Local (Rutland) man faces new burglary charges

Rutland Herald

By Gordon Dritschilo

STAFF WRITER | October 29,2016

Charges are piling up against a Mendon man who allegedly sped off when he was stopped after breaking into residences on a back road in Killington.

Coy A. Hill, 34, pleaded not guilty Friday in Rutland criminal court to two burglary charges and one charge of burglary of an occupied dwelling, all felonies. The charges carry a combined maximum of 55 years in prison. He was held for lack of $100,000 bail.

It was the second time this week Hill had been in court for the same incident. Monday, he pleaded not guilty to three charges of violating his conditions of release on previous charges, and one of driving without a license, all misdemeanors. Those charges carry a maximum of 3½ years in prison.

Hill had been freed on $1,000 bail on the first batch of charges Thursday, and police took him back into custody on the burglary charges later that day.

Vermont State Police said Hill broke into three residences on Alpine Drive in Killington, making off with a haul that included three televisions, a purse, three bottles of liquor, a Mac computer and monitor, an amplifier and a FedEx package containing two ski pole baskets.

Police said they got a 911 call a little before 1 a.m. Sunday from the resident of one of the homes, who was hiding in a closet with her cellphone after hearing a loud banging followed by breaking glass.

Killington police arrived to find the rear door kicked in, according to affidavits, and State Police arrived to help search the area.

Later that night, police said, an alarm went off at another Alpine Drive residence. Police said as they approached the road, they made contact with a red SUV leaving the area. The driver, later identified as Hill, told a trooper he was visiting a friend.

Police said that since the vehicle was leaving a secluded area where an alarm had been activated, they instructed Hill not to leave. He disregarded those instructions, according to police, driving toward Rutland at high speed. Police said they were unable to catch him. Police said they found an open door and broken glass at the site of the alarm.

When the investigation identified Hill as the driver, police said they found him at home, where they wound up in a standoff at Hill spoke to officers out a second-floor window, holding a large hunting knife to his own throat.

“After a lengthy negotiation, Coy Hill agreed to drop the knife,” police wrote.

Hill was taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center for a mental health crisis evaluation, according to affidavits, and a number of stolen items were found in his bedroom.

Police said a break-in at a third Alpine Drive residence was discovered Monday morning.

When police took Hill back into custody Thursday, according to affidavits, he told them he was stealing to support his crack habit and that he had traded televisions to his dealer for drugs.

In court Friday, Deputy State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan noted that Hill had previous convictions for five felonies and 15 misdemeanors, including two escapes, and was already facing an outstanding DUI-4 and related charges.

His defense attorney argued against bail, saying that Hill had extensive ties to the area and noting that he had posted bail the previous day and police found him at home that night.

“It’s not like they had to go searching for him,” he said. “People know where Mr. Hill is.”

Judge William Cohen was not persuaded.

“Based on the accumulation of charges ... and his previous record regarding compliance with court orders ... he is clearly a risk of flight,” Cohen said.

gordon.dritschilo @rutlandherald.com

Killington Burglar arrested

October 28, 2016

State Police/Press Release/Case # 16C105931/Burglary 2 counts/Burglary of Occupied Dwelling 1 Count/Killington

VSP Press Release-Incident

STATE OF VERMONT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

VERMONT STATE POLICE

PRESS RELEASE

        

CASE#: 16C105931

TROOPER: Robert Rider                                 

STATION: Rutland                                  

CONTACT#: 802-773-9101

DATE/TIME: 10-23-16 0102 hours 

LOCATION: Killington

VIOLATION: Burglary of an Occupied Residence

ACCUSED: Coy A. Hill                                                

AGE: 34

CITY, STATE OF RESIDENCE: Rutland City VT

SUMMARY OF INCIDENT: 

On 10-23-16 at 0045 hours Troopers based out of the Rutland Barracks along with

Killington Police Department responded to a burglary that had occurred in the

Town of Killington.  Upon arrival it was determined that the home had been

broken into while the home owner was inside the residence.  The following

evening a second burglary had occurred in the same area as the first.  Upon

arrival to the second burglary, Troopers were able to stop a vehicle seen

leaving the area, and obtain a registration number.  The vehicle in question

then fled the scene.  Investigation led to a residence in Rutland City.  Located

at the residence was a Coy Hill.  Hill was arrested for violation of his

conditions of release.  A search warrant was subsequently obtained for the

residence.  The warrant was executed on 10-26-16 and the items that had been

stolen from the burglaries were located.  Hill was charged with two counts of

burglary, and one count of burglary to an occupied dwelling. Hill was lodged at

Marble Valley correctional center for lack of $25,000.00 bail.       

COURT ACTION: Yes

COURT DATE: 10-28-16            

COURT: Rutland 

LODGED-Yes LOCATION: Marble Valley Correctional Center     

BAIL: 25,000.00

MUG SHOT: Yes

SU Plan: Reading, Barnard to Be Pre-K-2 Only

Vermont Standard

By Katy Savage

Standard Staff

After considering several options, including closing schools, the Windsor Central Supervisory Union is putting forward a restructuring plan to comply with Act 46.

Under the new plan: Reading and Barnard would be pre-K-2 schools, Woodstock would absorb Reading’s 3-6 grade students and Prosper Valley would take Barnard’s 3-6 grade students. Killington would be a pre-K-6 school and Prosper Valley a K-6 school. Woodstock Union High School-Middle School would remain as is.

The change would cost an estimated $75,000 for new staff.

The study committee deemed this the most cost-effective way to provide an equitable education to all. There will be a full-time principal in each building “wherever educationally practicable and sustainable,” according to an Aug. 1 draft of the “Guiding Principals of Unification.”

Act 46 is the state law incentivizing small schools to merge by 2018. Windsor Central’s proposal could impact Reading and Barnard students in particular.

In June, Reading had 54 students according to an enrollment report that month — 36 were pre-K-2 students while Barnard had 71 students — 42 of which were pre-K-2.

Attempts to reach Barnard and Reading Act 46 study committee members weren’t successful.

Act 46 study committee chair Justin Shipman suggested adult continuing education classes, civic meeting rooms and creative spaces could take up the extra space in the Barnard and Reading buildings.

The board is “hoping some really creative ideas are put forth,” Shipman said in an email.

Peter Clarke, who was hired as an Act 46 study consultant, said closing a school “should really be a last resort.”

But that’s been discussed as well.

The study committee laid out how Woodstock would absorb Reading's 3-6 grade students and Prosper Valley would take Barnard's 3-6 grade students. a school would close in an Oct. 13 draft of its Articles of Agreement.

After four years of operating as a unified district, the draft document said the school board could vote to close a school. The board would hold at least three public hearings before voting to do so. The board would then seek approval by residents in every town. If approved, the unified school district would transfer ownership of the building to the town it resides in.

The draft articles of agreement also allows the school to determine a more appropriate configuration.

There would be intra-district school choice, to make this “a very attractive place to live and raise your children,” Clarke said.

The current study committee has high academic hopes for the district. By 2021, the school wants to become one of the best — competitive with the top 5 percent of schools in the state on test scores.

“I think that’s the most exciting thing about their proposal,” said Clarke.

Also by 2021, the committee wants a 12-student minimum in each class and a maximum of 20 students for grades K-3, 25 for grades 4-6, according to an August draft of its “Guiding Principals of Unification.”

The study committee is gathering feedback from residents in each town now and will seek voter approval of the proposal in March, around town meeting time. If voters reject the proposal, the study committee will be required to evaluate how to proceed by November 2017.

Comment: ????????? "The change would cost an estimated $75,000 for new staff." I thought Act 46 was supposed to money.

Vito

Green Mountain National Golf Course Pays Back $200K to Town

Vermont Standard

By Curt Peterson

Standard Correspondent

Killington — Green Mountain National Golf Course professional and General Manager David Soucy attended the Oct. 18 select board meeting when Town Manager Debbie Schwartz announced the club was paying the town $200,000 of the $360,000 the town had advanced as startup money when the club’s finances were separated into their own accounts.

“We had a pretty good year,” Soucy said.

Prior to January 2015 golf club expenses were paid directly from the general fund. When the town changed from a calendar year to a fiscal year spanning July 1 to June 30, the golf course, given its seasonal operations, did not adopt the fiscal system. So separate accounts were set up for GMNGC within the town’s books, and its finances remain on a calendar year basis.

The town owns the golf course, so, as select board chair Patty McGrath said, “It’s the town’s money, and the town always has possession of it. The club is just transferring funds from its account into the town’s general fund account.”

Each spring the club has to buy supplies for grounds keeping, its restaurant, the pro shop and maintenance department, in preparation for their upcoming season. These expenses had traditionally been paid directly from the general fund, but would now be funded from the club’s new account. The town had left $360,000 in the account for that purpose, and the payment transfer arrangement announced on Tuesday evening, according to Soucy, will leave enough for startup expenses next spring.

Selectman Chris Bianchi said, “Keeping the club’s books separate is a much cleaner way to handle it than the old system where the town paid the expenses.”

There are just 38 days until the Audi FIS World Cup skiing competition comes to Killington and Schwartz said a second “table top exercise” to discuss coordinating security and services is scheduled for Nov. 1, and that notes from the first session have been distributed. She and police chief Whit Montgomery plan to review them over the next few days.

Montgomery said he thinks at least 7,000 visitors will be involved in the event, which makes it an unusually large occasion for the town. And that would be in addition to the normal skiing and other winter sports participants who can swell the population from around 900 to well over 15,000 on a good weekend.

The chief reported on a three-day seminar he attended in Fort Lauderdale, Florida the first weekend in October. Sixty students from law enforcement and security organizations learned about event crowd management and liability issues,taught by experienced law enforcement people, judges and security experts and produced by Special Events Seminars, a San Diego firm with vast experience. The town sponsored Montgomery’s attendance with the World Cup event in mind.

“The course was very comprehensive and valuable,” Montgomery said. “The group has provided security and training for the National Football League, national elections and the Olympics.”

He said he learned a lot about making sure visitors feel Killington is a friendly place while still providing security.

“They taught us how to analyze a crowd — not only the number of people, but the type of people in the crowd, and how to recognize behavior that might indicate a potential suicide bomber, active shooter or sex offender,” he said.

The course also focused on avoiding liability or legal issues when restricting, searching or interacting with individuals and crowds.

Schwartz had been asked by the board to find out how other towns handled “grace periods” for almost-on-time tax payments. She said the Vermont League of Cities and Towns had done a survey including the topic, which was very handy.

“Of the 153 towns that responded to the survey,” she said, “only 7 allow any grace period at all, 134 reported they allow for no grace period, and 12 failed to answer the question either way.”

Killington currently allows a 10-day grace period during which tax payments may be made without incurring any interest charges. Schwartz made no recommendation regarding the grace period policy, saying she was just delivering the information she was asked to provide.

“Since we just shortened the time before a property is eligible for tax sale, I think we can live with the grace period a little bit longer,” McGrath said.

Comment: Where did the balance of $160,000 go? What I get from this is that the $360k was an operating loan which should have been paid back in full in the current year. It's not like GMNGC just opened. 

I have always stated that the money borrowed from the general fund needs to have a cost associated to it even if its just imputed. If it is not recognized then we are not presented with the true operating results from GMNGC. Any other business would have that expense if it had to borrow money!

Vito

Killington’s first village plans: progress and challenges

Mountain Times

OCTOBER 12, 2016

By Karen D. Lorentz
Editor’s Note: This is Part Two of a series addressing the long road to a village at Killington Resort.
Aware of trends elsewhere in the ski world and impressed with the concept of cluster development as exemplified by condominiums in Europe, Killington founder Pres Smith hired professional planners Dan Kiley and Robert Burley to create a master plan incorporating several ski villages.
He announced the plan for a 44-acre Killington Center (with hotels, lodges, restaurants and shops) and three new residential areas located on the mountain—at Falls Brook, at the soon-to-be-built gondola base on U.S. Route 4, and one at Hadley Hill—at a November 1967 press conference.
No sooner had he announced those plans than a strategic land exchange was arranged between the Sherburne Corporation and the state of Vermont. Killington purchased 1,480 acres on Camel’s Hump in February 1968 and transferred them to the state in exchange for the 400-acre tract adjacent to Snowshed. The swap cost Killington over $200,000, a considerable sum for a small company with net earnings of $91,188 in 1968!
New plans called for: a 30-acre high-density village core with commercial and residential construction; a 100-acre golf course (completed by independent contractor in 1984); and 270 acres of low-density residential development with open spaces. In all, it was projected the village center would have about one-third of the living units and the rest of the village two-thirds, for a total of up to 2,600 units.
With the new plan, Killington embarked upon building the Edgemont condominiums in 1968. At the time, the concept of condominiums was “relatively new to Vermont and there were no other developers who really wanted to experiment with it. Since we wanted to commence development in the 400 acres, our only choice was to do it ourselves,” explained former Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Martel Wilson, who had been put in charge of the real estate department.
Built at the periphery of the new 400-acre village—to avoid making any mistakes with the village center—Edgemont represented a first step and saw good sales with 40 units sold. The Killington Village Inn (a.k.a. The Villager) followed in 1972-73. The company retained ownership of the hotel units, which later provided summer lodging facilities for the school for tennis (both now gone). The Whiffletree condominium project—48 units built from 1973 to 1975, with 24 units added in 1978—was to be Killington’s last venture into the direct development of condominiums.
Recession and weather impact projects
In 1973 there was a national economic downturn, with interest rates rising as fuel prices escalated. Simultaneously, the East experienced disastrous weather and snow conditions. With the accompanying economic and energy uncertainty, there was less interest in condos, and Killington experienced a decline in sales revenues while increased interest rates and escalating utilities and taxes added to the cost of operations.
In 1974, the combined impacts of fuel shortage, lean snow year, and increased costs were exacerbated by a substantial lack of skier days. Killington found itself with unsold condo units and with approximately $200,000 of interest charges on that inventory. Rentals of the condos helped to offset the carrying charges.
Commenting at the 1974 annual meeting on what he saw as an undesirable problem with real estate development as a source of ski company revenues, Smith indicated that Killington would now look to the recurring revenue sources—rentals and management services—but not to sales and construction of their own projects. After these three projects, Killington left real estate development to others.
Village expands
The Killington Village center, which was in a different location from the current SP Land plan, got its start with the 1978 opening of the Mountain Inn, a 50-room hotel. The Cascades Lodge (1980) and Pinnacle and Mountain Green Condominiums (1981-1986) followed. The Trail Creek, Fall Line, and High Ridge condominiums were built at the periphery of the village center from 1984 to 1988. By 1988, the 400-acre Killington Village Planned Unit Development (PUD) totaled about 900 units—700 condo units and 200 hotel rooms—and the Killington Golf Course.
The commercial core began in 1985 with Mountain Green Three, a large, multi-level complex incorporating condominiums and an indoor sports/health center, restaurant, underground parking, and small shops. Public restaurants were also in operation at the Mountain Inn and Cascades Lodge in the Village Center.
1980s opposition stalls growth
From 1985 to 1991, environmental groups had a very strong ally in Vermont’s Governor Madeleine Kunin. Her administration was not afraid to do battle with the state’s largest ski area, and she categorized outdoor and business interests as being irreconcilable. This allowed her to frame the “competing” interests as a type of “David-and-Goliath” battle and further encouraged a “no-growth” element to pursue their agenda at the expense of Killington. Together, they made Killington the ideal “enemy” with which to do battle.
In her book, “Living a Political Life” (Knopf, 1994), Kunin had noted that “the feminine traits of mediation and consensus building were not always appropriate to the political task at hand.” She accused Killington of not playing by the rules, of being “whiners and complainers,” and in essence of being enemies of the environment. She wrote, “By getting angry I had become a heroine.”
She took that battle to the media and, at Killington’s expense, made them out to be “bad guys.” Whatever the merits—or lack thereof—of her perception, what many found repugnant was that a governor would choose to do public battle to embarrass a major employer and driver of the economy in an area of the state that was in need of jobs. By choosing a political approach, she was fostering the battle and that ultimately had consequences for the region as well as for Killington Ski Resort.
Village expansion became the object of environmental challenges, stalling its further progress. Due to the larger size and scope of Killington Village, cries of “rapid development” were raised and some groups decided the ski area was “big enough and should not grow anymore.”
The ramifications of “environmental challenges” would change Killington’s history as the permit process began to be used to stop and/or delay progress.

Karen Lorentz is the author of “Killington, A Story of Mountains and Men: A 50-year History of the Ski Resort.”

Photo courtesy of Karen D. Lorentz
Shown is a model of the 1968 proposed Killington Village Center. Upper Snowshed parking lot is to the right and Snowshed Pond is on the upper left. A proposed ski lift in the center would provide transportation to Snowshed area.

Wanted Dead or Alive - K-Man

The full cartoon series published in the Mountain Times