Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
September 25
SOME BITES & BREWS FOR
at The Kampfires Campground
Parking coordinated by Boy Scout Troop #461. Donations appreciated.
FREE& FAMILYFRIENDLY
5 Bucksor
LESS!
LIVEMUSIC by
the Wyld NightzBand and Your
Friends
792 US Rte. 5, East Dummerston, VT
from 11 am - 5 pm
Brought to you by&
Sponsored by:
Participants are encouraged to make
a donation to the Born to Run Foundation
$$$ WANT EXTRA MONEY $$$Our Classified Advertisers
get great results.If you have merchandise to sell.
Call 800-245-0254
JOB OPENINGSHinsdale School District
Contact Ann Diorio603-336-5728 ext. 7684 or
LOOKING FOR ANEW CAREER?
Check outjobs.berkshireeagle.com
LOOKING FORTenants? Filling a Job?
Selling A Home?Call 800-245-0254, opt 5
Community A2 | Obituaries A4 | Opinion A5 | Photos A10 | Arts A12 INDEX8 15312 00401 7 Volume 117, Issue 226
Attention Readers: You will find different page configurations and color availability issues in today’s paper. This is due to a new press installation and, until it’s completed, your papers may appear different than typical. Please bear with us. We assure you that the new press will be a vast improvement, with color available on every page and top-notch image resolution.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 Since 1876 $1.00
Brattleboro Reformer
Brattleboro on Wheels
Classic car show at Retreat Farm
PHOTO JOURNAL, PAGE A10
Music’s healing power
Fall Equinox concert set for Saturday
ARTS, PAGE A12
This Spot on Earth
New column explores back roads
COMMUNITY, PAGE A2
BY CHRIS MAYS
Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO — The Moving Wall, a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Me-morial featuring the names of soldiers who never re-turned home from the Viet-nam War, left a lasting im-pression within the commu-nity before it traveled to the next destination.
“I’m really happy with how it all turned out,” Len Derby, a member of the Vietnam Vet-erans Chapter 843 in Brattle-boro who led efforts to bring the wall to town, said Monday at the site in front of Fulflex on Putney Road in Brattle-boro.
Derby said having the wall in Brattleboro allowed those who haven’t seen the mon-ument in Washington, D.C., a chance to see the replica and brought some closure.
Veterans Affairs counselors came to talk with veterans during the five-day event.
“I’ve gotten nothing but good comments,” Derby said, especially from Vietnam vet-erans. “There was a steady flow in and out. It slowed down at nighttime of course
but during the day, we had quite an inflow of people.”
Efforts to bring the wall to Brattleboro began in 2019, however, COVID-19 caused the group that travels with the wall to postpone dates around the United States. Everything went smoothly except for one
person who nearly collapsed and went to the hospital, Der-by said, noting that Rescue Inc. and a local doctor/vet-eran were on hand if anyone needed medical attention.
An hour before the wall would be dissembled and moved elsewhere, the Amer-ican Legion Post #5 Color Guard walked the length of the wall while Derby played Johnny Wright’s rendition of “Hello Vietnam” from speakers. He heard the wall is heading to Long Island and Michigan.
“The work they do I just can’t commend enough, the work they do for the Vietnam vet,” he said. “I like the truck.”
Just before the interview started, he snapped photo-graphs of the big pickup truck and trailer used to haul the wall in pieces to the next des-tination.
The Moving Wall brings some closure
PHOTOS BY KRISTOPHER RADDER — BRATTLEBORO REFORMER
Above and below: People visited The Moving Wall, a half-size replica of the Washington, D.C., Vietnam Veterans Memorial, on Putney Road on its last day at the Brattleboro location on Monday.
BY BOB AUDETTE
Brattleboro Reformer
BURLINGTON — A federal judge has authorized pay-ment of nearly $850,000 in paid-time-off balances to former employees of Kof-fee Kup.
The funds were sched-uled to be disbursed on Aug. 19, but three days be-fore, attorneys for Bernadi-no’s Bakery, Ryder Truck Rental, Lily Transporta-tion and Hillcrest Bakery, who are owed more than $2 million, filed a petition for involuntary bankrupt-cy against Koffee Kup, pre-venting the payment.
In mid-July, Chitten-den Superior Court Judge Samuel Hoar approved the payment of the paid-time-off balances after the creditors stated they had no objection to the pay-ment. Ronald Teplitsky, the bank-appointed receiv-er attempted to make the payment, but he told the court he ran into a problem with the payroll processing firm. He signed up with a new processor, but the pay-ment was not made prior to the filing of the petition in federal court, in which the creditors stated they now objected to the payment of PTO.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Colleen A. Brown, in an order published Friday, Sept. 17, concluded the paid time off was not part of the bankruptcy proceed-ing because the state court
had already made a final determination prior to the filing of the petition.
On April 26, about 440 employees of Koffee Kup, including about 100 at its affiliate, Vermont Bread Company in Brattleboro, arrived to work to find themselves locked out and without jobs. Though they received their final paychecks, they did not receive payment for their paid time off.
In early June, Flowers Foods, based in Georgia, purchased all of the assets except for the real estate of Koffee Kup in Burlingtion, Vermont Bread in Brattle-boro, and Superior Bakery in North Grosvenor Dale, Conn., but stated it had no plans to reopen any of the bakeries at the time. Even though Flowers Foods re-cently purchased the real estate as well, the bakeries remain closed.
After the creditors filed the petition for in-voluntary bankruptcy on Aug. 16, the Vermont At-torney General’s Office accused the creditors of attempting to ”claw back” money owed to the more than 440 employees. Alex-andra Edelman, attorney for Koffee Kup, character-ized the petition as “a bla-tantly bad faith attempt” to get around a state court order directing of money “earned from years of hard work by numerous former employees” of Koffee Kup.
Koffee Kup employees to receive
PTO balances
BY SUSAN SMALLHEER
Brattleboro Reformer
VERNON — NorthStar Group Services Inc. CEO Scott State said Monday that his company is “ahead of schedule and under budget” on the $600 million dem-olition and cleanup of Vermont Yankee nuclear power company.
During the first public tour of the nuclear plant in two years, State said that despite delays with cut-ting up Yankee’s reactor core, which is being done by its subcontractor Orano, things overall are ahead of schedule. He said the reactor vessel is “supposed to be done by now,” but that doing the underwater
VERMONT YANKEE
NorthStar: Demolition ahead of schedule, under budget
Members of the media were given a tour on Monday, around NorthStar’s Vermont Yankee nuclear facility, in Vernon, as the site is being demolished.
KRISTOPHER RADDER BRATTLEBORO REFORMER
BY BOB AUDETTE
Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Police De-partment is demanding that people stop sending racist comments to its new po-lice chief.
“We have recently received some
racially biased memes and comments, aimed at our chief of police, via instant message,” states a post to the BPD’s Face-book page. “This behavior should stop immediately.”
“We’ve posted before that hate has no place in Brattleboro,” states the message on Facebook. “There is also no place for
hate on this page, including instant mes-sages.”
In response, nearly three dozen read-ers have posted notes of support to the department and Chief Norma Hardy, who came to Brattleboro in late July after spending 26 years with the Police
Brattleboro police chief receives racist messages
KRISTOPHER RADDER — BRATTLEBORO REFORMER
Brooks Memorial Library, in Brattleboro, held a meet and greet event with the new police chief, Norma Hardy, on Aug. 18.CHIEF, Page 4
KOFFEE, Page 4
WALL, Page 4
DEMOLITION, Page 3
