Thank you, Amy Comerchero! We've been sooooo lucky.
Enjoy a good rest, and then we'll look forward to what's next for you - and our tummies.
...Greetings, Vermonters! As a deaf person and former Vermonter, I just received a letter from Vermont Telecommunications Equipment Distribution Program (VTEDP) inquiring if I need new or upgraded telephones or computers (including laptops and tablets) to assist me. They encourage recipients of their program's equipment benefits to share this...
In a program to be launched this month, Strolling of the Heifers will offer up to 16 people a chance to enroll in a paid apprenticeship program designed to help them start culinary industry careers. The Stroll's Farm-to-Table Culinary Apprenticeship program is a 12-week program offering training that can...
Structures grant received PUTNEY - Putney recently received a $175,000 Structures Grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) to replace a box culvert on Hickory Ridge Road. At the May 20 regular Selectboard meeting, Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard announced the grant. Replacing the box culvert “ended up being a $200,000 project,” Stoddard said, but noted, “Putney was awarded the maximum grant of $175,000." This project is part of Putney's Hazard Mitigation Plan. “The problem is on the north side...
Town seeks to fill vacancies BRATTLEBORO - The Town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards: Agricultural Advisory Board, ADA Advisory Committee, Arts Committee, Brattleboro Housing Authority, Citizens Police Communications Committee, Conservation Commission, Development Review Board, Development Review Board Alternate, Energy Committee, Energy Coordinator, Honor Roll Committee, Planning Commission, Recreation & Parks Board, Senior Solutions Board, SEVCA Board, Traffic Safety Committee, and Tree Advisory Committee. Also needed are Fence Viewers (by statute, must...
Nestled in what used to be a crossroads of northern Windham County is an irony of sorts that has been playing out for more than 35 years. Unbeknownst to all but a few insiders, Susan Hadden has been quietly and, for the most part, without acclaim, living and finding expression – oscillating between two seemingly disparate areas of deep passion and interest. Hadden is the owner and co-founder of the Vermont Museum of Mining and Minerals, at 55 Pleasant St.
Five fire hydrants along Route 5 need to be replaced, and work on that should begin in the next few weeks, according to Fire Chief Jared Bristol. The hydrants were installed when the village of Algiers tapped into Brattleboro's municipal water line in 2013. But, as Bristol told the Selectboard members during their May 11 meeting, the hydrants “weren't installed with the correct heights,” and the town “need[s] to do that.” Bristol told the board he reached out for help...
New talent, fan favorites, and four days of music mark the 16th year celebration of the Roots on the River Festival, which starts Thursday, June 4, and features dozens of acts through Sunday, June 7. The festival will be held at its usual eclectic collection of venues throughout the town and this year will feature different headliners each night – John Fullbright, Sam Baker, The Black Lillies, and the return of festival sweetheart Mary Gauthier, hosting the all-acoustic show at...
College news • Luke Drabyn of Grafton graduated from Bowdoin College on May 23 with a major in government and legal studies and Russian. • Jocelyn Lovering of East Dummerston was recently honored by Keene State College with the Fred Fosher Excellence in Writing Award. • Ashley C. Moran of Westminster graduated magna cum laude from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a B.S. in diagnostic medical sonography. • Molly Ann Rice of Brattleboro, a junior and interdisciplinary liberal arts...
Brattleboro Community Radio, WVEW-LP 107.7 FM, will hold a concert on Saturday, June 6, starting at 5 p.m. at the Stone Church, on the corner of Grove and Main streets, to benefit the station. Heirloom Seeds, a Vermont-based reggae band, will headline the show. Other acts include WVEW DJ Selector D, The River Bandits, Tara Dente, The Detrawni Brothers, and Sara Wallis. Heirloom Seeds grows organic heirloom food and plays Roots Reggae music they've learned from elders in Brooklyn, Jamaica,
Guilford talks trash GUILFORD - At the May 27 Guilford regular Selectboard meeting, Cheryl Franklin spoke about some of the changes coming with Vermont's Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) and how it will affect the town. Franklin serves as Guilford's representative on the Windham Solid Waste Management District's Board of Supervisors. She said as of July 1, all trash haulers must collect recycling at no extra charge, and “food-scrap generators of 52 tons per year or one ton per week...
On Friday, June 5, at 7 p.m., poet Chuck Miller and civil rights activist Charles Prickett will read at the home of Jerry Levy. Miller is a graduate of the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa and the author of many books of poetry. His latest, Parsecs to Go, Poems of Protest, was released in 2013. Miller's experience as a migrant worker and world traveler has given him an international perspective on issues of human rights. He has taught...
We're working to bring to Vermont a community-centered economic system that makes payments through a secure, digital technology - just as debit cards do. The Vermont BENE Group (Better Economics for Neighbors Everywhere) has been meeting in Brattleboro every week since last winter planning the rCredits system in Vermont. As a user, you exchange the dollars you deposit into credits that can be used with a special card at participating businesses. Local spending encourages more local circulation, which stimulates the...
Post Oil Solutions is hosting a screening of Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret on Thursday, June 4, at Marlboro College Graduate School. The 2014 documentary examines the environmental impact of animal agriculture, and asks why the world's leading environmental organizations have been reluctant to shine a spotlight on this issue. “Producers and consumers alike deserve to know the truth about the impact of raising animals for food. We need to know, so we can make informed choices,” said Marilyn Chiarello, who...
While preparing people to deploy to provide medical disaster relief, I implored them to expect nothing, and expect anything. I love Curtiss Reed's encouragement for us to continually step out of our familiar, and be the unexpected, especially where it matters. Thank you, Curtiss.
Emergency drill completed DUMMERSTON - Dummerston's Emergency Drill took place the morning of May 13, and included a simulation of evacuating the town. Later that day, the Selectboard reported on the drill at its regular meeting. Because the town is within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, and is one of six towns in the Plume Exposure Pathway Zone, it receives assistance with drills through the federally-mandated Vermont Radiological Emergency Response Plan (RERP) program.
The most beautifully written opinion I have yet to read on this subject. Thank you for sharing your voice, Enza Putignano. To deny our children and families choices for how we can all achieve optimal health - even here in rural Vermont - is surely condemning them to a life shackled by fascist corporatism.
Road equipment update NEWFANE - Road Foreman Todd Lawley shared the status of some of the town's highway equipment at the May 18 regular Selectboard meeting. The 2007 Ford F-350 pickup truck has been sold. The 2011 F-350 the town currently uses needs to have the u-joints in both axles replaced. Lawley said the truck was scheduled to go to Durand Ford in Westminster on May 22. After putting out a request for bids on a new loader, the town...
Dear Governor Peter Shumlin: A friend posted a link to your press release “Gov. Shumlin announces nearly $900,000 in broadband grants to underserved Vermont communities” to my Facebook page. And while I want to congratulate the towns that are getting some help, I want to acknowledge publicly that I have reservations and some questions. And, if I'm up front, a whole lot of frustration. Can you address how complete this funding will be? How do you plan to address the...
What started in 2002 as a parade of young cows down Main Street with a small “dairy festival” on the Common has blossomed into an major June event that draws thousands of people each year to downtown Brattleboro. Thirteen years later, the little parade has turned into a procession with more than 75 units and the Dairy Festival evolved into the Slow Living Expo, with more than 200 vendors. And the Strolling of the Heifers has grown from a one-day...
Windham County's three new legislators say they have taken their first legislative session in stride, but not without a fair share of learning curves. The 2015-2016 biennium started with a protest and ended with an arrest, in a session that has been characterized as “unusual.” “It was a very odd session,” remarked Sen. Becca Balint, a first-year Democrat from Brattleboro who joined veteran Democratic Sen. Jeanette White of Putney in representing the county. The session began with a $113 million...
A large mound of kitchen scraps, paper, leaves, and wood chips bakes in the afternoon sun. The Windham Solid Waste Management District likes its organic scraps hot - specifically at a minimum internal temperature of 131 degrees fahrenheit. In a few months, the heaps of debris will transform into a rich compost. Dick Petrie, site manager and shop foreman, walks from the piles of fresh kitchen scraps to where a small bunny-slope pile of freshly screened composted soil sits ready...
Fire Chief Michael Bucossi wipes his finger along the tiled wall of Central Station. Holding up his finger covered in diesel soot, Bucossi said, “This is what my guys are breathing in every day.” Firefighters scrub away the soot coating the bay walls that house Brattleboro's emergency vehicles, said Bucossi, who has led the department since 2007. As chief, Bucossi said, his number-one job is ensuring the safety of his firefighters “to make sure they all go home at the...
Composer and pianist Eugene Uman and his Convergence Project returns for his seventh annual Vermont Jazz Center concert. The group will perform high-energy original jazz compositions based on traditional Colombian music on Saturday, June 6, at 8 p.m. Other members of the Convergence Project joining Uman will be Michael Zsoldos on saxophone, Jeff Galindo on trombone, Stomu Takeishi on electric bass, Satoshi Takeishi on drums, and Adam O'Farrill on trumpet. O'Farrill was the third-place winner in this year's Thelonious Monk...
State Rep. Michael Hebert, R-Vernon, visited Guilford's May 27 regular Selectboard meeting to announce that the state is awarding the town $405,000 for the Sweet Pond Dam project. Hebert said $90,000 is dedicated to planning and development, and the remaining $315,000 is for “the actual job.” He said work should begin in 2017 and be completed “by the end of construction season.” Although Hebert admitted he was “a pest” in the Statehouse, and “it became 'Hebert's Damn Dam,'” he said...
For the second time in the last three seasons, the Brattleboro Colonels will not be in the Division I baseball playoffs. The Colonels needed to beat Mount Anthony last Friday at Tenney Field to clinch the No. 16 seed, but lost, 4-3. Until last Thursday, Brattleboro had thought it qualified for the playoffs. Then Missisquoi won its last game of the season to leapfrog over the Colonels in the standings. A Brattleboro loss would leave both teams with 4-12 records,
My wife Mansalu and I were on the ninth day of our two-week trek in the Annapurna region of Nepal when the earthquake hit. We had been walking through the Manang valley on the northern side of the Annapurnas with friends Dan, Timon, and Masha, and a porter, Bhim Kulung. At an altitude of about 14,500 feet, we were a half hour from a small group of lodges situated at the base of the climb over Thorung La, one of...