February 19, 2007
By CYRUS LEVESQUE
ADDISON COUNTY — Little could have prepared Salisbury dairy farmer Lee Ann Goodrich for what she saw the morning after Wednesday’s blizzard dumped two-to-three feet of snow on the area.
When a farmhand went to the barn around 3:30 a.m. Thursday to milk, he found the structure’s roof had almost completely collapsed, killing at least 40 cows.
“We’re afraid we’re going to lose more,” said Goodrich, who runs the farm with her husband, Ernie, and father-in-law Don Goodrich.
The death toll at the Goodrich farm was especially painful, but several other barns around the county and state also suffered damage due to the heavy snowfall. In all, at least a dozen Vermont farms lost all or part of their barn roofs on Wednesday or Thursday, including the Goodriches’ and barns in Shoreham, New Haven and Weybridge.
February 19, 2007
By ANDY KIRKALDY
FERRISBURGH — In another close vote Ferrisburgh residents on Thursday said no, 276-259, to a potential $750,000 purchase by the town of a 34-acre Route 7 parcel. The land includes a home and barn and lies next to Ferrisburgh Central School and the future home of new town offices.
Thursday’s balloting was a petitioned revote of December vote in which residents backed the deal, 242-218. The $750,000 includes $700,000 for the purchase price and $50,000 for septic work already done on the parcel, which will regardless provide in-ground septic service to the school and future town offices.
The facts that the votes were close and contradictory and that many residents may have found voting on Thursday difficult after the Valentines’ Day blizzard may make reading the tea leaves difficult for town officials.
