WVTK Local & State News December 15, 2011

The Addison County Chamber Of Commerce After Hours Business Mixer and the Ticonderoga Chamber’s Mixer will both take place this evening. Addison County’s will be held at the Waybury inn in East Middlebury from 5 – 7PM. The entry fee is a donation to the Addison County Humane Society. Meanwhile The Ticonderoga Historical Society and Ticonderoga Arts will co-host their event from 5:30 to 7PM. Appetizers, soft drinks and beverages will be served upstairs in the library and desserts will be served downstairs in the gallery.

This week at the Middlebury Select Board meeting, Town Planner Fred Dunnington, introduced the concept of Property Assessed Clean Energy Districts. PACE Districts, which must be authorized by Town Meeting vote, allow property owners to finance energy efficiency improvement projects through a program, which is currently being set-up by Efficiency Vermont. Working with the River Steering Committee, Project Manager Amy Sheldon prepared and submitted an application for $15,000 from the State's Watershed Grant Program for river modeling and to plan and design river management strategies. Meanwhile the Fire Department project remains on schedule and within budget. And the Board continued its review of the FY13 budget. Staff presented additional recommendations for revenue enhancements and line-item expense reductions and the Select Board asked for the review of wage and overtime line items in various budgets. A public hearing on the FY2013 budget proposal will be held on Tuesday, January 17th.

The Board of Trustees of Ilsley Public Library will have a vacancy in March for a five-year term. The Board of Trustees is authorized by state statute and has five members. Members set library policies, oversee long-range planning, advocates for the library, and promotes it use. The Board works with the Middlebury Select Board to provide appropriate funding. Persons interested in serving are invited to run for the board at the March town elections. All candidates must be registered voters in the Town of Middlebury. A petition is required and may be obtained from the Middlebury Town Clerk’s office or the library and must be submitted to the town clerk by January 30th.

Rutland City Alderman Ed Larson will not seek a second term. Larson said yesterday he would not run again due to health reasons. While Larson said he would have liked to serve longer, he originally planned to stay for no more than three terms. Several of the other five aldermen whose terms are up in March were noncommittal yesterday.

Health insurers in New York will no longer be allowed to require policy holders to have their prescriptions filled by mail under a bill signed into law that is considered win for local drug stores and for immigrants. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the law approved by the Legislature earlier this year on Tuesday. It would require prescriptions filled by the local pharmacy to cost no more than the mail order prescriptions some health insurers prefer.

There are more signs of Vermont's economic recovery in a new jobs report. The recruiting software company Bullhorn says Vermont is leading the nation in job creation in the last year. According to the report, Vermont saw a 62 percent increase in job openings in 2011 compared to 2010. Other New England states have seen far fewer jobs available. Maine had an increase of 21 percent, New Hampshire had an increase of 20 percent and Massachusetts had an increase of just 11 percent.

There are new developments regarding an accusation that a Salvation Army bell ringer was attacked on Church Street in Burlington. A longtime volunteer claimed a drunken man attempted to steal her kettle Tuesday. Marjorie Burns of Burlington told police that a man tried to swipe her donation kettle in front of the Burlington Town Center. She told police she confronted the man, so he hugged her and left without any money. Police arrested Nathan Miner, 49, of South Burlington, for the attempted theft. But Wednesday evening, Burlington Police said Burns made up the story. She was cited for false report and is due in court in February. She could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

A University of Vermont fraternity suspended over a survey that asked members who they would like to rape is getting a visit from a representative of the fraternity's national headquarters. The national Sigma Phi Epsilon organization says in a statement that is has instructed the chapter to cease all operation, pending further investigation. It says that any behavior that demeans women is not tolerated.

Prosecutors are planning to drop a charge of attempted murder against a Vermont man stemming from a shooting over a heroin dispute. Their reason is that a federal grand jury indicted 28-year-old Dean Heffernan on a gun charge arising from the August shooting in Hinesburg. The Burlington Free Press reports Heffernan pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to the charge earlier this week.

Groups representing the elderly and disabled in Vermont have filed suit against the state over what they say is its failure to investigate many instances of abuse by caregivers. The Community of Vermont Elders and Disability Rights Vermont say the state Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living has been promising for a year to correct a backlog of 150 to 300 cases of alleged financial exploitation and physical abuse of elderly and disabled Vermonters, but has not kept the promise.

A national research group says Vermont is among the top-ranking states for the quality of its job subsidy programs. The Washington-based group Good Jobs First says many states do not do a good job making sure that their job subsidy programs. But the group ranks Vermont with North Carolina and Nevada as the states doing the best job making sure taxpayers get their money's worth from the job subsidy programs.

Continuing efforts to recover from Tropical Storm Irene in areas of Vermont and New Hampshire are getting a $75,000 boost from private groups in the two states. The group Upper Valley Strong is made up of 50 local nonprofit agencies, churches, schools and government agencies. The award came from the Granite United Way, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and The Vermont Community Foundation.

Burke Mountain is the latest Vermont ski resort with big expansion plans on the table. The Northeast Kingdom ski area is seeking Act 250 approval to add 32 housing units and other amenities. Plans call for the housing mostly to be clustered along the edges of existing developed. The average market value of the homes is expected to be about $500,000.

St. Mary’s School in Ticonderoga is the first in the area to have Kindles’ for its students. The Kindles were purchased for students in grades 5 through 8 recently using an anonymous donation in the memory of Eleanor Smith of Putnam. Smith, a long-time St. Mary’s benefactor, died this fall. A Kindle allows wireless access to books, newspapers, magazines, blogs and other digital media. The St, Mary’s students have lessons on the tablet, which also contains reference materials like dictionaries and maps.

Molly Bechard has been named visitor and member service representative/office assistant with the Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce. She was introduced at the chamber’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and Awards Ceremony. For more information on the Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce just visit www.ticonderogany.com.

Are YOU dreaming of a White Christmas? Climate experts at Cornell University have made their annual predictions about the probability of a white Christmas, while noting that December is shaping up as the 12th month in a row of above-normal temperatures in the Northeast. Pinkham Notch, NH tops the list from the Northeast Regional Climate Center with a 95% probability of an inch or more of snow on the ground on December 25th. The predictions are based on a 50-year average.

The Vermont State Police and other law enforcement agencies will be conducting sobriety checkpoints in Vermont during the weekends of the holiday season. Police say the goal is to detect and apprehend drivers under the influence of alcohol or any drug that impairs the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.

PBS’s “This Old House” is working on its winter project to renovate a Rhode Island beach house that will feature at least 35 signature light fixtures created by the Hubbardton Forge in Castleton. The show’s host, Kevin O’Connor, was at the Vermont lighting factory Tuesday to film a segment of the 10-episode show that premieres nationally in January. HDTV’s Property Brothers will also highlight Hubbardton Forge in an episode. The company was previously featured in the Science Channel’s “How It’s Made.” The episode of “This Old House” featuring Hubbardton Forge will air in March.