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Monday is going to be a beauty. Expect full sunshine and a high near 70 in Burlington, making this easily the warmest day we've seen in a while and well above normal for late April. Tuesday holds close to that mark in the upper 60s, but gusty south winds and sharply dropping humidity will create potentially dangerous fire weather conditions, especially in the valley. Avoid any outdoor burning Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday stays mild around 66 before showers start creeping in late. Then the pattern flips hard as Thursday brings soaking rain and temps sliding into the mid 50s, with anywhere from half an inch to an inch and a half expected across the region. The weekend looks cool and unsettled with highs struggling to crack the upper 40s. Bottom line: the next two days are the ones to be outside.

With 70 and sunny on the menu today, you've got no excuse to stay on the couch. Lace up for Skirack's Run Club at 5:45 this evening, a casual three to five mile community run that leaves from the Run Center inside the store at 6 sharp (any pace, any distance). Over in Shelburne, Growing an Herbal Tea Garden at Shelburne Farms is sold out but worth joining the waitlist if you're into growing your own chamomile situation. Kara Buchanan from Spoonful Herbals is leading the session, covering everything from plant selection and harvesting to drying and tea crafting for the Vermont climate. For something mellower, Silent Book Club takes over Bar Renée from 6 to 8, and the format is exactly what it sounds like, to bring whatever you're reading, grab a drink, and sit quietly among fellow book people. No assigned reading, no pressure to say anything smart. You get half an hour to settle in and chat, a quiet hour of reading, then time to close out however you like. Later tonight, catch a free Student Recital at the UVM Recital Hall at 7:30, where music undergrads perform solos, duets, and group pieces spanning everything from classical to jazz.

Tuesday is stacked. Tech Tuesdays [MEETUP] kicks off early at Zero Gravity with free coffee from 8 to 10 AM, a great low key networking morning for founders, developers, and creatives. The Vermont Family Network Conference runs all day at UVM's Davis Center from 8 AM to 3:45 PM with workshops and speakers focused on supporting families, children, and youth with disabilities and special health needs, open to both professionals and community members. Over in South Burlington, the Burlington Garden Club hosts Floral Designs: Classic Meets Creative at 1 PM at Faith United Methodist Church, featuring award winning designer Judy Gray, a former president of the Rhode Island Federated Garden Clubs who has showcased work at the Boston Flower Show and designed at the Museum of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, the Traveling People of Hope Museum opens at Saint Michael's College for a free two day immersive storytelling experience running Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 to 6, celebrating the impact of neighbors helping neighbors. Tuesday afternoon and evening bring a cluster of good ones: Free Bike and Gear Repair at Zero Gravity from 4 to 8 PM (brought to you by Old Spokes Home and friends), where you can bring busted bikes, torn jackets, or that backpack held together by hope and one good strap. EZ Breezy Spring Bike Rides from Local Motion meets at the Trailside Center at 5:30 and takes a shorter route this week specifically to end at the repair event, so bring your gear that needs love. At 5:30 in Williston, Paint Your Pet Night at the Café at Island Homemade Ice Cream lets you paint a custom portrait of your furry friend for $25 with all materials provided, including a canvas pre-sketched with your pet. For the tea lovers, a Tea Party Potluck at the Odd Fellows on North Ave runs 6:30 to 8:30, a cozy spring gathering where you bring your favorite brew and a sweet or savory snack to share. And if trivia is more your speed, Trivia at Rozzis [Forever 38 MEETUP] in Colchester starts at 7, complete with massive food challenges if you're feeling bold.

The back half of the week is just as loaded, even as the weather takes a turn. Wednesday afternoon marks the start of the Friends of Fletcher Free Library Spring Book Sale, a five day event with 6,000 fiction, nonfiction, and children's books at $2 each running through Sunday, May 3, plus a limited collection of CDs and DVDs. While you're there, check out the special poetry collection on the shelves next to the circulation desk. That same evening at the library, the Civic Reads series hosts UVM professor Minh Ly for a discussion of her book on democracy and accountability at 6 PM, and down the hall, Vegan in Vermont holds its monthly potluck at 6, this time cooking from Amy Lanza's recipes with a guest speaker from VINE Sanctuary. If you'd rather be in the woods, the Vermont Land Trust leads Awakening Woods at Hinesburg Town Forest at 5:30, an easy to moderate guided walk through vernal pools, spring amphibians, and ephemeral wildflowers with discussion on forest health and stewardship. Rain date is May 6. Wednesday night, Danny Brown hits the Higher Ground Ballroom with midwxst and chase usa, doors at 8. Thursday is a big day despite the rain: Free Crepe Day at the Skinny Pancake on the waterfront means a free SugarShack or Choco Nutty crepe from open to close. The city is hosting the planBTV 2050 Community Open House at One Main Street from 3:30 to 8 PM. It’s your prime chance to weigh in on how Burlington grows over the next 25 years. This is the first time the City has built a comprhensive plan this collaboratively, with a single vision spanning housing, moblity, economic development, and parks and the waterfront. Expect interactive activities for all ages, plus food from Santiago’s and a pop-up bar by The Pinery starting at 5 PM. Drop in for 10 minutes or stay the whole evening. To switch things up, HOPE Works leads Take Back the Night, a march and speak out supporting survivors of sexual violence, starting at UVM's Royall Tyler Theater at 4:30 for poster making and rallying before marching downtown to Contois Auditorium for the speak out. The International Food Festival at CCV in Winooski serves up its 23rd annual spread of global dishes from 4 to 5:30, free and open to all. Over at the library, National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale presents "Through the Lens of Empathy: Photographing Hope in a Fractured World" at 5:30 (registration required). The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere lands at Essex Cinema at 5 with pop up shopping from Addie & Grace in the TRex theater beforehand, hosted by Star 92.9. AIAVT Trivia Night at Pizza 44 on Pine Street runs 4:30 to 7, with proceeds benefiting the AIA Vermont Community Outreach Grant, and yes, the winning team gets the SOAK Championship Belt. Grab your running shoes for the 5K Run at La Di Da Pizza [MEETUP] at 5:30, where you loop the neighborhood and come back for a slice. Thursday night brings Lily Fitts to the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge at 7, a 25 year old Boston native bringing her cinematic, lyric first storytelling on her North America tour with Conall Cafferty (tickets are running low). Geoffrey Asmus opens a Thursday through Saturday run at the Vermont Comedy Club, a Comedy Cellar regular who's opened for Dave Attell and Mark Normand, with shows at 7 Thursday and 7 and 9 on Friday and Saturday.

Why support? Every week, I sort through 24+ local sources: 12 event calendars, some of those being Seven Days, Front Porch Forum, Facebook events, plus 9 others and 12 news stations, from VTDigger to WCAX to Vermont Public to Community News Service, plus 8 others, to keep you connected. If this lengthy newsletter saves you time, or has introduced you to new experiences in Burlington, then definitely consider chipping in!

About Me

The Btown Brief IRL - We’re now seeing 20–30 people at our weekly events! Be sure to stop by for our weekly Saturday Coffee meetup at Zero Gravity at 10am. Everyone is welcome! It’s a great place to talk about weekend events too, along with news and life updates. So come find things to do this weekend together:

Burlington's Festival of Fools Returns

After last summer's budget woes forced BCA to scale back to a single block party, the festival is officially back for 2026 with a two day run on Church Street and City Hall Park. The funding picture has shifted: there's still no presenting sponsor, but BCA reworked its model with community backers like the Pomerleau Family Foundation and returning downtown businesses. Crowd favorite Cate Great returns alongside juggler Jacob D'Eustachio, and The Big Takeover will bring their reggae rooted sound to City Hall Park on Friday night. The full lineup is still under wraps, but for a festival that used to draw 50,000 people over three days, having it back at all is a win for downtown businesses who've long called it their best weekend of the summer.

HomeShare Makes Strides in the Vermont Housing Crisis

HomeShare Vermont, which has been pairing homeowners with guests seeking affordable housing since 1982, matched 300 people in 2025 and estimates guests saved more than $880,000 in rental costs, with average rent coming in at just $379 a month. The nonprofit has been expanding its geographic reach, adding the Northeast Kingdom last summer and doubling outreach in Chittenden County. Washington County has quickly become one of their busiest areas. The funding picture carries some uncertainty, though: about 15% of the organization's state funding originates from federal sources that have been threatened with clawbacks, though none have materialized yet. For a state where the housing crunch touches nearly every community, the model of matching older homeowners (average age 72) with younger guests (average age 47) in exchange for rent, household help, or both offers a practical workaround that doesn't require a single new unit to be built.

Healthy Living Workers Will Vote on Whether to Form a Union

The vote is scheduled for April 30, covering roughly 300 hourly employees across stores in South Burlington, Williston, and Saratoga Springs. Workers are looking to join Workers United, citing low pay hovering near minimum wage, reduced employee discounts, and poor communication from management on key decisions. The owners, founder Katy Lesser and her children Eli and Nina Lesser-Goldsmith, have not publicly responded to the letter but have brought in Sparta Solutions, a firm that specializes in countering unionization efforts, along with lawyers from Downs Rachlin Martin. It's part of a broader wave of local labor activity; Barnes & Noble workers on Dorset Street are voting the day before, and about 100 childcare providers at ONE Arts Community Schools successfully unionized last fall.

Racial Disparities in Vermont Traffic Stops Resurge After Covid-Era Dip, Study Finds

UVM economist Stephanie Seguino's updated report covering 2015 to 2024 found that while overall stops and searches have declined, the racial gap in who gets pulled over has widened back to pre-pandemic levels. In Bennington, Brattleboro, and Rutland, Black drivers are stopped at double or more their share of the driving population. Perhaps the most telling data point is the one where contraband is found at lower rates in searches of Black and Hispanic drivers than white drivers, which researchers flag as a key indicator of biased policing. Legislative efforts to curb pretextual stops and consent searches have repeatedly stalled in committee, though a new bill, S.144, is currently before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Vermont also continues to stop vehicles at more than three times the national average per capita, raising broader questions about resource allocation.

Federal Reclassification of Marijuana Could 'Turbocharge' Vermont's Medical Market

The Trump administration's move to shift medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III gives licensed medical cannabis businesses the ability to deduct expenses from federal taxes for the first time, a potentially huge financial break. But Vermont's situation is uniquely complicated. When the state created a recreational market, the medical side started shrinking, so regulators introduced a program last fall letting recreational dispensaries get medical endorsements. That means the two markets are now deeply intertwined, and nobody is quite sure how the IRS will define what counts as a "medical" business eligible for the tax benefits. Gabe Gilman, general counsel for the Cannabis Control Board, warned that the ambiguity could push every business to try to look medical, and the federal order offers no guidance to states on how to actually implement changes.

Nurses Could Gain More Recognition Under New Bill

Bill S.163 would update Vermont law to formally recognize advanced practice registered nurses as attending providers in hospitals, something supporters say already reflects day to day reality. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Becca White, stresses it doesn't expand what nurses can do but simply aligns the law with existing practice, particularly in rural areas where nurse practitioners often serve as the primary caregivers. The Vermont Medical Society has taken a neutral position, noting that while they support team based care, the change could affect hospital workflows and Medicare billing, since federal rules still require a physician to be listed for reimbursement. The bill has returned to the Senate with a recommended House amendment and would take effect immediately upon passage.

Ouster of Public Safety Chair Divides Burlington Council

During the council's annual reorganization, Democrats replaced Progressive Councilor Melo Grant as chair of the Public Safety Committee with Ranjit "Buddy" Singh, whose approach is shaped by 18 years on the Church Street Marketplace Commission. Singh's priorities include accelerating the search for a permanent police chief, ramping up officer recruitment, and revisiting a downtown "public safety hub" concept that Grant had declined to take up. Grant, who represents the Old North End and downtown and came up through police accountability work, argued the move was racially and politically motivated, a charge Traverse pushed back on. The timing is especially fraught: Burlington is still searching for a permanent chief and investigating allegations of excessive force by officers during the March 11 standoff between protesters and ICE agents. The dispute has cracked open the deeper rift between the council's Democratic majority and the mayor-aligned Progressive minority over what public safety should actually look like and whose concerns it should center.

Vermont Thought It Was Getting New Electric Buses. The Trump Administration Had Other Plans.

Green Mountain Transit was set to receive 17 fully electric buses through a $22.5 million federal grant awarded in 2023. Then federal officials called and said the money was still available, but only if the buses weren't powered solely by electricity. State and local transit officials scrambled over two weeks to revise their plans, landing on hybrid diesel-electric buses instead. A USDOT spokesperson framed the shift as promoting "low-emission technology over no-emission technology," though GMT general manager Clayton Clark expressed more concern about the lack of communication than the bus type itself. Two electric buses were already far enough in production that canceling them would have cost the state up to $2 million in penalties, so those will still be purchased using Volkswagen settlement funds. GMT has also had reliability issues with some of its existing electric fleet after a battery recall. The silver lining, if you want to call it that, is that the state may be able to afford a couple of extra buses since hybrids cost less than full electrics.

Q&A: Vermont Fiber Fans Knit for Food at the Makery in Burlington

For the second year running, Vermont Fiber Fans joined the nationwide Knit for Food knit-a-thon, gathering at the Makery in Burlington for six hours of knitting, crocheting, sewing, and weaving. The group raised $2,655, part of a national haul of nearly $560,000 split between Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels. Over six years the event has generated more than $2 million for hunger relief. Beyond fundraising, the group makes blankets for new Americans, queer youth through Knit the Rainbow, and seriously ill children through Project Linus. Their next meetup is May 2 at Specs in Winooski.

For a Fee, the Doctor Will See You Now

The concierge medicine model, where patients pay a monthly or annual membership fee for more personalized care, is growing fast in Vermont. About 20% of practices belonging to HealthFirst, the organization representing the state's independent doctors, now operate some form of membership based practice. The appeal for providers is clear: it lets them shrink their patient panels and spend real time with people instead of churning through 20 appointments a day. But the Vermont Medical Society says the state is already short about 100 primary care doctors, and when a provider like Woodstock's Lorissa Segal cuts her panel by more than half to join MDVIP's concierge network, hundreds of her former patients have to find care elsewhere. The tension at the core of this trend is hard to ignore, as the patients who can least afford membership fees are often the ones who need the most attention.

As Immigration to Vermont Drops, a 'Demographic Cliff' Looms

The Trump administration's halt of refugee resettlement has landed hard in Burlington. The school district lost nearly 100 students last year, cut 10 staff positions, and eliminated a longstanding program for newcomers who arrived unable to speak English, simply because there are no new families coming. In fiscal year 2024, Vermont resettled a record 600 refugees. This year, only about 50 have arrived, all from South Africa. The ripple effects extend well beyond schools too. Employers like Twincraft Skincare in Winooski and Williston, where a quarter of 450 employees are new Americans, are worried about sustaining their workforce as the pipeline dries up. Meanwhile, some immigrant families who are already here are leaving for states with lower costs and larger established communities. UVM professor Pablo Bose put it bluntly when he said that Vermont has been warned about a demographic cliff for years, and without new arrivals, the state is running out of ways to avoid it.

Burlington's Live Music Scene Faces Change, Community Keeps It Alive

With Arts Riot gone, Nectar's closed, and Radio Bean asking folks to show up so it doesn't have to shutter, Burlington's small venue landscape is thinning out. But the scene isn't dead. Foam Brewers, celebrating 10 years on the waterfront, is booked out for weeks and has a three day anniversary weekend starting May 1. Radio Bean needs your support now more than ever, and the waterfront has a strong summer lineup in the works. The message from locals and venue owners alike are to show up, spend your money, keep it going!

Vermont Overdose Deaths Drop 25% in Dramatic Decline

For the first time in two decades, Vermont's overdose death numbers have fallen significantly, dropping from roughly 225 in 2024 to about 170 last year, according to early data from the Department of Health. It's genuinely encouraging news, but state Health Commissioner Dr. Rick Hildebrant cautioned that overdoses remain very prevalent and that the drug supply is shifting in dangerous ways, with medetomidine, a veterinary sedative sometimes called "rhino tranq," increasingly showing up in substances on the street.

Conversation Continues Over Housing Standards in Burlington

Burlington's Ordinance Committee is working on a new self-certification and inspection form that would give college students a clearer path to file housing complaints with both their schools and the city. The effort grew out of months of complaints from UVM and Champlain College students about dorm conditions. Under current rules, colleges are exempt from regular city inspections as long as they conduct their own and meet city standards. The committee plans to vote on the updated form at its next meeting.

Burlington Ranks 5th Snowiest City in Eastern US

After picking up 0.8 inches the previous weekend, Burlington's seasonal snowfall total hit 82.4 inches, placing it fifth among all eastern U.S. cities tracked by the National Weather Service this winter. That's actually just shy of the city's 87.5 inch seasonal average, so despite cracking the top five, this was a pretty normal winter by Burlington standards. For context, Boston logged 62.8 inches and D.C. managed just 10.6. No more snow in the forecast, thankfully.

How good of a reader are you? Think you’re keeping up with Burlington news? It's time to prove it. Every Monday and Friday, we're dropping a quick 5-question quiz covering the local news you just finished reading. You've got just 60 seconds to answer them all. No looking back allowed. Use the same unique name each time you play so everyone can track your stats in our Hall of Fame, where you'll compete for titles like Sharpshooter (highest accuracy), Speed Demon (fastest average time), and Streak Leader (most consistent player). Make your name (or cool nickname) known to Btown!

And yes, there are PRIZES. Each month, we'll reward the top performers based on the best combination of Total Score and Average Score. That means playing consistently AND playing well will pay off. The more quizzes you complete with high scores, the better your chances of winning. I mean, who doesn’t want cool Btown Merch gear sent to them?

Ready to play? Click the link below, enter your name, and show us what you've got. Btown Brief Quiz

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The University of Vermont women's lacrosse team defeated UMass Lowell 14-12 in their regular season finale on Saturday. The road victory clinched the Regular Season Championship and the No. 1 seed in the America East Women's Lacrosse Playoffs for the first time in program history. Lauren Lefebvre led the Catamounts with her second hat trick of the season. The Catamounts will host the America East Playoffs from Virtue Field, facing No. 4 seeded UMBC on Friday, May 1 at 4 p.m.

On the men's side, the lacrosse team secured the No. 3 seed in the America East Men's Lacrosse Championship following a 14-8 Senior Day victory over Binghamton. Max Frattaroli paced the offense with four goals at Virtue Field, marking his third game this season with at least four tallies.

In track and field, UVM athletes delivered strong performances at the Ken O'Brien Championship Prep meet at UMass. Emma Wapshare claimed victory in the javelin throw with a 44.00m launch. On the track, Bella Fryer posted a career-best and the sixth-fastest women's 1500m time in program history (4:28.14), while Will Just secured a podium finish with the fourth-fastest men's 1500m time in school history (3:50.82).

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What a week ahead. Whether you're biking Pine Street, browsing $2 books at the library, or grabbing a free crepe in the rain on Thursday, there's something out there for you. Take a minute to read the full stories linked above when you get a chance. The folks reporting on this stuff deserve the clicks.

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