Beginning Monday the 28th through Friday
June 29th Seymour Street will be closed to through traffic at Main
Street and at Elm Street. Seymour Street will be reconstructed from Main Street
north past the Fire Station. The street and sidewalks will be lowered.
Pedestrians are asked to please use caution. Access to businesses and
residences north of the Fire Station will be via the Elm Street End.
The Town Of Middlebury Select Board will be holding
their meeting tonight at 7 in the Town Offices Conference Room. Items on tonight’s agenda include the review
of Addison County Transit Resources' Development Agreement Provisions regarding
Payments in Lieu of Taxes & Sidewalk Construction. A discussion of the timeline for the
flood-fluvial erosion hazard regulations from the planning commission will take
place. There will also be an
appointment for the Addison County Regional Planning Commission alternate. An award of the contract for the Otter
Creek Bank Stabilization project and the award bid for the purchase of highway
trucks are also on this evening’s agenda.
Please visit the Town’s website for a complete list of agenda items.
The Vergennes Partnership wants the public to
consider the "new" Vergennes as a place to live, work and play. The
community organization will host a special event, "Back to the Future:
Destination Vergennes", a pictorial revue about the rebirth of the Little
City, this Thursday from 6 – 7:30PM at the Vergennes Opera House. The show will highlight the
accomplishments of the Partnership since its 1999 inception with past and
present images of the city, a display, and tables for each Partnership
committee. The event will also be the launch for the Vergennes Wi-Fi Internet
project.
Vermonter Bill McKibben knows students at central
Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College will remember Sunday’s graduation for diplomas
and a speech by CIA director and retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus. But the
Ripton resident and Middlebury College scholar was there for another reason: To
accept Dickinson’s inaugural $100,000 Prize for Global Environmental Activism.
McKibben who is the author of “The End of Nature,” a 1989 bestseller and the
first book about global warming written for a general audience is now making
news as founder of 350.org, the world’s largest grassroots climate action
campaign.
In the Rutland City school district’s ongoing look
into changing class rank, new information will be presented tonight that shows
the majority of Vermont high schools do not give students specific ranking
numbers. A study of about 30
colleges shows those schools don’t need to consider class rank either. Rutland
High School Principal Bill Olsen and other staffers will present to the board a
list of the state’s top high schools and whether they rank or not. Only about six of 30 of those high
schools currently rank students, giving them a number compared to their peers.
Proposed changes to the Ticonderoga zoning law are
on hold. The town board has
appointed a committee to review the proposed revisions. The new committee will
meet every two weeks until it completes its review. The zoning revision project is funded by a Quality
Communities grant from the New York State Department of State. The existing
Ticonderoga zoning law is 30 years old. It has been amended 20 times.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce May After
Business Mixer will be held this Thursday at Fort Ticonderoga from 5:30 to 7PM. Sponsors providing door prizes will be
Christopher Chevrolet, George Sperry Marine Survey and the Wagon Wheel
Restaurant. The chamber’s “After
Business Mixers” provide a networking forum for area business people in
addition to showcasing the site of the host as well as promoting the door prize
sponsors. All area chamber members, business people and their employees are
invited to attend. For more
information visit www.ticonderogany.com.
International Paper's Ticonderoga mill will soon be
shut down for three weeks to install new equipment. The outage will begin May 29th and continue for three weeks.
Although the mill won't be making paper during that time, no one will be laid
off. Matter of fact in addition to the mill's 600 employees, 700 to 800
contractor personnel will work on site which actually helps the local economy
as the additional workers are renting motel rooms, houses and apartments in
Southern Essex County for the three weeks they’ll be on site.
Crown Point Town officials have committed to
spending up to $285,000 to replace the town campground's protection wall on
Lake Champlain. Half of the cost,
up to $117,500, will be reimbursed by the State Department of State. The breakwater at the Monitor Bay Town
Campground was severely damaged by wave erosion in 2009, and the project has
been slated since then.
Some Essex County lawmakers took issue recently
with Sheriff Richard Cutting's estimate of daily inmate costs. Cutting said he figured Essex County
pays $7.92 per day to house a prisoner in the County Jail in Lewis. But that amount doesn't include jail
staff costs or payments on the $30 million bond issue used to build the new
facility five years ago. Cutting was using the figure to say the inmate-housing
cost at the jail last year was only $110,000, while $1.3 million was generated
from outside inmate boarding.
PenAir was welcomed to Plattsburgh International
Airport yesterday afternoon, especially with news that it would create local
jobs. The airline is scheduled to
start service between Plattsburgh and Logan International Airport in Boston on
June 15th. Plattsburgh will be the airline's base of operations for the East
Coast.
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy says he's disappointed
with the FDA's decision to hold off taking a closer look at sunscreen
standards. Leahy stood with his
wife at the Burlington International Airport yesterday as he talked about the
topic. Marcelle Leahy is a skin
cancer survivor. The new FDA
sunscreen regulations were supposed to go into effect next month, but have been
put off until December. Leahy says
that's inexcusable. Last week
Leahy and several other lawmakers asked the FDA to move forward. He says he still hasn't received an
answer.
Chester Police are investigating a large burglary
and theft that occurred on Popple Dungeon Road in Chester Vermont on May 5th. Police say, approximately $4,000 of
tools and equipment was stolen from a garage. The owner is offering a $1,000
reward for information that leads to the recovery of the property or impacts
the case leading to the arrests. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chester
Police Department at (802)-875-2035.
With a vote of four to one, the South Burlington
City Council is telling the Air Force it does not want F-35 fighter-bombers
based at Burlington International Airport. Only Councilor Pam Mackenzie voted for the F-35's. The Air Force is considering the Vermont
Air National Guard Base as a prime site to base the new fighters, but it's not
clear just what the vote Monday night may have on the final decision. That's expected in early November.
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From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News:
If you have an 802 number, you've probably received
a phony call or text message from an automated system pretending to be a
Merchants Bank representative. We
want you to know this is a scam and that you should not give out your banking
information. When South Burlington
resident, Mark Haverty's phone rang Sunday night, the number was only four
digits long. "I know if it
comes up as too few or too many numbers, it's from out of the country,"
Haverty said. It didn't take long
for him to know something wasn't right, especially when the automated system
posing as Merchant's Bank asked for personal information and indicated there
was a problem. "The message
said there's a problem with your debit card, we need you to... and at that
point, I hung up," Haverty said.
Haverty isn't a Merchants Bank customer, but he did know this was a scam
and reported the phony call to police.
This is what the automated message says: "Hello, this is an
official notification from Merchants Bank, informing you that your MasterCard
needs to be updated for security reasons. To begin the update process, please
press 1 now." So far out of
the thousands of people who have received calls or text messages, just a
handful have fallen victim to the scam.
"We have had cases where customers have divulged their 16-digit
debit card numbers and their pins and we're working with them immediately to
cancel those cards," Executive VP of Merchants Bank, Thomas Leavitt said. Leavitt says they're doing everything
to identify where the calls are coming from. "It's going to take some
really strong law enforcement and cyber work to track it down." Even still, Leavitt says he's sure
there's been no breach of Merchants Bank data and people's personal
information. "In no way shape
or form have Merchants Banks systems been compromised," Leavitt said. If you're like Mark Haverty who got the
call but hung up, you don't need to report anything to Merchants Bank, but if
you revealed any of your personal information, let the bank or police know.
Vermont park employees are busy getting ready for
Memorial Day Weekend. Lawns are
getting mowed and the department has even unveiled a new smart phone
application that provides information on all of the state's parks. "We've had lot of volunteers and
the staff is working hard so we are as ready as we can be," said Vermont
State Park's Director Craig Whipple.
The state parks department is also working on a plan that they say they
get hundreds of complaints about, smoking in the park. It's an issue Stacey Pakus-Casey wishes
she didn't have to deal with. "I
have a small child and I don't like the smoke around even though it's outside
it just still seems like it's in the air," said Pakus-Casey. The concern with cigarettes isn't just
with the smoke in the air but people at the state park say when they're walking
along the beach they'll find a number of cigarette butts lying on the ground. "It's generally a pretty clean
park but when people smoke they don't seem to pick up their own butts,"
said Pakus-Casey. Park leaders say
smoking would be banned in certain areas, like beaches and playgrounds, and
would be allowed everywhere else. As
far as enforcing leaders say it will depend on people following the rules on
their own. "We don't
expect to be, to turn into cigarette cops," said Whipple. If you go this
weekend the ban will not be in place yet.
The department plans to hold a hearing on the issue in about a week. If it moves forward beaches will be
smoke-free in July.
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The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is not needed for
the stability of the New England electric grid, according to grid operator ISO
New England. Yankee opponents say
the grid's decision is a sign that Yankee isn't needed to keep the lights on. ISO recently conducted an auction for
the region's future power needs. And it reversed its decision from last year,
when it said Vermont Yankee had to keep cranking out its 620 megawatts to keep
the transmission grid stable in southern New Hampshire and New England. Now ISO says transmission upgrades and
new generation means that Yankee is no longer needed to maintain grid
reliability.
Ticonderoga will observe Memorial Day by recalling
the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers.
The Ticonderoga, the First 250 Years Committee will sponsor a ceremony this
Sunday afternoon at 1 at Champlain Legacy Park, located on the north side of
the LaChute River across from Bicentennial Park. As part of the Memorial Day
ceremony, a traditional poem written by Walt Whitman will be recited. Whitman,
known as the Civil War poet, worked as a volunteer nurse in the Civil War in
addition to publishing his poetry.
Crown Point's 144th annual Memorial Day observance
will begin with an ecumenical church service. The service will be held at 11AM this Sunday in Veterans
Park. Following the service the park will open at noon with amusement rides, food,
vendors and games. The North
Country Travelers will perform in the park at 5PM. Fireworks will conclude the day at the park at 9PM. Monday’s
activities will begin with Crown Point’s traditional cemetery tour beginning at
Sacred Heart Cemetery at 9AM. Crown Point’s annual Memorial Day parade will
begin at 2PM at Ferry Road and proceed north on Main Street, ending at Veterans
Park.
