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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.
-If you are a Vermont field hockey fan, you never want to miss a chance to see the Hartford Hurricanes take on the Bellows Falls Terriers. Year in and year out, these two teams with a long and proud tradition of success give fans games that are filled with drama and high tension.
Their first meeting of the year on Sept. 15 in Westminster was no exception. It took an overtime goal from Elyse Thurber to give the Terriers a 3-2 victory.
Ann Darling is a member of the Citizens Awareness Network, which works to end the use of nuclear power and replace it with sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy generation. She lived near VY and paid into its decommissioning fund for 35 years, and she had been participating in NDCAP...
Henriette Mantel, a Vermont-raised writer, actress and producer, is best known for playing Alice Nelson in the Brady Bunch movies and for co-writing and co-directing the Sundance documentary An Unreasonable Man. NEWFANE-I’m sure not many of you remember the chorus of a song the Gershwin brothers wrote in 1937...
BELLOWS FALLS-With a cheer of “out with the old, in with Janoo,” an enthusiastic crowd of around 100 people met with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo Sept. 18 for a morning question-and-answer session at the Flat Iron Café. The crowd was standing room only and spilled out onto the sidewalk. Janoo faces incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who is running for his sixth two-year term. She has strong local support however, as Janoo defeated her challenger in the August Democratic...
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont WIC staff came to the Windham Regional Food Security Network on Sept. 9 with a problem they can’t solve alone: Hundreds of local families who qualify for the federal nutrition program aren’t signing up. WIC — short for the program’s formal name, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — is for expectant and new parents, infants, and children up to age 5 who face nutrition risk (a person’s likelihood of developing poor health outcomes due...
Chip Carter, a retired television anchor, moved in 2016 to Guilford, where he volunteers with a number of community organizations and serves on the Selectboard. As another Vermont election approaches, the debate over affordability is once again turning into a debate over who is to blame. I’m a Democrat. But I have grown increasingly concerned about the part Vermont’s Legislature has played in making the state more expensive to live in. Gov. Phil Scott should answer for his record after...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts stretches to suit the times, its audiences, and the community. And that’s a cause for celebration. On Friday, Oct. 9, the public is welcome to the former church turned arts venue on Kimball Hill for the Next Stage Sweet 16 Birthday Party. “It’s been 16 years since Next Stage Arts began thanks to the leadership of our founders,” a press release explains, “and 10 years since we completed the major renovations that transformed a historic church building...
ATHENS-Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, “Americans are concerned about election integrity and democratic processes,” reports the Democracy for All Project of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation and Gallup, the polling and analytics firm. The top concerns include political leaders pressuring election officials to change election outcomes (67%) , ballots not being properly handled, counted, or secured (57%), and voter intimidation near polling places (52%). Such unprecedented concerns prompted Tim Stevenson of Athens with Lisa Moir and Sarah Waldo of...
WILMINGTON-Vermont must reduce its education costs or face further increases in property tax rates, but residents will defend their local schools against the threat of closure, and Twin Valley School District is no exception, according to superintendent Bill Bazyk. In an interview just ahead of the first meetings of districts to study possible mergers, Bazyk said Vermont has wrestled with the question of how to control public education costs through three recent laws. The latest one, Act 170 of 2026,
Our story about the probable merger of the Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce with the Brattleboro Regional Chamber of Commerce [“‘A stronger vision, a stronger voice, and a larger region to serve,’” News, Sept. 16] was accompanied by a composite photo that fell short of the mark in multiple respects. Owing to an error in the caption of a photo that we published years ago, the head shot that we captioned as Gary Fox was not, in fact, Gary...
SAXTONS RIVER-The third annual Chili Fest will take place Saturday, Sept. 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in front of the 24 Main Street Community Building. The rain date is Sunday, Sept. 27. In addition to the chili cook-off, activities will include cider tasting, silent auction and quilt raffle, 50/50 raffle, street bingo, and "a village exploration adventure for older children," organizers said in a news release. Three prizes will be awarded: two for individual chefs (best meat chili...
Can you spot a scam? Get fraud-prevention tips from an AARP expert DUMMERSTON — Dummerston Cares presents “Scams, Fraud and Con Artists: Coming to a Computer Near You” Thursday, Sept. 24, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the community room at Dummerston Congregational Church, 1535 Middle Rd. After a brief annual meeting of Dummerston Cares, Elliott Greenblott from AARP Vermont’s fraud-prevention program will discuss current online threats, how to recognize malicious emails and pop-ups, and how to detect Wi-Fi security...
BRATTLEBORO-Juventas New Music Ensemble will perform All We Are Saturday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC), 72 Blanche Moyse Way. The concert will include the world premiere of Wherever You Think There Is Nothing by contemporary classical composer Oliver Caplan. “This concert spans generations and continents, and asks what it means to endure, to hold multiple identities, and to cherish what is most fragile and fleeting,” organizers said in a news release. Described as “meditations...
BRATTLEBORO-Sucka Punch Graffiti Jam, a three-day celebration of hip-hop culture, will come to Arch Street Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Oct. 2, 3, and 4. About 20 graffiti artists and writers, some traveling from as far away as Miami and Los Angeles, “will transform Arch Street into an evolving outdoor gallery as they create large-scale works,” organizers said in a news release. Other events will include music and dance as well as hands-on art projects. Live graffiti painting will begin Friday,
DUMMERSTON-The Vermont Theatre Company will hold auditions for four one-act plays Thursday, Sept. 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Evening Star Grange, 1008 East-West Rd. The plays, which were written by “local and emerging authors,” include roles for at least 20 actors, organizers said in a news release. Actors will audition as a group, starting with “collaborative theater games” before reading short scenes together, the release said. The theater company is also seeking volunteers to work on set building,
Obituaries • Mary Lou Amidon, 82, of Vernon, formerly of Brattleboro. Died Sept. 4, 2026, at her residence at Vernon Hall. Born Dec. 6, 1943, in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, she was the daughter of John and Arlene Royce. Growing up, she was known as “Little John,” a reference to her always joining her father at fire scenes when he was a member of the Hinsdale Fire Department. Mary Lou will be interred above her father’s grave. She graduated from Hinsdale...
BRATTLEBORO-Econoclast: Herman Daly and the Gospel of Growth, a new film written and directed by documentarian John de Graaf, will be shown Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 6:30 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St. Econoclast is a 45-minute portrait of Herman Daly, a former economist at the World Bank who advocated for ecological economics and sustainable development. Daly, who died in 2022, “is credited as the first mainstream economist to point out that ever-increasing economic growth is unsustainable on...
BRATTLEBORO-Save A Life Day, a countywide effort to prevent overdose deaths, is scheduled Thursday, Sept. 24, from noon to 3 p.m. at four locations. Participants can receive free Narcan (naloxone) and a five-minute training in Brattleboro at Pliny Park, 180 Main St., or on the Whetstone Pathway adjacent to the Brattleboro Food Co-op, 2 Main St.; in Townshend at River Bend Market, 625 Vermont Route 30; or in Bellows Falls at Parks Place Community Resource Center, 44 School St. Extension.
BRATTLEBORO-Larger-than-life images on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) reflect refugees’ perspectives on migration, home, and what it means to be an American. The BMAC will host a celebration of the “Migration/Home” exhibit Sunday, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m. at the museum, 10 Vernon St. Created in response to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, “Migration/Home” consists of seven images, each one eight feet tall, in the BMAC’s outward-facing window bays. The artists are five...
WILLIAMSVILLE-The Rock River Players will hold open auditions for A Christmas Carol Sunday, Sept. 27, at 6 p.m. and Monday, Sept. 28 at 8:30 p.m. at Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Rd. Adults can audition either night, while kids will audition Sunday only for one of eight children’s roles, including that of Tiny Tim. The production will include “a full ensemble, period music, and an abundance of festive spirit,” organizers said in a news release. The theater group is seeking choral...
BRATTLEBORO-The fall session of youth photography classes begins at In-Sight Photography Project Monday, Oct. 5. Courses span a variety of digital and analog skills and are open to students 11 to 19. After-school courses include Intro to Digital Photography, Night Photography, Queer Focus, and Analog 1 & 2. A new daytime class, The Shape of Movement, will focus on capturing fast-moving targets, such as athletes and wildlife. Students who have taken an In-Sight class before can also join Photo Club,
PUTNEY-Vermont Comedy All-Stars will perform Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. at Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill Rd. Featured stand-up comedians will be producer and host Gordon Clark as well as Chris Dolan, Tim Lovett, Toni Nagy, and Kane Thomley. Dolan is a former high school teacher whose academic specialty was the rise of fascism in modern Europe. She left her teaching career to do stand-up because “she wanted to feel that her work mattered,” according to organizers. Dolan...
BRATTLEBORO-Poets Terry Hauptman and Roxanne Bogart will read and present artwork Sunday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. at ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St. Hauptman, who “reads her poetry rhapsodically,” according to a news release, will share work from Lapis Blues, her ninth volume of poetry. She is also a visual artist who exhibits her mixed-media “Songline Scrolls,” which draw from multiple sacred artistic traditions, throughout the U.S. Bogart, a conservation biologist who retired from the U.S. Fish and...
PUTNEY-Kotoko Brass will perform Saturday, Sept. 26, at 3 p.m. at Putney Inn Field, 57 Putney Landing Rd. The band “delivers an electrifying, cross-cultural sound that bridges continents and traditions,” according to a news release from Next Stage Arts. The music fuses “Central Ghanaian drumming with Caribbean bass and keys and the exuberant punch of New Orleans-style horns,” organizers added. Originally formed by brothers Ben Paulding (drums) and Brian Paulding (trombone), the band also features percussionists Attah Poku and Kwame...
Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of Into the Wilderness, a political novel set in Vermont in 1964. She will be joined by Rep. Emilie Kornheiser (D-Windham-9) to talk about what we can learn from this history for navigating current politics at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., Brattleboro, on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. A book signing will follow. WILLIAMSVILLE-Vermont hasn't always been a majority blue state. For over a century, Vermont was deeply red. Cracks in Republican...
GUILFORD-Michael Nethercott suspects that when Guilford Center Stage came to ask him to create, write, and direct a new play — his fifth for the local company — on the theme of local history in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday this year, they were expecting a conventional dramatization of local lore. “I’m guessing maybe they thought it would be more conventional in terms of ‘here’s a history, this happened, that happened,’” Nethercott told The Commons in his explaining the...
BRATTLEBORO-While nobody actually likes to be audited, Vermont’s elected state auditor is charged with closely watching how the state spends its money. Last week, Deputy Auditor Tim Ashe came to town to explain exactly what the auditor does and why he wants the top job. The current state auditor, Doug Hoffer, won the job in 2013. Now he is retiring, and Ashe, who has been the deputy auditor for the last five years, wants to step up. Ashe, a Democrat,
