Ripton resident Bill McKibben has a new article in the Washington Post, "Washington's snowstorms, brought to you by global warming". It's about climate change in the world, but also tied to our community's experience. For instance,

The cross-country ski race I've been training for, set for today high in the Green Mountains: cancelled, lack of snow...

Here in the mountains of the Northeast, for instance, lakes freeze later than they used to, and sometimes not at all: Lake Champlain remained open in winter only three times during the 19th century, but it did so 18 times between 1970 and 2007.

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Ripton school budget might be cut: Addison Independent

The Ripton School's budget might be cut, according to the Addison Independent.

From a general survey of Vermont school budget problems:

Ripton school directors are proposing a 3.29-percent decrease in 2010-2011
spending, with a $780,699 spending plan to serve a student body pegged at around
43 students next year. That enrollment figure would be down four students from
this year.

School officials pared a paraprofessional position from the
staff to help lower the spending plan. In spite of those efforts, Ripton’s K-12
education property tax rate is expected to rise by 5.13 percent, due largely to
a drop in the CLA and declining enrollment.