WVTK Local & State News May 24, 2011

Addison Central Supervisory Union teachers have agreed to a four-year contract. It provides for some modest pay increases and slightly elevates their health care premium payments. Details of the new pact were made public last week following ratification by the Weybridge and Cornwall school boards. For the first time ever all of the Addison Central Supervisory Union teachers are under a single contract. Teachers continue to be responsible for 10 percent of their health insurance premium payments during the first two years of the contract. Teachers also received step increases as dictated by the salary scale.

One of Middlebury’s most active volunteers for child and teen causes is taking on a leadership position within the legal community. Local attorney Emily Joselson is stepping down from the boards of both the Addison County Parent-Child Center and Addison Central Teens. She is scaling back on her local volunteer duties in order to take on the presidency of the Vermont Association for Justice. The Burlington-based organization helps protect Vermonters’ civil rights and their access to justice.

The UD-3 school board is looking into installing a turf field at Middlebury Union High School. Last week school board members were told that a turf field at the high school would provide a more stable, weather-friendly surface for multiple MUHS sports teams. The board also agreed to open the boys’ and girls’ ice hockey programs to a limited number of players from other schools.

The Ferrisburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment will rule on another Champlain Oil Co. application for a Route 7 gas station, convenience store and fast-food restaurant. Both town and company officials expect that decision simply to set up a return to state Environmental Court. On May 4th the zoning board held a brief hearing on a revised site plan from Champlain Oil.

Longtime Rutland prosecutor Peter Neary died Sunday at his home in Fair Haven. The 61-year-old deputy state’s attorney served 25 years in the Rutland prosecutor’s office. During those years he was co-counsel in some of the biggest murder trials in the city. He was also the primary prosecutor in Rutland’s drug court where he worked with people with drug and alcohol addictions who were trying to rebuild their lives.

Gasoline prices are continuing to go down in Vermont. The website Vermontgasprices.com says that in the last week gas prices have fallen 6.9 cents a gallon, to a statewide average of $3.88. The national average of $3.83 per gallon is down 8.8 cents per gallon in the last week. Gas prices in Vermont are still $1.01 per gallon higher than the same day a year ago and penny per gallon higher than a month ago.

A volunteer group's Vermont chapter is pitching in to help people affected by Lake Champlain flooding. A Vermont Emergency Management spokesman says an organization known as “Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster” will spread out to help people with flood recovery. The group already has information submitted by people who called 2-1-1 to report damage.

The South Burlington School Board has filed a complaint against the head of the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association. Joel Cook allegedly threatened the chair of the South Burlington School Board during ongoing teacher contract negotiations in February. A deal was eventually reached. Now the board is asking the Vermont Labor Relations Board to stop the union from following through on the threats in an email.

Flooded-out residents can't seem to catch a break. Strong winds gusting a steady 20 to 30 miles an hour all day long yesterday kicked up waves on Lake Champlain and put neighborhoods along the lake in danger. One area with major problems is Colchester point, which has been dealing with flooding these past few weeks.

Demolition began at Castleton State College yesterday morning to make way for “Project 2012,” a $13 million undertaking that includes the construction of a new facilities barn, a 162-bed residence hall and a green pavilion area with space for up to 3,000 people. It is one of the largest construction projects in southern Vermont this year. The project is the last part of Castleton’s 10-year master plan, which totals $68 million in campus-related investments.

The Town of Ticonderoga is spending almost $18,000 to keep a 24-hour watch on the downtown and Bicentennial Park. Two remote-control, closed-circuit television cameras will be mounted atop the Heritage Museum and a Montcalm Street building to give Ticonderoga Town Police a panoramic view of activity in the business district and park. There's been so much vandalism in Bicentennial Park that action had to be taken to stop it.

A dozen Vermont agricultural projects have won support through a federal entrepreneurship program. Senator Patrick Leahy announced the funding yesterday, including funding for an organic grain company in Charlotte. Sen. Leahy also announced the creation of a new loan fund that will help provide financing to companies developing innovative agricultural products and green economy businesses. The new risk capital will be administered through the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. Leahy says the program is a win for the investors, the farmers and the state, because it strengthens Vermont's agricultural base.

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch plans his boldest effort yet to end the war Afghanistan this week, declaring the current military strategy isn't working, and is too expensive to continue. He will offer five amendments on the House floor as Congress begins debate on the Defense Authorization bill. He said he would try to force the Pentagon to devise a new plan that brings America's roughly 100,000 troops home from Afghanistan and refocuses resources on targeted counter-terrorism.

New York's Senate is examining the system used to discipline teachers. Senate Education Committee Chairman John Flanagan held the Albany hearing yesterday morning. The system has long been criticized as too expensive and for taking months to complete. The hearing will be available on the Internet at the Senate website.

Former Gov. David Paterson will not face perjury charges on allegations that he lied about taking free Yankees tickets for the 2009 World Series, a decision that effectively puts an end to the most serious legal problem stemming from his tumultuous administration. Paterson is now a guest on New York City sports radio shows, a medium with which he said he's felt most comfortable since he became legally blind as a child. He also teaches at New York University.

Photographs, documents, brochures, toll tickets and signs are some of the items a New York State agency charged with commemorating the 1929 Champlain Bridge is interested in seeing. The State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is appealing to the public to share information about the historic bridge that may be used to develop interpretive signs, displays and a resource guide. With the owners' permission, Historic Preservation will scan these images for use in the exhibit and provide credit lines acknowledging private collectors.

Eleven days after Vermont state officials asked the public to go online and report places without access to broadband internet, the website for doing that has been getting lots of traffic. Karen Marshall, director of the state's ConnectVT program to get high-speed Internet to more people, says hits to her program's site jumped from about 50 per day to about 1,500 per day immediately after the May 12 announcement.

The state of Vermont is joining with dozens of other states in an agreement that calls on a convenience store chain to take steps to reduce the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors. Attorney General William Sorrell says Vermont, 40 states and the District of Columbia are parties to the agreement with Circle K Stores Inc. and Mac's Convenience Stores LLC. It covers about 4,000 stores operating as Circle K, Dairymart and On The Run, including 12 in Vermont. Under it, Circle K will pay $225,000 for consumer education initiatives and will adopt procedures to cut sales to minors in its 3,000 corporate-owned stores and 1,000 other franchise locations.

Two bills to help Vermont veterans will be getting Gov. Peter Shumlin’s signature this afternoon at 2. One establishes a Veterans Job Tax Credit, providing qualified employers with a tax credit for each veteran hired to a full-time position. The other deals with children in military families, requiring swift transfer of school records, timely placement of those changing schools and additional excused absences to spend time with deploying or recently deployed parents.

The Vermont Electric Cooperative says it will vote in July on a transmission line upgrade needed for the Kingdom Community Wind project in Lowell, even though the project doesn't have its final state approval yet. Green Mountain Power Co. and Vermont Electric Co-Op are awaiting state Public Service Board approval for the $150 million project, which would erect 20 or 21 400-foot-tall towers along 3.2 miles of ridgeline.