BRATTLEBORO-Did you know Vermont now requires that batteries be recycled and can no longer be tossed in the trash? Used batteries up to eleven pounds in Vermont can be returned free of charge to retailers including Staples and Brown and Roberts Hardware, and at the scale house window at Windham Solid Waste Management District's (WSWMD) transfer station on Old Ferry Road.
All types of batteries are accepted in this collection program, including alkaline, rechargeable, and button. Batteries are filled with metals such as copper, nickel, lead, iron, cobalt, cadmium, and lithium. These metals can be recovered from the collected batteries and reused.
"This is your chance to be a part of closing the loop," district spokespersons said in a news release. "By recovering these metals from your used batteries, it reduces the need for mining more of these natural resources."
Battery collection sites prepare batteries for shipping by placing clear tape over the ends of some batteries or in clear plastic bags to prevent terminals from touching as a safety precaution. Once at the processing center, batteries are separated by their type and chemical makeup and recycled into new items, such as stainless steel, golf clubs, silverware, sunscreen, road asphalt, and new batteries.
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present folk music duos Sons of Town Hall and Alice Howe & Freebo on Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. Sons of Town Hall, the transatlantic folk duo of American songwriter-author David Berkeley and British songwriter-producer Ben Parker, is creating a new...
SAXTONS RIVER-Main Street Arts, 35 Main St., presents Once In the Time of Trolls, with performances on Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, March 8, at 2 and 7 p.m. Directed by Trish Roberts, Once in the Time of Trolls is a comedy written by Sandra Fenichel...
->Guilford approves all articles in speedy Saturday meeting GUILFORD - All went well at the town's first-ever Saturday morning Annual Town Meeting on March 1. According to Town Clerk Erika Elder, "Town Meeting wrapped up before lunch yesterday. It was a civil meeting with good turnout and discussion. All the articles passed with no amendments." For fiscal year 2026, voters approved spending $1,149,557 for the town's Highway Fund, $805,776 for the town's general fund, $286,550 for the Guilford Volunteer Fire...
-The Vermont girls' basketball playoffs start this week with Brattleboro and Bellows Falls beginning their postseason journeys at home, while Twin Valley and Leland & Gray have first-round road games. • Brattleboro completed the regular season with an 11-9 record and the seventh seed in Division I. They will host the No. 10 Colchester Lakers (5-15) in a first-round playoff game at the BUHS gym on March 5. The Bears had their Senior Night game on Feb. 28 at the...
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Center for Photography (VCP), 10 Green St., announces the opening of "Of Land and Place," a juried exhibition exploring the profound relationship between humanity and the natural world. The exhibition, juried by Sharon Harper and Karen Haas, features the work of 41 photographers from across the United States and Canada. It opens on Friday, March 7, with a public reception from 5 to 8 p.m., and runs through April 27. "Of Land and Place" showcases a diverse range...
RFPL hosts gardening roundtable BELLOWS FALLS - With more than 110 years of gardening experience between them, Laurel Green and Wendy Regier will share their knowledge and discuss attendees' gardening challenges at the Gardening Roundtable on Thursday, March 6, at 5:30 p.m. at the Rockingham Free Public Library. People with all levels of gardening experience, including no previous experience, are welcome. Attendees are welcome to share their gardening knowledge and experiences as well. Though both seasoned gardeners, these two gardeners'
College news • Brody Meszkat of Londonderry and Miles Ackerman-Hovis of Guilford were named to the Dean's List for the fall 2024 semester at Purchase (N.Y.) College. • Charlotte Croft of West Dover and Addison Kujovsky of South Londonderry were named to the Dean's List for the fall 2024 semester at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Obituaries • Judithe L. Clayton, 78, died on Feb. 12, 2025, at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. She was born...
BRATTLEBORO-Three new members will join the Selectboard following an election that, fueled by a surge of new local political activism, became a pointed referendum on crime and punishment, on drugs and recovery, and on high property taxes and humanitarian spending. According to unofficial results posted by Town Clerk Hilary Francis, Oscar Heller defeated Jill Stahl Tyler, 1,412-961, for the open three-year seat on the board that was vacated by the current chair, Daniel Quipp. In a crowded field for two...
WHITINGHAM-"Today is bittersweet," said outgoing Town Moderator Leon Corse. "I've ... mostly ... enjoyed my time as moderator," he joked in his farewell statement on March 4. Anyone who witnessed Corse moderating would see a meticulous follower of Robert's Rules of Order who also oversaw meetings with an understated sense of humor while wearing a big smile. An organic farmer, Corse thanked his wife Linda for "her unwavering support and assistance" and for keeping the farm running while he presided...
BRATTLEBORO-With approximately three out of four of the concerts that have been presented at the Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) over half a century preserved via video and audio, the nonprofit is "aiming to preserve all concerts with high-quality video and audio recordings" and prepare to share those and other invaluable jazz-centric materials with the world. So said Eugene Uman, VJC's executive director, in a presentation for the jazz research group on Jan. 9 at the Jazz Education Network's annual conference...
Meg Mott, Ph.D. is professor emerita of Marlboro College and Emerson College and describes herself as a Constitution wrangler. PUTNEY-Is the Constitution in crisis? If you listen to Democrats, the president is exceeding his authority. All these executive orders, all these firings and spending freezes! How can this be part of the plan? But if we look at Article II of the Constitution, the source of all that authority, you'll see that the president has enormous decision-making powers over the...
Ross Momaney (rmm-art.com) is a visual artist and arts educator. By blending these roles, he makes a meaningful impact both in the gallery and the classroom, championing the transformative power of art. DUMMERSTON-On Feb. 24, I attended the special meeting hosted by the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and Windham Southeast School District boards and our local elected representatives at Brattleboro Union High School. This meeting reviewed Gov. Phil Scott's "transformative" education plan. Scott's plan focuses on making major changes to...
WESTMINSTER-It's not a generally known fact of history unless you happen to be from southeastern Vermont, but a strong case can be made that the first armed conflict of the Revolutionary War did not take place at Lexington or Concord in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. That first armed conflict was the Westminster Massacre, a historic milestone whose 250th anniversary will be marked by multiple events in town from Thursday, March 13, to Saturday, March 15. Just three months after...
Jon Hoover is assistant executive director of Groundworks Collaborative. BRATTLEBORO-This community needs to come together to put Groundworks Collaborative's homeless services out of business. Groundworks operates a 34-bed shelter that has expanded to serve up to 46 individuals this winter. Meanwhile, Groundworks is also planning to open a separate 40-bed shelter in 2026. Additionally, the organization serves and supports numerous unsheltered individuals on any given night, while more individuals reside in motels as emergency shelter throughout our community. While shelter...
Carolyn North (carolynnorthbooks.com) is a writer of books that address "the interface between matter and spirit." PUTNEY-Recently, I went to a high school production of Cabaret to see the daughter of a good friend performing in it. Assuming I was going to a kind of variety show, I expected a sweet teenage-y thing - but it wasn't. I'd forgotten that Cabaret was also the name of a musical based on Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories taking place during the rise...
TOWNSHEND-Before the Feb. 25 girls' basketball game between Leland & Gray and Bellows Falls, a special ceremony honored members of the undefeated Leland & Gray girls' basketball teams from 1952 and 1955. Leland & Gray Athletic Director Tammy Claussen called forward to center court the four former players - Mary Cutts Mewes and Mary Robinson Laitres, who were both members of the 1952 team, and Marty Gould Morrison and Marilyn Bills Chapin, who were on the 1955 team - where...
BRATTLEBORO-After 14 years as assistant town manager, Patrick Moreland is stepping down to become the executive director of DVFiber, the nonprofit fiber-optic Internet provider serving southeastern Vermont. Moreland has been assistant town manager since 2011, serving with Barbara Sondag, then–town manager. Her tenure was followed by those of Peter Elwell, Yoshi Manale, and current Town Manager John Potter. Moreland did stints as interim town manager twice: for six months in 2022 and for a 19-month "opportunity," as he calls it,
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Jazz Center is thrilled to present Huntertones - a sextet comprised of Dan White (saxophones), Jon Lampley (trumpet, sousaphone), Chris Ott (trombone, beatbox), Josh Hill (guitar), Adam DeAscentis (bass), and John Hubbell (drums) - on Saturday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. These musicians have traveled to more than 25 countries. They have collaborated with musicians from South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe as part of a U.S. State Department program initiated in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower...
MacLean Gander is retired from a long career as a professor and administrator at Landmark College. A former member of the board of directors of Vermont Independent Media, he was a longtime volunteer investigative reporter and columnist for this newspaper. This piece is adapted from his Substack site, Escape Velocity, where he posts essays about society, culture and politics. RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL-Trump and Musk's illegal orders and activities are more than just a coup - they are a literal...
Michelle Bos-Lun and Richard Nelson are state representatives who sit across the table from each other in the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry Committee. Bos-Lun is a high school teacher from Westminster, representing the Windham-3 district in her third term. Nelson, a dairy farmer from Derby, is a first-term representative serving Orleans-1. We are two Vermont state representatives - one Democrat, one Republican - serving together on the House Committee for Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry. Understanding the needs...
BELLOWS FALLS-The town's first-ever weekend Annual Town Meeting on March 1 brought an unusually large crowd to consider two hot-button articles - consolidating the Rockingham, Bellows Falls, and Saxtons River fire departments, and providing additional funding to renovate the Bellows Falls train station. While the two articles were debated at length, and some amendments to them were offered and discussed, in the end both articles passed as written. The lines of voters waiting to get into the Bellows Falls Middle...