Twin Valley teams fall in semifinals

It was a bit of a surprise to see that the last two local teams standing in the state baseball and softball tournament were both from Twin Valley.

Over the years, the boys and girls of the Deerfield Valley have developed the reputation for being great soccer players, pretty good basketball players, and so-so baseball and softball players.

This season was different as Twin Valley's baseball and softball teams both advanced to the Division IV semifinals for the first time in school history. Even though both teams would lose, it was a spring to remember in the Deerfield Valley.

• Second-seeded Mount St. Joseph lost its two regular-season meetings against third-seeded Twin Valley, but with a trip to the state Division IV championship game on the line, the Mounties came through with a 7-1 win over the Wildcats at St. Peters Field in Rutland in a semifinal on June 10.

Read More

Around the Towns

Wednesday Market open for season BRATTLEBORO - The Wednesday Brattleboro Area Farmers' Market opened for the season on June 18 on the Whetstone Pathway next to the Brattleboro Food Co-op. The market features local farms offering freshly harvested vegetables, plants, strawberries, cut flowers, maple products, preserves, and eggs. A...

Read More

Grace Cottage named one of New England’s top 50 hospitals

Grace Cottage Hospital has been named one of New England's Top 50 Hospitals based on patient satisfaction, according to a report recently published by GoLocalProv. Grace Cottage was rated No. 14 of all New England hospitals in the ranking, the highest among Vermont hospitals. Hospitals do not apply for...

Read More

More

As drug crime surges, Vermont’s criminal justice system has failed us

I look forward to the second installment of Allison Teague's series on Vermont's opioid problem. She raised some troubling points that many of us who work in social services have been aware of for the past 15 years or so. Agencies, landlords, and other service providers are indeed familiar with the scenario of out-of-state drug dealers coming to Vermont and entering into relationships with young women who often have low self-esteem, moving in with them, often in subsidized housing, and...

Read More

When we shine a light on our work

We advocates of the Women's Freedom Center lead educational workshops and discussions throughout Windham and southern Windsor counties, both in schools and throughout the larger community. We speak in a variety of settings. One day, you might find an advocate leading a workshop with fourth graders on the negative impacts of gender stereotyping, and the next day you could see an advocate leading a training with rescue workers on first-responder protocol for a sexual-assault call. We are speaking in classrooms,

Read More

Leland & Gray Players offer Summer Performing Arts Exploration VII

The Leland & Gray Players are offering another Summer Performing Arts Exploration (SPAE) for young people entering grades 5-8. The program opens with a family potluck on Sunday, July 27, and runs Monday through Friday, July 28 to Aug. 8, with culminating performances at 7 p.m. on Aug. 8 and at 4 p.m. on Aug. 9. Days include theater games, production work and workshops in acting, music, scene design, movement and dance, lighting, costumes and prop making. A final show...

Read More

Liz Richards inducted into Youth Services’ Hall of Fame

A glance around Liz Richards' Dummerston home tells you without a doubt two things that drive her passion: family and community. Adorning her house are uncounted intergenerational scenes of her husband, children, and grandchildren amid file folders for the gala and silent auction she has co-chaired for 15 years for Youth Services, her corporate sponsorship assignments, and thank you notes she is penning to the many friends and acquaintances she has convinced to support the agency's Annual Appeal. Being an...

Read More

Outmaneuvering the heroin traffickers

Dr. Thomas Simpatico doesn't think it's news to anybody that “the war on drugs hasn't gone well.” The chief medical officer for the Department of Vermont Health Access, Simpatico calls the current environment a “supply-and-demand market.” And he names the solutions, “from a simple business sense”: the new controlled delivery system that “simply outmaneuvers” the criminal element by making opiate replacement therapy (ORT), or medically assisted therapy (MAT), cheaper to access. ORT, as delivered through this Hub and Spoke Initiative,

Read More

BUHS Class of 1964 to celebrate 50th reunion with focus on giving thanks and giving back

A group of first-year baby boomers, those born in 1946, will descend from far and wide on Brattleboro late next week to celebrate reaching another 50. Fifty years out of high school, that is. In this case, it's the Brattleboro Union High School's Class of 1964 celebrating its 50th reunion June 20 to 22. The three days of events and activities include golf tournaments, a visit to the BUHS facilities, and numerous social gatherings. Highlighting the weekend is the announcement...

Read More

NEYT alumni to perform ‘Under Milk Wood’

The New England Youth Theatre alumni present “Under Milk Wood” by Dylan Thomas on June 20 and 21. Directed by Doran Hamm, assisted by Ben Stockman, “Under Milk Wood” is a stunning poetic play of voices. Set in a small fishing village on the coast of Wales, the play introduces a variety of characters who reside in and beneath the town. This funny, charming, lyrical, bawdy play entices you into the realm of your own imagination. Don't miss NEYT founder...

Read More

Milestones

College news • Matthew Nault of South Londonderry graduated from St. Michael's College in Colchester with a B.S. in business administration at the college's 107th commencement exercises on May 11. • Ben Jerome-Lee of Dummerston graduated on May 18 from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., with a B.A. in history and a B.A. in communications. In the fall, he is going to Thailand to teach English and travel. • Robert Litchfield of Jamaica and Sophie Zschirnt of Whitingham were both...

Read More

Guilford goes ‘Fourth’ a week early with annual Freedom Fest

Guilford's annual Freedom Fest is being celebrated on Saturday, June 28, at Broad Brook Grange from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Opening this event is an inspiring 5K run/walk that passes through dairy farms and along country roads. The starting gate is at Broad Brook Grange. Registration is at 9 a.m. Prizes are awarded for different levels. Guilford's Freedom Fest Parade begins at 11. This charming parade represents the spirit of small-town enthusiasts, young and old, and is one the...

Read More

June Climate Change Café features community conversation with area artists

In collaboration with the Arts Council of Windham County, Post Oil Solutions Climate Change Café hosts a community conversation with the area's art community: “Climate Change! Art Can Make a Difference.” This event, which is free and open to the public, is set for Tuesday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m. in Brooks Memorial Library's Community Room. Light refreshments will be available. As a program announcement reads, “We seem to be in a time when human activity is responsible for changes...

Read More

World Learning starts new scholarship in honor of Alvino and Bea Fantini

World Learning has established a scholarship in honor of Alvino and Beatriz Fantini, who have a combined 98 years of dedicated service to the organization, and will recognize them at a banquet this summer as part of the 50th anniversary celebration for the School for International Training (SIT). “I am so proud and deeply appreciative of the Fantini family for nearly a century of combined service to World Learning,” said president and CEO Donald Steinberg. The Alvino and Bea Fantini...

Read More

BMH Physician Group launches new online patient portal for easier access to health information

With the launch of MyHealthPortal this month, BMH Physician Group offers patients the option to access select portions of their health records online. MyHealthPortal, featured on the BMH Physician Group homepage, gives patients fast, easy access to their personal health information. It's billed as a personalized, safe, secure, and confidential communication link between the patient and the providers. BMH Physician Group says in a press announcement that, “through a secure Internet portal, patients will be able to view portions of...

Read More

RFPL presents author Jane Buchan on June 26

Author Jane Buchan presents a reading of her book, “Under the Moon,” at the Rockingham Free Public Library on Thursday, June 26, at 4:30 p.m. A discussion follows. “Under the Moon” is set in a retirement home in the early 1980s in Toronto. A program announcement explains that Edna, the novel's protagonist, “is an artist who has abandoned her art, and herself, at least temporarily. She hates the conformity and standardization of retirement home living but is stuck in a...

Read More

Rescue Inc. announces subscription campaign for 2014-15

Rescue Inc. has rolled out its seasonal subscription campaign, so this is your chance to sign up for a flat annual fee to receive substantial savings for the cost of certain ambulance services not covered by insurance. According to Drew Hazelton, Rescue Inc.'s chief of operations, for someone logging three ambulance calls in a year, the total cost could exceed $1,500. “For an uninsured person, our subscription plan could pay the full amount on a qualifying bill,” Hazelton said in...

Read More

Sidehill Farm honored with SB?A awards as Family-Owned Business of the Year

A Brattleboro-based jam company was honored during the Vermont Small Business Awards ceremony on June 17 at the Shelburne Museum Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education. Sidehill Farm, owned by Kelt and Kristina Naylor, was named the Small Business Administration's 2014 Vermont Family Owned Business of the Year. Sidehill Farm produces and sells a variety of jam, fruit butter, and drizzle, a combination of maple syrup and fruit. The company recently left its longtime home in the Cotton Mill complex...

Read More

No Film Film Festival premieres subimissions for third annual contest

This year's No Film Film Festival (NFFF) contestants are ready to strut their stuff at the premiere of nine NFFF films on June 28 at 6 p.m. at the Bellows Falls Opera House. For the third year in a row, with 11 contestants signed up, the NFFF had nine contestants successfully complete brief film remakes - this year featuring one of three “third-string” actors picked by the NFFF board. Entrants chose from one of the 10 films from the careers...

Read More

A different shade of blue

Paul Oscher believes that when it comes to playing the blues, less is more. “At least with the Chicago blues, which I play and is the tradition which I promote, the blues is a language rather than a style,” he says. “The story is the most important thing. In the blues, the song is always driven by the drama of the words.” On Friday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m., Next Stage Arts Project presents this award-winning blues singer, songwriter, and...

Read More

They fly through the air with the greatest of ease...

A bit of the circus came to a grassy meadow off Town Crier Drive on Sunday as the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) celebrated the first step toward building its new home on the site. NECCA purchased three acres of land that sits just above Putney Road earlier this year. It plans to build a $1.2 million, 15,000-square foot facility and move from its current school site at the Cotton Mill. But until construction begins, the school set...

Read More

One valley under a groove

They were the No Nukes Band when they played their first gig at an anti-nuclear rally on the Common in Brattleboro in April 1989. Twenty-five years later they're known as Simba, and the band not only survives, but also thrives, in having developed a deep connection with the communities of southeastern Vermont. Simba celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Simba Silver Summer Solstice Dance Party Extravaganza on Saturday, June 21, at 8 p.m. at Evening Star Grange in Dummerston Center.

Read More

Honorary Consulate for Lithuania opens in Brattleboro

His Excellency Žygimantas Pavilionis, Ambassador of Lithuania to the United States of America and Mexico, and Vaidotas Ašmonas, Attaché for Agriculture and Commerce, introduce themselves with a quick bow and handshake. Behind them, the Marlboro Graduate Center's Glass Room fills with the mouthwatering odors of Lithuanian foods. Although appealing, the food, and Lithuanian beer, are for guests attending the opening reception for the honorary consul of Lithuania. Pavilionis and Ašmonas visited Brattleboro for the opening of an honorary consulate on...

Read More

BUHS dress code protest stopped, but issues linger

June 12 marked the day of a protest against a regional high school's dress code. The protest didn't happen. According to sources, a group of female students planned activities to express their frustration with Brattleboro Union High School's (BUHS) dress code, last updated in 2004. The day before the protest, however, the group received news that an unnamed student told Dean of Students Kate Margaitis that the young women were planning, not a protest, but a riot. Fear of the...

Read More

Petition drive for budget re-vote fails

The town budget for fiscal year 2015 will stand at $15.7 million after a petition drive to force another townwide vote failed to garner enough signatures. The Brattleboro Town Clerk's office reports that it did not receive enough signatures to launch a second budget referendum by deadline of June 19 at 5 p.m. Representative Town Meeting approved a $15.7 million municipal budget June 3. Voters had defeated a $16 million budget at Annual Representative Town Meeting April 17. Under the...

Read More

When a business encounters a copyright troll

My company works with Vermont craftspeople to market and sell their furniture online and at our new gallery and showroom in Vernon. We put a lot of time and resources into creating our fine furniture website. It's where we publish original photos, artwork, opinions, and ideas. On the bottom of every page is a note indicating that all of our content is copyrighted. Still, we do find content gets taken or imitated by competitors from time to time. It's frustrating.

Read More

‘You Really Matter’

On a rainy Friday the 13th, students of Vermont Adult Learning's (VAL) Class of 2014 celebrated their graduation at VFW Post 1034 with a sunny and hopeful ceremony. VAL is a service to all Vermonters over 16 who lack a high school diploma. Students can either prepare for the General Education Development test (GED) or else complete their high school education by offering the help that they might not have been able to receive at public high school. Aside from...

Read More

Putney Walk-In Clinic to close for good on June 19

After providing free acute medical care one night-a-week for nearly 23 years, the Putney Walk-In Clinic will be offering its final free clinic on Thursday, June 19. Family Nurse Practitioner Richard Fletcher, in collaboration with Putney Family Services, started the walk-in clinic in 1991 in order to make acute medical care available to those in the community who were in need. Along with assistant Susan Bell, Fletcher provided free medical care one afternoon a week for seven years at the...

Read More

Best use of rare money

Shortly after, we co-founded the Institute for Nuclear Host Communities, launched shortly after the Vermont Yankee closure announcement late last summer. We had seen from a preliminary survey that very little had been studied about these events and, from our observation, that most closings of nuclear plants left their host communities and regions worse off than they had been before the plant was built. That insight, plus the realization that there was no shared knowledge about closure negotiations, meant that...

Read More

Shumlin signs drug bill into law

On June 17, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into a law a bill that allows for a defendant accused of a low-level drug crime to receive a third-party assessment that will allow them to seek treatment and avoid the judicial process entirely. S.295 is designed to provide an alternative to traditional responses to drug offenses, in keeping with Shumlin's call during this year's State of the State address to treat addiction as a public health problem, rather than a criminal...

Read More

Toward a sane, forward-looking budget process

Once again, our town has gone through its spring ritual of decrying the proposed “excessive” (unconscionable?) tax rate. There are far more constructive questions that need to be asked before initiating this handwringing drama. The primary question: Are our taxes productive? To be productive, taxes need to create a desired future while maintaining the present. There is plenty of evidence suggesting that our taxes fail on both counts. Our deteriorating infrastructure (roads, buildings, housing) certainly suggests that we are not...

Read More

Landmark College receives donation to creat business center

Landmark College will receive a $1 million gift from noted economist Paul McCulley, an executive with the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) and the father of 2014 Landmark College graduate Jonathan McCulley. The funding will create the new Morgan le Fay Center for Advances in Business and Entrepreneurship Instruction at Landmark College. It will support development and refinement of progressive pedagogy for students with learning difficulties (LD) in the fields of business, economics and entrepreneurship, as well as research, training...

Read More

Deadline for comments extended for ACCD grants

The Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) has extended the period of public comment for the Windham County Grant Program to Friday, June 20. The grant program is funded through an agreement made by the state and Entergy last year as part of Entergy's closing of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon. The company will give $10 million over five years to support economic development activities in Windham County. The Agency is finalizing the application process for the grant...

Read More

Marlboro College announces Nonprofit Management Summer Camp

Marlboro College's graduate and professional studies program announces its first annual Nonprofit Management Summer Camp: daylong retreat for nonprofit professionals in southern Vermont. Participants can choose two tool-based, interactive workshops on social media, leadership, time management, or Results-Based Accountability. The camp runs Aug. 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Marlboro College Graduate Center, 28 Vernon St. A $50 registration fee includes two workshops, lunch, and ample networking time with other nonprofit professionals. According to program manager Hillary Boone,

Read More

N.H. Cold Case Unit conducts search for Sinclairs near Vernon Dam

New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph A. Foster, New Hampshire State Police Colonel Robert Quinn, and New Hampshire Fish and Game Colonel Martin Garabedian announced Tuesday that there are ongoing diving operations in Hinsdale, near the Vernon, Vt., dam. Those operations are part of a missing persons' investigation into the 2001 disappearance of Bethany Sinclair and her mother, Tina Sinclair. The searches are scheduled to be conducted on land and in the area of the dam on June 17 and 18.

Read More