Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy, who has been trying to demote Police Chief Joe Swanson since last spring, now says he wants the veteran officer fired from the village department.

 Duffy, in a letter dated Monday, said he now believes he wants to proceed with trying to dismiss Swanson, 45, and bypass the demotion effort.

Swanson’s lawyer, Linda E. Fraas, told the Standard she plans to continue the fight to get Swanson back to full duty as police chief. Fraas said she wants to contest efforts to demote Swanson and also Duffy’s new plan to attempt to fire him as a longtime village employee.

Duffy makes it clear in his letter that he does not want Swanson back working for Woodstock and said he doesn’t plan to offer him a hearing to contest his dismissal.

“You have contended that you cannot be demoted from the position of Police Chief under any circumstances, which can only mean that you must be fired in order to be removed from the position of Chief,” Duffy wrote.

“I disagree that is correct but, since that is what you contend, this letter additionally serves as notice of my determination that the same grounds which support removing you from the position of Chief and terminating your employment agreement also support dismissing you from employment with the Village,” the manager wrote.

Attempts by the Vermont Standard to reach Duffy for a comment were unsuccessful.

Duffy said in his letter that he may bring additional charges against Swanson for the next disciplinary hearing, including items that had been previously known before the first demotion, but were not used.  He also wants to use some items that have happened since Swanson was demoted. 

Swanson is recovering from spine surgery conducted on Dec. 22 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. for ongoing injuries received during a shootout with a homicide suspect in the village 2.5 years ago. Swanson, who was wounded, injured a disc while trying to escape the line of fire, Police Chief Robbie Blish said at the time.

Fraas said she is trying to determine if attorney John Klesch is planning to step aside from representing both Duffy, who is prosecuting the case, and the village. 

“Attorney Klesch just filed an appearance in the current Rule 75 on behalf of the Village. He also continues to represent Manager Duffy and apparently has no intention of voluntarily withdrawing from this ongoing dual representation,” Fraas asked attorney Brian Monaghan, who represented the trustees at the earlier demotion hearing in her email last week.

Fraas said she is inclined to seek a temporary restraining order to resolve the issue. 

She said she wants to avoid eventual reversal on those grounds rather than the substantive issues.

“At this time, I have not involved the Vermont Professional Responsibility Board but I have suggested that Attorney Klesch obtain an advisory opinion or simply do some quick research on the ethics and impropriety of the situation he has created,” Fraas wrote.

“Meanwhile, Manager Duffy, in consultation with Attorney Klesch, has continued to take unilateral actions with regard to Chief Swanson exposing the Village to further liability,” she wrote. 

In her email to Monaghan this week, Fraas said, “Manager Duffy’s letter to Chief Swanson contains a serious mischaracterization regarding the court’s 12/2/25 order.”

“He erroneously states that ‘the Court issued a decision on December 2, 2025, remanding to the Village Trustees to determine whether there exists cause for your removal from the position of Police Chief.’ Instead, the court order actually stated that it was up to the Trustees to ‘decide whether to pursue further removal proceedings and how to handle petitioner’s employment duties in the meantime.’ The court made it clear that removal must be based on just cause. This is a critical distinction as the trustees are not bound to pursue this battle initiated by Manager Duffy and have ample opportunity to ascertain that this is ultimately an unwinnable case based upon the facts and law. We continue to anticipate reinstatement of Chief Swanson when this matter is reviewed by real judges applying the correct law,” she said. 

Fraas added the trustees intend to hold another evidentiary hearing in April. She said she is still waiting for several pending issues, including back pay owed to Chief Swanson during the time that he was illegally demoted and recusal of trustees, along with issues raised by Attorney Klesch.

She said holding the hearing in April, as the trustees first proposed, would likely provide Chief Swanson with ample time to recover “from his recent lumbar fusion surgery and be able to fully participate in the preparation of his defense and the hearing.”

The village trustees agreed last month that Swanson needed to be returned to the rank of chief, but left him on the sidelines, putting him on paid administrative leave. O’Keeffe, the interim chief, is still running the department.

For more on this story, please see our Jan. 8 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Vermonters across the state — including in the Upper Valley — can expect a new source of healthcare funding, as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that Vermont will receive more than $195 million in Rural Health Transformation Funds in 2026, a bigger piece of the pie than most states. In a press release last month, Governor Phil Scott thanked the Trump administration and expressed optimism about the effects of the funds on Vermonters — especially those in rural areas. “While there are still implementation details to work out, this significant investment will help us build on the good work we’ve started to make rural healthcare more affordable and accessible,” Scott said in the statement.

According to Courtney Tanner, senior director of government relations at Dartmouth Health, “The intent of the fund — and the opportunity, really — is to build and transform the way healthcare is delivered in Vermont and in each respective state, largely because the way that the Medicaid program and programs within that umbrella program are going to be pretty drastically transformed. So the intent of the fund is to shift and change and innovate how care is delivered and accessed.” Tanner noted that over the next ten years, Medicaid investments are projected to be reduced by $1 trillion. “So this $50 billion fund is really intended to be a bridge to that reduction.”

At local healthcare facilities, Gifford Health Care and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, there is shared optimism around how to best use the imminent funds, while helping to position Vermont for maximum future funding. Gifford CEO Michael Costa told the Standard, “In Gifford’s discussions with the state of Vermont, we’ve stressed the importance of investment in our workforce, we’ve stressed the importance of investment in technology, and we’ve stressed the importance of investment in sharing resources among healthcare organizations, all in service of two goals: affordability for Vermonters and easy access to care. We think Rural Health Transformation Fund dollars could really help us move our organization forward to make sure that we continue to have care locally for people.”

One of the concrete plans Gifford has for the funds is continued investment in its training program for homegrown medical talent. “We were accredited to start our own family medicine residency program [the Maple Mountain Consortium] to train primary care doctors here in Vermont,” said Costa. “That’s with the idea that if they train here, they will stay here and help with our primary care physician shortage. We’ve been passionate advocates at the state-of-Vermont level about trying to make sure that that program is funded and gets off the ground.” 

For more on this, please see our Jan. 8 edition of the Vermont Standard.

More than 40 communities across the state have adopted a pledge to “end apartheid in Palestine,” including the municipalities of Winooski, Brattleboro, Thetford, and Plainfield. Now, residents in Woodstock and Bridgewater are working to gather signatures in hopes that their towns will adopt the pledge at Town Meeting in March. 

The Standard spoke with Woodstock residents Anne Macksoud and Sonny Saul, along with his son Quincy Saul, who resides in Pomfret, and Bridgewater’s Darnell Martin to discuss this pledge and what supporting Palestine means to them. 

“I was made aware of the severity of this issue in 2016, when I traveled to Palestine and lived amongst the Palestinian people. Before then, I had no idea what the Palestinian people were going through during this occupation,” Macksoud began. “It was brutal. Everywhere we went, we saw houses demolished and settlers moving in unwantedly. I was in a group that was comprised almost entirely of American Jewish people. The power of the experience and the subsequent documentary I made brought us all to the same level of awareness regarding the gravity of the situation. I would say that people came home very changed by what they had seen.” 

“What happened on October 7 was horrendous, but things didn’t start there,” Macksoud added. Quincy Saul added, “There is a rhetoric that to be against the Israeli government is synonymous with being antisemitic. Nothing about this Apartheid Free Community Movement is rooted in antisemitism; it’s rooted in being against the persecution of a minority group.” 

In Woodstock, Saul and Macksoud hope this pledge will lead to their community’s taxpayer dollars no longer going towards the funding of military aid in Israel, but instead being reallocated to causes at home. 

To this point, Martin added, “In 2024 alone, over $27M of Vermont’s tax money went to funding Israel’s weapons, when it could have instead funded flood relief, affordable housing, schoolteacher salaries, and healthcare. In Woodstock, $223,000 of taxpayer dollars were sent to Israel to support their military effort; in Bridgewater, the amount was $82,000.” 

“Five municipalities across the state have come together and decided that enough is enough. If Bridgewater could be number six, then Woodstock, then Barnard or Pomfret or Hartland, we could garner enough support to go to the state and show our state reps that we will not stand for violence against a vulnerable group of people,” Martin continued. 

Henry Nichols, a resident of Thetford who was instrumental in getting the pledge on the Town Meeting Ballot last March, when it passed with an overwhelming majority vote, joined the conversation. Nichols said, “We compared the war in Gaza a lot to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, where the goal was not to hurt South Africans but to instead boycott or divest from South Africa until they stopped hurting their people. The goal was to end Apartheid. I think that once people hear that comparison, there is an intuitive understanding of the specific set of policies we are against.”

Nichols explained that in signing this petition and passing it at the town level, Thetford has agreed to a two-part commitment. He said, the first component of the Apartheid Free Community Movement is to educate and support one another through this battle, and the second is to commit to finding ways to financially pull out of this war. A similar path is envisioned in Woodstock and Bridgewater, as Martin works to collect just ten more signatures required for the pledge to be on the Bridgewater ballot in March. 

For more on this, please see our Jan. 8 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer

Hartland voters will be asked to okay a $4,267,692.52 budget for fiscal year 2027.

Following budget workshops at two selectboard meetings last month, the selectboard voted unanimously at its first meeting of the new year on Monday evening to put the proposed 2026-27 budget to a vote at Town Meeting in March. Pending voter approval, the final budget, as passed by the town governing body, will result in a municipal property tax increase of $44.10 per $100,000 of assessed value, a jump of just under 5% from the present fiscal year budget.

Hartland municipal manager John Broker-Campbell, finance administrator Martin Dole, and town department heads had been tasked with bringing forward a budget with an increase of less than 5% over this year. Town Hall staff met that challenge narrowly, Broker-Campbell indicated, by combining forces to achieve a budget that came in at a 4.99% increase over the current year.

For more on this, please see our Jan. 8 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

West Windsor’s historic Mary L. Blood Memorial Library (MLBML) is being slated for a renovation to bring its circulation desk into the 21st century. To fund the project, the MLBML board of trustees is planning to create an endowment that will be used specifically for the preservation and protection of the library. 

Michael Epstein, chair of the library’s board of trustees, told the Standard this week that, “The library is 125 years old. This building was originally a gift by a man named Benjamin Blood in honor of his daughter. He not only provided the money to build the library, but Blood also left a small amount of money for its upkeep. The library sustained itself through this foundational funding from 1900 to 2018. That year, the town of West Windsor bought the library, making it a municipal library complete with an appointed board that has spent the last seven years addressing the space’s various needs.” 

According to Epstein, in those seven years, the trustees have worked to maintain the building by installing a new heat pump, insulating the lower level, and buying new furniture for the reading room. “All of those renovations were done either through donations or grants. But in those seven years, the most important thing this board has done was hire two wonderful librarians — Peter Money, who was with us from 2018 to 2023, and Liz Frederick, who has been our head librarian since Money’s departure.” 

“One thing that has become clear to us is that the library workspace, which is comprised of a roll top desk and an oak table that have been there since the library opened, is no longer sufficient for an effective and efficient staff to work in,” Epstein explained. “The next renovation project we are pursuing is a complete redesign and rebuilding of the south wall of the library to provide extra storage, along with an updated circulation desk that can comfortably double as a workspace for our librarian and her assistant.” 

Epstein said the board hopes to partner with a contractor shortly, as well as launch a capital campaign for the project in order to ensure that taxpayers do not have to pay a cent toward the renovation. “We’ve never done a capital campaign before,” Epstein said. “This is going to be a much broader campaign. We initially had a goal of $50,000, but the response so far has been so positive that the board voted to extend the goal to $75,000, and recent developments may cause us to raise the target yet again. Everything is still in a state of flux.”  

Epstein says the trustees would like to see construction begin in early 2026.

For more on this, please see our Jan. 8 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Riding a resurgent wave of music-focused films — from biopics of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to musicals such as “Wonka” and “In the Heights” — the Hop at Dartmouth has lined up 11 films old and new for its “Music and the Movies” series this winter. Kicking off on Jan. 10 with “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” directed by Scott Cooper and starring Jeremy Allen White, and ending on Feb. 20 with “The Testament of Ann Lee,” a musical exploring the Shaker movement in colonial America, the Hop’s winter film series will be packed with movies singing and dancing their way into audience’s hearts and minds.

Top Left: “Omoiyari,” a “song film” by Kishi Bashi, is a musical journey exploring bicultural identity through the retrospective lens of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. Bottom left: Buster Keaton’s silent film classic “The General” will be shown in 35-millimeter film at the Hop on Feb. 15. Right: The classic 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain” will be shown in 35-millimeter film at the Hop on Jan. 15. Photos Courtesy of the Hopkins Center for the Arts

“It just so happens there were a ton of movies coming out this Oscar season that all related to music in the movies,” Johanna Evans, director of programming initiatives at the Hop, told the Standard about her inspiration for this season’s film series. “Movies about other art forms, and especially movies about movie-making, is a popular theme that artists keep coming back to, because they’re writing what they know, things that they can relate to — finding your own voice and creative expression and ambition.” Even while these themes may be particular to the artists’ writing and making these movies, larger audiences, too, can obviously relate to these creative life journeys, which helps make these musical films so popular.

An added bonus to this season’s film lineup is the chance to see a classic, silent film with live musical accompaniment — just as an audience would have experienced it in the early 20th century. The 1926 film “The General” by Buster Keaton will be screened in collaboration with the husband-and-wife team of Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton. “Donald Sosin — who is the silent film accompanist at the Telluride Film Festival — is a friend that we’ve had at the Hop before, and we were looking forward to bringing him back. Tying that aspect of music’s relationship with film, dating back to the very beginning of cinema, was something we wanted to include,” said Evans.

Aside from Keaton’s silent-film masterpiece, other American classics that will be screened include the Beatlemania singalong slapstick “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) and the timeless, beloved musical “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor — with both of those films being presented in 35mm film. Aside from American cinema, the Hop will also screen what they have titled a “Bollywood Mystery Movie Singalong” on Feb. 12. With a purposefully withheld movie title, the audience will show up ready for a surprise. The Hop’s website says, “Do you love epic stories, spontaneous singing and massive dance numbers? Or maybe you’ve always been curious about Bollywood musicals, but have never seen one. This surprise movie night promises fun, adventure, forbidden love, betrayal, vengeance…or probably at least three of those things!”

Another series film offering a kind of international perspective is the 2022 political documentary and musical tapestry “Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi,” directed by Justin Taylor and Kaoru Ishibashi, with artist Bashi scheduled to attend the screening and discuss it with the audience afterwards. The movie explores the link between the US immigration crisis along the Mexican border and the incarceration of Japanese-American people during WWII. The Hop’s website says about the film, “Ishibashi goes on a journey to learn about this history and its relevance. Along the way, he improvises and writes music in an effort to better understand his own identity as a bi-cultural American. Using never-before-seen archival footage from the camps, mixed with breathtaking visual storytelling, Kaoru weaves a story using history, music, and current events to create a portrait of America from the perspective of someone caught between two worlds.”

Also, on Jan. 22, Professor Desiree Garcia, who teaches in Dartmouth’s departments of Film Studies and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies — and who this spring semester is teaching a course on the musical — will present the lecture “Everybody Sing and Dance: The Pleasures and Perils of Studying Musical Film” at the Hood Museum of Art. This is yet another opportunity for area residents to attend not only curated films centered on music, but to experience and interact with experts and artists in the field of cinema. 

For more on this, please see our Jan. 8 edition of the Vermont Standard.

MIB (Make It Better) Agents, a Pediatric Osteosarcoma Research and nonprofit organization located in Barnard, is currently working to advocate for, comfort, and change the lives of patients and families affected by osteosarcoma while also funding the medical professionals and researchers searching for a cure. 

Ann Graham, the founder and president of MIB Agents, sat down with the Standard to discuss how this organization came to be, and the work the group is doing to help those who suffer from osteosarcoma. 

“MIB Agents officially began in 2016,” Graham told the Standard, “But in truth, MIB’s origins date back six years prior, in 2010.” 

“I was a 44-year-old mother of three, training to run a marathon, when my leg began to hurt. I was in enough pain to go to the doctor, where I was told, without my leg ever being examined, that at my age, pain was expected, and I was sent away with a warning to ease up on the exercise. I was in and out of that doctor’s office for the next nine months, where I proceeded to be misdiagnosed, told that I had a stress fracture, a sprain, that my IT band was injured. Finally, I woke up one morning in September and could not walk. My left leg could bear no weight. I drove myself down to the doctor and demanded an MRI. I was in the machine for three hours as doctors gathered around the scans, staring at me through the observation glass. I knew something was wrong. When I finally saw the X-rays, I recognized in two seconds that I had cancer all throughout my leg.” 

Graham was then diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer mostly found in children. Within the week, Graham was checked into the Summa Health Cancer Treatment Center and began undergoing intense chemotherapy treatment. “Osteosarcoma is a rare form of cancer to begin with, and it is almost always fatal. I was treated in the pediatric cancer center as the only grown-up. For this kind of cancer, you go through one of the harshest treatments known to man. You have four different, highly toxic and aggressive types of chemotherapy that are administered two at a time for three months. Then the surgeons go back in and see the state of the tumor and decide if they should amputate the limb or not. In my case, my leg was at 45% necrosis, meaning that more than half of the tumor was still viable, and that my survival rate had significantly decreased. The onslaught of chemo didn’t work. However, I was adamant in following the treatment through, which meant that I would have to do several more months of chemo.” 

Graham asked her doctor about next steps — if the chemo didn’t work, should she consider clinical trials or experimental research? He told her the treatment had to work; there were no other options. Graham understood what he meant. 

“I returned to my room and found myself alone, and I thought, ‘Wow, I’m really going to die from this.’ And then I began thinking about my life, about all the beautiful things I was able to accomplish. I got married, had my first apartment, gave birth to three beautiful children, created a fulfilling career. I got to live a full life, and I felt so grateful for that. I remember looking up above me and crying out, ‘God, use me. If I have six weeks, we have to get creative about my purpose here. If you give me longer than six weeks, I vow to make this place better. We have to make it better.” 

Miraculously, Graham made it through her treatment. Her doctors salvaged her limb, taking most of the knee and tibia and replacing it with titanium. Now, Graham is cancer-free.

When asked about overcoming the weight of cancer treatment, Graham said, “It’s impossible to feel sorry for yourself when a ten-year-old girl is next to you going through the same treatment but keeping her head up and a smile on her face through it all.” 

Being surrounded by children experiencing the same hardship, Graham bonded with so many families. “I finished treatment and went back to work way too soon. But I had three daughters, and I wanted them to feel like I was okay. A few days later, I got a call from the mother of a young girl I met in the Cancer Treatment Center. Her name was Alyssa. She was a beautiful and strong 11-year-old dancer who had to have her left leg amputated. Her mom, Lynn, called me and said they were sending her home to die. She was in hospice care, and I thought of her two younger sisters in the house, watching their sister slowly fade away. I couldn’t understand why I had survived, why Alyssa wasn’t going to. I went to my husband and asked, ‘What can we do?’”

Graham orchestrated an end-of-life experience for Alyssa and her family, complete with a weekend trip to New York for her to see the Radio City Rockettes, a matinee of Mary Poppins on Broadway, dinner at the American Girl Doll Store, and a performance at Lincoln Center, where Alyssa was invited to take one last bow on stage. “Alyssa died less than two weeks later, just shy of her twelfth birthday,” Graham said. 

The missions kept coming, as Graham helped many of the children she was treated alongside find peace and joy in their final moments. “From 2012 through 2016, our end-of-life experiences were entirely self-funded. We paid for everything out of our own pockets and relied on friends who came through for us in miraculous ways,” said Graham.

Left, MIB Agents president Ann Graham, who was diagnosed with a rare osteosarcoma in 2010 and spent the next 12 months fighting for her life, has made it the mission of her organization to support children fighting osteosarcoma and to help fund research efforts. Center, Mikaela Naylon, who passed away last October at age 16, served on the MIB Agents Junior Advisory Board. Right, Commander Mohan N. Anand, PMP, an Indian Navy veteran and project manager in India, the U.S., and Canada, created, planned, and financed the first MIB Agents conference. Anand passed away just three days after the event. Photos Courtesy of Ann Graham

In between planning these trips for kids in hospice care, Graham said she spent her days on Capitol Hill. “I was advocating for a piece of legislation called the Childhood Cancer STAR Act (Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research), which is now written into law. It provides resources for survivors, funding for medical research, and ensures pediatric expertise at the national level. The process for trying to appeal to your state senators and representatives to co-sign a bill, in addition to the end-of-life missions, put me in a demoralizing place. It’s hard to just do end-of-life experiences for kids and not try to help the ones who still could have a chance.” 

That was where the idea of a medical conference began. Through word of mouth, sixteen doctors reached out and agreed to speak at the conference on their own dime if Graham could find a venue to host the event. Fortunately, a fellow cancer patient and friend, Commander Mohan N. Anand, PMP came to Graham’s rescue. Anand served in the Indian Navy for 20 years and subsequently worked as a project manager in India, the United States, and Canada. Anand came to Graham and said he would help plan the conference and take care of the $250,000 expense to fund the venue. The day of MIB Agent’s first conference, Anand was nowhere to be found. When Graham finally got him on the phone, she could see he was hooked up to a ventilator. 

“It was his dying wish to make this conference a reality, to make MIB Agents a reality,” Graham continued. “His family and friends told us what this meant to him, and that he used $250K of his savings — money that was supposed to go towards a down payment on a house he knew he would never buy — to make this conference happen. He died three days later.” 

To date, MIB Agents have funded $2.9M in research. “We go through a robust scientific process to find research to fund,” Graham explained. “We have a Scientific Advisory Board comprised of leading experts on osteosarcoma. Then we go through an extensive peer-review process, followed by a review by our Family Fund. These are people who have had loved ones suffer and die from this kind of cancer, and they have an ultimate say in what research is funded, through the lens of how this work would have impacted their child or loved one’s life. Once we have awarded funding, the members of the Family Fund and the members of our Junior Advisory Board head out to the facility to see what results this research is producing.” 

MIB’s Junior Advisory Board is made up of young adults (ages 15–22) who have experienced osteosarcoma as survivors, patients, or siblings. As representatives of the community MIB Agents serve, they help shape the direction of programs, education, and research — driving initiatives that benefit those fighting osteosarcoma and their families while providing the scientific community with valuable patient perspectives to inform their work.

For more on this, please see our Jan 8 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter

With temperatures steadily below freezing and winter in full swing, many Vermonters will be trekking onto the region’s icy lakes, ponds and rivers to ice fish. While the snowy-season staple may seem simple, it can also be dangerous without proper knowledge.

Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Biologist Jud Kratzer has spent nearly 20 years keeping residents of the Green Mountain state safe during recreational fishing. When asked to share his tips on how to enjoy the hobby safely, he provided three. First, proper attire.

“Number one is to dress in layers and wear waterproof boots,” he told the Standard this week. “Often there will be a layer of slush on top of the ice, so you want to keep your feet dry.” He emphasized the importance of comfort out on the ice, with layers providing fishermen the opportunity to undress if they get too warm, or bundle up to beat the frigid elements. “These measures can prevent frostbite,” he explained.

Secondly, Kratzer pointed towards a safety rule often taught in elementary school: the buddy system. “You should always fish with a friend in case you have any issues of any kind,” he said. 

His last tip, which he said may be the most important, is to pay attention to the thickness of the ice. According to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website, the appropriate ice thickness for foot traffic is three-and-a-half to four inches of clear, black ice. “There is a distinction between black ice and white ice,” he said. “Black ice is very clear because it’s very solid, and you can see into the darkness. White ice is what you get when snow mixes with the water and freezes.” He continued, “This ice is still strong, but not as strong.” For ATVs, Fish and Wildlife recommends eight inches of ice for safe travel. For white ice, these thickness requirements are doubled.

“It is important to consider moving water,” he added. “If the water is moving, the ice will be thinner because [movement] prevents it from freezing.” This frequently happens to ice on rivers or on lakes that streams filter into. Another thing to consider is the depth of the body of water and its elevation. According to Kretzer, bodies of water that are shallower freeze more easily and will generally have thicker ice. This is also true for ice at higher elevations and in locations further north in the state.

When delving into the challenges of fishing in winter versus the summer, Kretzer pointed to the obvious — the ice. “The big difference is having to fish through the ice,” he said. “In the summer, you can cast from shore or float around in a boat, making it easier to cover water.” This is not the case while ice fishing, as your movement is limited, and you need to drill holes. “The best way to find fish is just to drill a bunch of holes and either set up a tip-up or drop a line on your rod,” he said. “The people who are most successful are the people that can move around more and drill holes until they find one.”

This winter, fishermen are likely to see different fish populations than during the summer months. This is due to fish being split into three types, according to Kratzer: cold-water, cool-water, and warm-water species. Warm-water species like bass, sunfish, and catfish are less likely to be caught in winter because they slow their activity. This means they feed less and move less around the pond. 

You are likely to catch cool-water species such as yellow perch and northern pike, as they remain active. Cold-water species include trout and smelt, said Kritzer. 

For those looking to get out on the ice, Kretzer offered some watering holes within an hour’s drive of Woodstock to try. These included Dewey’s Mill Pond in Hartford, Woodward Reservoir in Plymouth, Silver Lake in Barnard, and Hyatt’s Landing in Springfield. 

By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter

The Wasps girls basketball team traveled across state lines last Friday, looking to get back on track after their first loss of the season, and they came away with a 47-39 win over the Rivendell Raptors. 

Earlier in the week, in their first game following the departure of stellar freshman Paula Cortijo Martin, Woodstock had taken a tough loss to Otter Valley, 61-23. “Otter Valley is a good basketball team that’s aggressive and has length,” said head coach Timmy MacDonnell. “That gives us fits as we try to figure out what our identity is without Paula.” 

However, according to junior Khloi Bruso, that loss was the furthest thing from the squad’s mind during the Rivendell game, and the vibes were high to start the evening. “We were all really happy,” she said. “We had a really good bus ride where we were all connected, and I think it showed on the court.”

In the first quarter, both teams appeared to be shaking off some New Year’s rust, as turnovers ran aplenty, and points were at a premium. With 2:45 remaining, Woodstock took an 8-6 lead following an expertly performed dribble handoff from freshman Zoey Filiaut to Bruso for three. 

The Wasps fell behind early in the second, seemingly adjusting to the game’s uptick in physicality. “We had to realize that basketball is physical,” said Bruso. “You’re going to get fouled.” The visitors regained the lead late in the period when freshman Willow Carey stole the ball from a Raptor ball handler before racing up court for the bucket, putting the Wasps ahead 18-16 headed into the halftime break.

Early in the third, emotions ran high on both sidelines towards the referees, prompting the Woodstock bench to receive an official warning. The Raptors’, at times excessive, physicality created much of the frustration. MacDonnell saw this as a teaching moment. “It’s about learning composure,” he said. “During the course of a basketball game, some calls go your way, some don’t go your way, and you’ve gotta move on to the next play.”

Rivendell kept the game close in the third, thanks in large part to eighth grader Grace Bourn. The young Raptor cut the Wasps’ lead to four with just 1.5 seconds left in the third quarter. Bourn tallied 14 points and three assists on the night.

Woodstock’s Lindsey St. Cyr took over in the fourth quarter, as her length helped to snag rebounds and score easy buckets over smaller defenders. “Tonight was a good step in trying to highlight what we do well,” said MacDonnell. “Playing through Lindsey is something we do well, and that was beneficial tonight. She was pretty solid.” The sophomore finished with 15 points, 16 rebounds, and five blocks. 

In the closing minutes, Rivendell’s foul problems came home to roost, as two Raptors fouled out. This included junior Lily Murray, who wrapped the night as the team’s leading scorer with 19 points, eight rebounds, and three steals.

Murray fouled out with 5.2 seconds remaining, and the Wasps inbounded the ball and let the clock wind out on their 47-39 win, the fifth of the year. 

Bruso, who led the team with 23 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, saw two reasons for the team’s win. “Our defense was impeccable,” she said proudly. “We worked on help defense and not fouling.” She continued, “We were all positive, no matter what was happening. Positivity is important in basketball.”

MacDonnell came away excited that everyone on the roster contributed, including junior varsity call-up Brianna Townsend, who had 11 rebounds and two blocks. “We’re asking people to contribute what they’re best at,” he said. “We ask a lot of them. It’s nice for the girls to feel some success. 

This past Monday night, after a 61-33 loss at Williamstown, the Wasps’ record fell to 5-2. Their season continues Thursday at Green Mountain in Chester. 

Hailey Elizabeth Westcot passed away unexpectedly from a motor vehicle collision with a wrong-way driver on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, on I-89. 

Hailey was born on Sept. 28, 2004 to Beverly (Dezotell) and Matthew Westcot. She was cherished and a joy to her family with her constant smiles, silliness, and happy temperament. In later years, two more daughters, Hannah and Leo arrived and she proved herself as a protective big sister. Following her parents divorce and experiencing new blended families, she became a little sister and took on new responsibilities always with a happy heart. 

Growing up in Randolph, she attended Randolph schools and graduated in 2023. She excelled in studies and even received accolades in the cybersecurity training through the criminal justice program at Randolph Technical Career Center. Following high school graduation, she began working at Northfield Elementary School as a custodian and was attending O’Brien’s Aveda Institute in Williston to become a cosmetologist. She was revered by classmates and instructors alike, and many have expressed their gratitude of having her touch their lives. 

Hailey had an adventurous spirit. She and her partner, Hustin Jarvis, frequented Vermont Sky Diving Adventures, in the past year, jumping two times in tandem. She wanted to travel abroad and mentioned wanting to travel to Hawaii and other tropical locales. Her interests were varied and included knitting, drawing, sewing, antiques and she was starting to show interest in photography, but her passion was for animals and especially her cats, Jasper and Smokie. 

Hailey was predeceased by her mother, Beverly Dezotell, one year prior, in a car accident also. 

She is survived by her father and stepmother, Matthew and Laura Westcot of Randolph Center; sisters Hannah and Leo Westcot; stepbrothers Hunter and Maven Larrabee of Randolph; her grandparents Allison and Gary Wade of Bridgewater Corners, Patricia Hodgdon of Randolph, Guy and Johanne Samson of Barre, Bennett and Lou Westcot of Wilder; many aunts, uncles and cousins; and her partner Hustin Jarvis of Northfield and his extended family, as well as Jasper and Smokie. 

Kingston Funeral Home in Northfield is handling all arrangements and a celebration of Hailey’s life will come at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to: Kitty Korner Cafe, 214 North Main Street, Suite #1, Barre, VT 05641

Martha Thir, 90, passed away peacefully at the Jack Byrne Center in Lebanon, N.H. on Nov. 2, just days after celebrating her milestone birthday. She lived a remarkable life — one defined by positivity, capability, and a radiant spirit that lifted everyone around her.

She was, in every sense, spectacular. Her cheerful outlook and unfailingly positive attitude toward life made her a source of warmth and comfort to family, friends, and all who had the good fortune to know her. She approached every challenge with strength and grace, and her fierce capability made her the person everyone turned to in times of need.

She was also uncommonly beautiful — inside and out. Her kindness, generosity, and genuine love for others left a lasting imprint on the lives she touched.

Her legacy lives on in the joy she brought to the world, the strength she modeled, and the love she gave so freely. She will be deeply missed and continues to be deeply cherished.

Martha is survived by her husband Albert Thir, sister Lynda Wexler, children; Lyn Kolb (Richard Kolb), Meg Kopald (Mark Crow), six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family. An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

John Raymond “Jack” Lundquist, 72, a former resident of Odell, Il, died Wed., December 3 at the Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt.  The Boardway and Cilley Funeral Home in Chelsea, Vt is in charge of arrangements.

Ursula (Carbin) Dehne, of Northumberland, N.H., passed quietly on the morning of Dec.14, 2025.

She was born August 6, 1942, the daughter of Wilhelm and Anni Crass of Bayreuth, Germany. As a young child at the close of World War II, her mother and siblings sheltered in the Bavarian forest to escape the fighting. After the war, her family of seven shared a single home in Coburg with three other families, an experience that shaped her resilience, warmth, and lifelong sense of community.

As a teenager, Ursula met American GI Rick Carbin, who was stationed in West Germany. After a brief and joyful courtship, she joined him in New Jersey, where they welcomed two children in 1962 and 1963. In 1972, the family moved to Barnard, where Ursula quickly became an active and beloved part of the community. She was involved with the Barnard Progressive Club and worked at several local shops in Woodstock before opening her own store at the Bridgewater Mill Mall.

An accomplished and deeply creative fiber artist, Ursula was best known for her work under the name “Wool by Ursula.” Working primarily in wool, she designed and sewed distinctive sweaters and garments made from blanket wool and washed wool, blending traditional materials with innovative design. Her work was widely admired and earned awards at regional craft shows from Maryland to Vermont. Creativity was not simply a vocation for Ursula, but a way of life, and she took great joy in making beautiful, functional clothing that reflected care, craftsmanship, and imagination.

Later, while living in Lancaster, N.H. with her second husband, Curt, Ursula raised sheep and continued her creative work. She was also a cherished presence in the lives of local children, serving as a trusted and loving nanny. Following Curt’s passing, Ursula remained surrounded by close friends, neighbors, and family. In 2016, she married Dieter Dehne, with whom she made her home in Northumberland, N.H.

Ursula was predeceased by her parents, her brothers Gerhard and Helmut, and her grandson Owen. She is survived by her husband Dieter; sisters Gisela and Karin, her son Gregory and his wife Lisa; her daughter Deborah; her grandchildren Morriah and her husband Bryan, Jonathan and his wife Grace, and Christopher and his wife Sylvia; her great-grandson Cassius; and her beloved tuxedo cat, Rudy.

The family is deeply appreciative of the nursing staff at Weeks Memorial Hospital, in Lancaster, N.H.

Donations in Ursula’s memory may be made to the Weathervane Theatre (weathervanenh.org/support). 

Memories may be shared in the online guestbook at bryantfuneralhome.net.

By Dan Cotter, Publisher 

Well, my friends, this is my fourth and final article of our 2025 annual appeal. 

Once again, this year, it’s been a privilege to talk directly with you about the mission we’re on at the Vermont Standard and the difficult challenges we face — to ask if you’ll please consider donating to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation in support of our efforts to connect our community and keep you informed on issues of public importance.

Today, the main thing I want you to know is that we are proud to work for you.

We know you’re counting on us to be your eyes and ears — filling you in about local government actions that affect you, about local crime, about court cases playing out here, about notable news items and occurrences, the accomplishments of our neighbors and local youth, about developments at our schools, churches, businesses, and charitable or civic organizations, about the happenings and things to do in the local area, and lots more. 

We are the one and only news source that’s entirely focused on our area; reporting news that’s primarily of interest right here. Our work — week in and week out — is entirely dedicated to the welfare of this community. 

That’s the way it’s been here for 172 years. And Phil Camp and I and our small team are now trying to produce a 2025 version of the Vermont Standard that’s the best it has ever been in the paper’s long history.

The Standard is for you. It exists simply to benefit you and your neighbors. We regard this responsibility and the trust you place in us as a badge of honor. We pledge to give it our best. All we’ve got.

As I’ve explained before, the financial pressures we face are intense. And, tragically, various powers that be are trying to exert additional pressure in a sad attempt to undermine the press. By extension, their actions undermine you, the public. That’s nothing new, really, but it’s pretty acute right now. Shame on them.

However, with your donations to keep us afloat, we’re hanging in there, staying strong and getting stronger. We are continuing to work, not only on improving this week’s Vermont Standard, but next month’s and next year’s too, as we attempt to set things up so we can produce high-quality local journalism for the long term. 

We’ll make sure your gift is put to good use as a worthwhile investment in one of the key components of the critical infrastructure that underpins this community.

As a citizen, it’s essential for you to be well-informed. That’s the only way we can have a functioning local democracy and a lively, connected community. As your eyes and ears, we’ll continue to follow the news closely and report it to you in new, better, and more engaging ways as time goes on. 

We hope to make you proud as we strive to do the best community journalism in the country. We believe that’s a realistic goal. This weekend — for the ninth time in the last twelve years — the Standard will once again be a finalist for the honor of being named New England Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

When it comes to journalism, we believe you deserve the absolute best.

We are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can offer in this year’s 2025 annual appeal. In fact, if you’re interested, Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you in person to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or 802-457-1313.

Also — very importantly — if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 93-3287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support. We’ll be deeply indebted to you.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity, so your gift will be fully tax-deductible. 

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.” 

By Dan Cotter, Publisher 

Lord knows, there are lots of fascinating people in our community.

At times, it seems as if every person you meet here in the course of a day is even more interesting than the last one. Sometimes, I marvel at how in the world all these wonderful and impressive folks are either from here or ended up here, in this little corner of Vermont.

Of course, I’m lucky. I get to participate in our story planning meetings at the Standard each week to decide who and what we’re going to write about next. Beyond the breaking news, what feature stories should we write – about which people, which organizations, which businesses?

It’s a joy.

There are always plenty of nominations. And then, even though you think you pretty well know who someone is or what an organization does and stands for, our reporter does a deep dive and provides new insight about them or their work or their cause in an account that’s simply breathtaking. Who knew? Right here among us! 

I often refer to the Vermont Standard as a kind of “glue” for our community. It’s a paper everyone can turn to in order to stay informed about the local news — the goings-on, the things to do. Something to look forward to each week to catch up on the latest. A common experience shared by those who live here or care about this place.

But maybe the best part about the Standard is the way it enables us to connect as a community. The way it helps us get to know each other better by introducing us to that really interesting person who lives next door (sometimes literally). And I’ve found that typically the more impressive people are, the less likely they are to talk about themselves. They’re too modest. So, it takes a nosy reporter to get them to tell their full story.

And the same goes for some of the incredible organizations in the area, including charities, nonprofits, schools, churches, arts organizations, libraries, history centers, and many more. They aren’t always focused on touting or telling their story – about what they do, who they help, what they accomplish. Often, they toil away under the radar. But the Standard is eager to bring their story to the public’s attention. We want to shine a spotlight, applaud their work, and make the folks who might decide to join or support them aware of them.

Soon, we’ll be bringing you those kinds of stories on video too, as we roll out our Headliners and Inside Scoop programs this fall.

The bottom line is that living in a community is much more fulfilling for most of us when we get to know more about the ordinary people among us, who are doing some pretty extraordinary things. Reading about them and their aspirations and accomplishments in the Standard is fun, and, on occasion, when those stories also explain their struggles and failures, their resilience and ultimate triumphs, it can be touching to read, inspiring even. 

These stories help us all feel a deeper sense of kinship with the people and organizations in our midst. They connect us and make us feel that we all truly belong to this beautiful community.

As I said, being this glue that strengthens our connection? It’s a joy.

We are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can offer in this year’s 2025 annual appeal. Our effort to preserve quality journalism for our community is quite urgent, my friends. And Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or (802) 457-1313.

Also, if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 93-3287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity so your gift will be fully tax-deductible. 

Your donation will be utilized in the form of project grants to support the Vermont Standard’s mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance. 

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at www.thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.” 

By Dan Cotter, Publisher

For the past 15-20 years, most local newspapers have been trying to “do more with less” in an effort to survive. And, of course, since that’s not a good long-term strategy, it has put our industry into a slow death spiral.

America has lost 3,200 of its newspapers in that same period of time, and currently, an average of more than two per week go out of business. Hundreds more papers are on life support, as they try to hang on by cutting staff, cutting pages, cutting the frequency of their publishing days, and eliminating their print editions. In their resulting emaciated state, those papers certainly can’t serve the need for local news and information in their communities.

Those withered newspapers are called “ghost papers,” because they are hollowed out shells of their former selves. Technically, they still exist. They continue to survive. But the communities counting on them? Well, they can no longer really count on them.

The handful of hedge funds and corporate raiders that bought up so many of our nation’s newspapers and ruined them wrote the playbook. In their effort to “rightsize” (meaning to dramatically downsize…) their papers in the face of diminishing advertising revenue, they chopped the expenses. Severely.

For newspapers, the primary expense is paying the people who work there. After many rounds of staff cuts, those papers barely cover any news at all, because they no longer have enough people to do it.

And as many of the small independent papers – like the Standard – encountered those same advertising revenue headwinds, lacking a better plan, they began following the same playbook. Consequently, in their efforts to survive, they now f ind themselves in that same never-ending spiral of cost-cutting.

Also, newspapers in that ragged state aren’t able to do the type of development work required to create a sustainable path for the future. In order to survive beyond just this week or this year, news organizations must create new services and revenue streams that will support them long-term. To do that takes time, thought, experimentation, risk-taking, and perseverance.

The beleaguered staff that’s left at most newspapers today simply lacks the energy for that.

“Doing more with less” (and less, and less…) was originally supposed to be a stopgap measure to buy time for newspapers to get their feet under them so they could forge a path to sustainability. Sadly, though, for most, it’s simply become standard operating procedure.

Fortunately, for our community here, the Vermont Standard has not followed that all too popular “survivor” playbook. We’ve never wanted to preside over a slow death march, just to be able to say we’re still publishing, but, in fact, failing to serve the very real need for local news, information, and connection in this community.

Thanks to your financial support, we’ve been able to go another way. Instead of doing more with less, we realize that we – and all local news organizations, especially in today’s political climate – just need to do more. Much more. And while doing that, we also need to create a sustainable path forward so we can live on to serve this community in even better ways for many more years.

Our efforts to survive are actually just the first step towards our real intention, which is to thrive.

In fact, with your help, we’ve upgraded our staff and improved our publication in recent years. The team we have reporting local news is now stronger than ever. They have a good deal of talent and a whole lot of heart, working for ridiculously low wages at this frugal newspaper, yet fueled by such a worthy mission. At the Standard, we haven’t forgotten why we exist in the first place. We are striving to provide wall-to-wall coverage of a steady stream of complex stories that are of great interest and importance to this community we serve.

We’ve also enhanced the look, feel, and utility of our publications.

And we’ve expanded our digital news and information products – we are doing more and more online programming with them. This fall, we are introducing our new series of “Headliners” interviews with local newsmakers that you’ll be able to view on our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website. Also, we’re introducing a new show called “Inside Scoop”, which will give you an in-depth, insider look at the goings-on at many of the businesses and organizations that make our community so special.

At the Standard, we are trying to save a real newspaper that offers the powerful local journalism our community needs to function properly. Not a ghost paper. The Standard has to be good enough to get the job done now and survive in the long run. “Right-sizing” here does not mean a diminished publication that’s essentially worthless, as it does in so many communities throughout our nation. Here, it means being just big enough to provide the essential local journalism that contributes mightily to the quality of life in our community, and break even.

That’s the kind of Vermont Standard we are trying so hard to preserve, while setting things up so we can provide the quality local journalism our community needs well into the future.

I sincerely hope you’ll join us on this very important mission.

As we begin this year’s 2025 annual appeal, we are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can give us. Our mission is quite urgent, of course, and Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or (802) 457-1313.

Also, if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 933287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity so your gift will be fully tax-deductible.

Your donation will be utilized in the form of project grants to support the Vermont Standard’s mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance.

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

By Dan Cotter, publisher

It’s been said that there are very few things in life that you can always count on. But there are indeed a few, and I believe you’re holding one of them in your hands right now (or perhaps reading it on a screen).

For 172 years, the people of Woodstock, Hartland, Pomfret, Barnard, Bridgewater, Reading, West Windsor, Quechee, Plymouth, and the surrounding towns have counted on the Vermont Standard to keep watch on things in order to keep them informed, empowered, and connected. Our columnist, Dave Doubleday, replays some of the top stories of the day that took place 10, 20, 50, 75, or 100 years ago in each installment of his brilliant “Olde Woodstock” feature. It’s amazing and quite reassuring that people here were reading this same paper all those years ago simply to find out what’s happening.

Just as you are today.

All this time, citizens – informed by the Standard — were able to fully participate in their local democracy as our area progressed to the state it’s in today. What a huge responsibility it must have been, and still is today, to produce this newspaper each week. To prepare a quality news report to help readers experience and enjoy day-to-day life here and make good decisions for their community.

It’s the honor of a lifetime to be entrusted with this responsibility. The Standard has a small crew of talented, fair-minded, and underpaid journalists doggedly pursuing their mission week in and week out — trying to produce an interesting local news report that will inform, educate, and entertain the people who live here. It’s a “weekly miracle.” We start with a blank page each Wednesday afternoon, and we work tirelessly to pursue stories and produce the very best finished publication we can by the following Wednesday, so that it will be in your mailbox or at the store for you on Thursday.

In the century and a three-quarters that this paper has existed, this is our time, and our team is attempting to make a proud contribution to its legacy.

Ours certainly isn’t the easiest time to be a journalist in the Standard’s and our community’s history. This is a time of transition, when traditional forms of funding for local journalism have waned. Now, we have not only to strive to produce an excellent news report each week, but we also have to hold our breath that we’ll even be able to stay afloat.

An average of more than two newspapers fold in the U.S. each week (3,200 have vanished in the past twenty years!), leaving their communities without this kind of “glue” – without the common experience of reading in print or online about issues that affect them and their neighbors and a comprehensive set of facts for all to know about what’s happening in their local area each week.

Making matters worse, hundreds of other towns throughout the nation now only have a “ghost newspaper” that is so financially compromised it can barely cover any local news in its meager news product.

Some people – perhaps taking a page from the playbook being used at the national level – might prefer that ours was a weaker, sleepier paper and that they could exert some kind of pressure to compromise the Standard’s coverage.

But they’re mistaken. It hasn’t worked in 172 years, and we won’t let it happen now. Count on it.

We’ve had many complex (and interesting!) local stories to cover just in this past year — news that people here are counting on us to follow and explain. From the Woodstock Foundation lawsuit, to school policy, budget and reorganization issues, to Peace Field Farm, to the water company purchase, to short-term rental ordinances, to the police chief demotion, to the proposed cell phone tower and farm outlet store in Hartland, to the ECFiber case, to the ongoing housing and child care shortages, to the impact of federal funding cuts on local organizations. And we’ve had many milestones and achievements to celebrate, from our football state championship team, to our local priest’s 50^th anniversary of his ordination, to the resurgence of Bookstock, to local artists and authors who released their latest works, to this year’s graduates, to a pair of brothers who achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, to the dedication and resilience shown by those remarkable protesters in Woodstock. Even the announcement of plans for a new performing arts center, and the sighting of low-flying military planes over Woodstock. Those stories aren’t easy or inexpensive to cover, but like the journalists at the Standard who were our predecessors throughout those many, many years, it’s our solemn responsibility to inform the public about the public’s business, the very best we can.

Indeed, we can, primarily because we now have the support of hundreds of residents and readers who truly understand and value what quality local journalism does — and has always done — for our community here. They respond to our annual appeal each year. They keep us afloat. They keep us encouraged. They harden our resolve to try ever harder to serve this community and this local democracy. We count on all of you.

Oftentimes, I’ve asked individual donors, “What can we possibly do to thank you for your generosity?” And, to a person, they always say, “Just keep putting out a darn good newspaper.”

In appreciation for you, our friends, the Standard has only one single objective and guiding light going forward: to keep trying to put out a better and better paper each week in service to this community.

You can count on us.

As we begin this year’s annual appeal, we are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can give us. Our mission is quite urgent, of course, and Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or (802) 457-1313.

We sincerely hope you’ll join us in our mission by contributing to this year’s 2025 annual appeal.

Also, if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 93-3287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity so your gift will be fully tax-deductible.

Your donation will be utilized in the form of project grants to support the Vermont Standard’s mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance.

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at www.thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

By Dan Cotter, publisher

A huge sigh of relief and a fist pump were my first reactions, as well as a gaze skyward as I mouthed the words “thank you!” The tears welling up in my older friend’s eyes were his response when I told him.

Then we shared a long, hard hug.

After lots of research and preparation, and then six months of waiting for the application to be processed, Phil Camp and I recently learned that the IRS has approved the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation’s application for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) and deemed the Foundation to be a public charity.

The approval wasn’t in much doubt, really. But now it’s official.

The Foundation was established last August and it is primarily dedicated to preserving the Vermont Standard and its role in informing citizens and supporting democracy in our area well into the future. The Foundation has a board made up of local residents who care deeply about our community and the value local journalism provides. Phil and I are on the board too. Together, we’re working to keep the 171-year-old Vermont Standard going while taking steps to position the paper’s print and digital journalism for long-term sustainability.

Recognizing the critical role the Standard plays in informing and connecting our community, this Foundation wants to avoid letting our area become a “news desert,” as has happened in hundreds of other places throughout the US in recent years. Newspapers like the Standard are currently dying off at a pace of 2.5 per week. Nor do we want to end up like the hundreds of cities and towns where profit-seeking corporations that have no devotion to the public welfare have acquired their local paper and stripped it of its resources, to the point that it is only a pathetic shadow of its former self and incapable of doing its job.

Providing accurate, credible, reliable news and information to its audience is a local news organization’s primary role. A functioning democracy requires an informed, engaged public. The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation’s board members, advisors and friends will help Phil and I in our mission to raise enough money to keep quality journalism flowing here.

So, I’m glad to report that any donation you’ve made to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation to support the Standard’s mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance is indeed tax-deductible dating back to the inception of the Foundation in late August 2023, as all donations will be going forward.

At 88 years old, Phil feels a real sense of urgency about making sure that our community will always have local journalism – especially given the 40+ years he’s dedicated to leading the paper and his unrivaled love for Woodstock and its surrounding towns. We know we’re in a race against the clock. But now, with the Foundation’s charity status and your tax deduction confirmed, we hope there will be even more support from donors and family foundations that will help us accomplish this very important mission.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your encouragement and generosity. If you would like to contribute to our Annual Appeal, please send us a check at PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at https://thevermontstandard.com/annual-appeal/ to make a contribution with your credit card. Please be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

“View From Here”

By Sandy Gilmour, Woodstock resident

If you are reading this column right now, that’s good news for the community. It means you probably paid for this paper, hard copy or online, maybe even made a donation to it, and value its contribution to our lives in Woodstock and surrounding areas. We are so fortunate to have the Vermont Standard week in and week out. For years, small-town dailies and weeklies have been closing their doors, leaving communities without a soul. Papers like the Standard are dying off at the rate of two per week across America. 

Such towns are called “news deserts.” Imagine weeks, months and years going by with no professional reporting on selectboards, trustees, school boards, taxes and roads. Zero stories about public school events, sports, student accomplishments, obituaries, gardening tips, neighborly cooking advice, local history, and no reports from towns from Brownsville to Pomfret. 

We would know next to nothing about the interminable Peace Field Farm restaurant delay, the Ottauquechee Trail head fiasco, the high-stakes Woodstock Foundation controversy and the fatal shooting off Central Street, including the bravery of Woodstock Police Sgt. Joe Swanson. In my view, these stories have been really well reported. 

To not get these stories delivered to us every week would be a news desert right in verdant Woodstock, for sure, a gaping hole left to be filled by rumor and mis- and dis-information, the precursors of community dissolution. So we are blessed indeed to have had the Vermont Standard around — nonstop — since 1853, and owned by beloved Woodstocker Phil Camp, now 87, since 1981. 

But as Mr. Camp has pointed out many times over the years, the paper’s solvency hangs on a thread and now more than ever. In hundreds of towns across America, owners, beleaguered by losing subscribers and advertising to social media, simply folded or sold out to hedge funds and private equity firms, whose investors are bereft of community values. Not Phil Camp. He has always said, “I never sold out. I’m never giving up.” He made up for past deficits (difference between expenses, like staff, and income from subscriptions and ads) out of company savings from better times, week after week. He stayed with it after being flooded out by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and being burned out by the Central Street fire of 2018 (taking out his camera and snapping photos of the flames and rubble).

The paper was in dire straits when COVID hit, saved by the forgiven federal PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans through 2021, when the largesse ended. Then beginning in January 2022, the community stepped up, responding to a fundraising appeal. I was rather stunned to learn from the Standard’s publisher, Dan Cotter, that the paper’s annual shortfall of $150,000-$200,000 is being covered by donations from local Woodstock residents. There are many (and appreciated) donations in the $50-$100-$200 range, but really heavy lifting is being done by donors of means who, Mr. Cotter says, highly value the contribution local journalism makes to communities. Several of these more-than-generous and anonymous donors contribute $20-25,000 and more — each — and, Mr. Cotter says, without any hint of trying to influence coverage. Without them, surely there would be no Vermont Standard in the mailbox or online, just the unreliable grapevine. At the same time, the paper is moving to create other revenue streams, including an online advertising app for Woodstock happenings and a magazine, in addition to improving thevermontstandard.com website for go-to news. 

Still, the operation is bare bones. It seems to me a miracle the paper “hits the streets” without fail every Thursday with some pretty good and important stories that we need to know about, and many features that are good to know about. And there are just two, count them, two, full-time staffers who report stories: the seasoned and prolific Tom Ayres, and Tess Hunter, who is also the managing editor. Ms. Hunter says reporter staffing is the big issue; she has on hand freelance contract reporters that can be assigned to stories if they are available and if they want to spend the evening at yet another unexciting if important selectboard meeting. “It’s a constant juggling act,” Ms. Hunter told me, “between finding the right person for the story and just getting people to say ‘yes.’” Still, she is committed, saying, “Without us making the attempt, there would be no common base of understanding and little sense of the community spirit of the area or the hard news happening within it.”

Volunteer contributors are crucial; regular community writers like Jennifer Falvey (insightful musings on life) and Kurt Stauder (pointed political observations) are popular. Mary Lee Camp’s business column is relentlessly informative. 

Other key staff are listed in the box below — lean and spare!

Publisher and editorial content director Dan Cotter, 64, hired by Mr. Camp in 2018 after years of informal consulting for the Standard, is not a household name in Woodstock, though he is hands-on every issue. He owns a condo in the area and is here about half the month, returning to his home and wife in Chicago for the remainder. He has decades in the industry as an executive and consultant, was head of the New England Newspaper and Press Association, and takes a no-nonsense hard line on newspaper independence and objectivity. It’s an unusual situation but Mr. Camp, still the president of the company, has total confidence in Mr. Cotter and has turned over the Vermont Standard, its operation, assets and its future, to his close friend. Mr. Camp has indeed not “given up,” but hopes to ensure his dear newspaper’s future with this arrangement. 

So where does the Standard go now? Around the country, journalists are reinventing newspapers and online reporting. The most promising seems to be the non-profit model, where deductible contributions from community-minded supporters can be made even as the publication accepts subscription fees and what advertising there is left. There are indications that the Standard is moving in this direction, and the sooner the better, in my view. When I pressed Publisher Cotter on the issue, he responded with this very encouraging comment: 

“In the past couple of years, members of the community have literally kept the Standard alive with their donations — and a handful of them have given very substantial sums, even without the benefit of a tax break. That’s how much they value the role our local journalism plays in the quality of life in our area. We are working now to put the paper on a path to where donors could indeed have a tax benefit. For it is essential to our democracy and our own survival that we have the financial support we need from the community to maintain a news organization — modest as it is — that’s capable of producing good local journalism that adequately informs our citizens.”

I can’t imagine Woodstock without the Vermont Standard. The new business model provides great hope the paper will not only survive but as a Woodstock-based non-profit, continue to expand coverage to benefit all of us in this great community. 

Note: This (unpaid) column originated with me alone! 

Sandy Gilmour is a retired NBC News correspondent who lives in Woodstock.

Throughout the country newspapers are in a fight for their lives.          Here too.

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