Vermont

In Vermont, small town meetings grapple with debate on big issues

Published

3 months ago

March 3, 2026

In Vermont, small town meetings grapple with debate on big issues

Tuesday is town meeting day in Vermont. Municipalities in New England and elsewhere are increasingly grappling with major national and international issues at the local level.

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images

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JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images

If you haven’t lived in certain New England towns, it can be hard to fathom their centuries-old direct democracy-style Town Meetings, where everyday residents vote on mundane town business such as funding for schools, snow plows and road repairs.

These days, voters are also being asked to weigh in on national and international issues, for example, demanding the de-funding of ICE, and condemning “the unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war against Iran.” It’s all fueling a separate – and fierce– debate on what towns ought to be debating.

“When you have people sleepwalking into an authoritarian regime, it’s up to us to sound the alarm,” insists Dan Dewalt, an activist in Newfane, Vermont, one of several communities where residents scrambled to draft a resolution against the Iran war in time for their annual Town Meeting on Tuesday.

Local resolutions are a uniquely effective tactic, activists and experts say, and they’re being used increasingly around New England and beyond, especially as national politics have become so polarized.

“People feel isolated, helpless and hopeless. And when you hear about other people who are just like you taking a stand and representing something that you believe, that gives you not only hope, but it gives you power,” said Dewalt.

Several other Vermont towns will be considering resolutions Tuesday calling for the removal of the president and vice president “for crimes against the U.S. Constitution,” while many others will vote on a pledge to ” to end all support of Israel’s apartheid policies, settler colonialism, and military occupation and aggression.”

A similar divestment resolution passed 46 -15 in Newfane last year, following hours of heated argument over the plight of Palestinians, the security of Israelis, the “inflammatory” language of the resolution – and whether such problems half-a-world away even belong on the agenda of the tiny town of just about 1,650.

“It’s a Town Meeting for town issues,” Newfane resident Walter Hagadorn declared at a recent Select Board meeting, where residents pressed board members to block any future resolutions not directly related to town business.

“You shouldn’t be subject to hours and hours of people virtue signaling” and trying to “hijack Town Meeting,” Hagadorn said.

Others agreed, suggesting activists host a debate on their issues at another time and place, or stage a rally or protest instead.

But Select Board member Katy Johnson-Aplin pushed back, saying that would not have the same impact.

“It doesn’t work the same way,” Johnson-Aplin said. It’s only when the issue is formally taken up at a Town Meeting that “it goes in the newspaper and it’s recorded that the town of Newfane has agreed to have this conversation.”

University of Pennsylvania political science professor Daniel Hopkins has been watching the growing movement of local communities taking a stand on issues far beyond town lines.

“This is a trend we’re seeing increasingly across the 50 states and in a variety of ways but I think it has taken on a new and potentially more concerning edge,” Hopkins said. “I worry that we are in an attention-grabbing, sensation-rewarding media environment in which the kinds of issues that engage us at a national level may further polarize states and localities and make it harder for them to build meaningful coalitions on other issues.”

Indeed, in Newfane, the resolution regarding Israel became so divisive that some residents decided not to even come to last year’s Town Meeting, according to Select Board vice-chair Marion Dowling.

In Burlington, where a similar resolution was proposed, City Council President Ben Traverse says things got so heated, he and his family were getting harassing phone calls and even death threats. Burlington city councilors voted in January to block the question from going to a popular vote.Vermont has a history of “big issue” resolutions, from the push for a Nuclear Arms Freeze in the 1980’s, to calls to ban genetically modified foods in 2003. Dewalt, the Newfane activist, was behind several of them, including calls to impeach then-president George W. Bush in 2006, which got him invited to talk about it on network TV shows, and quoted in The New York Times.

“I can guarantee you if I stood up on my soap box and made a declaration of the exact same wording, I wouldn’t have had anybody asking me questions about it, he said. “We’re not pie-in-the-sky here about the power of our Newfane Town Meetings, but our actions have consistently had an impact.”

But opponents say activists overstate the impact of their resolutions, and their victory. They say it’s disingenuous, for example, to claim the town of Newfane supported the resolution against Israel, when the winning majority of 46 people was less than 3% of town residents.

“I feel like they’re using the town as a vehicle for their personal messages and that bothers me,” says Newfane resident Cris White. “It’s so junior high.”

Traverse, the Burlington City Council president, also takes issue with what he calls the “inflammatory” language of that resolution.

“The question, as presented, approaches this issue in a one-sided and leading way,” Traverse says.

In Vermont, any registered voter can get a resolution on the Town Meeting agenda by collecting signatures from 5% of their town’s voters. While elected city or town officials have the authority to allow or block the resolution, there is no process in place to vet or edit language.

Traverse says it would behoove city leaders and voters to require an official review to ensure that language is fair and neutral, just as many states do with ballot questions. Traverse says he’s not opposed to contentious, big issue resolutions being put to local voters, but the language must be clear and even-handed.

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Vermont

Debate over ICE masking bill complicates, for a moment, end of session in the Vermont House – VTDigger

Published

9 hours ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Debate over ICE masking bill complicates, for a moment, end of session in the Vermont House – VTDigger

Protesters and ICE agents in South Burlington in March 2026. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

We’re outta here

That’s all, folks.

The Vermont Legislature adjourned for the year, and for the 2025-26 biennium, Friday night. Senators finished up their work just before 6 p.m., and the House followed suit two hours later. I’m not complaining about the time. I was happy, in fact, to be on the road home with a sliver of daylight left.

The House took longer to finish in part because its adjournment got tangled up in a bill, ultimately doomed, that as originally proposed would have barred federal officers such as ICE agents from wearing masks.

The bill, S.208, emerged from a joint House and Senate conference committee Thursday. In order for the latest version of the legislation to be taken up on the floor so soon after, though, the House needed to suspend its rules. Such a procedural move needs three-quarters approval. And while rules suspensions are common late in the session, when it came to taking up S.208 “for immediate consideration,” that was not the case.

House lawmakers voted 81-51 in favor of expediting the bill’s timeline, falling 18 short of the 99 needed to meet the threshold to cast aside the chamber’s rules.

After that, the House took up and passed, with no debate, this year’s budget bill, H.951. Then, House Speaker Jill Krowinski, in her last floor session holding the gavel, brought up the last thing lawmakers had to approve for the year: a resolution formally dictating the terms of adjournment.

But some lawmakers weren’t ready to be done with S.208. Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, stood and asked for a roll call vote on the adjournment resolution itself, “due to the important impact of S.208 on our open democracy.”

His comments mirrored those of several senators earlier in the night who had lamented on the chamber floor how the bill was falling by the wayside. The Senate also adjourned without taking any floor action on the compromise version of S.208.

Ultimately, 15 other House members joined Cina voting against the adjournment resolution in a vote of 114-16. After it was approved, the rest of the formalities of adjournment played out, including a requisite speech from Gov. Phil Scott.

“I’m going to try and make this brief,” the governor said at the outset of his remarks. “I guarantee it’ll take less time than it did to roll call the adjournment address.”

Beyond debate over S.208, adjournment in both chambers was marked by emotional farewell remarks from Krowinski, D-Burlington, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, both of whom aren’t seeking reelection.

Krowinski said her favorite memories from her 14 years in the House have been “the quieter moments most Vermonters never witness,” such as “members helping one another through difficult days, offering support regardless of politics and members coming together to support a colleague through a rough time.”

Baruth at times teared up as he recounted his 16 years in the Senate. And the English professor closed his speech with a nod to some of his favorite literature.

“It will hurt not to find my seat when the bell rings next session,” Baruth said. “But even Frodo Baggins — and you know that ‘The Lord of the Rings’ means everything to me — even Frodo Baggins knew when it was time to follow Bilbo to the Grey Havens.”

OK, our turn now

Before we go, some thanks are in order.

Putting together an originally-reported newsletter every day of the session — on top of the traditional news stories our readers expect — is no easy task. While you’re used to seeing my byline, and that of our fearless Statehouse Bureau Chief, Ethan Weinstein, there are a host of others who make this work possible.

Several other VTDigger reporters took the lead on issues of Final Reading this year, including Charlotte Oliver, Olivia Gieger, Theo Wells-Spackman and Corey McDonald. Meanwhile, ace photographer Glenn Russell captured many of the moments — like this one — that defined this year’s session.

Chad Lorenz, contributing editor on the politics desk, and Ruth Hare, VTDigger’s managing editor, brought their decades of experience and watchful eyes to each day’s newsletter. Noel Clark, VTDigger’s digital editor, and Night Editor Nathan Allen turned the plain text of a Google Doc into the email that landed in your inbox every night. Taylor Haynes, the newsroom’s audience and product director, made sure that email looked as good as it did.

And of course, we’re grateful to all of you — almost 8,000 subscribers — who turned to this newsletter, and do so year after year, to stay on top of the news under the Golden Dome.

If Final Reading has helped you cut through the noise and understand our government better, please consider supporting VTDigger in an amount that works for you.

This week, every donation helps fund our reporting and provides a new book to a Vermont child through the Children’s Literacy Foundation.

Reliable information matters. So does helping young readers discover the power of reading. Today you can support both with one donation. Pretty cool!

— VTD editors

While we’re gone

Even though the legislative session lasts just five months, our coverage of state government and politics is year-round. Your tips and pitches help us find the stories readers care about and that need to be brought to light. So don’t be a stranger, even if it’s just a little harder to reach us than flagging us down in the Statehouse hallways.

Reach me at srobinson@vtdigger.org and Ethan at eweinstein@vtdigger.org. You can send a secure tip on our website here, and find other reporters’ contact information here.

Until next year!

— Shaun Robinson

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Vermont

Why VT students are signing letters of intent with local employers

Published

19 hours ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Why VT students are signing letters of intent with local employers

Beth McDermott
| Burlington Free Press

Students who plan to enter the workforce after graduation are being celebrated at the Northwest Career & Technical Center’s 2026 Skilled Trades Signing Day.

The event is scheduled for 1 to 2:30 p.m. June 5 in the BFA Saint Albans Gymnasium, according to a community announcement.

Modeled after collegiate athletic signing days, the event will feature students signing “letters of intent” with future employers. The ceremony aims to recognize students for their hard work, technical skill development and commitment to pursuing careers in Vermont’s workforce.

Students from various programs at the Northwest Career & Technical Center are expected to participate, including those entering fields such as electrical, construction, cosmetology and engineering.

Participating students and their future employers include:

Theodore DeCiantis – Alliance Group (Electrical)
Nolan Howrigan – BP Construction
Lexie Lemieux – Downtown Cuts
Brayden Rooney – Engineers Construction Inc.
Hunter Gagne – Engineers Construction Inc.
Nicholas Boomhower – Engineers Construction Inc.
Quinton Nicholas – Handy Toyota
Natalie Powers – Hayward Tyler
Kaleb Bocash – Hazelett
Damien Callan – Husky
Hailey Carey – Jubilance Salon
Hallie Robtoy – Jubilance Salon
Ryiah Gaudiaso – Lake Shore Hair
Kris Mumert – MEI Electrical Contractors
Logan Little – Milton CAT
Alisa Freighberger – Nail Nook
Jonas Wagner – Omega Electric
Collin Langevin – PC Construction
Vernon Ouellette – PC Construction
Brandon Murray – RPM Engines
Wyatt Blake – United Ag & Turf
Edan Peters – VHV
Owen de Jesús López – VHV
Grace Robert – Villa Rehab Center

“We are incredibly proud of these students and the opportunities they have earned,” said Lisa Durocher, assistant director at Northwest Career & Technical Center. “This event highlights the value of career and technical education and the strong partnerships we have with local employers who are investing in the next generation of skilled professionals.”

The Northwest Career & Technical Center, located in St. Albans, provides career and technical education opportunities for high school students and adult learners throughout northwestern Vermont. Programs include automotive technology, building trades, cosmetology, culinary arts, digital media, electrical, engineering technologies, human services, medical professions, outdoor technology and public safety and law enforcement.

This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.

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Vermont

Essex’s Hannah Knickerbocker and Burlington’s Niah LeMay capture singles titles

Published

1 day ago

May 31, 2026

Press Room

Essex’s Hannah Knickerbocker and Burlington’s Niah LeMay capture singles titles

The 2026 individual Vermont High School tennis tournaments concluded on Sunday, May 31 with a quartet of first-time winners.

Both girls match-ups went to a third set tiebreak with Essex senior Hannah Knickerbocker capturing her elusive title. Burlington High School swept the boys singles and doubles tournaments becoming the first school to accomplish that feat since St. Johnsbury did it in 2019.

Read on below for a recap from both tournaments’ finals.

Hannah Knickerbocker upsets top-seed in final; while Stowe’s freshman tandem wins doubles

In the last two individual tournaments, Hannah Knickerbocker advanced to the semifinals before her run ended there. This past offseason, Knickerbocker spent a lot more time honing her tennis skills. With a stronger tennis IQ, Knickerbocker cruised into the finals with a trio of straight set wins.

“Consistency and shot choice,” Knickerbocker said. “I think I improved with knowing when to go for a win and when not too.”

There Knickerbocker earned a match with No. 1 seeded Anna Dauerman from Champlain Valley, the 2024 champion and last year’s runner-up. The match was competitive with Knickerbocker winning a three-set thriller 6-4, 4-6, 10-8, becoming the first female Hornet to win an individual title since 2007.

The skills Knickerbocker worked on in the offseason paid off in her match against Dauerman.

“Anna’s a really hard fighter so a lot of balls come back and if you go for too much on the wrong one then she would beat you,” Knickerbocker said.

This is Knickerbocker’s fifth state title overall after winning the Division I girls volleyball championships all four years of high school. The 2024 Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year in volleyball is pivoting to a stronger focus on tennis. Knickerbocker will be playing Division I tennis at the University of New Haven starting next school year.

While Knickerbocker saw this part of her career end on a high note, the doubles champions of India Freund and Belle Gaines from Stowe hope to usher in a new wave of tennis talent. The freshmen tandem, partnered up for the first time this season for the individual tournament and won three straight matches to reach the final.

Then in the championship, Freund and Gaines took down Champlain Valley’s tandem of Sara DiGuglielmo and Justyna Amblo in three sets, 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 12-10. The duo built on the momentum they gained from their three-set victory over Essex’s team into May 31’s final.

“We both like high-pressure situations, so maybe that’s what we needed to play our best tennis,” Freund said.

Freund and Gaines are great friends on and off the court who play tennis together all year around making this a tandem a formidable duo. Freund and Gaines showed maturity after getting crushed in the second set to squeeze out the win in the tiebreaker.

“It was really impressive of us to not get in our heads and it did for a bit,” Gaines said.

Burlington sweeps the boys singles and doubles finals

The boys tennis had some drama with rain forcing an interruption of the matches’ at Leddy Park to drive over to the The EDGE Sports & Fitness in Essex. Still the pause (that was almost two hours for the double players) did not affect the players in the lead.

No. 3 Niah LeMay held a 4-2 lead in set 1 entering the weather related intermission against teammate and top-ranked Oscar Crainich. LeMay did not let the pause phase him or interrupt his momentum.

“Just a lot of deep breaths and tried not to think about it,” LeMay said. “I turned on the radio and listened to some music.”

The sophomore bested his teammate in straight sets with a 6-3, 7-5 victory. In his run to the title, LeMay knocked off the top-two seeds. The only set he has lost all season came against No. 2 Charles Young from Middlebury in the semifinals. LeMay brought the energy with passionate bursts of emotion after nailing a tough shot.

LeMay becomes the first male Seahorse to win an individual title since 2004. It’s the first time since 2015 that the singles final featured two members from the same school. LeMay and Crainich have been rotating between the No. 1 and No. 2 single spots for Burlington this year after helping the Seahorses capture the 2025 team title.

“I have only beaten him once in the past,” LeMay said. “It felt really good to beat him since he’s one of my main competitors if not my main competitor.”

The winning for Burlington did not stop at singles. The Seahorses No. 3 ranked doubles tandem of Miles Kenny and Ben Koh captured the championship as well sweeping No. 1 Middlebury Nate Cook-Yoder and Nathan Stefani 6-4, 7-5.

The weather pause came after the Seahorses claimed the first set. It’s the second straight year Burlington claimed the doubles title. This is Kenny and Koh’s second championship this spring after helping Burlington win the 2026 Unified Basketball title earlier in May.

Contact Judith Altneu at JAltneu@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.

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