In the Pocket
Worlds collide
Jazz combo entertains at summer concert series
Green Valley Coconut bridges two cultures
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Volume 52 Number 28
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shelburnenews.com
July 13, 2023
Selectboard campaigns ‘Shelburne Forward Together’
Setting sun
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY PHOTO
Amid controversy over the past few weeks stemming from proposed changes to the Parade Ground, the Shelburne Selectboard announced a three-month community-building initiative in partnership with the Vermont Council on Rural Development under the tagline “Shelburne Forward Together.” The Vermont Council on Rural Development is a neutral, independent, nonprofit organization that works with communities around the state to help them set priorities and connect to resources governing the future of their towns. The organization’s community visits program is a way for towns to engage and bring together residents, set common goals and directions in a neutral and facilitated structure
Brian Russell captured this lovely scene of Shelburne Bay.
See SELECTBOARD on page 12
Champlain Valley school districts sue Monsanto COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
The Champlain Valley and South Burlington school districts have both signed on to a lawsuit against Monsanto that argues the company is directly responsible for PCB contamination now present in many schools across the state. The two Chittenden County
districts are among more than 90 in Vermont that have signed on to the litigation against the agrochemical manufacturer “to recover past, present, and future costs, losses, damages and other relief relating to the presence of toxic PCBs manufactured by Monsanto.” As part of a state-mandated program, schools throughout the state — including the Charlotte
Central School and Rick Marcotte School in South Burlington — had begun testing their facilities to find the chemicals, but many more will still need to conduct testing. “We are certain that many districts are going to discover that there is PCB contamination in the air — there are action levels that will require remediation, and many communities will decide to
remediate even if the PCB levels are below the state mandated amounts,” said Pietro Lynn, an attorney with Lynn, Lynn, Blackman and Manitsky that filed the lawsuit. “That’s going to be a very expensive undertaking. The question that we think this lawsuit answers is who should bear responsibility? Should it be the communities in Vermont? Or
should it be Monsanto?” he said. “We think it ought to be Monsanto.” This lawsuit is one of several to be filed against Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. Vermont’s attorney generSee LAWSUIT on page 12