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BENNINGTON âWith the fiscal 2022 budget nearly finalized, the Select Board has reduced the spending plan submitted by Town Manager Stuart Hurd to bring a projected 3.8 percent tax rate increase down to around 2 percent.
Hurd had recommended most of the cuts from the original $14,434,470 town budget after a request from the board to trim the rate hike to approximately 2 percent, representing about $200,000.
The $14.4 million combined town budget first proposed had represented a 2.71 increase over the current year, Hurd said, and it accommodated increases for contracted pay raises and for insurance cost hikes.
‘Diddy’ delivers, chicken coops, New Year’s Eve restrictions: News from around our 50 states From USA TODAY Network and wire reports, USA TODAY
Alabama
Gadsden: The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Alabama topped 2,800 this week, as recent days have shown a steady climb and new record high inpatient counts – 2,804 on Tuesday – as the surge in cases continues. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the University of Alabama’s Division of Infectious Diseases director, said Alabama now is third in the nation in COVID-19 hospitalizations per capita, behind Nevada and Arizona. She said Alabama is sixth in the nation in the number of COVID-19 cases per capita, after falling out of the top 10. On Christmas Eve, the number hospitalized was 2,458 across the state; on Christmas Day and on Saturday, it was 2,516, according to statistics published by BamaTracker. On Sunday, the number rose to 2,631; and it jumped significantly by Monday, to 2,802 people hospitalized.
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BENNINGTON â At the request of police, a judge has thrown out a complaint against a man accused of threatening a group of girls at Lake Paran this spring.
The dismissal this month of a disorderly conduct citation against David S. Jones was requested by the police officer who wrote the ticket, according to court records. The reason for the request remains unclear.
The July 2 municipal citation stems from confrontations between Jones and a several teenagers of color that North Bennington village officials earlier described as âracist incidents.â
The Bennington Police Department had said Jones, a town resident, was ticketed after he made a physically threatening remark during arguments with a group of four girls at the Lake Paran recreation area on June 4. The girls were 10-16 years old and so werenât identified, a police report shows.
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BENNINGTON â The concept of a peanut-shaped roundabout on Route 67A near the Bennington College entrance was praised by town officials Monday after they received an update from project planners.
âThis is a great proposal,â said Select Board Chairman Donald Campbell, adding that he liked the description from project designers of a âpeanut,â rather than his first thought of a one-cell organism.
The board was shown the $2.6 million state projectâs conceptual design by VTrans project manager Michael LaCroix, Dennis Vertiyev, of the design firm, Green International Affiliates, and others involved in the multi-year initiative to improve the five-way intersection.