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Weather & Monday Rundown:

Good Morning, Burlington, it's a frosty one out there with temperatures starting off in the 30s and a few spots dipping even lower. The good news is we'll see some sunshine to kick off the week, though clouds will fill in through the afternoon and evening, bringing the chance for a few scattered showers. Most of us should stay dry, with highs reaching the mid to upper 50s. Tonight gets cold again, with lows dropping into the 20s and 30s, so if you've already gotten ambitious with the garden, cover up or bring in anything frost sensitive. Tuesday looks pleasant with plenty of sun and similar highs in the upper 50s. Wednesday is when things turn, with rain showers moving in by afternoon and sticking around through Thursday and possibly Friday, all while temperatures hang stubbornly in the 50s. The silver lining is the weekend, when sunshine returns and temps finally start climbing through the 60s and back toward 70, which is right about where mid-May in Burlington should be.

Monday evening has no shortage of ways to shake off that chill. The Music Man opens its two-night run at the Flynn at 7:30, a Tony Award-winning family-friendly production that follows fast-talking salesman Harold Hill as he tries to con River City, Iowa, and ends up falling for the town librarian. Over on Church Street, Einstein's Tap House hosts Dungeon Crawl, a fully improvised musical jam curated by Philadelphia bassist Jonathan Colman, with doors at 7 and music at 8 (you can also grab a combo ticket for Tuesday night's Dobbs' Dead show). At the Miller Center in the New North End, pickup dodgeball runs from 7 to 8:15 for just five bucks, no team required. History buffs should head to Colchester for a free talk on the Historical Contributions of Canadian Families at 828 Main Street starting at 7, with free parking and refreshments. And out in Essex Junction, Park Place Tavern gets taken over starting at 11 AM by Brisket and Beans BBQ, where Casey will be serving up smoked meats while the tavern handles the drinks.

Tuesday brings another solid lineup. The Music Man gets its second and final performance at the Flynn at 7:30, and over at Switchback Brewing on Flynn Ave, 80's Movies Trivia Night kicks off at 7 with doors at 5, so settle in early and see how much you actually remember from Blade Runner and The Breakfast Club. Dobbs' Dead takes the stage at Einstein's Tap House at 9 for the second night of their two-night collaboration, and crafters should head to Queen City Brewery for Knot Knite from 6 to 8, where this month's theme celebrates moms in every form. The Spanish Conversation Group meets at the Miller Center at 6:30 for informal practice at all levels. In Shelburne, award-winning preservationist Anthony Wood and Vermont's Emily Wadhams lead a free discussion on civic advocacy and scenic preservation at the Coach Barn at 6:30. And trail runners can hit Catamount Outdoor Family Center in Williston, where the Tuesday Trail Running Series starts at 6.

Wednesday is loaded despite the likely rain. Early risers can join a free Spring Bird Walk at Woodside Natural Area in Essex Junction at 8 (preregister) followed by Nature Journaling at Rock Point at 10, a wonderful monthly drop-in led by artist and naturalist Lorna Dielentheis where you bring your own journal and drawing supplies. Center City Community Night at the Ballpark at Roosevelt Park should draw a crowd at 5:30 with food, raffles, music, and a first pitch from Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak as the Catamounts face the North Burlington Giants. At the same time, ecologist Leslie Spencer leads a guided forest walk on Early Spring Wildflowers and Plant Adaptation at Shelburne Farms starting at 5:30, and Pick-up Basketball [MEETUP] runs at Pomeroy Park from 5:30 to 7:30. First Strides Vermont continues its 12-week program in Williston at 5:45 for women and gender-expansive individuals. In Milton, artist Fiadhnait Moser teaches Acrylic Creatures on Wood at 5, painting a nighttime fox on real wood using folk art techniques. At 6, Generator Makerspace hosts a Sewing Machine Maintenance Workshop for $40 (cheaper for members), and the Paint Your Pet night at Colchester Rec Center lets you turn your favorite pet photo into a portrait. Also in Colchester at 6, the Burnham Memorial Library brings out a litter of husky sled puppies for Siber Sled Dogs, a free but very limited 20-minute session that will fill up fast. At 6:45, a free Argentine Tango class awaits at Fusion 802 Dance Studio in South Burlington. And capping off the night, guitar virtuoso Buckethead performs at Higher Ground at 9.

Thursday keeps the momentum going. Rachel Scanlon brings her "A Bit Much" stand-up show to the Vermont Comedy Club at 7, with additional shows Friday and Saturday, and later that night the Exodus Comedy Roast sends off departing local comedy favorites in proper no-holds-barred fashion at 9. BHS Drama opens She Kills Monsters at Hunt Middle School at 7, a wild ride through Dungeons and Dragons, 90s rock, and sisterly love running through Saturday. Dog lovers should swing by Houndstooth on College Street for PupCup Day starting at 11, where you can grab made-to-order frozen treats for your pup for $3.99 along with a PupCup special bundle. The South Burlington Public Library hosts Spotlight 802 at 5:30, a monthly speaker series sponsored by Mascoma Bank that this month features UVM Men's Soccer head coach Adrian Dubois for a talk and Q&A with free appetizers starting when door open. Later at 6, the weekly guided mountain bike rides launch their summer Thursday series at Catamount in Williston. For local entrepreneurs, there's a free Women Business Owners Mastermind in Essex Junction at 3:30 and a spring networking Visitor's Day at Shelburne Town Office at 8:30 AM.

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The Btown Brief IRL - We’re now seeing 20–30 people at our weekly events!

Friday we’re meeting for the South End Get Down Opening Day, Saturday we have coffee at 10 AM, Sunday we have a meetup at the Boardroom at noon, and also a meetup for pickleball at 2 PM. If any of those sound fun, be sure to RSVP on Meetup.com.

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"The market is broken. We know how to regulate it — let's fix it," said Susan Evans McClure, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, per VTDigger.

H.512 would cap ticket resale prices at 10% above face value for events at independent venues with a capacity of 3,000 or fewer, nonprofits hosting fairs and exhibitions, amateur athletic venues, and colleges. The need is easy to illustrate. When Billy Strings played the Champlain Valley Expo in 2023, concertgoers cumulatively paid resellers more than $65,000 above face value, and that's considered an undercount. The bill would also ban deceptive URLs and improper use of intellectual property, the kinds of tactics that trick buyers into thinking they're purchasing directly from the venue. Critics have argued the cap could inadvertently open the door for Live Nation-Ticketmaster to muscle into Vermont's market, but the bill advanced without vocal opposition in the Senate.

"None of us wants to be the person who hits some little child who runs out into the road or hits somebody who's crossing to get to the creemee stand," said Old Pump Road resident Beth Demas, per Seven Days.

Palmer Lane Maple's creemees have been voted Chittenden County's best every year since 2022, and that reputation has turned the residential street outside the stand into what neighbors call "Coneville," named for the orange traffic cones guarding driveways and lawns. New owners Dan and Jessica Phelan have tried to be accommodating, dedicating an entire section of their website to parking guidance, but a legal battle is now underway. Two longtime residents have challenged whether Palmer Lane even has the right permits for its creemee window and are fighting a proposed 54-spot parking lot. Nearly everyone agrees the best solution is directing customers to the mostly empty Jericho Elementary School lot across Route 15, but getting there has proven far easier said than done.

"If signed into law, this bill will prevent needless exposure to a chemical tied to a devastating disease and set a powerful precedent for states across the country to follow," wrote the Environmental Working Group's legislative director Geoff Horsfield, per Vermont Public.

H.739 would ban paraquat sales and use in Vermont after 2030, with farmers able to apply the herbicide until then only with special permission from the Agency of Agriculture. The scale is small here (just 125 gallons were sold statewide last year, mostly by orchardists), but the significance is national. Over 70 countries have already banned paraquat, and efforts are underway in a dozen states to follow suit. Syngenta, one of the herbicide's manufacturers and the target of thousands of lawsuits, announced earlier this year it would stop producing the weed killer entirely. The bill still needs House concurrence on Senate changes before heading to Governor Scott's desk, and his office has not signaled which way he's leaning.

"I always wanted this spot," said 19-year-old Mustafa Khudaier of the kiosk at 180 College Street, per Seven Days.

Khudaier's family moved to Vermont in 2014 as refugees from the Iraq War, and his mother Sabah Abbas started a small catering business in 2019 with pop-ups at the Old North End Farmers Market. The Church Street Marketplace awarded the family a three-year lease on the 135-square-foot kiosk at the corner of Church and College, replacing Leunig's Petit Bijou, which had operated the space seasonally since 2017. The menu will feature Middle Eastern fare like shawarma and cardamom tea alongside breakfast pastries, sandwiches, and coffee, served year-round Tuesday through Sunday. Abbas is also designing a mural for the exterior.

"I don't think this is by accident. I don't think this is just a thing that happened. I do think that people's concerted efforts in this field has made a significant difference," said Health Commissioner Rick Hildebrant, per Vermont Public.

The 25% drop in 2025 is genuinely encouraging, but context matters. The 170 Vermonters who died from overdoses last year is still more than 2.5 times the number who died in 2014, the year Governor Shumlin devoted his entire State of the State to the opioid crisis. Researchers point to expanded naloxone access and treatment investment as likely factors, though a fentanyl supply shock out of China may also be contributing. Perhaps the most concerning signal buried in the data is the growing role of stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine in overdose deaths, because the reversal drugs and craving-reduction medications that have been so effective against opioids simply don't work on stimulants.

"East of the Greens we really have a hard time seeing," said Gabriel Langbauer, meteorologist-in-charge at the NWS Burlington office, per VTDigger.

The new 10-meter monitoring tower in Lyndonville is a prototype and the first of roughly 20 stations planned across the state. Vermont's geography creates real blind spots for weather prediction. The Green Mountains obstruct radar coverage from Burlington, meaning storms and flash floods in the Northeast Kingdom can develop with little warning. A 2024 storm in St. Johnsbury was only partially captured by radar, and last year's flooding in towns like Sutton and Burke underscored the danger. Beyond measuring rainfall, the stations will track soil moisture, a data point that could dramatically improve flood forecasting and inform longer-term floodplain restoration decisions.

"Our data suggests that brook trout populations are still thriving and stable here," said state fisheries biologist Lee Simard, per Vermont Public.

While brook trout populations are declining across much of the eastern U.S. due to warming water temperatures, Vermont's cooler northern waters and some clever conservation work are keeping populations strong. The standout effort is a strategy called "strategic wood addition," led by fisheries biologist Jud Kratzer for the past 13 years, which involves placing tree trunks and branches in streams to create deeper, cooler pools. The results speak for themselves: brook trout biomass tripled on average in treated areas. Meanwhile, dam removal and culvert replacement projects across the Winooski River Basin are expected to open over 125 miles of connected habitat by the end of next year.

"Pavement acts as a heat sink," said tree warden Dave Hall, noting that trees absorb runoff, provide cooler temperatures, and even have traffic-calming effects, per the Shelburne News.

The Shelburne Tree Committee is playing a long game against the emerald ash borer, the invasive beetle first found in town in 2024 that kills 98% of untreated ash within a decade. Rather than relying solely on expensive inoculation (required every two years), the committee has been planting diverse species like sycamore, hackberry, and tulip trees across Davis Park and along Harbor Road. The approach is pragmatic. Committee members emphasize that climate change means some species that thrive now may not in the future, so diversity is the best insurance policy. One small but fascinating detail from the article is that about 0.5% of ash trees are "lingering ash" that survive the borer naturally, and foresters hope breeding from those survivors could eventually rebuild resistance in the population.

"VTDigger is essential to the health of Vermont's democracy and civic life," said incoming CEO Brendan Kinney, per Seven Days.

Kinney, currently the chief operating officer at Vermont Public, will step into the role in mid-June after 16 years in management at Vermont Public and its predecessor, Vermont Public Radio. He arrives at a moment when VTDigger could use some stability. Both outgoing CEO Sky Barsch and editor-in-chief Geeta Anand announced their departures this year, following what was described as a lengthy and sometimes contentious contract negotiation with the newsroom's union. Veteran journalist Susan Allen will serve as interim editor-in-chief.

"I just want to make some weird little records with my friends," Thomas told Seven Days from his new home in the Northeast Kingdom.

After 15 years chasing rock stardom in Los Angeles, the Brattleboro native and Sub Pop alum has moved back to Vermont, settled in the Northeast Kingdom, and started his own record label called MUP. His latest album MOO, recorded on the same analog Tascam console he used for his earliest recordings, has earned strong reviews (Pitchfork praised it as a return to "gut impulses"). Thomas has already produced an upcoming album for longtime collaborator Ruth Garbus and plans to turn his home studio into a creative hub for friends from across the country. He plays the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington on May 19. For anyone who followed the Brattleboro indie scene of the early 2000s, or just appreciates a good homecoming story, this one's worth the full read.

"People need to be alive in order to access treatment or recovery," said Theresa Vezina, Burlington's special assistant to the Overdose Prevention Center implementation, per WCAX.

The city's 126-page service assessment, delivered two months ahead of schedule, identifies downtown, the Old North End, and the Riverside-Intervale Avenue corridor as the three potential locations for the center. The report draws on interviews with 50 drug users and feedback from 1,500 community members, revealing both strong demand (74% of those interviewed said they'd use the center most or all of the time) and persistent public concern about enabling drug use. Advocate Ed Baker, a former drug user himself, expressed frustration with the timeline, noting that a year has passed since Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak suggested the center would open within 12 months. The city now plans another round of community conversations in June, with operations potentially beginning after an 18-month planning contract wraps up.

Quick Hits

The festival is back at the Burlington waterfront July 17 and 18, and tickets are already on sale. New this year is at-par pricing for Canadian visitors, effectively removing exchange rate costs. The designated driver experience is also getting an upgrade, with a one-time fee for unlimited non-alcoholic beer from participating tents. VIP tickets return as well, with early entry and access to exclusive drafts and food.

After seven months dark, 191 Pearl Street is reopening under a new concept from longtime Asiana House owner Gary Ma. Dumpling Café will focus on housemade dim sum, including soup dumplings, chicken feet, steamed rice rolls with shrimp, and crispy roasted pork belly. Ma said he needed a change after doing sushi since he was 18. A chef friend with dim sum experience relocated from Boston to join him. Takeout could start as early as this week, with dine-in to follow once staffing allows.

Burlington DPW ticketed around 500 cars and towed 422 during this spring's Operation Clean Sweep, a slight uptick from prior years. Each violation came with a $75 fine, putting the city's haul at roughly $37,500. The sweeps are more than cosmetic. They keep phosphorus out of Lake Champlain, clear debris, and unclog storm drains. A second annual sweep in the fall is also now on the calendar.

The South Burlington City Council voted to remove two of the four nets at Szymansk Park following two years of noise complaints from nearby residents. Players are understandably disappointed, especially since there are no other public pickleball courts in South Burlington. The city says the goal is to relocate the removed courts to a spot where they won't disturb neighbors, though no timeline or location has been announced.

VEG, a New York-based nationwide chain, opened its first Vermont location on Dorset Street in South Burlington this week, right across from Trader Joe's. The clinic offers round-the-clock emergency care with an open-concept setup that lets owners stay with their pets throughout treatment, including overnight. They handle exotic pets too (no primates, though). For those worried about cost, VEG runs a charity that provides financial assistance for emergency care.

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?

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UVM Athletics: Wapshare and Barba Claim America East Titles Amidst Record-Breaking Weekend

The University of Vermont track and field teams opened the America East Championships with a standout performance from Emma Wapshare, who won the women's javelin throw. Wapshare recorded a career-best toss of 47.83 meters, winning the event by more than three meters and becoming the first Catamount to claim the title since 2014. Her victory helped position the Vermont women in a tie for third place after the first day of competition, while the men's team finished the day in ninth, bolstered by scoring runs from athletes like Patrick Mozden in the steeplechase and Tommy Wolfe in the 10k.

The Catamounts continued their strong showing as the championships concluded, highlighted by Rachel Barba, who went back-to-back as the 800m champion with a time of 2:10.24. The final day also saw multiple program records fall; Ryleigh Garrow became the first Catamount to run the women's 100m hurdles in under 14 seconds (13.97), Kate Kelly set a new mark in the triple jump (11.71m), and the women's 4x100 relay team established a school-best time of 47.41 seconds. On the men's side, Will Just secured All-Conference honors with a third-place finish in the 1500m. Ultimately, the Vermont women finished the meet in sixth place with 62 points, and the men took ninth with 35.5 points.

Get excited for Vermont Green FC games!

May 2026

Events:

Monday, May 11, 2025

General Events

Performances

  • 7:30 PM: The Music Man at Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington ($84.79–$114.75)

Live Music/DJ

Tuesday, May 12, 2025

General Events

Performances

  • 7:30 PM: The Music Man at Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington ($84.79–$114.75)

Live Music/DJ

Wednesday, May 13, 2025

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

Thursday, May 14, 2025

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

Here are some of my favorite BtownBrief links:

Full list of 202+ activities to do at anytime is always waiting here when you need a plan: 202+ Things to Do

View the full list of food & drink deals here.

That’s All, Burlington!

That'll do it for this edition. If something in here caught your eye, do the local businesses, organizers, and performers a favor and actually show up. Read the full articles linked above when you get a chance, and if you've got tips, feedback, or an event we should know about, send it our way.

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