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NWS issues Winter Storm Warning

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for Vermont.

The warning is in place at different times and the impact of the storm is different depending on where you live.

In the Montpelier and Rutland areas, the warning is in effect from 7 p.m. today to 1 a.m. Friday.

Montpelier is looking at 3 to 5 inches of snow over the next 36 hours, while Rutland is expecting 5 to 8 inches. Burlington is looking at 2 to 4 inches. Localized snow totals could be 10 inches or more. Similar tallies can be expected in Rutland, Windsory, Orange, Washington and eastern Addison.

In Bennington and Brattleboro the storm warning is in effect from noon today to 6 p.m. Thursday. The storm is supposed to overtake southern Vermont this afternoon. The Bennington area is predicted to receive 5 to 8 inches and Brattleboro is expecting 6 to 10 inches, but some areas of the southern Green Mountains, southern Adirondacks, and eastern Mohawk Valley could see 8 to 16 inches in places.

GMC gets $10,000 grant

POULTNEY — Green Mountain College announced Monday they received a $10,000 grant from the Windham Foundation for new food processing equipment for the college’s Solar Harvest Center commercial kitchen.

The purchase of small appliances and wares will allow the kitchen to offer services to farmers, produces and community groups that are not available elsewhere in Rutland County.

The renovation of the kitchen, which included a 10-burner, two-oven Garland range, a commercial dishwasher, a three-bay sink and a commercial-scale refrigerator, was completed last February, but small items like commercial-quality pots and pans, sheet trays, knives, cutting boards and food processing equipment were lacking.

Garland Mason, the agricultural markets research associate at the college, said the funding is essential to getting more the kitchen better equipped.

She said once the kitchen is completed, it will be a great resource for local food entrepreneurs to process fresh food efficiently and get their projects to the marketplace.

Governor wants mental health bill

MONTPELIER — Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is expressing impatience with lawmakers for not sending him legislation to revamp the state’s mental health system fast enough.

And Shumlin is insisting that lawmakers limit the size of a new psychiatric hospital to be built in Berlin to 16 beds, saying if the state builds a larger one, it will lose nearly $10 million a year in federal funding.

The Senate on Wednesday is to take up a bill passed by the House that calls for a 25-bed facility in Berlin. 

The Senate is moving to shrink that number to 16, as the governor wants.

It also creates other, smaller mental health facilities around the state.

The system has been in upheaval since the Vermont State Hospital was flooded by Tropical Storm Irene.

Jail for Guildhall farm confrontation

GUILDHALL — A 61-year-old Vermont man is going to jail for 60 days after being convicted of charges stemming from an armed confrontation he had with a worker on a Guildhall farm.

Michael Cahill was taken to jail Monday after a court appearance in St. Johnsbury where he was sentenced for his role in the July 2010 incident.

Last June Cahill was convicted by a jury of pointing a .45-caliber handgun at a farm employee in Guildhall and then firing a round from the weapon into the woods.

Cahill continues to say he’s innocent of the gun charge. 

He says his actions that day were part of a plan to put pressure on the farm that he feels is polluting the environment.

Police seek link between school threat and bank job

BELLOWS FALLS — Vermont State Police and Bellows Falls officers are investigating whether a threat called in to a high school was linked to a bank robbery 15 minutes later.

At about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday a 911 caller told police three people were headed to the Bellows Falls Union High School with guns.

At 2:30 p.m. Bellows Falls police received a report that the local branch of the People’s United Bank was being robbed by two men.

The two male suspects did not display weapons.

They fled on foot.Officers and troopers who went to the high school did not find any threat. 

State Police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro says investigators don’t know if the two incidents are related, but they working to make that determination.

Report decries state of women’s prison

MONTPELIER — A new report is decrying the physical conditions in Vermont’s only prison used to hold women inmates.

The report done by a group of women’s advocates found worms in the showers at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.

It also says there are too few toilets and there is frequently too little heat or too much.

Beyond the physical conditions, the advocates say there is a lack of job training and other programs that will help the women after they are released.

Corrections Department officials acknowledge the physical deficiencies at the prison and say there are plans to correct them.

Vermont’s women inmates were moved to South Burlington last summer.

Gov. Peter Shumlin says the move was the right thing to do.

Castleton Select Board forum tonight

CASTLETON — Candidates in this year’s Castleton Select Board race will gather tonight at a public forum sponsored by town resident Nick Thornblade.

The event will be held at 7 p.m. at the Federated Church on Main Street in Castleton. 

Town residents and voters will have the opportunity to ask candidates questions regarding town politics.

Thornblade will moderate.

Photos released from bank robbery

 

BELLOWS FALLS — Police say two masked men robbed People’s United Bank on Atkinson Street on Tuesday afternoon.

The two men took off in opposite directions, said Bellows Falls Police Chief Ron Lake.

One headed north of the bank, the other south.

Lake and Vermont State Police Lt. Rick Hopkins said that no one was hurt in the robbery of the branch bank.

Hopkins said that Bellows Falls police officers and Vermont State Police troopers were close by at the time of the 2:26 p.m. robbery, but by the time they got to the bank after the alarm, the robbers couldn’t be seen.

Police brought in dogs to track the robbers, but the dogs and their handlers returned after about an hour search.

Hopkins described the robbers as one wearing a black coat and pants and the other wearing a gray-hooded sweat shirt.

Anyone with information about the robbery is urged to call the Bellows Falls Police Department at 463-1234, or the Rockingham barracks of the Vermont State Police, at 875-2112. Detective Sgt. Frank LaBombard is in charge of the investigation, Hopkins said.

Barre man admits gun violation

BARRE — A Barre man has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on a gun possession charge.

James Beatrice, 45, last week admitted being in possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, a violation of federal law. 

Chief U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss, sitting in Rutland, ordered Beatrice held until his sentencing hearing in June.

According to court records, Beatrice possessed a handgun in February 2011.

He had felony convictions for burglary and operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent. 

The current charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

Second Rutland aldermen forum tonight

Candidates for the Rutland Board of Aldermen will gather tonight for a forum at 6:30 p.m. in the Fox Room of the Rutland Free Library.

The event, which is open to the public, is sponsored by the Rutland City Democratic Committee.

Candidates previously took part in a forum broadcast live on PEG-TV.

According to organizers, incumbents David Allaire, Sharon Davis, William Notte, Christopher Robinson and Christopher Siliski have all agreed to appear, as have challengers Gary Donahue, Francis Lebo, John Mattison and Daniel White.

The event is expected to run until 7:45 p.m.