A $60 million, 6,000-seat arena that would host University of Vermont hockey and basketball games — as well as conventions and concerts — could sprout in South Burlington's new downtown.  

Two locations top the list of possible sites: the parcel now occupied by the Rick Marcotte Central School adjacent to Williston Road and the ailing University Mall property on Dorset Street. 

City and UVM officials debuted the idea Tuesday at a press conference. They announced the formation of a joint committee to study construction of a 230,000-square-foot, multi-purpose arena, tentatively named the Catamount Center.

"This facility would provide a high-quality venue for UVM sports and other programs, concerts, family entertainment like Disney on Ice, and also provide convention and trade-show facilities that this area badly needs," said Kevin Dorn, South Burlington city manager. 

He went on to say the arena could provide a "powerful economic stimulus" for the region and become part of South Burlington's pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use City Center proposal. The city would own the facility, but seek financial assistance to build it from UVM and its donor base. Tax-increment financing and local-options taxes also might be tools to help fund the arena, according Dorn.  
  
UVM has considered building a new sports complex — both on and off campus — for at least two decades. Tom Gustafson, vice president for university relations and administration, said at the press conference that the school is proud of its Division I athletes. "We're somewhat less proud of some of our facilities at the university," Gustafson said. "We've been looking at what we can do with them, given the fact that  they were built at a time when our student body was about a third of the size it is today."

Bob Corran, UVM associate vice president & director of athletics, also spoke about the inadequacy of current facilities. He said they do not meet the standard "we see at the Division I level, and they certainly are not at a level which really encourages our recruiting efforts."

The new South Burlington arena would seat 5,000 for athletic events and as many as 6,000 people for concerts. That plan could change depending on the findings of market studies. 

UVM's hockey team now plays at Gutterson Field House, which has a capacity of about 4,000 and frequently sells out  games. The basketball team plays at the 1963 Roy L. Patrick Gymnasium, which has about 3,200 seats. 

UVM is keeping other options open and is talking with the city of Burlington about potential partnerships for athletics at Memorial Auditorium, Gustafson said. The city of Burlington is planning to seek proposals for redevelopment of the auditorium parcel downtown at Main Street and South Union.   

The study committee will produce a report by August 15 for UVM President Tom Sullivan and Dorn, who will then send the report to the UVM trustees and South Burlington City Council for consideration. 
The committee will explore locations, design needs, legal issues and financing. Both sites mentioned Tuesday are equally practical, Dorn said, although the renderings of the proposed facility focused on the Marcotte School parcel. The video and renderings showed new pedestrian access from Williston Road and connections to the downtown-style development that South Burlington leaders have been trying to build in the core of the suburb for decades. 
 
Thus far, the South Burlington School Board has declined offers to sell the 11-acre Marcotte School, which remains in operation. Some parents don't want to see the school shuttered. The arena proposal could put new pressure on the school board, which is currently weighing options.

Meanwhile the owners of the University Mall have already announced their desire to revamp the aging retail center into a mixed-use development in line with the general goals of the South Burlington City Center vision. The arena would likely take up just a portion of the mall's acreage, if it advances. Todd Finard, who co-owns the mall, gave approval to have the site considered in the arena study.

Dorn said that the city will seek approval from the Vermont Economic Progress Council to include the mall property in the South Burlington City Center's existing tax-increment financing district. The city is hoping for authorization from the state board by the summer. 

Marcotte school is already part of the City Center TIF district. If TIF subsidies are tapped for the arena, South Burlington city voters would first have to authorize bonds in connection with the project. Such a vote could happen as early as November, but would be more likely for spring of 2017, if the arena project moves forward. 

Gov. Peter Shumlin won a promise from the state treasurer and the Vermont Pension Investment Committee that they would consider his call for divesting from coal and ExxonMobil stocks.

The governor proposed divestment in his State of the State speech in January. Treasurer Beth Pearce has pushed back, saying that decisions about pension investments should be based on financial criteria, not political considerations.

But after Shumlin made his pitch to the pension investment committee Tuesday morning, citing financial — as well as moral — reasons to divest from coal and ExxonMobil, Pearce said, “I am committed to a full vetting of the issues.”

Representatives of organizations lobbying for divestment welcomed the thawing in the stance that Pearce and the panel had taken. “I see it as progress, although not as fast as any of us who support this want to see,” said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

Nearly 300 people showed up Saturday morning to the New York-New York Hotel & Casino to take part in Nevada's Democratic presidential caucuses. 

Six of them couldn't decide whether to support Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

It took the undecideds 12 minutes to make up their minds. During that time, Sanders and Clinton precinct captains lobbied them individually, answered their questions and delivered brief speeches seeking to persuade them. All the while, reporters swarmed around them and activists on either side of the room chanted their respective candidates' names. 

Here's what it looked like:


In the end, the six undecideds split evenly between the two Democratic candidates. 

Overall, 196 people at the New York-New York caucus site supported Clinton, while 97 supported Sanders. Clinton earned 23 county-level delegates, while Sanders picked up 11.

Updated Sunday, February 21, at 1:43 a.m.

After falling short in the Nevada caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed Saturday afternoon to fight on to the Democratic National Convention. 

"It is clear to me and, I think, most observers that the wind is [at] our backs. We have the momentum," he told supporters at the Henderson Pavilion, 10 miles southeast of the Las Vegas strip. "I believe when Democrats assemble in Philadelphia in July at that convention, we are going to see the results of one of the great political upsets in history."

With 95 percent of precincts counted, Sanders was trailing former secretary of state Hillary Clinton 52.7 to 47.2 percent. Clinton was on track to collect 19 delegates, while Sanders was in line for 15. 

In his brief concession speech delivered to a small crowd in an open-air amphitheater, Sanders argued that his strong showing in Nevada proved he could compete with a candidate long seen as the inevitable nominee.

Scott Crandall was minding his own business Friday morning at the Coffee Mug Family Restaurant when some unfamiliar customers filtered through the door.

“To be sittin’ here, eating breakfast and seeing the Secret Service and a candidate come in,” he said with a chuckle. “A little bit of a surprise. It’s usually a little quieter.”

The candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), made quite a commotion. As he sat in a rear booth of the Elko, Nev., establishment — accompanied by his wife, stepdaughter and stepdaughter’s husband — a horde of reporters, campaign aides and Secret Service agents overran the restaurant. Outside, Sanders’ motorcade idled by the curb, ready to whisk him off to a chartered Boeing 737 when he was finished with his tea.

Crandall, a mustachioed maintenance foreman at a local gold mine, said he didn’t know much about Sanders “other than kind of TV ads and stuff,” but he said he was happy to see the presidential contender in his city.

“I think it’s a good idea for the candidates to come,” he said, sipping a cup of coffee at the restaurant’s counter. “You know, Elko is one of the bigger cities within the state.”

At 18,297 people, it’s not that big. But because the Nevada Democratic Party awards a disproportionate share of delegates in its presidential caucuses to the state’s rural regions, it’s an important one.

A hundred yards from the slot machines and blackjack tables at the Tropicana Las Vegas, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday night railed against “the greed and recklessness” of the economic and political establishment.

“I do not represent the billionaire class. I do not represent Sheldon Adelson,” he said, referring to the Republican mega-donor and owner of the nearby Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. “I do not represent Wall Street or corporate America.”

Sanders had returned to Nevada two days before the state’s Democratic caucuses for one last dash from Vegas to rural Elko to Reno and back. At the Tropicana’s Trinidad Pavilion, he rallied the troops during a pre-caucus dinner hosted by the Clark County Democratic Party.

“I hope as many people as possible come out and that Nevada shows this country what democracy is about, with a very large turnout,” the senator told the crowd of some 700 Democrats.

In recent weeks, Sanders has erased presidential rival Hillary Clinton’s once-sizable lead in the state, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday showing them in a statistical tie. But unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada has little history as an early nominating state, so fewer voters are aware of the caucuses and the results could be difficult to predict.

“We have to have people show up,” said Joan Kato, Sanders’ Nevada state director. “I think a good turnout will be good for us. Lots of people on the ground are very excited. There’s a lot of energy.”

Elvis Presley endorsed Donald Trump's presidential campaign Thursday, citing the real estate tycoon's record of job creation.

"How many thousands and hundreds of thousands has he employed to make each contract, each building, all that steel, all that concrete, all his employees later on that occupied those buildings?" Presley asked. "Amongst all the candidates running, I think he's the best to take care of the 320 million people that are in America, because he knows how to do that."

Presley revealed his presidential preferences during a wide-ranging interview Thursday morning in front of Captain Diablo's on the Las Vegas Strip. Riding a motorized scooter and sipping a Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boy, the king of rock and roll disclosed that he would also consider supporting himself in Nevada's upcoming presidential caucuses. 

"Myself, I would choose me to run as president," said Presley, who also goes by the name of Michael Romero. "I think we should go to the moon. The biggest thing I would do if I was president would [be to] put a hotel on the moon. You could have dune buggies on the moon."

The Las Vegas resident — dressed in a white, sequined jumpsuit, white sneakers and purple-tinted shades — elaborated on the business opportunities he sees in a lunar hotel. 

"Being on the moon, you could watch the planet go by — Earth go by. Wouldn't that be a neat scene?" he said. "A hotel honeymoon? Honeymooning on the moon? And instead of having a mirror on the ceiling, like a hotel, you'd have a dome. So you're actually making love to your wife, watching Earth go by. Wouldn't that be cool?"

Updated Sunday, February 14 at 11:58 a.m. with more from Leahy and Sanders.

Vermont’s two U.S. senators chastised their Republican colleagues Saturday night for suggesting that a successor to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia be appointed by the next president, not the current one.

“The Supreme Court of the United States is too important to our democracy for it to be understaffed for partisan reasons,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) soon after Scalia, 79, was confirmed dead at a Texas ranch.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who was campaigning for the presidency in Colorado as the news broke, called it the Senate’s constitutional duty to vote on confirmation.

“Let’s get on with it,” he said, according to a top spokesman.

Leahy’s and Sanders’ comments came as a deeply partisan fight broke out in Washington, D.C., over whether a president should nominate and the Senate should confirm a new justice in a presidential election year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and a host of Republican presidential candidates said Saturday that they should not.

“They are certainly ignoring history,” Leahy told Seven Days in an interview Sunday morning.

With the heavily white states of Iowa and New Hampshire behind them, the leading rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination shifted gears Thursday night and spoke to the more diverse electorates they'll face in Nevada and South Carolina. 

During a PBS debate in Milwaukee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton competed over who could more effectively reform the nation's immigration and criminal justice systems. Both went out of their way to address the contaminated-water crisis plaguing Flint, Michigan, whose population is majority African-American. And they praised President Barack Obama, who remains an enormously popular figure among South Carolina Democrats. 

But on the question of who would be a worthier successor to Obama, fissures quickly emerged. While Clinton characterized herself as the incumbent's rightful heir, Sanders pledged to go further than the president has. 

Asked by moderator Judy Woodruff whether they would do more than Obama to improve race relations, Clinton challenged the very premise of the question. 

"I think, under President Obama, we have seen a lot of advances," she said, arguing that the country's first black president had "set a great example."

Sanders, on the other hand, claimed that he would "absolutely" improve race relations — by raising taxes on the wealthy and investing that revenue in jobs and education. 

The Department of Corrections doesn’t want to close the 112-bed work camp in St. Johnsbury, but the state can’t afford to continue to operate it half full, Commissioner Lisa Menard told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

“We have no objection to finding a way to fill the beds,” she said. But she added that filling beds would likely require a change in law governing the type of offenders allowed at the facility. The camp has operated in St. Johnsbury since 1993.

The budget that Gov. Peter Shumlin presented to the legislature in January calls for closing the work camp, which would eliminate 22 jobs and save $1 million. Closure of the camp reduces state spending by $2.5 million, but finding prison beds for the 50 offenders now there would add to the number of prisoners confined in out-of-state facilities — which would cost the state an additional $1.5 million.