Here’s a comment by a Vermont solar company executive that offers as much hope as it presents concern: “In the future, solar panels are going to be as ubiquitous as barns and silos, and we should be working toward it, not against it.” The comment is by SunCommon spokesman Mike McCarthy. The hope it presents…

By Lee H. Hamilton Despite these last few months of hot and lazy days, it’s been hard not to notice a cold political wind blowing through the country. The magazine Foreign Affairs captured it with its latest cover, a mockup of a travel poster featuring a crumbling U.S. Capitol with the tagline, “See America: Land…

Q&A with Mike Solimano Editor’s note: The Mountain Times receives many questions from readers every week about Killington Resort and Pico Mountain operations. In order to best answer some of the most common questions we will pose them directly to Mike Solimano, president and general manager for Killington Resort and Pico Mountain, who has agreed…

Dear Editor, Earlier this summer Killington Resort asked the town of Killington to consider repealing the sales and use portion of the 1 percent option tax. The resort is committed to using the money, freed up if the tax is repealed, to invest in additional summer assets and to help fund key summer events that…

Dear Editor, As the Vermont State Fair comes to a close, once again, the fairground gardens were prominently displayed. The Rutland County Extension Service Master Gardeners planted and maintained the ten gardens around the fairgrounds with dedication. Anyone attending this year’s fair, will tell you that the gardens were absolutely beautiful, despite the fact, that many…

Dear Editor, After reading Gov. Shumlin’s letter to Rebecca Holcombe, secretary for the Vermont Agency of Education, dated Aug. 19, 2014, which outlines initiatives he hopes she and the Agency will pursue on his behalf to advance progress this year, I was confused on a number of topics.  Shumlin refers to the fact that many…

Dear Editor, When people in a community are concerned that their neighborhood is being overrun by crime, they start a Neighborhood Watch. They do so to protect their families, their property values, and their way of life. Nobody ever accuses them of NIMBYism; it’s only logical. Nobody says, “Well, the criminals have to go somewhere,…

Dear Editor, With all the news about the inability of a severely divided Congress to do much of anything except shift the blame to the other party, we can be proud that our U. S. Representative, Peter Welch, is bucking the trend.  For example, he worked across the aisle with Representative Trey Gowdy, a South…

By Angelo S. Lynn Vermont Gas Systems was taken to task last week by the governor’s office for, among other things, its cost overruns on Phase 1 of the pipeline project from Colchester to Middlebury, its lack of transparency in its handling of easement rights, and for using the eminent domain process in a way…

By Lee H. Hamilton Many trends in American politics and government today make me worry about the health of our representative democracy. These include the decline of Congress as a powerful, coequal branch of government, the accumulation of power in the presidency, and the impact of money on the overall political process. Recently, the Supreme…

By Michelle Monroe There was a lot of information about one of the state’s most vexing issues – education taxes – but no solutions at a gathering of roughly 100 municipal and school officials in South Burlington Thursday, Aug. 14. Rising education costs are closing out other opportunities as education consumes more of the available…

Photo by Jerry LeBlond Work continues on the bridge construction just outside the village of Pittsfield. The new bridge is being put back in place where its predecessor was washed out by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. A temporary bridge was build parallel to the damaged site, to allow traffic to resume.   

Dear Editor, I am writing in response to the letter by Mario Vincelette printed in the Aug. 7-13 edition of The Mountain Times. I would suggest that Mr. Vincelette read the book “Vegetarian Myth.”  It is not the meat and dairy products that are polluting our environment, but the government supported meat and dairy industries that…

Dear Editor, My name is Kelly Socia and I am running in the Aug. 26 primary election as a write-in candidate for state senator from Rutland County. I have just retired after 34 years from the United States Postal Service.  For the last 8 years I have been building Vermont Backroad Tours.  I have developed…

Dear Editor, When I read in the August 18, 2014 Rutland Herald article that the Town of Chester is holding a “tutorial” on how state funding for schools really work. The town manager, David Pisha, said that the education rate is too big to understand so why do anything about it. The resident rate funding…