The town of Brookline recently received its first Better Backroads Grant through the Vermont Agency of Transportation for a slope stabilization project on Parker Road.
According to town officials, this stream bank was eroded during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The stabilization project was completed in September by Renaud Brothers of Vernon.
The Better Backroads Program (now known as the Vermont Better Program) provides funding to support projects on town roads that improve water quality and result in maintenance cost savings, according to a news release.
Program support is jointly provided by the Agency of Transportation and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. The program's goal is to promote the use of erosion control and maintenance techniques that save money while protecting and enhancing Vermont's lakes and streams.
Kids of all ages will get a chance to ride a Christmas Train - the Green Mountain Railroad's historic Green Mountain Flyer - with Santa and the Grinch, caroling elves, and special surprises in Bellows Falls on Nov. 20. The historic engines and coaches, with favorite Christmas characters providing...
Help needed for annual Community Thanksgiving DinnerBRATTLEBORO - The 44th annual Brattleboro Community Thanksgiving Dinner will be served on Thursday, Nov. 24, from noon to 5 p.m., at St. Michael's School, 48 Walnut St. This is a new location for the dinner, which has been at the River Garden...
Robert Fritz is convinced that it doesn't matter what you think about yourself. We may live in a world where everyone identifies themselves as something, whether it be a Democrat or Republican, Christian or Muslim, American or Asian, a fat or a thin person, or even a winner or a loser. In perhaps too many ways, an adherence to some kind of identity has become very pivotal. Identities are only abstract ideals, and trying to live up to abstractions can...
Two Act 46 study committees are putting in long hours, trying to craft a complex, “side-by-side” school district merger proposal involving eight towns in the sprawling Windham Central Supervisory Union. Lately, committee members also have been putting in extra effort to get the word out via videos, new websites, emails, and brochures that were available Nov. 8 when voters went to the polls for the general election. Though there won't be a vote on the school merger proposals until March,
The Grafton Historical Society will honor noted local artist and author Florence Karpin on Sunday, Nov. 20, with the dedication of the Florence Baker Karpin Memorial Library at its museum in Grafton. The dedication will take place at 4 p.m. at the museum on Main Street, according to a news release. Refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend. Karpin was a longtime resident of Grafton, where she moved with her husband and children in 1958. During...
On a sunny, brisk, late-October morning, Vermont State Employee Credit Union CEO Rob Miller and VGreen Program Director Laurie Fielder flipped the switch on a new, 500-kW solar array on a high, grassy hill in Guilford center. Cheering them on were interested spectators, other representatives from the credit union, property owner Will Wohnus, and Soveren Solar President Peter Thurrell and his workers. All three entities benefit from the arrangement - Soveren, the Dummerston-based solar company, which installed the array; Wohnus,
On Nov. 19, the Moose Lodge of Bellows Falls will hold the first of three practice rounds for the International Moose Convention karaoke contest. Subsequent rounds will be held on Dec. 17 and Jan. 14 in preparation for a Feb. 11 elimination round. For three years, the International Moose Convention has hosted a karaoke contest featuring the top 12 finalists nationwide who have competed at local lodges across the country. In order to have the opportunity to be one of...
How did Donald Trump get elected president? Like many in the reality-based community, I severely underestimated how much hate, ignorance, and violence there is in these United States. Maybe it's because I have been in Vermont for the last 27 years of my life, a place where we still have a democracy and civility, and we still live life on a human-sized scale. But mostly, I truly believed that there were more people of goodwill in this nation than people...
The Nov. 8 Stiles Brook Wind vote - pitting the small towns of Windham and Grafton against a multinational turbine developer - attracted attention throughout Vermont and beyond. But if another developer sets its sights on Stiles Brook Forest, that vote won't matter much. The two towns' rejection of Iberdrola Renewables' 24-turbine project was specific to that proposal - so much so that the company's name was included in the ballot question. While Iberdrola immediately pledged to stop work at...
“We don't know what trans rights will be taken away under the new Republican-dominated government. Now is a critical time for trans people to legally change names and gender markers on their documents, if you can,” says the invitation to the Nov. 23 event, “Brattleboro Trans Document Change Skillshare & Support Gathering,” organized by Green Mountain Crossroads at The Root Social Justice Center at 28 Williams St. in Brattleboro. According to its website, Green Mountain is a Brattleboro-based organization with...
There should be a 12-step program for oil addiction. One in which our nation could humbly admit our powerlessness in dealing with our addiction to this substance and turn our country over to god. There isn't, and we didn't. We gave it to Trump. It often seems to take a sobering event to create change. What's it going to take to get us sober? In our case, the sobering event is ubiquitous, but the greatest of human flaws - trying...
In some respects, Entergy is breaking new ground in its proposal to sell Vermont Yankee to a company that will fast-track decommissioning. But officials also are looking 780 miles west to Illinois, and the town of Zion, for clues as to how things might go in Vernon. On the shore of Lake Michigan, a contractor has been working for six years to clean up the former Zion nuclear plant. There are key differences between what's happening at Zion and what's...
Vermont Theatre Company's first play of the 2016-17 season, “They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay!” wraps up its run this weekend. According to a news release, this Italian farce about the common people's backlash against high prices and an unfair government is a poignant, heartwarming story of how a downtrodden people satisfies its need for food while keeping its dignity intact. The story is told through the slapstick high jinks of Antonia, an unemployed housewife, who conspires with her best...
Fellow Vermonters: Donald Trump won the election. It's time to act; the time is now; and the place is the Green Mountains! We have redispatched to our nation's capital Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Peter Welch, a formidable trio to battle whatever Trump proposes to do against our collective best interests. Our most pressing work, however, resides here in Vermont in our 14 counties and 251 towns. We ask that you move beyond the national anger, hurt,
We are now reaping the whirlwind of a political economy that has produced the widest class divide in this country in nearly 100 years. We have one major party that represents an unprecedented form of extremism and the other major party that has abdicated its historic mission as a voice for the voiceless. Increasingly since the 1970s, the parties have attended to the interests of the economic and political elites at the expense the most of the rest of the...
The Democratic Party has made its bed. Now we all have to lie in it. It's been clear for a long time that this would be no ordinary election year. Despite being ignored by the press, Bernie Sanders' campaign sparked, then caught fire as he traveled the country. This wasn't about Bernie's charisma or personality, it was about his issues and ideas: wealth inequality, corporate influence and control in government and beyond, free college education, the danger of climate change,
To my friends, my family, my community, and people I do not know who fear for their safety and for the stability of their family, I want to say a few words: You are not alone. You do not live in a country where the majority of people feel you do not belong. You are not marginal. I am here, and will always support you, and I will stand up for you, your family, and your rights. And I am...
I do hope you're having a good moment when your eyes meet this column today! We'll be encountering some changeable (and colder) weather as we head toward Thanksgiving. High pressure and a brief warming trend will dominate the Wednesday-through-Saturday period. Thereafter, we will witness a step down in temperatures and an increase in wet (and potentially white) weather Sunday into Monday, at least. With that summary in mind, let's jump into the daily details. For Wednesday, we will be transitioning...
The organizers of the annual Guilford Holiday Studio Sale, happening Nov. 18 and 19, added a new artist to their roster this year: Dennis Waring and his handmade musical instruments. Waring joins seven other artists and craftspeople at the sale the weekend before Thanksgiving in the Green River studio of weaver Carol Schnabel. “It will be fun to see, feel, and hear [Waring's musical instruments] in person,” event organizer and artist Nancy Detra said. Detra explained how the event got...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center will showcase creators of all ages who have designed and built original Lego sculptures at the Museum's ninth annual Lego Contest & Exhibit, which takes place Nov. 18-20. Prizes include gift certificates to Toy City in Keene, N.H. “This has become such a fun community event,” Museum director Danny Lichtenfeld said in a news release. “Every year, we receive entries from multiple states and contestants ranging in age from toddlers to senior citizens." Every...
Obituaries • Christopher Clark Bumstead, 59, of Brattleboro. Died Oct. 30 in Brattleboro, four days before he was scheduled for surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. He had been ill for several months. Born in Hartford, Conn., on July 18, 1957, he attended public schools in Connecticut and New York City before his family moved to Brattleboro in 1970. He graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 1975 and went on to the University of Vermont for a...
Melrose Terrace residents Heather Lane and JoAnn Williams walk through a light blanket of new snow. The friends point to their favorite places in the 52-year-old housing complex. In the summer, this is the spot in the Whetstone Brook where they soaked their feet in the water. And this walkway, the friends say, is best for a pretty walk around the property. The women open their apartments. The floor plan of each Melrose apartment is unique, they say. Williams' petite...
River Gallery School has been selected to design and create the 2016 ornaments for Vermont in the 2016 “America Celebrates: Ornaments from Across the USA” display. The event is presented by the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service. Each state and territory has been invited to produce 12 ornaments to be hung on its state's tree as part of the America Celebrates Display on the Ellipse in President's Park national park in Washington, D.C. The official lighting of...
The Brattleboro Women's Chorus will present their fall concert, “Well May the World Go” on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 20, at 4 p.m. Director Becky Graber leads nearly 100 women in soulful a cappella songs, and accompanied by guest musician Susan Dedell on piano. The concert features pieces by local composers Will Danforth and Mary Alice Amidon, and two by Portland, Oregon, composer, arranger, and conductor Joan Szymko. The Saturday concert is at All Souls...
There comes a moment in nearly every athletic contest when the outcome hinges on one final play. In one dramatic moment in the waning moments of a cold and windy Saturday afternoon at Rutland High School, Bellows Falls defensive back Brendan Kendall clinched the state Division II football championship for the Terriers. While the Terriers had a 20-14 lead over defending champion Burr & Burton with 2:20 to play, the Bulldogs had the ball for one last possession to retain...
The wish list for passenger-rail users in Brattleboro is a simple one: Bring back service north to Montreal and offer more trains at different hours of the day to New York City and Boston. The Vermont Transportation Board has been gathering testimony around the state at a series of public forums as it helps the Agency of Transportation draft a new statewide railroad plan. The board was in Brattleboro on Nov. 9, at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, to...
On a recent afternoon, the Green Street School spelling team gathered around a classroom table to practice for the upcoming Vermont Principals Association School Team Spelling Competition - or, the Spelling Bee - for fifth- and sixth-graders. “Okay, David, 'macaroni,'” said spelling coach Alice Charkes. David Berkson-Harvey paused for a moment, let out a “hmm,” then spelled the word. Charkes smiled. He smiled. Correct! For Berkson-Harvey and his teammates - Thomas Hyde, Sylvie Lann, and Eben Wagner - the spelling...
This month, musician Kevin Parry celebrates 25 years hosting a weekly open mic event in Brattleboro. But, in claiming only a quarter century, Parry is being modest. “In the mid-80s I was involved with an open mic in Keene,” and when Parry moved to Brattleboro he decided, “let's do that here!" “In 1991 I sat down with John and Gillie, owners of The Mole's Eye, and Norman the bartender, and asked them if they could host,” Parry said. They agreed,
All Donald J. Trump has ever wanted to be is loved, admired, and respected. He is driven by an emptiness of soul so deep as to be almost unfathomable. A bully from his earliest years, Trump's natural cruelty is twisted with a voracious need to be accepted and adored. He depends on the adulation of others, however spurious or contrived, to feel good about himself. Anyone who deflates his grandiosity earns lasting enmity - his anger is as deep as...