Issue #473
What’s new at school?
• School starts: Thursday, Aug. 30.
• New staff: Ray Dunn was welcomed as the interim director of the WRCC. Nancy Weise was named special-needs coordinator, and Diane Nuzzo was named outreach coordinator. The latter is a grant-funded position.
Vernon briefs
New Vernon town plan completed; public hearing scheduled for Aug. 29 VERNON - For nearly a year, the Vernon Planning Commission has been working on a new edition of the Vernon Town Plan. As part of the final approval process, a public hearing is set for Wednesday, Aug. 29,
Gilligan earns Republican nomination for Windham-1
Aspiring law student likes local control, lower taxes
Being a write-in candidate for a political campaign is almost always difficult. Fortunately for Patrick Gilligan of Vernon, he was virtually assured of winning the Republican nomination in the Aug. 14 primary for the Windham-1 House that is being vacated by retiring Republican incumbent Mike Hebert. That's because there...
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Around the Towns
Paving work delayed until Aug. 23 BRATTLEBORO - Mitchell Sand & Gravel will be paving several streets in Brattleboro. The paving was tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 20. The projects have been delayed and are now scheduled to begin on Thursday, Aug. 23. They are expected to take approximately a week to complete. The streets that will be affected are Jenny Lane, Glen Street, lower Green Meadow, part of Hinesburg Road, and part of Maple Street. Motorists should plan to...
Be alert!
Summer vacation is drawing to a close as our region's schools prepare to open their doors for the new school year. So, while you're making that list of school supplies the kids will need, take a look at these safety steps from the American Red Cross and make your student's trip back to the classroom a safe one. For kids entering school Keeping all students safe is the primary concern for everyone, but there are special steps for parents of...
Milestones
College news • Forrest Lisle, an anthropology major from Grafton, was named to the Dean's List for the spring 2018 semester at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. Obituaries • John Adams, 88, of Putney. Died Aug. 3, 2018 at his home, surrounded by his family. “Captain John,” as he was know to his friends, lived an extraordinary life of kindness and adventure. He was born in Wellington, India, the son of a tiger-hunting colonel in the British Navy. A...
‘Little Library’ opens in Guilford
The historic Guilford Free Library, which has helped to educate, inform, and entertain generations of local residents, is reaching even further into the community and beyond through a new little library located at another major landmark in town, the Guilford Country Store. A ribbon cutting to officially open the library took place on Aug. 20. Residents who live near the store on Route 5 can now walk to a library, and travelers stopping for lunch or a snack at the...
NEYT taps young director to present play about a teenage writer
New England Youth Theatre presents Catherine Trieschmann's Crooked, directed by Allison Vigue. It will be performed on Aug. 25, at 7 p.m., at NEYT, 100 Flat St. Tickets are by donation at the door. High school graduate Allison Vigue presents their directorial debut with Crooked, a three-person contemporary play telling the story of Laney, a 14-year-old aspiring writer who has just moved with her mother to Mississippi. The small cast explores the world of family, friends, and love in this...
Riding on the Trump roller coaster
I don't enjoy roller coasters - never have, not since I went on one that looked like a giant squid at Rye Playland when I was about 10 or 11. I can still recall the sickly smell of cotton candy, salty air, and humidity that greeted me as they opened the door to let us out of the cage we banged around in for three minutes. I felt as though I was walking on marbles until I white-knuckled the railing...
Singing workshop seeks to dispel fear for beginners
Nancy Salwen of The Fear of Singing Breakthrough Program is offering a full-day singing workshop/retreat for adults and teens, with a special focus on beginners, called “Fear of Singing: Learn to Sing Even If You Think You Can't Carry a Tune!” The workshop will take place on Sunday, Aug. 26, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Stone Church Center in Bellows Falls. “These workshops are always soul-expanding experiences,” Salwen said in a news release. “When there's something you...
Stone Church Arts presents ‘Your Rhythm, Your Life’ concert with Cotler, Velez, and Friesen
Vocal phenomenon Loire Cotler, Grammy-Award-winning master drummer Glen Velez, and acclaimed cellist Eugene Friesen will perform a pair of concerts this weekend. At 7:30 p.m., on Friday, Aug. 24, Velez and Cotler, along with Friesen, will share their innovative approaches to rhythm using stepping, gesture, and rhythm vocals exploring pulse flow and time awareness. Then, on Aug. 25, participants in the “Your Rhythm, Your Life” workshop will share their musical and rhythmic discoveries in a free and open concert. Both...
If the president is immune to indictment, then the Constitution no longer has any meaning
The issue of indicting a sitting president now comes into focus. A sitting president must be able to be indicted, because otherwise he could get away with murder. Literally. The argument made from those like Rudy Giuliani is that the president must be impeached first, and then when he's no longer in office, you can indict him. But that leaves a gaping hole in the process that the framers of the Constitution would never have agreed with. When the Constitution...
Main Street Arts mounts community art show
Main Street Arts has invited community members to submit their art work for a community art show that runs from now through Friday, Sept. 28, with an opening reception on Thursday, Aug. 23, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Twenty artists have submitted work, including photographs, watercolors, collages, found objects, charcoal drawings and pencil sketches. Participants include Liz Hawkes-deNiord, Kathryn Traugott, Will Huenink, Vincent DiBernardo, Zoee Blossom, Sloan Dawson, and Alyssa Schmidt. The non-juried show is MSA's yearly effort to highlight...
Marlboro College sells graduate center building to Renaud Brothers
Marlboro College announced on Aug. 15 that it had sold the former downtown home of its graduate center to Renaud Brothers, a Vernon-based construction firm. According to a news release, Renaud Brothers Construction agreed to a price of $3 million for the 42,000-square-foot office building. The property will now be known as 28 Vernon Street, named after the limited liability corporation that was formed to buy and manage the property. “We are pleased to be selling this valuable facility to...
Brattleboro bests recycling goals
In 2012, the Legislature passed Act 148, also known as “Vermont's universal recycling law.” The timeline requires half of the state's total solid waste stream - trash, recyclables, and organic materials - to get diverted from landfill disposal by the year 2020. Brattleboro has already exceeded that goal. In Fiscal Year 2018, which ended on June 30, the town kept 64 percent of its refuse out of the garbage dump, according to an Aug. 9 news release from the Windham...
Documentary on James Baldwin to be screened at All Souls
The film I Am Not Your Negro will be the next offering in the continuing All Souls Church series “Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege” on Sunday, Aug. 26, at noon, preceded by a free light lunch. In the film, director Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. It is a journey into black history that connects the Civil Rights movement to Black Lives Matter, questioning black representation in Hollywood and beyond. The church,
Woodlands Association to hold annual meeting, potluck cookout
The Windham Regional Woodlands Association will hold its annual meeting (non-members are welcome to attend) and a potluck cookout lunch, followed by a tour of historic sites in Newfane Town and Newfane Village on Saturday, Aug. 25, rain or shine, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. This year's meeting will have a few twists. It will start at two off-site locations for field visits and then convene at Bill Guenther's woodlot, 51 Bensch Mountain Rd., for lunch, tours, and afternoon...
Women’s chorus welcomes new members
The fall session of the Brattleboro Women's Chorus will begin on Sept. 5 and 6 with open rehearsals for women or girls over age 10 who would like to try out the chorus without obligation. Founder/director Becky Graber traveled with 18 chorus members to the Sister Singers Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in June, where they not only performed but also heard lots of wonderful music by other women's choruses. Some of these songs will be included in the fall...
Medicare waiver will let hospital transfer patients without 3-day wait
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) and three area skilled nursing facilities, Pine Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Thompson House Rehabilitation and Nursing, and Vernon Green have received approval from OneCare Vermont, a statewide accountable care organization, to accept patients into a skilled nursing facility (SNF) without the Medicare required three day inpatient hospital admission. According to a BMH news release, the Three Day Skilled Nursing waiver is intended to reduce unnecessary hospital stays, emergency department admissions, and re-admissions. Unnecessary hospital stays...
After weeks of humidity and rain, dry conditions finally arrive
Good day to you, citizens of the verdant Green Mountains and valleys of southern Vermont! We have had a very humid summer, with above normal rainfall. For some, that is one of the larger euphemisms they'll encounter. Having said that, I've got good news and bad news. I'll give you the bad news first. We've got another round (and possibly two) of showers, downpours and thunderstorms to endure for this Wednesday morning and again in the afternoon. Some storms may...
Lofty silence from hospital
The story is horrifying: Our hospital turning away a 99-year-old man with two broken arms. I have read on the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital website that every hospital staff member is an advocate for the patient. Really? Elayne Clift rightly challenges the BMH CEO to take responsibility. Lofty silence from Steve Gordon is not acceptable.
Looking for heroes
It's rare that any one could upstage Bernie Sanders at a political rally in Vermont. But that's what happened on Aug. 10 at the Latchis Theatre. To be fair, Ady Barkan is a rare individual. The 34-year-old Yale Law School graduate is battling the affects of ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. ALS has slowed his speech, and confined him to a wheelchair. But it...
Preschoolers learn about safety
Students at the summer preschool program at St. Michael's Catholic School on Walnut Street recently had an opportunity to meet with local firefighters to get a hands-on lesson on fire safety. Brattleboro firefighters Kevin Lambert and Alex Morin brought Rescue 2, the department's support vehicle, to the preschool. It carries a variety of equipment, from power tools to cut apart crashed vehicles to shovels, winches, and extra ladders. Draydon Harvey, the lead teacher for the summer program, and her assistant,
For rally speakers, the health-care status quo is unacceptable
As an estimated 475 people listened, several people, including activist Ady Barkan and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, told their personal stories of the impact of the current health-care system in the United States on them and others, and why they are advocating for change. The nonprofit Rights & Democracy brought “Be A Hero: Organizing for Health Care Justice and a Stronger Democracy,” to the Latchis Theatre on Aug. 10 where speakers in succession made impassioned arguments for universal, government-supported health...
A game that generates buzz
Most people in search of country life in 1999 still did not place high-speed internet service at the top of their essentials list. Julie Beet and Elliott Mitchell did. For the cofounders of Vermont Digital Arts - a software-development studio specializing in design and coding of computer games of all types on both mobile and desktop platforms - the rest was rural southern Vermont predictable: a sweet house, acreage for an ample garden and a bucolic spot. Bees - which...
Address loss of students with an idea from the past: combining grades
It's about Act 46 again! If you aren't familiar with this law, the school population has been dropping in Vermont, and the state thinks we should consolidate our schools to save money. The concern is that we in the smaller towns will lose our school boards - and control of our schools. If things get too bad, our schools could be closed or even sold! Looking at this purely from a financial (greed) standpoint, nobody wants to buy a house...
A different kind of education
For high school seniors, returning from vacation for the last year isn't the only thing on their minds. Instead, they're contemplating the course of their future. Seniors have been prepped and preened for graduation and, customarily, college. While this next step is exciting, figuring out what to do after high school can sometimes seem like a choice that will dictate your entire future. So if it feels like you suddenly have to have the answer for everything, relax, take a...
For state colleges, a ‘measured but change-oriented approach’
First of all, his name's not really “Jeb.” George B. “Jeb” Spaulding is 65, but looks 45. He's originally from Massachusetts, but at an early age his heart adopted Vermont. Since then, he has built an impressive resume in state government without ever seeking the limelight. It seems as if we've known him forever without knowing him at all. Spaulding has led a remarkable life under the radar. With a degree in communications from the University of Vermont, he co-founded...
After almost 30 years, a gym changes hands
The Outer Limits Health Club at 76 Cotton Mill Hill in Brattleboro is changing hands. Chip Hellus, who started the business with his good friend, Nancy Alfaro, in September 1990, is stepping away from the operation. He didn't have to look far to find a willing successor. Michael Heiden, who has been a Brattleboro firefighter for 12 years, is the new proprietor. He said he had been working for Hellus for a few years, and had been planning for the...
Heather Geoffrey named new director of Main Street Arts
Heather J. Geoffrey has been named the new managing director of Main Street Arts, succeeding Margo Ghia as head of the community arts organization, according to a news release. “Accepting the position at Main Street Arts has afforded me the opportunity to merge two of my greatest passions, community and art,” said Geoffrey, a practicing artist for more than 22 years. Geoffrey said she envisions her role at MSA as one in which she comes to deeply understand, embrace, and...
Generational shift
I will get to why I might support Christine Hallquist in her run for governor, and also a read on why politics in the United States seem so confusing right now, with everything going on. But I need to start with some background. About a generation ago, Neil Howe and William Strauss put out a theory of generations in the United States that has had great force in public discourse ever since. Their theory has been subjected to fine-grained critiques...