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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.
• Irving Banning, 89, of Townshend, previously of South Newfane and Windsor Locks, Conn. Died peacefully on Feb. 17, 2022, at Valley Cares Assisted Living. Beloved husband of the late Alice (Call) Banning, Irving was born in Hartford, Conn., son of the late Leon and Ella (Larson) Banning. He met the love of his life, Alice, while attending Glastonbury High School. He served proudly as a corporal in the Marine Corps during the Korean War from 1951 to 1954. Following his service, he married Alice in 1956, and began his 22-year career as a produce buyer for First National Food Stores (Finast), and later, in wholesale produce sales for Pioneer Fruit and Connecticut Celery in Hartford. In semi-retirement, he worked for GS Precision in Brattleboro. Irving was a jack-of-all-trades with many talents, especially building beautifully crafted furniture. As an Irish tenor, he had a passion for singing, performing solos while attending Glastonbury High School as well as in the Marines. Every Sunday, he sang “The Lord's Prayer” for his fellow residents at Valley Cares. He was a sports enthusiast, and a loyal fan of the New York Yankees and New York Giants. In his early years, he enjoyed golfing, billiards and bowling with his co-workers. In his later years, a treasured memory was traveling to Ireland with his beloved, Alice. He was a communicant of St. Michael's Church in Brattleboro. He will be lovingly remembered by his children, Kevin Banning and his wife, Jamila, of Westbrook, Conn., Kathy Beeman and her husband, Barry, of Pinehurst, N.C., William Banning of Manchester, Conn., Linda Krikawa of Weatogue, Conn., and his eight grandchildren. He was predeceased by brothers Joseph andErnest Banning and his beloved son-in-law Thomas Krikawa. He also leaves behind many wonderful nieces and nephews. Memorial information: In lieu...
The local chapter of The Forty and Eight, a national veterans organization, is offering scholarships to qualified undergraduate students enrolled in academic programs of study leading to either an associate's or bachelor's degree in nursing. Although military experience is not required, these scholarships can help veterans in related military...
The Crowell Art Gallery, located at the Moore Free Library on 23 West St., is hosting “Motifs: Again & Again 50 Years.” This “fun and fanciful exhibit,” organizers say, “celebrates over 50 years of whimsical expression” by artist Kay Curtis. The show runs through the end of March. An...
In Stile Moderno returns to the Brattleboro Music Center Friday, March 11, presenting “Stay, Time: Lute Songs of John Dowland.” The 7:30 p.m. concert features vocalists Agnes Coakley Cox, Sophie Michaux, Corey Dalton Hart, and Adam Simon, with Nathaniel Cox on the lute. “Stay, time, awhile thy flying,” writes John Dowland in A Pilgrimes Solace. “It's a wish we can all relate to - as children grow, parents age, or milestones slip by - if only we could pause time...
It's rare to have a girls' and boys' ice hockey playoff doubleheader against the same school on the same night, but that's what happened to Brattleboro on Feb. 26. Both Colonels teams made the trip to Stowe Area to play their respective Division II first-round playoff games against the Raiders. At the end of the evening, it was the Colonel girls who moved on with a 4-1 victory while the Colonel boys, the defending state champions, saw their season end...
What should one make of a recent commentary in the Reformer, “War is the answer”? Here are a couple of possible reactions: It's either a monumental Machiavellian act of cynicism or a ploy by a newspaper owner to gin up sales. Either way, it presents a cogent critique of capitalism.
Ezra Francis Marder made his life an enduring gift to the world. He was a dazzling, kind-hearted spirit, a sidewalk cartwheel spinner, a poet, an actor, an artist, a musician, a writer, and a lover of family, friends, dancing, and food. A tender friend to many, and a treasured grandson, cousin, and nephew, he died on Nov. 27, 2021, in Lake Charles, La., after a long illness. Born Nov. 22, 2004, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the beloved son of Liza Cassidy...
BMH returns to normal operation and ends testing, vaccine clinicsBRATTLEBORO - Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has returned to normal operations. In an email, BMH president and CEO Steve Gordon wrote that “many of our staff members who were temporarily reassigned during January's Omicron surge have started to return to their home departments” and that, starting this week, BMH will “begin providing services and procedures that had been reduced or postponed due to staffing challenges.” Due to the decrease in scheduled testing...
A lot has been discussed about the effects of the Covid pandemic on our society, but one story I haven't heard talked about much is the effect it has had on our local 12-step recovery community. A major part of the 12-step recovery process is the attendance at meetings with others in recovery. There, issues and problems relating to alcoholism and addiction are discussed and members help one another to stave off the often-fatal obsession with substance abuse. Using the...
New England Center for Circus Arts' (NECCA) 12th Annual Circus Spectacular on Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6, will feature professional performers from around the world donating their talents to raise money for NECCA's scholarships, outreach, and programming. This is a unique opportunity to see some of today's most acclaimed high-flying aerialists, acrobats, and jugglers, say event organizers. Both performances will occur in person on the Latchis Theatre stage, or via livestream for the March 5 show only, if...
I was very disappointed in the article written about the Feb. 17 meet-and-greet for the new Guilford Selectboard candidates. To include the content of an email from Skye Morse, who alluded to Jason Herron, one of the candidates, as being linked to a white supremacist movement, was scandalous. What evidence do you have of the truth of that label? Absolutely none! You owe Jason an apology.
While I was not surprised at the headline on this piece by Randy Holhut, I was surprised by its content. Why is it this writer cannot be open-minded enough to appreciate citizens of different political backgrounds getting involved in their community? It has always been painfully obvious this publication has pushed liberal ideals and has been very kind to any Democrat or progressive candidates seeking public office. But to try to somehow paint these new candidates as part of a...
For the second straight year, the “meeting” part of Town Meeting Day was hard to find in Windham County, as only Athens and Stratton opted to have in-person meetings. Every other town either conducted business by Australian ballot on March 1 or postponed the meeting until warmer weather returns later this spring. There were several contested races of interest around the county. In Newfane, incumbent Katy Johnson-Aplin and newcomer Jeffrey Chevalier were the winners for the two, one-year seats on...
Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a charter change on Feb. 28 that would have granted 16- and 17-year-olds in Brattleboro the right to vote and run for office in municipal elections. On Tuesday, Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, who cosponsored the bill with the town's two other representatives, Mollie Burke and Tristan Toleno, said that the delegation hopes to begin the process of attempting to override the governor's veto. This is the Republican governor's third veto of the legislative session. In a letter...
After nearly two centuries here, the Windham County Sheriff's Office will move to Brattleboro. Windham County has bought the former Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee Joint Information Center at 185 Old Ferry Rd., which was once the world headquarters of Famolare Shoes, to house the Sheriff's Office and the county courthouse. Assistant Judges Patricia Duff and Lamont Barnett closed the deal for $500,000 on the property, valued by the town at $810,000, on Feb. 14. The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant...
Seven new solo exhibits will open at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Saturday, March 12, featuring work by M. Carmen Lane, Roberto Visani, Yvette Molina, Mildred Beltré Martinez, Sachiko Akiyama, Louisa Chase, and Anne Spalter. The museum will be closed Sunday, March 6 through Friday, March 11 to install the new exhibits. “This group of exhibits showcases a wide range of curatorial and artistic perspectives and a variety of media, from sculpture and installation to painting and...
Feb. 9: At 4:30 a.m., I swear I hear a pounding on the door. There must be a lamb coming or a ewe stuck in labor. I run down the stairs, expecting to see April, our farmhand, but no one is at the door. OK, so I imagined all that? Well, I might as well go to the barn. I gear up for a pretty mild night. I'm at the stage where gearing up for a nighttime visit to the...
After four months being closed, it's busy again at Rod's Towing & Repairs. “We've gone from zero to 100 overnight,” said co-owner Julie Winchester of the reopening of her family's business following its destruction in a fire in October. “We're so thankful. It's super busy. It's a little challenging working in a smaller space with uneven floors and in two buildings,” she said. “We haven't finished, so we have no waiting room or front counter,” Winchester continued. “The only thing...
It is impossible to be a student of history without being a student of war, and this is what I have learned so far, after 45 years of studying both. War starts on impulse; the outcome can never be predicted and the aftermath never understood. War is what happens when all diplomatic means are exhausted. War is what happens when the ability to communicate and find common ground is broken apart. War is what happens when equations of power get...
Last week, a group of Afghan refugee women, accompanied by local artist and teacher Terry Sylvester, made signs that say “Welcome” in English as well as Dari and Pashto - the two official languages of Afghanistan - and distributed them to downtown businesses. “[Store owners] were very happy, and they said, 'Welcome' to us,” said Fatima, who participated in the project. ”They accepted our signs and put them in the windows, and they were very kind to us.” Later in...
Cara Blue Adams's collection of interwoven short stories, You Never Get It Back, opens like this: “I met loss the other day. I took his measurements. My yellow tape looped around my arm, pins held tight between pursed lips, I circled him. I measured his thin wrists, his frail neck, his elegantly sloped shoulders [...].” This prelude - an allegory, really - zeroes in on “people unwilling to let go of what was gone.” It's beautifully bookended by the collection's...
