The Finance &
Fundraising Task Force will meet this morning at 9. Items on the agenda include the review of the brochure and a
report on Net-Zero Buildings.
Following that meeting the Steering Committee will meet at 10:30. There will be a report on the Town
Center Display from Election Day with a review of the comments received. Then the Gym Task Force meets at 3 this
afternoon followed by the Downtown Improvement District Commission at 4 to
review the parking study. All
meetings will take place at the Middlebury Town Offices. Various meeting details and agendas are
posted on the Town’s Website.
The Town Of Middlebury
Select Board will meet this evening with an early start time of 6. The meeting will take place in the Main
Conference Room of the Town Offices.
Items on the agenda include Reports from various committees, a Public
Hearing on the Town Plan, an update on the Riverfront Project and the Addison
County Solid Waste Management District budget proposal for next year. Also there will be an approval for
appointment of the Parks & Recreation director and the Town manager’s
Report. View the complete agenda
right now by visiting the Select Board page on the Town’s Website.
The Moriah Central School Board will meet at 6 this
evening in the High School Library.
Items of interest include bid awards, personnel discussions and report
reviews. The public is invited to
attend.
Vermont’s oldest covered bridge is officially open!
The historic 19th-century Pulp Mill Covered Bridge reopened to traffic on
Friday after being closed in January for renovations. Local officials and
representatives of Alpine Construction were on hand to open the wooden bridge
at noon. The bridge crosses Otter
Creek linking, Middlebury and Weybridge via Seymour Street. Both lanes are now
open to traffic.
Vermont’s “Sister-to-Sister” program will hold its
annual middle-school girls summit this Saturday from 9:30 AM to 4 PM at
Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts. “Sister-to-Sister” brings
together middle school girls from Bristol, Middlebury and Vergennes with young
women from Middlebury College. The
event will encourage girls to reach outside of classroom life by encouraging
pursuits in art, music, dancing, yoga, and writing. Sister-to-Sister fosters meaningful discussions for seventh
and eight grade girls about female body image, relationships, and identity.
The Chittenden County Transportation Authority has
purchased a fleet of bigger busses for its growing Link Express routes. CCTA has seen ridership rise steadily
on its commuter runs from Burlington to Montpelier and Middlebury, to nearly
147,000 passengers last year. To accommodate that growth, CCTA purchased seven
new coach-style busses. The busses are the largest in the CCTA fleet, with 57
seats and room for four bicycles. They will be phased into service beginning
next Monday. The busses were paid
for with a $3.4 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
Yesterday morning just after 8 members of the
Vermont State Police, Rutland Barracks, were dispatched to Dan Kearney's Used
Auto in West Rutland for a reported theft. The investigation revealed that four
rims, including tires, were taken from one of the Ford Explorer's on the used
car lot. Anyone with information
is encouraged to contact the Vermont State Police in Rutland,
802-773-9101. Information can also
be submitted anonymously online at www.vtips.info
or text "CRIMES" (274637) to Keyword: VTIPS
A Brandon man who police say was tattooing people
at his kitchen table denied criminal charges last weeks of running a tattoo
business without a license. Police
arrested 24-year-old Adam J. Collis in September after receiving multiple
complaints from people who allegedly received tattoos from Collis. He was
charged with two misdemeanor counts of tattooing without a license from the
state of Vermont. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of possessing marijuana. Collis pleaded innocent to those
charges last week in Rutland criminal court and was released on conditions that
included he not purchase or possess any tattooing equipment.
Law enforcement agencies across Rutland County will
be conducting sobriety checkpoints around the region this month. According to police the checkpoints are
set to start November 21st and run through the 25th. Police said troopers will be aggressively patrolling and
enforcing motor vehicle laws with specific regard to aggressive driving,
speeding, and seat belt usage in high crash areas.
The Town of Jay’s proposed budget for next year is
up almost 5 percent so AuSable Forks Ambulance Service can hire paid personnel. The proposed increase to the ambulance
contract would hike the town tax levy by 4.82 percent in 2013. Without the increase, the amount to be
raised by taxes would increase only 1.5 percent. The ambulance squad wants to hire paid emergency-medical
technicians to handle hours when volunteer coverage is sparse, which would
increase the town budget by $85,351.
Vermont's lone member of the U.S. House says he
doubts Congress will agree to avert the so-called fiscal cliff before the end
of the year. Democratic
Congressman Peter Welch says little progress was made on budget issues before
the election, and he doubts a breakthrough will come in the last two months of
the year. But Welch told reporters
on Monday that the result may actually be favorable to the Democratic position
that Bush-era tax cuts should remain in place only for households making up to
$250,000. Under current law, all
the tax cuts expire for all income levels on January 1. Welch says Republicans
would then be asked to cut taxes for low and moderate income Americans, leaving
somewhat higher, Clinton-era tax rates in place for higher earners.
Senator Bernie Sanders says however lawmakers in
Washington try to avoid the looming so-called "fiscal cliff," cuts to
Social Security shouldn't be part of the plan. Congress and the White House
have just weeks to come up with a deal to avert automatic budget cuts and tax
increases.
The price of gas is continuing to go down in
Vermont. The website www.Vermontgasprices.com
reports the price averaged $3.68 gallon on Monday, down 7 cents in a week. Nationally, the average price per
gallon was $3.46. Vermont's
gas prices are still 18 cents higher than they were a year ago, but 25 cents
cheaper than a month ago. The
national average stands at 3.1 cents per gallon higher than the same day a year
ago, and 32.6 cents per gallon lower than a month ago. The website reports the lowest gas
prices in Vermont are in the Springfield area where prices are about $3.40 a
gallon.
Barre State Representative Paul Poirier says he is
seeking to become speaker of the House. Poirier has served eight terms in the
legislature since he was first elected in 1980. He plans to formally announce
his candidacy on Wednesday.
An ox named Lou that lived on Green Mountain
College's school farm will not be used for food. The school had decided to put
down the 11-year-old animal, which ended up sparking a recent outcry. However because
Lou was receiving medication for an injury, the meat wasn't fit for human
consumption.
Former national bobsled champion Forrest "Dew
Drop" Morgan has passed away. He was 90 years old. Morgan got hooked on
the sport when he was just 10, when he attended the bobsled competition at the
1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says the power issue
post-Sandy in some places is really a housing issue with homes too badly
damaged for electricity to be restored to them. Cuomo says FEMA has programs to
help homeowners in the worst hit areas of New York City and Long Island.
It's not often travel on Interstate 89 is blocked
by a boat. That was the case,
however, Monday night when a sailboat slid off its trailer on French Hill,
blocking two southbound lanes.
No one was hurt, and Vermont State Police say the sailboat, truck and
trailer were eventually removed from the highway about 90 minutes later.
Federal dollars are headed for the Rutland Creek
Path. The ten-foot wide bike,
pedestrian and wheelchair-accessible path through Rutland's Northwest
neighborhood is getting 295-thousand dollars through a federal grant given to
the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
The first segment of the path from Giorgetti Park to State Street opened
ten days ago. The majority of the
funds will be used to have the Meadow Street section open by 2014. Meanwhile the next segment, running
from State Street to West Street is already funded and expected to open next year.
Say goodbye to yesterday’s record-breaking warm
temperatures. November 12th felt
more like May 12th, as the thermometer edged up to 70 degrees in Burlington,
and golfers were out on the Links at Lang Farm in Essex Junction. That's a far cry from today, with highs
holding steady in the 40's, along with steady rainfall expected. The sunshine returns Wednesday, but the
40's will remain right into the weekend.
Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning to ask the
federal government for at least 30-billion dollars for disaster relief. The
governor's office says Sandy likely caused well over 50-billion dollars in
damage to the region. Some of the
funds Cuomo hopes to receive would be used to modernize the region's fuel
supply to avoid the problems that led to gas rationing.
The governor's Division of Budget will hold its
first official hearings starting today.
The hearings will include agency chiefs outlining their official budget
requests for the upcoming 2013-14 fiscal year. New York's budget gap was expected to be just under one
billion dollars, but Governor Cuomo has said he expects that to grow due to
billions of dollars of damage done by Hurricane Sandy.
NY State GOP Chairman Ed Cox says he's disappointed
with the 2012 election, but predicts a rosy future for his party in the next
election cycle. In a letter to the
party faithful, Cox expresses confidence that the Senate Republicans will
manage to hold onto their majority in the chamber, and that the party is poised
for gains in 2013 and 2014. Cox
says the Republicans in New York State will "continue to build the party
from the bottom up."
Brandon Music on Country Club Road in Brandon will
present vocalist Andrea Wolper this Thursday evening at 7:30. Andrea appears in
clubs, festivals and concert halls in the U.S. and internationally. General
Admission is $15. Brandon MusicCafé offers a concert and dinner package, which includes dinner and a ticket to
the show for $30 plus tax per person.
For Information & Reservations (802) 465-4071 / info@brandon-music.net
Fort Ticonderoga will host its third annual
“Material Matters: It’s in the Details” January 26th and 27th. The weekend event focuses on the
material culture of the 18th Century and is intended for collectors,
re-enactors and people with a general interest in learning more about objects
of the 18th Century and what they can tell us about history. “Material Matters”
takes place in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center at Fort Ticonderoga and
is open by pre-registration only. Registration for “Material Matters” is now
open. A brochure with the complete schedule and a registration form is available
on Fort Ticonderoga’s website at www.fort-ticonderoga.org.
There are a lot of concerns about the economy's
fragile recovery and what could happen if we go over what's being called
"The Fiscal Cliff." That's
the drastic governments cuts and tax increases that will go into effect if
congress doesn't act by the end of the year. We wanted to know what could happen to you, the taxes you
pay, and the services you depend on if we go over the cliff. "It's not like you're going over
the cliff and nothing can be done the day after," says Sen. Bernie
Sanders, I-Vermont. "It's
much more important to get a good deal for the American people," says Rep.
Peter Welch, D-Vermont. Both
Sanders and Welch say they would like congress to find a compromise to prevent
going the fiscal cliff. "I'm
a skeptic. I don't think that's likely to happen," says Welch. Once the country goes over the cliff,
automatic cuts and tax increases kick in.
The average family would see their taxes go up $2,000. Government services from defense to
Medicare to unemployment benefits would be cut. "I would prefer not go over the fiscal cliff. I'd
prefer to reach an agreement in the lame duck session," says Sanders. Sanders and Welch says the important
thing is getting the right agreement to reduce the country's deficit, which
would avoid the cliff. They say a
key point will be raising taxes on people making more than $250,000. "Anything that we do is going to
be an adjustment," says Welch.
The cliff takes effect January 1st. It was congress' own idea during debt negotiations last year
to force politicians to take the issue seriously.
On a breezy, Monday afternoon, the loudest thing
you could hear was the grass blowing in the wind at the base of Lowell
Mountain. Some of the 21-turbines
sitting atop it were spinning and you could hear a faint sound, but nothing Don
Nelson says like the noise they were making more than a week ago. "The noise was about like a 747
coming into land with the wings flapping," said Nelson. All weekend Nelson says the blades were
disrupting the area. He put up a
piece of paper in the center of Albany, Vermont and asked others to sign it, if
they also heard the loud noises. 33
people did. "The furthest we
heard it, that of anybody that heard it was 6.5 miles," said Nelson. We have to mention Nelson has been
against the project from the beginning and are currently in the middle of a
lawsuit against Green Mountain Power.
Instead of contacting GMP, he sent a letter to the Vermont board that
approved the project. But GMP says
he should've called them. "We
were not contacted until Monday after it had happened," said GMP
Spokesperson Dotty Schnure. Turns
out there were a problem. GMP says
the turbines aren't supposed to be louder than the sounds in a library. "We've done some investigating and
narrowed down what we believed caused that sound," said Schnure. While they're confident they've fixed
the problem, Nelson says he's not sold these machines won't disrupt him again. "I expect it will happen
again," said Nelson. While
the turbines are all up, they're not collecting energy. GMP is running tests and expects them
to be operational within the next few weeks.
