GUILFORD-Broad Brook Grange will hold the annual Guilford Pre-Town Meeting on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 6:30 p.m. The event will be live-streamed on Brattleboro Community Television, but those interested in participating should attend at Broad Brook Community Center.
Town Moderator Rick Zamore will facilitate the Feb. 20 session.
Town Meeting itself, the "floor meeting," will convene at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 1, at Guilford Central School. Australian balloting will take place on traditional Town Meeting Day, Tuesday, March 4, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Broad Brook Community Center, with voting for town and school district offices.
At the Pre-Town Meeting, the Selectboard will present and discuss the articles to be voted at Town Meeting, and will answer questions and receive comments from townspeople present.
College news • Elisabeth Keeler, a dental hygiene major from Wilmington, was named to the fall 2024 President's List at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. • Georgia Bristol from Dummerston, Liliana Carignan from Brattleboro, Destiny Duke from Vernon, and Cameron Gage from Putney were all named...
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) announces the launch of its winter-spring season of classes. Most sessions are 10 weeks long and begin the week of Feb. 16. Saxophonist Coleman Hawkins stated that "music should always be an adventure." One of the missions of the VJC is to provide opportunities...
BRATTLEBORO-Hadestown: Teen Edition by Anaïs Mitchell, is the Brattleboro Union High School musical, presented Feb. 13–15. The production is an adaptation of Greek myth. It tells the story of Eurydice, a poor girl who wants something more from life but doesn't quite know how to get it, and a boy, Orpheus, who is trying to finish a song that he believes will change the world for the better. These two wanderers, destined to meet, experience both love and loss. The...
BRATTLEBORO-A member of a Palestinian women's cooperative will visit Brattleboro on Sunday, Feb. 16, to show and sell tatreez, the iconic Palestinan embroidery included on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The Palestinian Tatreez Pop-up will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 69A Elliot Street. Laila Hasan al-Awawda of Women in Hebron will speak at 1 p.m. about her women's cooperative. The group is seeking to overcome a near total blockade of tourism and commerce in their southern...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Music Center's Chamber Series welcomes Musicians from Marlboro Group II Monday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. at the BMC. This particular touring ensemble includes Marlboro senior artists Sang Yoon Kim, principal clarinet of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; cellist Peter Stumpf, formerly of the Johannes Quartet; 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner Evren Ozel on piano; and four exceptional young string players: violinists Maria Ioudenitch and Stephanie Zyzak and violists Hiroki Kasai and Natalie Loughran. "Musicians from Marlboro...
GUILFORD-Broad Brook Grange's annual Sugar on Snow Supper will be held Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Broad Brook Community Center in Guilford. The event is a week earlier than usual because Town Meeting has moved to Saturday, March 1. The meal includes ham, baked beans, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, rolls, doughnuts, and Guilford maple sugar on Guilford snow (which is plentiful this year), and pickles. There will be three seatings, starting earlier than in previous years, to give diners...
SAXTONS RIVER-On Valentine's Day, Friday, Feb. 14, Main Street Arts is hosting a family dance with MSA's string band from 6 to 8 p.m. The dance is a barn dance style, called by Louisa Engle, and open to all ages and ability levels. Main Street Arts's string band is led by Jill Newton and is the oldest program at MSA, running for more than 35 years. Tickets are $5 for an individual and $10 for a family, available for purchase...
BRATTLEBORO-The public is invited to a screening of Bills Lumber, a 45-minute documentary about the last days of the Bills family's beloved 86-year-old sawmill in Wardsboro. Showtime is 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 16, at the Latchis Theatre. Admission is by donation. The video follows octogenarian brothers Alan and Everett Bills and their co-owner niece, Debbie Bills Bower, after the mill sold along with 433 adjoining wooded acres, as they prepare to demolish the working sawmill that their late father,
BRATTLEBORO-It's time for submissions for the 2025 edition of Poems Around Town, a Write Action–sponsored event that celebrates National Poetry Month. This event features poems, written by local poets primarily, as well as those in the tri-state area and throughout Vermont. "Poems chosen will go into downtown business windows for the month of April, and sometimes longer, (depending on the interest of the business where the poem is posted)," wrote organizers in a news release. "This gives locals and visitors...
BRATTLEBORO-Camille Kauffman has been named the University of Vermont (UVM) Extension 4-H educator for Windham and Windsor counties. She will be based in the UVM Extension Office in Brattleboro. In her new role, she plans to connect with the various club leaders, volunteers, and members of all of the programs that 4-H provides through the local UVM Extension network. Windham County currently has two 4-H horse clubs, and Windsor County has four clubs with members enrolled in livestock, natural resources,
Kindergarten Information Night rescheduled to March 6 BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro town Kindergarten Information Night, which was postponed due to inclement weather on Feb. 6, has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 6, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Green Street School. Pizza and child care available. An RSVP is appreciated. Email [email protected] or call 802-579-1013. Spaghetti dinner supports BSA Troop 428 NEWFANE - Boy Scouts of America Troop 428 will be holding an eat-in/take-out spaghetti dinner on Friday, Feb. 14,
WILLIAMSVILLE-The Rock River Players (RRP) present Mwah! - a Valentine's Cabaret, on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 16, at 3 p.m., at Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Rd. Producer Annie Landenberger said in a news release that "the cabaret, with deep roots in France and Germany in the early 20th century, has historically been a trendsetting form of entertainment featuring a variety of performance styles for an audience that's typically enjoyed from small...
BRATTLEBORO-Jesus Wept is an existential comedy by Brattleboro-based playwright Steve Wangh. The play is sponsored by the Centre Congregational Church, where Scott Couper is pastor and teacher. The play opens with a vision of Mary and God responding to the prayers of humans who are facing both serious and absurd life crises. But when Jesus joins the scene, the strain of coping with centuries of human foibles threatens to unravel the Holy Family entirely. Sacred and profane disagreements among the...
Fran Lynggaard Hansen, a Brattleboro native with deep connections to local history and to people everywhere, is a Commons reporter and columnist. BRATTLEBORO-I began teaching abroad in 2012 and spent three years in two cities in China, one year in Egypt, and two years in Kuwait. After three months in Sudan, I left only because the school hadn't paid me, and I moved on to the eastern European city of Yerevan, Armenia and began teaching there. This gorgeous city of...
DUMMERSTON-When Green Mountain Camp for Girls opened its online registration for this summer's campers on Feb. 5, a new executive director was at the helm, excitedly anticipating the summer months and the new cohort of young campers who will be creating a fresh start. The camp immediately filled 324 spots out of 458 available for this summer, said an excited Vicky Senni. The new director has attended Green Mountain Camp Teachers Camp for many years. "I love this campus and...
All along Route 30 - from Brattleboro through Newfane, Townshend, and Jamaica to Bondville, Rawsonville, and Winhall - one sees white banners imprinted in green with "Vermont 30 Collective" hanging in front of local businesses, restaurants, and galleries. Launched in 2023, the Vermont 30 Collective is the brainchild of Gibbs Rehlan, a multi-generational Vermonter, and Matthew Banks, who has spearheaded 24 different campaigns in his career. According to a description on vt30.org, the collective is a group of local merchants,
-While the Brattleboro Bears Nordic ski team will not win the Southern Vermont League (SVL) Championship this season, the Bears do have an individual championship to celebrate. Brattleboro's Nico Conathan-Leach won the SVL boys' classic race on Feb. 4 on the Marlboro Nordic Ski Club's trails. He covered the course in 14 minutes, 30 seconds, just two seconds faster than runner-up James Underwood of Woodstock. Together with his fourth-place finished on Jan. 28, Conathan-Leach clinched the SVL boys' individual title.
BRATTLEBORO-It is disturbing that the Newfane and Brattleboro Selectboards have agreed to warn an anti-Israeli article in their respective Town Meetings. I believe this approach is overly one-sided and counterproductive. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply complex, and using such charged language as "apartheid" risks alienating members of the community and oversimplifying a nuanced issue. Labeling Israel as an apartheid state is wrong. Israel has always been a democratic system and enjoyed equal voting rights for all citizens, including its Arab...
BRATTLEBORO-I am sad to see that a petition for a ballot article in Brattleboro and other towns that includes language calling for others to join in "working to end all support of Israel's apartheid regime, settler colonialism and military occupation." Israel is not a settler colonial state. The existence of Israel is existential for Jews and a pillar of Jewish belief. The proposed article disproportionately criticizes Israel and minimizes Hamas's, Iran's, and other nations' role in the current war in...
SOUTH NEWFANE-Richard M. Orlan claims that the anti-apartheid resolution on the ballot for Town Meeting is one-sided. He is correct. Palestinians don't have access to their homes because Israel has destroyed them. Palestinians don't have control over their own water - Israel does. Palestinians don't have freedom of expression because Israel doesn't like what they say. Palestinian citizens of Israel don't have equal rights because those rights are blocked by Israeli Zionists. This is but a partial list. One-sided indeed.
BRATTLEBORO-Voters in the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) will consider a $67.7 million fiscal year 2026 budget with a $3.2 million capital expense to improve the Tenney Field grandstand [see sidebar] when they meet March 18. With 2,300 students in the district, that means a $15,851-per-pupil expense rate - a 6.7% per-pupil spending increase, said Finance Committee Chair Shaun Murphy. In the budget, approved unanimously by WSESD directors, average town homestead tax rates are expected to decline by 3%, Murphy...
BRATTLEBORO-I have a great deal of respect for our U.S. senators. That said, it would be fantastic if they could stop voting to confirm Donald Trump's nominees. To wit: Both Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Peter Welch voted to confirm extreme anti-choice politician Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs, the country's largest health care provider, as well as Trump toady Marco Rubio as secretary of state. Sen. Welch voted to confirm anti-environment billionaire Doug Burgum as secretary of the...
BRATTLEBORO-Before the Windham Southeast School District school board approved a $67.7 million budget for the next fiscal year to send to voters at the Tuesday, March 18 annual meeting, much of the discussion centered around the need for improvements to the Tenney Field grandstand at Brattleboro Union High School. With a commitment already for $12 million in capital projects over the next few years, said Business Manager Frank Rucker, Tenney Field improvements are budgeted for $150,000 annually for the next...
GUILFORD-Sen. Peter Welch has prided himself on being a bridge-builder with Republicans, a quality we appreciate in him. But when someone is trying to blow up the bridge - or engage in an administrative coup - a different tack is required. This is not a normal political moment, with Donald Trump empowering oligarchs like Elon Musk to dismantle federal agencies. And the Republican Senate is rubber-stamping Trump's ill-qualified cabinet picks. Sen. Welch voted to approve six of 12 of Trump's...
The Trump administration's decision to freeze nearly all U.S. Agency for International Development programs could threaten Vermont nonprofits and businesses. The decision halts funding for global development efforts, affecting organizations that provide health care, disaster relief and economic support in more than 130 countries. Congress provided $66.1 billion in foreign assistance appropriations in fiscal year 2023. "The USAID provides lifesaving assistance, healthcare, disaster relief and prevents them from coming into conflict. It's both moral but it also serves our national...
BRATTLEBORO-On Feb. 15 and 16, the Harris Hill Ski Jump kicks off its 103rd year, with some 40 world-class athletes to compete in the U.S. Cup event and the Fred Harris Memorial Tournament. For one special weekend each year, a hayfield at the end of Cedar Street transforms into a pop-up Olympic-style village, with thousands of onlookers gathering to witness a remarkable display of courage. But the spectacle that awaits didn't just happen overnight. In fact, you could say it...
BRATTLEBORO-When Tennishu - stage name of rapper Marcus Tenney - plays in Brattleboro, the audiences remind him of his home city of Richmond, Virginia. "You know, more small-town, more folks appreciate the craft," Tenney said. "It's not really about commercial performance; it's more so about being able to create a moment with what's around." This is why he's coming back for a third time, at 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, at The Tower Bar & Lounge, 55 Elliot St. The...
BURLINGTON-I am a Vermont resident and former educator who has seen antisemitism in our state's schools increasing since Oct. 7, 2023. I have experienced personally horrific antisemitism from the Pride Center of Vermont this past year, just because I am Jewish. I resigned as co-chair with three other Jewish board members. If the pledge on Brattleboro's Town Meeting ballot "to join others in working to end all support to Israel's apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation" is passed, our...
PUTNEY-I strongly oppose Article II on the Brattleboro's Annual Town Meeting Australian ballot on Tuesday, March 4, which falsely defines Israel as an apartheid state. This claim is not only untrue but has no place on the town ballot. Our local government must uphold integrity and refuse to entertain baseless accusations. Israel is a pluralistic, multicultural democracy where Muslims, Jews, Christians, and others participate as equals in every aspect of society. The one exception is that Jews and Christians are...
BRATTLEBORO-My name is Jane Wheeler. I was born, grew up in, and worked in Brattleboro. Outside of about eight years when I lived in close-by towns, I have always lived in Brattleboro. I have had many lived experiences in Brattleboro: school kid, factory worker, drunk, recovering alcoholic, renter, and now a property owner, addictions counselor, houseparent at Kurn Hattin, co-founder of the Vermont Council on Problem Gambling, case manger for Senior Solutions, resource advocate at Grace Cottage Hospital, caregiver for...
The Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Human Services Committee submitted recommended funding for human services nonprofits at the forthcoming Annual Representative Town Meeting on Saturday, March 22 under the cover of this letter, signed by members David Miner (chair), Robin Morgan, Tara O'Brien, Trevor Stannus, Avery Thompson, and Sarah Turbow. BRATTLEBORO-The Human Services allocation in the Brattleboro town budget is a longstanding practice to meet crucial community needs. These include food and financial insecurity; homelessness; disability support, mental health treatment; substance...
DUMMERSTON-Dear Gov. Scott, You enjoy a broad, bipartisan base of support here in Vermont, elected with 73% of the vote. That is because Vermonters appreciate your competence and steady hand, even though we don't always agree with you. And we have trusted you to maintain and protect the safety and security of our state. Now that President Donald Trump is allowing the illegal and unconstitutional dismantling of our federal government, and threatening the security of our alliances, diminishing our reputation...
ATHENS-A group of morally confused Brattleboro citizens have petitioned onto the March 4 Town Meeting ballot an article asking that Israel be tarred an "apartheid state." While claiming to oppose racism and discrimination, the article's sponsors are blind to the hypocrisy of their choosing to single out only the Jewish state for censure. Context matters. I am confident that most Americans understand the difference between black South Africans, who were segregated from whites based solely upon race, and Palestinians in...
ROCKINGHAM-Town and village officials have tabled a request to display a rainbow pride flag on town property near a site of deep significance to the local LGBTQ+ community. Rockingham Selectboard Clerk Elijah Zimmer's motion to the Jan. 28 tri-board meeting - which comprises the Rockingham Selectboard, and the Saxtons River and Bellows Falls Trustees - has stirred discussion, and some controversy, among residents and leaders. At the Feb. 4 Selectboard meeting, Zimmer's motions were discussed in detail then, but they...
Michael Gigante, Ph.D. notes: "This is a piece I wrote after the first Trump election victory. It feels even more relevant today." BRATTLEBORO-I am not a Muslim, but I will register as one, if need be; I am not a Jew, but I will register as one, if need be; I am neither Black, Brown, Yellow, nor Red, but I will register as each, if need be; I am not transgender, but I will register as one, if need be;