Archive - May 3, 2010
MIDDLEBURY — RetailVision will shed approximately 20 of its 70 Middlebury employees by this August, representatives of the Middlebury business’s parent company confirmed on Thursday.
The cuts, announced to affected workers last Wednesday, are being driven by the expiration of a contract with a firm that had been providing some warehousing and distribution services for RetailVision, which creates and manages specialty magazine sales programs for specialty retailers throughout the country.
BRISTOL — If you’d asked six-year-old Katie Havey how she felt about her decision to chop off her long hair a few days ago, she probably would have had one word for you: nervous.
“There were a lot of tears,” her mother, Linda, confessed.
FERRISBURGH — When Erik Andrus began milling his own flour, the Ferrisburgh farmer and baker noticed a sharp spike in his electricity bill.
His mill — imported from Europe, and one of the most energy efficient models available — was running for 12 and sometimes 16 hours a day, grinding the wheat that would soon be turned into bread. The electricity bill at Boundbrook Farm and the Good Companion Bakery jumped as much as 50 percent.
MIDDLEBURY — The Addison Central Supervisory Union (ACSU) board on Wednesday agreed to hire a mediator to help resolve some perceived problems with the working environment in the school district’s central office.
That action — taken following a lengthy executive session — comes after a consultant performed a “climate study” within the ACSU office, an undertaking the district board commissioned in February in response to reports of discord between some of the district’s employees.
BRISTOL — The Bristol selectboard on Monday, April 26, awarded the contract for the renovation of Holley Hall to Brandon-based Naylor & Breen Builders, who came in with the low bid for the project at $614,000.
Bristol voters approved the town to borrow up to $750,000 for the repairs in a December bond vote. The repairs will make the building more handicap accessible, fix structural and wiring problems, add insulation and reorganize the basement town offices.
The repairs will include:
BRIDPORT — Bridport residents will return to the polls this Tuesday, May 4, to cast votes on a proposed 2010-2011 elementary school budget that is $6,158 leaner than the spending plan that was defeated by less than 10 votes on Town Meeting Day.
Voters rejected the original spending plan of $1,336,975 by a 179-172 tally. It proved to be one of the few school budget defeats in the state but was the second year in a row that Bridport residents had rejected their elementary spending plan.
MONTPELIER — Lawmakers are used to having Statehouse smack-downs over resources, committee assignments and leadership positions.
But over blueberry bragging rights?
Actually, you can call it a friendly food fight, strictly tongue-in-cheek, pitting the Deerfield Valley against tiny Goshen.
It’s a little comic relief amid the chaos of more pressing financial issues during the waning days of the 2010 legislative session.
MIDDLEBURY — This summer there will be fewer vegetables growing on Exchange Street.
The steering committee of the Middlebury Area Community Garden (MACG) recently found out that it would no longer be able to use land behind the Otter Creek Brewing plant off Exchange Street for garden plots, due to ongoing construction and renovation at the brewery.
