Frank Is ‘Inspirational’

Ken Picard’s insightful article “Love, Dad” [June 17] is a heartwarming piece of journalism. My wife and I, at ages 74, just became guardians of our 57-year-old developmentally disabled cousin. The challenges of caring for him can certainly derail your retirement years’ expectations. But the style, grace and love Frank showers upon Frankie is so inspirational, it bolsters our commitment and love tenfold.

Love ‘Lakebone’

[Re “Branching Out: The Queen City Celebrates Its Newest Public Art — and the End of Main Street Construction”; Feedback: “‘Life Lessons,’” June 10]: Finally, a public sculpture that makes me think, that frightens me a little, even as I am drawn to it: massive, elegiac, inventive, powerful. Beautiful at the same time. It’s hard to accept all those crazy roots and the familiar, sad trunk suspended as if an offering to the sky.

Congratulations to Nancy Winship Milliken and Burlington City Arts for bringing us “Lakebone.”

Not Enough Classes

[Re “Lawmakers Adjourn for the Year After Striking Landmark Education Deal,” May 29, online]: Over the past 20 years Vermont schools have suffered severe declining enrollment. Because of this, coupled with inflation, our schools have become underfunded and unable to offer opportunities to our students. 

Schools have been forced to cut staff, which has resulted in being unable to run some classes. At U-32 High School in Montpelier, specifically, we are having to put some of our more advanced classes on rotating yearly schedules. These include AP Bio and Chem rotating yearly, as well as Physics 2 being offered every other year. Because of this, students like myself, who are taking Physics 1 next year, won’t be able to take Physics 2 our senior year.

Our school budgets have continued to rise while the number of classes that we offer and the teachers and staff that we employ are declining. This is predominantly due to the fact that inflation has caused the cost of maintaining a school building to continue to increase while there aren’t enough kids in the building. As a result, the cost per student has gone up, making it more difficult to tell where the money from increased school budgets is going.

Because of all this, we think that we need to change the way that we offer classes at U-32 to align with the declining enrollment and give students the opportunities that they want and need. I urge you to speak at your local school board and help address these problems.

Misleading Article on Wetlands

Seven Days reported [“Lawmakers Reject Scott’s Effort to Weaken Wetland Rules for Housing,” May 21]. That framing, echoed by the governor’s own press office, misrepresents to readers a policy dispute that didn’t happen.

The Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules is not a policy committee. It cannot weigh housing need against environmental protection. Its charge is narrow and legal: Did the agency exceed its statutory authority? Is the rule arbitrary? Does it conflict with existing law? The answer to all three was yes. This was a procedural disqualification, not a policy rejection. Reporting it otherwise, in a moment already charged with polarization around housing policy, misleads Vermonters about what their government actually did.

What makes the governor’s framing not just inaccurate but worth examining as a matter of political integrity is this: The rule he is defending as pro-housing contains no affordability requirement. The Department of Environmental Conservation explicitly declined to add one. There is no mechanism to prevent wetland-adjacent units from becoming short-term rentals that have already priced Vermonters out of their own communities. The governor posted that the rule would allow housing “without reducing a single square inch of wetlands in Vermont” — a claim that directly contradicts his own commissioner’s sworn testimony before LCAR.

LCAR did not reject a housing solution. It rejected a legally deficient rule that guaranteed nothing for Vermonters who actually need affordable housing. Your readers deserved reporting that made that distinction clear.

Let the Barge Canal ‘Be’

[Re “Housing Planned for Property Near Burlington’s Pine Street Barge Canal,” May 26]: As a resident of Burlington’s South End, I’ve come to love exploring the Barge Canal urban wilderness. Yes, it’s a brownfield and Superfund site, left by a coal gasification plant that operated from 1908 until 1966. But it’s also a rich birding spot with a few dozen species of nesting songbirds, herons, ducks and geese. It’s the home of beavers, muskrats and foxes.

Yes, it’s been used as a campsite and littered with trash. But community volunteers have come together to clean it up for the past five years, especially on Green Up Day. This morning I saw not one piece of trash on the path from Pine Street to the water.

In winter the shallow water makes for safe and early ice on the Barge Canal. Skaters come out. An occasional train goes by. The place feels timeless. You forget you’re in the middle of a busy city.

I’m excited about the vision of Friends of the Barge Canal, led by Ruby Perry and Andy Simon. We hope the entire 38 acres will be preserved as a public park. We envision accessible trails and elevated wooden walkways where people will observe wildlife in the wetlands and learn about the area’s history. 

Yes, we need housing, but let’s build it on parking lots and previously developed spaces. Let’s not choose to send truckloads of our polluted soil to a landfill in another Vermont town. Let’s allow Mother Nature to continue to heal this fragile and beautiful place. Let it be! 

Coester Revealed Himself

[Re “An AI Video Targets Rep. Balint — and Spurs Debate About the Tech in Campaigns,” June 9]: Mark Coester said he didn’t make the video but shared it on social media as soon as he saw it. “I think he did a great job. Hilarious!” Coester told Seven Days.

Well, that’s all I need to know about Mr. Coester. That, plus the profanity-laced final comments in the article, tells me he’s a fine fit for the party of Donald Trump. And we don’t need that representing Vermont.

Correction

Last week’s art story “Pride of Place,” about the new wing at Southern Vermont Arts Center, incorrectly described architect Brian Mac’s current employment. He is no longer associated with Birdseye.

This article appears in June 24 • 2026.