Historical Society plans fundraiser with Hibbard prints for sale
Prints by painter Aldro T. Hibbard will be sold as a fundraiser on Sunday, Nov. 5, at the Townshend Town Hall.
A free event, “Early Photos of Townshend” will begin at 4 p.m., followed by light refreshments and the opportunity to purchase a print that had formerly been on sale in Hibbard's Rockport art studio. Although these are copies rather than originals, they are “quite charming and depict Hibbard at his best in Vermont,” according to a news release.
Dog park opens at Living Memorial Park
The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department recently announced that the dog park at Living Memorial Park is open. The dog park will remain open until winter arrives and there is sufficient snow cover to close the road to the upper portion of the park. Come spring, the Rec. Dept.
Lawmakers group to hold hearing at Statehouse for public feedback, new ideas on local economy
The Vermont House Rural Development Caucus will hold a public hearing at the Statehouse, from 5-7 p.m., on Tuesday, Nov. 7, to hear from municipal, business, education, and nonprofit interests in rural Vermont about what issues are the most pressing. The Rural Development Caucus, also known as the Rural...
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World-music choir Northern Harmony plans visit to Marlboro College
Northern Harmony, the unique world-music choir based in Vermont, comes to Marlboro College after their European tour for a performance on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Ragle Hall. The company of 16 singers includes Marlboro student Clayton Clemetson '19. Admission at the door is $15 for the general public and free for Marlboro students. The singers of Northern Harmony present a mix of world harmony traditions including South African songs and dances, traditional polyphony from Georgia, Corsica, and...
Selectboard roundup
On Oct. 17, the Selectboard met for another marathon meeting - clocking in at just over four hours - including a long discussion on panhandling. The Board had its first public reading on the proposed plastic bag ban; the second reading and public hearing will come at a later meeting. Selectboard member John Allen was absent, which meant all motions had to pass with at least three votes in favor. Otherwise, the motion would fail. Police-Fire updateTown Manager Peter B.
Milestones
College news • Alexandra Harris of Bellows Falls was inducted into the Colby-Sawyer College chapter of Alpha Chi on Oct. 22. Harris is a member of the Class of 2019 majoring in sociology. Alpha Chi National Honor Society promotes academic excellence and exemplary character among college and university students. To be eligible for membership, a student must rank in the top 10 percent of the junior or senior class and demonstrate the Alpha Chi values of truth and character. Obituaries...
Around the Towns
Paving set to begin Nov. 2 BRATTLEBORO - On Thursday, Nov. 2, Mitchell Sand and Gravel will start Brattleboro's annual Capital Paving Project. The contractor will begin milling small joints at intersections and project limits. Weather allowing, paving on Washington Street and Frost Place will be on Friday, Nov. 3. Subsequently, paving will take place on Willow Street, Williams Street, Terrace Street, Tyler Street, Bradley Avenue, and Black Mountain Road. The contractor may work Saturday, Nov. 4, if the weather...
Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market opens for season Nov. 4
The Winter Farmers' Market returns to the River Garden for its 12th season on Saturday, Nov. 4. Fans of the famous outdoor summer farmers' market in West Brattleboro can follow many of their favorite vendors indoors to the only weekly farmers' market in the region. It is open every Saturday, November through March. Visitors to the Winter Farmers' Market in downtown Brattleboro will find plenty of farms and local produce. Each week, the River Garden is transformed into a warm,
Sandglass Theater’s ‘Babylon’ comes to Landmark College
Landmark College invites the public to two free performances of Sandglass Theater's Babylon, in the Greenhoe Theater, on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m. Created with the help of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, Babylon looks at the relationship of refugees to their homelands, lost and new, and the conflicts that exist within American communities to which they have fled. “Whether in the United States, or around the world, our society has always dealt with the relocation of civilians,” says...
Three local teams still standing after first week of playoffs
The first playoff game of a football postseason can pose a challenge, especially for teams that haven't been there before. Bellows Falls doesn't have that problem. With a team loaded with talented juniors and seniors, many of whom were on last year's Division II state championship team, the No. 4 Terriers were raring to go against No. 5 Lyndon on Oct. 27 in a quarterfinal game at Hadley Field. The Terriers scored a touchdown on each of their first eight...
Sanctuary of trust and caring
It's common enough - and often tedious - to be subjected to certain perennial topics around contemporary art, specifically art that has slipped its tethers and entered the realms of reflective social commentary. In Ruben Östlund's The Square, one of the first questions asked in an interview by Christian, the chief curator of X-Royal Museum of avant-garde art in Sweden, is, “If it's in a museum, is it art?” Oh, dear. But what if a film is so clever that...
Battle of the Bands will celebrate Youth Services’ 45th anniversary
Fierce competition is expected between six area youth bands playing in Youth Services' Battle of the Bands on Friday, Nov. 3, from 7 to 10 p.m., in the River Garden on Main Street. This is the fourth time Youth Services has hosted a Battle of the Bands over the past decade. The public is encouraged to attend and vote for their favorite group with their applause. Competing bands are: Raspberry Jam, Notion, Fiig, Moxie, Outer Space, and Impending Exorcism. Opening...
Not about opportunity. Or money. Or the kids.
Recently, in describing the process that ultimately led to the formation of a Dover-Wardsboro combined school district, Gov. Phil Scott remarked: “[I]t's encouraging to see so many people here engaged on the issues and working together to find solutions. I think it demonstrates the close link between civic engagement and how we deliver education to many corners of our small state.” Act 46 has indeed provided great opportunities for engagement for many people in different communities around the state to...
Will your vote be necessary?
The upcoming vote on the proposed merger of schools in the WSESU correctly indicates that the towns of Putney, Dummerston, Guilford, and Brattleboro are each necessary to individually vote in favor of the merger. A negative vote in one town will defeat the proposal. If the merger is approved, this will be the last time that that is so! Under a merger system, all educational decisions will be made by an all-powerful central board, there being no need for individual...
In support of a single, unified voice
On Nov. 7, residents from Putney, Dummerston, Brattleboro, and Guilford will vote on whether the four town school districts should be merged into one unified district. I am on the ballot as a two-year “at large” director, should the district be approved, and would like to request your support on Tuesday, Nov. 7. I urge registered voters of the towns of Putney, Dummerston, Guilford and Brattleboro to vote “yes” to achieve a single unified educational district. The vote is to...
Brattleboro provides more services for students at lower cost
I believe strongly that an Act 46 merger will negatively affect the children and the teachers in the Brattleboro schools. As we all know, Brattleboro has a much higher rate of poverty than other towns in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, and we also have many families who have been negatively disrupted by the opioid epidemic. Brattleboro's school board, supported by our Town Meeting representatives, has implemented many programs to help these children, and other children who have learning and...
Tainted water costs exceed $2M at VY
Entergy has spent more than $2 million to dispose of groundwater leaking into a dormant turbine building at Vermont Yankee. And the leaks show no sign of stopping, though administrators at the idled Vernon plant say they're continuing to find and address problem areas when possible. There are still 500 to 600 gallons of water entering the turbine building each day, said Joe Lynch, a senior government affairs manager for Entergy. But that's actually an improvement from much more severe...
Stone Church Arts presents benefit concert for storm-ravaged Puerto Rico
Stone Church Arts and Cameo Arts Foundation present a benefit concert for relief for Puerto Rico on Sunday, Nov. 5, at 2 p.m., at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St. The concert will be a program of 18th century Baroque masterworks performed by Cameo Baroque - Leslie Stroud, traverso (Baroque flute), Beth Hilgartner, recorders and voice, Laurie Rabut, viola da gamba, and Ernie Drown, harpsichord. The program will include music of J. S. Bach, Telemann, and others. Cameo Baroque was...
Lenois to lead roundtable on state of news media
A roundtable discussion on “The State of the Media 2017” will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at noon, at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, 137 Main St. The event is part of the Brown Bag Lunch series presented by Strolling of the Heifers. Longtime radio talk show host Chris Lenois, associate director of marketing communications at Landmark College, will moderate the discussion, which will include representatives of most area media organizations. Participants will include Kevin Moran, executive editor...
Community Thanksgiving volunteers needed
The organizing committee of Brattleboro's 45th annual Community Thanksgiving is seeking volunteers for a wide range of tasks including baking, food prep, serving, meal delivery, and more. This year's Community Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 23, at St. Michael's School on Walnut Street. Shifts are available starting Tuesday, Nov. 21, through Thanksgiving Day. Volunteers are needed to make desserts, prepare vegetables, help in the kitchen, serve food or drinks, wash dishes, deliver meals, transport food, and/or help clean up. Children 12...
Is giving up local governance worth the price?
To merge or to collaborate as a Supervisory Union? Act 46 as amended by Act 49, in looking to save money on public education, requires schools to: “1. Provide substantial equity in the quality and variety of educational opportunities within their districts that lead students to achieve or exceed the State's Education Quality Standards; “2. maximize operational efficiencies through increased flexibility to manage, share, and transfer resources, with a goal of increasing the district-level ratio of students to full-time-equivalent staff;
Harvest fun for all
On a recent sunny Friday, in the field behind NewBrook Elementary School, every 15 minutes a cowbell clunked out its hollow ring. That sound told students at the school's Farm and Field Day it was time to move on to the next station. In two hours, the mixed-age groups of children had time to visit all eight spots, where farmers, cheesemakers, art teachers, and other community members presented hands-on, age-appropriate activities. At the end of the day, teacher Kate Ullman...
Solar developers see treasure in old trash dumps
In some Vermont towns, old landfills have become hot commodities. Spurred in part by the state's new net-metering rules, solar developers are scrambling to build photovoltaic arrays on closed, capped landfills that previously had been considered useless for development. The trend encompasses big arrays - such as a 5-megawatt project slated for Brattleboro's former landfill - as well as smaller arrays that can fit on more compact municipal dumps, like a planned project in Newfane. While there are engineering hurdles...
Expect the unexpected
I can't remember a time when I've seen so many brilliant films in one collection. The 16 long films (and some shorts) that the Brattleboro Film Festival is showing this year - its sixth, at the Latchis between Friday, Nov. 3 and Sunday, Nov. 12 - are stunning. They will entertain, thrill, impress, educate, and enlighten you, and in a few cases they will do so while also breaking your heart. Audiences will notice several things that are different this...
Portraits of global struggle
Last September, Massachusetts-based artist Denise Beaudet completed a portrait of the recently slain Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres. This was the final painting in a series of 12 large portraits that Beaudet has been working on for the past 10 years, titled The Roots To Resistance. The goal of the project is to inspire by sharing these women's heroic struggles against corruption, exploitation, and oppression. While individual portraits from this groundbreaking work about women who have dedicated their lives to...
With storminess past, a mix of showers and sun awaits region
Good day to you! The past week has been stormy indeed, with plenty of rainfall to the southern Vermont region, and wind as well. It certainly has been dynamic in the weather department, recently, but our atmospheric drama is going to smooth itself out for a spell. Generally speaking, we have to deal with a couple of pairs of frontal passages on Thursday and Friday, and then again on Sunday and Monday. These will bring scattered showers, a little bit...
Fear of change can keep us from moving forward
I have seen all of the letters and heard the words discouraging the Act 46 merger of the local school systems. I understand people's concerns. I have been on the Act 46 study committee from the beginning and believe that the merger will help the students of all of the schools. One of the concerns I keep hearing is the lack of local control. Currently, there are 28 elected members to the school boards, from the four towns in the...
An honest, compassionate photographic road trip
C'est incroyable! Agnès Varda is either a genius with heart or a heartfelt genius - or both. Faces Places - Belgian-born Varda's collaboration with French/worldwide visual/photo-performance artist JR - is an artist's art film. It is a tribute to her commitment to the essential honoring of life itself. Although it's tempting to ignore the 55-year age difference between the 34-year-old JR and the nearly-89-year-old Varda, the tenderness and vision formed between them is a result of their respective experiences of...
Film Festival schedule for 2017
The following summaries are provided to The Commons by the organizers of the Brattleboro Film Festival. All films screen at the Latchis Theatre at 50 Main St. • DANCING WITH MONSTERS (2016/Isabella Freilinger/10 min./Germany/subtitles/short drama). How do we react to a world of violence and brutality? Do we become victims or perpetrators ourselves? Zarah grows up in a world where dancing is forbidden and gunfire is a constant audible reminder of war. She dreams about becoming a super-power-ninja-ranger and protecting...
We must see more than one correct answer
From the outset of hearing about Act 46 here in Putney, there has been a sense I and many other townspeople I have spoken with have had of its “inevitability,” as a de facto change that has come down from our governor and state legislators. This is not the case - especially after the Legislature heard from many citizens throughout the state and passed Act 49, which modified and changed some of the requirements of Act 46. It is really...
Brattleboro’s ‘Blind Masseur’ dies at age 38
When self-described “Blind Masseur” Neil Taylor recently published the memoir, The Life We Got: Losing Sight and Gaining Vision, the 38-year-old wondered if he had aged enough to warrant an autobiography. “Having lost nearly everything that I took for granted - that the majority of young people can and do and probably should take for granted,” he went on to reason in the preface, “well, maybe I've earned a sort of cosmic permission to share the story of my life...
Broad Brook Grange enters a new era
On a recent Sunday afternoon, about 60 people gathered to snack on homemade apple pie and ice cream at the Broad Brook Grange. While that's not an unusual occurrence at the grange hall, the reason for the apple pie social was for grange officials to make a special announcement: the Broad Brook Grange building will soon be sold to a new nonprofit, the Broad Brook Community Center, Inc. “The stage is set for our hall to get a new lease...
Camille Thurman Quartet to perform at the Vermont Jazz Center
Saxophonist/vocalist/composer Camille Thurman will appear in the “Emerging Artist Series” with the Darrell Green Trio at the Vermont Jazz Center on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m. Called a “rising star” by Downbeat magazine and a “first class saxophonist that blows the proverbial roof off the place” by All About Jazz, Camille Thurman will be accompanied by her touring ensemble, the Darrell Green Trio, which includes Darrell Green, drums; David Bryant, piano; Rashaan Carter, bass. Thurman is a modern player...
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church blesses new expanded space for clinic
Members of St. Michael's Episcopal Church gathered at the Brattleboro Walk-In-Clinic's new headquarters at 191 Clark Ave. on Oct. 15 for a blessing of the clinic and its volunteer medical staff by the Rev. Mary Lindquist, second from left. For years, the church has been a steady contributor to the nonprofit clinic, which provides primary medical treatment to those ages 18-64 who do not have health insurance or who cannot afford a high deductible or co-insurance, according to the organization's...