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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.
Town residents soon will have a chance to weigh in on a proposed natural-gas power plant that could be constructed somewhere near Vermont Yankee.
A public meeting has been scheduled for Nov. 10 at Vernon Elementary School. Vernon Planning Commission, which is hosting the session, expects to soon set a start time for the session - it will be either 6 or 6:30 p.m. - and notify residents via flier.
Officials are hoping for a good turnout that will give some indication of the town's stance on undertaking a new industrial project. But they're also warning that residents shouldn't expect detailed site plans for a gas plant, given that the project still is in the early stages of development.
The proposed gas plant also presumes the existence of a natural-gas pipeline through Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a proposal whose fate is far from certain.
Fifty-four years ago, a giant moved into West Townshend. There's no doubt that the hulking Townshend Dam has provided benefits over that half century, from large-scale flood protection - a 2011 estimate said the structure had prevented $137.1 million in flood damage - to a popular outdoor recreational area.
A developer is proposing Vermont's largest, most-powerful wind turbine site - 28 turbines churning out nearly 97 megawatts - on a ridge in the towns of Windham and Grafton, according to new plans released Monday. With that size would come sizable economic benefits, as developer Iberdrola Renewables is estimating...
Vermont officials are taking their nuclear-decommissioning concerns to Washington. More specifically, state Public Service Commissioner Chris Recchia and state Nuclear Engineer Tony Leshinskie are headed later this month to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's headquarters in Rockville, Md., to meet with a key NRC official. Recchia, a frequent and vocal critic of the commission's stances on Vermont Yankee decommissioning, expects to bring up a variety of topics but might focus on a key concern: How to provide more opportunities for state...
As public officials and experts gathered here to talk about the impact of nuclear-plant closures, there was a common theme: uncertainty. That word applies to the surprisingly scattershot federal nuclear decommissioning regulations. Speakers at the Oct. 21 conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst used the words “mess” and “travesty” to describe the lack of clear guidelines. But there's also much uncertainty over the ways in which a shutdown affects a community, given all the factors that make a nuclear...
Erosion, aesthetics, decommissioning funding and the ongoing reproductive health of spotted salamanders all played a role in the final design of Vermont's latest large-scale solar array. The state Public Service Board has granted a certificate of public good for construction of a 2.2-megawatt photovoltaic facility off Route 30 in Bondville, a village in the town of Winhall. The approval comes after the developer, Vermont Solar Farmers LLC, reached agreements with state environmental regulators and with residents near the proposed project.
For decades, The Manitou Project has been offering a chance to reconnect with nature on more than 200 forested, conserved acres in the village of Williamsville. The organization asks visitors “to be still, to quiet the everyday mind.” But leaders of the nonprofit are about to enter a busy time as they kick off a fundraising campaign to purchase the land they've been managing. Beyond acquiring real estate, the goal is to expand Manitou's offerings – including completion of a...
If Entergy wants to use the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund for expenses such as property taxes, insurance, and emergency preparedness, it's going to have to tell the federal and state governments in advance. On Oct. 15, the federal Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that requiring Entergy to provide such specifics in its notifications “will afford Vermont an opportunity, if it chooses, to dispute a specific disbursement” from the Vernon plant's trust fund. The licensing board's decision is a...
