Archive - Dec 3, 2009
ADDISON — State and local lawmakers on Tuesday urged Gov. James Douglas to dedicate $1 million in federal stimulus funds to help Addison County businesses — including farms — that have taken a financial hit since the Champlain Bridge was closed on Oct. 16.
Douglas quickly endorsed the $1 million request, but said the money should be spent in the broader context of statewide, $8.6 million economic development package that includes some initiatives the Legislature rejected last session.
BRISTOL — The John Graham Emergency Shelter on Monday closed a deal for a $198,000 home in Bristol, which the Vergennes-based homeless shelter intends to covert into three units of transitional housing.
The deal comes at a time of rising demand for the homeless shelter’s services. It marks a ratcheting up of the organization’s efforts to use transitional housing to give families and individuals a place to get back on their feet while they hunt for a permanent residence that is away from the hubbub of the shelter but under the umbrella of a support system.
MIDDLEBURY — Bridgewater Corners-based Long Trail Brewing Co. is on the verge of acquiring Middlebury-based Otter Creek Brewing and Wolaver’s Certified Organic in a deal expected to make the Exchange Street brewery more financially stable and competitive.
BRISTOL — The Mount Abraham Union High School board of directors Tuesday continued taking tentative steps toward a draft spending plan that reflects a zero-percent increase in educational spending — a goal that board chair Lanny Smith said leaves the board “between a rock and a hard place.”
“We don’t have anything left to cut,” said Smith.
Last year, voters in the five towns that feed into Mount Abe approved a roughly $12.8 million spending plan, down just less than 1 percent from spending in 2007-2008.
MIDDLEBURY — UD-3 school board members will consider cost cuts and the use of a fund balance to reduce the property tax impact of a draft 2010-2011 budget that includes a 3.2 percent increase in spending. The increase in the $16,025,483 spending plan is overwhelmingly driven by anticipated surges in special education expenses.
WHITING — Anyone who’s driven through Whiting on Route 30 recently couldn’t have helped but notice something happening in the ditches beside the road.
The Whiting Water Corp. is replacing its main water line, which runs beside the road from the firehouse, south along Route 30 for around 4,400 feet. The work began in mid-September, and company operator Bob Wadsworth estimates that work on the line will be done by the end of December.
In listening to President Barack Obama outline his strategy for sending 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan on Tuesday night’s televised address, we found ourselves wanting to believe his rationale and his assessment, but what we recognized was that it was little more than a well-delivered political speech carefully calculated to cause the president the least amount of political damage.
That was a disappointment.
Too often I have taken Thanksgiving for granted as simply a day off from work to gorge myself on turkey, pie and just about anything else that doesn’t move. Pilgrims? Have never really given them, their funny costumes and blunderbusses much thought.
But this year, I thought I’d take some time to put the “Thanks” in Thanksgiving — specifically from a journalist’s perspective. In no particular order, I thought I’d extend my heartfelt newsroom appreciation to:
