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.
After years of declining enrollment, a “renaissance” may be under way at Marlboro College.
The number of new students submitting deposits for the fall term has increased by nearly 50 percent compared with the prior year, in part due to the success of a new “Renaissance Scholars” free tuition program aimed at drawing students from outside the New England region.
As of Sept. 1, sheriff's deputies won't be protecting either of Windham County's courthouses. County Sheriff Keith Clark says he isn't renewing his department's courthouse security contract because the state's offer for fiscal year 2017 doesn't come close to covering his costs. Clark agreed to a two-month extension covering...
Having rejected Act 46 merger talks in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, Vernon officials now are asking voters whether the town's school district should strike out on its own. On Aug. 9, Vernon voters will consider pulling out of the regional Brattleboro Union High School District. If the measure is...
As a contractor, David Ross is used to relying on his carpenter's level. But on his latest job - transforming the historic Newfane Railroad Station into a new West River Railroad museum - Ross is learning to live with all the idiosyncrasies of a 136-year-old building. Preservation, he believes, requires a light touch. “I hope that we can get back to the feeling that the building had when it was used,” Ross said. “In the ideal world, [future visitors] wouldn't...
At a gubernatorial debate here June 28, Republican Phil Scott declared that the economy “should be the issue of this campaign.” He likely didn't need to convince an estimated crowd of 170 jammed into Brattleboro American Legion Post 5. Three Democrats and two Republicans spent most of their morning here talking about economic initiatives, affordability, and small businesses. They pitched some specific ideas for southern Vermont in light of a recent report on the area's economic problems. And they jostled...
In a 2015 report on southern Vermont's economic troubles, the authors pointed to a “lack of coordination across the region” and suggested an “integrated approach” to issues such as workforce development and marketing. Now, officials in Windham and Bennington counties say they've begun working to solve those problems. And the effort has gotten some financial help in the form of $50,000 inserted into the state's fiscal year 2017 budget and a $230,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Officials...
A few weeks ago, a turbine developer requested that Windham town officials create an “independent and balanced committee” to discuss the controversial Stiles Brook Wind proposal. But a war of words has ensued. The town fired first, with two of three Selectboard members on June 20 approving a letter urging developer Iberdrola Renewables to “suspend your involvement with this project immediately” based on environmental and health concerns. Iberdrola responded two days later with a sharply worded statement accusing Windham officials...
The state has lost a long-running battle over emergency planning at Vermont Yankee. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 23 denied Vermont's appeals of federal rulings that had allowed the shut-down plant's emergency operations to shrink dramatically as of mid-April. Regardless of federal action, state officials may have found their own way to continue enhanced emergency operations in the towns around the Vernon plant, having announced last month their intention to bill Entergy for such activities. But the NRC's rulings...
