A solemn crowd of about 50 gathered in Burlington on Tuesday to honor the memory of George Floyd, a Black man whose murder by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year ignited a reckoning on race and policing.

The event marked the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death and drew elected officials, community leaders and others to City Hall Park, where attendees held a silent vigil lasting nine minutes and 29 seconds — the same amount of time that former officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.

C D Mattison, who organized the vigil, briefly addressed the crowd to reflect on Floyd's final moments, which were captured on video by a 17-year-old bystander and quickly seared into the national consciousness.

"George Floyd should be alive today. We know that," Mattison said. "And what pained me so much for his family — and most certainly for George Floyd, as he cried out for his mother — was the gathering of people who were there in witness, and how excruciating it was for them that they felt they could not intervene on his behalf and save him, because their very own lives were at risk as well."

The Burlington City Council on Monday approved a 7.5 percent rate increase for Burlington Electric customers, the first rate hike since 2009.

Also Monday, councilors approved new water rates, appointed a city department head and passed a resolution encouraging young Burlingtonians to serve on city boards and commissions.

Burlington Electric Department general manager Darren Springer said the rate increase — which the state's Public Utility Commission also must approve — will make up for revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic. The department brought in $2.1 million less in sales than was budgeted for during the current fiscal year and is owed more than $1.3 million in unpaid customer bills. Expenses next year are expected to be 8.5 percent more than the current year, according to Springer.

The average residential customer’s bill will go up $4.92 per month; low- to moderate-income customers are expected to pay an additional $4.27 a month.

Customers will see the new charges on their August bills.

"We understand the challenge of the moment for the community, and we definitely view a rate increase as a last resort," Springer said.

A bill that would have required the owners of short-term rentals to register their properties with the state fell short of the final approval needed to become law. Advocates are hopeful they can breathe life into the measure when they return to the Statehouse in January.

The bill is part of a larger measure aimed at improving the quality of long-term rental housing and setting up a professional health and safety inspection system to replace the one that is now largely staffed by volunteer town health officers.

“We’ve been trying to get something like this across for essentially 12 years,” said Rep. Tom Stevens (D-Waterbury), a longtime housing advocate who is chair of the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs. He said the bill was rejected by many Republicans who saw the proposed registry as government overreach.

A family of Norwich dairy farmers has sued the Vermont State Colleges System following a failed cheese-making partnership.

The suit, filed Friday in Washington County Superior Court, alleges that Vermont Technical College, which operates within the state college apparatus, lured Chris Gray and his wife, Laura Brown, into the partnership under false pretenses, then entered into a secret contract with the Upper Valley Land Trust that nearly forced the family off the property. The suit seeks $500,000.

In the summer of 2015, Gray and Brown moved from West Pawlet to the 358-acre Norwich Farm Creamery to teach cheese-making classes to Vermont Tech students. The educational component of the operation had allowed Vermont Tech to secure the 358-acre farm, then valued at some $2.5 million, as a donation from the previous owner.

The thinking behind the venture, according to the suit, was that the program would generate student revenue for Vermont Tech; Gray and Brown, in turn, would enjoy access to free labor and a state-of-the-art facility built, in part, with grant funding from the college. Gray and Brown signed a five-year lease with Vermont Tech, and the two parties developed a business plan, with the eventual goal of producing a line of European-style cave-aged cheeses to be sold for profit, a portion of which would go to Vermont Tech.

Thursday, May 20, 2021