The Westport Central School Board will hold its
annual reorganizational meeting and regular session today at 5PM 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.
At this week’s Middlebury Select Board meeting Landscape
Architect David Raphael reviewed conceptual plans for the enhancing the
riverfront at the Marble Works. The project, which includes the construction of
pathways, re-grading and landscape restoration, tree and shrub plantings, and
creating seating and gathering opportunities with a small amphitheater-like
environment, will be bid for construction once permits are obtained. A late
summer/early fall construction timeline is anticipated. Copies of the
conceptual design are posted at the Municipal Building and Library and the
design is posted on the Town's website.
The Middlebury Select Board has approved that the Speed
Limit on South Street, from Porter Field Road to the entrance to Eastview, be
reduced to 25 mph. This will make
the speed limit on the most heavily travelled portion of the road, from Main
Street to Eastview, consistent.
The Wastewater Treatment Facility Grit Drying Bed
Bid has been awarded. The Middlebury Select Board awarded the contract for the
construction of the bed at the Wastewater Treatment Facility to the low bidder,
J. Hutchins, Inc., with a bid of $106,572.
A Recreation Committee has been established here in
Middlebury. As part of the effort to revitalize the Town's Recreation &
Parks Department, the Select Board established the Recreation Committee with
the goals of improving communication between the Recreation & Parks
Department and the Select Board with regular reporting by the Committee, increasing
the number of residents on the Committee and the diversity of interests represented
by Committee Members and including representatives of organizations with
similar programs, interests and goals. For more information about or to express
interest in serving on the Recreation Committee, residents should contact the
Town Manager's Office.
The Middlebury Business Development Fund Advisory
Board met on July 2nd and continued to develop the work plan for the Business
Development Director. To start to get the word out about this initiative and
the recruitment of a Director, an advertisement was placed in the summer
edition of Middlebury Magazine, inviting readers to look for the advertisement
for applications for the position, which will be coming in the fall. The next
meeting of the Advisory Board will be on Monday, and the Board will continue to
develop the work plan and start drafting the statement of need for use for
fundraising.
On Tuesday, the Middlebury EDI Group, made up of
Town and College representatives, finished its review of the draft operating
agreement for the holding company for the land. Once the College's attorney has
reviewed the agreement, it will be forwarded to the Town's Attorney for review.
Vermont State Police are investigating the theft of
three, classic antique 1950s-era Murray child pedal cars. The professionally restored
collectibles, valued at several thousand dollars apiece, were stolen from the
Addison home of businessman Gardner Stone sometime on or before July 4th. Stone said the thief or thieves must
have had access to the basement because his house did not appear to be broken
into. He said the collectibles
were purchased at an auction in 2006 and are owned by Pam Briggs of Addison. According to Stone, the pedal cars were
carefully stored in the basement; no other personal items appeared to be
missing. The stolen pedal cars
included a farm tractor, a Buick auto, and a supersonic jet with wings. He is
offering a $5,000 reward for the return of the stolen toys.
The Champ Chasers 2 rowing team from Lake Champlain
Maritime Museum’s Community Rowing Club took first place in the United States
World Championship St. Ayles Skiff Race at the Wooden-Boat Show in Mystic, CT. The first U.S. skiff regatta took place
Sunday under blue skies at the historic Mystic Seaport in Connecticut during
the annual Wooden-Boat Show. Participants all agreed that this event firmly
established the friendly spirit of Scottish Coastal Rowing at the Mystic
Regatta, and look forward to meeting again next year in Scotland for the World
Championship St. Ayles Skiff Race.
The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History is
pleased to announce the appointment of William F. Brooks, Jr. as executive
director. Brooks joins the museum
from the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation of Plymouth Notch where he served
as the development director for eight years. He is a graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio, and earned a
master’s graduate degree in American Folk Art Studies from New York University,
a program co-sponsored by the Museum of American Folk Art.
There’s so much junk to remove in Moriah, it will take
four town-wide cleanup days according to the Town Supervisor. The cleanup days are this Friday and
Saturday for the Mineville-Witherbee section of Moriah, and Friday, July 27th,
and Saturday, July 28th, for the rest of the community, including the Village
of Port Henry. During regular hours on those days, the Moriah Solid Waste
Transfer Station on Joyce Road will accept junk, furniture and up to two tires
per person at no charge. Construction and demolition debris, household garbage,
paint, varnish and other chemicals will not be accepted during the cleanup days.
This event is only for Moriah and Port Henry residents and anyone not known to
the Transfer Station attendants may be asked to show proof of residence. Anyone
who needs help or wants more information should call the Town Hall at 546-3341.
The man who robbed Walgreens on Route 3 in
Plattsburgh on Tuesday escaped with nearly $30,000 worth of prescription drugs.
At about 2:30 PM Tuesday, a Caucasian man believed to be in his late 20s to
early 30s, tall, thin and with a black goatee, calmly walked to the pharmacy
counter in the back of Plattsburgh store, where he slipped a note to the
pharmacist saying he was armed with a knife and demanded prescription
painkillers. The multi-agency investigation was continuing and had stretched
across Lake Champlain to South Burlington, where a Walgreens was robbed on the
afternoon of July 2. The
Plattsburgh City Police Chief said there are similarities in the two heists. The man who held up that store pharmacy
is also described as white, tall and slender; he also claimed to have a knife
and demanded prescription pills.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Plattsburgh Police.
It's a case of the University of Vermont losing a
fraternity house, and Champlain College gaining a new dorm. The house on Main Street in Burlington
was the frat house for Sigma Phi Epsilon, until a scandalous survey was
released in December detailing women the fraternity members would like to
rape. Now that Champlain College
has leased it for five years, the building will undergo a 300-thousand-dollar
renovation, so it can house 30 new students.
Work is set to begin on the Morrisville Bypass in
northern Vermont. State and local officials will kick off construction today.
The project in the community of Morrisville has been in the planning stages
since the 1970s.
A University of Vermont biologist says a new
invasive species is headed for Lake Champlain through the Champlain Canal
system. The spiny water flea is
not considered as big a threat to the lake as some species that have already
arrived, but its presence could create a nuisance for anglers and, at worst,
disrupt the lake's food web because it would displace native plankton fed on by
fish. The canal carries boat traffic between the Hudson River and Lake
Champlain.
A top Vermont health care official says the
expansion of the Medicaid program, as part of the federal Affordable Care Act
will help reduce the number of uninsured Vermonters. Health Care Access Commissioner
Mark Larson says about half of Vermont's uninsured are eligible for Medicaid.
Larson says he expects that some people currently enrolled in Medicaid will
shift to private coverage.
Vermont plans to reach out to alumni of Vermont
colleges and universities with job openings to get them to move back to the
state. That's part of a new effort Governor Peter Shumlin announced Wednesday
to get young people who have left Vermont to make the state their home. The
Labor Department says a survey of nearly 600 Vermont companies found that about
half of them had job openings for 2,148 workers.
A top U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service official
says a 45-year effort to restore Atlantic salmon to the Connecticut River is
being abandoned. Regional assistant director for fisheries Bill Archambault
says that last year the service spent about $2 million on the Connecticut River
program and only about 50 adult fish returned to the basin to reproduce.
Brandon Music on Country Club Road in Brandon will
present the Eugene Uman Trio this evening at 7:30. Eugene has served as
artistic director of the Vermont Jazz Center since 1997, where he has produced
more than 160 concerts and built the program to a renowned venue and
educational hub. General Admission is $12. Brandon Music offers an Early Bird
dinner special, which includes a ticket for the jazz performance, for $22 per
person. Reservations are recommended.
For Information & Reservations just visit www.brandon-music.net.
Diners with a palate for cuisine fresh from the
ocean now have a broader menu to choose from in Brandon. Stephen and Ursula Zahn, owners of the
Otter Valley Winery and Cozy Cottages in Brandon, are offering seafood at their
recently opened Chowder House Restaurant on Route 7 south of the village. The Zahn’s chose seafood because there
is a market for it in the area and because Brandon has many eateries that offer
other types of food. On the menu,
visitors will find fish sandwiches, scallops, shrimp, clam strips, whole clam
bellies, an oyster dinner, lobster and homemade clam chowder. All seafood is delivered from Boston
twice a week.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont
& New York:
Jay Peak Resort has no plans of taking things slow
as they continue to expand. The District 7 Environmental Commission has given
conceptual approval for the resort to build two additional hotels and five ski
lifts. Resort president Bill Stenger believes the additions will give
vacationers everything they're looking for. "The visitor experience is the most important
thing," Stenger said. "It's
gotta be a high quality, diversified experience and everything we offer has to
be superior quality." The
extra facilities will allow Jay Peak Resort to accommodate an additional 2,000
visitors during skiing season. The construction could bring extra jobs to the
resort too. Stenger estimates 500 jobs will be added. He says that, along with
the new water park, the resort will become the kind of place any family can go
anytime. "We think what Jay
Peak is and becoming is a world-class facility that will have four season
recreation for people from all over the north east," Stenger said. The road that will potentially bring
more visitors to the resort will take them right past community shops like Jay
Country Store. Manager Jeff Dezotell believes that the resort has brought big
business to his doorstep. "There's
definitely been a spillover," Dezotell said. "We've had to staff up a little bit here to support the
additional demand." Dezotell
started managing the store last fall. He married his wife in this community 38
years ago then moved all across the state of Vermont before coming back to Jay
to take this job. He says he can tell the difference the resort has made as
it's continued to grow. "It's
night and day," Dezotell said.
"I mean Jay was a ghost town in the summertime pretty much. Just
local people." Construction
on the new project won't begin until 2013 but the difference between the 4,500
and 6,500 visitors the resort could potentially bring to Jay is night and day
for community stores like this one.
There have been several rescues this week, where
police were called to help lost hikers.
Since May, new legislative changes have been made to how search and
rescues are performed. Just this
week, there have been two rescues involving three hikers that have needed
assistance from authorities. Since
hiking season is among us, having a detailed plan of action is what police are
striving for. This time of year,
Vermont's hiking trails are packed. Search and rescue crews are often needed to
help people in trouble and in Vermont that can happen at any time of the year. "We end up assisting a lot of ski
areas with out of bound skiers," said Deputy Commissioner, John Wood, with
the Vermont Department of Public Safety.
In the past two months, 24 calls have been made for help. A number that
doesn't surprise frequent hiker Aaron Jensen. "I come across a lot of people who are in over their
heads and you have to kind of worry about them," said Jensen. John Wood is also the co-chair on the
new committee aimed at revising the state's search and rescue law. "There were issues that were
brought up and recognized that some things needed to change," said Wood. He points to a case in January. He says
a 19-year old hiker went missing in Ripton, which included a delayed response
of several hours, the teen was later found dead. "The local fire department wasn't called and had they
been there would've been a greater response and a quicker response because they
are right there," said Wood. Since
May, a new temporary bill requires the state police to immediately call local
firefighters and the Fish and Wildlife Department in a search and rescue
situation. "It's important to
critique and review our policies and procedures and it's important to make
changes when needed," said Wood.
The current bill in place now is temporary and the committee re-writing
the state's search and rescue policy hopes to have the draft finished in November.
