Cassandra Hemenway

Fifteen years after the last city plan was written, the Montpelier Planning Commission has drafted an ambitious new plan, available for perusal on the city website. The public can comment at a March 24 public hearing at the Montpelier Senior Activity Center. “Depending on the comments, the Planning Commission could continue the hearing to another date and time. They could also close the hearing and start to consider the recommendations,” noted city Planning Director Mike Miller in an email to The Bridge. After the Planning Commission finalizes the plan, it moves on to the Montpelier City Council, which must hold

Recently, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) announced to its members, of which The Bridge is one, that it has signed onto a coalition statement led by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists. The statement calls on the Trump administration to restore the Associated Press’ longstanding access to the White House media pool. In a March 3 email, INN wrote “The AP has been denied access because of its refusal to update the widely used AP Style Guide to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. In the latest

Amid frigid temperatures this week and growing concern about funding for housing under a new presidential administration, Good Samaritan Haven will participate in an annual national point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness on Jan. 22. This year’s count is happening across the U.S. and comes as central Vermont continues to grapple with an unprecedented homelessness crisis. Good Sam (as it is known locally) conducted a local count Nov. 1, 2024, at the request of the Vermont Agency of Human Services. That count revealed a staggering 312% increase in central Vermont homelessness compared to 2020. It found 592 individuals without stable

After a five-year hiatus, Montpelier’s three-day roots music festival is back. Montpelier Alive and the Summit School of Traditional Music and Culture are bringing back the “Spice on Snow Winter Music Festival” starting Friday, Jan. 17, through Sunday, Jan. 19. The event features a wide range of performers, and will come to a close on Sunday, Jan. 19, with a rousing “MLK Jr. Commemorative Concert” featuring more than 55 performers at the Lost Nation Theater in City Hall. The festival kicks off on Jan. 17 with featured band Rose and the Bros at the Capitol Plaza ballroom, from 7 to

Montpelier’s Department of Public Works (DPW) has been busy repairing water main breaks in the past several weeks; there were three in the same location at the corner of Barre and Main streets just before Thanksgiving; a break on Liberty Street the following week, and then several in a row on Derby Drive last week. On top of that, the DPW staff is getting ready for a major pipe replacement project on East State Street and State Street. So far in 2024 there have been 23 water main breaks in the capital city, according to DPW Director and Engineer Kurt

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a flood watch for central Vermont from Wednesday, Dec. 11, through Thursday morning, Dec. 12, according to a press release from Montpelier City Manager William Fraser.  Both river and flash flooding caused by rain and snowmelt is possible, Fraser noted in the release. The release stated that the Winooski River at Montpelier is anticipated to crest at 10.3 feet, which is 0.7 feet below the 11-foot Action Stage. For context, the Winooski River at Montpelier crested at 16.15 feet on Dec. 18, 2023. The action stage is the level at which action is

Parts of Montpelier’s bike path have become dangerous, according to a planning commission member who started logging incidents.

When Britt Richardson started leading fitness classes in the year 2000, she didn’t expect that 24 years later she’d be a size-inclusive registered dietician, nutrition coach, and local leader in the body liberation movement. As a seasoned instructor teaching everything from Zumba to CrossFit, the Montpelier resident saw early on that her clients wanted more […]

Yestermorrow Design/Build School (www.yestermorrow.org) is hosting a series of free lectures called “Connected Communities” on the topic of transportation and livable communities.  Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8 p.m. between Oct 23 and Nov 20. Local experts will present important information on the state of transportation in Vermont: from walkable communities to interconnected trail systems, […]

I leased a Hyundai Kona electric vehicle in October 2023, and — despite the inconvenience of charging on an underdeveloped network — I’ll never go back to a gas-powered car. Until I leased the Kona, I’d gotten by on jerry-rigged decades-old vehicles that occasionally required duct tape and special knowledge (I’m thinking of that old truck […]

This month, ragged from my first bout of COVID, I started to sit up a little straighter at mentions of long COVID. Anyone of any age is susceptible to it if they have had COVID even once, according to the National Institutes of Health. It’s not surprising the virus caught up with me: Montpelier’s wastewater […]

The Montpelier Disaster Recovery Network and the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition have joined over three dozen Vermont grassroots and mutual aid organizations in signing The People’s Demands for a Just Recovery from Flooding, a document demanding the state of Vermont develop a more comprehensive, coordinated disaster response to address housing, emergency preparedness, and climate adaption. The document was presented by a group of people on the front lines of flood recovery on a hot Aug.1 morning on the Statehouse steps, following two major floods this summer, and at least four for many Vermonters in the past year.  Organized by Community

A year after the July 2023 flood hit central Vermont, Montpelier homeowners of substantially damaged properties still don’t know where to turn or what’s next.  Buyouts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may take another 15 months (or more), according to local officials, and the long, complicated process, expenses, and uncertainty continue to stress those […]

Nearly 200 Mexicans living in central Vermont and beyond attended the Mexican Mobile Consulate event at Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier on Saturday, June 22.  Pews in the sanctuary on State Street were pushed aside to make way for tables and chairs and a large Mexican rug. In the hall next to the sanctuary a […]

By Cassandra Hemenway A “couple thousand pounds a minute” water leak on Park Avenue interrupted the school day for students at Union Elementary School on Thursday, May 23. The leak — the third in the past 18 months — was reported at 6 a.m. according to Zach Blodgett, deputy director of the Montpelier Department of […]

Navigating the strong feelings about whether dogs should be on or off leash in Montpelier’s Hubbard Park is “more contentious to deal with than potholes,” said Linda Young, who attended an April 9 Parks Commission hearing about just that. A new proposal by Parks Director Alec Ellsworth that creates on- and off-leash zones would continue to allow unleashed dogs in the northern part of Hubbard Park, and the southern zone — the park’s “core” that includes the Tower Trail and the Universal Access Trail — would require all dogs be leashed, always. “This would designate the northern approximately 150 acres

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Free, independent and local newspaper

It’s been eight months since Montpelier lost its post office in the July 2023 flood, and finally the United States Postal Services has taken a step toward alleviating the problem. A new temporary USPS site at the Central Vermont Marketplace in Berlin opened Monday morning, Feb. 5. The new location is open to some customers […]

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