To the Editor:

Imagine a spectacular showing of our beautiful Vermont at the Great American State Fair in Washington DC going on currently. Our absence demonstrates exactly why we need to vote out the America-hating  Socialists (Takers, NOT Makers) who lead Vermont. 

A quick brainstorming of ideas of what it may have looked like: 

∙ Bennington Flag at the entrance 

∙ Live exhibits of Maple Syrup, Snowmobile, Downhill Skis, Cross Country Skis, Snowboards, Syrup  Buckets, Cow Milking Apparatus, Tractor, … 

∙ Wall images of the Bennington Monument, Ski Areas, Inn’s and B&B’s, RV with Green Mountains Backdrop, Grazing Dairy Cows with Fields and Barns in the Background, Hay Fields, Haying and  Hay Bales/Rolls, Loaded Logging Truck, Antique Farm Houses with Traditional Attached Barns  [like our own], Sugar Houses, Hunter Parent and Hunter Child Posed with Rifles, Deer and  Turkeys, Lakes, 4H Scenes… 

∙ Text Posters/Info on Dairy Farming, Organic Farming, Making Syrup… 

Add a few knowledgeable humans, and perhaps 4H kids, and Vermont would be presented beautifully to  the World. Free publicity. Free TV coverage. An opportunity to show a patriotic Vermont with so much  to offer the Country. An opportunity to present our Vermont products and services to the world and  attract tourists and sports enthusiasts. 

But no go. We can only imagine, because we have leaders who cannot see through their biased anti America fog. Time to get some true Patriotic Conservatives at the top of leadership in Vermont. 

This was easy for me to pull together in 10 minutes and I am not a marketing professional!

-Abby Crosby, Jacksonville

To the Editor:

Woodstock officials in recent years have failed again and again to follow rules-based procedures. They have hidden many of these devious activities from the public. And when faced with their misbehavior, they have refused to set it right.

The most notorious example of Woodstock malfeasance is the so far endless, unprincipled campaign against Police Chief Joe Swanson. This began with municipal manager Eric Duffy dishonestly seeking a State Police investigation, then creating the lie that there was a complaint against Chief Swanson and refusing to correct his lie in the public record. Then when the State Police exonerated Chief Swanson, Duffy ignored the finding.

Woodstock’s performance in the Swanson case has been shameful in almost every aspect, and occasionally illegal. This is obvious to anyone who will look at the record. This should be unacceptable. But not a single Woodstock employee, trustee, or selectboard member has stood up against this governmental malpractice, or to this endless violation of due process safeguards, or to the mindless cruelty inflicted on Chief Swanson with no credible evidence to justify it.

The operating dishonesty of Woodstock officials is demonstrated continually by unjustifiable violations of open meeting law, stubborn violations of open records law, and intransigent unwillingness to be completely open and direct with the public.

How and when will all this end?

How many secret investigations can manager Duffy initiate – at public expense – before someone puts a stop to such authoritarian behavior?

Nothing is done about a police chief mishandling evidence in a sex abuse case. Nothing is done about a sitting trustee manhandling an employee. Nothing is done about the Town illegally paying village legal expenses. How many cover-ups are too many?

Trustee chair Lisa Lawlor has claimed that the chair of both town boards signed off on the Town paying Village legal fees. Select board chair Susan Ford has said, “I don’t think that’s been established.” They’ve had a year to figure it out. In any case, board chairs have no authority to make secret appropriations.

Then there’s the select board’s 3-2 vote approving a Town Hall security system for which there has been no public discussion and no demonstrated need. Selectboard member Gay Travers objected to rushing the decision. But manager Duffy had held off on the proposal till he had created an artificial deadline on the contract.

Woodstock staff have been fear mongering safety at the Town Hall for some time, but the only known incident of endangerment involved a Town employee driving at high speed at Chief Swanson’s husband. Another incident about which nothing was done.

The $27,000 security system will be deficit spending, as Mary Ann Sweeney pointed out, since the government building account has been overspent by 400% or more the past three years.

But instead of calling for a pause and standing up and demanding that the Town follow rational, open procedure in making its decisions, three weak-minded, soft-spined select board members allowed themselves to be manipulated by a municipal manager once again failing to follow a professionally appropriate process, for which Woodstock pays him more than a U.S. Senator.

Something is rotten in the state of Woodstock.

-William Boardman, Woodstock