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.
At a May 19 nuclear power summit in Washington, D.C., top-ranking federal officials and industry executives focused on market forces and government regulation.
But Patty O'Donnell made sure the audience also heard about declining property values, underfunded nonprofits, and lost friends - all in the context of Vermont Yankee's 2014 shutdown.
Her message was clear: If the pace of nuclear shutdowns accelerates, many other communities can expect to experience the problems that are plaguing Vernon and the surrounding tri-state area.
“There is so much more to this story and so much more to this issue than just where the electricity's coming from,” O'Donnell said. “There's a real human aspect to this.”...
State officials say they've found a way to force Entergy to continue to pay for Vermont Yankee's 10-mile emergency zone. In a surprise announcement May 26, Public Service Department Commissioner Chris Recchia said the state has new statutory authority to “bill back” Entergy for emergency planning activities in towns...
Two months after a state inspection found violations of patient rights and emergency-services standards, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has been given a clean bill of health. The state Division of Licensing and Protection on May 26 issued a letter saying the hospital had “corrected all deficiencies that were cited” during...
Mount Snow administrators say the federal government has approved the resort's EB-5 foreign investment program, and they're hoping that signals the imminent release of $52 million for snowmaking and lodge upgrades. Funding for Mount Snow's Carinthia LP project has been held in escrow while the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reviews the resort's plans and its foreign investors' immigrant visa petitions. Administrators announced May 25 that the first part of that review is complete as immigration officials have given the...
Town officials have become familiar faces in the Statehouse, where they've argued repeatedly that municipalities like theirs should have a bigger role in deciding where energy projects are built. But now that both chambers of the Legislature have approved a bill addressing that issue, Selectboard Chair Frank Seawright is less than impressed. Seawright and his wife, anti-turbine activist Nancy Tips, say S.230 doesn't go far enough in ensuring that local concerns are taken seriously. And they aren't convinced that further...
In a crowded conference room here on May 19, officials from neighboring counties in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts were asked to rank the biggest threats to the regional economy. The closure of Vermont Yankee finished dead last - far behind problems like an aging population and a need for improved infrastructure. It was a somewhat surprising outcome, given that the Vernon nuclear plant's shutdown was the original motivation for scheduling the meeting of leaders from Windham County, Franklin County...
A state inspection found multiple violations of patient rights and emergency services standards at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, including an instance of “unnecessary force” used when police were summoned to subdue a mental health patient, new documents show. The state Division of Licensing and Protection also found that the hospital's Emergency Department staff prematurely resorted to physical restraints - and then failed to remove them in a timely manner - when treating another patient diagnosed with mental illness. State documents show...
When it's time to remove spent nuclear fuel from Vermont Yankee, it appears likely that will happen via rail - not trucks. That was the takeaway last week for local officials and for plant administrators after meeting with a visiting team from the Department of Energy. That team was in town to begin planning for the eventual transport of 3,880 radioactive fuel assemblies stored at the Vernon plant. There still is no national, permanent storage site for that material, meaning...
