WVTK Local & State News March 12, 2012

Two hikers are OK after their rescue last night from a cliff in Bristol. Carroll Maxwell of Monkton and a 13-year-old became lost and stuck on cliffs. She called 9-1-1 and told dispatchers they simply didn't know where they were and couldn't move. Rescue crews found her car on Lower Notch Road, and the woman and teenager were found and rescued a short time later.

The Addison County Chamber Of Commerce will hold its March mixer at Danforth Pewter on Seymour Street in Middlebury this Thursday the 15th from 5 – 7PM. Mingle with fellow business people in their workshop and store and share hors d’oeuvres, drinks, door prizes and a chance to win the Pot of Gold—now valued at $900! For more information or to RSVP to Sue Hoxie please click HERE.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce March “After Business Mixer” will be held this Thursday as well. The event will take place at Crown Point Telephone/Crown Point Network Technologies from 5:30 to 7PM. Sponsors providing door prizes will be The Burgoyne Grill, Glens Falls National Bank and the Wagon Wheel Restaurant. The Crown Point Telephone/Crown Point Network Technologies office is located on Route 9N in Crown Point. For more information just visit www.ticonderogany.com.

The Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Business Show on tomorrow, from 4 to 7:30PM at the Holiday Inn. The event is sponsored by Rutland Regional Medical Center. This year’s show will feature 95 area businesses representing a diverse group exhibiting everything from home services and products, automobiles, health care, restaurants and retailers. There will be door prizes, a raffle and food. For more info visit www.rutlandvermont.com.

The Town Of Middlebury will hold its regular Select Board meeting tomorrow evening at 7 in the Town Offices Conference Room. Items on the agenda include a Middlebury River Planning and Restoration Project Update and the preparation for the meeting in East Middlebury on March 22nd. Decisions will be made on the bid for the Butternut Ridge Road Project and approval of the contract for Signal Improvements at the intersection of Cross and Court Streets. For the complete agenda just visit the Town’s Website.

The Port Henry Village Board of Trustees wants residents to tell it whether it should exceed the state tax cap. The village has scheduled a public hearing for 6:45 this evening on a local law to exceed the 2 percent tax-levy limit. Officials said the village share of repairs to the Port Henry Village Campground and Beach Park might exceed the cap. The campground on Lake Champlain was severely damaged during floods from tropical storms Lee and Irene last year.

The Addison County Relocalization Network’s third-annual Stone Soup Summit will take place on April 3rd at Vergennes Union High School. The conference is named for the proverbial meal created entirely through the generosity and diverse resources of a single community. ACORN’s goal is to bring together stakeholders in the county to share ideas and inspiration with others working on similar Farm-to-school projects. Annie Henderson of Otter Creek Farm in Panton will be leading a discussion group for farmers at Stone Soup. Farm-to-school is the national movement to connect classrooms, cafeterias, and communities in order to improve school nutrition and foster students' abilities to make food choices that are good for their bodies, the environment, and their communities.

Agri-Mark made a $15 million profit, after taxes, for 2011. As usual, that money is being shared with the cooperative's 1,250 member-owners. The profit is up from $11.3 million in 2010. Agri-Mark's profit allocation to its dairy farmers in New England and New York will be approximately 5 cents per gallon, for all the milk each farm marketed through the cooperative in 2011. For the average member farm, that amounts to about $11,000. Neal Rea, a dairy farmer from Cambridge who serves as chairman of the board for Agri-Mark, said the cooperative's brands continue to generate profits and that the wholesale side of the business is also doing well.

A park and ride facility could be coming to the town of Pittsford in the future. Representatives from the state Agency of Transportation and its consultant Santec Consulting recently presented an initial report with alternative properties that could be used for a possible park and ride facility with 20 to 30 parking spaces in Pittsford. The facility in Pittsford would be operated by the state and would be funded by federal funds without a match from the town. They believe approximately 1,000 people commute between Rutland and Pittsford a day and are potential park and ride users.

Bids on the first of several planned bridge projects in the city of Rutland are due at the end of the month. Voters approved a $2 million bond last Tuesday for work on seven bridges over five years, with city officials saying that money should leverage a total of $10 million worth of repairs. First in line is the West Street Bridge, for which proposals are due March 26. The city is also waiting on a $175,000 grant application before moving forward on the River Street Bridge over the railroad tracks. Construction on the West Street Bridge is expected to begin by the end of July.

Vermont State Police say a snow-slickened road is to blame for a crash involving a state police cruiser. Police say Sgt. Doug Norton was responding to a call in Benson at about 11PM Friday when he lost control of his vehicle on a sharp curve on Lake Road and struck a tree on the passenger side of his car. Norton suffered minor injuries. Officials say a squall had just dropped 3 to 4 inches of snow on the area, and that the road had not yet been plowed.

With reports of schools in New England receiving suspicious mail with white powder lately, a warning is also going out to Vermont schools. So far it's happened at schools in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire, with the scary letters later turning out to have powder which turned out to be harmless. Vermont school administrators are told to watch for envelopes with excessive postage, poorly written or typed addresses and misspelled words.

State police say speed appears to have been a factor in a pickup truck crash in Swanton that killed two men. According to police, the pickup truck went out of control on Route 105, rolled over several times and ejected both men early yesterday morning.

An Upper Valley man plans to challenge Bernie Sanders for his Senate seat this Fall. Republican John MacGovern says his primary concerns are cutting the government deficit and restoring the economy. The 60 year old Republican from Windsor served four terms in the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1980s. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1990 in Massachusetts. MacGovern is a Dartmouth grad who now serves as president of the Hanover Institute, an independent Dartmouth alumni group. He previously worked in business helping companies on projects in China and Southeast Asia.

State lawmakers completed action on several bills during the first half of the 2012 legislative session, which started in January. Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed 10 of the measures, most recently the bill designating skiing and snowboarding as the official winter sports of the state.

Congressman Peter Welch has hired a woman to serve as his liaison to Vermont's business community. Megan Sullivan Rodriguez will start the job today. Welch says during her first weeks in the role, she will visit businesses around the state.

Authorities say a small plane flew into some power lines in Orleans, knocking out power to homes, before landing safely at Newport Airport. The pilot suffered a concussion. State police say they received several calls Saturday about a low-flying aircraft over Interstate 91. Responding troopers discovered a power line down near the Irasburg/Orleans exit.

Vermont hunters will again have a chance to hunt snow geese this spring amid concerns about a growing population of the waterfowl. The season opened yesterday and runs through April 27th. The daily bag limit is 15. Hunters need a valid hunting license and a snow goose hunting permit, which is available at no charge on the Fish and Wildlife Department's website.

At Norwich University in Northfield, students are being taught to fight the war of the future. The mock battles are on computers. Students are learning to protect communications networks from cyber-attacks. Such cyber war games are well-established between schools in the United States. This semester is the first time Norwich is working with the overseas schools. In a six-week seminar nearing its end, students take turns building and defending computer networks, attacking one or monitoring the operation.

The six New England states have joined forces for the first time to offer a regional lottery game. They're hoping to leverage the buying power of more than 14.4 million residents to provide a substantially larger prize to players and much-needed revenue. As of yesterday the Lucky for Life tickets went on sale for $2 apiece in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. The top prize is $1,000 a day for a winner's life. The "for life" concept has been successful in Connecticut. It has had a state draw game and scratch tickets that offer a payout for life since 2009.

Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter sustained a concussion after a hard fall in the half pipe at the U.S. Open. Her Brother told The Associated Press that his sister was momentarily knocked unconscious Saturday but was talking to medical staff while being taken to the hospital near Stratton Mountain. She crashed onto her back after trying a 900-degree spin off the top of the half pipe. Hannah Teter won gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics and silver at the 2010 Vancouver Games. The 25-year-old snowboarder has been involved in a number of charity projects, selling everything from underwear to maple syrup to benefit the poor in Africa and elsewhere.

The University of Vermont's men's basketball team is going to the Big Dance. The Catamounts learned Sunday night they're going to the Dayton to play in the First Four round of the NCAA Tournament. They're seeded 16th in the Mid West Region, and will be making their fifth trip to the tournament, their second in the past three years. They'll first go up against Lamar University Wednesday evening. A win there means advancing to the second round on Friday against North Carolina.