By Ethan Weinstein Amidst the year’s pandemic tumult, business is thriving in Rutland’s downtown. “We’re beginning to see a revived vibrancy,” said Lyle Jepson, executive director of the Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region (CEDRR). “What’s exciting to me as someone who would call himself no longer young, is that there are young…

Sunday, Jan. 2 — RUTLAND — Rutland County Audubon’s annual Christmas bird count will take place this year on Jan. 2. Birds spotted within a 7.5 mile radius of Mead’s Falls in Center Rutland will be counted by teams of field birders and feeder-watchers in this count circle. Results will be tallied and posted on…

By Karen D. Lorentz When you talk with skier Karl Thomas Acker, he readily admits that he got the ski bug from his Pico experiences. Lots of people can lay claim to that, but Acker’s experiences were truly unique. And there may have even been a “ski gene” thrown into the mix along with a…

By Anita Lobel William Edward Giles, a country gentleman, an adventurous world traveler and entrepreneur, an easy New Yorker, was born in Windsor on July 31, 1946. He died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on Sept. 25, 2021 after an eight year struggle with progressive anti-MAG peripheral neuropathy, a disease that chips…

A Woodstock Vermont Film Series feature documentary Saturday, Jan. 1 at 3 and 5:30 p.m. — WOODSTOCK — Billings Farm & Museum’s 12th annual Woodstock Vermont film series returns to the Billings Farm Theater with the feature “Kedi,” a sophisticated, artful documentary exploring the profound relationship between man and cat in the metropolis of Istanbul, Turkey. There will be…

Program supports hungry Vermonters and local restaurants, farmers, food producers The state of Vermont has granted an extension through April 1, 2022, for Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the innova- tive Covid-19 response program that provides meal assistance to Vermonters while supporting local restaurants, farmers, and food producers. Rutland County Vermont Farmers Food Center, Rutland County’s…

By Liora Engel-Smith/VTDigger As Vermont braces for the Omicron variant of Covid-19, influenza appears to be making a comeback. Roughly 1 in 10 people tested for respiratory symptoms in Vermont had the flu in mid-December up from about 3 in 100 people the first week of the month, according to the Vermont Dept. of Health.…

Bernard L. Pierce, 81, born in Pittsfield and grew up in Woronoco, Massachusetts, and was a long time Killington resident died peacefully on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. Bernie loved to golf, travel, spend time with family and especially his grandchildren. He always stayed current with the news and stock market. He enjoyed a good joke…

Staff report Vermonters across the state have waited in long lines to pick up take-home Covid tests ahead of holiday get-togethers — only to be told, in many cases, that the tests were all gone. State officials had announced on Tuesday, Dec. 21, that tens of thousands of test kits would be available at 16…

Emerge Vermont, a statewide organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office, announced Dec. 15 that it has selected its 2022 class. This year’s chosen group of 26 future women political leaders is Emerge Vermont’s largest and most diverse class, with women from all parts of the Green Mountain State who come…

By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger Jonathan Spiro, interim president of Castleton University, will retire next month, the Vermont State Colleges announced Monday, Dec. 6, but he’ll stay in the position until Jan. 3. Thomas Maughs-Hugh, Castleton’s provost, will take over as interim president at that point. “I offer my sincerest thanks to President Spiro for his many…

By Brett Yates Thanks to a team of volunteers, Pittsfield residents will have a free place to go ice skating this winter, as long as the weather cooperates. When Coral Hawley, the self-proclaimed “ringleader” behind the Pittsfield Community Ice Rink, spoke to the Mountain Times on Dec. 17, an unseasonable warm spell had delayed its…

Two Groton residents were issued citations by a Vermont game warden on Nov. 11, following the investigation of an incident of hunter harassment. Both were found guilty of interfering with hunters on Nov. 22, in Caledonia Superior Court. Topsham resident Theodore Shumway and two companions were hunting black bear with hounds in the 26,000-acre Groton…

By Curt Peterson The Killington Select Board discussed a possible local mask mandate at their Dec. 14 meeting, but failed to make a decision either way; Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth is to gather information about mandate terminology, enactment process and enforcement for the Jan. 4 meeting. Governor Phil Scott signed legislation Nov. 22 empowering Vermont…

MENDON—Debra Poplawski-Wilson, 57, a former resident of Rutland, passed away peacefully at her father’s home in Mendon on Dec. 17, 2020. Services were delayed. Funeral services for will now be held Monday, Dec. 27, 2021 at 11 a.m. at Christ The King Church, in Rutland. The family would like to invite you to join them…