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Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
The town's five proposed Tropical Storm Irene-related property buyouts are moving forward, though the Selectboard had cause to enter a closed-door executive session Oct. 17 to discuss what member Chris Druke later characterized as “legalities and documentation.”
Speaking at the regular Selectboard meeting, Druke noted that the town was “making some progress” on the buyout of the properties totaled during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
“It's looking likely that we've got some imminent closing dates … We're plodding along,” Druke said.
Then she said one of the properties warranted discussion in executive session.
Work to replace a key bridge in town is within weeks of completion, and another will wrap up in spring 2014. According to Selectboard member Chris Druke, speaking at the Oct. 17 board meeting, work on Hunter Brook Bridge, off Dover Road, is on track to move motorists along...
Town workers questioned the Selectboard on Oct. 2 on insurance coverage made available under newly enacted health care reform, and learned that they are free to choose their own carrier and plan. They'll also keep receiving town funding at a rate they had been receiving before the Affordable Care...
State Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney, told the Selectboard that Louisiana-based Entergy Corp. should start the decommissioning process for its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon “right now, which is what we're hoping for.” He doesn't anticipate a big slump in the local economy. “They'll need a lot of jobs; I think they'll actually bring some more people in. There are a number of questions around what to do with that once it cools down and they can move it around,”
The Selectboard approved emergency spillway repairs at privately owned Kenny Pond, also known as Grout Pond, at an estimated final cost of $3,700. About $500 of the total cost will be paid by affected property owners. The work is needed because, as Morris Root from Root Engineering tells the town, the condition of the 1930s-era dam has declined due to issues with the principal spillway conduit and a downstream stone wall. At $3,200, Vernon-based Renaud Bros. was low bidder at...
The Selectboard has chosen to fund Blue Cross/Blue Shield bronze health insurance coverage, with a fully town-funded Health Reimbursement Account, or HRA, for town employees starting Jan. 1, 2014. As Town Administrator Katie Buckley noted at the Sept. 23 Selectboard meeting, money in an HRA, if not used, is retained by the town and can help offset next year's costs. “We've had the good fortune of having a plan that's had an HRA for the past two or three years,
The Selectboard voted unanimously Oct. 2 to ask the Planning Commission to amend its bylaws to strike a requirement that calls for a member of the Planning Commission to serve on the Development Review Board and vice-versa. The change comes at the request of DRB chair Jack Lilly, who forwarded a letter of interest from Alan McBean to serve on the DRB as an alternate. The Planning Commission has a full roster, so there wouldn't be any way to accommodate...
On a motion from Lewis White, seconded by Steve Glabach, the Selectboard voted 5-0 to appoint Melanie Chamberlin to the Recreation Board. At the same Oct. 2 meeting, the Selectboard voted 4-1 to approve a request from Sarah Evans on the Recreation Board to purchase soccer supplies. The request covers shirts, gloves, boards, mouth guards, training markers, agility ladders, whistles, heavy-duty equipment bags, and cones. On that vote, White, who coaches a rec soccer team, was the dissenting voice. “We've...
