There are many points of interest to this story, but if you’re going to take away one lesson, it should be about the importance of healthy local news media. Because if not for The Montpelier Bridge, the doughty nonprofit news organization, nobody in and around the city would know that a hinky-as-all-getout “health spa” seems to be operating right in the middle of downtown. In a building co-owned by a current candidate for state Senate, no less.

No, not in some half-empty strip mall on the outskirts or in a ramshackle building along a truck route. It’s in a prime storefront, just a couple of blocks away from the Statehouse. (Which makes me yearn for a look at the outfit’s client list, just to check for political types stuck in the nation’s smallest capital city for several months with plenty of spare time on their, or someone else’s, hands.)

Back in March, The Bridge first broke the story of the “Hawaiian Spa” and another dubious enterprise in a more downmarket address in Montpelier. In its most recent edition, the story was revisited and updated. Has anyone else followed suit? Not the local almost-daily Times Argus. Not Seven Days, which often strays down to central Vermont to cover state politics and local businesses. VTDigger, which frequently publishes content from The Bridge, has kept its hands off this hot potato.

If not for The Bridge, would anyone outside the local constabulary know? I don’t think so. And while there’s no absolute proof that the Hawaiian spa is selling massages with happy endings, its presence is surely a matter of public interest.

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