Letters to the Editor: Feb. 20

Support for re-electing Devine to the selectboard

To the Editor:

Please join me in voting for Kelly Devine for another term on the Charlotte Selectboard.

I had the pleasure of serving with Devine on the planning commission, where she always brought a thoughtful perspective to our discussions. She was a positive contributor, and I appreciated her ability to balance different viewpoints while keeping her eye on what’s best for the town. Her advocacy for a long-overdue capital plan is timely. Charlotte needs to plan responsibly for our current obligations while simultaneously planning our future.

During Devine’s current term on the selectboard, she has demonstrated her knowledge and expertise, understanding how Charlotte’s municipal government functions and what it takes to make it work for the whole town. Her experience on the selectboard includes helping create three town budgets; playing a key role in recruiting and hiring our wonderful new town administrator; and focusing on making the entire selectboard meeting function more efficiently through the introduction of consent agendas. Her ability to ask important and probing questions at the meetings helps bring forth critical information and perspectives needed for a fulsome discussion and well-reasoned decision making.

Kelly has shared her vision for these key ideas:

• Kelly has no plans to expand municipal water and wastewater services.
• Developing a capital planning project designed to address the existing town maintenance obligations and budgeting money each year to improve and repair its buildings and amenities. This includes supporting the plan to replace the bathhouse at the town beach.
• Revising the town’s purchasing policy to reflect current costs and give both the town administrator and town committees more authority within the budget.
• Creating a robust, multi-committee and public-input process to help inform our rewrite of the town plan.
• Expanding grant-writing support services for the town.

Kelly brings nearly 20 years of experience in state and local government policy and budgets to her work on the selectboard. She has worked on everything from fixing parks and trails to making taxes fairer and improving government services.

Charlotte is lucky to have someone as experienced, knowledgeable and committed as Kelly on the selectboard. I hope you’ll join me in voting for her on Election Day.

Charlie Pughe
Charlotte

Encouraging voting for both Lee Krohn and JD Herlihy

To the Editor:

I’m voting for JD Herlihy to serve on the Charlotte Selectboard. He has already shown that he is committed to our community from four years serving on the Charlotte Development Review Board. His children attend Champlain Valley High and Charlotte Central School, where his wife is active with the PTA. Healthy schools and a healthy community are basics of his desires for Charlotte. Wherever he has lived, he’s jumped into serving the community.

I had a chance to meet Herlihy with several others. I noticed that he listened well to our thoughts, not interrupting with his own. That is an essential quality in a selectboard member. He will bring a sense of calm. He’ll promote transparency in all actions, avoiding executive sessions except in the case of a legal requirement. He’ll listen to those that are attending the meetings. And he’ll trust the work of staff, elected officials, committees and commissions.

At that same meeting I met Lee Krohn, who is running unopposed for another seat on the Charlotte Selectboard. He has a long list of accomplishments that include being town manager of Manchester, serving on the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, and five years as Shelburne town manager. He also will bring a sense of calm, good listening and a cooperative spirit to the town’s work.

JD and Lee’s skill sets complement one another and the rest of the selectboard. Between them both, they bring a wealth of knowledge about small town government and the town of Charlotte. Despite being two Charlotte Selectboard newcomers, their experience will ensure a seamless and smooth transition.

Please join me in voting for JD Herlihy and Lee Krohn.

Ruah Swennerfelt
Charlotte

Keep promise to Afghan allies who assisted Vermont veterans

To the Editor:

Thousands of Vermonters served in our nation’s longest war, which ended in 2021 with the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Five Vermonters gave the last full measure of devotion to this country, killed in combat in that country.

The men and women we sent into harm’s way, with the Vermont National Guard’s deployments through the years in addition to Vermonters serving full time on active duty, were helped in their dangerous work by Indigenous Afghan forces fighting alongside them. When Kabul fell, many of these Afghan men and their families were stranded in Afghanistan at grave risk of death or imprisonment.

Since 2021, more than 500 Afghans have resettled in Vermont, including hundreds of men who courageously served alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan. At the Vermont Afghan Alliance, a 501c3 charitable organization dedicated to welcoming these new Americans as they escape brutal Taliban rule, we have been working day and night to find housing, teach English and driving, as well as provide individualized case management tailored to each individual refugee’s situation.

The Trump presidency has taken direct aim at Vermont veterans and our Afghan friends through moral injury: to force us to back away from promises made. Federal grants, which the Vermont Afghan Alliance depends on to serve this community, have been frozen.

These Afghan allies risked their lives and the safety of their families to support U.S. missions. In return for their invaluable service, the U.S. government promised them relocation to the United States and the opportunity to reunite with their families here in Vermont. Unfortunately, almost three years later, many of these promises remain unfulfilled.

Many of our refugees worry about ever seeing their families again. Some have taken the massive risk of returning to Afghanistan covertly at great personal cost and danger. Some have been subsequently imprisoned by Taliban courts.

The election of President Trump and his Project 2025 Agenda has stopped all refugee admissions to the United States and specifically calls for the halt of Temporary Protected Status visas and the stripping of such status. Under Trump and Project 2025, the executive branch has now completely shut down new immigration applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services if applications become “excessive.” Of course, what is excessive is not defined.

The men and women who walked foot patrols in Helmand and Khost alongside Vermonters may never see their families again if Donald Trump and Stephen Miller have their way. These are men and women who were promised a new life in America with their families. Trump has hung these men and women out to dry. We need help, and we need it now.

At the end of the day, we’re Vermonters, and up here, our word is our bond. At the Vermont Afghan Alliance, we’re not backing down from the challenge.

Please, learn about the circumstances of your new neighbors. Take a minute and read about or work at the vtafghanalliance.org. Write or call your state representative, Governor Scott and our federal representatives. Insist on an “Afghan Exception” to the coming draconian immigration policies. It’s the right thing to do, as Americans and as Vermonters.

Dan Barkhuff
South Burlington

(Dan Barkhuff is an emergency room physician at the University of Vermont Medical Center, a former Navy SEAL, the founder of Veterans for Responsible Leadership and the co-founder of the Vermont Afghan Alliance.)

Please vote for Herlihy and for town charter

To the Editor:

On March 4, we will be voting on some important items.

There are two candidates vying for the same selectboard position, incumbent Kelly Devine and JD Herlihy.

As executive director of the Burlington Business Association, Kelly Devine has been pushing for growth and housing in Burlington for years. Now it appears Charlotte has become her new target. Her major goal: new water and sewer infrastructure for Charlotte. Once this kind of infrastructure is in place, the town has to allow five or more dwelling units per acre. Devine claims that we have to grow fast or taxes will go up, but judging by our neighbors that is simply not true. Neither Shelburne nor Hinesburg had their taxes reduced despite rampant development. Most Charlotters want growth to be modest. Does Kelly not listen or simply not care?

I expect our elected officers to hear and do what residents want. That’s why I will be voting for JD Herlihy. While he was serving on the development review board, I found him fair and considerate. He is a good listener and community-minded, and he promises to make the selectboard more transparent, something I have often found lacking.

Another important item is the town charter. In recent years, the state has passed legislation that takes away our rights to govern ourselves. Currently the selectboard has the right to adopt land-use regulations without residents’ approval. The charter will change that, and even if the Legislature won’t allow it, it will send a signal to our selectboard members that we want a voice when it comes to approving land-use regulations.

So please, consider joining me by voting “yes” on the charter and for JD Herlihy for selectboard. Charlotte’s future depends on it.

Claudia Mucklow
Charlotte

Think carefully before voting for Article 11

To the Editor:

Article 11 on your ballot this year asks for a new town charter that restores the approval of our land-use regulations (zoning laws) to a town-wide vote. This article is an attempt to bypass recent Vermont legislation (the “Housing Opportunities Made for Everyone,” or HOME act) which was enacted in order to promote an increase in housing opportunities in the state.

You can read about the legislation here.

According to VTDigger, “The new law’s municipal provisions echo ‘Yes in my backyard’ reform movements across the country, whose proponents argue that certain zoning rules — some with segregationist roots — have effectively outlawed cheaper, denser housing in much of America.” The legislation was championed by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D/P-Chittenden Southeast, who said, “Vermonters have never been more unified in asking us to prioritize permanent, affordable housing.”

And even if we choose to deny the housing crisis and ignore the wisdom of our elected state and local officials, getting the change made to the town charter would be a cumbersome and likely futile process.

Rep. Chea Waters Evans was quoted in The Charlotte News as saying the Legislature might be reluctant to make this change to a statute that was passed so recently and that could cause confusion if other towns jumped on this bandwagon. Read more here.

Please think carefully and be fully informed before casting your vote. Thank you!

Ken French
Charlotte

Restore authority for changing land-use regulations to voters

To the Editor:

I appreciated reading Ken French’s post in Front Porch Forum about the proposed charter our town will be voting for by Australian ballot on March 4. I heard French suggest that the charter denies the housing crisis, bypasses legislation, ignores the wisdom of elected and local officials, and may be futile.

Many of us who live here have young adult children, elderly parents or businesses looking for employees. We all feel the effects of the housing crunch. The effort to restore the right to a town-wide vote on changing the land-use regulations of Charlotte is not a denial of this, it’s a call to wider and greater citizen engagement and participation in crafting solutions that work for Charlotte.

Rather than bypassing legislation, the charter is seeking to restore a vote that we have traditionally had. Objections to this specific piece of the Home Act, granting selectboard-only vote on land-use regulation changes, did not begin with this proposed charter. It began when the Home Act was being drafted but fell on deaf ears. Legislators change. There are ramifications to the Home Act that are issues in other towns, too. It is important that our voices are heard.

Ken French suggests that we should be comfortable leaving final decisions on these laws, which can have irrevocable changes to the rural nature and natural resources of Charlotte, to our elected officials. We cannot predict the future. Members of the selectboard change. Our selectboard has acted to override the decisions of our development review board and conservation commission. If the selectboard and planning commission know a town-wide vote is not required to make changes to our laws, what influence will that have on the way regulations are developed and changed? In Shelburne, the selectboard recently approved a 375-unit development in their rural district, rezoning it on their own.

Residents deserve to have their voices heard, by voting, to determine their own future. Rather than a futile effort, if we succeed or if we fail, we are sending an important message to our elected officials and legislators. Vote yes on Article 11 on March 4 to restore the right to town-wide vote on the land-use regulation laws that will determine this future. 

Voting takes place on March 4 at town hall from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Absentee ballots are available from the town clerk’s office.

Karen Frost
Charlotte

The Governor’s risky plan: Did voters ask for this?

To the Editor:

In November, Vermonters sent a clear message: We can’t afford these property tax increases. The priority should be tax relief for working and middle-class families, through foundation formulas, second-home taxes and income sensitivity adjustments.

Voters did not ask for school closures, cuts to student opportunities or a state takeover of public education. Yet, the Governor is using the tax crisis to push a radical overhaul—slashing funding, expanding vouchers and consolidating schools—without transparency or public input.

Major education reforms require time, study and statewide discussions. In 1997-98, Act 60’s funding changes took extensive legislative work and public engagement. Today, the Governor is drip-feeding details to control the narrative and rush massive changes in just months.

Instead, lawmakers must provide immediate tax relief while taking a thoughtful, two-year approach to any structural changes. They should spend this summer and fall engaging Vermonters on the impact of reforms before making drastic decisions.

Vermonters didn’t vote for a Republican mandate; they voted for tax relief, not an education overhaul. We must preserve our strong public schools, attract families and ensure a fair, collaborative approach to funding—not a rushed and risky experiment.

David Zuckerman
Hinesburg

Say ‘no’ to privatizing our public schools

To the Editor:

With the recent release of Governor Scott and interim Education Secretary Zoie Saunders’ “Transformative Education Plan,” many parents of school-aged children in Vermont, myself included, have been left asking, “Who asked for this transformation?” And furthermore, “Whose idea was it?”

Whenever the issue of school funding arises, we are often confronted by our neighbors with citations of Vermont schools’ low national ranking, and the source for these rankings always seems to be the Heritage Foundation. One would hope that, after the last 20 or so days, the Heritage Foundation would be an absolute pariah, especially in Vermont. But since their disinformation continues to be an alluring justification for defunding our supposedly underperforming schools, allow me to remind everyone that the Heritage Foundation is the far-right think tank behind “Project 2025” and funded by some of the wealthiest ultraconservatives in the United States, namely Koch, DeVos, Mercer and Coors.

Its metrics for ranking American schools are not based on any widely accepted quantitative or qualitative measurements, and they have supported litigation in various states that erode civil protections for students and dissolve the separation between church and state.

For instance, Florida ranks No. 1 in the Heritage Foundation’s “transparency” ratings.

What the Heritage Foundation calls “transparency” is actually their completely subjective rating of a state’s willingness to force its teachers to make their course material open to public review and comment, along with the public’s ability to veto material that they don’t like. It shouldn’t need explaining where this would lead. I will just say that the states that the Heritage Foundation ranks highly in “transparency” are the ones that have aggressively targeted curriculum that teaches about the history of slavery and civil rights, or what has lately been maliciously dubbed “critical race theory.”

In Florida, one parent’s objection to a teacher’s offhand comment to the parent’s child led to the “Don’t Say Gay” law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022. This legislation was shaped by the Heritage Foundation, along with powerful conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Christian nationalist lobbying group Family Policy Alliance.

The Heritage Foundation has heaped praise and high rankings on Florida schools as Ron DeSantis has purged any meaningful discussions of race, gender and sexuality from the classroom, which is much easier to do in Florida as it has the highest percentage of students in charter and private schools in the nation.

Phil Scott’s interim Education Secretary, Zoie Saunders, worked for seven years under Jonathan Hage as the Director and Vice President of Strategy at Charter Schools USA, based in Florida. Charter Schools USA took taxpayer money to create 37 for-profit schools in Florida that Hage owned, developed, leased to himself, and then managed under separate business entities, thus funneling every penny into his pocket, or what is otherwise known as a “sweeps contract.” Meanwhile, student outcomes were no better than the Florida statewide average. Charter Schools USA, which has expanded to 87 schools in six states and launched an extremely profitable online “mobile classroom” program, has revenues exceeding $1 billion.

Before founding Charter Schools USA, Hage was a researcher at the Heritage Foundation.

To be clear, people like Hage and the Heritage Foundation and their ultrawealthy, ultraconservative backers have a formula for public education, and it does not include fixing the funding formula for public schools or guiding states toward a more robust and resilient public-school network.

Anything they say about Vermont schools should be viewed with utmost skepticism.

What can be trusted are the entities that aggregate a more reliable set of metrics, such as Wallet Hub and Forbes, in whose ratings Florida K-12 ranks middle to bottom nationally while Vermont is in the top 5 to 10. Vermont also ranks seventh in combined grades 4-12 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) math and reading scores, also known as the nation’s report card.

As much as some might want to get their hands on them, our schools should not be for sale.

Peter Macia
Charlotte

Get the Town Report to aid participation at town meeting

To the Editor:

The Town Report is the most important document to have either on your phone or in hand when you go to the annual town meeting on Saturday, March 1.

It is called the 2024 Town Report because it is the document that reports what happened during 2024 from a budget and governmental perspective. It also lists the names of our town officials and their terms of office as well as the new budget that has been proposed by the selectboard and that we will be voting on at the meeting.

The report used to be mailed to every resident of Charlotte, but to save money fewer copies are printed now and people have to pick them up at the town hall. Hopefully, someone will take a handful to the senior center, library, Grange and local stores so they are more accessible. However, it is also posted online on the town website.

When you go to town meeting, arrive early to check in. When the gavel falls at 9 a.m., the first article on the warning is to discuss the reports in the Town Report and to approve them. Sometimes people are so busy finding a seat, they don’t pay attention to this article, and it’s just approved without anybody asking questions or commenting. But this is your chance to respond to what is written in their reports by any of the elected or appointed officials of the town. This is not the time to talk about budget items, but rather other plans, activities or information, or lack of information, in the reports. This includes the report of the past year’s financial statements.

Later, when the budget discussion takes place, here are all the line items of both revenues and expenditures that need to be understood and discussed if necessary.

Here also is an estimate of what our property taxes will be next year if the budget is passed as proposed. The voters at the meeting have the option to amend it.

For new people in town, this will be your first opportunity to share in this traditional New England-style town meeting, a rare chance to participate in direct democracy. We have not had an in-person town meeting since 2019, due to COVID and later decisions by the selectboard not to have town meeting, which they were allowed to do by state statute up until last year. 

In 2019, we voted to change the in-person meeting from the traditional Tuesday to Saturday in order to allow a greater number of people to come without losing days at work. I am hopeful that many people in town will decide that this is the year, whether they have ever come before or not, to participate. We are so lucky to live in a state and town where this is still possible.

Nancy Wood
Charlotte

Grateful to Lois McClure for library funds and name

To the Editor:

When John Rosenthal, Alice Lawrence and I approached Lois and Mac McClure in the early 1990s about building the new library in Charlotte, we asked if they would be willing to pledge one third of the estimated price of $350,000 as a match. (We had already procured the first third.)

In asking for this amount, we also had to offer a naming opportunity. Fortunately, Lois spoke up immediately and said that she favored calling it the “Charlotte Library.” In truth, we were almost as grateful for this name as for the fantastic financial support.

Lois McClure was a remarkable lady with deep roots in Charlotte at Cedar Beach and with a great love of all things library related. She was an avid supporter of the library throughout her life.

All in Charlotte should be grateful to this very generous and warm-hearted person who did so much for so many.

Nan Mason
Charlotte

UVM health network’s academic mission critical to state’s health

To the Editor:

Recommendations from the Act 167 report in Vermont state, “The University of Vermont Health Network should reevaluate whether its medical education and research programs are contributing to better health outcomes for Vermonters.” The report asks how relevant the university’s research is to the health needs of Vermonters and questions the benefit of time spent by University of Vermont Medical Network physicians on research. It also asks whether the time spent by physicians on these activities helps to train the next generation of physicians in Vermont.

I would like to address these questions within the context of my experiences as a physician scientist at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

My personal story illustrates the many benefits of research within the University of Vermont Medical Center. I began my career at the University of Vermont as a medical student in the 1980s and completed my residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology and cardiovascular research in the early 1990s.

Owing to the outstanding academic environment here, I made the decision to stay at University of Vermont Medical Center to serve fellow Vermonters as a physician and to conduct research. I started my clinical career as the only specialist in care of patients with abnormal blood clots called venous thrombosis — deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism — a leading type of potentially fatal cardiovascular disease.

Thus, I am an example of how research can attract physicians who train at the university to remain in state to serve Vermonters. In fact, statistics from my department (Department of Medicine) from 2016 onward show that greater than 50 percent of the residents we train remain in Vermont. This could be lost if we de-emphasize research training.

Three decades later, I have overseen a thriving research program that has garnered tens of millions of dollars of research funding from the National Institutes of Health and included research studies that specifically address the health needs of rural populations. These research dollars directly contribute to advancing science and training the next generation of researchers, but also to helping our local economy and providing stable jobs. We have made many breakthrough discoveries, including that excessive body weight and oral contraceptives increase risk for venous thrombosis, as well as multiple causes of racial disparities in stroke affecting Black Americans.

Our original research group of three faculty is now 15 faculty at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. Of these researchers, seven are physicians and seven were trained here. Thus, from my own personal experience, research and educational activities of the University of Vermont Medical Center physicians helps to train the next generation of physicians who will serve Vermonters.

On the clinical side, based on successful research and building a program for care of venous thrombosis and bleeding disorders, we now have a thrombosis and hemostasis program that is staffed by six dedicated hematologists, three nurse practitioners, one physician’s assistant and two nurses. We see about 1,500 new patients from our region every year, a number that is rapidly growing with the aging of our population. We provide holistic care to these patients to improve their vascular health and apply the most recent research-based knowledge to their care, including from our own research.

One can’t discuss impact of an academic medical center without mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in spring 2020, I participated in conducting National Institute of Health-funded rapid-response clinical trials on treatments for COVID in hospitalized patients. Results led to the rigorous testing of different blood-thinning medications and new clinical practice guidelines less than one year after we started, improving recovery from this deadly infection.

Bridging from this research, we are now studying causes of long COVID, and we aim to develop knowledge that will bring treatments to the community of patients in Vermont suffering from the long-term debilitating effects of the virus.

If University of Vermont Medical Network were to severely reduce or eliminate its research and educational activities, it would prevent stories like mine from being told. Ultimately, this will reduce the number of physicians trained at the University of Vermont, who remain in Vermont and reduce the benefits that an academic environment brings to the health of Vermonters.

We will also lose our ability to train the next generation in research. While we all agree that we must address issues of access to and the rising costs of health care, we should not undertake short-term solutions that have long-term detrimental effects for the health care and health of Vermonters.

Mary Cushman
Charlotte

(Dr. Cushman is co-director of the Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine.)