There will be a joint meeting of the Addison,
Ferrisburgh and Vergennes Town Republican Committees this evening at 7 at the
Bixby Library in Vergennes. The meeting will select candidates to recommend to
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin to serve out the unexpired term of late Rep. Greg
Clark. All are welcome to attend,
but please note that only registered members of the three town committees will
be able to vote.
The Addison County Chamber Of Commerce After Hours
Business Mixer is coming up this evening.
January’s mixer is hosted by the Rikert Nordic Center. Come early at 4
PM and enjoy an hour of free skiing. Rentals are free too if you don’t have
your own equipment. The mixer will
take place from 5 – 7PM. For more
information or to RSVP to see just visit the Chamber Website.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce “January
After Business Mixer” will be held this evening at Dunkin Donuts of Ticonderoga
from 5:30 – 7:00 PM. Dunkin Donuts is located on Wicker Street in Ti. Sponsors providing door prizes will be
Eddie’s Restaurant, Swift Maintenance and the Wagon Wheel Restaurant. Just visit www.ticonderogany.com
for details!
The Elizabethtown-Lewis Central School Board will
meet at 7 this evening. The
meeting is exclusively focused on executive-session discussion of the
employment history of particular individuals, as well as discussion of
collective negotiations. No other
board action is on the docket for the meeting.
The Westport Central School Board will hold a
special budget meeting on Thursday, January 24th at 5:30 PM in the
library. All board of education
meetings are open to the public.
Jazz returns to the
Brandon Music Café this evening! Brandon Music will host the pianist and
composer Kenny Werner at 7:30 PM. General Admission is $15 and reservations are
encouraged. A dinner & show package is available for $30. Kenny Werner's influence on the musical
community is unsurpassed. A Guggenheim Fellowship Award-winner and celebrated
recording artist he has impacted an entire generation of musicians. His compositions
and dynamic live performances have impacted audiences around the world for more
than 30 years. For reservations call Brandon Music @ (802) 465-4071. www.brandon-music.net
Coming up tomorrow morning at 9 the Middlebury
River Task Force will meet in the Ilsley Library Community Room. Then next Tuesday the Select Board will
hold a Public Hearing and Information Meeting on the Preliminary Proposed Town
General Fund Budget for FY14. This
includes Capital project Funds as well.
The meeting will begin at 7:15 PM in the Town Office Conference Room. The
total proposed budget is $8,943,097 with $6,366,592 to be funded by property
taxes. Your comments, suggestions
and input are important and appreciated.
Copies of the proposed budget may be obtained from the Town's website at the Town Manager's office or by calling 388-8100 ext 201.
A Wallingford man has been charged with a pair of
criminal offenses after allegedly driving more than 30 mph over the speed limit
on Route 7 in Salisbury. Vermont
State Police arrested Paul Burroughs after a motor vehicle stop along a section
of Route 7 where the posted speed limit is 50 mph. Police said he was clocked
driving more than 80 mph. Four
juveniles under the age of 18 were in the car. According to Police, Burroughs was issued a citation to
appear in Middlebury criminal court in March to answer misdemeanor charges of
excessive speed and reckless endangerment.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host a
ribbon cutting on Wednesday, January 30th at 5:00 PM as part of The Sentinel
Grille Grand Opening Celebration. The ribbon cutting will be followed by a
reception. In addition from 5:15 to 6:15 PM only you can purchase gift
certificates of $50 for $40, limited to two per person. The Sentinel Grille is located on Route
9N / Hague Road in Ticonderoga. A winter weather date of Thursday, January 31st
at 5:00 PM has also been arranged.
Visit www.ticonderogany.com
for more information.
The Chilson Volunteer Fire Company will hold its
35th annual dinner-dance Saturday, February 9th at 5:30 PM at the EMA at 9
Maplewood Lane in Ticonderoga. Proceeds
of the dinner dance will help Chilson Volunteer Fire Department purchase a
federally mandated radio system. The Chilson fire department will receive some
equipment from Essex County, but will need at least $16,000 of its own funds
for additional radios, conversions and installations. Tickets for the dinner
dance are now on sale for $15. Interested people can call Larry Lauman at
585-9133 to purchase tickets or for more information.
As New York State continues to deal with a flu
outbreak, Essex County Public Health officials said they are ready to help with
vaccinations and medical assistance.
Officials say that the county does have a strong supply of flu
vaccinations, and more are on the way.
They are not concerned about a shortage of vaccinations. Gov. Cuomo
declared the state a disaster emergency because of the numbers of the flu.
New York now has the strictest gun laws in the
country, but without the vote of North Country representatives. Sen. Betty Little, Assemblyman Dan
Stec and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey all voted against the NY Secure Firearms
and Ammunition Enforcement Act of 2013 that passed in the Senate Monday night
then the Assembly on Tuesday, followed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature.
You are invited to watch the races and even build a
vehicle during Rutland Cub Scout Pack 120’s Pinewood Derby Race, from 6 to 8 PM
Friday at Christ the King School. More
than 40 children are expected to race their hand-made cars. Spectators can also
build their own, using the same materials as the scouts. For more information,
call 802-779-1413.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says
he'll begin hearings in two weeks on gun safety proposals, as President Barack
Obama pushes for fast action. Senator Patrick Leahy says he envisions a series
of hearings examining violence in popular media and how to keep guns safe, among
other topics.
In a rare legal proceeding, the state Supreme Court
is to hear arguments that the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is continuing to run
in violation of a 2002 order by the Public Service Board. The anti-nuclear
group New England Coalition is asking the court to intervene in what it says is
plant owner Entergy Corporation's disobedience of the board order that allowed
Entergy to buy Vermont Yankee.
A six-month-long investigation by the Vermont Drug
Task Force Mobile Enforcement Team culminated Tuesday with the arrests of 47
people. The sweep concentrated on
Bennington County, with charges filed for distribution and sale of drugs, along
with several other criminal offenses.
Operation County Strike involved more than a hundred state, local,
county and federal law enforcement officers. No one was hurt when the arrests were carried out.
Here's a medical alert for Vermont women who get
migraine headaches. According to a
new women's health study, women who experience migraines and also a sensitivity
to flashing lights, may be more at risk of having a heart attack. They may even be at a higher risk of
getting blood clots and having a stroke.
Researchers say migraines are the second-most contributor to heart
attacks and strokes -- not diabetes or obesity. The number one contributor is high blood pressure.
Vermont schools are safer now than they were a
month ago, according to some school administrators. The school shooting in Connecticut in December had them
looking at their own environment and changes needed. Vermont schools are mandated by law to have an emergency
plan in place with at least one drill a month.
Lost skiers are continuing to be a problem for
State Police, ski patrollers and other first responders. Vermont's Public Safety Commissioner
has been meeting with troopers and ski resort officials this week to find some
sort of solution, with a new public safety campaign in the works. In the past several weeks, 47 lost
skiers and riders were reported, with 45 of them in the Killington-Pico area. Police point out in some cases it was
obvious the skiers went under ropes and past out-of-bounds warning signs.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says fixes to the
gun control measure signed into law by Governor Cuomo this week will be swiftly
approved. Opponents of the
landmark legislation had said the measure's quick passage caused the need for
clarification. Silver says there
are some questions, such as whether police can use assault weapons or multiple
firing cartridges. The speaker
says, though, those questions will be dealt with quickly and the appropriate
fixes will be made.
New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is hoping
to give financially stressed communities time to turn things around. His office will soon put in place a new
fiscal monitoring system that will calculate and publicize an overall score of
fiscal stress for municipalities and school districts across the state. DiNapoli says the "early
warning" system will identify those headed toward fiscal crisis and give
local officials sufficient time to consider options. The move comes after a new DiNapoli report finds local
governments across the state are increasingly turning to local tax revenue to
make up for sluggish growth in federal and state aid.
A minor earthquake has rattled the northern
Adirondacks. The 2.4-magnitude temblor struck at 8:46 yesterday morning and was
centered 11 miles northeast of Saranac Lake.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has piled up mostly
five-figure donations to build a massive campaign fund even as he pushes for
campaign finance reform to limit future donations. A New York Public Interest
Group analysis shows about 80% of Cuomo's donations were for $10,000 or more to
give him a mid-term campaign fund of $22 million.
A day after the toughest gun restrictions in the
country were signed into law in New York... in Washington, the President
announced a similar plan on the national level.
-Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammo clips
-Have everyone who purchases a gun undergo a
universal background check
-And make more funds available for mental health
care.
President Obama also says, school security needs
more support. "Like most
Americans, I believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to
bear arms. I believe most of them agree that if America worked harder to keep
guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like
the one that occurred in Newtown."
And in New York, Governor Cuomo is already facing the same opposition
the President says he expects. Only yesterday, Governor Cuomo signed the
strictest gun rules in the nation into law. And gun rights activists are
already calling for repeal. Those against the law say if the restrictions are not
repealed, they'll take the issue to court. Another group opposed to the
Governor's new law actually started an online petition to get him impeached.
The petition is on the White House's web site and it's calling for the
President to impeach Governor Cuomo for quote "violating" second
amendment rights. The petition already has about 3,905 signatures as of 5:25pm.
They would need 25,000 by February 14th.
Legislation in Vermont hasn't even come to the floor yet, and already
there are a lot of people upset. Yesterday, we told you about one senator who's
proposed a bill that would ban semi-automatic guns. Governor Peter Shumlin still wants to wait and see what
happens at the federal level, before we make any changes at the state level,
but other senators aren't confident in Congress and are already proposing bills
and a gun task force to start a full discussion locally. "These granite walls were built to
contain the heat of a really powerful debate," State Senator Philip Baruth
said. And that's indeed what
Baruth's bill has done. "At this point I can tell you that I don't support
his bill," State Senator Richard Sears said. Let's break down the proposed bill. It would ban semi
automatic guns, limit the amount of bullets in a cartridge to ten and require parents
to put locks on all guns. This was introduced Tuesday. I asked Sen. Baruth, "how many
emails have you received since yesterday about this?" He replied, "I
would say 150." Baruth say's
about 75 percent of them were against his plan. "It grandfathers any
weapon that's currently owned, it grandfathers and exempts antique weapons or
collectable's, so we're not talking about taking anybody's guns," Sen.
Baruth said. Senator John Campbell
has proposed a gun task force. It would include gun enthusiasts, and victims of
gun violence... gain their input, and then make a proposal. "Our children... their lives and
the lives of others are far too important for us not to do anything," Sen.
Campbell said. I spoke with
someone from the National Rifle Association who says mental health is the real
problem and says lawmakers need to leave guns alone. Even with that input, many
lawmakers feel confident there will be a change in gun control by the end of
this legislative session, even if it means both sides compromising. "It may not be what everybody
wants," Sen. Campbell said. There's
a public hearing set for February 7th at the Statehouse to discuss the assault
weapons ban proposal. At that time, a new bill that would ban felons from
possessing firearms will be introduced.
To help improve its aging facilities Vermont
governor Peter Shumlin announced plans to build a new visitor center along
interstate 89. What's normally a
state run facility wouldn't cost taxpayers a cent. Shumlin made the announcement yesterday in Randolph. The reason for the savings; the project
would be privately funded. The
developer plans to show off the local art, music and other things to help get
more people to visit. “All these
things will be in that 4,000 square foot component. So we're going to promote Randolph
and the downtown area like crazy.” the visitor center still needs environmental
approval. They hope to break
ground next spring and if all goes according to plan open by early 2015.
