Roadwork is taking place on Route 9N in Port
Henry. Crews are repairing the
slope along the roadway just south of Port Henry this week. Please use caution when travelling in
this area.
The Three Day Stampede toward the cure for Cystic
Fibrosis is coming up this Friday – Sunday in Bristol at the Vermont Recreation
Field. This event includes a giant lawn sale with over 20 tents full of goodies,
a silent auction, a 5K run, a walk a thon, a flea market, and food concessions.
All proceeds benefit Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Last night back-to-back meetings were held in
Pittsford to discuss the upcoming water project bond votes. The bond vote will
authorize the town to borrow the necessary funds to construct a pipeline
connection and booster pump station. The total cost of this project is
estimated to be $260,000. Meanwhile the town is also seeking up to $200,000
from a state revolving fund that will provide financial assistance to customers
that will be abandoned from the Proctor water system. Any funds loaned by the
town would be repaid by the individuals borrowing them. Voters will weigh in on
the issues at the polls from 7AM to 7PM on July 31st at the town offices.
There may be some hope yet for the Vermont Marble
Museum. The Vermont Marble Museum and the Preservation Trust of Vermont have
signed an option agreement as of yesterday morning that gives the Preservation
Trust until the end of the year to raise $880,000 to keep the museum open.
State regulators have approved a proposed solar
project in Rutland. The Public
Service Board issued a certificate of public good to the proposal to put 139
kilowatts worth of solar collectors on the former poor farm property off
Woodstock Avenue. The project is
unrelated to the promises made by Green Mountain Power during its merger with
Central Vermont Public Service Corp., but arose at roughly the same time. AllEarth Renewables brought the project
to the city earlier this year. AllEarth will build the equipment while Green
Lantern Development will build and own the project.
Peebles will open in Ticonderoga as of Thursday,
August 23rd. A ribbon cutting has
been scheduled for 8:45 that morning in the former Grand Union building at the
intersection of Routes 9N and 74. There will also be a series of sales and
promotional events throughout the store’s opening weekend. Peebles will offer clothing,
accessories and cosmetics for juniors and women as well as a wide range of
men’s and children’s apparel.
Preparations for Ticonderoga’s StreetFest 2012 are
now complete and historic Montcalm Street in the heart of downtown Ticonderoga
will be once again be converted into a pedestrian mall this Saturday from 10:00
AM until 3:00 PM. Sponsored by the Ticonderoga Montcalm Street Partnership,
StreetFest is an annual community celebration of arts and crafts, shopping,
food, fun, entertainment, and family activities to bring people to the town’s
historic Montcalm Street district.
There are tons of activities planned! Visit www.ticonderogany.com
for details!
Lea Davison is one of the top mountain bikers in
the world. And her prowess on the
course has just earned her a huge honor: representing the United States in the
London Olympics. Davison lives and trains in Jericho, where she grew up. She
and her sister Sabra also run a camp for young girls, who want to learn to
ride, called Little Bellas.
Blue-green algae are causing problems on Lake
Champlain and other lakes across Vermont. Blooms are appearing earlier and are
more widespread than normal this year.
It's not unusual for blue-green algae to appear in Lake Champlain in the
summer, particularly when it's hot. But what is unusual is for it to be
appearing this early in the year. One of the reasons for that is the large
amount of phosphorous that went into the lake during last year's floods. But
according to Mary Watzin, a long-time researcher on Lake Champlain, the weather
is playing an even bigger role. Not all blue-green algae blooms are toxic, but
only testing can reveal which ones are toxic and which ones aren't.
It looked like your typical summer party, with
food, friends and music. But the
difference was, instead of being the life of the party, party goers were giving
life, in the form of blood donations.
The American Red Cross is holding mini blood drives at small businesses
and even at people's homes this summer.
The Red Cross says this is the time of year when blood donations are
down, so the idea was born for the small-scale parties at a home.
The culmination of about ten months of dialogue,
debate and review was unveiled Tuesday night in Burlington, with artists'
renderings of what the city's downtown and waterfront could look like in the
future. The draft master plan
included the input of thousands of residents who voiced ideas to consultants
and city planners, creating what the city's planning and zoning director calls
very unique. However, what vision
did not include was a price tag, and consultants say it's now up to the city
and the people living in Burlington to determine just what they want to pay for.
Fair Haven Town officials will need to start
searching for another town manager just 17 months after hiring a new one. Town Manager Peter Hathaway’s
resignation was announced at the Select Board meeting yesterday. He presented a letter of resignation to
the board last week in which he gave his 30-day notice. Hathaway’s last day
will be August 13. In his
resignation letter, Hathaway wrote the reason for leaving his post is because
he and the Select Board have “come to an impasse in regards to some recent
developments.”
The governor of New York has signed a new law
increasing the tax credits for filmmakers who come to New York for
post-production work. The law raises the credit from 10% to 30% in the greater
New York City area and up to 35% elsewhere.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is introducing two
bills in Congress this week aimed at boosting employee-ownership across the
nation. Vermont is home to at least thirty employee-owned companies --
including some big names like King Arthur Flour, Green Mountain Coffee
Roasters, and Gardener's Supply Company -- and Sanders would like to see the
model expanded. Sanders'
legislation would fund more state technical support centers and establish a new
national loan guarantee program to help finance start-ups and transitions to
employee ownership.
Occupy groups and others plan to protest during the
Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Premiers. Demonstrations are
planned Sunday and Monday. Organizers say they want the governors and premiers
to focus on the human rights of the people in the region and a process that
engages them in holding their governments accountable for protecting their
rights.
Vermont's public safety commissioner says problems
with the time reports of a former trooper charged with falsifying his reports
for June appear to stretch back at least two years. Commissioner Keith Flynn of the Department of Public Safety
says preliminary reports on the investigation into alleged false swearing by
former Sgt. James Deeghan stopped short of calling the earlier time sheets
evidence of criminal activity, but said there are what he termed anomalies. Deeghan was charged July 13 with two
counts of false swearing in connection with time reports for two pay periods in
June. Authorities say that while working at the state police Williston
barracks, Deeghan padded his time reports in part by reporting that he
responded to accidents and other incidents that never occurred.
Coming up this Sunday there will be a benefit
Spaghetti Dinner in Ticonderoga at the American Legion. It begins at Noon and runs until it
sells out. A horseshoe tournament
and various raffles are also part of this benefit. The cost is $5.00 per person for horseshoes. The dinner is to benefit Connor
Courtright. He’s a local
6-year-old boy who has been diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma.
Jazz returns to the Brandon Music Café this
Thursday on Country Club Road in Brandon!
This week they present bassist John Menegon at 7:30PM. John Menegon
started his career as a bassist in Montreal. After working for several years on
the Canadian jazz scene he went on to hone his skills in New York City in the
mid-80s. General Admission is $12.
Brandon Music offers an Early Bird dinner special, which includes a ticket for
the jazz performance, for $22 per person.
Get details right now by visiting Brandon Music's Website!
Vermont is third best in the nation in a national
survey of children's well being. The
annual Annie E. Casey's report released Wednesday shows that Vermont made
improvements in children's health, education and in family and community. But
more children are living in poverty.
In 2010, 17% of Vermont's children were poor, which is a 13% increase
from 2005. And the rate of children with parents that don't have secure
employment rose to 31%. But
Vermont showed progress in the percentage of children without health insurance,
which dropped from 4% in 2008 to 2% in 2010. The state also saw an increase in
the rate of high school students graduating on time. New Hampshire had the top score based on 16 indicators.
Massachusetts was second.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont
& New York:
Your electricity bill might have looked a little
different this month; it's the first bill since Central Vermont Public Service
merged with Green Mountain Power. But the utility companies say the only change
is the name, not the rates. Plenty
of people feel like the merger made their rates go up and their electricity
bills may have very well been more expensive this month, but GMP says the truth
is, you were probably just using more A/C during these past few hot months. The lights are off and the fans are
going. John Houghton who owns the Maplehurst flower shop in Essex Junction is
doing his part to keep his electricity bill low. "High efficiency fans and
brand new compressors," Houghton said. But he still uses more than 2,400 kilowatt hours each month;
the average household uses 500. So whether it's a home or business, Green
Mountain Power says your bill will not change, unless your usage does. "There are a lot of people who
during the heat spell last month used the air conditioning, or their summer
habits may be some what different and they may have used more kilowatt
hours," GMP Corporate Spokesperson Dotty Schnure said. The thing with flower shops is that
they don't just use electricity during business hours. The flower room stays at
40 degrees 24 hours a day. And
while the cost of keeping flowers cool fluctuates each month, Houghton says his
bill hasn't changed since the utility companies merged, except for the
mandatory Irene clean-up fee that started this month and will last one year. "For an average customer, it's
about a $1.20 a month," Schnure added. "It's the least I feel I can do as a business,"
Houghton said. So the piece of
mail that came with your new bill only informs you of the merge, and if your
bill is pricier, GMP says you simply used more power. "The rates themselves did not change," said
Schnure. As part of the merger,
GMP has guaranteed that over the next ten years, rates will be 144 million
dollars lower than they would have been without the merger.
Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of marriage
equality taking effect in New York State.
According to National Conference of State Legislatures, New York is one
of six states that currently allow same-sex marriage. Other states that allow
gay marriage are Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and
Washington D.C. Maryland and
Washington State recently passed laws legalizing same-sex marriage; however,
those laws have not gone into effect yet.
More than five months after it was closed due to
safety concerns, repair work is planned for Vermont's longest wooden bridge. The 277-foot, state-owned Scott Bridge
over the West River in Townshend has long been limited to pedestrian traffic. Wire fencing now blocks the entrance
off Route 30 and a "no trespassing" sign that includes the warning:
"Bridge unsafe." Matt
Mann, a senior planner with Windham Regional Commission, told the Brattleboro
Reformer the span later would undergo initial stabilization work later this
year. He added that funds were needed.
The covered bridge was built in 1870.
