Early Morning Fire Destroys
Southern Vermont Diner

Dover, Vt. — An early morning fire has destroyed a diner in the southern Vermont town of Dover during one of the biggest snowstorms of the winter.

The fire was reported at Betsey’s Dot’s of Dover just before 1 a.m. on Sunday. No one was in the building at the time.

The assistant fire chief told the Bennington Banner that the cause has not been determined.He said the weather conditions and lack of personnel at the scene in the beginning posed challenges. The restaurant’s website says the diner is owned by Betsey Reagan, who relocated to the Deerfield Valley from Long Island in 1986.

Vermont Offers Free Guided Wildlife Walks

Montpelier — The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is offering free guided walks starting this winter in wildlife management areas to look for wildlife and their tracks.

Biologists and naturalists will lead the walks that will center on bird watching and observing other wildlife and signs of them.

John Austin, the department’s lands and habitat program manager, says it’s a chance for Vermonters to get to the state’s 98 wildlife management areas. He said the department will have offerings all year, from winter tracking walks to summer birding paddles. The events are free. Participants are urged to bring snacks and water and to dress appropriately for the weather.

Space is limited to the first 30 people who sign up. More information can be found on the department’s website at vtfishandwildlife.com.

Effort to Conserve Site Near Annual Fishing Derby a Success

Warner, n.h.— An effort to conserve nearly a half-mile along a brook that’s the site of an annual fishing derby in Warner, New Hampshire, has met with success.

The town and Scott and Joan Warren worked with the Five Rivers Conservation Trust to conserve the land. For 50 years, the Warner Fishing Derby has been an occasion to take kids outdoors each spring at Children’s Brook.

Nancy Martin, chair of the Warner Conservation Commission, says her boys Chip and Andy participated in the derby from ages 5 to 16, back in the 1960s and ‘70s. She said she hopes to instill a love of fishing in her grandchildren, too, at the derby.

$200,000 Is Available In Specialty Crop Grants

Montpelier — Approximately $200,000 is available in federal grant funding for specialty crop industries in Vermont.

The state Agency of Agriculture said the money will go to projects that improve the competitiveness of specialty crops. Those crops are defined as fruits and tree nuts; vegetables; culinary herbs, spices, medicinal plants; nursery, floriculture, horticulture, Christmas trees; honey, hops, maple syrup; and mushrooms.

The agency said projects must benefit more than one specialty crop business, organization or individual to be eligible.

Officials said proposals are often given between $10,000 and $30,000 per project per year.

The agency will hold a webinar for potential applicants on Friday, Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. The deadline to submit a letter of intent is Feb. 25. More information about the grants can be found on the agency’s website.

Officials: Moving Inmates To Mississippi An Improvement

Montpelier — Corrections and prison rights groups said the move of more than 200 Vermont inmates from a government-run prison in Pennsylvania more than three months ago to a private one in Mississippi has been an improvement.

Vermont Public Radio reported that the supervising attorney for the Prisoners’ Rights Office was initially concerned about the Department of Correction’s plan to send 215 inmates to Tallahatchie County prison, run by the corporation CoreCivic.

After nearly four months, he and the Corrections commissioner said the Mississippi prison has been an improvement over the Camp Hill prison in Pennsylvania, where there were reports of bad treatment, poor medical services and inmate deaths.

They said one issue is that there was a shortage of available medication. Touchette said the department is working to fix that.

Final Statehouse Art Contest Underway

Concord — Students have one more chance to enter an art contest celebrating the bicentennial of the New Hampshire Statehouse.

A commission that has been organizing events leading up to this year’s bicentennial has been hosting mixed media art contests for the last several years.

The final contest is underway, with submissions due March 29. A total of nine awards will be given in each age group, and any child between the ages of 5 and 21 who lives in New Hampshire and is a public, private or home school student in kindergarten through 12th grade can participate. The theme is The New Hampshire State House and its Meaning Today. Winners will be notified in May.

New England College to Hold Ribbon-Cutting for Esports Arena

Henniker, n.h. — New England College is going to open an Esports Arena for students who will compete against other colleges in the region in a variety of live-action online games.

A ribbon-cutting is planned Thursday, Jan. 24 at the Henniker college’s Simon Center.

Esports — competition using video games — has grown in popularity. New England College officials say it can build on the success of the school’s various degree programs, such as game design.

Road to Jay Peak Forced To Close During Storm

Jay, Vt.— Vermont State Police said a road to Jay Peak ski resort had to be closed twice during the snowstorm for vehicles unable to make it up the hill.

Police say shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday an accident was reported on Vermont Route 242 with one vehicle in a snow bank. Authorities say there were 47 vehicles that were unable to make it up the hill to the resort and were blocking traffic.

The road was closed for about an hour and was closed again later in the morning because two buses got stuck.

— Wire reports