Four months after Tropical Storm Irene battered the state, Vermont reopened the last stretch of highway destroyed by flooding and appointed a new head for the recovery effort.
Sue Minter, deputy secretary of the Agency of Transportation, will replace Neale Lunderville as the state's Irene Recovery Officer.
Minter, a former state representative from Waterbury, will work on a three-month basis starting Jan. 6. Her job is to engage communities, individuals and businesses in the effort to rebound from the damage caused in late August.
At a press conference last Thursday, Gov. Peter Shumlin said, “We continue to focus on the extraordinary work we have ahead for us.”...
Candidate petitions now available in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - Petitions for town and school district officers and town meeting members are now available at the Town Clerk's office. Town elections will be held on Tuesday, March 6, and the Annual Representative Town Meeting will be held on Saturday, March 24.
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. • Donald Hastings Adams, 89, of Jupiter, Fla., formerly of Londonderry. Died Dec. 5 at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Leland & Gray Rebels girls' basketball team got a chance for a little payback last Wednesday in the championship game of the Bellows Falls Holiday Tournament. On Dec. 19, Enny Mustapha's lay-up with 10 seconds left in the game was the difference as Bellows Falls spoiled Leland & Gray's home opener with a 37-35 victory. Nine days later, the Rebels got their revenge in Holland Gymnasium with a 40-25 win. In their first meeting in Townshend, BF controlled the...
We would like to recognize the generosity of our community on behalf of our more vulnerable friends and neighbors as we head into another heating season. It will be a difficult winter, not only because of weather conditions but also because of the difficult political climate in Washington. The Windham County Heat Find helps those who are either not eligible for current fuel assistance programs or who run out of their assistance allotments. Allotments this year have been much lower...
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital announces the creation of a new primary care practice, Brattleboro Family Medicine, which opened Jan. 3 at 53 Fairview St. The practice, comprised of Lauren McClure, M.D., Janine Foote, D.O., and Peter Foote, D.O., will offer personal care for whole families under the umbrella of BMH Physician Group, the hospital's newly formed network of medical providers serving the greater Brattleboro area. After establishing a solo practice in late 2010, Dr. McClure made the decision to join with...
Local businesses and individuals met a challenge from Chroma Technology to match its donation to the Greater Falls Warming Shelter, raising more than $7,000 to help fund a warm overnight space during the winter months. “Chroma would like to thank the 20 businesses that donated to the Shelter from the Cold Challenge,” said Maggie Kelly, a Chroma employee and member of the GFWS board. She said the drive was a good fit for Chroma, which she describes as an environmentally...
It is ridiculous that Vermont has to battle the federal government every year to get its share of money from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Energy costs keep rising, but Congress seems more interested in shoveling tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations than in keeping people from freezing to death in their homes. Thankfully, our Congressional delegation has worked hard to get as much money as possible for Vermonters. But despite that work, Congress voted last...
A statewide effort to clean up widespread devastation at Vermont's mobile home parks after tropical storm Irene was lauded Thursday for its remarkable partnerships, volunteers, and accomplishments. Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said the cleanup effort disposed of 68 badly damaged mobile homes in six parks around the state - including eight homes in West Brattleboro's Glen Park - through a unique partnership of state, private, and nonprofit organizations and a host of people who pitched in with time, money, and...
Tickets are now on sale for Brattleboro's ninth Annual Collegiate A Cappella Concert, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre. The concert is a benefit for the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC). Tickets are $35 for front orchestra (sold out), $28 for rear orchestra, and $20 for balcony. A limited number of Producer's Circle tickets are left for $75. Tickets and outlet locations are available at the Museum by calling 802-257-0124, ext. 101. Always...
Art and activism are natural links for 44-year-old writer and actor Kathryn Blume of Charlotte, who will perform her one-women show, The Boycott, at Vermont Academy next week. Though the show is a benefit for Destination Bellows Falls and The Green Island Project, a local sustainable business group “facilitating a green economy,” Blume said, “I never really thought of myself as an activist before. I think of it as being a responsible citizen.” Blume has been performing The Boycott since...
You might say that it takes a village to make a book. Certainly that would seem the case with Waking the Dead in Real Time, a limited-edition, 48-page monograph written, designed, illustrated, and published by a group of talented men and women who live in and around Brattleboro. This unusual work, intended to bring history to life, includes excerpts from a forthcoming trilogy by writer David Blistein, who lives in East Dummerston. Filmmaker Ken Burns, who lives just up the...
In the past few weeks, I, like many fellow Vermonters, have been following the editorial debates appearing in these pages involving the subject of the Greater Falls Warming Shelter, the denial of a zoning permit for its intended location, and the resulting effects on our community. Like most readers, I've had strong feelings about many different aspects of this topic of local turmoil, but until now I have been content to voice those opinions within my social circles, and I...
I've been following news about the Bellows Falls Warming Shelter from the sidelines for the last few weeks, hoping it would be resolved successfully and that folks who find themselves outside would be welcomed in before the weather turns really awful. Truthfully, I've resisted jumping into the fray, because these issues can get divisive and uncomfortably personal in a village as small as ours, but there is a point where one's personal comfort ought to take a back seat to...
Anyone who has been a coach and a teacher for four decades has had an opportunity to touch a lot of lives. But that only scratches the surface of the long life and career of Darrell Sawyer, who died on Dec. 28 at age 87. Add his many years as a basketball referee and softball umpire, involvement in countless civic and volunteer organizations, and an infectious enthusiasm for life, and one can see why St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church was...
I have been following the Bellows Falls warming shelter controversy with interest. There are no easy answers to the problems of homelessness, and I believe both those in favor and in opposition to the warming shelter make valid points. No one should sleep out in the cold, and yes, to a degree, a warming shelter is a Band-Aid approach to dealing with the issues faced by many homeless people. I do take exception to the statement in your editorial of...
I am responding to Rhonda Anderson's letter [Voices, Dec. 21] about how kids dressing up in a toy headdress is offensive. Ms. Anderson, you are what is wrong with society today: Finding fault in something harmless and turning it into something horrible. You take something that is meant for children - a toy headdress - and use that as your pulpit from which to preach your hateful nonsense. Let me point out that I am part Sioux Indian. I happen...
On a cold Saturday in December, cars crept along the dirt roads of Windham County. Periodically, they disgorged their occupants. Bundled against the cold, these people then craned necks as they studied the treetops. They peered into thickets, stared at cornfields, and searched ponds and rivers. They were participating in the 112th Annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Sponsored by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the CBC engages more than 60,000 people in citizen science between Dec. 14...
The headline “The shame of Bellows Falls” [Editorial, Dec. 14] certainly caught my eye. I am a full-time resident, homeowner, and taxpayer in Bellows Falls. I was not involved in the Greater Falls Warming Shelter, and I've never met any of the people who are responsible for creating or running it. I was confused when I read the stories and the conflicting opinions expressed in the letters to the editor in the local press concerning the closing of the shelter.
Re: “'Happy Holidays' is not the problem” [Viewpoint, Dec. 21], by Rev. Emily Heath. I am so incredibly thankful that someone has finally said the thing that needs saying, and has said it so well. My mother raised me to think the way the writer suggests, and it makes me so mad to hear people get so nasty and bent out of shape about it. It's decidedly non-Christian-like. I recently moved back here after having spent 20 years in a...
After 54 years, Santa's Land USA, a Christmas theme park and a familiar landmark on Route 5, has fallen victim to a diminishing interest in roadside attractions, and to a steep hike in operating costs. According to Leslie Wells, who owns the park with husband, lawyer Timothy Wells, the closing is sad on so many levels, including the demise of what she calls Americana. The park fell victim to high gasoline prices and other recession-related costs- and, perhaps, also to...
Local high school groups will give a warm-up concert of their own on Friday, Feb. 3 at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, with proceeds benefitting the In-Sight Photography Project. In-Sight, which teaches photography to students ages 11-18 throughout southern Vermont, offers a creative voice and outlet, an opportunity to experience success, and tools for self-awareness and self-worth. The program encourages participants to become actively engaged in their communities. The program is offered regardless of ability to pay. Tickets are...
Prologue When it all began, my mother, Rose Kagan, 94, a great beauty, a performer, a dancer, a director, a choreographer, a star, and an all-around drama queen was in failing health and living in an independent residence in Plantation, Fla. For almost 70 years, I have been her audience. And even though I live in Vermont, since my brother died I have been her sole caretaker. I think Mom imagined that her death would be like the last act...
Re: “Shame, shame, shame on The Commons” [Letters, Dec. 21]. The Rockingham zoning board did not merely apply state-required criteria in its decision not to approve the Bellows Falls Warming Shelter. It stretched them all out of shape in order to please a small but vocal group in the village that is disgusted by those poorer than themselves and strongly prefers not to see them. The zoning board rejected the location based on the transparent claim that the shelter would...
Local author Bob Wilson will speak on Thursday, Jan. 12, at Taste of the Arts, an ongoing community supper and talk at Main Street Arts. Wilson, of Rockingham, is the author of Vermont Curiosities, a collection of “quirky characters, roadside oddities, and other offbeat stuff” that highlightssociology, unique residents from every corner of the state, and interesting bits of history. The book includes such local topics as Bellows Falls' petroglyphs, the Miss Bellows Falls Diner, Hetty Green, Dari Joy, Gov.
Jules Olitski: Modern Master, a new biographical movie about the late abstract painter, will be shown at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Olitski's daughter, artist Lauren Olitski Poster, and filmmakers Andy Reichsman and Kate Purdie of Marlboro. In this 22-minute film, Olitski discusses his artistic process and philosophy, while critics and peers - Frank Stella, Anthony Caro, Karen Wilkin, among others - provide insight and observations about his work...
On Tuesday, 180 lawmakers converged on the Statehouse after a seven-month hiatus for Round 2 of the 2011-2012 biennium. Judging from interviews with committee chairs, the upcoming session will be fast and furious. Lawmakers have an impressive array of complicated issues to address in four short months, and there is little expectation that the session will drag past the first week in May (this is an election year, after all). Long-term recovery plans post-Irene will figure prominently on the docket.
Citing irreconcilable differences, the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and its executive director have parted company less than three months after he took the job. The differences between Executive Director Philip Gilpin Jr. and the Chamber's board of directors hinged on disagreement over the organization's future direction following a meeting where Gilpin introduced some ideas that would have changed the Chamber's focus and direction (see sidebar). “The current Chamber board's philosophy is clearly focused on the local social community...
Executive Director Philip Gilpin Jr.'s recommendations for taking the Mount Snow Chamber of Commerce in a new direction met with mixed reviews at the chamber board meeting, Dec. 16, 2011. During his presentation, Gilpin discussed using technology to attract more tourists to the valley, reducing business costs, and reallocating chamber staff's time. The mixed reviews exposed cracks in the cement of the working relationship between the board and Gilpin, who resigned Dec. 20. In a separate interview, conducted prior to...