Remembering
Chemical leak
Land trust honors its founding member
Firefighting foam spills in South Burlington
Page 2
Page 16
POSTAL CUSTOMER
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the JUNE 27, 2024
otherpapersbvt.com
Tell-tale heart:
VOLUME 48, NO. 26
Hang ten
Pickleball racket in SB prompts resident petition LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
For most of the 30 years Jovana Guarino has lived in South Burlington, she has considered the city a peaceful and enjoyable place to live. That is until pickleball arrived. Guarino says her quality of life has been drastically eroded by what she calls an “incessant and psychologically torturous, ‘pop-pop-pop’” sound emanating from pickleball players at Szymanski Park at all hours of the day, or at least until 10 p.m. when the park lights shut off. The back-and-forth racket has turned her world upside down in a
way that she says keeps her from doing some of her favorite things — gardening, walking and biking the city, relaxing on her front porch and even keeping her windows open — because of the pervasive, “monotonous” sound. For most of her time in the city, Guarino said she’s stayed far away from municipal mayhem and considers herself not to be an overly political person, but the pickleball problem has frayed nerves so intensely that it’s forced her to speak up at a city council and committee meetings for the first
PHOTO BY MIKE DEAN
Mike Dean of South Burlington captured this shot of two cyclists enjoying a ride on Bostwick Road.
See PICKLEBALL on page 12
South Burlington companies seek federal funds for ‘Tech Hub’ HABIB SABET
A consortium led by the University of Vermont that includes several South Burlington companies is currently vying for millions of dollars in federal grant money
for semi-conductor technology research and manufacturing. The Vermont-based collective, dubbed the V-GaN Tech Hub, is applying for $36 million in funding as a part of phase two of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
Tech Hubs Program, an initiative aimed at spurring technological innovation and economic growth in far-flung corners of the U.S. The group centers around a few key companies and institutions — including UVM and the South
Burlington-based tech company OnLogic — in the Greater Burlington Area, which are working together to advance gallium nitride technology (GaN). Gallium nitride technology is an emerging material being used in
semiconductor manufacturing with a broad array of potential applications in electronics. In the fall, the consortium was See TECH HUB on page 12
Offering Salads, Italian-Inspired Sandwiches and Pizza Frittas
Lunch Daily, 11:30-4:00, on the Church Street Marketplace
PASCOLOVT.COM