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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.
BELLOWS FALLS-Throughout the month of June, Bellows Falls will once more become a destination for the LGBTQ+ community in New England and beyond.
Pride Month remembers the days of the historic Andrews Inn, which was in business from 1973 to 1984 and located in the downtown Windham Hotel building. The gay community sought out Bellows Falls as a place of safety and security.
In memory and honor of beloved community leader Susan MacNeil, the Bellows Falls Pride Movie Festival will once again be featuring LGBTQ+-themed films at the historic Bellows Falls Opera House. With the largest screen in the region and where tickets are still only $6, join BF Pride Wednesdays, June 3 for The Hours and June 24 for Victor/Victoria.
The annual Pride Whistlestop Tour once again will be held Sunday, June 14, with a celebration at the BF train station at 12:30 p.m.
Kindle Farm School hosts plant sale TOWNSHEND — Kindle Farm School’s annual plant sale takes place at their farm stand on Route 30 Saturday, May 30, and Sunday, May 31, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Shoppers will find an array of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, including an assortment...
BRATTLEBORO-Retreat Farm presents “Resilience,” a series of four conversations and presentations with local luminaries on Thursday nights during the month of June. Each week will feature a different expert — a gardener, a filmmaker, a poet, and a musician — to show their work and share stories of their...
College news • Rei Kimura of Brattleboro was named to the spring 2026 Dean’s List at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. • The following local students were named to the President’s List for the spring 2026 semester at Southern New Hampshire University: Lindsay Cunningham of Wilmington, Nathaniel Sanderson of Newfane, Michelle Little of Brattleboro, Niame Diallo of Brattleboro, Madison Morancy of Westminster, Magdalen Hodgson of Brattleboro, and John Senechal and John King of Grafton. • Ava Cutler of Brattleboro, a...
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham Philharmonic closes its season on Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre with a “Symphony of Siblings,” an “adventurous evening” that organizers say “is designed to provoke, inspire, and delight: six orchestral movements, six composers, six moods. Watch us invent a symphony that doesn’t exist!” To start is the first movement of Carl Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony. “This music is thrilling, sublime and combative: a solo snare drum attempts, literally and persistently, to derail the orchestra.
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro’s Charter Revision Commission reconvened May 14 for the first time since August to try to make sense of the thorny question left by the March 3 election, when voters approved two ballot measures pointing in different directions. One measure eliminated the town’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) in favor of an Open Town Meeting, where any registered voter may attend and participate. The other called for replacing the RTM with an Australian ballot system, in which residents vote on budgetary...
WESTMINSTER-Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) is launching its 2026 Impact Report, documenting what they call “a year shaped by organizational adaptation and continued dedication to serving neighbors across Windham and Windsor counties.” In 2025, SEVCA staff report it provided 4,402 services to 3,342 individuals and 1,750 households. With nearly one in eight residents across Windham and Windsor counties living in need and overall funding declining, this impact demonstrates SEVCA’s ability to deliver meaningful results in critical areas such as housing...
BRATTLEBORO-The woman responsible for comprehensive childcare in Vermont now wants to be the state’s next governor. Gubernatorial candidate Aly Richards, 40, the longtime CEO of the nonprofit Let’s Grow Kids, will be facing another Democrat, Burlington resident Amanda Janoo, in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The thought of a competitive primary does not faze Richards. If anything, it energizes her. “It’s amazing that we have a primary,” she said. “We need more women putting themselves out there, fighting...
BRATTLEBORO-Join the Vermont Center for Photography, 10 Green St., Saturday, May 30, at 5 p.m. for an artist talk with photographer David Ricci about his latest photo book Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture (MW Editions, 2026).This event is free and no advance registration is required. This decade-long project reveals America’s complex cultural history through objects and scenes discovered at resale marketplaces nationwide, “exploring themes of consumerism, objectification, racism, beauty standards, pop culture, and Christianity,” wrote organizers in a...
Adam Grinold is executive director of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. BRATTLEBORO-Anchor institutions play an outsized role in regional stability, a role that often becomes most visible only after their loss. For southeastern Vermont, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) is one of those cornerstones. It is one of our region’s largest employers and one of the clearest indicators of our community’s long-term health. Recent announcements regarding progress between BMH leadership and its unions are very encouraging and reflect a meaningful commitment...
-It always means more to win a game on Senior Day, and the Brattleboro Bears baseball team made the most of the positive vibes with a 5-1 win over the Fair Haven Slaters at Tenney Field on May 22. This was a game where everything fell into place for the 2-9 Bears. Senior Sean Cozza pitched a complete game for the win, striking out seven batters. After giving up a run in the first inning, he threw six scoreless innings...
Michael Pelton is a farm owner and operator and engaged community member. WINDHAM-To the WRED board, WCSU board, and administration, The repeated failure of the West River Education District (WRED) budget is not simply a reaction to taxes or educational spending. It is a direct response to years of growing frustration with the structure, leadership, accountability, and cost of both the Supervisory Union and the WRED. The message from voters is clear, consistent, and impossible to ignore. Communities no longer...
BRATTLEBORO-What happens when young artists are invited to build the story themselves? Transfixed! —New England Youth Theatre’s production created with and by young artists — happens. The story takes place “in a magical realm where wizards, witches, warlocks and other magical weirdos must learn to use their magic for good or for evil,” wrote organizers in a news release. “In a nearby human world, a greedy political regime vies for power by banishing dissidents. Young magicals and young humans alike...
BRATTLEBORO-It’s estimated that 558 million Americans have lived in this country since its founding 250 years ago. According to Catherine Tester, past Department of Vermont Commander of the American Legion, more than 1.1 million Americans have died defending the nation in wars and combat actions since 1776. “They each have their stories to tell,” said Tester, an Orwell resident who served in the Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve from 1980 to 1995. “The crosses at Normandy, the graves at...
Michelle Bos-Lun (D-Windham-3), is a third-term Democrat representing Westminster, Rockingham, and Brookline. She is a teacher and has worked in restorative justice. WESTMINSTER-During the summer and fall of 2025, I worked with a number of my colleagues in both the House and Senate to develop language for a bill that would address ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other federal agents coming into Vermont masked and without wearing uniforms or name tags as they engaged in immigration enforcement and other...
SPRINGFIELD, VT.-On this Memorial Day of 2026, the Green Mountain Submarine Veterans Chapter of the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. remembers the following Vermonters who lost their lives while serving in the Submarine Service during war and peace time. These men who volunteered to serve in the Submarine Service: always remembered, not forgotten. • Richard K. Clough, 26, Randolph (1/24/1942); USS S-26 (SS-131) • Sam Kane, 19, Burlington (3/05/1943); USS Grampus (SS-207) • Gene R. Rice, 21, Springfield (7/11/1943); USS...
BELLOWS FALLS-At the Annual Village Election on May 19, newcomer Wendy M. Levy, running for her first major village position, beat out Deborah Wright for village president, winning a two-year term by a 2.5:1 margin, with 124 votes to Wright’s 50 votes. Current Village President Paul Obuchowski decided not to seek re-election. Levy, who came to Bellows Falls from Brattleboro in 2022, had previously served as a Rockingham Free Public Library trustee. Wright, a local business owner for over 20...
BRATTLEBORO-Our economic systems - and our entire society - are built on some assumptions; key of these is the notion that if ordinary people were provided comfortable housing, income, medical care, education, and transportation, they would not work. The wealthy, of course, never have to deal with these issues, and they claim to work hard. Greed, we are told, when used by rich folks, builds economies and creates wealth for all, just a lot more for the wealthy. The evidence...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-I have an ulterior motive for supporting Amanda Janoo for governor. In addition to getting a sterling governor for Vermont, I feel that having her in office is the single most effective thing we can do on the state level to disable the Trump administration. Brian Shafford West Brattleboro This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons. This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion...
BRATTLEBORO-On a bright, cool early May evening, more than 1,000 people gathered both under a tent at Brattleboro’s Retreat Farm and peripherally in lawn chairs to hear a panel of four high-powered historians and filmmakers, moderated by scholar Jill Lepore, on the nature and value of the Declaration of Independence. Part of Lepore’s four-part Retreat Farm series commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of American, the May 7 event started with a 45-minute set of...
BELLOWS FALLS-Tyler Gilbert was 12 years old when his life was brutally and suddenly taken away on Aug. 4, 2021. In a matter of just a few seconds, his life was stolen from him. He had just graduated sixth grade that June and would be starting middle school, with his friends, in late August at Brattleboro Area Middle School. Who would think that Tyler would be violently killed by someone who was supposed to protect him, nurture him, and love...
Mel Baiser (they/them) is co-founder and director of vision and strategy at Helm Construction Solutions, a Brattleboro-based consulting firm that, as described on the company’s website, “work[s] with contractors and design-build firms “to help businesses thrive — with more resilient finances, a positive and inclusive work culture, and a more beneficial impact on the environment.” BRATTLEBORO-Dear men in construction, In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, this letter is addressed to you. We are vocal advocates of building inclusive workplaces...
