A few weeks ago, I wrote a letter complaining about the lack of signage in downtown Brattleboro that would aid motorists seeking to park their cars [Letters, March 6]. I wanted to express my frustration, but I did not offer any real solution.
Soon after I wrote the letter, I went to Salem, Mass., and was greeted by a bright yellow sticker on the parking meter that did several things. What I noticed first is that it welcomed me to Salem.
Then it went on to explain the cost per hour for parking, the hours of operation, and the maximum amount of time to park. It even explained how long you can park if the meter is broken.
And last, but not least, it stated Sundays and holidays are free. All this on one simple, yellow sticker affixed to the meter.
The Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District (WCNRCD) has been awarded an Ecosystem Restoration Program Grant from the state of Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation. The grant is for protecting the state's water quality and supporting WCNRCD's goal to conduct Stream Geomorphic Assessments (SGAs) in Basin 11 and all...
On the surface, I seem an unlikely candidate to write about being happy. I am often sad and sometimes without an easily identifiable cause. I sigh a lot and have been known to say to God on many occasions, “Lord, it is so hard being human.” I know he...
The Friends of the Rockingham Library are planning an excursion to Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Saturday, April 13. A chartered bus departs the Bellows Falls Waypoint Center at 7 a.m. and returns at 7 p.m., just in time for a dance at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River. The cost is $95 per person and includes a museum tour and round-trip transportation. There will be time for shopping and lunch in addition to the planned museum...
All are invited to attend “Farms and Gardens,” a free book discussion series sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council and generously funded by the Windham Foundation's Grafton Fund. Discussions will be hosted by Grafton Public Library at 204 Main St., on Thursdays beginning at 6:30 p.m. The library is ADA accessible. Vermonters know as well as anyone the rich metaphors inherent in farming and gardening. These authors dig deep to explore the philosophical roots, family dynamics, and personal enrichment associated...
Youth Services will host its annual Summer Camp Fair & Youth Expo on Friday, April 5, on Gallery Walk from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden. In addition to showcasing many summer camp providers, the event features many musical performances. The public is encouraged to take advantage of this great opportunity to arrange a fun-filled summer for their children. “Our Summer Camp Fair & Youth Expo gives parents the chance to register their children for...
The Windham County Sheriff's Department is one of seven employers in Vermont nominated for the 2013 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. The Freedom Award is the Department of Defense's highest recognition for employers supporting employees serving in the National Guard and Reserve. Up to 15 award recipients will be announced this summer and honored in Washington, D.C., later this year at the 18th annual Freedom Award ceremony. Employers are nominated for the award by Guard and Reserve Service...
College news • Elizabeth A. Miller, formerly of Hinsdale, N.H., recently returned from Israel where she traveled with a Taglit-Brithright group of students from New England. She is attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she is on the Dean's List. She is a sophomore in Robotics Engineering and, last summer, she took part in a research project at the University of Pennsylvania's General Robotics, Automation, Sensing, and Persception (GRASP) Lab. • The following local residents made the Dean's List for Winter...
The Vermont spring high school sports season begins on Monday, April 8, and not a moment too soon. After a dreary February and a drearier March, everybody wants to get outside and play in the sun. Weather permitting, the baseball season begins on April 8 with Bellows Falls at Leland & Gray at 4:30 p.m., and Burr & Burton at Brattleboro at 5 p.m. Twin Valley opens its season on Friday, April 12, with a 4:30 game at West Rutland.
What's the best way to deal with feral cats? Prevent more from being created. A spay and neuter program now being introduced into Bellows Falls is aimed at just that: controlling feral cat colonies. According to www.Feralcatproject.org, feral cats are those felines “living in a wild state after domestication.” The site also describes them as “free-roaming cats,” which covers “all lost, abandoned, loosely owned, and stray cats in addition to feral.” These animals live very hard lives, between the struggle...
Sandglass Theater presents this season's final performance in the Winter Sunshine Series with shows Saturday, April 6, at 2 and 4 p.m. Ines Zeller Bass will warm the Sandglass stage with two performances of her acclaimed children's show “Isidor's Cheek.” Inspired by a character in a German children's book, Isidor is forced out of a gray existence when his cheek runs away and he must search the world for it, entering a land of color and beauty, loneliness and danger.
Women composers in the classical tradition are still far less known than they should be, and their works remain rarely performed. Working to correct that, Friends of Music at Guilford is kicking off this year's “Women in Music” gala fundraiser. The 2013 program, set to begin Saturday, April 6, at 6 p.m., raises support for the organization's current 47th season of concerts. In addition to a number of donations-only core events intended to make music accessible to the most varied...
Vermont director Jay Craven's new film “Northern Borders” will have its world premiere on Wednesday, April 10, at 7 p.m, at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro. “Latchis Theater will be a genuine world premiere,” says Craven. “No one has seen the finished film yet, and I am eager to find out how it plays in front of an audience.” Craven says he believes that facing an audience is the final stage of interaction in the collaborative process of filmmaking. “In...
On Sunday, April 7, at 4 p.m. at Centre Congregational Church, the Brattleboro Music Center presents “Dolce Conforte” (Sweet Comfort). The community is invited to share in a rich afternoon of vocal duets and more, featuring Margery McCrum, soprano; Jennifer Carol Hansen, mezzo-soprano; and Hugh Keelan, piano; with Kathy Andrew, violin. “I think it is safe to say that some of the most magical and memorable moments in music arise from the seamless movement of two harmonious voices blended together...
The Rockingham Arts and Museum Project's (RAMP) 11th Annual Art Raffle Benefit will be held on Sunday, April 21, starting at 3 p.m., at Windham Antique Center in downtown Bellows Falls. More than 60 regional artists have donated works. This is not an auction, a winning ticket gives you the opportunity to own the artwork of your choice assuming no one else has chosen the work you had your eye on. The raffle offers an opportunity to win original artwork...
One-on-one computer coaching returns to Brooks BRATTLEBORO - Through the auspices of e-Vermont and a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, Brooks Memorial Library is able to offer one-on-one computer coaching with a skilled student intern from Community College of Vermont. These private 45-minute sessions will enable participants to learn basic computer tasks, such as setting up and using an email account, creating a Facebook account, or using a word processing program or other popular software program. The library has...
In partnership with Building Bright Futures of Southeastern Vermont and the Early Educators Network of Southeastern Vermont, the Windham Child Care Association is celebrating April as the Month of the Young Child. Month of the Young Child celebrations around the country promote high-quality child care, preschool, and other early education opportunities for young children, and honor the teachers, administrators, and others who work to improve those programs. It is a time to remember that if we want our children to...
Brattleboro voters elected three new Selectboard members in March. By June, the town will see a fourth new face on the board. Town Clerk Annette Cappy swore in newcomers David Schoales and Kate O'Connor and former Selectboard member John Allen on March 25, marking the start of their respective terms on the board. As for the fourth new face, that will come later in the spring, when the Selectboard appoints a replacement to fill the seat of Ken Schneck. Two...
Students from Hilltop Montessori Middle School in Brattleboro are headed to Alabama in early April as part of their study of the civil rights movement. The trip includes stops in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Ala., to allow students “to breathe, eat, and live the civil rights movement,” according to organizers. One of the highlights of the trip is a visit with the Gee's Bend Quilters Collaborative. This year, in honor of the Gee's Bend community and their ongoing generosity, the...
Outside Andrea Livermore's soon-to-be-former office window in the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, Bill “Wild Bill” Kathan practices jumping jacks. A fixture for six years in downtown Brattleboro as the executive director of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB), Livermore is stepping in a new direction. Livermore will leave her post at BaBB to become the development director at Brattleboro Area Hospice (BAH), effective April 12. “I'm ready to not be at the helm,” said Livermore with a smile. In an...
On April 9, the Windham County Safe Place Child Advocacy Center & Southeastern Unit for Special Investigations and Prevent Child Abuse Vermont will join thousands of communities throughout Vermont and the nation in recognizing Child Abuse Prevention Month with a pinwheel garden. The garden will be planted on the front lawn of Rescue, Inc., on Canal Street near Interstate 91 Exit 1, from April 8-15, and at the First Baptist Church on Main Street in Brattleboro from April 15-22. The...
In an unusual move, the Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) last week terminated two grants worth a total of $3.4 million that were awarded to the Springfield-based broadband provider VTel. The grants were designed to pay for providing wireless broadband Internet service to more than 900 addresses in Vermont, including in the Windham County towns of Brattleboro, Dover, Dummerston, Newfane, Putney, Stratton, Wardsboro, Westminster, Whitingham, and Wilmington. The VTA made two awards to VTel in 2011 and 2012, according to VTA...
A break-in attempt into a private garage in Gageville, and the break-in and the theft of “about 10 gallons of gas” at another private garage the day before, might be related, according to Sgt. Mark Anderson of the Windham County Sheriff's Department. An investigation is in progress, he said. Anderson said a Gageville homeowner noticed evidence of an attempted break-in and reported it likely occurred during the middle of the day last Sunday. And the theft of 10 gallons of...
RE: “The better road” [Essay, March 27]: Krysta Gottfried is a shining example of the transformation that takes place at Kurn Hattin Homes for Children in Westminster. Her honesty about the effects of her early childhood and how it impacted her behavior underscores that - with love, structure, and guidance - a child can overcome adversity and go on to lead a life of hope and promise. Kurn Hattin has provided hope for children like Krysta for over 118 years.
Read Miller's 23-year-old son William is not going to forget March 31, 2013, the day he hit the east side trim boards with the truck he was driving through the West Dummerston Covered Bridge. A lack of both experience and sleep contributed to a mishap that “embarrassed the hell out of him,” the father said. The covered bridge did not sustain any structural damage and is safe for vehicular travel. The West Dummerston Covered Bridge is the longest covered bridge...
With the endless news stream of conflict and violence among people of different faiths around the world, I was delighted when the Windham World Affairs Council and two interfaith groups recently organized a panel discussion so that our community could learn more about the Muslim religion. The four panelists from Pakistan, Oman, and Senegal were not only passionate about their faith but also open, candid, and respectful in their dialogues with one another and the audience. I learned a lot...
It seems that bad girls are back. Not only that, they're big. For starters, there's Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the bane of Wall Street bankers; Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who has been known to wear T-shirts claiming “Lucky for me he's an ass man!” after losing both legs in combat; and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay woman to serve in Congress. A few years ago several books celebrated bad girls, including Mario Vargas Llosa's The Bad Girl...
It's been a year since the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant began continuing to operate past the expiration of its original Certificate of Public Good (CPG) from the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB). While multiple lawsuits are being litigated, and the future of the Vernon plant remains in legal and regulatory limbo, anti-nuclear activists marked the anniversary on Saturday afternoon with a parade down Main Street and a rally at the Latchis Theatre. The dominant theme of the “Lawyers, Leaks...
“Flushed with pride” [News, March 27] was a good article, and mostly accurate with a few minor errors. I worked for the town of Brattleboro from 1976 to 1985 and was rehired in early 2012. I was still in high school in the late 1960s. I actually did work at all three different plants, though. It is nice to see the workers get the credit they deserve for all the hard work they put in during the entire construction project.
Vermonters filed 1,700 complaints of consumer fraud with the state Attorney General's Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) last year. Many of the scammers behind what was found to be fraud had targeted seniors, said Assistant Attorney General Janet Murnane, director of CAP. Murnane spoke to seniors about ways to protect themselves against fraudsters at a forum hosted by CAP and AARP on March 28. “They want your money,” she said. CAP's top 10 list for scams in 2012 ranged from “phishing”
The state has approved Brattleboro's downtown designation for another five years. Due to a new organizational model for Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB), the state has also asked for a progress report in 12 months. Brattleboro participates in the state's downtown program through the Department of Economic, Housing & Community Development (DEHCD), which aims to support economic health and revitalization of downtowns. Program benefits include access to tax credits, transportation grants, and training and technical services. The program requires towns...
It was clear even to those who barely knew him that Roger Katz was one of those people who loved the life he so expertly chronicled with his camera. Katz, of Dummerston, who died Monday after a long battle with cancer, was exquisitely talented at capturing personalities. In recent years, with the advent of social media, he shared 8,375 photos in fascinating random order with his almost 1,000 friends on Facebook. And, in those photographs, he told a community's story...