display mineral collections. Bring your own mystery rock, mineral or fossil to identify. 10 a.m.–1 p.m. North Branch Nature center, 713 Elm Street, Montpelier. Free. 229-6206.Poets’ and Writers’ Reading: Gayle Hanson. Open reading and light refreshments follow. 11 a.m. Cutler Library, Route 2, Plainfield. Free. 454-8504 or cutlerlibrary.org. Event happens every third Saturday.

Family Movie Matinee. An animated, G-rated movie, based on the novel The Borrowers, that the whole family will enjoy. Noon–1:30 p.m. Waterbury Public Library. Free. For name of film and to register, call 244-7036.Technique Class with Tiffany Rhynard. The artistic director of Big Action Performance Ensemble leads intermediate to advanced dancers in expanding somatic perception and challeng-ing the body toward gutsy dancing. 12:30–2 p.m. Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio, 18 Langdon Street (third floor), Mont-pelier. $15 or four punches on a CDFS card. Register at 229-4676. bigapedance.com.Low-Cost Pet Vaccine Clinic. Protect your pets and your community. Walk-in clinic for low-cost vaccines and microchips. Please have cats in carriers and dogs on leashes. 2–3:30 p.m. Central Vermont Humane Society. $10 rabies vaccine, $10 distemper vaccine, $25 microchips; bring most recent vaccination certificates if applicable. 476-3811, ext. 110, or cvhumane.com.Annual Meeting of the Gathering. Members of central Vermont Buddhist sanghas gather and practice in an afternoon of sitting, walking and discussion. Children’s program offered. 2–4:30 p.m. Friends Meeting House, Plainfield, Noah, 401-743-9387 or [email protected] Concert. Bach’s solo organ and Christmas Oratorio mu-sic played and sung by local organists Brian Webb, Carl Schwartz, Linette Combs and Ken Scott, with bass John Harrison and trum-peter Ronald Thompson. Reception follows. 3 p.m. Christ Church, State Street, Montpelier. $10 suggested donation; benefits renovation of the church’s Taplin Auditorium. 225-6471.Fourth Annual Indian Dinner. Dinner, sari fashion show, Indian dance performance and silent auction to benefit Child Ha-ven International. 4:30 p.m., kids’ program; 6 p.m., dinner., Hazen Union High School auditorium, Hardwick. $15 adults, $7 children age 12 and under. Tickets at Buffalo Mountain Coop and Gagnon’s Video Store in Hardwick. 533-229, [email protected] or childhaven.ca.Chicken Pie Supper. Hosted by the Wesley United Method-ist Church. Seatings at 5:30 and 6:45 p.m. St. Leo’s Hall (behind St. Andrews Church), South Main Street, Waterbury. $10 adults, $5 children under 12, $30 family; takeout available. Reservations at 229-0075.Shape-Note Sing. Ian Smiley leads tunes from The Sa-cred Harp. All welcome; no experience necessary. 6:30–8 p.m. Tulsi Tea Room, 34 Elm Street, Montpelier. By donation. Ian, [email protected]. Event happens every first and third Saturday.Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival Premiere. Benefits the Vermont Land Trust’s effort to save the Bolton backcountry. Snacks provided; cash bar. Part of Onion River Sports’s backcountry skiing film series. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; film starts at 7 p.m. Savoy Theater (downstairs), Montpe-lier. $15. Tickets at [email protected] or at the door. onionriver .com.Concert with Iain MacHarg. MacHarg is an accomplished and internationally acclaimed Scottish bagpiper. Desserts for sale. Benefits the Jaquith Public Library. 7 p.m. Vivien and Michael Fritz’s barn, 693 McCrillis Road, Marshfield. $8–$10 suggested donation for adults, free for children. 426-3581 or [email protected] Gospel Project. An eclectic mix of songs within the acoustic tradition that showcases the group’s vocal capabilities. 7:30 p.m. Chandler Music Hall, 71–73 Main Street, Randolph. $19 advance, $22 day of show. Tickets at 728-6464 or chandler-arts.org.Compost Benefit Show with D’Moja. Smoking percus-sion, blazing brass and hand-tossed pizzas to support Highfields Compost heat-recovery project. 8 p.m. Positive Pie 2, 22 State Street, Montpelier. $20, includes pizza à volonté. Tom, 472-5138Contra Dance. All dances taught; no partner necessary. All ages welcome. Bring shoes not worn outdoors. 8–11 p.m. Old Labor Hall, 46 Granite Street, Barre. $8. 744-6163 or capitalcitygrange.org. Event happens every first, third and fifth Saturday.

TheaterHAMLETIntrigue, the supernatural, music, humor and powerful drama combine to tell Shakespeare’s classic tale of vengeance and tragedy. Through October 28. Thursdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; 2 p.m. matinee October 28. Lost Nation Theater, 39 Main Street, Montpelier. $30 Friday–Sunday, $25 Thursday; $5 discount for students and se-niors. Show not recommended for children. Tickets at 229-0492 or lostnationtheater.org.

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUESEve Ensler’s episodic play celebrating all aspects of the female. Laugh, cry, rejoice and chant your way through the journey of being a woman. Through October 21. Friday–Sun-day, 7:30 p.m.; 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, October 21. Valley Players Theater, 4254 Main Street, Waitsfield. $12. For mature audiences only. Tickets at 583-1674, [email protected], or valleyplayers.com.

see UPCOMING EVENTS, page 16

Live MusicBAGITOS28 Main Street, Montpelier. All shows 6–8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 229-9212 or bagitos.com.Every WednesdayBlues jam with the Usual Suspects and friendsEvery SaturdayIrish/Celtic session, 2–5 p.m.Thursday, October 18Sherri Lamberton presents Sherri’s Jubilee Friday, October 19The Well Trained Monkeys, 6 p.m.–closeSaturday, October 20Jeff ParrySunday, October 21Brunch with Jason Mallery, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.Friday, October 26Esmere Skye Saturday, October 27Songs of Peace & Protest: Pete Seeger tribute and sing-along with Bronwyn Fryer and friends

Sunday, October 28Brunch with Jay(KOH), 11 a.m.–1 p.m.Wednesday, October 31Halloween costume party with the Usual SuspectsThursday, November 1Colin McCaffrey and friends

BLACK DOOR44 Main Street, Montpelier. All shows start at 9:30 p.m. with $5 cover unless otherwise noted. 225-6479 or blackdoorvermont.com.Thursday, October 18Great Brook Blues Band (blues), 8:30 pmFriday, October 19Saint Anyway (bluegrass)Saturday, October 20Duke Aeroplane and the Wrong Numbers (gypsy/folk) with Anna Pardenik and the Apologies (alt-folk)Friday, October 26The Party Crashers (funk/soul)Saturday, October 27Connor Mulroy (alt-grass), 7:30 p.m.Bossman pre-Halloween party (neo- reggae), 10 p.m.

CHARLIE O’S70 Main Street, Montpelier. 223-6820. Every TuesdayKaraokeThursday, October 18DJ CrucibleFriday, October 19The PilgrimsThursday, October 25Joe Buck Yourself with Viva Le VoxWednesday, October 31Halloween party with Amadis

NUTTY STEPH’S CHOCOLATERIERoute 2, Middlesex. All shows 7–10 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 229-2090 or nuttystephs.com.Every ThursdayBacon Thursdays, hot music and live conversation, 6 p.m.–midnightThursday, October 18Wear your butt tattoo (real or fake) for the Butttattoo ContestThursday, October 25Modern Times Theatre (song and show-manship)

POSITIVE PIE 222 State Street, Montpelier. 229-0453 or positivepie.com.Friday, October 19Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band (blues/soul), 10:30 p.m., $5, 21+Saturday, October 27Nightmare on State Street: Costume dance party with the Reverend, DJ Know #1, Mr. Yee and special guest Raw Deff, 10:30 p.m., $3, 21+

SKINNY PANCAKE89 Main Street, Montpelier. 262-2253 or skinnypancake.com.Every SundayOld-time sessions with Katie Trautz and friends, 4–6 p.m. (intermediate to advanced players welcome to sit in)Sunday, October 21La Jeder (Americana)Sunday, October 28Kim and Chris (folk)

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Stomp-grass trio Saint Anyway, who will be playing at the Black Door on Friday, October 19.


Art & ExhibitsCALL TO ARTISTSArtists in theirs 20s and 30s sought for a juried show at Chandler Gallery in Randolph showcas-ing the diversity and perspectives of innovative young artists. Two-dimensional and three- dimensional pieces accepted, as well as photog-raphy. Deadline is December 5. $15 submission fee upon acceptance. 728-4375, janetensia@gmail .com or chandlergallery.blogspot.com.

BIGTOWN GALLERYNew Work, wall reliefs by Paul Bowen, oils on wood by Joan Kahn, gouache and oils on paper and canvas by Celia Reisman and watercol-ors by Fulvio Testa. 99 North Main Street, Rochester. Through November 18. 767-9670, [email protected] or bigtowngallery.com.

CHANDLER GALLERYTurning Leaves: New Directions in Book Arts, innovative group show exploring the book form. 71–73 Main Street, Randolph. Through Novem-ber 2. 431-0204 or [email protected].

CITY CENTERArt Resource Association group show. 89 Main Street, Montpelier. Through mid-October. artresourceassociation.com.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE & FITNESS STUDIODances on Silk, hand-painted silk hangings and stretched silk by Maggie Neale. 18 Langdon Street (third floor), Montpelier. Through Novem-ber 22. 229-4676 or cdandfs.com.

54 MAIN STREETPhotographic retrospective of Goddard College. 54 Main Street, Montpelier. Wednesday–Friday, 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m.; Saturdays, noon–3 p.m.; through October. 322-1685 or goddard.edu.

GOVERNOR’S GALLERYWe Are Vermont Strong, visual art by Vermont artists, teachers and community groups in re-sponse to Tropical Storm Irene. 109 State Street (fifth floor), Montpelier. Reception Wednesday, October 24, 3–5 p.m. Photo ID required for admission. Through December 28. 828-0749.

GREEN BEAN ART GALLERYAngels, Sneakers, and Wheels, photography by Brent Gould fusing digital with darkroom. Capitol Grounds, 27 State Street, Montpelier. Through October 28. curator@capitolgrounds .com.

GREEN MOUNTAIN FINE ART GALLERYWe the People, figurative paintings by Dorothy Martinez exploring our country’s diversity. 60 South Main Street, Stowe. Through early Novem-ber. 253-1818 or greenmountainfineart.com.

KELLOGG-HUBBARD LIBRARYEmergence, assemblages of natural objects and photography by Ruth Coppersmith. Hayes Room, 135 Main Street, Montpelier. Through November 5. 223-3338.

JAQUITH PUBLIC LIBRARYPaintings by Charles Bohn. 122 School Street, Marshfield. 426-3581 or jaquithpubliclibrary@ gmail.com.

LOCAL 64Painting or Collage?, collage paintings on wood panel by Vermont artist Ted Zilius. 5 State Street (second floor), Montpelier. local64.com.

MADSONIAN MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGNMade in the Shade: The Design of Summer Vaca-tion, showcasing design excellence in recreation-al items. 45 Bridge Street, Waitsfield. Through November 16. madsonian.org.

RED HEN BAKERY & CAFÉPaintings by Anne Unangst, Marcia Hill and Cindy Griffith. Route 2, Middlesex. Through October 31. 229-4326, marciahillart.com or hungermountainarts.com.

RIVER ARTS CENTERCurtains Without Borders, a conservation project documenting and preserving historic painted scenery. 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville. Through October 30. 888-1261 or riverartsvt.org.

THE SHOE HORNPaintings and Drawings of Sculpture, lively works on paper by Glen Coburn Hutcheson. 8 Langdon Street. Through November 30. [email protected].

STATE HOUSE CAFETERIAVisions of Place, photography by Vermonters John Miller, Peter Miller and Richard Brown.State House (second floor), Montpelier. Through November 30. 828-0749.

STUDIO PLACE ARTSRock Solid, stone sculptures by area artisans and other works portraying qualities of stone; Kingdoms in the Sky, works by Vanessa Comp-ton; and Freedom from Dilution, paintings by John David O’Shaughnessy. 201 North Main Street, Barre. Through November 3. 479-7069 or studioplacearts.com.

SULLIVAN MUSEUMTol’ ko Po Russky, Pozhaluista (“Russian Only, Please”), chronicling the history of the Russian school at Norwich University, 1968–2000; and 1861–1862: Toward a Higher Moral Purpose, exploring the experiences of Norwich Univer-sity alumni (Union and Confederate) during the Civil War. Norwich University, Northfield. Russian exhibit through January 2013; Civil War exhibit through April 2013. 485-2183 or norwich .edu/museum.

TULSI TEA ROOMMagestic Biology, photography by Iris Gage capturing the innocence and vibrancy of fauna, flora and landscapes. 34 Elm Street, Montpelier. Through December 1. 223-0043.

VERMONT HERITAGE GALLERIESIcons, Oddities & Wonders, stories from the Vermont Historical Society collections; and The Emergence of the Granite City: Barre 1890 to 1940. 60 Washington Street, Barre. Through December. Free admission. 479-8500.

VERMONT HISTORY MUSEUMFreedom & Unity: One Ideal, Many Stories, expe-rience a full-sized Abenaki wigwam, a recreation of the Catamount Tavern, a railroad station complete with working telegraph, a World War II living room and more. 109 State Street, Mont-pelier. $5 adults, $12 families. 828-2291.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21Hike with the Montpelier Section of the Green Mountain Club. Climb Bald Mountain in Westmore via the Long Pond Trail. 4.4 miles round-trip, 1,450-foot ascent. Bring lunch and water. Meet at Montpelier High School. Call leaders Re-idun and Andrew Nuquist, 223-3550, for meeting time.Personal Insights from Israel and Palestine. With Kathy Shapiro and Paki Wieland. 1 p.m. Lane Shops community room, Montpelier. Sponsored by the local chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Feldenkrais: Softening your Ribs. Learn to improve your flexibility, strength and breathing with gentle, small move-ments. 1:30–3:30 p.m. Yoga Mountain Center, 7 Main Street, Montpelier. $30. Register at 735-3770 or info@vermontfeldenkrais .com.Bagel Making. Learn the art of making bagels with master baker Deb Bailin. 2–4 p.m. Beth Jacob Synagogue, 10 Harrison Avenue, Montpelier. $7 synagogue members, $12 nonmembers. 279-7518, [email protected] or bethjacobvt.org.Central Vermont High School Initiative Meeting. Learn about the initiative and plans for a ninth-grade program, and hear from a Waldorf high-school graduate on the experience of being in a lead class. Middle-school students welcome. 2–4 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, 78 Summer Street, Barre. Free. Childcare provided for younger children; please RSVP to [email protected]. centralvthighschool.wordpress.com.Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra Annual Opera Gala. Featuring soprano Laura Sot-Bayomi and mezzo-soprano Jeanette Luna performing operatic arias by Bellini, Donizetti and Puccini, plus Rossini’s William Tell overture, Pietro Mascagni’s Inno al Sole and more. 2 p.m. Barre Opera House. $15 adults, $12 seniors, $5 students; Tickets at 476-8188, vermontphilharmonic.org or at the door.Tara Mandala Dance Circle. Dance in praise of the divine feminine. 3–5 p.m. Plainfield Community Center (above the co-op). By donation. [email protected]. Attic Series: Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen. The folk duo perform traditional music and original songs with rich harmony and a good dose of humor. 7 p.m., Taplin Auditori-um, Christ Church, State Street, Montpelier. $15. Reservations recom-mended but not required; 229-1403 or [email protected] Film Society. Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly and Thelma Ritter. 7 p.m. Chandler Upper Gallery, 71–73 Main Street, Randolph. $9. 431-0204 or [email protected].

MONDAY, OCTOBER 22Let’s Make Unsalted Cultured Vegetables. With Tara Carpenter, personal therapeutic chef. Learn how to make cul-tured vegetables that deliver therapeutic amounts of beneficial flora to the gut. 5:30–7 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $10 co-op member/owners, $12 nonmembers. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or [email protected].

Nourishing Herbal Support for Stress. With Angie Barger, clinical intern at Vermont Center for Integrative Herbal-ism. 6–8 p.m. Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, 250 Main Street (third floor), Montpelier. $10 VCIH members, $12 nonmem-bers. Register at 224-7100 or [email protected] Club. Playful exercises to get you moving, breathing and laughing. No sense of humor required. For ages 8 and older. 6–7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-1607. Adult Book Group. In October, discuss Lost Wife, by Alyson Richman. Copies of the book available at the library. New mem-bers welcome. 7–8 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, Old Schoolhouse Common, Marshfield. 426-3581 or [email protected]. Event happens every fourth Monday.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23Medicare and You. New to Medicare? Have questions? We have answers. 3–4:30 p.m. Central Vermont Council on Aging, 59 North Main Street, suite 200, Barre. Free. Register at 479-0531. Event happens every second and fourth Tuesday.Introduction to Meditation for Stress Manage-ment, Improved Health and Inner Peace. With Sherry Rhynard. Whether you’ve never meditated or tried but found it difficult to continue, learn about the theory of meditation and effective techniques, and get some practice time. Handouts provided. 6–7:30 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $10 co-op member/owners, $12 nonmembers. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or [email protected] Building Blocks: Keeping the Books and Tax Planning. Denice Brown of Abacus Bookkeeping explains tax law, what you need to keep track of and how to keep track of it. 6–8:30 p.m. Central Vermont Community Action Council, 195 Route 302, Barre. Free, but space limited: sign up with Margaret, 476-8493, 800-843-8397 or [email protected]. Event happens every Tuesday through October 30.Author Reading and Signing: Woden Teachout and Susan Clark. The Vermont authors present their new book, Slow Democracy, chronicling how ordinary people have mo-bilized to find local solutions to local problems. 7 p.m. Bear Pond Books, 77 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-0774.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24The Group of Seven: Canada’s Landscape Painters. Presented by William Tortolano, professor emeritus. Part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. 1:30 p.m.; doors open at 12:30 for brown-bag lunch. Aldrich Public Library, Barre. $5 suggested donation. 223-1763 or [email protected]. Series continues every Wednesday through December 12.Enjoy the Wonders of Fungi. With Eric Swanson of Vermush. See Swanson’s recent pictures and projects and learn how to culture and grow mycelium into fungi. Everyone will bring home their own oyster mushroom spawn. 5–7 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $10 co-op mem-ber/owners, $12 nonmembers. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or [email protected].

Writing on the Bones: Learning and Reciting Po-etry by Heart. Bring poems you love, whether or not you have learned them. 6–7:30 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. [email protected] People’s Cafe. Music, poetry, comedy and discussion of alternative economics, direct democracy and more. 6-8 p.m. Bagi-tos, Montpelier. Free. For performance information, contact David, 456-1978.Author Reading: Rebecca Rupp, How Carrots Won the Trojan War. Rupp tells strange and fascinating behind-the-scenes tales of 23 of the world’s most popular vegetables. 7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. 223-3338.Vermont Philharmonic Messiah Chorus Rehears-als. Experienced singers of Handel’s Messiah begin rehearsals for November 30 and December 2 concerts. Bring your own score. 7 p.m. Chorus room, Spaulding High School, Barre, Vermont. Schedule of rehearsals at vermontphilharmonic.org/chorus.When the Waters Came to Waterbury. The Water-bury Historical Society commemorates the 85th anniversary of the 1927 flood, and a year since Tropical Storm Irene, through life stories, videos and photographs of the two disastrous events that changed Waterbury forever. Come share your stories. 7 p.m., business meeting; 7:30 p.m., program. American Legion Hall, Stowe Street, Waterbury. Free. 244-8089.Two Wheels, Two Planks: Bicycle-Powered Skiing in Arctic Norway. Vermont photographers and storytellers Brian Mohr and Emily Johnson tell tales of their recent bicycle-powered skiing exploration, weaving still photos, video footage and music with their own off-the-cuff narration. 7 p.m. Joslin Memorial Library, Waitsfield. Free. Brian, 989-0570 or [email protected]. Event repeats Thursday, October 25.Cosmic News: Astrology for 2012 and Beyond. Kel-ley Hunter, an internationally known astrologer and mythologist, weaves discoveries from astrophysics, archetypal psychology and philosophy into an illumination of the trends of the times. 7 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, 122 School Street, Marshfield. Free. 426-3581 or [email protected].

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25Vermont State Archives and Records Administra-tion Open House. Check out exhibits—including the 1777 Vermont Constitution and Vermont’s copy of the Bill of Rights—take a behind-the-scenes tour of the archives, or chat with VSARA staff. Light refreshments served. 5–6:30 p.m. State archives build-ing, Middlesex. Free. 828-2207 or [email protected]. Yoga in the Tasting Room. Lori Flower of Sattva Yoga leads a yoga class, followed by some “wine down” in the vineyard’s wine bar. 6–8 p.m. Fresh Tracks Farm, 4373 Route 12, Berlin. $8. RSVP with Lori, [email protected] People First Candidate Forum. County candidates for state legislature answer questions and hear from constituents on everyday human-rights issues like health care, workers’ rights and a healthy environment. 6–8 p.m. Vermont Technical College, 124 Main Street, Randolph. 861-4892 or workerscenter.org. Sponsored by the Vermont Human Rights Council and the Vermont Workers’ Center.

UPCOMING EVENTS, from page 15

SUBMIT YOUR EVENT!Send listings to calendar@montpelier

bridge.com. Deadline for the Thursday, November 1 issue is Friday, October 26.


Two Wheels, Two Planks: Bicycle-Powered Skiing in Arctic Norway. See Wednesday, October 24, for descrip-tion. Note change in time and venue; raffle for outdoor gear at Montpelier presentation. 6:30 p.m. Onion River Sports, Montpelier. Free. Brian, 989-0570 or [email protected] Showing: Dear Pina,. Shot during four of the sold-out performances of Dear Pina, a local dance/theater tribute to Pina Bausch, the film features stunning cinematography and a pro-pulsive visual experience. Discussion with the choreographer and ensemble members follows. 7 p.m. Big Picture Theater, Waitsfield. $10. hannahdennison.org/dear-pina.Green Mountain Dog Club Monthly Meeting. Learn about the club and events. All dog lovers welcome. 7:30 p.m. Commodore’s Inn, Stowe. 479-9843 or greenmountaindogclub.org. Event happens every fourth Thursday.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26Rummage and White Elephant Sale. Clothes and trea-sures for the whole family. 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. Jane, 229-0850 or [email protected]. Sale continues Saturday, October 27.Poetry Sharing Circle. Share the works of your favorite po-ets with others in a small-group setting. Bring brown-bag lunch if desired. Noon–1 p.m. Hayes Room, Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Free. Joanne, 595-2563. Event continues monthly through December; next meeting November 30.See the Moon Like You’ve Never Seen It Before. After the lights go off at the Kellogg-Hubbard, check out the moon and planets up close with the library’s telescope. 6–7:30 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. Rain or cloud date November 9. Jane, 223-3338 or [email protected] Hunters at the Library. Hear true stories from the New England Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, share stories of your own experiences and learn about the science of ghost hunting and paranormal investigation. 6:30 p.m. Aldrich Public Library, 6 Washington Street, Barre. E-mail your name to [email protected] to be entered to win an investigation tag-along.Henry Rollins: Capitalism. The spoken-word artist, writer, actor, comedian, DJ, activist and former singer-songwriter calls attention to issues of state, equality and social mores. Doors open at 7 p.m.; show at 8 p.m. Vermont College of Fine arts, Montpelier. $25 advance, $28 day of show; plus applicable fee. Tickets at 888-512-7469 or highergroundmusic.com.Nightmares on College Street: Twisted Twilight. Green Mountain Theater Group presents their annual haunted house. Witness the disturbed doctor perform yet another gruesome operation and see his insane projects come alive. Come if you dare! Children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult. Doors open at 7 p.m. Noble Hall, Vermont College of Fine Arts, College Street, Montpelier. $10 adults, $7 for kids age 12 and under. 249-0414. Event continues October 27, 28 and 31.Starline Rhythm Boys. Dance the night away to the spirited country and juke joint sounds of this popular Vermont band.7:30 p.m. Chandler Upper Gallery, 71–73 Main Street, Randolph. $13 advance, $16 day of show. Tickets at 728-6464.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27Work Hike with the Montpelier Section of the Green Mountain Club. Get the Long Trail (former Elephant’s Head trail) and Sterling Pond Trail ready for fall in Smuggler’s Notch. All abilities, various distances. Wear sturdy boots, work clothes and gloves. Meet at 8 a.m. at Montpelier High School. Eric, 223-1406 or [email protected] and White Elephant Sale. Stuff a bag for $2. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. Jane, 229-0850 or [email protected] of Writing: Workshops and Anthology 4 Party. Prominent writers and artists present workshops on humor, character development, revision, the musicality of poetry, dialogue, critiquing and finding the story. Then, award-winning author Katherine Paterson and VCFA president Thomas Greene honor 10 young writers. Workshops 10 a.m.–3:20 p.m.; readings and reception 3:30–5 p.m. Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. Free. Register at youngwritersproject.org/signup.Introduction to Yiddish Language with Songs, Stories and Games/Yiddish LIterature Explored in Depth. Learn simple Yiddish vocabulary and culture, fol-lowed by a more in-depth study of the works of great Yiddish poets and songwriters. With Yosl Kurland of Wholesale Klezmer Band. 1–3 p.m., intro to Yiddish; 4–6 p.m., Yiddish literature. Beth Jacob Synagogue, 10 Harrison Avenue, Montpelier. One program: $15 synagogue members, $30 nonmembers; discount for attending both. 279-7518, [email protected] or bethjacobvt.org.The Wiyos: Concert and Workshops. The band celebrates the release of their new album, Twist (which Scotland’s Herald described as “junkyard blues to Cuban neighborhood via surf song harmonies and backwoods Appalachia”), with a benefit for the local Summit School. Workshops at 4:30 p.m. (kids) and 5:30 p.m. (adults), Summit School, 46 Barre Street, Montpelier; concert at 7:30 p.m., Noble Hall, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 36 College Street, Montpelier. Workshop: $25 adults, $10 children; concert: $15 adults, $8 children.

Montpelier Movement Collective Works-in-Prog-ress Showing. See pieces of new work with choreography by Willow Wonder, Avi Waring and Hanna Satterlee, joined by dancers Chelsea Palin, Natalie Wheeler and Isadora Snapp. 7 p.m. Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio, 18 Langdon Street (third floor), Montpelier. $10 suggested donation; benefits the artist-in- residence program. 229-4676.Nightmares on College Street: Twisted Twilight. See Friday, October 26, for description and information.176 Keys. Two-piano jazz concert with Burlington pianist Tom Cleary and Montpelier pianist Michael Arnowitt. Benefits Arnowitt’s 50th birthday concert for piano and orchestra in Janu-ary 2013. 7:30 p.m. Bethany Church, Montpelier. $20 suggested donation. 279-5279 or mapiano.com/gala.htm.Arturo Delmoni. The violinist embodies the romantic warmth of the virtuosi of the golden age of violin playing. 7:30 p.m. Chandler Music Hall, 71–73 Main Street, Randolph. $26.50 advance, $32 day of show. Tickets at 728-6464 or chandler-arts.org.Traditional Quebecois Dance and Dessert Soiree. Lausanne Allen calls traditional dances from Nova Scotia, the Gaspe and other Quebecois locales to tunes by the Homegrown Chestnuts house band (musicians welcome to sit in). No experience needed. Bring shoes not worn outdoors and dessert to share. 8–11 p.m.; 7:30 p.m. beginners’ instruction. Old Labor Hall, 46 Granite Street, Barre. $8 adults, $5 age 15 and younger, $20 family. Merry, 225-8921.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28Autumn Onion 5K Costume Race. Runners race down Montpelier streets in Halloween costumes. All ages and abilities welcome. 10 a.m. Onion River Sports, Montpelier. 229-9409 or [email protected] Nut Tree Workshop. Learn to identify significant nut-producing trees that grow in our area, and learn about ripening

see UPCOMING EVENTS, page 18

Support GroupsBEREAVEMENTBereavement Support Group. For anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Every other Monday, 6–8 p.m., through December 17. Every other Wednesday, 10–11:30 a.m., through December 12. Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, 600 Granger Road, Barre. Ginny, 223-1878.Bereaved Parents Support Group. Facilitated by Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice (CVHHH). Second Wednesdays, 6–8 p.m. CVHHH, 600 Granger Road, Berlin. Jeneane Lunn, 793-2376.Survivors of Suicide. Facilitated by Cory Gould. Third Thursdays, 5–6:30 p.m. Board room, Central Vermont Medical Center, Fisher Road, Berlin. Karen, 229-0591.

CANCERKindred Connections. For anyone affected by cancer. Get help from Kindred Con-nections members who have been in your shoes. A program of the Vermont Cancer Survivor Network. Call Sherry, 479-3223, for more infor-mation. vcsn.net.Living with Advanced or Metastatic Cancer. Second Tuesdays, noon to 1 p.m. Cancer Center resource room, Central Vermont Medical Center. Lunch provided. 225-5449

Writing to Enrich Your Life. For anyone affected by cancer. Third Tuesdays, noon to 1 p.m. Cancer Center resource room, Central Vermont Medical Center. 225-5449.Cancer Support Group. Third Wednes-days, 6 p.m. Potluck. For location, call Carole MacIntyre, 229-5931.Man-to-Man Prostate Cancer Sup-port Group. Third Wednesdays, 6–8 p.m. Conference room 2, Central Vermont Medical Center. 872-6308 or 866-466-0626 (press 3).

DISASTERHurricane Irene Support Group for Recovery Workers. Get peer sup-port and help processing emotions, strengthen relationships and learn coping skills. Every other Monday, 3:30 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. 279-4670.Hurricane Irene Support Group. Share your story, listen to others, learn coping skills, build community and support your neighbors. Refreshments provided. Wednesdays, 5:30 p.m. Berlin Elementary School. 279-8246.

KIDSGrandparents Raising Their Chil-dren’s Children. First Wednesdays, 10 a.m.–noon, Barre Presbyterian Church, Sum-mer Street. Second Tuesdays, 6–8 p.m., Wesley Methodist Church, Main Street, Waterbury. Third Thursdays, 6–8 p.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, 137 Main Street. Child care provided in Montpelier and Waterbury. Evelyn, 476-1480.

HEALTHBrain Injury Support Groups. Open to all survivors, caregivers and adult family members. Evening group facilitated by Marsha Bancroft; day group facilitated by Kathy Grange and Jane Hulstrunk. Evening group meets first Mondays, 5:30–7:30 p.m., DisAbility Rights of Vermont, 141 Main Street, Suite 7, Montpelier, 800-834-7890, ext. 106. Day group meets first and third Thursdays, 1:30–2:30 p.m., Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier, 244-6850.NAMI: Connection. A peer-led, recovery- oriented group for individuals living with men-tal illness. First and third Thursdays, 6–7:30 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. 800-639-6480 or [email protected] and Food Allergy Support Group. With Lisa Masé of Harmonized Cookery. Second Wednesdays, 4:30–6 p.m. Con-ference room 3, Central Vermont Medical Center. [email protected] Discussion Group. Focus on self-management. Open to anyone with diabetes and their families. Third Thursdays, 1:30 p.m. The Health Center, Plainfield. Free. Don, 322-6600 or [email protected]. Diabetes Support Group. First Thursdays, 7–8 p.m. Conference room 3, Central Vermont Medical Center. 371-4152.

RECOVERYTurning Point Center. Safe, supportive place for individuals and their families in or seeking recovery.• Alchoholics Anonymous, Sundays, 8:30 a.m.

• Making Recovery Easier workshops, Tuesdays, 6–7:30 p.m.

• Wit’s End Parent Support Group, Wednes-days, 6 p.m.

• Narcotics Anonymous, Thursdays, 6:30 p.m.Open daily, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. 489 North Main Street, Barre. 479-7373.Overeaters Anonymous. Twelve-step program for physically, emotionally and spiritu-ally overcoming overeating. Fridays, noon–1 p.m. Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpe-lier. 223-3079.

SOLIDARITY/IDENTITYMen’s Group. Men discuss challenges of and insights about being male. Thursdays, 6:15–8:15 p.m. 174 Elm Street, Montpelier. Interview required: contact Neil Davis, psychologist-master, 223-3753.National Federation of the Blind, Montpelier Chapter. First Saturdays. Lane Shops community room, 1 Mechanic Street, Montpelier. 229-0093.Families of Color. Open to all. Play, eat and discuss issues of adoption, race and multi-culturalism. Bring snacks and games to share, and dress for the weather. Third Sundays, 3–5 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Mont-pelier. Alyson, 439-6096 or alyson@suncatchervt .com.

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A scene from Brian Mohr and Emily Johnson’s bike-ski trip to Norway. The duo will talk about their trip—and show photos—on October 24 and 25.


and collecting seasons, processing and eating, and how to select habitat, plant, and care for your trees. 1–3 p.m. Elmore Roots Nurs-ery, Wolcott. $10. Register at 888-3305. elmoreroots.com.Nightmares on College Street: Twisted Twilight. See Friday, October 26, for description and information.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30Business Wisdom Circle. Monthly mentoring and networking event for women business owners of all ages and industries. Facili-tated by Vermont Women’s Business Center staff. 4–6 p.m. Quarry Grill and Tavern, 210 North Main Street, Barre. $5 (can be waived). Registration required; 479-9813 or [email protected]. vwbc.org.Business Building Blocks: Empower Yourself in Your Workplace. Dona Bate of dbate speaking shares ideas and techniques on advocating for yourself and your prices, pay, products or services. Overcome anxiety and initiate successful conversations. Final event in series. 6–8:30 p.m. Central Vermont Community Action Council, 195 Route 302, Barre. Free, but space limited: sign up with Margaret, 476-8493, 800-843-8397 or [email protected].

Superheroes of Stoke. Premiere of Matchstick Productions new ski film. Benefits the Vermont Land Trust’s effort to save the Bolton backcountry. Snacks provided; cash bar. Part of Onion Riv-er Sports’s backcountry skiing film series. Doors open at 7 p.m.; film starts at 7:30 p.m. Chapel, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. $15. Tickets at [email protected] or at the door. onionriver.com.Author Reading and Signing: Kenn and Kim Kaufman. The Vermont authors and naturalists present their new book, Field Guide to the Nature of New England. 7 p.m. Bear Pond Books, 77 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-0774.Extempo: Live Original Storytelling. Tell a 5- to 7.5-minute, first-person, true story from your own life. Sign up in advance, and come with your story already practiced to deliver it smoothly without the use of notes. No theme. 8 p.m. Kismet, 52 State Street, Montpelier. Free to participants; $5 otherwise. 223-8646 or extempovt.com.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31The Hoff Years: A Changing Vermont. Presented by author Steven Terry. Part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. 1:30 p.m.; doors open at 12:30 for brown-bag lunch. Aldrich Public

Library, Barre. $5 suggested donation. 223-1763 or [email protected]. Series continues every Wednesday through December 12.Downtown Trick or Treating. Kids in costume visit Montpelier businesses for treats.3:30–5:30 p.m. Downtown Mont-pelier. montpelieralive.org.Nightmares on College Street: Twisted Twilight. See Friday, October 26, for description and information.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1Science of Mind Principles. See Thursday, October 18, for description and information. Ecumenical Group. See Thursday, October 18, for description and information. Dancing with Jane Austen: ‘The felicities of rapid motion.’ With Judy Chaves. Discuss why dance played such an important role in Jane Austen’s life, learn a bit of Regency-era dance etiquette and then learn English country dances that the Bennett sisters might have done. No previous dance experience necessary. 7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. 223-3338.

Weekly EventsBICYCLINGOpen Shop Nights. Have questions or a bike to donate, or need help with a bike repair? Come visit the volunteer-run community bike shop. Mondays and Wednesdays, 5–7 p.m. Tuesdays, 6–8 p.m. Freeride Montpelier, 89 Barre Street, Montpelier. By donation. 552-3521 or freeridemontpelier.org.Weekly Rides at Onion River Sports.Come in proper physical condition depending on ride, bring water and a snack and dress appropri-ately for weather. Helmets required. Anyone under 15 must be accompanied by an adult; anyone under 18 must have a signed parental permission form. MondaysCyclocross Cruise, 6 p.m., 1- to 2-hour, moder-ate, casual cyclocross ride, climbing and descend-ing beautiful dirt roadsTuesdaysCycling 101 with Linda Freeman, 5:30 p.m., all levels welcomeWednesdaysMountain Bike Ride, 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., interme-diate to advanced rides on different area trails each week; for carpooling and more information, e-mail [email protected] Onion River Racing Wednesday Night World Championships, 5:30 p.m., fast ride with town line sprints and competitions for bragging rights, route announced at ride time; onionriverracing.comThursdaysOnion River Racing Thursday Night Nationals, 5:30 p.m., pace is zone 1 and 2, no-drop ride, route announced at ride time; onionriverracing .com.

BOOKSOngoing Reading Group. Improve your reading and share some good books. Books chosen by group. Thursdays, 9–10 a.m. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Montpelier Learn-ing Center, 100 State Street. 223-3403.

CRAFTSBeaders Group. All levels of beading experi-ence welcome. Free instruction available. Come with a project for creativity and community. Sat-urdays, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. The Bead Hive, Plainfield. 454-1615.

DANCEEcstatic Dance. Freestyle boogie with DJ using Gabrielle Roth’s meditative dance form, 5Rhythms. Wednesdays, 7–9 p.m. First and third Wednesdays, Worcester Town Hall, corner of Elmore Road and Calais Road; second and fourth Wednesdays, Plainfield Community Center (above the co-op). $10. Fearn, 505-8011 or [email protected].

FOOD★ Noon Cafe. Soup, fresh bread, good com-pany and lively conversation.Wednesdays, noon. Old Meeting House, East Mont-pelier. oldmeetinghouse.org.Capital City Farmers Market. Veg-etables, milk, cheese, eggs, meat, maple syrup, fine crafts, prepared foods, plants and more. Saturdays, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. 60 State Street (corner of State and Elm), Montpelier. Through October 27. Carolyn, 223-2958 or [email protected]. German Brunch: A Community Meal. All-you-can-eat buffet of fresh fruit, bread, salm-on and local meats and cheeses. Mimosas and other drinks available for purchase from Nutty Steph’s. Sundays, 10 a.m.–2 pm. Nutty Steph’s, Route 2, Middlesex. $10 adult, $5 children 12 and under. nuttystephs.com.

GAMES Apollo Duplicate Bridge Club. All welcome. Partners sometimes available. Fridays, 6:45 p.m. Bethany Church, Montpelier. 485-8990 or 223-3922.

HEALTHFree HIV Testing. Vermont CARES offers fast oral testing. Thursdays, 2–5 p.m. 58 East State Street, suite 3 (entrance at the back), Montpelier. vtcares.org. Medicare Part D Enrollment Semi-nars. Learn how to enroll in prescription drug or Advantage plans on the Medicare website. Mondays, 3–4 p.m., through December 3. Central Vermont Council on Aging, 59 North Main Street, suite 200, Barre. Register at 479-0531.Chronic Disease Self-Management Workshop. Chronic-illness sufferers: improve strength, flexibility, endurance and quality of life. Mondays, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m., through November 19. Conference center, Gifford Medical Center, 44 South Main Street (Route 12), Randolph. Free; register at 728-7100, ext. 6.

KIDS & TEENSThe Basement Teen Center. Cable TV, PlayStation 3, pool table, free eats and fun events for teenagers. Monday–Thursday, 3–6 p.m.; Friday, 3–11 p.m. Basement Teen Center, 39 Main Street, Montpelier. 229-9151.Story Time at the Waterbury Public Library. Mondays, age 18–36 months. Wednesdays, age 0–18 months. Fridays, age 3–6 years. 10 a.m. Waterbury Public Library. Free. 244-7036.Story Time at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Tuesdays and Fridays, 10:30 a.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. 223-4665.Events for Teens at the Aldrich Library. No-obligations teen book club on Mondays; game night on Wednesdays. 5 p.m. Aldrich Public Library, Barre. 476-7550.Youth Group. Games, movies, snacks and music. Mondays, 7–9 p.m. Church of the Crucified One, Route 100, Moretown. 496-4516.

Story Time and Playgroup. For children age 0–6. Story, followed by art, nature and cook-ing projects, as well as creative play. Dress for the weather. Wednesdays, 10–11:30 a.m. Jaquith Public Library, 122 School Street, Marshfield. 426-3581 or [email protected] Capers Story Time and Songs. For children age 3–5 and their families. Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. Children’s room, Bear Pond Books, 77 Main Street, Montpelier. 229-0774.Storytime with Bill. Stories, critters, crafts and snack.Wednesdays, 10 a.m., through October 24. Ainsworth Public Library, Main Street, Wil-liamstown. 433-5887 or ainsworthpubliclibrary .wordpress.com.Story Time at Onion River Kids. Outdoor adventure tales and childhood classics. Sundays, 10:30 a.m. 7 Langdon Street, Montpelier. 223-6025.

LANGUAGEEnglish Conversation Practice Group. For students learning English for the first time. Tuesdays, 4–5 p.m. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Montpelier Learning Cen-ter, 100 State Street. Sarah, 223-3403.Lunch in a Foreign Language. Bring lunch and practice your language skills with neighbors. Noon–1 p.m. Mondays, Hebrew. Tuesdays, Italian. Wednesdays, Spanish. Thurs-days, French. Fridays, German. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. 223-3338.

MUSICSing With the Barre Tones. Women’s a cappella chorus. Mondays, 6:30 p.m. Alumni Hall (second floor), near Barre Auditorium. 223-2039 or [email protected] Fiddle Orchestra Rehears-als. For folk musicians of all levels. No audition required. Performances in December (par-ticipating in perfomance not required to attend rehearsals). Mondays, 7–9 p.m. St. Augustine’s Church, Barre Street, Montpelier. $70 season; first rehearsal free. Sarah, 223-8945, ext. 1, or [email protected]. vtfiddleorchestra.org.

PARENTING★ Mama’s Circle. Meet and connect with others experiencing the joys and challenges of new motherhood. For infants up to 1 year old and their mothers (toddler siblings welcome). Snacks, drinks and parent education materials provided. Thursdays, 10 a.m.–noon, through April 19, 2013. Good Beginnings of Central Vermont, 174 River Street, Montpelier. centralvt.goodbegin nings.net

RECYCLINGDollar Days. Bring in odd and sundry items for reuse, upcycling and recycling, including toothbrushes, bottle caps, cassette tapes, books, textiles, batteries and more. Mondays and Fridays, 12:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. Additional Recyclables Col-lection Center, 3 Williams Lane, Barre. $1 per car load. Complete list of accepted items at 229-9383, ext. 106, [email protected] or cvswmd.org

SPIRITUALITYChristian Science. God’s love meeting hu-man needs. Reading room: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.; Tuesdays, 5–8 p.m.; and Wednesdays, 5–7:15 p.m. Testimony meeting: Wednesdays, 7:30–8:30 p.m., nursery available. Worship service: Sundays, 10:30–11:30 a.m., Sunday school and nursery available. 145 State Street, Montpelier. 223-2477.Deepening Our Jewish Roots. Fun, engaging text study and discussion on Jewish spirituality. Sundays, 4:45–6:15 p.m. Yearning for Learning Center, Montpelier. Rabbi Tobie Weis-man, 223-0583 or [email protected] Meditation Group. People of all faiths welcome. Mondays, noon–1 p.m. Christ Church, Montpelier. Regis, 223-6043.Shambhala Buddhist Meditation. Instruction available. All welcome. Sundays, 10 a.m.–noon, and Wednesdays, 6–7 p.m. Program and discussion follow Wednesday meditation. Shambhala Center, 64 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-5137.Zen Meditation. Wednesdays, 6:30–7:30 p.m. 174 River Street, Montpelier. Call Tom for orientation, 229-0164. With Zen Affiliate of Vermont.

SPORTSRoller Derby Open Recruitment and Recreational Practice. Central Vermont’s Wrecking Doll Society invites quad skaters age 18 and up to try out the action. No experience necessary. Equipment provided: first come, first served. Saturdays, 5–6:30 p.m. Montpelier Recre-ation Center, Barre Street. First skate free. centralvermontrollerderby.com.Coed Adult Floor Hockey League. Adult women and men welcome. Equipment provided. Sundays, 3–5 p.m., through December 9. Montpelier Recreation Center, Barre Street. $5 per week. [email protected] or vermontfloor hockey.com.

YOGA★ Yoga with Lydia Russell-McDade. Build strength and flexibility as you learn safe alignment in a nourishing, supportive and inspir-ing environment. Mondays, 5:30–6:45 p.m., River House Yoga, Plainfield; Wednesdays, 4:30–5:45 p.m., Green Mountain Girls Farm, Northfield. $5–$20. Schedule at saprema-yoga.com.★ Community Yoga. All levels welcome to this community-focused practice. Fridays, 5:30–6:30 p.m. Yoga Mountain Center, 7 Main Street (second floor), Montpelier. $5–$20 sliding scale. 223-5302 or yogamountaincenter.com.

★ indicates new or revised listing

UPCOMING EVENTS, from page 17

Submit Your Event!Send listings to calendar@montpelier bridge.com. The deadline for the Novem-ber 1 issue is Friday, October 26.

50 words or less, please. Listings may be edited for length, clarity or style. Events happening in Montpelier and local communities have priority. Photos also welcome for possible use.


ClassesLIFE COACHINGWOMEN IN TRANSITION A six-week life coaching group for women begin-ning October 25 in Montpelier. Reimagine your life! Build emotional resilience and agility. Grow and learn with other women. Th e group will integrate life coaching, nature-based refl ection and women’s collective wisdom. Contact Fran Weinbaum, [email protected] or 249-7377, to register.

MOVEMENTHWA YU TAI CHI Fall semester starts October 15 and runs eight weeks for $90. New and continuing students welcome. Mondays, 5 p.m. at 64 Main Street, third fl oor, Montpelier. Instructor Ellie Hayes has been teaching Hwa Yu Tai Chi since 1974. Preregister by October 14: 456-1983.

POTTERYMUD!Welcome to the next session of clay classes beginning November 1 at Montpelier Mud in Middlesex at 961 Route 2 (Camp Meade.) Give

us a call, stop by or check us out online at montpeliermud.com. Classes fi ll up quickly so don’t wait! Get DIRTY!

WRITINGWRITING COACHAre you struggling with beginning, continu-ing, fi nishing? Do you need tools and rules to keep you working from concept to completion? Art really is long, and life really short. WRITE NOW is what we have. Th irty years writing and coaching writers in all genres. Free consultation. [email protected], 225-6415.

ClassifiedsARTISTS & MUSICIANSSTUDIOSStudios for solo artists or to share starting at $150. Th ree larger rooms of various sizes also available. Join us as we transform a historic convent and school into a unique center for the arts, music and learning. Call Paul for a tour at 223-2120 or 461-6222.

EMPLOYMENTDRIVERS: CDL-BGreat pay, hometime. No forced dispatch! New singles from Plattsburgh, New York. Passport or enhanced license required. 888-567-4861.

SERVICESHOUSE PAINTERSince 1986. Small interior jobs ideal. Neat, prompt, friendly. Local references. Pitz Quat-trone, 229-4952.

TRUCK FOR HIRECall T&T Repeats, 224-1360.

THRIFT STOREST&T REPEATSBikes, name-brand clothes, small household furniture and more. At least two free parking spaces for T&T customers. 116 Main Street, Montpelier, or call 224-1360.

TRINITY COMMUNITY THRIFT STORETuesdays, Th ursdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church, 137 Main Street (use rear entrance), Montpelier. Do-nations accepted during normal business hours. 229-9155 or [email protected].

Class listings and classifieds are 50 words for $25; dicounts available. To place an ad, contact Carolyn, 223-5112, ext. 11, or 223-2958.

Design & Build

Custom Energy-Effi cient Homes

Additions • Timber Frames

Weatherization • Remodeling

Kitchens • Bathrooms • Flooring

Tiling • Cabinetry • Fine Woodwork

• NEW CONSTRUCTION

• RENOVATIONS

• WOODWORKING

• GENERAL CONTRACTING

223-3447clarconstruction.com

Love Playing Piano

ages 4 to 104 | loveplayingpiano.org

JOHN M. PETERSOND.O., P.C.

Osteopathic Manipulative TreatmentIndependent Medical Examinations

4Practicing in Montpelier since 1984

Office hours by Appointment229-9418 • 72 Barre Street

Annual Ski and Skate SaleNEW AND USED WINTER RECREATION EQUIPMENT

Saturday, October 20, 2012Montpelier High School Gym, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

DROP OFF: Anyone with items to sell may bring them to Montpelier High School Gymnasium at 5 High School Drive, Thursday, October 18, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. or Friday, October 19, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. PICK UP: All consignment equipment must be picked up Saturday, October 20, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Please do not arrive earlier as we need time for inventory.

PLEASE NOTE! Shaped Downhill Skis Only; No Clothing!

Montpelier Recreation Department55 Barre Street, Montpelier • 225-8699 • montpelierrec.org


by John Hollar, mayor

It’s been a busy few weeks in Montpelier. What follows is a summary of some of the events of recent days that might

be of interest. As always, please email me at [email protected] with any com-ments.

Citizen Committee Presents Budget Report

The city council appointed a citizen committee in May that was charged with comparing the costs and effectiveness of Montpelier’s municipal services with those provided by comparable communities. The council received the committee’s 88-page re-port last Wednesday, and it is an impressive piece of work. It includes reviews of most of the city’s departments and provides a long list of recommendations on how the city can operate more efficiently.

The council took the report up at its meet-ing on October 10. The committee’s recom-mendations will be the subject of much dis-cussion over the next few months, beginning

with our meeting on October 24, where we will consider proposals relating to the plan-ning department.

The members of the committee were Karl Johnson, Susan Zeller, David Beatty, Phil Dodd, Jeff Francis, Bob Gross, David Gorges, Toni Hartrich, Jim Hutton, Jane Kast, Rob Kasow, Nolan Langeweil, Lary Mires, Susan Mesner, Jean Olson, Mike Quaranta, Justin Turcotte and Harris Webster.

Renewable Energy and Local Zoning

I was pleased to be able to lead an effort to defeat a resolution before the Vermont League of Cities and Towns at its annual meeting that proposed to make renewable-energy–generation projects subject to local zoning and therefore much more difficult to build.

Under current law, electric generation projects are reviewed by the public service board, giving due consideration to local zon-ing and recommendations of municipal and regional planning commissions and local legislative bodies. But the board’s overarch-ing standard is to determine what is in the general good of the state.

It is costly to obtain regulatory permits for renewable generation projects. Add-ing another layer of local regulatory review would make many projects uneconomical. The City of Montpelier has demonstrated its strong commitment to renewable generation projects through its support of the district heat project.

The proposed resolution failed to pass, by only one vote.

Breakfast with the Irish Ambassador

I had the privilege of joining a small group

of Burlington businesspeople recently at a breakfast with the Irish ambassador to the U.S., Michael Collins. I was invited by Mont-pelier resident Claudia Lovell, who serves on the Vermont Council on World Affairs.

Collins talked about the unity of vision that Irish leaders have in steering the country back from near economic collapse in 2008. The contrast with the gridlock in the U.S. Congress was striking. It also made me grateful that on the local level, the commu-nity and the city council seem to have a com-mon vision about the future of our city.

C-SPAN to Feature MontpelierReporters from C-SPAN will be in Mont-

pelier filming Montpelier’s literary and his-toric sites and conducting interviews with local authors and civic leaders.

The programming C-SPAN records in Montpelier will air throughout the weekend of November 3 and 4. The history segments will air on American History TV (AHTV) on C-SPAN3 and the literary events/nonfic-tion author segments will air on BookTV on C-SPAN2. In addition, C-SPAN will air special Montpelier programming blocks: Saturday, November 3, at noon on C-SPAN2 BookTV and Sunday, November 4, at 5 p.m. on C-SPAN3 AHTV. The segments that air will also be available to view online indefi-nitely. In the Montpelier area, Comcast pro-vides C-SPAN on these channels: C-SPAN, 22; C-SPAN2, 156; C-SPAN3, 187.

C-SPAN videojournalists are travelling in what they call Local Content Vehicles (LCVs), visiting various literary and historic sites and interviewing local historians, au-thors and civic leaders in designated cities. C-SPAN’s LCV Cities Tour has included 20 cities.

Making Montpelier a World-Class Biking and Pedestrian Community

The city council has adopted a goal for Montpelier to “become a nationally known bike and pedestrian friendly city.” One of the steps that the council identified to help reach that goal is to convene a bike/pedes-trian summit, in conjunction with the parks commission.

The summit will be held on November 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Noble Hall on the Vermont College of Fine Arts campus. We’ll be talking about how to improve biking in town, the expansion of trails for mountain biking, and a potential bicycle festival. If you’re a biking enthusiast or simply want to see Montpelier become a better place to take an occasional spin, please join us.

A Word about TextingThe Times-Argus made a great deal of

recent texting by Montpelier city councilors, including a front-page, above-the-fold story and a subsequent editorial. None of the texts amounted to much of significance; it was the idea of councilors texting that seemed to inspired the paper’s outrage.

Certainly, texting during council meet-ings should be avoided, if for no other reason than it is impossible to text and pay attention to presentations by city staff or residents or council discussion.

But is the outrage really warranted? State legislators routinely pass notes to each other during House and Senate sessions. Indeed, the practice is officially sanctioned, as stu-dent pages in both bodies spend much of their time scurrying between lawmakers de-livering private messages. Is that practice any different than electronic texting?

Bikes, Budgets, Breakfast and More

A Message from City HallThis article was paid for by the City of Montpelier.


by Jeremy Lesniak

You can’t have progress without change. It’s one of my favorite sayings. For so many people, especially when it

comes to technology, change can be very intimidating. In the last few weeks I’ve been struck by a number of clients who have held onto old technology—computers, operating systems, programs—simply because of their reluctance to change. It wasn’t that the new version would stop them from performing some function, just that they’d need to learn to do things a bit differently.

It’s true that new technology isn’t always better. In fact, in a previous column, I wrote the complete opposite. It’s important to know which upgrades to choose—choose them because they’re going to benefit you. At the same time, spending time and money to avoid new methods being set out by devel-opers and manufacturers is often wasteful. While it’s easy to blame them for what we see as change for the sake of change, that blame isn’t going to change anything.

It’s true that some “improvements” are the exact opposite, but it’s important to realize that these companies are businesses. The majority of them are providing these new features or methods because they’ve done research that shows the feature will benefit most of the people using the product. I’ll agree that most people find benefit with upgrades if they give them a chance. I can’t tell you how many reluctant computer users learned to love Windows 7 after just a few weeks. For many of them, it took a complete computer failure to get them off Windows XP.

I’m not saying that all change is good. I’m

simply saying that it’s important to stay cur-rent and not waste energy fighting against the current. After all, it’s a losing battle.

Scammers Fight for Your Dollars, with E-mail!

Spam, that unwanted e-mail you receive, has evolved, fooling even the smartest of IT folks into opening it. While most e-mail services have some sort of spam filter, they’re not perfect. Spam can be big money, too, which brings some smart people to the dark side of the table. Today we talk about e-mail scams.

Most scams start with accessing someone’s e-mail account and then address book. We’re all more likely to open an e-mail from some-one we know than someone we don’t. Some of the stranger scams involve sending you an e-mail that claims to be from you!

How do you prevent these scams? You’ll never stop receiving them, so it’s up to you to avoid falling for them.

1. Read the e-mail carefully and check the spelling. Scam e-mails often misspell words, sometimes intentionally. A scam may misspell a company name in a way that you don’t initially catch. Microsoft becomes M1crosoft, or Bank of America becomes Bank of Amerca. If you notice one of these misspellings, it’s a red flag!

2. Don’t click links in your e-mail. I keep saying this, and people keep ignoring the suggestion. It is fairly easy to fake the des-tination of a link in an e-mail. Rather than trust the links in your e-mails, I suggest copying the text and pasting it into your web browser. If you click the wrong link, your computer or e-mail account may be compromised.

3. Don’t open the attachments. Attach-ments are still the prime way to infect un-suspecting users. If you receive a suspicious e-mail, don’t open anything attached to it until you’ve spoken with the sender.

4. Call the sender. This is the simplest and most foolproof thing you can do. When you receive a questionable e-mail from someone, just call them. Ask if they sent the e-mail to you. If they say yes, then you should be in the clear.

Jeremy Lesniak founded Vermont Comput-ing (vermontcomputing.com) in 2001 after graduating from Clark University and opened a store on Merchants Row in Randolph in May of 2003. He also serves as managing editor for anedomain.net He lives in Plainfield.

Software Upgrades Aren’t Always Bad

Tech Check

Experience and Commitment Working for You. We deeply appreciate your support. We hope you will allow us to continue to work together for Montpelier during the next biennium.

Please be in touch.

Kitzmiller & HooperYour Team for Montpelier!

Rep. Warren Kitzmiller229-0878, home249-0158, [email protected]

Rep. Mary Hooper 223-2892, home 793-9512, cell [email protected]

Ad paid for by Mary Hooper and Warren Kitzmiller.

For many years, I’ve had the honor of serving as your representative

in the Vermont State Senate. Many of you know me through my annual Town Meeting Day Survey, which helps ensure that the opinions of regular Ver-monters are heard in the State House. With your support, I’d like to continue listening to your needs and concerns, and representing you in Montpelier.

Senator Doyle with his wife Olene, daughter, and granddaughter, in their garden.

Re-Elect

BILL DOYLEWashington County Senator

I thank you for your support over the years, and I would appreciate your vote on November 2!

Please contact me any time with your thoughts, questions or concerns: 371-7898 ★ [email protected] ★ www.billdoyle1.com

Bill Doyle will work for:★ More job opportunities★ A balanced budget★ Lower energy costs★ Affordable health care★ Better cell phone and

broadband internet coverage

About Bill Doyle:★ Current State Senator representing Washington

County — Vice Chair, Government Operations Committee; Vice Chair, Education Committee

★ Professor of Government, Johnson State College★ A long history of public service★ Board member, Central VT Economic Develop-

ment Corporation★ Board member, Vermont Mountaineers

★ Named “Citizen of the Year” by the Montpelier Rotary (2009) and the Barre Elks Club (2007)

★ Family: wife Olene, 3 children, 5 grandchildren★ Recognition for community service by the Joint

Service Clubs of Barre★ Endorsed by: Vermont State Employees Associa-

tion; Vermont Education Association;Vermont Police Association; Green Mountain Labor Council; and the Professional Firefighters of Vermont


LettersPearce: Passion, Not Politics

To the Editor:I am writing this letter to offer my sup-

port for our current treasurer, Beth Pearce. Beth was named treasurer in 2010 after Jeb Spaulding was asked to be the administrative secretary to the Shumlin administration. To the critics who say that she inherited the job, I would offer that she was asked to serve, not only because she had been Jeb’s capable assis-tant for seven years and had learned the job, but because she came with a long résumé of financial positions since her graduation from the University of New Hampshire. That is what is most powerful about Beth Pearce as a candidate. She lives and breathes the posi-tion, is not seeking the job to step higher on the ladder of politics and has the interest of Vermonters first and foremost.

Her opponent has resorted to the politics of nasty. I don’t trust someone who says they single-handedly turned a $5 million deficit in Rutland to a $3.8 million surplus. Check the statements she made on the Mark Johnson show. She took all the credit, sharing it with no one else. Now ask your friends in Rutland what they think of Wendy Wilton. I have many and have asked. You will be shocked to hear the responses. It is not what it is painted to be. You will learn that she is a Republican who could not win an election in a predomi-nantly Republican district. Why was that?

Beth Pearce has had to fight the negativity that she is not even a Vermonter and been criticized for being a renter. Yet the truth is she is a resident and renter in Barre because she chooses to be. I suppose they will say she is not a U.S. citizen because she was born in Springfield, Massachusetts!

I guess we can attribute that to Silly Sea-son, but I am giving my vote to Beth Pearce because she has bipartisan support, has done a great job and wants the job because it is her passion, not her politics.

—J. Guy Isabelle, Barre

Growing Colder on the StreetsTo the Editor:It was somewhat chilly out while walking

downtown in Montpelier to do a little food shopping and then back home early this morning (October 7). It was colder still for those seen obviously living homeless on the streets.

These same as well as other individuals previously sighted during this year have been living outside for at least several months now, if not longer.

How is the state of Vermont doing in terms of helping those living homeless? From what I have observed over the last year or more, it would appear as if the state is not doing enough to assist those experiencing this type of dire need.

The state could be doing much more, as well as a lot better than it currently appears to doing, along these lines. Holding summits and meetings concerning homelessness and related matters is certainly not enough, nor are these what it takes to get tough things done in these instances.

What people living homeless have the most need of is permanent, safe, decent, affordable housing (not merely homeless shelters, motel stays or other transitional, short-term types of housing) as well as, if they have need of such, access to a variety of robust supports and services offered on a voluntary basis, and,

on a case-by-case basis and if need be, not necessarily tied to accepting and maintaining housing.

This is indeed doable, and it works.—Morgan W. Brown, Montpelier

Keep Funding After-School Programs

To the Editor:This fall Congress will continue work on

the FY2013 federal spending bill and address the automatic spending cuts scheduled for January 2013 through the sequestration pro-cess. There will likely be deep cuts to a host of federal programs, but an area Congress should think twice about slashing is edu-cation and after-school programs. Investing now in the education of our children, espe-cially in science, technology, engineering and math, will ensure that our future leaders have the skills and knowledge to succeed.

After-school and summer learning pro-grams in particular are a smart investment. Children who participate in these programs have better school attendance, higher grades and loftier aspirations about graduation and college attendance. They’re less likely to use drugs or get into trouble with police, and due to less screen time, children in after-school programs are at lower risk of obesity. Young people also develop social and leader-ship skills in after-school programs, as they interact with peers in cooperative roles and mentoring relationships.

Yet more than 15 million children in the United States have no safe, supervised activi-ties after the school day ends. While parents pay over 75 percent of the cost of after-school programs, federal support for these programs is critical to keeping children safe, inspiring them to learn and helping working families.

Elected officials in Washington should work to maintain after-school and summer-learning-program funding for the school, faith-based, and community-based organiza-tions that provide these cost-effective pro-grams so essential to our children and fami-lies.

—Diadel Ortiz, Montpelier

Brakes for BreastsTo the Editor:As a Vermont resident, small-business

owner, mother, sister, daughter and recent breast-cancer survivor, I am writing to bring your attention to a new development in breast-cancer research that I feel you need to know about.

Vincent Touhy, PhD, and his team at the Cleveland Clinic have created the first-ever vaccine to prevent breast cancer. This vaccine is 100 percent effective in preventing breast cancer in mice. This is huge, but, sadly, nobody is talking about it. The only thing holding it back from clinical trials in women is money.

Dr. Touhy said, “We believe that this vac-cine may someday be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women in the same way that vaccines prevent polio and measles in chil-dren.”

My business, Auto Craftsmen, is one of 26 independently owned auto-repair shops from 16 different states that are collaborating to raise $60,000 in a fundraiser we are calling “Free Brakes for Breasts” (brakesforbreasts .org).

While we are excited to be able to send this sizable donation, we realistically know that $60,000 is a drop in the bucket. This is where we could use everyone’s help. If every-one told one other person about this remark-able vaccine, it could get the funding it needs to move forward.

EditorialWhy We’re Asking for Your Support

As the glamour and excitement of the digital age continues to unfold, with the push of technological innovation and the promise of broad and instantaneous communication—

indeed the promise of access to greater and greater troves of knowledge—I find myself alive to these new developments but still more and more committed to the printed word.

As someone with a passion for words and sounds and language and the extraordinary peculiarities and richness of human speech and expression, and as someone seeking deeper and deeper meaning in a world that looks often more and more random and absurd, I find words on paper and whole paragraphs and texts can sometimes lead me to solid meaning or open up a vein of discovery more valuable to me than diamonds or gold.

A few days ago I picked up a copy of the New York Times and read a stunningly written portrait about the life of dissident Vietnamese poet Nguyen Chi Thien.

Sometimes I ask myself about the powers of the state, and I’m talking about our state or any state. How could something as large and powerful as a state shake in fear from a poet speaking his truth? I found myself asking these questions once again as I read the first two paragraphs of what writer Margalit Fox wrote about Thien’s life.

It was not the isolation that was the hardest to endure, though it lasted nearly three decades. Nor was it the cold of his cell, where he was often chained naked, nor the summer’s blistering heat, nor the rusty shackles that infected his legs, nor the relentless hunger.

It was, Nguyen Chi Thien said afterward, the utter lack of access to the written word: no books, no newspapers and, more devastating still for a poet, not so much as a pencil or a scrap of paper.

Here at The Bridge we use the old tools and the new ones. We use computers and the Internet. We used to drive over to our printer with the individual pages of the paper. Now we send the paper over to our printer on a telephone wire.

While I’m aware that technology is changing, here at The Bridge we are committed to a printed newspaper. We are also committed to making what we think is a good paper a much better paper.

I am convinced that The Bridge needs to dig deeper and publish more hard news stories.At a time of great changes to the news-gathering industry, The Bridge has continued to

publish for 19 years. None of this would have been possible without the constancy of our friends, our advertisers and the superb, hardworking and talented team of people who write, edit, proofread, design and deliver the paper. And I am also thinking of our valued book-keeper, our many volunteers and the generosity of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where we have an office space and a home.

With the earlier assistance of some close friends in early October, we mailed a letter to everyone who made a financial contribution to The Bridge last year. We have set a goal of $15,000 for this year’s campaign. Already we have heard from many of our old friends and we have received over $1,500 toward our campaign goal.

I believe passionately in the critical importance of a newspaper like The Bridge as we bring the community together, as more and more we publish the hard-to-get stories, and as we continue to celebrate words, language, ideas and the practice of democracy.

Along with this paper is an envelope addressed to The Bridge. Please help us with a con-tribution.

Acknowledgement: In September, I assembled a small and informal 2012 annual cam-paign committee. The purpose of the committee was to seek early and critical support and also to show our readers that The Bridge enjoys broad and diverse community support. I would like to thank these individuals: Bill Doyle, Robbie Harold, David F. Kelley and Glenn Sturgis.

Correction: In our last issue, we incorrectly stated that NECI students prepare Just Basic’s home-delivery meals out of the National Life cafeteria. The meals are prepared by NECI employees at that cafeteria. The Bridge regrets the error.

see LETTERS, page 23

Excerpt from Bill Porter’s View of Present-Day Journalism

From my vantage point, I see at least two examples in Vermont that provide hope. One is the online-only news source called VTDigger.org. . . . The other bright

spot in my limited view of the horizon is The Bridge and other very targeted local news gatherers. If you live in Montpelier, The Bridge offers a biweekly dose of local-only information that won’t be collected in any other format.

Both of these news resources exist to collect and offer reports of a very defined na-ture to readers who want or need that information. . . My own bet is that eventually The Bridge and other my-town-only newspapers eventually will follow the rifle-shot purveyors to the Internet, but in any case their future seems to me to be much brighter than the shotgun news sources that my grandchildren already have forgotten.

Former Rutland Herald editor and Times-Argus managing editor Bill Porter contrib-uted the opinion piece from which the above remarks were extracted. Read the full essay at montpelierbridge.com.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?Read something that you want to respond to? Worked up about a local issue? We welcome your letters and opinion pieces.

Letters must be 300 words or fewer; opinions, 600 words or fewer. Send them to [email protected]. Deadline for the No-vember 1 issue is Monday, October 29, at 5 p.m.

We reserve the right to edit all submissions for length, clarity or style.


by Nat Frothingham

I’d like to write about an early morning two-car collision on October 6 in Marsh-field that claimed the lives of two young

women—Holly Trombly and Jennifer Hur-ley, both from Cabot.

According to a WCAX news report follow-ing the crash, Trombly and Hurley’s car hit a pickup truck driven by 26-year-old Nathan-iel Smith of Cabot. “Police believe speed as well as improper passing were factors in the crash,” the report said.

State Police Trooper Jacob Metayer told me more recently that neither Trombly and Hurley nor the two young men who were pas-sengers in the back seat of the car were wear-ing seat belts. Metayer said it was unknown as to whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the accident.

On the day after the accident, I talked with my friend Ann O’Brien, who lives a few miles from Marshfield Village. Although we did not know the two young women, both of us talked quietly about what had happened and both of us identified strongly with the grief and loss that now afflicts the families and friends of the two young women who died.

* * *No story about the Marshfield crash would

be complete without acknowledging and hon-oring the five young men from eastern Maine who came upon the crash scene just minutes after the accident and rendered timely and effective aid.

The young men, from the Penobscot Bay region of Maine, had started out by car from Bucksport at about 1 a.m. on October 6, headed for an Airsoft tournament in Char-lotte, Vermont. (Airsoft is a recreational com-petition in which players shoot at each other with Airsoft guns, realistic-looking weapons that fire plastic pellets.)

Ethan Park, 16, who talked by phone with me, said it was 6:52 a.m. when he and the four others in the car saw some black smoke coming up from a line of trees. Shortly there-after the two-vehicle collision was right in front of them.

Park noted that the front end of the Chevy that Trombly had been driving was com-pletely destroyed, and the Chevy engine had been driven inward toward the two women

in the front seat of the car.

The young men pulled over, stopped, got out and as-sessed the situation. Said Park, “One of the people living in

a nearby house brought a crowbar for us. Three of my friends tried to get the front passenger door open. But it was crashed shut. The same three guys got the back door of the car open.”

Their major effort was get the two surviv-ing young men in the back of the crashed car out of the car. “We took them underneath the armpits and slowly lifted them out of the car while trying not to hurt them.” They laid the two survivors on their backs on the road. Five minutes later, five or six firefighters and an emergency medical team squad arrived, and the official response took over from there.

Park said he felt the biggest contribution from the five Airsoft team members was keeping the two survivors awake. “If you are in a critical state and you go to sleep,” Park said, “you are probably not going to wake up.”

After the Airsoft tournament in Charlotte, the five boys watched a TV report from the Marshfield accident site. It was then that Park realized that only a minute or two had

separated the car that he and his friends were driving from the moment of collision. “That could have been me,” he said.

All five Airsoft team members were wear-ing seatbelts. When asked about lessons learned, Park said: “You only have one life. Don’t screw it up.”

I salute the courageous example of the five young men from Maine.

Out-of-State Travelers Lift Survivors from Fatal Crash

Tribute

I personally want this vaccine so I won’t have to deal with breast cancer again. I want my daughter, my mother and my sisters to have this vaccine. I want all my girlfriends and every woman everywhere to have a chance to not get breast cancer.

Approximately 178,480 women and 2,030 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and 40,460 women and 450 men in the U.S. will die from the disease.

Wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing if we could help make breast cancer a thing of the past?

Please help me spread the word about Dr. Touhy’s breast-cancer-vaccine research and move it forward so that this vaccine will be available in our lifetime!

—Amy Mattinat, owner, Auto Craftsmen

Why Are Chemicals Being Sprayed in East Warren?

To the Editor:As I write I am listening to more planes

depositing chemtrails above Blueberry Lake and East Warren. Saturday, October 13, 2012, 4 p.m. This spraying is taking place above the rural, peaceful home I purchased

in East Warren 12 years ago to raise my kids in. I have been in Vermont 24 years, and I have brought millions and millions of dollars into the state through a business I and my sister and husband founded. My family is responsible for hundreds of destination wed-dings over the past almost 25 years. I moved here because I am an environmentalist and wanted to live in the cleanest and safest state in the country to raise my family. My son was 1 when we moved here; he is 25 now. My youngest was born here at Fletcher Allen hospital; he is 18 now.

A few days ago I sent an e-mail and website message to both Bernie Sanders’s and Peter Shumlin’s offices asking why chemtrails are being sprayed above my clean mountain property on Blueberry Lake and what is in these chemicals that are being deposited above my home in a neighborhood full of young kids, with a new baby born last week right next door?

Please, when can I expect an answer and a full explanation as to why this is going on in Vermont, and what this chemical spraying is made of? It is my right as a citizen of this country to know if there are hazardous ma-terials being sprayed above my home without my knowledge.

—Lucy Brown, East Warren

LETTERS, from page 22

WHAT DO YOU THINK?Send letters to [email protected].

Photo taken in East Warren on Saturday, October 13, 2012, by Lucy Brown.

A carful of young men from Maine on their way to an Airsoft tournament stopped along Route 2 in Marshfield on October 6 to help remove the survivors of an accident from the back seat of a crashed car. They are shown here in their Airsoft gear: circled, top row, from left, Ethan Park, 16, of Blue Hill; Levi Cunningham, 18, of Bucksport. Bottom row, from left, Ben Hanson, 21, of Bangor; Travis Chapman, 19, of Bucksport; Joe Ladd, 19, of Bucksport. Photo courtesy Lee Park.

In the aftermath of the tragic two-vehicle collision in Marshfield on October 6, I talked with Norman James,

manager of Project RoadSafe, an education and training program run by the Associated General Contractors of Ver-mont under a federal grant.

James noted that Vermont had 54 road deaths in all of 2011. Already in 2012, road deaths stand at 67.

In a conversation about the need for greater driver con-centration, James said, “The brain can only do one thing at a time.” Let’s say you come to an intersection and you see a vehicle stopped in front of you. “The eyes see it,” James said. “But the brain doesn’t. That’s cognitive blindness.”

If you’re chatting on a cellphone, or (and this is illegal)

texting, or chatting with a friend, or passing a cup of coffee or a sandwich to a friend, or any other of a hundred things that drivers do while they’re driving, your brain may drift from its major task: paying attention to the road and con-centrating on driving.

“The brain works in nanoseconds,” James said. “But if the brain is concentrating on a conversation, the brain is focusing on the conversation and not on what the eyes are seeing.”

According to clickitvt.com, a website of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, “Approximately 62 percent of highway fatalities weren’t wearing seatbelts.”

You have to wear a seatbelt whether you are driving in

town at 10 to 20 miles an hour or out on the highway. “More often a car crash occurs within 25 miles of a driver’s home,” James said. And you can get seriously hurt by a car that plows into you at a speed of 10 to 20 miles an hour.

Not wearing a seatbelt is “sheer stupidity,” James said.James discussed drinking and driving, noting that 30

percent of all fatal crashes involve impairment. He also mentioned speed, which is not just a question of the posted speed limit. If you are driving too fast for the road condi-tions, that’s speeding, he said.

In conclusion, James said, “The highways are crowded. People have got to focus and concentrate.”

—Nat Frothingham

Norman James on Vermont Road Safety


Local, high quality products that work together. We’re focused on high quality and diversity. You’ll receive about a 50/50 mix of vegetables and other local products. Joe Buley, chef-farmer, is planning shares that translate easily into delicious meals—and we’ll post ideas and cook-ing instructions for every share.

Pick-up sites that work for you. Convenient pick-up sites in downtown Montpelier and at local employers. Plus, we’ll create new sites for 10+ members. Let us know where you and your neighbors or coworkers want to pick up.

Accessible and affordable. Receive a 10%–15% discount off retail pricing. For about $32/week you’ll get 10 shares, delivered about every 2 weeks, all winter long ($650 total). Pay in installments or all at once with our easy online system.

Opportunity for local food producers. We support emerging food producers right here in central VT. Your membership can have a direct impact on their success:

Eat Great Food. Support Local Producers. Joe’s CSA—from Screamin' Ridge Farm

Blackwell Roots FarmRockville Market FarmVermont Bean Crafters

Kingsbury Market GardenSweet Rowan FarmsteadVermont Salumi

Red Hen Baking Co.Templeton FarmWillow Moon Farm

Visit JoesCSA.com to sign up! Questions? Check the website, call Joe at 461-5371, or email [email protected].

the bridge, october 17, 2012

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