'I resolve ...'
Vt. notables look ahead to 2009
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Published: December 31, 2008
Oh, what to do. What to do. It's time to make that annual self-help list, and hope you don't break the promises.
Again.
Everyone's got a thing or two they want to resolve to do better.
Here is a sampling from some names you might know from across the state.
Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon said he needs to quit smoking.
"I'm in good company with Obama," he said. "I feel his pain. I'm 47 years old, and I never should have started. I started when I was 20. I never smoke around my kids. I go outside when I smoke."
Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras said he will make the same resolution that he made last year — to get back into an exercise regimen he hasn't done since he broke his ankle in Pine Hill Park, but to actually stick with it this year.
He said he started off well last year, but did not make it the full year.
Sen. Susan Bartlett, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is one of the key lawmakers trying to balance the current state budget — and prepare the next one. And get ready for a likely federal stimulus package.
"My new year's resolution this year is to keep it is perspective," she said. "That is going to be a hell of job."
And is keeping it in perspective when the problem is as large as the potential hole in the budget a good thing?
"At least you have some idea and you can put some realistic expectations on what you can do and what you can't do."
Jack McKernon, owner of the McKernon Group in Brandon, said his resolution was just to stay in business.
"This is a year that's going to be a trying year," he said, adding that he was reshuffling his management staff to face the coming year.
McKernon said he does not normally make New Year's resolutions.
"When you get to be my age, one year rolls into the next," the 73-year-old said.
Matthew Gibbs has a lot of reading to do.
"The list of books I have to read is so long, it's ridiculous," the co-owner of the Briggs Carriage Bookstore said Tuesday. "I have a shelf at home that is nothing but books to read next."
Gibbs joined many other Vermonters in offering up plans, predictions, hopes and resolutions for 2009 as 2008 came to a close this week.
Many of the books on Gibbs' shelf are advance copies, he said, which means he cannot discuss them in much detail, but he did say readers could look forward to a number of good books coming out in the early months of 2009.
Already-released titles on Gibbs' reading list include "The People of the Book," a novel about a rare copy of the Torah, and "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,' a humorous young adult book about growing up on an Indian reservation.
The title of "The Raw Shark Texts," said aloud, sounds like "Rorschach tests." The book, Gibbs said, is told from the point of view of someone in the throes of psychosis.
"I've read it once," Gibbs said. "It's a very confusing book. … Myself and other people are always chatting online about this book and trying to figure it out."
Once he's given that another try, Gibbs said he also hopes to get to Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle trilogy and Simon Winchester's "The Man Who Loved China," a biography of British China scholar Joseph Needham.
"My fantasy resolution for the coming year is to learn Mandarin Chinese," he said. "You've got to keep your brain occupied, active."
Gibbs is far from the only person with his work cut out for him in the coming year.
Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd predicted that the town's budget deliberations will yield a budget truly vetted and understood by the public. Once again, it will be approved on Town Meeting Day.
"My resolutions are the usual," said Chris Kenny, a skier visiting Rutland from New York City. "Lose weight — I do that every year. And get a sailboat. I predict the market will get a pop when everyone realizes the president is Obama and Nixon's out of office."
Rutland Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Karen White predicted "things will get better" in the coming year.
"I'm hopeful politically," she said. "Economically, I think we're going to be turning a corner. People are spending less, which in the short-term hurts the economy, but in the long term will help because people are living more within their means."
As for a resolution, White said she has a standing resolution to always act with humility.
"As much as the economy is bad, I personally believe that there is hope for the future," said Kevin McDonell, 51, of Rutland. "In 2009, we shall overcome."
McDonell described himself as "partially employed," and said his New Year's resolution was to find a full-time job for the first time since he was laid off when MetroGroup closed in 2007.
"Please, God, someone hire me for a full-time job," he said. "I'm looking every day."
Marcia Rose, a 76-year-old retired nurse from Rutland, said she did not have a resolution, but hoped the incoming presidential administration could turn the country around.
"I predict in 2009 people will start thinking more sensibly on a global level and shift their giving of time and money towards local efforts," said Matthew Perry, artistic director of the Vermont Arts Exchange. "More eyes and hearts will finally start to open up."
Morgan Wolaver, owner and president of Otter Creek Brewing, predicted Vermont would see a lot of good and unique beers in 2009.
Some Vermont brewers are already taking advantage of a new law that allows higher-alcohol craft beers to be sold alongside their regular fare, and Wolaver said Otter Creek will soon release its own first offering under the law, a Russian Imperial stout.
"It's the decadent dessert beer of all beers," he said. "It's in a 22-ounce bottle you can share with two or three friends."
Bruce Bouchard, executive director of the Paramount Theatre in Rutland, said he's come up with three resolutions.
"To go back to the gym, only fruit before 12 noon and kindness to everyone around me," Bouchard said. "I've been a 25-year gym-goer and this is the first time in five years I've stopped going so that should be easy … and fruit before 12 is because I need to get all this Christmas food out of my system."
Burr and Burton Academy Headmaster Mark Tashjian started with predictions that the Philadelphia Eagles would win the Super Bowl, that times will get tougher before they get better, and that "access to quality education will continue to be the single most important determinant of long-term success in America."
He then resolved to stop making predictions about Philadelphia sports teams and to make sure Burr and Burton did "its best to get even better."
Rutland Fire Chief Robert Schlachter said his hope was for no major fires or disasters — natural or manmade — in 2009. His resolution was to be more physically active.
Rutland County Sheriff Stephen Benard said his New Year's resolution was to see his department through what he believes will be a trying fiscal year.
"I just want to get through a difficult economic time while maintaining the level of service that taxpayers have come to expect in Rutland County," Benard said.
The economy has also been on the mind of Thomas Donahue, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce.
To protect the region's fragile economy, Donahue predicted that the region's leadership and state officials would protect what he said was an essential economic engine — the Amtrak service connecting Rutland by rail to New York City and beyond.
"I predict that we will continue Amtrak service in '09 and beyond," Donahue said, forecasting his high hope that the Legislature decides against cutting funding for the service. "It's worth keeping. We can't go backwards."
Rep. Shap Smith of Morrisville, who recently became the Democratic nominee for Speaker of the House, had a simple pact: "To sleep."