Northfield Woman Wins
Big Prize in Lottery
By Martha Slater

A lucky woman from Northfield won $250,000 Friday, when her ticket number was chosen as the top prize winner out of 31,190 tickets sold in Vermont in the Tri-State New Year Millionaire raffle game. The winning ticket was sold at M & M Beverage on Salisbury St. in Randolph.

Tina Grant and her husband, Tim, claimed her prize Monday, Jan. 7 at the lottery office in Berlin.

Of course, the Grants didn’t come home with the entire $250,000.

As Hadley Melendy from the lottery office in Berlin explained, "The state gets 6% and the federal government gets 25%. Then, the ticket seller gets 1%, but that’s not taken out of the winner’s money. The winner gets the balance after the 31% state and federal taxes are paid."

For the Grants, that works out to $172,500.

Interviewed at the Herald office later that afternoon, Tina and her husband, Tim, were understandably feeling both overwhelmed and elated.

A cheerful dark-haired woman with a big smile, Tina bought the ticket December 20 and then somehow misplaced it over the holidays.

"I finally found it on a shelf in the den," Tina recalled, "and then I was downloading anti-virus software on my computer, so I decided to check out the lottery web site. I was speechless when I saw the winning number for the second prize. I just couldn’t believe it!"

The Grants have prudently socked their windfall away in the bank and said they were considering using some of it as a down payment on a home in Randolph, to be nearer to Tina’s job. She works as a health information chart analyst in the medical records department at Gifford. Since her mom died just a year ago this week, Tina said that her good fortune had made that sad anniversary "a little better."

Married 23 years, the Grants are also relieved that they now have a retirement nest egg.

"It’s really nice to have the security of having some money put by, so we don’t have to worry so much from week to week," said Tim.

The Grants, who describe themselves as "very quiet, humble people who like having campfires and looking at the stars," admitted that they did plan one little splurge.

"Well, we do have a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator!" Tina said with a laugh.

M & M Beverage owner Bob Moreau (who will get a check for $2,500) said he was "pretty excited about selling the winning ticket. The lottery salesperson who comes to my store every two weeks was just in here Friday, and I was teasing her about wanting to have a chance to post a sign saying I sold a big winner."

Moreau explained that, "With the Megabucks, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in five million. The odds of winning this one were much better, one in 200,000; although the ticket cost $20."

The winning ticket for the grand prize of $1 million was sold in New Hampshire. The winning tickets were drawn Friday at the Tri-State Lottery Draw Center in Concord, N.H.

____________