At full staff
Home & Garden
Shelburne police back to 24/7 coverage
Bird-friendly gardens, spring checklist
Page 4
Page 12
Volume 52 Number 18
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May 4, 2023
Shelburne OK’s round of ARPA spending
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LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
what that open space should be used for. For nearly two decades, the company has been campaigning that even small improvements in pollinator habitats add up to healthier ecosystems.
After nearly five months, the Shelburne selectboard gave the green light to a second round of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) pandemic relief money allocations. The selectboard last Tuesday approved spending $60,000 for fire station air compressor fill stations, $200,000 for efficiency improvements to the town office buildings, $15,000 for library plumbing repairs and $25,000 for medical equipment to the fire department. The six-member ARPA committee formed in October and has met once a week over the last year to synthesize community input and recommendations for how the town should spend the $2.2 million to address multiple capital needs in Shelburne. One of the its primary goals was to use the money to benefit as many Shelburne residents as possible without creating ongoing costs. “We want to benefit as much of the community as possible since this money is for the town, it’s for everybody,” Jeff Loiter, chair of the committee, said. “The intent here is to really make the best use
See NO MOW MAY on page 20
See ARPA on page 20
PHOTO BY LEE KROHN
Spring flowers start their show as temperatures warm and the rains come.
Shelburne business brings ‘meadowscaping’ to light LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITERS
The Shelburne selectboard has once again endorsed the No Mow May initiative — just in time for the rainy forecasts that are no friend to mowers but a boon for pollinators. The initiative, which first began
in the United Kingdom, promulgates the concept that by eliminating lawn mowing and other lawn maintenance practices — including pesticides and other chemicals — during the entire month of May, it offers bees and other pollinators a playground of resources at an important time during their lifecycles. Other popular phrases that
hold to virtually the same ideals are rewilding or wildscaping. For the Shelburne-based seed business, American Meadows — whose owners are also from Shelburne — No Mow May is an ideal time for the company’s new motto of “Meadowscaping Makes it Better,” to challenge the limitingi beliefs surrounding lawns and
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