WVTK Local & State News November 8, 2011 (Afternoon Update)

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin announced his plan for a long-term recovery effort to help Vermonters affected by Tropical Storm Irene. It's called the Community Recovery Partnership. The plan is to have community members from affected towns tell the state their current needs and future plans for recovery. The first round of conversations will begin this week and continue for the next couple of months.

It looks like voters in the Addison Central Supervisory Union school district will likely be asked to approve a bond issue next year to help pay for re-roofing the Middlebury Union Middle School building. The UD-3 school board has agreed to solicit bids for the work, which an architect has already estimated will roughly cost over $634,000 for a new asphalt roof and just over $960,000 for a metal roof. A tentative timetable calls for the UD-3 board to narrow down a financing plan in December. The board would review contractor bids in January, then potentially approve a warning for a bond vote on Town Meeting Day.

Essex County is putting the Horace Nye Nursing Home up for sale starting Monday. The county owned nursing home has operated in the red for the past several years, in fact, this year alone, the county is expected to lose between 2 to 4 million dollars. The asking price is around 4 million dollars.

VTrans officials said Vermont Route 125 will close for culvert replacement in Hancock November 19th and 20th. The work will repair damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene. You will need to find alternate routes during construction.

Vermont state police have a new crime-fighting tool in their arsenal: a bulletproof vehicle. The $255,000 purchase was paid for by homeland security grants and money seized from convicted drug dealers. It will be used during dangerous situations to rescue injured or wounded people without putting the lives of officers at risk. Vermont is the last of the New England states to obtain an armored vehicle.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will conduct the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, or EAS, at 2PM tomorrow (Wednesday). The test will interrupt regularly scheduled television and radio shows. Viewers and listeners are reminded that the 2PM test will not be a real emergency and that you should not call 911 or other emergency services based on the test.