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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.
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s decision by its board of trustees to close the hospital’s birthing center within six to nine months has prompted a groundswell of support for saving a service that proponents say is essential for maternal health and safety and building and sustaining a community.
Within three days of the July 1 email to staff announcing the decision, hundreds of employees and community members marched in the Brattleboro Goes Fourth Independence Day parade to mourn the potential loss and to advocate for a solution that will keep and sustain obstetric services in town.
BELLOWS FALLS-The Milkhouse Heaters and Phil Henry bring their original folk and Americana music to Stage 33 Live Sunday, July 19, in a 7 p.m. co-headline performance. Stage 33 Live is running a Local Curator series of shows this summer, “turning over the room to local heroes and letting...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present “swamp-yankee music one-man-band” The Suitcase Junket, and Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rachael Kilgour at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, Saturday, July 11, at 7:30 p.m. The Suitcase Junket — the internationally touring project of artist Matt Lorenz — developed in the tension between...
Senior lunch in Newfane NEWFANE — On Thursday, July 9, at noon at the Newfane Congregational Church, the monthly senior lunch will be served. On the menu is pork tenderloin stuffed with spinach, roasted potatoes, peas, dinner rolls, and a green salad with oranges and cranberries. Rhubarb compote will be served as an appetizer, with blueberry lemon cake for dessert. This meal is sponsored by Senior Solutions, and prepared and served by hard-working volunteers from the church and community. A...
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Literary Festival hosts Theodore Roosevelt scholar Michael Cullinane for a virtual cocktail hour Friday, July 10, at 5 p.m. The event is free. Cullinane and Tom Bedell will be in conversation in July discussing Cullinane’s new book, Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet, which was published in May. The book recounts the history of Roosevelt’s tennis partners and the influence they had on his administration. As one reviewer has said about the book, “What the ‘team of rivals’ was...
BRATTLEBORO-The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library will host a Garden Party fundraiser Sunday, July 12, from 2 to 5 p.m. There is no rain date. Organizers said in a news release that the event will include a chance to chat leisurely with friends, or the opportunity to offer an elder in one’s life an easy outing in nature. Book clubs might find it a special place to chat about their latest read, and gardening fanatics will enjoy a visit to...
BELLOWS FALLS-Next Stage Arts continues its Bandwagon Summer Series with a Folk, Roots, & Americana Music Festival Saturday, July 18, at Robertson Paper Company Field, 21 Island St. The festival begins at 4 p.m., with gates opening at 3 p.m. Featuring The Mammals, Michael Veitch Band, and folk quartet Doozy Jane, the festival celebrates the enduring power of song, storytelling, and community. Headlining the event, The Mammals bring their signature blend of high-energy Americana, string-band virtuosity, and socially conscious songwriting.
Obituaries • Stephen Joseph Belczak, 74, of Westminster West. Died unexpectedly Nov. 7, 2025. He was born Dec. 25,1951, in Bellows Falls, the son of Joseph and Amelia (Poluch) Belczak. Steve had a fervent commitment to grass roots activism. He was a longtime co-chair of the Connecticut River Joint Commission and helped to develop the River Corridor Management plan. He also worked for many years as a mental health professional and advocate at the Brattleboro Retreat. He was known for...
JAMAICA-The Northeast Wilderness Trust will celebrate the first birthday of College Hill Wilderness Sanctuary with a guided hike led by Wildlands Ecology Director Shelby Perry Saturday, July 11, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in Jamaica. The group will hike to the summit of College Hill, exploring some of the Sanctuary’s oldest forest habitats and discovering the plants and wildlife there. Along the way, Perry will share insights into the ecology of these forests and discuss why protecting large connected...
BRATTLEBORO-Eight new exhibitions open at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) Saturday, July 11. All are welcome to a 5 p.m. opening party celebrating the artists and curators, featuring food from Guilford Country Store and Puerto Rican Bakery II, a cash bar by Stone Church, and music by DJ Prismatic. Doors open to BMAC members at 4:30 p.m. According to BMAC Director of Exhibitions Sarah Freeman, the new exhibits — which include sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, and textiles —
PUTNEY-The Vermont Suitcase Company returns to Next Stage Arts Friday, July 10, with My Lady of Whims, an original theatrical adventure inspired by the wit, excitement, and visual storytelling of classic silent films. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 7 p.m. at Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill. With his annual fundraising gala fast approaching, a councilman faces a crisis: where is his daughter? If the newspapers discover she has been spending time with artists and free spirits down...
BRATTLEBORO-ByWay Books & More, partnering with the Dummerston Community Center and Library and Lydia’s Friends of the Library, will host a storytime event with Rachel Wang Yung-Hsin, translator of Little Monk Writes Rain by Hsu-Kung Liu, Saturday, July 11, at 11 a.m. All are invited to enjoy a simple, resonant story about how to find — and share — a sense of calm amid the storms of life. Little Monk Writes Rain is “an evocative tale of mindfulness, self-expression, and...
BELLOWS FALLS-The Windham County Democratic Committee will host a Vermont Lieutenant Governor forum featuring Democratic candidates Esther Charlestin, Molly Gray, and Ryan McLaren, moderated by Amy Howlett, Thursday July 9, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Masonic Temple, 61 Westminster St. The public is invited to attend and hear the candidates discuss the issues and policy priorities shaping communities across Windham County and Vermont. Affordability, housing, healthcare, and education will be among the major topics discussed. Esther Charlestin says...
BRATTLEBORO-Beginning this week, the town of Brattleboro’s curbside solid waste collection program will transition to a new service model. According to a news release, Casella Waste Systems will collect trash and recycling, while the town will manage curbside compost collection through its municipal compost program. “For users of the system, not much will change,” said Pete Lynch, assistant director of the Department of Public Works. “Residents can expect the same reliable service they’ve come to count on. The biggest change...
WEST CHESTERFIELD, N.H.-Actors Theatre Playhouse (ATP), 21 Main St., will bring Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker to local audiences for three weekends in July: Evening performances Fridays and Saturdays, July 10, 11, 17, 18, and Thursday through Saturday, July 23–25 begin at 7:30 p.m. Matinee performances Sundays, July 12 and 19, begin at 2 p.m. The Caretaker explores the delicate balance between comedy and psychological tension, said organizers in a news release. The play premiered in 1960 “and quickly established...
BRATTLEBORO-The Music Under the Stars concert series presented by the Brattleboro Music Center and Retreat Farm continues Saturday, July 11, with a performance by the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, featuring Peter Eldridge. The Vermont Jazz Center Big Band is an ensemble of local professional musicians who have performed for more than 20 years. Singing with the band will be Peter Eldridge, a founding member of the vocal group, New York Voices. The group has performed in venues and festivals...
DUMMERSTON-Scott Farm and Putney Foodshelf are partnering for a Crêpe Night Wednesday, July 8. Crêpe Nights are family friendly gatherings, held regularly at Scott Farm, 707 Kipling Rd., from May through August. They are times “to celebrate the harvest, good simple food, and community in a stunning setting—picnic style,” wrote organizers in a news release. The event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults or $12 for children under 12, and must be purchased in advance.
PUTNEY-On view through Aug. 29 at the Putney Public Library, 55 Main St., is a summer exhibition of selected artwork entitled “Part One.” The current group show includes Putney artists, all of whom recently exhibited their individual work at the library. The eclectic exhibit reflects the Putney community’s interest in arts. The library has served as a venue for art since the early 1980s, when art exhibitions and art auctions became regular events. The new library building, constructed in 2005,
BRATTLEBORO-Paintings by local artist Doug Trump are now on exhibit at C.X. Silver Gallery, 814 Western Ave., through Sept. 26. According to the gallery's website, there will be a conversation with the artist Saturday, July 25, from 1 to 3 p.m. Trump, born in 1950, has lived and worked in Marlboro since 2004. He has been making paintings since the late 1970s. This began after years of creative writing after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 with a...
BRATTLEBORO-Poet Tim Mayo will be reading Saturday, July 11, from his fifth collection, Muscle Memories of Love and Disaster, at 118 Eliot Street. Doors will open at 4 p.m.; the reading begins at 4:30. Mayo’s book explores grief and the loss of loved ones, some recollections of early childhood, his work in a mental hospital, a near-fatal accident, and finding love late in life. Reading along with Mayo will be Carlene Kucharczyk, whose book Strange Hymn won the 2026 Vermont...
DUMMERSTON-Charles Fish — “Chuck” to his many friends — is celebrating his 90th birthday with “Chronicles of Vermont Life: Farm, Rivers and Fairs,” a photo exhibition at the Dummerston Historical Society’s Schoolhouse Museum. The opening, which also features an author talk, will take place Thursday, July 16, at 7 p.m. The exhibition will present more than 100 photographs taken by Fish, of Dummerston Center, who organized them around the three topics in the title. “Always having had a sincere interest...
WEST DUMMERSTON-In summer, the West River swimming hole under the Dummerston Covered Bridge is so popular that on Sunday, members of the Dummerston Historical Society had to get there at 10 a.m. to protect some parking spaces for their big noon reveal. At noon, with approximately 16 Dummerstonians (and 30 bikers) in attendance, the historical society unveiled a new permanent plaque celebrating master carpenter and bridge builder Caleb B. Lamson, who in 1872 built the Dummerston Covered Bridge, the longest...
BRATTLEBORO-For America’s 250th birthday, Brattleboro’s annual Fourth of July parade was its customary mashup of community pride, lots of trucks, and political protest. Owing to the hot and humid morning, the Brattleboro American Legion Band rode down Main Street, and the Brattleboro Union High School band opted for shorts and T-shirts rather than their uniforms. There weren’t as many firetrucks from neighboring fire departments this year, but Brattleboro Public Works had most of its equipment in the parade, including its...
BRATTLEBORO-Hundreds of well-wishers got to see what $10 million can buy when they came out on June 24 for the grand opening of Brattleboro’s new Amtrak station on Depot Street. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott led a group of state and federal dignitaries for the ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the culmination of a two-year construction project of what David Handera, Amtrak’s chief accessibility officer, called “a better, more accessible, and more inviting station for Amtrak travelers.” “No more boarding off of an...
-Cooper Hammarlund, 40, of Atlanta, Georgia, was the men’s winner in the annual Bill Powers Firecracker 4-Miler road race, presented by the Red Clover Rovers running club on July 4 in Brattleboro. Hammarlund, a Brattleboro native, held off Jason Guerino, 27, of Vernon, and Spencer Knickerbocker, 33, of Marlboro, to win the race in 23 minutes, 25.95 seconds. Guerino was second in 23:41.62, and Knickerbocker was third in 23:46.35. Deepti Cole, 45, of Brighton, Massachusetts, was the first woman across...
SAXTONS RIVER-If we want to have a real, productive (pun intended) discussion about replacing the birthing center and OB-GYN services we are losing at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, we have to talk about the actual financial mechanics. Right now, there is an urgent, necessary community push to keep the current birthing center open through emergency funding or political pressure. We absolutely must support this to protect local families immediately. But if we don't look ahead, we will find ourselves in this...
BRATTLEBORO-Lindsay Bellville has been appointed interim director of Brooks Memorial Library while the search for a permanent library director continues. Bellville started her new position June 29. “It’s a new challenge, which I’m looking forward to,” says Bellville, who has been with the library for 22 years. “We have a lot going on with summer reading and our construction project.” Asked if she plans to apply for the directorship, Bellville says she’s undecided. “I’ve been in the children’s room a...
BRATTLEBORO-ReNew Salvage is back. A new incarnation of the used and surplus building material resource will host a grand opening on Saturday, July 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its new storefront at 234 Elliot St. The official ribbon cutting is at 10 a.m., followed by brief remarks. In this endeavor, two entities — Deconstruction Works (DW) and Reclaimed Materials Resource Management (RMRM) — are jointly operating ReNew Building Materials & Salvage, a business that was launched in...
-Crowell Art Gallery at Moore Free Library, 23 West St., is now featuring artwork by Maisie Crowther’s “On the Edge,” including watercolors and multimedia works, through Friday, July 31. A reception takes place Saturday, July 18, from 1 to 3 p.m. “Water, in all its states, is the inspiration for my painting,” Crowther says in her artist statement. “The interaction of water as river, ocean, ice, or fog with other elements of earth, fire, and air, is the focus of...
Corina Tennant, M.D., is a board-certified OB/GYN, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, and a partner at Four Seasons OB/GYN & Midwifery in Brattleboro. For more information, visit SaveBirthAtBMH.org. BRATTLEBORO-When I became an OB/GYN, I was told, "Great choice - you'll never go out of business delivering babies." I now find myself fighting to make sure that's still true. I knew I wanted to be an OB/GYN when I was 2 years old, watching my parents prepare...
Steev Lynn is an international development professional who raised kids in Brattleboro and now lives in Dummerston, having worked for years in Africa and Asia on economic-livelihood issues. DUMMERSTON-This July 4 was supposed to be a celebration that America's experiment with popular rule has lasted a quarter millennium. I'm just not sure it has. When you consider what was unique about the republic established by our founding fathers in the late 1700s, its chief attributes were government of the people,
BRATTLEBORO-Grammy Award-winning singer songwriter Peter Rowan has spent over five decades shaping the sound of American roots music — from bluegrass and folk to rock, country, and more. He debuts at the Stone Church on Sunday, July 19. A 2022 inductee into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, he’s also received the Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Music in 2025 from the Your Roots Are Showing folk conference in Ireland. In 1997, the compilation album True Life Blues: The Songs...
WILLIAMSVILLE-After several years of gestation, Higher Ground Conservation Burial will finally be celebrated this weekend when its natural, aka “green,” burial offering is introduced to the public. The public benefit nonprofit organization, which is focused exclusively on natural burial, will offer this burial alternative on conserved land at the Manitou Project in Williamsville. Brattleboro Area Interfaith Leadership Alliance, natural burial advocates, Higher Ground, and Latchis Arts have come together to create a weekend, “Celebrating Community with Nature: the First Conservation...
Deena Chadwick is a Brattleboro business owner and resident. BRATTLEBORO-As a small business owner, I've spent thousands of hours talking with people in this community. Behind my salon chair, I've had conversations with teachers, nurses, contractors, retirees, young parents, business owners, and people with very different opinions about almost everything. Yet despite those differences, I believe most of us want the same things for Brattleboro: thriving local businesses, safe neighborhoods, good schools, well-maintained roads, more housing, and young families choosing to...
