Archive - Jul 19, 2010

ADDISON COUNTY — Addison County candidates for Vermont House and Senate seats are apparently expending more shoe-leather than money thus far in their campaigns.

Phone calls to district town clerks in which there are races reveal that only a few candidates raised or spent more than the requisite $500 needed to trigger the filing of campaign finance forms by last Thursday’s deadline.

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STARKSBORO — Dan Nugent considers problem-solving to be among his strong points, whether it be repairing a piece of equipment or helping draft a zoning ordinance as a member of the Starksboro Planning Commission.

“I’m known for being able to figure things out, and if I don’t know how, I ask people who do,” he said during an interview on Thursday.

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MIDDLEBURY — A Mexican immigrant who wanted to go by the name “J” traveled three hours from the Northeast Kingdom to Middlebury to meet with representatives of the Mexican Consulate in Boston. He was one of at least 100 Mexican workers who met with consulate representatives and received other services at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Middlebury a week ago Saturday.

“J” was in good spirits, joking about the World Cup and enjoying meatballs, which he’d never had before.

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BURLINGTON — When someone in the United States presses the “Send Payment” button to donate to a large charitable organization working overseas, it is difficult to track exactly how much is going to the organization’s upkeep and how much is going to on-the-ground work.

Bridging the Divide, a new, Burlington-based organization, is seeking to change all that.

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LEICESTER — Last Wednesday evening, year-round and summer residents bent over questionnaires at the Leicester Meeting House, answering questions on everything from their favorite areas of town to their thoughts on a number of sample zoning ordinances.

The community forum, which drew close to 20 participants, was part of a push by town officials to update the last Leicester Town Plan from 2003, which was supposed to have been updated in 2008.

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MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury officials plan to create a committee to decide what to do with any surplus local option taxes the town collects beyond what is needed to pay off the Cross Street Bridge, but they stressed they will not establish such a panel until the $16 million project is completed.

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ADDISON COUNTY — Many of the women on Vermont Dragonheart, a dragon boat racing team for breast cancer survivors, hadn’t heard of dragon boat racing before their cancer diagnoses, but now they’re devotees of the sport.

They’ve done video training in Montreal to work on their form and they recently returned from an international competition in Ontario where they placed 15th out of 84 teams. Six Addison County women are stalwarts on the team.

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