At a recent Selectboard meeting - an event that typically sees disagreements worked out without noticeable acrimony - town officials read Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark their polite version of the riot act.
Days before the February 10 board meeting, Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard learned Clark was reassigning Corporal Melissa Evans, who had served as the town's law enforcement officer for the last seven years.
“We're pretty disappointed” in how this change was communicated to the town, Vice-Chair Joshua Laughlin told Clark.
Laughlin told Clark “two weeks' [notice] would have been helpful,” and he said word of the change should have come from Clark, not Evans.
Applications now accepted for pre-K education BRATTLEBORO - Children ages 3 to 5 living in the Windham Southeast Supervisory District towns of Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, and Vernon qualify for 10 hours per week of publicly funded prekindergarten education at 18 community-based preschools. Pre-K education is designed to provide...
Representatives from Triple T Trucking appeared at a recent Selectboard meeting about options for the town beyond raising the pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) bag fees - again. President Norm Mallory and General Manager Peter Gaskill of Triple T - the waste management firm that services the town - spoke to the...
Registration is now open for the sixth annual Tour de Heifer, Vermont's most challenging dirt road cycling event, with 15, 30 and 60-mile routes. The Tour is organized as a fund-raiser for Strolling of the Heifers, and takes place on Sunday of Strolling of the Heifers Weekend, June 5. The routes are: • Heifer Classic 60-plus mile Ride: A very challenging ride for experienced riders, which starts at 8 a.m. (Slower riders are encouraged to start as early as 7...
College news • Kristina Wittler of South Newfane, a member of the Colgate University Class of 2019, has earned the Dean's Award for academic excellence for the fall 2015 semester. School news • Tucker Boyd of Wilmington, a junior at the Academy at Charlemont, has been selected to participate in the 2016 New England Young Writers' Conference hosted by Middlebury College at the Bread Loaf campus. In May, Boyd will join high school students from around the country for four...
The Southern Vermont Deerfield Valley Chamber of Commerce will once again produce a valley-wide community arts installation, “Cool Running in the Valley.” Area artists will be challenged to create a signature work of art using six-foot handcrafted wooden toboggans purchased from American Traders in Brattleboro. The artwork will be auctioned later this year, with proceeds benefitting Deerfield Valley Community Cares Heating Assistance, The Deerfield Valley Food Pantry, and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The toboggans will be displayed as a group in...
Twelve local students recently took part in the annual Windham Orchestra Concerto Competition. Sungho Moon of Amherst, Mass., a 14-year-old cellist, was named the winner, and will be heard as a soloist with the Windham Orchestra at three upcoming performances. Judging took place Feb. 10 at the Brattleboro Music Center, and as the orchestra's music director Hugh Keelan said, “Four experienced judges were given a day of musical delight, and were astonished at the level of playing.” Moon will perform...
Tech Group meets at River Garden BRATTLEBORO - The March Brattleboro Area Tech group meeting will be on Thursday, March 17, from 5:30 to 7 pm, at the River Garden, 157 Main St. This month's guest is Paul Sliva of Valley Venture Mentors, who will give a brief talk about free resources to help one build a scalable startup, with plenty of time for questions. Anyone working with or interested in technology in the Brattleboro area is welcome to attend.
Now that Vernon's annual Town Meeting has come and gone, I must come forward and speak up in support of our library and library staff. Libraries have been vital institutions around the world for thousands of years. Though we're now in the electronic information age, libraries are no less important to the communities and people they serve. I have been a volunteer for more than a year at the Vernon Free Library, and I know we are fortunate to have...
Flapper dresses and boater hats are being dug out of the depths of closets or fashioned from thrift store finds as preparations begin for the Roaring Twenties dance Saturday, March 19, to benefit Our Place Drop-in Center. The Bluebird Orchestra will play at the Walpole Town Hall beginning at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Bluebird members Donald Saaf, guitar and vocals; Matthew Sharff, standup bass and vocals; Rick Contino, pedal steel and banjo; Riley Goodemote, trombone; and...
The award-winning Asylum Quartet, which includes Brattleboro native and Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) alumnus Tony Speranza, continues the BMC's 2015-16 Chamber Music Series with a March 18 concert. The event - scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Centre Congregational Church on Main Street - will include works by Gyorgy Ligeti, Claude Debussy, and Antonin Dvorak. Tickets are $30 for patrons, and $20 general admission. Lauded for “nonstop virtuoso skills” and “evocative, educational, and refreshing” concerts, the Asylum Quartet's repertoire spans traditional,
Wilcox resigns from Planning Commission DUMMERSTON - Cindy Wilcox, who has long served the town as a member of the Planning Commission, and as the acting zoning administrator, has announced she will not seek reappointment after this year's town meeting. At the Feb. 3 Selectboard meeting, Chair Zeke Goodband informed his colleagues of Wilcox's decision, which she delivered in writing to the board. Board member Joe Cook suggested they accept her decision “with regret." Certificate of Highway Mileage Submitted DUMMERSTON...
The Vermont Division of Emergency Management & Homeland Security (DEMHS) will host its annual series of Springtime Flooding Forums across Vermont this week. A forum for southern Vermont towns will be held Thursday, March 17, at Brattleboro Retreat, 1 Anna Marsh Lane, from 10 a.m. to noon. These meetings are designed to help community leaders and emergency responders prepare for possible problems, and advise what resources are available to them for a response to and recovery from such events. The...
Town to digitize records VERNON - The Selectboard unanimously supported Assistant Town Clerk Aina Lindquist's recommendation to hire Good-Way Document Service to digitize some of the town's land records. Lindquist told the board at its Feb. 1 meeting that there are 19 books' worth of records that need to be scanned. She said other towns have used Good-Way Document Service, and the company comes with good references. For a fee of $6,995.05, Lindquist said Good-Way will scan the books, keep...
A workshop will explore collaborative opportunities between businesses in the farm, food, green building, and green technology sectors. The meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 29, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, 157 Main St. The event, presented by Strolling of the Heifers and SEON (the Sustainable Energy Outreach Network), will be facilitated by Nadav Malin, president of Building Green, Inc., a Brattleboro consultancy that publishes information about green-building technologies for industry professional...
As the late Yogi Berra said, “It ain't over till it's over.” In this local election season, “it” refers to Selectboard election between Dick DeGray and Avery Schwenk. After learning that some advice from the Secretary of State's office lead the Brattleboro Board of Civil Authority to diverge from state statute when during the March 10 recount, Schwenk has requested recount deux. Town Clerk Annette Cappy has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, March 16, at 2 p.m. in the Selectboard...
The “people's choice” that underpins U.S. democracy is being beautifully exposed as a myth by the presidential primaries. It is a figment, assiduously crafted and repeatedly burnished by the establishment to make people believe they are in control. It makes the people feel good about themselves. This is much like the proverbial American dream - another figment implanted into the minds of the toiling masses to make them feel good about themselves. As it is for the gambler, there is...
Hoping to inject a little hilarity into March, Latchis Arts presents Marx Madness, featuring the madcap mayhem of the Marx Brothers in movies by donation on Saturday, March 19 and March 26, at 4 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre. Marx Madness opens with A Night at the Opera, presented March 19 at 4 p.m. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx take on the world of opera in this hilarious 1935 comedy that the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest...
All Vermont Democratic superdelegates who don't cast their ballots for Bernie Sanders at the national convention should be doused with pure maple syrup, covered in organic chicken feathers, and run out of Vermont on a log truck. It is unconscionable that the super-crony, dinosaur delegates would betray the will of 86 percent of Vermonters and vote for someone else. Vermont has 16 delegates voted in by real people. With 115,865 votes for Bernie, it took 7,241 people to elect each...
A Brattleboro businessman's push to reform Vermont's alimony laws appears to be gaining traction in the Legislature. The state Senate Judiciary Committee on March 11 unanimously approved a bill that would create a “Spousal Support and Maintenance Task Force” to consider whether changes are needed in the state's alimony statute. That vote came two days after Rick Fleming, president of Vermont Alimony Reform, made an impassioned pitch for change to committee members. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington and Judiciary Committee chair,
Our family has lived in the Rockingham area, near Missing Link Road, since 1945. It is a place near and dear to our hearts. The atmosphere here is one of rural quiet and calm - forests filled with animals, waterways with hundreds of bird species who nest and migrate along the Connecticut River, in the delta/marsh area and in Herrick's Cove (listed as an Audubon Important Bird Area). We even have eagles here now. What a shock it was for...
Main Street Arts (MSA) announced it will be hosting an exhibition of the watercolors of Saxtons River's John S. “Jack” Peters, in a one-man show titled “Crossings.” The show will be on display through March 28 at MSA's gallery at 35 Main Street in Saxtons River. There will be a free public reception at the gallery on March 17, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and all are welcome. According to MSA's Margo Ghia, “Jack and Susie Peters have been essential...
The Brattleboro Area Jewish Community (BAJC) marks the holiday of Purim this year with Purimpalooza, a costume party open to everyone, starring jazz vocalist Wanda Houston and Brattleboro's own jazz master pianist Eugene Uman, along with several other local performers, on Saturday, March 19, from 7 to 10:30 p.m., at the Vermont Jazz Center at the Cotton Mill. “Purim is the most joyous of all Jewish holidays,“ BAJC Cantor Kate Judd said in a news release. ”We celebrate the story...
In-Sight Photography Project has unsealed its archives to reveal a treasure-trove of photographs that will be on exhibit for the month of March at the gallery at Hermit Thrush Brewery. These prints - literally 101 of them - have been donated over the years by dozens of professional photographers in support In-Sight's scholarship fund. Each print in the exhibit is up for raffle with the drawing taking place at a public reception at Hermit Thrush, 20 High St., on Thursday,
Even as Vermont Yankee administrators continue to struggle with a groundwater problem, swimming pools are no longer part of the solution. At a March 9 press conference updating the Vernon nuclear plant's decommissioning process, officials said they've stopped using commercially available swimming pools to store contaminated groundwater that has seeped into the turbine building. The pools were “a prudent and cost-effective near-term way of storing the water,” said Joe Lynch, Vermont Yankee's government affairs manager. But he added that such...
During the annual highway mileage certification, which each town completes at the request of the state Agency of Transportation (AOT) to determine state funding of local highways, Putney officials learned they lost some road. Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard told the Selectboard at the February 10 meeting that planners at the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) discovered the error when they reviewed Putney's maps. The mistake dated back almost 60 years, when Interstate 91's construction came through town, interrupting TH20, also known...
Singer/songwriter Mark Erelli will appear Sunday, March 20, at Readmore Inn for a special afternoon concert. He will offer selections from his upcoming new CD, For a Song, as well as a range of songs that draw from more than 15 years of original and memorable work. The new CD was financed in part through a “Kickstarter” fundraising campaign, and will be released on April 8. For a Song, his 10th album, came together gradually, from songs written “wherever I...
Town chooses contractor, inspector for covered bridge work GUILFORD - As the town moves toward renovating the covered bridge spanning the Green River this summer, one major achievement was met during the last month: figuring out who is going to do the work, and who is going to inspect it. At the Feb. 8 Selectboard meeting, the board opened three bids for the construction portion along with Matt Mann, a planner with the Windham Regional Commission (WRC), who has been...
In January, I read a letter to the then-current Rockingham Selectboard regarding what I saw as the aberrant behavior of the Rockingham Development Office. At that time, I suggested the board conduct a thorough performance audit of the office over the last eight years and make a thorough list of projects undertaken versus projects completed by this town department. At the Selectboard meeting of March 7, I reiterated that call. Beyond that, however, seeing the continuing stonewalling behind a dysfunctional...
In a town with no zoning, the potential developers of a 600-megawatt, gas-fired power plant wouldn't even need a building permit to start work here. But that doesn't mean town officials intend to step away from the proposed project. While Vernon voters gave clear support to a theoretical gas plant on March 1, the project still must pass through multiple layers of state and federal permitting before becoming reality. Vernon Planning Commission members say they expect to stay involved every...
Brattleboro needs a modern fire department, not an old-fashioned one. The fire department is better at planning than our town government. Modernization of the fire department is protecting the public with preventive education and fire codes. Some documents - not available on the town website -discovered in the town archives relate to the earliest government decisions about the Police/Fire Project, and they show determined disregard for the voters. In 1997, at the very first Police-Fire Project committee meeting, there had...
I was saddened to read of the passing of Brad Pfenning, one of the nicest, most even-tempered people I have ever known. I had the privilege of taking drivers' education from him during the summer of 1963. I was in the back seat, awaiting my turn at the wheel, when the young man who was driving got flustered and broke the gear shift completely off from the steering column. Mr. Pfenning kept his cool and dryly observed, “At least you...
I lived in Bellows Falls for almost a year during 1976 and 1977. It was an extraordinary place to experience. So much carefully preserved evidence of history was there on every block of the town. I have lived on the West Coast for the majority of my years, and am all too familiar with massive modern buildings that often have a soulless quality. Bellows Falls has avoided that fate, making it a gem for this entire country to treasure. I...
Sheriff Keith Clark wants to turn his attention away from his duties serving Windham County and toward a get-rich-quick scheme. Mr. Clark wants to build a jail in Rockingham whose main purpose will be to house federal prisoners, with each prisoner's stay paid for by the feds and a percent of each payment reportedly going directly into his pocket. He also plans to move his own office from its current location in the center of the county to its far...
I read with interest Peter Galbraith's Viewpoint advising the next governor on steps to increase economic justice in Vermont. I was disappointed that he did not mention one more factor that should be considered: that of criminal-justice reform. It's true that Vermont doesn't incarcerate as many people as other U.S. states - say, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Oklahoma - but our incarceration rate, per capita, surpasses those of Colombia, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates, to name a few (source: prisonpolicy.org/global). But...
I thought Vermont had more sense than this. We, the people of the 17 towns of southern New Hampshire, have fought the Kinder Morgan pipeline and do not want it in our state. What is wrong with the so-called “green state”?
It took the Selectboard two meetings and just over 59 minutes to decide whether to authorize Town Clerk Gloria Cristelli to use $1,200 from a records restoration and preservation fund to restore and preserve the town's public records. In the end, the motion barely passed. Since 2010, Cristelli and her assistant, Dedra Dunham, have been scanning and indexing the town's land records [“Preserving history,” Town & Village, Dec. 16, 2015]. As Cristelli noted in that article, the state requires towns...
Over breakfast and coffee, legislators provided an update into the goings on under the golden dome to local business leaders. The Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative breakfast at the Brattleboro Retreat on March 14. Both Windham County senators attended the morning event. Seven of the county's 11 representatives attended. Legislators discussed the hot topics of this legislative session, such as marijuana legalization and sick-leave, as well as the work going on in their committees. Sen. Becca Balint,
Mocha Joe's, the cozy, art-lined half-basement tucked into the slope of Main Street like a hobbit hole, is a key place for local coffee aficionados. The cafe's high-minded drink selection and homespun aesthetic makes it one of Brattleboro's most emblematic businesses - an establishment that both reflects and informs the culture of the town. Yet you can now find Mocha Joe's coffee in Tokyo and Seoul. In each city, a café has opened, brightly promoting its use of the company's...
Most drivers and pedestrians navigating downtown know that the place has its quirks. Last year, when damage to the downtown traffic system precipitated weeks of the traffic signals set to flash, some visitors celebrated. Others cursed. Many of them called the Selectboard with comments. As timing would have it, the Department of Public Works had commissioned Milone & MacBroom of Springfield, Mass., to conduct a traffic study of downtown, the first full-on assessment since 2009, when the state rehabbed Route...
Now that the ballots for the Police-Fire project are counted, it's time to vote on the fiscal year 2017 municipal budget. Town Meeting Members will reassemble Saturday, March 19, at 8:30 a.m., in the Brattleboro Area Middle School Multi-Purpose Room to vote on 30 articles. Meeting Members will vote on two budgets, the municipal and town school. The largest portion of the proposed $16.1 million municipal budget will go toward salaries and benefits for Brattleboro's more than 130 employees. “At...
The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department will present an early Spring Concert on Wednesday, March 23, at 7 p.m., in the BUHS auditorium. The program is free. Featured ensembles include the concert band, jazz band, jazz workshop, and Madrigals. The concert band will open with a planetary-themed program including David Maslanka's fanfare, Mother Earth, and two movements from Gustav Holst's suite, The Planets (Mars and Jupiter). Jazz Workshop will perform next, presenting three selections. They include Josef Zawinul's Mercy,
Appraisal complete for 246 Dover Road buyout NEWFANE - In what seems like a never-ending saga, the final buyout for the property at 246 Dover Road continues creeping along to its resolution. The house at that address was damaged during Tropical Storm Irene, and since then, the town, the state, the property owner, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have inched toward transferring ownership to the town so it can demolish the condemned structure. At the Feb. 22 Selectboard...
As operations chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New England District, Frank Fedele oversees a $47 million budget, 33 flood-management projects and 116 recreation areas. Lately, though, he and his staff have been hearing a lot about one particular Army Corps property – Townshend Dam. And the conversations have not been pleasant, with town officials joining state and federal legislators in raising economic and environmental concerns about the site. Fedele said the Army Corps, after hearing from Vermont's...
I use a wheelchair, so when I park my car in a handicapped parking space, I have to park in one with an access aisle next to the driver's side of my vehicle. This access aisle is the adjacent space that is usually marked with crosshatched lines. It is not a parking space. It is there so people have enough extra room to enter and exit their vehicles, especially if they have a ramp that they use to assist them.
On Saturday, March 19, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday March 20, at 3 p.m., Winged Productions present the premiere of Paul Dedell's latest musical mystery play, The Man Who Defied God. With musical direction by Susan Dedell, The Choir School, and guest violinist Moby Pearson, The Man Who Defied God tells the complicated and rich story of the prophet Jonah with humor, pathos, and insight. Both performances take place at St. Michael's Episcopal Church on Putney Road. The Man...
The Vermont Basketball Coaches' Association (VBCA) held their annual Senior All Star Basketball Games last Saturday at Windsor High School, and Twin Valley's Justin Hicks and Brattleboro's Dylan DeJordy made quite a splash. Hicks scored 17 points to lead the South squad to a 86-75 win in the Division III-IV boys' game over the North All-Stars. The South made 11 three-pointers in the winning effort. Twin Valley's DJ Lazelle was also on the South team. Twin Valley's Kirra Courchesne played...
Here's something to consider. How did an American film maker, who mostly makes films that take place in Southern Vermont, end up writing and directing an award-winning film in Stockholm, completely spoken in Swedish by Swedish actors, even though he himself did not speak the language? Robert Fritz, a filmmaker from Newfane, who directed and co-wrote AKT 2 with the film's lead actor Michel Riddez, explains. “AKT 2 came about because while I live in Vermont I have some actor...
Gary Sachs Japan's - and the world's - nuclear problem has been called a “house built with no toilets.” No one figured out a way dispose of one of the nastiest stuff that man has ever created - radioactive waste - before building Fukushima, or any nuclear power facility. Yet people cling to the illusion of nuclear energy as safe, even in the face of the evidence of the disasters at Fukushima and Chernobyl. Even the International Atomic Energy Agency...
Town Manager Peter Elwell hoped for a clear majority from the Special Representative Town Meeting vote on March 12 on the Police-Fire Facilities Project. Elwell got more than he hoped for. The results were clear: Town Meeting Members overwhelmingly approved relocating the Police Department to Black Mountain Road, 111 to 27. The vote also authorized using $4.5 million of the funds allocated in 2012 for renovating the new location on Black Mountain Road. In all, 138 Town Meeting members cast...