The Brattleboro Reformer from Brattleboro, Vermont • 3

Vermont Saturday-Sunday, February 21-22, 2004, www.reformer.com Weekend Reformer Families push bill for meningitis shots Vermont Quality Dairies President John Cole holds pints of yogurt at the former Kingsey Cheese plant in Hardwick, Thursday. The plant will be refurbished and equipment installed to start making yogurt next month. Farmers to make Vt. yogurt By LISA RATHKE Associated Press MONTPELIER Several dairy farmers plan to start making yogurt in a former cheese factory in Hardwick next month. Vermont Quality Dairies will produce whole milk yogurt from Vermont farms to be sold at natural food stores.

We decided then that the only way to help ourselves is to look into a value-added product and market it, said Vermont Quality Dairies President John Cole of Newbury. Nineteen farmers have invested in the operation. The idea grew out of a marketing committee for the National Farmers Organization formed to address the low price farmers were paid for their milk. The group met monthly and eventually settled on yogurt. We came up with yogurt being the best product to work with, said Cole, who has been working on the project for about seven years.

The main reason is the yield: 100 pounds of milk yields 100 pounds of yogurt, unlike cheese, which requires larger quantities of milk in its yield, he said. The group leased a plant in Derby Line, developed the yogurt, and now produces about 1,000 pounds a week, Cole said. In August the corporation bought the former Kingsey Cheese plant in Hardwick and is making preparations and installing equipment to start production at the end of March. Vermont Quality Dairies will be the sixth yogurt producer in the state, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. The all-natural yogurt will be made from whole milk from small Hardwick area farmers who are members of the National Farmers' Organization, a nonprofit organization that sells and markets members milk.

We will be able to return the members a decent price for their milk, Cole said. The pints of vanilla, which cost $3, will be sold in natural food stores, Cole said. Dairy farmers Richard and Emily Norris of Canaan, one of the farmers who have invested in the project, said taste was a big selling point. Its absolutely the best vanilla yogurt weve ever tasted, said Emily Norris. They invested $3,000 in the yogurt operation and plan to invest $7,000 more.

The Norrises said they hope the investment in a value added product will allow them to remain a small dairy farm. It allows us to stay small, to not work ourselves to death, Emily Norris said. So we do not have to expand. Berkshires with other campers. When they got thirsty, one of them would take his water out of the backpack and just pass it up and down the line," she said.

Both Springer and Kepferle said the disease often strikes adolescents and young adults because they tend to be less careful about sharing drinks and other items that are placed in the mouth. The disease is not spread easily, but can be transmitted through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions and occasionally passes from one person to another through coughing or kissing. Jason Fleishman, 23, of Vail, died Feb. 1 at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, one day after participating in Middlebury's midyear graduation ceremony. Dr.

Paul Jarris, commissioner of health, said Friday that he had met earlier in the day with Kepferle and Springer, and that he and his staff were considering what recommendation to make to lawmakers about the proposed legislation. Jarris said the vaccination is not perfect it works in only four of the five strains of meningococcal meningitis. He noted that babies less than 2 years old are at highest risk for the disease, but no vaccine has yet been found which can be used in children that young. "It certainly was very, very compelling, Jarris said of the presentation made by Kepferle and Springer. I informed them we were in the process of researching the science behind the bill.

He added that the Health Department was conducting a survey of colleges to find out what their current practices are on notifying incoming students about the disease and By DAVID GRAM Associated Press MONTPELIER Parents of two teenagers who were stricken with a disease that killed a young man who had just graduated from Middlebury College earlier this month are pushing legislation to encourage vaccinations. Nancy Springer of New York state, whose son is a quadruple amputee because of meningococcal meningitis, and Mike Kepfer le, whose son died of the disease, told their stories to lawmakers and to state Health Commissioner Paul Jarris on Friday. What we are seeking is mandatory education, so that parents are aware of the risks of this disease and know of ways to prevent it, Kepferle said in an interview. Legislation introduced by Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, would require colleges and summer camps to send a form to students and families for them to sign indicating they had been informed about the disease and about the availability of immunizations.

The student or, for those under 18, their parents could then decide whether it was advisable to get the vaccine. Springer said her son Nick was at an overnight camp in Massachusetts when he came down with the disease a bacterial infection of the blood that can severely damage the nervous and circulatory symptoms. It began with his neck hurting, a fever and vomiting. By the next morning Nick couldnt walk and had blood clots that splotched his stomach. He was airlifted to a hospital in Springfield, where he stayed for six weeks and underwent 16 surgeries.

Aside from pushing for vaccinations, Nancy Springer said she frequently tells the story her son told her: Two days before he had fallen ill, he went hiking in the Midwifes license suspended By TIM McCAHILL Associated Press MONTPELIER The state has summarily suspended the license of a Mendon midwife after one of the babies she helped deliver died and another suffered serious brain damage. Officials allege Roberta Rose Devers-Scott, 40, did not follow state rules on midwifery or failed to properly treat two women whose babies she helped deliver in January. State officials did not name either of the women, who live in Pittsford and Rutland. State officials allege Devers-Scott decided to have the Pittsford woman give birth at Porter Hospital in Middlebury a few hours after she began labor at home, a location officials said was farther away than required under midwifery rules. Officials also allege that Devers-Scott knew the woman suffered from a bipolar disorder but did not tell doctors, and inducted labor by rupturing the womans amniotic membrane both violations of state midwifery rules.

A report released Friday by the state Office of Professional Regulation said the Pittsford womans baby was born with respiratory problems that required emergency treatment. The report said the baby suffers from fetal hypoxic brain damage, which in an interview Friday Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz characterized as brain death. The report paints a more disturbing portrait of the circumstances surrounding the death of the Rutland womans baby shortly after it was born on Jan. 19. Officials write that Devers-Scott reportedly told the woman to lay down when she began having contractions in mid-December, and to go back to work when the contractions stopped.

The report also said Devers-Scott did not record the kind of clear fluid the woman allegedly began leaking on Jan. 13. The woman alerted Devers-Scott when the amount of fluid increased around Jan. 16. Devers-Scott allegedly told the woman in response to have a glass of wine and go back to sleep, according to the Two days later, the report said, Devers-Scott determined the woman to be dilating but did not check the babys heart rate, allegedly leaving to have lunch with her boyfriend.

Devers-Scott had the woman taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center on Jan. 19, where doctors performed a cesarean to remove the baby, which the report said was born alive but not crying, floppy and pale. Search for woman expands to Vt. finnm ROO ue several days police have also been checking motels and hotels in several Vermont communities, to no avail. Investigators know of no one Murray might know in the Burlington area, he said.

Vermont State Police, Burlington police and other local agencies have canvassed motels in Burlington, South Burlington, Colchester, Shelburne and surrounding towns to see if she checked in anywhere around, he said. Scarinza said police believe Murray got a ride from the accident scene. From that point on, its destination unknown, he said. Scarinza said searchers found no sign of a struggle at the scene or any other evidence that shed been harmed. I totally appreciate the familys frustration in not knowing where she is or what has happened, he said.

But its also true that she was apparently leaving Massachusetts without telling her family or friends or her boyfriend. That indicates to me that perhaps she wanted to get away on her own for a certain period of time. PO Box 925 Brattleboro, VT 05301 Craig Finnell, Owner 802-257-0841 www.finnellroofing.com By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI Associated Press Authorities expanded their search for a missing nursing student to Vermont after learning she looked up directions to the Burlington area before disappearing in New Hampshire more than a week ago. Maura Murray, 21, of Hanson, a student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, disappeared after she was involved in a minor car accident in northern New Hampshire on Feb. 9.

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