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.
There aren't many economic development meetings that include talk of trapeze artists.
But the New England Center for Circus Arts' high-flying expansion plan was a big part of the buzz here Monday morning as officials announced 14 high-priority economic projects for Windham County.
The “vital projects” announcement comes with no funding attached; rather, it's part of an update of the region's federally approved Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
Nevertheless, officials placed a lot of emphasis on this year's list, in part because it shows the variety of projects-from green building to health care to wastewater systems-happening in a county that is losing one of its biggest employers.
The next round of job cuts at Vermont Yankee has been scheduled for May 5, when 150 employees - roughly half the remaining workforce - will be laid off. Also, around that same time, plant owner Entergy will be vacating its offices on Old Ferry Road. Administrators are “looking...
Among all the students in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, only those in Vernon get to choose where they want to go to class starting in seventh grade. While some head to Brattleboro with their peers from elsewhere in the union, others head south into Massachusetts-often to Pioneer Valley Regional...
Vermont's new water-quality law comes with a lot of new requirements for farmers. But the ways in which the state will enforce that law - the state's “required agricultural practices” - are still under consideration, and those rules will be a hot topic in the Legislature's 2016 session. In the session that kicked off this week, the House and Senate agricultural committees might consider a long list of issues ranging from departmental fees to honeybees. But officials said they'll likely...
As Vermont lawmakers convene at the Statehouse this week for the 2016 legislative session, Rep. Mike Hebert might not be able to get to work around 6 a.m. every day, as is his habit. But he'll be there, and that was far from a given just a few months ago. After falling “gravely ill” in the fall due to surgical complications, the Vernon Republican is on the mend. As Hebert gears up for a busy session, he's also taking time...
After 13 years in the state Legislature, Windham County Sen. Jeanette White is fine with the fact that her name has become synonymous with marijuana-decriminalization efforts in Vermont. But as lawmakers prepare to tackle pot legalization in the 2016 session, the Putney Democrat wants to make a few things clear. First, she wants a serious debate - meaning she'd like to be spared “silly” jokes about brownies and munchies. Second, White said she doesn't smoke marijuana and isn't pushing a...
In most ways, the expansion celebrations held Dec. 28 at two area businesses didn't have much in common. But there was one key driver behind both a groundbreaking at G.S. Precision Inc. and a ribbon-cutting for the Ironwood Brands: The Windham County Economic Development Program, funded by a state settlement with Vermont Yankee owner Entergy, which pumped a combined $2.2 million into the projects. Those who run the program say that, after a slow start, they've revamped and refocused it...
Over the last 16 months, the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel has taken on some weighty, timely, and highly technical issues related to Vermont Yankee's shutdown. So far, the panel has done so on a shoestring budget, relying mostly on a mix of donated time and services. But that strategy might not work for the long term, and several key panel members are asking whether the state of Vermont should be taking on more financial and administrative responsibility for...
