WVTK Local & State News March 10, 2011

A Winter Weather Advisory Is In Effect Until 11 AM for Addison, Essex and Rutland Counties. Snow and Sleet this morning is expected to change to Rain with Snow and Sleet accumulation of 2 – 4 Inches. High Today in the 30’s.

The Charlotte-Essex Ferry on Lake Champlain has been shut down for a second straight year. Lake Champlain Transportation suspended service between the two communities at the end of February because of ice. Commuters now face a two-hour detour. An ice breaker is being used to keep ferries running at the site of the old Champlain Bridge in West Addison. LCT says it will reopen the crossing between Charlotte, Vt., and Essex, N.Y., once the ice melts, but that date is uncertain.

The 3rd Annual Middlebury Winter Carnival and Chili Festival will be held this Saturday. To accommodate the festival, parking will be restricted in the festival area all day on March 12. There will be no parking on Main Street, from Seymour Street to Cross Street; no parking on Merchants Row between Main Street and the driveway to the Battell Block; no parking on Park Street. The Municipal Lot on Mill Street is reserved for chili vendor parking, but will be available to general public parking until 1 PM on March 12. Vehicles left in the lot after that time can still be moved using Mill Street to Weybridge Street. Public parking is still available on Seymour Street, in the lot behind the Congregational Church, upper Merchants Row, South Pleasant Street, College Street, Main Street and South Main Street south of Cross Street; the Municipal Building, the municipal lots on Academy Street and Bakery Lane, and Weybridge Street. Main Street will be closed to traffic from 1 PM to 5 PM on Saturday, March 12. Access to Porter Hospital, Middlebury College, and points west can be made using the Cross Street bridge from Court Street (Rte 7), or for light passenger vehicles, Seymour Street to the Pulp Mill bridge.

The Town of Middlebury Department of Public Works will start snow removal operations in downtown Middlebury tonight, starting at 11 PM and work through the night. They will continue at 11 PM tomorrow night and work through the night. The Town’s winter parking ban prohibits parking on town streets and in town lots between midnight and 6 AM. Vehicles left in these areas that are impeding snow removal will be ticketed and towed at the owner’s expense. There are two areas where all night parking is allowed – in the lower municipal lot behind the Ilsley Library in spaces signed for all night parking and in the municipal lot in frog Hollow (Mill Street) in spaces signed for all-night parking.

No injuries were reported in a two-vehicle crash yesterday morning at the junction of routes 22A and 17 in Addison. According to police, a Brandon man was in a tractor-trailer truck traveling north on Route 22A when he crashed into another vehicle as it slowed down to turn onto Route 17. Both vehicles got stuck in a snow bank and could not be moved until a wrecker arrived on the scene. As a result of the crash, Route 17 was closed for approximately two hours.

An Addison County man will face charges in connection with a bizarre shooting incident last summer. Tracy Stone will be charged with reckless endangerment and simple assault. Police say in August Stone was target shooting in the backyard of his home in Bridport when he missed a target. The bullet traveled half a mile and struck Peter Damone. He survived but is still recovering.

Road repairs here in Middlebury are expected to get under way. Last week, Middlebury residents approved a $3 million bond to rebuild the town's roads. Several problem roads have been reported including some culverts in outlying areas.

A Rutland organization wants to find the best way to bring municipal water and sewer to Center Rutland. Rutland Economic Development Corp. Executive Director James Stewart said his organization is applying for a community development block grant that would fund an engineering study on the question.

The big snowstorm delayed the processing of unemployment benefits in Vermont. State government shut down on Monday, including the labor department's claims center. So checks and automatic deposits were delayed by a day.
Teachers in South Burlington voted yesterday afternoon to ratify a new contract. Last week, the teachers were walking the picket line, prepared to go on strike over terms of an imposed contract, which eliminated future step increases when no new contract was in effect. Monday, the two sides returned to the bargaining table and reached agreement on a contract that covers the current school year.

The Vermont Senate gave preliminary approval yesterday to a bill aimed at clearing up jurisdictional confusion created when two Bennington judges refused to hear a case involving an 18-year-old man charged with committing sex crimes when he was 13. Under the bill, crimes committed by someone younger than 18 would get their first hearing in the Family Court even if the person were 18 or over when charged. The Family Court could then transfer the case to the Superior Court if the crime was 1 of a list of a dozen ranging from murder to sexual assault and if the Family Court found there was good reason for the case not having been brought when the defendant was a juvenile. The Senate gave the bill preliminary approval on a voice vote with no debate; it's up for final Senate action today and then will move to the House.

The Vermont House has given preliminary approval to a bill that seeks to collect sales taxes on Vermonters' online purchases. The bill would require online merchants to collect the state's 6% sales tax and pass it on to the state. The bill, which won preliminary approval on a voice vote yesterday, comes up for final House action today before going on to the Senate.
A backcountry skier who suffered a head injury has been rescued from Mount Mansfield. 28 year-old Maia Pinsky, a University of Vermont medical student from Maine, crashed into a tree yesterday morning. She was not wearing a helmet. Rescuers traveled two miles through deep snow to rescue her from the Teardrop trail.

Eleven alleged drug dealers were arrested Wednesday in an Essex County drug bust that began shortly after 6 AM. Nine of the individuals are from Ticonderoga and two reside in Elizabethtown. State Police said multiple police agencies with a force of more than two dozen officers fanned out with warrants in hand in a move that required assistance from the Ticonderoga Police Department, Lake Placid Police Department, and the Essex County Sheriff's office. All of the alleged drug dealers have been arraigned on felony sale and possession charges and were in Essex County Jail.

A recent underage-drinking sting in Essex County netted two arrests but police were pleased that most businesses refused to sell alcohol to minors. State Police and Essex County Stop-DWI worked on the initiative last Friday when they had an 18-year-old volunteer try to purchase alcohol from 12 area businesses. In most cases, police said, store employees refused the sale. Authorities commended the businesses that checked the teen's identification, applauding Ticonderoga Mobil, Wal-Mart in Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga Citgo, Ticonderoga Sunoco and Crown Point Market and Gas.

Governor Peter Shumlin's plan to cut 110-million dollars from human services programs brought out hundreds of protestors yesterday. The concern is especially large for what this will mean for mental health funding, which stands to lose eleven million dollars. Over the past three years, some say the state has cut 15-million dollars already, and the new cuts are simply too deep. While the Shumlin administration acknowledges their pain, the governor still says they are necessary in order to balance the state budget.

New Hampshire and Vermont are home to many of the remaining covered bridges in the United States, but federal money to help fix or repair them up is being threatened. President Barack Obama's 2012 budget proposal would eliminate dozens of Department of Transportation programs, including the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program, which provides about $8 million a year for covered bridges across the country.

The U.S. Forest Service is allocating some $154,000 to create new and improve existing mountain bike trails, as well as increasing bike access throughout the Green Mountain National Forest. The allocation comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will be used to build a nine-mile mountain bike trail dubbed the Chandler Ridge-Leicester Hollow Loop Trail. The trail will start and end at the Silver Lake campground in Goshen. The new trail will also be accessible from Branbury State Park and the Blueberry Hill Ski Center in Goshen.

Travelers now have to pay to park at the Plattsburgh International Airport. Passengers, who used to park for free, will now have to pay up to $5 a day to park long-term at the airport. The county is hoping the parking fees will raise nearly $1 million a year to pay for the expansion.

Sen. Bernie Sanders' new book is now in print. The book is the print version of Sanders' filibuster speech in December. The senator spoke on the Senate floor for eight-and-a-half hours in a symbolic attempt to block the tax cut legislation that was approved by Congress a few days later. The book is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class." Proceeds from sales of the book will go to Vermont charitable and nonprofit organizations.