This story by Maryellen Apelquist was first published in the White River Valley Herald on Aug. 28. 

In the 1990s, Frank Lamson, a newly credentialed pediatric nurse practitioner fresh off a stint at an urban school clinic in Massachusetts, came home to South Royalton with an idea: that such a clinic “would really be a good thing to have in a rural community.”

He shared that thought with friend and pediatrician Becky Foulk, who just a few years before had opened a private medical practice in town, and with whom Lamson worked. The doctor agreed, and it wasn’t long before the duo teamed with others, including local school nurses, to open HealthHUB, Vermont’s first school-based clinic.

Since then, 1995, the nonprofit clinic, funded with a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant channeled through the state Agency of Human Services, has operated in collaboration with the South Royalton Health Center to provide in-school medical care, mental health counseling, and a mobile dental program that expanded in 2009. What began as care for students in a handful of towns, South Royalton, Sharon, Tunbridge and Strafford, has grown to serve grade-schoolers and their families in a dozen communities across the White River Valley, from Brookfield to Stockbridge.

While all of HealthHUB’s services are in demand — the organization’s leaders report wait lists in some areas, including mental health care — the dental program is perhaps most widely recognized. Last school year, the dental clinic alone had about 400 patient visits.

Its signature silver-gray trailer with a large, smiling tooth on the side, outfitted as a dental office, can be spotted parked throughout the region, from the employee lot at Gifford Medical Center during the summer months to schools throughout the valley.

The hub’s first such trailer, purchased with a $95,000 grant awarded with the support of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., recently reached the end of its useful life as a clinic. It’s now parked in the lot of the town office in Royalton and used for storage.

Its successor, another silver gray unit, has been making the rounds, and Lamson eagerly reported that it is now joined by another vehicle in the HealthHUB fleet, a big rig named “Rosie.”

Tuesday, just one day before the start of school in the White River Valley, the nurse practitioner showed off 42-foot-long Rosie, a shiny motor home named for iconic Rosie the Riveter and built out with an interior to accommodate a comprehensive dental program.

Inside, HealthHUB, which has expanded in the last few years to also provide dental care to adults when school is not in session, provides a long list of services ranging from cleanings and exams to extractions, fillings, crowns, dentures and more.

Lamson himself flew to West Virginia to get Rosie, and drove the rig home to Vermont last fall. It cost $125,000 and came fully equipped with two dental chairs and all necessary office equipment, including a panoramic X-ray system.

“We had purchased that from the health department in Morgantown, [W.Va.],” Lamson said, explaining the branding wrapped around the vehicle that will be soon switched out to HealthHUB’s. “They got a big infrastructure grant from the feds to buy a brand-new one, but they had been using this as a mobile dental office for several years and wanted to sell it. And we were in the right position to acquire it.”

HealthHUB employs a fulltime dentist, dental hygienist, and dental assistant, and Foulk and Lamson are seeking another hygienist and others to join their health care team.

Hiring the full-time dentist, Colleen Anderson, two years ago, “was just a monumental step,” said Foulk.

“When she came onboard, we had been doing a little bit of work for adults with cleanings and stuff in after-school hours and during school vacations and over the summer, you know, that kind of thing. But we really expanded our dental services to offer full-service dentistry. And so we have quite a few adult patients now because there are a lot of adults who also receive benefits either under Medicaid or Medicare, or just are limited in their ability to travel places who utilize our services.”

Thirty years on, Lamson and Foulk’s vision—to provide access to health care services for children and their communities, where they are—remains as simple as it began.

“One of my mantras in establishing this thing has been to keep students in school and their parents at work,” Lamson said, “where kids at school could actually have medical care.”

For Foulk, the key to HealthHUB’s endurance has been its partnerships.

“That’s what this organization has been all about, building partnerships with other organizations to keep it going. So now we’re serving 12 different towns in eight locations,” Foulk said. “For instance, when we go to Randolph, we see kids from Brookfield and Braintree as well. They get bused in. It’s really grown.”

Community partners include Gifford Health Care, Chelsea Health Center, the town of Royalton and the region’s three school districts.

White River Valley nurse Susan Schuhmann, who’s worked at the school for 15 years, has long admired HealthHUB.

“It’s a great service for the community. The child doesn’t need to be pulled out of school early, missing schooltime to go to a doctor’s appointment. It can happen right here, then they’re back to class. And it does help parents who are working or who have transportation issues.”

While there is no celebration planned for HealthHUB’s 30th, Foulk said they could always use additional support, particularly with the uncertainty at the federal level concerning cuts to programs like Medicaid.

“We are trying to plan. It’s hard to know. And it’s hard to know how much the state of Vermont is going to step up and fill in the gaps, how much the state of Vermont will even be able to do that. So it’s hard to plan, but we’re trying to.”

Foulk noted efforts to increase fundraising in the communities served by HealthHUB, including by going, starting in 2026, to each of the annual town meetings “and making requests from every town that we serve, which we haven’t done in the past.”

HealthHUB accepts Vermont Medicaid and is an in-network Northeast Delta Dental provider. Foulk also noted that the team doesn’t “turn anyone away.”

“If somebody can’t pay, they don’t pay. And if they can just pay a little bit, there’s a sliding scale.”

Appointments with HealthHUB Dental Services may be made by calling 802-888-3384.

Read the story on VTDigger here: HealthHUB unveils new dental rig, marks 30 years.

This story by Darren Marcy was first published in The White River Valley Herald on July 10.

A judge ruled Tuesday that towns in Vermont have the right to maintain their public trails on private land in the long-running lawsuit brought by a landowner against the town of Tunbridge, but the landowner in the case has promised an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Though Superior Court Judge H. Dickson Corbett ruled against John Echeverria and Carin Pratt in the lawsuit they filed against the Town of Tunbridge, Echeverria, in an email Tuesday evening, promised a swift reply.

“We will be filing a prompt appeal to the Supreme Court,” Echeverria wrote.

The Tunbridge Selectboard got the good news at its regular meeting when a town resident announced the decision.

Board Chair Gary Mullen said the board was happy to hear the news and it was exactly what the board had expected all along.

Mullen said he wished the lawsuit and legal battle had never happened, but believed it was money well spent to protect trail access not only in Tunbridge but across Vermont.

“It was the right thing to do,” Mullen said. “It’s a win for the people of Tunbridge and the whole state. We plan to continue this battle however [Echeverria] decides to do it.”

Selectboard member Michael McPhetres praised the decision.

“I am very pleased with the court order,” McPhetres said. “We (the town of Tunbridge) have spent a lot of time and treasure on what is a common sense issue.”

The two sides have been haggling over who has the right to maintain legal trails on private land for years.

Tuesday’s 15-page order settled a few things including granting the town’s motion for summary judgment and denying the landowners’ motion for summary judgment.

In a final order issued separately, Corbett wrote, “Based upon the separate written ruling of the court, final judgment is hereby entered for defendant as follows: the Town of Tunbridge has the authority to maintain and repair its legal trails.”

But, if the decision is appealed to the Supreme Court, the case will go on for at least a little bit longer.

The case took a little bit of a back seat for a few months as the Vermont Legislature took up the issue.

A bill introduced in the Senate by Alison Clarkson, D-Woodstock, aiming to clarify that municipalities have the authority to maintain a legal trail stalled in committee, but the language was eventually added into the Transportation Bill, S.123, which had broad support from legislators and trails groups around Vermont, as well as the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.

The bill made its way through the Conference Committee process and was signed by Gov. Phil Scott in early June, despite a letter from Echeverria urging him to veto the measure.

In the Conference Committee, the bill’s effective date was delayed until April 1, 2026.

Meanwhile, the legal case has been going on for more than two and a half years, which is only the latest of a more than four-year controversy.

Echeverria and Pratt, who live in Strafford, filed a suit against Tunbridge to prevent it from conducting maintenance on the Orchard Trail, one of two legal trails that cross the 325-acre Dodge Farm, which Echeverria and Pratt own.

Twice the suit filed by the landowners was ruled by Orange County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Mann not to be “ripe,” or ready for the court to decide. But the second decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court.

Mann then recused herself and the case was assigned to Corbett.

Corbett’s ruling addresses a variety of arguments made by the landowners for reasons why the town should not be allowed to maintain the trails on their lands, but says, “the court determined that the arguments were either not persuasive or not relevant to its analysis and determinations.”

“The court’s final observation is that real-life experience has been that Vermont towns are maintaining their trails,” he continued. “More than 150 towns have at least one trail, and there are more than 540 miles of public trails in the state. And while at least some private landowners are helping maintain public trails, many towns are maintaining their trails to keep them open for public use. In other words, widespread contemporaneous interpretation has been that towns have the authority to maintain and repair their public trails … A reading of the statutes that authorizes towns to maintain and repair their public trails would be consistent with more than a century of both legal precedent and practical experience.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge sides with town in Tunbridge trails case.

This story by Tim Calabro was first published in The Herald on Feb. 13

When Tropical Storm Irene tore through Vermont in 2011, Stephen Farrington found himself stranded. The floodwaters had transformed his Stockbridge neighborhood into an island, washing out roads, destroying homes and isolating entire communities.

Fourteen years later, Farrington and his Bethel-based company, Transcend Engineering, have launched RiverAware, a mobile app designed to provide real-time river monitoring and flood alerts. By simplifying complex government data and making it accessible to everyday users, the app aims to help people prepare for rising waters — before it’s too late.

RiverAware, now available on the Apple App Store, allows users to track water levels from U.S. Geological Survey stream gauges, receive personalized flood alerts, and share real-time data with others. The app’s development was driven by a belief that existing flood monitoring tools are difficult to use and that climate change is increasing the need for reliable, accessible water data.

“We built RiverAware because, in an emergency, people shouldn’t have to spend time deciphering complicated government websites,” said Emily Ellert, Transcend Engineering’s digital strategies manager. “They need clear, immediate information.”

Farrington founded Transcend Engineering in 2010, just a year before Irene, focusing initially on soil moisture sensors and hydrology research. Over time, the company expanded into environmental data analysis, collaborating with institutions like the University of Arizona and the U.S. Department of Energy, and has been working on finding novel ways to incorporate machine learning into sensor data analysis.

With RiverAware, Farrington hopes to empower people with better flood awareness, whether they’re in Vermont or anywhere else in the U.S. “Our business is built around two problems: too much water or too little water,” he said. “With RiverAware, we’re tackling the first one.”

The RiverAware app aggregates data from more than 13,000 USGS stream gauges across the country. Nearby, such gauges are found in the Ayers Brook in Randolph and in the White River at West Hartford.

Unlike existing flood monitoring services, which often require users to search government websites and interpret difficult-to-read graphs, RiverAware presents data in a clean, color-coded interface that indicates current water levels and gives context for that data, since water levels are unique at each location.

The app features an interactive map showing all of the nation’s stream gauges and the current conditions at those gauges. It also translates the raw data into flood risk indicators so users see whether a river is at a normal, minor, moderate, or major flood stage.

It also allows users to set alerts when water levels reach a dangerous height and also allows sharing of data with others. During Tropical Storm Irene, Farrington recalled, with just 15 minutes’ warning, people were able to move cars to higher ground or remove their most important possessions from danger. “With four or six hours, you have time to take even more precautions.”

One major challenge RiverAware aims to solve is the uneven availability of flood prediction services. While the National Weather Service (NWS) runs 13 regional flood prediction centers, it only provides forecasts for select locations, prioritizing high-population areas or critical infrastructure. That means thousands of smaller towns and rural communities — including in Vermont — lack real flood predictions.

“We looked at the data and saw that two-thirds of USGS stream gauges don’t have NWS flood levels assigned to them,” said Ellert. “That leaves a massive gap in public awareness.” To address this, Transcend Engineering is developing an AI-powered flood prediction system that would generate short-term forecasts for these underserved areas. The company recently applied for a $190,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support this initiative.

“This isn’t about predicting floods a week in advance — that’s what the big government models are for,” Farrington said. “Our goal is to provide localized, short-term warnings — two to 24 hours out — especially in places that don’t currently have predictions.” If funded, the project could bring AI-powered flood alerts to thousands of communities that currently lack them, with the feature integrated into RiverAware within a year.

Building the system

Developing a real-time flood monitoring app wasn’t without its obstacles.

Initially, RiverAware pulled data directly from USGS’s public interfaces, but the unpredictable reliability of these services forced Transcend Engineering to switch to a more stable third-party provider — Synoptic Data, a company that aggregates and quality-checks hydrology data. “We ran into situations where USGS would update their APIs with no warning, or the system would go down unexpectedly,” Farrington explained. “That’s not acceptable for an app people depend on in emergencies.”

Now, by partnering with Synoptic Data, RiverAware ensures continuous access to real-time river conditions, even when government databases experience outages. Since its quiet launch on the iOS App Store, RiverAware has already attracted over 100 users, despite no formal marketing.

The app follows a freemium model — free to download, with optional paid features on the horizon, like unlimited watchlist stations and alerts. “Our goal is to get this in as many hands as possible,” Ellert said. “Flooding is getting worse, and we want to give people the tools to be prepared.”

Though currently iPhone only, an Android version is planned for the future if there is demand for it. Looking ahead, Transcend Engineering hopes to expand RiverAware’s capabilities internationally, integrating data from Canada, Mexico, and the UK. “There’s a real opportunity to make river monitoring global,” Farrington said. “But for now, our focus is making sure people here in the U.S. have better tools to stay safe.”

For Farrington, RiverAware is more than just an app — it’s a culmination of years of expertise and a response to a deeply personal experience. “I’ve been fascinated by river flow data for years,” he said. “But when you see flooding firsthand, when you see how quickly things can change, you realize how much a few extra hours of warning can mean.” With RiverAware, he hopes to give others something he didn’t have during Irene: better tools, more time, and the ability to act before disaster strikes.

Read the story on VTDigger here: New app provides real-time flood alerts.

This story by Tim Calabro and Reilly Laware was first published by the White River Valley Herald on Feb. 8. 

Chandler Music Hall is putting the final touches on a yearlong renovation project that should bring the Randolph hall back to its full glory.

According to executive director Chloe Powell, who took the Chandler reins last February, the decision to touch up the hall came just before she arrived on the scene when plaster restoration began, patching cracks in the interior walls.

“I stepped into this very big project,” Powell said.

In January and February 2023, that plasterwork to repair major cracks was completed throughout the main hall by Sally Fishborne, funded by a pair of grants, one from the state and the other from the Preservation Trust of Vermont.

That would have been a perfect time to get the hall painted, Powell said, since scaffolding was already up along each wall, however, it proved difficult to find contractors at the time. With Chandler’s season kicking off soon, the next phase had to be postponed.

Members of the audience had to deal with a mid-construction aesthetic last year, but the work this January and February fixed all that. The hall was again closed for renovations, and with support from the Vermont Community Foundation and private donors, the hall was repainted. The Preservation Trust of Vermont pointed Chandler staffer Iris Delgado toward Acorn Painting. That contractor set to work and collaborated with Sherry Senior of Burlington, who took on the decorative painting aspects, recreating the delicate stenciling and patterns throughout the hall.

“Having the hall look beautiful and professional gives an audience a good feeling about coming to a show,” Powell said.

She added that an anonymous check through the Vermont Community Foundation helped with the painting costs.

Painting has not been the only work going on at Chandler.

Additionally, a grant from the Vermont Arts Council, matched by private donors, facilitated acoustic upgrades to the hall. That includes the purchase of a new line array speaker system and Andrea Easton’s creation of new curtains for the windows near the hall’s ceiling, with a “kind of scalloped design” around the arced window. That, Powell said, will help to isolate outside sound.

Also packed into the winter’s projects has been an effort to replace the well-worn stage floor.

A grant from Gifford Medical Center’s Philip Levesque fund covered that job and carpenters spent the past week tearing up old plywood and getting a new floor installed.

Powell noted that the stage floor had seen a lot of traffic over the decades and had put up a fight as contractors started removing pieces. Tom McNeil, who was on site Monday said there was about a sixteenth of an inch of built-up paint on the surface of the stage floor, which made locating screws and nails nearly impossible.

The plywood floor is being replaced with medium-density fiberboard, which accepts paint very well and provides for softer acoustics.

“We’re in a rush to get it done before Saturday,” Powell said, noting the first shows of the season would begin this weekend.

In total, the various projects cost around $175,000, she said, with about $40,000 going toward the acoustic specific upgrades.

Chandler’s looking pretty splendid for the season’s start, but Powell said there’s still plenty of work to be done on the old building.

“There’s a big list!”

For example, during the painting a leak in the roof developed. It’s been patched, but that will need to be addressed in a more permanent way. She’d also like some attention given to the green room, where performers gather before going on stage for a show.

“We’re not done,” Powell said, but having Chandler feel again like “a grand hall” better matches the caliber of artists being brought in, she said.

Whether people are there to see a professional show or kids performing in the summer musical or the community up there for the mud season talent show, the renovation gives the hall “a feeling of the prestige it deserves,” she said.

“I’m so grateful for all the community support that has helped pull this together,” Powell said. “And people should come to the Chandler for a show and check it out!”

Upcoming shows

Chandler’s gallery opened last weekend with a fiber-arts celebration of color. The show, titled “Trichromancy: Color Divination” and curated by Jeannie Catmull and Fern Strong, runs through March 16. Catmull, the proprietor of Brainstorm Art Supply, also gave support putting a fresh coat of paint on the gallery wall and coordinated a volunteer crew for the work.

The mainstage season kicked off Saturday, Feb. 10, with an Upper Valley Baroque matinee performance. Artistic director and conductor Filippo Ciabatti led the world-renowned instrumentalists playing Handel’s Water Music on period instruments and local soprano Mary Bonhag performed dramatic arias from Handel operas.

On Sunday, Feb. 11, Chandler plans to present CelloGayageum, a classical duo from Korea, who have created a unique fusion of Western classical music and traditional Korean music.

The Gayageum is a traditional Korean instrument in the zither family, with 12 silk strings and with 12 moveable bridges to adjust tuning. The tour is in celebration of the Lunar New Year, and the duo plans to perform a student matinee on Monday morning, with support from Mid-Atlantic Arts.

On Saturday, Feb. 17, Chandler is collaborating with Vermont Public on a production of the Homegoings podcast. As a segment of Vermont Public’s Brave Little State, Homegoings began to highlight interviews with Black artists in Vermont. The show has since gone on its own. It’s now a nationally syndicated podcast, created and produced by Myra Flynn, who got her start as an artist on the Chandler stage.

The show will feature composer Matthew Evan Taylor, actress and dancer Marissa Herrera, artist and former member of the Vermont House of Representatives Kiah Morris, comedian Ash Diggs and poet Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr.

Corrections: An earlier version of this story included misspellings of Matthew Evan Taylor’s and Marissa Herrera’s names, and misnamed Brainstorm Art Supply.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Randolph music hall renovations rejuvenate building as season kicks off.

This story by Darren Marcy was first published by the White River Valley Herald on Feb. 8. 

A professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School in South Royalton is being remembered for his dedication to his work in the energy and environment fields as well as to his students.

Kevin Jones, who joined VLGS in 2010 and was the director of the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the college, suffered a medical event while teaching a class and died.

Jessie Forand, a public relations manager for Junapr, a firm that handles press relations for VLGS, confirmed the death and said the VLGS community is saddened by the loss.

“The students, faculty and staff are mourning him, celebrating his life, and working to heal together,” Forand said. “They are also keeping his family in their thoughts during this terribly difficult time.”

In a message shared on social media and the VLGS blog, Rod Smolla, president of Vermont Law and Graduate School, shared the news of Jones’ death and extolled his professional achievements, but said, “above all else, he was devoted to his students and their success.”

Smolla said Jones was a “passionate and positive leader who spent countless hours educating the next generation of clean energy experts.”

“From launching VLGS’s Energy Clinic to establishing the Global Sustainability Field Study course to take students to Cuba, Kevin sought ways to provide unique learning opportunities,” Smolla wrote. Before coming to VLGS in 2010, Jones was the director of power market policy for the Long Island Power Authority and was the director of energy policy for New York City.

But at VLGS, Jones shared his passion and guided students down that same path.

“His legacy will carry on through the many students he guided and mentored, as well as all of us who were lucky enough to call him a colleague and friend,” Smolla wrote.

Tributes have been pouring in on a special page set up on the VLGS webpage from former students and colleagues.

“I remember the day … you convinced this once aspiring law student that I had a bright future in energy law,” wrote Michael Crouse, staff attorney at the New Hampshire Office of the Consumer Advocate. “I am but one example of how you have improved the lives of those around you with your infectious enthusiasm, enduring patience, and commitment to your students.”

Katie Thomas Carol wrote that her life was forever changed for the better when Jones became her mentor. 

“He helped me navigate law school, the Energy Institute, and grow into a better writer and advocate,” Carol wrote. “He helped me secure my first job. And then my second. He was always someone I could go to for advice and he would give me the truth. … I vow to always fight for the underdogs, work to save the planet and Cuba, pet the dogs, ski often, and slow down to enjoy the finer things in life in his honor.”

Additional tributes and photos, as well as Pres. Smolla’s full remarks can be found on the Vermont Law and Graduate School website.. 

VLGS has made mental health services available to students, faculty, and staff. Anybody needing assistance should reach out to a member of the administration or directly to the college’s mental health clinician, Nancy Stone, who can be reached at nstone@vermontlaw.edu or 802-831-1216.

Additionally, anybody who needs more emergent care can reach out to the Clara Martin Center’s 24-hour support line at 800-639-6360.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Law and Graduate School professor remembered fondly.

This story by Darren Marcy first appeared in the White River Valley Herald on Aug. 31.

Wildlife officials are awaiting test results on a feral swine that was killed in Tunbridge about a month ago to determine exactly what it was and whether it was carrying any diseases. The pig, which is expected to be a Russian boar based on appearance, likely came from Corbin Park, also known as the Blue Mountain Forest and Game Preserve, a 25,000-acre property that stretches across at least five New Hampshire towns southeast of Lebanon.

Corbin Park is known to have wild boars, which escape with some frequency as the fence gets damaged.

Officially, the pig that was removed by the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services is considered a feral swine until tests return on its genetics.

But its appearance leans toward a wild boar. Its long, sloping snout, the hairy ridgeback, shoulder structure and tusks leaves little doubt in most minds, even if the officials cannot say for sure.

“Until we get the genetics back, we don’t want to make any assumptions,” said Wildlife Management Program Manager David Sausville, of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. But he said the animal definitely had “that look” with its darker hairy spine, tusks, and sloping snout.

Sausville said Fish & Wildlife is working with the Vermont Department of Health and Agency of Agriculture on the situation because wild pigs of all varieties are a concern to domestic animals, wild animals and humans.

Sausville said wild pigs can carry about 30 different diseases and about 40 different parasites that can affect humans, livestock and wildlife.

“It’s a big concern for us,” Sausville said. “There’s always a concern when one shows up.”

They’re also destructive to habitat and wildlife, he said. A solo wild pig is a concern, but an established population would be a disaster.

Once established, wild pigs are nearly impossible to eradicate and, in addition to the diseases, they’re also destructive to habitat and farmers’ fields, rooting and destroying the landscape.

“Feral swine are not something we want to have established,” Sausville said. “They’re destructive. We don’t want to become like some other states where they have significant populations, and they’re doing damage. We want to protect our domestic livestock, humans and wildlife.”

Brendan Popp, a biological science technician with USDA Wildlife Services, said samples have been sent out for disease and genetic testing. He was not sure how long it would take to get results back.

Popp knows of four wild boars that have been found in Vermont in the past four years. There have been many more reports but only four were confirmed.

“We’re trying to keep Vermont pig-free,” Popp said. “The damage they do is really bad. They’re highly destructive.”

This particular pig was seen by multiple people in Tunbridge. One of those sightings was at Gabe Freitag’s farm.

“It was the middle of the day, I was driving up my driveway and saw a Russian boar in the field,” Freitag said. “I was pretty surprised.”

Freitag said he went to get his gun, but the pig was gone when he went back, so he reported it to authorities. Freitag said the wild boar was checking out his two pigs but ran off. The USDA Wildlife Services folks shot it near Macintosh Pond Road.

Freitag’s son saw it in the back of a pickup and estimated it at about 90 pounds, which is right where authorities put it. They aged the male boar as a young adult. Popp said when it was first reported it came in with a photo, which was helpful.

“Having pictures is great,” Popp said. “We can say, ‘oh yeah, that shouldn’t be there.’”

Popp said they went to the location the day after it was reported and placed bait and cameras and then got a call from the Vermont Game Warden saying it had been seen in another location.

More camera traps were placed and then, a week later, found it was back in the original location. They set up tree stands and were able to shoot the boar soon after. The entire time span was 7 to 10 days.

Both agencies are continuing to monitor the area with cameras to make sure the young boar did not have a friend, but so far, it looks like it was the only one.

Sausville said South Royalton and Tunbridge seem to be the spots where these boars have been found recently.

If anyone sees a pig it should be reported to the local game warden or the USDA office, Sausville said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Wild boar killed in Tunbridge sent for genetics and disease testing.

This story by Tim Calabro first appeared in the White River Valley Herald on June 1.

It’s been more than a year since Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine and folks in Randolph have not forgotten their special relationship with the people of Myrhorod, a city in northeastern Ukraine that has been Randolph’s “sister city” since the late 1990s.

On May 26, the Randolph Rotary Club and members of Bethany Church were on hand in Depot Square for the unveiling of a newly restored mosaic honoring the relationship between the two municipalities.

The war in Ukraine “has broken our heart,” the Rotary Club’s Bob Wright told a small crowd late last month. Randolph’s contact with Myrhorod had waned over the past decade before the war started, but Russia’s aggression against the smaller nation served to rekindle the spark between the two towns and over the past 14 months, folks in Randolph have worked to send aid packages to Myrhorod, including medical supplies and even toys for Christmas.

Wright said the Rotary Club has donated several thousand dollars toward efforts in Ukraine and Lee Khan said Bethany Church has been able to raise $20,000 so far.

In the early days of the sister city relationship, Randolph dedicated a tile mosaic to the friendship. That mosaic sits at the base of the flag pole in Depot Square, near the picnic tables outside Chef’s Market, and over the course of two decades, the mosaic showed heavy signs of wear.

Marjorie Drysdale, who traveled to Myrhorod with the Rotary Club in the early 2000s, started working to have repairs made even before war broke out.

“People had lost interest and just walked by it,” she told The Herald last March, “but because I, and several other people, remembered what those days were like, we wanted to restore it.”

Jenn Colby joined forces to find Dayna Sabatino, a Bethel-based glass artist, to do the restoration.

“There it is,” Wright exclaimed to applause during his remarks last week. “It’s gorgeous.”

The piece itself is a semicircle that surrounds one half of the flag pole, just a few feet along its circumference. Bold red lettering across the upper arc shows the words Randolph and Myrhorod side by side with USA and UKR spelled out across the bottom, beneath American and Ukrainian flags.

The central piece of the mosaic shows a dove, the international symbol of peace. That central dove had been completely destroyed by the passage of time.

“The dove was original to the design,” Sabatino said. “It wasn’t there anymore, but we were able to find it in the cement lines that were left over and I had one photo from The Herald to go off of and it was from an odd angle.”

In its initial form, the backdrop of the dove was a take on the United Nations wreath, but Sabatino, with only old photos to go by, had the inspiration to replace that with a sunflower head, a symbol that bears importance both in Ukraine and in Vermont.

The other change to the mosaic is the spelling of Myrhorod. In Ukraine, the city’s name is of course spelled using the Cyrillic alphabet (Ми́ргород). English translations are phonetic and in the early 2000s, the more common spelling used the Russian pronunciation, Myrgorod, with a hard “g” sound in the middle. The rejuvenated mosaic tweaks the spelling to more closely match the Ukrainian pronunciation.

Keeping in touch

Since the Russian invasion, Irene Schaeffer has kept in close touch with Alex Riepin, who served as a translator during a Randolph visit to Myrhorod in the 2000s. Riepin has become Randolph’s primary contact with Myrhorod and he’s been able to help connect folks here with those in need in Ukraine, helping to coordinate major deliveries of supplies and even helping to tune Ukrainians in for joint religious services with Bethany Church.

Because of its position of relative safety — midway between Kyiv and Kharkiv, but not along the main highway — the city has been spared from much of the war’s direct combat and has instead seen an influx of refugees who have lost homes in other parts of the country.

According to Khan, Riepin has been keeping Randolph apprised of the needs of that refugee population — nearly 30,000 strong — and one next push will likely be to get school supplies to children for the fall.

Wright agreed that such an effort would be a great thing for the Rotary Club to work on.

Many of those in attendance had once upon a time visited Myrhorod in the early 2000s.

After the ceremony, Sonny Holt recalled that he’d become close with a former military pilot during his stay there. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Holt had served in the U.S. Air Force as a bomber pilot.

It was the height of the Cold War at the time and, with the lingering nuclear threat, Holt’s mission should war break out would have been to bomb targets in Ukraine. He learned that his Ukrainian friend had the same job: to bomb targets in the U.S. for the Soviets.

With just a brief visit, the former adversaries became fast friends.

The connection to Myrhorod started with Randolph’s town manager in the late 1990s, Gwen Hallsmith, who had worked in Ukraine. She found Myrhorod because, Khan said, the name means city of peace and, at the time, Myrohorod and Randolph both had major water bottling plants and vibrant arts communities.

As the two cities connected, more common ground was discovered and over the course of several visits to Ukraine and some trips by Ukrainians to rural Vermont, a bond was formed. The Randolph Rotary Club helped set up (with the help of a French Rotary chapter), a Rotary club in Myrhorod and for several years there were periodic visits from Randolph.

“It’s a great connection,” Wright said, adding “I hope these photos make it back to Myrhorod. We do care about it and our thoughts are with them.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: As war drags on, Randolph remembers Myrhorod, Ukraine.

This story by Darren Marcy first appeared in the White River Valley Herald on June 1.

A lawsuit filed by a student and her father against the superintendent of the Orange Southwest School District and the co-principals at Randolph Union High School was settled recently.

The settlement calls for a $125,000 payment to the Allens and their attorneys, reinstates Travis Allen as middle school soccer coach and scrubs the records of Travis Allen and Blake Allen of any reference to the discipline.

The settlement also dismisses the lawsuit, Allen v. Millington, et al., with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The language of the settlement document notes that it is a compromise and “is not in any way to be construed as admission of liability or wrongdoing.”

Layne Millington, Superintendent of the Orange Southwest Supervisory District, said “the district is pleased to resolve the lawsuit at this early stage and return our focus to educating students.”

“The Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust made the decision concerning the payment in order to cap defense expenses in what would otherwise be years of litigation,” Millington said. “The district has made no admission of wrongdoing. Our policies are unchanged and we will continue to comply with our policies and the law.”

Phil Sechler, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, however, called it a “resounding victory for freedom of speech.”

“We are grateful that the school recognized it was wrong to suspend Blake from school and Travis from his coaching position simply for exercising their freedom of speech. No one should lose their job or get suspended from school for voicing their opinion or calling a male a male and we are glad to see this case resolved favorably, not only for Blake and Travis, but for all students and coaches to be able to speak freely and without fear of retaliation.”

Travis Allen, in written comments submitted to the Herald, said he is satisfied with the outcome. “This settlement was a huge victory for freedom of speech, not just for Blake and me, but for anyone who wants to voice their opinion on important topics,” Allen said. “Certainly, the victory for everyone to speak freely is the most important achievement with this lawsuit. It was worth it. This has taken a toll on our family, both close and distant. It showed us who will and won’t support us even if they do not agree with our values. Blake’s punishment would not have been reversed had we not filed the lawsuit and I wouldn’t be able to coach in the fall if we had not reached the settlement. I wouldn’t change anything. We currently live in a time where you have to defend your values from some pretty radical ideologies.”

The suit stems from reaction to a controversy at RUHS in the fall in which a transgender girl who played on the volleyball team attempted to use the girls locker room, as she is allowed to do under school and district rules as well as state law.

Her appearance in the locker room purportedly caused discomfort for some teammates. What happened when she entered the locker room remains in dispute.

Some allege she stood leering at girls in various states of undress and refused to leave. Others say she stopped and stood because she was unsure what to do, but quickly left when she was yelled at.

Opinions among the players also varied and backed both points of view.

The school backed the trans girl, saying she had every right to be there. For a short time, the locker rooms were closed and players changed in school bathrooms before practices and games.

The incident created an uproar in the community after Blake Allen was interviewed by WCAX, the Burlington-based CBS affiliate, which later took the story down following public outcry over what critics called unbalanced reporting.

Travis Allen was removed from his position as a middle school soccer coach after he misgendered the trans girl in a Facebook comment, as well as one other time, after which he said he volunteered to take down the comment and not repeat the incident, but Millington demanded he apologize, which is something Allen said he couldn’t do.

Blake Allen was alleged to have referred to the trans girls as “literally a dude,” in a conversation with another student in a classroom.

Her punishment was rescinded after the lawsuit was filed, but it was not clear if the two actions were related.

The settlement produced most of what the lawsuit requested, including overturning both disciplinary proceedings — claiming they violated the Allens’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights — returning Travis Allen to his coaching position, and compensatory damages, among other steps.

The settlement calls for the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust to pay the Allens’ counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom, $125,000, of which, Travis Allen will receive $35,000 and Blake Allen will receive $5,000. The remaining $85,000 will cover attorney’s fees and costs.

The settlement will also reinstate Travis Allen as head coach of the Randolph Union Middle School girls soccer team. Allen will be required to follow all OSSD rules and policies when he returns to the position for the 2023 season. His personnel record will be scrubbed of any reference to the suspension.

The agreement requires that all references to the three harassment, hazing and bullying investigations into Blake Allen’s actions will be cleared from her school records. “This case has brought our family closer together, and Jessica and I are proud of Blake for standing up for free speech and women’s privacy under difficult circumstances,” Travis Allen said in his written comments. “That’s why, when Blake’s privacy was threatened, I felt compelled to speak out. Likewise, our children are proud of us for taking a stand for what’s right.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Orange Southwest reaches settlement in locker room lawsuit.

This article by Darren Marcy was first published Jan. 5 in the White River Valley Herald.

CHELSEA — On Tuesday, Chelsea voters elected four new selectboard members to fill vacancies caused by a mass resignation in November.

The special election Tuesday, Jan. 3, had three competitive races for the four seats.

Kelly Nolan Lyford ran unopposed to fill two months of a three-year term. Lyford received 204 votes.

William Lyon defeated Dylan Greer, 169-37, to win a two-month seat in what would be a two-year term. 

Both of those seats will be up for election in March. Lyon and Lyford, if they choose to, will have to run for election at that time.

Kevin Marshia beat Ronald Johnson 158-55 and will serve one year of a two-year term.

And Leyna Hoyt beat Nick Zigelbaum, 139-59, and will serve two years of a three-year term.

Lyford said she’s looking forward to getting to work for Chelsea. “I’m excited to get to work on some of the projects in front of us, starting with the budget,” Lyford said. “I anticipate that we’ll prioritize things after hearing from the existing selectboard member and when we actually dive into things.”

Marshia also signaled eagerness to begin his service.

“I am looking forward to working with this new selectboard and the community to address short-term issues, while also looking for opportunities to create a collective vision for the future of our town,” Marshia said.

Efforts to reach other newly elected board members were unsuccessful in the short time between the election and press deadline.

The budget will be front and center when the board members take their seats. Town reports have to go to the printers soon and a town budget has to be ready for voters. Most towns get started on their budget process in December, if not before.

The one board member who did not resign is Geoff Clayton, who was appointed to the board and has not been through a budget cycle.

The other four board members resigned following a ruckus over the disciplining of town road foreman Rick Ackerman. The board had met with Ackerman in an attempt to have a private conversation with him, but according to the board members, Ackerman abruptly quit instead.

The following meeting had five dozen people demanding the board members resign their positions so Ackerman would return. Four of the five took the townspeople up on that, and in the following days, resigned.

Seven people filed paperwork to get their names on the ballot by Nov. 28 and Tuesday’s election was scheduled. Town Clerk Karen Lathrop said Tuesday’s election had a turnout of 215 people.

It was only the second Australian ballot for election of officers, as Chelsea’s elected officials are usually elected from the floor at town meeting.

Lathrop said she thought it was a good turnout, as the last floor vote had only four voters in attendance.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Chelsea chooses fresh roster for town selectboard.

This story by Darren Marcy first appeared in the White River Valley Herald on Oct. 13.

RANDOLPH — Powerful and raw emotions filled the Randolph Union High School auditorium Tuesday night as about 350 people turned out for a community discussion over a transgender student’s use of the girls locker room.

For close to two hours, one speaker after another strode to the front of the auditorium to speak into a mic and share their thoughts about the 14-year-old girl who is a member of the girl’s volleyball team at RUHS.

The issue came to light when television station WCAX ran a story at the end of September after interviewing one member of the volleyball team. WCAX has since removed the story from its website. The transgender girl, whom the Herald is not naming because she and her family have had threats made against her, reportedly walked into the girl’s locker room — which she is allowed by school and district rules and state law to do — and was told to leave, which she did, according to school officials.

To open the evening on Tuesday, Superintendent Layne Millington of the Orange Southwest Supervisory District presented the facts of the situation, which he said had been distorted. Millington said the locker room incident is “a school matter that the school deals with privately as required by law.”

Since the initial story spread through the media and social media, the school’s voicemail and email has been turned into a cesspool of transphobic threats.

The superintendent shared some of the social media posts via a slide show and played voicemails filled with violent, profane language threatening violence to school leaders.

Most of those, Millington said, are the result of out-of-state groups that have engaged after the story was picked up by national media.

The school’s website was also defaced, with a transphobic message and profanity displayed. The site has been taken down.

All of the messages and actions are now being investigated by the FBI, Millington said.

But in the auditorium, the crowd was respectful. Applause from each side erupted when a speaker made a point the crowd agreed with, but everyone stayed civil and polite.

There was no shouting or interrupting from either side other than shouts of support when a speaker would break down in tears or struggle to find the right words.

None of those speakers was as powerful as the volleyball team captain, senior Lilly Patton, who received a standing ovation from the crowd as she broke down back at her seat.

“I just want you to remember that we’re children,” Patton said, referring to her 14-year-old teammate. “It’s one child on the receiving end of all this hate. You’re saying all these things to a child who is already at high risk, who already doesn’t feel accepted. This child didn’t do anything to anyone, especially you adults. I was there. She was where she was supposed to be.”

Patton’s schoolmate, Evan Brownell, a sophomore, said all the noise related to the issue was causing stress in the school.

“The amount of anxiety this has caused is mind-boggling,” Brownell said. “I’m not on either side of the debate because it’s not my business. If the situation is not directly affecting you, there really shouldn’t be an opinion. We need to come together.”

And Sierra Bond, a junior at RUHS, said the concern should be for the girl who is being affected most.

“I hear a lot of people worrying about the safety of their daughters,” Bond said, adding that the issue is affecting a lot of students at the school but none more than the student herself.

And senior Quinn Gallant, who identifies as a heterosexual male, told the crowd, “I used to be proud of where I went to school.”

“There are people I love in the LGBTQ community,” he said. “It’s hard for them to know where I go to school. It’s important we stick together. It’s important that everyone feels love. I just really feel sad.”

The students had support from teachers and parents as well.

Nora Skolnick, a teacher at Randolph Elementary School, told the students the teachers were there for them.

She said she knew the fear they faced. As a woman married to a woman, she had lived it.

Skolnick said students need to feel safe and the situation has done just the opposite.

“We, your teachers, see you, respect you, and you deserve better,” Skolnick said. “You deserve to feel safe when you come to school. No one should have to hide who they love or who they are, or be bullied because of it.”

Several speakers addressed the high rates of substance abuse and suicide by transgender teens, but none more powerful than Andy Myrick, a professor at Vermont Technical College.

“It would have been easier to sit in my backyard with a beer tonight,” Myrick said. “But, I’ve lost three students to suicide and all of them go back to gender identity issues. This scares the (expletive) out of me. We don’t need any more hate. We will have our differences. But we’re going to have to figure out how to get along.”

One person with first-hand knowledge of that is Eirin Donovan, who is going to college in South Royalton and is a trans woman.

She said she had a drinking problem and doesn’t remember years of her life as she medicated herself.

“But, I don’t like to focus on the negative because so much of our lives are wonderful,” she said, crying. “And I don’t know how many times I tried to kill myself. It’s a lot. I don’t want your kids to go through what I went through.”

And another speaker addressed the culture that he saw permeating the debate.

Brady Crain graduated from RUHS in 1988. Despite being heterosexual, he was small in stature and not overly masculine when he was in high school, and he said he was bullied constantly by fellow students and teachers alike. He barely graduated.

Once he got out of high school, he flourished, earning a fistful of degrees over seven years including a master’s degree in business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He also became a champion taekwondo fighter and became the U.S. bronze medalist in 1999 in the heavyweight division.

But he said it was the homophobic and transphobic reaction in the community that he was seeing surrounding this issue that held him back when in high school.

“It was because of the vitriol exhibited in this room,” Crain said.

While speakers supporting the transgender student and school’s actions outnumbered opposition by more than 3-to-1, there was vocal opposition.

Ron Rilling, former pastor at the Green Mountain Gospel Chapel and a 50-year member of the community, was the first speaker of the night and he spoke forcefully, his voice shaking as he told Millington he had put girls at risk.

“Shame on you superintendent Millington, shame on you for failing our children,” Rilling said. “How dare you question parents’ concerns for their daughters’ safety.”

Others also spoke in opposition, including one young man who said, “a man can’t be a woman, and a woman can’t be a man. Period.”

Several speakers pointed out that they weren’t against the transgender student, but defending the girls who didn’t want to have to share a locker room with her.

One of those was House of Representatives candidate Wayne Townsend of Randolph.

“I’m proud of (the volleyball players) for voicing their concerns about their privacy being invaded,” Townsend said. “I don’t think you should feel pressured by a one-sided agenda. We’ll be behind you.”

Patton, the volleyball captain, said one of the misconceptions that had been spreading was that all of the team was upset.

Patton said the majority of the team didn’t have a problem with anything, but some on the team brought negative feelings about a transgender person into the situation but she didn’t see how they had been affected by it.

“The only one truly affected is the transgender girl,” Patton said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Randolph community discusses high school controversy at public forum.