The Town Offices /
Community Center Steering Committee will meet this morning at 10:30 in the
small conference room at the Town Offices. Stay up-to-date on weekly meetings by visiting the Town’sWebsite.
The Middlebury Select
Board will meet this evening at 7 in the Main Conference Room of the Town
Offices. Items on the agenda
include Reports from various committees including the Recreation and Town
Steering Committee. Adoption of the National Flood Insurance Program
Regulations will take place. The Vermont
Gas Systems' Request for Letter of Support for the Addison Natural Gas Project
will be addressed. There will also
be reports on various projects and a discussion of the FY14 Budget, including the
responses to date from Department Heads, the Estimated Grand List & the Revised
Schedule. To view the complete
agenda just visit the Town’s Website.
Middlebury College has
named Bill Burger vice president for communications. Bill is currently
associate vice president for communications at Brandeis University in Waltham,
Massachusetts. He will take on his new role at Middlebury January 1st
and will direct communication efforts for Middlebury and for the Monterey
Institute of International Studies, a graduate school of Middlebury College in
Monterey, California. He received
a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University. He is an
active alumnus and has served on the board of directors of the Stanford Alumni
Association. He currently lives in Andover, Massachusetts with his wife, Susan
and their three children.
The former president of a
defunct Middlebury company was sentenced to a five-year term of federal
supervised release and was ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution for his role
in a $1 million bank fraud. Donald
James Marler was the top executive for Specialty Filaments Inc. and faced a
potential 30-year prison term after he pleaded guilty to a federal felony for
conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Jeff Audette, the company’s vice president,
and Paul Mammorella, its director of finance, were also ordered to pay
restitution in the amount of $300,000.
The first major project
aimed at making Rutland the solar capital of New England has come on-line, with
the transformation of a long-troubled utility property that now generates
clean, renewable electricity. The Green Mountain Power 150-kilowatt Creek Path
Solar Farm was built on a former brownfield and was completed two weeks ahead
of schedule. The project is part
of GMP’s plan to create and inspire construction of enough solar to provide Rutland
with the highest solar reliance per capita of any city in the northeast. The company is building its new Energy
Innovation Center in the former Eastman’s Building and is also recruiting new
business such as Small Dog Electronics to locate in Rutland. Vermont Energy Investment Corp. and
Neighborworks of Western Vermont announced plans to co-locate some staff at the
EIC last week.
The Ticonderoga Best
Fourth In The North Committee is thrilled to announce the latest fundraiser to
support the 2013 Best Fourth In The North Celebration. “Ring In The New Year” with Bobby and
Tommy Dedrick will take place on Saturday, January 5th from 7:00 –
9:00 PM at The Pub in Downtown Ticonderoga. Join in the festivities and help
Tommy and Bobby raise money from the tips they receive. All proceeds will
benefit the Best Fourth In The North Celebration. The 2013 Best Fourth In The
North Celebration will take place July 1-4, 2013. For more information visit www.best4thinthenorth.com or www.timainstreet.org.
School boards in Crown
Point and Ticonderoga are looking for a few dedicated citizens to serve on a
district consolidation-study advisory committee. Ticonderoga School Superintendent John McDonald Jr. said
they need five community members, two teachers, a support staff worker and an
administrator from each district. Interested
persons should contact the superintendent’s office in each community, and the
school boards will make the actual appointments. Ticonderoga and Crown Point
school boards at their January 2013 meetings will appoint the committee. The
two districts recently received a $45,000 state grant to study merging and hire
a professional consultant.
The state of Vermont needs
more money to clean up Lake Champlain from farm and sewage pollution. The Vermont Agency of Natural
Resources says the state would have to increase spending by $150 million
dollars a year. In a report
released Friday, a dozen tax and fee increases could add $26 million in
revenue. The report suggests
other sources of revenue, including a surcharge on the income or property tax,
a statewide storm-water fee to a tax on bottled beverages.
Hubbardton Forge is set to
be featured on Fox Business News next month. The company stands out as an
example of a successful manufacturer turning out high-end American-made
lighting products. The segment on
Hubbardton Forge will air at 8:30 p.m. on January 2nd on The Fox Business
Network. Award-winning producers Bob and Jerry May and award-winning director
Bryan McCullough produce the segment. John Criswell will narrate it.
Vermont's Agency of
Agriculture, Food, and Markets has started its annual ban on winter manure
spreading as part of a strategy to protect water quality. Manure spreading is a common
practice in Vermont agriculture, which enriches the soil for production.
Vermont's annual ban, which went into effect Saturday, has been used since 1995
under the Accepted Agricultural Practice rules. Officials say research has shown that manure applications on
frozen ground can increase the runoff potential. The ban is in effect until April 1st.
The Vermont Public Service
Department is holding two public hearings on a final draft of a change to the
state's electric plan. The
plan includes guidelines for utilities in preparation of integrated resource
plans, in which each utility will describe its plan to meet the public's need
for energy at the lowest cost. The changes also include general information on the
process the department uses to determine if a proposal is consistent with the
electric plan. The public
hearings will be held on Wednesday at 2 PM and January 4th at 9 AM at the
Public Service Department in Montpelier.
Vermont State Police are
urging drivers to slow down in hazardous winter conditions after numerous
vehicles have slid off of roads in southeastern Vermont over the last two days. Troopers are being encouraged to issue
traffic tickets in these incidents to drivers who are driving too fast for the
condition. The ticket find is $214.
Captain Ray Keefe, commander of the Vermont State Police in Royalton,
Rockingham and Brattleboro said yesterday that many of these incidents, often
called "slide-offs," can cause injuries to the driver and passengers
and are an unnecessary drain on state and local resources.
Three Vermonters have cast
the state's votes in the Electoral College that will formally elect President
Barack Obama to a second term. Vermont
was the first state whose electoral votes were placed in the column of
President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. On Monday, electors from around the country are gathering in
their state capitals to make official the Obama-Biden victory in their bid for
a second term.
The state of Vermont is
among eleven states across the country that successfully pushed the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to tighten standards for airborne soot. The new standards announced by the EPA
last week will reduce by 20% the maximum amount of soot released into the air
from smokestacks, diesel trucks, buses and other sources. The EPA's Friday ruling met a court
deadline in a lawsuit by Vermont, 10 other states and public health groups. The new annual standard will be 12
micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from the current 15 micrograms per
cubic meter.
The New York State Thruway
Authority board has dropped plans for a 45% increase in truck tolls, saying
it's taking a number of cost-cutting steps instead. The toll hike was proposed this summer by the board headed
by appointees of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It was said to be essential to shore up the
finances of the state authority and avoid an expensive hit to its credit
rating.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
says a tougher federal law is needed to crack down in the interstate transport
of guns. Speaking Monday, Cuomo
says he'll propose state gun laws to close loopholes related to assault rifles.
He made the comments after Friday's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The incident has renewed calls for
tighter control of semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines. Federal statistics show that most guns
recovered from New York crimes in 2011 originated in states with fewer legal
restrictions.
Vermont's Senator Patrick
Leahy is now third in line of presidential succession, behind House Speaker
John Boehner. The President
Pro-Tem of Senate of Hawaii passed away Monday night. Tradition calls for the pro-tem to be the longest serving
senator of the majority party. Leahy has not only been elevated to the
president pro-tem seat, but it also puts him in line to be chairman of the
powerful Appropriations Committee.
At the urging of Vermont
Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca, schools in the state are being asked
to take another look at their crisis safety plans, in light of the tragedy in
Newtown, Connecticut. Vilaseca
doesn't want schools going the other way, however, as they look for ways to
control access to the buildings without turning the schools into a
fortress. From preschools up to
the university level, many on Monday were revisiting their plans and procedures,
just to make sure.
Winooski Mayor Michael
O'Brien is still keeping his opinions to himself about the F-35
controversy. He says there isn't a
huge difference between the F-35's and the F-16's, although the 35's are
probably a bit louder, but the mayor is still not taking sides in the
controversy over basing the newer fighter jets at the Vermont National Guard
base at the Burlington International Airport. Governor Peter Shumlin, the Burlington mayor and O'Brien
went to Florida last week to compare noise levels between the older and newer
jets. The Air Force could make its
decision sometime this month.
New York Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand says its time to get serious about gun laws in Washington. The junior senator from the Empire
State says last week's tragedy in Connecticut reminds her that Congress
"has ducked a serious national debate over common-sense gun laws for too
long." Gillibrand writes in
the "New York Daily News" that lawmakers should be able to come
together on the issue, saying "the truth is that supporting the Second
Amendment and reducing gun violence are compatible and consistent."
Governor Andrew Cuomo has
signed a measure that creates a new system to track and report abuse and
neglect of the developmentally disabled in homes and facilities. Cuomo had pushed the Justice Center
legislation for much of the year.
It comes after several reported stories of abuse in homes and facilities
for the developmentally disabled that went unreported to law enforcement and
other officials.
The City Of Rutland will
invite private companies to bid on running the downtown parking deck. The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously
yesterday to authorize Mayor Christopher Louras to request proposals for
third-party management of the state-owned deck. The city has been in talks with
the state since 2010 over the future of the deck. The state wants the city to
take over operation of the deck, which has suffered from vandalism and has been
a drain on state resources.
The U.S. Forest Service
says a snowmobile trail in Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest has been
closed because the trail was damaged by "unauthorized excavation" and
"substandard alterations."
The Forest Service says the changes to the Deerfield Ridge Trail in the
towns of Wilmington and Dover represent a significant threat of damage to the
surrounding public lands and resources by increasing erosion, compromising the
health of existing wetlands, wildlife habitat and unique biological
communities. So the trail has been
closed to all motorized vehicles until further notice. The trail is still open to hikers, but
people using the trail should exercise caution and expect changed and degraded
trail conditions.
In the Burlington School
District, thousands of dollars are spent each year on security. But in the wake of Friday's shooting,
many parents want to know how that money is being spent. School leaders say they plan to meet
with parents to discuss the district's security plan soon. Since Friday, they say a number of them
have called and emailed. But
leaders say it's also about hearing what ideas parents might have. "There are many parents who would
like to contribute to that, who would like to share in the planning and come
with great backgrounds and have great suggestions to make that happen,"
said Superintendent Jeanne Collins.
Collins isn't sure when that meeting will take place, but she says it
will be open to the public.
Parents, we completely
understand it may have been a little harder to drop your kids off at school
today, but we're here to assure you the state of Vermont has a plan. Sadly unthinkable tragedies like
the Sandy Hook massacre make us take a closer look at the plans that are in
place. Vermont has had one in effect since 1998. It changes with the times and
technology, and may change again after today. "Kindergarten children, first grade kids, the lights
are on and shining brightly and woe-be anybody who dims those lights," Ken
Page of the Vermont Principals' Association said. Friday was a dark day. The heart wrenching Sandy Hook
massacre has captivated the nation, and no doubt has moms and dads asking what
safety procedures are in place. I sat down with the Chair of Vermont's School
Crisis Planning Team to find out what those are. "Close the blinds, turn off the lights, get student out
of the way," Chairman Stephen Earley said. That's part of the plan... the key is to practice. Earley said, "the quicker the
action and the better the action's taken, the safer people will be." The School Crisis Planning Team is a
volunteer organization. Every
month, educators, and law enforcement get together to review procedures and
teacher training. Teachers at Sandy Hook have been hailed as heroes. "When I saw the steps that the
teachers took, it was the right thing," Earley said. A lot of modifications have been made
to the inside of schools as well. From locks to surveillance cameras, there's
extra security all across the nation today. "But it can't just be today, it's got to be all the
time," Page said. But still,
schools statistically are one of the safest places for children to be. Experts say another key component is to
include first responders in on the plan.
