The St. Johnsbury School has a growing, costly mental health problem. That’s according to Supt. Dr. Brian Ricca who raised the issue Monday night with the St. Johnsbury school board. Ricca, as part of a discussion about a proposal to hire four new paraeducators at a cost of $105,000 for the school’s first-grade classrooms, talked about “the increasing need for mental health services for the students in this building.” Ricca said the problem is growing so large that the school is hiring fewer teachers in favor of more paraeducators and “behavioral specialists.”

The high price of intermittent solar and wind power isn’t measured just by the per kilowatt-hour purchase price, usually three to four times that of available “market” power. Fluctuating power requires expensive accommodation to the transmission grid – like the $15.5 million proposed substation Green Mountain Power wants to build in the Northeast Kingdom.

A Derby man was arrested shortly after pulling a gun on another man in the parking lot of the Newport Wal-Mart. The man with the gun said the other man had taken his wallet. The other man – who was there with his wife – denied it.

Trees in the Nature Conservancy ‘carbon credit’ acreage in the northeast Kingdom are too small to make a profit in the carbon-credit mark. But they learned a lot.

Practical or controversial?

A Newport Center reader responds to release of NEK suspects in drug arrests and fatal car crash: why are judges just letting these people out of jail? And when they’re out, why aren’t they availing themselves of the many free services aimed at reducing addiction?

Someone backed a pickup truck through the front doors of Harvest Equipment and made off with 13 chainsaws.

It’s the paper where WCAX anchorman, Edward R. Murrow prize winner, and NEK native Darren Perron got his startin the news business . Since the mid-1970’s, the Barton Chronicle has been a reliable, weekly source of fair and accurate local news and provocative opinion for decades. Its large, loyal readership demonstrates that there will always be an appetite for local news served up with TLC.

A Brownington farmer pleaded guilty to animal cruelty after his cows were found starved and standing in two feet of manure.

The irrepressible Christina Nolan, U.S. Attorney for Vermont, yesterday announced a multi-agency drug bust St. Johnsbury and Newport that arrested 16 people and seized large quantities of hard drugs. At least two of those arrested have out-of-state addresses – suggesting a possible link with out-of-state drug gangs.