WVTK Local & Sate News May 2, 2012

Vermont’s first community health center facility in Addison County will be built while an Essex County site will be refurbished with $2.2 million in new Affordable Care Act grants that the Vermont congressional delegation announced on Tuesday. The Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region was awarded $1.3 million to construct an office in Shoreham. The new Addison County facility is to be built on a site where a 2010 fire destroyed the 200-year-old building that housed the office of the community’s only physician. The satellite office will be the first Federally Qualified Health Center site in the rural county of 37,000 residents. Open to everyone, the centers care for patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance, as well as those who have no insurance. Payments are on a sliding scale, so people with low or moderate incomes can afford the services.

Mary Hogan School will be hosting a Bike Fair tomorrow afternoon from 3:15 – 5. Stop by to test your bike skills and knowledge of current rules of the road through their obstacle course. Give away your old bike gear including locks, reflectors, racks and more! There are also some free helmets and others at reduced cost available. Get the details now by visiting www.maryhoganschool.org.

Westport Central School Board will hold a budget hearing and regular meeting starting at 5:50PM on Thursday in the cafeteria. The agenda will also include Committee on Special Education recommendations and tenure appointments. Board meetings are open to the public.

On Saturday, May 12th from 6:30-10PM, you can help celebrate the centennial of the Bixby Memorial Library at their annual gala to be held at Basin Harbor Club on Lake Champlain in Ferrisburgh. Fine food, music, dancing demonstrations, a silent auction, and raffle items will be part of the evening festivities. According to the library, this year’s gala theme will be “Happy Birthday, Bixby Library”. The event kicks off a yearlong centennial. Bixby Gala tickets are available in Vergennes at the library as well as at Linda’s Apparel and at People’s United Bank in both Vergennes and Middlebury.

Four Winds Nature Institute is a non-profit organization that has been around since 2006 and is designed to advance the understanding, appreciation and protection of the environment through community-based natural science education. However the Bristol program is in danger of closing. Approximately 34 volunteers are needed in order for every class at Bristol Elementary School to have the program. But even if every class couldn’t have the program they still need at least 24 volunteers to even be able to continue. Currently they have eight regulars. There’s still hope for the program but in-class volunteers are needed to sustain it. If you are interested please contact program coordinator Carolyn Knight. (802-453-7166)

The Holiday Inn in Rutland is being put up for auction by its owner C-III Capital Partners of Irving, Texas. The property is being sold at auction this month, 18 months after the Wolfe and McLaughlin families turned the keys over to their major creditor. According to the listing on Auction.com, online bidding for the property begins May 15 and ends May 17. Bidding starts at $900,000 with a bid deposit of $10,000.

Two Rutland police officers who had been on paid administrative leave pending an investigation are now apparently out altogether. Sergeant John Johnson had worked for the Rutland City police department for nearly 30 years but is now retired, while Officer Earl Post, who was close to his ten-year anniversary, has resigned. The investigation into their actions took four months, and although no criminal misconduct was found, the chief cannot talk about the results. The department is now eight officers short and a city hiring freeze is in effect.

After 28 years with the same leader, College of St. Joseph in Rutland has a new president. Richard Lloyd comes to the college from Nebraska, but has experience working at a private, religion-affiliated college. Lloyd was chosen after a nine-month search for a successor to Frank Miglorie. Lloyd will become the college’s fifth president, assuming his post on July 1st.

Businesses in the town of Brandon will be opened later hours the first Friday of every month throughout the summer. Starting this Friday, the First Friday initiative by the Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce, will keep businesses open until 9PM the first Friday each month. Chamber president and downtown merchant Beth Carr said they recognize that many people who work out of town all week do not have the chance to shop locally. They hope with the longer hours it will attract more customers to the downtown to shop and get something to eat. For more information, contact the Brandon Area of Chamber of Commerce at 247-6401 or email info@brandon.org.

Brandon Music will present the Jonathan Lorentz Trio, this Sunday at 7PM. The concert is a part of the year-round weekly "Sunday Jazz" series and is a benefit for the new Compass Music and Arts Center. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Lorentz will perform at Brandon Music with bassist Anthony Santor and drummer Gabe Jarrett. Get more information on CMAC and reserve tickets today by visiting www.brandon-music.net!

On Monday, Vermont State Police New Haven responded to a report of a burglary at home on Route 30 in Cornwall. Entry was gained through the front door of the residence. Several pieces of jewelry were taken from the property. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Vermont State Police – New Haven Barracks. (802-388-4919)

Vermont State Police are searching for a man believed to have been behind the wheel of a stolen truck that crashed into two cars parked alongside Route 30. Police were called to 39-82 Route 30 in Sudbury at about 5:20 Monday morning after residents at the home were awakened by the sound of a crash outside. The truck the man was driving, a 2004 Ford F-550, was reported stolen earlier that night from the Garden Time Shop on Route 7 in Rutland Town. Anyone with information about the crash or the theft of the truck is asked to call Vermont State Police in Rutland. (802-773-9101)

Parents of Clarendon Elementary School students are meeting Thursday to discuss their concerns over certain teachers not being replaced and the possibility of increased class sizes. According to Superintendent Dana Cole-Levesque, the Clarendon Elementary School Board is studying a draft plan to not replace at least two teachers, one in sixth-grade and a second in fifth-grade, and move toward a more co-teaching model, where special educators, paraeducators and teachers work with one another in the same classroom.

The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will be having their spring Five Hundred Dollar Friday raffle. Tickets will be available throughout the month of May. For a $20.00 donation you can receive a ticket for a chance to win $500.00, which will be given away every Friday in June. For more information contact the Chamber office. Meanwhile they are set to host their Spring Open House next Wednesday, May 9th from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. The open house is open to all Chamber members who what to learn more about their benefits and any businesses or organization interested in becoming a TACC member. Get all of the details right now at www.ticonderogany.com.

Vermont state police say the man who was shot and killed by a trooper in Cambridge yesterday...wanted to die. Police say 40-year-old Jonathan Martel broke into a home and fled from police. After they tracked him down... They say Martel threatened a trooper...and the trooper opened fire. A bullet hit Martel... And he died on the way to the hospital. Fox 44's Nick Natario explains. Less than 24 hours after Vermont state police told us a trooper had shot and killed a man...they finally released more information surrounding what happened. Abc 22 learned several new pieces of information Tuesday...during a news conference. First...the suspect's name...it's 40-year old Jonathan Martel. Police say around noon Monday, he was the one who broke into this Johnson, Vermont home. After police arrived they say Martel took off. They tracked him down to Cambridge. Police say Martel ran into the woods...where trooper Dustin Robinson followed him. They say Robinson asked Martel to stop. He didn't. Police say instead...Martel held up a metal object and acted like he was going to shoot. That's when trooper Robinson fired seven shots...all of them missing Martel. But they say he turned toward Robinson again...and Robinson fired one more shot. It hit Martel in the back. During the near half hour news conference...many of us questioned how he was shot in the back...if he was facing the trooper. "They turn that presents a smaller target frame if you will for the shooter and there are many times where the bullet will lodge, would enter in an extremity or another portion. Not straight on." what's more...that metal object Martel was holding...was *not* a weapon. "Trooper Robinson noticed Martel was holding a cell phone and ask Martel why he pointed that at him. Martel responded, I wanted to die. Nick Natario Fox 44 news. The trooper has been placed on leave while state police and the attorney general determine whether the shooting was justified.

Vermont House and Senate members are set to decide whether to accept a conference committee's compromise on childhood immunizations. The House wanted to maintain a philosophical exemption for parents who don't want to have their kids get the roughly 20 shots required before entering kindergarten. The Senate wanted to get rid of that exemption, saying doing so would boost immunization rates, which are a key public health measure. Now a conference committee has proposed allowing the philosophical exemption unless the immunization rate falls below 90 percent for a given vaccine, in which case no further philosophical exemptions would be approved. For that measure to become law, both the House and Senate need to approve the compromise, and prospects for that are uncertain.

Vermont lawmakers have completed the arduous process of redrawing legislative district maps for the next 10 years. The Burlington Free Press reports Burlington is gaining a House seat, while Rutland County is losing one. Other changes are being made as well. The object of the process is equal representation, meaning each House and Senate member is supposed to represent about the same number of Vermont residents.

The Vermont Senate has voted against taking any more action to pass a campaign finance reform law, meaning the issue is dead for this year. The Senate voted 19-9 on Tuesday afternoon to send a bill that would have set limits on donations to people running for state offices to the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Richard Sears, the Bennington Democrat who chairs the committee, says there isn't time to act on the measure before lawmakers adjourn this weekend. The bill was approved by another Senate committee more than a year ago and had been awaiting action since then. The bill's demise means Vermont faces another election cycle relying on an old campaign finance law deemed back in effect after a U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down a more recent law.

Yesterday Vermont’s house of representatives sent a clear message that the federal government should consider allowing gay men to donate blood. Right now gay men are banned for life from donating blood. That's because of concerns about HIV. But Vermont lawmakers say with new HIV testing those men should be able to donate after a waiting period. Yesterday the Vermont house almost unanimously passed a resolution to support changing the rule. Rep. Matthew Trieber: "No one has been able to point to an instance where a legislative body at a state level has decided to actually take a stance on this particular issue. So i think we could be the forefront of this." The American Red Cross also supports eliminating the lifetime ban. Later this month, the FDA will hold a hearing about the policy.

With the fiscal 2013 Vermont budget in a legislative conference committee and other bills falling into place, Vermont lawmakers say they're optimistic they'll be able to wrap up their business for the year by this weekend. Last-minute snags still could push the 2012 session into next week, including Senate add-ons to the budget bill that House conferees have labeled non-starters. Among them: a measure that effectively would tell the Public Service Board to require two utilities that want to merge to make $21 million in payments to ratepayers as a condition for getting the board's approval. But another possible sticking point has been resolved, with House and Senate approval and Gov. Peter Shumlin's signature on a plan for reapportionment of legislative districts in keeping with the 2010 census.

Hundreds of demonstrators paraded through Vermont's capital city on May Day calling for health care for all, environmental justice and an end to corporate greed. In a "put people first" rally on the Statehouse lawn, activists chanted "We are the 99%." Participants included members of the Occupy movements in Vermont, the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals, the Vermont Workers' Center, Rural Vermont and others. May Day protests across the world Tuesday drew tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets from the Philippines and Pakistan to Greece and Spain.