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.
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.
Gov. Peter Shumlin flew back over the Brockway Mills hydroelectric plant on the Williams River last Friday, following a brief visit to Bellows Falls to hear residents' concerns in the wake of widespread devastation and flood damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene.
“He didn't have time to come by personally,” Eileen Kruger, who co-owns the plant with her husband, Chris, said. “My husband got 90 seconds with him [at the Town Hall] and the governor gave him the number of the head of the Public Service Board to see if we can get a better contract.”
Eileen and Chris Kruger's 12-year efforts to maintain and sell “free energy created by falling water” since 1999 when they bought the plant have come to a heartbreaking halt.
The small mom and pop facility generates 1.6 to 2 million kilowatt hours of power per year and is “locked in” to a contract with Green Mountain Power to sell at below-market value at a rate of 4 cents per kilowatt hour “because the previous owner didn't pay his bills.”...
Calling Vermonters “tough and gritty,” Governor Peter Shumlin told residents who are pulling the pieces of their lives together after Tropical Storm Irene last week that “We'll get through this together.” There's enough tears and heartbreak to go around for 100 years,” Shumlin emphasized in his remarks at the...
Last Monday, the Allen Brothers farmstand on Route 5 was sitting in several feet of flood water from the Connecticut River. By the end of last week, it was back in business, albeit on a limited basis. Just a few short days after owner Tim Allen surveyed the damage...
People who survived Tropical Storm Irene have been turning their energies to neighbors and friends all over affected areas of Windham County. In the aftermath of the Aug. 28 storm, access in and out of Grafton was available sooner due to the foresight and organization of Emergency Management Incident Commander Bill Kearns and a team he assembled three days before the storm was scheduled to hit Vermont. Kearns said the volunteer fire and rescue department called “all hands on deck,”
The one-two punch of flash flooding on the Williams and Saxtons rivers on Sunday and a fast rising Connecticut River on Monday wreaked havoc on low-lying areas of northern Windham County. The flooding came as a result of heavy rain on Sunday from Tropical Storm Irene. The village of Saxtons River saw flooding of historic proportions. According to the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., the river of the same name that runs through the village rose to 19.7 feet...
Sustainable Valley Group and the Green Island project (SVG-GI) recently teamed up with 350.org for a work party to clean out space in the former Robertson Paper Mill, a measure that the organization's president, Dave Bonta, hopes will “get things moving” despite seeing the rejection of a feasibility study planning grant earlier this summer. SVG-GI hopes to turn the building at 1 Island St. into a space for green businesses to locate in an attempt to revitalize the commercially and...
Bear sightings have been increasing all over Vermont, especially along the Connecticut River Valley. This summer, sightings of several black bears in backyards in Putney have generated concern from residents. That concern prompted the Putney Conservation Commission to ask State Fish and Wildlife biologist Forrest Hammond, who has studied both grizzly and black bears for almost 30 years, to speak to the community about how to live with the animals. “We've been getting calls about people seeing more bears looking...
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently announced that it will conduct a study of approximately 3,700 post offices around the nation, mostly in rural areas, to determine customer needs. The study comes as part of an effort to introduce a retail-replacement option for affected communities around the nation. One of those communities is Cambridgeport, a village near the Grafton town line that is part of the town of Rockingham. USPS spokesman Tom Rizzo, based in Portland, Maine, said it's important...
