Friday, October 10, 2014

 

News to Know September 26, 2014

BERLIN NEWS TO KNOW  September 26, 2014
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This  communication is put together and distributed on a volunteer basis by resident Corinne Stridsberg simply in an effort to share information and build community, it is not from the town of Berlin.
Please share this with your Berlin friends and neighbors.  If you're not already receiving this news directly 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, some not included here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berlin-Vermont/205922199452224

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Notes:
Today marks 60 years since WCAX Channel 3 went on the air.  Did you see "Vermont's Own Legacy: 60 Years of WCAX" today at 5:30pm?  Fantastic!!  If you missed it, the program will be repeated Saturday 9/27 at 1:30pm.  My dad was a part of the WCAX family back in the '70s - he did the Saturday night sports.  Didn't everybody here in Vermont watch WCAX growing up?!
I'm assuming WCAX will end up having the program available on line and will share the link.  Meanwhile, the producers of this thirty minutes of history which changed Vermont so much were on the WCAX program "The :30" on 9/25 and that can be found at this link:
http://www.wcax.com/category/166239/video-landing-page?clipId=10624957&autostart=true

The very last two items I included from Front Porch Forum are events taking place on Saturday, September 27th - it's Drug Takeback Day at several nearby locations and in the afternoon it's the Harvest Festival at Fresh Tracks (music, food, and picking grapes!).

Hope you're all enjoying the great foliage!!

Below you will find:
WICKED BINES FARM
CLOVER FUNDRAISER AT TRACTOR SUPPLY WILL SUPPORT BERLIN 4-H
STATE WANTS TRAFFIC STUDY, CHANGES FOR MAPLEWOOD EXPANSION
GLEANING EFFORT EXPANDS IN CENTRAL VERMONT
SUMMER GLEANINGS BENEFITING FOOD PROGRAMS STATEWIDE
LACK OF WATER COMMITMENT PUTS PERMIT ON HOLD
NEW PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL SHORT ON STAFF NURSES
FROM BERLIN FRONT PAGE FORUM

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WICKED BINES FARM
Did you know that at the end of Marvin Road (#407) is Wicked Bines Farm?  Not sure where that is? Route 2 just past Agway Farm & Garden along with Casella, across from the bus barn, there is a right turn.  They have raw honey available in 1/2 lb. or 1 lb. glass jars along with other products such as eggs, chicken, turkey, and pork along with round and square bales of hay.   Call Mike & Cindy Noyes at 223-7931 or wickedbinesfarm@gmail.com.  Check out their website www.wickedbinesfarm.com and they're also on facebook.
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CLOVER FUNDRAISER AT TRACTOR SUPPLY WILL SUPPORT BERLIN 4-H
   From Oct. 8-19  your purchase of paper clovers for one dollar at the checkout at Tractor Supply will support the UVM Extension 4-H programs which includes the Horse of Course 4-H Club in Berlin, awards, and events in Washington County.
   Tractor Supply has participated in this campaign since they began in 2010 which has raised thousands of dollars for local 4-H.  4-H club participants are usually at these campaigns helping to promote 4-H.  There will be a display in the store highlighting local 4-H programs including special interest and after-school programs.   In Central Vermont 4-H programs include work with horses, dairy, gardening, swine, poultry, working steers, science, engineering and technology.
   To learn more about
Washington County 4-H, contact Michael Wilson, Washington County 4-H educator, at 223-2389, ext. 205, or m.wilson@uvm.edu.
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STATE WANTS TRAFFIC STUDY, CHANGES FOR MAPLEWOOD EXPANSION
Pub. 9/13/14 Times Argus by David Delcore
   BERLIN — It isn’t an incurable problem, but the state Agency of Transportation has expressed concern that truck traffic generated by a proposed convenience store and welcome center on Paine Turnpike North could create delays at the nearby Route 62 intersection.
   Responding to the Development Review Board’s request they assess a traffic study prepared by a consultant representing Maplewood Limited, agency officials gave the board a written assessment that included a short list of recommendations they would like as conditions in any permit for the project.
   One condition involves requiring Maplewood Limited to install a “dilemma zone” detector on Route 62 near the limited access highway’s traffic light at Paine Turnpike North.
   The technology would involve a radar-based sensor that would detect vehicles approaching the intersection, assess their speeds and determine whether to extend the green light for their safe passage.
   Several years ago, the agency installed one of the detection systems just down the road at the intersection of Route 62 and Fisher and Airport roads.
   The suggested installation of the “dilemma zone” detector would be in addition to changes proposed by Maplewood Limited’s traffic consultant, Resource Systems Group. Transportation Agency officials have concluded that the consultant’s study gives a fair representation of the anticipated increase in traffic associated with the planned expansion of an existing operation.
   Plans call for the construction of a 9,000-square-foot convenience store and welcome center, which would be roughly three times the size of the existing Maplewood Convenience Store and Deli. That building would be demolished and its fueling stations removed and relocated as part of the project.
   Optimizing the traffic signal will be key due to the projected increase in traffic — particularly truck traffic — according to the memo.
   “The concern is trucks making their way back to the Interstate,” the memo states, noting that trucks turning left off Paine Turnpike North and onto Route 62 could create delays at the intersection that is a short distance from the exit and entrance ramps to Interstate 89.
   The Transportation Agency has indicated it will work with Maplewood Limited’s consultant on a plan to re-time and optimize the traffic signal in an effort to increase efficiency and limit delays.
   In addition to the “dilemma zone” detector, the agency has asked that two monitoring conditions be added to any permits for the project, which needs local approval as well as a state land-use permit.
   Though agency officials had no quarrel with the methodology used to produce the traffic study, they have suggested Maplewood Limited be required to conduct some post-development traffic monitoring to determine whether it has led to excessive congestion at nearby intersections. Assuming the project is built, the agency has recommended the first monitoring study be conducted a year after the expanded store opens and a similar study be prepared five years after it has opened.
   Those studies, as well as a recommended analysis of crashes that occur in the vicinity of the store after it opens would be used to determine whether any future improvements might be needed to resolve traffic-related problems.
   It is unclear whether the Development Review Board will incorporate the agency’s recommendations in the local permit or leave it to the District 5 Environmental Commission to decide during its pending review of the project.
   david.delcore @timesargus.com
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GLEANING EFFORT EXPANDS IN CENTRAL VERMONT
Pub. 9/14/14 Times Argus by Amy Ash Nixon
   MONTPELIER — What exactly is gleaning, and why is it growing?
   “Gleaning is the practice of walking farmers’ fields and gathering usable food after the farmer has finished their regular harvest,” said Allison Levin, founder and program director for Community Harvest of Central Vermont. 
   “It goes back to Biblical times, at least,” she said. “Gleaning brings the community together to make the most of what we are growing, right here in our own backyard.”
   Gleaning has been undergoing a renaissance both statewide and locally in central
Vermont, with most of CHCV’s work taking place at the Dog River Farm in Berlin. Last week, volunteers there harvested cherry tomatoes and onions.
   Levin grew up on an organic farm in the
Upper Valley, and last year began the fledgling effort to harvest from Dog River. The potential, says Levin, is great for both the number of farms willing to contribute and the benefits in fighting hunger in Vermont.
   And with a growing roster of committed volunteers, you could say the program is establishing strong roots. Some small grants have helped in CHCV’s launch, and more will be sought in the months ahead to grow the program’s capacity.
   The volunteers are crucial. They gather, process, and transport the collected food to local food shelves, senior centers and schools.
   Locally there are some 50 volunteers. On a recent afternoon processing onions, Rebecca Sheppard of
Montpelier said that giving her time in the fields and knowing the fruits of her labor would help brings fresh vegetables to people who are food “insecure” feels good. 
   “This is more meaningful than licking envelopes,” she said.
   Cynthia Hartnett, also of Montpelier, described the process of finding so much salvageable food in the fields as a rewarding treasure hunt, knowing it will go to people in need.
   Some volunteers get involved on their own, while others come from shared associations. Sheppard and Robin Gorges of Montpelier first met when working on cleanup in the Mad River Valley following Tropical Storm Irene; David Kelley of Montpelier and Mark Hudson of Barre know one another from Montpelier Rotary; and members of the Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier get discounts for volunteering with the gleaning effort.
   So far this year, Levin said, she and her volunteers have salvaged and sent out nearly 6,500 pounds of food to be used by local programs, food that otherwise may have just been tilled back into the soil. 
   This summer, the new gleaning effort in
Washington County has seen donations go to schools in Berlin, Northfield and Roxbury, as well as Capstone Community Action in Barre and other organizations.
   According to Levin, more than 85 percent of the available surplus farm crops in
Vermont were going unused each year — “That’s close to 2 million pounds,” she said — when her group first formed. 
   In addition to deliveries from farms that flow straight to the programs that provide the salvaged food, the glean “harvest” counts much of its success from donations made directly at farmers’ markets, where many local farmers generously provide their unsold produce at the end the day. “
    We are so touched by their willingness to donate,” said Theresa Murray-Clasen, executive director of Just Basics Inc. in Montpelier, a nonprofit group that runs the Montpelier Food Pantry and partners with the FEAST senior meals program of the Montpelier Senior Activity Center. “Some of these farm businesses are very small, but their generosity to our community is very big.”
   Murray-Clasen said the donations from the market since June have brought in about 3,000 pounds of food shared by the food pantry and the FEAST program.
   The Vermont Foodbank, based in Barre, also benefits from the resurgence of gleaning. More than 60
Vermont farms contribute gleaned food to the foodbank. Thanks to the statewide gleaning, more than 300,000 pounds of fresh local produce go out to some 270 foodbank recipient sites across the state.
   Gleaned food is also used in the kitchens of the Vermont Foodbank’s culinary training program in Barre, the Community Kitchen Academy Program of Capstone Community Action.
   amy.nixon @timesargus.com
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SUMMER GLEANINGS BENEFITING FOOD PROGRAMS STATEWIDE
Pub. 9/14/14 Times Argus by Amy Ash Nixon
   In the kitchen of the Montpelier Senior Activity Center on a recent morning, a harvest of just-picked vegetables is spread out over the counters ready for the day’s meals. These will be served at the center, and distributed to homebound people by volunteers. 
   Summer colors abound. There are bright yellow, scallop-edged pattypan squash. There is a tub of green basil leaves, and Chef Justin Turcotte, a graduate of the hailed Culinary Institute of America in
Hyde Park, N. Y., and a Calais native who came home to Vermont, has already decided pesto is on the menu. It’s the perfect seasonal sauce for the day’s chicken Parmesan entree.
   Onions are being washed and cleaned, dinosaur kale is at the ready and there are heads of cabbage nearby. And none of these beautiful, locally grown and completely organic vegetables are costing the senior meal program a cent.
   This morning’s bounty comes courtesy of the program’s friends at Pete’s Greens, a well-known leader in the state’s organics movement. Pete’s distributes vegetables to markets both locally and out of state from its farm in Craftsbury, where they also operate a popular farm stand.
   Pete’s has a
CSA pickup location at the Monptelier Senior Activity Center on Barre Street, and donates generous amounts of just-gleaned vegetables as a way of saying thanks.
  
CSA stands for community supported agriculture. People purchase a share in the farm’s weekly food delivery program, where fresh vegetables from the farm, whatever is at peak season, are in the weekly package called Pete’s Good Eats.
   Pete’s Greens has a history of contributing gleaned vegetables to food banks and programs such as the senior center program, which is a partnership of the center, Just Basics Inc., and Turcotte’s cooking business, called Good Taste Catering. 
   The three entities run the program known as FEAST, which is not an acronym but a description of the good food, said Turcotte.
   “It’s kind of like Christmas,” he said, opening boxes overflowing with summer produce, not quite sure what’s inside, but knowing it will be good and lead to creative meals. It’s a task that Turcotte, a Montpelier City Council member, has a passion for.
   This day there is also fresh, local corn, being husked, and tomatoes. 
   What isn’t used immediately will be held for another meal soon, and in the spirit of the glean, nothing is wasted.
   Gleans happen all over the state, including through the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link’s Glean Team, Salvation Farms in Morrisville and a new gleaning effort this summer in Community Harvest of Central Vermont. 
   Theresa Murray-Clasen, executive director of Just Basics Inc., said organizations like Community Harvest help identify the farms that offer gleaning, organize volunteers and transport the produce to users, sorted and weighed. It is a tremendous service to them, she said.
   “Community Harvest has been a terrific partner,” Murray-Clasen said. “Many institutionally-based programs need help sourcing and transporting local foods. These meal programs often do not have the resources — money, staff or volunteer hours — to do this work. Food pantries are often in the same predicament.”
   For an end-user benefitting from the gleaning, flexibility is key. Cooking with produce that is in perfect seasonal peak and designing a meal around the ingredients before him quickly, means Turcotte cannot put out a menu a month ahead of time like some senior centers. 
   He said that gleaned produce coming in all growing season means he has more money to spend on higher quality ingredients for other components of the meal.
   Back in the kitchen at the Montpelier Senior Activity, Chef Justin, as he’s known, says of his kitchen, thanks to the gleaned veggies this summer morning, “This is where the magic happens...it’s a feast for the eyes and a feast for the stomach!”
   After earning his culinary degree, Turcotte worked in
California, for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, a legendary chef and restaurateur who is known for her work trying to improve access to local fresh food for school programs and more.
   For Turcotte, to take that philosophy and be in a place to now transform how seniors eat thanks to the generosity of so many volunteers and farmers caring, puts him in a spot that’s a joy.
   His training under Waters was as the garden manager, or the “keeper of cold,” and he would take stock of what was available each day, the best, the freshest, and the chefs would sit down and write the menu based on what was at peak season and on hand.
   It’s just what he’s doing now, except local seniors are the beneficiaries of the locavore movement, getting organic vegetables, healthy, inspired food — at the center and through the meals program, no longer called Meals on Wheels, but FEAST, because that’s what it is, Turcotte said.
   The public is invited in to enjoy the senior center meals at the site two days a week, and takeout is offered three days a week. Turcotte hopes more people from the community will find their way to the meal site, and give it a try. 
   “I’d love to see more people come,” he said. 
   Local businesses are hearing the food is really good, he said, and takeout orders are beginning to increase.
   “It’s very important to him that it is presented beautifully,” said Peggy Ann Lorello, a volunteer washing onions. “He has a great passion for food and great love for food and he is so wonderful to do that here for us.”
   amy.nixon @timesargus.com
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LACK OF WATER COMMITMENT PUTS PERMIT ON HOLD
Pub 9/24/14 Times Argus by David Delcore
   BERLIN — A developer looking for a firm commitment from the town with respect to a proposed water system had to settle for a definite maybe from the Select Board this week.
   Though all signs seem to suggest the board is weeks away from awarding a construction contract for the municipal water system it has proposed, developer Wayne Lamberton was told Monday night the town isn’t yet in a position to make any caveat-free promises to its pledged customers.
   That didn’t stop Lamberton from pressing the board for the unambiguous answer he said he’ll need in order for the District 5 Environmental Commission to begin its review of the convenience store and welcome center he has proposed near the intersection of Paine Turnpike North and Route 62.
   As part of the state permit process, Lamberton said, he needs to give the district commission a letter identifying the source of water for his proposed development.
   “They need to know that I’m going to have water,” he said, asking the board for a letter that would essentially commit the town to supplying the water that he has agreed to buy from a system that hasn’t been built.
   Zoning Administrator Tom Badowski said the town could write the letter but would be foolish not to include a disclaimer that would insulate it in the unlikely event the water system isn’t built.
   “We need to protect ourselves,” he said, suggesting it was too soon for the town to make promises.
   That response was at least initially frustrating for Lamberton, who said a letter that ended the way Badowski suggested would be worthless to officials reviewing his application for an Act 250 land use permit.
   “If I’m Act 250, when I read the last paragraph I’m going to say: ‘This letter means nothing,’” Lamberton said.
   “My chips are in the middle of the table,” he said. “When are we going to stop saying, ‘What if?’ and when are we going to build a water system?”
   The good news for Lamberton is that the board is very close to being able to make the kind of commitment he needs.
   Bids have been solicited, and a pre-bid meeting with more than a dozen interested contractors is set for Thursday, according to Badowski, who predicted the board should be able to award a contract and issue Lamberton an unqualified letter by November. 
   The only hitch, Badowski said, is the bids themselves. The board has estimated the cost of the project — from planning through construction — at $5.5 million, and if the bids support the assumptions that led to that estimate there is no reason not to proceed. Vetting the bids, he said, will be an important step, but he said the board should be able to select a contractor when it meets Nov. 3.
   Badowski said 10 contractors had already paid for bid packages and at least four more are expected to attend Thursday’s
10 a.m. meeting involving the proposed water system. 
   “We really believe we’re going to get some competitive bids on the project, which is good for all of us,” he said.
   If all goes well, the system should be operating by late next summer. Badowski said all the necessary permits are in hand and a proposal to potentially expand the system is being considered. The town has received a request from residents of
Richardson Road — a dead-end road off Paine Turnpike North — to extend the municipal water and sewer systems out that road and Birchwood Drive.
   Badowski said the request was being considered and the potential cost — including directional drilling across Pond Brook — was being evaluated. A recommendation is expected for the board at its next meeting.
   @Tagline:david.delcore @timesargus.com
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NEW PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL SHORT ON STAFF NURSES
Pub. 9/24/14 Times Argus
   MONTPELIER — The new state psychiatric hospital is struggling to recruit nurses.
   Paul Dupre, the commissioner of mental health, discussed the issue Tuesday during a monthly report from his department before the joint Mental Health Oversight Committee.
   In July, the
Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital opened in Berlin. The 25-bed facility brings the total number of available beds across the state to 52, just shy of the 54 beds at the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury, which closed after sustaining significant damage from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
   As of Tuesday, the new hospital held 21 patients, four short of its capacity. Committee Chairwoman Ann Pugh, a Democratic representative from
South Burlington, asked if that meant there are no patients waiting in hospital emergency rooms for admission to the hospital.
   Deputy Commissioner Frank Reed said that was not the case, and people, in fact, are waiting in emergency rooms. During the past week, one patient waited at the
Rutland hospital for six days before being admitted, he said.
   Part of the issue is that although the hospital has 25 beds, sometimes they can’t all be used at once. Some patients require one-on-one care, and for the safety of patients and staff, there is a limit to the number of those patients the hospital can house at once.
   Currently, the hospital brings in seven staff members per shift to treat one-on-one patients.
   Dr. Jay Batra, medical director for the Department of Mental Health, noted it’s a new staff and it takes “buildup time” to get staff membersfunctioning optimally.
   Part of functioning optimally will include hiring for four nursing positions, which are currently being filled by traveling nurses.
   Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, who is a nurse, noted that there are plenty of nurses in
Vermont and asked why those positions haven’t been filled.
   “We have people who are not there for just a few days,” Ayer said. “We know care would be better if we didn’t have this rotating staff.”
   Reed said it takes a certain kind of nurse to work with the mentally ill, while Batra said that “one of the highest-risk environments you can be in is being a psych nurse.”
   Part of the issue might come down to pay, Dupre said.
   Traveling nurses receive $54 an hour, while the state is offering a salary and benefits package worth $45 an hour.
   “I don’t know if we’re paying enough money to entice people to do this kind of work,” Dupre said.
   Ayer suggested creating some sort of training program to prepare nurses for the challenges of working with mental patients.
   “When the sickest people are all confined to one area, we need the best staff, and that’s not nurses coming out of school,” Ayer said. “We’re paying traveling nurses $90,000 a year. We’re paying sheriffs for three shifts. Has anyone done the math to see it would be good to have an intensive training program to have a trained staff within a matter of months?”
   @Tagline:josh.ogorman @rutlandherald.com
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FROM BERLIN FRONT PORCH FORUM
Lots of fantastic information being shared on Berlin's Front Porch Forum.  Membership continues to grow and although there is overlap between who is on FPF and who gets News to Know there are many who only receive one or the other.  Therefore, below are several recent posts .... there have been many more about a variety of topics, looking for services, garage sales, meeting announcements, events, etc.  Membership is free - to join go to: http://frontporchforum.com.  Once you're a member you're able to post items and you can look back at previous posts including searching a particular name or word if you're trying to find something specific.  As a member you can expect to get an email every day or two of the latest posts.

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Notes from Selectboard Meeting - FPF #435 9/22/14

Jeremy Hansen Selectboard Member, Berlin 
Posted to: Berlin
Here are my notes from the Berlin Selectboard's September 3rd meeting. Apologies for the delay!
1) Pedestrian/Bike Path Scoping Study
Some revisions to the study are being made, and we expect there to be another presentation at an upcoming Selectboard meeting. We voted to request a trial "road diet" to begin at the same time as the State's repaving of the Barre-Montpelier Road, which will likely happen late spring or early summer of 2015. This would reduce the number of automobile lanes in the wide part of Route 302 to one in each direction with one shared turn lane. While this would result in some traffic slowdown, we expect the road to be safer due to no passing on the right and a calmer traffic pattern.
2) Tax payments due
The next installment of property taxes is due Monday, September 22nd. The next installment after that will be November 15th.
3) Muzzy Road closing
The FEMA buyout of the property on Muzzy Road has closed as of September 12th. Because it's in a flood hazard area, no structures that can be affected by flooding can be placed there. In my opinion, a community garden would be a perfect fit there, but others have proposed building a solar farm there, the proceeds of which would be used to pay for panels on the roof of the town offices. I have only heard from a few people on this issue, but I would really appreciate any direction you might have - which way would you go?
4) Flood Insurance Premiums
We had our Community Assessment scheduled for September 9th, which is part of FEMA's Community Rating System. We expect that, with the steps we've taken, folks who buy flood insurance should expect to get a 5% discount to their rates, and depending on FEMA's findings, we may be closer to a rating that would mean a 10% discount. I'll let you know where we fall when I hear back about this.
5) Maplewoods Development
We had some mixed reports about whether or not residents were happy with some proposals to fix concerns raised in an earlier DRB meeting. Assistant Town Administrator Tom Badowski reported that "residents were happy with the redesign of the project", which apparently involves doing away with some truck parking spaces, limiting truck parking elsewhere to 3 hours, berm work, improving sight lines on the Shaw's side, and agreeing to help with maintenance of vegetation. Resident Brian Grearson was in attendance and disagreed with Tom's assessment, saying that there are no folks on Crosstown Road in favor of the project, and still don't support the project given the changes. He brought up the idea of allowing Town trucks (and possibly police vehicles) to cut through the development, but there was some brief confusion about who should talk to whom to get that suggestion rolling.
6) Other miscellaneous items
The Development Review Board will be taking up the application for the Kohl's store at their October 21st meeting. 
We may be able to break ground this year to install storage tanks for the water system, but the rest of the project will not start until next year after the ground thaws. 
There was a question about the numbers I used in an earlier post about our emergency services budget, which I haven't had the time to go back and revisit. I hope to do so in the next week or two and post an update here.
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Small Scale Catering Offered - FPF #435 9/22/14

Carrie Bradshaw Junction Rd 
Posted to: Berlin
Wanting to do catering for small gatherings. Featuring home cooked meals "comfort food style" macaroni and cheese, lasagna, casseroles, roasts, fried chicken. Desserts as well. Pies, crisps, cookies 
If interested please email carrie.b77@aol.com
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House Cleaner Available - FPF #434 9/21/14

Tina Rae Northfield St 
Posted to: Berlin
Hi. I am a fairly new resident of Berlin. I had a house cleaning business where I lived in western MA, and would like to begin doing the same around here. Perhaps a twice per month schedule. Available during school hours, References can be provided. 225-6950 Thank you - tina
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Pet Care Available - FPF #431 9/19/14

Melissa Marden Applewood Drive 
Posted to: Berlin
I am an experienced pet sitter and dog walker available for taking care of your family pets during the weekdays and/or weekends. I have two dogs of my own and have fostered and pet sat for a number of years. If you would like someone to stop in and walk your dog, feed your animals, etc., please feel free to contact me. My family and I have reptiles, saltwater aquarium, dogs, cats, and have had chickens in the past, so I am very familiar with a wide range of animals. I have excellent references which I will be happy to provide, which can attest for my love for pets, dependability, and honesty.
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Overweight, Bored Pups at Home All Day Alone? - FPF #436 9/23/14

Cathy Hartshorn • Paine Tpk. So. - vt.dogs@yahoo.com
Posted to: Berlin
New door-to-door service. I will pick up your friendly pooch, drive a short distance to an acre that is completely fenced, privately owned, and your dog will enjoy 2 hours of nonstop play, run, good outdoor off-leash exercise with other friendly dogs. Limited to 4 dogs per play time at this point. Then your tired, happy friend will be delivered back home safe and sound with a written report of how much fun s/he had!
Contact me for details. Long-time experience/love affair with dogs!
First four to sign up get a free week trial period! Covering Berlin and Montpelier at this time.
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Smitty's Construction - #425 9/10/14

Bryan Smith Junction Rd 
Posted to: Berlin
Smitty's Construction looking for work we do everything from framing to finish work small concrete jobs contact us at 802-793-7218
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Seed Swap - FPF #429 9/17/14

Lora Stridsberg Junction Road 
Posted to: Berlin
Hello neighbors! 
In doing my seed saving this fall, it occurred to me that having a community seed swap this spring could be a lot of fun. Is anyone else interested? We could swap seeds from our gardens (both vegetables and flowers!), any unused ones we may have on hand, or order some extras this spring when seed catalogs come out. Please let me know if you're interested so we can get something organized!
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Harvestival and Grape Stomp at Fresh Tracks Farm - FPF #429 9/17/14

Posted to: Berlin
Sept 27th from 12-5pm
Our third annual Harvest Festival is upon us, and we cordially invite you to visit the winery on Saturday, September 27th to celebrate the beauty of harvest! Throughout the day, well be offering various events and activities, listed below:
1) Live music by Two Cents in the Till (from 12:30 2:30) and Big Hat, No Cattle (from 3:00 5:00). 
2) Grape-stomp competition! $25/team - top 3 juice producers get prizes! A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Center for Sustainable Systems. Sign up by emailing megan@freshtracksfarm.com 
3) A Live Painting Demo provided by J. Lashua Art. Jen is our our featured artist for September's Toast to Creativity! Jen specializes in painting visual representations of music during a concert. 
4) Delicious food provided by the Northeast Kingdoms famous Southern Smoke Barbecue, Cheese Samples by Vermont Creamery, and Dessert by Plum Lovely! 
5) Face painting all day long (or until we run out of paint!) and Craft Table for the kids 
6) Pick-your-own Jam grapes, for use with our favorite grape jam recipes!
If you have any questions at all, give us a call at 802-223-1151, or send an email to events@freshtracksfarm.com
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Drug Takeback Day Sept. 27 - FPF #436 9/23/14

Cassandra Hemenway • Zero Waste Outreach Coordinator, CVSWMD, Central VT 
Posted to:
Berlin, Middlesex, Hardwick Walden, Barre Town (Show all 15 ▼)
This Saturday, the DEA is holding a national drug take back program. This is a the best way to dispose of old prescription pills.
At the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, we strongly encourage folks to use this program. Please do NOT flush pills down the toilet or put into the trash, as they get into the water supply that way. Go to the link below to find out more, and find the nearest collections site to you: 
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html
And ... if you save your prescription pill BOTTLES (without the pills) we can take them for reuse at the Additional Recyclables Collection Center in Barre. For more information about the ARCC and its hours, click this link: http://www.cvswmd.org/arcc.html

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