MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – A quarter of the state’s dairy farmers have joined a collective bargaining effort to negotiate higher prices for their milk.

Leaders of Dairy Farmers of Vermont – an offshoot of the Vermont Democracy Fund – organized 315 dairy farms responsible for producing nearly a third of the state’s milk.

The farmers have asked the group to negotiate higher prices from the state’s three biggest dairy cooperatives.

“We have a giant farmers union,” said Peter Sterling, the Dairy Farmers of Vermont organizer. “We are basically announcing that we are trying a new way, because all other traditional methods of helping farmers have not worked. Vermont farmers are getting together and looking at farmer-based solutions.”

Killington looks at growth options

KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – A proposal to shift zoning would allow more development on the road that leads up the mountain to Killington Resort.

The Killington Planning Commission is scheduled to consider later this month a petition to amend zoning regulations in the town’s business district, about 288 acres along the lower end of Killington Road.

The petition would change the zoning along the one-mile stretch of the road just south of the U.S. Route 4 intersection to a commercial district.

That designation, the same that applies to the more heavily developed section farther up the road, permits retail stores and large motels, among other establishments, that are prohibited in the business district.

The petitioners would add two rules to the proposed commercial district that don’t apply further up the mountain. The new district would prohibit nightclubs and would allow churches.

At present, the Killington business district is a relatively sparsely developed collection of office buildings, rental houses and a couple of year-round dwellings.