Town Leaders, Of the constituents who have called or emailed me in the last three days, 80% have issues with the unemployment insurance system and concerns about the delay in the federal stimulus checks promised weeks ago. We know tonight that the federal stimulus checks to households making less than $75,000 will be delayed several more days as the as the IRS reconfigures their printing so that the name "President Donald J. Trump" can appear on the left side of the payment.

Town Leaders, This week my attention has been glued to working on our state's connectivity crisis. There are communities in VT where over 40% of households lack sufficient access for a teacher or a student to participate in remote learning activities. Through a patchwork of efforts by the Department of Public Service, nascent Communications Union Districts, private wireless providers, and electric utilities some households will get relief. Many will not, and efforts will n

Town Leaders, As the pace of COVID changes affecting local towns steadies, I am tempering the pace of these updates as I get information I believe relevant to your community work and leadership. Here are some things that have come across my radar in the last 48 hours: First, if you have an animal control officer in town, they may be interested in the work of the Vermont Disaster Animal Response Team (VDART), which helps VTers plan for their animals care in the event of a dis

Disclaimer – The budget numbers included below are changing week to week. They are included here to provide a picture of where we are at present. They are likely to get worse before they get better. The impacts of the COVID-19 virus will be far and wide and will cause havoc throughout Vermont’s economy. The recently enacted federal relief packages will provide financial support when we desperately need it. But that money comes with strings attached. The federal bill was writt

Town leaders, Not a huge amount of updating yesterday, so I chose to spare your mailboxes. Below is some updated information for your weekend reading: First, Friday the Secretary of State's office announced a directive allowing a municipality to postpone municipal elections because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is the announcement from the SOS's office. This may affect the school budget vote in Strafford and the Tracy Hall renovation project re-vote. Second, I came acro