WVTK Local & State News May 10, 2012

After many months of planning the Lake Champlain Bridge Community looks forward to hosting its two-day Grand Celebration which celebrates the re-opening of the Lake Champlain Bridge and re-connecting the New York and Vermont communities that surround it. The Grand Celebration will take place on Saturday and Sunday, May 19th and 20th. Saturday’s events begin at 9AM with an opening ceremony and end at approximately 10PM after a street dance. Sunday’s events begin at 6AM with a sunrise ecumenical service and close with a fireworks show at dusk. All events will take place at or near the Chimney Point State Historic Site in Addison and the Crown Point State Historic Site. All of the weekend’s events are free and will take place rain or shine. Get the scoop and schedule of events HERE!

The “Way To Go! Commuter Challenge” Kick-Off Ride will take place this afternoon at 4 at the Middlebury Town Gym. Join fellow cyclists in mass for a fun, safe 20-minute ride through downtown to show support for Bike Friendly Middlebury initiatives and announce the “Way to Go! Commuter Challenge.” Next week marks the “Way To Go! Commuter Challenge” week. Look for activities planned throughout the week sponsored by ACTR and ACRPC including ribbon-cutting ceremonies on Monday to celebrate the new ACTR shuttle bus route along Route 116 and new ACRPC electric car charging station.

Habitat for Humanity of Addison County is inviting you to the ground breaking of their four-lot subdivision on Delong Road in Cornwall next Wednesday the 16th at 5:00PM. This is a huge event for Vermont, Addison County, the Town of Cornwall and also for our future Habitat families. At a time when the economy is soft and hard working Addison County residents are having a tough time buying affordable housing there will be four affordable houses for sale to working residents of Addison County to be built by Habitat of Humanity of Addison County volunteers. This is only possible because decisions made by the Cornwall Select Board and Cornwall Planning Commission who planned for the future and for the residents that live and work in Addison County.

An 81-year-old Middlebury woman has been honored as the Vermont winner of the Home Instead Senior Care® network’s Salute to Senior Service SM award. Ruth Barenbaum is being recognized for her dedicated community service, including her work at the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging and Meals on Wheels. The Salute to Senior Service program was launched this year by the Home Instead Senior Care network to honor seniors’ commitments to their causes and communities. As one of 50 state winners, Barenbaum earned a spot in the Salute to Senior Service Wall of Fame on the www.SalutetoSeniorService.com website where her nomination story also has been posted.

A routine traffic stop resulted in a big discovery last night in Rutland. Police found 400 bags of heroin inside the vehicle. Authorities arrested a passenger, 25-year-old Samuel Forde of Castleton. He's now facing drug charges. The drugs have an estimated street value of over $13,000 dollars.

Rutland City Treasurer Wendy Wilton confirmed yesterday she will run for state treasurer. The office is currently held by former deputy treasurer Beth Pearce, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Peter Shumlin after elected treasurer Jeb Spaulding left to become Shumlin’s secretary of administration. Wilton, who has held the local office since 2007, plans a formal announcement at 9AM on Monday in Rutland City Hall.

Central Vermont Public Service Corp. reported yesterday first quarter earnings of $9.2 million, or 67 cents per share. The results exclude merger-related costs after-tax of $300,000, or 2 cents per share. Including merger-related costs, earnings were $8.9 million, or 65 cents per share of common stock, compared to $8.4 million, or 62 cents per share for the same quarter last year.

On Monday afternoon at 5:00, Eddie's Restaurant in Ticonderoga is hosting an Alliance Steering Board Meeting and Public Reception. Through the generosity of Town Council and Board Members Hors D'oeuvres and an open bar reception will take place from 5:00 to 5:45. From 6:00 to 7:00 the Alliance will provide an overview of its activities for the past 6 months, its plan for the next 6 months, and will ask the Steering the Board to nominate several new Board members. RSVP Requested: jcunningham@ticonderoga-alliance.org

The Essex County Fair will go forward. The County Board of Supervisors' contract with the Essex County Agricultural Society to run the fair was rescinded in order to remove beer sales at the end of this week's meeting. But a new contract is on its way. The contract was pulled back because it included beer sales, drawn up pending Board of Supervisors approval.

Police now say the driver who was killed along with his girlfriend and infant son on Vermont's Interstate 89 in Bolton had a cast on his left foot, not his right. The Burlington Free Press reports state police say Jason Potvin's cast wasn't on his right foot as originally reported. The newspaper says Potvin's license was suspended in October.

Rural post offices in Vermont and across the country will remain open after all. The U-S Postal Service announced a new strategy to keep the thousands of small centers open, after catching a lot of flak from the public over it. While they will remain open, the hours will be reduced, with service during peak times when most of the customers are there. The Postal Service estimates the reduced hours combined with voluntary early retirement of 21-thousand employees will save half a billion dollars annually.

Peerless Clothing International is expanding its current operations in St. Albans. The company, which is based in Montreal, is the largest men's suit manufacturer in North America. The company already has three large commercial buildings in St. Albans, and is now building 280-thousand square feet of distribution and warehouse space in the town industrial park. It's expected to open by the end of the year. It currently employs about three-hundred people, and is one of northwestern Vermont's largest employers.

A new state office building has opened in Bennington to replace one that was closed five years ago amid health concerns. Governor Peter Shumlin, state workers and state and local officials attended a ribbon cutting yesterday at the new Bennington court and state office building.

The leaders of the Vermont House and Senate say they're pleased with the accomplishments of the just completed legislative session. But Speaker Shap Smith and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell continue to disagree about something that didn't happen this year - giving police the ability to get without a search warrant information from a Health Department database of prescription drug records. Campbell supports that; Smith doesn't. Smith and Campbell - both Democrats - say the Legislature did a good job handling recovery from Tropical Storm Irene and revamping the state's mental health system. As for business left for next year, Smith says he wants to push tax reform including a sales tax that would be broadened to cover services but on which the 6% rate would be lowered.

A federal appeals court weighing a water quality permit for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant wants lawyers to provide it with written arguments on another type of water quality permit. Vermont Public Service Commissioner Elizabeth Miller says that was one result from a hearing yesterday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She says the three-judge panel asked for arguments relating to a second permit also required under the Clean Water Act. Briefs are due in 10 days.

The founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, who was ousted from the company's board leadership for a stock sale that violated company policy, has also dumped his $50 million stake in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. A filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday shows Robert Stiller sold his 8 million shares of the doughnut company at a price of $6.15 each.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making $1 million available this summer to some Vermont farmers as part of a program aimed at reducing pollution in streams. The farmers are in the Missisquoi River watershed. A recent study has identified farm fields in the area as being at the highest risk of polluting nearby streams. The federal government says it will pay some farmers 100 percent of the cost of making changes to the way they manage their fields. One round of grant applications is due May 18th and a second round is due June 15th.

Vermont's two largest utilities have lost the fight on smart meters. Vermonters who don't want wireless smart meters on their homes or businesses can now opt out of the technology for free. CVPS & GMP had wanted to charge customers $10 a month if they declined to have the new meters installed. But the Legislature said customers don't have to pay. The fee was meant to cover the cost of reading the old-style analog meters manually.

A dark blue Ford Crown Victoria looks a lot like an undercover police cruiser. It has a spot light outside the driver's side door and there's a decal on the back that says police interceptor. But it is not a police car. It once was, but was auctioned off and New York State Police say fell into the hands of 23-year-old Kyle Wyman. They say Wyman used the car and a fake outfit to pull over a teenage driver last week. "He was wearing a blue shirt with a fake badge on it and a shoulder patch," said Sr. Investigator Tracy Eggleston. State police say after asking for the driver's information Wyman let the man go. But the disguise was so good the teen didn't realize Wyman wasn't an officer. "Days later he was with another friend and they recognized the vehicle and saw him and the friend knew that person not to be a police officer," said Eggleston. Officers arrested Wyman for criminal impersonation and took him to the Clinton County jail. We went there and requested an interview with Wyman, but he declined. We wanted to know what rights you have as a driver if you get pulled over and you don't think it's an officer. State police say you want to pull over to a well-lit area and as the officer approaches and asks for your information you have every right to ask for theirs. Then call 911 to verify the badge number. As for Wyman, he's been in trouble before. State police say last year he used a radio to call in license plate numbers to the Colchester, Vermont police. State police say Wyman has taken police classes in the past, and enjoys pretending to be a law enforcement member. He's due back in court Thursday.

North Country Congressman Bill Owens says big oil companies need to keep crude oil home instead of shipping it overseas in order for gasoline prices to drop. Owens told reporters recently that he believes plenty of crude oil is being produced in North America, but it is being sent out of the country, which increases prices at the pumps for Americans. He is in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would bring oil down from northern Canada to the United States.

Nathaniel Peterson of Middlebury, a junior majoring in chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, recently completed an intensive, applied research project in Bangkok for C-Term. The project was titled Historical Building Conservation. Peterson was required to complete a research-driven, professional-level project that addresses a problem at the intersection of science, technology, social issues, and human needs.

We know Tropical Storm Irene was responsible for a lot of damage and destruction. What you may not realize is that the flooding Irene produced also washed away thousands of old tires. Many of those tires are now on the way to a recycling center...thanks dozens of volunteers. Organizers say a lot of those tires washed up along the Winooski River in Waterbury. “They’re good nesting areas for mosquito's and they're a breeding ground and that's a problem, not to mention the esthetic problem of tires being where they don't belong.” A company in Maine will recycle the tires.

Brandon Music will present Gerry Beaudoin with special guest Rich Lataille this Sunday at 7pm. The concert is a part of the year-round weekly Sunday Jazz series. Tickets are $15 in advance, and $18 at the door. Brandon Music offers an Early Bird dinner special, which includes a ticket for the jazz performance, for $25 per person. Enjoy the chef’s award-winning chili and cornbread as well as dessert before listening to world-class jazz. Reservations are required for dinner. For Tickets and Dinner Reservations just visit www.brandon-music.net/sundayjazz.