Stop signs were the subject of the latest round of correspondence between town officials and the Vermont Agency of Transportation about the long-awaited Arch Bridge replacement. But, during the discussion at the Dec. 19 regular Selectboard meeting, the conversation got personal.
The crumbling Arch Bridge is due for replacement in the next few years, and early in 2015 the AOT and the Selectboard held public hearings to share information and gather input on aspects of the bridge's design.
During the meetings, many Williamsville residents expressed their concerns that a new, wider bridge would exacerbate speeding through the village.
Recently, the AOT presented the town with three signage choices for the bridge's northwest intersection, which lies at the edge of Williamsville village.
When water is being polluted, we don't have enough clean water for everyone to share. Some people think water should be owned, but I think the water should be shared equally among everyone all over the world. Owning water is unfair. Sharing water is healthier, and it won't harm...
Obituaries • Meggan Clifford Clark, 37, of Bristol, Conn,, formerly of Westminster West. Died Jan. 5. She was born in Bellows Falls on April 14, 1979, the daughter of Susan Clifford and David Clark. She attended Bellows Falls Union High School and Wellesley College. She later attended Naugatuck Valley...
The town of Brookline received a second Better Roads Grant through the Vermont Agency of Transportation for rural ledge removal on Athens Road. According to a news release from the town, this work was done in order to replace the culvert and improve ditch drainage, thereby diminishing erosion of the roadway from Spring waters. The project was completed in December 2016 by A.S. Clark & Sons of Dummerston. The Better Roads Program provides funding to support projects on town roads...
The next offering of the Windham Orchestra's resident opera ensemble is Verdi's masterpiece, Il Trovatore. Performances are set for Friday, Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro. The opera ensemble includes Jenna Rae, Julie Olsson, Cailin Marcel-Manson, Javier Luengo-Garrido, Elizabeth Wohl, and James Anderson. A new friend and star, Ethan Bremner, sings the great tenor role of the Troubadour. “Sibling rivalry, maternal guilt trips, skullduggery, frustrated and misplaced loves,
In winter, many households living with lower incomes are particularly hard-pressed to meet their food expenses, given the added burden of heating costs. Some cut down on the food they consume or buy cheaper, less-nutritious food as a means to cope with these added expenses. The good news is that many struggling households can get support for their food costs through 3SquaresVT, and Southeastern Vermont Community Action can help households apply for these benefits. 3SquaresVT is Vermont's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance...
Students and their parents at the three Brattleboro elementary schools have been enjoying the new universal free school meals program that started at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year. This program allows all students to eat breakfast and/or lunch free of charge, regardless of family income. School officials said in a news release that the move to provide no-cost meals every day has increased meal participation, as students are no longer categorized by income and families no longer need...
During his time in office, President Calvin Coolidge was known for his civility and his ability to work across the aisle. Now, the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is seeking entries for its 2017 Calvin Essay Contest. Students are asked to prepare an article, essay, or poem of 800 words or fewer that addresses these questions: Do you think Coolidge could win the presidency today? What lessons from President Coolidge might help heal our political divisions? What can you do in...
The Sustainable Energy Outreach Network will host a panel presentation for the public on “What to Know Before you Build: Expert Tips for Homeowners Planning Renovation or New Construction Projects” on Monday, Jan. 23, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, 22 Vernon St. Given the considerable success of the Sustainable Home Tour in October, the nonprofit Network felt it important to assist people with their own future residential projects. Topics will include choosing an architect...
Genealogy talk featured at Historical Society meeting DUMMERSTON - On Thursday, Jan. 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the Dummerston Historical Society, Jerry Carbone will give a presentation on his personal discoveries, delights, challenges, and passion fpr doing genealogical research in his retirement. The talk, “Finding My Roots,” will discuss how he got started in genealogy, his recent education in the area, and certain unexpected revelations about his own family background using DNA, and will offer some genealogical tips on resources...
I have been an only parent for almost 15 years. In that time, I have never had a partner. I do have a family who helps some, but at the end of the day, the responsibility is all mine. In our culture, we have many types of single parents: single parents with family, single parents without family, single parents with the every-other-weekend second parent, single parents with the half-time other parent, single parents with money, single parents without money. And...
One of Vermont's oldest and largest senior citizen social service agencies needs volunteers from several southern Vermont towns to join its Advisory Council. Senior Solutions is a nonprofit group serving 47 communities in Windsor and Windham counties, providing seniors with critical information and assistance like Meals on Wheels, health insurance and mental health counseling, transportation, exercise programs, home based social services, and caregiver support. The Advisory Council provides advocacy and suggestions on furthering the nonprofit's goals. Advisory Council volunteers meet...
Stone Church Arts welcomes The Page Turners - fiddler Carolyn Kendrick and mandolinist Jake Howard - to the Chapel at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St., on Saturday, Jan. 21, beginning at 7:30 p.m. They perform bluegrass and American roots music. The Page Turners are an award-winning group who have a strong foothold in the acoustic music scene. They became musical friends as students at Berklee College of Music, and started playing together through the Berklee American Roots Program. From...
Guilford Center Stage continues into its third year with spring and fall productions of plays with connections to Guilford, continuing its mission to present place-based theater on the stage at Broad Brook Grange. The season opens, not with a play, but with a square dance, which is a fundraiser for the theater project. The Falltown String Band, from nearby Bernardston, Massachusetts, with Bob Livingston, caller, from Middletown, Connecticut, will perform at the dance on Saturday, April 8. Two of the...
On Thursday, Jan. 19, at 5:30 p.m., the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery and its company-in-residence, Shoot The Moon, will be part of the nationwide kickoff of the Ghost Light Project (theghostlightproject.com). At that hour, in all time zones, theaters and theater companies throughout the U.S. will gather outside theaters on the eve of the Presidential Inauguration and join in a collective, simultaneous action, together creating “light” for challenging times ahead. Organizers say they were inspired by the tradition of leaving...
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England has seen a surge in both donations and in volunteers since the election of President Donald J. Trump. “The outpouring of support has been tremendous,” said Jill Krowinski, the organization's outgoing vice president of education and Vermont community affairs. Since the Nov. 8 election, Krowinski said Planned Parenthood of Northern New England has received more than 600 new donations - roughly half from donors who have never given to the organization before. The organization...
The Westminster Quartet will perform in concert Friday, Jan. 27, with proceeds from ticket sales benefiting the Brattleboro Music Center's Music School. “Johann Sebastian Bach: The Musical Offering,” is set for 7:30 p.m. at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, at 16 Bradley Ave. Tickets are $30 for patrons, $15 general admission, and $15 for students. BMC students under 18 will be admitted free. The Westminster Quartet is made up of three BMC faculty members - violinist Peggy Spencer, flutist Alex Ogle,
This year, Community College of Vermont will continue its partnership with the Vermont Department of Libraries to support six Job Hunt Helpers - CCV work-study students who are available to help library patrons search for and apply to jobs and career opportunities - at public libraries around the state. Beginning this month, students will once again be available at Brooks Memorial Library. The Job Hunt Helpers program launched in February 2016 with funding from the Vermont Department of Libraries as...
A public meeting will mark the start of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review of the proposed Vermont Yankee sale. But the Jan. 24 meeting isn't convening anywhere near the shut-down Vernon nuclear plant. Instead, it will happen 350 miles away at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said such sessions - dubbed a “pre-submittal” meeting - typically are held in Maryland to allow for easier participation by NRC staff who will be involved in the review.
Good morning, afternoon, or night to you as you read this column. Our winter storm that brought some accumulating snow Tuesday night into Wednesday morning has departed to the east. It just goes to show you that even though we can be in an above-average temperature regime and pattern, we're still in the middle of winter and winter storms are still possible. In general, though, we will be milder than average in the coming days. For Wednesday, we will still...
There will be yet another chapter in the long-running saga of Vernon and Act 46. A new vote has been scheduled for Feb. 21 in Dummerston to determine whether Vernon can leave a regional school union due to concerns about the state's education governance law. In December, Dummerston was the only town voting against Vernon's proposed exit from Brattleboro Union High School District No. 6. That threw a wrench into Act 46 merger negotiations throughout Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. Now,
In our world today, water is being polluted. There is not enough water for everyone. This is bad, because water should be for everyone like snow is for everyone. Some people think they can have all the water they want, but I think water should be for everyone and shared equally. I think it is wrong to have most people have dirty water. I also don't get why some people think they can have all the water they want; to...
Water should be for everyone. When some people poison water, it affects a community's health, and when some people own water, it means others won't have enough. Some people think that water should not be for everyone, but I think that's wrong. I think all of this evidence shows that water should be free for everyone - because water might get taken away from you and me.
On election night, a bunch of friends gathered at a party in Brattleboro, probably the bluest town in the bluest state in the country, seemingly to celebrate Hillary Clinton's win. One friend had bought a Donald Trump piñata months earlier and filled it with Dum Dum lollipops; the plan was to bash that thing to smithereens once Clinton won. As the night wore on, we left the party one by one to go home to go to sleep, hoping that...
In our world today, water is becoming polluted and there is not enough water to share for everyone. The water should belong to everyone. So much water is getting damaged and polluted and so many people could get hurt with the Dakota Access pipeline. The environment is getting hurt and broken and all the animals are dying - help! People are stealing good water and then they have to pay to get it back even though it was their water...
Why does water matter? In our world today, water is being polluted. There is not enough water for everyone to share in every place. That is why I believe the water should belong to everyone. I hope you agree with me, because if water is not shared, you could die.
We should all take only the water we need, and no one should destroy it. Most importantly, we should all take care of our water. Everyone should own the water. No one should own more than someone else, because everyone - people, plant, or animal - needs it. For example, the Palestinians built a water supply, and Israelis bulldozed it over and it got polluted. In Flint, Michigan, the manager of the water switched the water source just to save...
Did you know that 1.2 billion people in the world are water-insecure? You can help everybody in the world not to go thirsty. I bet you don't want to be water insecure. Do you? People with no water or no clean water want to have it. You are lucky if you have water, especially clean water. Water should be free to everyone. One reason that people are not getting enough water is because it is contaminated and affects people's health.
In our world today, there is not enough water for everyone because some people are polluting water and others are taking water for themselves to sell it in bottles. No one should own the water. It should be free for everybody.
With a hum of voices of children, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, members of the local literary community came together on Sunday to support one another and affirm their commitment to democracy. Regional literary talents united at the Brattleboro Literary Festival's Writers Resist event - part of an international movement - on Sunday, Jan. 15, the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., at a time of political transition. Editor and writer Bob Parks began with an introduction, describing Writers Resist as...
One reason water should belong to everyone is the impact of pollution on the environment. Farmers are complaining that their veggies and their animals are dying because of polluted water. Just next door in Bennington, the Chemfab plant leaked chemicals into people's wells. In North Dakota, people are protesting the Dakota Access pipeline because they say it will hurt the environment. One thing I think people can do is urge the government to stop the pipeline. I hope the water...
In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “For years I labored with the idea of reforming existing institutions of society [through] a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you've got to have to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values.” By the 1960s, his political analysis was evolving; his conceptions of racial justice would now embrace political democracy and economic democracy. Questioning capitalism and its partner, imperialism, would...
Students in Maresa Nielson's fourth-grade class at Vernon Elementary School recently worked on an assignment that's close to our hearts here at The Commons: writing letters to the editor. The fourth graders wrote individual letters on the topic of water, its ownership, and its use, buttressing their arguments with facts gleaned from a variety of news sources, ranging from Vermont Public Radio to Al Jazeera on topics from Flint, Michigan's corroded water pipes to the Dakota Access Pipeline to industrial...
A defense contractor has closed its Brattleboro plant, eliminating 15 jobs and leaving a 24,000-square-foot building vacant in the Exit One Industrial Park. L3 KEO announced Jan. 9 that its facility at 343 John Seitz Drive had shut, effective immediately. The Northampton, Massachusetts, based company characterized it as “a difficult but necessary decision in our ongoing effort to streamline business operations and achieve operational efficiencies.” L3 administrators said they're offering “a severance package, extended medical coverage, and outplacement assistance” to...
The Bellows Falls Opera House is abuzz with the sound of saws and hammers as work begins on construction of the set of the musical Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which opens Thursday, March 16, for a two-weekend run. The Main Street Arts production will feature a revolving three-story stage set designed by David Stern, who is also directing the production. “We at Main Street Arts are thrilled to be working with the Opera House and myriad...
The solar panels on the Guilford Volunteer Fire Department's fire station are generating so much electricity, the department has more Green Mountain Power credits than they can use, GLC Powersmith Solar's Dan Ingold said. Ingold serves as one of the department's trustees. He appeared at the Dec. 12 regular Selectboard meeting to report on the solar project's success and to offer the excess credits to the town. The solar panels on the fire station's roof, installed about 18 months ago,
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present indie/folk/chamber-pop quintet Winterpills, plus contemporary folk singer/songwriter Antje Duvekot, at Next Stage on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 pm. One of the most exciting bands to emerge from Northampton, Massachusetts, in recent years,Winterpills plays “haunting, delicate, dynamic music with shimmering melodies and aching lyrics,” according to a news release. Philip Price (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Flora Reed (vocals, keyboards), Dennis Crommett (vocals, guitar), Max Germer (bass) and Dave Hower (drums, shaken things) maintain...
On Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration, hundreds of thousands of women - and men - will converge on Washington, D.C., for the Women's March on Washington. People all over the country and the world will be marching that day also, and Windham County people will be part of it all. According to organizers, the march is intended to remind the new leaders of the U.S. that the country and its Constitution support the rights of all Americans, not...
At first glance, the newly consolidated Vermont State Police troop areas look daunting. The new incarnation of Troop B stretches from Brattleboro and Bennington to Randolph and Vergennes. And the reconfigured Troop A includes all of northern Vermont, from barracks in Williston and St. Albans to stations in St. Johnsbury and Derby. That means fewer captains are overseeing bigger portions of the state. But state police administrators say the change is a way to free up management manpower for new...
Since the beginning of the year, hopeful visitors to the Putney General Store have been met with disappointment: locked doors, darkened windows, and a sign announcing the store is closed until further notice. Store owner and pharmacist Jim Heal, who ran the store with his wife Jane, died of lung cancer on Dec. 30, leaving the shop without a proprietor. Now, members of the Putney Historical Society, the nonprofit group that bought the property in November 2008, are trying to...
Chris Pratt knows how hard it can be for students with learning disabilities. “I'm someone who grew up with a learning disability - a learning difference,” said Pratt, Windham Southwest Supervisory Union superintendent. “So it's important to me not just personally but professionally that we try to find opportunities for these kids who have not seen a lot of successes in their lives - to get that spark in the college environment.” Students in Windham Southwest and two other supervisory...
When you're a team that's struggling to find an identity, sometimes all it takes to get focused is the right opponent. For both of the Bellows Falls basketball teams, that was Long Trail. The Terriers played a girls-boys doubleheader last Friday night at Holland Gymnasium, with the BF girls rolling to a 43-6 win, while the BF boys eked out a 58-57 victory. • Strong defense by the Terrier girls shut down Long Trail for the entire first half, yet...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center is presenting an immersive installation specifically site-designed for its Mary Sommer Room by Thetford-based artist Carolyn Enz Hack, on display now until March 5. Provocatively entitled Change Your Mind, this installation is composed from layers of mesh, screens, and reflective surfaces undulating above and around the viewer. “Encountering Carolyn Enz Hack sculpture is a full-body experience,” the installation's curator, Mara Williams, writes at the BMAC website. As viewers enter the confines of the small...