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.
By their own admission, members of the four-state Connecticut River Valley Flood Control Commission aren't used to having visitors or lengthy discussions at their meetings.
So their Dec. 4 meeting was an anomaly as the commission's tiny boardroom in Greenfield, Mass., was packed with three Townshend residents and two state lawmakers concerned about chronically low tax-loss payments and perilously low water levels at Townshend Dam.
In 2012, the Vermont Public Service Department argued that meteorological-testing (MET) towers should not be installed in town because they were “wholly contrary” to town regulations. Three years later, those testing towers are in place, and a developer is making controversial plans for Vermont's biggest wind-turbine facility on the...
In some ways, it's easy to measure the losses caused by Vermont Yankee's December 2014 shutdown: There are hundreds of fewer jobs in Windham County, and the nuclear plant's tax payments already have dwindled, with more reductions to come. But nonprofit organizations around Windham County are making new calculations...
As Vermont Yankee starts down the road of decommissioning, one of the biggest complaints has been the lack of a map. That's about to change, as the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Nov. 19 formally announced its intent to develop new, detailed regulations for decommissioning power plants. An initial public-comment period runs through Jan. 4. Given their concerns about how the Yankee process has played out so far, Vermont officials say they will “lead the way” on pushing for stronger...
In drawing up a proposed budget for the 2016-17 school year, Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School administrators found a way to avoid exceeding a new, state-imposed spending limit that is causing headaches in other schools. They did so even while absorbing a big health-care cost hike and setting aside money for security upgrades. Overall, though, the school's frugality comes at a cost: The preliminary plan calls for staff reductions adding up to a little less than three...
Officials are shooting for a Town Meeting Day referendum on the possibility of building a 600-megawatt, gas-fired power plant somewhere near the Vermont Yankee site. If a March 1 vote is approved by the Selectboard, the intervening three months will give the Planning Commission more time to address myriad questions and concerns about such a facility. Officials also are asking the project's lead advocate, Winhall resident Don Campbell, to narrow in on a site for the plant by early 2016.
Gesturing toward a vegetation-covered lump of land in the middle of an abnormally shallow Townshend Lake, Craig Hunt observed, “Those islands out there - they're new.” Hunt was speaking on the morning of Nov. 19 to an audience that included staff from all three of Vermont's congressional offices, two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives, and two state legislators. All had come to hear about two pressing issues - the lack of payments in lieu of taxes for Townshend Dam,
Asserting that the public's right to access court records is “deep-rooted” and necessary for ensuring accountability, the Vermont Supreme Court has overturned a Windham County judge's decision to redact portions of two suspects' mental competency reports. While there are instances where the legally relevant portions of a competency report can be kept out of the public record, a majority of Supreme Court justices wrote that those situations are limited. And they found no evidence that redaction had been justified in...
