Border Rules May Alter Life on Canada-Vermont Line (NPR)

From NPR News:

by Charlotte Albright


All Things Considered, June 17, 2007 · Large national issues like immigration and terrorism can often reach into the tiniest communities. That is certainly the case with towns along the Vermont/Canada border, where longstanding inter-connectedness faces new complications.

For over a century, local residents on both sides have shared a library, using back streets to get to it. The U.S. Border Patrol now wants to restrict access along those back streets. Under the proposed plan, cars would be banned in the area. And even pedestrians might have to pass through a customs barrier.
Someone going in the front door of Derby Line's Haskell Free Library and Opera House would be, as expected, standing in Derby Line, Vt. But upon crossing the building to check out a book, they would instead find themselves in Stanstead, Canada.

In the library — the only one in either town — stacks are on the Canadian side, with half the books in English, half in French for the francophones living in Stanstead.

Residents on both sides of the border say they are worried that everyday chores like those carried out at the library could get more complicated if the traffic between the two towns is more rigorously controlled.

There are also concerns about what these changes will do to cross-border social life.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11145348