the ChronicleTHE WEEKLY JOURNAL OF ORLEANS COUNTY TWO SECTIONS, 64 PAGES

Falcons take barrel from LI

by Tena Starr

BARTON — The CandlepinRestaurant in Barton is open onceagain and doing a brisk business.

New managers and soon-to-bepartial owners David and Barb Prueopened for business on Thursday,September 23. They plan to servebreakfast, lunch, and dinner sevendays a week, except on Sundayswhen they’ll close at 2 p.m. — atleast until winter when there’s asnowmobile crowd, and they mightincrease their hours.

The Candlepin has been afixture in Barton for nearly half acentury. A young Steve Brown andhis wife, Isabelle, started it whenMr. Brown was just 19 years old.

After 46 years, Mr. Brown soldit in February of 2008 to SteveAfromowitz from White Plains, NewYork. Since then the restauranthas gone through a series of

managers, opening, closing, andreopening several times. None ofthe previous managers have lefthappy, and the Prues believe therewas some sabotage.

They say they found therestaurant a mess when theyopened the doors to start cleaning itand getting ready to reopen. Amongother things, a $1,200 wide-screentelevision was broken, apparentlypunched. The Prues bought a newone on Tuesday.

One day, earlier this month, Mr.Prue was working with a crew ofcleaners and renovators. They’dfound some, by then, very rottenfish fillets stuffed into a wall, hesaid. Renovators had to take thewall apart to clean up the mess andget rid of the smell.

The Prues, who live in Orleans,say they’re putting in 16-hour days.“Right now, we’re here from openingto closing,” Mrs. Prue said. “Wewant everything to go just right.”

Previously, they ran KingdomPlayground in Irasburg, a bar andgrill, for seven years. Mrs. Pruesaid she cooked for the Newport

Candlepin opens,one more time

Taylor Miller on the left and Adam Pothier on the right open up a hole for Nick LeClair during the Falcon’s 30-12victory over the Lyndon Institute Vikings Saturday afternoon. The Falcons took back the trophy in the twentiethedition of the Barrel Bowl, and also claimed this year’s Kingdom Cup. For an account of the game and morephotographs see page twenty-seven. Photo by Joseph Gresser

VOLUME 37, NUMBER 39 SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 EIGHTY-FIVE CENTS

Wind towersGetting the bigpicture.

22

Haunted hikesHotel ruins on Pisgah

described.

Section B

by Joseph Gresser

JAY — Cows probably won’t be allowed toplay at Jay Peak Resort’s new water park when itopens in December 2011. But they will be aimportant part of the experience, said BillStenger, one of the resort’s owners and itspresident.

That’s because 1,500 cattle, living on DougNelson’s Irasburg farm and doing what comesnaturally to them, will help generate gas to heatthe building and the water that flows through thepark.

On a tour of the construction site Friday, Mr.Stenger said the resort plans to buy methane gasfrom a digester on Mr. Nelson’s farm and have ithauled, by Troy trucker Bobby Starr, to the newpark.

Mr. Stenger said the plan is part of theresort’s efforts to build in the most energyefficient way. Although “not all the T’s have beencrossed and all the I’s are not dotted,” Mr.Stenger said he really wants to see his plan touse cow power to heat the 35,000 square foot parkcome to fruition.

He said he has been pushing themanufacturers of the boilers that will be used inthe building to think in new ways, so the planworks.

Cows could heatJay water park

(Continued on page eleven.)

Derby Lineburglaries

Neighbors upset aboutrash of break-ins.

8

by Paul Lefebvre

The competition for two seats inthe Vermont House from Orleans-Caledonia is more of a donnybrookthis year than a race. Fivecandidates will offer themselves tovoters in the November GeneralElection in what is one of thelargest slates for a district thatcombines five towns from OrleansCounty and two from Caledonia.The district’s towns are Barton,Glover, Albany, Craftsbury,Greensboro, Sheffield and Wheelock.

Representative John Morley’sdecision not to seek another termopened the door for newcomers tocounty politics. Two Republicansand one Democrat are making theirfirst bid for the district’s two Houseseats. Below is a profile of each ofthe candidates, appearing inalphabetical order.

Linda Johnston of Greensboro,Republican

By the number of signs thatappear by the roadside or onpeople’s lawns, Linda Johnston has

been busy. She is also disarminglydirect. When asked during a recentinterview who her campaignmanager was, she didn’t hesitate torespond.

“You’re looking at her,” she said.As a budding politician, Ms.

Johnston appears to be having agood time knocking on people’sdoors.

“People really want to knowyour position,” she says.

She is running because she isdissatisfied with a political climatecharacterized by “a lot of rhetoricand no action.”

Change may be her battle cry.From wanting to see a flat rate 5percent income tax, to changing thestructure of state government, Ms.Johnston believes the state needs tohead in a different direction.

First off, she would push forterm limits for both the legislativeand executive branches. She wantsthe governor and the lieutenantgovernor to run as a team with atwo-term limit not to exceed eightyears. The same term limitations

Election 2010

Candidates in Orleans-Caledonia House race

(Continued on page thirteen.) (Continued on page thirty-six.)

the Chronicle, September 29, 2010 Page Thirteen

would apply for the Vermont Senate, and whileelections for the House would be held every twoyears, a representative’s length in office wouldalso be capped at eight years.

She thinks the present system isn’t in thestate’s best interest, as it requires politicians tocampaign “for the next election while sittingunder the golden dome.”

If elected she would be flexible. “Term limitsare a big thing for me,” she says, but she adds shewould be open to compromise on what the outsidelimits should be.

“These are just suggestions to be thoughtabout and talked about,” she says.

As for education, she supports public fundingfor private schools as well as public. It’s a matterof having the right to choose, she says, addingthat competition for students would improve thequality of education.

She believes commercial wind is too expensive

to be effective, and suggest that the problem withVermont Yankee lies with regulators.

“We have failed to watch over it like weshould have,” she says, adding the plant shouldkeep operating once it has been shown to beabsolutely safe.

Among the issues she is campaigning on is anend to what she calls “welfare for life.” She saysthat people should be given more of an incentiveto get off welfare.

“I support a 5-year benefit maximum, awork/school requirement for all recipients and aresidency/citizen requirement for all recipients onpublic welfare,” she writes in her campaignbrochure.

Nancy Potak of Greensboro, Progressive

When it comes to serving as a legislator,Nancy Potak believes there is no substitute fordoing the homework. It’s a position that goeswell with her affiliation with a party that likes toride herd on the state’s traditional two-partysystem.

As a Progressive, she says, she can attractboth Democrats and Republicans.

A legislator should be someone who studiesan issue in depth and thinks independently, shesays. It’s a description that might apply to Ms.Potak, who comes to an interview about hercandidacy with research studies and pages ofdata.

But then again, she’s a scientist — anenvironmental chemist who has been running herown business out of her home for 20 years or so.It’s a job, she says, “that gives me time to getinvolved.”

While she bristles at allegations that she is a“one issue candidate,” she passionately believesthat for legislators health care is “the mostcritical issue where we can make a difference.”

Without being an advocate for any specifichealth care plan, she says she would be a strongadvocate for bringing change to the presentsystem.

She believes that significant changes inhealth care would allow Vermont “to get ahead ofthe nation.”

“I know people who won’t start a newbusiness for fear of losing their health care,” shesays, speaking of insurance plans that lapse whensomeone changes jobs.

Ms. Potak would like to see a health caresystem that would be publicly financed butprivately delivered.

Ms. Potak comes to the race with a broadbackground as a community volunteer. She hasworked for organizations such as VermontBusinesses for Social Responsibility and OrleansCounty Citizen Advocacy.

Johnston favors term limits for all

(Continued on page fourteen.)

(Continued from page one.)

Linda Johnston of Greensboro, Republican.

Nancy Potak of Greensboro, Progressive.

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She says she entered the race because of theproblems “working families are facing.”

Ms. Potak favors a shift from the property taxto a flat rate income tax, although at half the 5percent being advocated by Ms. Johnston. Specialeducation programs, she adds, should get helpfrom the state’s general fund.

As far as energy goes, Ms. Potak is asupporter of small-scale renewable systems andconservation. As a member of the GreensboroEnergy Committee she favors an idea that wouldprovide financial assistance to individualhomeowners to install their own renewable sourceof power. The assistance could come in the formof a 20-year loan whose payments would be addedannually to a property owner’s taxes.

“We need to have our tax credits go to thosewho will benefit people in Vermont,” she says.

If there’s a vote to decommission Yankee, shesaid the Legislature should not allow it to remainidle. Rather, she says, it should be taken apart,piece by piece, creating jobs for those who workedthere.

John Rodgers of Glover, Democrat

Like one of the pieces of heavy equipmentparked in his yard, John Rodgers’ campaign isrunning at a slow idle. As of Thursday of lastweek, September 23, he had only spent one dayon the campaign trail — “throwing candy to kids”at the Labor Day festivities in Sheffield.

A four-term incumbent running for his fifthterm in the House, Mr. Rodgers is not bashfulabout touting his experience. He notes that bothhe and Speaker Chap Smith came in the sameyear as freshmen, and that he has been able tobuild a relationship with him, as well as memberson both sides of the aisle.

“And that’s what it takes to get things done,”he says.

He blames the economy for the slow start tohis campaign, saying his business as a self-employed mason and excavator is making moreand more demands on him. But if it’s a problem,he doesn’t see it.

“All my work is in this community that Iserve,” he says.

As a legislator, Mr. Rodgers says the mostimportant service he provides is as a “conduitbetween his constituents and the bureaucracy.”It’s an on-going service, he says, that often revsup during the off-season — those months whenthe Legislature is not in session. And often it’spersonal, as in: Can you help my brother? He’sin jail and didn’t get released on his minimum.

It’s the kind question that someone mightexpect who has served for years on the Housecommittee that oversees the Department ofCorrections.

Politically, Mr. Rodgers is known in theHouse as “Freedom Boy.” It’s a moniker he sayshe’s proud of, pointing to his record as alawmaker who has stood against bills he feelstread on personal freedoms.

“I am adamantly opposed to the primaryenforcement of wearing seat belts,” he says. Thedecision to wear a seat belt, he adds, should beleft as a personal choice.

As a legislator from the Northeast Kingdom,he describes himself as the go-to guy. When theamendment came up during the Legislature’s lasthour to keep Pete the Moose safely ensconcedbehind the fence at Doug Nelson’s Irasburgpreserve, Mr. Rodgers says he was the one whosold the amendment to the chairman of the HouseAppropriations Committee.

The amendment sparked controversythroughout the state, but Mr. Rodgers standsbehind it.

“It’s fine piece of legislation if Doug will dowhat he agreed to,” he says. “A whole bunch ofus stuck our neck out for him.”

When it comes to funding public education,Mr. Rodgers says he has more questions thananswers. “It’s got to be the best education we canafford,” he says, but he questions if there’s apolitical will to change the present system.

Mr. Rodgers says he has no faith in industrialwind. Wind turbines don’t belong on ridgelines,he argues, and he doubts they would be taken

seriously if it were not for the tax credits.“As a businessman I can’t buy machinery that

doesn’t pay for itself,” he says, noting thatturbines operate only 33 percent of the time.

Vicki Strong of Albany, Republican

Political campaigning doesn’t come easy forVicki Strong, who says she always had aninterest in politics, “but never threw myself outthere.” There was always the worry she might bebothering someone.

Perhaps that’s why, when she looks at hercampaign, she sees herself as someone who willadvocate for people with hardships or who haveexperienced a tragedy.

“I’m taking the personal with me into the

political,” she says.With the death of her son Jesse, who was

killed in Iraq fighting as a Marine, she says shecame to see the political process in a new light.Initially the loss left her wondering if she wouldhave the “emotional energy” to become an activecandidate. But then she realized it alsopresented her with an opportunity to getinvolved.

“That’s what we’re all about, and that’s whatmakes us great,” she says, noting that her sondied as he was setting up a polling place so Iraqiscould vote.

“It’s a privilege for us to vote and weshouldn’t take it lightly.”

As a conservative, she says her values revolvearound church, family, hard work and

Potak favors small-scale energy projects

(Continued on page fifteen.)

(Continued from page thirteen.)

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Vicki Strong of Albany, Republican.

John Rodgers of Glover, Democrat.

the Chronicle, September 29, 2010 Page Fifteen

community. She believes people in the NortheastKingdom share similar values by going out oftheir way to help their neighbors. If she goes offthe road, someone will pull her out without caringif she is pro-life or pro-choice.

It’s a community, she says, “of drive-bytooting rather than drive-by shootings.”

She says her chief priority is to reduce taxesacross the board — property taxes, the income taxand the sales tax. “We’re squeezing money out ofpeople” in a state with a sparse population, shesays, adding she supports Brian Dubie’s economicplan to cut spending.

Nor does she support calls to decommissionYankee. “I think nuclear is okay,” she says,noting that by keeping Yankee up and running,the state will be in a better position to developother energy resources.

The trouble with wind is that it dividescommunities. “I hate to see the conflict,” shesays. Other than that, it’s a tossup. Vermontridgelines are beautiful and attract tourists, butmaybe wind turbines would too, she says.

While personal tragedy may have promptedMs. Strong to enter politics, her ability tocampaign comes from her experiences in thecommunity. For 13 years she has run the WeightWatchers program in Orleans. From thatexperience, she says, she has learned how tostand up and speak to people, how to becompassionate without telling them what to do.

“I feel this is a similar role,” she says.As she goes around campaigning, people talk

to her about their own lives and problems. Itconfirms her sense that politics is personal.

“They just want to be heard,” she says.

Sam Young of Albany, Democrat

Two years ago Sam Young got a taste ofelectoral politics when he ran for governor. Hesays he was happy that he was able to win 1percent of the vote. But more importantly, it mayhave given him an edge as he runs a race in acrowded field much closer to home.

At 32, Mr. Young is the district’s youngestpolitician — a distinction that may have beenforetold when he went to the State House as ayoungster and served as a page. The experiencebrought him back to the Legislature as aspectator whenever he was in town. Now he is offand running for a two-year seat in the House,where he was bit by the political bug.

Mr. Young brings the skills and the passion of

his generation into the race. He built the webpages for two candidates in statewide races —including Democratic candidate for governorPeter Shumlin — bringing them up to speed as hewent along.

“Do we need twitter?” they asked him.“Yes, you need twitter,” he told them.Mr. Young is hoping that youth will be an

asset in this election. On the one hand he ishoping it will bring young people out to vote whosee a Legislature made up of mainly retirees. Onthe other hand, it’s an opportunity for him toshine in an area that people twice his age don’teasily understand: Internet technology.

If elected, Mr. Young would advocate toimplement technology that would enable people tomake a decent income while living in an areathey love.

It’s important for an area to have a workforce,he says, but something has to come along tosupplement the diminishing role of traditionaldairy farming and wood working industries.There have to be opportunities for small-scalefarmers to produce something that will allowthem to live comfortably off the land.

But most of all, a rural area like the Kingdomneeds broadband or a technologicalinfrastructure. The Internet is making peoplelocation independent, he says. And Vermont, headds, is a great place to live if you can tie into theInternet.

Per capita, Vermont is second in the nationwhen it comes to owning second homes, he says.But last when it comes to technology.

“Third world countries are doing better thanus, and it’s not because we don’t have theresources,” he says.

Mr. Young supports the idea of the stategetting more power through renewable energysources. But he favors solar over industrial wind.People choose to live up here because there are nolights in the skyline, he say.

Nor he is a supporter of the amendment thatallows Mr. Nelson to keep moose and deer captivebehind a fence intended for a game preserve forelk.

“I think we should kill the moose,” he says,adding that the state is going down a slipperyslope by allow one man to possess a publicresource.

Wind power divides communities, Strong says(Continued from page fourteen.)

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CCV to host transferfair in Newport

The Community College of Vermont’s(CCV) Newport location invites all arearesidents, current students and alumni to aCollege Transfer Fair on Tuesday, October 5,from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Admissions counselorsfrom six Vermont colleges will be on hand toanswer questions about their academicprograms, financial aid options, scholarships,and transfer agreements.

Among the participating colleges areVermont Technical College’s nursing program,the University of Vermont, Goddard College,Sterling College, Springfield College in St.Johnsbury, Lyndon State College, and theJohnson External Degree Program. Lightrefreshments will be served.

CCV is an open admissions collegeoffering 18 degree programs and 12certificates through its 12 statewide locationsand a comprehensive selection of onlinecourses. As Vermont’s second largest college,CCV provides quality, affordable education toover 11,000 students each year. Academicadvisors work with degree-seeking studentsand lifelong learners each semester to find thecourses appropriate for their skill level andeducational needs

For more information, call CCV at 334-3387. — from CCV.