Issue #325
An expatriate in Prague
“Prague is sooooooo beeeeautiful - I can't believe we eeeever let the Communists have it for themselves,” exclaimed the woman standing in the American Express line, so that everyone could hear her and dutifully nod their heads in assent.
Like so many passing fashions, with time the situation compounded itself.
Putney briefs
Reimbursement sought for TransCanada legal fees PUTNEY - Town attorney Lawrence G. Slason recently requested reimbursement from the state for legal fees incurred during the TransCanada lawsuit. The hydroelectric utility has contested the assessment of property on which it has easement rights in 10 Vermont towns along the Connecticut...
Around the Towns
Free playgroups available in area Playgroups for parents and their children up to five years of age are offered weekly for any family in Windham County. The free groups are offered in Brattleboro, Whitingham, and Townshend. The 90-minute playgroups offer opportunities for children to play with other infants, toddlers,
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Author looks at legacy of Latino activist Cesar Chavez
Amherst College professor Ilan Stavans will consider the life of Latino activist Cesar Chavez in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. His talk, The Legacy of Cesar Chavez, kicks off the 2015-16 season of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series, and is free and open to the public. Chavez, arguably the most important Latino leader of the 20th century, has been marred by controversy. Stavans, editor of Chavez's collected speeches,
‘The Queue’ comes to Marlboro College
Kingdom County Productions and Marlboro College will present a rare live presentation of The Queue, an 80-minute performance by the Chicago-based dance troupe Lucky Plush. Showtime is Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m., at the Serkin Center Dance Studio at Marlboro College. Tickets for the show, featuring seven dancers accompanied by live musicians, are $17 general admission and $10 for students. They will be available at the door or through the Catamount Regional Box Office at 802-748-2600. Online advance sales...
The Proper Ladies turn back the clock to 1865 in upcoming concert
The elegant a cappella vocal duo The Proper Ladies, Anabel Graetz and Deborah Goss, recall autumns of long ago with a program of songs and readings for a prelude to the winter season on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 4 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 880 Western Ave. The concert is a benefit for the church; admission is by donation. Refreshments follow the one-hour program. In the 19th century, autumn in New England was one of the busiest times of...
YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program to be offered at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital
The YMCA's Diabetes Prevention Program helps adults at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes reduce their risk for developing the disease by taking steps that will improve their overall health and well-being. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led evidence-based program is delivered over a 12-month period in a supportive small group classroom setting. Sixteen weekly one-hour sessions are followed by eight monthly sessions. Facilitated by trained lifestyle coaches Teri Kneipp and Nancy Schaefer, the class is scheduled...
Brattleboro hosts seventh annual Buddy Walk
On Saturday, Oct. 3, Brattleboro will host its seventh annual Buddy Walk. The Buddy Walk was first developed by the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) in 1995 to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month in October and to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome. The Buddy Walk has grown from 17 walks in 1995 to nearly 300 walks planned for 2015 worldwide. In 2014, more than $13 million was raised nationwide to benefit local programs and services, as...
Walpole Artisan Cooperative hosts benefit for Parks Place
On Saturday, Oct. 3, the Walpole Artisan Cooperative is hosting a performance by Walcrik to benefit Parks Place Community Resource Center. The event is a gift to the community in recognition and thanks for patronage to the Walpole Artisan gallery. They feel strongly that supporting Parks Place Community Resource Center is an important way of giving back to the community. Parks Place in Bellows Falls serves the communities of the greater falls area, providing opportunities to move lives forward through...
Short story series begins at Brooks
Masters of the Short Story, a reading and discussion series will be held in the Brooks Memorial Library this fall on Monday evenings. The books and authors to be discussed, with dates, are: Park City by Ann Beattie (Oct. 5), Selected Works of Flannery O'Connor (Nov. 2), Five Great Short Stories by Anton Chekhov (Nov. 30), and Poetry and Tales by Edgar Allen Poe (Dec. 7). The series discussion facilitator will be Vermont Humanities Council scholar Dr. Richard Wizansky. Each...
Vermont Senior Medicare Patrol program expands efforts in Southern Vermont
The Community of Vermont Elders (COVE), a statewide nonprofit senior advocacy organization based in Montpelier, recently announced that its Vermont Senior Medicare Patrol program (VTSMP) has expanded its efforts in the southern half of the state. The VTSMP program focuses on empowering seniors to fight Medicare fraud, error, abuse, and waste through educational presentations and humorous skits put on by their Savvy Seniors performers. The goal is to start conversations about Medicare, coverage, benefits, and scams. VTSMP conducts presentations statewide...
Dunkin’ Donuts plan approved by DRB
The five-member Development Review Board (DRB) unanimously approved an application for a gas station and Dunkin' Donuts at 43 East Main St. Sandri Corp. submitted the application over the summer. The company wants to convert its unstaffed gas station into a staffed pump station and Dunkin' Donuts. The DRB issued its approval along with a list of 43 conditions. These included receiving a Fire Permit, a statement from Emergency Medical Services assessing adequate access to the property, and a Wastewater...
Selectboard reviews traffic count data
After a resident requested a traffic count, the Dummerston Selectboard has agreed to ask the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) to put one in place on Rice Farm Road near the portion where the West River Trail crosses the road. The board recently received the results of a traffic survey the WRC had just completed in the town. After receiving numerous complaints about speeding, the Selectboard voted in April to ask the WRC to conduct the count on the stretch between...
Deerfield Valley artists open their studios
Bright yellow signs will appear along Vermont's roads this weekend, guiding visitors to the studios of 108 craftspeople and fine artists across Vermont during the fifth annual Vermont Fall Open Studio Weekend tour on Oct. 3 and 4. Presented by the Vermont Crafts Council, Vermont Fall Open Studio Weekend is a statewide celebration of the visual arts and creative process and offers a unique opportunity for visitors to meet a wide variety of artists and craftspeople in their studios. In...
Entergy drops bid to amend license
Vermont Yankee owner Entergy has dropped its bid to withdraw cash from the plant's decommissioning trust fund without first notifying the federal government. It's a victory for the state of Vermont, which had challenged Entergy's attempt to amend its license and eliminate a required 30-day advance notice for fund withdrawals. In late August, the federal Atomic Safety and Licensing Board had granted the state a hearing on the matter. The company is not admitting defeat on the substance of that...
The problem goes beyond a Bernie blackout
All of us have had the experience of waking the day after a horrific event, as reality replaces the sanctuary of sleep. In my opinion, that misty place is where the majority of us now exist in their consciousness. I see too many people resistant to becoming fully awake, because sleep lulls the spiritual pain of being awake so well. Supporters of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign have concerns with the lack of media coverage. I am thrilled with Bernie's delivery...
Salty and sweet
Last year, at the Centre Congregational Church, two literary heavyweights met on the stage: National Book Award finalist Andre Dubus III, bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog, and the soon-to-be National Book Award winner Phil Klay, who'd just published his first book, Redeployment, about serving in the Iraq War. While reading from one of his works, Dubus, clearly the more flamboyant of the two, kept catching himself swearing during off-the-cuff remarks - and looking a bit nervous about...
Glier, Hoffman to perform Oct. 3
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk and pop singer/songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Seth Glier and Hannah Hoffman at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. Singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist, producer, and Grammy nominee Seth Glier is known for his fearless vocal delivery, musical exuberance, and seasoned songwriting beyond his years. A troubadour in every sense of the word who averages 250 live performances annually, 26 year-old Glier has gone from opening act to...
Town collects nearly half of its delinquent tax bills
Penny Marine, who wears many hats for Guilford's town government, appeared at the Sept. 14 regular Selectboard meeting to report on her progress as Delinquent Tax Collector. Marine, who also serves as Town Clerk and Treasurer, was appointed to collect delinquent taxes in January, 2015. As of a year ago, Guilford was owed $512,000 in delinquent taxes. By July 1 of this year, Marine's efforts brought in $220,000. Marine said she also brought in $8,000 in penalties, and that money...
Forum to explore addressing climate change while advancing economy
On Oct. 6, southern Vermont will host the Vermont Council on Rural Development's regional public forum: “Advancing Vermont's Climate Change Economy” at the Latchis Theatre from 7 to 9 p.m. I encourage everyone to participate in this timely discussion, which will directly impact the recommendations that will be presented to the governor and state legislature in February. The VCRD is leading the Vermont Climate Change Economy Initiative with the premise that confronting climate change through innovative economic development can be...
Extreme Long Trail run is focus of new film
Most people would be satisfied just to walk all 273 miles of Vermont's Long Trail, the nation's oldest hiking path. So why did Nikki Kimball want to run it? In record time? With a film crew following her? “There's something really spiritual about it with its highs and lows,” the 44-year-old nationally ranked ultramarathoner recently told ESPN of her sport. “For me, there's no better metaphor for life.” Kimball's journey through tough terrain literal and figurative is the subject of...
‘Climate Change Economy’ talks coming to Brattleboro
For years, local officials and energy-efficiency advocates have been working to nurture and promote a “green building” industry in Windham County. Those efforts have taken on new urgency with the shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. And officials recently announced - with a boost from federal funding - creation of a new Green Building Cluster Study to identify the county's strongest assets in environmentally friendly construction and renovation. But energy efficiency is just one aspect of what some...
Still learning
Vermont author Howard Frank Mosher was fielding questions at a recent conference when a young man began to say to him, “As an aspiring writer...” Mosher interrupted, asking, “What do you mean 'aspiring writer?' I am an aspiring writer too. I am trying to prove myself from one book to the next, and I never feel certain.” This 73-year old aspiring writer hopes to be inspiring when he appears in Brattleboro to launch the publication of God's Kingdom. On Thursday,
Reformer Christmas Stocking seeks to regroup
How do you replace a community nonprofit that has delivered warm winter clothing to children in need for three generations? How do you duplicate an all-volunteer organization that, over the past few years, has raised an average of about $95,000 every December, with 99 percent of the money raised going toward coats and boots for kids ranging from infants to 15-year-olds? How do you take over for a charity that helped more than 1,500 children last year, doing everything from...
Time to make the puppets
To celebrate their second year in their West River Road studios, ceramicist Natalie Blake and glassblower Randi F. Solin threw a party on Sept. 26, complete with a mask-making class, live music, combination bonfire/corn roast, a chocolate station, and a fire-spinning presentation. During the afternoon, while staff members pulled huge burlap sacks of corn through the studio to prepare for the evening's festivities, the huge tables where Natalie Blake and her crew normally create pottery were transformed into a mask-making...
Town Plan revisions address water, sewerage concerns
There are three commercially zoned areas in Westminster that are not serviced by municipally-owned water and sewer. The revised 2015 Town Plan 6.1, up for discussion and approval on Oct. 6, pays more attention to improving access to water and sewer services within those commercial districts. An aging water and sewer infrastructure owned by the Village of Bellows Falls is coming due for long-delayed upgrades and maintenance, and the same system has been serving the villages of Gageville and North...
Colonels honor 1965 champs, then beat Lakers
The recent quality of play by the Brattleboro Colonels football team has their fans asking a question they haven't asked for a few years - can they make the Division I playoffs? After knocking off the Colchester Lakers, 35-14, in the Homecoming Weekend game last Friday night at Natowich Field, the answer for Colonels fans is that they are playing well enough have a good chance of making the postseason. It was the first home win for the 3-2 Colonels,
Seeing the forest, and the trees, and the people who make their living from them
The Windham Regional Commission (WRC) has collaborated with Vermont landscape painter Kathleen Kolb and Vermont poet and performer Verandah Porche to create a singularly beautiful 17-picture and poetry exhibit about the working forest for the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC). The exhibit, called Shedding Light on the Working Forest, is opening at the museum on Oct. 2 and will run until Jan. 3, 2016. It combines Kolb's paintings of men working in the forests and in the mills with...
Police officer, HCRS clinician win statewide recognition
Lt. Jeremy Evans never imagined how much of his career would include supporting people struggling with mental-health issues. One night after an emotional call to the Brattleboro Police Department of a possible suicide - which later proved false - the 17-year veteran of the BPD smiled and shook his head. Evans said that what he first thought policing was and what he found it actually it is are “two entirely different things.” “We deal with a lot of social concerns,”
VSO premieres work of composer Jennifer Jolley during statewide tour
The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) will premiere the work of composer Jennifer Jolley during its annual Made in Vermont statewide tour. Her VSO commissioned work, entitled The Ferry Crossing, will be performed in eight towns and villages across Vermont, including the Bellows Falls Opera House on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m. Made in Vermont marks the beginning of the musical season of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Jolley will be with the orchestra throughout the tour to offer remarks and...
BMC opens Chamber Music Series with Sophie Shao & Friends
The Brattleboro Music Center opens its 2015-16 Chamber Series with Sophie Shao and Friends on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church on Main Street. Carmit Zori, violin; Jeff Neubauer, viola; Sophie Shao, cello; and Gilles Vonsattel, piano will perform Beethoven Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 16, Beethoven String Trio in G Major, op. 9 no. 1 and Dvorak Piano Trio in F Minor, op. 65 (for violin, cello, and piano). Shao has created a particular...
Entergy asks state to throw out spent-fuel testimony
The war of words continues over spent nuclear fuel storage at Vermont Yankee. In the latest volley, plant owner Entergy argues that the state should disregard the concerns of a technical advisor to the Brattleboro-based New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution - an adviser who has urged “a most scrupulous and searching review” of Entergy's plans to build a second spent fuel pad on its Vernon property. The testimony of Raymond Shadis is “irrelevant, immaterial, and beyond the scope of...
Blue Door soup suppers resume Oct. 7
Crisp fall air means it's time for the folks at Christ's Church to bring out their soup pots and shine up their ladles for another season of Blue Door soup suppers. Every Wednesday from October through April, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., the neighborhood is invited for a free soup supper in the church's dining room, which is wheelchair accessible. Friends and members make three soups each week, with at least one vegetarian and one gluten-free option. The soups are...
Wind opponents set up storefront
The small, red 130-year-old building at 205 Main St. has served as the town post office, a real-estate office, and as a home for Grafton Historical Society. Sitting inside the front room, Liisa Kissel declares, “now, it has a new purpose.” Kissel's Grafton Woodlands Group Inc. has set up shop with an “environmental community resource and knowledge center” that will provide a home base for the group's fight against a possible wind-turbine project in the towns of Windham and Grafton.
School mergers debated in Windham County
At a recent meeting, the Guilford Town School Board tackled what seemed to be a simple agenda item - developing a brief, matter-of-fact letter informing residents of upcoming discussions required by Act 46, Vermont's new education-governance law. But it turned into a difficult, extended debate as board members went line by line, trying to compromise on wording that, depending on each member's viewpoint, may or may not have been skewed in favor of school consolidation. At one point, while discussing...
Milestones
Transitions • Stevens & Associates in Brattleboro welcomes Nikki Perry to their team as an architectural intern. She has received a B.S. in architecture with a minor in sustainable product design and innovation from Keene State College. During that time, her academic experience included a month abroad in Florence, Italy. She continued her education earning a Master's of Architecture from the University of Massachusetts. Before receiving her Master's degree, she accepted a design award at the NESEA Net-Zero Energy Student...
State slams VY emergency-planning changes
If Entergy has its way, Vermont Yankee's emergency programs - and the funding that goes with them - are due for a major downsizing in the first half of next year. At a Sept. 24 meeting in Brattleboro, several state officials argued that the company's emergency commitments to surrounding towns and to the state should continue at least for the next several years. Those programs are necessary, they say, to protect public health and the environment around the Vernon plant,
Passing on a legacy of vision
If photography could save the world, In-Sight would be leading the way. An upcoming online auction will help community members near and far support the program. As an educational and empowering program for youth through art, it has few peers in the area, or anywhere else for that matter. In-Sight's mission is to offer students “a creative voice and outlet, an opportunity to experience success, tools for self-awareness and self-worth, and encourages them to become actively engaged in their communities,”
ATM skimmer discovered at Brattleboro convenience store
Police are cautioning people to watch for skimmers - electronic devices used to illegally capture personal information stored on bank cards - when using local ATMs and other machines that scan credit or debit cards. According to a Brattleboro Police Department press release, thieves can attach these skimmers to legitimate card scanners like ATMs or gas pumps and steal bank account information and other data. Detectives from the BPD's Criminal Investigation Division launched an investigation on Sept. 22, when the...