Archive - Sep 2006 - Page

By ANDY KIRKALDY

ADDISON COUNTY — The nationwide slowdown in real estate sales has hit Addison County, according to local Multiple Listing Service statistics and real estate professionals, but its impact has not been as deeply felt as in some other areas.

Still, it appears that in most segments of the market the advantage enjoyed by sellers in recent years is slipping away.

“I think we’re going to continue to see things taper off,” said Tom Walsh, owner of Coldwell Banker Bill Beck Real Estate. “We’re going to see things becoming a little more balanced.”

Vergennes real estate appraiser William Benton, also Middlebury’s town assessor, has a similar take. He sees the market remaining strong for homes that sell for less than $200,000, often to first-time buyers, but he expects values in other property categories to level off or even decline somewhat. 

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By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — A group of Middlebury-area parents and youths is vowing to deliver on what a longstanding dream to establish a teen center in Addison County’s shire town.

More than 20 members of the recently-formed Addison County Teens and Friends Committee turned out at Tuesday’s selectboard meeting to describe their efforts to locate, fund and devise programming for a Middlebury-area youth center. They also served notice to selectmen that they would be back to ask for the board’s support — and perhaps some funding — to get the center up and running.

“There’s really a strong momentum to this group,” Friends committee member Dan Beaupre told selectmen. “We think there is enough energy and the time is right to bring this (idea) forward.”

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By JOHN FLOWERS

CONRNWALL — Two Addison County men were killed on Sept. 20 when the Ultralite aircraft they were piloting crashed in a wooded area in Cornwall.

Calvin Minor, 63, of New Haven and Mark Reese, 51, of Lincoln, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident just north of Morse Road in Cornwall, according to a press release issued by the Vermont State Police (VSP) on Thursday.

Police said Reese was teaching Minor the proper techniques in piloting the two-person Ultralite. The craft was a Klaus Cruise 2, trike-style craft. It is a weight-shift controlled aircraft, with a fabric wing, using a Geo Metro four-cylinder engine.

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By JOHN FLOWERS

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. — With a final permit now in their grasp, International Paper Co. (IPC) officials confirmed on Thursday they are targeting early November to conduct a controversial, two-week test burn of tire-derived fuel in one of the boilers at the company’s Ticonderoga, N.Y.-based mill.

Vermont officials and environmental groups, meanwhile, vowed to pursue legal action and corporate peer pressure to compel IPC to postpone the test burn until it installs state-of-the-art pollution control equipment at its mill.

“We are prepared to exhaust all available options to prevent this potentially toxic tire burn without… safeguards in place,” Gov. James Douglas, a Middlebury Republican, stated in a press release.

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By ANGELO LYNN

HANCOCK — Area skiers will see big changes on two of the Middlebury College Snow Bowl’s premier runs this winter as about $450,000 worth of work has been done to the popular Allen and Ross ski trails.

The ongoing work, which is characterized by a widening and re-grading of the slopes, was prompted by concerns of trail safety as well as pursuing future energy savings by reducing the need for snowmaking.

Tom Wells, owner of Randolph-based Royal Trail Works, which is doing the work at the Snow Bowl, explained that many ski trails around the state were designed to industry standards of 50 years ago and are not as suitable for today’s equipment that allows for faster speeds and a more radical response from today’s skis or snowboards. The combination of higher performance ski equipment and less snowfall to cover the uneven terrain of many trails in the Northeast, Wells said, has caused concern for trail safety — especially on trails used for collegiate racing.

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By JOHN FLOWERS

ADDISON COUNTY — A soggy spring put an early damper on summer sales for many local businesses, but a strong July and August helped them rebound to close out the season on a strong note.

“It was kind of a slow beginning, but August showed some really good signs,” said Jeff Costello, general manager of the Middlebury Inn. “We saw walk-in business that we hadn’t seen in a few years.”

Costello’s appraisal was echoed not only by several county business owners, but by Vermont Tourism & Marketing Commissioner Bruce Hyde. Hyde is also an inn owner and former Republican House member whose district included Granville.

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By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — People driving in and around Middlebury will need to contend with traffic delays and detours for at least another month as workers push ahead with infrastructure improvements on College Street, a traffic signalization project on Court Street and the repaving of a large section of Route 7.

Workers have spent most of the summer replacing water, sewer and storm drain infrastructure along portions of College Street, ranging from its intersection with Main Street to where the state highway begins at the western base of the hill that leads to the Middlebury College campus on Route 125.

Most of the College Street work has been completed between the Main Street and Weybridge Street intersections, according to Middlebury Director of Operations Dan Werner. Sidewalk work was scheduled this week on the north side of College Street, followed by the next phase of water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure replacement west of the Weybridge Street intersection.

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CORNWALL - Two men were killed on Sept. 20, when their Ultra-Lite aircraft crashed in the woods north of Morse Road in Cornwall.

At this time, Vermont State Police have yet to release the names of the two victims from the crash.

A more complete report will be featured in Monday's edition of the Addison Independent.

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