WILLIAMSVILLE-On the weekend of July 17 and 18, The Williamsville Hall will celebrate its 100th anniversary year.
A multimedia exhibition of Hall history will be on display, and food will be available. Top of the Hill Grill will cater a barbecue dinner at 6:15 p.m. ($10 adults/$5 children under 6). Dan DeWalt will play piano during dinner. Light refreshments will be available from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. All proceeds from food sales go to the Williamsville Hall Fund.
Saturday evening's festivities will also include a performance by The Williamsville Hall Preservation Brass Band from 6 to 7 p.m., punctuated by a celebratory cannon salute at 6:15 p.m. In addition, guests will be invited to ring the bell in the Little Brown Church next door to the Hall for a $1 donation to the Hall Fund.
A 2011 calendar featuring Porter Thayer photographs of Williamsville and its environs will be on sale.
On July 2, federal agencies awarded two Vermont telecommunications organizations $47.1 million in federal economic recovery grants to build fiber optic networks that will help form the core of Vermont's broadband Internet network. The grants are the largest public investment in broadband infrastructure ever made in Vermont. The National...
In a classic illustration of the old aphorism “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce has decided to confront the fear, uncertainty and doubt over the downtown reconstruction project by launching a new marketing campaign. We admit that there is an element of...
Circus Smirkus' 2010 Big Top Tour will make a stop in Brattleboro on July 14 and 15. Show times for Wilderness Wonders: Outdoor Adventures Under the Big Top are 2 and 7 p.m. Circus Smirkus, based in Greensboro, is Vermont's award-winning international youth circus, with a 23-year tradition of bringing joy and magic to towns all over the Northeast. The traveling youth circus will perform 69 shows this summer, from the mountains of Vermont to the shores of Maine. Thirty...
An early morning fire Friday heavily damaged The Marina restaurant on Putney Road. No injuries were reported. “It's surreal,” said Jill Johnson, wife of Marina owner Dennis Smith. Johnson said she and Smith watched the flames and emergency lights across the West River as they drove down Route 30 after receiving a call 45 minutes after the fire was reported. The roof of the Marina had collapsed above the kitchen. Dreadful burn marks surrounded most of the broken windows. Glass...
What helps Vermonters evaluate candidates for governor is usually a complicated stew of the personal, intellectual, and political. But no ingredient may be more important than the X factor, a candidate's ability to persuade voters he or she can be trusted to get the big job done: the job of competently governing pesky, contrary Vermont. If a candidate can forge that connection of trust, he or she will more than likely raise the most money, see their issues gain the...
What do you see on the Rock River Artists Open Studio Tour? Artists, of course. And studios. But also orange day lilies growing like weeds. The Rock River. High ferns. Flower gardens. Contented cats. Mountain views. Rushing streams. Bridges. Winding dirt roads. And houses that look like they are home to Hobbits. This is the 18th year that the artists of South Newfane and Williamsville have invited guests into their homes and studios. The free tour is set for Saturday...
To say that my parents are a little right-leaning is like saying that the ocean is a little damp. Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with their views as long as those views remain in their chosen home of Virginia and don't come up to Brattleboro like a pair of jackbooted thugs, kicking in the door and demanding papers... and... (breathe, breathe, serenity now...) Just joking. Honestly, if you knew my mother and could imagine her wearing jackboots,
I don't remember at what age I made the unilateral decision to abandon the notion of God as the ethereal benefactor up in the sky. I was past my teen years at least. I know because at the precocious age of 12, I informed my devout Episcopalian parents that I was ready to be confirmed. And so began confirmation classes at St. John's Anglican Church in our small Nova Scotia town. I remember kneeling before the bishop as he blessed...
It's good to see the road builders at work again on Route 5. Real people doing real work. At a time when jobs are hard to get. And the roads and bridges need attention. Thank you, Uncle Sam, for stimulating our local economy. Soon, trucks will also be digging up Main Street, Brattleboro, because the sewer pipes need replacement (a scheduled project we've known for years). The sad side is that the Main Street trenches could also have held both...
With $160,400 in donations and $11,800 in pledges from 107 donors, Friends of Algiers Village, Inc. has crossed the threshold to purchase the Guilford Country Store, and the nonprofit group has been negotiating with a Bernardston, Mass., storekeeper to lease the building and operate the business. The group had a July 1 deadline for the closing as a condition of the purchase-and-sale agreement for the historic property. With that deadline passed, “it seems like we have enough money to complete...
Brattleboro Post 5 is getting off to a rocky start in the early going of the American Legion Baseball season. After a late rally saw players take a brief 2-1 lead, Post 5 could not hang on late, as they dropped a 3-2, walk-off loss to Bennington Post 13 at Spinelli Field in Bennington. The loss put Post 5 at 4-3 on the season, while Post 13 improved to 6-1. Things looked good early for Brattleboro, taking a 2-0 lead...
The path to Eagle Scout status, the highest rank in Boy Scouting, has been cleared for Evan Martin of Putney, by his helping design and build a new sign for Rescue Inc.'s headquarters. Martin, who just turned 18 and just graduated from Brattleboro Union High School, is a member of Brattleboro Troop 405. He completed his Eagle project before his birthday as required. Rescue Inc. provides emergency medical services to 14 communities in southern Vermont and New Hampshire. The squad...
Photo galleries by Randolph T. Holhut (from the ground) and Jeff Potter (from one flight up)
The town of Halifax celebrates its 260th anniversary this year and, as part of the celebration, residents will hold Old Home Day on July 16, 17 and 18. “It's to bring people back [to their home town], to meet new people and to reacquaint with old [friends],” says Joan Courser, chair of the Halifax Old Home Days committee, about the reason behind the July celebration. Festivities include live entertainment, a parade, barbecue and children's activities (see sidebar for event schedule).
New Moms Network is a free service of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Birthing Center. Moms meet on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the Brew Barry Conference Room on lower level of main hospital. Programs range from handling a crying baby to fire safety, with much in between. The BMH New Moms Network programs are facilitated by Dawn Kersula, a BMH Birthing Center nurse. It is also a chance for new moms (dads are also welcome) to network and...
The logistics of road resurfacing are as precise as a recipe and nearly as epic as a military invasion. One day last week, during a short break on the Newfane-Townshend Route 30 resurfacing project, Terry Dixon, paving foreman for contractor Lane Construction of Cheshire, Conn., pointed this out. Dixon said that nine men and 16 machines - one paver, one rubber tire roller, two steel drum rollers and 12 trucks carrying about 1,600 tons of asphalt - first made the...
Friday, July 16 • 7 p.m. - Live entertainment by Dusti Dufrense of Colrain, Mass., and great ice cream. Community hall: located at the intersection of Branch and Brook roads in the village of West Halifax. Saturday, July 17 A daylong celebration of fun, food, history and much more. Activities start at 10 a.m. There will be a historic homes bus tour, children's parade, kids pie eating contest, food and games for the kids. • 10 a.m. - Firemen's water...
Apart from whatever inconvenience the closing of the Williamsville covered bridge for two months accrues to commuters and tourists traveling to and from South Newfane via the Dover Road, it's not nearly as serious as what the contractors and state employees fear if hordes of locals want to watch (and who doesn't?) the new bridge, now complete and resting on private property, being transported to where the old bridge once was. Indeed, officials decline to disclose the estimated target date...
The Marina may be down, but it's not out. An early-morning fire on July 2 heavily damaged the landmark restaurant off Putney Road, right on the eve of one of its biggest weekends of the year. But owners Jill Johnson and Dennis Smith have vowed to rebuild and hope to have The Marina back in business by next spring. That optimism was demonstrated at Brattleboro's Fourth of July parade, as a contingent of about 30 current and former employees of...
Riders, eight of them in all, will bike 200 miles between Derby Line and Brattleboro on July 17 and 18 to raise $16,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro. The group will follow Route 5 for most of the journey with a stopover in Bradford. Riders cover their own expenses, allowing every dollar donated to go to the Boys & Girls Club, which serves more than 1,200 members and more than 3,000 non-member area youth. “Truly 100 percent...