Appreciation to those who served Holton Home residents beautifully

Aug. 11, 2022 marked the end of 130 years of continuous, loving care at Holton Home to the elderly citizens of our area as the last resident moved from Holton to Bradley House.

As a newly arrived family doctor nearly 50 years ago, I remember visiting patients at Holton Home and noting that all the residents appeared happy, comfortable, and content.

During the last 50 years, when I have frequently visited Holton as both a physician and as the son of a resident, I have continued to see happy, content people, often approaching me with a kind word and a smile.

I know that the residents and their families have been very pleased with the care they have received at Holton.

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Siegel: on a mission to end homelessness in Vermont

For 28 nights, Brenda Siegel and Josh Lisenby slept outside on the State House steps. Lying in sleeping bags in frigid weather, eating food brought to them by volunteers, the two succeeded in their mission to change policy around the General Assistance Motel Program. Because of Brenda and Josh,

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Rage won’t help. Anger won’t help.

We must find benevolence, compassion, and fearlessness if we want to begin to address the changes we need to make so that others don’t lose their lives to drug use

Cara Lee Rodrigues of Wardsboro is being held without bail. She has pled not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder of Emmy Bascom of Guilford. By some accounts, the pair had known each other for only two weeks. There are no winners here. My heart is with the...

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Milestones

College news • Rebecca Lynn Williams of Jamaica recently received a B.A. in elementary education and a B.A. in biology from the University of Rhode Island. • Matthew Trieber of Bellows Falls and Ava Zizza of Wilmington each received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alabama during its summer commencement ceremonies on Aug. 6. Obituaries • David Lyman Castine, 65, of Dummerston. Died Aug. 23, 2022 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., after suffering from cardiac...

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Around the Towns

South Main Street paving begins this week BRATTLEBORO - All States Construction (a contractor of the town) will be milling and paving in the area along South Main Street. According to the Public Works Department, the work is expected to take approximately three weeks to complete. The streets being paved include South Main Street (from Canal Street to Old Guilford Road), Estabrook Street, Lawrence Street, Valgar Street, Cotton Mill Hill (between the Cotton Mill Complex and Route 142), and Old...

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Spike Dogtooth returns to Stage 33 Live

Spike Dogtooth returns to Stage 33 Live with Sam Duffy as the opening act on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. Spike Dogtooth plays acoustic music without restriction - bluegrass, Irish, cowgirl-swing, folk, acoustic rock, country blues. The band's core players and revolving crew of guest musicians have developed a loyal following over 30 years. A camp favorite at music festivals, they're best known for their legendary all-night jams, say organizers. This is a rare opportunity to hear them play...

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Activism in the uncharted waters of our new normal

As the daily evidence of scientific reports and graphic images of fires, floods, droughts, and people on the move vividly testify to, we are either in or rapidly approaching what scientists call “hothouse Earth,” a condition where climate feedbacks could lead to runaway heating. The series of increasingly catastrophic climate-related events that have occurred this summer clearly suggest we are rapidly approaching the point beyond which human mitigation efforts are not possible. As Bill McKibben wrote a few years ago,

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On Earth repair, suicide, and global warming

If humans are to have a future, we must stop the rape and pillage of our mother Earth and then move quickly to repair the damage. The first action needs to be to stop cutting down forests. We all know by now that “forests are the lungs of the planet.” But how many know that forests regulate the water cycle of the planet? Water passes through the body of trees, taken up by tree roots, moving up through trunk and...

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How did we get here in our national politics?

Hearing about the latest debacles in Washington, D.C., I am inspired to recount how we got here. We are at a point where we have a Supreme Court that doesn't understand the need for separation of church and state, confirmed by a Senate that seems to have completely lost its moral compass, nominated by someone who lost the popular vote, who only made it that far because a bunch of religious leaders were willing to make a deal with the...

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Literary Cocktail Hour features ‘Ancestor Trouble’ with Maud Newton and Rebecca Donner

The Brattleboro Literary Festival invites everyone to join them on Friday, Sept. 9, at 5 p.m., when their monthly online Literary Cocktail Hour presents writer and critic Maud Newton, who will discuss her debut book, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation. Newton's ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother's father, who came of age in Texas during the Great Depression, was said to have married 13 times and been shot by one of...

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Sonic Blanket enters its final phase of covering Brattleboro

The public art project Sonic Blanket will hang a banner above Main Street that reads, “You are beneath the cover of the Sonic Blanket,” for a week beginning Saturday, Sept. 11. This banner will be part of a series of public artworks and handmade signs that have been installed throughout the listening area of Brattleboro Community Radio, WVEW-FM 107.7. Sonic Blanket is a year-long community art project consisting of a sound collage by local artists Jonathan Gitelson, Weston Olencki, and...

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NECCA students to compete at circus festival in Italy

Two students at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) are in training for an international circus competition later this month. The Pas de Deux aerial straps duo of Ernesto Lea Place and Caitlin Quinn was invited to compete at the acclaimed Salieri Festival in Verona, Italy, which takes place Sept. 22–26. This world-renowned event is an international gathering of circus artists with the focus on acts performed to classical music. Lea Place and Quinn are accomplished leading ballet...

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Estey Organ Museum marks 20th anniversary

Estey Organ Museum, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, will hold its annual meeting on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 4 p.m. in the Engine House on 108 Birge Street (off Canal Street). Following a brief business meeting, in which attendees will hear about accomplishments of the past year and future plans, there will be a short visit to the museum's collection storage area. This former factory space, which is not usually open to the public, houses dozens of Estey reed...

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Bandwagon Summer Series continues with Ugandan musician and educator Chinobay

The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents a performance of pan-African roots music with Ugandan musician, educator, and creative arts producer Chinobay on Sunday, Sept. 11, at 4 p.m. at Cooper Field, 41 Sand Hill Road in Putney. “The music of Uganda is robust and unique, and Chinobay serves as the region's finest example of educator and musician,” Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release. “We look for artists from around the world to...

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Students invited to enter Young Writers Awards

Bennington College is accepting submissions from high school students around the world for its 2022–2023 Young Writers Awards. This annual competition, which accepts entries in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, is free to enter and open to all high school students in grades 9 through 12. A first-, second-, and third-place winner will be selected in each of the categories, with cash prizes up to $1,000 awarded. Young Writers Award finalists and winners are also eligible for undergraduate scholarships at Bennington.

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New COVID-19 booster vaccine now available in Vermont

State health officials say that Vermonters will be able to receive the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine booster shots starting Wednesday, Sept. 7. The updated boosters are designed to be a match for the BA.5 Omicron variant currently affecting most people. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended use of the new vaccine booster doses. That action came after authorization for use by the Food and Drug Administration and a unanimous recommendation by the CDC's Advisory Committee on...

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A museum’s milestone

The Commons recently spoke with Danny Lichtenfeld, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center's executive director since 2007, about the history of the museum and its programming, vision, and 50th anniversary celebration. We also caught up with BMAC's Curator Emerita Mara Williams, who served as the museum's director from 1989 to 2004 and as chief curator from that point until her retirement last year, to get her thoughts on these topics, as well as Lichtenfeld's 15 years at the helm. Following...

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Reality, with the volume turned up

Meeting author GennaRose Nethercott - albeit on Zoom - I felt as if she were taking my hand, inviting me to a cozy place, walking me into her story. The interplay between reality and somewhere else is evident in her choice of words, the environments of her website, her book tour presentations, her essential character. I was struck not only by her confidence and accomplishments, but by a sense of whimsy and wisdom, by a depth of stories to be...

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A day at the fair

On the Sunday before Labor Day, Guilford Town Clerk Penny Marine traded her desk at the town offices for blue jeans and a raspberry-colored “Staff” T-shirt. “It's been a great day today, been nonstop folks coming through,” said Marine, sporting a great big grin while selling tickets to the two-day Guilford Fair for her 13th year in a row. At the entrance, where hundreds of cars parked where hay once grew, crowds of people, old and young made their way...

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Investment home purchases soared in Vt. in 2022

The percentage of Vermont homes bought by investors more than doubled in 2021, according to data from a company that analyzes property information. “We saw mortgage rates hit historical lows,” said Selma Hepp, deputy chief economist at California-based CoreLogic. “As a result of that, we saw much more activity from investors.” Hepp said investors were also attracted by the fact that rents soared by 12 percent nationwide in 2021. She pointed out that while Vermont had the most dramatic increase...

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Nonprofit for people with disabilities pivots to worldwide access

The Inclusion Center has undergone a post-pandemic reorganization to online presentations with new programming, and the nonprofit has seen some interesting results. The empowerment network for adults with disabilities or health conditions formerly met in person at St. Michael's Episcopal Church twice a week, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, things changed. Many participants learned how to use the website Meetup, says Julie Tamler, a group member and sometime facilitator, while others weren't comfortable meeting online. In the past, the group...

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A different sort of fascism

Elayne Clift compares current culture in the United States with that of Germany during the Nazi takeover, specifically related to a woman's reproductive rights and the right to think independently and to read freely without censorship. I would like add to Clift's thoughts the fact that we Americans - supposedly living in the home of the free and brave - have slipped backwards since Sept. 11, 2001 into the home of the fettered and fearful. Fettered by masks and regulations.

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‘When the conversations got very tough, I didn’t run from them’

The stage is now set for a dramatic six-way race for two open seats in the Vermont Senate for Windham County! For voters in our state's general election, this will feel like a far-too-rare and luxurious position to be in. Not only have we not seen two vacant seats in our Senate for very many years, but the knowledge that who sits in those positions will shape policy for years to come makes for an exciting moment when you hold...

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As it turns 50, BMAC finds its future still on the drawing board

When culturally minded residents decided to turn this town's old railroad station into the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) in 1972, they obtained a lease for $1 a year and, rather than wait for the ink to dry, opened with a few paintings from such local artists as the acclaimed Wolf Kahn. Everything else, they told the press, was still on the drawing board. “The plans we have,” one organizer was quoted, “are only a beginning.” Much has changed...

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Wessel: Will independent candidate caucus with a party?

Vermont Senate candidate for Windham County Tim Wessel avoided primary-election campaigning and spending by running in the general election as “independent.” If elected, will he caucus in Montpelier with Democrats? Progressives? Republicans? Let's ask him. We Windham County voters have the right to know with which party Tim Wessel will caucus before we vote for him.

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Why can’t Brattleboro police station move back downtown, where it is needed?

In case anyone has not noticed, the entire lower floor of the Brattleboro Transportation Center is empty. The police have been having a really hard time getting downtown at night - witness all the break-ins and door smashes. Many of us who spend time downtown - merchants, people who like to socialize in the community, people with housing insecurity, shoppers, and eaters - have all noticed this lack of police presence. Some of us had been very unhappy about, and...

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Bellows Falls health complex eyes major upgrades

Four years after starting her job as Greater Rockingham Area Services (GRAS) administrator, Marty Gallagher is closing in on the estimated $1,870,850 needed to upgrade energy systems at the former Rockingham Memorial Hospital at 1 Hospital Court. Gallagher says at the start, her work for the nonprofit to secure the needed money through researching and writing grant applications and researching low-interest loans felt like a “baptism by fire.” But recently she has seen her largest success to date: an $817,908.36...

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Terriers hang on to beat Colonels, 56-40

Twenty-first century high school football arrived at Hadley Field on Sept. 2, as the Bellows Falls Terriers hung on for a 56-40 win over the Brattleboro Colonels in a wild start to the 2022 season. How wild? Brattleboro quarterback Devin Speno threw for 494 yards and six touchdowns. Wide receiver Tristan Evans caught four touchdown passes and finished with 10 catches and 220 receiving yards. Running back Cam Frost had two TD grabs, including a 95-yard score on the first...

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Puppetry festival explores ‘Roots and Wings’

Sandglass Theater will present its 11th Puppets in the Green Mountains (PGM) festival - an every-other-year international 10-day puppet festival with shows for kids, adults, and families, as well as workshops and forums about arts, culture, and social causes - from Sept. 9 to 18 at various venues in Brattleboro and Putney. Over the last 25 years, the festival has grown substantially. This year's festival will feature performances by local as well as international artists from various countries, including Germany,

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An uphill battle against toxic mold

While it looks like something out of a fairy tale, beneath its charming exterior Linda and Don Marcille's Old Ledge Road home contains a mold problem - a problem that they believe has rendered it a toxic trap. “It's a bad situation,” says Linda, a fine arts painter. “We shouldn't be living in the house.” Brain fog, stress, trauma, and grief are the hallmarks that mold is leaving on the Marcilles, who have just about exhausted all the avenues they...

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Museum marks half a century with celebrations

An anchor of southern Vermont's cultural life, Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, which presents rotating exhibits of contemporary art, complemented by lectures, artist talks, film screenings, and other public programs, will celebrate its golden anniversary with a Gala and Birthday Bash next weekend. The Gala, on Friday, Sept. 9 from 6 to 10 p.m., celebrates BMAC's 50 years with sparklers, live music by Jazzberry Jam, and an afterparty with DJ Keith Marks of Putney. The black-tie-optional event will feature cocktails,

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Mold 101

Many types of molds exist, and all of them have the potential to affect your health. Molds can trigger allergic reactions or asthma attacks, or they can produce potent toxins and/or irritants. You'll commonly find mold in buildings and homes, where it will grow in places with a lot of moisture, such as around leaks in roofs, windows, or pipes, or where there has been flooding. Mold grows on paper products, cardboard, ceiling tiles, and wood products. You can find...

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