Vermont's “citizen legislature” opened for the 2013-2014 session Jan. 9, and Windham County's delegation, including two new House Representatives, went right to work weighing in on the upcoming session.
“Where am I going, and what does that bell mean?” joked Tristan Toleno (D-Windham-2-3) about his first three days in office under the golden dome.
The frosh representative replaces longstanding Rep. Sarah Edwards as one Brattleboro's three representatives.
“There's so much passion in Montpelier for making things better for everybody,” Toleno observed.
For the past three months, the U.S. Postal Service has been holding public hearings around Vermont in advance of planned service cutbacks at 141 of the state's 262 post offices. Rural post offices in Windham County are bearing the brunt of the cutbacks, with 11 post offices targeted for...
Latchis Arts celebrates its fifth annual “Spell Check: A Spelling Bee for Grown-ups,” a lighthearted competition on the main stage of the Latchis Theatre, on Saturday, April 6, at 6 p.m. This exciting challenge pits trios of spellers against one another before a whimsical panel of judges and emcee...
It was 1991. I was 56 and I needed a job. I had a 30-plus year gap in my resume, and I knew it wasn't going to be easy in a recession to find one. I had been a stay-at-home mom and now was on my own. Everything in my life had to be put on hold while I found a job. When I walked into the Vermont Department of Employment and Training, it was just by chance. I had...
Obituaries • Parker Burnham Blake Jr., 82, of Turlock, Calif., formerly of Bellows Falls. Died Dec. 31. Husband of Penny MacDonnell Blake for 31 years. Former husband of Marilyn Moseley Blake for 24 years. Father of Robin Blake, Mark Blake, and Tamara Doss. Stepfather of Kristy Reeves and Ronald Arndt. He was born and raised in Bellows Falls, where most knew him as “Burn.” He loved working at a newspaper through high school, delivering, selling ads, and setting type. He...
Join the Estey Organ Museum in welcoming the Buzzards Brass Band to First Baptist Church on Saturday, Jan. 19, at 7:30 p.m. for a fun and lively Carnival Concert. The Buzzards Brass Band is the official performing moniker of the New Orleans Brass Band Project, a collaborative music workshop based in Brattleboro. There is a $15 suggested donation at the door to support the work of the Estey Organ Museum (www.esteyorganmuseum.org). The New Orleans Brass Band Project was founded in...
Twilight Music presents contemporary folk singer/songwriter Lori McKenna plus Burlington-based acoustic duo Kat Wright and Brett Hughes at Next Stage in Putney on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. Next Stage is located in the former United Church at 15 Kimball Hill downtown. McKenna paints stories of the human condition, and wraps them in a warm, gritty and sweet voice. She is adept at chronicling the love, pain, and pathos of domestic life. Already a staple of the Boston folk...
Last week for Merry Mulch pickups BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department's Merry Mulch program is in its final week. This program offers Christmas tree collection to Brattleboro residents who request it. Now in its 22nd year, Merry Mulch is endorsed by the Vermont Department of Agriculture as well as the New Hampshire/Vermont Christmas Tree Association. For a $10 donation, members of the band and chorus will transport undecorated trees from homes to a community garden in...
The public has been frequently locked out of the Transportation Center's waiting area for town buses after 4 p.m. on weekdays and all day on Saturdays. The waiting area isn't heated during the winter months, either. Assistant Town Manager Patrick Moreland has tried to keep it open for the hours that the buses are open, but he isn't sure how much longer the town can keep it open. During the cold snap at the beginning of this month, I saw...
If January doesn't chill you, then the Vermont Theatre Company's first production of 2013 certainly will. The ghostly “The Woman in Black” by the late Stephen Mallatratt appears through the VTC's tender mercies at the Hooker-Dunham Theater, 139 Main St., Friday and Saturday, Jan. 18-19, and 25-26, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sundays, Jan. 20 and 27, at 3 p.m. The play is directed by Jessica Callahan Gelter, and has a cast of two: Clark Glennon and Richard Epstein. Gelter warns...
During soccer season, Leland & Gray's teams were near the top of the Vermont Division III high school standings. Now that it's basketball season, the only thing that's changed at Leland & Gray is the ball. Both the boys' and the girls' teams are riding high in Division III and both putting together great seasons. The Rebel boys are off to a 7-1 start, with their latest win a 70-22 demolition of Green Mountain in Townshend last Friday. Everyone on...
Words of advice and encouragement filled the auditorium as six recent Bellows Falls Union High School graduates returned to talk to BFUHS's Freshman Academy about life after high school. The event was facilitated by Natalie Brennan, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation's (VSAC) outreach councilor, and Liam Danaher, a VSAC career councilor. The six graduates all attend college and held forth on surprises, roommates, AP classes, their favorite college courses, and how BFUHS prepared them for college. Freshman Academy is designed to...
The light by the Co-op is not working. So I wanted to write to say that. Please fix it.
Open Music Collective launches its spring 2013 semester Jan. 28 with classes for all levels of musicianship. The semester runs for 10 classes, registration is ongoing, and limited scholarships are available. Jazz ensembles resume with offerings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 5 p.m., and a special Saturday morning class for those under 18. These classes will study classic recordings and compositions, and focus on “playing the changes” and improving listening and cooperative skills. Monday piano classes, in a new piano...
There are reasons to support efforts in health-care reform. Unfortunately, a letter by David Schoales [“Health insurance doesn't work as a free-market product,” Jan. 9] misses the mark on all accounts. This letter is an example of agenda trumping reality. Here are a few examples: • An assertion that “insurance companies are raising our premiums because they can't make money on their investments” ignores the fact that rates in Vermont are carefully approved by state regulators, for whom investment income...
A proposal to establish fees per unit on landlords, authored by Trustee Deb Wright and put before the Board of Trustees, drew a large number of landlord and tenants who told the board it was an “insulting” and “embarrassing” document and “should be scrapped.” The board voted to do just that to Wright's proposal, which called, in part, for “a rental housing impact fee” of one month's rent per apartment per year and excluded owner-occupied residencies. Wright voted against her...
Christopher Chapman never thought he could serve on the Selectboard until a friend suggested he run. “I think he [the friend] was right, and it's something many more people can do than think they can do,” Chapman said. Chapman announced at a special Selectboard meeting Jan. 10 that he would not seek a third one-year term, becoming the third member of the five-member board to give up the reins. Selectboard chair Dick DeGray announced early that he would not run...
I have a lovely neighbor who raised her four children in a home with a similar footprint to mine. I often think of her while in the throes of our day. I like to imagine her carrying children and laundry up and down her similar staircase. I wonder what stories the walls and floorboards hold. I'd like to run my hands over the nicks in the doorways and scratches on the floor. Touch the physical memories of raising a brood...
With a yearlong series of special events planned for 2013, the Latchis Hotel and Theatre in Brattleboro celebrates both the 75th anniversary of the Latchis complex and the 10th anniversary of its nonprofit owner, Latchis Arts. But the most momentous event for the Latchis this year is a major renovation of the main theater itself. The main theater will see replacement of the main hall seating, as well as restoration of the famed Zodiac ceiling. The $550,000 project will require...
In spite of an ultimatum to contractor Baybutt Construction, the town is poised to move ahead with the Rockingham Free Public Library renovation project and - with luck - not suffer any financial losses. Town Counsel Stephen Ankuda said that it is too early to tell if Baybutt, based in Keene, N.H., will “get their ducks in a row and get back in the good graces of their subcontractors” by the deadline this Thursday. But that would be “the best...
On the Saturday and Sunday of Martin Luther King Day weekend, Jan. 19 and 20, “Stuff the Bus,” a food drive for area food shelves will take place at Hannaford on Putney Road. The food will go to area food shelves, including the Brattleboro Area Drop-in Center, Loaves and Fishes, Brigid's Kitchen, Agape Church, Putney Community Center, and the Guilford Food Shelf. Organizing the effort is Green Mountain RSVP and Volunteer Center, a county-wide agency that matches volunteers ages 55...
After nearly 24 years as town clerk, Nora Wilson formally retired, handing the job over to department partner Forrest Holzapfel. A state government official once said that he wished Wilson could be cloned for every town clerk position in the state. Wilson's retirement did not come as a sudden shock to the Marlboro town office, however. Holzapfel, who was the assistant town clerk and head town lister at the time, said she first brought up her plans to retire two...
Despite the winter weather, supporters of summer haven Sweet Pond have found sunshine to share. According to Sweet Pond steering committee member Linda Hecker, Rep. Mike Hebert (R-Windham-1) has arranged for the Legislature to hold “Sweet Pond Day” on March 12. That's the day when a group will caravan to Montpelier to make the case to legislators for restoring Sweet Pond, part of the Sweet Pond State Park. The pond, until drained by the state for safety reasons last summer,
Voters could experience a drought of choice at the March town elections. Selectboard member Christopher Chapman's departure, along with members Dick DeGray and Dora Bouboulis, leaves three open seats on the board. According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy, few citizens have taken petitions for either Selectboard or the many open Representative Town Meeting seats. “To date the only Selectboard petition taken out is David Cadran,” said Cappy. “He has returned his one-year petition.” Election petitions are due to the Town...
Three federal judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals will decide the fate of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant and the authority that Vermont's government has over it. On Monday, the three-judge panel fielded arguments by two of the nation's leading litigators. Seasoned appellate attorney David Frederick represented Vermont officials, while former Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan represented Entergy Corp., Vermont Yankee's parent company. This appellate hearing comes roughly one year after the state lost a lawsuit filed by...
There is a small stone house up the hill behind my house. It was built in the early 1940s by Scott and Helen Nearing, who left the hustle and bustle of New York City to come live in Vermont in a thoughtful and self-sufficient manner. As Helen writes in her preface to The Good Life Album, “We decided we would rather be poor in the country than poor in the city so, in 1932, we moved to a rundown old...