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essex tightens procedures following breach
essex
MAY 5, 2016
Vol. 36, No. 18
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Prsrt Std ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 266 Essex Junction, VT 05452 Postal Patron-Residential
Hornets soar to first
By COLIN FLANDERS The town of Essex provided its employees a todo list in light of last month’s data breach, in which an employee accidentally disclosed confidential records of 262 municipal staff to a fraudster. The document, located on a section of the town’s website dedicated to the incident, instructs past and present employees to contact a major credit reporting agency, to request a fraud alert be placed on their account and to get a free credit report after six months and again in a year. The plan also instructs employees to complete a federal identity theft report, to keep a log of contact with creditors and other relevant parties and to start a file with copies of credit reports and all related correspondence. Both retirement agencies for the town were notified, and all townrelated accounts have fraud alerts, according to town officials. The town will pay for “some form of credit monitoring services for all
– See DATA on page 3
hannah Poquette takes flight during the pole vault event april 27. see more sports on page 11.
Photo | colin Flanders
Four-story building proposed for Park St. By JASON STARR
Alexander Tracy
randolph man in custody after car chase, crash Pursuit began in Essex By MICHAELA HALNON A Randolph man is in custody after fleeing the scene of a high-speed chase that began in Essex. Alexander Tracy, 19, turned himself in at the Vermont State Police Barracks in Williston, a press release Tuesday said. At 12:20 a.m. on April 30, officers were notified of a police pursuit southbound toward Bristol. The chase was initiated by Essex police when the suspect’s vehicle was observed traveling at a high speed southbound on North Street, police said. Bristol police attempted to stop the vehicle as it traveled northbound on Route 116 onto Silver Street in Hinesburg, where it crashed after striking spike strips deployed by a Shelburne police officer. Tracy fled the crash on foot and could not be located. At the time of the crash, Tracy was breaking a curfew agreement set in an earlier burglary case and was supposed to be in the custody of his mother, police said. Tracy was lodged for lack of $5,000 bail. He faces charges in Addison and Chittenden counties.
With the four-story building at the corner of Pearl and Park streets nearing completion in Essex Junction, a new plan is under review for a similar development next door. Gabe Handy of Colchester-based Handy’s Hotels and Rentals owns the 1.3 acres at 9 and 11 Park Street, just south of the new corner building. Handy’s property currently has two houses on it, one of which is occupied by the Pho Dang Vietnamese restaurant. He has submitted a master plan for Essex Junction Planning Commission review to demolish the two houses and build two multi-story buildings with a mix of commercial and residential uses. The building along Park Street is envisioned with ground level business space and three stories of upper level apartments, just like the four-story building nearing completion at the corner. The other building is described in the master plan as three stories (44 units) of elderly housing. It is proposed to abut the driveway to the Park Street School, where the Essex Junction School District runs a preschool. Handy and school finance director Grant Geisler signed an agreement in January to allow access to the elderly housing from the driveway. Handy will pay the district
a local builder wishes to redevelop this parcel on Park street in essex with two multi-story buildings with a mix of commercial and residential uses. Photo | michaela halnon
$25,000 for the access as well as 20 percent of the driveway’s repairs and maintenance costs, according to the agreement. Many of the same residents of School Street and Park Terrace who opposed the construction at 4 Pearl St. weighed in against Handy’s proposal during a planning commission meeting in February.
“It is my opinion that the building under construction at 4 Pearl St. overpowers the center of the village and does not reflect the surrounding scale or architecture of the village center as is stated in the village plan,” School Street resident Linda McKenna said in written comments to the commission.
– See PARK ST. on page 3
unified district taking form Admins juggle transition efforts By COLIN FLANDERS
dan French, interim project manager in charge of overseeing the essex Westford school district transition process, listens during an april 26 board meeting at essex high school. Photo | colin Flanders
As the unified school district between the town of Essex, Essex Junction and Westford inches closer to its launch next year, efforts to begin the transition are well underway. The Essex Westford Educational Community School Board has met four times since February to begin the early stages of policy and governance discussions. Last week, the board had its first chance to speak with Dan French, the interim project manager who will oversee the transition before a new superintendent is hired early next year. French, previously superintendent of the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union for the past 12 years, will facilitate communication between Essex Town School District Superintendent Mark Andrews and Chittenden Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Judy
DeNova. Andrews will handle student support services and curriculum, and DeNova will oversee the transition of information technology, human resources and finance. The latter two, inseparable by nature, appear they’ll be one of the first dominos to fall. “Everybody’s touched by finance,” DeNova said Friday. And since finance and HR allow school districts to pay their employees and make purchases through vendors, it’s essential for this system to be in place when the unified district begins operating July 1, 2017. “You have to have that kind of a system in place if you’re going to write checks to anybody,” said Grant Geisler, CCSU’s chief financial officer. Geisler, ETSD business manager Roger George and CCSU’s HR head Deb Anderson are reviewing the systems together.
– See UNIFICATION on page 3