WVTK Local & State News February 13, 2012

Tomorrow evening the Middlebury Select Board will hold its regular meeting at 7PM in the Town Offices Conference Room. Items to be covered include approval of wage increases for Election Workers, authorization of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program application, an update on the Town Plan Schedule and an update on the FY2011 Audit. The complete agenda can be viewed anytime on the Town’s Website.

A Vermont man is due in court to answer charges he stole original papers and cards written by the poet Robert Frost and received more than $20,000 for them. Hartford police say Timothy Bernaby was arrested on Friday on a charge of grand larceny. Police say after he stole the papers he sold them.

Three New Yorkers are behind bars as of this morning after police found thousands of dollars of drugs and weapons in their Rutland hotel room. State police executed a search warrant inside a room at the Holiday Inn and found more than 80 grams of cocaine, 150 bags of heroin, 27 grams of pot, a .9 mm handgun, and more than $3,000 in cash. The three from New York are all being lodged at the Marble Valley Corrections Facility and are due in court today.

State officials will be at Rutland Free Library today to hear about what worked, what did not and what still needs to be done in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene. The Community Recovery Partnership initiative will hold a town meeting-style discussion at 7PM today at the Rutland Library. Noelle MacKay, state commissioner of Economic, Housing and Community Development, said the meeting is one in a series designed to reveal the tasks and needs before Vermont communities that suffered during the flooding.

The Central Vermont Community Action Council will provide hands-on training in fundamental techniques for improving your home’s efficiency at the Hannaford Career Center here in Middlebury on Saturday, March 17th. The Middlebury Energy Committee is hosting this event in collaboration with Hannaford Career Center. Participants will learn the basics of building science, how to find and seal trouble spots and practice installing rigid foam insulation, door weather stripping, and spray foam gun sealing in the attic and basement. This will prepare you to participate in Efficiency Vermont’s Do-It-Yourself program that provides financial incentives for owner-installed weatherization improvements. A $50 registration fee includes training and lunch. For more information or to register, just visit: www.weatherizationskillshop.com.

Crown Point residents will soon be able monitor local government on the Internet. The town is developing a new website that will allow for regular updates and provide current information. The supervisor said the new website will have town meeting dates, agendas for upcoming meetings, minutes of past meetings and other information. New software at the town hall will allow the website to be maintained locally instead of through the current design company at an additional expense to the town.

Ticonderoga Central School District is facing the possibility of severe cuts to stay under the state's 2 percent tax-levy cap. To find out what ideas people might have to overcome the crisis, the School Board is holding a community forum at 7PM this Wednesday in the High School cafeteria. The district is starting its 2012-13 budget process almost $2 million short. The possibilities include layoffs and deep program cuts. School officials are asking for the community’s help as team to find solutions for the budget issues.

Police have arrested 42-year-old Christopher McCarthy of Rutland in connection with an armed robbery of the West Rutland Rite Aid on Saturday. The robbery took place around 4:15 in the afternoon. He was found and arrested around 8:20PM and is being held at Marble Valley Correctional Center for lack of $75,000 bail.

According to a consultant hired by the Rutland Central Supervisory District the town of Proctor has a number of options to choose from regarding the future of the junior-senior high school. With a declining school enrollment that dropped to just 158 students in grades 7 through 12 this year, Proctor taxpayers are finding themselves up against the realities of a state education tax formula that dictates the fewer the students, the higher the cost to educate them. Options included sticking with the status quo, creating a unified or regional school district with West Rutland, tuitioning students to either Rutland City, Mill River Union High School or Otter Valley Union High School or allowing school choice so parents could pick what institution their children attended.

Medical and mental health officials planning to open a methadone clinic in Rutland believe an industrial site off Park Street could be the right site. But some city officials, including the mayor, said that while they support a methadone clinic, they don’t like the proposed location. No decision has been made regarding the clinic’s site. But with a $500,000 operating budget approved by the state Department of Health, officials who are working to start the drug treatment center are hopeful that it can open this summer.

Officials from Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre and Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven have announced a Vermont State Late Model Championship Series for the 2012 stock auto-racing season. Four long-distance stock car events for Late Model race teams will determine the Vermont State Late Model Champion. The American Canadian Tour-type Late Model division is the most popular form of stock car racing in the northeastern US and eastern Canada, serving the needs of racers and fans at fifteen different race tracks and two regional touring divisions.

While it wasn't known at the time, as searchers frantically tried to reach a vehicle submerged in Lake Champlain, no one was in it. But State Police didn’t discover that until after multiple dives Sunday morning. The vehicle was found underneath about 16 inches of ice. Alburgh fire authorities say a pressure crack in the ice is likely the reason it gave way beneath the vehicle. It remains under investigation.

A key state lawmaker says he will continue his bid to get the state to look at purchasing a 51% ownership stake in its high-tension power transmission grid. Senator Vincent Illuzzi has been leading the charge to call on the state to acquire majority ownership in the Vermont Electric Power Company, or VELCO.

It's February, and already flocks of robins are being spotted around Vermont. Bird experts say it's because the birds never left for the winter. The weather has been mild enough for the robins to hang around. While some usually winter in Vermont, they're staying in greater numbers than normal, according to the conservation program manager at the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington. More than two-thousand American robins were noted during the annual Christmas bird count, shattering a 64-year-record.

Vermont lawmakers will decide this winter how their state will design a health insurance exchange. The federal Affordable Care Act requires states to create exchanges by 2014 or have the government do it for them. The exchanges are Internet-based marketplaces where small employers and individuals will be able to compare health insurance plans and make insurance purchases. The idea is to increase their negotiating clout with insurance companies. Some employers worry that they could be offered coverage such as high-deductible plans that would be a good deal for small businesses' bottom lines, but a bad deal for consumers' wallets.

A renewable energy industry group is calling for the state to expand the amount of power Vermont gets from generators paid above-market prices set by the state. But other business groups say they worry that expanding the state's so-called standard offer program will drive up electric rates.

Some of the leaders of Vermont's independent colleges didn't appreciate President Barack Obama's recent comments about the need for colleges and universities to keep costs down. The schools' presidents say they're working to keep costs down. But they also say that given the likelihood of a college degree boosting lifelong earnings, a college education is still the best investment a person can make.

The hospital in the Vermont town of Randolph is going to use a $35,000 grant to help promote breast cancer awareness. Gifford Memorial Hospital says the Avon Breast Health Outreach Program is designed to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits of the early detection of breast cancer.

A group dedicated to protecting snakes is working with the state to learn more about Vermont's endangered poisonous rattlesnakes. Vermont and nearby sections of New York are at the extreme northern edge of the rattlesnake's range. Biologists estimate there are several hundred rattlesnakes living in two areas in western Rutland County. Last summer, the groups used radio transmitters to track the snakes up to two miles from their winter dens. Sometimes the snakes had crossed roads and private property. The snakes rarely bother people, but a system has been in place for years so that when people find the snakes on their property experts will safely remove them and release them far from people.

Vermont's Organic Farmers have gathered for a winter meeting for the 30th year. The movement has grown from a just few, to thousands. The multi-billion dollar industry employs thousands of Vermonters. The 2008's farm-bill is due to expire at the end of September, Sen. Patrick Leahy says he'll make sure $23 Billion in proposed Agricultural cuts won't hit the small Vermont farmer. Regardless of what happens in Washington, Governor Shumlin says the state's organic farmers, especially the fresh faces, are poised to lead the nation in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

Green Works-Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association have announced the winners of the 2011 Industry Award Program here in Vermont. Both residential and commercial projects in the state were recognized including many here in the Champlain Valley. Green Works-Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association is a non-profit, statewide industry organization. Awards were given out recently at their annual Winter Meeting and Trade Show at the University of Vermont.

Ticonderoga High School’s music program has been selected to host the 2012 All-County Music Festival. Top student musicians from high schools throughout the area will take part in the program this Thursday at Ti High. Performers will spend the entire day in Ticonderoga rehearsing with students from other schools under the direction of various music teachers. The day will conclude with a public concert at 7PM in the school auditorium. Tickets are $2 a person and $10 for a family.

Vermont's hometown recording artist, Grace Potter did not make the final cut at Grammy's Sunday night. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song "You and Tequila" that she performed with country music star Kenny Chesney. The Best Country Duo award ended up going to The Civil Wars - 'Barton Hollow.'