Letters to the Editor 

It’s good news that IBM is helping Burlington lower its impact on the climate. [“IBM Wants to Help Burlington Reduce Its Carbon Footprint — No Strings Attached,” March 27]. Unfortunately, the city’s refusal to fix glaring errors in its Climate Action Plan prevents an honest look at Burlington’s actual contributions to runaway global climate change.

The Burlington Climate Action Plan reports the entire city’s carbon dioxide emissions for 2007 — from all sources — at 397,272.4 tons. Yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculates the CO2 emissions of McNeil Generating Station alone — the 50-megawatt biomass incinerator supplying roughly one-third of the city’s electricity — at 444,646 tons per year. A closer look reveals that the city only counted 2 percent of McNeil’s emissions from the 30 cords of wood it burns per hour from New York and Vermont forests along with a varying percentage of natural gas — including fracked gas.

In a May 2012 email to the city, William Keeton, professor of forest ecology and forestry chair at UVM’s Rubenstein School, wrote that, “we cannot assume biomass energy to be emissions neutral,” recommending that Burlington acknowledge “the high likelihood of net positive emissions during the near term so critical for avoiding irreversible high magnitude climate change.”

In a September 2012 blog post, 350 Vermont urged Burlington to account for the “actual carbon dioxide smokestack emissions from the McNeil Station for the wood and gas burned, as calculated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

It’s very possible for Burlington to emerge as a leader in the fight against climate change. But how can we reduce our future carbon footprint if we won’t even acknowledge our current one? 

Josh Schlossberg

Burlington

Schlossberg is the coordinator of Energy Justice Network

Cause célèbre

[Re “Lit Update: New Journal The Cause and Books From Honeybee Press,” March 27]: It’s unfortunate I was unable to attend The Cause’s second-issue release party at Radio Bean. From Margot Harrison’s article, it’s clear there was a supportive audience and an abundance of poetry. Cause Arts Quarterly editors Eric Bieber, Vincent Marksohn and Taylor Morse are doing something unique. Their publications are city-street tough with qualities that could almost be characterized as underground Dada.

Even though I did not have the opportunity to attend this latest reading, I have in the past had the chance to read poetry alongside Vincent in Winooski, and I have to say his poetry is littered with dark humor and poetic narratives that are uniquely his own.

Christopher Ricker

Essex Junction

Remembering Mintzer’s

[Re “Tastes of Little Jerusalem,” March 27]: I came to UVM as a freshman in 1956. Then as now many of the kids were from New York and New Jersey. On Sundays, there was only one meal served at the cafeteria — sort of a brunch. If you needed to eat at suppertime, you were on your own. A whole bunch of us would walk down Main Street to Mintzer’s Deli. There were all kinds of sandwich meats, smoked fish and pickles available. The deli as I recall was in the same block as the Strong Theater and always very busy on Sundays.

I did not come from a background of eating deli, but my friends felt it was a taste of home, and very quickly I got used to eating pastrami on pumpernickel or rye. Of course eventually they introduced me to New York City delis, and that was a real treat when I went home with them. But Mintzer’s was the place to go on a Sunday afternoon.

Shohreh Eckhardt

South Burlington

Barn Again

Your WTF is well noted [Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: “Why are barns allowed to fall into disrepair yet are rarely torn down?” March 27]. Historic preservation and Act 250 are also a major cause of the decay. Restrictions are put on barns, making it unfeasible to preserve, and then Act 250 says you have to leave the barns for preservation but never says how, who, or identifies a money source to keep them. I have just finished my 54th barn restoration with a 40-by-100, mid-1800 barn moved from Johnson to Hinesburg to be used for weddings. In June, we are moving a barn from Waterville to Dorset. It is my goal to reach a hundred before I die. I do this as a passion.

Peter Demick

Charlotte

I pondered this question myself when I was engaged and first married on our family farm. However, it didn’t take long to come to the same conclusion that you did: It costs too much, it isn’t fitting for what we do today (hay bales are much heavier than loose hay), and we have too many other things to do to survive as a business. People act when it makes economic sense. I have been trying to find easy information about somebody who would like to pay for old barn beams. If I had the time, I would organize some way to connect Vermonters with those who would love to have old beams in new houses, etc. Then would Vermonters start to clean up old barns?  

Stefanie Burtt

Cabot

I have been the owner of a historic three-story dairy barn in Tunbridge for 10 years. The main section of the barn probably dates to the mid-1850s. The barn is in daily use. It shelters a flock of 13 sheep and a horse, and is also used to store hay, equipment and tools. The barn is in need of a great deal of work to its foundation, sills, windows and roof. It is not a matter of whether a barn is in use or disuse that drives the decision to make required repairs; it is simply a matter of economics. The repairs for a barn are very costly, usually requiring heavy machinery and skilled tradesmen. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the average homeowner or small farmer to shoulder these costs. The preservation grants offered are matching grants. If, after a lengthy application process, a barn is chosen to receive grant funding, the homeowner must be prepared to match the grant funds awarded with their own personal funds. Further, the repairs must be made by approved contractors in accordance with preservation regulations.

When I first moved to this farm 10 years ago, it was my intention to make the repairs that the barn required. I highly value the preservation of historic barn structures and the beauty they add to the farm landscape. However, idealism faded and the economic reality of living in Vermont quickly set in for me. Gathering the necessary personal funds to match a barn preservation grant has proven nearly impossible in the face of the state’s high cost of living.  I am now faced with the unhappy decision of maintaining the roof over my head or the roof over my animals’ heads.

For now, repairs to the barn must wait — maybe next year, maybe in five years, perhaps indefinitely.

Karla Klotz

Tunbridge

CORRECTION

Former state senator and Ethan Allen Institute founder John McClaughry was mischaracterized as a secessionist in an Off Message blog post last Thursday titled, “John McClaughry: Free-Market Conservative and … Champion of Frogs?” We apologize for the error.