I was very sorry to read this article, which painted the actions of several loyal public servants, particularly Louise Luring, in such a bad light.
The expression “If you want something done, ask a busy person” could have been written for Louise. She has volunteered for and/or led numerous local organizations and served on countless boards and committees since she moved here with her family almost 40 years ago.
She knows Vermont's laws and rules inside out, and as chair of the Saxtons River Board of Trustees for the last 20 years, she has followed them implicitly.
Her knowledge of Robert's Rules of Order is so legendary that when anyone questions a procedural step in a meeting, the response is often “Where's Louise?"...
According to Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day), farm-to-school programs bring healthy food to children nationwide. Most Farm to School (FTS) programs aim to serve healthy meals in cafeterias, improve student nutrition, and provide food-, farm-, and nutrition-education opportunities. Farm-to-school programs help show children where their food comes from...
Halifax hosts annual Fireman's Auction WEST HALIFAX - Saturday, July 2, is the date for the annual Halifax Fireman's Auction at 10 a.m. at the fire station on Branch Road. Many items large and small will be auctioned. Coffee and doughnuts, hot dogs, and beverages will be on sale.
I am sure that you will remember me, Ms. Postal Clerk. I was the Black woman who came into the post office at 4:55 p.m. on a recent Friday. I understand that 4:55 is terribly close to your 5 p.m. quitting time. I understand that it was a Friday. But whatever it was that led you to interact with me using sharing and blaming behaviors, you need to evolve your interaction skills. So I will share - in as public...
College news • The following area students graduated from the University of Vermont on May 21: Corey Atkins of Saxtons River, B.A. in global atudies; Jessamyn Bart of Bellows Falls, cum laude with a B.S. in business administration; Tori Bissell of Bellows Falls, B.S. in Environmental Studies; Michaela Burrell of Guilford, B.S. in communication science and disorders; Mary Carta of Grafton, B.A. in history; Elizabeth Doiron of Vernon, cum laude with a B.S. in animal sciences; Theresa Glabach of Dummerston,
“About 12 girls got to come to camp this year who couldn't otherwise,” said Green Mountain Camp for Girls (GMC) Director Billie Slade. What made this possible was a $3,202 donation from the Eileen Fisher Company Store in Manchester, which the camp received in the spring. This is the first time GMC has received a donation from the company, Slade said, and it happened through an employee at the store whose daughter attended the camp. “She loved the mission -
The New England Youth Theatre announced its Melodrama Festival One “filled with action-packed fun that will have you cheering and jeering heroes, villains, and fools,” according to a news release. Both the Junior and Senior melodrama performances are included in one show this season. Jay Gelter and Henry Weisel direct the Junior cast as they bring the British Hillside Players to the stage in the rollicking melodrama, “A Story Familiar,” written by Natalie Rich and Dylan Frederick. “Actors will fall...
Fuel bids acceptedVERNON - At the June 6 regular Selectboard meeting, the Board accepted a variety of fuel bids to cover the town's needs. Roads Commissioner David Walker presented the Board with the bids and recommended splitting them among two different vendors to get the best deals for the town. The Board voted to accept Barrows and Fisher's bid for #2 heating oil at $1.55 per gallon and unleaded gasoline at $1.935 per gallon; and A.R. Sandri's bid for winter...
Unlicensed dogs, bewareGUILFORD - Town Administrator Katie Buckley presented a list of unlicensed dogs to the Selectboard at their June 13 regular meeting. Buckley said Town Clerk Penny Marine compiles the list every year after May 31 and transfers it, via the Board, to the town dog officer. “It's in the dog officer's authority to destroy any dogs that aren't licensed,” Buckley said, adding, “it has never been done, that I know of, in Guilford's history.” “It's just a formality,”
Vermont Health Connect recently awarded a $45,000 grant to Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) to continue to act as a Health Navigator for Windham and Windsor counties, according to a news release. SEVCA has been involved in the Navigator program, since its start-up, as a member of a statewide team of Community Action Agencies helping people sign up for health insurance through the Health Exchange or submit Medicaid/Dr. Dynasaur applications. The collaboration focused on low-income families and individuals, and helped...
Two organizations in the village of Guilford Center have received grants from funds within the Vermont Community Foundation for a new Theater and Library Camp in August, according to a news release. Guilford Center Stage - a theater project sponsored by Broad Brook Grange - and the Guilford Free Library will use the funding for a collaborative program, Stage and Stream, a weeklong camp for fifth- to eighth-graders in mid-August. The program is fully enrolled. Mornings will take place at...
New street in town PUTNEY - The Selectboard unanimously approved a request from Landmark College officials to add a street to the town map. The college recently purchased property at 76 River Road South, including a building the school plans to keep. Plans are in the works to immediately add another structure to the site. These developments create a conflict with the Vermont E-911 regulations, which require each structure to have its own address. To bring the college into compliance,
Sheriff contract renewed DUMMERSTON - The Selectboard approved the Windham County Sheriff Department's contract for Fiscal Year 2017 at the June 8 regular Board meeting. The contract amount, for $11,760, covers 20 patrol hours per month, up from last year's contract of 18 1/2 hours per month.
To allow for its rehabilitation project this summer, the Green River Bridge is closed to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic through Aug. 26, when town officials say the bridge will reopen to all traffic. There are two suggested detour routes, and both have signs posted to direct drivers. The Jacksonville Stage Road-to-Brattleboro route is an approximately 12-mile detour. The directions below are from information supplied by Guilford's town website, guilfordvt.net. • Follow (Jacksonville) Stage Road into Halifax. • Turn right...
A few weeks ago, a turbine developer requested that Windham town officials create an “independent and balanced committee” to discuss the controversial Stiles Brook Wind proposal. But a war of words has ensued. The town fired first, with two of three Selectboard members on June 20 approving a letter urging developer Iberdrola Renewables to “suspend your involvement with this project immediately” based on environmental and health concerns. Iberdrola responded two days later with a sharply worded statement accusing Windham officials...
The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) began its monitoring program for the summer on June 22, according to a news release. Volunteers will collect samples from 30 sites on eight rivers and streams every other week through the end of August to test for E. coli., a bacterium found in the guts of all warmblooded animals, including humans. Most E. coli won't make people sick, but the bacterium can become pathogenic and cause illness. Also, the presence of E. coli...
Several times a week, a tanker truck leaves Vermont Yankee carrying 5,000 gallons of tritium-tainted groundwater. But there may be a more convenient - and likely, more controversial - disposal option in the works: Entergy administrators and state officials have begun discussing the idea of discharging the contaminated liquid into the nearby Connecticut River. Those discussions came to light during a June 23 meeting of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Committee (VNDCAP). Officials on both sides of the talks...
The state has lost a long-running battle over emergency planning at Vermont Yankee. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 23 denied Vermont's appeals of federal rulings that had allowed the shut-down plant's emergency operations to shrink dramatically as of mid-April. Regardless of federal action, state officials may have found their own way to continue enhanced emergency operations in the towns around the Vernon plant, having announced last month their intention to bill Entergy for such activities. But the NRC's rulings...
Cathedral Square Corporation was founded in 1977 as a development and property management service providing affordable senior housing in Chittenden County. More recently, the South Burlington nonprofit has consulted in the southeastern part of the state on potential senior housing projects in Brattleboro and Townshend. Its Support and Services at Home (SASH) program, which served almost 3,500 Vermonters as of 2014, was Cathedral Square's “brainchild,” according to Development Director Cindy Reid. The statewide program, administered by Cathedral Square, began in...
Hyperbolic, hysterical NIMBYism. So much for compassionate spirituality in our town. This is ego-hippiedom at its most-glaringly obvious. Where were these hand-wringers through the whole development review process? It was never a secret; there were lots of meetings. I swear, the “love and light” crew in this town shows its hypocrisy more every year. Posers.
We recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of NEYT Alumni productions with Shakespeare's Coriolanus on the New England Youth Theatre stage. Very different from our first production, The Importance of Being Earnest, in 2007, Coriolanus resonates with today's political scene in the U.S. In the play, a grassroots uprising faces the challenges of democratic establishment and tradition, an authoritarian dictator up for election devalues civic engagement because of the ignorance of the people, and representatives of the people cling to their...
Every year, millions of unclaimed assets end up with the Vermont Office of the State Treasurer. Treasurer Beth Pearce makes a concerted effort to get those assets back to the rightful owners, citizens of Vermont. In 2015, $5.11 million was returned to 13,107 people. The assets could be forgotten bank accounts, uncashed paychecks, security deposits - almost anything. In addition to cash, other equities are also returned. These assets do not belong to the state, but the state is responsible...
We at the Guilford Historical Society express our gratitude for all the pies, baked goods, plants, and donations that made our May 21 annual Plant and Bake Sale such a huge success. It takes many helpers to mark the plants and baked goods, to lug the plants in and out from the donors' and customers' vehicles, to run the cash box, to attend planning meetings, to make dozens of phone calls, and to put up the tents and later take...
Here goes Brattleboro with all the wonderful people who support children, women, vulnerable people and healthy living but not in their neighborhood. This stinks of the hysterical reactions to the proposed Crowell Lot skatepark: Lots of people with personal agendas blowing lots of smoke about how awful the proposed change will be. That is to say, it's a great project but just put it somewhere else. Someday, the facts will be indisputable: that you cannot continue to shunt the undesirable...
Residents of Rutland have all the right in the world to be worried about the influx of the 100 refugees being placed in their community. If they oppose them, they are called racists or bigots. No, they are concerned citizens worried about what will happen to their community as the result of the arrival of a group of individuals who have no skills, who have language differences, who have a different religion that forbids the assimilation into other cultures, and...
I didn't know Jeremiah Crompton well, but I do know that he was a tortured soul. I could see it in all of my interactions with him. I have experienced what crazy things addiction can do to someone. It hijacks the brain and can kill the soul. Fortunately, some of us survive, rebuild, and move on. It's hard to have compassion when you are watching someone sabotage their life. But, as Amée LaTour writes, simply being kind is the right...
What's missing from this article is an appreciation of the contribution that the Village Trustees make to our community. Though they very occasionally forget to dot an i or cross a t, their work is 99 percent excellent, and we are lucky to have hard-working volunteers willing to take on this difficult job. It's also important to note that even large municipalities with paid staff have trouble fulfilling every aspect of the Open Meeting Law.
Well said. As one who was close with Jeremiah, it's hard to keep in mind that his ending his life was his choice and not the result of something that I neglected to do or say. Giving someone validation that they still matter can go a long way. This needs to be a much larger conversation regarding mental health and addiction.
It has been my experience that the Saxtons River Village Trustees do pretty much what they want and to heck with the residents. If you offer to help out, it is clearly stated that they don't want the help, nor do they want any input. Thank you to The Commons for seeking and writing the truth - finally.
I'm looking forward to a day when dentistry offers a system of care rather than sporadic charity care for the many Vermonters who fall through the cracks.
I have volunteered at the overflow shelter for five years and have never once had to call the police. The “100 police incidents” might be true, but based on my firsthand experience, I find it hard to believe. Please cite your source for this statistic.
For the record, I do live in the immediate neighborhood of the Groundworks shelter site. What I said: I don't have a particular stake one way or another, but I was asked to come to the Brattleboro Development Review Board meeting by a number of folks who live in the neighborhood. I do have a lot of concerns myself and hope there is a plan to address them.
We, the Vernon Free Library trustees and staff, thank everyone who donated a wide variety of perennials and annuals for our first plant sale. We also thank those who attended the sale and supported the library with their generous donations toward the plants, baked goods, silent auction, and raffle. Many thanks to Nancy Renaud for contributing the wonderful miniature gardens for the silent auction. Congratulations to Sue Clarke of Brattleboro, who won raffle for the Master Gardener consultation!
I didn't appear at this debate only because Windham County Democrats Chair Brandon Batham decided the good folks of Brattleboro should hear only from his “golden children.” By the way, I was the first of the Democratic candidates to speak out against industrial wind siting in the state!
I need to make a correction, but not to in any way, criticize the reporter. We had a nice chat, and it is not easy to talk on a phone and take notes at the same time. No, I have to make a correction in order to prevent being labeled as “clueless” here in Townshend, though many will have a good time at my expense anyway. The gazebo, as most of the world now knows, was taken down by an...
Meeting addresses sustainable agriculture business development BRATTLEBORO - People with business ideas that fall into the category of agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, or permaculture are invited to a Green Economy development meeting in Brattleboro on Wednesday, July 6, from 2 to 4:45 p.m., at The River Garden, 157 Main St. Entrepreneurs will have a chance to throw out their ideas, gather collaborators, hear about resources available for start-up businesses in these interrelated fields and find fellow enthusiasts for specific plant, mushroom...
Thompson House has launched a capital campaign to restore a patio that has served as a constant source of outdoor enjoyment for the residents of the nursing and rehabilitation facility but now is a safety risk for them. According to administrator Dane Rank, the estimated cost of repairs to the patio to meet required accessibility standards is $38,850, and Thompson House will begin a “grassroots fundraising effort” to raise the funds. Picnic tables beneath the maple trees, abundant flowers, and...
Post Orlando, let's get real. The latest massacre in the United States, and its worst to date, was not about ISIS. It was not about Muslims or Islam. It was not about mental illness. It was about guns and how easy they are to obtain in this country. It was about our incredible inability to effect legislation that would do something about what is now recognized as a national embarrassment as well as a continuing national tragedy, one that is...
The Elliot Street Bridge closed for repairs June 27. The bridge will remained closed for approximately two months. Selectboard Chair David Gartenstein said at the June 21 Selectboard meeting that the town has placed signage at all the connecting streets surrounding the bridge. Travelers will need to detour around the area because the bridge is completely closed. Gartenstein said drivers should expect “travel challenges” through downtown while the bridge undergoes repairs. He thanked everyone who might experience delays in advance...
The Selectboard unanimously approved three union contracts and a series of compensation benefits for nonunion employees on June 21. Selectboard Chair David Gartenstein described the successful months-long negotiations as an example of “a very solid effort that's been made by all our personnel.” Gartenstein said the town started the contract negotiation process with the goal to “harmonize” the union agreements, benefits, and compensation so there was a level of consistency across all jobs. The other goal was ensuring a level...
In a 2015 report on southern Vermont's economic troubles, the authors pointed to a “lack of coordination across the region” and suggested an “integrated approach” to issues such as workforce development and marketing. Now, officials in Windham and Bennington counties say they've begun working to solve those problems. And the effort has gotten some financial help in the form of $50,000 inserted into the state's fiscal year 2017 budget and a $230,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Officials...
Good day to you, fine people of Windham County and southern Vermont! My name is Dave Hayes, and I'll be your weather-nut host for a time. We've got a couple chances for rain over the next week, and given how dry it has been, this is a most welcome development. According to the United States Drought Monitor, the entire state of Vermont is in a light drought at the moment. This means we'll need more than a couple of cold...
People sat at long tables along the Whetstone Pathway last Friday, their plates piled with hamburgers, hot dogs, or veggie burgers. With the noontime sun hot on their shoulders, they chatted easily with each other and with the police officers passing out food. “Who doesn't have a good time at a barbecue?” said a happy Chief Michael Fitzgerald. The Brattleboro Police Department (BPD) hosted the free community meal June 24. Approximately 11 officers helped cook and pass out almost 400...
At the People's Summit recently held in Chicago, I saw several thousand people come together to celebrate the “political revolution” launched by Bernie Sanders and to confront the question of what next in the face of Hillary Clinton's presumptive nomination. Many came hoping Bernie will join with Jill Stein and the Green Party to continue his campaign. Most organizers understood that proposition unlikely. Bernie has made his bed in the Democratic Party, and that is where he is going to...
The Southern Vermont Dance Festival (SVDF) returns for its fourth season with an exciting round of classes, performances, community events, and more, according to a news release. The festival will run July 14-17 with dance classes, lectures, and performances in Brattleboro. Like last year, festival attendees will be invited to attend dance performances each evening as well as a choice of classes each day. There will be many opportunities for the professional dancer, dance student, and dance enthusiast to learn...
The town of Brattleboro and the artist team of Elizabeth Billings, Evie Lovett, and Andrea Wasserman invite the Brattleboro community to bring a picnic and enjoy ice cream floats by the river during Gallery Walk on Friday, July 1, to celebrate the opening of “From the River, To the River,” a public art project funded by the National Endowment for the Arts “Our Town” grant awarded to the town of Brattleboro. Town officials and the artists will welcome the community...
The American Legion Baseball season has begun in Vermont, and the teams representing Brattleboro Post 5 and Bellows Falls Post 37 are both off to strong starts. • Brattleboro opened the season with a 9-2 record, 9-0 in league play. Their two losses came last Saturday, when they were swept by Greenfield, Mass., at Tenney Field. Post 5 lost the first game, 12-0 in six innings due to the 10-run rule, and lost the second, 6-3. Since it was a...
A restive crowd of 70 people recently filled the Whitingham Municipal Center in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. For most of them, it was just a normal Thursday when, for a voluntary contribution of around $3, they drove to Jacksonville to share a nutritious, home-cooked meal with family, friends, and friends who have become like family. But on this particular afternoon, their numbers had swelled. After 19 years of preparing and serving a sit...
Betty and Bradley Cohn For fifty years Elizabeth Riera Cohn (1917-2014) was the secretary and treasurer of the NewBrook Horse Show. The horse-loving Philadelphia blue-blood transplanted to New York City was recruited as secretary by George Ware while she was on a weekend stay at his West River Camp. In 1965 she and her horse-loving husband, patent attorney J. Bradley Cohn (1920- 2004) bought West River Lodge and its stable of riding horses. Betty Cohn, a corporate librarian, would blithely...
Southern Vermont's oldest continuous horse show will mark its 75th edition on Saturday, July 2, starting at 8:30 a.m., at West River Stables at Meadowbrook Farm, 102 Hill Rd., rain or shine. As always, the NewBrook Horse Show's proceeds benefit the volunteer NewBrook Fire Department serving Newfane and Brookline, two towns that share a ZIP code and a long history. Show officials trace the first show back to 1941 when George Church Ware (1880-1977) ran West River Camp, a riding...
A cool summer comedy comes to Saxtons River when Main Street Arts presents The Foreigner, beginning a two-week run Friday, July 1. Called “one of the funniest shows in American theater,” Larry Shue's award-winning comedy has grown into an audience favorite and a comic staple of regional theater companies across North America since its premier in the 1980s. The plot is a classic situation-comedy material, featuring several goofballs who could have been the center of a Monty Python sketch. Poor...
Strolling of the Heifers and Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation are inviting ambitious entrepreneurs to apply to participate in the 2016 FreshTracks Road Pitch. The Road Pitch, a group of motorcycling business investors and advisors, will stop in Brattleboro on the afternoon of Aug. 2 to hear up to six funding pitches from local businesses ready to scale up, according to a news release. This is the third annual Road Pitch. It will take place from Monday, Aug. 1, through Friday,
When one thinks of The Putney School, images of cows and agriculture in a place where respect for the land is as natural as breathing might spring to mind. Sports-minded people might think of The Putney School as being the cradle of Nordic skiing in America, thanks to John Caldwell and his progeny. Others might think of the arts and other creative pursuits, as evidenced by the long list of writers, musicians, actors, and filmmakers who are alumni. You might...
What if England's dirtiest politician hired William Shakespeare as his spin doctor? As the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, 2016 is being heralded around the world with a variety of festivals and staged productions. According to a news release, The Actors Theatre Playhouse will celebrate the Bard with staged readings of Bill Cain's contemporary “what-if” drama “Equivocation” on two Saturdays, July 9 and 16, at 7:30 p.m. The year 1609 proved to be a momentous one. It was near the...
As Marlboro Music gears up to begin its 66th season, the world-famous institution where master artists play with exceptional young professional musicians marked the final month of the 50th anniversary of the Marlboro Music Touring Program. Marlboro Music establishes four groups that tour each year. Three of the tours play in select cities on the East Coast, including New York, Boston and Philadelphia. The fourth tour, usually made up of performers from the three regional tours, plays further afield in...
Vermonters have a tradition of caring for neighbors in need, particularly among their rural hills and valleys. But with nearly 21 percent of the U.S. population predicted to reach age 85 by 2040, that casual tradition will likely be tested to its limit. Windham County will need any number of senior health-care services to serve the rapid expansion of an aging population, yet the county's rural character discourages development of housing for seniors, and the sparse population makes it difficult...
In 2015 Gypsy, a beagle hound, was found on the street in Puerto Rico in a box with her eight pups. After being rescued and nourished by the local humane society, she was sent to the Windham County Humane Society in Brattleboro. I had the good fortune to adopt her last July. It took her quite a while to adjust to her new life and environment. At first, she spent all of her time in a small closet in my...
For some people traveling along Route 142 just a few miles south of downtown, the Cersosimo Lumber Company provides interesting scenery - look at those huge piles of logs! - strange noises, and a reminder that even in our modern plastic world, forests still play a big part in our local, rural economy. On June 23, the Windham Regional Woodlands Association sponsored the employee-led guided tour of the company's headquarters, where about 50 attendees got an up-close view of a...