Cyclists, rejoice: The Colchester Causeway has reopened for the season, and the bike ferry that transports riders from it to the Champlain Islands will soon follow suit.

The bike ferry, operated by Burlington nonprofit Local Motion, will resume  operations on August 12, following the causeway's unexpected reopening earlier this week. The 20-passenger boat transports cyclists across the 200-foot cut in the four-mile causeway and connects riders to South Hero.

A severe windstorm in May 2018 washed away portions of the causeway, requiring $1.8 million in repairs. The coronavirus pandemic pushed the expected reopening from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend, but the contractor finished the job on July 30, more than a month ahead of schedule.

"If the causeway is open, there's no reason the ferry shouldn't be running," Local Motion services and marketing director Tom Clark said. "We're committed to the recreational biking public out there, and we wanted to run the boat."

Six Vermont inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to the state from a Mississippi prison, the Vermont Department of Corrections announced Thursday.

The prisoners were transported by van to Rutland's Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility on July 28 and were immediately quarantined and tested for the novel coronavirus, the department said. They remain in medical isolation.

According to the department's website, 219 of Vermont's 1,405 prisoners are currently housed at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, a private prison owned by CoreCivic and located in Tutwiler, Miss. Another Vermont inmate who lived in the same unit as three of the six infected prisoners and who remains in Mississippi also tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week, the department said. It has called on Tallahatchie to test all Vermont prisoners remaining at the facility.

In a written statement, interim Corrections Commissioner Jim Baker noted that his department had mitigated previous outbreaks in Vermont facilities.

“What we know is our efforts have effectively eliminated the presence of COVID inside Vermont facilities, and if the virus enters it will be from outside our walls,” Baker said. “What we hope is that the Vermont model of mitigation works in this situation."

Prior to the arrival of the Mississippi inmates, 48 in-state prisoners had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent months, as had 20 Corrections staff members. 

A half dozen residents urged Burlington city officials Wednesday night to redesign the Champlain Parkway to minimize negative impacts on low-income residents and people of color.

The city hosted a public hearing — on Zoom and in person at the Department of Public Works garage — to discuss a new report on the parkway, a 2.8-mile roadway planned for Burlington's South End. First envisioned in the 1960s, the road will connect I-189 and U.S. Route 7 with the city's downtown.
Environmental concerns and legal appeals have delayed the project for decades.

The city has billed the parkway as a solution to alleviate traffic, but meeting attendees contended the very opposite. They said the project will route more vehicles through the Maple and King street area, one of the poorest neighborhoods — and the most diverse — of the eight impacted by the project.

"This is an ill-conceived idea because this neighborhood is full of low- to middle-income people ... that depend on walking," Mayumi Cornell said. "There are children that live in this neighborhood, and somebody will die. It will be most likely a Black or brown child."

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