Friends of the Wardsboro Library host big Memorial Day weekend sale

The Friends of the Wardsboro Library are sponsoring two big events on Memorial Day weekend: the Annual Plant Sale and a Barn Open House, both Saturday, May 25.

Admission and parking are free for both events, which will be held rain or shine.

The annual plant sale is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Wardsboro Library, a non-profit organization that supports the Wardsboro Public Library.

The plant sale, from 9 a.m. to noon, will take place at 170 Main St., on the front lawn of the Wardsboro Library and on the Wardsboro Town Common, at Route 100 and Main Street.

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RFPL trustee: Many reasons why we voted to close building

I am writing this letter as a trustee of the Rockingham Free Public Library. This letter does not represent the views of the entire board. I feel a need to express some points that do not seem to be getting across to the general public. People are up in...

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Around the Towns

Area law enforcement agencies participate in national 'Click it or Ticket' campaign BRATTLEBORO - Law enforcement agencies throughout the state will be participating in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Click it or Ticket campaign beginning this week and continuing through June 2. State, local and county law...

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Dogs in distress

You wouldn't leave your dog trapped in a hot car, would you? Some people do, and such heat can kill. Local resident Barry Adams is doing everything he can to educate the public about the dangers of leaving dogs in hot cars. Through Adams' efforts, signs were recently posted in several municipal parking lots warning drivers about the danger that hot cars pose to dogs. Adams also is leading a community awareness event later this month as part of his...

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Milestones

Births • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hos­pital), May 5, 2013, a son, Maxwell Ezekiel Rago-Marker, to Ellen Rago and Emily Marker of Putney; grandson to Nick and Debbie Rago, and Marcia and Eru Marker. • In Brattleboro (Memorial Hos­pital), May 3, 2013, a daughter, Khloe Elizabeth Shaink, to Melis­sa (Lance) and Nicholas Shaink of Hinsdale, N.H.; granddaughter to Rock and Robin Shaink, and Bob Lance and Geri Walton, all of Hinsdale, and Jackie and Daw­nald Smith of Waxhaw, N.C. College news...

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A new day, new place for the Townshend Farmers’ Market

It's a new day at a new location for the start of the Townshend Farmers' Market's sixth season. Open Fridays from June 7 to October 11, the Townshend Farmers' Market will be held on the lawn at the West Townshend Country Store, the new hub for local food in the West River Valley. Regular hours are 4 to 7 p.m., rain or shine. The market is at the intersection of Route 30 and Windham Hill Road. Located at one of...

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Jelly Bean Tree now open for season

The Jelly Bean Tree, Vermont's oldest crafts cooperative, has opened its doors for the 38th consecutive season. In continuous operation since 1975, and a favorite stop for many repeat visitors to Vermont, it has helped hundreds of artists establish themselves in the crafts market. The co-op, which is staffed by volunteer members, will be open Wednesday through Friday from noon-5 p.m. and from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday through Christmas. The shop, usually closed on Mondays will open...

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Helping area youth consider future options

Braiden Hodge is 17, lives in Putney, and is a junior at Brattleboro Union High School. Three years ago, he wasn't spending a lot of time thinking about his future. Then he got involved with Youth Services' RAMP: Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program. Now, he's working part-time as a cashier at Burger King in Brattleboro and mapping out what he'll be doing when he graduates from BUHS next year. He is considering being an emergency medical technician, a police officer,

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New softball diamond honors ‘Brownie’ Towle

Last Saturday, Brattleboro's newest softball diamond was named in honor of one of the people who had the most to do with it being built. Brownlow “Brownie” Towle of Dummerston has been involved with the Brattleboro Men's Softball League for more than 40 years, first as a player and then as a board member and umpire. About 30 years ago, the Brattleboro Area Softball Association (BASA) started collecting players' fees, with an eye toward building an additional diamond beyond the...

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House Blend performs benefit concert at Next Stage

Next Stage Arts Project presents House Blend on Saturday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds will be shared to benefit both Next Stage and House Blend, as the group prepares for its upcoming tour in France. House Blend is a self-led a cappella chorus of experienced singers dedicated to the music of many cultures and traditions. Based in Saxtons River, the group is committed to sharing the joy of their music with the audience and to excellence in their...

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Celebrating summer, and the four Bs

Friends of Music at Guilford presents “The Four Bs: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms & The Barn,” its 5th Annual Spring Recital at the Organ Barn in rural Guilford. The concert is Sunday, May 26, at 3 p.m., and features the “Dynamic Two-O” of organist Kenneth Olsson and soprano Julie Johnson Olsson, with an assist by the Guilford Chamber Players. The program offers selections from the great organ master himself, J. S. Bach. Kenneth will play “Fantasia in G Major” (BWV 572),

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Campaign finance reform bill was a sham

It is fair to say that my position on campaign finance reform has not made me popular in the Statehouse, but I have heard from a number of constituents (and other Vermonters) who agree with me. To her credit, my colleague, Sen. Jeanette White, has been consistent in her opposition to banning corporate campaign contributions. However, I don't think her arguments hold water. The proposed ban does not affect the ability of small Vermont businesses to make contributions. All business...

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Out of Africa

Julian Gerstin of Westminster West has studied the music of Africa and the African diaspora for 40 years But only recently has he began to write it. Gerstin's bold, original music is inspired by the warmth of two suns as jazz horns meet the rhythmic traditions of West Africa and the Caribbean. Two collections of his melodic and rhythmically intriguing music for jazz horns and percussion - “The Ghana Suite” and “The Martinique Suite” - will be performed May 31...

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Atlas shrugged

Now that “Brattleboro: An Atlas of Cultural Assets” has been published, what do the town's leading art organizations think of it? Judging from the reactions at a May 13 meeting convened by the Brattleboro CoreArts project at the Latchis Theatre, the atlas - the first part of an National Endowment for the Arts-funded process - got a thumbs-up for its design and creativity and an emphatic thumbs-down for content. A team of graduate students from the Conway School of Landscape...

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HCRS earns Gold Seal of Approval from Joint Commission

By demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission's national standards for health care quality and safety, Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS) has earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval for another three years. HCRS is the only state-designated community mental health agency in Vermont to receive this accreditation. According to Mary Cesare-Murphy, executive director of the Behavioral Health Care Accreditation Program at The Joint Commission, in achieving accreditation, HCRS has demonstrated its commitment to the highest level of care...

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Marlboro Morris Ale returns for 38th year of revelry

For the 38th year, Marlboro Morris Ale brings more than 250 morris dancers and musicians to dance throughout Brattleboro and Windham County. On Saturday, May 25, the dancers will perform for area nursing homes and retirement communities at 2 p.m., then will dance in groups of three or four teams from 3 to 3:40 p.m. throughout downtown Brattleboro. All 250-plus dancers and musicians will arrive by processional and perform on Elliot Street, which will be cordoned off for the presentation,

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Town has vacancies on boards, committees

Terms of many Brattleboro committees and boards expire on June 30. The town is looking for volunteers to serve on the following committees and boards: • Agricultural Advisory Board - six vacancies, three-year term • Arts Committee - four vacancies, three-year term • BASIC (Brattleboro Area Skatepark is Coming) - two vacancies • Brattleboro Housing Authority Representative - one vacancy, five-year term • CPCC (Citizen Police Communications Committee) - three vacancies, two-year term • Conservation Commission - one vacancy, four-year...

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Efficiency Vermont wants your extra fridge or freezer

Efficiency Vermont wants your second-string refrigerator or freezer, and will pay you $50 to haul it away. Moreover, unplugging that energy sucker could save you as much as $150 each year in electric bills, according to Lara Bonn of Efficiency Vermont. That's how much more it could cost to run a second refrigerator you might not need or use but is plugged in and drawing current all the same. “It's like paying rent on your own appliance,” she said. Retiring...

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United Way, local dental practices provide needed dental care

Some 170 folks in Windham County took advantage of the Free Adult Dental Care Days held in early May, striking extractions, fillings, and X-rays from their to-do lists. According to event organizer Carmen Derby, executive director of United Way of Windham County, such procedures helped save teeth that might otherwise have been lost to dental caries. The event was made possible by what Derby characterizes as the highly successful collaboration of the United Way of Windham County and participating Windham...

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A 21st century twist for vaudeville

Vaudeville lives! The first-ever Putney Vaudeville is presented by Next Stage Arts Project in collaboration with Strong Coffee Stage on Friday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. at Next Stage at 15 Kimball Hill. The bill includes stellar professional acts and a rousing live band, as well as assorted friends and neighbors displaying skills that may surprise you. The show also will invite good-natured audience engagement. Beer and wine flow from a J.D. McCliment's Pub cash bar. Putney Vaudeville is the...

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Bellows Falls Envirothon team wins state competition

The Bellows Falls Union High School Envirothon team nabbed three top awards at the Vermont State Envirothon May 14, and is advancing to the nationals. The Terriers brought two main teams and an alternate team. Team A won the forestry division with a score of 95, a record for the division statewide. They also took first place overall, which means they'll advance to the national competition, The Canon Envirothon, to be held in Bozeman, Mont., this summer. Just as impressive,

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Leadership of RFPL trustees acted inappropriately, must resign

On Saturday, May 19, five members of the Board of Trustees of the Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) voted to close the library building immediately and to keep it closed until mid-July at the earliest. Three of the nine trustees were not present for the vote because it was called at the last minute on a weekend when several could not be reached or were unable to be present. Nevertheless, the five votes cast constitute a majority of the board.

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Raise taxes on millionaires

Governor Shumlin and the Vermont legislature are planning to approximately double the cost of health care for a large percentage of Vermonters. Unless people are able to persuade these politicians to change their minds, the price increases will take effect on Jan. 1, 2014. In 2010, more than 44,000 Americans died because the U.S. does not have universal health care, unlike Canada, Cuba, Europe, Japan, and every other rich nation. That's according to former U.S. Representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla). People...

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AOT outlines upcoming transportation projects in county

Commissioners of the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) quizzed the Secretary of the Agency of Transportation (AOT) on a raw, cold spring evening at Newfane's Union Hall on May 15. The only heat in the building emanated from the coffee on the snack table and what the AOT's projector kicked out. The visit was part of a post-legislative session tour to discuss agency priorities, funding challenges, and the reasons behind the increase in the state gasoline tax. Windham County is expected...

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RFPL trustees again vote to close library

Even though the State Department of Public Safety gave a written grant of occupancy during renovations on May 8, the Rockingham Free Public Library Trustees have voted, this time properly, to close the library during renovations that could last through the end of July. While the minutes were not yet available, Friends of the Library Chair Elayne Clift reported that, “On Saturday, May 18, five members of the Board of Trustees of the Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) voted to...

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Swimming in the South Pacific

My father, Clarence “Bud” Fairchild, must have told me one particular story 100 times when I was a little girl, and I always begged him to tell me again. “Describe the water, the men, the weather. Tell me again, Dad. Tell me about the time you were in the South Pacific during the war.” “It was beautiful, Frances. The ocean was so different from Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. We rigged up a swing on a palm tree so that...

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A first-hand story nuclear evacuation in Japan

Chikako Nishiyama was on the council of Kawauchi, a town of 2,300 people, 15 miles from the Fukushima reactors. In 2011, when she was getting ready for her run for the second term, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. Kawauchi was first a shelter town for evacuees from the evacuation zone. Then a plume of radiation engulfed Kawauchi, and it too was evacuated. Her son, a firefighter, worked in Kawauchi before the evacuation order was lifted one year later, and...

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Serious side of the Stroll

What must shift within for someone to decide to live the Slow Life? The third annual Slow Living Summit, a spin-off of the Strolling of the Heifers, explores this question June 5 to 7. According to Martin C. Langeveld, marketing director of Strolling of the Heifers and coordinator of the Slow Living Summit, the Summit represents the serious side of the Stroll. Slowness, in this case, is a metaphor for sustainability and mindfulness, Langeveld told his audience at the monthly...

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Vermont Land Trust recognizes Guilford student for land stewardship

Marissa Smith of Guilford was one of several Windham Regional Career Center students restoring a section of the Whetstone Brook in West Brattleboro on Friday, May 17. The students planted hundreds of native tree and shrub saplings, including red maple, silver maple, and nannyberry, along a 550-foot stretch of the stream bank that was damaged by raging flood waters during Tropical Storm Irene. But Smith's unique dedication to land stewardship overall is one of the reasons she is now being...

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BDCC: Out-of-state firm offered the best proposal

I want to correct some major inaccuracies in Jason Jensen's Viewpoint piece [“Ignoring the talent in our own backyard,” May 15]. The funding available for the Southern Vermont Sustainable Marketing Program is $100,000. It is a portion of a $474,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to the Windham Regional Commission and the Bennington County Regional Commission for long-term flood recovery work. The grant was prepared in collaboration with Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC), and the regional commissions...

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VY will be missed

RE: “As Vermont moves to green power, VY won't be missed” [Letters, May 8]: The fallacy of the VY-won't-be-missed response is simply that it will be missed. No amount of wind or solar power will replace Vermont Yankee. Wind and solar are intermittent power sources, while Vermont Yankee is a base-load plant. If one understands how the grid functions, it is obvious that these power sources are not interchangeable. If VY shuts down, fossil fuel power sources will replace VY,

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A call home

When I was asked to deliver this valediction, I felt honored, I felt humbled, and I felt a tremendous amount of pressure to say just the right thing with these last words you will hear at your commencement. I wanted to leave you with something truly notable, echoing some sort of world-renowned speech that you will remember for all your days to come. As I struggled with the task, I assumed the lotus position, took a few deep breaths, went...

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Public Service Board officer recommends backup generator permit for Vermont Yankee

Almost two weeks before Entergy Corp. and the state of Vermont are set to meet in federal court, a Public Service Board officer recommended giving the owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant what it wants: a permit for a backup generator. On June 4, Entergy is set to argue in U.S. District Court that the state of Vermont is federally preempted from barring the company's application to construct a backup diesel generator at Vermont Yankee. But, in a...

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Vermont State Parks open this weekend

Vermont State Parks announces the annual opening of its summer operating season this weekend. The Memorial Day holiday, the unofficial beginning of summer, also marks the beginning of the prime season for all 52 state parks. Officials are optimistic that this year's park visitation will at least match last year's 20-year record. “There is a heightened interest in our park system these days because of improvements we are making, our quality staff and a renewed appreciation for the value of...

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Creative resilience to replace destruction

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved the buyout of a handful of homes in the West River's floodplain. Next? The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) a $40,000 grant to assist with the redesign of the now-vacant land. About five homes along the West River - four in Londonderry and one in South Londonderry - qualify for the federal buyout program, said WRC associate director Susan McMahon. The property buyout is a...

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Remembering veterans beyond Memorial Day

Members of Students Supporting Veterans (SSV) discussed in social studies class the issue of American soldiers returning from war - to homelessness. “Unacceptable,” said the 40 students involved with the fledgling organization at Brattleboro Union High School. SSV is a student organization dedicated to helping homeless veterans in the community. In documents, the students state their mission is to “raise public awareness of the plight of our veterans, to raise money to buy trailers as permanent homes, and to give...

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A welcome summer resident

John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter, began his account of the rose-breasted grosbeak with these poetic words describing his night encounter: “One year, in the month of August, I was trudging along the shores of the Mohawk River, when night overtook me. Being little acquainted with that part of the country, I resolved to camp where I was; the evening was calm and beautiful, the sky sparkled with stars, which were reflected by the smooth waters, and the...

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Westminter Cares series continues with tips on how to forestall dementia

Walking, stretching, lifting weights – we all know that getting the circulation moving in your body makes you feel better and maybe live longer. But it's just as important to get the blood moving through your brain, says Vickie Wilk, APRN, CS PMHCNS, a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Wilk will speak on “Helping Prevent and Living with Cognitive Decline” on Tuesday, May 28, at 6 p.m., at the Westminster Institute on Route 5. The talk, sponsored by Westminster Cares as part...

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Hunter, James, Riccio win BF Trustees seats

A newcomer and an incumbent won the two open two-year seats on the Village Trustees on Tuesday, while the incumbent turned back a challenge by two other candidates for the Village President. Charlie Hunter and Colin James were the two top vote-getters in the two-year race. Hunter had 197 votes, while James got 173. Former trustee Scott Falzo led the also-rans with 154, followed by Leslie White with 138 and Deborah Wright with 68. Incumbent Roger Riccio easily won another...

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