Vergennes Opera House funds come through

A $1.64 million effort to upgrade accessibility to the Vergennes Opera House and to Vergennes city offices originally scheduled to start this May will instead likely break ground during the spring of 2025, according to Gerianne Smart, the president of the Friends of the Vergennes Opera House. 

According to court records, police arrested Santiago on Jan. 5, 2022, after he had set fire to a vehicle at 40 Booth Woods in Vergennes at around 5 that morning.

To celebrate the upcoming solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, the Friends of the Vergennes Opera House have planned two events, one Friday evening and one Sunday afternoon.

About five dozen Vergennes residents and officials who came in person or by Zoom to the Vergennes Opera House to attend Monday’s citywide Housing Conversation agreed on a basic premise: Their community needs more housing.

For the second time this month, residents of the five communities on Tuesday rejected a spending plan — this time by 18 votes.

On March 12, its first meeting since Town Meeting Day, the Vergennes City Council accomplished a number of tasks that both looked backward and moved forward.

After a discussion at the Vergennes City Council’s March 12 meeting on the topic of how much public comment should be allowed at council meetings, including advice from the city’s attorney, Mayor Chris Bearor later last week confirmed he would impose a li … (read more)

The Vergennes City Council is looking for an “honest and responsible” effort from the Vergennes Area Rescue Squad to meet the city’s medical first response needs; in exchange the city would pay the higher per-capita fee that the ambulance service is askin … (read more)

The Vergennes City Council on Feb. 27 met briefly with Allison Rimmer and James Dunn from the Community Engagement Committee, the citizen committee that will work with city officials on police issues, to discuss a draft of the committee’s bylaws. The grou … (read more)

One reason for the higher proposed municipal spending that Vergennes-area towns will consider this Town Meeting Day is an increase in the funding requests to those communities from the Vergennes Area Rescue Squad, or VARS.

After about three weeks of mediation, the Ferrisburgh selectboard and the Vergennes City Council reached an agreement on how much the town should pay Vergennes for the city fire department to serve as the first responder for West Ferrisburgh and much of t … (read more)

After a long disagreement, officials agreed on how much Ferrisburgh should pay Vergennes for the city fire department to serve as the first responder for West Ferrisburgh.

Barring stunning write-in results, the status quo will rule on the Vergennes City Council after Town Meeting Day, but the Ferrisburgh selectboard will have a new member after March 5 voting.

The mediation process that began on Jan. 19 between Vergennes and Ferrisburgh officials to seek an agreement on a new fire contract between the two communities is ongoing, but as of midweek had yet to produce a resolution to the long-running disagreement. … (read more)

The Vergennes City Council at its Jan. 9 meeting discussed, but did not yet approve, City Manager Ron Redmond’s recommendation that Vergennes apply for a 2024 Downtown Transportation Fund Grant.