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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.
Two Act 46 study committees are putting in long hours, trying to craft a complex, “side-by-side” school district merger proposal involving eight towns in the sprawling Windham Central Supervisory Union.
Lately, committee members also have been putting in extra effort to get the word out via videos, new websites, emails, and brochures that were available Nov. 8 when voters went to the polls for the general election.
Though there won't be a vote on the school merger proposals until March, some are concerned that there's been a relatively low amount of public participation in an important debate about the future of education in the West River Valley.
“We're still trying to get input from the public,” said Richard Werner, a Dover resident who is chairing one of the study committees. “That's the big thing that we really need.”...
Cautious optimism was the prevailing mood after Entergy announced the pending sale of Vermont Yankee. There was applause at the news that the plant's prospective buyer - New York-based NorthStar Group Services Inc. - is promising to dramatically speed up decommissioning of the shutdown Vernon nuclear plant. At the...
Voters in Grafton and Windham on Nov. 8 resoundingly rejected a 24-turbine wind project proposed for a ridgeline separating the two towns. In Grafton, residents voted 235 against and 158 in favor of the Stiles Brook Wind Project, according to town officials. In Windham, the vote was 181 against...
Entergy has agreed to sell Vermont Yankee to a cleanup contractor, paving the way for decommissioning and site restoration to be completed by 2030 - 45 years sooner than had been planned. The sale of the shut-down Vernon nuclear plant and all its assets - including the decommissioning trust fund, which held $574.9 million at last report - to New York-based NorthStar Group Services Inc. is expected to close by the end of 2018, administrators announced Nov. 8. The deal...
Three incumbent representatives will keep their seats in two Windham County House districts. In the Windham-Bennington District, Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, fended off a challenge from former Rep. John Moran of Wardsboro. With five of the district's six towns reporting Tuesday night, Sibilia was leading Moran 951 to 729, and she said her opponent had called to concede. And in the Windham 4 District, incumbent Democratic Reps. David Deen of Westminster and Mike Mrowicki of Putney easily beat Republican challengers...
Crews are expected to soon link the two cantilevered halves of a new Interstate 91 bridge in Brattleboro, marking a “significant milestone” in the years-long, $60 million project. In similar fashion, the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the project's lead contractor have bridged their differences over significant construction delays by reaching a settlement that will save the state nearly $1.4 million. Taken together, the developments signal that the high-profile highway job is nearing completion. Officials say northbound traffic should begin...
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos says he's “greatly concerned” about a turbine developer's monetary offer to voters during meetings last month in Windham and Grafton. Though the state attorney general's office has said Iberdrola Renewables' proposed “direct partnership payments” don't violate election law, Condos asserts that the developer is “pushing the envelope in an attempt to influence the vote.” Voters in both towns are scheduled to weigh in on Iberdrola's controversial Stiles Brook Wind Project on Nov. 8. The...
School officials have reached an agreement that would allow Vernon to leave the Brattleboro Union High School regional district due to concerns about Act 46 and school choice. While voters and state officials still have to sign off on the deal, a “withdrawal agreement” approved on Oct. 24 provides the framework for Vernon's exit from the union. Its most notable provision is that no financial exchange is required, since Vernon's debt to the regional district and the assets it would...
