Berlin Community News

BERLIN NEWS TO KNOW APRIL 14, 2013
*
Sent by Corinne Stridsberg and also posted at: http://socialenergy.blogspot.com
*
If you're not already receiving this news by email, send an email to request this to corinnestridsberg@gmail.com
*
Check out the Berlin, Vermont Community News page on facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Berlin-Vermont/205922199452224

Included below please find:
TOWN OF BERLIN
-BERLIN COMMITTEE VACANCIES
FROM BERLIN ELEMENTARY TO THE COMMUNITY
-TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS
-TRASH FOR CASH
-KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION & SCREENING MAY 10TH
-BOTTLES AND CANS FOR PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT
FROM U-32 TO THE COMMUNITY
-U-32 SENIOR VOLUNTEER SERVICE ON JUNE 12TH
-U-32 GREEN FESTIVAL May 2nd 9am-2:30pm & 6:30-8:30pm
OFFICES, APARTMENTS PROPOSED FOR BERLIN SITE
PETE'S GREENS TO BUY LEGARE FARM
***********************


*
BERLIN COMMITTEE VACANCIES
The town has several committees with vacant seats that would love to have your help! These committees include:
+PLANNING COMMISSION: 2 vacancies
+CENTRAL VERMONT REGIONAL PLANNING (TAC}: Representative vacancy
+SOLID WASTE DISTRICT: Alternate vacancy
+RECREATION COMMISSION: Would like any and all volunteers
+REGIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: One vacancy
+CEMETERY COMMISSION is charged with and receives funding for preserving Berlin's 9 historical cemeteries, and needs two additional volunteers to serve.  Much more information, including photographs, indexes of headstones, and meeting minutes may be found here:  http://www.berlinvt.org/cemetery.htm.  The Cemetery Commission meets next on April 25th at 7PM.
+EMERGENCY SHELTER/EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT TEAM
Several volunteers needed. There are training sessions for those who are interested. Contact one of the following people: 
Wanda Baril (wbaril19@msn.com);
Corinne Stridsberg (socialenergy@yahoo.com);
Ture Nelson (kb1nbj@comcast.net). 
Additional information about Emergency Management in Berlin can be found here: http://www.berlinvt.org/Emergency%20Management.htm

***
FROM BERLIN ELEMENTARY TO THE COMMUNITY
*
TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS
Do you shop at Price Chopper? The Berlin Elementary School can earn valuable points through the Tools for Schools program. Using the points that you earn every time you shop, the school can earn free educational supplies and equipment. This is hassle-free and no cost to the shopper! Simply visit www.pricechopper.com to register your AdvantEdge card. Our school code is 15281. If you do not have internet access, you may pick up a paper application at the school or email your AdvantEdge card number to the school and we will register you. Thank you!
*
TRASH FOR CASH
The Berlin Elementary School is pleased to have partnered up with Twin City Subaru as part of the Trash for Cash program. Bring your Green Up Day trash to Twin City Subaru on Friday, May 3rd, or Saturday, May 4th, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and Twin City will donate the cost of trash removal to Berlin Elementary's efforts to purchase new playground equipment. For event details, visit www.twincitysubaru.com/green-up-vermont.htm.
*
KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION & SCREENING MAY 10TH
For students not currently enrolled in Preschool at Berlin Elementary, who will be 5 years old ON OR BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1, 2013.
Please call Cally Clifton in the main office at school 223-2796, Ext. 121, to schedule an appointment and register your child for next fall’s kindergarten class. A copy of your child’s birth certificate and current immunization record must be brought with you on registration day.
*
BOTTLES AND CANS FOR PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT
Turn your bottles and cans into new playground equipment and promote health and fun for students at Berlin Elementary in the process! On May 4th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., drop your empty bottles and cans off at the Berlin Elementary School. Proceeds will be used to purchase new playground equipment. This is a student-driven initiative, with support from several adults. Please help the students make their dreams of new equipment come true! Questions? Call the school at 223-2796.
***
***
FROM U-32 TO THE COMMUNITY
*
U-32 SENIOR VOLUNTEER SERVICE ON JUNE 12TH
U-32 Seniors are Offering a Day of Volunteer Service!  Do you need help planting your garden? Painting your house? Moving firewood? Taking down storm windows? Detailing a car?
U-32 High School Student Council is planning a Senior Community Outreach Day: a chance for seniors at U-32 to give back to the community that has helped support them so much for the past 18 years.
Senior Community Outreach Day (SCOP) will take place on June 12th between 10:00AM and 2:00PM. We are seeking projects for small or large crews in the Middlesex, Worcester, East Montpelier, Berlin, and Calais communities. Let us know if you are in need of assistance! No job is too big or too small!
For more information or to suggest a project, please contact our Student Council Advisor, Paula Emery, at 229-0321 ext. 5135 or pemery@u32.org.
*
U-32 GREEN FESTIVAL May 2nd 9am-2:30pm & 6:30-8:30pm

Dear Green Professional,
Happy Spring!

I write representing the U-32 Middle/High School Green Team, a group of dedicated students working to make our school a more carbon neutral, ecological, and environmentally friendly place. We are hosting our first annual school wide U-32 Green Festival on Thursday, May 2, 2013. The Green Festival is a day where our entire learning community celebrates all we can do to improve our school and the five towns in our supervisory union (Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, Worcester) for the benefit of the environment. We intend to involve every one of our 730 campus students, quite a few of their parents, our staff, as well as other community members in this event, in the spirit of education.


· Set up a table/booth in our atrium (9:00am-2:30pm) to present to students what you have to offer them, or how they may help you.
· Submit a plan to us for a presentation to students (1:30pm-2:30pm). This could be anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and would involve about a dozen students..
· Attend our evening festival (6:30pm-8:30pm) to set up a table and/or present a workshop to parents and community members.



Michael Horowitz
Design & Technology Education
U-32 (Middle and High School)
802-229-0321 x1103
***
***
OFFICES, APARTMENTS PROPOSED FOR BERLIN SITE
Pub 4/9/13 Times Argus by David Delcore
   BERLIN — Owners of a six-lot subdivision that overlooks the Barre-Montpelier Road and is now home to an Autozone are hoping to redevelop one of the remaining parcels while constructing an apartment complex on another.
   Assuming the Fecteau family is able to obtain state and local permits, the vacant building that once housed Taco Bell and most recently Simply Subs II will be razed to make room for a 5,040-square-foot office building at the base of Overlook Drive, and a 54-unit apartment building will be constructed in two phases just up the hill.
   Berlin’s Development Review Board is considering both applications, which were filed separately by different branches of the same family-owned business.
   Fecteau Commercial Inc. has proposed replacing the vacant restaurant with a single-story office building, while Fecteau Residential Inc. is advancing plans for the four-story apartment complex. Both projects were the subject of recent hearings before the local board and will also require state land-use permits.
   Traffic is expected to be a key consideration, given the proximity of the private drive that would serve both developments to the intersection of the Barre-Montpelier Road and the Berlin State Highway. The local board is waiting for input from the state Agency of Transportation before deciding whether to schedule additional hearings on either or both of the proposals.
   Traffic was an issue in the permit process that paved the way for the construction of Autozone. The state required the elimination of the Barre-Montpelier Road curb cut that had served the building where Simply Subs II was doing business at the time. That drive was replaced with an entrance off Overlook Drive — the private dead-end road that was constructed to serve the hillside subdivision.
   According to documents filed with the town, the office building would be leased to a single tenant, which is not named but is expected to employ up to 30 people.
   The new building would be reoriented on the site, and though local regulations require only 21 parking spaces the plan is to create 40 spaces using land from a neighboring parcel in the subdivision.
   According to the application, the additional parking is being created in part to accommodate some future use of a building. The available parking would be enough, materials suggest, for a retail establishment with 19 employees or a 120-seat restaurant.
   Although Fecteau Commercial is proposing a surplus of parking for the office building at the base of Overlook Drive, Fecteau Residential is seeking a waiver of the town’s parking requirement for the apartment complex planned up the hill. Based on the number of proposed units, the town’s regulations call for 126 parking spaces, but the application contends that figure is excessive given contemplated lease restrictions that would limit the number of cars tenants could own. The complex would eventually include 38 two-bedroom units, 16 one-bedroom units and two studio apartments. The proposed restriction would essentially limit the number of cars tenants could park on site to the number of bedrooms in their apartment.
   The parking plan presented by Fecteau Residential anticipates 102 spaces, including 10 spaces for visitors.
   According to the application, the apartment complex would be built in two nearly identical phases. The lone exception is a “common building” that would eventually link two other structures that are essentially mirror images of each other.
   The common building would include a ground-floor lobby and administrative offices and provide access to the stairway and elevators, while the upper three floors would house a mix of dining, exercise and recreational space for tenants.
   The ground floor of the first of two structures that would contain the mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments — 28 in all — would include room for some indoor parking, as well as storage space. The apartments would be on the top three floors.
   The plan contemplates eventually duplicating that structure on the opposite side of the common building.
   david.delcore @timesargus.com
***
***
PETE'S GREENS TO BUY LEGARE FARM
Pub 4/12/13 Times Argus by David Delcore
   CALAIS — The man behind what’s billed as “Vermont’s 4-Season Organic Vegetable Farm” is getting ready to grow in more ways than one. Pete Johnson, of Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, is poised to purchase the 300-acre farm that Merrill Legare put on the map in Calais more than four decades ago.
   It isn’t a done deal, but Johnson said Thursday the price is right and that the closing is tentatively set for next week. He’s eager to see what he can do with land that was farmed for 40 years by a man he described as “a real pioneer” when it comes to fresh produce in Vermont.
   He’ll just have to wait awhile.
   Although Johnson and Legare have green thumbs and fresh vegetables in common, Johnson’s farm in Craftsbury is certified organic, and it will be two years before he can say the same about the one he plans to buy from Legare.
   “That land needs a couple more years before it can be certified (organic),” Johnson said, suggesting he isn’t in a rush to plant anything other than hay on property that features very sandy soils he believes would benefit biologically from a break.
   “We think a couple of years in hay would be really healthy for it,” he said.
   According to Johnson, that gives him time to think about how to incorporate his looming acquisition into the growing empire he started on less than an acre at his parents’ home in Greensboro in 1995 and moved to Craftsbury in 2003.
   The move to the 190-acre farm in Craftsbury, which includes 35 acres of prime agricultural land, capped a five-year search that proved one thing to Johnson.
   “The opportunity to buy farms that are good for growing vegetables on are not too common,” he said, noting that is why he had spoken to Legare about the possibility of buying his farm over the years and why he was more than willing to listen when the family approached him several months ago.
   “We were happy to be able to take it when it was offered to us,” Johnson said, noting that of the 300 acres, 42 acres are “good vegetable land,” there is a house “with potential” and greenhouses he will ultimately find a use for.
   For now, Johnson said, he’ll clean up the property with an eye toward eventually making it a functioning part of his all-organic vegetable operation and perhaps opening a second farm stand there.
   The farm’s proximity to Montpelier and its prominent location on Route 14 both made it attractive, according to Johnson, who said he is willing to wait awhile to make the most of those attributes.
   “I think two, three years from now is when we’ll start to be a real asset to the community,” he said.
   david.delcore @timesargus.com

***