January 24, 2019 • The Deerfield Valley News • A1

for the federal shutdown and the governor and legislators have asked us to help these individu-als feed their families, pay their bills, and put gas in their cars.”

In light of S.24, a bill signed by President Trump on January 16 that assures furloughed employees will receive back pay, the release notes that federal employees who receive un-employment insurance benefits will be required to repay those funds to the Vermont Depart-ment of Labor after the federal government has issued back pay.

Other institutions have also announced shifts, changes, and offers in light of the shut-

down this week. VSECU, a credit union for those who live or work in Vermont, announced this week that it was increasing the amount of assistance available to its members affected by the shutdown, making low-interest loans of up to $3,000 available to federally-employed members who are in good standing with the credit union.

In a release about the assistance, the credit union said members may also be eligible to take advantage of the credit union’s “Skip-A-Payment” program, which allows borrowers to defer a month’s loan payment on consumer loans without incurring financial penalties.

Locally, Brattleboro Savings and Loan is offering interest-free loans up to the amount of federal employees’ paychecks for the duration

of the shutdown. “We recognize that many people don’t

have a lot of cash reserves to fall back on,” says Daniel C. Yates, President and CEO of Brattleboro Savings and Loan. “Sometimes savings is tied up in IRAs or 401Ks and the bills still need to get paid. This is our way of helping people in our communities that need it, it’s really what we’re here for. It’s times like this when people need help and we can do something to help them.”

Yates says the offer is available to all furloughed federal employees as well as those who are working without pay and notes that

the employee does not have to be a customer of Brattleboro Savings and Loan, but they do need to live within their general market area, which is Windham County with bleedover into Cheshire, Bennington, and Franklin, MA, counties.

Lisa Lorimer and Meg Donahue, co-owners of MamaSezz, which sells prepared plant-based meals, say they were inspired by Brattleboro Savings and Loan to extend an offer of their own to federal workers. They’re offering free meals to federal workers each Thursday from now until a month after the shutdown ends.

“We both had backgrounds where two weeks without paychecks would have caused really significant stress,” says Donahue. “Until

In THE nEWS:

Photo series shows nature has

a big heartA7

Rebels grind out win over Wildcats

B1

Town will get to vote on tax

stabilization planA3

First SectionNews ........................A2Public Safety ............A3Opinion ....................A4History......................A5Entertainment ...........A7Second SectionSports ....................... B1Community .............. B2Comics ..................... B3Classifieds ................ B5Obituaries ................. B8

$1.00 Vol. 29, Issue 4 USPS #009987 • www.dvalnews.com Serving Southern Vermont • January 24-30, 2019

Deerfield Valley NewsTHED

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Vermont Media Publishing Co.

797 Route 100, Wilmington, VT 05363

(802) 464-3388www.dvalnews.com

By Lauren Harkawik SOUTHERN VERMONT

- The federal government has been shut down since December 22, making it the longest government shutdown in United States history. The second-longest shutdown, which went from December 1995 to January 1996, lasted 21 days. On Thursday, the current shutdown stretched into its 34th day, with little end in sight.

This week, the Vermont Department of Labor an-nounced that Vermont would extend unemployment ben-efits to federal workers in Vermont who are required to work without pay during the federal shutdown. Meanwhile, financial institutions and busi-nesses offered help to federal workers in the form of inter-est-free loans and free meals.

Many federal workers are furloughed indefinitely. Those workers have been eligible for unemployment benefits. Other workers, however, who have been deemed “essential” and “excepted” from the shut-down, are being asked to work without pay. On Wednesday, a press release from the Ver-mont Department of Labor said Gov. Phil Scott had di-rected the commissioner of labor to treat those employees “the same as other furloughed employees for the purposes of unemployment insurance benefit eligibility.”

The release included a quote from Commissioner Lindsay Kurrle.

“The core principle of unemployment insurance is to remedy temporary economic hardship created by an unan-ticipated loss of income,” said Kurrle. “There are Vermonters who have been showing up to work every day, but not getting a paycheck, for more than a month. There is no end in sight

By Lauren HarkawikDOVER - Betsey’s Dot’s of Dover, con-

sidered by many to be a staple in the commu-nity, burned down early Sunday morning. This week, its owner, Betsey Reagan, said she is hoping to rebuild, but is exploring options.

On Thursday, Reagan said she was still in shock. “It hasn’t really hit me all the way yet,” she said. “It was my home.”

West Dover Fire Department Assistant Chief Mike Hescock said he got the call that the building was on fire at 12:45 am on Sunday morning.

“We got notice from the police depart-ment that the building was fully involved,”he said. “We got a couple trucks out — we’re a bit low on manpower right now — so, we got the trucks out, got the ladder truck down there. Once we got hooked up to water we were able to extinguish fast.”

The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire, and no firefighters were injured.

Hescock said mutual aid units were de-

By Lauren Harkawik DOVER - Late Friday night, a unit at

Greensprings was engulfed by a two-alarm fire. No one was injured in the fire, and the cause is being investigated. This week, repre-sentatives from Stamford Real Estate, which manages Greensprings, and West Dover Fire Department 2nd Capt. Mickey Kersten, who was the lead firefighter on the fire, credited solid construction of the unit’s firewalls with the fire remaining as contained as it did.

Steven Montello, president of SRE, said the fire was largely contained to Unit 108D. “108C suffered some damage, but we were able to get the occupants in 108 A and B back in their units the next day with the help of lo-cal contractors and our supervision.”

Kersten praised the construction of the units and their firewalls.

“Whoever built that building did a very good job on that firewall,” he said. “That firewall contained that fire for two hours. It did break through a little bit to the other unit, but mainly up near the roof. We had to take

President Donald Trump, left, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are the central figures in a standoff over border wall funding that has shut down parts of the federal government for more than a month. Courtesy Fox News

Local employees wait, assistance offered as shutdown continues

Fires take a toll on condo, popular business

Above: The burnt remains of Betsey’s Dot’s of Dover diner, which was destroyed by a fire early Sunday morning. Courtesy Dot’s of DoverBelow, flames shoot from a Greenspring condo fire Friday night.

Wilmington Fire Department

Dot’s of Dover destroyed

Firewalls limited damage

See WALLS on page A5

you’ve known that anxiety, you don’t really understand what it means. Even if someone says I’ll pay you in two months, it doesn’t help when you need to buy food for your kids. It’s an incredible burden to add on to people in what is already some really difficult times. The last thing we want people to worry about is food.”

MamaSezz is offering a free prepared meal, each of which Lorimer and Donahue say is at least three servings, to any federal worker. Meals will be available on Thurs-days from 5 to 7 pm at their Brattleboro location.

While many are offering help as a result of the shut-down, others aren’t able to help for the same reason. Deb-orah Boyd, of Wilmington, is a housing specialist for the US Department of Agricul-ture Rural Development. Her Brattleboro office has been closed since the shutdown began.

As a result, her work, which is largely focused on helping people buy and main-tain homes, has come to a standstill.

“I have folks that were very close to being able to close on their home purchas-es, so that came to a halt,” she says. “There are also people who were waiting for funds to come through to do home repairs, which are on hold as well.”

She says in addition, most repair costs are not paid until the project is done, so there are likely contractors who are waiting to get paid.

Boyd says she’s looking forward to the shutdown end-ing, for herself and also for the people her work affects.

“I’m anxious to go back to work,” she says. “I like what I do, and we help a lot of people.”

By Mike EldredNEWFANE- An Armonk,

NY, woman who is suing James Barnes and his Hermit-age Inn Real Estate Holding Company for breach of con-tract had her day in court last week, but neither Barnes nor any attorney for the Hermitage appeared in court.

Last month, the court granted Bettina Bosma’s mo-tion for a summary judgment against Barnes and HIREHC for the single count of breach of contract. At last Friday’s hearing, the court took testi-mony from Bosma on dam-ages. Ultimately, however, a final judgment on the damages was postponed to give the plaintiff time to consider filing an additional charge of fraud against Barnes.

Bosma and her husband Douglas Bosma filed the suit in Windham Superior Court in August 2018, claiming that Barnes and HIREHC reneged on a $100,000 investment deal. Under the deal, one of the Hermitage Club’s “100 Club Equity Memberships,” the Hermitage would pay interest on the investment by crediting Bosma’s house account at the club. On February 28, 2018, according to the complaint, the Hermitage announced it was rescinding all existing credits, and would not pay any future credits.

In testimony Friday, Bos-ma said she and her husband own a house in Dover, and were recruited to become members in 2015. “We met

Barnes a no-show for court dateFraud charges being considered

See COURT on page A6

See DOT’S on page A6

January 24, 2019 • The Deerfield Valley News • A1

for the federal shutdown and the governor and legislators have asked us to help these individu-als feed their families, pay their bills, and put gas in their cars.”

In light of S.24, a bill signed by President Trump on January 16 that assures furloughed employees will receive back pay, the release notes that federal employees who receive un-employment insurance benefits will be required to repay those funds to the Vermont Depart-ment of Labor after the federal government has issued back pay.

Other institutions have also announced shifts, changes, and offers in light of the shut-

down this week. VSECU, a credit union for those who live or work in Vermont, announced this week that it was increasing the amount of assistance available to its members affected by the shutdown, making low-interest loans of up to $3,000 available to federally-employed members who are in good standing with the credit union.

In a release about the assistance, the credit union said members may also be eligible to take advantage of the credit union’s “Skip-A-Payment” program, which allows borrowers to defer a month’s loan payment on consumer loans without incurring financial penalties.

Locally, Brattleboro Savings and Loan is offering interest-free loans up to the amount of federal employees’ paychecks for the duration

of the shutdown. “We recognize that many people don’t

have a lot of cash reserves to fall back on,” says Daniel C. Yates, President and CEO of Brattleboro Savings and Loan. “Sometimes savings is tied up in IRAs or 401Ks and the bills still need to get paid. This is our way of helping people in our communities that need it, it’s really what we’re here for. It’s times like this when people need help and we can do something to help them.”

Yates says the offer is available to all furloughed federal employees as well as those who are working without pay and notes that

the employee does not have to be a customer of Brattleboro Savings and Loan, but they do need to live within their general market area, which is Windham County with bleedover into Cheshire, Bennington, and Franklin, MA, counties.

Lisa Lorimer and Meg Donahue, co-owners of MamaSezz, which sells prepared plant-based meals, say they were inspired by Brattleboro Savings and Loan to extend an offer of their own to federal workers. They’re offering free meals to federal workers each Thursday from now until a month after the shutdown ends.

“We both had backgrounds where two weeks without paychecks would have caused really significant stress,” says Donahue. “Until

In THE nEWS:

Photo series shows nature has

a big heartA7

Rebels grind out win over Wildcats

B1

Town will get to vote on tax

stabilization planA3

First SectionNews ........................A2Public Safety ............A3Opinion ....................A4History......................A5Entertainment ...........A7Second SectionSports ....................... B1Community .............. B2Comics ..................... B3Classifieds ................ B5Obituaries ................. B8

$1.00 Vol. 29, Issue 4 USPS #009987 • www.dvalnews.com Serving Southern Vermont • January 24-30, 2019

Deerfield Valley NewsTHE

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388

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.

Vermont Media Publishing Co.

797 Route 100, Wilmington, VT 05363

(802) 464-3388www.dvalnews.com

By Lauren Harkawik SOUTHERN VERMONT

- The federal government has been shut down since December 22, making it the longest government shutdown in United States history. The second-longest shutdown, which went from December 1995 to January 1996, lasted 21 days. On Thursday, the current shutdown stretched into its 34th day, with little end in sight.

This week, the Vermont Department of Labor an-nounced that Vermont would extend unemployment ben-efits to federal workers in Vermont who are required to work without pay during the federal shutdown. Meanwhile, financial institutions and busi-nesses offered help to federal workers in the form of inter-est-free loans and free meals.

Many federal workers are furloughed indefinitely. Those workers have been eligible for unemployment benefits. Other workers, however, who have been deemed “essential” and “excepted” from the shut-down, are being asked to work without pay. On Wednesday, a press release from the Ver-mont Department of Labor said Gov. Phil Scott had di-rected the commissioner of labor to treat those employees “the same as other furloughed employees for the purposes of unemployment insurance benefit eligibility.”

The release included a quote from Commissioner Lindsay Kurrle.

“The core principle of unemployment insurance is to remedy temporary economic hardship created by an unan-ticipated loss of income,” said Kurrle. “There are Vermonters who have been showing up to work every day, but not getting a paycheck, for more than a month. There is no end in sight

By Lauren HarkawikDOVER - Betsey’s Dot’s of Dover, con-

sidered by many to be a staple in the commu-nity, burned down early Sunday morning. This week, its owner, Betsey Reagan, said she is hoping to rebuild, but is exploring options.

On Thursday, Reagan said she was still in shock. “It hasn’t really hit me all the way yet,” she said. “It was my home.”

West Dover Fire Department Assistant Chief Mike Hescock said he got the call that the building was on fire at 12:45 am on Sunday morning.

“We got notice from the police depart-ment that the building was fully involved,”he said. “We got a couple trucks out — we’re a bit low on manpower right now — so, we got the trucks out, got the ladder truck down there. Once we got hooked up to water we were able to extinguish fast.”

The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire, and no firefighters were injured.

Hescock said mutual aid units were de-

By Lauren Harkawik DOVER - Late Friday night, a unit at

Greensprings was engulfed by a two-alarm fire. No one was injured in the fire, and the cause is being investigated. This week, repre-sentatives from Stamford Real Estate, which manages Greensprings, and West Dover Fire Department 2nd Capt. Mickey Kersten, who was the lead firefighter on the fire, credited solid construction of the unit’s firewalls with the fire remaining as contained as it did.

Steven Montello, president of SRE, said the fire was largely contained to Unit 108D. “108C suffered some damage, but we were able to get the occupants in 108 A and B back in their units the next day with the help of lo-cal contractors and our supervision.”

Kersten praised the construction of the units and their firewalls.

“Whoever built that building did a very good job on that firewall,” he said. “That firewall contained that fire for two hours. It did break through a little bit to the other unit, but mainly up near the roof. We had to take

President Donald Trump, left, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are the central figures in a standoff over border wall funding that has shut down parts of the federal government for more than a month. Courtesy Fox News

Local employees wait, assistance offered as shutdown continues

Fires take a toll on condo, popular business

Above: The burnt remains of Betsey’s Dot’s of Dover diner, which was destroyed by a fire early Sunday morning. Courtesy Dot’s of DoverBelow, flames shoot from a Greenspring condo fire Friday night.

Wilmington Fire Department

Dot’s of Dover destroyed

Firewalls limited damage

See WALLS on page A5

you’ve known that anxiety, you don’t really understand what it means. Even if someone says I’ll pay you in two months, it doesn’t help when you need to buy food for your kids. It’s an incredible burden to add on to people in what is already some really difficult times. The last thing we want people to worry about is food.”

MamaSezz is offering a free prepared meal, each of which Lorimer and Donahue say is at least three servings, to any federal worker. Meals will be available on Thurs-days from 5 to 7 pm at their Brattleboro location.

While many are offering help as a result of the shut-down, others aren’t able to help for the same reason. Deb-orah Boyd, of Wilmington, is a housing specialist for the US Department of Agricul-ture Rural Development. Her Brattleboro office has been closed since the shutdown began.

As a result, her work, which is largely focused on helping people buy and main-tain homes, has come to a standstill.

“I have folks that were very close to being able to close on their home purchas-es, so that came to a halt,” she says. “There are also people who were waiting for funds to come through to do home repairs, which are on hold as well.”

She says in addition, most repair costs are not paid until the project is done, so there are likely contractors who are waiting to get paid.

Boyd says she’s looking forward to the shutdown end-ing, for herself and also for the people her work affects.

“I’m anxious to go back to work,” she says. “I like what I do, and we help a lot of people.”

By Mike EldredNEWFANE- An Armonk,

NY, woman who is suing James Barnes and his Hermit-age Inn Real Estate Holding Company for breach of con-tract had her day in court last week, but neither Barnes nor any attorney for the Hermitage appeared in court.

Last month, the court granted Bettina Bosma’s mo-tion for a summary judgment against Barnes and HIREHC for the single count of breach of contract. At last Friday’s hearing, the court took testi-mony from Bosma on dam-ages. Ultimately, however, a final judgment on the damages was postponed to give the plaintiff time to consider filing an additional charge of fraud against Barnes.

Bosma and her husband Douglas Bosma filed the suit in Windham Superior Court in August 2018, claiming that Barnes and HIREHC reneged on a $100,000 investment deal. Under the deal, one of the Hermitage Club’s “100 Club Equity Memberships,” the Hermitage would pay interest on the investment by crediting Bosma’s house account at the club. On February 28, 2018, according to the complaint, the Hermitage announced it was rescinding all existing credits, and would not pay any future credits.

In testimony Friday, Bos-ma said she and her husband own a house in Dover, and were recruited to become members in 2015. “We met

Barnes a no-show for court dateFraud charges being considered

See COURT on page A6

See DOT’S on page A6