WVTK Local & State News October 4, 2011

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a warning has been lifted against using the water of southern Lake Champlain following the application of chemicals to kill sea lamprey in two Vermont rivers. Last Wednesday the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative treated sections of the Hubbardton and Poultney rivers with the chemical that kills immature lamprey. The water use advisory had been in effect for Lake Champlain from the South Bay Outlet north to the Ticonderoga ferry crossing. The advisory was lifted Monday after tests indicated the chemicals had dissipated.

A proposed natural gas pipeline from Quebec to Addison County has moved a step closer to reality. State utility regulators have allowed Vermont Gas Systems to set up a special fund that uses ratepayer revenue to pay for some of the pipeline work. Vermont Gas says the decision means it can move ahead with plans to extend the pipeline south to Vergennes and Middlebury. The Shumlin Administration has made it a top priority to extend natural gas service south, eventually through Addison County to Rutland. The Addison County project could cost between $50 and $70 million. The company says it will take about five years to go through the permitting and construction process.

The Vermont Folklife Center is holding workshops across the state to help people record their personal memories from the flooding. The VFC hopes to build up an archive of impressions and memories from Tropical Storm Irene, which will be collected at the center. In addition to historical records, these stories are powerful links between people and communities in Vermont. The Vermont Folklife Center encourages you to gather your own or your family’s stories from the floods. Visit the their website, www.vermontfolklifecenter.org, for a complete tip sheet on interviewing.

A community-based music and arts center is planned for the last empty building at the former Brandon Training School. The owners of Brandon Music have bought Building K in Park Village with the intent of turning it into a music and arts destination. They plan to create a space devoted to every arm of the arts, from recording studios and rehearsal space to a concert hall, a café, studio’s for artists and sculptors, an exhibition gallery, a theater rehearsal space, music teaching facilities, a dance studio and a music therapy center.

Some warm, wet fall weather has contributed to a late-season surge of mosquitoes in portions of Addison County. The chairman of the Lemon Fair Insect Control District acknowledged the surge but said his district was unable to treat it because of the unavailability of state funds. The district conducts drops of pesticides that kill mosquito larvae in the member towns of Bridport, Cornwall and Weybridge.

The Addison County Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the opening of Whirlie’s World, Addison County’s only family entertainment center. Their grand opening will be on Saturday, October 15th. Whirlie’s World is located at 12-32 Exchange Street in Middlebury and is owned and operated by Middlebury residents Peter and Naomi Neff. There are a variety of activities that will interest kids, from toddlers and their families up to older teenagers. One area is devoted to a 13-hole mini golf course, but with the twist of playing under black lights and all the holes are decorated with glow-in-the-dark paint. There are table games and arcade games as well with plenty more activities planned. You can visit them online HERE.

Facing a budget shortfall, the Sherman Free Library in Port Henry is seeking donations. Library officials hope to raise $4,000 to help meet daily operating expenses. The library receives annual contributions of $6,000 from the town of Moriah and $3,500 from the village of Port Henry. It also gets $14,400 a year from the Sherman Trust and gets money from the state through the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System. With those funding sources, the Sherman Free Library is facing a $4,000 budget gap. Donations can be sent to the library at 20 Church St., Port Henry 12974.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says he and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have rounded up 61 Senate cosponsors for legislation that would clarify the division of authority between the Pentagon and state National Guard units. Leahy says the bill gives the Guard more say in the development of Pentagon budgets and policies and updates operational lines of authority. The bill also would make the chief of the National Guard Bureau a permanent member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Leahy says the changes are needed because the Guard is assuming a greater role in both domestic emergencies and foreign wars.

Vermont's new Green Mountain Care Board is meeting for the first time today and is expected to focus on reducing the cost of health care. The Kaiser Foundation recently reported that health insurance premiums increased more than 9% in cost last year around the country. The chairwoman of the board says keys to reducing health care costs include moving away fee-for-service payment to a system in which one medical problem is paid for with a single fee, even though a range of professionals may work on it. She also says savings can be achieved by reducing administrative overhead.

A Pittsfield woman is safe and sound after disappearing this weekend. Nadine Price vanished Saturday while hiking at the Killington Ski Resort. Rescue crews searched the mountain and eventually found her several feet up in the air on a gondola. According to the Rutland Herald, Price snuck into one of the cars as just as the gondola was closing and got stuck. She was uninjured but was trapped for almost five hours.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is headed back to full power after technicians fixed a problem that disabled a water pump. Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said workers at the Vernon nuclear power plant had the electrical system fixed Saturday morning at around 10 and the plant started returning to full power throughout the weekend. The plant reduced power Sept. 25 after an electrical problem in 1 of the plant's two recirculation pumps.

The bike and walking path along Lake Champlain in Burlington could be getting much needed improvements soon. The Burlington Bike Task Force met Monday morning to get a report from engineers on renovations. The city council established the committee last year to find a way and a price to rebuild the bike path. The 7.5-mile stretch, from Oakledge Park to the Winooski River, is about 25 years old. The committee wants to make the path bigger, with 11-foot wide paths.

A Norwich University student has pleaded not guilty to charges he was driving drunk in a crash that killed another student and injured seven others, three critically. 22-year-old Derek Seber was charged after the Sunday morning crash in Northfield. The crash killed 18-year-old Renee Robbins of Kentwood, Michigan, a Norwich freshman. He was expected to be released to the custody of his parents in Maryland under conditions after posting ten thousand dollars cash bail.

A multi-million dollar question is on the table for Colchester voters today. The question on the ballot: Shall the town be authorized to borrow 4.5 million dollars to purchase Camp Holy Cross? The 26-acre waterfront property belongs to the Archdiocese of Burlington and the church is selling the land to pay off priest sex abuse settlements. If Colchester voters opt not to buy the property for public use it would become available for private developers to come in and scoop up.

The State Board of Education voted yesterday to allow the Vermont Education Commissioner and his team to move forward and start working on a waiver that, if granted, would allow Vermont schools to move away from gauging their students' and schools' progress with one standardized test. The Board unanimously voted to allow the waiver to be made. It would then vote on it for final approval before it gets submitted to the federal Department of Education this November. Vermont education leaders say that if the No Child Left Behind waiver is granted to Vermont it would mean schools would be given a chance to catch up.

As regulators scrutinize Gaz Metro’s proposed takeover of Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Canadian gas company is taking steps to ward off attempts at a hostile takeover of its holdings. Valener, Inc., which owns nearly one third of Gaz Metro, announced the creation of a “shareholder rights plan” that will insulate the company against any potential takeover bids. According to a statement issued by the Montreal-based company Monday, the rights plan would provide Valener’s board with the tools it needs to “consider alternatives to a takeover bid.”

Fletcher Allen's doctors are getting top nods for regional medical care. U.S. News and World Report recognized twenty-three physicians and six specialty areas at Fletcher Allen Health Care as being the best in Vermont and northern New York for this year. Half of the physicians were ranked within the top one percent in their specialties nationally. The academic medical center was also honored for being one of the leading hospitals in adopting electronic medical records.

Dartmouth College's endowment has grown to $3.4 billion thanks to a second consecutive year of double-digit growth. The college says its endowment earned a return of 18.4 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30, reflecting investment appreciation plus new gifts of more than $40 million. The endowment, which saw a 10 percent investment return for fiscal year 2010, pays for about 20 percent of the college's annual operating budget.