Climate Change to Increase Local Flooding • Page 13
J ULY 10 – J ULY 23, 2019
CLIMATE
IN THIS ISSUE: Adapting to a Climate-Changing Vermont
Pg. 5 Barre Planet Path By Carl Etnier
Touches Down
W
orcester-based weather forecaster Roger Hill has
taken to the road to predict the changing climate
Pg. 9 Efficiency Charter of Vermont. He prognosticates more extremes of
heat, cold, snow, rain, and drought. And if we think weather
Change Weakened is extreme now, Hill says, in 10 to 20 years it could get “really
wacky.” But since other places are likely to have it worse,
Pg. 10 Natural Repellents Hill warns Vermonters to prepare for an
influx of climate refugees.
May Attract Diseases The Sustainable Montpelier Coalition
hosted one of Hill’s presentations, in
the packed sanctuary of the Unitarian
U.S. Postage PAID
Church in Montpelier at the end of May.
Permit NO. 123
Montpelier, VT
PRSRT STD
ECRWSS
Four weeks later, the coalition gathered
again at the same church to brainstorm
where to house the predicted influx of
climate refugees, plus other challenges
in a state and planet transformed by
climate change.
In Hill’s telling, the loss of Arctic sea
ice doesn’t just discomfit and displace
polar bears; it’s a key driver for climate
change effects in Vermont. With
reduced temperature differences between
polar and tropical regions—as when
Anchorage, Alaska, hit 90 degrees in early July—the jet stream
is affected. Generally, winds form as nature’s way of evening
out temperatures around the planet. As the warmer air from
Montpelier, VT 05601
the tropics moves north in our hemisphere, the Earth’s rotation
causes the winds to blow eastward, forming the jet stream.
P.O. Box 1143
The Bridge
Weʼre online! montpelierbridge.com or vtbridge.com
But climate change is warming the Arctic more than the
tropics, and when sea ice melts and leaves open water, polar
warming accelerates even more. Ice, which reflects sunlight
away from the Earth’s surface, is replaced by darker open
water, which absorbs more heat. So now, when Anchorage and
Miami have similar temperatures, there’s less force moving
heat northward, and the winds weaken.
Hill compared the behavior of a weakened
jet stream to the Winooski River in flatter
stretches, as in Marshfield. The river’s flow
is weakened in the flatter terrain, which
means the river doesn’t flow as straight as it
does in steeper sections. Instead, it wanders
back and forth, forming oxbows. The polar
jet stream’s “oxbows” bring it far north
and south of its normal path through the
middle of Canada. Where it swings far
to the north, it allows warm or hot air to
penetrate much closer to the pole than
usual, as Alaska experienced last week.
But where the polar jet stream forms an
oxbow far to the south, it brings cold polar
air with it. That’s how global warming
can lead to extreme cold weather events,
as Chicago and much of the Midwest experienced this past
winter. On March 1 of this year, Hill said, Lake Champlain
was “totally, 100 percent ice covered,” while “tremendous
amounts of snow” fell on Mount Mansfield over the winter.
The deep snow last winter precipitated out of air more
Continued on Page 14
PAGE 2 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Corrections
In the June 26 issue of The
Bridge, there was an error in the
article, “Emerald Ash Borer Is
Here to Stay.”
The caption in the photo of the
family was incorrect. It should
read, “Cara Robechek, Donald
DeVoil, and their daughter Isla
helped to plant five trees this
spring.”
The Bridge apologizes to the
family for the error.
OOPS!
T HE BRID GE
Notice
On June 26, the website of The
Bridge was hacked and knocked
out of commission.
The good news is that The Bridge
received a grant from National
Life to build a new website and
will begin that soon.
With luck, a new Bridge website
will be unveiled by the end of
the summer.
Until then, please direct all
calendar listings to:
calendar@montpelierbridge.com
Advertising inquiries to
rick@vtbridge.com
Editorial questions and sub-
missions to
mdunphy@montpelierbridge.
com
T HE BRID GE JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 3

HEARD ON THE STREET

Then and Now
City Council Settles on 30-mph Limit for Berlin Street
Residents of the Berlin Street neighborhood who crowded a June 26 City Council
meeting to support a 25-mph speed limit left somewhat disappointed as the Council
voted to cut the limit from 35 mph to 30 mph. Speakers at the meeting cited the high Historic photos courtesy of Vermont Historical Society;
volume of traffic and the changing demographic nature of the area in lobbying for the Captions and modern photos by Paul Carnahan
25-mph limit. In the end, Council members voted 4–2 to set the limit at 30 mph, as
was recommended in a report from the Department of Public Works. Signs have been
This house was constructed in 1889 on Highland Street by
ordered and should be erected before the end of the month.
Murray A. Kent, a well-known auctioneer and son of Abdiel
Freeride Montpelier Brings Bike Parking to Farmers Market Kent of Calais. By the time the first photograph was taken,
For the remainder of the season, the Capital City Farmers Market will have racks to circa 1900, the street had been renamed for the Kent family
store your bike while you pick up local goods, thanks to Freeride Montpelier Community and the house had received a distinctive porch treatment and a
Bike Shop. A repair station and tools will also be on hand if you’d like to learn how to multi-colored paint job scheme. Today, the house retains much
fix a nagging problem or simply tune-up your bike. Donations are welcome. Freeride of its 1900s appearance, although some of the windows have
Montpelier is also expanding its open hours for the season at their shop at 89 Barre St. been changed.
Hours are now Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10 am–6 pm.
Compromise Reached on Annual Toy Run
Participants in the 33rd annual motorcycle Toy Run will ride down State Street as
usual on Aug. 10, thanks to an agreement reached with the Montpelier Farmers Market.
The market, which has street closure rights from Elm to Main streets all summer, will
close early that day and clear the street for the Toy Run by 1 pm. A conflict arose when
Toy Run organizers requested a street closure and discovered that, unlike previous years,
the Farmers Market had secured Saturday permits for the summer months. The two
sides then met to forge the compromise.
Gleaning Program a Finalist for Red Sox Award
Community Harvest of Central Vermont has been named one of five Vermont finalists
for the Red Sox Foundation’s 2019 IMPACT Awards. The Foundation will give away
a total of $15,000 to the top three finalists, which are chosen through online voting.
“Voting is on the Red Sox website and goes through July 28, and people can vote as
many times as they want,” CHCV Executive Director Allison Levin said. Community
Harvest recovers surplus from local farms, food that would otherwise go to waste.
The food is donated to food shelves, senior meal programs, and other organizations
feeding people with limited access to fresh, healthy, local food. More information at
CommunityHarvestVT.org.

Nature Watch
Artwork and Words by Nona Estrin.

Bridge Community Media, Inc.

P.O. Box 1143, Montpelier, VT 05601 • Ph: 802-223-5112
Editor in Chief: Mike Dunphy
Managing Editor: Tom Brown
Publisher Emeritus: Nat Frothingham
Copy Editor: Larry Floersch
Calendar Editor: Marichel Vaught

T
rees! Even though we know they make things cooler we may be caught off
guard and even surprised on a hot day when we step into their shade! Going
from the baking hot lawn here into the dense woods next to our house is at
least 10 degrees cooler. Our eyes adjust, and we move internally to the slower rhythm
of their darker world. And on the lush forest floor now, our namesake in this valley,
the wild onion or leek, is putting forth its white globe-like flowers by the hundreds,
and they add to the magic and draw us in under the canopy to consider their beauty.
Layout: Sarah Davin, Marichel Vaught
Sales Representatives: Rick McMahan
Distribution: Sarah Davin, Lora Stridsberg, Carl Etnier
Board Members: Phil Dodd, Donny Osman, Jake Brown, Josh Fitzhugh, Larry Floersch, Greg Gerdel, Irene
Racz, Ivan Shadis, Mason Singer
Editorial: 223-5112, ext. 14 • mdunphy@montpelierbridge.com
Location: The Bridge office is located at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, Stone Science Hall.
Subscriptions: You can receive The Bridge by mail for $50 a year. Make out your check to The Bridge, and
mail to The Bridge, PO Box 1143, Montpelier VT 05601.
montpelierbridge.com • facebook.com/thebridgenewspapervt
Twitter: @montpbridge • Instagram: @montpelierbridge
PAGE 4 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Hearings Focus on City’s Worst Intersection
By Mike Dunphy
A
rguably the worst place to cross
a downtown street in Vermont is
the intersection of Barre and Main
streets in Montpelier. Not only does the
intersection see a chaotic confluence of cars
turning onto Main from Memorial Drive,
Stone Cutters Way, and Barre Street, but
also from the busy parking lots of Shaw’s
and Sarducci’s. Furthermore, the distance
pedestrians must cover is the greatest in
town. Add to this an active line of railroad
tracks strung across the intersection, and
it’s a wonder more accidents don’t occur.
Earlier in the year, the city tried to
mitigate car-on-car and car-on-pedestrian
and bike collisions—10 reported to police
since July 2015—by installing pedestrian
crossing signals with flashing yellow lights
at the intersection (and another pair on Elm
Street). Assessment of the results remains
anecdotal and somewhat mixed (including
by this writer, who regularly watches cars
ignore the flashing lights). City Councilor
Dona Bate expressed a similar outlook.
“Like you, I only have my experience,
which hasn’t been very good. I thought I
would watch more carefully this summer
and, by fall, have developed key points of
evaluation during school opening.”
With the demolition of the M&M
T HE BRID GE
City News
roundabout very close to another light,”
explains Watson, “specifically the light at
Memorial Drive and Main, because it can
get backed up.”
Furthermore, there are far more
competing interests at that intersection,
according to Watson. “There are conflicting
priorities potentially for pedestrians, bikers,
cars, and the railroad that’s right there—it’s
complicated. It’s just going to take more
conversation.” Add to that the significant
beautification efforts the report envisions,
Photo of Barre and Main Street Intersection by Sarah Davin. including tree plantings, rain gardens,
Beverage Center and former Vermont be found in the City Council Presentation public art, and potential pocket parks, and
Association for the Blind building in the Draft Report published April 11 at threading that needle becomes even more
Mowatt Lot, the construction of the bike montpelier-vt.org. The report represents a challenging.
path, and a revisit of the city’s Downtown wide range of visions. The cheapest, and Although the plan for the Barre-Main
Master Plan, there’s a new opportunity least invasive change, is merely to add more intersection still unknown, the bike path
to improve—or at least consider solutions traffic signals, pedestrian crossings, and construction connecting the shared-use
to—the situation. With this in mind, the bike lanes at the intersection of Barre and path from Taylor Street to the Main and
city is holding two public hearings this Main streets, which will turn into a four- Barre intersection remains on schedule,
month, on July 25, from 6 to 8 pm in way stop once the construction opens up a but the lot between the shared use path
the Montpelier Senior Activity Center new extension that leads to the parking lot and The Drawing Board will be grassed
Community Room, and on July 31 at 6 behind Aubuchon’s. over, according to Watson, until a plan
to 7:45 pm at Kellogg-Hubbard Library. A longer term plan involves the is adopted—be it selling the land to a
“The reason we are doing that,” says Mayor installation of adaptive signal control, developer for building construction,
Anne Watson, “is because we want to hear which adjusts the timing of red, yellow, creating a new park, or adding more
from people who live on those streets,” but and green lights to accommodate changing parking. “There’s going to at least be a
she stresses, “Anyone is welcome.” traffic patterns to ease traffic congestion. little bit of green space on the east side
Many of the ideas to be discussed can This would need to be coordinated with of the North Branch,” says Watson; “the
other signals at State and Main and question is how much.”
Memorial and Main, too, and would cost Whatever the case, any construction at
the city about $200,000 to implement. all would not start until the 2020‒2021
A still more ambitious plan sees a budget is set. “There’s basically no way
roundabout at the intersection of Barre anything is going to happen this summer.
and Main as the answer; however, owing to So we’ll start talking about next summer’s
the proximity to the signals on Memorial budget in November. Even if we have a
and State streets, a single roundabout could plan by November, I would guess we would
cause more problems than it would solve. not budget the whole thing but take it in
“It’s not usually good practice to put a pieces and implement it over time.”
Hybrid option of roundabouts, signals, and bike
lanes. Image courtesy of the City of Montpelier.
T HE BRID GE JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 5

City News
Barre Planet Path Touches Down
By Sarah Davin

J uly 20 marks the 50th anniversary of

the Apollo 11 moon landing. Barre
will celebrate Neil Armstrong’s
“one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind” on the moon with the
new Barre Planet Path, sponsored and
installed by the Kiwanis Club of Barre.
The path—which is based on NASA
astrophysicist Dr. David Hathaway’s
scale model of the solar system—will be
placed along a ¾-mile piece of the Barre
City Bike Path, not far from the Barre
City Elementary and Middle School.
The planet path will comprise 14
aluminum signs and 12 stations that
mark major astronomical features of the
solar system, including the sun, planets
(Pluto included), asteroids, and the next Left to Right: Vern Mackey, Paula Dolan, and Rick McMahan. Photo by Stephanie McMahan.
closest star, Proxima Centauri. aluminum signs the same size as a ‘no that Central Vermont will become a opportunity for local students to make
The concept was originally proposed parking’ sign mounted on posts.” hotbed for space exploration. videos of their own for the path.
to the Barre City Council on July 16, McMahan hopes that the path will The path’s 12 stations not only McMahan aims to have the new posts
2014, by Rick McMahan, a local NASA inspire local students to become more mark a scaled version of the orbits of and signs installed before the Aldrich
Solar System Ambassador volunteer and passionate about the sciences. “I would the planets but also serve as a virtual Library’s Solar System Walk on the
creator of The Bridge’s monthly sky love this to be a spark for people’s library. On each of the aluminum signs Barre City Bike Path on July 13 at 1 pm.
chart. (McMahan is also sales director imaginations. If we could get even one there is a QR code. When scanned with The event will consist of a guided tour
of The Bridge.) “The intention is to kid that would be great, but it would be a smartphone, the code will take users of the Barre Planet Path, and children
eventually have granite markers for the fun to have Central Vermont thought to a page with Vimeo links related to will be provided with clipboards and an
different stations, the orbital distances of as a great intellectual center in the that orbital marker. McMahan hopes activity to do along the tour.
away from the sun,” McMahan said. world.” McMahan was inspired by the to keep the video library updated, so as
“At this point in time, we haven’t raised little town of San Pedro de Macoris in time passes, information will be updated
enough funds to get to that point, so the Dominican Republic that is well or added according to new discoveries.
as an intermediary step there will be known for its baseball players and hopes He also hopes the path becomes an
PAGE 6 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rebecca Makkai
Comes to Bear Pond Books July 16
R Photo of Rebecca Makkai by Susan Aurinko.
ebecca Makkai is author of The
Borrower, The Hundred-Year
House—which won the Novel
of the Year Award from the Chicago
Writers Association—and Music for
Wartime. Her work has appeared in The
Best American Short Stories, Harper’s, and
Tin House, among others.
Her latest novel, The Great Believers,
won the Andrew Carnegie Medal, the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction,
and the Stonewall Book Award, and was
a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
and shortlisted for the National Book
Award. It was optioned by Amy Poehler
for television.
Set predominantly in the 1980s,
The Great Believers is about the AIDS
epidemic and the art world in Chicago.
Woven into a story about the sister of
a man, who died from AIDS searching
for her daughter who is lost to a cult
in Paris. Amid the deaths of the main
character’s friends are many powerful and
unexpected connections and friendships.
This is a wonderfully rendered tale filled
with emotion and beautiful narrative
that brings to life a time period that must
not be forgotten.
Makkai will give a talk at 7 pm on
Tuesday, July 16, at Bear Pond Books
in downtown Montpelier. She will be
joined by Kelly Arbor, the testing and
education manager for Vermont CARES,
the largest AIDS service organization in
the state. Following is a Q&A with
Makkai.
As a cisgender heterosexual woman,
why was this an important story for
you to tell?
Rebecca Makkai: I thought (and
stressed) a lot about whether it was
appropriate for me to tell a story about
AIDS. Could I do a good job and do
this story justice? Would this book
detract from the narratives of those who
lived through this crisis, or help readers
discover those stories?
Ultimately, I decided I could do it
with relentless research. My novel
is much more likely, if successful, to
engender further discussion and writing
about AIDS than to squelch it. The
way commercial publishing works, a
novel’s success means more presses will
be willing to back a similar project in
the future. I have opportunities now to
point people toward both fictional and
nonfictional accounts of the AIDS crisis.
Why do you think it is important to
contextualize the pervasive pain of the
AIDS crisis in the modern day?
Makkai: For one thing, the pain is
still here. It’s tempting, in the U.S.,
to think of AIDS as something of the
past, but globally there are 37 million
people living with HIV. Even if we are
thinking of the late ’80s and early ’90s
as the height of the U.S. crisis, people are
T HE BRID GE
Arts
still living in the shadow of those years,
feeling those losses, and putting their
lives back together.
What does the title “The Great
Believers” mean?
Makkai: The title is taken from an
F. Scott Fitzgerald quote in the article
“My Generation,” published by Esquire
magazine in 1973:
“We were the great believers. I have never
cared for any man as much as for these
who felt the first springs when I did, and
saw death ahead, and were reprieved—and
who now walk the long stormy summer.”
Fitzgerald is referring to the Lost
Generation, and it struck me as
counterintuitive, as we often think of
that generation as jaded and worldly. The
parallels between that generation and the
one we lost in the ’80s is something I
explore in the novel.
I was struck by the similarities between
the way Paris was refuge for so many
misfit artists, and the role big American
cities like Chicago have played for young
LGBTQ people. The arts scene in Paris
was interrupted by WWI; between the
war and the influenza of 1918, a whole
generation was decimated. I was interested
in those who regrouped in Paris after
the war, who tried to recreate some of
what had been lost. The lines we can
draw between that time and the ’80s are
fascinating to me.
This text was provided by Bear Pond
Books and Penguin Random House and
edited by The Bridge.
T HE BRID GE
Rootstock Publishing Blooms in Montpelier
By Irene Racz
A Rickey Gard Diamond, Bernie Lambek (center), and Stephen McArthur.
t a stage of life when many
people are interested in slowing
down, the owners of Montpelier’s
Rootstock Publishing appear to be
speeding up.
In a recent interview, Rickey Gard
Diamond, half of the duo who founded
Rootstock four years ago, gently teased
her husband and business partner,
Stephen McArthur, about the many
publishing ideas germinating in his head
like so many spring flowers.
McArthur could have done the same
with Diamond, who is juggling myriad
projects within and outside of Rootstock,
and came up with the perfect name for a
company that aims to do for writers what
horticulturists do for gardens.
Rootstock is an imprint of Multicultural
Media, Inc., a music publishing business
that the couple started 30 years ago. As
the music industry changed direction—
in favor of downloads and streaming
as opposed to the CDs and DVDs that
Multicultural Media used to produce
for Smithsonian Folkways and others—
McArthur needed to sink his teeth into
a new venture.
“Stephen was bored, basically,” joked
Diamond.
By the end of this year, Rootstock
will have published 10 books, most by
Vermont authors. McArthur said the
total could rise to 20 by the end of
next year. The works include memoirs,
history, novels, short stories, poetry, and
a children’s book.
In addition to publishing its own
catalog, Rootstock offers promotion
services to authors published by other
companies. Current clients are the authors
of three works published by She Writes
Press, a “hybrid” publishing company on
which Rootstock is modeled. The books
include Screwnomics (2018) an award-
winning book by Diamond that explores
how traditional economic models have
disadvantaged women, and a mystery
novel by Montpelier’s Susan Z. Ritz.
Hybrid publishers such as Rootstock
and She Writes Press blend professional
Photo courtesy of Rootstock Publishing.
production values with a business model
that leaves authors in more control of
their work and with more of the profits
from sales. McArthur stresses that this
is not DIY publishing, which can be
rife with errors, cost more than it brings
in, and leave an author struggling to be
noticed.
“We expect our authors to do a lot of
work,” said McArthur. “We won’t do a
book with anyone who says they don’t
need an editor or proofreader.”
“I am delighted by the wonderful
books coming our way,” added Diamond.
“Clearly, there’s a need for this kind of
publishing company. We’re committed
to only publishing really fine books. I’m
surprised by how many are out there.”
Although it’s a joint decision whether
to accept a title, McArthur relies on
Diamond’s expertise as a writer to assess
book proposals. Diamond’s outside
projects—writing for Ms. magazine
online, serving as a contributing
editor for Vermont Woman newspaper
and promoting economic equality
for women—keep her on the go, so
McArthur tends to hold down the fort
managing projects at Rootstock’s office
above Rite-Aid in downtown Montpelier.
Rootstock has a varied group of editors
and designers available to work with
JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 7
authors. Some, like Diamond, are part
of Rootstock’s core team, while others
maintain their own businesses but have
specific expertise that Rootstock and its
authors can call upon.
The catch—or benefit, depending
on your view—is that authors have to
pay to cover Rootstock’s services and,
later, for the printing of their work. In
exchange, they get creative, copyright,
and financial control. Instead of the
typical 8 percent of royalties offered by a
traditional publishing house, McArthur
said, Rootstock authors get 60 percent of
royalties on their books in print and 70
percent on downloads.
Rootstock offers three levels of service:
Level 1, for $5,500, includes at least 18
services encompassing editing, proofing,
design, purchasing necessary registrations
and codes, partnering with the printer
and distributor, conversion to electronic
format, many facets of promotion, and
shipping.
Level 2, for $2,750, covers most
of what’s in Level 1, except that the
author contracts separately with one of
Rootstock’s creative partners for editing,
proofreading, and design.
Arts
Level 3 is promotion only, as in the
case of the three She Writes Press books,
with prices varying by the title.
Although authors pay for their own
printing, they do so economically by using
the on-demand services of IngramSpark
or an offset house. McArthur said
printing costs depend on a title’s size and
usually range from $3.50 to $4.75 per
book. Rootstock books typically sell for
$16.95, with some a bit more or less. The
beauty of on-demand printing is that
authors and booksellers don’t have a lot
of unsold stock sitting around, he said.
To learn more about Rootstock
Publishing, go to rootstockpublishing.com
Rootstock Titles To Date
Whole Worlds Could Pass Away,
Away,
Rickey Gard Diamond
Fly with A Murder of Crows,
Crows,
Tuvia Feldman
Tales of Bialystock,
Charles Zachariah Goldberg
Uncivil Liberties,
Liberties, Bernie Lambek
China in Another Time,
Time,
Claire Malcolm Lintilhac
Junkyard at No Town,
Town, J.C. Myers
Street of Storytellers,
Storytellers, Doug Wilhelm
Wave of the Day,
Day, Mary Elizabeth Winn
Red Scare in the Green Mountains,
Mountains,
Rick Winston
Lucy Dancer
Dancer,, Eva Zimet
Promotion Services: She Writes Press
Titles
Screwnomics, Rickey Gard Diamond
Screwnomics,
An Address in Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, Mary Dingee
Fillmore
A Dream to Die For
For,, Susan Z. Ritz
Awards
Screwnomics, 2019 Independent Publisher
(IPPY) silver, women’s issues
Red Scare in the Green Mountains,
Mountains ,
2019 IPPY silver, regional non-
fiction
Uncivil Liberties,
Liberties , 2018 Foreword
INDIES honorable mention, mystery
PAGE 8 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Climate Change May Increase Local Flooding
By Phil Dodd
M
ontpelier has experienced its
share of floods, including major
ones in 1900, 1927, 1936, 1992,
and 2011—two of them caused by ice
jams. Parts of downtown were inundated,
with serious consequences for residents,
businesses, and property owners in the
affected areas.
Melting snow and heavy rain this spring
might have led to another serious flooding
event, particularly if Montpelier’s North
Branch had received an extra push of water
from the auxiliary spillway at Wrightsville
Dam. Fortunately, that did not happen,
but it was a closer shave than many people
realize.
According to Ben Green, section chief in
the state’s Dam Safety Program, the water
elevation behind Wrightsville Dam this
spring was about 40 feet above normal at
one point, and was within 11 feet of a level
that would have sent excess water over the
dam’s fixed auxiliary spillway, something
that has never happened before. “We were
getting nervous,” Green said.
Green has seen evidence of increased
precipitation in recent years. “We have been
seeing higher reservoir levels in the past 10
years than in the prior,” Green noted. At
Wrightsville, two of the five highest water
levels since the dam was built in the 1930s
have occurred in the past 10 years—in the
spring of 2011 and again this spring, Green
said.
Some weather forecasters are calling for
a greater likelihood of major rain and snow
events in the future, conceivably causing
a 100-year-flood every 10 years, or a 500-
year flood every 100 years. What does that
mean for Montpelier and nearby towns
in river valleys? Can anything be done
to minimize the impacts of the predicted
heavier precipitation?
There are groups thinking about
solutions. The Montpelier Conservation
Commission, the Sustainable Montpelier
Coalition, and others are focusing on ways
Main Street During Flood of 1900.
to keep land near rivers open for overflow
and building “green infrastructure.” The
Vermont Natural Resources Council and
others are removing old dams, both for
environmental reasons and to reduce the
risk of flooding.
And recognizing the risks, the city of
Montpelier, as part of its 2018 zoning
overhaul, raised the minimum building
level to two feet above the 100-year flood
level instead of one foot above that level as
designated on federal flood maps. Planning
Director Mike Miller said the rule applies
to new buildings and those being rebuilt,
with exceptions for storage and parking
spaces.
Elizabeth Courtney of Montpelier,
former chair of the state Environmental
Board, is among those working with the
Sustainable Montpelier Coalition on
more proactive ways to adapt to higher
precipitation events.
“A year ago, the Coalition had three
main focuses: transportation, housing, and
open space,” she said. “We had focused on
open space for recreation and public uses,
but now we are looking at open space as
a place to implement green stormwater
infrastructures, such as constructed
wetlands, rain gardens, and swales.”
Some green infrastructure is already
being built. The Conservation Commission
is involved in a new rain garden to be
constructed this summer near VSECU
(see article on p. 12), and the Friends
of the Winooski organization is involved
in a stormwater project at Montpelier
High School, according to Conservation
Commission member Roy Schiff.
“It is all about holding stormwater,
cleaning it, and slowly releasing it,”
Courtney said. “That does help with
flooding downstream.” In particular, she
said the 17 acres at the Twin Rivers Farm
near the Route 302 roundabout could be
adapted to absorb excessive runoff and help
prevent flooding downtown.
In addressing future flood risks, “we need
to think about the entire watershed from
the headwaters to the point of flooding
and to the places in between,” Courtney
stressed. One idea is to re-forest flood
plains, since forests and forest floors are
known for their ability to absorb rainfall
and prevent runoff.
With more flooding predicted, does it still
make sense to build new structures along
rivers, such as in downtown Montpelier?
Courtney is not sure of the answer, but
looking at the long term, she posed this
question: “Do we want to be moving our
town up the hill over time?”
Dan Jones, executive director of the
Sustainable Montpelier Coalition, said
T HE BRID GE
Climate
he believes that development can still
occur downtown, adding, perhaps half-
jokingly, “if we build on 10-foot stilts.” He
envisions a possible need for more housing
in Montpelier and other Vermont cities
if “climate refugees” from rural Vermont,
suffering from more road washouts and lost
utilities, decide to move.
Like Courtney, Jones supports reshaping
the landscape to hold more water and
reclaiming the buffering services of the
floodplains upstream. Parking lots could
also be adapted, he believes. “We may need
to remove the asphalt hard-top to all the
impermeable parking lots along our local
rivers in order to keep the stormwater they
shed from making future floods worse,” he
wrote in a recent Barre-Montpelier Times
Argus op-ed.
Meanwhile, the Vermont Natural
Resources Council (VNRC) and others are
working to remove old, deteriorated dams
in the state. According to Brian Fitzgerald,
VNRC’s Dam Project and Vermont Dam
Task Force Coordinator, there are as many
as 200 old dams in the Lake Champlain
watershed that are potential candidates for
removal.
“Most dams do not help with floods,
unless they are flood management dams
like Wrightsville and the Waterbury
Reservoir,” Fitzgerald said. In fact, most
dams can worsen flooding because they
raise the river level and can fail in a flood,
he said.
VNRC and others are using state and
federal funds to remove a few old dams
a year. Five old dams were taken down
in 2018, and seven in 2017, he said. But
funding is hard to get and each dam
removal project is expensive, costing as
much as $500,000.
Montpelier has a handful of old dams,
he said, including one on the North
Branch that could be a good candidate for
removal. He said VNRC has talked about
the possibility of removing the Bailey Dam
next to Shaw’s, which is owned by the city,
but noted that it may have originally been
built to break up ice flowing down the river
and prevent ice jams, an annual threat in
Montpelier.
T HE BRID GE
Legislature Weakens City’s Energy Request
By Tom Brown
T
he Legislature, in the waning days
of the session, rewrote language
proposed by the Montpelier City
Council that would have allowed it to set
minimum energy efficiency standards for
all commercial and residential properties.
Instead lawmakers gave the city half
a loaf by allowing it to require energy
efficiency disclosure forms whenever a
home or building is sold.
Lawmakers were concerned, among
other things, that the proposed charter
amendment could create a hardship
for some homeowners if the Council
mandated that energy efficiency
improvements be made.
“I was very concerned about how that
might affect people of limited means,”
said Montpelier Rep. Warren Kitzmiller,
who sits on the House Government
Operations Committee, where the
changes were made. “I would have had
a hard time supporting it as written. I
thought is was too harsh and, fortunately,
the vast majority of our committee
favored the change.”
Kitzmiller said he was also influenced
by the narrow margin by which the
charter change was approved by city
voters on Town Meeting Day. The
measure passed by a margin of 32 votes
out of 1,824 cast (928-896).
The committee essentially cut
the charter change in half. The city’s
proposal asked for the authority to
“Enact ordinances enforcing minimum
energy efficiency standards and
disclosure requirements,” for new and
existing buildings. Lawmakers adjusted
the language to give the Council the
power of “Regulation and enforcement of
energy efficiency disclosure requirements
for existing and new commercial and
residential properties at the time a
property is listed for sale,” striking the
part about setting energy standards.
Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson said
she was “not terribly satisfied” with the
change but said the city will continue to
pursue its energy efficiency and net zero
JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 9
Climate
energy use goals. That will require some “I am glad it passed,” she said. “I think disclosure, a certain percentage of people
method of improving the efficiency of this part of it will help make energy will go on to do energy improvements to
the city’s rental housing stock, one of the consumption visible, whereas normally their homes.”
key goals of the original charter change energy efficiency is invisible. With the
amendment, she said.
“Forty percent of our housing is rental,
and if we have a net zero energy goal there
is no way we reach it without coming up
with a plan that incorporates the rental
community,” Watson said. The city has set
the goal of meeting all of its energy needs
through renewable energy production or
offsets by 2030.
The Town Meeting Day vote drew
concerns from realtors, landlords, and
tenants, many of whom believed that
setting energy efficiency standards could
force owners to make costly investments,
which would likely be passed on in the
form of higher rents.
Watson said the city is trying to take
a long-term view and that reducing the
consumption of energy, especially for
heating, is beneficial to tenants and
building owners.
She said the city will continue its
discussion of energy efficiency, starting
with a public meeting at 6 pm on August
10 to explain the effects of the Legislature’s
action and to begin work toward a seller
disclosure ordinance. A survey is also being
sent to landlords to assess what they see
as the key needs to achieve better energy
efficiency in rental stock, Watson said.
The energy disclosure might be
compared to the mileage sticker on a new
car. One idea could be that whenever a
home or building is sold, a rating would
be generated to indicate the structure’s A draft version of a tool to rate the energy efficiency of
score on various energy efficiency buildings that is being created by Efficiency Vermont.
measures. This practice is standard in
Europe, and Efficiency Vermont and
other organizations have created no-cost
tools to determine a building’s energy
efficiency score, which is less detailed
than a home energy audit.
Watson said that although lawmakers
delivered only half of the Council’s
wish, the fact that a debate has started is
encouraging.
PAGE 10 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 T HE BRID GE
“Natural” Repellents May Attract Diseases
By Mike Dunphy
I
n Vermont, bug repellent isn’t just a
choice; it’s a way of life—at least if you
want to embrace any part of the all-too-
brief summer in the Green Mountains. The
annual contest between man and mosquito
in Vermont took a dangerous turn in the
early 2000s, when West Nile virus began
showing up in the bugs and causing the
first human infections. Ticks, too, are
flourishing and bringing ever more cases of
Lyme disease, surging from 40 confirmed
cases in 2000 to 1,092 confirmed and
probable cases in 2017.
With ticks, last winter’s deep and
continuous snowpack from November
through April insulated the pest and other
ground-dwelling insects from otherwise
deadly air temperatures, so more survived
the winter than usual. According to
Patti Casey, environmental surveillance
program manager for the Vermont
Agency of Agriculture, “Our spring
tick surveillance numbers appear to be
up over last year’s numbers for a roughly
comparable surveillance effort by about 80
percent.”
Mosquitoes and black flies are also
flourishing, thanks to the rain and wetness
in Vermont so far this summer. “Spring
rains, snowmelt, high waters in flood
plains, and sustained puddling all add up to
high mosquito numbers in spring and early
summer,” Casey notes. However, looking
at the entire season, it’s harder to predict,
she goes on to explain. “Last year we had
a huge number of calls about the bad
beginning to the year in terms of nuisance
mosquitoes, and then the drought/dry
conditions resulted in the overall season
numbers being down by 30 percent. This
year it seemed the mosquitoes started off
bad again but have subsided quite a bit.”
Nevertheless, in this climate, choosing
the right bug repellent can become a matter
of life and death, or at least life and illness.
This being Vermont, the inclination to go
“natural” in all things, including repellent,
is strong. And indeed, any number of
natural repellents—using peppermint,
thyme, eucalyptus, garlic, lemongrass,
citronella, peppermint, geraniol, soybean,
rosemary, and more—can be easily found
on shelves.
Nor are Vermonters alone in this effort.
A 2018 Consumer Reports national survey
of 2,052 adults found that 25 percent of
Americans said they avoid using insect
repellents with DEET, the principle
ingredient in most commercial repellents
owing to perceived dangers regarding the
chemical.
Science, however, comes to a somewhat
different conclusion regarding DEET.
While negative reactions—including
rashes, skin irritation, burning lips, nausea,
headaches, dizziness, and difficulty
concentrating—have been associated
and correlated with DEET-based sprays,
most people are unaffected by sporadic,
proper use. Serious effects are exceedingly
rare, with one seizure per 100 million
uses according to a 1998 report by the
Environmental Protection Agency, but
even then it is difficult to show direct
causation.
First, this is because the majority of
those suffering ill effects did so as a result
of misuse of the product, be it ingestion,
over application, or other. Furthermore, in
the same way that more people die in car
accidents wearing seat belts because more
people are wearing them, more people may
be suffering the effects of DEET repellents
because more are using them.
Ultimately the EPA determined the
danger was minimal. “Based on the results
of extensive toxicity testing,” the report
concludes, “the Agency believes that the
use of DEET does not present a health
concern to the general U.S. population.”
A 2014 report in Parasites & Vectors,
a peer-reviewed open-access medical
journal, confirmed the results, noting,
“Animal testing, observational studies and
intervention trials have found no evidence
of severe adverse events associated with
Climate
recommended DEET use,” and added,
“The theoretical risks associated with
wearing an insect repellent should be
weighed against the reduction or prevention
of the risk of fatal or debilitating diseases
including malaria, dengue, yellow fever
and filariasis.”
And that last part is really the rub.
While keeping clear of DEET-based sprays
may save you from some negative effects,
they pale in comparison to the serious,
potentially lethal diseases, you may open
yourself to without them, or by replacing
them with purely “natural” repellents,
which may or may not offer some limited
protection for a limited amount of time.
Furthermore, most have not been endorsed
by the EPA, so it’s a bit of a crapshoot.
Nonetheless, a few “natural” repellents
are endorsed by the EPA and do provide
effective protection for those wanting to
avoid or limit DEET exposure. Picaridin,
a synthetic compound modeled after a
molecule found in pepper plants, has
done well in many tests, including by
Consumer Reports, which determined spray
products with at least 20 percent picaridin
have worked as well or better than some
DEET-based ones. The World Health
Organization and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention also recommend
Picaridin.
Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), derived
from the leaves of lemon eucalyptus trees
or chemically synthesized, remains the
only truly “natural” repellent that tests
have determined effective, but only at
30 percent concentrations. Consumer
Reports testing shows that this warded off
T HE BRID GE JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 11

Continued from previous page Climate

mosquitoes and ticks for at least seven
hours. It’s important to note that oil of
lemon eucalyptus extract is not the same
as lemon eucalyptus essential oil, which
is found in natural repellents but is much
less effective, providing only one hour of
protection versus the up to six for OLE.
The Vermont Department of Health also
considers 2-undecanone a natural repellent.
The colorless oil is produced synthetically
but also extracted from various plant
sources, including bananas, cloves, ginger,
guava, strawberries, wild-grown tomatoes,
and the perennial Houttuynia cordata.
However, these products were less effective
in Consumer Reports’ testing compared
with DEET, picaridin, and OLE, offering
only about 4.5 hours of protection.
Tests are far less kind to the traditional
citronella alternative, showing a relatively
short duration of action, with a 4.2 percent
concentration providing only one hour of
mosquito and tick protection, according
to the National Capital Poison Center,
but no protection against certain kinds
of mosquitos. Furthermore, “Citronella
in candle form used indoors,” it states, Photo courtesy of Vermont Department of Health.
“or citronella incense diffusers used
outdoors do not reduce mosquito bites
to a degree acceptable to the EPA.” In
fact, an oscillating fan does a better job,
as mosquitoes have a hard time flying
in strong wind and the carbon dioxide
we exhale that attracts mosquitoes gets
diffused, confusing them.
A safer approach for those steadfastly
averse to using DEET and chemical-based
repellents is to apply them to clothing only,
particularly the brim of your hat and the
cuffs of your pants and shirt. Never spray
them (and all repellents, really) directly
into the face and eyes; on skin under
clothing; near food; in an enclosed space;
on cuts, wounds, or irritated skin; or in
amounts exceeding the recommendations
in the instructions. Once you return home,
be sure to wash treated skin and clothing in
soap and water.
It may be a hassle, but it’s a far better
alternative to disease. You can’t scrub away
Lyme disease.
A photo of a Blacklegged Tick.

Contribute to Conservation Climate

By Gianna Petito

T
he Winooski Natural Resources
Conservation District (WNRCD)
is launching a public survey and
we want your opinion.
Each year, the WNRCD tells the
U.S. Natural Resources Conservation
Service where to spend money to help
our local farmers and foresters protect the
environment. There are many conservation
practices that are eligible for funding but,
given budget restrictions, not everyone
who asks for assistance receives it.
We need your help in determining local
environmental priorities so that federal
dollars go toward the farm and forest
practices we most value as a community to
address our most critical natural resource
issues. Your responses will also directly
impact where WNRCD will focus our
future project work and technical
assistance. Survey questions are designed to
help us learn more about district residents
and what matters to you.
Online and print versions of the survey
can be found on our website: winooskinrcd.
org/mywinooskimatters. Please complete
the survey on or before August 1.
The mission of WNRCD is to ensure the
wise use, protection, and enhancement of
Vermont’s natural resources through local
initiatives, education, and partnerships;
foster public awareness and appreciation for
the value of natural resource conservation;
and advance the understanding that we
are all stewards of the living earth. The
WNRCD serves residents of Chittenden
and Washington counties as well as
the towns of Orange, Washington, and
Williamstown. You can learn more at
winooskinrcd.org.
Gianna Petito is district manager for the
Winooski Natural Resources Conservation
District
PAGE 12 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 T HE BRID GE
Photos of possible rain garden plants courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden via The Vermont Rain Garden Manual.
Rain Garden at VSECU Will Help Curb Polluted Runoff
By Sarah Davin
I
n 1993, generally accepted stormwater
management practice was to direct
runoff from snowmelt and rain events
directly into rivers and lakes, often via
stormwater mains with collection systems
called catch basins. According to that
approach, a system with five connected
catch basins was installed that year at the
VSECU headquarters building on Bailey
Avenue. Now, there are better ways to
manage stormwater to prevent erosion
and water pollution from pavement and
adjacent areas.
The Montpelier Conservation
Commission (MCC) and VSECU have
decided to work together to address this
citywide problem by installing a rain
garden at one of the catch basins on the
Credit Union’s property. A rain garden, as
the name implies, is a garden with specific
plants and soils positioned to filter out
contaminants and sediment, slow runoff
flow to reduce erosion, and generally help
clean stormwater before it enters rivers
or lakes. It’s one of the methods now
encouraged to mitigate runoff, and the
project is the first public-private partnership
of its kind for the MCC.
Page Guertin, a member of the MCC,
saw an opportunity to help address some of
the problem areas outlined by Montpelier’s
Stormwater Master Plan. “There are
something like 20 sites of concern addressed
in the stormwater master plan that are on
private land. I thought maybe that could be
something the Conservation Commission
could take up because we can get grant
funding to do some of those projects.”
In 2018, Guertin and fellow MCC
members, with support from VSECU,
applied for a grant from the Lake Champlain
Basin Program and were successful. The
grant of $14,708 was awarded in February,
with funding from the Great Lakes Fishery
Commission via the New England Interstate
Water Pollution Control Commission and
the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
The MCC sent out a Request for Proposal
and after receiving five responses, awarded
the contract to a collaboration of landscape
designer Sarah Hoffmeier and the Vermont
Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) to
design and build the rain garden. “Their
dates were optimistic and they said they
would stay within the funding,” explained
Guertin, “so it’s been really exciting and
we’ve already met once at the site.”
Hoffmeier expressed her excitement to
be working with the VYCC, saying, “Ten
years ago I worked with them to design and
install rain gardens in St. Albans, and it
was so much fun. It is such a great group.”
The team also includes designer Elizabeth
Courtney, VYCC Conservation Water
Quality Manager Justin Geibel, and Sarah
Hoffmeier’s husband, Alex Hoffmeier, who
will bring his construction experience to
the project. The couple has a company
together, Ecolibrium, LLC.
The garden itself will be next to the
exit driveway for the drive-through teller
between that structure and Bailey Ave.
It will be visible from Bailey Ave., the
bike path, the entrance to VSECU and
the entrance to Montpelier High School.
The garden will have a berm around it
to hold some water “ponded” so it will
sink into the ground slowly, and the catch
basin will capture excess in the event the
rain is heavy enough. “Typically most of
the contaminants are found in the first
Climate
inch of rainwater flowing off impervious
surfaces,” Guertin adds, “so that’s what
we’re aiming to capture. It’s up to the
design team whether the catch basin is
inside or alongside the garden itself.”
The main pollutants of concern are
phosphorus and hydrocarbons from vehicles
and the impervious material that makes
up the parking lot. Part of the filtration
and overflow management process happens
through the materials that the garden will
be made out of, such as gravel. Plantings
will also play an important role in reducing
pollutants.
“There’s three different ways that plants
can deal with pollutants, Hoffmeier explains.
“One is the root systems create microbial
organisms that degrade pollutants. The
second way is the plants can take up the
pollutants when they absorb the water,
and the plant itself can degrade pollutants.
The third way is through choice of plants,
particularly cattails, which can hold a lot of
pollutants. “So you actually have to harvest
them and take them off-site.”
Plants that are good candidates to be part
of a rain garden must be able to survive very
dry conditions as well as total saturation for
24 to 48 hours. “Some of the plants that
I’ve used that deal well with hydrocarbons
are willows,” Hoffmeier continues, but
“certain plants have root systems and you
have to match it up with what the site
conditions are.”
VSECU has been supportive of the
project. Additionally VSECU has taken its
own steps to address some of the unwanted
runoff, Guertin noted, by pushing snow to
the opposite side of the parking lot instead
of over the bank, which was done in the
past, and changing from salt to sand during
winter.
While there are multiple problem areas
laid out by the Montpelier Stormwater
Master plan, Guertin hopes to address all
five of the catch basins at VSECU. The
current plan is for VYCC to install the
garden during the week of August 12.
T HE BRID GE JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 13
City Influenced Statewide Plastic Bag Ban
By Tom Brown
M
ontpelier residents are not
the sole reason the Vermont
Legislature enacted a law
banning single-use plastic bags, but we
certainly had a seat at the table.
When lawmakers passed and Gov. Phil
Scott signed S.113 they were essentially
echoing a vote by city residents that
would have given the City Council the
authority to regulate the use of certain
single-use plastics in an effort to remove
them from the waste stream. Voters in
November gave the city’s proposed charter
change amendment on plastics a strong
endorsement, approving the request
3,322-930.
The proposed charter change then went
before the Legislature for approval, but
lawmakers basically saved the city the
time and trouble of crafting an ordinance
on plastics by passing a statewide ban that
accomplishes much of what the Council
had in mind.
The statewide law, which takes effect
July 1, 2020, prohibits stores and services
from handing out single-use plastic
carryout bags, such as those used to carry
groceries. It also makes plastic straws
available only upon request and bans the
use of single-use expanded polystyrene
containers, such as those used to carry hot
food or beverages. Those foam products
may still be used for packaged products
such as meat and fish.
The decision to enact a statewide ban
this year was heavily influenced by a wave
of momentum created by the increasing
number of cities and towns looking to forge
ahead with their own bans. Brattleboro
started the trend a year ago by passing an
ordinance to ban single-use plastics. Since
then Wilmington and Norwich approved
bans, while Burlington, Manchester, and
Middlebury voted to support the idea
of enacting a ban. Montpelier’s proposal,
backed by a charter change and strong
vote in favor, added a bit more weight to
the discussion, said Sen. Christopher Bray
(D-Addison), chair of the Senate Natural
Resources and Energy Committee and
author of the statewide ban.
“I’ve been interested in doing a plastics
Climate
bill for years, and it was never quite right
in the Legislature, and I think this is one
of those things where municipalities led
and the Legislature listened and was able
to follow and expand upon it and actually
go further.”
He also credited the towns for helping
nudge grocers and retailers to get behind a
statewide ban to avoid having to deal with
a hodge-podge of individual ordinances.
Montpelier Rep. Warren Kitzmiller
serves on the House Government
Operations Committee, where the charter
change request first landed. He said the
fact the Montpelier had a proposal on the
table might have spurred a more robust
debate on a statewide ban.
“If we had not introduced ours, I’m not
sure the state ban would have gotten the
traction it did this session,” Kitzmiller said.
“Everyone was aware that we had passed
that … and in my conversations with
colleagues the idea of doing it statewide
made a lot of sense.”
The Council, in its charter change
proposal, sought to “regulate, license, or
prohibit, within the boundaries of the City,
point-of-sale distribution of nonreusable
plastic bags, nonreusable plastic straws,
and similar plastic products that are not
reusable, and define what constitutes
reusable in this context.”
If the charter change had been
approved without a statewide plan, the
city would have embarked on a series of
public hearings designed to produce an
ordinance, possibly taking much longer
than the statewide law’s implementation
date.
“The fact that we had a charter
amendment and that Montpelier was
moving forward, I think, was actually a
reason for them to say that it would be
better to have a statewide policy rather
than many smaller municipal policies,”
said Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson. The
city’s charter change request remains alive
in the Legislature, but Watson said it
was unlikely that officials would push for
approval now that a statewide ban is in
place.
PAGE 14 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Adapting to a Climate-Changing Vermont
Continued from Page 1
heavily laden with moisture, which is a
product of warming oceans and warmer
air. “More moisture can be held” in
warmer air, Hill said. That means bigger
rainstorms. But “if the temperature
is below 32 degrees, it’s going to fall
as crystal ice snow. That means our
snowstorms are going to be way bigger.
A storm of, I don’t know, 10 feet—it’s
possible.”
The weakened jet stream also lowers
defenses in Northeastern states against
tropical storms and hurricanes. Winds
blowing eastward tend to push the
storms out into the northern Atlantic.
But, for example, when Tropical Storm
Sandy came up the East Coast, Hill
said, easterly winds were thwarted by a
“blocking ridge of high pressure,” and
the storm turned left instead of right,
making landfall in New York and New
Jersey and continuing north to us in
Vermont.
When an audience member asked Hill
for suggestions for action, Hill got a huge
hand for saying, “We need to have our
leaders start working for the citizenry and
not ignoring the subject.” He continued,
“Vermont could be a model for the rest
of the country.”
Four weeks later, on June 25, the
Sustainable Montpelier Coalition
again brought people together at the
Unitarian Church. Dan Jones, director
of the coalition, said the gathering was
on “adaptation, not mitigation.” That is,
more on how to live on a changing planet
than on how to reduce climate change.
After Jones introduced her, facilitator
Andrea Stander referred to Hill’s talk and
said, “I am here because I am worried.”
She told the attendees the purpose of
gathering was “to move from ideas to
action, and to crowd-source those ideas
from all of you.”
The coalition grew out of responses to
the Sustainable Montpelier 2030 Design
Competition, held in 2016. Teams from
around the world offered a vision of
how sustainable Montpelier could be by
2030. The group is working to further
the sustainability work suggested in the
competition entries.
The June 25 gathering started not
Photo courtesy of Roger Hill.
from a particular vision of 2030 but
from five climate-related challenges: food
security, clean water, downtown housing,
transportation, and energy. The crowd of
several dozen people was given about 45
minutes to identify key challenges and
solutions.
What about those climate refugees? The
group worked from a vision of housing
many more people in Montpelier than
there’s currently room for. They talked
about making it easier to rent out parts
of your house, how lower taxes outside of
Montpelier reduce the drive for housing,
and city government’s communication
of possibilities to landlords and tenants.
Under current regulations, “we can all
build accessory dwelling units on our
property,” according to participant Peter
Kelman, “but most people don’t know
they can do that. Or duplexing. We can
all have duplexes.”
One idea that received a lot of favorable
attention was a social innovation from
a decade ago, the regular neighborhood
potlucks called Capital Area
Neighborhoods. Mayor Anne Watson
was excited that people brought up the
potlucks, which participants reported
T HE BRID GE
Climate
are no longer happening. “I think
there’s value in people knowing their
neighbors. That piece of it gets lost in the
conversation about climate, but strong
community is essential,” she said.
Afterward, Jones called the gathering a
“first step.” He said, “This was our trying
to give people a sense that they have some
agency in how climate change is going to
affect them. It’s going to be an ongoing
story.”
At his talk, Hill was prompted to
mention climate refugees when an
audience member asked whether
Vermont’s climate future was more
benign than other places. Hill responded,
“I think it’s probably safer to have heavier
rainfall than no rain at all.”
He looked to planners to anticipate
how to respond to mass migrations into
places such as Vermont, while “this
is changing so fast.” The Montpelier
coalition, like Revitalizing All Marshfield
and Plainfield (see the June 12 issue of
The Bridge) and other grassroots, state,
and municipal organizations around
Vermont, are starting the conversation
around those plans.
T HE BRID GE
Turkey Vultures Are Nature’s Cleanup Squad
By Larry Floersch
M
any Vermonters turning their
eyes skyward may notice large
black birds floating above the
treetops. While romantic notions may
get nature-loving hearts to beat for an
eagle or hawk, it’s most likely a far more
repulsive turkey vulture, scanning for a
tasty carcass.
Vultures—turkey or other—get a
bad rap. They are a symbol of death
and dying, and in some cultures, just
seeing one is considered a bad omen.
But turkey vultures have a role to play
in the great scheme of things. Much
like sharks in the sea, they are nature’s
cleanup patrol.
The turkey vulture’s name is derived
from its featherless, red head, which
resembles that of a wild turkey. With
a wingspan that can reach six feet and
with a weight of up to five pounds, they
are as large as eagles, but unlike eagles,
not equipped for killing prey, thanks to
weak legs and feet and blunt talons not
designed for grasping. Their beaks, while
EarthWalk Founder Leads Transition and
Welcomes New Executive Director
A
fter a year-long search, EarthWalk
has named Elaine (Eli) Toohey as
its new executive director. She
will take over for Angella Gibbons, who
founded EarthWalk Vermont nearly 15
years ago.
“EarthWalk is, and will always be, very
close to my heart.” Gibbons says. “At the
same time, I believe an important step
toward a sustainable future for myself
and for EarthWalk is to create space
for new leadership.” Early in the spring
of 2018, Gibbon made the decision to
step aside for the hiring of a new leader.
Gibbons is excited to move into a part-
time role at EarthWalk, focused on
education and land stewardship.
Toohey comes from Another Way in
Montpelier, an organization dedicated to
mental health advocacy.
strong and sharp, are not as powerful as
those or eagles or hawks, which can tear
apart freshly killed animals.
Turkey vultures, therefore, prefer
their meals to be dead for just a while,
but not rotting, although they can and
often do consume carrion that would be
toxic to other animals. They sometimes
have to wait until some other scavenger
has begun feeding on a carcass of a large
animal because they are not powerful
enough to tear it apart.
Gibbons (left) and Toohey (right).
Photo courtesy of EarthWalk.
Her leadership skills include
cultivating sustainable practices, building
collaborations, and diversifying funding.
She is a parent of three children, with a
background in building youth resilience
through deepening connections to
nature.
“Building deeply connected,
regenerative communities is at the core
of my motivation,” Toohey reflects.
JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 15
They find prey using both eyesight and
smell. In fact, turkey vultures are one of
just a few birds that have a sense of smell
and can detect a dead animal a mile away.
They forage independently, but once they
spot a meal, may be joined by others. A
roosting group of turkey vultures is called
a committee, a venue, or a volt. A group
of turkey vultures soaring in a spiral is
called a kettle. And, most appropriately,
a group of turkey vultures feeding on a
carcass is called a wake.
“Dynamic organizations designed to
grow and change with the needs of the
communities they serve is a calling that
has led me to leadership roles within
organizations with missions of profound
impact. I am honored to grow my skills
at EarthWalk.”
Sasha McGarvey, EarthWalk parent
and vice-chair of the board says,
Climate
Turkey vultures are excellent soarers,
riding thermal updrafts. Unlike an
eagle, their wings will be set in a telltale
slight vee and will rarely flap them after
they have found the wind’s currents.
They often wobble in their soaring as
the rising currents buffet them.
Some believe that turkey vultures
spread disease, but in fact, their stomach
acid is so strong that it kills bacteria.
Hog cholera, for example, is eliminated
when turkey vultures consume the flesh
of a pig that has succumbed to the
disease.
That is, in fact, their role in nature’s
scheme. They clean up messes and help
to prevent the spread of disease. And
they are protected under the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act, so killing them or
possessing their eggs is against the law.
Also keep in mind that if you get
close enough to threaten one, it might
vomit on you, which is an exceptionally
unpleasant defense mechanism.
Climate
“After a collaborative search process,
including staff, board members, and
stakeholders, we are relieved to find in
Eli an experienced, motivated, and local
executive director. We are excited to
work with Eli and welcome her to the
EarthWalk community.”
This text was provided by EarthWalk
and edited by The Bridge.
PAGE 16 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Design & Build
Custom Energy-Efficient Homes
Additions • Timber Frames
Weatherization • Remodeling
Kitchens • Bathrooms • Flooring
Tiling • Cabinetry • Fine Woodwork
LNT Returns to the Kit Kat Klub in Cabaret
By Danielle Wirsansky
The staying power of plays and
musicals wax and wane as the years
go by, but there are a few theater
pieces that truly stand the test of time.
Cabaret, by John Kander and Fred
Ebb, is one of them.
And although some theatrical devices
lose their sparkle, or characters lose
their realism, or plots lose relevance,
this piece is kept alive by its music and
message—as applicable today as when
it first premiered in 1966.
Set at the seedy Kit Kat Club in
Berlin in Weimar Germany, the musical
follows the relationship between an
American writer, Cliff Bradshaw,
and an English cabaret performer,
Sally Bowles. Cliff struggles with his
writing, his inspiration, and even his
sexuality, while Sally struggles to live
the life she wants, free of judgment
and restrictions—she is seeking out
ecstasy.
The sub-plot follows the relationship
between Fraulein Schneider, a
German boarding house manager, and
Herr Schultz, a fruit vendor. Their
relationship, however, is doomed—
Herr Schultz is Jewish, and in Nazi
Germany, mixed marriages were
incredibly difficult to navigate. As
these relationships come to a head,
the characters’ destinies are set against
Hitler’s quick rise to power.
The characters’ experiences become a
parallel, allowing audiences to see how
nationalism and the bystander effect
really come into play to allow bad
people to do bad things and everyday
people to do nothing.
The musical’s message about the
temptations of fascism, nationalism,
and prejudice, did not escape Lost
Nation’s Cabaret director, Tim Tavcar,
“At its core, Cabaret is a devastating
critique of apathy, and a clever and
terrifying look at totalitarianism.
Frank Rich, a New York Times critic
who wrote about Cabaret during its
1980s revival, recalled having seen it
in Boston when he was just a teenager.
“We didn’t know what it was. But
you absolutely felt you were seeing
something completely new,” he said.
T HE BRID GE
Art
“This was very much a glamorous
Broadway musical that was about
the collapse of the society, about
Nazis taking over Germany, and told
through song and dance and this sort
of Brechtian alienation and fantastic
stagecraft—and it was mind-blowing.”
Lost Nation Theater’s upcoming
production of Cabaret promises to be
no different. One unique twist to this
production is that the audience, which
is usually lined up on three sides of
the stage, will now be in the round
(on all four sides of the stage). This is
in order to help immerse the audience
into the world of the Kit Kat Klub and
to demonstrate how easy it is to get
sucked into a situation without truly
understanding all the elements at play
around them.
“Cabaret again presents,” Tavcar
notes, “a potent message on the
dangers of mass indifference in the
face of injustice, atrocity, and state
terror. For such a reminder, it’s always
worth everyone making another visit
back to the Kit Kat Klub.”
Danielle Wirsansky is associate
managing director of Lost Nation
Theater
Cabaret plays July 11–28, 2019 on
Thursdays through Sundays. Thursdays
through Saturday performances are at
7:30 pm while Sunday matinees are at
2 pm. Tickets can be purchased online
at lostnationtheater.org, over the phone,
through the City Clerk’s Office, or at the
box office before each performance.
Photos by Donald Gjoka.
T HE BRID GE
Supreme Court Gallery Presents
New Lois Eby Exhibition
L
ois Eby will be the featured artist
at the Vermont Supreme Court
Gallery throughout the summer
of 2019. The paintings of the exhibit,
Studies in Rhythmic Vitality, explore the
rhythmic vitality of the calligraphic line
in new ways that range from the playful
to the meditative.
Perhaps best known for her use of
calligraphy in her abstract works, using
ink and color on paper, these new works
are executed with acrylic paints on birch
panels. None use ink, and all were
created between 2017 and 2019.
Having observed how improvisation
contributes to the inventiveness and
power of avant-garde jazz musicians,
Eby’s paintings are rendered with an
improvisational approach to line, color,
and space—evoking and celebrating the
The Mind Goes Free by Lois Eby. Moving Towards the Mtn by Lois Eby.
JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 17
Art
mysterious energy of being alive. Embracing the Air by Lois Eby.
Vermont State Curator David Schutz
explained, “When Lois selected her
title, I focused on the word “vitality.”
That, perhaps, is the most evocative
word one might use to describe any Lois
Eby painting. Movement, energy, and
vitality spring forth from her works—
and these newer pieces are especially
so.”
Lois Eby has lived most of her adult
life in Vermont. She has exhibited
widely, and her work is found in a
variety of public and private collections
throughout the United States, Canada,
and Mexico. More about Eby and her
work can be found at loiseby.com
Studies in Rhythmic Vitality runs
through September 27, with an opening
reception Thursday, July 11, at 4 pm.
We welcome your letters and
opinion pieces. Letters must be
fewer than 300 words. Opinion
pieces should not exceed 600
words. The Bridge reserves the
right to edit and cut pieces. Send
your piece to
mdunphy@montpelierbridge.com.
Deadline for the next issue is
July 20
PAGE 18 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
VCFA Names Interim President
V
ermont College of Fine Arts
announced the appointment
of Leslie Ward as Interim
President, effective July 1. Ward will
lead the college and work closely with
the VCFA Board of Trustees as they
undertake a national search for a new
president to replace Thomas Greene,
a process that will begin this summer.
“I’m looking forward to the
opportunity to continue my service
to VCFA in the capacity as Interim
President,” Ward said. “The faculty
and staff who have worked so hard
with President Greene over the past 11
years have created a truly remarkable
institution supporting artists and the
impact they have in the world.”
With a VCFA MFA in Writing
and a Harvard MBA, Ward brings
to the president’s office a wealth of
experience in management consulting
and strategic planning, as well as a deep
understanding of the college’s strengths
and opportunities.
During her career, Ward has worked
with Fortune 500 companies at the
Boston Consulting Group, in business
development and strategic planning
for investment properties owned by
General Atlantic Partners, and in the
nonprofit world helping established
and nascent organizations launch new
initiatives and develop sustainable
operating plans.
Her clients included the National
Office of Outward Bound, the
Clark Foundation, the United States
government, City Year, and Public
Allies. She has served on the boards
of several Vermont organizations,
including Woodbury College and
Everybody Wins!, and has been an
advisor to several private for-profit
companies.
Ward continues, “My goal during
this interim year is to work with the
faculty and staff to position VCFA
for continued success through this
leadership transition process and
Photo of Leslie Ward.
beyond, looking at opportunities across
all the disciplines we further our reach
and deepen our impact.”
In a letter to the College community,
Board Chair Bill Schubart noted,
“Leslie will provide VCFA with
the energetic and capable interim
leadership the College needs to position
itself for continued success through
this leadership transition process and
Co-op Supports
Community Harvest
I
n the past five years, Community
Harvest of Central Vermont (CVHC)
has donated 175,800 pounds of food
that would have otherwise gone to waste.
This program, run by Executive Director
Allison Levin, provides gleanings to
community members who might not
otherwise have access to healthy, fresh,
local food. Last year, the organization
delivered gleaned food to 9,000 residents
of Central Vermont.
Community Harvest of Central
Vermont accomplishes this through an
impressive web of collaborations, working
alongside farmers, recipient organizations,
and the dedicated, passionate volunteers
who do a lot of the on-the-ground and in-
the-dirt work of gleaning. Two of those
volunteers, Jim and Susie Turner, have
been working with the organization for
about two years.
“Susie’s brother is a dairyman, and
when they first moved to Vermont
and got started farming, we got very
involved in helping them get going, so
we had a sort of preview of that sort of
thing,” Jim Turner says. “With CHCV,
we grew to appreciate even more the
kind of nonstop effort it takes to put
produce on our tables.”
“One of the things I love about
gleaning and being involved with this
organization is the fact that, even by its
name, Community Harvest, it creates
and nurtures a sense of community that
is much broader than in many other
interests. It connects us back to the
rural environment, it connects us to the
farmers, and to the recipients. That is
community,” says Susie Turner.
T HE BRID GE
City News
Photo courtesy of VCFA.
beyond. Together with my fellow
members of the Board, I am confident
these changes will continue to build
upon the distinctive educational
programs, thriving community, and
forward-thinking approach that make
VCFA one of the nation’s best graduate
art schools.”
This text was provided by the Vermont
College of Fine Arts
She adds that the work has given
her a new perspective on community
members who face food insecurity.
“They are people like you and I who
have run into a hard time somewhere
along the way and need that lift. They
need to not have to worry about their
food security, so to speak. If they are
not worried about that, maybe they are
able to get back into a situation they
are more comfortable with. I love that
feeling of being able to help them.”
Another CHCV volunteer, Cary
Friberg, notes, “It’s given me a good
feeling to know we’re sharing quality
food with people who need it and not
giving them junk. We’re giving them
food that’s good for them, that will help
make them healthier.”
She describes the most memorable
moments of the work as, “after an epic
glean where you are bone dead tired
and really dirty, and the truck is so full
you can’t fit one more thing in it. You
know it’s a moment. I think those are
cool, and you really walk away proud
and pleased.”
Through July 28, Co-op shoppers can
add to those ripple effects by rounding
up their purchases to the next dollar
each time they check out, donating that
spare change to Community Harvest
of Central Vermont and their essential
work. Shoppers can also opt into being
asked to round up every time they
shop by visiting the Co-op’s website at
hungermountain.coop/give-change.
Text provided by Hunger Mountain
Co-op.
 Calendar of Events
T HE BRID GE JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 19

Performing
Lectures on a variety of current issues in
environmental law and policy. “Disclosing THEATER, DANCE,
Community Arts
the Danger: State Attorney Ethics Rules
Meet Climate Change with Victor Flatt,
STORYTELLING, COMEDY
July 11–14: Winnie the Pooh KIDS. Story

Events
Events happening
July 10‒July 26
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10
Changes to Transit Service in Our Region.
With Rachel Kennedy, Sr. GMT Transit
Planner. Learn about Green Mountain
Transit’s proposed changes to transit in our
region and provide your comments and
feedback. 5–7 pm. Hunger Mountain Co-op
community room, Montpelier. RSVP: info@
hungermountain.coop
Watercolors with Ruth Kaldor Begins. July
10, 17, 24, and 31. Designed for those with
little to no experience. 6–8:30 pm. Cabot
Artisans Gallery, 3053 Main St., Cabot. $150
for all four sessions. cabotvermont.org
A Universe of Plants with Jacqueline
Soule. We will discuss how people could
feed themselves if they lived in outer space
all the time, or on the moon. Discussion
will introduce the concept of biospheres and
nutrient cycles. Then everyone will build a
biosphere to take home. 6:45 pm. Jaquith
Public Library, School St., Marshfield
Mid-Week Movie: Farmer of the Year.
7 pm. Highland Center for the Arts,
2875 Hardwick St., Greensboro. $5.
highlandartsvt.org
THURSDAY, JULY 11
Hot Topics at Vermont Law School.
University of Houston Law Center. Noon–1
pm. VLS campus in Oakes Hall Room 012,
South Royalton. Free.
Introduction to Repair Cafés. Learn
all about repair cafes, events intended to
foster re-skilling, community-building,
and a stewardship of objects that reduces
consumption and waste. 5:30–7 pm.
Hunger Mountain Co-op community room,
Montpelier. RSVP: info@hungermountain.
coop
Vermont Authors Lecture Series: Greg
Delanty. A celebrated poet in Ireland and the
U.S., award winning poet Delanty appears in
various significant U.S. anthologies and is the
Poet-in-Residence at Saint Michael’s College
in Colchester. 6:30–8 pm. Highland Center
for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St., Greensboro.
$12. highlandartsvt.org
FRIDAY, JULY 12
Screening of Farmer of the Year. Q&A
with filmmakers follows. 7 pm. Plainfield
Opera House, Rt. 2, Plainfield. $12. Partial
proceeds to benefit the Vermont Land Trust.
SATURDAY, JULY 13
Antiques & Uniques. 100+ antiques
vendors and artisans. Food and music.
Games and more. 10 am–4 pm. Craftsbury
Common. Free entry; $5 parking benefits fire
department. Townofcraftsbury.com
Writers for Recovery Book Launch.
Readings, music by Mark LeGrand, cake,
6:30 pm. Unitarian Church, 130 Main St.,
Montpelier. Free. writersforrecovery.org
Vermont History Trivia. Test your Vermont
knowledge at this family-friendly contest.
tellers will welcome guests to the Hundred Acre
Wood, where Winnie the Pooh is once again in search of honey. Along the way, he meets his pals,
Tigger, Piglet, Rabbit and Owl, but soon discovers that Christopher Robin has been captured by the
mysterious Backson. Thurs.–Sat. at 7 pm; Sun. at 2 pm. Vermont Children’s Theater, 2283 Darling
Hill Rd., Lyndonville. 626-5358
July 11–28: Lost Nation Theater presents Cabaret. Love, humor, sex, politics, transcendent music
and Fosse-inspired dance. Lost Nation Theater’s production features the choreography of Taryn Noelle
and is directed by Tim Tavcar. Thurs.–Sat. at 7:30 pm. Sun. at 2 pm. 39 Main St., Montpelier. $25–
35. lostnationtheater.org
July 12: L’Odeur De Moliere – The Doctor and the Dowry. Presented by The Vermont Suitcase
Company. An original Molière adaptation. The miserly merchant Signor Buccio is desperate to marry
off his daughter Alessandra to the well-matched Visconte de Luca, but her grave (and completely
fabricated) illness has gotten in the way. 7:30 pm. Highland Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St.,
Greensboro. $10 advance; $15 at door. highlandartsvt.org
July 12: The Best of Extempo. Celebrating 10 years of live true storytelling. Come listen to
guaranteed crowdpleasers, and then vote for your favorite story by donating to End the Backlog. 8 pm.
Espresso Bueno, 248 N. Main St., Barre. Free/by donation. 479-0896. events@espressobueno.com.
espressobueno.com.
July 12–13: Circus Smirkus presents Carnival. 1 pm and 6 pm. 1 Circus Rd., Greensboro. Adults
$22; children ages 2–6 $16; youths 7–12 $18. Smirkus.org
July 13: Stand Up Comedy at the Bandstand. 8 pm. Worcester Community Market, 66 Elmore
Rd., Worcester. Adult content.
July 18–21: Elf The Musical JR. A hilarious musical filled with memorable music and lots of laughs
for the whole family to enjoy. Thurs.–Sat. at 7 pm; Sun. at 2 pm. Vermont Children’s Theater, 2283
Darling Hill Rd., Lyndonville. 626-5358
July 20–21: Constellations. Physicist Marianne meets beekeeper Roland at a party. They go for
a drink … or perhaps they don’t. Marianne’s engaged … or perhaps Roland is married. Or maybe
they’re both single. Sat. at 7:30 pm; Sun. at 3 pm. Highland Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St.,
Greensboro. $20; students $10; seniors 20% off. highlandartsvt.org
July 24: Little Mazarn, with Ethan and Tom Azarian and Tim Jennings. Ethan Azarian presents
longtime friends and collaborators, Austin Texas freak folk combo Little Mazarn, in an evening of
variety entertainment that also features Ethan’s original music, folksinger/storyteller Tim Jennings,
and Tom “Banjo” Azarian’s cranky show. 7–9 pm. Four Corners Schoolhouse, 945 Vincent Flats Rd.,
East Montpelier. $10. littlemazarn.net/home
July 25–28: Newsies. Set in turn-of-the century New York City, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack
Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a band of “newsies.” When titans of publishing raise
distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack rallies newsies from across the city to strike against
the unfair conditions and fight for what’s right and seize the day! Thurs.–Sat. at 7 pm; Sun. at 2 pm.
Vermont Children’s Theater, 2283 Darling Hill Rd., Lyndonville. 626-5358
July 26: Kathleen Kanz Comedy Hour. With Kathleen Kanz, Max Palmer, Catherine Klarich, and
Tarzan Jenkins. 8:30 pm. Espresso Bueno, 248 N. Main St., Barre. By donation. Adult content. No
chatter.
July 26–28: Staged Reading of Miranda, by Bernard Pomerance. This staged reading of Miranda,
a sequel to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, incorporates Greensboro’s Abenaki culture as it brings to life
our nation’s early history in its premiere performance. Community members will have the opportunity
to participate in the production; audiences will have an opportunity to offer feedback and engage
with the performance prior to its New York City debut. July 26 and 27 at 7:30 pm; July 28 at 3 pm.
Highland Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St., Greensboro. $20; students $10; seniors 20% off.
highlandartsvt.org

1–2:30 pm. Vermont History Museum, 109
State St, Montpelier. Adults $7; student/
senior $5; family $20; kids under 6 and VHS
members free. vermonthistory.org
MONDAY, JULY 15
Celebrate NASA’s 50th Anniversary of
Apollo 11’s Historic Moon Landing! Join
STARnet for a Live Webcast. What was the
sequence of this incredible mission? Where
on the Moon did they land? And how did
they return safely to Earth? Join us for a
guided recreation of Apollo 11’s journey to
see how this mission was executed by crew
members and mission control in Houston.
4 pm. Jaquith Public Library, School St.,
Marshfield. jaquithpubliclibrary.org
Get to Know Your Co-op: Your Council.
Presented by members of the Co-op Council.
Learn about the Co-op’s Council and how
they represent all of our member-owners.
5:30–6:30 pm. Hunger Mountain Co-op
community room, Montpelier. Sign up:
info@hungermountain.coop
Emerald Ash Borer. With Brookfield
resident and town forester Kate Forrer.
The latest information on Emerald Ash
Borer, verified locations it has been found,
and strategies for towns and individuals to
consider when developing an action plan. 7
pm. Brookfield Old Town Hall, 32 Stone
Rd., Brookfield.
TUESDAY, JULY 16
Hot Topics at Vermont Law School.
Lectures on a variety of current issues in
environmental law and policy. “Climate
Change in the Courts” with Ellen Gilmer,
E&E News. Noon–1 pm. VLS campus in
Oakes Hall Room 012, South Royalton.
Free.
Community Film Series at Plainfield
Opera House: Tough Guise 2. Advertising’s
Image of Men. Presented by The Health
Center. Snacks at 5:30 pm. Film at 6 pm.
Discussion at 7 pm. Plainfield Opera House,
Rt. 2, Plainfield. Films contain adult content
and may not be appropriate for ages under
16.
Author Rebecca Makkai at Bear Pond
Books. 7 pm. 77 Main St., Montpelier.
bearpondbooks.com
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17
Conscious Breathing. With Dunja
Moeller PhD. Conscious breathing reduces
inflammation and depression while
increasing immune function; forms new
neural connections; reduces the emotionally
charged areas of the brain and increases
PAGE 20 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019
Calendar of Events
Visual Arts
Through Aug. 23: Exhibits at Studio
Place Arts. Reception: July 11, 6–8 pm.
201 N. Main St., Barre. studioplacearts.
EXHIBITS com
Eye Spy: Watch out, you’re being
Through July 13: Suspended in observed in this fun show focused on the
Focus—A Group Show. Composed of eye … perfect for visual arts lovers.
work by 18 artists. Furchgott Sourdiffe Seriality: Artwork by Lisa Myers:
Gallery, 86 Falls Rd., Shelburne Village. Seriality is a psychoanalytic concept
985-3848 used to describe sibling relationships, the
same but different and it is explored in
Through July 14: Cumulus. Highlights
cloud-centric works in a wide range these mixed media pieces based on old
photographs of the artist’s grandmother
of media. Miller’s Thumb Gallery,
14 Breezy Ave., Greensboro. 533-2045 and her siblings.
Orah Moore: Everyday,
Through July 20: Green Mountain
Someone—365 Days in Black &
Watercolor Exhibition. A unique White: A visual diary of black and white
exhibition of more than 80 outstanding iPhone photographs.
watercolor paintings. Red Barn Galleries
at Lareau Farm, Waitsfield. 496-6682, Through Aug. 24: Summer Exhibitions
at Helen Day Arts Center. Helen Day Art
info@valleyartsvt.com
Center, 90 Pond St., Stowe. helenday.com
Through July 21: Gaal Shepherd, Dusty Boynton–Reliefs: Sculptural
Hallowed Ground Art Exhibit. Pays reliefs created by multiple monoprints
tribute to the devotion of the faithful and cut up and reconstructed.
its continuity from the Neolithic Erin Suzy Spence–On the Hunt:
to contemporary Ireland with a series of Equestrian-themed paintings.
paintings, pastels, photographs, sculpture, Composing Form: Group exhibition
and accompanying Irish poetry. Highland of contemporary sculptors working in
Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St., ceramics highlights both figurative and
Greensboro. highlandartsvt.org abstract work that is both poetic and
Through Aug. 2: Values—Work by humorous, referencing human history,
the Art Resource Association at T.W. intervention and experience.
Wood Gallery. Opening reception: July Th rough Aug. 30: Agathe McQueston,
11, 5–7 pm. 46 Barre St., Montpelier. A License To Stare. Classically rendered
twwoodgallery.org sculptures and drawings. Opening
Through Aug. 3: The Front presents reception: July 11, 4–7 pm. Vermont
SHOW 33. Opening reception (live State House Card Room, Montpelier.
music, food, and drink): Friday, July agathemcq@gmail.com
12, 4–7 pm. 6 Barre St., Montpelier. Th rough Aug, 30: Annual Summer
info@thefrontvt.com. Juried Art Exhibit at T.W. Wood
Through Aug. 3: Recent Work in Light Gallery. The exhibit features work
and Color by Chris Jeffrey. Recent work, by Natalie Boze, Janet Brighenti,
including a series of self-contained light Patty Corcoran, Anne Fugaro, Katie
boxes, strip paintings, and wire paintings. O’Rourke, Frederick Rudi, Joshua Saxe,
Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop, 5 Stowe St., and many others. The exhibit primarily
Waterbury. AxelsGallery.com features oil paintings, along with acrylic,
pastel, photography, mixed media.
Through Aug. 17: Resurfaced: Paintings Opening reception: July 11, 5–7 pm.
by Emilia Olson. The Gallery at Central
46 Barre St., Montpelier. twwoodgallery.
Vermont Medical Center, 130 Fisher Hill org
Rd., Berlin. moetown52@comcast.net
well-being; and more. 6–7 pm. Kellogg- Mid-Week Movie: Wetware. 7
Hubbard Library, Hayes Room, 135 Main pm. Highland Center for the Arts,
St., Montpelier. 2875 Hardwick St., Greensboro. $5.
highlandartsvt.org
Gleaning and Our View of Food. This
presentation will focus on gleaning in our area
THURSDAY, JULY 18
and will be followed by an open discussion of
using/eating imperfect food, reducing wasted Hot Topics at Vermont Law School.
food, and knowing local farms better, among Lectures on a variety of current issues in
other topics. 6–7:30 pm. Hunger Mountain environmental law and policy. “Lobster
Co-op community room, Montpelier. Sign Wars, Vanishing Cod, and Other Effects
up: info@hungermountain.coop of Warming in the Gulf of Maine” with
David Abel, Boston Globe. Noon–1 pm.
VLS campus in Oakes Hall Room 012,
South Royalton. Free.
Self-Care for Rejuvenation, Detox, and
Weight Loss. Get inspired to take up
new self-care activities to help detox from
stress, rebalance, and shed excess weight.
Minimum requirement of four people.
6–7:30 pm. Hunger Mountain Co-op
community room, Montpelier. Member
$8; non-members $10. Sign up: info@
hungermountain.coop
Vermont Authors Lecture Series:
Kathryn Davis. The senior fiction writer
on the faculty of The Writing Program
at Washington University and author of
eight novels, received high praise for her
spellbinding new novel, The Silk Road, in
recent reviews in Slate and The New York
Times Book Review. 6:30–8 pm. Highland
Through Aug. 30: SiteTime : Cordwood
: Sharing. Multimedia exhibition
assembled by Erika Senft Miller,
Nancy Winship Milliken, and Michael
Zebrowski. Photographs, video, sound,
virtual-reality timelapse, prints, drawings,
and three logs create the show. Opening
reception, July 12, 4–7 pm. Spotlight
Gallery at the Vermont Arts Council. 136
State St., Montpelier.
Through Sept 5: Threads. An exhibit
of fiber arts by local weavers. Art and
Author Night: July 19, 6 pm. Jaquith
Public Library, School St., Marshfield.
jaquithpubliclibrary.org
Through Sept. 6: Scattered Geometry:
The Ceramics of Jenny Swanson and
Holly Walker. Opening reception with
artists’ talk: July 13, 5–7 pm. White
River Gallery, 35 S. Windsor St., South
Royalton. 498-8438
Through Sept. 27: Studies in Rhythmic
Vitality—Paintings by Lois Eby.
Acrylic paints on birch panels. Opening
reception: July 11, 4–7 pm. Art Walk
reception: Sept 6, 4–7 pm. Vermont
Supreme Court Gallery, State St.,
Montpelier. leby@loiseby.com
July 20–Oct. 19: Outdoor: Exposed
Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition.
Opening: July 20, 4–6 pm. The opening
festival will feature talks, live music by
Lesley Grant, food, and a wine garden at
the Art Center. Helen Day Art Center,
90 Pond St., Stowe.
Through Oct. 25: The War of Ideas:
Propaganda Posters from the Vermont
Historical Society Collections. Visitors
can examine how posters have been an
important part of the wartime effort, for
everything from recruitment to support
on the homefront. Vermont History
Center, 60 Washington St., Barre.
479-8500. vermonthistory.org
Through Dec. 21: 200 Years—200
Objects. An exhibition celebrating
Norwich University’s bicentennial.
Curated to include objects from the
museum collection, as well as documents
Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St.,
Greensboro. $12. highlandartsvt.org
FRIDAY, JULY 19
Art and Author Night. Reception with the
artists of Threads, an exhibit of fiber arts
by local weavers at 6 pm. Poetry reading
by Charlie Barasch and Nadell Fishman at
7 pm. Jaquith Public Library, School St.,
Marshfield. jaquithpubliclibrary.org
SATURDAY, JULY 20
Exploration of Electricity and Magnetism.
Make batteries out of common household
items, design and test electromagnets, build
working electric motors, create other small
electronics projects, and more. 10 am.
Brookfield Old Town Hall, 32 Stone Rd.,
Brookfield.
Maple Madness. Maple Mile Fun Run at 10
am; Guided Sap Bucket Painting Event at 5
pm; Story times at 11 am and 2 pm; Maple
Tours at 1 pm, 3 pm, and 5 pm; Sugar on
Snow from noon–4 pm; kids crafts, lawn
games, and scavenger hunt. Morse Farm
Maple Sugarworks, 1168 County Rd.,
Montpelier. morsefarm.com
SUNDAY, JULY 21
Back Roads Readings. Poets Deborah
Warren and Rachel Hadas read from their
T HE BRID GE
and images from Archives and Special
Collections, that reflect and retell the
university’s 200-year history. Norwich
University Sullivan Museum and History
Center, Northfield. norwich.edu
SPECIAL EVENTS
July 12: Storytime in the Gallery.
Bring your young children to the SPA
galleries, sit on the floor on a blanket,
and listen to a story that relates to the
current exhibit(s). Afterwards, you are
welcome to stay for a short and informal
talk about the art show with your
children. Also, we’ll give you an Art
Stroll map and you can walk around
downtown Barre to see the sculptures
with your family. 10:30–11 am. Studio
Place Arts, 201 N. Main St., Barre.
July 20: Chalk & Talk! Bring your
young children to the SPA galleries for a
short and informal talk about the shows.
Afterwards, have fun making some art
with your children. SPA will provide
colorful chalk for your children to make
works of art on the plaza at the entrance
to the art center – perhaps inspired by
the show or something else on their
minds! 1–1:30 pm. Studio Place Arts,
201 N. Main St., Barre.
July 26: Creative Cartooning at SPA.
During the Barre Heritage Festival,
bring your teens and friends to SPA
and learn about creative cartooning with
Robert Waldo Brunelle, Jr. 10 am–4 pm.
Studio Place Arts, 201 N. Main St.,
Barre.. For info and to enroll: 479-7069 or
studioplacearts.com
July 26: EYE SPY in the Gallery. Gather
in the main gallery at SPA to take part in
a game of “eye spy” in the Eye Spy exhibit.
It’s a fun “treasure hunt” geared for children
under the age of 11 years of age that will
motivate them to look closely at the artwork
and find “hidden” things on display. Join us
for an engaging exploration of the EYE SPY
art exhibit! 2–2:30 pm. Studio Place Arts,
201 N. Main St., Barre.
work followed by a reception and book
signing. 3 pm. Brownington Congregational
Church. 633-4956. backroadsreadings.com
Summer Market Day. Local vendors and
lunch options. Noon–3 pm. Brookfield Old
Town Hall, 32 Stone Rd., Brookfield.
TUESDAY, JULY 23
Hot Topics at Vermont Law School.
Lectures on a variety of current issues
in environmental law and policy.
“Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene”
with Carmen Gonzalez, Seattle University
School of Law. Noon–1 pm. VLS campus in
Oakes Hall Room 012, South Royalton. Free.
Community Film Series at Plainfield
Opera House: The Faces of ACEs. A film
about the impact of stress and what we can
do about it. Presented by The Health Center.
Snacks at 5:30 pm. Film at 6 pm. Discussion
at 7 pm. Plainfield Opera House, Rt. 2,
Plainfield. Films contain adult content and
may not be appropriate for ages under 16.
Author Susan Ritz at Bear Pond
Books. 7 pm. 77 Main St., Montpelier.
bearpondbooks.com
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24
Mid-Week Movie: Peter and John. 7 pm.
Highland Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick
St., Greensboro. $5. highlandartsvt.org
T HE BRID GE
Live Music
VENUES
Bagitos. 28 Main St., Montpelier. 229-9212.
Bagitos.com
July 11: Old Time Music Session, 6 pm
July 13: Irish Session, 2 pm; Cameron
Sutphin, 6 pm
July 14: Southern Old Time Music Jam, 10
am
July 18: Italian Session, 6 pm
July 19: Dave Loughran, 6 pm
July 20: Irish Session, 2 pm; Barry Bender,
6 pm
July 21: Eric Friedman Folk Ballads, 11 am
July 25: Italian Session, 6 pm
July 26: Ukuville, 11 am; Latin Dance Party,
7 pm
Charlie O’s World Famous. 70 Main St.
Montpelier. Free. 223-6820.
Every Tues.: Karaoke, 7:30 pm
Espresso Bueno. 248 N. Main St., Barre.
479-0896. espressobueno.com.
July 13: Jazzyaoke (live jazz karaoke), 7:30
pm, $5
July 26: Thomas Gunn (singer-songwriter),
7:30 pm
Whammy Bar. 31 W. County Rd., Calais.
whammybar1.com
Every Thurs.: Open Mic, 7 pm
July 12: Vicchio Stile (traditional Italian),
7:30 pm
July 13: Twiin Speak, 7:30 pm
July 19: Inner Fire District, 7:30 pm
July 20: Mary Go Round, 7:30 pm
July 26: Blackwater Trio, 7:30 pm
SPECIAL EVENTS
July 10, 17, 24: Capital City Band
Wednesday Concerts. Every Wed. through
Aug. 14. Enjoy a picnic with neighbors or meet
some new friends while enjoying this delightful
Vermont musical tradition. Or, bring an
THURSDAY, JULY 25
Hot Topics at Vermont Law School.
Lectures on a variety of current issues in
environmental law and policy. “Clean
Energy Justice: Charting an Emerging
Agenda” with Joel Eisen, University of
Richmond School of Law. Noon–1 pm.
VLS campus in Oakes Hall Room 012,
South Royalton. Free.
Food Book Club. This month’s book:
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica
Bauermeister. 6–7 pm. Hunger Mountain
Co-op community room, Montpelier.
Member $8; non-members $10. Sign up:
Calendar of Events
instrument and play along with the band.
7–8 pm. State House Lawn, Montpelier.
456-7054
July 10: Middlesex Bandstand Concerts:
Myra Flynn. Neo-soul songstress. Bring a
picnic. Food is available for purchase on site
from Mediterranean Mix. 6:30–8:30 pm.
Martha Pellerin and Andy Shapiro Memorial
Bandstand, 465 Shady Rill Rd., Middlesex.
Free. middlesexbandstand.com
July 11: Chris Lyon & Fat Toad Farm.
Singer and songwriter Chris Lyon of Johnson
accompanies Fat Toad Farm to offer music
and hors d’oeuvres at the Hardwick Street
Café. Solo acoustics, bluegrass, originals, folk,
country and Americana. 4–6 pm. Highland
Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St.,
Greensboro. $20; students $10; seniors 20%
off. highlandartsvt.org
July 11: July 4: BarnArts Music on the Farm
Concert Series: Bow Thayer. Folk/rock. 5
pm. Feast and Field, 1544 Royalton Turnpike,
Barnard. $5–10 suggested donation.
July 11: Jaquith Library Summer Concert
Series: The Stone Cold Roosters. Classic
country, swamp-rock, hillbilly-funk, blues,
Western swing and honky-tonk. Food Vendor:
Chez Mami. 6:30–8:30 pm. Old Schoolhouse
Common, Marshfield. 426-3581
July 14: Eat Up at Camp Meade. Free
weekly food and music event series every
Sunday during the summer. 4 pm. 961 Rt. 2,
Middlesex.
July 15: Inner Fire District. Genre-defying
music including Yiddish and Balkan folk,
intricate original compositions, and old
revolutionary songs. 7 pm. Old Labor Hall,
46 Granite St., Barre. $20; seniors, students,
union members $18. Oldlaborhall.org.
479-5600
July 17: Middlesex Bandstand Concerts:
High Summer. Deep groove originals
and well-cultivated covers. Bring a picnic.
Food is available for purchase on site from
Mediterranean Mix. 6:30–8:30 pm. Martha
info@hungermountain.coop
Vermont Authors Lecture Series: Jeff
Amestoy. After sailing to California
as a common seaman and writing his
account of the voyage, Two Years Before
the Mast, Richard Henry Dana could
not forget the brutal floggings he had
witnessed aboard ship or the vow he
had made to combat injustice. Jeffrey
Amestoy, former Vermont Attorney
General and Chief Justice of the Vermont
Supreme Court, tells the story of Dana’s
unflagging determination to keep that
vow in the face of 19th-century America’s
most exclusive establishment: the
JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 21
Pellerin and Andy Shapiro Memorial
Bandstand, 465 Shady Rill Rd., Middlesex.
Free. middlesexbandstand.com
July 17: Yankee Brass Band. Hosted by the
Waterbury Historical Society. Using rare and
authentic period instruments and outfitted
in appropriate uniforms, the Yankee Brass
Band presents the music of the “Golden Age
of Bands” in much the same manner as in
the mid to late 19th century. 7 pm. Thatcher
Brook Primary School, Stowe St., Waterbury.
244-8089
July 18: BarnArts Music on the Farm
Concert Series: Mayfly. Appalachian/
Americana. 5 pm. Feast and Field, 1544
Royalton Turnpike, Barnard. $5–10 suggested
donation.
July 18: Jaquith Library Summer
Concert Series: Dave Keller Band.
Blues. Food Vendor: Mo’s Backyard BBQ.
6:30–8:30 pm. Old Schoolhouse Common,
Marshfield. 426-3581
July 18: Dave Brahninsky. Singer-
songwriter and guitarist in the folk tradition.
6:30 pm. Café at Highland Center for the
Arts, 2875 Hardwick St., Greensboro. No
cover. highlandartsvt.org
July 18: Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert.
Kane has been referred to as “the godfather of
Americana music.” Gellert’s prodigious fiddle
playing and songwriting, has led a new revival
of American stringband music. 7 pm. Willey
Building Auditorium, 3084 Main St., Cabot.
$20 advance; $25 at door. cabotarts.org
July 21: Eat Up at Camp Meade. Live
music by Brett Hughes & Esther Rose. Food
from Gingerfield Noodles. 4 pm. 961 Rt. 2,
Middlesex.
July 21: 21st Annual Folk Music Concert:
Pete’s Posse. Acclaimed musician Pete
Sutherland, his talented protégé Oliver Scanlon,
and the uber-dynamic Tristan Henderson. With
fiddler Jane Oxnard, VSO cellist John Dunlop,
and violin/fiddler Laura Markowitz. 4 pm. Old
West Church, Calais. $20. 233-1015
Boston society into which he had been
born and bred. 6:30–8 pm. Highland
Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick St.,
Greensboro. $12. highlandartsvt.org
FRIDAY, JULY 26
The Astro-Nut. “The Astro-Nut” follows
the troubles and travails of puppetry’s
favorite loudmouths, Punch and Judy. In
the latest episode, Mr. Punch attempts
to be the first puppet to go to space. 6:45
pm. Jaquith Public Library, School St.,
Marshfield
July 24: Burger Night with Chad Hollister.
Farm to table musical event with Chad
Hollister showcasing Templeton Farms own
grilled grass-fed beef burgers, along with
vegetables from local central Vermont farms.
Includes drinks and ice cream dessert mothered
in our maple syrup. 5:30–7:30 pm. Templeton
Farm, 3410 Center Rd., East Montpelier.
Adults $18 online $20 at gate, templetonfarm.
com
July 24: Middlesex Bandstand Concerts:
Black Water Trio. Americana/folk/roots-rock.
Bring a picnic. Food is available for purchase on
site from Mediterranean Mix.6:30–8:30 pm.
Martha Pellerin and Andy Shapiro Memorial
Bandstand, 465 Shady Rill Rd., Middlesex.
Free. middlesexbandstand.com
July 25: Lesley Grant & Caledonia Spirits.
Morrisville singer and songwriter. Country/
bluegrass/folk. Enjoy samples created with
Caledonia’s craft spirits. 4–6 pm. Café at
Highland Center for the Arts, 2875 Hardwick
St., Greensboro. No cover. highlandartsvt.org
July 25: BarnArts Music on the Farm
Concert Series: Mamuse. folk-soul-revival. 5
pm. Feast and Field, 1544 Royalton Turnpike,
Barnard. $5–10 suggested donation.
July 25: Jaquith Library Summer Concert
Series: Chaque Fois. Cajun. Food Vendor:
Marshfield Village Store. 6:30–8:30 pm. Old
Schoolhouse Common, Marshfield. 426-3581
July 26: Music in the Alley: Andy Gagnon
Presents: Lovecraft. Featuring members
of The Renegade Groove, Ray Vega’s Latin
Jazz Sextet, The Vermont Jazz Ensemble, The
Saturn People’s Sound Collective, and The Big
Band Bhangra Brass Band. Hosted by Axel’s
Gallery & Frame Shop and TURNmusic.
Join your friends and neighbors on a summer
Friday evening for new music, great food by
the Blackback Pub. 6–9 pm. 5 Stowe St.,
Waterbury.
July 26: Villalobos Brothers. High-octane
Mexican Fiddle Music. 7:30 pm; doors open
6:30 pm. Feast and Field, 1544 Royalton
Turnpike, Barnard..$25. barnarts.org
Rocque Long
Painting
• Insured
• 30+ years professional
experience
• local references.
802-223-0389
PAGE 2 2 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 T HE BRID GE

Montpelier’s 3rd of July Parade! Independence Day

Photos by Tom Brown
T HE BRID GE JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 • PAGE 23

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PAGE 24 • JULY 10 —JULY 23, 2019 T HE BRID GE

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Barre Heritage Festival

In Circulation July 24–August 6
ALL AD MATERIALS AND AD SPACE RESERVATIONS DUE FRIDAY, July 19.
For more information about advertising deadlines, rates, and the design of your ad, contact
Rick McMahan
802-249-8666
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Advertise in the FOLLOWING ISSUE:

Back to School
In Circulation August 7–August 21
ALL AD MATERIALS AND AD SPACE RESERVATIONS DUE FRIDAY, July 24.
For more information about advertising deadlines, rates, and the design of your ad, contact
Rick McMahan
802-249-8666
rick@vtbridge.com