Crash claims three lives in Killington

Rutland Herald

By Dan Colton
and ANDY CLARK
Staff Writers | December 30,2015

 

Dan Colton / Staff Photo A tractor-trailer blocks all traffic lanes of Route 4 in Killington after a crash that killed three people Tuesday.

KILLINGTON — Vermont State Police said three people died Tuesday when a tractor-trailer and sport utility vehicle crashed on Route 4 in Killington.
Police have not identified the victims of the crash as of press time, but said seven occupants were involved. The cause of the crash has not been reported, but roads were slick with slush from the first major snowstorm of the winter.
The crash occurred around 2 p.m. Tuesday, at the bottom of the hill just east of Sherburne Pass. Route 4 was closed between Sherburne Pass and Killington Road well into Tuesday evening.
Police turned away a reporter at the scene and declined to answer questions.
Hundreds of motorists idled for hours, while others pulled out of the line and turned around. Some drivers exited their vehicles to smoke or investigate on foot. As of press time, the road was still closed.
The tractor-trailer appeared to be traveling east on the east side of Sherburne Pass when the crash occurred. The trailer blocked traffic in both directions. Its cab hung suspended over the opposite ditch and a large State Police presence illuminated the slick roadway with flashing lights.
A mixture of frozen rain and snow fell and threw a white haze across the scene.
“This investigation is still ongoing and the roadway will be closed for quite a few hours, late into the evening and potentially early into the morning hours,” Lt. Chuck Cacciatore said around 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Elsewhere, on Route 7 near the Rutland-Pittsford town line, three vehicles were involved in another crash blamed on slippery roads, though firefighters said there were no life-threatening injuries in that incident.
“They all got up and walked away, but they went to the hospital,” said Capt. Chris Clark of the Rutland Town Fire Department.
He said two cars — a Subaru Outback and a Chevrolet Malibu — slid into each other at around 6 p.m., colliding on their drivers’ sides. Those two vehicles were total losses, Clark said, and the third, a Toyota Prius, sustained minor damage.
“It just happened to be in the way,” he said. “It had a little scrape on it.”
The drivers of the Outback and Malibu had to be extricated from their cars — one by the Pittsford Fire Department and one by Clark’s crew. Route 7 was closed to traffic north of Pinnacle Ridge Road for about an hour and a half.
Roads throughout Vermont were rated as “difficult” Tuesday. While accidents mounted later in the day, police said motorists generally drove appropriately to the conditions for the morning commute, and highway crews were out early. Few accidents or vehicles off the road were reported in the morning.
“It also helped traffic levels to have this happen while kids were out of school,” Cacciatore said. “Those who did drive this morning were doing so safely and slowly.”
Lt. Kevin Geno, of Rutland City Police, agreed about the morning commute. “Our DPW was out fairly early and by 6 a.m. they had the roads in decent shape for commuters. The outcome was really good. People paid attention to the conditions and everyone was prepared for the severity of the storm. It was the perfect time for such a storm to arrive.”
Byron Hathaway, road commissioner for Rutland Town, said: “We were out salting early. It was bad when it turned to sleet, but the salt began to loosen up the accumulation and made roads drivable.”
Road conditions, however, deteriorated later in the day in some areas, especially higher elevations.
For purposes of rating road conditions, “difficult” is defined by the state Agency of Transportation: “Roadway is completely covered with precipitation. Accumulation is to the point that roadway markings are completely obscured making it difficult to differentiate between the roadway and its surrroundings. Surfaces are slippery and driver speeds should be reduced significantly.”
Green Mountain Power crews went to work early Tuesday restoring power to customers as snow and ice brought down trees and branches, causing power outages.
As of 11:30 a.m., power had been restored to more than 250 customers. Most of the outages occurred in Killington and Sunderland, GMP said. No outages remained in the region by Tuesday evening.

City man denies trail head break-ins

Rutland Herald

By Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli
STAFF WRITER | December 29,2015

 

A Rutland man pleaded innocent in Rutland criminal court on Monday to a felony charge of breaking into two vehicles at a hiking area in Mendon and stealing handbags from the cars.
On Nov. 14, Bryce Smith-Wallett, 23, was charged with felony grand larceny, two misdemeanor counts of unlawful mischief and one misdemeanor count of petty larceny.
If convicted, Smith-Wallett could be sentenced to a maximum 13 years behind bars.
A witness spotted Smith-Wallett running from one of the vehicles after smashing a rear window in an out-of-state car parked at the Brewer’s Corner hiking and parking area, according to Vermont State Police.
The witness, Ben Reardon, 18, of Pittsford, told police he was returning to the parking area after a long hunt when he saw a man in a brown hooded sweatshirt jump out of a Ford F-150. Reardon said he heard smashing and shouted from the top of his lungs. The man in the brown hooded sweatshirt ran from one of the cars, which had Massachusetts plates, and was carrying something in his arms, police said.
After responding to Reardon’s call for help, police said they asked several hikers on Wheelerville Road if they had seen a Ford F-150. The hikers said they saw the vehicle speeding toward Route 4, police said.
Robert Osnoe, 27, a tow truck operator, told police at that time, he followed the truck after it pulled off Wheelerville Road and onto Route 4 after hearing a call on his scanner.
Trooper Aron McNeil found the truck on Killington Road and asked the driver, Trevor J. Polcaro, 24, to step out of the vehicle.
Polcaro denied any involvement with the break-ins and told police his passenger, Smith-Wallett, broke the windows and stole the contents of the purses, then threw them out the truck window.
Conversely, Smith-Wallett told police that he and Polcaro had never been on Wheelerville Road and did not break any windows or steal any purses.
The unrelated victims of the break-ins, Adam Frankel, 31, of Massachusetts and Suzanne Lee, 37, of Hanover, N.H., told police they had been hiking for the day and when they returned to the trailhead, noticed their rear windows were broken.
Frankel said his wife’s purse had been stolen and it contained her Apple iPhone, wallet, credit cards, and an 18-karat gold tennis bracelet with diamonds and sapphires.
Police said the bracelet belonged to Frankel’s wife’s grandmother and was priceless to her, but that its estimated material value was $3,000. Frankel said their loss, including damage to the vehicle, was more than $4,000, police said.
Lee told police that a North Face tote was taken from her car, and it contained vehicle key fobs and clothing valued at about $200.
Later, at the Rutland State Police barracks, Smith-Wallett admitted to police he broke the windows in the vehicles and the thefts were to support an opiate addiction.
Smith-Wallett has a hearing scheduled Feb. 1 in Rutland criminal court.

Comment: What were they doing on Killington Road? Does Trevor Polcaro live there or were they at a friend's house. Where on Killington Road was the truck found? Was Polcaro charged with aid and abetting the break ins?

Dog drives into pond

Rutland Herald

December 26,2015

 

KILLINGTON — A therapy dog gave her owner quite a headache in June when the man’s car ended up in a pond at the Killington Grand Resort Hotel.
Nick Hayer’s Volkswagen Jetta rolled into the pond at the resort around 11:30 a.m. June 4 while his dog was sitting in the front seat.
Lucy, a 2-year-old English bulldog, was believed to have bumped the manual transmission into neutral, which caused it to roll into the pond.
Hotel employee Mark Venter jumped in the water to rescue the dog. Neither Venter nor Lucy were hurt during the incident.
While Hayer didn’t face any charges from Vermont State Police, Lucy was likely to get a talking to when the pair arrived home.
“Maybe from my wife,” Hayer said at the time. “I’m very easy on her.”

Killington Board Gets Serious About Town Manager Search

Vermont Standard

By Curt Peterson

Standard Staff

The killington select board met today to take the first action steps toward selecting the candidate who will fill Seth Webb’s shoes as town manager. With them were Citizen Search Committee members Gerri Russell and Walter Findeisen, as well as Webb and Dick Horner, the interim town manager. Webb’s last day will be Dec. 31.

Connected by Skype, Abigail Friedman, Director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns Municipal Assistance Center, also participated in the meeting.

Reporting to the select board, the town manager is expected to supervise 104 full and part-time employees, administer a $15 million budget and oversee just about every department. Depending on education and experience, the Select Board is offering $75,000 to $95,000 plus “an excellent benefits package,” which is not defined.

Webb passed out packets for everyone attending, which had been delivered to town hall by a VLCT employee minutes before the meeting. Besides instructions and timeline information, each packet contained complete copies of the sixty applications for the job that VLCT has received.

“Because this is an open meeting,” Webb said, “we have to be careful not to mention any names or discuss any individual candidate while anyone from the public or the press is here.” Resident Charlie Holland and two reporters were the only people not present officially, and who would be excluded from an executive session.

In each packet was a copy of the job description posted on the Town Website and advertised by VLCT as part of their backroom support of killington’s search. Highlighted in the description is the town’s fluctuating population—811 fulltime residents, 2,500 second home owners and 15,000 visitors during ski season or for special events during the year.

“The town seeks a leader who can support its goal of becoming Vermont’s premier resort community, offering residents a high quality of life and tourists a memorable mountain adventure,” the document says. In short, he or she will “Serve as the chief executive officer of the town.”

Regarding the police department and other town employees, the Manager will have the authority to appoint and remove employees and “fix their salaries.”

Qualifications include a bachelors’ degree and management experience, with advantage going to candidates having skills and expertise involving municipal management.

The board’s next step will be to review the sixty applications and rank them on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the most suited for the job, and 5 the least suited. Friedman called this “the winnowing stage.” She recommended the board try to come up with 8-10 top candidates and five or six second-tier applicants before they think about interviews.

“Keep in mind that many of these applicants have filed multiple applications for jobs in several towns, and they may accept one before you even approach them. It’s good to have an adequate number of qualified people identified, with a small group of back-ups,” Friedman said.

Chairman Patty McGrath suggested a meeting late next week to review everyone’s ratings and start to set up interviews. Findeisen and Bianchi thought the holidays and work schedules might get in the way of everyone reviewing the applications carefully that soon, so they agreed to meet Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. to see how far everyone has gotten with their rating process.

The board voted to go into executive session so they could discuss some of the information in the packet confidentially. As Charlie Holland was leaving he was asked jokingly if he had applied for the job.

“No, I didn’t,” he laughed, “But I have one qualification that I think is the most important one – I live in killington full-time. I think the new manager should be required to live here too.”

Seth Webb lives in Woodstock.

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Big turnout for Killington job

 Big turnout for Killington job

By Lola Duffort
Staff Writer | December 08,2015

 

KILLINGTON — Sixty people are vying for Seth Webb’s job.
That’s according to the number of applications the Killington Select Board will get a first look at in a special meeting today as it embarks on its search for the town’s next manager.
The Select Board is scheduled to convene at 3:30 p.m. at the town office.
The town’s three-member citizen search committee will be in attendance, and a representative from Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which has been compiling the applications for the town, will video conference with the meeting.
The Select Board and the search committee are planning to rank applications to select candidates for interview within the week, Webb said, and are hoping to schedule initial interviews later in the month.
Webb ends his tenure in town Dec. 31. Planning director Dick Horner has been appointed to take the helm as interim manager as the town searches for its next top administrator.

Killington Board OKs Design For Donated Bridge

Vermont Standard

By Curt Peterson

Standard Correspondent

killington — Only three residents braved tough driving conditions to attend the Dec. 1 select board meeting, but they had questions about improvements proposed by the killington Pico Area Association that include replacing a bridge that’s part of the Gateway Project walkway.

The Gateway Project has been an ongoing dream in killington for more than 20 years, and only recently has expansion of the walkway picked up momentum. KPAA had come to the board some time ago proposing to replace the walkway bridge over Miller Brook that is across killington Road from its intersection with Dean Hill Road, with a covered bridge.

“It’s a decorative project,” said outgoing Town Manager Seth Webb.

The conversion will be privately funded with monies raised through KPAA efforts. When the work is completed, the new bridge will be donated to the town. For that reason the board required certification that the roof of the bridge would be able to hold up under the weight of heavy snow, and that the structure would be able to withstand high winds. KPAA hired Sellers Trebal Structural Engineers LLC from Shelburne to design the bridge and to certify its worthiness. Webb presented the engineering report and final design to the Board for approval.

Webb explained that the finished bridge would be gifted to the town by KPAA, which means the town will be responsible for maintaining and repairing it in the future.

Resident Charlie Holland asked why KPAA hadn’t included some kind of perpetual care funding for the bridge when they were raising the money.

“So far $5,000 has already been raised for construction,” Webb said. “If the board accepts the engineers’ plans and certification, KPAA will obtain bids from contractors for doing the work, and continue with fundraising until they have the amount needed. Then work can start.”

Selectman Chris Bianchi said the bridge will be a gift that will be part of the town’s walkway, that it will be an improvement and that the town will naturally be responsible for its upkeep.

“At this point, we’re just approving the design so KPAA can move ahead on the project,” he said.

The motion to approve the design, based on STSE’s plans and certification, passed unanimously.

Dick Horner, who has been appointed interim town manager, attended the meeting. Horner will serve from Dec. 31 when Webb’s resignation becomes effective, until Webb’s permanent replacement actually takes over the position. The board expects that will take place in February or March 2016.

Webb reported that the Vermont League of Cities and Towns has received 55 applications for his job so far. The VLCT Municipal Assistance Center has been handling advertising for the position, sorting, vetting and grading the applications, and will have presented their findings to the

search committee in time for a Dec. 8 meeting, which will begin at 3:30 p.m. Abby Friedman, who manages the center, will be available to the committee remotely via Skype.

Selectman Ken Lee had some questions regarding the fire department’s budget proposal for next year.

“I see a request here for $1,000 for something called handheld battery chargers. I don’t even know what they are or what they’re used for,” he said. “And $1,700 for snowshoes. Do we really need that many snowshoes?”

Chairman Patty McGrath couldn’t give Lee an answer about the battery chargers, but opined that the snowshoes were for killington Area Search and Rescue, which has become part of the fire department.

“They are trying to make it unnecessary for the responders to use their own personal gear,” she explained. “And if they have to go into the back woods, they need to have enough snowshoes.”

The selectmen all agreed the Fire Department and KASAR should include more details when requesting specialized equipment so the board knows what it is authorizing. Webb promised to find out more about the specific items Lee questioned.

The budget discussion ended with good news for killington taxpayers, according to the selectmen, as the proposed 2016-2017 municipal tax rate will rise less than 2 cents.

“We managed to keep spending very close to 2014 levels,” Webb said.

Resident Jim Haff objected to the method of reporting bond revenue and obligations, although he agreed in the end that all the funds were accounted for. The board will take up the Capital Plan at their next meeting, which Bianchi said should clear up any misgivings about treatment of the bond debt and how the borrowed funds are being used.