http://www.vpr.net/audio/programs/84/2012/10/2012_1001_vermont_edition.mp3
A $500 million development proposal that backers say could create 10,000 temporary and permanent jobs across the Northeast Kingdom would be historic. But it could also bring big changes to Jay, Newport,Coventry and Burke, the communities where all the development is targeted. Even some political leaders from the region have described the potential for change as scary.
VPR's Charlotte Albright describes what Jay Peak President Bill Stenger and his partners have in mind. And Jane Kolodinsky, professor of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont and director of the Center for Rural Studies, describes how such big developments can affect a community's quality of life.
Also on the program, writer Kristen Fountain researched the string of fire towers that once dotted mountaintops across the Northeast for Northern Woodlands magazine.She describes how, although only a few of the towers remain in Vermont, they come alive in the memories of those who worked in them watching for forest fires.
