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April 18, 2024
POSTAL CUSTOMER
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Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
School budget passes on second try
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Blocked shot
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Voters in the Champlain Valley Tuesday approved by 1,400 votes the school district’s second go at a school budget for next year. The $101.8 million budget passed 4,3582,947 by residents throughout member towns in the district, including Hinesburg, Shelburne, Charlotte and Williston. It brings a sigh of relief for administrators, school board members, teachers, faculty and students throughout the district’s five schools. Faced with a third go at passing a budget, cuts could have been steep, and officials estimated they would have had to PHOTO BY AL FREY
See BUDGET on page 12
A CVU lacrosse player tries to block a shot during a game against the South Burlington Wolves Saturday. The Redhawks lost 9-5. See our spring preview, page 10.
Tree planting divides Charlotte; three officials resign from volunteer board LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
A stir over tree planting at recent Charlotte Selectboard meetings has left the town without a tree warden and two deputy tree wardens as all three resigned last week from their positions.
What began as an effort to plant trees along State Park Road has turned into a chaotic debacle over process, contracts and how exactly the funds used to plant trees should be doled out. Typically, money used for trees planted on public lands comes from the Rutter Tree Fund,
which was set up in 2006 and now contains $32,000, $20,000 of which has come from a voter-approved spending for ash tree removal. In November, a group spearheading the tree planting initiative asked the selectboard to approve up to $10,000 from the tree fund
to buy and plant nearly 50 trees along State Park Road. After getting approval from the selectboard, Mark Dillenbeck, the town’s former appointed tree warden, entered a contract with the private property owner, Joshua Golek, since the trees were being planted on his property.
But when complaints began circulating in town about how the trees might obstruct views, the selectboard started to explore the process under which tree planting decisions are made — especially See TREES on page 11
Hercules Chicken Sammie, Anyone?
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