A statewide effort to clean up widespread devastation at Vermont's mobile home parks after tropical storm Irene was lauded Thursday for its remarkable partnerships, volunteers, and accomplishments.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said the cleanup effort disposed of 68 badly damaged mobile homes in six parks around the state - including eight homes in West Brattleboro's Glen Park - through a unique partnership of state, private, and nonprofit organizations and a host of people who pitched in with time, money, and equipment.
“I think that's what I'm most proud of,” said Scott.
Vermonters from all walks of life just started “solving” the problems, as he put it, that cropped up in the effort to remove mobile homes swamped by Irene.
For family, friends and loved ones, a suicide has profound effects, with the added burdens of guilt and questions about missed signals and chances for intervention. Yet because suicides are often largely private tragedies and not widely reported by police agencies - many may be quietly categorized as a...
A new statewide survey released Wednesday finds Vermont teens have modestly decreased their use of alcohol, are smoking less, and are abusing prescription drugs in fewer numbers. The Vermont Youth Risk Behavior survey, based on a random sample of 8,654 students in grades 9 through 12, also found no...
Two months after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene devastated the Glen Park mobile home community in West Brattleboro, there are still gutted trailers and piles of debris. Volunteers have been helping clean up the damage, but Glen Park residents are still frustrated by the pace of the recovery. According to figures issued recently by the Vermont Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development, more than 433 mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in 15 mobile home parks around the state.
The Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury, an integral - and controversial - part of the state's mental health system for well over a century, has treated its last patient. Last week, Gov. Peter Shumlin pronounced the antiquated facility, built in 1890 and flooded out by Tropical Storm Irene, finished as a treatment site for Vermonters in mental health crisis. “It is old, it is decrepit,” he said, and it does not serve Vermonters well. “It is my intention to never...
On July 7, a California firm specializing in education finance research was picked to do an independent study of Vermont's much-debated system of paying for its schools. Lawrence O. Picus and Associates, LLC, of North Hollywood, Calif., was the unanimous choice of a special legislative joint fiscal committee overseeing the proposed study, which was sanctioned and given a $200,000 budget by the Legislature last session. State Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, who chairs the committee, said Picus is a national expert...
FairPoint Communications says it is on track with a $66 million effort to expand “robust” next-generation broadband throughout the state on its phone lines. FairPoint's Vermont President Michael Smith said recently that the North Carolina-based company expects to meet a state-imposed June 30 deadline on broadband expansion in Vermont, one of several markers the company committed to when it took over Verizon landlines in 2008. The company has run more than 1,000 miles of optical fiber and installed 300 “remote...