The Governor's Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission will hold its final two public hearings on its charges and draft recommendations on Friday, March 29, and Wednesday, April 3.
The March 29 hearing will take place from 5-7 p.m. via Vermont Interactive Television (VIT). Members of the public are invited to address the Commissioners from VIT locations in Bennington, Brattleboro, and Springfield. Addresses for each of these locations are available at www.vitlink.org/location or by calling 802-728-1455.
The April 3 hearing will take place from 5-7 p.m. at the Rutland Intermediate School Auditorium, 63-65 Library Ave., Rutland. Additionally, from 1-4 p.m. on April 3, the Commission will hold a deliberation session in the fourth floor conference room of the Asa Bloomer state office building, 88 Merchants Row in Rutland.
The Commissioners continue to deliberate upon options to address their charges. A draft recommendations outline is available at sitingcommission.vermont.gov/publications, in the Deliberative Session #5 materials. The Siting Commission continues to welcome comments, which should be submitted no later than, and preferably before, April 5.
The Brattleboro Selectboard last week named Steve Horton, of Steve Horton Construction Consulting Services in Walpole, N.H., as the project manager for the Police and Fire Facilities Upgrade Project. The town has budgeted $35,000 for Horton's work. According to Police Chief Eugene Wrinn and Fire Chief Michael Bucossi, Steve...
RE: “As you read 'Namie,' think 'Brattleboro'” [Viewpoint, March 6]: It might be a little early, but there is another solemn anniversary that all New Englanders must keep close to their hearts: Aug. 18, 1967, the 46th anniversary of Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro getting hit in the face...
Obituaries • Barbara Alexander, 64, of Londonderry. Died Feb. 20 of cancer. Wife of the late Ray Howard Alexander for nearly 45 years. Mother of Nicole Alexander of Londonderry and the late Scott Alexander. Born in Harrisburg, Pa., the daughter of the late Edward and Bernice Weibley. She and her husband moved to Londonderry in 1979, and she embraced the seasonal Vermont lifestyle and community. She served so many years on the Londonderry Volunteer Rescue Squad, she was honored with...
Employees from Brattleboro-based Soveren Solar met with the Putney Selectboard at their March 13 meeting to discuss two large scale solar installations eyed for launch within the next few weeks. The meeting was seen as an opportunity for the Selectboard to weigh in with any significant concerns they might have regarding the two proposed 150 kilowatt installations. The first would be built at the old factory site across the street from the Basketville store in downtown Putney. The other would...
Town Meeting Members will vote on whether to designate the town of Brattleboro as a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) special assessment district on March 23. The district would help property owners pay for eligible efficiency and renewable energy projects. PACE is a funding structure that allows residential property owners to opt into the special town-wide tax assessment district. Participating property owners use the PACE funding to pay for energy upgrades to their homes. The owners then repay the loan...
Magical Moonshine Theatre of Napa Valley, Calif., will perform “Tales of Br'er Rabbit” at Sandglass Theater in Putney on Saturday, March 23, as part of the 2013 Winter Sunshine Series of Family Performances. The tales of Br'er Rabbit and his cohorts come to us from Africa and are now some of the most beloved stories in America. Br'er Rabbit may be smaller than Br'er Fox or Br'er Bear, but he was blessed with a good dose of wits. In this...
The Leland & Gray Players present “Guys and Dolls,” the boisterous musical based on stories by Damon Runyon with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, at Leland & Gray's Dutton Gymnasium. Performances are Wednesday, March 27, and Thursday, March 28, at 7 p.m.; Friday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, March 30, at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Action is set in New York City's Times Square, 1948. As the lights come up, we meet a pack of crapshooters and...
Transition Dummerston explores the Vermont Home Energy Challenge DUMMERSTON - Transition Dummerston's monthly potluck and program will be on Friday, March 22, from 6-8:30 p.m. at the Dummerston Congregational Church. Prior to the potluck, from 5-6 p.m., there will be an informational meeting about a project for installing a Batch Solar Hot-Water System, led by Jessy Diamondstone. The community potluck will begin at 6 p.m., with opportunity to socialize with neighbors. Bring a seasonal dish to share; local food encouraged.
A growing number of residents are participating in the town-wide curbside compost program to help preserve landfill space, to reduce methane gas generated by buried organics, to save the town and taxpayers money, to contribute the raw material to produce nutrient-rich compost, to feel good about about ourselves, and to do the right thing for our community and the environment. You might not know it, but cities all over Vermont, New England, and beyond are watching Brattleboro to judge the...
History does not record when the first oath flew or who uttered it after a wayward shot at the Brattleboro Country Club. But the odds are good that it was on July 1, 1914, the day the course opened for play. Players have been swearing or rejoicing over the grounds ever since, enraptured by the abundant pleasures and torments of golf. As the club moves toward its centennial next year, the keepers of the flame hope for another “brilliant occasion,”
On Monday, March 25, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Windham County's independent schools will open their doors to welcome the public and showcase their unique programs. Independent schools are an important complement to our public schools. While Vermont boasts some of the best educational statistics in the U.S., almost 10 percent of our students do not graduate from high school. Why? Our public schools do a tremendous, commendable job working to serve all children, but not every child is...
We thank everyone from the Academy, Oak Grove, Green Street School, and EES communities for their participation in our recent forum and surveys on school security. Your input has been very important to the efforts of the School Board and the administration to strengthen and refine our school security protocols while continuing to make our schools supportive and welcoming places for our families. Visitors to each school must be admitted through the main entrance and must sign into the school...
The third annual Tour de Heifer - a trio of scenic farm-to-farm rides - will again challenge dirt-road cyclists on Sunday, June 9. The tour, organized by Strolling of the Heifers and taking place on Stroll Weekend, will include 15-mile, 30-mile and 60-mile options. The longer routes are designed for seasoned riders: there's an elevation gain of nearly 4,200 feet on the 60-mile route, and 2,100 feet on the 30-miler. The 15-mile route is a challenging one for beginner riders,
Our Place Drop-in Center, dedicated to “connecting people to food and each other,” is ready to take baking to new heights with a new commercial mixer. Center cook Matt Gowell has been using the mixer to whip up baked goods and other dishes for the daily breakfasts and lunches the Island Street center offers, and says he plans to offer bread-baking classes to the public and include fresh-baked bread with the 50 food boxes delivered to home-bound seniors each month.
I really do honor the many hours of work the members of the town Finance Committee put into their efforts for our town. However, I will be the first to say that I very much disagree with the committee's recommendation to the Town Meeting that they vote against the Town School budget unless it is cut. The committee's proposal to cut more than $240,000 would have an extremely negative effect on the very things that families value for their children:
Last week's party and open house for the Brooks House at the River Garden in Brattleboro was a sight to see. The evening featured mock-ups of apartments and office space, along with copious amounts of food and drink and more than 200 people milling about. A feeling of optimism filled the room, along with the hope that the burned and gutted shell of the Brooks House can turned into a centerpiece of a vibrant new downtown. The irony was that...
In the 1970s, I lived and worked in England, and was in the National Health Service. I had good care and never had to worry about whether I'd be able to afford it. I am thrilled that Vermont is moving in the direction of universal health care and wish it could happen sooner than 2017. Meanwhile, disturbing changes are afoot for participants in Vermont Health Access Program (VHAP) and Catamount Health, which will have to shut down at the end...
I read with interest and general agreement the comments by elected officials to the effect that Vermont must act boldly to develop and energy from non-fossil-fuel resources. I work at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, and I can assure you that there is no carbon-emitting smokestack here. In fact, Vermont Yankee is the largest low-carbon power generator to operate in the state. Closing Vermont Yankee would blunt our region's greenhouse-gas-reduction efforts, as most of the “replacement power” on the New...
For visitors to the home of Mark and Susie Crowther, the blue plastic barrels can be the elephant in the room. What are those barrels doing in a room of their own, people wonder, and why do they keep emitting sounds of rushing water? They're aquaponics systems - closed, symbiotic systems in which the Crowthers can efficiently raise plants for their consumption and fish, using recycled materials and water. Aquaponics is gaining traction on a larger scale as an alternative...
The Windham Orchestra will perform a medley of original compositions by local elementary and middle school students from our community on Sunday, March 24 at 3 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre. The program, “Pathways to Imagination & Performance,” continues the orchestra's commitment to offering extraordinary opportunities for young artists and music lovers. Violinist Anna Perkins, winner of the Windham Orchestra's Concerto Competition for High School Students, will perform “Symphonie Espagnole” by Édouard Lalo, accompanied by the Orchestra. Director is Hugh...
During her first walk through the fire-gutted Brooks House last year, Tapp Barnhill, executive director of academic centers for the Community College of Vermont, remembers saying to members of the Mesabi Group, “[You] deserve a lifetime achievement award.” Fire ripped through the prominent downtown landmark in April 2011, destroying 60 apartments and displacing 10 businesses. Firefighters extinguished the accidental electrical fire, and the 80,000-square-foot historical structure remained standing, but uninhabitable without major renovations. Flash forward to March 14 and the...
Representative Town Meeting Member Billie Stark of District 1, holding the 2012 Annual Town Report, approached the microphone. Stark joked that once again, here she was with her town report marked with yellow highlighter. The audience filling the gym of Academy School in West Brattleboro laughed. Stark proceeded to pepper town officials and staff with questions about the fiscal year 2014 budget. With Brattleboro's Representative Town Meeting coming up on March 23, the elected Town Meeting Members prepared on March...
Daffodils can break your heart in so many lovely ways. “I wandered lonely as a cloud/That floats on high o'er vales and hills/When all at once I saw a crowd/A host, of golden daffodils,” wrote William Wordsworth a few years after he and his sister, while walking by a lake, unexpectedly came upon great masses of the flowers. But he was with his sister, so how lonely could he be? Dorothy Wordsworth described that walk with her brother this way...
When I was in elementary school, I found a crow who couldn't fly. I picked him up and rode home on my bicycle with him in my arms. I named him Pickins, because he pecked at everyone except me. I found a big birdcage in the garage attic and lined it with newspaper. I gave him plenty of water. Then I had to think about what to feed him. I remembered something about how crows ate garbage and dead things.
I smell maple syrup in the air and travel back to the kitchen of Grandma and Grandpa John. I am 12. Daddy has brought them the first taste of maple syrup from Hazelton's Orchard. Grandma has promised to make sugar cakes with me. Grandma heats the syrup in her cast iron pot. She shows me a long-handled wooden spoon, and she asks if I remember how to tell whether the syrup is hot enough for candy. She lifts the spoon...
“March Into Spring,” an exhibit of still lifes, geometric paintings, and painted gourds by local artist Terry Carter, is showing in gallery spaces at All Souls Church during March and April. Carter received formal training in painting at the Art Institute of Boston and the Great River Arts Institute in Bellows Falls, and has shown in galleries around the area. This is her first solo exhibition. “But I have always done art,” she says. “Even when I was a rambunctious...
The following sugarhouses from Windham County are participating in this year's Vermont Maple Open House Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, the 11th annual tour of its kind organized by the Vermont Maple Sugarmakers Association. For more information about the association, its members, and the statewide tour, visit www.vermontmaple.org. Black Bear Sugarworks 287 Locust Hill Road, Guilford, VT 05301. 802-257-4278; info@blackbearsugarworks.com; www.blackbearsugarworks.com. Take U.S. 5 south from Exit 1 off Interstate 91 and follow the Black Bear...
Stone Church Arts welcomes Howard Fishman and his band to Immanuel Episcopal Church, “The Stone Church on the Hill,” on Saturday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. A critically acclaimed singer, guitarist, composer, and bandleader, Howard Fishman's exuberant, spontaneous, and unvarnished music has made him a favorite of audiences and critics alike. Fishman funnels a deep passion for New Orleans jazz, Brooklyn soul, open-hearted country, blues, and gospel music through a completely original, experimental aesthetic, and creates a sound entirely his...
The wringing dry of the Vermont taxpayer is not the way to encourage new business ventures or our children to stay in this state. When I was the chair of the Vernon Selectboard, we had a slogan: “Maintain or improve service while decreasing cost,” an edict that might appear contradictory, but it is not. As a volunteer EMT and past chair of Vermont EMS District 13, I know how we and other states manage emergency medical services. New Hampshire and...
Advanced students and professionals from the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) will be a sight to see at the center's annual spring cabaret, the Showcase of Circus, on Saturday, March 23. The performance is at the NECCA studio at 74 Cotton Mill Hill, Suite 300. Shows are at 3 and 7 p.m. Inspired by spring and new beginnings, this high-flying show features aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, and more. Acts include works in progress from the adult professional training program...
Sandglass Theater is exploring the rich creative potential of people with late-stage dementia. On March 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the New England Youth Theatre in Brattleboro, the Putney-based theater company presents “D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks.” Set to a compelling original score by Paul Dedell, striking animated video segments by Michel Moyse, lighting design by Sabrina Hamilton, and sound by Finn Campman, the work will be performed with five puppets portraying Alzheimer's patients residing in a senior...
Vermont Theatre Company is continuing its “Green Room Connection” workshop series on Saturday, March 23, from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Evening Star Grange. VTC kicked off the series in January to foster networking and development in community theater. Added to the slate are workshops in auditioning and theater games. Anyone interested in community theater, at any skill level, is welcome to attend. Snacks will be provided during the afternoon. Dinner is potluck, and volunteers from the Grange will...
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will host a free screening of “Doula! The Ultimate Birth Companion” (2010) on Thursday, March 28, at 7 p.m., in the Brew Barry Conference Room. This movie is a 60-minute documentary that follows three doulas as they support parents before, during, and after the birth of their babies. Through close-up documentary footage, the film (www.doulafilm.com) captures the non-medical but highly practical physical and emotional support that doulas offer. March 22-28 is World Doula Week, which was started...
RE: “Stretching to adapt in trying times” [News, Feb. 27]: I cannot believe what is happening in the town of Grafton. I can understand change, but this new Windham Foundation regime is taking the town away from the people who made it thrive and made it interesting. Visitors and vacationers will always look for more to experience in this tiny village. There will be nothing left but cheese, and I will not buy it at any place it is available...
Last October, in a Special Representative Town Meeting, Brattleboro representatives put their stamp of approval on a $14 million bond for renovations and additions to the police and fire department buildings. Over the 20-year period of the bond, the $14 million will grow to over $20 million with interest. This action allowed the Selectboard to include the bond amount in the town budget, which is to be approved or disapproved at Representative Town Meeting on March 23 by fewer than...
The board of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB) is proceeding with a request-for-proposals process for the River Garden without holding meetings for public input. “It's time for Brattleboro to cut its losses,” writes the Reformer editorialist with respect to the River Garden, urging the town to “figure out a way to add the River Garden back to its grand list and move on.” The attitude at BaBB as well as at the Reformer seems to be that there will be...
On the surface, bringing area artists together for a potluck and conversation doesn't sound like a big deal. To Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP) founding director Robert McBride, such gatherings are critical to the growth of the Southern Vermont arts scene. “It brings artists directly together to meet and share a meal,” he said. “The more that artists in our communities directly communicate with each other, the more empowered they become.” RAMP has been regularly putting on what they...
They were already lined up out the door at 4 p.m., a half hour before the first seating at the Guilford Community Church's annual Sugar-on-Snow Supper on March 16. All 120 seats for the 4:30 p.m. meal were sold out. Likewise for the 120 seats at 5:45 p.m. meal. A few tickets remained for the 7 p.m. sitting. So, if you're expecting 360 people over for supper on a Saturday night, what does it take to feed them? According to...
The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) has admitted the Connecticut River Watershed Council's (CRWC) four expert reports as part of the ongoing Certificate of Public Good relicensing hearings for the Entergy Vermont Yankee nuclear facility in Vernon. These reports - developed by experts with decades of experience in biology, thermal pollution, engineering, and water quality modeling - outline significant concerns about Entergy's analysis of its impact on the Connecticut River. The PSB admitted David Deen, CRWC's Upper Valley River Steward,
On Monday, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin's office announced a slate of appointments, including a new supervisor for the town of Somerset. Jim Olivier, of Putney, has been named the official in charge of what would be municipal affairs, if Somerset were still a legal municipality. He succeeds Larry Cassidy of Dummerston. According to the 2010 federal census, three people live in the remote former logging company town deep in the Green Mountain National Forest. George Kuusela of Bellows Falls, who...
With the old and new popes in the news, I thought I'd share a photo that I shot while I was a news photographer in 1979, when Pope John Paul II was touring the United States for the first time. This was a weird moment that could only have happened in New York City. I was assigned to cover the two days he would spend in New York City. Credentialed media were given access to specific events and press pens...