It has recently come to our attention that a petition has been submitted asking that this board rescind the zoning permit issued to Windham-Windsor Housing Trust to construct affordable housing on the land adjacent to the Putney Community Garden.
Let's just get that part out of the way before I continue: The Selectboard does not have the authority to rescind zoning permits and, consequently, we cannot consider this petition. Our town attorney has confirmed this. For those who enjoy reading statute, the relevant citation is 24 V.S.A. §4472.
Now, let's talk about land rights in Vermont.
The parcels currently owned by Gateway Associates are private land. Let me say that again: This is private land. Owning land comes with a bundle of rights. Those are: the right of possession, the right of control, the right of exclusion, the right of enjoyment, and the right of disposition, also called "fee simple ownership."...
Recently, I read a story about a family of four - granted, two were very young - who were so excited about all the money they were saving living in a tiny house. I read another story about a young man who had no cash, so he has tricked...
The 2023 Vermont high school football season begins this weekend with Brattleboro and Bellows Falls both opening at home on Sept. 1. The newly-renamed Brattleboro Bears host the Middlebury Tigers at Natowich Field, while one of the oldest rivalries in Vermont football - the Bellows Falls Terriers versus the...
The article was very interesting and informative. However, I take issue with Elizabeth Bridgewater's insinuation that those who oppose the Windham-Windsor Housing Trust's proposed building project in Putney are responsible for the increase in costs for the project. Once again, it seems that citizens who have every civil and legal right to oppose this building project in the only green space in downtown Putney are being shamed into silence. Why doesn't WWHT do what it has historically been so good...
In-Sight's first Youth Photo Contest & Fair is off to a good start, say organizers, with 19 youths submitting more than 50 images so far, but the Contest & Fair planning committee says many potential entrants have asked for more time, so they have extended the entry deadline to Sept. 17 at midnight. Youths (ages 11 to 18) living within an hour of Brattleboro are invited to submit images. Entrants do not have to be In-Sight students, and it is...
Obituaries • Carol Ellen Bascom, 61, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Died unexpectedly, in the comfort of her home, on August 24, 2023 following a brief illness. Carol was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts on Dec. 2, 1961, the daughter of Harold E. and Mary J. (Vallee) Nichols. A longtime resident of Hinsdale, she attended Hinsdale public schools, including Hinsdale High School. Carol worked at Pine Heights Nursing Home, which she retired from this past June due to health issues. Previously during...
The Celebration Brass Band of Southern Vermont and the Christ Church Guilford Society invite everyone to a concert on the lawn of Christ Church on Route 5 in the Village of Algiers. The concert, which will honor those lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 10. The band, with its New Orleans Brass Band sound, was founded and is directed by Peter Simoneaux and features many local musicians. Brattleboro area audiences will recognize...
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Vermont (NAMI Vermont) is forming a new Connection Recovery Support Group offered virtually via Zoom. Connection Recovery is a peer support program intended for individuals living with mental health challenges. The new support group will begin Sept. 11 and meet the second and fourth Monday of each month from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Information about the Zoom login is available at namivt.org/csg. Group meetings follow a structured, peer-led model. Trained facilitators who have...
Next Stage Arts presents indie folk-rock duo Sway Wild on Thursday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m., at 15 Kimball Hill. Sway Wild was born on a small island in the Salish Sea. Following a two-month sailing voyage through the remote anchorages of British Columbia, indie-folk duo Dave McGraw & Mandy Fer returned to their San Juan Island, Washington, home still hungry to explore. "The result was nothing short of an artistic epiphany; an evolution of sound that called out loudly...
"Beyond the Bounds," the first solo exhibit by Julia Sorensen will open at Gallery 34 at 34 Main St. near the Latchis Theatre on Friday, Sept. 1, from 5 to 8 p.m., during Gallery Walk. Sorensen's exhibit features abstract pieces created using a variety of nontraditional techniques and inspired by abstract artist Ed Clark, who is sometimes referred to as "the lost abstract expressionist." After seeing his work in Chicago's Art Institute, Sorensen said, she wondered what would happen if...
The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents the Balla Kouyaté & Mike Block Band on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 5 p.m., at Cooper Field, 41 Sand Hill Rd. Balla Kouyaté and Mike Block have been collaborating for over a decade, bonding over their shared interest in music from across the world, and their commitment to innovating on their instruments. Kouyaté, a balafon player and singer coming out of the Djeli tradition of Mali, was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from...
The FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in Jamaica has been relocated to the Wardsboro Town Hall, 99 Main St. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and closed on Sundays. Another Disaster Recovery Center is located at Springfield Health Center, 100 River St., to serve homeowners and renters in Windsor County and is also open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. FEMA assistance is available to homeowners and renters in Windham and Windsor...
Craftproducers will ring in a new era of the Southern Vermont Art and Craft Festival: 125 tented art and craft boutiques will grace the lawns at Hunter Park (Riley Rink Field, 410 Hunter Park Rd.) Friday and Saturday, Sept. 8 and 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 10, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. After twenty-seven years, Hildene decided to no longer host this festival, and the peregrination of the Southern Vermont Art and Craft Festival began.
Going back to school at Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School this year will mean going back to basics as students focus on learning more about where their food comes from and what healthy eating habits look like. After a competitive application process, Leland & Gray was among nine Northeastern school teams selected to be part of the Northeast Farm to School Institute in the 2023-24 school year. Katie Morrison works for Food Connects as a Farm to...
I wanted to drop a note of appreciation to the team at Windham-Windsor Housing Trust, the residents at Putney Landing, and the Putney Foodshelf. On Aug. 3, Barbara Carey (Support and Services at Home wellness nurse) and I were at Putney Landing for the Putney Foodshelf's food drop. It was beautiful. In every way. The little community gardens were busting at the seams, almost every entrance way was decorated in inviting and colorful ways (lights, chairs, decorations), and the buildings...
All my life I have disagreed with Henry David Thoreau: Unlike him, I think it is "worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar." That's why inveterate travelers find the return to post-pandemic travel an exhilarating experience. This spring, my husband and I were excited to resurrect an aborted trip abroad that was planned almost four years ago. We were so excited, you might have thought it was something we'd never done before. The...
Three artists will present their collaborative works titled, "Merge Collages: A Show and Tell Experience," at Main Street Arts (MSA) in Saxtons River, opening Saturday, Sept. 9. They will also offer two workshops on creating Merge Collages. The art show will display a number of collaborative and individual works of Matthew J. Peake, Gordon Korstange, and Gretchen Abendschein. Individual pieces will be available for purchase, with a portion of the sales going to MSA. "We have chosen some of our...
Vendor applications are now being accepted for the 18th season of the Brattleboro Winter Farmers' Market, who says its mission is "to support sustainable agriculture by providing a viable winter-season direct market outlet for local community-based farms while building community and promoting regional sustainability." The Winter Market will open for the 2023–24 season on Saturday, Nov. 4, and will operate through March 30. Weekly market hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A wide array of products are typically offered,
Take a walk along the Whetstone BRATTLEBORO - The Southeast Vermont Cooperative Species Management Association's Whetstone Brook Community Project invites everyone in the community to share their plant observations along the Whetstone Brook. The organization's goal is to create maps of invasive plant hotspots in the area. On Friday, Sept. 1, at 3:30 p.m., a walk will start at The Root Social Justice Center on Williams Street and finish downtown during Gallery Walk. Can't make this event? You can still...
The Harmony Collective invites the public to their September installment of Artist of the Month, Monty Zwickerhill's "False Idols." Zwickerhill refers to herself as a "Visual Art Alchemist" based in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. The arts have always touched Zwickerhill's life, according to a news release, from painting with watercolor as a toddler, being an active member of a theater company for 15 years, writing for her high school literary and poetry magazines, and a continuous obsession with drawing in...
Tuba Skinny brings its world-renowned traditional New Orleans jazz to the Latchis Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 31st at 7 p.m. "Tuba Skinny came to our attention through a super fan who encouraged us to book them," says Jon Potter, executive director of Latchis Arts, in an email to The Commons. "Since then, I've become absolutely hooked on their music. It's fun, very tuneful, and very rhythmic. They get your toes tapping." Potter described Tuba Skinny as "some of the premier...
As our community continues to seek positive change, it's vital that we take a moment to celebrate the outstanding individuals who have propelled us forward. Brattleboro resident Ann Braden, the founder of GunSense Vermont, stands as a beacon of leadership and courage, inspiring us to work towards a safer and more responsible approach to firearms. Following the heart-wrenching events of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, she founded GunSense Vermont, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advocating for responsible gun...
As a project of the Greater Falls Community Justice Center (GFCJC), based in Bellows Falls and Springfield, we have brought Afghani woman muralist Negina Azimi to paint murals with students in area schools. We focus on the theme of justice. In restorative style circles, students discuss what justice means to them and generate themes, words, and mostly images that Negina can incorporate into a mural. We have completed murals in two schools so far, at Bellows Falls Union High School...
Verne Bristol, one of the founders of Rescue Inc., died in his sleep on Aug. 23, six days after he celebrated his 91st birthday. "Of course, we're very sad to see him leave us," says Patty Bristol Higgins, one of Bristol's two daughters. "He always said he wanted to go quickly and didn't want any of us kids hanging around a hospital bed. I'm so glad that he went peacefully in his sleep." Bristol, one of 17 children, grew up...
Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) will provide free tax preparation for lower income taxpayers for the 2023–24 tax filing season through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. SEVCA is now recruiting volunteers to help as many families as possible claim the tax credits and refunds available to them. A volunteer orientation meeting will be held in the late fall at SEVCA's main office at 91 Buck Drive in Westminster. VITA offers free tax help to people who are low...
Windham County Prevention Partnership (WCPP) - a coalition consisting of West River Valley Thrives, Building a Positive Community, and Deerfield Valley Community Partnership - is encouraging everyone to go "Substance Free" during the month of September. According to WCPP, substances "can be anything we use out of habit to comfort ourselves in times of stress, uncertainty, loneliness, or boredom. Examples include alcohol, cannabis, sugar, or caffeine." The organization urges people "to join us on a powerful and transforming journey this...
GunSense Vermont, a nonprofit, non-partisan advocacy organization for common-sense gun safety measures, will host a public reception to award the inaugural Leadership and Courage Award to Brattleboro resident and author Ann Braden. Braden founded GunSense Vermont following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six educators were killed by a gunman. The event will take place at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 6 p.m. "Ann Braden's...
As a trans woman who has been a tournament chess player for five decades, I find myself targeted by the recent ruling about transgender chess players by FIDE (a French acronym for an organization that translates as "International Chess Federation") and the news cycle surrounding it. Given the relatively large number of people in our community (as well as the chess-playing community of the region) who are aware that I am in this position, I feel compelled to share my...
Approaching its 60th anniversary, Rescue Inc. - Windham County's largest and longest-serving ambulance provider - is marking an exceptionally healthy year. The private nonprofit that serves 14 communities has opened Vermont's first training academy for emergency medical services, signed pioneering support contracts with the town's main health care facilities - Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and the Brattleboro Retreat - and is set to distribute fall COVID-19 and flu vaccines to the uninsured for the state Department of Health. "The regional model...
Bellows Falls Union High School has been selected to be part of the VT MakerSchools, a three-year initiative to support selected schools across the state to develop, implement, and sustain makerspace programs. As defined by makerspaces.com, a makerspace is a "collaborative work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high-tech to no-tech tools. These spaces are open to kids, adults, and entrepreneurs and have a variety of maker equipment including...
Some 70 years after the former logo and mascot first appeared, most vestiges of "Colonels" are gone for the start of the new school year at Brattleboro Union High School this week, having been replaced by the "Bears." "New [athletic team] uniforms have been ordered and most have come in," said Kathy Rouleau, administrative assistant to the principal. In the spring, students began meeting to choose a new mascot after widespread outcry to remove the Colonels name. Also in contention...