by Aaron Bess

At 4:06 AM this morning I woke up to my phone ringing. Which has never in my life been a good thing. Surprisingly I woke up and answered it. It was Barre City Dispatch asking me to come outside and talk to officers. My heart is racing with thoughts of if my son’s are okay, is my family and friends okay.

They got a report of someone checking car doors and rummaging through the unlocked ones in the neighborhood. I come outside to see a stranger next to my little red car being detained. 

“What is going on?!” Half awake, I ask the officer making his way towards me slowly, fresh snow had fallen and my driveway is slick. He slips and falls pretty hard (really hope he’s okay!). Fills me in, and says they tracked his footprints off Summer Street to my house on Mill. 

“We saw fresh tracks around your pickup, leading to your car, but that’s where they stopped,” the police said. This dude was inside my car “sleeping,” as he said. Baloney. He was hiding. He had a reusable shopping bag half full of stuff, and a small blanket not big enough for a toddler.

Rewind to spring of this year here. A house on summer street turned into a full blown crack/trap house. Out of state plates, junky cars not even worthy of scrapping, flying through the neighborhood full of zombie-looking people. 

This went on until the raid on Mother’s Day. They pulled four folks from out of state out in this raid, none of which were the homeowner, or the other locals that came and went from that house. 

The raid slowed things down, but they picked right back up again. One afternoon coming home from work, I had to lay on the horn to back into my own driveway as some chick was tweaking, blocking access to my driveway. This went on til mid November when whoever bought the house was able to get the former owner out.  

Long story short, I absolutely love my community, my neighbors, our wonderful police force and the firefighters. The crack house brought us together for monthly meetings to figure out a way to handle these issues. We invited the states attorney, our town representatives and extended the invite even further to our lawmakers.

I am a 5th-6th generation Vermonter, through and through. I love this state most days. But what I don’t love is becoming worse and worse.

First is how horribly bad we are taxed. Especially the working class folks that keep your house warm, repaired and safe.

Second is our horribly failed judicial system.

We all see it, try to ignore how sad it’s becoming just in our area. Panhandlers, homelessness and the crime it brings. Worst part is, these folks that are breaking the law, get maybe a slap on the wrist and are right back out there doing the same thing. While us hardworking folk are busting our tails to support ourselves and help one another make it through another hard year in this tax-happy state.

Vermont needs to do better for its Vermonters. Before you know it, us hardworking folk that keep this infrastructure running are gonna be sick of it. I know I am.

The author is a contractor and East Barre resident. This column was first republished on 802 Scoop Facebook page.