Archive - Jun 2007 - Page
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June 28th
June 28, 2007
By MEGAN JAMES
MIDDLEBURY — Five years into his role as president of the University of Vermont, Dan Fogel stressed in an interview this week at the Addison Independent offices that creating jobs for the larger community, including Addison County, is as important to his research university as attracting and retaining students.
The key to achieving this, he said, is to bolster an academic environment that encourages the development of entrepreneurial projects, from students and faculty alike, that fit into “Vermont’s environmental brand” and sustainable technology niche.
June 28, 2007
By CYRUS LEVESQUE
BRIDPORT — The Lake Champlain Restoration Association has been working since 2001 to combat the spread of aquatic nuisance plants like Eurasian milfoil in the southern part of the lake, and they recently got a helping hand. In an unusual partnership, Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) is leasing aquatic weed harvesting equipment to the group, a much more effective system than what they have been using.
Chip Morgan, president of the LCRA, said that the project is all the more valuable because the southern end of the lake receives relatively little help.
“There’s been a lot of attention paid to the north end of the lake, and not enough to the south, in my opinion,” he said.
June 25th
June 25, 2007
By JOHN FLOWERS
ADDISON COUNTY — What a difference a year can make down on the farm.
Last summer, farmers’ finances and collective patience were being stretched to the limit by anemic milk prices and a weather-beaten hay crop.
On Thursday, however, many farmers were making room in their barns for a fast-growing second cut of hay and were celebrating soaring milk prices that Agri-Mark Cabot Economist Bob Wellington said could climb beyond $22 per hundredweight before the end of the year.
“We’re right in that transition where milk prices are starting to move upward pretty dramatically,” Wellington said. “For farmers in Vermont, the (price of milk) will be well over $22 per hundredweight.”
June 25, 2007
By JOHN FLOWERS
SHOREHAM — Citizens serving on public school boards in Vermont toil many hours for little reward, other than the occasional pat on the back and the knowledge that they are helping local kids get a good education.
But every once in a while a school board member really gets noticed.
Such was the case last week for Bridport Central School board member Sharon Koller, who received a statewide award from the Vermont Board of Education for her many contributions to her district.
June 21st
June 21, 2007
By JOHN FLOWERS
ADDISON COUNTY — It was in 1988 that the late state Sen. Arthur Gibb, R-Weybridge, became the first Addison County resident to sell the development rights to his property to the Vermont Land Trust (VLT).
Almost 20 years later — and in the 30th year of the VLT’s existence — more than 100 Addison County farmers, orchardists and private property owners have followed suit, conserving a combined total of 51,000 acres in 21 local communities.
“I think there is a strong conservation ethic in Addison County,” said Allen Karnatz, a New Haven resident and co-director of the VLT’s Champlain Valley office.
June 14th
June 14, 2007
By MEGAN JAMES
BRANDON — By 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Otter Valley Union High School poll workers had counted enough ballots to know that the school’s twice-defeated 2007-2008 spending plan had finally passed. But earlier that evening, it looked as if the vote would have to be rescheduled for the fourth time. Pittsford residents had filled out the wrong ballots.
The final tally to approve the $10,766,837 budget was 1,028-830, including the Pittsford ballots.
About half an hour into counting, poll workers noticed that the Pittsford ballots were marked May 8, the day of the last vote, when the $10,884,962 spending plan was defeated, 587-455. Somehow, Pittsford residents had used the ballots left over from last month’s vote.
June 14, 2007
By JOHN FLOWERS
MIDDLEBURY — School board members and educators in the UD-3 school district have come to terms on a new, three-year contract that provides enough new money for teacher salary increases of 4 percent during each year of the pact.
The new contract — ratified by the UD-3 board on June 5 and by members of the Middlebury Union High School Teachers’ Association (MUHSTA) on Monday — will not result in any changes in the length of the academic year. It will also preserve the teachers’ current health care benefits, through which they are responsible for a 10-percent co-pay contribution to their Blue Cross-Blue Shield plan.
Union District No. 3 includes Middlebury Union Middlebury School and Middlebury Union High School, which employ a combined total of around 100 teachers. The contract will cover union and well as nonunion members. Those who have chosen not to be a part of MUHSTA will pay a fee for the negotiations/collective bargaining process.
June 14, 2007
By MEGAN JAMES
BRANDON — The fields at the Steinberg Farm in Brandon have been mostly fallow for 25 years. But Chuck Johnson and his California-based development firm, Elemental Development, which bought the 103 acres a few years ago, want to see those fields in bloom again.
This Friday at the Ball and Chain Café at 7 p.m., Johnson will present to the public the most current plans for that land just north of the Brandon Medical Center. He’s calling it the Neshobe Farm Project, a holistic community complete with varied housing, organic farming, open space, recreational trails and a community center.
“I went from calling it a sustainable community to a holistic community because what I’ve heard from Brandon is that they need economic development as much as housing, so we’re trying to create cottage industry, not leave anything out,” Johnson said.
