Counting on Vermont

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24
Recipes tried before the Samual Adams Beer Company settled on the right combination of ingredients for their new reduced calorie light beer, which was taste tested and approved in six cities in the United States, including Burlington, Vt.

$3,000
Estimated retail price of the new Segway Company electric scooter, which was introduced to the Vermont State House last week in a national attempt to have the device approved by state legislatures to sell for sidewalk use. The scooter includes a standing platform and a t-shaped handlebar that turns by gripping the bar. The Legislature will decide upon the safety of the scooter after an inspection by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

10
Percent of the staff at the state's Environmental Conservation Department that had to be cut or vacated due to accounting errors and state and federal budget shortfalls. The department, which oversees programs that protect water quality and monitor air pollution, wastewater and hazardous waste, was forced to cut seven employees and leave 17 more positions vacant.

50,000
Number of people who applied for one of 16 positions on the next CBS survivor show, "Survivor: Marquesas," which premiers Feb. 28. One of those accepted includes 47-year-old Kathy Vavrick-O'Brian, a Burlington real estate agent, who will compete to be the sole survivor and winner of $1 million on the South Pacific Island of Nuku Hiva.

47
Number of Shoreham, Vt., residents who signed a petition to encourage the state Legislature to prohibit teachers at state schools from encouraging, promoting or sanctioning homosexuality. The petition was circulated following the Shoreham selectboard's decision to not include a request to add a referendum item of the same prohibition at the town's meeting. The selectboard voted 4-1 not to honor the petition.

12,500
Acres of wildlife reserve in the Northeast Kingdom that will be protected from logging after a close and controversial decision in the Senate. Vermont Republican Senator Robert Ide favored the desire to permit logging in a claim that appropriate amounts of logging keep forests healthier, whereas Democratic Senator Virginia Lyons supported conservation over logging and insisted that proper measures will be taken to keep the forest healthy.

54
Years since the skeleton competition, an athletic event in which an athlete rides face down on a three-foot long and one-foot wide sled with no brakes and no steering control, has appeared in the Olympics Games. The sport returns to the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics with the help of four Vermonters who struggled to regain the international awareness of the sport. The men and women's skeleton races will take place on Feb. 20.


Statistics courtesy of The Burlington Free Press and The Rutland Herald. Compiled by the Local News editor.