Shortly after hiring him as Town Manager in 2015, the Selectboard asked Peter B. Elwell to create a comprehensive review of the town's workings.
Last August, Elwell presented the Board with a Comprehensive Review of Town Operations, which he likened to a Town Plan, but for every aspect of town government.
At the May 2 regular Selectboard meeting - six months after the review's publication - Elwell gave the Board an update on its progress, including which of the 50 action items are in the works, already accomplished, will happen in the short-, medium-, and long-term, and which have been deleted.
“The CRTO will probably get more complicated” as time goes on, Elwell told the Selectboard, but for now, 15 items have changed status.
AIDS Project invites public to 30th Walk for Life BRATTLEBORO - The AIDS Project of Southern Vermont is inviting the public to help raise money and awareness May 20 at its 30th annual Walk for Life. The event, set for 10 a.m. to noon at the River Garden on...
The Friends of the Wardsboro Library is sponsoring its annual Memorial Day weekend plant sale, “From Our Gardens to Yours,” on Saturday, May 27, at 170 Main St., Wardsboro. Admission and parking are free and the sale is held rain or shine. The annual event is a fundraiser for...
The Windham Solid Waste Management District recently received a $30,297 grant from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources' Department of Environmental Conservation to assist the District with the expenses associated with its hazardous-waste collection programs. The grant provides assistance for “convenient hazardous-waste collections for residents and Conditionally Exempt Generators ... and to educate the public about proper disposal and alternative non-hazardous products.” The grant is awarded annually, in April, to municipalities by the DEC. District residents are encouraged to take...
The Brattleboro Area Jewish Community's own mini-version of “Antiques Roadshow” will appear live on Sunday, May 21, from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m., at 118 Elliot. BAJC is hosting an appraisal day with four experienced appraisers to evaluate and assess antiques, collectibles, and memorabilia, including books, documents, sterling silver, glass and art glass, china and pottery, fine art and signed prints, musical instruments, records and entertainment memorabilia, jewelry, paper documents and ephemera, small furniture, tchotchkes, and more. Firearms, knives, ammunition, or...
Kids in the fifth and sixth grades get a lot of attention from the adults around them if they can handle a ball or a saxophone. But what if they can handle a pen? That's what the Maple Leaf Writing Project is all about. Maple Leaf is a rigorous writing contest open to all fifth- and sixth-graders at Oak Grove, Green Street, and Academy schools. The program begins in October and ends with an awards ceremony in April. During that...
There's a new trophy on display at Brattleboro Union High School, one that comes with a lot of history attached to it. The Colonels' Unified Basketball team beat the defending champs, the Champlain Valley Redhawks, 46-45, at Castleton University on May 11 to win the state championship. Unified Basketball is a joint effort between the Vermont Principals' Association and Special Olympics Vermont. In only the second year of the program's existence, Brattleboro head coach Todd Bell and his players became...
Girls on the Run Vermont announces its Southern Vermont 5K run/walk, set for 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 20, at Brattleboro Union High School. This celebratory event, presented by Against The Grain Gourmet, is the culmination of Girls on the Run's 10-week after-school empowerment program for local girls in grades 3-8, and is open to members of the community to participate as runners, walkers, volunteers, or sideline supporters. Girls on the Run Vermont has affected more than 40,000 Vermont girls...
Green Writers Press celebrates the publication of a new anthology, Roads Taken: Contemporary Vermont Poetry, with a launch party and readings at 118 Elliot on Friday, May 19, from 7 to 8 p.m., according to a news release. With its mystical landscape and fiercely self-reliant citizenry, Vermont has inspired poets from its earliest days. This anthology of contemporary Vermont poets represents a wide range of accomplished voices - both young and old, both renowned and relatively unestablished. Their poems offer...
College news • Several local students received their degrees on May 13 at Johnson State College's 150th commencement. They included: Samantha D. Barth of Bellows Falls, Philip Richard Perkins III, Abigail F. Storm, and Jacobie Zaretsky of Brattleboro; Vicky Lea Butterfield, Chelby Virginia Nystrom, and Corey Joseph Nystrom of Brookline; Ashley Nicole Goddard of Jamaica; Jennifer A. Carr of Marlboro; Heather M. Muscat and Laura N. Pluff of Newfane; Rachel J. Stebbins Navy of Saxtons River; Leigh T. Nance of...
With the role of a free press under attack, who better than Humphrey Bogart to tell us about fake news, real news, and the importance of a free, open, honest, and fearless press? The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library, collaborating with The Commons, the Brooks Memorial Library, and the Latchis Theatre, are beginning a journalism film discussion series based on the importance of a free and impartial press and the role it plays in a democratic society. The first film...
Guilford Center Stage announces open auditions for its October premiere of To Their Appointed End: the One-Act Plays of Jean Stewart McLean. There will be two sessions of auditions: Saturday, May 20, from 10 a.m. to noon, and Wednesday, May 24, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Broad Brook Grange in Guilford. William Stearns directs the production. There are a number of roles for men and women from about age 20 and up. No reservation is needed, and auditioners may...
We have seen a lot of interest lately in the $26 million savings in the state budget that Governor Phil Scott has proposed. I realize it always seems like some kind of copout to say that the issue is complicated, but that characterization is usually true. This one is both complicated and simple at the same time. Governor Scott has stated that there is $26 million to be saved by putting the health benefits portion of teachers' contracts into a...
In the debate over Vermont Yankee decommissioning, there's been a common theme: The plant's spent fuel has got to go, and as soon as possible. Recently, however, a small but vocal group has been raising concerns about where that radioactive material will end up and whether it's fair for Vermont to make that waste someone else's problem. That movement may be best personified by Rose Gardner, a New Mexico resident who lives near two proposed high-level nuclear waste disposal areas.
The state's review of the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee is a public process, with thousands of pages of documents filed and posted online. Now, the company that wants to buy the shut-down Vernon nuclear plant wants the state Public Service Board to restrict access to two “highly confidential” documents that contain detailed financial plans for cleaning up the site. NorthStar Group Services notes that it already has turned over about 1,500 public documents related to Vermont Yankee. But the...
New England Center for Circus Arts invites the public to enjoy the extraordinary circus talents of its graduating ProTrack students before they move on to perform in the professional circus world. Upon graduation, they will join previous NECCA graduates who have gone on to work with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Bros, 7 Fingers, Cirque Eloize, and Circa, among others, as well as on European cabarets and circus cruises. The show, “Wayward Ladies' Finishing School - A Circus Show,” features trapeze,
Recycling Committee forms NEWFANE - With the coming removal of the recycling bins outside the Town Offices, the Selectboard has been trying to figure out if they want to replace them. But they're not doing it alone. The Windham Solid Waste Management District's Board of Supervisors voted earlier this year to close the Materials Recovery Facility at the end of the fiscal year. With no District-owned place for the recyclables to go and get sorted, across the county, the roll-off...
The town may soon be out of the weeds with its IRS troubles. Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard told the Selectboard at their April 26 regular meeting she is working on the last outstanding tax issue Putney has with the feds. For the past few years, town officials have wrung their hands over fees, penalties, and missing tax forms resulting from former Treasurer Anita Coomes's challenges with filing accurate and timely state and federal reports. Coomes told The Commons the new...
With the Windham Solid Waste Management District recycling bins set to disappear after June 30, Putney officials continue to work on whether to replace them, and with what. During the April 26 regular Selectboard meeting, Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard and Highway Superintendent Brian Harlow joined Board members for a site visit to the Town Garage - a possible location of town-owned recycling bins in the new fiscal year. They discussed logistics, such as whether or not the center should have...
Four representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will travel to the region next week to discuss the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee. The NRC officials are scheduled to appear at a Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 25 in the Brattleboro Area Middle School multipurpose room. The appearance is expected to draw a larger-than-usual crowd, since the commission is considering whether Vermont Yankee suitor NorthStar Group Services is qualified to undertake the...
Back in 1987, Ruth Marx, a human geneticist and avid gardener, had paid a man good money for his blue lobelias only to hear a friend later say, “Oh, why didn't you tell me? I'd have given you some of that.” About the same time, Bess Richardson, a nurse at Grace Cottage, was tossing her culled perennials over a bank. “Ruth and I talked at church one day,” she said, and they came up with the only logical result: Dummerston...
After 18 months of Act 46-related strife, Vernon may have gotten some relief from the Vermont Legislature. Within an omnibus education bill approved by the House and Senate is language that allows Vernon Town School District to vote itself out of the regional educational union, known as BUHS No. 6. Officials say the legislative language was carefully crafted to apply only to Vernon. And it could have a powerful effect in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union by breaking up a logjam...
Afghanistan is creeping back into the news. Last month, it was the target of the obscenely named “mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear bomb yet used by the U.S., which managed to kill 30 or 40 ISIS fighters. The press and pundits on both sides of the aisle were pretty impressed with the size of the bomb, and our new president got some shock-and-awe cred. More recently, a new U.S. Inspector General's office report paints a bleak picture of...
“Every year that I go to All-State, it's inspiring to see the number of students in our state that really have a deep commitment to music making and music learning,” said Steve Rice, head of the Music Department and Band Director at Brattleboro Union High School. This year's 90th annual Vermont All-State Music Festival was held May 10-13 in Brattleboro. The festival offers Vermont's high school music students a chance to perform in a band, orchestra, chorus, or jazz ensemble...
Good day to you! After a cool and damp first part of May, we are moving into an above-average temperature regime for a brief period of time, followed by seasonable temperatures and weather more in line with this time of year. For Wednesday, a warm front will be lifting through the region, and pass north of us until late Thursday night when a cold front will sweep through. Until then, we will soar into the mid 80s for high temperatures...
“Cover your mouth; you don't want to breathe that in.” This is the phrase I hear all too often at my summer job as a landscaper. Toward the middle of the season, our job becomes entirely about maintenance. When you get to a site, you go through the same routine: weed, cultivate, water, and dust. Dusting is our term for spreading insecticide. We shake a fine, white powder from a spice container onto the plants. It is always the last...
Rep. Peter Welch hosted the 36th annual Congressional Art Competition for high school students at The Gallery at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier on May 8. Maria Page of Halifax, a student at Twin Valley Middle High School, received one of three Honorable Mentions for her piece, “Strawberry Splash.” Another Twin Valley Middle High School student, Roxanne Birch of Jacksonville, received a Congressman Welch's Choice Award for her piece, “Caesar.” “I am so impressed by the talent and...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present acoustic swing and alt gypsy jazz quartet Caravan of Thieves, plus indie-folk-rock duo The Dupont Brothers, at Next Stage on Saturday, May 20, at 7:30 pm. For the past nine years, according to a news release, Caravan of Thieves has roamed the North American continent, “recruiting a family of avid thrill seekers at their high-energy shows.” Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass, and violin lay the foundation for “mesmerizing vocal...
Brattleboro Area Hospice recently announced the establishment of the “Remembering Marion Fund.” Made possible through the generosity of Warren “Pinky” Green of Brattle Street in Brattleboro, this fund is established in loving memory of his wife of 67 years, Marion Green, who died Dec. 13, 2016. Warren's wishes for the fund is that others will have the same love and care are end of life that Marion had. He hopes people will take steps to plan for the end of...
The Main Street Arts Hands On: Celebrating Our Piano series continues Sunday, May 21, at 3 p.m., with the combined magic of cellist Eugene Friesen and pianist Hugh Keelan. Four-time Grammy winner Friesen and Keelan will share their musical talents in a program of pieces by composers Debussy, Schumann, and Friesen himself, with a touch of Brazil added for good measure. The concert is one in a series of three to celebrate the donation to MSA of a Steinway piano...