WVTK Local & State News July 9, 2013

Elm Street in Middlebury will be closed today between North Pleasant Street & Seymour Street to replace a sewer line.  The street must be closed to connect the new sewer line with the Town's sewer main which is under the paved section of Elm Street.  There will be traffic control personnel at each end of the closed section to assist with traffic.  You can expect the street to be closed between 7 this morning and 5 o’clock this afternoon. 

Police are looking for the man behind a stabbing in Benson.  Investigators say William Tyler showed up at the Castleton Family Health Center yesterday with a stab wound to his stomach.  The hospital notified police.  Investigators began questioning Tyler, who said he was stabbed at his Benson home during a fight with 40 year old Tia Maher of Castleton.  Police believe after the incident Maher got on a bus in Rutland City and skipped town.  If you know where he is you're urged to call State Police.

A Pittsford man stood in court yesterday and pled not guilty to charges that he murdered his long-time girlfriend.  Police were called to the home of Christopher Sharrow and Kristen Parker Friday after neighbors reported screaming.  Investigators say one of their 3 children, a 7-year-old witnessed the crime.  Sharrow is now being held on 750-thousand dollars bail.  The three children are staying with relatives. 

Supporters and opponents of the F-35 Fighter Jet coming to Burlington turned out in South Burlington and Winooski last night to try and sway city councilors their way.  In South Burlington, the City Council reversed its decision on the F-35s, voting 3-2 to support the jet being based at the Burlington International Airport.  Councilors in Winooski remained neutral on the issue.

The Middlebury selectboard today will hold an “open forum” on a $7.5 million plan to build new town offices and a new recreation center.  The forum will begin at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in the Russ Sholes Senior Center in the lower level of the current municipal building at the intersection of College and South Main streets.  The regular selectboard meeting will follow, at 7 p.m., at the same location.

Fletcher Allen Health Care is now Vermont’s largest private employer.  The latest stats show the hospital employs 71-hundred people, a significantly larger work force than the I-B-M plant in Essex Junction which recently laid off possibly as many as several hundred workers.  Word is expected this week on the extent of the latest round of layoffs at I-B-M.

Those being let go by IBM are getting some more help from the Vermont Department of Labor.  There will be another rapid response session this Thursday followed by a job fair next week.  Both will be held at the Sheraton on Williston Road in South Burlington.  The rapid response session will include workshops for writing resumes, interviewing skills, and financial advice.  There will be two available times 9 to 10:30 and 10:30 to 12 p.m.  The job fair will be held on Monday, July 15^th, from 9:30 to 2:30 p.m.

After almost 14-years of service, Weybridge Selectwoman Gale Hurd has announced that she plans to retire from the board, effective October 10^th.  She joined the board in 1999 after having retired as victims’ advocate with the Addison County State’s Attorney’s Office.  Her civic résumé also includes a 13-year stint on the Weybridge Elementary School board.  Hurd, said, “I’m going to be 70 (later this year), and it’s time to make way for the young whippersnappers.”