Top Stories for Tuesday May 15, 2007

Sharing Memories With Wilma And Gordon Brown 90 Years Old Of Bristol
By Ann Kensek
    When Wilma Spaulding and Gordon Brown attended high school they never imagined they’d spend the rest of their lives together.  This year they are celebrating 67 years of marriage.  Gordon recently turned 90, and Wilma will be 90 on the 21st of this month.  Their love, respect and contentment with each other is clear.
    After attending high school in Richmond, Gordon went to embalming school and returned to Richmond to work for his father.  Wilma went to Rutland Business School to learn secretarial skills and took a job at the Richmond Coop Creamery.  The two began dating and on August 3, 1940 they were married. They have four children: Brenda Lathrop, Brian, Craig and Dwayne.  Dwayne lives in California, and the other three live locally.  The also have two grandchildren, one great grandchild and another on the way.
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Vermont's Housing and Wage Crisis Worsens, According to the Vermont Housing Finance Agency
By Larry Johnson
   Vermont's increased homeless shelter use over the past few years may just be the canary in the mine shaft. According to the Vermont Housing Finance Agency there are approximately 4000 people in the state using homeless shelters. This is a sharp increase since 2000, and the length of stay has more than doubled from 11 average days in 2000 to 25 in 2006.
     There is, according to VHFA, a growing disparity between those who can afford to buy at the high- end of the real estate market and those who cannot afford anything. For instance, in 2000, only 48 homes in the state sold for a million dollars or more. In 2005, this number had risen to 1,673. At the same time, percentage cost for housing, both owned and rented, had risen far above the means of most Vermonters.
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