By Rachel Carter When choosing to purchase food, cost is often a deciding factor for consumers. Why buy a 12-ounce package of local bacon for $7.99 when you can get it for $4.98? Purchasing local food means you know where your food comes from, you’re buying food that is generally healthier, and you’re helping drive…

By Angelo S. Lynn Give Gov. Phil Scott credit for utilizing the element of surprise. In his budget address this past Tuesday, Jan. 24, he rocked Montpelier’s world by suggesting that public schools, K-12, freeze their budgets at current spending levels, force teachers to pay more for their health care plans (from roughly 15 to…

Dear Editor, I want to applaud Mike Solimano and his team for the terrific job that the Resort did with the World Cup. The combined efforts of the town and the resort prove that both are in this together. The positive impacts are sure to be real. Here is where we stand today: 1. Killington is…

Dear editor, I am not on board with designating $100,000 for support of Killington Resort’s efforts to bring back the World Cup. First of all, there are no guarantees that Killington will even be considered by the FIS (International Ski Federation, the World Cup governing body). The reason the World Cup came to Killington this…

Dear Editor, Martin Luther King, Jr., was a great man because he helped many people in need of his help. This happened when Rosa Parks got arrested because she did not give up her seat up on the bus to a white person. What MLK did was he organized a boycott where lots of people…

Dear editor, Well as you would expect, not a word was heard from the mountain with regard to the previous letters requesting the mountain to provide a senior taxpayers’ residential ski pass. I never thought it would be an easy task, but you never know. My philosophy, “if you don’t ask, you don’t get.” I guess…

By Rob Roper When I was in second grade, my parents moved our family from Virginia to Connecticut because Dad took a job in New York City. They chose the town of Riverside to live in based largely on the quality of the public school system. We were lucky to be able to afford to…

By Polly Mikula “Tell me what democracy looks like?” chanted protesters at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. “This is what democracy looks like!” the crowd yelled back. It was one of many chants repeated Saturday, Jan. 21, as over 500,000 people descended on the streets of the nation’s capital the day after Trump’s inauguration…

By Angelo S. Lynn Under Donald Trump’s presidency, American voters will face a stark choice: They’ll have to decide if facts matter more than Trump’s lies mixed with his deliberate distortions. What we know is that Trump will attempt to recast the news to fit his version of reality, because if he can get away…

By Jeff Tieman Having arrived last August as the new president and CEO of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, I am still fairly new to Vermont. A few observations so far: 1) this is a wonderful place full of energy and life, 2) the people are kind, smart and passionate, and 3)…

Dear Editor, In late 2015, I received an email informing me that Killington, my home mountain – the place where I invest my time and energy and where I’m raising my family to appreciate and love winter sports – was added to the 2016 Women’s World Cup schedule by FIS, the International Ski Federation. The…

Dear Editor, In response to Kyle Finneron’s story “The first 30 days,” published in the Mountain Times Dec. 21-27, which asks if organically grown food is worth the extra money: In most cases, it is not. After extensive testing, which many organic growers claim they have never done, it does not appear that organic fruits…

Dear Editor, The response from people I received after my letter was published in last week’s edition, was overwhelmingly positive everywhere I went—skiing Thursday and Friday, at Choices Friday night, the Deli on Route 4, everywhere—not one negative remark. But this is not just one man’s battle. We all need to make our voices heard.…

Dear Editor, The staff and clients of Black River Good Neighbor Services offer their sincere thanks to all who made our annual holiday food and gift distribution possible. In all we delivered nearly $11,000 worth of food and toys to people in Ludlow, Cavendish, Proctorsville, Plymouth, Mount Holly, and Belmont. Again this year our staff…

Dear Editor, On Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Mr. Trump has said many times that he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act—the ACA, or Obamacare—on “day one.” Mr. Trump’s pronouncements are notoriously erratic and changeable, but his choice of Tom Price—an inveterate…