Updated at 6:03 p.m.

A Morrisville man has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of a Hardwick woman two months ago in Vermont.

Michael A. Williams, 60, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon, according to Vermont State Police. 

He pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Caledonia County Superior criminal court in St. Johnsbury to charges of aggravated domestic assault and second-degree murder in the killing of Tina Daigle, 38, who authorities said was strangled to death.

Daigle was killed in Caledonia County on June 19, according to state police. Her body was left and then discovered on the side of Route 14 in Woodbury. 

Claire Burns, interim Caledonia County state’s attorney, argued during Wednesday’s court hearing for Williams to be held without bail.

“The weight of the evidence, the state contends, is great,” Burns told Judge Michael Kainen. “In this instance, we have a 17-page affidavit detailing roughly two months of thorough, consistent investigation undertaken by the Vermont State Police.” 

Williams has a previous conviction for aggravated domestic assault involving a different woman that resulted in a 10-year prison sentence, Burns said. “He was found guilty of having choked a girlfriend – eerily similar factual pattern to this instance,” Burns said.

Attorney Brandon Sheffert, representing WIlliams, opposed the prosecutor’s request to hold his client in custody without bail. Sheffert said Williams had lengthy ties to Vermont and was not a risk of flight. 

“My client, in the affidavit, went to the police on several occasions when requested to do interviews,” Sheffert said. “He has been in the area for two months. If he had wanted to flee, he could have back in June.”

Kainen sided with the prosecutor, ruling Williams would remain in custody without bail pending a hearing on the strength of the state’s evidence in the case. 

Police had released few details about the investigation leading up to Williams’ arrest Tuesday. More information became public Wednesday following his arraignment, when an affidavit of probable cause in support of the charges against him was released.

Williams, who had been interviewed several times as part of the investigation, told police he lived with Daigle and they had been in a relationship for about eight years, state police Detective Sgt. Drew Cota wrote in the affidavit. 

Daigle had recently told Williams she no longer wanted him to reside at the Hardwick residence, Daigle’s family members and Williams reported to police, according to the affidavit. 

Daigle’s family members told police about past alleged instances of abuse by Williams toward Daigle, and that she had obtained a restraining order against him in the past, the affidavit stated.

Williams told police that, on the night of June 18, Daigle left the residence and then returned early that morning only to leave again on her own, departing on foot away from the residence, according to the affidavit. However, according to the affidavit, police obtained video footage from a nearby residence that did not show anyone leaving the property on foot during the timeframe Williams said Daigle left the home. 

The video footage did show a vehicle coming and going from the property, the affidavit stated.  GPS data showed the vehicle left the property twice early on the morning of June 19 and traveled on Route 14 to the area of the pull off in Woodbury where Daigle’s body was later found, according to the affidavit. The GPS showed the vehicle stayed at the pull-off for a short period each time before returning to the Hardwick residence, the affidavit stated. 

When confronted during a police interview Tuesday about the GPS information from the vehicle, according to the affidavit, Williams denied driving into the pull-off or the woods where Daigle’s body was found.

Williams agreed Tuesday to take a polygraph and the results revealed “the accused showed deception on multiple questions regarding the murder of the victim,” according to the affidavit. 

If convicted of the murder charge alone, Williams faces a minimum sentence of 20 years behind bars and a maximum sentence of life in prison.  

Read the story on VTDigger here: Morrisville man accused of killing Hardwick woman pleads not guilty to murder charge.

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury announced upcoming cuts to staff and two hospital programs on Tuesday, joining other medical facilities across the state making similar announcements.

The cuts, which will take effect Sept. 30, include five positions: three in occupational medicine and one each in community health coordination and physical therapy, the hospital said in a press release this week. These staffing cuts come on top of three administrative positions cut earlier this year.

The hospital will be shuttering its occupational medicine office — that works “onboarding new employees with physicals and immunizations” — transferring partial services to Northern Express Care, which operates three walk-in clinics in northeastern Vermont. Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital will also be ending its partnership for ear, nose and throat care with Littleton Regional Healthcare, transitioning patients to the hospital’s own providers.

“I want to emphasize that these reductions are in no way a reflection of performance or dedication — they’re about ensuring that our organization remains strong and resilient for the communities we serve,” the hospital’s CEO Shawn Tester said in the release.

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital is one of the Northeast Kingdom’s largest providers of health care. According to regulator Green Mountain Care Board, the hospital is in the mid-range of its peer facilities across the state, with over $120 million patient revenue, the sixth highest in fiscal year 2024. 

In the Thursday release, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital officials said more may be needed to ensure the hospital’s financial future, including adjustments made to employees schedules like reductions in overtime, “efficiency improvements” for hospital technology, and a review of certain employee benefits for “identify potential savings with minimal impact, including early retirement options for those who qualify.”

“In order to assist in lowering the cost of health care for Vermonters, while keeping essential services local, we must find savings,” Tester said. “These difficult decisions are necessary to …  preserve our ability to serve the Northeast Kingdom well into the future.”

In the release, the hospital blamed “rising labor and supply costs, reduced reimbursement rates and regulatory budget requirements,” for the cuts. 

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital is not the only hospital or medical system facing similar issues. 

In June, Brattleboro Hospital laid off hospital leaders to address a $4 million hole in its budget. The University of Vermont Health Network announced it would be cutting 77 positions in the same week Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital announced its cuts. 

These layoffs come as Vermont’s health care leaders look to address the systemic challenges — an aging population and a large number financially challenged hospitals — of a “badly broken” health care system that have resulted in increasingly high health insurance costs. The cuts also come as hospitals brace for the impacts of the Trump administration’s incoming cuts to Medicaid insurance.

“NVRH isn’t going anywhere. We’re here for the long haul and we’re deeply grateful to our entire team for their commitment,” Tester said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Citing rising costs, St. Johnsbury hospital joins other Vermont hospitals in announcing cuts.

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

PEACHAM — The green clapboard house where Jenny Mackenzie lived for over two decades sits boarded up and ghostly along a narrow gravel road in the Northeast Kingdom. Late one night last July, the brook that once snaked lazily around the property frothed into a raging river, jumping course. Mackenzie’s family of four escaped before their home was inundated. They haven’t lived here since.

On a sunny morning nearly a year after the flood, Mackenzie returned with a shovel and a trunk full of empty flower pots. She was here to salvage some of her once sprawling gardens. Much of what had bloomed here had simply disappeared; the lawn had collapsed into the brook, leaving a gaping hole. Yet Mackenzie was determined. She scaled down the steep ledge above the water, hanging onto a root for balance.

“Operation rescue!” she called out, grasping for a piece of a mallow plant. “Just one little piece, but it’ll spread.”

Last summer’s flood wasn’t the first to hit the property. In 2011, Tropical Storm Irene compromised the home’s foundation. So the family poured over $100,000 into flood-proofing the house, fortifying its base, along with replacing its electric and heating systems and repairing its well. Federal disaster grants and loans helped cover some of the costs, but Mackenzie didn’t recall any officials suggesting her family apply for a buyout. She painstakingly replanted her flower gardens. 

This time around, there would be no returning to the house — for the Mackenzies, or anyone else. FEMA had recently approved the family’s buyout application, meaning that some day, the government would compensate the Mackenzies for this place, and knock it down. The lot would be held as open space in perpetuity. 

But as far as Mackenzie knows, that day is still far in the future — another year from now, at least. Hands covered in silt and dirt, she paused to consider the long task ahead.

“I guess I get another summer to come dig things out,” she said.

‘On the edge of a knife’

After historic flooding swept through Vermont in 2023 and 2024, hundreds of property owners applied for buyouts to try and get compensated for homes and businesses they would likely struggle to sell.

Vanishingly few have happened yet. State officials are currently overseeing 264 FEMA buyout applications. Of those, only eight property owners have gotten their payouts so far. Zero demolitions have occurred as of mid-July 2025, according to data provided by Vermont Emergency Management.

“It feels like a very low number, two years out,” said Stephanie Smith, the state hazard mitigation officer for Vermont Emergency Management.

FEMA’s buyout process is notoriously slow and arduous, requiring local and state and federal officials to all work together. 

But Smith’s team, which manages federal buyout applications on behalf of Vermont cities and towns, had worked hard to speed things up, she said. Streamlining the application process on the state’s end helped cut down FEMA’s review period from a year and a half to about three months, as of this past winter, Smith said.

Soon after President Donald Trump took office, though, roadblocks started to arise. In February, applications that Smith expected FEMA to greenlight relatively quickly sat idle for months. Meanwhile, the Trump administration began reviewing the efficacy of FEMA programs; more than $100 billion in FEMA grant payments were frozen, and grant approvals stalled, according to reporting from the New York Times. (FEMA’s press office declined an interview request for this story, and did not answer detailed questions from VTDigger/Vermont Public).

This spring, FEMA started sending out approval letters again. But then came the next hurdle: It began quietly changing its rules for authorizing buyout applications, raising the bar on which projects it approves, Smith said. In early April, the agency, at the direction of the Trump administration, altered which projects it views as cost-effective, according to a mid-June press release.

“We were like … OK, here’s a giant brick wall. Deep breath, what do we do?” Smith said. “We don’t want to have to tell people that they’re not going to get buyouts. We told them they were going to get buyouts.”

Asked why the agency opted to make this change, FEMA’s press office said in a statement – attributed to an unnamed spokesperson — that hazard mitigation decisions are “policy informed.” The Trump administration is monitoring the approval of hazard mitigation funding, “with states’ ability to execute those funds,” the statement said.

“To date, we are observing large unobligated balances across the board. We are working with states to assist them in identifying projects and drawing down balances in a way that makes the nation more resilient.”

When state officials learned of the cost rule change in late May — prior to its official announcement — they scrambled to rework all the applications they were getting ready to send to FEMA, along with ones currently under the agency’s review, Smith said. 

Almost 100 retooled applications later, all are still in the pipeline, for now. But Smith doesn’t feel relieved. If an already-approved application were to need any kind of tweaking, it would suddenly need to comply with different rules. For people still awaiting a decision from FEMA, that lengthy undertaking has slowed down. And given the Trump administration’s calls to eliminate FEMA and devolve its functions to states, everything seems precarious.

“It feels like we’re on the edge of a knife a little bit, and toggling … and just trying to keep everything balanced,” Smith said.

‘We’re all nervous’ 

Hundreds of Vermonters are caught in that balance. Many are waiting to hear whether FEMA will advance their applications. Many others have cleared that step, but are biding their time before the money finally arrives — and navigating tricky financial decisions in the meantime.

Peter Anthony, a former state representative for Barre City, had owned his home on Scampini Square for nearly 50 years. The July 2023 flood totaled it, and more flood damage came a year later, he said. Anthony and his wife have lived in a small downtown apartment since August 2023, which FEMA rental assistance helped pay for until January. 

Two years after applying, Anthony recently received indication that his buyout is finally near the finish line. He expects to sit down and sign the closing paperwork later this summer. 

Yet he doesn’t expect the payout to solve his financial woes. Anthony wants to buy another home in Barre. But the appraisal he received through the buyout process — which is pegged to the home’s pre-flood value — is $175,000, Anthony said, an amount that would “maybe buy half a house” in the current market. And he isn’t getting any younger.

“How many mortgages can you get when you’re 81 years old for a house that you want to buy?” Anthony said.

To the east in Peacham, Rachael Moragues is also waiting on the money. She lived next door to the Mackenzies with her two sons, and they’ve bunked up at a friend’s house in neighboring Barnet since the flooding in 2024 rendered their home uninhabitable. Each month, Moragues still makes a mortgage payment on a house she’ll never live in again, she said. 

She’s keeping an eye on the fate of FEMA. If for any reason her buyout doesn’t go through, she’d need to file for bankruptcy to pay off the house, she said.

“We’re all nervous because FEMA is one of those agencies that may or may not receive funding in the future,” Moragues said.

‘A really big risk’

Looking at her old, boarded-up home, Mackenzie said she worries about what Trump’s calls to cut FEMA will mean for families like hers across the country. But she knows she’s relatively fortunate.

Friends crowdsourced enough money for her family to pay off the mortgage on their Peacham home after the flood, along with the loan they had to pay for the flood-fortification work post-Irene. They had just enough left over to put a down payment on a home in Craftsbury, she said.

The new house is over 30 miles away — and their monthly mortgage payment is close to triple what it had been for the old house. The home is too expensive for Mackenzie and her husband, both teachers, to afford long-term, she said. They took the leap even before they learned they’d gotten the buyout approved, to ensure their 16-year-old twins would have a place to call home before they move away for college.

“It was a really, really big risk for us to move there,” Mackenzie said. “The buyout is completely necessary in order to refinance, to get our mortgage to a level around where this one was.” 

Mackenzie flipped open the trunk of her car, and filled it with daffodil bulbs and irises. She took off down the narrow gravel road. It was time to start planting at her new home.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Since the historic floods of 2023, few Vermont residents have buyout money in hand.

Milky skies were carrying smoke and haze from Canadian wildfires across northern and central Vermont on Tuesday — prompting state officials to issue a one-day air quality alert across the state. 

Smoke and haze rolled in early Tuesday morning and are expected to linger through the afternoon and night, according to Tyler Danzig, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Burlington. 

Officials warned that sensitive groups should take breaks and monitor their conditions when spending time outdoors. 

Individuals with heart or lung issues, older adults, children, people who work outside and those experiencing homelessness are especially at risk, according to state health officials. Sensitive groups can spend time outside but should take more breaks than usual, according to officials. 

People with asthma are recommended to keep medication handy. Those with heart disease should watch out for palpitations, fatigue and shortness of breath. 

Sensitive groups could continue to feel the effects of exposure up to 24 hours after the haze has passed, according to Danzig. 

The alert spans across Grand Isle, Franklin, Orleans, Essex, Chittenden, Lamoille, Caledonia, Washington, Addison and Orange counties. 

Officials recommend Vermonters sign up for air quality alerts, limit their exposure and keep an eye on forecasts. 

The smoke and haze are coming from wildfires in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Danzig said. Many of those fires have been ablaze for weeks and caused similar conditions in Vermont earlier this summer.

Skies may tinge orange this evening, but the air should clear overnight, Danzig said. The alert stands all day Tuesday and will not likely be extended for another day, according to Bennet Leon, who monitors air quality for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the length of the alert.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Officials issue air quality warning for northern and central Vermont .

Caledonia County State’s Attorney Jessica Zaleski plans to resign as the county’s top prosecutor on July 25. 

The Caledonian Record first reported the decision last week. 

In an interview, Zaleski said the choice was sparked by a desire to move closer to her parents in North Dakota. She’s tapped Claire Burns, a deputy state’s attorney, to take over the office in an interim capacity. 

State’s attorneys in Vermont are elected every four years. Following a resignation, the local political party of the resigning prosecutor submits names to the governor for consideration. The governor then appoints a replacement — typically from the list of suggested candidates. 

Though she cited family reasons for her departure, Zaleski noted that “everything” about the job had changed during her tenure, making the work more challenging. 

“The caseload, the volume of violent crime — particularly homicides — the inability to properly staff the office in a way that controls and manages the workload,” she said.

The judicial system would benefit from more staff in all roles, Zaleski said, including defense attorneys and judges.

Vermont’s stubborn court backlog, exacerbated during Covid-19, has been a constant focus for prosecutors, the defense bar and lawmakers in recent years. 

According to data from the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, most prosecutors have more than 200 criminal cases on their docket. Since the end of 2023, the number of pending homicide dockets statewide has increased by about 30%, from 90 to 117, as of May. Zaleski’s office has prosecuted a number of high-profile shootings and homicides, including a case involving a 15-year-old charged with second-degree murder last year. 

Caledonia County has the second most severe case backlog in the state, according to state data, measured by the percent of pending cases older than the state’s disposition guidelines recommend. 

Reflecting on the challenges she’s encountered on the job, Zaleski cited frustrations with Vermont’s juvenile justice system, particularly the lack of a secure detention facility for children and youth offenders. In the rural Northeast Kingdom, accessing resources — like mental health and substance use treatment — is a constant concern for community members, she said. 

Despite the job’s difficulties, the prosecutor said there was much to enjoy about her work. 

“The experience generally has been exhausting but incredibly fulfilling. I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done under incredible pressure and lack of resources,” she said. 

Zaleski is one of at least three prosecutors to leave office in the past year. Former Windham County State’s Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver stepped down mid-term in July 2024. Last month, longtime Windham County Deputy State’s Attorney David Gartenstein retired. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Caledonia County State’s Attorney Jessica Zaleski to step down later this month.

After nearly a decade in federal receivership, Burke Mountain Resort finally has new owners. 

On Friday, Bear Den Partners LLC, a group with longstanding ties to the Northeast Kingdom ski area, officially closed on the $11.5 million deal to buy the 72-year old resort. 

Bear Den Partners includes Burke Mountain Academy — the elite alpine ski racing school located in the area — and the Graham family, who briefly owned the mountain in the early 2000s. Also included in the new ownership group is the Schaefer family, owners of the Berkshire East Mountain Resort in Massachusetts.

The group first announced its bid to acquire Burke Mountain in early April, and a federal judge formally signed off on the deal last week. 

At a Tuesday press conference celebrating the sale, representatives from Bear Den Partners outlined their plans to revamp the ski resort, which they have previously said would cost about $30 million in total.

“I think we have an opportunity to really unleash the potential here with the right capital investment to drive important automation and improvements in snowmaking, especially,” Ken Graham, chair and co-founder of Bear Den Partners, said Tuesday. “We’re prepared. We’re coming in swinging, I’d say.”

As a first order of business, the owners intend to triple the resort’s snowmaking capacity at Burke Mountain Resort by this coming winter with the hopes of considerably lengthening the resort’s ski season, Graham said. 

The group also plans to expand the skiable terrain on the mountain. 

Jon Schaefer, who expects to helm the resort’s operations, said in an interview that the group was beginning the permitting process to begin renovations on the mountain “right away” and that minor lift upgrades could expand access as soon as next season.

Eventually, he said, the owners hope to cut entirely new trails on the mountain, adding new runs for skiers of all levels. “In time there will be some more transformative changes,” Schaefer said.

Prior to the sale, Burke Mountain Resort had been languishing under court-ordered receivership since 2016, when the business was seized by the federal government after regulators accused its former owner, Ariel Quiros, of widespread fraud.

At the time, Quiros, a Miami businessman, was funding upgrades to the resort and other projects in the surrounding area with money gained through the EB-5 visa program — which pairs foreign investors with large-scale development projects in the U.S. in exchange for legal residency status — and was accused by regulators of orchestrating “a ponzi-like scheme.” 

Regulators accused Quiros and others of misappropriating $200 million of the more than $350 million they raised from foreign investors. In April 2022, Quiros was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the scheme, while two others — Bill Stenger, former president of Jay Peak Resort, which Quiros also owned, and William Kelly, a longtime friend and adviser to Quiros — received 18 month sentences. 

As the court ordered receiver of both Jay Peak and Burke Mountain, Michael Goldberg, a Florida-based lawyer, continued to operate both resorts before selling the former to Pacific Group Resorts in 2022 for $76 million.

But Goldberg struggled to offload Burke Mountain Resort, announcing on multiple occasions that he was on the cusp of reaching deals that subsequently fell through. 

Meanwhile, Goldberg has said in court filings, the ski area was operating at a large deficit on a year to year basis while incurring expenses from deferred maintenance. 

“The receiver himself and the staff under receivership did the best they could, but there was this huge amount of uncertainty,” said Willy Booker, headmaster of the Burke Mountain academy. “It’s a huge moment to have that chapter closed.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Jon Schaefer’s name.

Read the story on VTDigger here: New owners announce major upgrades after finalizing sale of Burke Mountain Resort.

A federal judge has signed off on the sale of Burke Mountain Resort for $11.5 million, releasing the Northeast Kingdom ski mountain from nearly a decade of federal receivership. 

Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued an order Thursday in U.S. District Court in Miami formally approving the sale of Burke Mountain to Bear Den Partners LLC, a consortium of entities with longstanding ties to the ski resort. 

“A private sale to the Buyer is the only current viable alternative for preserving and capturing the value of the Assets for the benefit of the receivership estate,” Gayles wrote in the court order.

The ski area’s buyer is a group that includes Burke Mountain Academy, a world-class ski racing school located in Burke, and the Graham family, who briefly owned the resort in the early 2000s. The group has pledged to put around $30 million into the resort to fund significant upgrades to its lift infrastructure and the hotel at the base of the mountain. 

Melissa Gullotti, a spokesperson for Bear Den Partners, said that pending a few administrative details being resolved, the group expects to formally close the deal in early May. 

The decision comes just days after Michael Goldberg, the lawyer overseeing the resort’s receivership, asked Gayles to approve the deal, writing at the time that the agreement was “in the best interest of the investors, the employees and the Burke ski community.”

Gayles appointed Goldberg receiver of Burke Mountain Resort and Jay Peak, another Northeast Kingdom ski area, in 2016, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought a civil suit against Ariel Quiros, the former owner of both properties, and Bill Stenger, former CEO of Jay Peak. The two men were accused of defrauding investors participating in the federal EB-5 visa program in what has since become the largest fraud case in Vermont history. 

In 2022, Goldberg sold Jay Peak to Pacific Group Resorts Inc., a Utah-based management company, for $76 million. About $60 million of that went to defrauded investors, though it only covered an average of 22% of their losses. 

In court filings, Goldberg has suggested that much of the proceeds from the sale of Burke Mountain Resort would similarly go toward making the investors whole, although it’s unclear how much they would receive. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Federal judge approves $11.5 million sale of Burke Mountain Resort.

Gov. Phil Scott has announced Brandon Thrailkill as Caledonia County’s new sheriff, according to a Monday press release. 

Though county sheriff is an elected position, Scott appointed Thrailkill to fill the role following the death in March of Caledonia County Sheriff James Hemond, who was elected in 2022 to a four-year term. Caledonia County high bailiff Robert Gerrish held the position temporarily between Hemond’s death and Thrailkill’s appointment. Thraikill’s position is effective immediately, according to the release.

Before taking the role of sheriff, Thrailkill, a Lyndonville resident, served as Caledonia County’s state transport deputy and a captain in the Sheriff’s Department. He was previously a Lyndonville police officer. 

“It’s an absolute honor to have been appointed sheriff to serve the people of Caledonia County. I have big shoes to fill but I look forward to bringing open communication, integrity and continue building trust within the communities we serve,” Thrailkill said in the press release. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Gov. Phil Scott appoints Brandon Thrailkill as Caledonia County Sheriff.

Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver overseeing Burke Mountain Resort, has asked a federal judge to sign off on the sale of the Northeast Kingdom ski resort to a local group for $11.5 million. 

In a Friday court filing, Goldberg asked Judge Darrin P. Gayles — who has presided over the mountain’s receivership in federal court in Miami for almost a decade — to grant final approval for the deal with Bear Den Partners, LLC.

The group is a consortium of parties with long-standing ties to the ski area, including Burke Mountain Academy, an elite ski school located in the area, and Ken Graham, whose family briefly owned the mountain in the early 2000s. 

Bear Den Partners also includes the Schaefer family, who own the Massachusetts ski mountain Berkshire East and the Catamount Mountain Resort in New York. The family would oversee resort operations at the resort, according to preliminary development plans shared with VTDigger.

“The Receiver unequivocally states that in his opinion Bear Den Partners is the best possible purchaser for the Burke Mountain Resort and believes that this agreement is in the best interest of the investors, the employees and the Burke ski community,” Goldberg wrote in the filing.

If approved, the sale would wind down Goldberg’s nearly decade-long receivership of the resort. Gayles first appointed Goldberg as receiver of Burke and Jay Peak, another Northeast Kingdom ski area, in 2016, when federal regulators brought a civil enforcement suit against the mountains’ former owner, Ariel Quiros, and Jay Peak CEO Bill Stenger. 

At the time, the two men were funding upgrades to both ski resorts with money from the EB-5 visa program, which pairs foreign investors with rural development projects in return for legal residency status. Regulators accused them of misappropriating $200 million of the funds they had raised in what became the largest investor fraud case in Vermont’s history.

Earlier this month, VTDigger reported that Goldberg was in the process of finalizing a contract for the sale of Burke Mountain Resort with the group, although no price had been made public at the time. 

Burke Mountain’s value is assessed by the Town of Burke at about $20 million, according to public records, which is substantially higher than the $11.5 million price tag.

But in the court filing, Goldberg said the mountain has been “negatively cash flowing” for the entirety of his receivership and has a slew of deferred maintenance obligations. 

Bear Den Partners has also indicated it plans to put $30 million overall into developing the resort in the long term, according to the filing.

“We look forward to adding our expertise to the mix and taking Burke to a level where we know it can excel for years to come,” Ken Graham said in a press release Friday. “My family has been part of the Burke community for the last 50 years, and we are really excited to help write the next chapters at Burke for decades to come.”

In the filing, Goldberg also asked the court to waive a requisite auction process that would allow other bidders to make offers for the mountain, calling such a process “very risky and not in the best interest of the receivership estate and the investors.”

Goldberg had previously attempted to sell the mountain to at least two other buyers only to have agreements fall through at the last minute. In the filing, Goldberg suggested that opening the mountain up to new bids would threaten to tank the deal with Bear Den Partners, who agreed to buy the resort on the condition that there would be no auction. 

“Bear Den Partners needs to close this transaction quickly and start making capital improvements to the property in order to complete them before next ski season,” the filing states.  

In 2022, Goldberg sold Jay Peak to the Utah-based Pacific Group Resorts Inc. for $76 million after an auction process, and most of the proceeds from the sale went to defrauded investors. 

It’s unclear how much of the money from the Burke deal would be allocated to investors, but in the filing, Goldberg said the sale would allow him to “make further distributions” to the defrauded parties.

Goldberg also wrote that Bear Den Partners had indicated it “would be willing to allow the EB-5 Parties to benefit from the job creation expected to result from Buyer’s intended investment.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burke Mountain receiver seeks final court approval for $11.5 million sale to local group.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England plans to permanently close its St. Johnsbury health center on June 3, the organization announced Tuesday. 

The closure stems from an array of challenges that have caused the location to operate at a loss in recent years, including repeated flood damage and skyrocketing health care costs, according to Jessica Barquist, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Vermont.

“This is a really intentional step that we’re taking to ensure that PPNNE’s future is secure and that this is not the first step of the end,” Barquist said.

The St. Johnsbury location is currently the only Planned Parenthood clinic operating in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom region, and its closure threatens to severely limit access to reproductive care for Vermonters in the region. The organization also has health centers in Burlington, Williston, Barre, Rutland, White River Junction and Brattleboro. 

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England does not currently expect to close or reduce services at any of its other Vermont locations, Barquist said.  

The announcement comes as Planned Parenthood of Northern New England continues to grapple with financial challenges that have beset the organization for years. The non-profit operated at a $2 million deficit in 2020 and a $1.5 million deficit in 2021, leading it to shutter five health centers in Newport, Bennington, Saint Albans, Middlebury and Hyde Park in 2022.

In August, the organization announced it was projecting an $8.6 million operating deficit over the next three years, which was primarily due to high costs of care and commensurately low reimbursement rates from private insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare, Barquist said on Tuesday. 

Of the organization’s 15 regional locations, Barquist said, the St. Johnsbury location currently operates at the greatest financial loss and the fewest patients. In fiscal year 2024, the Northeast Kingdom clinic saw just 4% of the 15,960 patients collectively served at the seven Planned Parenthood health centers in Vermont, according to statistics provided by the organization.

“Patient demand just isn’t there in the way that could combat some of the other challenges of rural health care delivery that we’re experiencing in that area, with the high cost of care delivery,” Barquist said. “And then there’s the lack of health care professionals, and the challenge of hiring and maintaining staff in that area.”

The organization is also trying to navigate an increasingly turbulent funding landscape, as the Trump administration continues to threaten grants dedicated to abortion and reproductive health services.

Earlier this month, the Trump Administration announced it was freezing a prominent source of federal funds for reproductive care in some states, including Maine and New Hampshire, cutting off a crucial funding source for Planned Parenthood clinics in the region. Title X is a federal grant program that provides millions of dollars of funding for uninsured and low income individuals to access family planning and preventative care services, like testing for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screenings and contraception education.

As of now, Vermont hasn’t seen a freeze on its federal funding, but Barquist feared that could change.

“It’s hard to say,” she said. “At this point, who knows.”  

Read the story on VTDigger here: Planned Parenthood to close St. Johnsbury clinic this summer.

In the spring of 2022, fledgling community-building organization The Civic Standard took up residence in the oldest structure on Hardwick’s Main Street: the vacant longtime Hardwick Gazette building.

The group turned the space into what Rose Friedman, executive director and co-founder of the Civic, referred to in a recent interview as a “kind of living room on Main Street-like gathering space that’s very cozy and informal and kinda funky.” 

At its headquarters, Friedman said, the nonprofit hosts everything from free weekly community suppers to twice-monthly old-time jam sessions, a recent chili cookoff to a “tremendous” number of organizing meetings for the group’s popular theater performances and other events such as the upcoming “Hardwick State,” a town-wide, weekend-long free pop-up university.

The Civic focuses on “grand and tiny experiments in getting together,” its website states, and has received state and national publicity and acclaim for its innovative work in rural community revitalization.

Recently, however, much of the organization’s discussions have been focused on the fate of its building, which needs a number of costly and urgent repairs.

The historic structure, built in 1850 and perched on the bank of the Lamoille River, sits in the floodway and its foundation suffered serious damage during the last two summers of severe flooding. While the Civic has funding in place to anchor the foundation, the group also would need to complete painting and roof repair projects just to meet the insurance company’s requirements — not to mention the myriad of other repairs needed to make the building safe, accessible, efficient and up to code.

“It’s a wildly sloping building right along the river, so it definitely makes some people really nervous,” Friedman said.

At a select board meeting late last month, the Hardwick Select Board approved the Civic’s request that the building be added to a Federal Emergency Management Agency buyout program which would cover the costs of demolishing the structure and returning the property to green space and flood plain. However, Friedman emphasized to the board that the Civic has not yet decided if it will go through with the buyout, but wanted to get into the program in case that option is the community consensus. The program is structured to allow the group to back out at a later date.

“We’re in a funny place right now where we’re holding all the possibilities of what could or should happen next and, at some point, something is going to have to be the thing that we’re moving towards,” Friedman said Friday. “But right now, we’re still in that, like, information collecting, nothing has had to be fully committed to in a way that we can’t back away from.”

In a recent newsletter, the Civic described several potential paths forward: staying and repairing the building either just enough to secure it or fixing it more completely, in order to make it usable for years to come. Or, the group could move to another building in town (preferably on Main Street) while either renting out the historic structure, putting it on the market for another organization to repair, or going ahead with the buyout and demolition.

According to Friedman, the executive director, the Civic has received a lot of thoughtful feedback since sending out the newsletter about the issue a month ago, including ideas about what to do as well as ways of thinking about how to make the decision. Some respondents suggested different ways of viewing the building’s place in history or viewing the organization’s work in relation to a physical space.

“There’s many possibilities for it outside of our relationship with it, which is tiny in the life of the building,” she said. “I mean, it was the newspaper headquarters for a hundred years, before that it was a dry goods shop … it goes back even before the records even existed.”

At the Feb. 20 selectboard meeting, Friedman told the board that much of the feedback the Civic had received was along the lines of “we’d be really sad to see it go, but totally understand.”

Some — including one selectboard member — told the organization that they never felt safe going in the building, and Friedman noted that a 10-year-old who spends a lot of time in the Civic has a recurring dream of it falling into the river. When voting to add the building to the buyout program, selectboard members said that was probably the right move for the town.

Still, Friedman said the organization continues to solicit feedback and to move forward with all possible options at the same time, including working with the Vermont Preservation Trust to get an assessment of the building’s wider needs. There is no specific deadline in mind for a final decision, but Friedman said all the courses of action the Civic is considering will likely reach a decision point within a few months.

“There’s nothing flip about how we’re approaching this or how we view our responsibility and our stewardship of the building,” Friedman said. “I do care deeply and know there’s a lot of people who care deeply about this building, and I just hope we can find this solution as a community.”

While the Civic is spending lots of time on the decision, it is also wary of “mission drift” — spending lots of time and attention on building repairs and historic preservation that would otherwise be spent on programming and the organization’s mission: to build “community and collaborate good times centered in the town of Hardwick.”

While the situation is not ideal, Friedman said grappling with what to do is a “beautifully perfect project.”

“It’s a little metaphor for the bigger conversation that’s happening all over the state and probably all over the country,” she said. “Where does history and the way our towns and cities were set up, how does this interact with this changing landscape and climate? There’s so many towns that were built along riverways for very good reason, and now those same towns find themselves vulnerable because of that.”

“How do we hold that history and hold the beauty of them, the meaning, the feeling, (in ways that) also are safe and practical and secure,” Friedman added.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Hardwick community nonprofit faces difficult decision about its historic headquarters.

The court-appointed receiver overseeing Burke Mountain is in the process of completing the sale of the ski resort to an unnamed buyer.

Michael Goldberg announced in a Wednesday press release that he was “finalizing a contract” with a bidder that “has deep roots in the community and will insure (sic) that Burke Mountain will have the stable future it deserves.”

This is the third time in as many years that Goldberg has reported the expected sale of the Northeast Kingdom resort, following similar announcements in 2023 and 2024. In both cases, Goldberg said he had received bids for the property and was planning to imminently complete the sale only to have the deals fall through.

The most recent announcement comes on the heels of a Seven Days story in which two would-be investors, Todd Firestone and Mark Greenberg, claimed that Goldberg was ignoring their offer to purchase the mountain for $10 million. Firestone and Greenberg, operating under the name Green Mountain Ski Partners, also plan to host a public forum at the Burke Community Center on Friday in an effort to whip up community support for their bid.

But in the press release, Goldberg vehemently denied he had been ignoring the two men.  

“To set the record straight, I directly dealt with the Firestone Group for nine months in 2023-24 and at the last minute they attempted in bad faith to renegotiate a lower price after we had already reached agreement on terms and spent thousands of dollars finalizing a contract,” Goldberg said.

In an email to VTDigger, Goldberg confirmed that Firestone and Greenberg had been behind an initial ill-fated bid to purchase the mountain, which VTDigger first reported on in June 2023, and which he said “blew up…when Firestone sent me an email lowering his offering price right before we were about to sign a contract.”

Goldberg’s statements appeared to sharply contradict claims Firestone and Greenberg made to Seven Days that they had made multiple offers to the receiver in recent years and had not gotten a response.

The mountain resort’s value as assessed by the Town of Burke is around $20 million, according to town records. 

VTDigger’s requests for comment sent to an email associated with Green Mountain Ski Partners were not immediately answered.

Goldberg declined to name the current bidder or the proposed price, but he said in the release that the deal was with “a more credible and financially capable buyer without any contingencies and at a higher price.”

In the release, Goldberg said that he expected the Burke community to be happier with the buyer he was working with than it would have been with Firestone and Greenberg and asked community members to “bear with” him as he finalized the deal. 

“In my opinion, this buyer will also be much better for the community as it is committing to invest many millions of dollars into snowmaking and other improvements that will greatly improve the skiing experience at Burke and will directly benefit the homeowners, business owners and others who rely on the success of Burke Mountain,” Goldberg said.

A drawn-out receivership

Goldberg was appointed as the receiver in charge of overseeing Burke Mountain and Jay Peak, another ski resort in the Northeast Kingdom, in 2016 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Ariel Quiros, the former owner of both mountains, and his associate, former Jay Peak CEO Bill Stenger.

Quiros and Stenger had funded dramatic upgrades to Jay Peak — including a water park and a new hotel — with money from the EB-5 visa program, which pairs foreign investors with rural development projects in the U.S. in exchange for legal residency.

They were also building a hotel and conference center at Burke when federal regulators brought suits against the men, alleging they had misused $200 million of the $350 million they had raised from EB-5 investors. 

Both men were also convicted for federal crimes related to a different project funded with EB-5 money — an ill-fated scheme to build an over $100 million biomedical research center in Newport — and were sentenced to prison. Stenger was released in 2023 after serving just under a year in prison, while Quiros is still serving a five-year prison term that began in 2022.

As receiver of the properties, Goldberg sold Jay Peak to Pacific Group Resorts Inc., a Park City, Utah-based company, in 2022 for $76 million after a lengthy bidding process.  

Selling off Burke has proved more difficult, however. 

Although the mountain has remained open to skiers, community members have argued that the resort — and the surrounding town — is losing value under Goldberg’s drawn-out receivership without a sense of direction or new investment.

Meanwhile, Goldberg has charged around $12 million in fees from the estate for the work he and other legal professionals have done during his receivership, according to court filings.

Prior to Goldberg’s announcement, more than 900 people had signed an online petition launched in January urging the receiver and the federal judge that appointed him to change the selling process for the mountain. The petition stated that the current “stalking horse” bidding process — in which an anonymous bidder sets a minimum price for an asset — was prohibiting other potential investors from making offers.

Frank Adams, a Burke homeowner who started the petition, said the appeal may have run its course now that Goldberg expected to sell the mountain.

“I view this as being a really good thing for the community,” Adams said of the prospective sale. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story included a misspelling of Quiros.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Court-ordered receiver says he is ‘finalizing’ sale of Burke Mountain ski resort.

Caledonia County Sheriff James Hemond died over the weekend at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, the department announced in a statement Sunday.  

“As some of you know our Sheriff has been battling a rare form of cancer,” the department’s statement read. “Most of you wouldn’t have known it as he was here almost everyday working to achieve as much of his goals as Sheriff as he could.”

Hammond was two years into a four-year term as sheriff. “He still had more to go and we will honor him by continuing to achieve his goals,” the statement added.  

The 47-year-old resident of Waterford won election to the sheriff’s post in November 2022. He had previously served nearly 20 years in the Northeast Kingdom county’s department. 

Days after the election, Hemond posted online thanking those who backed his campaign.

“I am looking forward to getting to work — building the department back up, and returning a strong, positive presence,” Hemond wrote in his post.

He also wrote about how he considered himself lucky to have “grown up, lived, worked, and played in the NEK, and even more fortunate to serve as your Sheriff, so you can do the same.” 

Tim Lueders-Dumont, director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, said in a statement that Hemond was a “dedicated public servant” known for his “professionalism and collegiality.” Lueders-Dumont said Hemond was always willing to help out other law enforcement officers in Caledonia County and across the state. 

“James was a kind and humble person who made a positive impact in the lives of those around him,” Lueders-Dumont added. 

Deputies and staff at the Caledonia County Sheriff’s Department dedicated the department’s building to him last month. “Sheriff Hemond was instrumental in getting our building renovated so that we could grow and provide more services to our community,” read a statement accompanying the dedication. 

Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux said Monday that Hemond was a person who cared deeply about his staff and his family. Hemond is survived by his wife and two children. 

“I just always found him to be very accommodating,” Marcoux said. “He was truly one of the nice people in the business.” 

Robert Gerrish, the Caledonia County high bailiff, will assume the duties of sheriff pending the appointment of a new sheriff by Gov. Phil Scott, according to Annie Noonan, labor relations and operations director for the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs.

Amanda Wheeler, a spokesperson for Scott, said in an email Monday that the governor’s office would be reaching out to the Caledonia County Republican Committee, since Hemond was elected as a Republican, to solicit a list of names to fill the sheriff’s position. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘We will honor him by continuing to achieve his goals’: Caledonia County sheriff dies at 47.

The July 2024 floods hit the small Northeast Kingdom town of Barnet particularly hard, severely washing out roads, stranding residents, damaging homes, severing water lines and inundating farms.

Amidst the destruction, residents in search of some normalcy were eager to return to the town beach on Harvey’s Lake, a sandy and grassy area with picturesque views of the water and surrounding hills, featuring picnic tables, a small playground and a pavilion.

But that local landmark, too, had been destroyed by the flooding. 

“The beach is quite an essential part of our recreation and economy and history here in Barnet,” said Dylan Ford, the town’s selectboard chair and librarian. “We really had to try to keep people out of there. It was really, really hot all summer and that is where people go and what people do.”

“I had people come into the library and say, ‘I will give you cash to fix the beach,’” she recounted. “It was really heartbreaking for people, I think, after the flood, to not have the joy of the lake.”

However, at least at that point, cash wasn’t the central issue. Rather, figuring out what permits and approvals were needed to return the beach to its pre-flood state proved particularly tricky.

“We had every [state] department down there trying to figure out what was actually affected and had to be dealt with permit-wise,” said Ford. “Not just for reimbursement, but just for environmental permitting in the state.”

In the intervening months, Barnet officials have made headway in navigating that bureaucratic maze and now have a plan in place to restore the beach by summer. But they’re worried about what the future holds for the town’s beloved beach. 

During the storm, a massive amount of water overflowed a narrow, winding brook and rushed across the beach’s parking lot. According to Christen Emerson, a longtime member of the town’s beach committee, the deluge emptied a majority of the beach’s sand and deposited debris and silt across the entire property. It also took out a chain-link fence and created two giant holes — one of which has an average depth of 9 feet. 

When the skies cleared, those holes contained a concrete bench, picnic tables, pieces of building materials and docks from lakefront properties.

After assessing the damage and closing off the space, the beach committee set to work emailing, calling and meeting with numerous state and federal officials and departments regarding permits and how exactly the beach should be repaired to potentially prevent or minimize water damage in the future.

“With everyone’s heart in the right place, it was a very complicated and confusing process,” Ford said. “At first we were told we couldn’t even put out a design idea without going through all this huge process for permitting with all these different departments.”

After a massive amount of work by Emerson and the rest of the volunteer beach committee, Ford said, the project ended up needing solely a town permit. As for the funding, “fingers crossed that FEMA is going to reimburse us,” she said. 

Ford said that Barnet is “comfortable” with the reimbursements it has received for road repairs. However, she said, “It’s a little scarier when it’s something that could be perceived of as recreation or un-essential or something … but when it comes to beaches, for us, it’s an obvious necessity. For us, it’s part of our livelihood and part of our culture here in Barnet.”

At the very end of December, five and a half months after the flood, the selectboard was finally able to award a contract to repair the beach, to be completed by June 1.

“At this point, we kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel with the beach,” said Ford. “Hopefully we can move forward with that, knowing what we know now and putting that to use and making decisions hopefully that help mitigate any destruction in the future … that’s all we can do.”

But the stewards of Harvey’s Lake Beach remain worried about its long-term future. 

According to Emerson, there are “huge concerns” the same thing will happen to the beach again. She pointed to nearby rivers and streams filled with debris, the twisting and turning brook that overflowed onto the beach, as well as a nearby defunct dam whose fate has been in limbo for years.

“We have — for years and hundreds of thousands of dollars — tried to work with different state departments to try to say, like, look, we need a way to get water over that [dam] faster,” Ford said.

This past summer, Ford said, the torrent of water did exactly what town leaders had been afraid it would do. It bypassed a manmade curve in the brook, couldn’t go over the dam because there’s no way to release the massive amount of pressure, and back-flowed across the town beach and into Harvey’s Lake.

”There is discussion currently with the state to try to address the rivers near the beach, as well as the dam, in hopes we can get things corrected in time to avoid another disaster,” Emerson said.

Ford also acknowledged the statewide worry that a similar flood event will occur yet again.

“Nobody can stop it when water wants to do what it wants to do,” Ford said, noting that a devastating road washout near the former Barnet Village Store last summer looked very similar to photos of the exact same street during the Great Flood of 1927.

Despite what Ford described as hundreds of thousands of dollars of infrastructure improvements at that very spot, including bigger culverts, different bridges and stone-lined ditches made per the state’s recommendation, “water went in the same spot and did the same amount of destruction, basically.”

“If this happens every year, it’s just unconceivable how we move forward as a state, or as these little rural towns,” she said. “We’re basically just crossing our fingers … we can love our neighbors, we can give someone a ride if they hike down their road, but to really, like fix it [and pay for it], even at the state level, how do you do that?”

“It just seems a little overwhelming sometimes,” Ford said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: A Northeast Kingdom town’s journey to restore its public beach after last year’s flooding .

Antino Pepper, who authorities said provided key information leading to capture of the suspect in the shooting and wounding of a St. Johnsbury police captain earlier this month, has picked up the $25,000 reward the town had offered in the case.

“Mr. Pepper collected his check earlier this morning from the Town Treasurer,” St. Johnsbury Town Manager Chad Whitehead said in an email Thursday to VTDigger. 

The town’s selectboard voted Monday night, as first reported by The Caledonian Record, to provide the reward to Pepper, who court records indicate had tipped off police where shooting suspect Scott Mason was hiding.

Mason was captured about three hours after police received the tip — a day and a half after the shooting — in the apartment building where Pepper reportedly told police Mason had been hiding.

Mason has since pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including attempted first-degree murder, in connection with the shooting of St. Johnsbury Police Capt. Jason Gray late on the afternoon of Dec. 13. 

The shooting occurred after police had gone to Mason’s apartment while investigating a domestic violence report.

The search for Mason prompted the state to issue its first ever Blue Alert, which is used to inform the public of an ongoing search for someone suspected of injuring or killing a police officer.

Mason, 38, is currently being held without bail at Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport. Gray has since been released from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where he was taken for treatment of his injuries. 

A day after the shooting, the St. Johnsbury Selectboard held an emergency meeting during which they approved a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Mason, who had fled the apartment house where the shooting took place. 

Pepper contacted police after the reward was offered and reported that Mason was inside an apartment building next door to the building where Mason lived and where the shooting took place, according to court documents filed in Mason’s case. 

“When Pepper was asked why he was providing information about Scott Mason, he stated Scott had ‘shot a cop’ and it wasn’t ‘cool,’” charging documents in Mason’s case asserted. 

“Pepper also stated he is also trying to get out of Vermont to go home to Louisiana and knew there was a $25,000 reward being offered for Scott’s arrest,” the court filing added.

According to court records, Pepper himself had been arrested by St. Johnsbury police on an unrelated probation violation warrant two days before the shooting, but he was not in custody when he gave police the tip.

Pepper also reported that several other people were in the apartment where Mason was hiding and that there were discussions about arranging a ride to get Mason out of the residence, the court records stated. 

After Pepper contacted authorities, according to the court filing, police obtained a warrant to search the building, and a state police tactical team raided the apartment and took Mason into custody. 

Vermont State Police Maj. David Petersen wrote in an email to the town last week that the information provided by Pepper was “essential” in leading to Mason’s capture.

“Ultimately, the information supplied by Mr. Pepper, that Mason was in a house on Portland Street, proved timely and accurate,” Petersen wrote in the email obtained by VTDigger. “VSP acted on this information and apprehended Mason.”

The town’s reward sought only information leading to the suspect’s arrest in the shooting. The FBI also offered a $25,000 reward, but that reward was based on information not only leading to the arrest but also the conviction of the suspect, a process that could take months or more than a year to resolve.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Tipster collects $25,000 reward in St. Johnsbury police shooting case.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has cleared two state police troopers of criminal wrongdoing stemming from their exchange of gunfire with a Rhode Island man that left him wounded after a lengthy multiple-vehicle pursuit in northern Vermont this summer.

Brenden Sackal, of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, was charged after the July 14 incident with a slew of offenses, including attempted murder, stemming from the chase and subsequent shootout involving Sgt. Joshua Mikkola and Trooper Richard Berlandy.

“Under the totality of the circumstances,” a press release Friday from the attorney general’s office stated, “Sergeant Mikkola and Trooper Berlandy reasonably believed that they, and other officers, were in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily harm at the hands of Mr. Sackal, and that they used necessary and appropriate force to defend themselves and others.”

Sackal, according to court filings, led police on a roughly 60-mile pursuit that began in northern New Hampshire and ended in Burke when he crashed his vehicle. Sackal immediately came out of his vehicle wearing a tactical helmet and brandishing a firearm, police said.

“Trooper Berlandy discharged his firearm as Mr. Sackal fired an ‘automatic’ weapon towards the officers,” the press release stated.

“Sergeant Mikkola fired at Mr. Sackal and Mr. Sackal fired at Sergeant Mikkola,” the release added. “After this exchange, Mr. Sackal, seemingly out of ammunition, surrendered and was taken into custody. Mr. Sackal was later treated for a non-fatal gunshot wound to the chest.”

In addition to the attorney general’s office, the press release Friday stated, the Caledonia County State’s Attorney Office reviewed the case and also determined that the use of deadly force by the troopers was justified. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Attorney general rules troopers’ actions justified in shooting of Rhode Island man after chase.

ST. JOHNSBURY— A St. Johnsbury man pleaded not guilty Monday to several charges, including attempted first-degree murder, for allegedly shooting and injuring a police captain investigating a report of domestic violence late Friday afternoon.

Court papers made public Monday ahead of Scott Mason’s arraignment provided new details of the shooting, the search for Mason and his eventual arrest early Sunday morning.

The search prompted the state to issue its first Blue Alert, which is used to inform the public of an ongoing search for someone suspected of injuring or killing a police officer.

The officer Mason has been charged with shooting, St. Johnsbury Police Capt. Jason Gray, was in stable condition at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, as of Sunday afternoon, according to an update from police at that time.

Mason, 38, entered not guilty pleas Monday to the charges against him, through his attorney, during a brief arraignment hearing in Caledonia County Superior criminal court. 

Judge Michael Kainen granted the prosecution’s request that Mason be held without bail pending a further hearing to consider the strength of its case against him.  

A large crowd packed the courtroom, including many law enforcement officers from St. Johnsbury, the Vermont State Police, as well as neighboring communities.

Mason, wearing red prison clothing with his wrists and ankles in shackles, kept his head down as he was brought into the room.

He had been originally charged with attempted second-degree murder but that charge was upgraded to attempted first-degree murder on Monday. 

Mason also pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a violent offense, carrying a deadly weapon while committing a felony, and unlawful mischief. 

If convicted of the attempted first-degree murder charge alone, Mason would face up to life in prison.

Attorney Jennifer Cleveland, who represented Mason during the court proceeding, declined comment following the hearing. She told the judge that she would only be representing Mason for the arraignment and that new counsel would need to be appointed for him due to a conflict. 

According to charging documents prepared by Vermont State Police, the lead investigative agency in the case, at around 4:30 p.m. Friday police received a call reporting a domestic assault.

Four St. Johnsbury officers responded to the scene at 261 Portland St. Gray and Officer Jasmine Hendry went into the building after finding the door to the porch unlocked, Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Drew Cota wrote in an affidavit.  

Hendry, in an interview with state police, reported that once at the top of the stairs she heard a loud bang go off and retreated down the stairs, Cota wrote in the affidavit. 

“She then realized Captain Gray was still upstairs and went to get him, but he was coming down covered in blood saying he had been shot in the arm and face and needed an ambulance,” Cota wrote in the filing. “She stated she tried to assess his wounds, but then drove him to the hospital.”

A review of Hendry’s body camera revealed that as Gray and Hendry were in the building a male voice could be heard saying, “get the fuck out,” followed by two loud bangs, after which Gray was seen coming down the stairs covered in blood, the affidavit stated.

The footage also showed that only five seconds elapsed from the time Gray got to the top of the stairs to when he was shot, according to the filing. 

Gray was initially taken to Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury by Hendry, and then airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the affidavit stated. 

Police said a later examination of Gray’s clothing and body armor showed dozens of small projectile strikes that, according to the charging documents, were “consistent in size with bird shot” from a rifle.

“Some of these strikes penetrated the clothing and appear to be stopped by the body armor which is designed to cover the upper torso, vital area, of the person wearing it,” the filing stated, adding that Gray did suffer “multiple projectile” strikes to his neck and throat, as well as a collapsed lung. 

Investigators tried to download information from Gray’s body camera but it was too damaged and wouldn’t turn on, according to the affidavit. 

The Vermont State Police Tactical Services Unit was called to the scene after the shooting but couldn’t find Mason inside the building or the surrounding area, according to the affidavit. 

Police did report finding an open window in the back of the residence that led to the top of a garage, as well as footprints in the snow leading off the edge of the garage onto the ground below, the filing stated. 

Also, according to the detective’s affidavit, police reported finding a surveillance video system consisting of multiple camera angles from around the inside and outside of the residence. 

More than a day after the search for Mason began, at around 11 p.m. Saturday, Antino Pepper, 27, flagged down officers in St. Johnsbury and told them Mason was in a first-floor apartment at 251 Portland St. 

According to police, that apartment is next door to the building where Mason lived and the shooting took place. 

Pepper reported that Mason was in the apartment with other people, including the woman he had lived with, and she had brought Mason food, according to the affidavit. 

“(Pepper) stated there was conversation about needing to get Scott out of the house and that they had arranged a ride to come pick him up soon,” the filing stated, with Pepper adding that Mason had a black handgun and “wood stocked” rifle.

“When Pepper was asked why he was providing information about Scott Mason, he stated Scott had ‘shot a cop’ and it wasn’t ‘cool,’” the filing stated. “Pepper also stated he is also trying to get out of Vermont to go home to Louisiana and knew there was a $25,000 reward being offered for Scott’s arrest.”

The town of St. Johnsbury had announced Saturday a $25,000 reward in the case, and later that same day the FBI put out a press release offering an additional $25,000 reward. 

After speaking with Pepper, according to the affidavit, police got a warrant to search the residence, and the state police tactical team raided the apartment at around 2 a.m. Sunday.

“During the warrant execution multiple people exited the residence and denied that Scott was inside,” the filing stated. “Scott was later arrested when he came out of the residence when it was announced a K9 unit would be deployed inside.”

The charging affidavit added, “While being taken into custody, Scott struck a State Police observation drone causing significant damage.”

The woman who lived with Mason had told investigators she and Mason had been arguing all day Friday but denied that the altercation became physical, though she had a mark on her face, the filing stated. During the interview, the woman reported that Mason had been acting “delusional” and had been talking to himself, the detective wrote in the affidavit. 

She also reported that Mason “was five days off of fentanyl” but was still using cocaine, according to the filing. 

According to state police, no charges had been filed against anyone as of late Monday afternoon in connection with Mason’s time on the run, though the investigation was continuing.

It was unclear Monday whether the tipster would receive any reward money for alerting police to Mason’s location.

“The (St. Johnsbury) Selectboard will be addressing that, as well as the FBI, down the road,” state police Maj. David Petersen said during a press conference Sunday afternoon. 

Petersen also said Sunday that authorities searched more than a dozen properties while trying to track down Mason.

“There may be some questions about whether Mr. Mason was in the property where he was eventually located throughout,” Petersen said. “I can tell you we searched that property multiple times between the shooting and when he was apprehended.”

Petersen added that Mason’s exact whereabouts during the roughly 36-hour search remained under investigation. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Suspect pleads not guilty as new details emerge about shooting of St. Johnsbury officer.

Updated at 8:13 a.m.

In the end, Scott Mason didn’t make it very far. 

The suspect in the Friday shooting of a St. Johnsbury police officer was arrested early Sunday morning in the house next door to where the crime took place, according to Vermont State Police. 

After obtaining a search warrant earlier that morning, state police and other law enforcement agencies entered 251 Portland Street and took Mason into custody around 2 a.m., state police said in a press release. He was brought to the local barracks for processing, after which he was expected to be transferred to jail. 

Mason, 38, of St. Johnsbury, was wanted for attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer resulting in serious bodily injury, along with other charges unrelated to the shooting. 

The incident began around 4:30 p.m. Friday when local police responded to a report of domestic violence at Mason’s apartment, at 261 Portland Street, state police have previously said. Mason allegedly shot and wounded Capt. Jason Gray, a nearly 25-year veteran of the St. Johnsbury Police Department. 

Authorities have not described what happened next, but after appearing to focus on the Portland Street area Friday night, they expanded their search — asking law enforcement agencies throughout the state and region to look out for Mason and warning members of the public that he could be armed and dangerous. 

The town of St. Johnsbury and the FBI’s Albany field office on Saturday announced separate rewards of up to $25,000 for information leading to Mason’s arrest and conviction. 

Gray, who had been airlifted Friday to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, “sustained severe injuries” in the shooting, according to a statement issued by the town, but was in stable condition as of Saturday evening. 

The town said in the statement that it had “him, his family and friends in our hearts as he recovers from this assault.” It continued, “We are also thinking of the rest of the police department as well as our dispatchers and first responders who have been affected by this traumatic event. We are committed to supporting all efforts to provide them the support they need to recover.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Suspect in shooting of St. Johnsbury police officer arrested after 2-day search.

Updated Dec. 14, at 3:12 p.m.

ST. JOHNSBURY — A local police officer was shot and wounded Friday afternoon while responding to a report of domestic violence, according to Vermont State Police. 

Authorities said they were searching for the shooter, who they warned could be armed and dangerous. State police advised members of the public “to be vigilant and take reasonable precautions, including locking doors to their homes and vehicles and remaining aware of their surroundings.”

State police identified the suspect as Scott Mason, 38, of St. Johnsbury. They said in a press release Friday evening that the St. Johnsbury Police Department had responded to a report of domestic violence at Mason’s apartment on Portland Street around 4:30 p.m. Friday, at which time the officer was shot and wounded. 

State police later identified the officer as Capt. Jason Gray, who has worked for the St. Johnsbury Police Department for close to 25 years. 

Gray was airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, late Friday. On Saturday afternoon, police said Gray’s condition was “serious but stable.”

According to police, Mason is 5 feet, 11 inches, weighs 220 pounds, has brown hair and hazel eyes. They warned members of the public not to approach him and, instead, to call 911.

The state on Friday night issued a Blue Alert, which can be used to inform the public that an officer has been killed or injured and the suspect is at large. State police said they were working with local, state and federal agencies and had alerted police throughout the region. 

Police said Saturday that an arrest warrant had been issued for Mason and that he was wanted on charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer resulting in serious bodily injury. 

According to police, Mason was already wanted for failure to appear on forgery charges unrelated to the shooting. 

The search for Mason took place during what was supposed to be a festive event in town, the annual St. J Sparkles Holiday Weekend. Instead, the lights from dozens of police cars filled St. Johnsbury, most downtown businesses were closed and streets were blocked off. What appeared to be a police drone hovered near the scene of the crime. 

Neighbors on Portland Street gathered in the frigid cold just outside a police cordon, swapping information they had gathered from friends. 

By 9 p.m. Friday, the police presence had reduced dramatically outside the crime scene. Two police cars were parked outside the Portland Street house and traffic was being allowed to pass.

Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Johnsbury police officer wounded in shooting, suspect at large.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded more than $3.9 million to the town of Hardwick for July 2023-related flood repairs and mitigation, the most of any municipality in the state. 

That money represents “much needed relief” for a town hit hard by both the July 2023 and July 2024 floods, said Hardwick Town Manager David Upson. 

According to a press release sent out Monday, FEMA plans to award the money to the state of Vermont, which will in turn distribute the funds to the town. Will Roy, federal coordinating officer for FEMA, said in the press release that the agency was “pleased” to assist the town with these costs. 

“Reimbursing state and local governments — as well as eligible nonprofits — for the costs incurred due to this disaster is an important part of the state’s recovery,” he said.

The agency has awarded more than $119 million through the Public Assistance program in relation to the July 2023 flood. According to data from FEMA’s website, Hardwick has received the most of any Vermont municipality so far — although the Vermont Department of Buildings & General Services has been awarded far more, at $27.4 million, for state building repairs and emergency protective measures. 

Of the funds going to Hardwick, $2.7 million is meant to offset the cost of permanent repairs of the Main Street retaining wall. Upson said it was “imperative” the wall be repaired because the street is built adjacent to the Lamoille River. “The whole street could be washed down the river,” he said. 

FEMA distinguishes between funding projects for separate disasters, but for Hardwick, which flooded in both 2023 and 2024, some of the projects under consideration are related to both flooding events. Upson said one bridge damaged in 2023 was rebuilt, only to wash away in 2024. The town plans to use FEMA funding for engineering and architectural work to design a more permanent, flood-resilient bridge. 

Another part of the money has been allotted as reimbursement for emergency work Hardwick performed in 2023, Upson said. 

The total cost of those town projects comes to $4.4 million. FEMA said it would award 90% of the cost. According to Upson, the state plans to cover 7.8% of the remaining costs, while the town would be responsible for 2.2%. 

Upson said the town was still in the “infancy” stages in terms of rebuilding and preparing for the next flood. He estimated that three-quarters of the repair and mitigation work was still ahead. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: FEMA awards nearly $4 million to Hardwick for 2023 flood repairs.

Vermont State Police said Tuesday that no charges would be filed following an investigation into what authorities have characterized as a domestic violence incident this summer that left two people dead in St. Johnsbury.

The incident, according to police, took place on the morning of July 7 at a Cottage Street home, where responding officers found one man dead and several others injured. A second person died later that night at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

State police said in a press release Tuesday that Nicholas Johnson, 42, was “the sole aggressor” in the incident. They said he had broken into the home and stabbed three people, killing Ben Lyons, 21. The two other victims injured in the attack, police previously said, included Jennifer Bradley, 44, who was Lyons’ mother and Johnson’s former partner, as well as Patrick Mayhew, Bradley’s spouse.

According to police, Mayhew fatally shot Johnson. 

Autopsies determined that Lyons died of a stab wound to his neck and Johnson’s cause of death was a gunshot wound.

Johnson, police said, had no fixed address but had been living in the St. Johnsbury area. 

The release said state police had turned their completed investigation over to Caledonia County State’s Attorney Jessica Zaleski for review, and she determined that she would not be filing any criminal charges. 

Police had also said that two minors had been home at the time of the incident but were not physically harmed.

In addition, according to police, one dog who lived at the home died of injuries sustained during the incident.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Authorities say no criminal charges will be filed in an incident that left two dead in St. Johnsbury.

The FBI is releasing little information about a “shooting incident” the law enforcement agency reported took place Thursday afternoon in Ryegate.

One person has been taken into custody, the agency said in a statement, though it did not provide the name of that person or the charges, if any, that person may be facing. 

The incident, according to the FBI, occurred at 1:15 p.m. Thursday on Route 5 in Ryegate “involving an alleged assault on a federal officer (U.S. Marshal).” 

The one-paragraph statement referred to a “shooting investigation” but did not provide any information about who fired any shots or if anyone was injured.

“To preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigation, we are going to decline to provide further details at this time,” the FBI said in the statement. 

Sarah Ruane, a spokesperson for the FBI in Albany, did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday.

John Curtis, chief deputy U.S. Marshal in Vermont, declined Friday morning to answer a series of questions regarding the incident.

“At this time we have no comment,” Curtis replied in an email.

Read the story on VTDigger here: FBI provides scant details on shooting investigation involving U.S. Marshal Service in Ryegate.

Residents and environmental groups have questions and concerns about a proposal to build a biogas facility in Lyndon that would generate electricity through a technology new to the United States. They are asking the state’s energy regulators to slow the approval process down.

The technology, called high-temperature fast pyrolysis, involves heating organic woody material to temperatures higher than 800 degrees Celsius (about 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit) in a chamber without oxygen. Two products result from the process: biochar, which can be used to enhance agricultural soil, and biogas, which would be burned on site to create electricity. 

The developer, Vermont Renewable Gas LLC, is looking to build the 8,000 square-foot facility on a 3-acre parcel of land in the St. Johnsbury-Lyndon Industrial Park, owned by the Northeastern Vermont Development Association. The company, which was established to create the project, is co-owned by Synergy Bioproducts and Clean Energy Technologies. 

While other pyrolysis facilities exist around the country, this one would use higher temperatures to achieve a “cleaner fuel gas” and produce “a higher carbon content” in the biochar, said Evan Dell’Olio, a shareholder in Vermont Renewable Gas and a leader of the project, in an interview. 

In this case, project developers plan to use a technology called selective catalytic reduction to reduce levels of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide in emissions from the plant. 

Dell’Olio has pitched the project as a way to create a closed loop system in which local farmers contribute agricultural waste and material from the production of fiber, maple syrup or Christmas trees, and then use the biochar to enhance their soils and store carbon. At least 51% of the material would come from agriculture, according to the company’s application with the Public Utility Commission. 

“The overarching principle of this project is environmental sustainability, climate action and integrating a business in the circular economy within Vermont’s long standing, working-lands-based economy,” he said. 

Currently, concerns about the project are focused mostly on its permitting process within the Public Utility Commission, the independent, three-member panel that regulates the siting of energy projects in the state. 

In August, Vermont Renewable Gas filed for a permit from the commission, the independent, three-member panel that regulates the siting of energy projects in the state. (It already holds an air quality permit from Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation, according to Dell’Olio.)

Because the facility is relatively small at 2.2 megawatts, it was eligible to be fast-tracked through the commission, which has resulted in fewer opportunities for public hearings and input. Public comments on the project are due on Oct. 7. 

But community members and environmental organizations are advocating for a more extensive process due to the newness of the technology, so they can understand more about its potential impacts. 

A petition organized by 350 Vermont, a climate advocacy organization, calls for the Public Utility Commission to expand the permitting process for the facility to include more public input and scrutiny from the commission. On Friday, it had more than 420 signatures, according to Vanessa Rule, co-director of 350 Vermont. 

Attorneys with the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmentally-focused law firm based in New England with a chapter in Vermont, do not outright oppose the project, but “want more answers to the questions that we have,” said Adam Aguirre, an associate attorney with the firm. 

For example, Aguirre wonders whether the facility would add a new market for wood in the area, which he worries could contribute to deforestation locally. 

“In theory, the whole process is supposed to be more environmentally friendly than a strict biomass — like, we're not talking like a McNeil Station here,” Aguirre said. “It's supposed to be a better technology that doesn't really end up with a ton of emissions out into the air.”

Given its relatively small size, “the emissions may not be substantial,” he said, but he wonders whether the project’s approval could serve as an invitation to those who want to develop similar facilities in the area. 

“If there's one facility, if this is successful, could they cite five or six more facilities in the nearby area, and what is that going to do to the forest?” he said. “We don’t have answers to those questions.”

Tim Sturm, a St. Johnsbury resident, lives two miles from the industrial park. He said he’s concerned about a daycare center near the facility’s proposed location where around 100 children attend each day. 

“I'm just very concerned about the location of this facility,” he told VTDigger. “I'm also concerned about the technology itself, which is described as a new technology, and often described as a win-win proposition for everyone, and I just don't think it is.”

Dell’Olio noted the daycare center “is not located even within vantage point of the front of the property where the VRG facility will be located, or even within immediate proximity” and that trucks would not be passing it.  

“Our team does welcome conversation, of course, with those at the daycare or others that may have questions,” he said. 

Both Sturm and Greg MacDonald, a St. Johnsbury resident whose property overlooks the industrial park, noted that a distrust exists between some Northeast Kingdom residents and project developers, in part because of the EB-5 fraud case that played out in the area, and also because of the existence of other facilities, such as the Ryegate biomass plant and the state’s only operating landfill, owned by Casella Waste Systems. 

“There's a climate justice issue here for me, also, in regards to the poorest part of the state, once again, getting dumped on,” MacDonald said. 

Some have also expressed concerns about whether the project, which would be developed within Vermont’s Standard Offer program, could increase the price of electricity locally. Jonathan Elwell, manager of the Lyndon Electric Department, told VTDigger the project would not raise rates for its customers. 

“There is a financial impact to our bottom line, but it's very minimal, and certainly would not cause a rate increase on its own,” he said.

Dell’Olio said his team has made an effort to engage members of the public and that “public opinion is important.” 

While he noted there has been some misinformation in comments from the public about emissions from the plant, he said the commenters’ “right to an opinion, and conversation about that opinion, is valid.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Residents want more time for permit process of proposed Lyndon biogas plant.

The Vermont Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a discrimination lawsuit filed by the state Human Rights Commission against the town of St. Johnsbury.

The case stems from a town Development Review Board decision during the Covid-19 pandemic. The commission told the appeals court that the board discriminated against St. Johnsbury resident Nicole Stone by denying a variance for a home structure in violation of the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act.

The town of St. Johnsbury, during a lower court hearing in January, argued that because Stone never appealed the decision to the environmental court, the decision should be final. The court judge agreed, and dismissed the case.

But the Human Rights Commission, a state body that works to promote civil and human rights in Vermont, argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the issue of whether Stone was discriminated against should be remanded back to the court to be decided as a separate issue from whether a variance should have been granted.

“We have our independent right and requirement to enforce the Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act,” said Big Hartman, the executive director and general counsel for the commission, in an interview.

Stone, who uses an electric wheelchair, sought a zoning variance for an outdoor gazebo-like structure during the Covid-19 pandemic to allow her and members of her household to meet with caregivers and case workers outdoors while protecting the wheelchair from rain or mud.

Stone and members of her household said they couldn’t meet with caregivers inside her home at the time because there wasn’t enough space to keep a safe distance from each other, according to court documents.

The structure was built, but neighbors complained to the town’s zoning administrator that the structure violated setback requirements, according to court documents. A member of Stone’s household then sought a variance to that requirement — essentially a request for an exemption — but the body denied the request.

VTDigger was not able to reach Stone for comment.

The Human Rights Commission later filed a complaint last year against St. Johnsbury in the Washington County Superior Court’s civil division, which argued that the town had discriminated against Stone by not granting the zoning variance for the structure.

But Superior Court Judge Timothy B. Tomasi dismissed the case during a hearing in January, determining that the zoning board’s decision became the final word on the matter because the case hadn’t been appealed. The variance decision “cannot be contested directly or indirectly, in this forum,” he wrote in court documents.

Stone’s remedy for the denial “was lost forever when no appeal was taken,” Tomasi wrote. Any determination by the court that the town may have violated the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act by denying the variance “would be an impermissible collateral attack on that final decision.”

“No matter what relief the HRC is seeking here, it is asking the court to rule that the variance should have been granted,” Tomasi wrote. “Only the DRB or, on review, the Environmental Division and the Supreme Court can do that.”

The Human Rights Commission appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. During the hearing on Wednesday, Mitchell Rotbert, senior counsel for the commission, argued that the claim that the town discriminated against Stone is separate from Stone’s variance claim — and that the superior court should rule on the former. 

“The Commission is seeking an enforcement action for which there is no jurisdiction in the environmental division,” he said. “The basis of dismissal is the absence of jurisdiction, which is an error as a matter of law. It need not have been preserved by the commission because the commission is essentially arguing on behalf of the people of the state of Vermont for all kinds of benefits that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the benefits attached to Ms. Stone.”

John Klesch, an attorney representing the town of St. Johnsbury, said the superior court made the correct decision in dismissing the case. But Supreme Court justices appeared open to the idea that the variance claim and discrimination claim were in fact separate legal questions.

“They’re really two separate issues with two separate clients. They may be connected in some way, but the avenues in which you go through them are separate, are they not?” Supreme Court Justice William Cohen asked.

Klesch pointed to the superior court judge’s ruling, and said “it is impossible to separate a review of the Development Review Board’s decision whether a variance was necessary” from the question of whether Stone “was entitled to a variance.”

“But why does that throw the Human Rights Commission out of court?” retired Justice Denise Johnson, who was on the panel in Justice Karen Carroll’s absence, asked.

“It’s the civil division recognizing that it does not have authority under the jurisdiction statutes to review whether the DRB erred,” Klesch said.

Johnson suggested that it was “a totally different issue from whether or not they were going to grant a variance.”

Klesch later said that the town “does not quarrel with the importance of the (Human Rights Commission’s) mission to prevent discrimination,” but said there could have been a path forward if the parties had appealed to environmental court.

Hartman, in an interview after the hearing, said that “we feel it’s really important that the Human Rights Commission be able to exercise our authority to investigate complaints of discrimination” to “make sure that the rights of people with disabilities are not violated in superior court, rather than the environmental court, that has a very narrow set of expertise.”

The Supreme Court typically issues its decisions several months after hearing cases.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Supreme Court hears Human Rights Commission’s lawsuit against St. Johnsbury .

A St. Johnsbury police sergeant has pleaded not guilty to an aggravated assault charge after he was accused of using excessive force on a man who he stopped for allegedly jaywalking.

George Johnson, 44, of Lunenburg, appeared Monday in Caledonia County Superior criminal court in St. Johnsbury for an arraignment on the felony charge. 

Vermont State Police, the law enforcement agency that investigated the case, announced last month that it had cited Johnson into court.

After entering his not guilty plea during the court hearing, Johnson was released by Judge Michael Kainen on conditions, including that he not contact the man he was charged with assaulting.

According to charging documents made public Monday, Johnson allegedly assaulted 35-year-old John Stelzl at about 5:10 p.m. on May 10 after stopping Stelzl as he was walking near the Honking Bridge on Bay Street in St. Johnsbury.

Detective Sgt. Angela Baker of the Vermont State Police wrote in an affidavit that as part of her investigation she reviewed police body cam video as well as footage from a surveillance camera stationed near where the incident took place.

Stelzl was initially charged with several offenses stemming from the incident, but the Caledonia County State’s Attorney’s Office later dismissed the charges against Stelzl after reviewing Johnson’s body-worn camera footage, according to court filings. 

Caledonia County State’s Attorney Jessica Zaleski, the filings added, told St. Johnsbury Police Chief Joel Pierce shortly after the incident that the “stuff she had seen in the video was very concerning … Like George Floyd concerning.”

According to those videos, Baker wrote, Johnson got out of his cruiser to approach Stelzl, who started walking and then running away from him, the affidavit stated. 

Johnson ran after Stelzl, grabbed onto him by his backpack and told him he was “being detained,” according to the filing. Stelzl, who had fallen to the ground, then repeatedly shouted, “help, help, help,” Baker wrote, and Johnson eventually told Stelzl to roll over and put his hands behind his back and that he was under arrest. 

“Sgt. Johnson tells (Stelzl) that he is ‘going to use force,’” according to the detective’s filing. “He tells him it is his ‘last chance’ and tells him again to ‘roll over.’”

Johnson then sprayed Stelzl with his pepper spray as Stelzl tried to push the spray away and move himself away, Baker wrote. Stelzl, who was still on the ground, then grabbed Johnson’s Taser out of its holster, the affidavit stated.

After a scuffle, Baker wrote, “Sgt. Johnson gains control of the taser, flips the switch and points it at Stelzl.”

Another officer arrived on the scene as Johnson shot Stelzl in the upper chest area with his Taser, according to the affidavit. 

Stelzl again grabbed the Taser, shooting Johnson on the leg with it, according to the filing, after which Johnson regained control of the device. 

Stelzl was still on his back on the ground and “flailing with his arms and legs” when Johnson told the second officer to “hit him with it. He already tased me,” the affidavit stated. The second officer then shot Stelzl with his Taser, according to the filing. 

“Sgt. Johnson kneels on (Stelzl’s) head with his knee, pushing Stelzel’s head onto the pavement,” Baker wrote. 

“Sgt. Johnson hits Stelzl on the back of his head with his right closed fist and yells ‘Stop! Roll over. Put your hands behind your back. Do it,’” Baker wrote. “Sgt. Johnson hits (Stelzl) again with his right fist. (Stelzl) yells, ‘stop, why are you doing this?’”

Johnson then hit Stelzl again with a right fist, the filing stated. 

“Sgt. Johnson picks up his taser and tells (Stelzl) to turn over and tells him he is going to be tased again,” Baker wrote. “He then drive-stuns Stelzel in his lower back area,” referring to the taser mode in which the weapon is deployed directly against a body. “(Stelzl) cries out in pain. Sgt. Johnson continues to drive-stun (Stelzl) in the lower back area.”

Stelzl was later taken to the hospital for treatment for his injuries, including multiple facial fractures, the affidavit stated. 

Pierce, the police chief, spoke to other town officials a few days after the incident, including the town attorney, and said that after watching the video “in slower mode” he realized Johnson’s actions were a “bit more egregious,” according to Baker’s affidavit. Johnson was then placed on paid leave from the department pending an investigation. 

The police chief told an investigator his department’s officers do not normally patrol for jaywalking, adding that Johnson had written only one such ticket out of a total of 2,244 tickets between April 15, 2015 and May of this year. 

Pierce, according to the affidavit, then told investigators, “I mean, you can see the guys not on the crosswalk, but in the same sense it doesn’t really fit … he’s not causing traffic disturbance.”

A Boston attorney listed in court records as representing Johnson could not be reached Tuesday for comment. 

The Caledonian Record reported that an attorney for Johnson had provided a statement Monday that said his client “is confident that, if given the time and grace to defend himself in a court of law, the community will agree that his conduct was both lawful and justified.”

Johnson, during an interview with the state police investigator, said that he had worked for the St. Johnsbury Police Department for the past 13 years, including as an instructor of lawful uses of force, the affidavit stated.

Asked by the investigator about the role of de-escalation during the incident with Stelzl, Johnson replied, according to Baker’s filing, that he tried to talk to him in a calm manner, adding, “Every escalation that happened was on, uh, his action.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Johnsbury police sergeant denies aggravated assault charge over jaywalking.

Vermont’s Agency of Transportation is poised to sell the Caledonia County Airport to CRAFTVT, a group founded by Kyle Clark, the CEO of Beta Technologies.

The agency announced on Wednesday that it had entered into a purchase and sale agreement with the company. 

“We are excited about the opportunities for infrastructure improvements and economic development under new, private ownership of this vibrant Vermont airport,” Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn said in the announcement. “We wish to assure current and future airport users that they will continue to have full access in perpetuity.” 

Before the sale can move forward, the Federal Aviation Administration needs to conduct an evaluation to determine whether the airport can be privatized, according to Trini Brassard, an assistant director at the Agency of Transportation. Brassard said the evaluation process is “in depth” and could take anywhere from a few months to a year to complete. 

Airport users have long been asking for upgrades to the Lyndon facility, including a repaved main runway and taxiways, which are in poor condition. Other state airports were in line to receive federal funding ahead of the facility, and state officials reasoned that privatization would help upgrade the airport more quickly. 

Lawmakers authorized the sale of the airport in 2023, after which the Agency of Transportation initiated a request for proposals. Flynn described Beta Technologies as a party interested in purchasing the airport to lawmakers at that time. 

CRAFTVT’s proposal was “the only response we got, but it was a good one, so we pursued it,” Brassard said.

If the sale moves forward, CRAFTVT would pay the state $500,000 in cash, pave the runway within the first two years of ownership, honor all current leases, and keep the airport public. 

Members of CRAFTVT, which include Clark and his wife, Katie Clark, who also works at Beta, and Bina and Martine Rothblatt, are “aviation enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who believe that small, general aviation airports like Caledonia County State Airport are important economic and social assets,” Dennise Casey, a spokesperson for the group, said in emailed responses to questions. 

Keeping airports like Caledonia County updated and public is “essential,” she said. 

Casey said the group is waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration’s official approval before developing detailed plans for the airport. But the buyers expect to expand by upgrading buildings and potentially build more hangars, which are in demand, she said. 

“Increasing access to the airport and enhancing amenities and services will make it a regional draw that supports businesses and recreation in the area,” Kyle Clark said in a press release from the Agency of Transportation. “In my meetings with folks across the region, it’s clear there’s an energy around growing more opportunity here and the airport is part of that vision.”

The group has also communicated with non-profits, business owners, municipal leaders, elected officials and education leaders, Casey said. They hope to offer economic and educational opportunities “through internships and participation in courses offered at area institutions,” for example. 

“We intend to continue those conversations and work together with leaders as we move forward,” she said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: State announces pending sale of Caledonia County Airport to group founded by Beta CEO.

MOSQUITOVILLE — Though a handful of outdoor events were canceled in Vermont in recent weeks to prevent the spread of a rare but serious mosquito-borne illness, none were crossed off the calendar in this tiny Barnet village that straddles the Ryegate line.

Then again, there was not a lot in Mosquitoville that could be canceled. Its major intersection, located at a turn in Barnet’s three-mile Mosquitoville Road, which forms an unpaved “T” with Ryegate’s North Bayley Hazen Road, comprises two houses and a cemetery. A short walk away, the Walter Harvey Meeting House hosts a few events each year.

Though many Vermonters may not have heard of it, Mosquitoville’s pesky moniker has repeatedly drawn attention from bloggers across the internet, landing it on lists like “These 50 Town Names In The USA Sound Like A Joke But They’re All Real.” 

Tony Faris, 77, who grew up across from the meetinghouse and has lived on the Barnet side of the T-shaped intersection since the ’70s, said it’s not unusual to hear a car brake and its doors slam before someone scurries to the road signs to snap a picture.

So what’s behind the name? And as mosquitoes swarm New England headlines due to a rise in eastern equine encephalitis, which in severe cases can be fatal, have Mosquitoville’s residents taken any extraordinary precautions? 

“No, I’ve swatted mosquitoes all my life,” Faris said on a sunny afternoon in his front yard last week, waving to familiar faces in nearly every car that passed.

His 62-year-old brother, Ted Faris, still lives in their family home across from where their great-grandfather preached for 46 years. Emitting a giggle not unlike that of the TV character Ron Swanson, he said of the neighborhood’s mosquitoes: “We only have good ones.”

The Farises point to Mosquitoville’s surrounding wetlands, acres of breeding ground for buzzy blood-suckers, as the name’s likely inspiration. Jewett Brook, which connects to Harvey Lake, cuts through the center. A long-gone lumber mill left remnants of a pond, according to David Warden, president of the Barnet Historical Society.

While motorists might miss cattails from the dry dirt road, the neighborhood gets soggy, said Debbie Streeter, who lives across from Tony Faris on the Ryegate side. Sitting on her front porch, she used her large dogs, Arlo and Quinn, as measuring sticks, describing how muddied their bellies and sides become when they walk through her field after rain. 

Warden, who co-founded the historical society in the 1960s, couldn’t definitively pinpoint the origin of Mosquitoville’s name. (“It’s rare that anyone asks,” he said.) His money’s on the swamp, but he had another guess: Such a phrase “infers a very small place,” he said, “and that little village there” meets the definition. 

The village’s roots connect to the Revolutionary War, when George Washington OK’ed cutting a military road on a route first used by Native Americans, as detailed by historian Mark Bushnell. The effort to connect Newbury to Canada was abandoned, and what is now North Bayley Hazen Road was nicknamed “the road from nowhere to nowhere,” Bushnell wrote.

Encouraged by Col. Alexander Harvey, Scots fleeing religious persecution settled Ryegate and Barnet and established congregations of Reformed Presbyterians, also known as Covenanters, according to a historical pamphlet produced last year by the association that manages the Walter Harvey Meeting House. 

Walter, who was Alexander’s son, bought the land for the building in order to accommodate a growing Covenanters community in the “Harvey neighborhood” after he’d established an inn, the pamphlet said. The meetinghouse was constructed in 1831, with membership rising and falling before the congregation disbanded in 1970. Today’s association was formed to manage the meetinghouse five years later.

Ted Faris, the organization’s clerk and a professional welder, commuted barefoot across the road to the meetinghouse as he warmly welcomed an unannounced reporter on a tour of the building last week. He rattled off facts about the Covenanters, who eschew ornate decor and sing Psalms a cappella, and recalled the childhood feeling of seeing a particular light on at the church during evening meetings, signaling something “big city” — serious business — was afoot. 

These days, he said, the meetinghouse typically holds two services a year. It’s hosted weddings, funerals and the Scottish-American religious tradition known as the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan. It even welcomes buses of Amish tourists, whom Ted Faris said feel at home amongst the religiously persecuted.

Though his appears to be the best-known Mosquitoville, it’s not the only one — not even in Vermont. Tony Faris, who helped construct Vermont’s interstates and traversed the state for Carroll Concrete, pointed to a Mosquitoville in the Barre area, which Google Maps shows as a tenth-of-a-mile pathway south of Graniteville. There’s also an East Mosquitoville Lane in Maine (but apparently no “west” counterpart), a 10-person Skeeterville in Texas and numerous Mosquito Lakes, Mosquito Creeks, Mosquito Peaks and colloquial “mosquitovilles” across the country. 

Indeed, in the 1977 book Vermont Place Names: Footprints of History, Esther Munroe Swift wrote that “this kind of nickname has generally been used in derision, and it is thought that this was the case in Barnet,” though she too thought it was possible that the town’s “somewhat swampy” surroundings explained its usage there.

Can we be sure? After about 15 minutes in his yard, Tony Faris hinted with a smile that he knew the full story but declined to share. He recounted a different tale about the village’s earlier hyper-local nickname, “Tattleville,” apparently given by an old Civil War veteran inspired by women gossiping on their porches — within earshot of passersby. 

As far as its evolution to Mosquitoville, he said, “it’s intriguing to a reporter or something like that, I realize,” but others had tried far harder to pry it loose.

That history, he signaled, was a secret he would keep.

The Vermont Department of Health has “strongly recommended” limiting exposure to mosquitoes, particularly from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and in the high-risk areas of Alburgh, Burlington, Colchester, Sudbury, Swanton and Whiting, until the first hard frost. For details in the latest advisory, click here.

Read the story on VTDigger here: The mysterious origins of a tiny Vermont village called Mosquitoville.

PEACHAM — On Tuesday, at the door of a red brick home in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom, a man in a blue vest and a wide-brimmed hat gave a hearty knock. 

“Good morning, FEMA!” he called, loud enough that his voice echoed off the houses across the quiet street. 

The storm that tore through central and northern Vermont on July 10 and 11 hit Peacham hard, destroying homes and killing a 33-year-old resident. On Aug. 20, President Joe Biden declared the incident a major federal disaster, and the same day, members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Survivor Assistance teams began working in Vermont. 

Ten teams fanned out across each of the seven counties where the disaster had struck hardest — Addison, Orleans, Washington, Caledonia, Chittenden, Lamoille and Essex. By the beginning of September, members had knocked on thousands of doors to let people know they could be eligible for financial assistance from FEMA, and to help them apply before the Oct. 21 deadline. 

When Biden approved the disaster declaration for the early July storm, FEMA still had hundreds of people deployed in Vermont because of last July’s floods, according to Kimberly Fuller, a spokesperson for agency, who tagged along with the four-member crew on Tuesday. That enabled teams to begin canvassing faster. 

Crews typically begin their canvassing work with homes that have reported damage to Vermont 211, and by consulting local officials about which homes saw damage. After marking those locations on a map with a red pin, team members spread out, knocking on doors. If anyone is home, they ask the occupant to tell them about anyone else in the area who may need assistance. 

As of Wednesday, 971 households had applied for individual assistance from FEMA, Fuller said, and 15% of those applications came from FEMA’s field work, including canvassing. Individual assistance covers “displacement, serious needs, temporary lodging, basic home repairs, personal property losses and other uninsured disaster-related expenses,” according to an agency-issued fact sheet. 

So far, FEMA has distributed more than $2.5 million to 451 households, according to the agency’s website. The federal government is mulling over a request for a separate disaster declaration for a different storm that hit at the end of July — if it’s granted, it’s possible the application periods for the two emergencies would be combined, which could extend the October deadline.  

New regulations that took effect in March may also change Vermonters’ experience with the agency since the July 2023 flood. First, FEMA is issuing one-time $750 payments to those who need help paying for essentials such as food, first aid, medications, medical supplies, infant formula, transportation fuel and other items, according to a fact sheet the agency issued on Tuesday. 

Second, FEMA has a new benefit called “displacement assistance,” which covers immediate housing costs for families that have been displaced by the flooding. 

The agency has also reformed a process that previously required people to apply for a U.S. Small Business Administration loan before they could be eligible for certain types of assistance. 

Even with the changes, the funding isn’t designed to “make people whole,” Fuller said. Rather, FEMA’s goal is to “get them back on their feet again.”

Crew members have found that on-the-ground interactions can be an important tool to counter misinformation that has spread among people in towns that have been hit by floods, said Fuller. For example, FEMA does reimburse repairs to private roads and bridges, though some residents have believed otherwise, Fuller said. 

Some Vermonters are hesitant to ask FEMA for assistance if their damage isn’t severe because they’re worried it could take money away from people whose needs are more urgent, but there isn’t a limited pot of funding, she said. 

And, while headlines from news organizations around the country have warned that FEMA is running low on cash, that shortfall doesn’t impact individual assistance, Fuller said. 

Near the center of Peacham, a woman in the red brick house came to the door. Her porch had a small amount of damage, she told the man in the blue FEMA vest, who handed her an orange flier with a phone number she could call to schedule an inspection.  

Then, the team piled into their black SUV and headed down a bumpy, flood-scarred Class IV road to another spot, where they heard residents had been stranded during the flood. Most residents on the road were not home or did not answer knocks on the door. Some told the officials they didn’t have any damage from the flooding. 

Costs of the canvassing effort are significant, Fuller said, and crews work 12-hour days. But the agency is making an effort to “go to where people are.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained the wrong deadline to apply for individual assistance due to incorrect information provided by FEMA.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Across Vermont, FEMA teams are knocking on doors in flood-impacted communities .

The Lyndon community has spoken.

The town’s hazard mitigation committee decided against taking any steps toward permanently removing the historic Sanborn Covered Bridge from its perch over the Passumpsic River, despite a recent study showing that removing it would have a sizable impact on floodwater levels.

The committee’s decision on Monday followed a tense public meeting on Aug. 22, at which a number of participants questioned the study’s findings and instead blamed the town’s frequent floods on its inability to dredge its rivers.

“There’s no point in arguing any further with the Sanborn Bridge,” committee member and engineer Nate Sicard said at Monday’s meeting, noting that “in a perfect world” the bridge would be removed. “There’s people with lots of different opinions, and it’s just a headache to go down that road.”

Instead, the committee decided to pursue two different projects: floodplain restoration at the town’s former highway garage site and replacing the culverts underneath Main Street (near the covered bridge site) with a “dry bridge” — one that crosses dry land under normal conditions but allows water to pass underneath during flood events.

The selected projects, part of a yearlong flood reduction study conducted by SLR Consulting, were submitted in an initial application for FEMA funding and are expected to undergo further cost analysis.

Floodplain restoration at the former highway garage site is projected to decrease flood levels adjacent to that site by 2.4 inches during a 500-year flood, or floods with a 0.2% chance of happening every year, based on FEMA designations. 

Lyndon saw two 500-year flood events in July.

During a 500-year flood, the dry bridge project is projected to decrease nearby water levels by 6 inches and decrease water levels by 3.6 inches at the manufactured home park.

Separate from the flood reduction study, the Sanborn Covered Bridge is in the midst of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar restoration project slated to be finished in 2025. The bridge was temporarily removed from the river earlier this month as part of the renovation.

While the hazard mitigation committee green-lit the bridge returning to its spot above the river, what remains to be seen is how the design for the restored bridge may change based on data from the flood reduction study.

Marty Feltus, chair of the hazard mitigation committee, said during Monday’s meeting that leaders of the Sanborn Bridge restoration project do not yet have a final design and are “extremely willing” to consider changes.

“They are certainly willing to consider changes in the elevation … and also changes in the abutment construction,” Feltus said. “They’re not pooh-poohing this study by any means. They’re aware of it and they want to make the right decisions.”

According to the data, removing the bridge and associated fill would have opened up the constricted section of river and reduced nearby floodwater levels by a foot during 500-year flood events. Just upstream at the manufactured home park, bridge removal was projected to reduce flood levels by 7.2 inches during a 500-year flood.

Reinstalling the bridge at the higher level — as currently proposed by the restoration project — would reduce floodwater levels during a 500-year event by 6 inches near the bridge and 3.6 inches at the manufactured home park.

One hazard mitigation committee member, Holly Taylor, said it concerned her that the committee was not picking a flood reduction project involving the Sanborn Bridge.

“That was clearly the option that has the most reduction (in flood levels),” she said.

Tracy Bodeo, Lyndon’s new planning director, agreed.

“My concern is that just because we had the most vocal people at the meeting were against, you know, moving it, that it’s still not something to consider,” Bodeo said.

However, the majority of committee members seemed to agree that providing the bridge committee with the data and letting it decide what to do was the best course of action.

The bridge’s project manager, Nicole Gratton, feels confident about finding a “sweet spot” where bridge height and design could best protect people and property while still allowing the bridge to remain over the river, according to the Caledonian-Record.

“I think the Sanborn Covered Bridge project is a perfect testing ground for how we move forward in a climate changed and changing world without throwing out the history and culture of a place that gives it its identity,” Gratton told VTDigger via text message.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Lyndon committee decides against covered bridge removal despite flood concerns.

Lyndon — known as the “Covered Bridge Capital of the Northeast Kingdom” — is facing a dilemma. 

Should it move forward with multimillion-dollar plans to restore one of its historic covered bridges and create a community park at a well-traveled intersection? Or should it scrap those plans entirely and remove the bridge to better contain floodwaters, which have repeatedly battered the town over the years?

On July 30, as residents reeled from yet another flood, a contracted firm presented a preliminary list of ways to minimize flooding damage to the town’s hazard mitigation committee. 

According to the presentation, the most impactful option would mean removing the iconic Sanborn Covered Bridge and some of the fill in the adjoining lot where a park is planned. The news was first reported by the Caledonian-Record.

“My first thought was ‘that can’t be,’” selectboard member Susan Mills said during an Aug. 5 selectboard meeting. “But then I was like, ‘well, what’s more important: a covered bridge or people’s homes?”

Mills and other selectboard members agreed that if the bridge needed to be removed, it should be preserved elsewhere. While preserving houses and businesses are the top priority, she said, “we do need to consider our identity as well.”

“I hate to think that we’re going to be known for — I actually clocked this today — having five mini-marts in a 1.6-mile stretch,” Mills said.

The Caledonia County town of around 5,500 has a long history of flooding, sitting in a valley at the confluence of numerous waterways including the Passumpsic River, which winds through town. One area particularly prone to overflow is the well-traveled intersection of Main Street (Route 5) and Routes 122 and 114 on the northern edge of downtown. 

Water often covers the road, even during minor flood events, and residents at the manufactured home park on the east side of the intersection have been evacuated or had their homes flooded more than a handful of times in the past 25 years.

On the west side of the intersection lies the dilapidated Sanborn Covered Bridge, originally built in 1869 and moved to its current location over the Passumpsic in 1960. It runs parallel to Main Street between a vacant parcel owned by the town and a former motel site where the landowner plans to construct a gas station and mini-mart. The bridge — listed on the National Register of Historic Places — is not open to traffic but continues to be a tourist attraction.

In early 2022, the town of Lyndon purchased the covered bridge. It plans to restore the structure — at a cost of roughly $2.2 million, according to the Caledonian-Record — and construct a community park alongside it, largely funded by grant money. While the project has yet to go out to bid, the bridge was removed last Friday to await renovation on dry land.

In November 2023, SLR Consulting — a sustainability consulting firm contracted by the hazard mitigation committee — kicked off its yearlong study to evaluate flooding issues in town and explore alternatives.

At the July 30 flood reduction presentation, the firm outlined 14 possible projects, including replacing inefficient culverts, removing bridges, home buyouts, floodplain restoration and raising the Main Street intersection. But the firm’s modeling concluded that removing the Sanborn Bridge and associated fill would make the most difference, by opening up a constricted section of river.

According to SLR Consulting, doing so would reduce nearby floodwater levels by half a foot during a 10-year flood (10% chance of happening every year, based on Federal Emergency Management Administration designations) and a foot during 500-year flood events (0.2% chance of happening every year; Lyndon saw two 500-year flood events in July alone).

At the manufactured home park just upstream, the bridge removal would reduce floodwaters by 0.3 feet during a 10-year flood and 0.6 feet during a 500-year flood, projections showed.

At a planning commission meeting on Aug. 14, members expressed disappointment and skepticism at the preliminary study recommendations, according to the Caledonian-Record. Commissioners contended that the bridge removal would only benefit a small area and that all options only changed flood levels by a relatively small amount.

“There’s no silver bullets to any of this,” Planning Commissioner John Carpenter said at the meeting. “You have to be wary of getting to the point where it’s like the old colonel said in Vietnam: ‘Turns out we had to destroy the village to save it.’ How many houses are you going to remove to keep those houses from flooding?”

At a hazard mitigation committee meeting the following day, members discussed comments and questions they had already received on the flood reduction recommendations. Some suggested dredging, though the contracted firm noted that the river bottoms in town did not show unusual amounts of sediment or debris deposits. Others brainstormed additional options for the covered bridge site and wondered what effect the proposed gas station on the north side of the bridge site would have on floodwaters (according to meeting documents, the developer has rejected a buyout offer proposed by the conservation district).

According to the minutes, the committee agreed to “concentrate on actions to improve the flow of the flood waters through town while also preserving vehicular access as much as possible and also trying to keep human inhabitants out of harm’s way.”

The hazard mitigation committee plans to meet again this Thursday to hold a public review of options. The committee will then choose two to three proposals that SLR will run through a cost-benefit analysis and submit in a pre-application for FEMA funding. Any flood reduction project, which would involve further public input and town approval, is likely to take between three to five years.

Figuring out a path forward on the covered bridge project will be a challenging but important endeavor, Selectboard Chair Chris Thompson said during the board’s Aug. 5 meeting.

“We need to try to get a win-win out of this,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Lyndon weighs removing historic bridge to lessen floodwaters.