LEICESTER — Last Wednesday evening, year-round and summer residents bent over questionnaires at the Leicester Meeting House, answering questions on everything from their favorite areas of town to their thoughts on a number of sample zoning ordinances.
The community forum, which drew close to 20 participants, was part of a push by town officials to update the last Leicester Town Plan from 2003, which was supposed to have been updated in 2008.
BRANDON — It takes a pretty selfless person to knowingly give up $1,000, no matter how old you are, but seven-year-old Livia Bernhardt didn’t have a problem with it.
LEICESTER — Leicester and Salisbury voters on Town Meeting Day will be asked to substantially boost their financial commitment to removing Eurasian milfoil weeds from Lake Dunmore and Fern Lake.
Residents of both towns will be asked to earmark $7,225 toward milfoil eradication efforts in 2010, up from the $2,322 level the communities supported last year. The beefed-up financial requests come in the wake of reduced state funding for milfoil eradication, coupled with a recent spike in the spread of the nuisance aquatic weed in both lakes.
LEICESTER — The Leicester Central School board has voted to adopt a proposed 2010-2011 spending plan of $1,400,086, which represents a decrease of $8,573, or 0.82 percent, in total spending from the current year.
The board met on Jan. 13 to finalize the budget, which will go to a vote on Town Meeting Day in March.
LEICESTER — Taxpayers in Leicester will be relieved to hear that town school directors are on track to propose a level-funded Leicester Central School spending plan for the 2010-2011 school year.
On Wednesday the board will meet to vote on the proposed budget. And although the past couple years have brought bad news for the school, with several failed efforts to consolidate with schools in neighboring towns and building maintenance woes, school board chair Hannah Sessions was optimistic last Friday.
GOSHEN — In August, Goshen received a $2,985 grant from the Help America Vote Act. Since the act passed in 2005, the federal government has awarded the grants to states annually. Its purpose is to make elections more accessible to voters and to allow the town to communicate more easily with other towns and the state come the next election.
LEICESTER — On Monday morning, the 14 youngest children at Leicester Central School were hard at work in their colorful classroom. They listened to a story on a rainbow rug in one corner, speaking up from time to time to ask questions. The opposite wall was covered with art projects and construction paper cutouts.
By KATHRYN FLAGG
LEICESTER — The cucumber came soaring through the air in one smooth, effortless arc, landed solidly in 16-year-old Ernest Cormia’s hands, and then joined a growing pile of ripe vegetables in a five-gallon bucket at the end of the lush garden row.
“Toss me another,” Cormia called, and Bill Moore, a teacher at the Foxcroft Farm Harvest Program, hurled another across the garden.
LEICESTER — Addison County Transit Resources (ACTR) will seek state funds to start a new Route 7 bus service that would operate between Middlebury and Rutland. Two communities that figure to be stops along the route — Leicester and Salisbury — are currently readying “park-and-ride” facilities for prospective users of the new service.
