Panton residents, board spar over money, leadership

The tension that has arisen in Panton town government boiled over on Sept. 23 when the top local elected official stormed out of a contentious selectboard meeting.

Many of the 20 or more Panton residents who have attended recent town selectboard meetings have complained about the town’s rising spending and its accounting practices.

Panton Town Clerk and Treasurer Maggie McCormick gave verbal notice to the town selectboard at its Oct. 16 meeting that she will step down from her position, effective on Nov. 22.

Zane Atley Kroupa Jr., 67, known as Butch to family, was born Sept. 21, 1956, in Oakland County, Mich., and died Sept. 20, 2024, at the University of Vermont Medical Center from a family genetic disease, PKD.

A judge has found a family of Panton dairy farmers in contempt of court after they failed to stop water from coming out of a drainage system on their farm, washing over their neighbors’ property and flowing into Lake Champlain. 

Panton residents and owners of non-residential real estate should this week be receiving their Fiscal Year 2024-2025 (FY25) property tax bills, levies that will reflect increases despite the town-wide reappraisal of Panton property values completed earlie … (read more)

Due to a resident’s Aug. 12 questioning of the financial figures on the Panton town warning, Panton’s tax bills — typically sent out sometime in August — have been delayed until mid-September.

We are hopeful our iconic natural beauty will be saved from egregious industrial development and preserved for future generations of both humans and wildlife.

When they go to the polls on Nov. 5, Panton residents will not only make their choices in political races, they’ll also express their opinions on a proposal to site Vermont’s largest solar array within the town’s borders.

The scale of the Panton solar proposal is out of character with the Vermont we all know and love.

The Vermont Supreme Court has denied a request from the owners of a Panton dairy farm that would have alleviated the burden of a court order issued in March 2022, which requires the farm to make expensive changes in order to stop runoff from flowing acros … (read more)

My reaction to Bill McKibben’s letter to Editor, May 16, Addison Independent, supporting the Panton solar project was one of great distress.

They produce clean renewable energy over which no wars will be fought.

Andy Kirkaldy’s story makes clear something that usually gets lost in these accounts: this array would replace an operation that uses huge amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus which then wash into Lake Champlain.

I could just break down and cry at the thought of 300 acres of beautiful farmland being turned into ugly solar panels!