The Women's Film Festival goers voted Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka'ehukai as the Best in Fest favorite.
The Women's Film Festival completed its 20th anniversary season March 20. This year's ticket sales broke all previous records for the all-volunteer run fundraiser benefiting the Women's Freedom Center.
The documentary, Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka'ehukai, profiles the life of Rell “Kapolioka'ehukai” Sunn. The Hawaiian icon is credited with pioneering women's surfing and working with at-risk youth. According to Independent Television Service's website, Sunn co-founded the International Surfing Association (WISA), collaborated on Women's Pro Surfing (WPS) and in 1982 was ranked No. 1 in the world on longboard.
Sunn died in 1998 after a 15-year battle with breast cancer at age 47. Charlotte Lagarde produced and directed the film with Lisa Denker, director.
Information on the 3SquaresVT program can be found at http://www.vermontfoodhelp.com. When you use 3SquaresVT benefits, you can buy the foods you like to eat. You will get a plastic card that looks like a credit card, called an Electronic Benefits Transfer or EBT card. You can use the card...
The bulk of the responsibility to recycle now falls on the heads of individuals. But the Vermont Legislature would like to eventually shift this responsibility to companies and require them to collect all the products and packaging they produce to keep them out of the waste stream. That is...
According to Rep. Sarah Edwards, P/D-Brattleboro, Vermonters carry out an estimated 180 million plastic bags each year from retail stores. She believes that requiring a 10-cent fee on each disposable plastic carryout bag taken by a customer at time of purchase would cut down on the number of bags that ultimately up in landfills. Brad Borofsky of Sam's Outdoor Outfitters disagrees, saying that the 10-cent fee would hurt already struggling Vermont retailers. At a special meeting of the Windham Solid...
The Long Range Management Plan (LRMP) of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR) looks at the next 25 years for the four parks within the FPR's Brattleboro Management Unit (BMU). Combined, the parks total 540.65 acres and include Sweet Pond in Guilford, Dutton Pines in Dummerston, Molly Stark in Wilmington, and Fort Dummer in Brattleboro, Guilford, and Vernon. “We recognize that state land is an important public resource, and we'd like your comments,” said state forester Rick...
Building Bright Futures and the Early Childhood Educators' Network of Southeastern Vermont, along with Windham Child Care Association, will celebrate Month of the Young Child in April. Month of the Young Child is an extension of the National Association for the Education of Young Children's annual Week of the Young Child. It is a time to honor young hildren from birth to age eight, and the families, teachers and other adults who are working to help improve opportunities for young...
The Commons not mailing to this subscriber, as requested, is appreciated and is in sharp contrast to the practice of the publishers of the four non-subscription papers that arrive weekly in my Bellows Falls mailbox. These four papers are the Bellows Falls Town Crier, The River Record, The Shopper, and The Message for the Week. They all just keep coming, despite emails as well as phone contact with each publisher over the past few months. Emails to each publisher seem...
With the end of winter and return of warmer weather, work is set to resume on the Main Street reconstruction project. According to Debra Spaulding, public relations officer for Lane Construction Corp., the primary contractor for the project, the last phase should begin in early May. Since work shut down for the winter on Dec. 17, Spaulding said the following work has been done to the traffic signals in the downtown area: • The radio interconnect between the four signal...
In keeping with its mission to make higher education opportunities accessible to all, Union Institute & University (UI&U), a private, nonprofit university with two academic centers in Brattleboro, today announced that it will offer a scholarship to assist members of the National Guard and Reserve components of the U.S. military. Scholarship recipients will receive a 10 percent tuition scholarship for the first 26 hours registered in undergraduate studies and a 5 percent tuition scholarship if enrolled in a graduate program.
Thanks for your March 9 editorial that explored middle-school plans in Bellows Falls. This is a once-in-a-half century chance to improve educational opportunities for children in this area. Renovating the current building will do little to improve education. There are more forward looking options, which your editorial alludes to. One possible solution that could offer space for middle school students and more educational opportunities is to explore a proposal that Compass School become one of two publicly accessible 7-12 options...
In a recent letter about the role of the Public Service Board (PSB), state Rep. Richard Marek, D-Newfane, states that, “the members of that board are appointed by the governor for six-year terms and, at the moment, all of them are appointees of our former governor.” I am unsure of what should be inferred from the statement that all of the board members “are appointees of our former governor,” but with all due respect to Rep. Marek, I think your...
Between 2003 and 2009, the cost of premiums across the range of employer-based health plans in Vermont increased from 32 percent to 54 percent. And as a percentage of median income, these premiums went from 15 percent to 18 percent for single people, and from 14 percent to 19 percent for families. Most school districts spend well over 20 percent of their salary budgets on health insurance. Deductibles for employed single people increased 2½ times (more than 148 percent), and...
As a layman who is well-versed in the health effects of radiation, I am offended by the misleading comments of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japanese and U.S. government officials, and media commentators regarding the radiation being inflicted on the people of Japan, the region, and the world. Radiation exposure is cumulative. As the work of Dr. John Goffman, a Manhattan Project participant, demonstrated back in the 1980s, there is no safe level of radiation. Every cumulative increase in exposure...
According to the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon is releasing hot water into the Connecticut River despite an expired state thermal discharge permit. Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster, who works as river steward for the CRWC, said that the heated water changes the river's overall temperature, damaging the aquatic habitat. According to a CRWC press release, the Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) filed a petition on behalf of...
The nuclear industry is fond of suggesting that the choice humanity is faced with is polluting coal, on the one hand, or “clean” nuclear power, on the other. This “zero sum game” argument has gotten a lot of traction with the press, but it is a fool's choice. There are so many other approaches available to us, including conservation. Conservation got a bad name during the Carter presidency because reactionary talking heads successfully cast it in the image of people...
On Tuesdays and Fridays, starting April 5, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will offer a 16-session (eight-week) series of classes specifically for people with arthritis. The classes will run through to Friday, May 27. Classes will be held from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in the Exercise Room in the New Brew Barry Conference Center located on the lower level of the main hospital. Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist Sandra Brodsky will cover a variety of topics including arthritis myths; risk factors associated with arthritis; relationship...
In recent months, town officials have received many complaints that Brattleboro is not pedestrian-friendly. Now, a new survey report from AARP Vermont bolsters the perception that getting around Brattleboro on foot is neither as easy, nor as safe, as it could be, and that a number of major intersections and streets need improvements to address the problem. AARP Vermont conducted the project to highlight the need to provide safe alternatives to get around the community as people get older. In...
Grace Cottage Hospital is making available a number of six-week free (for Vermont residents) Healthier Living Workshops designed to help people with long-term health challenges maintain active and fulfilling lives. Occurring on consecutive Mondays for the upcoming session, the next six-week Healthier Living Workshop is at Grace Cottage Hospital and convenes on Monday, April 4, and continues through to Monday, May 9. The sessions are held from 1:30-4 p.m. in the Holt Conference Center at GCH. To register, e-mail [email protected]...
Two award-winning, cutting-edge artists will travel to Windham County to offer their unique perspectives on theater and dance, as Marlboro College and Vermont Performance Lab (VPL) host a week-long symposium from April 6-10 on the college's campus. New York-based writer/director/performer Ain Gordon, and Northampton, Mass.-based choreographer/philosopher/performer Candice Salyers are the two artists selected for VPL's Lab Program. They will be paired with Marlboro College professors to publicly discourse the idea of “embodied learning” and other mind/body practices. What is embodied...
Last Friday, the Brattleboro girls' Nordic ski team got the traditional motorcade up Main Street that every state championship team in town receives. This year's team won the school's first-ever girls' Nordic title, and a big factor in the Colonels' success was sophomore Halie Lange. She skied the anchor leg in the relay events, and together with teammates Linnea Jahn, Maddi Shaw, and Emma Shaw, she was a consistent performer all season. Lange is also making a name for herself...
The Hunger Council of Windham County held its first meeting last week, and the numbers presented to those in attendence were unbelievably bleak. Vermont is ranked the ninth hungriest state in the nation, with one in seven Vermonters of all ages living in “food insecure” households, defined as those whose family members have to skip meals, rely on assistance programs, or rely on poor-quality food. More than 90,000 Vermonters - about 7,300 in Windham County alone - receive benefits from...
In past testimony before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), nuclear reactors have been compared to motor vehicles, in the sense that (for nuclear opponents) when a car ages, it is time for it to be scrapped and (for nuclear proponents) that even an antique car, properly maintained, can still function reliably. What if components in those “vehicles” were known to be defective, but since the driver did not experience a breakdown, the condition was not reported? Would you feel less...
Ehrmann AG is a German yogurt maker with more than $1 billion in sales in 40 European countries. It sought more production capacity in North America and looked at sites around the Northeast for a yogurt plant. Economic development agencies in Massachusetts and New York state made overtures to Ehrmann, but it was the state that some say has an “anti-business” reputation - Vermont - that ultimately landed Commonwealth Dairy, Ehrmann's North American partner. Yogurt production at Commonwealth Dairy's 39,000-square-foot...
I've always been fascinated by smokers. There is a ritualistic quality to the whole thing: the way they tamp the pack, the way they hold the cigarette, or the way they flick ashes away with a quick snap of the thumb. Then there is the smoke itself, the way it forms moving Rorschach blots in the air, gray dragons that float toward the ceiling. Smokers have their own tribal identity. When I went to high school, the smokers all hung...
I notice that you have recently reported on renewable energy sources by way of citing proposals by James Moore and Dr. Arjun Makhjani on how "renewable energy can easily replace Vermont Yankee's power.” I should very much like to be in accord with Mr. Moore and Dr. Makhjani, but three critical aspects of the proposals were not reported by your newspaper. The first is the capital cost of the renewable sources mentioned. Who will pay for them, how, and how...
Visitors to Sweet Pond State Park in Guilford might not be allowed to swim in the pond this summer. Ethan Phelps, regional manager for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR), told an audience of Windham County residents at a March 24 public meeting that a 1920s-era dam holding back the equivalent of 18 acres of water is unstable. Phelps also said that the dam's spillway is deficient. As a result, the dam has received a Poor Condition...
I am asking everyone who reads this letter to begin looking up. Many of us have been seeing persistent jet contrails in the sky. We've seen them driving to work, shoveling snow, driving our kids to practice, or just out walking under our beautiful sky. We assume we are seeing normal jet activity. I am blessed to live in a valley with a wide expanse of sky, and what I'm seeing is frightening. It has led me to question what...
Music • Classical guitarist Richard Ullman at BMC: Brattleboro Music Center faculty member Richard Ullman will present a classical guitar recital on Saturday, April 2, 7:30 pm at The Stone Church at the corner Main and Grove streets. Ullman will be presenting a wide range of classical guitar pieces that will take the listener on a tour from 16th century Italy, to early 18th century Germany, through 19th and 20th century Catalonia, with pieces by Albeniz and Mompou, ending up...
One of Brattleboro's newest town meeting representatives is also an accomplished musician who plays trumpet with the All State Jazz Band and sings at the Vermont Jazz Center at the Cotton Mill. He also happens to be in high school. Arthur Davis seems nonplussed by the fact that he was recently was elected to serve as representative from District 3 to the Town Meeting. He explains, “You simply have to be 18 years old.” But then again, Davis is man...
Cinderella bored the hell out of me. Sleeping Beauty, too. My mother recalled that I didn't ask to hear those stories. I wasn't interested in seeing them animated on the big screen either. “Those stories aren't real,” I said. Although I don't remember saying that, my opinion hasn't changed. I thought of this story a couple of weeks ago, when I heard Peggy Orenstein on NPR discussing her new book Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of...
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. • Robert Glenn “Bob” Chapman, 62, of Brattleboro. Died March 23 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Brother of Betty Weatherhead of Guilford, Irene Miller and husband, David, of Vernon; Kim Leiterman and husband, Lynn, of Geneva, N.Y.; Russell Chapman and wife, Anne, of Lyndonville; and Ronald Chapman and wife, Jill, of Greenville, S.C. Predeceased by siblings...