Though we don't know for certain, the scientific evidence, as well as our own observations, is pretty convincing that we are rapidly approaching, or have actually entered near-term extinction. That is, we have either precious little time to avoid climate apocalypse. Or it's already too late.
In any case, we really have only one choice at this point in time as to how we go about living our lives.
It is the choice of no-choice, the only choice we have beyond a further descent into the barbarism we've perpetrated for centuries upon ourselves and other living beings - barbarism that now is the logical endgame of what we euphemistically call “climate change.”
We can finally choose to live our lives as we should have been living them all along. And, ironically, whether we still think we have a chance to save our sorry butts or we believe that we've blown it, the choice is the same.
The Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD) recently received a $27,266 grant from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to assist the District with the expenses associated with its hazardous waste collection programs. It provides assistance for “convenient hazardous waste collections for residents and...
Old Home Sunday will be celebrated at South Newfane Baptist Church on June 5 at 11 a.m. On that date, the church will open its doors for the summer and Rev. Malcolm Hamblett will begin his third summer as minister. The sermon will be “Adopting an Attitude of Gratitude”
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) and Community College of Vermont (CCV) are joining forces in response to challenges in filling positions within the local healthcare workforce by launching an accelerated program to prepare qualified candidates for jobs as Certified Medical Assistants. Enrollment in the 14-week program will be limited to 20 participants. Classes will be held on the CCV Brattleboro campus. As part of the joint initiative, BMH is providing full scholarships for eight successful applicants to the program. Scholarship recipients...
The Community College of Vermont (CCV) will hold its 49th commencement ceremony at Norwich University's Shapiro Field House in Northfield on June 4 at 2 p.m. According to a news release, more than 500 students from across the state will be awarded associate degrees. Students representing all 14 Vermont counties will graduate, along with students from 12 other states and 18 countries. Among the graduates are 41 veterans and active-duty military. The youngest graduate is 17 and the oldest is...
Smoke stings my eyes. A grinding roar fills my ears. The tunnel is narrow, glowing dull orange, getting hotter. I shuffle through the dimness, feet crunching over hot, brittle stones. My companion pulls me forward, down into the darkness and the heat. I can see the rough outline of his small body ahead, pulling me on doggedly, fearlessly. We turn a sharp corner. Heat blasts my face, sulfur stings my eyes. I squint through the sudden brightness and flinch backward...
The Marlboro College Center for New Leadership has opened registration for the Fall 2016 class of the highly regarded Certificate in Nonprofit Management, which will take place in Waterbury. This 80-hour series helps nonprofit leaders develop the essential skills needed to strengthen their organizations and achieve their missions. “The NPM Certificate Program was a great fast track option for busy working nonprofit leaders. The information was practical, the connections helpful and the faculty very experienced. I have a much more...
Explore old cellar holes in Grafton GRAFTON - On Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., longtime resident Richard Warren will lead a walk to some intriguing ruins from the small settlement of Old Grafton. Cellar holes are excavated pits that retain the foundation stones of their previous structures. A favorite key to the cultural history of an area, they also reveal a lot about the people who made them and used them in their daily lives. A...
Violinist Jinjoo Cho and pianist Hyun Soo Kim will perform works by Corigliano, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Tower, Zwilich, and Waxman at 4 p.m. at the Centre Congregational Church on Main Street, closing out the 2015-16 Brattleboro Music Center's Chamber Series on Sunday, June 5. Cho, the gold medalist of the 2014 Ninth Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, made her first appearance on the international music scene when she garnered the First Grand Prize and Radio Canada's People's Choice...
The Windham Orchestra will collaborate with the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), a world-class cast of singers, and a locally sourced chorus in a double bill of the most famous, telling, and powerful elements of two great verismo operas, according to a news release. “Our mashup combines 'Cavalleria Rusticana' by Mascagni and 'Pagliacci' by Leoncavallo, reconstituted by a local non-Italian composer operating under the nom de plume Leo Maski,” Windham Orchestra Musical Director Hugh Keelan said in the...
When N.L. Dennis was singing in a recording studio with Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley stopped by to listen, and praised Dennis' delivery. Today, Dennis lives in his native Jamaica and joins hundreds of Jamaicans who come to Vermont every summer in search of better-paying work. Most of them work on vegetable farms and at apple orchards. Dennis works as a reggae musician. He will perform with his band The Thunderballs in Brattleboro on June 10 and July 1...
Obituaries • Dale Wesley Ameden Sr., 70, of Jamaica. Died May 24 from an ongoing cardiac condition. Born and raised in the hills of Weston, the oldest of five children of Dennis Guy Ameden and Barbara Jane (Foster) Ameden, he is survived by his wife of 33 years, Karen (Chapin) Ameden, eight children, seven grandchildren and four siblings. A graduate of Chester High School, he was a self-made entrepreneur and leaves a legacy as the owner of several successful businesses...
The Brooks Memorial Library is gathering community input for the library's upcoming five-year strategic plan. “I love strategic plans,” said Library Director Starr LaTronica to a small audience of community members on May 19. But before LaTronica and the library's Board of Trustees can create the plan, “we get to dream,” she said. “Wishes are the original out-of-the-box thinking.” Throughout the summer, LaTronica, trustees, and members of the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library will gather feedback from the community to...
A bench for Cookie VERNON - Nancy Durborow appeared before the Selectboard at their May 16 regular meeting to seek their approval for placing a bench on town property honoring Eleanor “Cookie” Allen, who died Dec. 31, 2014. Durborow, representing the Vernon Seniors, told Board members the group picked out a marble bench to place outside the town offices. The placement was chosen to remember all that Allen, a Vernon native, had done for the town, including serving as town...
A new Vermont rule that went into effect on May 1 prevents invasive insects from piggybacking into the state on untreated firewood. With the arrival of summer camping season, visitors to Vermont should be prepared to buy firewood in-state or be able to verify that imported firewood is heat-treated to U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved standards. The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation already urges all campers and homeowners to purchase wood locally. The new rule strengthens protection of Vermont's...
This summer, Marlboro College Graduate School will be offering two professional development workshops for area educators. “Transforming with Technology” will meet June 14, 15, and 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at the Central Elementary School in Bellows Falls. This workshop is designed for teachers to take a unit of study and transform it so your students will participate as creative designers, producers and developers of their own learning. The transformed units will provide engaging opportunities for your students...
Offering further proof of this year's mild winter, Highway Foreman Lee Chamberlin reported his crew used about one-third less sand keeping the roads safe than they did last year. During his Roads Report at the May 11 regular Selectboard meeting, Chamberlin said his crew used just under 3,200 cubic yards of sand, down from 5,100 cubic yards the year before. Chamberlin announced the summer's planned paving schedule. Houghton Brook Road, Johnson's Curve Road, and Canoe Brook Road are on the...
Board appoints new Zoning Administrator DUMMERSTON - At the May 11 regular Selectboard meeting, the Board voted to accept the Planning Commission's recommendation to hire Kathleen Hathaway as the new Zoning Administrator. Charlotte Neer Annis, who served as Zoning Administrator for seven years, resigned after her election as Treasurer at Town Meeting in March.
A mile and a half of Route 30 between Cedar Street north and the Saxtons River Distillery/Fulcrum Arts complex might soon get a facelift - or at least a makeover. The Agency of Transportation (AOT), Windham Regional Commission (WRC), and town of Brattleboro launched the Route 30 Multi-Modal Gateway study earlier this year to investigate improving the short, but heavily traveled, section of roadway. According to WRC Senior Transportation Planner Matt Mann, the conversation started with then-Secretary of Transportation Sue...
With assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the town of Brattleboro will host a three-day design charrette from June 6-8. According to Brattleboro Planning Director Rod Francis, this will be a multi-day opportunity for property owners, business owners and Brattleboro residents to collaborate with a team of planners, landscape architects, and hydrologists to create a new vision for the Lower Whetstone Brook. “We were inspired by work of other communities redesigning urban river spaces with a focus on ecology,
Town gets paving grants NEWFANE - To help pay for this year's re-paving projects, the Vermont Agency of Transportation recently awarded the town nearly $200,000 in grant money. According to the Road Foreman's and Road Commissioner's Report presented at the May 16 regular Selectboard meeting, “We are getting $77,200 dollars for Auger Hole Road, and $116,000 for Dover Road." The terms of the grant require the town to come up with 20 percent of the project's cost. Administrative Assistant Shannon...
Mount Snow administrators say the federal government has approved the resort's EB-5 foreign investment program, and they're hoping that signals the imminent release of $52 million for snowmaking and lodge upgrades. Funding for Mount Snow's Carinthia LP project has been held in escrow while the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reviews the resort's plans and its foreign investors' immigrant visa petitions. Administrators announced May 25 that the first part of that review is complete as immigration officials have given the...
At a May 19 nuclear power summit in Washington, D.C., top-ranking federal officials and industry executives focused on market forces and government regulation. But Patty O'Donnell made sure the audience also heard about declining property values, underfunded nonprofits, and lost friends - all in the context of Vermont Yankee's 2014 shutdown. Her message was clear: If the pace of nuclear shutdowns accelerates, many other communities can expect to experience the problems that are plaguing Vernon and the surrounding tri-state area.
Vermont Yankee's property value has plummeted by almost 70 percent, according to a tax deal that has been approved by the Vernon Selectboard and the state. The six-year tax-stabilization contract sets the shut-down nuclear plant's value at $78 million, down from a $250 million valuation that had been in effect. The change affects the town and state differently, but the end result will be the same - a loss of millions of dollars in Vermont Yankee tax revenue over the...
Members of the Act 46 study committee met for the first time since receiving a decision from the Vermont Department of Education on Vernon's exit from the school merger process. The study committee and the public crowded into a classroom at the Putney Central School for the May 26 meeting. Representatives from Vernon sat in the audience. The committee includes school board members from Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, and, until recently, Vernon. Under Act 46, the committee is tasked with...
In 1930, in Marion, Indiana, two lifeless black bodies in ragged and tattered clothes hung from separate tree branches, their faces and bodies beaten and bloody. Below them, a separate crowd of well-dressed white men and women stood smiling and looking at the corpses. Not one person had an expression of sorrow or remorse - not a single hint of regret. Such racism, the blatant disregard for human dignity, persists because one group holds tight to its power, refusing another...
Curtain up! It's time for a new season at the Actors Theatre Playhouse. “The 2016 season offers a little something for everyone,” says Playhouse Artistic Director Sam Pilo. “It begins with the Ten Minute Play Festival in June, which offers a slate of unproduced gems never seen before.” “This year's Ten Minute Play Festival marks the eighth annual return, and features seven winners of the theatre's year-long Regional Competition,” explains producer/director Jim Bombicino. “The festival was established to encourage the...
State officials say they've found a way to force Entergy to continue to pay for Vermont Yankee's 10-mile emergency zone. In a surprise announcement May 26, Public Service Department Commissioner Chris Recchia said the state has new statutory authority to “bill back” Entergy for emergency planning activities in towns around the Vernon nuclear plant. Recchia expects the state also will be billing the plant's owner for other Vermont Yankee–related work such as groundwater testing and nonradiological waste monitoring. All told,
Bowl for Kids' Sake, a community-wide Youth Services event which raises money for its Windham County Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program, grossed close to $40,000 on Saturday, May 7. BBBS is still collecting pledges and donations. According to a news release, Bowl for Kids' Sake attracted people from all walks of life. More than 150 friends and colleagues formed teams that included entire families and many area businesses. This year's theme was “crazy hats” and prizes were given to...
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Google executive Matt Dunne is in constant motion. On a recent Friday afternoon, he paced back and forth, framed by Mocha Joe's windows on Main Street, talking on his cellphone as quickly as he moved his feet. Once inside the coffee shop, Dunne said “no” to coffee. He didn't need the caffeine. Dunne, 46, is an intense presence and speaks with passion about improving the economy, pulling struggling Vermonters from poverty, and creating affordable housing.
Jerry Levy will perform his play, “The Third Coming: Marx Returns,” as a benefit for the Women's Freedom Center on Saturday, June 4, at 8 p.m., at the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery. For 10 years, actor, teacher, director, and activist Jerry Levy has had the good fortune to tour “Marx in Soho,” a one-person play about the life of Karl Marx written by Howard Zinn in 1999, according to a news release. Levy has brought the play to over 80...
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital President and CEO Steve R. Gordon recently announced that Debi Lynch, Payroll Specialist and Administrative Assistant for Finance, has been named BMH's Employee of the Year. The annual award is always a closely guarded secret until the winner is announced at the annual Ice Cream Social that caps off BMH's Employee Appreciation Week. Gordon presented Lynch with her award after first dropping a number of hints throughout his speech highlighting her 25 years of service to the...
It's going to be a hard day. I'm trying to be extra kind with myself today. I set this day aside from work, so that I may follow wherever it takes me. One year ago today, I catapulted off my horse Ruby in a barrel race and, today, she leaves for her next stint, as a therapeutic riding horse. At the time of my accident, I was in between appointments to diagnose some dizziness and balance issues I was having,
Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts will present recent paintings by Donald Saaf with an artist reception and exhibition opening Thursday, June 2, from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibit continues through July 10, with an artist talk scheduled for Saturday, June 18, at 7 p.m. Saaf's oil paintings provide a personal glimpse into regional landscape and community. According to a news release, “His peopled, rustic scenes are crafted with attention to overall surface pattern and texture; he utilizes collaged fabric, distorted perspective...
Thanks to a partnership between the Latchis Hotel and Theatre and the Inclusion Center, a handicap-access hallway in the Latchis has gotten a new name and a friendlier appearance. In mid-May, members of the Inclusion Center, a Brattleboro-based drop-in center for people with disabilities, began painting a mural in what Latchis Executive Director Jon Potter called “an untended and untidy, dark, and not-welcoming” hallway. This semi-public art project is no accident. It's the response to a traumatic event experienced by...
The standard formula for winning a baseball game is good pitching, plus good defense, plus timely hitting equals victory. Bellows Falls had all of those things on May 23, when the Terriers beat Windsor, 6-3, at Hadley Field. Jake Lober provided the timely hitting by going 3-for-3 and driving in four runs. Starting pitcher Zac Streeter did the rest with a complete-game four hitter, striking out 10 batters and walking one, and helping his own cause with a diving catch...
“Localvore” is the name of the game in southern Windham County, especially in the first weekend of June. While Strolling of the Heifers brings local farms and food to the fore in Brattleboro, a few minutes south, in Guilford, is local theater. Yes, complete with a local writer and local talent on a local stage. Guilford Center Stage launches its second season at the Broad Brook Grange on June 3-5 with two original one-act plays written and directed by local...
Shoot the Moon Theater Company continues its inaugural season with Cameo, an original production inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, on Friday and Saturday, June 10 and 11, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, June 16, 17, and 18, at 7:30 p.m., in the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery. Cast members are Xoe Perra, Skyler Heathwaite, Jennifer Moyse, Josh Goldstein, Terry Carter, and John Ogorzalek. Alistair Follansbee is the stage manager, and the production is designed by Colin Grube and Joshua...
Once again Vermont specialty food producers shone brightly at the annual sofi Awards bringing three golds back to the Green Mountain State. The sofi Awards, which stands for “specialty outstanding food innovation,” are the most prestigious awards in the specialty food industry and honor excellence across a variety of food categories, from vinegars to vegan snacks. Vermont's winners were Big Picture Farm of Townshend, Jan's Farmhouse Crisps of Stowe, and Vermont Creamery of Websterville. This year's winners were selected from...
Two months after a state inspection found violations of patient rights and emergency-services standards, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has been given a clean bill of health. The state Division of Licensing and Protection on May 26 issued a letter saying the hospital had “corrected all deficiencies that were cited” during an investigation in late March. That means the state is satisfied with BMH's corrective plan, which included new policies, additional monitoring, and increased education related to the treatment of mental health...
Hands, wrinkled by time and sun, cradle the tight bundle of white stars against a triangular field of blue. The United States flag, folded like a clenched fist for more than 46 years, opens under the methodical precision of the two elder military color guards. The guards guide four young men from Brattleboro Union High School through raising the flag that once draped the coffin of Petty Officer 3rd Class John Charles Blake. Blake, a Navy Corpsman, died of a...
The 15th annual Strolling of the Heifers Weekend, featuring a parade of flower-bedecked heifer calves led by future farmers up Main Street, takes place June 3, 4 and 5. Organizers promise many special surprises for the occasion. Over the years, Strolling of the Heifers has grown from a one-hour parade into a full weekend packed with family events, and attracts tens of thousands of visitors to Brattleboro. According to organizers, the mission of Strolling of the Heifers is to connect...