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.
Eyebrows were raised around the country in January when Gov. Peter Shumlin devoted the bulk of his State of the State address to what he called a “heroin epidemic” that affected people in every corner of Vermont.
National press attention soon followed - not all of it positive.
In a New York Times article on March 5, Vermont State Police Senior Trooper Wayne Godfrey described rampant drug use at Bennington's Mount Anthony Union High School, prompting outrage at the characterization from students and staff.
Col. Thomas J. L'Esperance, head of the Vermont State Police, later refuted Godfrey's quote and called the trooper's comments “careless and inappropriate.”...
State law lets towns and villages arrange to sell a property for delinquent taxes. Around the state, this option is becoming more popular as a way for towns to raise money in an economy that has town governments watching every penny and citizens voting to send budgets back to...
The fiscal year 2015 village budget of $1,851,602 was passed Monday night at the annual Village Meeting, as voters got the good news that the grand list had improved this year, due to the completion of the electrical substation on the island, owned by New England Power Company. All...
A multi-department effort led to the arrests of 11 people on May 16 on a variety of heroin-related charges. According to Lt. Shane Harris of the Bellows Falls Police Department, eight police departments and 21 officers were engaged in the drug arrests in the morning hours. Harris, the lieutenant in charge of the investigation, told The Commons the probe had been going on for “several weeks” but declined to be more specific. According to a press release, this investigation was...
Following “a year from hell,” as one library staffer phrased it - a year that included bankruptcy filings by a former contractor in the middle of library renovations, the logistics of the renovations themselves, and the removal of the library director by the Board of Trustees, all within months - the Rockingham Free Public Library had dual cause to celebrate last week. The renovations were finally complete, so the new board elected to celebrate with a grand reopening on May...
In many town and villages around Vermont, getting people to run for public office has become a struggle. Not so in Bellows Falls. With three seats up for grabs on the Village Trustees - two two-year seats and a one-year president's seat - seven residents have thrown their hats in the ring, and only two are incumbents. Village President Roger Riccio decided not to run for reelection. Andrew Smith will be completing his first stint as a village trustee and...
Compass School has broken ground on what Admissions Director Rick Cowan calls the biggest capital construction project in the school's history. Backed by a $1,105,000 direct loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development's Community Program, the school is building a 2,000-square-foot addition that will create a new arts lab, a new science lab, a Spanish-language classroom, two quiet-study spaces, new staff offices, and what Cowan calls “a welcoming front porch.” The addition will feature energy-efficient lighting and ceilings.
Main Street Arts got some good news just before the groundbreaking ceremony on April 26 for its renovations and addition. A $133,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, administered through the Windham Regional Commission, came in last week following timely action by MSA Managing Director Margo Ghia. That's according to Capital Campaign Committee Chair Kathleen Bryar, who said that when a need for more brownfield remediation work became apparent, Ghia completed and submitted the application for a grant from...
