WVTK Local & State News May 25, 2011

Tomorrow at 2:30 PM a memorial service will be held at St. Stephens church on Main Street for Wedge Murdoch who passed away Sunday. Wedge was a founding member of the Middlebury Volunteer Ambulance Association and an iconic figure in all of Addison County and Vermont EMS service. The memorial service is expected to draw a large crowd. Middlebury Police will be shutting down traffic along the route for about 15 minutes to allow the procession to move. The following intersections will be closed for the duration: Main Street at Seymour Street; Main Street at Merchants Row; the roundabout at cross Street; Main Street at South Street; and South Street at Porterfield Road.

A gas leak in Essex Tuesday evening prompted an emergency response. More than 15 businesses were shut down in the Pearl Street area. Essex and Essex Junction rescue were on scene, along with the state HAZMAT team. The gas appeared to be coming from a storm drain. A local gas station owner told HAZMAT crews his business got a fuel delivery earlier in the day. The Assistant Fire Chief says the rainy weather played a part pushing the fuel down into the storm drain. State crews are expected to be on scene today to pin point the source, and evaluate the total damages.

The Vergennes American Legion Post 14 will sponsor two Vergennes Union High School delegates to the Green Mountain Boys' State citizenship event held June 19-24 at Lyndon State College. Colin Babcock and Ben Parsons were nominated by faculty and staff based on leadership, character and honesty, cooperativeness, community participation and service and scholarship.

An 18-year-old Moriah man was charged Sunday with rape. State Police arrested Jorge L. Martinez around 12:05 PM. The exact age and sex of the victim were unclear, but police records indicate the victim is younger than 13. Martinez was arraigned in Moriah Town Court and sent to Essex County Jail on $25,000 bail or $50,000 secured bond. He is scheduled to reappear in court on Thursday.

The Rutland School Board voted to put the Watkins Avenue building on the market for 90 days. The board had previously discussed demolishing the vacant former school building, most recently used as a maintenance facility, but concern from the public caused them to reconsider that stance. While the board was willing to see if anyone else wanted to take on salvaging the building, none of the members who spoke at the meeting expressed any interest in keeping it in the school district.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet decided whether he will declare Clinton County a disaster area. The declaration would make the county eligible for federal relief to clean up from the flooding this spring. More than 500 buildings along Lake Champlain have been damaged by the high water. The full extent of the damage won't be known until the water recedes. Essex County has been declared a federal disaster area after flash flooding last month caused more than $17 million in damage.

Commander Eugene H. Frost of U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 15-13 of Crown Point says the beginning of the season is an excellent opportunity for people to focus on safe boating. Flotillas spend much of their time educating the public through their boating safety courses and vessel exams. Flotilla 15-13 has a boating-safety class scheduled for July 9th in Ticonderoga, at a time and place to be announced.

Department of Education estimates predict a $2.3 million drop in funds for one federal program. During the department’s annual meeting in Killington, educators across the state received their first glimpse of anticipated funding for federal title programs that support teacher training and schools with high numbers of children living in poverty. While the estimates for Title I funding were up and down depending on location, every school district in the state saw a drop in its Title IIA funds.

Governor Peter Shumlin signed two bills into law to help military members on Tuesday. One gives a tax credit to employers who hire veterans. It also gives up to $2000 in tax credits to recently deployed vets for the expenses of starting up a business. The other law helps military kids transfer between schools more easily and graduate on time.

Officials from Green Mountain Power announced the utility has reached a tentative deal to buy power from the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire for 23 years. The fixed-price contract that, if approved by the Public Service Board, would begin in 2015, initially it would be for 60 megawatts of power, decreasing to 40 megawatts. The commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service said it looked like a good deal for the state's electric customers.

University of Vermont officials say they've removed the wife of President Daniel Fogel from her volunteer job at the college amid a probe into her pursuit of a personal relationship with a university administrator. The Burlington Free Press reports that the school's Board of Trustees is probing any impact on operations as a result of Rachel Kahn-Fogel's association with Michael Schultz, UVM's associate vice president for development and alumni relations.

A plan to move violent offenders into a Vermont work camp has won an OK from St. Johnsbury leaders. Selectmen voted Monday to give tentative approval to the state Department of Corrections' plan to boost the number of inmates at the Caledonia Community Work Camp from 100 to 112 and drop a ban on violent offenders serving there. The state wants to move the inmates to avoid having to house them out of state, which is more expensive.

Vermont agriculture officials are warning growers and gardeners that late blight could threaten certain crops with all the rain and cool temperature. The plant disease spreads quickly in wet, cool weather, causing tomato and potato plants to wilt and die. The state saw the devastation the disease can do to a tomato crop in 2009, and has already received reports of early late blight detection in neighboring states. Growers are reminded to look for irregular, bruised or `water-soaked' appearing lesions on leaves; white fuzzy or moldy growth around the lesions; and rapid browning and dieback of the affected plants.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is disputing the state's claim that it needs to renew a water quality permit in order to keep operating past next March, when its initial 40-year license expires. The state went to federal court last week to complain that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the plant a 20-year license extension improperly, because the plant hadn't updated its state permit governing runoff and impacts on wetlands around the Vernon reactor.

The New York Democrat-led Assembly released its proposal to cap the growth of local property taxes at 2 percent a year, but with exceptions and only for a limited number of years. The Republican-led Senate, which already passed its version of a 2 percent cap, called it a "positive development." Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who proposed the cap, will now try to negotiate a bill with legislative leaders that could pass into law.

The New York Association for Pupil Transportation is calling for state action on proposed laws to increase penalties for passing stopped school buses. The organization found in a study that drivers illegally pass a stopped school bus more than 50,000 times a day. A bill has been proposed authorizing the placement of video cameras on school buses to record motorist violations, with images to be used as evidence in prosecution of offenders. The bill also makes it a felony of criminally negligent homicide when a driver passing a stopped school bus kills a child.

A national bicycling organization says Maine is the second most bike-friendly state in the country. Washington was the No. 1 state, while New Hampshire and Vermont ranked 14th and 15th. The ratings are based on a 95-question survey across six categories that include legislation, infrastructure and enforcement.