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Volume 54 Number 52
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December 26, 2025
Questions still remain for town pedestrian and bike upgrades BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
While Shelburne might move forward with pedestrian and bike upgrades to the entrance to lower Webster Road in a bid to increase safety, those updates may not extend all the way to the intersection with Harbor Road as initially planned. The sticking point is the price: $4.6 million for a bike and pedestrian bridge over the LaPlatte River and shared use paths on both sides of Route 7 up to the village. The town originally engaged the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission to do a scoping study of the lower Webster intersection up to Harbor Road last September. Over the course of the year, the commission partnered with consultant VHB to connect with residents about what they’d like to see for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and build a series of recommendations around three focus areas on the road: the Webster intersection, the bridge where Route 7 crosses the LaPlatte River and the stretch of road between the bridge and the village. Jason Charest from the CCRPC and Drew Gringas from VHB initially presented just the study’s recommendation for the intersection at lower Webster and Route 7 at the end of October with a mostly positive response from the selectboard concerning the increased turning radius and widened sidewalk. However, when it came to the rest See WEBSTER ROAD on page 9
PHOTO BY AL FREY
Three area high schools have formed a cooperative girls’ hockey team called the Chittenden Charge.
CVU, SB girls’ hockey form co-op D1 team LAUREN READ CORRESPONDENT
For many years, players from Champlain Valley and South Burlington have faced off against each other on the ice. This season, the two schools will team up — along with Mount Mansfield — to form a high school Division I girls ice hockey team, the Chittenden Charge. “It was a real tragedy that South Burlington didn’t have a season last year,” Charge
coach Matt Bunting said. “The ambition was not to be reactive in the moment, but to be proactive and take a look at how we can get as many kids out there skating, playing hockey. “Administrators at the highest levels, community members, coaches, players, have been sort of in this conversation for months about how we can make this whole thing work, and the Chittenden Charge was born in that way.” South Burlington had to abruptly cancel
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its season last year, right before practices were set to begin, due to low numbers. Facing similar issues this year, the school started exploring other options to get its players on the ice. Enter the Champlain Valley and Mount Mansfield co-op hockey team. The two schools have been playing as a co-op team for years, under the CougarHawks umbrella. See HOCKEY on page 12