July 30, 2013
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For more than a hundred
years, trains traveled the Swanton to
St. Johnsbury corridor on the
Lamoille Valley Railroad. Now, work is
under way to build a 93-mile,
mixed-use, four-season trail where the
tracks used to run. Bernie, who
secured $5.2 million for the project,
took part in a ground-breaking
ceremony to mark the long-awaited
beginning of construction of the
Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. “In the
short term, construction of the trail
will create jobs,” Bernie said. “Once
built, the trail will be a huge
attraction not just for Vermonters, but
also for tourists who come to
Vermont in the winter to snowmobile or
ski, or in the summer to bike
and walk. These tourists will stay in
hotels and inns, eat in
restaurants, visit other Vermont
attractions and buy Vermont products.” Bernie
credited the Vermont Association of Snow
Travelers, which spearhead the
project, for organizing a broad
coalition of trail supporters which
included bikers, hikers, horseback
riders, and cross-country
skiers.
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Young Hunters
Steve LaFar, 56,
learned to hunt turkeys on his own. His
father died before he had a chance
to pass along those skills. “I started
thinking about that,” LaFar
said, explaining why he founded the
Vermont Turkey & Young Guns
Club. “How many kids don’t have someone
to teach them how to hunt?” LaFar,
who was born in Swanton, now has roughly
60 kids, ranging from 8 to
17 years old, signed up for his program.
They learn how to hunt safely
and learn to respect local farmers who
generously allow the use of
their land. “It’s about our kids. Our
youth,” LaFar said. Bernie praised
LaFar for teaching young Vermonters
healthy, rural values and for
encouraging them to enjoy the
outdoors.
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Jobs and Education for Vermont's Youth
A visit to Franklin County gave Bernie a
chance to discuss two
youth-related concerns: unemployment and
the loss of academic skills
students experience over the summer.
Bernie successfully attached a
$1.5 billion youth jobs bill to the
Senate-passed immigration measure.
The legislation would fund programs like
the Franklin County camp Bernie
visited. The camp provides jobs and
educational experiences for
students. Meanwhile, in Burlington, the
Vermont Department of Labor
sponsored an initiative to give at-risk
youths the opportunity to gain job
experience while receiving an academic
boost.
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Broadband Revolution
The last
edition of the Vermont Bernie Buzz
highlighted how fiber optic
Internet connections are breathing new
life into Springfield, Vt. After
reading, Ruth Fleury, a 71-year-old
Vermonter who saw her husband’s job
disappear after he spent more than 45
years in the Springfield tool
industry, wrote to Bernie: “I can
understand how having the Internet helps
Springfield and many other towns that
were in the same boat in
Vermont. … There are endless
possibilities now.”
The Brattleboro Reformer agreed. The paper praised the arrival of some of the fastest Internet connections in the country. “It’s nice to be on the cusp of a technology revolution for a change,” the paper editorialized. |
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