January 29, 2007

By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — All seven communities in the Addison Central Supervisory Union (ACSU) have crafted proposed 2007-2008 school budgets that are below the state’s per-pupil spending guideline, though some of the towns may be in store for hefty education tax jumps — particularly if they haven’t recently conducted town-wide reappraisals.

ACSU officials recently unveiled school spending plans for the towns of Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge. The K-12 budgets showed increases ranging from 2 percent (Shoreham) to 6.3 percent (Bridport), though local taxpayers would see education property tax rate increases ranging from 2.7 percent (Cornwall) to 15.9 percent (Shoreham) if the budgets are approved as submitted.

January 29, 2007

By JOHN FLOWERS AND JOHN McCRIGHT

MIDDLEBURY — For the second time this month local economic development officials and a contingent of more than 100 manufacturing workers are rallying to pull things together after the announcement of a Middlebury plant closure.

Standard Register Co. on Friday said it will close its Route 7 South plant in March, putting 112 people out of work. The Middlebury facility, which prints customized checks and forms, primarily for businesses, hospitals and government agencies, “will continue to perform limited production through March,” a corporate press release said.

The announcement from the Dayton, Ohio, corporate headquarters of Standard Register provided a second dose of bad news for the Addison County economy this month. Bristle-maker Specialty Filaments closed its doors on Jan. 5, sending 175 people in search of new jobs, though an Illinois-based company is making a strong push to acquire and reopen that operation (see related story, this page).

January 29, 2007

By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — Two local lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against the Vermont Electric Power Co. (VELCO) on Friday, arguing among other things that the company had “misrepresented the scope of its condemnation authority” in acquiring land for transmission lines that will also carry fiber optic wires.

The four-page complaint, filed in Addison County Superior Court by attorneys Peter Langrock and James Dumont on behalf of as many as 1,000 Vermont landowners, asks that a judge:

• Prevent (VELCO) from further construction, installation and leasing of fiber optic lines along its electrical transmission rights-of-way across plaintiffs’ land and to remove any lines that are not directly needed for the transmission of electricity.

January 25, 2007

By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — Local economic development officials, union representatives and corporate lawyers were working feverishly this week on a deal through which an out-of-state company would buy, and resurrect, the former Specialty Filaments plant at 3046 Case St.

“The development corporation is working closely with a potential buyer of the facility,” Addison County Economic Development Corp. (ACEDC) Executive Director Jamie Stewart said on Tuesday. “If we can put together a deal that is viable, there is a possibility of the re-hire of all of the former Specialty Filaments employees.”

Stewart said the name of the prospective buyer is being kept under wraps pending the purchase of the Specialty Filaments business out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rutland, along with negotiation of a financial incentives package that would give the buyer tax credits and some short-term reductions in electricity rates.