Pocock Rocks!
Bristol’s annual Music Festival and Street Fair is coming up this
Saturday! This year’s festivities
take place rain or shine from 11 – 4. Rockin' music and entertainment will be
filling the downtown as beer and wine tents share tastings and bottles from
various local breweries and vineyards. Premium food and craft vendors pack the
streets along with demonstrations, children's activities (including a bouncy
house), Bristol's own Farmers' Market and, of course, their incredible
restaurants and retailers! Pocock Rocks is kicking off the 250th anniversary of
Bristol celebration! Get set to
join Bruce & Hobbes and have fun at Pocock Rocks 2012! Get details right now by visiting: www.pocockrocks.com
“A Royal Affair” is the theme of the 10th annual
Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce fund raising dinner and auction that will
be held Friday, June 15th at the Silver Bay YMCA’s Gullen Lounge. “A Royal Affair”
will begin with appetizers at 6PM followed by a buffet dinner at 7, a silent
auction, a limited live auction, music and dancing. Tickets are $42 a person. Early
reservations are suggested since space is limited. Assisting in this year’s event as the auctioneers for the
evening will be our very own Bruce and Hobbes from “The Wake Up Crew!” For more information and reservations
visit www.ticonderogany.com.
Fire struck a mobile home located at Cove Point yesterday.
The structure on Lake Dunmore Rd. in Leicester was destroyed. The blaze displaced a family of four.
Officials at the fire scene would not release the names of family members but
they are reported to be safe. Members
of a Red Cross Disaster Action Team were called to assist following the blaze. All American Red Cross disaster
services are voluntary and are provided without charge.
The Leicester Hollow-Chandler Ridge Loop Trail was
reopened during a ceremony last Saturday. Flooding caused by summer floods
starting in 2008 closed the trail.
The hiking and ATV trail extends 9 miles to Silver Lake. ATVs are not allowed on the trail
during summer months.
A hearing on a proposed methadone clinic to treat patients
addicted to opiates such as heroin and prescription painkillers will be held in
Rutland today. The public is
invited to learn more about the facility and the search for a site in the city
to locate it at the meeting, which will take place at 6PM in the Fox Room at
the Rutland Free Library. Panelists
will include representatives from the Vermont Department of Health, Rutland
Regional Medical Center, Rutland Mental Health Services and local law enforcement.
The Chaffee Art Center invites artists residing in
Vermont and within 50 miles of its borders to submit applications for juried
membership. The Chaffee is a
non-profit membership supported community arts center with a mission to promote
member artwork and educate the community.
The deadline for submissions is July 18. Applications can be found by
visiting www.chaffeeartcenter.org/jurying.html
or by visiting the Chaffee Art Center at 16 South Main St. in Rutland. Submissions must include a completed
application form, six images representing a cohesive body of work, an artist
statement and resume.
A purse-snatching scheme has a Pittsford woman
shaken after she was tag-teamed on a rural road in Rutland Town. Police say the woman was driving down
McKinley Avenue near Abbey Lane Tuesday afternoon when a car pulled out from a
side street. She stopped to let the car go, and that's when she says a man
jumped out from the bushes, opened her passenger door and stole her purse.
Police believe he then jumped into the other vehicle and fled. LaVerne Lesznik says she's not worried
about losing her items, but feels her personal safety was violated. There were no witnesses to the crime,
but she describes the thieves as two thin, white men in their early 30s.
Rutland Superintendent Mary Moran and three other
top school leaders will keep their jobs for at least the next two years and get
raises each year. The Rutland
School Board approved new contracts Tuesday, after an executive session, that
give raises of nearly 3 percent to the four highest-paid Rutland school
administrators. Teachers in the district, who had their contract approved in
May, will get a 3 percent raise each year for the next four years.
A restitution hearing for a Ticonderoga man found
guilty of animal abuse was postponed until June 29th to allow the town justice
time to further examine evidence.
64-year-old Bruce Crammond was convicted in Ticonderoga Town Court of
misdemeanor injuring animals and failure to provide proper sustenance for an
animal, a violation of Section 353 of the State Agriculture and Markets Law, also
known as Animal Cruelty in February.
The Ticonderoga Montcalm Street Partnership
recently received a grant for $750 from the Stewarts Holiday Match Program. The Holiday Match is the program where
Stewart’s collects and matches customer donations in all of their shops from
Thanksgiving until Christmas. This year they raised another record amount. The funding will be used by TMSP to
organize another event in conjunction with local school students and teachers
to collect and donate more food to the local food pantry.
New York Law-enforcement officials are praising the
State Legislature’s passage of a bill to set up a real-time system to record
prescriptions of controlled substances.
The Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act will create an
online database to enable doctors and pharmacists to track controlled
narcotics. The new law will
require physicians to consult the database to determine a patient’s
prescription history before prescribing a schedule II, III or IV controlled
substance. That is expected to
help deter people who visit different doctors to obtain multiple prescriptions.
Ben & Jerry's has recalled one of its ice cream
flavors. According to a
press release, Unilever is voluntarily recalling pints of its Chocolate Nougat
Crunch Ice Cream: Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Wafer Cookies &
a Chocolate Nougat Swirl ("Chocolate Nougat Crunch"). The release says the pints are
missing an allergy label saying it could have peanuts. People who have purchased this flavor
should discard any remaining ice cream, rinse the container out, and cut the UPC
code on the side of the container before calling 877-270-7397 for a replacement
coupon. The affected products are: UPC of
7684020899, and date codes: JUL1113BJ1, JUL1213BJ1, AUG0113BJ1, AUG0213BJ1,
AUG2313BJ1, AUG2413BJ1, AUG2513BJ1, SEP2013BJ1, SEP2113BJ1, OCT2313BJ1. The date code can be found on the
bottom of the pint.
Vermont is working on creating a better plan to search for missing people. Governor Peter Shumlin signed a new law in Montpelier Tuesday. Earlier this year in Ripton a 19-year-old hiker went missing, and was later found dead. A delay in response time prompted the state to re-vamp search and rescue policies. This new law creates an interim plan until lawmakers finalize things. The law also provides workers' compensation to volunteer firefighters who are injured in the line of duty.
Three kids are recovering after getting hurt while
making a pipe bomb. That's
according to Vermont State Police who say it happened in Fairfield Wednesday
afternoon. Authorities say someone
called 9-1-1 then hung up, and when police responded to the address of the call
on Madden Road, no one was there but there was blood on the outside steps. All three kids turned up hurt at the
hospital in St. Albans and one was transferred to Fletcher Allen. Names and other details are so far not
being released.
The North Country is finally getting a break from
nearly $4.00 a gallon in April. But, gas continues to be nearly 20 cents above
the national average in the Green Mountain State. The average price of gas in Vermont is $3.68. That is
compared to $3.55 for the national average. Unfortunately, the price is not likely to change. However,
there is some good news, nationally. Gas continues to go lower. Experts say it
is the result of more people driving fuel-efficient cars and choosing to drive less.
Leaders of New York's public university system want
all campuses to be tobacco-free. The
State University of New York Board of Trustees on Tuesday voted to support
legislation to ban tobacco from all campus buildings, both indoors and
outdoors, as well as parking ramps and other on- and off-campus facilities. Smoking has been banned inside SUNY
dorms, buildings and vehicles since 2007.
If passed, the legislation would place SUNY among the largest public
university systems in the country to adopt a tobacco-free policy. There are 64
campuses in the SUNY system, with nearly 468,000 students.
New Yorkers can expect to see the job evaluations
of their children's teachers as lawmakers rush toward the end of their session
in Albany, but can just about forget about any increase in the minimum wage or
a moratorium on controversial natural gas-drilling process. Albany is a flurry
of closed-door meetings between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders to make
deals, followed by closed-door conferences among the majority parties in the
Senate and Assembly to approve the compromises. That's followed by frantic bill
drafting and quick committee reviews to rush the bills to approval before the
June 21 end of session.
Brandon Music presents a Salon Concert by the New
Music on the Point program of Point CounterPoint summer camp this Friday at
7pm, featuring repertoire from this season's New Music On The Point festival. Participating composers,
instrumentalists and vocalists, including JACK Quartet, Jennifer Beattie, and
Donna Loewy and others, will be among the performers for the evening.
Repertoire from this season's New Music On The Point festival will be featured. Tickets are $15 per person and proceeds
will benefit the Compass Music and Arts Foundation. For details just visit www.brandon-music.net.
U.S. News & World Report has cited two
pediatric specialties at Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care
as being among the best in the nation.
The magazine’s health care experts have determined that both pulmonology
and gastroenterology care ranks at or near the top 25% of pediatric centers
nationwide, qualifying Vermont Children’s for the magazine’s Best Children’s
Hospitals list. It is the only
children’s hospital identified in northern New England and northern New York State
on the list.
From
Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont & New York
It's a familiar site in downtowns across the
country, homeless people begging for money. In an effort to combat the problem,
the Church Street Marketplace came up with some creative ways to stop it. Although some people are sympathetic to
the homeless and give a dollar or two to those asking for it, the marketplace
says there is a better way to donate your money, so it can make a bigger
difference. "They're the same
faces quite frequently," Bertha Church storeowner, Pam Martin said. Can you spare some change? We've all
been asked the question before, but for George Baldwin, he's the one doing the
asking. He's been living on the streets for five years, but claims to be a
passive panhandler. "When
people act out and are irate, it gives homeless people a bad name,"
Baldwin said. Burlington Police
say panhandling is legal, what's not legal is panhandling drunk, and that's
often when $50 citations are issued.
Baldwin says he's aware of Burlington's panhandling ordinance and
follows it. "You're not
supposed to be 15 feet from a door," Baldwin said. From a door, ATM or parking garage, and
while that will stay the same, the Church Street Marketplace Director says even
more is going to happen. Within
the next couple of weeks, the Marketplace will put up cardboard signs that say,
"It's ok to say no to me".
"It doesn't mean that you're rude, it doesn't mean that you're
insensitive, it doesn't mean that you're angry, it just means that you're
choosing to spend your money in places with a charitable organization where you
know your money will be spent well," Church Street Marketplace Director,
Ron Redmond said. The Marketplace
will also unveil a new Champ Collection Box. That money will go toward agencies
that provide assistance to the homeless.
"If you feel compelled to give, think twice and hold onto those
dollars and save them for COTS, Spectrum, the Howard Center," Redmond
added. So the place where people
eat, drink and shop could also provide help for people like George Baldwin to
get back on their feet. "Just
doing the best I can to survive," Baldwin said. Another reason supporters suggest donating to charity is
because research shows that the majority of the money given to homeless is
spent on drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
Hundreds of Harwood Union High School students
packed into an assembly Wednesday for what they thought was meant to honor a
retiring music teacher. Diane
Phillips stood holding gifts as an announcement came that caught everyone off
guard. "Please make welcome
our very own, Waitsfield's own, Grace Potter." The two embraced and then
the rock star did what she does best.
Afterwards Potter couldn't wait to see her mentor. "Where is Di Phillips? That's who
I want to say hi to," said Phillips!
The two exchanged memories from when Phillips taught Potter in choir. "Her energy. Di has unbelievable
energy, boundless energy," said Potter. "She was a lot of fun. Grace was never on time for
class," said Phillips. After
nearly four decades of teaching Phillips is retiring. Wednesday's event was supposed to be a surprise. "I just sort of had an inkling
that something might happen," said Phillips. It was a tribute Potter says she had to do. "I just thought she deserved it. I
mean she's had such an impact on not just me but so many students," said
Potter. Potter says Phillips
inspired her to get into music. During
her performance potter offered words that might encourage other Harwood alums to
succeed. "I think about the
open book that you guys are walking into and I wish you the very, very best
with everything that's going to happen in the future," said Potter. A future that Potter says she couldn't
have accomplished without Phillips.
"Love you Di," said Potter.
