Archive - Jan 2013
January 24th
MIDDLEBURY — Town officials want to know if the Middlebury Fire Department would be willing to receive $72,000 less into its equipment savings account next year as a way of relieving stress on a tight 2013-14 municipal budget.
It was around two decades ago that Middlebury began the process of earmarking two cents on its tax rate each year to raise money for major fire equipment purchases in the future. It is a policy that has allowed Middlebury to forgo floating bond issues for the purchase of fire apparatus such as pumpers and ladder trucks.
VERGENNES — Addison Northwest Supervisory Union residents on Thursday, Jan. 31, will have a chance to ask Vergennes Union High School board members about the upcoming two-tiered vote on whether to fund upgrades the VUHS building and grounds.
The board will hold a 7 p.m. forum at VUHS on that Thursday to present information and allow for questions on the two bonds that residents will decide the fate of on Feb. 5. There will be a walk through of the building areas to be renovated and/or upgraded at 6 p.m.
Wednesday, just one petition for candidacy had been submitted for Carol Wells’ soon-to-be vacant three-year seat on the Bristol selectboard. Wells announced in December that she would not seek re-election on Town Meeting Day.
That petition belongs to Brian Fox, a lifelong Bristol resident and president of the Bristol Rescue Squad, whose seat on the Mount Abraham Union High School board is set to expire this year.
RIPTON — The first annual Rikert/Dion Snowshoe Race will take place Saturday, Feb. 2, at 10 a.m. at Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton.
The race is approximately 5K over varied terrain. All levels are welcome. There is a $10 entry fee. A limited number of snowshoes will be available for rent. Hot drinks will follow the race.
For more information, contact Peggy Lyons at mlyons@middlebury.edu.
MIDDLEBURY — Directors at six of the Addison Central Supervisory Union’s seven elementary schools have drafted 2013-2014 budget proposals that run the gamut from a 1.68-percent spending decrease in Weybridge to a 9.13-percent spending increase in Bridport.
Meanwhile, Bingham Memorial School directors in Cornwall have crafted a 2013-14 spending plan that features a rather ordinary 3-percent ($40,197) spending hike that will nonetheless trigger a state law requiring that the budget be fielded in two separate votes.
EAST MIDDLEBURY — Maureen Chadsey Williams has developed quite the lengthy résumé. She’s been a baker, a retail worker, a newspaper circulation coordinator and a stay-at-home-mom, to mention a few vocations.
Now, at age 80, the East Middlebury retiree has made a new entry: Author.
Williams recently self-published her first book, titled “The Hollyhocks Will Bloom Again,” depicting the struggles of a persevering young mother trying to hold her household together during the fractious height of Revolutionary War-era America.
For some insights into what planning a wedding is really like, the Addison Independent reached out to several couples who recently married or became engaged. Each couple answered a few questions about the process to help give hope or warning to others planning their own nuptials.
BRISTOL — The Bristol selectboard will likely finalize a 2013-2014 municipal budget proposal next Monday with a modest tax rate increase of around 1.1 percent, a number that Town Administrator Bill Bryant said the board felt good about presenting to voters.
