Top Stories for Tuesday August 29, 2006

Mrs. Reichert Turns 100 Years Old
By Cheryl White
   I recently had the pleasure of meeting Louise Reichert. Mrs. Reichert will become a Centenarian on September 16, 2006. Mrs. Reichert and her husband Victor were friends with Robert Frost. Mrs Reichert spends her summers in Ripton on Frost Highway. She has been active in the Cincinnati Ohio Conservatory of Flower Arranging.
   Mrs.Reichert graduated from Smith College in 1928. Asked about fond memories, she recalls her first automobile being a 1925 Oveland that could do a top speed of 35 miles per hour downhill! Gasoline was 20¢ a gallon unless there was a gas war going on, then it was priced at six gallons for $1.00.
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Champlain Valley Equipment Earns Farm Equipment's Prestigious

    Champlain Valley Equipment, with farm equipment dealerships in Middlebury and St. Albans, Vt., is the recipient of the 2006 Dealership of the Year Award from Farm Equipment magazine.
    Champlain Valley Equipment was chosen by a panel of renowned farm equipment experts for their customer service, employee involvement and financial performance during 2005. Nearly 60 dealerships across North America were nominated for the award.
    Russell Carpenter founded Champlain Valley Equipment in Middlebury, Vt., in 1970 and together with his son Brian Carpenter, general manager, acquired the second location in St. Albans, Vt., in 2005. Today the company employs 50 people in the two locations.  [ more ]

The Otter Creek Student History Club
By Erin Connor
   The members of the Otter Creek Student History Club decided this year to research and write bi-weekly articles on topics of local, state and national history. They would publicly like to thank the Valley Voice Newspaper for allowing us a venue to publish our findings and hope readers will enjoy our efforts. Please join us every other week as we celebrate the history of the region we proudly call home. The first article is entitled “If These Walls Could Talk,” and was written about her home by our youngest club member.  [ more ]

Untimely Death Of Park Street Shade Tree May Lead To Better Brandon Tree Program

   Suppose that on the south side of your house, you had a huge maple tree, old enough so it was already big on an  1892 picture map of your town.
  It's old enough to start showing its age, with some of the branches at the top clearly dying. So you call an office of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, and they send someone who knows about trees to take a look.
  No, it doesn't have to come down, the woman says. The bark shows it isn't diseased. Have the crown and dead branches removed, water it heavily, maybe give it some fertilizer, and it should be all right.
  So you go to the town office and ask if they could be any help. An official there says the tree is going on a list for pruning. They don't just take down trees, they want to preserve them, he says.
  You go away on vacation, and return to discover to your horror that the tree has been “pruned” down to a stubby stump. You don't even get the firewood.
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