The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host
an open house with the North Country Small Business Development Center and
OneWorkSource today from 9 AM to 3 PM at the chamber office on Montcalm Street. The Chamber will also host will also
host a OneWorkSource and the InternetXpress @ Your Library services open house
at the chamber office next Wednesday, July 18th from 10 AM to 3 PM. Get details right now on the Chamber’s
Website: www.ticonderogany.com
Roadwork in Essex County this week includes ditching
operations between Port Henry and Ticonderoga on Route 9N. Crews are performing
paving operations on the Elizabethtown-Wadhams Road in Elizabethtown. And on Route 22 in Willsboro crews are
performing an asphalt treatment project between Willsboro and Route 9 at
Interstate 87 Exit 33.
The Physics Department at Middlebury College will
again host a series of open house nights at the campus astronomical observatory
this summer. The observatory,
located atop Bicentennial Hall, will be open to the public for viewing the
heavens on the following Wednesday evenings: July 18th, Aug. 1st, Aug. 8th, and
August 15th, from 9-10:30PM, provided the skies are mostly clear. A highlight for the first two of these
evenings will be the planet Saturn, with its ever-popular rings. Saturn and Mars are now prominently
paired in the western sky, though both will become lost in twilight by
mid-August.
Cape Air’s recently added fourth daily flight from
Rutland to Boston is, in another sense, its first, according to Vermont
Transportation Secretary Brian Searles.
He was one of several state and local officials who gathered at the
Southern Vermont Regional Airport Tuesday to celebrate the added flight. He
said it was the first unsubsidized flight Cape Air will offer from Rutland to
Boston. The other three are partially funded by the federal Essential Air
Service program. The new flight corresponds to a variety of upgrades at the
airport, including a new precision landing system.
The Westport Central School Board will hold its
annual reorganizational meeting and regular session at 5PM Thursday in the
school library. Agenda items
include policy review, extracurricular appointments and any other business
brought before the board. All sessions
are open to the public.
Champlain Valley Vascular, located on the CVPH
Medical Center Campus, has received a three-year term of accreditation for
several vascular-testing procedures performed there. The practice has been accredited by the Intersocietal
Accreditation Commission for these procedures since 2000 and is one of the only
vascular-testing facilities north of Albany. In fact, Champlain Valley Vascular is only one of a handful
of such facilities to receive national accreditation in the state of New York.
When it comes to doing business, Vermont is not
exactly near the top of the pile.
The Green Mountain State is ranked 39th overall out of the 50
states. C-N-B-C Tuesday released a
survey using 43 measures of competitiveness. That was eventually boiled down to ten broad categories,
with Vermont came in the lower third with the ranking of 39th. Texas scored number one, and Rhode
Island came in last overall.
However, in the category of quality of life, Vermont placed third, with
New Hampshire first, Hawaii second and Maine fourth. Vermont was fourth in education, but near the bottom with
infrastructure and transportation.
Cost of living was 42nd, while technology and innovation was 43rd.
'Tis the season to be hiking, and apparently also
to get lost while hiking. Just ask
the State Police who had a busy day Tuesday tracking down and rescuing lost
hikers. A search started Tuesday
evening in Woodford when a 70-year-old man from Florida called police after
getting lost. He managed to come
out on his own before searchers were very far into the woods. A husband and wife visiting from the
Caribbean were lost and found by troopers while on a trail in Chittenden. And, a man from New York became
separated from a friend while hiking in Rutland and was rescued when he was
stuck in a swamp. None of the lost
hikers were hurt in their ordeals.
The first week of Operation Summer HEAT produced a
pile of speeding tickets. Last week, Vermont State police put what they call
High Enforcement Area Teams into action patrolling for speeders in places
around the state. The effort was spurred by a dramatic rise in highway
fatalities in the first six months of this year. During the first five days of the HEAT program there were no
traffic deaths in Vermont. Police did issue 859 speeding tickets and arrested
26 drunk drivers.
The Vermont arson tip line is adding to the reward
to help determine who started a fire at a Brattleboro apartment building.
Brattleboro Police say the Arson Tip Award Program will pay up to $5,000 for
information about the Saturday fire at 23 Main Street in Brattleboro. John
Dunphy, who owns the Lawrence Block, has already offered a $1,000 reward.
A Vermont state trooper who fired a Taser at a
Thetford man who died after being hit has returned to active duty. A state police spokeswoman says Trooper
David Shaffer was placed on paid leave for three days following the death of
39-year-old Macadam Mason on June 20.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro tells the Burlington Free Press that police
are still investigating the death and will send their findings to the county
state's attorney and Vermont attorney general. Police say the exact cause of death has not yet been
determined. Toxicology tests are pending.
The state of Vermont is beginning the process of
cleaning up hundreds of thousands of old tires at a closed Milton junkyard. The state estimates there are at least
200,000 tires at the junkyard owned by Gil Rhoades, who was in court Tuesday
facing a civil contempt charge. Rhoades
has been ordered to remove the tires, but in court he said he couldn't afford
to because he is no longer in business.
The state believes it's the largest tire pile in Vermont. Vermont has
budged $75,000 to begin the cleanup, but officials don't believe it will be
enough. The state is working to
clean up old tires piles across Vermont because of concerns they can be
breeding grounds for mosquitoes and create a fire risk.
New York is updating its online travel information
for motorists, with the governor firmly cautioning never to look at it while
driving. The www.511ny.org
website contains what state officials describe as real time information about a
few hundred road and bridge projects, major bridge and tunnel crossings,
traffic incidents and other events.
The Friends of The Brandon Town Hall and 92.1 WVTK
are excited to announce that iconic rock group ORLEANS, best known for their
hits “Dance With Me” and “Still the One,” among others, will take to the
historic Brandon Town Hall stage on Sunday, September 2nd at 7:00PM. Tickets
are now on sale and are available at Carr's Florist and Gifts in downtown
Brandon. Orleans has more than earned its place in American pop
culture history, and continues to sound better than ever. The ORLEANS TRIO,
with original members Lance and Larry Hoppen, plus Dennis “Fly” Amero is an
intimate, “unplugged” version of this prestigious and legendary group. Get details HERE!
The Monkton Community Coffeehouse will present the
second performance in its free Summer Music Series with guitarist Spencer
Lewis. This Sunday Lewis's
trademark steel-stringed guitar and layered violin sound will be in the
spotlight. The final concert will be Aug. 19 at the Monkton Recreation Field
with performers Cooper and Lavoie.
For more information on this event or other MCC events, visit www.monktoncc.org.
The Schroon Lake Square Dances are once again being
held weekly on Wednesdays in the Schroon Lake town park this summer. The Schroon Lake Chamber of Commerce
sponsors the square dances. The Schroon Lake Square
Dances with Ed Lowman as director are returning for the 34th year for this
summer. The Schroon Lake Square Dances will
feature various guest musicians and callers at the weekly dances. There is no charge
and dance experience is not necessary. The Schroon Lake Square Dance musicians,
callers and guest musicians will teach people how to dance.
The Northeast has something to be proud of; it's
apparently a peaceful area to live. Vermont is ranked the second most peaceful state in the
country. According to
Economics and www.Peace.org,
Maine comes in at the top spot, with New Hampshire at number 3. The State of New York comes in at 31 on
the list. And in case you were
curious, the least peaceful state in the nation is Louisiana. There are five elements on how
states rank, they include homicide, violent crime, incarceration, the number of
police and small arms. This
is the second year in a row Vermont ranked number 2 on the list.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont
& New York:
A former Vermont State Police Sergeant is in a lot
of trouble. For what appears to be time sheet fraud and it involves a hefty
number of taxpayer dollars. The governor held an impromptu press conference
this afternoon detailing what he could about a newly launched investigation
involving thousands of dollars of overtime that may not have been valid. "I'm sorry to report to Vermonters
today," said Governor Peter Shumlin, who called upon members of the media
to let Vermonters know about possible fraud in the Vermont State Police
department, "by overcharging overtime and other areas of time sheet
abuse." Here's what happened:
Last week, another trooper was putting overtime on his sheet when he noticed
former Sgt. James Deeghan had been putting overtime on his time sheet that he
did not work. And here's how much,
in the last fiscal year Mr. Deeghan made roughly $136,000 dollars. That amount
is roughly 50K more than his base salary.
Something Shumlin says is unacceptable, "What I will not tolerate
is tax payers being robbed from."
Deeghan worked in the Williston barracks and had been with state police
since 1990. The Vermont State Police values are courage, honesty and integrity.
Colonel Tom L'esperance says
the state police feel betrayed, "He betrayed his badge his core values,
and across the state this will have a shock wave among the state police members." It's not known how much of that roughly
50 thousand was fraudulent or if this behavior went on for a number years.
There is an investigation into the matter and the Governor promises
transparency throughout the entire investigation.
Firefighters suspect lightning started a forest
fire that burned up to 20 acres in Groton, Vermont Tuesday. They say the fire was on private
property near Route 302. The fire
was contained within a few hours. Groton
Volunteer Fire Chief Wayne Knott says early reports are that one firefighter
was hurt though it appears to be just a cut. He says firefighters were able to stop the fire as it
approached a nearby home. "They
still go everything intact, green lawn," says Knott. Knott says there were several
challenges from the terrain, to the weather, to a lack of people and resources. "Being a small community, a
volunteer community, we had to depend on a lot of our neighbors to come in and
help us out," says Knott. Knott
says they called in more than 100 firefighters from all across Vermont and New
Hampshire. Knott says they will
look into the cause but thinks it might have been from a lightning strike. He says the fire started and spread
quickly because there were parts of trees on the ground left over from logging. "We had a prime fuel source that
just needed a spark and possibly Mother Nature is the one that gave it to
us," says Knott.
Vermont's Commissioner of Health wants you to get
tested for HIV. It is part of a new campaign by the State to prevent the spread
of the disease. The name of the
campaign is "11 years". Commissioner Harry Chen says that is how long
a person can be infected with HIV before showing outward symptoms of AIDs. "It's time that HIV testing be
considered part of routine healthcare," Chen said. Chen and State Epidemiologist Patsy
Kelso were both tested in front of a room full of media Tuesday afternoon to
show how quick and easy it is. The
team suggests people ages 13 to 63 be tested. And, that people at high risk of
HIV be screened once a year. The cost of an oral test is about $12. "People can get tested at their
own providers office. Or, at any of 30 or so anonymous testing sites around the
State," Kelso said. Chen says
only about 600 people are infected with HIV in Vermont right now. But, there
are roughly 100 people in the State who are infected and do not even know it. The campaign comes on the heels of a
national movement by the Centers for Disease Control to provide free HIV tests
at drugstores around the country. "So,
finding everybody who's infected, getting them into care to keep their viral
loads low so that the likelihood that they'll transmit it to others is reduced,
and just knowing their status, hopefully they'll take precautions to protect
people that their in relationships with," Kelso said. For a list of secure testing sites in
our area, click HERE.
