Airmen and F-35 Lightning II aircraft from the Vermont Air National Guard will depart for Austria in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Sept. 4, to participate in the Airpower Air Show and a multinational training exercise the following week, the VTANG announced today.
“We recognize that an early departure can affect our community, and we are grateful for their patience and support,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Blair, 158th Operations Group Commander. “Our upcoming training will strengthen international ties and ultimately benefit our national security and global stability.”
Austria is the Vermont National Guard’s third partner country through the State Partnership Program, which links state National Guards with a partner nation’s military, security forces, and disaster response organizations in a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship.
“Our connections through the State Partnership Program have proven instrumental in building strong, lasting relationships,” Blair said. “Training alongside the Austrian Air Force not only improves tactical proficiency, advances interoperability and military cooperation, but also deepens mutual respect and reinforces shared objectives with our European Allies.”
Vermont needs 36,000 new primary homes developed over the next five years, according to an assessment conducted by the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development, the Journal-Opinion reported today.
Per the study, the median priced primary home in Vermont sold for $325,000 in 2023. In Orange County, that figure was $299,000 while in Caledonia County it was $232,284. At $460,500, the median home price in Chittenden County was over twice the median price of homes in Caledonia, Orleans, and Rutland counties and three times the median price in Essex County.
For renters, options are limited. The vacancy rate is 3%, among the lowest in the country. In Chittenden County, it was an estimated 1% in 2023.
There are 2,317 occupied rental homes in Orange County. Only Essex County and Grand Isle County have fewer occupied rental homes in Vermont.
VT farm sending workers to Belgium to study flax harvesting – “Farmers can grow flax,” reports Modern Farmer. “What they need is a supply chain and market that can handle the harvest.”
The publication visits farms across the country that are growing flax as a specialty crop. One South Royalton, Vermont farm took its employees to Belgium this summer to learn about growing flax at commercial scale.
Because flax has not been grown at a commercial scale here since the mid-twentieth century, many growers make the pilgrimage to Europe to learn how to farm it and use the specialized equipment (pullers, balers, and turners), Modern Farmer reports. Robin Maynard Seaver of Green Mountain Linen in South Royalton took her team to Belgium this summer to do that and to learn about how to use the puller she recently purchased. “There’s so much art to getting good fiber out of linen, because it’s not hard to grow, but you want the valuable long fiber.”