Endurance athlete seeks to raise funds and awareness for clean water project Katie Spotz, clean water activist and adventurer, will embark on a 73-mile run across the state of Vermont, making her the first woman to do so. The run will take place on Saturday, Aug. 7, at the Piermont Bridge connecting Piermont, New Hampshire…

WOODSTOCK—Beginning Thursday, Aug. 6, Billings Farm & Museum’s second annual sunflower house will be open for visitors to explore and bask in the beauty of this garden. Thousands of sunflowers and over 50 different varieties ranging from 18 inches to 14 feet in height form the rooms and hallways in a maze-like structure. “With recent rains and hot summer days the sunflowers are popping up quite…

By Emma Cotton/VTDigger Following a petition presented by 39 employees to hospital leadership last month, Rutland Regional Medical Center has begun scrutinizing its policies to ensure staff and patients are treated equally regardless of race. The petition, submitted shortly after protests erupted following the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, asked…

Mountain Times: How is the summer going? How does it compare to the past? Your expectations? Mike Solimano: Overall, summer is going better than we expected considering the “new normal.”  But the reality is that a large portion of our revenue in summer is generated from businesses we can’t operate. Weddings, conferences, and events have all…

Governor Phil Scott, Friday, July 24, announced a state mandated mask requirement in public places—inside and outside. “Based on national and regional data on how the virus is spreading – and rather than waiting like other states have – I feel we need to act now to protect our gains, which have allowed us to…

State delays school start to Sept. 8 By Katy Savage Shortened days, delayed starts, partial remote learning, face masks and temperature checks — these are just some of the changes students can expect to see as the new school year approaches. Superintendents across the state are in the midst of developing plans to safely bring…

Saturday, Aug. 1 at 11 a.m.—BRANDON— Due to the Covid-19 issues, Brandon Chamber of Commerces’s 32nd annual Great Brandon Auction will be taking place in a non-traditional way this year. The organizers have had to think outside the tent and decided to move into a downtown storefront! With the kind donation from Heather and John Bierschenk, the…

Gov. Phil Scott on Friday issued an order requiring people in Vermont to cover their faces when out in public, saying that while Vermont’s Covid-19 infection rate is still among the lowest in the country, a rise in cases elsewhere in the U.S. has put Vermont on the defense. Scott has long resisted a mandate,…

Staff report RUTLAND—BROC Community Action collected over 800 pounds of food in the first annual Stuff-A-Ruck event held in Rutland, Friday, July 17. Departing from the recruitment office at 10 a.m. the Vermont Army National Guard carried donated food in their rucksacks to BROC. “If there are two things the Vermont Army National Guard loves,…

By Katy Savage As trucks beeped and concrete was dug up on Library Avenue to install pipe that would reduce wastewater overflows into Otter Creek, Congressman Peter Welch outlined a plan to federally fund similar infrastructure needs on July 16. Welch’s $1.5 trillion Moving Forward Act passed the House on July 1. The bill includes…

The residents of Wallingford were hoping to celebrate their annual Wallingford Day with dancing and a deejay, but Covid-19 had other plans. So organizers came up with a more socially-distant way to celebrate, encouraging everyone in town to decorate a pallet and display it in their yard. “There are 30 pallets waiting for you to…

Health Department so far finds no indication of COVID-19 spreading in the community   A week after reports first surfaced of a potential outbreak in the Manchester area, 35 of 63 people with a positive antigen test for Covid-19 reported to the Health Department by Manchester Medical Center since July 10 have had a PCR…

By Erin Petenko/VTDigger The first wave of influenza in the spring of 1918 was easy on the world: It, too, was a novel virus, but as it spread through the armed forces, sickening young men, it killed a few and spared most. It turned out to be a “herald wave,” presaging the second wave, which had…

By Anne Wallace Allen/VTDigger Move-in day at Vermont’s college campuses will be a relatively somber event this year, as students sign contracts promising to practice Covid-19 safety measures, enter quarantine if they’ve come from afar, and prep for party-free socializing. State officials on Tuesday, July 7,  released Covid-19 safety guidelines for college campuses, much as the state has…

By Emma Cotton/VTDigger About 200 Rutland High School alumni, students and community members are drafting a petition calling on school officials to remove the name and arrowhead imagery of the school’s sports team, the Rutland Raiders. The group, led by RHS 2010 alumna Amanda Gokee, cites appropriation of Native American culture. Gokee, who identifies as Ojibwe,…