Millions of people will travel to spend their Thanksgiving holiday with loved ones and the American Red Cross has steps they can follow to help make sure they have a safe trip.
The holiday is also a time when cooks spend a lot of time in the kitchen and there are tips they can use to avoid a cooking fire while whipping up their Thanksgiving dinner.
“The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest times of the year for travelers and we want to make sure everyone remains safe on their trip,” said Maria Devlin, CEO of the American Red Cross in New Hampshire and Vermont, in a news release. “Cooking is the No. 1 cause of home fires, so we also have information cooks can follow to avoid a fire.”
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Town Manager Peter Elwell broke down the potential paths and financial options for the Police-Fire project. With the exception of the “minimum required plan,” all the cost comparisons assume a 20-year bond. The minimum required plan covers the bare bones of what needs to happen at the three stations...
Asserting that the public's right to access court records is “deep-rooted” and necessary for ensuring accountability, the Vermont Supreme Court has overturned a Windham County judge's decision to redact portions of two suspects' mental competency reports. While there are instances where the legally relevant portions of a competency report...
The holiday season can be a fantastic, festive time. It can be a time for us to slow down, reconnect with the people we care about, and reflect on the year gone by. The holidays can also be overwhelming. Stress caused by work, school, strained relationships, or finances can certainly take a toll. Some might turn toward drugs or alcohol to cope, or some might already be quietly struggling with a substance addiction. More than 22 million Americans over the...
“We want to provide more Vermonters with a college education,” Vermont State Colleges Chancellor Jeb Spaulding said after a Nov. 20 breakfast meeting with school councilors and staff from Brattleboro, Springfield, Bellows Falls, and southern New Hampshire schools. VSC is contributing to the training of a vibrant workforce that can participate in its local economy and job market, he said. But Spaulding stressed that more importantly, college transforms lives. “A college education is the pivot point” for Vermonters to increase...
The first public meeting on a reworked Police-Fire Facilities Project started with a good omen. Town staff quickly added folding chairs to the back rows because audience numbers far exceeded the expected 30 - even for a meeting early on the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving. Audience members later praised as thorough and comprehensive a presentation by Town Manager Peter Elwell and town staff, who offered a reboot of the project after nearly a year's hiatus. The Selectboard delayed repairs to...
Town staff and members of the Selectboard have repeatedly outlined the issues facing the three stations. According to Town Manager Peter Elwell, the West Brattleboro Station (formally called Station 2) has basically “failed.” Issues include (but are not limited to): • Asbestos at the Central Fire Station building, which was constructed in 1949. • Mold growing on the walls in all three buildings. The Municipal Center, built in 1885, is prone to dampness in its basement. • Diesel soot in...
The bedbug shack by the tracks in North Walpole has just opened for the season. Now, I don't begrudge any person a warm place to sleep, but the Greater Falls Warming Shelter track record isn't the best. Drug dealers, child molesters, women beaters: all are welcome.
Middlebury College professor Glenn Andres will illustrate and discuss the treasures of Vermont's built environment in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. His free talk, “The Buildings of Vermont,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series. Andres' talk will look beyond Vermont's pastoral stereotypes to examine the remarkable range, quality, humanity, and persistence of its built landscape. He has taught, primarily in the areas of architectural and urban history,
Thanksgiving holiday town closures in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, all Brattleboro town offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 26 and 27, with the exception of emergency services. Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots on Nov. 26 and 27. Parking will resume regular enforcement hours on Saturday, Nov. 28. All other violations, including extended parking, will be enforced. Brooks Memorial Library will close at 6 p.m. on...
I am very sorry this happened, I really am. Nick Widomski sounds like a really remarkable young man. But one does not just “find oneself” in the path of an oncoming train. There was a sidewalk going in the same direction not many yards away from the train bridge. Please, everyone, do not play on the tracks or use them for a shortcut.
Thank you for having ears for this story, and the wherewithal to share it with us all. We are headed into what seems to be a hard winter in a land of hard winters. We have to talk about the homeless in our midst. And do something.
Transitions • Chloe Learey, executive director of the Winston Prouty Center for Child Development in Brattleboro, has graduated from the Early Childhood Leadership Institute (ECLI), a program of The Richard A. and Barbara W. Snelling Center for Government in Williston. The Early Childhood Leadership Institute was initiated in 2014 and seeks to stimulate enthusiasm for and effective participation in efforts to improve early childhood work in Vermont. Honors • Ryan Stoodley, Parks & Recreation Director at the Rockingham Recreation Department,
If we lived in a civilized country, we would not have criminalized marijuana or any other drug. Drug criminalization indicates a sociopolitical mental-health problem. You see, it's normal for humans to consume drugs. It is not normal to criminalize and institutionalize our citizens because of drug use. The only time drug use should be criminalized is when a drug is explicitly used in the commission of a “real” crime of deliberate or reckless acts of a violent or dangerous nature.
The woman you profiled in this piece is brave to share her story. She shows resilience in her comments about wanting to help others. Hopefully, more help will be available to her from the people who know her and hear about her. We should all keep our eyes and ears open to what is going on with people around us. Homelessness is a community problem, a social problem, a political problem. And we are all part of the solution.
I landed in the shelter with my kids about six years ago. Having to accept help, instead of being the one providing help, is a horrible experience - degrading and depressing. For my kids' sake, I treated it as an adventure. (To this day my daughter remembers that time as having “so much fun,” but I cringe when she mentions “when we lived in the shelter” in front of others.) We're moving out of the area now, on an extremely...
The Archer Mayor bit seems irrelevant and insensitive. I'm surprised you let this go to print. I expect better from The Commons.
I have maintained that we are all one catastrophic event from being homeless. This is nothing that should ever be judged, because you never know what put a person in the situation. Help is the only thing you should extend. Never judgment. Judging doesn't define them. It defines you!
Such a strong woman! I went through something similar and was half a step away from being homeless. I cannot imagine her struggle! Such a wonderful heart. She doesn't even want the lifestyle back but to volunteer. God bless her! I pray that she has a home soon.
Nick Widomski was a really amazing person, and everybody who knew him is going to miss him terribly.
I am a long-time colleague of Starr's and a big fan. Brattleboro has made a brilliant choice! The town will reap rewards for years to come. I wish she were library director in my town. Congratulations, Starr! Brooks Memorial Library is very lucky.
Let me get this straight: Vermont Yankee's reactor building is going to go dark in a few years with all the old fuel removed and in the cask. This means the reactor building will be unheated during the winters. It sounds like these people are cuckoo, leaving hundreds of thousands of gallons of extremely radioactive water in a steel tank well below the freezing point of water. The plant is not radioactive enough to keep the water from freezing! At...
Brattleboro is getting a shining Starr who has led, inspired, and ignited Building Brighter Futures for Broome, an agency that offers early childhood literacy strategies and supports! Thank you, Starr LaTronica, for sharing your gifts and passion!
Illegal dumping vexes Selectboard NEWFANE - As town officials continue to deal with illegal dumping at the recycling area in the Town Offices parking lot, their work has hit a wall. For many months, the Selectboard has discussed the possibility of installing surveillance cameras to monitor activity at the bins. This way, when someone drives up and leaves trash, the cameras can record the perpetrator's license plate. Administrative Assistant Shannon Meckle has researched options for the cameras and has worked...
The Selectboard has unanimously approved an option agreement that will take property, now occupied by the Brattleboro Reformer, off the real estate market while the town explores moving the police station there. The town is not purchasing the property outright at this time. Purchasing the property at 62 Black Mountain Rd. and moving the police station there will still require approval by both the Selectboard and Representative Town Meeting. This option agreement only keeps the property out of reach from...
Roads Foreman Lee Chamberlin recently attended a meeting at the West Dummerston Covered Bridge to “[see] if there was a way to stop people from having confrontations in the bridge.” At the Oct. 28 Selectboard meeting, Chamberlin reported that he met with a number of town officials, including some board members, and Windham Regional Commission Senior Planner Matt Mann to assess conflicts at the single-lane bridge. Chamberlin said the traffic problems occur when two vehicles meet partway through the bridge,
There are a ton of great Web resources related to substance abuse and addiction, including www.allaboutaddiction.com and www.spiritualriver.com. For a great blog post specific to dealing with addiction during the holidays, visit bit.ly/QMA0FZ. In addition, here are several local resources and service providers to assist you. • 2-1-1 Vermont. Dial 2-1-1 from your home or cell phone and ask about resources and services available in your area. • Substance-abuse therapists in Windham County: bit.ly/SNU3n7. • Phoenix House: 802-257-5654; www.phoenixhouse.org. •
Officials are shooting for a Town Meeting Day referendum on the possibility of building a 600-megawatt, gas-fired power plant somewhere near the Vermont Yankee site. If a March 1 vote is approved by the Selectboard, the intervening three months will give the Planning Commission more time to address myriad questions and concerns about such a facility. Officials also are asking the project's lead advocate, Winhall resident Don Campbell, to narrow in on a site for the plant by early 2016.
The start of the holiday season is traditionally a time that people become aware of the need to give to others. The food collection bins for Project Feed the Thousands showed up earlier this month at local grocery stores. The two biggest food shelves in Windham County, Our Place in Bellows Falls and the Groundworks Drop-In Center, are distributing food nearly as fast as they receive donations. And year after year, Deerfield Valley Food Pantry, the Townshend Community Food Shelf...
The Vermont Jazz Center will present as its annual big band swing gala the music of world-class vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and his Dream Band. The VJC will use the same arrangements that Gibbs' Ensemble performed during the group's apex that took place in the late 1950s and early '60s in the concert, which takes place Friday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m. All proceeds will support the VJC's Scholarship Program. Based out of Los Angeles, Gibbs' Dream Band is still recognized...
On Sunday, Dec. 6, the Williamsville Eatery will host another musical soiree, featuring dinner and a concert. Jazz/gospel vocalist Wanda Houston will be supported by Eugene Uman on piano and David Picchi on bass. The renovated interior of the old Williamsville General Store will contribute to the intimate concert experience. Because seating is limited to 25 - tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. Originally from Chicago, Wanda Houston grew up singing gospel music in church and with...
There is no window into the soul of evil. You can't see empty. You do feel it, which is the aim of cruel and senseless intentions. The content is discernible and disturbing: blood and bodies. The props are simple: guns and grenades. The desired effect is easily achieved: anxiety, anger, and deep-set fear. Violence of the ilk perpetrated in Paris shakes us, literally. It is revelatory of a new and emerging world order that shouldn't surprise us; its reverberations, after...
How can one put into words the trauma of a nation? When writing about the events in Paris, it became clear there is no posture to adopt, no angle from which to write. There is only tragedy, and solidarity with those who are suffering. Somehow, the Jihadists have lost sight of humanity. It is not the first time in our evolutionary history that a group of people find themselves cut off from the very sentiments that make us human: compassion,
My soul is filled with sadness at how bigoted, racist, and xenophobic the United States has become, and my fist is raised in anger at the opportunistic leaders who selfishly fan the flames of hatred. The country I love was once a metaphorical beacon on the hill, welcoming of strangers, and open to the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We took in wave after wave of displaced refugees and gave them an opportunity to resettle and...
Jeff Potter's article is excellent. One way to help homeless people like the woman in the article is to contact Governor Shumlin and our state legislators and ask them to increase funding for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. This can be done by raising taxes on millionaires.
Fire investigators now say that a Nov. 7 apartment fire was deliberately set. The morning fire at the 12-unit building on Valgar Street drove 45 people from their homes and destroyed four apartments. Six of the units have since been reoccupied. Investigators from Brattleboro Police, Vermont State Police, and the Brattleboro Fire Department said last week that they found multiple spots where the fire started, but will not say what was used to start the fire since the investigation is...
Municipal Manager Willis “Chip” Stearns II has provided the exact tax-rate changes proposed in the “Plan of Merger” presented in October [“Man with a plan,” Town & Village, Nov. 11]. The town manager explained the calculations, using the spreadsheet of the financials of the plan that were submitted to the joint board last month (also available on the town website). At present, the town tax rate (rounded to the nearest cent) is 94 cents per $100 of valuation, and the...
After years of public comment and revisions, Brattleboro's new zoning plan is ready for prime time. These new land-use regulations, approved by the Selectboard Nov. 17, take their lead from intentions and goals set forward in the Town Plan around land use and development. The Planning Department worked throughout 2014 revising the town's zoning and holding multiple public meetings. At these meetings, the department staff collected public comment and answered questions regarding the rezoning proposal. The department has collected and...
The art and crafts of Brattleboro-West Arts will make their way eastward next month for a downtown exhibit and sale to mark the holiday season. The show “17 Artists, 3 Days” will offer pieces ranging from paintings, photography, and botanical drawings to pottery, textiles, woven baskets, jewelry, metalwork and glass. The show will run Friday, Dec. 4 through Sunday, Dec. 6 in the recently opened 118 Elliot Street, a public event space at that address. “BWA is proud to be...
Downtown Alliance lights up Pliny Park BRATTLEBORO - The Downtown Brattleboro Alliance invites everyone to the Downtown De-Lights Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony and Festivities on Friday, Nov. 27, at 6 p.m. This annual event is a fun, family-friendly way to kick off the holidays. Pliny Park and the Brooks House, along with many storefronts downtown, will display all their finery in bright white lights. It's a bit of traditional New England magic in the heart of Brattleboro. For more on...
The Putney Craft Tour invites visitors to meet the 23 makers on this year's tour, which will include blacksmiths, glass blowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, woodworkers, and even artisan cheesemakers. The oldest continuing craft studio tour in North America takes place on the long Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 27, 28 and 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For the last two years, the Putney Craft Tour, Next Stage Arts Project, and Sandglass Theatre have joined forces to present and publicize a...
Fifty regional artists and artisans will showcase and offer their work for purchase at the annual Cotton Mill Open Studio and Holiday Sale. “More than a holiday sale, it's a community event, an opportunity to be entertained, and to treat yourself to delicacies and activities you always wanted to try,” organizers write. Besides artists, musicians, bakers, performers, and craftspeople based at the Cotton Mill, talented artists and artisans from surrounding communities have been juried to participate in this 17th annual...
The time between the high school sports seasons can seem awfully short, especially the transition between the fall season of football, soccer, field hockey, and cross-country to the winter season of basketball, ice hockey, nordic skiing, and wrestling. Scrimmages began this week for the basketball and hockey teams, and Brattleboro will have its first varsity hockey action on the ice next week. The boys' hockey team will host Woodstock at Withington Rink on Dec. 2 at 7:15 p.m. The girls...
How many times have you watched the holiday movie It's a Wonderful Life in recent years? I never tire of watching this revealing and moving film that - thank goodness - has such a firm grip on the American brand. Ironically, the entire movie was filmed on a set near Hollywood during the hot summer months of 1946. When the film came out, the critics and the general audience didn't think much of it, and what fun that here we...
“I don't want to go,” Yi-Soon Kim said, when asked about her decision to sell the business - the Shin La Restaurant - that she and her husband, Tae-Mo Kim, have owned on Main Street for almost 35 years. “It's very hard,” Mrs. Kim said. “The customers are very graceful, they are so nice to me. They're like friends and family.” But Mrs. Kim is nearing age 65, and she said she “wants to prepare while I'm still healthy.” She...
I somehow manage to forget in between, that each year, from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, families are gathering, dispersing, regrouping in various configurations to celebrate a time of year that, in my memory, is anything but joyous. And certainly not a celebration of connections. Or family. So when my editor called for memories of the holidays, my visceral response was to cringe. Oh, no! It's here again, my mind sighed and my body seemed to wilt into my chair.
A Tale of The Tontlawald, an evening of entertainment featuring music by The Bluebird Orchestra, film shorts, and a marionette show, will be presented at the Cotton Mill in Room 357. The first half of the evening will feature The Bluebird Orchestra playing some of their original songs and improvising music to two very short silent films: “Princess Nicotine” and “Artistic Creation” from the turn of the (last) century. After a brief intermission, The Bluebird Theater will present “A Tale...
Ah, the holidays. It used to be that all one had to do was roast a turkey, add cream and butter to everything else, sit back, and watch the carnage. What made us suddenly concerned about fat and carbohydrates and fiber and on Thanksgiving, for goodness sake? Turning 50. Then turning 60. Cholesterol. Blood pressure. Gall bladders. How gloomy. The holidays are a time to celebrate, not to ponder mortality. But part of our very American celebration of Thanksgiving has...
When I was very little, I'd get up before anyone else and go sit by the tree. The tree was bright, with packages under it, and our stockings hanging off the cardboard fireplace. One by one, my brothers would join me, and we'd open our stockings and pig out on the candy and the orange we always got, until our parents came in. Then the trains were turned on, followed by riotous noise of tearing paper and exclamations. There was...
The Dummerston Conservation Commission would like Windham County woodland owners, who currently post their land with “No Hunting” signs which make it a violation to hunt, to consider an alternative. Since 2013, landowners can post signs allowing “Hunting by Permission Only,” which is legally enforceable by the game warden serving Windham County, Kelly Price, whose home number is 802-251-2171. The reason for this law is to allow more lands to be hunted, which helps to improve our forests' health and,
It is a propitious time at the River Gallery School. After looking at the storefront space downstairs from their quarters in the Wilder Building two years ago and finding they weren't ready to expand, the pieces have finally fallen into place. Before they found renters elsewhere, Windsor & Windham Housing Trust, owners of the building, called the school, knowing of their previous interest. An “angel,” in the form of Doune Trust Fund stepped forward to help make it happen. The...
Gesturing toward a vegetation-covered lump of land in the middle of an abnormally shallow Townshend Lake, Craig Hunt observed, “Those islands out there - they're new.” Hunt was speaking on the morning of Nov. 19 to an audience that included staff from all three of Vermont's congressional offices, two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives, and two state legislators. All had come to hear about two pressing issues - the lack of payments in lieu of taxes for Townshend Dam,
Puppeteer and educator Finn Campman is coming home for Thanksgiving. On Saturday, Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m., Sandglass Theater, a 60-seat performance space that specializes in combining puppets with music, actors and visual imagery, will showcase Campman's Of Bread and Paper. Campman, of Putney, had been an integral member of Sandglass from when he first began working with puppets there about 25 years ago until his teaching career made touring with the company impossible. Inspired by Roma folk tales, Of...
Vermont Theatre Company brings Christmas cheer to downtown Brattleboro once more with its second annual production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, adapted from Dickens's original story and directed by James Gelter. It is a highly faithful adaptation which pulls text and dialogue directly from Dickens' original novella. “There are countless stage and film adaptations of A Christmas Carol,” says Gelter, “Each with its own spin or variation on the story. And while Heaven knows I love The Muppets version,
It was nearly standing-room only at the NewBrook School's third-annual Harvest Dinner and Student Art Show on Nov. 19. “Our Farm to School committee teams with our PTO [Parent Teacher Organization] to put on this annual event which includes live music, a delicious dinner, and a showcase of student art work prepared by our art teacher, Ms. Suzanne Paugh,” NewBrook Principal Scotty Tabachnick told The Commons in an email. Tabachnick opened the festivities in the school's multi-purpose room with a...
In drawing up a proposed budget for the 2016-17 school year, Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School administrators found a way to avoid exceeding a new, state-imposed spending limit that is causing headaches in other schools. They did so even while absorbing a big health-care cost hike and setting aside money for security upgrades. Overall, though, the school's frugality comes at a cost: The preliminary plan calls for staff reductions adding up to a little less than three...
As Vermont Yankee starts down the road of decommissioning, one of the biggest complaints has been the lack of a map. That's about to change, as the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Nov. 19 formally announced its intent to develop new, detailed regulations for decommissioning power plants. An initial public-comment period runs through Jan. 4. Given their concerns about how the Yankee process has played out so far, Vermont officials say they will “lead the way” on pushing for stronger...
I have friends in Paris. They are currently all right. But more darkness has come to the city of light. I suppose it is helpful to know that the world is full of violence and deprivation and that they feed on each other. The people who seem to suffer least are the ones who cause the problem by hoarding the resources that should rightly nourish the community. The imbalances in human communities look to me more and more like imbalances...