Archive - Feb 4, 2010

ADDISON — An estimated 1,700 vehicles used the new ferry across Lake Champlain during its 24 hours of operation on Monday, a volume that prompted New York and Vermont transportation officials on Tuesday to request that a second ferry boat be put into service.

The second ferry, due this month, is to accommodate extra traffic during peak morning and afternoon commuting hours, according to Jon Zicconi, director of planning, outreach and community affairs for the Vermont Department of Transportation.

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ADDISON COUNTY — The number of low-income students in Vermont’s schools is on the rise, and teachers and administrators reacting to these shifting demographics are struggling to close the achievement gap between low-income students and their higher-income peers.

Schools in the Addison County area, like those around the state, are trying different strategies to approach the problem.

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MIDDLEBURY — Dr. Michael Kiernan is no stranger to Haiti, having made around 10 medical humanitarian visits to the Caribbean nation during the past 20 years.

But is with a sense of real urgency that Kiernan — a Weybridge resident and emergency room physician at Porter Hospital — is returning this week to the earthquake-ravaged nation to deliver his expertise and thousands of dollars of medical supplies.

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MIDDLEBURY — Flying into Port-au-Prince’s single runway airport nine days after an earthquake devastated Haiti, Dr. Jean Andersson-Swayze looked down at the dark swath of land uninterrupted by lights. For a city of more than 2 million residents, Andersson-Swayze thought, Port-au-Prince looked awfully dark from the sky.

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HANCOCK/GRANVILLE — These days, the tiny villages of Hancock and Granville are ghost towns.

At least, that’s what they’re deemed in educational parlance. When the two towns last year decided to shut down their joint Village School, they joined a growing number of small towns in Vermont that have decided to close their schools and tuition their students to schools beyond the towns’ borders.

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