The past week's torrential and troubling rainfall has brought to many minds Tropical Storm Irene, which ripped through Vermont on Aug. 28, 2011.
As Irene passed through Vermont that Sunday, its wind caused damage. But it was the aftermath - 11 inches of rain that the storm quickly dumped on the state - that caused $733 million in destruction.
However, Windham Regional Commission Executive Director Chris Campany says the storm also brought a few “lessons learned.”
He spoke Monday with The Commons about what those lessons include and what more we can do following the showers and thunderstorms that swept through Windham County on July 29.
Out in the Open (OITO) says it has reopened its Rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid Fund. In 2020, the fund distributed over $22,250 to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual folks, prioritizing applicants who are queer, transgender, Black, Indigenous, or people of color living in rural northern New...
The public is invited to learn about the choices, challenges, and responsibilities that local journalists face at “That's News to Me: Covering Brattleboro Today,” a panel and audience discussion with local journalists who will share their experience, the values that drive them, and how they view their role in...
Births • Susan and Martin Brennan-Sawyer of Putney, recently welcomed the birth of their first grandchild. Linli (林丽) Brennan-Chen, son of Yabei Chen and Logan Brennan-Sawyer, was born on July 21, 2021 in Beijing, China at 9 a.m. local time. Logan Brennan-Sawyer is a 2003 graduate of The Putney School, and a 2011 graduate of the SIT Graduate Institute. College news • Peter Carvell, Vice President and Senior Commercial Banking Officer of Brattleboro Savings & Loan, recently graduated from the...
The Ames Brook Community Garden is searching for an artist to design and build a piece of art for their garden, which is in a nine-acre park on Stockwell Drive and is operated by the Recreation & Parks Department. The garden, established in 2009 and has 17 plots for gardeners, enjoys the sounds of Ames Brook babbling nearby. Chairs, a wooden swing, a picnic table, and grill are available for all to enjoy. Over the years, the garden has added...
Brattleboro Senior Meals now operating five days a week BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Senior Congregate Meal dining program has begun operating five days a week, Monday through Friday, from noon to 12:30 p.m., at the Senior Center in the basement of the Gibson-Aiken Center, 207 Main St. Capacity is still limited, and reservations will be required no later than 11 a.m. Also, the Meals on Wheels program has an immediate need for volunteers to help deliver meals. You can volunteer...
Step back in time at the Windham County History Fair on Saturday, Aug. 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., on the historic Newfane Common on Route 30. The fair - held every other year - is described by organizers as “a festival of vintage exhibits, demonstrations, and historic tours featuring Windham County's rich heritage.” The Vermont Historical Society, the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, the Vermont State Archives, and the Vermont State Police will join many of Windham County's...
The work of Putney writer Toni Ortner appears in the current issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Ortner's poem, “Weather of the Heart,” appears in issue 83, “Global Perspectives.” The work was selected from more than 400 submissions. A college teacher of English and a writer who has had 26 books published by small presses, her books include Daybook I Deerbrook Editions (2019) and Giving Myself Over to J.S. Bach (2018). “I...
She is a 76-year-old woman, a cancer survivor, and caretaker for her 94-year-old mother. She spent 16 years in prison for distributing heroin before being released to house arrest last year. Her name is Gwen Levi, and she was doing well - until she didn't answer a phone call from her parole officer because she was in a computer class she hoped would lead to employment. Now she's back in jail because she didn't take the call, considered a violation...
As part of its Spotlight film series, Latchis Arts and the Windham World Affairs Council present Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, a documentary that celebrates the life of the first African woman and environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The screening, a benefit for the Wangari Maathai Foundation, takes place on Thursday, Aug. 5, at 7 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre. Local Windham County filmmakers Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, through TV footage and chilling first person...
Thousands of customers have fallen behind on their accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now grant money through the Vermont Department of Public Service can help pay your overdue utility balance and get you back on track. These state grants are not a loan, and the money is first come, first served. • $40 million is available for qualified renters to help pay past due - and, in some cases, future - utility bills. More information can be found at...
Nominations are now open for the 2021 Rockingham Old House Awards. “This is an excellent opportunity to celebrate with property owners their restoration and renewal of historic homes and commercial buildings,” Dr. John Leppman, chair of the Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission, said in a news release. The 24th annual program, sponsored by the commission, features multiple award categories with multiple awardees. Categories include awards for best private residence, commercial building, apartment building, and curb appeal. Over the years, owners of...
The Brattleboro Literary Festival continues its 20th anniversary year with Didi Jackson and her debut poetry collection, Moon Jar. Jackson will be in conversation with former Vermont Poet Laureate Chard deNiord at the online gathering, which starts at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 13. Moon Jar explores the life-altering and heart-rending loss of a husband in 2011 to suicide. In an effort to understand this unforeseen and inexplicable act, she maps with immense candor the emotional difficulty of continuing her...
In connection with the exhibit “Charlie Hunter: Semaphore,” currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), Hunter will give a free plein-air painting demonstration on Saturday, Aug. 7, at 2 p.m., followed by a tour of his nearby studio. The demonstration takes place at the Bellows Falls train station at 54 Depot St. Space is limited; register at brattleboromuseum.org. Hunter is well known throughout the country for paintings that depict decaying American infrastructure, including railroads and bridges.
Brattleboro Post 5 was the best team in Vermont American Legion Baseball's Southern Division this season, but they fell one game short of capturing a second state title. The early games of the 2021 state Legion tournament were spread around the state, but whether the games were in Brattleboro or Rutland, Post 5 ably represented southern Vermont baseball. They defeated everyone until they faced the perennial northern Vermont baseball powerhouse, Essex Post 91. Still, it was a good season for...
Brooks Memorial Library, in collaboration with C.X. Silver Gallery, presents Lynn Herring's XOX! group performance art-piece at the library on Saturday Aug. 7, from 2 to 5 p.m., with an artist talk at 3 p.m. People of all ages are welcome to the free program, and the venue is accessible. According to a news release, the art-piece is a reimagined strategic game-as-art and asks the question, “Can art bring people together to set aside their differences, to sit down and...
Kate Barry starts opening the first of a stack of cardboard boxes on the bar, her smile broadening into a grin. “These are our light fixtures,” she says excitedly, as her husband, Bruce Hunt, tools in hand, looks on, and their 3-year-old daughter, Juniper, sits on a barstool momentarily entranced by a solitary Lincoln log that she found here, somewhere in the space that will become The Collective. “All of this is new,” Barry says, gesturing to a gleaming array...
Potent teen voices ripple through Listen Up!, an original music theater piece currently touring Vermont, created by multi-award-winning director and producer Bess O'Brien and a company of teen and adult collaborators. “Just because you knew me doesn't mean I'm still the same,” they sing in collaboratively written lyrics. “Just because I'm born and raised doesn't mean I'm going to stay./Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I want to dance./I never had a dad but that don't mean I'm not a...
Climate change and its resulting weather variations are contributing to floods and massive roadway erosion in some parts of Vermont, and floods and droughts in other areas this month. A large section of northern Vermont experienced abnormally dry conditions in July, but southern Vermont endured two major storms - one on July 17, the other on July 30 - causing significant harm from heavy rainfall. Three cars landed in riverbeds in the two storms: one in Brattleboro, where a bridge...
Alexander P. Gutterman's episodic film The Hunter is a heady, spiritual, sometimes playful expedition - a quest to understand. Originally a three-hour-plus film that was then repackaged into 10 episodes, its maker, Alexander P. Gutterman, isn't your status quo filmmaker. As Katherine Partington of Guilford - the choreographer/dancer in the series - puts it: “Alex is resistant to narrative structure and, in that sense, he has a unique voice.” That resistance is at the core of his labyrinthine work. A...
One of the rainiest Julys on record in Windham County ended with a wave of heavy showers and thunderstorms on July 29 that dumped as much as 5 inches of rain in a matter of few hours and caused flash flooding that damaged miles of roads and multiple homes. No injuries were reported, but emergency crews were kept busy with evacuations from places where flash flooding occurred. Gov. Phil Scott toured flood-damaged areas of Putney and Westminster on Aug. 2.
When, in 1963, I was kicked out of Emerson College at the end of my second year (don't ask), I moved home to live with my family in Far Rockaway, N.Y. and landed at Brooklyn College. It was then free to New York residents, and my parents wouldn't pay for another high-priced school out of which I could be kicked. Jerry Marcel was the star of the theater department at Brooklyn College, and justifiably so. He was a gifted artist...