A beautiful home in Shelburne, VT is now for sale by owner. The home is a 2000 sq. ft. ranch with upper and lower levels, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a gorgeous remodeled kitchen. The home is located directly across from the Shelburne Museum entrance with beautiful Adirondack and sunset views. Easy access to the bus line, stores and everything Shelburne Village has to offer. Lake Champlain and the beach are just 5 minutes away. The home has all new hardwood floors on the upper level and a remodeled kitchen with granite counter tops. Heating in the winter is very inexpensive due to the excellent insulation work done within the house.  This home has been lovingly cared for and you’ll be surprised as to what you see inside. The asking price is $299,500.

The other night my flight came in from Newark. It was 12;30am at night and there were passengers from 3 flights waiting to receive their luggage. The luggage belt in the middle was non-functional (as it was several months ago when I picked up someone who flew into BTV) so that meant a lot of confusion as to what belts were circulating which flight’s bags. I took at least an hour to pick up luggage that night.

The renovation is fine and dandy but who forgot about the luggage carousels? No notifications on the overhead display as to which flights bags are coming in and a carousel that’s been down for months. Burlington Airport is a very nice and charming alternative to the big airports and as far as I can see, the baggage carousels are the only failure and an abysmal one at that. Come on BTV, you can do better!

During the debate about whether to accept a pay cut, most of those who spoke in favor of the cut insisted that in such dire times, when so many Vermonters are making sacrifices, that legislators should also make sacrifices. However, of those who voted against the cut, most of those who spoke insisted that they work far too hard for anybody to think they should be paid any less than the pay they already earn serving in legislature.

There is now a bill creeping forward, which if passed, will provide each legislator a laptop computer – apparently courtesy of Vermont taxpayers. House bill 385 is sponsored by four Democrats, all who voted against the pay cut. They are Ken Atkins of Winooski, Richard Howigan of Fairfield, Tim Jerman of Essex, and Kathy Keenan of St. Albans City. The following is the “statement of purpose” as recorded on the bill.

“This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.”

If this bill comes up for debate on the House Floor it will certainly be interesting to know why the legislators promoting this bill think we all need a laptop computer at taxpayer expense when many taxpayers can’t afford their own.

To find out how your legislators voted on various “roll call” votes, votes that are recorded, go to www.leg.state.vt.us.

The author of this article, Scott Wheeler of Derby, represents Brownington, Charleston, Derby, Holland, and Morgan in the Vermont House. He serves this district along with Representative Robert Lewis of Derby.

From the VTGOP newsletter:

Just 2 weeks ago, House Democrats voted against cutting their own pay by 5%, but now some in the Democratic caucus want you, the taxpayer, to buy them their very own laptop computer. See the text of the bill below. You just can’t make this up.

BILL AS INTRODUCED
H.385
2009
Page 1

1 H.385
2 SHORT FORM
3 Introduced by Representatives Atkins of Winooski, Howrigan of Fairfield,
4 Jerman of Essex and Keenan of St. Albans City
5 Referred to Committee on
6 Date:
7 Subject: Appropriations; legislature; laptops
8 Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the
9 purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.
10 An act relating to laptops for legislators
11 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
12 (TEXT OMITTED IN SHORT-FORM BILLS)

Please forward this to your friends and family or take the time to contact your legislator. It is up to us to show Vermonters how out of touch the Democrats in the Legislature really are.

Lighthouses typically light the way for boaters around obstacles. Early Wednesday morning a lighthouse was placed on the shores of Lake Memphremagog, not to light the way for boaters, but to light the way for a brighter future for downtown Newport.

“This is awesome,” Newport City Mayor Ellwood “Woody” Guyette repeated numerous times as he watched the replica of the old-fashioned light house being erected on the lower end of Main Street near the railroad bridge in the general area of what will become known as Steamboat Wharf (the name of a dock that once stood there). The lighthouse is a dream come true for Bill and Nancy Cook of Newport. In addition to having the lighthouse built, the couple are in the final stages of bringing the days of the tour boat back to the lake that stretches from Newport, Vermont, about 30 miles north to Magog, Quebec. Hopes are that the Newport Belle, a 70-passenger tour boat, will set sail on the lake in July. A new website is also in progress at http://www.newportbelletours.com/
“This is just the beginning of the downtown revitalization,” Guyette said optimistically, commending the Cooks for making their dreams become reality while bettering the city.

Read the full article with photos at the Vermont Northland Journal.

BY JEANNE MILES, Staff Writer
Saturday April 14, 2007

ST. JOHNSBURY — Business at Weidmann Electrical Technology in St. Johnsbury is booming. So much, the company is looking to expand its operations.

But that expansion will not take place in Vermont due to high taxes and a strong impression by investors that Vermont is unfriendly to business, according to a letter sent April 2 by John Goodrich, vice president and general manager of Weidmann Technology.

“The paradox of the situation is this: we are extremely busy but are unable to expand in Vermont,” Goodrich wrote.

Read the full article here

“Based on the award-winning novel by Howard Frank Mosher, Disappearances is a spellbinding tale of high-stakes whiskey-smuggling, a family’s mysterious past, and a young boy’s rite of passage.

Quebec Bill, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered cattle herd at the end of a long winter, resorts to whiskey smuggling, a traditional family occupation. He takes his son, Wild Bill, on an unforgettable journey that will long remain etched in the viewer’s mind, through vast reaches of the Canadian wilderness and into a haunted and elusive past. What they find is the stuff of genuine legend.”

Also, be sure to check out the fantastic book by Scott Wheeler “Rumrunners and Revenuers: Prohibition in Vermont” for the true story and it’s effects on the state of vermont.