Staff report Rutland City’s Town Meeting results are delayed after the city ran out of ballots. Rutland City Clerk Henry Heck ordered about 25% more ballots this year in anticipation of high turnout, likely driven by a large turnover of school board candidates. But, this is the first time in 14 years he ran out.…

 Covid’s risk to students mental health is now greater than physical health, governor says By Polly Mikula Masking in schools — among the last remaining Covid mitigation measures in place for students — will soon be optional for schools with a student vaccination rate of over 80%, Governor Phil Scott announced at his regular press…

By Karen D. Lorentz Greg Cartier, who was born and raised in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was introduced to his calling in life when he attended a Vermont college. “I was a member of Norwich University’s Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Team and it was a turning point in my life. The members of this team were some…

By Katy Savage Hannah Soar didn’t get a medal in her first Olympics on Feb. 6, but that didn’t matter to those who watched her grow up skiing. About 200 people got up before the sun on Sunday to cheer Soar on at Killington’s Snowshed Lodge for a 6 a.m. watch party. The room had…

January saw record ICU visits, hospitalizations By Polly Mikula This week the Covid case numbers appear to be heading back to pre-Omricon levels after hitting record highs last month. The state reported 284 cases on Saturday, 311 on Sunday, 149 on Monday and 206 on Tuesday. The seven-day average was 396 cases per day, a…

By Katy Savage Before the Bengals and Rams take the field for Superbowl LVI on Feb. 13, puppies will compete in the 18th annual Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet and this year, two local dogs have made the cut. Dumpling and Pudding, two Labrador mixes from the Rutland County Humane Society, are in this year’s…

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…