Archive - Aug 2010
August 19th
ADDISON COUNTY — Fall apple picking season is coming a little early this year.
In fact, many area orchards have already begun to offer pick-your-own apples, because their earliest apples are already ripening.
“Our apples are about 10 days early, which is significant,” said Bill Suhr, who owns Champlain Orchards. “It's probably the earliest crop we’ve ever seen.”
He added that his fall raspberries are already ripe, also more than a week ahead of expectations.
MIDDLEBURY — Middle-bury’s local option tax revenues continue to slightly out-pace the amount needed to meet debt service on the new Cross Street Bridge project, providing a harbinger, municipal officials said, of both a recovering economy and a future community debate on what should be done with any excess funds.
Middlebury Assistant Town Manager Joe Colangelo confirmed the town netted $170,869 in local option tax revenue during the second quarter of 2010, an amount that is $5,452 greater than the second quarter of 2009.
MIDDLEBURY — Most elementary school students would not have the slightest idea what to do in a college biology lab.
But seeing his 4- and 7-year-old daughters in the lab was exactly what inspired Middlebury College biology professor Jeremy Ward to apply for a National Science Foundation grant to teach genetic biology to schoolchildren in Addison County.
“They don’t know that they’re not supposed to be able to do it,” said Ward of his daughters. “When I watch (them) in here and say ‘Do this,’ they go and do it.”
BRIDPORT — Addison County State’s Attorney David Fenster’s decision on whether to prosecute the suspect in an Aug. 13 accidental shooting in Bridport is not likely to happen for several days as Vermont State Police continue their investigation into the case.
Peter Damone, 76, was listed in “guarded” condition in an induced coma at the Fletcher Allen Health Care intensive care unit on Tuesday after being hit in the face by a .45-caliber bullet while in his backyard at a little after 8 p.m. last Friday, his wife Dorothy Damone reported.
BURLINGTON — In the Democratic primary race for state auditor against Sen. Ed Flanagan, private entrepreneur Doug Hoffer, 59, poses one question for Democratic voters: “Which of us is better able to beat (incumbent and Republican) Tom Salmon?”
That single question has made Democrats, Progressives and Independents around the state take notice of his candidacy and his credentials.
LAKE CHAMPLAIN — A generation of Middlebury College students has been learning about geology and oceanography on board the R/V Baldwin, a 32-foot Maine lobster boat the college purchased in 1985. It hosts high-tech oceanographic equipment including complex water profilers, sonars and piston and gravity corers that have enabled students and faculty to investigate sediment and boat wrecks on the bottom of Lake Champlain.
NEW HAVEN — Vermont State Police on Tuesday received help from a retired trooper and another citizen in arresting a Starksboro man, who was then charged with burglary of the former trooper’s New Haven home and of several other burglaries in nearby towns.
VSP arrested and lodged Michael LaFlam, 32, of Starksboro and charged him with the string of burglaries. He was held for $25,000 bail.
VSP also cited Crystal King, 22, of Starksboro as an accessory to the break-in in New Haven. VSP alleged King was waiting in a car to help LaFlam flee the scene.
VERGENNES — Paving in Vergennes this fall will largely focus on the city’s northwestern streets, City Manager Mel Hawley told aldermen at their meeting on Tuesday.
Due to be resurfaced are all of Comfort Hill and High Street and two portions of MacDonough Drive: one from Main Street to Battery Hill, which Hawley said was the final topcoat on a stretch rebuilt in recent years, and the other being two-tenths of a mile long and running from the west end of the Northlands Job Corp campus to the city line.
