Monday, September 01, 2014

 

News to Know August 27, 2014

BERLIN NEWS TO KNOW  August 27, 2014
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This  communication is put together and distributed on a volunteer basis by resident Corinne Stridsberg simply in an effort to share information and build community, it is not from the town of Berlin.
Please share this with your Berlin friends and neighbors.  If you're not already receiving this news directly by email, send an email to request this to corinnestridsberg@gmail.com.
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Check out the "Berlin, Vermont" Community News page on facebook to find bits of current news, some not included here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berlin-Vermont/205922199452224

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Notes:
Thanks Jim for pointing out the excellent article on kids going off to college which I've included below.  Our youngest headed for college this past weekend.

It's almost time!! September is just around the corner.  PICK YOUR OWN POTATOES!! There is only ONE Sunday that you'll be able to go pick potatoes (no digging involved) down in Williamstown. Here is the coverage from last year! http://www.wcax.com/story/23496106/families-gear-up-for-potato-picking

Below you will find:
TOWN ADMINISTRATOR HIRING
PROPOSED ZONING FEE CHANGES
PRIMARY ELECTION TURNOUT
I WAS THE SUN AND THE KIDS WERE MY PLANETS
LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO EXPLORE COLLABORATION
MONTPELIER WINTER FARMERS MARKET NEW LOCATIONS
BERLIN POLICE DEPARTMENT
JUICE BAR PAIRS TASTE AND HEALTH
NO NEED TO FORCE THE VOTE
AFTER THE BELL - AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES INSTRUCTORS NEEDED

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TOWN ADMINISTRATOR HIRING
PRESS RELEASE  August 26, 2014
As Chair of the Berlin Selectboard, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Dana L. Hadley, currently of Bristol, New Hampshire as Town Administrator, effective September 2nd, 2014
Mr. Hadley comes to Berlin from a strong career in New Hampshire where he has over twenty years' experience in municipal government.  This experience includes serving as Town Administrator in both Andover, NH and Canaan, NH, as well as serving as the District Administrator for the Plymouth Village Water and Sewer District.  His credentials also include a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and New Hampshire Water and Sewer Operator licenses.
"I believe that Assistant Town Administrator Tom Badowski's experience with zoning and development issues dovetail nicely with Dana's experience as a Town Administrator and Water Operator as Berlin builds out its water system and continues to experience economic growth," says Selectboard Secretary Jeremy Hansen."
Though he has big shoes to fill following former Town Administrator Jeff Schulz' departure to Northfield, I am are confident that he will be an asset to our strong existing team of employees we have in the Treasurer's Office, Clerk's Office, Highway Department, and Police Department.
Please join me in welcoming Dana to the Town of Berlin!
Contact
Ture Nelson
Chair, Berlin Selectboard
kb1nbj@comcast.net
802-476-6371
http://www.berlinvt.org
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PROPOSED ZONING FEE CHANGES
The Berlin Selectboard is soliciting Public Input on proposed zoning fees changes. There has been no change in fees since October 2005. The chart of proposed fees can be found on the town website
http://berlinvt.org/Proposed%20Permit%20Application%20Fee%20Schedule.pdf
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PRIMARY ELECTION TURNOUT
Out of close to 1,900 Berlin residents on the checklist, 155 cast their ballots on Tuesday, August 26th.  Of the 155 votes, twenty made use of the Absentee Ballot.  In comparison,  at Town Meeting in March four hundred and twenty-three (423) voted.
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I WAS THE SUN AND THE KIDS WERE MY PLANETS
Pub. 8/17/14 The Boston Globe by Beverly Beckham
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2014/08/16/was-sun-and-kids-were-planets/CuFppWNVG6fqJFFmfYMi8J/story.html?event=event25
When this column was first published in August 2006, parents sending their kids off to college wrote to me saying that this is how they feel. That their children’s leaving was a big change in their lives and a big deal. Since then, the Globe has reprinted this piece every August and the comments from parents are always the same. They’re happy but they’re sad, too.
   I wasn’t wrong about their leaving. My husband kept telling me I was. That it wasn’t the end of the world when first one child, then another, and then the last packed their bags and left for college.
   But it was the end of something. “Can you pick me up, Mom?” “What’s for dinner?” “What do you think?”
   I was the sun and they were the planets. And there was life on those planets, whirling, nonstop plans and parties and friends coming and going, and ideas and dreams and the phone ringing and doors slamming.
   And I got to beam down on them. To watch. To glow.
   And then they were gone, one after the other.
   “They’ll be back,” my husband said. And he was right. They came back. But he was wrong, too, because they came back for intervals, not for always, not planets anymore, making their predictable orbits, but unpredictable, like shooting stars.
   Always is what you miss. Always knowing where they are. At school. At play practice. At a ballgame. At a friend’s. Always looking at the clock midday and anticipating the door opening, the sigh, the smile, the laugh, the shrug. “How was school?” answered for years in too much detail. “And then he said . . . and then I said to him. . . .” Then hardly answered at all.
   Always knowing his friends.
   Her favorite show.
   What he had for breakfast.
   What she wore to school.
   What he thinks.
   How she feels.
   My friend Beth’s twin girls left for Roger Williams yesterday. They are her fourth and fifth children. She’s been down this road three times before. You’d think it would get easier.
   “I don’t know what I’m going to do without them,” she has said every day for months.
And I have said nothing, because, really, what is there to say?
   A chapter ends. Another chapter begins. One door closes and another door opens. The best thing a parent can give their child is wings.
   I read all these things when my children left home and thought then what I think now: What do these words mean?
   Eighteen years isn’t a chapter in anyone’s life. It’s a whole book, and that book is ending and what comes next is connected to, but different from, everything that has gone before.
   Before was an infant, a toddler, a child, a teenager. Before was feeding and changing and teaching and comforting and guiding and disciplining, everything hands-on. Now?
   Now the kids are young adults and on their own and the parents are on the periphery, and it’s not just a chapter change. It’s a sea change.
   As for a door closing? Would that you could close a door and forget for even a minute your children and your love for them and your fear for them, too. And would that they occupied just a single room in your head.
   But they’re in every room in your head and in your heart.
   As for the wings analogy? It’s sweet. But children are not birds. Parents don’t let them go and build another nest and have all new offspring next year.
   Saying goodbye to your children and their childhood is much harder than all the pithy sayings make it seem. Because that’s what going to college is. It’s goodbye.
It’s not a death. And it’s not a tragedy.
   But it’s not nothing, either.
   To grow a child, a body changes. It needs more sleep. It rejects food it used to like. It expands and it adapts.
   To let go of a child, a body changes, too. It sighs and it cries and it feels weightless and heavy at the same time.
   The drive home alone without them is the worst. And the first few days. But then it gets better. The kids call, come home, bring their friends, and fill the house with their energy again.
   Life does go on.
   “Can you give me a ride to the mall?” “Mom, make him stop!” I don’t miss this part of parenting, playing chauffeur and referee.
   But I miss them, still, all these years later, the children they were, at the dinner table, beside me on the couch, talking on the phone, sleeping in their rooms, safe, home, mine.
   Beverly Beckham can be reached at beverlybeckham@me.com.
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LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO EXPLORE COLLABORATION
Pub 8/23/14 Times Argus by Amy Ash Nixon
   MONTPELIER — The Montpelier and U-32 school districts plan to look for ways to save money or expand offerings by combining enrollments for certain classes.
   A committee of the Montpelier School Board recently asked the district’s superintendent and high school principal to reach out to their U-32 counterparts to discuss ways to work together. In fact, says Superintendent Bill Kimball of Washington Central Supervisory Union, which includes U-32, that effort is already in motion.
   Kimball said Friday that he and Brian Ricca, Montpelier’s superintendent, have been discussing ways the two systems could cooperate and share resources to save money and better serve students. “We already had that in the works,” he said.
   The Montpelier board’s Program/Finance Committee said at its meeting this week that students from both Montpelier and U-32 should be part of those discussions.
   The committee also directed the Montpelier superintendent to look for other sources of revenue, including reaching out to area towns that do not have high schools, and possibly even to high schools overseas, to bring in more students and the tuition that would accompany them.
   Montpelier would stand to gain $14,700 for each tuition student who comes to the high school, according to the committee’s co-chairman, Lowell VanDerlip. 
   He said that if tuition for eight, 10 or 12 out-of-district students were to flow to the high school, where there is capacity for more students, it would “make a big difference” in the district’s finances.
   The Program/Finance Committee was put in place in the spring, not long after the school budget was defeated on Town Meeting Day for the first time in many years. Repercussions from that, and concern about the rising school tax rate, led the board to see what could be done to address costs while preserving the quality of the school system and programs for Montpelier’s students.
   VanDerlip said Montpelier needs to “inquire of U-32 about the possibility of classes we could offer in conjunction, or offer electronically, or have a teacher down here and teach a class here.”
   Montpelier High School Principal Adam Bunting said he and the new U-32 principal have already traded visits. “There certainly is past precedent for the schools operating together,” he told the committee. A few U-32 students have, in the past, come to Montpelier to take Chemistry 2, he said as an example. 
   The schools’ schedules now line up better than they used to, reducing an obstacle, he noted. Bunting said he was excited about the opportunity for positive sharing. 
   Committee member Linda Beaupre said she was pleased that the outreach to U-32 was in baby steps, and that earlier efforts combine resources were disastrous.
   “I was on the school board at the time (in the U-32 district), and it was not a good situation,” Beaupre said.
   VanDerlip said, “We do need to find a way to contain costs. We need to be able to do it in a sustainable way, and I don’t think in the last couple of years we have.”
   Tiny Muncy, a resident who attended the meeting, expressed concern that the committee had not made any cost-saving recommendations to the school board, and she wondered about the timeline.
   “I don’t have a beautiful answer to that,” responded VanDerlip. “Savings is really going to have to do with personnel decisions.” He said those decisions will have to be made at the school board level.
   To Muncy’s concern, VanDerlip said, “You may be right, that none of this or some of this may come to fruition for the next budget cycle.”
   amy.nixon @timesargus.com
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MONTPELIER WINTER FARMERS MARKET NEW LOCATIONS - ALTERNATING!
The winter Capital City Farmers Market will meet at new locations as follows:
Dec. 6 and 20 and Jan. 3 and 17 at the Montpelier City Hall;
Feb. 7 and 21 and March 7 and 21 in the Montpelier High School cafeteria.
The April 11 and 25 markets will be at the outdoor location at 60 State St., weather permitting. If the weather does not cooperate, the April markets will be at the high school.
Note: Alcohol cannot be sold at the high school, so some vendors will have to miss those weeks.
This change is due to remodeling going on at the location on the hill.
The market is still searching for a permanent home not only for the winter market but year-round, since the parking lot it uses next to Christ Church in the summer is privately owned and leased to the city, meaning it could be developed
www.montpelierfarmersmarket.com
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BERLIN POLICE DEPARTMENT
Did you know the Berlin PD has a facebook page?  In a post this week they gave details regarding the Sobriety Checkpoint they recently had on the Barre-Montpelier Road.
Police patrols are increased during this holiday period (through 9/1), be sure to drive sober and always buckle up!
In part - "On Friday evening, August 22nd, 2014 from 9:00 p.m. till midnight the Berlin Police Department with the assistance of the Montpelier Police Department, Northfield Police Department, Vermont State Police and the Washington County Sheriff's Department, conducted a Sobriety Checkpoint on US Route 302/Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin. During the Checkpoint 449 vehicles were stopped making contact with 740 persons. 18 Warning were issued for various motor vehicle violations, 9 Vermont Civil Violation Complaints were issued - 3 for Operating After Suspension - Civil, and 6 for other for various violations.  No DUIs were arrested during this Checkpoint.  As this Holiday Period continues through September 1st. County, Local, and State Law Enforcement will continue to step up enforcement effort in the County with the use of Saturation Patrols and Sobriety Checkpoints. Reminder “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” "
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JUICE BAR PAIRS TASTE AND HEALTH
Pub 8/25/14 Times Argus by Eric Blaisdell
BERLIN - People in central Vermont who enjoy drinking fresh juices no longer have to travel to areas like Burlington to find them, as a woman in Berlin recently started her own raw juice bar. 
   Lisa Lamoreaux started juicing more than five years ago after she bought a $20 juicer.
   "Basically, what happened was I juiced for myself first," she said.  "They didn't want anything to do with juice, none of my family.  Then, my family started drinking the buices with me... Then, it was neighbors.  Then, it was friends.  Then, it was friends of friends and it just kept going.  I was making two quarts a day and giving it out."
   Now, Lamoreaux is running the Wholly Kale raw juice bar outside her home on Slayton Avenue.  The pulloff is just past the Green Mountain Transit Authority building as you're driving toward Northfield from Montpelier on Route 12.  There's a green and yellow sign near the driveway pointing the ay to the bar, which is built into a 26-foot camper from the late 1980s.
   Lamoreaux offers two drinks, "The Hardcore" and "The Kids Stuff." The Hardcore has 16 ingredients, such as cilantro, kale, arugula, black radish and cucumber.  The Kids Stuff is a milder juice with ingredients like carrots, apples, lemon, ginger and a touch of watermelon.  Those who want the added benefits of the Hardcore but less of a kick can order a half Hardcore and half Kids Stuff.  Customers can also mix and match ingredients to create their own juice, and there are add-ons like raw garlic, rhubarb and pepper.  All ingredients are grown organically on the property or purchased from the Hunger Mountain Coop.
   Lamoreaux is in the middle of researching a new recipe she's calling "The After Party," which will have ingredients like tomato, lime, coconut and wheat grass to help those suffering from a hangover.
   Lamoreaux said she has a passion for juicing and nutrition, but always walked away disappointed when she tried juices from other places.  She said there isn't a raw juice bar within a 40-mile radius of her home.
   I've tried juices all over the country and they didn't taste good.... I always had to go to Burlington to get a juice and they didn't taste good either," Lamoreaux said.
   The feedback she has received about her juices since opening up on Aug. 8 has been nothing but positive.  She averages around three customers per day right now, but expects that to pick up as word spreads.  Next summer, Lamoreaux plans to clear out some space on the property for additional parking and picnic tables.
   She talks glowingly about the health benefits of drinking raw juice.
   It's not a cure-all.  I'm not claiming it to be a cure-all, but there's no way you don't feel better when you're drinking this juice," Lamoreaux said.
Gale Slayton Harris is Lamoreaux's landlord.  She said her partner just finished a round of chemotherapy for an agressive type of cancer, and Lamoreaux's juices have really helped him combat nausea.  She's been behind Lamoreaux's juicing venture from the beginning.
"I thought it was great because I'd been getting juices from Lisa for most of the winter.  We're all kind of struggling financially, and (the juice bar) sounded like something that might fly because there's no juice bars around here," she said.
   Lamoreaux will be selling her fresh-made juices until Nov. 11, with her daughters Madeline and Linda Langwiser.  The bar is open five days a week, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturday.  The bar is closed Sunday and Monday.  After the season ends, she will start bottling the juices, hoping to sell them to local restaurants, stores and the co-op.
   Lamoreaux's long-term goal is to start a vegan restaurant, with everything from vegan breads to meals and, of course, her juices made from scratch.
   "There's really no healthy restaurant (in the area) to go to and eat and feel like you are really healthy," she said.  "So, when people come and eat, they'll get a truly healthy meal that's not going to harm their body in any way.  ... I want people to know that eating vegan or vegetarian doesn't have to be unpleasant."
eric.blaisdell@timesargus.com
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NO NEED TO FORCE THE VOTE
Berlin public safety
The petition “to force the vote” regarding The Regional Public Safety Authority that’s circulating through Berlin is not necessary.  We already voted last March and don’t need to do it again.  We voted for those who are now members of the Berlin Select Board to lead this town into the future with Berlin’s best interest in mind, and that’s exactly what they are doing.
The Berlin Select Board is focused without conflict on what’s best for the town.  We fully support their decision not to jump on board the public safety band wagon just because our neighbors did, and thank them for keeping Berlin free to “shape our own future” without Barre and Montpelier telling us what to do.
Respectfully,
Ronald and Denise Dion
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AFTER THE BELL - AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES INSTRUCTORS NEEDED
U-32 Middle School is starting a new program of activities for students after school.  The potential is amazing but in order to make it work, activities are needed.  Do you have some time in your life to work with the program or know someone who does? The basic concept is that instructors come once a week (or more if you want to host more than one activity) from 2:45-4:45pm.  Work with students in your chosen activity.  Then they go home… Pay is $40 for the two hours. 
Possible Activities could include:  Fitness Activities (Dance, Yoga), Language Exploration, Art projects, Cooking/Healthy Living, Rock Band, A Capella singers, Pay It Forward, Ceramics or Pottery, Tennis, Volleyball, Board Game (Chess, Checkers, Life), Poetry Workshop, Bowling, Swimming, Ice Hockey, Ropes Course/Rock Climbing, Birding/ Wildlife, Woodcarving, woodworking, Fishing/Fly Tying, Design and Technology, Environmental Conservation, International Games (Cricket, Handball, Curling), Video Game Design, Beading, etc.
If there are suggestions for an organization, individual, or company that could be contacted to ‘underwrite/sponsor’ the activity (especially if there are any costs associated with it (ie supplies, transportation, etc etc) please be in touch as the money for any materials or resources needed is very limited.
If you're interested in more details or making a proposal for an activity, please contact Amy Molina at amolina@u32.org.  (note: reply to this email and I'd be glad to forward you along the paperwork that I have which includes more details)
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# posted by Corinne's blog of Berlin and area happenings @ 8:10 PM
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