Archive - Jul 8, 2010

Like many young adults in Addison County, Jen Roberts, 33, and Judd Markowski, 28, both moved away after finishing school. Roberts lived in England for a few months, working as a babysitter and bartender, and Markowski worked various jobs in Montana. But both chose to return here, and they soon met and got married. They're now raising their two daughters, Mirabelle and Adalaide in Bridport.

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MIDDLEBURY — Growing older doesn’t just bring decisions about personal care for the elderly and their families. When people leave the workforce, many also encounter new financial worries.

As the Baby Boomer generation ages into the country’s elder care systems and the economy continues to struggle, seniors are finding it harder and harder to get financial help for the amount of professional care that they need, or the levels of comfort that they hope for.

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MIDDLEBURY — “Americans hate aging,” said Joanne Corbett, executive director of Elderly Services Inc. in Middlebury.

Her listeners, attendees at an “Introductory Eldercare” class last month, were all caring for — or thinking ahead to a time when they would be caring for — an elderly relative.

Corbett described the many factors that families find themselves juggling when it comes to planning elder care, generally for a parent or other close relative.

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MIDDLEBURY — When the Addison Central Supervisory Union (ACSU) closed the financial books on the recently concluded academic year, UD-3 school board members got a pleasant surprise — a $212,006 surplus from the 2009-2010 UD-3 budget, which encompasses spending at Middlebury Union Middle School and High School.

Now the board is planning how to spend a portion of that surplus and crunching the numbers to see if it can propose a smaller spending plan it its 2011-2012 budget.

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MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury selectboard on Tuesday approved a fiscal year 2011 residential tax rate of $2.5637 per $100 in property value, a rise of approximately 10 cents above the current rate of $2.4627.

The new rate translates into a property tax increase of $202 for the owner of a homestead (home and two acres) valued at $200,000, according to Middlebury Assistant Town Manager Joe Colangelo.

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ADDISON COUNTY — On the evening of June 28, a black bear demolished a steel fence at Paul and Kristin Francoeur’s home on Shackett Road in Leicester, following the scent of grain that had been freshly laid out for the Francoeurs’ alpacas.

Kristin Francoeur explained that alpacas are protective of their food, and it appears that when one of the animals stood up to the bear he hit it with a fatal blow that broke its neck and burst an artery.

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BRISTOL — The District 1 Act 250 commission on Tuesday afternoon drew to a close the public testimony portion of a hearing to determine whether a proposed Bristol gravel pit conforms with the state’s land use and development law.

The hearing opened on June 28, and ran four days in total.

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MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, July 13, to cast ballots on a $3 million, 20-year bond to chip away at a mounting backlog of needed repairs to the town’s water system infrastructure.

The backlog of projects has been created by town officials’ decision to apply a substantial portion of Middlebury’s current water fund balance toward water-related upgrades near the Cross Street Bridge project while the ground in that area is still ripped up by construction. This has meant that other projects have had to be delayed.

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