Archive - 2009 - Page
December 10th
BRANDON — The Otter Valley Union High School Board is seeking feedback from Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union-area residents at a budget forum at its Dec. 16 meeting at 7 p.m. in the OV auditorium.
At the OV board’s Dec. 2 budget-building session, board members and administration first learned the full magnitude of the budget impacts they are facing. Since October, they had been working on a plan to cut $350,000 from the current spending plan in an attempt to create a 2010-2011 budget that results in no increase in property tax rates for district towns.
MIDDLEBURY — Again and again on Tuesday, participants at an Addison County “farm to plate” summit pointed to the biggest roadblock impinging the expansion of a local foods movement in Vermont: the infrastructure for aggregating, processing and distributing locally grown food is all but nonexistent.
ADDISON COUNTY — The hospital and doctors’ offices in Addison County are enjoying the calm after the storm, after the number of cases of the H1N1 “swine” flu has reportedly tapered off over the last two weeks.
Vermont Health Commissioner Wendy Davis last week said the swine flu outbreak appeared to be waning in the state, though she warned that the illness could return in another wave and urged “high risk” patients to get vaccinated.
Still, the flu virus is keeping county healthcare providers — especially family practices and pediatricians’ offices — plenty busy.
MIDDLEBURY — Regular shoppers at Greg’s Meat Market will notice some new faces walking through the aisles — along with the absence of a familiar one.
Greg Wry on Tuesday formally sold the store to Bart Litvin and Lisa Hartman (see related story). The sale represents the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, though the new owners stressed they won’t tamper at all with the winning formula Wry has employed at the store for the past 28 years.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury selectmen on Tuesday said they will explore more cuts, freezing staff vacancies and using a fund balance in order to trim another $106,905 from a draft fiscal year 2011 spending that would allow Middlebury to maintain the same municipal property tax rate next year.
It would be the second year in a row that Middlebury residents would be offered a budget to maintain the same municipal tax rate, which currently stands at 80.91 cents. The chore is being rendered a little more difficult this year, for two main reasons.
LINCOLN — A Lincoln auditor has resigned his post, and citing frustration with the way business is done in town is throwing his cap into the ring for the March 2010 race for a three-year term on the selectboard.
Elwin Isham was elected to serve as an auditor on Town Meeting Day this year. But now, because of his decision to run for the selectboard, Isham said he’s resigning his post to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
FERRISBURGH — The Ferrisburgh selectboard will meet with Vergennes officials on Tuesday to discuss extending city sewer lines into the town, something that city officials are proposing be done in exchange for a 50-50 share of the extra property tax revenue that sewer service would help create.
Vergennes aldermen in November agreed to float that proposal to Ferrisburgh selectmen. The plan is based on a 1994 agreement backed by Vergennes voters, but rejected then by Ferrisburgh residents. To be adopted this time around, it would again require approval by residents of both communities.
MIDDLEBURY — On Monday night, 15 Middlebury College students and community members huddled in a windswept circle in front of the college library. The candles they held flickered and went out almost as soon as they lit them, but soon a handful of battery-operated candles surfaced. These stayed lit against the biting wind.
