Only a few days remain to view the current exhibits at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Closing March 8:
• “VT Kids Design Glass II,” a sequel to 2011's popular exhibit and community outreach program, where 21 professional glass artists created 24 unique sculptures based on kids' drawings of imaginary creatures.
• “Jerry's Map” by Jerry Gretzinger, which began in 1963 with a doodled map of a small imaginary town and now comprises more than 2,600 panels.
• Sabra Field's “Cosmic Geometry” is a suite of 16 prints through which the printmaker contemplates the similarity of forms from throughout the cosmos.
For the past few years, I've been the only white member of the board of Paige Academy, an independent, African-centered school in Roxbury, Mass.; I am also among the founding members. It's an honor to be part of Paige's forty-year history. At the same time, I'm challenged as the...
Input sought on plans for police-fire facilities upgrade BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee invites the public to attend a display of design plans for the renovation of the Police Department, Central Fire Station, and West Brattleboro Fire Station on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 5:30 p.m., in...
I am a concerned citizen of Rockingham who is frustrated with the lack of openness and transparency that the majority of the trustees of the Rockingham Free Public Library have demonstrated over the past year. I have attended several meetings of the trustees since May 2013 and have been appalled at the authoritarian attitude of the current chair and vice-chair of that body. At the meetings I attended, public comment was not allowed until all the decisions had been made...
If you were driving south on Route 5 last Saturday and weren't paying attention, you would have missed him. Or, worse, you might have hit him. As darkness fast rolled in late in the afternoon, a young man trudged south on Route 5 languidly, heading toward the roundabout at Interstate 91's Exit 3. The pedestrian's head was shrouded by the hood of his sweatshirt, a charcoal grey that almost perfectly matched the hue of the dirty snow from serial snowstorms...
Births • In Lebanon, N.H., (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center), Jan. 22, 2014, a daughter, Brooklynn Ava Chase, to Amber Hewes and Adam Chase of Townshend. College news • Michael Sanderson of Putney made the fall 2013 honors list at the New England School of Communications in Bangor, Maine. • Jem Wilner of Putney was named to the Dean's List for the fall 2013 semester at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. • The following local residents made the Dean's List for the...
Audience members at a climate change discussion shook their heads at the discrepancy between Vermont's ban on fracking and a proposed pipeline that would carry the controversial fuel through the state. How can Windham County step up and support communities standing before the Vermont Gas Systems pipeline project in Addison and Franklin counties? This question was asked repeatedly during a Feb. 17 meeting on climate change, corporate power, and community rights at The Root Social Justice Center. Keith Brunner discussed...
Dartmouth professor Nancy Jay Crumbine will read and discuss Rumi, one of the greatest and most widely read spiritual poets, in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on March 5 at 7 p.m. Her talk, “Rumi: A Soul on Fire,” part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series, is free and open to the public. Rumi was a 13th Century Persian poet and Sufi mystic. His poems have been widely translated and have worldwide influence. Crumbine...
The Weston Playhouse Theatre illuminates another winter night with a free concert of songs from an exciting new musical performed by top Broadway talent. On Saturday, March 1 at 8 p.m., Heidi Blickenstaff of Broadway's “The Addams Family,” “Disney's The Little Mermaid,” and “The Full Monty” sings the lead in the new musical “String,” supported by a stellar cast of Broadway actor/singers. A brief reception with the writers and performers follows. Written by Sarah Hammond and Adam Gwon, “String” is...
The culminating event for “Blue Lights for Winter Nights” in Saxtons River is Friday, Feb. 28, from 5 to 8 p.m. Dress in blue as you gather with friends and neighbors to chase away the winter blues while enjoying great food and hot music. The Saxtons River Market and the River Artisans Cooperative are extending their hours for the occasion. The market will serve free hot cider, and the River Artisans will feature “blue-dot specials” and door prizes during the...
Thank you very much for your article on the importance of end-of-life discussions. Talking with friends and family long before there's a need just makes things less stressful for everyone. This topic is so generally avoided that it's easy for there to be confusion. There are a couple of clarifications to the article that I feel are needed. Most important is that readers know that only two adults are needed to witness a directive; a notary is not required. The...
Ask any basketball coach, and he or she will tell you one of the hardest things is facing a team three times in one season. That's what sixth-seeded Brattleboro Colonels faced in the Division I girls' basketball tournament as they played two familiar foes from the Marble Valley League: the Burr & Burton Bulldogs and the Mount Anthony Patriots. Though the Colonels defeated 11th-seeded Burr & Burton, 50-47, on Feb. 19 in their first-round playoff game, they came up short...
Ninety-four years ago, on Feb. 14, 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt with the goal of securing the right to vote for women. After decades of debate and protest, the 19th Amendment became law in 1920. We are excited to mark nearly 100 years of the League and, with it, women's suffrage. But our work continues. The right to vote remains under attack, and the League remains a defender of our democracy, fighting to...
Vermont Theatre Company hosts another Green Room Connection on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at The Marina restaurant, 28 Spring Tree Rd. Green Room Connection is an opportunity for theater lovers from area theater companies to share ideas, wish lists, resources, and dream projects, and to hang out for an informal evening of conviviality and merriment. Actors, directors, writers, tech people, stage managers, crew, enthusiastic audience members, and curious community members are welcome. There is no charge for this...
To become a member of Freemasonry, a man must apply for membership at a local Masonic lodge. To be accepted into the fraternity of Freemasons, he “must be of good character and hold faith through one of the leading monotheistic religions.” Once accepted by the members of the lodge, that new member must advance through three qualifying degrees: the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason degrees. Although concordant bodies in Masonry offer additional degrees, Master Mason is the highest...
St. Michael's Episcopal Church is starting a free after-school choral training program for children ages 7-11. The program will meet on Tuesdays from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m., starting March 4, in the rehearsal room at St. Michael's Church, at the corner of Bradley Avenue and Putney Road. The Choir School, led by Susan Dedell, is open to all children regardless of religious affiliation or musical ability. The singers will learn posture and breathing, tone quality and intonation, and notation basics...
The Marlboro Mudfling, the social highlight of mud season in Marlboro and the annual fundraiser for Marlboro Meeting House preschool, is Saturday, March 1, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Marlboro Meeting House on South Road. Hosted by school parents, the Mudfling is an adults-only evening out. For a $10 donation at the door, enjoy a silent auction, a cash bar featuring Whetstone Ciderworks, all-you-can-eat gourmet desserts and coffee and tea, and live music. And that music is provided...
A consultant for the town has identified four sites for possible co-location of the police and fire departments, but officials aren't set on a course of action. The Selectboard on Feb. 19 heard from representatives of Middlebury-based Bread Loaf Corporation on the firm's feasibility study for a possible move of one or both public safety departments. According to the consultants, as cited in a published report, the sites under review are the Green Mountain Power building on Haystack Road, the...
Main Street Arts is sponsoring a bus trip to see one of Rockingham's own in the new Broadway musical “The Bridges of Madison County.” Cass Morgan has a supporting role to the lead, played by Kelli O'Hara. A chartered bus departs the Waypoint Center in Bellows Falls at at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, arriving in New York City for a 2 p.m. matinée. The $220 fee includes transportation, lunch at Carmine's Italian restaurant, top-tier tickets for the show,
This winter, Western Avenue (Route 9) off of Interstate 91 Exit 2 has been in abominable shape. Despite the best efforts of the Brattleboro Department of Public Works to keep ahead of new potholes through patching, both new-timers and old-timers in town say this is the worst shape they have ever seen the road. Traffic has slowed to a crawl as everyone tries to avoid flat tires or damage to their undercarriages. Drivers bob and weave like prizefighters, hopefully not...
A dance documentary film project, “Action Conversations: Bellows Falls,” premieres Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Bellows Falls Opera House. This screening, the first time the final cut has been shown in any movie theater, is a collaboration of Vermont Performance Lab and Youth Services. Admission is free. Along with the screening, organizers promise a dialogue between local youth and audience members about growing up in Windham County, and how the community can best support youth in growing...
Three of the five candidates for Selectboard squared off Monday over a range of issues, from their background and experience, to the Bartonsville Bridge, to the perennial question of a merger between the Village of Bellows Falls and the Town of Rockingham. Incumbents Tom MacPhee and Susan Hammond, and challenger Deb Wright participated in the forum, held by Citizens for Participation in Rockingham and streamed online by FACT-TV, which took place Monday. The three candidates will vie for two of...
Marlboro alumna Cookie Harrist will be returning to her alma mater to present a dance piece performed by Hio Ridge Dance Collective, a new collaborative formed by Harrist with Delaney McDonough and Caity Richards. On Friday, March 7, at 5 p.m., in Serkin Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Marlboro College, the collective will perform “Or Shall We,” a half-hour work that the collective has described as “an investigation focused on rock 'n' roll band dynamics, groove,
Regarding this letter to the community from Jan Mitchell-Love, in which I am frequently mentioned, there are several points I could rebut, including the instances in which Mitchell-Love accuses me of lying, but I will limit my reaction to these two points for the record: 1. I never said I knew I was “breaking Open Meeting Law.” What I said in an email to the trustees of the Rockingham Free Public Library on Dec. 16, 2013 was, “I know I'm...
Owen Taylor grew up playing all kinds of musical instruments, but he discovered the banjo rather late. On a whim, he bought himself one for his birthday because he thought it seemed like a fun instrument. Even then, the banjo lay in the corner of his room, untouched for a long time. That changed when he was living in San Francisco and Julia Steele Allen became his roommate. She played and loved the instrument, which inspired him to begin exploring...
Last year, the Brattleboro Rotary Club used its annual International Film and Food Festival to call attention to the plight of the Lakota people, Native Americans living on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Rosebud Indian reservations, part of the Great Sioux Nation in South Dakota. The proceeds from that event provided money to upgrade the equipment at KILI-FM, a nonprofit radio station that is that region's primary source of news, information, and entertainment. The station started broadcasting in 1983...
Will Rescue, Inc. remain the town's emergency care provider? According to this week's Selectboard meeting agenda, “Ambulance contract/pre-Town-Meeting discussion” is the first item of new business. The Selectboard reportedly has invited representatives of Rescue, Inc. and Golden Cross Ambulance to the meeting, set for Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 5:30 p.m. at Town Hall. Also on the agenda: Certificate of no appeal or suit pending: a yearly signing for Listers; discussion on reducing the number of members of the Development Review...
Dart Everett wrote about the financing of Green Mountain Care, the state's health-care reform plan passed as Act 48 in 2011. He pointed out that the law instructed the governor to submit financing plans to the legislature in early 2013, and that the governor failed to do so. Everett is right: Governor Shumlin did not meet that perhaps-unrealistic deadline. I am not writing here to defend him. But there is a clear expectation that in March the governor will present...
At a recent meeting of local Liberty Union Party members, it was noted that many new voters do not realize that even before the platform that was adopted by consensus in 1978 was submitted as our official platform, candidates took a strong position on the construction and operation of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power. Since 1978, the platform has included the following: “Nuclear power is intolerably and incurably unsafe, and we oppose the existence of or construction of nuclear power plants.
I find it interesting, when voters vote down a school proposal/request for additional funds, they can't acknowledge the vote and let it be. No, they have to keep “reconsidering” until they get what they want. It's an empire expansion. They know people can't keep returning to vote, vote, and vote again and wear down the opposition. It costs more to “educate” a kid in Vermont than for a college education, and the kids fail national tests. If taxes keep increasing...
Rockingham voters have a clear choice in electing its Selectboard members. Several citizens have expressed interest in serving on this board. I endorse the candidacy of Thomas MacPhee and Susan Hammond. These two have a proven track record of supporting the well-qualified and dedicated employees of our town, those working in administration, those working to maintain our roads, and those overseeing our recreational facilities and programs and our public library, to name a few of the services offered in this...
I think that the good people of Rockingham deserve to know the facts about the assertions made by Jan-Mitchell Love, chair of the Rockingham Free Public Library Board of Trustees. Mitchell-Love asserts that a current trustee (I assume she is referring to Ray Massucco) violated open-meeting law by “sending out a newsy email to all the trustees.” She also asserts that Elayne Clift stated in an email to trustees that “she knew she was breaking open-meeting law.” In fact, she...
Some people think it will take a crisis to move people to action. I believe there are some people, however, willing to read the handwriting on the wall and take action before a crisis in order to prevent a crisis. Unfortunately, these people do not seem to be in governmental positions of influence, as evidenced by: 1) The toxic chemicals being dumped into drinking water of the Elk River in West Virginia recently. (The potential problem had been known and...
Having grown up in Vermont myself and knowing what this state has to offer, I am totally impressed and somewhat jealous of the adventures Donna W. Dearborn was able to share with her parents. This book (Every Sunday: A Father and Daughter's Enduring Connection), with all its memories, is the greatest gift of all. I can't wait to read the entire book. Congratulations, Donna.
The Newfane School Board is supposed to have five members; after Town Meeting, we'll have just two. The current board has tried to recruit new candidates for the past year and a half but, so far, no one has stepped forward. And this is too bad. For the past eight years, the Newfane School Board has accomplished a great deal, most notably forging a Joint School District with Brookline, which governs the highly successful NewBrook Elementary School. The board operates...
On Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March, citizens across Vermont come together in their communities to discuss the business of their towns. For over 200 years, Town Meeting Day has been an important political event as Vermonters elect local officers and vote on budgets. It has also been a time for neighbors to discuss the civic issues of their community, state, and nation. This piece is designed to help you learn about Vermont's Town Meeting Day, its history,
On Tuesday, March 4, voters in Rockingham will elect four candidates running for the Rockingham Free Public Library Board of Trustees. I am an incumbent trustee. The other three candidates (Doreen Aldrich, David Gould, and Carol Blackwood) and I are running as a unified slate and would appreciate your votes. Over the last couple of years, the present leadership of the library has lost the public's trust due to repeated violations of Vermont's open-meeting law and personal agendas that in...
The town of Rockingham has filed a lawsuit against architectural firm Sheerr McCrystal Palson Architecture, Inc. (SMP), seeking $535,000 in damages over lack of a performance and payment bond with construction manager Baybutt Construction during last year's Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) renovation project. Baybutt declared bankruptcy last spring. Without the performance and payment bond in place, subcontractors were left unpaid, and the project stood unfinished and “open to the elements.” The town of Rockingham assumed the RFPL Trustees' responsibility...
Public transportation company Connecticut River Transit, dubbed The Current, held a public meeting as part of the company's evaluation of services, routes, and fares. A small but engaged group of travelers attended the afternoon meeting held Feb. 21 in the Selectboard Meeting Room in the Municipal Center. Audience members posed questions about fares, and proposed changes to bus schedules. Rockingham-based CRT is evaluating its performance route by route, said Randall Schoonmaker, general manager of the Deerfield Valley Transit Authority, who...
The team behind the revitalization of the historic Brooks House received another accolade on Monday night at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden. The Windham County Democratic Committee presented its fifth annual O'Connor Award to Mesabi LLC, which is composed of Bob Stevens, PE, an engineer and principal of Stevens & Associates; Craig Miskovich, a director at Downs Rachlin Martin; and Drew Richards, Peter Richards, and Ben Taggard, principals at The Richards Group. The O'Connor Award, named for lifelong Brattleboro...
Members of the Brattleboro Interfaith Junior Youth Group are traveling to Glen Rose, Texas, from March 20 to 25 to volunteer at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Sanctuary, a reserve for endangered animal species. Pastor Lise Sparrow of Guilford Community Church said that this group of middle schoolers, who meet monthly for community service and fun, came up with the idea of combining a service trip with their interest in - and love of - animals. The trip, part of Mission...
Voters throughout the county will assemble on Town Meeting Day on Tuesday, March 4, unless otherwise specified. Athens Voters will meet at the Athens Elementary School at 10 a.m. • Elections. Voters will take up the election of moderator, road commissioner, and town and town school district officers as may be required. • School budget. Voters will decide on a budget set at $1,461,609 for grades K-6 and an additional $732,786 for grades 7-8 for the upcoming school fiscal year.
After nearly a month of seeking and interviewing candidates to replace Célina Houlné, the terminated director of the Rockingham Free Public Library, the search committee has returned to the library's board of trustees without a recommendation. At a Feb. 25 special trustees' meeting, the board voted 7 to 1 to repost the ad on “several sites” with a new application deadline of April 11. Members of the search committee informed the board they were “not comfortable” making a recommendation at...