• Kenneth Eugene Ameden, 71, of Londonderry. Died Dec. 12, 2016, at the VA Hospital in West Roxbury, Mass. He was born on Dec. 23, 1944, in Springfield, Vt., to the late Eugene and Emma (Kilburn) Ameden. He was raised on the Taylor Farm that his parents operated, attended elementary school in Londonderry, and went on to attend high school in Chester. After high school, he completed a course in heavy equipment mechanics in North Carolina, then went on to enlist in the Air Force, where he served four years, making the rank of staff sergeant. Eventually, he made it back to his hometown where he purchased a piece of property on Boynton Road, and built his forever home. He was an absolute role model in his community, with a heart of gold and an eagerness to help out anyone in need. He also had an incredible love of volunteering, from coaching in the Little League program, to serving 32 years on the fire department. He was a man of few words with a big heart, a great smile, and a twinkle in his eye. He was loved by all. He is survived by his wife, Linda (Stevens) Ameden, whom he was with for 43 years; two sons, Scot Ameden and his wife, Teresa, of Baltimore, Md., James A. Ameden and his wife, Pamela, of Londonderry; two daughters, Sheri Van (Ameden) DeHoek and her husband, Ari, of Holland and Stacy Ameden of Manchester; two brothers, James W. Ameden and his wife, Josie, of Landgrove and Norman Ameden and his wife, Lena, of St. Cloud, Fla; and a sister, Jane (Ameden) Crespo and her husband, Wayne, of Winchendon, Mass. He is also survived by six grandchildren, one great-grandchild, several nephews, and a niece. Memorial information: A...
New Year's closings BRATTLEBORO - All Brattleboro Town offices will be open for normal business hours on Friday, Dec. 30. Offices will be closed on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017, with the exception of emergency services. Brooks Memorial Library will be open for regular hours on Dec. 30. It will...
This is frankly not the column we anticipated writing, or ever needing to write. Like other nonprofits, the Women's Freedom Center is nonpartisan, so we focus year-round on the impact of all social trends on women's rights, survivor's lives, and the issues of domestic and sexual violence. That focus...
As a reader, librarian, and writer, I appreciate The Commons every week, but the Dec. 14 issue in particular I found to be extremely well done. In the Voices section, I was so struck by the first two sentences in this Viewpoint about the Vermont builder's group supporting the water protectors at Standing Rock in Cannon Ball, N.D. by Anna Mullen and Alana Fichman that I telephoned an English teacher friend to read them aloud. “We were two of many...
After a long wait, Mount Snow has gained access to $52 million in foreign investment funding and will move forward with two major improvement projects. Mount Snow's parent company, Missouri-based Peak Resorts Inc., announced Dec. 13 that a key approval issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will allow the company to “immediately” access EB-5 program money that has been held in escrow. The EB-5 money represents nearly 80 percent of a planned $66 million investment that will bring a...
The town will likely see the same number of law-enforcement coverage hours from the Windham County Sheriff's Department next year, but some wiggle room is possible, according to a plan Sheriff Keith Clark presented to the Selectboard. To help the Selectboard determine the town's law-enforcement needs for Fiscal Year 2018, Clark visited the regular Board meeting on Dec. 7. Town officials typically work on the following fiscal year's budgets at the end of the calendar year so they can present...
Beginning in the new year, the Windham County Sheriff's Department will increase its ability to conduct routine welfare checks on elderly residents living alone. Enrollees in the department's “RUOK” (Are You Okay?) program receive a personal phone call from the dispatcher every morning to check in on their welfare. But the number of participants began to place a burden on the dispatcher, so the department is currently field-testing an automated system that will allow more people to enroll. It should...
By mid-January, deputies with the Windham County Sheriff's Department will have body cameras installed on their uniforms. These audio and video devices record interactions between the deputies and civilians during official activity. “We think it's going to be very beneficial to my office and to the public,” Sheriff Keith Clark said at the Dec. 7 regular Selectboard meeting. “It brings us up to 21st century policing. It also becomes a training tool” for supervisors to review with deputies where their...
Singer Holly Brewer will bring her compelling musical style to Main Street Arts with a performance Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. The creator of Humanwine (winner of the 2006 Boston Music Award best new local act) and The Folks Below, Brewer and her various collaborative incarnations are gaining recognition around the globe. This past year, she traveled to 21 cities and six countries and is shortly heading out for a tour in Cuba. “I have only met Holly Brewer...
The 10th Annual Northern Roots Festival will bring together the largest array of traditional music since the festival's founding. Presented by the Brattleboro Music Center on Saturday, Jan. 28, and drawing on Brattleboro's rich local scene and colleagues from across New England, Northern Roots presents Irish, Scottish, Scandinavian and French Canadian music in intimate settings, offering the opportunity to experience a wide range of music through teaching workshops, performances, and jam sessions. The festival is based at the New England...
Peder Rude, the new town administrator, doesn't live in town. And this job is his first foray into municipal employment. However, Rude said that the many threads of his previous work experiences and his personal interests weave nicely into this position. “I've had an interest in public policy for quite a long time,” he said. “Local government is one way people can be the most active and make the biggest changes.” Even though the town administrator has no decision-making power,
The Commons will suspend publication for a week so our staff and contributors can recharge their batteries, enjoy the rest of the holiday season, and otherwise gird themselves to produce a good newspaper for you in 2017. The next issue will be dated Wednesday, Jan. 11. Deadline for news and advertising is Friday, Jan. 6. All of us at Vermont Independent Media and The Commons offer readers best holiday wishes in these waning days of 2016. See you next year.
I would like to respond to Andy Davis's and Connie Burton's respective criticism of my call for disruptive protests against Donald Trump. First, I did not and would never advocate violence against human beings. Property destruction, however - particularly the destruction of property acquired through tax evasion (by the president of the United States!) - does not seem unreasonable to me. I respect that many people want to engage in holding hands, marching, and singing. I'll also be doing these...
What do you do when your large abstract paintings don't fit in your new, small, French apartment and you want to make art? You get a small easel and some tubes of paint and you begin to explore on canvas your new environs. So was the case, according to a news release, for Peter Van der Does, who chose to set up in the streets of France to capture the scenes of his daily life. The public may view the...
Windham County may soon get its first National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter. Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest civil rights organization. They describe their mission as being “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.” There are more than 2,000 NAACP units across the country, and more than 500,000 members. A staff member at the national headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, said that...
Happy New Year to one and all! I do hope that in all ways 2017 is a great year for you and yours. We have a very active, stormy, and wintry pattern setting up for the next week, including some light upslope snows this (Wednesday) morning, a major snowstorm possible for Thursday and Thursday night, more upslope snows and windy conditions Friday and Friday night, light snow New Year's Eve, and a wintry mix early next week. Now I'm winded!
A very interesting vote was recently cast by the Brattleboro reps for the Windham Solid Waste Management District to close the Materials Recovery Facility. The collateral damage could be much wider than these folks with their ill-considered vote could have intended. I don't think I'm alone in reflecting how the same scenario could play out with the Act 46 consolidation proposal. I understand the impetus for consolidating school functions, and I believe that a lot of the reasons for consolidating...
From 2010 to 2016, the town of Brattleboro's heating fuel costs rose by 16 percent, not including inflation. With the methodology used to arrive at this figure, adjusting to FY2016 prices and FY2016 weather (in heating degree days), apples are compared to apples. Said another way, the town, adjusting for weather differences between years, purchased 16 percent more heating fuel in FY16 than in FY10. On Dec. 20, the Selectboard voted 3–2 not to include recommended energy-saving measures (ESMs) in...
As we have learned, the 2016 election was hacked by foreign sources, most probably Russia, according to U.S. intelligence sources and President Obama. The domestic reaction among the mass media, politicians, and the public have been justifiably explosive, as this represents a legitimate threat to our already compromised democratic processes. Yes, there is a real sense of violation here but perhaps some historical perspective would be helpful - a perspective that has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Since...
I work in a high school, and much of my day involves helping kids deal with the problems created by rumors that quickly get transformed into what are portrayed as “fact,” often becoming hurtful and certainly not constructive. We adults now have developed our own version of daily drama. The talking heads on cable and network news and in most of our newspapers look at polls and then speculate about what the data actually means. The polls become “fact” and...
Since the details of the plan to sell Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee to an expert decommissioning firm were made public earlier this month, there have been some misinformed media reports and public statements claiming that buyer NorthStar has no experience decommissioning nuclear power plants. This is simply untrue. Entergy has stated publicly since the closure of Vermont Yankee that it is in the business of generating electricity, not decommissioning. On the other hand, NorthStar's core business is decommissioning and deconstruction.
As an employee of a local, private school, I've been asking questions about the CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) that provides free food to schools in low-income areas meeting a swath of eligibility criteria published in a large book of guidelines (think The Lord of the Rings, but with many fewer Hobbits) since about spring of 2015. All Brattleboro town elementary schools became eligible with a program roll-out effective fall of 2016 - excluding Saint Michael School. Despite our school's relationship...
Five local bands comprised of musicians younger than 18 will perform a live concert downtown this New Year's Eve in an addition to the town's traditional Last Night activities. The show is open to all ages and will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Brattleboro Boys & Girls Club, 17 Flat St. Cover charge at the door will be $5 for students and $10 for adults. Negative Space will perform from 7 to 7:30 p.m.; Third Dimension,
Citing the impact of new enrollment regulations under Act 46, Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School officials have endorsed more than $200,000 in cuts for next fiscal year's budget. The fiscal 2018 spending plan, which will be subject to a five-town vote in February, includes the elimination of one full-time science teaching position. But Leland & Gray's school board declined to make even deeper staffing cuts after hearing protests from a crowd that packed into Dutton Gym on...
At a recent economic development announcement in Brattleboro, Gov. Peter Shumlin confidently declared that Windham County has an advantage because “we can do cash.” He was referring to a multimillion-dollar pot of money - the Windham County Economic Development Program - that was created via a shutdown settlement agreement with Vermont Yankee owner Entergy. As he prepares to leave office two years after the Vernon nuclear plant stopped producing power, Shumlin says he is confident that the regional and state...
Could rows of quietly whirring computers replace Vermont Yankee? Seeking long-term options for the former nuclear plant property, the Vernon Planning Commission is looking into the possibility that a technology company could build a data center - sometimes called a “server farm” - at the site. Commission members were buoyed at a Dec. 14 meeting by Matt Dunne, a former Google executive with experience in siting data centers. Dunne said he believes the Yankee property has many key assets for...
Three local LGBT activists paid a visit to the White House on Dec. 2 for a meeting about advancing the progress of LGBT people in rural America. Jonah Mossberg, Brattleboro-based farmer and filmmaker, said he received an invitation to the meeting via the email address associated with his film, “Out Here: A Queer Farmer Film Project.” It came from the White House Rural Council, which was formed through an executive order in June, 2011, by President Barack Obama to “address...
Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” as 2016's International Word of the Year. What does this mean for us, tucked away up here in southern Vermont? How are we to think about the diminishing relevance of, and even outright hostility toward, truth, accuracy, and reality? What do we have to offer a world that appears bent on neutralizing and even eliminating truth as a causal element in our society? While the term “war on” is applied to myriad subjects, from the real...
The annual Green Mountain Holiday Tournament in Chester usually serves an early-season shakedown cruise for the Twin Valley boys' and girls' basketball teams. The results were mixed for the Wildcats, which took on the hosts in the opening night of play on Dec. 20 in Nason Gymnasium. Twin Valley committed oodles of turnovers and allowed the Chieftains to roll to a 55-26 win in the girls' game, while the Twin Valley boys controlled the flow of play and had a...
Last Night Brattleboro presents the 15th annual concert of New England, Appalachian, Irish, and French-Canadian dance music, fiddling from around the world, a feast of singing including singing for all, and a smattering of poems, featuring Brattleboro's Murphy/Tracy family, Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, and special guests Emily Miller and Jesse Milnes. The concert is Saturday, Dec. 31, at the First Baptist Church, 190 Main St., starting at 7 p.m. Keith Murphy (guitar, mandolin, piano, foot percussion) and Becky Tracy...
Given that Susan Dedell is the director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir and Orchestra, it isn't too surprising that when she speaks about her “enduring and evolving first love,” she is referring not to some remarkable person from her past, but rather to a piece of choral music: Johannes Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem. “Brahms' German Requiem is music that is both triumphant and full of joy, even frisky at times, all unusual things for a requiem,” Dedell says. “There is...