The child care costs $5 per hour.

The Vermont Library Association has been explaining to all of them, in various ways, over the last three months that colleges/students/everybody needs libraries and they are blindly believing they can more affordability offer library materials through contract services available online. No physical books for our students- they are too archaic! ( that’s an attempt at sarcasm btw). Imho this is not forward thinking though because contracts for library materials are very expensive and get more expensive as you grow and want more access to materials. Not to mention- if you don’t have library staff- who will help navigate this very clunky databases? It’s very shortsighted on the side of those in charge.

That was one hell of a storm. I remember. ;-)

The average childcare worker is making $2.50 under minimum wage? Find that hard to believe. The issue is regulation and parents. 30 years ago daycare was some lady in a trailer watching 10-15 kids. Her job was to feed them and make sure they didn’t die. When I was in daycare we would be outside most of the day unsupervised making forts and climbing trees, going sledding and having snowball fights (and occasionally fist fights).

They didn’t limit the number of kids someone could watch, and they didn’t expect that person to have a phd. I learned nothing from daycare other than being socialized to being around other kids. Kids are being coddled and society has become full of parents who if their kid gets a scratch are ready to sue over it. I still have scars from fun gone awry at daycare, but that was part of growing up.

Or maybe the rep doesn’t care. He represents a multinational child care company in a state with a severe childcare shortage. I looked and tuition now is under $5 an hour. Are you honestly saying all it is worth is $5 an hour to raise a child 40 hours per week.

Let me rephrase it. How much do you think is a reasonable about per child to charge for daycare? How much do you think is a reasonable number of children per person to watch at a daycare? How much do you think is an acceptable salary for a person watching said children? How much investment back into facilities on an annual basis is appropriate for a day care?

When times are tough and everyone is hurting, is the place you want to pinch pennies really the person with a large amount of influence over your child’s early development?

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This sub is one of the most vile & repulsive aspects of an otherwise nice place to live.

Really? I question this trickle down argument. Babilou has acquired seven companies, operates in 12 countries, is expanding into India, and the avg childcare salary in Vermont is less than $23k. The argument you share is the same that the oil companies have touted this year despite making record profits. Also if it were the case as you've stated it, surely the Rep in this interview could have articulated as such instead of dodging questions.

I really hope this goes through this time. I just want to be able to eat mushrooms once or twice a year without worrying about getting arrested.

Another missed opportunity to continue post-secondary education in VT.

The VT State Colleges should have taken over this property and combined it with the lame CCV. VSC could have offered 2 and 4 year degrees in addition to non-degree training programs. VT needs post secondary education that is AFFORDABLE.

That makes 4 or 5 VT colleges that have closed in the last few years. Marlboro College, College of St Josephs, Green Mountain College, Southern Vt College, VT College of Fine Arts is now virtual only, no on campus classes, so it might as well be closed.

The VSC or whatever it's being called now has announced it's closing it's library until someone explained to them that colleges usually have libraries.

VT used to be a destination for college students. Unfortunately, the VSC and UVM have received so little support from the VT Legislature they are both some of the most expensive community colleges, state colleges and universities in the country.

These campuses could have been used for learning institutions, business incubators for entrepreneurship, and affordable housing for communities or seniors.

Goddam shame how VT could manage to screw up something so simple.

This is not a surprise. Experienced and qualified childcare professionals are extremely hard to come by in this area and wages are competitive so if you want the best, you need pay them and that cost trickles down to the consumer as it has forever with the only excpetion being the Arizona beverage company.

Parents today are also very demanding and particular about their childs care and I wouldn't be surpised if that factors into the cost hike as well. Lots of OT to pay for.

Yes they probably need to do a bit more trimming but this is Vermont. Sometimes the power goes out. It's always been this way. This storm was well predicted and big. GMP has done a great job getting people back online

What is the threshold? How much specifically are you willing to pay for less outage time? Would you pay 20% more on your bill every month for an 8hr reduction in outage time per year on average? I’m not trying to troll I’m genuinely curious what your thoughts are.

Then say, “Need plow service—Will Pay’

I agree 100% plus, the costs to do it are extraordinary. For what—the view? We have Photoshop.

Start by looking up what an MPPT box does. You can build a smaller setup that powers something less demanding than your house.

You could build a battery bank out of big heavy car batteries, it wouldn't be as pretty but it would work to get you started.

Getting the wiring to your house is something only a licensed electrician should do, but the short version (ha ha) is there is a kind of toggle switch they install that will let you disconnect from the grid and draw power from the bank. This is important for situations where you don't wanna be putting electricity back into the grid (power line repair for example).

Tl:Dr MPPT + inverter + batteries + solar panels. It's not rocket science but the Tesla powerwall are really nice if u can afford it

"Build your own powerwall"

How...? Given this current outage, I'm curious about doing this, but how? Can I - should I - go to GMP with questions, or hit up Efficiency VT?

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Not to mention all the conduits filling up with water.

You said it!

Did you put a generator and ATS in your corrective plan / budget request if they are looking for 99.99+ uptime? That is your solution - or cloudify everything you can and "make" employees pay for local generation - which, won't fly, I'm willing to bet.

Not to mention GMP subsidizes that stuff for consumers. I'm sure that helps their bottom line but the micro-grid incentives are cool

Probably doing some cutting along the lines. Encouraging people to get a good propane generator or battery bank.

Would it be more cost effective in the midterm..actually pay for cutting back arround the lines? Rather than buring or paying th ot needed for restoration?

It's getting easier and easier to set up solar and battery storage at home. Build your own powerwall and have backup for a few days if you size things for your usage.