VT: Looming water and housing crises shape Montpelier mayoral race
Despite their widely different viewpoints and diverging backgrounds, there’s one thing all three candidates for Montpelier’s mayor can agree on: There are some tough choices ahead.
Three men have stepped up to campaign for the seat after Anne Watson vacated it to serve as a state senator, making this the most competitive mayoral race the city has seen in a decade.
Those men are Jack McCullough, city council president and Watson’s temporary replacement; Richard Sheir, a producer for local civic news station ORCA Media; and Dan Jones, director of the Sustainable Montpelier Coalition and former head of the city energy committee.
Montpelier, with a population just shy of 8,000, is the state capital and a relatively well-off community. Its household income is about $4,000 above the state average, and its poverty rate is about half the state’s poverty rate, according to census data.
But some of Vermont’s biggest challenges have crept into — and at times, literally underneath — the city limits.
Montpelier has reported 260 water main breaks in the past 10 years as the city’s aging pipes burst under its high water pressure, costing the city more than $1 million in emergency repairs. Homeowners, landlords and businesses have gone without water and sometimes shelled out their own money to make repairs.
https://vtdigger.org/2023/02/24/looming-water-and-housing-crises-shape-montpelier-mayoral-race/
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