The Putney Historical Society has received two grants in connection with its ongoing collaboration with Next Stage Arts Project to preserve and renovate the historic, former church building at 15 Kimball Hill into a professional performing arts center.
The grants include $70,000 from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) that was awarded at their December 2013 board meeting, and $20,000 from the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the Division for Historic Preservation (DHP) that was awarded just before Christmas.
Together, Putney Historical Society (PHS) and Next Stage Arts Project (NSAP) have launched a $500,000 Building Fund capital campaign representing the second phase of the long term rehabilitation of the building.
With these newly awarded grants, $240,000 of the Phase 2 funding has been secured.
The Rocking Horse Circle of Support winter series begins Wednesday, Jan. 22, at Early Education Services, 130 Birge St. Serving Windham County for the past eight years, Rocking Horse is an educational support group for pregnant and parenting mothers affected by their own or another's use of alcohol or...
The architects of a new recording studio hidden in the woods of Guilford have recently been honored with a prestigious state award for its “green” design. Guilford Sound received a 2013 Award of Merit from the Vermont chapter of the American Institute of Architects. This one-studio, energy-efficient recording facility...
With the return of winter, it's worth reflecting on our good fortune to live where there is such a strong tradition of Nordic sports and other winter recreational activity. In Brattleboro, we have a history of getting out to enjoy the snow that goes back to the 1930s, when Fred Harris helped build the ski jump that now bears his name. Harris was also one of the founders of the Brattleboro Outing Club, which continues to sponsor the Harris Hill...
A weekend of heavy rain and unseasonably warm temperatures swept through Southern Vermont, leading to ice jams on area waterways. According to Brattleboro Fire Chief Michael Bucossi, Whetstone Brook in West Brattleboro briefly overflowed its banks in the early morning hours of Jan. 12. Bucossi said the department got word at about 2 a.m. that water and large ice chunks were flowing across Westgate Drive near the bridge. Water flooded onto Route 9 and closed the road for about an...
Dog licenses available in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - Brattleboro dog and wolf-hybrid licenses are now available for the 2014 licensing period. Vermont dogs and wolf-hybrids six months of age and older must be licensed on or before April 1. License fees for dogs are $15 for neutered animals, $22 for unneutered animals. Specially trained assistance dogs may be eligible for a reduced licensing fee. For dogs not previously licensed in Brattleboro, a first-time license must be obtained in person from the...
Immanuel Retreat Center and Stone Church Arts present the Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music II Jan. 17 to 19. The Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music II is a workshop and concert dedicated to the classical mandolin and chamber music composed for the mandolin ensemble format. A public concert on Sunday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m. presents works for mandolin and guitar. Mandolinists are invited to register for a weekend of rehearsal, instruction, and performance. Led by August Watters, a Boston-area...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Caravan of Thieves (www.caravanofthieves.com), an acoustic swing and alt-gypsy jazz quartet with a theatrical high-energy stage show, driven rhythms and Beatlesque vocals at Next Stage Arts on Friday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m. Producers say the show entertains, dazzles, and defies classification - and welcomes spectators to add to the fun with claps, snaps, and sing-alongs. J.D. McCliment's Pub provides a beer and wine cash bar.
College news • The following area students were named to the Dean's list for the fall 2013 semester at Keene State College: Brandon Chabot of West Dover, Beth Freeman of Brattleboro, Eric Howley of Jacksonville, Alyson Jones of South Newfane, Jocelyn Lovering of Putney, Melanie Murphy of Dummerston, MacKenzie Prasch of South Londonderry, and Jaclyn Toney of Brattleboro. • Jonah Stoller, a junior from Brattleboro, and Megan Young, a junior from Guilford, were both named to Beloit (Wis.) College's Dean's...
The Vermont Jazz Center kicks off 2014 with a Jan. 18 concert featuring guitarist Freddie Bryant's Kaleidoscope Quartet, a band featuring grooves from around the world. This show is an annual tribute to VJC founder Attila Zoller. Bryant is touring with the same core group he used on his acclaimed 2011 recording, “Live Grooves … Epic Tales”: Patrice Blanchard on electric bass, Willard Dyson on drums, and Tim Armacost on tenor sax. Bryant taught guitar at the VJC Summer Workshop,
Award-winning watercolorist Robert O'Brien of Perkinsville offers a winter landscape painting workshop at Main Street Arts on Saturday, Jan. 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop will cover watercolor techniques used to capture New England's snow, including glazing, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, color mixing, perspective and color, use of color, value study, and composition. O'Brien (www.robertjobrien.com) also will address value patterns and their importance in a composition, the use of light and shadow, and the dry brush technique.
Three local women - Kelsey Captolia Indziniak, Cyndal Ellis, and Shanta L. Evans-Crowley - join collaborative efforts to organize “Goddess Rising: A Bellydance Benefit” for the Women's Freedom Center and Heart Thoughts Midwifery on Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Stone Church, 210 Main St. This day will be filled with workshops and end with performances and live music starting at 7:30 p.m. Suggested donation for the evening entertainment is $10 to $14 at the door. This event is also in...
Local Girl Scouts are taking orders for Girl Scout cookies, to be delivered in mid-February, all for a great cause. Six varieties, from Trefoils to Thin Mints, sell for $4 per box, and all of the proceeds support local Girl Scouts and programs. As a Girl Scouts press release assures, their cookies are kosher foods with zero grams of trans fat per serving. This annual program is the leading financial literacy program for girls in the United States, teaching them...
It's been a tough year for the Brattleboro Colonels girls' hockey team. With a new coach in Kraig LaPorte, and many new players, the learning curve has been steep. That was certainly the case against Cathedral High School of Springfield, Mass., on Jan. 8. The Panthers also had a young team, with several eighth- and ninth-graders. However, Cathedral's skill level was considerably higher than that of the Colonels. That is why Brattleboro, now 1-7, suffered its most lopsided loss of...
Marlboro College has released the dates and titles for its 2014 Pre-College Summer Programs, one-week sessions that offer young adults a glimpse of the college experience. Participants will study with Marlboro College faculty members, ranked No. 1 in 2013 by Princeton Review, and build relationships with a group of other students passionate about learning - in the classroom and out. “This summer will see the return of six popular 2013 programs and the addition of three new titles,” said Ariel...
Chili and Chimes, a Winter Village Stroll event, will take place on Saturday, Jan. 18, from 3 to 6 p.m. in historic downtown Wilmington. Village Strolls have been a summer ritual for seven years, but this will be Wilmington's first January village stroll event. There will be fun downtown for everyone, with chili samples and handmade chime displays. The event is free; all are welcome. Sample chili from downtown restaurants at locations throughout the village. Chili styles range from mild...
Local Americana band Joinery will play at Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill, at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 19 to raise money for local cancer survivor Kirsten Jeppesen. A $10 donation at the door is suggested. Proceeds will help defray Jeppesen's expenses stemming from her cancer treatments, and a portion will go to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Cancer Support Group to continue their work with cancer patients. Colin Blazej, bass player for Joinery, met Jeppesen around 1991 when they...
During the past several months, the students of Hilltop Montessori School's middle school have been learning about their community and some of the people who help make this town such a vibrant place to live. Paul Dedell, the middle school director, quotes Wallace Stegner, who in his essay “The Sense of Place,” wrote: “a place is not a place until people have been born in it, have grown up in it, lived in it, known it, died in it.” Stegner...
Over the past several years, a number of legislators and civic groups have proposed the establishment of a public bank in Vermont to fund important projects in all areas of government, such as education, infrastructure, and health care. To date, only North Dakota has such an institution. Because of growing interest in this issue, the League of Women Voters of Vermont is conducting a two-year study to explore the pros and cons of forming a public bank or using an...
Marlboro College presents a concert by renowned pianist Benjamin Hochman on Sunday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m. in Ragle Hall, Serkin Center for the Performing Arts. The concert, including music by Knussen, Brahms, and Rzewski, is part of Marlboro's Music for a Sunday Afternoon series, and is free and open to the public. Winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2011, Hochman made his successful New York recital debut in 2006 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He...
This month's potluck and program for Transition Dummerston features a presentation by two of the co-owners of the newly reorganized Bunker Farm LLC. The potluck and program will take place on Friday, Jan. 24, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., at the Dummerston Congregational Church in Dummerston Center. The potluck (local food encouraged) goes from 6 to 7, and the program will run from 7 to 8:30. Noah Hoskins and Jen O'Donnell, two of the four co-owners of the farm, will...
Bellows Falls Village Trustees voted to put an end to discussions about merging the village government with the town after approximately 30 residents showed up at a joint meeting with the Rockingham Selectboard. Villagers attended the Jan. 7 meeting carrying signs reading, “Let's Take Back Our Village.” Most came to the meeting, which was called to consider appointing a combined merger committee, to voice their displeasure, saying that reconsidering the plan to merge the two municipal entities was illegal because...
During the tenure of every governor, there are numerous crises. Some are created by natural disasters when we all need to pull together to provide immediate relief from pain and heartbreak. After Tropical Storm Irene, Vermonters needed to feel relief quickly in order to know that a return from disaster to normal life was, in fact, possible. Hope is born in such efforts. Other crises that confront us are actually much tougher, because they are more complicated, controversial, and difficult...
The Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) will hold a public forum at the NewBrook Fire Department, 698 Route 30, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, from 10 a.m. until noon. The Windham Regional Commission invited the VTA to explain numerous telecommunications infrastructure improvement projects already underway in the region, and those planned. “Access to cell phone service is a top priority for many of our towns, residents, and businesses. Access to high-speed broadband is also a priority,” said Chris Campany, executive director of...
In recent days, a rash of resolution posts and status updates and phone calls and emails have made the rounds. I think it's great - all of us willing ourselves to do more and try harder in the name of newness. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I do applaud efforts from my sideline Barcalounger. I'll lean forward just enough to hand you a Dixie cup as you, a more motivated person, run by. It's not that I don't...
On a recent trip to New York, I had a meal in the food court at Grand Central Station prior to catching my train back to New Haven. The food court was packed with people, the hustle and bustle fascinating to watch and a pleasant hubbub to listen to. The tables were close enough that snippets of conversation from the next table were easily audible. A very loud series of bangs suddenly changed this convivial scene. Conversations immediately died away...
Board approves budget for Town Meeting ROCKINGHAM-The Selectboard has approved a $5 million fiscal year 2015 budget as presented, with $4 million to be raised by taxes. Neither the library budget nor the social service agency contributions were included in the town budget, and will be considered and voted on in separate articles. Voters will consider the budget at Annual Town Meeting in March. Town to consider Arch Bridge lighting ROCKINGHAM-Town Manager Chip Stearns has informed the Selectboard that the...
At 5 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center Towers 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were damaged but still standing. Nevertheless, earlier that morning, the lower Manhattan skyline had changed forever. The smoke, fumes, and dust of Towers 1 and 2 had already firmly established in American minds the smoke-and-mirrors effect, the brainchildren of the attackers who designed and desired that outcome. The two main objectives of any building demolition in populated areas are, one, to break up...
The Friends of the West River Trail and the Vermont Land Trust completed the purchase and conservation of a 23-acre parcel along the West River about a half-mile north of the Interstate 91 bridge. Renamed the Riverstone Preserve, this ecologically diverse site is nestled between the river and the corridor of the historic former West River Railroad. The West River Trail, now occupying that corridor, is a dominant feature of the property. The trail is used for hiking, bicycling, cross-country...
It's day two of the 2014 Vermont legislative session, and the grand hallway of the Statehouse's first floor is nearly empty. Most lawmakers sit in committee meetings, cramming work in before the governor's State of the State address later that afternoon. One harbinger of crowds to come: a police officer standing in the lobby with a sniffer dog. Rather than a big bruiser of a German shepherd, the dog appears to be a young Labrador retriever. A gaggle of civilians...
Rotary International, along with its clubs worldwide, has established January as Rotary Awareness Month. “A lot of people don't know what Rotary International does,” says Sandy Rouse, Brattleboro Rotary Club president. “We want to get the word out.” The international organization is determined to help stamp out polio, and to that end works closely with World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gates Foundation. “We pretty much have polio eliminated except for two or three countries,” Rouse said. Indeed, Rotary International...
An early-morning house fire on Jan. 6 at 420 Schoolhouse Rd. that left two people dead was caused by accidental means. That was the outcome of an investigation, led by Vermont State Police Det. Sgt. J.P. Schmidt from the Rockingham barracks, into the fatal fire. According to Schmidt's report, which was released on Jan. 13, detectives with the state police's Fire Investigations Unit and Bureau of Criminal Investigation determined that the fire was caused by accidental means - most likely...
Vermont has long made protecting its citizens' privacy a priority, with the state offering multiple exemptions to its public records law to shield personal information from the public domain. During his successful bid for attorney general, William Sorrell told The Commons that he supported certain public records exemptions around arrest reports because he felt it crucial to protect the suspects' privacy and reputations in case they were later deemed innocent. “I think sometimes in Vermont we like to think we're...
The announcement before Christmas that the state of Vermont and Entergy, the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, had reached an agreement about its closure and one final year of operation left many folks breathing a collective and hopeful sigh of relief. The initial reports seemed promising. Entergy and the state rolled up their sleeves, put their bad blood behind them, and found some common ground. Money would be available for economic development in Windham County to help...
In connection with two current exhibits exploring the use of chance operations in art, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) presents a rare documentary film on composer John Cage, a pioneer of the practice. “I Have Nothing To Say And I Am Saying It” (1990, 56 mins.) will be screened at BMAC on Thursday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. Cage was perhaps the most controversial composer of the 20th century, but his influence extends far beyond music: His ideas...
Vermonters around the state took advantage of the opportunity on Tuesday night to comment on a proposed agreement between Entergy and the state on the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. The Vermont Public Service Board convened the public hearing in Montpelier and took testimony via Vermont Interactive Television. Turnout was substantial at the VIT sites around the state. More than 30 people were at the Brattleboro studio at Brattleboro Union High School, with more joining...