At the Westminster Community Schools Board meeting on Jan. 6, the budget subcommittee presented two versions of a budget for fiscal year 2016. One continues funding the Westminster West School and one does not.
The school board elected to present, at the Westminster Town Meeting in March, the version that keeps the West School open. Residents will voice their opinion by a floor vote.
Closing the Westminster West School due to low enrollment was discussed in 2011 and again in October 2014, when the board's budget subcommittee drafted a FY16 budget proposal that defunded the West School.
In December 2014, a community forum was held to debate the issue. Two new budget proposals were drawn up.
Most people may consider an icon to be a flat painting of religious images that is venerated by Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. But British composer John Tavener wrote that he envisioned his musical work “The Protecting Veil” as “an icon in sound for cello and strings based on...
Putney says it's continuing its successful tradition of candidate forums. The Putney Selectboard, School Board, and Town Clerk are hosting an informational event on elected town offices. This forum for potential town officer candidates will be held in the Putney Town Hall on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m.
I worked with the employees at Vermont Yankee for many years, and I would like to comment on why it was such a safe workplace and neighbor. For starters, long before the first nuclear power plant went online, a commitment to safety was hard-wired into the cultural and organizational circuitry of the International Brother of Electrical Workers (IBEW). In the early days of the United States' electrification, the IBEW fought hard to reduce the high incidence of line-worker electrocution by...
Entergy Corporation recently awarded a grant to the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center for repairs at Drop In's headquarters at 60 South Main St. Goals include the purchase and installation of a new furnace, new storage shelves for the food bank, and upgrades to the walk-in freezer. According to Chris Wamser, site vice president, writing in a news release, Vermont Yankee employees have a special relationship with the Drop In Center. “A few years ago, while doing another project at...
The deadline for filing petitions with the Town Clerk for articles to be included in the March 3 Annual Town Meeting warning is Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 5 p.m. Petitions for articles must be signed by 5 percent of Wilmington registered voters (79 signatures). Nominating petitions for town and school offices are available at the Town Clerk's office and at www.wilmingtonvermont.us, and are due by Monday, Jan. 26, at 5 p.m. Nominating petitions must be signed by 1 percent of...
The events in Ferguson, Missouri have had an impact on every community in the country, and ours is no exception. In November, a group of middle- and high-school students sat down with Brattleboro Police Chief Mike Fitzgerald and three other officers at the Boys and Girls Club for dinner and dialogue. The youth were primarily from the Brattleboro Union High School AWARE group, which provides support and advocacy for students of color. Members of the Community Equity Collaborative, including Windham...
Granny D. (Doris Haddock), of Dublin, N.H., said, “Democracy is not something we have, it's something we do.” She did many things. Perhaps most memorable was her 1999-2000 long walk for cleaner elections. But the corrupting influence of big money on our national government has gotten worse. Since she left us, we've had misguided, corrosive decisions by the Supreme Court. And on one day last month, with yet another government shutdown looming, we sank even lower, with enactment of a...
Births • In Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, N.H.), Jan. 2, 2015, a daughter, Suzanna Aralia Hoskins, to Helen O'Donnell and Noah Hoskins-Forsythe of Dummerston. College news • Nicole Winot of Brookline, a cinema production major and member of the Class of 2018, was named to the Fall 2014 Dean's List at Bob Jones University in Greensville, S.C. • Zachary Howe of Westminster, a student-athlete at Castleton State College, was recently named to the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) All-Conference Team...
At a recent Brattleboro Selectboard meeting, the board voted 3-2 to go ahead and add interest for another $4 million bond for the Police/Fire Station Project to this year's budget. This additional money will be voted upon by Town Meeting members in March. Although I understand the wish of some board members to move this project ahead for the sake of the members of the police and fire departments, I strongly urged them not to do so. Instead, I urged...
Town seeks to fill vacancies on committees BRATTLEBORO - The Town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards: Agricultural Advisory Board; BASIC (Brattleboro Area Skatepark is Coming – must be a Brattleboro resident); Conservation Commission; Development Review Board; Development Review Board alternate; Energy Committee; Fence Viewer (by statute, must be a legal voter of the town); Honor Roll Committee; Inspector, Lumber Shingles, and Wood; Planning Commission; Recreation and Parks Board; Senior Solutions representative;
Every year, rather than take the day off, The Putney School honors the work and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with an observance of the national holiday that's full of community events, workshops, and presentations for students. The culmination of this year's events is a choral-orchestral concert presented by the Music Department on Monday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m. The concert is made possible by a weekend-long artistic residency with the Germantown Concert Chorus, a symphonic choir from...
Since early last summer, students from the three elementary schools here have been attending New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) for a free afterschool program to learn theatrical skills and rehearse a play. Now NEYT presents the fruits of their work. Join them Jan. 23-25 for Town Schools Theatre's production of “Jack and the Devil's Three Golden Hairs.” Directed by Naomi Shafer and Jonny Flood, and starring 30 students in grades 3-6 from Academy, Green Street, and Oak Grove, “Jack and...
Good editorial, although I think it's a bit harsh to the anti-nuclear side. If you really know about nuclear power, then you know that it couldn't be insured privately, so the U.S. Congress passed the Price-Anderson Act in 1957, which put taxpayers on the hook for any disaster. Otherwise, no insurance company was going to offer rates that would make nuclear power even remotely affordable. So the fix has been in from the beginning. Vermont Yankee employees have to lose...
The Legislature's election of Gov. Shumlin as governor was a victory for the old boys' club - the same club that has destroyed much of what America used to be. I voted for Scott Milne and was proud to do so. In many respects, Gov. Shumlin himself turned me Republican - at least for an election. Mr. Milne would have restored honor to the governor's office, and with his family's history of public service, he demonstrated to me the core...
Well, it sounds like a variation of the proverbial “you reap what you sow,” only in this case, Windham County will reap what those in Montpelier and elsewhere have sown. Just remember: I told you so.
You did a stellar job on your message about the need to pull together to build the region's economy and jobs for those who live here. It was very much appreciated and needed. The tone was perfect. The collective “we” are the ones to take on the challenge, and “woe is us” isn't the solution. People - whether at the household level or the business level - invest in themselves and their place out of spirit of hope, not defeat.
Prospective candidates have less than two weeks to gather signatures for a spot on the March 3 election ballot. Town Clerk Doreen Aldrich says that Monday, Jan. 26, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for filing nomination petitions. Candidates need a minimum of 30 signatures to have a valid nomination petition. Aldrich says the last day to file an article petition for the March 2 Annual Town Meeting warning is Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 4:30 p.m. A minimum of 175...
Great editorial. Is every company that donates to charity using it as a cudgel? I was there at a Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting when dry compost was thrown. I don't remember any meeting with garbage dumped. Of course, the conflict was bound to be bitter. The founders of the New England Coalition are scared of nuclear power and made up their minds it was dangerous to them and not needed before Vermont Yankee's groundbreaking. The utilities that built the plant...
Vermont Yankee ticked a couple more regulatory boxes last month as part of the decommissioning process the plant entered in the New Year. Federal regulators have opened a public comment period on the plant's decommissioning plans. VY's owner, Entergy, submitted its federally required Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Dec. 19, 2014. The PSDAR included a Site-Specific Decommissioning Cost Estimate. The public can comment on the report through March 23. The nuclear reactor in...
Rock Voices, the area's only community rock choir, presents a CD Release Concert on Friday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro. Join Rock Voices for an evening of rock and pop classics like you have never heard them before. Under the direction of award-winning composer/director/educator Tony Lechner, the choir is backed up by a professional four-piece band. This concert will mark a special occasion for the choir: the release of their first-ever commercial CD. Copies...
The Apron Theater Company returns for a three-play season in 2015 as theatre-in-residence at Next Stage Arts Project. Plays under consideration include Top Girls, by Caryl Churchill; Fefu and Her Friends, by María Irene Fornés; Mother Courage and Her Children, by Bertolt Brecht; King Lear, by William Shakespeare; and The Other Place, by Sharr White. Auditions are scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 24, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. Actors of all...
A group of local musicians will perform Gimme Shelter, a show to benefit the Brattleboro Overflow Winter Shelter on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 2:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church on Main Street. The musicians, along with technicians for the show, are donating their time and talent, so all proceeds will go directly to heating the First Baptist Church, which houses the shelter. For a donation of $10 or more, concert attendees will be entertained in the Baptist Church, which...
The current show at the Vermont Center for Photography, “Soma,” recent photographs by Michelle Rogers Pritzl, is not “easy.” It doesn't go down as smoothly as a beautiful landscape, close-up of a flower, or traditional portrait. But these photographs are as important as they are edgy. Looking in some instances like photos from a 19th-century chamber of tortures, the photographs are actually self-portraits of the artist which metaphorically depict the mental and emotional harm we inflict on ourselves, by carrying...
Democracy is a tetchy, elusive proposition. It is the common goal of humans that spans centuries, nations, and cultures. It is as much an art as it is a science, a deep human yearning and a universal thread that ties humanity together. But it is something that must be practiced every day; left untended, it does wither and die. Here in Putney, democracy is just as elusive, and just as imperiled, as it is anywhere else in the U.S. and...
The Brattleboro Colonels girls' basketball team isn't the tallest or the fastest team in Division I, but teams without speed or height can rise above those shortcomings with good defensive play. Against their archrivals the Mount Anthony Patriots on Jan. 7, the Colonels used hard work on defense with just enough scoring to battle back from an eight-point deficit and win, 52-46. Senior guard Abbie Lesure was the key to the win. She only made one field goal (a 3-pointer),
Putney Family Healthcare, a Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Physician Group member, is undergoing renovations to expand its facility at 79 Main St. According to a BMH press release, this expansion is in response to a growing demand for medical care in the service area, which includes Putney, Dummerston, Westminster, and Saxtons River. GPI Construction began work on the expansion in November 2014. The work will create four additional exam rooms and increase office space for administrative staff. BMH Director of Plant...
Jan. 8 began as a day of celebration as Vermont got ready to inaugurate its governor. The day ended with a sit-in, arrests, disgruntled legislators, and questions of Vermonters' civility toward Vermonters. The morning of the inauguration, the Statehouse buzzed with activity. As neither of the top vote-getters had won 50 percent of the popular vote in the November election, the day started with the joint assembly voting in incumbent Peter Shumlin to a third term. Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham,
Stone Church Arts presents the New England Mandolin Ensemble and participants in the Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music in a concert on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m. The concert is the finale of the workshop, the fourth bi-annual Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music happening Jan. 16-18 at Immanuel Retreat Center. The concert takes place at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St. The New England Mandolin Ensemble is in the vanguard of musical groups exploring both newly composed and nearly...
The Windham County region's Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) has undergone its first update. Southeastern Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS), the economic development organization behind the CEDS, announced the plan's top dozen projects during a press event at the River Garden on Jan. 12. The SeVEDS screening committee reviewed 43 new and updated projects for the 2015 CEDS. The screening committee identified 12 of the 42 projects as vital to improving the region's economy - in part by creating more jobs.