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.
A small town of four streets and 600 residents tucked away in a corner of southern Vermont is adding another good reason to make it a destination for visitors.
In an effort to create a sustainable, viable community for all its residents, and to provide yet another reason to visit Grafton, 12 local artists have joined to form the Grafton Valley Arts Guild (GVAG).
For the past year, longtime blacksmith Adam Howard has worked out of the Grafton Forge, a building owned by the Windham Foundation, which exists to “promote the vitality of Grafton and Vermont's rural communities through its philanthropic and educational programs, and its subsidiaries whose operations contribute to these endeavors.”
In fact, the Windham Foundation owns almost all of the buildings in Grafton that are directly and indirectly associated with the artists of the newly formed GVAG, including the forge.
Residents living in the valley along Westminster West Road may have thought they were “singled out for the Rapture,” as one local resident put it, when a localized thunderstorm dropped 4.25 inches of rain in an hour on Friday night, causing flash flooding along Hartley Hill, Hitchcock, and Bemis...
After more than 35 years as a town manager around Vermont, Westminster Town Manager Sonia Alexander is retiring. Again. She thought she had retired for good in 2006, after nearly 30 years of service in Wilmington. She had actually “retired” once before in 1984, telling Wilmington that she wanted...
After nearly 18 months from its first meeting in January 2010, Transition Putney can boast several very real and practical manifestations of its members' intent to support and empower community efforts to reduce carbon emissions and create a self-sustaining local economy. Started locally by Paul LeVasseur, Transition Putney is part of the global Transition Town movement, whose purpose is to address the triple challenges of oil depletion, climate change, and economic instability in a way that builds strong and connected...
Under the auspices of their non-profit organization, the Vermont Institute of Contemporary Arts (VTiCA), Abby Raeder and Robert Sarly have bought and have begun renovating the American Legion building in Chester. In conjunction with those efforts, they have started work on promoting an east-west day tour that will connect galleries, artists, and their works with more people who can appreciate art outside of the mainstream. Their goal: creating visibility and recognition for contemporary artists, who must struggle even harder than...
With plans still uncertain about the future of the Brooks House, it will be a while before changes along the first-floor storefronts occur, says its owner, Jonathan Chase. As workers begin repairing the historic building, seriously damaged in a five-alarm fire on April 17, sounds of deconstruction can be heard behind the pumpkin-orange plastic barrier, and burnedout window frames and an absent roofline along the Harmony Parking lot frame the skyline. At the street level, foot traffic now passes underneath...
It takes a village to raise a child, so the saying goes. So what happens when youth with disabilities get too old to continue attending school and enter the community, leaving behind the supportive and social opportunities provided by the educational system? A group of Saxtons River residents are addressing that gap with a restaurant, The Dish on Main, opened in December. It serves breakfast and lunch. Saxtons River Partners, a nonprofit with a board comprised of seven local residents...
The site of the old Sunoco gas station on the corner of Westminster Road and Route 121 is now in the hands of the village. It was sold to the village for $1, as agreed in an updated purchase and sales agreement between the former owners, A.R. Sandri Inc., of Greenfield, Mass., and the village, according to Village Trustee Louise Luring. A planning grant of $18,360 from the Vermont Community Development Program has been awarded to the village to hire...
