Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
ROCKINGHAM-Do the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital nurses understand the implications of walking off the job now?
Their employer is on the skids with a $14.5 million deficit. A strike would further damage the hospital’s already- sagging reputation, driving more patients to Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, Grace Cottage in Townsend, or Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon, depriving the struggling hospital of desperately needed revenue.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy wouldn’t be pretty. When a hospital files, it typically enters a court-supervised process intended to restructure its debt rather than shut down immediately. This allows the facility to continue providing medical services while working on a financial recovery plan or searching for a buyer.
Given horror stories of corporate hospital ownership in Massachusetts and elsewhere, our community probably wouldn’t want a private owner even if one were to show interest.
As a lifelong environmentalist who applauds the intent of the Affordable Heat Act (S.5), it pains me to point out a very big problem with the bill that is now cruising toward legislative approval: wood heat is far dirtier than coal, oil, and gas. And if you make fuel...
The term “wildlife refuge” is a bit misleading when describing the 288 acres on Putney Mountain that form part of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge. Currently, no areas of the Vermont portion of the Refuge are closed to hunting. Though many of us understand the value of...
Thanks to all who voted in the recent election. Having no idea what my chances were, I was happily surprised when Justice of the Peace Paul Obuchowski announced the results at the Masonic Temple. My fellow new Selectboard members - Bonnie North and Elijah Zimmer - and I learned of our victories at 7:10 p.m. and were already at work in our first board meeting 20 minutes later. With veteran Selectboard members Peter Golec and Sue Hammond as chair and...
David Stern's production of the classic musical Cabaret, from Main Street Arts, has all the ingredients of a hit: great book and lyrics, gifted actors in fabulous costumes, striking dance numbers, and a brilliant set. The shadow of Nazism falling over Berlin in the early 1930s injects dark poignance and contemporary relevance into a plot that centers on the brassy, talented, and scandalous Sally Bowles. Aidan Flower Des Jardins, an up-and-coming alumna of New England Youth Theatre known to local...
The Brattleboro Retreat is in a bad way. News articles about a possible closure and highly critical letters published by patients' relatives and employees depict a troubled organization. Threats to turn away patients or limit services, coupled with a demand for $2 million more from taxpayers to keep the doors open, reveal fundamental problems at an institution we entrust to care for some of Vermont's most vulnerable citizens. If an organization perennially outspends its budget, delivers subpar services, and alienates...
An engaging confection of romance, danger, and paranoia, The 39 Steps, a play by Patrick Barlow now in production by the Vermont Theatre Company, is based on the 1935 film that catapulted Alfred Hitchcock to international fame - and which, in turn, was based on The Thirty-Nine Steps, a 1915 novel by Scottish author John Buchan. Though it flirts with parody, this hilarious play still manages to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. While visiting London, Canadian...
Interesting that the option of Brattleboro reducing spending never comes into the conversation. And that the real estate and sales taxes just keep on increasing - 7 percent until we burn through that additional revenue and then 8, 9, and 10 percent in future years. At some point, shoppers will begin to notice. Some will take the cue at 7 percent. And some shop owners of my acquaintance are considering letting their leases expire as the town makes it harder...
