Olga Peters
Selectboard meets in person for first time since pandemic
The Selectboard meeting room on the second floor of the Municipal Center had a celebratory atmosphere last week.
Board members, BCTV staff, and members of the public greeted one another with smiles and surprise as they assembled for the first in-person and online hybrid board meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic started last year.
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
With a closing scheduled for July 14, the River Garden, at 157 Main St., is poised to have new ownership. The team behind the Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery plans to purchase the approximately-6,000-square-foot building and patio from the nonprofit Strolling of the Heifers. Co-owner Tim Brady said the...
By the numbers: arts organizations nationwide emerge bruised from pandemic
Prior to the pandemic, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the nation's arts and culture sector comprised 4.3 percent of the economy and represented a $919.7 billion industry with 5.2 million jobs. The World Economic Forum in May 2020 reported that the music industry lost approximately half...
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After pandemic-induced hiatus, music returns to Potash Hill
Marlboro Music began its 70th summer season last month, as 75 musicians journeyed to Potash Hill to study, practice, and perform together. The musician residency and summer performance series has drawn musicians and music lovers to the area for decades, leaving a hole in many local music lovers' sense of normalcy last year when the school cancelled its program in response to the global pandemic. It is also why the school's return this summer can be seen as a celebration...
Figuring it out
The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union begins its new fiscal year with a new leader: Green Street School Principal Mark Speno, who will serve as the WSESU's interim superintendent. “I'm embracing the challenge,” Speno said on July 2 from his office at Green Street School, where he has served for seven years and where he is preparing to lead schools serving Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, through June 30, 2022. While the role of superintendent is new for him, finding ways to...
Negro Brook will keep its name — at least, for now
The State Board of Libraries Geographic Naming Committee unanimously voted down a petition to rename a brook in Townshend after former resident Susanna Toby. Board member Linda Saarinjoki made the motion to reject the petition with an explanation attached. “We're in favor of changing the name, but not to Susanna Toby,” Saarinjoki said. Like a core sample marking the Earth's history of volcanos, floods, forest fires, and fossils in compact layers of rock and sediment, the June 17 public hearing...
A new way
A new Downtown Plan proposes more public spaces and to upgrade many existing sites, with a goal of making downtown a calm lagoon where people and businesses rest, mingle, and engage, rather than slide through carried on a crisscrossing road network to somewhere else. Establishing a public restroom. Developing Harmony Parking Lot into a people-centered space. Updating the Preston Lot to take advantage of the green space around the Whetstone Brook. These are just three of the priorities outlined in...
State budget funds measures to grow BIPOC-owned businesses
Gov. Phil Scott has signed the state's $7.315 billion budget, authorizing state spending on small business pandemic relief, career and technical education programs, housing, and tourism and marketing. Included in the FY22 budget, which goes into effect July 1, is an initiative to support the development of businesses operated by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). “This piece of legislation really addresses the BIPOC business community and entrepreneurs in a way that will contribute to expanding our economy,” said...