175 stories, newest first.
The Winooski Valley Park District bought the 2.7 acre parcel at the very end of North Avenue for $960,000, along with the whole fleet of kayaks and historic photos, and the Lake Champlain Land Trust holds the conservation easement. Charlie Auer Jr. and his sister, Christine Auer Hebert, ran a bai…
The UNH Survey Center's Green Mountain State Poll has Janoo at 49% and Scott at 43%, a real departure for a five term incumbent who has won by wide margins on the strength of Democratic support, and his approval rating has slid from 67% at the end of the pandemic to 47%. Former Lt. Gov. Molly Gra…
Lori York, who runs Charlotte's newly renamed Adult Community Center, is new to dragon boat racing and just got back from the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission festival in Aix-les-Bains, France, the largest ever, with more than 4,500 survivors on 156 teams from 25 countries. Her cre…
Boat captain Gary Lefebvre's sonar picked up thousands of tires strung together along the bottom of Cumberland Bay between Crab Island and the Plattsburgh Boat Basin in early August, a mass he estimates at 100 to 200 yards long that looks like an old breakwater lost in transit. A month later they…
Sen. Peter Welch gathered business owners at Jay Peak on Tuesday, where the resort's president said Canadian visitors dropped 35% last ski season and have gone from disappointed to angry, and a Newport snow groomer dealer said Canada's planned retaliatory tariffs would add about CA$250,000 to eac…
Nearly ten years in the making, the ten mile Wildways Trail is officially complete, linking the Intervale, Ethan Allen Homestead, Ethan Allen Park and Rock Point in one continuous route from the Winooski River to Lake Champlain. Saturday's ribbon cutting at the Homestead ended the only way it sho…
Burlington Navy Week rolls on through Sunday, with ship demonstrations, live drills and daily Navy band music on the waterfront, plus a Navy presence at the fair starting today. Fewer than 100 active sailors call Vermont home, but the lake's naval history runs deep, and two vessels carry our city…
The U.S. DOT awarded $4 million to plan repairs or replacement of the century old East Alburgh Bridge, the Lake Champlain crossing so worn that trains cross it at 5 miles per hour. The bridge sits on the route that carried Amtrak's Montrealer between Washington and Montreal until 1995, and rail a…
Joplin Wistar, a retired Shelburne Community School teacher of 30 years, has spent his retirement filling Shelburne with hand built whimsy, a backyard hobbit hole, a river troll named Strömkarlen guarding the LaPlatte Crossing footbridge, and Zephyr, a 16 foot wooden Greek wind god installed at S…
The latest Stuck in Vermont rides along with Michael "Spike" Hendrickson, who grew up sailing and scuba diving on Lake Champlain and started Burlington Harbor Launch and Tow in 2019 after decades in restaurants and bars, with paramedic work still filling his winters. His five boats, all ladies, B…
Burlington Navy Week runs Monday through Sunday, the first Navy Week ever held in Vermont, and most of it is free and on the waterfront. A 34 foot Sea Ark harbor patrol boat does demonstrations off the Community Boathouse Monday and next Friday at 11:30, sailors from the namesake USS Montpelier a…
The Burlington Business Association, which started in 1978 as the Downtown Burlington Development Association and helped turn Church Street into a pedestrian mall, announced August 10 in an unsigned email that it is closing after nearly half a century. It had run without a full time director sinc…
Grace Potter's Grand Point North comes back to the waterfront September 18 through 20 as a fully nonprofit festival, with proceeds going to her Grand Point Foundation. The Man and The Devil Makes Three headline, and a new second stage is built around Vermont acts like Frankie White, Jesse Taylor …
Starting today, the bar at the waterfront Skinny Pancake on Lake Street becomes a Lawson's Finest tap takeover that runs through foliage season, every tap pouring the Waitsfield brewery's beer, including the Sip line, with the new nonalcoholic Sip'N IPA in cans. The Quechee location has been runn…
Conductor and pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn, son of the Nobel laureate, grew up in Cavendish from age 4 to 14 after his family's exile landed them in Vermont in 1976, and this is the 50th anniversary of that arrival. He opens the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival Saturday at 2 at Elley-Long in C…
South Burlington councilors passed the first reading Tuesday of an ordinance that would ban motorized devices of 750 watts or more, e-motos included, from shared use paths while leaving regular e-bikes, e-scooters and motorized wheelchairs alone. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee proposed it, …
Seven Days' weekly seven puts Gary Gulman at Vermont Comedy Club and the chamber music festival on the list along with a few worth the drive, Fledge Fest at Fledgling Farmstead in Tunbridge Friday and Saturday, the Dan Tyminski Band at the von Trapp concert meadow in Stowe Sunday, the Best of Ver…
Janoo, an economist who had never run for office, took last week's primary 49.1 to 46.5 in unofficial results despite trailing Aly Richards in money and endorsements, and now faces Gov. Phil Scott in November. Analysts credit her plain talk on economic inequality and her read as the authentic cha…
The Chamber's new advocacy division is meant to give downtown businesses a dedicated voice with city and state leaders as the core wrestles with public safety and economic uncertainty. It wants an advisory board seated by October 1 and is hiring a Downtown Advocacy Manager to track ordinances and…
[Woman injured after e-scooter hit by bus in Burlington, police say](https://www.mynbc5.com/article/e-scooter-hit-by-bus-burlington-vermont/73415334)
The state unveiled a hand drawn Vermont wordmark and the motto State of Inspiration, its first dedicated tourism brand, with the letter m shaped like Camel's Hump and taglines like "Farm to table. We just call it dinner." The $275,000 project answers a study that found 79 percent of American trav…
Feeding Champlain Valley has taken over gleaning in Chittenden County from the Vermont Foodbank, harvesting surplus produce from farms like Diggers' Mirth in the Intervale and moving it to food shelves, Spectrum, UVM's Rally Cat's Cupboard and the Janet S. Munt Family Room. The timing matters, si…
[Twisted Halo Returns to Chittenden County With Essex Spot](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/food-drink/foodnews/twisted-halo-returns-to-chittenden-county-with-essex-spot/)
Gary and Ellen Lefebvre of Malletts Bay have spent 14 years scanning Lake Champlain from their research vessel, turning sonar hits into gorgeous 3D renderings of wrecks that even technical divers cannot reach, including the paddle wheels of the Phoenix, an 1819 steamboat wreck they located in 202…
Chittenden County towns are scrambling to catch up with kids as young as 9 riding e-bikes and far more powerful e-motos, which can hit 55 mph and are illegal for riders under 16. Burlington police have responded to at least six e-bike crashes this spring and summer, a UVM pediatric ICU doctor rep…
Flowers, pictures, and handwritten notes now mark the spot on Pine Street where the 16 year old Burlington High School student was struck and killed while riding an e-bike last Thursday. Friends remember her as a kind, quiet artist who spent her summer swimming and hiking, including a Mount Philo…
Researchers off Valcour Island recovered the final missing piece of a cannon that exploded during one of America's earliest naval battles, killing Lt. Thomas Rogers, nearly 250 years ago. The fragment joins the rest of the gun at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, and for retired trooper turned …
The Brewers Association tried something clever for the 33rd festival at Waterfront Park in late July, selling tickets to Canadians at par, $60 Canadian instead of the $84.49 the exchange rate would demand. It worked, sort of, with about 190 Canadian tickets sold, more than double last year but a …
[New Vermont State Police Commander Rose Up Through the Ranks](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/new-vermont-state-police-commander-rose-up-through-the-ranks/)
The parcel sits across the lake near Keeseville and includes Drake Mountain, with a 1,615 foot summit, a dozen ponds and 6.5 miles of streams running through habitat for moose, bobcats and black bears. The land trust wants to hand the tract over to New York's forest preserve, though executive dir…
With a hot, sunny weekend on deck, this is your public service announcement. No Burlington beaches are closed right now, but several have opened and closed already this season, and staff check for blooms daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The blooms can look like pea soup or spilled paint and …
CNN gave Burlington a glowing writeup as America's "smallest biggest city," casting it as a rare urban escape where you can wander Church Street and paddle Lake Champlain in the same afternoon, with an extraordinary 50 percent open space woven through town. The piece traces the city's character f…
Beyond the fireworks hype, this one doubles as your logistics cheat sheet for tonight. Organizers recommend the $2 parking at UVM's Gutterson with continuous GMT shuttles, and drivers should expect Battery and Main closed from 9 to 11:30 p.m. Officials also flagged a storm evacuation plan to near…
For anyone weighing options beyond the waterfront, this statewide roundup runs down parades, picnics, and fireworks from Bennington to Westmore, many dialed up for the 250th. The Vermont Air National Guard's F-35s are set to fly over much of the state late Saturday morning. Handy if you are headi…
[Beachgoers flock to the waterfront as the heat wave arrives](https://www.wcax.com/2026/07/01/beachgoers-pack-burlington-waterfront-heat-wave-kicks-off-july/)
With the city short on both money and staff, residents are quietly taking over upkeep that the parks department can't fully cover. The DIY Park Clean-Up crew works the Urban Reserve near the waterfront while the Peace & Justice Center's BTV Clean Up Crew handles trash and needles around Church St…
Burlington's July 3 party at Waterfront Park adds something new before the fireworks, an aerial parade pairing BETA's electric aircraft with historic planes, the first time the city has tried it. It is a tidy bit of hometown pride for the nation's 250th, and one more sign of how large BETA now lo…
The 10 to 1 vote, with Councilor Evan Litwin the lone no, locks in a 6 percent municipal property tax bump, so the owner of a median $365,000 home will pay roughly $191 more next year. New spending includes $150,000 for added police and private security downtown and in the Old North End, plus $1 …
The National Weather Service sent a survey team Friday to confirm whether Thursday's destruction was an actual tornado, with the hardest hit area along Route 4 between the high school and Bridgewater Mill Mall. Roofs were peeled and old trees toppled off Echo Ledge Road, though no one was hurt. T…
[Getting Stuck in the Notch Just Got Pricier](https://www.wcax.com/2026/06/17/get-stuck-notch-you-will-pay/)
Lavallee spent her own savings and retirement to build the quarter mile Milestone Nature Center in Barre Town, a wheelchair accessible trail with stations for each of the five senses aimed at people who learn in nontypical ways. She was inspired by the Autism Nature Trail in western New York and …
Now in its 15th year, the festival lands at Hula Lakeside with more than 75 exhibitors across two tasting sessions, plus seminars and live jazz. All-inclusive tickets run $80, and organizers are nudging people to buy ahead. Downtown has leaned heavily on events to draw crowds this season, and add…
The case goes back to a 2021 incident in which officers restrained a 14-year-old and paramedics sedated him with ketamine to recover stolen vape pens his own mother had reported. What makes this one sting locally is the paper trail. The Police Commission found unanimously that officers violated d…
Seven Days put together a roadmap for the 43rd Discover Jazz Festival, which runs June 3 through 7 across the Flynn, Waterfront Park, downtown clubs, and Church Street. Most of it is free, from soul legend Mavis Staples and an all star Eddie Palmieri tribute to local fusion trio Breathwork and th…
The co-op board's letter to 12,000 members is a notable shift in tone for a store long treated as a downtown fixture. The struggles echo what other Burlington merchants have flagged, with police tracking rising theft and trespassing calls around the store much as they do at City Hall Park, plus p…
Burke opens its lift served bike park Saturday, running weekends only for two weeks before shifting to Thursday through Sunday on June 18. Riders get 24 trails across 25 miles plus a direct line into the Kingdom Trails network and its 100 plus miles of singletrack. New this year are a rebuilt Jes…
This year's festival, curated by MacArthur Fellow and former Kennedy Center jazz director Jason Moran, made a point of centering young players. Flynn executive director Jay Wahl says the lineup featured 44 school bands and close to 993 students, the largest youth showing in the festival's history…
The free event caps the Lake Champlain Chamber program's twelve week accelerator, with seven startups pitching to a panel of investor judges and former NBC5 meteorologist Tom Messner serving as emcee. Two of the founders will leave with cash awards, and all of them collect professional services w…
This is the first food product to carry the Milk With Dignity logo on its label, the program that sets wage, housing, and safety standards for dairy workers. Made by Middlebury's Champlain Valley Creamery, the farmer cheese sold its first run fast and is already on shelves at both City Market loc…
This deep dive into Lake Champlain access reveals a stark equity gap along the lake's 587 miles of shoreline, the vast majority of which is privately owned. While Burlington's waterfront transformation over the past three decades has been a genuine success story, the situation is far worse in the…
This profile of the 167-acre Fayston farm run by Forbes and Helen Whybrow reveals a place that functions as equal parts working agricultural operation and restorative retreat for justice workers. The nonprofit arm, New Learning Journey, is hosting 70 Better Selves Fellowships this summer for peop…
Seven Days' summer preview is a useful planning document for anyone trying to map out the months ahead. Highlights include the inaugural season of Vermont Green FC Women at UVM's Virtue Field, The Sound of Music performed by Lyric Theatre at the von Trapp Family Lodge with the Vermont Symphony Or…
[Essex Experience Opening Concert Postponed Due to Raven Nesting](https://www.wcax.com/2026/05/21/essex-experience-opening-concert-postponed-due-raven-nesting/)
Nearly two years after catastrophic flooding, Montpelier is finally getting $11.78 million for repairs to City Hall, the fire department, and police buildings, while VTrans receives over $9 million for rail trail and railroad damage in Washington County. The money had been held up under former DH…
A new study from Construction Coverage puts some hard numbers on what most Vermonters already feel. The state's median home price has jumped 68.7% since 2016, climbing from about $233,500 to just over $394,000, while median household income rose only 49.1% over a comparable period. That growing g…
The Conservation Law Foundation and the Burlington-based Rozalia Project have been working together as part of the Lake Champlain Basin Marine Debris Coalition, combining legal advocacy with scientific data collection to push for policy change. Their efforts helped pass Vermont's 2024 Flood Safet…
Potter's seventh studio album, *Trespasser*, drops August 21 and is described as a spiritual sequel to 2023's *Mother Road*. The bigger local news is the Grand Point North lineup for September 18 through 20 at Burlington's Waterfront Park, which includes Portugal. the Man, Dawes, Dark Star Orches…
This latest episode of "Stuck in Vermont" follows a group of volunteers on an Earth Day outing to a vernal pool near Lake Dunmore, led by biologist Kevin Tolan and herpetologist Jim Andrews. The expedition is part of the Vermont Vernal Pool Monitoring Project, which trains community scientists to…
The city's 126-page service assessment, delivered two months ahead of schedule, identifies downtown, the Old North End, and the Riverside-Intervale Avenue corridor as the three potential locations for the center. The report draws on interviews with 50 drug users and feedback from 1,500 community …
[Dumpling Café to Replace Asiana House in Burlington](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/food-drink/foodnews/dumpling-cafe-to-replace-asiana-house-in-burlington/)
[South Burlington to Scale Back Pickleball Courts After Noise Complaints](https://www.wcax.com/2026/05/05/south-burlington-scale-back-pickleball-courts-after-noise-complaints/)
The culprit is a snowfall deficit that stretched from February through April. Burlington measured just 8.1 inches in March, more than 50% below the 17.5 inch average, and even Mount Mansfield's snowpack has been below normal since late March. While the region has actually seen a slight precipitat…
A new statewide study found that Vermont's 68 golf courses support 5,376 jobs and $212.1 million in wages, generating more total economic impact than maple syrup production or craft brewing. The industry drove more than 190,000 golf related trips and $121.9 million in direct visitor spending, whi…
Six Champlain College computer science majors spent the semester building a social media app called Echo for Beta Technologies, the South Burlington electric aircraft startup, designed to connect its growing employee base across departments and the manufacturing floor. The partnership is structur…
[Vermont Brewers Festival Returning to Burlington Waterfront](https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/local-news/vermont-brewers-festival-returning-to-burlington-waterfront/)
[520 BBQ and Grill Brings Southern-Style Smoked Meat to Essex](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/food-drink/520-bbq-and-grill-brings-southern-style-smoked-meat-to-essex/)
[Vermont Overdose Deaths Drop 25% in Dramatic Decline](https://www.wcax.com/2026/04/24/vermont-overdose-deaths-drop-25-dramatic-decline/)
The episode traces the decades long history of Vermonters fighting to keep chains out, most memorably in Manchester, where a McDonald's battle in the late 1970s became a proxy war over the town's identity. (McDonald's eventually won, but only after agreeing to a toned down design with a wood shin…
South Burlington is launching a biweekly Friday farmers market this summer, its first department led initiative of this kind. The city received more than 70 vendor applications after putting out a call in January, helped by the fact that there's no vendor fee in the inaugural year (for comparison…
The 43rd annual festival runs June 3 through 7 and is largely free. Headliners include Tank and the Bangas, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the legendary Mavis Staples, who takes the Waterfront Park stage on Saturday, June 6. Curator Jason Moran is pushing the festival into some unexpected space…
This saga has been brewing for years in Burlington's New North End, where neighbors on Roseade Parkway repeatedly complained about Moose after Wheeler adopted the dog in 2023. He was declared a public nuisance after biting a man at Leddy Park in September 2024 and was ordered to live with Wheeler…
As Burlington thaws out from a winter that froze Lake Champlain for the first time in seven years, this piece is a good reminder that getting outside doesn't have to be complicated. Burlington Parks, Recreation & Waterfront manages over 500 acres of green space, and the city offers 142 youth camp…
If you've been watching the Champlain Parkway sit there looking basically finished and wondering when it would actually open, there's finally a timeline. Construction restarted last week, and Spencer says the parkway should be open by June or July. What's left is mostly finishing work: overhead s…
The scope of this round of funding is remarkable. Eight conservation projects and three housing investments span the state, from permanently protecting a 442 acre swamp system in Salisbury that serves as a wildlife corridor between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks, to building eight afford…
The Courtyard by Marriott at 25 Cherry Street is getting a full rebrand as the Harborvale, and the restaurant replacing Bleu Northeast Kitchen sounds ambitious. Executive chef Doug Paine is planning seven day a week service spanning breakfast through a late night bar, with a menu focused on Lake …
The Vergennes museum opens May 23 with a new exhibit called "Fragments: Voices of the American Revolution on Lake Champlain," timed to the nation's 250th anniversary. The exhibit draws on decades of archaeological work to tell stories not just of the Battle of Lake Champlain but of common soldier…
[Green Mountain Club Volunteer Opportunities May Weekends & Ongoing](https://www.greenmountainclub.org/volunteers/volunteer-opportunities/gmc-trail-steward/)
What began as a pandemic sewing project with her 5 year old son has become a growing business that's diverted more than 40,000 pounds of ski gear from landfills. BirdieBlue, based in Stowe, partners with Burton and Turtle Fur to source upcycled materials, employs about 20 home sewers across Vermo…
Over 1,100 plungers braved the frigid waters of Lake Champlain at the Burlington Waterfront on March 14 for the 31st annual event. The Cool Schools division alone brought in more than $150,000 from over 600 student plungers, the most since 2020. All funds support year round sports training, healt…
The $68 million project at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport replaces four north terminal gates with more spacious ones branching off a glassy, timber framed concourse. The new terminal is geothermally heated and cooled and features a third floor observation deck open to the public w…
Colchester's Development Review Board approved plans for "The H on Malletts Bay," a 20 room hotel with a 40 seat restaurant and 60 person event space on a 2 acre lakefront slope owned by the Hazelett Strip-Casting Corp., now part of Austria's EBNER Group. Opponents, organized as Save Malletts Bay…
With temperatures jumping into the 50s this weekend and rain on the way, officials are warning that Lake Champlain's ice will start cracking and loosening, creating dangerous pockets of open water. State law requires ice fishing shanties to be removed before the ice weakens, including all debris …
Silverman spent 18 years in journalism before becoming the public information officer for the Vermont State Police, keeping his camera close through all of it. About 11 years ago he started sharing his fine art landscape photography online and has since built a following of more than 42,000 acros…
The logs were discovered during a routine dredging project near Perkins Pier, and UVM's Consulting Archaeology Program is now studying the cuts and tree rings to pinpoint exactly when the timbers were hewn. The original wharf dates to the early 1800s and was essentially what made Burlington a fun…
The cooperatively owned Fayston ski area closed a $2.5 million deal that more than doubles its footprint from 700 to roughly 1,800 acres. The purchase was crowdfunded, with Mad River's 2,500 shareholders voting to approve the buy and raising about $2.8 million. The land had been held by the famil…
The popular outdoor sauna company is building an 8,000 square foot bathhouse at 208 Flynn Avenue, with construction expected to begin next month and a fall opening planned. Floor plans show multiple saunas, a steam room, warm pools, cold plunge, and lounge areas, with both day passes and membersh…
[Wintervale Brings Outdoor Recreation to the Intervale](https://www.vtcng.com/stowetoday/family_fun/wintervale-brings-outdoor-recreation-to-intervale/article_2a7f77a8-2599-4c77-9864-433041f02748.html)
[Vermont Philharmonic Presents 'Heritage in Harmony'](https://www.colchestersun.com/things_to_do/arts_entertainment/vermont-philharmonic-presents-heritage-in-harmony-this-saturday-at-saint-michaels-college/article_ac80469e-2128-4049-9caf-4ac4bc727685.html)
After 29 years of independent family ownership, Smuggs is changing hands. Bear Den Partners, which purchased Burke Mountain last spring, will take over, though the Stritzler family will maintain a stake and daughter Lisa Howe will stay on as an advisor. Season passes will be honored and employees…
With Valentine's Day approaching, Seven Days' Love & Marriage Issue spotlights some unconventional spots to tie the knot around Vermont. The lineup includes the Forever Young Treehouse at Burlington's Oakledge Park (free but unreservable, so bring your sense of adventure), ECHO on the waterfront …
Burlington native and Wellesley College professor Dan Chiasson has a new book out called "Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People's Politician," noted by the New York Times as one of their picks for Books Coming in February. The book weaves Chiasson's own memories of growing up in Burlingto…
Five skaters got stranded on Lake Champlain on Tuesday after a large chunk of ice broke apart roughly 700 yards off Charlotte Town Beach, leaving about 200 yards of open water between them and the intact ice closer to shore. Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue crews reached them by cell phone, co…
That vivid image comes from UVM Extension associate professor Kris Stepenuck, who is leading efforts to reduce road salt use in the Lake Champlain basin. Vermont spreads between 225,000 and 275,000 metric tons of salt annually, and seven tributaries in the region are now state-designated as "impa…
The Winter Games kick off Friday in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, and Vermont's delegation runs deep. Beyond marquee names like Jessie Diggins, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, and Mikaela Shiffrin, the state is sending competitors across disciplines. South Burlington's Kevin Drury just notched his first ski …
Dan Chiasson's nearly 600 page unauthorized biography drops tomorrow and traces Sanders' arc from Brooklyn transplant to Burlington's transformative mayor. Chiasson, a Wellesley College English professor who grew up on Colchester Avenue, draws on hours of interviews with Sanders' longtime associa…
The governor's $9.4 billion budget proposes a record $105 million to reduce property tax increases, but even that may not prevent an average 6 percent hike. Scott is conditioning his support on school districts keeping budgets in check and lawmakers continuing education reforms under Act 73. The …
[Vermont Responders Train for Ice Rescues on Lake Champlain](https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/local-news/vermont-responders-train-for-ice-rescues-on-lake-champlain/)
Fourteen months after her devastating crash at Killington left her with an abdominal puncture wound that nearly perforated her colon, Burke Mountain Academy graduate Mikaela Shiffrin has pushed her World Cup victory total to 106 and is heading into next month's Winter Olympics in Italy. Her recov…
After 25 years of continuous research on Mount Mansfield's watersheds, UVM researchers found their original hypothesis was wrong: Stowe Mountain Resort hasn't significantly impacted stream chemistry. What they did find is more concerning for everyone. National Weather Service data shows the mount…
[Mad River Glen Nears Acquisition of 1,000 Acres for Ski Expansion](https://www.wcax.com/2026/01/05/mad-river-glen-nears-acquisition-1000-acres-ski-expansion/)
The Queen City rang in 2026 with the Red Hot Chilly Dippers taking their annual plunge into 35 degree water, while families gathered at the waterfront and ECHO's Highlight celebration brought circus performers and a candy dance party before fireworks capped the evening. If you missed it, the vide…
Monkton resident and lawyer Samara Anderson is on a mission to host storytelling events at every library in Vermont. Last week's Best of 2025 event at South Burlington Public Library featured nine storytellers from across the state sharing true tales without notes. Stories ranged from a hiking tr…
Seven Days' biweekly event roundup highlights the post-Christmas stretch, led by Gogol Bordello's New Year's Eve shows at Higher Ground (December 31 and January 1). Other picks include comedian Marina Franklin at Vermont Comedy Club on NYE, the Hunger Mountain Winter Bird Count in Waterbury on De…
Sandbox VT on the Burlington waterfront has carved out a niche repairing everything from worn jackets to police uniforms to Skida hats, giving customers a way to extend the life of their favorite gear rather than tossing it. The shop also resells secondhand and fixed up items, and manager Molly S…
The lawsuit against Vorsteveld, LLP, a 2,300 cow dairy operation in Addison County, alleges pipes on the farm discharge pesticides into Dead Creek at levels up to 50 times federal safety standards. The herbicide atrazine, banned in Europe and linked to birth defects, was among the chemicals detec…
Mount Mansfield hit 63 inches of snow depth this week, the deepest recorded for this date in history and nearly three times the seasonal average. Jay Peak leads all U.S. ski mountains with 192 inches of total snowfall. The early season bounty has skiers celebrating, though Friday's flash freeze f…
BLUE BTV, a nonprofit founded in 2017, is partnering with the city to offer residents up to $2,000 for rain gardens, permeable driveways, and other projects that absorb stormwater before it reaches the lake. Runoff from Burlington and surrounding suburbs accounts for 16% of the excess phosphorus …
Highlight, Burlington's official New Year's Eve celebration produced by BCA since 2018, returns December 31 with over 12 hours of programming from noon to 12:30am. The lineup includes Circus Smirkus, The Barr Brothers headlining the Waterfront Fest, fireworks over Lake Champlain at 8pm, and the t…
Governor Scott called the projection "totally unacceptable," and the numbers land amid ongoing tension over Act 73, the controversial consolidation plan passed last year. The legislature has twice bailed out the education fund with general fund dollars to blunt projected hikes, spending $118 mill…
The fire department's prevention team, currently crammed into a 350 square foot trailer that's miserable in both winter and summer, would get a proper 2,000 square foot addition with offices, a conference room, and public meeting space. The $2 million project heads to voters on Town Meeting Day, …
The state's largest ski area is sitting out this year's World Cup racing, which relocated to Colorado while Killington completes a new $12 million Superstar trail chairlift. The resort's new independent owners are hoping to bring back the Thanksgiving weekend competition in 2026, possibly on an e…
Former pro snowboarder and Driven Studio co-founder Seth Neary presents "Fall Down, Get Up," his first solo exhibition featuring over 50 collages made from shipping labels, Polaroid borders, and decades-old Letraset type. The Burlington graphic designer, whose commercial work appears on Ben & Jer…
Vermont's winter calendar bursts with activities from Shelburne Museum's Winter Lights installation running through January 4, featuring circus performances every Saturday, to the Grand Kyiv Ballet's Nutcracker at Lyndon Institute December 10-11. Middlebury College hosts the Isaiah J. Thompson Tr…
With Lake Champlain at its lowest level since 1918 (nearly three feet below normal) the Burlington City Council has approved $631,000 for emergency harbor dredging. The low water has left boat slips in mud and forced staff to manually move vessels at the Community Boathouse Marina. The project, t…
From fiscal 2023 to 2024, Burlington's revenues swelled by nearly $12 million while outstanding debt shrank by $6 million, with reserves now exceeding 20% of operating revenues. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak credited "structurally balanced budgets," though the upgrade caps a redemption arc begun und…
The 11-foot-tall archway features dried flowers preserved in sunset-colored resin inspired by Lake Champlain's sky, with community flowers and items collected over a month embedded within. Burlington City Arts selected Kern's vision from 165 submissions for its accessibility and complexity, with …
Task force members discovered half of 122 students using Barstow district's school choice funds never graduated from its 8th grade, with many attending $60,000-per-year Killington Mountain School ski academy on taxpayers' dime. Three redistricting proposals emerged: one creating 13 districts arou…
After a five-year legal battle ending at the Vermont Supreme Court, residents near Wheeler Nature Park received notices that blasting for a 32-unit development begins in November. The controversial project sits on 7 acres that the city traded to JAM Golf a decade ago for 21 acres, a deal resident…
The private school completed a five-year campaign that added 55 acres in Charlotte for an outdoor education center and purchased an adjacent building for the school's first gymnasium. The expansion includes a learning village with pavilions and amphitheater, 1.5 miles of trails, recording studio,…
The Bolton Valley Resort president received Champlain College's 64-year-old Distinguished Citizen Award for her work revitalizing the family ski area into a four-season destination while championing small businesses and working families across Vermont. DesLauriers, who returned to Bolton Valley i…
The snowboard film, two years in the making and shot in Japan, Alaska, and British Columbia, premiered Friday night before its official New York debut. It features Olympic athletes and pro-snowboarders including Brock Crouch, who's been sponsored by Burton since age 8. The collaboration between B…
A Montana-based helicopter nicknamed the "Skycrane" flew in from New Hampshire to help battle the Saturday fire, dropping thousands of gallons of water to contain it to less than an acre. Vermont State Wildland Fire Specialist Devin Healy says it was most likely human-caused, not lightning. The f…
South Burlington may use eminent domain to complete a 0.7 mile shared use path along Dorset Street after failing to reach agreements with three property owners. Property owner Robert Chittenden says the process literally makes him sick to his stomach, arguing a bike path doesn't constitute public…
The Lake Champlain Chamber's signature leadership program has selected 31 participants for its Class of 2026, representing organizations from GlobalFoundries to the Milton Family Community Center. The nine-month program, now in its 37th year, includes eight full-day seminars exploring Vermont iss…
The 892-ton steamboat's journey from Lake Champlain to Shelburne Museum in 1955 took two months, moving no more than 250 feet per day on railroad freight cars. Preservation director Chip Stulen has spent 30 years battling moss, ferns, and 30 buckets worth of leaks to keep the vessel museum-worthy…
Friday's ceremony in Kieslich Park marked a profound moment of acknowledgment for St. Joseph's Orphanage survivors, whose stories of abuse were ignored for decades until a 2018 BuzzFeed investigation reignited public attention. The memorial, featuring an archway of black locust branches framing a…
Lake Champlain's water level sits at 93.36 feet, a full foot below the September average of 94.36 feet, creating headaches for boaters and recreational users across the region. Dock owners are running out of room to move their structures deeper as water recedes, with some facing the prospect of p…
Sandy and Jesse Harper have spent nine months searching for their 38-year-old son Chris, who vanished from Burlington's streets last November after leaving a homeless shelter. Detective Eric Kratochvil calls it highly unusual, a case where someone is simply "just gone." The Harpers have offered a…
About 40 Vermonters hiked to a Berkshire farmer's field Saturday to meet 400 Québécois demonstrators across a thin red rope marking the international border. Part of a continental Friends Without Borders initiative, the gathering featured butterflies, John Lennon's "Imagine," and eventually some …
Dog Mountain in St. Johnsbury has become a 150-acre pilgrimage site for pet lovers 25 years after folk artist Stephen Huneck and his wife created it. The park features hiking trails, swimming ponds, and the famous Dog Chapel where thousands of photos and notes to departed pets cover every wall. H…
The 2023 salmon lift at Winooski's Salmon Hole pulled 212 fish, the highest count in three decades, suggesting improved ecosystem health. Credit goes to aggressive sea lamprey control and invasive plant removal, with Burlington High School students helping rip out buckthorn to make room for nativ…
Andy O'Brien's Charlotte Sailing Center got the boot after 20 years when Lake Champlain Transportation declined to renew his lease at the end of July. The ferry company has given boat owners until September 1 to remove land-stored vessels and October 1 to vacate moorings. While the Pecor family, …
The annual Dragonheart Festival brought dragon boat teams from across the region to Lake Champlain Sunday, but this race is about much more than speed. Dragonheart Vermont's 200-plus members, many breast cancer survivors themselves, paddle not just for victory but to raise funds for cancer charit…
A high-tech weather station buoy on the Plattsburgh side of Lake Champlain is revealing surprising secrets about our beloved lake's underwater dynamics. Funded by a $700,000 federal grant, this second monitoring buoy is already delivering unexpected findings about how storms affect the lake all t…
The iconic Vermont company that's won "Best Garden Center" awards for two decades is laying off 40 workers with less than two weeks' notice and no severance as it prepares for a $9 million sale to Indiana-based Gardens Alive. By August 6, both the Intervale call center and Milton warehouse will c…
Seven Days celebrates its 30th anniversary with a zodiac-themed readers' choice awards recognizing 241 winners and 946 finalists across Vermont. From favorite folk bands to creemee stands, the Daysies highlight what makes the Green Mountain State special at a time when downtowns are struggling an…
Comedy Central's Jordan Klepper hit Burlington over the weekend to film a segment about U.S. Canada relations, interviewing locals at the Vermont Brewers Festival and along the newly christened "Rue Canada" (formerly Church Street). The correspondent's visit was sparked by Burlington's efforts to…
Fletcher Free Library has launched an innovative story walk program that transforms reading into an outdoor adventure across Burlington. The initiative places story pages in windows and on fences throughout the city, encouraging families to explore while they read. What makes this particularly sw…
After a decade of planning, Burlington's first bike park will break ground at Leddy Park this month with an October opening target, transforming an underused wooded area into 2,070 linear feet of jump lines and flow trails. The project started when Old Spokes Home mechanic Sean Melinn noticed kid…
Just when you thought North Beach couldn't get better, Kona Beachside Tiki Bar & Grill drops a slice of Polynesia on Lake Champlain. Owner Sandi Pasagic has created what sounds like the perfect Vermont summer spot: tropical drinks and island-inspired food with waterfront views, open daily from no…
An equipment failure at the city’s main wastewater plant serves as a stark reminder of our aging infrastructure. The leak of sludge and resulting E. coli spike forced the closure of popular spots like Oakledge Cove and Blanchard Beach, frustrating residents during a hot week. While officials work…
This update on the coalition studying our lake's health shows the persistent, often invisible, challenges facing Lake Champlain. While Vermont's 2020 single use plastic bag ban has shown measurable positive effects, research now points to foam plastics, like Styrofoam, as a major ongoing culprit.…
Get ready to adjust your commute or your daily ride for the next week and a half. This temporary weekday closure from 7 AM to 5 PM is necessary so crews can remove the 100 year old Rock Point Bridge that runs over the path. The official detour routes riders through the North Beach campground and …
This serves as our annual summer reminder that a watchful eye on water quality is part of the deal for lakeside living. The quick closure and reopening show that parks officials are monitoring the situation closely. It's a good heads up for all beachgoers to pay attention to the flags and officia…
The Burlington School District is expanding its summer food program to offer these substantial meal boxes, available to any child under 18 regardless of their town or state. This initiative provides a significant resource for families, ensuring kids have consistent access to meals throughout the …
Tonight’s City Council meeting at 6 PM (as this newsletter releases) will see Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak lay out her proposed 2026 budget. The administration is grappling with a significant $8 million shortfall, leading to some tough decisions including job cuts and the proposed end of adult programmi…
If you thought last month felt particularly damp, your senses weren't deceiving you. May 2025 was indeed a soaker, with Burlington recording over six inches of rain and experiencing precipitation on 23 out of 31 days. This made it the wettest May for many areas in the region since 2013. The silve…
Well, that certainly did not take long. The unofficial annual tradition of a truck getting stuck in Smugglers' Notch has begun, a mere eleven days after the road opened for the season. Despite numerous signs and physical barriers designed to prevent such occurrences, it appears the Notch's tricky…
It is quite something to imagine the history resting at the bottom of Lake Champlain. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s initiative to make these underwater historical sites more accessible to those of us who are not scuba divers is a fantastic step. Utilizing remote operated vehicles for live …
Five free days of music land June 4‑8, with Dumstaphunk honoring The Meters on Friday and The Soul Rebels teaming with hip‑hop icons Rakim and Talib Kweli Saturday. Mark your calendars; waterfront lawn spots fill fast once the brass section starts up.
Not exactly a Burlington headline, but worth noting if your ski gear isn’t packed away yet. Jay Peak is riding a surprise April snow bump and plans to stay open past Mother’s Day. Just another reminder that Vermont spring doesn’t always mean what the calendar says it should.
Bolton, Smuggs, and friends have called it a season, but Stowe, Jay, Sugarbush, and Killington are still spinning lifts. If your mud‑season plans involve both shorts and ski boots, you’ve got options—just remember your pass, sunscreen, and at least a T-shirt!
Biologists hope the fingerlings will imprint on local waters and return to spawn in three years. In the meantime, anglers are asked to mail in fin clips for science.
These high school engineers sure know how to keep it interesting. In just six weeks, local teams whipped up competition-ready robots and bagged awards across New England. We’ll soon be looking for them on the world stage, showing that Vermont is more than maple syrup and mountain hikes.
Residents from Waitsfield to Warren turned out in the cold to voice their disapproval of the vice president’s policies. If nothing else, Vermont reminded the second-in-command that locals have no fear bringing out signs, flags, and pointed commentary. Way to go Vermont, stand up for what you beli…
Local businesses that rely on Canadian imports (or attract Canadian tourists) are bracing for potential cost hikes, especially if cross-border shipments get pricier. We’ll see if there’s any last-minute change, but for now, heads up if your supply chain includes Montreal.
Burlington residents will decide on nearly $200 million in bonds this Town Meeting Day, mostly to upgrade water and wastewater infrastructure. Rate hikes could follow—one proposal may raise water bills nearly 90% by 2030. City Hall hopes voters see it as an investment in a modern system, not just…
Nothing like a graceful glide on Lake Champlain to remind us why winter can be magical. Maybe we’ll all be inspired to lace up and find a patch of ice before the thaw sets in.
If you see flashing lights on the way to the slopes, that might just be DC royalty in town. Keep an eye out and maybe watch out for any potential traffic from it!
Balancing safe, ice-free roads with protecting the lake is a typical Vermont juggling act. If you see salt trackers around town, it’s all part of the plan to keep our beloved waters healthy.
Ice in McNeil’s Cove forced the shutdown, leaving travelers to seek alternate routes across the lake. It’s a good reminder that winter crossing can be unpredictable, so check for updates before heading out.
The Move Forward Together plan aims to keep the state’s $4 billion recreation economy rolling along while protecting the spaces we all love to hike, bike, and ski. Now if only it came with a magical solution for those muddy spring trail closures.
Help shape the updated Open Space Plan. Should we plant more trees in the Old North End? Add new public trails or small parks? Let the city know by filling out their survey.
Brave souls took an early dip into Lake Champlain and blew past their $600,000 fundraising goal. Proceeds help 1,000+ athletes statewide, proving once again that Vermonters’ hearts are warmer than our February lakes.
File under “Things you never thought you’d see in Vermont.” If you missed this fleetingly delicious-looking phenomenon, keep an eye on the lake, Mother Nature might dish up seconds if conditions align again.
Just a hop and a skip across the lake, Lake Placid is making headlines with a first-ever U.S. women’s ski jumping World Cup. If your winter weekend needs an adrenaline fix, you know where to find it.
Bipartisan frustration is in the air if only the lobbyists would take a hint and ease up on the sky high rates.