Archive - Aug 2010
August 12th
NEW HAVEN — When Chris Hogan was a young boy, he showed animals in various 4-H competitions at the Addison County Fair and Field Days. Hogan, now 18, enjoyed the competitions, but they weren’t the real reason he was excited for Field Days every year.
During his downtime between 4-H competitions, the Leicester boy would hurry across the fairgrounds to the antique equipment area to watch as volunteers repaired old machines and conducted demonstrations.
Editor’s note: Over the course of the summer, the Independent’s ongoing series “Making a Life in Addison County” has documented the lives of some of the 7,000 young adults in our community. We’ve looked at how people ages 18–35 view this community, why they choose to settle down here, and whether they choose to raise families here.
ADDISON COUNTY — A federal jobs bill passed by the U.S. House this week allocates just over $19 million to prevent potential layoffs of Vermont public employees — most of whom would be teachers. It provided a glimmer of hope for officials at local schools this week as they began to grapple with a mandate last week by Vermont Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca to cut school spending in Vermont by more than $23 million in fiscal year 2012.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury selectmen on Tuesday agreed to seek a lower speed limit on Route 7 South between Middlebury village and East Middlebury, an action prompted at least in part by last week’s fatal accident at the intersection of the highway and Cady Cross Road.
Middlebury Development Review Board member Scott Foster came to the meeting to urge selectmen to petition the Agency of Transportation to lower the 50 mph limit between G. Stone Motors and Route 125.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
So reads an inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City.
Perhaps it’s time to add, “... but a lack of funding, will.”
The Postal Service has ended its third quarter $3.5 billion in the red, according to a release issued Thursday, and officials are declaring they won’t be able to pay all of their 2011 obligations.
MIDDLEBURY — Almost two years after Ronald and Susan Fenn filed an application to develop a gravel pit on their land off Route 116 in Middlebury, and 10 months after the Development Review Board opened hearings on the application, the body formally closed the hearing on Monday.
The DRB now must approve or deny the application within 45 days. If it fails to issue a decision the application is automatically approved.
As many times as I’ve been there, close to a half-dozen, maybe, I’m still not sure how to find the Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington.
What I can say to anyone with even a passing interest in birds, nature or carving is that it is worth picking up an atlas (old school) or going online (non-Luddite) and learning how to get to the remote, gravel-surfaced byway of Sherman Hollow Road, where the museum may be found.
MIDDLEBURY — After more than a year and a half of planning and permit deliberations, the McDonald’s Restaurant on Route 7 in Middlebury closed last Wednesday for demolition and rebuilding.
Dennis Hunt, president of Hunt Companies Inc., was onsite on Tuesday to oversee the building’s demolition. He said that demolition, reconstruction and preparation for the restaurant’s reopening are scheduled to take about 90 days.
