The award-winning, weekly newspaper serving the Mad River Valley: Waitsfield, Warren, Fayston, Duxbury, Moretown, and Mad River Glen and Sugarbush.
Waitsfield, Vermont
Joined March 2011
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Great reporting from @sevendaysvt
ike Snyder carried his muzzleloader through thick underbrush in the Mount Mansfield State Forest on a late-October day in 2020, hunting for deer. In a steep, wooded section, Snyder, then the state’s top forestry official, stumbled across something that stopped him in his tracks: a narrow dirt trail.
The path was oddly clear of the leaves that had settled on the rest of the forest floor. He didn’t recall the state having approved any new trails in the area — something that, as commissioner of the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, he should have known about.
Snyder followed the path for a bit, and his bafflement turned to astonishment. He discovered an elaborate series of wooden ramps, jumps, pathways and bridges, some constructed with two-by-fours and bolted securely into boulders and rock outcroppings.
Snyder had stumbled across the Shangri-la of Vermont mountain bike trails, a hidden, highly technical two-loop course spanning 8,000 feet. If it were a ski run, a state forester would later observe, it would have rated a double-black diamond. Heavy rocks had been moved to create steeply banked downhill turns. Sections of the trail crossed small streams.
An avid backcountry skier, Snyder had encountered and skied many illegally cut trails over the years. And he had worked with local groups to help legalize unsanctioned mountain biking trails, including a network at Perry Hill in Waterbury.
But this discovery was something else entirely.
“The extent of the cutting and the digging and displacement of rock and penetration of hardware into rock for infrastructure — this was next level,” Snyder told Seven Days.
sevendaysvt.com/news/mountai…
The Valley Reporter retweeted
Kinney Drugs implemented the AI virtual assistant for patient communication and refill services in May. Soon after, its customers began to experience problems.
buff.ly/pJ6SS9q
The Valley Reporter retweeted
Mountain Views Supervisory Union is desperate to replace its new middle and high school. The existing one, located in Woodstock, was built 70 years ago. Its pipes are crumbling. One of its boilers recently failed. And its ventilation system is in poor shape.
In March, voters approved a $112 million bond to build a new school, a project that has been in the works for a decade. But school officials say there is just one thing holding them back: the Vermont Agency of Education.
School board chair Keri Bristow and superintendent Sherry Sousa say they can’t move forward with the project until they get preliminary approval from the state. But Agency of Education officials say they can’t sign off on the project until they complete a two-year process to craft new rules for school construction aid — and to do so before then would be “unlawful and irresponsible.” The disagreement has created a tense standoff between the two sides. sevendaysvt.com/news/educati…
The Valley Reporter retweeted
Yesterday, I signed an executive order directing state agencies and departments to prioritize local news businesses for state advertising. This makes sure that the taxpayer dollars we use to communicate important information to Vermonters are always used in the best possible way.
Having strong regional news outlets is especially important here in Vermont. As I’ve talked about many times, I believe a big contributor to the harmful policies that come out of Montpelier is the fact that rural Vermont is under-represented and far too often, gets entirely ignored.
Just look at Act 181 as a prime example. Throughout the 2024 legislative session I must have held a dozen press conferences, and issued dozens of statements, pleading for the supermajority at the time to understand the harm it would do to rural Vermont. I believe I called it a “death knell” for rural Vermont at one time. And I vetoed the bill for that reason, but it was overridden and became law.
As we saw this session, once those impacts were seen and felt by rural communities, they rose up. And their voices couldn’t be ignored, so the worst parts of the bill were repealed.
If we had more local news outlets in those rural communities with the resources and staff to regularly cover what happens in Montpelier, maybe we could have saved ourselves two years, and the worst parts of the bill could have never passed in the first place.
That’s how important good, straightforward, informative local news coverage is for our small communities.
The Valley Reporter retweeted
Cabot Creamery is considering a move from its administrative headquarters in Waitsfield but says it has no plans to reduce its footprint in Vermont.
vermontpublic.org/local-news…
Volunteers at top of Joslin Hill at the Mad Marathon today in Waitsfield, Vermont. Au pairs from Brazil, Austria, and the Czech Republic helped at the event.
@Mad_Marathon @MadRiverVermont @aupairinamerica
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Books: In ‘Lightning Beneath the Sea,’ Waitsfield author James M. Tabor chronicles the story of the first transatlantic cable. sevendaysvt.com/arts-culture…
The Valley Reporter retweeted
VTrans crews will be performing shoulder sweeping along VT 100 through Waitsfield Village today. This will be a rolling operation with alternating lane closures as work progresses. Please use caution, reduce your speed, and remain alert when traveling through the work zone.
Great piece from @vermontpublic
Inside a cavernous redemption warehouse in the Upper Valley, customers come to exchange bottles and cans for coins — and to see bottle-sorter Teera “Sweet T” Paye.
She’s great at what she does. But Vermont’s bottle redemption system is falling apart.
vermontpublic.org/podcast/br…
Easter egg hunt starting soon in Waitsfield Vermont! Look at the eggs!!!
#madrivervalley
Easter Egg hunt starting soon at Waitsfield Telecom #madrivervalley #egghunt
At 5:41 am VSP report that Rt89 N is closed at Richmond exit due to a crash. . Rt 2 in the area of the 89 overpass is OPEN to traffic – Stage Rd in Richmond is closed to all traffic. closures are expected to last for the next couple hours.
A three-bed facility.
“It is a frightening prospect that the State is moving full-speed ahead and signing high-cost multiyear contracts, without a sense of future cost,” wrote one representative.
buff.ly/CFqNHXl
At 10:48 a.m. today Vermont State Police report that VT Rt 100 northbound and the I-89 off ramp at Exit 10 are both closed due to a fire. This incident is expected to last for expected to be a long duration incident. Expect delays in the area or seek alternate routes.
Great reporting from Vermont Public.
A tense, day-long standoff outside a South Burlington house ended Wednesday night with federal immigration agents removing three people inside and a series of violent clashes between police and hundreds of activists who tried to impede the apprehension.
vermontpublic.org/local-news…
