The Brattleboro Reformer from Brattleboro, Vermont • 3

Vermont Friday, April 23, 2004, www.refortner.com 3 Brattleboro Reformer Briefs Senate backs permit reform bill By TIM McCAHILL Aitoclattd Press MONTPELIER The Senate voted Thursday to support changes in how the state handles Act 250 permit appeals, likely clearing the way for final passage in the House. This has been a 15-month marathon," said Sen. Phil Scott, R-Washington, a member of the conference committee that negotiated the final version of the permit reform bill. Ill definitely never forget it. The deal, reached Tuesday, represents the first time in over 30 years that lawmakers have agreed to significantly change parts of Act 250, the states land-use planning law.

The compromise bill dissolves the Environmental and Water Resources boards. Beginning in February, all environmental permit appeals will instead be heard by an expanded Environmental Court. The change also removes oversight of all Act 250 and water-related issues from the two citizens panels, and for the first time places permit appeals before an Environmental Court judge. Supporters say the new system will make permit review quicker and bring greater predictability to the appeals process. But some senators argued the changes might have the opposite effect, burdening the Environmental Court with unnecessary litigation over permit appeals.

The shift to the Environmental Court will become a lawyers dream and a developers nightmare," said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Ben-nington, one of four senators who voted against the bill. Others said they were troubled by how little time they had to read and digest the bill given the lateness of the session. Its said that were risking major legislation without knowing much about it, said Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, who also voted against the bill.

Rutland County Republican John Bloomer tried to allay those fears by convincing his fellow senators that understanding the permit changes would require time. I have no doubt that the change from one paradigm to another is scary," said Bloomer Lets take some time to find out if those fears are just or not. Many senators said technical aspects of the permit reform bill would have to be ironed out as people become accustomed to the new system. We have the ability to change this legislation as needed, said Sen. Diane Snelling, R-Hinesburg.

It seems certain that we will. Douglas praised the Senate vote at his weekly news conference, saying the move would help promote job growth in the state. Im pleased that the leadership of the Senate brought forward a proposal that most of the senators agreed to," he said. Vt. soldier dies in Iraq ambush MONTPELIER (AP) Christopher D.

Gelineau, a Vermont high school graduate who was in Iraq with the Maine National Guard, died Tuesday after enemy fighters ambushed his convoy. Gelineau, 23, is the seventh soldier with Vermont roots to be killed in combat since the war began over a year ago. A 1999 graduate of Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol, Gelineau was a specialist with the 133rd Engineer Battalion. Before being deployed to Iraq in March he lived in Portland, Maine, where he attended the University of Southern Maine. He was a very nice boy.

He was patient and quiet, said aunt Pam Gelineau of Eden Wednesday night. I dont know what else to say. Gelineaus mother and stepfather, Victoria and Jesse Chicoine, live in Starksboro, and his father, John, lives in Eden. The families left early Wednesday for Maine to be with Gelineaus wife of one year, Lavinia, Pam Gelineau said. Those who knew Gelineau described him as a quiet, friendly, reliable young man who loved working with computers.

Gelineau was one of about 500 members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion sent for a one-year tour of duty in Iraq, based in the northern city of Mosul. Several members of the 133rd, including Gelineau, were driving in a convoy Tuesday in Mosul, serving as a protective escort to military firefighters from South Carolina, Maine National Guard officials said. Gelineau was in the lead Humvee when a roadside bomb exploded and heavily damaged the vehicle. Enemy fighters then began shooting at the soldiers. Gelineau and three others were injured in the explosion and battle.

Gelineau and the others were taken to a nearby military hospital, officials said. They said they were unsure whether Gelineau died of his wounds en route or at the aid station. Gelineau is the first member of the Maine National Guard to be killed in Iraq. Money still flowing into Deans coffers MONTPELIER (AP) Howard Deans presidential campaign is still making money, even though the former Vermont governor dropped his bid for the White House in February. The campaign received $626,615 in contributions last month, according to a filing this week with the Federal Election Commission.

His campaign had $2 million in the bank and owed $1.2 million at the end of March, and was owed $67,266. Deans staff spent much of March closing down the campaign and starting work on his new grassroots group, Democracy for America. His expenditures included $202,352 to his polling firm, Fairbanks, Maslin Maulin; and $156,359 to Trippi, McMahon and Squier, the Virginia-based firm run by Deans former campaign manager Joe Trippi. The money was used to reimburse the firm for television advertisements it bought for the campaign. The campaign also paid $28,000 to The Dean Team, a separate consulting entity set up by and housed in the same offices as Trippis firm.

The campaign paid $140,984 to the Syntech Goup, a Virginia-based company that processes campaign contributions and helps campaigns prepare FEC reports. The campaign also returned $57,653 to contributors who asked for their money back. Campground found not negligent BURLINGTON (AP) A federal jury says the manager of a Randolph campground was not negligent in an accident that killed a Michigan man when a tree fell on the mans camper during the remnants 6f Hurricane Floyd ih 1999. The attorney for Mary Repucci, whose husband died in the accident and who sued the campground, said she was considering filing a request for a new trial. Francis Repucci, 69, of Bloomfield Hills in Michigan, was killed when a large cottonwood tree crashed onto his camper as he and his wife slept.

The impact trapped Repuccis head between his bed and a crushed wall. In a lawsuit filed in 2001 Mary Repucci charged that the campground manager should have known that the cottonwood tree was rotten and likely to fall. Mary Repucci sought an unspecified amount of damages. The case was tried last week in U.S. District Court in Burlington.

The jury deliberated Thursday afternoon and Friday before returning a verdict in favor of the campground, according to court records. It was a foregone conclusion, frankly, defense attorney Kevin ONeill said of the verdict. AP Gov. James Douglas, center, walks in Montpelier, Thursday, with winners from the Daylight Savings Challenge, a program aimed at encouraging children to take advantage of extended daylight hours to move more, eat more fruits and vegetables, and turn off their televisions and video games in favor of other creative activities. Ground search resumes for missing student Dubie says trip to Cuba was success By ANNE WALLACE ALLEN Associated Press MONTPELIER Lt.

Gov. Brian Dubie just returned from a trade mission to Cuba, and hes already planning his next trip this time with 100 Vermont heifers. Dubie traveled to Cuba earlier this month as part of a trade mission to promote U.S. agricultural products. On the trip, hundreds of U.S.

farm representatives met with Cuban leaders and attended a lunch with Cuban President Fidel Castro in the hopes of building trade relationships that until recently were outlawed. After the talks, Cuban authorities said at least $80 million in sales were arranged. While most of those deals were for rice, wheat, corn and grain from other states, the sales included Vermont apples, whey, and powdered milk, Dubie said at a briefing he held Thursday in the Statehouse. Dubie enjoyed his trip to Cuba, and he returned with a new conviction that a U.S. ban on travel between the United States and Cuba, recently strengthened, is a bad policy.

I think travel and trade would be a good thing for Cuba and the USA, he told the crowd. Dubie was accompanied on his trip by Armando Vilaseca, a Cuban native and longtime Vermont resident who was recently hired as superintendent of the Colchester school system. Vilaseca moved to the United States in 1964, at the age of 8, and on the recent trip to Cuba served as Dubies translator. Like Dubie, Vilaseca has high hopes the new trade initiative will help the Cuban people and Vermont farmers. Cuba has an incredible shortage of everything, said Vilaseca, who still has family in Cuba.

One thing the Vermont farmers could do is to help provide those basic elements, such as Vermont dairy, such as apples. Finding a new market for those products will also be good for Vermont farmers, he noted. Cuba can pay for it, added Vilaseca, who plans to return to Cuba next fall with Dubie when 100 Vermont heifers are delivered to the nation to assist with a dairy farming program there. Scarinza said state police have talked to Vermont State Police aboqt a girl missing in VertppjH to see if there might be a connect tion, but based on what we know, there does not seem to be any correlation whatever. Murrays family has spent considerable time searching the area and asking people in New Hampshire and bordering Vermont if they had seen her.

school before she disappeared. Murray, who didn't tell her family or anyone at school where she was going, was driving east along Route 112 when she failed to make a sharp left hand curve. She was unhurt, but disappeared before police arrived and hasnt been seen or heard from since. Scarinza said the area leads into rugged, mountainous terrain that covers many miles. HAVERHILL, N.H.

(AP) -Another ground search is planned soon for a Massachusetts college student missing since Feb. 9 after she crashed her car. State police Lt. John Scarinza said searchers will be out in the accident area in a few weeks before the leaves come out on trees, which makes sightings more difficult. State police searched the area in a helicopter Monday for any sign of Maura Murray, 21, of Hanson, a University of Massachusetts student, who had packed up all her belongings at Technology Partners Inc.

(mW Wind blows ice off Joes Pond Technology Consultations Systems Audit ELITE PAINTBALL DANVILLE (AP) The ice went out on Joes Pond Wednesday and a South Hero woman will probably take home about $3,000 for guessing the correct time, said ice out organizer Homer Fitts. The cement block that is attached to a clock did not fall through the ice and stop the clock. Rather, the wind blew the remaining ice on Joes Pond to one end, tripping the clock and ending the contest at 3:25 p.m. It wasnt the first time the contest ended without the block plunging to the bottom, Fitts said. It floated away on a piece of ice, he said.

Janet Hazen of South Hero had the closest guess. Fitts estimated Hazen would get a check for about $3,000. The Joes Pond ice out has been an annual event in Danville since 1988. People pay a dollar to bet when the clock that is attached to the block, which sits on the ice, with a string will stop. This year 8,367 tickets were sold, 1,800 more than last year, Fitts said.

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