The Parking Department notes that the municipal winter parking ban is now in effect. Here are the main things to remember:
• Overnight parking is forbidden on all streets in the town. Vehicles parked for longer than one hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. may be ticketed and towed at the owner's expense.
• The town's flashing-light system and sign-board program both alert citizens when plowing will take place.
A flashing amber light designates the need to remove snow from parking lots. A flashing purple light designates the need to remove snow from the streets. Snow removal starts at 11 p.m.
Mount Anthony fans have been waiting for a state football championship since 1994. Going through a gut-wrenching, nail-biting, high tension game with two overtimes was not going to faze them in the least. The Patriots avenged last season's 57-35 loss to Bellows Falls in the Division II championship with...
I appreciated Randolph T. Holhut's recent Sports Roundup column in which he highlighted the talented athlete, Ava Whitney, and her heartfelt appeal for more awareness and support for the Brattleboro Union High School cross country, Nordic skiing, and track teams. These endurance sports have had outsider status for decades,
I read the article regarding Ava Whitney, the Brattleboro Union High School runner who was asking for fans to show up and cheer them on, with interest. For cross-country teams, it has long been a reality that the fans will all be family members. In reading her comments, my concern is that she seems to believe that situation will change at college. The reality is that it gets worse, with less support than in high school. Here's why. As an...
Climbing the walls will have a different meaning Friday through Sunday, November 18–20, when Nimble Arts brings Vertical Dance to Brattleboro for the first time in a collaboration with the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA). “We sort of change the rules of gravity,” Creative Director Serenity Smith Forchion said in a news release. She said she learned the art form while teaching at aerial dance festivals in England and Ireland. “Using harnesses and rope tools from rock climbers...
AARP Foundation has kicked off volunteer recruitment for its Tax-Aide program, the nation's largest volunteer-based tax preparation service. Volunteers may sign up to assist taxpayers either in person or virtually, with a number of roles available. In addition to tax preparers, whom the program will train, Tax-Aide needs people who can provide technical and communications assistance, interpreters, and program leaders. Volunteers might come from a variety of industries and range from retirees to university students. All levels and types of...
The Brattleboro Women's Chorus will present its 27th annual fall concert, “The Power Within Us,”at the Brattleboro Music Center on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 20, at 3 p.m. The Sunday concert will also be livestreamed on Zoom. The concert is a mix of rounds, chants, and songs that speak of love, strength, and resilience, songs the chorus has been singing through the fall. Featured songs include “I Say Yes” by Becky Reardon, “We Shall Be...
Obituaries • Carolyn Joan Lamoureux Brooks, 82, of Cleveland, Georgia, formerly of Brattleboro and Dummerston. Died at her home on Oct. 18, 2022. Carolyn will be lovingly remembered by her partner Robert K. Davis; son Todd A. Brooks (his wife Kelly); daughter Kelly Brooks Wicker (her husband Mace); brother-in-law Stephen A. Brooks (his wife Holly); sister Shirley Lamoureux LeClair; brother Joseph Lamoureux Jr. (his wife Phyllis); five grandchildren, and two nieces and two nephews as well as her many friends,
Workshop offers tips on watching backyard wildlife GUILFORD - On Thursday, Nov. 17, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., the Broad Brook Community Center (BBCC), 3940 Guilford Center Road, presents a free program on how to use trail cameras to observe the movements and behaviors of the wild animals that live in the fields and forests around town. Guilford Conservation Commission member Steve Soszynski and environmental educator Jimmy Karlan will be the presenters. They have more than 12 years of combined...
The youth rock festival, Brattrock, is back Friday, Nov. 18, for the second time this year at Stone Church with a dynamic line-up of five youth bands, on the heels of a well-attended Brattrock last June. The 30-minute in-person performances, presented by sponsor Guilford Sound, will showcase bands Big Destiny, Color Killer, Granite Danes, Under the Overpass, and performer Ezra Holloway from 7 to 10:30 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. All ages are welcome and the cost is...
A new signboard celebrating Brattleboro's seven sister communities can now be seen on the second floor of the Municipal Building. It will remain there until completion of the new railroad station, which will be its permanent home. The sign is a project of Compassionate Brattleboro, a group formed after Brattleboro voted to sign on to the international Charter for Compassion in 2017. According to a news release, “one side of the colorful signboard offers the names and locations of the...
Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards will play the final show of their fall tour at the Stage 33 Live listening room on Sunday, Nov. 20, in a 3 p.m. matinee. The multi-instrumentalist couple “write poetic songs with distinctive harmonies reflecting their personal experiences as factory workers, teachers, community organizers, and natives of post-industrial mill towns,” say organizers. They've released 17 albums and tour consistently throughout the U.S. and Canada, playing guitar, harmonica, ukulele, penny whistle, electric bass, and clarinet to...
The New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) announced a new partnership with Cirque du Soleil's talent development program in what NECCA has called “all for the betterment of circus here in North America.” The program, NexGen, is a collaboration between the largest circus in the world and six select talent training centers from around the world. This partnership allows Cirque and NECCA “to share expertise and best practices in the field of human performance and provide high-caliber training opportunities...
The Commons sat down recently with Tim Merton and Jennifer Morsches to discuss the Sarasa Ensemble's 24th concert season, the chamber music group's upcoming Beethoven and Brahms program [story, this issue], and their unique cellos. Here's an excerpt from their conversation: Victoria Chertok: Let's start with National Arts and Humanities Month. Why are the arts important, and what can we do to encourage students to participate and enjoy them fully? Tim Merton: For us especially, the arts are important because...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) and Retreat Farm are now accepting entries for Artful Ice Shanties 2023. Registrations will be accepted until Friday, Dec. 16. Artists, ice fishing enthusiasts, tiny house aficionados, designer-builders, and creative groups and individuals of all ages and experience levels are invited to enter. The first 15 artists to register will receive a $200 stipend upon delivery of their shanty. Because stipends are limited, artists are encouraged to register early. There is no fee...
The Connecticut Valley District Fall Music Festival will be held at Brattleboro Union High School on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18 and 19. Approximately 150 student musicians from Windham and Windsor counties will form four honors ensembles, including a high school band and an a cappella choir and a middle school jazz band and chorus. The musicians were selected from auditions or teacher recommendations. This festival was last held in November 2019. Represented schools include Brattleboro Union High School, Brattleboro...
On Nov. 5, I attended an informational meeting at the Marlboro Community Center run by Brian Mooney, director of Potash Hill, the subsidiary of Marlboro Music Festival in charge of renting out the campus. I was very impressed by his understanding of the values held by various stakeholder groups that have overlapping histories and are affected by what will happen there: alumni and others who cared about the college, the music festival, and the town, region, staff, etc. I see...
Dan DeWalt reveals that not only does he not like algebra but, in fact, many others also do not. As part of a commendable commentary outlining the shortcomings of our standard history textbooks in accurately presenting all sides in several situations he opines that “No one would expect white Americans to enjoy reading [the corrected version],” which includes what America really did to the Cubans during the Spanish-American War; that Custer, before his last stand, wiped out a peaceful encampment...
I read with great interest the front page story about how the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust was following state guidelines in its work to address peeling paint at a property on Old Depot Road in Putney. The writer made a valiant effort to fact check the many false statements asserted by a neighbor who claims to be representing tenant concerns. However, there remain a few inaccuracies in the story that need to be clarified. One is the idea that...
Thank you for exploring a corner of the housing issue in Vermont. The article acknowledges that the short-term rental market exacerbates what is a longstanding and deeper problem. I'm assuming the article is referring to the lack of construction of housing for moderate-income people since the 2008-2009 recession. That this is the heart of housing problems nationally was addressed in national news sources in July, including The New York Times and NPR. Focusing on short-term rentals is a distraction from...
Whenever anyone asks me if I think the 2020 election was fair and whether Joe Biden legitimately won, my response has always been, “I don't know, but I think there is about a 60% chance that Biden legitimately won.” The reason for my response is obvious. How could anyone know, whether you are an election denialist or not, that the election was fair and Biden's win was legitimate? The fact is that there were many opportunities for cheating in the...
First: Kevin O'Connor says the Selectboard has yet to approve any cameras, but board member Tim Wessel posted on Facebook that they approved replacing the parking garage's outdated camera system. Did Kevin not check the minutes before submitting his article? Or did Tim make a rare mistake in his public recap? Also, “new tensions” is a weird framing for a 20-year-old problem! Almost as weird as reporting on that meeting without covering the half-dozen voices trying to remind everyone once...
Dear Sen. Sanders, I am writing to you because fuel prices are so high that it will become a life-and-death matter this winter. I know you are well aware of this problem, but I am hoping that there is something more that can be done by the United States to at least bring prices down a little. It is clearly a very complicated issue. In 2005, you attended the first fundraising event that the newly created Windham County Heat Fund...
Robin Morgan is the newest member of the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) school board. She will take the seat, vacated when David Schoales resigned, and she will serve until the March election. Morgan was appointed Tuesday, Nov. 15 after an executive session that took close to an hour, with all votes in her favor except for representative Shaun Murphy, who abstained. Chair Kelly Young read a statement celebrating Morgan's “ability to collaborate, her conviction, and integrity.” “We value her...
Silver Maple (c. 1900–2022), of 945 Putney Rd. in Brattleboro, one of the last great trees that used to line Putney Road, standing quiet watch over the north side of town. Originally planted by the owners of the beautiful home that remains standing beneath its canopy, it grew with the family and their changes, coming full circle to once again watch over youngsters during times of growth and change. A local Witness Tree, guarding the intersection of Putney and Black...
When cellist Tim Merton isn't managing his maple sugar operation on his property in Putney, where he produces 1,500 gallons of maple syrup per year, he's rehearsing Brahms or Beethoven for an upcoming Sarasa concert. Merton serves as co-director of the internationally acclaimed Sarasa Ensemble, which he founded 24 years ago because “I wanted to decide who I was going to play chamber music with and what the repertoire would be. This was the easiest and best way to do...
Celebrate the completion of the new mural on High Street with an evening of Afghan culture curated by the ArtLords, a grassroots collective of refugees displaced by the Taliban who use art to encourage political activism and social transformation. The event will take place on Saturday, Nov. 19, at Epsilon Spires and will feature Afghan cuisine alongside a screening of The Breadwinner, a full-length animated film about a family's struggle for women's rights in Kabul. “I selected this film to...
“The Moment After,” a series of recent landscape watercolors by Finn Campman, is on exhibit at the Putney Public Library through Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. The exhibit shows Campman's detailed, intimate, and luminous watercolors of landscapes in Putney and surrounding areas. “There are certain cherished moments when I am offered the possibility of simply letting the world 'settle,' on my senses,” Campman said in a news release. “Discernment is unnecessary, for only in the state of simple openness can this...
Most people traveling past the sprawling retaining wall on High Street across from the High-Grove parking lot used to see the same pattern: spray-painted swear words, followed by a slapped-on coat of gray cover-up, followed by even more graffiti. Jamie Mohr envisioned something else. As director of downtown's Epsilon Spires, Mohr has helped turn the former First Baptist Church into a 425-seat performing arts space. When she heard complaints about the nearby wall, she decided to find a way to...
After a noisy summer and fall of banging and clanging noises along the Connecticut River, the $61.2 million Brattleboro-Hinsdale bridge project has begun the next phase of work. As work on the new bridge continues to progress from Route 119 on the New Hampshire shoreline in Hinsdale, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) says that bridge work has begun on Vernon Street (Route 142) in Brattleboro. According to a recent NHDOT news release, bridge crews from Reed & Reed,
A few months ago, the Rich Earth Institute opened a new urine recycling depot at the Rockingham/Westminster Recycling Center on Route 5 in Westminster, only the latest in the nonprofit organization's cutting-edge program focused on reusing human waste as fertilizer. As human population grows, how to handle increasing human waste is a big problem, and the Rich Earth Project, based in Brattleboro for over a decade, has garnered international attention as nations around the globe wrestle with this issue. As...
Vermont voters love Gov. Phil Scott more than ever. According to results from the Vermont Secretary of State's Office, the 64-year-old incumbent was reelected to a fourth term on Nov. 8 with 71% of the vote - eclipsing his previous record in 2020 by more than 2 percentage points. The spread widened further this cycle, giving the governor a margin of nearly 47 percentage points. Town-by-town data released by the Secretary of State's Office showed that America's second-most popular governor...
Our Boys & Girls Club - part of a 160-year old federated organization that oversees 4,700 clubs across the country - provides safe, affordable, fun, out-of-school-time enrichment programs for Brattleboro-area kids. Recently, our Club had the benefit of undergoing an external safety assessment as part of our dedication to continuous quality improvement. Our Club has a lot to be proud of when it comes to ensuring safety of the children and youth in our care. The board, staff, and volunteers...