Some big changes are coming to Vergennes Union High School, and those will not be cheap. School officials say it will cost up to seven million dollars to upgrade the school, mainly with the auditorium and athletic fields. Property taxes are likely to go up in order to pay for it.
French Heritage Day is coming up tomorrow in Vergennes from 10AM – 6PM. Don’t miss this free educational, cultural, fun-filled family day in Vergennes City Park! The event features French Canadian fiddling; an opportunity to learn French response songs; there will be step-dancing, re-enactors, French food, antique vehicles & engines, traditional craft demonstrations and much more! Visit www.frenchheritageday.com for more information and a complete schedule of events!
Rescue workers say it's a miracle no one was killed in a crash in Shoreham. Police say a distracted driver caused a chain reaction that sent three people to the hospital and closed Route 74 for three hours yesterday. A man driving with his baby in the car allegedly reached over to pick something up, when he crossed the center line and collided with a dump truck. The truck hit some trees and dumped 16 tons of rocks onto a minivan. The woman driving the minivan was airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. The driver of the car and his baby were taken to Porter Hospital. None suffered life-threatening injuries.
Former Vermont Governor and Middlebury resident Jim Douglas led off a lecture series at Dartmouth College called "Interesting People, Interesting Times." The Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation had previously been based at the museum dedicated to the former president in Vermont but moved this year to Hanover in order to accommodate a broader audience. The lecture series started Wednesday with Douglas giving a speech called "Love Live the Republic." Other speakers included former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, economist Roger Brinner and photo historian Vicki Goldberg.
Over the past nine months, the Essex County Mental Health Department has been able to meet with everyone who has needed their services. They have not had a waiting list since October 17, 2011. The department currently has two times blocked out each week where people can come to the offices without an appointment, on Wednesdays from Noon until 4PM and Fridays from 8AM until Noon. It was part of the department’s goal to move to an “open access model.”
Due to an impasse over carrying fees, Time Warner Cable has stopped carrying three Hearst Television channels. The channels impacted are 5 (WPTZ), 863 (WPTZ-HD) and 854 (THIS-TV). WPTZ President and General Manager Paul Sands said Time Warner Cable has terminated negotiations with Hearst Television. WPTZ has not blacked out its signal, which can still be received for free over the air or through satellite providers.
The governor's administration is meeting with towns grappling with the Air Force's plan to base F-35 jets at Burlington International Airport. While Governor Peter Shumlin supports the plan, not everyone in the towns do. Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding met Thursday afternoon with town and city officials from Burlington, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski. The greatest concern is noise levels, and Spaulding says the talk at the meeting was about having one of the planes come up, or perhaps have a delegation go down to where they are, to actually compare the noise with the F-16's now based in Burlington.
The numbers are in, and with no surprise it turns out this year was not a stellar one for maple syrup production. The drop across New England and New York is blamed on the weather. While Vermont still leads the nation in production with one-point-nine million gallons this year, that's the lowest total in five years, and down about a third from last year. It takes cold nights and mild days for the sap to run and with highs in the 80's in March in some areas of Vermont, it simply didn't happen. Maine was the only state to see production go up, producing 360-thousand gallons.
Visitors to Lake Champlain beaches in Burlington are being warned about the possibility of toxic blue-green algae in the water. Warning signs have been posted at city beaches as a precaution. The beaches are still open but people are advised to keep their dogs out of the water. Algae blooms can irritate the skin and make people sick if ingested. They also can be lethal to pets. The water is being tested and results are expected sometime today.
An alert store clerk at the Price Chopper in St. Johnsbury saved an 88-year-old woman from losing thousands of dollars in a scam. Carol Goehring, who is a supervisor at Price Chopper, stopped the woman from trying to wire money to Canada, after getting a call from someone who claimed to be the woman's granddaughter and needing the money because she'd been in an accident there. Goehring put a hold on the wire transfer and notified Western Union's Fraud Department. Goehring was honored Thursday by state Attorney General Bill Sorrell, who presented her with the first ever "Pure Vermont" award, lauding neighbors helping neighbors. Sorrell says so far this year, Vermonters have lost 57-thousand dollars to wire scams.
The Vermont State Police trooper overseeing a summer effort to reduce traffic fatalities say no one has died on the state's roadways since the push was announced last week. Lt. John Flannigan says he can't say the lack of fatalities is a result of the enforcement, but more officers have been working hard across the state to enforce traffic laws. Message boards are also being used on the interstate highways that are displaying safety messages, reminding motorists to slow down and drive safely.
The Vermont State Employees Association is asking the state Labor Relations Board to include employees in sheriff's offices and in the Department of State's Attorneys. But it's not clear whether they can join. The union petitioned the labor board to allow 155 employees into its organization. The Brattleboro Reformer reports employees in the state's attorney's offices include deputy state's attorneys, investigators, victim's advocates and administrative staff.
The effort to unload office furniture and equipment from the Waterbury state offices went better than expected yesterday. The warehouse used to display the items was virtually cleaned out in the first hour of what was schedule to be a three-day event. The state offered up all of the items free of charge for towns, schools and nonprofit groups, and several took immediate advantage of the offer, hauling off entire truckloads of furniture. There is still plenty more gear to get rid of and state workers are busy trying to restock their showroom.
Vermont's largest electric utility says the components of what will become 21 industrial wind turbines are starting to arrive on Lowell Mountain. Green Mountain Power says trucks will be transporting the turbine parts to Lowell from a railroad yard in Island Pond from now until early September. The project consists of 21 turbines that are designed to generate electricity for more than 24,000 Vermont homes. The project is supposed to be generating electricity by the end of the year.
The recent warm, dry weather has created a high fire danger in the Adirondacks. New York forest rangers say three small wildfires have already scorched about eight acres in the Adirondacks. Fires are always prohibited in the eastern high peaks region, and elsewhere, the state is urging campers to be especially cautious with campfires.
You are invited to stop by Mountain View Equipment in Middlebury on July 27th & 28th as it hosts the 2012 John Deere Drive Green Challenge. Now in its fourth year, the Drive Green Challenge offers tractor buyers and owners the chance to compare the newest compact and utility tractors from John Deere to tractors from other manufacturers. Michael Hendy of Mountain View Equipment said he is confident attendees will see the differences immediately. For more information, contact Mountain View Equipment at 802-388-4482. Mountain View Equipment is a local John Deere dealer with locations in Rutland and Middlebury and Plattsburgh and Malone, NY.
The annual North Country SPCA "Gimme Shelter" Golf Tournament is coming up pm July 20th and preparations are underway to ensure this event will be as enjoyable and entertaining as that of 2011! Proceeds of the tournament, hosted by the Westport Country Club, will be donated toward their new shelter fund. For more details and how to register, click HERE!
Vermont’s Marlboro Music Festival is described by Alex Ross in The New Yorker as “the classical world’s most coveted retreat.” This weekend, Marlboro Music Festival opens its 62nd summer season of public concerts, with performances at 8:30PM Saturday and 2:30PM Sunday at Marlboro College’s Persons Auditorium. Since its inception, Marlboro’s unique approach has veteran musicians playing with young musicians, rather than coaching them. For more information and tickets visit www.marlboromusic.org.
A Hinesburg equestrian enthusiast is headed to the national Junior Young Riders Dressage Championships in Lexington, KY this week. Liz Fell's top scores at regional shows got her selected as part of a four-member team representing New England and New York in the worldwide competition. She will perform a test routine and a freestyle or original routine. Liz and her mother are headed to the competition today, which will run through July 22nd. Liz hopes to one day to ride in the Olympics.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont & New York:
Lake Iroquois in Williston and Hinesburg is up against some environmental issues. The Lake Iroquois Association says the lake has high levels of phosphorus which can create unhealthy amounts if algae in the lake. And to make matters worse, many of the homes a long the lake may not be helping the water quality. A lot of Lake Iroquois' lake front homes are closer to the water than they are supposed to be. That is because they were built before current zoning regulations. Now, some of the homeowners want to expand. And the towns of Williston and Hinesburg are trying to manage the situation. New construction in homes that are too close to the lake could mean run off into the lake. And then there is the issue of septic systems. "Depending on how well those septic systems are functioning, they could affect the water quality in the lake in a negative way," Williston Planning Director Ken Belliveau said. That is why Belliveau is going back to the drawing board, holding a public meeting for lakeside residents on July 26. "Depending on how well those septic systems are functioning, they could affect the water quality in the lake in a negative way," Belliveau said. Belliveau is already throwing around a few ideas, including giving the lake its own zoning district.
A veteran Vermont state trooper quit following allegations he padded his time sheet and now the republican who wants governor Shumlin’s job...is blaming the administration. State senator randy Brock held a news conference yesterday. Pointing to a report from last fiscal year Brock says Vermont spent more than 16-million in o-t payments. He says that was up more than 12-percent from the previous year. Brock says overtime should be at or close to zero. “Overtime is the difference between profit and loss and when you have ingrained overtime for year after year after year, and when in fact is going up it's a symbol personnel management is not being done as well or effectively as it should be.” Officials say former sergeant jams Deeghan made about 136-thousand dollars last year. His base salary was 80-thousand. Governor peter Shumlin says two investigations have been launched into the issue.
Emergency teams responded to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Thursday morning when employees in the mailroom thought an envelope emitting a weird smell and spilling a strange substance was worth worrying about. Mailroom employees were evacuated but returned to work a few hours later when the suspicion of something dangerous turned out to be nothing more than something very odd. It was powder residue from dead insects.
