WVTK Local & State News February 29, 2012

Vermonters hoping to vote next week must register by today. Town meeting day is Tuesday. Several presidential candidates will appear on this year's ballot. Those seeking the Republican nomination include Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul. President Obama is running unopposed on the Democratic side. Voters have until 5PM tonight to register.

Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel has announced a follow-up meeting on what folks can do to combat drugs and drug use in our communities and everyone is invited to attend! The next Vergennes Community Action Group meeting will be held at VUHS next Wednesday, the 7th of March at 7:00PM in the VUHS auditorium.

For many Towns in Vermont, Town Meeting Day is more than just an annual gathering to discuss and vote on local issues it’s also a day many gather to enjoy home made meals, baked goods and other culinary delights! The Town of New Haven, along with the New Haven Cub and Boy Scouts, will hold a special Town Meeting Dinner on Monday, March 5th from 6 – 7PM in the New Haven Town Hall. Admission is $8 per adult for this “a la carte” dinner.

Almost a year after historic Spring flooding, Vermont lawmakers are talking about making it illegal to drive on flooded highways. Rescue crews say it happens every spring. Pittsford Fire Chief Thomas Hooker told Vermont lawmakers Tuesday that his team saves up to three drivers each year at about $1,500 a rescue. That is why he agrees with a bill in the Vermont House that would make it illegal to drive on highways with four or more inches of water. And, it would make drivers pay for the cost of the rescue if they did. But, the Operations Director for Vermont's Department of Transportation, Scott Rogers, says this bill is not easily enforceable. Rogers says the existing statute, which fines drivers who go on closed roads, already prevents them from going on flooded highways.

The regular Westport Town Council meeting that was scheduled for yesterday has been changed to 7PM this Thursday. The council meets at the Town Hall. All meetings are open to the public.

A Ticonderoga church will give away free food. The Ticonderoga Assembly of God Church will distribute free groceries from 6 to 8:30PM on Monday, March 12th at Mountain Time Auctions on Broad St. in Port Henry. The church has 4,000 pounds of food to give away — all of it absolutely free. The Ticonderoga Assembly of God Church held a similar free food distribution a year ago. Organizers know there is a great need in the area and they feel strongly that they must help people when they can and this is a chance to do just that. There are no geographic boundaries. The only reason the food distribution will be in Port Henry is because of the availability of the Mountain Time facility.

As part of their college preparation class, Westport Central School seniors educated themselves about prospective dream colleges. The required research included deciding on a major, drawing a map of the campus, researching the requisite classes coupled with the pertinent professors, computing college costs and discovering available grants and loans. Then the class put on a College Fair for younger students. The students said they found the effort beneficial.

The Rutland Town School Board unanimously promoted its assistant principal, Aaron Boynton, to lead the school for the next two years after the sudden resignation of Principal Patricia Beaumont. Beaumont announced her resignation February 13th and at Monday night's meeting, Boynton was hired. There was no external search for a new principal. Boynton replaced Lawrence Sims as assistant principal at the school in June of last year. He was formerly the principal of Middletown Springs Elementary.

Plans for a Killington ski village took a major step forward yesterday when SP Land Co. filed its long-awaited Act 250 permit application for the first phase of its development at the base of the ski area. The $133.4 million Phase 1 development includes 193 condominiums, nine single-family lots and 23 duplex lots, 31,000-square feet of retail space and a 77,000-square-foot base lodge.

Fire destroyed a home in Charlotte yesterday. Firefighters from four departments battled the blaze at the home on Guinea Road. Fire crews from Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne and Ferrisburgh were on the scene shortly after noon Tuesday. No injuries were reported and there's no word yet on the cause of the fire.

One of the most controversial bills of the 2012 session will soon be on the Senate floor for a vote. The legislation would make it more difficult for parents to have their children exempted from the state's mandatory immunization law. For the past few weeks, members of the Senate Health and Welfare committee have received thousands of emails and phone calls on both sides of this bill. By a vote of 3 to 1, the Senate Health and Welfare committee is backing a bill to eliminate this exemption. Rutland senator Kevin Mullin is the lead sponsor of the legislation. It now appears likely that the legislation will be on the Senate floor by the end of the week, and if it passes, it will then be considered in the House.

Issues facing Vermont voters on Town Meeting Day this year range from getting an abandoned asbestos mine in Lowell and Eden declared a Superfund toxic waste site to routine town budgets. Some voters will be asked to weigh in on a proposed constitutional amendment ensuring that corporations aren't treated the same way as living people.

The separation of church and state is about to take center stage in the small town of Franklin, Vermont. "Town Meeting Day" is slated for March, but the meeting's opening prayer has some folks up in arms. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Marilyn Hackett in a St. Albans courtroom Tuesday, saying prayer violates Vermont's constitution by compelling voters to attend a religious worship. Town lawyers disagree, saying Hackett isn't forced to participate, and saying a prayer during a government event isn't anything new.

Two environmental groups are supporting an amended proposal to run a 330-mile power line from Quebec to Connecticut and New York City. Officials with Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper announced this week their joint support for the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission project first proposed by Transmission Developers Inc. in 2010. The groups opposed the company's original plan but are backing the amended version after concluding that its adverse impacts to the environment are expected to be negligible. The company wants to run 5-inch-diameter high-voltage current cables under Lake Champlain, the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. Portions of the power line would be buried along highway and railroad rights of way in the Hudson Valley.

The first New England-wide lottery game will hold its initial drawing next month. The top prizewinners in the "Lucky for Life" game will receive $1,000 a day for the rest of their lives. The $2 tickets will be sold at lottery outlets in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Drawings will be held on Mondays and Thursdays, with the first drawing scheduled for March 15th.

Governor Peter Shumlin is expressing impatience with lawmakers for not sending him legislation to revamp the state's mental health system fast enough. And Shumlin is insisting that lawmakers limit the size of a new psychiatric hospital to be built in Berlin to 16 beds, saying if the state builds a larger one, it will lose nearly $10 million a year in federal funding.

The future operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant beyond its original March 21st shutdown date might not be as clear as it appeared a month ago. The Public Service Board says there are some unresolved issues, especially connected with the plant's hope to store additional high-level radioactive waste on its site in Vernon.

Voters in dozens of Vermont communities are going to weigh in next week on whether the United States should pass a constitutional amendment to ensure that corporations are not treated the same way as living people. The so-called "corporate personhood" amendment being pushed by Senator Bernie Sanders is 1 of the social issues that will be considered by some towns across Vermont on Town Meeting Day.

Police say someone called in a threat Tuesday afternoon. The caller said three people with guns were headed to Bellows Falls Union High School. Numerous police agencies responded. Investigators determined it was a hoax. School let out at its normal time. But all afterschool activities were canceled as a precaution.

The country's first ski resort opened near Woodstock in 1934. But it wasn't until today that the Legislature recognized skiing and snowboarding as Vermont's official state sports. The bill passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday morning. It's the brainchild of sixth-graders from Swanton Middle School who realized Vermont didn't have an official state sport. It took four years for the bill to pass the Legislature. The bill includes cross-country skiing as a part of the official state sport.

Scientists and engineers were busy along the shores of Lake Champlain yesterday afternoon. They gathered outside the ECHO Center in Burlington to test out a new GPS system designed to explore what goes on below the water's surface. While similar tracking devices have been used before, they've often failed to pinpoint something beyond a 10- to 12-meter estimate. This technology, created in Vermont, shortens that distance to about half a meter. Practical applications for the technology could include helping to track shipwrecks and lost cargo, as well as military ammunition. The system's creators say the technology could cost as much as a new car.

Within a month, Rutland will be able to welcome back Clem’s as a favorite downtown breakfast establishment and coffee shop. Don Fleck closed the deal yesterday to reopen the former Clem & Co. and Clem’s Café. Fleck was the winning bidder on the restaurant equipment that was auctioned to pay off creditors of the restaurant and coffee shop that closed late last year. Fleck said he hopes to open the restaurant and adjacent coffee shop by St. Patrick’s Day. He’ll shorten the restaurant’s name to Clem’s and hopes to bring the coffee shop’s old name, The Coffee Exchange. He plans to keep it pretty much like it is but include some menu upgrades.