Robert F. Smith
Rockingham Meeting House gets $750,000 preservation grant
ROCKINGHAM-The Rockingham Meeting House has been awarded a National Historic Preservation Grant for $750,000 toward current efforts to preserve the town's first public structure.
The funding is one of 19 awarded in nine states by the National Park Service through its Semiquincentennial Grant Program in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.
Rockingham will consider a new Town Plan
Planners create a document designed to map out strategies for the next eight years, in a post-pandemic world with challenges for environment, energy, and housing
ROCKINGHAM-The Planning Commission has released a draft of the latest Town Plan, an update that has been in the works since 2016, and the public will weigh in on the document at a public hearing on Thursday, Sept. 3. The Selectboard will hold the public hearing at the Town...
WNESU signs new 3-year teachers’ contract
A months-long impasse ends up with a process that a union representative calls ‘respectful and cooperative’
BELLOWS FALLS-Teachers in the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union have a new three-year contract, retroactive to July 1. The settlement was reached on July 24, and the Windham Northeast Education Association (WNEA) membership voted to ratify the agreement on July 29. The new contract was signed just prior to WNESU...
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‘He always worked hard to get the best out of everyone’
WALPOLE, N.H.-On Aug. 3, several hundred people gathered in the Walpole Elementary School gymnasium to celebrate the life of longtime Bellows Falls Union High School coach Russell Pickering. By all accounts, Pickering was an extraordinary and highly admired man, teaching, coaching, and mentoring thousands of students, peers and, at times, total strangers, beginning in his teens and lasting right up to his death on July 17 at age 84. As person after person spoke at his celebration of life, one...
Despite snags with PCBs, renovations proceed at BFUHS
BELLOWS FALLS-Even before summer vacation began, Bellows Falls Union High School (BFUHS) in Westminster had $9 million in major projects either already started or slated to begin during the long summer break. As we come into the final weeks of summer break, how are the projects progressing? BFUHS Principal Kelly O'Ryan and Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Superintendent Andrew Haas discussed the list of projects, starting with a full renovation of the school's science wing. The project is funded by $2...
Credible fear
BRATTLEBORO-Facing increasing harassment for their relationship and fearing for their lives and their family's safety, a Colombian family fled their homeland. It took months of travel on a journey where they faced considerable dangers, but this spring the four family members finally found refuge in southern Vermont, where they are rebuilding their lives as they seek permanent asylum. The couple, Oliva and Andrea, are in their mid-30s; their daughter, age 6, is just starting school. Andrea's mother, Claudia, is in...
State health care system in crisis, report warns
BRATTLEBORO-Unless immediate decisive action is taken to transform Vermont's health care system, it will be financially unsustainable by 2030. This is the conclusion of a hired consultant's 10-month review of health care in Vermont. More than 60 people attended a community meeting organized by the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) at Brooks Memorial Library on July 17, where the report's findings were presented and discussed. The presentation was one of several being held around the state in July. It was...
‘Every day is still a triumph to have come this far’
BELLOWS FALLS-How do you handle growing older with a deadly disease that has killed dozens of your friends, but that you have survived, so far, for nearly four decades? That is what author and blogger Mark S. King will discuss in "Aging with Grit & Grace," a free event presented by Senior Solutions and Bellows Falls Pride at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m. Growing older with a chronic illness presents not only physical,