Word from Wallingford: Stage 40 kicks off 37th season

From our Wallingford correspondent, Tammy Heffernan, who's column appears each week in the Rutland County Express:

I have often said that one of the best things about moving to Vermont is that the people here appreciate things it seems just a little more. Folks are very supportive of the local theater projects, including those provided by the local high schools. Good entertainment can be found as close as your local school. Stage 40, Mill River Union High School’s theater company kicked off its 37th season last week with its production of “City for Conquest.”
For those of you unfamiliar, as I was with the play, it is based on the 1940 movie starring James Cagney and Ann Sheridan. It is a movie about a young truck driver turned boxer, his girlfriend who desires a career as a professional dancer, the boxer’s talented sibling and their quest to make a name for themselves in New York City.
The story follows the couple as they split ways in order to pursue boxing and dancing careers while their lives continue to intertwine.
After boxer Danny Kenny is blinded by rosin from a less than desirable competitor during a match he ends up on the streets of the city operating a newsstand. The money that he has earned has helped his sibling, a talented musician to be able to perform music at Carnegie Hall. A devastated Kenny and an equally disillusioned Peggy reunite at the end.
It was amazing to watch a cast of high school students, who have all grown up in a time so radically different from that period of time in which the play is set, portray characters that are clearly distinct from any part of their own lives.

State police report on highway statistics for Thanksgiving weekend

There were no fatalities on Vermont roads this Thanksgiving weekend, although there were nine alcohol-related crashes this year, compared to five in 2010, Vermont State Police said. From Nov. 23 to 27, State Police and local agencies were out in force as part of Operation C.A.R.E. (Combined Accident Reduction Effort). This effort will continue with a nationally-inspired effort called “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” beginning Dec. 16 and ending January 2 of 2012.

The statistics from this Thanksgiving weekend compared to last year:

	2011	2010
Number of Fatalities	0	1
Alcohol Related Crashes	9	5
Number of Collisions	122	111
Number of  DUI Arrests	33	18
Speeding Citations	537	507
Seat Belt Citations	19	17

So far in 2011 Vermont has seen 50 highway fatalities, down from the 65 fatalities in 2010.

 

News from Brandon: Saying goodbye to fall sports

From our Brandon correspondent, Drew Whitney, who's column on life in Brandon appears weekly in the Rutland County Express, comes this letter:

As autumn progresses to winter, so do Otter Valley Union High School and Middle School’s sports transition from cool-weather activities to those that are freezing cold or indoors (as in skiing and basketball). For now, we must say goodbye to an exciting season of cross-country running, field hockey, football and soccer.
With those farewells comes the end-of-season recognition for accomplishments. Topping the list, congratulations are due for OV seniors Kelsey Pojacik and Matt Dier. According to Sumner Erbe, athletic director, “They are among the 10 athletes selected statewide by the Vermont Principals’ Association for their good work in academics, sports and community service.”

Family escapes Berlin fire

BERLIN — Family and friends on Tuesday helped sort through the remnants of an elderly couple’s West Berlin home, which caught fire late Monday.

Firefighters were called to the Route 12 home around 9:30 p.m. Both Clifton Markham, 89, and Phyllis Markham, 87, were home when the fire started. Both were able to escape. No injuries were reported.

“It was too late to go out the back door,” said Clifton Markham Jr., the couple’s son. “So they went out the front and (Phyllis Markham) kicked it open.”

The fire started at the back of the house, said Markham Jr., who added that firefighters believe the blaze began in a wood stove in that area. Markham Jr. said his parents heard the fire “through the walls” and were able to call 911 from inside the home before they fled.

Read the full story by Jenna Pizzi in the Times Argus >>

Small schools debate consolidation

WILLIAMSTOWN — When it comes to education, bigger is rarely better, according to a Randolph consultant who spent Monday night fielding questions from three small school districts satisfied with the status quo.

The concern: the growing drumbeat for school consolidation that most recently manifested itself in the passage of a law, Act 153, creating incentives for school districts to merge.

School board members in the three-town Orange North Supervisory Union are concerned that the law could grow from a gentle nudge to a state directive.

With that in mind, school board members in Williamstown, Orange and Washington met with members of their legislative delegation and with Marty Strange, a Randolph resident who works with the Rural School and Community Trust, a national nonprofit organization that works with rural schools in several other states.

Read the full story by David Delcore in the Times Argus >>

Search for stolen sculpture goes on

If you hadn't seen the reports, part of an iconic sculpture in downtown Rutland has gone missing - the piece is a bronze of a dog straining against an invisible leash that's tied to a parking meter. It was by the late Patrick Farrow, and was given to Rutland in the early 1980s. This week, someone absconded with the parking meter...

From the Rutland Herald:

The search is on for the missing piece of a downtown landmark.

Rutland City Police Lt. Kevin Geno said Tuesday that detectives were investigating the vandalism of “The Leash,” a sculpture in Depot Park, as city officials said they were making ready to replace the missing piece if it does not turn up.

“The Leash,” sculpted by the late Patrick Farrow, depicts a dog straining against an invisible leash tied to a parking meter. Farrow’s widow noticed Monday that the parking meter was missing.

“I think it was ripped out of there and taken away,” Geno said.

Speculation Monday suggested that the portion of the bronze statue might have been taken for its metal value. While copper thefts have been an issue in the area, Geno said he had never heard of bronze thefts.

“I’m guessing that, right now, any possibility is being looked at,” he said.

Downtown Rutland Partnership executive director Michael Coppinger said Tuesday he and an assistant had searched the grounds around the park and the train station in the hope it might have been dropped nearby, but without any luck.

Read the full story by Gordon Dritschilo>>

Thou shall not frack: Lawmaker proposes ban on oil extraction in Vermont

MONTPELIER — Sen. Peter Galbraith, a Windham County Democrat who opposes the gas industry practice of hydraulic fracturing and the building of wind turbines on Vermont ridgelines, will introduce separate bills next year to address the controversial energy issues.

Galbraith’s pre-emptive strike against the natural gas extraction method called hydrofracking may meet with a receptive audience among key members of the Legislature.

But his wind power bill will face strong resistance.

One of Galbraith’s main proposals would ban utility-scale wind projects unless all the towns in the “viewshed” give their approval with a popular vote.

“Clearly, towns that are visually affected in a significant way or affected by noise in a significant way ought to be able to have a voice in the process,” Galbraith said.

Rep. Tony Klein, chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, panned Galbraith’s wind power idea.

“I think it’s nuts,” said Klein, who has supported wind projects on ridgelines in Lowell and Sheffield.

Read the full story from Thatcher Moats of the Vermont Press Bureau in the Times Argus>>

Drug treatment center draws support in Southwestern Vermont

RUTLAND - A decade ago, a proposed methadone clinic to treat opiate and heroin addiction in Rutland was roundly denounced and defeated at public forums.

The exact opposite took place at a public hearing Tuesday where a comprehensive drug treatment model that would include a methadone clinic in the city was universally approved by residents who offered an opinion. A crowd of about 100 people attended the two-hour forum at the Howe Center.

Granted, many of the speakers identified themselves as pharmacists, counselors, lawyers and other professionals with connections to either drug enforcement or drug treatment programs.

But compared to the debate generated at meetings held 10 years ago concerning methadone treatment, the public forum hosted by Rutland Mental Health Services and Rutland Regional Medical Center was far less fractured — a difference that was noted by a number of panelists who participated in the forum.

“Thirteen years ago, this discussion didn’t go so well,” Rutland City Police Capt. Scott Tucker said. “Law enforcement said we didn’t like that idea.”

Read the full story by Brent Curtis in the Rutland Herald >>

$18 million federal grant to fund next steps for Vt. health reform

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Agency of Human Services will use an $18 million federal grant to help implement the next phase of the U.S. health care reform law.

That phase is taking place as the state moves toward implementation of the nation’s first single-payer health insurance system. The grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services will be used so the state can continue the planning, development and design of its health benefits marketplace, or exchange, which eventually will help people buy private health insurance online.

The grant comes on top of a $1 million planning grant the state received last year, said Vermont’s director of health care reform, Robin Lunge.

“What we’ve been working on to date has been high-level design details around the exchange, and what we will be moving to in this next year is drilling into the nuts and bolts of how it would work,” Lunge said.

The Vermont grant was announced Tuesday as part of $220 million in grants that are being sent to 13 states.

Vermont tree farms donating to the military

BETHLEHEM, N.H. — Tree farms in New Hampshire and Vermont are donating at least 400 Christmas trees to military families around the world.

WMUR-TV reported that local elementary school students in Bethlehem, N.H., for example, are helping to load trees donated from the Rocks Christmas Tree Farm onto trucks for shipment to Fort Drum, N.Y. From there, the trees will be distributed to military families.

The donations are part of a nationwide effort called Trees For Troops. This year, the organization is hoping to deliver its 100,000th tree since the program started in 2005.