KILLINGTON — The Killington Resort is accustomed to hosting fast-flying World Cup racers on its aptly named Superstar trail. But that didn’t stop locals from gawking Wednesday when a helicopter circled higher than the mid-August temperature as part of an even more stratospheric event.

Vermont’s largest ski area used the chopper to install a dozen towers — some up to 58 feet tall — for a new $12 million Superstar chairlift. It’s part of a $38 million improvement project that also will raise the capacity and reduce the energy consumption of the resort’s 9-million-gallon-a-day snowmaking system.

“This is really a milestone moment,” Tait Germon, Killington’s director of mountain operations, shouted over the windy whir of propellers. “It’s exciting to see it start to come together.”

When a 20-something honeymooner named Preston Smith opened the first trails on the state’s second tallest peak in 1958, he was happy to raise $30,000 for a simple shelter and parking lot.

Smith, now 95, went on to create the biggest snow-sport resort in eastern North America before its sale to the Maine-based American Skiing Company in 1996 (the same year neighboring Pico Mountain joined the portfolio), the Utah-based Powdr Corp. in 2007 and local investors who formed the Killington Independence Group last year.

“This landmark purchase represents a commitment to keeping Killington and Pico in the hands of those who know and love it, with plans to increase capital investment while preserving the mountains’ unique character and community,” the current owners said in a statement last August.

The Rutland County resort closed the four-decade-old Superstar chairlift in April for dismantling, leaving its nearby K-1 gondola to transport summer visitors to hiking and biking trails and an 18-hole golf course. 

Killington faced challenges finding a helicopter, as its original pilot left to fight Canadian wildfires. But another crew arrived Wednesday to fly the towers onto recently poured concrete foundations, logging in some 50 trips up and down the 4,241-foot peak from early morning to late afternoon.

“Given the challenging terrain we’re working with — it’s not like you can drive in with a crane — this is the most efficient way to do this,” Germon said.

The new six-passenger chairlift is on schedule for completion in November, Killington officials said. But mindful of potential weather problems, they couldn’t guarantee it would be finished in time for the World Cup, which has drawn up to 20,000 spectators and a national television audience of 2 million viewers annually since 2016.

As a result, the international circuit will move this year to Copper Mountain in Colorado, although “the race is expected to return to Killington Thanksgiving weekend 2026,” the Vermont resort said in a statement.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Killington needed help erecting its new $12 million chairlift. Cue the helicopter..

Updated at 5:45 p.m.

The Marble Valley Regional Transit District — which operates Rutland County’s main public transportation, The Bus — is relocating the bus route’s main transfer point Wednesday due to ongoing health and safety concerns at the state-owned Rutland Transit Center. 

Environmental hazards such as animal pests and trash build-up have persisted in the center due to a lack of regular maintenance, the transit district’s Executive Director Jade McClallen said in an interview. Also, the district had to close the public bathrooms in the center due to misuse, McClallen said. 

A recent stabbing incident at the transit center last week — as reported by WCAX and the Rutland Herald — created urgency around ongoing security concerns and served as a catalyst for the immediate relocation, she said.

“The increase in illegal activity had raised concern from the community and our drivers and their families enough for us to recognize that we could no longer be down there,” McClallen said. 

For the past five years, the transit district has urged the Vermont Department of Building and General Services to maintain the “basic safety and sanitation standards of the lease agreement,” but no substantial and lasting improvements have been made at the center, according to a letter signed by the McClallen and transit district’s Board of Commissioners Chair Devon Neary.

The Vermont Department of Building and General Services received notice of the relocation Tuesday, and the Commissioner Wanda Minoli visited the center to make on-site assessments of the area that very day, according to Department of Building and General Services’ spokesperson Cole Barney.

The transit district changed the transfer point to the Rutland Amtrak train station parking lot on Evelyn Street in the interim until the center is rehabilitated, McClallen said in an interview. 

“The conditions within and surrounding the Transit Center have deteriorated to such a degree that (the Marble Valley Regional Transit District) leadership are compelled to take immediate action to protect the health and well-being of its employees and riders,” McClallen and Neary wrote. “The facility, in its current state, is not only a public health risk but a liability that undermines broader efforts to revitalize downtown Rutland.”

In the letter addressed to Gov. Phil Scott, the head of the Department of Building and General Services, the Agency of Transportation Secretary and the Rutland City mayor, McClallen and Neary urged the state to assume responsibility for rehabilitating the Rutland Transit Center for public use. 

The Rutland City leadership and the Vermont Agency of Transportation supported the relocation, according to the letter. 

While the move is temporary, McClallen said the timeframe for the rehabilitation of the center has yet to be determined, and so she does not know how long the transfer point will remain at the train station. The transit district notified the public through signs and staff stationed at the center to ensure minimal disruption of riders’ transportation plans this week, she said. 

The transit district’s administrative work, bus storage and maintenance operations are separate from the transit center, and will not be impacted by the change, she said. 

The transit district communicated with the Department of Building and General Services commissioner about the need for increased security presence, additional lighting and increased sanitation and maintenance, McClallen said. The department, the transit district and the city are working on a plan going forward, she said.

The department has addressed “many of the specific cleaning and maintenance issues,” and is working towards dealing with other problems at the facility, Barney wrote in a statement, and continues to urge the transit management staff to reach out to law enforcement when security concerns arise. 

The department is committed to partnering with lawmakers and local leaders to address the “larger public safety, mental health and addiction issues” facing the city and state, Barney wrote. 

The Rutland City Police Department has also stepped in to provide coverage of the center in the absence of state-sponsored security, and the Rutland City Fire Department and Department of Public Works has helped mitigate sanitation concerns in the past, Neary said in an interview. The Rutland City Mayor Mike Doenges has helped to coordinate meetings with partners to devise local solutions to concerns at the center, he added. 

But, Neary said, local leaders are limited in their ability to holistically address concerns, and it is the state’s responsibility as landlord of the center to provide long-term solutions to the facility’s persistent problems.

While a hard decision, Neary said the relocation to the train station parking lot is necessary for the safety of riders and staff, and he hopes it will spur further action to aid in revitalizing the city’s downtown. 

“This is a cry for help,” Neary said. “We were really left with no other option than to leave, to force the state to engage in a productive conversation that will lead to permanent solutions that benefit Rutland.”

The Rutland City mayor did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland’s The Bus operator relocates due to health and safety concerns.

Updated at 5:32 p.m.

Vermont State Police said they are no longer investigating an untimely death in Brandon as suspicious. 

Police said late Monday afternoon following an autopsy at the Vermont Chief’s Examiner’s Office in Burlington that the cause and manner of the 53-year-old woman’s death remains pending but that “her death does not appear to be suspicious at this time.”

Earlier Monday before the autopsy, state police issued a press release terming the woman’s death “suspicious.” 

Police did not provide any more information about what prompted their change. 

“There will be no further updates regarding this investigation,” Detective Lt. Tyson Kinney of the Vermont State Police wrote in an emailed press release Monday afternoon following the autopsy. 

The investigation began after police said they received a call at around 8:15 p.m. Sunday from a Carver Street resident, who said a person at the house had died. “First responders arrived and confirmed the individual was deceased,” the earlier police press release stated.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont State Police: Death of a Brandon woman no longer considered suspicious .

In Rutland, the Jamestown Canyon virus has been detected in mosquitos for the first time in state history, the Vermont Department of Health announced Friday. Health officials also detected West Nile virus in St. Albans.

There have been no human or animal cases of mosquito-borne illnesses reported this season, but health officials are urging people to protect themselves by preventing mosquito bites. Jamestown Canyon virus can cause similar symptoms to other mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes are being tested for West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus — which last year caused two people to get ill and one of them to die — and Jamestown Canyon virus starting from this year.

“Every mosquito group is tested for all three viruses now,” said Natalie Kwit, a public health veterinarian at the Vermont Department of Health. “We added it (Jamestown Canyon virus) because it’s something we knew that’s been circulating in the Northeast, and we had a cost-effective test available that we switched to that included all three viruses.”

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets and the Vermont Department of Health decided to continue allocating funding to mosquito surveillance this year over tick surveillance to track illnesses like Eastern equine encephalitis after the cases occurred last year. The mosquito surveillance program generally runs from June to mid-October when mosquitos are more active.

Kwit said most people who become infected with these viruses don’t get sick, but some may develop symptoms a few days, or even weeks, after the mosquito bite.

Symptoms may include fever, body aches, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, rash and joint pains. The viruses can also lead to more serious illnesses like meningitis or encephalitis — an inflammation of the brain that can cause brain damage, stroke and death.

Cases of mosquitoes testing positive to Eastern equine encephalitis have increased significantly in recent years. According to data from the health department, in 2023, 14 groups of mosquitoes across three Vermont towns tested positive for EEE, whereas in 2024, 86 groups of mosquitoes across 16 towns tested positive.

Kwit said only about 5% of people infected with EEE develop a more serious illness. “The thing that worries us the most about Triple E is that about 30 to 40% of people with that severe form of illness die from the disease, so this one tends to be the most severe that we know of,” she said.

There are no vaccines to prevent Eastern equine encephalitis and Jamestown Canyon virus, nor medicines to treat them. The best way to limit the risk of infection is to prevent mosquito bites, according to the health department.

Recommendations from the Vermont Department of Health include wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants, limiting time outside at dawn or dusk when there are more mosquitoes, using insect repellent — the Environmental Protection Agency has a tool to help people identify the right repellent for them — fix holes in screens attached to doors and windows and get rid of standing water that might attract mosquitoes.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Mosquitoes test positive for Jamestown Canyon Virus for the first time in Vermont.

Pilot Dan Brown was flying over Fair Haven on Tuesday night when he spotted smokestacks billowing up from the woods around sunset. He alerted firefighters, and since then, they’ve been battling a blaze spread across 11 acres of forested private property. 

The fire first started when the property owner was burning brush to clear shooting lanes for hunting, said James Heller, Fair Haven’s Fire Chief. The property owner didn’t realize that he failed to put out the fire, he said. 

With pretty dry conditions, the fire grew in a remote part of the woods where people didn’t take notice. 

That is, until Brown was flying a private plane overhead before sunset. Struck by the quantity of smoke coming from the woods, he alerted the Fire Department in Castleton and sent over pictures of what he saw. 

Two days later, on Thursday afternoon, 35 state firefighters were on site, working alongside crews from Castleton, Rutland City, Poultney and Whitehall with help from the U.S. Forest Service, Heller said. 

The groups are trying to maintain a perimeter to contain the blaze. The fire is largely burning underground and is very far from any structures, Heller said. 

“They’re attempting to establish a water supply and get a hose line up to their fire line,” Heller said. 

Without road access to the area, crews have only been able to get to the fire on 4-wheelers. From above, state hazmat teams used drones and infrared mapping to pinpoint fire hot spots, and follow its movement. 

Crews of fire fighters have been cycling in and out to bring in “fresh troops,” Heller said. They thought they had the fire contained within 10 acres until a breeze on Wednesday morning spread flames further. Now, it’s looking like winds will push the fire to the north or northeast, Heller said. 

The blaze is what’s called a duff fire, which eats through plant material like leaves and bark that are compacted under the forest floor. 

“The only thing that’s gonna ultimately quench it is gonna be a good rain,” Heller said. 

It’s important for people to keep an eye on daily fire danger reports from the state because “while it may look green, it can be sneakily dry in the understory,” said Megan Davin, a spokesperson for the state’s Wildland Fire Team, which is fighting the fire. 

Fair Haven has been considered high risk for fires throughout most of the summer, Davin said. A strip of the state, including Fair Haven, keeps getting missed by rain while other parts of the state get hit, leading to unusually dry conditions. 

On Tuesday evening, when they heard from Brown, the pilot, firefighters in Castleton reached out to those in Fair Haven, who fought the fire for more than four hours on Tuesday night with crews from two other towns. 

When the fire spread beyond containment on Wednesday, crews from five different municipalities worked on-site for nine hours. And a number of statewide emergency response groups have chipped in resources, along with the U.S. Forest Service. 

With hot temperatures on Thursday, those fighting the fire are trying to stay cool, Heller said. He’s thankful for all of the resources they’ve gotten from around and beyond the state, he said. 

Tomorrow, they hope for rain. 

“Anything we get is gonna be a blessing,” Heller said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont state and local firefighters fight 11-acre forest fire in Fair Haven .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An autopsy determined that the woman who was found dead this week at her home in Pittsford died from a “gunshot wound of head and neck,” according to Vermont State Police.

However, the manner of 41-year-old Erica Bovey’s death remains “pending,” according to a Thursday press release from state police. 

An earlier state police press release from Wednesday termed the death as “suspicious.” 

Police began their investigation into Bovey’s death around 2:10 a.m. Wednesday after authorities received a call from a resident at a home on Hollister Quarry Road in Pittsford reporting that a person there had died. 

First responders who arrived at the scene confirmed that the person, later identified as Bovey, who also lived at the home, was deceased, according to police. 

Asked why the manner of Bovey’s death was listed as pending, police spokesperson Adam Silverman replied in an email Friday, “cause and manner of death are determinations of the medical examiner’s office.”

Silverman added, “VSP’s investigation remains active and ongoing at this time while we await further information from the medical examiner.”

No one was in custody related to the investigation as of Friday afternoon, Silverman said.

Kyle Casteel, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health, the state department in which the Vermont’s Chief Medical Examiner’s is located, declined to comment specifically on Bovey’s case and why the manner of death was still listed as pending. 

“I can share that in general, it takes time to establish the manner of death in an investigation, and the record will be updated when the facts are confirmed,” Casteel said in an email.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Police identify woman who died from a gunshot wound in Pittsford.

Vermont State Police are investigating a suspicious death that occurred in the town of Pittsford.

Police received a call from a resident at a home on Hollister Quarry Road about the death of an individual, and they began the investigation at about 2:10 a.m Wednesday, according to a press release from state police. 

The death is considered suspicious, and the person’s identity has not been released yet. The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington is expected to conduct an autopsy on the victim’s body to determine the cause and manner of death.

The results of the autopsy haven’t been released, and police did not have anyone in custody as of Thursday afternoon. 

Adam Silverman, a spokesperson for Vermont State Police, said he did not have any additional information to release as of 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont State Police investigate suspicious death in Pittsford.

RUTLAND — On Friday afternoon, a woman in a red sedan waved and honked her horn as she pulled up to a stoplight in front of city hall, exciting a woman who held a sign reading “Honk 4 Kim.” The people gathered there were supporters of Kim Peters — and they were still making noise three months after the mayor put the longtime director of the city’s rec department on paid leave. 

Alaura McClallen, organizer of the group, recognized the driver as a fellow parent. She, like McClallen, sent her kids to a summer camp run by the recreation department. When the light turned green, other drivers sounded their horns, some pumping their fists out the window. 

It was the second demonstration of the week for the small group, and the most recent event in a long saga of controversy over the ousting of Kim Peters. 

After Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges’s reelection, he announced that he would not reappoint Peters as the city’s recreation superintendent this year, prompting a public outcry and confusion that has lasted for months.

In private, Doenges explained his decision to the city’s Board of Aldermen with claims that Peters didn’t do proper background checks of recreation department volunteers and employees, according to public records obtained by VTDigger. But Doenges hasn’t been forthcoming about that reason publicly. 

His statements to residents broadly cite his lack of trust in Peters, leaving many skeptical that he has a legitimate reason for forcing her out of the position. Now she remains on paid leave until the role is filled. 

With public disapproval simmering since March, the city’s Board of Aldermen recently sidestepped Doenges and voted to reappoint Peters on June 16. But soon after the city attorney said the vote was invalid — and officials are not on the same page about what happens next. 

Background Checks

Back in January, the Rutland Herald published a story that revealed two volunteers for the rec department have criminal records. In the article, Peters said she conducts background checks on all employees and volunteers in the department, but admitted she was unaware of one criminal charge before being informed by the newspaper. 

Doenges sent a letter to Peters on March 18 stating she was “placed on administrative leave effective immediately,” according to public records obtained by VTDigger. She would be barred from city buildings and unable to discuss her leave, but would remain on the city’s payroll until the position was permanently filled, records show.

Members of the Board of Aldermen were notified of her leave that day but not offered any explanation, according to city emails obtained by VTDigger. Many board members said they were struck by the decision and caught off guard. Shortly after, Doenges appointed April Cioffi as acting superintendent of the city’s recreation department. 

“This has been a very difficult time for Kim Peters,” said Larry Cupoli, a member of the Board of Aldermen and part of the search committee to fill Peters’ role. “Frankly, she’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to the city,” he added.

Peters declined to comment. 

Doenges also declined to comment on his interactions with Peters. He said city attorney Megan LaChance advised him not to speak publicly about personnel matters. 

“There was a trust relationship that was broken between myself and the superintendent,” Doenges said in an interview. 

But in a March executive session, a meeting closed to the public, Doenges explained his reasoning to board members. He wrote a speech for that meeting in which, public records show, he alleged Peters lied about the department’s practice of running background checks. Doenges read the speech to board members, he said. 

“I was directly and intentionally deceived,” wrote Doenges in bold, with “deceived” underlined. 

In that written speech, Doenges said that after reading the Rutland Herald article in January, he dug into the city’s records and found out Peters hadn’t been doing proper background checks. Doenges claims Peters lied both to the newspaper and to him a number of times, then tried to cover it up afterward. 

“That’s not following procedure — that’s scrambling to fix the appearance of one,” Doenges wrote. 

“Imagine your child is coached by someone who seems perfectly fine. But we, as a city, skipped a critical step; and didn’t run a proper background check. // That coach hurts your child. And then you find out it could have been prevented,” he wrote later on. 

The city is an institution that must keep children safe — and without background checks, children are at risk, Doenges said. In his speech, Doenges cited the oversight lapses of the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church, both institutions notorious for sexual abuse claims. 

VTDigger asked Doenges why he drew connections between those institutions and Rutland City. “It’s not based on anything,” Doenges said. The city is a trusted organization and officials have to “do our part at all times to make sure that we are taking care of the citizens that are in our care,” he said. 

In his written speech, Doenges said he refuses to be someone who looks the other way when child safety is neglected. “I imagined the worst-case scenarios — because that’s what the job requires,” Doenges wrote in his speech.

‘It still did not make any sense’ 

Even after Doenges’ explanation, many city officials said they couldn’t get behind his decision. 

“Some of us — most of us — didn’t buy it,” said Sharon Davis, who also sits on the Board of Aldermen, in a recent interview. “It still did not make any sense knowing Kim and the reputation she had.” 

On April 8, Peters reached out to Doenges and formally asked to be reappointed to her position, public records show. Then, on April 11, Peters emailed the city attorney to ask if she could communicate with city officials and recreation department employees — LaChance, the attorney, sent her a cease-and-desist letter, records show. 

That same day, Doenges published an op-ed in the Rutland Herald, stating that he didn’t reappoint Peters because he lacked trust in her. The op-ed never mentioned a specific concern related to background checks. 

McClallen, who organized the recent city hall demonstrations, thinks the whole dispute between Doenges and Peters feels personal. “It makes me sad,” she said.

“I never ever mistrusted her,” even after hearing Doenges’ concerns about background checks, McClallen said.

If McClallen had known Doenges wasn’t going to reappoint Peters, she said, she wouldn’t have voted for him. Dozens of other people have emailed city officials in the last few months urging them to reappoint Peters, according to public records obtained by VTDigger. 

In emails, some residents complain Doenges wasn’t more transparent with residents. Doenges thinks people are upset because they don’t have all the information about the situation, and advice from legal counsel has stopped him from sharing more, he said. 

A contested vote

Near the end of a June 16 Board of Aldermen meeting, member Paul Clifford made a motion to reappoint Kim Peters as recreation superintendent. He cited a section of the city charter that allows the board to make an appointment if the mayor doesn’t within 90 days. 

The council unanimously voted to suspend the rules to allow the motion, since it wasn’t on the agenda. After taking a short recess to review voting rules and talk to LaChance, the city’s attorney, the board members voted 7-3 in favor of reappointing Peters. Board President David Allaire was the last member to vote, casting his in favor of Peters’ reappointment. 

Doenges said that after the vote he called Peters and offered her the position. Then on June 18 LaChance sent board members a memo outlining a number of missteps in the voting procedure. 

Two of those missteps made the vote invalid, LaChance wrote. 

As board president, Allaire should’ve made the motion for reappointment and “since the nomination was not properly made, the vote is invalid,” LaChance wrote. The president also should not have voted, and “the vote was invalid because President Allaire could not vote on the motion,” she wrote. 

After receiving the memo from LaChance, Doenges called Peters and revoked the job offer, he said. 

Now some board members think the vote still stands. 

“The mayor can accept the fact that Kim Peters has been reappointed by seven members of the Board of Aldermen and move on,” said Davis, who voted to reappoint Peters. Otherwise, the mayor will have to take legal action, she said. 

Doenges said he was unsure what taking legal action might look like. “I’m proceeding as if the vote was invalid because that’s what my legal counsel has told us,” he said. 

Others have accepted LaChance’s legal interpretation and plan on working with Doenges to move forward. It would be possible for the Board of Aldermen to vote on the matter again, but some members think that move is unlikely.

The search committee to find a new superintendent is still active and ongoing, Doenges said. Clifford told VTDigger he decided to step down from the committee given all the fallout. 

Some have gotten sick of the controversy. “It’s not good for Rutland,” said Michael Talbott, a member of the Board of Aldermen who voted against Peters’ reappointment. 

City emails obtained by VTDigger show employees scrambling within the recreation department to fill Peters’ shoes, struggling with logistics and to find needed resources without contacting Kim. 

McClallen said that while she doesn’t like to be political, she thinks the majority of the town still supports Peters. 

The recreation department “needs a leader,” said McClallen that Friday in June in front of City Hall. 

“The only person equipped is Kim,” she said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Who will lead Rutland’s Rec Department? Mayor’s move sparks ongoing controversy..

Updated at 7:42 p.m.

RUTLAND CITY — Hundreds of people over the weekend toasted to the smashing success of the Rutland County Pride festival at Bailey’s Place, a new bar and lounge space for LGBTQ+ residents in the Marble City. 

Several thousand people attended the third annual Rutland County Pride event on June 21 to enjoy the day’s activities and nearly 100 vendors provided food and goods for the crowd, said William Fourney-Mills, executive director of the Rutland County Pride Center. 

Around 500 people dropped by the bar, which opened in April, according to Bailey’s Place co-owner Faith McClure.

Bailey’s Place is only one of a handful of bars in Vermont founded for the purpose of creating a space for their local LGBTQ+ communities, according to McClure. In 2021, Fox Market and Bar in East Montpelier ended a nearly 15-year drought of LGBTQ+ bars in the state, and Foxy’s in Barre joined the slim ranks of Vermont’s LGBTQ+ bars in 2024.

The building for Bailey’s Place on Evelyn Street was briefly Prouty’s Parlor ice cream shop and before that housed the bars Strangefellows, which closed around the Covid-19 pandemic, and Shooka Dookas, which closed in 2006, according to McClure.

While Shooka Dookas and Strangefellows evolved into de-facto gay bars, Bailey’s Place is the first designated LGBTQ+ bar to open in Rutland City, McClure said. 

The 21-year-old owner said it was important for her to designate Bailey’s Place as an LGBTQ+ lounge in Rutland, as she hopes to create a space that is “all inclusive.” Bailey’s Place gained its moniker from her family’s nickname for McClure “Buddha Bailey“ — dubbed for her laughing buddha statuesqueness as a newborn. The shortened name Bailey stuck, and she associates the bar’s name with being “fat and happy,” she said.

McClure said her stepfather and co-owner Fred Watkins helped rehabilitate the Bailey’s Place property, which occupies a historic building in Rutland City’s downtown near the train station. `

“There’s a lot of spaces downtown that I feel like could be revitalized to be welcoming community spaces like this,” McClure said. “I’ve had other queer people in the community come up to me, and they’ll say this to me directly going, ‘Oh, there’s not really a whole lot of spaces in Rutland. If there is the closest one is like, three hours away.’”

During Rutland’s Pride festivities over the weekend, the bar and lounge offered karaoke, a DJ and drag performances, along with food and drinks throughout Saturday night. McClure said 25% of the proceeds from sales of its cocktail special, a strawberry lemon drop, are set to be allocated to the Rutland County Pride Center. 

“People loved the performers over at Bailey’s. People were digging karaoke,” she said. “We were really happy that everyone had a good time.”

During the daytime Pride events, McClure also operated a Bailey’s Place booth along with dozens of vendors lining the streets of Rutland City’s downtown.

The festival organized by the Rutland County Pride Center kicked off with speeches from U.S. Rep. Becca Baliant, the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress; Christine Halquist, the first transgender Democratic nominee for Vermont governor; Mia Shultz, the president of the Rutland County NAACP; and city officials.  

McClure said people at the Pride festival were “pretty focused on the joy” of the day but that it’s important to celebrate Pride amid growing concerns over government actions limiting LGBTQ+ rights across the country.

“It lets people know that in these hard times with our country, with what the government’s doing with the rights of those in the LGBTQ+ community, that there are still people like Bailey’s (that) are going to be around for as long as the community will allow us to be,” McClure said. 

Fourney-Mills said they are concerned about the funding cuts to federal agencies that hinder services for the LGBTQ+ community in the case of the Trump administration ending a specialized LGBTQ+ youth sucicide prevention hotline and investments in HIV-related research. The Rutland County Pride Center continues to offer resources and community events year round, Fourney-Mills said.

“In times like these, we need to stand up and let ourselves be seen as a community,” Fourney-Mills said. “One thing about the queer community is the resiliency and that we do come together to celebrate together, and especially now with the attacks on trans youth and trans adults, we know we need to make sure that all of our community is safe.”

McClure said her long-term goal is to expand or move into a bigger space to accommodate dancing and larger celebrations. In the meantime, McClure said she and her team have been working one day at a time to renovate the bar, refine the food and drink menu, and host trivia nights and other events to attract new customers. 

“It’s nice to know for the Rutland community that there’s something in your backyard,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland’s 1st LGBTQ+ bar shines during the city’s Pride celebrations.

RUTLAND — A Vermont man who prosecutors say was behind a hacking operation used to steal personal information from tens of thousands of people has pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge in Vermont.

Nicholas Moses, 34, of Newport, who also uses the online alias “scrublord,” entered his guilty plea Wednesday in federal court in Rutland to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud through the use of computers.

Judge Mary Kay Lanthier released Moses on conditions pending a sentencing hearing in October. The conditions prohibit him from leaving Vermont. 

Under a plea deal, Moses faces a maximum prison term of up to five years.

Moses operated a computer malware program known as SmokeLoader and used it “to harvest” data from victims, according to court filings. 

“Thousands of computers around the world have been infected with the SmokeLoader malware by Moses and over 65,000 victims have had their personal information and passwords stolen by Moses,” court records stated. 

The scheme played out between January 2022 and May 2023, according to court documents.

Moses maintained a server in the Netherlands to deploy the SmokeLoader data-stealing malware program on the computers of unsuspecting victims, including banks, the documents stated. One of the financial institutions, court filings stated, was based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The stolen information from the malware program would be sold in a “dark-web marketplace” and other cybercrime forums “to be exploited by others” or by Moses, according to court records.

In one instance on Nov. 30, 2022, the court documents stated, Moses took part in an online chat where he provided the usernames and passwords for victim accounts with several video streaming services he had obtained through the SmokeLoader malware.

In a separate online chat session a short time later, Moses stated he had sold the credentials and password of victims for $1 to $5 each, court records stated.

Moses had sent a screenshot to another person of his SmokeLoader interface from his server in the Netherlands showing a database of 619,763 files containing victims’ stolen data, according to the court documents.

“The amount of loss that was known to or reasonably foreseeable by the defendant was in excess of $40,000 but less than $95,000,” the plea agreement stated. 

During the hearing Wednesday, the judge explained to Moses the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty to a felony charge. Moses told Lanthier he wanted to plead guilty to the charge and waive his right to his trial. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont man admits to computer hacking scheme to steal data from more than 65,000 victims.

As Killington celebrates the 50th anniversary of its recreation center, some residents are pushing to make a skate park a new permanent fixture of the town’s summer offerings. 

The town crafted its recreation master plan to holistically determine how to best use its resources to serve residents in the future, Recreation Department Director Emily Hudson said.  

The department’s first priority in the next three to five years is to upgrade the outdated pool house and replace the public pool, which has a “small, slow leak” the town has dealt with for years, Hudson said. 

“We’ve had some issues with the pool,” Hudson said. Those issues “fueled this whole master plan project to start to look at what amenities we need to meet the needs of current programming and what would community members like to see.”

The proposal also included a long-term plan to build a multiuse field house for indoor tennis, pickleball, soccer and basketball, and maintenance. 

But Tucker Zink, general manager for Darkside Snowboards shop, said he noticed a gap in the project: a skate park. 

Killington could follow the lead of more populated towns, like Burlington and Waterbury, that have built shake parks in the last decade, Zink said. The town, with vast mountainous terrain, is known as a hub for skiers and snowboarding in winter, and biking, riding, hiking and skateboarding in the summer months, he said. 

“The people that are here are here to recreate outdoors,” Zink said. “Skateboarding goes hand in hand with all that.”

The Darkside Snowboards shop has a mini ramp and other regularly used skateboarding features on the property, but “a true concrete facility is worlds beyond what we have here,” he said. 

Zink created an online petition Monday night to raise awareness during the public comment period on the master plan in hopes that the recreation department would see a skate park as a priority for the Killington community.

In the three days since posting, the petition has garnered nearly 300 signatures, with more than 100 people adding comments about the positive impact of a skate park for residents and visitors.

“What I’m doing is just trying to stir up support, to get it on their radar so that, as they revise their plans and move forward with a more finalized plan, they’ll include a skate park in it,” Zink said. 

Zink said the closest skate parks to Killington are in Manchester, Ludlow and Bethel, as the Flipside skate park in Rutland shut down in 2020. The long distance to the facilities creates barriers for locals interested in skateboarding, especially for younger generations, he said. 

While a popular ski and snowboard destination during the winter, Killington’s year-round population has rested at approximately 1,400 people since 2020. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was an influx of people moving to the town, including families with children that needed more opportunities for outdoor activities, Zink said. 

Seeing the need for skateboarding opportunities in the community, Zink said Darkside Snowboards has offered a summer skateboarding camp every summer since 2017, and participation has grown steadily over time. 

“It’s obvious that people want this type of programming,” Zink said. “It’s suddenly something people want to do. It’s just a matter of having a place to do it.”

Hudson said the Recreation Department began crafting the master plan last fall in collaboration with a consultant, town planners and the Recreation and Planning Commission, and presented it to the public on April 1. 

After little public feedback since April, Hudson said she got the petition this week along with a dozen emails from residents requesting a skate park and a pump track for scooters and bike motocross riders.

The current iteration of the plan is a “placeholder” that can change with public input, and the department plans to share the skate park feedback with the consultant, Hudson said.

Hudson said the town is welcoming ideas during the public comment period, but that it will likely take a decade or more to fund and install new facilities besides the pool and pool house. She said the department does not want recreation facilities to create “an additional burden” on the town’s taxpayers. 

Zink said facilities for soccer or baseball require long-term planning for upkeep and programming, but a skate park will offer ongoing opportunities for residents while not placing a heavy burden on the town.  

“One good thing about a skate park is that once it’s built, it doesn’t take much maintenance, and anyone can just show up and do it on their own,” he said. “It’s something that’s beneficial to pretty much everybody.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Killington residents push for skate park as town reimagines recreation future .

Chittenden property owner John Gerlach has been found in contempt in the latest development of an ongoing legal battle with Mountain Top Resort. The May 22 decision came after Gerlach removed a rope barring access to one of the resort’s cross-country trails.

The dispute began last summer when Gerlach and his wife, Debra, relocated two of the resort’s trails that ran through their private land.

The Gerlachs purchased the property with an easement that allowed Mountain Top Resort to operate ski trails within their property lines, but also permitted the Gerlach family to move trails as long as cross-country skiers had access to similarly safe and groomed trails. 

The resort’s general manager and activities director said at the time that the two modified trails were too narrow and steep to groom, limiting their cross-country skiing guests’ access and potentially hurting their business.

In October, Rutland Superior Court Judge Alexander Burke agreed with the resort in a preliminary injunction, which granted the resort permission to use the original trails and prohibited the Gerlachs from interfering with existing trails or the resort’s maintenance and safety measures.

But in February, the resort claimed in a motion to the court the Gerlach family violated the terms of the order by obstructing safety markers and using snowmobile equipment on resort trails. The resort asserted such activities affect employees’ ability to maintain existing trails, although snowmobiles are used on other resort pathways.

During a Christmas visit to Chittenden from his primary residence in Florida, John Gerlach took down a rope the resort placed on the Sunset Trail to bar cross-country skiers entry, and used a snowmobile on trails crossing his property where such activities are not allowed by the resort.

In the May 22 decision, Burke held John Gerlach in contempt for removing the rope marking the trail closure, but disagreed that use of snowmobile equipment violated the injunction and impaired the resort’s ability to maintain trails. 

John Gerlach’s son, Jake, also was found to have snowmobiled and repeatedly removed rope from a closed trail during a visit to the Chittenden property in March, but Burke did not find him in contempt, as he was not the subject of the initial injunction.

The Gerlachs were ordered to not remove the resort’s trail closure ropes and to instruct their guests to follow suit. The Gerlachs must also pay the resort’s attorney fees related to the motion requesting enforcement of the injunction and sanctions. 

This is not the only legal conflict the Gerlach family has faced over trails.

The Gerlachs claimed the town of Chittenden failed to legally establish a public trail running through their 600-acre property. The previous land owners entered an agreement in 2006 allowing a former road running through the property to be transformed into a publicly accessible hiking trail.

In a May 5 ruling, Burke denied the Gerlachs’ request for the court to rule that no past agreements properly set up the trail for public use after a similar route was discontinued in the 1800s. Burke instead granted summary judgement to the town, asserting the previous owners “unequivocally intended to dedicate the disputed trail to public use.”

A lawyer for the Gerlach family and lawyers for the town of Chittenden were not immediately available for comment Friday.

Khele Sparks, general manager of the Mountain Top Resort, said the resort could not offer comment at this stage of litigation. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Trail tensions escalate: Chittenden landowner held in contempt in legal battle with Mountain Top Resort.

The Vermont division of U.S. Bankruptcy Court has dismissed Daniel Banyai’s attempt to block the town of Pawlet’s claim to his property, after he accumulated more than $300,000 of debt to the town. 

The May 22 ruling marks the latest action in a yearslong legal battle over Slate Ridge, a 30-acre property Banyai used as a paramilitary training gun range, which violated local zoning rules.

Banyai filed for bankruptcy in December, temporarily pausing the town’s legal actions against him. Shortly after, Banyai filed a motion to avoid the town’s liens under the homestead exemption of Vermont’s property statutes. 

The attorney representing the Town of Pawlet, Merrill Bent, said the court ruling brings the town “one step closer” to foreclosure on the Slate Ridge property, and that subsequent proceedings will determine whether the debt can be discharged. Bent said the town’s position is that the debt cannot be waived because it includes “fines owed to a governmental unit,” or the town of Pawlet.

As of Dec. 3, Banyai owed the town approximately $325,000 in total noncompliance fees and that debt continues to accumulate at a flat rate of 12% interest amounting to an additional $98 every day since, according to Bent. 

The U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Heather Cooper acknowledged that Banyai met debt relief requirements under the homestead exemption under federal bankruptcy code. However, Cooper ruled that Pawlet still has a claim to the property due the narrow scope of the exemption and the timeline of ownership of the homestead.

Banyai formed and served as director of a 501(c)(3) organization called Slate Ridge Inc. during the litigation and transferred ownership of the Pawlet property to the nonprofit organization through quitclaim deed in December 2022. He then moved the property back to his individual ownership in November 2024. 

The fees Banyai owes to Pawlet — including the contempt lien from January and June of 2024 and the town’s attorney fees granted by the Superior Court in May 2024 — were all issued before Banyai personally reacquired the Slate Ridge property this past November.

According to the court’s memorandum, Banyai “held neither legal nor equitable title” to the homestead when the town claims were issued, as it was owned under a separate legal entity — Slate Ridge Inc. As a result, the court ruled that the property remains subject to the town’s liens and that the debt claims cannot be avoided under the homestead exemption.

Bent said the court examined the question of whether Banyai had a “clear right to acquire the property from the company at the time the town’s liens attached.” She said, “there was no evidence that he had any such right.”

The town first took legal action against Banyai in 2019 after he began making changes to the property and erecting structures without permits — actions that alarmed neighbors living in West Pawlet. After the Environmental Division of Vermont Superior Court imposed fines against Banyai in January 2022, Banyai did not alter his property to comply with zoning bylaws and continued to make changes to his property. 

The lack of compliance ultimately led a judge to hold Banyai in contempt of court in February 2023, issuing sanctions and a warning of arrest. That same judge issued a warrant for Banyai’s arrest in 2023, which was reissued in 2024 after continued noncompliance. 

Bent said the town is continuing to pursue “all the steps necessary to enforce its bylaws and to recoup the expense of having to do so.”

“Ultimately, Mr. Banyai is the one who’s going to pay the cost of the enforcement,” Bent said. 

Banyai’s lawyer, Michael Fisher, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Bankruptcy judge dismisses Banyai’s attempt to block town’s property claim .

Updated at 6:10 p.m.

Vermont State Police are investigating the death of a Brandon man, due to a gunshot, at his home over the weekend.  

Brian Bailey, 46, was unresponsive a little after 7 a.m. Saturday at his home on Champearl Road, according to a state police release issued Monday. First responders pronounced him dead at the scene, the release added. 

“Based on evidence at the scene and following an examination of Bailey’s body at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington, the death appears to be suspicious,” the release stated. 

The medical examiner’s office determined by Tuesday afternoon that Bailey died from a gunshot wound, according to state police. Police continued to investigate the manner of his death. 

No one was in custody by Tuesday afternoon, according to state police.

The initial investigation indicated Bailey’s death was an “isolated event,” with no known threat to the community, according to police. 

In addition to state police, the Brandon Police Department and the Rutland County State’s Attorney’s Office are assisting in the investigation. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Police probe suspicious death of Brandon man .

Updated at 10 p.m.

The Rutland school board moved Friday to impose a contract on Rutland City’s teachers, a day after an overwhelming majority of the union’s members voted to strike next week without a deal. The two sides have been negotiating a new teachers’ contract for 18 months. 

In a Friday afternoon meeting, the Rutland Board of School Commissioners decided to impose terms for this and the next school year on the teachers’ union, the board announced. 

“The board has a fiduciary responsibility to make a fair contract that is sustainable,” Board Commissioner Charlene Seward told VTDigger Friday morning. “We don’t want taxes to go up, and that’s what will happen. We don’t want to make layoffs. There is not a secret pile of money we are sitting on.”

The union’s leadership objected to the school board’s vote, saying in a press release that imposing terms for two years — and not just one — defies Vermont law. They cited a primer of labor law provided by the Vermont Labor Relations Board.

Seward said the board released two separate contracts (one for each year) to comply. She added that because Rutland’s voters approved an education budget for the 2025-26 school year, the board believes it can create a contract for that year.

The school board and union had been expecting to continue working through the details after school Friday. But the board now says the imposition of contract terms puts an end to those talks.

The teachers’ union’s statement said leaders still hope to negotiate and avoid a strike starting May 14. The union posted a photo of their negotiators waiting to begin Friday evening talks with the board, even though the board said the talks would no longer be happening. It is unclear when they will resume.

Seward said the board tabled Friday’s talks after not receiving a response from union representatives to an email about timing. However the union disputes this and provided VTDigger with emails from the lead negotiator to the district superintendent, saying “What we see that needs to happen is the parties need to negotiate, and the Board needs to send a team that is authorized to make a deal. We hope to see your team after school today.” 

“Today(‘s decision not to meet) was not on a contentious basis,” Seward said. “We definitely want to keep talking, hopefully soon.”

The negotiations have exhausted the tools for mediation set out in state law, which concluded with an independent fact finder whose report was delivered to each side last month. For the union, that meant the next step was deciding whether to strike. For the board, it was imposing contract terms for a period of one year. Each tactic is designed to force an agreement. 

The board’s new terms include a salary increase of 4.8% for the first year and 4% in the second year. It’s a step back down from the offer the board made earlier this week: 5% increases in base salaries for both school years, on the condition that a strike is avoided. They are also offering one additional sick day, rather than the fact finder’s recommended two.

The union is asking for larger salary increases to keep teachers’ pay in line with their peers across the state, and in line with a living wage for Rutland. The union has agreed to the terms outlined by the independent fact-finder. 

The primary dispute comes down to what those salary increases include. The union is asking for a percentage increase over and above the annual step up in wages that would occur each year. The board is offering a percentage increase that includes the step increases. The board’s terms also outline deeper restructuring to these salary grid steps for incoming teachers. 

“Our hope is that they reverse course,” union president Sue Tanen said in the press release. “Otherwise, we will do what we promised – begin our strike on Wednesday.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland school board imposes contract as teachers prepare to strike.

Updated at 6:52 p.m.

The Rutland Education Association, the union representing Rutland teachers, voted to strike Thursday afternoon following 18 months of failed contract negotiations. They said their strike will begin May 14 if an agreement with the school board cannot be reached before then. 

The decision to strike passed with 93% of the union’s 250 members voting in favor, according to union president Sue Tanen.

“After 18 months of fruitless talks with a board that seems more eager to fight, manipulate, threaten, and walk away than reach a settlement with us, we have had enough and we’re not going to take it anymore,” Tanen said in a press release.

The Rutland City Board of School Commissioners is scheduled to meet Friday, and Tanen said the union set aside time for more talks with the board as soon as Friday.

“We’ll be there,” she said in the release. “We hope the board joins us, so we can avert a disruption of the school year.”

“As always, we are ready to go back to the table, we are ready to meet with the board, we are still hopeful we can reach an agreement,” Tanen said in a subsequent interview with VTDigger.

Tanen quipped that she’s grown weary of how many times she’s voiced the union’s readiness to talk with the board. “We’re teachers, we’re always hopeful,” she said. 

The teachers have been working without a contract since the previous one expired in July. Negotiations for a new contract between the Rutland City Board of School Commissioners and the union have been ongoing since January 2024.

The teachers’ union maintains it is seeking pay on par with other educators in the region. The school board has said it is bound by the city’s $63.83 million education budget for the 2024-25 school year, which residents approved on Town Meeting Day in 2024. This year, Rutland voters approved a $67.18 million education budget for the 2025-26 school year.

After Thursday’s strike announcement, Rutland City School District Superintendent Bill Olsen wrote in an email to VTDigger, “Despite the vote outcome, I still believe that the two sides can come to an agreement that offers a fair compensation package while staying within the voter-approved budget, and a contract that is fiscally responsible. I know the Board wants that, and it continues to work very hard to get there. All the other bargaining units in the district were able to achieve that same expectation. We can still achieve this with the teacher unit.”

Faced with an impasse after a year of negotiations, the two sides engaged with an independent fact finder. The fact finder, whose report was released to the parties April 7 and to the public April 18, recommended that salaries be increased by 4.8% for 2024-25, 5% for 2025-26, and 5% for 2026-27, in order to keep pace with other public employees in the region. The fact finder also recommended an increase in allowed sick days from 10 to 12. 

The union accepted those terms — though it had initially proposed annual increases of 15%, 10% and 10%, respectively, for each year under the contract.

The board, however, rejected the fact finder’s recommendations and instead offered increases of 4.5%, 4% and 3.5% — an increase from its initial offer of 3% each year. 

In a press release issued after publication of the fact finder’s report, Olsen wrote that the report “fails to consider” the existing town budget and did not “properly” account for the 10.3% pension benefit teachers receive.

Following release of the report, the district announced it would need to cut 18 positions and some programs next school year to stay in line with the budget and the suggested increases. 

The union has argued the current base teacher salary of $42,078 is well below the living wage for Rutland, which they calculate to be $47,133.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland teachers vote to strike .

The Vermont Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of a former Rutland child care provider found guilty on charges of involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to a child in the death of a 6-month-old baby more than six years ago. 

Stacey Vaillancourt, 59, was charged in 2019 with giving a fatal amount of a sedative found in over-the-counter antihistamines to Harper Rose Briar, who was in her care. 

Vaillancourt was convicted of the two charges against her by a Rutland County jury following a trial in December 2023, and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. 

She appealed her convictions, and Friday the five-member Vermont Supreme Court in a unanimous decision affirmed the jury’s guilty verdicts. 

“Defendant has not identified any grounds to disturb the jury’s verdict,” Justice Nancy Waples wrote in the 17-page ruling.

“First, there was sufficient evidence presented for the jury to convict defendant for both involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to a child with death resulting,” Waples wrote. “Second, the verdicts against her are not inconsistent and do not violate double-jeopardy.”

Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan prosecuted the case at trial along with Deputy State’s Attorney Daron Raleigh. Deputy State’s Attorney Evan Meenan argued the appeal for the prosecution before the Vermont Supreme Court in March.

“I hope today’s decision brings closure and a sense of justice to everyone who loved Harper during her all-too-brief life,” Sullivan said in a statement Friday.

Dawn Matthews, an appellate attorney with the Vermont Defender General’s Office, argued Vaillancourt’s appeal. Matthews could not immediately be reached Friday for comment.

The Pittsford infant died Jan. 24, 2019, at the child care facility that Vaillancourt ran out of her home on North Street in Rutland, according to charging documents filed in the case. 

Authorities had been called to Vaillancourt’s child care facility that day for a report that the infant was not breathing, the filings stated. Harper was taken by ambulance to Rutland Regional Medical Center, where she later died.

It was Harper’s third day at the child care facility when, the charging documents stated, Vaillancourt gave her a fatal amount of diphenhydramine, an “over-the-counter (sedating) antihistamine used for treatment of allergic reactions.”

An autopsy report from the chief medical examiner’s office showed that Harper’s death was a homicide caused by “diphenhydramine intoxication.”

Vaillancourt’s defense had contended the state case was based on circumstantial evidence and also raised the possibility that another person could have administered the medication. 

Among the arguments in her appeal, Vaillancourt’s attorney stated that Judge Cortland Corsones erred at the trial by allowing into evidence two short videos of Harper because they were “unduly” prejudicial.

“Here,” Waples wrote in the high court’s ruling, “the State argued that it had to prove causation, so videos showing (Harper’s) developmental capacity were relevant because they demonstrated that she did not have the capacity to either give herself medicine or protect herself from harm.”

The high court rejected Vaillancourt’s argument regarding the videos.

“Any emotional response generated in the jurors from the videos does not substantially outweigh the probative value of the videos,” Waples wrote in the decision.

As of Friday, Vaillancourt was incarcerated at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison, in South Burlington, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Supreme Court upholds convictions for Rutland child care provider in baby’s death.

RUTLAND — Rutland City Police are investigating the death of a man found after a shooting early Tuesday morning on Summer Street, calling it a homicide.

Police said 26-year-old Austin Rodrigues of Rutland was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting inside an apartment building. His body was expected to be taken to Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of his death, Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said early Tuesday afternoon. 

“This incident is being investigated as a homicide,” Rutland police said in a press release later Tuesday afternoon. The details and circumstances surrounding Rodrigues’ death were still being investigated, the release added. 

Investigators have interviewed several people, but no one was in custody as of about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the release.

“We believe this was an isolated incident, targeted for whatever reason, yet to be determined,” Kilcullen said. “We don’t believe the public is at any risk related to this.” 

Police said they were called to the Summer Street apartment building around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday for a “reported shooting incident.” 

Responding officers found a deceased man, later identified as Rodrigues, who had been shot at the scene, Kilcullen said. 

“We secured the scene and began our investigation,” the police chief said, adding that Rutland Police contacted the Vermont State Police for assistance processing the scene. “They collected evidence and documented the scene.” 

The street remained open to traffic, but the Rutland City police department issued a press release to request the public to avoid the area due to the heavy police presence at the scene during the investigation.

The apartment building at 43 Summer St. was cordoned off by caution tape, and neighbors watched the scene from afar. Investigators could be seen entering and exiting the building, and police officers were stationed outside. 

Annya Lamothe, a 37-year-old Rutland resident and teacher, said that she has lived on Summer Street for nine years and is concerned for the safety of her three children after the incident amid increasing crime in the area.   

 “Hopefully the cops can buckle down and do what we can do to keep our kids safe,” Lamothe said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Police call death of Rutland man in apartment building a homicide; no one in custody.

The Rutland City Public Schools and its teachers’ union have reached an impasse in contract negotiations ahead of an April 15 deadline, which the school district says could result in layoffs. 

Salaries proposed by the Rutland Education Association union pose “a significant difference” to those proposed by the city’s school board, according to a letter Superintendent Bill Olsen sent teachers and other staff Monday. To bring the union’s proposed salary in line with the school district’s voter-approved budgets, the district must issue staffing reductions, Olsen added in the letter.

Without clarity on what a final contract may be, Olsen wrote that the district must put out official notices for so-called reductions in force, or RIF, decisions by April 15, a deadline set in the teachers’ current contract. Such letters provide notice to teachers that their position is not secure for the coming school year. 

“Our teachers, our members are incredibly disappointed,” union President Sue Tanen said. “To tie the bargaining process to RIF notices while we’re still at the table, it’s incredibly disheartening, and members are clearly upset by it.” 

Those notices were scheduled to go out to some staff members Monday afternoon, according to the letter. Tanen declined to say if any union members had received such letters yet. Olsen wrote in his letter that notices would be recalled if the contract negotiations result in a salary increase in line with what district management believes its budget can support. 

However, the threat of reductions in force notices has not changed union members’ goals, Tanen said. 

“We just keep saying that we are coming to the table. We’re willing to come to the table,” Tanen said. “We have not really changed our stance — that is our stance, that we’re just going to keep coming to the table and advocating for our members.” 

The union is asking for equitable pay with other teachers in the region as well as sick time that accounts for the toll the Covid-19 pandemic took on many teachers, Tanen added. 

“We wish this was not happening, but we need to continue to operate in good faith consistent with all of the applicable rules required by the contract,” Olsen wrote in the letter. “Please know that we are fully committed to our great staff and will proceed with transparency, and more importantly, with compassion.”

The teachers’ contract with the district expired in July 2024. Their negotiations for a new one have been ongoing since January 2024, according to the Rutland Herald. 

“We’ve been without a new contract for close to the whole school year, and the effect that has on the morale of teachers going in every day, it’s incredibly difficult,” Tanen said. “They give every part of their being to make these kids’ days everything that they can be. And so it’s incredibly frustrating that we’re still here and that we’re not done.”

Neither Olsen nor the school board’s head of contract negotiations responded immediately to requests for comment.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland school district contract negotiations lead to staff layoffs .

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

Not many would venture out into icy water during the middle of winter, but Silas Loomis made it just another day at work. When a car crashed through the ice, Loomis didn’t flinch.

“I knew it was going to be a wet one,” Loomis said with a laugh.

He took off his gear and braced himself for what was going to occur. Then the ice began to break.

“I knew it was gonna happen,” he said. “We pulled him out of there by the hair on his head and saved him, but let me tell you, the water was cold. We were all fortunate that night.”

For a little more than half a century, luck may have played a role in Loomis’ career, but his passion, instinct and strong ties to his community were what truly established his legacy. Whether he was rescuing someone from icy waters, cruising through town on his police motorcycle, or helping deliver not one, but three babies on the side of the road, Loomis became a local legend in his time.

Now that he is retiring after 53 years, he looks back on a career built on unbreakable commitment to his people.

A life built on service

Loomis was raised on a farm in Hydeville and has resided in Castleton his entire life.

“Right here,” he replied when asked where he was born and raised. “Down the road where Paul’s Pizza is. We owned the east end of the track, where the old Bomoseen Raceway was.”

A worthy lesson from his dad started his law enforcement career early.

“You owe more to your town than just paying taxes,” he said, reciting his dad’s words.

The phrase stuck, driving him to a life of public service.

But his service was not just a commitment to Castleton. Loomis served 40 years in the military, beginning with the U.S. Naval Seabees during the Vietnam war and later transitioning to the Army National Guard.

During his time in the military, he was deployed to several destinations like Kuwait and Iraq. After experiencing a series of injuries, including two significant traumatic head injuries, a broken neck and back, and a hip injury, he retired as sergeant major.

“I’m like a walking threat to metal detectors,” he said. “At the airport, you have to warn them in advance.”

The constable position, originally a one-year term, was proposed to Loomis by community members encouraging him to run.

“We had it as a one-year term at the time, so you ran annually. We wound up having it become a two-year job because you’re not getting very much done in a year,” Loomis said. “If you want to be a constable and get things done in your town and get trained, you require more than a year.”

The weight of the badge

Over the years, Loomis has watched and dealt with nearly every situation possible in a small town. From cracking homicide cases to settling custody disputes over everything from pets to boats, he has been a presence people can trust.

“Custody of children, custody of animals, custody of the boats, the ATVs, the campers. Custody of everything,” Loomis said.

But things can go very bad in a hurry. Loomis remembers how this work affected his personal life.

“I’ve witnessed a lot over the years. A lot of fatalities, and a lot of motor-vehicle crashes. There’s some things I’ll die with. Sometimes it hasn’t been very pleasant,” Loomis said. “I coached football for years, and I have arrested some of my old football players, and some of my buddies I have known for years.”

With this type of work, being exposed to things you will never forget is inevitable. But there will always be the highs that make policing worth it. In the summer, he was the only constable in the state to ride a police motorcycle.

“It was the best community policing and public relations you could ever have,” he said, pointing out it allowed him to meet people in a fashion that a police cruiser could not.

The community’s constable

One of the most fulfilling aspects of his job was his time spent at Castleton-Hubbardton Union School following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.

“People stopped me on the street and asked why there weren’t more law enforcement officers at the school. So, I started traveling up there and wasn’t reimbursed, which was fine. I did that for maybe four-and-a-half years,” he said.

Loomis stayed involved, ensuring the safety of children, teachers and parents, which just sums up the kind of person he is.

“That was one of my more rewarding experiences,” he said.

He also seems to be there for people in their most vulnerable moments. He recalls aiding with the delivery of three babies on the side of the road, which was both unexpected and hectic.

“They were on their way to the hospital but didn’t make it in time. Luckily for me, I didn’t have any hair on top of my head, so they couldn’t rip it out while yelling and calling me names,” he said with a laugh.

When asked what he would miss the most, Loomis did not hesitate.

“The camaraderie among other law enforcement officers, the citizens of Castleton and court system personnel. This town has more good people than bad,” he said.

Castleton Police Chief Peter Mantello, who has worked closely with Loomis throughout the years, will always have high regard for him.

“We’ve always had true respect for one another, you know, and we’re both military. I would consider him an older brother,” Mantello said.

He also commended Loomis’ persistent dedication.

“He has been dedicated to the community. He has shown his generosity towards them. He has shown sympathy. He empathizes with many of the folks here. He really was the guy who looked out for the elderly and checked on them, especially because he certainly knew their families throughout the years,” Mantello said.

Respected and remembered in his final chapter

Unfortunately, time has a way of catching up with people, even the most loyal. When asked what he is looking forward to following retirement, he simply said, “Being a human being.”

“You know, I am the town’s longest-serving elected law enforcement officer, I think in its history. And I believe I have the right to live as a human being again,” Loomis said.

Loomis will leave behind a legacy of unwavering commitment to his community.

“The nice thing about a constable is that a lot of people don’t pay attention to them, but they know their town. They know how it breathes, how it functions. And you have to walk that line — between politics and duty. Sometimes, you just have to do what the statutes tell you to do,” Loomis said.

After taking a moment to reflect on his career, he summed up his experience in a few words.

“Dedicated, loyal and straightforward. Never quit, never give up and never surrender,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Castleton constable hangs up his badge after 53 years.

Join VTDigger at The Hub CoWorks in Rutland on Wednesday, March 26, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. for an evening with VTDigger’s staff and leadership, including our Southern Vermont reporter, Greta Solsaa.

This will be a casual opportunity to connect with our team and learn more about our journalism. We’re eager to engage with our readers in the area. We hope to hear from you about the issues that matter most in your community and how VTDigger can best serve you. 

You’ll have the chance to meet Greta, CEO Sky Barsch, and other members of VTDigger’s senior leadership and staff, including board members Gaye Symington and Carolyn Meub. In addition to a conversation with Greta, we’ll open the floor for a Q&A session so you can ask questions and share your thoughts.

The event is free thanks to Heritage Family Credit Union, but space is limited. Register here to secure your spot today.

• What: Meet & Greet with VTDigger
• Where: The Hub,67 Merchants Row (at street level), Rutland, VT 05701
• When: Wednesday, March 26, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
• Details: Light refreshments provided; accessible ground-level space
• RSVP: via Eventbrite

If you live in the area and having access to reliable, nonpartisan news matters to you, we want to meet you! We hope to see you there.

This event is made possible in part by the generosity of Heritage Family Credit Union.

Read the story on VTDigger here: You’re invited! Meet VTDigger’s Southern Vermont Reporter.

Updated at 9:56 p.m.

After months of a contentious campaign that pitted first-term incumbent Mayor Mike Doenges against veteran public servant Henry Heck, Doenges won comfortably with 56.4% of the vote with 2,075 ballots cast in his favor. 

The defeated candidate Heck garnered 43% of the vote with 1,581 votes. 

The newly reelected mayor celebrated with supporters at his office with family, friends and colleagues in local government Tuesday night. The victory is a signal from voters to continue on the same trajectory and maintain “momentum” on city projects, Doenges said.

“Pushing Rutland forward is absolutely key,” Doenges said during an interview. “Now really is Rutland’s moment.”

Rutland City Board of Aldermen President Michael Talbott noted at Doenges’ campaign victory celebration that Doenges won by a greater percentage than he did in 2023, and he won with nearly 400 more votes than he received two years ago.

“That’s a clear mandate from the residents and voters of Rutland to keep doing what you’re doing,” Talbott said.

Voters’ concerns regarding affordability, public safety and the city’s aging infrastructure all shaped the two candidates’ campaign platforms during the race. 

Doenges said he sought reelection to see initiatives that he ushered in during his first term, like a Tax Increment Financing district and the downtown hotel and housing development projects, through completion.

“We got a hotel that's getting built. We have a new TIF district that we're putting in place. We've got a capital reserve fund and a capital improvement plan that we've put together to really help save the taxpayers money and not spend as much from the property tax in the general fund budget,” Doenges said. "I know they sound technically complex, but in reality what it is is saving the taxpayers and making Rutland better every day by doing it."

The former city clerk Heck said his goal in running for mayor was to rein in city spending and projects that could cost taxpayers and use voters’ input to shape his plans as mayor. 

Rutland City resident Charlotte Pinney, 55, who works as an office coordinator for The Pines at Rutland Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, said she voted for Heck because she would like to see more resources allocated toward mental health services, addiction services and services for the unhoused rather than infrastructure. 

“Rutland city needs a change,” Pinney said “We don't need a giant hotel in downtown Rutland when we have so many other issues in our city that have to be dealt with first.”

In the month leading up to Town Meeting Day, Heck found himself mired in controversy with the city’s unions. Heck faced accusations of breaching the confidentiality of the police union’s ongoing contract negotiation process, and previous anti-union charges filed against him came to light. Heck characterized the allegations as a “smear campaign” before the election. 

Michelle Smith-Willame, 44, an agriculture program specialist at the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, said more progress can be made in Rutland, but she believes Doenges has set the city on the right path.

“I appreciate the work that Mayor Doenges has done over the last two years. I've seen a lot of progress in some of the initiatives that he's pushed forward,” said Smith-Willame.

Heck will continue to hold a position in local government as a member of the Board of Aldermen. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. 

At his victory celebration, Doenges told his elated crowd of supporters that when he took office two years ago, the city faced many challenges and he is grateful for the opportunity voters provided him to continue the work he started during his first term. 

“We built a really solid foundation over the past two years, and we've seen the result of that over the past six months,” Doenges said. “I’m very grateful to the voters of our community for supporting me for another two years.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland City votes for incumbent Mayor Mike Doenges in decisive victory .

Amid voters’ criticism over transparency and salary raises, the fate of this year’s Slate Valley Unified Union School District budget on Town Meeting Day hangs in the balance. 

An online petition launched two weeks ago by a Slate Valley parent Michael Doran Jr. called for the resignation of school board members who voted earlier this month in favor of giving Superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell a 4% pay raise. The petition, which also calls for Olsen-Farrell to resign, has garnered 266 signatures as of Feb. 25. 

“Over the last year, there’s been a huge disapproval of (the superintendent) and her performance, and a huge disapproval of the school board members for not listening to community members,” Doran said in an interview.

In an email sent to VTDigger, Olsen-Farrell acknowledged the concerns voiced by voters, but said that the school board’s decision to raise administrators’ salaries was guided by regional and state benchmarks. 

“For those who signed the petition or have concerns, I am open to having a conversation to address them,” Olsen-Farrell said in the emailed statement. “It is my sincere hope that this singular issue does not influence the outcome of the budget.”

The school budget

Slate Valley, which includes the towns of Castleton, Fair Haven, West Haven, Benson, Hubberton, and Orwell, was among a historic number of districts whose school budgets were struck down by voters last Town Meeting Day. Slate Valley needed five more attempts over several months to pass last year’s budget. 

This year’s proposed school budget calls for $32 million, a 5.21% overall increase. 

School Board Chair Pati Beaumont said she believes the school budget is defendable as the increase will help fund medical insurance, behavioral support specialists in elementary schools, a new bus transportation contract, and building and grounds maintenance that had been previously deferred. 

Based on preliminary estimated homestead tax rate data from the state tax commissioner’s office, Beaumont said the towns of Fair Haven, West Haven, Hubbardton and Orwell would see lower taxes rates while Castleton and Benson would see a slight increase under the proposed school budget. 

In an emailed statement, Beaumont said that Olsen-Farrell did not request the 4% raise. She explained that the board finance committee voted on the pay increase for the superintendent and 12 other non-union administrators, with eleven board members in favor, one against and one abstaining. 

Should the budget pass, Olsen-Farrell’s salary would increase by about $7,000, to approximately $170,000 per year. 

Beaumont also shared Olsen-Farrell’s recent evaluation results — based on six different surveys sent to residents — which showed that the superintendent’s effectiveness ranked high in most categories including her relationship with the school board.

But, in the superintendent evaluation of community relations which had the largest number of responses, many people expressed dissatisfaction with superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell’s communication, accessibility and approachability.

Beaumont said some of the frustrations relate to the board rather than the superintendent, and that the board ultimately reviews the superintendent based on her progress toward her established goals, such as teacher and student retention. 

“Some of the feedback offers valuable insights that the superintendent can use to enhance her work. We recognize that some comments on the community survey were negative. We take all concerns raised by community members seriously,” Beaumont said in the emailed statement. 

Salary concerns

The Slate Valley district is “not a very wealthy area,” Doran said. Especially after the negative community feedback the superintendent has received of late, the proposed superintendent’s salary seems unfair to many in the region, he said. 

Olsen-Farrell’s proposed salary is comparable to other superintendents in southwestern Vermont, Beaumont said. Olsen-Farrell serves as president-elect of the Vermont Superintendent Association and is in her eighth year as a superintendent, which is more experience than any superintendent in the region, she added. 

“The claim that she makes too much is not based on comparing her salary to her peers and what they do,” Beaumont said.

While the petition signatures — 266 as of Tuesday — amount to only a single digit percentage of the number of registered voters in the district, Doran said it shows that there are many people who feel unheard by the district’s leadership.

Doran said that when he and his wife attended board meetings to inform themselves on board decisions and advocate against the termination of the Benson pre-K program that their child benefited from, he felt their concerns were disregarded. 

“We went to board meetings, and the board didn’t really care what we had to say,” said Doran. “They cry that the public’s not educated, but when the public goes to educate themselves, they completely shut anybody down.”

School board member Curtis Hier said the decision to terminate the Benson pre-K program is just one of many choices the superintendent and school board made without considering community input, such as moving to proficiency-based grading and building a new middle school. 

Hier has voiced transparency concerns in the past, suing the district to release restraint and seclusion documents, though the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of the district in January because student records are exempt under the state’s public records law.

Hier said he voted against the school budget, and wants the public to be more involved in the budget decision making process before Town Meeting Day. 

Beaumont said that there has been extensive deliberation over the decision to shut down the pre-K program, consolidate the middle school and switch to proficiency-based grading. Leadership, she said, requires making difficult choices. 

Beaumont said she hopes the proposed budget will pass, but thinks that reducing the superintendent’s salary is not a solution for passing the budget. 

Slate Valley school district parent and Orwell resident Joanna Peckham, at a school meeting on Feb. 10, said she had positive and timely communications with the superintendent. Peckham urged people to look at the “bigger picture,” explaining the pay raise controversy could cost the district if voters decide to vote against the budget. 

“This year’s school budget needs to pass on the first vote. We can’t afford to be irresponsible and respond emotionally to personal vendettas,” Peckham said at the meeting. “The recommended increase for the superintendent is minimal, and if we as a community do not pass the budget the first time, the money spent on each revote will easily exceed her modest increase.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Slate Valley school budget runs into headwinds over pay raise for superintendent .

The Mill River Unified Union School District, under the banner of its mascot minutemen toting muskets, is now caught in a battle of its own over whether certain firearm imagery is appropriate in a yearbook photo. 

In the 2024 fall semester, the school administration denied Mill River High School student Preston Flanders’ senior picture submission for the yearbook. In the photo, he sits on a stone bench, wearing a deer skull baseball cap and holding what appears to be an “AR style rifle,” according to Superintendent Brian Hill. 

In recent months, the administration’s choice to reject the student’s photo has been the subject of repeated discussion online and at school board meetings, and has garnered the attention of national and statewide advocacy organizations. 

Amid the ongoing controversy, a school board member and the father of the student, Nick Flanders, announced his immediate resignation from the board in an email sent Feb. 10. He cited his busy schedule and “potential legal action ensuing between (his) family and the school, and/or individual employees.”

Nick Flanders responded to an initial request for comment with an email stating that he was busy with work but he would look for time for a conversation. He did not answer subsequent requests to discuss his resignation and the nature of the legal action he mentioned his family may pursue. Efforts to reach his son for comment were not successful.

Superintendent Hill, who oversees the school district that includes the towns of Clarendon, Wallingford, Shrewsbury and Tinmouth, said on Tuesday that he was not aware of any impending legal action from the Flanders family.

Photo controversy

In a Facebook post last December, the younger Flanders expressed frustration that his original senior portrait was rejected and he was asked to submit a new photograph “without a ‘weapon’ in it.”

In the post, he listed reasons he felt he should be allowed to use the picture as his senior portrait, including that he followed the school’s senior portrait instructions and that the photo does not represent a threat to anyone at the school, as the firearm was “unloaded, safety on, pointing in a safe direction.”

“I enjoy hunting, fishing and shooting sports. Why are some students granted the privilege of posing with a vehicle, sporting equipment, or pet. … Yet my photo is denied?” he wrote. “I feel as though I (am) being misrepresented and excluded as a minority group who enjoys shooting sports.”

Hill said that the administration rejected the photo because the school had concerns that the imagery would contradict its goal of promoting a safe environment. 

The school district has previously permitted firearm imagery in other school spaces based on contexts, Hill said, offering the example of student artwork depicting hunting. However, the AR style of the firearm identified in Flanders’ yearbook photo submission factored in the administration’s decision not to publish the photo, he explained.  

School staff looked through archived high school yearbooks dating back decades, and could not find an example of a photograph depicting a student posing with a firearm, according to Hill. 

The photo submission has drawn national scrutiny as The One in Five Foundation for Kids — a student violence prevention advocacy group founded in response to the elementary school mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — weighed in on the local controversy in a press release in January. 

Foundation representatives said they were “incensed” after learning of the photo submission and applauded the school’s decision to remove the photograph. The school would “face protest” if the administration’s decision was overturned, according to the foundation’s press release. 

Editorial control

At a Jan. 22 school board meeting, Preston Flanders spoke during public comment, stating that he was unaware of any guidelines he had violated in submitting the photograph and that he believes the school’s rejection of the photo violated his constitutional rights. 

“​​What shocked me most was when I was told that my photograph would reflect negatively on the school staff and cause trauma to those viewing it,” he told the school board. “This could be considered bullying or even harassment, although, after further review, this is actually a violation of my 14th Amendment rights, where the school and the board has not provided me with equal protection or due process.”

Preston Flanders said that the school board should adopt a freedom of expression policy that “does not restrict students’ speech as far as the law allows,” according to materials he read from the Student Press Law Center, a national nonprofit dedicated to defending the rights and freedoms of student journalists — or in this case, yearbook editors.

Jonathan Gaston-Falk, a staff attorney with the Student Press Law Center, said in an email that Vermont education law requires local school boards to pass written school policy on student journalists’ freedom of expression in accordance with the state law.

According to the 2017 education law known as Vermont New Voices Law, the authority to decide whether to publish the photo should rest with student yearbook editors, not the school administration, Gaston-Falk said.

Student journalists — including yearbook editors — hold “editorial control” over the decision to use media including photographs in school-sponsored publications, except in situations of unprotected speech, he said. 

“The ‘jury is still out,’ so to speak, as to whether the editors of the yearbook ultimately still want the subject image published,” Gaston-Falk said in the email. “If they do, they are able to assert their publication rights under Vermont Law.”

But, Hill said the high school’s staff are responsible for identifying if yearbook senior portrait submissions are appropriate before any students are granted access to photos.  

While there are Mill River High School students who aid in the creation of the yearbook, Hill said he is not aware of any student yearbook editors who are calling for the photo to be published. 

Practices vs. policy

While the staff have a long-held practice of vetting yearbook photos, Hill said the debate over Flanders’ photo indicates a gap in written school policy regarding yearbook submissions. 

“For a long time, we have looked at submissions for the yearbook to make sure that they’re school appropriate,” Hill said. “Going forward, we discussed putting in place much clearer written procedures around what that actually means.”

At the school board meeting on Jan. 22, Nick Flanders spoke as parent and community member during the public comment period to urge his fellow school board members to consider the photo submission process for the yearbook. He asserted that the board has “failed the students” by not providing “clear guidelines and policies.”

Later that night, the board discussed the yearbook photo issue in executive session, but agreed to hold with the administration’s decision to reject the photo submission, as to not override the school administration’s authority, according to the meeting minutes.

Andrea Hawkins, the school board chair, said the board has already initiated discussion about codifying the school’s practices for vetting yearbook photos in the future, and sent the issue to the board’s policy committee for consideration. 

Conor Casey, executive director of Gun Sense Vermont, said that the organization stands with the school administration’s position on the student’s yearbook photo submission, asserting that firearms do not “belong in school spaces,” including in school publications. 

Casey added that imagery depicting firearms represents a tangible threat to students, noting that firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the country. 

“It’s completely appropriate and within the rights of the school to restrict imagery that features or potentially glamorized firearms,” Casey said. “Schools should be environments where students feel safe, and I really believe normalizing firearm imagery in school publications would be sending the wrong message.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Free speech or safety threat? Mill River student’s yearbook photo with firearm sets off a controversy..

When Vermont-schooled Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin arrived at the Killington Ski Resort last Thanksgiving for its annual World Cup women’s race, she didn’t expect a shocking fall would force her to take a break.

Three months later, Killington is finding itself having to temporarily sit out the international event.

The largest snow-sport area in Eastern North America announced Tuesday it would close its Superstar Trail chairlift April 13 to begin construction of a new six-passenger high-speed replacement.

Killington will remain open for spring skiing by using its K-1 gondola and other lifts. But the Superstar work, estimated to take eight months, will mean the World Cup trail won’t fully reopen until shortly after the November race, which has drawn some 20,000 spectators and a national television audience of 2 million viewers since 2016.

As a result, the ski circuit will move this year to Copper Mountain in Colorado, although “the race is expected to return to Killington Thanksgiving weekend 2026,” the Vermont resort said in a statement.

Shiffrin, a 2013 graduate of the Northeast Kingdom’s Burke Mountain Academy, has won the Killington event’s slalom for all but two of its eight years, placing fifth in 2022 before falling last November while attempting to score her 100th career World Cup title.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist made news this month when she announced she was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder following the crash and wouldn’t defend her giant-slalom gold medal at the Alpine skiing world championships.

“It’s a strange place to be returning from surgery eight weeks ago, from laying in bed with a drainage tube six weeks ago, to return mid-season in the middle of world championships where everybody is talking about the medals and all the other athletes are fighting and on their top form,” she told the Associated Press.

But Shiffrin, pairing with U.S. colleague Breezy Johnson, went on to win a new team combined event. She called her fall and current rise “maybe one of the biggest learning experiences of my career.”

Killington expressed similar optimism about bouncing back.

“This $12 million investment will elevate the guest experience for decades to come,” Killington President Mike Solimano said in a statement.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Killington to take a break from World Cup as it builds a new chairlift.

The two candidates, incumbent mayor Mike Doenges and current alderman Henry Heck, vying for Rutland City’s highest office went toe-to-toe for the first time Wednesday night to discuss the pressing issues facing Rutland. The list included affordability, public safety and the city’s aging infrastructure.

In the mayoral forum sponsored by PEG-TV and the Rutland Herald, the candidates stuck to their core messages. 

Doenges spoke about maintaining “momentum” on the projects and initiatives that he shepherded during his first term, including the Capital Investment Plan, affordable and market-rate housing development, and the development of the downtown with the TIF district and the hotel development in the works. 

A previous city clerk for Rutland, Heck said that if elected, he will look to reduce costs for taxpayers, but otherwise has “no set objectives” because his goal is to listen to residents who feel unheard before determining his actions.

But this week’s joint union endorsement of the incumbent mayor and labor complaints leveled against his challenger suggest the two candidates’ track records with workers while serving in public office may sway the race as much as their campaign objectives. 

Unions take a stand

On Tuesday, the union representing 130 Rutland City municipal and school department workers — the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 91 Local 1201 Union — went public with a grievance and an unfair labor practice charge the union filed against Heck in 2022 and 2023, towards the end of his 14 years serving as city clerk.

And just hours before Wednesday’s debate, the presidents of three of Rutland City’s labor unions —  including the police union, the fire department union and the AFSCME Local 1201 union — gathered to proclaim their support for Doenges’ bid for re-election.

The AFSCME Local 1201 Union reached out to both Doenges and Heck to participate in the endorsement process, but only Doenges completed the candidate survey, according to the AFSCME Local 1201 Union’s president Tom Franzoni.

Heck said in an interview Thursday that he did not complete the survey because one of the questions asked about previous conflicts with unions. Heck said that he didn’t want to disclose details of “a personnel issue that was involved with a union member” during his time as city clerk in 2023, and so he could not “fully fill out” the questionnaire.

Heck characterized the disclosure of previous complaints as a “smear campaign” and questioned the timing of the release of the complaints as the election nears. 

All three union presidents said that the endorsement of Doenges was decided through votes by their union’s membership, and was informed by Doenges’ financial support of their departments, bargaining in good faith, and positive day-to-day interactions with their fellow workers. 

“We stand with those who stand with us, and Mayor Doenges has been a steadfast advocate for public safety, not just for firefighters, but for our police officers, public works employees and for all those who dedicate their lives protecting and serving Rutland,” said Kyle Robillard, the president of Rutland firefighters union, the International Association of Firefighters Local 2323. 

‘Anti-union bias’

The unfair labor practice complaint, submitted to the Vermont Labor Relations Board in 2023, described Heck questioning AFSCME Local 1201 union members for their endorsement of Doenges’ bid against the then incumbent mayor, David Allaire, and using derogatory language against the union’s president. 

According to the charge filed by AFSCME, Heck also questioned a female municipal employee, saying that he considered her his “work wife” and that she “cheated on him” through her involvement in the union.

The female municipal employee “felt intimidated by these remarks and certainly did not welcome these remarks,” according to the charge, and ultimately resigned from her position as union chair due to fear that her job would be in jeopardy if she continued to affiliate with the union.

The grievance filed against the city administration led by then Mayor Allaire and City Clerk Heck, cited “anti-Union bias,” describing a union member that “suffered an 8 day suspension without Just Cause” in September of 2022.

The AFSCME grievance contends that the union member was suspended because Heck took issue with her entering his office to photocopy a draft memo that she shared with the union. The memo was “neither secret nor confidential” and the union member “did not break any City rules, personnel policies, nor Contract provisions,” according to the grievance. 

Last week, Heck also faced criticism from the Rutland City police officials for breaching confidentiality by commenting on ongoing police union contract negotiations during a Facebook Live video. The police union, the Fraternal Order of the Police Lodge 410, subsequently filed an unfair labor practice charge and ethics complaint against him, according to union president Tim Rice.

Heck responds

Heck said that he received a document from the city’s attorney in November of 2024 that discussed an investigation into “potentially unlawful harassment” by an appointed City Hall official. 

The document read that the investigation was closed because even if union members’ accounts were accurate, the “conduct they described would not constitute a violation of the standards,” according to Heck. 

Heck said he was not certain whether the document referred to the grievance or unfair labor practices charge filed while he was city clerk, or even if the investigation was regarding his alleged conduct. Heck said he believed the accusations against him had been proven false.

But, David Van Deusen, the Vermont coordinator for the AFSCME, said in an interview that the local union withdrew the unfair labor practices charge against Heck once he was not reappointed to City Hall.

“After the sea change took place and after it became clear that Henry Heck would no longer be in a position of authority over our women members, we considered the issue resolved,” said Van Deusen.

Doenges said that he could not discuss why he did not reappoint his challenger Heck as city clerk when he took office as mayor in 2023, but that he interviewed all municipal employees who wanted to keep their jobs, and he chose to reappoint those who shared a similar vision on how to steer Rutland into the future.

In Heck’s closing statement during the mayoral forum, he acknowledged the onslaught of accusations he has faced of late, but said that he would like to focus on the issues.

“There’s been a lot of things out there lately with me in the press,” Heck said. “I’ve had to answer for those things, which I have done unwavering as far as that goes, but there comes a point in time where, you know, I would really like to just get back to campaigning and not have to worry about all the allegations all of a sudden before Election Day.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Incumbent Rutland City mayor Mike Doenges gains labor endorsement while challenger Henry Heck claims ‘smear campaign’ .

The president of the Rutland City police union declared an impasse to contract negotiations on Feb. 3 after the Board of Aldermen failed to take up the union’s proposal at last week’s board meeting. 

Union president Tim Rice said he had expected the contract to be ratified by the board at the meeting last Monday. But, he said that comments made by Alderman Henry Heck, who is also running for mayor, breached the confidentiality of negotiations and therefore impacted the ratification process.

Heck said he was not to blame for the state of negotiations and that the union contract proposal lacked support within the Board of Aldermen.

What did Heck say?

Heck’s comments made the night before took center stage at last week’s board meeting, garnering criticism by local police officials.

The rebuke was prompted by statements Heck made about the Rutland City Police Department  during a ride-along with the Rutland City Patrol, a community watch group, that was streamed on Facebook Live. 

During the meeting’s public comment period, Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said Heck spoke about confidential and ongoing negotiations, saying police officers “want to be paid for 60 hours and work 40 hours.” 

Kilcullen said the claim was “not only inaccurate, but inappropriate and irresponsible” and would “erode trust in members of the police department.”

He added that Heck also said on the Facebook Live video that a member of the police force called Sgt. Whitehead was from out-of-state, wants the most expensive equipment, and has changed dynamics in the police department. 

Kilcullen clarified that the police officer with the last name Whitehead serves as a commander, was born in Rutland, and is “focused on improving the work conditions of our members and is a dedicated, well-respected leader in the department.”

During public comments at the Board meeting, Adam Lucia, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, a Rutland City-based charity group, said Heck’s ride-along comments demonstrated a “blatant disregard for confidentiality” and raised “serious questions about (his) ability to responsibly handle sensitive matters that affect the wellbeing of our city.”

The Fraternal Order of the Police Lodge 410, Rutland City’s police union, made no statement in regards to Heck’s comment in the hopes of a “successful mediation session,” Rice said.

In a statement emailed to VTDigger that he read for a video posted to Facebook Thursday, Heck said that he regrets “if (his) words have caused any concern or disappointment among the police force or the community at large.”

“I have immense respect for the Rutland City police force and the critical role they play in maintaining the safety and security of our city,” Heck wrote. “My comments were never intended, nor did they breach any confidentiality agreements or compromise the integrity of the negotiation process.”

What happens next?

Rice said the police union filed for arbitration last week, which is a formal mediation process that eventually brings in a neutral third party to make a decision if the parties to the labor contract cannot come to an agreement.

“The union and city management have got to an agreement that we think is fair, equitable and within the city budget and responsible to the taxpayers,” said Rice. “We have an agreement with the city, but for some reason, the Board of Aldermen won’t ratify it.”

Rice also brought concerns about Heck’s comments affecting contract negotiations to the state last week, filing unfair labor practice charges with the Vermont Labor Relations Board and an ethics complaint with the State Ethics Commission. 

Rice said he has heard back from the State Ethics Commission with guidance on how to pursue the local municipalities’ complaint process for Board of Aldermen members along with pursuing the complaints on the state level. 

Rice said Heck’s “outlandish” comments violated the ground rules of executive sessions to not discuss negotiations with the public and not to negatively characterize parties to those negotiations. Rice said that those violations likely influenced the derailment of the union’s contract ratification. 

Megan LaChance, the attorney representing Rutland city, said that while confidentiality breaches are not illegal, it undermines the purpose of executive sessions because “premature public knowledge” can impact contract negotiations before agreements can be reached.

“Vermont Department of Labor is very clear that both sides have to negotiate their contracts in good faith,” LaChance said. “If someone is disclosing these things or talking negatively about (parties) in the public, it can open us up to liability on that front.”

Heck pushes back

In another Facebook video posted Sunday night, Heck asserted that claims that he is responsible for halting the union negotiation process are false. Heck said that the Board discussed the proposed union contract devised after 10 months of negotiation last week and the Board ended the executive session without a motion to support. 

“The blame being placed on me only deflects the fact (that) negotiating teams have not presented a contract that the Board as a whole can support,” Heck said.

Heck said in the video that he supports the police, but he also believes in “holding the department’s leadership to account when the city doesn’t see the public safety results that it deserves.”

Rice said that the police union members are frustrated after 10 months of negotiations and three attempts at contract ratification. He said union members have been without a contract since July and their previous contract was set before the COVID-19 pandemic, so their wages have not been adjusted for inflation. 

Rice said that the Rutland City police union members are hopeful that a contract will be reached and they are willing to work with the city to find an agreement.

“We’re still also willing to work with Alderman Heck, if he is able to acknowledge his wrongs and try to make amends,” Rice said. “But so far to this point, Alderman Heck has not reached out to us.”

After the Rutland City police union notified its parent union, the National Fraternal Order of Police, about the incident, the umbrella group weighed in on Facebook regarding Heck’s comments, questioning whether Heck should maintain and continue to seek positions of authority in local government. 

“Alderman Heck has no business being in a position of power and is a disgrace to their Board,” the post read. “If Heck had a shred of integrity which history shows he doesn’t, he would resign his position and immediately terminate his mayoral campaign.” 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland police union blames mayoral candidate Henry Heck for impasse in negotiations.

With town meeting day just under a month away, the race for Rutland city mayor is shaping up to be a competitive one, with the current mayor Mike Doenges and sitting Alderman Henry Heck vying for the position.

The only challenger to the incumbent mayor, Heck served in local government as city clerk for 14 years. But, Heck was not reappointed to the position by Doenges when he was first elected as mayor two years ago. 

The two candidates agree that one of the top concerns on voters’ minds is affordability and property taxes, and they agree that drawing more people to the city is a priority. But the candidates’ approaches to tackling this issue differ.

Heck said that attracting people to Rutland is difficult because Vermont is an expensive state to live in, and that he would approach the issue “one bite at a time.”

“Getting people to come here is not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be easy because of housing, and it’s not going to be easy because of the cost, and it’s not going to be easy because we don’t have a lot of high paying jobs,” Heck said. 

At the forefront of the former city clerk’s campaign has been a push to curb spending by the local government. Heck has taken issue with Doenges’ proposed city budget and infrastructure projects, calling for slowing down investment in development and reducing cost burdens on city taxpayers.

“What it all boils back to is the taxpayers and trying to commit to a sensible growth where we’re not going to overburden the taxpayers with more and more taxes,” Heck said. 

Doenges said that after working with the Board of Aldermen to determine priorities such as public safety and infrastructure, the city budget was cut to a 2.8% tax increase, which Doenges characterized as a “shoestring” budget. 

“There is no frivolity in our budget. There’s nothing in the budget that isn’t a necessity for the city or has been specifically asked for by the taxpayer,” Doenges said. “That is a big, big difference versus other communities that are still working to play catch up on inflation.”

‘Rutland is an expensive place to live’

Doenges said that the affordability issue facing Rutland residents is rooted in Rutland’s shrunken population, and believes that investments in infrastructure is part of drawing more people to the Marble City. 

“Rutland is an expensive place to live for different reasons, and one of those is the fact that we’re a city that is built for 30,000 people, and there’s 15,000 people paying for it,” Doenges said. “That makes it more expensive to be part of this community, and we have to grow that population.”

Doenges said his strategy for addressing affordability has been to find revenue streams to invest in infrastructure and housing projects that would not fall on taxpayers through a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, the Roofs Over Rutland Program and a Capital Investment Plan.

The Rutland City Board of Aldermen voted to approve the TIF district proposal last month, which is designed to attract private developers to take on public infrastructure projects, and the request to start a TIF district has been sent to the state for approval, Doenges said.

This past fall, the Roofs Over Rutland initiative headed by the Rutland Heritage Family Credit Union with Doenges’ support received $8 million in investments to offer incentives to developers working on housing projects in Rutland. 

The Capital Investment Plan is a new initiative proposed by the incumbent mayor and approved by the Rutland City Board of Aldermen last month to prioritize capital projects and fixing roads and sidewalks in the future, Doenges said. 

Along with voting for who will guide the city into the future on Town Meeting Day, Rutland residents will have the chance to also vote on whether or not to obligate a $3.8 million bond towards the first project under the Capital Investment Plan. 

If the article passes, the money would go towards replacing a 40-year-old ammonia-based chiller for the hockey rink at the Giorgetti Athletic Complex, which Doenges said would be harmful to human health if the system broke.

While Doenges said that plan looks at $80 million worth of potential capital projects, the voters will have a chance to vote on allocating funds to each project individually. 

‘Projects need to be paid for’

Heck has voiced concern that bonds taken out for capital projects through the Capital Investment Plan would be detrimental to property taxpayers.

“Some folks may not realize, with bonds we have approved for the projects, all of a sudden, you have to start paying it back,” Heck said. “It can affect the tax structure, and definitely he’s going to increase property tax as far as that goes, because, again, those projects need to be paid for.”

Doenges said, on the contrary, the Capital Investment Plan would be funded through a 1% local option sales tax that “people pay when they come to Rutland and they shop in our town.” Doenges said the Capital Investment Plan is a tool to address the need for capital investment while lowering the burden on the property taxpayer. 

Rutland City residents voted in favor of implementing the local option tax in March of 2023, and it went into effect in Rutland City in July of that year. 

“That’s the first time in a very long time that the city of Rutland has bonded for something that doesn’t increase property tax,” Doenges said. “This is a huge change, and going to be a major benefit over the long run for the city.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Affordability is a leading concern shaping Rutland City mayoral race.

The Pittsford Village Farm took a step forward by partnering with the Rutland County Parent Child Center to create a child care center, part of a larger effort to transform a historic farmhouse centrally located in the town of Pittsford into a thriving community center. 

Lorrie Byrom, chair of the Pittsford Village Farm’s Board of Directors, said the board has acquired necessary funding for the project, and the plan is to break ground on the child care center on the first floor of the farmhouse this spring and to open the center next year. 

Pittsford Village Farm sought applications from child care providers before signing a memorandum of understanding in January with Rutland County Parent Child Center. They agreed the latter would operate the child care facility when construction is completed. 

“We ended up choosing the group that had the most experience in order to support our board as we begin this adventure and go down a road of building a child care center out,” Byrom said. 

In 2017, a couple in Pittsford acquired and preserved a centrally-located historic farmhouse on 20 acres of land connected to sprawling community trails for use by Pittsford residents for years to come. After holding several town meetings, residents determined a community hub was needed in town and lack of child care and affordable housing were priorities to address, said Byrom. 

Byrom said the Pittsford Village Farm has already created a community garden and an outdoor pavilion and worked with the Pittsford Recreation Department, Maclure Public Library and other community partners to host events such as touch-a-truck for young families and a summer concert program called Tunesdays.

After completing the restoration and renovations on the historic farmhouse, the Pittsford Village Farm will also be the site of a community gathering room and two affordable apartments, Byrom said. 

“We went about trying to put together a way to make this wonderful community center while still addressing local and state needs,” Byrom said. “We’re starting with the child care center, to get that piece in place.”

Adding child care capacity

The child care center in the Pittsford Village Farm will serve 30 children, including spots for eight infants, 10 toddlers and 12 preschoolers, and will add capacity to serve families in the region, said Stephanie Carvey, co-executive director of the Rutland County Parent Child Center. 

The Rutland County Parent Child Center currently has locations in Rutland City and Brandon, but there is still “an extremely large wait list” for families in the region looking for care, Carvey said.

“It’s a big gap between the Rutland city families that we service and our Brandon families that we service,” Carvey said. “It’s not even going to just help families who are in Pittsford itself. It should help families who live closer to Pittsford to get the care that they need for their kids.”

According to a report by the organization Let’s Grow Kids, access to regulated child care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers in Rutland County all decreased between 2022 and 2024. 

But, since the landmark child care law, Act 76, started rolling out, more child care centers have opened than closed in each quarter of 2024, which is the first time this has happened since 2018, according to Noah Futterman, communication’s director for Let’s Grow Kids. 

Carvey said Act 76 has been crucial for creating more child care centers like at the Pittsford Village Farm and helping families afford quality child care in Rutland county. She said the Rutland County Parent Child Center is looking to receive funding through a Make Way for Kids grant to construct an outdoor space area at the Pittsford Village Farm. 

The outdoor recreation on the Pittsford Village Farm property will help enhance children’s opportunities to learn and explore, Carvey said. 

“Our organization is always trying to tie in nature in some way, shape or form,” Carvey said. “I’m really looking forward to just really being able to harness that opportunity to bring kids outside.”

A downtown solution

Erin Roche, Vermont director of First Children‘s Finance, said her organization helped craft the Pittsford Village Farm’s request for proposal for the child care center and awarded the Pittsford Village Farm a Vermont Planning Grant in 2024. 

Roche said the community center project stood out because of its location and connection to a small town, adjacent to Kamuda’s Country Market and Maclure Public Library, and right off the highway cutting through the town of Pittsford. 

“You don’t often see child care as part of a downtown solution,” Roche said. “I feel like the sort of bigger project that they have envisioned really does a lot to support that kind of downtown village feel to Pittsford.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Pittsford Village Farm makes headway on child care center, part of larger community center effort.