The Town Of Middlebury will be holding a special
Select-Board meeting this evening at 7 at the Russ Sholes Senior Center on Main
Street. On the agenda is a Presentation
of the Town Offices/Community Center Steering Committee. Get more information anytime by
visiting the Town’s Website.
The Addison County Humane Society is hosting their
Fifth Annual RUFF RIDE, a bicycle and motorcycle ride to benefit the animals on
Sunday, June 24th. The bicycle rides will start at 10 am at Ski Haus of Vermont
in Middlebury. The motorcycle ride will start at 8:30 am at Cycle Wise in New
Haven. All rides will begin with
registration and continental breakfast and will finish at the Middlebury Green
for a BBQ, music, prizes, and lots of fun. The entrance fee for the ride is $25.00 per person and
includes the BBQ, free t-shirt and lots of fun! Our very own Bruce & Hobbes will be there to emcee the
festivities! Funds raised from the
RUFF Ride will be used to meet the rising costs of caring for the animals. For
more information, please visit www.addisonhumane.org
or call Jackie at 802-388-1443.
Last Thursday investigators from the Vermont Drug
Task Force searched a residence in Ripton and made an arrest following an
investigation into heroin trafficking. Maleek Drummond of Brooklyn, NY was the
only person in the residence at the time.
Detectives observed 15 heroin bags in plain view once inside. Upon searching the residence,
detectives located an additional 150 bags of heroin stuffed inside of a baby
sock. Drummond was lodged at
Marble Valley Correctional Center for a lack of $50,000 bail and was arraigned
in Rutland County Court on Friday.
The case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.
The Vermont State Police in New Haven are
investigating the theft of a battery charger from a workshop on Lake St. in
Addison. The theft occurred sometime within the last two to three weeks. Meanwhile
Police are investigating the theft of a mountain bike from a residence on Fat
Mountain Dr. in Starksboro. The theft occurred sometime during the evening of
June 16th. Anyone with information on either of these crimes is encouraged to
contact the State Police in New Haven at 388-4919. Information can also be
submitted anonymously online at www.vtips.info or text "CRIMES"
(274637) to Keyword:VTIPS
State and local officials want to know what Rutland
residents think about opening a methadone clinic at the former West Street home
of Rutland Motorcars. For the last
month, planners have been scrambling to find a new site for opiate addiction
clinic, which was originally planned to open in an industrial site on Park Street. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday and
will take place from 6 to 7:30PM at the 200 West St. site.
A new invasive species may have found its way to
Essex County. Anita Deming of
Cornell Cooperative Extension in Westport reported to members of the Economic
Development, Planning and Publicity Committee last week that they had found the
first reported case of leek moths in Essex County. Deming said that the case was reported at one farm in the
northern end of the county. Leek moths are an invasive species, which live off
of plants like onions, garlic, leeks and chives. Along with chemical control,
another way to stop the spread of leek moths is by not sharing bulbs.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host
a OneWorkSource and the InternetXpress @ Your Library services open house at
the chamber office from 10AM to 3PM on Monday. The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce, OneWorkSource,
Adirondack Community Action Programs, Inc. and the Clinton, Essex, Franklin
Library System continues to offer One Work Source open houses on a monthly
basis. The open houses are available to employers, employees, and community
members in the Ticonderoga area. For more information on the open houses at the
chamber office visit www.ticonderogany.com.
Essex County is getting ready to buy radios and
microwave equipment for its new public-safety radio network. The county is spending $2.58 million of
the $10 million project to pay for Motorola radios, microwave equipment and new
communications frequencies. The
new radio system will replace one built in the 1950s with state-of-the-art
digital communications for police, fire, emergency medical services and highway
departments in the county. Spending of the $2.58 million will get a preliminary
vote at the County Board of Supervisors Ways and Means session June 25th and a
final vote July 2nd.
This summer a couple of hundred kids will eat meals
each weekday at Moriah Central School, provided by the Summer Food Service
Program. More children will do the
same at other Essex County locations.
The program, offered through Essex County Community Resources, makes
free meals available for youths’ ages 18 and younger. Children qualify
automatically if they belong to households that receive food stamps or benefits
under the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations or Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families.
The $900,000 insurance settlement for the Upper Jay
fire station is a start, but the Fire Commission still needs more funding. Commission Chairman Bryan Walton said
they voted last week to accept the figure and were waiting for final paperwork. Gov. Andrew Cuomo mediated the
insurance settlement with help from state insurance officials earlier this
week.
The North Country Regional Economic Development
Council will be holding their 2012 Public Forums. Last year, the Council
created an award winning economic development plan for the seven county region
establishing multi-year strategies for various economic sectors. In addition to
establishing a first-ever comprehensive vision for economic development across
the North Country, the plan also attracted more than $102 million in state
funding for more than 70 projects.
The 2012 plan and funding competition is now underway and like last year
they are reaching out to all parts of the region and including a public forum
in each of the seven counties.
Essex County’s forum is coming up on Monday the 25th at
6PM. It will be held at the
Elizabethtown-Lewis High School on Court Street in Elizabethtown. All
interested businesses, organizations, local officials, individuals and others
from the North Country are welcome to attend. Advance registration is
encouraged. Please register HERE. To view the current Regional Plan and other
documents, including guidance on funding applications, visit: www.northcountryopenforbusiness.com.
Some of New York's most vulnerable citizens will be
protected by a hotline, special investigators and other measures aimed at
improving a system marked by years of abuse and death among the disabled in
state facilities. Gov. Andrew
Cuomo and legislative leaders said Sunday they agreed on a sweeping reform. The
deal was announced in time for the bill to be passed by end of the
Legislature's regular session on Thursday.
Republican Randy Brock says Governor Peter Shumlin
will have to explain his stand on the Green Mountain Power takeover of Central
Vermont Public Service. Shumlin
agreed with the utilities that they should be allowed to invest $21 million in
energy efficiency programs. Brock
and others argued that money should have been returned to CVPS ratepayers as a
cash refund because they helped bail out the company a decade ago. And Brock says he'll continue to make
that point through the fall.
An electrical failure in a motor generator set at
the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant forced the center to reduce its
power. A spokesperson for the
plant says it will continue now to operate at 36-percent power until repairs
are done. It's not known yet what
caused the electrical failure, but Robert Williams, plant spokesman assures the
public it's not a safety-related issue.
Senator Patrick Leahy wants sunscreen labels to be
more clear and accurate so consumers can make better decisions about what they
are putting on their bodies. Sunscreen has long been considered a cosmetic and
therefore avoided government oversight.
The FDA has not changed its recommendations for sunscreen in 30 years. Last June, the FDA ordered new
regulations, which were supposed to go into effect Monday. Instead, they were
postponed to give sunscreen makers an extra six months to meet the new regulations.
The Rutland Regional Medical Center received a
$36,000 grant for its breast cancer program from the Vermont-New Hampshire
Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The RRMC’s Breast Cancer Community Education and Outreach Program is the
regional resource for education and support for women, providing access to
screening, diagnostic and treatment facilities.
With the summer driving season underway, Vermonters
are reaping an unexpected surprise: lower gas prices. According to www.VermontGasPrices.com,
the average price of gasoline in the state on Sunday was $3.66 a gallon –
nearly 15 cents a gallon cheaper than a year ago and more than 17 cents cheaper
than just a month ago. In the last
week, the price of gas has dropped 3.2 cents a gallon. The national average is $3.53 a gallon
– a drop of 12.6 cents a gallon from a year ago.
A leader of Vermont's efforts to reform its health
care system says the state's efforts to provide insurance for nearly all of its
residents likely will continue, even if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to
strike down President Barack Obama's health care law. Anya Rader Wallack met with doctors yesterday at
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Wallack is chair of Vermont's Green Mountain Care Board, which is
designing a system for universal and publicly funded access to health care for
Vermont residents. She says one
big risk to Vermont's plan is if the court strikes down provisions expected to
provide the state more than $200 million a year. The money is key to health
insurance subsidies Vermont hopes to offer in 2014.
A Newport man is now persona non grata in two towns
after police say he broke into a woman's home and held her captive. The
Caledonian-Record reports Steven Lontine is barred from entering Barton, where
the woman lived, as well as Craftsbury.
The state has begun taking online applications for
permits in Vermont's muzzleloader antlerless deer lottery. The deadline for the
more than 12,000 permits is September with a lottery drawing set for
mid-October.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice In Vermont
& New York:
On Monday, the Burlington City Council debated
whether to support, oppose or ask for more information about F-35's coming to
Vermont. As of late Monday night
they were still debating. The
Vermont Air National Guard is in the running to be one of the home's for the
new fighter jet. Inside Burlington
City Hall Monday, there were lots of people against the F-35's and their major
issue was the noise of the jets.
The few supporters pointed out the benefit to the Guard and the region. All these people were here because
Burlington councilors decided to join the F-35 debate. The Burlington council doesn't have any
official say over the jets so this was just symbolic. Though Burlington is not
the first city to weigh in on the jets.
South Burlington already voted against the plan. Opposition to the jets has built since
the Air Force picked the Vermont Guard to be in the running for the jets. Just last week, the Guard fought back
against what it called misconceptions about the jets. But that has done little to quiet opponents of the F-35's.
Engineers are expected to cut an historic, narrow
Vermont bridge in two so it can be widened as part of renovations designed to
make it safe for 21st century travelers.
Preparations to widen the Checkered House Bridge in Richmond have been
under way for more than a year. Workers
are preparing to cut the two trusses apart Monday morning and then push the
downstream truss more than 10 feet. The two sides will then be reattached. The truss that is being moved weighs
about 300,000 pounds. Once the
renovation is finished, the bridge will be about 30 feet wide and have enough
room for vehicles to pass each other with plenty of room for bicyclists and
pedestrians.
