This Week’s News
Proctor settles on concept for town office
By RUSSELL JONES The Proctor Selectboard has settled on a design concept, the eleventh draft so far, for renovating the town offices to make them handicap accessible. They met for a special meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6, to discuss what the selectboard and the designing firm said was a nearly finished design. “A lot of […]
Test scores show students close to poverty falling behind their peers
Free and reduced lunch program comes under fire By RUSSELL JONES A snapshot from the state of how local schools performed on state tests show a sharp disparity in performances between those on free and reduced lunches and those who are not on the program. Now, a new change in federal law could compound that […]
The Brandon Buzz
A tribute to Art Doty By BEN LAWTON Art Doty was indeed the father of mosquito control in the Otter Creek valley. During the early 70s, the Lake Dunmore /Fern lake Association had been doing some mosquito control, albeit primitive by modern standards. The group involved in the spraying asked Art if he would be […]
Youth Conservation Corps makes trails, bridges through marsh
By RUSSELL JONES WEST RUTLAND — A small group of dedicated youth have spent the past two weeks toiling in the hot sun, braving mud and mosquitos, to improve the quality of the trails in the West Rutland marsh. The Vermont Youth Conservation Corps has been working on a project in the area to clean […]
Otter Creek wetlands class change altered after opposition
By RUSSELL JONES BRANDON — The steering committee that has been working to reclassify the Otter Creek wetlands from a Class II wetlands to a Class I wetlands announced this past week that they would be seeking to change the classification only for parcels of land that have willing landowners. The move comes after the […]
Photos of the Week
Sports
OV slides into playoffs with MVL title
By RUSSELL JONES After slugging it out with Springfield in their last game on Saturday, May 25, Otter Valley picked up an 18-11 win and the MVL title. The Otter softball team will head into the playoffs this week with a 12-4 record and with a two-seed in the Division II bracket. The season started […]
Proctor baseball rebounding at right time
By RUSSELL JONES Proctor started its baseball season with their shortstop and pitcher, Joe Valerio, on the bench after knee surgery following a basketball injury. The season got off to a rough start as the Phantoms lost their first three games. Since then, the team pulled together and won five out of six games to […]
OV baseball suffers first loss, still in first place as they look to wrap up the season
With the last game of the season on the horizon, the 12-1 Otter Valley baseball team squeaked by Hartford on Wednesday, 4-3, suffered its first loss of the season this past Friday to Brattleboro, 13-3, and handily beat Burr & Burton, 6-2. Finishing the season unbeaten would have been nice, but coach Michael Howe said […]
Proctor softball eyes second place in Division IV
By RUSSELL JONES The Phantoms’ softball team always chants “Hits, hits, hits and runs” before they break their huddle to go to the plate every inning, and on Saturday that’s exactly what they delivered. The Proctor team scored early and often in a 24-1 victory over Arlington this past weekend, racking up 12 runs in […]
OV lax edges Eagles
By ANDY KIRKALDY After his team on Monday earned an 8-6 road win over the Mount Abraham-Vergennes cooperative team, Otter Valley Union High School boys’ lacrosse coach Jesse Milliman said his Otters still had things to work on. For the first time in many a year, one of those things might be learning to play […]