BETA Technologies announced Thursday it will receive a $300 million investment from GE Aerospace — pending regulatory approval — as the companies team up to focus on hybrid electric aviation.

“We believe the industry is on the precipice of a real step change,” Kyle Clark, CEO of South Burlington-based BETA Technologies, said in a Thursday press release. “We look forward to partnering to co-develop products that will unlock the potential of hybrid electric flight.”

Clark and his new collaborators plan to design a hybrid electric turbogenerator, which will build on existing engineering at both companies to increase the range, speed and power of future aircraft at BETA and elsewhere.

The privately owned Vermont firm was founded in 2017, and has since emerged as a global leader in aerospace engineering, backed by contracts with UPS and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others. The company opened a 188,500-square-foot production facility in South Burlington in 2023, and also runs a battery testing site in St. Albans.

If the deal is approved, the new influx of capital will bring BETA’s total funding to nearly $1.5 billion. 

The equity investment from GE Aerospace will also give the legacy corporation the right to appoint a new director to BETA’s board.

BETA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on potential effects to its Vermont operations.

Read the story on VTDigger here: BETA Technologies lands $300M investment to advance hybrid electric aircraft.

Vermont is moving closer to universal broadband internet access, officials say, as the state’s Community Broadband Board released a proposal last week to allocate nearly $180 million in federal, state and private funds for broadband infrastructure projects. 

The bulk of the funds have been made available to Vermont through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program. If the proposal is accepted by the federal government, rates of access to broadband internet will rise to 99% statewide through these grants, according to Community Broadband Board Executive Director Christine Hallquist.

The board, which was formed in 2021 to advance broadband access in the state, has faced a number of challenges in crafting the proposal, including bureaucratic delays and the high inherent costs of rural broadband construction. But local leaders say the infrastructure this funding will provide — if approved by the federal government — will have far-reaching benefits for rural communities across the state, and particularly in the Northeast Kingdom.

The timeline for greenlighting BEAD funding has been complicated. 

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration under President Donald Trump changed its requirements for state proposals in June, giving states just 90 days to submit revised materials. Vermont’s broadband board made its proposal available for public comment starting last week, and the federal deadline for submission is Thursday. 

The board’s plan seeks to use about $119 million in federal BEAD funding to deploy infrastructure — just over half what the state was originally allocated by the program in 2023. There has been no guidance from the Trump administration about how or if the state will be allowed to use the remaining funds.

A spokesperson for the Vermont Community Broadband Board said the state will also submit a proposal for related non-infrastructure projects to the same funding source Thursday, but that its contents remained confidential until then.

Among the telecommunications administration’s June rule changes was new language about how states should weigh different technologies, including a reclassification of low Earth orbit satellite internet as a potentially equivalent alternative to fiber optic. 

In the wake of that policy change, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX applied for its Starlink service to be the provider for essentially every Vermont address that the federal grants were intended to cover, according to Hallquist.

But Hallquist said the technology simply doesn’t work very well for many places in Vermont when you account for factors like foliage cover and the state’s irregular, mountainous landscape.

“We did an extensive engineering analysis,” Hallquist said, to which SpaceX “didn’t even respond properly.”

“We defined them as a non-priority technology,” Hallquist said of providers like SpaceX. The state will use low Earth orbit satellites only where the cost for ground technology exceeds $17,000 for a single location.

Fiber-optic internet is the clear focus of the board’s proposal, accounting for roughly 90% of the nearly 15,000 BEAD locations covered by the grant. Satellites will cover less than 7% of locations.

SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

The new rules also placed a greater emphasis on finding lowest-cost solutions for broadband services, and eliminating what the new administration views as unnecessary regulatory measures surrounding issues like climate awareness and equitable hiring practices.

In an ideal world, Hallquist said, broadband internet would be guaranteed to all residents, regardless of price, but that she saw the logic of cost-cutting by transferring a small number of marginal, expensive sites in rural areas to satellite coverage. In talks with providers, the board was also able to reach lower cost agreements this summer than in previous negotiations.

Environmental impact and fair employment are not significant worries, according to Hallquist. Providers will still have to meet statutory environmental requirements, and Vermont employers meet high fair-practice requirements anyway, she said.

‘A once-in-a-generation investment’

The Community Broadband Board has made NEK Broadband the largest provisional grant recipient in the proposal by far, with an allocation of over $93 million. The Northeast Kingdom provider, which is run as a communications union district (a municipal body formed to advance local internet infrastructure), serves 72 towns in the region.

Christa Shute, executive director of NEK Broadband, said her organization’s service area includes more than half of the state’s eligible households underserved by internet. The funding would help build over a thousand miles of fiber optic infrastructure, reaching nearly 10,000 addresses, she said.

Shute’s optimism is cautious — she’s aware the proposal still needs to be accepted at the federal level. 

Hallquist said the board was confident enough in the proposal getting federal approval that it would be appropriate for some providers to begin construction at their own risk. Shute intends to stop short of that, but said her team will begin the permitting and design work that must come before construction begins.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation investment that’s going to shape our communities for decades,” Shute said. “It will put individuals (in the NEK) on an equal playing ground for the opportunity to join the rest of the world.”

Heather Alger,  the head of economic access programs at Northeast Kingdom Community Action, said she views internet access as a necessity for full participation in society. It’s necessary not just for social connectedness, but for health care, civic engagement and social services. 

“Individuals here are left behind because they don’t have access,” Alger said. “We need to get infrastructure into the Northeast Kingdom.”

NEK Broadband offers reduced rates and free installation for qualifying low-income customers, which Alger has seen make a “tremendous impact” for her clients.

Ellie de Villiers, president of the Vermont Communications Union District Association and executive director of Maple Broadband, another provisional BEAD recipient, said she was glad the majority of the contracts had gone to district companies laying terrestrial technology.

The cost-driven language of the new telecommunications administration rules had made de Villiers worried that smaller or publicly owned companies wouldn’t be able to compete with larger for-profit corporations, she said. De Villiers called the level of resourcing that will potentially be gained by Vermont communications union districts “very good news.”

Several private companies have also been provisionally allocated grants, including Consolidated Communications and Comcast.

“We recognize how important it is for Vermonters to have access to affordable, reliable broadband … we have a strong track record of working closely with Vermont’s Communications Union Districts (CUDs) to deliver future-ready fiber to unserved and underserved communities,” wrote a spokesperson for Consolidated Communications in a statement to VTDigger on Wednesday. “Our goal is to expand choice, not limit it.”

Shute also emphasized the possible cultural impacts of the investment. 

“We all talk about health and we talk about business,” she said, “but just being able to connect with people is also really important.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont broadband board outlines $180M funding proposal, with major investment in NEK .

Updated at 4:45 p.m.

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state has jurisdiction to pursue a case against Meta for targeting teen users of its subsidiary Instagram, upholding a lower court decision.

The state’s suit, filed by Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark in October 2023, alleged the tech giant had engaged in unfair and immoral practices in Vermont, and violated the Vermont Consumer Protection Act by knowingly misrepresenting its platform’s potential to cause harm to young consumers.

On Friday, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state regarding the issue of jurisdiction.

“A company that reaches out and purposefully avails itself of a forum state’s market for its own economic gain can expect to be hauled into court in that jurisdiction to account for its conduct,” Friday’s decision states.

“We are pleased with the Court’s decision, which allows our lawsuit against Meta to proceed in Vermont, where it belongs,” Clark wrote in a statement to VTDigger Friday. 

“This is an important step in our effort to hold Meta accountable,” the statement continued. “Our children deserve better, and my office will proudly take this case to trial to protect Vermont’s kids — the future of our state.”

Meta, for its part, has argued the state lacks jurisdiction for its complaint, and that the company’s online contacts with the state were not made in or aimed at Vermont in particular. The company’s motion to dismiss the case in superior court on those grounds was denied on July 28, 2024, and Meta appealed that decision to the Vermont Supreme Court.

Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The original suit, which the Vermont Supreme Court did not weigh in on, alleged the company “intentionally designed Instagram to be addictive to teens, that Meta did so to increase advertisement revenue despite knowing the resulting negative effects on teens, and that Meta failed to take meaningful action to mitigate these harms while both actively minimizing and withholding its relevant internal research findings to maintain teens’ engagement with the application” according to Friday’s decision.

Clark sought a permanent injunction against the company in Vermont, prohibiting it from engaging in deceptive practices. The lawsuit also asked for $10,000 in civil penalties for each violation of the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, with violations defined as “each instance in which a Young Person accessed the Instagram platform in the State of Vermont.”

The state’s 2023 complaint cited internal Meta documents in its allegation that the company studied Vermont teenagers in an effort to increase their engagement with the platform. Clark filed the lawsuit in coordination with over 40 other attorneys general who sued Meta the same day in state or federal courts.

“We are suing to hold these corporations accountable for Instagram’s contribution to the mental health crisis that is gripping teens across the country,” Clark said at the time it was filed.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Supreme Court rules in state’s favor in Meta lawsuit appeal.

The Holland Food Shelf announced Tuesday it would close its doors the last week of September, citing the loss of federal nutrition assistance funds and high rent costs as major factors in the decision. 

“We can’t do it without funding,” said Don Stevens, executive director of the pantry’s nonprofit operator, Abenaki Helping Abenaki, and chief of the Nulhegan band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. “It’s not just us, right?” he added, referencing Vermont Foodbank’s recent cuts in addition to other struggles in the state’s food assistance network.

The food pantry has served residents in and around Holland, a town sitting on the Northeast Kingdom’s border with Canada, since 2021. This year, Stevens said, demand had reached a peak, with the pantry sometimes serving nearly 700 people per month. Now, as the organization winds down, residents and advocates are concerned its absence will leave a vulnerable and rural part of the state without enough support.

Stevens said he hopes the month of continued service will allow participants time to transition to other providers. His organization had started the food pantry to “help as many as we can,” he said. His team also has been purchasing food from local farmers and participating in gleaning efforts in the NEK.

The organization had lost several other federal income streams in the past, Stevens said, but the most recent decisive setback was the loss of $25,000 in SNAP-Ed, or Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program Education, grants starting next year. The money would have gone to food purchases, outreach, training and wages, but was eliminated with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4.

“(SNAP-Ed) has helped low-income Vermonters develop skills and understanding about how to access, use, and prepare nutritious food, and helped families eat healthy meals on a budget,” Kyle Casteel, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health, wrote in a statement Thursday. 

“The funding loss is impacting important projects and initiatives that are carried out by valued partners across the state,” the statement continued.

The two paid employees of the pantry will be laid off, Stevens said. 

“We had no choice,” he said.

Abenaki Helping Abenaki is a nonprofit with the primary mission of providing programs and services for the Nulhegan band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation and “other native people,” Stevens said. That work will continue.

“We are still feeding our tribal community,” Stevens said, though the public food pantry will close.

The Holland Food Shelf has worked with Vermont Foodbank, which had recently been providing the organization with roughly 10,000 pounds of food per quarter, according to the food bank’s government and public affairs manager, Carrie Stahler. Before the end of pandemic-era nutrition assistance programs that lowered the cost of food for local providers, she said, the food bank had provided even more. 

The northern portions of Orleans and Essex counties are areas of the state that have proven especially challenging for Stahler’s organization to reach, she said, due to the distance involved in delivery and a relative scarcity of local organizations to partner with.

“One of the issues that we as a state struggle with regularly is service delivery to very rural communities,” she said.

Vermont Foodbank can’t work alone, Stahler said.

“Those organizations are absolutely critical,” she said of local food pantries like the one in Holland. “They are the ones who neighbors see and know.”

She anticipates that the Holland Food Shelf’s closure will force residents to drive farther for help  and put more strain on regional assistance providers.

Marci Diamond, a local resident who has volunteered at the Holland Food Shelf, echoed Stahler’s concerns. 

“It’s a very rural, very isolated community,” she said.

Diamond said many locals who frequented the organization were veterans, young families and sometimes farmers “who grow food, and still can’t afford to feed themselves and their families.”

Diamond also noted there was no grocery store in Holland. 

“Not everybody has the ability to drive,” she said.

Trevor Gray, chair of the Holland Select Board, said the town was in a tough position when it requested a higher rent from the food pantry. He said the operational costs for the building surpassed the income the tenants generated by over $30,000. 

Nonetheless, he said, the board was “extremely disappointed” that an agreement could not be made to continue the food pantry’s operation. He said he understood that Stevens’ nonprofit was under a great deal of pressure from federal cuts, but added that “it’s just unfortunate for the people that utilize that service.”

Stahler said relying on small local budgets for food assistance can be problematic. 

“There’s an overeliance on tiny community organizations to really fulfill the basic needs of their neighbors,” she said. “How do we fill that gap? … That is a really difficult question.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘We had no choice’: Holland Food Shelf to shut down amid federal funding losses.

Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.org.

Vergennes and Panton officials are attempting to clarify the boundary between the municipalities, after local officials identified a discrepancy between Vergennes tax maps and the city charter. The inconsistency may also have repercussions for other surrounding communities. 

Vergennes’ tax maps show the city occupying over 1,600 acres, whereas the city’s charter sets the municipal limits at 1,200 acres. A recent survey resurfaced decades-old questions about the city’s boundary lines that current leaders are now trying to resolve. 

The uncertainty has left some Vergennes residents unsure which municipality they will end up living in. Others have concerns about the financial implications of a boundary change, while officials hope an agreement between the municipalities can be reached smoothly and with relative speed.

The land in question between Vergennes and Panton totals some 178 acres of residential and commercial property, and both municipal governments will need to agree — through discussion or arbitration — to any new boundary proposal for approval by the state legislature.

At a packed Vergennes Fire Department on Tuesday evening, mayor Chris Bearor called to order “the first of probably many meetings” on the Panton boundary. Several meetings have also been held in Panton.

At times, Tuesday’s meeting grew contentious.

Travis Scribner, who lives on part of the disputed land, said if the boundary moves, he effectively “didn’t get to choose which town I get to live in.”

“I’ve been a resident of Vergennes for 22 years,” he said after the meeting. “It’s really a bizarre situation.”

Martha DeGraaf, a longtime Panton resident, said Wednesday that while she didn’t want to be “stomped all over by Vergennes anymore,” the tone of the previous day’s meeting was “not healthy.”

“We are two strong communities, and we can come together and find a reasonable solution,” she said.

‘Significant discrepancies’

Historical documents provided by Vergennes and Panton municipalities indicate that officials became aware of the boundary issue in the 1990s, when correspondence on the subject was exchanged between residents, Ferrisburgh officials, legal representatives, and then-Secretary of State Jim Milne.

A 1995 letter from Bob Mitchell, a member of the Ferrisburgh Historical Society, described “significant discrepancies” at several of Vergennes’ borders with the surrounding towns, which included not only Panton but Ferrisburgh and Waltham as well. 

Talks between Vergennes and the latter two towns have not yet begun. Ferrisburgh officials declined to comment on the issue, and the Waltham town office did not respond to requests for comment.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Vergennes Alderman Mark Koenig called the current issue with Panton “the first of three,” and anticipates future talks with the other two affected towns.

The current tax maps in Vergennes were drawn in the early 1990s by former city manager Mel Hawley, who said he used a combination of property surveys and town highway markers as his main reference points. 

Hawley said in an interview he was aware of the discrepancy between the tax map and the city charter, but that a “mountain of evidence” dating back to 1788 shows Vergennes encompassing more than 1,600 acres rather than the 1,200 stated in the charter. He also referenced a now-amended statute which stated that, in the absence of a clear boundary, mutually agreed town boundaries lasting over a century would be binding.

The disagreement was never resolved. 

Tim Cowan, a local surveyor who first worked on the issue 30 years ago and has been hired again this year, said because of statutory complications — which have since changed — and a lack of perceived urgency, the discussion of Vergennes’ borders “just kinda went to sleep.”

Vergennes City Manager Ron Redmond said the issue had arisen again partly because of a grant from the Addison County Regional Planning Commission to explore a potential highway bypass of Vergennes to avoid extreme truck traffic through town. The state-sponsored study included a survey of town boundary lines, he said.

‘A functional resolution’

Redmond said he and Panton Town Clerk and Treasurer Kyle Rowe had a shared goal of making any town line transition as smooth as possible. They have proposed, for example, guaranteeing access to the Vergennes sewer system for customers it currently serves.

“The only thing that should change is where you vote and where you pay your taxes,” Rowe said.

Vergennes resident Craig Miner said he was concerned moving the boundary would cause the city to give up land that could become more valuable in the future (a rough valuation of the 178 acres of property is about $10 million). Miner is also worried that taxes will increase due to the change.

“I think it’ll separate the community and create a dysfunctional combination of towns,” he said. “I think there’s a lot at stake.”

Rowe and Redmond have made a “starting proposal” for a new boundary, which would give some land to Panton while retaining certain parcels in Vergennes that might be more complicated to transfer. Rowe estimated the change would cause a roughly 1-cent tax increase for Vergennes residents. Since both municipalities use the same regional schools, education taxes won’t be significantly impacted.

While any land Vergennes gives to Panton could potentially gain value, Redmond added, recent speculation about the extent of its future worth was “maybe not realistic.”

“I understand the concern (from) community members who are being impacted by this proposal,” Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, said.

In addition to representing the city, Birong chairs the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, which would review any proposed changes to the city’s charter or boundary lines.

“Last night left me encouraged that we’ll find a functional resolution to this long-standing border issue,” Birong said Wednesday.

Correction: A previous version of this story mislabeled Panton Town Clerk and Treasurer Kyle Rowe.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vergennes and Panton push for resolution to boundary line confusion .

Hello! My name is Theo Wells-Spackman, and I joined VTDigger in July to cover wealth, poverty and economic inequality in Vermont. My position is made possible by Report for America and by VTDigger members who donate to support our work. 

I grew up here, in New Haven and then Weybridge. I’m glad to be back — I recently graduated from Princeton University, where I studied English and journalism. Before arriving at VTDigger as a full-time reporter, I was an intern here, working with this incredible team of reporters and editors. 

In my first few weeks of conversations, I’ve heard a lot of people expressing concern and uncertainty about what Vermont’s future might hold, both for newcomers and those who have been here for generations. 

As I plan what stories to tackle, I want to hear from you: What questions do you have about wealth, poverty and economic inequality in Vermont? What feels urgent where you live? What’s confusing or under-explained?

Please submit your questions in the form below. Our team will review every submission as we plan coverage of this important topic. (We won’t publish your name or town without permission.)

What would you like to know about wealth, poverty, or economic inequality in Vermont? Share your questions and help shape Theo’s reporting!

Sharing contact information is optional. If you’d like us to follow up, check the box below and share your preferred contact. We will never publish your contact details.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Ask Theo: Your questions on economic inequality in Vermont.

Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.org.

A federal judge has cleared the way for Vermont’s ECFiber broadband network to transition to a new operator, issuing an order aimed at ensuring stability of service for its roughly 10,000 rural customers.

ECFiber and its current operator, Great Works Internet or GWI, have traded several legal blows over their contract in recent months. GWI filed a suit in March against ECFiber board chair F.X. Flinn, accusing him of spying on the company and attempting to poach its employees in a plot to replace it. ECFiber moved for a preliminary injunction in June, seeking to force GWI to comply with a transition policy it said the operator was resisting. 

The Aug. 11 decision from Judge Mary Kay Lanthier dictated that GWI must comply with certain transitional measures, but also limited what the communications union district could require of its current operator before the switch to the new provider on Jan. 1. At that time, the Vermont ISP Operating Company, or VISPO — a new nonprofit created by members of ECFiber’s board — will take over the network’s operations. 

While GWI is not required to train VISPO employees or share confidential practices, the court ordered the company to provide access to infrastructure and management systems for representatives of the district. 

Granting the injunction reflects the court’s belief that a smooth transition between operators is crucial to avoid harm to the public, Lanthier’s decision states. For many in ECFiber’s service area, the only alternative to the broadband network would be Digital Subscriber Line — or DSL — internet, which runs along telephone lines and provides much slower speeds for sending and receiving information. 

Although the parties to the suit describe the events of the last six months very differently, one thing they all agree on is that it’s expensive to provide internet to rural areas in Vermont. That’s why communications union districts — municipal bodies with the ability to fund fiber network infrastructure — were formed.

“Nobody else is serving them,” said Christine Hallquist, executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, which was created in 2021 to advance the goal of universal, high-quality broadband access across the state. 

Areas only covered by DSL are considered underserved by the state of Vermont. And even in places where other options exist, some locals say ECFiber is far better than the alternatives.

Holly Lague, the director of libraries in Thetford, said a lack of access to ECFiber’s broadband services would be a “huge hurdle” for the services she provides. Though other providers reach the area, she said she’s heard concerning reports that their services suffer from a lack of reliability and quality.

“I would probably panic,” Lague said.

But Hallquist said the community broadband board had a “high level of confidence” that ECFiber’s network will continue to operate smoothly through the transition, though acknowledged the possibility of “a lot of strain” on staff and board members.

The injunction, Hallquist said, provides a clear path through differences of opinion for the switch to happen.

“The law ruled in favor of ECFiber,” she said. “It really is that simple.”

GWI argued in court that VISPO would not be adequately prepared to step into its new role come January, citing concerns about the new organization’s experience and staffing levels.  

Gopi Sundaram, the newly appointed CEO of VISPO, declined to comment on his company’s operational progress. The nonprofit’s board chair, Alessandro Iuppa, said there was “no question in my mind” regarding VISPO’s ability to take on the ECFiber operations.

However, S&P Global released a report in May revising ECFiber’s rating outlook to “negative,” based largely on risks associated with the district’s transition to an untested operator. 

Scott Sagen, the primary analyst for the report, said the risks lay in the new operator’s lack of experience and an absence of employed staff in May. The outlook revision translates roughly to a 1-in-3 chance that Sagen’s company could downgrade the district’s rating for the municipal revenue bonds it might issue in the future, he said. ECFiber has used this type of bond before to help finance its construction efforts.

“We just felt like the plan change in 2026 could present additional operational challenges that could potentially weaken financial metrics,” Sagen said.

A downgrade wouldn’t be good, Flinn said, but it wouldn’t be an existential threat. The district doesn’t have specific plans to borrow more money in this way at the moment, he said, and when ECFiber issued unrated bonds with a higher interest rate in the past, they made it work financially.

In the Aug. 11 decision, Lanthier wrote that the court could not reasonably draw a conclusion on VISPO’s readiness, and that the court’s focus was ensuring a smooth transition to the new operator.

The decision came during a moment of uncertainty at GWI, during which Mac Mountain, a Vermont-based broadband investment company, exercised warrants for control of the internet service provider. 

According to an Aug. 14 Federal Communications Commission filing by Mac Mountain, which holds a controlling interest in GWI, the move was prompted by an “emergency situation.” Several company officers, per the filing, fired a number of senior employees without notice, stopped paying some vendors, and planned to file for bankruptcy, among other actions with which Mac Mountain took issue.

Those officers are no longer employed at the company, said Alex Rozek, CEO of Mac Mountain and owner of GWI. There is also a new board of directors. 

Rozek said he had no doubts about the company’s stability. GWI’s former leadership did not respond to requests for comment.

Tom Cecere, a longtime manager at GWI, did not comment on the reasoning behind the decisions of previous leadership. 

“It had nothing to do with an immediate cash problem,” he said.

Cecere resigned from his position at GWI in the chaos preceding Mac Mountain’s takeover before returning to work the following week. Now, he said, the financial situation at GWI is stable, even with the impending loss of the ECFiber contract.

The company still has agreements with Northwest Fiberworx and DVFiber, two other Vermont communications union districts.

Rozek said he considers the transition “very risky” for the stability and financial health of the communications district. 

In response to criticisms from the district that GWI has an interest in keeping hold of the ECFiber contract, Rozek said the operator’s employees “also all live here, and have a vested interest in having the internet.”

In July, GWI posted an open letter to ECFiber customers detailing concerns around the district’s transparency, and VISPO’s preparedness. Flinn called the operator’s messaging on the transition “a campaign to create fear, uncertainty and doubt.”

Hallquist reaffirmed her confidence in ECFiber’s operation, and said that if it became necessary, her board could step in. 

“We will make sure people do not lose service,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge clears path for ECFiber to switch internet operators .

Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.org.

Vermont’s Department for Children and Families has appealed an Aug. 7 Human Services Board decision that found the state had incorrectly enforced the 80-day limit on its motel voucher program.

The citizen panel reversed the department’s denial of emergency housing for petitioner “H.D.,” an individual with a severe medical condition whose name is being withheld, on the basis that they had already exhausted the 80-day maximum outlined in state law. 

In June, local aid providers expressed surprise and dismay at the state’s enforcement of the time limit in relation to Gov. Phil Scott’s March executive order to extend emergency housing for certain medically vulnerable people and children through the end of the fiscal year. On July 1, over 800 people exited from motels across the state. Advocates said a change to the state’s enforcement could mean hundreds without shelter return to emergency housing.

Documents obtained by VTDigger show that Timothy Connors, chief of the state Attorney General’s Agency of Human Services Legal Division, filed an appeal of the Human Services Board’s decision to the Vermont Supreme Court on Monday.

The Attorney General’s office declined to comment, and the Department for Children and Families did not respond to requests for comment.

Vermont Legal Aid, which represented H.D. during their hearing, released a statement last week following the Human Services Board’s decision urging others who were denied emergency housing due to exceeding the 80-day limit to request a hearing of their own. 

Maryellen Griffin, a staff attorney for Vermont Legal Aid, said state law limits the department’s ability to consider past use of the program when reviewing applications.

“It never says anything about going backwards or counting days from fiscal year 2025,” she said. 

The state owes each qualifying applicant 80 days of emergency housing during the current fiscal year by law, Griffin said, within the program’s volume restrictions. As of Aug. 4, of the 1,100 rooms provided by the state, 518 were occupied. 

“Our understanding is that the state plans to force each person to go through an individual appeals process,” she said. 

Griffin said she was aware of her organization’s involvement in roughly 20 active cases of this kind. 

“Our intake is certainly way up just the past couple days,” she said.

Though the actual appeal process may take months, Griffin said hearing officers have sometimes issued “benefits pending appeal,” meaning the person appealing may be granted housing while their case is being adjudicated.

Still, Griffin said the case-by-case approach is a waste of valuable time and resources. 

“I think that it would be much better for the department to simply implement the correct interpretation across the board,” she said.

The ultimate outcome of H.D.’s appeal and related cases will depend on the decision of the Vermont Supreme Court. As it stands, however, people who were denied emergency housing based on previous use of the program may be able to successfully appeal that decision, advocates say.

Hundreds of people could gain emergency housing through such petitions, according to Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont. 

Her organization is working on about 40 ongoing cases related to the issue, she said, adding “that’s just a small fraction of the people who this impacts.”

According to Siegel, some medically vulnerable people who lost housing July 1 have already died, while others have gone without food for long stretches to try and keep a roof over their heads. 

“It’s a big deal,” Siegel said. “This emergency shelter is life-saving.”

A main challenge faced by local aid providers is keeping clients informed of their options, Siegel and Griffin said. 

They said it wasn’t clear in the state’s earlier messaging that people who used Scott’s extension would have those days counted toward their housing limit later that calendar year. For now, they’re emphasizing, people may be able to get housing regardless of their history in the program.

“People living with disabilities who are experiencing homelessness deserve to survive our state’s housing crisis,” Siegel said

Clarification: A previous version of this story mischaracterized how housing access will be impacted by the Vermont Supreme Court ruling.

Read the story on VTDigger here: State appeals motel voucher time limit decision to Vermont Supreme Court.

Vermont Green Football Club fans say they scored two victories last week. One was in the club’s first national championship game in the United Soccer League’s second tier, and the other was in a fan-organized fundraiser for assistance to immigrant communities.

During the club’s deep run into the playoffs, banners in the stands bore not just Vermont crests and “Allez les Verts” messages, but illustrations of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, and “Abolish ICE” in block letters. 

Political neutrality in soccer has been the subject of international debate at the professional level. According to Mike Jenack, a Vermont Green fan who organized much of the effort to raise over $25,000 for Migrant Justice and the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund, the club’s core identity is inextricable from its founding commitment to social issues. Political advocacy is not just a silver lining, Jenack said — it’s part of why people show up in the first place.

“I have conversations frequently with people who were never fans of soccer prior to attending a Vermont Green match,” he added.

“Sports are a place (where) people should be organizing,” said Patrick Infurna, the club’s co-founder. 

Infurna described environmental justice as “the center of our mission” for Vermont Green. It’s a goal that can contain a wide variety of issues, he said. The club’s 2024 mission report details its progress toward net-zero emissions, work to address systemic racism in the sport and donations to a number of local climate organizations.

In July, the club organized a raffle benefiting the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. The nearly $4,000 raised will be a significant addition to the organization’s Farmer Emergency Fund for disaster relief, according to Lindsey Brand, a spokesperson for the organization.

“The way we tend the land and grow the food not only determines food is available for people to consume, but also how our ecosystems are stewarded,” Brand said. “Farming is really kind of a core intersectional issue.”

Beyond the club’s own limited capacity for advocacy, Infurna said, fans have created an independent network of social advocacy that springs from the same priorities. 

“We’re relying on the voices of our neighbors … to come use the platform that we’ve worked hard to build,” he said of the fans and advocates who speak at games.

The Green had its most successful season ever this year, with no losses in 22 games. The national final in Burlington, the hosts said, sold out “instantaneously.” They estimated over 5,000 people attended the game — twice the capacity of the ticketed stand.

Along with momentum on the pitch came unprecedented levels of engagement with the club’s socially-engaged fundraisers, Jenack said. His was by far the largest fan-run fundraiser in the club’s history.

Will Lambek, a spokesperson for Migrant Justice, said the club reached out shortly after its founding in 2022. This season, Lambek participated in halftime speeches at several games.

“It’s a great way to share the work of the organization and bring calls to action to a large group of people,” he said.

Lambek called the fundraising efforts at the end of the season both “tremendous” and well-timed.

“The workload is increasing because of the intensification of attacks against immigrant communities,” Lambek said.

At halftime in the national semifinal game on July 27, Lambek translated statements from Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz, a farm worker who was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in a high-profile incident in June.

Jenack said these speeches, heard by thousands of spectators, are an important part of the club’s culture. 

“They’re telling us what it is that they do and why it matters,” he said.

The club also has held themed games like “pride night” and “labor night” in its four seasons to date, during which the club highlights local leaders in relevant organizations, and sometimes organizes donations.

Mike Popovitch, a member of the Green Mountain Bhoys — a group of ardent Green supporters — is also in a leadership group of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, a local affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. He said this kind of exposure can be important for unions to explain their work.

“A labor movement on its own cannot survive without community support,” Popovitch said.

The Green Mountain Bhoys have often been at the center of fan-led activism. The group announced a fundraiser Friday for Medical Aid for Palestinians.

The club’s affiliation with political movements has not come without disagreement, largely from visiting away fans, Jenack said. He urged any locals who don’t feel represented to attend anyway. 

“I’m still gonna shake your hand,” he said.

Infurna said he wanted to create an inclusive environment, but that the club wasn’t willing to be neutral on issues it feels are urgent.

“We don’t believe that we’re doing something so egregiously provocative or politically inappropriate,” Infurna said. “If there was somebody who is so uncomfortable with what our club is doing that they didn’t want to come, then I’m at peace with that.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: For Vermont Green FC, soccer and social advocacy go hand in hand.

Chandra Duba has been living in an RV outside a friend’s house in Jericho for the past few months, after losing her Section 8 subsidized housing in Winooski. Until last week, she didn’t have electricity, but now she’s able to plug into a nearby solar array.

Duba, 50, works as a delivery driver at Domino’s, where her pay with tips is too high for food stamps but too low for rent in the area, she said. The RV was relatively affordable but partially gutted — the stove is gone, and the heating and cooling systems don’t work.

Duba said she is grateful to have a roof over her head but that she doesn’t see the vehicle as a long-term answer to her housing problem. 

“This isn’t really a home,” she said.

Housing advocates in Vermont say a lack of resources allocated to combat homelessness appears to be resulting in a rising number of people living in vehicles in some areas of the state. Data released last week showed an increasing proportion of people experiencing homelessness are living unsheltered statewide, which includes people sleeping in vehicles. 

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development defines unsheltered homelessness as people staying in spaces that are not adequate as regular sleeping accommodations. This can include cars, or camper vans without access to basic amenities.

Sarah Russell, Burlington’s special assistant to end homelessness, said 22 households living in cars had accessed the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity’s on-site resources in July. That number represents a roughly 30% increase from June but is only a loosely representative sample of the actual population of individuals living in their cars.

Russell drew connections between this jump and the current status of the state’s motel program, which saw hundreds forced to exit stable housing on July 1. She called the 80-day limits restricting the duration of motel stays “insufficient.”

Frank Knaack, the executive director of the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, emphasized that this upward trend in Vermonters sleeping in their vehicles does not represent progress in his organization’s efforts. 

“We should not be thinking that people sleeping in their car is a solution,” he said.

Duba said her rent responsibility was complicated in Winooski — she had taken in an acquaintance who was experiencing homelessness, as well as housing her own son and a family friend. The state changed its calculation about how much she and her guests owed several times, and also informed her she had not properly submitted her level of income for consideration. Ultimately, her vouchers were revoked.

She said she has spent months searching for an affordable apartment or a roommate, and that getting to work without a car can be tricky and expensive. 

Duba, who has a degenerative joint condition and severe injuries to her back and knees, said it can sometimes be difficult to maneuver in and out of the RV without help. Duba lives with her dog Brutus, who she said enjoys exploring the field around the camper but has sometimes been chilly at night.

Duba said she will likely need to find a new place to stay before winter. 

“I can handle it because I like being cold,” she said. “But I worry about my dog.”

For people staying in vehicles, Russell said, seasonal shifts can be dangerous. Temperatures can become unsafe, but leaving a vehicle running can be equally so. Last winter, at least one person was admitted to a Chittenden County hospital multiple times for carbon monoxide poisoning, Russell said.

Once someone starts living in a vehicle without a permanent address, Knaack added, it can be harder to get back on their feet and can limit options for finding work, succeeding in school and connecting with the local community.

“There’s just no stability,” Knaack said.

When Carrie Currier moved to Vermont in her car in May, she stayed in Bennington as long as she could. 

“I really liked the area, but it was difficult,” she said.

She and her two dogs were staying in a parking lot outside a Walmart, alongside several others in a similar situation. Currier had her SUV but no money for gas, and the town was so spread out that she couldn’t get to the soup kitchen or food bank on foot. 

“If you can’t get there, you can’t really get any help,” she said, adding that she went without food for almost a week until her Supplemental Security Income came in.

“I didn’t know anybody, and nobody really reached out to me,” she said. 

Currier said she’s currently living in Maine, where someone has offered to let her stay near their house. She plans to apply for a direct home loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development division.

Local leaders are uncertain about what short-term solutions are appropriate for people in Currier’s situation. Burlington is considering a free safe parking program that would set aside certain monitored spots for people living in their vehicles. A previous pilot program was paused after public threats were made online against the participating households.

“It’s important for us to be able to provide safe options for people as a harm reduction model while we wait for permanent housing to come online for them,” Russell said.

Duba did not participate in the Burlington parking program but said she has repeatedly experienced judgement and hostility from locals. 

“I just want people to understand what kind of things homeless people are going through,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘This isn’t really a home’: As some unhoused Vermonters turn to sleeping in vehicles, advocates push for long-term solutions.

Leaders in Vermont schools and local food networks are expressing a mixture of hope and concern following the recent acquisition of a local family-run food service provider by a larger, out-of-state company. 

Whitsons, a New York-based food service company backed by private equity firm GenNx360 Capital Partners, announced last month that it had acquired The Abbey Group, a longstanding food provider based in Enosburg Falls. The Abbey Group currently holds contracts with schools to serve meals in a dozen Vermont counties, and operates several corporate food courts, including in the Vermont State House. 

The acquisition comes at a tough moment for schools working to connect with local producers after cuts to federal school lunch programs in March. But Karen Dittrich, a senior vice president at Whitsons, said the new parent company was committed to maintaining the Abbey Group’s connections with local providers.

The sale marks Whitsons’ second acquisition of a smaller food service company serving Vermont in as many years. Last year, the company purchased Fresh Picks Café. Whitsons’ expansion into Vermont has raised larger questions for local leaders about what kind of management is most effective for school nutrition programs.

Fresh Picks’ contract with the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union — one of the company’s major Vermont relationships — didn’t last long following Whitsons’ takeover last year. 

According to Susan Grabowski, the supervisory union’s food program coordinator, the Whitsons’ acquisition of Fresh Picks instantly caused problems.

The new food operator failed to meet the agreed-upon bar for local food purchases, according to Grabowski. There were issues with quality control, portion sizes, and allowances for extra helpings. By the fall, Grabowski said, she was getting daily complaints from students and families. 

Additionally, she said, poor treatment and wages caused a higher rate of staff turnover. Grabowski felt cut off from the provider’s corporate office, though there were eventually some improvements after school officials complained to Whitsons management.

“It just became harder and harder to get information that we needed … and to get the food that we wanted to be able to serve to our students,” Grabowski said.

Whitsons declined to comment on its former contract with Windham Southeast.

In December, a team that included Grabowski presented a proposal to the school board to end the contract with Fresh Picks Café and Whitsons and transition to a self-operated kitchen with a greater emphasis on local food. The board agreed, despite the extra expense the change would incur. 

Food service costs will rise from $2.4 million to roughly $2.6 million annually in addition to some transitional costs, the supervisory union’s business administrator Frank Rucker told the Bennington Banner earlier this year.

It’s money, Grabowski noted, that not every school board might feel able to spare even if it wanted to separate from external food providers. With historic financial restructuring on the horizon for Vermont schools, and a number of preliminary school budgets already failing, local leaders might be wary of costly new projects.

On top of state-level changes, local-focused school lunch programs across the state were hit by federal budget cuts this spring, which froze funding from the Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. Earlier this year, the state legislature approved one-time funding that essentially replaced federal payouts for the latter program, but in coming years, school districts cannot expect that money to recur.

“School nutrition is not safe from the pressures of other food service operations,” said Grabowski. “It feels like we’re at a crossroads.”

Kris Nelson, the Farm-to-School program manager at Food Connects in Brattleboro, said that working with a self-run provider is an inherently different dynamic. She has worked with the Windham Southeast program through both the Fresh Picks era and the current transitional period.

“It’s not that [outside] companies aren’t able to make real headway in terms of purchasing locally,” she said. “One of the main distinctions is just simply that [self-operated kitchens are] not a profit-driven endeavor.”

“Your bottom line is nutritional food for children,” Nelson said of operations like Grabowski’s.

Several school districts and food providers said they remain hopeful that Whitsons’ recent acquisition of The Abbey Group will yield positive results. 

The Abbey Group has been a major partner of and contributor to Green Mountain Farm-to-School —  an organization that works to connect farms to school food purchasers with a view to improving nutrition and sourcing — for over a decade.

“It’s been a very positive relationship,” said Catherine Cusack, Green Mountain Farm-to-School’s executive director. She said The Abbey Group has been “really open to trying to work with new producers, trying new crops.”

Dittrich, the Whitsons’ spokesperson, said the company is proud of its new affiliation with Green Mountain Farm-to-School and plans to expand its participation in coming years. Cusack confirmed that Whitsons had reached out about continuing the organizations’ work together.

“This partnership is grounded in a shared commitment to nourishing communities through wholesome, locally sourced meals and personalized service,” Dittrich said in a statement. 

“I’m hopeful that we will continue the business as usual,” Cusack said. “I’m sure some things will change.”

Several school districts which work with The Abbey Group told VTDigger they have no plans to seek changes to their school meal contracts for the coming year. Dittrich said there will be no immediate changes to on-site staff, nor will there be cost adjustments for schools.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Private equity-backed firm purchases Vermont food service group, drawing mixed reactions from schools, local leaders.

K.C. Dressing, a 31-year-old Colchester resident, spent Friday evening exhorting the loudest section of Vermont Green Football Club fans to greater heights by pounding on a limited-edition Pearl snare drum. He’s been attending Green games for several years and is a member of the Green Mountain Bhoys, a group of dedicated longtime supporters.

“It’s a little snapshot of what makes Vermont an incredible place and what makes me feel so lucky to live here,” Dressing said.

Burlington saw two ecstatic pitch invasions this weekend at the University of Vermont’s Virtue Field, after Vermont Green won two hard-fought playoff games to take the club to its first national finals in the United Soccer League’s second tier. On Sunday night, the league announced the Vermont side would retain its home advantage again in the final against Seattle-based Ballard FC on Saturday.

“We’re incredibly excited to be hosting a final,” club co-founder Patrick Infurna said. “Our soccer community in general has earned it.”

Chris Taylor, the club’s head coach, called the team’s playoff run “an amazing ride” on Sunday after the game. He praised his players and said that support from the sold-out crowds had made a profound impact. 

Owen O’Malley, the scorer of the Green’s winning penalty against Dothan United on Sunday, agreed. 

“I do it for the fans, man,” O’Malley said. “I just love these guys so much.”

The feeling from fans was mutual. The club estimated Sunday’s attendance at just over 4,000. When O’Malley ran to the stands to celebrate, he was immediately surrounded by a crowd of supporters — first young kids, then parents and adults. 

The boisterous home support had been quieted briefly on Friday when, deep into added time, Lionsbridge Football Club scored what would have been the winning goal. Then cheers resumed as home fans realized the official’s flag was up: the goal had been offside. Two overtime goals secured a Vermont win.

Near the front of Friday’s pitch invasion, Jacob Labowitz brandished an enormous Vermont flag. The Colchester-based lawyer went to Vermont Green’s first-ever game in 2022.

“Freedom and unity right here,” he said, nodding up at the state coat of arms.

Melissa Gara, who works at the University of Vermont Medical Center, said Sunday she was glad to have witnessed two such successful Vermont soccer teams in the same year. The University of Vermont’s men’s team that won the NCAA national championship in December — from which Vermont Green FC has recruited several top players — was still at the forefront of her mind.

“Now I’m a die-hard fan,” Gara said.

Some supporters had been all-in long before Sunday. Jack Beach and Isaac Parker, both 18, said they had waited in a virtual line for tickets in their workplace bathroom last week. Parker, who originally found the Green through Instagram, said he was invested not just in the club, but also in the success of its athletes.

“The player-fan connection is crazy,” Parker said.

Fans have also been drawn to Vermont Green’s off-the-field culture, which includes close relationships with local businesses and an emphasis on political advocacy. Several fans said they appreciate the club’s affiliation with climate and social justice movements.

The club itself has hosted fundraisers in the past for the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. Fan groups have also organized support for organizations such as Migrant Justice Vermont. Infurna said the club considers environmental justice its “North Star.”

The club has also hosted three women’s exhibition matches and is looking to expand its women’s program in the coming years.

For people like Jessica Huber, who plays in a coed Sunday soccer league, a Vermont Green women’s team would make a difference. She went to one of the women’s matches, all of which sold out.

“I think the demand is there,” she said.

In general, Huber said, she loves the community that has formed around Vermont Green.

“Vibes are high,” she said. “Vibes are amazing.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: After a triumphant weekend, Vermont Green Football Club to host league final in Burlington.

Vermont Green Football Club prevailed in the United Soccer League’s second-tier Eastern Conference finals at the University of Vermont’s Virtue Field on Friday evening, further extending the best season in club history.

The team defeated Virginia-based Lionsbridge Football Club 3-1 in overtime. Vermont Green will play Alabama-based Dothan United in the league’s national semifinals on Sunday at 6:30 p.m., retaining the home advantage at Virtue Field.

Excitement has been building steadily this season around the Green’s success. Friday’s game sold out in under 30 seconds, the hosts said, and tickets for last Sunday’s 3-2 home playoff win over FC Motown were also gone within a few minutes.

The atmosphere at Vermont Green’s Burlington games has become an attraction in itself, with capacity crowds overflowing onto the unticketed hill overlooking the field. The team’s fan group, the Green Mountain Bhoys, drive high-energy crowds in chants, cheers and choreography. Long lines build at the stands of local vendors — Ben & Jerry’s, Shacksbury Cider and others.

Since the club’s founding in 2022, the club has garnered national attention for its socially conscious, locally focused approach to soccer, especially in relation to environmental justice. 

The club has also become more successful on the pitch, recruiting top college players from around the world, including from the UVM team which won the NCAA national title in December.

The 2025 season has been the club’s highest-achieving by far, with a 16-match undefeated record, a first-place finish in the northeast division, and an ongoing deep run into the playoffs. In 2024, the Green placed third in its division and won two playoff matches, but were ultimately knocked out by the nationally top-ranked Seacoast United of New Hampshire.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Green FC wins conference championship at a sold-out Virtue Field.

At Dog River Farm on Tuesday, Allison Levin and three volunteers salvaged nearly 150 pounds of rainbow chard which would otherwise have been destroyed. 

Next, staff at Community Harvest of Central Vermont, of which Levin is founding executive director, will deliver those vegetables to local groups which provide food assistance near the Berlin farm — Capstone Community Action in Barre and the Montpelier Food Pantry, among others. In Montpelier, people have been lining up for hours before Levin’s Tuesday morning deliveries, which represent a large fraction of the fresh produce offered by the city’s food pantry, she said.

Community Harvest is one of a number of such organizations in Vermont which work both to strengthen nutrition assistance programs and to lessen food waste. Often, they are nonprofits which receive little or no public support. But as food assistance becomes more stretched in Vermont, and public funding for farmed food dwindles, local leaders say gleaning is an important way to help meet the state’s needs.

With thousands of Vermonters potentially set to lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits over the next few years — an outcome of sweeping federal cuts to the program — Levin thinks there will be greater need for gleaning work in the state.

“The work that we’re doing is going to be in even higher demand,” she said.

Gleaning is the practice of retrieving produce, or food more generally, that would otherwise go to waste. The produce Levin collects consists of what farmers call “seconds” — a fraction of the yield that isn’t flawless enough to sell in most grocery stores. The vegetables are still safe and edible, they just have dimples, bends or other deformities.

George Gross, who owns Dog River Farm, said without the service Levin provides, he would have to simply till the abandoned plants back into the soil. 

Waiting for gleaners to arrive can be costly for farmers, Gross said, because growing seasons are short and the small nonprofits “can only do so much.” Produce donors across the state have also told gleaners that public reimbursement for donated produce would be helpful. But for Gross, it is important that his produce goes to good use, and equally that it stays local in Levin’s small network of partners.

“I want this food to stay in my community,” he said.

Gabe Zoerheide, the executive director of Willing Hands in Norwich, said he combines field work and garden crops with in-kind donations and wholesale recovery to deliver roughly a million pounds of food a year. 

Perishable food is a crucial part of any response to food insecurity, he said, not least because fresh products tend to be more expensive to purchase. Willing Hands provides nearly half the fresh produce at Upper Valley Haven, one of the largest food pantries in the state. In total, Zoerheide’s team delivers to about 80 recipient organizations in Vermont and New Hampshire.

“This can provide a source of nutritious food to (clients) that they can count on,” said Michael Redmond, the executive director of Upper Valley Haven, which also operates temporary shelters in White River Junction.

But in areas farther north, gleaning programs sometimes have a less robust presence.

Amy Hornblas, executive director at the Neighbors in Action food pantry in Cabot and Lyndonville, said agricultural gleaning feels like an untapped resource in the area. At the moment, Hornblas said, her organization doesn’t receive much gleaned produce, but she hopes to change that.

Neighbors in Action recently drew attention for drawing such high demand that the Lyndon selectboard grew concerned about the volume of traffic through downtown. Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties all show higher rates of poverty and food insecurity than the state averages, according to a 2023 Northeast Kingdom Human Services report. 

“There is an abundance of food,” said Hornblas in reference to surrounding farms. “We just gotta move it.”

Hillary Hust-Barber, the gleaning manager at Salvation Farms, said her team of two full-time employees is currently covering all of Lamoille Valley and the Northeast Kingdom.

Hust-Barber is also the administrator for the Vermont Gleaning Collective, which onboards volunteers and shares information between the state’s food recovery organizations. Neighbors in Action will host an event Aug. 9 at Salvation Farms in Morrisville to gather volunteers for gleaning in the area.

Richie Hourihan, owner of Cabot Smith Farm and donor to Salvation Farms, agreed it was a matter of labor. Up to 20% of his yield can be seconds, but he can’t collect it himself.

And the food, he said, ought to be salvaged. “All vegetables are perfect,” Hourihan said.

Although gleaning networks can play an important role in bolstering food access across Vermont, their leaders acknowledge that local food assistance systems cannot fully replace the scale of federal programs. Even though the work he does is important, Redmond said, it is “dwarfed” by the resourcing behind programs like SNAP.

Zoerheide agreed. 

“I’m not going to pretend that we can make up the difference, but we are committed as an organization to do everything we can to meet more of the need,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Gleaning operations help meet rising need in a stretched Vermont food assistance network.

When Darcie Melvin started coming to Companions in Wholeness nearly four years ago, she said she was dealing with a substance abuse disorder. At first, she was just grateful for the food at the Rutland day shelter — then she got to know the staff.

“I was kind of at my wits’ end,” Melvin said. “This place has truly become like a family to me.”

Over the course of several years, the day shelter helped Melvin with bills, to furnish her apartment and connect her with other services. Melvin said she’s now been in recovery for about 16 months, but she still comes in regularly to volunteer and has slowly stopped needing to accept offers of free food.

However, the shelter now faces uncertainty as it announced plans to lay off every paid worker on Aug. 2, after federal grants froze and state ones were not renewed in the spring. Four employees plan to keep working, unpaid, to keep the organization open.

“It would be a terrible thing,” Outreach Coordinator Linda Allen said of a possible closure.

Allen is among the four employees who plan to keep working without pay, citing a deep sense of obligation to the organization’s regulars. 

People in the organization’s crowded main room on Thursday said the facility had been a cornerstone of their recovery — and sometimes survival. But Executive Director Ellie McGarry has been left with few options after losing both of her major public funding streams.

Companions in Wholeness is open Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Apart from serving meals to about 150 people per day, it offers clothing, climate control, rest areas and appointments with service providers. In August, the schedule is set to shrink to three hours a day, offering one meal rather than two.

The loss of funding comes as the demand for Companions in Wholeness has been steadily growing over the past few years. McGarry said the latest round of evictions from the state’s motel voucher program produced acute pressure on shelter services.

The situation was already severe. A 2024 report found that Rutland County’s unhoused population had increased by a factor of seven since 2019. Statewide, the rate of homelessness still ranked fourth worst in the nation last year.

Companions in Wholeness is part of the United Methodist Church in Rutland. It even operates out of the church’s physical space — staff push the altar aside to transform the room into a shelter just hours after Sunday services. Melvin said the connection with the church had been important for her.

Companions in Wholeness is trying to expand and move to a larger church space, McGarry said. The organization also plans to become an independent entity and change its name to Rutland Neighbors.

But the building is not McGarry’s main worry. She had hoped for a total of $260,000 in grants to carry the shelter’s growing burden this year. None of it came through. The organization requires about $20,000 per month to operate, she said. Right now, it has $10,000 in the bank.

The federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which the organization used to receive funds from, was frozen this spring. The program was administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which did not respond to requests for comment. 

At the same time, the Housing Opportunity Grant Program through the Vermont Department for Children and Families did not choose to award a payment to the organization, despite doing so each of the past two years. 

Lily Sojourner, director of the department’s Office of Economic Opportunity, said the Housing Opportunity Grants originally were intended to support overnight shelters. Given that BROC Community action, a nonprofit primarily serving Bennington and Rutland counties, has plans to open such a shelter in Rutland this fall, the state directed more significant financial support to that project.

Eric Maguire, the project director for the new BROC Community Action shelter, said the facility likely will be up and running by November or December. The program expects to house 10 people to start, with high barriers to admission, requiring people to be sober and lack other housing alternatives. Maguire said having a sober, overnight shelter in the city is critical given the community’s current housing and substance use needs.

Companions in Wholeness does not allow entry to people who are disruptive or visibly under the influence, but McGarry said she welcomes people whom she knows to be dealing with substance use disorders. 

Brooke Kurutza — a 31-year-old from Barre who has been coming to Companions in Wholeness for four years and had substance use disorders at various points in her life — said she has been experiencing homelessness since she was 18. 

“This place is everything to me,” she said.

Kurutza said a new shelter would greatly help the community, as Rutland’s Open Door Mission, where she currently stays, is full.

Both services are necessary, she said. Overnight shelters often require people staying there to leave fairly early in the morning, while places like Companions in Wholeness allow people to eat, rest and seek shelter from the elements during the day.

Ronald Jones has been going to Companions in Wholeness since it opened in 2018 and said he eats all his meals there. He said he is worried what restricted hours and resources will mean for people who rely on the organization.

“It’s going to do damaging things,” he said.

Companions in Wholeness plans to host a bowling event in Rutland on Sept. 14 to fundraise the necessary resources to continue operations, according to a statement Friday.

“It’s taken me 39 years to find people like this,” Melvin said through tears. “I don’t want to lose it.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: After losing funding, Rutland day shelter to become volunteer-run and reduce offerings.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is planning to provide $22.7 million to the Vermont Agency of Transportation to assist in replacing the Winooski River Bridge in Chittenden County, according to a Thursday statement from Vermont’s congressional delegation.

The bridge, which connects the cities of Burlington and Winooski, is more than 95 years old. Though it is not currently a danger to those who use it, state transportation officials said in a project outline that its maintenance needs and narrowness merit a rebuild.

The total cost of the bridge was estimated last year at $60 million to $80 million, and the project previously received a $24.8 million federal grant in 2022.

“The replacement of the Winooski River Bridge will boost northern Vermont’s critical infrastructure, improve safety and accessibility, and make Winooski more resilient to extreme weather,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., said in the release.

The new bridge is expected to feature improved drainage systems. The sidewalk area will also be widened for shared, safe use by pedestrians and bicycles, according to the Agency of Transportation.

The U.S. Department of Transportation allocated the latest federal money through a grant program funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

In Thursday’s statement, Vermont Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn called the new grant “crucial” for the project.

The delegation also nominated the project for an additional $8 million in congressionally directed spending during the federal fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1.

Officials say that construction on the bridge should begin in 2027.

Read the story on VTDigger here: US Department of Transportation to provide $22.7M for new Winooski River Bridge.

Vermont Foodbank, the state’s largest food assistance provider, cut nearly 10% of its workforce two weeks ago.

The organization let seven employees go and discontinued two vacant positions. CEO John Sayles said Tuesday that the cuts were necessary for the company to avoid financial hardship down the line, as food banks become more stretched nationwide.

The Covid-19 pandemic more than doubled the food bank’s level of financial resourcing for a time, Sayles said, through increases in federal, state and philanthropic support. The organization grew from 60 to 88 employees, reaching its peak in 2023.

“We had to do what was in front of us,” Sayles said of the organization’s growth at the time.

Now, the picture is different — many COVID-era public programs have ended.

In addition, Vermont Foodbank said it was losing roughly 20% of its USDA food stock earlier this year due to federal budget cuts.

This restructuring also comes as cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program threaten to leave thousands of enrolled Vermonters without coverage. About 65,000 people currently receive aid from SNAP across the state.

The timeline of these changes is uncertain, and Sayles said he was concerned that higher burdens on food shelves will collide with the need to downsize. “It really is hard to predict when and how things are going to roll out,” Sayles said.

The layoffs are intended to put the organization in a more sustainable position so “we can do the best we can to meet the need,” he said.

It’s unclear how much the food bank will immediately save through restructuring. Sayles estimated the personnel costs for the food bank will be roughly the same next year, even with fewer employees. 

Sayles said some pay raises were necessary to cover cost-of-labor adjustments, rising health care premiums and the need to retain talent.

The organization said it will try to protect against gaps in services, but the layoffs may put some parts of the operation under stress. 

“Everyone was doing work that was having an impact,” Sayles said.

He added that Vermont Foodbank had been in touch with a number of local partners to discuss how they might be able to pick up the slack. 

“Whether every single thing that the food bank did is going to continue to happen, I can’t say,” Sayles said.

Disclosure: VTDigger has partnered with the Vermont Foodbank during member drives.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Foodbank lays off nearly 10% of staff, braces for uncertainty.

Justin Rich’s Burnt Rock Farm lost $200,000 last year, after floods covered entire fields on his riverside land in Huntington with water and debris. 

After paying his premiums to the federal government’s Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program, Rich received his payout. It was roughly $3,000 — less than two cents for every lost dollar.

“It doesn’t work terribly well on smaller, medium-scale, diversified farms like ours,” Rich said of the program.

The Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program is intended to provide recourse for farmers who don’t qualify for federal subsidies on insurance premiums for major crops such as corn, soybeans and apples. The program is not administered by a private provider like subsidized plans are; it’s a coverage service from the federal government itself.

For many farms in Vermont, a lack of access to subsidies and the small scale of their operations limit coverage options. Significant premiums and federal bureaucracy make many question whether the remaining choices are worthwhile. But as weather grows less predictable, the unchecked costs of crop disasters threaten the viability of farming in the state. 

Vermont growers whose crops qualify for traditional federal subsidies often find them helpful. Andrea Darrow, an owner of Green Mountain Orchards in Putney, said the federal apple subsidies are just enough to make premiums affordable for her. 

“We feel, like, so vulnerable without it,” she said.

When a bizarrely late frost in May 2023 destroyed 95% of Darrow’s crop, the insurance payout helped significantly with the cost of growing another crop. And the family-run business has successfully filed smaller claims on several other occasions.

But roughly 70% of the state’s farms carry no crop insurance, according to Vermont Agency of Agriculture Chief Operating Officer Nicole Dubuque.

Rich said he was surprised the number wasn’t higher. 

“Vermont’s agricultural scene is almost completely devoid of conventional grain crops,” he said. 

Even some dairy farmers who grow silage corn as feed choose to forgo insurance. Earl Ransom, who owns Rockbottom Farm in Strafford, called the crop insurance industry a “scam.”

He said he prefers other methods of risk mitigation, some of which might not be an option for all farmers. Ransom doesn’t use riverbottom land and is able to produce more crop than he needs for his cows.

“The way that I farm is built on the idea of resiliency,” he said. 

Ransom and Rich agreed that the only ideal form of insurance at this stage is to have a personal buffer of money, land and crop yield.

But for most, that’s not the reality.

Dubuque said the state has been concerned for some time about the lack of options for Vermont growers to hedge their bets financially. 

Noninsured assistance premiums can be high, she explained, and federal payout calculations are sometimes affected by other regions of the country where it’s cheaper to grow crops.

There aren’t enough sweet potatoes grown in the state to develop a base price for Vermont, for example. So when Rich lost all his sweet potatoes last summer, he was given the national average price for them, which is “like an order of magnitude cheaper,” he said.

Rich also lost 34.5% of his potato crop, for which he’d paid higher premiums to get more coverage. The threshold for a payout, however, was 35%, he said.

The Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program’s administrative process can additionally burden farmers, with monthslong wait times for federal payouts, according to Rich. 

He said many small farmers who sell through farm stands and other informal venues may struggle to keep meticulous records and submit them. 

“It is not a small amount of paperwork,” Rich said.

Hank Bissell, owner of Lewis Creek Farm in Starksboro, said he tried only once, decades ago, to secure federal insurance for his farm. After a mountain of paperwork, he concluded that financially, “it wasn’t going to do me any good.”

So when the floods of 2023 and 2024 hit, the $120,000 loss Bissell endured was uninsured.

With little to no support from the federal level, he and Rich turned to the state. Both received grants from the Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program administered by the Agency of Commerce. 

BEGAP isn’t an agriculture program, but for both of them, it was a life raft.

“Very fast, very easy to apply for, and extremely useful for those of us affected,” Rich said.

Bissell said he was able to recoup 30% of his losses through the program, which prevented what could have been a financial catastrophe.

“We’ll live to gamble again,” he said.

In addition to the Agency of Commerce’s emergency provisions, state lawmakers introduced a bill during the last legislative session with the goal of establishing a ​​Farm Security Special Fund for farmers. 

One of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, cited the difficulty of accessing other aid for small farms, as well as shifting climate patterns, as her rationale. 

“Having a fund that is designed specifically for farmers is an important tool to keep local agriculture viable in our state,” she said in an email.

The bill stalled in the Appropriations Committee, but lawmakers could raise the issue in the next legislative session.

Dubuque said any amount of further aid would be helpful, but that full recovery for farms after a disaster would require a significant pool of money. Expanding the Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program at the federal level could also be helpful, she said, especially if some of the administrative burden was lifted.

Tom Zacharias, president of National Crop Insurance Services, recommended that farmers also consider federal alternative insurance options like the Micro Farm Program and the Whole-Farm Revenue Protection program, which may provide diverse operations with more comprehensive coverage. 

A USDA report indicates no payouts had been made from either plan in Vermont during the 2024 crop year. Several farmers told VTDigger they had not considered these alternatives, or that both seemed prohibitively expensive.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., issued a statement Friday announcing that Vermont farmers affected by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can apply for expedited assistance through the USDA’s Supplemental Disaster Relief Program. 

Over $16 billion in aid from the 2025 American Relief Act is set to go to farmers across the country, the release said. Only producers who received aid through the Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program or through subsidized crop insurance in 2023 and 2024 are currently eligible. 

Dubuque reiterated the central role of small-scale agriculture in Vermont, both for food and tourism. 

“Small farms in this state are so incredibly important to our economy,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: High risks, low payouts: Vermont farmers say crop insurance falls short.

BARRE — President Donald Trump’s broad budget changes, which were signed into law last week, will be “devastating to rural America,” U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., said at a press conference Wednesday. She predicted large-scale loss of access to health care and food assistance for Vermonters, among other public services.

The White House has called parts of the bill “the largest tax cuts in history,” with substantial breaks on tips and overtime, and for adults over 60. Balint, however, urged Vermonters to consider the long-term effects of the bill. 

In a release Tuesday, she referenced a congressional Joint Economic Committee Minority report that predicted 35,242 Vermonters could lose access to Medicaid coverage as a result of the bill. The Vermont Agency of Human Services has projected roughly 45,000 people total could lose insurance statewide.

Balint criticized the added administrative demands of the new Medicaid reforms, in particular the proof-of-work requirement. She called conservative claims that many covered patients are willfully unemployed “erroneous.” 

“They’re the working poor, and they rely on Medicaid for their insurance,” she said.

A June 29 statement from the White House said the intent of the bill was “strengthening the integrity of Medicaid by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.” 

However, Ashley Berliner, the state director of health care policy, said her team’s focus was to maintain as high a rate of insurance coverage as possible.

“We don’t have any evidence to suggest that there are a bunch of people in the [Medicaid] expansion population who aren’t working and aren’t meeting other exemptions,” she said Wednesday.

Berliner added that the administrative burden itself will be costly for Vermonters. The new requirements will “impede people’s ability to get on and stay on Medicaid,” she said.

“They’re trying to make it difficult,’” Balint said Wednesday. “It is transparent.”

Balint also highlighted the potential cost of losing the flow of federal money into Vermont’s health care industry, citing a Congressional Budget Office report from December. 

“When you suck that much money out of the health care system, it is going to drive up everyone’s premiums,” she said.

The state’s largest health insurance company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont, is already in financial peril in large part due to its administration of Medicare Advantage plans. Officials say the provider’s failure could cause the state’s health industry to collapse. This year already saw the company seek significant hikes in premium costs, some parts of which have been modified and approved by the Green Mountain Care Board.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont spokesperson Sara Teachout said the effects for premium rates are impossible to predict. 

“These are important questions that we do not have the answers to yet,” she wrote in an email.

The federal budget bill also contains provisions to reduce spending on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would result in a roughly $285 billion decrease for the program over the next decade. The report additionally detailed tighter restrictions on SNAP eligibility, such as extending the proof-of-work age requirement by a decade, to those 64 and under. The bill also appears to withdraw SNAP eligibility for some refugees and residents who have been granted asylum.

“Vermonters are already hungry,” Balint said. “It is a cruel, cruel bill.”

Anore Horton, the executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, said the state’s charitable food system is already “stretched beyond the limits.” Roughly 65,000 Vermonters currently participate in SNAP, according to Horton.

The new cuts could mean that 13,000 of them lose SNAP access, Horton told NBC5.

In the coming years, Balint said, the Vermont Legislature and Gov. Phil Scott’s administration will face “really tough decisions” in order to meet the basic needs of their constituents. 

“There are no easy answers here,” Balint said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the projected SNAP spending reductions over the next decade.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rep. Becca Balint on the new federal budget: ‘Devastating to rural America’.

The Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office projected in 2022 that cannabis would likely become a roughly $86 million industry by June 2024. As the fiscal year closed in June, according to Cannabis Control Board Chair James Pepper, the retail market had already reached $128 million.

On the ground, some vendors feel crowded. Since the first three legal recreational cannabis retailers opened on October 1, 2022, the number of dispensaries statewide has grown to 77, according to the control board. As the flow of money grows, officials are weighing how to guide the industry toward a sustainable, equitable future.

Part of the reason for the quicker-than-anticipated growth is that, in reality, the industry isn’t new, said Pepper. There was, he explained, “a vibrant market pre-legalization,” the scale of which was difficult to accurately measure.

License requests for legal cultivation and retail have poured in. “People actually do want to participate above-board,” said Pepper, to be able to deposit profits, pay mortgages, and take advantage of the new economy.

Among them is Meredith Mann, owner of Magic Mann in Essex, who found her way into the broader industry through a CBD bakery and café. She was initially stymied by a provision of state law that allows towns to decide whether to allow cannabis retail within their limits.

As municipalities across the state have put the issue to a vote, not every town has been sanguine. In Castleton, where the introduction of dispensaries has narrowly failed to pass on several town meeting days, selectboard chair Richard Combs recalled concerns that shops would open “too close to the university,” with some opposing the industry entirely.

Essex did not initially move toward lifting the ban on cannabis retail within its limits, Mann said, but when it came up for a vote, she considered it an opportunity not to be wasted. “We took it upon ourselves to petition the town and get it put onto the Town Meeting Day ballot,” she said. “We really campaigned.”

On Town Meeting Day in 2022, the item passed. Since opening as a recreational dispensary later that year, business has been good, Mann said.

Magic Mann was also recently approved for cultivation and manufacturing licenses in addition to retail. The first plants, Mann said, just came in on Wednesday. This kind of “seed to sale product,” she added, is exactly what she’s been building toward.

She’s in the process of applying for a license to sell medical grade cannabis. Following concern about the health of the medical cannabis industry, a law passed earlier this year now allows recreational dispensaries to acquire a medical license. Mann’s cultivation facility, she said, helps qualify her for this provision.

The more self-reliant Vermont’s market becomes, the better, Pepper said.

The control board chair explained that when it comes to seeds and immature plants, “a lot of people are sourcing…from out of state.” This makes products more difficult to regulate, and unnecessarily outsources Vermont’s cannabis genetics, he added.

Rep. Michael McCarthy, D-St. Albans, agrees. He was involved with passing a law that created a new license type for growers to sell immature plants to other vendors, which took effect July 1. “We really want this to be a Vermont-size craft cannabis industry,” he said.

One question that’s beginning to do the rounds in legislative circles, he added, is “have we given licenses to too many growers?” The cultivation market, he said, is in real danger of overcrowding. Currently, there are 395 active cultivation licenses, per the Cannabis Control Board website.

Pepper said the retail industry often seems more cramped due to dispensaries’ concentration in densely-populated areas that permit their presence.

For business owners, it’s an increasing problem. 

“We’re in downtown Burlington,” said Kelsy Raap, director of education at Green State dispensary and its affiliated businesses. “Talk about saturation!”

Raap said she supports a free market, but predicted that there will soon be casualties as a result of the rising competition.

Pepper said even with a recent closure, roughly a dozen cannabis retailers are based in Burlington alone. In South Burlington, there are none, the municipality not having opted into allowing them.

As growth continues, legislators are beginning to eye a possible peak in the industry. In a presentation to the House Ways and Means Committee last January, state fiscal analyst Ted Barnett spoke to lawmakers about the possibility of a “leveling off” in the market.

The state is also focused on promoting inclusion in the growing industry, according to McCarthy. 

The Cannabis Control Board’s social equity project, attached to its $1.5 million business development fund, seeks to provide grants and loans to businesses run by members of marginalized communities.

Marlena Tucker-Fishman and Noah Fishman, co-owners of Zenbarn Farms dispensary in Waterbury, were social equity applicants in the first year of the program. The program covered their initial license fees, but they were cautious about its ability so far to reverse past injustice or provide broad assistance.

“It's good to have,” said Fishman, “but these businesses are very complex and difficult.”

Zenbarn Farms has one of three vertical integration licenses in Vermont, meaning that it is permitted to take part in every legal cannabis market in the state. With three affiliated business locations and numerous employees, costs are high.

Being in a business which is federally illegal has real fiscal challenges, Fishman noted. He explained that loans from the federal Small Business Administration or Department of Agriculture are inaccessible to cannabis sellers.

“If you took that away from many industries, they would not survive,” Fishman said.

Indeed, Pepper explained, no federally chartered bank will go near cannabis money. It’s been frustrating, he said: The goal at both a federal and state level is to keep the legal cannabis trade heavily regulated where it exists. With many businesses being pushed into using cash only, that’s much harder. 

“It's just a little crazy,” he said.

Tucker-Fishman said that earlier this year, Zenbarn Farms’ payroll provider dropped them with just 30 days notice, having decided that serving dispensaries was just too risky. 

All this uncertainty means that staying afloat can be tough, even when business is good.

“We really need the Legislature to take some action to help open up the industry more,” Fishman said. Event licenses, and looser potency caps, which have been debated in the Legislature, could funnel more traffic through the legal market, said Fishman.

And in general, he said, it will take more serious infusions of money and small-business loans to address problems of inclusivity in the industry.

“We don't have real equity in cannabis yet,” Fishman said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Eyeing a crowded market, Vermont cannabis sellers wonder what’s next.

Rick Nowak used to be able to drive from Brandon to Middlebury to shop and attend medical appointments. Then, in early June, he had a car accident. 

Nowak is a retired mechanic, and was deployed as a naval reservist during the Vietnam war. For the time being, while he figures out the purchase of a replacement car, he’s been riding the bus.

Without the services that local nonprofit Tri-Valley Transit provides, he would be forced to solely rely on favors from friends and neighbors, he said.

It would be a difficult situation. Nowak said he rides the bus into Middlebury three or four times a week. His diabetes and its complications limit his mobility, and necessitate involvement from doctors.

“I’m 77 years old,” he said matter-of-factly. “I have issues.” 

Often, he’ll need rides between two or three locations, some of which are across town from each other. Nonetheless, “I do pretty much everything on the bus,” he said.

Tri-Valley Transit’s microtransit program, which has offered on-demand rides in its Middlebury service area since May, has the capability to meet Nowak’s needs. It’s one of a number of similar initiatives statewide, following a 2022 pilot program for such services, which saw VTrans award millions of dollars to local providers.

Two vehicles in Middlebury respond to ride requests in real time, combining cost-free trips on the small buses. It’s a new system, but one officials think may be a step toward filling the gaps in traditional bus lines. 

Daniel Currier, a program manager in the public transit division of VTrans, is cautiously optimistic about the future of microtransit. “I think we’re still a little early to say it’s successful,” he said. “But it’s certainly revealing, you know, what to do and what not to do.”

Microtransit has proved difficult to implement in some communities, and has at times tested the patience of riders. Tri-Valley Transit experienced a software setback that delayed its program’s start, according to Currier. A replaced Barre bus line caused widespread controversy last year, with residents raising concerns about a decrease in access.

But Currier said some locations have seen rapid progress, and boosted efficiency.

Rural Community Transportation, a nonprofit serving Lamoille County and the Northeast Kingdom region, was one such case.

“Our microtransit is the most efficient model of transportation that we provide,” said Caleb Grant, the organization’s executive director. The company opened a service in Newport on Monday, which Grant said is just the first step in an ambitious plan of microtransit expansion.

“The entire Northeast Kingdom and Lamoille County would have access to these vehicles,” said Grant of the five-year proposal.

RCT’s plan to scale up services comes as Green Mountain Transit, the regional public transport service based in Burlington, faces major financial struggles that may see its service slashed later this year.

A 2023 study of Vermont’s transit system found the on-demand microtransit model was most often effective in rural and small-town settings. In several cases, the study recommended the implementation of microtransit where no substantial local transit had previously existed.

The report also forecast potential “cost per trip” goals for microtransit at each level of population density. In small towns, a “successful” overhead cost for a single ride would be roughly $10. For rural areas, that metric jumped to nearly $23, and $50.76 was deemed “acceptable,” according to the report.

Tri-Valley Transit’s current cost per passenger for microtransit (instead of fixed bus routes) is just shy of $25, according to community relations manager Mary-Claire Crogan. Ridership overlap with other subsidized transit programs helps that cost fall within state standards, she said, adding that the pilot has seen marked improvements in key areas. Passenger counts have more than tripled, and more drivers have been freed up to serve surrounding villages like Shoreham and Bridport — “where buses don’t go,” said Crogan.

Tri-Valley Transit’s microtransit program averages just shy of 50 people daily. RTC’s offerings have also seen significant ridership, with the Morrisville services averaging roughly 20 to 30 people per day, according to Grant.

“Transit rates can be higher than maybe what people might expect,” Grant acknowledged. But by “right-sizing” the fleet of vehicles, and sharing rides whenever possible, he believes microtransit can be expanded with relative efficiency.

Grant also pointed out that a widely accessible transit system has broad ripple effects, from sustaining the workforce and protecting public health to making more real estate viable for affordable housing and small businesses.

“I like to think of it not just like a social service investment, but a really sound business investment in the future of Vermont,” he said.

Dino Jandric, a driver for Tri-Valley Transit, emphasized the depth of some riders’ reliance on the company’s services. “I know 90% of the passengers,” he said.

There are people who are so regular in their use of the Middlebury buses that Jandric becomes concerned when he doesn’t see them. Drivers have sometimes even called in wellness checks on elderly passengers, he said.

Tri-Valley Transit also provides rides to the Charter House Coalition, a shelter, kitchen, and social service center in Middlebury. Mostly, Jandric said, he drives people from the shelter to the grocery store.

Shelters like Charter House are often unable to share demand among themselves efficiently, according to Alison Calderara, chief of programs and advancement at Capstone Community Action in Barre. The distance between available beds is sometimes prohibitive, or drastically expensive.

In general, Calderara said, a lack of adequate public transit is one of the most significant barriers in the state to overcoming poverty. “It’s not just people who are homeless, it’s people who are simply trying to get to work,” she said.

Capstone’s affiliated transit nonprofit, Gopher, has a subsidized “Mobility for All” program that offers free door-to-door transportation to qualifying low-income riders. On the path to sustainability, according to general manager Amanda Carlson, the company combines that model with contract work for local school districts, and a small market-rate taxi operation.

For Grant, this kind of flexible model seems crucial for small-town passengers with complex needs. “It gives agency back to the riders,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Armed with public money, nonprofits are trying to meet Vermont’s small-town transit needs.

Vermont’s air quality is expected to dip Friday as smoke from wildfires in northwestern Canada blows through the state, according to a forecast from the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow program.

An air quality notice for Friday was issued on Thursday afternoon to all counties through Vermont Emergency Management’s VT-ALERT system.

The EPA’s measurement of fine particulate matter may rise from 90 Thursday to 110 Friday, according to the AirNow forecast, resulting in a designation of “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.” This includes those with heart or lung disease, people who work outside, children and older adults.

People who meet these criteria should look to reduce their outside exertion and monitor possible symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath, according to the VT-ALERT notification.

Over the past several years, Vermont summers have gotten hazier due to Canadian wildfires. In 2021, wildfires in southern Canada generated concern around Vermont’s air quality, and the state issued a similar advisory in summer 2023 because of fires in Quebec.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Canadian wildfires to impact Vermont’s air quality on Friday.

Updated at 7:01 p.m.

Suresh Garimella, current president of the University of Vermont, will leave the institution to head the University of Arizona, the latter’s Board of Regents announced Friday.

“I am honored to be chosen by the board,” Garimella said in a written statement released Friday by the University of Arizona.

Garimella, who joined UVM in 2019 as its 27th president, was announced yesterday as the sole finalist in a five-month national search for the position. 

“Dr. Garimella stood out amongst the best,” Board of Regents Chair Cecilia Mata said in a public meeting Friday. “Someone with this remarkable scholarship, leadership and vision embodies the excellence this outstanding university demands.”

In a press conference Friday, Garimella addressed the University of Arizona campus community: “Throughout my career, I’ve had one mission as my primary driving force, and that is to serve our students.”

During his time at UVM, Garimella said the institution faced significant financial challenges and has been dependent on tuition dollars. In 2020, under his leadership, UVM announced sweeping cuts to its College of Arts and Sciences. 

He also recalled past controversies — including protests surrounding UVM’s handling of sexual assault cases and student protests in support of Gaza — when asked about similar issues at the University of Arizona. 

“I’m not saying I have the solutions coming in,” he said. “But you know, you bear the scars. You learn each time.”

Nonetheless, Garimella said he is proud of the legacy he will leave behind in Vermont. “It’s a different UVM … from five years ago,” he said, citing increases in research funding and applicants.

“For the next two months, I will continue to work as diligently as I always have and ensure the smoothest transition possible,” he said.

The Arizona Board of Regents unanimously voted on Friday morning to authorize contract negotiations with Garimella.

“The University of Arizona has taken notice and concluded that President Garimella will be an exceptional leader for them,” Ron Lumbra, the chair of UVM’s board of trustees, wrote in a statement Friday morning.

Garimella will remain at UVM through Sept. 30 and become president at the University of Arizona effective Oct. 1, Lumbra said in an interview. 

“We anticipate a smooth transition from his responsibilities at UVM,” Lumbra told VTDigger. “I anticipate we will make an interim appointment after he leaves.” 

“We’re going to conduct a fulsome national search,” Lumbra added.

According to Lumbra, the board wasn’t previously aware of the specifics of Garimella’s job search. Nonetheless, he said it was “conceptually not a surprise,” given the length of the UVM president’s tenure. 

“The Board is proud of UVM’s trajectory during the five years of President Garimella’s tenure,” Lumbra wrote, adding that the University of Vermont will begin the first steps of its own presidential search “soon.”presidential search “soon.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: UVM President Suresh Garimella tapped to lead University of Arizona.

Brenden Sackal of Rhode Island pleaded not guilty in Caledonia/Essex County Superior criminal court Thursday morning to 17 charges, including three counts of attempted aggravated murder, related to last month’s shootout with state police in Burke.

Brenden Sackal, who was injured in the July 14 firefight, was ordered by Judge Benjamin Battles to be held without bail in the brief court appearance.

Sackal was extradited to Vermont earlier this week after his discharge from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, according to a statement from Vermont State Police on Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced in a press release that a federal grand jury had separately returned an indictment of Sackal on a charge of possessing an unregistered machine gun. Sackal’s federal arraignment date has not yet been released.

In addition to charges of attempted aggravated murder at the state level, Sackal faces three counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and multiple weapons charges.

According to an affidavit by Detective Sgt. James Vooris, body camera footage shows Sackal shooting at Troopers Jesse Nash and Richard Berlandy, and Sgt. Joshua Mikkola, with “rapid succession gunfire.” 

As the troopers returned fire, Sackal is seen “falling to the ground,” and continuing to fire at the officers before eventually surrendering, Vooris wrote. State police say Sackal was shot several times during the encounter, but that none of the troopers was injured.

Sackal also faces two counts of aggravated assault with a weapon. The affidavit alleges that he intentionally crashed his car into two police vehicles.

U.S. Border Patrol Special Agent John Sue said the pursuit of Sackal began after the defendant failed to obey a traffic stop in Pittsburg, New Hampshire, according to Vooris’ affidavit. Prior to the events of July 14, Sackal was wanted in Rhode Island for charges related to alleged illegal possession of high-capacity firearm magazines, which resulted in his initial attempted vehicle stop by border patrol. He now faces seven counts of similar weapons charges in Vermont.

A single charge of attempted aggravated murder can carry a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Vermont. A count of aggravated assault with a weapon can carry up to 15 years in prison.

A weight of evidence hearing is expected to take place within the next month. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rhode Island man arraigned on 17 charges, including attempted murder of 3 Vermont state troopers.

Richard Hulett, owner of Deer Flats Farm and a selectboard member in Pawlet, is facing two charges of simple assault after a Vermont State Police investigation concluded that Hulett assaulted a farm worker and the farm worker’s 15-year-old nephew in an altercation last month.

In a press release issued late Monday, State Police Trooper Bruce Cleaver wrote that the incident occurred on July 3, after Hulett received information earlier that day alleging that a person on the property had been attempting to sell illegal narcotics.

“A confrontation ensued between Hulett and Ulver Perez-Roblero, 30, during which Hulett assaulted Perez-Roblero and a juvenile who had attempted to intervene,” Cleaver wrote in the release.

“Perez-Roblero and the juvenile sought treatment for minor injuries the following day at Rutland Regional Medical Center,” the release stated.

Hulett declined to discuss the incident, but his wife, Mandy Hulett, said Tuesday that the charges were false. Perez-Roblero, she said, had attempted to sell her son cocaine the afternoon of July 3. Perez-Roblero has denied that allegation, saying in a written statement translated by Will Lambek, a leader of the farm worker advocacy group Migrant Justice, “I never tried to sell drugs to anyone.”

At a July 18 press conference organized by Migrant Justice and staged near the West Pawlet farm, Perez-Roblero recounted his experiences before a group that had gathered to support him.

He said Hulett knocked on his door after a misunderstood conversation outside the home. “As soon as I answered, he started hitting me,” Perez-Roblero said in a translation provided by Lambek.

According to Perez-Roblero, his employer began choking him at one point. Perez-Roblero said his nephew tried to intervene but was also struck and injured by Hulett.

Another family member expressed concern for the pair, saying that she had witnessed the incident. The family plans to stay put for now, its members said, explaining that they have nowhere else to go.

Perez-Roblero, who is from Mexico, said he came to the U.S. seven years ago and has moved from farm to farm in Vermont.

After this recent altercation, and having alerted both Migrant Justice and local authorities, Perez-Roblero said he expects to be fired. As of Tuesday, he was still employed on the farm, according to Migrant Justice.

Mandy Hulett denied all allegations against her husband in a written statement Tuesday, calling them “completely false and unfounded.” This case, she said, was an example of Migrant Justice “taking advantage of migrant workers to push their agenda” and encouraging them to “fabricate a story.”

Migrant Justice staff characterized the incident as part of a broader problem, revealing a widespread pattern of toxic power dynamics on Vermont dairy farms. “This is not an isolated incident,” said Marita Canedo, who works for Migrant Justice. 

The organization also highlighted its Milk with Dignity program, which holds participating farms to a code of conduct in the treatment of their workers. Milk vendors too, said Canedo, “are responsible for the problems in their supply chain.”

Hulett is scheduled to be arraigned in Rutland Superior Court criminal division on the two counts of simple assault, a misdemeanor, on September 23.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Pawlet Selectboard member cited for assaulting farm worker, juvenile.

Mosquitoes in Alburgh and Swanton have tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis virus, according to a Friday press release from the Vermont Department of Health and the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets.

The virus is rare in humans, but can cause serious illness or even death. The release clarified that the majority of people who contract the virus will have mild or nonexistent symptoms. The potential for infection is highest in late summer and early fall, according to the release.

The Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets collected the positive samples on July 22.

“Finding EEE virus in mosquitoes is a warning sign,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said in the release. “Please take steps to protect yourself and your family from mosquito bites.”

The health department advises wearing long sleeves, using bug spray, limiting outdoor time around dusk and minimizing standing water near living areas. Covering strollers and playpens with mosquito netting, and repairing window screens, are also good precautions, according to the release.

The virus was previously detected in Vermont mosquitoes in August 2023, when at least one horse was infected in Swanton. Prior to that, “Triple E” had not been found in the state since 2015. 

Two Vermonters died from the virus in 2012, the only confirmed human cases in the state’s history. While there is a vaccine for horses, there is no specific treatment for humans, according to the release.

Environmental Surveillance Program Manager Patti Casey said that mosquito counts have ballooned this year, registering three to four times higher than cumulative averages since 2015. 

Standing water from the recent floods might be making a significant difference, according to Casey. “Floodwaters leave impounded water in places where mosquitoes love,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Mosquitoes in Grand Isle and Franklin counties test positive for EEE virus.

When Mellissa O’Bryan awoke on July 11, the small bridge connecting her house to Ireland Road in Starksboro had disappeared. So had her car, and the road itself.

Some three weeks later, “we have no way in or out except the little walking bridge,” she said, gesturing to the foot-wide metal walkway that a friend had helped lay across the river. The adjoining road remains closed, too.

O’Bryan has been told that replacing the bridge would cost about $100,000. Since it was technically part of her driveway, she’s on the hook for paying that  “unless FEMA kicks in.”

She and her husband, who are foster parents to two children, have lived in Starksboro for 24 years. “I love our community,” she said. “My kids are very involved in the school.”

As difficult as the last several weeks have been, O’Bryan said through tears, “I just have to get up and go about my day.” 

The town, which she said has been “amazing” given its limited resources, created a parking spot on the other side of the river. Repair crews have been working to restore Ireland Road for three weeks, with significant work remaining.

It’s the last hurdle in restoring limited road access townwide, according to Rebecca Elder, the Starksboro town administrator. The other public roads, she said, are all at least passable.

Elder said that repair costs are hard to estimate in full, but will be “astronomical.”

The combination of materials and labor would be “absolutely” beyond the means of the town budget without outside help, she said.

Elder said she led a Federal Emergency Management Agency team around town on July 22 to show them “the human impact” of the storms.  

“We know our roads hit the threshold,” she said of potential FEMA disaster coverage. “The question is on the individual level.”

O’Bryan is among those whose finances hang in the balance. “Everybody that has any amount of damage has to, has to, report it,” she said. “That’s how people get the money to fix big things.”

She also fears that the next flood will be even more catastrophic, as the riverbank erodes further and further. “All the sand and stuff that’s on this side is going to end up down in our neighbor’s lawn,” she said.

Some are less willing to stick it out. 

In nearby Huntington, Amy Seoane is wrestling with the possibility of leaving Vermont. 

After having been affected by floods in 2019, she and her husband, Justin Houghton, took drastic steps. They brought in materials to protect the property and elevate the garage where Houghton, an airplane mechanic, stored his equipment.

This month, 5 feet of water surged through their backyard, flooding the bottom floor of their house and causing thousands in damage. “We gotta go,” she recalled saying to her husband.

Seoane is applying for a buyout. But even if she and her husband don’t get one, they still may well leave. 

Without significant changes to the local watershed to improve its resilience, she explained, she doesn’t think staying put is sustainable. Further home fortifications would be expensive, and might not work anyway.

“We need help in that river,” she said of Huntington River. “It just keeps getting worse every time.”

“It could save so many of us from wasting perfectly good homes,” said Seoane, who has already lost several neighbors in the Huntington Acres area to buyouts in the last few years.

Barbara Elliott, a former town administrator in Huntington who is overseeing much of the town’s flood recovery process, said Seoane’s was one of a number of cases where concern should be raised about the livability of the property.

A half dozen families, according to her, “should not be returning to their homes,” due to risk of further flooding, or exposure to mold and water damage. But, she said, most of them will forge on anyway.

While damage to public property had already cost “way more” than expected (town road foreman Jonathan Dennis estimated $1.2 million), Elliott is even more worried about private landowners.

“We lost a lot of agricultural land,” she said.

A mile up the road from Huntington Acres, Justin Rich spent Tuesday pulling “garbage” out of his soil. Strips of black plastic placed carefully over beds of sweet potatoes and onions to help them grow had been buried, torn, and displaced by floodwater. 

Rich, who owns Burnt Rock Farm in Huntington, called the field a “zero.” All he can do now is try to prepare his fields for the next growing season.

Deposits of sand and silt covered the area, with half-grown sweet potatoes peeking up above the wreckage.

Rich and his farm manager, Hannah Aitken, were working alongside a small team that included several family members. 

“It’s kind of a double whammy,” Rich said of the unexpected need for cleanup, “because it’s not like farmers tend to have extra labor kick around in the summer.”

He said he’s lost 25% of his crops this year outright, while heavy rain further affected portions of the rest. On top of that, tens of thousands of dollars in labor went into those destroyed fields.

“It’s not really possible to absorb that,” said Rich grimly. “You basically go into debt to do it again the next year.”

Even if public grants eventually cover part of the cost, it would take years to come through. He can’t afford to count on it. 

And, he said, adequate insurance is almost impossible to come by. “I’m frustrated by the lack of ability to hedge our financial risk the way business needs to.”

His current coverage will insure the lost sweet potato fields for just six percent of what selling the crops would have brought in, he said. That insurance system, he said, is “not viable.”

Rich is staying put for now, but wants to get access to more land outside of the floodplains if possible. 

Many farmers, he added, are “asking some pretty hard questions right now.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Barbara Elliott’s last name.

Read the story on VTDigger here: After early July floods, Starksboro and Huntington eye ‘astronomical’ costs and mounting losses.

Updated at 1:13 on Friday, Aug. 2

Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury has canceled its “summer dog party” planned for Saturday following another round of flooding in the region.  A concert scheduled for Sunday on the grounds will go on but has been relocated from Dog Mountain to an arena in Lyndonville.

Saturday’s event should have seen the grounds filled with musicians, local food vendors and, above all, dogs. The annual gathering has been taking place for more than two decades, according to Dog Mountain managing director Ali Ide. When the weather has been good, she said, as many as 1,000 people have attended.

But on Tuesday, the second flood of the month proved disastrous for the 150-acre property. The roads leading up to the chapel and art gallery became inaccessible, according to Ide.

As a result, Sunday’s event, part of a weekly series of popular free concerts organized by the regional nonprofit Catamount Arts, will now be held at the Fenton Chester Arena in Lyndonville rather than its normal home at Dog Mountain, the organization announced.

Artist Stephen Huneck bought the Dog Mountain property with his wife, Gwen, in 1995, using the barn as a studio space, according to the organization’s website. Stephen, who was widely known for his dog-related wood carvings, ultimately constructed a dog-themed chapel on the property.

Along with festivities modeled after the founders’ small gatherings before their deaths, Stephen’s work can also be found in a gallery on the mountain.

The flooding three weeks ago had already inflicted significant damage to the property. “We had just repaired everything,” Ide said. But Tuesday’s rain was “quite a bit worse.”

Staff have had to travel by foot to conduct initial damage assessments due to the washed-out roads. The banks of a large pond on the property collapsed, Ide said, and several private roadways were decimated by the resulting torrent.

One house at the bottom of the property was “taken off its foundation,” she said, and separated from the attached garage.

The pond alone could require $140,000 to reconstruct, Ide said, and it’s hard to estimate how much the total repair cost will be. “It’s been extremely stressful and difficult,” she said. 

The damage has also been tough on nearby businesses. Chris Parker, co-owner of Makin’ Maple, was scheduled to sell his products at Saturday’s party. He lives just 3 miles from Dog Mountain and said he was disappointed the festival had been canceled. 

“It’s one of my biggest events,” he said. “Plus, I like dogs.”

He bought a significant amount of product in preparation for Saturday at Dog Mountain. In addition to his usual offerings, he also makes maple lemonade. “Now I got these lemons,” he said.

Parker said he’s seen the festival draw in significant crowds from out of state. “They come and they see what it’s like up here, and they just are utterly amazed with it,” he said.

The property will be closed at least until Sunday — possibly longer, Ide said. But more than anything, she said, she hates to cancel events that are important to the community. 

“It’s really sad that we’ve had to be closed now,” she said.

The free concerts, called the Levitt AMP St. Johnsbury Music Series, continue through the end of August and will return to Dog Mountain if that is possible, Catamount Arts Executive Director Jody Fried told VTDigger on Friday. In the meantime, the shows will go on at the arena in Lyndonville, which has been the “extreme weather” backup location for the series since the July 2023 floods, he said.

Catamount Arts had to relocate one concert in last year’s series to the arena, and one concert after flooding last month, Fried said. They held one show back at Dog Mountain before Tuesday’s flooding hit. This time, it remains unclear when the shows can return.

“We just don’t know. We won’t even have road access to the venue until the middle or end of next week,” Fried said. “We would love to be back up there next week, but we just don’t know.”

The organization will have updates about the location of upcoming shows on its website, social media and email lists, Fried said.

A regional flood recovery group will be on hand at Sunday’s show, featuring a Delta blues band, to share resources, and donation buckets for Dog Mountain, Catamount Arts said in a press release.

“We’re using the harmonic power of music to help our community come together and heal from natural disasters,” Fried said in the release.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Dog Mountain cancels summer festival as St. Johnsbury floods wreak havoc.

When veteran Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, died last month, Vermont Democrats lost “a titan,” according to party executive director Jim Dandeneau.

Despite Sears’ death, he remains on the ballot for the August 13 Democratic primary election.

Given the state’s May 30 deadline for candidates to file petitions to get on the ballot, Dandeneau said, “We did not have an option.” Sears died just two days after the deadline passed.

“Vermont law does not have provisions for changes after the Primary Election filing deadline,” Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said in a written statement. The party does have a weeklong window to select a replacement candidate after the primary, she added. 

A situation like this is incredibly rare, according to Democratic leadership.

“I can’t remember a circumstance where we had a candidate pass away after the deadline to file petitions, but before the election,” Dandeneau said.

The only way for candidates to enter a race after the May 30 deadline and before the primary is through a write-in campaign. But Dandeneau said he wasn’t sure it would be possible for such a campaign to succeed in this case. 

“I think it’s very tough to run a write-in campaign of the scale that would be necessary to beat somebody whose name is on the ballot,” he said. “And,” he added, “who folks have been consistently voting for for decades.”

Other party members think it’s worth a try.

Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, who had planned to run alongside Sears for a seat in the two-member Senate district, said he thought a win by a write-in candidate was entirely possible, albeit a “herculean task.” 

Bongartz, who hails from Manchester, said that although he understood that Sears’ health was not at its best, “nobody knew” this would happen.

When Bongartz heard the news, he soon turned to the electoral implications. He reached out to Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, a close friend and colleague of Sears’ who announced in May that he would not seek reelection to the district’s other Senate seat.

“Brian and I had no choice but to start looking for somebody to run in Dick’s place,” Bongartz said.

According to Bongartz, a vote for Sears as a form of homage to his legacy would actually be a slight against both the democratic process and the man himself.

“Dick believed in democracy,” he said, adding, “It makes no sense to vote for someone who can’t possibly serve.”

Campion agrees. “Vermonters are practical,” he said. “Elections are not about…celebrating somebody who’s dead.”

Bongartz and Campion also raised concerns about the political repercussions of a Sears win.

If one of the two candidates with the highest vote count in the primary cannot serve in the position they’re running for, the decision returns to the Senate district, Dandeneau explained. So if Sears were to win, a committee made up of Democrats in the towns he represented would convene to vote on who should replace him in the general election.

This district committee system, Bongartz said, “is really for emergencies,” and has the potential to be “highly undemocratic.”

Rob Plunkett, a deputy state’s attorney from Bennington, appears to be the only Democrat hoping to bypass this process through a write-in campaign.

“I think there’s a very good chance that (Plunkett) wins outright,” said Bongartz of the primary.

Plunkett wasn’t even considering a run, the candidate said, until Campion approached him. He’s a newcomer to politics.

“The goal is to win a write-in campaign,” Plunkett said. Though he’s uncertain of his chances in the primary, he said “the response has been wonderful” from community members with whom he’s spoken.

Campaigning in this way, rather than waiting until after the primaries to emerge as a candidate, is “the much more democratic approach,” said Campion.

At least one other aspiring senator is taking a different approach than Plunkett. Manchester Selectboard member Jonathan West formally declared his candidacy earlier this month, the Manchester Journal reported, but he is not waging a write-in campaign. Rather, West is urging residents of the district to vote for Sears one last time. Doing so “honors his legacy and commitment and dedication,” he said in a campaign announcement. 

West, chief technology officer at the Legal Conversion Center, said he hopes to be selected by county Democrats to replace Sears on the ballot if the late senator prevails. According to the Journal, at a recent Democratic committee meeting three other people publicly expressed interest in having their names added to the ballot after the primary — and many more have privately expressed interest to the county party chair. 

Cynthia Browning, a former House Democrat from Arlington, plans to run as an independent in the general election.

Joe Gervais of East Arlington, the only registered Republican candidate in the race, said he’s unfazed by what he called “chaos on the Democrat ticket.” 

He said he thinks a high number of Bennington voters will choose the late Sen. Sears on their ballot, but said he couldn’t speculate on the likely outcome.

Democratic leadership has a similar position: Dandeneau said the party had no official preference for the outcome of the primary. 

“We’re letting the chips fall where they may,” he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story omitted Jonathan West’s candidacy.

Read the story on VTDigger here: In Bennington County’s Senate primary, the late Dick Sears remains on the ballot.

As floodwaters swept through Vermont earlier this month, communities sought to share and receive emergency updates as quickly as possible. Some turned to town Facebook pages, some exchanged observations with neighbors at the general store, and some waited for official updates to get the information they needed to stay safe. 

Clear, timely alerts “could be imperative for life safety,” said Brett LaRose, the operations and logistics chief for Vermont Emergency Management. In an emergency, he said, every second counts.

When Vermonters waste time making calls and scanning social media platforms in search of updates they can trust, they have less time to prepare for flooding events and, eventually, to recover from them, according to Jason Van Driesche, chief of staff for the communications platform Front Porch Forum.

“People need good information right away so they can get back to whatever they have to do to deal with the emergency,” he said.

Though a statewide alert system — Vermont Emergency Management’s VT-ALERT platform — disperses location-specific information via text, email, phone calls and a mobile app, it doesn’t have a broad reach. 

Just under 64,000 people have registered for VT-ALERT, according to LaRose. “Pushing out awareness about the VT-ALERT notification system is an annual priority,” he said. “I would like to see a much larger number.”

When registering for VT-ALERT, Vermonters can select what municipalities they want to receive notifications for and what categories of notifications they want to receive — including health alerts, weather warnings and more. It’s more granular than the Wireless Emergency Alert system that the state uses, which delivers urgent threat-to-life and missing person notifications to most phones without a registration process.

But many towns, specifically those in rural Vermont, don’t have enough staff to regularly send updates to state officials who run VT-ALERT, or to run a branch of the system entirely on their own. And even if they did, many of their residents aren’t subscribed to VT-ALERT.

Washington County, with just 19% of residents enrolled in the VT-ALERT system, nonetheless has the highest rate of participation of any Vermont county. In rural Essex County, which has the lowest percentage of VT-ALERT subscribers, only 226 people have signed up out of around 6,000 inhabitants.

Town officials sometimes use other virtual platforms that have a wider reach.

Front Porch Forum has about 235,000 members in Vermont, Van Driesche said — almost four times the number of VT-ALERT subscribers. Even though crisis communications have never been “front and center” in the company’s mission, he said, announcements about road closures, emergency shelters and more have become more common as town officials use the platform as their megaphone during crises. 

But even Front Porch Forum posts take time to craft and distribute to subscribers — time that town officials might not have at the height of an emergency. 

‘Friends and neighbors’

In the Addison County town of Bridport, locals often report emergencies to Pratt’s Store, according to Corey Pratt, the general store’s owner. Pratt, who is also a member of the volunteer fire department, said that when news about flood damage came in during last summer’s historic storm, and then again earlier this month, he was among the first to know.

“We find out almost immediately when something’s wrong,” he said. “We really find that we’re a first response to it.”

He said he often calls in his reports to town officials.

Addison Town Clerk Cheri Waterman, whose office is 10 minutes down the road, said she had heard important flood updates through word of mouth and Facebook. The washout of Route 17 on July 11 made its way to her “3rd, 4th, 5th-hand” in a system of what she calls “local intel.”

Pratt said he isn’t always prepared to be a de facto public official. People call him about everything from “a lady with a cat stuck in her tree” to genuine emergencies, sometimes instead of calling 911, he said. 

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” he said, laughing. But when push comes to shove, he’s always willing to help out. “They’re not just our customers — they’re our friends and neighbors,” he said.

Other rural towns rely on networks similar to Addison’s “local intel,” but create community forums on virtual platforms rather than in the general store.

In the Northeast Kingdom town of Lyndon, town officials use Facebook as their main avenue to communicate with residents, according to Assistant Town Clerk Denise Montgomery. In the wake of this month’s floods, posts have ranged from boil water notices to instructions for how to report flood damage. 

But the Facebook page only has 490 subscribers — less than 10% of Lyndon’s population. Another Facebook page, which announces general information for a broader area including nearby St. Johnsbury, has 4,600 subscribers. Those platforms are how residents can stay informed, Montgomery said, both during emergencies and otherwise.  

Lyndon leaders don’t send updates to the state officials who run VT-ALERT, according to Montgomery. “We just don’t have the time to get on board (with VT-ALERT) right now,” she said, considering the energy and resources it takes to recover from the floods — especially in Caledonia County, which saw the most rainfall during the July 10 storm.

For most town officials in Canaan, this month’s flooding was their first major emergency, according to Town Clerk Zachary Brown. The Essex County town was relatively unscathed in last summer’s floods, but “we paid for it this year,” he said wryly.

Brown, too, largely communicated with his constituents via the town Facebook page, and its website. Though he felt confident that the community was generally kept informed, the town’s staff members were nonetheless pushed to their limit.

Small towns like Canaan have just enough capacity to run day-to-day operations, he said. So, “in an emergency, no one’s actually prepared.”

“We rely on volunteers stepping up,” he said.

Brown said the town hadn’t previously signed up to operate VT-ALERT locally, but given the events of the last few weeks, he plans to change that.

Town leaders aren’t alone. State lawmakers also report feeling overstretched when it comes to updating community members about emergencies.

Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, said that she has become a source of emergency information for her constituents. During the pandemic, she began releasing updates and resources via email and Front Porch Forum. “I heard from a lot of constituents that I was really the only one that provided them with information,” she said. 

“I take that really seriously, as part of my responsibilities as a state senator,” she continued, “especially in times of crisis.”

These means of communication all take time and money. At the moment, Hardy said, it feels like a public service that’s being privately funded.

Sen. Andrew Perchlik, D/P-Washington, agrees with Hardy that the model must change. He said relying on under-resourced individuals in rural communities is not a sustainable model for emergency communications, especially when volunteer emergency management directors have limited bandwidth and little professional assistance.

And while there are three regional coordinators for Vermont Emergency Management — responsible for connecting local officials with the department’s resources — Perchlik said they are spread too thin to be substantially helpful on a local level. “It's hard for that coordinator to be that much of a resource for all those little towns,” he said.

“I don't have good answers,” Perchlik said, acknowledging the lack of funding for more professional staff in such small towns. He mentioned the possibility of audible sirens, of the kind that some local fire departments still use, to alert the public of possible threats.

Sirens could potentially reach additional people, especially in areas where cell phone networks are weak. A December 2022 report from the state Department of Public Service found that AT&T had the highest rate of call reliability, with just 55% of Vermont's buildings — including homes and businesses — located in areas where all AT&T calls go through successfully.

‘Only so much time’ 

Montpelier’s communications coordinator, Evelyn Prim, said the city is exploring all avenues of emergency alerts, including a city-specific alert system.

“People are busy. They have lives. They don't have time to read every newsletter,” Prim said. “So it’s all about having many systems in place so that people have options and don't have to spend time wondering what to do when an emergency strikes.”

Prim said VT-ALERT is Montpelier’s “first line of defense” in emergency situations, largely because it has the widest reach of any of the city’s communication platforms, with about 10,000 subscribers. For hyper-local alerts, she can choose which subscribers within the region will receive messages. That comes in handy during floods, she said, when just a few feet in elevation can change how much a household is at risk. 

“We have hills and waterways and low-lying areas and such a diverse landscape,” Prim said. “With (VT-ALERT) we don't have to constantly bombard everyone with things that don't necessarily apply to them. We can target it.”

According to LaRose at Vermont Emergency Management, this is the best possible solution. “Nobody knows their communities better than the people that work and live in them,” he said. While state officials can issue local messages through the VT-ALERT system without input from town leaders, those messages are more targeted and timely when generated from within town lines.

But Prim also relies on other platforms, including Front Porch Forum, Facebook, Instagram and Notify Me — a messaging system run through the city’s website — to make sure residents can access emergency updates regardless of what technology they have access to. 

Crafting accurate and efficient posts on each of those platforms takes time, Prim said, and wouldn’t be possible without a full-time communications administrator like her. Even so, “there’s only so much time in the day when you’re a department of one,” she said.

But having access to an alert system — and the staff to run it — is just the first step, she said. Cities also need residents who are willing to sign up to receive messages, and that engagement is never guaranteed.

Towns without communications departments have to get creative, according to Waterbury Municipal Manager Tom Leitz. When floods left many Waterbury homes and businesses underwater in July 2023, the town didn’t even have a Facebook page to communicate with its residents, he said. He started one a week later to start sharing information about flood recovery resources. 

“We saw a need to fill that gap,” he said. “You need to have access to information to know how to respond to an emergency like this.”

For the past year, he’s looked for an alert system that would best fit Waterbury’s needs. He said he found it in a system called TextMyGov, a platform also used by Middlebury.

“The great irony,” he said, is that he wasn’t able to schedule his training for the system until July 10, 2024 — the day the rain that fueled this summer’s floods began.

He said the town will start rolling out the new system by the end of the month. Leitz opted for the system because it facilitates communication from town officials to residents, and vice versa. Once enrolled, residents can make reports to the town — including everything from flagging mundane problems such as potholes to sending crucial updates about flood damage, he said.

The platform will allow Leitz to get emergency updates to residents instantaneously, rather than hoping they find his messages in a stream of non-urgent Facebook or Front Porch Forum posts “about garage sales and missing pets.”

The system will eat into the town’s budget with its $5,000 annual operating fee and will add more to Leitz’s already overflowing plate of town responsibilities. But “it’s worth it,” he said, to keep locals informed and safe.

Preparing for the future of emergency communications

Town officials interviewed by VTDigger — even those with formal alert systems in place — said they still rely on some unofficial communication platforms, such as Facebook and Front Porch Forum, to send alerts during emergencies. 

But some worry that informal platforms won’t always meet their needs.

For example, while public officials can use Front Porch Forum for free, they are limited in how much they can post “in order to keep the conversation centered on neighbors,” Van Driesche said. According to the company’s terms of use, Front Porch Forum can “set limits on the maximum number and/or size” of posts and “may reduce or eliminate the ability of selected categories of public officials to post on (Front Porch Forum) for a period of time before an election.”

Van Driesche said Front Porch Forum “typically exempt(s) any posting related to a significant emergency from those limits.” And Front Porch Forum staff members publish emergency alerts from town officials as soon as they come in, rather than waiting to post them in the typical evening newsletter, according to Chloe Tomlinson, the company’s community division director.

But Prim, in Montpelier, said Front Porch Forum staff didn’t consider her flood alerts this month to be related to a “significant emergency,” so she had to take steps to limit how much each city official was posting.

Hardy said that, at the moment, she can only post on Front Porch Forum twice a month — which isn’t enough to address locals’ concerns about flood recovery.

The Addison County senator chairs the Senate Government Operations Committee, and said she worked to address issues of emergency preparedness in the last legislative session. Act 143 provides for a number of improvements to emergency communications — including reviews of existing systems and expansion of their accessibility — as well as more cooperation between VT-ALERTS and the state’s Enhanced 911 Board.

That law took effect on July 1. “Obviously, they weren't able to do anything in those 11 days (before this year’s flooding) to make any improvements,” Hardy said.

LaRose said that after the passage of Act 143, a task force was assembled to improve the state's emergency preparedness, including its alert systems. The goal of the group, he said, is to “find solutions to be able to communicate with all people that live in the state of Vermont.”

This includes people with limited internet connection, people whose first language is not English, and people who are hard of hearing, he said.

Hardy said expanding accessibility is important but emphasized that it’s only a start. “It's not an issue that we could solve just by passing a bill,” she said.

Some cities are taking the state’s lead and are reforming their communication systems now to prepare for the future. 

“It's really important in this day and age of a changing climate to figure out the right way to distribute urgent information,” said Robert Goulding, public information manager for Burlington’s public works department.

Although there was no need to send alerts in Burlington during this month’s floods, the city is constantly expanding its understanding and use of VT-ALERT so it is prepared for future crises, according to Goulding. Burlington was “fairly limited in rapid and effective communication” before 2020, but now alerts “reach pockets in milliseconds,” he said — about 20,000 pockets to be precise, meaning almost half the city’s population.

It’s all to ensure that Burlington is prepared, he said. 

“I imagine, as floods become more dire and rainfall becomes more intense, that we are going to unfortunately have more use for (VT-ALERT),” he said. “Luckily, we have a tool like it in place.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: As Vermont’s weather worsens, emergency communications aren’t reaching all of its rural residents.