WVTK Local & State News November 29, 2011

A professor at Middlebury College is stepping down after pleading no contest to embezzlement charges. 45-year-old Kateri Carmola allegedly siphoned $4,800 from the Salisbury Historical Society over a three-month period last year when she served as treasurer. According to the Burlington Free Press, the college is not commenting on whether Carmola was asked to resign. All the money has been paid back to the society.

There's been a change of course for a big solar array being proposed in Charlotte. A company called All Earth Renewables had wanted to install solar panels on a half-acre of town-owned land on Thompson's Point. Now a new plan has emerged. Developers want to build 345 solar panels on 15 acres of private land just north of Hinesburg road and west of Spear Street. The Charlotte Planning Commission will discuss the proposal on Thursday.

Empire State Development says the Essex County Industrial Development Agency can redirect $250,000 in unused Champlain Bridge closure funds to create a Hurricane Irene Recovery Community Revolving Loan Fund. The fund will assist businesses located in Essex County that incurred additional costs and experienced economic losses as a result of the storm. The Essex County IDA will administer the “Revolving Loan Fund”. As loans are repaid, funds will stay in the community for future business investment and growth.

A week from today the Middlebury select-board will begin paring back the first draft of a 2012-2013 municipal budget that would require a 3.4-cent increase in the local tax rate in order to maintain existing services and capital improvement priorities. The draft spending-plan represents a $230,825 increase compared to this year’s municipal budget. One penny on Middlebury’s tax rate raises roughly $72,000.

Award-winning poet Ruth Stone has passed away Saturday, November 19th at her home in Ripton. She was 96. For decades she lived in a farmhouse in Goshen. Ruth Stone became one of the country’s most honored poets in her 80s and 90s, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for “In the Next Galaxy” and being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for “What Love Comes To.”

The Addison County Solid Waste Management District board has approved a 2012 budget that reflects a 7-percent increase in expenses, but maintains a level fee for trash disposal and reduces the drop-off charges for some recyclables at the transfer station. The budget increase is based on the assumption the transfer station will handle an increasing amount of trash, demolition debris and recyclables next year.

After the Vermont Department of Health earlier this month released the results of this year’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey a taskforce of Mount Abraham Union middle and high school students spent a day analyzing the Bristol school’s results. The group consists of 26 students in grades 8-12. They’ve identified Mount Abe’s strengths and weaknesses surrounding risky behavior and created an action plan for dealing with various issues. The committee plans to engage the entire student body to consider the issues raised and organize a public discussion with the community about the survey’s results and the students’ findings.

On December 14th the Patricia Hannaford Career Center board will consider a 2012-2013 budget that reflects a 2.41-percent spending increase and the proposed elimination of two courses. The PHCC offers technical, workplace and continuing education to secondary school-age students in the Addison Central, Addison Northeast and Addison Northwest supervisory unions. The tuition rate would increase by 4.4 percent under the budget currently under review. The draft budget eliminates two courses; video technology and sustainable landscapes, in order to help keep spending in line.

It wasn’t a happy Thanksgiving last Thursday for residents along Meehan Road in Bristol. Several mailboxes along the road were shot with a firearm during the night. The mailboxes were in a residential area. A full-size white truck was seen in the area at the time of the gunshots. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Vermont State Police New Haven Barracks. (802-388-4919)

Rutland Area Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice will host a bereavement workshop on Thursday, December 8th from Noon to 1:30. The workshop, titled “Coping with Grief during the Holidays”, will help those who are grieving the loss of a loved one with coping strategies and helpful suggestions on how to make it through the holidays and even enjoy them. The workshop is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is required.

Rutland Mental Health Services will put plans for a drug treatment center before the public today. The organization, along with Rutland Regional Medical Center, announced last month they would work together to fill a gap in treatment of opiate addiction. The meeting will take place at 5PM in the Howe Center’s Franklin Conference Room. Opiates are a class of drug that includes heroin and many prescription painkillers. The plan is still in the early stages and the location of the center had not been determined, though it would not be at the hospital.

The Town of Westport will operate in 2012 on a bare-bones budget that shows a tax-levy increase of not quite 1 percent. The levy is comfortably below the state's 2 percent tax-levy cap. No major projects or purchases are anticipated for the coming year. Neither elected officials nor employees will see pay increases. And there will be no rise in rates for services or utilities. In fact, those living in Water District 3 can expect a decrease of $25 per quarter.

The recent drug crackdown in Essex County swept up another person on Monday. Carlos Maldonado of Ticonderoga was arrested on a warrant and arraigned on charges of fourth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. Conviction could mean up to 12 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.

No sooner did Essex County lawmakers request a list of non-resident employees than some of them applied for waivers. The County Board of Supervisors recently asked County Manager Daniel Palmer to compile a list of workers who reside outside the county without permission. The move was considered preliminary to dismissing or laying off those employees first among others in order to reduce a possible 62 percent tax hike in the preliminary 2012 county budget.

It’s won’t be midnight, but the 22nd annual Moriah Midnight Madness still promises to be a festive event. The holiday tradition will be held 11AM to 2PM this Saturday. Midnight Madness is sponsored by the Town of Moriah Chamber of Commerce and will feature store sales, giveaways, street vendors, music, fire truck rides for the children, candy, face painting, balloons, games and more. There will also be Christmas caroling and fire truck rides for children. The Moriah Central School band and chorus have also been invited to entertain.

The annual Museum Store is returning in Ticonderoga this holiday season. The store, located at the Hancock House, will be open from 9 to 4 this Friday and Saturday. Participating museums will be the Ticonderoga Historical Society, Fort Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga Arts and the Ticonderoga Heritage Museum. Each will offer a variety of items from their gift shops for sale.

Vermont snowmobilers say that despite extensive damage from Tropical Storm Irene 95% of the state's 5,000-mile trail network has been repaired and is now waiting for snow. But the damage in a portion of the Green Mountain National Forest in Peru is so severe that it won't be possible to repair it until next year.

More kids in Vermont aren't receiving immunizations. Vermont now has the fifth highest exemption rate in the country. Six percent of kids in the state aren't receiving recommended shots. Over the past five years, the percentage of kids entering kindergarten without the recommended number of vaccines increased by more than 1.5 percent. That's one of the highest rates of increase in the country.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is sending Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine millions of dollars to help repair roads damaged in storms earlier this year. Vermont is going to receive more than $15.3 million to help repair damage from spring flooding and Tropical Storm Irene in August. It's a portion of the money Vermont will need to pay for work to its roads and bridges. Some estimates say the repairs could cost a total of $250 million.

Vermont police are looking for a bike-riding bank robber in Swanton. Authorities say the man handed a note to the teller at the Peoples United Bank demanding cash around 11AM on Monday. He then fled on a red bicycle. Police say the robber, who was photographed by a bank surveillance camera, was wearing a black and grey North Face vest, with a yellow striped winter hat. He's also described as being between 25 and 30 years old and about 5 feet 9 inches tall.

Police are warning store owners and their customers to take extra care in response to a rise in robberies. On Monday morning, police say a man entered the People's United Bank in Swanton and handed the teller a note demanding money. Another People's United Bank in South Burlington was robbed last week. Just a few hours before the Swanton robbery, the Champlain Farms convenience store in Winooski was also robbed. Police are looking for your help in all of the recent robberies. If you have any information please contact the Vermont State Police.

A woman who pushed for Vermont's ground-breaking civil union and gay marriage laws has been sworn in as the first openly gay member of the Vermont Supreme Court. Beth Robinson took the oath yesterday afternoon. She was one of the lawyers who represented three couples in a landmark 1999 Vermont Supreme Court decision that prompted the Legislature in 2000 to make Vermont the first state to offer marriage-like rights and benefits to same-sex couples. She later led Vermont Freedom to Marry, which pushed for and won passage of the first gay-marriage law in the country that wasn't directly prompted by a court decision.

The Salvation Army's red kettle drive has kicked-off in Vermont for the holiday season, but donations have taken a big hit. Last year, the kettles brought in more than $85,000. Officials say they are about $7,000 behind last year's totals. Yet, the organization has set a goal to raise $95,000. Tropical Storm Irene may have something to do with the decrease in donations as many Vermonters have given generously to many other causes and they could be stretched too thin financially. They are hoping the people that the Salvation Army has helped in the past will help them reach the goal.

A group of area artists will put their hearts on display next year. The heARTs of Rutland Committee, an organization formed by local artists working with a number of Rutland-area organizations, has announced that four-foot fiberglass hearts will serve as the basis for Rutland’s next public art project. Organizer Mary Crowley said she is modeling the project off on a similar one in 2005 that saw downtown adorned by a number of decorated wooden trains. The group is planning to display 30 hearts in and around Rutland before auctioning them off. They expect to get the hearts to the chosen artists by early March with an unveiling in late May or early June and an auction in the late fall.