Thursday, December 12, 2013

WVTK Local & State News December 12, 2013

The President of Middlebury College will be stepping down at the end of the next academic year.  Ronald D. Liebowitz announced earlier today that he will step down June 30, 2015.  Liebowitz, Middlebury’s 16th president since the founding of the College in 1800, has served in the office since 2004.  Board Chair Marna Whittington said that the Board of Trustees will provide information about a presidential search following the February board meeting.

The FEMA Office in Williston will be closing at the end of next week.  According to officials, a small group of workers will remain in Vermont after December 20th but command, support, and administrative functions will be coordinated with the region 1 office in Boston.  At the peak of FEMA's operations in Vermont during Irene, there were about 600 employees and contractors working throughout the state.  Currently there are 27 employees and contractors.

Rutland City’s website is back online but with a slightly new address.  The new address is RutlandCity.org.  Until last week, it was RutlandCity.com.  On Friday, the city’s claim to the .com expired and a person or organization from Panama quickly bought the domain.  All the information is the same, it’s just now at RutlandCity.org.  And all the e-mail addresses that used to be at RutlandCity.com are now at RutlandCity.org.  Rutland City has claim to the new domain for the next 10 years.

Vermont State Police are investigating the theft of 50 gallons of Diesel Fuel from a farm in Shoreham.  Police were called the farm on Shoreham Depot Road yesterday morning just after 10 o’clock when they discovered that someone had pried open a box at the farm and stole the fuel from the tank inside.  Anyone with information about the theft is urged to call the state police at 388-4919.

Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury now has Vermont’s largest school solar array.  Gov. Peter Shumlin and others threw the switch on the system today, inaugurating the 157-kilowatt solar array, the largest such system at a school in the state.  Shumlin was joined by state and local officials and representatives of the solar power company the installed the array, SunCommon, and Green Mountain Power.  The 480-panel array can produce enough electricity for about 30 homes and it’s expected to save the school thousands of dollars in electricity costs.

Vermont’s attorney general is suing Bank of America for alleged violations of Vermont’s foreclosure mediation and consumer protection laws.  The lawsuit says the bank billed homeowners in foreclosure for more money than their mediation settlements provided.  And it says Bank of America sent mailings to homeowners containing misrepresentations, including misrepresentations about the amount of money due the bank and the status of the foreclosure action.