Beth Hankes said her sex shop in Burlington was meant to be “the resource that I hadn’t had.” 

Struggling with sexual health issues and feeling trapped in the corporate world, she noticed a lack of modern, accessible and “joyful” stores selling sex products in the area. So in 2021, she opened Earth + Salt, the first women-owned sex shop in Burlington.

Now a certified sex educator, Hankes runs educational events at the store at least once a month. When Kell Arbor, health and wellness director at the Pride Center, approached the store to ask if they would sponsor Burlington’s first-ever Sex Week, she was so eager that she ended up becoming heavily involved in organizing it. 

The upcoming Sex Week, scheduled from Sept. 14 to 20, features 18 events and runs the gamut from educational panels to art shows and performances to how-to workshops. Earth + Salt plans to host two events, andbut others will take place at the Spiral House, the Karma Birdhouse, the Pride Center and the Burlington Waterfront Park.

Hankes and Arbor pulled together local sex educators as well as their connections in New York and elsewhere to offer the events, that which vary in price from free to roughly $20.

Arbor said Sex Week was partly meant as a counterbalance to Burlington’s more “family-friendly” Pride event, which took place on Sunday. 

“I have been hearing from community members that we need more saucy, juicy, sexy things, not just within Pride, but within the community, centering queer and trans folks,” Arbor said. 

Arbor, whose pronouns are fae/faer, said the events were meant to be LGBTQ+ friendly by nature, but all are welcome. Only two events, mixers for BIPOC Vermonters and bisexual Vermonters, are restricted to people in each of those groups. 

“That’s what equity is about, right? Lifting up the perspectives of people most left out, that we might all see new ways forward,” fae said. 

Arbor said that as an HIV-positive Vermonter, fae have encountered ignorance around sexual health, even among health providers, as an HIV-positive Vermonter. “I’ve seen where the gaps were in my care with doctors saying women don’t get STIs,” or sexually transmitted infections. “That’s very inaccurate. One, I’m not a woman, and two, women get STIs,” fae said. 

Three events are aimedtargeted specifically attoward health practitioners, including one on sexual health for older adults and one on trans-inclusive practices in health care, according to the event website. 

At the same time, the organizers hope to draw people into the conversation by centering and celebrating pleasure in its workshops on kink and other sexual practices. “Pleasure is more of a sustainable invitation in. That’s why I like ‘edu-taining’ models,” Arborfae said. 

Hankes said the event felt will feel like a release point for all the pressures and restrictions that have been building up this year regarding sexual health and marginalized communities. 

“We’re still going to be ourselves,” she said. “We’re still going to have this point of pleasure, education, community and give ourselves access to that, because obviously the government and the current cultural climate is not going to give us that.”

Arbor said events like these feel even more essential in the current political climate. The Pride Center was hit hard by federal funding cuts to HIV prevention earlier this year. 

“When we’re being attacked at our identities because of who and how we love, that’s all the more reason to invite people into education about how we might all free ourselves into more pleasure,” Arbor said. “I’m always like, ‘if we’re too busy having orgasms, we can’t bomb the world.’”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington’s first-ever ‘sex week’ celebrates inclusivity in sex education.

BURLINGTON — Debbie Hazen recalls turning 6 when the nuns who ran the city’s former St. Joseph’s Orphanage locked her in an attic trunk in the early 1960s.

“They told me there were bats and snakes and spiders in there that were going to get me,” she said of the dark place.

Hazen never imagined she would eventually find herself outside the orphanage dedicating a “memorial healing space” for the more than 13,000 children who lived at the Catholic facility from its opening in 1854 to its closing in 1974.

“This has been a long time coming and quite the journey for all of us,” Hazen, now 70, told a crowd of 100 fellow survivors and supporters Friday. “For some, this will complete their healing. For others, there’s still much to do.”

The North Avenue memorial, which features a sculptural arbor and stones etched with the words of former orphanage residents, is the final project in a five-year restorative justice process.

“Your voices have been instrumental in shaping our approach to child protection,” Chris Winters, commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families, told survivors. “This memorial is not just a reminder of the past, but it’s also a symbol of your resilience and of our commitment to a future where every child is safe.”

Former orphanage residents once feared no one would believe their memories of mistreatment, so they didn’t start publicizing their childhood conditions until the 1990s. But authorities didn’t launch an investigation until a 2018 BuzzFeed article exposed the full extent of past “unrelenting physical and psychological abuse.”

By 2020, the review confirmed “abuse did occur … and that many children suffered,” although the accusations were too old to pursue criminal charges. To compensate, local and state leaders initiated a “restorative justice inquiry” to help former residents push responsible parties to adopt measures “to ensure that these harms never happen again.”

Working with social service and legal professionals, former residents lobbied for a 2021 state law that eliminated time limits on filing civil lawsuits alleging childhood physical abuse — a success that won them the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services’ 2021 Survivor/Activist Award.

But the orphanage’s overseers — the state’s Roman Catholic Diocese, the Sisters of Providence and Vermont Catholic Charities — would not meet with survivors as a group nor consider requests for childhood records or restitution.

As part of the inquiry, participants told their stories through several public projects, including two anthologies, a Vermont Folklife-supported oral history and traveling exhibition, and journalist Christine Kenneally’s 2018 BuzzFeed exposé and 2023 follow-up book, “Ghosts of the Orphanage.”

Inquiry organizers also released a 176-page final report that summed up the restorative justice process as both “helpful and healing” and “difficult and painful.”

The new memorial rose with help from Burlington’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Waterfront and supporters who donated $160,000. The dedication featured current and former  local and state leaders as well as survivors who came from as far away as Florida.

“I would like to acknowledge all the unseen victims who have gone unnoticed,” said Debi Gevry, 62, whose father, struggling to care for her and her two siblings, placed them at the orphanage in the 1960s.

“He did so thinking he was doing what was best for his children,” she said in a speech. “On a mechanic’s wage, he paid for our keep not knowing the suffering we were enduring on a daily basis.”

Gevry, who said she wasn’t hugged until after leaving at age 12, went on to raise her own family.

“I have yet to heal from the traumas hidden deep in my soul,” she said. “I have unknowingly passed on my fears and anxieties to the next generation. This is just a small example of the ripple effect abuse carries.”

Gevry closed by reading a poem she wrote. Chiseled into a memorial stone, it’s punctuated by the refrain, “We will be remembered.”

“I may never be completely whole,” she said, “but I will not be silenced.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: For Vermont survivors of orphanage abuse, the restorative justice process is over. The journey is not..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This story by Jason Starr was first published in the Williston Observer on Sept. 4, 2025.

Champlain Valley School District finance leaders on Tuesday previewed the details of a $13 million bond question they plan to put to voters at Town Meeting Day.

District Facilities Director Chris Giard outlined an array of upgrades and maintenance projects that the bond funds would cover across multiple school buildings within the five-town district.

In Williston, $1.4 million would be spent on replacing both the floor in the front gymnasium, which currently has troublesome moisture underneath, Giard said, as well as the controls for the school’s light and heating-ventilation systems. Replacement parts for the current control systems are difficult to obtain, according to Giard.

At Champlain Valley Union High School, a roof replacement and heating-ventilation system overhaul would take up the majority of the $4 million in bond funds that would be allocated to the high school. Also in the work plan is a fire alarm system replacement.

Another $4 million in projects are planned at Hinesburg Community School, including roofing, heating-ventilation and electrical work. At Charlotte Community School, $2.9 million would go to installing an elevator that meets Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, new gym bathrooms and new siding.

The district is also planning a conversion to LED lights across all its buildings. That project is estimated at $700,000.

“We have a lot of fluorescent bulbs and fixtures to get rid of,” Giard said.

The bond question, if approved for the Town Meeting Day ballot by a school board majority, would be on the ballot next to the district’s funding request for the upcoming fiscal year. District Chief Operations Officer Gary Marckres said he plans to develop a budget draft by the end of September. A community budget forum is scheduled for Oct. 25 at CVU.

The September draft will be an estimate of the budget if all current staff and services remain in place — and an estimate on the impact to property tax rates — Marckres said. With the Vermont Legislature considering wholesale changes to the way public education is funded under Act 73, “this may be our last chance in the next 4 to 5 years to have a level service budget,” Marckres told the school board’s finance committee Tuesday.

Act 73 has the potential to stifle the flow of funds that support the district, redistributing them in a new statewide formula.

“We won’t have the funding to look like we look and do what we do,” Marckres said. 

The legislation contemplates merging school districts, and lawmakers plan to consider new school district maps during the 2026 legislative session. But leaders at the school district — already the largest in the state — are intent on resisting any merger with neighboring districts.

“It’s the right size right now,” Champlain Valley School District Superintendent Adam Bunting said of the district. “I’m reluctant to talk about any merger.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Champlain Valley school leaders outline $13 million bond proposal.

Updated at 4:35 p.m.

BURLINGTON — A Shelburne police sergeant has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge that will allow him to avoid jail time for striking and killing a cyclist with his cruiser while on duty. Prosecutors say he was driving faster than the posted speed limit.  

Kyle Kapitanski, 42, entered the guilty plea Thursday morning in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington to a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation with death resulting in the November crash that killed 38-year-old Sean Hayes, of Burlington.

As part of the plea deal with prosecutors, Kapitanski was sentenced to six to 12 months in jail, all suspended. In addition, he was ordered to serve two years on probation and during that time he will be required to participate in a restorative justice program. 

Judge Timothy Doherty, in accepting the plea agreement, called the case a “tragedy.”

The courtroom was full for Thursday’s hearing, with many of Hayes’ friends and family members in the gallery.

Hayes’ estate has also brought a civil lawsuit against the town of Shelburne in connection with the fatal crash. 

According to court documents in the criminal case, Kapitanski was behind the wheel of a Shelburne Police Ford Explorer cruiser early on the morning of Nov. 11, 2024, when he struck and killed Hayes on Shelburne Road in South Burlington.

Kapitanski was initially charged with a felony offense of grossly negligent operation of a motor vehicle with death resulting. That charge carries a possible penalty of up to 15 years in prison, if convicted.

Vermont State Police investigators who led the probe into the incident alleged in an initial affidavit that Kapitanski was driving his cruiser about 40 to 45 mph in a 35 mph zone near an intersection with Fayette Drive when the crash occurred.

Leading up to the crash, the affidavit stated, Kapitanski had YouTube videos playing on a computer tablet mounted in his cruiser. A review of that device showed “several” YouTube web addresses accessed between 2:29 a.m. and 2:40 a.m, the court document stated.

The review by investigators also stated there was “no evidence of user interaction” with the device during that time period. The crash took place at about 2:40 a.m.

The investigator’s review found that the last web browser video “appeared visually consistent” with what was shown on Kapitanski’s body-worn camera, the affidavit stated.

A link to the last video was provided in the filing and it was titled, “Trans woman CONFRONTING Matt Walsh takes UNEXPECTED turn.” 

David Sleigh, an attorney representing Kapitanski, contended there was no proof his client was distracted while driving by videos. 

The misdemeanor charge Kapitanski pleaded guilty to was based on Kapitanski’s speed above the posted limit, Deputy State’s Attorney Matthew Dolezal, a prosecutor in the case who specializes in traffic offenses, said in court Thursday.

State police said the roadway where the crash took place was wet from rain at the time of the crash.

Hayes had been seen in a video taken from a nearby business standing within the roadway but near the curb with his bicycle that had been towing a trailer, according to court documents.

A police affidavit also stated it appeared Hayes was adjusting the bicycle and trailer before he started walking southbound along with the bicycle when Kapitanski’s cruiser struck him.

Through the restorative justice process as outlined in the plea agreement, Dolezal said in court, Kapitanski “must fully acknowledge how his negligent driving caused Sean Hayes’ death and eroded the community’s trust in law enforcement.” 

Dolezal added that Kapitanski’s possible return to working in law enforcement has “effectively” been prevented.  

Sleigh, Kapitanski’s attorney, said in court it is unlikely his client will ever work in law enforcement again, telling the judge Thursday’s resolution of the criminal case “probably brings that career to an end.” 

The Shelburne Police Department placed Kapitanski on paid leave following the crash. 

Shelburne Town Manager Matthew Lawless said in a statement Thursday that Kapitanski remained on paid administrative leave. The town, Lawless added, “will review formal court records once they are available, to conclude our internal investigation and take all appropriate action.”

Kapitanski, offered the opportunity to address the court during Thursday’s hearing, declined.

Donna Hayes, Sean Hayes’ mother, wrote in a statement read in court Thursday by victim’s advocate Karen Burns about the impact the death of her son has had on her and his family. 

“Our family was shattered that day and I was robbed of the chance to ever say goodbye to him,” Donna Hayes said in the statement.

She described her son as a person who was full of energy, and kind and generous toward others. 

“His daughters were the absolute light of his life,” Donna Hayes said in the statement. 

Donna Hayes also said in the statement that the loss of her son has led to sleepless nights and hindered her ability to focus. 

“Most days I struggle to find a reason to even get out of bed,” she said, adding, “There was no last hug, no final I love you.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Shelburne police sergeant reaches plea deal, avoids jail time for deadly crash.

An adult and a juvenile pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges Tuesday in connection with the Aug. 11 beating in Burlington and subsequent death of a South Burlington resident.

Scott Kastner, 42, was allegedly the victim of a “frenzied mob style assault” by a group of people around 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, according to Burlington police. 

The attack began in an alley off Church Street and spilled on to City Hall Park. The victim was “savagely punched and kicked” while he was on the ground, causing a severe brain bleed that prompted emergency intubation and surgery at the University of Vermont Medical Center, according to court documents.

Kastner died five days later from complications due to blunt force trauma to the head, and the medical examiner preliminarily ruled his death a homicide, according to police. 

Originally from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Kastner leaves behind four children, six siblings and his parents, according to his obituary.

Police arrested one of the suspects on Friday and another on Saturday. At least three other minors have also been charged in relation to the case, police said.

Isaiah Argro, 26, of Queens, New York, and a 16-year-old Colchester resident VTDigger is not naming, were ordered held without bail by Judge Timothy Doherty after arraignments Tuesday morning in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington. The juvenile was charged as an adult. 

A second-degree murder conviction carries up to a life sentence, with a presumptive minimum term of 20 years, according to the charge sheet filed by the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Argro, who also uses the last name Agro, allegedly punched Kastner in the head approximately 10 times, police wrote in court documents. He is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.

The teenage defendant allegedly hit Kastner in the head approximately six times and pointed a gun at him, according to court documents. 

The judge further ordered the defendants must not have contact with each other nor with a woman who was a witness, according to court documents. Argro has previous criminal charges in New York, police said.

Amid continued debates about safety downtown, the Burlington City Council last week passed a resolution that includes increasing police presence, among other measures, to help create a safer and more welcoming City Hall Park. It also passed  a companion ordinance for some less serious violations to be processed through a restorative justice system.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Two plead not guilty in downtown Burlington ‘mob-style’ beating death.

This story by Briana Brady was first published in The Citizen on Aug. 28, 2025.

Hinesburg will be ending its shared police agreement with Richmond on Sept. 8.

Although the towns have not ruled out the possibility of working together on policing in the future, the current breakdown reveals just how complicated it may be for communities to move toward regional systems for services.

The decision by the Hinesburg Selectboard on Aug. 20 to end the inter-municipal contracts for shared policing services and a shared chief came as both towns are negotiating contracts with their individual police unions and after months of slow-moving police governance meetings between members of the selectboards from each town.

According to Hinesburg Town Manager Todd Odit, the catalyst for ending the agreements was two-fold.

Back in the spring, Odit was approached by Hinesburg police officers about receiving reciprocal coverage from Richmond. At that time, Hinesburg was responsible for covering police services in Richmond whenever the Richmond officer was off duty or unavailable. Although both departments were understaffed, Richmond was not responsible for providing services in Hinesburg.

While the towns last week came to an agreement for reciprocal coverage — since July 1 the Richmond officer has been providing policing services in Hinesburg when there are no officers from the Hinesburg department — the Richmond selectboard agreed to start paying its only officer, Matthew Cohen, time-and-a-half when providing those services.

Although Hinesburg has been paying its officers a $500 monthly stipend for covering Richmond, the increase to Cohen’s pay when working in Hinesburg may have created new inequity between the two towns.

The issues with moving forward with shared policing go beyond the potential for pay inequities, however, not least of which is that the towns have been unable to land on what kind of system they want.

The police governance committee first convened in April after the contract for shared chief services fell apart with the departure of the former Hinesburg police chief, Anthony Cambridge. Cambridge resigned as chief in January, seeking employment with Richmond, which effectively ended the agreement — Richmond opted not to hire Cambridge, who has since found employment as a police chief in Wolf Point, Montana, according to the Northern Plains Independent.

The initial goal of the committee, which has met every other week, was to hammer out a new policing contract for the foreseeable future, but also to discuss long-term planning for how the departments may function in the years to come, including the possibility of a unified police district, a separate municipal entity that would receive oversight from members of both towns similar to how a school district operates.

“If we can get to an inter-municipal district at some point, that would be great, and yes, that certainly would have to go to the voters,” Mike Loner, selectboard member from Hinesburg, said at the governance meeting on Monday August 25. “But we keep having this conversation every time we come together, and we’re just spinning our wheels.”

Over the last few months, the committee has been focused on finding an interim shared chief who could help guide the process, whether the goal was a unified district, continued reciprocity, or the folding of one department into the other. It is unclear whether any viable candidates were ever brought forward.

Even without a shared chief or a long-term goal, in the back-and-forth conversations over the current contract and a future system, union negotiations were one of the largest sticking points.

“I think in reality, one town providing police coverage to another town isn’t going to be possible until both towns get through their collective bargaining process,” Odit said at the recent governance meeting.

While both towns are in contract negotiations, they’re starting from different places. Hinesburg only recently unionized and entered bargaining; Richmond is renegotiating its last union contract. Cohen was able to leverage that current contract to start receiving time and a half in Hinesburg — it contains a clause for extra pay for “contracted work.”

However, in negotiations, Hinesburg officers do not currently have that power.

“With the discrepancies between the two unions on pay, I don’t know where we can go into short term unless we solve that somehow,” Josh Arneson, the town manager in Richmond, said.

In part, the concern is that the negotiations will move out of sync with each other. The towns could end up with contracts that maintain or worsen current inequities between the departments, making it more difficult should the departments ever consolidate.

“One of the things we’re dealing with now is that the employees currently know where they work, what they’re doing, what the rules are, anything other than that is an unknown. And you know, most people don’t like unknowns” Odit said, suggesting that, should the towns decide on a long-term goal, each town might have to outline the process in their collective bargaining agreements.

Unless both unions agree to a certain amount of information sharing between the officers and the towns in the bargaining process, the differences will likely continue, and the roadblocks may remain.

For now, the governance committee has suspended meetings until the towns themselves decide whether a unified district is the goal.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Hinesburg ends its police contract with Richmond.

Representatives for Amazon are appealing the Essex Development Review Board’s July decision to nix an application to build a 107,000-square-foot warehouse in town.

The applicant “has failed to meet its burden by providing incomplete, contradictory, and unreliable information on critical traffic issues,” the town board’s decision, published July 17, states.

Gravel & Shea PC, representing Scannell Properties and Allen Brook Development Inc., filed the appeal dated Aug. 15 in the environmental division of Vermont Superior Court, according to documents shared with VTDigger.

“We’ve filed an appeal to thoughtfully address the concerns raised by the Essex Development Review Board, because we believe our traffic analysis is thorough and that our proposal fully meets local requirements,” Amber Plunkett, a spokesperson for Amazon, wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

Town officials received notification of the filing from their lawyers on Aug. 21. A hearing date has not yet been set.

Named Project Moose, the site plan for the application outlines a 107,000-square-foot facility and 500 parking spaces at 637 Kimo Drive on 22.94 acres of mostly vacant and wooded land in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park off Thompson Drive. If built, it would be the first Amazon facility in Vermont.

“With the applicant’s appeal of that decision, the project now goes to the State’s Environmental Court and the Town will await the court’s decision,” Town Manager Greg Duggan wrote in an email Friday.

A court hearing would give Amazon “a second bite at the apple” and community members the opportunity to reassert their arguments, this time in a judicial forum, according to Jared Carter, one of two lawyers representing Essex residents opposed to the project. In response to the project, residents have formed a nonprofit called ACRES —  Alliance of Concerned Residents Envisioning Solutions.

“Of course we’re disappointed that Amazon has decided to appeal this despite the fact that the DRB, I think, pretty resoundingly said no. It’s certainly their legal right to do,” Carter said.

Starting over

The legal review is independent of the board vote, however, which essentially means starting over, he added.

Residents who remain opposed to the project are ready to argue why the proposed project should be rejected.

“The story unfolding in Essex is nothing short of a modern David vs. Goliath,” said resident Lorraine Zaloom in a statement on behalf of ACRES. “Our town’s Development Review Board made a sound decision in rejecting Amazon’s proposed warehouse, citing serious concerns that remain unresolved.”

After protests, heated debates and objections from residents during extensive public testimony this summer, the town’s project review board issued its 4-2 vote July 17 denying the site plan proposed by Scannell in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park.

The basis for the board’s denial was the project’s failure to comply with town zoning regulations, and particularly, its “failure to meet the burden of proof by providing unreliable traffic data” that “fails to meet the Town’s standards for data quality and methodology,” according to the decision published last month.

The decision further states that the applicant did not provide additional information requested and provided “misleading” information about an alleged state review.

At the July 17 public hearing, the town board “was led to believe that the project’s traffic impacts had been reviewed and accepted by the Vermont Agency of Transportation,” the decision notes. Upon further investigation, town officials found the VTrans traffic engineer had not given an opinion on the applicant’s traffic study. 

“This admission revealed that a key state agency with expertise in traffic safety had not, in fact, reviewed the traffic analysis for this specific high-intensity proposal,” the decision states.

Residents who testified against the project remain opposed due to traffic, noise, pollution, stormwater management and other environmental and quality-of-life issues.

Town regulations exist to be implemented, not waived, reads the ACRES statement sent by Zaloom. Residents claim the Amazon proposal is unsafe, and puts drivers, pedestrians and school traffic at risk.

“It is still a terrible location in our community for large scale distribution, far from the interstate,” Zaloom stated. “Yet Amazon presses forward, relying on unlimited financial resources — and the local developer’s outsized influence — to steamroll local opposition under the guise of civic generosity, while acting in pursuit of profit.”

Patty Davis, one of the area residents who testified against the project, said she wants the developer to build an alternate access road to take potential traffic pressure and hazards off the nearby residential neighborhood where she lives.

“We are not moving. A permanent injunction from trucks accessing lower Sandhill Road is personally all I want ASAP no matter what company comes here. Why? Because, we live here!” she added.

Amazon says it is committed to serving the Burlington area with faster delivery and reliable service. 

“Beyond improving delivery service for Burlington-area families and businesses, this facility would bring new jobs and contribute to Essex’s economic growth. We look forward to continuing the conversation and sharing more about the positive impact this project can have for the community,” Plunkett wrote in the statement.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Amazon appeals Essex board’s rejection of warehouse project in Saxon Hill.

Updated at 4:54 p.m.

The Vermont Supreme Court has upheld the murder and attempted murder convictions for a Burlington man sentenced to at least 27 years in prison for killing his wife and seriously injuring her mother with a meat cleaver. 

A jury convicted Aita Gurung following a trial in November 2022 of first-degree murder in the death of his 32-year-old wife, Yogeswari Khadka, at their home in Burlington on Oct. 12, 2017. In addition, the jury also found Gurung guilty of attempted second-degree murder for seriously injuring his mother-in-law, Tulasa Rimal, in the same attack.

Gurung’s attorneys appealed the convictions to the Vermont Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case in June. 

His lawyers raised several arguments to support their contentions that the convictions should be thrown out, from claiming problems with the jury selection process to disputing whether the Vermont Attorney General’s Office should have been able to refile the charges against their client after they were dismissed by the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“Defendant finally argues that the cumulative impact of all the alleged errors amounts to a denial of due process and a fair trial,” Justice Nancy Waples wrote in the 37-page unanimous ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court released Friday. 

“Because we have concluded there are no prejudicial errors presented, there is no basis for such a conclusion,” Waples added. “We thus affirm defendant’s convictions.”

The case has been working its way through the legal system for several years, as issues raised about Gurung’s mental health at the time of the attack, and leading up to it, were examined and litigated. 

In 2019, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George dismissed the charges against Gurung, as well as two other defendants in high-profile cases. 

George contended that she could not rebut insanity defenses in those cases based on expert opinions. Gov. Phil Scott called on then-Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan to review those cases. Donovan opted to refile charges in each of them.

In the ruling Friday, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled the Vermont Attorney General’s Office did have the authority to refile the charges.

Gurung’s trial largely dealt with the defense contention that he was insane at the time of the attack on his wife and mother. The prosecution challenged that assertion, arguing it was a case of domestic violence and Gurung was fueled by anger after his wife would not get him a beer.

Gurung was later sentenced by Judge John Pacht to 35 years to life, with 27 years to serve and the remainder suspended on probation.

Gurung’s defense attorneys in the appeal raised issues with the jury instructions that they claimed confused jurors about the consequences of a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict.

Nine of the 12 jurors signed and submitted a letter to the court after the verdict.

“On behalf of myself and the members of the jury named below, I write to advocate strongly for continued hospitalization of Mr. Gurung in a secure psychiatric care facility rather than imprisonment in a correctional facility due to the severity of his mental illness,” one of the jurors wrote in the letter on behalf of the others.

Waples wrote in Friday’s high court opinion that the letter did not reflect jury confusion. 

“Instead, it reflects the jurors’ concern over the carceral consequences of a guilty verdict,” Waples wrote. “Moreover, the letter opens by stating: ‘it could not be proven that [defendant] met the test of insanity by a preponderance of the evidence as presented in this case.’”

Gurung’s attorneys had also contended in their appeal that there were problems during the trial with the court’s Nepali interpreter who translated the proceedings as they were happening to Gurung, who is Bhutanese. Gurung wore headphones throughout the trial to hear the interpreter’s voice. The appeal alleged that the interpreter did not complete sentences and at times used English words for legal terms, such as “defense” and “testimony.” 

And, according to the appeal, when Pacht, the trial court judge, heard concerns raised by Gurung’s attorney during the trial, the judge was “hostile” and “dismissive.” 

The Vermont Supreme Court ruling Friday stated that the judge acted within his bounds.

“In light of the arguments presented to the trial court,” Waples wrote, “we conclude that the court made a reasonable inquiry into the quality of the interpretation and took reasonable steps to ensure that the interpreters were providing competent interpretation.”

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said in a statement Friday she was pleased with the court’s ruling affirming the convictions. 

“This case has always been about seeking justice for the tragic acts of domestic violence committed against Yogeswari Khadka and Tulasa Rimal — two brave women whose strength and resilience continue to leave a lasting impact,” Clark said in the statement. 

Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio, whose office is representing Gurung, could not be reached Friday for comment. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: State’s highest court affirms convictions for Burlington man in deadly meat cleaver attack .

Updated at 7:35 p.m.

BURLINGTON — The City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution Monday night intended to create a safer and more welcoming City Hall Park after hearing extensive testimony.

Sponsored by City Council President Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, the 3-page resolution aims to “revive City Hall Park as a more accessible, family-friendly gathering space” by enforcing existing laws “to address criminality and other unwelcoming behaviors.”

This includes keeping the park closed to the public from midnight to 6 a.m. as posted, maintaining a “more consistent presence” of police and public safety personnel, and developing a standardized response to low-level drug issues in the park.

The 9-2 vote — Melo Grant, P-Central, and Marek Broderick, P-Ward 8, voted no — comes six days after a man died after he was allegedly assaulted by a group of teens in the park. Interim Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke identified the victim Tuesday as Burlington resident Scott Kastner, 42.

Burlington residents and leaders have hotly debated the challenges of addressing increasing homelessness and public drug use downtown in recent months. At Monday’s meeting, some business owners claimed they are losing business and staff. Meanwhile, some residents said they find downtown unsafe and unwelcome, while others opposed further criminalizing the unhoused and called for greater compassion and creative solutions.

The resolution is meant to reach that middle ground and is “one step forward in starting to do what we can as a city,” said Progressive Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak who has recently sparred with Gov. Phil Scott on  how to improve conditions in the city.

“I oppose this because it’s inadequate to meet the moment that we find ourselves in and it’s harmful to the most vulnerable members of our community in a way that will not solve anything,” Broderick said, citing continued gaps that exist in housing, mental health care treatment and an overburdened criminal justice system.

More than 75 people attended the public hearing that lasted more than an hour.

“City Hall Park has become a major hot spot for lawlessness, drug abuse and other bad behavior,” said Dave Marr, a New North End resident for 50 years. “This has gotten to the point where many are afraid to go to the park, let alone stay and enjoy it.”

He encouraged the city to “enforce our rules and start cleaning up our city.”

Some business owners said the ongoing safety issues and the Main Street construction project have been detrimental to attracting staff and customers downtown.

Sheri Campbell, a salon operator downtown, said she lost 80% of her staff in the last 12 months. Leslie Wells, who owns restaurants downtown, said business is down 30%. Mad River Distillers founder John Egan said since 2024 they’ve been losing staff at the corner store downtown “because they felt unsafe.” All of them urged the council to pass the resolution.

Others pushed back on the language used in the resolution and the assumption that those who are unhoused or battle substance abuse or mental health disorders are the reason downtown is deemed unsafe.

At a time when the Trump administration is limiting access to Medicaid, food stamps and “encouraging the criminalization of homelessness everywhere,” downtown resident Sam Bliss said he is sad to hear his neighbors blaming the victims of a housing and affordability crisis.

“On the one hand, I’m hearing folks complaining that the police aren’t doing their jobs, and, on the other hand, also calling for more police at the same time,” said Bliss, who is an organizer of the Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs lunch program that has also faced some debate this year. He asked the city to be “more imaginative than calling for more police” to address the issues downtown.

FaReid Munarsyah, South End resident and co-organizer of The People’s Kitchen, a volunteer-led community effort that is serving free hot food three nights a week in the park, asked councilors to visit during the Tuesday night dinner.

Ed Baker, a North End resident and former social worker, urged the city to open the long promised overdose prevention center that he said would save lives. Forty-five people have died due to opioid-related deaths through May this year, according to the health department’s data.

After robust discussion, councilors voted to pass the resolution at 9:40 p.m., with one member absent.

Traverse, the council president, said he continues to hear that public safety downtown is a top priority for families, visitors and businesses, especially given recent incidents of violence, substance use and drug trafficking in the park.

“What we have going on in the park is a very troubling mix of not only criminal behavior but evidence of a mental health crisis in our state, substance use disorder crisis in our state and our affordability challenge,” said Shawn Burke, interim chief of the city’s police department.

Despite challenges of enforcing the park ordinance and staffing shortages, Burke shared data showing a majority of the department’s time and resources have been invested in policing the downtown area. 

As police continue to work with the city, courts and businesses “to make Burlington as vibrant and safe as humanly possible with the resources that we have,” Burke said he appreciated the resolution but warned there are no quick fixes to these issues.

The council also unanimously passed a companion City Circle ordinance Monday to create a rapid response process for civil and criminal ordinance violations to be processed through a restorative justice system in partnership with the Burlington Community Justice Center.

“People who receive tickets will be referred to the City Circle,” Burlington City Attorney Jessica Brown said at the meeting. “And the hope is that they will engage with the City Circle and address any harm that may have been caused, any accountability and repair harm to the extent possible.” 

“I see these efforts as happening in partnership with continued investments in substance use recovery and treatment services, of expanding our available mental health resources, of growing our affordable housing stock,” said Mulvaney-Stanak, who supported the resolution.

The mayor said she plans to review national best practices for resolving the issues of “non-violent illegal and anti-social behavior in public spaces, including new community health based strategies to reduce open illegal drug use,” according to the resolution passed, which calls for a report from the mayor and police by Sept. 29.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington City Council passes resolution to make City Hall Park safer.

BURLINGTON — On Sunday afternoon, Burlington police officers found explosive devices in an apartment building on Pearl Street they deemed to be associated with a resident, Justin Perkins, according to a press release from the Burlington Police Department. The 40-year-old man was arrested Thursday for allegedly bringing a pipe bomb to his work site in Colchester the week before. 

Before he was arrested last week, Perkins had talked with his coworkers about building bombs and making ghost AR-15 rifles in his residence, according to court documents. 

Around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, officers responded after someone reported explosive devices in the building. The road in front of the apartment, at 90 Pearl St., was blocked off for the afternoon. 

Residents were evacuated from the apartment building and “explosive devices were safely removed and neutralized,” according to the press release. 

Police officers were assisted by local firefighters, the Vermont State Police Bomb Squad, the Vermont Hazardous Materials Response Team and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the press release. John Russel, who works at Leonardo’s Pizza across the street, said the employees watched responders climb large firetruck ladders to a window in the apartment building. 

Residents were assisted by the American Red Cross before they were allowed to re-enter the building after it was deemed safe around 11 p.m., according to the press release. 

The incident comes four days after Perkins was arrested for allegedly bringing a pipe bomb to a job site on Dylan Avenue in Colchester. Court documents state that Perkins brought the bomb, which was about the size of a water bottle, to work on Aug. 14.

That day, he brought the bomb wrapped in what looked like white rags or a trash bag and “was excited to show” it to his coworkers, explaining how it worked and alleging it was simple for him to make, according to court documents.  

Perkins’ criminal history includes three failures to appear, 15 felony charges with one conviction, 43 misdemeanor charges with nine convictions, and three assaultive crime charges resulting in one conviction, according to court records. 

Perkins’ employer alerted police about the bomb on Aug.15. After his arrest on Aug. 21, Perkins was granted $10,000 bail, but did not post it, according to court documents. As of Monday morning, he’s being held without bail, according to the press release. 

The Burlington Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Burlington did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday. The Vermont State Police referred all comments to local police. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Explosives in Burlington apartment allegedly connected to man with Colchester pipe bomb.

Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak called on Gov. Phil Scott this week to do more to help the state’s largest city respond to homelessness and curb public drug use. But Scott and his administration argued the city needs to be the one to step up first.

The back-and-forth across different forums underscored how some state and local leaders have been at odds over each other’s role in addressing persistent social and economic challenges that, while not unique to Burlington, have nevertheless subjected the city to statewide scrutiny.

“The city has made their bed, and they are going to have to ask for specifics to help turn the corner,” Jennifer Morrison, Scott’s commissioner of public safety, whose job includes overseeing the Vermont State Police, said at a press conference Wednesday.

At one point, the commissioner — who was Burlington’s interim police chief in 2020, when protests prompted city councilors to cut the size of the police force by attrition — characterized visiting the city right now as a “terrifying” experience, though did not explicitly say why she thought that. She had interjected during an exchange between Scott and a reporter from WCAX News.

“The problems in Burlington did not occur overnight. They will not be fixed overnight,” Morrison said. “And it requires that everybody commit to principles of accountability — shifting the pendulum back to the middle so that the use of public spaces is just as important for law-abiding people and businesses to thrive as it is for service-resistant people who make others afraid or commit crimes.”

The WCAX reporter had asked Scott, a Republican, what his administration was doing that could help Burlington address concerns raised at a Tuesday meeting the mayor’s office held with local business owners. According to WCAX, a number of attendees told Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, that drug use and dealing in downtown was hurting their businesses.

Joe Magee, a spokesperson for Mulvaney-Stanak’s office, said the mayor’s response in that virtual meeting echoed what she wrote in an op-ed published in VTDigger last week. 

In that opinion piece, the mayor said Vermont municipalities “do not have the staff or resources to adequately respond” to what she called a combination of homelessness, substance use disorders and mental health crises. She said the governor’s decision to allow a sweeping round of evictions from state-sponsored motel rooms to proceed on July 1 — a move that specifically impacted families with children and people with acute medical needs — put more pressure on social services in and around Burlington.

In a statement to VTDigger Thursday, Mulvaney-Stanak also said she took issue with the governor’s and his administration’s comments at the press conference a day prior. 

“I continue to hope for stronger collaboration with the Governor and his team, and I was disappointed that they decided to take an adversarial tone in communicating to Burlington through the media,” the mayor said.

Scott said at the Wednesday briefing that he was not sure what additional help his administration would be willing to provide the city unless local leaders took steps to boost enforcement of existing laws, including cracking down on public drug use, he said. 

The governor acknowledged Burlington businesses were facing numerous challenges including a well-documented decline in Canadian tourism spurred by blowback from President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade war. But regardless of that and other factors, Scott said, it was wrong for the mayor to suggest his administration is not doing enough to help.

“I think it’s easy to blame others when some of your strategies are failing,” he said. 

Some Burlington leaders have called for the city to bolster local law enforcement, too. On Thursday, City Council President Ben Traverse, a Democrat representing Ward 5, wrote an open letter calling for a police presence “during all open hours” in downtown’s City Hall Park, which has become a hot spot for drug use and dealing. 

Traverse also called for the park to be cleared overnight — when it is closed — of people sleeping. That’s not allowed under city ordinances, though in reality, many people regularly use the park for overnight shelter.

Traverse wrote that his letter — which was sent by the city’s Democratic Party — was in part a response to recent news that a man died after being assaulted and injured near the park.

“I call on my friends in the Progressive Party, and all political persuasions, to join me in collectively building a more resilient Burlington by focusing on the issues voters elected us to tackle,” Traverse said in the letter, which was first reported by Seven Days. 

Traverse, who represents the city’s South End on the council, said in the letter he planned to discuss his requests at the upcoming council meeting on Monday.

In a separate email to Burlington residents Thursday, Mulvaney-Stanak emphasized that the city could not address what she called “complex and overlapping public health crises” on its own. The Progressive mayor urged her constituents to use a contact form on Gov. Scott’s website to make a plea for greater state support. 

“I am urging Vermonters to contact Governor Scott to tell him that municipalities and many of our local businesses are at a breaking point,” the mayor wrote, “and that it should be a State priority to develop a coordinated response to our collective public health, housing, and mental health crises.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Phil Scott, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak trade blows as state leaders take aim at homelessness, public drug use in Burlington.

BURLINGTON — Upbeat music, colorful lights and delicious smells drew a crowd to a table set up at the corner of City Hall Park downtown Tuesday night.

Amid volunteers dishing out heaped plates of pesto salad and biriyani from a fold-out table was a man expertly folding and filling dough triangles with mixed veggies, while another fried them in a pan of hot oil set up on the sidewalk.

“Free food, free people, free speech,” chanted a cheerful FaReid Munarsyah, a Burlington resident and co-organizer of The People’s Kitchen, a volunteer-led community effort to cook and serve free hot food.

Well-known for his community activism, particularly around food insecurity, Munarsyah and the People’s Kitchen banner are often present at local community events, such as the World Refugee Day celebration at Leddy Park in June.

When he heard about the recent struggles faced by Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs — another mutual aid free food distribution group in the city — Munarsyah decided to join the effort to feed hungry downtown residents.

“Businesses and the City Council don’t like us being here so we are here harnessing people’s power,” he said as he folded paper-thin egg rolls.

For many years, Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs has served free lunch out of the Marketplace Garage downtown. This summer, 150 area businesses signed a letter alleging the effort “has had a negative impact on the area.” They sent it to the mayor asking that the food distribution “be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting.”

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

That led to a counter letter signed by dozens of organizations and businesses expressing support for the meal program, followed by a protest outside City Hall before the May 20 City Council meeting. Sam Bliss, one of the organizers of the lunch program, also wrote an op-ed stating that Food Not Cops makes downtown safer.

Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak signed a resolution allocating $10,000 to support the program’s relocation “to a more accessible and better-resourced location.” Bliss recently told VTDigger the volunteers have not collected the funds. 

“There’s not agreement within the group that it’s a good idea to take the money,” he wrote in a message.

The attention the issue has received led to “The People’s Potluck Protest Picnic & Distro,” hosted Tuesday nights by the People’s Kitchen, according to flyers posted on social media. The group recently began serving hot food in a corner of the park off College Street three nights a week and plan to continue, especially through the winter, according to Munarsyah.

“The city needs to be taking care of its people, right? You want safety, then you start feeding people. People who are not hungry are less desperate,” he said.

It was a slow night this week, but the previous two Tuesday dinners served about 120 and 150 people, he estimated.

This week’s meal included a green salad, pesto chicken pasta salad, vegetable biriyani, seafood biriyani, and fresh peaches with whipped cream for dessert that was donated by a resident.

“It’s delicious,” said a woman who identified herself as Tanya and helped herself to two freshly fried, crunchy eggrolls. 

She said she used to work at a soup kitchen her parents started in Brattleboro about 45 years ago.

“I worked there my entire life all the way ’til they died. Now I’m in need of food,” she said. “I never thought that the tables would turn but here I am on the other side of the table.”

Munarsyah, originally from the Phillipines, is known for cooking food and hosting dinners at his home where all are welcome to cook and eat. So not all who stopped by to volunteer or eat were unhoused. 

Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, was among the volunteers there. They said they first started helping during the Occupy Vermont movement in 2011, and continued serving food to the encampment at Sears Lane in 2021 and during the wave of evictions as the state’s motel program was scaled back.

“We saw horrible things,” Cina said, their voice cracking as they described people dying and freezing in the cold and having to call the hospital or arrange for blankets and emergency help.

People’s Kitchen intends to continue serving hot dinner in the park three nights a week and provide essential supplies to those in need in partnership with other efforts, such as the Street Community Action Team of Burlington. It does so with the help of donors like farms and businesses, as well as public donations.

The recent attention Food Not Cops/Food Not Bombs garnered has Munarsyah worried about whether the city will target the volunteer-run effort for removal or impose permit and licensing requirements.

“I think they’re going after the wrong people,” he said. “Politicians, who were responsible for the housing crisis to begin with, are in no position to criticize people who are actually doing something about the housing crisis. And we’re doing something. We’re helping people who are unhoused and anybody who wants a meal, and it’s free.”

As volunteers packed up leftovers and cleaned the area, a plastic LED sign on the table continued to flash colorful messages: “Free food. Good Food. Good mood. 100% halal.”

Disclaimer: The reporter of this article has volunteered to serve food with People’s Kitchen on several occasions.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Food as protest: People’s Kitchen serves free hot meals downtown in solidarity with Food Not Cops .

Winooski’s Mayor Kristine Lott announced Tuesday she would be stepping down as of Sept. 15. She is expecting her first child and said she is looking forward to prepare for a new chapter in her life.

“This was not an easy decision — the seven years I have served my neighbors has been the honor of a lifetime,” Lott stated in a press release. 

Deputy Mayor Thomas Renner will serve as interim mayor until Winooski residents elect a new leader next Town Meeting Day.

Lott, 40, who is from Michigan, came to Vermont in 2009 and has lived in the Onion City since, she said. She served on the City Council before she was elected mayor in March 2018, beating fellow council member Eric Covey.

At the time, she said she was excited to be the first woman to be mayor of Vermont’s most diverse city. She draws an annual stipend of $1,700 for the volunteer position.

Lott first got involved in government when she volunteered to be on the housing commission in 2017 “just to be a part of problem solving around housing issues and to be more connected, more engaged in my community,” she told VTDigger on Tuesday.

And community seems to have become the cornerstone of her term there. She has reached out and participated with residents at various levels — from building ties with the local mosque to joining a clean-up crew to pick up dog waste.

“Local government, it’s supposed to be by the people, for the people,” said Lott. She sought to hear directly from constituents and plugged the feedback back into the system to make decisions that benefitted the community, she said.

“Kristine was good about connecting with and listening to a wide range of community members, which is such an important aspect of governing,” City Manager Elaine Wang wrote in an email. “With me, as the Mayor is Council’s liaison to the City Manager and staff, she struck a great balance between acting as a partner while maintaining the authority of Council.”

Wang said she first met Lott for a chat in a local cafe in 2022. Wang had just been hired after a nationwide search but hadn’t started work yet. 

“She signaled a good mix of high expectations, yet interest in being supportive, which was buoying me as a first-time manager,” Wang stated.

The community engagement is what Lott remains most proud of.

In her first year as mayor, Lott said she visited the local mosque to foster a relationship that has lasted, and joined a downtown riverbank cleanup where volunteers cleared dog poop from the area. 

“I was really interested in just doing more community engagement and adding more transparency and outreach. And I think we certainly have made improvements there,” she said. “That has been really rewarding for me, to build more relationships and see more people engaged in local government.”

Mukhtar Abdullahi recalled meeting Lott at the Islamic Community Center of Vermont during her visits, where she always wore a head covering.

“A lot of people come to us, most of the time they’re looking for something,” he said. “For her, she comes in, she makes eye contact, respects the people, listens to them, never interrupts. She’s a wonderful, wonderful human being.”

As a Somali and Mai Mai language liaison in the Winooski School District and a prevention educator at Winooski Partnership for Prevention, Abdullahi said he has crossed paths with Lott many times since, and that she has either helped directly or guided the community in the right direction. 

Lott has always been welcoming, supportive and accessible, even on short notice, he said, so he is sad to see her go.

Renner, who is about to step into Lott’s role, wrote in an email he has enjoyed her mentorship and will miss serving by her in the council chambers.

“Kristine is a dedicated public servant who has spent years working to make Winooski an incredible place to live, visit, and work,” Renner wrote, adding he is happy her expertise is just a phone call away.

Lott highlighted several achievements in Winooski during her term — from closing out the 20-year Tax Increment Financing debt that has helped invest in essential services, to zoning regulations that have led to more affordable and family-friendly housing amid a statewide housing crisis. 

As she leaves behind multiple ongoing projects — the Main Street revitalization that’s expected to be completed this year, for instance — Lott said she feels good about leaving the council and interim mayor “in a good position” to keep advancing this year’s priorities and the upcoming budget process.  

She hopes they will “continue the focus on deep community engagement in the decision making process,” she said.

“While I’ll always care deeply about public service and what comes next for this incredible community I call home, it is the right decision to focus my priorities and energy on family, career, and personal life,” she stated in the release.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story misstated the term length Thomas Renner will serve as interim mayor.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified who was hired as Winooski city manager after a nationwide search and was incorrect on the amount of the mayor’s annual stipend.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Winooski mayor resigns, looks back on ‘deep community engagement’.

A man who police said was assaulted and injured near City Hall Park in Burlington, allegedly by a group of teens a week ago, has died, interim Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke confirmed Tuesday morning.

News of the man’s death had previously been reported on news sites and on social media. 

Burke said that he was still awaiting autopsy results determining the cause and manner of the man’s death. The chief declined to provide the man’s name or any other details surrounding the man’s death.

Officers on foot patrol around 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 in City Hall Park in Burlington came upon an assault taking place involving several people on Church Street near the park, according to a press release issued last week by Burlington Police. 

“As the Officers approached, the group fled on foot and by bicycle,” the release stated. “Officers were able to chase and apprehend three juveniles who were involved in the assault.”

The juveniles were later issued citations to appear in Chittenden County Superior family court, the release stated. Juvenile court matters are heard behind closed doors. 

Because the matter involved juveniles, Burke said he could not provide additional information, including their ages. He also declined to discuss what may have prompted the incident. 

“That’s all germane to the investigation, and we have to preserve the integrity of that,” the police chief said. 

One of the teens arrested had a firearm, according to the release, and “further investigation revealed the firearm having been displayed during the assault of the victim.”  

The injured person, who police described as an adult man, was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment for serious injuries, the release stated.

The police chief said the investigation was continuing and that there may be additional arrests.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Man dies after assault last week near City Hall Park in Burlington.

The city of Burlington lifted a water conservation notice for some city and Colchester residents Thursday morning, two days after it was announced.

Tuesday’s advisory affected customers who receive a water bill from Burlington Water Resources or Colchester Fire District 2, which the city also serves. The reservoir and tanks serve about 10,000 customers in Burlington and about 2,800 in Malletts Bay.

“The cause of the conservation notice was the booster pump failure on the water main that supplies the Colchester water tank,” Chapin Spencer, the city’s director of public works, wrote in an email Thursday. “Without the booster pumps, our regular supply lines to the tower could not keep up with the higher water demand that we saw during the heat wave.”

The alert was sent midday Tuesday after the water in a Colchester tank fell 2 feet below the minimum desired level, Spencer said earlier this week. On Thursday morning the drinking water level was back to normal and the alert was lifted. 

“With our customer’s water conservation efforts, now both the Colchester water tank and the Burlington reservoir are replenished and up to normal levels,” Spencer wrote.

The two booster pumps feeding the Colchester water tank that failed are approximately 25 years old, said Spencer, who oversees upgrades to Burlington’s aging infrastructure. One is fixed, and despite significant maintenance, the other pump is not online yet.

“We do exercise the pumps weekly, but moving forward we are now going to exercise the pumps for a longer duration to more fully test them,” Spencer said in the email.  

Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington lifts water conservation alert.

COLCHESTER — On a warm Thursday evening, a group of residents gathered at Bayside Park with signs they used to protest a hotel and resort proposal at a recent Development Review Board meeting.

They pointed out a long marina in the bay and two parcels of private property at 166 and 180 West Lakeshore Drive that were largely hidden by a cluster of large trees.

They imagined what the area would look like when the majority of those old trees are removed. That’s part of the plan proposed by Hazelett Strip-Casting Corporation, which is seeking to combine the two lots and to construct five large buildings into the slope overlooking the bay. 

The plan envisions a $8 million hotel comprising five “cottage-style” buildings for “a 20-room inn” with a restaurant and event space at the lakefront site of a former motel.

“The town should protect us and the bay,” said Phyllis Bryden, who bought a house on East Lakeshore Drive nine years ago and has been disappointed with overcrowding of the area, the diminished water quality and increased traffic on the scenic stretch of Malletts Bay.

Marilyn Sowles, a resident of Porters Point Road and a former selectboard member, is concerned about diminished views — both from the lake and the road. 

She held up a photo of what the shoreline now looks like as taken from a boat on the bay. It looks like a verdant stretch of green on the sloping shore. The project renderings replace it with five shiny glassfront buildings as proposed by consultants Scott Homsted from the engineering firm Krebs and Lansing, and Benjamin Avery of Greenfield Growth Consulting LLC, formerly a developer with Black Rock.

“There is no way to build that huge monstrosity on this skinny piece of land and maintain the views from the lake,” she said at a packed Development Review Board hearing on July 23 that ran almost four hours, like the previous June 11 hearing.

Residents, including those gathered last week, continue to protest the $8 million project. At both hearings, they reiterated concerns about environmental and traffic impacts, and with setting a development precedent for the Malletts Bay shorefront.

Between the two hearings about 20 concerned residents hired Brice Simon, a lawyer in Stowe, who sent a letter to town officials July 21 reiterating a litany of concerns. These range from the project’s lack of stormwater and runoff treatment to its adverse scenic impacts.

“I hope that the DRB will deny the application,” said Simon, who outlined how and why the proposal does not meet the definition of an inn, as the developers call it. He said it is a hotel, which is not allowed in the area according to the Colchester Town Plan.

“The site plan approval is not appropriate for a project that is so out of conformance with the surrounding area, and which would cause such undue adverse effects on the surrounding ecological, scenic, state and municipal resources,” he wrote in an email.

Simon also submitted a petition at the last development review board meeting signed by more than 50 residents opposed to the project.

Town officials declined to comment.

The board is expected to issue a written decision on the project in September, 45 days from the last hearing, according to Zachary Maia, development manager in the town’s planning and zoning office. He confirmed Simon’s letter was received as testimony by the Development Review Board.

Many of the residents who gathered at the waterfront last week shared views on why they believe the project is out-of-character in the bay.

Longtime resident Jerry Allyn said he is concerned about added water pollution it could bring. A big project without a stormwater runoff plan is irresponsible, he said. And with most of the 98 parking spots proposed across the street, drop-off and crossings would create a major traffic hazard, he added.

“When I first came here there was one traffic light in town. Now West Lakeshore Drive is one of the busiest sections in town,” he said referring to the traffic. It has been exacerbated since the Malletts Bay sewer project began.

Nancy Cloutier of Church Road, who has been living in Colchester for 22 years, said she and her husband are “appalled” the town would consider such a large project that would “destroy the view,” affect traffic and does not meet the Town Plan’s guidelines. 

“The aesthetics are horrible,” she said.

Cloutier said she has a background in event planning and takes issue with the proposed capacity numbers presented by the developer. What is projected to be a 40-person capacity restaurant can hold much more, she said, if tables and chairs are removed for an event. She shared her concern at the last hearing.

“I feel that the board and the planning and zoning commission have been given enough testimony and information from citizens to reject this permit out-of-pocket on very good, solid ground,” said resident Jeanne Welch, who commutes daily and is concerned about the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and that the development could circumvent local regulations.

The developers and consultants did not respond to comment.

Meanwhile, all await the town board’s decision.

As the rays of the setting sun dappled through the trees at Bayside Park, the residents lowered their signs and walked slowly up the hill to head home.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester residents outline concerns with hotel project; await town decision.

Camryn Woods is a reporter with the Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

BURLINGTON — On a warm Sunday evening in June, Margaret Skinner crouched near a young honey locust tree and plucked away the net of weeds that surrounded it. Her efforts, she knew, could help the sapling breathe by reducing its competition for nutrients and water.

This honey locust is just one of 600 trees that Skinner and her team of volunteers nurture throughout the summer. Most of the trees, having traveled in a tractor trailer truck from Oregon, will spend their most vulnerable years being cared for in the South Burlington–based tree nursery called Branch Out Burlington.

Once they graduate from the nursery three to four years later, the trees will provide shade, carbon sequestration and valuable habitats throughout the state of Vermont.

Branch Out Burlington, affectionately referred to by its members as “BOB,” is dedicated to enhancing the urban forest in Burlington, engaging community members through events like tree walks and weeding days and hosting an annual tree sale. 

Skinner helped found the group in 1996 when the city lacked resources to care for its trees. Two years later, she was granted access to land that would become the nursery — at the time, stocked with only 40 trees, according to Skinner — which is currently located off of Shelburne Road in the University of Vermont Horticulture Farm.

“I don’t want to just plant trees. I want to make sure the trees that get planted in the community get cared for, because they weren’t and they were dying,” said Skinner, who also works full-time as an entomologist at the University of Vermont.

This care, Skinner said, includes removing weeds, selectively removing branches to improve health, securing trees in place with wooden stakes and watering them. Young trees can also be easily damaged by outdoor equipment like weedwhackers and lawnmowers, which should be avoided around them, she said.

That Sunday evening, Skinner was joined by the president of Branch Out Burlington, Jacob Holzberg-Pill, and the organization’s web designer, Nathan Hoffmann, who are part of the board’s eight to nine members.

When he found Branch Out Burlington, “I was looking for things to do that were outside, that were tree related, that were part of the community,” said Holzberg-Pill, who had moved to Burlington with his 1-year-old son. “I contacted Margaret, and I was like, “Hey, could I come help out?’”

Hoffmann joined the organization three years ago, when he was looking for volunteer opportunities as a graphic designer at OnLogic, a computer hardware manufacturing company. After attending multiple weeding events, he started going to the board meetings, cementing his long-term involvement.

“I wanted to learn more. There’s a wealth of knowledge here that you’d never believe. It was just such a cool opportunity to get more involved and to be a part of the community, doing something that was much bigger than me,” Hoffmann said.

On Tuesday, July 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Branch Out Burlington held a Weeding Bee in the nursery, which is open to the public every second Tuesday during the summer months. Its 20-some attendees chatted, cleared weeds from tree beds and puzzled over iPhone pictures of unidentified damage on folks’ front yard trees.

Once the weeding was done, Skinner provided free pizza and homemade cookies to volunteers. A ticket raffle was held, with prizes ranging from urban forestry books to a handmade wooden birdhouse.

“It’s a really special, fun way to get away from the work week and meet wonderful community members of all ages and from all over,” Hoffmann said. 

The Essex Junction Tree Advisory Committee, established by the city council in 2013, also makes an effort to be at the Weeding Bees. They have two rows of trees specifically allocated to the city, but volunteers help care for the entire nursery. 

“It was a win-win for us because we could, with our budget, be able to really increase the number of trees we could get into the community,” said Nick Meyer, chair of the committee.

Weeding Bees and Branch Out Burlington’s other volunteer opportunities, like pruning and grafting workshops and tree planting events, make urban trees economically viable for cities. 

When trees are bought older and immediately ready to plant in urban environments, they’re much more expensive, according to Holzberg-Pill — potentially around $500 each. 

Instead, Branch Out Burlington buys its trees from Oregon nurseries for $50 at younger ages with the knowledge that they’ll be stewarded by volunteers for a few years until they’re ready to move. 

Branch Out Burlington’s July 2025 newsletter wrote that it give away hundreds of trees to local schools, towns and non-profits that have the means to take care of them every year. The ability to fund projects like this comes from donations and tree sale profits. 

Green Mountain Farm-to-School, a nonprofit that builds healthy school environments, the Intervale Community Farm, a Burlington-based agricultural center, and Perkins Pier in Burlington, for example, have received tree donations, according to the newsletter.

Going forward, Skinner hopes to continue developing Branch Out Burlington’s media presence. “We are lucky to get 20 people up here to help take care of these trees once a month,” she said. “As I look around the nursery, I could spend every day, all day, and there would still be work to do.”

Urban trees are becoming more important as the climate warms, according to Meyer. 

“If we didn’t have any trees on all our sidewalks and open areas, days like today would be even hotter,” Meyer said. Cooling the temperature in cities and slowing rainfall in tree canopies are forms of stormwater management, and green spaces can give a visually softening effect to concrete environments, Meyer said.

“Hopefully these trees are going to be here for generations,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Where do city trees come from? Meet the people behind Burlington’s tree nursery.

Burlington officials continue to monitor water levels after the city issued its first water conservation notice this year asking residents to “limit non-essential water usage” and “delay other important water-intensive tasks.”

Sent by email and posted online, the alert went out Tuesday after the water in a Colchester tank fell 2 feet below the minimum desired water level by midday, according to Chapin Spencer, the city’s director of public works.

While that may not sound like a lot, Spencer said it is important to maintain high levels in the water tanks because the 7 million gallon reservoir and its tanks serve the University of Vermont and UVM Medical Center’s Level 1 trauma center — in addition to other city residents and businesses. 

“So we clearly need to make sure we’re able to serve any fire or emergency,” he said.

To that end, the alert asks residents in Burlington and Colchester to help conserve water by delaying outdoor watering, turning off taps and reducing the time of showers, dish washing and teeth brushing. It also asks users to delay laundry and dishwashing until a full load can be run, and to avoid peak times: after 8 p.m. and before 6 a.m.

The advisory applies to customers who receive a water bill from Burlington Water Resources or Colchester Fire District 2, which the city also serves. The reservoir and tanks serve about 10,000 customers in Burlington and about 2,800 in Malletts Bay.

The water level dropped because people use more water during heat waves and because the aging pumps that supply a water tower in Colchester stopped functioning Tuesday morning, according to Spencer.

“We did an emergency repair on one and so the water tower level is going back up in Colchester, but our ability to fully fill both the water tower and our reservoir are dependent on people not using as much water,” he said.

Burlington’s water infrastructure is aging and the two pumps that failed are about 25 years old, he said. One has been repaired and the department is working to fix the second one. There is no estimate of how long the advisory will be in place and the department will continue to monitor water levels daily.

“We will be looking overnight at our storage capacity and how we’re trending and we’ll have an update tomorrow morning,” Spencer said. “The best place to check, besides social media, is our website.”

Failing pumps and water conservation alerts are not common. In his 12 years, Spencer said Tuesday’s alert is the first time the city has issued a water conservation notice during peak summer.

Residents have reached out with queries but have mostly been understanding, he added.

“We have a great customer base. I think everybody understands intuitively that when there’s a heat wave like this that our water system is stressed,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Water department asks Burlington and Colchester residents to limit water use.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eliot Barrengos is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

BURLINGTON — In fall 2023, Colchester High School pitcher Zach Davis sat at a table in the cafeteria and signed a contract to pitch for his hometown Lake Monsters. 

The Vermont teen joined a growing list of baseball players from the Green Mountains to take the field for the Burlington baseball team. 

“It was around the winter or late fall of my senior year of high school. I reached out to my college coach and asked if it would be possible for me to play here this summer,” Davis said. “We gave (Lake Monsters head coach Matt Fincher) a call.”

It was a moment the right-hander had dreamed of just a few years earlier. 

“It sounds pretty cliché to say, ‘You can do what you put your mind to,’ but it is really true,” he said. “I remember coming to games — one in particular, my junior or sophomore year of high school — and I was just thinking, ‘Hey, I want to play here when I’m in college.’ So yeah, it’s a cliché, but there’s a lot of truth to it.”

He debuted for the team the summer after he graduated from Colchester High School, playing for a couple of months before heading to Bryant University, where he is now a rising sophomore.

For fellow pitcher Cole Tarrant, the story followed a similar script — minus the cafeteria. Tarrant, a southpaw also from Colchester, initially reached out to the Lake Monsters coaching staff, hoping to sign on for the summer after his first season at Hobart College in upstate New York. 

The rising junior has been coming to games since he was in Little League. 

“I remember when my grandparents brought me to a game — I was 6 or 7,” he said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool.’ It was always my dream to play baseball at a high level … It’s kind of a full-circle moment to be back out here.”

At the time, Fincher could only offer the lefty a temporary contract for the 2024 season. When injuries and departures inevitably created roster turnover, Tarrant had the chance to join the team for the full season. 

After falling short of their championship aspirations last summer, both pitchers returned for the 2025 season. A couple of hours before facing the New Britain Bees last week, the pair reflected on their time with the team ahead of the Lake Monsters’ playoff start on Sunday.  

“I felt like it helped me a lot for my junior year, so I figured I’d do it again. I thought it could help me again this summer,” Tarrant said.

For Davis, the Monsters have represented the perfect place to hone his craft as a pitcher for Division I Bryant. 

“I have a lot of support, and I thank God for that,” Davis said. “I’m very grateful for my family, friends and the people that support me with what I do. Like, just for example — tonight, my whole family’s coming to the game. Family-friends are coming.”

Vermont is not necessarily known for producing top-end baseball talent. But both hurlers know that playing for the hometown team can be especially meaningful on the Little Leaguers who sit in the stands. 

“Even my parents have friends with little kids who tell me how awesome it is to come see me — ’cause they know me. I think that kind of inspires them, too,” Tarrant said. 

The Lake Monsters have not captured a championship since their run in summer 2021. For the guys in the dugout, the prospect of capturing the franchise’s second trophy in five years is, in Davis’s words, “really exciting.” 

“Some of us have been here since May, and guys have come in and out. But for a lot of us, this is the last little stretch,” he said. 

The Lake Monsters currently sit in second place in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League standings and boast a 38–19 record. 

“We have a chance to do something fun, something cool, and play baseball a little longer. No matter what happens, I love this team. I had a great time. I won’t regret anything we did this summer,” Davis said. 

Regardless of how this season ends, both pitchers feel their team is leaving a mark on baseball in Vermont. 

“They’ve been really successful here for four years now,” Davis said. “The organization’s done great on and off the field — they’ve created an environment that people want to come and watch. I only see it getting better.” 

Read the story on VTDigger here: For 2 Lake Monsters pitchers, playing baseball at Centennial Field is a ‘dream come true’.

Following a monthslong investigation, federal immigration officers performed a targeted raid at Lamell Lumber in Essex on Saturday, arresting several migrant workers.

While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accelerated its arrests of migrants in Vermont in recent months, advocates say the raid marks a new tactic. 

“ICE arrests at the workplace are still not the norm,” said Will Lambek with Migrant Justice, a group that advocates for immigrant workers. “Most arrests are conducted in public places, so this is something of a departure from what we are usually seeing.”

According to Lambek, the officers arrested three men. The raid follows an investigation of Lamell Lumber’s employment practices, during which the federal Homeland Security Investigations unit in Burlington allegedly discovered counterfeit documents that led to the arrests.

Federal court records show that two men from Mexico — Alejandro Monfil Carballo, 40, and Artemio Cordova Mendez, 36 — have been accused of reentering the country illegally after being deported. They are currently being held at Northwest State Correctional Facility. 

A judge decided that the men must remain detained at Northwest while they wait for their trials.

The third man who was arrested has not been criminally charged, according to Lambek. He was originally detained in Northwest like the others, but Migrant Justice only became aware of his detention on Tuesday, Lambek said. By then, the man had already been transferred and is currently being held at Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. 

According to Lambek, the man was unable to make a phone call in Vermont and could only alert his family when he was granted a phone call in Massachusetts.The Vermont Department of Corrections didn’t respond to an inquiry about whether the man was allowed to make an initial phone call. As of Thursday afternoon, the man had not been able to contact a lawyer yet, Lambek said.

The investigation and arrests come after lingering strife at the business related to workers’ rights.

On Feb. 7, migrant workers at Lamell Lumber staged a protest claiming the company fired them for demanding higher wages. When they asked to have their jobs back, the company allegedly  offered to rehire them at $14.50 per hour instead of the $16 they were paid before. According to Lambek, the workers involved in the protest took severance pay and left Lamell Lumber.

Monfil Carballo was hired by the company shortly after the protest, Lambek said, whereas Cordova Mendez had been working there longer but was not involved in the February protest.

The investigation began in February when the Homeland Security Investigations unit in Burlington received information indicating that Lamell Lumber employs and provides housing to their workforce through Agri-Placement Services, an employee placement company, according to affidavits submitted by border patrol agent John McGarghan.

In March, HSI submitted a notice of I-9 inspection and subpoena, requiring Lamell Lumber to submit original I-9 forms, which are used to verify identity and employment eligibility. Federal officials also asked for payrolls from January onward, lists of current and terminated employees from December 2024 onward and other personal information on the workers.

As a result of the investigation, HSI said it found fake documents that led to the arrest of the two men.

“This is the first, to our knowledge, set of arrests that followed an I-9 audit,” Lambek said. “In that sense, it is unique.”

Brett Stokes, director of the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School, agreed with Lambek.

“Is it possible that ICE could have been doing this before? Yes, absolutely. But the fact of the matter is they haven’t been,” Stokes said. “I certainly have never heard about it happening in Vermont.”

During the Biden administration, a Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement program allowed people to report workplace violations and abuse without fear of retaliation. Immigrants could request to defer removal and be legally present in the U.S. for limited periods while investigations into the companies moved forward. Many workers benefited from the program, but it was terminated after Trump’s inauguration, Lambek said.

“The threat of retaliation from ICE is something that can create a chilling effect for immigrant workers and prevent them from advocating for their rights and denouncing labor abuses,” Lambek said.

Neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor Lamell Lumber responded to requests for comment.

The next court hearing for Monfil Carballo and Cordova Mendez is scheduled for Aug. 18 in Burlington. Since they are facing criminal charges, the two were assigned a public defender.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Federal immigration officers arrest migrant workers during targeted raid at Essex lumberyard.

This story by Liberty Darr was first published by The Other Paper on Aug. 7.

The South Burlington School District is expected to hire an investigator to look into a complaint about a mysterious notebook pillorying the former superintendent that was reportedly circulated at some teachers’ social gatherings.

The investigation comes after a July 23 formal complaint filed with the school board by Kristin Romick, the district’s executive director of educational support services who just this week assumed the temporary role of acting superintendent. The district’s former superintendent, Violet Nichols, resigned the position effective Aug. 1.

According to the complaint, Romick was made aware by some district employees about an after-graduation celebration held at the Saint John’s Club, a bar in Burlington, on June 13, where an elusive book, dubbed by the complainant as the “black book,” was being circulated among staff. The book, Romick alleges, was handmade and included questions written down for teachers and staff to answer.

The party was advertised in an email to all high school staff, and according to an email, began at noon on the day of graduation.

The employees who reported the incident to Romick stated that they were asked to answer the question for that day and sign their name. One of the questions, according to the complaint, read, “What is the next lie the superintendent will tell us?”

The employees told Romick the book is mostly circulated during social gatherings after teachers’ paydays on Fridays and is usually kept in teachers’ cars. According to the complaint, it contains ongoing commentary relating to district leadership, often in a negative tone.

Romick alleged that, according to reports from staffers, the book was being circulated at this post-graduation party by Beth Adreon, co-president of the teachers’ union.

Romick, apart from allegations of the book, also claims that separate conversations held at the party suggested a “premeditated” and “coordinated” effort to remove district leaders, including Nichols.

While a public records request sent by The Other Paper to the district to see the book was denied by Adreon, it has been described by some district staff as a sort of “burn book,” a term used to refer to a collection of negative comments or opinions about a certain group or person. The term gained popularity in 2004 after the movie “Mean Girls” used the term.

Adreon, in an emailed reply to the public records request, said the union is a private institution and is not subject to public records requests.

“Further, the South Burlington Education Association is not in possession of a ‘black book,’” she wrote.

In a phone call, the other South Burlington Educators’ Association Co-President, Noah Everitt, also asserted that he was not aware of any “Mean Girls-style burn book existing at any level, SBEA-wise or non-SBEA-wise.”

He did say, however, that he was aware that a book does exist, primarily as a way for teachers to annotate their thoughts.

“It’s not a burn book, and it also has absolutely nothing to do with the SBEA,” he said, adding that the book is mostly associated with teachers’ social gatherings every “Payday Friday.”

Meanwhile, the Vermont NEA has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Vermont Labor Relations Board, alleging Romick’s investigation is intended to “harass, threaten and intimidate the union president for the work that she did on behalf of her 400 union members.”

The filing calls on the Vermont Labor Relations Board to rule that the investigation is unlawful and find that Romick has “interfered with, restrained, and coerced” the union’s leadership team and members.

But Romick, in her complaint, says these reports from employees have only amplified her growing concern about “fear for my own position and well-being” from retaliation by the South Burlington Educators Association.

“I believe my fears are justified,” Romick wrote. “It is now evident that there may be a coordinated and targeted plan, orchestrated in part by members of the SBEA and co-president Beth Adreon, to undermine and remove certain employees, including myself, due to internal political alignment or professional associations.”

That professional association, Romick said, is her open support of Nichols.

Nichols’ resignation came amid simmering tension between the South Burlington Educators’ Association and Central Office leadership. The turmoil bubbled over in April when some union members began publicly voicing their grievances about Nichols, citing toxic working conditions, fear of retaliation and questionable decision-making. The call for a new superintendent came after the union engaged in a “listening tour,” which surveyed nearly 300 of its members.

Romick, among other district staffers, has stood firm in her support of the former superintendent, even sending another email to the board in June that outlined a growing concern that she may be targeted next.

In a statement to The Other Paper, Everitt and Adreon said the complaint can only be described “as retaliation for protected union work,” asserting that they expect a speedy conclusion to this “distraction.”

“As a union, we will vigorously defend our right to organize,” the co-presidents wrote. “To that end, we will actively support our members and protect them from this type of retaliation intended to punish and intimidate those who advocate for our students, schools, and profession.”

Romick’s complaint asks the board to launch a formal investigation into the use and distribution of the book during school-affiliated social gatherings and the possible orchestration of leadership changes.

School board Chair Seamus Abshere said that while he is unable to comment on the investigation as it remains open, he did confirm that the board is tapping a third party to investigate the complaint.

“If the facts turn out to be as represented in the complaint, it would be a matter of significant concern,” he said. “However, I believe we should not draw conclusions until the facts are understood through a prompt and thorough investigation.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: South Burlington School Board investigates complaint of mud-slinging notebook.

BURLINGTON — With shovels in the ground and hard hats on, officials chucked soil, throwing up clouds of dust at a construction site off North Avenue on Thursday afternoon.

The event celebrated the groundbreaking of 100 Cambrian Way. Come next year, there will be 40 new, permanently affordable apartments in the mixed housing development at Cambrian Rise, in Burlington’s North End, built in partnership with Champlain Housing Trust and nonprofit developer Evernorth. 

The building will run mainly on solar and geothermal power and will not rely on energy generated from fossil fuels, according to Eric Schmitt, COO of Evernorth.

“But we’re not only delivering on climate solutions,” he said. “100 Cambrian will be a long-term asset to the city. It means that these homes will give families the stability to raise their children here and know that this housing will still be affordable for their children and their grandchildren.”

The new building will be the third to offer affordable housing at the site. Ten apartments have been set aside for families with vouchers from the Burlington Housing Authority, which could help lift recipients out of homelessness. 

The trust and Evernorth completed the 72-unit Laurentide building there in 2019, and Cathedral Square’s Juniper House with 70 apartments for adults 55 and older opened in 2021. 

A fourth building planned — Shale Beach Condominiums — will add 30 permanently affordable condos through the Champlain Housing Trust’s shared equity program, offering homeownership at a fraction of current prices, Michael Monte, CEO of the housing trust, announced at the event.

“These 40 apartments will help people feel safe and secure in a home,” Monte said.

State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said housing is Vermont’s number one economic issue. He has heard from employers who fail to attract or retain talent because it is too expensive for people to rent or buy a home in Vermont, he said. It’s also a social issue, he added.

“The lack of housing is one of the leading drivers for homelessness,” Pieciak said, underscoring the importance of building more homes, particularly affordable ones, statewide. 

Apartment sizes at 100 Cambrian will vary and, on average, cost $1,325 for a one-bedroom, $1,530 for a two-bedroom and $1,840 for a three-bedroom apartment, according to a Champlain Housing Trust press release.

The $23.8 million project has been funded by 14 sources. A third of it came from federal and state tax credits through the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, $8.8 million came from state and federal funds committed by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, $3 million came from the City of Burlington, and $1 million came from a donor that wanted to help the homelessness situation in the city, according to the release.

It is designed by Duncan Wisniewski Architecture. Wright and Morrissey are the general contractors. Eric Farrell is the master developer of the neighborhood, the release stated.

The new development is part of Burlington’s effort to build 7,200 new homes in 25 years, particularly affordable housing.

The event drew more than 50 partners, politicians and stakeholders to the site on a hot afternoon. 

“Ensuring our community has ample safe and affordable housing is a top priority for my administration,” Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak said in the release.

Speakers also noted the opening of Fox Run — a similar climate-friendly 30-unit complex in Berlin on Wednesday. Built in partnership between Downstreet Housing and Development and Evernorth, it is the first new affordable development built in Berlin in a decade, MyNBC5 reported.

As the federal government pursues massive tax cuts, Vermont may receive more federal tax credits to support housing development, said Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, which administers the federal tax credits.

Collins quoted a song from Hamilton which goes, “What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”

“Not all of us are going to be able to be here at the ribbon cutting, and not all of us are going to be able to see the dozens and dozens and dozens of families who live in this building to come,” she said. “But this is a legacy of the good work that is done by all of these organizations.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Eric Schmitt’s role at Evernorth.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Champlain Housing Trust breaks ground on 40 affordable apartments in Burlington’s North End.

BURLINGTON — On Wednesday afternoon, a typically routine commission meeting of airport officials was swept up in the growing backlash over the second Trump administration’s ramped up push to deport undocumented immigrants. 

Dozens of Vermonters spilled out of the tiny Wright Room, a conference room on the second floor of the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, and into the atrium to demand that Vermont’s largest airport take a stand against the transfer of people detained by ICE through its terminals.

The commission meeting was the culmination of months of conflict between Burlington-based activists who have tracked the movement of people detained by ICE through the airport and airport officials who continue to assert they have no communication with or control over the federal agency. 

“I’ve had no communication with ICE, ever, on these situations,” Nic Longo, aviation director at the airport, said after the meeting. “The last communication I had with ICE was a few months ago that said, ‘If you don’t move your cars I’m going to be towing them.’” 

But activists, who have been tracking the movement of ICE agents and people detained by the agency through the airport since May, have argued that the transfer of detainees amounts to illegal human trafficking because of their perceived lack of access to legal representation and communication with their family members. 

In early July, activists attended an airport commission meeting and presented data they’d collected, which showed more than 450 people detained by ICE had been moved through the airport since January. Then, on July 16, activists claimed their protest of moving three women detained by ICE through the airport in the early morning hours led to those women being removed by ICE from the airport. On July 25 and Aug. 1, activists recorded and shared with VTDigger two instances of ICE agents moving people detained by ICE through nonpublic side doors of the airport and into what appeared to be TSA security checkpoints. 

“Trump and ICE have trafficked over 450 people through BTV airport since January, terrorizing our neighbors and sending them to concentration camps in Arizona, Louisiana, and Texas,” a flyer for the monthly meeting created by an activist read. The flyer went on to say that the airport was “complicit” in this relocation by “granting special access to masked agents and hiding them from accountability while pretending to be ignorant.”

Almost 40 Vermonters rotated in and out of the room that held only 18 chairs for the public to speak during the public forum portion of the monthly meeting. Their comments, both in person and online, lasted almost three hours. Even more people milled about on the second floor, listening to testimony from speakers through a megaphone connected to a Zoom recording. 

Airport commissioners listened quietly and often nodded along. Longo said there were more people than they typically see at the monthly meetings, and they changed the meeting room, with a maximum capacity of 30 people, to accommodate a rotating cast of speakers.

Many speakers shared stories of their affection for the small airport, and their disappointment that airport staff weren’t taking a public stand. Others shared stories of working with immigrants and refugees who were detained, including farm workers who have spent decades in Vermont’s dairy industry. 

Along with activists who had been monitoring the airport, teachers, veterans, former lobbyists and retired lawyers showed up to demand action. One Vermont woman cried while making a public comment over Zoom, sharing the experience of growing up in fear that her father would be deported before he received his U.S. citizenship. Some people called for a boycott of the airport, and others asked for commissioners and the aviation director to resign. 

Jana Porter, a 75-year-old Vermonter who spoke in person, echoed many speakers when she called the commissioners complicit in the movement of ICE detainees. 

“It’s time for you to take a stand on this and say no,” Porter said. “ICE is not going to be sneaking human beings in the back door in the dark of the night.” 

The movement of ICE agents through non-public side doors, recorded by activists, was mentioned by several speakers as their impetus for attending the commissioners’ meeting. After the meeting, Longo said using a side door, either by a member of the public or airport staff, was not allowed unless there was coordination with a law enforcement agency. When asked why ICE agents were using non-public side doors, Longo said he had no idea. 

“As far as I’m aware, we have not given out a badge to access any of our doors to ICE,” Longo said. “Their coordination would have had to have been through another federal agency.” 

The Department of Homeland Security, the umbrella agency over ICE and the Transportation Security Administration, does have such a badge that they could have shared with ICE agents, Longo said. He didn’t know where ICE agents went after entering the side door, he said. 

At the end of the meeting, Longo addressed the speakers and acknowledged their time spent sharing their perspectives and advising the commissioners. He said he and the mayor were working to address their concerns after meeting with activists over the last few weeks. 

“We have a lot of work to do, and we have a lot of limitations,” Longo said. 

Commissioner Chip Mason said it was frustrating to hear hours of emotional testimony and that it felt personal to be accused of being complicit with ICE’s activities. He asked Longo for a deliverable focused on the issue. Longo said he didn’t know if one existed, calling the situation “one of the most complex things I’ve worked on since I’ve been here.” 

“I don’t think public pressure is going to be abated until a work product comes forward,” Mason said. “I could quit, you could quit, but I don’t know if we as a commission have the authority to tell ICE they can’t move through our airport.” 

In July, airport officials told VTDigger they are obligated to work with federal law enforcement officials because the airport receives millions of dollars in federal grants. But a recent decision by a California judge prevents the federal government from withholding funds for impeding ICE’s actions, according to Longo. Vermont was part of the lawsuit that spurred that preliminary injunction.

But the airport’s relationship with ICE remains legally dicey. 

According to a memo the airport received in June after requesting legal advice from Kaplan Kirsch, a national law firm, the city’s obligations are “immensely complicated and changing in real time as litigation proceeds on various fronts challenging the administration’s changes to how local governments like the city are directed to interact with ICE.”

The memo emphasized that many of the conclusions in the report could change day to day as legal challenges unfold, but it stated that ICE had broad legal authority to enforce federal immigration law and operate through the public areas of the airport. City action to interfere with ICE actions or operations could lead to criminal penalties, according to the memo.

“The law might say that the airport must allow it,” David Miskell, a retired organic farmer, told commissioners during the public forum. “I believe our brave little state has done many U.S. firsts. We can stop ICE hate here in this Leahy airport.”

The city could, in fact, have some effect on ICE operations because it has the power to regulate the airport, according to the memo. The law firm suggested some rules and regulations that could affect ICE and its operations without targeting the agency, such as enforcing vehicular rules, limiting access to non-public areas like offices or portions of the airfield and limiting the servicing of chartered flights.

Longo said he has talked to colleagues at other airports across the country and they had a shared frustration over interactions with ICE, but that none felt they had direct control over the actions of federal law enforcement agencies. 

Helen Riehle, another commissioner at the meeting, requested more information on federal and state human trafficking laws, and how other similarly sized airports were handling their relationship with federal law enforcement agencies around the country. 

“Right now, airports are kind of alone on this subject,” Longo said. “It’s very, very challenging talking to other directors and colleagues because each airport is doing a different thing with a different solution.”

Longo noted that the airport had begun putting signage on the back of bathroom stalls in different languages to call out human trafficking. An activist called that hotline last Thursday after witnessing ICE agents move detainees through a non-public side door, but said the hotline redirected them to an ICE tipline, according to Leif Taranta, a fellow activist who heard the call. 

Commissioner Connor Daley asked if the situation with ICE could be a standing item on the airport commission’s agenda moving forward.

“I don’t think this is the end,” Riehle said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermonters demand action on ICE transfers at airport meeting.

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.

From the moment that Wilmer Chavarria was pulled out of line by immigration agents at an airport in Houston on July 21, he sensed that he was a marked man.

Chavarria is the superintendent of schools in Winooski. He was returning with his husband from Nicaragua where they were visiting family — a trip they take every summer. Chavarria grew up in Nicaragua, then received scholarships to attend high school in Canada and Earlham College in the U.S. He became a U.S. citizen in 2018, after marrying his college sweetheart, an American citizen.

Without explanation, a federal agent pulled Chavarria out of line at the Houston airport and ordered him into a windowless room. He was separated from his husband and subjected to five hours of interrogation, an experience that he described as “psychological terror.” Agents demanded the passwords to his computers and phones, and he initially refused, since he had his school-issued laptop with student information that is protected by federal student privacy laws. He finally relented after being threatened by the agents.

“You have no rights here,” Chavarria says the agents told him.

Chavarria’s story has made national news. But often overlooked is why Chavarria believes he was singled out.

“I was flagged and put on some sort of list before I even arrived at that airport,” Chavarria told The Vermont Conversation. “When was it that my profile was flagged? And the even better question, why?”

Chavarria has been an outspoken defender of the rights of immigrants, who comprise a large part of the student body in Winooski schools. In February, he led an effort to make Winooski the only sanctuary school district in Vermont.

In April, he publicly refused to sign a certification demanded by the Trump administration that his school not promote diversity, equity and inclusion. When Vermont’s agency of education asked schools to comply, Chavarria responded that the state should “grow some courage and stop complying so quickly and without hesitation to the politically-driven threats of the executive.”

Winooski is Vermont’s most diverse school district, with a majority of families living under the federal poverty line and dozens of languages spoken in the schools. Nearly 800 students attend the Winooski school, which is home to pre-K through high school.

Chavarria said that the effect of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is “instilling fear and making people afraid to just coming to school because they don’t want to be separated from their children.”

The line the administration is taking is clear to Chavarria: immigrants don’t belong here. “Only one type of people, only one type of language, only one type of race, only one type of culture is considered American. Everything else does not belong,” Chavarria said. “They want us to feel like we will never be accepted here, and that if we can leave, then we should leave.”

Chavarria said that his experience of being targeted by federal agents was terrifying because it clarified that even U.S. citizen’s are not protected.

“This is not North Korea taking you into an interrogation room and doing all that to you. This is your own U.S. government that’s supposed to be there to protect you.”

Chavarria noted that he and his family fled a dictatorship in Nicaragua in the 1980s. “The fact that I’m terrified what the government is doing to U.S. citizens right now should speak volumes.”

He said that constantly having to defend himself and other immigrants, whether to fellow Vermonters or to federal agents, has left him “exhausted” but committed.

“Vermont is a good state and the majority of people in Vermont are good people but … that’s not enough,” Chavarrias said. “The times call for more than just being a good person. The times call for more than just being proud of our reputation of being a good brave state. … The times call for action.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Conversation: Winooski Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria on why he was detained at the border.

This story by Aaron Calvin was first published in the Stowe Reporter on July 31.

Despite an increasingly threatened habitat and dwindling population, a rare songbird in its Mt. Mansfield habitat saw the return of many adults during its annual banding this year — a sign of the bird’s endurance.

The Vermont Center for Ecostudies has been studying the Bicknell’s thrush — a small branch-brown songbird, named for the amateur ornithologist who first identified them in the Catskills — for over three decades.

Earlier this month, the Center, under lead bander Anna Peel, once again set up nets to capture and tag the thrush with tracking devices during its mating season. The Center monitors the bird population to learn more about its migration patterns and how well it survives year to year, as well as to count the number adult and young birds on the mountain.

The Bicknell’s thrush is picky about their habitat. They spend their mating season in the northeastern United States and Canada, with a preference for “sky islands” like the alpine summit of Mansfield — though most of the population winters almost exclusively on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

The thrush, along with their subtle coloring, trilling song — which they prefer to sing at sunset instead of sunrise — display unique mating habits, just one of the mysteries that still abound with this songbird, according to Desiree Narango, a conservation scientist with the Center who specializes in the songbird.

Based on data that skews heavily male, as the females are harder to catch, Narango said the birds exhibit polygynandry, meaning females partner with multiple males and males partner with multiple females in the nesting process.

“They have a really interesting population dynamic, and that sex ratio changes from year to year, so in some years we have a tremendous number of males and a very low number of females, and in some years it’s more even,” Narango said.

The difficulty in catching females makes learning more about the birds’ private lives challenging, and in particular has prevented researchers from gleaning much about the females, a gap in knowledge that is essential to the challenged species’ survival.

The warming world caused by the ongoing climate crisis threatens all alpine bird species, but the already scarce Bicknell’s thrush population is particularly vulnerable. Data collected through the Center’s crowdsourced collection program Mountain Birdwatch indicates that Bicknell’s thrush populations have declined by an average of 5% per year in Northern New England and Eastern New York over the last 15 years.

The Mt. Mansfield banding project began over 30 years ago with a specific focus on the Bicknell’s thrush and has expanded over time to track six different Alpine bird species. Two of those species — the white-throated sparrow and dark-eyed junco — are among the fastest declining bird species in North America, according to Narango. Exactly why remains an open question, but researchers broadly point to human-caused environmental pressures, including climate change.

“Part of our work right now is trying to understand what those drivers are of (Bicknell’s thrush) females, because that’s ultimately changing the population,” Narango said. “Another part that we’re currently trying to better understand is what their diets are and what kind of insects that they might be more closely reliant on to feed their young and to sustain the population.”

Still, at this year’s banding, Narango and her colleagues observed at least one positive population signal.

“We actually had a lot of returning birds this year, so birds that we’ve captured in previous years have come back, meaning that they’ve survived over the season, which is good news for the population, but also provide some information to us that the events that happened during other times in the cycle, such as migration or during the winter, were favorable for first survival in this species,” Narango said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: To track a rare songbird atop Mt. Mansfield, females prove a hard catch.

Updated at 11:31 p.m.

BURLINGTON — Vermont Green Football Club are national champions. 

The Green toppled Seattle-based Ballard FC, 2-1, in Saturday night’s United Soccer League Two championship game at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Thousands of fans turned out to the Green’s home stadium at the school, Virtue Field, to watch the team cap off its undefeated 2025 season with its first-ever national-level prize. 

United Soccer League Two is a semi-professional, summertime competition made up largely of collegiate players. It has about 150 total teams across the country.

“Unbelievable. Unreal,” Maxi Kissel, the forward who scored the Green’s go-ahead second goal, said after the match ended. He was surrounded by at least a dozen kids, all clad in Vermont Green merchandise, who had run onto the field to get his and other players’ autographs. “I knew what I had to do — and I’m so thankful that I did it.”

Saturday’s game was deadlocked at 0-0 until just after halftime, when Vermont Green midfielder Julien Le Bourdoulous slotted home a penalty kick. Ballard then tied the game at one apiece around the one-hour mark. Both teams continued to trade chances for the next half-hour, but with the game approaching the final whistle, it looked likely to be heading to overtime. 

That was until the Green won a corner kick in the match’s final moments. After the initial delivery from the corner, Kissel latched onto the end of a second bouncing cross toward the goal and pounded the ball past Ballard’s goalkeeper, sending the stadium into an eruption of cheers. The game ended shortly after.

“It was tough. That’s the best team we saw all year,” Vermont Green coach Chris Taylor said after the match. “But we knew the longer the game went on, we’d be the stronger team.”

Saturday’s win was the culmination of a dream run for Vermont Green, which is in its fourth season and has garnered international attention for its outspoken support of climate justice and other progressive social causes. The team regularly draws sellout crowds for its home games, boasting some of the highest average attendance of any similar team in the country. 

After tying just three regular-season games and winning every other, the Green won its local United Soccer League Two division, the Northeast Division, in early July. Later that month, the team topped the league’s regional Eastern Conference bracket to advance to the final stages of the national playoffs.

Saturday’s win marks the second national championship for a Vermont-based soccer team in the past year. Last December, the University of Vermont men’s soccer team won the NCAA Division I championship, the first national collegiate title in a major sport in school history. Four UVM players were part of the Vermont Green team that won Saturday’s game.

Kissel, the late goalscorer, was one of those players. He said last fall’s win for UVM was echoing in his head as the final whistle blew on Saturday night.

“We did it again,” he said, catching his breath before repeating: “We did it again.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘Unbelievable. Unreal’: Vermont Green FC wins national soccer championship.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have begun quietly moving detainees through a nonpublic side entrance at the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, according to activists. The new tactic, activists say, bypasses public scrutiny and calls into question previous statements airport officials have made regarding their involvement in transfers.

Activists, who have been monitoring the airport for months and argue that ICE is carrying out illegal transfers of immigrant detainees, told VTDigger they observed ICE officials escorting a group of people through a side door early Thursday morning.  

A video taken by activists and shared with VTDigger shows a white 15-passenger van parked around 3:30 a.m. Thursday at a side entrance of the airport that appeared to lead to the security screening area. An unidentified man in a gray shirt at the back of the van is seen holding out both his hands and telling two activists, “Y’all need to stay right there.”

Unidentified people can also be seen walking through a heavy metal doorway. 

Julie Macuga, a Burlington resident and activist who has helped surveil the airport, and Leif Taranta, a second activist, attempted to get information from the people moving inside the airport before they disappeared into the building, along with the man in the gray shirt. 

The video then shows the activists walking inside the airport to find that a metal gate closed off the Transportation Security Administration security screening area.

The activists said ICE’s 3:30 a.m. arrival was earlier than usual and before TSA opened for the day. It’s the second time in less than a week they’ve witnessed ICE officials move detainees through a side entrance, according to videos and emails the activists shared with VTDigger. 

Airport security later told the activists that they were aware of the activity, and that the people they had seen go through the door included ICE agents, one video showed.

An additional video reviewed by VTDigger, taken on July 25, shows unidentified men in masks moving people from a white van parked behind a BTV airport truck through a different side door and directly into the airport’s TSA security checkpoint line.

In response to criticism about the large number of detainees passing through the Burlington airport, airport officials have suggested in previous meetings and interviews that they don’t know when ICE transfers happen and that they have little interaction with the agency.

“We don’t get advised. We don’t get any communication,” said Nic Longo, the airport’s director of aviation, at a recent airport commission meeting. 

In an email response to VTDigger’s questions, David Carman, deputy director of aviation at the airport, said the use of the side door does not represent a change in airport policies. 

“Airport staff do not get involved with assisting with ICE/DHS detainee movements, nor does the airport have any communication with ICE on when or how the movements are taking place,” Carman said in the email. 

For years, federal law enforcement agencies “have had access to the secure areas of the airport for the purpose of law enforcement and supporting other federal law enforcement agencies,” he said. 

“Any actions pertaining to ICE detainee movements and how they bring detainees to the post-TSA checkpoint public spaces of the airport (where passengers board aircraft) are federal law enforcement and DHS decisions, and completely outside the purview of the airport,” he added. 

But activists say the apparent use of a nonpublic side door represents a change in the way ICE agents are using the airport. 

When pressed by activists at a recent airport commission meeting, Longo said airport staff have pushed back against ICE when agents parked in areas where parking wasn’t allowed — nearly towing the vehicles in some cases. At the time, Longo said the airport’s goal was to treat the agents like other law enforcement officials or members of the public. 

Almost two weeks later, Longo said it’s extremely rare for airport staff to interact with ICE, but because the airport receives federal grant funding through the Federal Aviation Administration, it was obligated to cooperate with the federal government.

Longo told VTDigger that airport officials allow ICE to transport detainees through the airport because it’s a public use facility, and he can’t pick or choose federal agencies or members of the public who can use the facility. 

“Our obligation is to cooperate and not impede U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Longo told VTDigger on July 15. 

When asked about federal agents using the side door at the Burlington airport, James Covington, a spokesperson for ICE’s Boston field office, told VTDigger that “ICE Boston does not wish to comment on security protocols.”

‘They’re in the custody of government agents’

One of the videos taken Thursday shows advocates going to the closed airport police office, which the Burlington Police Department operates, according to Carman. They called the airport police number and told the responder they had witnessed people being in through a side door. 

“I’m aware of what you’re referring to and those people have been identified as ICE agents,” the police officer responded. 

Taranta asked if police had reviewed legal documents. 

“I know that as police you’re allowed to ask them for documentation that the transport itself is legal,” Taranta said.

“Yeah I have no reason to ask them for that,” the officer said.

“So the fact that there have been past illegal transfers doesn’t make you as an airport security make you think you should ask that this one is legal?” Taranta asked. 

“Nope, I’m not doing that,” the officer said. “I’m aware of what’s going on here. I’m confident that they are who they say they are.” 

“Are you sure the detainees are legally being taken from this country?” Macuga asked. 

“They’re in the custody of government agents,” the officer said. 

Macuga told him that wasn’t an answer. 

“Well it is,” the officer said. “I’m not going to debate this any further with you. I’ve got other stuff going on.”

The Burlington Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. 

‘I have to do my job right now’

ICE detentions and deportations have skyrocketed under the second Trump administration, with more than 36,700 people booked into ICE detention in June, and more than 56,800 held in ICE custody as of July 13, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research organization housed at New York’s Syracuse University. 

A study by the loose group of activists, which includes Macuga and Taranta, showed roughly 450 people detained by federal law enforcement in immigration cases have been transferred through Vermont’s largest airport since January.

The videos shared with VTDigger show the potential escalation by ICE officials in moving detainees beyond traditional public access routes into the airport to avoid detection as activists continue airport surveillance, according to Macuga.

The group of activists sent an email to the mayor’s office and Longo, Burlington airport aviation director, following the event. 

In the email, the group told officials that activists were in the public portion of the airport over the past week “as a stop gap measure while the airport and city improve their policies.” 

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

“We thought it was heading in a good direction,” Macuga said of prior conversations with city officials. “But then things really started to escalate in the past week to a point we haven’t seen the whole time we’ve been doing this work.”

Macuga said the activists’ work has led people across New England to reach out to them and that a network is forming of people who want to take on similar work at their own airports. 

They’ve also been training people to be bystander activists, including learning basic Spanish phrases. Over the last two weeks, someone in their advocacy network has stayed at the airport multiple days a week, Taranta said. 

“We want people to be safe, and to be told by TSA agents that investigating human trafficking in an airport is not their job is very chilling,” Taranta said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Video: Activists sound alarm over immigrant detainee transfers through nonpublic side door of Burlington airport  .

BURLINGTON — Some seven months ago, Maxi Kissel, clad in the green and gold of the University of Vermont men’s soccer team, slotted home the goal that won Vermont its first national collegiate championship — in any major sport — in school history.

Winning one national title would be impressive enough. But on Saturday, Kissel, along with three other players who lifted the NCAA Division I trophy for UVM last fall, will be on the university’s home field in Burlington to compete for a second one.

This time, they’ll be playing for Vermont Green Football Club, a semi-professional team also based in the Queen City. The Green compete in United Soccer League 2, which has about 150 teams across the country. The clubs field mostly college players who often hope the summertime showcase will attract the eyes of professional scouts.

“It’s a bit surreal,” Kissel said Wednesday afternoon, taking a break during a team training session at UVM’s Virtue Field. In just a few days, the stadium’s bleachers and surrounding fences are set to be lined with thousands of fans for the 7 p.m. game against Ballard FC, a team that’s based just north of downtown Seattle. 

“It’s like, wow — we haven’t lost a game in ages,” said Kissel, who’s a forward from Germany, speaking about himself and his peers on both UVM and Vermont Green. (Vermont Green has gone undefeated so far this season.) “We just do our best every day — and, thankfully, good things happen.”

Kissel has played a key role on Vermont Green’s offense in recent weeks. He scored one of the three goals the team needed to overcome FC Motown of New Jersey in an early round of the United Soccer League 2 playoffs this month. Then, in last Sunday’s semifinals, he notched a goal in Vermont’s dramatic, penalty-kick shootout win over Alabama’s Dothan United.

Vermont would not have won that semifinal without another UVM stalwart — goalkeeper Niklas Herceg, also from Germany, who blocked two of Dothan United’s penalty kicks during the shootout. UVM defender Nathan Siméon, of Quebec, and midfielder Ryan Zellefrow, of Pennsylvania, have also been go-to starters for the Green’s playoff run.

“With the UVM team, we kind of went into the games — especially in the college (tournament) — knowing like, no matter what happens, we were going to win,” said Zellefrow, also during Wednesday’s training. “And this team feels so similar.”

That two Vermont-based soccer teams have found so much success, one so soon after the other, feels unlikely in a state with no professional sports franchises of its own. But players and coaches said the pair of national tournament runs is hardly a coincidence.

UVM’s championship win — a product, in part, of a roster bolstered by top players recruited from around the country and the world (the case for many college teams) — “captured the imagination of so many people around the state,” said Chris Taylor, Vermont Green’s head coach, in an interview after Wednesday’s training wrapped up.

Having more Vermonters interested in soccer, in turn, helped Vermont Green build on what was already some of the highest average home game attendance of any team in United Soccer League 2 in the country, Taylor said. Vermont Green’s semifinal drew about 4,000 spectators out to the UVM stadium, and Saturday’s match could see more.

“They paved the way, I think, for this season. We’ve obviously got some of their best players as well,” Talyor added, speaking about the UVM men’s soccer team. “I don’t think we have the season we’re having without UVM’s season.”

Zellefrow noted that Vermont Green’s robust fanbase has also spurred talented collegiate players who hail from other countries, which have had strong soccer fan cultures for far longer than the U.S., to want to spend the summer playing in Burlington.

More than half of the players on Vermont Green’s current roster were born outside the U.S, according to the club’s website. 

“I think those guys, when they come to Vermont and see the fans, and the community and so forth, they feel like they’re at home,” said Rob Dow, the UVM men’s soccer coach. “They’re talking about, ‘Oh, I grew up in this power club in Germany, or in Belgium or France — but I never felt this type of energy before.’”

Like UVM last year, Vermont Green has made several late-game comebacks this year to keep its season going. Some fans have loaned the team versions of the “Cardiac Cats” nickname UVM’s team earned in 2024 after a similar series of late-stage heroics. 

Taylor, the Vermont Green coach, said his team has been successful at the tail end of games in part because of its deep bench of talented players who can be brought in as substitutes with fresher legs, essentially helping Vermont “just outlast” other teams.

It’s a strength that will likely be put to the test in Saturday’s final against Ballard FC, Taylor said, which has consistently been among the best United Soccer League 2 teams in the country in recent years. Ballad won the national championship game in 2023. 

“They make games really fast,” Taylor said. “Their pressure is really good. They’re a pretty relentless team.”

Kissel, the UVM and Vermont Green forward, said he, too, was confident in the team’s ability to come back late if needed. He credited the fans’ unabated support — but agreed the parallels with his college team’s run are hard to ignore. 

“Maybe it’s a Vermont thing,” he said, smiling.

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘This team feels so similar’: Heading into a championship, Vermont Green FC builds off UVM men’s soccer’s success.