Brattleboro Voters To Weigh-In On Vermont Yankee

(Host) Brattleboro voters will be able to vote on whether they think the state should take over the Vermont Yankee plant by eminent domain and pay its cleanup costs.

The town select board agreed this week to put the question on November's ballot.

Kurt Daims of Brattleboro is with a group that wanted the nonbinding resolution to be voted on. 

(Daims) "The purpose being to bring the plant under a set of laws by which the state can assess the liabilities and not the owners of the plant."

(Host) Last spring, the select board refused to put the question on the town meeting ballot. Board members say the idea isn't town business.

That prompted a lawsuit. A Superior Court judge ruled the select board couldn't block the issue from appearing on the ballot. The select board agreed yesterday to a November vote.

At the same meeting, Daims announced a new resolution asking that the town divest itself of Vermont Yankee by only purchasing electricity from renewable sources. 

Daims says that the successful outcome of his suit will halt what he says is a trend by town selectboards are dictating public opinion by removing initiatives from the ballot.