The Brattleboro Words Book Project has announced the winners of the Book Project Raffle.
Tim Freedman won first prize, an autographed book about Brattleboro's printing and publishing history. Second prize winner Russ Grabiec won $25, and third prize winner Chuck MacFarland took home a gift certificate to a local store.
The Brattleboro Words Book Project has been raising money for the past three years to write and publish a book about Brattleboro's more than 250 years of history in publishing and printing. This work has been written by local authors, edited by Mike Fleming, and designed by Jim Brisson. The stories of our “print town” will be in local stores in the fall.
The book is but one outcome of the larger Brattleboro Words Project.
Amidst a standoff between state officials and the Brattleboro Retreat over financing, the Retreat has been scrambling to make up for massive budget shortfalls. One of the heaviest casualties so far is the supposedly temporary closure of one of the seven inpatient units, Osgood 2, the only LGBT+ inpatient...
The news of the Brattleboro Retreat's financial situation is deeply concerning, but not a surprise to those of us who work (or worked) there. I was a nurse there for 10 years before I felt compelled to resign due to changes to the patient care environment enacted by the...
In Sarasa's next program as season guest artists of the Brattleboro Music Center on Friday, Jan. 17, at 7.30 p.m., the Cambridge-based group focuses on the warmth of the middle voice: the viola. The instrument's tenor range binds the top voice with the bottom, a sort of sandwich filling that brings out the best flavor in an ensemble. It is the instrument that many composers preferred to play in chamber music settings, especially J.S. Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Dvorak,
I've been thinking a lot lately about how to make our state a better place. This has led me to pinpointing the things I consider very troubling. The first is the tendency of the Legislature to seemingly think that the northern half of the state should call the shots. Yes, there are more people and there is more money in that end of the state, but real lives of real, good people down in our neck of the woods are...
Candidates sought for Guilford offices GUILFORD - The Board of Civil Authority reminds all legal residents that they are both eligible and encouraged to run for a town position via the Australian ballot at Town Meeting. To appear on the ballot, go to the Town Office (open Mondays through Thursdays), get a petition for the office you'd like to seek, and get at least 18 signatures of registered voters. Turn it in by the close of the day on Monday,
College news • Ronan Khalsa, a communications major from West Dummerston, was named to the fall 2019 Dean's List at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. • Jack Armbruster of West Dover, Conor Hiner of Brattleboro, and Sarah Scarlett of Saxtons River were all named to the Plymouth State University President's List for the fall 2019 semester. • The following students were named to the Dean's List for the fall 2019 semester at the University of New England in Portland, Maine:
The Brattleboro Concert Choir opens the New Year with two concerts exploring “The Fall and The Rise: Songs of Redemption,” presenting a redemption story in two parts: Adam's Lament by Arvo Pärt is “The Fall,” and Dreamweaver by Ola Gjeilo is “The Rise.” The concerts are scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre on Main Street. Estonian composer Arvo Pärt composed Adam's Lament in 2009. The piece is...
New England Youth Theatre is registering young actors ages 11-15 for its spring musical, Disney's Frozen Jr. The adventure begins Monday, March 9, and goes until closing night, Saturday, May 9. “Turning the traditional Disney fairy tale on its head, with flawed characters, a sun-loving snowman sidekick, and kick-butt girl-power, this musical embraces the power of the princess,” according to a news release. Register online at www.neyt.org, email [email protected], or call 802-246-6398. Financial aid is available.
Next Stage Arts Project continues its bimonthly Local Music & Food series in the Next Stage Cafe on Friday, Jan. 17, with Molly Steinmark's trio M.O.D. and dinner from the Top of the Hill Grill. M.O.D. plays a mix of funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, and R&B and features Steinmark on drums and vocals plus a rotating cast of some of the area's finest musicians. For this concert/dance party, Darby Wolf (keyboards and bass) and Dan Thomas (guitar) round out...
For those reading the headlines from various media outlets in Vermont, one cannot help but be troubled by headlines concerning the Brattleboro Retreat and woes of news coming from Montpelier of the denial of funding support critical to the health and future existence of this standalone organization. As I sat with U.S. Rep. Peter Welch in a roundtable discussion at the Retreat nearly two years ago alongside representatives from the various local health and human service agencies, I recall the...
How much more can you afford to pay in taxes? This is a serious question. What else are you willing to do without in order to give to the state of Vermont? Insurance companies have already been granted big rate hikes; unfunded pensions equal $7,000 for every man, woman, and child; gas and fuel taxes are proposed to rise in amounts that will cost most over $100 per year; you can count on another $100 or so to pay for...
Recently, a friend dropped by while she was out campaigning for a local candidate. She was bundled for the cold and wore a small dove pin on her sweater. When I asked about it, she said it had been made in Cambodia in an area that had been bombed. People who live there collect pieces of shrapnel from the bombs, she explained, and fashion them into dove pins. On the pins inscribed in very small letters is the word “peace”
Perhaps the most difficult thing for human beings today - one that, however necessary, is impossible at the same time - is coming to grips with the possibility of imminent social collapse because of our unraveling climate. Understandably, most of us are paralyzed by the the unthinkable. How will we survive? How will our children and grandchildren live in such a world? How can we deal with the suffering that such an event will inevitably entail? Two representative news reports...
The Brattleboro Retreat “is facing significant financial challenges that without redirection could lead to insolvency.” That was the conclusion of the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB), which last week released its analysis of the hospital's audited financial statements spanning three fiscal years, from 2015 to 2018. The report was issued to comply with Act 53, a 2019 law extending the purview of the six-member GMCB with “limited budget oversight of each psychiatric hospital in the state,” according to the document,
The Stone Church, 210 Main St., presents a “Vermont Carnival Breakdown” with the Celebration Brass Band and VT Shakedown on Friday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m. The night of cajun brass and Afro-beat funk will include some cajun-themed food specials. VT Shakedown plays funk and Afro-beat, with a tight rhythm section interacting with ripping horn solos, polyrhythms interwoven with vocals, hypnotic bass and guitar lines, and funked-up drums. Celebration Brass Band emerged in 2009 under the leadership of New Orleans...
The closing of the Brattleboro Retreat would have a profoundly negative impact on Brattleboro, on Retreat employees, and on the region. Moreover, the loss of one of the nation's largest and longest-standing comprehensive psychiatric hospitals (12th in size as of 2016) would leave many struggling to find adequate mental health and substance abuse treatment. Action needs to be taken to save the Retreat, and fast. Just don't rely on the current administration or board to fully accomplish that task. Not...
Hello and good day to you, residents of lovely Windham County! Well, last Friday's forecast was a total bust. Our storm formed too far west to produce any real weather in southern Vermont. In addition, we became much warmer than originally thought. Such is life in the weather department. A few variables change by 50 miles, and those changes amplify and cascade downstream over our region when we're three days out. As for this coming week, it looks like we...
The Moore Free Library recently received grants from the United Way of Windham County, the Crosby-Gannett Fund, the Vermont Community Foundation, RISE VT, and the Children's Literacy Foundation, allowing the library to expand its hours, increase family programming, and boost youth engagement. Starting Feb. 1, the library will host Family Fun Fridays every Friday evening. Coloring and board games will be available from 5 to 6 p.m., with a family movie shown in the Crowell Gallery at 6 p.m. Popcorn...
The Heather Pierson Acoustic Trio show at Stage 33 Live got snowed out in November, but they're coming back Jan. 19 for a special 2 p.m. matinee performance. In 2015, the trio released an EP, Still She Will Fly, and the title track was that year's No. 2 single on folk radio. Their 2017 CD, Singin', debuted at No. 1 and was the No. 11 album of the year on the folk charts. Heather's new solo album, Lines and Spaces,
Last year, Brattleboro Community Television went before selectboards in our service area for the first time to request funding to support video coverage of municipal meetings and Representative Town Meeting. The request was initiated in response to a proposed change by the Federal Communications Commission to the Cable Act, which established cable-subscriber fees as the primary source of support for public access television in 1984. Despite thousands of letters filed in opposition, the change was passed and went into effect...
Human-services funding, body cameras for police, Project CARE, and port-a-potties were four of the items reviewed by the Selectboard on Jan. 7 as the board prepares the fiscal year 2021 municipal budget. The board started building and reviewing the FY21 budget in November. While the bulk of work has been completed, board members had asked for additional explanations on a few requests for funding increases. Some of these increases comprise parts of departments' annual operating budgets. Some will appear as...
After meetings last week between officials from the Brattleboro Retreat and the state, both sides say they are optimistic that the state's largest mental health facility will stay open. While it appears that tensions between the Brattleboro Retreat and the state Agency of Human Services (AHS) are simmering down, the factors that created the crisis still remain. Downsizing of the facility remains on the table as the state and the hospital look at “sustainable long-term solutions.” “Of course, that would...
The Town Planning Services department has started its application to a state program that offers incentives for new housing in downtown areas. The state's Neighborhood Development Area (NDA) designation provides permit and tax incentives to developers and communities that commit to building mixed-income housing in a downtown or village. Planning Technician Andrew Graminski, who presented the program to the Selectboard during its Jan. 7 meeting, said that the department has recently received feedback on its initial draft application to the...
The Bellows Falls girls' basketball team is better than its record would indicate. While the Terriers lost their first four games, they've made opponents work for every victory. An example of that came on Jan. 6, when BF traveled to Proctor to take on the Phantoms, a perennially powerful team in Division IV. Proctor led by as many as 18 points, but defensive pressure by the Terriers in the second had trimmed the lead to single-digits before the Phantoms got...
I am a 1978 Marlboro College alum and was caught off guard at the original announcement of the merger with the University of Bridgeport. At a public presentation at Marlboro town hall, I raised the prospect of reviving an “originalist” Marlboro, a neo-Luddite book-oriented college comprised of thin administration, underpaid faculty, thin staff, with students doing much of the more routine work of the college (maintenance, administration, library, bookstore, etc.) I suggested that Marlboro had lost its sense of mission.