Hot!

from The Weather Channel 

Norwich Selectboard Agenda - May 22, 2013

Agenda for the Selectboard Meeting of Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 6:30 PM

(Times Are Approximate)

1)      6:30 pm – Public Hearing on Town of Norwich Subdivision Regulations Amendments (Discussion/Possible Action Item) 30 minutes

2)      Approval of Agenda (Action Item) 2 minutes

3)      Public Comments (Discussion) 10 minutes

4)      Town Manager’s Report (Discussion) 5 minutes

5)      Finance – Board to Sign Accounts Payable/Warrants (Action Item) 5 minutes

6)      Selectboard Response to §248a Application for Certificate of Public Good for Radio Communications Tower (Discussion/Action Item) 10 minutes

7)      Finance Committee (Discussion) 10 minutes

8)      Town Records Preservation and Conservation (Discussion/Possible Action Item) 10 minutes

9)      Transfer Station Sticker Policy (Discussion) 10 minutes

10)   Reappoint Sharon Racusin to the Advance Transit Board of Directors (Discussion/Action Item) 5 minutes

11)   Selectboard FY14 Goals (Discussion/Possible Action Item) 10 minutes

12)   Selectboard

a)    Approval of the Minutes of the 4/24/13 Meeting (Action Item) 5 minutes

b)    Review of Next Agenda (Discussion/Possible Action Item) 5 minutes

Next Regular Meeting – June 12, 2013 at 6:30 PM

To receive email notices of Selectboard meetings and hearings, agendas, minutes and other notices, send an email to manager-assistant@norwich.vt.us requesting to be placed on the Town Email List.

Weekly Roundup - Norwich News, for week ending May 18, 2013

Police Chief Comments On Door-to-door Solicitors

Since Tuesday, the Norwich, VT listserv was [and still is] abuzz about two young men from Nebraska who are selling products door to door. Most of the posts express concerns about safety, but some suggest patience.  The two men are affiliated with Southwestern Advantage.  The company hires college students as independent contractors to sell educational materials door-to-door. A few students make a lot of money. Most just fail. See Door-to-door for the summer?, in USA Today April 19 2012. Here are Police Chief Robinson's comments issued on Sunday:
        The town of Norwich has a vendor ordinance, if someone comes into the station requesting a permit we obtain the solicitors information, names and addresses, company, any vehicles etc.. and we set parameters' for when they can peddle their wares including but not limited to i.e. only 9 AM to 7 PM /  No Sundays / No Saturdays etc... They are also told that if we get any complaints (rude behavior, aggressive tactics, peddling outside the parameters set then the vendor permit will be revoked.
       If they come in with proper credentials and we have no information or previous complaints from other communities we issue them the permit.  If the town adopts a NO SOLICITATION ordinance then we can refuse the permit.  If you have complaints about the door to door sales you should immediately call the police so we can document the complaints and show enough evidence to revoke the permit.  We also ask, as previously posted by someone on this list serve to keep an eye out for your neighbors and report any suspicious behavior.
       My officers are now gathering all the complaints made to the police as well as on the list serve which will be filed if the company returns next year.
       I hope this explains and addresses some of the complaints.  I will be back from vacation on Wednesday the 22nd, if you have any questions or concerns please give me a call.

Norwich Architect's Drawings On Display At AVA

From the Architect’s Drafting Table
Stuart White’s Plans Were Made by Hand
By Nicola Smith, Valley News Staff Writer
May 17, 2013
Thank the thieves who broke into Stuart White’s car during a trip he made to Italy in 1962, and stole his passport, some money and his camera: without them the drawings he made of the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome, now on view in an exhibition of his drawings and architectural plans at the AVA Gallery in Lebanon, might not exist.
Left untouched were a money belt that his mother had urged him to bring with him, containing $200, and his drawing pencils and pad. Without a camera, White had to rely on his skill as a draftsman to show the colossal monuments of Mycenae and Delphi, and the Parthenon in Athens. “I scarcely dared draw it,” White said of the Parthenon. “My heart was beating too fast.”
Sitting in a chair in the Johnson Sisters Library on the second floor at AVA, where the show of his work runs through June 7, White, modest in manner, gazes over at his drawings. “They’re sketchy, not perfect,” he said. But they have one signal virtue: when he looks at them, “I can feel where I was.”
Read the rest of the story.

ECFiber raises another $430,000

vermontbiz.com
May 17, 2013
The next phase of ECFiber’s broadband deployment received a sizable boost when local investors connected to its 23 town service territory purchased $430,000 of its 2013 Series tax-exempt promissory notes. This new investment will finance extension of the community-based nonprofit’s existing fiber-optic network by as much as 20 miles and will serve an estimated 100 or more households and businesses which currently do not have high-speed broadband access.
ECFiber Treasurer John Roy of Vershire announced results at the groups Governing Board meeting on May 14 noting that the total raised now exceeds $3.5 million from over 300 individual investors. ECFiber currently has about 330 subscribers along its existing 50 miles of network in Barnard, Royalton, Tunbridge, and Vershire. Within the next few months, it expects to connect customers in Chelsea, Thetford, Strafford, Norwich, and Sharon. The next routes to be built are now under design.
ECFiber, based in Royalton, is a consortium of 23 municipalities in east-central Vermont building a community-owned fiber-optic network to deliver reliable high-speed broadband Internet connectivity to every home, business, and civic institution throughout its territory. The number of subscribers is expected to double as the funds raised in 2012 are spent during this construction season.

LINKS:
http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/career/door-to-door-for-the-summer

http://www.vnews.com/search/6239565-95/from-the-architects-drafting-table

http://www.vermontbiz.com/node/27229

The Norwich Observer. Aggregating news and information about Norwich, Vermont with occasional commentary ... . 

My Brigadeiro Chocolates

Upper Valley Business Briefs: My Brigadeiro Chocolates
By Guy C. Denechaud, Times Argus
May 7, 2013
Ana Paula Alexandrescu has kicked off her new business, My Brigadeiro Chocolates, from her home in Norwich, VT.
Orders for the hand-made specialty chocolates exceeded her expectations during the first weeks of start-up, she said, adding she has had to increase the rate of production heading into spring.
Brigadeiro chocolates are a type of confection popular in her home country of Brazil, where she had lived before moving to the U.S. with her husband, Dorian Alexandrescu. She makes the chocolates by hand, with one part-time helper.
Only organic chocolate is used in the Brigadeiro chocolates, and Alexandrescu concentrates on the use of local products whenever possible. Although the chocolates are available in a few stores, such as Dan & Whit’s in Norwich, the majority of sales come through the firm’s Web site.
“I did not believe that it was possible to achieve so much in such a short time, but I have sold my chocolates to customers in each of the 50 states,” she said.
The chocolates, said Alexandrescu, have a consistency that is different from any other chocolates she has tried. “They are sort of between a piece of fudge and a truffle. They are not as chewy as a caramel, but much chewier than a typical chocolate-covered cream candy,” she said.
Read the rest of the story.
My Brigadeiro Chocolates web site is here

LINKS:
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20130507/BUSINESS11/705079945/1042/IRENE
www.mybrigadeiro.com.

The Norwich Observer. Aggregating news and information about Norwich, Vermont with occasional commentary ... . 

ECFiber: misquotes in the Valley News

from the listserv May 12, 2013
Some "news" really is too good to be true. The business section of the Sunday Valley News carried two stories about ECFiber, one focusing on the town of Vershire, and the other describing our expansion plans in other towns incuding Norwich. Unfortunately, there were some fairly serious misquotes and errors in the second story. I did _not_ say that we expect to connect people in "almost all of Norwich" by next fall. Almost all of two or three unserved Norwich neighborhoods, maybe, but at best perhaps 5 or 6% of the town as a whole.


Among other errors, ECFiber is not already "delivering service to 23 municipalities in the Upper Valley and other parts of the state," and the reference to "service from Barnard to Vershire" is true alphabetically but not geographically. We now have customers connected in Royalton, Bethel, Barnard, Pomfret, Chelsea, and Vershire, and fund-raising efforts are underway in Pomfret and West Windsor as well as the towns mentioned in the article.

Lsst but not least, Strafford residents have had some fun today renaming their mis-spelt town as "Stratford on the Ompompanoosuc."

I only wish we could make things happen as fast as the news reporter seems to have imagined, but we're doing our best.

Thanks,
Irv Thomae (Chair, as well as Norwich delegate, ECFiber.)

Weekly Roundup - Norwich News, for week ending May 11, 2013

Bread Loaf Is Architect For Proposed Fire/Police Station

The nascent plan to build a new fire/police/public works facility in Norwich, Vermont took a major step forward on Wednesday May 8th when the Selectboard approved the choice of Bread Loaf Corporation as the Town's architect for the project at an approximate cost of $25,000.  The next step is site selection followed by design of three options.  Public forums are expected for the Fall.

The owner of the Agway Property (198 Church Street) as well as the owner of the Upper Valley Events Center, asked the Town to consider those sites. The land at 198 Church Street has long be rumored as the favorite. But the Town Manager said that there are "no top prospects" and that the "evaluation or site selection process has [not]started."  

According to its web site, Bread Loaf is a full-service planning, architecture, and construction firm headquartered in Middlebury, Vermont.

ECFiber Summer Expansion Plans Include Norwich 

“Before the fall, we’ll have people connected in Chelsea, Vershire, Thetford, Tunbridge, Royalton and Sharon, and a lot of the people in Stratford and almost all of Norwich,” said ECFiber Chairman Irv Thomae, who lives in Norwich, Vermont.

ECFiber Plans Summer Expansion

By Warren Johnston, Valley News Staff Writer

May 12, 2013 

ECFiber has connected 325 customers to high-speed fiber-optic broadband Internet service and is about to expand its network to more underserved customers this summer, the organization’s chairman said last week.

The Vermont nonprofit provider, which is delivering service to 23 municipalities in the Upper Valley and other parts of the state, also has just completed a round of funding and now has service from Barnard to Vershire. ECFiber also is moving quickly to provide fiber connections in parts of West Fairlee, Thetford, Stratford, Sharon and Norwich for customers who are not being served by commercial providers, said ECFiber Chairman Irv Thomae, who lives in Norwich.

“Before the fall, we’ll have people connected in Chelsea, Vershire, Thetford, Tunbridge, Royalton and Sharon, and a lot of the people in Stratford and almost all of Norwich,” he said.

The nonprofit has raised about $3.5 million through grants and investment loans from community members.

Although residents wanting service are not required to loan money to ECFiber, the tax-free notes promise a good return for investors, ranging from 5.3 percent to 7.65 percent, depending on the type of note.

Read the rest of the story. 

Norwich Inn Brewery Marks 20th Year With Belgian Stout

Current and former brew meisters of the Norwich Inn in Norwich, Vermont are collaborating on a Belgian Stout to celebrate the brewery's 20th anniversary.  The three are Tim Wilson, Patrick Dakin and its current brewer, Jeremy Hebert. 

On Tap: Three Men and a Stout

By Chris Fleisher, Valley News Staff Writer

May 8, 2013

The three men peered over the edge of a steel tank being filled with water, waiting for it to heat as though it were charcoals burning in a grill.

It was a moment of tedium during the beer brewing process that each had experienced countless times before. Over the past two decades, each had taken his turn standing in the brewhouse of the Norwich Inn, soaking grains in hot water with the intent of serving up fine ales to thirsty patrons.

But this time they were doing it together. The three of them — Tim Wilson, Patrick Dakin and Jeremy Hebert — had decided to collaborate on a singular beer to mark the brewery’s 20th year in existence.

“I just thought it’d be kind of fun,” said Hebert, the latest to hold the title of brewer at the Inn’s Jasper Murdock’s Alehouse. 

Read the rest of the story. 

More Graffiti

Graffiti and Vandalism Targets Norwich VT Police

WNTK News Blog

Posted on May 6, 2013 by ghedrington

For the past three years, Norwich Vermont has experienced sporadic out breaks of offensive graffiti. Although the language and symbols are racial epithets, they appear to be to be aimed only at the Norwich Police Department. One of the milder writings offers Free Meth for killing a NPD officer. The offensive writings appear on roads and bri.dges throughout the town, and it remains an ongoing and active investigation. Police Chief Douglas Robinson said that the graffiti is written in in orange or yellow paint and painted on the roads and bridges in Norwich. Chief Robinson asks for anyone with information on this active investigation to call 802-649-1460

LINKS: 

http://www.breadloaf.com/index.html

http://www.vnews.com/search/6147020-95/ecfiber-plans-summer-expansion

http://www.vnews.com/news/townbytown/norwich/5950750-95/on-tap-three-men-and-a-stout

http://wntk.com/wp_news/2013/05/06/graffiti-and-vandalism-targets-norwich-vt-police/

A subscription may be required for access to the Valley News stories. 

Weekly Roundup - Norwich News, for week ending May 4, 2013

Columnist Praises Girl Scouts and Norwich Boy Scouts For Inclusiveness

Jim Keynon: Two Kinds Of Scouts
Valley News
May 1, 2013
For an organization that prides itself on teaching survival skills, the Boy Scouts of America seems to have a death wish.
As long as the Boy Scouts’ national leaders continue to insist it’s OK to discriminate against gays, the organization grows increasingly irrelevant in a society where — thank goodness — a person’s sexual orientation becomes less and less a big deal.
As you may have read, the Boy Scouts of America’s executive committee has proposed a change in membership rules: openly gay youths will no longer be excluded.
This is progress?
Hardly. The Boy Scouts will continue to ban openly gay adults from being Scout leaders.
Read the rest of the story.

VTel Loses Part Of State Grant
$5 million VTel cell service grant cut in half
by Nat Rudarakanchana, vtdigger.org
May 4, 2013
A state agency has cut a $5 million telecommunications grant to Vermont Telephone Company in half.
This is the third time the Vermont Telecommunications Authority has pulled VTel grant money in recent months. On March 29, it revoked two broadband grants to VTel worth $3.4 million.
The most recent decision, made at a board meeting on Friday, comes after negotiations between the VTA and the private firm VTel stalled. The $5 million cellphone grant was announced at a news conference by Gov. Peter Shumlin in December 2012.
Read the rest of the story.

Earlier This Week In The Norwich Observer 
Norwich Selectboard Condemns Hate Speech

LINKS:
http://www.vnews.com/search/5939600-95/jim-keynon-two-kinds-of-scouts
http://vtdigger.org/2013/05/04/5-million-vtel-cell-service-grant-cut-in-half/http://norwichobserver.blogspot.com/2013/05/selectboard-condemns-hate-speech.html


A subscription may be required for access to the Valley News stories. 

Norwich Selectboard Condemns Hate Speech

Related posts are here and here.


The Norwich Observer. Aggregating news and information about Norwich, Vermont with occasional commentary ... . 

Norwich Selectboard Agenda - May 8, 2013

Agenda for the Selectboard Meeting of Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 6:30 PM

(Times Are Approximate)

1)      Approval of Agenda (Action Item) 2 minutes

2)      Public Comments (Discussion) 10 minutes

3)      6:45 pm – Records Restoration Project (Discussion) 30 minutes

4)      Town Manager’s Report (Discussion) 5 minutes

5)      Finance – Board to Sign Accounts Payable/Warrants (Action Item) 5 minutes

6)      Reappoint James Dwinell to the Finance Committee (Discussion/Action Item) 5 minutes

7)      Committee Liaisons (Discussion) 10 minutes

8)      Solar Project (Discussion) 15 minutes

9)      Request to Expend up to $1,275 from the Fire Equipment Reserve Fund to Replace an AED (Discussion/Action Item) 5 minutes

10)   Approval of Purchase Order for a Consultant (Breadloaf) for Parts 3 and 4 of the Facilities Studies (Discussion/Action Item) 10 minutes

11)   Approval of Purchase Order (Green Mountain Communications) for Tower and Site Work (Discussion/Action Item) 10 minutes

12)   Patchen’s Point (Discussion) 5 minutes

13)   Correspondence (Discussion/Possible Action Item) 10 minutes

a)    Memo from TRORC Re: Enhanced Consultation

b)    Memo from TRORC Re: Scoping Document 2 Issued for TransCanada’s Wilder Dam Relicensing

c)     Memo from Murphy Sullivan Kronk Re: Application for a Certificate of Public Good

14)   Selectboard

a)    Approval of the Minutes of the 3/27/13 and 4/10/13 Meetings (Action Item) 5 minutes

b)    Between Meeting Communications (Discussion) 10 minutes

c)     Review of Next Agenda (Discussion/Possible Action Item) 5 minutes

d)    Personnel - Town Manager (Executive Session May be Required)

Next Regular Meeting – May 22, 2013 at 6:30 PM

To receive email notices of Selectboard meetings and hearings, agendas, minutes and other notices, send an email to manager-assistant@norwich.vt.usrequesting to be placed on the Town Email List.