MONTPELIER - Applications for the Community College of Vermont 2017 Karen Raylene Clark Memorial Scholarship are now being accepted. Clark was a long-time Academic Coordinator at the College's Brattleboro campus until her death in December 2015. The first scholarship was awarded in 2016 to CCV-Brattleboro student Cheryl Caldwell-Lahue, who was Clark's advisee.
Clark believed in the value of hard work, commitment, and the power of learning from experience and, for more than 15 years, she instilled those values in the students she advised.
Her family and friends created this endowed scholarship fund to honor Clark's memory and her passion for helping students persist in their studies and reach their career goals. Clark's parents, Helen M. Clark and T. Wayne Clark, established the endowment with other family members and friends.
Applications for the $1,000 scholarship, to be awarded for the fall 2017 semester, are due May 8. To learn more, visit ccv.edu/pay/scholarships.
Obituaries • Shirley Mae Pearson Clark, 94, of Brattleboro. Died March 31. Born in Brattleboro on July 4, 1922, the daughter of the late Robert E. and Hazel (Brooks) Pearson, she graduated from Brattleboro High School, Class of 1940. In 1941, she married Francis Joseph Clark, and together they...
When a school lacks a cafeteria, where do students eat? This was the concern Green Street School administrators had, since breakfast participation, when served in the gymnasium, resulted in only one-third of students eating the morning meal. Last September, breakfast was moved into the classroom, served after the morning...
The Rally for Science Brattleboro will be held on Saturday, April 22, from noon to 5 p.m. Attractions will include presentations and talks center on science, education, and the environment. This presentation is an official satellite event of the national Rally for Science being held that day in cities around the world. Positive Geek on Flat Street is sponsoring the day, which will center on STEM (science, technology, education, and mathematics) learning, and the environment, according to a news release.
The Brattleboro Literary Festival will host a teen poetry, prose, and pizza slam at the Boys and Girls Club on Flat Street on Saturday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.. Writers 18 and under are encouraged to sign up to read their original poems or prose. The winner will receive a cash prize of $100 and will be published online at Green Mountains Review. The runner-up will receive a $50 cash prize. Door prizes and a raffle will feature gift certificates...
New England Youth Theatre's Theatre Adventure presents Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream on Thursday, April 13, at 10:30 a.m., and Friday, April 14, at 7 p.m., at the West Village Meeting House in West Brattleboro. According to a news release, the Theatre Adventure Thursday Troupe's spring production promises to be “an unforgettable experience for audiences and performers alike,” as the company explores Shakespeare's “rhythmic language and outrageous storylines.” In the play, a nobleman of Athens named Egeus believes he has...
I have been observing and interacting with Brattleboro Selectboards for over 40 years. I have witnessed some very good boards and some pretty poor boards. Most have been average. I don't rate boards on whether they agree with my positions, but rather on their willingness to listen and to consider various points of view with some objectivity, on how they treat citizens at meetings, and on the truthfulness of their deliberations. I would rate the board of the past five-plus...
Once again, the specter of a vintage silent movie with a live, modern soundtrack is haunting Windham County. On Saturday, April 15, the Williamsville Hall presents the 1928 French silent film, The Passion of Joan d'Arc, featuring the premiere of an original soundtrack performed live on piano by Dan DeWalt. DeWalt's performance of an original soundtrack to Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times last year was acclaimed by the overflow capacity audience. While Joan d'Arc is a different beast altogether, the bond...
Route 5 bridge project set to begin July 10 GUILFORD - Highway Commissioner Dan Zumbruski updated Selectboard members on the Route 5 bridge replacement project scheduled for this summer. The start date on the new Algiers Bridge is July 10, and will require a 28-day closure, Zumbruski said. Pre-construction work on utilities and trees in the bridge area has already begun. The Vermont Agency of Transportation's suggested detour is 25 miles long and takes travelers through Bernardston, Mass. Because of...
Selectboard forms recycling committee NEWFANE - In response to residents' requests at Town Meeting, the Selectboard agreed to form a committee to investigate the town's options for recycling. With the closing of the Windham Solid Waste Management District's Materials Recovery Facility, many towns, including Newfane, will lose their municipal recycling bins after June 30. Board Vice-Chair Gary Delius mentioned the complexity of the issue, and the many “unanswered questions.” The Selectboard seeks members to serve on the recycling committee. Interested...
Immanuel Episcopal Church, the stone church on the hill, invites all to help observe Holy Week and celebrate Easter. The church offers several services commemorating the passion and death of Christ and celebrates his resurrection with two festive services on Easter morning. The Maundy Thursday service on Thursday, April 13, will begin at 6 p.m. in the Chapel, according to a news release. The word maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum (commandment) and refers to Jesus giving the...
During the final week of the Lenten season, St. Michael's Episcopal Church celebrates Holy Week, a sacred time of the year for Christians when the events of Christ's passion and death are remembered. In revisiting the sacred stories, the hope is not only to remember but to experience the drama of these stories, according to a news release. St. Michael's Episcopal Church is fully accessible. More information is available on the website or at the church office (802-254-6048). All are...
Westminster voters, along with those from Athens and Grafton, all voted down the proposed Act 46 school-district merger based on the “preferred model” structure. Other towns throughout the state also voted down merger plans. We now hope to explore alternative governance structures that are outlined in Act 46, although the exact process for next steps is not completely clear. We invite school board members, Selectboard members, and the public from all surrounding districts to a forum in early May where...
The Selectboard held a public hearing on April 4 on a $715,896 scattered-site grant that the Windham and Windsor Housing Trust hopes to get from the Vermont Community Development Program. The Board then voted unanimously to authorize the submission of the grant application. Elizabeth Bridgewater, Director of Homeownership, and Bruce Whitney, Lending and Special Projects Manager, represented the Housing Trust at the hearing to answer questions and provide information on the block grant. The grant will fund the Housing Trust's...
The new West Brattleboro Fire Station is complete, and construction on the Central Fire Station and the future Brattleboro Police Station on Black Mountain Road continues. That's the progress report that Town Manager Peter B. Elwell gave the Selectboard during its April 4 meeting. A ribbon cutting and open house for the West Brattleboro Fire Station is set for Saturday, April 22, from 9 a.m. until noon, with a brief ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Elwell encouraged the public to attend.
What is spring to me? It's not a date on a calendar, nor is it something a rodent of questionable psychic talent can predict. It is a feeling, a palpitation of the heart, a moment when your senses suddenly kick into high gear. You can smell the earth in all its sensuous glory, preparing to awe us with colors, sounds, smell, and wondrous touch. For me, March is the month that would prefer to roll over and go back to...
Good day to you! While we have a couple of chances for showers and thunderstorms this week, we can expect mainly pedestrian weather and a return to more seasonable temperatures by early this coming week. For Wednesday, some scattered morning showers are certainly possible, and they could last into the afternoon as a cold front approaches the region. An isolated thunderstorm can't be ruled out, either. We should start to see some clearing and sunny breaks in the afternoon as...
Vermont Yankee's plan to send radioactive wastewater cross-country to Idaho “will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment,” federal regulators have decided. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn't yet given the official green light for 200,000 gallons of water to be trucked from the Vernon plant to US Ecology's disposal facility near Grand View, Idaho. But the NRC's environmental findings, announced April 3, show that the federal agency is now comfortable with Entergy's assurances that...
Liquor license is approved for new Mexican restaurantBRATTLEBORO - On April 4, the Liquor Commissioners unanimously approved a first-class liquor license for Cantina Vidorra, a Mexican restaurant slated to open in mid-April at 49 Elliot St. This class of license allows a dining establishment to serve beer and wine on the premises. According to the Department of Liquor Control, applicants must get their first-class license approved by the municipality before applying to the state. A memorandum from the office of...
In response to decisions made by voters and Town Meeting representatives on a plastic bag ban, a Compassionate Cities initiative, and recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Day, Town Manager Peter Elwell issued an update on the progress made by municipal staff on each item. At the April 4 regular Selectboard meeting, Elwell said, “two of them carry responsibilities,” and town officials “have to do the work necessary” to explore the town's options. On Town Meeting day, voters overwhelmingly approved an article asking...
What are the various versions of truth we enact as we try to live an authentic life? What does being authentic mean amid multiple selves? These are the questions being posed in VOICES, an artistic framework focused on sounds, images, and language, providing a conceptual space in which a range of performers come forth to present their versions of truth and authenticity. VOICES debuts with a two-night production on April 14 and 15, starting at 7:30 p.m. both nights, at...
March snow lay thick in the pine woods. We pushed our way through the drifts to the camping spot next to the big rock where the cats perch and become lions. * * * Look! * * * The meltwater stream is back, the bubbling purr of water running darkly under the ice. Hoof prints at the bank. They were thirsty? Yes. Oh, they don't have sinks. Right. I'll make them a place to drink. The perfect stick is found...
A singing quartet dubbed “the Chinese Andrews Sisters” will visit the screen at Main Street Arts on Saturday, April 15, when Leslie Li offers a showing of her documentary, Portrait in Four-Part Harmony. Li, a former resident of Saxtons River, is the daughter of one of the Kim Loo Sisters, who grew up in Minneapolis as the children of a Chinese father and a Polish refugee mother, overcoming poverty and prejudice to perform, first in kiddie revues and then on...
Last week was a washout for high school baseball and softball, which meant another week inside the gymnasiums of Windham County instead of playing outdoors. “Gymball” is an unavoidable part of baseball and softball in Vermont. Coaches can only hope that March ends with warm and dry weather so the snow can melt, the frost can come out of the ground, and the fields can firm up and begin the spring growth cycle. At the beginning of March, Tenney Field...
It was Saturday evening, April 22, 1967. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his aide, Andrew Young, stepped off a plane at the T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., and were met by six-year-old John Crockett and his father, Larrimore “Larry” Crockett, a chaplain at Brown University. John remembers shaking King's hand, and the full attention King gave to this unknown little boy. They all came back to the Brown campus, where King preached the following morning. Thus did John...
At the beginning of 2017, two separate and very different gifts were made to the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association, a nonprofit organization known for conserving land in a multi-town area for both wildlife and people to enjoy. One gift involved money. The other involved land. Yet both were associated with memories of childhood, young people, and a love of nature. Both gifts were planned years ago and implemented recently, according to a news release. Marion Berry bequest The Berry family...
You'd think that after the 2016 presidential election, where climate-change deniers took over the levers of power, Bill McKibben would be hiding in bed with his head covered by quilts. Or. at the very least, he would have lost his sense of humor. But the 56-year-old renowned environmentalist, lecturer, author, journalist, Schumann distinguished scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, Ripton resident, cross-country skier, and co-founder of the climate-change organization 350.org, has not slowed down his efforts to try to...
For many years, an image has often appeared in my mind, always when I'm disheartened by what I am observing. In the image, a punch-drunk boxer (representing the people of the United States) is standing in the middle of a boxing ring, arm hanging at each side, looking down. The opponent (our government) strikes the left side, and the boxer's head jerks to the right. Then the right side is struck, and the boxer's head swings to the left. This...
A group of 16 juniors and seniors at the Compass School have spent the past six weeks studying films, writing screenplays, and producing their own short films. Last week, they put the final touches on those films and created blooper reels in preparation for the 13th annual Compass Student Film Festival on Thursday, April 13, at 7 p.m. - a culminating event for their filmmaking class. Professional filmmakers serve as judges for the films, which brings a touch of competition...
When Brandy Cheney tries to convince kids to stay away from opiates, she has a secret weapon: Brutal honesty. Cheney, a recovery coach and youth advocate at Turning Point in Springfield, offers her own story of addiction, arrest, and recovery to students as young as 8 years old. Like others who spoke here at an April 5 community meeting on opiate issues, Cheney preached the importance of telling children and young adults the truth - and reaching far beyond the...
Unlike any other American film festivals, the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival not only awards its winner a coveted prize, but provides them with a tour to show their works at prestigious venues across New England. Festival organizers say they're strongly committed to raising the profile of its winning filmmakers after the annual August event concludes. The New England Tour is the direct fulfillment of this commitment. “At all other film festivals, you win a prize and that's that,” says filmmaker...
Joanna Rueter, the Advance Care Planning coordinator at Brattleboro Area Hospice, joked in an interview about others' perceptions of the nature of her work. Her expertise? Death. “We joke in my house about what I read,” she said, mentioning a book called Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. The so-perceived “morbidity” of her career is unsettling and bewildering to many with whom she crosses paths. But this discourse is at the heart...
On April 6, in a crowded cafeteria at Vernon Elementary School, there were three hours of debate and discussion about the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee. But for the most part, it all might boil down to one question: Is it too good to be true? Few spoke unequivocally for or against Entergy's plan to sell the shut-down nuclear plant to NorthStar Group Services. Rather, most expressed support for NorthStar's promise to decommission the plant promptly, while also confessing doubts...
The Catherine Dianich Gallery is currently aglow with the paintings of Gilbert “Gib” Taylor, a longtime and much-loved teacher at Marlboro College who died in 2006. Taylor, born in 1929 and raised on Deer Isle, Maine, attended Harvard University and the Art Students League and, after serving in Germany during the Korean War, went to the American School of Art in New York on the GI Bill. He lived in New York for 10 years, his “painting adolescence” as he...
A snowstorm in late March is like a test to see if we can endure. * * * We've already heard birds' songs at dawn with the promise of warmth and longer days. * * * We've seen buds on trees, and flowers valiantly pushing through hard dirt. * * * We've begun to hope for all things green bursting forth. * * * But now in late March we'll hunker down again, wait for flakes to stop their onslaught.
The first foods of spring are indeed the coming back to life from the dead. After months of frozen ground, ice, and snow, the earth thaws, and somewhere down there, life opens up and starts to grow again and, if we are lucky, April brings rhubarb. Rhubarb is about the first serious edible a Vermont garden produces. It is one of the many rheum plants of the buckwheat family, and technically a vegetable, not a fruit. It is grown from...
Rick Hege: Today, this year, I am just laughing at the question. * * * Gemma Seymour: When the mud stops. * * * Gene Herman: Peepers and wood frogs. It's always them regardless of the date they start their song. Amara Cunningham: We heard a single peeper last night. It's as though he was calling out for his friends who hadn't arrived yet to the party. Gene Herman: I'm betting they wake up Sunday or Monday when it tops...