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…

RUTLAND — Vermont Farmers Food Center (VFFC) has appointed Heidi Lynch as interim executive director, as it enters its second decade as an agricultural food and education hub for Rutland County. Lynch moves into the leadership role after 10 years with the organization, where she began as a volunteer in 2012, and most recently served…

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…

LeRoy “Roy” Erwin Prior, 82, died on Jan. 26 at home in Mendon, Vermont. He was born to Lucy R. Hunt Prior and Erwin Wilson Prior in their home in West Bridgewater, Vermont. Roy graduated from Woodstock High School. He received a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Castleton College in 1988 and…

On July 1, 2022, Michael Ruppel, 33, will become OVUHS’s new principal, replacing Principal James Avery, who after 30 years with the RNESU district — 27 of which he served as associate principal and principal — announced his retirement in November. An aggressive search process got underway immediately, and among several applicants, Ruppel was picked…

By Ariadne Will A presentation to the Pittsford Select Board by the Otter Creek Consolidated Communications District (OCCUD) asked the panel to consider allocating ARPA funds to broadband infrastructure in the community. Tony Ferraro, a representative from the communications district, explained OCCUD’s plan to deliver broadband service to all Pittsford homes over the next several…

By Brooke Geery Not every child in Vermont has the chance to go skiing or snowboarding, but Pico Mountain’s school program aims to change that. Since 2016, the resort has worked with area schools to bring groups of students from kindergarten through 8th grade to the mountain to experience the sports, part of the resort’s…

By Curt Peterson Their first meeting in 10 months brought members of the Windsor Central Unified Union School District’s (WCUUSD) new build working group up to speed regarding developments and status since last spring. The group’s goal is a new $75 million middle and high school to be built at the current campus in Woodstock.…

By Curt Peterson More than 30 people attended Hartland’s second public meeting on Thursday night, Jan. 27 to discuss how the town might best invest $1,050,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Everyone attended virtually but Rendy Strawbridge of Barron Hill Road, who sat with Town Manager David Ormiston in Damon Hall. Of the…

By Polly Mikula The Vermont Economic Progress Council (VEPC) met with the town of Killington and its residents via Zoom Thursday, Jan. 27, for a public hearing on the town of Killington’s tax increment financing (TIF) application. The town hopes to utilize future incremental municipal and education property tax revenue to finance planned infrastructure that…

Dear Editor, Editor’s note: The following letter is an adaptation of the testimony Art Malatzky gave to the Vermont Economic Progress Council (VEPC) on Jan. 27. VEPC is considering the town of Killington’s application to utilize future incremental municipal and education property tax revenue to finance debt, if approved by the voters and incurred for…

Staff report Lauren Anderson has been to the 2014 Pyeongchang Olympics and the 2018 Sochi Olympics, where she watched her daughter Jamie Anderson nab two gold medals and one silver, but Anderson will have to watch the 2022 Olympics on her couch in Hartland. “It’s weird what is happening in the world,” Anderson said. “I…

Skiing competition has returned to Killington for the 2021-22 ski season. Last week Killington Resort hosted the Eastern Cup Slalom on Highline. The races took place over four days: about 80 women raced on Saturday and Sunday; and about 100 men raced on Monday and Tuesday. As usual for an Eastern Cup, racers were from…

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 Katy Savage The Vermont Farmer Food Center on West Street in Rutland has been ordered to shut down after failing to submit a work plan to the state to remediate a contamination problem. Kimberly Caldwell, an environmental analyst at the Department of Environmental Conservation, said the owners of the property missed a Jan. 17…