Monday, July 9, 2012

WVTK Local & State News July 9, 2012


Communities in Addison, Lamoille, and Orleans counties that suffered damage to public infrastructure during the storm of May 29, 2012 are eligible for reimbursement for eligible damage-related costs.  Local governments, private non-profits, and Indian tribes are eligible to apply for Public Assistance. Eligible applicants that wish to apply for Public Assistance are strongly encouraged to attend one of two applicant meetings on July 10th and 11th.  The Addison County meeting will take place at the Vermont State Police Barracks in New Haven Tuesday, July 10th at 2PM. Communities that have questions can call Ben Rose, Vermont Emergency Management Public Assistance Officer at (802) 585-4719.

The Town Of Middlebury will hold its regular Select Board Meeting tomorrow at 7 PM at the Russ Sholes Senior Center.  Items on the agenda at tomorrow’s meeting include a Riverfront design update, the FY2013 water and wastewater budgets, a public hearing on reducing the South Street speed limit from 30 to 25 MPH from Porter Field Road to the Eastview Entrance and the award bid for construction of a Grit Drying Bed for the wastewater treatment facility.  For a complete agenda just visit the Town Of Middlebury’s Website

This month’s Middlebury Arts Walk features two new venues.  Zone Three Gallery at 152 Maple Street, in the Marble Works and a pop-up gallery, featuring the work of at least ten different artists, located in the Lazarus Building on Main Street. The Arts Walk is just one of the free artistic events happening in Middlebury Friday night.  This week you can linger and attend the Festival on the Green.  A free guided tour of exhibits will start from 51 Main at the Bridge at 5:30 PM for anyone who is interested. Visit the website to download a copy of the current month’s flyer and walking map: www.MiddleburyArtsWalk.com.

Friends and businesses in the Middlebury area are helping keep Adam Myers’ memory and spirit of service alive through a special fundraising event coming up on July 21st.  Dubbed the Adam Myers Memorial Fundraiser, several local businesses have teamed up to raise money for the Middlebury Fire Department. Blueberry Hill Inn, R.K. Miles, Mister Up’s, Two Brothers Tavern, Goodro Lumber, Waterfalls Day Spa, Otter Creek Brewing, Woodchuck Cider, American Flatbread, Noonie Deli, Vermont Federal Credit Union, and others, including many individuals, have stepped up with donations of cash and raffle items for the first annual Adam Myers Memorial Fundraiser. On Saturday, July 21st there will be a Myers Middlebury Mini Muster at Middlebury’s Recreation Park from 10 - Noon.  Then friends and family will gather again at 7PM at Two Brothers Tavern where you can enjoy the music of Snake Mountain Bluegrass.  Following the bluegrass show, more than $2,000 in raffle prizes will be awarded.  Tickets are $2 each or $5 for three and are on sale at the firehouse and the tavern.

The Rutland Downtown Farmers’ Market will have a new permanent home. Last week, The Vermont Farmers Food Center signed papers that will transform the former Mintzer Brothers into a facility that will provide housing for the winter market and a variety of food-oriented festivals, an educational center, a new home for the Rutland Community Cupboard and a local distribution, storage and preparation site for the Vermont Food Bank. The summer market will continue to be held in Depot Park and Evelyn Street.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce, Hope For Hunger, Inc. and the Ticonderoga Festival Guild will host a Concert Series in Bicentennial Park entitled “Music Along The LaChute.” The live musical performances will take place in July and August for the community and area visitors in Bicentennial Park in Downtown Ticonderoga.  The first is the series is coming up this Sunday, July 15th at 4PM.  You are encouraged to bring take out from your favorite Ticonderoga Area restaurant as well as chairs or blankets to sit on. All concerts will be free and open to the public but donations both monetary and nonperishable food items will be accepted. Proceeds are to benefit local food pantries and feeding orphans in Haiti through Hope For Hunger’s Chicken Helping Haiti Project.  For a listing of restaurants and a complete concert schedule visit www.ticonderogany.com.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host an open house with the North Country Small Business Development Center and OneWorkSource this Wednesday 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

The Essex County Department of Public Works Superintendent says he needs a big loan to finish repairs from last year’s devastating floods.  Last week, in response to his request, the County Board of Supervisors voted to send his department a $1 million loan from the county’s general fund, primarily to repair or replace bridges damaged in the 2011 floods.  The highway chief said the money will be repaid when Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Office pays them for the damage.

Public library members of the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System have programs to help keep young people reading and learning over the summer.  “Dream Big Read!” is the theme of the 2012 reading program that will be held in libraries throughout the region, including the Sherman Free Library in Port Henry. For more information about programs and reading incentives for juvenile and teen-aged readers, visit your local public library. The Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System’s web site at www.cefls.org features a current listing of events in libraries throughout the region as well as tips, resources and reading lists for young readers and parents.

The Cornell University Willsboro Research Farm will host a field day on Tuesday from 10 AM to 4 PM. Organic wheat production, milling and baking will be a major focus and will include discussions with a representative from Crown Point Bread Co., Sam Sherman from Champlain Valley Milling, Heather Darby from the University of Vermont and Michael Davis from Cornell University. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 963-7492.

Rutland City leaders say they are piecing together an approach to blighted properties.  The Board of Aldermen gave unanimous approval last week to a policy allowing for tax stabilization on such properties while a forum scheduled for 6PM Wednesday at the Rutland Free Library is intended to help figure out what those properties should become.  Rutland Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Brennan Duffy said the forum is part of the housing needs assessment commissioned by the RRA. Its purpose is to help gauge the public perception of Rutland’s housing needs.

A two-alarm apartment fire over the weekend in Brattleboro may be a case of arson.  That's according to investigators looking into the fire Saturday night in Brattleboro's Lawrence Block on South Main Street.  The three-story 10-unit building received moderate damage and one firefighter had to be treated for heat exhaustion.  Authorities are offering a thousand dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the fire.

Damage from a fire Saturday night at the Williston Marriott is now estimated at about a million dollars.  It took crews three hours to put the fire out at the TownePlace Suites building, but despite the extensive damage, no one was hurt.  WPTZ is reporting investigators believe “an improperly discarded cigarette” caused the fire.

The investigation of a woman who jumped from a moving tractor-trailer rig and died is continuing.  Police say right now the death of 28-year-old Elizabeth Lyons of Lynchburg, Ohio does not appear to be suspicious.  She was a passenger in the big rig driven by Robert Simpson, who is 51 and also from the same Ohio town.  Police say it all happened early Friday morning in the town of Benson.  Lyons was taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care with severe head injuries, and that's where she later died.

The people who live and work in Waterbury and survived together Tropical Storm Irene are expressing their feelings in a public art project.  On Sunday, they gathered where a circling brick pathway holds together the garden and art display outside of the local forensics lab.  More than three hundred bricks hold the names and thoughts of those who participated. The people say the art project isn't just about rebuilding but remembering, and that's why this project is a way of healing. 

There's a proud group of Vermonters who will be triumphantly returning home today from China with some medals.  WCAX is reporting the Dragonheart Vermont Sister Team competed this past weekend in the Crew Club World Championships in Hong Kong.  The Vermonters won a gold medal in the 200-meter dragon-boat race, and silver in the 500-meter event.  While they are not sisters by birth, they're sisters in spirit as these women are breast cancer survivors.  The team consists of 19 females and one male paddler, plus a drummer and a steer person.

Black bear sightings in Vermont are at an all time high. It's a problem that is stretching over the entire state of Vermont black bears are coming out of the woods searching for food and ending up near people's homes.    "Bears are looking for food, and unfortunately it's in people's back yards," said Forrest Hammond, with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife.  He has been busy dealing with the bears all over the state of Vermont, "I've spoke with at least eight game wardens today and probably responded to at least 20 people who've called me directly."  He says black bears are leaving their natural habitat and coming into contact with people. And it's mainly because of climate change.  "This year we had early frost and a lot of their foods they've been eating cured out. There are fewer raspberries than there should be."  Bears are on the lookout for food in your back yard and one thing really attracting them bird feeders.  "If you haven't taken it down already, take it down and leave it down," said Hammond.  And leave it down until December because once the bears find the bird feeder, they can quickly get into other mischief.  "Breaking into buildings, destroying bee hives, going into chicken coops and killing the chickens," said Hammond.  But he says there is no need to be terrified bears fear people and can be scared off easily, "That's what we ask people to do, make noise, holler at them, throw, so they know this is not a good place to get food from."  If you come into contact with a bear that is destroying your property you're asked to call your local game warden and if you simply spot a bear, you can report that sighting to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A new rule has been proposed to regulate public activities on land owned by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. The proposal allows hunting and fishing on the more than 133,000 acres but prohibits snowmobiling, mountain biking and horseback riding except in designated corridors. Officials say the proposal will give game wardens the authority to enforce the rule. The Fish and Wildlife Board has given preliminary approval to the proposal in the first of 3 votes.

Police say an Ohio woman has died after jumping from a moving tractor-trailer in Vermont. Police said 28-year-old Elizabeth Lyons of Lynchburg, Ohio, jumped from the cab of the truck at about 1:30 AM Friday on Route 22A in Benson. WCAX-TV reported that the woman has since died at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.

The head of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center neurology department says a Vermont man who died after being shot with a stun gun might not have been able to understand a trooper's command before he was shot.  Dr. Gregory Holmes said 39-year-old Macadam Mason had suffered a brain seizure the night before and was possibly unable to heed the trooper's command. Mason was an epilepsy patient at the hospital.  Holmes told the Valley News that the feeling at the hospital was that police should not have used a Taser.

Vermont's Norwich University in Northfield is helping U.S. service members better understand the different cultures in which they might operate.  A special bachelor degree program open exclusively to service members assigned to or retired from the U.S. Special Operations Command graduated its first seven students in June.  One of them was Army Sgt. First Class James Karr, who served three tours in Iraq as a soldier and a fourth as a civilian. He said he learned how to minimize risk by making culturally astute decisions early on.  The Special Operations Command is known for sending commandos into volatile situations but it also works to find ways to win the war of ideas through cultural understanding - advancing U.S. interests without firing a shot.

The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife says there are still openings for educators who want to take a summer course on the outdoors taught by natural resource experts.  The hands-on field course from July 15-20 at the Buck Lake Conservation Camp in Woodbury gets educators into Vermont's streams, forests and wetlands. The three-credit graduate course taught through Johnson State College.  The department's Education Coordinator Alison Thomas says connecting teachers with the outdoors can in turn expose their students, enabling them to make informed decisions about Vermont wildlife and their habitat needs when they become adults.  She says the course helps pre-kindergarten through high school teachers from any discipline improve their instructional strategies and make their lesson plans more interesting and relevant to their students.

Champlain Centre in Plattsburgh is preparing to celebrate its 25th Anniversary. Champlain Centre, originally known as Champlain Centre North at the time, opened July 1, 1987. The mall will celebrate the anniversary this Friday. As the mall has grown, it has become a base for employment, community groups, mall walkers, students, tourists and families. People can shop, browse, dine, take in a movie or simply socialize.  The mall is also known for its support of many non-profit groups and their causes. 

For 18 years, Vermont's SolarFest has been the Woodstock of the Vermont summer music festival scene, offering three days and nights of great music on a solar-powered stage. Held July 20-22 on Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth, SolarFest offers an exciting and eclectic mix of local and national bands. The musical line-up for this year's SolarFest features local as well as nationally renowned performers.  For more information just visit www.solarfest.org.

Rutland Middle School teacher Bianca McKeen won the 2012 Vermont Science Teacher of the Year Award for grades K-8.  McKeen was nominated this past spring by several colleagues. She applied for the award through the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering by entering her resume, a letter of recommendation and a summary of her teaching philosophy.  VASE honors outstanding Vermont teachers by granting two annual awards to teachers who are an inspiration to their colleagues and leaders in the improvement of science education.