On Thursday, April 27, from 2 to 4 p.m., in Bellows Falls, and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., in Brattleboro, Brattleboro Area Hospice and the Vermont Alzheimer's Association will host two presentations on “Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: Effective Communication Strategies for Caregivers.”
The daytime presentation will take place at the Immanuel Retreat Center and Stone Church Arts (Currier House) at 12 Church St. in Bellows Falls. The evening presentation will take place at The Gathering Place at 30 Terrace St. in Brattleboro. The presentations are free and the public is encouraged to attend.
Communication is more than just talking and listening - it's about sending and receiving messages through attitude, tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language.
As people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias progress in their disease and the ability to use words is lost, families and caregivers need new ways to connect.
At this year's Town Meeting, did resident Ken Estey make a motion from the floor asking voters to decide if Newfane should be “open and accepting” to immigrants and refugees? Or did the motion declare the town to be “welcoming and protecting” of the same population? This was a...
The Brattleboro Selectboard recently announced that applications for the volunteer Town Energy Coordinator position will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Monday, April 24. The position is defined in the Town Charter as follows: “Town Energy Coordinator: One 1-year term. The energy coordinator, created by the Vermont Legislature, reviews...
Wardsboro Curtain Call begins its 2017 season on April 22 with Sofia Talvik. A news release describes Talvik as “unmistakably Nordic in flavor,” saying she “somehow still conforms to American interpretations of her own original music, a North Sea siren blending sparkle and melancholy, creating a special niche of folk music that has been described as neo-folk.” Talvik is a veteran performer with six full-length albums as well as numerous EPs, singles, and tours behind her. Her touring has covered...
Brooks Memorial Library has mounted a new display just outside the Children's Room. Presenting the work of Bellows Falls author and artist C.W. Norris-Brown, the two 6-foot-by-3-foot cases explore, through images and text, the process of writing and illustrating his children's book, Did Tiger Take the Rain?, published by Green Writers Press of Brattleboro. Norris-Brown's academic background is in anthropology. Postdoctoral work took him from India to Borneo, Appalachia, and Canada, focusing on people of the forests and their place...
At the April 4 School Board meeting, the Wardsboro School Board voted unanimously to support the district merger with Dover. At this meeting, representatives from the Agency of Education answered questions from the public regarding Act 46 and explained the options for the Wardsboro School under the law. The representatives made it clear that without changing the current PK-6 structure of the Wardsboro School and possibly giving up secondary school choice, there are no other available structures to pursue. The...
College news • Halie Lange, an environmental studies major from Brattleboro, was named to the Dean's List at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, for the fall 2016 semester. School news • The following local students, members of the Class of 2017 at Northfield Mount Hermon School, have been named to the Cum Laude Society: Eve Pomazi of Brattleboro, Diego Torres of Brattleboro, and Pete Paasche of Guilford. This independent-school national honor society is the secondary-school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.
Leaf collection schedule announced BRATTLEBORO - Brattleboro's curbside Spring Leaf Collection will take place on Friday, April 21, and Friday, May 5. All leaves and clippings must be in brown paper leaf bags and at the curb by 7 a.m. on scheduled leaf collection days. Acceptable waste includes leaves, grass, clippings, garden waste, twigs, and branches no larger than 1 inch in diameter and 2 feet long. No other household trash is to be included. No plastic bags or other...
Brattleboro ukulele enthusiasts have been having a blast at Lunchtime Ukulele Jams the first and third Mondays of the month, 11 a.m. to noon, at the Latchis 4 Gallery on Main Street. Jams are planned for May 1 and 15. The Lunchtime Ukulele Jams are an outgrowth of the classes, salons, and flash mobs led by instructor and singer-songwriter Lisa McCormick, in response to a groundswell of enthusiasm by local players interested in continuing to play together. In a news...
There will be a spring contra dance at Hilltop Montessori School, 99 Stafford Farm Hill, on Friday, April 28, from 7 to 9 p.m. Come for food and drink, raffles, dancing, and fun. Keith Murphy, Becky Tracy, and special guest Andy Davis will teach and call family-friendly dances - no experience required. Photographer Christopher Irion also will offer his photo booth portraits “at a very reasonable price,” according to a news release. All profits will go to the middle school's...
Film and theater historian Jonathan A. Boschen will present “The Latchis Legacy,” a documentary and talk on Brattleboro's Latchis Theatre and the Latchis theaters of Keene, Claremont, Milford, and Newport, N.H., on Saturday, April 22, at 4 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St. Relying on archival materials and research he has collected for many years, Boschen will host a live documentary that for the first time looks at all of the Latchis theaters together and how Brattleboro's Latchis...
Brattleboro Utilities Division crews will start spring flushing of the town water mains on Thursday, April 20, at 10 p.m. and continue through Saturday, May 6. Some daytime flushing will continue throughout the weeks of May 8 and 15. Water-main flushing will occur during both night and day. Customers are asked to check the flushing schedule closely, as flushing causes water discoloration, low water pressure, and, in some areas, periods of no water. Night flushing will take place from 10...
Is it time to have a different kind of Act 46 Meeting? Act 46 was intended to encourage school districts to merge in order to help reduce taxes and provide additional educational opportunities in the face of declining enrollments. Many of you have attended numerous meetings and many ideas have been considered to find an acceptable solution to comply with this new mandate. The early decision by the WSESU Act 46 Study Committee to pursue the accelerated merger offered apparent...
Magician Jonas Cain will present a “magical history tour” at the Hooker-Dunham Theater on Sunday, April 23, at 1 p.m., with his new interactive show “4,000 Years of Magic!” This production will feature famous magic stunts from throughout history. “I was inspired to write this show after hearing of the recent untimely passing of a prominent magician,” Cain said in a news release. “I regularly perform material that I learned from Daryl [Easton], and have never lived in a world...
Life, Animated, the inspirational, award-winning film about Owen Suskind, a young man with autism whose affinity for Disney characters opens the door to communication with others, screens Friday, April 21, at New England Youth Theatre. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with autism experts about the so-called “autism cliff” - graduation from the federally-mandated care of the public school system. Vermont students with disabilities may stay in the public school system until the day before their 22nd...
Edie Chamberlin asked the Selectboard to support a resolution calling for President Donald J. Trump's impeachment. During the March 27 regular Board meeting, Chamberlin said, “I was feeling very helpless, looking at the news and thinking, 'Holy mackerel! Where are we headed here?'" “It's a question of doing something” about the president's policies, the Putney resident said. Although Chamberlin acknowledged Congress has to make that decision, the movement “is supposed to be grassroots, so we should start here." Selectboard Chair...
The town's sewer system is in good shape, said Naomi Johnson, project engineer and senior vice president of the Dufresne Group. The town hired Dufresne, the Springfield, Vt.-based firm that specializes in municipal water and wastewater systems, to take an inventory of its system to help complete the sewer asset management project. At the March 29 regular Selectboard meeting, Johnson presented the Board with her draft report of Putney's wastewater system. Board Clerk Josh Laughlin asked Johnson if there were...
Close to 300 10th-graders will attend a Sophomore Career Summit all day on Wednesday, April 26, at the Latchis Theatre to explore career interests and gain information directly from the business community in small group with panel discussions composed of local professionals. According to core organizers from Youth Services, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation and Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center all area high schools are expected to be represented with participants, including Compass School and Kindle Farm. Each student will...
In March 2014, a radiologist spotted a “highly suspicious,” possibly cancerous mass on the kidney of a Brattleboro Memorial Hospital patient. But state inspectors say it took two-and-a-half years for that patient to learn of the problem. By then, the cancer had spread to the patient's lungs, and surgeons had to remove the kidney. New documents show that the state has cited BMH both for the notification error and for initially failing to thoroughly investigate the incident. They are the...
Windham County sheriff's deputies are now armed with cameras. Sheriff Keith Clark said he has recently begun issuing body cameras to his deputies after a months-long bidding, review, and purchasing process. Only half of the office's 30 cameras have arrived. But Clark said he is eager to put them to use as a tool to boost “public trust” and to improve police work. “It fulfills a lot of needs in this day and age,” Clark said. The Newfane-based sheriff's department,
After an absence of several years, pianist, singer, and songwriter Alki Steriopoulos returns to Stone Church Arts in Bellows Falls for an evening of music, heart, and laughter on Saturday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m., at the stone church on the hill at 20 Church St. According to a news release, Steriopoulos has prepared a program of classical music re-imagined with jazz stylings and reharmonizations. There will be back-to-back Bach from when Bach got back from Brazil. Chopin, Debussy, and...
After several months of review, state regulators have approved the sale of 13 hydroelectric stations on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers. The Vermont Public Service Board on April 6 OK'd the purchase of TransCanada's hydro dams by Great River Hydro, a subsidiary of Boston-based ArcLight Capital Partners. In finding that the transaction will promote the public good, the board adopted the findings of a hearing officer who said Great River is “financially sound,” “experienced in the industry” and “capable of...
There have been many marches, vigils, and other events in the Brattleboro area in opposition to various aspects of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. But Woody Bernhard and Susan Kunhardt say they want the Candlelight Vigil for Democracy that they are helping to organize for April 23 in Brattleboro to be more than just an anti-Trump event. The Marlboro couple want this vigil to be viewed as a pro-democracy event. “My wife and I started this project on our...
Now in its 51st season, Friends of Music at Guilford presents its eighth Women in Music Celebration, a house-concert gala, at 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 23. The fundraiser includes food, music, and a silent auction offering a few gift certificates and a large number of 2-for-1 tickets to arts events around the region. The menu includes hors d'oeuvres, salads, and sides, with fruit and Vermont cheeses, and a variety of wines and other beverages. Desserts to be served after...
Members of the Class of 2017 at Leland & Gray Union High School are fundraising for their Project Graduation, to be held at Snow Lake Lodge at Mount Snow. Here are some of their upcoming fundraising events: • Dining for a Cause at the 99 Restaurant on Putney Road in Brattleboro on Tuesday, April 25, from 5 p.m. to close. You must have a ticket voucher to hand to the waitress, and 15% of the meal will be donated to...
Building Bright Futures, a Williston-based nonprofit that advocates for improved Early Childhood education, held a community discussion April 12 at the Brattleboro Retreat, addressing issues such as “getting pre-school right,” the vulnerability of the learning curve of the developmental years spanning birth to grade three, how crucial early involvement is, and how such involvement can reinforce that curve. “Children are born ready to learn,” Chad Simmons, the organization's Southeast Vermont Regional Coordinator, said at the event. Simmons played a video...
On Saturday April 22, Earth Day, from 6 to 8 p.m., work celebrating the creative in community will be shared in the Project Space 9 Gallery, the Exner Block art gallery on Canal Street. The Resistance is an exhibit of two- and three-dimensional art, poetry, and song exploring the spectrum of art-making in social commentary and political action. From sublime contemplation to profane propaganda, the visceral reaction of artists to political change is historically intrinsic to the progressive march of...
Woodcarver Michelle Holzapfel is one of the artists featured in the upcoming episode of Craft in America on April 21, at 10 p.m., on PBS. “She's the first and, thus far, only Vermont artist to be included in the series,” says her husband, David Holzapfel, with whom she shares a studio and gallery located in Marlboro. After its premiere airing, this, as well as all the other episodes of the Peabody Award-winning series, can be viewed online at PBS.org or...
This is a note about the demonstration last Saturday to demand that the U.S. president disclose his tax returns. I happened by at that time getting a couple things at the Brattleboro Food Co-op. A friend from western Mass. was in the group, and it was nice to catch up with her after. But when I went into the Co-op, I encountered another friend, a worker there, who was a bit upset. She had been trying to get to work...
Good day to you, southern Vermonter! We've got more in the way of traditional early spring weather on the way as generally cooler temperatures and more moisture works into New England thanks to an easterly flow. Temperatures will be noticeably cooler over the next week, and we've got a few rain chances to contend with, so let's jump into the details. For Wednesday, we'll start off partly sunny early, but clouds will be on the increase as a system racing...
Despite years of planning and research, it appears that a high-speed fiber optic network isn't coming to Vernon anytime soon. A committee that had been laying the groundwork for a municipally owned fiber line disbanded earlier this month, citing a lack of interest and support among homeowners and businesses. Some say the committee's work won't be wasted because it could inform future broadband projects. But for those who saw fiber optics as a way to help the town recover from...
Vermont Natural Resources Board officials are giving Mount Snow an extra year to finish a snow-making upgrade fueled by $30 million in EB-5 foreign investment. The West Lake Water Project's completion-deadline extension to October 2018 is further fallout from Mount Snow's long wait for federal approval of its EB-5 money. Resort administrators still hope to have the project - which will give Mount Snow six times its current snow-making capacity - done before next winter. But that schedule apparently is...
Not all children are lucky enough to have a drag queen read to them, but some recently had the opportunity at the Rockingham Free Public Library. As part of the Storytime for Social Justice program at the library, Sam Maskell, the Youth Services Librarian, invited Miss Ginger Soulless, a performer with the Ladies of the Rainbow drag troupe, to be a guest reader. “Storytime for Social Justice is a fairly new program for the [library's] youth department, which takes place...
About two years ago, Jim Zoller and Janis Hall were discussing the fact that the great majority of volunteers who help elders are themselves senior citizens. Zoller, whose work experience includes youth group homes, and Hall, who was working with the nonprofit Senior Solutions, decided it was time to start connecting more teens with elders through community service and volunteering. They have launched a project called 3 Generations Collaboration, which received small grants in 2016 from the Vermont Community Foundation,
An unseasonably warm day greeted Bellows Falls and Brattleboro on April 10 as they faced each other in the season opener for both baseball teams at Tenney Field. Both teams only had a day of practice outside before this game, so all that BF coach Bob Lockerby and Brattleboro coach Chris Groeger could do is put nine players on the field and see what would happen. There was a lot less guesswork for Groeger. His starting pitcher was Leif Bigelow.
U.S. Congressman Peter Welch will address Marlboro College's 70th commencement on May 14. An outspoken advocate of affordable higher education, and a champion of working Vermonters throughout much of his career, Congressman Welch will share his wealth of experience with both graduates and undergraduates in Marlboro's Class of 2017, according to a news release. “We at Marlboro are thrilled to welcome Congressman Welch to our learning community and to learn from his lifetime of service as a state and national...
Chances are if you've picked up a copy of The New Yorker sometime in the past five decades, you have seen an Ed Koren cartoon. And you have most likely noticed, with a smile of recognition, that this wielder of the cartoonist's pen is a wry observer of human nature. By the good graces of some benevolent deity, Ed Koren is one of us. Whether “flatlander” or farmer, we Vermonters ––transplants or been-here-for-generations folks –– get to see ourselves through...
Two dogs resided at Total Loss Farm. Barf-Barf was a black-and-white collie who had come with the place. Mamoushka was the Siberian husky who had jumped onto the front seat of my old Volvo sedan when I was visiting friends in the city. She smelled the farm and Barf-Barf on me and insisted on moving to Vermont. Her human owners followed soon after. Dogs on the farm had few responsibilities: They alerted us to visitors' arrivals and helped us round...
Just 22 miles straight up - the distance from Brattleboro, Vt. to Greenfield, Mass. - we see our sun not in a beautiful blue sky but as a churning star in the vast black of space. Earth, our cozy home, is insulated from the harshness of space by a thin blanket of atmosphere - the equivalent thickness of an apple skin around a large apple. Plants, and microorganisms in the oceans, daily replenish the oxygen supply of our nourishing and...