I have no dog in this fight - I don't belong to the Putney Food Co-op and I live almost an hour away, so I seldom shop there. But as a lawyer who specializes in helping co-ops, I have to say that this commentary reflects some significant misunderstandings.
The Putney Co-op is incorporated under Vermont's cooperative statute and, therefore, regardless of what's in the bylaws, the organization cannot be changed to a conventional business corporation. It is legally a cooperative and must operate on that basis.
Moreover, in my respectful opinion, the allegedly “generic” bylaws that are before the membership actually provide for more flexibility (read: more customs and practices that reflect the Putney Co-op's distinct characteristics as they evolve over time) than the current and much-more-specific bylaws do. That's because almost all of what truly makes a co-op a co-op in the values sense turns on the day-to-day activities of the organization rather than stuff like how many committees the board is or isn't required to have.
Moreover, the comments about the CDS Consulting Co-op (CDSCC) are incorrect to the point of profound unfairness.
On behalf of Warm Hands Warm Heart, Inc., I thank all of you in the community for your generous support of this charity; your generosity has been heartwarming. We are encouraging your ongoing support into the new year, and we are hoping that 2015 will help to reduce our...
Chorus leaders John Harrison and Dr. Dexter Criss invite those in the area to “experience the joy and transformative power of singing gospel music” with “a good dose of humor” at an all-day gospel-sing at the Vermont Jazz Center on Wednesday, Jan. 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Final Merry Mulch tree pickup day is Jan. 24 BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department is preparing the final week of the Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service. This program, in its 23th year, is endorsed by the Vermont Department of Agriculture as well as the New Hampshire/Vermont Christmas Tree Association. For a $10 donation, members of the band and chorus will transport undecorated trees from homes in Brattleboro to a community garden in West Brattleboro where...
Ski for Heat is is an annual statewide fundraiser that raises money for fuel and utility assistance programs at Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) and other community action agencies around Vermont. Anyone can participate by skiing, riding, or snowshoeing at participating Vermont Alpine or Nordic ski centers, many of which offer special deals to those who contribute to or raise funds for Ski for Heat. Participating locations in Southern Vermont include the following Vermont ski centers: Bromley Mountain and Wild...
Births • In Greenfield, Mass., (Baystate Franklin Medical Center), Jan. 3, 2015, a son, Silas James Tefft, to Thomas and Kimberly Tefft of West Halifax; grandson to Malcolm and Monica Sumner of West Halifax, and Richard and Sue Tefft of Jacksonville; great-grandson to Jim and Connie Billiel of Colrain, Mass., and Carl and Audrey Ebbetts of Brattleboro. • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Nov. 30, 2014, a son, Avery Plenty Euphrat, to Jennifer O'Donnell and Michael Euphrat of Dummerston; grandson to...
In the second concert of its 45th season, the Windham Orchestra, under the direction of Hugh Keelan, invites audience and players to a concert that he says is a great opportunity for inspiration and participation. Keelan is asking string players from all traditions to come and play with the orchestra in a performance of a piece he calls “a sublime masterpiece for massed strings”: Vaughan Williams' “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.” Keelan also wants wind and brass players...
United Way of Windham County offers two programs that provide free federal and state income tax preparation services to eligible taxpayers: the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program and MyFreeTaxes.com. MyFreeTaxes is billed as an easy, fast, and secure federal and state tax filing site powered by H & R Block. It provides free federal and state tax preparation and filing assistance online to eligible households earning up to $60,000 a year. The program reportedly has helped millions of individuals...
Join independent scholar and Boston author Marc Songini for a talk on his book, Boston Mob: The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer, on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 3 p.m., in the Library's Meeting Room. Songini will discuss the true story of revenge, corruption, and power of how Bobby Kennedy, first as attorney general, then as U.S. senator, targeted Raymond Patriarca, don of the New England Mafia, for destruction. Kennedy had a resentment...
Brooks Memorial Library is accepting donations of books to help stock this year's three Friends book sales fundraisers. Bring donations - clean and in good condition - to the main circulation desk during library hours. Welcome are fiction and non-fiction titles in hardcover, softcover and mass-market paperback; CDs and DVDs; coffee table books, children's books, and rare, first-edition, and author-signed books. The library cannot accept magazines, encyclopedias, Reader's Digest Condensed Books, out-of-date reference books, textbooks, outdated travel guides, computer books,
With two months remaining until Town Meeting, the Brattleboro Selectboard is in the home stretch on the town budget for fiscal year 2016. According to a memo to the board from Assistant Town Manager Patrick Moreland, the budget shows a moderate increase of $39,628 over the current fiscal year. If Representative Town Meeting members pass it as is, the $15,721,494 budget would yield a municipal tax rate of $1.1902 per $100 of assessed property value. That represents a rate increase...
Oak Meadow, a local provider of secular, progressive, experiential homeschooling curriculum for K-12, has teamed up with several Brattleboro-area organizations to make arts education more accessible to local homeschooling families. With Oak Meadow's support, special classes for homeschoolers and/or discounts for homeschoolers are being offered by the following local organizations. Contact each directly for more information and registration. • NECCA (New England Center for Circus Arts) (802-254-9780, [email protected]): Students learn group pyramids, solo tumbling, aerial skills, and juggling while learning...
Coming on the heels of two full-house performances of Verdi's Requiem at the Latchis, director Susan Dedell and the Brattleboro Concert Choir will begin rehearsal of George Frederic Handel's Samson, for performance in May with full orchestra and soloists. Handel lore suggests that this was the composer's favorite, created soon after his celebrated Messiah. It is the story of Samson at the end of his days, full of character and drama - and Delilah. The choruses are every bit as...
Single-payer health insurance is not dead, contrary to recent headlines and the media spin on it. Those of us in the Legislature who have been working for decades to bring about this change are not that easily deterred. Despite Governor Peter Shumlin's statement - “Now is not the time” - we will continue to work toward this goal. As determined as we are to see this change come about, though, we are equally inspired to make it happen in a...
My experience as a member of the Putney Food Co-op is that it does reflect its cooperative principles in its week-in, week-out operations. It is also a highly community-minded and generous little co-op! The commentary is alarmist, dogmatic, and rife with inaccuracies. The author's frequent use of an unspecified “us,” assumptions about progressive beliefs in Vermont, lack of a definition of democracy and of offending new by-law language, and collection of dreadful stories about other co-ops distracts from the single...
My heartfelt thanks go to the Putney Food Co-op board members for their calm presence as they sat through yet another tedious meeting. They have my respect for what seems like a difficult job. I want to apologize for the actions of some in the group who continue to treat the bylaws review process as a conflict situation: holding the group hostage with their views and not really paying attention to what is said at these meetings. Mainly, I hear...
Food co-ops can be one of the best places for people to learn, train one another, and practice grassroots democracy. I don't want to lose that into the corporate, overly hierarchical paradigm sweeping through so many food co-ops, under the guise of promoting professionalism. Out of grassroots communities have grown fair trade, demand for food-labeling laws, support for organic and local agriculture, and other developments valued by many, which the major corporate players always said were not practical. These are...
Walking into the Jan. 7 Selectboard meeting, Michelle Cherrier, the town's representative on the Windham Solid Waste Management District board of supervisors, was prepared to support the draft budget for the solid waste and recycling organization's next fiscal year. The WSWMD budget was ultimately approved the next day, with representatives of three towns dissenting - including Cherrier. The budget for the 19-town district - which, much like a public school supervisory union, is a municipal entity charted by state law...
It is a travesty of the truth to portray policy governance as mandating “that the board divorce themselves from the community, and only deal with the general manager, while refusing to hear the concerns of workers” and as ceding “all power to management.” Even a cursory look at policy governance shows that it is all about ensuring that boards lead and rigorously monitor management on behalf of all the legal and moral owners whom the board has an obligation to...
Latchis Arts presents “Garden Inspirations: Growing Vegetables,” a day of insights on growing vegetables from three local farmers, as well as acclaimed television personality Roger Swain, known to millions as the host of the popular PBS show “The Victory Garden.” The event runs Saturday, Jan. 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre. Local farmers include: • Jack and Karen Manix, owners of Walker Farm in Dummerston, who will talk about raising vegetables and developing new, niche...
With a theme of “Myth, Lore, and Legend,” the Goddess Rising belly dance performance returns for its second year to the Stone Church. The fundraiser on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m., will offer attendees “Cabaret, Egyptian, Turkish, American Tribal Style, and many other forms of bellydance,” say event organizers Shanta L.E., Cyndal Ellis, and Kelsey Captolia Indziniak. Preceding the event, from 2-4 p.m., organizers invite the community to learn some belly-dance moves in “Body and Earth: An Ecofeminist Introduction...
The town was hard hit by the death of Eleanor “Cookie” Allen from thyroid cancer on Dec. 31, 2014. “She was a special lady, and she's going to be sorely missed in this town,” Selectboard Chair Patty O'Donnell said at the board's Jan. 5 meeting. According to O'Donnell, Allen, 69, was an admired and dedicated community member well known for her role as bus driver to the senior citizens in town. The lifelong resident also worked as a teacher and...
Linda Hecker and the other members of the Conservation Commission are the most recent participants on a journey to correctly classify town roads. They recently reported progress to the Selectboard. At the board's Jan. 12 meeting, Hecker told the board that she recently discovered an unsettling truth. “Officially, [we don't live] on any road at all!” she said. Hecker's address, which has been regarded as part of Packer Corners for as long as she has lived there, is technically part...
Rockingham/Bellows Falls Neighbors concerned about livestock out in the cold ROCKINGHAM- With the thermometer plunging in recent days to bitter-cold temperatures, can the town intervene when animals are left outside in the cold? Apparently not, Municipal Manager Chip Stearns said, after consulting with Police Chief Ron Lake. The topic came up at the Jan. 6 Selectboard meeting, when Marie Perrault asked board members about the issue. According to meeting minutes, Perrault “stated she has called the Police Department and the...
When I present to educators on the topic of learning differences, I emphasize how vital it is to engage multiple perspectives or frames of reference in order to gain a rich understanding rather than a one-dimensional one. I picked up this habit during the years I worked as a journalist in my 20s: that idea that you need to hear a story from all sides, and that the true story begins to emerge only after you have done this. I...
Autumn comes and boasts that elegant slate blue to hang a backdrop for the changing leaves. And each time it comes, I'm shaken by the harbingers of winter, touched by mortality. The windows close; socks and shoes go on, a fire is built, and it's time. Time to go inward again. Each year that I do this folding in, I'm aware that I have a little less time to do what I need to do before winter. I don't feel...
Windsor showed why it is the top-ranked team in Division III boys' basketball with an easy 56-39 win over the Bellows Falls Terriers at Holland Gymnasium last Saturday afternoon. The Yellowjackets, who improved to 8-2 on the season with the win, put the game away early with a 12-0 run in the first four minutes. They were aided by the Terriers' inability to hit any outside shots in the first quarter. “I don't why it takes so long for them...
Broadway comes to Saxtons River as some of the area's most talented performers present a cabaret of show-stopping tunes Friday and Saturday, Jan. 23 and 24, at 7 p.m. at Main Street Arts. The third annual My Favorite Broadway is a fundraiser for MSA theater productions and is the first event to be held in MSA's newly renovated space at 35 Main St. The cabaret promises a rousing evening and includes tunes from MSA's upcoming March production of “Les Misérables,”
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Dustbowl Revival, a Venice, Calif.-based roots collective that merges old-school bluegrass, gospel, jug-band, swamp blues and the hot swing of the 1930s, plus the Vermont-based Americana duo Laura Molinelli and Ben Campbell at Next Stage on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m. Known for their inspired live sets, the Dustbowl Revival boldly brings together many styles of traditional American music. “Some call it string band-brass band mash up. Imagine Old Crow Medicine...
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. served as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement five decades ago, said Lise Sparrow, pastor of the Guilford Community Church, but the social justice issues he worked for still resonate. Sparrow views Martin Luther King Day as a time for the community to recommit to issues of social justice. For almost a decade, Sparrow, along with members of the Brattleboro Area Interfaith Clergy Association, and Mikaela Sims, diversity coordinator at Brattleboro Union High...
Zoning is not a particularly sexy topic, and most people don't think about zoning regulations until something they don't want is proposed for their neighborhood. Planning Director Rod Francis and Planner Sue Fillion of the Brattleboro Planning Department want to change that. Together with land use planning consultant Brandy Saxton of PlaceSense, a Port Henry, N.Y.-based firm, they are about to lead a multi-month blitz to make everyone in town aware of coming changes to the town's land use regulations...
The National Weather Service forecast for the area sounded benign on Sunday morning: freezing drizzle, changing to rain by noontime, with temperatures gradually rising into the mid-to-upper 30s. What happened next was anything but benign. According to meteorologist Steve Maleski from the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, “a thin skim” of cold air got trapped east of the Green Mountains on Sunday morning. “The temperatures rose above freezing at eye level,” he said. “But the temperature at ground level was...
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin delivered proposed cuts and new revenue sources in part two of his agenda in his Jan. 15 budget address to lawmakers at the Statehouse. Shumlin highlighted balancing the budget in an environment of stagnant growth, saying that the state needed to close a $94 million budget gap. State spending has been rising at a rate of 5 percent, outpacing the state's revenue growth rate of 3 percent. “Reduced growth rates in Vermont and across the country,
No injuries were reported when a runaway 22-wheel logging truck collided with several trees and a stone wall on Washburn Way on Jan. 19. The Windham County Sheriff's Office Vernon Division attributes slippery conditions from the previous day and night's ice storm as the cause of the accident. The truck, operated by Shane's Trucking of Roxbury, N.H. “gained forward momentum after being loaded in a log landing,” according to a press release. Nobody was in the vehicle at the time.
On a recent snowy January evening, the Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary Club hosted its monthly Charity Trivia Quiz Challenge at its new location and time: American Legion Post 5 on Linden Street, 6:15 to 8:45 p.m. Sunrise Rotary will now hold its trivia night the second Monday of every month except for February, when it's taking time to regroup. “We're undergoing a transition of who's running the ship,” says Linda Torunski, Trivia Night organizer. She notes the next Sunrise Rotary Trivia...