WVTK Local & State News January 21, 2011

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory that is in effect for Addison & Rutland County Through 4PM Today. We’re expecting anywhere from 3 – 6 Inches of snow with a High in the Low 20’s.

Bristol village may soon have some new business. Kevin Harper rolled out the plan this week for Bristol Works! LLC. It’s a project slated to redevelop the former Autumn Harp plant on Pine Street and turn it into mixed-use property that ultimately will include a health clinic, school district offices, light manufacturing and housing units. They hope to begin renovations later this winter, and start moving tenants into spaces as soon as the spaces are ready.

On January 27th you will be able to get a glimpse of some building options for one of the largest developable spaces remaining in downtown Middlebury. The 1.5 acres of land behind Ilsley Library consists of two side-by-side lots, one owned by Middlebury College and one by the town of Middlebury. Officials say the goal is to enhance the economic vitality of downtown Middlebury, boost the town’s grand list and attract more shoppers and businesses to the community. The presentation is at 7 PM next Thursday in the Ilsley Library conference room.

Lincoln voters have narrowly defeated a proposed $2 million bond to fund repairs and upgrades at Lincoln Community School. Residents came out in large numbers during Tuesday’s storm to cast ballots. The final tally was 222 votes in favor of the bond, and 237 votes against.

County schools are re-evaluating their approaches to student use of cell phones. Schools appear to be coming up with some very different policies. For example while administrators at Vergennes Union High School have temporarily instituted new, stricter cell phone rules, Middlebury Union High School is getting ready to loosen its rules at the end of a lengthy evaluation process.

Vergennes Union High School board members have adopted a 2011-2012 budget for Town Meeting Day approval that would drop spending from the current level by almost $94,000. Their $8.8 million proposal is the second in two years that would drop spending. The current year’s spending plan is about $8.9 million and that came in almost $11,000 lower than the previous year’s.

An ad hoc committee is putting together plans for a major makeover of Middlebury’s fire stations. Local fire officials are scheduled to give an update on those plans at town meeting in March. A bond vote could follow later this year. Their hope is to have something to the voters by this summer or fall.

Some Addison County dairy farmers may receive some money out of a court settlement. The Dean Foods Company and representative dairy farmers are waiting for court approval on a $30 million settlement that the two parties signed last month, which would conclude one part of a months-long class-action suit that accused three companies of price-fixing and illegal monopolizing of the Northeast dairy market.

The Vermont attorney general has decided not to criminally charge a former Rutland police officer that used a pepperball launcher against a bound and incarcerated man last year. For the past nine months, the Attorney General’s office has been reviewing an incident that took place January 1, 2010, inside the Rutland Police Department that involved then 24-year-old Jamek Hart.

Members of the Vermont Farm Bureau met last week in Montpelier to outline their five legislative priorities for the 2011 sessions. They said they are looking to a new governor and a refreshed legislature to address the most pressing agricultural issues in the state.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is taking a careful look at the State University of New York system as he prepares his first executive budget. Early reports indicate that Cuomo may propose a tuition increase for the state's public universities as he looks to address a budget deficit now projected at close to $11 billion.

Faced with rising costs and decreasing volunteers, the Crown Point Memorial Day committee decided to scale back the observance in 2010. Last year was Crown Point's 142nd annual Memorial Day observance. The weekend-long carnival was dropped. The traditional parade, fireworks and cemetery tour remained. The Memorial Day committee will start making plans this month for 2011. Much of the planning will be based on financial concerns. Officials are hoping Crown Point residents may have ideas and hopes residents will volunteer to serve on the Memorial Day committee.

Fort Ticonderoga will host the first of its "Materials Matter: It's in the Details Winter Weekend Workshops" tomorrow. The workshop, focusing on the French & Indian War era, takes place in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center at Fort Ticonderoga 10AM to 3PM. Pre-registration is required. The workshop is part of a new lecture series, which examines the material culture of the 18th century as it relates to Fort Ticonderoga's role in the 18th-century contests for North America. For more information just visit Fort Ticonderoga dot org.

A plan to renovate the old Moses-Ludington Hospital in Ticonderoga into senior citizen apartments is still in the works. Liberty Affordable Housing failed to secure the expected grant funding last summer. But the project is still alive according to the regional property manager for the firm. The Ticonderoga Supervisor said a new funding application has been submitted, well in advance of the February 9th deadline.

Ticonderoga officials and business leaders hope January 31st will officially mark a downtown renaissance. That's the date Two Brothers Meat Market formally opens its new location in the former Arthur Drugs building on Montcalm Street. The Two Brothers move and renovation is the first project of the Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance that was created last year to help Ticonderoga's business district prosper. The building had been vacant a decade.

The effort to bring a joint services municipal center to the town of Westport is still on the table and may come to a second vote by this summer. The plan is the construction of a center, which would house the Westport town offices, Westport Department of Public Works, the bus maintenance and fueling facility for use by all municipalities, including Westport Central School, and the Westport Volunteer Fire Department. The project was defeated in a close vote on June 15th last year.

Gov. Peter Shumlin says he is pleased with the unanimous vote of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board against opening a new muzzle loading deer hunting season in October. Shumlin commented about Wednesday night's vote saying that to allow hunting deer with firearms in October would be "an extraordinarily bad idea."

Vermont - the country's largest maple producer - has announced a settlement with McDonald's over complaints that the restaurant chain was improperly labeling a new product as maple flavored in the state. McDonald's has agreed starting February 1st to give customers in its Vermont stores pure maple syrup or sugar to add to the fruit and maple product if they request it. This will not apply outside of Vermont. A McDonald's spokeswoman says the company is pleased with the settlement and is happy to continue offering the oatmeal product in Vermont.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is getting ready to solicit bids from companies to have a diver explore a sunken tugboat in Lake Champlain that could contain thousands of gallons of fuel oil. The EPA is hoping a diver can descend 160-feet to the tug William McAllister in late May and go into the engine room and check the tanks for fuel. The fear is the tanks could leak. The McAllister sunk five miles south of Port Kent, NY, in November 1963 after it hit a reef. Over the years there have been reports of an oil sheen above the wreck.

State regulators have approved a $112.7 million rate hike for National Grid, structured so consumers won't see an increase in their monthly bills. The utility had requested a $390 million rate increase for 2011, but the Public Service Commission approved a 1-year rate plan with less than a third of the requested increase. To shield customers from increased bills, the PSC said it would structure the rate plan by forcing National Grid to defer certain charges it collects from customers such as storm restoration costs.

With a lot of community support, Pete's Greens in Craftsbury is planning to rebuild. The farm is one of the state's largest vegetable producers, and the fire last week caused more than half a million dollars in damage. As of yesterday, City Market Co-Op, which is a major customer of Pete’s Greens, will donate one percent of the store's proceeds until Sunday to the Craftsbury operation. An online auction will also be held over the weekend called "Bid for the Barn" organized by the Mad River Valley Localvore Project.

Green Mountain College in Poultney and the New Hampshire-based Hubbard Brook Research Foundation announced this week they are collaborating in a yearlong project to fuel the College’s new biomass facility from local sources of sustainably harvested woodchips. GMC and Hubbard Brook will be working to secure woodchips harvested from privately owned lands and loggers located within about a 15-mile radius of Poultney.