NORTH HAVERHILL—A Bradford woman pleaded guilty last week to criminal charges related to an incident last year when she swiped a handgun from one car and took the phone from another as she made her way from New Hampshire to Vermont.
Jennifer Fornwalt pleaded guilty on Jan. 12 to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the report of a crime and a felony charge of theft.
WELLS RIVER—The Blue Mountain Union School Board has approved a budget of $8.7 million for the 2022-2023 fiscal year that will now go to voters on March 1.
The BMU board passed the budget resolution unanimously during a Jan. 12 meeting. The budget will increase by $450,997 from this year’s budget, which is $8.3 million.
WAITS RIVER—Classes at Waits River Valley School resumed last week after a post-holiday surge Covid and other illnesses prompted closures at all Orange East Supervisory Union schools.
At a school board meeting, held via Zoom, on Jan. 13, WRVS Principal Carlotta Simonds-Perantoni said that between Jan. 5 and 12, there were 14 students and six staff members that tested positive with 15 additional people quarantining. There were also six cases that were community-based, which means they were not caught at school.
GROTON—Groton selectmen will send a budget with a roughly 6% increase in spending to voters at town meeting.
The budget’s approval came only after board members voted to reopen budget discussions after initially approving a $1,170,799 spending plan on Dec. 16. That plan incorporated a 5.9% cost of living increase for the town’s four employees, three of whom are elected.
MONTPELIER—State Rep. Topper McFaun, R-Barre, has introduced a bill that would open an emergency juvenile correctional facility in Windsor.
The bill would set aside $3 million in existing Vermont Department of Children and Families funding in order to operate the temporary facility, which would consist of 10 beds at the former Southeast State Correctional Facility. The Windsor facility would house up to 10 adolescent boys who are involved with the Vermont juvenile justice system.
BRADFORD—Orange East Supervisory Union board members talked big dollars at their monthly meeting on Jan. 4.
In addition to preparing a $7.5 million budget for the central office for 2022-2023, the board reviewed more than $10 million in federal pandemic relief funding that the district could receive.
BRADFORD—In the mid-1980s, an 18-acre parcel in Bradford Center near the Waits River, was donated to the Green Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America by longtime Bradford resident, Charles A. Kenyon.
The land has been used by local Scouts for nearly 40 years, but could be sold to help the national organization satisfy its creditors after declaring bankruptcy in 2020 amidst a deluge of lawsuits related to alleged sexual abuse.
NEWBURY—Lyme Green Heat’s plan to produce wood pellets on the former Newman Lumber property in the Newbury Industrial Park has been approved by the Newbury Development Review Board.
The DRB unanimously approved the site plan application last week after a public hearing was held on Dec. 30.
“We’ve been thinking about this project for a while,” said Steve Whipple of Mainely Environmental, the engineering firm consulting with Lyme Green Heat, at the hearing.
BRADFORD—COVID-19 and a labor crunch have dashed plans to resurrect a full-time summer camp in 2022.
At a meeting on Dec. 21, Bradford Selectboard members instead agreed to a concept proposed by the Bradford Parks and Recreation Commission to hold short-term programming and a series of clinics rather than a full-time camp next summer.
NORTH HAVERHILL—The Haverhill Cooperative School Board has moved the location of its next meeting to the Haverhill Cooperative Middle School.
The meeting is on Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. Masks will be on the agenda after the board’s decision in December to repeal its targeted masking policy drew criticism, including from the local teachers union.