BELLOWS FALLS-Unlike several of her Republican colleagues who have faced some very vocal voter outrage at town halls around the country, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., was greeted by cheers and a lengthy standing ovation from the crowd at a packed-to-the-walls Bellows Falls Opera House on Monday evening. In her invitation to the meeting, Balint pledged her commitment to "standing against policies that undermine our democracy, attack our rights, raise prices and prop up billionaires at the expense of working...
BRATTLEBORO-Windham County educators and community members have been quick to stand up for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and programs in schools in response to a series of actions at the state level in recent days. On April 4, state Agency of Education (AOE) Secretary Zoie Saunders directed superintendents to certify compliance with federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin in federally funded programs, per the Trump administration's initiative. Specifically, Saunders...
Selectboard members were all ears at an April 8 "listening session" and spent most of an April 10 meeting discussing where and how to start to peel the budget onion, once again. "This is not going to be an easy lift, but Brattleboro is worth it," said State Sen. Wendy Harrison, speaking via Zoom, at the listening session. That meeting saw a full room of more than 40 residents along with an almost equal number in attendance on Zoom. "We...
BRATTLEBORO-U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes slept in one of its bedrooms in 1877. Writer Rudyard Kipling drank lager in its basement bar and played poker in its penthouse suite from 1892 to 1896. Broadcaster Lowell Thomas presented his NBC radio newscast live from its ballroom in 1946. And if current owners have their way, someone new will buy this town's cornerstone Brooks House and soon make their own history. The five-story Main Street landmark - built in 1871, ravaged by...
BELLOWS FALLS-Longtime area educator Kate Kane has been named the new principal of Central Elementary School (CES). On April 11, the Rockingham School Board appointed her to the K–4 school on the recommendation of Superintendent Andy Haas, effective July 1. Kane grew up in Cambridgeport, graduating from Bellows Falls Union High School in 1984. She was an English and classics major at Tufts University and got her teaching certificate when she decided that she was interested in a career in...
BRATTLEBORO-"Our culture has a way to go in talking about death," said Shari May, the advance care planning coordinator at Brattleboro Area Hospice (BAH). Death and end-of-life care remain subjects that many don't want to talk about. BAH's Advance Care Planning program has done a lot to get people thinking about how they can take the burden off the shoulders of their family and friends and have control over what kind of death they would like to have. The program...
