ROCKINGHAM-A story on a proposed municipal merger between Rockingham and Bellows Falls [The Commons, June 10] incorrectly stated that no Rockingham residents had served as Town Manager.
Jim Mullen, who served as Town Manager before current Interim Manager Francis “Dutch” Walsh, is a Rockingham resident.
Also, the Merger Committee headed by Thom MacPhee first met in June 2009, with its final report released in November 2009.
Keefer Irwin has made some unsubstantiated claims in her column about Hydro-Quebec in the June 9 issue of The Commons that should be addressed. Contrary to her claim that no one was paying attention to the Cree Nation's concerns about the Hydro-Quebec development, I went on my own and...
Brattleboro • July 4 parade signups due June 21: The “By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth” citizens committee has set June 21 as the deadline for signing up to march in the town's 37th annual Independence Day parade. The group, working cooperatively with the Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department,
Music • Yellow Barn Festival begins: The 2010 season of the Yellow Barn Festival begins on Friday, June 18, with a Young Artists Program alumni concert featuring the Meehan/Perkins Duo at 8 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro. A post-concert reception follows with Steve Reich (Nagoya Marimbas, 1994); Nathan Davis (Diving Bell, 2002); John Fitz Rogers (Once Removed, 2003); Thierry de Mey (Musiquede Tables, 1987); Tristan Perich (Observations, 2008) and Paul Lansky (Travel Diary, 2008). Tickets are $18. They...
A ton of reasons keep me driven to bring a skatepark to Brattleboro. The top three are drawn from my practice and pleasure of skating every day, my experiences traveling around to different parks and skate spots, and the sweet fringe benefits of immersion in the skate community and culture. This complex weave involves health, vitality, law, parenting, rebellion, individuality, creativity, friendship and more - but it's all made simple by the fact that skating contains and illuminates cherished ideals,
This summer, the Estey Organ Museum will present “A Lifetime for Sound,” a retrospective of physicist Harald Bode and his contributions to electronic music. This is a 50-year survey in image and sound recordings, documenting the contributions of Bode, one of the great pioneers of electronic sound. His career spans 50 years of innovation, during which he produced more than 15 instruments. “There's adventure and excitement [in his career path],” said his son, Peer Bode, who directs the Harald Bode...
A question lies at the center of the successful new mixed-media show, “A Few of Our Favorite Things...” at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery on Main Street: Can a community that has almost stopped seeing itself as a community - at least in Windham County - become a community again through art? The show, with 60 pieces of art by 30 local gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning artists - the so-called “alphabet soup” that is often shortened to “LGBTQ”
The general exhaustion of the Douglas administration and the 2009-10 edition of the Vermont Legislature was reflected in the way that three important bills were treated by both sides. Gov. James Douglas declined to sign or veto S.88, a multipart health care bill passed on the last day of the 2010 session on May 11. Thus, a bill that commits Vermont to the path of universal access to health care was allowed to become law. Douglas said he had no...
I'm a walker and regularly clock four to six miles a day at about a 15-minute pace, so it was a bit of a surprise that “Treasured Trees: A Walk Through Brattleboro” took me a whole year. In June '09, two friends and I decided to do the mile walk to celebrate a birthday. We picked up a map at the Chamber of Commerce and scheduled a date to meet on a Thursday afternoon in the parking lot...
I would like to thank the following veterans' groups who participated in Memorial Day services in Brattleboro on May 31: American Legion Post 5, the American Legion Post 5 Band, the color guard and members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1034, the Marine Corps League, the American Legion Rifle Squad and Buglers and the Auxiliary Units of the American Legion, VFW and the Marine Corps League. These groups visited St. Michael's, Prospect Hill and Locust Ridge cemeteries, where rifle...
Here is the list, provided by the Brattleboro Department of Public Works, of summer road projects in the Brattleboro area. Town projects • Guilford Street Sidewalk: Replace and widen approximately 242 feet of sidewalk from the Guilford Street Bridge project to Winston Prouty Way. • South Main Street: Mill off 2 inches and resurface with 2 inches between Cotton Mill Hill and Pine Street. • Pine Street: Mill off 2 inches and resurface with 2 inches between Canal Street and...
What can we learn today from Vermont's rural past? “Each generation arrives on the landscape surrounded by the world as it is,” said Gregory Sharrow of the Vermont Folklife Center. “It's hard to imagine things ever having been any different. But what came before now, and how did we got from there to here?” This is a question of some importance in a culture that is focusing on the concept of sustainability. Sharrow gave a talk on “A Sense of...
With two major projects - repaving Main Street and construction of a new Brattleboro Food Co-op - set to begin soon, downtown merchants, organizations and residents are concerned about the disruption all this work will bring. That's why Building a Better Brattleboro and the Co-op decided to put on a meeting at the River Garden. About two dozen people attended the June 10 event, which focused on setting up a free shuttle service for downtown employees, shoppers and visitors during...
The Brattleboro Selectboard made a mistake in agreeing to urban, mast arm traffic lights without even considering other options. It turns out that the electronics needed for safety can be accommodated by signals designed be compatible with the architecture of an area of historic significance. Since a contract has not yet been signed to purchase the industrial monstrosities, isn't it common sense to at least check into the alternatives and compare prices before making a decision with a 50-year impact?
Graduating seniors at Bellows Falls Union High School carry an aura of optimism in spite of what is facing those who will enter the job market. Four out of the five youths interviewed for this story are prepared to look for work or already have jobs for the summer before attending college in the fall. The fifth said he missed deadlines and isn't sure what he will be doing this summer. Sidelined by an injury, Mike Blanchard, 18, said, “I'll...
A local property owner and his partner have dropped their appeal to the Vermont Environmental Court to build a crematorium, chapel and a pajama factory. Citing the mounting cost of legal fees and the long process of appeal, Mary DeSimone and John Moisis have abandoned their fight to overturn a zoning board of appeals decision. The ZBA had failed to approve DeSimone's application for the industrial-zoned property at 30 Island St., just above the Waypoint Center. “It's dead in the water,”
Imagine a high school team created, funded and coached by the players themselves. Then imagine that same do-it-yourself team winning a state championship in its first year of existence. It sounds improbable, but a group of Brattleboro Union High School Ultimate Frisbee players did exactly that as they recently captured a championship in a statewide tournament in St. Johnsbury. Brattleboro Ultimate went a perfect 5-0 on championship day to bring home the title. The 15-player Brattleboro Ultimate team was launched...
The feds say gathering public input is the state’s responsibility. The state says it takes its cue from the Selectboard. The Selectboard says it’s up to the state. The state says it’s regulated by the feds. The feds say members of the public need to take responsibility and engage with the process. So, whose responsibility is it to get public opinion on proposed mast arm traffic lights for Main Street? “There is a public process here. We followed the process,
The biggest problem on Elliot Street is that “a lot of people just don’t feel safe down there,” Police Captain Michael Fitzgerald said. The Selectboard voted June 15 to support strategies to deal with the latest low-pressure system that has settled along the Elliot Street and Harmony parking lot area — a system that multiple people have recently called an “atmosphere of intimidation.” The problems facing the merchants, residents, and youth frequenting the area have been discussed constantly since a...