Good eats
Roaring to life
Shelburne Road sees new dining spots
New Lions Club represents Shelburne, S. Burlington
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Volume 52 Number 40
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October 5, 2023
Shelburne Rescue wants to become paramedic-level
Big ‘cat’
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY PHOTO
Chris Latta of Shelburne captured this great shot of a bobcat along the train tracks in the Clearwater neighborhood on Sept. 27 at about 8 a.m. “Here is a great shot of a bobcat living among us and why we need to preserve our neighborhood wooded areas,” he said. “What a beautiful animal.”
After years of deliberation, Shelburne Rescue is moving forward with its plan to include paramedic-level services — a necessary step to help retain volunteers and staff, says Chief Jacob Leopold. Shelburne Rescue has served the town since 1985 and currently operates at an advanced emergency medical technician level. There are four national registries for emergency medical technicians in the United States: first responder, EMT, advanced EMT, and critical care paramedic. “Vermont emergency medical services are distributed into a variety of districts, and we are in district three. Ten out of the 14 are paramedics already,” Leopold said. “So, we really are in the minority.” Leopold recently told the Shel-
burne Selectboard that the department currently has mutual aid paramedic agreements in place with Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Essex Rescue and South Burlington Rescue, but there are plenty of times those departments are not always able to get to Shelburne, which creates a delay in patient care. Based on the record-high 1,450 calls seen this year, there is a significant need in town to make the move, he said. “Charlotte Fire and Rescue is right around 330 calls, Richmond Rescue’s at about 730 calls,” Leopold said. “We certainly have a call volume to support it and we have the call demographics to support it. Most residents that we service expect that we are paramedics.” Not only does the level of care advance, but the transition See EMT on page 13
Colorful Leaf People once again populate town TOMMY GARDNER STAFF WRITER
On the last day of summer this year, Gracie Pinney rode down Route 7 through Shelburne in the passenger seat of a big black pickup truck festooned with the Automaster logo that Carl Cocuzza stopped every few hundred feet so they could drop off one of Pinney’s 64 kids. Pinney, for the past 18 years or so, has been the creative force behind the Shelburne Leaf People, scores of skinny framed, bright-
ly dressed, hatted but faceless folks who cheerfully stand sentry on roadsides and front lawns all through the town. “Every one of them is different, and they are different every year,” Pinney said. “I just go out in the barn, I have the radio on, and I just dress them and be on my merry way.” The Leaf People of Shelburne are no more made of leaves than are the walking, talking, camera-clicking leaf peepers also coming out of hiding this time of year (and slowing traffic in their
own way). Sans garb, they consist of a corn stalk spine and light wooden appendages, with the corn stalks donated by the Mack Farm in Charlotte. Green Mountain Floral Supply, Finney’s old employer, still donates the flowers she uses to add extra flourishes of color to her creations. The rest of it, the clothing, the jewelry, the hats, the accessories, she buys. She’s fastidious about their outfits, right down to some of their polka dotted socks — basically, whatever any warm-blooded human with
a vibrant style sense would wear out in public. “I get them from Goodwill, ReSource, wherever I get them, they have to be bright. I’m looking for something very particular,” Pinney said. For some reason, Pinney said it was tougher than usual this year to pull together enough articles of clothing to outfit all 64 leaf people, but she acknowledges that just any old duds don’t cut it for the Leaf People. Cocuzza said drivers frequently honk their horns in greeting
when they see Pinney and him setting up the Leaf People, and there are more than a few out-ofstate leaf peepers who make the annual autumnal pilgrimage, snapping photos of the nattily dressed cornstalks on the green at Shelburne Farms. This year Pinney and Cocuzza placed the figures along the sides of Route 7, down Harbor Road with higher-population pockets at Shelburne Community School See LEAF PEOPLE on page 12