Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard met with Selectboard members on May 22 to discuss preparations in applying for a grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Bicycle and Pedestrian Program to continue the three-phase sidewalk and bike lane project extending from the center of town to Landmark College.
The program has approximately $4 million in available funds, of which the town would be applying for between $250,000 and $300,000 and matching it with around $60,000 from the municipal coffers. The grant application is due July 26.
Stoddard said she was unaware that the AOT program had continued into 2013 until very recently, adding pressure to write the grant more quickly than normal due to deadline constraints.
The town had unsuccessfully applied for the same grant last year.
Everything seems to be falling into place for the Brattleboro Colonels softball team as they get ready for another run at a state title. Brattleboro pitcher Kayla Wood finished the season with four one-hit games in five starts, the last being a 5-0 shutout against Rutland on Senior Day...
So far, the “By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth” all-volunteer citizens' committee - planners of the town's annual Independence Day celebration - has raised $10,000 of the $14,000 needed for local bands, fireworks and appropriate liability insurance and security. Could you help us bridge the gap as we mark...
Births • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), May 26, 2013, a son, Sylvester Sebastian Mayer, to Rebecca and Mark Mayer of Brattleboro; grandson to Heidrun Mayer of Brattleboro, and Rose Marie Thrane of Cambridge, N.Y. College news • Wendy Raymond of Putney, a nursing graduate from Saint Anselm College, received a Saint Anselm College nurse's pin at the 2013 pinning ceremony in the Abbey Church in Manchester, N.H., on April 27. She received a B.S. in nursing on May 18 at...
Marlboro Music, the unique Vermont summer community that The New Yorker described as “the classical world's most coveted retreat,” will share the discoveries of its 75 resident artists on five concert weekends from July 13 through Aug. 11. Performances are on Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., with two special Friday concerts on Aug. 2 and 9 at 8:30 p.m. Artistic directors Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida, who first came to Marlboro as young musicians, are among...
Traffic Calming Plan now open for public comment BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Department of Public Works, together with the Traffic Safety Committee, has developed a Traffic Calming Plan. At this time, the Traffic Calming Plan is posted on the news portion on the Town of Brattleboro website (www.brattleboro.org) for public comment. There is an online survey form to complete for comments to the Traffic Calming Plan included on the site. The end of the comment period will be Monday, June...
On May 3, Jim Kurty led the Brattleboro elementary bands in a spirited performance at the WSESU Diversity Celebration in the Harmony Lot. It was - as usual - a well-prepared concert that included a large group of children from all three town schools. The young musicians offered an arrangement of “Fanga Alafia” from West Africa and “Day-O” from the Caribbean. Little did I know that afternoon that this was to be one of Kurty's last performances as director of...
“Sports is the toy department of life.” That quote, often attributed to the late sports columnist Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith, refers to the tag, the Toy Department, that got stuck onto sports staffs at newspapers and other media outlets for decades afterward. For the past two decades, author Bill Littlefield, host of National Public Radio's “Only A Game,” has been working to prove Red Smith wrong. His weekly program shows the truth of an oft-repeated aphorism of recent years in...
Stone Church Arts is brimming with music this summer. With 10 concerts in June, July, and August, many affiliated with weekend music workshops hosted by Immanuel Retreat Center, these shows are bringing the world to Bellows Falls as never before. First up: “deturtle,” a jazz and classical trio mashup that's more than the sum of its parts. Catch them Saturday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m. Then the workshop season begins in earnest with “Eugene Friesen's Vermont Improvisation Intensive,” (July 11-14),
Activist and writer Glen Retief believes that homophobia and racism were joint tools that fueled the repressive system of apartheid in South Africa. The South African author will read from his memoir and lead a workshop on memoir writing as part of Brattleboro's celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month. Retief's memoir, “The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood” (St. Martin's Press, 2011), describes his experiences growing up white and gay in apartheid...
RE: “Shame on BF for memorial fund vote” [Letters, May 29]: I believe the Sarah Burr Howard memorial trust should be restored. I agree that the interest it has accumulated is not a lot, but the funds could be used for some good or at least some food or Christmastime gifts or whatever. Was this even a legal vote to dissolve this trust? It should be reinstated.
The Vermont Jazz Center's final concert of the 2012-13 season is Eugene Uman's Convergence Project, set for Saturday, June 8, at 8 p.m. The music, composed and performed by VJC artistic director Eugene Uman, who also is pianist and leader of the Convergence Project, is innovative, exploratory, understandable, and fun. According to Uman, what keeps the project unified is the integrity of the compositions, the shared vision of the group's members, and a careful balance of jazz harmonies with Colombian...
It's 12:15. All the classes get out, and the lunch room slowly starts to fill. The sound of laughter rises through the room like a wave in the ocean, tumbling down and taking everyone with it. I wait in line, anxious to move forward. The smell of ravioli and freshly baked bread drifts down the line, taunting us, and we get a sneak peek of what we are about to indulge in. The line moves forward, and I get my...
It is being called the “renaissance of the past,” this renewed interest in agriculture and food systems within our state. It manifests itself in many forms to include growth in community supported agriculture (CSAs), farmers' markets, food hubs, and the further diversification of agricultural production with an array of products from the land and animals that are raised on the land. This rebirth further reinforces Vermont's past, its present, and its future. Vermont's agriculture, forests, and working landscape have always...
RE: “Shame on BF for memorial fund vote” [Letters, May 29]: The very clear, exact wording and intent for the Sarah Burr Howard Memorial Fund set forth in 1895 can be read on page 477 of The History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermont by Lyman Simpson Hayes (available as a free download at Google Books). Part of what is written there is that the Bellows Falls Village Corporation will “keep and hold the same [sums donated by Luther G.
Bolivia is the poorest country of the Americas based on their total revenue produced, which has doubled in the last decade but still is less than $5,000 per person per year. But Bolivians are not impoverished. Behind the country's feeble earnings are creative and collaborative ways of living well which include community participation, collaboration, barter, self-sufficiency, and an average retail mark-up of just 30 percent, as opposed to the standard 100 percent used in the U.S. So while earnings are...
Broad Brook Grange in Guilford has announced that a special, one-time college scholarship will be awarded this month in memory of noted citizen Marie (Sally) Carpenter, who died this past January. Mrs. Carpenter's family designated the Grange, of which she was a longtime member, as recipient of memorial gifts, and the Grange membership voted to use those donations to create this scholarship. Marie Carpenter became Guilford Town Clerk in 1971, a post she held until her retirement in 1984, after...
RE: “Shut up and count her blessings?” [Letters, May 29]: You don't believe people should count their blessings? I do. I also believe that there are people in far greater need than Shela Linton, who has a loving family and not one but two college degrees. She has a distinct advantage over a lot of other people, particularly when it comes to applying for a job and earning greater income. I believe that all programs that aid the poor should...
Little Eddie and the Giants are gearing up to perform their trademark classic country and blues on the Townshend Common on Saturday, June 8, from 7 to 10 p.m. The event is a fundraiser for the Townshend Church. The building, built in 1790, recently landed a $15,000 matching grant from the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. All funds raised will go toward repairs to the roof structure, the exterior roof, and several smaller projects. Any and all donations are welcome.
Legalizing the cultivation of hemp is one of the most important social- and economic-justice issues of our times. The United States remains the only advanced nation in the world which allows the importation and sale of hemp raw materials and finished goods, but bans its farmers from growing the crop. With American consumers now spending over $500 million annually on hemp products, our farmers are tired of being left out - they want the option to grow hemp. On May...
Leland & Gray Union Middle High School is participating in the Summer Food Service Program for Children. Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program is designed to ensure that children who rely on free or reduced price meals during the school year continue to have adequate nutrition throughout the summer. Meals will be provided to all children 18 or younger without charge from July 8 through Aug. 2 at the school. Breakfast will be served from 8:30 to...
Dover School student Lucas Dlubac was recently chosen as the winner the 14th annual National Ski Areas Association's National Kids' Safety Poster Contest. Dlubac's poster was chosen as the best overall safety message out of hundreds of entries from ski areas nationwide. The annual contest targets fourth, fifth and sixth graders, though any elementary school student can participate. Peak Resorts' risk manager Ryan Lavoie organized Mount Snow's participation and brought the opportunity for the poster contest to teachers at Dover...
June 14 will mark the sixth-month anniversary of the Newtown, Conn. massacre. Since that tragic day, it is estimated that more than 84 children in the United States have been killed by guns, according to Slate and @GunDeaths. Teens add 219 more to this tally and, if we look at all gun deaths for all ages in the United States since Newtown, the estimated number is an astonishing 4,332. If these were deaths due to eastern equine encephalitis, west Nile...
An open letter to those who will be making a decision on the River Garden RFPs: Readers would do well to reassess the misstatements in the Brattleboro Reformer article, “River Garden repayment repealed,” May 20, 2013. The article correctly noted that the Legislature repealed language in a 1999 law requiring the town repay a $150,000 appropriation to the state of Vermont. The article then misquoted the language that was repealed by referring to a statement that is contained in an...
John Winn's growing market providing farm-raised lambs to Muslim families for halal slaughter, as well as to other Vermonters, will be capped by new regulations in a miscellaneous agriculture bill, H.515, that passed at the end of the legislative session. (Halal is an Arabic word meaning “lawful” or “permissible.”) The provisions were a response to a clash between the mostly careful traditional outdoor on-farm slaughter convenient for small livestock raisers who sell animals directly to the public and USDA Food...
If you pay one whit of attention to food trends, you could end up with a bad case of vertigo. Since there really is no good case of vertigo, other than the film by the same name, you'd be much better off ignoring what the talking heads tell you about food. (Unless, of course, you're listening to Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food, but there I go digressing again.) Think about it: how many times have you heard...
Things fall apart and sometimes things are cars. When this is so our wheels are towed to Richmond's. We turn from Coolidge Highway into gratitude. * * * Weathered as our state (where all seasons mingle in a single week), avuncular, soft-spoken by the register, Doug, you welcome mystery- * * * our burnt-out bearings, slipping clutches, fading brakes, discharging alternators, shiftless transmissions, broken timing belts or hearts. * * * At nightfall, sun polishes with tenderness like yours our...
Brattleboro Retreat is in trouble with the federal government again, and the state is preparing for the worst. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says it plans to terminate payment for Medicare services on Aug. 15 because the Retreat is not providing adequate care for patients. It's the fourth time in 18 months that the hospital has violated federal standards. The Brattleboro Retreat, the largest psychiatric facility in the state, is scrambling to submit a plan of correction...
I didn't know much about Arrested Development before a friend let me borrow a season, though I'd heard from other friends that it was wonderful. I soon became hooked. I plowed through the entire series in about a week. All the little twists and turns were genius. The guest stars were perfectly placed. Michael Cera was Michael Cera before it was cool to be Michael Cera. And now, just about the funniest, most well-written awkward comedy in existence has returned.
It's June, and that means the house starts to fill up with an eclectic gathering of people who might or might not easily mix and match but who all agree on their need to be fed. I stand at the kitchen counter with a dizzying background of small loud children running around the furniture, a visitor from the city experimenting with cochineal dye in the bathroom, a discussion of bond trading overheard through the screen door, a sweetheart who is...
The Bellows Falls Woman's Club concluded its club year on May 14 with a luncheon and meeting. Present was Midge Tucker, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of Vermont. She spoke of her key project, Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, which all federated Vermont women's clubs have been supporting. She also spoke of her desire to be connected to all the clubs through good, mutual communication. Club President Judy Boynton recapped the year's activities, programs, and projects. The club...
“Life is short. Eat dessert first,” the saying goes. Representatives of Brattleboro Area Hospice are taking those words to heart as they take the normally taboo subject of death out of the closet and set it on the table. Right next to a piece of cake. Hospice will host Vermont's first “death café” at Amy's Bakery Arts Café on Main Street on Thursday, June 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. Death cafés are part of a movement started in Europe...
At its recent annual meeting at the Patch Farm, the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association honored Ray Hitchcock of Cambridgeport as its Volunteer of the Year. Each year, the Pinnacle Association recognizes one individual from among its many, essential volunteers as deserving of special attention. In presenting the award, a framed panoramic view from Paul's Ledges, Pinnacle Association Trustee James “Silos” Roberts of Athens mentioned a host of reasons why Hitchcock was the obvious choice this year. In addition to providing...
The Putney Foodshelf reports it received sizable donations of food in May. The annual Letter Carriers' “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive provided a boost of 500 pounds of canned goods, collected by Putney letter carriers. Separately, the Dummerston Girls on the Run program filled a car with canned goods for Foodshelf recipients. The Foodshelf says it routinely secures 300 to 400 pounds of canned and boxed goods, fresh produce, eggs, yogurt, and meat each week to keep their shelves stocked,
American Legion Nelson E. Pickwell Post 15 is bringing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall to the Deerfield Valley. It will be on display from June 13-17, at Mount Snow's Howe Farm Field on Route 100. “The Moving Wall” is the half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that has been touring the country for more than 20 years. The American Legion invites everyone to share the experience of visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, especially those without...
For the past several years, Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 47th season, has been presenting an “A Cappella à la Carte” evening as the finale to its annual calendar. This year, the Guilford Chamber Singers are featured in “Melodies Steal Into My Heart,” the musical segment of the evening's three-part menu. The setting is Guilford Community Church. The date is Saturday, June 8, beginning at 6 p.m. with a brief and merry Friends of Music membership meeting.
Name a construction or conservation project in Vermont that's been done over the past 25 years, and chances are the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB) has helped to fund it. In Brattleboro alone, the VHCB, working with the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT), has helped preserve, reclaim, or construct many buildings - from the Abbott Block on Canal Street, to the Wilder Building on Main Street, to the Daly Shoe building on Birge Street, to the new Brattleboro...
The Vermont Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) and its state and local partners will take part in a biennial graded exercise of its radiological response plan. The drill will simulate an event at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant on Wednesday, June 5, starting at approximately 9 a.m., and continuing until midafternoon. The exercise will determine if local and state agencies are ready to respond to an incident at the plant. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's...
Harvard University's Community Development Project submitted its final report to the Brattleboro Housing Authority on May 22, completing another step in BHA's ambitious housing redevelopment plan. Spurred by 2011's Tropical Storm Irene, federal regulations, HUD funding, and residents' safety, BHA has undertaken a multi-year, potentially multi-million dollar project to redevelop 280 housing units. BHA provides affordable housing, managing and maintaining 307 housing units across six properties. The organization also delivers programs such as the federally funded Section 8 voucher program...
Brattleboro Housing Authority executive director Christine Hart said she recently learned from HUD that the agency will not provide funds to shore up the Section 8 program unless a housing authority has “zero reserves.” And that puts BHA and its stakeholders in a real bind, she said, asking rhetorically, “Would a viable business run without a financial buffer?” According to Hart, the BHA had about $1.7 million in reserve before 2011's Tropical Storm Irene's disaster costs “ate them.” HUD has...
The signal beamed through the Internet and pinged off satellites hanging above the Earth's atmosphere crackles, skips. The momentary silence is followed by another sharp pop. “Are you still there?” asks state Sen. Peter Galbraith, D-Windham, calling via Skype from the Middle East. With the end of the 2013 legislative session, Galbraith has returned to his day job. The former diplomat is working with Kurds in Syria. The Kurdish areas in Syria are peaceful, he said. He hopes to assist...
Almost 30 years has elapsed since zoning and planning bylaws have been re-examined in town. Selectboard Chair Ezekiel “Zeke” Goodband said that passage of time was at the heart of a mediation between landowners, their lawyers, and three town boards last month. At issue was a pool, deck, and fence on the Schoolhouse Road property of John and Lori Thibault. The Thibaults and town officials entered into a successful mediation. The site plan and variance were granted to the couple...
The 12th annual Strolling of the Heifers Weekend, featuring a parade of flower-bedecked heifer calves led by future farmers up the historic Main Street of Brattleboro, takes place June 7 to 9. The centerpiece of the weekend is the world-famous Strolling of the Heifers Parade, which starts promptly at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 8. The signature heifer calves lead the parade and are followed by other farm animals, tractors, bands, and floats. The crowd then follows the parade to...
The Strolling of the Heifers Slow Living Summit has announced that the plenary sessions featuring its most prominent speakers - including Diet for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé - will be open to the public, with an optional donation of $10 requested at the door. All plenaries are held in the Latchis Theatre on Main Street; there will be a registration/information desk there as well, staffed during most Summit hours. All plenaries will be emceed by Lori Hanau...
The term “locavore,” and the locavorism movement, are both comparatively recent. “Locavore” made its first appearance in 2005 and was designated the 2007 Word of the Year by the Oxford American Dictionary. As a movement, locavorism advocates a preference for local food for a variety of reasons, including: • Local food travels much less distance to market than typical fresh or processed grocery store foods, therefore using less fuel and generating fewer greenhouse gases. • Because of the shorter distribution...