BRATTLEBORO-Three candidates have expressed interest in being appointed to the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) School Board seat left vacant by former town representative Eva Nolan's recent resignation. All three met with board members after press time on Jan. 21, after which the board was expected to make a decision and appoint one of them to fulfill the seat until the March 4 annual election, when a one-year term will be available. • Gretchen Lanterman has already decided to seek...
BRATTLEBORO-When Vermont Democrats lacked a gubernatorial candidate the afternoon of the primary deadline in August 1972, Rockingham lawyer Tom Salmon, in the most last-minute of Hail Mary passes, threw his hat in the ring. "There could be a whale of a big surprise," Salmon was quoted as saying by skeptical reporters who knew the former local legislator had been soundly beached in his first try for state office two years earlier. Then a Moby Dick of a shock came on...
BRATTLEBORO-Standing on the sidewalk next to 9 Canal St., a multi-family apartment building above the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT) Executive Director Elizabeth Bridgewater points to a wooden trellis running up the side of the building. "People are climbing up the trellis and entering the hall window that occupants unlock," she said. WWHT co-owns and manages the 9 Canal St. property, which includes 12 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The units are permanently affordable, with rents ranging...
DOVER-Even though she lost her courageous challenge to become speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives for the new biennium, Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, says she is glad she ran. "It really was necessary," Sibilia said. "It was clear to us that the situation on the ground was such that something had to change. And I absolutely am certain that, as a result of me running, I already see changes that are happening. And I'm happy for that." In a...
BRATTLEBORO-The Commons' report in the Jan. 15 issue about a community forum organized by Hank Poitras, aka Planet Hank, touched some nerves, to say the least. Several points to clarify or correct: • In distilling remarks from Elizabeth Bridgewater, the executive director of the Windham-Windsor Housing Trust, Marcel characterized the perpetrators of crime and disruption in WWHT properties inflicted on WWHT tenants as "undesirables." Bridgewater wants to make it clear that she did not use that word and that such...
15 years ago January 2009 issue Dummerston Selectboard Chair Andrew MacFarland, writing to his town's Planning Commission, recently noted an "inevitable tension." The planning process, which seeks the common good but might well not accommodate the wishes of particular individuals and groups, must coexist with the political process, which "must take into account the personal, interpersonal, social and emotional responses to the plan," MacFarland wrote. Even with broadly shared goals among affected parties, the difference between a town plan's vision...
