The Brattleboro Parking Department would like to advise everyone that the winter parking ban went into effect Nov. 18.
Overnight parking is forbidden on all streets in the town of Brattleboro. Any vehicle parked for longer than one hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. may be ticketed and towed at the owner's expense.
Brattleboro has a flashing light system in place to assist citizens in knowing when plowing will be done.
A flashing amber light designates the need to remove snow from off-street lots. A flashing purple light designates the need to remove snow from the streets. Snow removal starts at 11 p.m. During snowstorms, vehicles must be parked under cover in the Transportation Center.
This is a question I often ask myself: “How can I make a difference in this world of ours which is so often characterized by oppositional divisive thinking, a world where people are quick to point out the faults and somehow can't see the beauty that is within each...
A Bristol, Vermont-based education technology company will use a $350,000 state loan to establish a presence in Windham County - and to expand its reach far beyond Vermont's borders. SchoolHack Solutions landed the funding via the Windham County Economic Development Program, a pot of cash established by a 2013...
Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition (BAPC) launched an educational campaign last month to inform young adults about the health and legal risks of using marijuana. Through the campaign, “duh – did you hear the blunt truth about smoking pot,” we hope to address the high percentage of marijuana use among young adults in the community. In fact, Vermont has the highest overall rate of marijuana use in the past year among 18-to-25-year-olds in the country at 41.9 percent. Among the same...
On the same day this past August when President Obama was in Baton Rouge offering condolences to victims of a disastrous 1,000-year, climate-powered storm, his Department of the Interior was a few miles away in New Orleans accepting bids at an auction for new oil-drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico. As part of that auction, British Petroleum - whose Deepwater Horizon drilling platform had exploded only four years earlier, killing 11 workers and causing more than 200 million gallons...
“Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Has not the definition of insanity attributed to Einstein sunk in? Voting (twice) to replace Newfane's town offices for $1 million, at a time of general financial uncertainty, is a reckless challenge to everyone's already-stretched budgets. The defenders of this absurdly overpriced project have become so protective of their pet project that they completely missed the point of the voters' rejection the first time: It costs too much money.
I am proud to be casting my vote for House candidate Rep. David Deen, and hope you will join me. Rep. Deen has a stellar legislative record, including a 100 percent environmental voting record in Vermont Conservation Voters' 2016 Environmental Scorecard. Rep. Deen, like the majority of Windham County voters, supports clean, renewable energy and tackling climate change, while balancing local concerns about how and where solar and wind facilities are built. He also understands that investing in clean water,
I have spent most of my working life trying to understand and address the health needs of children and their families. I've seen that legislation - laws such as paid sick leave for workers and extended access to reproductive health care - actually helps families and environmental concerns, such as clean air and water, matter for kids and families. These issues have been priorities for Mike Mrowicki and David Deen. I believe that some oversight of who can own a...
Farmers, community members, and local groups in the West River Valley are invited to a celebration of the West River Community Project's new Vermont state-licensed commercial kitchen to be held Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 2 to 4 p.m., in West Townshend. The commercially equipped kitchen was built with community support and a U.S. Department of Agriculture Community Facilities Grant, and can be used for household, nonprofit, and commercial food preparation, according to a news release. Finger foods featuring local ingredients...
Here are some questions Newfane residents might want to consider before voting for the second time on the new Town Office building bond issue that was rejected by the voters in August. Question: Did the Selectboard ever ask the residents of Newfane if they were at all interested in a new Town Office building? Answer: No. Question : Was the Town Office Building Committee appointed by the Selectboard representative of the residents of Newfane? Answer: No. In fact, the committee...
Like me, you might be feeling dismayed by the current presidential election cycle. Yet, while tabloid-style politics grabs the national media attention, back at home we are lucky to have local candidates for the Vermont Legislature that we can be proud of. Recently, Vermont Conservation Voters released their endorsement of local candidates: Representatives David Deen, Mike Mrowicki, Valerie Stewart, Mollie Burke, and Tristan Toleno; and Senators Jeanette White and Becca Balint. We are lucky to have such a stellar slate...
I encourage the voters of Windham-Bennington-1 to return John Moran to the Statehouse on Nov. 8. Over the past few weeks and months, I have had the chance to speak with Moran on several occasions. One of the things I am most impressed with is his dedication to improving the lot of working people in Vermont. In particular, he supports a livable wage for those who struggle at the lower end of the pay scale in our service economy: the...
We blogged, we donated, we wrote letters to the editor, we won debates, we posted funny Facebook videos. But we didn't stop Trump. Now we have a vulgar, lying, racist, sexist, narcissistic bully as our president. But we still have the power to bring him down. The time has come for an American Resistance. Forget Kumbaya. Forget waiting for karma. Prayer, debates, and Facebook postings won't stop Donald Trump. Here are some things that might. * * * • Massive,
First Congregational hosts Christmas BazaarWEST BRATTLEBORO - The annual Christmas Bazaar at First Congregational Church of West Brattleboro is Saturday, Nov. 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Booths will feature Christmas greens and ornaments from balsam wreaths to berry bowls, hand crafted gifts from baskets to hats and wool gloves to afghans. The general store will sell fudge, sweet and savory treats, and preserves, and there will be a display of doll clothes and embroidered sundries. The baked goods...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Darol Anger's fifth annual “Keepin' It In The Fam” holiday show at Next Stage on Friday, Dec. 2, at 7:30 p.m. In addition to fiddler Darol Anger, the concert features banjoist Tony Trischka, singer/songwriter Emy Phelps, cellist/fiddler Tristan Clarridge, bassist Ethan Jodziewicz, and guitarist Grant Gordy. To celebrate the holidays, Darol Anger and Emy Phelps have gathered some of the country's best string musicians for an evening of “mythical, magical, musical mayhem,”
For the third year in a row, the art and crafts of Brattleboro-West Arts will make their way eastward next month for a downtown exhibit and sale. Titled simply “14 Artists, 3 Days,” the show in the public event space at 118 Elliot St. will offer pieces ranging from paintings, photography, and botanical etchings to pottery, textiles, woven baskets, jewelry, and glass, according to a news release. The show will open with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on...
Bartleby's Books will show the paintings of Tim Wood in the upstairs gallery during the months of November and December. Wood is a self-taught water media artist from southern Vermont. His work focuses on capturing the New England landscape, highlighting the history and passage of time present in his subjects. This is particularly evident in his coastal New England pieces, where he prefers to paint the battered North Atlantic fishing fleet. “There are plenty of artists that are really great...
State police to increase presence for holiday WESTMINSTER - Vermont State Police from the Westminster barracks, in conjunction with local and county law enforcement agencies, will be conducting a sobriety and safety enforcement campaign during the Thanksgiving holiday week. In addition to checkpoints around Windham and Windsor counties, troopers will be aggressively patrolling and enforcing motor vehicle laws with specific regard to impaired, distracted, and aggressive driving, speeding, and seat belt usage in high crash areas. Cleanup of Hogback ski...
Births • Richard and Rebecca Griswold of Andover, Vt., are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Reese Isabella Jacquelyn Griswold, born on Nov.8, 2016. She weighed 7 pounds, 14.6 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Obituaries • Mary (Ethridge) Bonski, 78, of Ashuelot, N.H. Died Nov. 13 at Applewood Rehabilitation Center in Winchester, N.H. She was born in Hinsdale on Nov. 11, 1938, the daughter of the late Helen (Place) and Lewis Ethridge Sr. She was educated in...
The U.S. government recently expanded its Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) program in Vermont. As a result, Windham County has been designated as a HUBZone due to the 2011 closures of Courcelle Brothers U.S. Army Reserve Command in Rutland and Chester, Vt. Bennington, Addison, Orange, Rutland and Windsor counties have also been designated as HUBZones, due to the closures. The HUBZone program assists small businesses to gain preferential access to federal contracts due to limited economic development in rural communities.
Travelers along Westminster West Road may soon notice a change in the speed limit. After town officials received complaints about speeding on Westminster West Road - especially the stretch between Hickory Ridge Road and West Hill Road - Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard requested the Windham County Sheriff's Department conduct a traffic study. Deputy Josh Parro, who patrols Putney, brought his findings to the Selectboard and Stoddard at the Oct. 26 regular Board meeting. Parro conducted the study himself - twice...
The town's annual audit resulted in a few findings - none that surprised town officials, and none that should cause alarm, according to the town manager. During the review of the Fiscal Year 2016 audit performed by John Mudgett of the CPA firm Mudgett, Jennett & Krogh-Wisner, Mudgett shared a few of his concerns with the Selectboard and Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard. “The one that certainly gets my attention is the Internal Revenue Service and the state payroll tax reporting.
Eagles tribute band 7 Bridges Road will perform an acoustic show featuring the music of The Eagles at the Hooker-Dunham Theater on Saturday, Nov. 26, at 8 p.m. The band from western Massachusetts features some of New England's finest vocalists and musicians, and the show will also include songs from individual Eagles members' solo careers. With four vocalists playing guitars and bass, the band says in a news release that the songs of the Eagles will be “live and well...
Tyrelle Appleton has joined the Vermont Partnership for Fairness & Diversity as interim director of marketing for its Vermont African American Heritage Trail Initiative. “Appleton brings crucial expertise in the field of social media to promote the heritage trail to the multicultural marketplace,” Curtiss Reed Jr., executive director of Vermont Partnership, said in a news release. More specifically, Appleton will use the heritage trail as a platform to promote Vermont as a desirable destination for tourists, convention goers, college students,
Every November, people around the world celebrate Restorative Justice Week. Restorative justice is a community-based approach to harm and wrongdoing that focuses on who was harmed, how they were affected, and how reparations can be made, if possible. Grounded in values of respect, responsibility, and relationship, restorative justice is a collaborative process that involves all stakeholders and promotes engagement and creative problem-solving. Several organizations in Brattleboro offer programs based on restorative justice: Brattleboro Community Justice Center (BCJC), Just Schools Project,
More Guilford Central School students are starting the day with a good breakfast, and as of last month, some of them are eating it in the classroom, thanks to some new state and national initiatives. “Our school has made eating breakfast a priority for students,” said Guilford Central School Farm to School Coordinator Hanna Jenkins. “When breakfast is offered in the cafeteria, [fewer] than one-third of students eat the morning meal. We're hoping that by introducing breakfast into the classroom,
The 38th Putney Craft Tour, Nov. 25-27, is the oldest continuing craft studio tour in North America, according to a news release. Traditionally taking place over the long Thanksgiving weekend, the craft tour gives shoppers, visitors, and collectors another reason to be thankful. “Every year that goes by, it's a challenge to keep the tour current to draw arts lovers, shoppers, and the curious,” Ken Pick, one of the founders of the tour, says in the news release. “By partnering...
The Brattleboro Police and members of the Brattleboro Union High School girls' and boys' basketball teams got together last Friday for a friendly exhibition game at the BUHS gym. Despite neither team giving any quarter to the other, there were plenty of smiles on the court. The BUHS players got a chance to run circles around the cops, and the police had a chance to show a few flashes of athleticism. The BUHS kids had a 40-8 lead at the...
Donald Trump was elected. No surprise to me. I saw it coming 10 years ago when I went to Maquoketa, Iowa, to study with renowned artist Rose Frantzen. Maquoketa, just like so many towns in the East, had lost its longtime factory to China. You could have slept on the macadam of the main street all night without a car running over you. As I recall, Rose had bought the Town Hall for less than $20,000 and a large church...
Good morning, afternoon or night to you! The most recent upslope snow event which brought several inches of snow to portions of western Windham County illustrates a point I want to raise at the top of this week's column. That point being that beyond 48-72 hours, weather prediction accuracy drops off markedly. In other words, printing a forecast a week out is like starting a painting - you can brush in the broad shapes, but the details and finishing touches...
Brandon Lee's crusade to improve police-community relations is fueled in part by his experiences as a young black man in the Bay area of California. But it's also a product of his years at the SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro - a place that played a key role in his transformation from “agitator” to advocate, and in the eventual founding of a company promoting a new program of “community conscious policing.” “This was a place where, not only could I...
“We've been written up by the state,” Road Foreman Todd Lawley said at the Nov. 7 regular Selectboard meeting. After a routine inspection conducted by the Vermont Agency of Transportation, the agency found three bridges in need of repair. To avoid penalties, the town needs to submit a plan for fixing them. Two bridges on South Wardsboro Road need their band rails replaced, Lawley said, “because the band rail on one of them is not in good repair, and [on]
The Selectboard unanimously voted to amend the town's personnel policy at the Nov. 7 regular Board meeting. This came after the Board tabled the issue during its Oct. 3 and 17 regular meetings. The amended policy prohibits employees and elected officials, while on town property, from posting political signs, distributing political literature, or attempting to gather signatures on petitions for a town vote. After receiving complaints from residents about Town Clerk Gloria Cristelli's keeping a petition for the town-offices bond...
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit to block a merger involving one of the key players in the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee. Federal officials say Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions shouldn't be allowed to acquire Texas-based Waste Control Specialists because the deal would create a “near monopoly” in the business of low-level radioactive waste disposal. Waste Control Specialists, also called WCS, is slated to become a partner in Vermont Yankee decommissioning under a sale agreement announced...
The Vernon Seniors invite the public to a dedication of “Cookie's Bench” on Sunday, Nov. 27. Earlier this year, Nancy Durborow received Selectboard approval for placing a marble bench on town property in memory of Eleanor “Cookie” Allen. “That's a good, good thing, and we're pleased to do that,” Board Chair Christiane Howe said. Allen, who died Dec. 31, 2014, was a Vernon native with an extensive history of serving the town. She was the town historian, she sat on...
Friends of Music at Guilford invites singers and music lovers in the Tri-State region to come together at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, for the 46th annual Community Messiah Sing, a benefit for the homeless, at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main St. Conductor Anthony Speranza, a resident of Vernon, led the Sing from 1989 through 2001 and again in 2010. His interest in conducting began as a six-year member of the St. Kilian Boychoir, and he later earned a...
After nearly a year and a half of trying to find the right location - with a few false starts - Dave Evans finally has a home for his non-profit membership work space, Coworking Plus. It's in Suite 701 of the Hooker-Dunham Building. The business is currently in its “soft opening” phase, said Evans, but a grand opening party will take place on Friday, Dec. 2. During the last decade, co-working has become an option for the self-employed, the telecommuter,
The treasure hunt is on. When visitors navigate the maze of hallways and studios this year at the Cotton Mill 18th Annual Open Studio and Holiday Sale in Brattleboro, they'll discover a bounty of rare and one-of-a-kind gifts, edible treats, demonstrations, and performances. More than 50 artists, artisans, and performers will open their studios and booths to holiday shoppers Dec. 2-4 at 74 Cotton Mill Hill. From intricate jewelry and fanciful fiber arts to small-batch spirits and handcrafted chocolates, the...
High in the Peruvian Andes, in a small town outside Cusco, Peru, the lives of 47 women have changed for the better with economic opportunity since the launch of the Q'ewar Project in 2002. The expanding social work initiative both trains and employs the most at-risk women in the small hill town communities. The women make dolls. The project and the women it empowers are subjects of a new documentary directed by Teresa Savel, a local educator who has been...
Although Ricky Davidson officially took over as executive director of The Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro in October, he said, “not a whole lot has changed other than my title.” Davidson became the interim executive director in April, but will also serve as unit director - his former role - until he hires someone new. As an employee of a nonprofit social-service organization, Davidson got used to wearing many hats and switching them at a moment's notice as he...
Elliott Greenblott of Brattleboro recently was named the 2016 winner of the AARP Andrus Community Service Award. The award, AARP's most prestigious volunteer honor, is named for AARP founder Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, an educator and tireless advocate of community service and volunteerism, according to a news release. Its purpose is to recognize outstanding AARP volunteers and members who are making a difference in their communities “in ways that are consistent with the nonprofit's mission and that inspire others to...
Like so many dazed parents the morning after the election, I tried to explain to my daughters what had happened while they slept. How our country had elected a racist, misogynist bully for a president. How there would not be a woman in the White House, as we'd naïvely toasted over chicken and quinoa the night before. How my feminist-mommy slogans like “Girls can do anything!” now sounded like feeble promises in a broken world of hate and fear. My...
It's almost impossible to have spent eight years at the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce without keeping up to speed on the work of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility - an organization whose mission is “to foster a business ethic in Vermont that recognizes the opportunity and responsibility of the business community to set a high standard for protecting the natural, human, and economic environment of our citizens.” For eight years as a member and four as chair of the...
When it comes to buying and selling old books, Ken Gloss has two main principles - a book is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and the appraised value of a collectible book is totally subjective. As the co-proprietor of the Brattle Book Shop in Boston, one of the oldest antiquarian bookstores in the U.S., and an appraiser of old books and ephemera on PBS's “Antiques Roadshow,” Gloss is sought after for his expertise on old...
Since 2009, Olga Peters has written 1,180,098 words for this newspaper. Let me repeat that: 1,180,098 words. From the time in 2009 when she answered a Craigslist ad for freelance writers for The Commons (then still a monthly tabloid), until the recent Sunday when she packed up her desk, Peters never did anything other than her best. Ever. And in the 1,075 stories she filed since, she never stopped learning. Ever. Peters brings a visual sense and texture to her...
Officials say Windham County's foster care population has jumped more than 50 percent in the past year, leading to increased pressures on families, social agencies, and schools. At a recent Brattleboro meeting that included social workers, educators, legislators, and others, the problem was summed up in four words - “a system under stress.” There were suggestions for improvements and discussions of bright spots, including an innovative outreach program at one Brattleboro elementary school. But there was no getting around the...