Updated at 5:35 p.m.

President Donald Trump signed executive orders Saturday imposing steep tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, a move that state officials and business leaders said could disrupt supply chains and raise consumer prices in Vermont for some goods and energy products.

Citing national security concerns, Trump placed 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, and 10% tariffs on goods from China. He also declared a 10% tax on energy imports from Canada, including electricity and natural gas. 

The taxes levied against Canadian goods were expected to go into effect on Tuesday, but posts made by both Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on social media late Monday afternoon indicated that the policy would be postponed for at least 30 days. Mexican leaders had reached a similar agreement with the Trump administration earlier in the day.

As of Monday evening, the tariffs against Chinese goods were still expected to take effect Tuesday.

The tariffs, especially those levied on Canadian goods, could have far-reaching impacts on Vermont, a state whose economy relies heavily on its neighbor to the north. Canada is Vermont’s largest international trading partner, and the state imports about $2.6 billion in goods each year from Canada while exporting $680 million worth of goods in return, according to statistics from the Canadian consulate general.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who hosted a roundtable with Vermont business leaders last week, said Monday morning that Trump was “creating enormous administrative havoc” and “great uncertainty” for Vermont companies.

“These tariffs are a really bad idea for our businesses and our economy and our consumers,” Welch said. 

Amy Spear, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, said that regardless of whether the policy was adopted, the confusion clouding the decision-making process was in itself a stumbling block for the state’s economy.

“Policy predictability matters,” Spear said. “Businesses thrive on stability, and volatile trade policy creates uncertainty, making it difficult for businesses to plan for the future.”

For years, Burlington-based ski brand J Skis has produced its skis at Utopie MFG, a manufacturer based in Quebec. But with the potential of a steep price hike on the imported product, Jason Levinthal, the founder of the company, said he’s concerned about how to plan for the new trade policy. 

“Going to another factory — that couldn’t happen for another two years,” Levinthal said. “And by then, I have no guarantee that these tariffs are still going to exist. I don’t even know if these tariffs are really going to exist now.” 

But whether or not the tariffs go into effect, Levinthal said, he still has to worry about navigating a new regulatory environment. 

“I need to make real time real life business decisions based on what I know now,” he said. “If I don’t, I’m going to be screwed later.”

Should it be enacted, the tax on Canadian energy also threatens to escalate costs in a state that depends on fuel and electricity from there, importing about $775 million of electricity and $420 million of fossil fuels from Canada per year, according to stats from the Canadian consulate general. 

“We’re very concerned,” said Rebecca Towne, CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative. 

According to Towne, the VEC gets over 40% of its electricity from Hydro-Québec, a Canadian supplier of hydroelectric power. Towne said it was still unclear how exactly the tariffs would apply to imported electricity but a preliminary estimate indicated the cooperative could face up to $2 million in extra costs for 2025 — a cost that would likely get passed down to consumers.

“Our power supply costs are ultimately paid for by our consumers,” Towne said. “We’re a non-profit. That’s how it trickles down.” 

Meanwhile, Vermont Gas Systems, the state’s sole natural gas distribution company, gets almost 100% of its natural gas supply from Canada, according to director of public affairs Dylan Giambatista. 

Giambatista said there’s still “a ton of variability” and uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the tariffs, but Vermont Gas, a subsidiary of Canadian energy giant Energir, is expecting to see dramatic cost increases.

“That 10% tariff on Canadian energy is certainly going to have a direct rate impact on our customers,” he said, noting that any rate increases would likely not take effect until this spring. 

Imports from Canada and China also play a large role in the Vermont construction industry, which depends in part on imported timber, steel, aluminum and other commodities.

Sarah Mearhoff, communications director for the trade association representing Vermont’s construction industry, said tariffs on these items could threaten to increase homebuilding costs at a time when Vermont is already seeing sky-high housing prices.

“You can imagine that a lot of framing for homebuilding is done with timber, and a lot of that in Vermont’s industry specifically comes from Canada,” Mearhoff said.

“Because housing prices are already so inflated, because the cost of constructing a single unit of housing is already at a record high…our members can’t just eat a 25% tariff,” she said. “They are not making the profit margins necessary in order to just absorb that cost. That cost is going to be passed on” 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. said in a statement that the tariffs were “most likely illegal and definitely harmful.” 

“Given Vermont’s long-established economic ties with our Canadian neighbor, the impact on our state will be even greater,” Sanders said. “We need a rational and well-thought-out trade policy, not arbitrary actions from the White House.”

Carly Berlin contributed reporting for this story.

Disclosure: Sarah Mearhoff reported for VTDigger from October 2021 until December 2024.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont businesses and consumers face uncertainty over shifting tariff policy.

Children’s mental health in Vermont and across the U.S. is in crisis!

In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) declared a National State of Emergency in Children’s Mental Health, highlighting the widespread challenges facing children and adolescents. This declaration was reinforced by the U.S. Surgeon General, who also recognized children’s mental health as a national crisis. More recently, in August 2024, the Surgeon General issued an advisory addressing the impact of parental stress and mental health on society and the economy, underscoring the urgent need for policymakers and advocates at all levels to prioritize the well-being of children, adolescents, and their families and communities.

“In addition to the traditional challenges of parenting – protecting children from harm, worrying about finances, managing teenagers who are searching for independence – there are new stressors that previous generations didn’t have to consider. These include the complexity of managing social media, parents’ concerns about the youth mental health crisis, and an epidemic of loneliness that disproportionately affects young people and parents, just to name a few.” (From Parents Under Pressure: U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-being of Parents. Online at: https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/parents/index.html)

Of the Vermont youth responding to the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2023, 23% or about 3,589, reported cutting or burning themselves without intent to die. On the same survey, 14% or 2,184 youth reported making a plan to kill themselves in the past year. LGBTQ+ youth are three times more likely to report making a plan to kill themselves. 

Several factors contributing to the current crisis include the isolation youth experienced during COVID and the dramatic increase in divisiveness and intense conflict in our communities. Such conflict, alongside feelings of loneliness and social disconnectedness, contributes to the acuity of stress in the community and especially for youth. This creates a social context in which chronic stress is becoming more widespread, which interferes with youth development and overall wellness. Efforts to destigmatize mental health and trauma are key strategies to break down barriers that prevent youth from seeking help. 

Complexity and Acuity

The challenges facing youth today are not only growing in scale but also in complexity and acuity. Increasingly, more teens require crisis stabilization, and many present with significantly heightened levels of depression and anxiety compared to previous years. As highlighted earlier, suicidal ideation is alarmingly common among teens, with a growing number acting on these thoughts. The most frequent method of suicide attempts involves medication, ranging from over-the-counter remedies to prescriptions intended for themselves or family members. Tragically, these attempts often occur in moments of impulsivity during periods of intense emotional distress.

Firearms further exacerbate the risk. Easy access to lethal means, particularly during acute emotional crises, dramatically increases the likelihood of fatal outcomes. It is crucial for adults to recognize the severity of these risks and proactively limit access to both medications and firearms within their homes. By taking these preventative steps, we can help safeguard youth as they navigate the complexity and challenges in their lives. 

Resources to Meet the Need are Falling Short 

Workforce challenges across the state in schools, designated and specialized service agencies, and other youth supporting organizations are significantly impacting our ability to support our children and youth. The workforce challenges are in large part due to chronic underfunding as well as increased acuity. Consequently, any child-serving program or school may either serve fewer children or maintain the same level of service as before. As is the case for everyone, when our issues are not effectively dealt with, they become more pronounced and for youth this often means they need more intense services. The idea is to prioritize investment in more affordable, community-oriented services to prevent dysfunctional processes and address potential issues early on. This is called moving services up stream.

These workforce challenges, coupled with the growing need for upstream services, highlight a critical gap in Vermont’s ability to provide sufficient support for its youth, particularly in the foster care system. Throughout the COVID pandemic and now, Vermont is experiencing a serious shortage of foster families. Vermont has historically relied heavily on foster families for youth who can’t stay at home for a time. The staffing shortage also means that fewer staff are available for community-based in-home services. Many youth with intense needs can be successfully served in these programs instead of going to a children’s residential treatment program. Without adequate staffing of children’s community-based services and foster care, however, more youth are being referred for children’s residential care. 

It is especially challenging to retain and recruit staff for children’s residential treatment programs. Potential staff can be put off by working the evenings, nights, and weekends, or with kids who need intense support and who may become emotionally and/or behaviorally dysregulated. Several children’s residential treatment programs have closed in the last few years. 

Some programs, despite facing staffing shortages, have managed to keep serving certain children by limiting services to just five days a week or by closing for certain periods. However, these adjustments reduce access for youth, particularly for those who lack family support during the days the program is closed or operates on a limited schedule.

Northeast Family Institute (NFI)

NFI, one of the Vermont Care Partners network agencies, is a statewide non-profit specialized service agency providing intense mental health services and special education through several programs across Vermont. Some NFI programs provide intensive outpatient services, others include psychotherapy and consultation, in home community-based wrap around programs, community-based residential programs, and licensed independent schools. 

NFI has two hospital diversion programs for adolescents ages 13 to 21 years old who are experiencing a mental health crisis. These are alternatives to an acute inpatient psychiatry treatment program for youth. Each program serves a maximum of 6 youth. Due to a lack of funding and staff vacancies, they have only been able to serve a portion of the 6 youth in each program. The average length of stay remains at 7 to 10 days. Referrals and admissions continue to demonstrate a high need for crisis stabilization services. Most youth are referred due to self-injury and/or suicidal ideation or attempts. 

Of the 381 hospital diversion program discharges last year, 85% reported suicidality as a primary reason for admission. In addition, 83% of the youth accomplished at least 75% of their treatment goals and 97% were discharged back to a lower level of care. These are extremely high rates of success for youth in acute mental health crisis served for only 7 to 10 days. Years after leaving, NFI hears incredible success stories. One graduate is an officer in the armed services, another is a trained engineer, and each one represents the future of our state.

NFI also operates Crossroads Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), providing group and individual therapy several hours a day, 5 days a week, which is often an alternative to inpatient treatment and accepts referrals from hospital emergency rooms. NFI Crossroads started with an adult program and added an adolescent and a Transitional Aged Youth Program for emerging adults ages 18 to 29 years old, at 45 San Remo Drive in South Burlington. All Crossroads use Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is an evidence-based practice, and assists adults and adolescents with urgent mental health needs. Referrals are from the emergency departments and inpatient units, as well as less acute settings and the public. Of the adolescents served by Crossroads, 90% report suicidality as a major concern and 100% of Transitional Aged Youth report suicidality.

“In discussing race, everyone deserves to be safe, and no one should be comfortable.”

Dr. Ken Hardy, Acclaimed therapist, presenter, and author on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

NFI extends its commitment to evidence-based practices and urgent mental health needs by prioritizing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion across its programs and community. As a trauma-transforming organization, NFI collaborates with Dr. Ken Hardy of Drexel University, who has led impactful discussions on race and systemic differences, attended by over 400 professionals, including therapists, attorneys, and educators. Dr. Hardy provides frameworks to understand systemic racism, our roles within it, and actionable steps to foster greater justice and equity. 

Vermont Care Partners Network Agencies

VCP network agencies serve children and families struggling with anxiety, depression, self-harm, as well as behavioral challenges resulting from trauma and other adverse childhood experiences. Across the state, agencies practice with a family-centered approach, meeting families where it works best for them – in schools, homes, and other community settings. In calendar year 2024: 

• Agencies served nearly 12,500 children and youth and provided over 700,000 services
• Each child/youth received an average of nearly 60 services 
• 85% of children and youth stated they received services that were right for them
• 85% said they received the services they needed
• 91% said that staff treated them with respect

Action Needed

Vermont must take action to address the crisis in children and youth mental health. Providers, state officials, schools, and other youth involved organizations must focus on both short-and long-term services and solutions working together to ensure Vermont’s children and youth are safe and healthy. To achieve this we must: increase resources for children and families; establish a taskforce to establish comprehensive solutions; reinstate and fund best practices that we know work; address the erosion of community-based services by committing to sustainable and predictable funding that enables robust programming; support Success Beyond Six; align the crisis continuum with supports for children and youth; invest in the workforce serving children and families; and at large, place a greater focus on prevention and early intervention.

Children are complicated with many different needs and there are multiple effective solutions. Preventing issues and intervening early are not only the humane thing to do but also are extremely cost effective. Prevention and early intervention, often called upstream services, reduce future mental health and substance use challenges and decrease future costs.  Children’s upstream mental health services are community-based and of less intensity. Easy access to effective upstream mental health services diminishes the need for residential mental health services, juvenile justice services, substance use services, youth homelessness, and incarceration rates. 

Unfortunately, chronic underfunding and subsequent limited community-based options result in needing more intense services, often decreasing options as youth move into adulthood. Our youth need our support. The VCP network agencies have effective evidence-based programs that will help our youth succeed but we need sufficient resources to hire, train and retain skilled staff to do the work of providing access to quality services that every Vermont family deserves. Schools need sufficient funding that includes ensuring adequate resources for upstream mental health services. We all need to talk with the children in our lives with the goal of understanding how they are doing. It is essential to a child’s well-being that they know the adults in their lives care about and understand them. 

Our children are our future. Last year, the House Healthcare Committee in Vermont conducted hearings on mental health services. During a session focused on children’s mental health, a Representative urged his colleagues to engage in conversations with the children in their lives – whether family or friends. The representative shared a deeply unsettling conversation he had with children in his own extended family. He asked the children how they were coping, and the concerns they shared left him alarmed about the well-being of children both in his family and across the state. They spoke of overwhelming anxiety about various matters, including their future. These children came from a loving, supportive family. In his passionate address, the Representative urged his fellow lawmakers to talk to children they know, stressing the urgent need for more action. As he passionately stated, “They are our future!” And they are.

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This article is part of a series, collaboratively produced by members of Vermont Care Partners, a statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disability supports.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont’s child and youth mental health crisis.

Earlier this year, a consultant issued a report recommending sweeping changes to the state’s health care system — proposals that ranged from building more housing to cutting certain services at specific hospitals.

At a meeting of lawmakers and state health officials late last week, Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, questioned Green Mountain Care Board Chair Owen Foster and Secretary of Human Services Jenney Samuelson on that report.

Of the scores of recommendations, Lyons, the chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, asked what would be the simplest for the Legislature to implement: “Which is the low-hanging fruit?” she said at the Friday meeting.

The officials’ answers — which included proposed reforms to hospital regulations, state emergency medical services and electronic medical records — now seem poised to form key planks of the health care agenda in the upcoming legislative biennium.

As Vermont’s population has aged, the state’s health care system has appeared increasingly unsustainable. Private health insurance premiums are among the most expensive and fastest-growing in the country. Many hospitals and other health clinics are operating at a loss. Appointments for primary and specialty care can be few and far-between.

Those challenges and others were brought to the forefront by the 144-page report issued in September by the New York-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

The report issued a series of recommendations that amounted to a broad redesign of the state’s health care apparatus. Hospitals should consolidate services at different regional locations, the firm recommended, and the state should invest in housing, emergency medical services and internet connectivity in rural areas of the state.

Now, legislators say they hope to follow through on at least some of those recommendations.

Lawmakers are already working on legislation to simplify the approval process for new health care facilities, Lyons said in an interview. That process, by which providers must apply to the Green Mountain Care Board for what’s called a certificate of need, is notoriously costly and time-consuming.

“There is a bill,” Lyons said. “I’m working on it with another senator. So we will have that.”

Lyons said she also expects to examine another problem identified by the consultant’s report: that hospitals’ and clinics’ electronic medical records systems are not always compatible with those used by other providers.

“I’ll probably put a bill in that gets the discussion started there,” she said. “Nothing that causes an explosion, I hope.”

Lawmakers are also planning to examine the state’s emergency medical services, a subject that was a topic of legislation in the last legislative session, said Rep. Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, the outgoing chair of the House Health Care Committee.

Last spring, Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill that bolsters emergency medical services training and increases funding for Medicaid reimbursement for EMS services.

So some reforms to the state’s emergency medical services system are already “in process,” Houghton said in an interview. But in the upcoming session, the topic is “something we’ll also focus on and see if we can make the transformation go quicker,” she said.

Houghton, who was recently elected House majority leader, will no longer chair the health care committee come January, due to longstanding practice that prevents majority leaders from being chairs. “But I think I can speak to what is going to be on the table,” she said.

The speaker of the House will appoint chairs once the legislative session begins in January, so it’s not yet clear who will lead the House’s health care committee. But Houghton mentioned Rep. Alyssa Black, D-Essex, the committee’s ranking member, as a possible successor.

Black declined to comment Tuesday, saying, “I have no knowledge that I want to pass on.”

The “low-hanging fruit” currently under consideration does not cover many of the recommendations from the consultancy’s report, however. Some of the report’s proposals — such as limiting how much hospitals can bill for care and ending certain procedures at some facilities — are either outside of the Legislature’s purview or would likely entail fierce and lengthy Statehouse battles.

Devon Green, a lobbyist for the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, expressed support for many of the proposals from Lyons and Houghton, including investments in emergency medical services and streamlining the certificate of need process. Some Vermont hospitals are already making changes in response to the report, Green said.

“Hospitals are here doing the work, and we want to work in partnership with other healthcare providers and our state leaders,” she said.

Lyons, of the Senate health committee, also wants to reexamine how health care is regulated in the state, echoing a bill she backed in the 2024 session that would have shifted some of the oversight powers of the Green Mountain Care Board to the Agency of Human Services.

“We’ll probably see some discussion about authority, regulatory gaps. You know, who’s in charge of what, where and when?” she said. “I don’t want to go back to the bill that I had put in (this year), but it’ll be a discussion.”

And as the cost of providing and paying for health care has grown increasingly unsustainable, Houghton said, the legislature needs to understand whether earlier health care initiatives, such as mental health urgent care and the Blueprint for Care program, for example, are actually paying off.

“There’s going to be a concerted effort to call people in and say, this is what we’re doing: We need to really understand how these programs are working, and then fixing them or changing them or scrapping them if they’re not working,” Houghton said.

But both Houghton and Lyons acknowledged that there is little the Legislature can do that will make care and insurance more affordable for Vermonters in the short term.

“I don’t have a silver bullet,” Lyons said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: In wake of landmark hospital report, Vermont lawmakers look toward health care reforms.

Lucia McCallum is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

The faint smell of incense and a familiar scene of narrow aisles stocked with local food greet visitors to the Plainfield Co-op. The single 1,200-square-foot room in Plainfield village boasts a wood-paneled ceiling and can be thoroughly perused in minutes.

“It feels like a trip to the 1970s,” co-op board secretary Andy Robinson said.

Unsurprisingly, the storefront can be traced back to 1978 when early co-op members purchased the space — partly inspired by the back-to-the-land movement of the time. The business has been there ever since. 

But the old building has been showing its age. Now a recent move to address that reality has changed the trajectory of both the co-op’s future and that of another prominent local business: Plainfield Hardware. 

Co-op members voted by a 156–34 margin in June to purchase and relocate to the significantly larger 2,500-square-foot hardware store on Route 2 in East Montpelier, Robinson said, about 2 miles away. The store was up for sale, and in August the co-op bought it for about $2 million. The purchase included the business of the store and will see a merger of its workforce with existing co-op staff, said Robinson. 

The change comes at what seems to be a significant time for co-operative businesses in the region as another food co-op within a 30-minute driving radius, the Buffalo Mountain Co-op in Hardwick, has undergone significant changes. It moved in 2022 from a spot of comparable size to Plainfield’s to the building of the former Hardwick Village Market on Mill Street. Further back in time, in 2008, the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier went through its own expansion.

Robinson said matters of necessity rather than preference drove Plainfield members’ relocation votes.

“It’s an old building, it’s cramped, it’s in a fairly inaccessible location,” he said, “and given the size and the amount of product you can put on the shelves and many other things, it has struggled to be profitable.”  

Angie Domino, who has worked for the co-op since 2010 and is currently its chief buyer, cited forces beyond the village to blame. She said the pandemic and the closing of Goddard College dealt blows to business. 

“Goddard College used to have a big part of the liveliness of this area,” she said. “When it was full, there were new students coming in with fresh energy, fresh ideas. They were shopping at the little shops.”

Robinson said the board first began looking for future locations two years ago, partly inspired by other co-ops expanding. A federal grant of about $30,000, handled by the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission, paid for a chart of options for the co-op.

One option would have been to renovate — a solution that promised a setback in 2027 when the town plans to reconstruct Main Street. Somewhere during the process, Robinson said the hardware store came up for sale. The projected cost of buying the business, which includes a greenhouse and a deli, was $2.15 million.

Starting this past spring the co-op raised $475,000 in gifts and member loans, then received about $1.4 million from lenders. The co-op sealed the deal Aug. 7.

“I think we are part of a larger movement,” he said.

He said the Plainfield Co-op hopes to diversify inventory in a way that echoes Hardwick’s Buffalo Mountain Co-op, which expanded its inventory of more conventional products when it moved. Though the Plainfield Co-op hasn’t begun to sell products in the new location and doesn’t have a finalized date for its full opening, its leaders want to switch from a 70% to 30% ratio of organic to conventional products to a 60% to 40% balance. 

The ratio “will evolve based upon what members and customers actually purchase,” said Robinson.

Matt Cropp, executive director of Vermont Employee Ownership Center, said the Plainfield Co-op came into being in the ’60s largely because community demands for organic and health-focused foods. He compared the co-op’s current transition to Burlington’s City Market’s decision to move downtown and add more conventional products to its inventory in 2000. 

“When they moved downtown, the agreement they had with the city was that they would also stock conventional foods to sort of be able to be a grocery store that was more serving the needs of the whole city, not a subgroup of the city,” he said.

Transitions like those come with tradeoffs, Cropp said. The same goes for adding more co-op members, he said, which the Plainfield outfit is hoping to do with scaling up. 

“When you have an organization that has 10,000 members, right, and a board with like nine people, most people aren’t going to have personal knowledge of most of the board members,” he said. “And so there’s kind of a different relationship there, a bit more alienated and requires more intentional approaches to governance and community building, versus a smaller co-op that can kind of ride on the coattails of existing community social capital.”

Melissa Bounty, executive director of the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation, worked with the Plainfield Co-op board on the move, which was one of the organization’s priority projects this year. She agreed there are tradeoffs when co-ops expand. 

“The higher that number (of active members) goes, the better increase of capacity and support and services you would have,” she said. “You also do have more complexity to manage, and I can see how that could create problems.” 

Robinson said the co-op board is looking into transportation arrangements to help locals get to the new store.

Some members such as Domino, the chief buyer, worry what leaving will mean for the vitality of the village, even while recognizing the co-op can’t thrive there anymore. 

Domino has lived in Plainfield on and off throughout her life and said she’s always felt a strong sense of community cultivated by local stores such as the co-op. In recent years she’s seen many of those businesses shutter, such as the River Run restaurant in 2011 and Red Store filling station not long after.

“What will happen if the co-op also closes and leaves the village?” she asked. “What will be left here?”

Robinson said he feels some of the same emotions, but he is also optimistic the new location can maintain the co-op’s values and provide an all-in-one shopping experience.

“I’m okay and happy with the move, and I have some nostalgia. This is not binary,” he said. “You can have both of those things going on at the same time, right?”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Plainfield Co-op balances nostalgia and growth with planned expansion .

Vermonters turned out in record numbers to vote in this year’s general election, largely without a hitch, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said Tuesday at a formal event certifying the election results.

Out of 522,600 registered voters in the state, 372,885 cast their ballots in last week’s general election, Copeland Hanzas said. That’s nearly 2,000 more voters than the state saw in 2020 — a contest that shattered previous turnout records.

However, voter registrations are higher this year, resulting in a lower turnout rate for eligible voters than in 2020. This year, Vermont’s turnout rate was 71%, while in 2020 it was 73%.

“I am as pleased with the technical administration of this election as I could possibly be, but I’m even prouder of the participation levels,” Copeland Hanzas said. “This is what participatory democracy should look like.”

That was despite concerns the state’s election administration office had this year as it took note of threats and violence against voting processes in other states, and saw a noticeable rise in confrontational language against Vermont’s town clerks and election staffers.

“After hearing a smatter of vitriolic anecdotes in the weeks leading up to the election — from clerks, from election workers — Election Day, itself, went largely smoothly and respectfully,” Seán Sheehan, the office’s director of elections and campaign finance, said Tuesday.

Sheehan went on to say that, “fortunately,” Vermont did not see attacks on ballot drop boxes or bomb threats, both of which occurred in other states this year. But leading up to last Tuesday, he said local election officials reported that people had entered their offices “screamed, in some cases” about “voting by mail or other things they didn’t like about the election, or some of the disinformation that had been spread around the country.”

Asked if any offices received threats of physical violence, Sheehan said some communications were “borderline,” and the Secretary of State’s Office was in “close communication” with the Vermont State Police and FBI leading up to last week. The office also provided town clerks and election workers with de-escalation training.

But on Election Day itself, Sheehan recounted, “We didn’t hear many incidents at all. We really heard overwhelmingly that people were respectful. So we were very thankful to Vermonters for that.”

One week later, Copeland Hanzas and representatives of the state’s three major parties — Democrats, Republicans and Progressives — certified Vermont’s statewide election results. When they gathered in the Vermont House chamber to conduct the formality, security at the Statehouse was increased, including the use of a metal detector at the building’s entrance.

Among the races certified Tuesday was that for lieutenant governor, which saw Republican challenger John Rodgers outpacing Progressive Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman. 

According to Tuesday’s canvassing report, Zuckerman received 165,876 votes to Rodgers’ 171,854 — a difference of just 5,978. But with neither candidate having secured more than 50% of the vote (Zuckerman received 44.5% to Rodgers’ 46.1%), the Vermont Constitution requires the Legislature to cast a final vote in January. 

Zuckerman conceded the race last week but dangled the possibility that the Legislature could override voters — though leaders of the Democratic and Progressive parties threw cold water on the idea. 

The certification of the lieutenant governor’s race, signed by Copeland Hanzas and the party chairs on Tuesday, made note that the Legislature would have the final word.

To Vermont Progressive Party Chair Josh Wronski, the outcome of that race highlighted why the party has long supported ranked-choice voting.

“We shouldn’t be punting decisions to the Legislature when you don’t have a majority support for any candidate,” Wronski told reporters after the canvassing process was complete. “We should just, through our ballot, get to a majority support through a ranked-choice voting process.”

Had ranked-choice voting been in place, Wronski hypothesized that Zuckerman would have clinched the election. He pointed to the 13,671 votes cast for Green Mountain Peace & Justice Party nominee Ian Diamondstone and said, “I can’t imagine that most of those folks would be voting for the Republican as their number two.”

But, Wronski clarified, “we have no way of knowing” whether that would be the case, and he said the Legislature should respect the popular vote and certify the election for Rodgers.

One down-ballot election mix-up, meanwhile, may still spur a revote in Bennington County. Late last week, the Secretary of State’s Office flagged a voter checklist error in the town of Pownal, which placed roughly 40 voters in the incorrect legislative district.

For the Bennington-1 House race, the results were close enough that those 40 or so voters who were incorrectly assigned to the Bennington-5 district could have made the difference: Democrat John Cooper prevailed over Republican Bruce Busa by just 25 votes.

“There were no other elections on either of those ballots that would have been close enough that those voters being placed in the wrong district could have made a difference,” Copeland Hanzas told reporters Tuesday.

Copeland Hanzas said she expected a challenge to the election outcome to be filed, and she said her office would recommend to the court that the court order a revote to be conducted by universal mail-in ballot.

Read the story on VTDigger here: A record number of Vermont voters cast ballots in last week’s election.

A new initiative from the University of Vermont hopes to address the shortage of mental health professionals available to support the state’s youth.

Known as the Catamount Counseling Collaborative for Rural Schools, the program plans to train and place 52 school counselors, social workers and mental health clinicians in rural schools throughout Vermont for the next five years.

Recent surveys from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found rising levels of depression and anxiety among Vermont middle and high school students. 

Despite this, Vermont lacks an adequate number of mental health professionals. In 2023, the state’s Workforce Development Board estimated a need for 230 more providers to meet growing demand. 

The new Catamount Counseling Collaborative for Rural Schools aims to address the gap. 

Through the program — funded by a $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education — University of Vermont graduate students are expected to contribute at least 25,000 clinical hours annually to support rural communities.

“Vermont mental health needs are pervasive and complex and they’re currently underserved and this is a way to reach them,” said Anna Elliott, associate professor of counseling.

Elliott, the principal investigator for the grant, has experience running a similar initiative in Montana, where she spent five years developing a program to support rural communities with mental health professionals. 

A key part of the program, Elliot said, is to encourage graduates to continue working in rural schools or mental health facilities after completing their training. She said she tailored the program to Vermont’s unique needs. This included analyzing various statistics from community needs assessments on issues such as suicide rates, substance use disorder and the stigma associated with seeking mental health services, ensuring the program aligns closely with the landscape of Vermont’s mental health needs.

“One of our primary goals in setting up the training program was attending to students’ reports that they often didn’t feel prepared to go and work in a rural environment,” she said. “Having an intensive and intentional training program that sets them up to really understand what they’re walking into and how to be prepared and how to ask for support incentivized students to stay, so we’re hoping to replicate that here.”

The program offers a stipend to those who remain in their assigned schools for at least one year, helping to ease potential barriers like securing a full-time job or finding affordable housing.

In Montana, Elliott said she noticed some graduate students couldn’t stay in rural schools due to limited funding for permanent positions. Other challenges, including housing and job security, also made it difficult for them to remain in these high-need areas.

“I’m taking the model that I did in Montana and integrating that in with the community schools model to not just say, ‘here’s a couple graduate students that will be here for a year’ but let’s actually take a systemic look at what’s happening in the school — what are the needs, resources, barriers and strength,” Elliott said.

To address these challenges, the program focuses on recruiting graduate students who already come from rural areas. By offering low-residency options, the program allows these students to complete much of their coursework remotely. This means they can stay at home rather than moving to campus, making it easier for them to balance their studies with their existing commitments.

“This grant provides significant opportunity to bring students into the helping professions who might not otherwise have access to this kind of specialized training,” said Danielle Jatlow, a co-principal investigator and social worker who coordinates UVM’s bachelor’s of social work program, in a press release from the university.

UVM faculty, including program co-leaders Robin Hausheer and Lance Smith, both associate professors of counseling, are starting outreach to rural schools. They hope to place graduate students in schools as early as this semester, according to the release.

“There are people and kids that are getting served this year that might not have been otherwise,” Elliott said in the release. “So that feels like everything.” 

Read the story on VTDigger here: New UVM program brings mental health professionals to Vermont’s rural schools.

Following reports of wildfires and persistent dry conditions, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation has stopped issuing debris burning permits for two weeks. 

This ban is in effect through Nov. 11 at 3 p.m., but the department could cancel it early if conditions improve.

Wildfire risk has fluctuated in Vermont between high, very high, and extreme over the past week, and dry weather, low humidity and strong winds have combined to create conditions that make wildfires highly likely to spread, according to a press release from the department. The lack of rainfall in the forecast and dry forest fuels further heighten the fire danger across the state. 

Many town forest fire wardens had already ceased issuing burning permits, and the statewide order aims to reinforce local efforts, according to Danielle Fitzko, commissioner of the department.

“We are also concerned with fire department personnel becoming strained and fatigued as they share responsibility for wildland fire response,” Fitzko said in the release.

Vermont Forest Fire Supervisor Dan Dillner emphasized the importance of limiting human-caused fires to reduce risk.

“It is critical that we reduce the potential for further human caused fires by putting this temporary ban on burn permits in place,” Dillner said in the release.

On Sunday, fire crews discovered a large forest fire that destroyed two camps near Morgan Hill Road in Barnard, which then spread to the surrounding woods, according to a Sunday press release from Vermont State Police.

The origin of the fire is believed to be related to the improper disposal of ashes from a wood stove. Police said the fire crews were still fighting it at 4 p.m. on October 27, and smoke may be visible for several days, according to state police.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont implements statewide ban on debris burning due to wildfire risk.

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

WOLCOTT— On Thursday morning, Margo Baker was gearing up to make meatloaf sandwiches for the lunch special at the Wolcott Country Store. She both works at the store, tucked between Route 15 and the Lamoille River, and lives upstairs in one of seven apartments.

So Baker has seen firsthand the limits of the building’s small septic system. The tenants can’t have a washing machine, she said, and without a laundromat in town, she has to lug her laundry to neighboring Morrisville or Hardwick. The country store can’t expand its offerings. The system is simply too small, said the building’s owner, Fred Martin. The leach field’s tight position next to the river means he can’t expand it, and recent flooding – which, this summer, brought water into the basement – has forced him to have the sewage pumped out. 

“The leach field is just backed up,” Baker said. “The septic’s just not big enough to support the store and all the apartments.” 

Meanwhile, the lack of a public wastewater system in the town of roughly 1,500 poses big hurdles to adding housing in the village.

“We have a former church that is closed, and the property owners had stated that they had hoped to put maybe four apartments in there, but they’re hindered by the lack of wastewater,” said Linda Martin, the chair of the town’s selectboard (no relation to Fred). 

But a new town sewer system is on its way. Last month, voters approved plans for Wolcott’s first-ever municipal wastewater system in its core village district. In addition to helping make more redevelopment in the village center possible, town officials hope the system – which will involve hooking up individual septic tanks to a common leach field located high on a hill – will help ease Wolcott’s flooding woes. 

The additional wastewater capacity could allow the country store to create a seating area where people can “drink their coffee, visit, maybe eat their lunch,” Baker said. Martin, the building’s owner, said the new system could let him add another apartment to the building, too.  

“It’s a benefit for the town, I think,” Baker said. 

A lack of municipal water and wastewater systems in Vermont’s small village centers has long inhibited development, standing in the way of projects as modest as a restaurant or small apartment building.

“If you want to have seats in a cafe, or, you know, offer restroom facilities for any sort of establishment – wastewater is the foundation for that,” said Victoria Hellwig, a regional planner with the Lamoille County Planning Commission, who has helped support Wolcott’s wastewater project.

But a fresh focus from both state and federal programs, like the Covid-19-era American Rescue Plan Act, has helped make projects like Wolcott’s possible. Town officials have lined up over $5 million in state and federal funds, which they expect to fully cover the costs of getting the new system up and running. Just this week, the town secured $750,000 in economic development funds from the Northern Border Regional Commission aimed at bolstering rural infrastructure to help support the project.

Town officials hope that the new community septic system will encourage the revitalization of underutilized buildings in town, which would, in turn, entice users of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail to make a stop in town. A project to renovate an old schoolhouse into a cafe and meeting space is already in the works, said Martin, the selectboard chair.

The wastewater system buildout could also allow property owners to add sorely-needed housing on existing lots, Martin said, and allow buildings once dedicated to another purpose to be converted into housing.

A desire to encourage more housing growth amid Vermont’s acute housing shortage has propelled rural wastewater projects from Westford to Montgomery in recent years. But residents’ concerns that the new public infrastructure will fuel unfettered growth and congestion have mired some such projects in local controversy. 

Wolcott hasn’t been immune to that tension, either. A subset of residents forced a revote on the wastewater system, in part questioning the potential impacts of new development – and adding more development in the floodplain, according to reporting from the News & Citizen. Residents have also raised concerns around ongoing maintenance costs for the system. But the project was approved, again, during the second go-around at the polls. 

Flooding in recent years has caused issues for homes with leach fields along the river, including sewage backups. In the new system, waste will be collected from hooked-up properties to a pump station and then sent to a larger, community leach field at a proposed site near the town’s elementary school, on a hill. A Q&A page on the town’s website says the system will be designed to withstand a 500-year flood event, and engineers aim to avoid siting the new infrastructure in places at high risk of flood-related erosion. 

But navigating those challenges underscores a conundrum for Wolcott and many other Vermont towns. To avoid sprawl, state officials have long attempted to encourage infill growth and housing density in downtowns and village centers — but in many cases those town centers are situated alongside increasingly flood-prone rivers.

Wolcott has been hit hard by the flooding of the last two summers. Martin, the selectboard chair, said she is greenlighting nine buyouts – the majority in the village area, which the new wastewater system is primed to benefit.

That will deal a blow to the town’s tax base, she said, and will mean the town can’t bring in user fees from those properties to aid in the long-term maintenance of the new wastewater system. The system is expected to serve about 50 properties around School Street, mostly residences, according to the News & Citizen; that means losing even a small number to buyouts could bring future financial strain.

The buyouts still have a long, bureaucratic road ahead, but moving forward with them “breaks my heart,” Martin said. Some of the flooded-out residents are couch-surfing, have relocated to neighboring towns, or have left the state, she said. 

Still, she hopes building out the new wastewater system can help the town make up for the housing it’s losing.

“It’ll make a brighter, you know, downtown village center regardless,” she said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Wolcott poised to build its first sewer system, aiming for development and flood resiliency.

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

SOUTH HERO — Ethan Wagner has been fishing as long as he can remember, mostly as a hobby. So when the Essex High School senior injured his knee playing football, he joined the school’s varsity bass fishing team. And among his teammates, who all call him Wags, he’s found a new bond. “When you’re on the boat together all day, you find something in common,” he said. 

Wagner competed on one of 19 varsity high school teams at the Vermont Principals’ Association’s seventh annual Open Classic tournament last Saturday, hosted at the John Guilmette Access Area in South Hero. The tournament was the most competitive yet, said Jeff Goodrich, chair of the association’s fishing committee — with more “‘full bags’ and competitive weights” than ever before.

It’s part of a trend in a new co-ed sport that’s only seen growth since it was trialed in Vermont in 2018, inspired by New Hampshire high schools, and made official in 2019. 

Kids go out on the water in the early morning, then parade back mid-afternoon. Boats are pulled out of the water and teams go up to weigh in the six best bass, smallmouth or large, they caught that day.

On Saturday, 34 boats went out on Lake Champlain, with 19 varsity and 15 junior varsity teams making up two divisions. Each school can have one team in each division, four kids to a team. The teens took shifts, allowing two in the boat at a time while a coach or volunteer captain maneuvered it. 

Milton High School came out on top that day, weighing six bass at 24.33 total pounds. Burlington High came in second with a weight of 20.97 pounds, and Champlain Valley Union High came in third with 18.28 pounds. 

The teams spent the day fishing on the Inland Sea of Lake Champlain, a stretch protected from wind and weather by the Champlain Islands and the causeway between Milton and South Hero. 

In Vermont varsity fishing, anglers must weigh in live fish — so all boats are required to have live wells that maintain temperature and oxygen levels to sustain the bass while on board. Teams get point deductions for any dead fish. 

At every tourney, employees from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife collect the fish in larger live tanks to release them after they’re weighed. The state workers make sure the fish are healthy and redistribute them, said Paige Blaker, one of three state employees working last weekend’s event. That afternoon, the crew released fish across three to four locations along the Inland Sea, Blaker said.

Part of the sport is “being a steward of the environment and taking care of the water,” Goodrich said, hence the partnership with the fish and wildlife department, which doesn’t exist in adult tournament leagues. 

Anglers master a tactic called culling: They weigh their fish as they go, dumping the lightest overboard and constantly replacing the ones in their on-board well until they’re left with the biggest six they can find. 

“You can control a lot of things — but the one thing you can’t control is if the fish is gonna bite,” said Scott Green, the coach at Harwood Union High School. The team at Harwood, last year’s state champs, has 18 anglers, the most ever. 

How do they prepare for tournaments? 

“We make sure there’s no frays in our line,” said team captain Nathanael Conyers. 

At the Duxbury school’s last practice ahead of the Open Classic, Green set up cornhole boards and cut-up recycling bins on the lawn in front of the school — targets for the athletes to try to land their hooks on. The team was working on their line-casting skills in preparation for the tournament in a few days. 

The rod is an “extension of your hand,” and “your wrist dictates where it goes,” Green said. 

The team gets in two practices on the lawn during the week — due to the long drive to the lake — and one on the water every weekend. Like all school teams in the state, Harwood Union relies on local anglers and coaches to volunteer personal boats, paying for insurance and fuel. 

Other schools far from the lake, like Middlebury Union High School, practice on the water only a couple times a year, said John Fitzgerald, that team’s coach. Other than with those sporadic sessions, he helps his anglers by directing them to YouTube and online resources to learn about “different setups,” he said. 

Although the sport is co-ed in Vermont schools, girls are far outnumbered. Hailey Isham, a sophomore at Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol, said she’s the only girl on her school’s team. She’s been doing the sport since she was a freshman and plans to participate all four years. 

The Harwood team has only had a few girls over the years, Green said. The Middlebury team had a girl on the team last year, though none this year, Fitzgerald said.

But Green said he’s happy to have girls on the team, and leaders in the sport emphasize it’s for everyone.

“It gets students an opportunity to be a part of their school community, wear the uniform and represent their school in a nontraditional fashion,” Goodrich said. 

Wagner from Essex High said he’s excited for the VPA State Championship on Oct. 5 and hopes his team will do better there than at the South Hero tournament.

“I don’t do anything in my life to lose,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont high schools hooked on a new sport: bass fishing.

Close to 400 people working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency are delivering aid to flood-affected Vermonters, following President Joe Biden’s approval last week of a major disaster declaration for seven Vermont counties hit by the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl in mid-July.

Alongside Republican Gov. Phil Scott and other state officials, FEMA’s Federal Coordinating Officer William Roy told reporters at a Wednesday press conference that the agency has already opened three disaster recovery centers — located in Barre, Plainfield and Waterbury — and a fourth, to be located in Lyndonville, is expected to open soon.

At the disaster recovery centers, residents will be able to meet with FEMA staff, who can help guide them through the application and documentation processes for seeking federal aid. Roy said that FEMA aims to open centers in all seven counties where people are eligible to receive individual assistance under Biden’s major disaster declaration: Addison, Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Lamoille, Orleans and Washington. Orange County was recently approved for public assistance, which reimburses municipalities and other public bodies part of the cost to recover public infrastructure.

According to Roy, 370 FEMA personnel are currently deployed in Vermont to aid in the state’s natural disaster recovery. As in the aftermath of last July’s floods, FEMA officers are going door-to-door to offer assistance to Vermonters in flood-stricken areas. Out of 375 Vermonters who requested that FEMA inspect their homes for flood damage, 235 inspections have already been completed, Roy said.

And as of Wednesday morning, Vermonters had applied for individual assistance, Roy said, and more than $1 million in grant dollars are “going out the door.”

However, the current disaster declaration only encompasses damage from the storm that hit Vermont between July 9 and 11. 

Scott announced in a press release late Wednesday afternoon that he had submitted a request for another declaration to cover the July 30-31 storm for Caledonia, Essex and Orleans counties. An initial federal assessment found that 85 homes were damaged or destroyed in that storm, while public infrastructure withstood more than $3.7 million in damages. The release also noted that the governor had requested a separate declaration last week for Lamoille and Caledonia counties, which were hit by an earlier bout of flooding that began June 22.

“It’s important to remember, while these federal and state resources are essential and will help, we know it’s not enough,” Scott said at the press conference. “It’s not going to make people whole, or cover all the costs. I know this repeated flooding has taken a toll on municipal and family budgets, especially for those who have been hit multiple times just in the last year.”

In an effort to help fill those gaps — at least for business owners — the state will relaunch last year’s Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program. The program offers interest-free grant dollars to business owners to help cover the cost of flood damage to their businesses, or to make up for lost revenues due to the floods.

Scott and legislative leaders earlier this month approved an additional $7 million for the program to help business owners recover from this year’s multiple bouts of flooding. That comes on top of $5 million that the Legislature greenlit for the program during the legislative session, Scott said Wednesday.

The application portal for businesses to apply to the state for BEGAP funds opens Thursday. According to Commissioner of Economic Development Joan Goldstein, businesses that qualified for the funding after last year’s floods may apply for 2024 funding, as well. Businesses, nonprofits, landlords and farms may receive grants for up to three physical locations per flood event.

Businesses hit by this summer’s floods have until Nov. 15 to apply for BEGAP funding. Those grants will cover 30% of net uncovered damages up to $100,000 per business location.

And businesses impacted by last year’s floods that could still use help can also apply for BEGAP aid by Sept. 30.

The federal Small Business Administration also offers low-interest disaster loans to businesses and homeowners impacted by the floods. Anita Steenson, a spokesperson for the administration, said Wednesday that the deadline to apply for those loans to help with repairs related to the early July flooding is Oct. 21.

Read the story on VTDigger here: FEMA gets to work helping Vermont recover from remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl.