WVTK Local & State News February 23, 2012

This year's annual meeting of Porter Medical Center will be held on Thursday, March 22nd at 7PM at the Kirk Alumni Center on the campus of Middlebury College. The keynote speaker will be Anya Rader Wallack who is the Chairwoman of the new Green Mountain Health Board. The meeting is free and open to the public. She has worked in health care policy and reform for the past two decades. In January 2011, she joined Gov. Peter Shumlin as Special Assistant for Health Reform and was the chief architect of Act 48, the governor’s health reform plan.

The Champlain Bridge opening celebration is on schedule to take place May 19th and 20th. The event will include an “Old Time Hometown Grand Parade” set to begin in Chimney Point and travel across the new bridge to the Crown Point Historic Site, as well as many other events and attractions throughout the celebration. The two-day celebration will include events held on both the New York and Vermont side of the bridge to encourage people to visit the historical sites and events both sides have to offer visitors. For a full list of events or to sign up to rent a booth at the opening day celebration go to the champlainbridgecommunity.org.

A former executive with Specialty Filaments Inc. in Middlebury is facing federal charges for allegedly conspiring to commit more than $1 million in fraud. Federal prosecutors in Vermont filed an indictment yesterday against Donald Marler III, the former president of the company that declared bankruptcy and closed its doors in 2007. According to court records he faces a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and a charge of bank fraud. Marler is the third former employee of Specialty Filaments to be charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, but is the first charged with alleged bank fraud.

Starting your own business can be challenging. The Vermont Small Business Development Center is offering a three-hour workshop on how to start your own business and write a business plan. The seminar is designed for individuals who are thinking about going into business but need assistance with the procedures involved and government regulations regarding starting up a business in Vermont. The seminar takes place at the National Bank Of Middlebury branch in Vergennes next Wednesday the 29th from 9:30M – 12:30PM. Admission is only $40. For more information just visit Addison County Dot Com.

The Vermont House has given its strong approval to legislation that supporters’ hope will increase the blood supply in the state. The bill makes it easier for young people to donate blood by dropping the age of consent from 17 to 16. West Rutland Representative Tom Burditt says 38 other states have a consent age of 16 and he says those states have discovered that young people are often very enthusiastic donors. The measure now goes to the Senate for its consideration.

Rutland police are now looking for both a red car and a mid-sized white SUV as they continue to investigate a fatal accident involving two pedestrians on Lincoln Avenue. Witnesses Tuesday night said they saw a white SUV fleeing the area after the crash. Police stopped one, but later determined it was the wrong SUV. Now they are asking the driver of the white SUV who left the crash scene to come forward, hoping the driver may have seen something. Deborah J Campbell died Tuesday night after an unknown vehicle on Lincoln Avenue struck her and her wheelchair-bound husband.

While police look for the driver involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident, a family mourns the loss of Deborah Campbell of Rutland. She's described as a loving, caring woman who was pushing her husband in his wheelchair Wednesday after picking up prescriptions at a local pharmacy. While walking with traffic on Lincoln Avenue they were struck from behind, with Campbell dying later from head trauma. Police in Rutland say they're looking for both a red car and a mid-sized white SUV.

The Rutland police department has agreed to pay a New York man $30,000 to settle a racial discrimination complaint. Mark Allen of Brooklyn says he was subjected to questioning and a strip search after arriving in Rutland by train last March. The officer was reportedly looking for drugs, but found none. Allen says he believes he was targeted because of his race. In a settlement before the state Human Rights Commission, the city has also agreed to adopt a bias-free policing policy and to improve training of officers.

On Town Meeting Day the voters of Rutland Town will be asked if they will approve the expenditure of up to $130,000 in a 15-year bond to install a 60-kilowatt solar panel array upon the school roof. If approved, the system will offset 20 percent of the school’s $50,000 annual electric costs. Every kilowatt-hour produced will produce an approximately 6 cent credit on the school’s electric bill, in addition to the kilowatt-hour offset by the solar generation that will no longer be billed by CVPS.

A man accused of burglarizing the Essex County Government Center is now in the County Jail. 28-year-old Logan Stephenson of Farmington, West VA, was charged over the weekend with entering the county complex and taking food from various offices. Essex County Sheriff's Department Maj. David Reynolds said deputies took Stephenson into custody after he had fled the building. He was picked up in Lake Placid. He was charged with felony third-degree burglary and misdemeanor petit larceny. He was arraigned in Moriah Town Court and sent to the County Jail when he couldn't pay $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond. Stephenson is due in Elizabethtown Town Court today.

A warning is out for you to be wary of door-to-door meat trucks. There have been reports of vendors showing up unannounced and selling questionable meat to homes in Vermont. They are called meat truck scams and although the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets doesn't list specific cases to inform you of they do say everyone needs to be on the lookout. To report a suspicious meat truck contact your local police department and consumers with doubts on the safety of meat they've purchased are encouraged to avoid the risk and throw it out.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to guarantee a $930,000 loan to a Vermont cheese producer. The state's congressional delegation says the loan guarantee for Jasper Hill Farms in Greensboro will support 20 existing jobs and create 14 new ones. The money will be used to finalize construction of 2 areas where cheese is aged, space known as cheese cave vaults. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch said Wednesday that the Greensboro project represents the bright future of Vermont's dairy industry.

The House is debating a bill today that would set up a new health insurance exchange or state marketplace for insurance coverage - in compliance with the federal health reform law passed two years ago. Shumlin and his fellow Democrats are hoping to use the exchange for bringing most Vermonters within a single-payer health insurance system by 2017. Republicans are expected to offer amendments to make participation in the health exchange voluntary, rather than mandatory, and to move up the date when the administration outlines a financing plan for its long-term health reform plan.

Vermont is getting more help to recover from Tropical Storm Irene. The state will receive a $2.4 million grant from FEMA to use on recovery services for survivors of the August storm. That money will go toward unmet needs, including housing, social services, and more. Eleven case managers will be hired through August 2013 to work with clients and identify what kind of assistance they need and what they have already received.

Incoming University of Vermont President E. Thomas Sullivan says his top priority will be to ensure a college education remains affordable for students. Sullivan made the comments yesterday after he was introduced as UVM's 26th president. He is set to receive $447,000 in pay and deferred compensation during his first three years leading the university in Burlington.

A Vermont senate committee is trying to resurrect legislation passed last year but vetoed by Gov. Peter Shumlin that would require testing of private wells when they are drilled or when a home is sold. In committee testimony yesterday before the Senate Education Committee, Health Commissioner Harry Chen took tough questioning over a change in position on the mandate since last year. Chen told lawmakers last year that testing should be required. Now he favors disclosure to homebuyers and people having wells drilled that testing is a good idea. Shumlin vetoed mandatory testing last year, saying he did not want to impose new costs on Vermonters.

Governor Peter Shumlin is defending his administration's push to set up a new health insurance marketplace or exchange. Shumlin says the aim is to comply with the federal health reform law passed two years ago and lay the groundwork for the single-payer health care system he wants to set up by late in this decade.

A group of Mexican farm workers and several dairy farmers have testified in support of a guest worker program for the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 immigrants who work on Vermont's dairy farms. The bill before the Senate Agriculture Committee would create state IDs for the workers making them eligible for state services.

The city council in Burlington is trying to get through an ordinance geared towards unlawful trespassing at the Church Street Marketplace. The council's Public Safety Committee gave its approval on a proposed unlawful-trespassing ordinance, but put on hold a proposal to cut back the aggressive panhandling which happens, deciding to review it next month. Behavior of people with mental health issues, drunk, or begging for money has long been a problem there, despite the fact four full-time social workers are assigned to the area, with a fifth one being added.

The Ticonderoga Alumni Association will hold a “Strikes for Students” Bowling Tournament March 10th & 11th at the Adirondack Lanes. Fifty percent of the proceeds will go into the scholarship fund and 50 percent of the funds will go to pay for prizes and the use of the lanes. The tournament will be held in two segments and will begin at noon and 3PM on both Saturday and Sunday. There will be 2 divisions, one for bowlers with established handicaps and one for everyone else. The cost to participate will be $16 for adults and $12 for kids, the fee includes three games and shoe rental.

Ben and Jerry's officially released its new flavors of the year yesterday afternoon. One is an ice cream, "Chocolate Nougat Crunch." It has chocolate-covered wafer cookies swirled into it. The other flavors are made with Greek yogurt that include "Blueberry Vanilla Graham," "Banana Peanut Butter" and "Vanilla” and "Raspberry Fudge Chip.” The company has started to phase out its frozen yogurts, in favor of Greek yogurt. The new flavors have been selling well at the Burlington Scoop Shop and getting a positive response from both customers and Ben and Jerry's employees.