Insults and lies from the anti-nukers
I attended the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP) meeting held March 22. The meeting brought together Entergy, NorthStar, the state of Vermont, and others interested in the decommissioning effort at Vermont Yankee.
Over the past several years, the anti-nuclear community has seized on meetings of this kind to impugn numerous professional organizations that didn't agree with their philosophies on related matters.
Vermont’s ability to affect climate change is a mirage
A recent Rutland Herald editorial certainly celebrated the success of the Vermont activist group 350.org to sell a lot of our fellow Vermonters on the various benefits and demands to achieve the mirage of former Governor Peter Shumlin's goal of 90-percent renewable energy. No one I know denies that...
Students show what can be done with unity, heart, brains, social media, and being on the right side of history
March 14 was one of the most heartening days since election day 2016. We, the caring and thoughtful people of this country, are under assault by a federal government that has been taken over by a criminal cartel with exactly two interests in mind: money and power. This has...
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The tragedies we ought to know about
Have you had enough of Donald Trump's narcissistic rallies featured regularly on mainstream media? Tired of the debate about guns in schools? Seen enough of Sunday-morning talking heads rehashing the week's old headlines? Maybe it's time for editors and producers to remember what constitutes news and to realize that there's a world out there about which we know far too little. There are plenty of scandals, ethical breaches, sensational stories and other travesties swirling around Donald Trump and his minions...
The homelessness crisis that you never heard about
Susan's home was making her sick. She'd searched a long time to find this apartment. With a small budget and health problems requiring certain conditions, it wasn't easy to find a place that worked. And now it wasn't working anymore. Her throat was on fire, and she felt like she had the flu. Many days, she had migraines or trouble breathing. She couldn't concentrate. Susan's work, which she did on the computer in her home office, was becoming seriously impaired.
Red Door concert celebrates spring
On Saturday, April 14, at 4 p.m., St. Mary's in the Mountains at 13 East Main St. invites everyone to a casual Red Door concert of light-hearted music to benefit the Southern Vermont Therapeutic Riding Center. Admission is by donation. The Southern Vermont Therapeutic Riding Center has provided riding for individuals with special needs, along with horsemanship and vocational education, since 2010. The benefits generated include not only the physical - improving balance, coordination, and fine motor skills - but...
State legislators: We hear you calling for action on gun control
As members of the Windham County Legislative Delegation representing towns in WSESU, we thank our students for their resolve and solidarity in taking action to promote commonsense legislation to prevent gun violence. We hear your voices calling out for action and want you to know: We're listening. We also thank those school boards who sent their resolutions asking for the same. This is welcome support for those of us who have been pushing for laws that promote gun-violence prevention and...
Who is the bully in discussion of gun control?
Kevin O'Keefe flatters himself if he thinks I was referring to him in my Viewpoint [“Why schools are attractive targets for mass shooters,” March 7]. I mentioned “highly qualified people,” specifically “ex-law enforcement, former military and even highly competent civilians - who will step up and volunteer to actively protect our most precious citizens.” You, sir, are none of these. You, sir, are among the true bullies. You stand with “misguided arrogance,” self-righteous indignation, while pointing fingers and calling names.
Renewable energy sham in Vermont
Industrial wind turbines and solar panels are generating electricity in Vermont. Wind and sunlight are renewable energy. But they don't count toward Vermont's goal of 90 percent renewable energy by 2050. Industrial wind- and solar-power developers here receive Renewable Energy Credits that they sell in Southern New England to fulfill those states' “renewable-energy” goals. Developers build industrial wind turbines and solar panels on Vermont ridgelines, hillsides and fields so that Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island can tint themselves “green” while...
Town Meeting beyond reach for those who most need a voice
I hate to say this, but Town Meeting - that noble paradigm of American democracy - doesn't seem too democratic anymore. When we first moved 22 years ago to Williamsville from Providence, R.I. - land of infamy and uncontested mayoral appointments to school boards and other budget-crafting entities - we were impressed and encouraged by the Town Meeting construct. As a teacher, I'd have the day off from school; my then-spouse was self employed and so we and our three...
What society and conditions do we want to create?
In our debates about gun violence in the United States, one longstanding element in play complicates the issue and further drives anger, division, and inaction. That element is our propensity for claiming we know causality with little to no evidence to back us up. Rather than take the sometimes-hard effort to look for solid facts and debate their veracity and relevance, we knee-jerk grab our emotional “feel-bad” notions. These speculative exercises in blame and shame somehow satisfy our immediate need...
Musical at Main Street Arts depicts a family facing disaster
The story of how a flood affects a family is told through the eyes of three storytellers in the musical Wayward Home, which will be performed at Main Street Arts on Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. With themes that are described as “mythic, with a lot of magic and hyper-theatricality,” the two-act piece has some 20 original musical numbers, with the performers accompanying themselves on piano, guitar, and banjo and moving from musician to storyteller...
A change of plans
That time has once again arrived for candidates to announce their intention to run for office and get signatures on petitions. I have been honored to have your support and the privilege to serve as your representative in Montpelier. I once again ask for your support. This time, I ask for your support of my decision not to seek re-election. People have often thanked me for my sacrifice of living in Montpelier for almost half of the year and being...
New prison: purported solution to a perceived problem
The Vermont Agency of Human Services has proposed a large psychiatric and prison facility for Franklin County. It has been proposed that this facility be built and maintained by CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, a scandal-plagued private prison contractor. This secure facility would consist of some 925 beds for male and female prisoners and would serve youth, forensic, and geriatric patients. It purports to offer a solution to a perceived crisis in the mental-health system in which those reporting...
Vermont must join fight against climate change
In early March, bare ground showed through patches of snow. February days were too warm, with a number of snowstorms ending with rain here in the Connecticut River valley. More recently, Nor'easters have redeemed the season to some extent. As an avid Nordic skier I welcome a bit more winter, but lament the lack of its reliability, becoming reliably jumbled and erratic. Swings of temperature are now the norm. This year, I missed the quiet and calm of a deep...
‘The Children’s March’ gets its New England premiere in Keene
The Chamber Singers of Keene and the Grand Monadnock Youth Choirs will present a community choral event on the 55th anniversary of The Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama. On Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m., the two Keene choirs of the Grand Monadnock Youth Choirs - Elm City Singers and Keene Youth Choir - will join their adult counterparts to present The Children's March, a powerful musical depiction of civil-rights activism. The concert will be held in the United Church...
Vermont produce growers awarded $74,000 in safety improvement grants
Two local farms shared in $74,000 of grants awarded by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to nine Vermont produce growers making on-farm improvements that prevent or reduce produce-safety risks. Harlow Farm in Westminster received $6,179 to update the root vegetable wash-and-pack line with materials that can be easily cleaned and sanitized, while New Leaf CSA in Dummerston got $9,502 to upgrade the wash/pack area to a covered facility, add a cold storage unit, and install stainless steel counters and a...
Brattleboro meeting memebers endorsed Cow Power
Kurt Daims of Brattleboro Common Sense managed the bureaucratic quicksand late in Brattleboro's Representative Annual Town Meeting to bring a new energy-related measure to a vote. With only slight urging, the tired assembly agreed in an overwhelming vote to advise the town manager to purchase all electricity for the town's buildings from Cow Power, a program of Green Mountain Power which arranges electricity generation from renewable sources like hydro-power and methane generation from manure on dairy farms. The advisory measure...
Milestones
College news • Oliver Goodman of Brattleboro was named to the Dean's List for academic excellence for the fall 2017 semester at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Obituaries • Janet Bates, 59, of Brattleboro. Died Feb. 12, 2018. She was born on July 20, 1959 in Summit, N.J., to William and Nancy Bates. Her early years were spent in Westfield and Sparta, N.J., Edgartown, Mass., and Berlin, Vt. She graduated from U-32 High School in East Montpelier and continued...
Around the Towns
Dessert fundraiser celebrates National Library Week BRATTLEBORO - The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library will celebrate National Library Week (April 8 to 14) with a dessert fundraiser and “Friendraiser” on Friday, April 13, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Brooks Memorial Library. The Friends will offer a selection of desserts, as well as tea and coffee. Various prizes, many handcrafted by area artists, will be raffled off. The cost is $10 per person and includes dessert and coffee as...
Second volume of Vermont poetry debuts this month
Birchsong: Poetry Centered in Vermont, Vol. II, a new anthology of 111 contemporary poems by 67 Vermont poets, has been published by The Blueline Press in East Dorset. Illustrated by artist Mary Schwartz from the same town, the book is a rich collection of poetry reflecting the Vermont landscape, its people, and its culture. In the six years since the first Birchsong volume, which appeared in 2012 following Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, there have been changes to the Vermont...
Concert to benefit Putney Cares
Big Woods Voices, an a cappella quartet featuring Will Danforth, Alan Blood, Becky Graber, and Amanda Witman, presents a benefit concert for Putney Cares on Sunday, April 22, at 4 p.m., at the Friends Meetinghouse on Route 5. Big Woods Voices (bigwoodsvoices.com) unites these four veteran area singers in celebrating their common passion for a cappella harmony through arrangements of original, roots, and world music. The group performs Danforth's original settings of poems by David Whyte, Mary Oliver, W. B.
Stone Church Arts presents Duo LiveOak
On Saturday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m., Stone Church Arts will present Duo LiveOak (Nancy Knowles, soprano, and Frank Wallace, guitarist/baritone/composer). They will perform original compositions and songs from the middle ages to the present day, accompanied by the guitar and its ancestors. In concert, LiveOak is known for its versatility, grace, and spontaneity, according to a news release. Their concert will take place in the intimate Chapel of Immanuel Episcopal Church, the stone church on the hill, 20 Church...
Two area groups join to study waste and waterways
Later this year, one village in Windham County will be chosen to get an in-depth education in what happens to their human waste and how it affects their region's waterways. The Rich Earth Institute and the Windham Regional Commission are working together on the Village Sanitation Pilot Study. In this program, officials with the Institute and the Commission will study one village, cluster, or neighborhood to assess the conditions of each household's septic system and drinking water and explore options...
A new era for a legendary coffee roaster
Mocha Joe's is on the move. The cafe and retail shop, located at 82 Main Street since it opened in September of 1991, is staying put. But the behind-the-scenes part of the company - the wholesale beanery and coffee-roasting shop - will move to a much bigger location, according to Mocha Joe's owners Ellen and Pierre Capy. Last week, the Capys purchased the building at 35 Frost St. for $1 million in the foreclosure auction of Cultural Intrigue, which constructed...
BMC Chamber Series continues with Windscape
The Brattleboro Music Center's popular Chamber Series welcomes Windscape on Friday, April 20. Created in 1994 by five eminent wind soloists, Windscape “has won a unique place for itself as a vibrant, ever-evolving group of musical individualists,” according to a news release. This “unquintet” has delighted audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Asia with its innovative programs and accompanying presentations, taking listeners on a musical and historical world tour and evoking, through music and engaging commentary, the vivid cultural...
Selectboard approves Downtown Improvement District application
The Downtown Improvement District application is one step closer to renewal, but not all property owners in the designated area voted to continue it. At the April 3 regular Selectboard meeting, the Board voted 4-0 to approve the application to renew the district. The next step will likely come in June, with a hearing before the Department of Housing and Community Development's downtown program coordinator. Planning Director Rod Francis explained a little bit about the process and what the Downtown...
Selectboard schedules public hearings on Town Plan
The process for adopting the 2018 Town Plan is almost complete. In scheduling two public hearings, the Selectboard brought it closer to the finish line. At the April 3 regular Selectboard meeting, Planning Director Rod Francis gave a brief summary of the updates his staff and the Planning Commissioners made to the document. There weren't many, Francis said. “It's not a really significant shift” from the last revision, he said, which occurred in 2013 and was a major overhaul. “The...
Grappling with a class issue
What Kate Bowen is grappling with is a class issue. In Putney, it might present more as a cultural issue. Although “class” is a fairly complex concept (just look it up in Wikipedia!), it is a scale that assigns inequity: the haves vs. the have-nots, the entitled vs. the disenfranchised. The world, and our civilization as we know it, is well on its way to total collapse. If we think things are ugly world-wide now, just wait until we enter...
High winds cause widespread power outages
The windstorm that roared through southern Vermont during the overnight hours of April 4 and 5 took down numerous trees and power lines and caused thousands of homes to lose their electrical and telephone service. The storm's strongest winds were reported east of the Green Mountains. Top wind speeds during the storm ranged from 41 mph in Wilmington, to 45 mph in Keene, N.H., to 49 mph in Brattleboro, according to data from the National Weather Service. Mount Washington in...
Grant opportunity for skatepark
Brattleboro may receive a grant for the skate park on the hill of Living Memorial Park, provided everybody votes to nominate our town on the website for Meet Me at the Park, a project of the National Recreation and Park Association and the Walt Disney Company. You can vote as many times as you wish until the end of April. To vote, click on the link and nominate Brattleboro, Vermont. Don't waste a vote on the preselected choices. Several towns...
Advance directives leave a gift in the end
Talking about death and end-of-life care can be complicated, confusing, and scary. It is often avoided for these reasons, or it is addressed belatedly. As a result of avoidance or delay, families are often left with the responsibility of making health care decisions for their loved ones in critical condition, which can rupture relationships. Joanna Rueter, Advance Care Planning coordinator at Brattleboro Area Hospice, is working to ease this burden for families. She believes much of the drama that comes...
Spring brings new ukulele classes
A new round of ukulele classes, taught by Lisa McCormick, begins in mid-April, and beginners, and advanced beginner classes are available. Daytime, evening, and online-only classes are offered. “The ukulele offers an amazingly easy entry in making music, welcoming beginners at any age, bringing them big smiles and joy within minutes of first touching the instrument,” McCormick said in a news release. The “ukulele scene” has exploded in the Brattleboro area in recent months, with more than 200 new players...
‘O, Britannia!’ is theme of FOMAG’s Women in Music gala
Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 52nd concert season, will present its ninth annual Women in Music house concert gala on Saturday, April 21. This season's celebration toasts three noted British composers with diverse and distinguished personal histories: Madeleine Dring, Dame Ethel Smyth, and Lucy Broadwood. The event, which is held this year in an award-winning energy-efficient home in West Brattleboro, begins at 6 p.m. with a festive buffet of hearty hors d'oeuvres, salads, and side dishes, continues...
Housing nears return to flood plain
What should a town do with public housing built on a floodplain? The answer: move the residents out and tear the houses down. Melrose Terrace, which flooded and was evacuated during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, is managed by Brattleboro Housing Partnerships (formerly known as the Brattleboro Housing Authority). BHP oversees six other federally-subsidized public housing complexes in town. Melrose was designed for some of the most vulnerable members of the community: the elderly and disabled. But local, state, and...
A celebration of Vermont poetry and prose
Have you ever thrown a party when the guest of honor didn't show? That's sort of like what's happening to Dede Cummings at the upcoming third annual Green Writers Press and Reading & Earth Day Book Launch at Next Stage Arts in Putney. On Friday, April 20, at 7 p.m., reading alongside writers including T Stores, Jackson Ellis, Ross Thurber, James Crews, and Tim Weed, Cummings had hoped to present her second book of poetry, The Meeting Place. Although she...
‘For 30 days, I wore black’
When my brother died, I was 19 years old. It was beautiful and sunny peak autumn, and my heart was broken. My aunt had to fly to meet me where I was living in Tennessee so I would have someone to fly back with me. To his memorial service I wore clothing that felt “magical.” I would wake up all night, every night. I had no concept of the pain that was to lie ahead or that I would grieve...
‘A freaking shame’
“It's a freaking shame to me those houses can't be used,” former Melrose Terrace resident Laura Austan told The Commons. “Those are really nice apartments.” The Brattleboro Housing Partnerships, which manages Melrose Terrace and other public housing complexes in town, recently met with the Brattleboro Selectboard to discuss plans to demolish the vacant homes there. The BHP plans to move the remaining residents out of Melrose after about three years and tear down those homes, too. The complex lies in...
Slow spring onset continues
Good day to you, southern Vermonters! Where is spring, you ask? That's a very good question, I say. Unfortunately, it's a slow boat to the other side of winter, my friends. While I believe we've made it past the several bouts of wintry weather I alluded to last week, there is one more chance over the next seven days, namely on Sunday and Monday. As I write this week's column, the snow is flying in Northampton, Mass., once again, and...
Colonels win Unified home opener
Unified basketball is about giving kids a chance to experience the fun and camaraderie of being on a team and playing in competitive games in front of cheering fans. The April 2 game between the Brattleboro Colonels and Leland & Gray Rebels at the BUHS gym checked all those boxes, so much so that the final score - a 42-25 win for the Colonels - seemed like an afterthought. Exhibit A came in the final minute of the game. Leland...
Building bridges
Singer-songwriters Reggie Harris and Greg Greenway will appear in concert at All Souls' Church on Saturday, April 14, at 7 p.m., with their joint production, “Deeper Than The Skin - Building Bridges with Music.” Longtime friends and collaborators, Harris and Greenway put their experiences together in “Deeper Than The Skin,” a concert presentation that explores their unique history as a white man from the capital of the Confederacy and a black man whose maternal ancestor was a slave on a...
Our hospital — and our money — at risk
When a small community hospital makes a $1.655 million mistake, there needs to be some degree of accountability to the public to let them know what happened and how it happened. Brattleboro Memorial Hospital paid that amount in civil claims because it “knowingly presented false claims for payment to Medicare and Medicaid,” according to a Feb. 27 news story in the Brattleboro Reformer. It appears that the problem resulted from errors in coding and that the money in question was...