The recent defeat of the cruel and hastily crafted health care bill was not solely due to the incompetence and venal nature of the party in power.
I have listened to the corporate media, and it would be easy to miss the tens of thousands of people - probably millions - who called their representatives or attended town meetings to speak out.
The numbers were startling. Republican Tom Cole of Oklahoma cited calls running 1,000-to-1 opposed to this bill!
If we had been organized when the original flawed Obamacare bill passed, maybe we would have at least a public option right now!...
On behalf of members of the Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary Club, we thank the community for its support of our 21st annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament. On March 18, teams from Vermont and New Hampshire assembled at Brattleboro Union High School and Brattleboro Area Middle School to help raise funds for...
The entire student body of Hilltop Montessori's Middle School went on a week-long “Alabama Odyssey” from March 29 through April 5. The journey takes 25 students and their teachers through some of the most important locations of the 1960s-era civil rights movement. Every other year, Hilltop students meet with...
Discussions about Act 46 finally found their match at this year's town meetings. After attending the one in my hometown of Dummerston, I watched both Putney's and Guilford's on BCTV and saw how the law has created some confusing exchanges over the responsibilities of the Act 46 Study Committee and those of the school boards. While the conversations may still be lingering with some people, it might be helpful to try and shed some light on what I believe has...
After Town Meeting Day elections, several area Selectboards met to reorganize their boards and set meeting times for the coming year: Brattleboro • The Selectboard held a special meeting on March 27 to welcome new members and choose officers. Town Clerk Hilary Francis administered the oath of office to incoming Selectboard members Brandie Starr and Tim Wessel, and to returning Board member David Schoales. Board member John Allen nominated Kate O'Connor as chair. Voting was unanimously in favor. Wessel nominated...
Guilford Center Stage opens its third season at Broad Brook Grange not with a play but with a square dance on Saturday, April 8, at 7 p.m. The event is a benefit for the Grange's resident theater company and features Bob Livingston, caller, with the Falltown String Band. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids 12 and under, and the maximum for a family is $25. The dance and all performances are up a flight of stairs. Square dances...
Brattleboro's unified basketball program started up last year as part of a pilot program with the Vermont Principals' Association, in partnership with Special Olympics Vermont, that created Vermont's first interscholastic Unified Sports basketball league. There were only a few schools participating last year but this year, there are six other Southern Vermont schools with teams joining in with Brattleboro and local newcomer Leland & Gray - Springfield, Hartford, Mill River, Rutland, Otter Valley, and Middlebury. Northern Vermont schools include Burlington,
Many Republican voters who voted for Donald Trump will suffer under the Paul Ryan budget. What is the moral center of such a large group of voters, citizens who affiliate themselves with the Republican party? Can we characterize the Republican/Trump base as people irredeemable in a moral sense, by belonging to a political party that endorses the concentration of wealth and the pain, suffering, and death that results? The 40-year media/propaganda mind-control experiment has been successful in conditioning millions of...
The Crowell Gallery at the Moore Free Library presents “The Month of the Child,” featuring art from Timson Hill Preschool in Williamsville and NewBrook Elementary School. The exhibit of mixed media, sculpture, watercolor, and fingerprint design will be on display from April 5 to 28, according to a news release. An opening reception will be held April 7, from 4 to 5 p.m., at the gallery at 23 West St. This will be the fourth year the gallery has displayed...
The New England Center for Circus Arts' top young students will perform in “CircusNEXT: Once Upon a Time,” on Sunday, April 9, at noon and 4 p.m., at the former Austine School Gym on Austine Drive. When an evil spell brings sadness to their child, the King and Queen will go to any lengths to find someone who can help - and offer great rewards to the winner. The Intermediate and Advanced Troupes will flip, fly, juggle, and tumble as...
April is Month of the Young Child BRATTLEBORO - April is designated as Month of the Young Child, a celebration of our youngest learners and future leaders. The local celebration consists of a month-long series of free events throughout Windham County offering opportunities for children and their families to play, learn, and come together as a community. It's also a chance to discover and sample spaces and programs designed to support the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of young children.
Back by popular demand, “Ukulele-in-a-Day, a 1-Day Quick-Start Workshop,” for anyone wanting to get started on the ukulele, comes to Next Stage Arts on Kimball Hill on Sunday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Taught by Certified Gateless Master Teacher Lisa McCormick, students will learn to tune, strum, use proper positioning, play easy chords that work magic together, and make smooth chord transitions - all the skills they'll need to be able to play lots of fun and...
Obituaries • Barbara A. (Thompson) Jenness, 81, of Mendon, Mass. Died March 30 at her home. Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, daughter of the late Meredith and Alvina (Knowlton) Thompson, she lived in New Jersey most of her life before living in Brattleboro. She moved to Mendon in 2012. She was educated in the Newark, N.J. schools. She was a wonderful homemaker, and enjoyed sewing, quilting, and gardening. She enjoyed her time with the Vermont Theater Company. In her younger years,
The Rock River Players will hold public auditions for The Fantasticks!, the world's longest running musical, on Thursday, April 6, from 5 to 7 p.m.; Friday, April 7, from 5:30 to 7:30 p,m.; and Saturday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Williamsville Hall on Dover Road. Rock River Players' Annie Landenberger directs, and the regionally-known Ken Olsson is music director. The show by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones will play at the Williamsville Hall on July 20-23. Rehearsals...
On Wednesday, April 5, local congregations and civic organizations will come together to support “Let Justice Roll Down,” a concert and sing-along at Guilford Community Church at 38 Church Rd. in a benefit for Black Lives Matter VT and the Root Social Justice Center. The concert will feature Lea Gilmore, a blues-gospel singer and civic activist who has lent her voice, literally and figuratively, to advocacy for the underserved of the world for many years. Essence named her one of...
What do you do when someone gives you a Steinway piano? You enlist some of the area's finest musicians to play it. That is just what Main Street Arts will do in a three-part concert series beginning Sunday, April 9, at 3 p.m., when Hugh Keelan and Ken Olsson will share the piano bench in four-hand harmony. They will be followed Sunday, April 23, according to a news release, when Keelan will be joined by Gudrun Weeks on violin, Peggy...
Marlboro College's undergraduate and graduate campuses are only about a dozen miles apart. But when college President Kevin Quigley was interviewing for that job in early 2015, he noticed a much greater divide. “It was quite striking to me to think of two programs, part of the same institution, but there seemed to be this enormous cultural gap,” Quigley recalled. Marlboro administrators hope that's about to change, as the two campuses are scheduled to officially unite this weekend. They say...
Our corner of the state could be at the start of the biggest industrial project in Vermont's history: the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee. Someday, right across the street from the Vernon Elementary School, cranes and bulldozers will be taking down radiated buildings and digging up acres of toxic dirt at the nuclear power station. The complex was built in the late 1960s and early '70s, before the laws regulating toxic and hazardous materials were enacted. No one knows for sure...
State officials are allowing two Native American tribes to get involved in the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee. The Vermont Public Service board has ruled that both the Elnu Abenaki and Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi can act as “intervenors” in the state's review of the plant's purchase by NorthStar Group Services, a New York decommissioning company. Both NorthStar and current owner Entergy had objected to the Missisquoi Abenaki's intervention. But the Public Service Board sided with the tribe, saying its...
I was among the Windham County business people who attended the recent informational briefing by NorthStar CEO Scott State. Mr. State described a well-thought-out proposal to decommission and prepare the VY site for a new employer as soon as 2026. NorthStar has handled much larger projects than VY. The company is a national leader in this specialized field of power-plant decommissioning. Its safety record is excellent. Vernon and Windham County will benefit from NorthStar's presence in our community as their...
An open house to celebrate Write Action's new downtown home will be held during the April 7 Gallery Walk at Artrageus1 Collective, a gallery at 57 Elliot St. The gallery is accessed via both Elliot Street and from the Harmony Lot. Visitors can learn about Write Action, meet some of the writers who are part of the organization, and buy a book, Write Action T-shirt, book bag, or mug, according to a news release. They can also enjoy the many...
In Springfield on March 18, area 4-H'ers sang, danced, and shared their project work with friends, family and the public. The annual Southeast Vermont 4-H Regional Day, featuring 4-H club members from Windham and Windsor counties, took place at Springfield High School. Organized by University of Vermont Extension 4-H in these two counties, the event attracted 48 participants and 91 exhibits including stage presentations, action exhibits, illustrated talks, tabletop displays, photos, and more. Emcees were 4-H'ers Lilia Kocsis and Garrette...
Drivers hoping to use the covered bridge to cross the West River may soon face delays or a detour. In early February, a WW Building Supply delivery truck hit the ceiling on the east side of the bridge, causing more than $63,000 in damage to the structure. “When it comes time to fixing it, there will be delays and closures,” Roads Foreman Lee Chamberlin said. Selectboard Chair Zeke Goodband said town officials will notify school bus companies, ambulance services, fire...
Sylvie Lann, a fifth-grader at Green Street School, recently competed in the Vermont Scripps National Spelling Bee at St. Michael's College in Burlington. Although Lann didn't win the Bee, competing represented an advance for the 10-year-old. In November, she competed with her Green Street teammates at the Vermont Principals Association School Team Spelling Competition, or Spelling Bee, for fifth- and sixth-graders. That one was a team bee. Scripps is for individuals, and any student up to eighth grade can compete.
Despite a late March snowstorm, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., came to Brattleboro on March 31 to provide an update to constituents about what is happening in Washington in the wake of a new president in the White House and a Congress under Republican control. One of Welch's stops was at the Brattleboro Senior Center, to highlight President Donald J. Trump's policy priorities. The Trump administration's preliminary budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 would eliminate all funding for senior nutrition...
Dede Cummings always longed to publish a book of her poetry, but it wasn't until she was in her 60s that her dream came true. On April 11, To Look Out From, her debut and the winner of the 2016 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize, will be available in hardcover ($24.95) and paperback ($16.95) online and in bookstores. According to acclaimed poet Clarence Major, “Dede Cummings' poems in To Look Out From are breathtakingly vivid. Deeply felt, they often chronicle the...
The Lockdown! record label will present a series of short films by the NYC-based German rock band LESION on Saturday, April 8, at the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery. Dr. Gustave Hurtz, LESION's lead singer, wrote and directed the films, and either he or his alter ego John Bergdahl will host the event with Chris Thomas, a friend of the band who is often mistaken for LESION's guitarist, Piss Promise. “We will introduce the films, and people can ask us questions...
Two veteran news professionals have taken over publishing and editing the monthly Vernon Community News. Former Brattleboro Reformer Publisher Martin Langeveld is the principal editor, and long-time WTSA News Director and current Town Clerk Tim Arsenault is an editor. (During his tenure at WTSA, Arsenault was known as Tim Johnson.) In the March issue of the Vernon Community News, publisher and editor Bronna Zlochiver announced it would be the final newsletter unless someone else took over. Zlochiver started the newsletter...
Hi, everybody! Unless a freak outlier winter storm forms this month or early next, I do believe we are heading fully into spring. Let's all collectively say goodbye to the Winter of 2016-17 which, despite a couple of prolonged warm periods, proved to be solid in terms of snow and ice accumulations. As for the week ahead, we've got more fair weather than inclement weather on the way, but the Thursday into Friday timeframe looks quite wet with a strong...
“Drawing from the Visible World,” an exhibition of works on paper, paintings, and sculptures by Jason Alden, Paul Bowen, and Myles Danaher will be on view during April at 118 Elliot Gallery. The opening reception is on Friday, April 7, at 6 p.m. The gallery is located at 118 Elliot St. in Brattleboro. Each of the artists in the exhibition has an intimate connection to the things he sees, recalls, and imagines with care and refined attention, according to a...
The weeks of dirt and disruption are over, and patrons of the Brooks Memorial Library can now see the finished product that is the first big makeover of the library in years. Library Director Starr Latronica is happy to show off the newly-completed main reading room. During the week of March 20, the bookcases, shelves, and furniture were moved out so new flooring could be put in. By March 27, the room was ready to be reopened and, three days...
As commercial properties go, the former Vermont State Police Brattleboro barracks is modestly proportioned: The one-story building sits on less than an acre of land. But state officials are hoping the property's location - on busy Route 9, at the western gateway to Brattleboro - will help them find a buyer. Eight months after the barracks closed as part of a state police consolidation in Windham County, the state is marketing the property. And officials haven't set a minimum asking...
Creating deep changes to Vermont's agricultural and food systems was the topic of a community discussion on March 28 at Next Stage. Rural Vermont, a Montpelier-based statewide organization addressing agricultural and environmental issues in Vermont, organized the event, which they called “Groundswell.” It was one of six discussions Rural Vermont plans to hold in the state. At Next Stage, about 60 participants - community members, farmers, small business owners, and activists - collaborated and socialized. There was a spread of...
On April 7 and 8, the Vermont Jazz Center will present a music festival including eight concerts and five educational presentations on solo jazz piano. The Solo Jazz Piano Fest is a celebration of the Steinway D, nine-foot concert grand piano given to the Center by the McKenzie Family Charitable Trust and rebuilt by piano technician Bill Ballard. The Center is now the only venue in New England that supports a festival devoted exclusively to the art of solo jazz-piano...
When the voters of Wilmington and Whitingham voted to create the Twin Valley Joint Contract schools, they had no inkling that 15 years later the budget that supports those schools at the town meetings just completed would require enormous property-tax-rate increases, even though total spending was decreased by more than $200,000 over the prior year. Whitingham will see a tax-rate increase of an estimated 34 cents, and Wilmington taxpayers will have an increased tax rate estimated to be 22 cents.