The Addison County Chamber of Commerce will be
hosting a Candidates’ Forum on Thursday, focusing on the Addison County races
for the Vermont House of Representatives and Senate. It will be held from 8:00
to 9:30 AM at the Ilsley Library Community Room in Middlebury and we’ll carry
it live on 92.1 WVTK. Our very own
Bruce Zeman will be moderating the event. Many of our state representatives in uncontested races
will also be in attendance for a discussion of issues and legislation important
to you. It will cost $5 to attend and coffee and baked goods will be provided.
An RSVP to maria@addisoncounty.com
would be appreciated.
A Vermont hard cider company, which started in a
garage, has been sold to a European company. The price tag is more than $300-million dollars. The makers of Woodchuck Cider here in
Middlebury announced the deal Tuesday.
Despite the new ownership, officials say the company will remain in
Vermont, and no one will lose their job.
In fact, the Irish based company wants to build a bigger expansion than
current leaders wanted to spend. Vermont
Hard Cider Company President and CEO Bret Williams said "It's an exciting
time, it's great for the employees, the timing is right and we're excited for
what the future has to bring for Woodchuck. It was born in Vermont, it's going
to stay in Vermont.” The company plans to break ground on its new facility next
year. It plans to keep its current
building as well to meet demand of its products growing popularity.
The Town Of Middlebury Public Works Committee will
meet this Friday morning at 7:30 in the Conference Room at the Town Offices
Building. Items on this week’s
agenda include the distribution and brief overview of the FY2014 Capital Improvement
Program, Vermont Gas, an Equipment Purchase Schedule and the concept for
relocation of North Branch Road.
For more information on this and other meetings just visit the Town Of Middlebury’s Website.
Green Mountain Power plans to start cleaning up the
Eastman’s building shortly after Halloween. The utility announced yesterday that it has awarded a
$93,000 contract for cleanup work to Alderson Inc. of Burlington. GMP purchased
the long-vacant building to house its “energy innovation center.” Cleanup is
expected to begin in early November and take two months. The cleanup paves the
way for renovations scheduled for completion by October 2013. Engineering and
architectural planning will take place during the cleanup. In the meantime, the
center is to be housed across the street in The Opera House.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host
four business seminars at the Chamber office on Montcalm Street in Downtown
Ticonderoga during October, November and December. The business seminars are
being provided through a partnership with the North Country Small Business
Development Center and made possible through the sponsorship of Mannix
Marketing, Dunkin Donuts of Ticonderoga, and Stewarts Shops of Ticonderoga. This first one is coming up on Thursday
from 8 – 9:30AM. The ‘Talking Business Roundtable’ is a chance for business
owners to come together to discuss common issues and concerns that impact small
businesses as well as share positive suggestions for resolving these concerns
as well as recommendations for seminars and trainings needed. For details on this and the other
seminars please visit www.ticonderogany.com.
There are major changes at the Crown Point Food
Pantry. The pantry, which is located
at the Crown Point Methodist Church on Creek Road, is now open Thursdays 9 AM
to Noon. The pantry had been open only by appointment. The pantry also has a new board and a
new look. The Crown Point Food Pantry relies on donations from members of the
community and food drives sponsored by local organizations. Donations of food
items may be brought in on Thursday mornings. Anyone wishing to make a monetary
donation to the Crown Point Community Food Pantry may send it to Carol Patnode
at 1856 Creek Road, Crown Point.
Essex County lawmakers decided Monday that telling
sex offenders where to live might not work and that educating children and
adults to recognize abuse could be far more effective. That was the consensus of a two-hour
tri-county sex-abuse-prevention forum held in the Old Essex County Courthouse. Officials
said about 132 registered offenders live in Essex County, 200 in Clinton County
and 140 in Franklin County. New
York state has three levels of convicted sex offenders: 1 is considered the
least likely to do it again, 2 is moderate risk and 3 is high risk.
State health officials confirmed a hiker contracted
Hantavirus while on an Adirondack camping trip. Hantavirus is an infection, often fatal, spread by the
droppings and urine of mice, particularly deer mice. Dr. Michael Vaughan, a mineral physics professor at SUNY
Stony Brook, contracted the illness. He was bitten by a mouse on August 26th
and became ill in late September. Health officials recommend that hikers stay
vigilant to "prevent rodent contact and assume mice can be carrying
Hantavirus anywhere in the state."
The Adirondack-Champlain Telemedicine Information
Network, connecting eight hospitals and 40 primary-care facilities, is expected
to be operational by late November.
The fiber-optic telemedicine network, in the works for several years,
will cover Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Rensselaer, Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Warren
and Washington counties, as well as the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe Health Services
facility and Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington. Nearly $9 million in grant funds has
paid for the project.
Misuse of the Elizabethtown brush dump has resulted
in its closure. The Elizabethtown
Town Council voted on October 16 to shut it down. The Town Supervisor said despite notices at the brush dump
designating the site for Elizabethtown residents only, residents from other
towns as well as commercial haulers are using the area. This has happened in
the neighboring Town of Westport as well. The council will talk about opening
the dump in the future on a limited basis only for Elizabethtown residents.
Residents are reminded to use energy wisely and
stay safe this winter. According
to the Short-Term Energy Outlook released this month by the US Energy
Information Administration, average household spending for heating oil and
natural gas will be higher this winter than last year. New York State Electric and Gas and
National Grid have tips on how to keep utility bills under control. It is important to have heating systems,
chimneys, flues and vents checked at least annually by a professional to keep
households safe from carbon-monoxide poisoning, NYSEG says, while remembering
to make sure detectors are functioning properly.
Governor Peter Shumlin is again calling for the use
of state funding to supplement the federal home heating assistance program. Last year the state contributed
6-million dollars to the program to make up for federal cuts. This year the
governor wants the state to put up an extra 9-million. Over 28-thousand
low-income families are expected to be eligible for help to pay their heating
bills this winter. That would put the average benefit at 540 dollars at the current
federally funded level. Adding in
the state funds would boost the average benefit to 900 dollars. The average
household spends about 28-hundred dollars a year on heating costs. The governor is also changing the way
heating funds are paid out by making payments immediately as needed rather than
on a once-monthly basis.
A group of health care advocates is urging the
Legislature to create a special state subsidy when Vermont's subsidized health
care program is shut down in 2014.
That's when the roughly 10,000 residents enrolled in Catamount Health
will need to buy their coverage through a newly created market place exchange. Peter Sterling of the Vermont Campaign
for Health Care Security said he's concerned. He said the federal subsidies
that will be available through the exchange are not as good as the existing
Catamount coverage.
The Select Board in Bennington has approved an
agreement with the Vermont National Guard that will allow the town to acquire
the Bennington armory if and when a new one is constructed for the local unit. The town broached the idea of
exchanging the properties in June 2011 as a potential spot for a new readiness
center to replace the local Vermont National Guard headquarters. The Guard had
been looking at multiple sites in Bennington County.
An investigation is under way into reports of
damage to the Burlington city-owned auditorium following a weekend party in
which at least 16 people were cited by police on allegations of alcohol-related
violations. The Barstool Blackout
Tour party attracted about 2,500 people to the Memorial Auditorium on Friday.
The parks and recreation department approved the permit. Mayor Miro Weinberger
said Monday the city was "in error" this spring when it approved the
permit for the 18 & over dance party.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was in Vermont's Northeast
Kingdom taking his populist message to students at Lyndon State College. Sanders said yesterday he's held more
than 40 such meetings as he seeks re-election to the Senate. During the meeting he spoke of the need
to help students pay for college, improve health care and ensure the protection
of women's rights.
New York's top court will not hear a challenge to
the state's 2011 law legalizing same-sex marriage, ending the most prominent
objection to the law. Tuesday’s decision leaves intact the July ruling by
another court, which concluded closed-door negotiations among senators and gay
marriage supporters, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, did not violate any laws.
A young man is taken to the hospital after being burned in what police are calling a "possible clandestine lab." It happened in a home on Texas Hill Road in Hinesburg yesterday afternoon, when neighbors say they heard a pop coming from the house. Emergency crews found 19-year-old Jack Berino in the home with burns and took him to Fletcher Allen Health Care. Hazmat teams were called in but police say there's no danger to other homes in the neighborhood. The U.S. Attorney's office is now investigating.
A young man is taken to the hospital after being burned in what police are calling a "possible clandestine lab." It happened in a home on Texas Hill Road in Hinesburg yesterday afternoon, when neighbors say they heard a pop coming from the house. Emergency crews found 19-year-old Jack Berino in the home with burns and took him to Fletcher Allen Health Care. Hazmat teams were called in but police say there's no danger to other homes in the neighborhood. The U.S. Attorney's office is now investigating.
A hot debate over a proposed methadone clinic in
South Burlington is heating up even more.
The clinic is proposed for a location on Dorset Street, not far from the
city's middle and high schools, and would serve as many as one-thousand
addicts. The South Burlington
School Board Chairman sent out a letter to the community stating problems with
drug paraphernalia, drug dealers and impaired drivers around the current
methadone clinic at University Health Center in Burlington. The city's development review board
will hold a second hearing November 6th on the school board's appeal to the
clinic's permit.
It only generates enough power to run one home, but
the solar power system at Lyndon State College is up and running. A spokesperson calls the new
five-kilowatt system a first step, and hopes to put in more solar panels. A ribbon-cutting ceremony this week
marked the new beginning for a system, which students helped to install and a
federal grant partially paid for.
A new television ad from opponents of hydrofracking
has been released. The TV spot
features residents of Pennsylvania talking about how hydrofracking in their
state has allegedly led to negative effects on drinking water and property
values in the area. The
controversial natural gas drilling process remains a major topic on both sides
of the argument in New York State.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has said any decision on whether to allow
hydrofracking in the state will likely come after the holidays.
New York's junior senator has been working to raise
money for numerous female political candidates in races much tighter than her
own. U.S. Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand recently crossed the one-million dollar fundraising mark for female
Senate and House candidates in tight races around the nation. The senator tells "BuzzFeed"
she made the effort to raise money for the women as a way of advancing
"the women's movement as the solution." Gillibrand is leading comfortably in her own U.S. Senate
race over Republican challenger Wendy Long.
Jazz returns again this week to Brandon Music on
Country Club Road in Brandon. The
Leo Blanco Trio will perform in the Music Café’ Thursday evening at 7:30. He has
appeared at major festivals at Newport and Monterey, as well as in Holland,
Scotland, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, Italy and Germany. General Admission is
$12. Brandon Music Café offers a concert and dinner package, which includes
dinner and a ticket to the show for $27 plus tax per person. For Information & Reservations
(802) 465-4071 / info@brandon-music.net
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont
& New York:
In a news conference Tuesday, members from
Vermont's Health Co-op proudly announced the opening of their new facility. "It is your company and it is your
healthcare," said Vermont Health Co-op Chairman Mitch Fleischer. The organization will offer Vermonters
an alternative to their current healthcare plan. One that people will not just submit a monthly payment to,
but a company that they will hold ownership in. While there was plenty to clap about there's a long way to
go. The desks are empty because
they need to hire 25 people. They
also need to obtain an insurance license.
Most importantly co-op leaders say they need to figure out what the
health care plan will look like and how much you'll have to pay. "It's a little early right now for
the cost estimates," said Vermont Health Co-op CEO Christine Oliver. Even before that's known, state leaders
say spending money in a Vermont based company will save the state a lot of
money. "We cannot continue to
spend money that way that we are spending money on healthcare and expect to
grow jobs, economic opportunities and be able to live a quality of life that
can be sustained in this state," said Governor Peter Shumlin. The co-op
borrowed $32 million dollars from the federal government and becomes the 23rd
such company to open across the country.
And even though they're working out the details, leaders say one thing
they know, if it's successful, it won't just benefit employees. "You become an owner in the co-op
and so we all benefit in that together. If we benefit, you benefit," said
Oliver. The details of the healthcare
plans should be known by next summer and people can get on board in 2014.
