Archive - Jul 22, 2010

I planted my first seed when I was three. At least that’s how the family story goes. While “helping” my mother in the garden shortly before we left for the summer, I was given a packet of cucumber seeds to hold, and managed to sprinkle them, without anyone realizing, among my father’s tea roses. We returned in August to a scene from “Little Shop of Horrors”: vines everywhere, crawling over the helpful, thorny roses, along the railing of the back stoop, up the fence and to the tops of the towering arborvitae. My father hated cucumbers.

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MIDDLEBURY — Deb Markowitz has had some pretty easy sailing in electoral waters since she ran successfully for Vermont Secretary of State back in 1998.

The Montpelier Democrat knows she won’t have it as easy during this election cycle, when she faces four fellow Democrats in an Aug. 24 primary before, she hopes, challenging Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie on Nov. 2.

But Markowitz is certainly not lacking in resources or confidence.

“We need someone who can win, and that’s me,” Markowitz said in an interview with the Independent this week.

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BRISTOL — Bristol residents in the village police district approved the amended police department spending plan for fiscal year 2011 in a 25-16 paper ballot vote on Monday evening. The plan got the green light following an initial 20-19 vote to cut the proposed budget by a $10,000.

The approved spending plan stands at $362,653, with $304,303 to be raised by taxes on residents in the Bristol police district.

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Editor’s note: This article is the second in a three-part series about the Lake Champlain clean-up efforts. After examining the state of the county’s waterways on July 15, we’re turning our attention to the divisive debate about the role agriculture plays in water quality degradation. (All articles are available after print publication online at www.addisonindependent.com.) In next week’s final installment, we look ahead to what’s on the horizon for clean up efforts in the Lake Champlain basin.

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FERRISBURGH — A summary judgment issued on July 16 by Environmental Court Judge Thomas Durkin proved to be a split decision.

Champlain Oil Company may not proceed as planned with a convenience store, gas station and fast-food restaurant on Route 7 in Ferrisburgh because the project lacks sufficient acreage to conform with Conservation District zoning on some of its lot.

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