London has a large bicycle commuter population, and a greater number of traffic circles, or roundabouts, than we are accustomed to in the United States.
Bikes and traffic roundabouts are never a great mix, but cyclists and motorists have to cope. An article in the Feb. 26 London Evening Standard outlined moves to improve the situation at roundabouts for cyclists.
I imagine that more details are available from London's local government transportation offices.
There might be ideas and applications in the London model(s) that could be adapted to Vermont traffic situations as The Commons continues its invaluable advocacy on behalf of Vermont cyclists and other users of non-motorized transportation.
The Brattleboro Area Farmers' Market is accepting applications for new members to vend their products at the Saturday and/or Wednesday markets. The farmers' market, the region's largest and oldest open-air market, supports local agriculture, prepared foods, and crafts. The market features more than 50 diverse vendors from the local...
I was 7 years old, pulling back my bow in the yard, an arrow knocked into the string and about to let loose into the target my father had built for me. I made a decent shot and looked up to see my neighbor standing in his yard and...
Windham County will receive from Entergy $10 million, facilitating economic development replacing Vermont Yankee in Vernon. Neighboring towns are being asked at Town Meeting to raise and appropriate their property taxes to support Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS). Self-appointed SeVEDS recently quietly completed its Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) and submitted it to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA). “Once accepted by the EDA, the CEDS will serve as a blueprint for economic development activity in the Windham region,”
The state of Vermont and Entergy Corporation have been battling each other for years, but the two parties reached an agreement in December about the future of Vermont Yankee. Entergy has owned and operated the 42-year-old nuclear plant in Vernon since 2002. When Entergy announced plans to close the plant by December, the state, which has passed laws aimed at preventing the plant from operating, seemed surprised. It also lost some negotiating leverage. Even so, the settlement, which the Vermont...
Sure, it's a long, cold winter, but summer is on the way. That's the word from staff at Meeting Waters YMCA, who report they're hard at work planning for the regional Y's 50th consecutive summer of camp programming. Meeting Waters is hosting a free “cabin fever relief” camp information party on Friday, March 7, at the Y's program center in Bellows Falls; and on Friday, March 14, at Marlboro College Graduate Center, 28 Vernon St., Brattleboro. Both sessions run 5:30...
On a recent single-digit 6:45 a.m., a friend of the Greater Falls Warming Shelter, setting out on his day's activities, swung by the shelter and dropped off warm socks for the guests. “I thought they could use them,” he later explained. His generosity is typical of the warmth that has been generated for the guests of the shelter as the public imagines what it must be like not to have a safe, warm place to go when the temperature drops...
Marlboro Music, the summer community that The New Yorker has described as “the classical world's most coveted retreat,” will share the discoveries of its 80 resident artists on five concert weekends from July 19 through Aug. 17. Performances are Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., with two special Friday concerts: Aug. 8 and 15 at 8:30 p.m. Programs are selected by the musicians themselves, a week in advance, from the 75 works being explored in depth. The...
Get ready for an evening of community contra and square dances at Evening Star Grange on Saturday, March 8, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. A potluck supper sets the mood at 5:30. Calling the dance and playing accordion will be Brattleboro's Andy Davis, who'll be joined by the band Dragonfly, which features two young fiddlers from Amherst, Mass., and a fine, young guitarist from Brattleboro. Other dances in this series: April 12 at Evening Star Grange and May 10 at...
The Selectboard want to hear from the town's Energy Committee and School Board on a proposed solar power net-metering project headed to Westminster. The officials heard a proposal Feb. 6 from a representative of Waterbury-based Green Lantern Capital for the town and school board to join the project to bring net-metered solar power to municipal and school facilities. According to draft minutes of the Feb. 6 Selectboard meeting, Green Lantern Managing Partner Luke Shullenberger reached out to Dummerston to partner...
Several weeks ago, Newsweek writer Leah McGrath Goodman addressed the song “Royals,” written by the singer Lorde. The author applauded the song for its attention to - and, more importantly, its taunting of - consumerism, exposing its shallow nature. I believe the author missed one of the main contradictions in the song: Lorde's division of consumerism on the lines of race. For those unfamiliar with the pop hit, in her chorus Lorde declares that “Gold teeth, Grey Goose and trippin'
Selectboard Chair Richard Clark said he would check in with the town's road commissioner over what can be done to keep the Town Office parking lot and entrance free of snow. At the board's Feb. 24 meeting, Town Clerk Penny Marine appeared to read from a statement to ask the Selectboard for clarification on who is responsible for keeping that area free of snow: her office or another entity. She said that, in the wake of the area's two most...
Getting to Barre Municipal Auditorium is the dream of every small-town Vermont basketball team. Division I teams have to settle for playing at UVM's Roy L. Patrick Gymnasium, which is exciting in its own way, but nowhere near as freighted with history and tradition as the “Aud,” which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression and completed in 1939, the Aud was touted by USA Today as one of the best...
College news • The following local residents graduated from Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology in Fall 2013: Tucker Kilburn of Westminster received an A.A. in arts and imaging studies from RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and Joshua Kramer of Putney received a B.S. in computer engineering from RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering. School news • Cassie Bratton, a Wilmington junior, has been named the February 2014 Windham Regional Career Center Student of the Month. She was nominated...
The Williamsville Players present Neil Simon's “Plaza Suite” as directed by Bob DuCharme at the Williamsville Town Hall over two weekends this summer: Friday and Saturday, June 20-21; and Friday and Saturday, June 27-28. Auditions for the comedy are Wednesday and Thursday nights, April 2 and 3, at 6:30 p.m. in Brattleboro Savings and Loan's Community Room. The show calls for a unique cast for each of its three acts; commitment time and rehearsals are similar to those for a...
Pet vaccination clinics offered in Newfane, Wilmington, Halifax Pet vaccination clinics will be held at the NewBrook firehouse on Route 30 in Newfane on Saturday, March 8, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; in Halifax on Sunday, March 9, from 9 a.m. to noon,at the West Halifax firehouse on Branch Road; and in Wilmington on Saturday, March 15, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the firehouse on Beaver Street. Dr. Miles A. Powers of East Dover will vaccinate cats...
Spring is just around the corner, and the Strolling of the Heifers is gearing up to make more connections between farmers and the community with its first annual Spring Gardening and CSA Preview. The event is Sunday, March 9, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Stroll's new headquarters: the Robert H. Gibson River Garden in downtown Brattleboro. CSAs are community-supported agricultural ventures in which members or subscribers pay at the onset of the growing season for a share...
When my daughter asked if she could participate in the Brattleboro Winter Carnival Princess Pageant this year, I was very hesitant to say yes. My sense was that pageants, in general, support a very narrow definition of beauty and talent for girls. I work hard as a parent in this culture to find ways for my daughter to feel valued for who she is - and not for whether or not she is skinny, perky, or sexy. But I thought,
St. Michael's Episcopal Church is teaming up with Jerusalem Peacebuilders, a local organization, to offer a Lenten series on the peoples and challenges of the Middle East, beginning Sunday, March 9, from 9 to 10 a.m. St. Michael's service follows at 10:15. All are welcome to this opening event and to the subsequent evening sessions, which include lectures and time for questions, from 6:45 to 8 p.m. in the Meeting Room of St. Michael's, 16 Bradley Ave. The building is...
Thanks to The Commons for providing great coverage of the fabulous Royal Flush Valentine's Day drag show! As a member of Brattleboro's LGBTQ community, I wanted to respond to several comments that were made near the end of the article. I love living in Brattleboro and love the LGBTQ community of this region, but it can certainly be isolating as times as well. Isolation is one of the main challenges facing our rural queer community. While there are many spaces...
Two weekends ago, I visited a women's prison in Afghanistan. I also spent some time listening to a stunning Lebanese writer defend her erotic Arabic-language magazine, which is sold by subscription all over the Arab world. I also watched three very brave women confront government oppression and censorship in three very different societies. And I went to Tennessee to learn about the wonders of childbirth from a midwife who is internationally revered. All this and more - and I hardly...
In 2008, Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) -prompted both by music budget cuts and a desire for students in the upper grades to make music a lifelong passion - launched a Music Enrichment Program for Guilford Central School. The Max Y. Seaton Trust has awarded six annual grants of $1,500 to support this program, but the remainder of each year's $3,500 budget is FOMAG's responsibility. This season's “Rhythms for Drums, Voices, and Other Instruments” residency in March, which supports...
The New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) will present its Circus Spectacular 2014 for two performances on Saturday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, March 9 at 1 p.m in the Latchis Theatre. Featuring 15 NECCA professionals and special guests from top circuses from around the world, Circus Spectacular 2014 will highlight flying trapeze, aerial silks, partner balancing, juggling, comedy, and more. All proceeds from this annual fundraiser goes to support the school's community outreach programs. Performing...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a night of swing, honky-tonk, and fiddle by The Sweetback Sisters and Elixir at Next Stage on Friday, March 7, starting at 7:30. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Sweetback Sisters forge their own sound by delivering arrangements combining the soul of classic 1940s- and '50s-era country music with an undeniably contemporary edge. Their rollicking country, swing, honky-tonk, and old-time music is as infectious as it is heartbreaking. The band (www.thesweetbacksisters.com) is Emily Miller on...
Traditional Irish singing will meet the heartland of America with Mai Hernon and Celtic Font, a band that will perform for the first time in Vermont on Sunday, March 9 at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery. Hernon and musical partner, Mick McEvilley - also her husband - will present a unique combination of the old and the new in a concert that mixes Irish traditional music and Irish/American folk. Although she is still little known in America, Hernon is a...
What does an ash tree look like after it's been infested with the emerald ash borer? Students in Dennis Hamilton's Forestry and Natural Resources class at the Windham Regional Career Center can tell you. They recently won first place at the Vermont Farm Show's winter forestry contest, and this kind of identification was part of the competition. The contest, sponsored by Future Farmers of America (FFA), was held at the 82nd annual Vermont Farm Show at the Champlain Valley fairgrounds...
I'll run as a Republican primary candidate for governor and continue as an independent for the November election. I presented an amendment to the House Government Operations Committee that would have compelled the hosts of debates and forums to permit candidates who behave with decorum to be permitted to equally participate. As an independent who has shown up for every debate for two election cycles but has been silenced by censorship, I urge the reader to understand that money in...
Voters easily passed town and school budgets for fiscal 2015 at Tuesday's annual Town Meeting, but then got bogged down over an article seeking to double the town's contribution to the Farmland Protection Fund. It was about 10 degrees outside, and the Dummerston School gymnasium was nearly empty when Moderator Cindy Jerome started the meeting at 10 a.m., but the room filled up fast. First up was the $3,234,642 school budget, which represents a $36,170 increase from this fiscal year,
A Murder of Crows was a 1998 suspense film that you've probably never heard of. Reviews were so bad that oblivion was its natural state rather than something into which it faded. A Murder of Crows is also the name of rock bands in Michigan, Washington state, and San Francisco. What's curious to me is why a term for a large number of crows should show up in popular culture. Does the phrase have play in a darker subculture that...
U.S. Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) says that large projects like the Latchis and the Brooks House renovation require imminent capital, which is hard to get, and he noted that Congress needs to remember that federal dollars are critical to local communities. He went on to describe cuts to grants and funding for such projects as “shortsighted.” He admits that federal grants can provide a “jumpstart needed to keep communities vital.” Welch is doing what politicians in all 50 states do,
It started in February 1989 with two staff members who served six families, three days a week, in the recreation room at Hilltop House in Brattleboro. Twenty-five years later, The Gathering Place (TGP) has grown into one of the leading Adult Day Centers in Vermont, serving seniors and adults with disabilities in southeast Vermont and southwest New Hampshire by giving them a safe and stimulating environment in which to spend the day. On Feb. 26, The Gathering Place celebrated its...
Pity the poor hard cheeses of the world. Softer cheeses like brie are considered luxurious and delectable and, while we are quite fond of pliable double-crèmes and squishy triple-crèmes, we hardly think their firmer cousins should be forgotten. And they aren't, really, but hard cheeses are usually only brought out for grating, and that is a sad situation. Hard cheeses can provide immense, concentrated flavor and economy to a cheese board. A little-known benefit to keeping hard cheeses in the...
An anniversary marks the day an event took place - the birth of our nation on July 4, for instance. March 11 marks the day when two natural disasters struck Japan. On that day in 2011, an earthquake followed by a tsunami devastated the coast, displacing 154,000 people and killing 18,000. That was the first disaster. On March 11, we also commemorate the beginning of a man-made permanent crisis for the entire planet: the meltdown of multiple nuclear reactors in...
The team behind the three-station police-fire facilities upgrades project estimates it has found $400,000 in savings. The town Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee hosted a meeting last week to give the public an opportunity to ask questions about the $14.1 million project. About 20 people attended the presentation in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Municipal Center on Feb. 27. “I've been your watchdog on the budget up to date,” said Steve Horton, project manager on incorporating the oversight committee and...
The Wilmington Police Department warns of a phone scam in which callers claim to represent Green Mountain Power and demand credit card information from customers to pay their account balance or face disconnection. Should you receive such a call, police say, do not give out any personal information, including account and credit card numbers. Instead, hang up and contact Green Mountain Power directly to report the call. Police add that residents should also report suspected scams to local police and...
I recently had the opportunity of traveling to New York City and interviewing Chefs Thomas Keller and Roland Henin. The article will run in Mise en Place, the Culinary Institute of America's seasonal magazine. For those of you who remain in the woodwork (I include myself in this category), Chef Keller has earned his place among the ranks of a new strain of culinary expert: the Celebrity Chef. He is the owner of the French Laundry and Per Se -
The 24th annual Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District's (WCNRCD) Tree and Perennial Plant Sale has begun. This year's offerings include plants sought for their landscape, conservation, regeneration, and food value, and include those great at controlling erosion - part of an effort to rehabilitate damaged stream banks and farm land in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. Trees and shrubs are all bare rootstock. Wildlife and songbird shrubs and tree selection this year include red osier and Kousa dogwoods,
Most of us beyond the age of 30 remember when yogurt was something only health-food nuts, obsessive dieters, and withered old Russians ate. Most grocery stores' yogurt selections were pretty limited, and seemed almost perfunctory. You'd have Yoplait, Dannon, and usually the store's own brand, in fairly predictable fruit-on-the-bottom flavors, and always low-fat. Rarely would you see plain or full-fat yogurt unless you went to the health-food store. And that seemed fine for most of non-hippie America. But over the...
Four of a kind turned out to be a winning hand in Rockingham. A slate of four candidates for the Rockingham Free Public Library - Town Clerk Doreen Aldrich, physician Carol Blackwood, retired pastor David Gould, and attorney Ray Massucco - who ran under the banner of “Trustees You Can Trust” were all elected on Tuesday. Gould ran unopposed for a two-year seat on the RFPL board and receieved 793 votes. The other three bested Trustee Vice Chair Deborah Wright...
• If you don't want the sugar found in flavored yogurts, start with plain yogurt and stir in fruit preserves, or better yet, actual fruit. If even standard fruit preserves have too much sugar and fresh fruit is out of season, stir in fruit preserves with no added sugar. • Adding chopped nuts or sunflower seeds will further increase the yogurt's protein content. Adding granola will give you extra fiber. • Adding ground coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, and chopped mint...
In the Vernon Elementary School on Monday night, a long line of voters stretched down the hallway and around the corner, waiting to check into Town Meeting. Almost 300 people attended the first night on Monday. A crowd just about as large was there Tuesday night. And voters are scheduled to return to the school on Wednesday night to finish the warrant. During the first two sessions, voters approved transferring $75,000 from the education reserve and using $13,561 from the...
Would you like to make your own yogurt? It's easy! You'll need a little plain whole-milk yogurt and milk, a spoon, an instant-read food thermometer or candy thermometer, enough containers to hold 1 quart of yogurt, a stove, a heavy-bottom stock pot, and a refrigerator. First, sterilize the spoon, thermometer, and containers by completely submerging in boiling water for five minutes. Slowly heat in the pot until it reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit: ¶1 quart of milk (can be of any...
“It passed!” cried a jubilant Dick DeGray, his voice echoing in the nearly empty Brattleboro Union High School gym. Brattleboro voters approved enacting a 1-percent sales tax in a town-wide vote on Tuesday. The non-binding article passed by 36 votes. The town intends to use the estimated $660,000 the tax would raise toward lowering the town property tax rate. During his time on the Selectboard, DeGray, a former board chair, made multiple attempts to pass the 1-percent tax. Town Meeting...
Mirante edges Randall in Athens ATHENS - Incumbent Selectboard member Denise Randall lost her re-election bid to Dennis Mirante, 22-20, in Tuesday's town election. Once elected to the Selectboard, Mirante had to give up his seat on the Board of Listers, so a replacement is now needed for the remaining year of his term. Lynn Morgan was elected as school director, replacing Ivor Stevens, who chose not to run. Re-elected were Town Moderator David Bemis, Town Clerk and Treasurer Darlene...