Archive - Nov 2009 - Page
November 26th
MIDDLEBURY — The sluggish economy is slowing the local waste stream, which is good news — unless you are the Addison County Solid Waste Management District (ACSWMD), which during the past year laid off two workers and must hike some its fees in 2010 in light of declining trash revenues.
SALISBURY/LEICESTER — The Salisbury Community School board has voted to end discussions of consolidation between Leicester and Salisbury’s elementary schools.
The Nov. 12 decision brought a definitive end to Leicester’s latest bid to solve ongoing concerns about the future of its K-6 elementary school. Faced with an aging building and rising maintenance costs, as well as a relatively small student population, Leicester has been pursuing consolidation options for several years.
LINCOLN — On Oct. 15, Lila the cocker spaniel pulled her leash free from where it was tied to a tree branch near the Lueders-Dumont home in Lincoln. She vanished into the Green Mountain National Forest, dragging the leash and a broken piece of branch behind her. Despite persistent searching by her family, neighbors and friends far into the night, Lila did not return.
It took more than a month for the family — Jim Dumont, Karen Lueders and their children Jessica, Tim and Adrienne Lueders-Dumont — to find out what had happened to their beloved pet.
EAST MIDDLEBURY — While the Middlebury Development Review Board (DRB) continues to gather testimony on the Fenn gravel pit proposal on Route 116 (see related story), the board recently issued a conditional use permit to a less controversial pit proposal off the east side of School House Hill Road.
The property in question is owned by J.P. Carrara & Sons. Plans call for Carrara to extend its existing 20.4-acre sand and gravel pit by 8.5 acres onto an abutting parcel the company owns to the east. The balance of the land, 30.5 acres, is to be left as undisturbed woods.
MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Development Review Board (DRB) on Monday continued its evaluation of the hotly contested Fenn gravel pit off Route 116, with testimony focusing on truck traffic and dust the project could generate.
Neighbors of the proposed pit again packed the Ilsley Library conference room to dispute the development team’s contentions that trucks could safely merge and coexist with current traffic on Route 116, and that the project site — if properly maintained — would not generate enough dust and environmental impurities to pose a hardship to surrounding residents.
BRISTOL — Trekking up and down Main Street, a handful of Mount Abraham Union High School students set out on their own version of “Mythbusters,” eager to investigate claims of the supernatural on South Mountain, the ridge that rises south of the heart of Bristol village.
BRISTOL — The Bristol Planning Commission last week wrapped up the first draft of a new zoning ordinance that planners hope will go before voters in March. The ordinance, if approved by voters, would regulate the mining of earth resources in the town, governing the hot-button issue extracting gravel, among other natural resources.
It seems like one guaranteed topic of conversation around the Thanksgiving table is who has had the worst Thanksgiving experience. Before this year’s meal is up, tales will be told about overdone or underdone birds, friends throwing up in the bushes, travel nightmares, dogs making off with turkey legs or even whole turkeys, dropped food and smoke-filled kitchens. But to me there is no such thing as a bad Thanksgiving. If I can steal a line from Woody Allen (about a completely different topic), even my worst Thanksgiving has been right on the money.
