Capital Kitchen Cooks Up a New Owner
To the Editor:
I’m thrilled to announce a big change at Capital Kitchen. After fourteen years at the helm, I’ve sold my business and will be moving on to new adventures.
Many of you likely already know the friendly face of Chris McDonald, the long-time manager of Bear Pond Books. If you don’t, get ready to fall in love with his wonderful smile, infectious laugh, and incredible passion for food and cooking. Chris and I have known each other for over 20 years, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to hand the reins to such a friend (and absolute retail PRO)! We’re both so excited about this next phase of Capital Kitchen, with Chris as the new owner. I’m so proud of what I’ve built in this little space, and I’m proud to pass it on to someone who will continue to love and nurture it.
Being a part of this amazing community has been one the greatest honors of my life. You have shown up for me day after day, year after year, and it’s what has kept me going all this time. You were with me from the beginning, sneaking peeks through the paper on the window when I was renovating way back in 2008, welcoming me home with my new baby back in 2012, picking up your green bags curbside in 2020 when opening the doors still felt too scary. The kindness, caring, and support that you’ve shown me over the years has been truly astounding. I’ll carry that love with me forever.
You are the very best. So thank you. THANK YOU. For all of it. Our official day of transition is March 31, and I’d love to see you before then to tell you to your beautiful faces — thank you.
Jess Turner, Montpelier
Vermont Needs a Publicly Owned Landfill
To the Editor:
The issue of imported toxic waste is one that Vermonters must take a stand against. The Coventry landfill, sited within a mile and uphill of Lake Memphremagog, is often referred to as “Vermont’s only landfill,” but Vermont contributes only a portion of solid waste deposited there daily. More and more waste, laden with harmful chemicals, including PFAS, comes from the greater New England region.
The corporate owner of the landfill controls what is deposited, reaping millions in profits annually, while Vermont’s environment is contaminated by landfill gas emissions, and leachate — 60,000 gallons a day disposed of, unfiltered for chemical toxins, into Montpelier’s wastewater treatment plant (and Newport’s until a moratorium was imposed two years ago). This practice imperils the water quality of two international lakes, Champlain and Memphremagog.
Because the interstate commerce clause favors private businesses, the only sure way to ban the import of toxic solid waste is for the state of Vermont to develop an alternative, state-controlled landfill. Publicly owned landfills have authority to prohibit the importation of out-of-state waste. A municipal waste depository, including an essential leachate pretreatment facility, should be sited closer to where the majority of our state’s waste is generated, ideally out of the international watersheds of Memphremagog and Champlain. This would eliminate the increasing threat to Vermont’s, and Quebec’s, natural resources and public health from imported solid waste, including the proposed import of out-of-state landfill leachate.
It is time for our legislature to take action, requiring the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources to move swiftly to develop a publicly owned and managed solid waste system that would ban for-profit import of toxic waste. Contact your representatives. Insist they protect our endangered Vermont environment and the health of all people and wildlife dependent upon it.
Peggy Stevens, Charleston.
Thanks for the Support
To the Editor:
Good Beginnings of Central Vermont would like to thank voters throughout Washington County for your support at the ballot box on Town Meeting Day. Thanks to you, we can offer respite, resources, and community connections to hundreds of families with new babies each year. If someone you know is expecting a baby, please encourage them to visit our website or call us to learn more about our free services. We also invite Bridge readers of all ages to join us on Saturday, June 25 on the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier for our annual Climb Out of the Darkness — a free, fun, family-friendly event to build community and raise awareness about perinatal mental health. It takes a village — and we are so very grateful for ours!
Gretchen Elias, Executive Director, Good Beginnings of Central Vermont
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