City Hall Reporter's Notebook
Area GOP to benefit Guard holiday travel
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By STEPHANIE M. PETERS Staff Writer - Published: December 7, 2009
At last week’s Rutland County Republican Committee caucus, organizers reminded the group about a fundraiser for Rutland-area National Guardsmen next week – certainly a worthwhile cause I thought was worth mentioning again here.
From 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 15, the Rutland City Republicans will host a spaghetti dinner at the American Legion. For a $10 donation, payable at the door, the public is invited to attend the dinner. Rutland area soldiers and their families will be the guests of honor for the dinner.
All proceeds from the dinner will benefit the “Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation Inc.,” which assists Guard families with the travel costs of bringing troops home for the holidays.
Last month, the charity raised the funds to pay for the flights of Vermont National Guard soldiers completing predeployment training in Indiana, about half of the 1,500 from Vermont, home for their holiday leave.
More information about the charity is available at www.supportvermontguard.org. For more information about the dinner, Paula Lannon, one of the organizers at the event, can be reached at 558-2328 or e-mail schinoski@aol.com.
On a related note, Col. Peter Fagan, a Republican state representative for the city, was also in attendance at last week’s caucus and reported to the group that the group of Vermont Guardsmen who recently completed training in Fort Polk, La., were described by training staff as “one of the best groups” to complete the program.
“They’re also exceptionally, capably led,” he said.
The troops are scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan throughout December and January.
Slow agenda
The Board of Aldermen hasn’t met in three weeks, but tonight’s agenda was far from packed as of late last week.
Aside from five committee reports and a couple of tax abatement requests, however, City Clerk Henry Heck said he expects to see a line of people waiting to address aldermen from outside the rail on a variety of issues. For instance, he said he was told a group was planning to show up to voice their frustrations with the winter parking ban, which went into effect Dec. 1.
There are only two other aldermanic meetings scheduled for the rest of the week.
On Tuesday, Alderwoman Sharon Davis’ charter and ordinance subcommittee studying the city’s form of government will hold its third meeting. Only a few weeks remain before both subcommittees are expected to report back in a full Charter and Ordinance Committee meeting.
On Thursday, the General Committee will meet to review the proposed budgets for the mayor, attorney, assessor and building and zoning offices, as well as the allocations for elections and the city’s legislative body.
stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com
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