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Your support powers every story we tell. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
There are many things today that, more than ever, take our children and other family members from us and from their own precious lives.
As a mother who has watched her own children struggle with a myriad of addictions during the past 18 years, I have become committed to playing a role in helping other family members navigate through the devastation caused it causes and, in doing so, I have helped myself and my family.
Accepting that addiction is a disease is a concept that many do not find truthful. However, in my experience, addiction, whatever it may be - alcohol, heroin, oxycontin, gambling, shopping, or the like - is a disease that a person simply does not voluntarily invite into their lives.
My son did not wake up one morning and say, “Today I will become an addict.” Rather, it happened at his hand but not by his desire.
So you walk into this imposing Gothic church that must've been quite a star in the firmament of local houses of worship in its day. The vaulted ceiling alone is a spirit-lifter - especially since that's often what folks need if they're visiting a pharmacy. How many times at...
The Current, which operates the Brattleboro bus system, will hold its first round of public meetings on Thursday, Aug. 24, as part of its route improvement plan. Two meetings, each held at the Brattleboro Municipal Center's Selectnoard Meeting Room, are scheduled for 1 and 5:30 p.m. Anyone needing a...
On Aug. 5, Vermont's top high school graduates did something on the football field that hadn't been done by the Green Mountain Boys in four decades - win back-to-back Shrine games. New Hampshire had Vermont's number in the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl for 15 straight years. But the Vermonters got a 50-2 win over the Granite Staters in last year's game to end that losing streak. Now, Vermont is working on a winning streak. Their 19-0 win in the 64th...
The state's review of the proposed Vermont Yankee sale will take months longer than originally expected. A revised schedule issued by the Vermont Public Utility Commission shows that a second public hearing on the plant sale has been pushed to January, four months later than initially planned. And it appears that the commission's review process could extend well beyond that, with technical hearings scheduled for late January in Montpelier and additional filings due at an undetermined, later date. Because there...
Town approves Rescue Inc. contract DUMMERSTON - The Selectboard unanimously voted to approve the Fiscal Year 2018 contract with Rescue, Inc. for comprehensive emergency medical services. The town will pay Rescue monthly, for a total of $42,182. Selectboard Chair Zeke Goodband noted the fee hasn't gone up since last year. Tax bills due Aug. 21DUMMERSTON - The first payment for town property taxes is due at the Town Treasurer's office no later than Monday, Aug. 21, at 5 p.m. The...
Selectboard awards contract for River Road Bridge repairsNEWFANE - At a special meeting on July 20, the Selectboard voted to award a contract to Daniels Construction for repairs to Bridge 38 on River Road. Last November, Agency of Transportation officials found deteriorated I-beams during a routine inspection. Since then, the Agency reduced the bridge's load limit to 8,000 pounds - forcing emergency vehicles and some delivery drivers to use a 4-mile detour when accessing homes on the south side of...
Townwide Tag Sale is comingVERNON - The annual Townwide Tag Sale is set for Saturday, Sept. 9, and Sunday, Sept. 10, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The registration fee is $5, which gives sellers two weeks of advertising in local media, a yard sign to attract buyers, and inclusion on a map that lists all the sales sites in town that weekend. Forms are available on the unofficial Vernon Town Website at vernonvermont.org. Registration deadline is Aug. 25. Mums...
It's been quite a while since The Sweetback Sisters have played a non-Christmas show in Brattleboro. But on Monday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m., at the Stone Church at 210 Main St., they're coming back to town with a new show and a raft of new songs from their latest album. Emily Miller and Zara Bode hail from Brooklyn, N.Y. - not exactly a hotbed of country music. But in the 10 years they've been performing as The Sweetback Sisters,
The Vermont Jazz Center is in the midst of the 42nd iteration of its summer jazz workshop. The weeklong program takes place on the campus of The Putney School and offers an opportunity for intermediate- to professional-level students from down the street and around the world to polish their improvisational and musicianship skills. The workshop began in 1974 when famed Hungarian guitarist Attila Zoller formed the Attila Zoller Guitar Clinics. These informal programs were fundamental in the development of young...
Grant proposal writing workshop at Brooks Library BRATTLEBORO - The Brooks Memorial Library will host a free public workshop for grant seekers on Friday, Aug. 11, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Library Meeting Room. Cynthia Nuara, Funding Information Network Specialist at The Foundation Center, will present “Intro to Proposal Writing,” a class designed for newcomers to the grant proposal process and experienced grant writers who want a quick refresher. She will provide an overview of how to write...
Main Street Arts is holding auditions for two upcoming musical shows, Into the Woods and Jesus Christ Superstar. Auditions for Into the Woods will be held Saturday, Aug. 26, from 3 to 5 p.m. Rehearsals begin in early September, with performances the second and third weekends in November on the MSA stage in Saxtons River. Jesus Christ Superstar auditions are Friday, Sept. 8, from 6 to 9 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 9, from 1 to 3 p.m. Performances in March...
Enjoy an evening of dance with the BSD Dance Company as it presents 'Summer Dances' outdoors under the Vermont sky. The performance will take place at 7 p.m., on Friday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, Aug. 13, at the Rotary Ampitheater Stage located in Living Memorial Park. It will feature original works of modern and contemporary dance that inspire romance, expressiveness, and divine grace. Choreography will be by company members and Brattleboro School of Dance faculty, including Jamie Gehring, Sonya Marx,
For aspiring writers and seasoned pros looking for a jolt of new inspiration, the Brattleboro Literary Fest is offering two workshops Aug. 19 with award winning professional writers Tim Weed and Suzanne Kingsbury. Weed will teach “Writing Immersive Fiction” from 9 a.m. to noon, where students will learn how to hook a reader's interest and keep it until the last page. Kingsbury offers “Finding Your Genius on the Page” from 1 to 4 p.m., where she'll show participants how to...
In a food-infused entrepreneurial contest that included salsa, sriracha, syrup, and elderberries, it's probably no surprise that a guy who calls himself “Sugar Bob” ended up the winner. During an Aug. 2 stop in Brattleboro, a team of motorcycle-riding evaluators participating in a weeklong “Road Pitch” trip around Vermont decided that Rob Hausslein of Londonderry made the best case for expanding his business. That honor came with a $500 check, a leather-clad teddy bear, and a chance to move on...
Every time there's a particularly heavy downpour, drivers coming down Flat Street may find Stanley Lynde knee-deep in water, directing traffic. Lynde's motorcycle repair shop, Lynde Motorsports, is on the little stretch of Flat Street that lies between the two branches of the north side of Elm Street. “There's a water problem that's been there since 19-... who knows?” Lynde told Board members at the June 20 Selectboard meeting. Lynde told them he has pictures of flooding at 79 Flat...
The detours and disruption in Algiers Village have ended. The Route 5 bridge is now open. Project information officer Jill Barrett said Aug. 4 that the newly constructed bridge was reopened to traffic that evening, four days ahead of schedule. Route 5 in Algiers Village had been closed since July 21 while the Vermont Agency of Transportation replaced the deteriorated 1925 bridge with a structure that has wider travel lanes and will better accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. Bridge shoulders were...
What a loss to the people of Brattleboro that Dr. Cheri Brodhurst has decided to discontinue the obstetric portion of her practice. I feel this loss, a sense of wonder, a huge admiration, and an infinite gratitude for this woman. Cheri came to us from St. Croix, where she was one of two girls to be the first to join her high-school band. That accomplishment led her to play at the New York World's Fair, where the bigger world opened...
No nation keeps such a high percentage of its people in prison as the USA. Europe's rate is a third of ours. In Vermont, 10 percent of prisoners are African American. Just 1 percent of Vermonters are black. In Brattleboro on Sept. 27, there will be a freedom march. The goal is to get politicians to reduce the prison population. The march starts at 5 p.m. at Pliny Park. Speaking at a 15-minute rally before the march will be Anna...
Federal regulators say the owner of three Connecticut River hydroelectric dams needs to take another look at erosion issues. Great River Hydro is seeking renewed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses to operate the Wilder, Bellows Falls, and Vernon hydro dams. As part of that process, the Massachusetts-based company had submitted two years of erosion-monitoring data. But in a recent decision, federal officials said the company's analysis was “incomplete and inconsistent with what was required in the approved study plan.”
Marlboro Music, Vermont's cherished chamber music retreat, closes its 67th season with three fascinating programs on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11 and 12, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 13, at 2:30 p.m., on the campus of Marlboro College, with most of the resident artists joining conductor Leon Fleisher in performances of Stravinsky's delightful “Pulcinella Suite” on Friday and Mozart's “Linz Symphony” on Sunday. Friday's program also includes Resident Composer Brett Dean's “Winter Songs” for tenor and woodwind quintet; George...
Within a few weeks, construction will be complete at the new police station at 62 Black Mountain Road, Town Manager Peter B. Elwell announced at the Aug. 1 regular Selectboard meeting. Work at the Central Fire Station continues apace, and if all goes as planned, the entire project will end with a surplus. “The next time we're together [...] the police department will have begun its phased move-in,” Elwell told the Board. The department will move in “unit-by-unit in the...
The Selectboard unanimously approved two new purchases for the Department of Public Works at the Aug. 1 regular Board meeting. Both are included in the Fiscal Year 2017-18 highway capital budgets. DPW Water and Highway Superintendent Hannah Tyler told Board members the town's current street sweeper “has died.” The circa-2005 vehicle has “been in the shop many times and it's an optimal time to replace it,” she said. Town Manager Peter B. Elwell noted town staff looked into contracted street...
The Selectboard approved the third phase of the Gibson-Aiken Center's planned window replacement project. At the Aug. 1 regular Selectboard meeting, Town Manager Peter B. Elwell presented the Board with the three bids his office received for the work. Elwell explained this project is in its third - and final - major phase, with smaller components of the window replacement work possibly coming in the next fiscal year. The town budgeted $30,000 per year “to do this in affordable pieces,”
Afterward, I wondered whether my father understood there was danger at the Afghan border. My father thrived on adventure. He had joined the Merchant Marine at age 16 and later driven his blue Alfa Romeo across Europe and a battered VW bus through the Serengeti. He was famous for making ill-considered decisions and delighted in emerging untouched from disaster. When I was a baby in England, he'd taken my mother out in a tiny sailboat and nearly capsized in a...
Good day to you, denizens of the Green Mountain State! While we still have a substantial portion of the summer to wade through, there are more cool indicators than warm ones for the month of August. In other words, I still am not seeing any heat waves coming to our shores anytime soon. So if you are a summer heat detester, this summer's for you! If you love the 90s, super humid air, and hazy skies, you have my sympathies.
Vermont Business Magazine has received three national awards for editorial excellence in 2016 from the Alliance of Area Business Publications at its annual Summer Conference in Dallas June 24. These are the highest awards available to VBM and regional business news publications in the United States. Contributing writer Joyce Marcel of Dummerston - also a regular contributor to The Commons - won gold in the Best Personality Profile category for her piece on Rutland Mayor Chris Louras. Louras championed bringing...
It will take a while for state and federal regulators to decide whether NorthStar Group Services can buy Vermont Yankee. But in the meantime, the New York company isn't just waiting around. New documents show NorthStar already has begun performing engineering and design work at Vermont Yankee under a separate, “pre-closing” contract with plant owner Entergy. NorthStar contractor Areva also has started similar work. Entergy says these preliminary projects will prove valuable no matter who ends up decommissioning Vermont Yankee.
College news • Alexandra Morrow, a sports management major from Townshend, graduated from Nichols College in Dudley, Mass., in May. She also achieved Dean's High Honors for the spring 2017 semester. • Halie Lange, an environmental studies major from Brattleboro, and Celia Feal-Staub, an art and visual culture and anthropology major from Putney, were both named to the Dean's List at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, for the winter semester ending in April 2017. • Amelia Nick, a fine arts...
A Vermont Yankee employee's deliberate failure to check radiation exposure monitors was a “personal accountability issue,” and no other staffers engaged in such behavior, the company says. In a new filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Entergy says it conducted an extensive review after federal inspectors discovered that a staffer hadn't checked the functionality of personnel contamination monitors for eight months in 2016. The technician in question was fired, Entergy says. The company found no evidence of similar problems after...
Retreat Farm, 350 Linden St., will host the nonprofit Farm to Ballet Project for the second straight year. The Farm to Ballet Project is a dance collaborative designed to celebrate the unique culture of New England farms while introducing new audiences to the beauty of classical ballet. Set to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, the Farm to Ballet dancers will present the story of life on a farm from the first planting to the harvest. The gate will open on Saturday,
