Weatherization works to save home dwellers money by increasing the insulation and air sealing of residences.
Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) will present a workshop virtually and in person on Monday, Feb. 6, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Brooks Memorial Library in the meeting room, upstairs next to the children’s room.
Affordable weatherization programs are available for renters, homeowners, and landlords. SEVCA’s Financial and Energy Coach Kevin O’Brien will discuss these programs and options and guide participants through the process. Community partners like Efficiency Vermont, Heat Squad, and the Vermont State Employees Credit Union (VSECU) all have programs that work toward weatherizing as many homes as possible.
SEVCA has its own nationally recognized weatherization team that can go beyond insulation and air sealing to look into heating systems. “The cost savings realized for an individual also has a huge positive environmental impact at the state level because of the reduction of heating fuels needed to keep the weatherized spaces more comfortable for Vermonters,” they say.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and CounterBalanceVT.com, tobacco companies in America spent $15 million in Vermont last year. Most of that marketing budget was spent placing ads in the stores where their products are sold. The tobacco companies often use tactics such as placing advertisements where children...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present New England’s folk/roots quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 4 pm. Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem feature 4-part vocal harmonies, indelible songs, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and a homemade percussion kit...
350 Brattleboro hosts community climate conversation BRATTLEBORO — What’s next for climate action in Vermont? 350 Brattleboro, part of 350VT, a statewide grassroots network, will host a community climate conversation via Zoom, Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Organizers say they hope “to explore how Vermont is doing, and how we can build collective power to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and provide the grassroots support our elected officials need to take bold action.” To register, go...
College news • Zinnia Siegel made the Dean’s List at the Early College Program at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. • Lacy Hudson of Grafton was named to the Dean’s List for the fall 2022 semester at Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts. • Sydney Henry of Brattleboro and John Peloso of Brattleboro were both named to the Dean’s List for the fall 2022 semester at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. • Jonathan Griffin, a sophomore business...
When Covid-19 struck in March 2020, one of the early casualties was the closing of the Uniformed Services Program (USP) at the Brattleboro Retreat, Vermont’s largest psychiatric hospital. USP, launched in 2009, brought in first responders from around the country, helping former and current military members, police, firefighters, emergency response personnel, etc. deal with the aftereffects of intense trauma — in particular, post-traumatic stress disorder. What was originally intended to be a short-term shutdown of the program turned into a...
The computerness of modern life savages too many of my days. By “computerness” I mean the combination of my own computer’s erraticness and the perversity of systems and businesses I have to deal with. You can attribute some of my difficulty to being old. But most of the difficulties are not of my making. They’re the result of a) anyone’s fallibility in handling hyper-complexity, and b) underlying it all, the silicon chip, created 62 years ago. It has not increased...
When you look at the successful high school sports programs in Vermont, they all have one thing in common — continuity in coaching and player development. However, it takes time and patience to build a successful team, not to mention being fortunate enough to have some good athletes at your school. The Bellows Falls girls’ basketball team has some good athletes on the team this season, but it is a young team of sophomores and juniors with new coaches —
I was a Hotel Pharmacy prescription customer who experienced examples of how they were forced out of business. Hotel Pharmacy told me that my Medicare Part D insurer has contracted with the manufacturer to cover the brand-name version of a common medication and deny coverage of generic equivalents. Moreover, the distributor requires a minimum order. Despite having generics in stock, Hotel Pharmacy had to advise me to switch this prescription to local Rite Aid or Walgreens, unless I could wait...
Our town is about to lose a cherished family business: Hotel Pharmacy will close its doors after four decades. It is really impossible to measure the loss until it happens. While never taken for granted, they — like a good family member — have always been here when you needed them. The Giamartinos and their wonderful longtime staff have always provided essential professional medical services and support not found in most doctors’ offices. They could help one navigate the absurdities...
Whether the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) should keep the current one-person principal mentor position or eliminate it and study the situation saw support from administrators from most schools in the Union at the Jan. 11 board meeting. In the current model, former Academy School Principal Andy Paciulli has been serving as sole mentor to district administrators. “The question for me is: How do we invest in leadership and support growth in leadership?” said Superintendent Mark Speno, who had been...
On Jan. 4, I saw our new Windham County senators sworn in. We will be well served by Sen. Wendy Harrison and Sen. Nader Hashim. It was a bittersweet day for me. For the first time in 20 years, I will not be serving in seat 16. Although it always sounds a bit trite, it has truly been an honor and a humbling experience to have had the faith of Windham County for two decades. Thank you. When I first...
Jesus Christ, we invoke your name! Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn.... In Christ’s holy name we pray. Amen! Two years ago, as throngs of supporters of former President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next, several made their way into the Senate chamber, where the sentiments above were expressed. Nearby, rioters in the Rotunda, overcome with emotion, erupted into chorus beneath the...
Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) Superintendent Mark Speno has been given a two-year contract. WSESU board members Chair Kerry Amidon, Michelle Luetjen Green, Liz Adams, Kelly Young, and Tim Maciel voted unanimously on Jan. 11 to authorize Amidon to negotiate and sign the agreement. “Congratulations,” Amidon said as applause erupted in the room. “Thank you,” replied Speno. “I am grateful and appreciative of the extension,” Speno told The Commons after the meeting. “I look forward to continuing to work with...
New England Youth Theater (NEYT) says it is “thrilled to offer a captivating musical theater opportunity” for performers aged 15–19 (14 with guardian consent). According to a news release, NEYT staff say they are “still waiting to secure the rights,” and therefore are not able to release the title of the show at this time. What they can share is “that Rebecca Waxman will be directing, working alongside a vibrant artistic team dedicated to fostering an experience full of discovery,
Shoppers with low incomes in four Vermont communities will soon have increased access to healthy, nutritious food, thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrition Incentives Program grant awarded to Farm Fresh Rhode Island in partnership with the Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA). Part of a multi-state initiative, the grant will provide funds for Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op and Hunger Mountain Co-op to pilot a Double Up Food Bucks program in 2023, offering a 50% discount on fresh fruit and...
A petition seeks to do away with what are known as “no-cause evictions” in a March 7 vote to amend the Town Charter. The Reformer quotes Marta Gossage, who submitted the petition and makes sweeping unsubstantiated statements that tenants are getting evicted without cause at a greater rate than in the past. Even if she’s accurate, what does that statistic say? She gives an emotional description of the experience of a single friend who received a 60-day notice to vacate...
Artist James Mullen will showcase his work in a free art exhibition in the Michael S. Currier Center at The Putney School. “Luminous Edge” will run from Jan. 19 to March 3, with an opening reception on Friday, Jan. 27, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. On display will be 72 vignette paintings from Mullen’s Pilgrimmage series. These paintings investigate iconic sites belonging to the lexicon of the 19th-century American landscape. “Presented as a grid, the paintings start to interact with...
“Help! Music for Troubled Times” is the theme of two Brattleboro Concert Choir (BCC) concerts, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 22, at 4 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre. According to BCC Director Jonathan Harvey, “Our program is focused on the idea of asking for, and receiving, aid. In this turbulent age, seeking help is an act both of necessity and of bravery, and the pieces on the program all touch on this idea from...
Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains have kicked off the 2023 Girl Scout Cookie season in New Hampshire and Vermont, as Girl Scouts and their troops rally their communities to support this entrepreneurial program. Every box of cookies sold “provides valuable experiences for Girl Scouts, such as service projects, troop travel, and summer camp for girls across the country,” according to the news release. Most Girl Scouts are already taking orders in person and online, and can personally...
River Gallery School of Art (RGS) recently announced it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Challenge America award of $10,000, and a Creative Futures Grant of $45,000 from the Vermont Arts Council. These grants will support community building and inclusive arts programming. The NEA grant is one of 262 Challenge America awards, totaling $2.62 million that were announced by the NEA as part of its first round of fiscal year 2023 grants.
It sounds like a proverbial grade-school math problem: How do you accommodate 250 people with only 234 beds? It’s a real-life predicament for human service workers here who report options at the local homeless shelter and state-subsidized motel-room program have reached historic highs — yet still aren’t enough. “Even as the number of shelter beds and motel rooms has increased, the need for these opportunities has grown at a faster rate,” said Jon Hoover, operations director at the Groundworks Collaborative,
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) presents “Regenerations: Reckoning with Radioactivity” on Friday, Jan. 27, and Saturday, Jan. 28, at 6 p.m. An interdisciplinary performance project created by Megan Buchanan and a team of collaborators, “Regenerations” draws inspiration from the exhibition “Renate Aller: The Space Between Memory and Expectation” and includes poetry, dance, projection, installation, and live music. “Regenerations” focuses on the spent radioactive fuel, radioactive water, and soil left behind by Vermont Yankee, the decommissioned nuclear power plant...
The Social Engagement Salon at Epsilon Spires will be the setting for surprising juxtapositions and playful absurdity during two events in late January. On the afternoon of Saturday, Jan 21, Roger Clark Miller of the post-punk band Mission of Burma will perform music on the prepared piano before hosting an evening of “Exquisite Corpse” word games and group drawing exercises. The following Saturday at 7 p.m., local artist and radio host Wendy M. Levy will lead a workshop in surrealist...
In the early 1980s, Keith Haring was a little-known artist from Kutztown, Pennsylvania, not yet the international art superstar and social activist. During this time, Haring made thousands of unsanctioned chalk drawings in New York City subway stations. Only a limited number survive to this day, having been thrown away or papered over by subway authorities. Seventeen of these historic drawings will be exhibited publicly for the first time at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) in the exhibition...
Was it just a couple of months ago, for the very first time, that Vermont decided to send a woman to the U.S. Congress? She was one of our own, a Brattleboro resident, a former Vermont Senate president pro tem, an idealistic, gay, married, mother-of-two, progressive woman who thought she was elected to fight for mental health, reproductive rights and housing for her constituents — which now, because she is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, encompasses the...