WVTK Local & State News February 14, 2011

Police say Robert Trepanier of West Rutland was arrested following an incident early yesterday in which a home was broken into. Police say that the three men living in the house were awakened around 4 AM and a struggle broke out between them and the intruder. 1 of the residents was able to subdue Trepanier until police arrived. He was charged with burglary, simple assault and unlawful trespass. Police say he was "substantially intoxicated" at the time of the break-in.

A group of local entrepreneurs is turning the former Autumn Harp company complex in Bristol into a mixed-use development with a focus on health and wellness, value-added food products, educational services, light manufacturing and housing. Led by Autumn Harp founder Kevin Harper, the group formed “Bristol Works!” and purchased the six-acre property in December for $1 million. The complex includes several buildings and they envision a three-phase development of the property. The Addison County Regional Development Corp. is lending its assistance to “Bristol Works!” as needed.

Researchers will focus their attention this summer on the impact fishing tournaments and toxins are having on fish populations in Lake Champlain. The Lake Champlain Basin Program has awarded two grants totaling nearly $130,000 for a pair of research projects targeting the lake's sports fishery. Both studies will get under way this summer, with results from at least one project expected in early 2012.

Discount supermarket chain Aldi has plans to open its second Vermont store at the site of what is now Smith Buick GMC on South Main Street in Rutland. Aldi representatives met recently with city and Rutland Town officials to brief them on the company’s plans to build a store where the Smith Buick GMC dealership is located. The franchise was recently sold to Phil Alderman, who plans to relocate the dealership to his Chevrolet store on Route 7.

Vermont's congressional delegation plans to gather today in Burlington to protest an expected White House proposal to cut federal heating assistance for low-income households in half. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch say they've worked in recent years to double funding under the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The cut is expected to be announced when the president releases his budget today.

Governor Peter Shumlin kicks off his first official out-of-state trip this week. The Governor will head north of the border to Canada to talk energy and other issues. Today Shumlin will travel to Montreal for meetings with officials at Hydro-Quebec and Gaz Metro. On Tuesday Shumlin is expected to meet in Quebec City to talk trade and other initiatives.

Vermont lawmakers are holding a statewide public hearing - via Vermont Interactive Television - to give people the chance to express their opinions about a health care bill being proposed by Gov. Peter Shumlin. The hearing, set to run from 6 PM to 8 PM on March 7, will give people the opportunity to speak at various VIT sites including Middlebury, Rutland and Williston. Driving directions, addresses and telephone numbers for the sites are available at www.vtlink.org.

Vermont lawmakers are considering a $0.10 tax on each disposable bag consumers take from grocery and other stores, or banning some of them outright. A House committee on Friday took testimony on bills that would impose the tax on either plastic or paper bags. It wouldn't apply to bags a customer uses to carry items like fruits or vegetables to the cash register. Backers say Vermont's cash-strapped government could raise about $9 million a year in new revenue. A second bill would ban plastic grocery bags.

The Hannaford supermarket chain is in the planning stages to build a store in Hinesburg. The plan still needs to be approved, but there is already backlash from some residents in town. Yesterday, more than a dozen protesters went to the proposed site and held a rally against the grocery store. Some in town are also worried about the effect on local businesses, saying that a big, corporate grocery store could wipe out smaller, local shops in town. However there is local support for the plan was well.

A Vermont Transportation Board member says the town of Killington should get its scenic byway plan approved in the next two weeks. The Vermont Scenery Preservation Council unanimously asked the board to establish U.S. Route 4 from West Rutland through Hartford a scenic byway. It’s a designation that would allow nine towns, including Killington, to apply for federal transportation grants and other perks.

Many Vermonters hope to transform local food from a luxury to something everybody can get a bite of. There are some big challenges but supporter’s say the benefits are worth it. That was the point of a workshop at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont's winter conference on Saturday. It brought together farmers, distributors and big food buyers including the Burlington public schools, which provides 5,500 meals a day.

Vermont lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it a crime for convicted sex offenders to use fake names on social networking sites like Facebook. The bill came before the state Senate's Judiciary Committee on Friday after a teacher who formerly worked with sex offenders said he saw a Facebook profile page containing a picture of a sex offender he had worked with who was using an assumed name and had become Facebook friends with several 14- and 15-year-old girls.

Bus drivers and maintenance workers with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority held a rally yesterday inside Burlington City Hall to gain support for difficult contract negotiations. Other labor unions, as well as UVM students, came out to support the group, which is hoping to negotiate better schedules for workers, a cap on the number of part time workers, and what they call more reasonable routes.

A shuttered Williamstown dry-cleaning plant that was at the center of 1 of Vermont's first large-scale experiences with polluted groundwater almost 30 years ago is going to be torn down. It's unclear when demolition will begin on the now-vacant building owned by the UniFirst Corp. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation says efforts to clean groundwater around the plant will continue whether the building is there or not.

A Vermont brewery is giving new meaning to the idea of green beer. Magic Hat Brewing Co., of South Burlington, is the first site to use a device that turns spent grain from the brewing process into natural gas that is then used to fuel brewing operations. A methane digester, installed last summer, extracts energy from the spent hops, barley and yeast left over from the brewing process. It also processes the plant's wastewater, saving the brewer two ways: waste disposal and natural gas purchasing.

A Vermont snow-sculpting contest that had to be cancelled for lack of snow last year won't have the problem this year. The Snow Sculpture Competition, which is being held Feb. 19-20 in Barre, will consist of 20 structures built from 6-foot cubes of snow at downtown parks by 18 teams of people. The event, sponsored by Studio Place Arts, of Barre, will have two demonstration sculptures: A replica of Vermont's statehouse and another display dubbed "Vermont Snows."

On Saturday morning students from across Clinton and Essex counties participated in the annual MathCounts challenge, where teams compete for a place in the state competition next month. After grueling rounds of individual and group exams, teams from Saranac Lake Central School, Stafford Middle School and Chazy Central Rural School took home the top three prizes, respectively.

Pico Mountain played host to the 4th annual United States Association of Blind Athletes annual Winter Festival Saturday. The event draws athletes from as far away as Miami and Wisconsin along with local talent as well. A group of fifteen athletes from across the country came to take advantage of all this snow.