Archive - Jan 28, 2010
BRISTOL — Elementary schools in the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union are escaping some of the severe budget cuts wracking other schools in the county, but residents are still projected to see tax rate increases ranging from 3 to 13 cents in the five ANeSU towns if the schools’ budgets are OK’d by voters at Town Meeting Day in March.
VERGENNES — Not counting possible write-ins competition or floor votes, Vergennes-area residents may face only two choices between candidates for office on Town Meeting Day.
In Ferrisburgh, incumbent selectman and former town fire chief Bob Jenkins is facing a challenge from Kurt Plank, an organizer of the Friends of Ferrisburgh for Responsible Growth group that, among other things, opposed the Route 7 Champlain Oil Company Inc. proposal for a combined convenience store, fast-food restaurant and gas station.
LEICESTER — The Leicester Central School board has voted to adopt a proposed 2010-2011 spending plan of $1,400,086, which represents a decrease of $8,573, or 0.82 percent, in total spending from the current year.
The board met on Jan. 13 to finalize the budget, which will go to a vote on Town Meeting Day in March.
MIDDLEBURY — The town of Middlebury will feature only one contested local election this March — for library trustee — while there are no takers for one three-year term each on the selectboard and elementary school board.
MIDDLEBURY — It began as a 2009 Arbor Day assignment during which Mary Hogan Elementary School fourth-graders led an effort to plant 16 new trees on school grounds.
But it was as assignment that blossomed into an educational, community-wide endeavor and culminated last week in the young students receiving a statewide award for their efforts, presented to them at the Vermont Statehouse on Jan. 20 by fellow Middlebury resident Gov. James Douglas.
MIDDLEBURY — Pierre Vachon is a familiar face around town. He’s lived in Middlebury for almost three years and works as a bouncer at Two Brothers Tavern four nights a week.
But on Saturday, Jan. 30, audiences will get the opportunity to see him in another light: He’ll be competing as “The Beast” in a professional wrestling show that he is putting on at the Middlebury Municipal Gym.
BRANDON — The Brandon selectboard on Monday approved a proposed $2,018,360 municipal spending plan for 2010-2011 that includes money for a part-time recreation coordinator and a significant increase in economic development funding.
Those funds are available because there are no raises in the proposed budget for town management, including the town manager, the superintendent of public works, and the police chief. One full-time public works employee has also been cut, leaving three full-time workers and the superintendent.
BRANDON — Four-year-old Aiden Decker has seen his share of tragedy. His father, Joey Decker, died of a heroin overdose in 2007. Then, after a heroic act on the part of his maternal grandmother, Aiden escaped death in the icy waters of Lake Dunmore on Jan. 9 when Terry Flynn tossed him onto the ice as her snowmobile was sinking into the lake.
Terry Flynn survived, as did Aiden and, miraculously, his six-year-old cousin Jeremiah Popp.
