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November 19th, 2009
ADDISON COUNTY — Dozens of Vermont dairy farmers found themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thursday when the department rolled out its largest ever audit of employers in a crackdown on businesses shirking employment laws.
The Vermont Department of Agriculture on Thursday said ICE had targeted at least 86 farms for inspection, and Dairy Farmers Working Together reported between 86 and 100 farms were being issued subpoenas for employment records.
MIDDLEBURY — Peak fall foliage is long gone, but folks traveling through downtown Middlebury during the next few weeks will see quite a sight in the form of a major man-made attraction that, unlike the changing leaves, won’t return next year.
Vehicles bearing huge concrete beams — ranging in size from 65 feet to 110 feet long — were scheduled to wind their way on massive trucks through portions of the downtown on their way to the new Cross Street Bridge site on Nov. 19 and 20, and again on Dec. 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The Independent took an early look at Mount Abraham High School's production of "Oklahoma!" More than 100 Abraham students will be on stage in Bristol starting Thursday night for the school’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical “Oklahoma!” The show, the first collaboration for Rodgers and Hammerstein, garnered a special Pulitzer Prize after it opened on Broadway in 1943. Mount Abraham also produced the show in 1981 and 1995. The 2009 show runs Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday.
Independent photos/Trent Campbell
BRISTOL — State education officials are pushing local school boards to hold the line on school spending this year, urging school districts to level fund or even decrease spending at local schools.
VERGENNES — Vergennes aldermen on Tuesday looked down the road to Middlebury to find a new police chief, but inside its own highly regarded fire department for a new leader to replace retiring longtime chief Ralph Jackman.
The city’s new police chief will be New Haven resident George Merkel, 55, a Middlebury patrolman who is an 11-year member of that department and also a Vermont Army National Guard veteran.
Every trade has its jargon. We journalists like to laugh at corporate babble (“We must think outside the box to empower our stakeholders”), edu-speak (“Our youngsters require enhanced child-centered collaborative activities for discovery learning”) and cop talk (“I advised the male subjects to disperse”).
But we too, even humble sports writers, are guilty of jargon, as our Independent proofreaders constantly remind my editor and me.
ADDISON — One Lake Champlain ferry will extend its run through the end of the year while another will pare back hours as New York and Vermont transportation officials continue to work on a temporary ferry service and explore the viability of a temporary span near the site of the closed Champlain Bridge.
Owners of the Ticonderoga Ferry confirmed this week that they will continue their extended run — weather permitting — from Shoreham to Ticonderoga, N.Y., through Dec. 31.
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury has netted $641,741 in its first year of levying a local option tax on rooms, meals, sales and alcohol, a sum that is comfortably ahead of the $600,000 needed to meet the community’s first-year debt obligation for the new Cross Street Bridge.
“I think the town should be very happy,” said Joe Colangelo, Middlebury’s assistant town manager. “Thankfully, we’ve made our goal.”
