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.
When state Commerce and Community Development Secretary Michael Schirling visited Brattleboro in late June, he toured the rapidly growing headquarters of G.S. Precision Inc.
But before that, Schirling took a look at a nearby empty building - the former home of L3 KEO, a defense contractor that closed its Brattleboro operations earlier this year.
After years of work by local officials, state regulators have given the go-ahead for thousands of solar panels to be built atop Brattleboro's former landfill. The 5 megawatt project at Windham Solid Waste Management District will cover about 13 acres. And it's expected to spread financial benefits throughout Windham...
Given the strong statewide push for school mergers, the town of Windham is an outlier in just about every way. The mountaintop community's elementary school has just 14 students from kindergarten through grade six, yet still maintains an independent board and budget for a two-classroom school house. The district...
Over the past eight years, hundreds of “households in crisis” have received free home repairs from Southeastern Vermont Community Action. But that program now is at a crossroads. With a major funding source running out, the Westminster-based nonprofit is seeking a significant increase in federal grant money in order to “extend and expand” its emergency home repair program in Windham and Windsor counties. The organization is seeing increased demand for such repairs even as funding sources have decreased, so Executive...
After a long deliberation, federal regulators have approved a proposal to ship 200,000 gallons of contaminated water from Vermont Yankee to a disposal site in Idaho. The water is from plant operations and contains “low concentrations” of radioactivity, officials said. But the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission had taken time to mull over several questions, including the extent to which truck drivers would be exposed to radioactivity as they hauled the water cross-country. “In the end, we were provided with satisfactory...
The recent failure of a bulkhead at the Vernon hydroelectric station spurred an incident report to federal regulators. The full report hasn't been released. But dam owner Great River Hydro and officials at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are classifying the problem as minor. “The incident involved a relatively small bulkhead, with the only impact a slight loss of water, and there was no danger to the public,” said Craig Cano, a commission spokesman. “A new bulkhead is being...
Federal statistics offer some positive news for hunger in Vermont: Over the past several years, the state's rate of “food insecurity” has been trending slowly but steadily downward. But those numbers don't mean much in the West River Valley, where community volunteers and school staffers are seeing a growing number of families who don't have enough to eat. Their responses are diverse. A nurse is starting an in-school food shelf. A community organization is hosting cooking classes and free soup...
After 19 months of complex, contentious school-merger talks in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, two top state education officials visited Brattleboro on June 21 to help sort things out. Donna Russo-Savage, principal assistant to the state education secretary, and Brad James, Vermont's education finance manager, answered questions and walked local officials through the intricacies of Act 46 and its recent update, Act 49. But they wouldn't offer any guarantees or a clear direction for the supervisory union's educational future. “I'm not...
