WVTK Local & State News April 27, 2011

Sen. Bernard Sanders will host a town hall meeting tomorrow in the Middlebury Union High School cafeteria. The forum is one of three around the state the senator is holding this week to discuss the impact of proposed federal budget cuts. The other two are scheduled for today in Newport and Morrisville. The event includes a dinner at 6 PM followed by the meeting at 6:30.

Otter Creek continued to flood yesterday. Signs marking closed roads popped up around southern Vermont as the Otter Creek breached flood stage and caused headaches in some spots. Most flooding occurred in fields and known problem areas, like Depot Hill Road and Elm Street in Pittsford. The National Weather Service expected water levels to begin dropping as of last night.

The village of Port Henry Board of Trustees will conduct three consecutive public hearings beginning at 6 PM today at the village hall on Main Street. The first public hearing is regarding the village's intent to submit an application for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant Program. The second is regarding proposed Local Law No. 2 relating to the use of village water in the Village of Port Henry. The third hearing is for review of the revised water rate schedule.

State police in Addison County will be looking for drunken drivers at sobriety checkpoints this week. Police said the checkpoints would be set up at undisclosed locations throughout the county.

The Watkins Avenue school building turned maintenance garage in Rutland will not be torn down at this time. The Rutland School Board unanimously voted yesterday to meet with the city’s Board of Aldermen on May 3rd to discuss the future of the property.

The residents of the Town Of Monkton will usher in Monkton Day, Saturday, May 7th. The focus is a clean Environment, green living, and fun. This year's third annual Monkton town-wide event, sponsored by the Monkton Community Coffeehouse, will again see piles of debris in heaps around town awaiting pickup or disposal. In addition to Monkton's clean up, there's a town-wide yard sale, a flea market at the Volunteer Fire Department, and more. Local businesses and town organizations actively participate as well.

For the third consecutive year, all-terrain vehicles will be allowed on four town roads. Killington town officials designated Little Sherburne, Richardson, Stevens and Oxbow roads in the Little Sherburne neighborhood open for recreational ATV use. Many of the roads are passable by cars but each year the town designates them for the special use as well.

Most Vermonters are getting what they pay for at the pump. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture said Tuesday that inspections show consumers are getting accurate gas amounts at the nearly 500 gas stations around the state. The accuracy rate statewide is 98%. The agency's consumer protection section says it monitors all gas pumps for accuracy and investigates consumer complaints. Last year, the state investigated 31 complaints.

Authorities say lightning struck a northern Vermont man during thunderstorms that also cut power to 4,000 people and flooded some streets and streams. Richmond Rescue Lt. Andy Squires confirmed to the Burlington Free Press that the man was hit Tuesday night in Richmond but says medical privacy laws prevent him from giving further details. Fletcher Allen Health Care spokesman Mike Noble says the man's injuries are minor.

Vermont State Police say a driver is in custody after leading troopers on a high-speed chase in which several cruisers were rammed and officers injured before he was shot. 26-year-old Jeffrey Davis, of Johnson, allegedly failed to stop for police on Interstate 89 on Tuesday, rammed an Orange County Sheriff's Department vehicle and three Vermont State Police cruisers and was hit by police gunfire on Route 14. Police say he drove off again but was stopped by another trooper and surrendered without incident. Davis sustained non-life threatening injuries. Officers from the various departments sustained minor injuries.

A bomb threat forced all of the schools in Hartford to go into lockdown yesterday. Police set up a perimeter around the high school, where police say a man phoned in a threat Tuesday morning. He told the school secretary that he was on his way to the school to set off a bomb. Police checked every car near the building. No bomb was found.

In St. Albans, a bomb threat was found inside Bellows Free Academy yesterday. Students and faculty were evacuated. Police combed the buildings but found nothing. Classes resumed just after 12:30 PM. Suspects caught making bomb threats face up to 2 years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Authorities say a fire that damaged a church in Chester, Vt., on Easter Sunday is suspicious. Firefighters who responded to a call about smoke coming from the steeple of the First Baptist Church on Sunday evening found fire in the first floor closet and second floor closet. The fire was quickly put out, and no one was hurt. Damage is estimated at $20,000. Police are asking anyone with information to call Chester Police or the Vermont Arson Tip Award Program at 1-800-32-ARSON.

The Supreme Court is questioning whether state laws aimed at the marketing of prescription drugs to doctors violate free speech rights. The court took up a dispute yesterday between the state of Vermont and companies that sell doctors' prescribing information to pharmaceutical companies. The drug makers use the data to tailor their pitch to individual doctors.

The 12-member Vermont Electric Cooperative board met yesterday to consider a 20-year offer from Entergy to buy power from Vermont Yankee. Officials from Entergy arrived to present their offer and the Legislature's nuclear policy analyst presented the other side. The final vote count from the VEC Board members was 9-1 against the power contract.

If it weren't for the dead fish clean-up effort under way now, public campgrounds in Moriah and Port Henry might not be opening this year. A record number of a non-native fish called alewives washed ashore this spring at both facilities, including public beaches. Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologists say the alewives died due to stress caused by frigid temperatures. Biologists first discovered the species in Lake Champlain in 2005.

The state Olympic Regional Development Authority received 30,000 more visitors this winter than it did in the previous season. ORDA estimates that as many as 480,000 people visited Olympic venues in Lake Placid, Wilmington and North Creek during the 2010-2011 season. Last season there were about 450,000 visits to the venues, officials say. These numbers do not take into account CanAm Hockey, Canadian Hockey Enterprise and several group tours.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will pay more than $2 million to settle a fraud case. Federal prosecutors say the hospital improperly billed various federal health care programs over a six-year period. Residents and not physicians performed the procedures, which is required for reimbursement. The hospital admits no wrongdoing but will pay $2.2 million to settle the case.

Vermont is gearing up for one of its oldest "green" traditions, Green Up Day. The 41st annual event will be held on Saturday, May 7th. Vermonters will head out in teams or on their own to clean up litter strewn along roads, trash dumped illegally over banks and other refuse that washes into rivers and lakes. After 40 years, the effort is still going strong as families pass on the tradition. Green Up Vermont will distribute over 46,000 of the special green trash bags used in the event.