Archive - Dec 23, 2009 - Page
ADDISON COUNTY — It’s a busy time of year for Addison County residents — and a busier time still for the man of the hour, Kris Kringle, who is slated to swing by local homes late Thursday night on his annual Christmas rounds.
Kringle was unavailable for comment Monday at his North Pole workshop, but sources close to the man confirmed that Kringle, who also goes by “Santa Claus” and “Jolly Old St. Nick,” had spent much of December deep in plans for the big event.
ADDISON COUNTY — Loren Wood was 18 years old in 1972 when he and his family relocated from New Hampshire to Vermont, leaving a farm just outside of Manchester to set up shop in Shoreham.
At the time, Wood remembers, the farmland around Manchester was slowly beginning to be transformed by development — a house here and a house there.
“It’s not hard to see why we chose to conserve our land,” Wood said. “It bothers me to see good farmland go to houses.”
MIDDLEBURY — Workers will spend the rest of this month and next completing the basic framework of the new Cross Street Bridge, then shut down major operations until early April with the goal of having the span ready for traffic by next Thanksgiving.
It has been an eventful fall for the project, culminating in the recent trucking, through downtown Middlebury, of a series of massive concrete beams that have now been swung into place between piers on each side of the Otter Creek.
MIDDLEBURY — An anticipated spike in enrollment will allow the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center (PHCC) board to present voters with a 2010-2011 spending plan that would result in a slight decrease in the per-pupil assessment charged to sending towns.
The PHCC offers career and technical education to students enrolled in the Addison Central, Addison Northeast and Addison Northwest supervisory unions. The career center operates programs at its headquarters adjacent to Middlebury Union High School, at its “North Campus” in Middlebury’s industrial park, and at Vergennes Union High School.
BRISTOL — With temperatures hovering near zero degrees, Peanut Butter’s breath sent little clouds of vapor out into the air beside the Bristol Elementary School gym Tuesday morning. The five-month-old Hereford calf from New Haven’s Cloverset Farm danced around the school’s parking lot, tossing the head upon which sat a festive little Santa’s cap.
In just a few minutes, Peanut Butter would trot through the door to the gym, eye the crowd of delighted schoolchildren, and then parade to the front of the gym for her big debut in the “Kiss the Cow” raffle at the elementary school.
VERGENNES UNION HIGH School students and advisors from the Assets Group recently worked on an under-age drinking public service announcement with the sponsorship of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vergennes. The PSA will be shown at a variety of upcoming events.
VERGENNES — In a 70-second public service announcement shot locally a fictional “Dr. Martin” hosts an under-age drinking party, but — like two real-life parents in the Vergennes area did in 2009 — he regrets his decision when the police show up.
ADDISON COUNTY — The year 2009 saw Otters win the area’s only team title, Tigers migrate to Division II, Panthers cement their national emergence in a new sport, and Eagles reach their traditional aerie in Centennial Field only to be evicted. A prominent local team not named after a member of the animal kingdom also made news, as a squadron of Commodores sailed back to Barre before being sunk by Cosmos.
