The Deeper Dig

For months, Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Phil Scott insisted that extending the Covid-19-era program providing people with vouchers to live in motels past this summer was a no-go. Federal money had run out, and, they said, the program was just too expensive to continue.

Then, at the end of June, lawmakers worked out a deal. The program would be extended, for at least some people, until April. The governor signed the bill.

This comes after about 800 people had already lost their housing earlier that month.

At every stage, the motel program has been at the center of fierce debate — among the state’s leaders and the public at large — over cost, efficacy, and what support is owed to some of Vermont’s poorest and most vulnerable residents.

So what changed to take this extension from out of the question to a done deal? To unpack this and other questions about homelessness, host Sam Gale Rosen talked to Lola Duffort. She covers politics for VTDigger and has been reporting extensively on the motel program and unhoused people in Vermont.

It’s not unusual for Vermont’s Department of Corrections to be at the center of debate. The department manages six prisons across Vermont, with more than 1,000 incarcerated people in the system. 

The department is perpetually facing challenges, which only increased during the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are perennial discussions over the ethics of sending people to out-of-state prisons, the conditions that incarcerated people face and what working conditions are like for the department’s employees.

Since January 2022, 16 incarcerated people have died — 12 at one prison, the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. That has focused even more attention on the Department of Corrections as well as the health care and conditions in Vermont’s prisons.

In this episode, host Sam Gale Rosen talks about some of these issues with reporter Ethan Weinstein. He covers southeastern Vermont for VTDigger, and much of his recent journalism has focused on the Department of Corrections.

If you follow this podcast, you’ve probably read a lot of the work of reporter Sarah Mearhoff. She covers politics for VTDigger, and, especially when the legislature is in session, is a close watcher of every aspect of state government.

That means that she spends a lot of time in the Vermont Statehouse, the home of the state legislature and the backdrop for an enormous amount of highly consequential sausage-making.  

In this episode of Deeper Dig podcast, Sarah took host Sam Gale Rosen and photographer Glenn Russell — another Statehouse expert — on a tour of the capitol. We talked about architecture, operations, the job of a reporter and — most of all — carpet patterns.

There’s a story about forests that you’ve probably heard. Some environmentalists want to protect old trees, and leave the forests alone to sequester carbon. Others say there are good reasons for humans to actively manage forests. Those advocates include loggers and foresters, who earn their livelihoods from the land, but also scientists and other members of the environmental movement. 

But amid a heated scientific debate about what is best for forests, and for people, some researchers warn against a false dichotomy. A bill is now working its way through the Vermont Legislature. It seeks a delicate, three-part balance, setting aside sections of forest with varied degrees of permanent protection. Some would become “forever wild.” Other tracts would allow some human intervention and sustainable forestry. 

In this episode, VTDigger reporter Emma Cotton explains the different schools of thought in forest conservation. Bill Keeton, a professor of forest ecology and forestry at the University of Vermont, describes the benefits of mixed-method conservation. Sam Lincoln, formerly the deputy commissioner of Vermont’s Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation and owner of Lincoln Farm Timber Harvesting, discusses some of the ethical and economic challenges of permanent easements. Ecologist Shelby Perry guides us through “forever-wild” forest. 

Several Vermont sheriff departments have come under scrutiny in the past year following drastic turnover, allegations of misconduct or unusual financial activity. Two sheriffs — one former, one recently sworn in — face criminal charges. 

The Legislature is considering a constitutional amendment, as a long-term measure to increase oversight. Some lawmakers are also considering a bill that would bar sheriffs from pocketing fees off private contracts. 

In this episode, VTDigger reporters Tiffany Tan, Alan Keays, Ethan Weinstein and Shaun Robinson recap their reporting on recent events in five Vermont sheriffs’ departments. 

Despite Vermont parents’ overwhelming demand for spots in child care and preschools, the supply remains limited. Parents all over the state sit on waitlists for months or even years. If they do score a spot, tuition likely could cost them more than if they sent their toddler to an in-state college for the workday. 

And yet, despite the tight market for early childhood services, the educators still usually make less than $20 an hour, and often don’t receive benefits such as health insurance. 

Something in this economic system isn’t working for most Vermont families. 

Child care is also shaping up to be one of the most significant policy issues state lawmakers tackle this legislative session. Gov. Phil Scott already has released a $50 million proposal to increase to state subsidies. Legislators are expected to release a child care funding bill in the coming days. 

This episode, we go to the Orange County Parent Child Center in Tunbridge, where parents and educators discuss how they’re making it work. VTDigger politics reporter Lola Duffort explains how state funding for child care could change this year.

Noah Kahan remembers getting excited when a song he put on SoundCloud hit a thousand plays. 

Now, his songs have been streamed more than one billion times. 

Kahan’s metaphorical use of “stick season,” the time between Vermont foliage and proper snow, went viral on TikTok last year and sparked covers by Zach Bryan, Chelsea Cutler, Maisie Peters and countless fans who recorded themselves strumming in their bedrooms. 

The album that followed, recorded in Guilford, debuted at #14 on the Billboard 200 Chart and has been Kahan’s most successful to date. He performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Kelly Clarkson Show and sold out venues coast to coast. 

And then, after the first leg of his tour, he returned home to the Upper Valley and the isolated, between-villages places he crystallized on his third full-length album, Stick Season. With lyrics that describe “dirt roads named after high school friends’ grandfathers,” the record is, in Kahan’s words, “a love letter to New England.” 

Turns out returning to a place you’ve described so candidly can feel a bit strange. He’s had to reconcile his romanticized version of Vermont with the reality: He’s just home, and it's cold, and he has to go outside and clean up after the dog.

There’s a “weirdness of existing in a place that you've just written about,” he said. 

Kahan is going back on tour later this month. He’ll return to Vermont this summer, for two sold-out shows on the Burlington waterfront. 

He joined VTDigger on Zoom earlier this month.

As Vermont’s Legislature opened its 2023 session and Republican Gov. Phil Scott was inaugurated to his fourth term, one theme got an early spotlight in the Statehouse: Vermont’s urban-rural divide.

Much of Vermont’s state population is concentrated in Chittenden County, clustered around the metropolitan center of Burlington, which is Vermont’s largest city with a population of nearly 45,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And while smaller cities offer smaller pockets of density — such as Montpelier, Middlebury, Rutland or Brattleboro — much of Vermont’s population is spread thin across the rural state.

Scott focused on this dynamic in his Jan. 5 inaugural address and how Vermont communities’ needs differ whether they’re smaller or larger.

Specifically, Scott floated an idea to the Legislature: Let’s take a page from the playbook of retired U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who, as the powerful chair of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee, instituted a rule called the small state minimum. The small state minimum guarantees small states like Vermont receive a minimum amount of funding with every major federal government allocation to states. The rule is designed so states with small populations would not be dwarfed by high population states when the feds dole out money.

By taking a page from Leahy, Scott proposed, the Legislature could prioritize Vermont’s smallest communities to receive funding from the state to tackle expensive local projects they could otherwise never cover themselves with their small tax bases.

“​​Now, it’s not about turning Canaan into Burlington,” Scott said in his address. “And no offense to Burlington, but I’m not sure anyone in Canaan wants that.”

Some lawmakers viewed Scott’s rhetoric as unnecessarily divisive. But others, especially lawmakers from rural regions, expressed gratitude that small towns, and the challenges they face, were getting some extra attention. 

In this episode, various legislators — Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, P/D-Burlington; Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski; Rep. Lisa Hango, R-Berkshire; Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Essex; Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury; Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover — respond to the governor’s proposal and weigh in on Vermont’s infrastructure needs. 

A 97-acre parcel of undeveloped land off Mountainview Road in Williston is home to a wetland, views of Camel’s Hump and Mount Mansfield, and most days, some horses out to pasture from a neighboring farm.

It is also the site of a conflict that is forcing one of Vermont’s fastest growing municipalities to reckon with the challenges of building new housing at a time of heightened demand and inadequate supply. 

Jack and Caitlin Glaser have owned the land for the past 20 years, and they’re now looking to sell. But they want a buyer to strike a certain balance. They hope to retain what neighbors appreciate about the land — the view, the horse pasture — but also to build 93 units of sorely needed new housing.

Some in the community have pushed back on the proposal, arguing that it would lead to overcrowding and traffic. But Jack Glaser said that leaving the entire parcel undeveloped in a zone that’s designated for residential growth would be a missed opportunity.

“We think we have, in a sense, a responsibility to see that that property gets developed responsibly,” he said.

Because the Glasers say their plan would provide what’s known as a “substantial public benefit,” their proposal is subject to an unusual and lengthy review process. Discussions have surfaced questions about how the land should be used, and how quickly it should be allowed to change. If the proposal is scuttled, the end result could mean an even larger, denser development takes its place.

On this week’s podcast, Glaser, his neighbors and the town’s planners discuss the outlook for the Mountainview Road proposal — and what it means for Williston.

Montpelier residents put up with an unusually high number of water main breaks, which, in recent years, have led to boil water notices, expensive emergency repairs and school and business closures. 

The city’s aging pipe system, some of it nearly a century old, is straining under unusually high water pressure — which in some locations is more than double the state standard. This is due to the system's unusual design, which relies on the force of gravity, rather than pumps, to push water through Montpelier’s downtown and back uphill to the city’s outskirts. 

This year, state regulators instructed city officials to take a more robust, system-wide look at how to prevent pipes from bursting, starting with the water pressure. But local officials disagreed with this approach, arguing it was too expensive and ignored what they saw as more feasible solutions. City Manager Bill Fraser, and Kurt Motyka, who leads Montpelier’s Department of Public Works, have argued that the city should focus instead on replacing weak, corroded pipes with more resilient ones that can withstand the pressure. 

After a back-and-forth over the city’s water permit, state regulators relaxed their request for a system-wide overhaul. But the question still looms: How will the city address its water infrastructure going forward, and what will it cost to do so?