Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the proud new owner of a summer home in the Champlain Islands, Seven Days has confirmed.
The Burlington resident last week plopped down nearly $600,000 on a lakefront camp in North Hero.
Sanders’ new crib has four bedrooms and 500 feet of Lake Champlain beachfront on the east side of the island — facing Vermont, not New York. The Bern will keep his home in Burlington and use the new camp seasonally.
“We’ve traveled up to the islands many times over the years — almost always on day trips,” Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, told Seven Days in a written statement. “We’ve been impressed with the North Hero community, eaten at the North Hero House and Shore Acres and have suggested them to friends who were looking for a beautiful place to stay or have dinner. St. Anne’s Shrine in Isle La Motte is my favorite church and it is nearby.”
Last Tuesday, the day of the closing, a relaxed-looking Bernie Sanders posed for a photo at Hero’s Welcome General Store on Route 2. The store, a bit south of his new abode, serves a sandwich called “Feel the Bun” in the senator’s honor. The $6.99 deli delight consists of a “HUGE” homemade roll, sliced turkey, fresh apple chutney, hot pepper relish, lettuce, tomato and provolone cheese.
“It’s not fair that the Billionaire Class controls 99 percent of the bread,” the menu description reads. “Here’s a sandwich for the rest of us … to keep us nourished until everything cool is free!”
Sanders ordered the sandwich during his visit last week. Hero’s Welcome owner, Robert Camp, told Seven Days the store once offered a Sanders sandwich that poked fun at the senator, but later pulled it. The new version captures the essence of his rise to national prominence, Camp said.
The popular general store has a line of chairs out front — one side labeled “Republicans,” the other “Democrats.” In the middle, until recently, sat a lone “Sandernistas” chair, Camp said. That chair will be back — as long as the new neighbor doesn’t mind, Camp joked.
“He’s just been great,” said Camp. “This is going to be his home, so we won’t encourage autographs.”
The small Grand Isle County town has been abuzz for the last several days with the news. O’Meara Sanders said: “The entire family is very excited about it.”
“My family had a lake home in Maine since 1900, but we hadn’t had the time to go there in recent years — especially since my parents passed away,” she said. “We finally let go of it and that enabled us to buy a place in the islands — something I’ve always hoped for. ”
The Sanders also own a row house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and a house in Burlington’s New North End.
Island locals are happy to see a man of Sanders’ stature choose the town, which had fewer than 1,000 residents as of the 2010 U.S. Census.
“We couldn’t ask for a nicer person to move in — that’s my opinion,” said Eileen Mitchell, a member of the town selectboard. The place isn’t just for senators, she added: “We welcome anyone else that moves into town.”
Camp, who’s run Hero’s Welcome for 23 years, predicted Sanders would fit right into island life.
“He’ll be a welcome neighbor, everybody up here loves him,” Camp said. “We’re all ornery and so is he!”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/ http://www.mercyforanimals.org/investigations/ I love the Sanders and was so shocked that Bernie felt he needed to endorse a woman who is the epitome of everything his campaign railed against.
I’ll never vote for her or the other lesser evil.
Still, the point I will make is that everything Bernie is passionate about, health care for all, peace, no more war, reduce the harm and suffering in the world, caring for children properly, all suffering connected…is ALL related to eating animals and our concept of animals as property and products. He has not learned yet, that the root of violence in the human caste system, became the Pandora’s Box it IS, because our species domesticated animals so long ago. It has become a normal layer in humanity to protect certain species of animal under the law, while the most violent and abhorrent cruelty to so called farmed animals, 65 billion every year, is accepted as normal.
I’m sure if Bernie and Jane spent any time at a turkey slaughterhouse of dairy/veal calf slaughterhouse, where their turkey sandwich and provolone cheese came from, they to, would SEE the violence that has become the signature of our food system..
Animal agriculture and the exploitation of non-human beings built economic empires that rose, and like ours, fall.
If Bernie wants peace, health and safety for children, ethical veganism is the path…
Please read again if you didn’t see that Jane sold a family summer home in Maine to buy thie ! Also, it’s three homes (Burlington, DC & this one!) HRC owns 7 homes ALL multimillion dollar homes!
Regardless of where the money came from, they own 4 homes, and this is a $600k CAMP!!!
Vermonters all across the state are crippled by over- taxation, and struggling at two or more jobs to pay the taxes on $150,000.00 homes, when do we get a break? WHEN?
Do you suppose that would rent that out for $500.00 a month in all those ” non- seasonal” months they aren’t using it?
Not from campaign donations… Congratulations Bernie and Jane. To many years, of just hanging out.
#lol and bernie made us think Hillary was the #establishment
It says in the article that Jane’s family had a lake home in Maine. They sold it and used the money to buy the summer home.
Jane said it in the article, the sold her parents place in Maine.
@JUMBOJET8 — It says above that Jane sold a family home in Maine that she inherited to pay for the new house. Sanders makes a pretty nice salary and I’m thinking their Burlington home is paid for — looks like they’ve lived there for a long time. They can afford a house like that.
Where did the $600,000 come from?!
Good – he deserves it.!