$175 million for staff is 30% more per hour, capital projects announced, too By Karen D. Lorentz Vail Resorts recently announced a $20 per hour minimum wage for all 37 of its North America resorts, effective for the 2022-23 ski-and-ride season. The company also announced capital improvement projects total of over $300 million, which is…

By Eesha Williams How did I, a Vermont veggie farmer, end up on the slopes of the Austrian Alps? If I were rich and Austria got a giant snowstorm, perhaps I’d want to go ride powder. But I’m not rich. Instead I’m taking Austria up on its offer for citizenship and visiting the place where…

Vegetables and pasta dishes are a staple of the Lenten season, and seafood also serves as a popular substitute for meats and poultry. As parents of picky eaters can attest, encouraging children, particularly toddlers or early grade-schoolers, to dig into a seafood meal can be a struggle. However, fish sticks can make a fish dinner…

Greenhouses are structures that can help hobbyists or professional farmers extend growing seasons and improve yields. Even though traditional greenhouses can improve conditions for growth, certain variables can still affect output. That’s where smart greenhouses come into play. Farming requires reliance on intuition, but also on control of environmental factors like insects, irrigation and light.…

Innovative program providing free local restaurant meals continues Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the unique Covid-19 recovery program that provides Vermonters impacted by Covid-19 with prepared meals made by Vermont restaurants using locally grown and produced ingredients, will continue through July 1, 2022. The program had previously been set to end on March 31 but will…

By Jack Lyons/VTDigger A 30-year effort to reintroduce passenger rail service to Burlington is scheduled to succeed this summer. Rail travelers will be able to board in Rutland and travel to Burlington on the trail, and Burlington residents will be able to travel south — all the way to New York City and points beyond…

By Rep. Jim Harrison It’s important to have deadlines to help discipline the legislative process. Without them, the session would likely extend longer than it does. Deadlines mean that the House Appropriations Committee must not only finish its work on the budget, but also act on any bills sent to the committee from House policy…

Did you know that you can drop off your redeemable bottles and cans at the Rutland County Humane Society (RCHS), as a way to help the animals? Thanks to generous volunteers, there is a dry and secure shed for supporters to drop off redeemable bottles and cans. The shed is located at the back of…

By Liz DiMarco Employers from Vermont to Vancouver are facing unforeseen difficulties in attracting qualified workers, but there are jobhunters over 55 who know all too well the challenges of finding meaningful employment. Ageism is more pervasive than ever, and harsh reality is difficult to deny. Accelerated technology, plus political and socioeconomic factors, tend to…

By Julia Purdy Just as Californians hail the return of the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, here in Vermont the return of the peregrine falcon to its breeding grounds is a cause for pride and excitement. This year, peregrine falcons have already returned to their nesting cliffs throughout the state. To protect nesting peregrine falcons…

By Brett Yates On March 17, the Pittsfield Select Board accepted a bid by G&N Excavation to construct a new municipal sand shed at a cost of $340,678. Pittsfield will use the shed for the storage of sand and salt for winter road maintenance. No other company responded to the town’s public tender, which Pittsfield…

March 2022 marks 50 years since Meals on Wheels, the nation’s premier nutrition program for seniors, was funded. And for Vermont’s aging population, it has become a lifeline for many — a lifeline that begins with a bustle of activity around the state. About 12:30 p.m. more than a dozen volunteers filed into the Bugbee…

By Brett Yates Chittenden’s village center could get a new look. At a Select Board meeting on March 14, the Chittenden Planning Commission presented a trio of landscape renderings whose designs would change the way drivers and pedestrians experience a pair of adjacent intersections in the heart of the town. Last year, Chittenden sought to…

Staff report After the Slate Valley Unified Union District budget failed 861-853 on Town Meeting Day, a budget revote is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13. Voters will be asked to approve a $26,236,547 budget — $33,500 less than the proposed budget narrowly defeated on Town Meeting Day, March 1. Superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell said she was…

Dear Editor, Please excuse the proud parent quoting a letter of our son Gregory Crowther to state Senators in the Seattle area. He writes about a bill designed to expand and make permanent fluoridation in Washington State. His remarks are worth sharing in fluoridated Rutland, because they focus on fluoride and body function, often overlooked…