After understandably hearing from many teachers recently, with serious concerns about the pensions they've been paying into for decades, I am hoping the following will offer up-to-date, helpful information.
First, though, I want to thank all teachers for their years of dedicated service to our children. They are our future, and their education is the key to that future.
As I like to point out, when I hear someone complain about the cost of education: The kids of today will be taking your blood pressure tomorrow, and don't you want them to have the best education possible so they're able to do that accurately?
As for the current pension snafu:...
The Vermont Arts Council's Spotlight Gallery announces its new, all-virtual season with what it calls “an incredibly diverse group of Vermont artists.” Viewable on the Council's website from Thursday, Feb. 18 through Friday, April 30, “I AM ... 2021” features the work and perspectives of 19 artists from the...
Recently, friends and I, some former Republican voters, have generated a list of what the initialism GOP, which once stood for “Grand Old Party,” really stands for now. In light of so many GOP congresspeople willing to perpetuate the Big Lie of “election fraud,” refusing to denounce the attempted...
Winter Carnival marked with scavenger hunt BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Winter Carnival Committee invites all downtown businesses to help local families celebrate winter. This year, the committee is focusing on COVID-friendly activities, one of which will be a downtown scavenger hunt. Committee members are asking businesses to post the Winter Carnival Snowman in their storefront windows. Families are then, over the entire week, encouraged to get out and stroll through downtown Brattleboro to see how many of the Carnival Snowmen...
College news • The following local students were named to the Dean's List for the fall 2020 semester at Ithaca (N.Y) College: Colin Costa-Walsh of Putney, Logan Cota of Bellows Falls, Cassidy Gallivan of West Dover, Nathan Kaufman of Brattleboro, Brett Swanson of Wilmington, and Avery White of Townshend. • Angel Baikakedi of Putney earned academic distinction for the most recent semester at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. • Hannah Kelly, a Nursing major from Bellows Falls; Paige Starkweather,
For a limited time, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont will send a Bernie Meme Theme Calendar when you donate $25 to the program. You'll receive 12 months of “Bernie with the Mittens” memes showcasing U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in photos across Vermont. According to a news release, proceeds from the calendar will help to provide one-to-one mentorship for Vermonters ages 6 to 17. Big Brothers Big Sisters offers one-to one mentoring for children and youth throughout Vermont at...
Canal Street Art Gallery, 33 Canal St., presents “Art! Just in Time,” an exhibit that runs through Feb. 27 and whose artists will be guests at 3rd Friday Gallery Night Live with the Artists on Facebook on Friday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. Now in its fourth year, the gallery said in a news release that it “continues sharing and appreciating new art while helping to support the artists who create it.” The CSAG “is excited to meet the promotional...
The Small Business Administration is accepting applications for the 2021 Vermont Emerging Leaders Program, which will be held virtually in the spring. The intensive executive-level series intends to accelerate the growth of high-potential small businesses in underserved cities and rural areas. During the course, small business owners will learn to create a three-year strategic growth plan to build a sustainable business of size and scale. Businesses must be organized as for-profit endeavors. Proprietors must have been in business for at...
The Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) has partnered with the Community College of Vermont (CCV) to expand pathways to promising jobs for high school seniors across the state. To help students chart and start their career training, VCF will offer $1,000 in stipends to each student who enrolls in CCV's free early college program to pursue certificates in one of three short-term career training programs: Cybersecurity Fundamentals, Graphic Design, or IT Service Desk Specialist. The funding is provided through the Vermont...
The Windham World Affairs Council will present “A New Pattern for Democracy: Lessons from South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize-winner Albert Luthuli” on Sunday, Feb. 21, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Rev. Dr. Scott Couper, pastor of Centre Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) and a member of the Windham World Affairs board, will lead the discussion via Zoom. Albert Luthuli, from South Africa, was a longtime president-general of the African National Congress (ANC), as well as being the first Black...
The Professional Development Grant Program is the newest offering for members of the Southern Vermont Young Professionals. The pilot grant program was developed to support SoVTYP members who are advancing or pivoting their career by providing financial assistance to help them achieve those career goals. This program offers up to $500 to SoVTYP members through a competitive grant application process run by a volunteer selection committee. Some examples of eligible grant uses include acquiring a professional certification, continuing education, or...
Town Meeting members and members of the public have two opportunities for a deep dive into questions, including funding for a $12.5 million Water Treatment Facilities Project, that will be decided at Annual Representative Town Meeting (ARTM) on Saturday, March 20. Meeting members, new and returning, will also have a chance to practice the technical and logistical procedures for conducting the ARTM on Zoom. “March will be busy,” Town Manager Peter Elwell said. First on the calendar is the ARTM...
All are welcome to attend a free virtual Abenaki speaker series this spring, hosted by the Community College of Vermont (CCV). The series invites the community to hear “three accomplished members of Vermont's Abenaki community” in the program, according to President Joyce Judy. According to a news release, the series represents CCV's ongoing effort to honor the Abenaki people, who originally stewarded the land on which the college's 12 academic centers are located. “Our hope is that these conversations will...
The Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association this month has launched a public fundraising campaign, looking to help raise $700,000 to buy, protect, and maintain 615 acres of unfragmented forest in Brookline, Athens, and Townshend. The property is home to two undeveloped upland ponds, 13 vernal pools, significant habitat for bear and moose, a heron rookery, beaver colonies, and native brook trout, among other species. Wood turtles, a species of conservation concern in Vermont, also live on the parcel, and the wetlands...
Youths from across Vermont have been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for their exceptional artistic and literary talent. The 133 award-winning entries of artwork and writing will be exhibited at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) starting Friday, Feb. 19. The exhibit will culminate in a virtual awards ceremony on its last day, Saturday, March 6, at noon. This year's keynote speaker will be Lina Longtoe, an Abenaki filmmaker and educator. The Scholastic Art & Writing...
Project Feed the Thousands organizers have announced that their recently completed campaign, now in its 27th year, has raised almost $125,000 in cash contributions, along with collecting enough non-perishable food items to provide more than 340,000 nutritious meals to friends and neighbors facing food insecurity during these challenging times. “In a year when we perceived it to be improbable, if not impossible, to achieve at least last year's campaign totals, the impossible happened,” said George Haynes, co-founder of Project Feed...
The Brattleboro Music Center has launched a search for an artist-in-residence. The BMC seeks an emerging musical artist of color for a significant new project, said Executive Director Mary Greene in a news release. The selected artist will spend up to two years engaged with the Center, including an estimated two months each year on site in Brattleboro. “The goal of this residency program is to bridge the gap in experience and understanding between the people and community of Brattleboro...
No one could be more surprised than I to be jonesing for Trump, but I'm still checking the news compulsively. I thought I was going to kick my thrice-daily news meals plus snacks, eager to see what the new outrage might be, the newest lie. I first planned to stop back in November - maybe not on election night, but soon after. But Trump's alternate reality flourished in the form of a fantasy landslide, a stolen election. I kept checking...
The Windham Regional Commission recently announced that competitive grant funding is available to assist commercial, nonprofit, or public entities in installing advanced wood heating systems through the Windham Wood Heat Initiative (WWH). WWH will provide grant funding of up to 25 percent of the installation cost (including design, installation, and acquisition costs of advanced wood heating systems) and system components (i.e., controls, or thermal and fuel storage), with a maximum award of $100,000. “It's so important for programs like these...
Broad Brook Grange will hold its annual Pre-Town Meeting on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Because of the pandemic, Town Meeting will take place entirely by Australian ballot on Town Meeting Day - Tuesday, March 2 -with no physical gathering. Thus, this traditional Pre-Town Meeting - and an official informational meeting to be held by the Selectboard online a week later - will be the only opportunities for voters to hear details of the articles and to...
Vermont passed a significant milestone in the battle against COVID-19 on Feb. 5, as more than 10 percent of Vermonters age 16 and over received at least one dose of the vaccine. At a Feb. 5 news briefing, Gov. Phil Scott said that he expects to see the state quickly get to 20 percent as more vaccines receive federal approval. According to Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith, that 10 percent figure included nearly 34,000 people who have received...
Proud Boys? I'd rather be proud to be a man - one who accepts the fact that his childhood was far from perfect, that this life is far from perfect. I'd like to be one who accepts that he needs help from another person or other people from time to time to deal with the scary places and feelings in my gut. I'm overwhelmed with hints and jabs to the effect that I'm small, powerless, and worthless compared to “others.”
I am writing to let people know about a recent congressional report that details the high levels of heavy metals in practically all baby food sold by four major brands. Heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury have terrible effects on the development of young bodies - in particular, on neurological development. Baby formulas are mostly used by poor families. The levels of lead in some of these products were found to be 177 times the safe threshold for an...
The Climate Emergency is rapidly emerging as the most important issue in human history. It is a worldwide ticking time bomb that, if not justly and expeditiously dismantled, directly threatens our own grandchildren's future. A devastated ecosystem would rain injustice upon all earthly life for many generations to come. It's clear that this Climate Emergency, the greatest existential problem that humanity has ever faced, is also a social justice issue - much like the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19...
Thank you, Gary Sachs, for being a draft resister! During my time in service, I would never have wanted to depend on your integrity in a life-or-death situation. Those I served with were filled with true humanity. That's why only 8 percent of the population took the one step forward to allow others to live with no risk to their life of free expression, as witnessed by your photo of you holding the sign. Respectfully,
I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation for your publishing Dan DeWalt's remarkable commentary, which has helped me understand better the phenomenon of the difficulty of how I and other Americans are seeing what is happening here at home. The insights have helped me bring together a perspective that I have been attempting to clarify, especially in the last month with what transpired in Washington, D.C. and how the country has interpreted this. Nothing I read in The New...
Martin Luther King Jr. had begun to see Birmingham, Ala., as “probably the most segregated city in America.” In the spring of 1963 he brought his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), to Birmingham at the invitation of the local activist Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. The plan for Birmingham was called Project C, for “confrontation.” The activists conducted pickets and marches to pressure the downtown department stores to change racist policies that allowed Blacks to spend their money at the...
The Scott administration and the Legislature are busy building the state budget, helped by an injection of federal COVID-19 relief funds that has staved off the pandemic's more-bitter economic consequences. But while that $210 million boost is new, most of Vermont's economic problems are not. The stakes are high for many Vermont households. How lawmakers and the administration decide to invest this new funding could change how individual Vermonters recover economically - or whether they continue to struggle as many...
This year, Sandglass Theater's Winter Sunshine series is going virtual to bring family fun into your home. Throughout March, the series will present the work of regional artists with weekly performances and activities, including a puppet show, a workshop, two family activities, online engagement and, during the final week, “an invitation to light up your community in the dark winter months with a lantern parade,” the theater said in a news release. “Performers have done an incredible job in creatively...
Anniversary Robert Schnare King and Shirley Jean (Blodgett) King will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary on Feb. 11. The couple was married on that day in 1956 at Centre Congregational Church chapel in a ceremony performed by Rev. Robert J. Harding. Robert and Shirley worked and raised their children in Brattleboro. Robert served in the Vermont National Guard from 1948 to 1952 and was stationed in Munich, Germany. He also worked at Brattleboro Trust Company - which later became Vermont...
When I last wrote in this space in the first week of January, it looked like Vermont's winter high school sports season was about to begin. Games were scheduled and the students were champing at the bit to get started. But the COVID-19 pandemic hit Vermont hard in January and made hash out of everyone's plans. The only student-athletes to escape unscathed were the skiers and snowboarders. While Vermont's basketball and hockey players have had to wait another month for...
Janice Wesley Kelsey was 16 years old during the spring of 1963 when she became involved in the civil rights movement. Her motivation to join the movement had nothing to do with civil rights. Kelsey had a friend whose mother was involved in the movement. This was before there were latchkey kids, so when her friend's mother went to the movement, her friend had to go to the movement, too. That friend would come back to school talking about the...
Later this year, the parking area along Depot Street will gain more elbow room. The town has moved forward with its plan for additional parking spaces in the area sandwiched between the train tracks and the Connecticut River. At its Feb. 2 meeting, the Selectboard approved a $25,300 design contract, plus out-of-pocket expenses, with Stevens & Associates, PC, an engineering and architecture firm based in town. “[Depot Street] doesn't look much like a street,” Town Manager Peter Elwell said. “Most...
A trained recovery coach at Turning Point of Windham County and an emergency coach at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Vanessa Santana is a person in long-term recovery who works with folks whose lives are affected by addiction. During this pandemic, she also created a new outdoor program - Adventures in Recovery - for Turning Point. We talked about her personal journey, and also her collaborative work with local police and other community members who are bringing help and hope to those...