As a 19-year-old, I've spent the majority of my life living 11 miles away from Vermont Yankee.
Growing up, my awareness of what that meant was admittedly limited - it wasn't until I was about 16 that I realized why my dad mockingly called me “Yankee girl” when I left too many lights on. I started reading about the leaks and lies almost every day in the Brattleboro Reformer, but I was not yet ready to confront the issue.
Then I moved away from home. As a student in Middlebury, I started to notice that Vermont Yankee was a big deal not only in my small community, but across the state and even beyond.
I began to discuss the issue with my peers from Ohio and South Carolina and Washington, D.C. and found that they cared about our state's clean-energy future just as much as I did. We all imagine ourselves graduating from college and moving into a sustainable workforce, breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and enjoying Vermont's four wonderful seasons.
As part of its continuing efforts to teach people how to eat out of their gardens 12 months of the year, Post Oil Solutions' “(Re)learning to Feed Ourselves” project will feature a number of workshops as we approach the end of the growing season. The schedule is as follows:
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin is not ashamed of the title “politician.” The Putney Democrat embraces it, revels in it and considers it an honor to be called a politician. “If you mean someone who makes tough decisions, builds coalitions and delivers results, I'm a politician,” Shumlin said...
In a low-key but brash show of elitism this session, the Democratic super majority defined a new citizen underclass, and cut back the ability of the disenfranchised to sparticipate in government. Our legislative leaders affirmed that a person who is less educated is less capable of being an effective participant in a democracy. The Legislature also intimated that Vermonters who are not computer literate or do not have access to a computer have no need to follow what is happening...
Vendor applications are now being accepted for the fifth season of the Winter Farmers' Market at the River Garden in Brattleboro. Space for new vendors is limited but interested parties are encouraged to submit an application prior to the Sept. 1 deadline. The Winter Market opens on Nov. 6 for the 2010-11 season and will be open every Saturday from Nov. 6, 2010 through March 26, 2011 for a total of 20 markets. There will be no market on Christmas...
It sounds like a carbon copy of the Henry Louis Gates's racial profiling case of last summer, only this time here in Vermont. Police in Hartford respond to a call from a cleaning service of a suspected burglary at a townhouse. When police arrive, they enter the unit, find an African-American man sitting on a bathroom toilet somewhat dazed, and arrest him. He is handcuffed and dragged out of the unit, naked. Neighbors - one of them a retired police...
It was the same result for New Hampshire as the previous nine wins, but this year, it was achieved slightly differently. This year's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl game was billed as a battle between the fast-paced, no-huddle spread offense of Vermont and the power running game of New Hampshire's Wing-T offense. As usual, power won out as New Hampshire rolled up 300 yards of rushing for a 34-20 victory at MacLeay-Royce Field in Windsor on Saturday. New Hampshire leads the...
Faster passenger rail service to southern Vermont may soon be a reality. A recent $50 million federal stimulus award to the state for rail improvements, combined with related work in Connecticut and Massachusetts, could eventually cut about an hour off the 6-hour-plus travel time of Amtrak's Vermonter between Brattleboro and Penn Station in New York City. The northbound and southbound routes pass through Vermont daily between St. Albans and Washington, D.C. According to Vermont Agency of Transportation Rail Director Joe...
Most families will soon be enjoying the final days of summer, and thoughts will turn to school, soccer, and the beauty of fall. But for many families, there is a daily struggle to make ends meet. Putney Family Services has been working for more than 20 years to help support the families of Putney. Our non-profit organization began when a group of concerned teachers realized that many children had needs that were not being met during the school day. Since...
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. Traditional full obituaries will eventually be published as news on www.commonsnews.org as we receive them. As community support for the newspaper increases, we will surely reconsider publishing more traditionally complete obituaries in the print newspaper. • Shirley S. Benson, 78, of Jamaica and Greer, S.C. Died July 31 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.
The property tax bills have started going out around the county - the annual reminder to homeowners in towns from Brattleboro to Londonderry of how much it costs to educate our children. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Vermont spent $14,300 per pupil on K-12 education in the 2007-2008 school year, the fifth-highest total in the nation. By comparison, New Hampshire spent $11,619 per pupil, ranking 14th. Both Vermont and New Hampshire came in well above the national average of...
On Wednesday, July 28, the Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls had the privilege of hosting Peter Galbraith talking about Afghanistan. In light of recent news events, Ambassador Galbraith's visit was timely indeed. His insights, facts and comments illuminated the many complex situations and issues in Afghanistan, its relationships with other countries and its place in the world at large. The library wishes to thank the volunteers who supported the program, Village Square Booksellers, FACT TV, and especially Peter...
Tim Ellis is well known in the community as the man who puts the “play” in KidsPLAYce. But this fall, he is heading back to school. Ellis will be co-teaching grades 1 through 6 at The Neighborhood Schoolhouse, which emphasizes hands-on learning in multiage classrooms. Because of the school's experiential learning model, Ellis said his play-oriented teaching style, developed through 15 years of working with kids, will be right at home. “Play is vitally important to kids' learning,” Ellis said.
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Four years ago, Shir HeHarim - which means “Song of the Mountains” and is the name of the synagogue of the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community - was looking for a fundraiser. First they hit on the idea of showing Jewish films. Then they expanded the concept to Israeli films - films that are not necessarily written or directed by people who are Jewish. Then they added food, and a festival was born. “Being a Jewish organization, food is very important,”
Librarians say they see more people coming through their doors since the current economic crunch began two years ago. Library budgets, however, have been cut or remained the same, requiring libraries to do more with less. “As people cut budgets at home, they realize one of the places they can save money is at the library,” said State Librarian Martha Reid, noting the statewide trend of people using their libraries for Internet access and job hunting. Librarians have heard of...
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“I got bored … then realized there’s a lot of creative kids around here,” said Nina Simoneaux, the idea person behind the one-day youth art exhibit being held at 33 Bridge St., from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14. Simoneaux, 18, of Langdon, N.H., a former Fall Mountain School student who will attend Pratt Institute in New York this fall, said that when she realized the number of youth in the area who had no place to showcase...
What sets Doug Racine apart from the other candidates for governor? Doug is a realist. Pie-in-the-sky ideas and promises will not create jobs. Doug has shown the way to make change is to do the nitty-gritty work and negotiate across party lines, as he did for the health care reform bill (S.88) and other past legislation. The leadership was reluctant to bring up the bill, but Doug's passion and vision for health care for all ensured its passage. This terrific...
I saw two bumper stickers on a pickup cruising down beautiful, smooth, newly-paved Route 5 that said it all - “Peter Shumlin for Governor” and “Buy Local.” Let's put a Windham County boy in the governor's office in November. Vote Shumlin on or before Aug. 24.
For a musical group that turns family conflict into identity and branding, the members of the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band demonstrate some exceptional functionality. The band, which has released its second CD, Come Over, features longtime area musician Patty Carpenter singing duets with her daughter, Melissa Shetler, 38, now of Brooklyn. Shetler's father, Scott Shetler, complements the women's smooth, warm harmonies, accompanying them with tenor and baritone saxophone, clarinet, mandolin, clarinet and penny whistle. He is also Carpenter's ex-husband. A...
The state auditor is the elected official responsible for ensuring the integrity of every tax dollar spent. In carrying out that responsibility, the auditor's office itself must conduct its business with the highest integrity. As auditor, I will restore the integrity of the office. I will do this in two ways: first, by adhering to a personal code of conduct appropriate to the auditor's position, and by revitalizing the office to be a robust watchdog for Vermont taxpayers. I believe...
After five years of development and planning, ground has been broken on a new biodiesel plant in Greenfield, Mass. Northeast Biodiesel hopes to produce up to 3.5 million gallons a year of recycled vegetable oil biodiesel for home heating and transportation in a plant to be located in the Greenfield Industrial Park. Construction is set to begin on the new 6,600-square-foot building this month, with biodiesel fuel production slated to begin in January 2011. The biodiesel plant will use a...
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The Brattleboro Area Interfaith Clergy Association and its partners took a hot afternoon to clean swastikas spray-painted on rocks in an abandoned quarry near the West River. A group of about a dozen people representing Windham County's interfaith community did the work last Friday, including the Rev. Lise Sparrow, pastor of Guilford Community Church, the Rev. Phillip Wilson of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, the Rev. Cheryl Meachen and her son, Joshua, of First United Methodist Church, the Rev. Barbro Hansson...
A benefit concert for Making the Most of I, featuring Samirah Evans, Charles Neville and Moonlight Davis, will be held Saturday, Aug, 21, from 7:30-9:30 p.m., at the Stone Church Arts at 14 Church St. Making the Most of I (MMI) is a small nonprofit organization that serves low-income women in transition in Vermont. It provides free ongoing classes for women hoping to make healthy changes in their lives. MMI has served more than 1,200 women in the 12 years...
I read the news today - oh, boy!" Those words form the opening lyrics to both a well-known song and my reaction to the Brattleboro Reformer's Aug. 2 article about the Bellows Falls Middle School fix to the tune of $11.3 million. I wonder if it is time to reconsider the offer made to the WNESU by Compass School at its founding 12 years ago and to the Article 6 committee, more recently, to be a public-school option for grades...
Vermont needs a governor who will lead the people where they want to go. Peter Shumlin is the candidate who can provide that kind of leadership. Vermonters do not typically need a leader to tell us what we want. We are a citizenry that knows our own interests quite well. We prefer renewable energy to nuclear power, health care for all to profits for insurance companies, equal rights for all, fair educational taxation, and a working landscape that preserves our...
As with so many other candidates on the trail, Matt Dunne says it's all about jobs. The 40-year-old Dunne, one of five candidates for governor vying to win the Aug. 24 Democratic primary, says his background of state legislative experience, federal government administrative experience and private-sector business experience provides the right background to lead a state in difficult times and respond to the rapidly changing world economy. Dunne, who led the AmeriCorps program during the Clinton administration, says he has...