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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.
• A memorial celebration for Richard “Dick” Thall will be held Saturday, Aug. 22, at 5 p.m. at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Dr. Thall, 92, died July 12, 2026. His full obituary can be found at commonsnews.org/issue/876/876milestones.
• All are invited to join in a celebration of the life of Leah A. Stuart on Saturday, Aug. 22, from 2 to 5 p.m., at the home of Shela, her niece. If you have any questions or to receive the address, contact Shela at 802-451-8238. This will be an outdoor event, so bring a chair for comfort if you have one. Family and friends who wish to speak will be welcomed to. This will be a potluck and they will also be grilling. Wear Leah’s favorite color purple, if you wish. Bring flowers for the table, pictures and memories. If you play an instrument, bring it to jam out. Toward the end of the service, folks are invited to go to Leah’s resting site at the Jewish Cemetery in Brattleboro, so they may know where she is, say a prayer and/or leave their stones. On Aug. 23, there will be an official unveiling of Leah’s stone at her resting place. There will be a brief ceremony led by Rabbi Debra at 10:30 a.m. sharp. Bring your stones and words of legacy. This will be held rain or shine.
• A celebration of life for Robert W. Clements II will be held Saturday, Aug. 29, at 2 p.m.,at Hilltop Montessori School, 99 Stafford Farm Hill, in Brattleboro. Robert, 76, of Brattleboro, died June 24, 2026, in St. Johnsbury. To view his full obituary and offer condolences, visit atamaniuk.com.
• Graveside committal services for Thelma Dunn will be conducted Saturday, Aug. 29, at 11 a.m., in West Hill Cemetery...
BRATTLEBORO-Paving operations within the Oak Grove Corridor began last week, and the Public Works Department says work is expected to continue over the next several weeks as weather and construction conditions allow. The project includes paving the following roadways: Oak Grove Avenue, Coombs Street, Baldwin Street, Allen Street, Clark...
BRATTLEBORO-It ranks among the first Hollywood epics to show the full potential for movies to depict entire worlds of fantasy. It was also one of the top-grossing films of 1924. It is The Thief of Bagdad, a celebrated triumph for actor Douglas Fairbanks and director Raoul Walsh that “stands...
WILLIAMSVILLE-The Rock River Players (RRP) present Harold Pinter’s Betrayal as its last show of the RRP summer season Aug. 21 to 30 at Williamsville Hall. Pinter’s 1978 drama explores the corrosive, multifaceted nature of deception through a reverse-chronological love triangle. Tracing a nine-year affair between Emma, the wife of a publisher; Robert; and Jerry, Robert’s best friend and a literary agent, the play’s concept centers on how memory, time, and hidden motivations erode trust. According to a news release, director...
BRATTLEBORO-On Thursday, Aug. 20, the seats inside the Latchis Theatre won’t be filled with moviegoers. They’ll be filled with groceries. Peter “Fish” Case of the Brattleboro Reformer is once again inviting the community to take part in “Load the Latchis,” an annual food drive benefiting Foodworks, Groundworks Collaborative’s free-choice grocery store. The goal is to fill all 750 seats in the theater with bags of groceries or the equivalent in financial donations to help ensure every neighbor has access to...
BRATTLEBORO-The Root Social Justice Center’s annual Back-to-School BIPOC Hair Clinic returns Saturday, Aug. 22, at The Root’s community space at 28 Williams St., offering free professional hair care to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community members across southern Vermont with textured hair. The annual clinic centers young people as they get ready for the start of the school year, but appointments are open to BIPOC community members of all ages with textured hair. In Vermont, accessing stylists with...
Karl Meyer writes about the Connecticut River, the Constitution, and democracy. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. GREENFIELD, MASS.-If the Constitution is being threatened, you have a duty to say something. You also have a duty to do something. Right now Donald Trump is laser-focused on undermining the Constitution’s sacred voting rights via his SAVE America Act. He’s spreading lies and doubt, constantly calling into question our record of free and fair elections — long the...
BRATTLEBORO-Recent ICE arrests in Londonderry, Cornwall, and Keene have caused many people here in Brattleboro to be anxious about how our police department and the sheriff will respond if ICE shows up here. We have a large and valued legal refugee and asylum-seeker population here, mostly hardworking taxpayers, but ICE doesn’t care about their status, only the need to increase their detention numbers. They arrest first and then lawyers are needed to get the refugees due process and have them...
-This season was a season of firsts for the Brattleboro Little League 10-U All-Stars. After capturing the District 2 title, Brattleboro swept through the state tournament to win Brattleboro first-ever 10-U championship and earn a spot in the Little League Baseball East Region 10-U Invitational in Cranston, Rhode Island. The team got as far as the semifinals in the tournament before being eliminated. Brattleboro opened the round robin stage of the tournament on Aug. 8 with a 5-2 loss to...
SOUTH NEWFANE-Tom Concannon and Ravi Shimpi are proprietors of Willow Vermont, the historic inn that they’re steadily building into an art and wellness retreat center near the intersection of Dover and Auger Hole roads in South Newfane. And, as both are art collectors, they’re helping Willow Vermont earn a name as an arts destination, with the inn’s annual August exhibits of contemporary realism in the handsomely lit and well-appointed first-floor spaces of the 1899 building. As they announce this year’s...
BRATTLEBORO-The newly formed Windham County Law Enforcement Governance Council convened for its inaugural meeting Aug. 7, ready to tackle how the Windham County Sheriff’s Office should provide collective policing for rural towns that lack their own police departments. Selectboards from the initial nine participating towns opted into the pilot program. At the hybrid in-person and online meeting, members elected leadership, discussed their towns’ needs and expectations, and set initial goals. Towns in Vermont provide law enforcement by relying on the...
WILMINGTON-For generations, Adams Farm has changed with the times. It has been a dairy farm, a sleigh ride destination, a petting farm, and most recently, a collection of short-term rentals. Now, seventh-generation family member Olivia Adams Mancivalano is preparing to bring the farm back to life. Mancivalano plans to reopen Adams Family Farm, on Higley Hill Road, over Labor Day weekend, bringing back some of the traditions longtime visitors remember, while introducing new ideas of her own. The farm, which...
Rep. Laura Sibilia shares this letter, addressed to Owen Foster, J.D., the chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, in support of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Other Windham County lawmakers signing the letter: Sens. Nader Hashim and Wendy Harrison, and Reps. Mollie Burke, Michelle Bos-Lun, Emily Carris-Duncan, Zon Eastes, Ian Goodnow, Leslie Goldman, Emilie Kornheiser, Emily Long, Chris Morrow, and Mike Mrowicki. We write as members of the Windham County legislative delegation in support of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s continued stabilization and...
Alec Koumjian lives in Guilford. “Disclosure: My wife is a nurse-midwife in Brattleboro,” he writes. GUILFORD-Vermont’s Legislature and governor recently appropriated $10 million in unexpected General Fund revenue for the University of Vermont’s proposed athletic and event center. The money became available because transfers from the state’s unclaimed-property program were higher than expected. At the same time, the Birthing Center at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and other essential rural hospital services are struggling to remain open. The most practical source of...
SOUTH NEWFANE-Peter Barus’s report wasn’t unexpected, but it detailed the worst possible outcome for the Vermont Yankee site. It seems some smooth gents from Texas or somewhere arrived in Vernon to meet up with townsfolk to propose bringing new jobs and wealth to the town, thereby helping to deal with growing unemployment. That sounds sooo good. Turns out these gents hold leases for the decommissioned and defunct nuclear power plant acreage downriver from Brattleboro and upriver from many happy fish...
Rachel Scarino, a Brattleboro parent, educator, and resident, shared this joint constituent letter — on behalf of her and 164 other Windham County community members and families — that was officially submitted on Aug. 14 to Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS) Secretary Jenney Samuelson regarding the future of labor and delivery care at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH). BRATTLEBORO-Dear Secretary Samuelson, First, we want to thank you for all the time, energy, and care you and your team are putting...
BRATTLEBORO-After just completing collective bargaining, the employees of USW local 944 Brattleboro public works settled on a one-year agreement with a 1% cost of living increase. The Selectboard's refusal to provide a meaningful cost of living adjustment and to address the rising cost of medical insurance for employees, while simultaneously supporting the allocation of tax dollars towards other financial obligations such as the bailout of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital for mismanagement, is viewed by many employees as a profound lack of...
GRAFTON-Join the Grafton Public Library on Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., for an evening with three Vermont poets, as part of their ongoing Neighbor-to-Neighbor Discussion Series. Brattleboro poet Tim Mayo will read from his latest poetry collection, Muscle Memories of Love and Disaster, exploring grief, loss, mortality, the suffering and hopes of the mentally ill, and the rebirth of falling in love late in life. Grafton poet Nancy Richardson’s poems concern the politics and personalities of our...
WESTMINSTER WEST-The River Singers Community Choir, led by Mary Cay Brass, will start their fall session Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Westminster West Church. The choir, in its 36th year, is a multi-generational community choir dedicated to singing a mix of music from many lands. This season’s music will present songs of joy, love, and peace from many Eastern European countries: Croatia, the Republic of Georgia, songs from the New England shape note tradition, and...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Area Jewish Community (BAJC) announces youth programming for the 2026–2027 school year. BAJC offers three age-specific programs: • Chaverim, grades K–7: Creates Jewish community and celebrates the cycle of the Jewish year. This “joyous Jewish family community” meets twice per month during the school year. Highlights include holiday celebrations, puppet shows, arts and crafts, singing, baking in our outdoor oven, family Shabbat services, and Hebrew language learning. There is also a pre-b’nai mitzvah track for interested older students.
BRATTLEBORO-Peter Siegel, founding member of The Gaslight Tinkers, and fiddler-singer Mary Lauren Fraser host a night of fiddle tunes and songs Thursday, Aug. 20, at 7 p.m.at the West River Cafe, 485 West River Rd. (Route 30). Fraser and Siegel, performing together as The Easily Distracted, have been playing tunes and singing songs since (and before) pandemic times via livestream, drawing in online fans for impromptu porch parties, raucous fiddle tunes, and singalongs. “Rags, Irish, Old Time, they just pull...
BRATTLEBORO-Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, 181 Main St., presents “Intention and Surprise,” an exhibit of new works by Catherine Kernan. The exhibit opens Saturday, Aug. 22, and will be on display through Oct. 4. There will be an artist reception at the gallery on Aug. 22 from 5 to 7 p.m. Before the reception, from 4 to 5 p.m., Kernan will give a hands-on demonstration of viscosity monotype and monoprint with soy-based Akua Intaglio inks. All are invited to participate and the...
Brooks Library closes Main Street entrance BRATTLEBORO — Brooks Memorial Library’s renovation project continues to bring changes to building access. The library’s Main Street entrance was closed on Aug. 17, and it is expected to remain closed through the fall. The library’s upper entrance, accessible from the Municipal Center parking lot, reopened last week. Patrons should use the upper entrance to access the library during this phase of construction. All designated library parking has been relocated to the Municipal Center...
BRATTLEBORO-The Windham County Humane Society’s (WCHS) first-ever and highly anticipated “Hot Firefighter Pet Calendar” for 2027 is now ready to pre-order. WCHS teamed up with five local fire departments — Wilmington, Rockingham, Dummerston, Whitingham, and Brattleboro — to create a professional calendar featuring animal heroes posing with shelter dogs and cats. That’s as hot, and adorable, as it sounds. “I think this is a great idea to help the animals at WCHS and I’m proud our department is involved,” said...
BRATTLEBORO-In the past couple of years, when the state was offering developers about $130 million in low-interest housing construction loans, you’d have thought there would’ve been a line. But while the money was invested in 12 of Vermont’s 14 counties, in Windham County only one developer in Brattleboro and one in Putney took advantage of the opportunity. “There could be an applicant that we received from Windham County that we didn’t fund, but I’m pretty sure we funded those that...
BRATTLEBORO-State regulators expressed both concern and support as acting administrators at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital outlined plans at a Aug. 14 online hearing to curb deficit spending caused by past administrative and accounting problems. “I do think the Brattleboro community is suffering the consequences of mismanagement at this hospital,” Sara Teachout, one of five members of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB), told the facility’s new leaders. “I appreciate what you all are doing to change that.” BMH, now operating on...
