WVTK Local & State News March 9, 2012

The Addison County Chamber Of Commerce will hold its March mixer at Danforth Pewter on Seymour Street in Middlebury next 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 click HERE.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce March “After Business Mixer” will be held next 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 Tuesday, 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.

According to Headmaster Lonny Edwards Middlebury's Gailer School will close at the end of the current school year. He said the private school, which has served hundreds of Vermont students over the years, had been facing declining numbers of students enrolled. Edwards also cited the local economy and budget problems as contributing factors in the decision. The school has been a middle and high school, serving grades 7 through 12, since 1989.

Teachers from Castleton, Fair Haven, Benson and Orwell held an informational picket outside the graded school in Fair Haven yesterday afternoon. According to a press release released by the Vermont NEA the picket was in response to the imposed working conditions and pay freeze last month. Teachers have been working without a contract since last summer after more than a year of negotiations.

Voters in Whiting are giving a little back. They've decided to make a donation to the state's Disaster Relief Fund equal to whatever money the town gets from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for Tropical Storm Irene damages. Whiting voters say they made their decision with one voice on Town Meeting Day. Vermont's Disaster Relief Fund says roughly 7,000 Vermonters registered with FEMA following the August storm, which devastated 45 towns and affected dozens more.

Members of the nurses union at Rutland Regional Medical Center are taking a contract dispute with hospital administrators public today. From 3:30 to 5PM dozens of nurses, their families and friends and representatives from sympathetic labor unions will line the west end of Allen Street in Rutland where they plan to hand out fliers asking for the public’s support. The hospital and the roughly 350 members of the nurses union, Office and Professional Employees International Union local #6, began negotiating a three-year contract in October.

Debating the future of its police station for several years, the Ticonderoga town board has decided to do a full analysis of all town buildings. Structural problems at the present police station prompted local officials consider a new police location two years ago. Jim Major approached the town board at its February meeting with an offer to lease the former Dollar Store on Montcalm St. for use as a police station. That discussion prompted a special meeting that led to the decision to do a full review of town buildings.

All three bids for Essex County's Horace Nye Nursing Home came in at $4 million yesterday. The Centers for Specialty Care of New York City; Gerald Woods, CPA, of Baldwin in Nassau County; and Eliot Management Group of Monsey in Rockland County; all bid exactly $4 million, the minimum amount the county had set. After the bids and conditions have been reviewed a recommendation would be brought before the Board of Supervisors at a future meeting.

Yesterday evening State Police were notified of a burglary off of Route 7 in Ferrisburgh. The residents stated that several items were stolen from their property. Some of the items that were taken include several pieces of jewelry, silverware, binoculars and a digital camera. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the New Haven State Police Barracks. (802-388-4919)

Vermont State Police say an argument between two men led to one shooting the other's car multiple times. Troopers say 18-year-old Nathan Butler of Ira was arrested Thursday, accused of driving by and shooting the vehicle with a shotgun using birdshot. The vehicle was parked in a driveway. No one was hurt. Police said Butler told them he was not trying to harm anyone; he was just trying to cause a scare. He was charged with reckless endangering of another person and vandalism.

The Vermont Air National Guard wants people to know its pilots will be flying after dark starting next week. The F-16 fighter aircraft will be taking off after dark from the Burlington International Airport between Tuesday, March 13 and Friday, March 16 and March 20 through the 23rd. The guard says that during the trainings there will be two scheduled multi-aircraft takeoffs. All aircraft are due to be back on the ground no later than midnight.

An architectural firm is set to present three suggestions on what to do with the largely abandoned state office complex in Waterbury. Gov. Peter Shumlin has said he hopes to move some state workers to Barre, others to Montpelier and is hoping the flooded state office complex in Waterbury can be refurbished. The Burlington-based firm Freeman French Freeman is expected to discuss three proposals with legislators today.

Burlington International Airport officials say an Allegiant Air flight made an emergency landing at the airport yesterday afternoon. Allegiant says the MD-83 plane was almost full with 150 passengers and crew. It had taken off from Ft. Lauderdale and was preparing to land in Plattsburgh. That's when the airline says the pilot reported a warning light indicated the landing gear might not be completely down. After the airport tower confirmed the gear was down, the pilot decided to land the plane at Burlington.

Disaster services volunteers with Vermont and New Hampshire Valley American Red Cross have responded to people in need at a rate 20% higher this year than last. Agency officials say there are about 100-110 local responses in a year. With close to four months remaining this fiscal year, volunteers have already been called upon more than 90 times.

Tickets to President Barack Obama's Vermont visit are selling fast. The president is coming to UVM March 30 to raise money for his re-election. The $44 tickets for students and activists are sold out. So are the $100 general admission tickets. There are still tickets left in the $250, $500 and $7,500 range. This will be the first time a sitting president has visited Vermont since 1995.

A Republican State Senator in the Northeast Kingdom says he is strongly considering a run for Vermont Attorney General. Vince Illuzzi told WCAX-TV that he's been urged by community members and colleagues at the state house to take on Democrat Incumbent Bill Sorrell this November. Illuzzi is a state's attorney and has been a senator for 32 years. Illuzzi says he is considering running as an independent because it should be a nonpartisan office.

A U.S. presidential candidate was in Vermont last night. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson met with people at The Block Gallery & Coffee House in Winooski. Johnson a former two-term governor of New Mexico started his campaign as a Republican but switched to libertarian in December. He says his political beliefs are similar to a better-known GOP candidate. Johnson hopes to win the Libertarian nomination and be the third party candidate to take on Obama and Mitt Romney.

Vermont State Police say a man robbed a bank after reading the teller a note saying he was armed and demanded money. Police say the robbery happened at about 8:10AM Thursday at a TD Banknorth on Route 100 in Waitsfield. No one was hurt. The man was wearing dark clothing, a black facemask, and aviator-style sunglasses.

The federal and state government can't afford to clean up an abandoned asbestos mine in northern Vermont now that voters have rejected a Superfund designation for the site. In Eden, just three voters supported the idea of Superfund clean up for the old asbestos mine. In Lowell the idea was defeated by about a 3 to 1 margin. Governor Peter Shumlin says voters made the right call in rejecting the Superfund designation. He says the state will continue to monitor the site, but that it's not a threat to public health.

Congressman Peter Welch says members of Congress who want to take military action to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, don't fully understand how that approach could unleash a major war in the Middle East. Welch says the military plan should be one of the options on the table, but he argues that it should be used only if all other approaches are unsuccessful. Welch says he's growing more and more concerned about the future of the Middle East because a group of Congressional Democrats and Republicans are urging President Obama to bomb facilities in Iran to destroy that country's nuclear program.

An upstate New York man has been convicted of killing three relatives with a shotgun and burning down their rural home before fleeing with his girlfriend and their baby. Local media report a Washington County jury deliberated for about two hours yesterday before finding 24-year-old Matthew Slocum guilty of arson and three counts of second-degree murder.

Skiing and snowboarding are now the official state sports of Vermont, thanks to some Swanton schoolchildren. At the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe, Governor Peter Shumlin signed a bill into law yesterday that was proposed by a group of fifth and sixth graders.

If you've thought about putting solar panels on your roof but cannot afford the upfront costs a new Vermont company says it has a solution. The folks at SunCommon launched an effort yesterday to attract homeowners to the alternative energy effort. The company will have customers lease the panels over 20 years. The company's co-presidents say 15 people are already signed up and they believe their approach could draw upward of 700 more homeowners in the next 10 months. Right now SunCommon is up and running in Chittenden and Washington counties as well as Stowe, with plans to go statewide.