Archive - Mar 8, 2010 - Page

VERGENNES — Seniors in Vergennes got some good news Friday when the Vermont Community Development Program awarded a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to the city for the long-planned and long-awaited senior housing center off Monkton Road.

That grant, officially announced by Gov. Jim Douglas at Vergennes American Legion Post 14 on Friday, provides one of the final two pieces of the financial puzzle for the fully permitted 25-unit, $5.8 million facility.

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ADDISON COUNTY — For most local maple syrup makers, each sugaring season is marked by something new. Prices fluctuate. Mother Nature is unpredictable. And now and then, there’s an advancement in the field of sugaring — like the “check valves” that many sugarmakers are using this year for the first time to increase production (see story, Page 18) — that changes the business of sugarmaking just enough to get everyone talking.

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MIDDLEBURY — Dr. Michael Kiernan recently took a break from his regular job treating patients at Middlebury’s Porter Hospital to work 20-hour shifts treating even more patients in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

It was an experience he wouldn’t trade for anything.

“This was the trip of a lifetime,” Kiernan said on Thursday as he transitioned back into his duties in Porter’s emergency room after having spent 13 hectic-but-fulfilling days caring for scores of severely injured patients at a medical center in Milot, Haiti.

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BRISTOL — A Bristol police officer will not face criminal charges for handcuffing a prisoner to a wall outside of a South Burlington jail last month.

The announcement came last Wednesday, when Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan said the Bristol police department’s actions in the case were “unacceptable,” but that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges in the case.

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RIPTON — Ripton resident Robert Wagner confirmed on Thursday that he will run as an independent candidate for one of Addison County and Brandon’s two seats in the Vermont Senate.

Wagner, 46 describes himself as fiscal conservative who is liberal on social issues. He is running as an independent because he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the major, established parties on a variety of issues, ranging from taxation to the future of Vermont’s statehood.

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HANCOCK — Rice Memorial senior and Ferrisburgh resident Katie Cutting made it back-to-back titles in both the slalom and giant slalom at Thursday’s high school alpine girls’ state championship meet, hosted by Middlebury Union High School at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl.

Vergennes junior Greta Krahn took second behind Cutting in the GS and was seventh in the slalom.

Rutland won the team competition with 109 points, ahead of Mount Mansfield (139) and Champlain Valley (160). Middlebury (381) was 15th.

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ADDISON COUNTY — At sugarbushes around the county, many veteran sugarmakers have kicked into high gear for the season.

And, although cold temperatures in the mountains meant sugaring operations in Starksboro, Lincoln and Bristol were still on hold early last week, the sap was running in the valley at Andy Hutchison’s Mt. Pleasant Sugarworks in Leicester.

Hutchison has 3,000 trees tapped this year. Like many other area sugarmakers, he’s testing the new plastic “check valves” that could potentially boost production at his sugarbush.

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WOODFORD — The Middlebury Union High School girls’ Nordic ski team completed its run to second place in Division II on Wednesday with a strong showing in the classic races held at Prospect Mountain Nordic Ski Center in Woodford.

The Tiger girls finished with 118 points, trailing only Fairfax (75), and finishing well ahead of U-32 (146). Those three teams were also 1-2-3 after March 1’s freestyle racing in Craftsbury.

Sophomore Dominique Powers led MUHS on Wednesday by taking second place in the individual race 18:23.7, followed by classmate Britta Clark in sixth.

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