Bernie Buzz

Last week, Senator Peter Welch, Congresswoman Becca Balint and I held a Telephone Town Meeting, and we were overwhelmed by the response from Vermonters. More than 34,000 households tuned in – an extraordinary turnout for a state of 650,000 people. Though we could not get to every one of the thousands of questions you submitted, below are my responses to some of your most frequently asked questions.

In 2022, we asked Bernie Buzz readers about their favorite country stores. One of the stores that many of you wrote about was Coburns’ General Store in South Strafford. Recently, the Buzz Team sat down with Melvin Coburn, a lifelong Vermonter and the co-owner of Coburns’, to learn about what a day in the life of a general store owner looks like.

Senator Welch, Congresswoman Balint, and I look forward to discussing the important issues now facing our country at a Telephone Town Hall on Wednesday, February 26 at 6:30pm.

Kingdom Games was founded by community member Phil White to help raise money for the local recreation center. Today, Kingdom Games organizes over 50 days of running, biking, open water swimming events – on beautiful, warm summer days and on cold, cloudy days in the icy waters of Lake Memphremagog – in one of the most beautiful corners of our state.

Tina Franklin is a lifelong Vermonter, the wife of a dairy farmer and a Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA). For nearly two decades, she has been caring for others – most recently, at Thompson House, a long-term and residential care facility in Brattleboro, Vermont. Despite the long hours, hard work and emotional toll a job in a nursing home can take, Tina shows up day in and day out because she is committed to providing the best possible care for older Vermonters.