BENNINGTON Defendants in a suit filed by the late Bill Scully’s hydroelectric company Carbon Zero are asking the court to strike a section of the action seeking punitive damages.
In letters and columns, I am known as a critic of our local government leaders and their decisions. There are so many times when it’s clear that mistakes are made,
The prevailing version of history has been that Native Americans didnât actually live in the Berkshire area prior to the founding of Indiantown (Stockbridge). They were just passing through, for hunting, trade or interacting with other tribes. Well, itâs easy to see how, if colonists of European extraction were appropriating Native American land, that would be a convenient truth.
But a series of archaeological digs and research is amassing evidence that Indigenous people, known as the ancestors to their Mohican descendants, maintained permanent residences here prior to the time of contact. The latest evidence, and perhaps the most convincing, is the discovery of a probable Indigenous dwelling behind the newly discovered first meetinghouse site on Main Street in Stockbridge.
Flooding on the golf course at the Arlington Rec Park recently. CAROLINE BONNIVIER SNYDER â BENNINGTON BANNER
BENNINGTON â Bennington didnât get as much rain as other towns in the region over the weekend. But it has seen an extraordinarily wet July, which has brought flooding and soil erosion.
Bennington recorded 0.6 inches of rain between Sunday night and Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service. In comparison, Manchester got 1.4 inches during the same time, Woodford had 1 inch and Brattleboro had .75 inches.
The region is experiencing a âvery anomalously wet weather patternâ for this time of year, said meteorologist Michael Main, of the National Weather Serviceâs Albany, N.Y., office. He attributes this to ordinary showers and thunderstorms that are nonetheless moving slowly, sitting over an area for hours.
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Editorâs note: An informal celebration of the life of Bill Scully will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 18, at the Park-McCullough House. This article provides a summary of his thinking on the future of energy in Vermont.
Bill Scully, who built two successful clean hydroelectric power plants â on the Walloomsac River at Papermill Village and on the Hoosic River at North Pownal â left an important legacy for Vermont: that hydropower is critical to the stateâs energy policy.
He was convinced that neither solar nor wind power can be counted on for significant help in meeting long-term goals. He was especially dubious about solar, citing federal weather data that Sacramento has 3,608 hours of sunshine per year while Burlington gets only 2,295.