Maine lawmakers consider a moratorium on data center developments as more towns reject proposals

Maine lawmakers are considering a moratorium 
on data center builds. (Photo by I. Quick, Unsplash)

As data center developers target parts of rural New England for their sprawling compounds, advocates for Maine want answers to questions "about electricity prices, grid reliability, and impact on water resources," reports Julia Tilton of The Daily Yonder. Several Maine communities rejected data center proposals, in part, because Mainers already pay some of the highest electrical rates in the country.

As lawmakers examine the pros and cons of data centers, "one idea floating around Maine’s statehouse is to impose a moratorium on data center development," Tilton explains. "How Maine navigates these challenges could be a model for the rest of New England, which shares an aging electric grid and faces a similar set of circumstances."

Currently, Maine lawmakers are "considering LD 307, a resolution bill that would establish a data center coordination council to provide input and evaluate policy options for data center development in the state," Tilton reports. Passing a state moratorium would prevent larger data center projects from obtaining permits or building until the moratorium ends.

Not all Maine lawmakers agree that a moratorium is the best option. Matt Harrington, a Republican of York, Maine, voiced concerns "that a moratorium 'would harm' a data center development in his district, which includes several towns in the state’s more urban southern region," Tilton writes. Lawmakers suggested they could grant the data center in Harrington's district an exemption.

Questions about the state's grid and its capacity to "feed" data centers without raising residents' utility bills remain a concern. Seth Berry, executive director of Our Power, a Maine-based nonprofit organization advocating for energy democracy, favors the moratorium. He told Tilton, "There are just so many unknowns. We really have to slow this down and step back and look at this massive new development, preferably as a region.”

Neighbors in Maine volunteer to build window inserts for each other to fight the winter cold

Students in Vermont build a WindowDresser insert. 
(Photo by Andrew McKeever, The Yonder )

Harsh winters in Maine can make it hard to keep the cold air outside from creeping into the older New England style homes. WindowDressers is a community-based heating solution that keeps warm air inside by inserting an insulated wooden window into a home or commercial window frame, Andrew McKeever reports for The Daily Yonder.

The concept started in a church in Rockland, Maine, which was losing heat due to its leaky aluminum-clad windows. Church member Richard Cadwgan decided to build window inserts for the church windows, which he learned about at a Midcoast Green Collaborative conference, a Maine-based nonprofit organization. Cadwgan told McKeever the window inserts were a “win-win-win – lower heating bills, fewer carbon emissions, and greater comfort in the cold winter months.”

After word spread to other community members, Cadwgan and former congregation president Frank Munro took orders for 185 inserts for homes the next year, and 1,231 inserts the year after. With so many orders, more volunteers were needed, so “community builds” were formed. Now, there are 52 community builds throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Community builds allow for volunteers with no prior carpentry experience to help build the window inserts after just a brief instruction from their team leader, McKeever explains. Jim Salsgiver, one of the original organizers, told McKeever, “I love the builds and getting together, meeting new people. What’s so cool is somebody comes in and says, ‘Okay, well I signed up, but what do I do?’ And, you know, after three hours, they’re acting like pros doing it and excited about it and telling their friends.”

As of 2024, at least 78,600 inserts have been made, saving almost 4 million gallons of heating fuel.

Quick hits: The American baked potato; rural deputies get EMS training; 6 states ban lab-grown meat sales; building homes in small town Vermont

American-grown potatoes are still affordable and 
delicious. (Idaho Potato Commission photo)

In a time when going to the grocery store can be both expensive and discouraging, it's good for Americans to reignite their love for the humble, versatile and still affordable baked potato. "The baked potato has always been big and great," writes Eric Kim of The New York Times. "These days, a long Idaho tuber, split down the middle like a hot dog bun to reveal fluffy white starch, a pat of butter nestled into the left side, is still big and — more important — great, with its perfect creamy-crunchy-fresh combo of sour cream, chives, cheese and bacon." Find recipes here. 

A rural sheriff in Montana is working to help the region's emergency responders by using "some of his department’s budget to restart a first responder medical training and certification program for deputies to be able to supplement emergency medical providers and help provide care when they are first to the scene of an incident," reports Blair Miller of the Helena Independent Record. Often, when accidents occur in rural Montana, law enforcement arrives well before medical emergency teams. In his announcement, Sheriff Tom Grim said he believes that if deputies could provide medical assistance to victims before an ambulance arrives, their additional training could save lives. 

Six states have passed laws banning cultivated meat.
(Graphic by Adam Dixon, Offrange)

Where's the meat? According to several states, only animals are meat. "Livestock powerhouse Nebraska became the sixth state to preemptively ban the sale of cultivated meat," reports Jaclyn De Candio for Offrange. Nebraska joined the "beef with cultivated meat" by joining states that already ban the sale of lab-grown meat, including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Montana and Indiana. "Florida was the first to pass such a law, and in several cases, companies like UPSIDE Foods already filed lawsuits challenging these restrictions on constitutional and commerce grounds. . . . While laboratory meat products are indeed made from real cattle cells, they give pause to many."

Power grids across the country need upgrades, and areas of the Midwest will get them. "The Department of Energy closed a $1.6 billion loan guarantee for transmission upgrades in the middle of the country — a move that comes as the Trump administration slashes funding for other grid improvements, including a separate transmission megaproject in the Midwest," reports Alexander C. Kaufman of Canary Media. The financing will enable a subsidiary of American Electric Power to "overhaul around 5,000 miles of power lines across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia."

A bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken may be a game-day crowd-pleaser, but the chain has been struggling against competitors that offer on-the-go chicken. "Consumers eat 26% of their fast-food orders in their cars," reports Heather Haddon of The Wall Street Journal. To recapture its market share, the company is revamping its menu to compete with newcomers like Chick-fil-A and Canes. "KFC this month brought back its Original Honey BBQ sandwich, introduced in the late 1990s, at a discounted $3.99 price. The announcement swiped at Chick-fil-A while championing its own sandwich: 'bigger than Chick-fil-A’s AND available on Sundays.'"

Jonah Richard’s first development project was once home to a post office. It now consists of eight apartments and a coffee shop. (Photo by David Littlefield, Vermont Public Media)

Despite the daunting challenges of building affordable housing in New England, a homegrown Vermonter found a way to get it done. "Not so long ago, Jonah Richard spent his days working for a white-collar consulting firm in New York City. Now, he fills his time bopping between construction sites in the corner of Vermont where he grew up," reports Carly Berlin of vtdigger. "His philosophy of trying to squeeze more housing into any possible nook and cranny in a building, and in a town – guides all of the projects that Richard takes on through his small construction company and development business. . . . State officials want to clone Jonah Richard."

Irked by cars and crowds, rural New Englanders try different coping strategies to manage 'leaf-peepers'

Idyllic autumn scenery draws thousands of tourists 
to New England each fall. (Adobe Stock photo)

As fall blows into rural New England, it brings trees decked out in glorious fall shades and plenty of tourists. Residents and local governments in some of the most popular "leaf-peeping" places have had enough. "Locals are pushing for road closures and parking restrictions," reports Jared Mitovich of The Wall Street Journal. Some local stores have started hawking wares that poke fun at tourists.

Despite the tourism revenue "leaf-lookers" generate for some areas, the influx of hundreds of additional people in a single season can overwhelm smaller towns. "They’ve complained about TikTokers trespassing onto countryside farms. . .near-fist fights over trailhead parking — not to mention unsafe traffic blockages on narrow roads," Mitovich writes.

The sheer number of fall tourists to Vermont -- a state with less than 650,000 residents -- explains some of the stress. Vermonters welcome roughly 2.5 million visitors "who come for the idyllic autumnal vistas," Mitovich reports. "A growing number of residents say influencer culture is fueling bad behavior."

Some small businesses have turned to humor to cope by "selling collectible figures titled 'Influencer Trespassing on Private Road': a woman with a long braid under a wide-brimmed hat, smartphone in hand, in front of a leafy landscape," Mitovich adds. Another figurine includes a row of tiny vehicles causing a traffic jam.

The tiny town of Pomfret, Vt., opted to close itself off rather than adapt to the onslaught of tourists. "For the third straight fall season. . . signage will turn away drivers trying to get a glimpse." A Pomfret sugarhouse owner, Michael Doten, supports the blockade, even though it means he sells less maple syrup. He told Mitovich, "People were throwing trash and they were trespassing."

Beyond small towns trying to manage carloads of tourists, popular hiking trails such as Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire get swamped, too. This fall, Franconia park managers "introduced one-way hiking patterns, doubled the number of port-a-potties and increased staffing," Mitovich reports. 

Friday's quick hits: This bot cleans up; sculpture park honors enslaved people; trying weird veggies; camping trip plan

(The Searial Cleaners photo via Route Fifty)

Almost everyone knows what a litterbug is, but what about a litterbot? In Detroit, a litterbot named BeBot "will sift through the sand and suck out trash like cigarette butts, bottles, food wrappers and other small pieces of plastic to help prevent trash from making its way from the Detroit River, which flows between the U.S. and Canada, into Lake Erie," reports Kaitlyn Levinson of Route Fifty. "The robot is roughly the size of a riding lawn mower and weighs more than 1,300 pounds. It uses a metal grate to sift through the sand and pick up trash as it rolls along beachfronts at about two miles per hour. "

Bernie Sanders of Vermont isn't the only one investigating 4-day work weeks. Educators in Pennsylvania now have the option of a 4-day school week. "Legislation signed into law in December amended the Pennsylvania School Code to eliminate the requirement for a minimum 180 school days, providing 900 or more instruction hours each academic year," reports Valerie Myers of The Erie Times. "Districts now can choose between 180 school days and hourly instruction requirements: 900 for elementary students and 990 for secondary students." Despite the option, a lot of school administrators don't feel ready to sign up.

The Legacy Sites photo

How can Americans confront slavery's part in our national history? A park in Alabama is memorializing this past with art. "Montgomery, Alabama -- once a major trafficking port for enslaved people – opened its new Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which features bronze sculptures and historical artifacts that highlight what life was like for enslaved people," reports Mackenzie McCarty of The Christian Science Monitor. "The park culminates in the four-story National Monument to Freedom, inscribed with 122,000 last names that formerly enslaved people chose for themselves after being emancipated."

Guess who's hitting their Earth-loving metrics? U.S. farmers. Daniel Munch of the American Farm Bureau Federation reported on a new study from the Environmental Protection Agency that showed "'U.S. agriculture represents just under 10% of total U.S. emissions when compared to other economic sectors. Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased from 2021 to 2022 by 1.3%, though agricultural emissions dropped 1.8% – the largest decrease of any economic sector.' . . . 2022 marks the lowest U.S. agricultural greenhouse gas emissions since 2012."

With googly eyes, most veggies look more approachable.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Some vegetables get a bad rap: Okra is slimy. Eggplants look more like purple slugs than food. Rutabagas don't even sound like a food. But what if there was a way to make those strange foods approachable? Even edible. "It's hard to be intimidated by celeriac — or rutabaga, radicchio, eggplant or okra — when it's wiggling googly eyes at you," reports Rebekah Denn of The Washington Post. Chef and food educator Becky Selengut "began pasting eyes on produce while teaching a 'Misunderstood Vegetables' cooking class and writing a related new cookbook."

Don't let raccoons, bugs, lumpy ground or lackluster meals ruin your summer camping trip. A great camping trip starts with solid planning, "so you'll return home with great memories," writes Alex Temblador for National Geographic. "We’ve created a list of all the items you’ll need. . . . From clothes to kitchen supplies and gear to help you sleep." Find the checklist here.

New England stone walls are a man-made wonder deserving their own branch of science

Instagram photo via The Conversation

Walls of rock with novel plant and animal life wind through New England, and it's time to give them their own place in science, writes Robert M. Thorson for The Conversation, a journalism platform for academics."The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as iconic to the region as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere – a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils. Stone walls can be found here and there in other states, but only in New England are they nearly ubiquitous. That's due to a regionally unique combination of hard crystalline bedrock, glacial soils and farms with patchworks of small land parcels."

European settlers working with draft horses built nearly all of the walls. "The mass of stone that farmers moved in that century staggers the mind – an estimated 240,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) of barricades, most stacked thigh-high and similarly wide," Thorson notes. "That's long enough to wrap our planet 10 times at the equator, or to reach the Moon on its closest approach to Earth."

"Natural scientists have been working to quantify this phenomenon, which is larger in volume than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall in Britain and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza combined," Thorson writes. "This work began in 1870 and generated the U.S. government's 1872 Census of Fences. Today, scientists are using a technique called LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, to measure and map stone walls across New England.

A stoat scurries along a rock wall in search of mice.
(Instagram photo via The Conversation)

"These archaeological artifacts are so ubiquitous that they have become a geological landform that in turn creates a novel ecological habitat," Thorson adds. "But despite their importance, never have the stone walls of New England been technically defined, classified and given a common terminology in a peer-reviewed journal. They fell, it seems, through disciplinary cracks."

The region's rock walls are in "some ways analogous to the region's wetlands, which also are landforms that farmers created or significantly modified as they settled the land in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, since the 1990s, wetlands have earned a robust science, a solid legal framework and excellent management protocols," Thorson writes. "In my view, the time has come to do the same for New England's stone walls."

To read how Thorson and his students and colleagues are working to develop a formal interdisciplinary science of stone walls, click here.

Delving into rural homelessness, an anthropologist's new book takes an in-depth look at this often-hidden issue

Families on the Edge was published August 15.
(Photo from MIT Press via The Daily Yonder)

Homelessness looks different depending on where you live. In the case of rural homelessness, it's often hidden, complex and surprisingly prevalent. Author and researcher Elizabeth Carpenter-Song is a medical and psychological anthropologist who has studied homelessness for more than a decade. Her new book Families on the Edge: Experiences of Homelessness and Care in Rural New England is an "ethnographic study of housing insecurity in an under-studied region," reports Olivia Weeks of The Daily Yonder. A condensed version of Weeks' question-and-answer interview with Carpenter-Song is shared below.

What are the most important differences in experiences of rural and urban homelessness?
Homelessness in urban areas of the U.S. is much more visible. In many American cities, it is common to see and interact with people who may be unhoused. . . . In our rural towns and villages in New England, there are encampments of unhoused people, but these tend to be out of sight. People experiencing homelessness in rural areas . . . may camp in the woods, sleep in cars, or double-up with friends or family for periods of time.

In the context of families, which was the focus of my research, parents go to great lengths to avoid literal homelessness with their kids and, as a result, move frequently between different settings to access shelter. In rural areas, challenges related to housing are compounded by transportation challenges when people move to more remote towns to gain access to more affordable housing. But, this places people at risk of being isolated from support networks and creates challenges for finding employment and meeting basic needs within small rural towns.

Are there any commonalities that might seem surprising to an outsider?
The main commonality between experiences of homelessness in rural and urban areas is that homelessness is a housing problem. As a society, we are now experiencing the consequences of decades of underinvestment in affordable housing. Runaway real estate valuations and high costs of living, coupled with a lack of adequate housing stock, have created a common scenario across the U.S. in which safe and affordable housing is out of reach for more and more people.

You outline this problem in the book in which, as housing gets cheaper in your subject area, it inevitably gets further from crucial services and opportunities. Are there any good models for reversing that trend? Do you know of any small towns that have become more walkable or developed more reliable public transportation networks?
This is one of the big challenges we face in rural areas. In the book, I advocate for increasing housing density closer to town centers to mitigate transportation challenges and create more opportunities for accessing services and being integrated in the community. In the region I write about, the towns of Lebanon, New Hampshire and White River Junction, Vermont, are good examples of efforts to have mixed-use residential and commercial space, greater housing density, walkable downtown areas, and access to the local free bus service.

It is important to note that these two towns are relatively larger than many of the small villages in rural New England and are proximate to the major centers of employment in the region. Yet, I think these two settings can still serve as useful examples of how to create vibrant and accessible town centers in a rural region.

Secret ballot or public votes from the floor? Pandemic-era changes stir debate on New England town-meeting structure

Town Meeting of Tunbridge, Vt., May 2022, delayed two months due to Covid-19 (Valley News photo by James Patterson)

May I have the floor? If you're at a New England town meeting, that's an important question. First, bear in mind that every bit of New England, except sparsely populated areas like northern Maine, lies within the boundary of a town or city. Towns are New England's fundamental unit of government, like the county is elsewhere in the U.S.

"The institution of Town Meeting dates to the 1630s, the days of the earliest European settlements," notes Alex Hanson of the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt., as he reports a move to secret-ballot voting: "The past two years with Covid-era trials have given Town Meeting voters a taste of Australian-ballot voting, where the polls are open from morning until 7 p.m., and in many cases universal mail-in voting, where ballots are sent to every verified voter. . . . In at least three towns on the Vermont side of the Upper Valley . . . will reconvene for floor meetings for the first time since before the pandemic and will consider whether to move to ballot voting."

Debating whether to have or not to have town meetings has "revived a long-standing debate about New England’s signature form of government," Hanson reports. "Supporters of moving to Australian-ballot voting for some or all town-meeting business note that, in some towns, turnout was double in 2021 and 2022 what it was in previous years of in-person meetings. But the value of the traditional meeting, where neighbors gather to talk over and amend town budgets and other matters, might be greater than ever following the pandemic’s isolation, backers of the in-person format say."

The push for Australian ballot vs. in-person town meeting is often economic, Hanson reports: "Vermont law requires employers to give workers the day off for the meeting, but it isn’t always feasible. . . . Eric Lopez, a member of the Strafford School Board, expects he’ll have to miss Town Meeting for work. The board hasn’t taken a position on Australian balloting, but speaking for himself alone, Lopez is for it. While he appreciates the deliberate nature of the in-person meeting, 'It’s difficult for me to take the position that denying access to the process is a viable way forward,' he said."

For broader perspective, Hanson called Susan Clark, longtime town moderator of Middlesex, Vt., and a researcher of town meetings. "While a move to Australian ballot would also entail holding an informational meeting prior to voting, such meetings tend to be poorly attended, Clark said. . . . If greater participation is a goal, it might be better to find ways to hold the meeting at a time when more people can get there." 

"Australian-ballot voting allows more people to participate, but it shrinks the legislature’s vocabulary" in holding town selectmen to account, Hanson writes, quoting Clark as saying that the results of a secret-ballot vote, without the background discussion, is like sending U.S. Sen. Peter Welch to Washington “and telling him he can only use two words: ‘yes’ and ‘no’.”

Clark quoted fellow town-meeting researcher Frank Bryan: "Yes, Town Meeting has its flaws, but show me a better system." Bryan argues that town meetings are "accessible to people of all classes, and that towns with lower socioeconomic status have just as much turnout as better-off communities," Hanson writes. Clark said the opposite is true with secret-ballot voting, which she said is skewed by socioeconomics and race.

“Basically, we do democracy differently at Town Meeting,” Clark told Hanson. “We tell stories. We show up as neighbors. … A story can humanize an issue and can actually carry the day.”  Hanson writes, "In the social-media era, that kind of democracy might be more important than ever, she said."

UPDATE, March 9: For the Valley News, former New Hampshire agriculture commissioner Steve Taylor laments the loss of community meals as a central feature of town meetings.  

New England subsidies help make community-supported agriculture programs accessible to low-income families

A CSA share from Red Fire Farm
(Photo submitted to The Daily Yonder)

Community-supported agriculture is a win-win for rural communities: Farmers get an extra avenue of income, and families who often live in food deserts can access fresh, local produce. But CSA programs typically require an up-front payment of several hundred dollars for the season, and low-income families often don't have the money. Some New England communities have innovative variations on CSAs that preserve the benefits to farmers while making the programs more accessible, Caroline Tremblay reports for The Daily Yonder.

For example, the Northeast Organic Farming Association operates twin Farm Share Programs in New Hampshire and Vermont, which aim to lower CSA costs for low-income residents. Initially funded by a grant, the New Hampshire program is now supported mainly through an annual fundraiser to which community partners contribute a portion of that day's sales, Tremblay reports. Such fundraising covers half the cost of the CSA for each low-income family, while the families themselves and participating organic farmers contribute the 25 percent each. Farmers are able to keep the same profit level because they solicit donations from other CSA members. NOFA has an Agriculture Department grant to establish similar programs in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

Red Fire Farm, which has two locations in Western Massachusetts, has a novel way of getting fresh organic produce to low-income families: since 2017 the farm has been a certified retailer for the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. "It’s a streamlined structure to simplify the use of SNAP benefits that was launched by the Department of Transitional Assistance," Tremblay reports. Farms certified as SNAP CSA retailers don't need dedicated equipment to process payment, as they would if they were selling at a farmer's market. Instead, low-income CSA members send a form to DTA, then the monthly benefit funds are automatically sent directly to the farm each month.

Sometimes, an obituary's not enough. Sometimes, a news story's not enough. Sometimes, you need the whole eulogy.

David Ainsworth gave one of his cows a shot in his barn in 2007.
(Photo by Ikuru Kuwajima; copyright, The Valley News)

Community newspapers increasingly charge for obituaries, an unfortunate result of digital media's erosion of their advertising base. But the news columns of the best community papers still include news obits about people who made their mark on the community or region. And sometimes a paper will double down and run a long tribute to a truly unique individual. The Valley News of Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt., did that with the moving, funny and insightful eulogy for a well-known dairy farmer and former state legislator, David Ainsworth, by Corey Chapman, a veteran of Afghanistan.

He gets you with the first sentence: "I once got drunk on a beach in Hawaii. Now let’s be really honest here, how many of you thought I would open with that?" Turns out it was the only time his wife had seen him cry, until Ainsworth died. Chapman moved on to plainspoken, entertaining descriptions of Ainsworth the farmer: a manure pit with "chocolate sauce," doctoring a cow ("We used to run calcium into a sick cow’s jugular like it was a NASCAR pit stop"), baling hay on a slope ("He knew just how to maneuver in order to have the bale sit perfect every time"), and just passing the time ("He would always tell a quick story of times gone by and we would sit there looking out over the town of Royalton. Those were my favorite times with him: side by side.")

Ainsworth had been ill, but Chapman only hinted at it: "He always answered the phone when he knew it was me by saying 'Hello, sir,' or 'Hello, Mr. Chapman.' Lately he had been calling quite a few of us here today on a regular basis. He would call me and ask how the cows were doing and how my family was and then talk for a while about some ideas he had. I wish I had talked to him longer because I’m sure going to miss that 'Hello, sir,' that I’ll never hear again."

After reading a poem he found online about a just-passed farmer, Chapman closed the sale: "I would like to remind you all that David Ainsworth was a dying breed of Vermonter. A member of the old guard of our beautiful culture here, he was the type of man that we are losing more and more of every day. The wise old man with the big smile and the kind heart. Back to basics and pure luck and faith. When Merle Howe and George Spaulding and other old farmers pass away, I remember how much dies with them, a whole history of the way things used to be and how they should be now, memories and stories of a way of life that we will never know because they are gone now. So if you know any old timers in your life, these old wise men, do as I did with Dave: Spend as much time as you can talking and working with them and learn all that you possibly can from them before it is too late and they are gone, and that world of knowledge is gone too. If I could send a message to Dave I would say the farm is in good hands. . . . I wish you could see the crowd here today and the one at your farm yesterday. If you wanted to know if you impacted anyone in your life,  you should just look around. We all loved you and owed you so much for all that you have done for us. You will never be forgotten, as you have instilled in all of us your love of the land and this great state. We love you, Dave. Goodbye, sir."

New England town meetings provide examples for the rest of the nation, British correspondent says

Many New England towns still use their original political system of town meetings, which could teach the rest of the nation, including many in Congress, how to get things done while including the voices of anyone interested in throwing in their two cents. For his weekly "Lexington" column about the U.S., David Rennie of The Economist went to the meeting in Duxbury, Vt., where "all adult residents are invited to become legislators for a day, electing dozens of office-holders and debating the fine details of budgets, such as which brand of dump truck to buy."

Duxbury is in red on left map (Wikipedia)

"The impressive part is how Duxbury deals with conflict," Rennie writes. "Deep differences are often visible, as old-time conservatives butt heads with liberal newcomers, or pony-tailed professionals compete for election against retirees in check shirts. Sometimes transparency is painful, as when votes are held by a show of hands, forcing neighbor to snub neighbor. There is a lot of grumbling. As Duxbury’s elected moderator drily asked at one point, as he attempted to press on with the agenda: 'Is everyone relatively happy?'”

"But transparency also eases distrust: some of the angriest interventions turned out to have roots in a misunderstanding," Rennie reports. "The mere fact of being allowed to air grievances left several speakers visibly mollified and willing to bow to the consensus in the room. All those hours sitting on hard chairs in a school canteen left Duxbury residents weary. But the repeated votes and endless discussions also left them with a personal stake in the running of the town for the coming year."

"It would be hard to replicate town meeting elsewhere," Rennie writes. "Vermont is a curious state, where good manners and civic spirit co-exist with curmudgeonly individualism and self-reliance. But there is no need to clone town meeting for its example to do some good." University of Vermont political scientist Frank Bryan, who conducted a study of about 1,500 New England town meetings, writes: "If town meeting teaches anything, it is how to suffer damn fools and to appreciate the fact that from time to time you too may look like a damn fool in the eyes of people as good as yourself.'” (Read more)

For a news story on the meetings in Duxbury and other towns in the Mad River Valley, from The Valley Reporter, click here.

How the Newtown Bee covered the mass killing: one story that doesn't need to be behind a paywall

It has no grand theorizing about community journalism, but Rachel Aviv's story in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine about how the Newtown Bee covered the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings is a testament to the craft and those who practice it.

When reporter/photographer and volunteer firefighter Shannon Hicks arrived on the scene, "She saw a young officer, William Chapman, come out of the school yelling, 'Get the bus!' He had a limp girl in his arms," Aviv writes. "Hicks began calling for an ambulance, but then she saw one already approaching. Through the lens of her camera, she watched as Chapman, only a few strides from the ambulance, fell to the ground, apparently losing strength. She saw that the child's face had lost color, and knew then that she would never publish the photographs she was taking."

The photo by Shannon Hicks that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

When another reporter arrived, Hicks donned firefighter's gear and took on her other big community role. "The Bee recently submitted Hicks’s photograph of the children being led to safety for the Pulitzer Prize," Aviv writes, "but Hicks still felt conflicted about her work that day. One set of parents thanked her for the picture -- they'd seen their daughter's face online before arriving at the firehouse," where parents waited. "But Hicks also heard from two residents who said that it was exploitative, a criticism she understood." The girl in the light-blue top "appears to be crying or screaming," but "in an earlier frame, the girl had looked calm," Aviv writes, quoting Hicks: "I want to find her and tell her, 'I'm so sorry. You were just scared. I'm sorry you will remember that moment because of me.'"

Two-third of Newtown residents get the Bee, Aviv writes, "and after the shooting the editor, Curtiss Clark, found himself thinking about its purpose. He wanted the paper to draw the community together, to reclaim its routine—a task made nearly impossible by all the outsiders streaming into town. The Bee reporters talked about the deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School as if the children had been in some sort of natural disaster. They referred to 'the incident' and avoided the name Adam Lanza, which had become a kind of obscenity."

Aviv's story is behind a paywall that will charge you $5.99 to read it.

Ash borer found east of Hudson River for first time

Emerald ash borers, the invasive beetles that have destroyed tens of millions of ash trees over the past decade, have been discovered east of the Hudson River for the first time, George Walsh of The Associated Press reports. However, discovery of the beetle in Dutchess County, New York, could mean a victory in the battle to stop the beetle's spread into New England, Walsh reports. Foresters believe the colony was found less than a year after it was established, suggesting there is time to stem the eastward spread.

Beetle larvae tunnel under ash trees' bark, slowly killing the them. Walsh reports entire stands of trees have been "ravaged" in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Northeast since the Chinese beetle was first discovered in Detroit in 2002. The main population of borers has spread at about two to three miles a year, but "satellite colonies leapfrog ahead, mostly by hitchhiking in loads of logs or firewood," Walsh reports.

Forester Jeff Rider said plans are being made to quarantine moving ash-tree material in Dutchess County, limited to particular towns. He said the infestation likely involved borers crossing the river last summer. Meanwhile, foresters in the rest of New England are preparing for an infestation. "They're gearing up, knowing they're eventually going to have it," Rider said. "We're just trying to buy them some time." (Read more)

Maple industry booming, due to Quebec-set prices

The maple-syrup industry is undergoing a "dramatic expansion" in the Northeast, thanks to high prices set by Canadians, reports Steve Taylor, who returned to his former pursuits of sugaring and journalism after many years as New Hampshire agriculture commissioner.

"Ground zero" for the boom is Franklin County, Vermont (Wikipedia map), "where all of the major manufacturers of maple equipment have their operations and where producers are expanding at a brisk pace, some with up to 20,000 new taps coming on line this year," Taylor reports, quoting Brad Gillilan, an executive of Leader Evaporator, the nation’s largest manufacturer of sap evaporators: “The industry in the U.S. is as big as it’s ever been, and it’s growing all over.”

"Syrup production the United States has been expanding at the rate of 10 per cent per year over the past five years from new taps coming on line, and then there’s another five percent increase in production coming from the aggressive adoption of new technologies, including improved tubing systems, higher vacuum, more powerful reverse osmosis equipment and new evaporators with far greater fuel efficiency," Taylor reports in a story first written for Lancaster Farming.

Photo by John Russ, Bangor Daily News

He writes that syrup prices are "buoyed" by the Quebec provincial maple board, "which controls the pricing and sets quotas for how much all maple producers in the province can make." That, in effect, establishes a floor price for all of North America because about three-fourths of the maple syrup produced on the continent comes from Quebec.

The market opened earlier because of the unusually warm winter. "This winter’s strange weather pattern has oldtime maple producers scratching their heads, unable to recall an earlier full-throttle start to the sap flow," Taylor reports. In some locales sap ran well during warm spells in January."

Looking ahead, Taylor sees "tightening of food safety laws, which could force many maple operations to upgrade their facilities." Citing Bruce Bascom of Acworth, N.H., "one of the largest producers, packers and distributors of maple products in the Northeast," he writes, "Vermont’s new voluntary sugarhouse registration program points the way toward inspection requirements that will have to be met before a producer’s crop will be accepted for purchase." (Read more)

Cuts in home-heating assistance hit hard in Maine

Cuts in the home-heating assistance program are hitting hard in Maine, where "at this time of year, almost nothing matters here as much as basic heat," writes Dan Barry of The New York Times. "While federal officials try to wean the country from messy and expensive heating oil, Maine remains addicted. The housing stock is old, most communities are rural, and many residents cannot afford to switch to a cleaner heat source." (Times photo by Nicole Bengiveno)

Barry runs the numbers: "As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills. Eligibility is harder now, and the average amount given here is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon."

Barry's article is built around a heart-rending tale of a man who saw his heating assistance cut by three-fourths, was running out of oil and had no money to buy a load, and had unpaid bills that kept him from getting a third load on credit. To read the tale, click here.

The state tightened eligibility requirements, reports Emily Guerin of The Forecaster in Falmouth. Governments in some towns (every place in rural New England is part of a town) and nonprofit organizations are supplementing assistance. "Some have aggressively raised money, while others have set aside tax revenue to help heat residents' homes," Guerin writes.

Weather may be good news for maple syrup season in New England, until the sap goes 'buddy'

While much of the Northeast may still not have recovered from the deluge of snow it received this winter, spring is just around the corner and with it comes maple syrup season. A recent run of warm days has tempted many syrup producers in Maine to begin tapping trees, but "other producers, particularly those in northern Maine, are cautiously watching an approaching cold stretch and will wait until after it passes to collect the sap," Sharon Kiley Mack of the Bangor Daily News reports. Last year was not kind to maple syrup producers, and early reports say this year may bring more of the same. (BDN photo by John Clark Russ: Lee Kinney drills a tree)

"Last year, maple producers suffered through a mixed season — early in the southern part of the state and later up north," Mack writes. Producers usually begin tapping trees around March 20, but weather cause that date to move almost a month early last season. Eric Ellis of Maine Maple Products in Madison, Maine, said the weather this year likely signals a similar early season. "We need temperatures of 20 or so in the night, followed by 40 to 45 in the day, without a strong wind, for a good sap flow," Kathy Hopkins, maple syrup specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, told Mack, noting "when daytime temperatures are consistently in the 60s, the buds begin to form and the sap tastes 'buddy.'" (Read more)

For the first time in two decades Richard Focht, an upstate New York maple syrup producer, had to buy snowshoes so he could walk through the forest and set up his taps, Sarah Bradshaw of the Poughkeepsie Journal reports. Last year was one of the worst seasons in recent history for upstate New York producers because spring came too fast, Focht said. "It was cold and it got warm all of the sudden," Focht, said. "It was real bad last year. The entire season was one week." (Read more)

In Rhode Island producers are hopeful the cold winter will mean big returns for them this year, Thomas J. Morgan of The Providence Journal reports. "The weather has had a very positive effect," said Peter Susi, marketing supervisor of the state Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Agriculture. "The maple flow likes cold nights and sunny days." Gibby Fountain, who owns Spring Hill Sugarhouse in Richmond, notes the snow cover for much of the winter prevented a frost that would have frozen the tree roots. "Any day we get temperatures above freezing, the sap runs vigorously," she said. (Read more)

Oldest U.S. family farm faces the end of the line

America's oldest operating family farm, which dates to 1632, has been put up for sale in Dover, N.H. Will Tuttle, 63, has decided his family's legacy will end with him, Peter Schowrm of the Boston Globe reports. "This is a different business now," Tuttle, who raises vegetables, told Schowrm. "Farming at any level is a labor of love, but now the future is so uncertain. Looking forward, I don’t see much opportunity for small farms to thrive. It’s a tough grind." Since 1982, the U.S. has lost 41 million acres of rural land like the Tuttle farm, now surrounded by development near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Along the coast, where land values have soared and suburban sprawl has intensified, the challenge to farming is especially acute," Schowrm writes. The 134-acre property is listed for $3.35 million and is protected by conservation restrictions that prevent it from being developed after sold, though the new owner is under no obligation to keep it an active farm. "Since the economy turned, we’ve been losing," said Michelle Tuttle, Will's wife. (Globe photo by Kayana Szymczak)

The farm was founded by English settler John Tuttle with a land grant from King Charles III and has become a tourist destination in recent years. Even actor Robert De Niro has been known to stop by, Schowrm reports. After selling the farm the Tuttles plan to move to the house they own next door. "It’s not going anywhere," Will Tuttle told Schowrm. "It will always stay beautiful, open land, and will always be a piece of land with every square inch of my sweat on it." (Read more)

Website hopes to fill gap it sees in news coverage of 3-state rural region 'filled with smart people'

Two former New York City journalists have launched a website aimed at serving a four-county, three-state rural region they say is underserved by traditional, mainstream media. Rural Intelligence is the brainchild of Marilyn Bethany and Dan Shaw, who have both worked as editors and reporters at The New York Times and New York magazine. They say they hope to provide "reliable information source for people like themselves, who routinely do business and seek recreation and entertainment in four counties: Berkshire in Massachusetts, Columbia and northern Dutchess in New York, and northern Litchfield in Connecticut. (MapQuest image: star on Millerton, N.Y., biggest town near junction of the three states)

Bethany and Shaw "have taken their combined 40 years of experience in print journalism with the technology of the day to create this Rural Intelligence, which treats this uniquely sophisticated region as one big neighborhood," the site says. "Their hope is that sharing information will foster a sense of community that transcends county and state boundaries. Rural Intelligence is the place where full-time residents and weekenders can come together to share their passion for culture and country life." The seven-person staff divides its content into sections about food, arts, style, road trips, community, kids and, perhaps of most interest to the national audience, an AgriCulture blog.

We asked Shaw if the site's name was chosen to confront or refute the notion of many uirbanites that "rural" is a synonym for "unsophisticated." He replied, "It was chosen not as a political statement so much as for the fact that the region we call home is very rural, which is quite amazing considering it is 100 miles from Manhattan. And it is filled with smart people; thus, Rural Intelligence." Visit the site here.

Fed up, Vt. journalist creates his own news outlet

As the newspaper industry around him continued to slip, journalist and Vermonter Jon Margolis, left, took matters into his own hands with a few hundred dollars and a web domain, creating Vermont News Guy.

Since its launch on Dec. 5, Margolis' site has garnered the attention of 56 subscribers (and growing), as well as the Committee of Concerned Journalists. Margolis, a former chief political reporter for the Chicago Tribune and author of The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964, writes on the CCJ Web site that Vermont News Guy is "a news site, not an opinion-mongering blog." Topics are chosen by proximity and relevance to the rural area where he lives, ranging from stories on stimulus package handouts to education reform and "The Carcass Conundrum" about hunting and fishing standards.

"Old-fashioned journalism need not be dull," Margolis wrote in his first blog post. "It need not mean writing wire-service style pyramid leads or abstaining from judgment, which is not the same as opinion." The future of the site depends on its usefulness to Vermonters, but until that becomes clear, Margolis isn't going anywhere. "You know what I’m doing five days a week? I’ll tell you. In my little home office here on the phone or Internet or in the Capitol in Montpelier schmoozing with legislators, I’m covering and writing the news." Read more.

College students help small Vt. town chart its path

Many small towns struggle to balance economic growth with preservation of their community's spirit. One community is turning to the local college to help with the task.

Starksboro, Vt., population 1,900, is home to Middlebury College. City leaders have asked students to spend a semester interviewing residents to help determine what makes the town unique. “Our hope is to create enough consensus to then drive the plan’s language,” Bill Roper, president of the Orton Family Foundation, one of the groups funding the project, tells Abby Goodnough of The New York Times. “Then they can move forward with how to protect what they’ve all agreed is most important.”

The students are part of a class entitled "Portraits of a Vermont Town." The project is aimed not only at helping the town plan how they want to grow, but also at helping students understand the realities of rural life. “I’m guilty, like most of us, of really romanticizing Vermont life and Vermont towns,” said Max Kanter, a junior from Phoenix. “Now I have a sense of the challenge they have to stay afloat.” (Read more)