I am writing in response to “Making a creative place” [Arts & Entertainment, Jan. 25], a great article that looked at the possibility of Brattleboro's status as a “creative community” from many angles.
While those of us who know and love Brattleboro are already aware of the high percentage of practicing artists and general creative people living in and around town, it's exciting to imagine what could be done with the money and recognition of a National Endowment of the Arts grant.
Speaking of money, my letter concerns financials: namely, can a person pursuing a creative career afford to live in Brattleboro?
I am aware that Kate Anderson, the chair of the Brattleboro Town Arts Committee, and Olga Peters, in writing the article, have explored this topic, but I would like to encourage more discussion, awareness, and possibly some solutions to the “rents are too damn high” problem (to borrow a line from New York City's own ambassador for poor people, former mayoral candidate, and general rabble-rouser, Jimmy McMillan).
Two of the most dangerous trends in our nation are also related. Big Pharma is stalking medical marijuana, and privatized prisons are stalking Americans. Both possess a voracious and inexorable thirst for profits. If they don't make a profit, they would not stay in business. If they stay in...
A violent confrontation in the school between two male students in a school bathroom on Jan. 5 resulted in injuries to one student's face serious enough to warrant treatment, first at Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend and later at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. The fight in...
Sometimes, what we feel is right is quite different from how the federal government wants us to behave. The government wants to trump our duty to look out for our own best interests. It says it knows better what is good for us, and it can be speculated that control of our behavior pleases the government's purposes. When Vermont passes the Green Bank and the Vermont Public Bank, and the Vermont Currency bills, we will be able to at least...
As the new revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM) nears completion, it seems certain that we will be seeing more and more news stories about changes in how we diagnose psychological disorders in the United States. I pay attention to this issue because I work with college students with learning differences, and in the past decade the DSM has come to play a central role in many of their lives. But I think...
I just participated in a survey sponsored by the Vermont Lottery Commission. It was a little bizarre, somewhere on a spectrum between a push poll and cheerleading camp. I walked out with $100 in cold, cool cash in my pocket and a newfound sadness at the state of the economy and Vermont's government. But let me start at the beginning. One recent Monday morning, I got a phone message from a very pleasant-sounding woman named Tammy at some firm called...
Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark takes issue with the administration at the Windham Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) for not renewing its commitment to a four-year school resource officer (SRO) program, paid for by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice for the first three years. Leland & Gray Middle and High School in Townshend participated in the program for 2½ years, employing several uniformed and armed deputies from the sheriff's office in Newfane. The program's latest hire, Albry Crowley,
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. • Francesca “Frances” Dolan, 95, formerly of Salem, Mass. Died Feb. 4 at Thompson House in Brattleboro. Wife of the late Charles A. Dolan for 56 years. Mother of Claire Markey and her husband, Frank, of Brattleboro, and Richard Dolan and his wife, Sandra, of Searsport, Maine. Sister of Louigi Actis of Peabody, Mass., and...
A Townshend farm is one of nine Vermont agricultural producers that will share in $854,542 in federal grant money. Big Picture Farm LC3, which makes handmade, all-natural caramels with farmstead goat milk from its own herd, was awarded $49,057 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development's Value-Added Producer Grant program. The grants were announced Feb. 3 in a joint press release by the Vermont congressional delegation. It was the second big award in less than a year for Big...
A recent round of contract deliberations between the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union and the Windham Northeast Education Association has ended without a deal. Windham Northeast teachers have been working without a contract since the previous three-year deal expired on June 30, 2011. WNESU Superintendent Chris Kibbe said last week that another bargaining session is scheduled for Tuesday, March 29. “The sides started far apart,” said Kibbe, “and we've closed some of that distance, but we still have some distance to...
Along with two of my colleagues from the Ways & Means Committee, Rep. Jim Condon, a Democrat from Colchester, and Rep. Adam Greshin, an independent from Warren, I recently introduced a comprehensive education finance reform bill. At a high level, the bill proposes to make the following changes to the system that finances Vermont's K-12 education: • Replace the current variable residential education property tax rate with a much-lower fixed residential property tax rate that would be uniform across the...
They slumber beneath the sea; they sleep under 30 feet of concrete. Ready at a moment's notice, they wait. One would be enough to wipe out a whole city. Despite the fall of communism, there are still thousands of nuclear weapons in the world, enough to destroy the world. We came close a few times. I used to know a guy whose father was a crew member on a B-52 bomber that ran fail-safe return flights. The plane, loaded with...
The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department will present the popular musical Chicago on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, February 16, 17, and 18 in the BUHS auditorium. Chicago opened at the 46th St. Theatre, on Broadway, in New York City on June 3, 1975 and ran for 936 performances. Bob Fosse choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. The story focuses on two women who are in jail awaiting murder trials. The play on...
On a night when the Colonels got off to a sluggish start, they needed a shot of Mad Dog to get them going. Maddie “Mad Dog” Rollins, that is. The junior defenseman scored three goals and assisted on another as the Brattleboro Colonels beat the Middlebury Tigers, 4-2, in girls' hockey action at Withington Rink last Wednesday. The Colonels found themselves down 1-0 just 18 seconds into the game on a goal from Middlebury's Laura Galenkamp. But they did not...
Four years ago, brothers Mike and Steve Perrucci from Perkasie, Pa., whose fifth visit to Brattleboro on Feb. 20 will culminate in the Fifth Annual Domino Toppling Extravaganza at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), traveled to town to build and then topple a custom-made domino course in the museum's main gallery. BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld and his then-seven-year-old son discovered the Perruccis on YouTube, where the brothers had posted videos of domino courses they had created in their basement.
Absentee ballots now available in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - Early/absentee ballots for the Annual Town and Town School District elections, and the Presidential Primary to be held on March 6, are now available in the Brattleboro town clerk's office. Anyone wishing to vote prior to March 6, may apply for an early/absentee ballot until 5 p.m. on Monday, March 5. Early/absentee ballots may be voted in person in the clerk's office, mailed to the voter by the clerk's office, picked up...
As Windham County homeowners affected by Tropical Storm Irene continue to assess and repair damage to their properties, the Southeastern Vermont Irene Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC) is seeking volunteers with construction and contracting experience to help affected homeowners. Specifically, volunteers are needed to help with physical assessments and cost estimating on damaged homes. “As we meet with families recovering from the flood, we're finding that the amount of damage and the specific problems associated with flooding are well beyond most...
Residents overwhelmingly preferred rehabilitating the Sweet Pond dam over replacing the 1920s-era structure with a new dam during a public comment meeting last week. Engineers from firm DuBois & King and members of the Department of Forests, Parks, Recreation (FPR) presented five potential scenarios for the dam at Sweet Pond State Park. Last year, engineers from the state Dam Safety Section deemed the structure unsafe. The state prefers demolishing dams like Sweet Pond, since removal saves the state money and...
As hurricanes and tropical storms go, Irene wasn't the biggest or most powerful storm. But, in the view of author and environmental activist Bill McKibben, Vermont had the misfortune of being at the receiving end of what became a catastrophic weather event of the type that climate scientists have warning us about. “What's interesting about that storm is that it fits precisely with what the climatologists have been telling us to expect,” he said. “It was not an unbelievably powerful...
The Youth Department of the Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) recently celebrated the first national “Take Your Child to the Library Day,” with all-day Lego construction, games, and introductions to available programs for children and their parents. According to RFPL Youth Department leader Sam Maskell, the day was a big success. “About 50 kids and parents showed up this morning,” she said. “One father brought all his kids. and they hung out all day playing with Legos and reading books...
Renovations to the Rockingham Free Public Library are about to begin. Library Director Celine Houlne said that the library's board of trustees is currently working with Sheerr McCrystal Palson Architecture of New London, N.H., and Baybutt Construction Corp. of Keene, N.H., as construction managers “to finalize the design and project specifications for the upcoming building renovation.” Rockingham residents approved renovations in a bond vote in 2011 for $2.95 million. According to the Baybutt website, construction is expected to be completed...
A standing-room-only crowd assembled recently to view a “work-in-progress” screening of a film that documents the tumultuous series of events that resulted in a first-in-the-nation women's crisis and health-care center. An audience filled the New England Youth Theatre seats on the evening of Feb. 4 to watch Left on Pearl, directed by Susan Riva and edited by Iftach Shavit. The Women's Freedom Center of Brattleboro organized the screening of the film, which documents the takeover and occupation of 888 Memorial...
Transition Brattleboro will sponsoring a series of presentations on the theme of “sense of place” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 20 and 29 and March 28. The sessions will take place at 111 High St., Apt. 1, and led by nature connection educator Amy Hyatt, executive director of the Vermont Wilderness School. The presentations will explore connections to the natural world, aspects of mentoring and learning needed to create resilience in the local knowledge base, and regenerative community...
Imagine a day-long writing party across the state where members of the community can join to share, comment on, and support one another's works. That's exactly what happened on Feb. 7 when the Young Writers Project (YWP) encouraged schools in Vermont to take a moment out of their day to get everyone - students, teachers, administrators, staff, guests, and even local businesses and organizations - to write for seven minutes, to give one another other feedback, and to display some...