The Police Department might have a new home on Black Mountain Road.
Town Manager Peter Elwell released a memo ahead of the Selectboard's Oct. 6 meeting outlining three alternatives to moving forward the renovations of the town's police and two fire stations.
Elwell also recommended the board approve moving forward a process for the town to buy the Brattleboro Reformer building at 62 Black Mountain Rd., and commit to a number of public meetings to discuss the Police-Fire Project.
In the memo, Elwell writes that the town has an option to purchase the building.
Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell's memo outlined estimated project costs for the Police-Fire Project and a timeline for public meetings. The most substantial changes revolved around plans for the Police Department. Each of the alternatives has a different scenario for the department. The Central Fire Station on Elliot Street...
The harvest is in, the growing season is winding down, and it's time to start thinking about getting the garden cleaned up and ready for next season. Remember, the more work you do now, the less you have to do come spring. Here's a to-do list: • Now is...
Just in time for Gilfeather turnip season, The Commons recently obtained a copy of a soup recipe, courtesy of Linda Gifkins, one of the coordinators of Wardsboro's Gilfeather Turnip Festival. Gifkins said the recipe was developed by Greg Parks, nationally-acclaimed former executive chef at Newfane's Four Columns Inn. It makes 2 quarts (7 servings). ¶½ stick ({1/8}-lb.) of butter ¶1½ lbs. peeled and chopped Gilfeather turnips (weigh after peeling) ¶2 large onions, chopped ¶1 clove garlic, minced ¶4 cups chicken...
Marlboro College announces the launch of its Beautiful Minds Challenge for the 2015-2016 academic year. Inspired high school students are invited to respond to the prompt of “Human Being: Being Human. Capture Truth,” and compete for scholarships and cash prizes. “Marlboro College is a place where students explore new ideas in new ways, often across disciplines,” says Kevin Quigley, president of Marlboro. “This year's prompt asks high school students to take a fresh look at what it means to be...
The quantity and quality of water in our region has direct impacts on everyone. Flooding causes a huge financial burden on municipalities, businesses, and individuals while threatening public safety. Droughts lead to crop failures, inadequate domestic water supplies, and stressed ecosystems. Water quality degradation diminishes ecosystem health, domestic water supplies, and recreational opportunities. And new Vermont Clean Water Act legislation reinforces the need to treat water as a valuable resource. Green Infrastructure (GI) is a suite of design tools and...
Guilford Center Stage, a new theater project sponsored by Broad Brook Grange, has reached its funding goal through a recent Kickstarter campaign. The funds are being used to acquire basic theatrical lighting for the stage. The first production, of Vermont author Dorothy Canfield Fisher's 1932 comedy, Tourists Accommodated, will be given on Oct. 9 and 10 on the stage, upstairs at the Grange. Twenty-two community actors, under the direction of Don McLean, will perform this fully staged play, which is...
Area youth bands can launch their musical careers by competing at Youth Services' Battle of the Bands at the River Garden on Friday, Nov. 6, during Gallery Walk night, from 7 to 10 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend and vote for their favorite group with their applause, according to organizers. In addition to the audience and youth judges, several individuals from both the recording and music industry will help choose the top band. “Youth Services' Battle of the...
The first clue that you are in the right place appears before you even get to the door: it's the unmistakable aroma of hot apple pie. The brilliant combination of fat and flour, sweet-tart apples, and warming spices creates an invisible cloud that wafts through the screen door of the Dummerston Congregational Church's basement kitchen. It's Thursday morning, a week-and-a-half before the church's biggest fundraising event, Dummerston's famous Apple Pie Festival. In the church kitchen, a team of volunteers works...
On June 4, at 10:15 p.m., my daughter and her cousin were hit by a truck on Interstate 95 in New Haven, Conn. on the Q Bridge. My daughter's car had caught on fire, so they had no choice but to walk over the bridge. They were critically injured, but the accident happened within sight of Yale–New Haven Hospital, a level-one trauma center, which saved their lives. Tragedy can catch you with no warning: drying the dishes, reading a book.
One of many blessings in my life is that I have been able to visit lots of incredible places through my important work. Of all of these, the place for which I have the fondest memories is Dillingham, Alaska, the hub of the communities in the Bristol Bay region, on the western side of the Aleutian Peninsula in the southwestern part of the state. In 1995, the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation, the oldest Native-owned health corporation in America, engaged...
As part of preparing for the Fiscal Year 2016 budget process, the Guilford Selectboard decided to establish a finance committee, separate from the Selectboard. Board Chair Anne Rider noted the Selectboard has been acting as the de facto finance committee for previous budget creation processes. She suggested the finance committee consist of the Town Clerk, a few Selectboard members, and a few residents. “Two farmers, two fixed incomes, one road crew, and one Town Clerk - that would be my...
The Commons: It seems like we've come full circle with regards to people's opinions on whether a Muslim should be president of the United States. We saw and heard Islamophobic remarks toward President Barack Obama during the 2008 election, and now it's come back to haunt us in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Why are we back to where we started? Jack Shaheen: I think what's happened is the anti-Muslim rhetoric has intensified over the last several years. We...
Obituaries • John Francis Joseph Angil II, 60, of Spofford, N.H. Died Sept. 28 at his home. Husband of Lisa Ganzel for 23 years. Father of Elizabeth and John Michael Angil. Sister of Pam Angil of Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif. Born in Lorain, Ohio, the son of John and Barbara (Brodke) Angil, he was a resident of the area for the past 10 years and had been employed as Radiological Director for Vermont Emergency Management. While residing in South Carolina, he...
A year and a half ago, I stood up before Vermonters and devoted my State of the State address to speaking about the opiate and heroin crisis affecting our state. Despite our best efforts since, this is not a battle we are winning. Now the Food and Drug Administration is recklessly making the problem worse with its decision to approve OxyContin for use by children as young as 11 years old. I was horrified when I learned of the FDA's...
Whitingham library to hold annual Fall Book Sale JACKSONVILLE - The Whitingham Free Public Library will host its Annual Fall Book Sale on Friday, Oct. 9, from 4 to 7 p.m., during the Whitingham Farmers' Market, and on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are offering a large selection of hardcover, softcover, fiction, non-fiction, children's books and more. The Whitingham Library is located in the Whitingham Municipal building, Jacksonville, VT. For more information, call 802-368-7506. AARP...
The annual meeting of Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) is Thursday, Oct. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the BCTV studio on the third floor of the Brattleboro Municipal Center. The annual meeting recognizes top producers and programs and features a short video montage of clips of the year's local programming. In August, BCTV took home two national Hometown Media Awards from the Alliance for Community Media. This is the third time that the annual video montage has won in...
Selectboard set to pick architect for Town Hall renovations WESTMINSTER - The Selectboard says 18 prospective architectural firms and designers responded to a request for proposals initiated in August for an architect to do proposed renovations to the Town Hall. Of that number, eight submitted proposals. The Selectboard says it has been interviewing the top three candidates and hopes to announce its choice at the Oct. 14 meeting. The current Town Hall was built in 1889 on the footprint of...
The public is invited to hear and share personal tales of transition at a Story Slam benefit show on Oct. 17. The event, set for 8 p.m. at Brattleboro's 118 Elliot St. performing arts space, will feature volunteer audience members telling stories to raise funds for the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont. Hillary Boone, a Vermont stand-up comedian and host of “The Moth” True Stories Told Live program in Burlington, will explain how each participant (or “slammer”) has five minutes...
Brattleboro Area Hospice is presenting the annual Cherished Goods Auction this year on Saturday, Oct. 17. In addition to offering a wide variety of antiques and an array of trips spanning the globe from Africa to Tuscany, the Cotswolds, Antigua and Boston, this year the hospice will offer a year's family membership at the Hermitage Club in southern Vermont's Deerfield Valley. The Hermitage Club is a four-season private club celebrating “outdoors and family fun,” according to a news release. Membership...
As I listen to Donald Trump's continuing trash talk, watching the climate-change-induced infernos burning on the West Coast, hearing Republicans' medieval take on women's rights, and suffering reports of continuing gun violence, it's hard to find anything positive to say about the future of the human race. Still, there have been glimmers of hope on the horizon. One of the biggest examples is individuals' response to the heartrending refugee crisis. Let's be clear about that term: “Migrants” leave home for...
The Brattleboro Colonels believe they can make the Division I football playoffs, and they had a shot last Friday night of controlling their destiny against the Rutland Red Raiders. This game, the final home game of the season for the Colonels, was not going to be easy and they needed to play their best football of the season to beat Rutland. But it is hard to play you best when you're missing several of your key players. Rutland would roll...
Heirloom apple tasting DUMMERSTON- Scott Farm orchard manager Zeke Goodband will open to the public the farm's packing barn on Sunday, Oct. 11, for Heirloom Apple Day, the farm's annual heirloom-apple-tasting celebration. Goodband will offer tastings of a select group of more than 100 varieties of apples while sharing information and lore about the fruit. Informational sessions will take place at noon and 2 p.m. The farm is located at 707 Kipling Rd. For more information, call 802-254-6868 or visitscottfarmvermont.com/heirloom-apples/apple-tasting-day.
Entergy can eliminate a direct emergency data link between Vermont Yankee and the federal government, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided. By unanimous vote on Oct. 1, NRC commissioners denied Vermont's appeal of Entergy's deactivation of the Emergency Response Data System - also known as the ERDS - at the Vernon plant. While state officials argued that ERDS remains important due to the risk of radiological accidents from spent fuel stored at the plant, the NRC says the data system...
For local residents and state officials, the central, painful reality of post–Vermont Yankee planning is that there is nowhere to take the plant's spent nuclear fuel. That doesn't mean, however, that there haven't been conversations about the eventual removal of that waste from the Vernon property. As part of its attempts to develop a nationwide plan for transporting nuclear waste to a centralized storage facility, the U.S. Department of Energy recently has made inquiries with Vermont officials and has scheduled...
Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records, presents The Gathering Concert, featuring five award-winning musicians he was worked with in the recording studio, on Friday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church on Main Street. On the concert bill are: • Barbara Higbie, pianist, fiddler, singer-songwriter, co-founded the acoustic super group, Montreux. Higbie has five solo albums, and has performed on more than 100 albums, with musicians such as Carlos Santana and Teresa Trull. • David Cullen, Grammy...
The inaugural LATCHfest - two days of music, art, and you - will be held on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10, at the Latchis Main Theatre. Featuring 11 performers, including top area musicians in a staggering variety of styles, as well as visual artists, videographers, comedians and more, LATCHfest runs from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, and noon to 6 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 10. Among the featured performers on Friday are The Snaz, Brattleboro's teen...
From whimsy to sadness, a woman's closet holds the all-important secrets of life. Those secrets make up Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which is also the title of the intimate best-seller by Ilene Beckerman, adapted for the stage by the late Nora Ephron and her sister Delia. On Oct. 10 and 17, at 7:30 p.m., the Actors Theatre Playhouse will close their 2015 season with this internationally acclaimed collection. Sitting in front of music stands, five actresses recreate memories...
Salvage yard's certificate approved GUILFORD - At its Sept. 28 regular meeting, the Selectboard unanimously voted to approve R.G. Winchester Auto's application for a salvage yard certificate. Owner Ralph Winchester, in updating the board about conditions at his salvage yard, said he had been trying to renew his business's operating certificate, but some members of the board had questions before they would sign off on it. The major concern expressed by the board was appearance. When Winchester visited the meeting,
Last month, the town learned that the state had taken pity on the Elliot Street Bridge. The state has placed the town into its “Bridge Deck Replacement Program,” even without the town applying, Town Manager Peter Elwell said Sept. 29. During an interview this summer, Department Of Public Works staff told The Commons that it would cost the town approximately $1.2 million to repair the 69-year old bridge. A hole in the bridge's deck has narrowed traveling to one lane.
Town Manager Peter Elwell noted in his remarks before the Selectboard last week that staff have discussed sharing animal control services with neighboring towns. Elwell said at the Sept. 29 meeting that he had met with the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) and the Windham County Humane Society (WRHS) to discuss animal-control related issues. Smaller communities struggle with finding enough volunteers or funds to employ an Animal Control Officer (ACO), he said. Brattleboro is fortunate that it has an ACO. The...
Guilford Road Commissioner Dan Zumbruski recently alerted the Selectboard to a few breakdowns in the town's roads. At the Board's regular Sept. 28 meeting, Zumbruski reported on the damage to the Hale Road Bridge #64 - the second bridge in from Hinesburg Road. Zumbruski and his crew recently placed a steel plate on the bridge to cover a spot where the corrugated metal beneath the bridge had worn down. Although the fix renders the bridge safe, and Zumbruski said he...
After quite a bit of work, and a final public hearing the same day, on Sept. 2 the Selectboard approved the town Planning Commission's zoning bylaw. This vote represents the first major change to zoning districts since 1971, when zoning was established in the town. The board cast a 4-1 vote, with Selectboard Member Gurudharm Khalsa voting against the proposal. Sam Farwell, who serves on the Planning Commission, told The Commons in an email, “A substantial Town Plan update in...
When the days get shorter and cooler in Vermont my green mountains turn to gold and everything slides into a moody Fairyland. It's almost as if summer slipped on a big colorful cape, but just beneath you can still see the beautiful green and the bumblebees sleepily trying to collect the last drops from the fading flowers. I'm wild about the summer with its long days in the happy heat with the birds singing whole choirs of songs at 4:30...
The recent Democratic caucus meeting in town attracted all of seven people, and that's about two more than usual, according to Chairman Clarence Boston. But the meeting ran unusually long as Marlboro Democratic Committee members debated whether to endorse U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for president. In doing so, they thwarted the wishes of state and county party leaders, who are urging no primary-season endorsements for any candidate at any level. Boston says the committee wasn't interested in heeding that...
There's not much that Connecticut Yankee and Vermont Yankee have in common, other than their names and the fact that they're both nuclear plants that no longer produce power. But a recent field trip to the Connecticut site provided several members of the Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VNDCAP) with some important insights. For VNDCAP Chair Kate O'Connor, the most powerful impression was Connecticut Yankee's reclamation by nature - and her realization that something similar might one day happen...
Selected works by nationally-known, locally-based artists Eric Aho, Charlie Hunter, Julia Zanes, Michele Ratté and Donald Saaf will be on display at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River beginning with a public reception on Friday, Oct. 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibition is part of Main Street Arts' presentation of the artists, poets and composer involved in MSA's “Five Seasons Project.” The Project is a celebration of community and the arts centered around...
The board and staff of River Gallery School (RGS), a nonprofit community organization in downtown Brattleboro, which, according to its mission statement, “provides a studio space in which students of all ages explore their creativity through the practice of making art,” recently expanded onto the lower level of the Wilder Building. The newly renovated space at 34-36 Main St., is called RGS Main Street Studio and Gallery 34. The storefront beneath the current River Gallery School studio and offices has...
“Overlooking everything is a lot different than being a volunteer,” says Darah Kehnemuyi, the new executive director of the Brattleboro Community Justice Center. Maintaining the reports required by the center's various grant funders, for example. The center's prisoner re-entry programs are some of the programs subsidized by money the justice center receives from the state through the federal Second Chance Act of 2007, signed into law the following year. Tucked away on the third floor of the Municipal Center on...
On Oct. 24, Wardsboro's Gilfeather Turnip Festival celebrates its 13th year with all things Gilfeather turnip. The yearly festival is the town's largest fundraising effort, with proceeds going to support the public library. Admission is free, but event organizers advise bringing plenty of cash to spend at the booths, carts, and kiosks. A variety of prepared foods - all made with the Gilfeather turnip, of course - will be available at the chef's station, the Turnip Cafe, and the outdoor...
The murals on the walls of the Latchis Theatre are beautiful to behold. but there's so much more to them than meets the eye, believes Jon Potter, Executive Director of Latchis Corporation/Latchis Arts. “Painted by renowned artist Louis Jambor for the Grand Opening of the Latchis Memorial Building in 1938, the murals have been there for Brattleboro audiences to enjoy for nearly 80 years,” says Potter. He discovered that many people in Brattleboro had seen them but never really thought...
I have just finished steaming a handful of fingerlings, those miniature banana-shaped potatoes that are so golden, tender, and creamy as to need only a smidgeon of olive oil to complete their journey to my table. Spuds. I love 'em, and I'm not alone. We are a nation of potato eaters: baked, boiled, mashed, souffléd, scalloped, transformed into salad, browned and crispy and nestled around our roasted meats, made into chips, pan fried, home fried, and most especially French fried.
Strolling of the Heifers presents An Evening with Guy Davis - a fundraising event for Strolling of the Heifers on Friday evening, Oct. 9 at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, 157 Main St. A widely-known American blues musician, Guy Davis last appeared in Brattleboro in a memorable concert alongside the legendary Pete Seeger in 2008 (also a Stroll fundraising event). Seating is limited to 200, and all seats are priced at $20. There will be no reserved seating. Tickets...
On Saturday, Oct. 10, the 12th annual Empty Bowls dinner will take place at Landmark College in Putney as a fundraiser for the Groundworks Collaborative food shelf. There are two seatings, at 5 and at 6:30 p.m. For a $25 donation, guests will be served a simple, nutritious meal of soup, bread, cheese, apples, beverage and dessert, accompanied by live music. Afterwards, participants are invited to keep the unique, handcrafted bowl they have chosen as a reminder that while they...
My favorite fall memory is taking my dog for a hike in the woods after work and noticing the sunlight piercing through the trees in sparkly flashes, the leaves crunching under my feet, the sound of his crazy happy frolicking and diving and snorting in the leaves looking for interesting scents... and that unmistakable smell of damp ground and fall leaves and mushrooms. This question is a good reminder that fall is beautiful! I always get freaked out at this...
Three artists will look to reconnect the community with the Connecticut River through a multimedia place-making project. From the River, to the River was selected as one of 13 projects considered by a six-member committee as part of the town's National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant application process. The three artists - Andrea Wasserman, Elizabeth Billings, and Evie Lovett - will have access to $56,000 for the project with $50,000 from the NEA and the remainder from additional...