Bigfoot

When state police Sgt. Sean Selby visited the home of Darlene Marsden in Island Pond, he was there to question her son, Mark Marsden, 50, about some burglaries that occurred in Lyndonville and Danville on Feb. 10, 2010.

After speaking with Mark for awhile about the burglaries, Sgt. Selby obtained Darlene Marsden's consent to search her home. Selby also obtained Mark Marsden's consent to search his bedroom. Mark lived with his mother.

The state police observed guns in plain view through the open door of his bedroom. At the time, Marsden had a criminal record with convictions which made it illegal for him to possess firearms. Because Mark Marsden admitted the firearms were his, he was eventually charged by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont with being a convicted felon in possession of firearms.

The offense carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

The federal prosecutor, Tristam Coffin, cites Marsden's convictions on three counts of third degree burglary in the State of Connecticut as grounds for charging Marsden with the federal firearms charges.

On February 10, 2010, Marsden and James Sherman, 34, Island Pond, allegedly broke into the Lyndonville Agway and the Bagel Depot, both on Broad St. in Lyndonville. They then drove to Danville, where state police say the pair burglarized Marty's First Stop. The thieves stole a large quantity of cigarettes and other tobacco products from Marty's, a cash register from the Bagel Depot and a cash register and road salt from the Agway store in Lyndonville.

During the investigation of those crimes, state police recognized a truck, captured on surveillance video, as belonging to Marsden. Within hours state police caught up with Marsden and Sherman, both of whom eventually admitted burglarizing the businesses.

When Sgt. Selby traveled to the Marsden home in Island Pond to question Mark Marsden, the firearms were discovered. Marsden entered guilty pleas to burglary charges in connection with the breakins and was sentenced in state court to three-to-eight years in prison, all suspended except for 18 months.

Found in Mark Marsden's bedroom were a 12-gauge shotgun and a .38 caliber Revolver. On March 28, 2012, U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha issued a final order of forfeiture. The forfeited firearms will be disposed of by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Marsden pleaded guilty to the federal firearms charge on December 28, 2011 and will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Burlington on April 30, 2012. According to assistant federal prosecutor Wendy Fuller, she will recommend Marsden be given a sentence of time served. Marsden has been in federal custody on the firearm charges since February, 2011. A time served sentence will mean Marsden spent more than a year in federal custody on the gun possession charge, according to Fuller.

BURLINGTON, VT - Thirteen Northeast Kingdom defendants have been indicted by federal grand jury with methamphetamine-related drug crimes following a raid on an Island Pond house in November of 2011.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Burlington will be prosecuting Carl Dewayne Coker, Charles Thomas Amerine III, Mandy Darlene Johnson, Frank Santaw, and Kevin Dodge with conspiring to manufacture five grams or more of methamphetamine from Spring 2011 to November 2011.
Frank Santaw and Kevin Dodge are also charged with conspiring to manufacture five grams or more of methamphetamine from September 2011 to December 2011.
Alicia Ovitt, Joshua Ovitt, and James Castrogiovanni are charged with conspiring together and with Coker, Amerine, Johnson, Santaw, and Dodge to possess and distribute pseudoephedrine, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine, from Spring 2011 to November 2011.
James Castrogiovanni, Honey Lee Lacourse, Roger Chaffee, Cheryl Hackett, Richard Lavoie, and Jaime Cross were charged with with conspiring together and with Santaw and Dodge to possess and distribute pseudoephedrine, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine, from September 2011 to in or about December 2011.
Coker, Amerine, and Johnson, all formerly of Island Pond, were arrested on November 18, 2011. Coker is detained pending trial. Santaw and Dodge, both of Island Pond, were arrested on December 16, 2011. Santaw is detained pending trial. The other eight defendants were arrested on April 17, 2012. Cross, Chaffee, and Lavoie are detained temporarily pending hearings scheduled for April 19, 2012.
United States Attorney Tristram J. Coffin emphasizes that the charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations and that the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, defendants charged in Count 1 or 2 face imprisonment for a term between 5 and 40 years and defendants charged in Count 3 or 4 face imprisonment for a term up to 20 years. Actual sentences in the event of conviction would be determined pursuant to the advisory federal sentencing guidelines and the federal statutory sentencing factors.
The investigation of these crimes was led by the Vermont Drug Task Force with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Vermont State Police Field Force Division, the United States Marshals Service, and the Brighton Police Department assisted in the arrests of defendants. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan.

ISLAND POND — Wind turbines destined for the Lowell Mountain project will start arriving in Brighton by rail in June, selectmen heard at their Tuesday night meeting.

Parts up to 203 feet long will travel by truck along town roads on their way to the construction site, according to representatives of Green Mountain Power (GMP) who traveled to Island Pond Tuesday to explain their plans.

According to Charlie Pough, one of GMP’s representatives, the turbine towers are assembled from three sections, and each is topped by three blades. Each part must move on its own truck, he said.

Plans call for the turbine parts to be shipped by Union Pacific Distribution via the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad to Island Pond.

They will arrive in two shipments — one in June, the other in August, Mr. Pough said. The Pelletier lumber yard will be used as a staging area.

Mr. Pough said trucks will start rolling on July 16 and continue through September 11, assuming weather doesn’t interfere. Under the terms of GMP’s permit from the state Agency of Transportation two trucks will run on one day, each carrying a section of the tower.

On the following day, four trucks will roll, three carrying the turbine blades and one with the last section of the tower.

Trucks are limited to running on weekdays in fair weather. According to Mr. Pough, each truck must wait to start for at least a half hour after the previous one sets out.

State regulations also require that each truck be preceded and followed by pairs of escort cars to warn traffic.

Mr. Pough said the trucks will travel toward Derby on Route 105. In Derby they will turn onto Interstate 91, getting off at Orleans and heading to Lowell on Route 58. He said there will be 105 truck trips in all.

Originally, Mr. Pough said, plans called for the parts to be shipped to Bellows Falls, but going by rail to Island Pond will save a total of 20,000 miles of trucking. He said GMP plans to file an amended transportation plan with the Public Service Board (PSB).

The loaded trucks, he said, weigh about 180,000 pounds, about twice as much as a normal tractor trailer, but because the weight is distributed across 13 axles, it causes less damage to roads.

The GMP representatives said they would survey town roads and repair any damage found to have occurred. The planners were surprised to hear from Town Administrator Joel Cope that Route 105, within Island Pond, is a town road, not a state road. They were also somewhat taken aback by the information, also provided by Mr. Cope, that plans to reconfigure the Pelletier property may require an amendment to the site’s conditional use zoning permit.

Mr. Cope said he believes much of that property is a wetland, although he was unsure of its category.

Doug Jones, who is supervising the necessary upgrades to the lumberyard, said wet conditions at the yard will necessitate raising the road leading out to Route 105 by at least six inches.

Mr. Cope said he thought any changes in the wetland area might require Act 250 approval, but Mr. Pough said such issues can be covered under Section 248 of Title 30, the statute under which the
PSB acts.

Mr. Pough said that GMP’s wetland experts will survey the area and write a report for state approval.

Giselle Chevallay, a Newark resident who attended the meeting, said she thought there might be a conflict of interest in that way of proceeding, but Mr. Pough assured her that it was how things are normally done.

After the GMP delegation left, the selectmen turned their attention to a potential wind project that would be closer at hand. Seneca Mountain Wind LLC, a joint development project of Eolian Renewable Energy, LLC and Nordex USA, has applied to the PSB for a permit allowing the company to place meteorological towers in Island Pond to see if the area is suitable for wind development.

The selectmen and Mr. Cope discussed what steps the town ought to take. Chairman of the Selectmen, Melinda Gervais, said she thinks it’s important for the town to participate in the process regardless of whether residents decide they want wind towers or not.

Selectmen and townspeople are to meet with representatives of Seneca Mountain Wind on Wednesday, April 18, at the Brighton Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

NORTHEAST KINGDOM: Wind Test Towers Get Mixed Reviews

A proposal to erect four temporary meteorological towers to help monitor wind in remote sections of Essex and Caledonia counties has triggered mixed reactions among some of the residents in the area.

Seneca Mountain Wind LLC, based in Portsmouth, N.H., sent advance notice dated March 6 describing a proposal for four test towers in the towns of Brighton, Ferdinand and Newark. The four towers are described as temporary meteorological towers ("METS").

After the 30 day advance notice period has passed, Seneca Mountain Wind LLC will apply for a Certificate of Public Good ("CPG") to install and operate the MET towers for a five-year period. The notice was signed by Jack Kenworthy, on behalf of Seneca Mountain Wind, LLC.,

The Brighton Select Board met Wednesday night and, according to Municipal Assistant Joel Cope, had a "broad ranging discussion" on the topic of the MET towers and wind power in general. While the selectmen took no formal action, according to Cope, the selectmen have directed Cope to forward a letter drafted by the Brighton Planning Board. The letter expresses concern over the planned MET towers.

The letter states "wind towers as proposed by Seneca Wind LLC may not be appropriate for this area," adding, "This area of the state contains some of the most sensitive and fragile natural areas in the state, as classified in a 1990 report done for the state Fish and Wildlife Dept." The letter continues, "The Planning Commission sees little of value or need in regard to this project." It was sent April 3 to Kenworthy as well as Newark, the Unified Towns and Gores of Essex County, the Vermont Public Service Board, the Dept. of Public Service, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Northeastern Vermont Development Agency and Northern Vermont Resource Conservation and Development Association.

According to Cope, the selectmen may decide to send a separate letter to Seneca Mountain Wind on behalf of the board as well. The selectmen's letter, according to Cope, will also express concern over the proposed temporary towers.

A selectmen's meeting on Tuesday in Newark also included a discussion of the proposed MET towers, according to an unapproved version of the minutes. Jack Kenworthy and Travis Bullard, representing Seneca Mountain Wind, attended the meeting at the invitation of Mike Channon, chairman of the Newark board.


Channon said a representative from Seneca Wind had called and offered to come to the meeting "to introduce himself." The matter was not on the warning and not everyone thought Kenworthy and Bullard's presence was appropriate.

According to the draft minutes, planning commission member Mark Whitworth said he thought "it was highly inappropriate that they were at the meeting." According to the minutes, "The Planning Commission had arranged for them to come to one of their meetings next week and everyone was working hard to get informed and educated so they could ask good questions and he felt that their showing up at this meeting hijacked the meeting for next week."

Eolian Wind, the parent company of Seneca Wind, is scheduled to meet with the Newark Planning Commission at 6:30 p.m. on April 11 at the Newark School.

At the Newark meeting, Kenworthy said MET towers will generally give results in around six months to one year, but they won't go forward without one year's worth of data.

Each of the proposed towers would be 190 feet tall. One tower, designated the "Brighton Tower," would be erected at the same site where a MET tower was previously installed. A second tower would be erected on a site north of Bull Mountain in Brighton. A third tower, designated "Seneca Mountain Tower," would be located in Ferdinand at the same location as a previous MET tower. The fourth tower is designated "Hawk Rock" tower and would be installed in Newark. All four towers will be either tubular steel or lattice type.

On March 23, the Newark Planning Commission sent a letter to Kenworthy taking him to task, stating "The fact that you do not see how your project could impact these natural resources is a great concern to us."

There is support for the proposed MET towers or plans for a wind farm. Stephen Osborne, who lives on Lake Street in Island Pond, said Brighton Municipal Assistant Joel Cope and the Planning Commission "don't speak for everyone in Island Pond." He said the only people who are counted are "certain people who hang around downtown" and that the residents such as himself who tend to stay at home and not speak out support the wind farm. He explained that he retired as an employee of the Canadian National Railroad and that he has seen lost economic opportunities and lost jobs in Island Pond. He said, "Most of the people support the proposal," adding, "I have nothing against it. There'll be some jobs there."

Another landowner, David Jacobs, from East Haven, is more cautious. "I think they should wait and see what Lowell and Sheffield wind farms actually produce and how much electricity they turn out." He said he thinks the effects of a wind farm "on the ecology and the animals," should be measured and the question posed should be, "Are they worth it?" His advice is, "Don't be in such a hurry."

Jack Kenworthy said "we think the site is suitable." He added data from the two previous wind measurement towers tell him, "the site looks strong." He said the proposed area appears to have, "good winds and good roads." He said that the wind farms will sign long term power contracts with utilities that will be competitive" and, "in our view will be a key component of a diversified supply" of local, renewable power.

Vt. State police are investigating a number of break-ins in Bloomfield. It is not known if they are related at this time. Thomas Roy, Sr., of Bloomfield, Vt., reported to Vt. State Police that sometime between 10 p.m. and 12 midnight on March 20 someone entered his residence, while he and Eileen Purrington, 73, were asleep inside, and stole an undisclosed amount of cash. Anyone with any information, to include vehicles or people in the area during this timeframe are asked to contact Senior Trooper Amy Borsari at VSP-Derby at(802) 334-8881

Police report that Troy Champagne, 36, of Winnabow, N.C., called to report that sometime between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on March 21, 2012, someone entered his motor vehicle, which was parked in the driveway at 642 Vt. Rte. 105 in Bloomfield, Vt. The offender(s) then drove the vehicle into a ditch at the bottom of the driveway, getting it stuck and causing damage to the vehicle. Prior to leaving, the offender(s) stole several electronic items out of the vehicle, including an Apple Ipad 2, a cell phone, a DVD player and a camera. Anyone with any information regarding this theft, unlawful mischief and attempted theft of a motor vehicle is asked to contact VSP S/T Amy Borsari at VSP-Derby at (802) 334-8881.

Sometime between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on March 14, someone entered the Christiane Stinson residence at 2890 Vt. Rte. 102 in Bloomfield, Vt., and
allegedly stole jewelry, a bag full of old coins and a camera. Forced entry was made into the residence through the back door. Anyone with any information, to include vehicles and/or people that may have been involved with this burglary, is asked to contact Senior Trooper Amy Borsari at VSP-Derby (802) 334-8881.