Despite Governor Scott's $8 million commitment to restoring Vermont's waterways and funding clean water initiatives in his recent budget proposal, representatives in the Vermont Legislature have so far failed to live up to their responsibilities to help ensure we all have clean water.
The budget passed by the House has stripped the governor's $8 million for clean water and spent the money elsewhere.
We hope this choice was made because the Legislature plans to identify a new source of funding for clean water and that lawmakers don't want to take money from the many other state priorities.
Water-quality advocates, including the Connecticut River Conservancy, have been working for years now to advocate for a stable, ongoing source of clean-water funding.
Brattleboro winter parking ban is lifted BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Parking Department says the winter parking ban has ended for the season. Overnight parking will be allowed on all streets, except in the downtown area. Overnight parking is never allowed on the following streets: Main, High, Elliot (from School...
Strolling of the Heifers and the Walk for Amber Committee present the fourth annual “Walk for Amber StorySlam,” on Saturday, April 27, at 7 p.m., at the River Garden. Robyn Zegge, a long-time local storyteller, comedian, clown, and performer, will be the host. StorySlam is a spontaneous, funny, heartwarming,
Richard Wizansky of Bold Moves Consulting will join Reference Librarian Jeanne Walsh for a free public program on foundation fundraising at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., on Thursday, April 25, at 1 p.m. Nonprofit managers, development professionals, and others interested in grants and fundraising are welcome for the hour-long presentation, with optional time at the end for informal conversation and questions. The presentation will help grant seekers develop fundraising strategies and will include a demonstration of Foundation Directory Online,
Brattleboro Music Center Artistic Advisors Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson welcome two colleagues with thorough Vermont connections for a collaborative performance on Sunday, April 28, at 4 p.m. at the BMC. Husband and wife violinist Soovin Kim and pianist Gloria Chien join Laredo and Robinson for this special Chamber Music Series concert featuring two unassailable quartets for piano and strings. The two couples will present Quartet in E-flat Major by Mozart and Quartet in C minor by Gabriel Fauré. Kim...
On Saturday, April 27, for the 16th year in a row, Brattleboro area residents wishing to help down-on-their-luck neighbors will participate in Brattleboro Clayworks' annual Bowlerama, making bowls to donate to the Brattleboro Empty Bowls dinner. Participants don't need any experience or special skills since artist/teachers Bonnie Stearns, Annie Lauterbach, and Alan Steinberg will provide basic instruction and gentle support to help shepherd their creations from start to finish. The Empty Bowls dinner is held each Columbus Day weekend at...
Births • Madeline Veitch and Andrés Pletch of New Paltz, N.Y. announce the birth of their daughter, Agnes Roe Pletch Kanashiro, on Feb. 16, 2019. Proud grandparents are Tom Jamison and Nancy Hood of Putney and Olga Kanashiro and Andy Pletch of New Paltz, N.Y. Transitions • The following local individuals were recently appointed to Vermont state boards and commissions by Gov. Phil Scott: Robert Tortolani of Brattleboro, Board of Medical Practice; Gabrielle Ciuffreda of Guilford, Thomas Fitzgerald of West...
The Hooker-Dunham Theater, 139 Main St., presents Running on Top of the Water, a play by Charles Monette directed by Miles Keefe. Written by Monette, with words by famed poet Robert Lowell, Running on Top of the Water was inspired by a reading of Kay Redfield Jamison's biography of Lowell, Setting the River on Fire. The play is a fictionalized soliloquy of memories, often mixed in time, gleaned from readings of Lowell's poems and Jamison's biography about Lowell's life and...
I appreciated Tim Kipp's thoughtful analysis of our current situation, but the idea of resiliency of our democratic structures as Mr. Kipp presents struck me as overly optimistic. Mr. Kipp wrote, “We will never become a pre-World War II authoritarian regime, but any further erosion of our democratic structures will only bring further harm to our most marginalized citizens.” After evaluating the health of American institutions at present, I believe Mr. Kipp misses an important point, and that is the...
In the same week when the Windham Southeast School District's Transition Board held its first working meeting, Superior Court Judge Robert Mello issued a ruling that dismissed three out of six counts in a lawsuit filed by 33 school boards and other entities. Mello's decision came on April 12 after several months of hurry-up-and-wait since the State Board of Education issued its November merger decisions for school districts that had yet to merge, including Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Putney. The...
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and Community College of Vermont are partnering again for an accelerated program to prepare qualified candidates for jobs as certified medical assistants. Enrollment in the one-semester program will be limited to 20 participants. Classes will be held on the CCV Brattleboro campus, and all clinical aspects of the course work will be completed at BMH. As part of the joint initiative, BMH is providing full scholarships for eight successful applicants. Scholarship recipients will have their CCV tuition...
National Volunteer Week was April 7–13. Though the impact of our wonderful team of volunteers is felt throughout the hospital every day, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital extends heartfelt thanks to them for all they do to serve our patients, families, staff, and community. Each year, our volunteers contribute more than 20,000 hours of service toward welcoming visitors, supporting patients, comforting families, and assisting with projects. You will see our volunteers in their navy vests pushing wheelchairs, carrying supplies, giving directions to...
Weddings • Coridon Nicholas Bratton and Kiera Elizabeth Lewis are to be married on Saturday, May 18, 2019 by First Nations Ministry officiant Mary Elise Gerisch, of Bennington, surrounded by family and friends at the Marble House Project in Dorset. The groom, 32, known as Cory, is chef and owner of A Vermont Table, a catering business and restaurant located in Brattleboro. He graduated with both a bachelor's in studio art and a master's in teaching from Clark University. He...
We moved to our current location in 1989, when I was 24 and my partner was 27. It was summer, glorious summer, and we answered an ad to vacate our teensy one-bedroom basement apartment. The ad read: Rustic 1{1/2}-bedroom cabin. Must have 4WD. It sounded like fun, like an adventure. The little hippie shack has long since fallen down, and an actual house has taken its place. Full septic, passive solar gain, a smart setting on the parcel with southern...
When the calendar turns to April, I always think of artist Dug Nap's painting, “Vermont Weather Report,” and its only slightly tongue-in-cheek forecast: “Hot & sunny, turning to sleet mid-morning, becoming a blizzard by noon, 6-42 inches, followed by warm, moist, tropical air which will probably bring severe thunderstorms & a flood watch & a heat wave.” The first full month of spring in Vermont is usually a month of contrasts, temperatures that can range from the 20s to the...
From April 27 to June 9, Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts presents David Rohn: Watercolors, a gallery-wide exhibition of paintings spanning more than four decades. An opening reception will take place Saturday, April 27, from 5 to 7 p.m., and the gallery will host an artist talk on May 18 at 5 p.m. Growing up in Ludington, Mich., Rohn was accepted into the University of Michigan's College of Architecture and Design on the strength of a portfolio of watercolors, where he earned...
On Sunday, April 21, Wendy Redlinger's Jazz Soiree will host The Bob Stabach 4tet. The foursome consists of Eugene Uman, artistic director of the Vermont Jazz Center, on piano; George Kaye on bass; Jon Fisher on drums; and Bob Stabach, leader and composer, on saxophone. Since this concert will be on the eve of Earth Day, the band will present jazz tunes with titles referring to the earth, nature, and ecology. Between tunes, Wendy will read haiku by the Japanese...
We have done a couple of pretty amazing things in the Senate in recent days. One was passing an amendment to the state constitution that would protect reproductive rights. I am not going to write about that one right now. But we passed another bill - one that concerns the burn pits used by the military at their camps in various theaters. Many people are not aware of this issue. Neither was I, until Sheriff Keith Clark brought it to...
On behalf of the staff, clients, and board of Groundworks Collaborative, I extend a robust thank you to The Hatch, which organized the March 30 Storytellers on a Mission event that raised more than $30,000 to support the work we do. Members of The Hatch - Tom Bodett, Rita Ramirez, Elizabeth Catlin, and Rich Korson - put months of time and talent into curating this incredible show, raising funds and awareness of the need for our services in this community.
I read with interest articles recently concerning climate change (a phenomenon that has existed for four billion years) and while I do not disagree with the assertions that we could all treat each other and our Earth better, I am not afraid of climate change. Here's why. A quick Google search reveals what we are far more likely to die from, in this order: 1. Heart disease, 2. Cancer, 3. Chronic lower respiratory disease, 4. Stroke, 5. Accidents. We also...
Thanks for publishing Heidi Watts' poignant and compelling account of the purge of teachers at Putney Central School in 1966 for being “Quakers and communists.” Anyone who knows Heidi - or Anne Fines, another teacher purged from Putney - knows what amazing educators they went on to become. Heidi has, for decades, been helping set up education at Auroville, an intentional community in India. Anne's long career as an educator included creating the SCAMP summer program for pre-K students to...
In recognition of National Poetry Month, Landmark College will present a poetry performance on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m., entitled “My Body, My Country,” with Desmond Peeples, Shanta Lee Gander, and featured poet U-Melani Mhlaba-Adebo. Mhlaba-Adebo describes herself as a “Leominister, Massachusetts born, Zimbabwean-American grown” poet, author, actress, singer and educator. She has performed nationally and internationally in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Portugal, and Ireland. Her poetry collection, Soul Psalms, published by She Writes Press, has been characterized by...
Bread and Puppet Theater returns to Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, on Saturday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m., with a new play, Diagonal Man: Theory and Praxis. “Diagonals are created from the leaning power of hurt verticals,” Peter Schumann, founder and director of Bread and Puppet Theater, wrote in an artist's statement. “We inhabitants of Western modernity are no strangers to verticality, from the architecture of our cities, to the 'ladder(s) of success' we're asked to scale, to the incessant...
Running on Top of the Water (billed as “a play of Mania and Mastery”), written, produced, and acted by Charles Monette, with words of Robert Lowell, and directed by Miles Keefe, had its world premiere at the Hooker-Dunham Theater on April 11. Monette's nuanced portrait of Lowell's life is brilliant and sets a stunning familiarity with the world of this quintessential New England poet, aristocrat, and cultural icon. Collaborative artifice and thespian intimacy explore the relationships among art, human suffering,
Good day to you, residents of the windy hamlets in southeastern Vermont! The Spring of 2019 continues to bring varying weather conditions, and the next seven days will be no different. We'll enjoy a sunny Wednesday, with clouds building Wednesday night. Two rounds of showers with a warm frontal passage bring wet weather for Thursday morning and again in the evening. A strong low pressure system will track to our west and slow its forward speed, resulting in heavier rains...
According to a news release issued April 16 from the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, the 14 people charged in federal court include: • Curtis Bunkley, 29, of Brattleboro, charged with distribution of cocaine base, distribution of fentanyl, and possession with intent to distribute heroin. • Sarah Cassell, 32, of Brattleboro, charged with distribution of heroin and cocaine base. • Arthur Fisk, 28, of Brattleboro, charged with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent...
Members of The Commons have recently been mailed a reader survey with our annual spring fundraising appeal. We invite all readers, members or not, to answer a few questions so we can make the newspaper and our operation better and get a better understanding of our readership and demographics. All personal information is optional and will be used only for participation in a random drawing for a $50 gift certificate for Whetstone Station. You can download the survey here. You...
Fractured, performing at the New England Center for Circus Arts on May 4 and 5, is a fully devised circus production featuring solo and ensemble feats. The performers are members of the third and final year of the Professional Training Program (ProTrack) at NECCA. “These are the artists writing the next chapter of circus in America,” NECCA founder and artistic director Serenity Smith Forchion said in a news release. This production is the first time that NECCA is taking graduates...
Next Stage Arts Project presents Green Writers Press' fourth annual Earth Day Celebration/Reading on Friday, April 26, at 7 p.m. There is a $10 suggested donation to benefit Next Stage's education programs. Green Writers Press is a locally-grown Vermont publisher with a global reach and sphere of influence in creative arts and letters that extends beyond the mountains of Vermont. The evening will feature short readings by Vermont authors (and some from out-of-state), book signings, and cake. The line-up includes...
The artwork of Fiona Morehouse will be on display at Main Street Arts through May 10 in a show entitled “Home At Heart.” An opening reception will be held Thursday, April 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. An artist and educator dividing her time between Putney and Vinalhaven, Maine, Morehouse has exhibited widely in the Northeast and on the West Coast. In her artist statement, she describes her work as “a conversation between the heart, mind, and the soul” as...
Flying Bird, a musical composition by fifth-grader Ella Wilson of The Grammar School in Putney, was recently chosen to be played at the Music Composition Mentoring Program's annual Opus 34 concert. According to a news release from the school, Wilson's piece was chosen for Music-COMP for at least two reasons: “[The] instrumentation of flute, bassoon, and piano was a unique and descriptive combination,” and “the story was well-constructed and easy to follow, with the flute portraying a sparrow, the bassoon...
Osama Bin Laden is sleeping with the fishes, but his dreams may be coming true. Bin Laden thought that the U.S. is a corrupted shell of a nation. He thought that the Sept. 11 attacks would expose a vulnerable underbelly, crumble our resolve, and disunite us. He may have been wrong about our resolve, but nearly 20 years later, our unity is now crumbling like our neglected bridges. Immediately following the September attacks, President George W. Bush admirably spoke about...
Jesse Lockwood Kreitzer and Alina Kulpaviciute became homeowners by chance. In June 2017, they started renting the renovated circa-1820 Winchester School House on Higley Hill in Marlboro. By October 2017, they decided to buy it. “The decision was completely emotional,” Kreitzer admits. For someone seeking a ski lodge or a second home, a purchase of property like the schoolhouse would be “pocket change,” Kreitzer said. But the situation felt different for the young artists. “I felt very protective of this...
The American Legion is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but the nation's largest veterans organization finds itself in the same position as many other service groups in the United States - struggling to maintain its relevance amid a changing society. The Legion's national commander, Brett P. Reistad of Manassas, Va., addressed this issue during a visit to Brattleboro Post 5 on April 11. While the Legion still has 2.7 million members and still possesses a fair amount of clout...
If a show of force was needed against the drug and crime situation in the area, United States Attorney Christina E. Nolan delivered one on Tuesday at a press conference in the roll-call room at the Brattleboro Police Department. Nolan's visit to southern Vermont came on the heels of a three-day drug sweep in Brattleboro and Putney that netted 16 suspects. Flanked by 16 federal and state officials, state police officers, and Police Chief Michael Fitzgerald, Nolan sent a stern...