For 16 years, I managed my husband's medical practice. The “Mom and Pop Doc Shop,” I called it, because it was like an old-time general store where the proprietors lived in back and knew who would come in when, what they would buy, and when they would pay, if ever.
Our office was never so quaint as to be attached to our house, but that never stopped patients from dropping by after hours for an informal consult. And, like a general store, it took both of us to run the practice.
Tim Shafer and I met in 1984, the year he arrived in Townshend, Vt., as a doctor for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). The Corps - a program funded through the U.S. Public Health Service - had paid Tim's Dartmouth Medical School tuition in return for a commitment to work for three years in an underserved region.
The NHSC hoped that doctors would decide to stay and practice in the area where they did their service, but the two previous NHSC doctors posted in Townshend had left as soon as their payback period was over.
Windham County's two state senate seats stayed in Democratic hands on Tuesday as Sen. Jeanette White of Putney won her fifth term. She will be joined by former U.S. ambassador Peter Galbraith of Townshend. White and Galbraith defeated Republican challengers Lynn Corum and Hilary Cooke, both of Brattleboro. On...
There's been no place like home for the Brattleboro Colonels this season. Undefeated at Tenney Field during the regular season, the second-seeded Colonels kept the streak going in the postseason with a 3-1 win over the seven-seeded Colchester Lakers in a Division I quarterfinal match on Friday. As was...
New “Train-the-Brain” support groups focusing on harnessing the power of the mind to assist in maintaining health will be offered beginning in January by a new nonprofit institute in Brattleboro. The support groups will be offered by the Northeast PNI Institute for Healing (www.nepni.org), which was established in December 2009 by therapists Michael Gigante of Brattleboro and Rupa Cousins of East Dummerston, with start-up support from eight other professionals: Joanne Finkel of West Dover; Phyllis Gigante, Norb Johnston, Alexander Potter,
The Bellows Falls Terriers capped off a successful regular season Saturday with a 42-24 demolition of the undermanned Springfield Cosmos at Hadley Field. It was the 99th game between these long-time rivals, and BF holds a 50-45-4 lead in the series. Springfield only dressed 19 players for this game, and they had few answers against the top team in Division III. Normally, the Terriers give teams a heavy dose of running back Ryan Hayward. But after he scored the first...
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. • Brian Michael Alfonso, 45, of East Dover. Died Oct. 28 at his home. Son of Frank Alfonso of Stamford and Sandra Dawley Alfonso of Pittsfield, Mass. Husband of Traci Alfonso. Father of Aizlyn, Shaylie and Kindyl Alfonso, all of East Dover. Brother of Dwayne Alfonso and Keith Alfonso of Pittsfield, Mass.; and Linda Alfonso...
Visual arts • Vietnamese contemporary art exhibit comes to Marlboro College: Marlboro College will host an exhibit of woodblock prints by contemporary Vietnamese artists in Drury Gallery through Nov. 28. An opening reception will take place in the gallery on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 4 p.m. The prints are on loan from the personal collection of Judith Hughes-Day, a New York City-based collector specializing in contemporary Vietnamese artists. The exhibit will focus on a series of prints by artist Phan...
The following is the November schedule for American Red Cross classes in Brattleboro. All classes are held at the Green Mountain Chapter office on 81 High St. For more information, or to register, contact the office at 802-254-2377 or www.redcrossvtnhuv.org. • Nov. 4, 6-10 p.m. Standard First Aid, $40 fee. Participants learn first aid skills for treating a variety of injuries and sudden illnesses. • Nov. 6, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. First Aid/CPR/AED adult $70 fee. A course for lay responders.
Bridie Carmichael is not a typical 16-year-old girl. She plays drums in the Brattleboro Union High School band and was part of the band's trip to Washington D.C. for the inauguration of Barack Obama last year. She started her own a capella group called “Renegade.” She's on the softball team, but that's just the beginning. Jane Noyes of Dummerston has known Carmichael since she was an 8 years old taking piano lessons at the Brattleboro Music Center, where Noyes worked...
Based on public suggestions and comments, the committee reviewing the town charter has altered some of the changes it has already proposed to the form and structure of town government. According to member Larry Bloch, the Charter Review Commission has been reviewing public comment from meetings held at the start of the month. Originally, the commission suggested the town manager oversee an annual report on the progress of the town plan, the document that defines the town's long-range goals and...
What could be better than Bach on a November afternoon? Eight musicians heartily agree that an hour with the master composer is a sublime experience. To that end, they have gathered their forces in order to present an afternoon concert featuring the music of J.S. Bach, composer of composers. On Sunday, Nov. 7, at 3 p.m., Peggy Spencer, violin, organists Clark Anderson and Susan Dedell, and contralto Jennifer Hansen will perform in a concert that also includes musicians Marcia Cassidy,
Community members wishing to volunteer or make donations should contact the committee members listed below: • Food/supply donations; kitchen work or cooking: Ray Branagan, 802-579-4649 or [email protected]; Ian Bigelow, 802-579-7903 or [email protected]. • Prepare a dessert: Michele Sulser, 802-428-4030 or [email protected]. • Deliver meals from St. Michael's School on Thanksgiving: Peter Wiles, 802-254-4687 or [email protected]. • Prep vegetables on Wednesday, Nov. 24 at St. Michael's School, afternoon-evening: Robin Allen, 802-579-4597 or [email protected]. • Musicians interested in playing on Thanksgiving Day:
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Humming away at the Windham Solid Waste Management District's complex on Old Ferry Road in Brattleboro is a 250-kilowatt electrical generator powered by methane gas. The gas comes from trash that's decaying in the former WSWMD landfill. Central Vermont Public Service is buying the electricity this generator is producing, enough to power about 300 homes. And soon, waste heat from the generator will heat a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse and aquaculture facility that will provide organic food to local markets and the...
At its 55th annual meeting held Oct. 26 at the Cotton Mill Complex in Brattleboro, the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. awarded its Founders Award to Landmark College of Putney. At the meeting, BDCC President Hugh Barber thanked retiring board members, Peter Van Oot of Downs Rachlin, and Barry Beeman of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, for their service on the board. The membership then elected Dan Normandeau of the Windham Foundation and Bob Stevens of Stevens and Associates to the Board of...
In the six contested House races in Windham County on Tuesday, all the incumbents came out on top in their respective races, while Republicans picked up one of the two open seats in the county. Turnout was heavy, and more than half the towns in the county opened the polls at 9 a.m. or earlier to accommodate voters. Townshend, Vernon and Wilmington opened their respective doors at 7 a.m. Election officials in Whitingham, Halifax, Wilmington and Dover reported a steady...
What's more agonizing than losing a soccer game on penalty kicks? How about having to go to a second round of penalty kicks. That's how the Brattleboro Colonels' season ended last Thursday, losing in a penalty kick shootout, 3-2, to the South Burlington Rebels in their first round Division I girls soccer playoff game at Tenney Field. After playing to a 1-1 tie in regulation and after playing 30 minutes of scoreless overtime, the No. 7 Colonels and the No.
Lynn Levine, an author who has just released her second book, has been passionate about nature and wildlife since she was a junior in college. “Someone pointed out a tree to me and told me it had a name,” she recalls. “That just hit my heart. I had never known that plants had names.” Levine became a forester, and for 32 years, she has run her own business, Forest Care. “My job involves working with private landowners and their woodlands,”
The fragrant and delicate basil has long been dead, black and shriveled. I tore the roots up yesterday and threw them in the compost. The surviving green tomatoes have been transformed into chutney, although the plants remain as grim reminders of frost. A bit of chard still sticks up its leaves, perky, hopeful. But seriously, summer is over. I mean, it's the beginning of November, for God's sake. What is one to do? Think of spring. Plant bulbs. Plan a...
Close finishes are getting to be a habit with Peter Shumlin. After prevailing in one of the closest Democratic primaries in years, the Senate President Pro Tem from Putney narrowly defeated his Republican challenger, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, in Tuesday's gubernatorial election. According to Vermont Public Radio, with 97 percent of the vote counted on Wednesday afternoon, Shumlin held a 113,884–109,410 lead on Dubie. Dubie conceded the race on Wednesday morning. In Windham County results, Shumlin won in Brattleboro (3,073–1,172),
The annual Brattleboro Community Thanksgiving Dinner committee continues a more-than-30-year tradition of serving Thanksgiving Day dinner and sharing friendship. Dinner will be served buffet-style at the River Garden on Thursday, Nov. 25, from noon until 5 p.m. Everyone is invited, and the meal is free. “Patrons are treated as special,” said committee member Katherine Barratt. “It's organized chaos,” joked member Ray Branagan. Every year, Branagan said, he wonders if enough diners will sit down and eat the food. Then, halfway...
At the age of 50, Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg was diagnosed with the neurological disorder known as Asperger's Syndrome, a type of autism. She experienced profound relief and joy, as well as grief, over the knowledge of what had caused her constant social and emotional struggles throughout her entire life. People who live on the autism spectrum find they have great difficulty with social interaction and communication and a tendency for repetitive behavior, among a constellation of other symptoms. In the case...
The Leland & Gray Rebels will play for their first state boys soccer championship in five years, while the Brattleboro Colonels playoff run ended abruptly. In a pair of Election Day soccer semifinals on Tuesday, the top-seeded Rebels knocked off Stowe, 2-1, in overtime in Division III play in Townshend. They will face BFA-Fairfax for the state title on Saturday. At Tenney Field, the sixth-seeded Essex Hornets upended the No. 2 Colonels, 5-1, in a Division I game that was...
Members of the Windham County Democrats allege that a poll watcher was improperly removed by Patricia O'Donnell, outgoing Republican state representative and county chairwoman of Brian Dubie's gubernatorial campaign. But according to O'Donnell, a member of the town's board of civil authority who was working at the polls on Tuesday, the poll watcher, Carolyn Gregory, did not identify herself as such and said the volunteer “came into the polls with a clipboard and said she was doing an exit poll.”
Voters cast their ballots in favor of keeping the Town Manger form of government at the Nov. 2 election, 527 to 226. Wilmington approved the town manager form of government, as defined by state statute, in 1967. By state law, towns must also vote to dissolve the town manager form of government. In September, a group of citizens petitioned the Selectboard to do just that. According to Mary Jane Finnegan, owner of the Wilmington Village Pub on South Main Street,