Monday, June 20, 2016
Winooski City Manager Katherine Decarreau, who has overseen a revival of the Onion City during her seven years on the job, is resigning to take a position with the Chittenden Central Supervisory Union, the city announced Monday.
Decarreau, a city native and a Winooski High School graduate known as “Deac,” will depart August 1 to become the executive director of finance and operations for the union, which includes seven schools and 3,200 students in Essex and Westford.
“The opportunities in front of us are exciting and will require a very different skill set than the ones I brought to the position when I arrived,” Decarreau said in a prepared statement. “It is a really good time for me to return to more nuts-and-bolts work that I love. It is an equally good time for the city to evaluate our needs moving forward and to hire a new manager with the skills that will take us forward for the next part of our development.”
During Decarreau’s time in office, Winooski, which had long struggled to recover from the closure of its mills, welcomed an influx of young residents and workers and saw its downtown become a trendy destination.
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Friday, June 17, 2016
Beth Howe, who was walking to work in Colchester when she scrambled up an embankment onto I-89 to help, and Sgt. Cory Lozier received a Lifesaving Award at the Vermont Department of Public Safety's annual awards and promotions ceremony.
"Your actions are a credit to you and are honorably recognized," Detective Sgt. Julie Scribner told Howe and Lozier during the ceremony, according to prepared remarks.
Howe and Lozier pulled Danielle Houle-Charbonneau, who was badly injured, from her car moments before it was engulfed in flames. Houle-Charbonneau, a 45-year-old Swanton resident whose car was hit from behind in a large pileup, has had several surgeries and is still recovering.
The Department of Public Safety also recognized civilians who rescued a woman from a burning home in Milton, pulled a driver out of a burning car in Springfield, and cared for a woman involved in a motorcycle collision in Bethel.
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A 28-year-old man survived a suspected overdose after being found around 9:20 a.m. Thursday at a North Winooski Avenue home. He was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center for evaluation, police said.
Around 2 p.m., a 27-year-old man died after an apparent overdose in an Archibald Street home, police said. Police said they used naloxone, an overdose-reversing drug now carried by Burlington cops, to try to revive the man.
Detective Lt. Shawn Burke said the incidents do not appear to be related.
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That’s the max allowed under an agreement between the Burlington Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Commission and Burlington Segway Tours, the rental company offering the e-bikes.
The commission voted to allow the rentals in April after several years of lobbying by Burlington Segway Tours co-owner Rick Sharp.
Tags: Rick Sharp , Burlington Bike Path , Burlington , Burlington Segway Tour , Burlington Electric Bikes , Burlington Segways , Waterfront Park , Alden Plan , Colchester Causeway , 277 Pine Street , Jesse Bridges , Image , Web Only
Thursday, June 16, 2016
In an online address Thursday evening, the senator from Vermont pledged to continue fighting for a "political revolution" — through next month's Democratic National Convention and beyond.
"This campaign has never been about any single candidate," he said. "It has always been about transforming America."
In a 23-minute speech, broadcast live from a television studio in Burlington's Old North End, Sanders did not say he would continue challenging former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. But neither did he say the words "concede," "suspend" or "endorse." Rather, he seemed to be holding out for specific concessions.
"It is no secret that Secretary Clinton and I have strong disagreements on some very, very important issues. It is also true that our views are quite close on others," he said. "I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continued discussions between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history — and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda."
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"In a word, yes, absolutely we did the right thing," said Sen. Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden), the Democratic majority leader.
"The approach the Senate took was not to prejudge McAllister in any way," he said. "It was to say: Without a look at the state's case, we can say that there are multiple serious sexual assault charges pending, and we don't believe he should be wielding powers as a senator while it's pending."
Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia), the Republican minority leader, agreed.
"Based on the information we had at the time, it was clear the Senate was going to be in a state of dysfunction," he said. "It was never about Norm McAllister's guilt or innocence. This was about the Senate's ability to function, and my opinion at the time was it would not."
Tags: Norm McAllister , Joe Benning , Phil Baruth , John Campbell , Kevin Mullin , Dustin Degree , Sara Kittell , Denise Smith , Carolyn Branagan , statehouse , montpelier , Image , Web Only
The principal of Burlington High School authorized "thousands of dollars" in payments from student account funds without proper documentation, according to Burlington School District director of finance Nathan Lavery.
Revenue from student parking permits was improperly used to buy professional baseball tickets for employees, he wrote in a June 13 memo to the Burlington School Board. And other payments to high school staff appear to meet the definition of wages rather than reimbursements, and should have been made via payroll — not student activity accounts, Lavery wrote.
The memo never mentions longtime BHS principal Amy Mellencamp by name, but singles her out by title and says she failed to properly manage student account funds. Details on the dollar amounts are not specified. Seven Days has filed a public records request seeking the full report on student accounts.
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Much has changed in a year. As state Democrats prepare to gather again Friday night, Wasserman Schultz has fallen out of favor and won’t be back. She and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have spent months waging war over whether the Vermont senator’s presidential run has gotten a fair shake from the party. The disagreement has gotten so ugly that on Tuesday, Sanders said the Democrats need a new leader.
With that discord in mind, party officials invited a DNC vice chair, R.T. Rybak, a former Minneapolis mayor, to speak at this year’s dinner. Party officials hope Rybak can bring peace between factions of the party who back Sanders and those who support former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
“We’re looking for people who, after the dust settles, can unify the party,” said Conor Casey, executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party.
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State prosecutors abruptly dismissed sexual assault charges Thursday morning against Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin), a day after his accuser struggled on the stand with discrepancies in her story.
“The state is in a position to have to dismiss,” Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler told Vermont Superior Court Judge Robert Mello at about 9:45 a.m.
“Something came to light during [Wednesday] evening that warranted the state to have to dismiss the matter,” Wheeler said outside the courtroom afterward, adding that doing so was her “ethical obligation.”
Her boss, State’s Attorney Jim Hughes, said in an interview that an issue arose in his office after trial testimony on Wednesday, prompting the need to dismiss the case. “I can’t tell you specifics or details of the ethical dilemma, because we still have charges pending against Mr. McAllister.”
Tags: Norm McAllister , Brooks McArthur , Diane Wheeler , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
“When I wouldn’t give up, he threw me over his shoulder,” the slight, 4-foot-11-inch woman said, describing an alleged incident at McAllister’s Franklin County farmhouse. Asked what she was thinking as he forced her to have sex, she said: “That I was in hell. I didn’t want it happening.”
For most of the afternoon, however, the woman faced a bristly exchange with one of McAllister’s lawyers as he laid out numerous differences in the accounts she had told to the jury, lawyers and police, each time under oath.
“Would you agree that what you told me under oath just a few weeks ago is different than what you just told the jury?” David Williams asked.
“I guess so,” she mumbled. Dressed in a green plaid shirt and jeans, with her hair in a ponytail, the woman was visibly uncomfortable throughout her testimony, at times sitting with arms crossed, impatient with questions from both the prosecution and defense.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Vermont Senate , sexual assault , Diane Wheeler , David Williams , Image , Web Only