WVTK Local & State News April 18, 2012

It is with sadness that we report that Sheriff James B. Coons passed away Monday night at his home in Middlebury. Jim had been Sheriff in Addison County for 31 years and was currently Vice President of the Vermont Sheriff’s Association. Addison County Sheriff’s Department and Vermont Sheriff’s Association will pass along the details of services when they are available. High Bailiff, Donald M. Keeler, Jr., has assumed the duties of Sheriff. Sheriff Keeler has been a Deputy Sheriff at Addison County Sheriff’s Department for 40 years.

More contentious negotiations between administrators and teachers may be on the horizon. Last night, representatives for nearly 200 teachers in the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union declared they want a new contract by the end of the school year. The teachers are currently working under imposed conditions, after the school board and teachers failed to reach agreement on this year's contract. Board members said they're surprised by Tuesday's request. Supervisory Union Board Chairman Lanny Smith said he thinks an agreement could be reached in May. All sides maintain they'll do whatever possible to avoid the picket lines. The last day of school in the district is scheduled for June 7th. The supervisory union serves schools in Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton, New Haven and Starksboro.

You are invited to join the Addison County Chamber Of Commerce tomorrow for the next after hours business mixer, which is being held at Art on Main in Bristol. Mingle with fellow business people in Art On Main’s store, share hors d’oeuvres, drinks, door prizes and a chance to win the Pot of Gold—now valued at $950! The mixer takes place from 5 – 7PM at 25 Main St. in Bristol. For more information and to RSVP to Sue Hoxie please click HERE.

Google is hosting free back-to-back trainings on Google+ and Google Tools for Nonprofits on April 25th at the Ilsley Public Library. The first session, which takes place from 1 – 2PM, will be a quick walkthrough of Google’s Tools for Nonprofits. These tools give nonprofits free options for technical needs and challenges that any organization might encounter. This is an ideal session for anyone managing an organization’s software and hardware use. The second session from 2 – 3:30PM is focused on getting your nonprofit up to speed on Google’s new social media platform Google+. This goes beyond traditional social media tools - increasing your org’s online visibility while also making internal discussion and collaboration a snap! This session is ideal for anybody in charge of communications and development. Access the links to register for each of these sessions:

First Session
Second Session

A special subcommittee will go on the road as soon as next week to visit nursing homes run by the three bidders for Essex County's Horace Nye Nursing Home. All three operate nursing homes in New York state, and the County Board of Supervisors appointed a five-person subcommittee this week that will begin scheduling visits to see how those facilities are operated. The subcommittee will report back on how the other nursing facilities are operated so county lawmakers can make up their minds.

Experts were on hand for a two-day leadership conference in Rutland. City Police were the students receiving advice from five different experts, from a Highway Patrol Lieutenant in Minnesota to Castleton State College President David Wolk. Interim Chief James Baker says he organized the conference as an effort to streamline the department behind one mission and one vision in advance of the hiring of a new chief. Also included in the training was a lesson on bias free policing, which was required as part of a discrimination settlement voted by the board of alderman in February.

Police have confirmed that the body found in the St. Albans city pool was that of a missing Swanton man wanted for questioning in connection with an armed robbery. Prosecutor Jim Hughes says police are investigating the pool as a crime scene. Authorities have been looking for 22-year-old Christopher Davis of Swanton who's been missing since the end of March. Davis was wanted for questioning in the armed robbery of a Swanton convenience store.

Police in Essex have arrested a man following a brutal beating. Police say they found a 52-year-old Essex Junction man severely beaten around 9 p.m. Monday in the Maple Street Park off Route 117. They have arrested 20-year-old Andrew Leblanc of Tupper Lake, New York, in connection with the attack. Police say the beating appears to be an isolated incident and they do not believe the public is in danger.

A judge has ruled that a Vermont woman charged with her husband in the killing of 33-year-old Melissa Jenkins must provide a DNA sample to police. The judge has denied Patricia Prue's motion to dismiss the request for DNA collection.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says he's encouraged by a vote in the U.S. Senate to modernize the U.S. Postal Service. But he says the effort to save the mail processing facility in White River Junction and rural post offices still faces several hurdles. The Senate voted 74 to 22 on Tuesday to take up the postal service legislation. Sanders helped write an amendment that creates a special commission to help the agency develop a more entrepreneurial business model. The legislation also calls for the appointment of a chief innovation officer to direct development of new products and services to strengthen the postal services' finances. The struggling postal service has agreed to delay the closing of thousands of local post offices until May so that Congress could act.

Extremely dry conditions prompted a forest fire in Brookfield. A blaze broke out shortly after 4:30 yesterday afternoon and quickly spread to a forest off Route 65 near the floating bridge and the post office. Fire officials say it engulfed about 7 acres and was put out by 6PM. The area that burned was right over a power line where fire officials say line workers were working earlier Tuesday. They believe work on that line might have caused a spark, igniting that fire.

The Senate started this week with 39 bills on its calendar, and yesterday, it dealt with 6 of them. One of the bills was the Transportation Budget for next year. It's the largest in state history because it includes an additional $100 million in federal funds to help with damages caused by Tropical Storm Irene. The Senate also voted to expand the state's ignition interlock system for drunk drivers and passed the Capital Bill for next year. This legislation contains money to build a new State Hospital in Berlin.

The United States Air Force will hold a public hearing next month on a plan to add F-35A fighter jets to the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington. The public has 45 days to comment on the draft environmental impact statement that was released on Friday. The Air Force is looking at several different scenarios for where the jets would be based. Burlington is 1 of 2 preferred locations. A Guard official says the jets take a minute and half to take off and a minute and a half to land twice a day as they head to and return from training elsewhere. A public hearing will be held on May 14 at the South Burlington High School.

Trader Joe's, a popular grocery chain known for funky marketing and an in-house brand of top quality products, could open its first Vermont store early next year. A South Burlington developer has filed an application with the city's Development Review Board to build a new 20,000 square foot building on Dorset Street, across from University Mall and next door to the Healthy Living Natural Food Market. The application says 13,000 square feet of the space would be leased to Trader Joe's, with the remainder available to a second tenant.

With gas prices climbing, more people are taking the train. Nationwide, the number of people who rode Amtrak between October and March climbed nearly 4 percent compared to the same period last year, and that's good news for Vermont rail lines as well. Ridership on Amtrak’s' Ethan Allen Express, which runs between Rutland and New York City, jumped 9 percent while passengers on the nearby Adirondack, between New York and Montreal, grew by 5.5 percent.

The Best Buy at Champlain Centre is not on the list of 50 stores the chain expects to close this year. The company announced back on March 29th that it planned to close 50 of its big-box stores in the United States but didn't identify which stores at that time. The only store in New York on the list released Saturday is in New York City.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host a ribbon cutting on Saturday, May 12th at 1:00 PM as part of a daylong celebration of the Ticonderoga Emergency Squad’s new facility. The new Ticonderoga Emergency Squad building is located at 118 Champlain Avenue in Ticonderoga. The Ticonderoga Emergency Squad will be hosting a variety of events on Saturday May 12th as part of Grand Celebration and Open House for their new facility. Events include a Mass Causality Incident (MCI) Drill at 10:00 AM near their facility, a ribbon cutting, a free Community BBQ including hotdogs and hamburgers as well as a Basket Raffle and 50/50 Raffle following the ribbon cutting. For additional information click HERE.

Starting Over Strong, a federally funded crisis support program run out of Washington County Mental Health Services, is inviting people affected by Tropical Storm Irene to share their stories Thursday at the Wellness Center on South Main Street in Rutland. The event, scheduled for 3PM, is designed to let flood survivors meet others from their community and will feature a “story circle” open to people who were in the flood, helped others in the flood or had family affected by the flood. For more information visit startingoverstrongvermont.org.

Dartmouth College has appointed an interim president, a day after President Jim Yong Kim's election to lead the World Bank. The Dartmouth Board of Trustees named Provost Carol Folt as the interim president of the College. Folt will begin July 1st. Kim will remain Dartmouth’s president until then, leading Dartmouth through the conclusion of the academic year and Commencement.

There's something about the comfort and security of living in a small town. Vermont has a lot of them, but one in particular stands out, and is listed on Smithsonian Magazine's top 20 small towns in America list. Brattleboro was ranked number 11, and with good reason. The writer of the article called it a "hidden artistic haven" with plenty of artists, galleries and museums. And, there are abundant festivals, including Brattleboro Music Center's Northern Roots festival.