Speculation about the layoffs at IBM in Essex Junction last most of the week, with 419 high-tech workers looking for options at state job fair. Mexican farmworker and activist Danilo Lopez was temporarily spared deportation. Governor Peter Shumlin championed the groundbreaking of the new Brooks House in downtown Brattleboro. Regulators considered sanctions against Green Mountain Power for violating sound limits at its Lowell wind project last winter. And a Canadian runner was in Vermont on a barefoot running journey that will take him from Montreal to Argentina. These were some of the voices in the news this week:
IBM Employees Hope To Find Match At Job Fair
Mark Drapa, IBM microprocessor engineer: “Unfortunately that’s a fairly specific skill. If you’re willing to leave, then there are so many jobs available. But staying here, which is a high priority for myself, and many of those around me. It kind of puts you in a box.”
Farmworker Activist Is Allowed To Stay, For Now
Danilo Lopez, farmworker and activist: “I would not have felt so much support if it had not been for my companeros, my community, my farmworker friends, who stood with me and said, ‘Don’t worry, Danilo, you fought for us, we will fight for you for this. We can do it. And that is what gave me the support to do this, and then we were able to go out and get all the other support.”
Brattleboro Celebrates Brooks House Groundbreaking
Gov. Peter Shumlin: “Unlike the rest of America, where they basically let their downtowns crumble, where they build big boxes out in the cornfields, we say, ‘Wait a minute! Community matters to us. Downtowns are the heart of Vermont.'”
Board: GMP Exceeded Sound Limits At Lowell Project
Don Nelson, landowner near Lowell wind project: “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I went outside. And the turbines on the ridgeline, they were roaring. And somebody asked me what it sounded like. I said it sounded like they were ripping the atmosphere apart.”
Montreal Man Runs Through Vermont On 12,000 Mile Journey
Liu Roqueni: “It wasn’t just one day that I said, I’m going to run to Argentina. It was a process. I thought of doing it driving, but then I’d need a car and I don’t have one. I thought of doing it with a bicycle, but it’s been done. So, I wanted to do something original, something different - something that nobody has done yet.”
