House bid
Wolfpack
LaLonde seeks sixth term in Legislature
Wrestling club takes South Burlington to the mat
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POSTAL CUSTOMER
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the MAY 9, 2024
otherpapersbvt.com
VOLUME 48, NO. 19
School budget passes LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
The South Burlington School District budget passed Tuesday, 2,242-1,706, with a 24 percent turnout of registered voters. It was the third attempt by the district to enact a spending plan. The budget represents an 8.8 percent increase over last year and will result in a single-digit homestead property tax rate increase of 9.55 percent. That property tax increase is down from 14.5 percent from an See BUDGET on page 12
PHOTO BY LIBERTY DARR
Hundreds of South Burlington students walked out of school Monday to show their support for passage of Tuesday’s school budget.
Charges dropped against driver who struck cyclist HABIB SABET STAFF WRITER
A state prosecutor has dismissed charges against a Hinesburg man who killed a cyclist with his car, ending a years-long case stemming from the October 2022 accident. In a notice of dismissal filed to the Chittenden Superior Criminal Court on March
8, Kelly Olney, a deputy state’s attorney for Chittenden County, wrote that she was dropping the state’s charge against Richard K. Lewis “without prejudice,” meaning the charges could theoretically be refiled in the future. Lewis, 70, of Hinesburg, had been accused of operating his vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and causing the death of
cyclist Gerard Malavenda of Williston. In a written statement to The Other Paper, Sarah George, Vermont’s top prosecutor in Chittenden County, said that her office decided to drop the charge against Lewis after new evidence emerged during the trial that undermined the state’s case. Specifically, George said that the testimony of one unexpected witness appeared
to have “devastated our ability to prove the case,” though she did not further elaborate on the nature of that testimony. “I want to be clear that there is no question at all that Mr. Lewis struck Gerard and caused his death,” she said. “That, howevSee LEWIS on page 13
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