Archive - Feb 25, 2010 - Editorial
On Tuesday, Bristol residents will vote by Australian ballot on two crucial issues: adoption of a revised town plan and a new zoning ordinance that would regulate gravel mining. The votes are crucial because under the revised town plan, the RA-2 zoning district that butts up against downtown’s Main Street would allow for a large gravel pit, and mining of natural resources were unnecessarily opened in the town’s conservation districts.
When at their town meetings next Monday, Salisbury and Leicester residents will be asked to approve a temporary hike in funds needed to get the milfoil eradication program back on top of the problem. The $5,000 or so in extra funding for each town isn’t a huge amount, but it is critical to the success of the program and the long-term health of Lake Dunmore and Fern Lake.
Twenty-six years ago, I attended my first town meetings as a reporter. I was new to the state and its Town Meeting Day traditions and was awed by the purely democratic form of government many of the small towns throughout Addison County had long embraced. In those days (not all that long ago, I like to think), many towns still held the meeting on that first Tuesday in March with potluck luncheons or early dinners as part of the community heritage.
Not many people bake their own bread these days.
I’m not surprised. To read a cooking magazine, you’d think it requires a $49 digital kitchen thermometer, a convection oven and a kitchen scale accurate to 0.05 grams. We forget that early man was cranking out homemade bread way back in the days when the wheel was still being tested in focus groups.
