Got your cool back-to-school tools? Come to the Rockingham Free Public Library's Youth Department and find some great deals for the new school year.
Librarian Samantha Maskell is hosting a fun school book fair from Aug. 22– 26. The sales will directly support programs, events, and books for the Youth Department.
At the fair, you'll find everything from neat erasers and sweet staplers, to hot-off-the-press books, children's classics, dictionaries, and interactive software games, all at special kid-friendly prices.
The fair will be open each day during Library hours. Everyone - parents, children, teachers, and the community - is invited to get great deals and shop for your Library's sake! ...
Sustainable Valley Group and the Green Island project (SVG-GI) recently teamed up with 350.org for a work party to clean out space in the former Robertson Paper Mill, a measure that the organization's president, Dave Bonta, hopes will “get things moving” despite seeing the rejection of a feasibility study...
While driving around town, I continually notice individuals driving in a manner that wastes fuel and energy. They stomp on the gas pedal like there's no tomorrow. They're all driving so fast and furious I wonder what can be more important than conserving energy, relaxing, and enjoying the great...
Following the airing of the “Joy of Marijuana” show with guest Larry Bloch on our last Marijuana Resolve program on BCTV last month, Vidda Crochetta and I have had a lot of people asking us about how can they speak about their own good experiences with past use of marijuana. Many people are telling us that they are tired of hearing only about how bad marijuana is, and that they want to help us balance the picture. Because of the...
Write Action's 11th annual potluck picnic, open reading and “schmooze fest” got rained out on Aug. 14, so it has been recheduled to Sunday, Aug. 21, from 1-5 p.m., at Melendy Hill Farm. This picnic, which will be held rain or shine (check www.writeaction.org for the rainy day venue) will be an opportunity to encourage one another in the writing craft, and rejoice in one another's accomplishments. It will also be a chance to enjoy good food, music, and horseshoes,
There's nothing that anyone can say that can make life feel less raw for a region and multiple communities struggling to make sense of two homicides within less than two weeks. But there are a few things that everyone can do that can start to help. Be kind to one another. Be patient. Be available. Be a friend. Be fair. Be honest. Be accommodating. Be civil. Be respectful. All that kindness will be especially necessary in the weeks and months...
For over a decade now, some Vermont politicians have been calling for the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, with the full understanding that there is nothing that could immediately replace it and its near-zero carbon footprint. We are told closing Vermont Yankee will require conservation and a switch to other green sources of electricity, such as wind and solar, which cost up to five times as much as nuclear energy. Since it takes time and money to...
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. • John Frederick “Fred” Green, 71, of Vernon. Died Aug. 9 at his home. Husband of Joan Moore for nearly 49 years. Father of John Green Jr. of Gulfport, Miss., and Thomas Green and his wife, Amy, of Westborough, Mass. Brother of A. Leslie Hickman and her husband Bill, of Smyrna, Del. Born in Chester,
I read, with considerable interest, the story about bears in your Aug. 3 issue. Last spring, a bear was seen in Townshend on lawns along Route 35 close to the West River Valley Assisted Living building, where I reside. They were raiding bird feeders, so they must have been pretty hungry. In my 75 years in Vermont hunting, fishing, hiking, and snowshoeing, I have seen only two bears, and both were in the woods. I had thought, up to this...
There have recently been a series of letters to you from friends and employees of Vermont Yankee, all in support of continuing the life of the aging and ailing reactor. “Issues” such as the numbers of lost jobs, the economic loss to the community, and the reduction of electric power to the region have been offered. It saddens me to see these people putting (their own) economic well-being plus corporate profits ahead of the health and safety of literally tens...
Morningside Shelter in Brattleboro is one of seven homeless shelters in Vermont that will share in $237,000 in federal aid from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made the announcement on Aug. 9 at the Samaritan House homeless shelter in St. Albans. Morningside will receive $35,000 for renovations. The other shelters receiving HUD funds include Samaritan House, Upper Valley Haven in White River Junction, Committee on Temporary Shelter in Burlington, Open Door Mission and...
Motorists and pedestrians will see some changes to the traffic signals on Main Street, after a week of adjustments by the contractors who installed them. Technicians from Moulison North Corp. were in Brattleboro last week working on the Main Street signals to improve traffic flow through the downtown area. Through observation and data, the technicians found that the heaviest traffic volume was at the junction of Routes 5, 119 and 142, in particular southbound traffic turning on to Bridge Street...
The Brattleboro Retreat will host the second annual Ride for Heroes event on Saturday, Aug. 20. Regisitration for the motorcycle ride starts at 10 a.m. The ride starts at 11 a.m. at the Brattleboro Retreat, and will take bikers on a route through southern Vermont's scenic hills and valleys, by rivers and historic villages. Registration for the ride is $20 per person and includes both the ride and barbecue lunch on the Retreat campus. The first 200 riders to register...
Although he wasn't the one to die, I find myself recalling the last time I saw Richard Gagnon as if he had. My husband and I had stopped at the Co-op to get a bite to eat before catching a movie at Latchis, and we were delighted to find a wine and cheese tasting going on. We dashed off to the bathroom first, where we waited in a painfully slow line, and then made our way eagerly around the corner...
When Emmylou Harris sang Townes Van Zandt's “When I Needed You” at the Green River Festival last month, she mentioned that she was often asked to sing it at weddings. But it played over and over in my mind last Wednesday at the Brattleboro Food Co-op's candlelight vigil for Michael Martin, who was killed at his desk at the start of the working day on Tuesday, allegedly by a disgruntled employee. “If I needed you, would you come to me,
Brattleboro is my home. I was born at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in 1973, and I've lived here for the great majority of my nearly 38 years. I attended Brattleboro schools, played for its sports teams, been involved in its arts, and have remained an active member of the community. In Brattleboro, I've seen unspeakable beauty as well as horrific ugliness. I've experienced every exquisite pleasure and devastating pain. I've fallen in love and have felt heartbreak. Here I've reached my...
B-1 Brattleboro morning route (elementary) ||7:20||Route begins at Mountain Home Trailer Park (office, west side of park). Turn right onto Sunset Lake Road. ||7:28||At Box #257 on right. Proceed to Gulf Road and turn around. Return to Western Avenue and turn right. ||7:30||At 775 Marlboro Rd. ||7:31||At 1017 Marlboro Rd. ||7:32||At 1033 Marlboro Rd. ||7:33||At Hamilton Road. Proceed to Marlboro town line; turn around, then return to Western Avenue. Turn right into Westgate. ||7:35||At Sherwood Circle and Tudor Lane. ||7:36||At...
The list of Vermonters who played Major League Baseball is not a long one. The list of Vermonters who became Major League Baseball play-by-play announcers is even shorter. And the list of Vermonters who did both consists of one name, Ernest Thorwald Johnson Sr. Ernie Johnson, Brattleboro's greatest baseball player, and broadcaster, died on Friday at the age of 87. He leaves behind a ton of fans of both of his careers. At Brattleboro High School, he was a three-sport...
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has requested the D.C. Court of Appeals dismiss two petitions that claim the federal agency did not adhere to requirements in the Clean Water Act (CWA) pertaining to Vermont Yankee's operating license. The disagreements focus on one requirement: a certificate of water quality issued under section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act. In their petitions, filed separately but combined by the court for efficiency, the New England Coalition (NEC), an anti-nuclear organization, and...
The New England Coalition (NEC) has no plans to stand still while the calendar ticks down to September when the Entergy v. Vermont case - litigation that could decide the fate of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station's renewal license and three Vermont statutes - resumes in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro. Instead, the 40-year-old antinuclear organization has filed contentions in conjunction with multiple advocacy groups, such as Beyond Nuclear, Riverkeeper Inc., and Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, against...
I became a working member of the Brattleboro Food Coop in 1985, when it was just 10 years old and located in a small, dingy, warehouse. Since then, the Co-op has grown and moved to a larger store, which itself is slated for demolition as soon as its new building is finished. The Co-op is member-owned. This means it operates for the benefit of its members, and this makes it so much more than just a store. It's a community,
The Vermont Citizens Campaign for Health (VCCH) and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital are co-sponsoring a series of monthly forums on topics relating to Vermont's new health care law, Act 48. The second presentation will be on Wednesday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. in Brattleboro Memorial Hospital's Brew Barry Conference Room. Anya Rader Wallack, Special Assistant to the Governor for Health Care, will talk about the soon to be formed Green Mountain Care Board. The new law has raised many questions and...
It is with great sadness that the staff of The Commons bids goodbye to Betsy Jaffe, the manager of Vermont Independent Media, the nonprofit that publishes this newspaper. Jaffe, who for almost five years has been instrumental in the transformation of The Commons from monthly to weekly publication, is leaving to begin work as director of admissions and development at the Compass School, which can look forward to a whirlwind of bright, smart, considerate, fair, conscientious, practical, positive, honest, and...