Imagining
No parking zone
Charlotte artist exhibits work in South Burlington
State’s attorney retaliates against AG prosecutor, records show
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January 19, 2023
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
thecitizenvt.com
Racist TikTok post prompts teams to protest CVU games
Take down
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Along with the jump in the budget, town officials are looking to spend $75,000 to solve issues on the roads. Residents can expect to see a nearly $20,000 increase in the budget for more police enforcement in town, paired with a $25,000 allocation for traffic calming. Lack of enforcement has been a hot topic issue among residents and town officials this year, mostly about excessive speeding in town. Currently, Charlotte contracts with the Vermont State Police for law enforce-
Two Champlain Valley Union High School girls’ basketball games were postponed — one by Rice Memorial High School and another by Burlington High School — after students at the schools learned of a social media video that a CVU player posted last month that included racist language. Champlain Valley Union High School principal Adam Bunting, in an apology letter to students, said that in December, “a student-athlete on the CVU varsity girls’ basketball team made the terrible decision to follow a TikTok trend and post a video that was racially insensitive at best.” The video has since been taken down. The student “made the video with a family member who is a person of color,” Bunting said, and “she wrongly believed it was okay to post something that used the N-word.” “The student took down the video within an hour, but the damage was done as it was recorded and widely distributed by others,” he said. The school was notified on Jan. 12 that Burlington High School students would not play CVU in protest of the video. Students at Rice Memorial High School did the same the week prior on Jan. 6. “We as a team believe that racism is not a trend, nor is it any type of entertainment for social media,” the Burlington team said in an Instagram post on Jan. 12. “We dedicate this day to remind everyone that sadly, racism is still alive in our community.” The CVU player in question has since been suspended from game play, has lost her captaincy, was removed from leadership clubs in the school, and “has begun restorative practices that follow this process: interviews, education, repair and growth,” Bunting said. “Last but not least, this player has experienced significant consequences in her life outside of school, but this is not my story to
See BUDGET on page 16
See TIKTOK on page 16
PHOTO BY AL FREY
A Spaulding wrestler takes his Champlain Valley Union High School foe to the mat during a Jan. 11 match hosted in Hinesburg, that also feaatured wrestlers from Mt. Mansfield Union.
Charlotte Selectboard works to finalize budget Increased police enforcement, radar signs seen as solutions to speeders LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Following another budget work session that took place at the Jan. 11 selectboard meeting, it looks as if Charlotte residents can expect to see a projected budget this year of around $3,085,239 — a nearly $470,000 increase from last year. In addition to the municipal budget, voters will also be asked to approve a library budget of $324,356 — a $40,000 increase from last year — and a fire and rescue budget of $965,806 — a $75,000 increase from last year. There is debate over whether these arti-
cles will be combined into one article or three separate votes should the board decide to return to an in-person floor vote at town meeting this year. In a meeting memo, town administrator Dean Bloch wrote that “there are valid reasons for these separate articles, namely: the selectboard doesn’t have managerial oversight over Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue or the library and when the budget was voted by Australian ballot, the separate articles made sense from the perspective of allowing voters to more explicitly approve the budgets for the different services.” The current projected tax rate is $0.2416 with all three budgets.
Traffic calming