The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 15

Cbe Turlington JTrec pits Vermont INSIDE Calendar 2B Deaths 4B SECTION www.burlingtonfreepress.com Thursday, April 1, 2004 Metro Editor Ed Shamy 660-1862 or (800) 427-3124 Page IB Party politics infect Agriculture Committee label wrapped around the tin. "Cyanide" just about summed up the personal frustration and poisonous party politics in the room. Nowhere in the Statehouse are the election-year distrust, suspicion and jockeying for advantage between Republicans and Democrats more clearly on display. By Candace Page Free Press Staff Writer MONTPELIER About 5 p.m. Wednesday, a little box of Altoids traveled from hand to hand around the House Agriculture Committee table, where Republicans and Democrats had been wrangling bitterly since morning.

"Cynanide," read the joke "Frankly, it's the politics of this bizarre year," Agriculture Secretary Steve Kerr said as he urged the lawmakers to compromise. By day's end, the committee once a placid backwater where a House speaker could safely warehouse members of the minority party had plunged into a bare-knuckled political fight with no clear winner. The three bills include genetic-engineering regulation, changes to Vermont's right-to-farm law and water pollution regulation. The issue was not the substance of the three bills but whether they would be voted in a single package (the Re publican position) or as individual bills (the Democratic position). "If this goes out as a package, I'm not going to support it," said Rep.

Carolyn Partridge, D-Windham. "If these bills go out separately, they're dead," said Rep. See BILLS, 6B More Legislature news, 5B Those politics threaten to shred three farm bills even though all 11 committee members say they support all three. Two of the bills are priorities for Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.

The committee has a 7-4 Democratic majority. Ambulance service adds lather suspect made 1 i 1 1 raise ciai Mr 1 Isaac Turnbaugh 'felt responsible' for world events By Adam Silverman Free Press Staff Writer BARRE The father of murder suspect Isaac Turnbaugh said in court Wednesday that his son was mentally ill and claimed responsibility for major world events at the same time he admitted killing Declan Lyons. Turnbaugh's mental health was deteriorating in May 2002, a month after Lyons, 24, was shot and killed as he tended a large cauldron of tomato sauce outside the American Flatbread pizza restaurant in Waitsfield, Charles Turnbaugh testified in Vermont District Court in Barre. Isaac Turnbaugh, 20, of Moretown has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder in the April 12, 2002, shooting. Turnbaugh faces 35 years to life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors argue that there is no doubt Isaac Turnbaugh committed premeditated murder because an overwhelming amount of cir- charges lit! just downstream from the Swanton Dam. "There's no good time for a discharge of raw sewage," said Brian Kooiker, chief of the discharge permit section of Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation. "The good news, if there is any, is that the spill happened at a time of the year when there will be the least impact on public health. Recreation on the river is probably non- See SPILL, 3B SPORTS The host Chittenden-South Burlington Hawks picked up a last-second victory on the opening day of the Tier-ll Bantam national hockey tournament. 7B Is Major League Soccer ready for Freddy? That's 14-year-old Freddy Adu, who makes his debut Saturday with the D.C.

United. 7B 9 at i i says Web extra For the Free Press' continuing coverage of the Isaac Turnbaugh trial, go to www.burlingtonfreepress cumstantial evidence points to Turnbaugh, and because he told a group of friends, "I shot Declan." Defense attorneys contend Turnbaugh was a mentally unstable young man whose illness led him to act strangely and make self-incriminating statements, even though he had nothing to do with the crime. Charles Turnbaugh testified for the defense Wednesday afternoon, after the prosecution rested its case in the morning. He told the jury he began to worry about his son's mental health one morning in mid-May 2002, after Isaac Turnbaugh returned home from a late-night excursion riding around back roads with friends. "I hadn't seen Isaac like this before," Charles Turnbaugh testified.

This wasn't Isaac. Me and Isaac are real close." Isaac Turnbaugh told his See TRIAL, 3B Brianna Maitland her home in Petaluma, and subsequent murder. Vermont State Police Lt. Thomas Nelson, who is heading investigation into Maitland's disappearance, said Wednesday his office has received a steady stream of tips about the case. He said searches have been conducted by police, family, dogs and a National Guard helicopter.

Nelson also said the police did a forensic evaluation of Maitland's car this week but found "no obvious sign of foul play. There was no obvious sign of a struggle." Maitland's father, Bruce Maitland of East Franklin, said See TEEN, 4B ins "i By Andy Netzel Free Press Staff Writer All patients receiving ambulance care in South Burlington are scheduled to begin paying for it today. University of Vermont Rescue, the student-run organization that provides ambulance service to the city, previously provided its service for a $24,000 annual fee. Other towns received free service. As of today, UVM Rescue will bill for each visit to all towns.

The city of South Burlington will no longer pay the annual fee. UVM Rescue relied on do- nations, a stipend from the university and fund-raisers to pay its $130,000 in yearly costs. Insurance companies and federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will pick up the $300 to $500 charge and customers shouldn't notice much of a difference, UVM Rescue spokeswoman Tanya Tersillo said. All customers will be charged the new fees, which are less than some Chittenden County ambulance services and more than others. Some people fear the new policy will discourage people from using an ambulance.

Nancy Williams, 83, doesn't plan to get in an ambulance now that UVM Rescue is charging. The South Burlington woman had felt dizzy for two hours when the Allenwood retirement community nurse manager called for an ambulance July 18. Williams said she couldn't stand up, nor could she get hold of her daughter to drive her to the hospital. A Burlington ambulance ferried her because UVM Rescue was unavailable. Three months later, a three-page lawyerly letter from Medicare said she had not needed to go to the hospital and she would have to reimburse the government program for the trip.

Now, 82 See RESCUE, 4B Missisquoi By Matt Crawford Free Press Staff Writer The melting snow and falling rain of the past few days might work in Missisquoi Bay's favor. The added water should help flush the bay of more than 650,000 gallons of untreated sewage- that recently spilled into the Missisquoi River when a pipe burst at Swanton's wastewater treatment plant. Waste spewed into the waterway for more TOWNS ReCycle North has agreed to take over a job and educational training program from YouthBuild Burlington. 2B A new Champlain Water District tank (right) is being built on you guessed it Water Tower Hill in Colchester. It'll be in service this summer.

2B i I Group joins search for missing teen ALISON REDLICH, free Press University of Vermont Rescue Crew Chief Daniel Lollar, 22, of Burlington (front) kneels beside "victim" Jes Buck, 21, of Jericho, a UVM EMS training officer and medic, as she is treated by medic Shane Dalziel, 22, of Burlington (left); driver Kris Halliwell, 23, of Burlington; and Jon Douglas, 19, of East Orange (right). Beginning today, UVM Rescue will charge patients for its services. deals with raw sewage spill the pipe, Irish said. Officials estimate 657,720 gallons of raw sewage from Swanton Village were discharged into the river. Raw sewage includes anything dumped down sinks, bathtubs and toilets.

"We didn't have any options," Irish said. "Once we found the broken pipe, we had to shut the main pumps down, and probably an hour after that we had the overflow going into the Missisquoi." The waste entered the river VERMONT A panel of House and Senate members is on the verge of pay-raise agreement that would increase legislators' pay from $536 a week to $589. 5B A state senator tried but failed Wednesday to give students who have been subjected to racial harassment the option of changing schools. 5B By Sam Hemingway Free Press Staff Writer MONTGOMERY A national group named in memory of California child abduc-tee Polly Klaas will set up a search center in Montgomery on Friday to help look for a Sheldon teenager who disappeared 13 days ago. Brianna Maitland, 17, vanished the night of March 19 after finishing work as a dishwasher at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery.

Her car, a pale green 1985 Oldsmobile sedan, was found backed into the side of an abandoned home outside of town on Vermont 118 the following day. Brad Dennis, director of the Klaas Kids Search Center, said Wednesday he will head to Vermont today to aid in the search for Maitland. His group plans to set up its center at the Montgomery Town Hall and organize a search of the vicinity where she disappeared over the weekend. "We do not want to get in the way of law enforcement and we've had terrific response from the state police," Dennis said. "Our job is training the family and volunteers in how to search." The center is an offshoot of Klaas Kids Foundation, set up by Polly Klaas' father, Marc, following the 12-year-old's 1993 nighttime abduction from than a day.

For the troubled northern thumb of Lake Champlain a bay labeled "an environmental catastrophe" by one high-ranking Canadian official a major spill of raw sewage serves as yet another ecological body blow. The broken sewage pipe was discovered March 15, about three miles upstream from the bay, said Jim Irish, chief operator at Swanton's wastewater treatment plant. It took more than 27 hours to fix QLENN RUSSELL, tree Press.