Getting Ready for Green Up Day
by John Quinney

As we spend time in the same place, we become more and more aware of seasonal events. In spring we welcome the delicate blush of color marking new growth in our oaks, maples and birches, the first hints of green in our lawns and hay fields, perhaps over-wintering garlic and spinach popping up in our gardens. And as the snow departs each spring, we start seeing winter’s leftovers – the bottles, cans, fast food wrappers and assorted trash that “sprouts” along our roadsides.
This year’s no different, and we’ll have plenty to do come Green Up Day on Saturday and Sunday May 1 and 2. The first Green Up Day was April 18, 1970. Go to the Green Up Day website – greenupvermont.org - and you’ll find a picture of Governor Deane Davis with a troop of scouts on the interstate while it was closed for clean up. Forty years later we’re still at it – and that says so much about Vermonters and tradition – and our commitment to taking care of this place we all call home.
So mark your calendars, start talking to your family, friends and neighbors and lets have a large turn-out for the 40th anniversary of Green Up Day! If you’ve not joined us for Green Up Day in the past, this year is a fine time for a new springtime activity. Perhaps it will become a family tradition.
Green Up Day really makes a difference in Charlotte. Over the past ten years we’ve picked up a total of 23 tons of trash, 820 tires and 33 cubic yards of metal. Imagine how Charlotte would look today if all that stuff was still littering our roadsides?
Sponsored as always by the Charlotte Conservation Commission, Green-Up Day is for everyone. Many friends and families come back year after year to pick up the trash on “their” street, either the place where they live or the street they’ve adopted as their own special Green Up Day project. Last year alone, another ten Charlotters made this commitment. This year students at Charlotte Central, Girl Scouts and others have already started making their Green Up Day plans.
If you want to get an early start, Green Up bags will be available at Spear’s Corner Store, the Old Brick Store and Town Hall, starting on Monday, April 19. As always, we’ll be collecting filled bags at the Quonset Hut by Charlotte Central School during Green Up Days.
If you’d rather not pick up trash, how about removing some invasive plants from the Town Park? Meet Sue Smith and Jenny Cole in the parking lot off Greenbush Road at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 1. Bring gloves and clippers, and join Sue and Jenny in clearing an area that has become overgrown with invasive species such as buckthorn and honeysuckle. Help release some of the fine old trees in the park that are hard to see because they are smothered by invasives. For more information, contact Sue Smith: 425-2612 or ssmith@gmavt.net.
In the next issue of The Charlotte News, I’ll have all the details about this year’s Green Up Day activities on May 1 and 2. In the meantime, please contact me at 425-3773 (or via e-mail to johnq@gmavt.net) with your questions, concerns and news about areas of town needing special attention.

John Quinney
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Will Land Use Decision-Making in Chittenden County Take a Turn for the Worse?
by Marty Illick

Have you heard about “Challenges for Change,” the governor’s newest cost-reduction proposal in response to 2009/10’s Act 68? It includes a plan to change the way regional planning commissions operate. The “Challenges for Change” includes cost-reduction proposals in selected areas of “Regulatory, Economic Development, Human Services, Corrections and Education.” As your town representative to the county planning commission, I have concerns about this proposal. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
On March 30, the public and the Vermont Legislature received a state general fund cost reduction proposal, “Challenges of Change” from the administration. Secretary Kevin Dorn prepared the Economic Development portion. In part, he proposes to consolidate a wide range of economic development and job training groups with the eleven Vermont Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs) to create no more than nine “regional service centers” throughout Vermont. Efficiencies and “one stop shopping”? Sounds great on first blush, but....
The proposal, as written, presumes the primary function of Vermont’s Regional Planning Commissions is economic development and job service under the guise of addressing a 10% cut in “economic development funding” required by the Act 68 legislation. Vermont’s eleven RPCs would be lumped with 12 regional development organizations and 14 employment centers as well as other job-service-related groups. So why add RPCs to the economic development cost-reduction plan? Is this just a forgetful act of whimsy? Or could it be to spread the pain to beyond our economic development organization budgets? Why are regional planning groups hearing about this at this late hour? And why were our affected land-use planning organizations not invited to join in cost-reduction planning at an earlier point in time? Is this good planning? These are the questions plaguing the work schedules of affected regional planning groups as they are working on immediate tasks with already tight schedules and modest “Vermont-Style” budgets that are highly leveraged with volunteer commissioner labor.
Of all the numerous “economic development” groups being proposed for consolidation, Secretary Dorn and the Douglas administration’s proposal asks that more than 25% of the overall proposed savings should be born by the RPCs that are actually charged with many more planning tasks, such as natural resources and transportation planning (aka comprehensive land-use planning).
Beyond the flawed presumption that county planning commissions primarily serve to guide job and economic development, it is concerning that our present administration is choosing to achieve cost savings from RPCs that are funded by property transfer tax revenues rather than achieving direct general fund savings as Act 68 requires. As Vermonters, we are already suffering from having no statewide land-use plan. We must increase our county planning commissions’ capacity to plan from the ground up and in ways that facilitate enhanced inter-town coordination that can proactively protect vital natural, scenic and recreation resources. By starting from the ground up, we can all see appropriate location for the most beneficial development visions such as “Vermont-Style” villages, road systems and “meant-to-be” business ventures.
This eleventh-hour “top-down” proposal only now asks for input from regional planning commissions and others to resolve Vermont’s cost reduction issue by the end of this legislative session. While some consolidation and partnership opportunities surely exist, the state is giving us scant time to offer coordinated, sound, long-term improvement strategies. In fact, as things stand now, we all have to have answers in about a week.
If you have positive ideas to offer in response to the idea of combining 23 Regional Planning Commissions and Regional Development Corporations into nine Regional Service Centers, please e-mail me at martylewiscreek@gmavtnet or call 425-2002. 

Marty Illick
Charlotte Representative, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission
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Mr. Bud Light Man
by John Howe

1.

A man right?
Those blue cans beside the road
Metallic - new car sheened - sapphires in the snow
There have been Labatt phases and Lite phases
But “Bud” is so manly
“Light” is sort of feminine isn’t it?
Over the years hundreds of them
and I’ve seen Sandy with bags of them on Green-up Day
And I’ve seen you at the convenience store in Monkton
And at Ballard’s and Carrie’s and at the Mobil on Rt. 7
with the 12 pack at the counter at 5:00 p.m.
And there they are each morning Mr. Bud Light Man
“Bud Light was Here” they say
Among the Canada geese in the marsh on Rotax Rd.
Between the pines on Lewis Creek
and in Stuart’s meadow
Mr. Bud Light by Dylan and Ward’s sap buckets
And there next to Susan and Bart’s jumps
And also there in the hedge where Luane’s bird feeder fed
finches and morning doves rest

2.

We all have it in our families
We all know you and love you
You are our cousin - who blew his brains out
Our father who won’t listen
Our demanding boss who was never satisfied
And our beloved teacher
But Mr. Bud Light Man
You are a guy’s guy
and you would not harm anyone unless you had a reason.
3.

It’s the cops right?
You don’t really like to litter
But if you get caught with an open container
In your truck (It’s a truck right?)
If you get caught again
Caught again
Mr. Bud Light Man
There would be some relief around here
Not just for the roadside coltsfoot this spring
But among all of us who may not want to find ourselves near
You careening at 50 down Philo or at 35 on the curves of Dorset
Or where the road narrows for the bridge on Spear
As you pack down your fifth, sixth, eighth or twelfth
4.

It’s anger right?
Your over-riding emotion.
Well - You do kid around some
Famous for it with your Buds.
But it is anger when you go to work.
Anger when you get home
Anger with those kind of people
Those jerks who act like they are all that.
Good for them that they pick these cans up
Those do-gooders have wrecked this country anyway.
Who are they to tell you how to live your life

Then it is some shame and then some more anger
Right Mr. Bud Light?

John Howe, EMT-B
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Re: A dissenting view

I was wondering how long it would take Mr. Baldwin to express his contempt for his fellow board members in regard to their work on the latest school budget and the building renovation plans. As usual, Mr. Baldwin seems to imply that any viewpoint which opposes his is born from some sort of malfeasance.
I take special offense to his comments regarding the recent decision to alter the ’49 building renovation from a refurbishment to a rebuild. As the sole community representative on the School Construction Committee, which includes two school board members, I can attest that all our discussions regarding the project’s direction and scope have been universally guided by a clear understanding that the bond money must be spent in the most economical and efficient manner. The goal from the start has been to create the best possible environment for our students. The fact is that after all the relevant issues where considered, it made more sense to rebuild than to refurbish. Now, this may have come to light prior to the bond vote if the board had (at the time) the funds required to engage design and engineering professionals for a complete design analysis. They did not.
I’m not sure to whom Mr. Baldwin is referring when he claims, “the decision was handed over to a handpicked, self-selected group who favored razing the building.” As I recall, Mr. Baldwin showed up at the first meeting of the Construction Committee, left early, and has not showed up since. If he had, he may have understood how the committee developed its recommendation to the school board that the ’49 building be rebuilt.

Sam Pugliese
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Fresh Air Fund looking for families
 

The Fresh Air Fund is looking for families to provide an inner-city child with a two-week respite from hot streets and crowded concrete playgrounds.  My family has hosted the same girl for the past four summers, and it has been a great experience. Daynalee lives in the Bronx, and she first came to us when she was nine years old.  I remember watching the Fresh Air bus pull into Cairns Arena that first summer, and the anticipation about what the next two weeks would bring. On the ride home Daynalee was so excited to see cows for the first time and to see the Green Mountains and Adirondacks as we drove down Route 7. The courage these children have to ride a bus for hours, going to a family they don’t know that is miles away from home! 
There were lots of firsts for her that year: the first time swimming in a lake, husking corn, playing badminton, riding in a power boat, making cupcakes, making cookies, collecting eggs, riding a horse, picking blueberries, sailing, climbing a mountain, and much more.  We saw our world through her eyes, and we’ve never looked back.

I encourage you to open your home to a child this summer. Please consider how you can make a difference in the life of a six to 18 year old child this summer. The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency that provides free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income neighborhoods.

For more information on how you can become a host, please call Deb Olsen at (802) 425-2957 or The Fresh Air Fund at (800) 367-0003.  You can also visit The Fund’s Web site at freshair.org. 
 

Robin Turnau

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Dear friends and neighbors,
 
We would like to sincerely thank all of our friends and neighbors for all of the kind words/cards and acts of kindness during our time of sorrow following the loss of our Dad – Arthur Burleigh. We would also like to acknowledge the donations to the Vermont Respite House in Dad’s name.
 
Thank you so very much,
Sheila, Wayne and Gary Burleigh
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Remembering Glenn French

A much admired Glenn French left us in mid-March of this year, the sad news relayed in The Charlotte News.  A man of many skills, he was a consummate farmer. Seasonally and under his guidance, the family kept a delightful summer place on the north shore of Thompson’s Point.
Carpentry was something of a passion for him, evidenced in the trademark signs he made, seen on every entrance to town.
That civic project included sinking the mounted frame into the earth in a way to insure permanence.   Now the “Welcomes” also remind us of a fine citizen.

Kay Teetor