Vermont Public has launched ‘Small Vermont Businesses in Small Vermont Towns’, an eight-part series of short films by filmmaker Rocket, as part of the station’s Made Here Fund.

Rocket is a storyteller and the driving force behind Eat Vermont and Stellar, a mobile application that empowers people to create custom recipes and navigate the kitchen. He’s an alumnus of The Putney School ’10 and Middlebury College ’14, and recent graduate of the Vermont Law School.

“I’ve been to all 50 states, but I call Vermont home. I love this state for many reasons, most of all for its strong local food system, natural charm, and community-minded people,” Rocket said. “Small businesses are the bedrock of Vermont. The people who build and operate these businesses are heroes. I made this series to honor their resilient efforts and immortalize their stories as touchstones of Vermont life in the 2020s.”

New episodes are being released on Tuesdays at vermontpublic.org and YouTube through October 1.

August 13: Good Measure 
Rocket visits with Scott Kerner and Andrew Leichthammer, co-owners of Good Measure Pub & Brewery, a welcoming pub with a seasonal menu and small-batch brews located in downtown Northfield. Good Measure is known for its unique focus on nostalgic beer styles, including English, Belgian, and American classics and for being a local’s favorite. Scott Kerner is the founder of Vermont food pillars such as Three Penny Taproom, The Mad Taco, and Mule Bar. Rocket highlights and explores Scott’s philosophy behind being a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and community builder.

August 20: Nelson Farms
Rocket visits with the Nelson family, multigenerational dairy farmers operating two dairy farms – one organic, one conventional – as Nelson Farms in Irasburg. In discussion with Dylan and Meg, the husband and wife team managing these farms, Rocket explores the differences and surprising depth of similarities between these operations. The Nelsons discuss the ways dairy farmers are using technology to adapt and survive in the modern-day milk markets: from microchips and their state-of-the-art rotary milking parlor. Beyond economic survival, the Nelson family see themselves as farmers who exist and operate within the longstanding Vermont tradition of being good stewards of the land.

August 27: Jenna’s Promise
Rocket visits with the team at Jenna’s Promise, a non-profit founded in memory of Jenna Tatro, a victim of the ongoing opioid epidemic. After losing their daughter, Greg & Dawn Tatro devoted themselves fully to fulfilling the promise of Jenna’s potential: that of helping others navigate and overcome opioid addiction. Jenna’s Promise, located in Johnson, provides therapy, housing, and – featured prominently in this story – work opportunities for the people they support. Through small businesses like Jenna’s Promise Roasting Co. and Jenna’s Promising Goods, this recovery-focused organization offers a supportive environment, skill training, and purpose, preserving Jenna’s legacy as an enduring beacon of hope, recovery, and resilience.

September 3: Parro’s Gun Shop
Rocket visits with Henry Parro, founder and owner of Parro’s Gun Shop & Police Supplies, a firearm emporium widely reputed for its product selection and for being Vermont’s first public indoor shooting range. Since its founding in 1983, Parro’s has grown from a modest one-man shop to a 10,800-square-foot state-of-the-art facility for retail, recreation, training, and safety education, drawing first time gun owners and lifelong firearm enthusiasts from near and far. Additionally, Rocket visits the Barre Fish & Game Club to observe the Just For Fun Association, a benchrest shooting club, engaging in the sport in a safe and responsible community-building manner.

September 10: Elmore Mountain Bread
Rocket visits with Blair Marvin, founder and head baker of Elmore Mountain Bread, a home bakery renowned for its wood-fired, stone-milled breads. Blair and her husband Andrew Heyn began with the goal of reinvigorating our relationship to locally sourced grains, which provide many advantages: taste, sustainability, economic resilience, nutritional density and more. In solving the related issue of empowering small bakeries like Blair’s to mill their own grains, Andrew has built New American Stone Mills, which exports Barre granite mills around the world. Elmore Mountain Bread is a living testament to Vermont’s agricultural heritage and commitment to sustainable, community-focused practices.

September 17: Willey’s Store
Rocket visits with Rob Hurst, the fifth generation proprietor of Willey’s Store in Greensboro. This town is more readily known as being home to Lake Caspian and globally renowned brands such as Hill Farmstead and Jasper Hill Farm. And yet, for over a century, Willey’s has played the vital role of being the rural town’s general store, providing nearly every imaginable necessity from groceries to clothing to hardware. In their conversation, Rob and Rocket explore the importance of a community institution like Willey’s, as well as some of the looming challenges that small general stores around Vermont face in their vital effort to survive.

September 24: Woodlawn Farmstead
Rocket visits with Seth Leach, the seventh-generation farmer at Woodlawn Farmstead in Pawlet, to explore how vertical integration has been essential for this small dairy farm’s survival. Seth discusses how he and his wife Kate have worked to manage every step in milk production, from growing crops to making cheese to overcome the modern challenge of “buying retail and selling wholesale”. By partnering with renowned cheesemakers like Plymouth Artisan Cheese and Crowley Cheese, and even starting their own cheese brand, Woodlawn Creamery, the Leaches continue to find inventive ways to keep their 250-cow operation afloat.

October 1: Babes Bar
Rocket visits with Jesse Plotsky & Owen Daniel-McCarter, co-owners of Babes Bar, a vibrant community center in the heart of Bethel. Babes is at once a queer friendly space, a watering hole for locals, and a must-visit on the itinerary of Vermonters statewide and visitors from further afield. Known for its warm atmosphere and eclectic events, Babes Bar serves as a cultural hub where people of all backgrounds can come together over drinks, dance, and delicious Chicago-style hotdogs.

The Made Here Fund was launched in 2022 to broaden and diversify Vermont storytelling. Makers from across the state were invited to apply for special funding to produce pieces such as short documentary and animated films, digital shorts and audio series.

Rocket’s project was one of 10 projects selected by a jury and funded in 2023. Previously released projects include films ‘The Balloonist,’ ‘Love of the Land,’ and ‘I Have Something To Get Off Of My Chest.’ The remaining projects will be released over the next year.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont’s governor is addressing the influx of violent crime in the state’s largest city, saying gun violence is a problem affecting communities across the state, not just Burlington.

Police in the Queen City have had their hands full this month, investigating several shootings, armed robberies involving guns, a homicide at a nightclub on Church Street, gunfire leading to an abandoned car riddled with bullet holes and covered in blood in a public park, and seeking information on young people concealing firearms and getting into fights downtown.

“Incidents like this and the ongoing incidents that Burlington is struggling with show how complex the community safety issues have been and have been for a long time in the city,” said Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, P-Burlington.

Gov. Phil Scott attended a manufacturing workforce roundtable in Lyndon on Tuesday. We asked him what could be done about the situation.

“We’re not just seeing it in Chittenden County; it’s everywhere,” said Scott, R-Vermont.

Scott points to recent legislation that stiffens penalties for dealing drugs, like fentanyl and xylazine, and allows prosecutors to charge teens as adults in cases of gun violence.

It comes as Burlington grapples with concerns over open drug use, public encampments and the uptick in gun crimes.

“We need to do more,” Scott said. “People need to be held accountable for their actions and I don’t think we’ve done that as well as we should.”

Next week, about 300 more Vermonters will be out on the street following cuts to Vermont’s subsidized hotel-motel program.

With the legislative session about four months away, Scott says he’ll continue to push for more measures for more accountability like bail reform.

“Hopefully, we’ll get some more of what we promoted in the last couple of sessions,” the governor said.

Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth said this week that lawmakers will likely act on new gun restrictions in Burlington bars next session, claiming there’s been a sea change in public opinion on banning guns in bars.

“We are not equal in terms of the challenges we are seeing in our downtown cities with addiction, firearms and violence,” said Baruth, D/P-Chittenden County.

The discussion comes as college students return to the Queen City, a major economic driver for Burlington and the state as a whole.

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