‘Passionate believer’
Multi-faceted
Shelburne Farms leader Marshall Webb dies
Museum installs sculpture by noted Vermont artist
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August 18, 2022
Hinesburg, Richmond in talks to share police services
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
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Summer daze
Shelburne now absent from earlier talks COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Hinesburg officials are in discussion with Richmond to possibly share police services between town borders. Selectboard chair Merrily Lovell during a meeting earlier this month said there “have been discussions with the town of Richmond in terms of sharing police” and that the Richmond Selectboard approved moving forward with the possibility. “We’re really hoping to move forward on this and find some way to share the police,” she said. “It should be a cost saving for both towns.” Richmond’s town manager, acting police chief and two selectboard members met with Hinesburg town manager Todd Odit, selectboard member Phil Pouech and police Chief Anthony Cambridge to talk about the possibility several days after their selectboard meeting. “It was decided at the end of the meeting that we would work on finding someone who is familiar with the creation of municipal union districts (and) to give a presentation to a joint meeting of the boards of what they are, what the process is to get there and then see if there were any opportunities where the two towns might be able to work collaboratively,” Odit said. Cambridge, in an interview with The Citizen, cautioned that the idea to combine services “is really exploratory at this point, because it’s never really been successfully See POLICE on page 12
CHARLOTTE RECREATION
Summer sunset at the Charlotte Town Beach.
Future of Charlotte Bridge uncertain COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Charlotte is unusual in that it has three media outlets covering the town of 3,900. Nowadays, where most towns and counties in the United States are more likely to be in a news desert with virtually no local news coverage, Charlotte remains steadfastly covered by The Citizen, The Charlotte News and, more recently, The Charlotte Bridge. But the future of the Charlotte Bridge is now uncertain after the Democratic primary victory of its lone writer, longtime journalist and Charlotte resident Chea Waters Evans. Evans has written for The Citizen, The
Charlotte News and Seven Days throughout her career as a journalist. But the Bridge came about after she quit her job at The Charlotte News due to ethical concerns with the paper’s board of directors. Evans resigned in March 2021 after getting negative feedback from some on the board regarding her coverage. Board members allegedly interfered with her coverage — often when their relatives were subjects of her reporting. After residents raised alarms over her resignation, several prominent journalists who had settled in Charlotte — including Adam Davison, a contributing writer to The New Yorker; former foreign correspondents Jack Fairweather and Christina Asquith; and
Jesse Wegman, an editor for The New York Times — minted the all-digital, nonprofit publication in early 2021 after formerly being involved with The Charlotte News. After Evans quit, the four journalists resigned from two seats they collectively shared on the board of the Charlotte News. Asquith has since stepped away from her role with the Bridge now that she serves on Charlotte’s Development Review Board. A year and a half later, the Bridge seems likely to close its online doors. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to just shut it down,” Davidson said. “But I’m not the only one involved. The full team has See CHARLOTTE BRIDGE on page 2