The Sustainable Energy Outreach Network will deliver two training opportunities for those interested in advancing their skills in green, high performance construction as well as those interested in entering the field of carpentry.
On Jan. 10 and 17, from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Windham Regional Career Center's Building Trades Classroom, Peter Yost will deliver his highly acclaimed Basics of High Performance Building to those carpenters already working in construction.
Efficiency Vermont has agreed to provide a stipend to assist with the fee. To register for the course or learn of the content, go to www.seon.info/bhpb.
This course has been endorsed by the National Association of Home Builders - Vermont Chapter and the Vermont Passive House Association and carries eight credit hours of learning awarded by Efficiency Vermont's Efficiency Excellence Network.
It is good that the Brattleboro Selectboard is concerned about affordable housing. One way to make housing more affordable is to share it. It's an age-old solution. A concrete action that town could take is to host a page on the town website where people could post space available...
The brutal execution of U.S. resident and Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate in Turkey has illuminated the government of Saudi Arabia as nothing else has. And finally, some media has paid attention to the Saudi regime's ongoing slaughter and starvation of children and adults in...
I am often not surprised when left-leaning journalists such as MacLean Gander, a frequent contributor to these pages, often defines and separates the good people of our country by pointing out this person as “white male” or that person as “cisgender,” or another person as “LGBTQ.” I feel that these words are being used by many people like him to divide us into subgroups to cause conflicts and hatred. This was my feeling particularly when reading his 1,350–word essay on...
At the Dec. 11 Brattleboro Selectboard meeting, Tom Franks, a member of the Brattleboro Town Energy Committee, presented an important proposal - that the town create and fund a new position of sustainability coordinator. He did so on behalf of a small group of like-minded individuals (myself included) and a number of local organizations that support the initiative or something close to it. As one of his slides explained, a sustainability coordinator would: • Focus on balancing social/equity, environmental, and...
Director Tony Lechner invites one and all to join Rock Voices, the area's only community rock chorus, for an evening of rock and pop classics. The concert will take place at Brattleboro's Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main St., on Friday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. Backed by a professional rock band featuring Ross Bellenoit on guitar, this 100-plus voice choir will deliver the harmonies of many classic and contemporary favorites, performing the music of Phish,
Teacher Jennifer Kramer will share her place-based research work with students around renowned science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft's stories linked to sites such as Round Mountain in West Brattleboro for the January Brattleboro Words Project's monthly Roundtable Discussion on Thursday, Jan. 10, from 6 to 7 p.m., at 118 Elliot. The event is free and refreshments will be served. According to a news release, Kramer is a longtime sixth-grade teacher at Guilford Central School. She also often leads placed-based and...
It seems like every year, New Orleans native and local bandleader Peter Simoneaux makes it a mission to remind everyone that the end of the holiday season - the Twelfth Night of Christmas - is also the beginning of that time of year known as Carnival. From Jan. 6 until the day before Ash Wednesday (this year, March 5), New Orleans is the center for a series of weekend parades and parties in January and February that culminate with the...
The River Gallery School of Art recently received funding from the Thomas Thompson Trust for the Art for Social Change project. According to a news release, the project “will focus on the healing aspects of art and mindfulness for marginalized populations, community caregivers, and the general public. The emphasis of these classes is not on art technique but on offering an opportunity to play with art materials in a relaxed environment.” RGS instructors say the process of making art offers...
For most people, thoughts of Girl Scout Cookies turn immediately to Thin Mints, or maybe Samoas, or another favorite flavor. But they're more than a sweet treat. According to a news release, Girl Scout Cookies “power the largest leadership development organization in the world for girls, with a chance to learn financial skills, compete in robotics, earn trips and camping experiences, and generally make the world a better place as a G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader).” To gain the skills...
Have you ever climbed Mount Monadnock? How about over 1,200 times? Or 16 times in one day? Garry Harrington has, and he wrote about those experiences and many more of his mountain climbing adventures in his 2016 book, Chasing Summits: In Pursuit of High Places and an Unconventional Life, published by AMC Books in Boston. Harrington, who lives in Swanzey, will talk about those adventures during a book-signing presentation to be held Saturday, Jan. 5, at 3 p.m. at the...
Merry Mulch service returns for another season BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department is once again offering the Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service to Brattleboro residents. This program, in its 28th year, is endorsed by the Vermont Department of Agriculture as well as the New Hampshire/Vermont Christmas Tree Association. For a $10 donation, members of the band and chorus will transport undecorated trees from homes to a community garden in West Brattleboro where they will be...
College news • Amy Yannizze of Brattleboro, a communications major, was named to the Dean's List for the fall 2018 semester at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C. • Cassandra Dunn of Brattleboro, a theater major, was named to the Dean's List for the fall 2018 semester at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind. Obituaries • Jean F. Ashcroft, 95, of Bellows Falls. Died Dec. 20, 2018, at Springfield Health & Rehab Center. Born in Bellows Falls on Nov.
The Crowell Gallery at the Moore Free Library in Newfane has announced an exhibit of their outstanding collection of contemporary southern Vermont artists. The gallery, housed in the Moore's renovated 1890s barn at the back of the library, was restored by local artists Dan and Gray MacArthur in 2002. Robert L. Crowell served as a trustee of the Moore Free Library from 1976 to 2001, five of those years as president of the Board. As the Library's primary benefactor, he...
The Walpole Players will hold auditions for their spring production of Lost in Yonkers at the Helen Miller Theater in the Walpole Town Hall on Sunday, Jan. 13, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., and on Tuesday, Jan. 15, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The play will be presented on two weekends in April. It is being directed by Mike Wright. Auditions will be readings from the script. A Pulitzer Prize winning play, Lost in Yonkers is a heartfelt and hilarious...
Yet again, like a bad penny, the local option sales tax has raised its ugly head. I understand the necessity for Brattleboro to take in more revenue, as the federal government has starved state and local municipalities for decades. However, there is a very sound reason why border towns have rejected this regressive tax. 1. Please visit downtown. You will see some number of empty storefronts, as well as some struggling businesses. The increase in sales tax will absolutely make...
After having met six times to completely work through all sections of the proposed fiscal year 2020 municipal budget, the Selectboard took some final steps before preparing to submit the document to Representative Town Meeting. The good news: there's a chance that the Town Manager's staff will end up realizing its stated goal of raising property taxes no more than 3 cents per $100 of assessed value. But it's close. The current iteration of the proposed budget sees taxes going...
Good day and Happy New Year to you, fine readers of Windham County! I hope that 2019 is a year of connection, success, growth, and the simple peace and joy that comes from appreciating the little things with which we've been blessed in this up-and-down life we continue to live. I'm wishing you all the best! As for the next week, we will enjoy fair weather this Wednesday and Thursday before we have to deal with another storm system that...
Over the last few years, Jay Karpin has received many honors for his service in the Army Air Force in World War II. But the latest honor for the the 94-year-old Brattleboro veteran was literally heartwarming. During a surprise ceremony on Dec. 18 at American Legion Post 5's weekly coffee hour for veterans, Karpin was presented a handmade quilt from the Deerfield Valley chapter of Quilts of Valor, a nonprofit organization that has awarded veterans nearly 208,000 quilts since its...
An eagerly anticipated annual exhibit returns this month to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Opening on Saturday, Jan. 12, Open Call NXNE 2019: Paint showcases work by 13 artists from New York and New England. This juried exhibit was selected from more than 300 artists who submitted work for consideration by juror Miles McEnery of Miles McEnery Gallery in New York City. McEnery chose a baker's dozen of artists for inclusion in the exhibit: Scot Borofsky, Ari Chaves, Jorge...
It's tough to walk away from a family business that has been part of the community for nearly a century, but on Dec. 27, Dennis and Debbie Baker announced that they had made that decision. Baker's Hallmark, located in the Hannaford Plaza on Putney Road, will close at the end of January. “It's time,” Debbie Baker told The Commons. “I'm 72 and Dennis is 74. We wanted to be able to close it in a healthy way while we were...
Of the many sentiments offered to me in recent weeks, these words, spoken by a recently released prison inmate with tears in his eyes, are ones I don't think I'll ever forget. “I been there, brother. I'm feelin' it with ya.” The Squirrel Hill community of Pittsburgh (the actual neighborhood of Mister Rogers) has always been a tightly knit set of neighborhoods where, it seems, everybody is connected in some way to everybody else. Within the community, individual synagogues constitute...
Race is “one of the most uncomfortable things to talk about,” Representative-elect Nader Hashim told a group assembled at the Putney Public Library on a recent Sunday evening for a discussion on the policies the Vermont State Police has adopted as part of its Fair & Impartial Policing initiative. However, Hashim noted, “It's good to get uncomfortable. This is where we make progress.” Those attending the Dec. 16 discussion learned that Vermont State Police personnel have been engaging in such...
Cross-country is a sport that moves to its own beat. While distance running demands discipline and endurance, it also demands intelligence and self-awareness. It doesn't take place in a gymnasium or on a playing field in front of hundreds of cheering supporters. Cross-country happens on hilly and occasionally rain-sodden trails in the woods far away from the madding crowd. While running is often a solitary pursuit, cross-country is also about running as part of a team and finding ways to...
Put 30 or so people in a room, and ask them what they want to see accomplished in the 2019-20 legislative biennium. It was a daunting task but the Rockingham and Westminster town Democratic Party committees managed to narrow it down to four big issues during the three hours of discussion. Those who gathered at the Rockingham Free Public Library on Dec. 15 had quite a few issues to put before Windham County Senators Jeanette White and Becca Balint and...