WVTK Local & State News December 9, 2010

The Castleton Development Review Board held a public hearing to discuss the application by Castleton State College for three new proposed facilities for the campus. The college project plans to add a new maintenance facilities area, a 170-bed residential building, and an open-air “green” pavilion. The Castleton project team addressed issues and concerns. The next public hearing is scheduled for December 21st.

Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras said the city could make progress on its ancient water lines without raising water rates and even more progress if it just raises them a little. Rutland has roughly 30 miles of water mains that date back to the 19th century. Many of those old pipes are smaller than what modern standards call for and have degraded so they are effectively smaller than when they were installed.

There has been a break in the case of a soda bombing in the Upper Valley. Lebanon, NH, police says three teens accompanied by their parents turned themselves in. On Sunday, police say the teens detonated the chemical reaction bomb inside a residential mailbox. That incident came just two days after a pair of soda bombs were detonated in Addison. It's unclear if there is any connection between the Lebanon and Addison incidents.

Rumors that supervisors were poised to remove Essex County Manager Dan Palmer from his position proved to be without substance on Tuesday, as the county board overwhelmingly backed his bi-annual reappointment. For an hour and 40 minutes, supervisors were sequestered in executive session debating Palmer's fate, as the county's top administrator.

Santa Claus is making a stop in Bristol this weekend! The jolly old elf will make a grand entrance, arriving by fire truck at Holley Hall Saturday at 8:30 AM where he will join the townspeople in a pancake breakfast. Breakfast with Santa is an annual event to benefit the Bristol Recreation Department's Scholarship Fund.

One hour a week with a caring adult friend can make a huge difference in the life of a child. Starksboro's Robinson Elementary School is helping adults and children alike realize the value of a special friendship through their one-of-a-kind mentoring program tailored for the Starksboro community. The Starksboro Mentoring Program has become a local model of successful mentoring. Currently there are 23 mentors paired with 23 children.

Vermont households who rely on food stamps will get to keep their full benefits until next April. The federal government notified the state earlier this year that it was lowering the standard deduction households can claim for fuel and utilities, meaning about 16,000 families enrolled in the 3Squares program would have their benefits reduced. It was supposed to start Oct. 1. Then it was pushed back to January. Now the feds have delayed the cuts until April.

Another group of Vermont National Guardsmen is returning from Afghanistan today. This time, the group will number about 85, as the soldiers complete their post-deployment processing in Indiana. In all, 15-hundred Vermont National Guard members deployed late last year to Afghanistan. Larger groups of several hundred troops are expected back over the next few days.

There's a lot of anticipation surrounding the release of earnings for this year by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The Securities Exchange Commission probed the Vermont coffee maker earlier this year and the company said it would be restating earnings because of accounting errors, which started in 2007. The release of the 2010 earnings is expected by experts to be positive.

Work is under way to get four railroad cars carrying propane back on the tracks after they derailed in St. Albans in northwestern Vermont. There were no injuries or leaks when the cars went off the tracks just before midnight Tuesday. Specialized equipment had to be trucked in from New York before the propane could be removed from the rail cars. The equipment arrived yesterday afternoon.

Vermont Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin is putting pressure on Vermont Yankee to continue cleanup efforts at the nuclear plant. Shumlin wants the plant to continue extracting tritium-contaminated water from its ground wells. Officials at Vermont Yankee say they are considering Shumlin's requests.

New York lawmakers hope vandals will think twice before defacing nativity scenes in the Empire State. A new law makes it a felony to deface religious displays and cemeteries, both inside and outside a place of worship. Anyone who breaks the law can now be sentenced to more than a year in prison.

A push is underway at the University of Vermont to make course evaluation results available to students. Last month the Student Government Association passed a resolution calling for those results to be made public by Dec. 1. They say students need that information to help pick what classes they'll take. School administrators refused and now some students are boycotting by not filling out the multiple-choice questionnaires at all. School officials say they're open to exploring solutions.

A Vermont school district finance committee is saying "no" to a state request that it cut its budget next year by $50,000. Instead, the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center Finance Committee in Bennington voted to recommend a fiscal year 2012 budget with a 3% increase, an increase of about $100,000.

After a poor snowmobile season last year fewer people are registering to ride Vermont's snowmobile trails. That's why more than a million dollars has been spent on improving trails to help bring people back. Vermont Association of Snow Travelers recently received more than a million dollars to update snow mobile trails with new bridges, smoother terrain, brush removed and some newly added trails.