On Aug. 15, the Friends of Vernon Center held its first public event at the Governor Hunt House in Vernon, which the Friends are working to redevelop into a community center for the town. We wish to thank everyone who worked on this event and contributed goods or services to make it possible.
People attending enjoyed music on the lawn provided by the Falltown String Band; they played games organized by the Vernon Recreation Department; they met and received information from representatives of the Vernon Volunteer Fire Department and the Windham County Sheriff's Department.
The lawns have been maintained by Spencer Bristol Lawn Care; portable toilets were provided by Steve's Septic, and the Miller Farm donated arrangements of fresh flowers to decorate the house. Cersosimo Industries donated mulch for the plantings around the house, parking was made available by NorthStar and the Vernon Elementary School. Trash and recycling units and guidance were offered by the Windham County Solid Waste District.
Bill Gilbert Plumbing & Heating made sure the building's restrooms were in order. Anson Baldwin and D&E Tree Company did considerable tree trimming and removal last winter to prepare the grounds, and Miller Farm took down a few more branches recently. Tom Pereira's whimsical sculptures on the lawn made everyone smile!...
Back on Jan. 15, I visited my financial advisor to see how our nest egg was doing, as I do every year. As usual, the conversation included speculation about whether a recession might happen sometime soon. As usual, we decided that nobody knows, so we should maintain the same...
Howard Fairman questions whether the Southern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) board is qualified to lead a Windham County and regional economic development effort. He suggests that somehow it is not, on the basis that only three of its 18 board members represent what he calls “proven innovative employers.”
The term “locavore,” and the locavorism movement, are both comparatively recent. “Locavore” made its first appearance in 2005 and was designated the 2007 Word of the Year by the Oxford American Dictionary. As a movement, locavorism advocates a preference for local food for a variety of reasons, including: • Local food travels much less distance to market than typical fresh or processed grocery store foods, therefore using less fuel and generating fewer greenhouse gases. • Because of the shorter distribution...
The board of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB) is proceeding with a request-for-proposals process for the River Garden without holding meetings for public input. “It's time for Brattleboro to cut its losses,” writes the Reformer editorialist with respect to the River Garden, urging the town to “figure out a way to add the River Garden back to its grand list and move on.” The attitude at BaBB as well as at the Reformer seems to be that there will be...
Why did Mitt Romney lose the presidency? And what should Republicans do about it? I'm not seeing a whole lot from Republicans on these questions, though I'm sure many of them are chewing on it. To me, the answers are easy. Long before the election, I decided that President Barack Obama was bound to win, given that Republicans had taken positions that amounted to writing off most black, Hispanic, and gay voters. That's a total of more than 25 percent...
Judging by the chatter of newly minted bridge aesthetes [“We need more time to consider Interstate 91 bridge designs,” Letters, Aug. 22], apparently the existing steel arch bridges on which Route 91 crosses the West River are beautiful, artistic works of civil engineering, while the proposed concrete spans are irredeemably ugly. Really? Let's think about this. The existing bridges are rusty, shaky, and ill-maintained. They are not positive features of the landscape. They are not unique, not artistic, not graceful,
Interesting that Kevin Maloney mentions the new downtown signal system [“Why won't Brattleboro do what's needed for pedestrian safety?,” Viewpoint, March 28]. When it was being installed and going through its lengthy shakedown cruise, everybody was suddenly a traffic engineer, complaining about how the system was actually slowing traffic down and suggesting how it might be improved to make the traffic speed up. I myself wrote a letter in praise of Slow Traffic, urging the engineers to preserve Brattleboro's perennial...