According to the latest legal filing in Vermont Superior Court, former Police Chief Joe Swanson maintains the Village of Woodstock continues to make groundless claims that his demotion as department head is warranted.

Attorney Linda Fraas, who represents Swanson, wrote last week in her reply brief that the village continues to seek the permanent removal of Swanson without just cause.

She said the village’s “rambling self-contradictory oppositional filing merely rehashes prior arguments in support of its non-existent ‘inherent right’ to demote Petitioner.”

Fraas said the village’s “arguments essentially center around the preposterous and legally invalid position best described as ‘that which is not prohibited is allowed.’”

Burlington attorney John Klesch, on behalf of the village, had recently submitted a legal brief to the court arguing that Swanson should not be reinstated as police chief in Woodstock.

Klesch wrote municipal manager Eric Duffy did not violate any state statute or employment agreement when he opted earlier this year to remove Swanson as chief. The Village Trustees heard Swanson’s appeal on March 19 during a 14.5-hour marathon session and a month later voted 5-0 to uphold the decision.

The village has said if the superior court vacates or reverses the decision by the trustees, the judge should still deny reinstatement of Swanson as chief. The village said it is glad to be heard about what it sees as the proper remedy instead of reinstatement.

Judge H. Dickson Corbett has set a hearing on the merits for Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 2:30 p.m. at Vermont Superior Court in Woodstock. It is likely Corbett could take the case under advisement and later issue a written ruling. 

Swanson has two civil legal proceedings against Woodstock.

He is appealing his demotion by Duffy from police chief to patrol officer. O’Keeffe said he has assigned Swanson to the overnight shift.

Swanson also has filed a $5 million civil lawsuit claiming an unlawful discharge from his job. The named defendants include the village, Duffy, Sgt. Chris O’Keeffe, and trustee chair Seton McIlroy. 

Judge Corbett has ruled the other four Village Trustees — vice chair Jeffrey Kahn, and members Brenda Blakeman, Frank Horneck, and Lisa Lawlor — along with the town of Woodstock, were immune from the lawsuit. Burgess Loss Prevention, which conducted an internal investigation for Duffy also is a defendant.

Duffy, who hired Swanson in July 2023 after a nationwide search, had placed him on paid administrative leave in October 2024 for being present at a traffic incident involving two drivers, including Swanson’s husband, Nicholas Seldon.

Vermont State Police and the Vermont Criminal Justice Council both cleared Swanson in separate reviews of the incident. Swanson was set to return to work, but Duffy blocked him.

The manager hired William Burgess to investigate Swanson’s management style and interview village police employees and town emergency dispatchers. Duffy later used the internal report to help justify demoting Swanson.

After the demotion, Swanson returned to patrol work in April. However, Fraas maintains that after two subsequent adverse rulings in court against Woodstock, village officials began a pattern of mistreatment of the former chief. 

For more on this story, please see our November 13 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

A veteran affordable housing advocate, tech entrepreneur, and the owner of the Sleep Woodstock Motel in West Woodstock has been chosen as the newest member of the Woodstock Selectboard.

Cliff Johnson is the Woodstock Selectboard’s newest member. Photo Provided

Cliff Johnson was tabbed for the post in a unanimous 4-0 vote by remaining town selectpersons Ray Bourgeois, Keri Cole, Susan Ford, and Laura Powell at a special board meeting convened on Monday afternoon. Johnson replaces selectperson Greg Fullerton, who stepped down at the end of last month to assume the full-time, paid post of director of public works for Woodstock.

The selection of Johnson, who lives with his family on South Brook Way off Route 106 in Woodstock, was made in executive session early Monday evening following public interviews with six candidates who applied for the vacant selectboard slot. In addition to Johnson, the other applicants interviewed by the selectboard on Monday included Joe Dinatale, Norm Frates, Roger Logan, Clayton Reed, and Chris Williamson.

Johnson will assume his new role on the Woodstock Selectboard at the governing body’s next meeting. Fullerton’s three-year term on the board was set to expire in 2027, and Johnson will need to run to serve the final year of the term at Town Meeting on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

In January of 1865, three months before General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, a new bank opened its doors at 21 Elm Street in Woodstock Village.

The Woodstock National Bank was born.

Situated in the heart of the picturesque village, the fabled bank evoked the spirit of small-town American life celebrated in Frank Capra’s classic 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” featuring the legendary James “Jimmy” Stewart as the iconic hometown banker and everyman, George Bailey. For the next 134-years until it was merged into the First Vermont Bank and Trust Company in 1999 and subsequently fell to nationwide bank consolidation phenomenon of the 2000s, the Woodstock National Bank was the quintessential hometown bank — a living, breathing space into which you could walk, manage your finances, and chat amiably with tellers, friends and neighbors while you were at it.

The current iteration of the bank at 21 Elm Street — TD Bank’s Woodstock branch – will close on Jan. 29 of next year, ending, at least for now, 160 years of the continuous operation of a bank at the venerable Elm Street setting.

According to TD Bank’s national website, the banking giant retains more than 20 operating locations in Vermont, with the nearest branches to Woodstock slated to continue functioning in Killington and Montpelier.

For more on this, please see our November 13 edition of the Vermont Standard.

By Emma Stanton, Staff Writer 

On Monday evening, the Woodstock Village Board of Trustees voted to approve a new parking ordinance. Following unanimous approval from all five trustee members, the new ordinance is slated to go into effect in 60 days. 

Vice chair of the trustees, Jeffrey Kahn, made a statement to those in attendance, saying, “The public needs to be aware of the changes. Currently, any license plate ticketed for a parking-meter violation gets ‘out of jail free’ twice a year [the village will stamp the ticket and waive the fee]. Moving forward, this parking meter violation is only going to be waived once a year. Also, the public should be aware that the fines have been increased — although they’re still low compared to other places. With this new ordinance, the fee for not feeding the meter will increase from $10 to $15.” 

Another change included in the ordinance is that meter fees will be raised from $1 to $1.50 per hour, with the hours when paid-parking is in effect changing to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. instead of the current 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

During Monday evening’s meeting, trustee chair Seton McIlroy also said, “We will be doing a communications campaign on this to let everybody know what the changes are. This ordinance does not go into effect for sixty days, and we certainly want to make sure everyone is aware of the changes.” 

Those interested in learning more about the parking ordinance, or who wish to appeal the trustees’ decision before the ordinance goes into effect on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, are invited to reach out to municipal manager Eric Duffy at eduffy@townofwoodstock.org.

The Vermont State Senate Education Committee will hold a listening session at Woodstock Union High School and Middle School on Tuesday, Nov. 18. 

Vermont State Senator and chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Seth Bongartz, spoke to the Standard about hosting this event and what parents and community members can expect. “Last year, the Senate made an effort to visit various schools across the state to get a finger on the pulse of our local school districts. This year, we are returning for a more in-depth look at the challenges schools face and the excellent educational opportunities schools are working to create. We know that no two schools are the same, and that each Vermont child is different, but we are hoping that this allows the state to understand the needs of families and help create the most effective educational future for our constituents.”

Woodstock Union High School will be just one of the many stops this team of senators will make. “With WUHS, we want to better understand the facility and infrastructural challenges the school is grappling with, and to understand the juxtaposition of a failing facility with the excellent educational opportunities available. We want to tour the school, hear from the students and teachers, and at the end of the day, set aside an hour or two for the public to address concerns, hear their thoughts, and truly understand what the priorities are for families of the Upper Valley,” said Bongartz. 

The day will begin at 10 a.m. with a slideshow presentation by the teachers and elementary students at the Woodstock Elementary School (WES).

Following the slide presentation, the students of WUHS will host a fishbowl event where high schoolers will be asked questions from other student facilitators and speak about their educational experiences. Afterwards, the senators will have an opportunity to comment and continue a dialogue with the students. 

Following the presentation, senators will be invited to observe a class. Then there will be a tour of the facility, led by the director of buildings and grounds, Joe Rigoli. This tour will highlight the various infrastructural issues with the WUHS building, taking participants on a tour of broken boilers, exposed pipes, and outdated infrastructure — all emphasizing the need for a complete rebuild. 

At 2:45 p.m., the auditorium will open for parents, families, and community members to attend a Q&A where residents are invited to ask the senators anything they wish. 

Seth Webb, a leading voice in the Woodstock Rebuild group, will also be in attendance to help answer questions about the proposed rebuild. 

For more on this, please see our November 6 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

The Ora E. Paul American Legion Post 24 hosted their annual Veterans Day service on Tuesday morning, held on the snowy lawn in front of the Windsor County Court House. Veterans met at the American Legion Post for coffee and donuts, and then marched to the service.

Rick Russell Photos

Last Friday, Dr. Jessica Lasky-Su, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, spoke with the students and faculty of Dartmouth College about her work approaching aging as a biological process that can be measured and potentially modified.

Lasky-Su has dedicated the last two decades of her career to applying molecular and ‘omics’ data, particularly metabolomics to population-based studies, aiming to improve healthspan, lifespan, and quality of life. Her work spans a range of conditions – including respiratory diseases, cancers, autoimmunity, and neurological diseases – and incorporates exposures to pollutants and environmental factors that may impact a person’s health over the course of their life. More recently, Lasky-Su honed her research toward identifying preventative strategies that could help people age with grace and resilience.

Dr. Jessica Lasky-Su

In her presentation, Lasky-Su described this shift in thinking: “In this new approach to aging, we focus on longevity, and healthspan and proactive, preventative measures one can take to increase quality of life.” Lasky-Su emphasized the importance of lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Aging is complicated. But if we understand someone’s biology, their rate of aging, their internal biological clock, their nature and nurture stressors – the right formula can be found to help someone age better.” She added, “If we could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years or help someone to continue hiking into their late seventies or eighties — that would drastically improve someone’s quality of life.” 

In an interview with the Standard following her presentation, Lasky-Su reflected, “Fifteen years ago, I never thought about aging. I saw it as a linear chronological process. But when I realized we could measure biological aging, and it was modifiable, it changed how I approached aging in my research. We now understand that aging is driven by cellular and biological mechanisms, and that may provide solutions to help people age well as they move into the later stages of their lives.” 

Through blood testing, Lasky-Su and her team use DNA methylation to calculate estimates of someone’s biological age, insights into how fast they are aging, and the health/age of their organs. “Using molecular data, scientists are working toward providing personalized feedback that may provide information on personal disease risk and specific measures (e.g., diet and exercise) each person may take to improve their healthspan. “Many in this field want to extend how long we live, or focus on rejuvenation, which is the reverse of aging,” Lasky-Su told the Standard. “My team, however, is interested in healthspan, meaning that we focus on prolonging the health levels of someone for as long as possible as they age chronologically.” 

For our full story on this, please see our Nov. 13 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer

Against the backdrop of a national malaise that includes the longest government shutdown in United States history, dramatic federal funding cutbacks for human services, health care, and education, and deep-seated questioning of what it really means to act in the public good, the ongoing story of one local family provides a poignant example of how the powerful spirit of community and caring is still alive in small-town Vermont.

Vermont Standard readers first met the Pierce family back in late June of last year, when the family of five was desperately seeking an accessible, affordable home that could be readily adaptable for a child with profound special needs. The Pierces’ middle child, six-year-old Astraea, has STXBP1-Related Disorder, an extremely rare genetic condition that affects the way the synapses in her brain communicate, resulting in significant mobility issues and other challenges. The young girl is unable to sit unassisted, walk, or talk. She is deeply dependent on the ever-present love and tender care that her parents, sixth-generation Woodstock native Harlei Merriam Pierce, 32, her husband Melvin Pierce III, 33, from Plainfield, N.H., and siblings Jupiter, 13, and Astrophel, 3, lavish upon her.

The family’s housing search ended just over a year ago when the Pierces moved into an older home in need of renovation at a cost they could afford in Reading in mid-October 2024. They immediately began working with a variety of health care entities, non-profit human services organizations, and community groups on efforts to make their new-but-old home vastly more energy efficient and, particularly, more suitable to the challenges of tending to Astraea and her special needs.

The Pierce family is pictured atop the accessibility ramp outside their home in Reading. From left are mom Harlei Merriam Pierce, dad Melvin Pierce, and children Astraea, Jupiter, and Astrophel, in his brother’s arms. Courtesy of Harlei Pierce

No sooner were planning and construction for energy retrofitting efforts and the installation of an accessible ramp outside their new Reading home underway when another devastating medical blow struck the family: their beloved young Astraea, then a first-grader at Woodstock Elementary School (WES), where she’d been enrolled since pre-school, was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer on January 11. Ever the battler, although unable to express verbally what she is feeling, Astraea will commence her fifth round of chemotherapy treatments at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover next week, her mother Harlei said during an extended phone conversation on Monday afternoon.

Once the Pierces reconciled themselves with the latest challenges facing the family, Harlei and Melvin proceeded with concerted, community-funded efforts to make their home more compatible with caring for a child such as Astraea with such profound needs — and now with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis on top of all that. Local community organizations have contributed immeasurably to these efforts on behalf of the Pierce family.

Prior to beginning their search for a new home in early 2024, the Pierces were very happy in Woodstock, but as Astraea grew older, their two-bedroom mobile home was not large enough for Astraea’s special wheelchair and all the other equipment needed for her care. Because they lived in a flood zone, the door to the trailer was getting quite high and Astraea was getting too big to carry up and down the stairs. That’s when the Pierce family first connected with COVER Home Repair, a non-profit based in White River that provides urgent home repairs for income-qualifying homeowners at no charge. Harlei recounted that “because the mobile home was so high up, the ramp had to be really extensive. COVER was really awesome to work with.” The family also assembled a group of local volunteers and extended family members to build exactly the kind of ramp Astraea needed at the time.

As time went on, however, the Pierce family came to terms with the need to have a house much more suited to Astraea’s needs and, following a two-year search that included a community-based homeownership course, they set aside their fervent wishes to remain in Harlei’s hometown of Woodstock during “an incredibly tight housing market” and settled on the house in Reading, with its flat yard and a first-floor bathroom and bedroom for Astraea.

The early-1900s home, which Harlei said cost around $220,000, for which the family was able to obtain a mortgage, needed work. With assistance from the COVER Store in White River Junction, the Pierces purchased replacement doors and home goods at affordable prices, including a “beautiful $10 chandelier” that now hangs over the dining room table in their open living space, reported COVER Executive Director Helen Hong in a statement sent to the Standard last week. COVER also facilitated funding and construction of an outdoor accessibility ramp at the front of the Pierces’ new home and the installation of a roll-in shower for Astraea in the first-floor bathroom this past summer. The non-profit’s home repair director, John Heath, continues to consult with Harlei and Melvin on additional adaptations for the property.

Once they settled in Reading, the Pierces received support from The HUB, a volunteer project of the Woodstock Community Trust that provides a safety net to residents of Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock. The HUB’s Tish Lewis connected the Pierces with financial assistance for electrical bills and heating assistance and also dropped off meals for the family, especially as Astraea’s health woes accelerated. During her early visits to Reading as another Vermont winter kicked in late last year, Lewis noted that the Pierce home was cold, drafty, and expensive to heat. She referred Harlei to the Reading Energy Committee for assistance. The volunteer town committee aims to weatherize one house in the community each winter, and this past year, they worked on the Pierces’ new abode after Bill Neukomm, a member of the municipal energy group, performed a site visit. Of note, Neukomm previously served for five years as the executive director of COVER, preceding Hong, underscoring the vital interconnectivity and interrelated funding needs and priorities of non-profit social service agencies in the region.

The work that COVER, the HUB, and the Reading Energy Committee have done and continue to do has enabled one family – deeply challenged financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually – to stay in their home and in schools in the neighboring community of Woodstock, where Harlei Merriam Pierce and her family have resided for six generations. Jupiter is a middle schooler at Woodstock Union High School and Middle School (WHS/MS), Astrophel is attending pre-school at WES, and Astraea hopes to return to a second-grade classroom at the elementary school in Woodstock Village following a sixth (and hopefully final) round of chemotherapy early next year. Mom Harlei is a 2011 graduate of WUHS/MS. Marvin is a plumber and heating specialist who works with his father’s New Hampshire-based company, and Harlei hopes to return to part-time work if at all possible once Astraea’s condition stabilizes, as hoped in the middle of next year. Prior to taking on 24-hour-a-day care of Astraea and her family several years ago, Harlei was studying to become a hospice nurse. She’s now contemplating pursuing a career as a medical social worker – a path for which she’s been inexorably prepared by life’s circumstances.

“[Astraea] obviously has not been able to go to school much since January, but we do try to get her involved, like we were just in the [Woodstock] Halloween parade,” Harlei told the Standard this week. “I do try to make it to certain things with her so she can still be included in her class. My kids are the sixth generation in my family to go to Woodstock schools, and not only that, [Astraea] has been with the same kids since they were three- and four-year-olds — she started at the WES pre-school,” Pierce continued.

“All these kids are just so they’re so comfortable with her. They really, truly, honestly care about her,” Harlei added. “And so we knew, when we were looking for a house that we wanted to stay in the Woodstock schools — that was super important to us. We turned down houses we could have afforded in other districts: the family lineage thing is cool, but her social interactions with her peers are so important.” School choice was an important factor in the family’s settling in Reading, Harlei noted, even as she praised the nearby Reading Elementary School, which the children of many of the Pierces’ newfound acquaintances in Reading attend.

“We fought hard for this home and to stay in the [Woodstock] schools at the same time, and the support we received from the non-profits and from our neighbors represent the Vermont values that matter most,” Harlei Pierce said near the conclusion of this week’s heartfelt and deeply moving discussion. “I don’t want to share [our] story out of pity, but just to remind people how much community support and connection mean, especially for families like ours that face major medical and emotional challenges.

“I am so grateful for the kindness we’ve received, and I hope that our story can highlight the importance of keeping communities and the people within them connected and supported,” Astraea’s mom concluded, her voice laden with humanity.

To follow Astrea Pierce and her family’s ongoing journey of bravery and discovery, visit tinyurl.com/mr37wmzp.

The Vermont Comedy Festival will return to our area for its fourth annual event on Dec. 4-7, bringing in dozens of comedians for a weekend of laughter and joy. 

Festival founders, friends, and comedians Collen Doyle and Matt Vita spoke to the Standard this week about the upcoming festival. “Each year, the festival grows. We are bringing over 40 comedians from across the country to Vermont this year, including two-time Emmy Award winner Judy Gold, who will be the first female to headline the festival,” Doyle said. 

Comedian Judy Gold, Courtesy of Matt Vita

Gold is a stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, television writer, author, producer, and activist. She has won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on The Rosie O’Donnell Show and hosts the podcast, “It’s Judy’s Show with Judy Gold.”

The festival will kick off on Thursday, Dec. 4, with a pizza party at Ramunto’s Pizzeria at 6 p.m. in Bridgewater, followed by a One-Minute Stand-Up Battle at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club at 8 p.m., and a dance party at 10 p.m. presented by Plymouth Cheese.

The following day, an array of shows will begin at 4 p.m. at a number of local venues — Long Trail Brewery, Ottauquechee Yacht Club, and Killington Distillery. At 8 p.m., the main stage show will be held at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club, followed by a 10 p.m. late show and a 12 a.m. late-late show.

Saturday follows a similar schedule, but the 8 p.m. headliner show will be held at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre, where Emmy Award-winning comedian Gold will perform. 

Finally, the festival will wrap up Sunday, with an outdoor show at Long Trail Brewery and a stand-up performance at the Ottauquechee Yacht Club at 4 p.m., followed by a wrap party at the Killington Distillery at 7 p.m.

Comedian Mike Toohey, who has been involved with the Vermont Comedy Festival since its inception, told the Standard, “I suggest everyone not skip the Sunday shows. They are usually the least attended, but historically, that is where I find some of the best comedy happens. Everyone is loose; they have just spent three days perfecting their act and are ready to crush it. I laugh the hardest on the last day, and I hope everyone interested in experiencing this caliber of joy and humor will join us for one final send-off.” 

For those wanting an early taste of the Vermont Comedy Festival, comedian Nikki MacCallum will be performing at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club this Saturday, Nov. 15.

For more on this, please see our Nov. 13 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Visitors to Pleasant Street Books in Woodstock last Friday evening enjoyed a unique concert of original, blues-based music by The Sonny Saul Trio, plus one: Quincy Saul on clarinet and bass clarinet with Sonny Saul (piano), Tim Gilmore (drums), and Peter Concilio (bass). With free admission, and drinks provided, the event was standing room only.

Pamela R. White Photos

At the age of three, Kingsley Chen walked into an instrument shop in Hong Kong with his mother and saw a piano for the first time. The connection was immediate.

“It just felt right to play the piano,” Chen told the Standard this week. “As they say, love at first sight.”

More than a decade later, that childhood moment has blossomed into a promising career. On Sunday, Nov. 16, the 13-year-old pianist will perform at the North Universalist Chapel Society in Woodstock, presenting a demanding program that includes works by Schubert, Brahms, and Liszt.

The recital came about through a fortunate turn of events. The performance was originally scheduled to feature Aristo Sham, who won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition this year. When Sham had to withdraw due to other commitments, Victor Rosenbaum, a professor at the New England Conservatory, recommended Chen as his replacement.

Thirteen-year-old pianist Kingsley Chen. Photo Courtesy of the Chen Family and Victor Cayres

“It’s a nice circle of relationship,” said Victor Cayres, who teaches Chen weekly at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where the young musician also studies theory, composition, improvisation, harpsichord, and chamber music.

Born in Hong Kong, Chen began formal piano studies at age three with Ling Hui, a faculty member at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He quickly distinguished himself in competition, winning the Hong Kong Asia Music Competition, the Chopin Memorial Prize of the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, and the Singapore Zhongshan International Music Competition, among others.

When his family emigrated to the United States and settled in Las Vegas, Chen studied with Ukrainian virtuoso Mykola Suk at the University of Nevada. The family then moved to Boston in 2020. 

“Part of the reason why they moved to Boston was to invest in his piano education,” Cayres explained. “His mom and dad work really hard to support him.”

When asked about the special appeal of piano over other instruments, Chen speaks thoughtfully about expression and connection. “I think I can express myself better on a piano, sitting down and having my whole body to play with,” he said.

But for Chen, performance isn’t merely about personal achievement. “I don’t play piano mostly only for my own enjoyment,” he explained. “I think the best part of performing on the piano is spreading the warmth of the music and being able to tell a story to an entire audience who will resonate with you.”

Looking ahead, Chen said he envisions a career teaching and performing. Working with Cayres has particularly inspired him about the teaching aspect of musical life. In a touching moment during his interview with the Standard, he also expressed gratitude to his first teacher, Ling Hui, the Cantonese pianist with whom he studied for many years in Hong Kong.

Chen’s dream is straightforward yet profound: “To bring beautiful music to the world.” He believes that “music is a dialogue of the soul.”

The recital begins at 2 p.m. Sunday, November 16, at the North Universalist Chapel Society in Woodstock. The program will feature Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A Minor, Brahms’ Two Rhapsodies, and three of Liszt’s Grandes Études de Paganini.

Note: The original version of this story had the wrong date, the event will in fact take place on November 16.

Woodstock’s attempt for a second straight state title came to a disappointing end Saturday, as they lost to the Bellows Falls Terriers, 54-20.

Bellows Falls was carried on offense by Patrick Connors and Jaden Bazin, who combined to score every Terrier touchdown.

The Wasps were plagued by penalties and turnovers. Accounting for their scores were Asher Emery, Jake Blackburn, and Brody McGaffigan.

Woodstock finished as the state runner-up in Division III, with a 9-2 record.

Woodstock Union High School’s Kasia Sluka competed in the 90th Annual New England Cross Country Championships at Thetford Academy last Saturday, Nov. 8, finishing 128th out of 250 finishers. The ninth-grader’s time, 21:36, was close to her best on this course, the 21:14 she ran at States. After the race, Sluka commented: “I’ve never had so little freedom to stride the way I wanted to,” remarking on the nature of these competitive, elite fields that are not only “crowded at the top,” but all the way through. Sluka sustained a deep spike injury to the Achilles area in the first half-mile of the course, which was treated at the medical area after her finish. 

Just like language, historic architecture has its own vernacular and idiosyncrasies. Distinct to region, era, and community, these specific dialects sit atop roofs, adorn entryways, and determine the spiral of pillars positioned in front of a home. Crafted decades, sometimes centuries ago, this vernacular should be protected and preserved, according to Wendy Wright Marrinan and Philip Neuber of the Woodstock Village Historic Preservation Commission. 

In light of recent community discussion about historic home demolition, Preservation Commission secretary Marrinan and chair Neuber sat down with the Standard to explain what it means to live in a historic village, and why our community should work together to preserve the architecture and infrastructure of this town. 

Neuber, a licensed architect and trained architectural historian, told the Standard, “The National Register for Historic Preservation details that a historic town is one where its architectural and historical contributions offer significance to the region, state, or country. These requirements, spelled out in the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, prompted all states to survey existing properties that were at least 50 years old. Through this process, Woodstock was named one of the earliest historic districts, housing a number of historically significant parcels.” 

Neuber went on to explain how there are two kinds of historic properties — contributory and non-contributory. A contributory property is a building, site, or structure located within a designated historic district that adds to the district’s historic associations, architectural qualities, or archaeological values. “In essence, it helps make a historic district historic,” Neuber said. The Town Hall, Windsor Court House, and properties along The Green are examples of contributory buildings. 

He continued, “It so happens that the two homes the [Woodstock] Inn is [planning] to demolish are two contributing properties as well. Woodstock is known for its high-style federal architectural design, which these homes have. The 16 South Street home is particularly significant because it is an antebellum home, with architectural design dating back to the 1840s. The 14 South Street home, as well as others within that section of town, are wonderful examples of New England vernacular architecture on display.” 

For our full story on this, please see our November 13 edition of the Vermont Standard.

Thoughts for Veterans Day. Fifty-seven years ago, I entered the brotherhood of being “a veteran.” I was a 20-year-old Army sergeant, and had been home from Vietnam for just days, discharged from active duty and my required military service. 

Within months following my high school graduation, I had received my dreaded draft notice and was sworn into the Army…that was October 1966. Having neither the scholastic record nor the finances required for a college deferment, as so many had, that was my fate. I was one of nearly half a million young Americans drafted that month! 

Veterans of that war and that era seldom, if ever, heard anyone say, “Thank you for your service.” Many things were often said, but most were not printable and not worthy of so much as a “You’re welcome.” 

But this Veterans Day, I want to clear the air and say “Thank you,” especially to those with whom I served in the central highlands of Vietnam up through the demilitarized zone to the border of then-North and South Vietnam. You have had an incredible impact on my life. At a young age, we who enlisted or were drafted had the unique experience of being transformed into soldiers, sailors, marines, or airmen — we became part of a ‘UNIT’ — exposed to leadership of many kinds, committed to a mission, and most importantly, committed to trust each other. 

We were pushed beyond any self-imposed limits and, at times, frightened to the core of our being. However, by virtue of our training and responsibility to each other, we performed as our country expected of us — some above and beyond expectation. All hardships, pain, and grief were shared. It was the ultimate experience to serve with Americans of all backgrounds, races, and education levels. It was true “DEI” decades before anyone would ever hear the term!

 That was the expectation of service to our country. Now, the elimination of the draft — and its randomness of being called up for duty — has diminished the understanding of this service, which involved training and working with soldiers from every geographic corner of our country. 

The professional military is an absolute necessity — but it should not single-handedly bear the entire burden. Citizen soldiers, pulled from the ranks of the general population, have contributed and served honorably and heroically over many decades in many wars going back to our nation’s founding. 

The multiple deployments endured by the professional military during the post-9/11 conflicts have had and continue to take a tragic toll. Going forward, I believe this should be a shared burden. Further, without conscription, our elected officials are given an easy out to start wars with little political blowback. “We have a professional military; they will do as we say, and nobody else will be bothered.” 

In my opinion, if we as a nation sometimes have to commit to another extended armed conflict, we should all potentially have skin in the game. By failing to do so, our elected officials will never have a reasoned debate as to whether we should get involved in conflict. 

When I returned from Vietnam in 1968, at age 20, I could not vote (nor could I buy a beer!) in most states. But I returned with an experience that is with me to this day. Initially, it was survivors’ guilt, but, eventually, it evolved into survivors’ responsibility: We have been given the days that our fallen and critically wounded comrades were denied. All veterans share the core values of trust, respect, and responsibility. 

Veterans know: All gave some, some gave all. 

Thank you for your service. And a special callout to the dedicated staff and professionals at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, one of the best in the nation, in my experience. 

Dick Sweeney was a medic and later a team leader with the 52d Infantry LRP (Long Range Patrol) Rangers in Vietnam from October 1967 to October 1968. His father, an aunt, and several uncles served in World War I and World War II. Mr. Sweeney’s brother served during the Cold War, and several nephews served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. His nephew Paul, U.S. Army 3rd Special Forces Group, was killed in action on Oct. 30, 2003. a memory that inspired today’s thoughts. Mr. Sweeney went on to college under the GI Bill and was a co-founder of the Massachusetts/Vermont-based Keurig coffee company. He lives in Taftsville with his wife, Mary Ann. 

Elsa Talbot of Bethel, Vt. passed peacefully in her home on Oct. 20 surrounded by her two daughters and her sister.  

Elsa was born at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in 1950 and brought home to the family dairy farm in South Pomfret. The youngest of six children Elsa enjoyed her early life on the farm, exploring the mountains, riding horses and skiing at Suicide Six. She attended Woodstock Country School and studied Education at Oregon College of Education, although, always committed to living life on her own terms, she left three credits short of completing her degree. Elsa’s younger years were filled with adventure. She spent months hitchhiking through Europe and traveled extensively around the United States; at one point living in a teepee she sewed herself.

When Elsa settled back in Vermont with her daughters, she became a beloved preschool teacher and fixture of the community. She began as cook at The Day Care Center in Norwich, Vermont before becoming a teacher at Mount Tom Preschool, Green Mountain Children’s Center, and finally, Rainbow Playschool. Elsa excelled for over 40 years in early childhood education, making an outsized impact on generations of children in the Upper Valley. Elsa had a strong connection with young people, and children could always be heard laughing and giggling in her presence. Her preschool classroom was alive with all sorts of activities and nothing was too messy or too big of a project. This included hatching ducks, chickens, and sometimes emus every springtime as well as keeping a corn snake in her classroom that grew to be larger than many of her students. Elsa loved her job so much that she went back to school at the age of 66, when new legislation forced her to choose between finishing her degree or retiring.

Elsa was a lifelong gardener, lover of music and advocate of equality, peace, and justice. She took these passions to new heights when she retired in 2020. She could often be found at local concerts and protests, no matter the cold and rain. Her house overflowed with rare and beautiful plants, cared for with great detail. The garden she planted every year was frequented by hummingbirds and grandchildren alike, with Elsa invariably giving away most of her harvest to friends and family. 

Elsa will be forever remembered for her caring attitude, generosity, passionate opinions, and homemade bread. Elsa is survived by her sister, Sara Miller; her two daughters, Yarrow and Mika Fought; and her five grandchildren,  Rye Fought, Cypress Levitt, Brio Levitt, Emry Kielty, Brecken Kielty. 

Elsa was buried at the Forest Cemetery in Roxbury Vermont. A memorial will be held in Elsa’s honor on Saturday, Nov. 22 from 2-4 p.m. at Artistree in South Pomfret (Elsa’s childhood farm).

Attendees will be informally visiting, blowing bubbles, and remembering Elsa, all are welcome to join during this time. In lieu of flowers please make a donation in Elsa’s name to Greenpeace or the Vermont Food Bank.

Ralph J. Demasi, 77, died peacefully at home on July 4. He was born in Mechanicsville, N.Y., the son of Ralph and Mary (Melone) Gagliardi. His father died several months before Ralph was born. Mary later married Louis Demasi, who adopted Ralph.

Ralph grew up in Milford, Conn. He received a BA from the University of New Haven in 1972. And soon after, he moved to the Upper Valley to help open and operate Casey’s Tavern (now Skunk Hollow) in Hartland.

Ralph later combined his love and knowledge of automobiles with his business acumen and opened Atlantic Motor Cars in Plainfield, N.H. Over the more than four decades he built many long-term relationships as he helped match people with the cars best suited to them. He enjoyed getting to know people, hearing their stories, and helping to make their investment match their unique situation and needs. Ralph openly and honestly shared his knowledge with anyone who asked for advice.  He was a longtime member of the Green Mountain Region Porsche Club and enjoyed the club drives traveling his favorite back roads of Vermont.

He was ever the gentleman, exhibiting grace and kindness. Ralph is survived by his partner of 25 years, Wendy Starr of Cornish; two sons, John Demasi and his partner Liz Skeris of Windsor and Thomas Demasi of Windsor; Wendy’s sons, Charles Starr and John Starr; other relatives and many friends.

A graveside service was held at the Westgate-Peterson Cemetery in Plainfield. 

Memorial donations are appreciated to Cornish Rescue Squad, PO Box 235, Cornish Flats, NH 03746. The Hand to Heart Project PO Box 248 Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Knight Funeral Home of Windsor, Vt. was entrusted with arrangements and online condolences may be made at knightfuneralhomes.com.

John H. McNulty, known by all as Jack, passed away at home in Barnard on Oct. 23, 2025 due to cancer. He was 72. He expressly forbade us from saying he “fought a courageous battle” against cancer, as he always hated that phrase. As he put it, you don’t fight cancer — you wake up every day, listen to science, and do the best you can to live life on your terms, which he did for six and a half years.

Jack was born on Nov. 12, 1952 in Boston, Mass. to Florence (Kehoe) and Bernard McNulty, and grew up in Milton, Mass. He never lost his Boston accent. He attended St. Mary of the Hills School before becoming a proud “double Eagle,” graduating from Boston College High School in 1970 and Boston College in 1974. As a young bachelor, he lived with friends in Falmouth, Marblehead, and then his beloved South Boston — the fun times were aplenty. Jack worked in software sales for 45 years as a salesman and sales manager at financial tech companies including Burroughs Corporation, BKW Systems, Digital Equipment Corporation, BMC Software, Informatica, and Q2. He loved building relationships with his colleagues and customers, and was always proudest of seeing salespeople that he mentored succeeding in their careers. 

Jack married his sweetheart Susan (George) in 1983 after meeting at Burroughs and falling in love, and moved to Walpole, Mass. in 1987 to raise their family. Susan and Jack were a consummate team in everything they did, balancing and respecting each other in beautiful ways throughout their 42 years of marriage and raising three children, Laura, Erin, and Peter. He always said Susan was the smartest and most compassionate person he ever knew, and that he “married way over his head.” Their shared love of skiing led them to purchase land in Barnard in 2005, where they eventually built their dream home and moved full-time in 2017. Skiing at Killington was one of his greatest joys for nearly 50 years.

Jack was an avid athlete, playing and coaching baseball (and cheering on his beloved Red Sox), playing pick-up basketball well into adulthood, golfing whenever he could, and dabbling in rugby in college. But nothing matched his love of running. He ran over 34,000 cumulative miles during his life in 17 countries — including countless 4:30 a.m. runs before work, two Boston Marathons, and 45 consecutive Falmouth Road Races, all of which were meticulously tracked in written logs and eventually an Excel spreadsheet. One of his favorite experiences in his life was running along the Cliffs of Moher in 2015 in his ancestral home of Ireland, at sunrise with his daughter Laura.

Jack was many things — playful, effusive, adventurous, discerning, tough, disciplined, stubborn, famously impatient and endlessly loving. He was a storyteller, a jokester, and a performer, doing bits and making up songs out of nowhere that became strange and delightful family staples. He loved to learn, devouring non-fiction books one after the next. Trying as many Vermont craft beers as he could was easy with his legendary ‘hollow leg’, and he was always down to share a pint and enjoy the company of others. He was a true listener, and loved to ask people about themselves. He was passionate about caring for his home, becoming a skilled amateur carpenter and landscaper. Above all, Jack was born to be a father, and putting his family first was second nature. He would get genuinely and endearingly confounded when he heard of anyone not showing up for their families. His deep pride in his children was apparent to all, and he loved getting to know their friends and partners too and welcoming all into the McNulty fold. All he wanted to do in his final weeks was to watch old home videos of his family.

Our family would like to thank all the brilliant and kind doctors, nurses, and administrators we got to know in the Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center — especially his oncologist Dr. Konstantin Dragnev, who was with us from diagnosis through the end. We’d also like to express our deep gratitude to the amazing caregivers of Visiting Nurse and Hospice for VT & NH, and the White River Valley Ambulance team who helped us on the hardest days.

Jack is survived by his loving wife Susan McNulty of Barnard, and his three beloved children and their partners — Laura McNulty and her husband Alex Bedig of Malden, Mass.; Erin McNulty and her husband Philip Palmer of Seattle, Wash.; and Peter McNulty and his partner Haylee Conradi Rochler of Seattle, Wash. He also leaves behind his four siblings, Jean Callahan of Scituate, Mass.; Kathleen Larson of Milton, Mass.; James McNulty of Westwood, Mass.; and Robert McNulty of Hyde Park, Mass.; numerous brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and cousins; and a circle of cherished friends, many of whom have been by his side for nearly 60 years.

To quote an Irish proverb, “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; Love leaves a memory no one can steal.” Rest easy, Jack. You are beloved, and your utter joy lives on in all of us.

A celebration of life will be held at Story Chapel at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. on Sunday, Nov. 9. Please arrive at 12:30 p.m. for a 12:45 p.m. service start time, followed by a gathering and light fare. All are welcome.

Donations in Jack’s name are deeply appreciated and can be made to: Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire, White River Valley Ambulance, and the Dartmouth Cancer Center (please direct to the Cancer Research Funds, and designate for Lung Cancer Research).

Clifford Charles Aikens, Jr., 89, formerly of Barnard,, passed peacefully on Oct. 23, 2025 in Pinehurst, N.C.

Born in Cleveland in 1936 to the late Clifford Charles and Ann Emily Aikens, Cliff was a 1954 graduate of Cleveland Heights High School. He was a talented baseball pitcher, earning him a scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan University at the behest of OWU alumnus Branch Rickey — best known for breaking the color barrier in baseball by signing superstar Jackie Robinson. Cliff majored in American History and minored in Business and Psychology. After earning his BA, his career moved him to Wisconsin, where he met the beautiful and vivacious Alice Jean Allen.  They married in 1961. Cliff’s job moved them to Pleasantville, N.Y.

Cliff enjoyed a long career selling paper as a VP of Sales. Cliff later earned an MBA from Baruch College and a Masters of Arts in Religious Studies at Andover Newton. He had a tremendous love of music, playing accordion, harmonica, ukulele, banjo, guitar, and singing tenor. 

Cliff’s forebears from Scotland settled Barnard in 1770, as farmers and blacksmiths. His grandfather and father were great ball players, getting into trouble for playing on Sundays. That ball field is now a graveyard. 

His father was president of his class at Woodstock High. He went to Dartmouth for two years to become a pharmacist, working at Putnam’s Pharmacy in Hanover, until he ran out of money (tuition: $100/semester). He left for Cleveland to sell paper. The Depression had just hit. He thought, “People will always need paper.”

Cliff’s uncle Forrest worked in Bethel at the grocery store and married Mildred Aikens, an art teacher that locals still remember fondly. Forrest was secretary of the Vermont Retail Grocer’s Association, which sought to buy in bulk to compete with chains like A&P.

In retirement, Cliff and Alice moved to South Barnard, where they spent many happy years gardening, raising animals, and hosting family and friends for unforgettable visits.  In 2007, they relocated to North Carolina, where his failing vision did not require driving. Cliff was a proud father who considered himself, “a ball player, an executive businessman, and a musician. In that order.” Cliff was a superb, intuitive coach of youth in sports. He was active for years in Barnard’s Silver Lake Association, Recreation Dept., and Historical Society, fixing up the schoolhouse and creating a monument to journalist Dorothy Thompson.

After his beloved Alice passed away in 2019, Cliff found solace in his community, choir, gardening, and performing what he called “happy music,” as he had in Vermont. He was the father of Ann Marie Aikens of Bethel, Clifford C. Aikens III, Holly Jean Goss, husband COL Donald Lee Goss. He was the grandfather of Oksana, Annika, Charles and Erika Aikens, and Alexander Goss.  He is also survived by his sister Jane Montana, husband John, and family. He led a long and happy life and will be terribly missed.

A celebration of his life was held at his church in Pinehurst. Donations are gratefully received with “Cliff Aikens Music Fund” in the memo line at: Community Presbyterian Church, PO Box 1449, Pinehurst, NC 28370.

Online condolences may be made at bolesfuneralhome.com.

Following a gradual nine-year decline, William Henry Beardsley Fenn, known as Harry as a child and Bill as an adult, died Oct. 19, 2025, at the Mt. Ascutney Hospital. Bill’s family is grateful for the wonderful hospice care extended to them by the hospital staff in two days prior to Bill’s death.

Born in Hartford, Conn. on January 23, 1941, to Francis T. Fenn Jr. and Mary Beardsley Fenn, Bill was the first of three sons. He grew up and attended grade school in West Hartford, Conn. Bill went to private boarding school for high school and ultimately graduated from the Searing School in New York. In young adulthood began struggles with alcohol and cigarettes for many years, both of which he quit with the help of 12-Step programs, determination, and the grace of God. During his journey, Bill helped to introduce many to the possibility of sobriety with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous even as he struggled to maintain his own sobriety.

Bill married Marlene Headley in 1972, at his parent’s home in West Windsor (Brownsville). He became Marlene’s husband and stepdad to her two young daughters, Connie and Kathie. In June 1974, Bill and Marlene welcomed their son William Talcott Fenn to their family. After their union ended, Bill came out to his family as bisexual and later in life identified as a gay man. He and Marlene became fast friends again before she died.

Bill worked a variety of jobs over his lifetime. He found an employment home at Ed’s Sunoco which became Randy’s Sunoco in White River Junction, Vt. He retired from Randy’s as the station’s last full-service gas island attendant. During those years, Bill was a huge support to his parents and Marlene as they confronted disability, illness, and death. He also served on the New England Kurn Hattin Homes Board, a home/school for children at risk. During this period, he and his mother became members of the First Universalist Church in Hartland Four Corners. Like his mother before him, Bill remained a member of the church until his death. With rides generously provided by members of the church, Bill attended in person as long as his physical ability allowed.

Before she died in 2015, Bill’s mother convinced him to join the Historic Homes of Runnemede community in Windsor, Vt. He resided in an independent living apartment and served as a volunteer driver for Meals on Wheels in the West Windsor area. After a couple of health issues and losing his ability to drive, he was forced to give up this service and give up his service on the Kurn Hattin Homes Board. He moved to assisted living as his health continued to fail. In late 2024, he moved on to skilled nursing care at Cedar Hill Continuing Care Community. 

Bill is survived by his son, Will Fenn, his daughters Connie Kincaid-Brown and Kathie Brown, his grandson Ian Littlefield (Adreanna Macie) and his great-granddaughter,

Lillian Littlefield, his brother Roger Fenn (Dorothy Chaisson), his sister-in-law Deborah Fenn and several nieces and nephew. He was predeceased by his parents, his former wife Marlene, his brother Peter, and his grandson Duncan Littlefield.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. at the First Universalist Church in Hartland Four Corners. A simple reception for family and friends will follow in the church fellowship area. There will be a private burial attended by family only. There will be no calling hours. In lieu of flowers, it is suggested that a donation be made to; New England Kurn Hattin Homes, PO Box 127, Westminster, VT, 05158; the First Universalist Church of Hartland Four Corners, PO Box 75, Hartland Four Corners, VT 05049; Historic Homes of Runnemede, 40 Maxwell Perkins Lane, Windsor, VT 05089; or the Mt. Ascutney Hospital, 289 County Road, Windsor, VT 05089.

The Knight Funeral Home in Windsor, Vt. is entrusted with the arrangements and online condolences may be made at knightfuneralhomes.com.

Dana Alan Bacon, 67, died unexpectedly at home in Windsor on Monday, Oct. 20.

He was born Oct.18, 1958, in Windsor, a son of William and Alberta (Perry) Bacon. Dana grew up in Windsor and graduated from Windsor High School in 1977 before attending New Hampshire Community Technical College in Claremont, N.H. He worked in the machining industry all his life, first at Cone Automatic in Windsor until they closed, then at CEPS in Windsor, American Bridge Company in Claremont, and then at Sturm Ruger in Newport until retiring last year.

Dana was an avid reader and also loved spending time outdoors hunting, fishing, boating, and camping. He especially enjoyed boating and camping on Lake Champlain with his brothers. Dana had several boats over the years and spent many happy hours restoring them until they were just the way he wanted. He was an active member of the Windsor Coon Club where he volunteered for many duties, including as the auctioneer at the annual wild game supper and auction.

Dana was predeceased by his father and is survived by his mother, Alberta; brothers Dale Bacon and Darin Bacon (Shirley), all of Windsor, and was also very close with his niece, nephews, and great-nephew.

A visitation was held Monday, Oct. 27 at the Knight Funeral Home in Windsor. A private committal service will be held at the convenience of the family in the Ascutney Cemetery also in Windsor.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dana’s name can be made to the Windsor Coon Hunter’s Association, 2126 Hunt Hill Rd, Windsor, VT 05089

Sam Shallow, born on June 28, 1950, in Princeton, N.J., passed away on Oct. 11, with his sons by his side.

Sam’s family moved to Fairfield, Conn., where he spent his free time sailing on his family’s boat. They relocated to Vermont, seeking a quieter life and the opportunity to enjoy skiing. Sam was an exceptional skier, confident in tackling any terrain.

However, the allure of the water drew him in.

In his teens, Sam took up surfing, which led him on a global adventure to renowned surf spots. On his way back from Morocco, he visited his sister in Galway, Ireland, and landed a job on a fishing boat. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

Ireland’s great surf and fishing opportunities captivated him, and he made friends who shared his passion and humor. He ended up staying in Ireland for 13 years.

In 1979, Sam came to Woodstock to visit his father. There, he reunited with an old ski friend, Becky Brettell. They married a year later and continued to reside in Ireland for several years before returning to Woodstock, where they welcomed their two sons. Later, they moved to Hartland. After 24 years, their marriage ended. Sam spent his later years between Key West, Fla., and Hartland fishing and skiing. 

Throughout his life, Sam was an avid reader of history, not just American but also global. He had a diverse range of hobbies, including woodworking and restoring old tools and guns. He was always engrossed in some creative project.

Sam was devoted to his sons, Sammy Shallow (Laura) of North Reno, Nev.; and Christopher Shallow (Allison) of Truckee, Calif.; and his grandson, Levi Shallow. He is also survived by his sister, Elisabeth Bernard; and nieces Jade and Annika. His sister, Sayre Shallow, predeceased him. His family is very thankful to neighbor Marc Palmer for his years of friendship and care he gave to Sam.

Gordon Cowdrey (78) passed away on Oct. 15 after a nearly five-year-long battle with prostate cancer. He was born in Hanover, N.H., to Jennie Hull Cowdrey and Eldred Myron Cowdrey. Through a dear friend, Gordon Barbour, he met the love of his life, Sally Brown, whom he married on Jan. 30, 1977. In the fall of 1977, their son Daniel Gordon was born. Their daughter Lisa Marie came nearly four years later. They later moved to Hartland, where they built a beautiful life together.

Gordon was predeceased by Sally, his parents Jennie and Eldred Cowdrey, and his sister Dorothy Cowdrey. He is survived by his son Daniel, his daughter Lisa and son-in-law John Butson III; his four grandchildren: Derek, Shyla, Shane, and Adeline; his brothers and sisters: Charles Cowdrey, David Cowdrey, Donna Hodgdon, and Mary Becker; and his sister-in-law Sherry Barbour who was his companion and his devoted caregiver during his many ups and downs throughout the last few years.

Gordon took great pride in being a very hardworking man and a provider for his family. He went to work at a young age and worked until he physically could no longer work in November 2024. He spent time working on the Cowdrey family farm, and then went to work with Eric Wood on his farm in Pomfret. He spent a lot of time with Eric pulling horses and also competing at the fairs–a cherished memory for him. He and Eric also hunted and found a love for snowmobiling. He later worked for Summarsell doing excavation work, and then worked as a truck driver at TriState, Rowlee Farm Trucking, FSI Trucking, and Miller Construction. In the ‘90s, he ventured out on his own and started Shadow Valley Trucking, where he owned and operated a logging truck. He was most recently employed by D&D Excavation, where he was the loader operator in the gravel pit for the last several years. Working kept him going and gave him purpose. He enjoyed his coworkers at the pit and made very special connections with them.

Gordie and Sally built a beautiful little home in the country and enjoyed keeping many animals over the years. Gordie had very special connections with animals, including his pets, his farm animals, and the wild animals that he enjoyed having on his property. He especially loved his dogs and his beloved cat Clyde, who stayed by his side. Gordie was a woodsman and was often found working the land in one way or another. He spent lots of hours cutting and splitting wood, working his tractor, running his saw mill, and improving his land in one way or another.

Gordie enjoyed many different motorsport hobbies. In the ’90s, he took a chance on owning a race car, a VW Rabbit that his nephew Allan drove. The whole family spent every Saturday night at the track, making memories and experiencing the thrills of racing. In 2019, Gordie discovered a new passion for garden tractor pulling. As the years went by, he acquired a fleet of very competitive tractors and brought home many trophies. He enjoyed competing with his grandchildren the most; many great memories and special friendships were made. In 2025, he purchased his own 1941 Buick hotrod. Although he was not able to drive it much, it brought him a lot of joy and satisfaction knowing he had checked that off his bucket list.

We welcome family and friends to join us for a graveside service on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m. at the Brownsville Cemetery. The service will be followed by a gathering at the Brownsville Community Church basement to share memories and stories while enjoying some refreshments. An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

James Anthony Pepe, 83, died Oct. 11, 2025, in Hempstead, Town, Long Island, NY. Born in Flushing, NY, on May 20, 1942, the first child of Frances (Cirigleano) and John Pepe.

In his late teens, he joined the religious order, Brothers of the Holy Cross. For ten years as a brother, he studied at St. Edward’s U. in Austin, Texas, receiving his bachelor’s degree

His teaching career, as a religious, included teaching elementary school in Brooklyn.

He later was assigned to a Rhode Island school run by his religious community; he then began his studies at Rhode Island College, where he earned his master’s.

After his master’s work, he left the religious community. He moved back to his New York home, whereupon he continued his teaching career in several districts; at the time of his passing, he had taught in several districts with thirty years in Rockville Centre, where, in addition to his teaching career, he became chairperson, teacher centre leader, and union leader for the district.

In 1972, Jim married Susan Healy; they were fortunate to have their son James Healy Pepe. Upon spending their honeymoon in Vermont, Jim was always looking to Vermont as his special place. Shortly after Jim’s retirement, he fulfilled his dream of a Vermont home.

His retirement years have been spent enjoying a beautiful Vermont, continuing his discipline of exercise and appreciation of the arts.

Jim was a leader in all areas, whether it be in home projects or just the kitchen. Both his wife of over fifty-two years and his treasured son will miss him forever.

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

On Oct. 9, Paul “Big Wogs” Eldredge, 74, lost his fight with a long illness and is now at peace. Born Feb. 7, 1951, Paul was the first child of Glenn and Shirley (Blackmer) Eldredge. He worked on his grandfather’s farm where he would raise Morgan horses and win many awards showing “Chief of Stockbridge” and “Coco.” These were fond memories cherished by Paul.

Paul graduated from Whitcomb High School in 1969 and married his high school sweetheart, Charlene Cook in August of that same year. They welcomed their daughter, Tracey in October 1969, a son, Paul in May 1973 and a son, Colby in October 1979. His family was his whole world. He was a fierce competitor who did not like to lose in any game, whether that was cards, board games or sports. Paul enjoyed family and friends gatherings that were a regular weekend occasion at his home in Quechee.

Paul worked for Killington, Ron’s Citgo and C.V. Oil before becoming a mail carrier in Woodstock delivering to the many small businesses and families on his route for 33 years. Paul loved to interact with his customers and made many memorable relationships.

Paul was a baseball enthusiast who started a Pee Wee program in the town of Pittsfield in 1974 and then a Little League program in order to coach his children. He was a lifelong Red Sox fan and even visited all 30 baseball stadiums with his wife in his retirement. For his 50th birthday, Charlene surprised him with tickets to Super Bowl XXXV, another bucket list entry. They were both drawn to the Ocean waters and relocated to Port Charlotte in 2015. He enjoyed playing golf in his spare time and achieved a hole in one on May 12, 2022 at the Maple Leaf Estate golf course.

Paul is predeceased by his parents, Glenn and Shirley Eldredge of Stockbridge, Vt. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Charlene; his three children, Tracey (Gene) Soboleski of Hartford, Vt., Paul II (Lisa) of Woodstock, and Colby (Brittany) of Pasadena, Md. Paul’s sister Charlene (Steve) Anderson lives in Barre, Vt. Paul enjoyed spending time with his eight grandchildren Michael, Zachary, Tyler, Cameron, Bryce, Lucas, Lola and Hunter. Paul has one great-granddaughter Zaylee. Paul leaves behind many wonderful friends in Florida and Vermont who have supported him and Charlene throughout this devastating disease.

A celebration of life will be held in the summer of 2026 for his many family and friends.

By Dan Cotter, Publisher 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Dan Cotter, Publisher 

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

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

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

It’s a joy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Dan Cotter, Publisher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Dan Cotter, publisher

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

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

Just as you are today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can count on us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Dan Cotter, publisher

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

Then we shared a long, hard hug.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“View From Here”

By Sandy Gilmour, Woodstock resident

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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