• In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Nov. 1, 2011, a daughter, Allison Elizabeth Earp, to Meghan (Astley) and Matthew Earp of Guilford; granddaughter to Don and Joyce Astley Jr., Michael Earp, and Lynn Martel; great-granddaughter to Harry and Nancy Evans, Don and Sandra Astley Sr., Arthur and Carolyn Martel, and Dorothy and Jerry Roller.
• In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Oct. 31, 2011, a daughter, Celia Alice Bahny, to Holly Andersen and Robert Bahny of West Wardsboro; granddaughter to Peggy and Harry Andersen of Richford, N.Y., and Suzanne Bahny of Dryden, N.Y.; great-granddaughter to Mary Andersen of Richford, and Robert Bahny of Endicott, N.Y.
...The studies have spurred the urban planning experts to declare Brattleboro's downtown “vibrant” and worthy of Main Street envy. But does “vibrant” translate into financially sustainable or unique? And with winter holiday events and gift-giving around the corner, many locals are making their lists while checking their checkbooks twice.
Rockingham seeks applicants for ZBA/Planning Board ROCKINGHAM - The town seeks interested individuals to fill a vacancy on the Zoning Board of Adjustment and Planning Commission (ZBA/PC). The appointment would be until 2014. Interested individuals should be willing to participate in subcommittees and work groups, and to vote impartially...
For the sixth year, the River Garden becomes a vibrant community oasis on days of the Winter Farmers' Market. In addition to fresh local produce, visitors twill find locally raised grass-fed meats, eggs, fresh baked goods and sweet treats, jams, jellies and other local preserves, granola, cider, honey, maple syrup, local wine, and more. Holiday shoppers will also find many handcrafted items such as jewelry, pottery, soap, hats, bags, or mittens. A great variety of lunch offerings feature local ingredients...
With the state's final Comprehensive Energy Plan in its last phase, industry groups are making a final push for cheap, reliable energy. In addition to submitting comments to the Department of Public Service, the Associated Industries of Vermont, the Vermont Energy Partnership and other business organizations held a press conference last week to get their point across. Their main grievance: The plan focuses on climate change, renewable energy, and efficiency to such an extent that they have become goals in...
We are all the 99%, a sign that you would expect to see at one of the many American protests sparked by Occupy Wall Street, floats above a crowd of demonstrators in Tel Aviv, Israel. More than 30,000 marched in Tel Aviv on this particular Saturday, demanding social justice. The demonstration is just one part of a larger movement started on July 14 by Daphni Leef, who called for the creation of a tent city after she searched in vain...
Cherry Street Artisans Open House and Café, the fourth annual show of work by a group of 12 artisans, will take place in December. The ground floor of Judy Zemel's Victorian house will be transformed into a fine craft show and café, which organizers describe as a “uniquely festive and professional event.” Participating artisans all have in common a long history of creating fine craft and a love of good food and music, and the guiding vision for Cherry Street...
Each year, just before winter hits hard, the artists, musicians, bakers, cooks, circus performers, and craftspeople of the Cotton Mill open their studio doors. The sixth annual Open Studio and Holiday Sale takes place from Dec. 2 through Dec. 4 at the Cotton Mill, a ramshackle, high-ceilinged, three-story, 145,000-square-foot maze of hallways, stairs, doors, and studios hovering above the Connecticut River. Built in 1919, at the height of Brattleboro's manufacturing days, the building started as a textile mill and ended...
Windham County Reads presents half-price book sale BRATTLEBORO - Windham County Reads will host its annual half-price book sale on Nov. 25 and 26 at 80 Flat St., in the C.F. Church Building. Sale hours on both Friday and Saturday are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and free parking is available both days in the adjacent lot. Customers who arrive early on Friday will have the best selection to choose from, while those who shop on Friday afternoon or on...
Traditionally held during the long Thanksgiving weekend, the Putney Craft Tour - now in its 33rd year - gives shoppers, visitors, and collectors another reason to be thankful. Blacksmiths, glassblowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, woodworkers - even artisan cheesemakers - invite visitors to come in, discover, ask questions, sip hot cider, and find that one-of-a-kind gift, for themselves or others. With more than 26 artists and craftspeople spread out over a 12-mile radius, it's worth making a weekend out of it,
David Blight, acclaimed author of Race and Reunion, will consider how Americans looked back on the Civil War during its centennial in the 1960s in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on Wednesday, Dec. 7. His talk, “American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7 p.m. Blight's talk will focus on the early 1960s, during the growing Civil Rights movement, and how...
You can buy a Gravenstein or a Duchess to eat for lunch at your local co-op, but the secret to these uncommon varieties is that they are best for pies. Some of these apples, like Espopus Spitzenberg and Rhode Island Greening can be eaten out of hand as well as being great pie apples. But others, Bramley's Seedling, Belle de Boskoop and Calville Blanc d'Hiver are mainly cooking apples. You can make pies from combinations of these that are better...
Before I am broken. There are countless other ways to express it, but that's the expression that feels right. “I am off track” makes me feel like a corrective course is easily available. “I am lost” suggests that an inner compass could easily be located. “I am stuck” just wants for some easily applied emotional grease. So instead, I am broken. Not that the idiom isn't extreme, but I am taking small comfort in the fact that “irrevocably” has not...
The vital and vigorous exhibit of paintings, drawings, sculpture, needlework, photography, and sketches had viewers in the public rooms and hallways at West River Valley Assisted Living wide-eyed, not with incredulity but with appreciation and affection. Further, since many of the visitors were sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews of the 27-plus residents, there was also pride and a bit of melancholy. Twenty-three of the 25 residents asked by Recreation and Volunteer Coordinator Dawn Slade to join the show said yes...
The Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance (BFDDA) will again present its Shop Local Holiday Program, which began on Nov. 18 and runs through Dec. 29. Pick up your Shop Local Card and start shopping in Bellows Falls for all of your holiday gifts. An even greater number of local businesses are participating this year and will be “stamping” off dollar amounts ($5, $10, $20) on each shopper's Shop Local Card throughout the season. Once this card is filled, the shopper...
The West River Community Project held its annual meeting on Nov. 10, and heard Board President Clare Adams report that the local West Townshend group is still trying to buy the West Townshend Country Store and Community Post Office, where the meeting took place, at the junction of Route 30 and Windham Hill Road. An offer of $150,000 to owner Zack Caldwell, formerly of Windham and now a resident of Boulder, Colo., for this once-vital village landmark was rejected, Adams...
For family, friends and loved ones, a suicide has profound effects, with the added burdens of guilt and questions about missed signals and chances for intervention. Yet because suicides are often largely private tragedies and not widely reported by police agencies - many may be quietly categorized as a drug overdose - they rarely capture the public eye in the same way a tragic auto crash, homicide or accidental shooting death does. Two recent, publicized suicides have drawn attention to...
As the community response to Tropical Storm Irene's flooding moves from immediate relief efforts to long-term recovery, a committee has been formed to coordinate the response of multiple agencies and organizations to Windham County residents impacted by the disaster. With representatives from social service organizations, state agencies, faith-based groups and others, the purpose of the Southeastern Vermont Irene Long Term Recovery Committee (LTRC) is to oversee recovery efforts, including volunteer coordination, fund distribution, and the provision of case management and...
The Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, is a 17-piece ensemble that rehearses for and performs one concert a year, will feature big band salsa, Mambo, and cha cha cha at this year's gala on Friday, Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. The band will present a tribute to the Mambo Kings, performing the music of the original Mambo Orchestras: Tito Puente, Machito, and Arsenio Rodriguez. To shake it up, the VJC has asked two of Boston's most influential Latin music performers...
The Selectboard approved plans for rehabilitation of the Sunset Lake Road bridge on Nov. 15. The plans include constructing the bridge using a precast concrete slab formed at a warehouse, driven to the site, and lowered into place. Engineers will build a temporary bridge open to one-way traffic. Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) is the engineering consulting firm contracted by the Vermont Agency of Transportation to assist with the permitting, design, and construction bidding for the bridge's reconstruction. The firm...
On the afternoon of Oct. 15, my roommate and I arrived at Piazza della Republica just before 2 p.m. to find the people excited and the police anxious. The email from my school in Rome warned us to expect 50,000 people and a fair amount of violence. As the group of us (my roommate and the pragmatic Italians) entered Piazza della Republica, Heinekens in hand, it became clear that there were far more than 50,000 and they all seemed fairly...
With a pumpkin pie in their sights, Vermont Academy students, faculty, staff and friends took off recently on a 5K race over the campus cross-country trails in the second annual Pumpkin Run to benefit the food pantry at Our Place Drop-in Center in Bellows Falls. Around the track, over fields, through the woods, and even up the steep ski jump hill ran well-conditioned student athletes and their less-in-shape elders, all aimed at the prizes for those who completed the grueling...
The Windham Foundation has announced it has established a Grafton Relief Fund of $50,000 to serve residents in the town and immediate surrounding area who were directly affected by Tropical Storm Irene. The foundation has partnered with two other nonprofits, Grafton Cares and Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA), to administer the funds. The fund was primarily established through donations from members of the Windham Foundation board of trustees, and was supplemented by members of the Grafton community and guests of...
The trend in retailing these days is to close down your “bricks-and-mortar” physical location and sell your products online. Hidden Springs Maple has certainly followed the online path. The business started selling locally produced, Vermont maple syrup at farm prices, with free shipping, online in 2009. Last year, the company began selling wholesale to restaurants and small stores nationally. This fall, however, Hidden Springs Maple has decided to open a retail store on 162 Westminster Rd. It will host a...
The two-month anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall Street was marked on Nov. 17 with protests all over the world. The day did not go unnoticed in Brattleboro, as about 30 people gathered for an early-evening candlelight vigil at the Wells Fountain. The tranquility of last Thursday's event stood in contrast to the police raids on Occupy encampments that took place in New York and other cities last week. That violence wasn't far from the mind of Carolyn Drumsta,
Along with roast turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing and an overabundance of gravy, my childhood Thanksgiving menu always included cabbage coleslaw with Miracle Whip, sweet potatoes with small marshmallows and brown sugar, creamed Bird's Eye onions, overcooked frozen “frenched” green beans, and lots of pie. Thanksgiving is all about tradition, and I have, however unwillingly, learned to surrender to the turkey, the dressing, and small amounts of gravy and mashed potatoes. I really do love cranberries. I concede to the holy...
Parks Place Community Resource Center has been awarded a challenge grant in the amount of $9,000 from the Thomas Thompson Trust. All monies raised by Parks Place over and above last year's total fundraising from individuals, businesses, civic groups and churches will be matched dollar for dollar by the foundation (up to $9,000). Last year, the agency raised roughly $40,000 from these revenue sources. It now must elevate giving by a little more than 20 percent to receive the additional...
Savory roast seitan and gravy is an easy dish to prepare and can be the centerpiece of a vegan holiday meal. (I usually just call it “roast gluten,” but I didn't want to scare anyone off from trying it.) I should mention that I like to spread out the process of making these dishes over a few days. The gravy, stuffing, onions, and gluten can all be made a day or two ahead and stored to reheat on the holiday.
This year, Thanksgiving - a day for gratitude - might come as a bitter and sweet holiday in the midst of economic crunching, fire, shootings, and floods. For people wanting to share their holiday, or who need a free meal, the Brattleboro Community Annual Thanksgiving Dinner will provide respite from the year of upheaval Thursday, Nov. 24 at the River Garden on Main Street. The volunteer-run, donations-based effort has hosted the open and free Thanksgiving dinner for over 30 years.
Re: “It is about time people saw the truth about nuclear power” by Gary Sachs [Voices, Nov. 16]: Gary, I don't know where you get your twisted anti-nuke fear-munging fact-less information from. From everything I have read, when you take 650 megawatts off the power grid, you will pollute the air more (using more coal), make us more dependent on the Middle East (using more oil), make the price of electricity go up, and make us have more blackouts. For...
Water and books don't mix. But a flood won't keep a determined bookstore down. Two and a half months ago, Bartleby's Books was a boarded-up casualty of Tropical Storm Irene. But thanks to the elbow grease of owner Lisa Sullivan, husband and contractor Philip Taylor, employees, local contractors, and volunteers, Bartleby's will hold its grand reopening on Friday, Nov. 25, starting at 10 a.m. “Bartleby's is a vital part of the [Wilmington] community,” Sullivan said. “We want to be open...
The Vermont Theatre Company is celebrating its 28th year of providing the greater Brattleboro area with quality and affordable community theater. This, VTC's 2011-12 season, began in late October with Broadway Divas, an evening of song and dance from popular show tunes and a delicious dinner. The director was James Gelter, the musical director was Amy Roberts-Crawford, and the choreography was by Cyndal Ellis. Tristan Toleno and Entera Artisanal Catering prepared the dinners. The next production, to be performed Jan.
“Me and my twin sister Marolyn loved to ice skate on the pond out in back of our house,” shares Maddie Cutting Meyer, a native of Guilford. She's wearing her trademark smile as she shares the story. “We'd invite all the neighborhood girls over to enjoy the ice and we'd take turns shoveling it off,” she remembered. “We were out back anytime we got the chance.” “Of course, all of us kids had farming chores to do first. We fed...
Although she spent most of her life and now resides in Huntsville, Ala., Jane DeNeefe says that her years living in southern Vermont gave her the confidence to become a writer. The most recent fruit of that self-empowerment is Rocket City Rock and Soul: Huntsville Musicians Remember the 1960s, her new exploration of the intersection of racism and rock and roll. As described on its cover, the book is “set against the bitter backdrop of segregation, where Huntsville musicians black...
The Putney Farmers' Market is in the midst of hosting four winter holiday markets, which began Nov. 20. On three successive Sundays, Dec. 4, 11, and 18, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the indoor retail space at Green Mountain Orchards will overflow with local vendors, artists, holiday activities, freshly baked goods, live music, and a bustling crowd. The Winters Farmers' Market, organized primarily by Kristina Israel, market manager at the Putney Food Co-op, will feature between 20 and 30...
When I went into the ministry, I knew that there were certain occupational hazards. I knew there would never be Sunday morning golf games. I knew I wouldn't be spending a whole lot of Saturday nights out late. I knew I would have to start liking wearing black clothes a whole lot more. And, most importantly, I knew that at every Thanksgiving meal I went to for the rest of my life, I'd be asked to say the blessing. Usually...
The landmark Mary Meyer Big Black Bear retail and gift shop, which opened about 30 years ago on Route 30, will close Dec. 31. So says Walter Meyer of Townshend, the son of Hans Meyer, who came to the United States from Germany and started the stuffed toy company in New York City in 1944. Mary Meyer, Hans's wife and Walter's mother, was a native New Yorker. And Walter Meyer, one of Hans and Mary's four sons who continue the...
The Reformer Christmas Stocking began in 1937 with one child in need who received a winter coat. This year, about 1,400 children from more than 700 families in need from Windham Country and Chesterfield and Hinsdale in New Hampshire are being outfitted with warm winter clothing through the Reformer Christmas Stocking. The 75th annual Reformer Christmas Stocking kicks off its campaign on the day after Thanksgiving. It is a totally volunteer-run organization, and all the money raised is used to...
As a former member of the board of the Brattleboro Area Drop in Center, I was one who, with great pride and hopefulness, voted to establish and open this community's overflow shelter to protect those of us who were without housing through the winter months. It has been a great thing for this area, in that there is now a safety net and shelter provided to all in need. The participants, both guests and volunteers, get to know and talk...
The Bellows Falls Police Department is accepting applications for the “Adopt an Angel” program designed for underprivileged children who live within the village of Bellows Falls. Any families interested in applying should stop by the Bellows Falls Police Department and pick up an application, due back by Saturday, Dec. 17. Anyone that is interested in adopting an Angel may stop by the police department and select an angel from the Christmas tree, or drop off a new, unwrapped gift that...
Are you willing to pay $150 to cross Main Street? If not, then the Brattleboro Police Department has a less costly option. Don't jaywalk. The $150 maximum fine begins with a $75 citation, which, if the alleged jaywalker contacts traffic court in 20 days, “will likely be reduced to $10 or less,” says Brattleboro Police officer Adam Belville, who was issuing the citations. Belville explained to the four people he cited for jaywalking between 10 and 11 a.m. last Tuesday...
Project Feed the Thousands, the largest food drive in southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire, has launched its 18th annual winter food drive. “In recent years, thanks to the efforts our local communities' involvement and generosity, we've been amassing 25 trailer loads of food and up to $125,000 each year. We've had to get better and do more, because the need is growing,” cofounder Larry Smith said in October. “That urgency continues.” The annual effort, which began this month and...
Terry Ziter describes her experience volunteering at the Brattleboro Overflow Shelter [“A night at the Overflow Shelter,” Voices, Nov. 16]. As she rousts herself from her comfortable bed before her a.m. shift, she muses, “I was never good at night with sick children or nighttime feedings. Why would I choose to do this now?” After reading Ziter's commentary several times, I have not been able to find her answer. Given the mainstream discussion sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement...
After the Brooks House was gutted by a five-alarm fire in April, one of the first questions asked by the community was, “Now what?” The fire, which was caused by a staple that punctured an electrical cable, displaced 60 residents and 10 businesses, and rendered the downtown landmark a charred shell of its former self. Owner Jonathan Chase immediately pledged to rebuild, and one sign that he wants to make good on that pledge came last week, when Chase, consulting...
The town's winter parking ban is now in effect, with overnight parking forbidden on all streets in town until April 15, 2012. Vehicles parked for longer than one hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. may be ticketed and towed at the owner's expense. During snowstorms, vehicles must be parked under cover in the Transportation Center. Vehicles must be removed by 8 a.m. to allow for the regular day's parking. Vehicles may be towed at any time if they are...
The Development Review Board (DRB) will hear an appeal regarding the fate of four apartments at Melrose Terrace on Dec. 5. The appeal, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed at the request of the Brattleboro Housing Authority and the town. The BHA is contesting the town zoning administrator's determination that four of its Melrose Terrace buildings exceeded the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s 50-percent damage threshold. The determination has left 20 Melrose residents without housing. The determination also upheld the...