By Katy Savage Hannah Soar heard it growing up. As she bumped down the moguls of the Outer Limits trail at Killington Resort as a child, other skiers told her, “You’re going to be an Olympian,” Soar remembers. Soar, a fearless child, just liked to be on snow and though she was talented, she wasn’t…

By Victoria Gaither Although skiing and snowboarding dominate central Vermont this time of the year, another outdoor sport pedals along — fat biking. “Up here in Vermont, people love riding them, a lot of people do move mostly to skiing in the winter, but for the way our weather is going, I don’t see fat…

Randy Crossman, a 62-year-old woodworker and seventh-generation Vermonter from Rutland, has crossed the halfway mark in his goal to summit Pico Mountain 365 times in 365 days, a project he calls “PicoSummit365.” He began the project in summer 2021 and just recently exceeded 200 hikes. Crossman is an avid outdoorsman who committed to this goal…

By Curt Peterson Keri Bristow, Windsor Central Unified Union School District board member of Woodstock chaired the second official Zoom meeting of the board’s recently created district renaming committee on Jan. 24. Unlike some school district rebranding projects, WCUUSD doesn’t have any controversial ethnic or racial issues with either the district name or its athletic…

Gone just days after new protocols for students and staff took effect By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger On Wednesday, Jan. 19, school districts across the state kicked off new Covid-19 testing protocols. Following the recommendation of the state Agency of Education, school officials rolled out a new system called “test at home.” The new method was aimed to…

By Curt Peterson Windsor Central Unified Union School District (WCSD) Superintendent Sherry Sousa told the Mountain Times she understands the rationale behind the Agency of Education’s abandonment of the in-school “Test to Stay” program this week. “Surveillance testing didn’t address the Omicron proliferation,” she said. “A few weeks ago 500 tests netted only four positive…

By Katy Savage The Rutland High School’s mascot is back to the Rutland Raiders following a 6-5 school board vote on Tuesday, Jan. 11. The controversial Raiders mascot, deemed racist by some, was changed to the Ravens in October 2020, but the move widely divided the town and led to a year’s worth of contentious…

By Katy Savage Face masks are required in all public areas in the Woodstock Village, regardless of vaccination status in Woodstock, after a 4-1 Trustee vote on Jan. 11. Trustees Daphne Lowe, Seton McIlroy, Bill Corson and Jeff Kahn supported the face mask requirement, while Brenda Blackman, the owner of First Impressions Salon and Spa,…

By Virginia Dean For the last 38 years, Steve Finer has dedicated his time to helping those in need in the greater Killington-Rutland community. Now, he will be retiring as a volunteer from the Killington Fire and Rescue and the Rutland Regional Medical Center. “I was always taught that you have to give to your…

Staff report Gov. Phil Scott and other state officials defended their controversial and “abrupt” shift in school policy for combatting Covid-19 in the governor’s weekly press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 11. As case numbers have hit record numbers with the omicron variant, Agency of Education Sec. Dan French sent school administrators a letter on Friday,…

Students and staff return to school closures, surging cases, expired tests, changing guidance, frustration By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger As students returned from the holiday break, some Vermont schools made it just three days before closing under the weight of Covid-19 cases. There were so many cases in the building which houses JFK Elementary as well as…

By Katy Savage An attempt to expand the Vermont Farmers Market Food Center on West Street in Rutland has uncovered a contamination problem in the air and soil. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources sent current and former owners of the property a letter on Dec. 30 explaining they need to provide a corrective action…

By Katy Savage A Hartland dog is being called a hero after leading police officers to a serious crash on Interstate 91 in Hartford, where its owner was badly injured. The New Hampshire State Police and Lebanon Police Department responded to a report of a loose dog on Veterans Memorial Bridge on I-89 above the…

By Brooke Geery Mini Shred Madness took over Red’s Backyard at Killington Resort on Sunday, Jan. 9. The sickness was real, in the best way possible, as groms ages 4-13 got the chance to session the hike park with a little help from the Woodward Killington park crew, Killington Mountain School and Killington Snow Sports…

By Curt Peterson Near the end of a 2 -hour meeting Monday, Jan. 3, the Windsor Central Unified Union School District board passed a proposed $24.3 million budget for fiscal year 2023, reflecting 6.5% increase over last year’s budget. Two dissenting votes were cast by Bill Overbay (Pomfret) and Gwen Hagenbarth (Killington). Based on the…