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Ed: First, if you see an Orange County Sheriff's cruiser in Topsham on July 4 and 5 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., stand out in the roadway and stop me so we can chat. It's a long story but between owning companies and semi-retirement, I felt I owed a couple of "paybacks" so I became a volunteer EMT and served on the Chelsea-Tunbridge squad for 10 years, 48-hours a week--four 12-hour on-call shifts because people to cover during the day were few and far between. -----Secondly, at age 55 I went to the Academy part-time to get certified as a Vermont State Law Enforcement Officer and worked Patrol a couple of nights a week for the Sheriff's Dept. I still maintain all my certifications and do my mandatory 30 hours per year of "continuing education" at the Academy, but mostly try to fulfill my "obligation" by doing Court Officer--sitting aside the judge, swearing people in and saying "All Rise" as the judge comes and goes, court security and prisoner transports from Springfield or St.J to Chelsea and the Courthouse.----

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However (and I don't know why the PUBLIC doesn't believe this, but they don't based on their reactions) EVERY LEO in the STATE is on Duty for the five major HOLIDAY weekends each year. Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and July 4th. THIS YEAR, in deference to my cancer condition, I got the only patrol cruiser assignment in Orange County, AND IT IS IN TOPSHAM. As you know we rarely patrol Topsham, but I've been assigned to "chase 4-wheelers tearing up the countryside." Well, the wisdom i've acquired in all these years as a Deputy has taught me to define "chasing 4-wheelers" as picking up the mic for the PA system and saying, "Hey you, Tom and Jack, come back here, I know where you live!"
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Scares the hell out of them (and keeps me in the a/c cruiser.) I've seen two deputies wreck two good cruisers trying to chase 4-wheelers across hayfields and into the woods, and I've NEVER seen a Deputy or a Trooper catch a 4-wheeler unless it was a surprise encounter. [I've given out two warnings and two tickets to 4-wheelers in the last 10 years and only because they came around the corner driving AT me and I blocked the road.

- - So if you know where they hang out in Topsham, pass it along and I'll try to earn my "holiday pay" of $18 per hour which is picked up by the Governor's Highway Safety Program. ALL THE REST OF THE DEPT--29 other deputies--will be doing parades, fireworks, chicken barbeques and all that standing out in the hot sun. I can do 4 to 5 hours in a cruiser, but that's the limit of my endurance these days.


- Banjo: As for fortuitous encounters with Emergency Medical people, I woke up in the lobby of a Boston hotel with two EMT's putting IV's into both arms and rushing me to Mass. General about 20 years ago. I had collapsed from internal bleeding ulcers. I recovered after 6 days in the hospital and shortly thereafter moved to Vermont. When the local squad was recruiting EMT's I signed up for the 140 hour course and recertified every two years for 10 years. Since I was on call 48 hours a week, over that 10 years our squad, covering 2,800 people between two towns, on three different occasions, got 5 emergency calls during a single 12-hour shift. When your nearest hospital is a 40-minute run, that's just about going non-stop all day. I WAS ON AMBULANCE DUTY on each of those three shifts that had five calls apiece. That might be routine for Boston or any big city with a fully-staffed crew and a 4-minute ride to the hospital, but in Rural Vermont, 15 EMS calls over 3-days is enough for a lifetime.

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As with the Sheriff's office, if WE don't volunteer for EMS and the Fire Department, WHO WILL ? I trained as a Deputy because an ambulance squad member whose husband worked nights had an old boyfriend break in after 2 a.m. and there was nobody to respond. (The Vermont State Police has an authorized force statewide of 330 troopers and after 2 a.m. they have NOBODY on the road in Orange County. We at least have 6 "call out" cruisers available--driven home by deputies--now under our current Sheriff, Bill Bohnyak, and by August we'll have a total of 12 cruisers--all leased--the oldest of which wil be a 2006. When I was appointed we had six cars, two of which were over 10 years old and the newest was 6 years old. WE GET one cruiser paid by the State and ONE paid the County. The other 10 are now being paid for by the Deputies themselves by doing Interstate Highway construction details--$28 per hour of which goes into the cruiser lease fund. [Most residents don't know that or that we have to buy our own uniforms and guns too ! Only in Vermont! For my part I can afford to donate my "earnings" to charity but there are a lot of deputies trying to raise families on $14 per hour.

I also agree with Ed's complaint about former Gov. Hoff and I've had direct experience with former Gov. Howard Dean balancing the state budget every year by raiding the Highway Trust Fund. It took 14 years to get a new bridge in So. Royalton and 12 for one in Tunbridge. Both projects were done ONLY after Mr. Dean left office.



As I said, other than the "politics" and the "liberals" who always have a more pressing social program than fixing 3-foot holes in local bridges constructed after the 1928 flood, VERMONT is a great place to live and to fish. [We even have a photo of a former sheriff FISHNG through one of those bridge holes on Rte 110 in Chelsea.]