WVTK Local & State News June 15, 2010

Voters in 4 North Country communities head to the polls today. Residents in Schroon Lake, St. Regis and Ticonderoga will be voting on revised school budgets while residents in Westport will decide whether to allow bonding for a shared-services building. The polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM in St. Regis and from noon to 8 PM in Schroon Lake, Ticonderoga and Westport.

Construction of the new Crown Point Bridge will force the closure of a popular historic site for the season. The Chimney Point State Historic Site, which commemorates early Native American, French, and English settlers who used the area, is located on the same road as the new bridge. Officials fear it won't be safe for people to be at the site while construction is going on.

Four longtime Addison Northwest Supervisory Union employees are stepping down. Vergennes Union High School English and reading teacher Cathy Spaulding will retire after 35 years. Sally Bushey, Anne Matteson and Lenore Morse also announced their retirements.

Three Otter Valley Union High School teachers have announced their retirements. Bruce Douglas, who has taught science at the school for 32 years, Christine Brown, a math and science teacher at the middle school for 29 years, and Doug Werner, a career services teacher for 17 years, will all be saying their final farewells to the school when it closes its doors for the summer this week.

The town of Bristol will continue to revise its bylaws with a $12,350 grant it received this last from the state Municipal and Regional Planning Fund. With the grant money, Bristol will partner with Smart Growth Vermont, a nonprofit organization, to incorporate as much community input as possible into the process of rewriting its bylaws. Vergennes also received funds from the Municipal and Regional Planning Fund.

Andrew D. Williams pleaded innocent in Rutland District Court yesterday to a felony charge of aggravated assault with a weapon after allegedly firing a .22-caliber bullet that struck 57-year-old Bobby Adams in the chest. Adams told police the friendly game of cards turned ugly after a bad hand. Williams remains in jail with bail set at $75,000.

Forest Dale native Jason Gibbs is seeking to be Vermont’s next Secretary Of State. He believes there are some needed changes in the secretary of state’s office. Those changes include making the office more streamlined and user-friendly for political candidates, businesses and residents in general. If Gibbs is to advance to the Nov. 2 General election, he will have to top Williston-based attorney Chris Roy and Middlesex Democrat Charles Merriman in a GOP primary on Aug. 24.

The new chairman of the Rutland Police Commission told his fellow commissioners yesterday that he wants to improve the department’s public image. During the first meeting since the city’s Board of Aldermen voted to appoint him as the head of the five-member commission, Chairman Larry Jensen outlined some ideas for improving the department’s relations with the community.

A shutdown of the New York State government has been avoided. Senators passed the emergency-spending bill last night. A shutdown at the state level would have frozen state worker pay checks, suspended lottery games, and other nonessential services. It would have also closed state parks, campgrounds, courts, and unemployment offices.

The state of Vermont will NOT be collecting the $250 rebate checks being sent to some seniors to help cover the cost of prescription drugs. Vermont officials said yesterday that because the state was already helping seniors cover those costs with the V-Pharm Program they wanted to collect the checks to help reimburse the program. They have since abandon those plans.

After a two-year absence, the town of Moriah summer youth recreation program is returning home. The five-week program will be held at Moriah Central School this summer. The past two years it has been held at Champlain Valley Tec in Mineville because of construction at the school. The program will begin July 6 and conclude Aug. 5 and will operate 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. daily.

A woman has been arrested in connection with 2 attempted robberies. Police last night arrested 26-year-old Amanda Bean of St. Albans. They believe she flashed a knife and demanded money from the clerk at Simon's Quick Stop in Burlington last Sunday Night, and then later, doing the same thing at Dunkin Donuts on Williston Road.

A new report says more Vermonters are paying too much for their housing. The report titled, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" tracked the differences in wages and housing costs for 2009 and says 3,000 more Vermonters are living "cost burdened". The report also says rental prices have held steady in spite of increasing vacancies.

Officials in Williamstown have given approval to plans for what will be the largest solar farm in the state. Plans call for the farm to be located just off Exit 5 of Interstate 89 and include nearly 9,000 solar panels on 744 arrays. The "Williamstown Solar Farm", which will generate an estimated 2.1 megawatts, still needs to be approved by the Public Service Board.

Vermont's rating of bike friendliness has dropped. The state slipped from 21st in 2009 to 34th in the nation. The report released last month by the League of American Bicyclists says most of the improvement by other states was due to passed legislation to protect cyclists and enhance their infrastructure. Vermont also loses points for not having a separate capitol fund for bike projects.

The Burlington City Council voted to boycott Arizona. The city council passed a resolution last night asking all city departments and businesses to boycott Arizona companies and stand against an immigration act passed in the state. Burlington joined a growing list of cities passing similar resolutions across the country, including New Haven, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts.

The Chittenden County Transportation Authority or CCTA has added a new buss route. The new buss route goes directly from downtown Burlington to Williston. The route not only includes the shops and stores in Williston, it also extends up into the village just past the town hall. For more information on routes and schedules go to CCTARide.org.

A man from Great Britain was arraigned yesterday in Franklin District Court after he was clocked going 104 miles-per-hour on Interstate 89. Spencer Lodge was arrested Friday in a rented Lamborghini. Lodge reportedly told police he and 27 other people had rented cars in New Jersey and were heading to Montreal in a "Cannonball Run" type race.