WVTK Local & State News October 4, 2012

The Westport Town Council will hold special meetings to work on the 2013 budget.  The meetings, which are open to the public, will be held at 7 PM this evening, 4 PM on October 9^th, 6:30 PM on October 16th and 5 PM on October 23rd, all with regular board meetings to follow.

Vermont’s fastest-growing socially responsible business is now offering an opportunity for homeowners in Addison County to save money by going solar.  Since launching in March, SunCommon has already sold more than 160 solar systems throughout Chittenden and Washington Counties.  This represents a 24% increase in the number of solar systems in those counties in just 6 months.  Since launching the program, more than 100 families across Addison County lobbied SunCommon to make this opportunity available to them, as well. This innovative venture has already created 46 new green jobs, both within SunCommon and its contracted installer.  SunCommon is partnering with Peck Electric.

The 2012 Middlebury Arts Walk season winds down on Friday, October 12th. This month will feature nearly 35 venues with a diverse variety of art from painters, photographers, potters and a calligraphist. Several venues are featuring artwork in honor of His Holiness the Dalia Lama’s visit to Middlebury. The Middlebury Arts Walk will have one more event in 2012—a fundraising event scheduled for Friday, November 9th. The event will be held at Two Brothers Tavern’s lounge from 5 to 8 PM. Tickets are $10 per person and the evening will feature live music, a silent auction, snacks, and a cash bar. This event is to help raise funds towards the 1-to-1 cash match of a grant that was recently awarded by the Vermont Arts Council. The Middlebury Arts Walk does not charge attendees, venues or artists to participate in the monthly events.  Learn more at www.MiddleburyArtsWalk.com.

WomenSafe is looking for volunteers. WomenSafe is a nonprofit organization that works toward the elimination of physical, sexual and emotional violence against women and their children through direct service, education and social change.  They are seeking applications for an annual volunteer training course.  Participants will acquire all the tools needed to provide direct service over WomenSafe’s 24-hour hotline, at court hearings and in the WomenSafe office, work in WomenSafe’s Supervised Visitation Program, coordinate public awareness and community outreach events, and provide childcare or perform administrative assistance tasks.  Call or e-mail WomenSafe at 388-9180 or info@womensafe.net.

Two incidents of vandalism in Brandon have police looking for the perpetrators.  On Monday, police were called to a building under construction at the former Brandon Training School off Route 7 north of the village. An unknown number of people entered the building on bicycles and shattered approximately $600 worth of interior windows.  The next day, police were notified of a vandalized car on Union Street, where someone smashed the windshield and driver’s-side window with a railroad tie.  Anyone with information on either incident is asked to call Brandon Police at 247-0222.

Through a combination of thrift, good management and the generosity of its members and Ticonderoga neighbors, Chilson Volunteer Fire Department has been able to replace its support-utility vehicle with a more modern and effective truck.  The old CVFD Utility 137 was an old and unreliable former ambulance. The “new” Utility 137 is a 2005 Chevy 2500 4X4 with a crew cab.  In addition to serving Chilson, the department provides mutual aid to surrounding departments. 

As part of its annual Credit Union Week celebration, the Ticonderoga Federal Credit Union will host its third annual Shred Fest Monday October 15th and Tuesday the 16th.  The free paper-shredding event aims to increase public awareness of identity theft prevention. Community members are invited to bring their confidential documents to be shredded at their local TFCU office during event hours.  Documents will be shredded on site in a mobile shredding truck. The first 10 participants at each location will receive a free TFCU flashlight.

City officials are turning their attention to Rutland’s sidewalks.  The Public Works Committee will take up how the fund for sidewalk repairs is handled following a request by Alderman Gary Donahue on behalf of the city’s Committee for Accessibility Improvement. Donahue said the city needs to look at keeping unspent sidewalk and curb money from a given budget year and rolling it over to the same fund for the following year.

Researchers say there's no quick way to control and eliminate the invasive spiny water flea from Lake George, so they're recommending other ways to try to keep it out of Lake Champlain.  A joint task force of New York and Vermont experts looked at options to stop the spread of the creature that competes with fish for food. They considered things like electric barriers and mesh screens where the La Chute River drops into Lake Champlain from the north end of Lake George. But they ruled those out.  For now, they're recommending stepped up monitoring and spreading the word about how boaters and fisherman can best decontaminate their gear before entering area waters.  The pest also adds urgency to efforts to eradicate a number of invasive creatures from Lake George.

A new report out puts Vermont in the top tier of states considered energy efficient.  The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released its sixth annual scorecard this week, ranking Vermont fifth in the nation with Massachusetts considered number one.  Nearly half of the states have already adopted standards setting long-term energy savings goals.  Vermont is also ranked among a total of eight states with the most aggressive energy savings targets.

Vermont writers are celebrating their freedoms by reading from works that have been banned or censored. This week is the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association aimed at highlighting the value of free and open access to information.

Governor Peter Shumlin has set up an independent commission to review electric power generating projects including wind farms in Vermont. The commission will compare Vermont's methods for approving projects to the process in other states, particularly in New England, following growing concern about mountaintop wind projects.

NY Governor Cuomo has signed a bill, which would allow the Department of Motor Vehicles to indicate whether the holder of a drivers license or a non-driver ID is a veteran.  Many businesses provide discounts to veterans.  The law will make it easier for them to show and verify to a business their status as veterans without having to carry multiple forms of identification.  Applicants would have to provide proof they were honorable discharged from the armed forces in order to qualify. The law will take effect in one year.

It will be months before work on the next New York State budget begins in earnest.  But Budget Director Robert Megna is already indicating that Governor Cuomo wants to keep spending growth to two percent or less.  After a panel discussion in Albany earlier this week, Megna said we have to look at areas where incremental progress can be made.  Among the possibilities are reducing some of the regulations imposed on localities, and keeping costs down for special education services for prekindergarten programs.

A Vermont man has been sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of failing to register as a sex offender and possessing stolen firearms. Court records indicate 36-year-old Terry Van Mead was convicted in 2005 in New York of criminal sexual acts with a 15-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Mead moved to Vermont in 2010 and failed to notify the sex offender registry of his new address.

Vermont State Police say they are still trying to solve the murder of a farm worker who was shot and killed on a dairy farm in Sheldon seven years ago. Police are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the resolution of the case or the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible.

Vermont's top environmental officials say they want to help the state control water pollution by using what they are calling green infrastructure systems to reduce the amount of storm-water pollution. The systems announced yesterday at a conference in Burlington can include rain gardens, porous pavements, trees and rainwater harvesting.

Efforts to raise more than $500,000 to buy a now-closed general store in the central Vermont town of Barnard are more than halfway to the financial goal and backers of the idea are now looking for someone to run the store once it can be reopened. The Valley News reports the Barnard Community Trust has collected $280,000 since it began fundraising in June.

The winner of the 2012 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year award has been named. It's the Chaput Family Farms in North Troy.  The University of Vermont Extension and the Vermont Dairy Industry Association in cooperation with the New England Green Pastures Program present the award. They say Chaput Family Farms has been honored for its "sound management practices, outstanding herd performance and strong commitment to agriculture."  The 1,800-acre farm is near the Canadian border. Brothers Reg and Michael Chaput, who’ve worked together for 30 years, own it.  The brother’s milk 830 cows three times a day and this spring bought their own milk truck and tanks.

Brandon Music on Country Club Road in Brandon will present vocalist Philip Hamilton this evening at 7:30. General Admission is $12.  Brandon Music offers an Early Bird dinner special, which includes a ticket for the jazz performance, for $22 per person. Philip Hamilton is revered as one of the most exciting contemporary vocalists on the international jazz and world music stages. With a rich voice that conveys a “warrior’s strength, a blues man’s soul and a romantic’s heart” Hamilton is a true original who has performed or recorded with Pat Metheny, Spyro Gyra, and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagan.  For Information & Reservations (802) 465-4071 / info@brandon-music.net 

The Vergennes Opera House is set to host an intimate performance by folk legend and Grammy Award-winning artist Peter Yarrow November 2^nd at 7:30 PM. Peter Yarrow is a legend in the folk world as a member of the celebrated trio Peter, Paul and Mary.  His solo performances connect the present and the past in perfect harmony, taking his audiences on a magical journey that is not to be missed. General admission tickets for this performance are $35 in Advance, $40 at the Door and are available at the Opera House, Classic Stitching in Vergennes, and online at www.vergennesoperahouse.org.

A special event is taking place this Saturday, “For Carly - A Night in Remembrance” from 7PM – 10PM at Spartan Arena Rutland.  The community is hosting this event to remember Carly Ferro and to raise money for the VT Golf Association Scholarship Fund. Join in for a night of skating, where proceeds from skate rentals will be donated, a silent auction, door prizes and a live DJ. To make a donation send a check to: Vermont Golf Association, Attn: Scholarship Fund, PO Box 1612, Rutland VT 05701-1612 or e-mail dave@vtga.org.

From Fox 44 and ABC 22 News – Your Voice in Vermont & New York:

The construction on Shelburne Road in South Burlington is still creating hassles for drivers, but it's not the traffic congestion, it's the raised manholes and drains that stick out of the pavement and that could be costing drivers a hefty amount.  When you drive down Shelburne Road, watch out.  "It's annoying," said concerned driver, Craig Miller.  Man holes and drains are raised off the pavement, leaving drivers no choice but to hit ‘em or swerve.  "We've had some cars that hit 'em, we've had some cars that've done damage," said John DuBrul, Vice President at Automaster on Shelburne Road.  Thanks to the construction project, they've seen an increase of damaged vehicles, "If you hit it just right you could certainly bend the suspension, cause alignment problems," said DuBrul.  Or this, a rim cracked in half, "The amount of rubber we have between the wheel and rim and pavement is less and less," said DuBrul.  Because tires on sports car are so thin, hitting something like these manholes is causing problems for guys like Craig Miller.  "The size of these, I could bend a rim or pop a tire," said Miller.  On a busy road like Shelburne, it's nearly impossible to avoid hitting those manholes.  "Often times coming down Shelburne Road, you're not able to swerve to the left lane because you've got traffic in the left lane and a steep curb to your right," said DuBrul.  If hit just right it could cost a pretty penny to fix, "You could be looking at thousands of dollars of damage, you know if you throw the car out of alignment, bend a bunch of different things you're talking with your insurance company and talking about an expensive repair," said DuBrul.  The Vermont Department of Transportation says the project is 90 percent complete and they are hoping to have the project finished by the end of this month.

More than 15-hundred illegal immigrants want Vermont driver's licenses and the state is seriously considering providing them.  A group of migrant workers argues they're vital to Vermont’s dairy industry but because there aren't visas for dairy workers, and they'd like to stay permanently they can't get drivers licenses and therefore can't leave the farm.  A table full of Vermont lawmakers and activists are looking into whether the state would benefit from issuing driver's licenses.  The plan is to have a bill ready for the legislature in January, or come to the conclusion that this idea doesn't work in Vermont.  "There really is no reason for our department of motor vehicles to be in the business of determining immigration status."  There’s no federal law preventing Vermont from issuing driver's licenses it's a matter of whether they want to.