Lebanon, Hanover and Norwich revenues surprise, feeling few side effects from COVID-19
Modified: 5/12/2021 12:45:51 AM
LEBANON Predictions that the coronavirus pandemic would handicap town and city budgets failed to materialize over the past year as Upper Valley residents continued to pay taxes, buy cars and register their dogs.
Officials in three Upper Valley communities Lebanon, Hanover and Norwich recently reported that revenues for the past year largely reflected those before the arrival of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the few areas that were hit hard by stay-at-home orders, such as parking and airport fees, will likely be recouped via federal stimulus funds, they said.
Jim Kenyon: Insurer gets it wrong
Jim Kenyon. Copyright (c) Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Modified: 5/11/2021 9:31:09 PM
The Vermont League of Cities and Towns is willing to spend umpteen dollars on lawyers to defend cops accused of wrongdoing in civil lawsuits in hopes that the plaintiffs might eventually grow weary of the legal wrangling and go away.
But when a Hartford woman tries to settle a non-police dispute with the town without getting lawyers involved?
The League of Cities and Towns, which provides insurance coverage to Hartford and other Vermont municipalities, shows little interest in helping.
Hartford outlines policy to address homeless camps
Matt H., who declined to give his full last name, has been living in a camp under a White River Junction, Vt., bridge, where he read a book on Thursday, July 11, 2019, for over two years. The Town of Hartford is creating a committee on homelessness in response to a rise in the amount of services for people without housing being accessed in the town this year. Matt, 57, said he once had a successful general contracting business, and also drove trucks until he lost his job due to his alcohol use. I never thought in a million years I d be homeless, he said. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Group again hopes to turn former Elks Lodge in Hartford into community center
Modified: 4/9/2021 10:00:08 PM
HARTFORD VILLAGE A church-affiliated community group is making another bid for nearly $44,000 of federal funding that it says will help renovate the historic former Elks Lodge and turn it into a secular community center.
A planning grant application from the Cornerstone Community Center which is affiliated with the non-denominational Christian church Praise Chapel will go in front of the Vermont Community Development Program on Tuesday.
The Hartford Selectboard approved a motion Tuesday night, allowing the town to submit the application to the VCDP.
This is the second time Cornerstone is seeking grant funding for renovations since Praise Chapel purchased the building in December 2019. Last summer, the VCDP rejected the first application in favor of other projects around the state that took “higher priority,” Hartford Planning and Development Director Lori Hirs
Hartford group plans housing area with huts for homeless population
Modified: 4/3/2021 2:50:16 PM
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION A group of Hartford officials and advocates for the homeless are working on a plan to create a new shelter that could include a handful of small, potentially transportable micro-dwellings.
The project, which is still in its early stages, would consist of around nine 60-square-foot micro-dwellings that are equipped with heating units and electricity, said former Selectboard member Simon Dennis, who sits on Hartford’s Ad-Hoc Emergency Shelter Committee, the group behind the project. He said he envisions the one-room units made out of polystyrene foam with drywall or siding and flooring.