Over the past three years, working with limited resources, the Rich Earth Institute has made great progress toward establishing Brattleboro as the national research center for the study of urine-based fertilizer.
With initial funding by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), and many local donors, and in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan and the University at Buffalo, we have built the nation's first community-scale urine recycling program.
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We have sanitized and applied more than 5,000 gallons of urine to hayfields in controlled field trials, establishing its value as a replacement for synthetic fertilizer in hay production.
Twin States Network thanks local businesses and individuals who made it possible for us to distribute Christmas gifts to 53 children in Vermont and New Hampshire who are living with or affected by HIV/AIDS or hepatitis C. We specifically wish to thank Michelle Clark and the staff of the...
College news • Brattleboro Memorial Hospital announced that Kelly A. McCue of Dummerston has received her Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) from Bouve College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. McCue graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. She is currently the administrator for BMH's Comprehensive...
On behalf of the board of trustees of the Vermont Theatre Company and the production team for our winter production of A Christmas Carol, we thank our audience members for their support in coming to see our show. Through a desire to tell stories through theater, we have been able to perform in Vermont for over 30 years. We also thank our visionary director, Jessica Gelter; our script adapter and set designer, James Gelter; and the wonderfully talented cast of...
We thank Randolph T. Holhut for his reportage on the Core Arts meeting of Dec. 15. We are all aware that arts organizations in Brattleboro are working hard for the good of all artists in the area. There are a few points I would like to add to the article. The Arts Council of Windham County (ACWC) is the only partner with the Town of Brattleboro for the National Endowment for the Arts' “Our Town” Grant. The ACWC is the...
The Brattleboro Police Department writes to remind us all of basic courtesies in sharing the roadways. Following these basic guidelines and applying common sense will protect motorists and pedestrians any time of the year, but in winter, with its shorter days right about the time most businesses are closing, they're especially important. Visibility is greatly reduced due to inclement weather and from snowbanks on the side of the road. Roadways can become hazardous from rain, sleet, ice, and snow, thus...
RE: The premature and shortsighted closing of Vermont Yankee: Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Petitions available for Brattleboro town elections BRATTLEBORO - Petitions for Town and Town School District officers and Town Meeting Members are available at the Town Clerk's office. Town elections are Tuesday, March 3, in the Selectboard Meeting Room of the Municipal Center. Annual Representatives Town Meeting is Saturday, March 21, in the BAMS multi-purpose room. Petitions for town officers must contain at least 30 valid signatures of registered Brattleboro voters and be filed in the clerk's office no later than...
Susan Dedell celebrates her 25th year directing the Brattleboro Concert Choir with a special performance of a monumental choral work. On Saturday, Jan. 10, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 11, at 3 p.m., the 100-voice Brattleboro Concert Choir and a full symphony orchestra, all under Dedell's direction, will perform the Verdi Requiem at the Latchis Theatre. Joining Dedell will be a quartet of emerging artists as vocal soloists: soprano Amanda Grooms, mezzo-soprano Jazimina MacNeil, tenor Hugo Vera, and baritone...
Art recently became more accessible to producers and patrons in downtown Brattleboro with the opening of Brattleboro Printmakers. The studio, opened to the public in November 2014, was founded by Leigh Niland of Keene, N.H., who holds a master's degree in printmaking and teaches at New England College in Henniker, N.H., and James Primrose, who began printing on clay when he studied at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. Now that the studio is complete, the relatively low cost for entry has...
Greater Falls Connections thanks the local businesses that recently participated in the Responsible Beverage Sales and Service Trainings in December co-sponsored by the Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition and the Vermont Department of Liquor Control. We recognize the important role that local retailers, bars, and restaurants play in preventing underage drinking and tobacco use. Thank you to Joy Wah, Bellows Falls Elks Lodge, Saxtons River Inn, James Petro/Shell Gas Station, and Penguin Market 2 for participating. By taking part in the...
Many young people have an innate interest in things that make them feel good and glow with an almost excited delirium for life. They ride on a peak of being interested in everything, and as they age, most of them decelerate to a variety of moderate behaviors throughout their lives. Unfortunately, the few who cannot decelerate drive legislatures to make laws for all of us. No matter that the majority of drug “consumers” are largely working, responsible people throughout our...
I think a lot of joy that many of us feel about the closing of Vermont Yankee is tempered by regret over the loss of jobs, family income, tax revenues, and all that. It's especially regrettable that Entergy proved itself unworthy of public trust in its approach to running the plant. How much better would it have been, had the company been willing to make the long-term investment in the region to transition from a dangerous (in the long term)
RE: “Economic impact of VY shutdown” [commonsnews.org, posted Dec. 26]: The economic situation that will affect the tri-county area as a result of the closing of Vermont Yankee strikes me as creating an opportunity for these three counties to work together to create a comprehensive economic growth plan they can implement together to benefit the region.
Congratulations to Shela Linton! Tremendous writing about a special person. I loved Shela's fishbowl concept. [“A fish doesn't know the concept of water. (...) Racism is always present, like the water in the fishbowl. People are so entrenched in it - and the privileges it affords white people - that many who thrive in the fishbowl don't see the water, Linton said.”] Many concepts fit with this analogy: race, health, mental health, wealth. Thank you, Shela, for taking back the...
I am proud of my fellow Vermonter Shela Linton. It takes a special person to engage meaningfully in conflict and to push toward resolution. If our best aim is to leave this world just a bit better than we found it, this young woman has already exceeded that goal by a very large measure. I am very thankful for her efforts, her spirit, her tenacity.
Shela Linton has always been awesome for Brattleboro. She wants to empower other people. In light of this kind of commitment, activism becomes clear as humanitarianism.
I am prompted to write by the Jan. 2 letter to the editor of the Brattleboro Reformer by Dwight Zeager, written in response to the daily paper's editorials about police and race. Zeager presented opinions there that are trumpeted by every surviving white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan group in the nation. Though it is simple for anyone familiar with the history of the United States to refute Zeager's opinions, it is nonetheless necessary. As the late Duke University Professor...
A major new exhibit, “Open Call: NNE (North Northeast),” opens Saturday, Jan. 10 at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC). An opening reception, with many of the exhibiting artists in attendance, will take place at 11 a.m. It is free and open to the public. According to BMAC director Danny Lichtenfeld, “Open Call: NNE (North Northeast)” is the result of a call for entries put out by BMAC last fall. Nearly 500 artists from New York and New England...
I found this poem the other day, in the History of the Town of Rockingham Vermont: 1907-1957. It still fits. §If you want to live in the kind of town, §Like the kind of a town that you'd like, §You needn't slip your clothes in a grip §And start on a long, long hike. §You'll only find what you left behind §For there's nothing that's really new, §It's a knock at yourself when you knock your town, §It isn't your...
The Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in conjunction with four regional economic development organizations, dropped a large lump of coal on the doorstep of the tri-county area on Christmas Eve. The coal arrived in the form a report outlining the economic ramifications of losing above-average-wage jobs with the closure of Windham County's Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. VY provides approximately 5 percent of the jobs and wages in the county, according to Chris Campany,
The National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., is warning of very cold temperatures for Windham County for much of this week. Daytime highs are expected to be in the teens Wednesday, and Thursday in Brattleboro. Nighttime lows will range from about 10 below on Wednesday night to about 10 above on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Wind chill values expected to be 25 below zero on Wednesday night into Thursday, according to the Weather Service, which posted a Wind Chill Advisory...
Sourdough starter In a ceramic or glass bowl, mix with a wooden spoon: ¶{1/2} cup flour ¶{1/2} cup water (not from the tap) Mix until flour and water are just combined, like a pancake batter. Cover lightly and leave on the counter overnight. Refrigerate the next day. Every day, check on the mixture. It will begin to develop a delicately sour smell - tangy like yogurt. It will smell weird, in a good way - fragrantly yeasty. After about a...
On Saturday, Jan. 17, at 8 p.m., the Vermont Jazz Center presents drummer Clarence Penn in concert with his quartet, Penn Station, performing the music of Thelonious Monk. The group includes Penn and New York heavyweights Chad Lefkowitz-Brown on saxophone, Matt Mitchell on piano, and Yasushi Nakamura on bass. Although jazz purists may balk at the idea of Penn reinterpreting Monk's classic compositions, promoters say the sound is fresh and adventurous, and retains and celebrates Monk's indelible melodies and harmonic...
During January, the Gallery at the Garden features an exhibit entitled “New England Through the Eyes of an Artist,” presenting original watercolor paintings by Jane May Jones. Subjects range from fall in Vermont to summer on Cape Cod and everything in between. Jones, whose home is in Readsboro, nearly always has a camera at her side on her daily travels and looks for scenes reflecting a natural beauty of composition as well as feelings of peace and serenity. She then...
The Wardsboro Public Library opens the new year with an exhibition of the woven decorative creations, textile objects, and prints on paper by Wardsboro artist Jenna May Konesko. The artist's reception, on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 1 p.m., is free. Konesko grew up in a home surrounded by vast flower and vegetable gardens not far from the waterways of the Connecticut River. “As a child of this natural environment, she went from catching fireflies to sketching, sewing, and painting the...
Libraries have always been important to Emily Zervas, the newly appointed director of the Putney Public Library, who took up her duties in the first week of January. “We were big library patrons,” she said of her family. Growing up in Farmingdale, N.J., she had her own library card by age 8. Among her favorite childhood books were “The Saturdays” by Elizabeth Enright (the first in a series of four novels about the Melendy family) given to her by her...
The Leland & Gray boys' basketball team is still trying to get it together, but after a rough start the Rebels are showing signs of life. The Rebels went into the holiday break with their first win of the season, a 62-37 home victory over Arlington on Dec. 22. Jeremy Bovat and Corey Nystrom each scored 11 points for the Rebels, while Josh Donna added 10 and Ryan Borgeson chipped in with 9. The Rebels made it two wins in...
River Gallery School will display the work of Jamis Lott, artist, puppeteer, maskmaker, and philosopher, throughout January. Jamis and his father, Steve, were shot and killed recently in Townshend. He was 28. Since early childhood, Jamis Lott had an exceptional interest in and talent for art. Along with his friend and teacher Margaret (Missy) Stearns, he worked on art projects exploring his vivid imagination. When he was a child, she helped him collage a giant dragon, which for years hung...
Lisa McCormick's online guitar course, Guitar Fundamentals 1, went live in October 2014, bringing her teaching and her music to the world beyond Brattleboro. The following month, the local singer/songwriter released her new album, “Love Changes Everything,” with some of the tracks having resulted from her Internet guitar classes. She's also set to perform with Scott Ainslie and Samirah Evans with Eugene Uman, Hannah Hoffman, House Blend, and Singcrony on Jan. 18 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at First Baptist...
Jay Bailey and friends present “Singing Through the Seasons: Songs of Farming and Life” on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at New England Youth Theater. The concert is a benefit for NEYT's scholarship fund, Angels in the Wings. Admission is by free-will donation; refreshments are available at intermission. Jay and Janet Bailey have been the farmers at Fair Winds Farm in Brattleboro for more than 35 years. During his work as a farmer, Jay has honed a unique repertoire...
In the midst of troubling times that include torture, police brutality, sexual abuse, and other acts of violence, I happened to be reading about the German-born Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt, best remembered for her phrase “the banality of evil.” Arendt wrote those words in her reporting about Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, after she covered his trial in Jerusalem in 1961. “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” which first appeared as a five-part series in The New Yorker and...
To describe the unpasteurized, organic cows' milk cheese he and his family make at Stonewall Farm in the rural outskirts of Keene, N.H., Joe Sawyer says, “We focus on the Alpine." Although New England is often associated with Cheddar, he doesn't make Cheddar, explaining, ”There are already too many great Cheddar makers. We take a core Alpine-style recipe and mature the cheese to different ages.” Ver-Hampshire, Sawyer's Artisanal Cheese's flagship cheese, is aged for approximately six months, but the company...
A digital grid of blue lines punctuated by purple dots shone on a projector screen at the head of a training room in Entergy corporate headquarters on Old Ferry Road. One by one, over three hours on Dec. 29, green dots appeared inside the grid, which represented the 368 fuel assemblies that power the reactor at the company's Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon. The green dots illustrated the addition of control rods made of boron-containing metal that slow the...
For farmers in temperate climes with great seasonal weather fluctuation, a few crucial keys to surviving the winter are diversification and good planning. Some figure out ways to continue growing and harvesting, even in the coldest months. Some take advantage of opportunities for small breaks - a rare treat mostly unseen in spring, summer, and autumn, when agricultural activity is busiest. Justin Nye of Guilford's Circle Mountain Farm says that in the winter, other than selling at the Winter Farmers'
For better or for worse, depending on where you stand on the polarizing issue of nuclear power in general or Vermont Yankee in particular, a page turned on Dec. 29, when the nuclear power station cut itself off from the power grid. Despite the months-long buildup to this inevitable moment, the immediate effects to our larger community are largely invisible. The sky did not fall on Dec. 30. We did not suffer brownouts. We did not see tumbleweeds blowing down...
The New Year is a wonderful time to get started - sourdough started, that is. A tradition in many cultures, as old as baking itself, sourdough starter is the magic that converts flour, water, and salt into chewy, crusty bread. Starter is the first step in the fermenting process of grains. Fermenting is a fancy way of saying “breaking down,” and breaking down is a layman's way of saying pre-digesting. Grain is eaten by bacteria. As they digest the grain,