Happy Birthday to our very own Bruce Zeman of the Wake-Up Crew! You can send BZ Birthday wishes via Email at bruce@921wvtk.com! We won't tell anyone how old you are Bruce!! Thanks for all you do for our community and the animals!
The Town of Middlebury and Pike Industries will be
starting the Quarry Road - Rolling Acres Recycling and Paving Projects today.
The project is expected to last approximately 2 weeks. The first week will be
recycling, grading and stabilization. The second week will be the paving and
line striping portion. During the workday,
the Town requests that only local traffic travel Quarry Rd. Work is expected to
begin at 7am and continue until 6pm each day.
The preferred alternative meeting for the
replacement of the Route 125 – Sand Hill Bridge – over the Middlebury River
will take place this evening at 7 at the East Middlebury United Methodist
Church. The intent of the meeting is to briefly review the project details and
to present the preferred design alternative for the bridge replacement. The
project team will be seeking input from municipal officials, abutting property
owners, and the general public in regard to the project improvements. The
presentation will be followed by a question and answer period with an
opportunity for those attending to present any concerns they might have. Visit the Town’s Website for more
information.
The organizing committee for the Middlebury Arts
Walk was excited to learn last week that it has been awarded a Project Grant by
the Vermont Arts Council for fiscal year 2013. With the grant, Middlebury Arts Walk will be able to promote
the event beyond Addison County region in an effort to attract attendees from
around the state. The grant
requires a 1-to-1 cash match, so the committee will be seeking financial
support from local businesses and individuals. The Middlebury Arts Walk does
not charge attendees, venues or artists to participate. Its sole source of
funding is advertising space sold in the monthly flyer.
A Reception for Marion Guild will take place on the
Middlebury Town Green tomorrow morning at 11:30. Representatives of the Middlebury Select Board will present
the Board's Resolution Recognizing Marion Guild as a Designer of the Emma
Willard Monument. The State of Vermont authorized the design and construction
of a monument commemorating the life and achievement of Emma Hart Willard a
former resident of Middlebury, who was a pioneer in women's education in the
United States. This event is scheduled to take place on the north end of the
Town Green, across from the Emma Willard Monument.
Vermont State Police are investigating the theft of
approximately $70 from the Ripton Elementary School August 1st. The money was stolen from a classroom
and $20 was stolen from teacher Amanda Cheever's purse. Anyone with information is asked to
contact Vermont State Police New Haven at 1-802-388-4919. Information can also be submitted
anonymously online at www.vtips.info
or text "CRIMES" (274637) to Keyword: VTIPS.
A pair of quick-moving thunderstorms hit Rutland
County hard Saturday afternoon, leaving hundreds of people in Rutland City,
Wallingford and Chittenden without power.
About 1,700 people in Rutland County were without power after the storm
and the utility worked to get people back on line Saturday evening. National
Weather Service meteorologist Eric Evenson in Burlington said the storm dropped
hail half an inch in diameter just north of the Rutland Southern Vermont
Regional Airport in North Clarendon. Unlike some recent storms, there were no
reports of flooded streets. The storm did blow out a store window on Merchants
Row and sent the rail-crossing bar into the down position on Park Street. A
house was reported struck by lightning in Pittsfield, and a car crashed into
the guard rail just east of Sherburne Pass on Route 4.
Animal shelters in Pittsford and East Montpelier
are leading a national movement to call rescued dogs an “American shelter dog”
or “American mixed breed” instead of guessing their breed as a way of
increasing adoption rates and quashing some of the stigma behind mislabeled
canines like “pit bulls.” Over the
last few months, the Rutland County Humane Society in Pittsford and the Central
Vermont Humane Society in East Montpelier have made the switch to advertising
dogs based on their personality rather than their suspected breed.
History will come alive at the Crown Point State
Historic Site during the 15th annual French and Indian War encampment this
coming Saturday and Sunday. Guests
to the camp will be able to see, hear, walk among and interact with the many
volunteers who will spend the weekend portraying the various people of Crown
Point’s past. A wedding drama will be presented at 3 p.m. Saturday, giving
insight into the plight of wives living at forts in the 1700s. For more information just visit www.nysparks.com.
Ten of Essex County’s 18 towns now have sole assessors.
Tim Garrison, a Moriah town board member is wondering if Moriah should join
them. Moriah now has a board of three elected assessors. New York State allows
for three types of assessment — by an elected board of assessors, by an elected
sole assessor and by a sole assessor appointed by the town board. Several Essex County town, most
recently Crown Point, have switched to a sole appointed assessor. Meanwhile Paul Mazzotte, chairman of
Moriah’s board of assessors, disagrees with the notion a sole assessor is an
improvement.
An abandoned stone quarry became part of the
Champlain Area Trails system at the end of July. A group of volunteers forged a path through hardwood forests
and open meadows. To date, CATS has 29 trails listed on its website, making the
newest addition the 30th on their ever-expanding list. The non-profit
organization’s mission is also to improve the economy of the region by
connecting its many small towns, enabling people to travel between them via
wilderness paths. Recently, officials from Moriah and Lewis have also expressed
interest in recruiting CATS to
help them create trails in their towns.
Essex Farm is hosting a Celebrate Summer farm tour
this Saturday. The tour leaves from the barnyard at 10AM and will cover the
vegetable fields, pasture and livestock areas. Participants should come
prepared to walk long distances over rough ground. Essex Farm is a 500-acre,
draft-horse-powered farm. Essex Farm is located on Route 22 in Essex, one mile
from the Essex-Charlotte ferry. A suggested donation is $25 for adults, $10 for
full-time farmers and students and $5 for children.
By a margin of just a few degrees, Vermont apple
growers in April were spared a blossom-killing freeze that decimated the fruit
crop in other high-production states. And while an early picking season may cause some minor
headaches for some of the state’s larger orchards, most growers this year are
just happy there’s something to harvest including Bob Douglas, a fourth-generation
apple grower in Shoreham. While
Vermont isn’t in the top half of states for apple production, it boasts an
impressive yield for its size, with about 900,000 bushels harvested annually.
One of Rutland’s biggest property owners is
appealing its tax assessment for the second year in a row. Centro Heritage, which owns the
downtown shopping plaza, has appealed the property’s listing of $17,858,800. Last year, Centro appealed its listing first
to the Board of Civil Authority and then to Rutland County civil court. The
court case is still pending. According to city attorney Andrew Costello the
appeal of last year’s rate will likely render this year’s appeal moot because
any assessment set by the court would be locked in for three years.
The farmer accused of crushing seven Orleans County
sheriff's cars with a tractor is now facing up to 68 years in prison. Roger Pion was in court Friday, but he
won't be making a plea to the eleven felonies and three misdemeanors until
tomorrow. His lawyer says he wants
more time to look at the facts and hopes to get an aggravated assault charge
dropped. The farmer has had
several run-ins with the law, but all minor, and the most recent involved
Newport City Police, not the sheriff's department.
Town offices and the police department in
Wilmington have been closed for nearly a year, ever since Tropical Storm Irene
swamped the town buildings with flood waters from the torrential rains. Today, however, those offices are
finally reopening. It's taken
nearly a year to clean up and repair the building's first floor on Main Street,
which at one point was filled with more than four feet of water. The town's flood insurance has covered
the renovation costs, which added up to about 80-thousand dollars.
Andrew Wheating will not be bringing an Olympic
medal back to his hometown of Norwich after all. He came in ninth yesterday in the first heat of the men's
15-hundred meter semifinals. It's
the top five finishers who will be in the finals tomorrow. An American teammate, Leo Manzano
placed fourth, so he'll be in the race tomorrow.
More than 100 Vermont families are getting more
than $1.5 million from the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund to help their ongoing
recovery from storm Irene. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates
there may be as many as 700 more cases of Irene survivors still needing
financial aid.
Performers looking for a gig in New England may
want to keep the date September 7th in mind. That's the deadline to apply for
the 9th Annual Vermont Performance Showcase. The event is being hosted by the
Vermont Recreation and Parks Association in November in White River Junction. Information
can be found on the Vermont Recreation and Parks Department website.
More than 500 beekeepers are expected to swarm into
Vermont this month for what organizers say will be the largest such gathering
in more than 30 years. Honeybee
researchers and experts from 26 states and provinces in the eastern U.S. and
Canada are scheduled to be in Burlington from August 13th – 17th
for a conference on honeybees and their relationship to different facets of
agriculture.
The Vermont Community Foundation is going to
receive $450,000 to support post-secondary education in the state. The money comes from the J. Warren
& Lois McClure Foundation and is meant to further its mission of improving
access to college and career education for all Vermonters. The bulk of the money will be used to
serve ongoing programs and new initiatives at the Community College of Vermont,
which enrolled over 6,100 Vermonters last fall. McClure foundation Vice President Barbara Benedict says it's
a privilege to build upon ongoing programs such as Introduction to College
Studies that are serving students statewide.
A Mennonite pastor from Virginia is due for trial
this week in a federal court in Vermont on charges he helped a woman flee the
country to avoid sharing custody of her daughter with her former same-sex
partner. Federal court documents
say 46-year-old Kenneth Miller of Stuarts Draft, VA was part of a network of
Mennonites who helped move Lisa Miller and daughter Isabella, now 10, from the
United States to Nicaragua. Miller is accused of driving Lisa and Isabella from
Virginia to Buffalo, N.Y. Prosecutors say the mother and daughter then went on
to Canada and eventually Central America.
Jury selection is set for tomorrow in U.S. District Court in Burlington.
Opening statements are expected Wednesday. The trial is expected to last six
days.
From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont
& New York:
There is a new commander of the Vermont National
Guard. Brigadier general Thomas Drew
from Rutland County. He is
replacing major general Michael Dubie who is moving to Colorado to take a position
with the US Northern Command, which is responsible for overall homeland
defense. “I wouldn't even dare try
to compete with general Dubie's abilities to inform you, make you feel
comfortable, and make you want to work hard with him and for him, but I will
try the best that I can.” Brigadier
General Drew will be in charge of the guard at least until January, that's when
the legislature will elect a permanent replacement.
If you haven't noticed gas prices are ticking back
up again. Not a lot but they are still way too high for most people. Today
Vermont's US Senator Bernie Sanders will put more pressure on lowering gas
prices in the Burlington area. Many
people in northwestern Vermont think something should finally be done about
these high gas prices. Senator Bernie Sanders agrees. That's why he will hold a
senate committee hearing in Burlington today about Vermont gas prices and how
stations set them.
