Wednesday, March 4, 2015
If you want to relive the excitement of the night or catch up on how the results unfolded, check out our live blog from the evening here:
And catch up on all our coverage of the lead-up to Town Meeting Day 2015:
- Four for Mayor: Queen City Candidates Vie for the Helm | February 25, 2015
- Weinberger Campaign Raises More Than $100,000 | February 23, 2015
- Digging: A Firm Requests Records Regarding a Burlington Councilor | February 18, 2015
- Roundabout Winooski: Mayoral Candidates Vie to Lead a Changing City | February 18, 2015
- Targeting Miro: Attack Ad Draws Criticism | February 13, 2015
- The Queen City Mayor's Race Is a Referendum on Development | February 11, 2015
- Man of the People Faces Woman of the Party in Burlington City Council Race | February 4, 2015
- Mayoral Debate: Weinberger Hammers Goodkind's Record | January 29, 2015
- Burlington Telecom: From a Cloud of Litigation to a Campaign Storm | January 28, 2015
- Candidates File for Burlington Mayor, Council and School Board | January 27, 2015
- Burlington Residents to Decide on Noncitizen Voting | January 21, 2015
- Passed-Over Democratic City Councilor to Run as Independent | January 15, 2015
- Burlington School Board Approves Slight Budget Increase | January 14, 2015
- New Districts, Candidates in Landmark Queen City Election | January 7, 2015
- Weinberger's Restart: Mayor Faces Challenges From the Left | November 26, 2014
Update 3/4/15: This article has been updated to reflect Town Meeting Day results.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
As they outlined the potential savings in a Statehouse hearing room, lawmakers described them as everything from "tough" to "painful" to "incredibly difficult."
It's unclear which of the cuts will actually see the light of day. House Appropriations Committee chair Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) emphasized that the two-page document she presented was merely a menu from which legislators could choose as they seek to close a $113 million gap in next year's budget.
"This is an all-in list," she said. "It doesn't mean that we're doing every single thing on this list. It's that we feel like it's the right thing to do to be as transparent as we can be with the magnitude of this problem, what it's going to take to solve it and the kinds of things that we're looking at."
Tags: Vermont state budget , Mitzi Johnson , Justin Johnson , Vermont State Employees Association , Steve Howard , Image , Web Only
Now, the last of those legal disputes has been settled, clearing the way for the 104-unit project known as Eagles Landing to move forward. The dorm would house 290 students off St. Paul Street, supplanting the vacant Eagles Club and a parking lot.
David Provost, Champlain's senior vice president for finance and administration, and Mayor Miro Weinberger — who's been a strong supporter of the project — celebrated the news at a press conference on campus Thursday. "I think this is a really good thing for the city," said Weinberger, who noted that it will generate roughly $400,000 in property tax revenue and will fill a need for student housing.
Neighbors raised concerns early in the process about the size of the building, its design and the impact it would have on parking.
Weinberger, who thanked Provost for his persistence, acknowledged that he had been unhappy with the delays. But both he and Provost said the process — though tortuous — ultimately resulted in a better building design. Joining them at the podium was Ron Wanamaker, a member of the nonprofit Preservation Burlington and one of those who pushed for a design that blended in with the neighborhood.
Tags: Champlain College , Miro Weinberger , Burlington , Image , Web Only
If you are planning to show up at the polls next Tuesday, fill in a few bubbles, and then jet, you might want to budget a little more time. This year's Town Meeting Day ballot is 1,300 words long. In addition to picking your mayor, city councilors, school board members and inspectors of elections, you’ll be asked to answer eight questions. And chances are you haven’t heard about half of them. For your convenience, Seven Days has annotated a sample ballot with some pointers.
Let your mouse hover over the ballot to see stars. Click on them and you'll get explanations of the questions — and links to our Town Meeting Day stories.
Tags: Burlington , city council , redistricting , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
“The amount we’re investing in energy efficiency is unparalleled,” said Rep. Adam Greshin (I-Warren), who led the effort to halt its growth. “Is there any other budget in Vermont that has grown by 11-and-a-half percent?”
The House Ways and Means Committee, on which Greshin serves, voted 8-2 on Wednesday to keep the energy efficiency charge that Vermonters pay on their electric bills at its current rates until 2018. The rate is set by the state Public Service Board, but Greshin successfully amended a larger renewable energy bill to mandate the freeze.
For residential customers, this year's fee is $0.01173 per kilowatt hour. This month, Greshin said, that came to about $9.50 cents on his $119 Green Mountain Power Corp. home electric bill.
Tags: Efficiency Vermont , Vermont legislature , Rep. Adam Greshin , House Ways & Means Committee , electric efficiency , Green Mountain Power Corp. , Image , Web Only
“We have a very long view on this,” Braden said. “Two years ago, there wasn’t any way any gun provision would be debated. This is a long-term campaign to really change the conversation, so we can pass legislation to keep guns out of the wrong hands.”
As written, the bill faces steep odds in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Its chairman, Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), opposes requiring those buying guns in private sales to undergo federal background checks. But Sears said Tuesday his committee may still vote on the bill's other two components after legislators' Town Meeting Day break next week.
Those provisions would:
- Make it illegal for convicted felons to posses guns under state law, as they are under federal law.
- Require the state to report to a federal database the names of those deemed by a court to be dangerous and mentally ill.
Tags: gun rights , Gun Sense Vermont , Sen. Dick Sears , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
"I've gotten a couple of emails," Sen. Michael Sirotkin (D-Chittenden) said wryly, prompting laughs from his colleagues.
Supporters of the bill, which would dramatically reshape the way the state protects children from abuse, complained that many of those flooding lawmakers with phone calls and emails have their facts wrong.
"Somehow in this building, frequently, things are misconstrued, so that's part of what you might be hearing," said Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and helped draft the bill.
Sears noted that his committee had scaled back the scope of the bill in the weeks since it was first introduced, and he wondered whether irate voters were responding to the current version or previous iterations. The chair sought to remind his fellow Democrats why they were considering the legislation in the first place: the deaths last February and April of two young children whose families were under state supervision.
"This is about a child-protection system that has significant problems," Sears said.
Tags: Vermont child protection legislation , failure to protect , Dick Sears , Becca Balint , Image , Web Only
Winooski residents are becoming all too familiar with the sound of running water. On Thursday, city officials asked everyone to keep a faucet running 24-7 to prevent the city's water pipes from freezing. Some residents might be asked to keep the water running into April, city officials say.
In recent weeks, city hall received a burst of notices about pipes freezing and residents being stuck without water. At the peak of the crisis, 23 of the 1,700 properties connected to the city's water system were without water, city manager Katherine Decarreau said.
The reason for the problems is the snot-freezing, car-battery-destroying, soul-numbing temperatures that are assaulting Vermont this winter.
Most water pipes in Winooski are buried five feet underground, Decarreau said. But, for the first time anyone can remember, the frost in Winooski has reached that depth, if not farther.
"I have people here 30 years who haven't seen five feet of frost," Decarreau said. "That's a lot of frost."
Tags: Winooski , Burlington , water , winter , pipes , Image , Web Only
Monday, February 23, 2015
The Democratic incumbent has raised $103,562, collecting $10,505 in February alone. Steve Goodkind, the Progressive candidate, has raised $6,262. Greg Guma, who is running as an independent, said he's raised roughly $12,000. (His campaign finance report shows a slightly different amount — Guma said his treasurer was having computer problems when submitting it.)
The Vermont Secretary of State's online database had no report for Libertarian Loyal Ploof as of Monday evening, suggesting he hadn't hit the required $500 threshold.
The mayor has received donations from 260 people, and most of his money comes from donors who gave $100 or more. He's spent $84,702 so far, including $7,184 on media buys. (Weinberger's campaign finance reports show lower fundraising and spending totals because they exclude money he raised prior to August 2013.)
His opponents have spent all — or more — of the money they've raised. Goodkind has spent $5,451, while Guma said he has spent $13,742.
Tags: Burlington , Mayor Miro Weinberger , campaign finance , Image , Web Only
Twigg, 45, of Underhill, will be leaving Vermont Energy Investment Corp., the entity that runs Efficiency Vermont, to become state director for Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). Both offices happen to be located in the Innovation Center of Vermont, on Lakeside Avenue in Burlington’s South End.
Twigg will replace Tricia Coates, who left Welch’s office to become director for external and governmental affairs for Vermont State Colleges.
Twigg’s job has been to lobby state and federal policy makers on energy issues for VEIC. That brought him into contact with Welch’s office. Twigg said when he heard Coates was leaving, he jumped at the chance to apply for the job.
Twigg’s background includes a fair bit of politics. He spent 10 years working for the Wisconsin state legislature and the Madison, Wis., mayor. He was that state’s director for John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
Welch has yet to name a replacement for deputy state director Jon Copans, who recently left to work at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
Tags: Pter Welch , George Twigg , Vermont Energy Investment Corp. , Image , Web Only