The Money & Retirement Issue 2021
The Money & Retirement Issue: Homeless Vermonters Have Trouble Getting Federal Stimulus Checks; Lawmakers Seek Solution to the Public Pension Pinch; FAST of Vermont Protects Seniors’ Wallets
Obituary: Thomas William Hitchcock, 1936-2021
Manchester-born man married his high school sweetheart and became an accomplished builder
Obituary: Marty Morrissey, 1938-2021
Vermont folk musician leaves behind heartbroken friends and fans
Obituary: Joyce Stone, 1944-2021
Scholarship fund honors longtime Colchester School District teacher and administrator
Obituary: Roger Tosch, 1939-2021
Former South Burlington resident enjoyed volunteering and many athletic pursuits
Bottom Line: EZ-Probate Aims to Make the Probate Process Simpler and Cheaper
In May of last year, Byron Batres saw a surge in business at his company, EZ-Probate. Coronavirus-related deaths across the nation had spiked within the previous month. People tasked with settling the estates of those who died, a legal process called probate, flooded his company’s website to use its system for completing the required documents…
Name-Dropping: RASTA Trail Group Is In Search of a New Moniker
The Rochester/Randolph Sports Trail Alliance will be known as RASTA no longer, according to executive director Angus McCusker. The 8-year-old central Vermont bike-and-ski trail association is changing its name in deference to the Rastafari religious movement. At its founding, the group was much smaller and adopted an acronym that was easy to remember and spoke…
Free Will Astrology (3/31/21)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912) was a maverick innovator who loved to experiment with plot and language. One of his stories takes place in a dream, and the hero is the Christ-like daughter of a Vedic god. He once said that he felt “an immense need to become a savage and create…
Homeless Vermonters Are Having Trouble Getting Their Federal Stimulus Checks
Kari Rios once had everything she needed: an apartment, a well-paying job, a reliable car. As a single mother, she had some long days. But those pillars of stability made her feel that nothing could stop her. “I was on top of the world,” she recalled. Then, in early 2017, her son’s father stopped paying…
Soundbites: Matthew Evan Taylor Criticizes VSO’s BIPOC-Focused Closing Concert
Over the weekend, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra webcast its closing concert of the season, the last installment in the series “Music for Days Like This.” Previewed in last week’s paper by Seven Days contributor Amy Lilly, the prerecorded event featured music, poetry and artwork by Black and brown composers and artists. Reuben Jackson, former host…
Page 32: Short Takes on Five Vermont Books
Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a maelstrom of salamanders. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book…
Glorious Leader, ‘Glorious Leader & the Analog Cabin Mystery’
(Self-released, digital) Remember listening to children’s storybook cassette tapes? “When you hear the chimes ring, it’s time to turn the page!” an enthusiastic narrator would say. Her voice guided rapt youngsters through fairy-tale adventures and nursery rhymes as their eyes and ears followed along. Indie folk singer-songwriter Kyle Woolard’s latest project as Glorious Leader, Glorious…
Art Review: ‘Meg Lipke: In the Making,’ BCA Center
An appropriate warning to visitors of a current exhibit at the BCA Center would be “Don’t squeeze the art.” On the street level of the Burlington gallery, “Meg Lipke: In the Making” features the artist’s soft works cut from canvas and painted and stuffed with polyester fill. Eminently huggable, they evoke shaped pillows or abstract…
Zodiac Sutra, ‘Sickness, Then Love’
(Self-released, digital) I knew a college professor once who would grab students by the shoulders and exclaim, “Don’t you know that you’re on the hero’s journey?” Considering it was a transpersonal psychology class and most of these students had just gotten high in the parking lot, none of us exactly felt like we were Luke…
New Leaf Tree Syrups Offers a Fresh Take on an Age-Old Vermont Tradition
For a town with a population of just 1,500, Marshfield has a lot of businesses tucked away in its rocky hills. But few take up as much space, or attract as much attention, as New Leaf Tree Syrups, which has miles of sap-collection tubing on maple, birch and other trees through the nearly 3,000 acres…
Beds Available: Vermont’s Eldercare Homes Hope to Recover From the Pandemic
Vermont’s long-term care homes are desperate to move past a ruinous year. Step one: Fill empty beds. Some homes that previously had waiting lists are taking the unusual step of advertising openings, a reflection of the stress that COVID-19 has placed on the eldercare sector. Now that most caregivers and residents are vaccinated, the vacancy…
Lawmakers Seek Solutions to the Public Pension System’s Poor Investment Returns
Over the last decade, the S&P 500, a benchmark for the U.S. stock market, enjoyed an average annual return of 13.6 percent. Over that same period, Vermont’s public pension funds earned an average of just 7.2 percent a year from its investments. While pension assets are typically allocated to safer but less profitable investments than…
CVOEO Program Helps New Americans Take Charge of Their Finances
Asma Abunaib admits she was nervous when she helped a group of Burlington-area Somali women sign up for their first credit cards. Abunaib, the manager of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity’s Financial Empowerment for New Americans program, knew building good credit is a key step for New Americans as they plan for their…
A Legal Clash Highlights Vermont’s Struggle With Mentally Ill Lawbreakers
This month, Attorney General T.J. Donovan completed stage 1 of a task that Gov. Phil Scott assigned to him in June 2019. He filed murder charges against Louis Fortier in the fatal stabbing of fellow transient Richard Medina on Burlington’s Church Street in 2017. The decision means Donovan now has reversed Chittenden County State’s Attorney…
Benched: Ruminations on a Quarantine Retirement
After more than 40 years in interesting and mentally stimulating jobs — first as a lawyer at the Attorney General’s Office, then as a judge on the trial bench and Vermont Supreme Court — I retired. I knew that leaving public service would challenge my perception of my place in the world, but I underestimated…
Town of Bolton, Vermont: Notice to Vendors — Invitation to Bid: Quick Response Rescue Truck
The Town of Bolton Vermont, requests sealed bids from qualified manufacturers for a Quick Response Rescue Truck that meets town specifications. Bids are due by 4 p.m. on April 15, 2021 at the Bolton Town Office, and will be opened by the Town Clerk, during a regularly scheduled virtual Select Board meeting on April 19,…
WTF: Why Do Vermont Hemp Growers Use So Much Disposable Black Plastic?
One would be hard-pressed to find an agricultural product more versatile or environmentally friendly than hemp. For centuries, this hearty and fibrous plant, which can grow in diverse climates and soil conditions, has been used to make fabrics, paper, rope, paints, insulation and fuel oil. As a food source, hemp seeds and hemp oil are…
From the Publisher: Accounting for COVID-19
I set my alarm Thursday morning so I’d be up and online at 8:15 sharp, when Vermonters in my age group became eligible for the coronavirus vaccine. I had registered in advance, logged on to the state site the night before — to make sure everything worked — and was ready to book the first available…
Vermont’s Financial Abuse Specialist Team Works to Protect Seniors’ Wallets
Candace Pratt of Williston has known “Elsie” her entire life. Elsie and Pratt’s mother met as schoolmates more than 75 years ago and remained friends, celebrating birthdays, holidays and other milestones together. So when Elsie’s husband, “Robert,” died suddenly two years ago, Pratt, her sisters and their mother rushed to Elsie’s side. At Robert’s wake,…
The Money & Retirement Issue — 2021
Even in the best of times, money is a top-of-mind concern for most of us. The past year or so has been anything but “the best,” and the pandemic has made financial issues particularly pressing — and, for the most part, depressing. In putting together this Money & Retirement Issue, we found its COVID-19 backdrop…
Barbara Floersch On ‘You Have a Hammer,’ Her ‘Why-To’ Book on Grant Writing for Social Change
As the world inches closer to whatever our post-pandemic “normal” will be, the nonprofit sector will necessarily play an important role in the recovery. That’s especially true where social good is involved. “I don’t mean to be irreverent to nonprofits,” Vermont-based grant-writing expert Barbara Floersch said in an interview. “But governments use them as social…
Letters to the Editor (3/31/21)
Power Dynamic Thanks to Kevin McCallum for the “Grid Block” article [March 17]. I’ve been wondering for years why we have been unable to add significant amounts of renewable power here in northwest Vermont, hearing vague explanations that the “grid” can’t handle any more. This article makes it plain that we need a revamped agency,…
Will Anyone Notice My Pandemic BO When Things Open Up Again?
Dear Reverend, Since the pandemic started, I’ve been working from home, not going anywhere and not trying to impress anyone. My shower routine went from two to three times a week to once a week or less. Now, when I take a shower, I can’t get the BO smell out of my armpits, no matter…
Brain Hacks Have a Disturbingly Literal Meaning in Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and not always easy to sort through. This week, I decided it was time to take a detour from Oscar Country into Midnight Movieland and watched the second trippy feature from Brandon Cronenberg, son of body-horror auteur David Cronenberg. Now streaming on Hulu and rentable elsewhere, Possessor (2020)…
Piecemeal Pies Expands to Stowe with Scores of Investors
About a month after the owners of Piecemeal Pies in White River Junction announced their plan to open a location in Stowe, restaurants in Vermont were ordered to close to control the spread of the coronavirus. The timing could hardly have been more precarious for Piecemeal Pie’s plan. Business dropped by about 75 percent when…
South Burlington’s Sherpa Foods Grows Its Dumpling Business
Six years have passed since the first summer the Sherpa family sold momos at the Burlington Farmers Market. Early on, Nurbu Sherpa spent a lot of time explaining the traditional Nepali dumplings to curious customers. “I remember that part clearly,” his wife, Phura Sherpa, said. While she and her mother-in-law, Radha Sherpa, steamed the hand-crimped…
Sherpa Foods to Add Restaurant, Himalayan D’Lite, This Summer
South Burlington-based Sherpa Foods will open a counter-service restaurant called Himalayan D’Lite at its new home at 1303 Williston Road. The business is relocating there this spring to expand production of its prepared foods, including the traditional Nepali dumplings called momos. Co-owner Nurbu Sherpa expects the eatery to open by early summer. He described it…
