A Reception for Marion Guild will take in a new location
this morning at 11:30. The
reception is now scheduled for the Middlebury Municipal Gym on Main Street. Representatives
of the Middlebury Select Board will present the Board's Resolution Recognizing Marion
Guild as a Designer of the Emma Willard Monument. The State of Vermont
authorized the design and construction of a monument commemorating the life and
achievement of Emma Hart Willard a former resident of Middlebury, who was a
pioneer in women's education in the United States. For Details just visit the Town’s Website.
The Addison County Humane Society is pleased to
announce that the expansion and renovation project started in late 2011 has
been completed and is now open to the public. The facility’s square footage has
increased by 65 percent to better care for Addison County’s homeless, abandoned
and abused animals. An invitation-only ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on
Friday, August 24th at Noon, which will be followed by a public open house from
1 to 4PM. The shelter was built in
1990 and originally designed to house 60 animals. Prior to construction 140
cats, dogs, rabbits and hamsters shared the overcrowded space. While
fundraising has been successful with 90 percent of its goal met, ACHS will
continue to solicit donations to cover the cost of construction.
An $85,000 federal grant will be used to make
improvements to the New York side approach of the Champlain Bridge. Officials didn’t specify what type of
enhancement the roadway or landscape will be done with the Federal Highway
Administration money. But a grant
award notice from Congressman Bill Owens’s office describes the effort as one
to “consider landscaping and traffic-calming measures to restore the scenic
character of the byway. This project will examine how the bridge, byway and
surrounding state historic and recreational areas could function with coordinated
operation and physical connections.” Vermont received $35,200 from the same
pool of federal money to “enable the Lake Champlain Byway to develop an action
plan to inventory current resources and identify new initiatives.”
National Bank of Middlebury is a sponsor of the
upcoming Summer Sampler event to benefit Dinners With Love, a local non-profit
organization whose mission is to facilitate donations of quality restaurant
meals to hospice patients and their families free of charge. Restaurants are asked to prepare meals
for people living in the communities where the restaurant operates. This truly is a wonderful example of
neighbors helping neighbors and this service is now available in many towns in
Rutland and Addison Counties. On Sunday, August 19th the Summer
Sampler will take place at the Brandon Town Hall from 4 – 7PM. The cost is $20
and all proceeds will benefit Dinners With Love.
New venues continue to join the Middlebury Arts
Walk as the season continues. Galerie Provenance, a new art gallery located at
1 Frog Hollow Alley is the newest addition to the monthly event. Galerie
Provenance opened mid-July and specializes in American and French art, antiques
and accoutrements. Meanwhile
the pop-up gallery that debuted last month will again feature several artists
during the August 10th Arts Walk. They are located in the Lazarus Building at
20 Main Street. Visit the website to download a copy of the current month’s
flyer and walking map: www.MiddleburyArtsWalk.com.
The state Public Service Board has exercised
jurisdiction over Omya’s proposed liquefied natural gas storage facility at its
calcium carbonate plant in Pittsford.
The PSB issued its ruling last week affirming that it has jurisdiction
over the project under Section 248, which gives the board authority over any
“natural gas facility.” The board
did not issue a decision on the project itself. The ruling was in response to a request by Omya in
February seeking a determination as to whether the board had jurisdiction.
Rutland’s landfill could become one of Vermont’s
largest solar farms. The project is still in the preliminary stages, but Green
Mountain Power has approached the city and is seeking an option on development
of the landfill in the hope of beginning construction late next year. Last week, the utility announced plans
to install 150 kilowatts worth of collectors on a property at the end of
Cleveland Avenue. Steve Costello said yesterday that the landfill appeared big enough
for collectors with a peak capacity of around 2 megawatts. While the Cleveland
Avenue project is expected to need a month for permitting, the process for a
project the size of the landfill proposal will need significantly longer.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host
OneWorkSource and the InternetXpress @ Your Library services Open House at the
Chamber office on Wednesday, August 29th from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
The Ti Chamber, OneWorkSource, ACAP, Inc. and C.E.F.L.S. continue to create a
strong partnership to better serve the Ticonderoga Area by offering One Work
Source Open Houses on a monthly basis. The Open Houses are available to
employers, employees, and community members in the Ticonderoga area. Get all of the details right now at www.ticonderogany.com.
The $9.9 million renovation project at Moriah
Central School is nearly complete.
The work upgraded the school swimming pool, auditorium, roof, cafeteria
kitchen, boiler room, parking lots, Elementary School office and
physical-fitness and technology rooms.
The school is holding an open house at 7 this evening to show the
community the improvements. Participants should meet in the school auditorium
to join the tour.
According to James Major, Chairman of the Board of
Directors, the Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance is in the process of
reorganizing to better serve the community while working within a more
sustainable financial structure. Unfortunately, with the challenge of
fundraising and capitalizing a new non-profit during a global economic crisis
has proved to be more difficult than they imagined. The Alliance is sad to announce that the result of the
funding shortfall is the inability to sustain the salary of CEO, J. Justin
Woods, who has been working diligently to establish economic development and
cultural arts programs. Board Member Sanford Morehouse stated, "While we
are disappointed that we can no longer afford Justin, his experience and
guidance was instrumental in getting us to where we are today. We all learned a
lot from his experience and we now have the opportunity to take what we've
learned over the past year and develop a more sustainable business plan."
The Ticonderoga Festival Guild will present the
Ticonderoga Community Band in concert this evening at 6:30 at the Knights of
Columbus pavilion. The concert
will start earlier than usual guild programs because band members need daylight
to read their music. Old favorites, classical numbers and show tunes are on the
repertoire. The concert is
presented free and donation baskets are passed. The funds are divided equally
between the Ticonderoga Community Band and the Ti Festival Guild.
The New England Culinary Institute will not team up
with the Vermont State College system after all. Officials from both institutions spent the last 10 months
exploring a possible partnership. But the spokesman for the state colleges now says
that their talks have ended without an agreement. Dan Smith says the intensive,
hands-on-style of NECI's programs are incompatible with the colleges' budgeting
requirements. NECI is trying to
find ways to preserve its brand once founder Fran Voigt steps down.
New York State health officials say they have
applied for a waiver that would enable them to use $10 billion of federal
savings from Medicaid changes for other state initiatives meant to improve
primary health care for poorer New Yorker’s. The Cuomo administration projects saving $34 billion over
five years in the government health care program, largely from a spending cap
and better management.
Finding the perfect hiking trail has never been
easier, as the Green Mountain Club introduces their Downloadable Day Hikes in
Vermont series. The series
consists of a dozen day hikes that are now available for download to a
computer, tablet or Smartphone. Each
download will cost ninety-nine cents and will download in PDF format, which can
be saved or printed once the download is complete. The two-page PDF file will consist of a trail
description, driving directions and a photograph of the trail, along with what
you should look for while hiking the trail and obstacles you may encounter.
A camera lost in a creek in New York's Adirondacks
for three years is being returned thanks to clever detective work by a Vermont
man who studied pictures on its memory card. John Noerr of Poultney found the camera in July. The
Post-Star of Glens Falls reports that the camera's memory card had 581 photos John
was able to study. Many of the
photos looked like they were taken in New York City. One showed a woman sitting
in front of a house numbered 327. Another showed a street sign reading 3rd
Street. He used Google to find the
Brooklyn neighborhood, tax records to find the building's owner and social
media to contact the family. The
camera's owner, Michael Comeau, says he can't wait to get it back.
A ban on firearms in town-owned buildings in Townshend is no more. The Townshend Select Board unanimously rescinded the ban Monday night, which had been approved just three weeks ago in what the boards vice chairman called a "knee-jerk" reaction. The policy, which allowed only authorized law enforcement officers to carry guns in town buildings such as the library, highway garage, fire station and town office was facing a lot of challenges, and the town's attorney advised the board the ban could not stand.
A ban on firearms in town-owned buildings in Townshend is no more. The Townshend Select Board unanimously rescinded the ban Monday night, which had been approved just three weeks ago in what the boards vice chairman called a "knee-jerk" reaction. The policy, which allowed only authorized law enforcement officers to carry guns in town buildings such as the library, highway garage, fire station and town office was facing a lot of challenges, and the town's attorney advised the board the ban could not stand.
A dam on the Winooski River in Marshfield is about
to come out as natural resources officials try to clear waterways so that fish
can move up the river more easily. Work in the river is scheduled for next week
with the removal beginning August 20th and running to mid-September.
The newly renovated Rocky Point House is now a
museum at Kill Kare State Park in St. Albans Bay, and said to be the
centerpiece of Vermont State Parks.
The 19th century hotel now holds old photos and information about its
past on the lower level. The hotel
was built in the 1870s, and was a summer resort destination until about 1900,
when Camp Kill Kare was founded.
The park is on the southwestern tip of St. Albans point, a three-mile
peninsula in St. Albans Bay.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont
& New York:
Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders says a lack of
competition might be to blame for the Burlington area having had some of the
highest gas prices in the country.
He held a Senate Energy Committee Field Hearing about the issue in
Burlington Monday. In the past
month since Sanders called for a federal investigation, the difference between
Burlington and national gas prices has narrowed. But the senator says that doesn't explain what's been going
on for years in the region. In the
past three-years, Sanders says people in the Burlington area paid more than the
U.S. average 86-percent of the time, sometimes as much as 30-cents a
gallon. He says Burlington area
prices were also higher than other areas in Vermont. Oil Price Information Service Director of Data Ben
Brockwell was asked to explain the price difference. "I did not have a reasonable explanation as an 'expert'
in the field," says Brockwell.
Vermont Petroleum Associate's Joe Choquette was there to defend the
industry. He says, for one thing,
Vermont is an expensive place to do business and that's reflected in prices. "It is a complex market with many
challenges," says Choquette. That
didn't satisfy Sanders who blames the prices on a few companies which he says
control the market. "Besides
asking these companies to be more competitive, what can be done about it?"
asked FOX 44/ABC 22. "Well
that's an issue we are looking at," says Sanders. While Sanders didn't come out and
support Costco, the company which is fighting to bring a gas station to its
store in Colchester, was invited to Monday's hearing. Costco has estimated it could sell gas 19-cents a gallon
cheaper than nearby stations.
There are now 198 schools in Vermont that aren't
meeting the standards set by "No Child Left Behind." That's 28 more
than last year. Jim Fischer,
Deputy Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Education said he and other
officials there knew there would be an increase in school's falling behind, but
that it doesn't lessen the struggle to get schools at a proficient level. More than half of Vermont schools
aren't meeting their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) set by the "No Child
Left Behind," which aims for 100% proficiency for students in math,
reading and writing by 2014. "That
isn't going to happen at this point considering the amount of time left in this
period," Fischer said. It's a
hard pill to swallow. The Department of Education says there's been proof of
school effectiveness in other assessments but that there are obvious areas to
improve upon. "In some cases
it's curriculum alignment, in some cases it's professional development in
teachers, in some cases it's those non-academic issues," Fischer said. Each school has its own problem to tackle. We spoke
with Burlington School District superintendent Jeanne Collins about what's
ailing her district. "When
you start breaking down where do we not meet AYP in Burlington it's free and
reduced lunch. It's English language learners which is wrapped into free and
reduced lunch," Collins said.
After hearing about most of the issues in the school district I asked
one simple question "I
haven't heard you mention teachers yet is it on the part of the students that
are coming behind that this is happening?" "That's a good question and no absolutely not. The
teachers are stepping up." Examples
of such actions are increasing the day by 15 minutes at elementary schools for
teacher and adding math coaches that will assist teachers in coming up with new
programs and analyzing the data of students in their classes. There will also
be added emphasis on professional learning communities between teachers to help
them learn from each other.
Protesters against wind turbines... For the second
time in weeks, dozens have stopped a Vermont company from moving its project
forward. It took police from five
different counties to take down the human wall Monday. They call themselves the Lowell Mountain
Occupiers and have environmental concerns about the project, but Green Mountain
Power says they're just potentially making everybody's electricity bill go up. Two down, 19 wind turbines to go. At
the top of Lowell Mountain, an energy project is in full swing. "It's
clean renewable generation," GMP Spokesperson Robert Dostis said. But also at the top, singing, dancing
and a full band. Protesters created a human barrier and blocked construction
from happening for hours Monday morning.
"I think about what it will feel like to live in Vermont if there's
no place left for the moose and the bear to live," Wind Turbine Protester
Rose Friedman said. Not everyone
feels that way. 75% of Lowell
residents are in support of GMP's plan to provide wind-powered energy to more
than 24,000 homes. "It
surprises me because I'd think they'd be dancing in support of projects like
this," Dostis said. But
protesters don't believe the project is actually good for the environment.
"Looking at the destruction it causes, for one, just to put them up,"
Friedman said. Even with all of
the delays, the project is still ahead of schedule, but GMP estimates that the
protesters have increased the cost of the project by more than one million
dollars. "It's our customers who ultimately pay for the price of this
project," Dostis said. "A
million dollars in the face of this project is pennies," Friedman added. Once police banned together and asked
protesters to leave several times, the majority of the group moved, but six
people stayed, and ended up in handcuffs, with trespassing violations. Tomorrow, a new take on protesting.
They are having a funeral for the mountain because they believe this project
has killed it. Police say the protesters are a big drain on their resources,
but will be there if they're there.
