One week ago, we stood in our driveway and waited hopefully for news from the Vermont State Police as they coordinated the search for our missing son with New England K-9 Search and Rescue, Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team, Vermont Fish and Game, Vermont State Police K-9 Unit, a Vermont National Guard helicopter, and the Westminster Fire Department.
We thank them all for their tireless efforts. We are grateful for the compassionate and professional journalism of Josh Stilts of the Reformer and Jeff Potter of The Commons.
The thoroughness of the team led by Sergeant Anthony French and Lieutenant William Jenkins of the Vermont State Police was impressive and comforting. We knew that the State Police and other team members, many of them volunteers, were doing everything they could to help find our son and bring him to safety.
We offer our deepest gratitude to the many individuals who were part of the organizations that helped find our son, and also to the kind family in Westminster who notified the police when our son approached their house for help after having spent the previous 25 hours in the woods without adequate food, water, or shelter.
Tickets are on sale now for Brattleboro Memorial Hospital's annual Giving From The Heart gala, which starts at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 21 at the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church. During this year's festivities, BMH will honor Chuck Cummings for his charitable support of the hospital and other...
The Brattleboro Branch of American Association of University Women (AAUW), is once again offering college scholarships of $1,000 each to qualified female candidates who are residents of windham County. One of the scholarships is being given in memory of Jane Baker, a 50-year member of AAUW. Both graduating high...
The Townshend Common Farmers' Market is sponsoring a poster art contest open to all students in grades 7-12 in the Leland & Gray School District, as well as the towns of Athens and Grafton. Home-school students from these towns in that age range are also welcome to participate. The winning poster design will be used for the Townshend Common Farmers' Market 2012 season. It will be seen and displayed throughout the greater Townshend area to promote the market. The winning...
Southern Vermont Undoing Racism (SVUR) will be hosting a workshop, “Microaggression: Sticks and Stones Will Break Your Bones, But Words Will Never Hurt You?” on Saturday, April 14, from 1-4:30 p.m., in the Community Room of Brattleboro Savings & Loan, 221 Main Street. The workshop is part of an ongoing series of community education events around ending racism. Identifying and stopping racial microaggressions isn't about being the language police or being “politically correct;” it's about understanding how our own and...
Obituaries • Beatrice Jacobs Brown, 88, of Vernon. Died March 26 at home after a long illness. Wife of George Brown for 14 years and the late Winston Jacobs for 28 years. Mother of Roderick Jacobs of Orlando, Fla., son Jeffery Jacobs and his wife, Shirley, of Rocky Point N.C. Stepmother of Steve Brown and his wife, LaVonne, of Lee, Mass. Sister of Harry Morse, Robert Morse, Celia Carley, and Marion Bemis. Born in Vernon, the daughter of Carrie (Humphrey)
It's back to the drawing board for Entergy Corp. in its quest for a new Certificate of Public Good (CPG) for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. In an order issued late last Thursday, the Vermont Public Service Board said the company needs to file an amended petition asking for a new CPG, and the board will open a new docket in the proceeding. The order provides some clarity for Entergy and intervenors in the case who have pushed for...
Given Judge J. Garvan Murtha's recent rulings against efforts to close Vermont Yankee, perhaps Vermont should now consider invoking its own Constitution - in particular, Article 7. Here's what Article 7 says in layman's terms: “The government shall be instituted for the common benefit of the people and for the people's defense and security. No one person, family, or group is to be singled out for more benefits of government over any other. The people have ultimate control of the...
At Brattleboro's Town Meeting on March 24, a representative sought to add $75,000 to the town budget to address pedestrian safety. He was clearly distressed about the recent pedestrian fatalities in town, as so many of us are. I personally knew one of the deceased and two of the drivers. Though the measure did not pass, it brought about an interesting and valuable discussion about what is needed for pedestrian safety, and it included a number of individuals' emotional testimonies...
Saxtons River's annual Village meeting is April 9 SAXTONS RIVER - The voters of the Village of Saxtons River will hold their annual meeting Monday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the library of the Saxtons River Elementary School. Voters will hear reports from village officials and be asked to approve a budget for general operating expenses of $50,150, a slight decrease from last year. Elections for four trustee positions will also be held, including the remaining one year on...
Concord, N.H., in 1949 was a perfect town for my size. It had a soul, and it was a friend you could trust. From where I lived, Ma would send me to the corner store with a dollar or two for something, and Dad would give me a quarter later in the day after he came home from work to run to the same store and pick up a pack of Old Golds. There was never any worry about my...
Did you ever wonder what the movies were like before they learned how to talk? You can find out on April 20 at the climax of Next Stage's series, “Shhh! Friday Night at the (Silent) Movies!” when Rob Mermin presents the lecture “Silents Are Golden: A Celebration of Silent Cinema.” In 2007, the Green Mountain Film Festival invited Mermin to create a special live program on silent film. Mermin suspected the festival wanted him to do something on silent comedy.
When the current emergency department at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) opened its doors in 1982, it handled about 6,000 visits per year. Today, the BMH emergency room handles about 13,000 visits a year. According to President and CEO Steve Gordon, 72 percent of the patients admitted to the hospital start their medical journey there. The space that was adequate for the patient volume of 1982 is now cramped and crowded, and fails to meet today's codes and standards, he said.
Following the March 24 demonstration in Brattleboro protesting the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, I talked with a shopkeeper about the issue. “No tsunami is going to hit VY,” he said when the topic turned to the costs faced by Japan in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. (Estimates range from $50 billion to $200 billion.) This same sentiment was echoed by a supporter of the plant quoted in newspapers the next day: “They say they...
A year from now, I will have a milestone birthday. Perhaps I should have waited until then to write this essay, but then, as a friend of mine says, “Maybe I'm too old to buy green bananas.” So I'm striking while the memory iron is hot - and because lately I've become aware of the momentous events I've lived through. I've witnessed historic milestones, extraordinary innovations, and human actions that have awed the world and opened eyes wide to human...
In many ways, the key to Chiho Kaneko's Viewpoint [“Japan, one year later,” Voices, March 21] is in her remark, “If you believe as I do that any amount of radioactivity in one's body, especially in children's, is unnatural and therefore unacceptable, you would understand how serious this is.” It's simply not the case that “radioactivity in the body” is unnatural. Each and every one of us is radioactive to a degree; indeed, one of the more significant causes of...
I absolutely loved Robin MacArthur's story about mud season, cheerfully slowing down, Tropical Storm Irene, three generations, and their love of life here in New England [“Without wheels,” Voices, March 21].
Master of Ceremonies and radio personality Tom Bodett will lead “Spell Check! A Spelling Bee for Grown-Ups” for the fourth year in a row on April 14 at 6 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre. A Dummerston resident, Bodett is an author and national broadcast personality known widely for his humorous radio commentary and storytelling. He has been the spokesman for the Motel 6 lodging chain for more than 20 years and is a panelist on NPR's satirical weekend news quiz,
After more than two decades of delays, financial problems, legal issues, and other problems, a project to revitalize the area around Union Station has begun. The first step took place two weeks ago, when a stretch of summer-like weather allowed Zaluzny Excavating Corp. of Vernon to do what it planned to do late last year before Tropical Storm Irene intervened-tear down the old Gasworks and Scalehouse buildings near the Hinsdale Bridge. Following demolition, crews capped the soil with fresh loam.
Three Brattleboro teens, ages 13, 14, and 15, have been arrested by Brattleboro Police on April 2 in connection with several acts of vandalism and arson that occurred during the late evening and early morning hours of March 30-31 in the areas of Brattleboro Union High School, Cotton Mill Hill, and South Main Street. According to police, vandalism included spray-painted graffiti and broken windows of buildings and vehicles. In addition, at 11:21 p.m. on March 30, the Brattleboro Fire Department...
The Blanche Moyse Chorale, an affiliate of the Brattleboro Music Center, will present an hour of romantic choral music by Johannes Brahms on April 12, in Brattleboro, and on April 13, in Bellows Falls. Under the direction of Mary Westbrook-Geha, the Chorale will perform Brahms's Opus. 52 (Liebeslieder Walzer, 1868) and Opus 65 (Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, 1874), sometimes referred to collectively in English as the “Love Song Waltzes.” These two works comprise musical settings of 33 love poems, translated from...
During the month of April, seventh- and eighth-grade students from The Grammar School in Putney will exhibit works of art at the Hooker-Dunham Gallery in Brattleboro. The pieces are from the art electives program, where students chose between classes in black-and-white photography, color digital photography, short filmmaking, or graffiti arts. Instructors from Insight Photography taught the two photography classes, local photographer Rachel Portesi led the film class, and William Chambers, art teacher and program director from The Grammar School, taught...
The poster sums it up this way: “It's time for a Perfect Train Wreck in Southern Vermont.” No, Bellows Falls music promoters are not hoping for a lapse in railroad safety. What they are hoping for is to introduce Bow Thayer to Windham County on April 5. “Bow is a pretty big deal up north and in Boston,” said Vermont Festivals' Producer Ray Massucco, “but down here, people are only just starting to become aware of him.” Bow Thayer and...
On the day the time changed last month, I drove home from work giddily feeling like I was playing hooky. I examined my thawing garden on my way from the car to the porch. Everywhere there were bulbs popping little green shoots out of the brown, cold ground. The day stayed warm and light almost through dinner. We did not need a fire. But the shiny red ornaments I hung in November from the tree outside the front door remain,
The abeyance of my beer writing for The Commons was decidedly not causal in the Biblical trials of fire, flood, destruction, and death visited upon the area last year. Short of a plague of locusts, it didn't seem like things could get much worse there for a while; thankfully, some kind of karmic wheel appears to have turned at last. In the Brattleboro beer world, the most visible victim of Tropical Storm Irene's ugly swath last August was the Flat...
Interesting that Kevin Maloney mentions the new downtown signal system [“Why won't Brattleboro do what's needed for pedestrian safety?,” Viewpoint, March 28]. When it was being installed and going through its lengthy shakedown cruise, everybody was suddenly a traffic engineer, complaining about how the system was actually slowing traffic down and suggesting how it might be improved to make the traffic speed up. I myself wrote a letter in praise of Slow Traffic, urging the engineers to preserve Brattleboro's perennial...
This year, the Jewish festival of Passover begins the evening of Friday, April 6. The holiday, known in Hebrew as Pesach, is our “festival of freedom,” commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Passover is regarded as the “birth” of the Jewish nation, and its lessons of freedom and responsibility continue to form the basis of Jewish identity and its ways of life. The name of the festival derives from the biblical book of Exodus which tells us that during the final...
Another April Fools' Day has come and gone, and thanks to social media like Facebook, it's never been easier to be fooled by more people. I have to admit that I fell for a friend's post that he bumped into George Clooney at a coffee shop in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. It was just detailed enough and odd enough that the long story had a great ring of credibility to it. No harm, no foul - it was all in...
Nearly a year after a devastating fire, a group of local investors is taking over the project to rebuild the historic Brooks House. At a Tuesday morning news conference, owner Jonathan Chase announced that he is unable to complete the project on his own. Speaking via phone from Florida, Chase said he has turned over the building to a new corporation called Mesabi LLC, which will be led by Bob Stevens and Craig Miskovich, who will now take over the...
Did the leaking of secret U.S. government documents to The New York Times and other American newspapers in 1971 end the Vietnam War? In the view of Daniel Ellsberg, the government contractor turned whistleblower who released what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers to the world, it accomplished nothing. The whole anti-war movement accomplished nothing, he said, because the administration of President Richard M. Nixon carried on some of the heaviest bombing in human history, even while it...