Dear Editor, There has been a lot of wonderful activity going on in our town over the past few years, showing that despite setbacks (like Irene, and a major recession), we as a town have made a lot of progress since 2008 when we voted in the options tax in an effort to revitalize our…

Courtesy of the state of Vermont The Lester H. Greene Co., in Montpelier, Vt., manufactured and sold a cough syrup containing alcohol, chloroform and heroin. The company was fined in 1917. On Tuesday, Oct. 20 at UVM, historian and author Gary Shattuck presented “Opiate Use in Vermont: The Present Reflects the Past,” a talk about…

By Lt. Governor Phil Scott At the start of every legislative session since being elected Lt. Governor, I’ve urged legislators to evaluate every proposal based on whether it helps our economy, improves efficiencies or reduces costs. If the answer to any of those questions was “yes,” then I suggested they put it on the front…

Dear editor, ARC Rutland Area (ARC) recently held its annual membership meeting for people with developmental disabilities and their families. We celebrated the accomplishments of our members with Maggie Pak Awards and the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. At the meeting, we also explored how the ARC services make impacts in the members’ lives.…

Dear Editor, I started this letter to the editor sometime in June or July. It was intended to be a question to the town manager, his first and only response was a press release. Then, the chair of our Select Board Patty McGrath decided to take this question on. Her first response was excuses such…

By Lee H. Hamilton When Paul Ryan became house speaker a few weeks ago, he made it clear that he has no intention of spending too much time in Washington. His wife and children are in Wisconsin, he pointed out, and he plans to commute. “I just work here,” he told CNN, “I don’t live…

Dear Editor, The reason is simple — because we want Elmore to remain a viable and sustainable community that continues to offer unique educational opportunities to its children and families — in other words, to maintain the Vermont tradition of small towns caring for their own. What does the Elmore community look like? The village…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin For most of the last two decades, Vermont’s prison inmate population has been rising. Between 1997 and 2008, it grew by 86 percent. Projections made in 2007 said that Vermont’s inmate population would grow to 2,619 by November 2015. After years of work to reform Vermont’s criminal justice system that trend…

By Debby Haskins, executive director, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM-VT) Early last summer, the Vermont Department of Health formed a broad-based task group to conduct a health impact assessment for legalizing marijuana in Vermont. On Oct. 29, the group gave a progress report on the first steps, which included a survey of 185 published scientific…

Dear Editor, The Friends of the Sherburne Memorial Library thank the businesses and the library patrons who purchased wreaths in the library’s fundraiser this fall. The money that was collected will provide additional programing and other extra purchases for the library. The community support is truly appreciated. Pat Kent and Judy Findeisen, Killington wreath coordinators

Dear Editor, While President Obama is pardoning two turkeys for Thanksgiving, every one of us can exercise that same presidential power by choosing a nonviolent Thanksgiving observance that spares a turkey’s life. And here are some good reasons: You can brag about pardoning a turkey, like Obama. You truly are what you eat. Who wants…

Dear Editor, Lately I have been very concerned with the amount of misinformation that travels throughout town about the issues the town offices and selectboard are dealing with or have dealt with. This creates roadblocks to truly solving our challenges in an efficient and economical manner. Much time seems to be spent correcting the inaccurate…

By Daryl Cagle Like Lady Liberty in the United States, Marianne of France is a symbol of the French state and values, especially the values of liberty, brotherhood, and egalitarianism. She is probably one of the most recognizable and distinctive symbols of France. The concept for Marianne of France appears to have arisen during the…

It was Friday night in Paris, a time to go out to concerts, or to meet friends at a bar and share a glass of wine. Instead, 11/13, became France’s 9/11 as gunmen and suicide bombers methodically and randomly slaughtered more than 130 citizens at four locations around the city, wounding hundreds more. Claiming responsibility…

Dear Editor, As a lifelong resident of Rutland, I’ve long appreciated the way this community works together when the chips are down, or when a challenge confronts us as a community.  It’s one of the reasons I love this time of year, when the greater Rutland area demonstrates its amazing sense of camaraderie at the…