Kitty Toll Throws Hat Into Ring

BY SALLY ANDERSON COOK
Staff Writer – The Caledonian-Record

Danville native Kitty Toll, a Democrat, will seek election to the Vermont House representing the towns of Cabot, Danville, and Peacham. She hopes to replace Steve E. Larrabee Sr., who has served Caledonia-Washington-1 as a Republican representative since 1995. He decided not to run for re-election.

“I am running because I want to address several critical issues in Vermont which affect us all right here in our district,” Toll said. “These issues include affordable housing, energy costs, property taxes, education, and farming and agriculture.” She said that education needs to be affordable, and that the sources of funding have to be scrutinized to see how they would impact people in the area.

“I don’t have solutions, but we have to study how any possible option would affect other things,” she said.
In the energy field, she said alternatives should be studied to find out what is efficient. “We need a strong local economy to create job opportunities that enable our children to remain in the area and to be active and successful participants in Vermont’s future,” she said. “We need to develop economically but preserve our landscape and I truly believe we can find that balance.”

Toll grew up on a sixth-generation dairy farm that continues to operate today, with her mother Catherine Beattie and the late Harold Beattie. “There are only two dairy farms left in the village area, both are century old family farms and I don’t want to lose them,” Toll said. “There use to be more.” More home businesses and more niche farming, like the Patterson’s corn maze in Danville, and more ways to use land might be part of the solution, she said. “Even on our own farm, kids have a farm stand. They understand if they plant and sell corn, make bread and sell jams and jellies they make money and they learn how to work,” Toll said.

Educated in Danville schools, Toll has a Bachelor of Science degree from Lyndon State College and holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Vermont. She has worked as an elementary school teacher for 14 years in Gilman, Charleston and St. Johnsbury. In 1993, she was named outstanding teacher of the year in the St. Johnsbury School District. She and her husband, Abel Toll, have two children Kate, 13, and Margaret, 7. Toll stopped teaching when the children were born. “My mother was a representative when I was five,” said Toll, who was the youngest of 14 children. “We have a big supportive family and they’re all right in the village. They’re encouraging me to do this. So, it won’t be a hardship.”

When Toll was in the eighth grade, she was a page in Montpelier in the early 1970s, when Tom Salmon was governor.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Toll said. “I believe in the Democratic process, and I’ve always wanted to be a member of the House.” Toll is a long time member of the Danville Congregational Church, and serves on its board of trustees and board of deacons. She is also on the library board of trustees. For many years, she was co-chairman of the Danville Chamber of Commerce, and a past member of the Danville Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Adjustment.

A corporator of Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, she is currently active as a volunteer on the hospital’s capital campaign and the annual fund campaign of Lyndon State College. “Community service has always been a way of life for my family, and I’ve been fortunate to live, work, and raise a family in such a unique place as the Northeast Kingdom,” Toll said. “I believe it is time for me to put my experience and energies to work on issues that affect the broader community.”

She said she is also no stranger to politics with two parents taking an active role and a sister, Jane Kitchel, who is a state senator. “We grew up in a household where my mother was always active in politics, and we heard about issues,” Toll said. “My father was on the selectboard.” She said both her mother and her aunt, Alice Hafner, were strong women, good role models who taught her there were no boundaries and the possibilities
were endless.

“It’s important to me that we don’t lose that quality in the Northeast Kingdom, where people are friendly and helpful,” Toll said. In the region, children are fortunate to have small caring schools and Toll said she thinks there are opportunities here for them after they finish school. “If I’m honored enough to be elected, I will be committed to the job and do the best for the area, I truly mean that,” Toll said.