This morning at 9 the Middlebury
Town Offices/Community Center Finance & Fundraising Task Force will meet in
the Small Conference Room at the Town Offices. The Regular Select Board Meeting takes place this evening at
7 in the Main Conference Room.
Items on their agenda include a Public Hearing on Proposed Interim Zoning
and Adoption of Town Plan Maps along with a Public Hearing on the National
Flood Insurance Program. Reports
from various committees will be heard and Vermont Gas Systems' Request for a Letter
of Support for the Addison Natural Gas Project. Then tomorrow at 5:30 PM the Recreation Committee will meet
in the Small Conference Room at the Town Offices. Get more information on these meetings by visiting the Town Of Middlebury’s Website.
The Homeward Bound Animal
Welfare Center (a division of the Addison County Humane Society) is pleased to
announce that they are celebrating the holidays this year by holding an
adoption event designed to help cats who have been at the shelter for over a
year find their forever homes. You have until tomorrow December 12th
to take part in this event. Right
now any cat that has been at the shelter for 12 months or longer has a reduced
adoption fee of $12.00. There are
over 125 cats at the shelter that need a forever home. For more information
about the “Forever Home of the Holiday” 12-12-12 Adoption Event, please visit
their website at www.homewardboundanimals.org or stop by the shelter at 236 Boardman Street in
Middlebury.
Coming up tomorrow evening
at 7:00 a concert with approximately 40 members, mostly from Addison County,
draw from classical wind ensemble and concert band repertoire. Music of the
season will be a part of the concert. This community music ensemble's
performance is sponsored by the Department of Music. The concert will take place in the Mahaney Center for the
Arts Concert Hall. For more
information visit the College's Website.
The Sheldon Museum is
hosting The Brown Bag Lunch History Talk at Noon today. Members of the
Midd-Vermont Train Club will present the talk “125 Years of Toy Train Fun.” It
will feature a hands-on demonstration and discussion by two of Vermont’s most
avid toy train collectors. Today’s talk is being held in conjunction with the
Midd-Vermont Train Club’s exhibit of model trains at the Sheldon Museum, which
continues until January 12th. The talk will be repeated on January 5th. Attendees
should bring a brown bag lunch, though beverages and dessert will be provided.
The event is free for museum members, while there is a minimum donation of $2
for others. For more information,
call 388-2117 or visit www.henrysheldonmuseum.org.
One of Rutland County’s
most successful small businesses is in the midst of change. Castleton Crackers is
merging with Vermont Farmstead Cheese Co. of South Woodstock. News of the business merger was made official
at the new Vermont Food Center on West Street in Rutland Saturday. Vermont Farmstead Cheese products are
sold in over 160 stores in six states. The firm has earned over a dozen awards
in various national cheese competitions. There are no plans to change
ingredients or baking procedures. The crackers have no trans fats, artificial
content, or preservatives. Castleton
Crackers have been receiving serious praise in recent years.
Volunteers are being
sought to serve on an advisory committee investigating a possible consolidation
of the Crown Point and Ticonderoga school districts. The committee will include five community members, two
teachers, a member of the support staff and an administrator from each
district. Interested community
members are asked to contact their school superintendent before December 21st.
McDonald can be reached at 585-7400 or jmcdonald@ticonderogak12.org. Crown Point Superintendent Shari Brannock can be
reached at 597-4200 or brannock@cpcsteam.org. The
respective school boards will appoint the committee in January. The initial
committee meeting will take place at Crown Point school January 30 and review
enrollment.
Many Ticonderoga residents
are hoping a new study will help them start a food cooperative in their
community. Reaction to the study
under way now by CDS Consulting of St. Paul, Minn., has been very positive
according to Ticonderoga Town Supervisor Debra Malaney. CDS was involved with
planning for the successful Middlebury Natural Foods Cooperative, and the
supervisor hopes they can do the same for Ticonderoga. A food co-op would be
located in the downtown business district and feature an emphasis on local,
healthy foods. Members, who would work there in exchange for discounts and
other incentives, would own the grocery store.
The Adirondack Park Agency
will hold its regularly scheduled monthly meeting at its Headquarters in Ray
Brook on Thursday. The Full Agency
will convene at 8:45 AM for Executive Director Terry Martino’s monthly report. Then at 9:15 the Regulatory Programs
Committee will convene to determine approvability for the Essex County State
Police and New York State Electric and Gas proposed public safety radio system
and shared microwave network. The project spans Essex, Warren and Washington
Counties and involves the installation of telecommunications infrastructure at
14 locations in 12 towns within the Adirondack Park. Other aspects of the
proposed project include the installation of a microwave reflector panel at an
undeveloped site in the Town of Lewis and new land use and development on State
Land.
A winter clothing swap in
Ticonderoga is now a give-away. The
Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance’s “Jacket & Coat Swap with Santa” at
the end of last week generated so much winter clothing, it will be continued as
a free service. People can get
free clothing Saturday, December 15, and Saturday, December 22 from Noon to 3
PM at the Downtown Gallery on Montcalm Street. Organizers send special thanks to the Ticonderoga community
for your generous donations during this past weekend’s swap.
No one was injured when a
PenAir flight had to return to Plattsburgh International Airport after a drop
in cabin pressure yesterday morning.
PenAir said the aircraft experienced a cabin-pressure malfunction upon
leveling off shortly after takeoff.
The 13 passengers on board were accommodated on another airplane and
arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston at 8:40 AM. The 6 AM flight
was originally scheduled to arrive at 7 AM.
The Maine-based Hannaford
Supermarkets chain has a new president.
The company announced Monday that Brad Wise is taking over the position.
Wise has been with Hannaford since 1985, and most recently was senior vice
president of human resources for Delhaize America, Hannaford's Belgium-based
parent company. Wise replaces Beth
Newlands Campbell, who is becoming president of the Food Lion supermarket
chain, another Delhaize America property based in Salisbury, NC. Hannaford Supermarkets, based in
Scarborough, operates 181 stores in Maine, New York, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and Vermont.
The head of a company
targeted by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for allegedly overcharging for gasoline
says his stations are competitive.
Rodolph "Skip" Vallee - president of the company that owns the
Maplefields gas stations and convenience stores - says he wants a meeting with
Sanders to explain his point of view.
Sanders devoted part of a Monday news conference to complaining that the
three companies that combined own more than half the gas stations in
Chittenden, Grand Isle and Franklin counties are overcharging customers. Sanders says the stations in
northwestern Vermont are charging 20 to 30 cents a gallon more than those
elsewhere in Vermont.
Gov. Peter Shumlin is
planning a trip to Italy this week to address European leaders in Rome and then
take some vacation time. Shumlin
says he'll speak to the group in Rome in his role as the newly elected chairman
of the Democratic Governors Association.
Shumlin was elected chairman of that group this past week. After his speech in Rome, Shumlin says
he plans to take five vacation days traveling in Italy. He says the slow pre-holiday period is
a good time for a vacation.
Vermont police are
searching for a man and woman suspected of robbing a St. Albans convenience
store and the female suspect is alleged to have brandished a knife. St. Albans police say they were called
to South Main Grocery just before 9 PM Sunday. Police say the male and female suspects entered the store
and placed a note on the counter while the female showed a knife. The two took money from the cash
register. The female is described
as heavy-set, 5-foot-4 to 5-foot 6. The male is described as 5-foot-10 to
6-feet tall with a medium build. The
suspects fled on foot.
Senator Charles Schumer of
New York is accusing the VA of "needless foot-dragging" to enact
reforms. The federal Inspector General of the Veterans Affairs found last year
that the federal program that's supposed to provide guardians to safely handle
the finances mentally incompetent veterans had "significant
weaknesses" and needs to be changed.
Many schools in New York's
poor districts lack basic resources six years after a landmark court ruling
required the state to increase spending on public education. That's according to a study released
Monday by Teachers College at Columbia University. The college's Campaign for Educational Equity looked at
resources of 33 high-needs schools during the last school year, including
schools in the Big Five districts of New York City and Rochester, as well as
schools in selected small city, rural and suburban districts. It found students
going without basics like books and access to mandated courses. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which
won the court ruling, says the state is $5 billion behind what it pledged to
spend.
The Vermont Workers'
Center has its own plan for how Vermonters' healthcare should be paid for. The plan, released yesterday, calls for
all funding to be raised through state taxes, with a wealth tax dropping
preferential rates for capital gains as well as revamping corporate
taxation. The group's executive
director says the goal is fairness, and a way to end out-of-pocket medical
costs by raising the money in a equitable way. A conservative Vermont think tank, the Ethan Allen
Institute, says in order for the Workers' Center plan to work taxes would have
to go up four-fold.
The flu season is
officially here, with cases of the illness now confirmed in Vermont. The Vermont Health Department says the
news about the season starting early is a good reminder for everyone to get a
flu shot. Health workers say the
vaccine is a good match for the particular strain making the rounds this
year. Once given, it takes about
two weeks for the immunization to take full effect.
The mayor and a special
committee of the city council in Burlington are encouraging the public to take
part in a meeting about redistricting.
The next meeting will be held Tuesday at 6 PM in City Hall's Contois
Auditorium. Mayor Miro Weinberger
says he and the committee welcome and encourage Burlington residents to share
their thoughts and ideas as the process continues.
Governor Andrew Cuomo
announced that the deadline for residents living in one of the
disaster-declared counties in New York can continue to register for FEMA
assistance. Yesterday he said that
registration has been extended to January 28, 2013. The previous deadline was
the 31st of this month.
If you're not a Vermonter,
you'll need to study harder, and get more involved, because the University of
Vermont is making the school harder to get into for out-of-state applicants. UVM will be accepting about the same
number of in and out-of-state applicants next year, but with the new
president's big push to get more applications -in general- from non-Vermonters,
the chances of becoming a Catamount will be slimmer. "I hope to not have a mountain of debt," UVM
Senior, Sean Higgins said. But
Higgins, the Nevada native is paying out-of-state tuition, all four years. "The price difference is about
21-thousand dollars between in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition,"
Vice President for Enrollment Management Chris Lucier said. "It's a lot of money,"
Higgins added. Higgins is a senior
at UVM. Rewind to when he was a senior in high school... he always thought his
education might come from out-of-state because he's a skier and his dad is from
the Green Mountain State. "I
wouldn't trade the last four years for anything," Higgins said. But while the school makes a push to
get more out of state and even out of country applications, it's going to get a
lot tougher to become a Catamount.
This year UVM accepted 76.6 percent of its applicants; the president's
goal is to bring that figure down to 65 percent. "If we increase our out-of-state selectivity, we'll
bring in better qualified out of state students - our current students are
outstanding, but even better," Lucier said. The admissions selectivity for Vermonters will stay at about
70 percent. But for out-of-staters, like Sean Higgins, extracurricular
activities, grade point average, and letters of recommendation will weigh more
heavily than ever before. Each
year, about five hundred Vermonters are accepted to UVM, and about 1,800 people
are accepted from other states or countries. Vermonters pay $13,344 a year...
others pay $33,672.
A study finds more
Vermonters are homeless, despite nationally the number decreased. The U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development says in a survey of one night in January this year, there
were 1,160 homeless people in Vermont.
That's up 16 people from 2011.
The number of homeless veterans was 109, an increase from 81 or
35-percent from last year. Staff
at the Burlington Emergency Shelter say their facility is almost always full
and the waiting list seems to be growing.
"We've definitely seen a lot more veterans coming into the shelter.
We've seen a wider range of ages who are in the shelter as well. Younger people
all the way up through 70's too," says Valerie Brosseau, Burlington
Emergency Shelter co-director. Staff
say they aren't sure what's behind the increase in homelessness. They say a variety of reasons forces
people onto the street from losing their jobs, mental illnesses, to drugs. The shelter, which relies completely on
donations, is looking to expand to serve more people.
With just three weeks
until the fiscal cliff deadline... Vermonters are taking a stand against the
standstill in Washington. Around a
dozen people gathered in Burlington city hall park, to raise awareness and remind
congress that a deal needs to be reached by not under terms of cutting social
programs. “Make people aware of what’s
going on in DC How the people in DC want to take care of the so called fiscal
cliff that we keep hearing about.”
The event was put on by the AFL / CIO, America’s largest union group.
