The votes are in and now it's a matter of making it
official. Incumbent Bill Sorrell
holds a slight lead over challenger T.J. Donovan as of midnight last night in
the Democratic primary race for Attorney General. Neither was declaring victory or conceding defeat with a
600-vote margin after 95-percent of the vote was counted. The race was the second Democratic
primary race in two years that was too close to call by the end of the night.
Vermont Republican voters yesterday chose John
McGovern over Brooke Paige for the U.S. Senate. With 61 percent of the ballots tallied, McGovern had already
won 74 percent of the vote. He
will now face Democrat Bernie Sanders in the general election in November.
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos said voter
turnout in yesterday's primary was low, estimating that only ten-percent of
registered voters cast ballots before it was over. Former Governor Madeleine Kunin questioned whether a
September primary would be a better idea.
Having the primary in August was originally intended to provide more
time for late ballots to be sent in by members of the military overseas.
Roadwork continues this week in Essex County. On Route 9N in Port Henry crews are working on the bridge over Grove Brook, just south of the Village of Port Henry. On Route 22 in Willsboro crews are backing up the shoulder and performing driveway work between Willsboro and Route 9. Also on 22 in Ticonderoga crews are performing shoulder work south of Ticonderoga near the Essex/Washington line. Please be aware of traffic control in these areas and use extra caution.
Rutland residents passed a tax stabilization policy
designed to encourage economic growth by a landslide margin on Tuesday. By a vote of 624 to 176 — or greater
than 3 to 1 — voters approved the new incentive eligible for new or expanding
businesses in the city.
The town of Mendon yesterday held a picnic to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene. Greg Smith, chairman of the Mendon Town Select Board, said it was a celebration not of the storm itself, but of recovering from it.
The town of Mendon yesterday held a picnic to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene. Greg Smith, chairman of the Mendon Town Select Board, said it was a celebration not of the storm itself, but of recovering from it.
The Ticonderoga Area Chamber of Commerce will host
OneWorkSource and the InternetXpress @ Your Library services open house at the
chamber office today from 10 AM to 3 PM. OneWorkSource and InternetXpress @
Your Library offer services to the area by utilizing donated space in the
chamber of commerce. The services are provided once a month on the third
Wednesday unless otherwise advertised. For more information about the open
houses at the chamber office visit www.ticonderogany.com.
You are invited to sign up now for a six-week Tai
Chi course for beginners at Mt. Philo State Park on Wednesdays from 9-10 AM
beginning September 12th. The
course fee is $75 for six weeks and the entire fee will be donated to the
Vermont Food Bank. Each dollar donated to the food bank results in six meals. Classes will be held at the Summit
Lodge at Mount Philo. Members of
the White Cloud Living Arts Foundation are donating their time to teach the
classes. Pre-registration is
required and class is limited to 15 participants. No charge for park entry. To register call the park at 425-2390. Please make your
check payable to the Vermont Food Bank.
The Middlebury College Community Chorus members
announced a new season to prepare a concert to celebrate Thanksgiving, set for
performance at Mead Chapel on the Middlebury College campus on Sunday afternoon,
November 18th. Regular rehearsals
for the chorus are Sundays and Tuesdays, 7-8:30PM in Mead Chapel on the
Middlebury College campus. Rehearsals begin Tuesday, September 11th. Singers
are welcome to join the chorus through September 25th and
participants should plan to attend at least one rehearsal each week. In
concert, string players will perform with the Chorus, drawn from local
orchestras including the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra. One of the featured
works this season will be two choruses on the poetry of Robert Frost, set in
1959 to music by noted American composer Randall Thompson. For more information click HERE or contact director Jeff Rehbach at 989-7355 or manager Barbara Merz at
443-5356.
After many top five finishes over the past decade
New Haven’s Chris Coffey finally achieved his goal and won his first Vermont
Sun Triathlon in 1:03:17. Shelburne’s
Forrest Hamilton was a distant second. The top women’s finisher was Ann-Marie
Stearns of Bethel with a time of 1:14:43. Jericho Center’s Daniela Bean
followed Sterns 4 minutes later. The
Vermont Sun Triathlon Series added this Sprint race at the end of the season,
for the first time this year. The race was held the same day as the Vermont
Journey, which usually closes the season.
Essex County Personnel Director Monica Feeley wants
all county employees currently working at the Horace Nye Nursing Home to know
their options. Monica sent out a
letter to those who work at the facility, which is currently in the process of
being sold by the county government to a private company out of New York City,
outlining their options. Feeley also held a pair of informational meetings
following training sessions at the home. Chesterfield Supervisor Gerald Morrow
said that he was pleased the personnel office was working with the employees.
Essex County lawmakers say radical changes to the
Essex County Fair are needed if it is to survive. The fair was held on some of the same days this year as the
Addison County Field Days in Vermont and the Franklin County Fair at Malone. Attendance figures aren’t available yet
but are believed to be several thousand less than last year’s 10,000 paid
admissions. Supervisor Michael
Marnell of Schroon said this week that the fair needs more equipment displays.
A mudslide that closed Dewey Ave. last summer will
not be repaired until next spring unless a geotechnical engineering report is
completed within the next two weeks.
Town manager Mary Ann Goulette said yesterday they are waiting for the
final report by the state’s engineers before they can seek bids to have the
project completed this year. She said the Select Board would decide at its
September 10th meeting if they will move forward or postpone until the spring.
More than a dozen property owners have received
word from FEMA that the federal government will buy out their homes that were
destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene.
FEMA's hazard mitigation program is designed to reduce property damage
from floods in the future by purchasing damaged properties and turning them
into green space. So far FEMA has
approved 17 out of 113 properties in the following towns: Bethel, Granville,
Grafton, Rochester, Sharon, Bridgewater, Royalton and Bolton. Most that were approved are primary
residences. They also include one commercial property and a second home.
Congressman Peter Welch wants a mandate on ethanol
in gasoline lifted to help struggling farmers. Welch says the program is driving up feed prices for farmers
at the same time as a drought in the Midwest is slashing corn supplies. Welch wants the federal government to
temporarily suspend a mandate that ethanol be included in gas. Right now, 10
percent of all fuels must come from corn-based ethanol.
State and federal lawmakers from Massachusetts are
making plans to restore passenger rail service along the Connecticut River
valley, on a line that runs from northern Vermont to Washington D.C. The
lawmakers gathered to look at a potential site for a passenger rail platform in
Holyoke. They announced that
on-going construction will replace 20-thousand rail tiles from Greenfield to
the Vermont border to bring rail service to Northampton and Greenfield in 2014. The project is funded through a $73
million dollar federal grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The construction would relocate
Amtrak's Vermonter passenger train lines back to a prior route on the Pan Am
Southern Railroad.
A 3-year-old black cat in Vermont that was shot in
the chest with an arrow has made a full recovery. Missy the cat was brought
from Windsor to the Small Animal Veterinary Emergency Services hospital in
Lebanon, New Hampshire the night of August 14th and underwent emergency
surgery. The Eagle Times reports the arrow had entered the cat's chest and
punctured a lung. The cat was recently returned to her owner. Police are investigating what happened
as a deliberate act of animal cruelty.
A former student of a Vermont military college is
going to spend 2½ years in prison for driving drunk in a crash that killed a
Norwich University student and critically injured three others last fall. Derek Seber was sentenced yesterday. He
pleaded guilty to the charges in July.
New York officials are investigating marketing and
health claims made by several energy drink makers. A person familiar with the
inquiry, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation hasn't
yet been made public, says New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued
subpoenas this summer to the makers of 5-Hour Energy, AMP and Monster energy
drinks.
Brandon Music on Country Club Road in Brandon will
present the Syncopation Vocal Jazz Ensemble this Thursday evening at 7:30. Syncopation
performs jazz and pop music in four-part harmony with a style that is both
timeless and contemporary. They have performed at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival,
the Boston Globe Jazz Festival, and the International Association for Jazz
Education Conference. 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 the scoop HERE!
From Fox 44 & ABC 22 News – Your Voice in
Vermont & New York:
Vermonters will have to wait to find out who will
be the Democratic nominee for VT's Attorney General. According to the Democratic Party Chair Steve Howard, a
decision would not be made Tuesday night because it was just too close to call. Chittenden County State's Attorney TJ
Donovan and Incumbent Bill Sorrell both made speeches to their supporters
before that call came down. According
to the Secretary of State's website, only a couple hundred votes separated the
two.
John MacGovern has won the Republican primary for
the U.S. Senate and will face Vermont's independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in
November. With 34 percent of the
precincts reporting, MacGovern led his opponent Brooke Paige by 50 percentage
points. MacGovern had 75 percent of the votes cast while Paige had 25 percent. n
the Democratic attorney general's race, incumbent William Sorrell led
challenger T.J. Donovan 52 percent to 48 percent.
Tropical Storm Irene wreaked havoc on Vermont with
high winds and flooding waters a year ago Tuesday. After a storm where teamwork was important to rebuilding The
Alchemist Cannery collaborated with Stone Brewery in California and Ninkasi
Brewery in Oregon to create the "More Brown than Black IPA." "We were just blown away by the
generosity of a brewery across the country," Alchemist owner John Kimmick
said. Blown away because all
profits from the beer were dedicated to charities helping Waterbury get back on
its feet. $30,000 given to the Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund. "Which blew my mind," Kimmick
said. "I had no idea we were
going to raise that much money. Then I come to find out that was just a drop in
the bucket." Because more
than $86,000 was given to ReBuild Waterbury. Raising the money was quite a feat for the cannery but it's
nothing like the challenge ahead for ReBuild Waterbury, which repairs and homes
damaged during Irene. "We can
help them get back on their feet into safe and decent housing then they can go
on with the rest of their lives," Construction Manager Dave Kerr said. ReBuild Waterbury is helping 37 people
reach that goal right now. A tough task when dollars are spread thin. "Having a huge donation like that
here at the end is really going help us put us over the top," Kerr said. From the makers of the popular local brew.
Recovery efforts continue in the days and months
after the first anniversary of Irene.
That includes a 5-k race set for this weekend. It was organized by "Run Strong VT." It’s a group of friends who came
together after the storm last year.
They brought supplies to those in need. Even with huge progress many
families in the Waterbury area are still displaced. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the long-term
recovery committee "rebuild Waterbury". This committee helps
homeowners recover. Yesterday the
chair of rebuild Waterbury spoke to fox 44 about what this extra money means to
them. "The money definitely
is going towards materials you know sheet rock, lumber, finishing stuff for
people who are still not yet in their homes." The race is open to all
runners. It's this Saturday morning at 10 at Bolton Valley. You can sign up online until Thursday
night or you can register the morning of the race starting at 8.
