WVTK Local & State News April 25, 2011

The Vermont State Police in New Haven, with the assistance of the Middlebury Police Department and Vermont Fish and Game, arrested Lorinda Wall of Middlebury. Wall's arrest was made in connection with several house burglaries in Weybridge. The recent robberies occurred at homes on Twitchell Hill and Field Days roads and Meetinghouse Lane in Weybridge. Investigators said Wall's arrest was linked to at least four of the residential burglaries in the area.

The Vermont State Police are still investigating the April 19th theft of several chainsaws from the residence of Jason Desorda on Martin Hill Road in Orwell. However, state detectives said Shawn Munger of Castleton, was arrested in connection with the case; he was cited for possession of stolen property and driving with a criminally suspended drivers license. Munger allegedly sold two of the stolen chainsaws in West Haven. The two chainsaws were later recovered and returned to Desorda. Munger is set to appear in Addison County Court June 13th.

The Rutland School Board is considering demolishing the Dana and Watkins buildings. The subject of the former school buildings came up at the board’s meeting earlier this month and Chairman Peter Mello said there could be a vote on the future of Watkins when the board meets tomorrow.

Some dairy farmers aren't sweet on part of a proposed $30 million settlement with a giant dairy processor that they say could hurt their income. The proposal would settle a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed in 2009 by five Northeastern dairy farms, who accused Dallas-based Dean Foods Co., Dairy Farmers of America and its marketing affiliate Dairy Marketing Services of working together to dominate the milk-buying market and hold down prices paid to farmers. Some farmers fear the move could lower prices paid to farmers if Dean starts shopping elsewhere.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is planning a get-together with representatives of Vermont's community health centers. Sanders will meet with them today in Burlington to discuss the future of the centers, which provide primary care, dental care, low-cost prescription drugs and mental health counseling to more than 108,000 Vermonters. The event is set for 11:15 this morning at the Vermont independent's offices on Church Street in Burlington.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell says to be on guard about decorative drinking glasses showing Gone With the Wind and Elvis Presley because some of them have lead in the painted illustrations. The products, imported from the Far East by Salt Lake City-based Vandor LLC, contain lead concentrations of up to 81 times the state limit for children of 100 parts per million.

Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed a bill to add Vermont to the list of states that want to get around the Electoral College and participate in a national popular vote. The measure puts Vermont on record agreeing to throw its Electoral College votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote in presidential elections.

A pastor from Tennessee will be in federal court in Burlington today, answering to charges he helped a woman involved in a custody dispute flee the country with her daughter. Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven were joined in a civil union in Vermont eleven years ago. Pastor Timothy David Miller, no relation to Lisa Miller, is suspected of helping her and her daughter travel to Central American in 2009. A federal arrest warrant remains outstanding for Lisa Miller.

The Vermont Senate will be holding a rare session to debate what's arguably the biggest issue on the table: health care. This afternoon, the 30 senators are scheduled to take up a bill that would dramatically change how Vermonters get and pay for their health care. The Senate will likely take up several amendments this week, many of them aimed at making the bill more business friendly.

Prices continue to rise at the pump. The Lundberg survey of gas prices puts the average national price for a gallon of regular at $3.88, 12 cents higher than just two weeks ago. Here in Vermont the average is $3.86, but in New York it's 20 cents higher at $4.06.

A New York man is being held on $250,000 bail in Vermont after allegedly being caught with 120 bags of heroin and nearly 1 1/2 ounces of cocaine. Vermont State Police said 36-year-old Carlos Sadler, of Green Island, N.Y., faces two felony drug charges and a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge following his arrest Thursday night after the car in which he was a passenger was pulled over in Rutland. He pleaded not guilty in Rutland criminal court on Friday. Police said the car's driver, 46-year-old Eric Stevens, of Rutland, was charged with drunken driving.

Beaver dams situated near Route 140 do not pose an imminent threat to the road. The highway was closed for several hours a couple of weeks ago after a beaver dam broke and flooded a section of the road above the White Rocks picnic area near the Long Trail parking lot. However, a state transportation official who recently conducted a visual inspection of the area from an aircraft concluded there were no looming threats to the road from the dams.

The University of Vermont has started the search process for a new president. UVM's 25th president Dan Fogel is stepping down, which leaves the school looking for a replacement. Friday morning the board of trustees approved a committee, which will be in charge of the search. UVM tried to make the 20-member search team as diverse as possible. The next step will be to pick a search firm to find potential candidates.

A federal study that concludes regional food hubs are emerging as important economic models is welcome news to those hoping to develop a hub serving southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire. A food hub is a facility that oversees the storage, processing, distribution and marketing of locally produced food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently studied clusters of food hubs in the Midwest and Northeast and found that the average hub has annual sales of nearly $1 million and creates about 13 jobs.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has launched a pilot program to help the commercial building sector and multifamily buildings reduce their energy use, save on operating costs and cut greenhouse emissions. Under the FlexTech Benchmarking Pilot, eligible customers will receive energy benchmarking and onsite energy assessments that will provide recommendations on low-cost building system upgrades.

On Saturday, April 30, you can join a daylong tour exploring woody biomass energy from harvest to processing to use. The tour starts in Bristol at 8:30 AM with a discussion of woody biomass supply and demand and an introduction to the Forest Guild's new biomass retention guidelines. The day will conclude with a tour of Mt. Abraham High School's wood chip heating facility and a group discussion. For more information and to register for the field tour or the symposium, click HERE.

Vermont's Fish and Wild Department is used to hearing complaints that beavers are flooding the property and cutting down trees. But lately, officials have been hearing from someone who's trying to protect the tree-chewing critters. Mandy Hotchkiss is working with state officials to alert drivers that beavers living in wetlands along the flooded shores of Lake Champlain have been crossing Route 2 between Milton and South Hero. She spent Friday morning holding up a sign reading "Caution, Beavers Crossing," while her business partner, dressed in a beaver costume, waved a sign that read "Honk 4 Beaver!"

Experts are urging eager spring hikers to hike with caution. They say hiking on high elevation trails during mud season can erode the trail and surrounding vegetation. Many of those trails are closed, specifically the summits of Mount Mansfield and Camel's Hump. For the ones that are still open, there are some rules of the road. Walk in the mud, not around it. That will prevent further trail erosion. Hike on the lower trails that face South. They tend to dry out faster in the spring. Avoid the spruce-fir forests that are higher up.

Mountain Lake PBS has received $500 from the Stewart's Holiday Match program in support of the PBS “KID'S GO!” Writers Contest, a local competition designed to promote the advancement of children's reading and writing skills through hands-on, active learning. Jane Owens, Mountain Lake's director of outreach and education, said the money would help support the writers contest so children, families and the community can encourage students to be writers and illustrators and celebrate the creation of their stories.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host "Chamber Day" this Thursday. Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce staff, Ambassador Club Members, board members and other volunteers will be hand delivering the 2011 membership plaques to TACC members within the area. For more information on "Chamber Day" contact the chamber directly or visit the Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.

A fundraising drive is under way in which vendors at farmers’ markets around Vermont are being asked to donate 5 to 10 percent of their take from opening day, or from another day, to agricultural disaster relief in Japan. Carol Tashie of Radical Roots Farm in Rutland is spearheading the effort, dubbed “Farmer to Farmer: Vermont to Japan.” She will give a talk on the program May 1 at Grace Congregational Church, and a portion of donations collected at the church that day will go to the program.