By Cary Brown, Meg Smith, Rhoni Basden, Jessica Nordhaus and Aly Richards Editor’s note: Cary Brown is the executive director of the Vermont Commission on Women; Meg Smith is the director of the Vermont Women’s Fund; Rhoni Basden is the executive director of Vermont Works for Women; Jessica Nordhaus is the director of Change The…

Dear Editor, Forest ecologists estimate that if you let a New England farm field go fallow, it takes natural succession about 120 years to re-establish a healthy soil biome, but even that will be but a pale shadow of the mature complex food web that once existed under the bowers of the ancient giants. The…

Dear Editor, One of my dearest writer friends in life passed away early in the pandemic. She lived in an upscale senior community that provides care on every level. I wonder which worker or health provider may have carried Covid to her locked room? Everyone was restricted to remain in their apartment or room. Might…

Dear Editor, Julie Wasserman recently laid out a wise series of questions that we should be asking in assessing Vermont’s current healthcare reform efforts. Among them: “What portion of school budget increases are attributable to the rising cost of health care?” Good question. But why limit it school budgets? Healthcare costs also contribute to budgets for police,…

Dear Editor, Yep! You read it right! The 2021 ride itself raised $32,000 and then it was matched by a generous anonymous donor! So total benefit to Teen Challenge is $64,000! Thank you! Thank You! and again Thank You! Your kindness and generosity will obviously go a long way in helping to change lives from…

Dear Editor, Many of us in Vermont do not look forward to the bear hunt that begins Sept. 1 and runs through mid-November. It’s one of the longest in the country. Vermont allows bears to be pierced with arrows, shot from trees, hunted with packs of hounds, just to name a few horrors. Females with…

Dear Editor, I read with interest and disappointment your lead article on the controversy at the Bridgewater Select Board meeting. The disappointment is that we did not expect our local government to emulate what sadly enough we are seeing on the national scene. One would think that the simplicity of the issues and the immediate…

Dear editor, During last Wednesday’s community meeting on Aug. 11 in Rutland’s gym at St. Joseph’s College, there were many stupendous ideas expressed on ways to spend the initial $4.4 million Covid funds that will be coming to Rutland City. Rutland Free Library needs money to modernize the building and its technology. Main Street Park…

Dear Editor, My wife and I were driving along River Road in Killington, Sunday evening, Aug. 15, around 6:15 p.m., about one mile farther down from the Killington town hall (on the dirt road). We spotted what looked like a black cat with a very long tail. We were traveling about 15 mph, enjoying the…

Dear Editor, Summer is synonymous with creemees, and well-timed ones at that. Dairy, as an industry, has supported Vermonters for 150 years. Summer is a wonderful time to celebrate the food that dairy provides, and the hardworking families who have produced that food while stewarding the land and landscape that sets Vermont apart from so many…

Dear Editor, Education finance in Vermont is an often hard-to-understand and quite complex system. Act 59 of 2021 created the Task Force on the Implementation of the Pupil Weighting Factors Report, a group of eight Vermont legislators who will spend time this summer, as the name implies, determining the best path forward to implement the…

Dear Editor, Virtually every business owner or manager Green Mountain Economic Development Corp. works with as the regional development corporation for Windsor and Orange counties, cites the lack of decent housing and child care as the most important factors hampering recovery from Covid. We believe this is true throughout New England and beyond. Both were…

Dear editor, Recently I had the opportunity to tour the newly repurposed Cortina Inn, the beautiful property that my wife Breda and I owned for 33 years, which is now under the management of a family that is now offering a new kind of hospitality — perhaps the most essential kind. Long known for Sunday…

Dear Editor, Since Dec. 2018, “Vermonters for Vermont” Initiative has been talking about educating every Vermonter about freedom, liberty, individualism, independence, innovation and personal responsibility. We have been defending and promoting our Constitution, free markets and taking risks. We have been working to educate and encourage Vermonters to learn what Montpelier and local governments are…

Dear Editor, You may have seen some of your neighbors in front of TD Bank on Bonnet St. (Route 30 in Manchester) holding signs. You may have asked yourself: “Why are they there? What are they protesting? What do they want?” I’d like to answer those questions. We are there because TD Bank is one…