By Ed Larson Rutland City has come to a settlement agreement with former Rutland City Fire Chief James Larsen. City attorney Matt Bloomer explained that under the chief’s employment agreement, a termination for lack of “efficient service” could occur at the will of the mayor.  Mayor David Allaire utilized that section of the contract to…

Staff report After six people died of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, in Washington state last week, local officials have been preparing for an outbreak in Vermont. There were no confirmed cases in the state as of Monday, March 2, but officials are expecting residents will become sick. White River Valley Supervisory Union Superintendent Brooke…

By Curt Peterson The day before voters were asked to approve the Windsor Central Supervisory Union budget totaling $21 million, board member Jim Haff asked Killington residents to vote against that budget. He told voters at the Killington public informational meeting March 2 that it’s nearly certain an unrecognized $1 million deficit will be uncovered…

By Virginia Dean For those investing in winter rental properties, it may not come as a surprise that a recent study indicates that Killington and Ludlow have topped the charts in profitable revenue for the last two years, according to property management company Vacasa of Portland, Oregon. The company had calculated data on nearly a…

By Anne Wallace Allen/VTDigger Veterinarian Susan Johnson used to work with 15 large alpaca farms. Now Vermont’s down to just a few. But an Ascutney farm, Cas-Cad-Nac, is doing the alpaca business in a big way. It has 250 super-premium alpacas, half-ownership in a fiber mill, and a mail-order alpaca meat business. And this autumn, it…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger The Heritage Credit Union now owns the former College of St. Joseph campus. The bank moved to foreclose on the property in January, according to CEO Matt Levandowski, and the school surrendered the deed over to Heritage on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The school had an outstanding balance with the bank of $4.5 million.…

Dear Editor, Climate change is destroying our future, Governer Scott. Your inaction on meaningful environmental policy is extremely disappointing. This is a betrayal of Vermonters, your promises, and the planet. State greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. Summers are getting wetter and hotter, sugar maples’ range is trending north, and tick-borne disease rates are increasing in…

Dear Editor, There is a dangerous false equivalency in our political narrative right now. A number of our current Democratic hopefuls have been sowing seeds of falsity with their supporters that accepting large donations guarantees corruption in the White House and that small donations are the only way to guarantee clean politics. This is bad…

By John Klar, candidate for 2020 Rep. governor Like a dragon eating its tail, Vermont’s bureaucracy continues to bloat like a runaway coronavirus, exponentially expanding “services” even as these very burdens drive more citizens into poverty, drug use, or emigration to more affordable states. A particularly virulent area of indefatigable expansion is schools. In 2013, Vermont held the…

By Angelo Lynn Score a small victory for Vermont’s Democratic Legislature as they managed to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of the recently passed minimum wage bill. The proposal increases the minimum wage from $10.78 an hour to $12.55 by 2022, with future increases tied to inflation or at 5%. At the current 3% inflation,…

Wednesday, March 4 & 11 at 12 p.m.—CASTLETON—March is Women’s History Month and Castleton University celebrates with a variety of events, including lectures, films, and workshops to commemorate and encourage the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in history. This year’s theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote,” honoring the brave…

Tuesday, March 10 at 7 p.m.—FAIR HAVEN— The Friends of the Free Library have once again booked an Irish band for its March performance. Irish music is a favorite in Fair Haven and once again they will be welcoming back Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki and Matt Jensen to perform. You don’t want to miss them. Bringing fresh…

The ‘See Me Now Burger’ celebrates: an hour of missed sleep; losing track of when to go to bed and get up; trying to change the clocks in your house and your car, and then giving up! Wait until the fall, then clocks will be correct again? Perhaps the only really good thing about daylight…

Tuesday, March 10 at 6 p.m.—LUDLOW—A forestry representative from the state will be training people on how to take an inventory of ash trees in the Ludlow Town Hall conference room. This is part of the campaign to prepare for the onset of EAB (emerald ash borer) that has already reached Londonderry and many other parts…

Tuesday, March 10 at 9 a.m.—KILLINGTON—The Chill Foundation brings the Chill Takeover to Pico Mountain.  They’ve rented out the entire mountain for the day to celebrate snowboarding in the Northeast! 100% of the event registration fees go toward supporting Chill’s local youth development programming. On-hill events include a Park Affair meet-up focusing on tech and…