On Feb. 24, Latchis Arts - and Brattleboro - celebrated Hollywood in a big way, with the first-ever broadcast of the Academy Awards on our big screen. (I think after the fact we can now utter the name!) And it was a blast.
We applaud all who dressed up and came out to support Latchis Arts. Hundreds joined to celebrate the best movies of 2012. They walked the red carpet, greeted by paparazzi and pressed for live interviews. Prizes were drawn for naming the big winners and also for looking as glamorous as movie stars.
Standing ovations are due the sponsors and volunteers who worked behind the scenes and in front of the camera to make this event such a success. As every award winner knows, along with our mothers, there are many who help us get where we need to go.
We thank our sponsors: Beck's Studio Hair Design, Miranda's on Main, Offerings Jewelry, Mondo Mediaworks, Minuteman Press, The Bridal Boutique at Taylor for Flowers, WVEW, Steve Twiss, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Windham Wines, G. Housen, The Commons, Latchis Hotel and Theatre, Woodward Photography, Adivasi, BCTV, The Desha Show, Vermont Country Deli, Renaissance Jewelers, and the Putney Inn.
On Feb. 21, the Vermont House passed “An Act Relating to the Education Property Tax Rates and Base Education Amount for Fiscal Year 2014,” which I voted against, raising the statewide homestead property tax rate 5 cents and the nonresidential rate 6 cents. Proponents of the bill argue that...
Long before she created her popular daily newspaper comic strip “Rhymes With Orange,” Hilary B. Price was fired from her job as a pizza waitress. As her boss explained, “You're a lovely girl, but slow, and you attract trouble wherever you go.” Price brought some of her trouble to...
A new graduate level course, Slow Living Leadership for Sustainable Change, offered in conjunction with the third annual Slow Living Summit to be held downtown in June, promises to cover a wealth of themes of particular use to anyone looking to add value to a community or other organization. The course is a collaboration of Strolling of the Heifers and Marlboro College Graduate School, and provides one hour of graduate credit, or three hours of credit with additional independent study.
When vocalist Karrin Allyson steps to the mic, you can't predict what style or language she'll perform in. The best part is, it doesn't matter. Allyson, the quintessential jazz vocalist, has climbed to the peak of the genre since releasing her debut album, “I Didn't Know About You” (1993). She is regarded as among the top vocalists in jazz. She's set to bring her vocal stylings to the Vermont Jazz Center on Saturday, March 16, for an 8 p.m. concert.
On Friday, March 8, at 7 p.m., Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) presents a concert by the Datura Trio with guest percussionist Shane Shanahan, a founding member of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. Proceeds from the concert and a pre-concert supper, both set at the Vermont Jazz Center on Cotton Mill Hill, will benefit FOMAG's Music Enrichment Program at Guilford Central School, where the Datura Trio is in residence March 6-8. Student participants in rhythm and vocal workshops...
Town to hold hearing on Putney Road project March 7 BRATTLEBORO - The Vermont Agency of Transportation will hold a Section 502 public hearing to review plans for improvements to Route 5 (Putney Road) from the Veterans Memorial Bridge to the Exit 3 roundabout. The meeting is Thursday, March 7, at 6 p.m., at the Brattleboro Municipal Center in the Selectboard Meeting Room. This project calls for a reconstruction of the roadway with construction of four roundabouts, retainage walls, landscaping,
A public meeting to discuss the upcoming Downtown Sidewalk Project will be held on Wednesday, March 6, at 6:15 p.m., in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Municipal Center, 230 Main St. This meeting had been scheduled for Feb. 27, but was postponed due to inclement weather. All property owners, residents, and business owners along the Downtown Sidewalk Project route are invited to attend. The town is planning to install new sidewalks on the east side of Main Street starting...
The SAGE Alliance is coordinating a three-day series of events marking the second anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility explosion in Japan that began on March 11, 2011. Last year, hundreds of residents participated in a mock evacuation from Vermont Yankee to honor the Fukushima evacuees. This year, a solemn vigil at the gates of Entergy Vermont Yankee, 546 Governor Hunt Rd., is planned for Sunday, March 10, from 11 a.m. until noon. SAGE organizers say they will be...
The state of Vermont was back in federal court in January, again claiming that the Senate vote of 2010 was a legally valid reason for the state to close Vermont Yankee. This was the second attempt by the state to make that case. A year ago, U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled for Entergy, Yankee's owner. For the federal appeals court hearing in January, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell switched gears a bit. He hired high-priced legal help:
An open call is being held for the 2013 season of The Apron Theater Co. on Saturday, March 9, at 1 p.m., and Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. at Next Stage Arts Project, 15 Kimball Hill. Apron will be presenting three plays this season: “The Cripple Of Inishmaan,” by Martin McDonagh, “Wit,” by Margaret Edson, and “Death of a Salesman,” by Arthur Miller. Roles are available for men and women from late teens to 90s. All are welcome. Auditions...
Births • Piper Lee Stafford was born Feb. 26 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital to Luke Stafford and Suzanne Paugh of South Newfane. Piper weighed in at 7.3 pounds and was 19.5 inches long. Also welcoming her is big sister Lucia Elizabeth Stafford, 2. Obituaries • Shirley Stephens Bonura, 69, of Cape Coral, Fla. Died Feb. 5 following a lengthy illness. Wife of Frank Bonura. Mother of Jack Bonura of Cape Coral, Lori Marjowski of Coram, N.Y., and Steven Bonura of...
Parking is the gateway for tourists into Brattleboro, and I think we do an awful job welcoming them. Case in point: On a recent weekend, I was parking in Harmony Lot and had the misfortunate of meeting up with three out-of-town couples wrestling with the pay-and-display machines. The three couples were not together; they just happened to all be struggling at the same machine at the same time. The first elderly couple was looking around for a sign to explain...
After beating Peoples Academy in a nail-biting 42-39 playdown win last Thursday, the third-seeded Leland & Gray Rebels were shut down by the sixth-seeded BFA-Fairfax Bullets. 58-45, in a Division III boys' basketball quarterfinal game in Townshend last Saturday. Although the Rebels got off to a promising start, the Bullets recovered from the playoff jitters to dominate the rest of the game. Senior captains Billy Nupp and Michael Bergeron accounted for six points each while the Rebels' pressure defense kept...
The Stray Birds, a young acoustic trio, will bring their rootsy sound to Brattleboro on Thursday, March 14, when they play a 7:30 p.m. concert at the Hooker-Dunham Theater. Drawing upon the richness of American folk music traditions, the signature power of The Stray Birds' sound lies in outstanding songwriting that soars in three-part harmony. Raised on music within a few miles of farmland from each other, The Stray Birds were born of a compelling collaboration between two unique writers...
The Windham Regional Commission (WRC) has secured funding from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation's Ecosystem Restoration Program for a project to complete a Phase 2 stream geomorphic assessment (SGA) of the Winhall River and Wardsboro Brook watersheds. The project will update SGA data initially reported in 2006 and produce a river corridor management plan that will include developing five projects designed to protect and enhance the functions of each river corridor. After the draft version of the river corridor...
Building a Better Brattleboro announced last Friday that it will accept proposals from parties wishing to take over the Robert H. Gibson River Garden starting March 18. The announcement departs from BaBB's original plan to hold a series of public meetings to collect feedback before issuing a request for proposals. Instead, said Executive Director Andrea Livermore, the board of directors decided to move directly to collecting RFPs. “BaBB appreciates and values the community's interest in the future of the River...
I was reading today's local daily paper and came upon a well-written and informative obituary, one that described the life of the individual with careful thought. Included in one of the paragraphs was a detailed list of surviving relatives, complete with names and addresses. As I continued to read, my telephone rang. When I answered “hello,” the male voice on the other end of the line said, “Hi, Grandma, how are you today?” Well, I was immediately alerted because none...
Anniversaries are times to celebrate or commemorate, to take stock and look ahead. March 11 is the second anniversary of the first day of nuclear meltdowns that continue to this day at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan. It is also the anniversary of the first day 130,000 people began new lives as nuclear refugees, leaving whole communities to become graveyards for radioactive waste, water, and debris. What have we learned? What could we, living in our own...
In August, I noted that Vermont had 24 breweries, the most of any state per capita. Change that to 27 operating breweries and five in the planning or soon-to-open stages. Brattleboro's Whetstone Station is in the latter category, the restaurant up and running but brewing still a few months away. And presumably coming on line later this year will be the Burlington Beer Company and the Queen City Brewery in Burlington, Freight House Brewing in South Royalton, and Lost Nation...
The Vermont State Legislature has recently advanced “An Act Relating to Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life.” The legislation, which some might call the “Death with Dignity Bill,” allows a patient who has been diagnosed with less than six months to live to request a medication that would expedite the dying process. Such legislation has been in place in Oregon now for over 10 years. The Vermont bill, which passed in the state Senate on Feb. 14,
Buckets and sap lines hanging from sugar maples mark Vermont's sweetest season: sugaring season. Most Vermont sugarmakers are “fully tapped out” and have tapped all their trees, even in northern Vermont, said seventh-generation maple farmer Arnold Coombs, general manager of Coombs Family Farms and Bascom Farms. Coombs recently spoke to a sugarmaker near the Canadian border in Franklin County with 55,000 taps. Bascom Family Farms, of which Coombs Family Farms is a subsidiary, has 75,000 taps in Alstead, N.H. The...
Even though Uncle Frank lived to be 98, I never met him. Technically, he wasn't just plain Uncle Frank but Great Uncle Frank - or maybe even Great-Great Uncle Frank - so his 98 years might have been up even before I was born. There's a single reason that I remember him: a quote of his that has passed through the generations. He and Great-Great Uncle Henry had been out plowing the field when a sudden thunderstorm struck: thunder, lightning,
Facing depression doesn't have to be depressing. That's what David Blistein reports in his newly published book, David's Inferno: My Journey Through the Dark Wood of Depression (Hatherleigh Press). With wit and sensitivity, he describes his nervous breakdown and his two-year struggle with major depression. The book's foreword is by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Blistein will read from and discuss his book on Friday, March 22, from 7:30 to 9 p.m, at Next Stage Arts Project in Putney. The reading...
The message was clear: “We're in favor of renewable energy to fight climate change. But wind energy in Vermont is not worth the long-term cost (to the environment and communities), and doesn't address Vermont's highest carbon emitters: home heating and transportation.” That was Sen. Robert Hartwell, D-Bennington, speaking for himself, the two co-authors of S.30, and two anti-industrial-wind activists at an information meeting last Friday that drew approximately 60 residents of Grafton and Windham to discuss the details of S.30,
As the 22nd Annual Women's Film Festival hovers on the horizon, it's clear that the only thing better than having one independent film festivals in Brattleboro is having two independent film festivals in Brattleboro. How else would film buffs be able to drench themselves in the brilliantly bright paintings of 15-year old Inocente, who has been homeless for most of her life? Or meet Aneta Brodski, a deaf teenager who fearlessly and with unimaginable grace integrates deaf poetry with New...
The Girls in the Band is a beautifully constructed film that's both symmetrical and linear at the same time. It takes one on a chronological journey through jazz that is distinct from the regurgitated story we've heard a million times. The movie's perspective is through the eyes of women who have persevered in a musical world that, at least initially, was explicitly unwelcoming. The movie explores women's contributions in jazz music and unveils many of the barriers that discouraged them.
Many people remain calm in the kitchen amid clanging pots and pans, carrot peels in the sink, simmering sauces on the stove, and roasts in the oven. Ladles, spatulas, and wooden spoons are juggled with ease, and fabulous meals suddenly appear, seemingly with little effort. But mention cake baking, however, and skin turns pale, eyes glaze over, hands begin to tremble, voices crack. What is it about baking that so intimidates otherwise-confident cooks? It is true that you can't really...
Voters approved a restorative doubling of the town nurse position, which had been halved for fiscal year 2014. Voters also increased the Library Capital Reserve Fund by $4,000, to $12,000. In contested Selectboard races, newcomer Jake White denied Rebecca Morris a three-year seat, 368 to 119. Incumbent Jim Burke successfully defended his seat from Miller P. Longbotham, 257 to 220. Thomas Consolino and Fred Houston won seats on the budget committee. Voters approved all budget questions, including raising $5,628 for...
With wit, grace and civility, voters at Town Meeting Tuesday morning approved a combined municipal and highway budget of $1,029,475, of which $722,320 will be raised from taxes - up 10 percent from last year. In the afternoon, they approved a school budget of $3,198,445 - up 1.72 percent - of which $3,183,194 will be raised from taxes. The percentage rise in the municipal budget is a result of increased costs - for example, a 14 percent rise in health...
This week's special supplement to The Commons includes the following stories: • Joyce Marcel's overview of the festival: Why we need a Women's Film Festival: 22nd annual festival will feature creative and independent cinematic voices by women, about women • Eugene Uman's review of The Girls in the Band: For female jazz-musician pioneers, it was about the love for the music Full information on the festival can be found at the Women's Freedom Center website.
Following more than an hour of discussion on an article regarding proposed commercial wind development here, voters at Grafton's annual Town Meeting on Tuesday overwhelmingly agreed to table it “as if it never existed,” according to Moderator Bill Kearns. Many voters later said the the article struck them as unclear or ambiguous. In contrast, Article 4 passed unanimously. It allows Grafton residents to “vote on any issue regarding commercial wind energy production facility(ies) project or the regulation of such by...
It will be a very different Selectboard in Brattleboro. After one of the most competitive races in some time, Kate O'Connor defeated Ben “Spoon” Agave, 985-664, for a three-year seat on the Selectboard. Two veterans of town government took the two open one-year seats. Former Selectboard member John Allen was the top vote-getter with 710, followed by Town School Board member David Schoales, with 580 votes. Schoales just edged out Ian Kiehle, who got 564 votes, and Donna Macomber, who...
• In Tuesday's town election in Dover, voters named Joseph Mahon to the Selectboard, narrowly defeating incumbent William “Buzzy” Buswell, 136-121. • Tragedy struck at the Rockingham meeting on Monday night when a voter collapsed and later died. According to reports from the Brattleboro Reformer and the Eagle Times of Claremont, N.H., John Fuchs of Bellows Falls was standing up to speak about the ongoing renovations to the Rockingham Free Public Library when he collapsed and fell back into his...
In one of the longest school board meetings in the town's history, voters decided 130-91 to send seventh- and eighth-graders to the Brattleboro Area Middle School starting in the 2013-14 school year. Since it was built in 1957, the Guilford Central School has educated students in kindergarten through eighth grade before sending them to Brattleboro Union High School for the rest of their secondary education. The decision to remove the town's middle school came after months of in-depth discussions and...
Town officials opened their Town Meeting explaining how a scenic voyage by the town report to New Jersey required the town to validate decisions made at the Town Meeting within a month. According to Town Moderator Patty Pusey, the town routinely mailed its town report to residents as “media mail,” in postal parlance. On the boxes of reports, officials wrote a note explaining to distribute the town reports from the Brattleboro post office, rather than send them to the bulk...
State Rep. Ann Manwaring, D-Wilmington, spoke at Whitingham's Town Meeting, and warned voters that the town's side of the education tax rate was slated to be the heaviest in the state. The state considers Whitingham a sending town, or “gold town,” based on the town's Grand List - a status that Whitingham unsuccessfully challenged in court. Meanwhile, an estimated 80 percent of Whitingham residents qualify for income sensitivity regarding the education tax. The education portion of Whitingham's property tax for...
Last Friday, the Brattleboro Reformer celebrated its 100th anniversary as a daily newspaper with cake, coffee, and an open house for well-wishers. For Publisher Ed Woods, the fact that a small town in Vermont has held on to its daily newspaper while other major cities have seen their daily papers cut back in publishing frequency, or close down altogether, is a testament to the uniqueness of Windham County. “Southern Vermont is different from the rest of the country,” said Woods,
In 2011, my organization, the Healthy Communities Coalition, was recognized as one of four “model success stories” in healthy communities work nationwide. So we speak with experience and credibility in (as our slogan says) “making the healthy choice the easy choice.” In testifying in favor of the House bill, “An act relating to the imposition of an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages,” I represented many other Vermonters. I went to Montpelier on behalf of: • Vermont's youth, whose risk for...