The Windham Northeast Unified Elementary School District Board on April 6 formally cancelled the District Meeting scheduled for April 9.
According to Board Chair Jack Bryar, the board reviewed discussions with Will Senning of the Secretary of State's Office plus correspondence with legislators Mitzi Johnson, Tim Ashe, Jeanette White, and area town clerks.
“Because of the uncertainty about the length and severity of the current COVID-19 epidemic, the board postponed setting a new date for the time being,” Bryar wrote in a letter to The Commons.
Citing advice from the Secretary of State's office, the board is exploring converting the various meeting articles and the election of Board members into a series of Australian ballot items.
Due to COVID-19, the Recreation & Parks Department has had to cancel their annual Easter Egg Hunt at Living Memorial Park. Instead, Recreation & Parks announces that through April 12, they will be hosting their first-ever Town Wide Easter Egg Hunt. “We are excited to announce that we will...
When most of us think about resilience, we imagine disturbances like intense storms, flooding, sea level rise, tornadoes, and wildfires. Clearly, pandemics need to be part of the resilience discussion as well. COVID-19, the coronavirus spreading rapidly worldwide, is bringing this aspect of resilience into sharp focus. Resilience is...
Are we really going to just wait for our government to change the laws regarding the miles per gallon a vehicle should get? The industry says we don't want these cars that get better mileage and that we want lots of room and for the gas prices to go down. Can we prove the industry wrong? According to the Harper's Index, our penchant for SUVs has placed that type of vehicle as the number-two contributor to our increased carbon emissions...
Broad Brook Community Center has received a $60,000 grant award from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to restore and protect historic elements of the 1896 grange hall in Guilford Center, currently awaiting a second phase of renovations. “We are deeply grateful to VHCB for this support, and the recognition of the efforts by BBCC and the Guilford community to maintain the history built into this wonderful building,” said Rick Zamore, chair of the Building and Grounds Committee, in a...
St. Michael's Episcopal Church plans online Holy Week services BRATTLEBORO - Although the church is closed, St. Michael's Episcopal has a full array of online Holy Week services, using Zoom between Wednesday, April 8, and Sunday, April 12. The clergy, lay readers, and musicians will participate from their homes to join you in your homes. There will be a Tenebrae service of poetry and music at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening. The 6 p.m. Maundy Thursday service includes your simple...
College news • The following South Londonderry students have been selected for inclusion on the Dean's List for academic achievement during the fall 2019 semester at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.: Samuel Cowles, a member of the Class of 2022; Hanako Kusumi, a member of the Class of 2023; and Mikayla Lathrop, a member of the Class of 2021 who is majoring in environmental studies/mathematics. Obituaries • Bruce Everett Anderson, 77, of West Wardsboro. Died suddenly at his home...
The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation, working with the The Conservation Fund, recently acquired conservation easements on 1,375 acres of woodlands in three separate parcels in the towns of Townshend, Stratton, and Jamaica. According to a news release, these easements will support Vermont's timber industry and forest economy, help to build flood resiliency in the Windham region, and protect important Connecticut River watersheds, critical black bear feeding habitat, and other wildlife habitats. It will also provide opportunities for...
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, part of an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and sexual violence. It's not a month of celebration, but one of education about both the prevalence of sexual violence and about ways to prevent it. Our plans to host a writing workshop for survivors of sexual violence to tell their stories has been postponed, as has the public reading we were to hold next week. This column was originally going to...
As our community and all of humanity adjusts to this pandemic, and to the long haul of closings, precautions, and change yet to come, we each do still have front-row seats to profound and daily shows of courage, generosity, and our collective potential as humans. Enormous thanks go out to our local health care providers, particularly in the emergency department, and to all essential service providers and grocery stores, whose staff are likewise on the front lines of keeping our...
When the call went out to the community for help, Brattleboro's seamstresses and stitching groups responded in a big way. The overwhelming need for Personal Protective Equipment has drained the supplies available to rehab and nursing facilities, those serving the most vulnerable in our community, with new Vermont Health Department guidance focused on all facility personnel wearing protective masks. This has meant facilities' depleting already low levels of supplies. “We posted our need for face masks and gowns on our...
Steve Barrett, director of public works, opens the door to his sunny office to let in fresh air. “There is hope everywhere,” he says on this bright morning. Barrett's upbeat attitude serves as a reminder to get outside and enjoy Vermont's beauty even while the community practices social distancing to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The shift in the way we are living has had consequences for the town's water and sewer systems. Barrett estimates the town “is using...
On Harold Street, I was always told that I was being watched. It wasn't clear if “being watched” meant by people from the bushes, by strangers, or by neighbors from their windows. In Hartford, Conn. in the 1980s, television did no one any favors. It instilled the paranoia that someone was going to roll up in a van and kidnap us, using an offer of candy as a lure. Whenever I left for school, I was issued an edict: Don't...
There will no heifers strolling down Main Street this June. Strolling of the Heifers Executive Director Lissa Harris announced on April 6 that the organization will not be holding the famed Saturday parade or the rest of the events that were scheduled for the weekend of June 4-7 due to the COVID-19 crisis. “We are heartbroken by the number of food businesses having to shutter their doors, unsure if they will ever reopen,” Harris wrote in a letter to The...
State officials have urged Vermonters to wear cloth face marks when in public, a recommendation similar to the nationwide call from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for such protection. According to Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine, wearing the masks can help slow the spread of COVID-19. During Gov. Phil Scott's April 3 press conference, Levine explained that people infected with the coronavirus - but not showing symptoms - can transmit the pathogen to others. “I'm...
With a nationwide shortage of professional-grade protective face masks, it has fallen to volunteers who are handy with a sewing machine to fill the gap. Across Windham County, and all over the United States, the needle-and-thread brigade has stepped up to help, as state and national health officials have escalated their call to wear the masks in public. Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has received hundreds of homemade masks from community members. The hospital has produced a flyer with instructions on how...
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is slowly making its way into Vermont from hot spots outside of the state. The state moved quickly to enforce social distancing and other best practices, and in the April 2 report, the actual growth rate is still linear rather than exponential - a steady slope upward rather than the explosive curve that places like China and Italy have seen. Yet Vermont does not exist in a vacuum, and complicating the state's response to the...
Communities are reminded daily that COVID-19 has touched every part of their collective lives. This fact rings loud for Vermont's democracy, which depends on citizens' participation. On March 25, Dummerston Selectboard Chair Zeke Goodband called to order the board's first virtual meeting - one that took place online, with participants joining in via telephone or internet. He then turned the meeting over to fellow member Jerelyn Wilson, who quickly taught those attending the public meeting how to navigate the Zoom...
This morning, as I looked out my window to the mountain and river, I watched a drifting tunnel of fog kiss the surface of the water, then ascend until my house was embraced by its soft, white arms. Just below the house, the ancient beech tree - where each spring a dozen turkey vultures simultaneously alight and spread their enormous wings in mating posture - now appeared as a mysterious ghost of itself. And I stood before it in my...
All those who are treating COVID-19 patients are risking their lives. Doctors, nurses, respiratory, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, lab techs, social workers, and a host of other professionals are on the front lines of an unprecedented health care battle, and they are making do with dwindling resources. It's as close to a worst-case scenario as there can be. There is also another group of health care workers who never get enough recognition or pay. They are the invisible foundation...