15 years ago
January 2010 issue
Gordon Bristol, of Newfane, one of 15 members of his family who worked in the printing, typesetting, and prepress industry in Brattleboro in the past century, says printing has been "a good salt-of-the-earth industry for the town."
"If you needed a job, you knew that you could find one there," he said.
Not anymore.
Due to its strategic geographical position as a river valley town and tri-state gateway, and its proximity to New York and Boston, the town, almost from its birth, has served as a backdrop for industrial innovation, including the typesetting, printing, and publishing industries that maintained the strongest hold and eventually propelled the town into the national spotlight.
But due to continual consolidation and pressure to divert labor overseas - drawing an end to the dominance of more than two centuries of tradition, a large skilled labor force, and a creative economy in a centralized region - that legacy has swiftly dwindled in the last decade.
10 years ago
Jan. 7, 2015 issue
The Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in conjunction with four regional economic development organizations, dropped a large lump of coal on the doorstep of the tri-county area on Christmas Eve.
The coal arrived in the form of a report outlining the economic ramifications of losing above-average-wage jobs with the closure of Windham County's Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
VY provides approximately 5% of the jobs and wages in the county, according to Chris Campany, executive director of the Windham Regional Commission. After 42 years and with more than a year of warning, the plant stopped producing electricity on Dec. 29, 2014.
The report studied the post-VY employment picture in Windham, Cheshire, and Franklin counties.
The study found the three counties would suffer economic losses with the closing of one of the region's economic engines that at its peak employed more than 600 people and provided an average wage of $105,000.
This was not news.
The report's news flash? That the economic decline from the loss of the high-wage jobs would happen quickly, within six to seven years.
While VY employees earn an average yearly wage of $105,000, wages for much of the tri-county area average around $40,000, the report found.
"The residency of Vermont Yankee employees is an important piece of this analysis as their buying power is significantly greater than average for the region," stated the report. "Their spending, whether on homes, restaurants, groceries, or entertainment, reverberates through the Tri-County Region, providing critical support to the regional economy."
The report also estimated that the plant indirectly contributes 1,220 jobs in the region and helped generate an estimated $500 million in associated economic output in 2014.
5 years ago
Jan. 8, 2020 issue
Following futile proposals for further state funding and a public rebuke by a state official holding the pursestrings, the Brattleboro Retreat's board of trustees has voted to begin the process of closing or selling the psychiatric hospital that has been part of the region's landscape since 1834.
Louis Josephson, the Retreat's president and CEO, called the scenario "the last and worst option."
Despite a letter to Secretary of Human Services Mike Smith that presented the decision as a fait accompli, Josephson said the most likely outcome of the Retreat's financial woes will be a restructuring that would pare down the facility to 80 beds and use temporary traveling nurses to replace more expensive permanent medical staff.
The alternative would put 830 full- and part-time employees out of work and throw the state's behavioral healthcare infrastructure into turmoil.
"When you are operating a $75 million company with less than 45 days of cash on hand, anything can happen," Josephson said. "The boiler breaks, and suddenly you can't make payroll."
"Do we want to close?" he said. "No. But we are in a precarious spot."
* * *
With an agreement for a sale in hand, two companies await state approval for the sale of a small independent cable company to an international telecommunications juggernaut with multiple franchises in the state.
Pennsylvania-based Comcast and Southern Vermont Cable, headquartered in Bondsville, have filed joint paperwork with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC), which, as part of the state's regulatory process, must approve the sale and amend Comcast's state-issued Certificate of Public Good (CPG).
Early public comment recorded on the PUC website shows a deep skepticism of the sale and sorrow at the replacement of a small business with a multinational media conglomerate that serves 21.4 million customers in 39 states and the District of Columbia.
"We're all being strangled by massive multinational corporations piece by piece," exhorted Eli K. Coughlin-Galbraith of Brattleboro in his public comment on the docket. "Fight it. Fight it any way you can. Don't let this one go."
But Ernie Scialabba, Southern Vermont Cable's owner, said that he is approaching retirement, and that was a factor in his decision to sell.
For 32 years, his small company has operated around the clock every day of the year. He's enjoyed serving his customers, but the business has become a lot of work.
"This business is changing so fast," he said.
This News item was submitted to The Commons.