Vt. Board Excludes the Public

On July 15, Vermont’s Public Service Board excluded all members of the public, except for the involved parties, from a technical hearing on Aug. 4 about whether Vermont Gas Systems should have the right to build its fracked-gas pipeline through Geprags Park in Hinesburg, Vt. Even people unfamiliar with the board’s relentless enabling of this project will be quick to note the irony embedded in a public board’s exclusion of . . . the public.

People who have followed the PSB/VGS disaster closely will not be surprised that the “quasi-judicial” PSB has now moved on from being a kangaroo court, cherry-picking its way through evidence to pre-decided results, to become a star chamber court performing without any public presence at all. The PSB’s excuse is that some earlier proceedings have been disrupted by protesters singing songs. The board in its typically not-quite-incisive wisdom has intuited that something similar might occur again, and so closed the hearing to the public. This is “prior restraint” of the public’s ability to exercise First Amendment rights. It is patently unconstitutional, and a civil rights complaint against the PSB will be heard in federal court in Burlington on Friday.

Throughout the years the VGS pipeline has been before the PSB, the board’s attention to providing for public access has been as dismal as its record of partiality and poor judgment. Hearings have always been conducted in a room so small that many and, often most, concerned members of the public have had to stand in the hallway where they could neither see nor hear what was going on. Inside the hearing room, microphones have not worked properly or have been neglected by the board and the parties until the public has had to shout, “Louder!” or “Turn on the mic!” But the present level of exclusion of the public makes obvious the new meaning the PSB has given the term “quasi-judicial”: the PSB has uniformly acted in a way that has been half just at best, which is to say it has never been just at all. 

Geoffrey Gardner

Bradford, Vt.

Helped by Dartmouth Students

Cancer and Patient Services (CAPS) is a group of student volunteers from Dartmouth College who are available to provide help with housework, shoveling snow, yardwork and gardening.

If you are a cancer patient at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and live within 60 miles of Dartmouth College, you are eligible to receive help from these incredible Dartmouth students.

I am a 68-year-old female cancer patient, and have a hard time doing housework. I called for help. To my amazement, these kind, hardworking, responsible Dartmouth students came to my apartment. They did an excellent job of cleaning and always acted like they enjoyed helping me.  

Gautham Upadrasta, Ali Siddiqui and Anirudh Udutha are three of the students who came to my rescue. They asked me to check the rooms to see if they were clean enough, always asking if there was anything else they could do. I will be forever grateful to these incredibly selfless Dartmouth students for their kindness and support.

If you are in need of help from CAPS, call Family and Patient Support Services at 603-650-7751. You will meet these amazing Dartmouth students, who will show you the kind of giving that asks nothing in return.

Vicki Haas

West Lebanon

Questions for Ayotte

Sen. Kelly Ayotte has said she will not support a hearing or a vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. More than 125 days have expired since Judge Garland was nominated, the longest period of inaction on an appointment to the court in the history of our nation.

Senator, it is now official: Donald Trump is your candidate for president. You have pledged to “support” him, even if you do not endorse him. There are a few additional questions that I think you should answer.

First, if your candidate is successful in November, and you are re-elected, what, if anything, will you do relative to Judge Garland’s nomination?

Second, if your candidate fails to win, and Secretary Clinton is the president-elect and you are re-elected, what will you do relative to Judge Garland’s nomination?

Third, if you are not re-elected, and Judge Garland’s nomination is still pending, what will you do in the final months of your term relative to his elevation to the court if a vote is called in lame-duck session?

Peter Hoe Burling

Cornish

 The writer is a former Democratic leader of the House and state senator in New Hampshire, and member of the Democratic National Committee. 

Supporting McCormack

I am writing to support Vermont state Sen. Dick McCormack, who is running for re-election to one of Windsor County’s three Senate seats.

I’ve known McCormack for a long time, and have always been impressed with the thoughtfulness he brings to his work as a senator and with his deep interest and expertise in environmental issues in particular. McCormack has a 93 percent lifetime rating from Vermont Conservation Voters, a group that is working hard to protect the environment we live in from polluters and unhealthy chemicals.

I hope your readers will vote in the primary election Aug. 9, and I urge them to support Dick McCormack, as I will, for the Vermont State Senate. He’s a good man who has served Windsor County well.

Thomas O. Gray

Norwich