Archive - Nov 2006

By JOHN FLOWERS

MONTPELIER — Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Weybridge, will be wielding greater influence in the Vermont Legislature when the new term opens in January. Ayer, who this month won a third term in the upper house of the Legislature, was unanimously elected majority whip of the state Senate during a Democratic caucus in Montpelier on Monday.

“I see this as a lot more work, but also a great learning experience,” said Ayer, who along with Sen. Harold Giard, D-Bridport, ran unopposed for re-election on Nov. 7.

“I expect to be involved in lots of different kinds of legislation,” she added.

As majority whip — also referred to as “assistant majority leader” — Ayer’s responsibilities will include:

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By MEGAN JAMES

MIDDLEBURY — Maxamed Ibrahim has two families on two continents — one in Somalia, where he lost his mother, father and three sisters to famine and civil war 11 years ago, and another in Hinesburg, where he moved at the age of seven with his adopted mother, Dorothy Delaney. The humanitarian aid worker had found Ibrahim wrapped in an old blanket in the corner of a feeding center in Africa, unresponsive and ill with tuberculosis.

Now a senior at the Gailer School, 18-year-old Ibrahim will speak at the Middlebury school’s open house on Thursday, Dec. 7, about his journey back to Africa last summer, where he met his only surviving natural relative, his uncle. It became clear after this meeting that he belonged to two cultures and two homes.

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By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — School directors and educators in the Addison Central Supervisory Union’s (ACSU) six rural schools have ratified a new, four-year contract that will maintain current health insurance benefits and ultimately raise teachers’ base salaries to be on par with their colleagues at Middlebury’s Mary Hogan Elementary School.

The new pact comes after more than a year of negotiations between ACSU school directors and negotiators representing the teachers union, called the Addison Central Elementary Association. The contract will apply to the approximately 60 teachers who work at the elementary schools in Bridport, Cornwall, Weybridge, Ripton, Salisbury and Shoreham.

The teachers’ previous contract had expired in June of 2005. They spent the past school year (2005-2006) working under the terms of that expired pact.

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By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — David and Cheryl Werner last week looked nervously upon the Vermont Electric Power Co. (VELCO) equipment that has mobilized off Painter Road, right across from their Middlebury tree farm.

They know it’s only a matter of time before that equipment springs into action, erecting a new set of transmission lines in the VELCO right-of-way that runs through their 10.4-acre property.

The Werners are desperately hoping the VELCO equipment fires up later, rather than sooner. That’s because major construction on the Werner property within the next five weeks could dramatically take the wind out of the couple’s Christmas tree sales.

“We just opened today, and we’ve already had three customers leave, because they couldn’t tag a tree,” David Werner said on Friday morning. “We can’t let them tag trees that could get run over.”

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By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — The Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) will pave Middlebury’s Main Street next year at night — while taking Friday and Saturday evenings off — in deference to downtown merchants and restaurant owners who feared the project could cripple their businesses.

Mark Woolaver, the AOT’s paving project manager, confirmed the scheduling adjustments last week after a meeting with Middlebury town officials and business leaders. Locals had feared tremendous economic and traffic repercussions from the downtown Middlebury leg of next year’s scheduled repaving of parts of Routes 7, 30 and 125.

The $2.5 million project will require lane closings and traffic diversions that merchants feared would steer shoppers away from local businesses.

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