The Champlain Valley School District board of directors is hosting a community budget forum on Tuesday, Nov. 7, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at CVU, Room 160, and encourages everyone to come share what is on their minds. Childcare and kid food provided.
Veterans Day, eh? I should be honored to take part in it, but, frankly, the Navy and I parted company on Treasure Island, California, in late summer of 1968 and have lived in blissful ignorance of each other ever since. I put my medals in a drawer and responded to a letter from the government asking me to become an active reserve with a “Thanks, but no thanks.” The country must have had a large enough supply of people (mostly men in those days) to keep their tanks full and did not feel the need to press too hard on those of us who said no.
In an effort to make 1st and 2nd graders beam with pride, they were given seeds to plant in a garden and were encouraged to harvest all that grew. Students at Charlotte Central School even decided where to bestow the bounty.
Town officials have moved one step closer to finalizing Charlotte’s new town plan. The proposed plan has been in the making more than five years, and if all goes smoothly, it will be put before voters at this spring’s Town Meeting.
Congratulations:
to Edorah Glazer of Charlotte, the principal at Robinson Elementary School in Starksboro, who has been meeting with 24 other educators in the Vermont School Leadership Project’s class for 2018. The project is sponsored by the Snelling Center for Government and has been in existence for 13 years. Its goal is to help school administrators, including special education and curriculum directors, develop the skills and knowledge to operate effectively. Those who were selected have shown good capabilities in these areas of their work already. The course began in July at the Lake Morey Resort, and Edorah and the others will complete seven sessions over 13 months.
Vermont trapping season has started and runs through March 31. Each trapping season, dogs, cats and other non-targeted animals, including endangered and protected species, are injured or even killed in traps.
In the end it came down to the tortellini. One kid had too much and the other almost had none.
A couple of weeks ago, my daughter, Coco, made her television debut in a competitive cooking show on the Food Network. It had been a long and sometimes grueling process, but she’s the kind of kid who employs laser focus when she makes her mind up about something, and so we persevered.
It began a year ago when we noticed that there was an open call for contestants on a show called Chopped, Jr. We filled out the application and sent a home video and not long after received a call. Next came a Skype interview, then another, and then things got kind of crazy when it became clear that Coco had been chosen to be on the show.
As realtors say, “location, location, location.” Elmore Mountain, while technically at the northern end of the Worcester Range, is quite isolated, and no mountains block its views. The Elmore State Park website recommends taking the 4.0-mile loop trail clockwise, hiking up the shorter (1.74 mile) but steeper and rockier Fire Tower Trail and down the beautiful and more gradual 2.3-mile Ridge Trail.
Alex Morris on Do I Dare, and trainer Ashley Meacham. Courtesy photo
Many articles online discuss bike transportation trails—on and off road. The advantages of biking to work, for errands, to friends’ houses or just for fun are many. Bike Commuting’s Worst Enemy Isn’t What You Think is written by Arian Horbovetz, a Strong Towns member and blogger at The Urban Phoenix. The following article is republished from his blog, with permission.
With the change of new folks who work at Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services and many consistent per diems doing shifts, we would like to introduce rescue and fire personnel. This week, please meet Advanced Emergency Medical Technician Mike Kelleher.
Tuesdays at 2:15 p.m. through December 19: After School Story Explorations. Take the bus from CCS and explore the world of stories! For kindergarten and 1st grade students. Registration required. No program on November 21 or November 28.
Thursdays at 3:15 p.m. through December 21: Coding Club. Beginners will learn to code with Scratch through guided video lessons to make their own simple games. Members with more experience will plan and create their own using skills they’ve learned. Chromebooks and earbuds provided or BYO. For 4th grade and up. Registration required. No program on November 23.
The Friends of the Charlotte Senior Center invite you to its Annual Meeting after the luncheon on November 1 beginning at 1 p.m. This is an opportunity for everyone to become better acquainted with the workings of our organization and to consider how they can become more active as volunteers. An update of our financial position will be given, questions will be answered, and the election of board members will take place. Hope to see you there.
Apple season is a highly anticipated time of year in our area. Kids are back in school, the days are cooler, and Vermont’s apple orchards are brimming with fresh, juicy apples, just waiting to be picked.
At its Oct. 9 meeting, the Selectboard heard budget proposals for the next fiscal year from five town agencies. The Listers Office proposed a budget of $61,720, down $6,327 from this year, largely because of reductions in the cost of paying for appraisals next year. Planning and Zoning projected a drop in anticipated revenue from $53,000 this year to $48,000 next year primarily because of reduction in permit application fees; it also anticipates a reduction in expenses of about $10,500 because of reductions in computer-related expenses and in the cost of reviewing applications for waste water permits.
Corporate President Tom Cosinuke grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Westtown School and Gettysburg College. Tom has been lucky to live in Vermont for the past 35 years. He is married to a seventh-generation native Vermonter Annie Kelton but is nevertheless still a flatlander. Tom joined Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services (CVFRS) three years ago.
I read with interest Rep. Mike Yantachka’s commentary (9/20) criticizing the Public Utility Commission’s decision to reject an application for construction of a large-scale commercial solar array in the iconic Mt. Philo viewshed. My reaction to the decision was quite different from Mike’s: Finally the PUC “build everywhere” policy seems to have been modified to consider land-use planning in reviewing large-scale commercial solar and wind applications.
Congratulations: to Charlotte resident and Middlebury physician Dr. Jeanne Andersson-Swayze who, as a member of Heart to Heart International’s Disaster Response Team, went to both Florida in September and Puerto Rico recently to give medical aid to storm victims. Her team in Puerto Rico headed inland to small and often remote towns.
During a month wrought with hurricanes, wildfires and shocking announcements from the EPA, a group of Champlain Valley residents have been meeting to try to make sense of our changing climate and how these changes affect our communities.
Justine Dorsey of Charlotte with Star. The Dorsey family bought this race horse from Ballyclare Farm in Virginia, where he had ended up directly off the track. Justine has been working with him and hopes to ride trails and do hunter/jumper activities. Star is putting on weight and becoming much more acquainted with life off the track. Many track horses meet a less than desirable fate after their winning days are over, so Justine felt compelled to retrain Star and get him into respectable shape. Star is boarded at Country Cedars Farms.