Vermont Standard
10/6/2016
By Curt Peterson
Standard Correspondent
The complicated financial arrangement between the Town of Killington and municipally owned Green Mountain National Golf Club has long been a sore subject among some of the taxpayers in the ski resort town. In 2011 voters rejected a proposed town budget, but approved a refinancing scheme for the debt the town took on to purchase the course. About 200 votes were counted.
One of the residents who questioned the select board’s plans was Vito Rasenas, a self-employed property maintenance contractor in town, and a frequent attendee at board meetings. Rasenas complained that a very small number of voters knew what the board was proposing, and if more townspeople had been aware, the vote would have been different.
“I pointed out that only a couple of hundred people were involved in the decision,” Rasenas said. “Chris Bianchi (select board chair at the time) suggested I create my own blog to keep people informed. So I did.”
That was how the blog, “As The Ski Turns” (astheskiturns.blogspot. com), was born.
Since that time Rasenas, who grew up in Boston, has reposted area newspaper stories, which he said he always attributes to their sources, that apply to events in or around Killington, or that highlight the political goings-on in town. Of course, as a blogger, he also adds his own comments, usually about select board and other local organizations’ goings-on.
Most recently Rasenas called out the Killington Pico Area Association and certain un-named businesses for allegedly using their economic clout to stop the Mountain Times, a local weekly newspaper, from publishing political cartoons critical of the organization. According to Rasenas, the Mountain Times published four paid ads for Jim Haff, a Killington resident and one-time selectman, which contained hand-drawn cartoons poking fun at KPAA and other interests in town. And the subjects of Haff’s humor, according to Rasenas, put pressure on the Times to stop printing Haff’s ads.
In the current issue editor and co-publisher Polly Lynn Mikula explained the paper’s decision to exclude future ads containing satirical cartoons.
“… we will adopt (the) policy of not publishing local cartoons and instead encourage our readers to articulate their opposition or support for town policies, local issues and/or comments to the Mountain Times via letters to the editor and/or op-eds.”
Haff has used paid advertisements in the Mountain Times as a vehicle for his opinions for some time. Two years ago he took out a two-page centerfold ad accusing the select board of misrepresenting a large budget deficit as a surplus.
He said he hoped the cartoons would get attention and start a conversation among residents about what is going on in the town government and the KPAA. So far, he said, his strategy worked, he’s been asked by several people about the cartoons, giving him the opportunity to explain the highlighted problem as he sees it.
Mikula said the issues with the cartoons is they lack “authorship.” When someone writes a letter to the editor or creates an op-ed piece, she implied, the name of the author is required to qualify for publishing. She said the same requirement applies to political cartoons, and Haff’s cartoon submissions are unsigned.
The KPAA is the butt of Haff’s cartoon statements, and Rasenas has used his blog to ridicule the organization’s relationship with the town and alleged use of taxpayer dollars for KPAA members’ “private interests.” One might expect the animosity goes both ways.
In February 2016, when Haff was running against McGrath’s for select board Rasenas posted a copy of KPAA president Howard Smith’s email to members urging them to vote. “One Candidate clearly supports our objectives and the other?” he said.
On March 1 Smith reacted to Rasenas’s blog of his remarks in another email to KPAA members, which Rasenas also posted in As The Ski Turns: “After reading Vito’s Blog, It has come to my attention that my email to you was disseminated outside the organization, and while there is no expectation of privacy regarding emails, it was disheartening to realize that at least one member here has a position that is not supportive of the work that the KPAA does for the community … I would like the board member who decided to pass this email on to get in touch with me and I would gladly accept their resignation if they do not support our actions and accomplishments.”
Smith lists Sushi Yoshi restaurant, Snowmobile Vermont and Resort Spa Services as his enterprises on the KPAA website.
How popular is As The Ski Turns?
Selectman Ken Lee said he never reads it. Chris Bianchi said he seldom reads it. McGrath reads it “once in a while. Haff said, “I enjoy Vito’s blog and I wish we could get more people to read it so more would be informed.”
When he posts on his blog Rasenas sends an alert to about 30 people who have asked to be on the list. He said he has no way to verify how many people read his blog, but knows it gets an average of 30 “hits” for what he calls “mundane” entries, and 150 when he posts “more salacious or controversial issues.”
“I don’t get many comments on the blog itself as the process that Google puts you through to comment is unwieldy, you have to register and become a “follower,” and so on. But I certainly get feed back on the street.”
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