WVTK Local & State News January 30, 2012

The Lake Champlain Bridge Community is looking forward to hosting the Grand Celebration on May 19th & 20th. The events schedule is getting firmed up and you can see a tentative outline of it on LCBC’s website. They are drawing inspiration from the 1929 opening and are hoping to create an event just as grand. Over the course of two days, the celebration will include a grand parade, fireworks, boat flotilla, Sunday morning ecumenical service, and street concert/dance. In between these marquee events, there will be family-friendly activities and performances that will only enhance the celebration. Get involved today by visiting www.champlainbridgecommunity.org.

This Thursday there will be a Public Information Meeting and Open House at Fire Station #1 on Seymour Street here in Middlebury at 7PM. In preparation for the fire facilities bond vote at Town Meeting in March, the Fire Department’s Fire Station Committee will present building designs and estimates of the cost of improvements for both fire stations. Tours of Fire Station #1 will also be offered after the informational meeting. Information on the project is also available on the Fire Department’s website, www.middleburyfiredept.org.

Also on Thursday, there will be an information meeting on the Middlebury Business Development Fund at 7PM in the Ilsley Library Public Meeting Room. In preparation for the Middlebury Business Development Fund vote at Town Meeting in March the MBDF committee will present for discussion the proposal contained in Articles 5 and 6 for Town Meeting. The draft proposed articles are: Article 5 Shall the Town establish a Middlebury Business Development Fund pursuant to the provisions of 24 VSA § 2804, said fund to be expended for economic and business development, and other related expenses, including, but not limited to, hiring a Middlebury Director of Business Development to complement existing business recruitment and growth initiatives? Article 6 Shall the Town annually add one cent on the tax rate for a period of five years for the Business Development Fund created in Article 5 above?

City leaders in Hinesburg are elated a grant from the State of Vermont Agency of Transportation will begin public bus transportation for communities along Route 116. The highway reaches from Middlebury to Burlington, with Hinesburg as the central hub for the new bus route. The Route 116 Commuter will begin service this spring. Several public comment hearings on schedule details will be held in late February and early March in South Burlington, Hinesburg, Bristol and Middlebury.

Two Mendon teenagers are facing a string of charges after police say they vandalized several school buses. 16-year-old Timothy Hughes and 16-year-old Ethan Snitker allegedly broke into a bus at Barstow Memorial School in Chittenden. Police also believe the pair broke into the school, although no damage was found.

The Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport is about to get new hazard beacons. A replacement project for the towers is scheduled to begin under the Agency of Transportation’s proposed 2012-13 budget, with $530,000 a year allotted over the next four years. Officials say while the state will save on its electric bill at the airport, the real savings will come in maintenance costs on the eight towers.

Vermont Ski Areas Association, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the Vermont Maple Foundation are teaming up to promote Vermont specialty foods at resorts this winter. The Middlebury Snow Bowl will also be a participant this year. Skiers and riders will be able to samples of a variety of foods during Ski Vermont Specialty Food Days. Current dates include Middlebury College Snow Bowl and Winter Carnival, Saturday, February 25th. And Killington Mountain, Sunday, March 25th.

The Ticonderoga planning board is reviewing proposed revisions to the town’s zoning law. Officials hope to adopt the new zoning law in March. A public hearing on the proposed zoning law was held in December and the town board will continue to accept written comments until it takes action to adopt the measure. The proposed law is available at the town clerk’s office as well as online at www.townofticonderoga.org. The proposed zoning changes focus on three keys areas - commercial property, downtown and lakefront properties.

The Ripley Road bridge in Rutland is expected to see repairs next year, while the much-awaited work on the Dorr Drive bridge remains a couple of years out. Members of Rutland County’s legislative delegation have said the $3 million Ripley Road project is scheduled to go out to bid this December and begin construction in spring of 2013. The Dorr Drive Bridge has been slated for replacement since 1994. It closed for four months in 2004 and again briefly last year. A variety of issues have delayed the replacement.

Police say they caught the man who broke into a Rutland bridal shop as he was committing another burglary. Earlier this month, Trace of Lace Bridal shop was burglarized. Security cameras caught the suspect, and the storeowner released the footage in hopes of generating leads, but no one was immediately caught. Then early Friday morning, police responded to a burglary at the Italian Aid Society in Rutland. Officers arrested Brendan Fisk. Police say they also found items stolen from the bridal store at Fisk's house. So he will be charged in connection with both break-ins.

More of Forest Park is scheduled to come down this summer as the housing project slowly gives way to Hickory Street Apartments. The Rutland Housing Authority is preparing for the second phase of the project to demolish the low-income housing complex and replace it with mixed-income housing designed to look more like a traditional neighborhood.

The Westport Central School Board will hold its regular monthly meeting at 5:30PM this Thursday in the school library. The board will discuss the budget, a capital project and other business items that may come before the board. All meetings are open to the public.

Members of the North Ferrisburgh United Methodist Church traveled to Northfield to work on the Mackenzie House project. They joined up with United Methodists from other area churches for a workday. The Mackenzie House is being renovated to become a four-season base for United Methodist Volunteers in mission teams who are hoping to travel to Vermont to help residents recover from Tropical Storm Irene. Teams donate their time on demolition or rebuilding projects. The church is looking for volunteers; if you are interested in helping, call the Ferrisburgh office at 802-425-2770. United Methodist volunteers continue to work on rebuilding flood-damaged parts of Waitsfield and Moretown.

There are big changes coming this year in how Essex County is marketed to visitors. More social media and Web-based advertising and fewer ads in magazines, TV and newspapers are the focus of the county's 2012 marketing effort. According to Kimberly Rielly the director of communications for the Lake Placid-based Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism that's because peoples travel plans have shifted to the electronic media. A study by Sustainable Tourism says hiking was the number one draw for the region in 2010, followed by canoeing, fishing and skiing.

Some local Boy Scouts were hard at work preparing a bird habitat in Ripton recently. Boy Scouts and leaders of Troop 539 in Vergennes helped ready habitats for ruffed grouse in the Green Mountain National Forrest – Robert Frost Wayside area. Middlebury Station Ranger Mike Burbank oversaw the Scouts project.

A group of Ticonderoga Middle School students have been hard at work fundraising. The eighth grade Living Biology class has been raising money for a pair of field trips and a school project. The first trip took students to New York City to visit the American Museum of Natural History. The next goal is a trip to the Minds On “DNA in the Courtroom” workshop in Glens Falls March 20th. That trip will cost up to $625. The class has also helped with the school nature trail project, which is located behind the Ticonderoga Elementary-Middle School.

It's on to the Vermont House for a bill passed by the Senate that allows motorists to cover their front license plates with a special plate with the words "Vermont Strong" to commemorate Tropical Storm Irene. Gov. Peter Shumlin requested the Legislature pass a provision for the plates to be sold for $25, with most of the proceeds going to Irene disaster relief. The Senate passed the measure this past week, and it's expected to move through the House in the near future. The commemorative plates are to be placed over the existing front license plate, and the legislation says the rear plate must remain clearly visible.

The Senate is expected to take up a House-passed bill designating two fish species as the state fish of Vermont. The bill would make the brook trout the state's cold-water fish and the walleye pike Vermont's warm-water fish. It won final House approval on Friday.

With tax season underway, the state of Vermont is hoping to call attention to the under-used Earned Income Tax Credit. The EITC is a federal credit for low-income working families and individuals. State Treasurer Beth Pearce says the credit is available to anyone who has earned income from 2011, and can be useful for families struggling to make ends meet. Pearce says close to 20 percent of eligible Vermonters don't file for the EITC, mainly because they don't know about it.

A bill heading for the governor's desk would hold municipalities harmless for revealing property tax information that the state Supreme Court now says should have been kept private. The bill says that town and city clerks were relying on advice from the Tax Department and attorney general saying the information was public.

Vermont's Department of Public Safety has announced guidelines for the state's first medical marijuana dispensaries. The 400 plus Vermont patients currently grow their own medicine or have others do it for them, but as many as four distribution centers are expected to be operational by the end of the year. The new rules will mandate background checks, significant video security and one-at-a-time appointment-only service at the dispensaries.

A national organization of recreational cavers is questioning a new estimate of the number of bats killed by a mysterious ailment. The estimate by state and federal scientists says that 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats had died across the Northeast. It was released this month. But a Vermont-based official says the estimate could lead to unnecessary restrictions on access to caves. The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Service said the figure is, if anything, too low. The ailment was first spotted in New York six years ago and is spreading across the country.

According to Bishop Brandon Hicks of Ferrisburgh The Westport Branch and the Middlebury Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have merged to form the Middlebury Ward. The Westport Branch was created from the Middlebury Branch in 1983. The current LDS chapel in Westport was constructed in 1987. This will close the Westport branch. The Westport Branch has 100 members that will be affected by the merger.

The Town of Ferrisburgh is among the nine Vermont institutions, which received cultural facilities grants in a ceremony at the Vermont State House last week. The town received a grant of $5,500 to support the purchase of operable curtains, with valences, for the four large windows in the community center portion of the Ferrisburgh Town Offices and Community Center. The Vermont Cultural Facilities Grant Program funds a variety of projects that improve existing cultural facilities and expand their capacity to provide cultural activities in their communities.

Crane Mountain Valley Horse Rescue Inc. has been awarded a $4,000 grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in recognition of its work rescuing and rehabilitating horses in need. Crane Mountain is a nonprofit horse rescue program based in Westport that is dedicated to equine rescue and rehabilitation and to restoring horsemanship, the heritage and humane treatment of the horse. Learn more at www.cmvhr.org or Facebook.