At a recent Rockingham Selectboard meeting, Francis “Dutch” Walsh gave his annual report, describing his office's work to facilitate new business and economic development in both the village and at the town's industrial park.
Walsh serves two roles - development director for the town of Rockingham and executive director of the Bellows Falls Area Development Corporation - as the result of a one-page agreement between the town of Rockingham and the BFADC in 1984.
Given the influence of social media in politics around the world, from the Arab Spring to Bernie Sanders' grassroots presidential campaign, it's hardly surprising that Vermonters are taking to this technology to leverage their voices and opinions. In the wake of the announcement of the proposal by the Windham...
For nearly two hours, Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark was grilled by an audience of 50 last week about his proposed Liberty Mill Justice Center project, which aims to transform a derelict paper mill into a detention center. Sitting in the audience was Jeanette White, one of the county's...
It was standing room only when Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark presented his plan for the Liberty Mill Justice Center (LMJC) to the public for the first time last week. At least 50 villagers attended the meeting, many voicing skepticism about the private transitional housing facility for people entering or exiting the justice system, which Clark is proposing for the 57,000-foot former Chemco building at 203 Paper Mill Rd., at the confluence of the Saxtons and Connecticut rivers. The project...
When a prisoner has been released from serving a prison sentence, the issues that landed them there in the first place often recur, because those issues have never actually been addressed, Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark told Bellows Falls and area residents last week. No prison sentence will fix that constellation of issues which might doom a former inmate to offending again - recidivism - unless the issues are specifically assessed and addressed. Clark noted that incarceration increases the likelihood...
I somehow manage to forget in between, that each year, from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, families are gathering, dispersing, regrouping in various configurations to celebrate a time of year that, in my memory, is anything but joyous. And certainly not a celebration of connections. Or family. So when my editor called for memories of the holidays, my visceral response was to cringe. Oh, no! It's here again, my mind sighed and my body seemed to wilt into my chair.
After nine months of overhauling a 24-page town charter, article by article, and having gotten to the section dealing with how safety services would be administered town-wide, a much shorter and simpler document was presented to the merger committee by Municipal Manager Willis D. Stearns II. Stearns presented a much simplified three-page plan. He said he adapted the text from three successful town merger documents and did so with the help of legal counsel. “The [consolidated] plan deals with everything,”
The Grafton Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Grafton Elementary School to discuss revisions to the Town Plan that now include a goal to enable a village center designation from the state. Specific changes include a village center designation that “will support the efforts to revitalize the existing historic village center of Grafton” and link with the statewide goals of planning development to “maintain the historic settlement pattern of compact village...