At this year's Town Meeting, voters will vote on typical agenda items such as the capital plan and the highway budget.
But on March 7, townspeople will also decide whether to support a nonbinding resolution on the rights of refugees and immigrants.
Residents Maggie Cassidy, Eva Mondon, and Nancy Olson composed the statement, and Cassidy and Mondon appeared at the Feb. 8 regular Selectboard meeting to announce the resolution and get Board members' feedback.
The resolution mentions the “violence, political strife, [and] natural disaster” that forces millions of people worldwide to “become formal refugees,” and notes immigration as “the cornerstone” of the town's and nation's “development throughout history.”...
The Brattleboro Music Center's Chamber Music Series continues Friday, Feb. 24, with a performance by Musicians from Marlboro. The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main St, Brattleboro. Selections by Haydn, Adès, Fauré, and Brahms will be performed by Gabriele Carcano on piano, Michelle...
The election is fast drawing to a close. I am asking for your support to return me to a job I love - the Vermont Senate - as a representative of Windham County. Over the past years, I have either sponsored or worked hard to pass legislation that allows...
It is Martin Luther King day, a day when we honor a man and a movement for civil rights unique in our nation's history, and so it is appropriate that I am spending today contemplating the civil rights we so desperately need. The event, Crossing Political Divides, is an attempt by many of us in the area to find a way over the gulfs that seem wider every day. Some 45 of us have gathered in a classroom at the...
For years, the towns in the Deerfield Valley area have attempted to create a sustainable, year-round economy in the shadow of a major employer focused on a winter economy and on-mountain activities. Countless attempts at economic development over time led to the repetitive pattern of creating study committees that followed a similar process and arrived at the same outcome: Some facilitator gathers us in a big room to list the valley's challenges and opportunities, and, after crunching some numbers, proposes...
College news • Jacob Castine of Vernon graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in architecture from Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. • Elkanah Linder of Townshend, a Doctor of Pharmacy student, has been named to the fall 2016 Dean's List at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. • Jacqueline Elliott of Brattleboro earned the distinction of Faculty Honors for the fall 2016 semester at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. • Connor Tripp of Vernon, a design...
Kindergarten sign-ups set in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - Kindergarten registration for the Brattleboro Town Elementary Schools will be held on Thursday, March 2. Registration for all Brattleboro students entering kindergarten will be held at the VFW on Black Mountain Road. Children do not need to attend the registration. School assignments will be made by principals later in the spring. Any Brattleboro resident with a child who will be five years old on or before Sept. 1, 2017, should call Sue Dyer...
United Way of Windham County is appealing to the community to help raise the final 20 percent of its Community Fund campaign goal. “We are turning to the community to ask for the last 20 percent of the campaign,” said Taylor Knoop, development and community-relations director, in a news release. “What's so amazing about our local United Way is that it relies on the generosity and caring power of our community to make a difference, to change lives, of local...
New conservation commissioner appointedNEWFANE - The Selectboard unanimously voted to appoint George Friend to the Conservation Commission at the Jan. 30 regular Board meeting. Board member Gary Delius said he worked with Friend on the Planning Commission, and “he did a great job.”
Stone Church Arts presents two world-class musicians, pianist Virginia Eskin and mandolinist August Watters, on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Immanuel Episcopal Church, the stone church on the hill at 20 Church St. Watters is a multi-stylistic, improvising mandolinist, composer/arranger, and teacher in Boston. His work as an interpreter, improviser, composer, and arranger bridges contemporary classical music, jazz, folk-music traditions, and the historical concert-mandolin repertoire. He is the founder of the New England Mandolin Ensemble, Boston Mandolins, the Festival of Mandolin...
The new president, after a long campaign of wild rhetoric and belligerent outbursts, has started directing executive action against vulnerable groups that a normal person would treat with respect and kindness and generosity, such as women and children fleeing for their lives from war zones. This policy has put citizens on full alert for the next outrage - or for some imagined terror attack, which Donald Trump recklessly claims his sweeping edicts will forestall. Abusers must keep their victims off...
During Red Cross Month in March, the American Red Cross encourages eligible donors to join in its lifesaving mission by giving blood. Since 1943, every U.S. president has designated March as Red Cross Month to recognize how the Red Cross helps people across the country and around the world. Red Cross Month is a celebration of supporters, who are the face of the Red Cross in their communities and bring hope to people facing emergencies. The Red Cross depends on...
I recently attended the Act 46 school consolidation informational meeting in Westminster for the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Schools. I have had my doubts about Act 46 and consolidating schools since the legislature passed the bill in haste over a year ago. The informational meeting did not in any way alleviate my concerns. School consolidation would combine the governance of the elementary and secondary schools of Westminster with the towns of Rockingham, Grafton, and Athens. The local town school boards...
On Feb. 13, the Brattleboro Selectboard announced a vacancy for the volunteer Town Energy Coordinator position. The position is defined in the Town Charter as follows: “Town Energy Coordinator: One 1-year term. The energy coordinator, created by the Vermont Legislature, reviews energy-related material received by the town and advises the town on energy conservation measures. S/he reviews as needed.” The Energy Coordinator is appointed by the Selectboard and is supervised by the Energy Committee. In working with the Energy Committee,
The UMass Percussion Ensemble will perform at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. Admission is $5 at the door, free for BMAC members and youth 18 and under. The concert includes eight works for various combinations of percussion instruments, including “Music for Pieces of Wood” by Steve Reich; “Angels” for nine triangles, by Vermont-based composer Stuart Saunders Smith; “The Lonelyness of Santa Claus” for two marimbas, by Swedish composer Fredrik Andersson; and compositions...
Modifications sought for Holland Hill tower PUTNEY - Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard notified the Selectboard she received a letter from law firm Downs Rachlin Martin notifying town officials of a petition for de minimus modifications and a request for a Certificate of Public Good for an SBA wireless communications tower on Holland Hill. The request asks the state Public Service Board to approve adding a 7.5-kW backup generator and a propane storage tank to the tower's property. At the Feb.
The Vermont Theatre Company will be holding auditions for the hit musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin, on Monday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m., in the Brattleboro Union High School auditorium, 131 Fairground Rd. (enter from the front doors to the auditorium). Spelling Bee tells the story of an eclectic group of six youngsters (overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves) who vie...
Building on last year's exploration of acclaimed works of the Romantic canon through early recordings and modern day interpretation, pianist Marisa Gupta, violinist Maria Wloszczowska, violist Rosalind Ventris, and cellist Jonathan Dormand returned to Yellow Barn in February for a residency that widens the scope of their study to works by Brahms, Dvorak, and Chausson. The quartet's full concert program and discussion on Monday, March 6, at 8 p.m., at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, is the culmination of their...
Vernon Free Library Director Kris Berberian is worried about what will happen at Town Meeting this year. If the Selectboard gets its way and townspeople vote “yes” on Article 5, to appropriate $70,000 to the library for its total Fiscal Year 2018 budget, either she or her assistant, Jean Carr, “will lose our job,” Berberian said. When planning began for the FY18 budget, the Selectboard demanded all municipal department heads cut 6 percent from their budgets. But the Selectboard decided...
The so-called “Brigham decision,” which was the opening salvo in the Legislature's attempt to create the equality of school funding mandated by the Vermont Supreme Court, was also the beginning of the end of local control over public schools. Act 46, with its disingenuous mandate to effect educational “equity, accountability, and transparency” in the form of super-sized school districts, is the death knell of local control. The fundamental flaw which has underpinned all of Vermont tax policy since the arrival...
Absentee ballots are currently available at the Town Clerk's Office and may be requested until 5 p.m. on Monday, March 6. The polling place for all three districts in Brattleboro is the Selectboard Meeting Room, second floor of the Municipal Center, 230 Main St., Room 212, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., on Tuesday, March 7. The entire back parking lot at the Municipal Center will be reserved for voters on election day. There are handicapped parking spaces close to...
One of the core values that we embrace in Brattleboro and, indeed, as Vermonters, is a high regard for the environment and a healthy ecosystem. And that is why it is remarkable that this town still allows stores to distribute single-use plastic bags, the kind that have been polluting our seas, killing fish and animals, and even entering the food chain. However, on Tuesday, March 7, voters can express their desire to join a growing movement of towns and cities...
Thank you for printing Richard Morton's forthright description of his political and social beliefs and his journey through the recent electoral extravaganza. It might be the longest such piece The Commons has ever accepted, but it succeeds marvelously in painting a picture of what must be no insignificant swath of Republican voters. It's a pleasure to encounter a Republican who needs and is capable of using more than 140 characters to express a full and complex train of thought. Mr.
On a chilly Valentine's Day night, 101 voters gathered to discuss the Brattleboro Union High School District #6 budget. The $25,359,197 fiscal year 2018 budget passed on a voice vote with less than 1 percent of registered voters in attendance. The budget represents spending of $17,349 per equalized student. This amount is a zero percent increase per equalized pupil compared with the previous year. Overall, the equalized homestead school property tax rate decreased slightly, by $0.067, for fiscal year 2018...
The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel met 19 times before Nov. 8, 2016. But everything changed that day, when Entergy announced a tentative deal to sell Vermont Yankee to NorthStar Group Services, a New York-based decommissioning company. Given NorthStar's plan to greatly accelerate decommissioning of the Vernon plant, some are wondering whether a panel that's supposed to advise state government and “serve as a conduit for public information” can do its job without additional resources - most likely from...
Vermont farmers are worried about what President Donald J. Trump's immigration policies may mean for the hundreds of Latino laborers who work on their farms. At a meeting on Feb. 17 at the Vermont Agricultural Business Economic Center, state Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets has been talking with the state and U.S. Labor Departments to figure out a strategy. According to the Vermont Migration Education program at the University of Vermont, about 1,000...
The inner life of one of the world's most beloved artists will be explored when Latchis Arts continues its presentations of Exhibition on Screen with I, Claude Monet on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 25 and 26, at 4 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St. Exhibition on Screen presents compelling documentaries about the world's best-loved art. Typically focused on major exhibitions throughout the world, Exhibition on Screen takes a different tack with I, Claude Monet, disposing of traditional narration...
This story starts with a conversation I was having with my husband about what might be referenced as “Black names.” I showed him “To All the Little Black Girls with Big Names,” a piece by spoken-word poet Sha'Condria “iCon” Sibley which encouraged me to think differently about what might be referenced as “Black names.” Most of us have either commented about Black names consciously or subconsciously without giving much thought about the roots of our bias or reactions. As we...
Director, stuntman, acrobat, lifeguard, reiki master, minister, and award-winning filmmaker Bill Forchion is now also an author. Published by Dreamcatcher Entertainment last October, his Billosophy: Meditations on God, Movement and Miracles is a collection of stories about what he calls “a life lived fully and the impact those moments have made.” “Billosophy started off as a fairly traditional autobiography,” Forchion says. He wanted to tell the story of his life but, as he reread his earlier memoir writings, he found...
I feel indebted to the voters of Dummerston who voted in December against the departure of Vernon from the current WSESU public school structure. Because of that vote there will be an opportunity for serious discussion of Act 46 at Town Meetings in five area towns and at Representative Town Meeting in Brattleboro. Had voters in Dummerston approved the separation of Vernon, we would likely be facing the Act 46 merger as a ballot question on March 7. We now...
Westminster voters received a postcard at the end of last week which addresses the upcoming vote on school district consolidation and urges voters to vote no. The postcard is signed by the group “Local Communities for Local Schools.” Together with more than two dozen people from Brattleboro, Vernon, Dummerston, Guilford, Marlboro, Westminster, Putney, and Wardsboro, I am a member of this group. Our group was formed over six months ago by citizens concerned about the potential side effects of consolidation:
Hopefully you're having a nice, relaxing moment as you sit down to read this column today. In fact, chances are it will be quite mild when you do, which for most is a spirit lifter, indeed. Winter has faded into the background for now, as Arctic air is locked up in northern Canada and the Arctic Circle, while a west-to-east mild Pacific flow dominates the eastern United States at least into the early part of next week. Beyond that as...
Windham Southeast Supervisory Union's already arduous Act 46 deliberations may be getting even more difficult. Dummerston voters on Feb. 21 again rejected Vernon's proposed withdrawal from a regional educational union, thus closing a door that had been opened in an attempt to find a solution to Windham Southeast's school merger stalemate. Voters cast 169 ballots against Vernon's withdrawal from Brattleboro Union High School District No. 6, compared with 150 in favor. Vernon School Board Chairman Mike Hebert, who's also a...
A three-alarm fire that sent flames shooting more than 50 feet into the sky destroyed a warehouse on Brisk Lane on Tuesday morning and shut down part of Putney Road for several hours. According to Brattleboro Fire Chief Michael Bucossi, the first call came in at 7:54 a.m. from a worker at the site who noticed the fire. The warehouse, owned by Polarex-VT, and noted on the Brattleboro Grand List as “c/o Vermont Plank Flooring,” measured 125 feet by 50...
Some students complain about too much homework. Brattleboro Union High School junior Lucia Morey, in contrast, arrived before the start of classes on Feb. 17 to take on another assignment: leading a protest against new U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “As passionate and united members of the school community,” Morey told a crowd of more than 100 students and staffers, “we are coming together and saying that we will not accept the decisions being made by our secretary of education,
The stack of books that Matt Maranian has worked on keeps getting taller. The editor, columnist, designer, and author of Pad, Pad Parties, and co-author of both editions of the best-selling L.A. Bizarro, added two more tomes to his CV in the last few years - and another is on the way in May. One wonders when Maranian sleeps. Maranian, co-owner of Boomerang, the vintage and consignment clothing store he runs with his wife, Loretta Palazzo, is at the shop...
Brattleboro Police Chief Michael Fitzgerald acknowledged neither he nor his officers spend much time on the World Learning/School for International Training campus. But, on a recent evening, he told a group of students and staff he planned to visit again soon. Fitzgerald was there at the request of Chief Diversity Officer Michelle Cromwell, who asked him to talk about law-enforcement in the community, and to provide an opportunity for students and staff to ask questions about what his officers do...
On Feb. 7, West River Valley Thrives was one of 171 community coalitions honored during a graduation ceremony at the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America's National Leadership Forum, just outside of Washington, D.C. The coalitions received a graduation certificate for completing CADCA's National Coalition Academy, a rigorous training program designed to increase the effectiveness of community drug-prevention leaders. “We are so proud of our coalition for investing the time and resources to take advantage of the best community coalition training...
The Brattleboro Women's Chorus offers any woman or girl age 10 or older the opportunity to create music in a community of other singers. The spring session will begin on Wednesday, March 1, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at All Souls Church, or Thursday, March 2, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Centre Congregational Church. The first rehearsals are open to anyone who would like to experience chorus with no obligation. In addition, the Chorus notes in a news release,
When you sit down in front of your television next February to watch the ski jumping competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, remember this name - Blaz Pavlic. The 18-year-old Slovenian had one heck of a coming out party over the weekend at the 95th Harris Hill Ski Jump competition in Brattleboro, sweeping both the Pepsi Challenge on Saturday and the Fred Harris Memorial Tournament on Sunday, and setting a new Harris Hill distance record in...
Next month, Interstate 91 drivers will get a firsthand look at a long-awaited, $60 million bridge. According to a schedule submitted to state legislators, two northbound lanes on the new I-91 bridge in Brattleboro are expected to open March 13. One southbound lane will be available in late April, the state Agency of Transportation's schedule says. And all four lanes finally will be open in mid-June. Given that the project and its accompanying traffic bottleneck has lasted much longer than...
I didn't come to Vermont as hippie, a back-to-the-lander, or as political progressive. I came to Vermont as a young man in 1983, as a born-again evangelical, with a year of Bible college under my belt, trying to find myself creatively and intellectually through higher education at Marlboro College. Not a typical path, I know, but that path also included stop-overs and visits to many evangelical churches in the Brattleboro community, including the Community Bible Chapel, the Church of Christ,
Shoot the Moon Theater Company has opened its 2017 season at the Hooker-Dunham Theater with a two-weekend run of The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise. The show premiered Feb. 17-18 and continues at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24 and 25. The dramatic comedy by Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada made its New York City debut in 2014 with an English translation by Aya Ogawa. Time-Out New York awarded it four stars and The New York Times praised...