Wife of Man Fatally Shot by Police says Burlington Must Do More for Mentally Ill

Barbara Brunette, the wife of a man fatally shot by police in November, implored the Burlington City Council Monday night to invest resources into taking better care of the mentally ill.

A police officer shot Wayne Brunette on Nov. 6 after receiving a call from his parents who said their son was acting irrationally. Police say that Brunette, a 49-year-old who struggled with schizophrenia, threatened two officers with a shovel before he was shot. 

 The Vermont State Police and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office have both cleared the two officers involved of any criminal wrongdoing.

The city council meeting was part eulogy and part plea for more resources.

“My husband was a very caring, poetic, loving, romantic man. He was a fantastic father,” Brunette, pictured above, told the council.  “Policies have to be changed.”

Protestors Renew Opposition to Vermont Gas Pipeline, Despite PSB Approval

Two days before Christmas came the news environmental activists and landowners in Addison County were dreading: The Public Service Board approved Vermont Gas’s plan to build a 43-mile, $86.6 million natural gas pipeline from Chittenden County south to Middlebury.

But neither the stamp of approval, nor frigid temperatures and biting wind in downtown Burlington, deterred protestors from turning out for a rally Saturday against that decision. Altogether, around 75 people met up outside One Main Street, waving placards and banners and stamping their feet to keep warm.

The proposed pipeline has fueled opposition throughout Vermont. Environmentalists decry the additional construction of fossil fuel infrastructure instead of renewable energy resources, and they oppose the technology used to obtain the Canadian natural gas. A portion of the gas the pipeline would carry is obtained in Canada using hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking.”

This Week's Issue: F-35 Aftermath, Myers-Briggs for Farmers and Marijuana Testing

We're in the home stretch of 2013, people. As we at Seven Days plot our year-end coverage, enjoy this week's news and politics stories:

• Figuring out how much was spent in support of and opposition to basing the F-35 in Vermont is a tough task.
• Meanwhile, the Air Force says the F-35 is definitely a go, but airport neighbors remain split on the jet.
• It's been a long time coming for Vermont's shoreline protection proposal. As the last northeastern state without statewide regulations, is 2014 the year?

• A recent workshop gave Vermont farmers the Myers-Briggs personality type test.
• In this week's cover story, learn how one artist/developer is doing his part to revitalize White River Junction, building by building.
• Meet the man whose job it is to test strains of medical marijuana for a Montpelier dispensary.
• And in Fair Game: After coming close last year, tax reform is looking unlikely to get much traction in the 2014 Statehouse session. Plus, find out why Rep. Peter Welch's anti-ethanol push is making for strange bedfellows.

Pick this week's Seven Days up in print, online or on the iOS app.

Cover photo by Sarah Priestap

Four Intoxicated Women Land in ER While "Pregaming" for UVM Sorority Event

’Tis the season for raising holiday spirits, but evidently, a few University of Vermont students raised them a bit too often this weekend — even before the party officially started.

The Vermont State Police reported that at about 7:30 Saturday night, three female UVM students headed to a sorority function at the Old Lantern in Charlotte had to be taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington due to overintoxication. According to police, the women, who were all headed to the winter formal sponsored by UVM's Delta Delta Delta sorority chapter, arrived by bus and hadn't even entered the party before they got sick. 

Demonstrators Tell SoBu McDonald's 'We're Not Lovin' Poverty Pay'

On top of the customary musical accompaniment to their Happy Meals, customers at the McDonald's on Williston Road in South Burlington were serenaded on Thursday with a noontime chant of "Hold the burgers, hold the fries, make our wages supersize!"

About two dozen protesters brought their demand for livable wages into the busy fast-food eatery as McDonald's workers looked on silently — and seemingly stunned. It was unclear how much those workers make; local managers also declined to comment on the local manifestation of a nationwide day of walkouts and solidarity demonstrations at fast-food restaurants in support of a $15-an-hour wage.

The demonstrators weren't at all reticent. One of them led several others in the "mic check" call-and-response popularized by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"On this day ..." the leader shouted.

Her fellow protesters joined in with this chant: " ...Workers in 100 cities/are going on strike/and people like us/are standing with them/to demand McDonald's respect the right/ to work with dignity."

A South Burlington police officer rushed into the restaurant at that point and told the protestors they had to leave. They filed out a couple of minutes later, resuming their chant and sign-waving on the sidewalk for half an hour as several passing motorists honked in response. 

This Week's Issue: COTS Stations, Mobile Meals and 2014 Election News

 

Boy, how about those F-35s, huh? When you're done reading about the planes on this here blog, check out the stories on other newsy topics in this week's Seven Days.

• Opponents of the drug war have a powerful ally: Vermont Chief Justice Paul Reiber.
• COTS' services for the homeless are in high demand. The organization needs a new daystation, but its proposed location for one is meeting some opposition from its Old North End neighbors.
• Federal budget cuts have forced millions of seniors off the Meals on Wheels program nationally. In Vermont, no one's been cut, but participants are getting fewer meals a day.
• In a story published from sister publication Kids VT, hear from Rebecca Holcombe, Vermont's new secretary of education.
• Judith Levine writes about the San Antonio 4 and how junk science leads to false convictions, in her monthly Poli Psy column.
• Lastly, in Fair Game: Gov. Peter Shumlin says he's running for reelection next year, and he's already hitting up some prominent donors for campaign cash. Plus, a shakeup is on the docket in Burlington next Town Meeting Day.

Read all about it in print, online or on the iOS app.

Cover photo of folk singer Rik Palieri by Matthew Thorsen.

'It's Not Over,' F-35 Foes Insist as They Carry Fight to the Courts

The mood among F-35 opponents gathered in an Old North End conference room Tuesday evening contrasted starkly with the triumphalist atmosphere inside a Vermont Air Guard hangar earlier in the day.

About a dozen members of the Stop the F-35 Coalition sat glumly around a table a few hours after the state's political leaders and hundreds of uniformed Air Guard members cheered the decision to base 18 of the stealth fighter-bombers in Vermont beginning in 2020.

The activists who have fought the local basing option for more than four years were reluctant to discuss their next steps with a reporter. However, they agreed to offer responses to Tuesday's announcement prior to conducting a private strategy discussion.

Air Force F-35s Coming to Vermont [UPDATED]

Updated at 4:27 p.m.

Despite fierce opposition from many in the community, the F-35 fighter plane will be based at Burlington International Airport starting in 2020, authorities announced today.

The much-anticipated decision by the U.S. Air Force was announced during a raucous ceremony attended by Sen. Patrick Leahy, Gov. Peter Shumlin, and Vermont Air National Guard Adjutant General Steven Cray inside a Air National Guard hangar.

“Today is a historic day for the Vermont National Guard. This is a milestone event for the Air Force in its next steps in securing the citizens of the United States,” Cray said.

Leahy and Shumlin both hailed what they called a major “grassroots” campaign in support of the planes.

“I’ve never seen such a grassroots effort in this state,” Leahy said.

But it wasn't a universal one. Today's announcement came in the wake of protracted opposition from residents who worry that the jets and their noise will disrupt neighborhoods and threaten public health.  Opponents of the Burlington basing said they aren’t giving up their fight.

Waterfront Development Inches Ahead as City Council Gets Briefed on Nine Plans

An expanded marina, a Cherry Street "promenade" and a Moran Plant transformed into an aquatics center or, alternately, a space for food, galleries and "makers" were among nine infrastructure-improvement proposals outlined at a Burlington City Council session on Monday. 

It was another step in a waterfront development process that began early this year and will culminate in a vote on Town Meeting Day in March. A five-member Public Investment Team of planners, architects and developers winnowed 50 proposals submitted to the city last April to the current crop of nine, which Burlington residents can review at a series of five open houses starting next week. 

Shelburne Police Receive National Distinction, One Driver's Beef Not Withstanding

Might the Shelburne Police Department be one of the finest five-0s in the land? The results are in for the 2013 National Law Enforcement Challenge (NLEC), and Shelburne's force finds itself near the top of the pack. In the category of municipal law enforcement agencies with 11-25 officers, the department is ranked second nationally for the quality of its highway safety initiatives.

According to a press release by the Vermont Department of Public Safety about the national award:

Chief Warden and Sgt. Al Fortin along with the entire uniform and civilian staff have worked tirelessly to develop a strong relationship with the Shelburne community including local students and parents. In addition, the Shelburne Police Department has coordinated special high visibility enforcement campaigns with all of the law enforcement agencies in Chittenden County and elsewhere. These efforts have helped to make the roadways in Chittenden County some of the safest in the state.

One driver might disagree. Rod MacIver, a Monkton artist (pictured above) who has been waging a legal battle with the Shelburne police department since last December, would be hard-pressed to describe his relationship with the force as strong.