After nearly 70 years, grazing animals returned to the summit of Putney Mountain - and kept it clear and open during the summer of 2014.
In late September, a flock of 38 sheep, accompanied by shepherds David, Yesenia, Marion, Sam, Danielle, and Johnnie,NOTE (Unknown Author, 2014-11-23T00:10:47): Why no last names? border collies Joni and Cookie, and the Maremma guard dog Phantom, walked more than seven miles from David Major's farm in Westminster West to Putney Mountain.
Once there, the sheep set themselves on a diet of glossy buckthorn, an invasive plant that's overtaken the once-bare summit. In short order, the sheep demolished the buckthorn's last-of-the-season growth.
Until the 1940s, the top of Putney Mountain was used regularly by local dairy farmers as a summer pasture for young stock. Putney historians suggest that even earlier, when settlers lived high on the ridge, sheep likely were kept on the mountain.
Thanks, voters, for your support on Nov. 4. I am honored by the trust you have placed in me and will do my best to work hard for and represent you. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, ideas, or concerns. I can be reached by...
Our Place Drop-in Center in Bellows Falls recently held its 17th Empty Bowls event (the oldest in the area) and its most successful, raising more than $26,000 to help keep food on the tables of folks in the greater Rockingham area. There are many people to thank for our...
Births • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Nov. 5, 2014, a daughter, Aubree Kathleen Moore, to Alice Gay and Benjamin Moore of Williamsville; granddaughter to Gary Gay, Stephanie Fouriner, Barbara Pacific, David Moore, and Kathleen Moore. College news • Sarah Harlow of Putney was inducted into the Colby-Sawyer College chapter of Alpha Chi on Oct. 19. Harlow is a member of the class of 2016, majoring in nursing. Transitions • Ian C. Sullivan and Jennifer Rowe have joined the Brattleboro law...
The state of Vermont has set a goal of meeting 90 percent of energy needs across all sectors from renewable sources by 2050. The Vermont Department of Public Service and its Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF) seek proposals from qualified financial institutions with a physical presence in Windham County that offer loans to residential customers interested in development of the Windham County Solar Finance Program. The solar finance program seeks to accelerate the deployment of solar energy technologies including solar...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Caravan of Thieves, an acoustic swing and alt-gypsy jazz quartet with a theatrical, high-energy stage show, driving rhythms, and Beatlesque vocals, at Next Stage on Friday, Nov. 28, at 7:30 p.m. For the past five years, Caravan of Thieves has roamed North America recruiting a family of avid thrill seekers. Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass, and violin lay the foundation for mesmerizing vocal harmonies and fantastic stories. It's theatrical...
Two of the Tri-State Region's earliest Christmas traditions each year are presented by Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG), now in its 49th concert season. The Community Messiah Sing will take place on the first Saturday in December, which this year is Dec. 6, beginning at 1 p.m. And the Christmas at Christ Church program follows on Friday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 13, at 4 p.m. The sanctuary of Brattleboro's Centre Congregational Church is expected to...
On Oct. 25, Brattleboro Area Hospice (BAH) presented its Cherished Goods Auction at the VFW in Brattleboro. A whole host of people came out to support this annual fundraiser and bid on a wide range of goods in both the silent and the live auction (which was ably done by auctioneer extraordinaire Kit Martin, who volunteers his expertise). We thank all those who came out to support this event, those who donated goods available for bidding, and all the many...
'Gratitude Burn' at Fulcrum Arts BRATTLEBORO - Fulcrum Arts Gallery on 485 West River Rd. (Route 30) is hosting its first-ever Black Friday Gratitude Burn all day at the gallery on Nov. 28. Purchase a handmade drinking vessel - ceramic cup or mug, or blown glass tumbler or stemware, and they will fill it with free mulled hot cider. They are building a wooden effigy of a turkey, onto which you can write offerings on fabric scraps to adorn the...
Ethan Tucker, local actor and screenwriter, recently added to his résumé vice president of marketing, and interim president, of Zero Pollution Motors, a New Paltz, N.Y.-based company whose efforts are directed toward getting a new type of transportation - the AIRPod - on American streets. The purpose of the AIRPod is to reduce the two scourges of urban congestion coming from automobiles: smog and gridlock. The AIRPod is a vehicle than runs on compressed air. As the Zero Pollution Motors...
Popolo, the community restaurant and promoter of shows in the Windham Ballroom, opens its December festivities with live performances by international touring musicians Winterpills, Peter Mulvey, and The Jack Grace band with support from The Once Hollow and The Weisstronauts. On Thursday, Dec. 4, Winterpills bring their new album “Echolalia” to the Windham stage with an acoustic performance by Flora Reed and Philip Price. Hailing from Northampton, Mass., Winterpills play around the world. They were last at the Windham in...
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sang the tall, bearded tenor soloist to begin the annual Community Messiah Sing at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro. “Is it really you?” I asked. I squeezed Dad's arm, to confirm that he was actually there and to acknowledge the miracle that he was sitting beside me at the Messiah. I could see the emotion in his eyes, his furrowed brow, and lips that were pursed tightly in a way that says you're filled...
My wife Cherie and I thank all who supported me during the campaign and voted for me on Nov. 4. We appreciate the focus on economic development from Philip Gilpin Jr., and we wish Laura Sibilia success as the new Windham-Bennington representative. I will continue my advocacy for affordable, universal health care, for local education decision-making with reduced property taxes, and a worker- and business-friendly Vermont, combining economic development with a livable wage for all. Thank you again.
Thanksgiving holiday town closures in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, all Brattleboro town offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 27 and 28, with the exception of emergency services. Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots on Nov. 27 and 28. Parking will resume regular enforcement hours on Saturday, Nov. 29. All other violations, including extended parking, will be enforced. Brooks Memorial Library will close at 6 p.m. on...
An open letter to Westminster School parents, and community members: At an Oct. 14 meeting, the Westminster School Board announced the closing of the Westminster West Elementary School. We, a group of concerned parents and community members, believe that this is not in the best interest of our Westminster students, families or its taxpayers. We, therefore, want to reach out and make ourselves clear to all people of Westminster as our attempts to help our schools and town take shape.
As the state transfers to new education standards and testing, the Brattleboro Town School Board and administration held their second forum on Nov. 19 to prepare the community. A small audience attended the evening forum at Academy School as presenters tried to dispel a sense that the Common Core is another federally mandated standardized test that would pigeonhole young students. Instead, presenters said, Common Core is a set of goals and standards. Most of the assessments performed in Brattleboro schools...
The Thanksgiving holiday marks the beginning of a busy season for motorists traveling around Vermont. In an effort to encourage safe travel for every trip, the Vermont Governor's Highway Safety Program is sponsoring a Holiday Click It or Ticket campaign. Motorists in Vermont can expect to see an increased number of law enforcement officers on the roadways enforcing the occupant protection laws. The Highway Safety office manages federal funds allocated for vehicle occupant protection enforcement. This year's campaign runs Wednesday,
It is late November, the sky is dark, the air is cold, it smells like snow, and I am in the kitchen thinking about holidays and the complicated comforts of simple food. When I was a small girl, my relatives from New Jersey would pile into their cars and drive up the newly constructed interstate highways till they reached Vermont Route 14 and then finally our house and its accompanying little grocery store, Coutant's Country Center. My great-aunt Anne always...
Vermont Theatre Company brings Christmas cheer with “A Christmas Carol,” adapted for the stage by James Gelter from Charles Dickens' novella and directed by Jessica Gelter. Performances are at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery on Main Street on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Dec. 5 through Dec. 21. Drawing heavily from its source material, this adaptation is primarily a ghost story set in a cold, dark world of despair, misery, and death. The redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge, a heartless man of...
Joyce Marcel didn't even mention River Gallery School of Art, which has operated for 38 years, with approximately 25 of those years on Main Street in Brattleboro. For the record, River Gallery School served more than 350 people in 2013. Registrations to date number more than 850, a figure that includes classes for children, teens, and adults of all ages. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed in this gross oversight.
I was 18, and it was 1970. I had come home from college to my parents' house for Christmas vacation. To my disappointment, my parents had, for the first time, bought an artificial Christmas tree instead of the usual balsam fir. I had never been shy about expressing my feelings, so my parents knew how badly I would prefer a “real” tree. On Christmas Eve, my dad asked me if I would like to go for a drive, which we...
The carbon-pollution tax initiative launched recently, Energy Independent Vermont, makes sense for our state. Destructive weather like Tropical Storm Irene and “hundred-year” floods, which now come every couple of years, are becoming the new normal, and we can't afford to ignore this reality. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to tackle the source of this problem head on: pollution from fossil fuels. It is outrageous that fossil-fuel companies are allowed to dump pollution into our atmosphere for free,
A man suspected of robbing the Brattleboro Savings & Loan on Main Street on Nov. 20 walked out carrying $30,000, police said. His getaway lasted the time it took him to drive from upper Main Street to near the Outlet Center near Exit 1. Brattleboro Police apprehended David A. Abbott, 69, of Gardner, Mass., on the afternoon of Nov. 20. Police arranged for Abbott's black Honda to be towed to the police department and searched for evidence after a warrant...
Please cease all quoting of Deb Wright. She is simply a nuisance. Amplifying her rants does not help, in any sense. She should have no spotlight.
The Vermont Symphony Orchestra's Brass Quintet and Counterpoint holiday concert will ring in the season at the White Church in Grafton on Saturday, Dec. 20, beginning at 5 p.m. Doors will open for the concert at 4:30. A post-concert reception for all audience members, hosted by the Old Tavern, will be held in the Grafton Inn's Phelps Barn. The VSO Holiday Brass and Counterpoint concert, combining shining brass and brilliant voices, continues the celebration of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's 80th...
I don't really like to get up early in the morning. But winter's here, and the recent ice/rain storm meant I had to arise to heat the car up and clear the windshield. A half a cup of coffee later, I treaded out into the icy rain, which spoiled my mood. As I scraped the windshield, I noticed the sparrows plundering the bird feeder seeds. Amid the morning storm, those little guys continued to do just what I had to...
On a blustery November afternoon, the Canine Liberation Front (CLF) held a press conference at Dog Hill in Central Park. A winsome, bright-eyed border collie spoke through her interpreter, a young woman employed as the dog's walker. She spoke in a calm, earthy voice reminiscent of Lauren Bacall. “I'm privileged to be here today as translator for the CLF,” she said, and the dog spoke. “We have organized to protest the oppression of our human captors. Ever since I was...
Tremendous article! The writer, quite a wonderful creative artist herself, has apparently drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid at least as much as I have! I remember the first meetings I had in 1991 with Mara Williams and Trust Company of Vermont founder Jack Davidson on creating a real fine arts center here. Later, I was on the first tentative committee that explored the establishment of a Fine Arts Center in the local area and decided that the downtown should be the...
Sandglass Theater honors the changing of the seasons with Eric Bass' annual performance of his award-winning solo show, “Autumn Portraits.” The performance runs this Thanksgiving weekend: The single showtime is Saturday, Nov. 29, at 7:30 p.m. Headed into its 34th year of repertoire, this show remains a staple of the Sandglass artistic vision and is a meaningful influence in the lineage and art of puppetry globally. According to Sandglass in its event announcement, as autumn is a metaphor for that...
The Annual Meeting of the Southern Vermont Health Services Corporation and its subsidiary, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH), held on Nov. 14, featured special guests, key topics, and various recognitions. Keynote speaker Dr. Karen Hein, a founding member of Vermont's Green Mountain Care Board and an adjunct professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, discussed the evolution of the US health care delivery system and the population health approach to improving the health of communities. Board of Directors Chair...
The winners of this year's Write Action literary contest - the non-profit organization's inaugural flash fiction contest - have been chosen, and will be read their pieces on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. at the Bluedot Studio in the Hooker-Dunham Building. The judge was Rolf Parker-Houghton, a local poet, nonfiction writer, and teacher. Anna Blackburn's story “Visiting Hours” was named the first-prize winner of this year's contest. Parker-Houghton praised Blackburn's story for its “unusual and at times startling descriptions,
The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library Holiday Book Sale will be held in the library on Friday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Gift-quality books and gently used fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and CDs will be on sale. Nonfiction titles include art, cooking and gardening, history, and music, for starters. The Friends will provide free gift wrapping for items purchased at the sale and intended as gifts. Look...
On Nov. 24, the three full-time leaders of Meeting Waters YMCA arrived to work at a new location. Over the weekend, volunteers and staff moved the organization into its new administrative headquarters at 49 The Square, in the heart of downtown Bellows Falls, from its location of the past 43 years. According to Steve Fortier, the regional non-profit's executive director, many years of thought, discussion and planning went into the decision. Over the past 15 years, he said, Meeting Waters'
The Greater Falls Warming Shelter has reopened its doors just as the bitter cold and the first sprinkling of snow arrives. The shelter, at 23 Church St. in North Walpole, N.H., just across the river from Bellows Falls, can accommodate 10 guests at a time. Last year, 40 individuals with unstable housing found relief from the cold at the shelter, which is open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily from now through mid-April 2015. Through collaboration with Our Place...
Next Stage Arts Project presents a visual and verbal collaboration with acclaimed portrait artist Kate Gridley and two local schools on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. This event features a presentation by Kate Gridley about her exhibit of portraits of emerging adults: “Passing Through: Portraits of Emerging Adults.” The installation of most of her 17 life-size oil portraits, with accompanying sound from the portrait subjects, has been traveling throughout New England and is on display at the Brattleboro Museum...
Robin O'Neill told the Vermont State Police she didn't remember what happened next. The next thing the 62-year-old remembered was that she either “picked up a gun or she had the gun in her hand,” wrote VSP Det. Sgt. Scott Dunlap in an affidavit. Steven Lott, 60, and his son, Jamis, 28, “were on the floor lying in a lot of blood,” O'Neill told troopers after a fatal shooting on Nov. 18. The two men were found dead by Vermont...
Mohammed Daoudi may have developed a new visual art technique. The results of his foray into this medium make their Brattleboro premiere at Simi Berman's Qualche Volta Gallery in the Hooker-Dunham Building during November and December, with an artists' reception at the December Gallery Walk. Daoudi calls his new pieces “tape-estries,” word-playing on the layered effect one gets from mixing media - and on the technique itself, which requires clear adhesive tape - to create layers of shape, color, and...
This village may find itself nicknamed Sockstons River if the project underway at Christ's Church gains traction. Church members are conducting a drive through Jan. 1, 2015, to collect new and used socks for the Greater Falls Warming Shelter. To make the drive - dubbed Holy Socks - more visible, organizers will suspend the donations from a clothesline strung in the church akin to Christmas stockings “hung by the chimney with care.” “The words holey, holy, heel, heal, sole and...
“Turn it all upside down,” Zoe Muth sings on the opening track of her third full-length album, “World of Strangers.” “See the stars when we're looking at the ground, shining all around.” Muth will appear at a special concert at Readmore Bed & Breakfast Inn in Bellows Falls on Sunday, Nov. 30, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The event is presented by Vermont Festivals. In her new album, Muth presents 10 heartrending tales of the leaving and the left behind in...
Michael Bosworth clapped politely and let out a wan cheer with the six or seven others of the audience as the Selectboard approved a scoping study that recommends adding bike lanes and widening sidewalks to both sides of Western Avenue between Academy School and Greenleaf Street. The vote, cast at the Nov. 18 Selectboard meeting, followed a consultant's slideshow on road changes in the area, and years of mounting municipal and voter concern about bicycle and pedestrian safety. “There is...
Earlier this year, the town of Brattleboro, in partnership with individuals and private and public organizations, and funded by a grant from Vermont's Agency of Commerce and Community Development, installed two new “level 2” electric vehicle (EV) chargers in the Transportation Center. The timing was perfect. Without these new chargers, Taborri Bruhl said he doubted he could have made the round-trip between his home in New Haven, Vt., and the Marlboro College Graduate Center for the Electric Vehicle Demonstration and...
Although Killington opened for skiing and snowboarding on Nov. 3, and Okemo opened on Nov. 15, most Vermont resorts wait until Thanksgiving week to open their slopes. Mount Snow in West Dover got an early jump on Thanksgiving by opening for a sneak preview last Friday and Saturday, with skiing on a dozen trails and a terrain park on The Gulch for the boarders. Mount Snow took a break on Monday and Tuesday and says it plans to reopen for...
Dick Guthrie, who died on Nov. 18 at age 75, held just about every local law enforcement job there is. Starting at age 21, as the youngest police officer hired by the Brattleboro Police Department, he rose from juvenile officer to police chief to the sheriff of Windham County. And for five decades, his career was intimately intertwined with Youth Services. Early on, Guthrie's avowed goal in life was to become a police officer and wear that badge, like the...
As they've done for the last six years on the first weekend after Thanksgiving, the craftspeople organizing the Cherry Street Artisans Holiday Sale & Cafe will transform the first floor of Judy Zemel's Victorian-era home into a space where commerce, creativity, and community meet. This year marks the grand finale. This year's event, on Dec. 6 and 7, will offer the final opportunity to attend the event, which supports local artists, craftspeople, chefs, and bakers. There's no single reason that...
In his homily at the funeral Mass for former Brattleboro Police Chief and Windham County Sheriff Richard Guthrie at St. Michael's Catholic Church on Nov. 22, the Rev. James C. Dodson said Guthrie was the embodiment of St. Francis of Assisi's famous aphorism: “Preach the gospel always and, when necessary, use words.” Guthrie, 75, a lifelong resident of Brattleboro who died Nov. 18 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital after suffering a heart attack, was a beloved figure in his hometown who...
The continual debate of what defines “craft” usually centers on the distinction between fine arts and artisan work. But the concept of “craft” can also be expanded in other ways, too. At least that is what the Putney Craft Tour contends, as this year it will include such disciplines as the making of cheese, the breeding of rare sheep, and the spinning of fiber yarns. During each day during the long Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 28, 29, and 30, from 10...
Many folks automatically connect sweet potatoes with maple syrup, brown sugar, or marshmallows, because that is the way they are most often served. But the sweet starchiness of this vegetable takes both curry and Mexican-spice blends quite well. The round earthiness of cumin and the sharp spiciness of chilis are both tempered by the sweet base. Add some butter, cream, or coconut milk, and you have a wonderfully different side dish for your holiday meal. Here are sweet potatoes two...
Like a living Advent calendar - but better, because all of the doors open at the same time - the Cotton Mill presents its open studio and holiday sale event on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 7. Elsie Smith, one of the 24 tenants of the renovated industrial mill building who will open their doors for the event, says that throughout the rest of the year, it's somewhat of a mystery what goes on behind her neighbors' closed doors...
How does one forget 30 years of time? It happened to me. During a conversation a few years ago, I realized that my family had been in the U.S. for more than 30 years now. I have no recollection of our arrival in America, which city we landed in, how long we waited in lines, or who met us at the airport. How strange it must have felt for my parents, scanning the metal and concrete buildings for something familiar:
As I travel about my district, I keep getting asked: “How will the Legislature's vote for governor go?” Around the state, apparently, other legislators are hearing the same question. Here's a bit about that question, and why I'm sharing my choice. First, some history. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes, the Legislature will decide who becomes governor. In this year's election, Governor Peter Shumlin received the most votes, as Jim Douglas did in 2002 when...
The Vermont Jazz Center presents its annual big band swing gala on Friday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. This year's event celebrates the swing music of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, when big band jazz served as North America's popular music and provided the pulse for social dancing. The 17-piece Vermont Jazz Center Big Band is joined by Rebecca Holtz and Rob Fletcher, two exquisite singers with strong affinities to swing. For one exceptional evening, their voices will ride on...
Savory roast seitan and gravy is an easy dish to prepare and can be the centerpiece of a vegan holiday meal. (I usually just call it “roast gluten,” but I didn't want to scare anyone off from trying it.) I should mention that I like to spread out the process of making these dishes over a few days. The gravy, stuffing, onions, and gluten can all be made a day or two ahead and stored to reheat on the holiday.