WVTK Local & State News April 2, 2012

An informational meeting about the South Street & Green Mountain Place Project will be held this Thursday at 5:00pm in the MVAA Conference Room. The Town's Project Engineer and Staff will present a summary of utility work that includes; water, sewer, electricity and telecommunications, roadwork and traffic flow. A preliminary project construction schedule will also be presented. Stay up to date by visiting the Town Of Middlebury’s Website.

The Vergennes Lions Club presented a check to Addison County Special Olympics athlete John Hutchins and S.O. Program Coordinator Jim Wacker at a recent dinner meeting at the American Legion Post 14 in Vergennes. The Vergennes Lions Club is a sponsor of the Addison County Special Olympics program and donated a check for $600 to defray the cost of winter games this year at Suicide Six near Woodstock. John Hutchins emphasized the importance of athletic competition and building friendships through Special Olympics in Addison County. Special Olympics in Addison County is growing, with more than 50 active athletes participating in soccer, bowling, bocce ball, skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, basketball, and track and field practices and competition all year around.

Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport is one of only three farms throughout the country that has been chosen for the Elanco Award for Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability. This achievement is a result of Blue Spruce Farm’s commitment and dedication to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The farm was awarded at a special ceremony in Washington D.C. Since the farm’s start in 1958, the Audet family has put an emphasis on caring for natural resources and the environment. As the largest employer in Bridport, the Audet’s strive to increase their labor and energy efficiency, provide the best in cow health and comfort and produce the highest quality milk for their farmer-owned Cabot cheese brand. They are probably best known for being the first dairy to participate in Central Vermont Public Service’s groundbreaking Cow Power program.

Middlebury Union High School Senior Emery Tillman of Cornwall will be presented with an engraved silver medallion April 3 to recognize her selection as one of Vermont’s top two youth volunteers for 2012 in the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. She is being honored for undertaking a variety of volunteer activities as she has traveled around the United States and the world competing in freestyle kayaking events. As a state honoree, Emery also will receive $1,000 and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where she will join more than 100 other top honorees from across the country for several days of national recognition events.

The tentative Port Henry village budget shows a $60,000-plus deficit that's being whittled down in budget workshops. By using $50,000 of its fund balance, the Village Board has the draft spending plan's tax levy down to about $562,000 for 2012-13. Last year's budget raised about $500,690 from taxes. The 2011-12 village budget totaled $820,010, with the tentative 2012-13 budget so far at about $853,000. The village fiscal year starts June 1 and ends May 31, 2013. The next budget session, which is open to the public, will immediately follow the annual organizational meeting at 7 tonight in the Village Hall.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its spring fundraiser “Five Hundred Dollar Fridays.” Every Friday in June, TACC will give away $500. For a $20 donation people will receive a ticket for a chance to win. “Five Hundred Dollar Fridays” tickets will be available at the TACC office throughout the months of April and May. The TACC will also donate $500 to be distributed among local food pantries. Only 300 tickets are available. Drawing dates will be June 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. For more information visit www.ticonderogany.com.

Rutland City officials hope a storm water separation project on Library Avenue will satisfy state requirements on sewage overflows. The Board of Aldermen voted to endorse a letter outlining the project. The estimated project cost is around $2 million, but officials said a more precise estimate would be a part of initial project design. Despite several previous efforts to increase the city’s sewage capacity, storm-triggered overflows are still pushing the city over permitted limits, prompting the state to demand further work.

Stanley Wilbur has reached an agreement with the town of Proctor that will keep him in the administrator’s office for as long as three years. Wilbur, a retired civil engineer and Tinmouth selectman, was hired by the Select Board in August to replace the former administrator who was placed on an indefinite leave of absence by the town last year and never returned. The Vermont League of Cities and Towns worked with the town to find and sort through 43 applicants for the administrator’s job.

State Police are working with Brattleboro police and fire investigators to see if there's a link between fires and vandalism over the weekend. The incidents occurred Friday night and early Saturday morning, in the areas of the Brattleboro Union High School Cotton Mill Hill and South Main Street. A delivery truck and storage building were destroyed, but it's what could have happened which alarmed authorities because fuel storage tanks were close to the fire.

More than two-thousand people gathered late Friday afternoon to remember St. Johnsbury Academy teacher and coach Melissa Jenkins. Many of the mourners wore pink or at least had a bright pink ribbon, a color, which the 33-year-old teacher wore often. During the service, faculty members and students spoke, sharing stories about her. Her body was found Monday and two people have since been arrested and charged with her murder. A trust fund is now set up to help Jenkins' two-year-old son, Ty.

Burlington's newly elected mayor will be sworn in later today but on Sunday he announced one major appointment. Miro Weinberger introduced Paul Sisson as Chief Administrative Officer, which comes with a job description of dealing with a financial mess and figuring out Burlington's fiscal future. Sisson is a local financial consultant and CPA. Weinberger is hoping the City Council will approve Sisson's appointment tonight during its regular meeting.

It's a debate that's anything but sweet, as lawmakers work on changing the grading system for maple syrup. Vermont is the top producer of syrup, and the Senate has passed a bill changing Grade A Fancy syrup to "Golden Delicate." Grade A Medium Amber becomes "Amber Rich." The changes still need to be agreed upon in the House. Supporters of the changes say this would end up unifying the syrup classification system across the U.S. and Canada.

The Vermont Senate's Agriculture Committee has set a hearing for next week on what may be tough times coming for dairy farmers on the prices they get for their milk. Committee members are worried about a decline in milk prices projected for the coming months, as well as changes to federal farm programs that most farmers won't find favorable. The session is set for 9AM to Noon on April 11th in Statehouse Room 10.

Vermont's highest court has ruled that records of a criminal investigation at the Vermont State Police Academy will remain confidential. The state Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling denying the Rutland Herald access to files on a criminal investigation of possession of child pornography by a trainer and other police academy employees.

The Vermont Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a slain 12-year-old girl's father. James Bennett claimed the ex-wife of the suspect in his daughter's death should have protected her from him. The court upheld a lower court decision rejecting the complaint.

Mentally ill Vermonters who are involuntarily put in state care are still mostly being moved from place to place in shackles, seven years after the state decreed that they should be transported with "the least restrictive means necessary." State officials and county sheriffs say a very small percentage of patients are combative or are deemed to present a threat of violence. But data from the state Department of Mental Health show about two-thirds of patients being moved by sheriffs or police are in handcuffs and ankle chains. Deputy Mental Health Commissioner Mary Moulton acknowledges the mental health system is not living up to the terms of the law, but she says officials are working to fix the problem.

A Vermont gubernatorial candidate is speaking out against issuing a sales tax for use of software located on remote computer servers. Republican Randy Brock joins some other lawmakers speaking out against a Tax Department bulletin issued in 2010 saying that the sales tax applied to pre-written software licensed for use from a remote server. Brock says that a growing number of Vermont businesses use such servers for so-called "cloud computing." He says many of them are being hurt by the Tax Department's push to collect sales taxes on the software they use. Brock says the department has applied the tax retroactively to 2006 and has sent some businesses past-due tax bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The North Country Chamber of Commerce has once again been designated by Empire State Development Corp. to coordinate and lead New York State's participation in the Farnborough International Air Show. The show is held every two years outside London and is the largest global aviation and aerospace event of its kind. Scheduled this year for July 9th to 15th, the event is once again expected to feature more than 1,400 exhibitors and more than 120,000 visitors from the aviation and aerospace trade community.

Vermont utility regulators have determined they must start over in their review of whether the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant should get a new state permit for continued operation. The Public Service Board had been trying to decide whether it should revive a 3-year-old review stalled when lawmakers intervened in 2010 and blocked the board from issuing a decision on a new permit. A federal judge has ruled the Legislature overstepped its bounds and has put the matter back in front of the board. The board issued an order late last Thursday saying that rather than pick up where it left off it would start anew. The company says it looks forward to the opportunity to demonstrate the plant deserves a new certificate.

The National Weather Service says warm weather records for March have been broken in Vermont and New Hampshire. The weather service says the average temperature during March at Burlington International Airport was 43.2 degrees. The previous record monthly average was 40 degrees, set in 1903. In New Hampshire, the warmest March on record was recorded in Concord, which had an average temperature of 42.1 degrees. The weather service says that beats the old record, 41.1 degrees, that was set in 1921 and again in 1946.

Fort Ticonderoga recently received a grant from Stewart's Foundation supporting new King's Garden programs in 2012. The program will encourage young visitors to learn about different vegetables, flowers and insects. The funds will specifically support the development of four new themed areas within the Children's Garden. The Children's Garden, located in the King's Garden at Fort Ti, offers an opportunity for families to explore beauty and nature at one of America's oldest and most significant historic sites. The garden is open June 1st through October 8th and offers a wide variety of horticulture programs throughout the season.

The Night Shadows brought down the house with their performance of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” at the annual Ticonderoga High School Pops Concert last Thursday. The concert, which featured about 90 students, included the Night Shadows, the Sentinel Big Band, the school concert band and the mixed chorus. With the exception of the Gaga performance, the concert was a tribute to the music of Motown.