The Middlebury Business
Development Advisory Board will meet tomorrow afternoon at 2 in the Town
Offices. Agenda items include an update on the status of fundraising & the
recruitment of a Director. The
Select Board will meet Tuesday at 7PM at the United Methodist Church in East
Middlebury. Items on the agenda
include an update on Middlebury River matters. There will also be a follow-up from the Town Plan Public
hearing that was held on the 13th. Reports from various committees will be heard along with a
project update in the Middlebury Fire Department. There will be a year-to-date budget report as of October 31st
also a timeline and schedule for the FY2014 budget review. For complete agendas anytime just visit the Town’s Website.
The Port Henry Office of
Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Co. will offer free document shredding and
a chance to visit with Santa during its Community Appreciation Day today. The event will be from 10 AM to 2 PM in
Port Henry and will feature food and a visit from Santa.
The former finance
director of Specialty Filaments Inc., a Vermont manufacturing company that went
out of business in 2007, has been sentenced to four months of home confinement
and placed on probation for three years for his part in federal fraud case. Paul Mammorella, of Williston, also was
ordered on Monday to pay $300,000 in restitution. The Burlington Free Press reports that ex-CEO Donald James
Marler III, formerly of Shelburne and now of Pennsylvania, and former Vice
President Jeff Audette, of Milton, are scheduled to be sentenced in December. The three were charged with conspiring
to send inflated financial reports to lender Wells Fargo, which allowed the
company to borrow more. The company closed its Burlington plant in 2005 and its
Middlebury plant in 2007.
Culture and art critic Lee
Rosenbaum, who writes an award-winning blog at ArtsJournal.com and is a
contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post Arts, will speak tomorrow
afternoon at 4:30 at Middlebury College’s Twilight Auditorium. Rosenbaum’s
lecture is titled “Critical Mass: How Reviewers Influence Museums and Vice
Versa”. She has written for The
New York Times and Los Angeles Times newspapers and for ARTnews and Art in
America magazines, among others.
Vermont State Police say
icy conditions caused a crash that took the life of a Rutland woman. Police say 43-year-old Donna Arnado was
driving north on Route 7 yesterday morning when her vehicle spun around on an
icy bridge and into the oncoming lane.
Arnado's vehicle was hit by a pickup truck. She was pronounced dead at
the scene. The driver of the
pickup, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was taken to the hospital with bruised
ribs. Police say speed, drugs or
alcohol were not factors in the crash.
Vermont
Secretary of State Jim Condos says the state's election division will be doing
a random audit of voter tabulator results in the recent election. On Thursday the votes in the races for
U.S. representative and Vermont state treasurer in the towns of Barre Town,
Brandon, Essex and Newfane will be hand counted. Condos says ensuring that the election process is both
honest and accurate is as important as voting itself.
Rutland City
police are trying to locate a 16-year-old girl who reportedly ran away from
home. Katie Blanchette was last
seen at her home in the city at around 4:15 on Saturday afternoon. Katie is described as being
5-feet, 5-inches tall with brown hair, blonde streaks and pink underneath. She
has blue eyes. She was last seen
wearing a pink hoodie, black leggings and jean shorts. Anyone with information on Katie’s
whereabouts is asked to call city police at 773-1816.
Any further
discussion regarding a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in town was
postponed until the first Wednesday in December to allow all Select Board
members to have the opportunity to weigh in on the issue. The four members of the Pittsford board
briefly discussed whether or not the town should allow a dispensary in
Pittsford at the board’s meeting Wednesday. The responses to the proposal by town residents has been
different for each selectman receiving feedback with some citizens in favor of
the proposal, some are indifferent, and others oppose the dispensary. The board decided to table the discussion
until December 5th.
Town of Essex Councilman
James LaForest will resign at month's end. LaForest expressed his displeasure with the recent
controversy in which Essex Town Supervisor Sharon Boisen withheld the salary of
then Town Clerk Catherine DeWolff until she completed a financial report for
July. The Town Council decided to hold off acting on the resignation until Friday’s
meeting. Meanwhile, the Town Council has discussed whether to use some of the
fund balance for 2013 for the purchase of a tractor and also talked about
insurance options for future budgets.
Essex County lawmakers
want to try increasing the occupancy-tax rate to make more money for
tourism-related activities.
According to County Manager Daniel Palmer the tax is now at 3 percent,
and raising it to 4 percent would enable them to fund a wider variety of items.
The extra 1 percent would be put under the county’s control so the law would
have to be changed. The 3 percent
occupancy tax generates more than $1.5 million a year that is used to promote
tourism in the county. An additional 1 percent would bring in at least $500,000
more.
The Crown Point Chamber of
Commerce will celebrate the holiday season. The chamber will hold its annual Christmas dinner on Tuesday
December 4th at 6:30 p.m. at the Knapp Senior Center. Current members as well as perspective members are
encouraged to come with a dish to share. Participants are asked to bring canned
goods for the local Crown Point food pantry. Door prizes will be offered from
McDonald’s, Norm’s Bait and Tackle and Stoney Lonesome Bed and Breakfast. The Crown Point Chamber of
Commerce now has 40 members. Additional
information on the chamber is available on line at www.crownpointny.org.
Vermont's largest electric
utility says snow stuck to turbine blades caused a roaring sound that drew
noise complaints shortly after the Lowell Mountain turbines started operating. At least 21 neighbors complained about
the noise, which began on the morning of November 3rd and lasted into the 4th. The neighbors complained to the Vermont
Department of Public Service. GMP
spokesman Robert Dostis says the excess noise was caused by the weather
conditions. He tells the
Caledonian Record neighbors should call the utility when they have noise
complaints so technicians can modify the operation of the turbines or shut them
down. GMP just completed
construction of its 21-turbine project on Lowell Mountain.
Police say two New Mexico
men in Vermont as part of an alleged murder-for-hire plot that targeted two
people in St. Albans ended up at the Highgate Springs border crossing with
Canada last week after getting lost. The Vermont State Police on probation violation
charges arrested Mark Staake at the border. His nephew, Tanner Ruane, was arrested the next day in the Albany area after police learned he
was wanted in New Mexico for conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors say a supply
sergeant with the Vermont National Guard sergeant has been sentenced for
misusing a government credit card for personal purchases including equipment
commonly used to grow marijuana. Edward
Bouchard of Enosburg was sentenced on Monday to time served, three years of
supervised release and ordered to pay back $11,329. Prosecutors say National Guard officials discovered 25
unauthorized purchases on Bouchard's government credit card. The office of the U.S. attorney for
Vermont says Bouchard eventually admitted that he had used the card for
personal gain.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says
the state and New York City will look to Uncle Sam to help with the $42 billion
bill left behind by Superstorm Sandy. The cost includes $32 billion for repairs
and restoration and $9 billion for preventive measures for the next disastrous
storm. Cuomo says New York taxpayers can't foot the bill.
The Schroon Lake Chamber
of Commerce is once again sponsoring its annual Christmas decorating contest. There are two divisions, one for
individual residential homes and the other for the business community. Prizes will be presented for first
place for the individual residential homes in the following categories: most
traditional or Adirondack style, most creative display of lights and most
creative themed display. Award
certificates will be presented to the businesses for first, second and third
place. The judging of the contest
will take place late afternoon and early evening on Friday December 14th,
weather permitting. Contact the chamber office at 532-7675 for more
information.
Brandon Music on Country
Club Road in Brandon will present vocalist Violette this Thursday at 7:30pm. Growing
up on a small island off the French Atlantic coast, Violette fully embraced the
beauty and unspoiled nature of her surroundings, dividing her days between
sports, books and music. Her originals, although rooted in jazz, reflect the
young artist’s eclectic range of musical influences from Pop to Rock and
R&B. General Admission is
$15. Brandon Music Café offers a
concert and dinner package, which includes dinner and a ticket to the show for
$30 plus tax per person. For
Information & Reservations (802) 465-4071 / info@brandon-music.net
Police in Chittenden
County are looking for the man they say held up three stores in one night. The first was at Simon's Deli and
Grocery on Route 7 in South Burlington and then a Champlain Farms store in Colchester
an hour later. That's where police
say the suspect tried to fire his gun and couldn't, and tried to open the cash
drawer and couldn't so he just ran out.
The third robbery was at a Maplefields Store, where the gunman got away
with cash. No one was hurt in any
of the hold-ups.
A magnificent mansion
built in the 1840's in Isle La Motte is now just a smoldering ruin. The five-thousand-square foot home went
up in flames Monday morning and firefighters from nine departments responded,
and at least were able to keep the flames from jumping to a nearby barn. No one was inside the lakefront home at
the time, and the Red Cross is now helping the owners and their child. At this point, it's not known what
caused the fire, but fire crews say the wind definitely played a factor in
helping it spread so quickly.
There were some surprised
faces Monday, from weather forecasters to V-Trans workers and just regular
drivers, as the morning commute suddenly turned into an icy mess. The problem was a snow burst, a sudden
burst of the white stuff that no one was expecting and the roads were not
treated for. With the tires
melting it and then the sub-freezing temperatures immediately turning the wet
pavement to ice, which turned a lot of roads in the Champlain Valley into ice
rinks.
A new Veterans Affairs
clinic is on track for its new home at the former General Dynamics building on
Lakeside Avenue in Burlington's South End. The two-point-six million-dollar outpatient clinic will
replace and double the capacity of the state's current and largest V-A clinic,
which is in Colchester. The new
clinic will cover about 16-thousand square feet in the refurbished Queen City
Cotton Mill, and once it's finished will serve about four thousand vets. It should be open and ready to serve
veterans early next year.
One of the nation's oldest
historic sites says its 2012 season saw increases in attendance, revenues and
donations. Fort Ticonderoga
President and CEO Beth Hill says it has been a "remarkable" year for
the not-for-profit tourism destination located on the southern end of Lake
Champlain in Essex County. She
says paid attendance increased nearly 6% and admissions revenue jumped 18%
compared to the 2011 season. Hill says donations through annual giving to Fort
Ticonderoga also increased by 18% over last year. Just a few years ago, the fort's financial situation was so
shaky that there was talk it would have to shut down for a season or some of
its collection of artifacts and artwork would have to be sold off. The fort's five-month season ended in
October. It reopens in May.
Although VTrans had some
issues cleaning up Monday's roads, it is more concerned with what could happen
when a large storm comes. Transportation
leaders say they are about 20 positions short, because people continue to
retire in the aging department. That
means workers might have to work longer hours to plow the roads when a large snowstorm
hits this winter. VTrans leaders
say that's not something they like seeing. Agency of Transportation Director of Operations Scott Rogers
says it does get tiring for them and he is concerned. VTrans leaders say as more people retire; the problem might
only get worse in years to come. For
information about VTrans jobs click here.
Last year, Irene had a
damaging impact on Christmas tree farms. White's Tree Farm in Essex junction was underwater last
year from flooding after Irene. It
takes nearly 8 years for a tree to grow from seed to Christmas tree and while
flooding killed thousands of trees, many were able to survive. And the owner says this week is the busiest time for
business. "We lost thousands of trees but the rest of them cam through
fine, we got very fortunate when it hit, if it hit a few weeks later it
could've been devastating but we rode right through it." Last year it took them a month to
clean up after Irene and cost around 25 thousand dollars.
