Rutland Daily Herald from Rutland, Vermont • 5

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I I March 2 1980 The Sunday Rutland Herald and The Sunday Times Argus Page Five Rutland Candidates Take Nothing For Granted ri i 1 1 i 'iCirTi' management saying the board has spent five to six years studying and developing plans for a new water treatment plant and a new sewer system and studying the landfill woes Following are brief synopses of the incumbents in contested races: David Wolk is spending about 875 on the campaign mostly on newspaper ads Wolk can be described as representing the social concience his strongest interests focus outside the traditionalfinancial and political issues He strongly pushes better recreation facilities and his Recreation Committee has contracted a study for a new recreation center He initiated an ordinance creating a Commission for Accessibility and Rehabilitation of the Environment to promote elimination of barriers to the handicapped a budget stipulation preventing city officials from using expense accounts for alcohol an ordinance reducing the size of the assessors office from one-to-three Wolk also pushes energy conservation in city government Walter Moore is spending approximately $70 on the campaign Moore is the of the board keeping meticulous notes and insisting on accuracy in the minutes A past state representative Moore coordinates the budget process for the board He vociferously opposed the of $40000 giveg former Police Chief Stuart Jenne when he retired last year He has fought attempts to rezone Main Street a commercial area Granting the Rutland Mall city sewer services is taboo to Moore unless there is no expansion there Nicholas Barone is spending $100 on the campaign During his first term Barone was described by his colleagues as the workhorse While not a well of new ideas Barone has a capacity for hard work He boasts that in his two years as alaerman he missed one regular and only two committee meetings His top priority is creation of a county-wide organization to handle solid waste problems and upgrading the city sewer and water treatment systems Hayden Bride is spending $200 on the campaign Bride describes himself as an independent thinker So far he has been a man of few words on the board listening and thinking a long time before he speaks He takes an active interest in the city's utilities and supports upgrading the sewer and water systems He wants to solve the solid waste problem regionally How to finance it all is the problem Bride says He also favors upgrading the recreation facilities and feels a community center is needed Barone however feels the incumbents having the in are shoo-ins for re-election The campaign has beerlow key with the five challengers Larry Cohen Kevin Mullin Thaddeus Lorentz John Gray and Shirley Smith taking few potshots at the aldermen There have however been exceptions Gray leveled a blast this week at what he considered machine in City Hall City Hall Gray charged is controlled by a businessmen's clique that does not represent the interests of the middle- and lower-income classes The incumbents scoffed at that assertion however Asked to respond to charge Barone said he was to blow my stack The thing to do is ignore it I think he is experienced or capable enough to make that kind of a Bride said he saw no machine politics in City Hall in his short tenure alderman that I have been in contact with has a mind of his Wolk would only say'Gray entitled to his while Moore said have never see any evidence of a political machine in City Hall Maybe it is hidden in one of the Challengers Lorentz and Mullin have charged the aldermen have done too little long range planning for the city while dealing in management' and Lorentz also accuses aldermen of too much among them-selves Barone acknowleded the need for more long range planning! Of charge of be said don know what he is thinking of He is young (21) inexperienced and a little bit on the aggressive Barone thought Lorentz was making a out of a Bride too conceded the need for greater long-range assessments and that a lot of time is sometimes spent on minor issues But he stressed seem to feel that all decisions are made in the course of an evening and that is not Bride stressed Wolk admitted degree of pettiness and dealing in by aldermen but said the situation improving" A lack of long-range planning is some true Wolk said In an effort to promote such planning Wolk advocated that aldermen a few nights (collectively) do get'sidetracked by trivialities but we are getting the main job Moore said He refuted the charge of crisis By DAVID MOTT RUTLAND Four o( the five incumbents in the race for six seats on the Board of Aldermen are running hard but not scared for re-election while the fifth is coasting unopposed toward a one-year term The choice among the five incumbents is indicative of the change that has occurred in the board over the past several elections Four of the five candidates have been on the board one term or less Alderman Walter Moore 59 is the-only candidate with lengthy tenure eight years Two of the incumbents David Wolk 26 and Robert Stafford 67 are facipg their first re-election challenge having been elected to the board in 1978 In that election Wolk was the highest vote-getter out of a field of 15 but he says am sure I will not do as well this Stafford managed a neat bit of political gamesmanship when he maneuvered or cajoled his potential opponents out of challenging him for the one-year spot Recently Stafford had conceded doubts about his ability to win re-election Incumbents Hayden Bride 48 and Nicholas Barone 59 were appointed to the board by Mayor Gilbert Godnick to fill two vacancies on the basis of the votes they garnered in the 1979 election Barone then running for re-election for the first time' lost narrowly to Linda Welch Bride finished close behind Barone in bis second unsuccessful bid for alderman Among the four aldermen who are fighting a contested race there is an overwhelming feeling that this year more than in past they are vulnerable But in an election year that lacks a mayoral contest most of the incumbents concede that an expected low voter turnout will work in their favor Wolk said there is a very real possibility some of the incumbents could be turned out of office think it is an open race and anyone can be he said think people have put up a good fight The challengers are campaigning hard and I think everyone has a But he admits there is not a lot of voter interest in the race of us have been very Moore agreed with Wolk think the incumbent is always vunerable he said if for no other reason than that people may not vote for the incumbent because it is assumed he is going to win Further the record is in the open for scrutiny while newcomer has no track record to explain or Moore said Bride who has lost two previous elections is hoping incumbency will give him the winning edge this time around 3 sMi 4 s- 1 Ilf a1- I 4 4 A Landfill To Close Unless Town OKs District Plan By STEVE BAUMANN PlTTSFORD Selectmen here say they will close the town landfill dump on Wednesday if voters fail to approve a Town Meeting Day article on participation in a regional solid waste district While 19 other towns and Rutland City will decide Tuesday whether to join the Rutland County Solid Waste District the vote here will have a slightly different cast One of the prime spots being considered for construction of a trash-burning incinerator is off the Whipple Hollow Road in Florence a section of the town Selectmen here say pressure from the state will force them to close the dump Wednesday But as they threaten closing the dump they have not contacted a private trash hauler recently or included the higher trash-disposal costs in the new budget They apparently expect voters to approve the district Pittsford landfill into the district By law the district can not bond for large-scale development for at least 18 months after it is formed Before that time any member may vote to quit In the mid-1970s Florence residents fought hard against a proposed landfill in this namlet Undoubtedly some would mobilize again against an incinerator in their back yards Selectmen" though are talking tough on the issue End Of Old Mountain Helped Doom Political Monopoly for an incinerator As might be expected that designation is not particularly welcome by local residents At a hearing on the district formation this week Warren McCullough and Charles Wise representatives of the regional committee that drew up the proposal tried to allay worries about the potential plant Although the Florence site now seemed fit best economically it might not be the wisest location in the long run McCullough said An electric generating plant elsewhere would cost more but might have greater social and long-urm economic benefits he said While the district would have the right of emminent domain Wise said he doubted it would be Used He also noted the strict air pollution regulations: comes out of the stacks is cleaner than The effect of the rule (and the further unwritten protocol that governors seek re-election after having held the office) was to keep the Republican Party open at the' top and to keep factional disputes within the party at a minimum rule insured Republican Party stability But it neccessarily insure good Hand said In an interview after the discussion the UVM historian -suggested that changes in 20th century life helped doom the rule and along with it the dominance in Vermont politics It was Gov John Weeks Hand said who broke the rule of two-year succession which had become an integral part of the weeks governor in 1927 whepa major statewide flood left most of Vermont in a shambles served a second two-year term two terms immediately became the norm which meant a much longer wait before the other side of the state could have its own governor That strained the mountain rule system and the loss of the second seat in the US House strained it even further The House and Senate seats were ti-aditionally held for a long time They fit into the mountain rule scheme of things because they were paired with each Side of the state having its own seat To put one of them on an alternating east-side west-side basis when the out-of-office side might have to wait for -years to get its turn made the mountain rule system more and more untenable Hand said Also the poor transportation systems that kept people on opposite sides of the Green-Mountain isolated from one another for months at a time were being improved all this time More recently telephones television and interstate highways went across the mountains and beyond Hand said his research suggests that the increasing Republican factionalism that followed the demise of the mountain rule helped the rise of the Democratic Party application of the rule was a factor promoting the Republican hegemony in Vermont" Hand told a Mont and $2882 membership fee Richard Valentinetti chief of the state conservation solid waste programs said Thursday he advocated district formation But though fines are potentially stiff it is doubtful that punishment would be harsh or that landfills could be forced to close so suddenly Closing the dump would come eventually if the town join though he said In that case Pittsford would contract with a private hauler at an estimated doubling of the current disposal cost If the solid waste districts established members will develop proposals for an incinerator and a sanitary landfill that could handle the garbage The Florence site located near Vermont Marble Co plants here has been determined in a preliminary study to be the most economical spot Representatives had a slim Democratic majority for four years and in 1974 the last symbol of Republican dominance ended when a Burlington Democrat Patrick Leahy won the US Senate seat formerly held by Winston Prouty 1964 Vermont even voted for a Democratic president (Lyndon Hand noted was the first The key to understanding the deterioration of Republican hegemony in Vermont according to Hand is the which gave order to Vermont politics for many years That unwritten but closely observed rule saw Vermont divided into eastern and western sections by an imaginary boundary running along the tops of the Green Mountains The aim of the was to distribute evenly the political power of statewide offices between- eastern and western Vermont And so two seats in the US Senate were divided between east and West and in the 19th century when the state had two seats in the US House they were evenly divided between the two sections The office was usually awarded in fairly strict succession first to the east side then to the west The mountain rule lasted for most of Vermont political history until it ran aground in the early years of the 20th century Hand noted the mountain rule governed Vermont politics it was a source of great strength to the Republican the UVM history professor said The rule brought a sense of order even virtual predestination to Vermont elections in the 19th century Hand said that from 1854 to 1870 a governor served two one-year terms and was habitually succeeded by someone from the other side of the Green Mountains After 1870 when the term was lengthened to two years a governor served a single two-year term before his counterpart from the other side would run for and win the office 1 mountain rule was initially designed to insure sectional Hand said time the two-year succession rule became im- portant in its own em what comes out of wood In the system that would be used here the burning garbage in the around-tne-clock operation would create steam for use at the nearby industry Approximately 20 percent of the garbage would be noncombustible and would go to a landfill For the highest efficiency the landfill should placed near the incinerator A positive vote on the issue Tuesday does not lock the town pelier audience that included prominent political figures from both parties decline of the rule contributed to the decline of the Republican The reason Hand suggested was that the mountain rule promoted a political world based on an acceptance of the established order of things When it was one turn it put up a candidate for governor he accepted a largely ceremonial office that capped a public career in politics and then left the scene as an elder statesman But beginning with Gov Weeks the devastation that reigned in Vermont after the 1927 flood and the growth of a belief in efficient managerial government things began to change mountain rule was overthrown in practice long before Vermont buried it with the election of Patrick Leahy to the US Senate in Hand said referring to the fact that Leahy a won the Senate seat that had been unofficially assigned to the eastern half of Vermont With the order typified by the mountain rule forever gone Republicans becaifie increasingly factionalized along ideological lines A conservatism or liberalism began to mean more and more Significantly several politicians who attended discussion last week noted that it was the healthy vote Hoff collected from liberal Republicans dissatisfied with incumbent Republican Gov Ray Keyser that helped the Democrat win the governorship in 1962 Keyser had alienated 'the liberal wing of the GOP which voted for Hoff said former Republican legislator John Downs of St Johnsbury Down-s also discounted the idea that socio-econoimic changes in the Vermont electorate brought about the deterioration of Republican control: socio-economic chaifges It was weak Republicans and strong Several who attended the history session at the Pavilion Office Building last )veek noted that Hoff was almost the second Democrat to govern Vermont instead of the first Burlington lawyer Bernard Leddy came very close to beating Republican Robert Stafford of Rutland for the photo: Ruuoll insisting that by joing the district the town is buying some time for its current landfill If the measure passes Valentinetti said he will be willing to negotiate time schedules for pollution abatement at dumps landfill might remain operating with some for perhaps 12 to 18 months until a regional landfill "wad operating he said night in 1962 yelling about the end of a hundred years of Republican dominance But according to Hand and ther other historians that Republican dominance was already on the wane years before With Hand at the Montpelier meeting were Frank Bryan assistant professor of political science at UVM and Gregory Sanford a research associate Hand says he plans a book on the subject of the discussion which he is continuing to research estimated the value of the missing hashish at $350 Magnant who defeated two other candidates for village trustee at last annual meeting has maintained repeatedly he is innocent of the charges Village Patrolman Richard Jewett was on duty the night of the alleged theft He Said Magnant entered the police department and said the drugs could easily be stolen Jewett said he left Magnant alone in the room for about 10 minutes then returned and noticed soon after the village trustee left that the hashish was gone Hoff left and Keyser In 1968 photo photos: Hall Vermont Fish Gam Department Fish Game Department wildlife technicians Arnold Elithorpe and Clark Green released five adult wild turkeys last week near Norwich The department has already established a viable population of the large gamebirds in southwestern Vermont and hopes to see its new population of turkeys survive in the Connecticut River valley Though wild turkeys will probably never be able to range throughout the state Fish Game Department officials hope the canny birds will flourish in the Champlain Valley and the Connecticut River Valley in the next few years Old Harvard Square Undergoes A Facelift Times News Service CAMBRIDGE Mass Harvard Square the gritty and congested commercial hub just outside the gates of Harvard University that is etched in the memory of generations of for- meivstudents is in the midst of a major facelifting that will radically alter its character Gone soon will be the scruffy atmosphere the swirl of cars and the narrow sidewalks asphalt traffic islands and clutter of signs lampposts and overhead wires that have marked the square for decades Sometime before work on a new subway station under the square is completed by 1984 broad brick sidewalks lined with 40-foot-tall trees and antique-style street lamps a fountain a small amphitheater and at least two major pieces of sculpture will dominate the area Nearby a complex of condominiums restaurants stores and a luxury hotel will rise on what had been a parking lot and -a trolley car yard accelerating the drift toward boutiques expensing shops ana a more affluent and trendy atmosphere The catalyst for these changes is the beginning of a long-planned extension of the Red Line subway system 32 miles north from its present terminus underneath the square to the Cambridge-Arlington town line This is a $560 million project jointly financed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the federal Urban Mass Transit Administration The square a vaguely defined section of six or 10 blocks of coffeehouses pubs and stores that is the center of the Boston large student culture is in the throes of change as a result of the subway construction which began last year Among the changes are some that are as temporary as the excavations along Massachusetts Avenue that are opened up one week and closed the next as workers build the new station in around and over the still operating older one The brick and wrought-iron Harvard Wall that faces the square has been disassembled and stored for example with each brick numbered for later reassembly The Wadsworth and I Lehman Gates long considered the unofficial main entrances to the campus have been picked up by a crane and temporarily 1 moved back a few feet out of way The newsstand in the middle of the square often described as the best one in the world where generations of homesick I students have bought newspapers from 150 American cities and scholars pick up their daily copies of European newspapers was torn down a few weeks ago to make way for the construction A temporary version now sits on skids in the square ready to move as often as needed until the present subway entrance I building can be taken apart stored and then rebuilt for use as the new newsstand The copper-roofed brick and granite en- trance building is listed on the National Historic Register but it is too small to serve as the entrance to the new station all going to be very nice and more people will want to I come said Sheldon Cohen the proprietor of the newsstand Cohen started in the square as a newsboy in 1945 and has seen its decline from a proper Ivy League sort of place to its low ebb in the 1960s when drug dealers demonstrating students and panhandlers prompted concern for its revitalization in a boutique he said people here have money and are willing to spend Bv TOM SLAYTON MONTPELIER Why did the Republican Party lose its grip on Vermont? The usual answer to that Question is that former Gov Philip Hoff backed by growing blue-collar strength in cities pummeled the Republicans Into submission in the According to current scholarly research however the erosion of Republican control in Vermont began much earlier and turned strategically on issues that were significantly different Hoff was an important figure in the phenomenon that saw Vermont change its political complexion over the course of a few decades say current scholars But he was as much a beneficiary of the forces at work as he was an instigator A group of historians and Vermont politicians got together in Montpelier last week to discuss the loss' of hegemony in Vermont Their conclusions were surprising and delved back far into Samuel Hand a University of Vermont history professor who is researching the question for the National Endowment for the Humanities began the discussion by describing the Republican undisputed long-term dominance of political landscape: the establishment of the Republican Party in 1854 through the present Vermont has elected more Republican candidates and by larger margins than any other state in the union an incredible But he noted tliat midway through the 20th century the absolute cimmaiid of Vermont politics began to fade Democrat candidates for statewide office began to gather more than token vote totals in the 1950s In 1958 Democrat William Meyer captured the lone seat in the House of Representatives for a single term The Democrat Philip Hoff captured the governorship in 1962 and it was all over but the shouting Hoff won three terms as governor and by the end of his tenure in the Statehouse Vermont was a two-party state Republicans continued to win high offices but they had to share them with Democrats The House of governorship in 1959 they noted Leddy had known it was going to be so close he could have campaigned a little more on the eastern side of the state and Downs declared But near-win combined with the difficulties Keyser had as governor convinced Hoff to run and run hard the historians and politicians agreed The result was history politics and good theater combined Hoff went riding through the streets of Winooski that fall Enosburg Falls Official Charged With Stealing Drug From Police ST ALBANS (UPI) -Enosburg Falls Village Trustee Chairman Raymond Magnant has been accused of stealing a bag of hashish from the local police department last fall Magnant 34 will be arraigned March 10 on charges of larceny and possession of a regulated drug Franklin County Attorney David Miller said The board chairman allegedly' stole one of two bags of hashish that were on display for last Sept 14 in "the police department Djfflcials.