I am a fortunate 20-year beneficiary of America's single-payer federal health insurance, Medicare. While it needs major improvement, it has excellent coverage and acceptance.
Medicare provides:
1) Free, fast, easy enrollment. Applicants must prove citizenship and payment into the system.
2) Insurance for seniors, disabled people, and those with two specific disorders.
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a twin bill of award-winning contemporary folk singer/songwriters Antje Duvekot and Seth Glier Friday, Jan. 10, at 7:30 p.m. Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter lauded by critics for her hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism, and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and...
On Saturday, Jan. 25, four gardening experts, each with international experience, will present their thoughts, pictures, and videos at Garden Inspirations, an all-day workshop at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro. Only 100 tickets will be sold, with proceeds supporting the ongoing restoration of the main hall of the...
The time is right to get a better handle on who in the community struggles with food insecurity and marginal housing, and the Putney Foodshelf is looking to the Selectboard for guidance - and $1,000 or so - to lock down some answers. That was the message Leigh Brady, Putney Foodshelf board member, brought to the Selectboard last month. Brady called for “a wider kind of focus” on the issue of hunger in Windham County - and Putney particularly. “I'm...
RFPL presents on hemlock woolly adelgid, tree conservation program BELLOWS FALLS - On Wednesday, Jan. 8, at 11 a.m., Jim Esden, a forester from the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, will speak at the Rockingham Free Public Library about the hemlock woolly adelgid surveys planned for this winter. Hemlock, Vermont's seventh most common tree, faces an increased assault from the hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny insect which first arrived in the United States in the 1920s and feeds...
On Friday, Jan. 10, the Brattleboro Music Center's Chamber Music Series presents acclaimed American pianist Jonathan Biss. Lauded by BBC Music Magazine as “one of the most thoughtful and technically accomplished pianists of the younger generation,” Biss has embarked on an ambitious project to record the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 sonatas. “His journey will be well worth following,” said a New York Times reviewer in 2012, and Brattleboro's audience will get the chance to do so live when the...
On Gallery Walk Friday in December, I headed to downtown Brattleboro to meet my fiancée and celebrate our anniversary. As a new owner of an all-electric car, imagine my excitement when she called from the Brattleboro parking garage to tell me there were two spots with electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations. I hoped the setup was similar to the Northampton, Mass., parking garage where normal parking fees apply and the electricity is free. As I approached the spots at level 1A,
This year, I did it again. Last year on my blog, I started to pick a one-a-day holiday beer or winter warmer on Dec. 20 in a 12-day headlong rush to New Year's Day. This year, I tried a little earlier in a headlong rush to Christmas Day. I never meant the list to represent any kind of ranking order or even a guarantee of good drinking; the beers were just 12 I picked up and went through one day...
Births • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Dec. 3, 2013, a son, Matthew Wayne Davey, to Jennifer (Clark) and Sheldon Davey of Brookline; grandson to Win and Lou Clark, Eric and Diane Ciemniewski, and Eric and Sharon Davey. College news • William Inman, a physical education studies major from Guilford, was named to the Deans' List at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y., for the Fall 2013 academic term. Obituaries • Richard Goodell “Chick” Chickering, Jr., 74, of West Chesterfield,
Putney Mountain Association (PMA) announces it has received a $195,000 award from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) to be used towards a new major land acquisition and conservation project. PMA will purchase a 144.5-acre parcel of prime ridge land on Holland Hill Road in Putney. This beautiful piece of forested land, which has been in the Hannum-O'Connor family since the 1920s, sits high on the spine of Putney Mountain. The varied terrain includes gentle slopes, stony ledges, old...
Bird calls are very difficult to distinguish. Most are some form of “chip,” which sounds like every other “chip” to anyone who does not have an auditory acuity, a great memory, and lots of experience. However, there is one “chip” that I recognize almost all the time and wherever I am. It is a “chip” - or, as some render it, “tchip” - that I hear from my feeders when the sky is just beginning to lighten in the morning.
In anticipation of the Feb. 5 First Wednesday Lecture at Brooks Memorial Library by Ignat Solzhenitsyn - son of the 1970 Nobel Prize-winning and Soviet-era dissident author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - join Vermont Humanities scholar Richard Wizansky for a reading and discussion series, beginning on Thursday, Jan. 9, in the Brooks Memorial Library Meeting Room. On Feb. 5, conductor and pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn recollects his father's painstaking crafting of “The Red Wheel” - a history of the Russian Revolution - and...
As the new year begins, the annual ritual of collecting signatures to get on the town ballot has also begun. Town Clerk Annette Cappy announced last week that town elections will be held on Tuesday, March 4, and the Annual Representative Town Meeting on Saturday, March 22. Petitions for Brattleboro Town and Town School District Officers and Town Meeting Members are now available at the Town Clerk's office. Petitions for Town Officers must contain at least 30 valid signatures of...
The Brattleboro Concert Choir presents Richard Blackford's rapturous “Mirror of Perfection” and Benjamin Britten's arresting masterwork “Rejoice in the Lamb” on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m., and again on Sunday, Jan. 12 at 3 p.m. at the First Baptist Church. The concert, directed by Susan Dedell, features soprano Junko Watanabe, contralto Jennifer Hansen, tenor Marc Winer, and baritone Peter Shea, and introduces 11-year-old soprano Elle Jamieson as treble soloist. “Rejoice in the Lamb” is one of Britten's best-known choral...
The Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Community Garden Network announce a new grant program for small businesses that will provide funding and technical assistance for nine workplace food gardens at sites statewide. Green Thumbs at Work grants are open to any Vermont business or organization with fewer than 50 employees. Grants of $1,750 and $650 will be awarded by the Health Department and program partners: Vermont Community Garden Network, Gardener's Supply Company, and garden expert Charlie Nardozzi. Full...
Since the Harris Hill Ski Jump in Brattleboro was rebuilt and competition resumed in 2009, organizers set a goal making this historic competition a must for any ski jumper with Olympic ambitions. Looking at the roster of the American Ski Jumping Team that will be competing in next month's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, you might say that the road to Sochi went through Harris Hill. Last year's third-place finisher, Nicholas Fairall of the Andover, N.H., Outing Club, won the...
Hugh Keelan has returned to Vermont from Erie, Penn., where he has conducted a performance of The Nutcracker during the cold winter months, and now the Windham Orchestra music director is gearing up to present a musical celebration of spring. At its first concerts of 2014, the orchestra will present the world premiere of a new composition by Jan Norris, proprietor of Delectable Mountain on Main Street. Her “Melting Spring” is a short work celebrating the arrival of the new...
Fire broke out Tuesday morning at the Basin Farm on 175 Basin Farm Rd. No injuries or deaths were reported, but the Vermont & the New Hampshire Upper Valley American Red Cross reports that “a number of people” have been left homeless. The Basin Farm is located in North Westminster. It is owned by the Twelve Tribes, a religious organization. According to a post on its website, www.twelvetribes.org, “a chimney fire ignited in the floor system of the second floor...
After more than three decades in journalism, I know what goes into the sausage that is your daily newspaper or nightly newscast. The ingredients in that sausage might not always be savory to look at or expertly prepared, but the audience expects its links of newsy goodness every day, and usually doesn't complain about what it gets. For those who do complain, those of us in the business can recite the complaints by rote - you're biased and one-sided, you're...
What would the writer like to see in an agreement between the state of Vermont and Entergy? Exact dates and dollar figures? How can these be even estimated for 2029? All the writer did was criticize. Not one positive suggestion was made. When Vermont Yankee was built, many “promises” were made by the federal government, the Vermont utilities that owned a majority of VY, and the state. These promises were made based on assumed conditions. When conditions changed, the promises...
Elliot Street Café closed for renovations The Elliot Street Café at 134 Elliot St. in Brattleboro closed on Dec. 22 for renovations. Dr. Becky Jones, who calls herself the “owner, operator, and number-one fan of ESC,” said that she has “been so happy to be able to offer Brattleboro and our little neighborhood for the past 4½ years our delicious tacos, huevos, and hash browns.” “We have had great art shows, ping-pong games and book signings, not to mention conversations;
Taxpayers may see less of a tax increase with the Selectboard's most recent draft budget compared to earlier drafts. The smaller tax increase comes after scrutiny and cuts. The board continued its budget discussions during a morning meeting on Jan. 3. At their Jan. 7 meeting, Selectboard chair David Gartenstein said the board will vote at its Jan. 21 meeting on a municipal budget of $16,306,285 that will go to Representative Town Meeeting Members to vote upon on March 22.
Last month, my husband Mark and I took a trip out West. We landed in Sacramento and drove a scenic loop through Oregon and Washington state, stopping along the way to promote our newly-hatched book. I hadn't visited in about 20 years and missed it so. The Northwest reminds me of a slightly nicer version of the Northeast: progressive,-active,-and friendly-er. Maybe it's the wide skies and gentle weather, but there is an openness about the landscape and its people that...
Representatives of the Brattleboro Farmers' Market are scheduled to appear before the Development Review Board on Wednesday, Jan. 22, to seek approval for its plan to buy the Planet gas station on 670 Western Ave. and convert the property into a new parking area. According to an application for a Change of Use permit submitted to the DRB on Dec. 27, 2013, by Adam Hubbard of Stevens & Associates, the Farmers' Market “intends to purchase the property and convert the...
At 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2013, Hilltop Montessori School activated 192 new roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels, together expected to generate approximately 60,000 kilowatts of electricity per year. The installation of the panels - a collaboration of Hilltop, the investment firm Wisdom and Power LLC of Norwich, and Integrated Solar Applications of Brattleboro - will supply all the power required to run the school. The project also will allow the school to further its mission, Head of School Tamara Mount...
While I haven't been to Keene in decades, Northampton, Mass., also is an excellent place to look for traffic calming ideas. That community's Main Street is the most pedestrian-friendly and safest road I've personally seen in New England.
The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) has released its two-month schedule for the remainder of Entergy's Certificate of Public Good (CPG) hearing, which will allow its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to operate legally until it closes its doors later this year. But most of the agreement between Entergy and the state is contingent on the company receiving a CPG by March 31, and a regional planning official cautions that the agreement is hardly a fait accomplis. The schedule, which...
When I was growing up, difficult as it is to believe, there were no TVs, the telephone operator connected you to your party, and a real person actually answered if you called an agency or the electric company. People kept connected by telephone, the post office, and face-to-face social exchanges. But my best memories are of being a child doing child things. I entered the playground through a huge gate that was opened in the morning and closed at night.
Two people were killed in an early-morning house fire on 420 Schoolhouse Rd. on Jan. 6. Russell Nutbrown, 90, and his son Barry Nutbrown, 57, died in the fire, according to Vermont State Police. According to state police, the fire at the single-family home was reported to Keene Mutual Aid at 4:41 a.m., and the house was totally engulfed in flames by the time the first fire crews from the West Dummerston Volunteer Fire Department arrived. Both men were inside...
In a 5-3 vote, the Rockingham Free Public Library Board of Trustees last week passed a level-funded budget for fiscal year 2015 that deadlocked its own finance committee. That budget does not include a cost-of-living wage increase proposed by staff. If the budget is approved by the Selectboard, the town of Rockingham will be asked to raise $320,806 in taxes at the Annual Town Meeting in March. At the previous trustees meeting, the two-person finance committee could not find agreement...
I am ready to simply spend time with Mom today. She is fragile and vulnerable, in the beginning stages of dementia since her health problems in the last year. On Christmas day, I am in charge of the traditional turkey dinner for six of us, Mom and siblings. After 47 years of living and working in New England, I am spending two months reconnecting with my mother and siblings in a way I haven't been able to during my annual...