WVTK Local & State News March 15, 2012

The final installment of the Town of Middlebury property taxes is due today. Offices will remain open until 5:30PM this evening to accept payments.

The Addison County Chamber Of Commerce will hold its March mixer at Danforth Pewter on Seymour Street in Middlebury this evening from 5 – 7PM. For more information or to RSVP to Sue Hoxie click HERE.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce March “After Business Mixer” will be held this evening as well. The event will take place at Crown Point Telephone/Crown Point Network Technologies from 5:30 to 7PM. For more information just visit www.ticonderogany.com.

The Addison County Chamber Of Commerce wants to let you know that two of Vermont's U.S. legislators are in the area this week and are holding public meetings. You can join congressman Peter Welch for a lively question and answer session tomorrow at Noon at The Lodge at Otter Creek in Middlebury. Light refreshments will be provided. Then Senator Bernie Sanders will be hosting a town meeting this coming weekend. The meeting takes place on Sunday at 11AM. Refreshments will be available starting at 10:30. The meeting with Senator Sanders will take place at Holley Hall on South Street on Bristol. RSVP is requested, but not required: 800-339-9834 or www.sanders.senate.gov.

A local seventh grader is going to represent Vermont in the national spelling bee this year. Thirteen-year-old Ronan Howlett of Cornwall won the state title Wednesday after spelling "qualitative" in the 18th round. He was actually relieved when he was given the word, saying he knew the term from his science class. Ronan ended up beating last year's champ, Meigan Clark, who like him is also a seventh-grader at Middlebury Union Middle School. The national competition is held in May in Washington, D-C.

Nobel Peace Prize winner the Dalai Lama will visit Middlebury College for the third time this fall. The spiritual leader of Tibet will visit the campus for two lectures, one for the campus community and another for the public. Middlebury students, faculty and staff may attend his talk “Educating the Heart” at 1:45PM on October 12th. His lecture “Finding Common Ground: Ethics for a Whole World” will be open to the public and will take place October 13th. Both will be held at the Nelson Arena. The Dalai Lama previously visited the college for two symposiums, in 1984 and in 1990. Tickets for this Octobers lectures will be available though the Middlebury College Box Office.

The teachers of the Addison-Rutland Supervisory Union will decide today what their next steps are regarding a pay cut. Teachers in Castleton, Fair Haven, Benson and Orwell have been working without a contract since July, even though negotiations have been going on for more than a year. Now, with imposed working conditions they'll be having a retroactive pay freeze with teachers receiving about a hundred dollars less in their remaining paychecks.

Highlights from this week’s Middlebury Select Board meeting included a report from Project Manager Amy Sheldon on the Middlebury River Planning & Restoration Project, including the status of the Town's hazard mitigation grant application with award decisions due on or about March 16th. No further financial assistance is available for Gristmill Bridge floodwall from FEMA.
Meanwhile the Board awarded the bid for the Butternut Ridge Road water and road improvement project to Champlain Construction. And The Business Development Fund Working Group will hold its final meeting this afternoon at 2:30 in the small conference room in the Municipal Building. At the meeting, the Group will develop recommendations to the Select Board on the next steps and timeline for the initiative. The Select Board will appoint a 5-member advisory board to continue the business development effort.

Higher ups in the State police met with House lawmakers yesterday to discuss changing the Vermont search and rescue policy. In January 19-year-old Levi Duclos died on the Emily Proctor Trail in Ripton. Wednesday's meeting with lawmakers was more like a brainstorming session. House lawmakers are hoping police will take initiative and include other search and rescue teams, like local firefighters, in the decision making process. But Sen. Vince Illuzzi wants a bill and has drafted legislation that would make search and rescue response a combination of State police efforts and volunteer searchers and rescuers. State police say they expect they'll be able to put a new policy in place by September.

Vergennes small business exporter Joel Melnick of Nathaniel Group, Inc. joined other small business owners, as U.S. Small Business Administration winners for outstanding success in their chosen fields. Melnick was award in the Small Business Exporter category. Nathaniel Group, Inc. was founded by Melnick as a sole proprietorship in 1984 and since then the company has developed new products and technologies and created design and manufacturing solutions for companies in search of reliable technical devices. The Vermont Small Business Award celebration is scheduled for June 14th.

Former economic development director Seth Webb is Killington’s new town manager. Two of three Killington selectmen voted to hire Webb permanently at his current salary of $85,000 a year plus benefits following an executive session Tuesday night. He was promoted to interim town manager in August of last year when Kathleen Ramsay resigned to take a job as assistant town manager in Middlebury.

The Vermont House is expected to pass and send to the Senate a bill that would require health insurance companies to cover telemedicine to the same degree that they do in-person medical consultations. Telemedicine is the use of communications technology to allow health professionals to offer their expertise to a medical case from a remote location. Supporters say it will allow greater access for Vermonters, especially in rural locations, to the expertise of medical specialists. The measure was advanced on a unanimous voice vote yesterday and is expected to win final passage today before moving to the Senate.

Vermont and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are joining to put $19.8 million toward buying out properties that are prone to flooding. Gov. Peter Shumlin, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch and other officials traveled to Northfield on Wednesday to make the announcement. Northfield, which was hit hard by flooding from Irene, is the location of 13 of the homes being bought out under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The program enables owners of flood prone properties to move elsewhere, and bars new development on the bought out properties. The federal agency covers 75% of the cost. Shumlin says the state is working to come up with the money to pay the other 25% of the cost.

Vermont will get more federal funding to repair roads damaged by Tropical Storm Irene under a bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate. Hundreds of miles of highway were washed away by Irene's flash floods. The cost of repairs could approach $250 million. A provision added to the transportation bill by Sen. Bernie Sanders would have the feds cover 100 percent of road repairs when states are hit with extreme natural disasters. Sanders says the bill also contains funding that will help Vermont address a serious backlog of other road and bridge repairs. The House has not been able to pass its own transportation bill.

Hundreds of Vermonters swarmed the Statehouse Wednesday, to express their opinions on the controversial end of life bill. Even the name of the bill is up for debate. Supporters wore stickers that read, "I support death with dignity," opponents wore ones that said, "I oppose physician-assisted suicide." The chair of the committee says despite overwhelming testimony in the Statehouse yesterday, he doesn't expect his committee will pass the bill, which will end the debate for another year.

More restrictions might be coming for tobacco products in the Green Mountain State. Members from the house human services committee listened to testimony on a bill that aims to make it harder for minors to buy tobacco products. One of their concerns is electronic cigarettes, which contain nicotine. But anyone is allowed to buy them because there are no FDA restrictions. They are also concerned with flavored cigars. That's because they say they are popular with the younger generation.

A New York statewide burn ban is in effect from March 16th through May 14th. The state Department of Environmental Conservation says the lack of green vegetation, abundance of available fuels such as dry grass and leaves, warm temperatures and wind make spring a high-risk season for wildfires. Burning debris accounted for about 36 percent of wildfires between 1985 and 2009, making it the largest single cause of wildfires in New York state. Forty-six percent of wildfires in the state happen between March 16th and May 14th. Violators of the open burning state regulation are subject to a minimum fine of $500 for a first offense.

After another day of searching there is still no sign of a missing teenager from Tupper Lake. Wednesday's search focused on the Raquette River near the Piercefield Dam. It's not far from where 18-year-old Colin Gillis was last seen walking along Route 3. About 100 specially trained volunteers participated in the search Wednesday on rugged terrain. The search today will again focus on waterways in the area.

Moriah Madness will be held Saturday, March 24th from 11AM to 2PM at the school in Port Henry. Sponsored by the Parent-Teacher Association, the annual event is a day of family activities. Admission is $3 a child with a $10 cap for a family of four or more children. Adults are admitted free and an adult must accompany all children. This year people attending are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Moriah Food Pantry. Moriah Madness will feature games, arts and crafts, a book fair, pie throw, face painting, basket raffle, bake sale and more. Moriah Madness attracted more than 250 children and upwards to 300 adults last year.

The University of Vermont and the Vermont Lake Monsters have announced a 20-year deal in which the minor league baseball team will lease Centennial Field for a dollar a year. Previously, the team was paying about $40,000 a year for use of the field. Team owner Ray Pecor said Wednesday that the Lake Monsters appreciate the university's commitment to a long-term lease. He also says the team is excited about being able to continue to bring baseball to its fans and to explore opportunities for renovating the ballpark. A report has found deficiencies in the playing field, lighting, dugouts, bullpens and clubhouses. UVM says a study found that repairs could cost $3.3 million to cover immediate needs and $9.2 million to bring the field up to Minor League Baseball standards.