Better late than never.
After being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 50th edition of Green Up Day will be held on Saturday, May 30.
Normally held on the first Saturday in May, this annual roadside clean up sees Vermonters of all ages get outside and clean up miles of roads throughout the state.
Inspired by the first Earth Day in 1970, Green Up Day is Vermont's largest all-volunteer, statewide, one-day event.
Brattleboro releases annual water quality report BRATTLEBORO - The Water Department's annual Consumer Confidence Report/Water Quality Report for 2019 is now available. This report can be viewed at brattleboro.org/ccreport. Printed copies are available at the Municipal Center (230 Main St.) in the town manager's office or town clerk's office;
The League of Women Voters urges everyone to participate in the 2020 census now underway. The U.S. Constitution requires the federal government to count everyone living in the country every 10 years. Every household should complete a census form (either online, by mail, or by phone) by Oct. 31.
There is a great deal of evidence, both scientific and philosophical, that we each create our own reality. Many of us share many aspects of a collective “consensus” reality. Right now, many of us share a consensus reality where the power of the COVID-19 pathogen is a much greater threat to our collective well-being than the economic challenges presented by properly addressing the immediate health issue. Some feel the economic and political challenges more daunting. Some find the economic and...
The Memorial Day holiday weekend traditionally marks the start of the hiking season in the state, which offers hundreds of miles of hiking opportunities. This year, with COVID-19 as a dominant concern, the Green Mountain Club (GMC), the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, and the Green Mountain National Forest are asking hikers to take a few extra precautions. Out-of-state visitors are still being asked to self-quarantine for at least 14 days before engaging in any activities. For more...
Landmark College has received a $200,000 donation from the Clara Freshour Nelson Foundation to provide scholarship support for students with significant financial need. The scholarships will be awarded to first-year associate degree candidates, to transfer students who are within two years of completing a degree, or individuals participating in the college's online dual-enrollment program for high school and transition/gap-year students. In a news release, Manju Banerjee, vice president for educational research and innovation, says the foundation had previously provided scholarship...
In response to the suddenly changed business landscape for farmers and food entrepreneurs, Windham Grows is offering free business recovery and resiliency consulting to local food and farm businesses. The COVID-19 crisis has hit food and agriculture businesses especially hard. “While the best way to slow the spread of the disease is social distancing, the unfortunate economic consequence is leading to the biggest economic slowdown since the Great Depression,” Windham Grows Program Manager Peter Doran said in a news release.
The Brick Meetinghouse Committee, in conjunction with the Historic Preservation Society, will hold its third annual plant sale on Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the 1817 Brick Meetinghouse. This spring open house, with the Meetinghouse open for viewing, will take place provided that developments in the COVID-19 pandemic do not prohibit such an event. “Knowing that everything can be set up outdoors on the Meetinghouse lawn with plenty of safe social distancing, and no need for...
In its most recent grant round, the 1772 Foundation, based in Providence, R.I., worked with the Preservation Trust of Vermont and other Northeastern states to administer matching grants of up to $10,000. One of the recipients was the Retreat Farm, which will use its $10,000 to help repair and preserve barns at the farm. Ten other such projects in Vermont also received funding. The Retreat Farm was the only recipient from Windham County. “These small grants will not only provide...
Pots of different healthy perennials, shrubs, and select annuals and vegetables with fresh soil and weeded plants are being prepared for the Chester Plant Sale to be held on Friday, May 29, and Saturday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Sunday, May 31, from 1 to 3 p.m., on the side lawn of St. Luke's Church, 313 Main St. If any plants are left at the end of the weekend, the sale will continue the following...
Yellow Barn, the renowned, international chamber music center, has returned to its roots to reimagine its annual festival as a series of summer artist residencies. When faced with challenges that grew exponentially as the coronavirus pandemic escalated, Yellow Barn said in a news release that it looked to its very beginnings for inspiration and guidance. In that first summer in 1969, before the original barn was used for performances, Yellow Barn was small enough to be hosted by individuals who...
Here's a list of what towns in Windham County are doing on Green Up Day, and whom to contact if you want more information: • Athens: Lynn Morgan, 802-869-2227 or [email protected]. Leave full bags and large debris along roadsides for pick up. • Brattleboro: Brattleboro Subaru, 1234 Putney Rd., (Bag pickup and drop-off); Robin Rieske, 802-275-7232 or [email protected]. Bags available on Green Up Day from 8 a.m. to noon at Brattleboro Food Co-op, Brattleboro Subaru, and Pliny Park. • Brookline:
A “Lancaster Barnyard” hooked rug handmade by Linda Gifkins, a fiber artist in town, is a prize in the Friends of the Wardsboro Public Library's Best Raffle Ever!, for which tickets are now on sale. Each year, the proceeds help cover the cost of utilities and upkeep at the Gloria Danforth Memorial building, which is the home of the Wardsboro Free Library at 170 Main St. The rug, valued at $600, is 27 inches long by 20 inches wide, is...
Obituaries • Pamela Jane Bickford, 65, of Brattleboro. Died Feb. 20, 2020 at the Jack Byrne Center in Lebanon, N.H. Pam was born on Feb. 7, 1955 in Albany, N.Y., the daughter of Constance (Bonneau) and Roy Bickford Sr. She was a 1973 graduate of Brattleboro Union High School. Pam lived in the Brattleboro/Wilmington area, then moved to Mesa, Ariz., before returning back to Vermont. Pam worked at Walgreens for the past 25 years. Survivors include her brother Roy Bickford...
The lyric film Black Mother has been described as “part film, part baptism.” It chronicles director Khalik Allah's spiritual journey through the island of Jamaica. Calling the critically praised film “a proclamation, a poem and a prayer,” Allah's film is an audio-visual love letter to Jamaica, depicted through the lens of family, Black life, and spirituality. Says director Allah, “There's no container for this film, it overflows with intimate portraiture and prayers that are intended to hit you in the...
The Brattleboro Music Center and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit's CameraMusic Series to present a special livestream concert by violinist/conductor Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson on Saturday, May 30. The concert will start at 8 p.m. at chambermusicdetroit.org/laredo-robinson. An interview will air at 7:30 p.m. This performance, recorded at the Brattleboro Music Center on May 18, includes Handel/Halvorsen's Passacaglia for Violin and Cello; Mozart's Duo for Violin and Cello, after KV 423 in G major; Erwin Schulhoff's Duo...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Vermont Department of Health, tobacco companies in the United States continue to use most of their marketing budgets placing ads in stores where their products are sold. Such companies often use tactics such as placing advertisements where children can see them in order to target youth. Sunday, May 31 marks World No Tobacco Day, and Greater Falls Connections is celebrating local retailers that reduce tobacco access and advertising. The...
Vermont Fish and Wildlife says the deer population is too large, and so they will issue more muzzle-loader licenses this year. Good, I get it. Too many deer means both an increase in Lyme disease and over-browsing of young trees, which damages the forests. Now, to meet that same logical objective, how about stopping the wanton slaughter of coyotes? The forests are out of balance not because we issue too few hunting licenses, but because we have killed off all...
Would you invite a known coronavirus carrier into your home to live with you and your family? Allowing 5G into Vermont would be like inviting the coronavirus to live with you and every other family in Vermont. Reckless! Self-defeating. For a healthy future and full internet convenience/ capability, hard-wired physical cable to every home and business will satisfy our state's internet access needs safely. Thank you for insisting on health and safety for all.
I've known Michelle Bos-Lun for 20 years. We taught together at The Meeting School, a Quaker School in New Hampshire. Later, I worked for her at Youth Services in Brattleboro on the Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP). We have also served together on the board of the Lyman Fund, a small Quaker foundation. Michelle is one of those people who brings her whole self to whatever she does. She's passionate about human rights and social justice, worldwide, locally, and...
On May 20, I pulled off Exit 2 in Brattleboro, proceeded briefly down Route 9, and then pulled into a church parking lot to make a phone call. As I was entering the parking lot, I noticed a naked man exiting his vehicle. While I could have done without seeing a dude in his birthday suit on one of my infrequent trips into public during this pandemic, I still decided to make my call there. With that said, I made...
The town will move its traditional Independence Day celebration online this July 4 due to COVID-19 public safety concerns and state crowd-size limits. The volunteer “By the People: Brattleboro Goes Fourth” citizens committee and town Recreation & Parks Department typically hold a parade downtown and family activities and fireworks at Living Memorial Park. However, this year, the town's 47th annual free family Independence Day festivities will shift to several digital offerings. According to a news release, this includes a two-week...
I enjoyed very much the article about COVID prevention in elder-care institutions. However, I think you missed a great opportunity to acknowledge the difference between nursing homes and assisted-living homes.This is a very important distinction, but the article uses the terms “nursing home” and “assisted living” seemingly interchangeably. These two types of institution serve different (though somewhat overlapping) populations; they are staffed differently and capable of different levels of care, have very different cost and coverage options, and are regulated...
To all Vermont Residents: It is a disturbing fact that, with less than 50 percent self-responses, Vermont currently has one of the lowest census response rates in the country. The national census is a Constitutional requirement, and while the COVID-19 pandemic has added challenges, the census must be completed. The politics in this country might be highly polarized, but an accurate census count of Vermonters is something we should all agree is necessary. Here are three big reasons for you...
What is normal? I keep hearing that word by those rushing to open up our country during this pandemic. They keep saying, “Let's get back to normal,” and I find myself wondering what normal is because it doesn't seem to have worked. Is your normal like my normal? Or is normal in Missouri different than normal in Vermont? Or could it be we are all just not normal? I am in the one of the groups considered vulnerable to this...
After two months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, retail stores within Vermont reopened for business - with limitations - on May 22. As part of Gov. Phil Scott's executive order that gave stores the green light to reopen with precautions, the state is requiring employees to wear face coverings or work behind a plexiglas sneeze guard when in the presence of others. Scott also said that municipalities could pass stricter mandates, and the town wasted no time taking...
I have always believed that one of the basic laws of economics is that of supply and demand. We have come to expect that when demand is high, prices tend to rise and when demand is low, they may drop. That appears to be true for most items - except for gasoline in Windham County. While nationally, the price of gas has dropped significantly at the pump for the past two months, the prices at stations in this county have...
Over the past few weeks, I have been tempted to create a squad of the mask police. I have seen too many people who either don't seem to understand how a face mask is supposed to work, or they think half a job is better than none. When I see people who do not cover their nose with a mask, my blood pressure rises a little, but I have refrained from telling them how to use it correctly. Forty years...
The sun sparkles on the waters of Sweet Pond once again. The pond's return to community use symbolizes what the combined efforts of community members, lawmakers, and state employees can achieve. Last fall, state contractors completed renovating a historic dam that was deemed unsafe, requiring the draining of the 18-acre pond in one of the state's smallest parks in 2011. With the project complete last fall, the water from Keats Brook started to fill Sweet Pond once again, marking a...
The pattern of Memorial Day here has varied little over the years An honor guard comprised of members of the town's veterans organizations makes the rounds of the local cemeteries and memorials in the early morning, then comes back to the Town Common for a service just before noon in the front of the town's memorial to its war dead from the 20th century. After the service, the veterans and their families and friends and neighbors usually adjourns to American...
Sometime today, if everything goes A-OK, John Glenn will be orbiting the Earth in the space shuttle Discovery. Glenn, who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the earth, is our country's last great hero. The outpouring of affection and excitement for him after his first flight in space was as unexpected as it was authentic. The space program, when initiated, had many goals - the least of which was space exploration. It was, first, a very expensive Cold...
On May 21 and 23, members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Vermont and allies stood along Main Street and Putney Road to create awareness that the COVID-19 crisis has presented us with the opportunity to envision and create a better world. The activists wore face masks and observed social distancing recommendations. Activism often seeks to disrupt the status quo or the order of normality, with the intent of both raising awareness for a cause and beginning to implement change for the...
§Go to the edge where there once was a pond. §It was Sweet to behold. Wish I had a magic wand §to show you the riches that nobody owned: §gone now, drawn down to mud-skin and bones. * * * §Without Sweet Pond, I guess, the sky will not fall. §Without Sweet Pond, no one's talking urban sprawl. §Without Sweet Pond, there's always death and taxes. §Without Sweet Pond, the moon still wanes and waxes, * * * §Though we...