Thursday, September 21, 2017
Turner, who is also a realtor, a partner in a family construction business, and Milton's fire and rescue chief, has been serving as interim town manager since March. In June, the selectboard named Turner as the sole finalist for the permanent job, but the arrangement wasn't finalized until this week.
Selectboard chair Darren Adams told the Milton Independent in June that Turner's "hat question" would be an issue. Turner acknowledges that being town manager and House Minority Leader "will be a lot of work," even for a guy accustomed to wearing multiple hats. But he will carry on — at least for now.
Tags: Don Turner , Darren Adams , Skip Vallee , Lenore Broughton , Tom Breuer , Carol Breuer , Image , Web Only
Sanders, who studiously avoided discussing foreign policy during his presidential campaign, chose a high profile and historically significant venue to address the topic Thursday. He made his remarks during same event at which Winston Churchill gave his famous Iron Curtain speech — at the John Findley Green Foundation lecture at Westminster College in Missouri.
Widely considered a potential presidential candidate in 2020, Sanders has cemented his role as a foil to Trump; last week, he grabbed headlines after unveiling his Medicare-for-all health care proposal.
“The goal is not for the United States to dominate the world. Nor, on the other hand, is our goal to withdraw from the international community and shirk our responsibilities under the banner of ‘America first,’” Sanders told an audience of students and faculty. “Our goal should be global engagement based on partnership, rather than dominance.”
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Donald Trump , foreign policy , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Burlington officials publicly revealed details Wednesday about three bidders for Burlington Telecom, a sale process that previously had been shrouded in secrecy.
Schurz Communications, a telecom company based in Indiana, put forward the highest bid, a cash offer of $30.8 million. The Toronto-based Ting, which is owned by Tucows, offered $27.5 million in cash. The locally based co-op, Keep BT Local, put forward a bid of $12 million, including $10.5 million in cash; the city would retain a $1.5 million interest in the utility.
The announcement came Wednesday at a press conference where the city released a thick packet of information about the bidders and their offers. The information was also made publicly available on the city website.
Tags: Burlington Telecom , Eileen Blackwood , Miro Weinberger , Kurt Wright , Max Tracy , Schurz Communications , Ting , Tucows , Keep BT Local , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
The three-term Democratic former Vermont governor revisited his signature political failure during a live-streamed interview with Harvard public health professor John McDonough.
“Was that a policy decision or was that a political decision, do you think?” asked McDonough, referring to Shumlin’s decision to pull the plug on single-payer.
“They’re always both,” Shumlin responded. “There was no way I was gonna get the votes in either the House or the Senate to pass the single-payer plan that I wanted to pass ... I had Progressive senators coming to me saying, ‘What if we just slowed down?’”
Tags: Peter Shumlin , single-payer , Obamacare , Harvard University , Image , Web Only
The Burlington Education Association and the Burlington School Board reached a tentative agreement Tuesday shortly before 8 p.m., ending a labor dispute that kept 3,600 students out of school for four days.
Many parents sighed with relief that the bitter dispute was over. The details of the agreement will not be public until the board and union ratify the terms. The union is set to vote on it Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Burlington High School auditorium. The school board had not set a vote time Tuesday evening.
The last teachers' strike in Burlington was in 1978, according to the Vermont-National Education Association.
Joanna Grossman of Burlington's South End cheered the news that an eight-hour mediation session Tuesday resulted in a deal. Her daughter was set to return to her second-grade class at Champlain Elementary School.
Tags: Fran Brock , Burlington teachers , Burlington School Board , Vermont-National Education Association , Burlington Education Association , Image , Web Only
A Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector found during the June 29 visit that city employees had not properly shored up the walls of a trench more than five feet deep. The water division workers also left soil too close to the edge of the trench's opening, according to a memo from DPW Director Chapin Spencer.
Those errors could have caused serious injury or death, leading to three citations that initially came with a penalty of $77,000, Spencer wrote in his report. But the state downgraded one of the citations after the city met with VOSHA and made changes to its safety program.
Tags: Chapin Spencer , Department of Public Works , VOSHA , Image , Web Only
Monday, September 18, 2017
Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) and Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) said they will introduce identical bills that would prohibit teachers from striking and prevent school boards from imposing contracts. The proposal would smooth negotiations and "eliminate the nuclear option on both sides," said Wright, who has long sought to ban teacher strikes.
In 2015, Wright introduced a similar bill that was defeated in the House by one vote. Last year, the bill didn't move out of committee.
This time around, Wright said, is different. The property tax pressures and health care contract negotiations facing school boards mean that strikes may be more likely.
Tags: Kurt Wright , Joe Benning , Dave Sharpe , teachers' strike , Image , Web Only
Friday, September 15, 2017
Ryan Palmer's case drew widespread attention, in part because on-duty Vermont police officers have so rarely in recent memory been charged with criminal offenses.
Former attorney general Bill Sorrell, who cleared police officers of criminal wrongdoing in most cases during his 20 year tenure, charged Palmer in 2015. But on Wednesday evening, a jury in Windsor Superior Court deliberated for six hours before acquitting Palmer of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment charges.
Tags: Ryan Palmer , Dan Sedon , Matt LEvine , police shootings , Windsor , Bill Sorrell , Attorney General's Office , Image , Web Only
Though school was closed Thursday and Friday, administrators and the Burlington Education Association teachers' union agreed to allow sports teams to play, superintendent of schools Yaw Obeng said. Members of the boys' soccer team petitioned the adults to let the games go on, according to Obeng.
"The homecoming experience is once in a lifetime, " the superintendent told Seven Days on Friday. "This was something they wouldn't get back."
The appeal worked. Coaches who are not teachers will lead the teams.
On Friday, the cross-country team will run in a meet at Essex, while the school will host a boys' soccer game and the varsity football game against rival South Burlington. Field hockey, girls' soccer and volleyball will play on Saturday. All non-varsity games will be rescheduled, the school announced.
Tags: Burlington Education Association , Fran Brock , Mark Porter , Burlington School District , Yaw Obeng , Image , Web Only
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Scott appeared with a brace of administration officials, Democratic officeholders and health care providers at Burlington's Howard Center to declare that, in Chittenden County, there is no longer a waiting list for addiction treatment services. Elsewhere in the state, he said, waits had been reduced.
The Republican governor began the press conference with a shoutout to his predecessor, Democrat Peter Shumlin, for prioritizing the opioid crisis, and made it clear that his own team had continued “the strong work of the previous administration in this area.”
He went on to credit Burlington’s Democratic mayor, Miro Weinberger, Democratic Attorney General T.J. Donovan and the predominantly Democratic state legislature. And while plenty of Dem officeholders were on hand, Scott was the only Republican elected official in the room.
Tags: Phil Scott , T.J. Donovan , Miro Weinberger , Bob Bick , Mark Levine , Eileen Whalen , Al Gobeille , Brandon del Pozo , Howard Center , Image , Web Only