It’s a TIE
Fire call
School celebrates 50 years of exchanges
SPFD personnel reach career milestones
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the OCTOBER 10, 2024
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VOLUME 48, NO. 41
Candidates face off for three Chittenden Southeast Senate seats
Light dance
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY THEO ANDERSON
The aurora borealis came out to play over Shelburne Bay Park on Oct. 6 and Theo Anderson of Shelburne captured the scene around 8 p.m.
City council passes F-35 resolution LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
South Burlington joined Burlington and Winooski Monday in passing a resolution that calls on federal lawmakers to find an alternative to the F-35 air mission in Vermont. The F-35s replaced the former F-16s at the Patrick Leahy Burl-
ington International Airport in South Burlington in 2019, sparking years of vehement opposition from residents in its flight path due to “bone-jarring” noise and undue environmental impacts caused by the military aircraft. Two city councilors, city clerk Mike Scanlan and Elizabeth Fitzgerald, voted against the move. Council chair Tim Barritt
said with Sen. Patrick Leahy now retired and a new makeup of Vermont’s congressional delegation, “there is an opportunity to try this again, to see if they would be sympathetic to requests from the various city councils in the towns and cities that immediSee F-35 on page 20
Two Republicans and one independent are looking to upset three incumbent Democrats in Chittenden County’s Southeast Senate district this November, hinging their campaigns on affordability in a year that saw a 14.5 percent average property tax hike across the state. Bruce Roy, R-Williston, ran uncontested in the primary election and received 1,527 votes from the towns that make up the Chittenden Southeast Senate district. This is his second try at a Statehouse seat after an unsuccessful run for the House in 2022. After a four-year tour in the U.S. Air Force, he returned to Vermont and joined IBM as an engineer, continuing his military service as a member of the Vermont Air National Guard. He had a 30-year career at both organizations, retiring as a colonel from the Green Mountain Boys in 2008. He also previously served his alma mater, Essex Westford School District, on its school board. “One of the things that’s got me cranked up was when the property taxes jumped up, and I saw all the veto overrides that were happening of Gov. Scott,” he said.
“I said, ‘I have to give myself back to Vermont for a few more years to see if I can’t fix this.’” Republican Gov. Phil Scott, along with former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, have both endorsed Roy, who said he will make it a priority to support Scott should he be elected. Taylor Craven, I-Shelburne, a Vermont native who graduated from the University of Vermont with a civil engineering degree, took over his family’s property management business in the Deerfield Valley in 2019. He’s also worked for large engineering firms like DuBois & King, focusing on municipal infrastructure projects. He has previously served on the Colchester Planning Commission. Craven did not participate in the August primary election but garnered enough signatures to enter the General Election race. The self-proclaimed “socially liberal but fiscally conservative” candidate says the Statehouse’s Democratic supermajority has gone unchecked for too long. “I could bring good recommendations of where we could streamline processes to make it easier on property owners, homeowners and See CANDIDATES on page 16
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