Berlin Community News

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Sent by Corinne Stridsberg and also posted at: http://socialenergy.blogspot.com  
(if you're new to the send list, this is where to find previous postings)
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If you're not already receiving this news by email, send an email to request this to corinnestridsberg@gmail.com
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Check out the Berlin, Vermont Community News page on facebook to find bits of current news:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berlin-Vermont/205922199452224

Have you gotten out to accomplish some of the Venture Vermont Outdoor Challenges from the Vermont State Parks?



AUTHORS AT THE ALDRICH
STOWEFLAKE HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL JULY 12-14
VERMONT FAIRS AND FIELD DAYS
BARRE-MONTPELIER ROAD DEVELOPER HAS LOTS OF PROJECTS IN WORKS
CVCAC MAY HAVE FOUND A BUYER
CHANGE IN NATIONAL FIRE CODE COULD ADD COSTS TO VT PROJECTS
UVM EXT. HIRES FARMING & CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM COORDINATOR
BERLIN TO WEIGH FUTURE OF HEALTH INSURANCE
NEW OWNERS AIM TO BE HAPPY CAMPERS

RAIN DAMAGE?
So far it seems (knock on wood) that Berlin hasn't received significant damage from the rains that continue to cause issues around the state.  If there are any reports of home damage from these rains this information should go to your town emergency manager just as soon as possible and make sure your town is aware of all road damage. Photos are always helpful to go along with reports.  They in turn make sure the state is aware and this can aid the state on a county level for declaring disaster and receiving potential federal level funds (although funding may not get to the personal property level).


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STOWEFLAKE HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL JULY 12-14
Have you attended a hot air balloon festival before?  Looks like there could be good weather for it this weekend up in Stowe.  Find the details about this  http://www.stoweflake.com/activities_balloon_festival.aspx

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VERMONT FAIRS AND FIELD DAYS
Find the dates and websites for Fairs and Field Days events around the state at: http://vtnhfairs.com/Vermont_Fairs.html
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A listing that includes festivals can be found at:
http://www.fairsandfestivals.net/states/VT
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An additional place to find not only fairs & festivals but many other events is Find & Go Seek.  Be sure to look at the sidebar on this website for other interests. http://www.findandgoseek.net/category/fairs-festivals

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AUTHORS AT THE ALDRICH
Each summer at the Barre Library, they host their "Authors at the Aldrich" series.  The listing for programs this summer can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=652103024806067&set=a.205329816150059.64589.202387356444305&type=1&theater


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BARRE-MONTPELIER ROAD DEVELOPER HAS LOTS OF PROJECTS IN WORKS
Pub 6/27/13 Times Argus by David Delcore
   BERLIN — For the moment it’s the status quo at one of developer Patrick Malone’s spring acquisitions on the Barre-Montpelier Road, and anything is possible at the other.
   In recent months Malone’s Montpelier-based real estate investment and development company has snapped up two more properties along the busy commercial strip that runs between central Vermont’s two largest cities.
   Malone said this week he is still toying with the idea of radically altering one of them even as work on the other is just getting under way.
   Malone is keeping his options open when it comes to the vacant 20,000-square-foot cinder block building that once served as a regional headquarters for New England Telephone Co. and more recently was home to a string of small businesses that specialized in oil changes and automotive repairs.
   Malone purchased the 2.1-acre property from R&G Properties for $700,000 in late March and followed it up with his mid-May acquisition of the similar-sized Hooker Plaza, which is anchored by Newhouse Furniture. That 2-acre property, which is also home to Barre Electric Supply and an adjacent building that houses the party supply store Rubber Bubbles and a small business that specializes in countertops, was sold by the Newhouse family for $1.6 million – slightly more than its assessed value.
   Giving the old telephone company building a new look — complete with new landscaping — is the first order of business, according to Malone, whose newly filed “multi-use” application with the town leaves the door open to everything from office to retail as he begins gutting a structure that will remain largely intact, but should soon be sporting new siding, a repaired roof and a renovated interior.
   If Malone has a tenant or tenants in mind for the building he isn’t ready to talk about them. But given the recent revival of the Barre-Montpelier Road, where Panera Bread recently started selling soup-filled bread bowls and a new CVS Pharmacy is now under construction, he isn’t worried.
   “I’ve got a couple of very good prospects. Why don’t we just leave it at that?” he said.
   From where Malone sits you can never have enough strategically located square footage, whether it’s along the Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin, the Shelburne Road in Shelburne, where one of his tenants is Newhouse Furniture, or Dorset Street in South Burlington, where he’s in the process of obtaining permits necessary to pave the way for construction of one of Trader Joe’s specialty foods stores.
   Neither of the two new Berlin projects is on that scale, and Malone said one of them — what to do with the Hooker Plaza — hasn’t fully come into focus. He said he has flirted with the possibility of razing both structures and starting from scratch, but isn’t sure he wants incur the expense of flood-proofing whatever he builds.
   That said, according to Malone, there aren’t many inexpensive fixes to a building with ceilings that are a few feet lower than is optimal when it comes to modern retail space.
   “I can cure a lot of things, but I can’t cure low ceilings,” he said.
   Malone said one option he has considered is building two new structures on the site, and having soon-to-be-renovated square footage available just up the road could come in handy if he needs to juggle tenants.
   “We may have to offer part of that (old telephone building) up for replacement space, either short- or long-term,” he said.
   According to Malone, phasing construction of the two new buildings — if he elects to go that route — could allow one or more of the existing tenants to remain where they are and then move into the new building once it is finished.
   “We’ve got some options, but the idea is to accommodate the tenants that are there,” he said.
   Malone said he hopes to complete both projects this year.
   It isn’t the first time Malone has gone real estate shopping on the Barre-Montpelier Road. In 1998 his company acquired the rundown truck garage and storage facility that he transformed into the tasteful building that is now home to Harry’s Pharmacy, the Computer Barn and two other commercial spaces. He subsequently acquired the property that is home to Windshield World and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and last year he bought an old muffler repair shop and converted it into a spacious new home for Verizon Wireless.
   Though Malone has purchased and redeveloped properties around the state, he said he particularly enjoys working in central Vermont.
   “It’s close to home,” he said.
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CVCAC MAY HAVE FOUND A BUYER
Pub. 6/24/13 Times Argus by David Delcore
   BERLIN — The Central Vermont Community Action Council may have found a buyer for the converted furniture store that has served as its headquarters for the past two decades.
   As CVCAC staff readies to make the move from Berlin back to Barre where a newly expanded campus is awaiting them on Gable Place, a Montpelier entrepreneur is hoping to acquire the building they’ll be leaving behind next week.
   The deal is far from done, but if all goes as planned Willis Backus, who opened Cool Jewels on the corner of State and Main streets in Montpelier 15 years ago, will be setting up shop in the building where Chellis Collins and his family once sold furniture.
   According to Backus, Cool Jewels isn’t going anywhere, but a still-evolving sister-business that he has operated in several locations over the course of the last 35 years is poised to make another move.
   For the past decade Backus has run South Pacific Wholesale — a wholesale-turned-Internet retail company that specializes in beads, beading supplies, semi-precious stones, jewelry and other “findings” — out of 5,000-square-feet of leased space located both above and below the House of Tang Restaurant on River Street in Montpelier.
   With the lease price continually creeping up and his current agreement slated to expire this fall, Backus said he had been looking for an alternate site.
   “The rent is at the point where I can buy a building and it (the mortgage) is not going to cost any more than it’s going to cost me to rent,” he said.
   Backus said he was attracted to CVCAC’s Barre-Montpelier Road location for a number of reasons. One of them is that it is roughly twice the size of the space he currently rents. Another is that it should lend itself well to a walk-in retail business — similar to Cool Jewels, but under a different name — that will supplement his Internet sales.
   “I’m not looking to do big-time retail, but if I can lure people off the Barre-Montpelier Road then I’m in retail,” Backus said, explaining his pending application for the conditional use permit that he will need in order to convert what is currently office space back to a commercial venture.
   CVCAC has consented to let Backus pursue the permit, which will come before the town’s development review board next month.
   Backus, who has the CVCAC building under contract, hopes to obtain the permit and close on the property over the summer and then get ready for a move of his own in the fall.
   “I’d like to be open in November,” he said.
   Backus, who has plenty of time to pick a name for his new venture between now and then, said anyone who has visited his downtown Montpelier shop has a pretty good idea of what he’ll be selling.
   “It’s a lot of what you see in Cool Jewels, just more of it,” he said.
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CHANGE IN NATIONAL FIRE CODE COULD ADD COSTS TO VT PROJECTS
VTDigger published this story on July 5th by Hilary Niles, it's regarding a change in National Fire Code that is having local implications


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VTDigger published this story 6/19/13 by Audrey Clark about hiring a coordinator who will network with farmers and researchers along with doing his own research to help solve problems.


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Pub 7/3/13 Times Argus by David Delcore
   BERLIN — From a looming shift to state-run health care and the proposed merger of two regional organizations to the obscure name of a local road and the warranty for a troublesome town truck, the Select Board spent a lot of time talking about change this week.
   Although board members didn’t make many decisions, they were told there are some important ones in the offing, including how they plan to navigate the still-murky waters of Vermont Health Connect — a state-run insurance exchange being created to comply with the federal Affordable Care Act.
   Because it has fewer than 50 employees, Berlin is among the Vermont communities that will be affected when the exchange is launched in October and is fully functional Jan. 1.
   Consulting a representative of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, board members were told they will have to make some threshold decisions — including whether the town will continue to offer health insurance to its employees — in the next few months.
   “The town is going to have to start thinking about how best (it) can work through” an evolving health care system and what role the town will play, said Town Administrator Jeff Schulz.
   Blue Cross has proposed a range of plans that will be available on the exchange, and so has MVP. Both private insurers may yet be joined by the Vermont Health CO-OP, and as soon as rates are set the town can start shopping for something approaching the high-deductible managed care plan it currently offers employees through Blue Cross.
   Or not.
   The town isn’t under any obligation to provide health insurance benefits, and it could opt to let employees choose from the various plans that will be available. Based on their household incomes some of those employees could qualify for federal subsidies and, board members were told, all would be forced to use post-tax dollars to acquire insurance if the town isn’t an active participant.
   Board members didn’t like the sound of that, but they didn’t like the look of proposed out-of-pocket expenses that are being proposed either. They were encouraged to wait until the rates are finalized in the next few weeks, then look for a plan similar to the one they now offer and decide whether to offer that exclusively or let employees pick their own plan using what would amount to a defined contribution from the town.
   Board members agreed that educating themselves and the town’s 15 full-time employees will be crucial in coming weeks.
   “This is right around the corner,” said Selectman Pete Kelley.
   Currently the town picks up 50 percent of the cost of a high-deductible plan for its nonunion employees and is in the middle of a five-year contract with union members of its Police Department during which the municipal contribution is scheduled to drop to 50 percent, from 80 percent.
   While board members were uncertain about how to proceed on the health insurance front, they were mildly uneasy about a plan to merge the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission and Central Vermont Economic Development Corp. and ambivalent about a request to change the name of Glinnis Road to Maloney Road. However, they were all on the same page when it came to the warranty on a new town truck that they bought from Clark’s International in November.
   Since then the transmission and the engine block have had to be replaced and the truck has been out of service for the better part of four months.
   “We’ve replaced major drive train parts and it breaks again,” Kelley said, noting that while the repairs have been covered, the town should reach out to the supplier and ask that the warranty be extended at no cost due to the inconvenience.
   Though they have discussed the potential merger of the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission and Central Vermont Economic Development Corp. in the past and their delegate to the commission, Bob Wernecke, is a supporter of the idea, board members said they wanted another two weeks to think about it.
   Wernecke said he supports the recommendation of a yearlong study and believes the result would be a “more efficient and effective organization” that would better serve the needs of central Vermont.
   “I believe in this merger,” he said. “I think it’s the right way to go.”
   However, Select Board member Jeremy Hansen said critics of the proposal make compelling arguments he believed the board should fully consider before directing Wernecke how to vote.
   Confronted with an old request to change the name of Glinnis Road to Maloney Road, the board agreed to schedule a public hearing on the proposal.
   In other business, board members approved an agreement with the state Agency of Transportation that will pave the way for the state-funded installation of new guardrails and signs on Dog River Road and approved a license for River Run Manor — a mobile home park along the Barre-Montpelier Road.
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NEW OWNERS AIM TO BE HAPPY CAMPERS
Pub 7/6/13 Times Argus by David Delcore
   WILLIAMSTOWN — He’s a professional builder who specializes in custom
modular homes. She spent 15 years in retail. They’re both 46, have been
married for 14 years and have a youngest child in their blended family who is
13.
   Time for Kelly Larose and her husband, Rick, to start thinking about
retirement, right?
   Sort of.
   Kelly Larose said she and her husband have thought a lot about their glide
path to retirement, which is why on the eve of their 14th wedding anniversary
last month they sealed the deal to buy Limehurst Lake Campground from
longtime owners Don and Maggie Dexter.
   The Dexters, it turns out, are actually retiring and have been looking for
someone to buy the 30-acre campground with the 11-acre private lake that
they had owned and operated for more than three decades.
   Enter the Laroses, a Swanton couple who aren’t getting any younger and are
hoping to pivot away from Larose Custom Homes to something a little less
physically demanding.
   “We were looking for our fun job to retire out of,” said Kelly Larose, who said
buying Limehurst Lake fit the bill.
   “We always had the desire to own a campground and retire out of that,” she
said.
   Mission accomplished.
   On June 18 the Dexters and the Laroses got together and the torch to
Limehurst Lake was officially passed along with the title to the Route 14
campground.
   “That was our (anniversary) present,” Kelly Larose said. “We had a ‘happy
anniversary,’ a ‘happy retirement’ and ‘good luck to the new owners’ all at the
same time.”
   Sure, there have been only three rain-free days since then, but that can’t last,
and Kelly Larose said she’s one RV reservation, a couple of tent sites and two
lean-tos away from being fully booked through the holiday weekend.
   “It’s a venture that we’re glad we did,” she said, explaining the couple have a
five-year plan to completely renovate — and possibly expand — the
campground. A run of wet weather won’t change that.
   “This was meant to be,” she said.
   That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been an adjustment.
   Her days just got a whole lot longer, she’s many miles from her spacious
home in Swanton, and, until he finishes work on an addition in Leicester, her
husband is one of a small cadre of family “weekenders” who pitch in when
they can.
   “I’m used to living in a 3,500-square-foot home, and I’m living now in a sixwheel camper,” Kelly Larose said.
   It wasn’t a complaint; it was an observation on her changing lifestyle — a
lifestyle that will continue to evolve along with the couple’s vision of a more
“kid-friendly” campground with new buildings, a bigger beach, more
landscaping, more sites and probably more cabins.
   “That’s the five-year plan,” said Larose, who noted it doesn’t hurt that her
husband knows a thing or two about building.
   “It’s a good fit for us,” she said. “We enjoy camping, we enjoy people, (and)
we like to get together from the bonfires to the community potluck dinners.”
According to her, the family has camped at Limehurst Lake for the past two
years and had inquired about the possibility of buying it.
   “It’s very pretty down in here,” she said. “The lake is nice and quiet, and (the
campground) just needs a little updating.”

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Usually it's the Berlin Front Porch Forum I may share a few posts from but this time it's our neighbors in Middlesex who I thought had some news you'd be interested in.


"Rumble Strip" Local Radio Show







2013 Summer Concert Series