If I didn't know better, I would think that The Commons has been given a large donation by the NEI, one of the nuclear industry's prime lobbying organizations.
How else to understand the the front page of the Voices section from Oct. 8, with two letters and one lengthy diatribe about the grave error we have committed in closing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor?
All written by people living outside of our community, full of faulty assumptions and some outright lies. The headline “On climate change and Vermont Yankee” would lead a reader to believe that any of these writers actually had any constructive words about how we will fight to change our energy structure to avoid the worst ravages of climate disruption.
In fact, I can't find solar energy mentioned once in these three pieces.
On Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m., the Dummerston Historical Society will present a program entitled “Roger Katz: The Man and His Work.” Many of his fellow photographers and friends will be participating in the program and discussion of Roger's vast collection of photographs from a lifetime of viewing...
Brattleboro announces fall leaf collection schedule BRATTLEBORO - The following dates have been scheduled for Brattleboro's curbside fall leaf collection. All locations will be picked up on Friday, Oct. 24 and Friday, Nov. 7. These will be the only days scheduled for curbside leaf pickup. There is no Saturday...
The Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association's woodland hike along Athens Dome trails in Grafton on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 2 to 4 p.m., has a few special elements to interest just about everyone - huge boulders and caves, a summit view, a shelter cabin in the making, and various animal habitats. Somewhat steep at the start and in a few other places, the short 1.5-mile hike will go to Creature Rock - a collection of house-sized boulders with small caves -
College news • Charles Greene-Cramer of Marlboro was one of 200 Western Connecticut State University students who volunteered for a Day of Service to assist Danbury residents last month. Transitions • Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has hired Fred Landes, MD to its medical staff. He will provide care for patients in the BMH Center for Wound Healing and the hospital's Emergency Department. Landes joins BMH after serving as medical director for the North Adams Regional Hospital Wound Center since its opening...
It's frightening when a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. When that loved one is almost a thousand miles away, in a for-profit prison in Kentucky, the feelings of terror and helplessness are multiplied. And it's exactly what happened to me in July of this year. My husband, Richard, had a persistent sore throat earlier in the summer, and eventually was given a blood test when it didn't respond to antibiotics. The staff there first told him he might have...
The Brattleboro Police Department may face a longer wait for a new station. That means more time spent by officers protecting evidence from mold; navigating the steep, narrow stairs to the cell block; struggling to ensure victims' privacy with the challenge of a public hallway bisecting the police station; and working around the many life-safety issues at the station in the Municipal Center. The Selectboard on Oct. 7 approved charging the Police-Fire Building Committee to return to the drawing board...
Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) President Dan Normandeau and Southeast Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) Chairman Adam Grinold have announced the first joint annual meeting of their two organizations. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, BDCC members and the public are invited to join the two organizations at the Vermont Foodbank, 22 Browne Court. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m., when BDCC will elect members and officers and approve the annual treasurer's report. Vermont Congressman Peter Welch will offer comments following...
Catch comedian Cindy Pierce's show, “Comfort in the Stumble,” on Friday, Oct. 24, at New England Youth Theatre, 100 Flat St. All ticket sales will benefit Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) and their plans for a new health center in Brattleboro. Pierce, who describes herself as an “incident magnet,” will share stories such as the healing power of oatmeal and wrangling humor in the birthing chamber. “Planned Parenthood is leading the charge on sexuality education and policies that...
Downtown Brattleboro looks especially beautiful this fall, with the bright chrysanthemums in their pots all the way up and down Main Street! The business district is bright, welcoming, and unified - and we are all the better for it. Thank you to the powers that be in our town who provided this gorgeous display for us all to enjoy.
The Friends of the Brooks Memorial Library celebrates the ninth annual National Friends of Libraries week Oct. 19-25. As part of this celebration, the Friends are giving away handsome bookmarks with pertinent quotes by famous authors and public figures past and present. Established in 1991, the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library raises money annually to support the purchase of computers, print and ebooks, materials for the Children's Room, database subscriptions, free passes to regional museums, the First Wednesday lecture series,
In 1960, there were about 300 houses in Dummerston. Today, there are about 800. Almost all of those new houses were single-family houses built in remote areas of farmland and forestland, far from other houses. Similar “development” has happened throughout Windham County. A better alternative would be to protect farmland and forest land and build multi-family housing in and near downtown Brattleboro, like the new apartments upstairs from the Brattleboro Food Co-op. Old, drafty single-family houses in Brattleboro could be...
Are you thinking about buying or leasing an electric car or bicycle or are you interested in learning about the benefits of EV ownership? Cruise over to the Electric Vehicle Demonstration and Forum at Marlboro College Graduate School, 28 Vernon St., on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 3 to 5:30 p.m. A wide range of all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars, along with electric-assisted bikes, cargo bikes, and electric scooters will be on display and available for test rides in the parking...
The Guilford Community Church (GCC) is bringing the Paul Winter Consort to Brattleboro for a benefit concert, and its pastor, the Rev. Lise Sparrow, is both excited and anxious as she gears up for the largest fundraiser her church has ever attempted. “It's going to be really big,” she says. “We have joined together an incredible group of internationally acclaimed musicians with beloved local artists to present a concert dedicated to saving the earth.” On Saturday, Oct. 25, at 7:30...
The owner of three dams in the upper valley is seeking Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing. For most, the relicensing of three hydroelectric dams is not exciting news, but quite honestly this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for the Connecticut River. A little history might help in understanding why this is such a remarkable opportunity. In 1971, Congress passed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), pushed by the outcry of the 1969 Santa Barbara, Calif., oil spill and Rachael...
What happens when a young stranger with a secret stumbles into an isolated, small town that feels like the whole world to its inhabitants, and catches the attention of the young barmaid and a gaggle of local girls? The answer is pure comedy. In 1907, Irish playwright John Synge shocked Dublin with his wildly funny drama set in rural Ireland. He called it “Playboy of the Western World” back when “playboy” meant a fun, athletic young man and the Western...
As The Ramones “hey-ho”ed over the PA at Brattleboro's Nelson Withington Skating Facility, a woman named Killabitch Enrage (her nom de Derby) guarded a table at the entrance to the rink. In exchange for a fistful of dollars into Enrage's big glass jar, attendees received admission to the evening's sporting event: a roller derby bout hosted by the Elm City Derby Damez. Their opponents were the Western Massachusetts Roller Derby Furies. Two members of the Furies had recently “defected” from...
Both of Leland & Gray's soccer teams are hoping for a deep run in their respective Division III playoffs, and both teams appear capable of doing so. The Rebel boys kept rolling with a 5-0 win over Springfield on Oct. 8. The winless Cosmos tried to slow down the Rebels by clogging the middle of the field with defenders, but Leland & Gray then scored four goals in the final 20 minutes of the first half. Ryan Borgeson, Sergi Brower,
It's turnip time again in Wardsboro. On Saturday, Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., hundreds will gather to celebrate the town's own heirloom vegetable at the 12th annual Gilfeather Turnip Festival. Bushels of turnips, along with craft and farmers' market vendors, arrive early on festival day to take over the small village - inside and outside Town Hall and under tents large and small on Main Street. The free event, which runs rain or shine, is the largest...
There were smiles all around on Oct. 8 as the ribbon was cut on a 2-megawatt solar project near Interstate 91 between Exits 2 and 3. The largest commercial solar array in southeast Vermont is owned by Winstanley Enterprises. It covers 12 acres and contains more than 8,000 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels that are expected to generate as much as 40 percent of Brattleboro's residential electric needs. It may soon have company. The Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD) wants to...
Rockingham Free Public Library presents “Tour 350: An American Journey in Words, Music, and Images,” on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. In 2010, Jesse Peters from Saxtons River resolved to raise awareness about climate change by mounting a solo, 4,000-mile cross-country bike ride. Peters towed his supplies and guitar in a trailer behind his old mountain bike, riding from Salisbury Beach, Mass., to Placerville, Calif., over nearly three months, averaging 60 miles per day. Along the way he collected...
Michael Nethercott flips through the pages of his second mystery novel, “The Haunting Ballad.” Over his shoulder through the large plate glass windows of Tulip Cafe, people pass back and forth on Elliot Street. Near the end of the hardcover book, Nethercott points to a paragraph. This paragraph describes the moment protagonist Lee Plunkett realizes who killed Lorraine Cobble. “Sadly, you don't always get what you wish for,” thinks Lee. Yes. The mystery genre is about plot and structure, twists...
Melissa Barratt, a Bellows Falls resident, was 31 years old when she was killed in 2011 by a drug dealer who got the gun he used by trading drugs for it. And that's just one story among far too many that speak to the need for sensible gun legislation in Vermont. Right now, felons, domestic abusers, and convicted drug dealers can buy guns in Vermont from unlicensed sellers who are not required to conduct background checks. And without a background...
The BUHS Players dramatize Aldous Huxley's novel “Brave New World” at the BUHS Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 17 and Saturday, Oct. 18, both at 7 p.m. “Brave New World” is Huxley's “fable” of a dystopia in which people are mass-produced, programmed for their life's work, and conditioned to happiness and obedience through thought control, scientific propaganda, and free drugs. Considered science fiction when first published in 1932 - the story is set in London of 2540 - “Brave New World”
Marlboro College presents a concert featuring music written and performed by music faculty member Matan Rubinstein on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 3 p.m. in Ragel Hall of Marlboro's Serkin Performing Arts Center. The concert features Rubinstein playing selections from his Sada Project composition on piano, accompanied by musicians Wes Brown on bass and Bob Weiner on percussion. The concert is free and open to the public. The Sada Project is a body of compositions written by Rubinstein released in 2012.
The United States has been at war almost continuously throughout my lifetime. This is a sad story of wasted opportunity, wasted dollars, and wasted lives. The nation was entrenched in the Cold War when I was born in the late 1950s, and by first grade I had been taught how to “duck and cover” in case my hometown was attacked with nuclear weapons. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. was embroiled in a protracted ground and air war in Southeast Asia.
Late this summer, psychologist Judy Greenberg returned from a trip to McAllen, Texas. This was no leisurely vacation to the sprawling border town of 130,000, located in one of the poorest counties in the United States, where the average August temperature is 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Greenberg, who practices in Brattleboro, visited McAllen to work with the local Sacred Heart Catholic Church's welcome center for newly arrived refugees seeking asylum from their violence-ravaged homes in Mexico and Central America. So many...
The Agency of Natural Resources has issued a two-year thermal discharge permit for Vermont Yankee - a permit that, according to ANR, makes the nuclear power station subject to more stringent seasonal temperature limits. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) thermal discharge permit, issued Oct. 13, governs all manner of water discharged from the plant. Most discussions about the permit have focused on from where in its cooling system VY can return heated water to the Connecticut River, and...