State Rep. Mollie Burke, D-Brattleboro, gives a keynote address to marchers.
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Hope and defiance

200 gather for People’s March on the eve of a second Trump administration

BRATTLEBORO-Under a slate gray sky with a cold wind sweeping across the Town Common, approximately 200 people gathered on Jan. 18 for a peaceful rally that, in the words of organizers, united people "in solidarity as humans, as immigrants, as LGBTQIA+ individuals, as BIPOC communities, as allies."

They marched on the downtown sidewalks from Flat Street to the Common with a variety of signs, plenty of Palestinian Authority flags, and a desire to prevent the next four years of the Trump administration from being a total disaster for civil rights, economic justice, and protection of the vulnerable.

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News

Jamaica votes to keep its school; WCSU must keep it in use

JAMAICA-A 85–56 vote on Jan. 14 to keep Jamaica Village School open will affect the town's property tax rate, the Windham Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) budget for the 2025–26 school year, and the proposal to consolidate the education of Windham Central elementary school students in Newfane. While voters approved the purchase of the school building from the West River Modified Union Education District for $1, the article was nullified by the vote to keep the school open. Jamaica Village School...

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Dummerston library expands kids’ program with more space

DUMMERSTON-The future of children's offerings at Lydia Taft Pratt Library will be a whole lot brighter thanks to a $54,700 grant from the Vermont Early Childhood Fund (VECF) to build a new program for children's early literacy and library services. The amount of the VECF's Building Bright Futures Opportunity grant is the largest the library has seen in its 110-year history and will afford the library the chance to "significantly" expand services for young readers and use more space in...

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Dummerston candidates step up for school board

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...

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Tom Salmon, former governor, dies at 92

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...

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‘You may end up in a situation you didn’t welcome’

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...

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Sibilia finds victory in defeat for House speaker

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...

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Corrections and clarifications

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...

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Echoes

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...

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