Across Vermont, the number of youth (14-17-years old) who smoke has remained steady at 16 percent for the past five years, after falling sharply from 38 percent to 16 percent in the decade leading up to 2005.
To support these older teens, Twin Valley High School PRIDE/SADD group in Wilmington and other local prevention coalitions are reaching out to area youth to help them stop smoking, or encourage them to never start.
Partnering with the Vermont Department of Health and Our Voices Xposed (OVX), a youth-led, youth-run movement focused on exposing the truth about tobacco, these organizations are supporting a new statewide educational campaign to help youth stay smoke free.
“We already have posters for this campaign up at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro and thank them for running the ads,” said Robin Rieske, VDH Prevention Consultant.
For the third time in as many years, Brattleboro Arts Initiative is bringing Spell Check! A Spelling Bee for Grown-Ups to the main stage of the Latchis Theatre. This year's event is April 2 at 6 p.m., and pits spelling teams against each other, the countdown jingle, Judge Archer...
The United Way of Windham County has been awarded funding by the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Thomas Thompson Trust for the implementation of a new strategic investment initiative, Community Impact 2020. With Community Impact 2020, United Way of Windham County will be changing their approach to investing local...
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. • Richard E. Chase, 75, of Brattleboro, formally of South Windham. Died Feb. 16 at Thompson House. Son of George and Bessie Chase in Grafton. Brother of Herbert Chase of Chester, and Ruth Gale of Brattleboro. Predeceased by siblings Clarence, Earl, Robert, Milford, Donald, George Jr., and Roger Chase, and Alice Cady. Memorial information: A...
Twelve years ago, the idea of a small Americana music festival took root in Bellows Falls. Now, Roots on the River has sprouted into an immensely popular four-day festival that draws musicians and concertgoers from around the world. This year's 12th annual Roots on the River Music Festival is June 9 to 12. Tickets are now on sale, and the lineup of artists is shaping up nicely with an exciting mix from many facets of our country's musical profile. Appearing,
Every year, thousands of Americans disappear. Their homes are seized, all their possessions auctioned off. They are condemned to spend the rest of their lives locked away from all they know and love. Their only crime is being old, sick, or disabled. They are victims of a system that has effectively criminalized disability. Many of the people in nursing homes are profoundly disabled and need institutional care. But in many instances, this is not the case. A lot of people...
It's all about choice. Choice is what's needed for terminally ill people who are facing death within six months. They need a full range of options to be able to decide for themselves how and when their physical life is to end. For many, if not most, pain control and palliative and hospice care are their choice, followed by a natural death. For some, for whom certain kinds of cancer or a disease like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou...
The first championship banner of the winter sports season goes to the Brattleboro girls' nordic ski team, which foiled Mount Anthony's quest for back-to-back championships last week in the state meets at Craftsbury on Feb. 28 and at Mountain Top resort last Thursday. Brattleboro finished with a two-day score of 156, followed by Mount Mansfield with 170, MAU with 179, Champlain Valley with 236 and St. Johnsbury with 432. On Feb. 28, Brattleboro girls bested Mount Anthony by just two...
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin asked President Barack Obama to give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the authority to require Entergy Corp. to fully decommission Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant instead of allowing the company to store all of the radioactive waste from the facility on the site. Shumlin told reporters last week that he made his case to the president during the National Governors Association meeting last weekend. Obama supports a new generation of nuclear power plants. “I said, 'you...
With interest rates at historic lows, it would seem a good idea for towns to borrow money for capital expenses. That's certainly what voters in Putney and Wilmington were thinking this year on Town Meeting Day. Putney approved a bond for a $480,000 school renovation project. By replacing the outdated heating system at the Central School, and upgrading the windows and insulation, the town would see energy savings that should easily offset the cost of borrowing the money. After nearly...
The numbers don't lie. Rates of obesity and chronic diseases have reached unprecedented levels in southeastern Vermont just as they have across the nation. Despite these troubling facts, members of the Healthy Communities Coalition of Windham County believe that most people would like to live a healthier lifestyle. It's just that, all too often, “the healthy choice is not the easy choice where we live, work, learn and play,” according to Steve Fortier, the coalition's founder. “So, we have as...
Freshman Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon, stands by his position that the more qualified Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Vermont Public Service Board, not the Vermont Legislature, should determine whether the nuclear power station should be allowed to run for another 20 years. On Feb. 22, Hebert, a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, submitted a bill (H.331) that would strip the Legislature of its authority to decide the fate of Vermont Yankee. Under current Vermont...
Your editorial in the March 2 Commons regarding the disgusting efforts of the Republican governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, etc. to bust public service unions was right on target. Writing as a longtime retired trade union organizer and educator (United Auto Workers in Chicago, International Brotherhood of Teamsters in St. Louis), I would add one thought. In Europe today, trade union members would be out of their workplaces and on the streets en masse if faced with the same attack.
The Selectboard will hold its pre-Town Meeting informational forum on Thursday, March 10, at Academy School on Western Avenue, beginning at 7 p.m. District caucuses begin at 6:30 p.m. Town Meeting members will be available to meet with constituents to offer residents and members an opportunity to discuss articles to be voted on at the annual meeting. Also, at that time, districts will be accepting nominations to fill Town Meeting member vacancies. Appointments are for one year. District 1 has...
Thanks for covering the Vermont State Senate hearing at the Brattleboro Retreat regarding the economic future of Windham County post Vermont Yankee. Unfortunately, the bias exhibited by the narrow choice of participants and subjects addressed at the hearing was crystal clear. One of the major opportunities for good jobs and a really exciting future economy in our area is our green energy future. Astoundingly, not one of the many local people working in the fields of solar, wind, district heating,
In her March 2 article (“Not in their backyard after all”), Olga Peters did a careful job of describing the outcome of our South Main Street project. However, we would like to make one clarification: our losses would indeed have been about $21,000, but, thanks to Stevens & Associates' willingness to share the loss, the cost to us is $14,798.
Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) and Southern Vermont Cable Co. (SVC) announced on Friday the signing of a contract that designates BCTV as the public access television provider for the towns of Dummerston, Jamaica, Newfane, Putney, and Townshend for the next eight years. With the signing of the contract, BCTV, Vermont's oldest public access station, will bring its two channels, programs, and facilities to an expanded area within Windham County. Later this spring, SVC subscribers will find BCTV's Channel 10 on...
Over the past decade, Strolling of the Heifers has grown from a once-every-June goofy curiosity to a year-round organization supporting local agriculture around southern Vermont. To mark its 10th Stroll this year, the organization is taking on its most ambitious project yet - a regional conference exploring the concept of “slow living.” The first Strolling of the Heifers Slow Living Summit is scheduled to take place on June 1-3 in Brattleboro. It will focus on topics of social and economic...
With anti-union sentiment running high in some quarters, I feel it important to correct a small but not insignificant, inaccuracy printed in “Small schools at crossroads in Vermont” [The Commons, Feb. 23]. In part of your interview with Windham Central Supervisory Union superintendent Steven John, you state that “his union office works with nine different boards to manage [...] nine separate contracts with teachers.” This is not true. There is, in fact, a single contract that covers six groups of...
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How does one make a living, stay creative, and have a career in the arts? What effect does commercial success have on artistic growth? What are the assets and challenges of working as an artist in the Brattleboro area? These are some of the questions to be explored at the second public artist potluck and forum hosted by Brattleboro-West Arts, on Sunday, March 20, from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Elliot Street Café, at the corner of Elm and Elliot streets. ...
We write today to urge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to ensure a safe and expeditious decommissioning process at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant at the time the plant ceases operations. Immediate decommissioning will assure Vermonters that the plant is being disassembled safely, and will provide an opportunity for current plant employees who are most knowledgeable about the facility to work to safely decommission it. The idea that Entergy, the owner of Vermont Yankee, will seek decades of delay before...
The following is an open letter to Ken Schneck. Ken, I signed your nominating petition, and I voted for you, putting aside concerns about whether it is prudent to give the responsibility of a three-year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard to a person who has lived here for barely four years. My doubts were not only about whether you are a “seven-day wonder” who may fade as swiftly as he appeared, but also about a lack of institutional memory. Not...
The Agency of Agriculture and the organization Rural Vermont both say they are close to finding a compromise after weeks of what Rural Vermont's Jared Carter called “intense meetings.” Up for discussion was how to protect farmers selling raw milk from litigation, while not expecting them to play food police to their customers. On these two points, the Agency of Agriculture and Rural Vermont agree. It's interpreting Vermont's raw milk legislation they're still working on. Fluid consumption Vermont's Raw Milk...
The discussion about the tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee is about to change. A recent ruling by Vermont Environmental Court Judge Meredith Wright, denying a waste disposal certificate for Omya Inc.'s calcium carbonate processing facility in Florence, sets a clear precedent for the protection of groundwater, say proponents. “The court's ruling supports our contention that Vermont Yankee's continued contamination of groundwater violates the public trust,” said Elizabeth Courtney, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC). “The ruling also...
Freedom Riders, a documentary that will premiere on PBS stations in May as part of its American Experience series, tells the powerful, harrowing, and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America. From May until November that year, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives - and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment - for traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the...
Music • Caravan of Thieves at Hooker-Dunham: Twilight Music presents acoustic swing and alt gypsy jazz quartet Caravan of Thieves at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 pm. Fuzz and Carrie Sangiovanni (guitars, vocals), Ben Dean (violin) and Brian Anderson (acoustic bass) feature a theatrical high energy stage show, gypsy flavored songwriting, Beatlesque vocal harmonizing and driving rhythms - an overall circus of sound. Tickets for the show are $16 general admission/$14 students and seniors. Hooker-Dunham...
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) last week appointed 15 people to its Vermont State Advisory Committee (SAC). However, its one-time chairman was not one of them. Curtiss Reed Jr. of Brattleboro, the executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity who had chaired the SAC since it had resumed its operations in 2008, was ousted on a 5-0 vote by the bipartisan USCCR late last year after a conservative majority objected to Reed's commentary about the...