The article discusses Andrew Judge's plans to expand a chicken pot pie project for local charities. Last year, Judge raised chickens in his backyard and donated 19 birds which created over 180 pot pies for Martha's Kitchen. This year, he hopes to raise 300 chickens but needs community volunteers to help. Volunteers will be provided with coops and chickens to raise for 7 weeks, after which the chickens will be processed and volunteers can keep most of the meat, while 1/3 will be donated to the pot pie project. Local charities spoke in support of the expanded project to help meet increased need.

1. Vol. 158 No. 039 (USPS) (5133-8000)
IN BRIEF
MessengerMessenger$1.00
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Vermont’s Oldest Evening Newspaper Established in 1861
Berkshire Montgomery Sheldon Fairfield Highgate Richford Enosburg Swanton Georgia fairfax Franklin Bakersfield Fletcher
St. Albans
BATTLING HUNGER
By ELAINE EZERINS
Messenger Staff Writer
ST. ALBANS — Andrew Judge,
founder of Seeds for Growth,
hopes to implement the chicken
pot pie project again this year, but
on a much larger scale.
Last time around, Judge worked
mainly on his own. He reached
out to the University of Vermont’s
Extension Embryology Program
for free chicks. He raised them, los-
ing a few to foxes and hawks along
the way.
He drove to the Hannaford
Career Center in Middlebury to
process and package the chickens.
When the chicken pot pies were
donated to Martha’s Kitchen in the
fall, 19 birds went to create more
than 180 pot pies.
Local charity soliciting community volunteers
Quinnlan Steele (8)
and Seneca Lamos
skate toward cen-
ter ice at Cairns
Arena on Saturday
in a St. Albans
Saints 10-and-
under state hockey
tournament game.
The Messenger will
feature photos of
several local youth
hockey teams
throughout the
week.
SEE SPORTS,
PAGE 1B JOSH KAUFMANN, St. Albans Messenger
A CHICKEN
FOR EVERY POT PIE
Swanton delays
celebration
due to fatality
SWANTON – The Swanton
Enhancement Project has
announced that its scheduled
celebration of community
accomplishments, which was
to be held Thursday, has been
postponed.
The action was taken as
the result of the death of
Swanton resident William
Fournier, 23, who died last
weekend after his truck fell
through the ice and into the
icy waters of Campbell’s Bay.
Molly Lambert, an event
organizer, said, “The town
is grieving and it seems the
right thing to do. We’ll keep
you posted about reschedul-
ing.”
TOWN MEETING DAY
Georgia
revenues
assist
budget
By ABBY LEDOUX
Milton Independent
GEORGIA — Voters here
will see reduced tax bills
on the town side this year,
thanks to growth in the Grand
List and anticipated revenue.
At $2.74 million, the General
Fund proposal actually spends
more than in 2015, but it also
assumes nearly $260,000 more
in revenue, requiring a $1.5
million tax levy – a 5 percent
decrease or $82,000 less than in
2015.
Calculated with the cur-
rent Grand List, the 2016 tax
rate will decrease about a
penny and a half, town trea-
surer Amber Baker said. For
a $250,000 home, that means
about $40 in savings.
Recent development is
expected to grow the Grand
List even more, Baker added.
She referred to Fairfield devel-
oper Tim Reed’s 19-unit sub-
division off Georgia’s Route 7
that will help further reduce
the tax impact.
Some of the biggest savings
come from cell phone tower
rent payments, projected at
nearly $92,000 compared to last
year’s $79,000. Having $110,000
cash in-hand to apply to the
2016 budget also helped tamp
down expenses, Baker said.
Revenue from the state is
up almost $5,000, while money
from fees, licenses and fines is
down about $7,000, as the town
budgeted for fewer zoning and
recording fees in 2016.
The town made its last loan
payment for the John Rhodes
land use lawsuit settlement
in 2015, and this year will see
the final payments for the
fire department tanker voters
approved in 2013.
The selectboard also
increased that department’s
reserve fund by $30,000 for cap-
Spending up,
tax levy down
ELAINE EZERINS, St. Albans Messenger
Robert Ostermeyer, Andrew Judge, Bob Begley, OFS, and Natalie LaRocque-Bouchard all pose in front of the new logo for the
2016 chicken pot pie project. The slogan “Together We Cook” exemplifies Judge’s need for community members to come
forward and raise chickens for free.
Messenger file photo
Last year, more than 180 chicken pot pies were donated to Martha’s Kitchen.
Judge hopes to expand upon the three flavors: American Classic, Chicken Curry
Karma and Toulouse La Cluck.
GRAND ISLE (AP) —
Authorities say a ferry con-
necting New York and Vermont
has been re-opened after high
winds and waves closed it
Monday night.
The Grand Isle County
Sheriff’sDepartment says Lake
Champlain Transportation
Co. re-opened ferry service
Tuesday morning. The ferry
connects Grand Isle, Vermont
and Plattsburgh, New York.
On Monday night, Sheriff
Ray Allen said there were
high winds and waves on Lake
Champlain. Allen said there
was concern about waves com-
ing onto the deck with large
chunks of ice.
® See GEORGIA on page 10A® See HUNGER on page 5A
Tonight: Rain ending. Low 28.
Tomorrow: Afternoon snow showers.
High 32.
Forecast, Page 6A
WEATHER:
essenger.com
ON THE WEB:
www.samessenger.com
facebook.com/saintalbansmessenger
Authorities:
Grand Isle
ferry reopened
IN BRIEF
LEGISLATIVE HEARING:
Governor’s state budget
under committee review
By MICHELLE MONROE
Messenger Staff Writer
ST. ALBANS — The competing demands
on Vermont’s state budget – educa-
tion, health care, economic development
– were on display Monday night as mem-
bers of the House and Senate Appropria-
tions Committees took testimony from the
public on Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed
budget.
Area residents address wide range of issues
MICHELLE MONROE, St. Albans Messenger® See BUDGET on page 5A
Schools close;
merger forum
will be held
ST. ALBANS — Although
schools across the region were
closed due to weather for the
first time this year, a planned
forum on the proposed merg-
er of the Fairfield, St. Albans
City and St. Albans Town
school districts will take place
as scheduled tonight.
The forum will be begin
at 6 p.m. in the Bellows Free
Academy library on South
Main Street in St. Albans.
INSIDE
Vermont Adult Learning and
RiseVT seek ways to continue
collaboration. That, plus a calen-
dar of local wellness and support
groups in health, pages 8-9A.
From left:
Rep. Kathleen
Keenan, Sen.
Bobby Starr
and Rep.
Chuck Pearce
take testi-
mony on Gov.
Shumlin’s pro-
posed budget
during a hear-
ing Monday
night at the St.
Albans Town
Educational
Center library.

2. The session was held
in the St. Albans Town
Educational Center
library, where speakers
focused on the needs of the
Community High School of
Vermont, Medicaid reim-
bursement, and the state
college system.
Sen. Bobby Starr,
D-Essex-Orleans, Rep.
KathyKeenan,D-St.Albans,
and Rep. Albert “Chuck”
Pearce, R-Richford conduct-
ed the meeting. Starr repre-
sents the Franklin County
towns of Montgomery and
Richford.
A number of individual
area residents raised points
for consideration.
Carl Rosenquist, of
Georgia, a former state
representative, urged the
Vermont Legislature to
make certain local courts
are not closed.
Judicial processes
should happen close to
the people involved, in his
view. “Many of the people
involved in the judicial pro-
cess can’t travel that eas-
ily,” said Rosenquist.
“Don’t cut the judicial
branch any more than it
has been,” he said.
Basil Burt, also of
Georgia, expressed concern
about dairy farming. “The
whole industry is starting
to decline,” he said.
He urged careful consid-
eration of environmental
requirements. “Farmers
know what they’re doing,
and they don’t want to pol-
lute the lake,” said Burt.
“You need to listen to the
farmers.”
Scott Magnan, who has a
custom cut business in St.
Albans, urged legislators
to continue to support the
Working Lands grant pro-
gram. He received a small
grant that has enabled him
to expand his business with
a manure injector and no-
till planter. “It was a real
big jumpstart, and we were
able to build off of those
funds,” said Magnan.
Vermont
State Colleges
Beth Walsh and Tyrone
Shaw, of Johnson State
College, spoke about the
loss of state funding for the
Vermont State Colleges.
The state provides just 13
percent of the funding,
despite a 1962 commit-
ment to fund the colleges
in whole or in part, said
Walsh.
When the colleges don’t
receive state funding, they
must increase tuition. Less
funding for college means
more debt for students, said
Walsh.
Eighty percent of
Johnson State College grad-
uates remain in state, she
said.
Walsh encouraged the
state to find other sources
of revenue for the colleges,
such as a share of revenues
from taxes on marijuana if
it is legalized.
The state currently con-
tributes $84 million to high-
er education, with $41 mil-
lion going to the University
of Vermont to educate 3,000
Vermont students each
year, and $26 million to the
Vermont State Colleges to
educate 9,000 Vermonters.
“Why not flip those num-
bers?” he asked
“This would not cost
anything but some political
capital,” said Shaw.
Health care
Janet McCarthy, director
of Franklin County Home
Health, and Joe Halko,
director of Community
Relations for Northwestern
Counseling and Support
Services (NCSS), urged that
Medicaid reimbursement
rates for their agencies be
increased.
Nursing homes receive
a cost-of-living increase
in their reimbursement
each year, but home health
providers do not, said
McCarthy.
Halko asked for a 3 per-
cent increase in reimburse-
ment for the designated
agencies.
Agencies such as NCSS
serve Vermonters with
complex needs at low cost,
said Halko. Their services
reduce the need for hospi-
talization and institution-
alization of Vermonters,
while also helping to reduce
use of hospital rooms, he
argued.
In addition, demand
for services for those with
developmental disabilities,
substance abuse or mental
health issues is increasing,
said Halko.
Unlike other service pro-
viders, the designated agen-
cies cannot shift costs to
private insurance to make
up for low Medicaid reim-
bursement, because the
majority of their patients
are Medicaid recipients,
explained Halko.
Because reimbursement
has not kept up with infla-
tion, wages at the desig-
nated agencies lag behind
those for comparable posi-
tions at other care provid-
ers resulting in turnover,
said Halko. That turnover,
in turn, has a negative
impact on patients.
Jonathon Fitzgerald, of
Franklin, an NCSS client,
spoke about the importance
of the services he received
which let him attend
Johnson State College. He
is currently working part-
time in Franklin and his
NCSS caseworker assists
him with getting con-
tinuing education as he
looks for a full-time job,
Fitzgerald explained.
He also teaches a class
for other people with dis-
abilities, explaining their
rights to employment, edu-
cation and voting, he said.
Chris Halperin, of
Essex, drove north to urge
the Legislature to consider
expanding Dr. Dynosaur,
the state health insurance
program for children. If
schools, towns and the
state no longer had to pay
to insure the children of
employees, it could save
taxpayers money, he sug-
gested.
On the prevention side,
Amy Brewer, chair of the
Tobacco Education and
Review Board, spoke about
the impact of cuts to pro-
grams to reduce and pre-
vent tobacco use. “We’re
losing the ability to have a
comprehensive program,”
said Brewer.
With the advent of e-cig-
arettes tobacco use among
youth has risen to 25 per-
cent, she said.
Community
High School
David Luce, of
Waterbury, a member of the
Community High School of
Vermont board, addressed
the governor’s proposal to
end funding for the school’s
eight street sites. The sites
are housed with probation
and parole offices and serve
prisoners who may not
have been able to complete
a high school degree or
technical certificate while
incarcerated, Luce said.
Without a degree a for-
mer prisoner’s ability to get
a job is limited, he said.
“We already do a num-
ber of things in our many
programs that saves tax-
payers money,” said Luce,
such as use of educational
software to reduce the need
for one-on-one instruc-
tion when students miss
classes. At the Northwest
State Correctional Facility,
he noted, prisoners grow
much of their own food.
For example, they canned
1,260 gallons of tomato
sauce last season.
Prisoners who com-
plete Community High
School programs have
lower recidivism rates, he
said. Annually, 30 prison-
ers complete their degrees
through the street sites.
Keeping them from return-
ing to prison saves the state
$900,000, said Luce.
Budget
continued from page 1
This year, Judge has
upped the stakes. The UVM
program agreed to donate
300 chickens to the project.
However, Judge can’t raise
300 chickens in his two-acre
backyard.
This is where the public
comes into play.
“We’re looking for peo-
ple to raise these birds for
seven weeks,” Judge said.
“They provide the food and
water. We provide the coop
and the birds and we pro-
vide the processing.”
“What they get back
is just like they would in
a store,” he explained.
“Vacuum sealed, USDA cer-
tified [chicken]. And these
birds last a long time in the
freezer.”
Judge hopes people will
come forward to raise up
to 15 chickens. Of that
total, only one third will be
donated to the pot pie proj-
ect. The rest will be pro-
cessed and returned to the
people who raised them for
consumption.
“I’d keep one third,” he
said. “From 100 chickens, I
could make 1,000 pot pies.”
The chickens would be
raised in eight by four foot
mobile coops, made out of
reclaimed lumber. “You
can put up to 25 birds in
the coop,” Judge said. He
used the same design for
last year’s project. “You can
move the coop across the
lawn.”
“We are going to man-
ufacture our own coops,”
he said. “These are light
weight coops, predator
proof. Ideally, everyone
who’s getting chickens will
come and help build their
own coop and that of their
friends and neighbors. It’s
like a barn raising.”
Anyone who partici-
pates would get the birds
on May 27 and seven weeks
later, the chickens would be
picked up for processing.
The third of the meat
donated to the project
would go into pot pies,
later to be distributed to
NorthWest Family Foods,
Martha’s Kitchen and other
organizations that reach
the food insecure.
“It’s an opportunity to
reach out into the com-
munity for the kind of
support that food shelves
need,” Robert Ostermeyer
of NorthWest Family Foods
said.
According to
Ostermeyer, 30 to 50 fami-
lies stop by the food shelf
daily, an increase of 20 per-
cent from last year.
“Our ability to make use
of resources in the com-
munity becomes more and
more important,” he said.
“Projects like Andrew’s are
wonderful ways that we can
reach out to the community
to get the kind of support
that we’re going to need
going forward.”
Raising chickens isn’t
the only way the communi-
ty can help with the project.
“There’s a lot of way you
can be a part,” Judge said.
“Help us build coops. Help
us make the pot pies when
its time.”
“We’re looking for peo-
ple who want to raise beds
and build gardens with
them,” Judge said. “UVM
is going to supply seeds spe-
cifically for the pot pies so
folks can grow vegetables.”
Once again, the garden-
ers would keep two thirds
of the vegetables they grow,
while one third would go to
the pot pie project. “Then
we have as many locally
grown vegetables for the
pot pies as possible,” he
said.
Judge said he needs one
person to step forward and
say they will take care of
the birds. He believes it will
have a ripple effect in the
community, encouraging
more people to volunteer.
“We’re hoping it’ll be
something a family can do
together,” Judge said. “You
know, there’s a lot of peo-
ple who grew up on farms
and maybe it’ll be a way
of them teaching their kids
the value of raising your
own food.”
Anyone who is interest-
ed in participating or wants
to learn more can attend an
informational meeting on
Feb. 19 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
at the State Building con-
ference room on Federal St.
in St. Albans.
Questions can also be
directed to Lisa Judge at
lisa_ackel@hotmail.com.
Hunger
continued from page 1
5AThe St. Albans (Vt.) Messenger, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016
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Andrew Judge, Seeds for Growth
JUDICIARY:
Judges express
security concerns
By ELIZABETH HEWITT
VTDigger.org Staff
BURLINGTON — Four
Vermont judges have
flagged courthouse secu-
rity as a major issue in the
state’s judicial system.
The concerns were
raised last week when the
four judges appeared before
lawmakers during hear-
ings to decide whether they
should stay in their posts.
Superior Court Judge
Helen Toor said she believes
“it’s really urgent” to have
equal security across all
of Vermont’s courthouses.
Currently, security varies
from county to county, as
well as the type of court.
“I know that money is
an issue, but ideally there
should be a person in every
courthouse whose sole job
is security,” Toor told the
panel of lawmakers.
Environmental Judge
Thomas Durkin said he too
worries that courthouses
do not have enough secu-
rity.
“We’re in the dispute res-
olution business,” Durkin
said. “They don’t come to
our shop unless they have
a dispute, and some people
come with very, very strong
emotions.”
Superior Court Judges
Robert Mello and David
Howard also spoke about
security. Howard said
there was an incident in
court when he was presid-
ing earlier this week, and
he believed the only rea-
son it didn’t get worse was
because there were two
local police officers there to
help.
Court security has been
a topic of increased scru-
tiny recently in the wake
of the shooting death of
social worker Lara Sobel
outside the Department
for Children and Families
office building in down-
town Barre. The parking
lot is near the building that
houses the family and crim-
inal courts for Washington
County.
In the report submit-
ted to the Legislature last
week, judiciary officials
recommended an increase
in their operating budget
of $1.8 million in order to
fund 35 new court officer
positions.
The report also recom-
mends investing $2.1 mil-
lion in security infrastruc-
ture across Vermont’s
courthouses. The invest-
ment would be made out of
the capital bill beginning
in fiscal year 2017 and in
increments over the next
few years.
The infrastructure
investment would include
replacing outdated X-ray
machines, installing new
metal detectors, surveil-
lance cameras and other
measures.
Court Administrator Pat
Gabel said the comments
from the four judges reaf-
firmed the need for invest-
ing in court security.
Sen. Peg Flory,
R-Rutland, who sits on the
judicial retention panel,
chairs Senate Institutions
— one of the legislative
committees charged with
overseeing state building
security.
Flory said that discus-
sions about increasing
courthouse security raised
broader questions about
safety in society.
“We talk about protect-
ing the court personnel, but
I keep think about the hor-
rible death of our social
worker, which we keep for-
getting was the fourth mur-
der that day,” Flory said.
“So, how do we create a
risk-free society?”
Bill requests $1.8M
to provide guards
for Vt. courthouses
‘The whole industry is starting
to decline.’
Basil Burt, farming advocate
‘We’re losing the ability to have
a comprehensive program.’
Amy Brewer, tobacco educator
Police probing
gunshot death
in Shrewsbury
SHREWSBURY —
Vermont State Police are
investigating the fatal
shooting of a woman in
Shrewsbury Monday night.
Police reported being
called to a residence on
Cold River Road at 11:28
p.m. The caller said he had
been in an argument with
his girlfriend and she had
been shot.
Police found the woman
dead of a gunshot wound.
The male was taken into
custody.
The identity of all those
involved were not released.
Updates were expected
later in the day.
VERMONT IN BRIEF
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