Issue #192

Snow day

My littlest snowflakes are the only real major force of nature to be reckoned with today

Schools are canceled. Children are home. Wine bottles are on display in my kitchen, giving it an air of classy disaster.

I am watching children remove snacks and mixing bowls from cabinets, their hair unbrushed, sliding in pajamaed feet from kitchen to living room to playroom, on the world's most redundant loop of action since the film Speed.

Diaries have already been fought over, and a Slinky lay forgotten directly in the middle of the sixth stair, abandoned by the children upon its failure to make it “all the way!”

A tent and tunnel have been set up, leaving parental oversight virtually impossible, my view of the chaos restricted by blinding neon blue and yellow polyester.

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Milestones

Obituaries • Raymond Forr­est Bell, 74, of Guilford. Died Feb. 13 at his home. Father of Scott Sitka, Gary Sitka, Todd Bell, Raelene Bell, and the late Gregory Sitka. Stepfather of Cecile Ford. Brother of Rus­sell F. Bell, Ronald F. Bell, Randall F. Bell, Reagan F. Bell, Maureen R.

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Around the Towns

Speak Up to Win: Toastmasters meeting Feb. 28 at Marlboro Grad Center BRATTLEBORO - If fear and shyness around public speaking are holding you back, or are holding someone in your organization back, then Toastmasters is the answer. BrattleMasters, the Brattleboro-based chapter of Toastmasters International, meets Thursday, Feb. 28,

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A new nonprofit needed for River Garden?

RE: “The River Garden's $64,000 question,” Letters, Feb. 6: I have spoken with principals of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB) about exactly this question raised by Jim Verzino, “How do we develop a viable financial plan so that whoever is managing the building (BaBB or another entity) can run the building without going five figures in debt every year?” They are keeping their options open, including the option of retaining ownership of the River Garden, which might not make much...

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VTC announces auditions for annual ‘Shakespeare-in-the-Park’ production

The Vermont Theatre Company announces auditions for its 24th annual Shakespeare in the Park production, the romantic comedy “Twelfth Night,” to be directed by Bob Kramsky and performed at Brattleboro's Living Memorial Park the last weekend in June. Auditions are in the Brattleboro Union High School Auditorium on Monday, March 4, at at 7 p.m. Auditioning actors should arrive with a prepared comic Shakespearean monologue, and enter through the auditorium doors. Available roles include: • Orsino, Duke of Illyria, a...

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Brattleboro Women’s Chorus begins Spring Session with an open sing

The spring session of the Brattleboro Women's Chorus begins with an open sing March 6 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at All Souls Church, and is an excellent opportunity to join or to try out the chorus without obligation. All women - and girls aged 10 and up with their mothers or other adult female companions - are invited. The chorus then meets every Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at All Souls Church, 29 South St. The musical themes...

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Report: VY will refuel this spring

New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. will refuel its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon this spring. The news that the national nuclear power company will continue to invest in Vermont Yankee, first reported by Vermont Business Magazine, runs counter to speculation that the plant could be closed shortly over Entergy's faltering financial position. In published reports, Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams said the planned refueling is a routine process done every 18 months to replace one-third of the plant's fuel,

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Colonels end regular season with big win over MAU

It's been a difficult season for the Brattleboro Colonels' boys' basketball team. But the Colonels showed what they could be capable of doing in the Division I playoffs with a 51-39 win over the Mount Anthony Patriots last Friday at the BUHS gym. This was a defensive game all the way as Colonels coach Joe Rivers threw MAU every combination he could think of. “We ran a junk defense against these guys, and that kept them off balance,” he said.

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Quakers urge legislative action to curb gun violence

We, the undersigned of the West Brattleboro Quaker Worship Group, urge strong legislative action to curb gun violence. Quakers throughout history have stood on the side of peace and nonviolence. Just as we believe that “war is not the answer” as a way of settling international disputes, we also believe that “guns are not the answer” for settling disputes of any kind or for providing personal safety. We ourselves choose not to carry or own weapons for the intended purpose...

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River Garden is a public trust

The Robert H. Gibson River Garden is a public trust. It was funded by public money. As part of the Downtown Improvement District, it is overseen by public officials - the Selectboard and officials from the state of Vermont - through the Downtown Improvement District legislation. For its owner, Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB), to say that it can no longer afford to maintain the River Garden, and for most members of the Selectboard to go along with that assertion,

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Cold River Ranters to bring blazing folk jive to BF on March 7

How to describe the Cold River Ranters? Their website calls their music “hot gonzo primitive folk jive.” Flying Under Radar's Charlie Hunter says the group reminds him of a cross between the Holy Modal Rounders, The Asylum Street Spankers, “and Jonathan Richman if he lived in Acworth.” But the best description might be simply to say they're one whole heck of a lot of fun. The Cold River Ranters (www.coldriverranters.com) make their Bellows Falls debut at Popolo on Thursday, March...

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Show a little respect, please

I object to your publication of the strongly worded letter to the editor from Holland Mills [“Allen: hardly standing for the working poor,” Feb. 20] regarding the candidacy of John Allen to the Brattleboro Selectboard. It's fine to write informative opinions, but I object to the paragraph stating, “The town endured your nonsense for two years - and yes, I've sat and endured the drools of stupidity that foamed from your mouth,” etc. Holland Mills: Kindly show respect for all...

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Candidate critic hiding behind free speech rights

RE: “Allen: hardly standing for the working poor,” Letters, Feb. 20: Mr. Mills, you, and people like you, are the reason why local citizens do not run for office. You have no idea who I am. Nor have you ever attempted to call and have a civil conversation with me to ask. You hide behind one of our most precious rights, free speech. You are a coward and a hateful person who lives in fear of everything. I will not...

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The parallel lives of two 19th century giants, Lincoln and Douglass, is subject of First Wednesday talk

The March 6 Vermont Humanities Program hosted at Brooks Memorial Library is a talk by Civil War scholar John Stauffer on “Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.” The talk begins at 7 p.m. All First Wednesdays talks are free and open to the public. Douglass and Lincoln - the first born a slave, the other into poverty - became one of the nation's greatest orators and one of its greatest presidents, respectively. Stauffer examines their friendship,

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Kiss Me, Kate opens at Main Street Arts on March 1

Main Street Arts reprises its 1999 production of the musical “Kiss Me, Kate” next month, opening Friday, March 1, for a two-week run. This rollicking version of Shakespeare's “The Taming of the Shrew” features such memorable Cole Porter tunes as Another Op'nin', Another Show, I Hate Men, and Brush Up Your Shakespeare. A talented local cast adds its own stamp to the play-within-a-play, set in 1948 and switching between the stormy backstage romance of the show's producer and its star,

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Award-winning children’s author presents her new book ‘In Disguise!’

Author Elizabeth G. Macalaster presents her new book, “In Disguise!: Undercover with Real Women Spies” at the Putney Public Library on Thursday, March 7, from 7 to 8:30 pm. Spanning more than 300 years and 10 countries, “In Disguise!” (2013), written under the pen name Ryan Ann Hunter, tells the stories of history's most daring women, from Harriet Tubman, who freed hundreds of slaves during the Civil War, to dancer Eva Wu, who hid secret messages in her hair to...

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Stone Church Arts presents pianist Oni Buchanan on March 2

Stone Church Arts presents poet and concert pianist Oni Buchanan in a program she calls “Looking Glass Music: Reflection & Resonance.” The concert is at Immanuel Episcopal Church, “The Stone Church on the Hill,” at 20 Church St., Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. Buchanan's program gathers a diverse group of fantastical piano works that create their own landscapes through reflection and resonance, exploring the piano's rich palette. The works reflect the world and allow the audience to pass “through...

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Donna Macomber: Looking for ways to ‘listen across people’s differences’

Donna Macomber believes in government, Brattleboro, and stepping in to work for her community. She is excited and sees serving on the Selectboard as hard but important work. Macomber, co-executive director of the Women's Freedom Center, said that even before moving to town in 1990 she had spent “nearly every waking hour” here. “I love this community,” she said. Macomber said she was startled by people's reaction to her decision to run for Selectboard. Many had asked, “Are you out...

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Celebrating Native culture, benefiting Native needs

Over the past few years, the Rotary Club of Brattleboro has built film festivals around international themes to help those in need. This year, the club has shifted its focus back to the United States, and a place with socio-economic conditions that rival the worst that can been found in the developing world. It might seem strange that the club's fourth annual International Film and Food Festival - scheduled for Sunday, March 3, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the...

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Back to the ‘Boro

This year, the New England Center For Circus Arts' “Circus Spectacular” annual fundraiser is both a community celebration and a homecoming. For the first time, guest artists include several of the school's graduates who now perform in prestigious circus venues worldwide. For two remarkable shows - on Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 3, at 1 p.m. - the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro will offer a cornucopia of world-class performers in high flying trapeze, aerial silks, partner...

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Kate O’Connor: Encouraged to run, looking to make a contribution

Kate O'Connor remembers hanging holiday lights on Main Street with other volunteers when a passerby cemented for her the importance of contributing to the town she loves. Instead of asking what he could do to help, or offering to donate a wreath, the man complained about some aspect of gussying the place up, O'Connor recalls. “The town is the people who live in it,” she said thinking back to that day. “I can't sit here and complain about something and...

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Nurturing teen creativity

What do Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Myla Goldberg all have in common? All got an artistic boost as winners in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a national organization that for 90 years has recognized emerging youth excellence in literature and the arts. And Windham County can get a look this week at the works of perhaps the next Plath, Avedon, or Oates as the 2013 Vermont regional winners of...

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The People’s Congress

What is a Town Meeting, anyway? One thing is for sure. It is not what most Americans (and many Vermonters) think it is. For decades, our representatives in Washington have come home to hold “town meetings” on this or that public issue - often, shameless testimonies to their own heroic efforts on our behalf. Meantime, national politicians and media label staged campaign events as “town meetings.” Both practices are fakery. As a teacher of national politics, I now find the...

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Two roads diverged

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could... Thus begins a Robert Frost poem that I love, “The Road Not Taken.” The next-to-last stanza goes: And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I...

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Forward motion

It's been nearly two years since an April 2011 fire left the Brooks House gutted and forced 10 businesses and 60 tenants to flee. Today, the Main Street landmark stands ready for its second life, provided that the local development team that took on the daunting task of restoring the Brooks House to its former glory can find needed funding. Mesabi LLC planned to start work on the $23 million project in January, but delays in finding financing, and a...

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Bird irrupted

Watching birds can do lots of good things for you, including expanding your vocabulary. Or at least, it has expanded my vocabulary. Until I had the time to pay attention to seasonal changes and movements of birds, I did not have the word “irruption” in my working vocabulary. I knew “eruption,” which involves something bursting out, like lava from a volcano. Irruption refers to something bursting in, or surging up. It is the word used by ecologists to describe a...

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Town Meeting Day is Tuesday

Voters throughout the county will assemble on Town Meeting Day on Tuesday, March 5, unless otherwise specified. For links to the warnings for all the Town Meetings listed here, and other Town Meeting-related resources for voters, visit atm2012.commonsnews.org. Athens Voters will meet at the Athens Elementary School at 10 a.m. • Elections. After nominating a moderator and accepting the town report, townspeople will be asked to elect a road commissioner and town school district officers. • Taxes. Voters will be...

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Voters approve $27.7m budget for BUHS, BAMS, Career Center

Voters approved the Brattleboro Union High School District #6 budget at the district's annual meeting Feb. 12. District #6 includes Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS), Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS), and the Windham Regional Career Center (WRCC). District #6 is the official name for the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU), a regional district educating students from Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, and Vernon. The $27,687,316 budget for fiscal year 2014 reflects a 2.37 percent increase over the precious year. According to...

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Ben ‘Spoon’ Agave: Providing expertise to ‘make a good town better’

Ben “Spoon” Agave places a piece of paper on the café table. Typed, front and back, is his treatise on how he would serve Brattleboro as a member of its Selectboard. “I am running because town government has difficult and complex problems, because I have very deep and broad experience in town government, and because I love the work,” Agave, 66, wrote. “I will provide the expertise to make a good town better.” Agave is running for a three-year seat...

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Stretching to adapt in trying times

On the heels of a recession and approaching its 50th anniversary this year, the Windham Foundation has instituted some changes that have raised some eyebrows, causing some to question the foundation's commitment to the town in which the nonprofit remains the largest landowner and employer. Even CEO Bob Allen acknowledges that when Grafton Village Cheese Company - owned by the foundation - moved some 35 jobs to its new cheese plant in Brattleboro in 2008, it left a sour taste...

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Links to Annual Town Meeting warrants

Following are links to the 2013 Annual Town Meeting warrants for the towns in Windham County, with the exception of Brattleboro, whose Representative Town Meeting will take place March 23. • Athens • Brookline • Dover • Dummerston • Grafton • Guilford • Halifax • Jamaica • Londonderry • Marlboro • Newfane • Putney • Rockingham • Stratton • Townshend • Vernon • Wardsboro • Westminster • Wilmington • Windham...

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Your guide to Annual Town Meeting in Vermont

On Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March, citizens across Vermont come together in their communities to discuss the business of their towns. For over 200 years, Town Meeting Day has been an important political event as Vermonters elect local officers and vote on budgets. It has also been a time for neighbors to discuss the civic issues of their community, state, and nation. This piece is designed to help you learn about Vermont's Town Meeting Day, its history,

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