Voter voices: At the Cambridge dump, unease about Vermont’s future

VTDigger reporters visited a variety of sites across Vermont in recent weeks, asking voters directly about the issues they care most about this election season. This week we’ll bring you those voices as we approach Election Day on Nov. 3. 

CAMBRIDGE — Benton Donlevy, a 25-year-old mechanic from Jeffersonville, has watched most of the friends he grew up with in Vermont move away. He wants to stay — “I love the state,” he said — but is struggling to find the home he needs to do so. 

“There’s a lot of factors making that pretty difficult right now,” Donlevy said. Few places come onto the local market that are in his “starter home” price range; and even when they do, he hasn’t been able to match the speed of other bidders.

He hadn’t decided yet who he’ll vote for next week, he said, but is certain Vermont needs “somebody to address” the state’s lack of affordable housing. 

Donlevy was one of dozens of people who stopped by the transfer station in Cambridge over the lunch hour on a bluebird Saturday last weekend. Some parked quickly, dropped their trash and left in just as much of a rush. But others stayed and meandered around the dirt parking lot, catching up with friends and neighbors. 

Almost everyone who stuck around also stopped to chat with Cheryl Vreeland, who has run a free store at the dump for the past two decades. Vreeland described her age as “70-plus” and wore a bright pink coat. She said clothes have been “flying off the hook” at the store recently, something she chalks up to the rising costs of many basic goods. 

For all the talk of a strong national economy, Vreeland said she and many neighbors in the area simply aren’t feeling it. Some older people have savings to rely on, she said, but “working people, they’re having a hard time. You know, it’s very, very difficult.” 

Vreeland thinks Vermont is, in a word, stuck. She brought up the state’s latest push to consolidate education services, which will likely result in schools closing down. Few if any towns want to give up their local schools, she said, while few people seem to want to pay more in taxes to keep those schools viable, even if they have the means. 

Vreeland said she is frustrated by Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who earlier this year backed legislation that would have forced some schools to consolidate. But she also thinks Scott’s Democratic and Progressive challenger, Amanda Janoo, is running on plans for new public services that will require an unrealistic amount of spending.

“We don’t have the money, and nobody wants to take less. That, to me, is the problem,” she said.

Jochen Obert, 71, was standing nearby and agreed that the state faces daunting challenges, top among them the rising property taxes many people are paying to fund their schools. But it all pales in comparison, he thinks, to national politics — and that is what is driving how he votes this year more than any local issue, he said.

The Jeffersonville resident has voted for Scott in the past. But this year, he said he voted for Janoo because he thinks that Scott, while clearly no fan of President Donald Trump, has not spoken out sharply enough against many of Trump’s actions over the past two years.

“It’s hard to look at anything else,” Obert said.

On the other side of the parking lot, Ron Carter, 67, was surveying the contents of his trunk and, after catching a reporter’s eye, introduced himself by his stage name: “Rockin’ Ron.” That’s the “friendly pirate” character, he explained, that he performs for families at nearby Smugglers’ Notch Resort. 

Like Ocher, Carter said he did not vote for Scott this year despite supporting Scott in the past. Many people he knows in Jeffersonville struggle to afford housing, and he said he has a hard time covering medical bills, himself. Carter was compelled by Janoo’s proposal for universal primary care, he said, though thinks many details of the idea need to be vetted and, hopefully, improved upon by the state Legislature. 

“If the basic concept can happen, I think that would be good,” Carter said. “And I think she’s got a good shot, you know? It’s obviously a big year of change.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Voter voices: At the Cambridge dump, unease about Vermont’s future.