WVTK Local & State News April 24, 2012

The Town Of Middlebury will hold its Select Board meeting this evening at 7. Items on tonight’s agenda include nominations & appointments to Town Boards and Commissions, a Middlebury Business Development Fund Advisory Board Report, an appointment to the Business Development Fund Advisory Board, the Rolling Acres pavement recycling and asphalt bid approval and an update on the Fire Facilities Project. For complete details you can visit the Town Of Middlebury’s Website Select Board page.

The Crown Point Central School Board will hold special meetings this week. The first, a contractual session with the Crown Point Teachers Association, is at 6 this evening. The second one takes place at 7:45 Thursday morning in the superintendent's office. On the agenda will be the CVES budget vote and elections. The public is welcome.

Vermont State Police are investing a burglary that took place at the Bridge Restaurant in Addison on Sunday night. Suspects forced entry into the establishment and then proceeded to steal money before fleeing the scene. If you have information regarding this incident please call the Vermont State Police in New Haven. (802-388-4919)

New Haven Troopers responded to a report of an assault in Leicester late Monday night. The investigation lead to the arrest of 48-Year-Old Donald Foley on two counts of aggravated assault, unlawful mischief and interference with emergency communications. Foley and the victims, an elderly couple who reside in Leicester, began a verbal argument that became physical. Troopers were advised that Foley then left and took their phone so that they could not call for help. Foley is being held on $75,000 bail and is to be arraigned in Addison District Court this afternoon.

A route from Burlington to Middlebury has been added to the bus schedule and is up and running. The commuter bus runs Monday through Friday, four times each day and connects Chittenden and Addison counties in Middlebury, Bristol, Starksboro, Hinesburg, South Burlington, and Burlington along the Route 116 corridor. Get details and view the schedule right now at http://actr-vt.org.

Officials of the Vergennes American Legion Post 14 announced that the theme for this year’s Memorial Day parade, to be held on Monday, May 28, would be “Honoring Their Memory”. Legion Post 14 annually sponsors the two-mile parade and observance, the largest in the State, to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country. Legionnaire Henry Broughton of Vergennes will chair the parade committee. This year will mark the last year that Broughton will be in charge of the parade; he will step down at the conclusion of this year’s commemoration.

The Proctor museum that tells the story of Vermont's once glorious empire of marble rock will close its doors forever this fall. According to the Owner’s the Vermont Marble Museum is going out of business due to rising electric rates. The museum is located in a wing of one of the former Vermont Marble Company buildings. Businessman and politician Redfield Proctor, who served as the company’s first president, founded the Vermont Marble Company in 1880.

The Rutland County Sheriff's Department will soon have a new home. The department has been renting a space above the city police station for about a decade but is now buying it's own location on 88 Grove Street in Rutland, which was a former TV repair shop. The Sheriff's office says they hope the new location will bring more positive visibility to the troubled neighborhood. Renovations are set to begin soon and the move should happen sometime this summer.

Five retirements and concessions on health insurance kept the tax-levy increase to 1.77 percent in the new Crown Point Central School budget. The amount to be raised by taxes in the proposed budget for 2012-13 totals $1.51 million, up from the present $1.48 million. The budget itself increased only 0.83 percent, to $6.13 million from $6.08 million. The Superintendent said they were able to keep the spending plan under the state's 2 percent tax cap. The public-information hearing on the budget is at 7PM Tuesday May 8th in the school library. The budget vote is Tuesday May 25th at the school from Noon to 8PM.

The proposed Moriah Central School budget holds a tax-levy increase to 1.95 percent. The amount to be raised by taxes went from $3.62 million this school year to $3.69 million in the 2012-13 budget, a $70,690 increase. The school stayed under the state's 2 percent tax cap, which would have been 2.36 percent for Moriah with allowed adjustments. The public information meeting on the proposed budget is at 6PM Thursday May 3rd in the school library. The budget vote is from 1 to 8PM Tuesday May 25th at the school. A scholarship fundraising spaghetti dinner sponsored by the Moriah Teachers Association will take place from 4 to 7 the same evening in the cafeteria, along with a school art show.

The Rutland Community and Economic Development Committee meets tomorrow to discuss a proposed solar power project. AllEarth Renewables, working with Green Lantern Development, has proposed putting solar collectors on the old poor farm property, which would power a number of municipal buildings. A representative of AllEarth has said the project would cost the city nothing and take an estimated $2,000 a year off its power bill. Mayor Christopher Louras has said the project should not affect the community gardens or the city’s tree nursery, both of which are located on the same property off Woodstock Avenue. The committee meeting is scheduled for 5:15PM in the downstairs conference room at City Hall.

Police in South Burlington are issuing few details in what turned into a deadly shooting Monday morning. Police say it happened outside of the City's Edge condominium and apartment complex, adding only that the victim was a man, and all known suspects are in custody. Police call the death a, quote," targeted act of violence."

Organizers say more than 550 people are signed up to attend a 2-day Maine emergency preparedness conference in Augusta. Those registered for the conference today and tomorrow include first responders, government officials, business leaders, school administrators, health and social service providers and volunteers. The emergency manager for the state of Vermont will discuss the state's response to Tropical Storm Irene last year. Hazardous materials responses workshops are also part of the agenda.

A top Vermont agriculture official says growing demand for milk by producers of Greek yogurt is good news for the state’s dairy farmers. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Diane Bothfeld says the demand from Greek yogurt producers is an opportunity that could lead to higher prices. Some producers of Greek yogurt, which is richer and takes up to five times as much milk to produce as traditional yogurt, say they are having trouble getting enough milk to meet the demand. Tom Moffit of Commonwealth Dairy in Brattleboro says that during the winter, when milk production is down, he couldn’t get enough milk to meet demand. Greek yogurt contains double, or even triple, the amount of protein that’s in conventional yogurt.

A debate over health care reform grew to its most passionate when Vermont senators turned to an amendment dealing with high school athletes who suffer concussions during games. Monday's debate ended with the Senate giving preliminary approval to a bill earlier passed by the House that sets up a health care exchange in compliance with the federal Affordable Care Act of 2010. But the House-passed version contained a provision containing a standard saying that coaches need only to have reason to believe a student athlete has suffered a concussion before pulling him or her out of a game. Sen. Dick Sears wanted to change that standard to the coach needing to have actual knowledge. Compromise language is expected to be added before final passage of the bill.

Vermont's environment had a rough year in 2011. That's according to a report issued yesterday by the Agency of Natural Resources on the health of the state's environment. Among the findings: flooding last spring and during Tropical Storm Irene led to the highest release ever of environmentally damaging phosphorus into Lake Champlain.

Senator Bernie Sanders says geothermal energy is helping heat more Vermont homes, businesses and schools. Sanders, an independent, outlined some of the successes of geothermal heating projects in Vermont. He says investments in geothermal energy will reduce the $350 billion a year that Americans spend to import oil from foreign countries.

Vermont is planning to expand a program that connects schools to local farms. Since 2006, the Vermont Farm to School program has provided nearly 50 Vermont schools with funding to get more nutritious food into cafeterias and nutrition and agriculture education into classrooms. Officials say a total of $200,000 in state and federal funds will allow the Vermont Agriculture Agency to expand the program over the next five years. The funding will go to schools and to support the development of regional networks and resources to evaluate the impact of the program. The Vermont Agriculture Agency says Vermont was the first state to pass legislation to make Farm to School initiatives a priority.

Crews with Burlington Electric are hitting the streets to replace meters across the city. The Smart Grid update effort kicked off yesterday morning and looks to bring new advanced meters to roughly 20-thousand customers this year. Right now meters are read once a month, but the new technology will allow the same reading to come in every 15-minutes. Some customers have privacy concerns over the technology and others are worried about exposure to the radio frequencies from the devices. Burlington stands by the technology but says those folks will be able to opt out of the new meters for a fee.

More teenagers will soon be able to donate blood in Vermont. Governor Peter Shumlin will sign a bill today lowering the minimum age for donating blood to 16 in Vermont. The current minimum age is 17. Parental consent is required for 16-year-olds. The Red Cross estimates the change will add another 1-thousand donors each year.

The annual “McTeacher Night” returns to Ticonderoga Tuesday, May 1st. Ticonderoga Central School teachers will work at the local McDonald’s that night with all restaurant proceeds going to refurbish the kindergarten playground. Teachers will be flipping burgers and cooking fries from 4:30 to 7PM. The owner has agreed to donate all profits from the “McTeacher” event to the playground fund. This is the third annual “McTeacher Night.” Last year the event raised about $5,000 for the elementary school playground project, which is separate from the kindergarten playground.

Local New York law enforcement will be teaming up with The Prevention Team to help dispose of old prescriptions. The Essex County Sheriff’s Department, Ticonderoga Police Department, Lake Placid Police Department, Moriah Police Department and Prevention Team will join forces as part of National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day this Saturday the 28th. Take-Back Day will take place from 10AM until 2PM. The Ticonderoga Police will host prescription take-backs at their offices, as well the Lake Placid Police Department. The Moriah Police Department will have their take-back location at the Town Hall in Port Henry, while the Sheriff’s Department will have sited at the Town of Jay community center in Au Sable Forks, Kinney Drugs in Elizabethtown and the town offices in Minerva.

He was once the face of New Hampshire and soon will be a tourist attraction once again. A memorial is opening this summer honoring the Old Man of the Mountain in Franconia Notch where the jagged stone profile collapsed almost nine years ago. A plaza being built near the site will include hundreds of stones that pay tribute to the Old Man. Seven steel rods are also being installed to give visitors a sense of what the Old Man once looked like. They say if you stand in the right spot you will able to see an outline of a profile of the Old Man as it once appeared in the Notch.