Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Meanwhile, Gov. Phil Scott's proverbial spigot, which has been nearly frozen shut for months, got another small turn in the right direction Tuesday. Once Vermonters have had both doses of the vaccine, they will be free to gather with members of another household.
“If your parents are fully vaccinated, you can go to their house for dinner, or vice versa,” Scott said at one of his twice-weekly press conferences.
Tags: Vermont , Phil Scott , governor , vaccine , 65 and older , appointments , health , Web Only , Image
Monday, February 22, 2021
The Inn at Water's Edge is one of many Vermont businesses that missed out when the state and federal government were handing out grants to help businesses stay solvent last year. While the inn did receive a $12,500 Paycheck Protection Program loan, it wasn’t eligible for any of the $340 million that the state gave out to businesses. It hadn’t been open long enough under its new ownership to show financial comparisons from the prior year, a requirement of the grant application.
Tags: Vermont , business , Waters Edge Inn , Statehouse , Web Only , Image
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Renter-rights advocates are condemning signs that urge Burlington voters to protect tenants of color by rejecting a ballot item that would ban no-cause evictions. The proposal, the advocates say, would help, not harm, those tenants.
"Vote No on #5 Just Cause," the signs say. "Protect BIPOC tenants from racist neighbors."
The unsigned messages, which appeared along heavily trafficked public rights of way, seem to suggest that if Question 5 passes this Town Meeting Day, landlords would not be able to evict tenants who harass neighbors who are Black, Indigenous and other people of color.
The orange and white placards drew ire from proponents of the ballot item, including City Councilor Zoraya Hightower (P-Ward 1), who last year became the first woman of color to be elected to the council.
Tags: just-cause eviction , no-cause eviction , Town Meeting Day , election , ballot item , Burlington , renters , Web Only , Image
Campaign finance reports filed with the Vermont Secretary of State on Saturday night show the three-term Democrat has raked in $126,147, besting his own record-breaking haul of about $125,500 during the 2018 campaign. He has brought in $40,400 since January 31, the last reporting deadline.
“I am both humbled and grateful to have earned your support,” Weinberger wrote in an email to supporters Saturday evening. “Our fundraising success confirms what I have sensed since we launched our campaign in December, Burlingtonians know these are serious times and this is a critical election.”
Tracy has raised $63,336 total, including $20,895 this reporting period. He's also attracted the most new donors since the last reporting deadline and has the most contributors in the race. A total of 547 people have donated to Tracy’s campaign, while 461 have given to Weinberger and 115 to fellow contender Councilor Ali Dieng (I-Ward 7).
Dieng has raised $10,920 to date, about $3,200 since the last filing date.
Tags: campaign finance , Miro Weinberger , Max Tracy , Ali Dieng , mayoral race , election , Town Meeting Day , Web Only , Image
Friday, February 19, 2021
The travel perk kicks in two weeks after Vermonters and out-of-state visitors have received both doses of vaccine, Gov. Phil Scott said at Friday's COVID-19 press conference.
State leaders also said they would soon ease visitation and activities restrictions at long-term care homes, where roughly two-thirds of those who have died with COVID-19 in Vermont have resided.
Tags: COVID-19 vaccine , COVID-19 , travel restrictions , quarantine , long-term care , eldercare , Web Only , Image
The 51-page ruling issued Friday concludes that the 2018 law, intended to prevent mass shootings, is a reasonable regulation that "leaves ample means for Vermonters to exercise their right to bear arms in self-defense." To reach that conclusion, the high court produced its most expansive interpretation yet of the gun rights established by the state Constitution.
The decision settled the first challenge to the trio of landmark gun control bills that lawmakers approved and Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed in the wake of the February 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and a local scare at Fair Haven Union High School.
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , Right to Bear Arms , Max Misch , High-Capacity Magazines , Gun Control , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Charlie Auer, who helped run the iconic Charlie's Boathouse on Burlington's northern waterfront, has died, friends and family members said Wednesday. He was 89.
He and his sister, Christine Auer Hebert, were the longtime proprietors of the business, also known as the Auer Family Boathouse. The siblings' father, Charlie Sr., built the red clapboard barn-like building in 1928 and ran the place for decades. The Auer kids spent summers there. When their mom passed away in the early '90s, Charlie Jr. and Christine took the place on.
"He always was laughing," Christine told WCAX-TV on Wednesday. "I never heard him say no to anybody."
Tags: Burlington , Charlie's Boathouse , Lake Champlain , Burlington Bike Path , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
The decision comes a little over a week after Mayor Miro Weinberger announced the settlement with managing partner Don Sinex and his three local business partners, Dave Farrington, Al Senecal and Scott Ireland.
The settlement seeks to resolve the lawsuit the city filed against the developers last September, which alleged they had violated a development agreement by not building the downtown project on the original timeline. Developers had agreed to continue building "without interruption" after the former Burlington Town Center mall was torn down in 2017, but the site has been vacant since, earning the derisive nickname "the pit."
As part of the new deal, the developers agreed to rebuild the cut-off sections of St. Paul and Pine streets — and pay for it if construction doesn't begin by September 2022 — among other provisions. The city and the partners cheered the settlement as a key step in moving the project forward.
Tags: CityPlace Burlington , AFL-CIO , Don Sinex , Burlington , Burlington City Council , University of Vermont , UVM , Web Only , Image
Monday, February 15, 2021
Scott McNeil, who took over as executive director of the party in September 2019 after two years in a similar role in North Dakota, will stay on for an undisclosed amount of time to "help ease this transition," the political org wrote in a three-paragraph press release.
The release did not quote McNeil, and he could not be reached for comment Monday night.
Tags: Scott McNeil , Vermont Democratic Party , Resignation , Web Only , Image
An item on the ballot this Town Meeting Day asks Burlington voters whether the city should change its charter to ban these “no-cause” evictions. If it passes, the measure would also need approval from both the legislature and the governor before becoming local law.
The proposal has broad support from tenants’ rights groups, including members of the Burlington Tenants Union, who say landlords should have to provide a “just cause” before sending them packing. Vermont Legal Aid estimates that nearly 370 Chittenden County residents were evicted annually during the last five years for no stated reason.
“We believe every tenant in Burlington deserves the right to stay in their home without the stress of eviction just because landlords have the right to say, ‘You must leave,’” Christie Delphia, a tenants union organizer and renter, said during a virtual town hall on the topic last week.
Landlord advocates, however, say property owners need no-cause evictions to get rid of tenants who are simply not a good fit. And they worry that a provision of the proposal would hamper their ability to increase rents each year.
“I don’t think that this just-cause ordinance is going to fix the things the advocates say it’s going to fix,” said Angela Zaikowski, director of the Vermont Landlord Association and an attorney who represents landlords in eviction proceedings. “I think it actually has the potential to make it harder to find a place to live in Burlington.”
Tags: just-cause eviction , no-cause eviction , Burlington City Council , ballot , Town Meeting Day , vote , landlords , renters , Web Only , Image