Long-time Town Clerk Gloria Cristelli isn't seeking re-election this year. After serving eight years as town clerk - and four years as a Selectboard member - Cristelli told The Commons she is looking forward to her retirement.
To make the transition as smooth as possible upon the new town clerk's election at Town Meeting Day, Cristelli brought a number of items to the Selectboard at their Jan. 30 regular meeting.
One of Cristelli's major projects during her tenure was getting the town's records digitized. Otherwise, the paper records, stored in an aging, too-small vault, could be lost should disaster strike the town office building.
As Cristelli told The Commons in December, 2015, if the town records are destroyed, that means no more property records - and no way for the town to determine who owes property tax.
The Brattleboro Music Center's popular “Singing Strong” program for seniors who love to sing returns. The new season of Singing Strong begins Tuesday, Feb. 28. Sessions are held Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. for a modest fee of $60 for eight weekly sessions. Brattleboro Concert Choir Director Susan Dedell leads...
For the third year in a row, The Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro on Flat Street is offering a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Mentoring Program for youth 6 to 9 years old. This program will be held throughout the 2017 calendar year, according to a news...
Although the town didn't exactly pass this year's audit with flying colors, Vernon received high marks from the Montpelier-based accounting firm Sullivan Powers & Company. At the Jan. 19 regular Selectboard meeting, Chad Hewitt, a CPA with the company, told Selectboard members he gave Vernon a “clean opinion” on their Fiscal Year 2016 audit, noting “[you] can't get any better than that.” Hewitt presented highlights from his findings. He noted the industry standard in auditing a municipality's finances are to...
CCV to offer Certified Production Technician course via Telepresence MONTPELIER - Community College of Vermont will offer a grant-funded course leading to an industry-recognized credential in the field of manufacturing at multiple locations via telepresence. The Certified Production Technician course will be offered in southern Vermont at the Brattleboro, Rutland, Springfield, and White River Junction campuses. The class meets on Tuesdays, from 1 to 4 p.m., beginning Feb. 28. Each class section runs for six weeks, and students must complete...
Windham Property Management expands into N.H. BRATTLEBORO - Windham Property Management, Inc. (WPMI) is expanding its services into Cheshire County in New Hampshire. Formerly WPMI offered a full range of property management services in Windham County only, since New Hampshire requires special licensing of property managers. Sally Fegley, co-owner of the company, recently became licensed in New Hampshire. This credentialing allows WPMI to operate in that state. Services provided by WPMI include residential and commercial leasing, property management, caretaking, EMP...
Selectboard certifies highway mileage VERNON - There was one small change to the town's yearly certificate of highway mileage, issued every year by the Agency of Transportation and certified by officers in each Vermont municipality. The AOT uses this data for mapping and to help the legislature determine a town's annual highway funding. In October, the Selectboard learned the AOT “gave” 0.18-mile of Lowry Road to Guilford, but it only represented a mapping correction. Guilford had already maintained the road...
The state of human rights in Guatemala will be “on the menu” at the Human Rights Café, which welcomes Laila Hamdan on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 9 to 11 a.m., at Christ's Church, 24 Main St. The Café is a new project of Saxtons River Community Building, welcoming all ages every Saturday morning with coffee and snacks. Hamdan recently returned from Guatemala, where she spent six months as a human rights accompanier with the Network in Solidarity with the People...
An art exhibition titled Series, curated by Landmark College art faculty member Christie Herbert, will open at the Landmark College Fine Arts Gallery with a reception on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. Series features five artists who live and work in Windham County: Ricia Gordon, Stephen Procter, Michael Poster, Elizabeth Ungerleider, and Susan Wilson. The exhibit will be open daily through April 14. Admission is free. In March and April, according to a news release, each of...
College news • The following local students received academic honors at Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., for the fall 2016 semester: Brennen D. Zolnoski, a biomedical engineering major from Brattleboro, and William C. Bourque, an economics major from East Dover, were named to the President's List, and Tyler Clement, a biomedical engineering major from Vernon, was named to the Dean's List. • Christian Ruse of Putney was named to the Dean's List for the fall 2016 semester at...
After a difficult 2016, things are looking up at Mount Snow. Parent company Peak Resorts says season-pass sales and skier visits are up dramatically this season companywide, and the Dover resort is no exception. That news comes just a few months after Mount Snow gained access to $52 million in EB-5 foreign investment funds, which will fuel major construction projects starting in the spring. Both of those developments were mentioned in a mid-season update issued by Peak Resorts President and...
Next Stage Arts Project's Theater Company in Residence, Apron Theater Company, will present Title and Deed, by Will Eno, Feb. 17-19 The original New York production of Title and Deed was on “10 best plays” lists for 2012 in both The New York Times and The New Yorker, according to a news release. Now this unusual theater experience comes to Putney in a new production from the Apron Theater Company in association with Next Stage Arts Project. It features Michael...
River Gallery School is hosting its second annual “Off the Wall” Art Lottery on March 11 at 118 Elliot Street from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. According to a news release, local artists and collectors donate artwork for the event (some are from well-known artists, others not-so-famous but wonderful nonetheless) and every participating ticket holder will get to leave with a painting, drawing, or print with a value of at least $100. On arrival, participants choose a numbered pingpong ball to...
Art in the Neighborhood, a Brattleboro-based nonprofit, recently received grants from the Crosby-Gannett Fund and the Dunham-Mason Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation. The grants will provide tuition-free art classes to students receiving services from Health Care and Rehabilitative Services, the regional mental health agency. Art in the Neighborhood has been collaborating with that agency since 2015. These grants allow continued funding for the program. Mollie S. Burke, Executive Director of Art in the Neighborhood, said in a news release...
In a heartfelt ceremony on Feb. 8 at The Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro (BGCB) on Flat Street, Derrick Harnish was named the club's 2017 Youth of the Year. Harnish is a true example of an extraordinary young man. At age 16, he has just been selected to compete against other Boys & Girls Club members for the Vermont Youth of the Year title and a $1,000 scholarship. As the Youth of the Year for The Boys & Girls...
Through March 12, Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, 183 Main St., presents “Spring Visions,” a new group exhibition expanding upon December's Winter Group. The show will feature a new selection of work by gallery artists, including Emily Mason, Torin Porter, Anne Johnstone, Eric Boyer, Jon Gregg, Tiffany Heerema, and Robin Cheung. An artist forum of featured artists will take place Saturday, Feb. 25 from 5 to 7 p.m. According to a news release, New York painter and printmaker Emily Mason creates singularly...
In the late afternoon of Feb. 5, Tracy Donahue and Peter Rizzo lost nearly all of their belongings in a fire that completely destroyed their Grimes Hill Road home. Neither was there at the time. The couple split up a few weeks before the fire, and Donahue moved out. “I left the house at 4 p.m and came back at 8 p.m.,” said Rizzo, who came home to a driveway filled with firetrucks. All Rizzo has are the clothes he...
No one's been able to use the Vilas Bridge since 2009. But the 635-foot-long span still has its champions, as evidenced by a new resolution introduced last week in the Vermont House. Sponsored by four Windham County legislators, the resolution claims officials in New Hampshire - which owns most of the bridge - have shown “wanton neglect” in failing to repair the structure. And it urges the Granite State to “make every possible effort, on a timely basis,” to find...
In spite of planned staff cuts, a tax hike and a run-in with a new state enrollment rule, Leland & Gray's fiscal year 2018 budget passed easily in voting Feb. 8. In fact, the union middle and high school's $6.3 million spending plan was approved by a nearly 2-to-1 margin: There were a total of 276 “yes” votes and 139 “no” votes cast in Brookline, Jamaica, Newfane, Townshend, and Windham. Administrators see the vote both as a sign of support...
What is art's role in the healing process? How exactly does art heal, and what makes art therapy effective? The Arts Council of Windham County will seek answers to these questions at a panel discussion with expressive arts therapists from the community on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 6 p.m., at 118 Elliot Street. This is the first program in a series exploring the connections between art and healing that the Arts Council of Windham County is developing in partnership with...
On Friday, March 3, during Brattleboro's Gallery Walk, Peter Havens Restaurant is sponsoring a community interactive photographic exhibit by area residents who participated in the Jan. 21 Women's Marches. Anyone may participate, and participants should bring a favorite photo or two (any size, any paper) from the march they attended to donate to the exhibit, and two clothespins per photo. Most of the photos will be displayed on wire lines. Participants may also attach a short, optional synopsis of their...
The Vermont Public Service Board has decided to hold two public hearings in Vernon this year to gather comments on the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee. The hearings - one next month, and another in September - are included in a new schedule for the board's review of Entergy's proposed sale of the Vernon plant to decommissioning contractor NorthStar Group Services. The schedule stretches into the final months of 2017, allowing time for multiple rounds of discovery, depositions, and testimony.
For all the steps I've climbed and the drives I've taken in pursuit of these stories of folks we ought to know more about, what keeps me moving forward full-throttle is the chance to get to know people like Janice Warren. Warren's company, OneReport, is “advancing corporate responsibility [by] bridging investors, stakeholders, and reporting organizations in one platform,” according to its website. She lives (at least in a technical sense - having met her, I'm pretty sure she puts in...
Good day to you. I hope that some of you were able to access my updates on The Commons' Facebook page during the past wintry week we just slogged through. Nice to get some real snow on the ground, finally! But what goes up must come down. And in this case, it's the opposite. What has gone down (temperatures) must come up, and up they will climb, starting this weekend. However, we've got couple of days of generally light accumulating...
To battle the evil tide sweeping over our politics, I think we have to figure out an overarching concept of what we are dealing with. For me, it boils down to this: We are in a generational war. We have not fully recognized it yet. But the evidence is substantial. The entire United States would have been blue on Election Day had only people under 25 voted. Every initiative that Donald Trump has put forth hurts the rising generation the...
I serve as a member of the Westminster School Board and participated as one of the members of the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Act 46 Study Committee. I want townspeople in the region to know that the Windham Northeast Committee made a decision to bring the issue of whether or not to consolidate to the voters of our respective towns - Athens, Grafton, Rockingham and Westminster. Importantly, the committee did not endorse or recommend the proposed consolidation. I was actively...
The U.S. is losing an average of 6,000 acres of open space every DAY, according to the Trust for Public Land. In Dummerston, in 1960, there were about 300 houses. Today, there are about 800. Almost all of those new houses were single-family houses built in remote areas of farmland and forestland, far from other homes. One of the best ways to stop climate change is to protect open space. Protecting farmland is a good investment. Farmland attracts tourists and...
While reading Brenda Lynn Siegel's inspiring account of her experience at the Women's March in Washington, D.C., I began to wonder something about the rising “new left/woman's protest movement.” I honor Ms. Siegel's direct action, making time in her life to stand with her sisters, but her outrage at Republicans' lies and Donald Trump's insanity makes me wonder how she and millions of her protesting sisters feel about the 100,000 bombs that Barack Obama dropped on women and children and...
A New York company has taken another big step toward purchasing Vermont Yankee. NorthStar Group Holdings has filed an application with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to acquire the license of the shut-down Vernon plant. The request was filed jointly with Entergy, the facility's current owner. Encompassing more than 200 pages, the application is a comprehensive attempt to convince the NRC that NorthStar has the expertise and the financial wherewithal to clean up the plant decades earlier than Entergy had...
A request for State Rep. Mike Hebert and the health-care committee: Please support any proposition to remove the religious exemption from vaccinations and support the medical and scientific community's consensus that vaccine exemptions should only be granted to children for medical reasons, not parental ignorance.
Entergy was required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to contribute to the Decommissioning Trust Fund in 2009 or so, due to the market value falling below the required amount. Shipping the basement water off site is a waste of money. With the political will, it could be safely put in the river.
Shoot the Moon Theater Company opens its 2017 season at the Hooker-Dunham Theater with a two-weekend run of The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17-18, and Feb. 24-25. The dramatic comedy by Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada made its New York City debut in 2014 with an English translation by Aya Ogawa. Time-Out New York awarded it four stars and The New York Times praised it as “a war on boredom.
I've been turning the pages of On the Breath of Song with tears and smiles and the deep appreciation for the voices. The gift of song that goes straight to the heart. Thank you, Hallowell Singers, and thank you, thank you, Kathy Leo, for your deep knowing, for your big heart, and for sharing your beautiful words.
When Mount Anthony opened its Feb. 10 boys' basketball game against the Brattleboro Colonels with a 9-0 run in the first three minutes of the game, Colonels coach Jason Coplan said he considered calling a time out to try and regroup. He decided against it, however, and the Colonels then responded with a 12-0 run of their own. That ability to take a punch, and come back with a harder counterpunch, was the theme of the Colonels' 67-54 win over...
I stayed up watching the Super Bowl right to the very end. Up until about the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter, it seemed hopeless and very discouraging for a Patriots fan. Then it turned, dramatically. I remember similar feelings all night long on election night. It wasn't until after 11 p.m. that there was some sense this race was actually close and might go Donald Trump's way. I stayed up until past 3:30 a.m., hugely surprised and pleased. It...
Since 1922, the Harris Hill Ski Jump has attracted competitors and spectators from across the U.S. and abroad. This year, on Saturday, Feb. 18, and Sunday, Feb. 19, the competition will return to the historic site for the Pepsi Challenge U.S. Cup on Saturday and the Fred Harris Memorial Tournament on Sunday. Organizers are celebrating the 95th year of competition at the Olympic-sized (90-meter) ski jump, a hidden gem tucked away on Cedar Street. Liz Richards, co-director of the event,
A lot of babies have been welcomed, a lot of humorous stories recounted, and a lot of memories made as Dr. Robert Backus, the ultimate country doctor, gets ready to retire on March 9. For nearly 40 years, Backus has been the mainstay - some would say the emblem - of Townshend's treasured Grace Cottage Hospital. One patient describes how his father died at 2 a.m. and “Dr. B” was at the house an hour later to comfort his mother.
Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 51st concert season, will present its annual Midwinter Musicale program on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Guilford Community Church, just over a mile from Exit 1 off Interstate 91. The evening will begin with a pre-concert soup supper at 6 p.m., continue at 7 p.m. with a concert featuring the HeartSoulVoice duo from Boston, and be capped by a dessert reception. The pre-concert light supper, included in the $12 admission fee, will offer...
The cast has been named and rehearsals are underway for the Main Street Arts production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street that will be staged at the Bellows Falls Opera House two weekends in March. Director David Stern has announced the cast will be led by Michael Wright of Claremont, N.H., in the title role of the barbarous barber in the Tony-award-winning musical thriller set in Victorian England. “Mike has an extensive theater background as both an...
The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department will present the hit musical Monty Python's Spamalot on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Feb. 16, 17, and 18) in the BUHS Auditorium. The Thursday performance will begin at 4 p.m.; Friday and Saturday evening performances will begin at 7 p.m. Due to mature content, parents are advised that this show may not suitable for children under 13 years old. The show is directed by Robert Kramsky (stage director), Stephen Rice (music co-director), Anthony...