Wednesday, August 19, 2020
“We’re here today to discuss differences between the bodies,” Rep. John Gannon (D-Wilmington) said. “But I think it’s important to appreciate how fundamentally close we are in many ways with respect to the bill.”
Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said that many of the differences amounted to little more than “word-smithing” that could be ironed out easily enough.
But it quickly became clear the House and Senate remain deeply divided on a number of core issues that could prove significant hurdles to forging a compromise during the brief upcoming legislative budget session.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2020
As a result, Gov. Phil Scott’s administration believes the state can survive the current fiscal year without raising taxes, cutting programs or depleting its reserves.
“Just like families are doing, we’re setting priorities — trying to do things smarter and better while making some difficult decisions,” Scott said at a press conference on Tuesday. “The bottom line is we’re not spending more than we’re taking in, and we’re living within our means.”
In a proposal submitted to the legislature later Tuesday, the Scott administration pitched a nearly $1.7 billion general fund budget for the 2021 fiscal year that, in some ways, mirrors the plan he laid out in January, before the pandemic reached Vermont.
"This budget represents a calm hand on the tiller, steering through turbulent water," Scott's finance commissioner, Adam Greshin, told reporters. "This is not the time for major changes."
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The mayor on Tuesday proposed limiting outdoor residential gatherings to 25 people, indoor ones to 10, and to end all alcohol sales at 10 p.m. The indoor gathering limit would be 15 if at least five of the attendees are household members.
He's requested an emergency city council meeting for Thursday to approve the new rules.
Tags: Mayor Miro Weinberger , City of Burlington , University of Vermont , Suresh Garimella , coronavirus , covid-19 , gathering size limits , Web Only , Image
The new programs, which would need legislative approval, could serve as many as 7,100 new children during the school year, officials estimate. They could be located in workplaces, schools, municipal buildings and summer camps around the state. Relaxing rules for existing in-home childcare providers, as Scott did with an executive order, would create another 3,000 childcare slots, officials said.
“We know we need more childcare capacity and we need it quickly,” Scott said. “For many parents, childcare will be a challenge when they go back and forth between in-person and remote learning.”
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City officials will break ground Wednesday afternoon on a “deconstruction” project for the old coal-fired power plant on the Burlington waterfront. The long-awaited redevelopment will remove the outer brick layer of the building and leave the interior steel framework, the centerpiece of a new city park on a waterfront that was once devoted to industry.
Known as the FRAME design, which stands for “Fearless Relook at Moran Electric,” the first phase of the project is expected to take a year to complete, Mayor Miro Weinberger told Seven Days on Tuesday. It’ll “transform what has been up until now an eyesore into an iconic landmark,” he said of the long-vacant building.
“The Moran FRAME concept is unique, it’s authentic to Burlington, and I think it’s quite exciting,” Weinberger said. “This new structure is going to be an enormous piece of public art” that includes public access to the area.
“The framework creates the real potential for those uses to expand and grow over the years,” he added.
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"My friends, I say to you — to everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election — the future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake," he said. "The price of failure is just too great to imagine."
As the runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination — for the second election cycle in a row — Sanders had been expected to play a prominent role in the Milwaukee convention. But due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, he and most other speakers delivered their remarks from home. Sanders appeared to have done so from Hen of the Wood's Burlington location, using the restaurant's neatly stacked firewood as a backdrop.
Sanders pulled no punches in his eight-minute remarks. Calling the 2020 election "the most important in the modern history of this country," he repeatedly referred to Trump as an authoritarian — and alluded to the Holocaust's devastating toll on his father's family.
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Monday, August 17, 2020
Thirty additional inmates have tested positive in recent days, bringing the total number of infections to at least 176 out of 219 total Vermont prisoners.
The new cases stem from a second round of mass testing on August 6.
"I cannot tell you how disappointing it is to look at a piece of paper in front of me that says 80.4 percent of the inmates that the commissioner of Corrections of Vermont — that's me — is responsible for, are positive," Department of Corrections Commissioner Jim Baker told reporters during a press conference announcing the results.
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Members of the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee agreed Wednesday that Gina Carrera should fix up her rain forest piece that was covered up by the parade mural, known as ELAP, in 2012. Carrera painted the colorful jungle scene in 1992.
"The city should be paying Ms. Carrera for her time," said City Councilor Karen Paul (D-Ward 6), who chairs the three-person subcommittee. "There's only one person who should be doing that work, and that is the artist who put it on the wall."
The committee also agreed to ask the full council to allocate $25,000 to remove the parade mural. The city commissioned the piece to celebrate the 400th anniversary of explorer Samuel de Champlain's arrival in Vermont. It has been highly criticized for omitting people of color, specifically the Abenaki people who had settled here first.
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Friday, August 14, 2020
So did the number of people who completely botched it.
Of the approximately 174,000 people who cast ballots in the August 11 primary, preliminary figures suggest that more than 6,000 screwed up the process badly enough that their votes weren't counted.
“It’s a concern that we had 6,000 votes that were not counted for one reason or another,” Secretary of State Jim Condos said Friday. “It would be wrong if I just sat back and said, 'That’s acceptable.'”
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Sinex announced, in a Burlington Free Press story posted online Friday morning, that he has "a binding agreement" to buy out the majority partners on the project, Brookfield Asset Management. The deal should be finalized within 30 days, subject to "normal closing conditions," Sinex told the paper.
In Brookfield's place, Sinex said he has formed a new partnership with three local businessmen: Scott Ireland of SD Ireland, Dave Farrington of Farrington Construction and Al Senecal of Omega Electric Construction. None of the partners, nor Sinex, immediately responded to requests for comment.
Yet the announcement drew a sharp rebuke from Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who said in a statement Friday afternoon that Sinex and his firm, Devonwood Investors, have not provided the city "the basic project information that any financial partner would require when contemplating a new agreement."
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