Vernon

A recent program on Vt. Public Radio reported that energy leaders from across the state met in Vernon Sept 12^th to help the town plan for life after Vermont Yankee.

Entergy closed VY in December, 2014, leaving behind an enormous switchyard that can handle hundreds of megawatts of electricity from a power plant.

The town wants to replace VY’s tax base — and lost jobs — and with those high voltage transmission lines, Vernon is looking for an energy project that could make use of the electrical infrastructure.

On Wednesday, May 18th 2016, all members of the Vernon community are invited to participate in a series of forums in town to share their concerns and ideas. The Vermont Council on Rural Development will bring a team of over 20 federal, state, business, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders who will listen to residents and will return in months ahead to the community with recommendations, ideas and support in developing action plans and funding strategies. .

Here are draft minutes for the Vernon School Board meeting on Monday in which they voted to withdraw from the Act 46 district and become an advisable district. – c.

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Vernon Town School Board
Minutes of Regular Meeting—April 25, 2016

Directors present: Mike Hebert, Deb Hebert, Gina Dyer, Walter Breau.
Directors absent: None.
Also present: Sally Brassor, Dana Gordon-Macey, Paul Smith. The members of the Vernon Select Board, Christiane Howe (chair), Sandra Harris, Josh Unruh, Emily Vergobbe, Stephen Skibnowsky, joined the meeting at 6:04 p.m.

CALL TO ORDER REGULAR MEETING—5:30 p.m. – Mike Hebert, Chair

The voters recently approved the concept of a gas-fired generating station to replace Yankee.

They’re looking to replace the cash cow they have had for 30-some years: Jobs, low taxes, better schools…it’s a
long list and I don’t blame them at all.

But what if they had an opportunity to regain all the benefits – and then some, without pollution and the dangers resulting from a gas pipeline?

Recent news articles about a proposed Vernon gas plant have stimulated much thinking.

Ever since Yankee announced closure, many wondered what, if anything would replace it.

It’s a wonderful opportunity for investors who can successfully answer that question.

The existing (and newly renovated) switchyard pictured here constitutes an “injection point” where up to a gigawatt of electricity can be supplied to the grid for distribution over already robust transmission lines to markets in New England, New York and even Canada.

Vernon native and Hall of Fame broadcaster Tim ( Johnson ) Arsenault, will seek the office of Vernon Town Clerk in the March first town wide election. The 59 year old Arsenault has served as the Town Moderator for the past 17 years, Brattleboro Union High School district Moderator for the past 16 years, Justice of the peace for 13 years, and Board of Civil Authority Chair for the past 7. He was named to the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2014, and was the 2014 Brattleboro area Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year. Tim is a 1968 graduate of Vernon Elementary School, and a 1974 Brattleboro Union High school graduate.

We are officially introducing the new unofficial website for Vernon, , created and maintained by Bronna Zlochiver (who also publishes the unofficial town digital newsletter) and myself.

The site will publish news updates about Vernon, town documents such as minutes, warnings and agendas, upcoming events, links to selectboard videos on the BCTV website, a weather forecast, a town directory with phone numbers and email addresses, and links to Vernon town entities, organizations and businesses. It also features a gallery of seasonal photos of Vernon scenes.

In my post, “Yankee, What Next?” I recommended an op-ed by Lissa Weinmann , entitled “Federal legislation key to jobs-creating, swift VY clean-up”

This has been .

It begins:

“While some celebrate and some lament news of Entergy’s decision to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, we all need to work together to assure that decontamination begins immediately in order to preserve and create hundreds of jobs and assure the safe storage of highly radioactive waste that will certainly remain at the site for decades to come.”