In Praise of HCR

I was surprised to read that Maine historian Heather Cox Richardson is a new “source” for editor Paula Routly [From the Publisher: “‘Don’t Watch If This Will Upset You,’” January 28]. HCR is a national treasure and has been my No. 1 news source since 2019. I highly recommend following her daily Letters From an American on Substack for factual and concise reporting.

Sharps Eye

[Re “Scott Unveils 14-Point Public Safety Plan for Burlington,” October 23, 2025]: On January 23, Howard Center announced a June closing of its Safe Recovery Program on Clarke Street in Burlington.

The same day, Vermont Department of Health spokesperson Kyle Casteel stated: “The Health Department will continue working internally and with community-based service providers to ensure the community served by Howard Center Safe Recovery has uninterrupted access to the programs on which they rely.”

Not so fast, Mr. Spokesperson. Before a new center is authorized to distribute free syringes to drug addicts, let’s ensure some commonsense reforms are in place. First, no free needles unless a user returns an equal number of used needles. Second, no free needles unless a person commits to and then participates in a state-certified treatment/recovery program. Third, until the Howard’s program ends in June, all funding for its Safe Recovery Program must be withheld until it demands a returned syringe for every clean one given away.

Why such stringency? By its own records, Howard annually distributes some 944,000 needles, up fourfold in recent years. Of these, about 517,000 get returned to its center. That’s 427,00 needles missing in action. Most end up discarded throughout the city. Or possibly, as NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio, recently reported about a similar program, “for sale on the black market, where the going rate is as high as $3 each.” 

If just half of Burlington’s unreturned needles ended up in an illegal channel or sold on eBay, fraudsters would be making a cool $600,000 or so annually off the misery of others.

‘A Gift to Our Community’

Thank you for your coverage of the unfair treatment of Jeanne Hulsen by the Burlington School District for the past five years [“Settling the Score: An Equal-Pay Lawsuit Against the Burlington School District Ends in a Nearly $500,000 Award,” January 28]. Jeanne is a trailblazer in so many ways: She pursued these unfair practices in a courageous, brave, disciplined and professional manner. It was a long, tedious battle, but Jeanne’s determination to set the record straight is beyond admirable. She is a gift to our community. I’m sad that the Burlington School District did not see it that way.

‘She Is Not Alone’

[Re “Settling the Score: An Equal-Pay Lawsuit Against the Burlington School District Ends in a Nearly $500,000 Award,” January 28]: I have so much admiration for Jeanne Hulsen’s bravery and persistence in challenging years of discriminatory treatment by the Burlington School District. And how ironic that she was paid so much less than her male peers, as well as the far less experienced man hired in her place, at the same time BSD was celebrating the equal-pay activism of the girls’ varsity soccer team.

She is not alone: I have heard too many stories of middle-aged women forced out of their jobs after decades of good service. It’s a horribly unjust and humiliating experience. Hulsen’s $295,000 settlement to cover lost wages and benefits (plus additional funds to cover her legal fees), while significant, doesn’t really compensate for the impact 22 years of unequal pay would have on a woman’s retirement savings and Social Security income. The fight for pay equity continues.

‘I Do’ Remember

I enjoyed your article on “Altar Alternatives” [February 4]. I once officiated at Vermont Institute of Natural Science for the marriage of a medical student. Her guests, my wife and several raptors were in attendance. My wife later described how an owl, perched on the forearm of an attendant, intently watched me intone the ceremonial words. When it came to “You may now kiss the bride,” my wife would later swear that the owl swiveled its head 180 degrees and demurely looked away.

On another occasion, Post Mills’ beloved late hot-air balloon meister, Brian Boland, took me and a bridal couple up for a hurried airborne wedding; we were racing an incoming morning storm. The view of dawn breaking over Lake Fairlee was unforgettable for all save the father of the bride. That gentleman, smiling benignly through his personal Alzheimer’s fog, was seemingly unaware that he was several hundred feet in the air.

All Pay for Private School

[Re “Proposed Vermont Budget Could Lead to a 6 Percent Tax Hike,” January 20, online]: In the past 30 years, Vermont has created a public school system in which a small minority of towns representing 18 percent of the population get to choose to have their private-school education publicly funded. The majority of Vermonters — 82 percent — do not. 

But the majority does support the minority’s private-school education, increasingly at the expense of its public schools’ operational capacity. 

This needs to be part of the education debate happening now. Excluding it poses an economic threat to Vermont taxpayers.

For example, research on “school choice” programs has shown that while voucher students perform no better than their peers who remain in public schools, these programs reduce funding for public schools. Indiana’s voucher programs alone cost the state’s public schools $115 million in 2014-15. 

A 2021 economic analysis estimated that the expansion of school choice programs would result in a $66.5 billion to $203 billion cost to taxpayers annually. 

Some might say that’s a problem for bigger states and that the cost to Vermonters is a drop in the bucket. 

But consider St. Johnsbury Academy’s 2024 tax filing, indicating a total revenue of $38,416,850 in 2023. Its 2025 school report reflects that 43 percent of its revenues are from public tax dollars — that’s $16.5 million of public education funds.

Considering that we have 45 private schools approved to receive public education dollars, this is no drop in the bucket. 

Without an honest conversation about school choice, I’m afraid that Vermont might need a bigger bucket.

Food Stamp Scam

[Re “Vermont to Pursue ‘Junk Food Ban’ for Users of Food Stamps,” February 5]: I think this is a stupid idea. People will just trade the food stamps for pennies on the dollar, like they did in the ’80s to buy their soda and other banned items. At what cost? They’ll trade 50 bucks’ worth of their food stamps for 25 bucks, if they’re lucky, and still get their soda and other items.

Think, people.

Preserve Open Space

[Re “Public Accommodations? Amid a Housing Crisis, Vermont Explores Making State Property Available for Home Building,” January 21]: I would like to encourage all Burlingtonians to push back hard against any attempt by our city’s administrators to take our irreplaceable and finite park land for development.

As Burlington continues to grow, our public open space will become more critical than ever for our mental and physical well-being, quality of life, and buffering against changes in climate. For most of us, housing in Burlington is charming but cramped, and our public open spaces are the backyards for “the rest of us.”

To quote Burlington’s own planBTV, the city’s principal guide to land use: “As this plan and many related plans detail, [natural areas, parks and open space] provide incredibly valuable natural, recreational, and economic resources for the city and much of our region. The long-term maintenance and stewardship of these areas is a high priority, as are strategies that will preserve the integrity and improve the function of these resources. As development pressures across the city increase, there will be more and more pressure to develop increasingly marginal sites.”

Burlington’s administration seems to be ignoring this plan and more closely following the playbook of the Trump administration, which has prioritized selling off public land for development.

Partnering to develop city-owned parking lots and abandoned buildings is a great idea. Just stay away from our open space. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Driving School

[Re “Officials Bring Back Yield Signs at One-Lane Burlington Bridge,” January 30, online]: I’m a little confused why people whose job is to plan parking lots and traffic patterns don’t have more common sense. The installation of stop signs at both ends of the Queen City Park Road bridge is a great example of municipal idiocy. The only hope that the stop signs would work was if people figured out how to use “the convoy system,” in which batches of two or three cars at a time go across the bridge. It’s the most efficient way to clear the traffic on both ends, but for some reason, the people who use the bridge never got the memo. Timid drivers wait endlessly for the guy at the other end to go first, even when it’s obviously their turn. The result was lines of cars stretching all the way to Rhino Foods at rush hour. Maybe what Vermont drivers need is a weeklong driving school in Boston to get the idea. (Hold the hate mail. It’s a joke.)

Oppose Israeli Apartheid

[Re “Burlington City Council Adds Tax Hike to the Ballot, Rejects ‘Apartheid-Free’ Pledge,” January 27]: I am disappointed by Seven Days’ biased article about the Burlington vote on apartheid-free communities. It devoted most of its ink to the opinions of the council president, who undemocratically tried to block the will of voters for the third year in a row.

As our government is hunting down and even killing migrants and protesters, the Apartheid-Free Community’s pledge to “oppose racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression” could not be timelier. Vermonters not only want to stop sending our federal tax dollars to support genocide against Palestinians, we also want to end the use of Israeli-made spyware for repression here, such as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract with Paragon Solutions. We are appalled that technology from Israeli company Elbit Systems is used in surveillance towers on our borders and that new towers are appearing along the Canada-Vermont border. And we are concerned about General Dynamics’ facility in Williston building components for Elbit’s Iron Fist project in Israel.

We also want to end “the deadly exchange” program in which U.S. law enforcement learns lethal tactics from the Israeli military, such as those that killed George Floyd and are still used against our communities today. The violent tactics Israeli apartheid developed to repress Palestinians are being turned on us.

One cannot oppose fascism and authoritarianism — and support migrants and protesters — while also supporting Israeli apartheid. Nor can one claim to defend democracy while denying our right to vote on the issue.

A Contractor’s View

[Re “All Wet? Gov. Phil Scott Wants to Relax Wetlands Regs to Spur Housing Construction. Critics Say the Change Would Endanger the Environment — and Homes,” January 28]: The rewrite of Vermont wetlands regulations is long overdue, and I applaud Gov. Phil Scott for taking this initial step. As they currently exist, the rules, and the administration of the rules, are time-consuming, costly, ambiguous and have the greatest impact on those who can least afford it. Wetlands rule-related project delays, consulting fees and state application fees are an inconvenience to big developers, but they are a barrier to entry for the average Vermonter and are stifling the creation of affordable housing.

I have been designing septic systems in the Northeast Kingdom for over 15 years, and it is clear that the main impediment to permitting single-family homes and ADUs is the wetlands permitting process. Using the Vermont Significant Wetlands Inventory maps to identify wetlands addresses the uncertainty, ambiguity and high costs associated with wetlands identification and can be done year-round. (Field delineations are only allowed May through September).

Some wetlands will be lost, but no more than are already being lost. Home builders are currently on the honor system when it comes to notifying the Agency of Natural Resources/Wetlands Program about their project. Many homes are being built with no wetlands oversight, and that would probably not change. I would anticipate more compliance if the new rule were adopted. Septic designers could simply overlay the VSWI maps on their site plans to prove compliance with the wetlands rules. No four- to five-figure consulting fees, no six- to 18-month project delays, and can be done year-round.

Question Builders

[Re “All Wet?” January 28]: Remember the adage “To a hammer, everything is a nail.” John Dillon’s marvelous but unsettling article about endangered wetlands made me think of something similar: Namely, “To a developer, anywhere is buildable.” Today, it’s a wetland; tomorrow, a steep hillside. Last month, a forest; 50 years ago, a mountainside. And the beat goes interminably on and on and on.

The late writer and part-time Greensboro resident Wallace Stegner often wrote about the boomers and buccaneers who plundered the West. Here in Vermont, we have our own boomers and buccaneers, and they not only now have bulldozers and backhoes, but some have titles, too: mayor, governor, senator. Their motto seems to be “If you can’t beat the law, be the law.”

Anyone with a deep background in Vermont history knows that sweetheart deals and shady deeds have often been incubated under the golden dome, where today’s Build, Build, Build Brigade seems comfortably at home.

I’m looking for someone courageous to punch back, perhaps someone similar to the state railroad commissioner who fought the railroad cartel that once ruled Vermont. He wrote, “My anathema on the scoundrel railroaders, whom I loathe with all my soul … A gallows-car should be attached to every train, and a director hanged at each trip.”

That’s decidedly not civil speech, but heck, they named a national park after that guy, George Perkins Marsh, who some call the father of the environmental movement. I wonder what Marsh might say after reading Dillon’s article.

This article appears in February 11 • 2026.

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