Stories by Olga Peters

Issue of Mar 8, 2023 (#705)


• Voters grill rep about heat legislation, laud sewer funding: Whitingham approves most of its financial articles

Issue of Jul 28, 2021 (#623)


• Brattleboro names police chief after wide search: Norma Hardy, who begins work July 28, will bring decades of experience, accolades, and honors from her career in New York City
• Marlboro Music agrees to buy its home on Potash Hill: Legal dispute of current ownership will be resolved under terms of purchase-and-sale agreement

Issue of Jul 14, 2021 (#621)


• A new beginning for a community space: Prospective owners seek to transform the River Garden into food and event space as the future of a dormant Strolling of the Heifers is in question
• Selectboard meets in person for first time since pandemic
• Brattleboro briefs
• Nourishment beyond calories : Everyone Eats! enters its third phase with additional federal funding to take the program to a close in September

Issue of Jul 7, 2021 (#620)


• Figuring it out: Mark Speno, a former district teacher and an award-winning principal, takes helm of Windham Southeast Supervisory Union for the school year
• After pandemic-induced hiatus, music returns to Potash Hill : Marlboro Music begins 2021 season, despite questions about who owns the former college campus
• By the numbers: arts organizations nationwide emerge bruised from pandemic

Issue of Jun 30, 2021 (#619)


• Negro Brook will keep its name — at least, for now: After the rejection of a name honoring a Black resident from Townshend’s past on the ground that it also has racial double entendres, members of the group advocating for a new name say they won’t submit a third petition and participants reflect on an exhausting process

Issue of Jun 23, 2021 (#618)


• A new way: Brattleboro Planning Commission releases new Downtown Plan, which builds on previous studies and exercises to improve existing parks and create new public spaces that create a walkable and bike-able detour

Issue of Jun 16, 2021 (#617)


• State budget funds measures to grow BIPOC-owned businesses : Data from Windham County nonprofit’s survey of Vermont business owners of color leads to legislation and money in the budget to offer entrepreneurial support — like assistance in bidding on state contracts to help keep money in the state economy

Issue of Jun 9, 2021 (#616)


• Brattleboro police, sorely understaffed, cut patrol shifts: With 12 patrol officers — about half capacity — ‘too few people were working too many hours,’ town manager says

Issue of Jun 2, 2021 (#615)


• Legislators look back on historic, unusual session: Members of the Windham County delegation reflect on victories, pitfalls, gaffes, surprise benefits to giving people access to the legislative process, and — finally — a resolution to an impasse on composting with chickens

Issue of May 26, 2021 (#614)


• Brattleboro sets policy for dependent care : With new reimbursements for dependent care, a large raise in stipends, and a more regular pay schedule, the Selectboard advances a goal set at Annual Representative Town Meeting: to make it possible for people to attend board meetings with much less financial stress

Issue of May 19, 2021 (#613)


• Brattleboro school upgrade gets voters’ OK: Voters from four district towns overwhelmingly approve Academy School renovation, expansion
• Townshend joins communications union district: Manwaring, John re-elected to lead DVFiber at annual meeting

Issue of May 12, 2021 (#612)


• Plan envisions arts as infrastructure: Vermont Creative Network launches action plan for creative sector

Issue of May 5, 2021 (#611)


• Tri-Park Cooperative Housing picked for possible federal funding: If funds make it into the federal budget, the housing cooperative could get $1.3 million to help residents avoid damage from future flooding
• Four towns to vote on fixing school in Brattleboro: Information meeting for Academy School project set for May 6; Brattleboro, Dummerston, Putney, and Guilford to vote on May 11

Issue of Apr 28, 2021 (#610)


• Fixing an unsustainable situation : Tri-Park Housing Cooperative moves forward with a master plan and capital improvements — and finding $4 million to make it all happen
• Brattleboro takes steps toward sustainability: Town creates fund and priorities to reduce municipal use of fossil fuels, agrees to purchase Cow Power from GMP for library and electric vehicle charging stations
• Andrew arrested for federal financial crimes: An educational entrepreneur and a public face of the nonprofit that purchased the Marlboro College campus in 2019, Seth Andrew pleads not guilty to stealing $218,005 from three of the charter schools he founded and once ran

Issue of Apr 21, 2021 (#609)


• Six towns are first in line for new broadband: A public/private partnership is in the works to bring high-speed internet to Halifax, Marlboro, Stamford, Readsboro, Whitingham, and Wardsboro as Covid bill funnels $3.2 million in federal relief to state broadband efforts

Issue of Apr 14, 2021 (#608)


• Brattleboro, nonprofits eye federal stimulus funds: Town to receive $3.3 million in federal pandemic relief funding; local organizations apply for federal funds to solve local issues
• Brattleboro town manager to retire at end of 2021: With a full agenda for the rest of the year and his transition from public service, Peter Elwell will wind down his municipal career in the town where he grew up and where he returned

Issue of Apr 7, 2021 (#607)


• Designs for Island mix recreation, conservation : Preliminary ideas unveiled for the Island and the existing bridges that link Brattleboro and Hinsdale, N.H.
• Bus-eating roads and other mud season adventures : Municipalities and state tackle mud and improve water quality, one mile at a time
• Brattleboro Fire Dept. swears in two new leaders: Department experiences a ‘domino effect’ of promotions and hires as Howard and Keir take top leadership duties

Issue of Mar 31, 2021 (#606)


• A new view: State agencies, long-term-care homes, and our communities have worked to keep older Vermonters healthy during the pandemic. But has that come at the expense of their agency and choice?
• At Valley Cares, a new executive director takes stock of elder residents and their needs: JoAnne Blanchard returns to Townshend, continuing in a profession and community she loves
• With funding assured, Water Treatment Plant project a go: Vote to approve debt for project marks official end of longest Annual Representative Town Meeting: 15 hours

Issue of Mar 24, 2021 (#605)


• Brattleboro raises stipends for members of Selectboard : Two-day, 15-hour Zoom marathon marks town’s second online Representative Annual Town Meeting

Issue of Mar 17, 2021 (#604)


• Never a job, but a way of life: Michael Bucossi, who rose in the Brattleboro Fire Department from call staff to fire chief, will retire April 1 after 43 years
• Brattleboro budget in good shape despite COVID-19: Meeting members receive briefing on town finances and website ahead of Annual Representative Town Meeting on Saturday
• State lawmakers outline their recent activity: With term just past the halfway point, Windham County lawmakers brief members of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce on pending legislation

Issue of Mar 10, 2021 (#603)


• A peer-created college comes into focus: The Freedom Fellowship asks students to use their voices to help develop the Degrees of Freedom program on the former Marlboro campus
• ‘Know that we love you, and we’re looking for you’: In 2011, 17-year-old Marble Arvidson stepped out of his house, never to be seen again. Now, his family and the Brattleboro Police Department hope that renewed attention to the case will bring closure to the decade-long mystery.
• Legislative leaders outline priorities for state economy: Balint, Krowinski tell state Chamber that billions in federal stimulus funding will help create a state economy that reinvests in businesses and people

Issue of Mar 3, 2021 (#602)


• At Town Meeting, civics meets civility: As Vermont moves into the future and new residents enter the fray, panelists say communities will need, more than ever, the principles of the storied New England tradition
• Brattleboro elects Gelter, re-elects Goodnow, Quipp to Selectboard: Town joins Dummerston, Putney in rejecting breakup of Windham Southeast School District

Issue of Feb 24, 2021 (#601)


• When the ice is thick enough : BMAC, Atowi host panel on ice fishing, its connections, its history, and its environment
• Brattleboro to vote on retail cannabis sales: A ‘yes’ vote would pave the way for retailers to set up shop in town under new state law

Issue of Feb 17, 2021 (#600)


• Keep seeking dissent: Putney’s town moderator — a Constitutional scholar — believes that Robert’s Rules of Order, which some criticize as an aged system rooted in privilege and patriarchy — are still worth using
• For the creative economy, dual tracks of recovery and resilience: Creative people represent a huge part of the state economy and will play a huge role in the state’s economic recovery from the pandemic. In the meantime, they are particularly vulnerable and need support, argues the leader of the Vermont Arts Council.

Issue of Feb 10, 2021 (#599)


• Leaders want to return Vermont to economic health. But how?: As the state grapples with its next budget, administration and lawmakers seem to agree on what Vermont needs. How to meet those needs is a different story.
• Meeting members to be briefed on water facilities project, other issues: Town schedules informational meetings ahead of ARTM
• New parking spaces planned for Depot Street

Issue of Feb 3, 2021 (#598)


• Economic development agency seeks funds from towns: SeVEDS begins series of virtual informational meetings in a year that has combined disaster response with workforce training
• Breaking and bandaging: After four years of serving on the Brattleboro Selectboard, Brandie Starr reflects on leadership, service, and encouraging a community to engage and to change

Issue of Jan 27, 2021 (#597)


• Towns embrace exit path from merged school districts: Disillusion over Act 46 could lead to dissolution of school districts as towns throughout the state — including multiple towns in the county — set elections to undo the young boards mandated by the State Board of Education
• Goodnow, Quipp will run for re-election to Selectboard : Starr declines to seek another term; six new candidates enter the race
• Board accepts Community Safety Review findings

Issue of Jan 20, 2021 (#596)


• For ski towns, a plan to boost summer economy: Dover and Wilmington selectboards receive consultants’ five-year marketing plan as towns look to re-establish the Deerfield Valley’s foothold as a spring and summer vacation destination
• What’s next for Vermont Yankee property? : Land inventory report points toward multiple scenarios following the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant

Issue of Jan 13, 2021 (#595)


• Three Selectboard seats will appear on ballot in March: Ballots will be mailed by request to town clerk
• Brattleboro gets community safety study’s final report: Review Committee shares findings and stories of harm, then offers recommendations

Issue of Jan 6, 2021 (#594)


• Vermonters pinched even before pandemic hit, study finds: Public Assets Institute annual economic report uses data to paint a picture of financial stress
• Process to rename brook becomes a river of rancor: The State Board of Libraries will reconsider petition to change the name of Negro Brook in Townshend to honor Susanna Toby, a Black resident

Issue of Dec 23, 2020 (#593)


• Levelling up: Development Review Board approves preliminary plans for new Amtrak station, which will give Brattleboro the first level-boarding platform in Vermont
• Brattleboro caps upfront costs for tenants: After months of contentious discussion, an ordinance goes into effect in February

Issue of Dec 16, 2020 (#592)


• Arts council embraces the small: With a new round of funding available for local creatives, the Arts Council of Windham County adapts and expands the program to meet the needs of artists during the pandemic

Issue of Dec 9, 2020 (#591)


• More than the icing on the cake: The Vermont Creative Action Plan takes another step forward as artists contribute strategies toward making creativity core to the state’s vitality
• With funds ending, not everyone will be eating: Everyone Eats! marks a Thanksgiving success, distributing 1,300 holiday meals. But as the year ends, so will the federal money backing the program.

Issue of Nov 25, 2020 (#589)


• Action plan for the arts supports state’s creative economy : Dozens from Bennington, Windham Counties join online event to discuss joint priorities
• Proposed rental ordinance returns to table: Brattleboro Selectboard hears of alternative programs but will take up the original proposal from Tenants Union in December
• Brattleboro adopts new goals to reduce emissions : Pledges to meet benchmarks of state’s new Global Warming Solutions Act

Issue of Nov 18, 2020 (#588)


• Vernon on journey to rebuild broken fire department: Alex Dunklee appointed fire chief as advisory committee continues work to restructure, rebuild, and strengthen a depleted organization
• Bridge project takes another step forward: With construction expected to start next summer, the state attempts to finalize property issues

Issue of Nov 11, 2020 (#587)


• Brattleboro eyes smaller property-tax increase: Town begins three-month review process of $19.5 million budget, with lower-than-expected insurance premiums holding down the tax rate
• This year, a community Thanksgiving via drive-thru: Despite social distance and quarantine, Everyone Eats wants community to retain the abundance of giving and receiving

Issue of Nov 4, 2020 (#586)


• Retreat program closings set off ‘a wicked game of Jenga’ : In the name of sustainability, the hospital will close multiple outpatient programs as it prioritizes the state’s contracts and a long-term vision for delivery of mental health services
• No comparison : Town clerks around Windham County reported high numbers of absentee ballots prior to election — on top of their other year-round duties

Issue of Oct 28, 2020 (#585)


• Strolling of the Heifers suspends programs: Local agriculture nonprofit, hurt by cancellation of parade, looks at options
• Brattleboro rent ordinance stalls with Selectboard: Staff directed to return Nov. 17 with more information — and, if possible, suggestions

Issue of Oct 21, 2020 (#584)


• A civic-minded conga line: Democrats traverse Windham County to connect to community and remind people to cast their ballots
• Economic bright spots shine through fog of COVID-19: Local businesses and nonprofits brace for uncertainty as pandemic moves into the winter months

Issue of Oct 14, 2020 (#583)


• Demand surges in region for CDL drivers: New survey shows that more companies will need to hire more commercial licensed drivers over the next five years
• Brattleboro moves forward with proposal for rent ordinance : First of two public hearings on security deposit proposal scheduled for Oct. 20

Issue of Oct 7, 2020 (#582)


• For Valley Cares director, a bittersweet goodbye : Shapiro steps down from leading the assisted-living nonprofit, amid challenges ranging from enhancing safety of residents during a pandemic to a statewide nursing shortage that had her working double duty as an RN
• Brattleboro safety review committee begins work: Community Safety Project board holds first meeting to set ground rules and structure for public safety review

Issue of Sep 30, 2020 (#581)


• ‘I’m not too technical, but I’m practical’: For Vlasta Popelka, who just retired from BCTV, an unlikely part-time job blossomed into 18 years of service to the area as the multi-talented and hard-working operations manager of its public access television station
• Pandemic leads to new local content for BCTV: Local access cable nonprofit brings membership up to date — via Zoom, of course
• Youth nonprofit finds opportunity for creative program changes: At a time of uncertainty and with a new executive director, the Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro takes a fresh look at its offerings and makes a clean start — literally

Issue of Sep 16, 2020 (#579)


• Brattleboro ARTM digs deep on economics: Members navigate town’s first virtual Annual Representative Town Meeting, organized on Zoom after months of planning
• Organization looks to raise funds to attract, support teachers of color: Spark Education Teacher Institute launches fundraiser to bankroll the certification of at least two new teachers of color in a state where four-fifths of educators are white
• A place for deep conversations?: Town Meeting, by design, is structured for decision-making, not discussions

Issue of Sep 9, 2020 (#578)


• Second act: Community members preparing to reopen the Bellows Falls Opera House as a new nonprofit look to a post-pandemic future for the municipal space
• Community leaders get support, from the ground up : Vermont Council on Rural Development launches a network and a professional development center for grassroots leaders

Issue of Sep 2, 2020 (#577)


• What women bring to the table: On the anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote, women politicians from Windham County discuss the legacy of suffrage and what a diversity of involvement in the political process means for all of us
• First use of new campus: fencing: Olympic hopefuls train in Marlboro under the guidance of a silver medalist
• Educating hand-in-hand with uncertainty : As the new school year begins, teachers and administrators at schools throughout the county take the semester one month at a time
• Degrees of Freedom to welcome students in shaping educational vision: Freedom Builders fellows will help design and test the secondary degree program, slated to launch in 2021

Issue of Aug 26, 2020 (#576)


• Layers of land, layers of experience : The Retreat Farm unveils marker for Wantastegok, acknowledging the region’s Abenaki presence
• Brattleboro public-safety review process approved: After an arduous process, the Selectboard seeks proposals and committee applications for a facilitator to guide the town through evaluating all aspects of the way it provides public safety

Issue of Aug 19, 2020 (#575)


• Brattleboro eyes funding for fire truck, marketing: Annual Representative Town Meeting will take place Sept. 12
• Business users face water/sewer shutoffs: Selectboard approves action after suspending all disconnections during height of COVID-19 pandemic. Delinquent commercial and industrial water and sewer accounts are affected, but the services remain on for residential users in arrears.

Issue of Aug 12, 2020 (#574)


• New program offers ‘so much more than just free food’: Everyone Eats! uses federal CARES money to feed the community in five towns — and, at the same time, to support local restaurants and farmers
• Brattleboro continues public safety discussion: After long meeting with an divided outcome, Selectboard to reconsider public safety RFP on Aug. 18
• Selectboard increases security measures for online meetings: Board members heckled after meeting was ‘Zoom bombed’

Issue of Aug 5, 2020 (#573)


• Brattleboro sets date for annual Representative Town Meeting: Meeting on Sept. 12 (and maybe Sept. 13) will take place over Zoom, almost half a year after the pandemic forced the town to postpone it
• A long history, a local food system : Retreat Farm receives National Endowment for the Arts grant, expands its free outdoor offerings
• Citizens submit a process to re-envision public safety: Brattleboro Selectboard will discuss the proposal for an RFP and its implementation at a special meeting on Aug. 6

Issue of Jul 29, 2020 (#572)


• Brattleboro group will draft RFP for police reform process: A new proposal will be considered at special Selectboard meeting on Aug. 6 after an at-times-difficult five-hour meeting

Issue of Jul 22, 2020 (#571)


• Marlboro set to sell campus, give assets: Attorney general will permit Marlboro College’s merger with Emerson College and the sale of campus to Democracy Builders Fund. Meanwhile, tensions continue over allegations of racial harm in founder’s background.
• Naming as a path to environmental stewardship : State Board of Libraries approves new names for a brook and for a pond in Rockingham

Issue of Jul 15, 2020 (#570)


• Voters approve budgets in two school districts : West River district budget passes on second try; Windham Southeast overwhelmingly OKs budget

Issue of Jul 8, 2020 (#569)


• What’s in a name?: Advocates press to change the name of Negro Brook in Townshend to honor Susanna Toby, an 18th century Black resident — and, after a difficult and contentious process, so does the Townshend Historical Society

Issue of Jul 1, 2020 (#568)


• Petitioners halt their effort to overturn municipal budget: Town Attorney says filing petition is dependent on actions by a Representative Town Meeting that has not yet taken place

Issue of Jun 24, 2020 (#567)


• 109 years and counting: Family, friends, and the Valley Cares community celebrate Warren Patrick’s birthday with a parade, despite COVID-19
• For elders, lockdown creates tension between physical safety and emotional health: Valley Cares has kept COVID-19 away from its assisted living and independent living residents — but not without other consequences for their well-being
• Volunteers harvest for the hungry: Vermont Foodbank’s gleaning program brings to food pantries and other programs the vegetables left in the fields after farmers move on, as disruption from COVID-19 has increased hunger
• Parties explore new uses for cheese facility : Changes at the Grafton Village Cheese in Brattleboro could mean a new food vision for Retreat Farm

Issue of Jun 17, 2020 (#566)


• West River towns kill school budget: Despite votes in favor of the Leland & Gray budget, the school board must present a new spending plan
• Newfane holds ‘drive-thru’ voting on school budget

Issue of Jun 10, 2020 (#565)


• Voice and choice: Seth Andrew says his work explores what it means to have an educated and engaged citizenry
• Campus buyer seeks to build upon a history of civic engagement : Degrees of Freedom founder seeks to bring change to college education at new school on Marlboro College site
• Retreat union, management square off: The administration of the chronically understaffed psychiatric hospital responds to union demands to fire chief nursing officer with a withering critique about the union’s facts and behavior

Issue of Jun 3, 2020 (#564)


• Marlboro chooses two-year degree program as next owner of campus: Democracy Builders, an educational nonprofit, gets the nod from a college task force as the next steward of the 533-acre site and a good deal of the library
• For 900-plus families, boxes of food with no strings: In Farmers to Families program, multiple organizations combine efforts to meet a growing need for food created by COVID-19 pandemic.
• Brattleboro tweaks order for emergency masks

Issue of May 27, 2020 (#563)


• Sweet Pond project was 9 years in the making: For its supporters, the restoration of the dam — and the return of the pond — celebrates the strength of a community, its history, and its need for a place for recreation
• Brattleboro orders use of face masks: Selectboard member says that vote to require use of cloth masks inside businesses will let the town ‘be the bad guy’

Issue of May 20, 2020 (#562)


• Brattleboro hires town finance director : Jaeger brings experience from higher education, municipal government, and business
• Brattleboro (re)opens for business: As Vermont lifts more COVID-19 restrictions on the retail sector, some downtown business owners say they’re happy to be back at work, while advocates worry about the enterprises that might fall through the cracks

Issue of May 13, 2020 (#561)


• Nurturing ecosystems at Scott Farm : Simon Renault joins the historic farm as its first general manager and sets his sights on increasing resilience, building partnerships, and strengthening local food systems
• Brattleboro will end fiscal year in the black — maybe: Town Manager, very cautiously optimistic, says financial situation will become clearer after May 15
• From farm to food shelf : A new partnership connects the dots between dairy farmers and the Vermont Foodbank
• Farm largely immune from virus’s economic fallout: Public events create difficulties and new opportunities

Issue of May 6, 2020 (#560)


• Measuring a pandemic : Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, discusses advice to business owners and evaluating the risk of COVID-19. With Vermont far ahead of adjoining states, what comes next?
• Farmers’ markets adapt to new regs: Brattleboro’s market, a community social tradition, scrambles to comply with social distancing and new — and rapidly changing — rules
• Brattleboro reopens town offices — a bit: The town will resume normal operations slowly and carefully, town manager says

Issue of Apr 29, 2020 (#559)


• Restaurateurs go from new dreams to total uncertainty: They opened their doors in February. Now, they reflect on the pandemic, work, and federal funding (or the lack thereof)

Issue of Apr 22, 2020 (#558)


• Schools adapt to new ways of teaching, learning: Windham Southeast School District teachers, students, families, and staff develop new and creative routines, but the long grind of staying safe at home is creating new challenges and affecting young kids in ways that can‘t yet be measured
• A variety of teaching techniques: Schools are systems designed for education. What happens when that education is moved into multiple homes?

Issue of Apr 15, 2020 (#557)


• Town puts parking staff on furlough : Parking enforcement suspended; three are off the job — for now
• Brattleboro indefinitely postpones annual meeting : Amid the coronavirus lockdown, the town still needs a way to safely hold its annual representative town meeting
• What is the state’s duty — and ability — to protect its people?: As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, can states’ efforts to respond, despite issues with federal policy, lead to improved public health? One local Constitutional scholar believes that states taking charge is, in itself, a healthy illustration that the U.S. is engineered to ‘never come up with a solution.’

Issue of Apr 8, 2020 (#556)


• Volunteers sew masks for local hospitals : State Department of Health recommends all Vermonters wear cloth face masks when in public
• In Brattleboro, dry wells and plugged sewer lines : DPW director sees a surge in town water use as a direct consequence of more people being home all day
• Towns move the public sphere online: Boards, town officials, and constituents rapidly deploy technology as a new state law clears the way for online meetings and elections
• Federal, state governments now recommend use of face masks

Issue of Apr 1, 2020 (#555)


• Schoales resigns from Selectboard to make way for Goodnow
• Local distilleries meet pandemic demand — not with booze, but with hand sanitizer: To fill a community need, two area artisanal spirit manufacturers make disinfectant according to a recipe from the World Health Organization and with the temporary blessing of federal regulators
• Dover prepares emergency grant program : Commercial Emergency Assistance Program grants Dover-based businesses a monthly stipend during COVID-19 crisis

Issue of Mar 25, 2020 (#554)


• School district, students adapt to a crisis: For families turned upside down by COVID-19, educators rapidly figure out how to serve kids remotely, from teaching to food
• For businesses, more questions than answers : As COVID-19 shuts down the economy, business owners and planners ask, ‘Now what?’

Issue of Mar 18, 2020 (#553)


• Governor: ‘Worst is yet to come’: State orders schools to close in an attempt to ‘bend the curve’ of COVID-19 outbreak
• Brattleboro defers town meeting: Almost all board meetings cancelled as Selectboard pivots to respond to COVID-19

Issue of Mar 11, 2020 (#552)


• Deerfield Valley CUD moves forward : Communications Union District organizers hope for a 20 percent or better response to regional broadband survey due March 17
• Schools respond with caution: Windham Southeast superintendent considers short, long-term impacts of virus
• Brattleboro budget gets thumbs up from ARTM finance comm.: Annual Representative Town Meeting to take place Saturday, March 21
• Hospital urges simple measures: BMH official urges simple hygiene to slow the pace of the spread of novel coronavirus to keep from overwhelming the health system

Issue of Mar 4, 2020 (#551)


• Space for experimenting : A Vermont Table expands its catering business to include a downtown restaurant, bringing one business partner back to a home he once presumed he would have to leave to make a living
• Vernon preserves pay-as-you-throw trash collection: At Annual Town Meeting, voters cut funding for elder services and fireworks in a ‘frugal’ budget with minimal increases
• Four Deerfield Valley towns form communications district: Formed by vote at their respective Annual Town Meetings, the regional fiber-optic broadband initiative will now work on a business plan and feasibility study

Issue of Feb 26, 2020 (#550)


• New law breathes life into broadband planning process: Brattleboro Selectboard appoints Moreland as town point person for regional feasibility project
• Legislators focus on housing, climate, health, transportation: Tim Ashe, Senate president pro tem, visits Brattleboro and highlights the work in progress this session and navigating the divide between two parties controlling two branches of state government

Issue of Feb 19, 2020 (#549)


• Rockingham state rep. chooses his students over his seat: Rep. Matt Trieber looks back at 10 years of service and a philosophy of building bridges across partisan divides
• BDCC and SeVEDS make their case for town funding: Organizations’ staff members visit Dummerston, one stop along a tour around the region to seek municipal support for its economic development efforts
• Brattleboro, with prudent planning, proposes 2.1% budget : Fiscal discipline from previous years is beginning to show positive results on the town’s bottom line

Issue of Feb 12, 2020 (#548)


• Do Brattleboro voters want a mayor?: Co-sponsors discuss ballot question that will ask voters whether the town should change structure from 60-year tradition of Selectboard and Representative Town Meeting

Issue of Feb 5, 2020 (#547)


• First-time restaurateur looks to a fresh future: A longtime employee’s purchase of Duo Restaurant and The Lounge comes with the help of mentors, staff, and a community

Issue of Jan 29, 2020 (#546)


• Birds of a feather : A collaboration between Audubon Vermont and maple sugar makers offers sweet benefits for global bird conservation, sugarbushes, and the environment
• State education funding report prompts reps to ‘kick up dust’: Lawmakers ask citizens to support efforts to address school-funding inequities that persist 20 years after the landmark decision to equalize educational opportunities in Vermont

Issue of Jan 22, 2020 (#545)


• Oak Meadow plans move to consolidate operations: Distance-learning school and curriculum publisher prepares to relocate to Basketville building in Putney

Issue of Jan 15, 2020 (#544)


• Brattleboro fields funding requests: In building a budget for 2021, the town addresses human services organizations, police body cameras, and port-a-potties
• Brattleboro to apply for neighborhood designation : State program provides incentives for new housing

Issue of Jan 8, 2020 (#543)


• Comcast seeks to purchase Southern Vermont Cable: Owner of four-employee cable company looks to retire
• Report urges state to build a budget based on Vermonters’ needs: Public Assets Institute report paints a picture of a state with glimmers of economic growth — but damaged by the consequences of inequality and a lack of investment in projects and policies for the public good
• Data shines light on workforce challenges, state population

Issue of Jan 1, 2020 (#542)


• High bailiff sees potential in an old position: John Hagen, of Guilford, sees more in his job description than being prepared to arrest the sheriff
• ‘I’ve never looked at a kid and not seen a glimmer of hope’ : Longtime Boys and Girls Club leader remains a mentor to young people in his new job at BUHS, where he helps students and their families navigate choices about use and abuse of substances
• WSESU superintendent reflects on a long career: Lyle Holiday will retire in June after three years as superintendent and a professional lifetime in the school district