Straight to Number One

Since I last looked at this effort to find Vermont's favorite farmers market, I see that Rutland has not only made the list, but shot to the top.

The Downtown Rutland Farmers Market has 46 votes, well ahead of Chelsea's pitiful 11.

Now, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before some probiotic-crazed Burlington-area food blogger thinks their market should be on top and starts directing his readers to this site. Such behavior is deplorable, and I don't want this post taken as a call for those who have not voted yet to go and give Rutland a boost.

Really, I don't.

*cough*

Grumpy thought for the day

The anti-bond people need to stop waxing indignant over how many times some sort of a rec center has been put before the voters.

Laying aside how asinine it is to act like voting on something is a huge imposition - a pet peeve I've commented on before - the bond was on the ballot one time more than it would have been if they hadn't circulated their petition.

Schauwecker in perspective

I wish I could take credit for this one, but it was a newsroom co-worker today who observed that David Schauwecker's $1,000 fine is probably less than he would have paid if he had legitimately rented all the porn he borrowed from the evidence room.

Brent Curtis will have the full story on the former detective's plea deal in tommorow's Rutland Herald.

Long road ahead for recreation

A good number of folks from the anti-Giorgetti faction made it to last night's Rec meeting. The discussion was too wide-ranging to get everything into the story slated for tomorrow's Herald, but I plan to follow up with a significant chunk of next week's column.

A lot of the same discredited talking points about the bond kept coming up, but there also seems to be a more debatable set of positions emerging in terms of centralized versus dispersed recreation facilities. It was also clear that there is a serious gulf to be bridged if the city is going to do anything significant in terms of recreation.

Paging Sen. Mullin

The big news, as I'm sure most of you know by now, is the announcement of the planned CVPS-GMP merger. Bruce Edwards will have the main story in tomorrow's Herald, while I'm doing a side-piece getting reactions from our various local officials.

So far, I haven't been able to reach the one I want to talk to most, Sen. Kevin Mullin. Mullin raised concerns when Green Mountain entered the bidding for CVPS, so I'm really interested to hear his take on the details announced today. He's usually pretty good about returning calls, but the clock is running down.

If we don't hear back from him by deadline and you don't see anything from him in tomorrow's paper, check back here because I plan to keep calling. I'm actually getting more material than we'll really have space for in tomorrow's story, but I plan on getting the rest out either here or in next week's column.

What's up with the RRA?

We're a good chunk into July and the RRA still doesn't have an executive director.

The RRA's board had urged the Aldermen along on deciding about their budget so they could get started on the search and have a director in place by the beginning of the fiscal year. Several times after that, I was told July 1 was the target date for having someone in place.

As June drew to an end I repeatedly pestered RRA Chairman Mark Foley, and I called him again today having returned from a week at the beach. I was at the beach - not him. Well, maybe he was at the beach -- I don't know anything about his whereabouts last week and didn't ask. For that matter, I'm not even sure where he was today, what with modern telecommunications and all.

Wherever he was, he very patiently explained that they had more than 100 applicants and were in the final stages of hiring one of them.

"As soon as we find the candidate we want and we believe will move the organization forward, we'll hire that person," he said. We'll have an announcement when that happens. ... We've had some very good applicants and we've been through a very rigorous process of hiring."

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!

I'll be away for the next week, and I'm not posting from the beach, so you folks will just have to carry on without me for a few days.

Have fun and see you when I get back.

No love for our farmers market?

So, I'm guessing none of the "Believe in Rutland" folks have come across this yet. It's an online survey to find the five most popular farmers markets in each state. While it's clearly more of a promotional gimmick than a proper, scientific survey, when I first got the press release, I was suprised to see Rutland wasn't even in the top five.

Then I saw the vote totals. Chelsea, which is number one, has all of five votes. Voting is open through the end of August

Please note that this post is not, in any way, all call for people to flood over there and vote for Rutland. I would never do such a thing, because it would be wrong and stuff. I might even vote for Londonderry or Dorset just to be difficult -- er, I mean, maintain my neutrality.

edit: Upon closer examination, Rutland isn't even an option yet, and won't be until someone from the local market signs it up. Londonderry and Dorset aren't on the list, either.

 

Friday Night Live takes a week off

The Downtown Partnership would like to remind everyone that there is no Friday Night Live tonight.

This week was left off the schedule to avoid conflicting with the holiday weekend. The schedule picks back up next week.