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.
Vermont's senior U.S. senator says the long-term storage of radioactive waste in Vernon - and at all former nuclear plant sites nationwide - is “unacceptable.”
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, in a new letter to the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VNDCAP), points out that the federal government is starting a new program aimed at finding somewhere to store spent nuclear fuel.
But that program is in its infancy. And Leahy doesn't offer any other solutions to the problem, noting that the latest federal spending bill included no money for a proposed pilot storage facility.
“The continued failure of the federal government to remove spent nuclear fuel under its statutory obligation ... means that the country, and small host communities, are facing risks that need to be addressed,” Leahy wrote. “Beneficial reuse of the sites of closed nuclear plants is also being delayed for decades.”...
Three states are joining Vermont's quest for a “robust” federal review of trust-fund spending at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. In new federal filings, attorneys general for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire voice support for Vermont's stance - outlined in a November petition - that decommissioning funds are...
For those keeping score, Monday's public meeting at Brattleboro Union High School was a clear win for those who favor marijuana legalization. A steady stream of legalization proponents stepped to the podium, telling members of the state Senate Judiciary Committee why they believe decriminalizing pot is a good idea...
For more than two years, Interstate 91 traffic has bottlenecked at the site of a $60 million bridge-replacement project. But officials say there is light at the end of the construction zone: A new, 1,036-foot-long bridge is expected to be ready for four lanes of traffic sometime later this year. Given that the traffic flow originally was supposed to be restored in late 2015, “we're not where we want to be with the schedule,” acknowledged David Hoyne, the state Agency...
After hearing pleas from Vermont's congressional delegation and a citizens group, federal officials will allow more time for the public to weigh in on creation of new rules for decommissioning nuclear plants like Vermont Yankee. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided that an initial public comment period on its rule-making process will end March 18. That's 75 days later than the original deadline of Jan. 4, and it's a reprieve for those - including members of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning...
Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark isn't shying away from the controversy created by his proposed “Liberty Mill Justice Center” in Bellows Falls. But in introducing the project to a group of state lawmakers on Jan. 14, Clark also sounded like a man who believes he's gotten a raw deal. For one thing, he believes media coverage has focused too much on the detention-center aspect of the project and not enough on the many other services proposed for Liberty Mill. Clark...
This town's school directors will have a little more company as they march into the uncharted territories of Act 46. After some debate, Marlboro voters on Jan. 4 agreed to expand the town's school board from three members to five. Soon after that vote, Lauren Poster and Dan MacArthur were named to fill the two new seats until Town Meeting, when elections will be held for full one-year terms. Marlboro officials admitted that board expansion is an unusual step for...
In late 2014, it appeared that Townshend finally would get its first cell tower after the state granted approval for an AT&T project along Route 30. But AT&T recently notified Townshend that it is dropping those plans, leading one frustrated Selectboard member to declare that “every time we take one step forward, somebody seems to slap us back down.” Those two developments may be a microcosm of the cellular dilemma across Vermont. Just one new tower can make a world...
