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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.
The Deerfield River Watershed Association (DRWA), in partnership with the Windham Regional Commission, has been awarded a Vermont Watershed grant from the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department to fund a Wild and Scenic River designation study for the Vermont portions of the Deerfield River watershed.
“This momentum reflects years of community building across the entire watershed,” said DRWA President Christopher Bathurst in a news release.
DRWA has accepted the $5,000 state grant, which will be matched by a $5,000 contribution from the association. The grant will support a detailed assessment of the Deerfield River’s Vermont tributaries — including the Deerfield River’s North, East, and West branches; the Green and North rivers — documenting the rivers’ “outstandingly remarkable values” across scenic, recreational, ecological, historic, and cultural dimensions.
This assessment will be an important step toward completing the needed full Wild and Scenic Study for the Vermont portion of the watershed. When completed, the study will be combined with the already completed Massachusetts study and will go to Congress to inform a Federal Wild and Scenic River designation decision on the Deerfield River and its tributaries.
BRATTLEBORO-The vocal ensemble Brattleboro Camerata presents the music of Arvo Pärt and Johannes Ockeghem in a program titled “White Light Which Contains All Colors,” Sunday, April 19, at 4 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center, 72 Blanche Moyse Way. The Brattleboro Camerata is “devoted to exploring the beauty and...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts presents the Veronica Robles Quartet Sunday, April 19. The show begins at 2 p.m., with doors opening at 1:15 p.m. Robles, a mariachi singer, musician, and Latin American folkloric dancer and choreographer, has become a cultural icon for Boston’s Latino community, according to organizers. Known for...
Obituaries • Arlene C. (Clark) Gilbert, 92, of Nashua, New Hampshire, formerly of Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Marlboro, Vermont, died peacefully and joined her beloved husband of 70 years, Robert Gilbert, April 5, 2026. Born March 15, 1934, Arlene was home-birthed at the Clark dairy farm in Guilford. She lived a full and active life filled with simple joys and deep devotion to family. Arlene and Robert raised their family in Nashua and Londonderry before retiring to Marlboro. In 2021,
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham World Affairs Council (WWAC) will host a talk by John Feffer on Friday, April 17, 6:30 p.m. at 118 Elliot in Brattleboro. Feffer, director of the think tank Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., will examine whether the Trump administration is resurrecting a long-standing American ambition to serve as the world’s policeman. After bombing Iran last summer and capturing Venezuela’s president this January, the United States is currently waging a war...
Community ‘Pokéwalk’ in Bellows Falls BELLOWS FALLS — The Rockingham Free Public Library invites community members of all ages to take part in an interactive “Pokéwalk” Thursday, April 16, at 3:30 p.m. Participants will gather at the library before heading out together on a guided walk to explore the area while playing the popular mobile game Pokémon Go. Organizers says this free event is designed to bring people together through technology, outdoor activity, and community engagement. Whether you’re a seasoned...
SAXTONS RIVER-Doozy Jane will perform a benefit concert supporting the Migrant Justice Center, a nonprofit that empowers immigrant farmworkers to organize for economic justice and human rights. The concert will be held at Main Street Arts, 35 Main St., Friday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m. Doozy Jane “breathes fresh life into classic sounds with their four-part treble harmonies and contemporary feminist existence,” wrote organizers in a news release. Inspired by vocal harmonizers of popular music and Americana, Doozy Jane performs...
DUMMERSTON-The Dummerston Historical Society invites all to a new exhibit, “Faces and Places, Snap, Snap, Snap,” featuring photographs by Leonard Oppenheim. A full-time resident of Dummerston since the early 2000s, Oppenheim first visited Dummerston as a Peace Corps trainee in July–October, 1964. His two-year Peace Corps assignment was in Afghanistan. He called that time “exotic, colorful, wondrous — a terrific place for photography. And the rest is history!” Over the years, Oppenheim has traveled to many places —Brazil, China, India,
BRATTLEBORO-Representatives from the Windham County Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Capacity Building Program says the organization has provided 388 free lead-based paint safety certifications since launching in 2024. Participants - including contractors, property owners and property managers - are helping expand lead-safe work across Vermont. Administered through the Windham County Sheriff's Office, the program lays the groundwork for future lead hazard reduction grants in the county. Training is available to Vermonters and those who work in Vermont through accredited...
BRATTLEBORO-Prairie Home Companion alum Garrison Keillor with special guest Richard Dworsky returns tothe Bellows Falls Opera House on Friday, April 17. For over four decades, Keillor’s mellifluous croon brought America “The News From Lake Wobegon” every Saturday night with A Prairie Home Companion on public radio. Accompanying him for most of those years was pianist Richard Dworsky, who — as a special treat — will be sharing the stage on the April 17 show. Keillor ended his regular radio days...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department will offer additional Open Gym and Game Room hours, from 1:30 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, April 20 to April 24 at the Gibson-Aiken Center, 207 Main St., during school vacation week. The free program for children in kindergarten through 12th grade is a supervised and includes basketball, foosball, air hockey, pool, etc., in a safe and fun environment. Note that those playing basketball should wear clean indoor shoes. The Rec. Dept. and...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) Players announce their upcoming spring play, Alice in Wonderland, adapted for the stage by Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus, adapted from Lewis Carroll, with music by Richard Addinsell. Performances will be held on April 17 and 18, at 7 p.m., in the BUHS Auditorium. The audience will “join Alice down the rabbit hole as she discovers the magic of Wonderland. Animals speak in riddles, nonsense makes sense, and the adventures of young Alice...
BRATTLEBORO-Tiny Theater, in partnership with ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., present a special literary event featuring Bob Rosenthal, poet, editor, and longtime secretary to Allen Ginsberg, Sunday, April 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This presentation will delve into the life, work, and enduring cultural impact of Ginsberg and the Beat poets, drawing from Rosenthal’s memoir Straight Around Allen. Signed copies of the memoir will be sold. Through readings, reflections, and discussion, the author “will illuminate Ginsberg’s...
Joyce Marcel is a reporter and columnist for The Commons, where she regularly covers politics, homelessness, economic development issues, and the arts. BRATTLEBORO-I’m a water baby, a lap swimmer, an Aquarius-born, brought up on the New York beaches, a person who swam happily in vast oceans named Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Mediterranean and then washed up in ocean-less Vermont. Which is why this is an elegy for a pool. A particular pool. A pool on Putney Road. A pool that...
-The Brattleboro Unified basketball team went into its home opener against the Twin Valley Wildcats on April 9 in a very unfamiliar position. For the first time in the history of the program, the Bears had lost their first two games. After being narrowly defeated by Mount Anthony on April 1 and a 46-35 loss to Rutland on April 6, Bears coach Tyler Boone said the team needed a reset against Twin Valley. Boone said that in the preparation for...
Nancy Braus, a retired independent bookseller, is a longtime activist. GUILFORD-The very first time I attempted to see a therapist for my feelings of sadness and dread, about 30 or 40 years ago, I was focused on the environmental destruction — the extinctions, poisoning the land, single-use garbage, and so much more — being wreaked upon the Earth by unfettered industrial capitalism. I still can see the face of this very smart woman, who told me that she was similarly...
It’s spring, and Windham County is blooming with seven new books by six local authors. Some are fiction. Some are nonfiction. Some are self-published. Some are published by major publishers. Some are published with a hybrid model that falls somewhere in between. Putting all of them together, it makes for a bountiful crop: • Cheryl Wilfong, of Putney, who has self-published 22 books, has just put out a new historical novel, Long Haul. • Peter Gould, of Brattleboro, has two...
GUILFORD-You say: "But we did not vote for him!" Maybe so, yet we are still complicit in what is happening, not only in our own country but around the world. We did not work hard and smart enough to keep him from getting elected. Although we worked on her campaign, we could have done much more. We could have kept the Democratic Party from becoming controlled by those who lost sight of working-class needs. We could have done more to...
HINSDALE, N.H.-Bravo to Todd Murchison for an absolutely touching piece about life and death. Murchuson points out that no one is ever gone, they simply change in death. What a comforting thought! No matter how you've lost a loved one - addiction, stroke, cancer, an accident, no matter - Murchison's piece gives you comfort. Thanks to The Commons for printing this beautiful piece that transcends all that divides us. Murchison reminds us that in death we are united behind our...
Gino Palmeri runs a small organic orchard, works as a bus driver, and serves on his local conservation commission. PUTNEY-If you’re confused about how the world has gotten so hostile, if you’re wondering what happened to sustainability, if you’re angry that our country is fighting yet another Middle East war — one which overnight could easily turn nuclear: Understand that the underlying cause is largely economic. It’s greed. It’s far easier for the ruling class to get even richer on...
BRATTLEBORO-I had forgotten about the case of Zorn v. Linton until I heard the small blurb on Vermont Public reporting that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) had ruled against Shela Linton, director of the Root Social Justice Center of Brattleboro. The ruling denied her access to litigation to sue for damages from Vermont State Police Sergeant Jacob Zorn for injuring her wrist and inflicting psychological harm while arresting her for peacefully protesting for universal health care for...
NEWFANE-In the weeks after Town Meeting, I am left with a simple question. How does a town with 1,645 residents and 1,467 registered voters end up with barely 100 people participating in decisions that affect everyone? Few questions are asked. Few suggestions are offered. Debate on anything of substance is rare. By the time proposals on national or international issues appear near the end of the agenda, many people have already left. They have gone to work, picked up their...
BRATTLEBORO-Some wrinkles in the Brattleboro vote to abolish Representive Town Meeting (RTM) might have begun with the confusing nature of the ballot. Articles II, III, IV greatly contribute to difficulties in planning subsequent steps to implement the result of the town vote. The purpose of these articles was to select the system to be used by which budget approval and other public questions were determined. There were three choices: Representative Town Meeting, Australian ballot, and open Town Meeting. Usually, such...
BRATTLEBORO-On a cold February morning, people gathered at the Tri-Park Community’s management office to celebrate the installation of one of the first “portable solar” or “plug-in solar” systems in the state. Portable solar (also called plug-and-play solar) consists of small solar panels that can be placed on a deck, balcony, roof, or ground rack. Systems up to about 1200 watts (roughly three panels) may be allowed, depending on final state rules. These systems can be taken with you if you...
Peter Adair, with his wife Caitlin, is the co-creator of the Sanctuary Garden in Westminster West. WESTMINSTER WEST-We may truthfully say that imagination is the human superpower. This is a wonder conferred by a mysterious universe. All our inventions and achievements in science, technology, agriculture, medicine, religion, literature, mathematics, design, art, music, dance, architecture — among myriad others — percolate first as bubbles of imagination. In our essence as human beings, we are founts of imagination. And it is not...
DUMMERSTON-As a longtime member of the Colonial Pool, I am deeply saddened by its sudden closure. Whether you wanted to swim laps, exercise, take a water aerobics class or a swim lesson, or were a member of the Windham Waves swim team, it is an unfortunate loss for all of us. It is unfortunate for the wonderful staff members who have now lost their jobs and for the town as a whole. Colonial Pool was more than a place where...
BELLOWS FALLS-Brattleboro resident John Lowrey has been watching and photographing bald eagles in the area for the past three years. “There are 13 nests that I watch between Vernon and North Windsor,” Lowrey said. “All have nesting pairs of adults and, in 2025, eight of the nests that I monitor regularly all had two eaglets born and fledged successfully.” The year before, “they all had only one and they all fledged with success,” he said. The return of the bald...
Muriel Wolf, a fiction writer, serves as spiritual companion at the Center for Solace (formerly Brattleboro Area Hospice). BRATTLEBORO-That final, white furry haze of winter frost has come and gone. The meadow grasses, cool and damp against the soles of your feet, rise in springy clumps before the first mowing. Early dawn, in her silk skirt and blouse, wipes sleep from her eyes and wraps her long arms around you, her soft embrace a blessing. She is a wisp, an...
BRATTLEBORO-As Vermonters, we have a responsibility to take care of the state’s youngest residents, especially those children who may be abused and neglected and, as a result, enter the foster care system. Unfortunately, our state is instead stealing from those vulnerable residents rather than caring for them and securing for each child a bright future. The reality is that Vermont is taking approximately $1 million each year from the pockets of children in foster care who are entitled to Social...
BRATTLEBORO-State Rep. Mollie Burke will not seek re-election after 18 years of service in the Vermont House of Representatives, calling it “a difficult decision” in her remarks to voters at Annual Town Meeting on April 11. “I’ve loved serving in the House,” said Burke, who represents District 8. “It’s been an extraordinary opportunity to work with dedicated representatives from all over the state on issues that impact the lives of Vermonters, but just as much to work for constituents to...
The writer represents the Windham-6 district (Wilmington, Whitingham, Halifax) in the Vermont House of Representatives. WHITINGHAM-Our region didn't create a communications union district (CUD) on a whim. We created it because for years, Consolidated Communications let dangerous conditions develop. Long repair times. Degraded copper lines. Phone service that didn't work when people needed it most. And federal rules that tied the state's hands and prevented them from requiring the company to make real broadband investment. So our communities stepped up.
BRATTLEBORO-The Unlucky Shots will make their debut in Brattleboro with a free show at Marigold Friday, April 17, on a bill that also includes Wishbone Zoë and Babe, Wait. The alternative rock band, based in Northampton, Massachusetts, is led by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Noam Schatz. He is joined in the band by Anand Nayak on lead guitar, Jim Bliss on bass and Mike Benoit on drums. The group formed in 2018, yet this is their first time playing outside of...
BRATTLEBORO-Voters on April 11 passed a $27 million budget, agreeing to pay for trash removal and fund human services after lengthy discussion, procedural clarification, and multiple amendments. For the first time since 1960, deliberations were not limited to 150 elected representatives. With all registered voters eligible to vote directly, nearly 300 — almost 4% of the town’s electorate — turned out to the meeting at Brattleboro Union High School at some point to do so. Voters had agreed in March...
BRATTLEBORO-In the cafeteria at Brattleboro Union High School, student Connor Montgomery strongly approved of a whole-grain, sourdough roll that he had just tried with his lunch. “I ate the entire roll; I thought it was pretty good,” he said. “I kind of want another one. The texture, and everything about it tasted really good. Before, other than sandwiches, we didn’t really get any bread. We haven’t really had any good bread until this.” Montgomery, 16, was one of about 600...
