Instead of kicking off the Fourth of July season in Central Vermont, Waterbury’s Not Quite Independence Day festivities will wrap them up this weekend with a parade, live music, food vendors and fireworks. The summer calendar also has a number of other celebrations into September.

A Waterbury man is facing a number of criminal charges stemming from two recent incidents on the roads in Waterbury and Duxbury, according to Vermont State Police. 

Many in Waterbury were saddened this week by the news that Jack Carter had passed away on Monday evening, June 21. He was 75. On Tuesday evening, approximately 80 people gathered for a vigil in the alley adjacent to Stowe Street Emporium where friends had assembled a memorial to “The Mayor of Stowe Street.” 

Next month, Amtrak passenger trains will once again head north into Vermont carrying travelers to and from New York City and Washington, D.C. In Waterbury, plans are in the works for a community celebration on July 19, the day Amtrak will roll into town for the first time since March 2020. But for the foreseeable future, the space that hosted the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Cafe and Visitors Center will remain empty.

It happens every summer. Hikers off on trails report their vehicles being broken into and valuables stolen. Such was the case at the Hunger Mountain trailhead parking lot on Sweet Road on Tuesday but this time Vermont State Police have photos of a suspect who they say used a stolen debit card in town soon after it went missing from a car parked by the popular hiking spot. 

At its first in-person meeting in more than a year, the Waterbury Select Board voted to rescind the resolution adopted last year requiring individuals wear masks in public to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In the latest installment of “what were they thinking?” Vermont State Police were called to Smugglers Notch on Sunday, June 6, after a tractor-trailer became wedged between rocks along the narrow, barely-two-lane curvy mountain road for four hours.