by Bob Nuner

Montpelier’s Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC), an organization with a national presence providing services

and expertise on heat energy from biomass, led a conference January 16 on wood-chip and wood-pellet heat. One hundred and twenty advocates, business representatives and other interested par-ties gathered at National Life to share information, compare notes and discuss the issues involved in large-scale wood heating.

With peak U.S. oil production having occurred in 1970, wood becomes a prominent candidate for a domestic energy source. Money stays in-state, jobs are created, and there’s less price volatility. The Northeast uses 82 percent of the nation’s heat-ing oil to stay warm, according to BERC’s Sarah Galbraith. She led a biomass workshop comparing the prices of propane and wood. Given propane at $3 per gallon and wood energy at $30 per green ton, wood costs the equivalent of $0.51 per gallon of propane or $0.86 per gallon of oil.

Here in Montpelier, the new senior center will burn wood pellets, and a district heat project is under way to bring wood-fired heat to city build-ings and downtown businesses (see box below). Norm Etkind, school energy management program director of the Vermont Superintendents Associa-tion, said that 35 percent of Vermont school square footage is heated by pellet- or chip-fired heating systems; there are 43 combined heat and power (CHP) systems in Vermont schools, and estimated fuel savings last year amounted to $2.6 million. CHP systems produce both electricity and space heat, reducing the amount of energy wasted.

Tim Shea, second vice president of facilities, purchasing and contracting at National Life, of-fered another example of money and energy saved at National Life. National Life’s major buildings total 500,000 square feet (sf), housing about 1,800 people. Shea said that before the switch to chips, National Life burned about 200,000 gallons, or $600,000 per year, in No. 4 fuel oil that came by way of New Hampshire. Now, National Life pur-chases 3,000 tons, or $200,000, of wood chips per year from a Vermont vendor about an hour from Montpelier, and half its domestic hot water comes from 20 roof-mounted solar thermal panels. As to

IN THIS ISSUESPECIAL PULL-OUT

HISTORY QUIZ

How well do you know Montpelier?

H.1–4

LOCAL CHARACTERS Talking to Plainfield

storyteller Con Hogan

8

WINTER ARTSTwo performances and

a call for poetry

9

REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

Who’s buying, who’s selling

17

PRSR

T S

TD

CA

R-R

T S

OR

TU

.S. P

osta

gePA

IDM

ontp

elie

r, V

TPe

rmit

NO

. 123

The

Brid

geP.O

. Box

114

3M

ontp

elie

r, V

T 0

5601

Connecting Montpelier and nearby communities since 1993 | JANUARY 19–FEBRUARY 1, 2012

see BIOMASS, page 4

by John Odum

On January 11 the city council officially put the district heat-ing development project, approved by voters in a special elec-

tion last July, into the next phase.By a 4-2 margin (with councilors Alan Weiss and Tom Golonka

voting no and Mayor Mary Hooper casting a ‘yes’ vote in the absence of councilor Andy Hooper), the council gave its approval on three agreements. The first sets the terms of the relationship between the city and the state in regard to heating rates and opera-tions. The second approved contract allows for a roughly 25 per-cent share of the heating capacity. The final contract allots grant money supporting the project between the state and the city. The council also, by a 5-1 margin, granted City Manager Bill Fraser the authority to move forward on the agreements.

The plan is for the State of Vermont to replace its current heating

plant for state buildings with a new, larger-capacity biomass plant. That larger capacity will be used to heat Montpelier city buildings and allow for downtown businesses to buy in. Proponents argued—and a majority of city voters agreed—that the plan will allow for stable, predictable heating prices for both the city’s buildings and downtown businesses that choose to participate. Using biomass for heat would also have environmental implications. Reportedly, the city expects to cut its emissions of the pollutants sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide by up to 11 tons per year.

According to the approved contracts, the total estimated bud-geted cost of the state heat plant is $15,293,698. This will be cov-ered by the grant money available, the contribution directly from the state and the city’s share reflected in July’s $2.75 million bond issue vote. The total estimated cost of the city distribution system, according to the contracts, is $4,866,419, an amount that includes

District Heat Project Proceeds to Next Phase

see DISTRICT HEAT, page 4

HISTORY QUIZ

How well do you know

Where was this store?

A pneumatic bulk pellet delivery truck. New technologies allow more flexible pellet deliv-ery and storage. Photo by Bob Nuner.

Fuel for the Future?LISTENING IN AT A BIOMASS CONFERENCE

PAGE 2 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 3

ADVERTISE in Our Upcoming Issues!February 2 advertising deadline: Friday, January 27

February 16: Health & Wellness advertising deadline: Friday, February 10

March 1 (last chance for Town Meeting Day ads!)

advertising deadline: Friday, February 24

Call Carl or Carolyn at 223-5112, ext. 11

Subscribe to The Bridge! For a one-year subscription, send this form and a check to The Bridge, P.O. Box 1143, Montpelier, VT 05601.

Name___________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________

City____________________________________ State_____ Zip____________

I have enclosed a check, payable to The Bridge, for:

❑ $50 for a one-year subscription ❑ An extra $____ to support The Bridge. (Contributions are not tax-deductible.)

HEARD ON THE

STREETInto the temperature roller coaster. These brief warm-ups can no longer be called

January thaw. They are too frequent. And how is the river reacting to these fluctua-tions? Often, but now especially, I regret not living next to the rivers, as so many Mont-pelier residents do. With limited access, I am still an aspiring river-watcher. Will little frost roses form on the thin ice at the edge of open water tonight when it dips below 0 degrees? Did chunks of ice break away and float majestically with the current when it rained yesterday? Are there mink tracks or even signs of an otter as it gallops across the ice pack, ending at the next open water? Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have a glimpse from sidewalk or car and catch the rhythm of river. Or see our resident Cooper’s hawk, try-ing to scare up another pigeon.

—Nona Estrin

Nature WatchA Taxing Debate

The local business community has begun pushing back on proposals to introduce two local options taxes—a 1 percent retail sales tax and a 1 percent rooms and meals tax—to

Montpelier voters on the Town Meeting Day ballot. First, the rooms and meals tax. At the last city council meeting, Capitol Plaza owner Fred

Bashara indicated that one of the tour bus companies that regularly stops at the Capitol Plaza would take their business to Berlin if a tax were imposed.

The sales tax is the one proving even more controversial, however. Many in the business community are only just coming to understand that the sales tax will also apply to their purchases of heating oil, electricity and even computer software.

There was some confusion also as to whether those taxes would apply to oil and electricity purchases for combined commercial and residential properties. Mayor Mary Hooper indi-cated, after looking into the question, that the answer is no.

“The sales tax is applied against a variety of commercial sales, including heating fuel, but just on commercial property . . . if you are a commercial property that includes residential units, the residential units are exempt; the commercial is not.”

Hooper also noted that, over time, commercial taxpayers have paid an increasingly small proportion of the property tax, creating a gradual shift in the tax burden from the commer-cial to the residential. This has prompted her to ask for an analysis of that shift, to see if the increased tax burden for retailers presented by a sales tax and the gradual property tax shift away from retailers may be “a wash.”

A public hearing on both proposed local options tax proposals is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 26, in the city council chambers in City Hall.

Donde Está Mad Taco?

So where’s that new Mad Taco restaurant we were expecting to arrive in December in the old Samosaman location on Main Street?

Don’t worry, it’s still on its way. Expect some kind of official announcement soon, but un-official sources lay the blame for the delay at the feet of much-discussed downtown landlord Jeff Jacobs. Word is that Jacobs, who owns the adjacent building, has objected to the instal-lation of a needed hood for an exhaust fan.

Can We Build a Better Economy?

A January 17 press conference at the State House focused attention on a collection of bills introduced into the Vermont legislature dealing with economic prosperity and sustain-

ability, and promoting what they see as a more people-focused approach to crafting a state budget. The press conference featured Washington County senator Anthony Pollina and Burlington representative Suzi Wizowaty, who were joined by Burlington representative Chris Pearson and Wardsboro representative John Moran. It focused on bills that would mandate a maximum ratio between the highest and lowest paid employees in any corpora-tion looking to receive state funds, create a state bank, and call for creating and tracking a “genuine progress indicator” index that would measure the state’s economy and quality of life (including taking into account environmental conditions, such as air and water quality).

Also on hand to promote the bills was Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Montpelier’s director of planning and community development. Hallsmith was participating in her capacity as au-thor of the book Creating Wealth, which focuses on alternative “complementary” currencies and local currencies, as well as her position as convener of the Vermont Monetary Advisory Committee, a group pulled together to look at monetary policy.

According to Hallsmith, the entire way the legislature and the state government approach economics is skewed.

In a conversation after the press conference, Hallsmith faulted the design of our current financial system for many of the economic woes the world has been experiencing. “There are things the current monetary system works well for, but the problem is, it’s the only thing we have—kind of like a monoculture”

Hallsmith lamented a system that “tends to concentrate wealth in the upper echelon” and would like to see that state put “a plan in place that puts the creation of money back into the hands of the people, because that’s where it belongs.”

She also believes that the kind of alternative currency structures she discusses in her book could hold part of the solution.

“In Switzerland, there’s commercial barter system in place that keeps things running . . . [in Montpelier] the Reach program and the Onion River Exchange are also examples [of complementary currencies]—both using a time-based currency.”

Local Real Estate Trending Upward

The market for single-family homes in Washington County in 2011 saw some improve-ment over 2010, with the number of sales up 3.5 percent to 325, according to Multiple

Listing Service (MLS) statistics, which reflect sales involving realtors but not private sales. This sales number was still below the 337 sales recorded in 2009, however.

At the same time, the median 2011 sales price for single-family homes in Washington County jumped 8.4 percent to $200,000, more than double the state average increase. But that does not necessarily suggest home values here rose that much: it could also mean that more sales took place in the upper end of the market in 2011, or fewer sales occurred in the lower end of the market compared to 2010. Lower-end sales were boosted in the first half of 2010 by a first-time home-buyer federal tax credit that expired on April 30, 2010.

The 2011 condominium market in Washington County was weaker than that for single-family homes. The median condo sale price dropped just under 1 percent to $163,900, and the number of condo sales fell 16 percent to 58. The MLS statistics include both primary and vacation properties, so these Washington County condo market statistics partly reflect sales trends at Sugarbush-area condominiums.

—last item by Phil Dodd; all other items by John Odum

P.O. Box 1143, Montpelier, VT 05601Phone: 802-223-5112 | Fax: 802-223-7852 montpelierbridge.com; facebook.com/montpelierbridge

Published every first and third Thursday

Editor & Publisher: Nat Frothingham

General Manager: Bob Nuner

Production Manager: Marisa Keller

News Editor: John Odum

Sales Representatives: Carl Campbell, Carolyn Grodinsky, Rick McMahan

Graphic Design & Layout: Dana Dwinell-Yardley

Calendar Editor: Dana Dwinell-Yardley

Bookkeeper: Kathryn Leith

Distribution: Kevin Fair, Diana Koliander-Hart, Daniel Renfro

Web Master: Michael Berry

Advertising: For information about advertising deadlines and rates, contact: 223-5112, ext. 11, carolynatthebridge@yahoo.com or ccampbell@montpelierbridge.com

Editorial: Contact Marisa or Bob, 223-5112, ext. 14, or editorial@montpelierbridge.com.

Location: The Bridge office is located at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, on the lower level of Schulmaier Hall.

Subscriptions: You can receive The Bridge by mail for $50 a year. Make out your check to The Bridge, and mail to The Bridge, PO Box 1143, Montpelier VT 05601.

Copyright 2012 by The Montpelier Bridge

PAGE 4 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

pollution, Shea said the low-pressure steam boilers emit the same amount of particulates as 10 residential woodstoves for 500,000 sf of heated space. National Life’s air-quality rating beat EPA standards: eight thousandths of a pound of particulates per million BTUs versus the EPA standard of seven hundredths of a pound.

Vermont Biomass Sustainability In a Q&A following a presentation by Ver-

mont State Senator Ginny Lyons (who is also a biology professor), questions of sustain-ability were raised. Is Vermont’s wood har-vest sustainable as markets and populations grow? An audience member questioned the viability of the Beaver Wood plant planned for Fair Haven, which is reputed to require between 250,000 and 400,000 tons of bio-mass annually and is still going through permit reviews of Acts 250 and 248. Lyons said that the Vermont Public Service Board will have an interest in that question.

Several audience questions expressed simi-lar concerns about biomass availability. A BERC representative said gave an estimate of a median 900,000 green tons of available wood per year in Vermont beyond what’s cur-rently harvested. Available wood, for model-ing purposes, excludes wood from socially or environmentally unsuitable land sourcing. An audience member worked it out to about 1.3 tons per Vermonter per year.

Senator Lyons returned repeatedly to the concept of CHP in her discussion of the

state’s energy plan. BERC and the state’s energy plan advocate for the most efficient conversion of wood into energy. For example, ANR’s Recchia noted that while Vermont goes through 750,000 tons of cordwood a year, they hope that amount will not in-crease, thanks to increases in stove efficien-cies. While a vendor on the sidelines said his systems could achieve 85 percent energy-conversion efficiency, normal wood-burning efficiency is closer to 70 percent.

Unused energy released is energy wasted. Because thermal energy beats electricity and transportation in energy-conversion effi-ciency, Lyons indicated that the state would be reluctant to advocate for future wood-fired electric plants unless those plants made more efficient use of the thermal energy they’d otherwise release to the sky.

Imports and ExportsWhen a question arose about potential

exports of Vermont fuel wood to other mar-kets (e.g., Scandinavia), the response was that Vermont’s distance from ports would shelter it from export pressures, but another attendee demurred, saying that as oil prices rise, incentives to export fuel would follow. Importing wood was also discussed, and Paul Frederick, wood utilization forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, reminded that papermakers have imported eucalyptus pulp from South America for decades. Currently, wood chips are exported from the southeastern U.S. and British Columbia, where wood costs are much lower and access to ports more direct.

BIOMASS, from page 1

Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA) Courses — Costs: $950 tuition and text; $20 licensing; $115 testing. Interview required for admit-tance. Limited spaces available.

February LNA: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6–9 p.m. (class) and 6–10 p.m. (clinical). February 2–May 10, 2012. Instructors: Cindy Pratt and Niki Bristow. Interviews scheduled for January 23 & 24, 2012.

March LNA: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5–8 p.m. (class) and 5–9 p.m. (clinical). March 5–June 20, 2012. Instructors: Lynda Volz, Sherri Barnard, Lori Knowlton. Interviews scheduled for February 20 & 21, 2012.

Child Development Associate Credential (CDA) Courses — Interview required for admittance.

Costs: $950 tuition and text. Limited spaces available.

February CDA: Tuesdays, 5:30–8 p.m.; February 7–June 26, 2012; 120 hours. Instructor: Kathi Fuller. Interviews scheduled for February 14, 2012.

American Red Cross Classes — Wednesdays, 5:30 – 9:30 p.m., except for recertification from 6–8 p.m. Registration and payment required at least three (3) business days prior.

First Aid: Feb. 1, Mar. 7, April 4, May 2, June 6. $60.

Infant/Child CPR/AED: Feb. 8, Mar. 14, April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11. $70.

Adult CPR/AED: Feb. 15, Mar. 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18. $70.

Recertification: Jan. 25, Feb. 22, Mar. 28, April 25, May 23, June 27, July 25. $50.

LNA Trainings, CDA Trainings, American Red Cross Classes

Adult Evening Education Classes at the Barre Tech CenterPhone Dottye at 476-1487 for more information

www.barretechnicalcenter.org Check our website for information on additional classes beginning March 2012.

Enjoy Life-Long Learning at the Barre Tech Center

Lingerie Salejan u a ry 2 3 – 28

�����������������������

����������������������������

��������������������������������������

���������������������������������������������

������������������������������������

��������������������������������������������������

Monday, January 23Jay Polimeno, Rotary District Chair“Interact/Roteract”

Monday, January 30Area High School Students“Rotary Speech Contest”

Monday, February 6Patty Meriam“Vermont Granite Festival and Museum”

Monday, February 13Phayvanh Luekhamhan, Executive Director“Montpelier Alive”

For more information, call Rotary President Ed Flanagan at 223-2396.

This notice is sponsored by Guare & Sons Funeral Home in memory of Paul H. Guare, who was both Past-President of the Montpelier Rotary Club and a member of the Club for more than 50 years.

You Are Invited to Join Us for Lunchat the Montpelier Rotary ClubRotary meets most Mondays (except holidays) at 12:15 p.m. at the Capitol Plaza Hotel, 100 State Street, Montpelier.

the expected cost of conversion for Montpelier High School and Union Elementary School. (There is some uncertainty as to whether Union can be included after all, but the project is moving forward assuming that it will be.)

The contract also stipulates that “If at any time during the development of the Project a Party determines that the total estimated budgeted costs . . . are likely to be above or below the total estimated budgeted amounts . . . the Parties shall promptly meet and in good faith attempt to mutually agree upon budget adjustments appropriate to the Project.”

It’s these sorts of uncertainties that led Golonka to vote “no” on proceeding with the project.

“I see the benefits to the state; I have a harder time seeing the immediate benefits to the city.” Golonka commented.

He acknowledges that the project seems to add up on paper (the operation is expected to pay for itself in approximately 16 years—sooner, if downtown business, as hoped, become customers for the state-generated heat). What concerns him are the assumptions made over such a long period that support that arithmetic, given that the city is entering into a 20-year exclusive contract with the state.

He also questions the process laid out if there is ever a conflict with the state. “ The ap-peal process for dispute resolution goes up to the secretary of administration,” Golonka noted. “We’re appealing an issue with the state to the state.”

According to some accounts, the negotiation process with the state for the approved agreements was challenging, although no one provides specifics.

According to Golonka, when “getting into a relationship with someone . . . there’s [often] conflict. We were able to work out problems.”

City Manager Bill Fraser had a similar assessment. “Any time you attempt to put some-thing like that together from scratch, you are going to have some disagreements along the way about how certain things should be handled. The final agreements represent the product of all that discussion and exchange of ideas.”

The project is on target for an estimated launch date of October 1, 2013. The contracts set the term of the relationship as “twenty heating seasons followed by two five-heating season renewals,” with an option for Montpelier to renew after that period.

The city will be contracting with Halliam-ICS of South Burlington to create the heat distribution system. Halliam-ICS has indicated their intention to contract with Mont-pelier firm DeWolfe Engineering Associates, due to DeWolfe’s familiarity with the city’s infrastructure and personnel.

DISTRICT HEAT, from page 1

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 5

Capitol NotebookState House News and Commentary

by John Odum

Week two of the legislative session saw the players, agendas and ac-tual bills starting to take shape.

From the controversial (S.134, decriminal-izing the possession of small amounts of marijuana) to the consensus (S.173, which would make it simpler to start a new busi-ness). From the technical (S.162, clarifying power-of-attorney rules) to the ideological (S.237, which would replace the state’s gross domestic product figure with a measure of social and economic well-being).

A minority of the total number of bills proposed will proceed, and it is the maneu-vers among the lobbying crowd now that will determine which bills that aren’t “must pass” will be among them. This being the case, the State House was consumed more with quiet conversation than outright debate, making for a fairly buzz-free week.

All the heat under the dome for the week, then, was generated by Governor Peter Shumlin’s budget address—not so much by what was in it, but what wasn’t.

It’s no accident that the budget address came early, nor was it an oversight that the specifics were spotty at best—nonexistent at worst. What direction the legislature will take in any given session is disproportion-ately determined in the first few weeks, and the “bully pulpit” of the gubernatorial bud-get address is an opportunity to seize control of that direction. Moving the budget address up was an implicit recognition of that fact. Expect all future governors to follow suit.

In an election year, this is even more im-portant, and these first couple weeks have had their share of positioning for this year’s gubernatorial election. Shumlin got much of his ambitious agenda underway in the last session. Now, he wants to keep the ship of state steady enough to win reelection as its captain, while his opponents will want to derail his prospects by suggesting he’s about to run us into an iceberg.

Whoever’s message wins is off to a big head start for the November election, and, as always, the advantage goes to the incumbent governor. His presumed challenger—Frank-lin County senator Randy Brock—has his work cut out for him.

Listening to the budget address, it’s clear Shumlin wants to talk about the state’s re-covery from Tropical Storm Irene—and why wouldn’t he? By all accounts, the response of the state under his leadership has been good, almost astonishingly so.

Shumlin also shrewdly repeated the slogan he so strongly pushed in his State of the State as a collective motto: “Vermont Strong.” If he says this enough (and he will), it becomes a

state-sponsored, omnipresent reelection slo-gan.

And that’s why Republican leaders—with the help of the occasional frustrated Demo-crat—are so eager to recast the debate based on what wasn’t in the address: health-care reform.

It’s a high-risk topic for Republicans, with high-reward potential, and could tip the debate over the summer and put Shumlin on the defensive. That’s why so many Re-publicans are talking about it, and why they are pushing the topic into friendly media outlets.

At first glance, it may seem counterin-tuitive. Shumlin ran for office on his health-care reform ideas, more than on any other issue—and it worked. Why, then, wouldn’t it work again? Shouldn’t this be a topic his electoral opponents would want to avoid?

That depends on how it’s talked about.It’s a truism in politics that it’s always easy

to get broad consensus on general ideas and principles. But when general ideas become specific policy proposals, you inevitably lose some people—and given that Shumlin de-feated Brian Dubie by a razor-thin margin, Republicans know it may not take very many changing sides to tip the next election to Brock.

Under Shumlin’s timetable for reform, there is no need to bring up the specific hows (and how much) of his health-care reform plan until next year—indeed many, such as House health-care committee chair Michael Fisher—suggest it would be irresponsible to bring out details before the overall roadmap is complete.

But the GOP is demanding just that and is backing its demand with a pair of bills to force Shumlin to present the cost of his plan before election day.

If the Republicans succeed, the controversy will go up to 11, which is precisely why these bills will die in the Democrat-controlled legislative committees. Expect, then, in com-ing weeks and months, to see Republicans putting out their own worst-case scenario numbers as a basis for debate, while at the same time promoting the idea that Shumlin is afraid to come clean on the real costs of his proposals.

But until then, we have a legislative session to play out, and as the nuts and bolts of that session become clearer in the coming weeks, expect the early jockeying for position in the governor’s race to subside—for a time, at least.

John Odum is the news editor of The Bridge and a longtime political blogger and online journalist. He lives in Montpelier.

Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!

PAGE 6 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

Tiny BitesDon’t start the year with a dull knife! Get your kitchen knives sharpened at the Capitol

City Farmers Market on Saturday, January 21, from 10 a.m. to noon, courtesy of Jessica Turner, owner of Capital Kitchen. The service is free, and donations will be accepted for the Vermont Foodbank.

Internationally-renowned researcher Temple Grandin has had a hand in designing almost half the cattle-processing facilities in the United States; her work focuses on

improving animal welfare conditions in the meat-processing industry. Grandin will speak on understanding animal emotions at the 16th annual Vermont Grazing & Live-stock Conference, Saturday, January 21, at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee. Details at uvm.edu/~pasture/?Page=conference.html.

Between 1,200 and 1,500 migrant workers labor on Vermont dairy farms; approximately half of Vermont’s milk comes from the labor of undocumented workers. Learn more

about their lives and the policies behind them in a film series titled Migrant Workers in Vermont, Immigration, and Globalization. Films are shown at 3 p.m. on the second and fourth Sundays of the month at the Unitarian Church of Montpelier. Upcoming screenings include Neighbors, Living in Vermont, and Root Causes of Migration on January 22, and Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy on February 12. Each film will be followed by a facilitated discussion. For more information, contact Madeline at sharrow32@yahoo.com.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) winter conference has long been a key educational and inspirational gathering for Ver-

monters. The 30th annual conference will be held February 10 to 12 at the University of Ver-mont in Burlington. “Ecological and community resilience” is the theme; workshops will ad-dress the interests of localvores, home gardeners, commercial growers, and food advocates and activists. Complete details at nofavt.org; early-bird registration discount until January 24.

Food sovereignty—what does it mean to be “food sovereign,” and why does it matter? Organizer Robb Kidd of Rural Vermont, an advocacy organization, will discuss

food sovereignty and the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters Campaign with members of the Capital City Grange on February 4 at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and a potluck will follow. The grange’s address is 6612 Route 12, Berlin. For more information on Rural Vermont and food sovereignty, visit ruralvermont.org.

The voting has begun for the early-2012 Skinny Pancake Community Gardening Grant! Until February 9, anyone can vote for their favorite among several local food

project ideas. The winner will receive $500 to make their plan into reality. Go to skinny pancake.maker.good.is to cast your ballot.

—compiled by Sylvia Fagin; send food news to sylviafagin@yahoo.com

Central Vermont Food News

Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 7

Hands-On Gardenerby Miriam Hansen

First month of the New Year, and we’ve dug up the last of our beets. The carrots and parsnips are sweet and

mostly undamaged, but voles nested under the leaves with the most enormous beets I’ve ever grown. It’s lucky they were enormous, because, after slicing and peeling all the gnawed bits, they were closer to normal size. Maybe next year we’ll bring the beets into the root cellar in the fall.

The greens I transplanted into the green-house in late September have been keeping us in fresh salads, quiches and steamed greens through to mid-January. I’ve been amazed to find that even though everything freezes solid when the temperatures drop, the leaves thaw on warm or even cold sunny days and are still perfectly delicious.

Seed catalogs arrived the first week in December! My orders are in and I’ve already received seeds from Johnny’s. I went through all my packets and tossed out anything ear-lier than 2007. With the exception of the onion family, which is only really viable for one year, vegetable seeds will still germinate at decent rates for two to five years with the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi) closer to five and carrot family closer to two or three.

If you are of the “waste not, want not” school and want to be sure seeds are viable, you can sprout them on a folded, moist paper towel. Wet the towel thoroughly and wring it out so it remains moist but not dripping. Sprinkle the seeds on the towel and fold the towel over the seeds (unless like lettuce, the seeds need light to germinate). Put the paper towel in a zip lock bag, out of the sun. Check daily to see if the seeds have germinated. If they have, transfer those sprouted seeds into a flat. If they don’t sprout, or if germination is sparse, toss the packet and get new seed.

As a rule of thumb, I toss seeds older than four or five years. It has taken me a few years to accept that it is not a sin to throw out old seeds. I don’t know what precise affliction we gardeners suffer from, but we do not eas-ily part with seeds, and I’ve had to school myself to do this.

I store my seeds in their original packets in a large box with dividers for the various families and types—carrots (including pars-nips and parsley), brassicas, flowers, herbs. My seed box sits on the stairs to the cellar where it is cool, dark and dry, the best condi-tions for storing seed.

Seed catalogs can be very intimidating for beginners, and even experienced gardeners get sucked into buying things they don’t need. The year is young and I’ve already inadvertently double-ordered parsnips, tur-nips and calendula. I kept changing my mind about ordering them and checked for

duplicates on the order but never thought to check the number of packets of each one! Oh well. I guess they’ll get used in the next three years.

I made a first pass through the Fedco and Johnny’s catalogs, circling everything that I know needs replacing. Fortex pole beans, Symphony cauliflower, Fiesta broccoli, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, Carmen sweet pep-pers. . . . I check between the two catalogs (both are online, but I like hard copy) to make sure Fedco has my standbys. I prefer to buy from Fedco, because their seeds are much cheaper than Johnny’s—if not always by weight or count, at least by packet. If you order through a buying club, you can further reduce the price because the larger the order going in, the greater the discount they offer. I’ve decided to go it alone mostly because I prefer to have my seeds in their original packets rather than bulk ordered and redis-tributed. But if you’re interested in a buy-ing club, call the Adamant Coop or Dave Grundy of East Montpelier. Dave also does bulk ordering of onion and leek seedlings if you’re interested in that.

If the Fedco catalog descriptions says to order early, pay attention! By early, they mean now! After my first pass, I go through again, reading the descriptions to see if there are new, improved varieties. This year I ordered Varsity to replace Copra as my storage onion. Even though I’ve added five lettuces to my tried and true, I decided to try Magenta from Johnny’s as well, just because it is a neighbor’s favorite and she was the one who first told me about Fortex beans. I always talk to other gardeners to see what they like.

Enjoy the color photos but don’t be fooled by them! I used to buy perennial flower seed from Thompson and Morgan’s, but their seed is very expensive, and I noticed that most of their glossy color pictures are close-ups of the flowers rather than the plants. This is a tip-off that either the flowers are not very large or, if large, may be sparse on the plant. I’ve learned that my favorite an-nuals are those that make a show—cleome, zinnias, dahlias, calendula, sunflowers and nasturtiums. And despite a fabulous crop of hot peppers that have gone into everything from salsa and pickled peppers, homemade ketchup and pepper jelly, I’m keeping my new year’s resolution, and have only or-dered three new kinds of peppers for this year—down from last year’s 14! Of course, last year’s seeds are still good.

Happy gardening!

Miriam and her husband, David, live in East Montpelier, where they grow most of their own vegetables, berries and meat on less than 1/4 of an acre. Your questions and com-ments are welcome. You can reach Miriam at freshair460@gmail.net.

Time to Order the Seeds!

���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

����������������

Wednesday Fun-Waiser!���������������������������������������������

�����������������������������������

�����������������������������������������������������������������

$25 ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

PAGE 8 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

by Ricka McNaughton

Sitting in his Plainfield living room on a recent winter morning, in the cozy timber-frame house that he designed

and built with the help of friends in the 1970s, Cornelius “Con” Hogan reverently picked up an old banjo and held it aloft. He turned it about, drawing attention to its distressed patina, the markings along the polished neck and the curious absence of raised frets. One of the first things you might notice about Hogan, as he gets talking, is just how much he notices in general—and that he likes to share, in different ways, things he has come to find interesting and valuable. As he was putting away the banjo, he remembered a story.

Smiling broadly, Hogan recounted, “My father liked to tell people, ‘I sent my son to Rutgers University to become a man [invok-ing a phrase from the school song], but all he did was learn how to play the goddamn banjo.’” In the space of one good guffaw, you came to know something about the character Hogan’s father must have been.

It’s a device that Hogan uses through-out a trio of books he has written cel-ebrating interesting characters he met, mostly while living and working in Vermont for the past 40 years. In that time, Hogan has had occasion to know, fairly well, Vermonters with all the power and all the troubles in the world. He also came to appreciate people who led rather ordinary lives but did so with special mea-sures of grace, ability or bizarreness. He had long thought about sharing his trove of great characters. “Time just never allowed,” Hogan said. Then, finally, it did.

“I was flying between countries and private consulting jobs for most of the last 10 years,” he said, “and decided I was going to rough out one story a plane trip.” He published his first collection of tales, Met Along the Way, in 2005. Encouraged by the response, he came out in 2008 with Also Met Along the Way.

Last year he produced Finally Met Along the Way. But, perhaps, not so finally.

There is quite a lot to know about where Hogan found, or may find, his characters. Hogan’s subjects range from heads of state to guests of the state’s correctional facilities, from family to special neighbors and friends, to presidential aspirants and even assorted animals. All the Met books are illustrated by Montpelier artist Tim Newcomb. “Tim nailed my visions almost every time,” said Hogan, “on the basis of nothing more than a few scrawled notes for each story.” It probably helped that, as a long-time political cartoon-ist, Newcomb had a catalogue of caricatures ready to redeploy.

Hogan was himself a highly visible state official under four Vermont governors, span-ning two parties and five administrations—an altogether character-rich environment. As commissioner of corrections, Hogan was charged with housing criminals possessed of a wide range of socially unacceptable behav-iors and turning them, to the extent possible, into better decision makers. He came to un-

derstand key agents of change in govern-ment organizations. “Politically,” Hogan observed, “problems always rise to the top [to be dealt with] . . . when, practically, it’s the hands-on in-

dividual who often sees what need to be done to fix something.”

Hogan was tapped to head the greater Agency of Human Services (AHS), a massive umbrella organization in which numerous departments each served jurisdictional bits of many of the same clients. Hogan mulled that picture over and tried something different.

Across department lines, he released man-agers and service providers from a state of bureaucratic lock-down and had them mix it up a little in the common rooms. The aim was to create better client outcomes through a culture of shared responsibility. To know if it was working, Hogan adapted measures to show which efforts and outlays most benefited overall client well-being, and

thus society as a whole. He shared the story of that work in a book coauthored with David Murphey.

Long a concerned player in the health-care reform arena, Hogan has written two books on related concerns with Deb Richter and Terry Doran. Hogan currently serves on the Green Mountain Care Board, charged with finding ways to ensure that all Vermonters have access to care, while reining in spiral-ing costs. Additionally, Hogan is the current chair of trustees of the Vermont College of Fine Arts and director of the Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont’s Children.

And back home in Plainfield, there’s a horse business to tend to with wife Jeanette, daughter Ruth and another couple. Together, they own and operate a stable and riding school of some repute in the wider equine world.

For all that, Hogan never stopped play-ing the afore-cussed banjo. He has been

part of the close-knit group Cold Country Bluegrass for many years. It appears that, far from confining his post-college career pros-pects, Hogan’s music simply accompanied him along the way.

Hogan’s Met books feature plainly told tales and vignettes with social, historical and sheer entertainment value. By preserv-ing something important about who they were, Hogan ennobles his characters, great and small. And they, in return, draw a frame around much that Hogan has seen and con-sidered valuable. You can imagine, though, the number of characters who didn’t make the cut. “Actually,” Hogan admitted, “I’ve given some thought to doing another book.”

In his role as chair of the Vermont College of Fine Arts board of trustees, Con Hogan will be honored in Boston on March 2 with the New England Board of Higher Education’s David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship.

Hogan’s HeroesRecalling Memorable Characters, Author Segues from Serious Matters

Con Hogan. Photo by Ricka McNaughton.

Profile

Benefit Reading by Con Hogan

The author, musician, consultant and longtime public servant will read from his trio of lighthearted Met Along the Way books onThursday, January 26, at 6 p.m. at the

Blinking Light Gallery, 16 Main Street, in Plainfield. The event is free, and proceeds from book sales will go to support the gallery, a community-focused cooperative run by member artists, musicians and authors. Contact info@blinkinglightgallery.com, 454-0141 or 454-1275, or visit blinkinglightgallery.com.

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 9

Building Cages

A new show, Cages; A Live Memoir, by longtime theater performer and producer Donny Osman, debuts at Lost Nation Theater’s

Winterfest series on Thursday, February 2. The newest development of the production, a collaboration among Osman, Circus Smirkus’s Rob Mermin and well-known Vermont musician Michael Chorney, of Lincoln, Cages is a series of monologues Osman began writing in the summer of 2010 after attending a workshop at the Omega Insti-tute called Authentic Writing: Your Own Solo Show in Five Days. Osman wryly notes that while he didn’t instantly end up with a show and “had to subsist for five days on vegetarian food,” it was the start he needed to launch the first new theater project he has developed in nearly two decades.

Initiating a new show meant Osman could call upon former collaborator Jonathan Paul Cook, now a teacher at the National Theater School of Denmark. Cook, having worked closely with Osman in the past, helped him over a concentrated two weeks to shape his stories for the stage. The monologues draw on a wealth of Osman’s experiences. During that formative shaping, the central metaphor and thematic elements of the show solidified into “cages”—real, self-constructed, imposed by others or imagined.

Osman notes that the show has grown since 2010 through perfor-mances at the Governor’s Institute on the Arts and the experimental theater in Burlington’s Old North End, Off Center for the Perform-ing Arts. His delight in recently adding collaborators Chorney and Mermin is plain. Osman asked Mermin, a long-time colleague, to step in and direct this show, to help take it to the next level; similarly, he auditioned Cages for Chorney, to convince him to join the col-laboration. Osman extols Chorney’s contributions to the show, and says his compositions and performance “support the stories in a very subtle way.” He notes with gratitude Lost Nation Theater’s placement of Cages as the lead-off production of its Winterfest series.

Ticket information is available through Lost Nation Theater: 229-0492 or lostnationtheater.org.

Winter Laughs From a Warmer Climate

The Foreigner, a farce by Larry Shue, comes to Cabot Town Hall Auditorium (Willey Building) on February 3, 4, 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m., and February 5 and 12 at 2 p.m. The comedy

is a production of the “newly re-energized Plainfield Little Theatre,” which has embarked on its new life with this popular production directed by veteran Marshfield director Tom Blachly.

The Foreigner cast includes longtime central Vermont actors Aaron James of Plainfield as Charlie; Russ Brown of Cabot as Owen; Susan-nah Blachly of Marshfield as Betty; Adam Blachly of Marshfield as Ellard; Steve Falbel of Montpelier as David; David Klein of Calais as Froggy; and Amy Sholk of Waterbury as Catherine.

The play’s antics begin when two visitors arrive at a backwoods hunting lodge in rural Georgia and one of them, pathologically shy, finds he must pretend he can’t speak English after overhearing an embarrassing secret. The play is replete with villains, heroes, heroines and ample laughs as the characters careen against their own and others’ expectations. Sets are by Caleb Pitkin of Cabot; costumes by Katy Knuth of Montpelier; and props by Vincent Broderick, also of Montpelier.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children 12 and under. Res-ervations: Caleb Pitkin at cpitkin@fairpoint.net, 563-9965 or 426-3955. Callers for reservations who leave name, phone number, num-ber of tickets and performance dates receive a return call confirming reservations left on the machine. E-mail reservations are preferred.

A Window on Poems

Montpelier Alive and Kellogg-Hubbard Library are jointly pre-senting PoemCity 2012, reprising last year’s Poetry Alive,

throughout April, which is National Poetry Month. The third annual iteration of the project again features downtown window displays of poems (see submission guidelines, below) and a variety of events.

Phayvanh Luekhamhan, executive director of Montpelier Alive, noted that last year’s event featured more than 200 poems from 40-plus Vermont cities and towns.

PoemCity 2012 features a reading and Q&A by Sydney Lea, Vermont’s new poet laureate, as well as a poetry slam by Slam Master Geof Hewitt. Look for readings, writing workshops and an exhibit of

broadsides from New England presses.Rachel Senechal, program and develop-

ment coordinator at Kellogg-Hubbard, said, “PoemCity’s philosophy is that everyone is a poet. We work to offer opportunities for our community’s poets to publish, disseminate, learn and love poetry.”

PoemCity 2012 will be free, thanks to sponsorship by the Vermont College of Fine

Arts, with additional support from the Vermont Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, Montpelier Arts Fund, Vermont Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts.

Submission guidelinesOpen to Vermonters only. Deadline: February 1. Maximum sub-

missions: Three new poems (not resubmissions), no longer than 24 lines each. Send poems as Microsoft Word attachments to poemcity2012@gmail.com or as hard copies to PoemCity 2012, Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 135 Main Street, Montpelier, VT 05602. Include name, city or town of residence, phone, and (if applicable) age and school (or homeschool). PoemCity may use any submitted poem in the text display, promotional materials, associated online, print or other media.

—all items by Bob Nuner

Arts

David Lathrop Carpentry229-0921

Fram

ing

to F

inis

h •

Des

ign

• E

nerg

y M

indf

ul

Donny Osman. Photo by Kim Bent.

PAGE 10 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

by Peggy Munro

In last week’s annual report to Congress, Nina Olsen, the taxpayer advocate, iden-tified a number of areas where Con-

gress has impeded the IRS’s efforts to collect the taxes owed by all of us and necessary to run the U.S. government. Among the items noted were cuts in the IRS’ budget, reductions in its labor force, and a hugely increased incidence of identity thieves filing fraudulent tax returns.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), last week the figures for the estimated annual tax gap, or the difference between the taxes which should be collected each year and those actu-ally collected, were revised for the first time since 2001.

The two reports, taken together, are a shocking indictment of the failures of the American public to follow the existing laws and of Congress’ abdication of enforcement of those laws.

Nina Olsen, for those unfamiliar with her, is the head of an independent office that runs interference between the IRS and taxpayers. Her job is to identify the biggest problems taxpayers face with the IRS, and the conse-quences of poorly drafted legislation the IRS must enforce. She is the only IRS employee (out of close to 100,000) who may make leg-islative proposals directly to Congress. Like the old E.F. Hutton ad, when Nina Olsen talks, Congress listens.

Most people could probably care less about her report. After all, our collective wisdom has cast the IRS as the enemy (and Con-gress actively promotes this demonization), siphoning all available cash from our pock-ets; in our minds, anything that might ease its job is, by definition, bad for us. But our minds, and our opinions, can be faulty, al-lowing us to view things the way we want them to be, not the way they really are. In fact, less funding for the IRS reduces service to the public and enforcement. I suspect that for most, preparing an annual tax return is a loathsome task, but how much worse is it when no one is available to answer questions, to respond to letters when there is a problem, or to deal with clearly fraudulent claims? And then there is the larger question—is it fair that those of us who pay what we owe could see our taxes increase because the IRS lacks the personnel to adequately enforce the current laws that Congress enacted?

Decreasing the IRS’s enforcement ability is already exacerbating the annual tax gap. In 2001, that amount, after all IRS collec-tion activities, was $290 billion. The 2006 figures released last week show the gap grew to $385 billion for that one year; only 85.5 percent of the taxes that should have been collected for 2006 actually were. This is $385 billion that the country had to borrow in 2006 to fund the government’s operations, whether for rebuilding after natural disasters, for funding medical expenses for the poor and the elderly, or for making sure our troops received their paychecks. Three hundred and eighty-five billion dollars in 2006 when the budget deficit was roughly $500 billion, the same again, if not more, in every subsequent year—before you know it, we’re talking real money here, most of which we should never have had to borrow.

Who is not paying their fair share? It’s not the 46 percent of the population that doesn’t pay any federal income taxes because they don’t earn enough, or because they are entitled to legal credits and deductions. For these people, Congress has eliminated their income tax liability, having determined that their fair share is, in fact, zero. Instead, the 14.5 percent of nonpayment comes from three areas: underreporting income (cash you earn that you fail to report on the first page of your tax return, for example), under-paying taxes and failure to file tax returns at all. Of these three, underreporting represents the lion’s share of the problem—people in the U.S. are apparently no different from their Greek and Italian counterparts in that large sums of cash change hands under the table in exchange for goods and services. And, like them, we apparently feel no com-punction about our collective tax avoidance. In reality, people who dodge what they truly owe are cheats; they don’t hesitate to accept governmental services, but they expect the rest of us will pay for their share.

Excessive government spending and/or inadequate taxation are the sole arguments being floated to explain the size of our an-nual national deficit; both are simplistic and ultimately untrue. We have federal deficit and debt problems because many people cur-rently obligated to pay taxes have determined that the laws just do not apply to them; un-believably, congressional response is to attack the one governmental agency charged with enforcing those same laws.

Most people pay their taxes voluntarily, knowing that it’s one of the price tags for the American way of life; cheating on that obligation is fundamentally un-American. Congress, by cutting funding for enforce-ment of the laws it itself created, exacerbates this country’s financial instability while, at the same time, railing about it. For all its flag-waving, in a country that cherishes pa-triotism, Congress is undermining a way of life it has sworn to protect.

Margaret Atkins Munro, EA, is a licensed tax professional living in Essex Junction. She is the author of 529 & Other College Savings Plans for Dummies and coauthor of Taxes 2009 for Dummies and Estate & Trust Ad-ministration for Dummies (coauthored with Kathryn A. Murphy, Esq.).

The Taxpayer Advocate’s Report and the Tax Gap

Money MattersAlan H. WeissAnnounces his candidacy

for RE-ELECTION to the MONTPELIER CITY COUNCIL

District 3

Let’s chat. Call 229-0068

EXPERIENCE COUNTS!Political ad paid for by Alan.

Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!

THE BR IDGE CALENDAR OF E VENTS JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE C .1

Upcoming EventsFRIDAY, JANUARY 20Intergenerational Storytime at the Senior CenterStories, songs and activity for preschool-age children, their families and seniors.10:30 a.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 46 Barre Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-2518 or 223-4665.

The Alexander TechniqueWith Katie Back. Improve your sense of well-being, feel more present and alive, and regain the natural grace and poise of a child. For all ages and bodies.6–7:30 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $3 member/owners, $5 non-members. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

2012 Snowshoe Romp in Hubbard ParkStrap on snowshoes (provided or bring your own) and follow a lantern-lit trail through woods and fields, followed by hot chocolate, Ben & Jerry’s and a fire. For all abilities and ages.6–8 p.m. Old Shelter, Hubbard Park, Montpelier. Free. 229-9409 or events@onionriver.com.

Taylor Series Slideshow and Talk: Chasing the Colorado FourteenersHalfway through hiking all 54 Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet, stewardship volunteer Drew Petersen shares photographs and stories from his 2011 solo trip. 7 p.m. Capital City Grange, 6612 Route 12 (Northfield Street), Berlin. $6 Green Mountain Club members, $8 nonmembers, kids under 12 free.

Naturalist Journeys Lecture Series: Landscape Conservation in the Scottish HighlandsEcologist Rick Paradis of the University of Vermont discusses this region of the world and the conservation programs that developed under its cultural, political and economic systems. 7 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. By donation. 229-6206. Sponsored by the North Branch Nature Center.

Basic Point-and-Shoot PleasuresBryan Pfeiffer helps you get great photos from your digital camera. Learn dials, buttons and menus. Bring your camera.7–9 p.m. First Baptist Church, School Street, Montpelier. $10, includes refreshments and hand-outs. wingsphotography.com.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21Meat Day at the Montpelier Winter Farmers’ MarketDemo on brining meat with Suzanne Podhaizer of Salt, knife sharpening by Jessica Turner of Capital Kitchen (by donation to the Vermont Foodbank) and live music by Good Old Wagon.10 a.m.–2 p.m. Gym, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. Carolyn, 223-2958 ormanager@montpelierfarmersmarket.com. Market happens every first and third Saturday through April, except February markets on February 11 and 18.

Get Your Best ShotLearn your digital camera by shooting photos indoors and outside with photographer Bryan Pfeiffer. We’ll cover tricky lighting, pets, sports, kids, nature and your own photo aspirations.10 a.m.–2 p.m. First Baptist Church, School Street, Montpelier. $35. Space limited; registration required at wingsphotography.com. Workshop repeats Sunday, January 22.

Poets’ and Writers’ Reading: Harmony JunctionAuthor Goddard Graves sings and reads from his book, following a group of eight friends in the northeast United States and the Canadian Maritimes over 14 months.11 a.m. Cutler Library, Route 2, Plainfield. Free. 454-8504 or cutlerlibrary.org. Event happens every third Saturday.

Rug Hooking: Open Class for All LevelsBring any questions you have on a project you’re working on or get help starting a new one. Shop open for supplies. 1–5 p.m. Green Mountain Hooked Rugs, 2838 County Road, Montpelier. $25. Register at 223-1333 or vtpansy@greenmountainhookedrugs.com. greenmountainhookedrugs.com.

Shape-Note Singing School Ian Smiley leads tunes from The Sacred Harp. All welcome; no experience necessary. 6–8 p.m. Tulsi Tea Room, 34 Main Street, Montpelier. By donation. Ian, 229-4008 or vtshapenotesingers@gmail.com. Event happens every first and third Saturday.

African Mercy Benefit Concert Featuring the music of Holly and Bob Stockett and friends, with special guests Karen Knaebel of Messenger and Sr. Madeline McHugh, Church of the Crucified One.6:30 p.m. St. Augustine’s, Barre Street, Montpelier. By donation to the Medical Missions of Mercy Ships to West Africa. 476-9699.

Artist in Residence Dance Showing: Dear Pina,Artist-in-residence Hannah Dennison and choreographic partners Hanna Satterlee and Amy LePage show new elements of Dennison’s dance/theatre tribute to choreographer Pina Bausch. 7 p.m. Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio, 18 Langdon Street (third floor), Montpelier. $5–$10 suggested donation. 229-4676 or cdandfs.com.

Lewis Franco in Concert7 p.m. The Nutshell (Tom and Susannah Blachly’s performance space), Marshfield. lewisfranco.com.

Contra DanceAll dances taught; no partner necessary. All ages welcome. Bring soft-soled shoes.8–11 p.m. Capital City Grange, 6612 Route 12 (Northfield Street), Berlin. $8. 744-6163. Event happens every first, third and fifth Saturday.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22Chocolate-Making Workshop at Nutty Steph’sCall 229-2090 for more information or to sign up. Workshop repeats Sunday, January 29.

Contact Improv Class for BeginnersWith Amy LePage-Hansen. Learn to cultivate your awareness and listening skills, find ease in your movements and safely move with others. Accessible to all levels of skill and mobility.10–11 a.m., class; 11–noon, open jam. $5–$10 sliding scale class and jam, $3–$5 jam only. Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio, 18 Langdon Street (third floor), Montpelier. 318-3927. Event repeats Sunday, February 5.

Telling Your Hi(Story): A Personal Narrative Writing Workshop Craft your personal history or the history of your parents or relatives with the gentle guidance of Rose Modry, writer and part-time Johnson State College faculty member.2–4 p.m. Beth Jacob Synagogue, 10 Harrison Avenue, Montpelier. $5 Beth Jacob members, $10 nonmembers. Registration required: contact Emily at 279-7518 or bjprogramming@gmail.com. bethjacobvt.org.

Dramatic Reading of No Man’s LandLocal actors perform Vermont playwright Tom Blachly’s original story about President Wilson and Senator Lodge’s battle over the League of Nations, the first lady who took over the duties of president, and the political decisions that would determine the fate of the world. 2–5 p.m. Bethany Church parlor, 115 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. 426-3955.

Get Your Best ShotSee Saturday, January 21, for description. Note change in time.2–6 p.m. First Baptist Church, School Street, Montpelier. $35. Space limited; registration re-quired at wingsphotography.com.

Slideshow on Historic Vermont Barns and Churches Presented by well-known expert Jan Lewandoski. Refreshments served.2 p.m. Plainfield Community Center (above the co-op). Free. 454-8423. Sponsored by the Plain-field Historical Society.

Film Series: Migrant Workers in Vermont, Immigration and GlobalizationExplore what life is like for Vermont’s undocumented workers, as well as global influences and policies. Today’s films: Neighbors, Living in Vermont and Root Causes of Migration. Facilitated discussion follows.3–5 p.m. Unitarian Church of Montpelier, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. Madeline, 229 5951. Event happens every second and fourth Sunday through April.

Onion River Chorus Presents Early Baroque Music Brian Webb leads the chorus in early baroque pieces from Venice and Rome, featuring the voices of the select chamber choir Dolce Lingua, led by Larry Gordon.3 p.m. Christ Church, Montpelier. $12 adults, $8 students, $25 family. 476-4300.

Adamant Annual Co-op and Village MeetingDon’t miss this chance to take a dispassionate look back at how marvelous we are! Includes dinner made by the co-op’s board of directors and a chance to get to know your neighbors.4–6 p.m. Adamant Community Club, Martin Road, Adamant.

see UPCOMING EVENTS, page C.2

Live MusicBAGITOS28 Main Street, Montpelier. All shows 6–8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 229-9212 or bagitos.com.Every MondayOpen mic, 6–9 p.m.Every WednesdayBlues jam (except during comedy open mic)Every SaturdayIrish/Celtic session, 2–5 p.m.Friday, January 20John Mowad (blues/folk)Saturday, January 21Miles & MurphySunday, January 22The Butterfields, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.Tuesday, January 24An evening with local contemporary women singer-songwriters

Thursday, January 26Jazz with Karl MillerSaturday, January 28Brownyn Fryer Sunday, January 29Dawna Hammers, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.Tuesday, January 31Jazz with Karl Miller Thursday, February 2Rebecca Singer

BIG PICTURE THEATER48 Carroll Road (just off Route 100), Waits-field. Most shows by donation. 496-8994 or bigpicturetheater.info.Wednesday, January 25Valley Night with the Likeness (indie/folk/Americana), 7 p.m.Wednesday, February 1Valley Night with Don & Jenn, 7 p.m.

BLACK DOOR44 Main Street, Montpelier. All shows start at 9:30 p.m. with $5 cover unless otherwise noted. 223-7070.

Friday, January 20Abby Jenne and the Enablers (rock/folk)Saturday, January 21The Sara Grace Band (soul/folk)Friday, January 27Grooveshoes (funk/soul)Saturday, January 28Bo Thayer and the Holy Plow (Americana / rock)Wednesday, February 1Swing night, 8 p.m.Thursday, February 2Old-time night: Dare to be Square (square dancing with live music), 6 p.m.

CHARLIE O’S70 Main Street, Montpelier. 223-6820.Friday, January 20Fire Tiger (pop)Saturday, January 21Andrea Gillis Band (soul/rock)Friday, January 27Blue Fox and the Rockin Daddies (blues)

Friday, February 3Starline Rhythm Boys (honky-tonk/ rockabilly)

POSITIVE PIE 222 State Street, Montpelier. 229-0453 or positivepie.com.Saturday, January 21Afinque (salsa/Afro/Latin), 10:30 p.m., $5, 21+Monday, January 23O’Death and Brown Bird (alternative/folk/Americana), 10:30 p.m., $8, all ages

SKINNY PANCAKE89 Main Street, Montpelier. 262-2253 or skinnypancake.com.Every SundayOld-time sessions with Katie Trautz and friends, 4–6 p.m. (intermediate to advanced players welcome to sit in)Sunday, January 22 String Fingers, 6–8 p.m.Sunday, January 29 Phineas Gage, 6–8 p.m.

Ø

PAGE C .2 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BR IDGE CALENDAR OF E VENTS

Dance Performance: In Search of Air: Growing Up DyslexicVermont dancer, choreographer and spoken-word artist Lida Winfield shares the gifts and heartache of her struggle to learn to read, which did not occur until her early twenties. Fol-lowed by a participatory workshop.7:15–8:45 p.m. Haybarn Theater, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield. $10. 454-8311 or goddard.edu.

Monteverdi Music School Recital Faculty members play some of their favorite works, including music by Bach, Debussy, Walton and Zaimont.8 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. By donation to the scholarship fund. monteverdimusic.org.

MONDAY, JANUARY 23Book Discussion and Tea with Author Mickey CroninCronin presents her new book, The Essential Six, Volume One—A Parent’s Guide: How to Pave the Road to Self-Advocacy for College Students with Learning Differences.3:30–4:45 p.m. Manor Lounge, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield. Free, but please RSVP to 322-1666.

Cooking and BookingJoin NECI students for a tale and taste of Chinese New Year. All ages welcome. 4–5 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard children’s library, Montpelier. Free, but registration required at 223-4665.

Presentation on How Today’s Students Learn and Building Options for East Montpelier Elementary A community forum, including viewing and discussion of preliminary drawings from Truex Cullins architects of changes to bring the school and learning environments up to date. 5:30–6:15 p.m., spaghetti dinner; 6:30 p.m., forum. East Montpelier Elementary School. Free. 223-7936 or emontpelierschool.org.

Adult Book GroupJanuary’s book: Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. Copies of the book available at the library. New members welcome.7–8 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield. 426-3581 or jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com. Event happens every fourth Monday.

Making SafeArt!Tracy Penfield, SafeArt’s founding director, leads a training for teachers, practitioners and anyone who wants to address relationship issues—including violence, harassment, teen dating and substance abuse—through drama, dance, poetry, drawing, music and more. 7:15-9:45 p.m. Community center media room, Goddard College,Plainfield. $10 materials fee. Register at 685-3138.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24Medicare and You WorkshopNew to Medicare? Learn how to register.3–4:30 p.m. Central Vermont Council on Aging, 59 North Main Street, Suite 200, Barre. Free, but registration required: contact 479-0531.

Introduction to Meditation For Stress Management, Improved Health and Inner PeaceWith Sherry Rhynard. Whether you’ve never meditated or tried but found it difficult, learn the theory of meditation and effective techniques. Practice time and handouts provided.6–7:30 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $10 member/owners, $12 nonmembers. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25VermicompostingWith Melissa Jordan of Wormpost Vermont. Learn how to set up, maintain and harvest a worm bin to compost all year long. Lots of props and hands-on participation. 5:30–7 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. Free. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

Keeping the Books and Tax Planning For Small BusinessesPart of the Business Building Blocks workshop series: Keys To Your Business Success.6–8:30 p.m. Conference room, Central Vermont Community Action, 195 Route 302, Berlin, Barre. Free. Register with Margaret at 476-8493.

International Movie Night: How I Ended This SummerTwo men, working at a meteorological station on a desolate island in the Arctic, deal with the explosive consequences of truth and bad news against a chilling backdrop of fog, rocks and sea.7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. 223-3338.

Acupuncture for Winter HealthPamela Brady talks about wintertime illnesses and different acupuncture treatments to address them. Presentation and demonstration. 7 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield. Free. 426-3581 or jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com.

Ecstatic DanceFreestyle boogie with DJ using Gabrielle Roth’s mediative dance form, 5Rhythms.7–9 p.m. Plainfield Community Center. $5–$10 donation. Fearn, 505-8011 or fearnessence@gmail.com. Event happens every fourth Wednesday, and first and third Wednesdays at the Worcester Town Hall.

Vermont Philharmonic Chorus AuditionsSeeking all voice parts, particularly tenors and basses. Quick and painless audition; no prepa-ration is required.7–9 p.m. Chorus room, Spaulding High School, Barre. vermontphilharmonic.org/contactus.

Farmers Night: Vermont Symphony OrchestraWorld-renowned conductor Andrew Massey leads the orchestra in a program that includes music of Gluck, Fauré, Bach and Wagner. 7:30 p.m. House chamber, State House, Montpelier. Free.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26Stone Circles; Timeless Earth Temples Of Power and HealingWith Ivan McBeth, master stone-circle builder. Learn about the magic and science that goes into sacred space around the world, including earth energies, alignment, geometry and intent.5:30–7:30 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $7 member/owners, $10 nonmembers. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

Ukulele Group All ages and abilities welcome.6–8 p.m. Montpelier Senior Activity Center, 46 Barre Street, Montpelier. 223-2518. Event hap-pens every second and fourth Thursday.

Public Forum on Tax ReformWith Ann Cummings, chair, Senate finance committee; Janet Ancel, chair, House ways and means committee; and Mary Peterson, Vermont tax commissioner. Q&A follows.6-7:45 pm, Milne Room, Aldrich Public Library, Barre. Marianne, 476-4185, or Leslie, 476-7819. Sponsored by the Greater Barre Area Democrats.

Benefit Reading by Author Con Hogan Hogan reads from his Met Along the Way books, collections of lighthearted short stories and memoirs depicting a variety of colorful Vermont characters from politics and beyond.6 p.m. Blink Light Gallery, 16 Main Street, Plainfield. Free; proceeds from book sales support the gallery. 454-1275, info@blinkinglightgallery.com or blinkinglightgallery.com.

Reclaiming Independence in American EducationPatrice Maynard, an advocate for Waldorf schools, talks about the goal of true education, beyond and away from test scores, college admission, competition and performance. 6:30–8:30 p.m. Orchard Valley Waldorf School, East Montpelier. 456-7400 or dawn.m@ovws.org

Citizenship, Faith and Feminism: Jewish and Muslim Women Reclaim Their RightsJan Feldman, professor of political science at UVM and author of a new book on the rights of Muslim and Jewish women, talks about whether a woman can be both religious and a feminist. 6:30–8 p.m. Beth Jacob Synagogue, 10 Harrison Avenue, Montpelier. Free for Beth Jacob mem-bers, $5 suggested donation for nonmembers. bethjacobvt.org.

Naturalist Journeys Lecture Series: Into the Canyon, Into the EarthBryan Pfeiffer, a naturalist and veteran of the Grand Canyon backcountry, leads an armchair hiking trip, explaining the canyon’s unique geology, plants and animals.7 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. By donation. 229-6206. Sponsored by the North Branch Nature Center.

Remembering Samuel Coleridge Taylor William Tortolano, professor and organist at St. Michael’s College, gives an illustrated lecture on Taylor (1875–1912), an anglo-black composer, conductor and educator.7 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Free. 223-3338.

TheaterCAGES: A LIVE MEMIORDonny Osman performs autobiograph-ical stories of life, death and the traps we fall into. Part of Winterfest: four shows in four weekends in February.February 2–5; 7:30 p.m. Thursday–Sat-urday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Lost Nation Theater, 39 Main Street, Montpelier. $20 adults, $15 students and seniors, $10 children 6–11 (babies and toddlers not admitted). 229-0492 or lostnationtheater.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS, from page C.1

ExhibitsAUTO CRAFTSMENSmall Inspirations, watercolors, acrylics and photography by Missy C. Storrow of Calais.326 State Street (Route 2), Montpelier. Through February. 279-6349 or carystorrowart.com.

CITY CENTEREye of the Beholder, pastel paintings by Anne Unangst, Cindy Griffith and Marcia Hill.89 Main Street, Montpelier. Through Febru-ary 4.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE & FITNESS STUDIOThen and Now, large oils and small watercol-ors by Jennifer Burger O’Brien.18 Langdon Street (third floor), Montpelier. Through February 2. 229-4676 or cdandfs.com.

GODDARD COLLEGEThe History of Goddard College, 1969–1979, photographs, films, and archival documents, curated by Goddard staff and alumnus Dustin Byerly.Pratt Center Library, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield. Through June. 454-8311 or goddard.edu.

GREEN BEAN ART GALLERYThinking Above The Noise, photography by Cassi Stilianessis. Capitol Grounds, 27 State Street, Montpelier. Through January 29. curator@capitolgrounds.com.

KELLOGG-HUBBARD LIBRARYPeople, drawings and paintings by Glen Coburn Hutcheson. 135 Main Street, Montpelier. Through Febru-ary 28.

SHOE HORNMontpelier of Belonging, buildings in graph-ite pencil and charcoal by Adrian Wade. 8 Langdon Street, Montpelier. Through Feb-ruary. artwhirled23@yahoo.com.

STUDIO PLACE ARTSWeathering it Out, multimedia group show focusing on weather; Vermonters in Italy, pastels and drawings by Jeneane Lunn and Jim Lund; What Lies Below, multimedia works by Maggie Neale.201 North Main Street, Barre. January 24–February 25. Reception Friday, January 27, 5:30–7:30 p.m. 479-7069 or studioplacearts.com.

VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTSMFA in Visual Art graduate exhibitions.Wood Gallery, 36 College Street, and Alumni Hall (gym), Montpelier. January 30–Febru-ary 4. Reception Tuesday, January 31, 8:30 p.m., Wood Gallery. vcfa.edu.

VERMONT HISTORY MUSEUMVermont agriculutral murals by Grace Brigham, depicting maple sugaring with draft horses, apple picking, farmstead views, chickens, dairy and beef cows.109 State Street, Montpelier. Through spring 2012. 828-2291 or vermonthistory.org.

µÆ

calendar@montpelierbridge.com

THE BR IDGE CALENDAR OF E VENTS JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE C . 3

Dog River Forum: The Impacts of Irene Through the Science of River Management A river scientist, a watershed planner and others speak about flood impacts and how to im-prove flood resiliency of our river communities through river management practices.7–9 p.m. Room 85, Cabot Science building, Norwich University, Northfield. Free. Justin, 828-4493, or Ann, 882-8276.

Mortgage and Lending Options Workshop Marino Bartolomei, assistant vice president of TD Bank, offers new ideas for lending, mort-gages, buying and refinancing, and answers questions about mortgages and loans.7 p.m. Waterbury Public Library. Free. 244-7036.

Ecumenical GroupSongs of praise, Bible teaching, fellowship.7–9 p.m. Jabbok Center for Christian Living, 8 Daniel Drive, Barre. Free. 476-3873. Event hap-pens every second and fourth Thursday.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27Film Program: Alfred Hitchcock’s Art of SuspenseRick Winston presents 12 film clips from Hitchcock’s 40-year career, discussing the evolution of his craft, how he worked with favorite collaborators and his sense of humor.7 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield. Free. 426-3581 or jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com.

Sounding Joy! Concert: The Romance of Scotland A Robert Burns birthday celebration performed by Randolph’s noted choral group, bringing alive the traditional songs and stories of Scotland.7:30 p.m. Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpelier. By donation.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28 Snowshoe with the Green Mountain Club, Montpelier SectionDifficult 5.2-mile ascent of the Mount Mansfield Chin on the Long Trail from Route 108. Hike to Taft Lodge and then summit the Chin. Crampons recommended. Must contact leader Paul DeLuca, 476-7987 or pdeluca420@msn.com, for meeting time and place.

Breakfast FeastVegetarian or meat frittata, pancakes with toppings, and coffee, tea and juice. 9–11 a.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. $12 adults, $10 kids, $30 family; benefits Vermont Interfaith Alliance. Reservations at 223-7399.

Free Women’s Car Care Clinic9 a.m.–noon. Auto Craftsmen, 326 State Street (Route 2), Montpelier. Register at 223-2253 or service@autocraftsmen.com. autocraftsmen.com/our-amazing-women-car-care-clinics.

Community Design Day for East Montpelier ElementaryResidents brainstorm ideas and offer suggestions on proposed options for renovating and ex-panding the school. Residents in the building trades especially encouraged to participate.9 a.m.–noon. East Montpelier Elementary School. Free. 223-7936 or emontpelierschool.org.

Family Day at Orchard ValleyFor grade school and early education. Meet teachers, view student work and engage in a series of miniclasses and activities while your children engage in bread baking, a puppet show or a supervised indoor/outdoor activity.9 a.m.–noon. Orchard Valley Waldorf School, East Montpelier. 456-7400 or dawn.m@ovws.org.

Jaquith Friends Annual Book SaleThousands of books on all subjects from cooking to biographies to history and novels, priced from $2 down, to benefit the library; everything free between noon and 1:30 p.m.9 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield. 426-3581, 454-7767 or jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com.

Ski for HeatCross-country ski or snowshoe to raise funds for fuel assistance in central Vermont. Come for all or part of the day.9 a.m.–4 p.m. Morse Farm Ski Touring Center. By donation. 793-7674 or kate.sfh.cv@gmail.com

Page PalsYounger readers read to, read with, chat or game with teen and tween volunteers. 10 a.m.–noon. Kellogg-Hubbard Children’s library, Montpelier. Free. Please preregister at 223-4665. Program repeats Saturday, February 11.

Transition Town Montpelier Potluck and GatheringGood food, good discussion and community support for these changing times. Bring a potluck dish and your own dishes and utensils. All welcome.Noon–2 p.m. Trinity Methodist Church, 137 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. Event happens every fourth Saturday.

Indoor Garden Workshop: Salad GreensWith Peter Burke. This workshop will focus on general techniques for growing a steady supply of many varieties of fresh greens with only a cupboard and a windowsill.1–2 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $10 member/owners, $12 non-members. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

Blues Brothers Hit the Barre Opera HouseCalais residents Chris “Jake Blues” Miller and Chris “Elwood Blues” Colt perform a theatrical adaptation of The Blues Brothers to raise money for the historic Blue Barn in Maple Corner. 3 and 8 p.m. Barre Opera House. $15 in advance, $18 at the door. Tickets at 496-8188 or barreoperahouse.org.

Central Vermont Premiere: Strength of the StormA film directed by Rob Koier and the Vermont Workers’ Center, telling the story of a group of mobile-home-park residents who organize to have a voice in government and relief efforts that affect them after their homes are wiped out by Tropical Storm Irene. 5 p.m. Old Labor Hall, Granite Street, Barre. 861-4892 or info@workerscenter.org.

Annual Latin Dinner and DanceGourmet Mexican meal, virgin margarita bar, live Latin music by U-32 musicians throughout the evening and Latin dance lessons (no experience necessary) followed by open dancing.6:30 p.m. U-32 High School, Gallison Hill Road, Montpelier. $15 adults, $7 students, $35 fam-ily. Tickets at 223-0321, ext. 5179, or swolf@u32.org.

Lecture on Contemporary Art: Wu TsangTsang is a visual artist, performer and filmmaker in Los Angeles. Part of the master’s in visual art residency at VCFA.7 p.m. Noble Lounge, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. Free. 828-8613.

Movie Night: CourageousA movie about how police must be courageous, perhaps in unexpected ways. Live music by the FCC Praise Band before the film, 6:30–7 p.m.6:30–10 p.m. Faith Community Church, 30 Jones Brothers Way, Barre. Free; refreshments to benefit the church’s trip to Haiti to minister to orphans. thefaithcommunity.com.

Traditional New England DanceAdina Gordon calls classic New England dances to music by the Homegrown Chestnuts house band. No partner needed. Bring soft-soled shoes not worn outdoors and a dessert to share.7:30 p.m. beginner lesson, 8 p.m. dance. Capital City Grange, 6612 Route 12 South (Northfield Street), Berlin. Merry, 225-8921.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29Ski with the Green Mountain Club, Montpelier SectionModerate cross-country outings of various distance at the Craftsbury Ski Touring Center. Trail fee applies. Lunch on the trail. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at Montpelier High School. Cynthia Martin and George Longenecker, 229-9787 or marlong@myfairpoint.net.

Chocolate-Making Workshop at Nutty Steph’sCall 229-2090 for more information or to sign up.

Ice on Fire Winter FestivalActivities and fun for all ages, including games, outdoor theater, song, storytelling, igloos, warming hut and hot food and drink. Snowshoes provided; bring cross-country skis and sleds. 2 p.m., opening parade; 5 p.m.; closing bonfire. North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm Street, Montpelier. $1–$5 suggested donation. 223-0577.

‘Welcome, Neighbor’ Potluck DinnerNew to Plainfield? Let us introduce ourselves! Bring a dish to share, a sign with your dish’s ingredients, and your own plate, bowl, cup and silverware. 6 p.m. Cutler Memorial Library, Route 2, Plainfield. Free. 454-8504 or cutlerlibrary.org.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31Ski with the Green Mountain Club, Montpelier SectionModerate, various-distance outings at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. Trail fee applies.Call leaders Mary Smith, 505-0603, or Mary Garcia, 229-0153, for meeting time and place.

Renewable Energy WorkshopWith Jon Budreski from Alteris Renewables. Learn about solar electricity and hot water for homeowners, including how they work, site requirements and incentives. Snacks provided.5:30–7:30 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. Free. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

Increase Your Emotional AgilityEmotions influence the conversations we have and do not have, our interactions and our deci-sions. Building “emotional agility” opens up more possibilities in our interactions and choices.6:30–7:45 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. Fran, 249-7377 or stillpointlifecoach@yahoo.com.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1Herbal VanlentinesWith Dana L. Woodruff, community herbalist and health educator. Celebrate Valentine’s Day by experiencing foods, drinks and massage oils made with traditional aphrodisiac ingredients.6–7:30 p.m. Hunger Mountain Coop community room, Montpelier. $10 member/owners, $12 nonmembers, or 2 Onion River Exchange hours. Register at 223-8004, ext. 202, or info@hungermountain.com.

Classic Film NightThis classic 1937 adventure tale, directed by Frank Capra, tells of a British diplomat and others whose plane crashes in the Himalayas, leading to their discovery of Shangri-La. 7 p.m. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield. 426-3581 or jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com.

Farmers Night: An Evening of George Gershwin Pianist Michael Arnowitt explores the music and era of American composer George Gershwin and performs “An American in Paris” and “Rhapsody in Blue,” among other compositions. 7:30 p.m. House chamber, State House, Montpelier. Free. Also a Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesdays event.

Swing Dancing at the Black DoorLesson with Gillian Davis (no partner needed), followed by dancing to live music.7:30–8 p.m., lesson; 8–10 p.m., dance. 44 Main Street, Montpelier. $5 suggested donation. Event happens every first and third Wednesday.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2Lecture on Contemporary Art: Julia Bryan-WilsonBryan-Wilson is an associate professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author on many contemporary artists. Part of the master’s in visual art residency at VCFA.4:15 p.m. Noble Lounge, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. Free. 828-8613.

Science of Mind PrinciplesStudy group for inquiring minds of all faiths.6–8 p.m. Universal Rivers of Life, 28 East State Street, Suite 4 (second floor), Montpelier. 223-3427 or robin@universalrivers.com. Event happens every first and third Thursday.

Plainfield Book Club6:30 p.m. Cutler Memorial Library, Route 2, Plainfield. Free. 454-8504 or cutlerlibrary.org. Event happens every first Thursday.

SUBMIT YOUR EVENT! calendar@montpelierbridge.com

PAGE C .4 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BR IDGE CALENDAR OF E VENTS

Weekly EventsBICYCLINGOpen Shop NightsHave questions or a bike to donate, or need help with a bike repair? Come visit the volunteer-run community bike shop.Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6–8 p.m. Fridays, 4:30–6:30 p.m. Freeride Montpelier, 89 Barre Street, Montpelier. By donation. freeridemontpelier.org.

CAREGIVING★ Powerful Tools for CaregiversFamily caregivers: learn how to reduce stress, improve communication, find balance, prob-lem solve and locate resources. Wednesdays, February 1–March 7, 3–4:30 p.m. Central Vermont Council on Aging, 59 North Main Street, Suite 200, Barre. $20 suggested donation. Class size is limited; register with Jeanne at 476-2671 or jkern@cvcoa.org.

CRAFTSBeaders GroupAll levels of beading experience welcome. Free instruction available. Come with a project for creativity and community. Saturdays, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. The Bead Hive, Plainfield. 454-1615.

GAMES Apollo Duplicate Bridge ClubAll welcome. Partners sometimes available.Fridays, 6:45 p.m. Bethany Church, Montpe-lier. 485-8990 or 223-3922.

HEALTHFree HIV TestingVermont CARES offers fast oral testing.Thursdays, 1–4 p.m. 73 Main Street, Suite 40, Montpelier. vtcares.org.

KIDS & TEENSThe Basement Teen CenterCable TV, PlayStation 3, pool table, free eats and fun events for teenagers.Monday–Thursday 3–6 p.m.; Friday 3–11 p.m. Basement Teen Center, 39 Main Street, Montpelier. 229-9151.

Story Time at the Waterbury Public LibraryMondays, age 18–36 months. Wednesdays, age 0–18 months. Fridays, age 3–6 years. 10 a.m. Waterbury Public Library. Free. 244-7036.

Library Activities for Kids• Story time, Tuesdays, Wednedays and Fri-

days, 10:30–11:30 a.m.• Crafts, first Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m.• Games, second Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m.• Lego club, third Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m.• Teen Advisory Group meeting, fourth Tues-

days, 3:30 p.m.• Chess club, Wednesdays, 5:30 p.m. (call

Robert, 229-1207, for info) • Young Adult Nights (games, movies, food,

crafting and more for youth age 10–17), third Fridays, 6–9 p.m.

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. 223-4665.

★ Dungeons and DragonsJoin Dungeon Master Ben Matchstick for a monthlong campaign. For ages 9–12.Mondays, 3:30–5:30 p.m., January 30, Febru-ary 6, 13 and 27. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free, but players must preregister at 223-4665 and plan on attending all four Mondays.

Youth GroupGames, movies, snacks and music.Mondays, 7–9 p.m. Church of the Crucified One, Route 100, Moretown. 496-4516.

Story Time and PlaygroupStory time: for children age 0–6. Playgroup: story, art, song, nature activities and coopera-tive games. Dress for the weather.Story time: Mondays, 10 a.m. Playgroup: Wednesdays, 10–11:30 a.m. Jaquith Public Li-brary, 122 School Street, Marshfield. 426-3581 or jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com.

Morning PlaygroupStorytelling inspired by seasonal plants, fruits and herbs with in-house astrologer MaryAnna Abuzahra, plus crafts, games and activities. Walk follows. All ages welcome.Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Tulsi Tea Room, 34 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. tulsiteallc@gmail.com.

Second-Language Story TimeTales in American Sign Language, plus monthly special events with native speakers.Tuesdays, 3 p.m. Cutler Memorial Library, Route 2, Plainfield. Free. 454-8504 or cutlerlibrary.org.

Story Time at Onion River KidsFun outdoor adventure tales and childhood classics.Sundays, 10:30 a.m. 7 Langdon Street, Mont-pelier. 223-6025.

LANGUAGELunch in a Foreign LanguageBring lunch and practice your language skills with neighbors.Noon–1 p.m. Mondays, Hebrew. Tuesdays, Ital-ian. Wednesdays, Spanish. Thursdays, French. Fridays, German. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. 223-3338.

MUSIC★ Sing With the Barre TonesWomen’s a cappella chorus.Mondays, 6:30 p.m. Alumni Hall (second floor), near Barre Auditorium. 223-2039 or rjmorgan1956@comcast.net.

★ Capital Orchestra Rehearsals Community orchestra. No audition required. All orchestral players welcome. Culminates in April concert.Mondays, 7–9 p.m. U-32 School band room. Dan, 272-1789 or liptakdan@gmail.com.

SPIRITUALITYDeepening Our Jewish RootsFun, engaging text study and discussion on Jewish spirituality.Sundays, 4:45–6:15 p.m. Yearning for Learn-ing Center, Montpelier. Rabbi Tobie Weisman, 223-0583 or info@yearning4learning.org.

Christian Meditation GroupPeople of all faiths welcome.Mondays, noon–1 p.m. Christ Church, Montpe-lier. Regis, 223-6043.

Shambhala Buddhist MeditationInstruction available. All welcome.Sundays, 10 a.m.–noon, and Wednesdays, 6–7 p.m. Program and discussion follow Wednes-day meditation. Shambhala Center, 64 Main Street, Montpelier. Free. 223-5137.

Zen MeditationWednesdays, 6:30–7:30 p.m. 174 River Street, Montpelier. Call Tom for orientation, 229-0164. With Zen Affiliate of Vermont.

SPORTSRoller Derby Open Recruitment and Recreational Practice Central Vermont’s Wrecking Doll Society in-vites quad skaters age 18 and up to try out the action. No experience necessary. Equipment provided: first come, first served.Saturdays, 5–6:30 p.m. Montpelier Recreation Center, Barre Street. First skate free. centralvermontrollerderby.com.

★ Coed Adult Floor Hockey Equipment provided.Sundays, 3–5 p.m. Montpelier Recre-ation Center, Barre Street. $5. 363-1531, bmfloorhockey@gmail.com or vermontfloorhockey.com.

THRIFT STORESTrinity Community Thrift StoreTuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; Sat-urdays, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Trinity United Method-ist Church, 137 Main Street (use rear entrance), Montpelier. 229-9155 or tctsvt@yahoo.com.

YOGAYoga By DonationWith Lydia Russell. Weaving in seasonal poetry and myth, these intermediate-level Anusara-inspired classes help build strength, flexibility and safe postural alignment. Saturdays, 10–11:15 a.m., Shambhala Center, Montpelier (no class January 28 or February 11); Mondays, 5:30–6:45 p.m., River House Yoga, Plainfield. By donation. saprema-yoga.com

Support GroupsTURNING POINT CENTERSafe, supportive place for individuals and their families in or seeking recovery.• Alchoholics Anonymous, Sundays,

8:30 a.m.• Making Recovery Easier workshops, Tues-

days, 6–7:30 p.m.• Wit’s End Parent Support Group, Wednes-

days, 6 p.m. • Narcotics Anonymous, Thursdays,

6:30 p.m. Open daily, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. 489 North Main Street, Barre. 479-7373.

KINDRED CONNECTIONSFor anyone affected by cancer. Get help from Kindred Connections members whohave been in your shoes. A program of the Vermont Cancer Survivor Network.Call Sherry, 479-3223, for more information. vcsn.net.

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT GROUPFor anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one.Every other Monday, January 9–April 16, 6–8 p.m. Every other Wednesday, January 4–April 11, 10–11:30 a.m. Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, 600 Granger Road, Barre. Ginny, 223-1878.

BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUPSOpen to all survivors, caregivers and adult

family members. Evening group facilitated by Marsha Bancroft; day group facilitated by Kathy Grange and Jane Hulstrunk.Evening group meets first Mondays, 5:30–7:30 p.m., DisAbility Rights of Vermont, 141 Main Street, Suite 7, Montpelier, 800-834-7890, ext. 106. Day group meets first and third Thursdays, 1:30–2:30 p.m., Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier, 244-6850.

GRANDPARENTS RAISING THEIR CHILDREN’S CHILDRENFirst Wednesdays, 10 a.m.–noon, Barre Presbyterian Church, Summer Street. Second Tuesdays, 6–8 p.m., Wesley Methodist Church, Main Street, Waterbury. Third Thursdays, 6–8 p.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, 137 Main Street. Child care provided in Montpelier and Waterbury. Evelyn, 476-1480.

FAMILIES OF COLOROpen to all families. Play, eat and discuss is-sues of adoption, race and multiculturalism. Bring snacks and games to share, and dress for the weather.Third Sundays, 3–5 p.m. Unitarian Church, 130 Main Street, Montpelier. Alyson, 439-6096 or alyson@suncatchervt.com.

★ WOMEN’S SUBSTANCE ABUSE RECOVERY GROUP Women support each other in staying clean and sober in this support and skills group.Wednesdays, 1–2:15 p.m. Steppingstone Coun-seling, 12 Cottage Street, Suite F, Barre.Income-based fee scale; insurance accepted.

Interview required; contact Julie Bradshaw, 479-0050.

BEREAVED PARENTS SUPPORT GROUPFacilitated by Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice (CVHHH).Second Wednesdays, 6–8 p.m. CVHHH, 600 Granger Road, Berlin. Jeneane Lunn, 793-2376.

CELIAC AND FOOD ALLERGY SUPPORT GROUPWith Lisa Masé of Harmonized Cookery.Second Wednesdays, 4:30–6 p.m. Central Vermont Medical Center, conference room 3. lisamase@gmail.com.

CANCER SUPPORT GROUPThird Wednesdays, 6–7:30 p.m. For location, call Carole MacIntyre, 229-5931.

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUPThird Wednesdays, 6–7:45 p.m. Conference room 2, Central Vermont Medical Center. 223-2933.

ALZHEIMER’S SUPPORT GROUPSecond Wednesdays, 7–9 p.m. Community National Bank, Barre. 476-5116 or 476-4822.

★ MAMA’S CIRCLE GROUP Support for parenting in a group setting. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers welcome; books, toys and light refreshment available.Hosted by Good Beginnings of Central Vermont.

Thursdays, 10 a.m.–noon. 172 River Street, Montpelier.

NAMI: CONNECTIONA peer-led, recovery-oriented group for indi-viduals living with mental illness.First and third Thursdays, 6–7:30 p.m. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. 800-639-6480 or connection@namivt.org.

DIABETES DISCUSSION GROUPFocus on self-management. Open to anyone with diabetes and their families.Third Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. The Health Center, Plainfield. Free. Don, 322-6600 or dgrabowski@the-health-center.org.

MEN’S GROUPMen discuss challenges of and insights about being male.Thursdays, 6:15–8:15 p.m. 174 Elm Street, Montpelier. Interview required: contact Neil Davis, psychologist-master, 223-3753.

DIABETES SUPPORT GROUPFirst Thursdays, 7–8 p.m. Conference room 3, Central Vermont Medical Center. 371-4152.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUSTwelve-step program for physically,emotionally and spiritually overcoming overeating.Fridays, noon–1 p.m. Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpelier. 223-3079.

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND, MONTPELIER CHAPTERFirst Saturdays. Lane Shops community room, 1 Mechanic Street, Montpelier. 229-0093.

★ indicates new or revised listing

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 11

ClassesAIKIDOMINDFULNESS IN MOTIONThis five-week beginning Aikido course for adults starts 6 p.m. Thursday, January26. Geared to the physical abilities of the participants, it’s a way to cultivate energy,harmony and well-being. Location: 1 Granite Street, Montpelier. $50 for the fiveweeks, preregistration not necessary. In-formation: Sara Norton, 454-8550; flyer at aikidoofmontpelier.org.

COACHINGLIFE COACHING GROUPSExcellence in Workplace Communication: Examine real work dilemmas and explore possibilities for effective action; beginning January 23. Women in Transition: Navigat-ing personal and career transitions with in-tention, strength and grace; beginning Febru-ary 6. $225 for six sessions (early registration $195). Contact Fran Weinbaum, life coach: 249-7377 or stillpointlifecoach@yahoo.com.

WRITINGWINTER WRITING CLASSESIntroduction to Memoir: Crafting the Story Within: Mondays, January 16–March 19, $150. Guided Writers’ Group: The Art of Draft and Revision: Fridays, January 13–March 16, $150. Classes meet from 10 a.m.–noon, Christ Church, 64 State Street, Montpelier. Maggie Thompson, MFA, in-structor. To register, or for more information, call 454-4635.

ClassifiedsFOR SALEPRINT CARTRIDGE For a Ricoh printer. SP3300D – Ricoh Car-tridge P/N = 406212. Our new printer uses newer cartridge. Price new: $140+, aftermar-ket pricing: $47+ (plus shipping). Cartridge in original box; sealed bag has been opened.$35.00 as-is at The Bridge. Call 223-5112.

SERVICESHOUSE PAINTERSince 1986. Small interior jobs ideal. Neat, prompt, friendly. Local references. Pitz Quat-trone, 229-4952.

Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!

We bring people home.

McCarty Real Estate, a family business for over 25 years, representing buyers and sellers.

Rebecca McCarty Copans802.922.3452 802.229.9479rebecca@ mccartyre.commccartyre.com

ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCY

MONTPELIER RECRE-ATION DEPARTMENT’S

ADVISORY BOARDThe Montpelier Board of School Com-missioners is inviting members of the community to apply for (1) three-year position on the Recreation Department’s Advisory Board.

Please submit a letter of interest no later than 4:00 p.m. Friday, February 10, 2012 to:

Arne McMullen, Director of Recreation55 Barre StreetMontpelier, VT 05602

Emerge YogaKripalu • Pre- & Postnatal • Yoga TherapyPartner Labor/Birth Workshops

Build strength and flexibility while moving with awareness and ease. Classes offered at various locations.

www.emergeyoga.net802.778.0300 • amylepage.alh@gmail.com

Amy LePage-Hansen, CYI

PAGE 12 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

1. b. The man driving the bulldozer and wearing an engineer’s cap is Deane C. Davis, president of National Life Insurance Company, during the ground-breaking ceremony for the company’s new headquarters building on October 3, 1957. Davis, a Montpelier resident, later served as governor of Vermont from 1969 to 1973.

2. c. This is National Life’s new building. The decision to keep the National Life headquarters in Montpelier, widely credited to Davis’s influence, has been important to Mont-pelier’s economic health.

3. d. This photograph captures the laying of the corner stone at St. Augustine’s Church on Barre Street in 1892. Bishop Louis deGoesbriand from the Catholic Diocese of Burlington is at the center in the mitre. The picture above shows the newly completed church, circa 1893.

4. a. About 200 Montpelier High School (MHS) stu-dents walked out of classes on April 17, 1938, in support of veteran high-school principal Theodore Kambour, who had been dismissed by the school board. The students de-manded that Kambour be reinstated and that the school board make public their reasons for firing him. This is a picture of Kambour at his desk at MHS in 1938. He died suddenly in 1943.

5. d. In 1938, when the students in the previous photo-graph were striking, Union School was under construction. In fact the construction sign and façade of the old Union School can be seen in question 4’s photograph. In question 5, the corner of the old Union School can be seen in the right of the photograph. The foundation of the new school is on the left, in the front yard of the old school. The old school faced School Street; the new school was built with

its front door on Park Avenue. The house in the center of the photograph has a back entrance on Park Avenue and its front door on Loomis Street. The photograph above shows the new school completed and the old school almost com-pletely demolished.

6. c. James French’s circa 1860 post office building, which originally graced the corner of State and Elm Streets, is now located on Pitkin Court, behind City Hall. The original front of the building now faces the side parking lot. At one time this building was on Main Street next to the present fire station.

7. b. President James Monroe was entertained here in the Willys J. Cadwell House in 1817. The Marquis de La Fay-ette was entertained here in 1825. The house, at one time the finest in Montpelier, was built in 1795 and torn down in 1884 to make room for the Blanchard Block. The build-ing that houses Heney Real Estate today can be seen at the left of the photograph.

8. a. The woman was a worker for the taxi service that was located on lower East State Street, where Downstairs Video is located today. A photograph of the exterior of the building is shown above. The A&P store was next door to the park-ing lot, occupying the building where the Vermont Center for Independent Living is located today.

9. d. This is St. Michael’s High School junior Edward P. Brynn, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brynn of Walker Ter-race, Montpelier, who was in Washington, D.C., in Febru-ary 1959, representing New England in the Report to the Nation scouting program. Brynn had a distinguished career in the diplomatic service, serving as ambassador to the African countries of Burkina Faso (1991–1993) and Ghana (1995–1998).

10. b. Evelyn Lease was the head librarian of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library from 1909 until 1935. She began her as-sociation with the library in 1900 as an assistant and served as a trustee until 1949. The picture above shows the library almost completed in 1896.

11. a. The building was located next to Bethany Church, where one corner of City Center is now located. The steeple of the church can be seen along the left edge of the pho-tograph. Montpelier Crackers (above) were made in the capital city until the company moved to New Hampshire in 1968. The building and several of its neighbors were de-stroyed by a fire in the 1970s.

12. d. Lola Pierotti, now Lola Aiken, was the class secretary. She went to Wash-ington, D.C., in 1941 to work in the office of Vermont Senator George D. Aiken. In 1967 they married. They are shown here together in 1974, the last year of his long career in the U.S. Senate. After her husband’s death in 1984, Lola Aiken returned to her home-town of Montpelier, where she has been an active mem-ber of the community.

THE Answers DON’T PEEK! If you want to try your hand at the questions, turn to the special pull-out history quiz located in the center of this issue.

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 13

13. a. These are the early buildings of the Lane Manu-facturing Company, located on the opposite bank of the North Branch from Elm Street. This photo dates from 1868. Manufacturing continued on this site until January 1977, when a fire destroyed a wooden building being used by Denny Lane, the great-grandson of the founder.

14. b. Lua B. Edson was the first woman secretary of civil and military affairs, the right-hand aide to the governor. Edson was appointed to her position by Governor John E. Weeks in 1927 and was reappointed by Governor Stanley C. Wilson, who is shown, surrounded by his aides, making an important telephone call in the governor’s office in Sep-tember 1931.

15. d. This building is now on Langdon Street, where it most recently hosted the Langdon Street Café. It was moved across the North Branch to this location in about 1890 by James Langdon to make way for the commercial development on the street that bears his name. At one time it housed the Montpelier Police Department.

16. b. Daughly Gould, mayor of Montpelier from 1947 to 1949, ran a junkyard located on Prospect Street, just off of Northfield Street. The business, founded by his father, Louis, specialized in paper recycling and was known as Granite City Paper Stock Company. It can been seen in the photograph above. Following the death of his father, Daughly established the Gould Secondary Material Com-pany. Gould held several political positions and was chair of the Vermont Liquor Control Board from 1951 to 1955.

17. b. Montpelier City Hall was under construction when this photograph was taken in 1909. The old post office building shown in question 6 can be seen behind the con-struction site. The city hall was dedicated in 1911.

18. a. For many years the location of Woodbury College on Elm Street, this is now the home of Community College of Vermont. The former barn on the left side of the pho-tograph is still part of the complex. The photograph above shows the barn newly renovated for Woodbury College. The city farm was also known as the poor farm; it operated from 1897 to 1956 as a place to house and employ the city’s most indigent citizens.

19. b. Kinstead was located at 250 Main Street, where the street turns and heads toward County Road. The building formerly housed New England Culinary Institute and later River Rock School. It now houses a variety of offices.

20. c. The building was the E. W. Bailey grain mill, lo-cated where the parking lot for Shaw’s supermarket is today. The company took advantage of their loss to erect a sub-stantial concrete grain elevator (above) that stood on this spot until it was demolished in 1963.

21. b. Amodel of the Santa Maria was preparing to sail down Main Street in the Columbus Day parade of October 12, 1912. The date 1492 can be seen on the prow of the model ship. The above photograph of another float, also with a historical theme, shows the buildings near Prospect Street, off of Northfield Street, where the parade assembled before heading into town.

22. d. This is the storefront formerly occupied by Som-mer’s Hardware and now occupied by Aubuchon’s paint store. The brickwork surrounding the windows on the upper floors of this building, the French Block, is very distinctive. The first-floor storefront has been significantly changed, and the level of the street has been raised, as can be seen in this photograph from 2000.

23. d. Dorman Bridgeman Eaton Kent was an employee of National Life and librarian of the Vermont Historical Society from 1911 to 1922, a volunteer position at that time. Kent lived and breathed the history of Montpelier and its people. His wide-ranging collection of Montpelier photographs forms the core of the historical society’s Mont-pelier photo collection. Many of his photographs were used in this quiz.

T&T Repeats Thrift Store

116 Main StreetMontpelier VT 05602

Donations accepted or call for a pick-up802.224.1360

Th omas K. MooreOwnerOwner

Lingerie Salejan u a ry 2 3 – 28

�����������������������

����������������������������

��������������������������������������

���������������������������������������������

������������������������������������

��������������������������������������������������

ADVERTISE! 223-5112

A SALUTE TO OUR HISTORY QUIZ PARTNERS

Several weeks ago, Paul Carnahan, the longtime librarian of the Vermont Historical Society, suggested the idea of a Montpelier History Quiz. I can’t even guess how many total hours Paul Carnahan devoted to the project. I do know that working with him from beginning to end was a delight. Thank you, Paul Carnahan and the Vermont Historical Society. Thanks, too, to National Life Group for its generous and consistent support of local history projects, including this quiz.

—Nat Frothingham

PAGE 14 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

by William Fraser, city manager

As I write this, the budget process has been in full swing for nearly two months, but the city council’s proposal for voter consideration has not been final-

ized. The city budget will be reviewed in detail in next month’s article. The final budget hearing is on Thursday, January 26, and the budget vote and city election is on Tues-day, March 6. We have been fortunate, this year, to have had active citizen participation in the budget discussions. Here are some frequently asked questions:

Why hasn’t more money been spent on fixing roads?

In order to manage the high tax rate, the city had set a limit on the amount of capital spending per year. Any debt payments for bonds were deducted from this total, leaving the remaining money for annual spending in larger projects, usually between $300,000 to $400,000. In the last few years, we have been faced with several expensive retaining-wall repairs. While not always visible, retaining walls sup-port both roadways and homes. Their failure can be danger-ous. Additionally, the city has allocated $100,000 per year toward a flood-mitigation project with the Army Corps of Engineers. These activities have diverted money away from road maintenance and paving. Although some funds have gone toward streets, clearly it has not been enough. The city is proposing a new plan this year that will invest substan-tially more money into infrastructure and equipment.

Why do we have 17 police officers?Montpelier has 17 full-time sworn police officers: one

chief, four sergeants (one for each of the three shifts and one swing-shift sergeant who covers the days off of the day-shift and evening-shift sergeants), one school resource officer, one detective and 10 patrol officers (three of whom are corporals with additional duties).

When staffing is down, overtime proportionately in-creases, and many of our police functions shift from proac-tive to reactive. Examples of this can be seen in reduced dedicated traffic and speed enforcement, reduction or elimi-nation of effective patrol tactics—specifically the bike patrol unit and uniform foot patrol—and it negatively effects our overall capacity to effectively deal with the ebb and flow of criminal activity and emergency response needs.

When fully staffed, the day shift (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) has one supervisor and two to three patrol officers working; the evening shift (4 p.m. to midnight) has one supervisor and two to four patrol officers (one of whom works from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.); the midnight shift (midnight to 8 a.m.) has one supervisor and one patrol officer working. The chief, school resource officer and detective perform their specialized roles mostly during the day but not always. They are available for backup support as needed and frequently perform those duties.

These numbers allow for officers to receive necessary training, attend court or take leave without triggering a need for excessive overtime. This staffing also supports our abil-ity to have two bike officers and allows us to participate in specific highway-safety initiatives such as Click It or Ticket campaigns, DUI check points, area proactive criminal inter-diction efforts and many others.

Why does the Montpelier Fire Department send more than one vehicle to ambulance calls?

When there are more than three firefighters or emergency medical technicians (EMTs) on duty, one person responds in a pickup truck to assist the two firefighters/EMTs who respond on the ambulance. The third person assists on scene in moving and treating the patient while also remaining available to respond to a fire call or second ambulance call. During times when there are only three firefighters/EMTs on duty, the third person responds in a fire engine, so that, in the event of a second simultaneous emergency call (which happens nearly 300 times per year), that person can respond directly to the second emergency without first having to return to the fire station to retrieve a fire engine.

EMTs have two key priorities when responding to sick and injured patients. The first is to arrive on scene quickly and begin rendering emergency treatment. To accomplish this, all Montpelier firefighters/EMTs are highly trained in numerous procedures that can help mitigate whatever

medical emergency a patient may be experiencing. They start IVs and administer emergency drugs that treat heart attacks, asthma attacks, diabetic comas, allergic reactions and drug overdoses. They open and secure unresponsive patients’ respiratory systems by inserting advanced airway devices; splint extremity injuries and immobilize patients who have potential spinal injuries; and perform detailed patient exams and assessments to render the best possible care to each patient.

The second priority is to move the patient out of their residence, office, vehicle, etc., and secure them onto a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance. Those patients who require an ambulance are often also too sick or injured to walk themselves to the ambulance. They are stuck, often with no ability to support their weight at all, in small cars, in bedrooms at the top of stairs and down narrow hallways, wedged between toilets and bathtubs, under their desks at work, and in almost any other conceivable location. And, once outside, they still have to be brought safely from their door to the ambulance, down icy driveways and over snow-banks. Moving these patients can be time-consuming and delicate work. Doing so without proper manpower can result in additional injuries to both the patient and the EMTs.

The Montpelier Fire Department aims to be on scene at ambulance calls for no longer than 20 minutes. Providing emergency medical treatment and safely moving the patient in this time frame takes more than two people. In smaller cities and throughout Vermont, including Montpelier, the standard level of staffing for an emergency ambulance re-sponse is three.

Why does the planning department have so many staff?

The planning department is not just the city’s planning/zoning/land-use staff. The department also serves as the community development agency for the city, in much the same way as other small cities and towns have community development corporations. Montpelier has a total of 4.5 FTE staff, plus two VISTA volunteers, to perform the combined functions. 2.25 FTE are dedicated for planning and zoning, 2.25 for community development.

In Randolph, a smaller town than Montpelier, there are a total of six staff performing these functions. In Burlington, 40 people fill the same roles. That’s eight times more staff people than Montpelier, with a population that is only five times our population level

Middlebury, which is slightly smaller than Montpelier, has three full-time staff dedicated to planning and zon-ing. Brattleboro has four planning staff. Neither of these planning offices provide a community development role. In Barre, the zoning office has two full-time staff, and they have a separate building and housing department as well. The Barre Area Development Corporation is separate from city government.

In comparison to other similarly sized communities, Montpelier has fewer staff for the same set of services. The recent Matrix management study recommended that the department workload be reduced, not the staff.

What does the finance/technology depart-ment do?

Finance has three full-time positions: the finance director, payroll/human-resource manager, a staff accountant and one 24-hour-per-week senior accountant. The finance depart-ment is responsible for maintaining the accounting, payroll, payables, insurance and billing programs for the City of Montpelier. The finance department provides regular finan-cial information to department heads, the city manager, the council and residents. Our department prepares the annual city budget, manages human resources and coordinates the annual audit. The finance department also oversees all grant activities to assure proper use and reporting of grant funds.

The City of Montpelier has 22 active funds, 10 depart-ments and four labor contracts/employee plans. Montpelier has $50 million dollars invested in fixed assets financed by 32 loans that total $22 million dollars. The annual operat-ing budgets for the city’s governmental and business-type activities total $17 million dollars. Our chart of accounts has over 2,200 accounts, an indication of the complexity of our financial structure.

The technology services division provides support for all municipal departments with information systems and tech-nology. This support starts with the service and maintenance

of our existing technology and continues with forecasting and implementation of upgrades to our existing technical systems and new applications.

Two full-time employees handle all computers, software printers and phones for the entire city government. This includes 10 different locations, one to three workstations, 94 users, 151 e-mail accounts, 47 printers, 24 imaging (fax/scan) machines, 103 phones and 18 servers. Among these are the very sophisticated water- and wastewater-treatment-plant operating systems and the police records management system.

How many miles of road do we clear during snowstorms?

51.71 miles of roads and 26 miles of sidewalk (bike paths are done by sidewalk plows also). There are 10 truck drivers (six large and four small dump trucks) and three sidewalk-plow operators clearing snow during snowstorms that re-quire plowing. A supervisor with a one-ton truck checks road conditions, etc. Typical routes take four to four and a half hours for trucks and about the same time for sidewalk plows doing plowing operation. If sidewalks require snow blowing, it takes six to eight hours.

How many employees have cars or trucks available for personal use?

No employees have vehicles authorized for personal use. Five city vehicles go to homes: The police chief and fire chief cars, which are fully equipped for emergency response; the school resource officer vehicle, also fully equipped; the canine cruiser, which is a fully equipped, marked cruiser customized for the canine; and the DPW water/sewer van, which rotates with the on-call person each week.

Where does the community justice center get its funding?

The Montpelier Community Justice Center (CJC) is primarily funded through grants of state money ($188,600) through the department of corrections. In some years, the CJC has received federal money as well as a small amount in fees and donations. City funds are used balance the budget. In FY12 the city amount is projected to be $16,404.

Why don’t we just close the cemetery down during the winter months?

Most families would rather have a loved one buried at the time of death than to have the body or cremated remains stored and wait until spring. Waiting often delays personal closure and can often place budget restraints on family members and friends from out of state. Green Mount has the proper equipment to make a winter burial feasible and safe. Also, there is constant office work and maintenance work (equipment, trees and shrubs, roads) to perform during the wintertime.

What’s happening with the senior center capital campaign?

The best place to learn about the capital campaign is the blog at msacblog.wordpress.com, where you can even see photographs of the progress of 58 Barre Street renovations. Campaign volunteers and MSAC staff have raised $155,000 toward the goal of $200,000. In the past two months, the campaign was boosted by a generous $30,000 donation from Community National Bank, a $8,000 grant from the State of Vermont, and several gifts between $100 and $2,000 from other generous individuals and businesses. Your tax-deductible donations of any size may be mailed to MSAC Capital Campaign, PO Box 2100, Montpelier, VT 05601. You may also deliver them to the office at 46 Barre Street. And on Saturday evening, January 28, from 5:30 to 9 p.m., please join us for a benefit dinner. Tickets are $20 per person and may be purchased at MSAC, Bear Pond Books, Capitol Stationers and City Hall. Advance purchase is strongly rec-ommended.

Thank you for your interest in this issue and in Montpelier city government. Please feel free to contact me at wfraser@ montpelier-vt.org or 223-9502 with questions or comments.

Some Budget Questions

A Message from City HallThis page was paid for by the City of Montpelier.

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 15

The Montpelier School PageUnion Elementary School

As a Responsive Classroom (RC) school, we strive to be proactive in supporting all of our students’ learning that

occurs everywhere here at Union Elementary School (UES). The Responsive Classroom approach is a way of teaching that emphasizes social, emotional and academic growth in a strong and safe school community. This approach is grounded by seven guiding principles conceived from the work of educational theorists and the expertise of exemplary classroom teachers. Additionally, at the heart of RC are 10 classroom strategies for helping students build academic and social emotional competencies day in and day out. In so doing, students may internalize and then demonstrate our agreed-upon school rules of C.A.R.E.S—cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self-control. For more information, visit responsiveclassroom.org.

This year we have set a goal to rejuvenate our commitment and dedication to the use of RC as we join forces with our state’s school-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Sup-ports (PBIS) system. Our schoolwide common learning areas include the classrooms, cafeteria (including the Quiet Café), playgrounds, buses, interactive special classrooms and even our nurses’ office.

To begin, students and teachers established our school-wide expectations for each of these areas during the first six weeks of school. Classroom teachers and UES staff members then explicitly taught C.A.R.E.S. using modeling and prac-ticing opportunities for each of the common learning areas.

The PBIS committee has been meeting weekly to further this system. An owl was chosen as our school symbol and is used on our Give A Hoot! coupons. These coupons are given to students who are making good choices that demonstrate our school expectations. Each coupon states, “A wise owl C.A.R.E.S.” For more information, visit pbis.org.

Parent Volunteers NeededOur fifth-grade students have recognized a need to im-

prove both of our playgrounds. This proactive, community-building goal will provide more creative and skill-building apparatus and equipment that will allow children to make even better choices. Parents may help us in a variety of ways. Grant writers are needed to raise the funds, individuals to work on the design of a natural playscape for the lower playground, volunteers to oversee soccer and football during lunch recesses (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), and volunteers to eat lunch in either the large cafeteria or the Quiet Café.

Main Street Middle SchoolSixth-Grade News

Mr. Baginski’s classes have had their hands full. From building inclinometers to discovering the difference between angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants), hands-on activities rule the day in science class.

Ms. DiLena’s students recently presented their Data Unit projects, which incorporated literacy objectives, technology objectives, math objectives and personal-development objec-tives. The projects included data analysis, problem solving and integration of various tools, all skills that are desirable in the 21st century and are hallmarks of 21st-century educa-tion.

Mrs. Moody’s students have completed a poetry unit recently. The final product was a collection of their own

poems. Each student submitted a poem to a national contest, where the first prize is a published poem in a work celebrat-ing middle-school poets.

Team Summit students conducted a school-wide waste audit and presented their findings at a school assembly. Dur-ing a single day audit, 66.2 pounds of trash was collected; 21.2 pounds could have been composted and 14.4 pounds could have been recycled. Of 35.6 pounds of recycling col-lected, 66 percent was allowable recycling and 34 percent was either compost or trash.

As a result of the audit, Team Summit families have al-ready reduced the amount of trash going to the landfill by 23.5 bags per week, while increasing recycling and compost-ing.

News from the Art Room

Sixth-grade students have designed book jackets (front and back), using many different materials to add color and depth to their compositions.

Seventh-grade students created a three-dimensional box with one-piece constructions. They embarked on a fashion design and illustration unit and recently created a marionette puppet.

Eighth-grade students in Crafters Edge designed and cre-ated products to sell for their business. Some of the products this year include fleece hats and scarves, knitted scarves, holiday ornaments and hand-painted inspiration signs. Visit their website for more photos of products and to place an order.

From the Library

All MSMS students are practicing their research skills and applying new technology tools. Grade six students created electronic surveys for their Math Data Unit, analyzed the data in a spreadsheet form and then worked collaboratively to create a Google presentation. Team Sirius and Team Sum-mit began the year by creating an individual blog for their own creative writing.

Montpelier High SchoolMHS Receives Honors

U.S.News & World Report’s first-ever Best High Schools for Math and Science includes Montpelier High School. Just over 200 schools scored high enough on their Math and Science Achievement Index to be ranked. A ranking score

represents a “critical mass” of students gaining access to and succeeding at AP level math and science course work.

Woodworking Design Students Collaborate with Parks Department

Jason Miles’s woodworking design classes at Montpelier High School have been working with Geoff Beyer at the Parks and Recreation Department for the past year designing and building tree guards for downtown Montpelier. Stu-dents have met multiple times with Geoff, reworking their designs to meet specific criteria. Five tree guards have been manufactured and installed. Some of the installations have been done in collaboration with Parks and Rec employees and the overall process has enabled students to get out into the community and see through the project from beginning to end. Students have not only designed the project from the beginning using CAD software but also had the opportunity to incorporate metal shaping and welding processes into the woodworking/design curriculum. Feedback from students who have participated in this project has been extremely positive, and they have really enjoyed seeing their work on display in the community. Students who participated in the project over the past two semesters are Nick Tilton, Grayson Lavigne, Ryan Wells, David Blythe and Zack Laporte.

Students Involved in Community-Based Learning

The 55 students who have been engaged in community-based learning this semester recently completed a group oral reflection. Students shared memorable moments—moments they will remember in years to come—humorous, frustrat-ing, exhilarating, boring or otherwise. In three to five min-utes, they told the group about those moments—what hap-pened, what was memorable, what they learned. It did not have to be big moments or big events, but even the fleeting moment and seemingly trivial event from which they gained a deeper, truer understanding of both themselves and others’ experiences.

From the Art ProgramStudents enrolled in Art II have been working on creating

collages. Students recently studied the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an artist who transformed natural objects into portraits of fantasy. The work of the students is currently on display in the library as well as in the annual calendar.

This page was paid for by the Montpelier Public Schools and compiled by Richard Sheir.

Kia Rae Hanron, a sophmore at Montpelier High School (MHS), works with third-grade students in Linda Beaupre’s class at Union Elementary School (UES) through MHS’s Community-Based Learnig program. Kia, who is interested in becoming an elementary-school teacher, worked with Linda and these same students last spring when they were in second grade. She has en-joyed bonding with the youngsters and watching them develop over a year. Kia has also learned about the joys and challenges of teaching from Linda, who was her teacher five years ago when she was in fifth grade at UES.

Screech the Owl with a UES class. Screech is instrumental in the implementation of the Postive Behavior and Interventions system, giving out “hoots” for positive behavior within the school.

PAGE 16 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

Tell them you saw it in The Bridge!

by Jeremy Lesniak

The creativity of the Internet under-ground is astounding. Years after most people first started with e-mail,

these foul types continue to come up with new techniques for getting infections into our e-mail. All infections are different, but if you follow these simple steps, you can almost guarantee your e-mail to be trouble free.

Browse e-mail before downloading: There are really only two kinds of e-mail—e-mail that is based on a Web page, such as Gmail or Yahoo, and e-mail that resides on your com-puter, like Outlook or Thunderbird. Those with Web-based e-mail have a security ad-vantage, as many infections target specific e-mail programs or otherwise require elements of your computer that aren’t available when e-mail is viewed on the Web. If you keep your e-mail on your computer, your e-mail provider probably offers a Web page where you can view your e-mail. Make it a habit to view your e-mail there before downloading it. Once you can see your e-mail on the Web, delete the stuff that you know shouldn’t be there. If there’s something questionable, make sure you investigate it on the Web before downloading it.

Beware of forwards: Most infections come from people you know, so trusting e-mail from your friends, family and colleagues isn’t going to help you. If you receive a for-ward with an attachment, beware. I rarely open these, as I don’t believe they’re worth the risk. Sometimes I do open the ones I

need for work. If I’m suspicious, though, I e-mail the sender before I open it and make sure they meant to send it. Most infected attachments are sent out automatically, so if the sender wasn’t aware of it, I delete it right away.

Scan your e-mail: Most antivirus pro-grams check e-mails for malicious content. The key is making sure you have antivirus software and that it’s up to date.

Trust your instincts: I can’t tell you how many infections I’ve dealt with where the user said, “Something really didn’t seem right with that e-mail.” Yet they opened it anyway. Just like with forwards, if an e-mail seems strange, e-mail the sender and ask them about it before opening anything.

Careful with links in e-mail: Unfortu-nately, we can’t just look at the link in an e-mail and know where it’s going. The very same settings that allow you to have colors and smiley faces in your e-mail allow people to embed other, less savory things. There are two ways around this. First, if you receive an e-mail from a company saying that your ac-count needs an update or has been compro-mised, etc., open a Web browser and enter the Web address directly. Example: If Ebay sends me an e-mail saying my account was compromised, I don’t click the link in the e-mail; I go directly to ebay.com and log in. If there’s something of concern, it will be men-tioned in my account. Second, sometimes you get long links that you need to click to authorize an account creation or other change. Skim through the link to make sure it makes sense—Ebay isn’t going to send me a link that starts www.joesebayscam.net. If it seems legitimate, rather than click the link, highlight it, copy it and then open a Web browser and paste it in. This isn’t a complete guarantee, but it is much safer.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees for keeping your e-mail safe, but if you follow these tips, you can be sure to reduce your risk of infection or compromise. Identity theft is on the rise, and scam e-mails are growing at a massive rate. Be careful out there.

Jeremy Lesniak is the founder of Vermont Computing, Inc., of Randolph. He lives in Duxbury. Read his blog at jeremylesniak.com/blog.

Keep Your E-Mail Safe

Tech Check

She knows what’s going on

because she reads

The Bridge

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 17

PRUNING FRUIT TREESAnnual pruning maintenance done now.

Committing to major late-winter pruning as well.call Padma 456.7474 ~ earthwiseharmonies.com

Real Estate TransactionsStangel, Peter H. & Jing Ji Abele, Denise 1 N. Franklin Street, unit 3 6/13/2011 134,050 CondoRamstack, Patrick J. & Knuth, Kathryn L. Rivers, James 44 N. Franklin Street 6/15/2011 185,000 SingleWilliams, Irving & Lorna Joint Revoc. Trust Argmt. VanZeeland, Lu A. 2 N. Franklin Street, unit 9 6/22/2011 125,000 CondoKessler, John W. Ehrich, Jeannette V. 83 Terrace Street 6/27/2011 205,000 SinglePratt, Leslie C. & Sharlene A. Smith, Paul & Seifert, Emily 12 Greenfield Terrace 6/28/2011 244,500 SingleVarney, Donald J. Beatty, David L. 14 Independence Green 6/29/2011 139,000 CondoSetien, Heidi & Relation, Louise Bransfield, Bettie G. 180 Main Street 6/29/2011 199,900 SingleThompson, Terr J. & Sally B. Nicholas, Steven & McKearnan, Sarah 14 Deerfield Drive 6/30/2011 214,500 SingleDiamond, M. Jerome & Carol A. Donegan, Susan L. & Wishik, Heather R. 212 Cityside Drive, unit 51 7/1/2011 197,500 CondoFederal National Mortgage Association Winters, Matthew R. & Sun Mi 6 Highland Avenue 7/1/2011 121,500 SingleMayo, William H. Mayo, Catherine C. 6 Hubbard Street 7/1/2011 225,000 SingleRubin, Richard I. & Israel, Jayne Burnim, Kate E. & Rogen, Jacob O. 115 Dover Road 7/1/2011 277,000 SingleTarr, Judith C. Varney, Donald J. & Grant, Jennifer 70 Murray Hill Drive 7/5/2011 287,500 SingleWeingarten, Roger & Katherine McMahon, Jennifer & Thew, Andrea 184 Main Street 7/5/2011 373,560 SingleHouston, Lawrence D. & Patricia M. Greenberg, Joanne 12 First Avenue 7/5/2011 302,500 SingleWheatley, Linda A. Reich, Stephanie T. & Duplessis, Michael S. 8 Ridge Street 7/5/2011 199,500 Multi (2)Piper, Barbara Weingarten, Richard & Katherine 74 Liberty Street 7/6/2011 265,000 SingleKlaine, Christine W. Tease, Justin E. & Amy E. 5 Ridge Street 7/11/2011 324,500 SingleGordon, Joan P. Trust Blue Ridge Const., LLC 2 Deerfield Drive 7/14/2011 60,000 Land 0.33 AC ±Sykas, Genevieve H. Estate Hare, Janette M. & Nelson, Carrie Jo 2 N. Franklin Street, unit 10 7/14/2011 134,000 CondoMason, Mark R. & Joyce M. Soccodato, David B. & Alison J. 5 Kemp Avenue 7/22/2011 271,500 Single Dale, Mary W. Real Estate Living Trust Boes, Lori H. & Richard C. 5 McKinley Street 7/25/2011 355,000 SingleJablonski, David A. & Shaffer, Janette Lynch, Maurice M. III & Heather J. 6 Hebert Road 7/29/2011 240,000 SingleWebb, Brian P. & Nancy A. Krogh, Harry M. Irrevoc. Trust 99 College Street, unit 1 8/1/2011 235,000 CondoCattanach, Donna J. Webb, Brian P. & Nancy A. 73 Clarendon Avenue 8/3/2011 195,000 SingleJarvis, Craig Anthony Trust Brown, Jacob & Archer, Mildred 115 College Street 8/3/2011 312,000 SingleBrown, Jacob & Archer, Mildred Rosenberg, Eli & Kara 54 Liberty Street 8/3/2011 260,000 SingleGriffin, Louise S. Macchia, Laura K. & Van Geloven, Frederik 204 Berlin Street 8/4/2011 192,000 SingleCody, Donald & Yolande Revocable Trust BACOPA, LLC 485 Elm Street 8/12/2011 376,000 SinglePaterson, Christopher & Kathleen Baker, Newton B. & Diane M. 8 Deerfield Drive 8/12/2011 264,500 SingleMartin, Barbara M. Maday, Brian D. & Quiroz Maday, Brenda D. 84 College Street 8/15/2011 395,000 SingleAugustoni, Annette C. Estate Parker, Emilie R. 26 Independence Green 8/17/2011 154,000 CondoClarke, Shane M. Somerset, Paul & Myers, Sean 1 Cherry Avenue 8/24/2011 224,500 SinglePaquet, Hilary L. Central Vermont Community Land Trust, Inc. 215 Barre Street, unit A103 8/31/2011 164,900 CondoCentral Vermont Community Land Trust, Inc. Giroux, Blythe E. 215 Barre Street, unit A103 8/31/2011 164,900 CondoCity of Montpelier Twombly, Stephen G. & Robin S. Berlin Street 9/15/2011 5,218 0.14 AC + Herrick, Robert G. & Olivet, Nancy M. O’Brien, Hubert F. Jr. & Courtney, Elizabeth 16 Redstone Avenue 9/19/2011 204,000 Single Osgood, John H. & Howell, Sandra K. Wallack, Anya R. 65 College Street 9/26/2011 415,000 Single Hergt, Walter E. Furber, Thomas & Laura 32 Summer Street 9/29/2011 271,500 Single

SELLER BUYER ADDRESS DATE PRICE TYPE

PAGE 18 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Send letters and opinions to

editorial@montpelierbridge.com.

The deadline for the February 2 issue is Monday, January 30, at 5 p.m.

Tax Concern Grounded in Reality

To the Editor:The recent concern expressed about high

municipal property taxes in Montpelier, while criticized by some, is, in fact, grounded in reality.

In 2010, Montpelier’s effective munici-pal tax rate was sixth highest in the state, more than twice the statewide average (by comparison, Montpelier’s effective school tax rate was 65th highest in the state, 7 percent higher than the state average).

One of the reasons for Montpelier’s high municipal taxes is that we are a regional cen-ter with more municipal services than the av-erage Vermont town. And like other regional centers, we serve a much larger population than just those who live here.

But even among a group of 12 large Ver-mont municipalities with similar character-istics, my calculations show that Montpelier had the highest 2010 median municipal tax bill—$2,145—for residences on less than six acres. Brattleboro was second on the list ($2,057) and Barre City was third ($1,916).

Several other cites had much lower median tax bills, including Middlebury ($1,624), St. Johnsbury ($1,499), St. Albans ($1,373) and Bennington ($1,194).

There are undoubtedly differences among the 12 cities in this group that might explain why the median municipal tax bill in Mont-pelier is almost $1,000 higher than in the city with the lowest median tax bill. Some of the other cities, for example, have local op-tions taxes or special-assessment districts or enhanced valuations of commercial property, all of which can reduce pressure on residen-tial tax bills. But it also seems possible that Montpelier is a relatively big spender.

In light of these differences, I urge the city council and Montpelier citizens to continue to examine, within the proposed budget and over the next year, whether Montpelier might find a way to whittle away at our dubi-ous distinction of having such high median municipal tax bills.

—Phil Dodd, Montpelier

District Heat Success is Vital to Montpelier

To the Editor:The news that the City of Montpelier has

successfully negotiated a contract with the state for implementation of a new district heat-ing plant is cause for celebration. Residents owe Mayor Hooper, town officials, city councilors, and volunteer committees a big thank you for their work and persistence in moving this, a concept years in development, forward.

No other single infrastructure project is as important to Montpelier’s economic future and our ability to maintain a historic down-town and vital business community. Just as we now understand why localizing our food production makes both economic and envi-ronmental sense, so we are beginning to see that the same principles apply to our energy choices. Energy from the oil fields of Saudi Arabia processed and delivered to the oil tanks in our basements involves huge cost and great risk. The millions of dollars that Montpelier and its businesses spend every year to import oil are drained from our local economy, flow-ing out to global corporations and foreign nations. The new district heating system will not only lower energy costs for its users, but it will also help keep a greater portion of energy expenditures in Vermont, creating jobs and strengthening our communities.

The hard work put into forging an energy partnership with the state will also pay other dividends. Montpelier’s economic vitality, revenues and tax base are intricately tied to

our relationship with state government. Over the years, the relationship has flourished despite significant tensions around taxation and the siting of state facilities. The long-term partnership embodied in the district heating project will strengthen this relation-ship as we work together to produce local, renewable energy and achieve our common goal of economic sustainability.

—Leigh Seddon, Montpelier

Introducing District 2 Candidate

To the Editor:I’d like to introduce myself as a District 2

candidate for Montpelier’s city council.I’ve lived in Vermont since 1987, in Mont-

pelier since 1995. My wife and our four adult children are aware of how fortunate we’ve been to live in this wonderful, safe and diverse city. We love this unique community and all it has offered our family and friends.

Politically, I’ve been a life-long Democrat at the national, state and local levels. As those who know me can attest, I am a social liberal. At the same time, I’m fiscally conservative in the mold of Howard Dean, who would ask “How are we going to pay for that?” when considering programs or services. For that alone he had my vote.

My professional background is 100 percent private sector: sales, marketing and business management. Working in small companies, usually start-ups or turnarounds, I was aware of how hard we worked for every dollar that we’d then have available to spend. We had to earn our money. These experiences made me very careful with the limited dollars we had at our disposal.

In past elections I consistently voted for the District 2 incumbent. But now I’m cam-paigning to bring a fresh perspective to the financial and management challenges facing the city. Fundamental economic shifts are taking place at the international, national and state levels. It’s important that Mont-pelier acknowledge these realities as we con-sider the levels of taxation and services that the city levies and provides.

I am concerned that Montpelier has the state’s highest median municipal tax bill, as compared to 12 other cities in Vermont. Yet Montpelier’s streets and roads are in terrible condition.

As a city councilor I would focus on controlling municipal spending and, more importantly, a careful examination of spend-ing priorities. I believe that Montpelier can be affordable and provide good municipal services, as is done in many other Vermont communities with lower tax rates.

While it is imperative that Montpelier offer efficient core services to all, I also think it’s important to support events and institu-tions that knit our community together, such as our July 3 parade, First Night celebrations and our library and senior center. I don’t believe that Montpelier’s high municipal spending rate can be lowered by trimming at the edges or by targeting these quality-of-life items. What is required is careful consider-ation of how resources are consumed by all municipal departments.

It’s important, too, that our local economy thrive. I hope as a council member to help make Montpelier attractive to all businesses, whether existing or relocating, start-ups or established. Having a strong local economy, with city government that is alert, receptive and supportive to economic growth, will go a long way toward keeping Montpelier vibrant, affordable and attractive to all.

Please contact me if you have questions or concerns you’d like to discuss, and I hope for your support in the upcoming election.

—Thierry Guerlain, Montpelier

Letters

Hearing What’s Said and Unsaid: Paying Attention to Fees and Taxes

Last year, we made tough choices to close a $176 million gap. Today, I present a budget that closes a $51 million shortfall without raising broad-based taxes on hardworking Vermonters who continue to struggle to make ends meet.

—Governor Peter Shumlin’s FY2013 budget address, January 12, 2012

Reading the above words, the hard-pressed Vermont taxpayer might understandably be cheered by knowing that if the legislature embraces Shumlin’s tax proposals, taxpayers

in this state won’t be seeing a rise in such broad-based state taxes as the income tax or the sales tax.

Before celebrating, however, Vermont taxpayers should know that—again, if the legislature approves—both new state fees and increases to existing state fees will take additional money from Vermont taxpayers.

How much additional money? Well if the Shumlin administration’s fee recommendations are approved, new fees and hikes in existing fees could generate some $9.78 million.

Some of the recommended state fee increases are relatively modest.That car registration payment you made last year cost you $64. Beginning on July 1, 2012,

that car registration could cost you $69, an increase of 8 percent. That’s no biggie.OK, don’t forget your car inspection sticker. At the moment that sticker costs you $4. After

July 1, that sticker could cost $5, an increase of 25 percent.Let’s go to tires. After July 1, if you buy a tire, you could pay an extra dollar. The admin-

istration estimates that some 550,000 tires will be sold in Vermont during FY2013. This new fee will generate some $550,000 in new state money. That money will pay for a new climate center at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources both “to remediate waste tires at auto salvage yards” and “to coordinate and promote . . . greenhouse reduction initiatives.”

Taxpayers will be picking up the tab for new and increased state fees—we’ll be picking up the tab directly when we register a car or pay for an inspection sticker or buy a new tire. If we dine in a restaurant, that restaurant will face a 12 or 13 or 14 percent food-and-lodging-li-cense fee increase. If you’re a well-driller, your well-driller license will rise by 52 percent. This year you pay $105 for the license. After July 1, if the legislature approves, you pay $160.

In a January 14 note from GOP Chair Pat McDonald reacting to the governor’s budget address, she notes that for “the first time in history . . . Vermont’s overall appropriations will exceed $5 billion. On top of that,” she adds, “the general fund will grow by over 5 percent.”

McDonald quotes a remark from state senator Randy Brock, who said, in part, “[Shumlin] talked about collapsing supervisory unions to save $9 million in education spending, but what he didn’t say is that this represents just sixth-tenths of 1 percent of the state’s education budget. Over the last decade, per-pupil education spending has increased 149.9 percent . . . while enrollment dropped a little over 18 percent.”

In reviewing the spending proposals from schools, city and town governments and from the State of Vermont, we need to pay attention both to what is said and to what is unsaid, to what is added to the tax bill in taxes and what comes out of our pockets as fees or is passed along to us in higher costs for the things we need and pay for.

Editorial

Pen-and-ink drawing by Wayne Burke of Barre.

THE BRIDGE JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 • PAGE 19

by Daniel Hecht

My mother moved us from Chicago to Winnetka, Illinois, so I could go to New Trier High School,

“the best public high school in the United States.” So when I finished eighth grade we moved up to Winnetka’s affluent, tree-sheltered streets and huge houses and the cold beaches of Lake Michigan, and that’s where I shook hands with Martin Luther King Jr.

Our new home was an older apart-ment building over-looking the track of the commuter train: three rooms—my mother slept in the living room—on the third floor. I daily celebrated my escape from the brick-lined streets of Chicago and the echoing corridors of Thomas J. Waters Elementary.

When your father is dead and your mother is managing four wildly willful kids as she works full-time, your family moves a lot. Before Chicago, Mother, Nick and I lived 10 miles outside of Alexandria, Virginia, along Fort Hunt Road. Fort Hunt Road left Alex-andria and passed through shopping centers, suburbs, rural districts, and eventually to outlying, less desirable places where colored people could live.

I knew where I stood on matters such as nuclear disarmament, women’s liberation, China’s admission to the U.N. and civil rights. Of these, racial issues were the most immediate to our family. Maybe it was be-cause we ourselves had experienced a species of prejudice: with our many relocations we were perpetual outsiders, a family of artists and intellectuals and lefties who blew in like gypsies and were not to be trusted.

We were vociferous integrationists, and this was the time of America’s great convul-sive, agonal wrestle with its own racial con-

science. In Virginia, public schools were still segregated; my brother Nick was expelled from Mount Vernon High for advocating in-tegration. Local press occasionally reported lynchings. All-black chain gangs worked on the ditches along Fort Hunt Road, overseen by shotgun-wielding white sheriffs.

A few miles from our house was a district known as Gum Springs. Chew on the name,

and you’ll get a good sense of the place: Gum Springs, Vir-ginia. It was a hamlet set in flat, low land; the scattered houses were shabby and many were raised on stilts because, with-

out sewers or storm drains, Gum Springs flooded after a hard rain.

This was where “the coloreds” lived, and where whites sometimes went to burn houses and kill people. Each spring, graduates of nearby high schools drove through, shooting into the air, honking, sowing terror. Its resi-dents were kept by various tricks from vot-ing, or too demoralized to bother, so Mother and Nick and I conducted our own little voter registration drive there. I remember the pathos and squalor and the suspicion or fear in the faces of those who opened their doors to us.

So, five years later, in Winnetka, I knew where my commitments lay. And we Hechts greatly admired Dr. King. Winnetka was Republican, Caucasian, rich, but its people were tolerant and sincere believers in civic betterment. One of the local women’s asso-ciations invited Dr. King to speak there.

The summer of 1965 was the most blissful period of my life. After Chicago, the trees liberated me, and there were long beaches and parks to linger in, writing poetry. In the summer evenings I liked to swoop along on my bike, inhaling the sweet air and savoring glimpses of the varied lives enacted behind the warm windows.

I went to see Dr. King with two sisters, my first and best friends in Winnetka. We rode our bikes to the village green and sat on the grass in front of the war memorial, a brick of marble the size of a minivan that stood at the center of the sward. Other people began ar-riving, and the lawn began to fill; after a time we noticed activity up near the memorial, people setting up chairs and a PA system.

Soon the lawn was quite crowded, the shadows of afternoon were stretching into evening, and our sense of anticipation grew. Dr. King was late, an announcer told us, but he was on his way.

It was a long wait. The summer twilight came over us and the expectancy grew. We began to receive updates: Dr. King’s car has crossed Howard Street and is in Evanston. Dr. King’s car is on Green Bay Road. And suddenly there was a quickening near the memorial, and we could see several heads moving through the welcoming committee.

I don’t remember the content of Dr. King’s talk, only the thrill of hearing, in person, that grave oratorial cant, spoken and sung in the somber, relentless tones we are all famil-iar with now.

I claim that I am immune to charisma. It is suspect, I’ve always believed, because it grants demagogues and scoundrels per-suasive power undeserved by either their intelligence or moral worth. I’ve met many potentates and celebrities and have never been swayed. But I felt King’s charisma that evening. It was strong enough to reach out and, like a gravitational field, embrace the crowd. The sisters and I listened for half an hour, just suspended in the warmth of his rays and the rhythm of his words.

Then his talk was over and people clapped, and Dr. King became just a head again, moving among many other heads off to the side of the war memorial. Around us people folded their picnic blankets and conversa-tions turned from pressing social issues to dinner. I worked my way up toward the memorial, where a dense group had congre-gated near the entourage’s cars. It was a slow- motion melee as Dr. King inched toward the cars through grateful hosts and eager local dignitaries. I wedged closer and then lost sight of him and then was startled to find myself only an arm’s length away.

My first impression was that he looked very tired, embers still glowing but banked now. A sense of physical density. Tolerant of his well-wishers but impatient with them. Clustered near him were watchful black men in impeccable suits, with unsmiling, apprais-ing eyes.

At some point, a signal must have been given because suddenly it was time for King to disengage. He quickly shook some hands as he moved toward the cars, mine among them, a quick dry snatch and tug, the barest glance toward my face. Car doors slammed,

engines started. I went down the steps and across the park to look for my bicycle in the streetlamp twilight.

King was murdered three years later. I grew up, times changed. Nixon, Vietnam, Watergate . . . you know the story.

So what’s it worth, the recollection of a handshake? I can’t claim his touch lingered forever like a brand upon my fingers. He didn’t notice me, and I have acquired many other heroes.

Yet I still think there’s something of value in the touch, skin to skin, bone to bone, of two human beings. Once there were people who could claim they’d shaken hands with Abraham Lincoln. Then they grew old and died and then there were no more living hands that had met Lincoln’s hands. The remembered touch has meaning as the last link to the tangible, mortal person.

Maybe the value of King’s lies in the way a signal event provides a marker for memory, a starting place for self-reflection; recalling it, I can feel the wind as I glide along twilight streets, and I know again how it felt to be 14 and burgeoning in every part of my being.

Or maybe its merit lies in the confidence I had, pedaling home that night, that what I’d always believed was, after all, true, that I was indeed on the right side of history. Maybe that affirmation is what he did best, why he moved us, and why we remember him.

Shaking Hands With Martin Luther King Jr.

Essay

An Update on Our Annual Campaign to Benefit The Bridge

Since the New Year opened, readers and friends of The Bridge have continued to contribute their financial support to our current annual campaign.

Our fundraising goal—the money that we need—is $12,000. As of this writing we have just passed the $8,000 mark. We are two-thirds of the way toward completing our campaign successfully.

“Free, Independent & Local”—The Bridge is published twice monthly, and we mail our second issue of the month to households in Montpelier. Your indispensable support has made it possible for The Bridge to continue its mission of connecting Montpelier and nearby communities since 1993.

I encourage you to make a contribution to The Bridge by sending a check made pay-able to “The Bridge” at P.O. Box 1143, Montpelier, VT 05601. Please be in touch for any reason at any time. Our phone number is 223-5112. Or stop by our office on the lower level of Schulmaier Hall on the campus of the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Please accept our thanks for the constancy of your support. —Nat Frothingham, publisher

Good News from the Senior Center!

Here’s good news from Jane Osgatharp, the chair of the Montpelier Senior Activity Center’s capital campaign committee.

The Community National Bank, with local offices in Montpelier and Barre, has made a total pledge of $30,000 to help pay for the construction costs for the renovated senior center building at 58 Barre Street.

The bank contribution to the MSAC’s capital campaign will be in three $10,000 installments over the next three years.

The $30,000 contribution from Community National Bank gives a real “shot in the arm” for the MSAC campaign bringing the total received to date to over $145,000, within $55,000 of the overall campaign goal of $200,000.

How to raise the needed $55,000 to close out the capital campaign successfully? One good way to add support to the campaign is to participate in a Saturday evening, January 28, fundraising dinner, silent auction and dance at Montpelier’s St. Augustine’s Church. If 200 people buy tickets at $20 apiece, that’s another $4,000 for the campaign.

Summer Plans for Adamant Music

I am happy to report that all is shaping up for the summer of 2012. We have signed contracts with our teachers for the summer Traditional Session to take place from

July 16 through August 6, preceded by master-class teacher Andre Laplante for the period July 2 through July 6 and master-class teacher John O’Conor from July 10 through July 14, and followed by the Traditional Session by master-class teacher Me-nahem Pressler from August 11 through August 15, 2012.

Our faculty for this summer for the Traditional Session will consist of Esther Wang, Willard Schultz, Eugene Barban, Elaine Greenfield, Gwen Beamish and William Chapman Nyaho. Franklin Larey will return as summer program coordinator and Deirdre O’Donahue will be master-class coordinator as in the past. Applications are already coming in and it should prove to be a wonderful season. Tom McNeil, our piano technician, has also agreed to help us out for another summer.

A meeting was held with the board of directors of the Adamant Cooperative, and we have agreed to work together, as what benefits the music school also benefits the com-munity and the store. Vermont faculty member Elaine Greenfield has agreed to have performers from her personal class perform in Adamant during the Black Fly Festival, which has gotten a lot of publicity the last few years.

—Frank A. Suchomel, Adamant Music School president

Martin Luther King Jr. at freedom rally, Wash-ington Temple Church. Photo courtesy World Telegram & Sun/Wikimedia Commons.

PAGE 20 • JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 1, 2012 THE BRIDGE