The former Interim Town Clerk Jonathan Johnson is now Town Clerk Jonathan Johnson.
“We are happy to announce that we are appointing Jon Johnson” to the position, said Board Chair Josh Laughlin at the Oct. 24 regular Selectboard meeting.
In mid-March, the Board appointed Johnson as interim town clerk during a special Selectboard meeting. His contract ended Nov. 6.
Prior to March 7, Putney's town clerk was an elected position - the electorate chose this person via Australian ballot at the annual Town Meeting.
Tickets are on sale for Brattleboro's 16th annual Collegiate A Cappella Concert, a benefit for the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, taking place at the Latchis Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by Brattleboro Savings & Loan, the concert features six singing groups from around New...
Celebrating its 20th year, Cotton Mill artisans open their studios for a weekend, inviting the public to look behind the scenes of creative local businesses and meet the people behind them. In addition, the weekend-long Cotton Mill Open Studio and Holiday Sale event showcases seasoned and emerging artists from...
Local author Tim Weed will discuss the legend of “Thunderbolt” and the unique Round Schoolhouse in Brookline at the Brattleboro Words Project's monthly roundtable discussion on Thursday, Dec. 13, from 6 to 7 p.m., at 118 Elliot, across from the firehouse in downtown Brattleboro. The event is free and refreshments will be served. Monthly roundtables are a chance for the public and Project researchers to gather, swap stories, and make progress in creating audio for the Brattleboro Words Trail. “I...
After a one year hiatus, The Walpole Players will again present “Christmas on Air!,” a seasonal collection of holiday-themed, old-time radio entertainment, on Dec. 15 in the Helen Miller Theater of the Walpole Town Hall. The evening of entertainment is similar to that of the group's “Radio Follies” show, an onstage reminiscence about the golden days of radio of the 1930s and 1940s that has been presented in March for the past six years. Many of the holiday performers will...
Latchis Arts' popular Movies for Kids program presents a special holiday series on Sundays, Dec. 16, 23, and 30, at 11:30 a.m. The series begins Dec. 16 with “Miracle on 34th Street,” the beloved 1947 classic starring Edmund Gwinn, Maureen O'Hara, and a very young Natalie Wood. When a nice old man who claims to be Santa is thought to be crazy, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing. Common...
Eugene Friesen, cello, Joel A. Martin, piano, and Peter Eldridge and Elizabeth Rogers, vocals, will present a special program of jazz and world-inflected seasonal music celebrating “the longest night.” “A Perfect Solstice” is a special holiday Stone Church Arts concert on Saturday, Dec. 15, at 7:30 p.m., in the stone church on the hill in Bellows Falls. Friesen, the four-time Grammy winning cellist of the Paul Winter Consort, leads this celebration of the magic, warmth, and mystery of the winter...
Renaissance Men, New England's professional male vocal chamber ensemble, is bringing their fourth annual “A Very RenMen Holiday” concert to the Hooker-Dunham Theater on Thursday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. The concert will feature traditional classical music for the season, with original compositions, cherished carols and seasonal songs, arrangements of Christmas favorites in close harmonies, and new favorites. Renaissance Men is composed of Boston and New York's most active chamber musicians, educators, and music aficionados, and was founded in 2014...
For the last few months, Selectboard members in Putney and Dummerston have discussed the possibility of joint ownership of the Renaud Gravel Pit, located off Route 5. Progress is advancing somewhat slowly. While Selectboard members wait for the relevant studies and documents, they have begun discussing permitting for the gravel pit after its permits expire in a few years. In September, Mike Renaud, the gravel pit's owner, offered to sell the facility, which provides gravel and riprap to the two...
On Nov. 11, Broad Brook Community Center held an Apple Pie Social, welcoming the Guilford community back into the 120-year-old former Broad Brook Grange building after a first phase of renovations: a new accessible entry ramp and bathrooms, kitchen improvements, and fire escape from the second-floor auditorium. It was a festive occasion, and we have many people and organizations to thank, including the people of Guilford who believe in the importance of making the Grange building a safer, more inclusive,
Just in time for budget season, the Selectboard has appointed Lewis White as an interim board member. In late October, Rachel Glickman, who was serving a two-year Selectboard term, tendered her resignation because she and her family moved out of town, which disqualified her from continuing to serve on the board. The remaining members searched for someone to step in, they found a few viable candidates, and at the Nov. 21 board meeting they voted 4-0 to appoint White. Selectboard...
The open enrollment period for health coverage from Vermont Health Connect ends Dec. 15, and households that qualify can now sign up for a new plan or change their existing one. The bad news is that it can be confusing to understand what the best coverage option might be. The good news is that Southeastern Vermont Community Action's (SEVCA) Health Navigator is available to help households in Windham or Windsor counties get or keep the health care coverage they need.
I read both pieces on climate change [“A huge national problem merits a huge national solution” and “As climate change prods, tugs, and gnaws, what's a parent to do?”] in the Nov. 28 issue. While one looked to big government for sweeping change to our policies, the other pointed toward local solutions offered in community response networks like Mother Up! Both are needed. The local option is more accessible and able to change the inner landscape quite quickly. Just reading...
Fellow residents of Bennington and the surrounding area, we are asking you to Join us on National Wreaths Across America Day on Saturday, Dec. 15, at noon, at the Vermont Veterans' Home on 325 North St. in Bennington. Each December, on National Wreaths Across America Day, the mission to remember, honor, and teach is carried out by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as at more than 1,100 locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea, and...
Obituaries • Bonnie Lynn Childs, 72, of Brattleboro. Died Dec. 1, 2018, with her loving sister, Kathy, holding her hand and clutching her bunny. Her niece, Kim, and grandniece, Jessica, stayed close during the last days. Born March 4, 1946 in Chicago, to Richard and Marion (Armitage) Childs, she and her family later settled in Tucson, Ariz.. Bonnie cared for the family horses and loved riding and showing. In 2006, Bonnie came to live in Guilford with her sister Kathy...
On Dec. 15 at 4 and 7:30 p.m., and Dec. 16 at 3 p.m., Sandglass Theater will present its annual Crankie Weekend, showcasing the mystique and low-tech charm of pairing song and story with rolling pictures. Crankies are scrolling illustrations, wound inside a wooden box and then hand-cranked so that the images move across a viewing screen. Once called “moving panoramas,” crankies were as close as it got to films in the early 19th century. Recently, crankies have made a...
West Brattleboro Association to hold holiday party WEST BRATTLEBORO - On Thursday, Dec. 13, at 6 p.m., the West Brattleboro Association will host its annual Holiday Party at Dalem's Chalet, 78 South St. This is a time for people and businesses in West Brattleboro to get together socially and to celebrate the village's past year. The evening will feature hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. The WBA suggests a voluntary donation of $5 toward the food, although no one will...
The Vermont Arts Council selected John Willis to receive the 2018 Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education. McCulloch-Lovell presented the award to Willis during a ceremony on Nov. 14 at the Vermont Statehouse. The award is given annually to a Vermont resident whose work has substantially improved student engagement in and knowledge of the arts and who has received significant professional recognition. In presenting the award, McCulloch-Lovell cited Willis' role as a professor of photography at Marlboro College, where he...
Southeastern Vermont Community Action and Granite United Way of New Hampshire are partnering to offer the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program in upper Windham County and Windsor County. The program helps low- to moderate-income households by providing free federal and state income tax return preparation services. SEVCA is recruiting volunteers for the coming 2019 tax filing season to help as many families as possible claim the tax credits and refunds available to them. SEVCA is looking for individuals who are...
As the Selectboard makes its way through the series of public hearings on the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 municipal budget, department heads make their appearances. During the Dec. 4 regular Selectboard meeting, it was the Assessor's Office and the Planning Department's turn, and they brought good fiscal news. Town Manager Peter B. Elwell explained why the two departments were presenting together. Both, he said, “represent some parallel transition we're going through where [...] we've reduced staffing and related expenses and...
My husband Tim and I have come to believe in giving locally, because the closer to home we give, the further our money goes. Each year brings us up close and personal with both our shared values and our good fortune as we decide how to allocate our charitable giving. Over the years we've debated between giving every worthy organization a small contribution and giving larger gifts to fewer charities. I confess there was even a time when we were...
The Julian Gerstin Sextet performs original jazz inspired by melodies and rhythms of the Caribbean and Balkans. The ensemble will release the group's new CD, The Old City, at a house concert at Wendy Redlinger's home at 2596 Tater Lane, on Sunday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m. The CD celebrates the world's crossroads cities, where immigrants and longtime residents mingle their musical traditions and new sounds emerge. Listeners will hear cumbia from Bogota, danzón from Havana, mambo from New York,
Unless the numbers from the designer are way off, the proposed municipally-owned skatepark slated for Living Memorial Park needs a lot more money. Jeff Clark of BASIC (Brattleboro Area Skatepark is Coming) and Recreation & Parks Department Director Carol Lolatte appeared at the Dec. 4 regular Selectboard meeting to provide an update and seek approval for a grant application to help fund the project. The week before, Clark and Lolatte had received “very preliminary, very conservative” numbers on the cost...
Many of us have watched the news in horror, as federal agents demonize immigrants and asylum seekers who look to the United States as a place of hope and refuge. In what is often referred to as the “Migrant Caravan,” somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 Central Americans have been walking toward the southern U.S. border since October. Several hundred have now reached the border and were met with rubber bullets and tear gas. There is bitter irony in this, as...
Legislators representing Rockingham and Westminster will meet with constituents to find out what's on their minds before they head back to Montpelier in January. The informal get-together takes place Saturday, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Rockingham Free Public Library and is free and open to all. Scheduled to be on hand are Windham County Senators Jeanette White and Becca Balint and state Reps. Matthew Trieber and Carolyn Partridge (Windham-3), and Michael Mrowicki and newly-elected Nader...
Arlene Distler's Viewpoint about hate speech versus free speech highlighted my own concerns. I am a proponent of free speech, but I have been struggling with the concept of “freedom of hate speech” and the consequent harm it may cause. There is a greased slope when one starts to draw lines limiting free speech. Words have power, and hate speech is a weapon that must be recognized as such. I find that I cannot sit idly by and let others...
Selectboard awards contract for public art project BRATTEBORO - The temporary mural at the Transportation Center is about to become permanent. The Selectboard approved allowing the artists who created the piece, Evie Lovett, Andy Wasserman, and Elizabeth Billings, to remove it and install a permanent project. Originally titled “River Wall,” the artists recently changed the piece's name to “Ask the River." At the Dec. 4 regular Selectboard meeting, the Board unanimously voted to authorize Town Manager Peter B. Elwell to...
Dec. 6 is celebrated as St. Nicholas Day in much of the world. I'd like to take a moment to remind folks that this man, born around 275 C.E., in what was then Greece and now is part of Turkey, was known for his passion to protect those in need. He would have been with us on the Women's March! His bishop's hat turned sideways would have been shaped much like the knitted pink kitten-eared hats many wore. One of...
The town's Department of Public Works needs a new home. With recently approved outside consulting help, the first step in the process will be to figure out what the DPW needs in a facility, what it has, and what it likely will need in the future. The current facility on Fairground Road, built in 1951, houses the department's offices, workshops, and garage space for its many vehicles - except for the ones that don't fit. “The building is substandard,” said...
You might call Vermont Theatre Company's A Christmas Carol a holiday tradition that keeps on changing. “What is Christmas if not a series of traditions that are both familiar and new every year?” asks James Gelter, director and (with his wife Jessica) co-adaptor of this annual theatrical presentation in Brattleboro. “I can't imagine a holiday season that did not include A Christmas Carol. There is not one year in which I didn't view or perform in a production of the...
MacLean Gander seems strangely oblivious to the gutting of the middle class over the past few decades, largely at the hand of urban elites too happy to blame their victims for not being cool enough. But the same people he derides here voted for Obama twice. And Obama progressively betrayed them. Ten years after the crash of 2008, it has been widely noted that most of the country has yet to recover. That was Obama's failure and the reason voters...
Good day to you, people of southern Vermont! I am getting over being under the weather this past week. Surfacing from such early season sickness is always appreciated, and I hope you find yourself feeling well. Speaking of feeling well, our comparatively abundant sunshine of recent days surely has been well received! We do have a couple of more partly to mostly sunny days to enjoy, but some mid-December storminess will arrive late Friday and last into the weekend before...
I am grateful that The Commons published Olga Peters' article informing our community about Vermonters' longstanding opposition to school consolidation, especially the forced consolidation being ordered by the State Board of Education in towns like ours where voters overwhelmingly rejected it. I am concerned that the quotes of mine that were chosen for the article might lead someone to think that my confidence in the teachers and staff in our community schools means I believe centralization will not harm our...
MacLean Gander thinks that white male Trump supporters are insecure, fragile, and ready to blow their brains out any minute now. Mr. Gander is just another hateful, delusional “educator” whose agenda is to indoctrinate his students with liberal drivel. If I was in his class, I'd walk out!
As the song goes, “It's the most wonderful time of the year.” Unless you're grieving a death. Or facing divorce. Or job loss, a health challenge, hunger, homelessness or separation from a loved one. “There's all sorts of sadness,” Devin Starlanyl says. The member and lay minister at Brattleboro's St. Michael's Episcopal Church knows seasonal tunes declaring “all is merry and bright” don't comfort those feeling otherwise. That's why she and her peers are organizing a “Longest Night” service for...
Growing up in a small community like Brattleboro means you get to know many people, whether they be acquaintances or good friends. It is hard to go anywhere without recognizing someone. This can at times can seem like a curse, but at other times be a blessing. In our family's case, it was a true blessing. In March, our brother, Seth Christmas, was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer, and he died Sept. 14. The news was devastating, but the...
Tobacco Prevention Specialist Rolf Parker is unequivocal: “Juul tried to shut us down,” he said. Parker, who works with West River Valley Thrives and the Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition, set out to educate youth on the dangers of vaping by publicizing the dangers and the wide availability of the electronic cigarettes online using video and social-media outreach. Juul, the $16 billion company that manufactures the devices, claimed that Parker's efforts violate their trademarks and pressured YouTube and Facebook to remove...
Meghan Forrett, a senior at Windham Regional Career Center, has been nominated to receive the prestigious Presidential Scholar award for 2019. This award is given to a few select students across the nation who have mastered their programs of study and created positive growth and change in the community during their high school careers. According to a news release, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors...
Traveling in the searing sun and suffering from blistering feet, sickness, dehydration, and fatigue, the refugees coming from Honduras on the so-called Caravan are not the “real bad people” Trump describes. Rather, they are the victims of successive U.S. administrations that put power in the hands of really bad people. The term “Banana Republic” first referred to Honduras, where the United States sent the Marines at least six times in the last century simply to keep resources and cheap labor...
A proposed rule change by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could have a devastating impact on public access stations such as Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) and Falls Area Community Television (FACT-TV). The FCC's proposed new rules (Docket 05-311) would allow cable operators to reclassify certain services and charge them against the cable subscriber fees that are collected to fund public access stations in Vermont and across the country. This means that companies such as Comcast, which holds the cable TV...
As she did with her recent column in the Brattleboro Reformer (“Will we reject the moral rot?”), Becca Balint, one of Windham County's two state senators, confirms once again for me why I consider her to be the one politician I know of who truly gets to the heart of the matter. Becca is real. For example, in writing about the Saudi government's murder and dismemberment of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi - and, more specifically, Donald Trump's exoneration...
The Brattleboro Colonels got the 2018-19 girls' basketball season off to a fast start with a sweep in the Leland & Gray Booster Club Tip-Off Tournament in Townshend. • Brattleboro opened the tournament on Dec. 7 against the Burr & Burton Bulldogs and the Colonels seemed to have a case of first-game jitters as they were unable to score a basket for the first 7 minutes and 30 seconds of the game until Lauren McKinney broke the ice with a...
Should the town implement a 1 percent local-option sales tax (LOST) on top of the existing 6-percent Vermont state sales tax? Would this measure bring in a solid revenue stream to remove some pressure from property owners and renters? Or would it drive customers further toward online and sales-tax-free New Hampshire shopping? These are some of the questions the Selectboard is considering as its members work through the fiscal year 2020 budget season and face the realities of funding the...
The very private and much-loved artist, Mallory Lake, died in 2017 at her home in Marlboro. While there has been no memorial service up to this point - her husband, Bob Engel, was diagnosed with a brain tumor only days after her passing and died in February - there is now a memorial exhibit at William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton, Mass. Baczek has been showing Lake's work for 30 years. He was given access to her estate and is...
State regulators have OK'd the sale of Vermont Yankee to a New York-based cleanup company, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for an unprecedented, accelerated decommissioning project at the dormant nuclear plant. The Dec. 6 ruling from the state Public Utility Commission allows Entergy, which has owned Vermont Yankee since 2002, to sell the Vernon plant and its decommissioning trust fund to NorthStar. The decision comes a few months after federal regulators approved the transfer. “The primary benefit of the proposal...