February 5, 2007
By JOHN FLOWERS, CYRUS LEVESQUE AND MEGAN JAMES
MIDDLEBURY — Several Addison County schools will be asking local voters on Town Meeting Day to borrow up to $25,000 for federally mandated water system improvements.
At issue are provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act that require public schools to have water disinfection systems wipe out any impurities that might be found during regular water tests.
“The goal is to oversee safe delivery of water from the source to the end-user tap,” said Tim Raymond, water systems operations manager for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Water Supply Division.
February 5, 2007
By CYRUS LEVESQUE
BRISTOL — On Town Meeting Day, Bristol residents will weigh in on a proposed 2007-2008 town budget that would increase spending by 3.85 percent from the current year to $1,783,146. The budget, approved by Bristol selectmen last week, includes $1,436,546 to be raised by taxes, an increase of 4.27 percent over the current fiscal year.
If approved, the spending plan would increase the Bristol municipal tax rate to about 55.5 cents per $100 of property value, an increase of about 2.25 cents.
Voted appropriations made up the second-smallest section of the budget, at $351,925, but the largest percentage increase in expenditures, with an 8.56 percent increase over the current fiscal year. All the money for these appropriations, which include things like $15,000 for Howden Hall restoration, would be raised from taxes.
February 5, 2007
By ANDY KIRKALDY
MIDDLEBURY — Starting this week visitors to Middlebury’s Mary Hogan Elementary School will have to buzz into the front office to gain entry to the building.
What Mary Hogan Principal Bonnie Bourne called a “low-level” security concern last week prompted school officials to add a buzzer and video camera to the school’s handicap-accessible front door and to lock that door and the two doors next to it.
Assuming the equipment arrives and is installed in a timely manner on Monday, visitors will buzz in and be identified by front office workers before they are allowed to enter.
