Archive - Apr 26, 2012 - Page
VERGENNES — What began as an emotional issue for many citizens of the Vergennes area, who perceived a threat to the popular and longstanding Christian nativity display on the city’s central green, is now a technical exercise for Vergennes aldermen.
VERGENNES — It’s been a long time since the Vergennes Union High School softball team has been able to enjoy being in first place — the late 1990s, when the Commodores won the Metro Conference championship.
But after Tuesday’s 8-3 win over visiting Burlington, the Commodores can make that claim again: At 4-0, with three straight wins over Division I Metro teams, VUHS sits on top of the D-III standings, just ahead of Windsor (5-1).
BRISTOL — In preparation for the Bristol selectboard’s May 14 public hearing on the new draft of the town plan, the board met with the town’s planning commission at its Monday meeting (to read the draft, click here).
Selectwoman Carol Wells, wife of former planning commission Chair Tom Wells, took issue with the plan’s lack of clarity surrounding a key component: resource extraction.
ADDISON COUNTY — Local lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday fielded several amendments related to the proposed combining of the state’s two largest utilities, much of it related to a $21 million payback that some believe is owed to electricity ratepayers as a condition of the merger.
The $21 million in question represents additional money that electricity ratepayers were assessed to help shore up a financially strapped Central Vermont Public Service Corp. (CVPS) back in 2001.
MONTPELIER — A bill that would require labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods passed out of the Vermont House Agriculture Committee last Friday, with nine representatives voting for and one against.
Rep. Will Stevens, I-Shoreham, said H. 722 will likely pass through the House Judiciary Committee, but it’s not likely to reach the House floor before the end of this legislative session. Stevens said to reach the floor similar legislation would have to start from the very beginning next year.
MIDDLEBURY — With interest rates at a historically low level, it’s not just homeowners who are jumping at the opportunity to refinance mortgages: this spring, Middlebury College also refinanced $63.5 million worth of facilities debt.
The Vermont Education and Health Buildings Financing Agency (VEHBFA), which helped the college refinance its bonds, reports that the college will see about $11 million in savings at present value, a refund of about 18 percent of the total cost.
BRISTOL — As the weather is warming up, so too is the Bristol business scene.
Among the many recent developments in the county’s second largest town are an ownership change at the Almost Home Market on North Street, a new ice cream shop set to move in on Main Street and new landlords for the old Bristol High School building, which houses a number of prominent businesses.
NEW HAVEN — One of the state’s largest prospective solar installations — more than twice the size of the Ferrisburgh Solar Farm — may have jumped its final legal hurdle, when the Vermont Supreme Court upheld a Public Service Board (PSB) certificate of public good.
