A Vermont Superior Court judge heard legal arguments on Tuesday concerning whether the Village of Woodstock and municipal manager Eric Duffy were justified in demoting police chief Joe Swanson to patrol officer. 

Judge Kerry Ann McDonald-Cady said at the conclusion of the three-hour hearing that she would like to rule promptly, but noted by the nature of the complex case that it might take as much as 90 days — a self-imposed deadline she gives herself in major cases. 

“It’s not something that will be done in a week,” McDonald-Cady said about her expected decision, which will be provided in writing. “It’s a big project for the court,” the former state prosecutor said.

In Swanson’s first appeal last year, Judge H. Dickson Corbett overturned the March 2025 Woodstock Trustees’ demotion ruling. Tuesday’s hearing is an appeal of the second hearing held in March of this year by the trustees, in which they once again ruled to demote Swanson.

It is likely that the losing side, no matter who, will appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court. 

Burlington lawyer John Klesch, who is representing Duffy and the village, said Tuesday after the hearing that he was pleased with the way the arguments went, and now it is a matter of waiting for the written decision. 

Swanson’s lawyer, Linda Fraas, said she also was pleased with how the hearing played out and the objections she voiced over the village’s arguments.

 “As discussed in the hearing, the village has told the court that even if the court finds violations of contract, violations of statute, or other unlawful acts, the court should not disturb the judgment of manager Duffy and the trustees regarding the removal of Chief Swanson,” she said.

She added, “We are pleased that the court ruled that the village cannot introduce new accusations to further its goal, including the allegation that Chief Swanson is somehow unfit due to his work-related spine surgery from which he is still recovering. We believe the evidence supports a reversal of the second unlawful demotion and look forward to the court’s ruling.” 

During her nearly one hour of arguments, Fraas focused partly on the lack of due process and discrimination that she said Swanson has seen in the case.

Fraas noted that Swanson has faced discrimination throughout the case. She said Swanson was unable to attend the recent demotion hearing by the village trustees due to the spine surgery, and was denied his request for a delay by hearing officer Brian Monaghan. 

Fraas focused in part on three village trustees that she said had apparent conflicts of interest, but refused to step aside. 

Klesch hammered away at what he said was egregious conduct by Swanson. He said much has been made about Swanson wearing non-matching socks, having a messy office, getting his haircut on village time, and not telling dispatchers where he was going at times, but there were other issues. 

He also disputed claims by Fraas that “everything was decided in advance.”

Klesch maintained the Swanson appeal was based on “a lot of suppositions.” He said the burden of proof was on Swanson to prove his claims.

Klesch said in the end, the village had shown there was cause for Swanson’s removal.

The village trustees voted 5-0 earlier this year to support Duffy’s decision to demote the chief. Swanson appealed the demotion as groundless. 

For our full story on this, please see our July 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

The Pomfret Selectboard is seeking to fill another vacancy on the five-member governing body, occasioned by the resignation of four-term board member Steve Chamberlin, effective June 18. 

Chamberlin’s departure comes in the wake of the selectboard vacancy on the five-member board that arose in May, when selectperson Marge Wakefield died. The Pomfret governing body subsequently chose former selectboard member Eric Chase to replace Wakefield.

Interested eligible voters of the Town of Pomfret who wish to be considered for appointment to the selectboard must submit a letter of interest via email to [email protected] by noon on Monday, July 13. Prospective candidates may also deliver their letters of interest directly to the town office at 5218 Pomfret Road, Pomfret, Vt. 05053. The selectboard expects to fill the seat at its regular meeting on Wednesday, July 15. The three-year board slot is up for reelection at Town Meeting next March.

Chamberlin had 10 months remaining on his three-year term on the selectboard when he stepped down last month. He was in his fourth term on the board, having previously served two one-year terms and a three-year term prior to his most recent stint on the governing body. Chamberlin offered no reasons for his departure when he initially resigned, but in a phone conversation with the Standard on Tuesday morning, the veteran selectperson elaborated on his reasons for leaving the elected post. Chamberlin cited what he believes are selectboard-approved deviations from a long-term capital plan for the town and what he termed “pre-determined decisions” sometimes made by the board during executive sessions.

For more on this, please see our July 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

A new, innovative solar array is powering both the Bridgewater Volunteer Fire Department fire station and the Bridgewater Community Center (BCC) — which houses Bridgewater Community Childcare — thanks to the larger and newly completed eight-year Bridgewater Sustainability & Resiliency Project.

Michael Caduto, the former executive director of Sustainable Vermont who worked with Charles Shackleton on behalf of the BCC to lead the project, told the Standard this week, “This solar electricity system, which is the capstone on the entire project, is a unique and innovative energy microgrid project that Green Mountain Power and Efficiency Vermont are using as a model for other towns.” The project is labeled a microgrid because the solar-generated energy is used directly by the two local buildings, with any surplus fed back into the electrical grid and applied as credits toward future utility bills.

The 59.84 kW (DC) solar array is innovative in that it generates power for two buildings — the fire station and the BCC. “What we really wanted to do was make it so that the power generated by the array, which is on the firehouse roof, is actually being used by the two buildings. It is set up so that there’s 42 kilowatts of electricity going to the BCC. Thirty percent of the power is going to the fire station, and 70 percent is going to the community center,” said Caduto, “proportions based on the average annual usage of each building.” “There are direct current cables running underground from the fire station to the community center. The power is converted to alternating current at the community center, so the power is being used by the two buildings,” he added.

“The main goal was to make the community center building net-zero energy-efficient. However, we were also able to supply the full electrical needs of that and the fire department. It may also be possible to transfer excess solar credits to the town offices,” said Shackleton, who was a Bridgewater Area Community Foundation (BACF) board member while collaborating with Caduto on essential fundraising, project planning, and community support. 

Caduto said, “Early on, we decided to make it a historic project, so everything had to be done under the guidelines of the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and National Park Service guidelines, in terms of preserving woodwork, ceiling, [and] floors. When you walk into the building, it looks like a great restored version of what was originally built. Yet behind all of that, the systems are state-of-the-art energy systems, as a result of the sustainability and resiliency project.”

“In my mind, the beauty of this project, apart from the very obvious and important need for a sustainable energy source, is an iconic example for other small towns, in Vermont and globally, how to become self-sufficient energy-wise. Michael [Caduto] was able to obtain much help from state entities — particularly Efficiency Vermont engineers — making the community center building more energy efficient, especially regarding the heating, cooling, hot water, and electrical systems,” said Shackleton.

For more on this story, please see our July 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Selectboards in Hartland and Pomfret have scheduled the second of two statutorily required public hearings on proposed revisions to their respective town plans.

The Hartland Planning Commission (HPC), in consultation with the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC), has been working on the latest iteration of the local plan for the last three years. The HPC held its own second public hearing on a draft of the 2026 Hartland Town Plan in April, then passed it on to the selectboard for two public hearings before that body, the first of which took place on June 1. Following that hearing, the town selectboard returned the draft plan to the HPC for further revisions in collaboration with TRORC. The current, working version of the plan will be the focus of a second public hearing before the town governing board this coming Monday, July 6, at Damon Hall, the municipal office building, at 1 Quechee Road in Hartland, beginning at 6 p.m. The hearing will also be streamed via Zoom.

Presuming that there are no further revisions to the plan required following public comments on July 6, the Hartland Selectboard is expected to okay it at its regularly scheduled bimonthly public meeting, which will follow the second hearing at 7 p.m. 

On Wednesday, July 15, at 7 p.m., at the Pomfret Town Hall, the selectboard will hold what has been officially noticed as a “final public hearing” on that municipality’s proposed revisions to the current town plan. The gathering will be the second public hearing before the Pomfret Selectboard, following two such statutorily mandated hearings before the Pomfret Planning Commission (PPC).

Unless further revisions to the 2026 Pomfret Town Plan are required as a result of public comments heard at the July 15 hearing, the selectboard is expected to pass the final draft version of the revised plan as presented.

For more on this, please see our July 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

July 3rd and 4th were busy days in Brownsville, as the Independence Day Committee planned a packed schedule of celebratory activities. Events began on Mount Ascutney on July 3 with music by the Firehouse Dixieland Band and fireworks at dusk. On July 4, the day got underway with a 1976-to-2026 time-capsule event at 8:30 a.m., followed by a bike parade and lawn games at the Albert Bridge School, a community breakfast, food, music and crafts, and The Grand Brownsville Independence Day Parade at 1:30 p.m.

Pamela R. White Photo

Hartland hosted its annual Old Home Day last weekend, which began with a tractor pull at 8 a.m. at the Hartland Recreation Center followed by a book sale at the Hartland Public Library. A parade started at 10 a.m. at the Fire Station, and vendors and live music from Gerry Grimo and The East Bay Dixieland Jazz Sextet awaited celebrants at the Rec Center at 11:30 a.m.

Rick Russell Photos

Over the weekend, Woodstock residents celebrated July 4th and America’s 25oth anniversary with a collection of fun and engaging events inluding the first annual Firecracker 5K along the Ottauquechee River trail, the annual Fourth on the Farm event at Billings Farm & Museum, a wreath-laying ceremony hosted by the Thomas Chittenden chapter of The Daughters of The American Revolution, a kid’s bike ride, and fireworks.

Rick Russell and Pamela R. White Photos

By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer

It’s the rare child who, at an early age, knows exactly what they want to do in life.

For an internationally celebrated network newsman who retired to Woodstock with his wife and fellow journalist, Karen, 20 years ago, there was no question, even at the earliest age: Craddock Matthew “Sandy” Gilmour would be a broadcaster, either spinning records on the radio for avid music fans or bringing major news and public affairs stories to a diverse array of devoted listeners and viewers.

Gilmour, 83, who died of respiratory failure in the early morning hours of June 16, following complications from a heart procedure, was forever in search of music and stories, simple and profound, that illuminated the often disturbing but also joyous aspects of the human condition. The oldest of six sons raised by his namesake, attorney and businessman Craddock M. Gilmour Sr. and his wife, Jessica Roberts Gilmour, young Sandy parked himself in front of a microphone as a teenager, emulating his cultural hero, the legendary American radio and television journalist and interviewer Edward R. Murrow.

“Sandy first entered the journalism and broadcast field of sorts as a 15-year-old or perhaps even younger,” Gilmour’s younger brother, Ridge, 73, remembered fondly on Sunday afternoon. “He built a broadcast desk in a back room [of the house] where we lived in Holiday, Utah, and he had speakers strewn up all around. He would broadcast just to the family, playing 45 records and so on. And he was a part-time disc jockey at a [local] radio station [in the Salt Lake City area] called KMUR when he was still in high school. He’s the one brother who knew what he wanted to do, apparently from day one.”

Instinctively drawn to a microphone, a camera, and the fine arts of storytelling and reaching across seemingly insurmountable cultural divides, Sandy Gilmour was to embrace a 60-plus-year career that took him to Beijing when China first opened up to Western journalists in the late 1970s through the startling U.S. invasion of the tiny Caribbean island nation of Grenada in November of 1983 to the perestroika years of the Russian politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Along the way, Sandy Gilmour brought an unwavering commitment to the betterment of humanity and a deep-seated knowledge of contemporary issues to every story, however minor or major, that captured his all-encompassing imagination and that of his attentive listeners and viewers.

* * * * * *

Margaret Ershler was a field producer for the Atlanta bureau of CBS News when she first met Sandy Gilmour and his wife, Karen [Van Meter] Gilmour. The couple, both journalists — Sandy in the broadcast world and Karen in print — settled into their new environs in Georgia in mid-1983, shortly after Sandy wrapped up a stint with NBC News in China as one of the first American journalists permitted to report from the country at the height of the reign of infamous Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong.

“I was a producer in the CBS News Atlanta bureau when Sandy and Karen joined the community. Sandy became a correspondent there in 1983, and we worked together,” Ershler, who went on to a long career with CBS in Washington, D.C., recalled in a phone conversation with the Standard last weekend. “There were at that time four or five correspondents and four or five producers, and we covered everything that happened basically within the Southeast — that was our territory, which covered a lot of ground, both physically and topic-wise, including into the Caribbean Basin.”

Ershler reflected on the journalistic acumen of her colleague and close friend of 40-plus years.“ The thing about Sandy is that the professional was personal,” she offered. “It was his enthusiasm, his curiosity, that made him the correspondent that he was. That extended to his personal interests as well — piloting aircraft, rowing, his music, his Porsche,” Ershler continued. “When you added that to his talents as a researcher and a writer — those are things he developed — he had this ability to get a story across. You’ve got to have that on camera, or it’s not going to work. At the same time, after everything that he’d already done by the time he got to us, with his time in China with Karen and everything, he could talk to people — everyday people — and make them come across on camera. You’ve got to make them come alive on camera to be able for them to tell their story to you.”

Underlying all that expertise as a broadcast journalist, Gilmour also possessed an abiding sense of humanity, Ershler noted. Sandy and Karen, who survives him and who is currently a resident of Mertens House in Woodstock, shared that humanist perspective on life, both personally and professionally. “They each cared about the same things,” Ershler said of her longtime friends. “They both cared a lot about what they did. I think that made a whole lot of difference because in Beijing [with NBC News] and later in Moscow [where Sandy was the CBS bureau chief during the Gorbachev years], their home life was their business life. They were there 24/7 with one another, under constant observation by the authorities,” she added, noting that Karen Gilmour reported for the Associated Press from both Beijing and Moscow.

“When you’re hopping around and traveling between bureaus, it puts a lot of strain on a relationship,” retired CBS News field producer continued. “The nice thing about Karen was that she understood what the job was — and I think that’s why their relationship was such a good one. They had the same professional goals — the goals were the same in both their professional and personal lives. That’s what made the difference for them: a lot of news marriages from those days did not make it, but theirs was a strong and loving relationship that lasted more than 50 years,” Ershler concluded.

* * * * * *

Shortly after Sandy Gilmour joined the Atlanta bureau of CBS News in 1983, he hooked up with a fledgling field producer more than a dozen years his junior for what would prove to be one of the most intriguing and fateful assignments of their broadcast careers: covering the late 1983 coup in Granada and the subsequent U.S. government “occupation” of the island nation, ostensibly to “rescue” a coterie of American faculty members and medical students then teaching and studying at the St. George’s University School of Medicine, located on the outskirts of the Grenadian capital.

Exploring her uncle’s laptop computer in the wake of his passing last month, Sandy Gilmour’s niece, Katrina Revenaugh, came across a snippet from a former news aggregating website, neparstek.com, that Sandy had stored among hundreds of items he’d archived about his broadcast news exploits over the years. “On Wednesday,” the missive read, “CBS correspondent Sandy Gilmour chartered a plane and got the first non-government-supplied pictures of Naval activity around Grenada before he was chased away by American jet fighters. Others who chartered boats to Grenada were warned away by shots fired from U.S. Navy aircraft and arrested if they reached the island. Even ham radio operators in the United States received pointed reminders from the FCC about rules against news organizations using their frequencies to conduct interviews.”

Margaret Ershler fortuitously connected the Standard with another of her longtime colleagues from the Atlanta bureau days: Rome Hartman, who went on to spend the majority of his career with CBS News before retiring a year ago as a senior producer with “60 Minutes.” In a phone call with the Standard last Saturday, Hartman confirmed the veracity of Gilmour’s archived report about their paired journey to the Grenadian occupation zone.

“Sandy was there as a correspondent in the Atlanta bureau when I arrived, so we worked together on some stories in the first several months of my time there. But our most significant collaboration was when the coup happened,” Hartman reported. “Maurice Bishop, who had been the prime minister, was unseated and replaced by these coup leaders, and CBS News decided, I guess because [President] Reagan had made an issue of the fact that this airport in Grenada was a national security threat [because of the coup’s ties to Cuba], that we’d better get a team down there. Frankly, I don’t think they really thought there was going to be much of a story.”

That assumption turned out to be inaccurate, although coverage of the Grenadian coup and its aftermath was initially eclipsed by one of the earliest and most impactful terrorist strikes on American interests in the Middle East — the attack on U.S. military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed more than 250 soldiers that same week 43 years ago.

“Sandy and I were dispatched, along with a camera crew from Atlanta, and we flew down. We attempted to fly to Grenada, but the coup leaders prevented us from landing. They had actually put barrels on the runway to prevent planes from landing,” Hartman recollected. “The big new airport had not yet opened. This was on the little airstrip further up [on the island]. The closest we could get that first day was Barbados. So we set up to start working from Barbados, [where] we found a workspace in the cable and wireless building on the island, and spent the next couple of days trying to figure out how to get into Grenada,” he noted. “Sandy was much more experienced than I was at that point — he was 13 years older than I was at the time, while I was still pretty raw. He and Karen had been in China for several years only months before that.

“You know the way the news business works when there’s a huge story like the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut: everybody’s attention at CBS News and a lot of resources were directed to covering that story,” Hartman continued. “I remember that the foreign editor at CBS at the time was Peter Larkin, and he told Sandy and me that he was going to pull us out of the Grenada story. He said, ‘The only story that anybody cares about right now is over in Lebanon. We need the resources, and we need to get you home, because nobody cares about this little coup in Grenada,’” Hartman stated. “I remember Sandy asking Peter to give us more time, because we were seeing some unusual activity at the airport here in Barbados. ‘We’re seeing military transports land, and they appear to be American military planes,’” Sandy said. “He had a nose that told him that something was up, and he convinced Peter Larkin to let us stay there and continue to report for another day or two: I believe the barracks bombing was on Saturday, and I believe the invasion — Reagan’s invasion of Grenada — was Tuesday, three days later. If not for Sandy’s instincts, we would have been on an airplane headed home, but instead we were still in Barbados, and we were suddenly covering a very big story.” The CBS crew, Hartman recalled, chartered a plane in Barbados and was eventually allowed to land in Grenada once the U.S. military had established control over the country. Sandy’s reporting on the aftermath of the coup and the U.S. occupation was among the first American news coverage to emerge from the respective Grenadian government and U.S. State Department embargoes on any news coming out of the beleaguered island nation.

Hartman was to work with Sandy Gilmour on multiple other news projects during their time together at the CBS Atlanta bureau. One such endeavor — on a human-interest topic of far less international import than the Grenadian story — nonetheless showcased Sandy’s storytelling skills and the humanitarian ethos that underscored much of his reporting over the decades.

“I remember Sandy and I made a feature about Defauskie Island, which is in the South Carolina Low Country,” Hartman recalled. “It is an historically Black island. There has been a lot of development there over the years, but at that time, the only way to get there was by boat. Developers were proposing big developments on Defauskie, and the African American residents there, most of them descendants of slaves from South Carolina plantations, were facing rising property tax bills that they couldn’t afford, so there was worry that they could lose their property,” the former field producer added. “I remember very well Sandy going up to the front porch of a house on the island — we had a cameraman with us — and asking a man, ‘Can I talk with you for a minute?’ The cameraman starts rolling, and the old man and Sandy start talking. The trouble is that Sandy is speaking English and the homeowner was speaking Gullah [the African-rooted dialect of the Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands], so there was a bit of a failure to communicate. But they managed to figure it out. It was absolutely Sandy’s idea to tell that story — and I was paired up with him to produce it.

“It’s exactly the kind of story that Sanday told best,” Hartman concluded.

* * * * * *

Katrina Revenaugh is the member of Sandy and Karen Gilmour’s extended family who has had the closest relationship with the couple over the years — especially during the time the pair spent in Woodstock for the past two decades. She is the couple’s niece — the daughter of Karen’s brother, John Van Meter. Revenaugh and Sandy’s brother, Ridge, rallied to Sandy’s side in Woodstock during his last days and continue to look after Karen as she remains living at Merten’s House.

Revenaugh sat down in the Gilmours’ Church Hill Road home just outside Woodstock Village last Friday, poring over dozens of family photographs and memorabilia from over the past 50-plus years while speaking about the impact her Uncle Sandy and Aunt Karen had on her life.

“I was the flower girl at their wedding in 1975, when I was just four years old.” Sandy and Karen had met in St. Louis a few years earlier, when Sandy was working for a television station there and Karen was a reporter with the St. Louis Dispatch. “When I was growing up, I would spend a good week with them at least once a year. They moved around a lot, with both of them working in the news business, so we would visit them in various places that they lived during that time. I remember that the biggest thing with both Karen and Sandy was exposing me to different cultures and cultural events — mainly music performances, plays, or a lecture. It was always a wonderful experience. When they lived in D.C., we would go to see the Capitol Steps perform. I did not have the opportunity to go with or visit them when they were in Russia, China, or London. But Ridge did visit them in China, so when you talk to Ridge, be sure to ask him about his experiences there.”

Sandy and Karen

Ridge Gilmour indeed shared remembrances of his time with Sandy and Karen in China. “I did go to visit him in 1983, shortly before he and Karen returned to the States,” Ridge recalled. “Sandy took some time off to spend a week with us, traveling around China. It was really incredible, because he knew the country and he knew how to work with the authorities. Back then, everybody wore the green or blue Mao suits, so it was a sea of blue and green, together with the hats with the red plastic star on them — the Mao hats. It was just fascinating. I was really grateful to have the chance to see China, with the opening of the Great Wall [to outsiders]. We also went to Xi’An and Shanghai and many other places in addition to Beijing.”

For her part, niece Katrina said her best memories of her aunt and uncle are rooted in Woodstock, “simply just sitting with them here in the house, around the fire, reading and talking. This was my favorite spot for memories ever since they moved up here from Washington, D.C. It was Bob and Honey Hager who introduced them to Woodstock. There were actually three couples who were all in the news business who retired here,” Revenaugh shared. “I just have so many fond memories throughout the years spent with them. Uncle Sandy was such a wonderful, caring person, always so interested in everything I was doing and very supportive.”

* * * * * *

Former NBC News luminary Robert “Bob” Hager returned to his native Woodstock with his wife, Honey, when he retired in the early 2000s. Within a few short years, the Hagers were joined in retirement in the community by two other NBC alumni — Sandy Gilmour and the late John Mathews, a veteran executive producer for the network. Hager remembered his dear friend and colleague of 46 years in remarks delivered at a memorial service last Wednesday at St. James Episcopal Church in Woodstock Village, and again in a phone conversation with the Standard last Sunday morning.

“Sandy was a good pal,” Hager told the attendees at the memorial service. “There were three of us from NBC who retired to Woodstock at roughly the same time — Sandy, the late John Mathews, and myself — and I’m proud, as a Woodstock native, to have lured the other two couples to retire here. We were a kind of the Three Musketeers. palled around, joined by our three wives — and maybe enjoying our evening cocktails just a little too much (or at least the wives would have you think that). We lost John and his wife a few years ago, lost my wife four months ago. . .and now, sadly, we’ve lost Sandy.

“One of the great privileges of a career in journalism is that you get to see some important events. Sandy and Karen met covering a jailbreak in St. Louis (he for local TV, she for a newspaper). Sandy and I met first in 1979, covering a hurricane in Mobile, Alabama,” Hager recalled. “Not long after that, [Sandy] was one the first U.S. reporters allowed into Beijing after the opening of China, and he was in Moscow during the fading days of the Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachev was experimenting with perestroika. He accompanied Soviet troops fleeing Afghanistan when the Taliban forced the U.S.S.R. out. He was there, a member of what they called the Pentagon Pool of reporters allowed to cover President Ronald Reagan’s armed invasion of the Caribbean Island of Grenada.”

Hager said that on a personal level, he and Honey cherished traveling with the Gilmours in more recent years, taking trips to Alaska, central Europe, and “Sandy’s beloved Scotland.” He recalled a trip to Alaska, remembering that Sandy was “clueless about grizzly bears. I had to coach him to be careful in the woods.” Hager also delighted in sharing stories about the “dreamer side of Sandy,” whether it involved his banjo, his Porsche, or taking him to football games in Washington. “He hated football, but I made him go. I’d have to watch him every minute or he’d wander off from our seats and get lost.

“So long, my Good Buddy. We’ll miss you down here. But you did give us some good times,” Hager said, capping off his eulogy last week.

* * * * * *

One of Sandy’s closest friends and confidantes in Woodstock — retired computer operations specialist Charlie English — also remembered Gilmour at the memorial service last week. English added a musical and poetic touch to the many reminiscences about Sandy that have reverberated throughout the community since the veteran journalist’s passing last month. He spoke about his friend during a phone conversation with the Standard last Saturday.

“My late wife and I met Sandy and Karen soon after they arrived here,” English said. “I met him through the Round Table organization that we both belonged to, which got together every Monday at the Woodstock History Center with a brown-bag lunch, just to visit. After we were together awhile, we realized that we were both musicians — I’m not in the same column as he was, but I do like to pick around a little bit, so we became good friends and would play together with a group of others at the Thompson Senior Center on Thursday mornings, just strumming and trading off songs, mostly folk music on mandolin and guitar, things like that.”

English remembered that Sandy was especially supportive of him when his wife, Kathy, was succumbing to cancer several years ago. “When he learned that Kathy had started home hospice, he would come by and sit with her and play some tunes. That’s just the kind of guy that he was. There were two different Sandys: the world traveler and the other Sandy, who got to know you on a very personal level — we just hung out together, played music, and shared good times with our families.

Concluding his remarks about his friend at last week’s memorial gathering, Charlie English quoted from the opening lines of one of Sandy’s most cherished songs — “Ripple,” written by the Grateful Dead’s late founder and legendary guitarist, Jerry Garcia, and his songwriting partner, Robert Hunter:

“If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine

And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung

Would you hear my voice come through the music?

Would you hold it near as it were your own?

“I ended my remarks by saying, ‘Sandy, we will. We will hold your voice near, as it were our own,’” Charlie English said, his voice roiled with fondness and emotion.

Editor’s note: Sandy capped his distinguished journalism career during his retirement here in Woodstock by writing powerful opinion columns published in the Vermont Standard over the past several years.

Billings Farm & Museum’s first-ever 5K Milk Run, a family-friendly walk or run winding through pastures and paths on the farm, took place last Saturday morning and featured live music along the route and milk and cookies at the finish line. Dairy-themed prizes were awarded for top finishers and best dressed. The run was followed by the Farm’s annual Dairy Celebration.

Courtesy of Billings Farm & Museum

For more than three decades, fabled local bar band The Gully Boys has been rocking local watering holes such as the former Bentley’s in Woodstock Village, Windsor Station, the one-time Seven-Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon and, more recently, the Ottauquechee Yacht Club in Woodstock’s East End.

An entertainment staple in the region, the roots-and-folk-rock band has taken on many configurations over the 31 years since a group of party-hearty musicians who lived along Gully Road near the Woodstock-Pomfret line first came together to spearhead an impromptu vigil along a candle-and-torch-lit Quechee Gorge Bridge in August of 1995. The contemplative yet joyous assembly of the musicians, together with about 300 local music fans, marked the untimely passing a few days earlier of legendary Grateful Dead guitarist, songwriter, and psychedelic visionary Jerry Garcia.

Following the memorial get-together at the iconic gorge for the musical icon tha generations of “Dead Heads” knew simply as “Jerry,” Gully Boys founder and longtime frontman Bill Temple called up his then-employer at the former Seven-Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon, legendary New England craft brewing pioneer Greg Noonan, and asked if the nascent band could continue its first gig on stage at the brewpub later that evening. Noonan gave the spur-of-the-moment performance a favorable nod.

The rest is local musical history.

The new Gully Boys album, “Get Your Own Whistle Pig,” will be available for purchase at a special album release party with the band on Friday evening, July 17, at the Ottauquechee Yacht Club in Woodstock’s East End. Courtesy of James Brewer/Tin Pan Alley Records

The lyrical legacy of The Gully Boys continues to unfold with the release of a new single, “Baby, It’s You,” on major national streaming music platforms last Friday, June 26. The single will be one of 11 folk-rock and Americana-inflected cuts on the band’s soon-to-be-released new album, “Get Your Own Whistle Pig,” slated for nationwide release in September. But prior to the rest of the world getting a recorded taste of the group’s recent sounds, local fans of The Gully Boys are in for a special treat: the Ottauquechee Yacht Club Bar & Grill in Woodstock’s East End will host an album release party at the popular entertainment spot on Friday evening, July 17, beginning at 7 p.m. Advance CDs of the new Gully Boys album will be available at the gig. It’s only the second release of a recording by the band in three decades — and the first in 21 years.

The Gully Boys’ new album, “Get Your Own Whistle Pig,” showcases not only the band’s rootsy, delightfully eclectic grooves but also the sonic wizardry of veteran sound engineer and producer James Brewer, himself an off-and-on band member who has held forth on drums for the local rock icons. The album has evolved over the course of the past 14 years, with a bevy of the songs and instrumental accompaniment on the record having been put to masters in Brewer’s Connecticut studio after being recorded at various locations in Vermont over the course of the past year, including Vincent Freeman’s recording studio, The Underground, in Randolph. Every cut on the record is the product of Temple’s idiosyncratic, typically joyful songwriting — a departure from the covers of music by bands and artists such as the Dead, Little Feat, and Maine-based songwriting great Dave Mallett that characterized the Gully guys’ earliest years.

For more on this, please see our July 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Kelly Tabor was alone at her parents’ house in South Carolina, reviewing raw drone footage on a big-screen television, when something near the bottom of the frame caught her eye: a long, narrow shape rising and dipping in the water just behind a rowboat, propelling itself forward on what looked like a pair of flippers. The clip was nearly two years old, shot during a single month of filming on Lake Champlain’s Bulwagga Bay in July 2022. Tabor had seen it before, but this time, around the four-minute mark, something caught her eye.

“Oh my gosh, this has to be it,” she remembered thinking. She told the Standard that she was certain, in that instant, that she had finally found Champ — the lake creature long rumored to live in Lake Champlain. Tabor picked up the phone and called her creative partner, Richard Rossi, in California. “Richard, look at this,” she told him. “What do you think?”

That call came in 2024, and it took almost two years before the rest of the world saw the clip when it was picked up this month, unprompted, by The Daily Mail and The New York Post. Producers for the History Channel series “The UnXplained with William Shatner,” according to Rossi, called it the “most compelling” visual evidence of Champ since the famous 1977 Sandra Mansi photograph.

Richard Rossi, left, and Kelly Tabor, celebrate the Best Family Film win for “Lucy and the Lake Monster” at the Green Mountain Christian Film Festival. Courtesy of Richard Rossi

Tabor and Rossi have been friends for decades, since they met as university students in the 1980s. Rossi, a Hollywood actor and filmmaker, used to visit Tabor’s elementary school classrooms to talk with her students about writing and film. He noticed how the kids lit up whenever Tabor told them about growing up on Lake Champlain, hunting for Champ alongside her grandfather. 

The two began working on Champ projects when Rossi, newly a grandfather himself, started looking for a story to tell his granddaughters. He had also recently survived “a couple of life-saving surgeries,” he said. “It was a period that left me looking my mortality in the face.” Around the same time, he was performing onstage in Los Angeles as Lewis Carroll, who, Rossi said, “wanted to create a story, a classic story for children.”

The pieces clicked. He called Tabor, then living in Greenville, South Carolina, with an idea: a story about a grandfather and granddaughter searching for Champ together.

It was while shooting the film adaptation of their book, “Lucy and the Lake Monster,” in July 2022 that the viral footage was captured. 

For more on this, please see our July 2 edition of the Vermont Standard.

By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter

The Woodstock Recreation Center is offering a new swim program this summer that aims to prepare the next generation of swimmers.

The Introduction to Swim Team will be taught by coaches Lizzie Coehlo and Sarah Reiter and will focus on kids ages 5 to 12. According to Woodstock Recreation Center Executive Director Gail Devine, the program is the center’s first-ever attempt at this type of class and aims to meet a perceived need in the community. 

“It was created in direct response to families seeking a more accessible, low-pressure alternative to traditional league swimming,” she said in email correspondence. “The idea grew out of conversations with parents who wanted children to learn proper stroke technique and experience the fun and teamwork of swim meets without the significant barriers that previously limited participation, including the need for certified officials, large volunteer requirements, extensive data entry, added staffing, and rising league fees.”

The skills-based program will teach children the four competitive strokes (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle) while displaying proper technique. The season will culminate in a “fun meet” where kids can show off their progress.

“By shifting to an in-house introduction program, we remove these obstacles while keeping the parts families value most: skill development, confidence building, teamwork, and a fun end-of-session meet,” she said. “Our goal is to provide a positive and accessible swim team experience that welcomes new swimmers, supports returning swimmers, and fits the needs of our community.”

Both coaches are local parents who stepped up to lead the program. Coehlo is a mom of four who grew up competing in swimming and water polo. In college, she coached a swim team and taught summer lessons. “She is excited to teach kids new swimming skills while helping swimmers build confidence, develop a love for the sport, and have a positive team experience this summer,” said Devine.

Reiter is another local mom who discovered her love for the sport at age 6. She then went on to compete at the Division I collegiate level and internationally. According to Devine, she has traveled the United States coaching teams and is excited to pass on her skills and love for swimming to Woodstock’s youth. 

Learning to swim at a young age is not only fun but can also reduce the chance of water-based injury or harm. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning. With drowning being the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death for ages 5 to 14, swim lessons can save a life.

“Learning to swim at a young age is vital not only for safety but also for building confidence, physical literacy, and lifelong comfort in and around the water,” said Devine, “making this introductory program an important addition to Woodstock’s youth offerings.”

The program, which runs from July 7 to July 31, will hold practices on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 5-6 p.m. Enrollment fees are $140 for residents and $160 for non-residents. Early turnout has been promising, with 26 children already signed up. According to the Woodstock Recreation Center website, the first 25 enrolled will receive a swim cap on the first day of practice, with a second order of caps now being placed since the program has surpassed 25. Families can still enroll at woodstockvt.com.

By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter

Summertime is here, and with it comes American Legion baseball season.

Two teams in the region accept local area athletes: Post 31 out of Rutland and White River Junction’s Post 84. This year, two Wasps (Jake Blackburn and Drew Gallagher) have chosen to compete for Post 31. 

Post 31’s roster consists of 16 athletes from five schools surrounding Rutland, as well as two graduate athletes. Both Blackburn and Gallagher are in their second year with the program. “They are fantastic ball players and outstanding young men,” said head coach Connor Munukka. 

Munukka is in his second year as the team’s head coach, with prior junior varsity and middle school coaching on his resume. He leads one of Vermont’s most historically successful Legion ball units. “Rutland Post 31 has more state championships than any other team in the state (15). The most recent state championship was in 1997. The most recent appearance was 2016,” he said. 

So far this season, the team holds a 4-2 record and has earned the two-seed in their division with 12 games to play.

                                                             Drew Gallagher                                                                                                                               Jake Blackburn

Dylan Spencer heads up White River Junction’s Post 84 team. Post 84 pulls kids from their base school, Hartford High School, as well as kids from Oxbow, Thetford, Windsor, Woodstock, and White River Valley. According to Spencer, a majority of this year’s squad comes from Hartford or Thetford.

Spencer has been at the helm for six years and has led the team to the playoffs in five of those seasons. He said that in most of those years, the team has won at least one playoff matchup. According to him, the team could’ve made it that year too. “The one year we didn’t make it, we went 11-7 and were considered the four-seed,” he explained. “But, per Legion rules, the tournament’s host team qualifies. In a typical year, we would’ve made the playoffs.”

Post 84 was very competitive last year, taking the No. 1 seed in Vermont’s Southern Division. As of Monday night, the team was on a three-game slide following two one-run losses to Rutland Post 31 on Sunday. Currently, they are 3-3 in league play, 3-4 overall due to a loss last Friday to Lebanon, N.H.’s Post 22. 

The team is led by four key players, according to Spencer: Wyatt Chambers, Quinlan Grace, Miles Lawrence, and Xander Oshoniyi. Oshoniyi currently leads the team in batting average, has seven hits, and has multiple extra-base hits, which include a home run. “They are our four best pitchers and four best players,” he said.

American Legion Baseball is more than just the play on the field. According to the American Legion’s website, “American Legion Baseball has taught hundreds of thousands of young Americans the importance of sportsmanship, good health and active citizenship. The program is also a promoter of equality, making teammates out of young athletes regardless of their income levels or social standings. American Legion Baseball has been, and continues to be, a stepping stone to manhood for millions of young men who have gone on to serve their country or community, raise families or play the sport at the highest level.”

Both coaches spoke about how special the league is to them. “It means giving back to some of the people who have fought for the country,” said Spencer. “It takes a level of maturity to be a part of Legion baseball.” Spencer began playing Legion ball in eighth grade and played throughout high school. “It was always my favorite time of the year to play when I was playing,” he said. “The competition is better; you get everyone’s best players. You play almost every day, and I think the kids really enjoy that aspect.”

Munukka also played and holds fond memories. “I played four summers of Legion baseball,” he recalled. “I was blessed to have great coaches, incredibly talented teammates, and great fans at our home games.”He concluded with his reason for getting back involved. “The main reason that I took over as head coach was to try and give these athletes a good Legion experience,” he said. “One that they can look back on in five years and be proud of those long summer days.”

Michael D. Worth, 68, died on July 5, 2026 at the Mertens House in Woodstock.

A celebration of life is being planned for Saturday July 18, 2026. Details and a full obituary will follow in the next issue of the Vermont Standard.

The Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family, cabotfh.com.

Larry Morrison, 79, of Barnard, died peacefully Sunday morning, June 28, 2026 at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, surrounded by love.

Larry was born on Oct. 23, 1946 in North Adams, Massachusetts, to Howard and Audrey Pierson Morrison. Along with his seven brothers, he grew up in South Williamstown, Mass. He graduated from Mt. Greylock High School in the Class of 1964 and then attended the Charles H. McCann Technical School, completing an apprenticeship program for General Electric. This led to a 40 year career with General Electric, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin, first as a toolmaker, and then as a Numerical Control Programmer, writing computer programs to create tools for manufacturing blades for steam turbines.

In 1967, he married Kathleen Klahn and together they raised their two children, Kellie and David. Kathy passed away in 1995.

In 1997, Larry married Nancy Campbell and due to his work for General Electric they moved from Williamstown first to Burnt Hills, NY and then to Bangor, ME. When he retired in 2006, they moved to Barnard.

Larry was an adventurer. He loved hiking, camping, and walks on the beach. He and Nancy took two cross country motorcycle trips from Barnard to Alaska and back. In 2014 he discovered sailing with friends, snorkeling with sea turtles in Culebra and self-piloted canal boat trips in France, Germany, and Canada with friends.

He enjoyed helping others and used his self-taught construction skills to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. He and Nancy also volunteered at the Thompson Senior Center in Woodstock, delivering Meals and Wheels.

Larry was predeceased by his parents, his first wife Kathy, brothers Bob, Ward and Wayne, and sister-in-law Sharon. He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Nancy Campbell Morrison; his children Kellie and David Morrison; grandchildren Bryce, Torey, Sam, Abby, and Luke; his brothers Russell, Neil, Tom and Brad; his sisters-in-law Carol, Maura, Clare, Dale and Cathy; his many nieces and nephews; and his many dear and loving friends.

In accordance with Larry’s wishes, there will be no funeral. He wanted his friends and family to gather and share memories and refreshments. A celebration of Larry’s life will be held at The Thompson senior center in Woodstock on Saturday, Aug. 22, starting at noon with a time for remembrances beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Donations in Larry’s name may be made to the Thompson Senior Center, 99 Senior Lane, Woodstock, VT 05091.

An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

Harold Tilton “Scooter” Buck, Jr., 89, of Hinsonton died Monday, June 29, 2026 at his residence in Hinsonton.

 At the request of Mr. Buck, no services will be held.  His cremated remains will be placed in the family plot in the Bridgewater Corners Cemetery in Bridgewater Corners.

Born November 23, 1936 in Atlanta, Ga., Mr. Buck was the son of the late Harold Tilton Buck, Sr. and Katherine Gober Buck.  He was an outstanding athlete at Pompano Beach High School in Broward County, Fla., where he earned all-state basketball recognition and also played basketball and tennis in college. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corp. Mr. Buck was a retired school principal and an award winning artist. He was a member of Bridgewater Congregational Community Church of Bridgewater, and attended Burns Memorial Community Church of Cotton, Ga. 

Survivors include his wife of 36 years, his cheerleader, Grace Hinson Buck of Hinsonton;  two sons, Hal Buck and Rob Buck; two daughters, Sara Redmond and Katie Mitchell; two step-sons, David Ernest Green and Timothy Neil Green; seven grandchildren, Justin, Emily, Jack, Hannah, Molly, Riley, Cody; six great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to Burns Memorial Community Church, 4551 Stagecoach Rd, Meigs, GA 31765 or Bridgewater Congregational Community Church, PO Box 4, Bridgewater, VT 05034.   

Parker-Bramlett Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

To sign the online guest registry, visit our website at parkerbramlett.com.

Stephen passed away suddenly on June 18, 2026, from heart failure.

Stephen was born on Dec. 26, 1964, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Richard and Sally Godfrey. In 1966, the family moved to Killington to take advantage of the state’s progressive programs for individuals with special needs.

Stephen attended school at Steven Patrick Christian Manor in Randolph and Bancroft North in Owl’s Head, Maine. During the summers, he truly enjoyed his time at Silver Towers and Camp Thorpe. Known for his endearing personality and infectious sense of humor, Stephen made friends easily. He loved music of all kinds and took great joy in drawing pictures for friends to “to put on their refrigerators.”

Stephen was predeceased by his parents, Richard and Sally Godfrey. He is survived by his brother, James Godfrey; his sister-in-law, Eileen; his nephew, Lucas Godfrey; and his fiancée, Michelle Hudson. He also leaves behind Cynta and Gary Bryant, his buddy Mitchell, Janine Parker, Michelle and Alex Wigginton — all who cared for Stephen with much love and kindness. Stephen will be remembered by countless other friends and extended family members whose lives he touched.

The family requests that any memorial tributes in Stephen’s name be made in the form of contributions to: Zack’s Place Enrichment Center, 73 Central Street, Woodstock, VT. 05091

An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

A Funeral Service for William “Bill” Hall will take place Saturday July 11th at 1 p.m. at the Hall Family Cemetery on Gully Road in Woodstock. A reception will follow.

Brian Powell of Woodstock passed away peacefully at home on Monday, June 16, 2026.

Upon graduating from high school he was voted “best looking” in his class.

After graduating he joined the United States Navy for four years and was awarded a medal of honor for good conduct in 1963. While in the Navy he served as a radarman while on a ship. He was honorably discharged in September 1966. He was very proud to have served in the Navy and if you saw him out and about in town he most likely had a navy baseball cap on.

He went on to further his education by attending Orange County Community College to earn an Associates Degree in Applied Science in 1970. He continued his education at Alabama State College earning a Bachelor of Science degree with a psychology major and a biology minor.

He was a member of the Psi Chi Chapter of the National Honor Society in Psychology.

He worked as a photographer while at the Castle Point V.A. in New York. After moving to Vermont, he worked as a carpenter, car salesman, and restaurant manager.

Brian’s love for nature led him to start his own business: “Woodstock Llama Treks” taking tourists and locals on walks in the woods with the llamas carrying back packs. The trek would end with a picnic lunch looking out over views of the Vermont countryside.

Brian leaves behind a sister, Judy Kelley, a son Sean Powell, and a daughter Harpur Leigh Frahn.

Brian will be buried at the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Randolph, Vt. Arrangements will be listed and a guestbook hosted on the Cabot Funeral Home website cabotfh.com.

Craddock Matthew “Sandy” Gilmour, age 83, died of respiratory failure following complications from a heart procedure in the early morning of June 16 at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He was the oldest of six sons born to Craddock Matthew and Jessica Roberts Gilmour in Montclair, N.J.

Sandy graduated from Olympus High School and the University of Utah, where he wrote for the student newspaper and joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. After graduation, he studied modern European history for a year at Downing College, University of Cambridge, while freelancing for the Associated Press. While there, he landed a profile of Prince Charles, who was attending Trinity College. He was also a member of the rowing team — a sport he continued throughout his life.

He served as an Army lieutenant in Germany during the Cold War before returning to Salt Lake City to pursue a career in journalism. Beginning in high school and college, Sandy worked as a newsreader, disc jockey, and technician at local radio stations. After his military service, he became a television news reporter for the city’s ABC and CBS affiliates. 

In 1967, while reporting on civil rights demonstrations in Louisville for the Associated Press, Sandy covered a movement led by A.D. King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s brother, alongside a young boxer then known as Cassius Clay. During the demonstrations, Sandy briefly met Dr. King and was deeply struck by the moral strength and quiet authority he projected. Having attended the March on Washington in 1963, Sandy recalled Dr. King reflecting on the immense crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and his concern that some sought to diminish its significance by underestimating its size. Sandy never forgot the encounter or Dr. King’s steadfast leadership, which endured until his assassination one year later, shortly after delivering his prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

Early in his career, Sandy broke what may have been the first television story linking radiation exposure from atomic testing to cancer, interviewing a soldier who developed a fatal illness after being ordered to stand near an atomic test site. Sandy’s dogged reporting on similar cases brought national attention to the human cost of atomic testing and contributed to congressional investigations, court cases, and ultimately government acknowledgment of responsibility and compensation for victims.

Sandy later moved to St. Louis, Mo., to continue his reporting career. There, he met and married fellow journalist Karen Van Meter while the two were covering a city jail break. Their marriage was a loving partnership that endured for 51 years.

During his distinguished career, Sandy worked for both CBS and NBC News. At CBS, he covered the U.S. invasion of Grenada and international hostage crises. As an NBC bureau chief, he was among the first American broadcast journalists permitted to live and report from Communist China. While serving as bureau chief in Moscow, he became the only American correspondent to obtain footage of Mathias Rust, the young West German pilot who evaded Soviet air defenses and landed his small plane in Moscow’s Red Square. 

As a correspondent, Sandy covered Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and served as chief White House correspondent during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

After leaving television journalism, Sandy founded his own public relations firm and produced award-winning documentaries on industrial chemical fires and explosions for the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

Sandy and Karen retired to Woodstock, where they lived graciously and delighted in entertaining family and friends.

A proud Scot, Sandy wore the Gilmour tartan kilt on special occasions. He played the guitar, set poems by Robert Burns to melodies of his own composition, and was a regular at local jam sessions. Throughout much of his life, he was an active skier and a private pilot with commercial, multi-engine, instrument, and instructor ratings.

A lifelong lover of spirited debate and meaningful conversation, Sandy was an active member of the Round Table, a men’s group that met regularly for discussion and fellowship. Until his final illness, he wrote a regular column for the Vermont Standard.

Above all, Sandy was a gifted storyteller, a fearless journalist, and a devoted husband and friend whose curiosity, wit, and generosity enriched the lives of all who knew him. 

He is survived by his wife, Karen Gilmour; his brothers, William, Duncan, Ridgely, and Mark Gilmour; his nephew, Dr. Matthew Gilmour; and his nieces, Jessica Gilmour Cheng and Katrina Revenaugh. 

A celebration of Sandy’s life was held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24, at St. James Episcopal Church in Woodstock, Vermont. A second service will be held in Salt Lake City at a later date; details to be announced as they become available.

An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

Jean Day Rubin passed away on May 14, 2026, two days before her 95th birthday.

Jean Mae Houghtaling was born in New Berlin, N.Y. on May 16, 1931 to Hugh Foote Houghtaling and Beulah Elizabeth Dimorier. 

On graduating from Richfield Springs (NY) Central School in 1948, Jean went to work at Forman’s department store in Richfield Springs. Cliff and Lucy Forman mentored Jean in retailing, a vocation that shaped her life. Jean married William Moore Day in September 1953; the following year Bill enrolled at the University of Denver on the GI Bill, and the young couple headed west in their baby blue Nash Rambler. Daughter Cynthia Joyce arrived in February 1956, followed by son William Hugh in September 1958. After finishing his degree and working in sales for Skelly Oil, Bill decided to rejoin his father’s business, Day’s Farm Supplies, in Richfield Springs. Jean loved the West, and this was a tremendous blow, but as a young mother with two babies, she had no choice but to go along. 

In January 1961, Jean and Bill bought The Economy 5-center to $1 Store in Woodstock: a two-aisle, 1,200-square-foot variety store that carried everything from stationery to sewing goods to clothing, housewares, toys, records, candy, and more. Jean did much of the buying and merchandising, and Bill trusted Jean’s “gut” when big decisions had to be made. 

In 1974, Bill died from complications related to lung cancer surgery. In the years that followed, Jean’s imagination kept the two-aisle dime store relevant as national chains penetrated the state and tourism came to dominate life in Woodstock. Jean opened a second location in Quechee and brought in more ladies’ casual wear and exclusive Vermont-themed t-shirts. She worked hard and enjoyed life, traveling with girlfriends and finding a new love in Saul Rubin, whom she married in 1979. Jean and Saul threw extravagant Christmases for their blended families, added rooms to their West Woodstock house, organized multigenerational “gatherings of the clan,” and traveled extensively.

Thirty years after leaving Denver in tears, Jean finally put down roots in the West by buying a house with Saul in Green Valley, Arizona in 1987. Jean and Saul retired there in 1990, enjoying many new friends, concerts in Tucson, summer trips back East, travel with grandsons Loren and Brian, and cruises all over the world.

Throughout her life, Jean was a fierce champion for all women making their way in the world. She and Saul were generous benefactors to the educations of their children and grandchildren. Her love of reading, which began when she was a little girl with a book sitting under a tree on a summer’s day, was a constant throughout her life. 

Jean is survived by brother John D. Houghtaling; daughter Cynthia Normandeau (Andrew), son William H. Day (Paige Hartsell), and step-sons John Rubin (Kristina Carroll-Porczynski) and Bruce Rubin (Jane); grandsons Loren Normandeau (Meghan Lushbaugh) and Brian Normandeau (Samantha Casaz Normandeau); step-grandchildren Jessica Delgrosso (Dante), Sukha Hartsell-DuPont (RJ Stratton), and Vaughn DuPont; great-grandson Gavin Normandeau; and step-great-grandsons Luca and Remy Delgrosso. Jean was predeceased by brother James Houghtaling and husbands William M. Day and Saul Rubin.

Margaret “Peggy” Jaquith Chicklas, longtime South Alexandria, N.H., and former Gilmanton Iron Works librarian, passed away at home on Nov. 18, 2025, at the age of 89.

She graduated Woodstock High School in 1953, and married Fred Chicklas in fall of 1954. During the early ’60s they co-owned Dunkin’ Donuts shops in Agawam and Chicopee, Mass., with Fred’s brother, Nick.

Always the “cool” mom, she hauled the neighborhood kids camping, to the movies and Dairy Queen. A short stint as a driver of the Forest Park kiddie zoo’s Zoomobile, she brought critters like skunks, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits and even a spider monkey to local schools. Most of these critters stayed at our home at times, much to the chagrin of our dad.

She also brought home a dysfunctional rescue dog we named Dino, who became our best buddy. Locally, she did trail work, fostered numerous kitties and cats over the years.

She leaves behind two sons, Andrew and Tony, along with multiple generations of cousins, nieces and nephews.

Thanks for a great childhood, Mom. Love, Andrew and Tony.

A burial at Homeland Cemetery in Bristol, will be held at a later date.

Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services/603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, visit wilkinsonbeane.com.

Patricia “Patsy” Hume Highberg died peacefully May 28, 2026 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Born on Sept. 20, 1937, Patsy grew up in Vacaville and San Francisco, Calif., the oldest of four children of Jaquelin Holiday Hume and Caroline Elizabeth Howard. Her father built a successful business in California dehydrating onions and garlic during the Depression. Patsy’s upbringing was shaped by the outdoors and traveling. Among her earliest memories included adventures on horseback stopping to pick and eat figs and apricots directly from the trees.

Summers brought riding camps in Montana; family trips carried her to Greece, Egypt, Russia, France, Austria, Kenya, Tanzania, Italy, the Caribbean, and beyond. All these events and places planted a lifelong love for the natural world and the world at large. The world was varied and beautiful — and Patsy took it upon herself to protect and celebrate it.

After studying political science and art history at Smith College, she married her husband, Paul Highberg, and together they built a life full of travel, curiosity, and intention. Choosing not to have children, she poured her energy into causes and communities, from serving on the board of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut and Vermont for ten years to spearheading affordable housing projects in Woodstock through the Woodstock Community Trust. She also served on the board of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, where she was director from 1978 to 1983, working to shape legislation that would safeguard the environment she so cherished. Patsy was a strong advocate for MAID — Medical Assistance In Dying.

Patsy was driven by a lifelong passion to make a positive impact on the world. Of all her endeavors, perhaps none is more emblematic of her artistry and vision than her award-winning garden in Woodstock. A master gardener for decades and a member of the North American Rock Garden Society since 1972, Patsy designed her landscape to follow the land’s natural shape, creating seamless transitions from rock garden to woodland, from cultivated beauty to native forest. In 2012, she received the society’s prestigious Linc and Timmy Foster Millstream Garden Award, recognizing her work and the garden’s rockwork, rare perennials, dwarf trees, and its overall aesthetic harmony. Visitors often recalled how a walk through her garden felt like an unfolding story — full of surprise, thoughtfulness, and delight. A review of her garden in Rock Garden Quarterly called her design a“masterpiece” and “a perfect plan for a perfect garden.” It is an achievement of which she was deeply proud and which she cherished. Her knowledge of Latin names for the plants in her garden was impressive. She was a longtime member of the Woodstock Garden Club.

Patsy was also a gifted artist, painting and exhibiting vibrant watercolors, teaching photography, and always finding ways to capture the interplay of color, light, and form, proving that curiosity is ageless.

Patsy was predeceased by her parents, her husband, and her brother Jerry Hume. She is survived by her sister Carol Tolan, her brother George Hume along with many nieces, nephews and great nephews.

In Patsy’s memory, she would appreciate it if donations were made to Planned Parenthood, Sustainable Woodstock or Conservation Law Foundation.

A private celebration of Patsy’s life will be held at a later date.

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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.”

“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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