GRAFTON — Woodstove ash triggered a smoky fire that damaged a garage on Williams Hill Road but stopped short of spreading into the attached house late Sunday morning, Grafton fire officials said.
“It could have been much worse,” Fire Chief John Babiarz said. “With an older house like that, it takes that one breach, and you lose the whole thing. .”
Babiarz said that the fire spread from a dried-out Christmas tree, melting wires in a room at the back of the garage and damaging a plugged-in refrigerator.
He added that emergency responders checked the house’s residents for signs of smoke inhalation, but the occupants declined further treatment or an ambulance ride to the hospital.
Fire crews from neighboring Canaan and Danbury helped at the scene, while an Enfield crew covered the Grafton station.
SHARON — A burglar stole “a large quantity of cigarettes and an undisclosed amount of cash” from the Sharon Trading Post before dawn on Sunday, Vermont State Police said later in the day.
Answering a 9-1-1 call that came in a little before 4:30 a.m., state troopers and investigators from the Hartford Police Department learned that a man about six feet in height, wearing “a black hooded jacket, black pants and a molded camouflage face mask … was last seen walking behind the Sharon Congregational Church,” according to a news release from the state police barracks in Royalton.
MONTPELIER — The Vermont House of Representatives will vote this week on postponing implementation of a controversial law governing school mergers.
Act 46 requires impacted school districts to merge into larger districts overseeing multiple schools by July 1.
Scott Thompson, who sits on the board that oversees Union-32 middle and high schools, told Vermont Public Radio that the timeline has become untenable.
About 30 school districts are challenging the law, arguing it is unconstitutional.
Democratic House Speaker Mitzi Johnson committed to having a floor vote on a question to postpone the Act 46 timeline by one year amid the court deliberations on the law.
CONCORD — A new scholarship fund will distribute more than $100,000 annually to New Hampshire engineering students.
The Norman F. and Marilyn W. Jones Scholarship Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation will make its first awards this year to students this year to students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering.
Students in electrical, aeronautical and mechanical engineering and related fields and who are rising sophomores, juniors or seniors, are eligible to apply for the funds.
Students will be considered based on academic excellence, leadership potential, passion for the field and financial need.
Finalists will be interviewed by and asked to make a presentation to a committee of industry professionals who will help select recipients.
Applications are due by April 12.
— Staff and wire reports