Grant gives Time Trade a needed boost

Brattleboro Time Trade thanks the Crosby Fund for its recent grant of $750. These funds will help us a great deal as we expand our network of individuals, agencies, and businesses.

The Time Trade now has more than 235 active members who have collectively exchanged more than 3,200 hours, helping one another and their community.

Time Trade members give and receive help with everything from respite care to web design, computer help to home-cooked meals, fiddle lessons to transportation for the elderly.

Thanks to the Crosby Fund and its help, we can further tap the rich resources within our own community. To find out more, visit us online, stop by our office at 15 Grove St., or call us at (802) 246-1199.

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Blazing the trail

What it takes to maintain the Long Trail for hikers

Foot trails have existed in our forests and mountains for hundreds of years, since the settling of the region began. In the last hundred years, some of these trails have gained reknown across the continent. In our region, in particular, we have the grandfather of all long-distance trails, the...

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Milestones

Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news,  free of charge. • Edward George “Ed” Anderson, 62, of Brattleboro. Died June 22 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Husband of Christine “Chris” Wells for 38 years. Father...

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A busy summer in The Square

There are not many vacant storefronts in The Square this summer. And, depending on the business, the warm weather either brings a lull or causes business to go “gangbusters,” said Adam Kline, of Adventure Trek USA, Inc. The company opened its Bellows Falls location at 51 The Square last fall. A location in Thetford provides the setting for adventure camps for kids and teens. On a recent summer day, Kline and Adrian Blenkensopp, two of Adventure Trek's three guides, came...

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NRC responds to AP investigation, defends decision to renew VY license

At last Wednesday's public hearing at Brattleboro Union High School, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) representatives took heat from audience members for their decision to extend the operating license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon for an additional 20 years. John Ward, aSelectboard member in Gill, Mass, summed up feelings for frustrated audience members when he said that the NRC was more an industry “lapdog than watchdog.” “It's a cliché,” said NRC spokesperson Neil Sheehan in response to Ward's...

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Power struggle

The bidding war for Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) between Fortis and Gaz Metro is not just about two Canadian energy companies jockeying to buy Vermont's largest electric utility. It is about which of the companies is going to get control over Vermont's electrical transmission grid, and thus have a way to ship energy to southern New England markets. Fortis, based in St. John's, Newfoundland, or Gaz Metro, based in Montreal, would end up with a big stake in the...

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Porter, Conarroe win Firecracker 4-Miler road race

It's much a part of the Fourth of July in Brattleboro as the parade down Main Street and the fireworks at Living Memorial Park. It's the Bill Powers Memorial Firecracker 4-Miler Road Race, sponsored by the Red Clover Rovers. This year, 113 runners participated in Monday morning's race, which started at Living Memorial Park and finished at the Common. The overall male winner was Jason Porter, 41, of Bedford, N.H., who covered the course in 22 minutes, 30 seconds. That...

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To intervene, or not to intervene?

Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., released a press release on June 30 celebrating the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) decision to not intervene in the Entergy v. Shumlin court case at this time. In an interview the next day, the DOJ said that wasn't necessarily so. “While I recognize that it is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to monitor developments in all ongoing litigation, I am pleased that they have no plans to intervene and I am confident that...

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Marshall: Shumlin’s promise of broadband by 2013 is on schedule

Karen Marshall, chief of ConnectVT, says Gov. Peter Shumlin's campaign pledge to extend universal broadband access to every last mile by 2013 is on track. Shumlin launched ConnectVT (not to be confused with ConnectVermont, an Agency of Transportation project), shortly after he took office, and Marshall is the standalone entity's sole employee. She has no budget per se and no employees to manage. Her office is on the Fifth Floor of the Pavilion building, where the governor's closest advisors work.

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Lead Safe classes offered in Brattleboro

Lead Safe Homes, in collaboration with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, is offering both state and federal lead paint safety courses for landlords, contractors, childcare providers, and others interested in using lead-safe renovation techniques. Thanks to a grant from Vermont Green, contractors and landlords seeking federal certification may be eligible to attend the class free of charge. There is no charge for the Vermont certification class. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) course will be...

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Towns still waiting for Vilas Bridge repairs

Long-delayed repairs for the historic Vilas Bridge that connects Bellows Falls and North Walpole are slowly moving forward. Inspectors from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) closed the bridge that spans the Connecticut River in March 2009, due to deterioration mostly caused by road salt. Last week at the Walpole Town Hall, a special joint board meeting of Rockingham, Bellows Falls, and Walpole municipal officials learned that NHDOT is about to start the preliminary engineering phase. That phase will...

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Great Falls Great Food Community Conversation hosts community supper, food conversation

The Great Falls Great Food Community Conversation will host a community supper and its inaugural conversation about food on Friday, July 8, at Our Place Drop In Center, 4 Island St. The supper will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m. There will be food for everyone. Feel free, however, to bring a favorite dish or recipe to share. The conversation will then be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m., and will feature stories and anecdotes from all who care to share about their fond...

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Help us honor Vermont’s Civil War soldiers

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War in the United States. On the grounds where Brattleboro Union High School and Brattleboro Area Middle School now stand, more than 10,000 of Vermont's soldiers were mustered into service, and more than 4,600 veterans of the war were mustered out. The site was also home to a field hospital. In 1906, a large monument honoring the men who passed through Brattleboro in service to the Union cause...

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Preserving the right to privacy in the digital age

Everyday technologies, such as cell phones, laptop computers, and Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, produce data that make it easy to monitor and log the activities of individual Americans. As a result, some say, there is a lack of legal clarity regarding how this data should be treated by law enforcement agencies, telecommunications companies, and private citizens. U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., wants to end some of this confusion. He is signing on to new legislation designed to create a...

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Of jellybeans and journalists

Before the royal wedding, the British press was buzzing about a speckled jelly bean with Kate Middleton's face on it. ABC News reported the story. National Public Radio reported it by making fun of it. Pictures of it were all over the Internet. By the time William and Kate were enjoying their honeymoon in the Seychelles Islands, a Google search of “Kate Middleton Jelly Bean” found about 1,340,000 results in 0.31 seconds. It would have been the nadir of journalism...

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Probe, watch, and hold government accountable

Monday, July 4, marked the 45th anniversary of the signing of the federal Freedom of Information Act. This law gives people the right to know what the government is doing, the good and the bad, and to hold the government accountable. State law should follow suit. The League of Women Voters urges everyone to probe, watch, and make sure these regulations and their administrators are, in fact, doing what these laws prescribe. For more detail, please visit the United States...

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Why Entergy's case is hung by its own logic

The U.S. Constitution establishes a dual structure of governance: Powers given to Congress are enumerated and specific; those left to the states are not. In the case of wholesale nuclear power plants, including Vermont Yankee, Congress has reserved two “fields” for itself: safety and radiological issues, and rate regulation. These roles are uncontested. Vermont Yankee's owner, Entergy, wants us to make it three areas by adding reliability to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) list. That's much more controversial, but...

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Pinning down the outcomes

Taxpayers sent about $11 million in education taxes to the state this past year. The town keeps $2 million for the Dover Elementary School. That has totalled about $150 million over 10 years that residents have paid to educate students in less prosperous communities across the state. In an attempt to determine the economic impacts of Vermont's educational funding structure on their residents and economies, town representatives - in alliance with their Wilmington counterparts - want to fund an evaluation...

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