By Mark Bushnell/VT Digger If Fred Harris’ diary is any guide, it’s a miracle that skiing ever caught on. “[L]anded hard,” the Brattleboro native wrote one January day in 1904. “Tore the strap off the buckle part of my footgear. Hurt my back some. My skee [ski] went away and left me on another dump.…

By Jon Kalish/VTDigger Nine outdoor classrooms designed specifically for the pandemic have been installed at schools in central Vermont, thanks to a Rochester family. Dubbed the RyanTruss, each structure is basically a series of wooden trusses topped with a corrugated fiberglass roof. After hearing about the need for outdoor classrooms from a teacher at the…

By Curt Peterson The Windsor Central Union Unified School District (WCSD) board members concerned themselves with money on Monday, Jan. 7. Director of Finance and Operations Jim Fenn listed three expense areas currently over budget, although overall spending is on target. “We’ve hired two additional teachers,” Fenn said, “but they were needed because of increased…

By Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin stood atop the Beijing 2022 Olympics giant slalom hill as a television announcer recalled how she won a gold medal in the same race at the last Winter Games. Seconds later, the 26-year-old fell cold on the steep, slippery course, wiping out for only the 14th time in…

Merle Schoenfeld, 95, died on January 28, 2022 at St. Joseph Kervick Center in Rutland. He was born to Rae and Alvin Schoenfeld in Hulmeville, Pa. He served his country proudly in Germany from 1944 to 1946 with his claim to fame serving as a driver for General Patton at times. Merle had always been…

The Fox U.S. Open of Mountain Biking has announced that the 2022 race festival will be returning to Killington Resort this Sept. 15-18. The Fox U.S. Open originated on the East Coast in 2003 and was last hosted at Killington Resort in 2018. Top professional racers from around the world are anticipated to compete for…

By Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger Without leases for protection, dozens of renters in Quechee will soon need to find new places to live. On Friday, Jan. 28, residents of at least 18 units in two Quechee apartment buildings received notice that they must vacate their apartments by April 30. The letters cited “no cause” for the termination.…

By Karen D. Lorentz When you look up into the heavens on a clear winter night, the twinkling of thousands of stars light up the sky in a way that can be described as awesome and magical. Appreciation for those many stars may be overshadowed by the occasional sight of a shooting star or the…

By Rep. Jim Harrison While six more weeks of winter may be the prediction of Punxsutawney Phil when he came out last week to see if he had a shadow, it’s almost a guarantee that the Vermont Legislature probably has double that to finish its 2022 session. Entering week 6 of a normal 18-week session,…

By Sen. Alison Clarkson Every 10 years the results of the national census requires each state to review the impact of any population change on their electoral districts. Our Vermont Constitution requires that our state’s population must be fairly distributed to afford “equality of representation.” Covid delayed the national Census returns and, as a result,…

By Victoria Gaither A Rutland grandfather has turned his backyard into a scene from the famous Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie based on the novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien. “I’ve always been intrigued with hobbit houses, and I was building a road outback, and when the excavator came up, I said, ‘I want…

The Cobra gymnastics team in Rutland were among 176 gymnasts from seven Vermont gymnastics schools that participated in the annual Green Mountain Invitational in Williston Feb. 7-8. Shining stars from Cobra include Hazel Mabey, London Febbie, Bay Sparks, Sadie White, Amelia Gibbs and Maleah Jones as they compiled some of their personal best all-around scores…

By Liz DiMarco Weinmann There is an enormous but untapped business opportunity to grow Vermont’s economic vitality and diversity, to create networks of mentorship, to secure funding for small business, and to increase contributions to Vermont’s economy on an ongoing basis. What is this growth engine, and why is it untapped? According to Meg Smith,…

By Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger Vermont skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle has scored Olympic silver in the Super-G at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. Cochran-Siegle, 29, of Starksboro won his medal almost 50 years to the day his mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, snagged gold at the 1972 competition in Sapporo, Japan. Cochran-Siegle skied “a near perfect run,” according…

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…