Tomorrow the Middlebury River
Task Force meets at 9 AM in the Town Offices. Agenda items include the Middlebury River Engineering
Analysis and recommendations to the Select Board on Engineering Proposals. Mitigation planning and a status of the
stream restoration effort will also be discussed. For a complete agenda just visit the Town Of Middlebury’sWebsite.
Addison County Transit
Resources was recently awarded an $8,000 grant from the Richard E. and Deborah
L. Tarrant Foundation in Burlington. These funds contribute towards the 20%
local match requirements of a $2.85 million Federal grant previously awarded to
ACTR for the construction of the Addison County Community Transportation
Center. Executive Director of ACTR Jim Moulton said, “We are honored to receive
this gift from the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation, which
recognizes our contribution to the economic, social and environmental health of
the Addison County region.” ACTR
plans to be operating out of the new Community Transportation Center by May
2013. To learn more about ACTR’s services, and/or contribute to the capital
campaign for the Community Transportation Center, visit www.actr-vt.org or call 802-388-1946.
Vermont State Police are
investigating an incident in Starksboro where an unknown suspect used a shotgun
to shoot and damage a fiber-optic line located behind 175 Ruby Brace Road. Comcast of Middlebury reports that 600
homes were affected by the vandalism and the estimated repair cost is $15,000. Anyone with information is encouraged
to contact the Vermont State Police at 388-4919. Information can also be
submitted online at www.vtips.info or text CRIMES (274637) to keyword VTIPS.
A Castleton constable and
part-time police officer in that town and neighboring Fair Haven has been
placed on administrative leave by the municipal departments after a state game
warden issued him a criminal citation for allegedly baiting deer near his tree
stand in Castleton. Scott Stevens
is due to appear in Rutland criminal court next month to answer to the
misdemeanor charge.
Casella Waste Systems has
named chief financial officer Ed Johnson as president and chief operating
officer. The company also
announced that Ned Coletta, vice president of finance and investor relations,
was promoted to senior vice president, chief financial officer and
treasurer. Paul Larkin, who served
as president and chief operating officer, left the company at the end of
November. John Casella
remains chairman and CEO of the company.
The office of Sen. Patrick
Leahy has announced that Rutland’s GE Aviation plant will share in a $197
million Navy engine contract for the F/A-18E/F fighter. The contract to build 52 engines is
being apportioned among several GE plants. GE Rutland’s share of the contract is $23.7 million or 12
percent of the award. The Rutland
plant has more than 1,000 workers.
A holiday charity in
Schroon Lake is struggling this year.
The Children’s Christmas Express, which provides holiday gifts for needy
children in Schroon and North Hudson, is facing increased demand and decreased
contributions this year. The
Children’s Christmas Express will serve about 50 children, from infants to age
13. Christmas Express participants are asking people to make gift donations and
to support the Schroon Lake Chamber of Commerce basket raffle fundraiser this
Saturday.
The 22nd annual Festival
of Trees at the Hancock House is coming up this weekend. Sponsored by the Ticonderoga Historical
Society, the event will be held on Sunday afternoon from 1 to 3 at the Hancock
House at Moses Circle in Ticonderoga.
The Festival of Trees features trees decorated by the society and local
businesses, organizations, families and individuals. The event is free and refreshments will be served. The
society’s annual 50/50 winner will be picked at the festival and there will be
a basket raffle. Ti Arts will have
its store open and decorated with items available for sale.
The Ticonderoga Area
Chamber of Commerce “December After Business Mixer” will be held on Thursday,
December 13th at the Hancock House located in historic Ticonderoga next to
Liberty Monument. The Ticonderoga Historical Society and Ticonderoga Arts will
co- host the event at the Hancock house from 5:30 – 7:00 PM. Sponsors providing
door prizes will be Rathbun Jewelers, Ticonderoga Arts and the Wagon Wheel
Restaurant. The Hancock House is home to the Ticonderoga Historical Society and
Ticonderoga Arts. Both organizations and door prize sponsors are members of the
Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce.
Find out more by visiting www.ticonderogany.com.
Gov. Peter Shumlin has
been elected chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. Shumlin was elected at the DGA's annual
meeting in Los Angeles. He said
Tuesday that is honored to be chosen and is looking forward to the challenge. As chairman, Shumlin said he hopes to
deepen the partnership between the association and Democratic governors around
the country. He also said his role, as DGA chair is good for Vermont. He said
the state has a great story to tell the rest of nation, and stands to benefit
from the collaboration with other states and other governors.
A company developing a
wind project on the Milton-Georgia line in Vermont has agreed to pay a $10,000
fine and contribute another $10,000 to a remediation fund for violations of its
state permits during blasting for the project. The Vermont Public Service Board
issued the order to Georgia Mountain Community Wind last week. It's the result
a negotiated settlement with surrounding neighbors.
The unemployment rate in
New England was unchanged in October and remains below the national average.
The New England Information Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says
the jobless rate in the six-state region was 7.4% in October, the same as in
September. The regional rate was 7.5% a year ago.
Authorities say a man who took
his own life in an Alaska jail after confessing to a string of killings also
robbed a bank in New York's Adirondacks, where he owned land and investigators
have found 1 of his murder weapons.
An FBI spokesman in Albany says 34-year-old Israel Keyes told
authorities the Community Bank branch in Tupper Lake was one of several he held
up to pay for his travel.
An anti-nuclear group is
asking the Vermont Supreme Court to order an immediate shutdown of the Vermont
Yankee nuclear plant. The New
England Coalition points to a state Public Service Board order last week saying
the Vernon reactor's owners agreed in 2002 to shut down if they didn't have a
new state certificate of public good by this past March. Vermont Yankee still hasn't received a
new certificate, and the board has warned it repeatedly that it is operating in
apparent violation of that 2002 agreement. The board incorporated that
agreement into its approval when Entergy Corp. bought Vermont Yankee a decade
ago. Now NEC is asking the high
court for an injunction ordering a shutdown.
Angry Democrats who won a
majority of seats in New York's contentious Senate call a deal among
Republicans and five Democrats to control the chamber a "coup."
Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy says the deal is a power grab in the face of
voters who chose more Democrats in November elections to rule the Senate. Democrats
claim the coalition with Republicans will mean the majority will ignore
Democratic issues including raising the minimum wage and better protecting
women’s reproductive rights.
Democratic New York State
Senator Jeffrey Klein says the new bipartisan coalition in the Senate between
Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference will increase New York's
minimum wage. Klein is the leader of the conferences, and he tells The
Associated Press he expects the minimum wage increase will be approved with
other progressive measures.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says
the state will invest $50 million to bring a private biomedical research
company and 250 jobs to Buffalo. The governor's announcement today represents
the first installment on his pledge to invest $1 billion in the western New
York economy over several years. The private Albany Molecular Research Inc.
will locate on the expanding Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Hundreds turn out to pay
their final respects to Representative Gregory Clark on Tuesday. Clark was struck by a car while trying
to clean off his windshield in a snowstorm last week. He was on his way to his job as a teacher at Mount Abrams High
School in Bristol when he lost his life.
The Republican lawmaker had just been elected to his sixth term. The governor will appoint his successor.
A mental health facility
planned for Middlesex is moving forward despite ongoing legal issues with a
neighbor. Temporary modular
buildings are located on state land, adjacent to the state police barracks. The structure will house between six
and eight patients. The flooding
at the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury during Tropical Storm Sandy
displaced the patients.
A University of Vermont
art teacher and her students are marking the end of an era with a monument to
waste. They're creating a
sculpture containing nearly three-thousand discarded water bottles to mark the
end of bottled water sales on campus.
The arch-shaped structure is designed to encourage students to fill
refillable water bottles at water fountains around campus. The arch will go on display today at
noon in the Davis Center atrium.
NY Senate Republicans and
the Independent Democratic Conference are joining forces in Albany. The deal between the GOP and the
five-member IDC will feature a rotating Senate presidency and equal control
over committee assignments and other key functions of the chamber. The Senate presidency will rotate
between Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos and IDC head Senator Jeff Klein
every two weeks. Analysts say the
move bolsters the IDC as permanent third conference in the chamber.
Independent Democratic
Conference leader Senator Jeff Klein is speaking out about what he hopes the
new coalition government his conference has agreed to with Republicans can get
done. Klein says the group will be
able to move a progressive agenda through the chamber, and has hopes for real
reforms on a number of topics including minimum wage and campaign-finance
reform. Klein calls passing a
state minimum wage increase a "moral and economic necessity."
The Rutland Board of
Aldermen decided earlier this week that it did not want to take away any of the
Public Works commissioner’s authority over the city water system. Alderman Gary Donahue had proposed a
charter change dividing authority between the commissioner and the board under
some circumstances. A motion to send the proposal to the Charter and Ordinance
Committee failed, with nobody other than Donahue speaking in favor of the change.
Brandon Music Café on
Country Club Road in Brandon will host the 6-time Grammy winning baritone
saxophonist Gary Smulyan this Thursday at 7:30 PM. Gary is critically acclaimed
and recognized as a major voice on the baritone saxophone. General Admission is $15 and reservations
are strongly encouraged. BrandonMusic Café offers a concert and dinner package, which includes dinner and a
ticket to the show for $30 plus tax per person. Dinner reservations are
required. Brandon Music will now
present a monthly jazz concert on a Thursday evening, and all other previously
publicized Jazz Thursday shows will be postponed to later date. For reservations contact Brandon Music
@ (802) 465-4071 or info@brandon-music.net
Some UVM students say they
don't feel as safe after a drug-related stabbing on campus Monday. Two people have been charged and two
others are still in the hospital. Police
say one of the people responsible was 19-year-old Joshua Mossburg, who appeared
on a charge of assault and robbery in a Burlington courtroom Tuesday. Police say Mossburg and another
teen from Pennsylvania were visiting a UVM student and wanted LSD. That's when police say the three
hatched a plan to meet another UVM student, who thought he was going to sell
them the drug. Police say Mossburg
and his friends came down to a parking lot on the Redstone Campus, which is
surrounded by dorms and the idea was to get the drugs however they could. Police say soon after the drug dealer
arrived, a fight broke out with knives.
Three of the young men were hurt.
"Drugs are a problem. People who sell them and people who seek
them, you know, coming together for various reasons, really bring a lot of
violence with them," says Chief Lianne Tuomey, UVM Police Department. Tuomey says the stabbing was one of the
most violent crimes she's seen on campus in decades. That's why some students say they're watching out for their
safety. "This is where I live
on campus," says Chris Carroll, a UVM student. "So it's kind of scary
to think there's people running around causing violence." Mossburg pleaded not guilty and is
being held on $50,000 bail. Police
say the drug dealer, UVM student Jarrett Clark, is charged with selling LSD. Police say more charges are expected. UVM is promising a review of its
emergency alert procedures after many students complained they only heard about
the stabbing through rumors. The
school says there was a technical problem with the campus alert system Monday
and the stabbing alert was only emailed to staff and faculty, not students. UVM says it only discovered the problem
this morning and fixed it. On
Monday, the school did not activate a more comprehensive system called CatAlert
which sends messages to the campus community by email, text, and voicemail's. The school says it will review that
decision and the entire alert system.
"We're going to be doing that. See what we can learn from this
situation and try to figure out how to do it better in the future," says
Enrique Corredera, UVM Director of Communications. The school says it decided not to activate CatAlert because
police said they had all the people involved in the stabbing and there was no
threat to the campus.
With temperatures being
unseasonably warm across Vermont Tuesday, the idea of how to pay for your heat
bill may not have been on your mind.
But winter is around the corner, and state lawmakers want to make sure
help is available. There's already
a plan for electric. Now they're
working on natural gas. On Tuesday
a state board talked about what could be coming. "The plan itself is structured with checks and
balances," said Vermont Gas Systems Vice President, Supply & Regulatory
Affairs Eillen Simollardes. Vermont
Gas Systems has proposed a plan that would require its customers to be 185%
below poverty, the same as qualifying for LIHEAP and they would receive 20% off
their bill. That would impact
about 20% of its Franklin and Chittenden county customers. But who would pay for it? Vermont Gas leaders say all customers,
including those on the program, would pay about a $1.40 more a month. The changes are in light of new
legislation that Vermont passed in 2011.
It forces the state's largest natural gas company create a program to
help those in need. "It's
troubling to me that we are attacking a fuel type that at a time and the least
expensive fuel right now, natural gas, could end up bearing a disproportionate
amount of the bill," said Simollardes. State leaders want to finalize how the plan will work by
early next year and they hope to have it in place by June.
