Letters to the Editor (5/28/25)

‘Why Aren’t You Out Here?’

[Re Calendar: Green Up Day, April 30]: Activities such as hiking, stacking firewood and road biking produce free thinking and wandering of the mind. On Green Up Day, my contemplations included: There goes a garbage tosser and Why aren’t you out here?

Along 300 feet of the roadside, I found plenty of objects adorned with bright colors and catchy names such as Loon, Charge+, Elf and Geek Bar Pulse — all disposable vapes. Green Up Day will not solve this waste problem.

If you’re a walker, watch out, as every five seconds one of these cartridges is thrown out in the U.S. and 150 million are tossed per year; that equals 6,000 Teslas worth of lithium. We are poisoning our adolescents and our environment with toxic metals. Vermont should enact a “sweeping” bottle bill and recycling legislation. What we have now is very costly.

Gregory Hennemuth

Derby

Health Insurance for All

Thanks to Seven Days for [“Code Red,” May 7], on how the state’s health care leaders are scrambling to prevent another colossal insurance hike in rates or the implosion of the state’s health care system. It is excessively telling and sad that Rep. Alyssa Black (D-Essex), chair of the House Health Care Committee, and three other members of her committee have to go without health insurance because “the unrelenting price hikes” have elevated costs beyond their reach, and they are legislators.

These legislators who have to go without health insurance are in a position to at least do something about it. We are not. I support that health insurance should be part of serving as a legislator, yet only as long as we who are paying it do not have to go without.

The trouble with this newest crisis is that it is déjà vu. We’ve been here before. It seems like we never leave it. Every year Blue Cross Blue Shield is hitting us up through the Green Mountain Care Board for another “major insurance hike.” After this year’s hike is granted, it’ll be the same or similar next year, the year after that and so on.

Rep. Lori Houghton (D-Essex Junction) said of BCBS: “If we lose them, we’re screwed.” Maybe we’ll be even more screwed if we keep them instead of finally, at last, adopting a publicly funded health care system.

Walter Carpenter

Montpelier

‘Let Your Voice Be Heard’

[Re “Senate Passes Education Reform Bill After Days of Political Wrangling,” May 23, online]: Kudos, as always, to education reporter Alison Novak for her piece published last Friday on the Senate passing an amended version of H.454 after the whirlwind finish to last week’s activities. While there still is work to do, Gov. Phil Scott has flatly stated he will veto anything that doesn’t reduce costs, but funding is only one aspect of the three being looked at to improve education, along with governance structure and, most importantly, quality.

The Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont has engaged a communications group to gather public input from throughout the state through virtual sessions. Let your voice be heard by signing up for one of these sessions. There are currently two scheduled for the last week in May (Wednesday, May 28, 9:30 to 11 a.m., and Thursday, May 29, 6 to 7:30 p.m.) and one in June (Wednesday, June 11, 6 to 7:30 p.m.). Find links at the Vermont Agency of Education’s website by clicking on “State Boards and Councils” and going from there to the Commission on the Future’s page.

Join one of these sessions to inform future legislation. Call Gov. Scott and urge him not to undo the hard work done by the agency, the commission, the House and the Senate with his red pen — we cannot erase the progress that has already been made in a very short time by decoupling funding from governance and quality.

Ken Fredette

Wallingford

Westford Is Growing

Thank you for your recent coverage of the proposed changes affecting Westford’s middle school students and the community response [“Small Schools, Big Decisions: Rural Families Feel Powerless in the Face of Efforts to Reshape or Close Their Schools,” May 14]. I appreciate the coverage very much, as these issues are affecting many towns in Vermont. I want to respectfully clarify one point in your article, which stated that a “dwindling number of students at Westford will lead to higher per-pupil spending.”

That phrase may leave the impression that Westford has low or declining enrollment or that our population is shrinking. In fact, the opposite is true.

According to Westford town records, births in Westford have been increasing year over year, indicating a growing young population. Our school enrollment numbers are stable, not declining.

Westford remains a vibrant, family-oriented town. We are not experiencing the kind of rural depopulation that some other communities are facing. The increase in per-pupil spending projected under the consolidation plan isn’t due to a shrinking student body; it’s because the plan would move three grades out of the school building, while operation and maintenance of the building are still necessary as if it were full.

Westford residents are proud of our community school. We are deeply concerned that decisions based on misleading assumptions could put its future at risk.

Kirsten Tyler

Westford

Sorry, Progs

In your May 14 issue, there was a note that Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak went to Montréal to apologize to Canadians for our president [Emoji That: “Diplomatic Mission”]. I found it interesting, because the mayor and the rest of the Progressives are solely responsible for President Donald Trump being where he is.

There were millions of people who would have rather not voted for Trump but had no decent choice. They associated Kamala Harris with the far left. They were scared by the Progressives’ very visible, sheer incompetence to govern in places such as Burlington; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and elsewhere. They were scared by their militant, unforgiving, rigid, unpractical ideology. The Progressives also turned away a big chunk of minorities, because in their arrogance they considered them one-dimensional and dumb.

If we do not want JD Vance in three-plus years — if we want a chance to have some kind of universal health care — I would recommend that voters disappear the Progressives into the wilderness. (Although then you get to be sorry for the wildlife, because the Progs are going to try to inflict their DEI militancy even on ferns and foxes. No safe spaces for the bears, either.) Otherwise, four years from now, we are going to be sending trainloads of officials to Montréal to beg.

Evzen Holas

Burlington

The Reality of Reappraisal

[Re “Queen City Squeeze,” May 7]: I was reading your in-depth article on Burlington’s budget woes when I hit the following sentence and sighed: “Residents are also grappling with a recent reappraisal that hiked tax bills for most homeowners, costs that trickled down to renters.”

Reappraisals that result in higher property values do not automatically result in higher property taxes, a point you made in your April 23 article on property assessment in Vermont [“Home Worth: Some Vermont Lawmakers Want to Revamp How Real Estate Is Assessed as Part of the Education Funding Transformation”].

Here in Calais, we are preparing for a reappraisal mandated by the state, and a piece of advice I’ve gotten from officials in other towns is how vital it is to explain to people how town-wide reappraisals relate to taxation. The voters set a budget for their town, and that number is divided by the total value of all the properties in town. There may be some properties whose relative value goes up or down, but an overall rise in values won’t equal an overall rise in taxes.

Burlington’s reappraisal could only lead to higher taxes for “most homeowners” if the values of a small number of other properties dropped significantly. If that is, in fact, what happened, please make that clear.

P.S. I read Seven Days cover to cover every weekend, and I truly appreciate your work. Thanks so much to all of you!

Teegan Dykeman-Brown

Calais

‘Keep the Nectar’s Sign’

[Re “‘We’ve Been Hit Hard’: Nectar’s to Close for the Summer in June,” May 8]: As some know, the Nectar’s sign, neon and rotation included, was grandfathered in when the city outlawed billboards in 1968.

Summer is coming. Also coming: a marina, several hotels and other projects. Though Nectar’s may be sold, the city should decree the Nectar’s sign a monument and let it stay forevermore! It’s a landmark — a tourist shrine. Let us not lose Nectar’s!

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” William Shakespeare wrote. (Gosh, was he good.) I compare Burlington not to a summer’s day but to a house built on a cliff. We want it to stand solidly, but it’s slipping. Markets change, society morphs into the future. A summer’s day is less predictable (as is a winter’s day) than it was. The world continues to change.

I feel we’re back on the way up, with a new mayor and big projects in progress — a refreshing change. The unhoused need some choices and some help. When people ask me for a dollar downtown, a dozen times a day, I want to say, “You don’t need a dollar; you need a program.” But I don’t say it.

Keep the Nectar’s sign. Greet your neighbor. Drive carefully. Be tolerant. Downtown can improve! You can help.

Charlie Messing

Burlington

Ways to Save $8 Million

[Re “Queen City Squeeze,” May 7]: If Burlington has a budget gap of $8 million and, as you reported eight months ago in [“Burning Cash: Opponents of Burlington’s Biomass Power Plant Zero In on Steep Financial Losses,” August 14, 2024], the Joseph C. McNeil Generation Station was on track to lose $8 million in 2024, could you explain why shuttering McNeil would not close the gap?

Further, a related article asking city officials to explain why Burlington needs its own electric and water departments would be greatly appreciated. We sold Burlington Telecom to plug a budget gap with no adverse impact to residents. It seems getting our power from Green Mountain Power and our water from Champlain Water District would be similarly inconsequential.

Unloading these departments should allow enough time for Burlington to transition its remaining departments to a sustainable structure.

Clifford Morgan

Burlington

Problem Is Parking

[Re “More Than 100 Business Owners Seek Relief From Burlington ‘Crisis,’” May 9, online]: I have heard a lot about why people don’t go to downtown Burlington anymore. For me, it’s not about the street scene — I’ve lived in worse neighborhoods.

For me, it’s the parking hassle. A number of spots were removed to make a more pedestrian/bicycle-friendly town. They tend to be in areas where I would like to park but have trouble finding space now.

And I used to be able to go into a parking garage and, as I left, pay a nice person the amount I owed for the time I actually spent. The parking app has never worked for me, and I never know for sure how long I will need a spot. So, paying in advance is annoying if not overly expensive.

At private lots, again, one has to think ahead to how long they will stay, and at $4 an hour, that racks up. I have sometimes paid more for parking than for a meal.

So, no, I don’t tend to go into Burlington anymore because of the anxiety of finding a place to park within reasonable walking distance of my destination. (Oh, yeah, I have some mobility issues.)

Public transit is not an option for me because of the limited schedule and length of time it would take to get in and out of town. Burlington will probably just have to do without me.

Ann Larson

Essex

Message to Business Owners

[Re “More Than 100 Businesses Seek Relief From Burlington ‘Crisis,'” May 9, online]: How many of the business owners who signed this letter count themselves as conservatives? How many have protested high property taxes or voted for politicians who pledge to cut, lower or otherwise reduce taxes? How many, while fussing over taxes, enthusiastically donate money to business groups, lobbying groups, the chamber of commerce or other organizations that are constantly agitating for a business-friendly community (read: lower taxes)? How many of them seek tax breaks and other incentives to finance their business? How many voted for President Donald Trump and his chain saw-wielding sidekick?

How many relentlessly howl for “small government”?

Their 10-point plan looks like an excellent set of goals. I cannot imagine anyone being opposed to it.

The May 7 issue of Seven Days bears a cover entitled “Queen City Squeeze,” and the article inside details the need for the city to — wait for it — cut spending.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you have small and relatively ineffective government or you have municipal, community and social services, which cost money.

Instead of dropping a 10-point plan on the shoulders of the new mayor — and apparently expecting her to manufacture needed resources to execute it out of thin air — how about closing ranks with the mayor and ideating, fundraising, grant writing and volunteering to help bring your plan to fruition?

Business owners should put their shoulders to the load and help make their plan happen.

Steven Farnham

Plainfield