Mary DeSimone, applicant, and Moisis Family Trust, landowner, continue to push for a crematorium at 30 Island St.
DeSimone received approval for a pajama-making factory from the Zoning and Planning Administration, but she and her landlord have appealed the Nov. 23, 2009, decision against the proposed pet and human crematory, proposed for the same location.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1 at the Vermont Environmental Court at 2418 Airport Rd. in Barre.
...Windham County served as one of 156 study areas in a study done in 2005 by Americans for the Arts, Arts and Economic Prosperty III. The study concluded that the area receives a significant economic boost from the arts. “Artists understand the impact of their businesses on the community...
I am writing to call attention to an omission in Deborah Luskin's “Praise in 2010” column [The Commons, January]. Yes, you saw it coming, Deborah (“I hesitate to list our terrific cultural institutions for fear of leaving some out”), and here it is. Perhaps it can be argued that...
I just saw the galleys for my first book, which was like seeing a sonogram of a baby that's been growing inside me for years. I'm giddy with excitement to see the cover, the type, and the design of the chapters. Like one of those biblical matriarchs, I feel as if I've been waiting 600 years for this birth. In truth, it's only been 25. In February 1985, I received my first rejection letter for a novel I'd written...
The discovery of elevated levels of tritium at the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee power plant in early January has created a chain reaction of revelations that have shaken even some of the plant's most stalwart defenders and has delayed indefinitely the plant's efforts to get permission to operate beyond 2012. With Entergy under fire for providing false information to state legislators, which the company has admitted and for which it has publicly apologized, officials say that denying the existence of...
On Jan. 7, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams wrote to the media, announcing that “for the first time, a small amount of tritium has been identified in a sample taken from a monitoring well at the plant” - the discovery that set into motion the events that have led to the extended controversy over the company's communications with its regulators. Tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive form of hydrogen produced in the upper atmosphere by the interaction of...
Vermont Yankee is an old plant, at the end of its original service life, and it is running at 120 percent of its originally intended ability. The company running it is trying hard not to put money into its maintenance unnecessarily. What can you expect but breakdowns? As Vermonters, we might console ourselves that a bit of tritium getting into the groundwater is not all that terrible. It might have been much, much worse. Instead of being in Vernon, where...
Just weeks ago, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee had been moving toward its goal - a Certificate of Public Good - but recent events have called into question the legislature's faith in the company. The Certificate of Public Good, a prerequisite to continuing to operate the reactor even if the federal Nuclear Regulatory Agency gives the plant a green light to continue operating past 2012, is issued by the state Department of Public Utilities on the approval of the Public Service...
I feel that Jeremy Gorman's essay (“A Pipe Dream,” The Commons, January), correctly identifies drug and insurance companies, malpractice lawyers, and government subsidies as major contributors to the outrageous costs of our health-care system. But he gives short shrift to the elephant in the living room. I recently read about that elephant in “The Cost Conundrum,” by Dr. Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon of the Harvard Medical School, in the June 1 issue of The New Yorker. The piece completely...
With an $800,000 shortfall in the town budget last fall, town officials say they will likely have to cut administrative positions to cope. The announcement came from Selectboard chair Tom MacPhee, who stated the cuts would save the town $160,000. Public Works Director Everett Hammond, Administrative Assistant Joanne Perry, and Town Hall Custodian Diana Brough face layoffs, and the town will not fill an open maintenance position in the highway department. In addition, the Selectboard anticipates a 10-percent cut in...
Just for a minute, let's look at the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee plant the way its leadership likely does - through a lens where the revelations of 2010 seem overblown and really don't mean much at all. After all, the plant still produces electricity. Committed and capable employees still feel strongly that their actions keep the place running safely. Even the well-publicized leak of the radioactive isotope tritium - found naturally in the cosmos and used in everyday applications like...
Compost the following: All food wastes • Cooked or raw meat, fish, and shellfish • Fruits or vegetables and peelings • Cheese and other dairy products • Coffee grounds, paper filters, and tea bags • Bread, rice, pasta, and beans • Egg shells • Cooking oils and fats • Pet wastes or bedding • Garden weeds Non-recyclable paper • Soiled or waxed cardboard • Milk and juice cartons (please remove plastic spouts) • Damp or wet...
2008 March 3: Entergy formally applies to the state Public Service Board for a Certificate of Public Good, “for authority to continue after March 21, 2012, operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, including the storage of spent nuclear fuel.” June 6: Act 189 signed into law. Among its provisions: requiring a comprehensive vertical audit, a safety inspection, and the establishment of the Public Oversight Panel (POP) consisting of “three to five members who have demonstrated expertise in nuclear...