WVTK Local & State News June 23, 2011

Due to drainage rehab work, on Friday (6/24/11) Weybridge St. will be closed for a Cross St. culvert replacement at 7:30AM and will re-open once the replacement work is completed which is expected to be done by 5PM Friday.

The Essex County Highway Department is paving Center Road in Moriah this week. Road crews throughout that project are controlling traffic.

The Vermont National Guard has a new general. Brian Carpenter of Middlebury was promoted to brigadier general during a ceremony Wednesday at National Guard headquarters in Colchester. Carpenter is the Army Guard's assistant adjutant general. In his civilian job, he is the vice president of Champlain Valley Equipment of Middlebury.

Taxpayers got another chance to approve school budgets for Ticonderoga and Schroon Lake central schools Tuesday. The Ti spending plan of $18.9 million passed with a vote of 545 to 542. Meanwhile Schroon Lake Central voters approved the $7.4 million budget at the polls Tuesday, 188 to 131.

An official with Eastview at Middlebury said yesterday that construction of the 99-unit facility is expected to proceed on schedule despite a South Carolina steel company’s refusal to provide material needed to build the biggest component of the complex. Work began last year on the project, which is expected to create 45 full-time equivalent jobs when developers expect it to be finished in May 2012. Connie Leach, director of marketing for Eastview, said the timeline for completion is expected to remain unchanged by a lawsuit filed last week by the project’s contractor.

Friday Night Live in Rutland will start its fifth season. The event skips July 1st and then runs every Friday from July 8th to August 12th. 15 restaurants and food vendors were signed up to participate with locations on Center, State, Wales and Evelyn streets as well as Merchants Row. You can stay up to date on Friday Night Live developments by friending the downtown partnership on Facebook or following it on Twitter.

The Market Fair of Rutland Town is scheduled to debut Friday in a space next to the Home Depot parking lot. Organizers are calling it a soft opening with a grand opening on July 1st. It will run from 3 to 8PM. The fair features a farmers’ market, music, children’s activities and various forms of new age healing.

Montpelier's Hunger Mountain Co-op has issued a voluntary recall. The recall is for its Pete's Greens mesclun mix both pre-bagged and loose. This comes after a customer reportedly found small pieces of hard plastic in the greens, which he bought loose. Pete's Greens says the plastic doesn't match anything in their production area. Anyone who purchased the mesclun mix between June 15 and the morning of June 21 can return it to the store for a full refund.

Vermont authorities say underground fuel tanks are being removed in an investigation into a "sizeable" gas leak in Essex Junction. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation says businesses adjacent to the Champlain Farms Gulf station had complained in late May and early June about gas fumes coming out of area storm drains.

The Vermont Supreme Court is considering how free police should be to rummage through computers they seize with a search warrant. At a high court hearing yesterday, arguments centered on how constitutional limits on searches and seizures apply in the digital age.

A Vermont woman is suing a South Burlington police officer and others after being subjected to what she feels were illegal searches for drugs that violated her civil rights. Elizabeth Ivy says South Burlington Corporal Jack O'Connor did not have a warrant or probable cause to enter her apartment in September or to conduct a traffic stop February 18th.

Vermont police say three teenagers died when the car they were riding in hit a tree in Bennington and burst into flames. Bennington police say Aaron Sprague, of North Bennington, and Arthur Eriksen, of Bennington, both 17, were killed in the crash along with a 15-year-old male whose name was not released.

We could soon see the end to panhandling at the intersection of 1-89 and Route 7 in South Burlington. Police say it's a distraction for drivers and dangerous. South Burlington Police Corporal Tonya Lawyer says the problem is that it's illegal and dangerous. Police say one man already suffered several broken ribs after being hit by a motorcycle that crashed into the homeless camp just off the highway. On Wednesday, panhandlers were given warning to leave the area. Police say if they return, they can be ticketed. Lawyer also wants drivers to stop handing out money.

The owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant will ask a federal judge to block the state's efforts to close the Vernon reactor when its current license expires in March. The U.S. District Court in Brattleboro begins two days of hearings today on whether they should issue a preliminary injunction to block Vermont from closing the plant while the underlying legal battle plays out. The state's lawyers say they doubt Entergy will prevail in the underlying case.

A number of Vermont residents called for the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant during a public meeting with federal regulators on the plant's safety. Six Nuclear Regulatory Commission members took questions and comments last night in Brattleboro from over 150 local residents. Some of the residents support Vermont Yankee but most are opposed to its 20-year relicensing which the NRC recently approved.

Students at Brattleboro Union high and Middle Schools will get to sleep a little later on school days. Starting in the fall, classes will begin at 8:45 instead of the current 7:45 start. School officials say the change recognizes the "adolescent biological clock." There are studies that show better test scores and fewer attendance and behavior problems at schools that switched to a later start time. The late start has been instituted in other parts of Vermont as well, including South Burlington and Champlain Valley Union District.

Town officials in Dummerston say they want a more definitive site plan before signing off on a developer's push to revive the Maple Valley Ski Area, which closed in 2001. After discussion earlier this week the Dummerston Development Review Board asked the property owner to return next month in his bid for a conditional use permit to open the ski resort as a four-season recreation area.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the union representing state workers in New York's executive branch say they've reached a contract agreement that protects the union's members from administration plans for cost-saving layoffs. The Civil Service Employees Association and Cuomo announced the five-year labor deal on Wednesday. The deal is subject to approval by rank-and-file members.

Cumberland Bay State Park will not open this year. Dozens of campers are typically stationed there this time of year. But parts of the park are still underwater following the spring floods. State officials say there is much more cleanup to do and they have safety concerns, especially the potential for falling trees due to the soggy ground.

The American Red Cross is hosting a tour of its new site in Colchester where it's moved to help people around Lake Champlain clean up from record flooding. For the last three weeks, the operational headquarters of the Vermont and New Hampshire Valley American Red Cross has been in Barre.