BRATTLEBORO-Regular readers will notice the thinness of this week's Commons, the odd placement of usual features like the Sports page and the crossword puzzle, and the disturbing lack of the Voices section.
While out of town at a professional conference last week, your editor contracted Covid, and the realities of time and space simply made it impossible to do otherwise.
Next week's paper will feature an eight-page Voices section, which will include a tsunami of letters about the upcoming state primary election.
We especially regret the delay in publishing these letters, given that early voting is now underway. While we always encourage the prompt and efficient implementation of the democratic process, please bear in mind that we will be continuing to publish news about the election and profiles of the candidates for contested races.
BELLOWS FALLS-Canal Street Art Gallery (CSAG) is launching the Student Art Exhibition Program, a new monthly show with a mission to fill the need for professional experience in the arts. CSAG says it seeks the funds to offer students the opportunity "to foster their creativity, cultivate real world skills,
College news • Jem A. Cohen of Brattleboro was awarded a degree in economics and business in the liberal arts at St. Lawrence University's commencement ceremony on May 19 in Canton, New York. • Owen Ameden of Jamaica, Chace Perkins of Putney, and Arin Bates of West Wardsboro were...
Soil management workshop offered at Walker Farm EAST DUMMERSTON - On Thursday, July 18, from 9 a.m. to noon, join the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District (WCNRCD), for a high tunnel soil management workshop at Walker Farm on Route 5. Participants will learn how Walker Farm utilizes their high tunnels and hear what programs and tools are available to manage soils, to maintain high tunnels, to manage soil health in high tunnels, and to seize funding opportunities for conservation...
BRATTLEBORO-On Saturday, July 20, from 2 to 4 p.m., (1)Brattleboro House of Hospitality for Unhoused Children and Families will hold a family benefit event for its new project: Skyberry. Skyberry is a safe place for homeless children in Brattleboro. The event takes place on the soccer field at the Winston L. Prouty Campus, 130 Austine Drive. There is a $15 individual and $35 family suggested donation. The rain date is Sunday, July 21. "Join in the fun with skyberry's benefit...
BRATTLEBORO-Early and absentee ballots for the Aug. 13 State Primary Election are available by request. Absentee ballots for this election must be requested. Anyone wishing to vote early and in-person may do so at the Brattleboro Town Clerk's Office. This option is available through Monday, Aug. 12, at 5 p.m. Anyone wishing to vote absentee may apply for an absentee ballot until Aug. 12, at 5 p.m., although it is recommended doing so as soon as possible to account for...
BRATTLEBORO-Arts Council of Windham County (ACWC) recently announced the grantees for this year's Brattleboro Town Arts Fund (TAF) program. Twelve community-focused creative projects were selected from a competitive field of proposals received in this fifth year of the TAF program. According to a ACWC news release, TAF "promotes the development and presentation of creative projects that contribute positively to the greater community and to the vibrancy and diversity of Brattleboro's arts and cultural landscape. TAF projects explore social and quality-of-life...
BRATTLEBORO-118 Elliot supports the collaboration of local artists and has seven artists exhibiting in July: Tina Olsen, Mary Wright, Ellen Maddrey, John Loggia, Molly Melloan, and Jack Pombriant. The gallery will host an artists' talk and reception on Thursday, July 18. There will be a reception and viewing time from 5 to 6 p.m. The talk starts at 6 p.m. Each current exhibitor will focus on one piece of art. The artists will reveal their individual process, such as choices...
PUTNEY-Yellow Barn's season continues with concerts at 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, plus a special children's concert at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, July 18. Also this week, violinist Donald Weilerstein will give his annual masterclass at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 20. All events take place at the Big Barn on Main Street in Putney. This summer Yellow Barn is introducing several programs to bring audiences and musicians together. On Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. on the Big Barn patio, Artistic...
BRATTLEBORO-Audiences of all ages will delight in Thumbelina, an original story ballet from Avant Vermont Dance, touring Southeastern Vermont this July. An adventurous tale of a tiny girl who meets a cast of animals on her way a magical fairyland, Thumbelina debuts at Retreat Farm in Brattleboro on Friday, July 26, at 5:30 and 7 p.m. Additional dates include Saturday, July 20, at 11 a.m., at Lyman Point Park in White River Junction, presented as part of the Junction Dance...
BRATTLEBORO-Join the Windham World Affairs Council (WWAC) on Wednesday, July 24, at 6:30 p.m., at 118 Elliot to explore these connections with Margaret Cerullo, a Professor Emerita of Sociology and Feminist Studies at Hampshire College and a member of the Lightning Collective, which produced the 2022 book, Zapatista Stories for Dreaming An-Other World by Subcomandante Marcos. Mexico elected Claudia Sheinbaum, the country's first female president, in a landslide victory in June amid growing violence against women and journalists in the...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Music Center's popular "Music Under the Stars" summer concert series continues Saturday, July 20, with the Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) Big Band with Alexis Cole. The VJC Big Band, under the leadership of Musical Director Rob Freeberg, is made up of area professional musicians who come together to enjoy the rewards of playing "invigorating, challenging, and historically significant repertoire," states a news release. They will be joined by New York-based vocalist Cole, who, according to Jazz Times magazine,
PUTNEY - Twilight Music continues its 21st Twilight On The Tavern Lawn series of bluegrass, folk/rock, world beat, jazz, pop, and Zydeco summer concerts on Sunday, July 21, with an evening of the hits and harmonies of Phil and Don Everly performed by Sean Altman and Jack Skuller. The concert begins at 6 p.m. on the Putney Tavern lawn in downtown Putney (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or at Next Stage at 15 Kimball Hill in case of rain.
The magazine VermontBiz (formerly Vermont Business Magazine) was at the annual National Alliance of Area Business Publishers conference this year, where it won two Gold Awards and one Silver Award for editorial content. One of the Gold Awards was for Joyce Marcel's profile last fall about Green Mountain Power President and CEO Mari McClure. Marcel, also a journalist for The Commons, earned the award for Best Personality Profile for her story, "Mari McClure: A Basketball Prodigy Takes an Electric Utility...
WESTMINSTER WEST-The Nature Museum in Grafton presents "Pollinators, Plants, and People," an evening featuring Robert Michael Pyle, the founder of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The event will take place on Sunday, July 21, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Westminster West Church. This event is co-sponsored by the Vermont Biodiversity Alliance, the Living Earth Action Group, and the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, organizations committed to promoting environmental awareness and conservation practices in our community. Pyle is an...
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Historical Society (VHS) has received federal funding to conduct oral histories documenting the experience of COVID-19 in the state of Vermont. One of their project field interviewers will be in Brattleboro and able to meet with people on Thursday, Aug. 8, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In a news release, VHS organizers say they "would like to interview people across Vermont about their experiences over the past several years. Our core guiding question will be 'what was...
MARLBORO-Marlboro Music Festival continues with performances on Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, July 21, at 2:30 pm, as well as free open rehearsals all week long in Persons Auditorium, on the Potash Hill campus in Marlboro. Throughout the week, audiences can enjoy an exciting mix of repertoire for piano, strings, woodwinds, and voice, performed by Marlboro's esteemed senior artists and new musical leaders. Programs include music by Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, as...
BRATTLEBORO-MaryJane Renaud Giroux remembers the day in 1961 when her father, Hyacinth Renaud, came home from work with some news. "I bought the Estey buildings," he told her mother, Louise. "With what?" she replied. Giroux recalls the story, laughing at it as her father would have. More than 60 years after that conversation, vestiges of the Estey Organ Company are front and center in her home, which is decorated with several framed blueprints of the instruments, including a sketch of...
-The Brattleboro Little League 10-U All-Stars defeated Bennington, 2-1, on June 14 to win the District 2 championship and advance to the state tournament. Brattleboro earned home field for the best-of-three championship round with a 10-0 win in four innings over Bennington on July 7. The championship series got off to a rough start for Brattleboro with a 4-1 loss to Bennington in the first game on July 9. Winning pitcher Reagan Seddon struck out 10 Brattleboro batters over 5...
BRATTLEBORO-Two attorneys at vastly different points in their careers are vying for the open seat in District 9 vacated by Rep. Tristan Toleno, who will retire at the end of his term after serving for 12 years in the Legislature. Deputy State's Attorney David Gartenstein, 64, and criminal law attorney Ian Goodnow, 32, of Costello, Valente, and Gentry, are both seeking the seat. Both men are former chairs of the Brattleboro Selectboard. Gartenstein, currently the town moderator, has also served...
BRATTLEBORO-Property taxes will go up about 8% after the Selectboard voted unanimously July 9 to adopt the fiscal year 2025 property tax rate. Their vote was essentially a rubber stamp to pay for what was decided at this year's Representative Town Meeting, the Grand List, and state-mandated education rates, as Finance Director Kim Frost explained. "The good thing is state statute requires that the Selectboard set the rate, but every decision has been made, so that's a good thing," said...
WILLIAMSVILLE-Rock River Artists (RRA) hosts its annual open studio tour this weekend in studios as varied as the artists themselves. At sites from Newfane to Marlboro, the public is welcome to visit, to engage with artists, and, of course, to make a purchase. While one could expect to see a dozen and more artists on this summer mainstay, this year only seven studios will be open: those of potters Richard Foye and Mucuy Bolles and of visual artists Deidre Scherer,
BRATTLEBORO-"The success of our communities is deeply connected to the ability of our youth to realize their educational, career, and life goals and aspirations and to access opportunities in Vermont and beyond." This is the belief at the heart of the Youth Opportunity Initiative, a project introduced by the Vermont Proposition in 2023 aimed at gathering the feedback of people across Vermont on the current state and potential future of youth education. The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) backed...