Open house today for river projects
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TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: May 30, 2009
MONTPELIER – Find out what the Friends of the Winooski are working on this Saturday during an open house.
From 1 to 4 p.m. the Winooski Headwaters Community Project will host a self-paced tour of the many river protection projects in the area. Visitors can pick up a map of the sites from Twinfield School between noon and 1 p.m., the Martins Bridge site in Marshfield between 1 and 3 p.m., or print one from the Friends of the Winooski River Web site.
The Winooski Headwaters Community Project is a collaborative effort with partners that include local and state government, nonprofit organizations and interested citizens. The project is assisting the residents to restore and protect the ecological integrity and human enjoyment of the Winooski watershed, focused mainly in the towns of Cabot, Marshfield and Plainfield.
Open house stations include the following:
Portable skidder bridges – See one at Colin McCaffrey's property at 903 Route 214 in East Montpelier.
In Marshfield, check out fish habitat improvements and fish tagging/tracking at the Holt Road crossing of Naismith Brook. Water quality samples have been collected for the past two years and the local Conservation Commissions will host a demonstration at the Martins Bridge. Teachers and scientists are slated to host a hands-on, in-stream opportunity to learn about mussels, bugs and other critters at the Martins Bridge.
In Plainfield village center, folks can get a look at a rain garden being constructed.
To learn more about the open house, go to www.winooskiriver .org or call Ann Smith, director of Friends of the Winooski River at 655-4878.
Police: Sheldon house fire was set by owner
SHELDON (AP) — Vermont State Police say they will file criminal charges against the owner of a Sheldon home that was destroyed by fire Thursday.
Detective Sgt. Fred Cornell says an investigation showed that James Davenport intentionally set the fire that engulfed his home at the intersection of Route 105 and Woods Hill Road. It also destroyed a vehicle and injured him.
Davenport was taken to Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans for treatment of minor injuries after the fire.
The house and the vehicle were both total losses.
Lunenburg man dies in crash
CONCORD (AP) — Police are investigating a crash that killed a Lunenburg man.
Seventy-seven-year-old Lloyd F. Lewis died Wednesday night when his vehicle went off Route 2 in Concord and hit several trees. Police say the vehicle traveled 185 feet off the road before hitting the trees, with one crashing onto the roof and windshield.
AG says trooper justified in shooting at suspect
MONTPELIER (AP) — The Vermont Attorney General's office says a state police trooper was justified when she fired two shots at a suspect in Bethel who had aimed a handgun at her with a laser sight.
The suspect in the case, John Connelly, was not hit by either shot fired by Trooper Stacy Corliss in the Dec. 28, 2008, incident.
Police were called to an apartment after a report Connelly pointed a weapon at a resident and fired a gun. Connelly initially refused troopers' order to leave the apartment, but he then rushed out holding a handgun.
The attorney general's office says Corliss had a reasonable belief that she was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. Connelly is facing charges in the incident.
Teacher's aide denied bail
BURLINGTON (AP) — A former teacher's aide at a Burlington school will remain in jail pending trial on charges he molested a boy in the 1990s.
Forty-three-year-old Douglas Cavett of Milton is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault. Police say he met the boy in 1991, when he was 11 and Cavett was working at Hunt Middle School, and that Cavett molested him numerous times over several years.
Police say Cavett hosted parties at his home in which teenage boys were given alcohol and marijuana.
A judge has denied Cavett's request to be released from jail saying he is a significant risk to public safety.
Cavett has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Truck driver sentenced in head-on crash
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION (AP) — A truck driver is going to prison for a head-on collision in Quechee that led to the death of an 80-year-old man.
Police say Sirell D. Fiel, 24, of Buskirk, N.Y., was driving too fast on snowy Route 4 when his truck jackknifed and hit an oncoming vehicle driven by Melvin Geno of Hartford.
Hospitalized for more than a year with injuries from the crash, Geno died last July after being taken off life support. Lawyers had to rework a plea agreement after the judge and Geno's family objected to it, the Valley News reported.
Fiel, who pleaded no contest to gross negligent operation of a motor vehicle, agreed to a 60-day prison term and a yearlong driving restriction, which was requested by Geno's family.
Second arrest in fatal shooting of professor
BURLINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors in Chittenden County say they've charged another man in an accidental shooting that claimed the life of a retired English professor.
Twenty-seven-year-old Brad Lussier of Colchester is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the September death of John Reiss, a former professor at St. Michael's College. Reiss was hit with a stray bullet from a backyard firing range near his home in Essex. The bullet penetrated the wall of his home, striking him.
On Wednesday, 39-year-old Joseph McCarthy was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case. Prosecutors say he set up the shooting range in a place where it was inherently dangerous to be firing rifles.
Plans for Killington ski village aired
KILLINGTON (AP) — A long-awaited proposal to build a ski village at Killington is getting a cool initial reception.
SP Land Co.'s plan calls for the construction of up to 3,554 housing units on the 408-acre development over the next 20 years. But Town Planner Dick Horner says more specifics are needed on the road network, parking and wastewater drainage systems for the village.
SP Land Co. President Steve Selbo and planning consultant Julie Beth Hinds told the Killington Planning Commission on Wednesday that approval of the framework of the project was needed first.
In 2007, SP Land — a real estate developer — and Powdr Corp. purchased Killington from American Skiing Co. for $85.2 million.
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