Brattleboro man blocked from civil rights panel Bellows Falls

Transcription

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Brattleboro, Vermont
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 • Vol. V, No. 32 • Issue #79
W ind h am C ounty ’ s A W A R D - W I N N I N G , I ndependent S ource for N ews and V iews
News
Brattleboro man
blocked from
civil rights panel
bRATTLEbORO
New traffic
lights put
into operation
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
ousts Reed from state committee after
Reformer commentary hits blogosphere
page 2
Drop In
Center is
honored
By Jeff Potter
The Commons
page 3
VERNON
New rules
for Texas
landfill may
affect VY
page 9
Voices
ESSAY
a teen writer
looks at
alzheimer’s
page 6
VIEWPOINT
a tale of two
funds, or
where the
money goes
page 7
Life and
Work
ThE bEEKEEPER
Lessons
from a
grandfather’s
backyard
page 12
The Arts
OPUS 21
Randolph T. Holhut/The Commons
Every tagged tree has a little thank you note attached to it.
season
Mountain greenery
for the
Christmas tree farm
looks toward its future
By Randolph T. Holhut
The Commons
DUMMERSTON—The
mark of a good business is how
many repeat customers it has.
There are so many of them
at Elysian Hills Tree Farm that
they keep an honor roll of the
customers that have bought
Christmas trees for more than
10 straight seasons. The “tree
stars,” as they are called —
some of whom have bought
trees for 30 straight years — get
a free wreath to honor each 10year milestone.
That’s the kind of loyalty
shown to Bill and Mary Lou
Schmidt, who have run their
farm on Knapp Road for 32
years and sell approximately
1,100 trees each holiday season. Patrons from all over
New England, New York, and
New Jersey make the trip to
Dummerston.
They have plenty of local
customers, too, and if you see a
large Christmas tree on display
in Windham County, chances
are it came from Elysian Hills.
The Brattleboro town tree
in Pliny Park came from the
Steven Meggiolaro of Dummerston hauls away his Schmidts’ farm, and several
family’s Christmas tree as his son Travis stands area businesses also get their
ready with the rope that will tie it to their car.
n see tree farm, page 4
Works by
student
composers
get premiere
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www.commonsnews.org
Breaks renegotiations for
lease in Waypoint Center
By Allison Teague
The Commons
BELLOWS FALLS—The
recent decision of the Great
Falls Regional Chamber of
Commerce to vacate its home
in the Waypoint Center on the
Island and move to new digs
came as a shock to many on the
Waypoint Center Board, including Selectboard Chair Tom
MacPhee and Chamber president Deborah Murphy.
The lease is a four-party
agreement between the town
of Rockingham, the village
of Bellows Falls, the Bellows
Falls Downtown Development
Association (BFDDA), and the
COC. According to MacPhee
and Murphy, negotiations were
in play at the time of the meeting
discussing a better lease agreement that are more in line with
the Chamber’s mission of promoting businesses in downtown.
However, during a regular
November meeting that Murphy
was not able to attend, Chamber
Executive Director Roger Riccio
was given permission by the
board to pursue other options.
Many of those present at the
meeting felt the lease agreement
with the town of Rockingham no
longer served the organization’s
purposes.
Chamber secretary Michael
Smith confirmed that Riccio
had signed a lease for the space
formerly occupied by the former
Hula Cat secondhand shop in
the Staircase building just off the
Square. Smith said the move will
n see WAYPOINT, page 4
Brattleboro
Selectboard:
more budget cuts
The Commons
Keri Latiolais shows of a tree to the Glejzer family of Putney.
n see vERMONT sac, page 5
Bellows Falls
chamber makes
surprise move
By Olga Peters
page 10
BRATTLEBORO—A civil
rights advocate has been ousted
from the state advisory panel of
the bipartisan U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights (USCCR) after a
conservative majority objected to
his commentary about the racial
undertones of a political slogan
in the November election.
The future of the USCCR’s
Vermont State Advisory
Committee (SAC) remains in
political limbo after the commission voted Friday to renew
the subcommittee’s charter, but
without its chairman, Curtiss
Reed Jr.
Reed, of Brattleboro, who had
chaired the 17-member SAC
since it resumed its operations
in 2008, charged that the decision demonstrates the right-wing
politicization of former President
George W. Bush’s administration’s political appointments to
the civil rights agency.
The unprecedented move,
made hours before two of
the commissioners’ terms expired, leaves the SAC without
a chairman.
“I am really disappointed,”
said Reed, the executive director
of the Vermont Partnership for
Fairness and Diversity.
“I speak for all the members
of the SAC,” Reed said. He described them collectively as a
“well-rounded, workable group
to focus on Vermont issues”
and said the SAC “works well
together to address issues in a
BRATTLEBORO—The
Selectboard has asked town department heads to review their
proposed budgets once again and
find more ways to cut the town’s
fiscal year 2012 budget.
The draft budget discussed at
Monday’s special meeting shows
a 4.6 percent increase over last
year’s level-funded budget.
Selectboard Chair Dick
DeGray said he preferred to
see only a 3 percent increase for
FY 2012.
During the meeting, Town
Manager Barbara Sondag and
department heads suggested
saving money by cutting funds
for road paving and a trackless
tractor used to clear snow from
sidewalks. If made, these cuts
would only reduce the budget
by 1-2 percent.
DeGray urged them to find
more places to cut expenses.
Selectboard members Martha
O’Connor and Daryl Pillsbury
said they felt comfortable with a
4.6 percent increase for FY 2012.
DeGray and Selectboard
members Dora Bouboulis and
Jesse Corum wanted expenses
lowered.
“I cannot see reducing what
we’ve got,” said O’Connor.
O’Connor said she felt comfortable with the increase because cutting the budget meant
cutting services.
“Every dollar has an advocate,” said DeGray.
“Every dollar represents a service and any [dollar] change represents a change in services,” said
Sondag in an earlier interview.
According to Sondag, the
n see MORE CUTS, page 8
PA I D A D V E R T I S I N G • T O P L A C E YO U R A D , C A L L ( 8 0 2 ) 2 4 6 - 6 3 9 7 O R V I S I T W W W . C O M M O N S N E W S . O R G
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T h e C ommons
BR AT TLEBORO
New traffic lights for Main Street
Computerized system means changes for pedestrians, motorists
By Randolph T. Holhut
The Commons
BRATTLEBORO—They’re
sleek, they’re computerized, and
they’re about to change the way
we maneuver around downtown
Brattleboro.
A new traffic control system
went into full operation this
week, and from the black mast
arms arching over Main Street
to the higher pitched chirping
sound coming from the pedestrian crossing signal, it’s truly a
new look and sound for motorists
and others to get used to.
New lights, and the electronic
control boxes running them,
have been installed at the High
and Elliot street intersections,
as well as the infamous Route
5/142/119 intersection at the
foot of Main Street known as
“Malfunction Junction.”
“It’s definitely a lot more advanced than what was here before,” said Chris Barker, project
engineer for the Vermont Agency
of Transportation. “This ought
to keep traffic moving smoothly.”
Bill McElroy of Moulison
North Corp., the subcontractor
installing the traffic signals, said
the three control boxes on Main
Street have the ability to communicate with each other and adjust
the signals at each intersection
based on traffic conditions as
viewed from cameras atop the
mast arms.
This means the traffic light
cycles will change, he said. The
flashing yellow lights seen downtown during the overnight hours
will be a thing of the past, and
likewise for waiting at an empty
intersection and waiting for the
Bill McElroy of Moulison North Corp. stands in
front of the computerized traffic control box at the
intersection of Main and High streets.
lights to change.
If there is no traffic on the
side streets, the lights on Main
Street stay green. If a car arrives
at an intersection, the lights will
change.
The biggest change for pedestrians is that they will have
to initiate the crossing signals by
pushing a yellow button on the
signal poles. With the end of preset light signal patterns, if you
don’t push the button, “you’ll be
standing there all day waiting for
the light,” McElroy said.
Also, the pedestrian light has a
countdown clock, so people will
know how many seconds they
have to safely cross the street.
Blasting begins at new co-op site
BRATTLEBORO — As part
of the excavation for construction of the new Brattleboro Food
Co-op building, the contractor
will need to remove ledge rock
by means of drilling and blasting.
Blasting is scheduled to begin on
Wednesday Dec. 8.
At this time, the drilling and
blasting operation is projected to
take between 30 and 40 working
days. There will be multiple blast
operations each day. During the
blasting operation, the following
standard safety procedures will
be implemented:
• Installation of signage along
Main/Canal Streets and the
Co-op driveway alerting passers-by to the fact that blasting is
taking place and describing what
to look and listen for;
• Traffic control will be in
place to stop traffic movement
in the vicinity of the blast area
during detonations;
• An alarm whistle will sound
at intervals leading up to each
detonation;
• The blaster will employ
heavy rubber blast blankets to
cover all blast areas;
• And the blaster will employ seismographs at blast area
periphery to monitor ground
vibration.
All appropriate town departments have been informed
of the commencement of this
operation.
As for the Malfunction
Junction signals, McElroy said
they have been tested and no
problems were found.
“Like anything, it will take a
few weeks to get used it,” said
Selectboard Chair Dick DeGray
of the new lights at Malfunction
Junction. “We all sometimes
have a lack of patience when we
get in a car, but I’m optimistic
that all this will work.”
With the new traffic lights,
the first phase of the Main
Street project comes to an end.
According to Lane Construction
Corp., the primary contractor for
the project, the remainder of the
downtown sidewalk repair and
replacement work will be finished in the spring.
Installation of permanent
pavement markings, pouring
new sidewalk panels from below Mocha Joe’s to the intersection of Elliot Street, the removal
of temporary pavement and the
pouring of new sidewalk at the
High Street intersection, and
some pavement work in front of
Adagio Restaurant are all set to
be completed then.
Barker said he was pleased
at how well things went with
the Main Street project. “I’ve
worked in a lot of towns around
the state, and Brattleboro has
been one of the better ones,”
he said. “The people here have
been great.”
• Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Selectboard supports hiring
assistant town manager
By Olga Peters
The Commons
BRATTLEBORO—The
Brattleboro Selectboard
showed support for the hiring of an assistant town manager for the first time in public
during a special meeting this
week.
Selectboard Chair Dick
DeGray said the board had
discussed the issue in executive sessions dealing with personnel matters, but Monday’s
meeting marked the first public discussion.
“The major concern here
is burnout,” said DeGray. “If
[we don’t hire an assistant],
we’ll burn out one of the better town managers this town
has had in many a year.”
Selectboard members Jesse
Corum and Martha O’Connor
joined DeGray in voicing support for funding the position,
which the town has included
in its organizational plans but
has not funded since the current town manager, Barbara
Sondag, left the assistant town
manager position in 2007.
According to Sondag, the
town has budgeted a tentative $60,000 for the position.
Corum said last year he did
not support hiring an assistant
town manager but said this
week he changed his mind.
In his opinion, losing a town
manager from burnout would
cost the town in institutional
memory and direction.
O’Connor said the town
manager job has changed in
the past few years with the
state heaping on more responsibilities and the town’s
increased project load.
Selectboard members Dora
Bouboulis and Daryl Pillsbury
felt the town should not fund
a new position when it has to
consider cutting the budget in
other areas and possibly raise
taxes in general.
Pillsbury previously supported hiring an assistant, but
said he could no longer justify
the expense.
Sondag, the last person to
hold the assistant town manager post, took over as an interim town manager after the
departure of Jerry Remillard
in 2007.
At the time, the Selectboard
voted to sever Remillard’s
contract following several revelations of sloppy bookkeeping and mismanagement of
finances by town departments.
Sondag eventually was hired
as the full-time manager later
that year and given the job in
earnest in April 2008.
CORRECTIONS
In the Nov. 24 story, “Town
announces schedule for 250th
anniversary celebration,” the incorrect location of the Guilford
Historical Society’s museum
was given. It is located in the
old Town Hall, across from
the Meetinghouse, in Guilford
Center.
In the Nov. 24 story, “Digitizing
history,” the effort to digitize the
photos of Porter Thayer is being funded with a $5,000 from
the Windham Foundation. A
grant application is pending
with the Vermont Community
Foundation. No application
was made to the Vermont
Humanities Council.
Also, Brooks Memorial
Library in Brattleboro does
not house the Brattleboro or
Benjamin Crown photo collections, only the microfilm copies.
Also, George Lindsay was
a staff employee at Brooks
Memorial Library. He never
served as library director.
plan,” that appeared in the Nov.
17 edition, The Commons incorrectly reported the size of
the proposed addition for the
hospital in Townshend. Grace
Cottage Hospital is planning a
20,000-square-foot addition.
The wrong caption described
the photo of Academy School
Librarian Eileen Parks and parent Eric Pero — the Academy
School newspaper advisors —
in the story “Read all about it!”
[The Commons, Nov. 17].
The Commons wants to create the most thoughtful, accurate newspaper possible, but
mistakes occasionally happen. If
you notice one, please e-mail us
at [email protected] or call
the newsroom at (802) 246-6397.
In the story, “Grace Cottage
Hospital explores expansion
a great place to shop for the holidays
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T h e C ommons
NEWS • Wednesday, December 8, 2010 3
AROUND
THE TOWNS
Drop In Center honored
in Washington for excellence
By Allison Teague
The Commons
BRATTLEBORO—For the
past 22 years, Melinda Bussino
has been following her dream of
helping others.
As executive director of
the Brattleboro Area Drop In
Center, she has been one of the
instrumental forces behind getting shelter, food, and clothing
to the homeless of southeastern
Vermont.
This week, this sixth-generation Vermonter travels to
Washington, D.C., to receive an
award from federal Department
of Health and Human Services’
Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) division.
Bussino and the Drop In
Center are being recognized with
an Exemplary Practice Award for
its work in data collection and
reporting for their Projects for
Assistance in Transition from
Homelessness (PATH) services.
In 2002, the Drop In Center
was one of the first service providers in the nation to implement
PATH data collection in Housing
and Urban Development’s
(HUD) Homeless Management
Information System (HMIS),
which helps state and national
agencies get a real time picture
of who is receiving assistance.
This data collection and reporting system was beta tested
by Bussino, and is specifically
designed to track homeless clients, help measure the progress
of clients, and collect information that can find help find inefficiencies and unmet needs. The
result is better data reporting to
local and state agencies.
The system helps define the
characteristics of clients seeking help through the Brattleboro
Drop In Center. Bussino said her
two data entry assistants — Ed
Johnson, a client advocate and
main data entry person, and assistant director William Davison
— have both been doing data entry and helped work the bugs out
almost from the start.
Making it work
The three of them sit in a
crowded office space where no
discernible order is apparent.
Yet in under five minutes, with
staff and volunteers constantly
in and out finishing up tasks for
the day and checking in as they
leave, it is clear a well-greased
collaboration is what keeps the
Drop In Center functioning.
Johnson and Davison sit before laptops on desks crowded
with paperwork to be entered
into the system. Johnson, 24, is
the more gregarious of the two.
He was a Drop In Center client
at one time, as was Davison, a
somewhat older gentleman.
The two are considered professionals in their field now,
Bussino says. Both are success
stories of what can happen by
giving someone the chance to
prove themselves, and a can-do
attitude that things will work out.
Bussino said they are faced
every day with people who have
given up hope, and it is their job
to help bring it back.
“Sometimes hope is all they
have,” she said.
Eventually, part-time jobs
opened up at the center and the
natural strengths of Johnson and
Davison became clear. Bussino
could see that Johnson was good
at working with computers,even
with his cerebral palsy that has
left him with the use of only his
right hand.
“He is faster on the computer
than I am,” she said.
At the same time, Bussino said
Johnson “has a natural rapport
with people, so when we added
the client advocate position, it
was a good fit for him.”
Bussino said Johnson was an
at-risk youth who first came to
the Drop In Center at age 15,
“and he just stayed on with us.
He found a home with us.”
And Bussino says that is probably the most important part of
what they offer. Many people
who come to the Drop In Center
are just looking for camaraderie and interaction with people
who will not look down on or
through them, and will look them
in the eye.
“The homeless people in our
world are invisible,” she said.
“Most want to be invisible [because of shame and guilt], and
it can become a way of being.”
Bussino describes several clients who have been on the streets
so long that even getting in the
door of the Drop In Center is
difficult and too overwhelming
for them.
“We get people who are not
eligible at Morningside because
they aren’t clean and sober,
or have mental health issues,
or can’t be around children,”
Bussino said.
They are both the hardest to
help and the people who need
help the most, she notes, adding
that “when people come here,
they are treated respectfully. No
one is turned away.”
Davison was homeless for
six years, he said. The hard life
is etched on his finely featured
face, but it is obvious he has
great pride in his work at the
Drop In Center. His enthusiasm
is engaging.
“People will talk to him,”
Bussino said. “His specialty is
getting help for at-risk youth.”
Johnson piped up, adding,
“Kids will open up to him. I
don’t know what it is about him,
but they trust him.”
“They have become recognized by others working in the
field of homelessness as professionals,” Bussino said of Johnson
and Davison.
Johnson has been there nine
years, and Davison five. Neither
has any inclination elsewhere.
Bussino said they are serving
more clientele than they have
services for. Out of 400 homeless
people last year, they were able to
house 143. Last year, they gave
at least one service (food, clothing, overnight shelter, or housing assistance) to 7,700 people.
On Thanksgiving Day this year,
they gave out 840 food baskets.
Bussino said this year will be
even harder for people as heating
and food costs are higher than
ever, and cuts are being made
in fuel assistance.
“People are buying less food
with their food stamps, because
food costs more,” Johnson said.
“And those who aren’t on food
stamps have a choice between
heating their homes and eating.”
Bussino said their food shelf
is always understocked for the
need. “We always need peanut
butter, tuna fish and pasta,”
naming the highest nutritionally efficient foods kids will eat.
“The donors in the community,
private and business, can’t give
as much this year because of the
economy. We aren’t getting the
same amount of donations.”
But, Bussino said, “We’ve
intervened [usually that means
finding housing for people facing imminent eviction or foreclosures] in 153 households in
the last 14 months,” Johnson
said. “We found them housing,”
Bussino explains.
BALSAM
WREATHS
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New support group for
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Allison Teague/The Commons
Melissa Bussino, executive director of the Brattleboro
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802-365-4168
Free wellness clinic
offered in Putney
to get from one day to the next.
The Brattleboro Drop In
“I make sure everyone is paid
PUTNEY — Putney
Center is a humble place. People before I am,” Bussino said.
Integrative Healing Arts (PIHA)
who walk in will find welcome,
She said this summer, she
is hosting a free wellness clinic
warmth, food, a shower and went unpaid for five weeks. “I
on Saturday, Dec. 11, from 1-5
place to do laundry, free clothes, was paid eventually,” she said.
p.m. It will take place on the sectoys and books, and conversation “But these people need their payond floor of the Putney Tavern,
if that is what they need.
checks more than I do.”
133 Main St.
Bussino said sometimes “it’s
Bussino described another
PIHA is a group of holistic
just the opportunity to use the time when they didn’t know how
health care practitioners and inkitchen to cook a meal to share they were going to stay open, let
structors who have been meeting
together. One person will use alone meet payroll. That day, she
together on a monthly basis for
their food stamps to buy some picked up the mail and found a
several years as peer support and
eggs, another bacon, another check for $6,000. “It covered
for community outreach.
juice or coffee. And they’ll cook just what we needed,” and was
The practitioners for this event
and eat a meal together.”
the last money out of the treasury Our Place food
are: Jane Collister (polarity therThat simple act of sharing of an entity that had shut down
apy, energy balancing, massage);
drive nets 176 bags
what little they have and do- that year.
Rupa Cousins (The Alexander
55 Depot
St. Brattleboro,
VT
ing something nice for and with
“They gave us what was left of groceries
Technique,
a mind-body
tenSince
55
Depot
St.
Brattleboro,
VT
(802)
254-5755
one another makes them all feel over in their account. How good
sion reliever); Jill Keil (com1946
good. Bussino understands, as is that?”
BELLOWS FALLS — Our
munity
acupuncture,
to
reduce
Si
nc
e
(802)
Cut254-5755
your
this year…
do her staff and volunteers, that
In addition to receiving the Place 55
Drop-in
Center
a stress,
anxiety,
and costs
trauma);
1946
Depot
St. filled
Brattleboro,
VTenergy
it is these simple acts that keep award from55
SAMHSA,
Bussino
with the 176 bagsVT
of gro- Kelli
(neuromuscular
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Brattleboro,
Since
byMoran
installing
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program.
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in Walpole,
as
part
of
manic
healing);
and
Miriam
Wolf
your N.H.,
energy
this
year…
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nc
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(802) 254-5755
1946
“I am surprised every day by
The Drop In Center was one the Project Feed the Thousands (bodywork,
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Merrill
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by
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Family Medicine
CHRISTMAS TREES
BRATTLEBORO —
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital
announces a new support group
specifically for women who are
experiencing or have experienced
a diagnosis of cancer.
The Women’s Network of
Strength will have a ‘lunch and
learn’ session every month on the
third Wednesday, from noon to
1 p.m. The next meeting will be
Dec. 15. These meetings will be
held in the Women’s Resource
Room on the second floor of
the Richards Building at BMH.
You are invited to bring your
lunch to this educational program where you can find support
for your diagnosis of cancer. For
more information, contact Kelly
McCue, RN, at 802-251-8437,
or [email protected] to receive
a listing for upcoming programs.
McCue is the navigator for
the BMH Comprehensive Breast
Care Program, which offers diagnostic treatment and support services to patients who
have questions regarding their
breast health. The Breast Care
Program was developed in part
with funds from the Susan G.
Komen Foundation. It is designed to help women with
breast concerns navigate the
health care system. It may also
be helpful to patients who have
other questions regarding their
breast health.
The program will support
physical, emotional, and spiritual
recovery on an individualized,
multi-discipline basis. The medical director of the comprehensive
program is BMH general surgeon Joseph Rosen, MD, whose
specialty is diseases of the breast.
$137.68 in cash was
contributed.
“We count on this early winter
Project Feed the Thousands food
drive to help folks get through
the holidays,” said Our Place
executive director Lisa Pitcher.
“It’s gratifying that people are
willing to think of others as they
go about the hustle and bustle of
the season.”
In addition to non-perishables,
about a half dozen frozen turkeys
were donated.
Project Feed the Thousands
continues through Dec. 31 as an
effort to meet the food needs of
the one in five Windham County
residents who is struggling to put
food on the table. Contributions
can be made by visiting the web
site at www.feedthethousands.org or
by sending them to Our Place
at P.O. Box 852, Bellows Falls,
VT 05101.
Our Place is a daytime shelter
and food shelf located at 4 Island
St. whose mission is to connect
people to food and each other.
It serves families in Rockingham
and the surrounding area and
in Walpole and North Walpole,
N.H.
Dr. Janine
Foote graduated
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NEWS 4
BELLOWS FALLS
A federal case?
Tangled up in all this is use
of the remaining $1.3 million
dollars of a Federal Transit
Authority bus and bus facilities
grant.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s
office recently gave an extension of the grant to the town of
Rockingham, and the final proposal for using is still being negotiated with the FTA.
The FTA and Leahy’s office
confirmed that the Waypoint
Center is being considered as an
intermodal center and recipient
from page 1
of $1.3 million for renovations,
upgrades and accessories related
to bus transit and bus facilities.
BFDDA president Gary Fox
said that Greyhound has a daily
stop at the Bellows Falls train station. Green Mountain Railroad
owns the station, the current
home to the intermodal center.
Amtrak also uses the station
for the Vermonter, the daily passenger train between St. Albans
and Washington, D.C.
“We need to be open and the
space needs to be maintained,”
Fox said. He said he understands
the Chamber’s concern with
meeting those daily requirements
all year long.
According to Murphy, meeting those proposed maintenance,
upkeep and hours of operation
requirements at the Waypoint
Center compatible with an intermodal center were troublesome
to the Chamber, whose purpose
of promoting downtown businesses is not directly related to
keeping a visitors’ center open,
cleaned and staffed. She said
those points were in discussion
via the Waypoint committee, and
lease changes.
At this point, with the de facto
chamber move, Fox said he
wants to be certain he has fulfilled his contractual obligations
with Green Mountain Railroad.
Once that is achieved, using the
Waypoint as the intermodal hub
would make sense, he said.
Murphy — who also serves
as the passenger rail manager
for the Vermont Rail System,
the owner of the train station —
also agreed it was a good idea to
“consolidate things into an intermodal center and a welcome
center.”
Acknowledging she did not
really want to lose tenants in the
train station, she said any decision about Amtrak moving its
stop to the Waypoint Center
will “ultimately rest with them.”
“It’s a nice package,” Murphy
said of the Waypoint Center. “It
needs to be marketed, though. If
this is going to happen, we need
to sit down and plan how to market it,” Murphy said. “It could
make a great conference area.
It’s great for events now.”
FTA representatives stated
they were awaiting a more defined proposal from Walsh as to
how the $1.3 million would be
used at the Waypoint Center,
and that eligibility for using the
funds rested on it being a bus
transportation facility-related
proposal.
According to the FTA, the
concept is to create a waiting and
ticketing area for bus patrons,
and the agency would like a better understanding of the purpose
of proposed improvements and
see how they related to bus riders, whether local or Greyhound.
The grant funds are required
to be used for bus transportation, but the FTA noted that
services beyond bus-related activities would be OK at the intermodal center. For instance, the
FTA said it would not consider
a coffee shop or any other type
of shop alien to the purpose of
the center.
The FTA hopes to have everything finalized on how the money
was going to be utilized “by the
end of the calendar year.”
As yet, a time has not been established for a meeting with the
FTA to discuss the final proposal
for the town of Rockingham’s
grant funding. The agency hopes
to wrap it up “by January.”
AROUND THE TOWNS
Toys for Kids program
seeks donations
BRATTLEBORO —
Distribution has begun for the
Marine Corps League Toys for
Kids campaign in the Brattleboro
area.
The Brattleboro detachment,
its auxiliary unit, and volunteers have scheduled 15-minute
“shopping” sessions for parents
or guardians of nearly 500 area
children on the lower level of the
American Legion post off Linden
Street. The sessions are being
held weekdays from 4-8 p.m. for
those who registered by phone in
November.
“Shoppers” are guided by
age-categorized tables of toys,
with potential gifts for infants to
age 12. The volunteers will be at
the site through Dec. 20.In addition, toys are provided for needy
children through the Drop-In
Center and area Legion posts,
with the final tally expected to
reach over 700 children during
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occur “hopefully by February.”
Murphy said that while she
was not aware of the intent
to move before the meeting,
her understanding of the new
lease in the Square was that “it
would be more expensive for the
Chamber.” She noted renovations, utilities, rent and maintenance were either expenses they
did not currently have, or were
higher at the new location.
The Chamber’s monthly
rental fee of $300 at the
Waypoint Center was waived by
the Selectboard for the first two
years it was in that space. The
Chamber was supposed to start
paying rent again in July 2010,
but MacPhee said they have not
“seen a nickel of it.”
Interim Town Manager
Francis “Dutch” Walsh said he
expected to have more discussions with the Chamber with
regard to its notice to vacate the
Waypoint, and noted that he was
not second-guessing their intent
or decisions.
Smith noted Riccio had told
him before leaving on vacation
that a registered letter had been
sent to the town notifying officials of the changes, on Nov. 29.
T h e C ommons
the Christmas season.
Donation of new, unwrapped
toys begins traditionally with
a jamboree in late October at
the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Specially designed barrels
then begin appearing in late
November at convenient locations throughout the Brattleboro
area.
The list of Toys for Kids
collection barrels includes
the following: Fireside True
Value, Brattleboro Memorial
Hospital, Auto Mall, Ford of
Brattleboro, River Valley Credit
Union, Brattleboro Savings
& Loan, Emerson’s, Perkins
Home Center, Whitman’s Hair
Stylist, Viking Tattoo, Landmark
College, American Legion,
VFW, the Eagles, Creative
Moods, Garofalo TV, Wireless
Zone, Members First Credit
Union, Agway, Brattleboro
Subaru, and Zico’s Barber Shop.
Monetary donations are also
accepted.The Toys for Kids
campaign is in conjunction with
the Marine Corps League and
Marine Corps Reserve Toys for
Tots program, but in Vermont,
all donations are disbursed
locally.
For further details, contact
Detachment 798 Commandant
and program chairman Richard
Hodgdon at 802-257-7549 or
Richard_Hodgdon@comcast.
net.
n Tree farm
trees, garlands and wreaths
from them.
According to the Vermont
Agency of Agriculture,
Christmas tree farming is a $20
million business in Vermont,
and there are 300 tree farms in
the state.
But the Schmidts do things a
little differently.
First of all, their customers
don’t cut down the trees. Many
of the trees the Schmidts sell are
selected in October, when they
hold their annual Christmas Tree
Tag Days. Customers select the
trees they want in the fall and set
a time between the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Christmas
Eve to retrieve their choices.
“We had 125 trees picked
up the first week after
Thanksgiving,” said Bill.
For the procrastinators, the
Schmidts do offer a select number of pre-cut trees that range
from “wee trees” that are 2 feet
tall to 16-foot monsters. The
price depends on the size and
the species: Balsam fir, Canaan
fir, white spruce, white pine, and
blue spruce.
And, if necessary, they will
custom cut a tree to order.
Richard Glejzer said his family just moved to Putney from
Chicago, “and we really wanted
to have a fresh tree.”
The freshly cut eight-footers in
the racks near the road were nice,
he said, but his family wanted
something bigger.
So they went down the hill
and picked out a 10-foot white
spruce, which Bill cut down and
hauled up the hill for them.
“Our neighbors said this was
the place to go,” said Glejzer.
Bob and Sue Francoeur of
East Longmeadow, Mass., were
also going big. They were bringing back a 13-footer.
“We’ve been coming here for
years,” Bob said.
The tree was so big, it took
a winch and a lot of muscle to
push it through the netting machine the farm uses to secure
trees for travel.
The tagged trees in the pickup area above the Schmidts’ historic 1791 farmhouse were more
modestly sized.
Rebecca Seymour of
Brattleboro said her daughters, seven-year-old Madeleine
and four-year-old Clara, picked
out the tree on the weekend after Columbus Day, but the girls
were reticent about why they
picked this particular one.
Like the Seymours, Steven
Meggiolaro and his son Travis of
Dummerston are repeat customers. Steven said he liked to get his
tree early to use it in the family
photo for their Christmas card.
workshop, “Repurpose and
Upcycle your Old Clothing” on
Sunday, Dec. 12, from 1:30-3
p.m., at the Putney Library.
The workshop, by Sadelle
Wiltshire and Grace Mrowicki,
will cover ideas to repurpose
used clothing into new clothing,
household items and even gifts.
Demonstrations and hands-on
time will include how to rework
old T-shirts into tote bags, pillows, pet toys, plus deconstructing old sweaters into reusable
yarn to knit, crochet and weave
new items.
Other “DIY” ideas for clothing upcycling will be shown and
discussed. Attendees are encouraged to bring old t-shirts or other
clothes for repurposing into a
holiday gift. Also bring a pair of
scissors suitable for cutting fab- Passing it on
ric. Information at paull@sover.
To be a Christmas tree
net or 802-387-4102.
farmer, Bill said, you have to
think long term.
The Schmidts grow about
19,000 trees on 20 acres of their
Audubon holds
property. “We plant about 1,000
annual Bird Count
each spring,” Bill said. “We used
to plant 1,500, but we wanted
SPRINGFIELD — The to cut back a little since it is so
Ascutney Mountain Audubon much work. Aside from this time
Society will hold its 111th of year, we do most of the work
Annual Christmas Bird Count ourselves.”
this year on Dec. 18 and 19.
The Schmidts “plant fiveThere will be two counts, the year-old seedlings, and it takes
first on Saturday Dec. 18, in the another seven or eight years for
Saxtons River area, and the sec- them to grow to 8 feet tall,” Bill
ond, on Sunday, Dec. 19, for the said. “That 13-footer you saw
Springfield area. Both will be all- was planted about 17 years ago.”
day events with tally parties in
They also grow an acre of orMake new use of
the evening, so birders should be ganic heirloom rhubarb.
old clothing
prepared for a long day.
Bill is 75, and he said Mary
For the Saxtons River area, in- Lou will only admit to being
PUTNEY — Transition terested people are asked to meet in her early 80s. They have bePutney will host a reskilling Don Clark at Allen Brothers on gun to plan for the day when
Route 5, south of Bellows Falls the farm will be someone else’s
in Westminster, at 6:45 a.m. responsibility.
Contact Clark at 802-843-2347
As the founding executive dior [email protected] for a route rector of the Windham Regional
assignment, or to say you’ll be Commission and a regional diThis Week at the Movies:
watching and counting at your rector of the Vermont Land
Secretariat
home feeders.
Trust, Bill said it was important
Fri 7 & 9:15 Sun 5 & 7:15
In Springfield, Hugh Putnam to him and to his wife to preserve
Mon and Tues at 7:15
will meet counters at McDonalds his land as a working farm.
Upcoming Live Events:
at 7 a.m. for route assignments
Since 1995, the farm has operCaravan of Thieves
or to join a team. Contact ated under a conservation easeThe Speckers
Putnam at 802-886-8430 or ment from the Vermont Land
Thursday, Dec. 9 at 7:30pm
[email protected] to let him Trust, which stipulates that the
Gandalf Murphy and the
know if you’ll be counting at your land must remain in active agriSlambovian Circus of Dreams
home bird feeders.
cultural use.
Christmas Show
Evening
tally
parties
will
folThe farm includes 138 acres
Saturday, Dec. 11 at 8pm
low the days’ events. Clark’s of conserved land, including 100
Reserved Seating Online
group party location will be an- acres of managed woodland.
bfoperahouse.tix.com
nounced at the Saxtons River
None of their children were
By phone (800) 595-4849
gathering place. The Springfield
and at Village Square Booksellers
group will meet at the Putnams,
On The Square, Bellows Falls VT
www.bfoperahouse.com
29 Meadow Drive, Springfield,
(802) 463-4766
at about 5 p.m.
SCRAP METAL
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from page 1
Bill Schmidt cuts down a 10-foot white spruce as Keri
Latiolais guides the tree to the ground.
Tips to keep your
Christmas tree fresh, safe
BRATTLEBORO—The
Brattleboro Rotary Club has
been selling Christmas trees
for decades, so its members
know a thing or two about
how to keep them fresh. They
offer some tips:
• Once you and your
Christmas tree have safely
returned home, make a fresh
cut across the bottom of the
trunk to open up the pores in
the wood, allowing it to absorb
water readily.
• Make the cut about 1 inch
above the old base, at a very
slight angle. The tree should
be immediately set in the stand
and placed where it will spend
the season. Be sure to use a
stand with a water reservoir
large enough not to need refilling too often.
• Depending upon the size,
species, and location of the
tree, it might absorb a gallon
of water in the first day, so it
should be checked frequently
and re-watered as necessary.
As long as the tree is able to
absorb and transpire water, it
will stay reasonably fresh and
fire-resistant.
• It is important that the tree
always be kept watered and
not allowed to dry out. Once
the reservoir dries, a seal of
pitch begins to form on the
cut. After six hours, the tree
will no longer be able to absorb water and will quickly dry
out. To remedy this, it will be
necessary to recut the stump
again, or the tree will begin to
interested in continuing the farm,
so the Schmidts put the word out
last year that they were looking
for successors.
Keri Latiolais and her husband Matt did some vegetable
farming in the Burlington area,
and were looking for a farm in
southern Vermont. Theirs was
one of about 30 inquiries about
the farm, and now they are
working the land alongside the
Schmidts.
“Over the next few years, we’ll
be doing more as they ease out
of things,” Keri said. “We hope
to run this farm as well as they
have.”
Keri grows pumpkins, garlic,
and flowers at the farm, but she
said it is the Christmas trees that
keep it in the black. She hopes
lose its needles.
• Keep your tree away from
heat sources like fireplaces,
radiators, and television sets.
• Make sure that all of your
light cords are in good shape.
If the insulation on the wiring
has become brittle or cracked,
discard it. It’s time to buy a
new set!
• Be sure to unplug the
lights before you go to bed or
any time you leave the house.
• Never overload electrical
circuits.
• After Christmas, recycle
your tree rather than sending
it to a landfill with the rest of
your trash.
• Use common sense.
Taking precautions such as
these will help preserve the
unique beauty and tradition
that only a real Christmas tree
can provide.
The Brattleboro Rotary
Club will sell Vermontgrown Christmas trees in
front of Brattleboro Bowl on
Putney Road from 1-7 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, and
9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturdays
and Sundays.
Proceeds from the
Christmas Tree Sale support the club’s annual student
scholarship awards of $3,000
each to eight students at local
high schools.
For more information, visit the Brattleboro
Rotary Club website at
www.brattlebororotaryclub.org.
to grow more vegetables in the
summer and perhaps start a
community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm.
Keri and Matt’s plans suffered a setback last November
when Matt, a forester, was badly
injured in a fall and suffered a
fractured skull and a traumatic
brain injury. He has recovered
from his injuries, but is still not
at full strength.
Keri said that her parents have
helped out on the farm during
Matt’s recovery.
Bill Schmidt is hoping things
will work out for the Latiolaises.
“They really value this place
and want to keep it as a farm,”
he said. “We were looking for
stewards for this land, and they
will do a good job carrying it on.”
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T h e C ommons
• Wednesday, December 8, 2010 NEWS 5
COUNT Y AND STATE
n Vermont SAC
particularly Vermont way.”
SAC members are considered
“uncompensated government
employees,” according to the
motion at the meeting to recharter the commission.
Reed said the Vermont SAC
includes “every political persuasion, [a] good mix of ethnic [and]
racial minorities.”
He described the diversity
of backgrounds in the group as
“particularly important” for the
issues under consideration, including law enforcement and
civil-rights issues specific to the
immigrant community.
The SACs “advise the
Commission of civil rights issues in their states that are within
the Commission’s jurisdiction,”
according to Vermont’s state
website, www.vermont.gov.
“More specifically, they
are authorized to advise the
Commission on matters of their
state’s concern in the preparation of Commission reports to
the President and the Congress;
receive reports, suggestions,
and recommendations from individuals, public officials, and
representatives of public and
private organizations to committee inquiries; forward advice and recommendations to
the Commission, as requested;
and observe any open hearing
or conference conducted by the
Commission in their states,” the
site continues.
Other SAC members include two Brattleboro residents:
Tara O’Brien, a member of the
Vermont Partnership’s board
of directors, and Terry Martin,
a former Brattleboro and state
police officer. The commission
produced a report on law enforcement and racial profiling
in 1999.
O’Brien, wary of speaking on
the record out of fear of similar
repercussions, said last week’s
actions create a crisis of confidence for board members and a
credibility problem for the federal commission.
“How can they say they’re protecting the rights of Vermonters
when they can’t even do that for
a member of their own committee?” she asked.
“It puts the whole committee in the position of being extra
cautious about what we say,”
O’Brien said.
Objectionable
remarks
After approving the SAC’s
new charter and all members
other than Reed, commissioners
in a 5-0 vote rejected reappointing Reed, rebuking him for a political commentary that appeared
prior to the November election.
Three other commissioners
abstained.
The commentary, “‘Pure
Vermont’ is pure invalidation,”
appeared in the Brattleboro
Reformer and on Vtdigger.com ,
a state government news and
commentary website, as well as
in other media prior to the state
election.
In the piece, which described
Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie’s campaign
slogan, “Pure Vermont,” as an
example of “cross-cultural blundering,” Reed wrote that “for
many Vermonters, the words denote racial, religious, and cultural
oppression.”
But it was 56 of the 498 words
of the piece that drew the scrutiny of several commissioners.
In addition to raising connotations of racial purity and the
history in Vermont of the Ku
Klux Klan, Reed’s commentary
invoked early-20th-century eugenics policies. “‘Pure Vermont’
raises the specter of Hitler’s
Aryan Nation and the Khmer
Rouge, where the purifying agent
was genocide,” he wrote.
The Associated Press reported
Tuesday that Dubie characterized the slogan as a “positive
message and a welcoming one.”
Reed also took heat for statements he made to Vermont
Public Radio when the commission was rechartered in April
2008 after a hiatus of more than
a year.
He told VPR reporter Neil
Charnoff that “for reasons we
don’t understand, the charters
for Vermont and dozens of other
states across the country were
stalled.”
“I think there’s a history of the
current [Bush] administration
wanting to provide a more positive view of civil rights,” Reed
told Charnoff. “You can claim
to have fewer reports of harassment, fewer reports of incidents
of civil rights issues, if the eyes
and ears in the states detecting that have been rendered
inoperable.”
A commission staffer who
spoke on condition of anonymity said that staff members
of two conservative commissioners found links to Reed’s
from page 1
commentary on several rightwing websites and listservs, resulting in a request to Reed that
he apologize for intemperate
remarks or step down from the
state committee.
Reed did neither.
Later, the USCCR’s staff director, Martin Dannenfelser,
wrote to say that “taken together,
commissioners are concerned
that you have used these public
platforms to impugn the motives
of Mr. Dubie and the Bush administration and, in the case of
Mr. Dubie, to associate his views
with those of avowed racists and
mass murderers.”
Dannenfelser said that several
commission members wanted
Reed to respond before the
USCCR considered rechartering the Vermont SAC.
“I remind you that Vermont
and our country have a long and
distinguished history protecting the rights of free speech,”
Reed replied, calling any controversy over his piece an issue that
“seems to be reverberating only
in Washington.”
“The decision to replace me
as chair or to remove me from
the committee altogether [because of the op-ed piece] strikes
at the heart of First Amendment
rights,” he added.
“Neither my employer, the
VT SAC, nor the USCCR were
referenced in the piece,” Reed
continued. “Our democracy
cannot afford the double standard proposed by the suggestion
that I, or any member of the VT
SAC, step down because of our
personal opinions and the act of
expressing those opinions in the
public square, while at the same
time the USCCR purports to defend our civil rights.”
David Shaw/Commons file photo
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reauthorized the charter of the Vermont
State Advisory Committee — minus its chairman, Curtiss Reed Jr. Conservative
members of the USCCR took issue with a critical commentary Reed wrote about
“Pure Vermont,” the campaign slogan of Republican gubernatorial candidate
Brian Dubie.
usccr.org
Former USCCR
Chairman Gerald A.
Reynolds, whose term
expired hours after the
commission’s vote.
www.usccr.org
USCCR Staff Director
Martin Dannenfelser,
appointed to the job by
Heritage Foundation
usccr.org
Ideology on the
usccr.org
the George W. Bush USCCR Commissioner USCCR Commissioner USCCR Commissioner
commission?
Todd F. Gaziano.
Michael Yaki.
The eight commissioners of administration.
Gail Heriot.
the USCCR, a bipartisan commission created by the Civil
Rights Act of 1957, serve staggered six-year terms. The president and Congress appoint four
members each, and “not more
than four members shall at any
one time be of the same political
party,” according to the commission’s website, www.usccr.gov.
Democrats have charged that
the Bush administration circumvented these rules, appointing
Republicans who have disingenuously declared their party affiliation as “independent” to qualify
for the bipartisan commission.
One such member, Vice
Chair Abigail Thernstrom,
since reverted her affiliation
to Republican. Commissioner
Todd F. Gaziano, senior fellow in legal studies for the
conservative thinktank The
Heritage Foundation, is listed
on the USCCR’s website as an
independent.
The subcommittee’s two-year
charter expired in April, which
legally disbanded the group until the commission’s Friday vote.
The terms of two members,
Gerald A. Reynolds and Ashley
L. Taylor Jr., both Republican
presidential appointees, expired only hours after the vote.
Reynolds had served as the
USCCR’s chairman.
The USCCR staff member
said the commission has been
increasingly infused with ideology during the Bush administration, speculating that the renewal
of the Vermont charter was delayed because commissioners
wanted to include “some of their
people” in addition to the incumbent members.
Reed confirmed this account, noting that SAC members rebelled against adding
several candidates he characterized as “right-wing, really
narrow-issue-focused.
“We stuck to our guns, which
is one of the reasons it took so
long to get rechartered,” he
added.
The USCCR staffer cited a
similar story with the renewal
of the New Hampshire SAC’s
charter.
That group submitted its
application, and the charter
was reauthorized with an additional surprise member, Kevin
Smith, executive director of
Cornerstone Policy Research, a
nonprofit research group that,
among other conservative causes,
opposes gay marriage equality issues.
When that happened, the
USCCR “got flooded with letters
and e-mails, saying, ‘How dare
you put this man who’s the antithesis of everything civil rights
is?’” the staffer recounted.
Support from
the state SAC
SAC members sent a unanimous letter of support for both
the charter reauthorization in
general, and Reed in particular,
to then-Chairman Reynolds.
“As you know, during the time
that Mr. Reed served as chair,
the SAC produced a comprehensive report addressing the effect
of perceived racial profiling by
state and local law enforcement
officers,” the members wrote.
“To have developed and seen
through to successful resolution
a report on a topic as politically
charged and sensitive as racial
profiling requires tact; the ability
to engender trust and encourage
openness; dedication; and the
skills to advance the pursuit of
knowledge and understanding in
a manner that yield results rather
than resistance,” they continued.
“The leadership and tone set
by Mr. Reed proved invaluable
during this work and, we believe, earned the trust of those
with whom we needed to interact, including members of the
law enforcement officials across
the state,” the members wrote.
David Carle, spokesman for
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (DVt.), said the senator’s office was
closely involved in the issue, first
in trying to get the SAC reauthorized, and then in trying to figure out the “unsettling” aspects
of Friday’s vote.
In the end, the commissioners decoupled the approval of
the Vermont SAC’s charter
from Reed’s reappointment to
the group.
The vote, according to the
USCCR staffer, included “20
minutes — and someone timed
it — of trashing Curtiss in a public meeting.”
After reading the transcript on
Tuesday, Reed described his reaction as one of disbelief.
“I don’t think any of them
fully read the piece,” he said.
A staff member represented
Leahy’s office at the proceedings, which two of the senator’s
other staffers variously described
as “pandemonium” and “not
well run.”
The meeting transcript, released at press time, reveals a
long stretch of commissioners
interrupting one another and
arguing over parliamentary procedure, in between a heated discussion about whether Reed’s
reference to Hitler and the
Khmer Rouge in his commentary
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Several commissioners also
misinterpreted Reed’s letter of
explanation as insisting that he
had a first-amendment constitutional right to be seated on
the SAC.
Gaziano took exception to
Reed’s refusal to disavow his
commentary and his “own sort
of defiant, crazy, legally flawed
defense of his action.”
“I was willing to hold my nose
and vote for him before I got
the e-mails from him where he
once again demonstrated a lack
of judgment [by defending the
commentary],” then-Chairman
Reynolds said.
Commissioner Michael Yaki,
a Democratic Congressional appointee, defended Reed’s VPR
hypothesis that the state SACs’
charters were systematically allowed to expire.
“Everything he said on [VPR]
I’ve said twice over, five times
over, maybe 20 times over,” Yaki
said, adding that he believes the
state SACs “still are being manipulated, run over, and otherwise packed.”
Regarding Reed,
Commissioner Gail Heriot said
she looks “for two things that I
am not finding with this candidate for the SAC.”
Those qualities, she said, are
“a temperament that allows them
to deal with complex and difficult issues, and two, I am looking for someone who actually has
some expertise on civil rights.”
Carle said Leahy’s staff has
been in contact with the Obama
administration consistently
about the Vermont SAC issue,
urging White House staff to prepare appointments to the vacant
slots on the commission.
The administration has also
been free all along to replace
Dannenfelser, a Bush appointee who had worked as a vice
president of the Family Research
Council, where he also served as
the conservative Christian nonprofit thinktank’s chief government relations official.
Matthew Lehrich, a spokesman with the White House Press
Office, when asked about a timetable for potential appointments,
noted that “we generally don’t
comment on nominations before the President has announced
them.”
An uncertain
future
By all accounts, Reed’s future
with the SAC remains in limbo,
dependent on subsequent appointees who might revisit the
issue.
And even though the USCCR
staff member described the mechanics of Friday’s vote as potentially in violation of agency
regulations or other federal protocol, no one interviewed for this
story could say whether those
circumstances would render the
outcome invalid.
Reached on Monday, Yaki
described politicization on the
commission as “not unusual.”
“In the end, we just didn’t
have the votes,” said Yaki, who
added that some on the commission have been concerned about
the possibility that some or all of
Reed’s colleagues on the SAC
might resign.
If the commission membership dips below 10, he said, the
whole SAC must be reorganized
from scratch.
But Yaki also pointed out that
some of Reed’s support came
from commission members like
him who strongly disagreed with
the principle of reprimanding a
SAC member for expressing an
unpopular or disagreeable view,
without agreeing in full with what
Reed actually wrote.
“I understand political hyperbole,” said Yaki, a former member of the San Franscisco Board
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of Supervisors. “I’ve run for office and managed campaigns in
the political arena. But I want to
point out how far out Curtiss’s
rhetoric was.”
Yaki said Reed’s commentary
had “a loaded connotation to it,
in my own opinion,” with the
result that even on a differently
constituted commission, “there
might still be some people who
feel some queasiness about what
he said.”
“I don’t know why he used
that particular example,” he
said. “It’s easy to toss around,
but hard to take back.”
“The first amendment allows
you to speak freely and disagree,”
Yaki said. “While you have the
freedom to do whatever you do
and say whatever you say, some
people will hold you accountable
later on.”
Disclosure: By way of transparency, we note that Reed serves on
the board of directors of Vermont
Independent Media, the nonprofit
that publishes The Commons.
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6
VOICES
T h e C ommons
OPINION • COMMENTARY • LETTERS
Join the discussion: [email protected]
E S S AY
The art of
dancing
A young woman sees her grandmother’s
lucid moments become fewer and fewer,
until, finally, they are no more
Guilford Holly McCarrick
is a senior at Brattleboro Union
High School. This memoir origBeth Wood was diaginally appeared on Teen Ink
nosed with Alzheimer’s
(www.teenink.com), a literary
disease.
It began with simply forget- magazine and website featuring
the work of young writers.
ting to turn off the stove after
she was done cooking one of
her famous meals, or needing
a reminder of her son’s phone
recent years she has become
number.
someone else. I do not blame
Then, as most Alzheimer
her, and I do not resent her
patients do, she began to forfor it.
get to eat or bathe. She would
I simply acknowledge that
wake up unaware of where
my grandmother is gone, and I
she was. She’d imagine peomust take care of what she left
ple were stealing things, simply behind because I owe her that.
because she could not remember where they had previously
When I was younger, I
been. Her day-to-day life bespent every Monday at my
came full of stress and struggle; grandma’s. It was the one day
her own grandchildren went
both my parents worked, and
unrecognized.
she was the perfect babysitter.
Beth Wood is my
I had no grandfather, so it was
grandmother.
always just her and me on these
Almost 10 years later, all I
days.
see is a frail old woman barely
Everything was better at
holding onto reality. I see
Grandma’s; I have never tasted
a child who whimpers and
a grape juice Popsicle quite like
whines because she doesn’t
the ones she would make. I was
know what else to do. And
always promised my favorite
above all else, I see the remains meal (usually chicken nuggets
of someone I had once loved
or a cheese quesadilla) exactly
so dearly.
when I wanted it. She loved
I understand how that
me, and I loved her right back.
sounds; I am openly saying
The afternoons were spent
I no longer feel love for my
out in her garden. Now let
grandmother.
me tell you, this garden was
But let me explain — I still
something to brag about. At
care.
first glance, the tangled vines,
It’s the way you feel about
stems, leaves, and plump fruit
your first dog after it passes
and veggies gave the area what
away, or the way you look back my grandma called an “out-ofon an old boyfriend whom you control vibe.”
once loved. I loved my grandAnd I’ll be honest, it was a
mother, but in these more
mess — but it was her mess.
I
n September of 2000,
She understood its crazy knots
and interweaves, and could
find exactly what she was looking for in a heartbeat.
I remember sitting crosslegged, my hands resting behind me buried in the cool soil.
I would watch as my grandma
weeded and plucked her way
around the perimeter, and
slowly worked into the interior
— all the while chattering away
to me.
It was like watching someone cleaning a home; nothing
was fully satisfying for her until she reached the final weed
that needed to be pulled or the
last tomato that needed to be
picked, and the garden was
clean for the day. Then she’d
stand up and observe all the
work she had done.
I knew what to do when I
saw this; I’d get up from my
sitting spot, brush bits of the
earth off my little sundress or
overalls, and pad my way over
to her.
“Some fine work we did today, huh, girl?” she’d say, placing her hand on my head.
“It looks better than yesterday,” I’d observe.
“Sure does. How ’bout a
Reese’s?”
“Two?”
“Only if you don’t tell your
father!”
And off we’d go, leaving the
garden behind us for the time
being. Once the old red door
of her familiar home would
screech open and my toes relaxed over the cool tiled floor,
a Reese’s peanut butter cup
marlene o’connor (www.marleneoconnorart.com)
Detail from “Her Story,” by Brattleboro artist and illustrator Marlene
O’Connor: pencil, ink, Xerox transfer and shellac (three panels).
would be plopped into my
hand without any reminders of
the promise.
“You’ll get the second after
dinner,” she’d say. “What will
it be?”
Again, I’d find myself sitting and watching her. She’d
prepare my dinner to order as
I lay spread out on the peeling
linoleum. Her grey hair curled
around a sun-kissed face, and
her callused hands were always
busy at work.
Activities would vary during the in-between moments
of gardening and munching;
on the best days, we’d simply
dance.
EDITORIAL
Striking a balance
T
he recent closure of
Alici’s Bistro, a restaurant on Harris
Place, shows the
inappropriate imbalance in
the town of Brattleboro’s approach between the need to
increase parking revenues
and the need to provide convenient parking for local
businesses.
The Harris Place lot was
the last downtown parking
lot that used meters until this
summer, when the town removed all but 14 of the 64
meters in the lot and converted it into permit-only
parking. Anyone who parks
in those spaces without a permit during enforcement hours
— from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. —
gets a ticket.
Carol Coulombe,
Brattleboro’s parking enforcement coordinator, made
the decision unilaterally.
According to the Brattleboro
Reformer, she decided that
since her department did not
have the money to replace
the aging parking meters, she
would remove them.
The parking enforcement
department in Brattleboro is
what’s known as an “enterprise” agency, meaning that it
has to generate the revenues
to operate the town parking
lots and the Transportation
Center on Flat Street through
parking fees and fines.
When your department
has to fund itself, your job becomes focused on maximizing
revenue at the expense of all
other considerations, including customer service.
Coulombe did not bother
Kerri Hicks/Creative Commons license (by-nc-sa)
The outside bar at Alici’s Bistro in the summer of 2009.
to tell Musa Alici, the owner
of the restaurant that bore
his name, that nearly all the
parking in front of his establishment was changed to permit-only. Aside from notifying
the police chief, she is not
required to tell anyone if she
makes such changes.
Suddenly, Alici’s potential
customers had to park in the
High-Grove or Harmony lots,
both a good distance away
from his restaurant.
Alici has not had an easy
time of it since he opened his
restaurant in 2007. He has
had long-running battles with
the Selectboard over signage
and operating hours. An electrical fire in December 2008
and the lingering effects of the
recession also cut deeply into
his business.
But, in a Facebook post,
Alici squarely placed the
blame for the closure of his
restaurant on what he called
“little town politics” and “unfair, unequal, and anti-business” treatment by the town.
He wrote that the parking
change dealt the last, fatal
blow to his business.
Granted, the town is under no obligation to provide
parking spaces for downtown businesses. But for all
the talk from officials about
helping small businesses, the
town does little to address the
number-one peeve of downtown patrons — inconsistent
and incomprehensible parking
policies.
Brattleboro has developed
a reputation for hyper-aggressive parking enforcement,
combined with parking fees
and fines that are high for the
size of this town.
The machines in the “pay
and display” lots are balky —
and, if you don’t have change
in your pocket, unusable.
The town has a “smart
card” system for some of the
downtown meters, but it is
poorly promoted and inconvenient for visitors.
And, there’s still talk
about charging for parking on
Sundays and extending the
hours for metered parking.
If the town wants to position itself as a destination for
shopping, dining, and the arts,
it needs parking policies that
don’t drive visitors away. It
also needs to view parking as
a service and not as a profit
center.
still stays. I spend a week every
summer taking care of her and
giving my uncle and his family
a break. Every year, the stress
of the trip increases; I watch
her progress further and further into the cruel and unforgiving stages of dementia.
In the beginning, during some lucid moments, she
would cup my face in her
hands and cry, taking in everything she could about how I’ve
changed. I cried, too.
However, slowly, these moments became fewer and fewer
until finally, they were no
more.
This past summer, she spent
every moment of every day
confused and unsure of everything. She knew nothing of
who I was. But when I could
calm her, she’d animatedly tell
In 2000, a month before
she was diagnosed, my famme tales of my younger self.
ily took me away from her to
“Oh, my granddaughter
my current home in Vermont. Holly is a mischievous little
I remember missing her, but
girl!” she’d tell me, and I’d
knowing she was not gone for- smile, knowing the truth in that
ever. I’d receive letters from
statement.
her, all starting with, “My dearIt hurt too much for me,
est Holly,” and ending with
though, to keep hoping des“Love forever.” When arthritis perately for her mind to reach
plagued her fingers, she would back into reality. It took an
call. During one of these phone emotional toll on me greater
conversations, I learned she
than anything I’d been exposed
wasn’t gardening as much as
to yet in my life.
usual.
So, in a silent vow to the
“I forget to some days,”
grandmother I knew in my
she’d say, and my heart would memories, with no sense of reache.
morse or sadness, I took care
It was 11 p.m. when my
of this dying woman. I did it
uncle called us, telling us my
for myself, however selfish that
grandmother had called 911
may have been. In this way, it
because she was convinced
was easier for me to deal with
someone had broken into her
the constant asking of, “Where
home and stolen from her —
am I?” and “Who are you?” In
but it hadn’t happened. This
this way, I distanced myself.
was when, after a doctor’s examination, we were informed
On my last night alone
of her mental health. Doctors
with her, I cried.
advised her to move in with
I cried for the woman I had
one of her children, or that her lost, so long ago, to this awful
family place her in a nursing
disease. Though she did not
home.
understand why I was crying
I remember waking up in the or who I even was, she patted
middle of the night and hearmy back and told me it would
ing my parents arguing with
be all right. A couple minutes
my extended family about what later, she forgot where she was
to do.
and left me alone in the empty
We could not take her, as
kitchen. Suddenly, I heard muour home was too small. My
sic coming from her room.
aunt couldn’t take her because Assuming the music would
she did not have the money or confuse her, I pulled myself totime to care for her. My oldgether and followed the sound,
est uncle finally said he would
knowing I should turn it off.
take on the responsibility, as
The door to her room was
my grandmother was a sumcracked open slightly.
mertime woman, and my uncle
I remember this moment as
lived in San Diego.
though it were yesterday; I re“It’s best for her to be in a
member feeling apprehensive
place she can stay outside year- about looking inside, afraid of
round,” the adults would reawhat I’d find. I didn’t think I
son. They were right, but the
could watch my grandmother,
idea of taking Grandma out of once so strong and loving, cry
her home where she’d spent
from fright and general conher whole life and flying her
fusion anymore. Part of me
across the country broke the
willed myself to walk away and
hearts of my father and his
just let the music play, but I
siblings.
peered into the room.
However, it was done.
My grandma was neither
crying nor confused.
And now, almost 10 years
She was dancing. n
later, that is where my grandma
I’d watch as my grandmother cranked up the radio, and she’d hop and swing
to the music. She’d take my
hands and twirl me around. I’d
skip about the old kitchen, using dishtowels as flags, all the
while being cheered on by my
grandma.
When I’d get too tired, I’d
collapse on the floor and rest,
but Grandma never tired. She
danced and danced, her grey
hair splaying wildly around and
her hands above her head, waving at the sky. Her energy was
infectious, and I couldn’t stay
down for long. She’d pick me
up, spin me around, and bump
my hips.
I felt loved, and rightly so —
Beth Wood adored me.
T h e C ommons
VOICES
• Wednesday, December 8, 2010 VIEWPOINT
A tale of two
funds
A lawmaker
gives a tutorial
about the political pull
on two buckets of money
W
7
T'ai Chi Ch'uan
in Brattleboro
Radiant Byte/iStockPhoto
Wilmington Ann Manwaring,
D-Wilmington, represents the
reach into several Windham-2 district in the state
different pockets House of Representatives and
to pay our variserves as a member of the House
ous taxes.
Appropriations Committee. This
We extract money from the
piece originally appeared on
economic activities of our daily VTDigger.org.
lives, and that money makes up
the revenue streams that make
possible the civic life from
which we all benefit. When our throughout the year, in spite of
money arrives in Montpelier, it the fact that Vermont, unlike
lands in one of several buckets, most states, does not have a
called funds, the two largest of constitutional requirement for
which are the general fund and a balanced budget.
the education fund.
All the wrangling over what
Our public discourse is gen- to spend the money on haperally about spending and,
pens within this framework.
therefore, taxes being too high.
The General Fund, then, is
Little is widely known about
revenue driven, meaning that
the actual structure of those
spending is adjusted to meet
funds and how their very deexpected revenues. One addisign can act as upward or
tional element is present in the
downward pressure on spend- general fund, and that is the
ing, regardless of policy choices political pressure exerted on
made by the Legislature and
181 elected officials (150 reprethe governor.
sentatives, 30 senators and one
So, in the spirit of shining a
governor) who have to publicly
bright light on our money, here vote to increase the taxes that
is a brief discussion about the
make up the revenues that are
two largest funds, how their
deposited into this fund.
very design affects how tax dolAll attempts to balance the
lars are spent, and how the in- budget without raising taxes
terrelationship between the
act as powerful downward
general fund and the educapressures on spending within
tion fund affects how deeply
the general fund.
we taxpayers have to reach into
our various pockets in the first The education fund, by
place.
contrast, works very differently.
This walk admittedly will
School boards prepare budtake us a little way into the
gets to be accepted or modiweeds. But if you care about
fied by the voters in each of
the ever-increasing burden of
Vermont’s 246 school districts.
your property tax and about
Through a process that, in the
the future of your community’s opinion of many, is too comschools, I hope you will find
plex and opaque, those budgets
these observations instructive. are then aggregated, and school
property tax rates are set stateThe general fund is the
wide and locally.
big-daddy fund used to pay for
The resulting revenues are
most of the obligations of state then deposited into the educagovernment. It is a very stable
tion fund and redistributed to
fund, and I suspect that most
schools via a complex system
readers will be surprised to
based on an equal per-pupil
learn that your legislature and
expenditure. (A discussion of
your governor and his adminthe complexity of the educaistration, regardless of political tion revenue generation and
party, are very good stewards
distribution system is certainly
of your tax money.
needed, but best left to another
Supporting our schools is a
day.)
joint responsibility of both state
The education fund’s design,
and local governments, and we unlike that of the general fund,
(lawmakers and constituents
actually results in upward presalike) have not yet figured out
sure on spending. Here’s how:
what tools can help us to arrive
First, the method by which
at a sustainable level of spend- the property tax is raised is so
ing that assures all our children complex, it is not subject to the
a good education no matter
same political dynamic to “not
where they live in the state.
raise taxes” that is present with
Economists agree on conthe general fund.
sensus revenue forecasts, and
Next, while just under 70
lawmakers enact expenditures percent of the 2009 $1.3 billion
based on those forecasts, reeducation fund comes from
sulting in a balanced budget.
property tax revenues, the balStructures are in place to asance of the 30 percent is made
sure that it remains in balance
up of several items.
e taxpayers
Two percent of the 6 percent
sales tax you pay goes into this
fund, as do the lottery profits of
about $21 million, and several
other smaller items.
The larger part of that last
30 percent, however, is a transfer from the general fund.
This transfer represents a
huge chunk of the budget — in
2009, it was 25 percent of the
$1.1 billion general fund —
and it has many other demands
on it. This chunk has a powerful structure that fosters downward pressure on spending.
Can you just see a hand
creeping out of the general
fund bucket and planting a few
of its obligations into another
bucket?
And then there is the education fund bucket itself.
It was originally created
in 1997 so that low-spending districts were encouraged to increase spending,
paid for, theoretically anyway,
by “excess” property tax revenues from sending towns.
Subsequently, penalties were
imposed on high per-pupil
spending districts.
However, so many more
districts are able to increase
spending that, in the aggregate,
the demand for revenues in the
education fund escalates with
few structural elements to stop
it. Thus, the basic design of the
education fund acts as upward
pressure on spending.
It is certainly true that containing spending in both funds
leads to the need for less revenue in both. But the power of
the state to adjust spending in
the general fund is direct.
Supporting our schools is a
joint responsibility of both state
and local governments. Policy
makers have for several years
focused on strategies aimed at
shrinking school governance
and closing small schools, strategies that the state does not
have the power to implement
unless it were to take over the
running of schools in Vermont.
If we as citizens of Vermont
(including legislators) collectively want our schools to remain a central element of our
communities, as they now are,
if we want to get a handle on
property-tax creep, and if we
want to reduce the stress that
exists between state and local officials, then state policy
makers need to look at the root
causes of these problems, one
of which is the basic structure
of the buckets into which our
tax money is deposited. n
Available Pets for Adoption
Windham County
humane SoCiety
Make a friend
for life
916 West River Road, Brattleboro, VT
View all at: wc h s4 p e ts. o r g
802-254-2232
Hi Everybody! My name is
Keith and I am a super-duper Black and Tan Coonhound
puppy! I am very smart and social and I do well with people,
kids and other dogs as well. I
haven’t met too many cats yet
but I bet I’d like them too. I am
smart and I am learning new
things at a rapid rate and I am
just patiently waiting for my
new family to come and scoop me up!
Oh boy- here comes everybody’s best friend,
chaco the lab mix! Chaco is a young lab
mix who is looking for an active and fun
home and lots of good times!! He is just wonderful with other dogs and with cats too! He
likes all people and kids but can be a wee bit
shy with men at first (hint: a little cheese and
meat helps break the ice!) He will need an active home where he can get in some daily runs
and hikes. Right now our runner volunteers
have been taking him out and he has been great. Please don’t miss
out on this wonderful dog- stop by and visit with him today!!
648 Putney Road
Brattleboro, VT
802.257.3700
one st o p co u n tr y p et.co m
German government’s decision
to extend the life of the country’s nuclear power plants for
several years.
Organizers stated that the
protest was not only an effort
to voice ongoing concern and
dissent over the use of nuclear
power but also an effort to
show support for local renewable energy sources.
One has to wonder how the
fate of energy policy in the U.S.
would differ if people who regard themselves as stewards of
the earth played an active role
in the decisionmaking process
rather than nuclear industry
“professionals “ and regulators
who give precedence to corporate earnings over the well-being of the planet.
Amelia Shea
Peterborough, N.H.
Matt Skove/Audio Design
Home Audio/Flat Screen TV’s
Car Audio/Remote Car Starters
Bluetooth Phone/Hands Free Car Kits
Sales and/or Installation
“I’ll come to you!’’
802-257-5419
149 Emerald St
Keene, NH
603.352.9200
How can we live with ourselves if
our neighbors are living with hunger?
You can make a difference
and alleviate hunger in our
communities. The problem is
growing so fast that local food
shelves can’t keep up without
your support. Here’s how you
can help the area’s biggest
food drive help your neighbors.
• Donatenon-perishablefood
and personal care items at
drop-offlocationsinstores
and businesses near you.
• Donateonlineat
ProjectFeedTheThousands.org
• Orsendacheckdirectlyto
your local food shelf to buy
food at a special bulk discount,
making the food go farther.
Taking nuclear policy into their own hands
n early November, a delivery of nuclear waste en route
to a “disposal site” in northern
Germany met with some unanticipated obstacles. Dozens of
farmers lined the route determined to block roadways with
their tractors, trees and stumps
cut down by protestors blocked
the routes, and more than
3,000 people gathered in protest outside the site deemed acceptable to bury containers of
highly toxic nuclear waste.
Several times police had stop
and to clear flocks of sheep
and goats from the roadway. A
shepherdess who would only
give her name as “Evelyn,” due
to fear of reprisal, expressed
the concern of the farmers and
other protesters — that the
toxic-waste disposal site represented a poisonous long-term
threat to not only their livelihoods, but also the health of
the land and water.
Along the roads, hundreds of
people gathered to protest the
Hi! My name is
elron, and I am
a friendly, talkative
adult male cat. I’ve
lived with other
cats and children,
so I am easy going
and ready for anything. Got a busy
household? I’m
your guy!
This space is graciously sponsored by:
LETTERS FROM READERS
I
Hi everybody! My name is Scry
and I wanna tell you all about
lil’ ol me. I’m the girl with the
never-ending purr. Once you get
me going, I’ll just never stop! My
favorite perch is where I can hug
you and look over your shoulder. I
was born up in Putney in the feral
cat colony so I can be shy at times
but I don’t stay shy for long! Won’t
you stop in for a hug?
Let’s not ignore the problem. Let’s be the solution.
Your donation helps provide nutritious
food for thousands of hungry people
at over 25 food shelves and community
kitchens throughout southern VT and NH.
Enclosed is my check for $_____________
made out to Project Feed the Thousands.
Mail your check to
Project Feed the Thousands, c/o:
Address: ____________________________
Brattleboro Area Drop In Center
PO Box 175, Brattleboro, VT 05302
State: _______
Chester–Andover Family Center
PO Box 302, Chester, VT 05143
Deerfield Valley Food Pantry
PO Box 1743, Wilmington, VT 05363
Hinsdale Welfare Dept.
11 Main Street, Hinsdale, NH 03451
Our Place Drop In Center (Bellows Falls)
PO Box 852, Bellows Falls, VT 05101
Springfield Family Center
365 Summer St., Springfield, VT 05156
Townshend Community Food Shelf
PO Box 542,Townshend, VT 05353
Name:______________________________
Town: ______________________________
Zip:__________________
Or donate online at
ProjectFeedTheThousands.org
NEWS 8
MILESTONES
• Robert “Bob” W. Adams,
85, of Bellows Falls. Died Dec.
2, at Grace Cottage Hospital
in Townshend. Graduate of
Bellows Falls High School.
Served in the Army during World
War II, and from 1944 to 1946,
he worked on the Army’s military railroad in the Philippines.
Worked for the Rutland Railroad
for 18 years, and was also an authorized Lionel electric train repairman and clock repairman.
After the Rutland’s demise, he
was hired by avid rail fan F.
Nelson Blount, the founder of
Steamtown USA, to create the
steam train museum and excursion railroad in Bellows Falls. He
eventually helped Blount start
the Green Mountain Railroad
in 1965. After Blount’s death
in a plane crash in 1967, he became the majority shareholder
of the Green Mountain and was
its president from 1968 until
1978. He served on the GMR’s
board of directors until 1993.
M emori a l inform ation :
A funeral service was held on
Dec. 6 at Fenton & Hennessey
Funeral Home in Bellows Falls,
with burial in Oak Hill Cemetery.
• Kenneth Edward Brooke,
80, of Marlboro. Died Nov. 29 at
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.
Husband of Margaret Nicholson
for 50 years. Father of Carol
Brooke-deBock and husband,
Will, of Marlboro; Ellen Wanless
and husband, Bill, of Seattle;
and John Brooke and his partner, Monique Lary, of Atlanta.
Born in Dallas and raised in Des
Moines, Iowa, where he was
a graduate of Roosevelt High
School, Class of 1948. Attended
Northwestern University, where
he earned his B.S. in business
administration. Was a veteran
of the Korean Conflict, serving as a Navy aviator stationed
in Japan and surviving a plane
crash into the Pacific Ocean.
After completing his active duty
service, he served in the Naval
Reserve. Worked in computer
technology for I.B.M and coowned and operated Creative
Systems Interface, a computer
systems consulting business located in Massachusetts. Was
a lifelong Christian Scientist
and had attended the Christian
Science Church in Brattleboro.
Memorial inform ation : A
private funeral service was held
for the family. Donation to The
Gathering Place, 30 Terrace
Street, Brattleboro, VT. 05301.
• E l l e n ( O ’ P r ey ) C l a n c y,
88, of Brattleboro. Died Nov.
28 at home. Wife of the late
Joseph F. Clancy for 51 years.
Mother of Joseph T. Clancy
of Lido Beach, N.Y.; Daniel P.
Clancy of Brattleboro; James J.
Clancy of Long Beach, N.Y.; and
Ellen P. Clancy of Brattleboro,
with whom she lived the past
eight years. Predeceased by a
brother, Richard O’Prey. Born
in Castlewellen, County Down,
Ireland and grew up in New
York City. Worked for New
York Telephone for 20 years.
Was active in the 82nd Airborne
Association, the unit her husband served in during World
War II, for many years. Spent
her retirement years in Bayonet
Point, Fla., before coming to
Brattleboro. M emori a l in formation: A memorial Mass
was celebrated on Dec. 1 at St.
Michael’s Catholic Church in
Brattleboro, with burial on Dec.
3 in Florida National Cemetery
in Bushnell, Fla. Donations
to the Reformer Christmas
Stocking, P.O. Box 703,
Brattleboro, VT 05302-0703.
• Kylie Alexis Gay-Rounds,
infant, of Bellows Falls. Was
stillborn Nov. 24 at Brattleboro
Memorial Hospital. Daughter
of Nicole Kristen Gay of
Bellows Falls and Ryan Miller
• Barbara
W. Hewes, 77,
of Brattleboro.
Died Dec. 3 at
her home. Wife
of Norman F.
Hewes for 54
years. Mother
of Nathan Hewes and his
wife, Barbara (Kaeppel), of
Charlestown, N.H. Raised and
educated in Brattleboro and
was a graduate of Brattleboro
High School, Class of 1951.
Worked her entire career in
the printing business as a
proofreader starting work at
the Brattleboro Reformer and
later working for Page Setters,
American Stratford, Country
Journal Magazine and Publishers
Composition. aAso worked out
of her home proof reading for
Allyn and Bacon, Inc., and for
several other publishers. She
retired in 1998, but continued
to do proof reading and editing
for the author “Happy Hugo”
on the Internet. Memorial information : A funeral service
was held Dec. 7 at Atamaniuk
Funeral Home in Brattleboro
with burial in Christ Church
Cemetery in Guilford. Donations
to Visiting Nurse Association of
Vermont, P.O. Box 976, White
River Jct. VT 05001-0976.,
or Brattleboro Area Hospice,
191 Canal Street, Brattleboro,
VT 05301. Condolences may
be sent to Atamaniuk Funeral
Home at www.atamaniuk.com.
• Emelea “Bobbie” (Gonder)
Ward, 99, of Vernon. Died Dec.
1 at Vernon Green Nursing
Home, 11 days shy of her
100th birthday. Wife of the late
Alexander T. Ward. Predeceased
by two brothers, Henry and
Herman Gonder. Survived by
four generations of nieces and
nephews.Born and raised in
Jersey City, N.J., she was employed at the Hallmark Card Co.
for 21 years, retiring in 1975. An
avid square dancer, she belonged
to the Lone Star Square Dancers,
and was invited to perform in
Kyoto, Japan.. Memorial information: A graveside service
was held on Dec. 6 at Springfield
(Mass.) Cemetery, Springfield,
Mass.
Births
Selectboard has seen all the proposed operating expenses and
revenue projections. They’re
reviewing the capital plan and
debt services schedule, a document detailing what old debt the
town is paying off and what new
debt it is taking on.
Sondag said decisions at this
stage of the budgeting process
mark “where the rubber hits
the road.”
She said capital expenses for
FY2012 will be higher because
the town had decided to defer
some maintenance in past years.
Capital expenses are purchases
of over $10,000 for equipment
with long lifespans, like vehicles, or long-term infrastructure
improvements.
“Projects are not cheaper
if they have to be done on an
emergency basis,” Sondag said,
adding the town prefers to take
proactive actions.
The town is considering replacing a 1971 Maxim fire engine. The floorboards are rusted
through, and the doors won’t
close properly.
“If we ask, should we replace
the vehicle it’s a simple ‘yes’ answer,” said Sondag. “But the answers become harder when the
town asks, ‘Do we need the fire
engine?’”
Sondag said the Selectboard
isn’t insisting on level-funded
budgets as it did for FY 2011.
According to Sondag, the board
witnessed how hard level-funding became, and this year, increases in capital expenses and
health insurance would make
level funding nearly impossible.
Last year saw no increases in
health insurance, but rates will
jump 25 percent for FY 2012.
Changes in the federal health
care requirements are contributing to the rate change, as is
the fact that Brattleboro’s workforce is in a high-risk pool, said
Sondag.
“My goal is always get as close
to level-funding as we can,” said
DeGray in an earlier interview.
But it is probably not realistic
for this fiscal year without terminating services, he said. Last
year, for example, the town chose
not to plow all the sidewalks
to save money, but residents
complained.
DeGray said there are some
big-ticket items for the town to
consider, like a $400,000 fire
truck, a $150,000 highway department truck, two police cruisers and a Parks and Recreation
Department vehicle.
In addition, the town is considering $400,000 in street paving, as well as about $50,000
in repairs for the Brattleboro
Museum and Art Center — a
building the town owns and
leases to the museum for $1 —
as well as repairs to buildings inhabited by the Women’s Crisis
Center programs.
“Start adding all those things
up, and it become almost overwhelming,” said DeGray.
During Monday’s meeting,
DeGray made his pitch for a 1
percent sales tax to capture some
of the revenue spent by visitors.
The current 1 percent roomand-meals tax brings in about
$300,000 a year.
DeGray said the town must
from page 1
try “to garner another form of
income” from an outside source.
Sondag informed the
Selectboard that the $300,000
that the 1 percent meals and
rooms tax brings in does not
cover all expenses. She said the
town needed about $800,000
in cash just to stay current with
services.
“We do a lot of transient business,” said DeGray. “People
come to Brattleboro because it
is unique, and we need to take
advantage of that.”
According to 2009 data, the
most recent numbers on record,
a 1 percent sales tax would have
accumulated $673,069 in revenue for Brattleboro.
“At the end of the day, it
would be a huge benefit for
Brattleboro taxpayers,” said
DeGray.
Selectboard Clerk Jesse
Corum said he could not support
the current proposed budget.
Corum said that to sell
DeGray’s sales tax to Town
Meeting Representatives, the
Selectboard would need to earmark the money for something
tangible, like paving or sidewalk
repair. Selectboard Member
Dora Bouboulis agreed.
DeGray said he would be
open to making the sales tax
temporary.
O’Connor said she
couldn’t support the new tax.
Brattleboro’s proximity to
Massachusetts and tax-free New
Hampshire made it too easy for
people go elsewhere.
Bouboulis said she wished
Windham County had a countywide tax charged to the surrounding towns, calling
Brattleboro a hub town that
“bears the burden and [from
which] other towns benefit.”
“I’m not angry with department heads [for increases], but
at some point we can’t keep raising taxes,” said DeGray.
The budget process began in
September and will continue
until January. Town Meeting
Representatives will vote on the
budget in March. The town will
set the tax rate based on the budget and Grand List in July.
Sondag described passing
a budget as the hardest and
most important thing that the
Selectboard does.
First Methodist presents drivethrough nativity on Dec. 12
BRATTLEBORO — The
members and friends of the First
United Methodist Church will
present a live drive-through nativity on Sunday, Dec. 12, between the hours of 5 to 8 p.m.
The nativity is a re-enactment
of the events that took place on
the Road to Bethlehem 2,000
years ago. Nine of the Biblical
scenes leading to Jesus will be
portrayed by costumed characters and live animals. There will
be hundreds of luminaries and
persons along the way to guide
you through the nativity. A spotlight at each scene enhances and
illuminates the reflection of the
costumed characters and live
animals against the night sky.
It takes many volunteers to
star in this production. If you
are interested in being one of
the characters, call the church
office at 802-254-4218. It can
count as a community service
for high school students who
need to fulfill that requirement
for graduation.
There is no cost, but the
church welcomes donations of
either cash or non-perishable
food for the Brattleboro Area
Drop-in Center. The church is
located at 18 Town Crier Drive
across from the Shell station on
Putney Road.
• In Brattleboro (Memorial
Hospital), Nov. 18, 2010, a
daughter, Ryanne Jane Marie
Open Weekly
E d s o n , to Amber Lara and
Saturday 10-2
James J. Edson of Hinsdale,
Nov – March
• K e n n e t h N.H.; grandaughter to Ramona
For your holiday
Edward “Ken” Hervieux, Penny and John
table or gift list
L a n e , 8 0 , o f Corliss, and Jim and Anna
Farm Fresh, Local,
B r a t t l e b o r o . Edson.
Handmade, Homemade
Died Dec. 1.
Lunch Café & Live Music
Husband of
Christmas Eve Day Market
Juanita Pond College news
Friday Dec 24 10-2
for 45 years.
EBT Debit Cards Welcomed
Father of Alberta Seale and hus • C o l i n H i n c k l e y, from
River Garden, 153 Main St.
band, Mike; and Jean Gilbeau Putney, is a first-year student
802-869-2141 or
www.BrattleboroChamber.org
[email protected]
and husband, Aaron, all of this fall at Pace University’s New
Brattleboro. Predeceased by a York City campus.
son, Kenneth E. Lane Jr.; three
brothers, Chester, Arnold and
Eugene Lane; one sister, Eva
Nesbitt and a half sister, Lorene
O’Bryan. Raised and educated
General Repair
All Makes & Models
in Brattleboro, he served in the
Diagnostic Service
24 Hour Towing
Navy during the Korean Conflict Student work to be
A/C Service
ASE Cert
on the USS Douglas Fox. Was
2 & 4-Wheel Alignments
employed at C&S Wholesale published in bilingual
Grocers, where he retired from grant-funded book
Rod’s Towing & Repairs
in 1992. Previously worked at
40 Main St., Putney VT • 802-387-4771
Boise Cascade for 17 years and
BRATTLEBORO — Students
for APW/Concel for 10 years. of Windham Southwest and
Graduated from Christ For Southeast Supervisory Unions
Rod Winchester - Owner
Greg Winchester - Manager
the Nation Bible Institute in together have the opportunity
Stony Brook, N.Y. in 1991, and to be published in a book of artwent on to serve as co-direc- work and writing through a grant
tor of Mercy Ministries, a food from the Arts Endowment Fund
and clothing ministry of Agape of the Vermont Community
Christian Fellowship, which he Foundation.
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politically shunned
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buy it or try
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the Chinese
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proposed
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have
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posted on Craigslikee
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t Chapel;
build a new one,”
g to
at the Green Mountain
characters
and, in response to the needed and other information
For Sal e: Ver monnt.
Use d, is like tryin
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lear Pow er Pla
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burial with fullNucmilitary
honors Chinese word art and its mean- is available on the project
in
Your membership
Your Basic Full Service
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will follow in Meetinghouse Hill ing, create poetry and other cre- chinesewordartbook.wordpress.com
Vermont Independ
can make this the
spaper
Cemetery. Donations to Mercy ative writing.
Those interested to bestget
infree new
Locally Owned Tire Store
for.
you’ve ever paid
page 5.
Ministries, in care of Agape
At this time, the call is out for volved should sign up
onSee
Hours:
Christian Fellowship, 30 Canal middle and high school students, line through the blog contact
mont
Brattleboro, Ver
Mon.- Fri. 8:00 - 5:00 • Sat. 8:00 - 12:00
St., Brattleboro, VT 05301. teachers, school administra- page or by contacting
Project
• Issue #78
31
.
No
V,
.
ber 1, 2010 • Vol
dnesday, Decem
Condolences may be sent to tors, and communityemembers
Cai Xi Silver
at
ws.org WeCoordinator
VIEWS
sn
n
o
WS AND
m
m
R N E or
o
.c
Atamaniuk Funeral Home atwwtowjoin the steering [email protected]
802-257URCE fO
O
S
T
Rt. 5 North, Bellows Falls, Vt. 802-463-3320
N
E
DEPEND
N G , I Nin
N I assist
www.atamaniuk.com. • Joyce Ttee
to
manage
one 7898, ext. 3.
W I Nor
AWARDS
’
Y
N
U
AM CO
D hVernon.
W I Nof
Anne Pfenning, 77,
Died Nov. 29, 2010 at Vernon
ews of
Green Nursing Home.NWife
Bradford A. Pfenning
VERNON for 56
thinks
Working group re y
years. Mother of Cheryl
t Deyo
VermonP.
om
the region’s econdirector of the Brattleboro
gets
and husband, Peter,
ofeeVernon;
Yank
Cre dit Cor p.,
t
en
Dev elop men t Town Manager
sid
By Olga Peters
re
w
and Gay Pfenning,
also of
ne
The
and Brattleboro estimated 50
dag
tune
Reversal of for
NE
NLY
B R AT T L E
B R
SNOW TIRES ARE IN!
USa
gREENpEaCE
ons
Special to The Comm
V
Y,
n SEE ENT ERG
CHEEVER TIRE
SERVICE
pagE 2
wveek ly
‘Not all jobs are
created equal’
STILL
,
STANDING
for NOW
inspector
The Commons
g
Barbara Son
. 16
o ahe ad. Bla meit people attended the Nov
the current cred meeting.
comcrunch for the lacka
said seven core three
dag
Son
worked for
of jobs paying
mittee members
llivable wage and years before bringing the deve
the region.
ess to a wider aubusinesses exitingic cru nch es opment proc munity, industry,
com
nom
of
t
dience
But eco
to Windham
c leaders. Fairpoin
are nothing new, some say that and economi ons is partially supEL
County. In fact in a recession Communicati ect.
JOYCE MARC
porting the proj energy and tone
the area has been s.
Lewis said the s meeting felt
for the last 20 year
rks fire at
n Vermont
at the Bellows Fall first meeting
The Southeaster
Truck accident spa
ment Strategy
at the
— and knocks
Economic Developp consisting of lighter than
were excited
Calvary Chapel foundation
the participants
EDS), a grou
and
(SeV
ers,
ess.
business lead
community and in its crosshairs. about the proc
gton
the building off its
ONS
a fuse in Wilmined in
EN/THE COMM
ssion
lit
rece
“We
the
THELMa O’BRI
has
ry
pan ts met
n happen
of the Calvave,
SeV ED S par ticiFalls for its and the explosiosaid Lewis.
sto
ter, members
d
s,”
ows
cen
cke
Fall
Bell
,
in
cra
les
ows
16
.
To
Bell
the
Nov
Chris
define rend near
, with its memlanc, left, andPastor Ron Millette, sta
The state laws that missions
second meetingrehabilitate the
David LeBgre
page 6
ning com
gation, and
bers hoping to by increasing gional plan Win dha m Reg ion
Chapel con years ago in the chapel.
45 mph when
region’s economy
re- defi ne thetowns in Windham
traveling about on Windham
the
installed 100
s,
and
joist
r
ion
floo
ulat
el’s
ed
as the 23
wages, pop
shifting the chap ers and tilting its brakes lock ut a mile before
estic product County, plus Weston, Searsburg,
rien
gional gross dom
beams and gird ut six inches Hill Road, abo steep road apBy Thelma O’B
and Winhall.
within five years. ed the inau- Readsboro, that towns can no
the building aboagain casting the stretch of te 30.
The Commons
mington host autumn,
Lewis said
once
g Rou
Wil
rd,
chin
twa
proa
economic
wes
to
e
re.
y
u
er navigate thee.
cle finally cam the
building’s futu
meeting in earl
l
SHEND—Yo
the
long
vehi
N
on
,
gura
W
The
bt
O
held
T
dou
M
es
r alon
have been
who serv
turning in
ary Chapel
NE W VP T fIL
other meetings , in Dover and prosperity rive
David LeBlanc, church and a stop after over closer to the
lp of
might call the Calv
the church
ned
lot,
t h t h e h e D, pagE 3
the
i
nd
plan
at
ing
W
nshe
are
ette
park
el
or
Tow
Mill
t
chap
with
in Wes
ROA
n SEE RAIL
only a few feet
cleaning busiBrattleboro.
too tough to die.ld you explain owns a carpet , said the shock post office, but el.
is, exe cut ive
Lew
rey
chap
fane
wou
Jeff
the
New
else
of
in
How
ading effect. shyHousehold goods gushed
is still stand- ness
why the building moving van waves “had a casc
t northwest to- out on impact, as did about
Everything wen
ing after a runaway
rdous dieWindham Hill ward Jamaica.”
250 gallons of haza
careened down
ss
acro
recently-filled
flew
sel from the two
Road last Monday,
slammed into
fuel tanks.
Route 30 and een the cha- Firefighteraster
f Doug
Chie
Townshend Fire wor king
the ground betwt Townshend averts dis
, whi ch
page 14
The mov ing vanngings of Win ot said he wasRCh, pagE 4
pel and the Wes Office and art
belo
n SEE Chu
was carrying the rtedly was
Community post?
repo
gallery building e, the non - four families,
Ron Mil lett Chr isti an
al
den om ina tion and also a
tor
pas
’s
rch
chu
forces that
beyond the
logger, called the
inal 193-yearawareness that goesol projects.
rocked the orig all its addigue
scope of mere scho
p
By Allison Tea
old structure andes.”
s, a steady grouin
year
11
mons
For
wav
Com
The
lved
tions “shock
in the Nov.
to 30 students invo
bbLE
No one was hurt act of the
Having of 20 at the high school have
O—
OR
LEB
GObbLE, GO
imp
a
CLE
BRaTT
es
22 crash, but the s trailer truck
a trip to Cuba,
community issu
just returned from Union High learned abouts and have worked
United Van Line r-old wood
three Brattleboro d the transi- and problem ge or help those
cracked a 110-yea
on the mai n
on ways to chan e problems in
School seniors foun
difa
stov e, in plac e100 years, and
such
to
thes
affected by
tion following a tripworthy.
floor for about eath the main
ity.
ferent culture noteught back to their commung p u , S t u d e n t
started a fire ben
page 9
Kai-Min
a
What they bro dership and
floor.
side nt, ari ann
Lea
overed and
CLEa’s (Civil ion, formerly Cou ncil pre Stevens, both coThe fire was discre it caused
and Sam
on in act
fe
befo
cati
d
Wol
ng
Edu
ishe
and
ngu
exti
or Education
of CLEa, were amo 12
ts
Lab
ld
iden
age.
Chi
pres
dam
e
the
, pagE
extensiv
lvement with
n SEE CLEA
members
action project) invo
But then churchthe sho ck
Thousands is an
HapELWRV.ORg
t
WWW.CaLVaRYC
project Feed the
disc ove red thacrash blew in
l.
waves from the stone apron
ape
!
Ch
ry
RE
lva
hE
Ca
a section of the er structure, The 1817
WINTER IS
beneath the timb
page 12
Voices
Caretaking,
aging, and
death by a
thousand cuts
N ow h i r i N g
The Arts
Perfect Gifts
for the Little Ones
In Your Life
n More cuts
Documentary
looks at history
of newspapers
in Vermont
Life and
The
Work
Largest
Carter’s Outlet
Thanksgiving
in Brattleboro
in New England
Open Til 8pm Sports
Fridays
Exit 1, I-91, 580 Canal Street, Brattleboro
Ski areas get
a jump on
802-254-4594
OPEN DAILY!
e season
th
page 11
Advertising Sales
Representative
The Commons is growing!
We seek an additional nging it
Bri
energetic, organized person
e
all hom
to serve as our ambassador
s shift focus
BUHS student nger efforts
hu
to local antito the business community
by selling advertising on
commission.
Written response only,
please; send letter of interest
and resume to Betsy Jaffe at
[email protected].
to Chester
ain more track resources,
Last tr
trains demanding
ws Falls
from Bello
With freight
the daily
ues scenic rail rides
remain open for thbound
sou
railroad discontin were run between Bellows Falls will
northbound and
ter.
gue
By Allison Tea
RT STD
TagE paID
EBORO, VT
5301
IT NO. 24
The Commons
LS—green
BELLOWS FaL will not be
Mountain Railroad
en Mo unt ain
run nin g its gre out of Bellows
Flyer excursions r, De bor ah
ot last Saturday
and Chester Depe the last schedand Sunday werruns on the line
uled passenger ble future.
seea
fore
for the
ot remains
For now, the Depservices redal
open for intermond and amtrak,
lated to greyhoustination Bellows
and
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.
Vernon. Sister
of Gail Pelkey
of Springfield,
Vt. Predeceased
by sisters Shirley
Redo, Barbara
Hall, and Gladys
Chadbourne.
Graduate of Springfield High
School, Class of 1950, and
Castleton State College, where
she earned her B.S. degree in
teaching. Was the school secretary at Vernon Elementary
School for 17 years, retiring in
1992. Previously worked as a secretary for 10 years at Brattleboro
Union High School, and taught
at both Green Street School and
Canal Street School. Memorial
information: Funeral services
were held Dec. 6 at Vernon
Christian Advent Church with
burial in Tyler Cemetery.
Donations to Vernon Advent
Christian Home, 61 Greenway
Drive, Vernon, VT 05354, or
to The Gathering Place, 30
Terrace St., Brattleboro, VT
05301. Condolences may be sent
to Atamaniuk Funeral Home at
www.atamaniuk.com.
The
Obituaries
Rounds (currently serving in
Afghanistan) of Westminster.
Grandaughter of Regina Amidon
and Allyn Olney of Bellows Falls,
Robert Gay III of Springfield
and Orland and Terrilee Rounds
of Westminster and Annalee
Webber, all of Westminster.
Great-grandaughter of Reginald
and Judy Amidon of Brattleboro,
Robert Jr. and Joyce Gay of
North Westminster, and Harley
and Cheryl Rounds and JoAnne
and Danny Muzzey, all of
Westminster. Memorial information : A funeral service will
be held at Fenton & Hennessey
Funeral Home in Bellows Falls
at a later date. Burial will follow
in the Saxtons River Cemetery.
T h e C ommons
’s Vermon
stops for amtrakintermodal serWhether the
move its operavice center will ypoint Center
Wa
the
to
s
tion
in the spring reacross the street , Fox said.
mains to be seen ring propos“We are conside
id.
T h e C ommons
• Wednesday, December 8, 2010 NEWS 9
Controversial rules for Texas landfill
could affect VY decommissioning
By Anne Galloway
Special to The Commons
VERNON—New rules under
consideration by a Texas commission could hamper the decommissioning of the Vermont
Yankee nuclear power plant in
the near future, according to experts and activists who oppose
the change.
They say the proposal, which
would allow a Texas landfill to
accept additional waste from
out-of-state entities, including
nuclear power companies like
Entergy Corp., could give away
space that is allotted for anticipated radioactive material from
Vermont Yankee.
Texas formed a compact with
Vermont in 1998 to establish a
permanent repository for lowlevel radioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants and
medical and research facilities in
Vermont and Texas. The compact was set up for the two states’
exclusive use. (Maine was originally a part of the agreement but
dropped out). In 2009, Waste
Control Specialists received a
license to open a radioactive
waste landfill in West Texas for
the compact that is now under
construction.
Two weeks ago, members of the Texas Low-Level
Radioactive Waste Disposal
Compact Commission, including two Douglas administration
officials representing Vermont,
gave preliminary approval to
procedures that would allow the
commission to accept applications for permits from entities
in other states to dump waste
at the site.
Critics say the new rules could
transform the landfill into a national repository for low-level
nuclear waste and that it could
fill up quickly because demand
for landfill space is high.
Thirty-six states are not currently part of a radioactive waste
disposal compact. If the Texas
Commission approves the proposed procedures after a 30day public comment period that
ends Dec. 26, the West Texas
facility would be the only site of
its type licensed to accept waste
from anywhere in the country, according to the Nuclear
Information and Resource
Service, an anti-nuclear group
based in Maryland.
Members of the Texas commission who support the proposals, including Uldis Vanags,
the state nuclear engineer for the
Vermont Department of Public
Service, say they are looking out
for Vermont’s interests and that
opening the site to “imported”
waste from “noncompact” entities will help to pay for the construction of the high-tech facility,
which is slated to open at the end
of 2011. Otherwise, they say,
waste disposal costs for the two
compact members, Texas and
Vermont, would be prohibitively
expensive.
Vanags and Steven Wark,
director of consumer affairs
and public information for the
Vermont Department of Public
Service, both voted on Nov. 13
to support the rules, which will
enable other states to apply for
access to the landfill.
Vanags and Wark, the only
two Vermont representatives
on the commission, were among
the five commissioners who approved the change; two Texas
members dissented.
Vanags said the new rule
won’t have an impact on decommissioning Vermont Yankee.
“We will not give up our capacity that we need to fulfill the
decommissioning of Vermont
Yankee,” Vanags said. “The
only way [we] would consider
importation is if there is surplus
capacity.”
Several Texas Compact commissioners who cast dissenting
votes on the rule have questioned
whether “imports” will use up
capacity at the facility before
Vermont has a chance to move
radioactive materials from a decommissioned Vermont Yankee
plant to Texas.
The proposed rules, which
were promulgated in the Texas
Register on Nov. 26, are now
subject to a 30-day public comment period, which ends Dec.
27.
The commission is expected
to make a final decision soon after the public comment period
— before the new Vermont governor, Peter Shumlin, is installed
and Vermont lawmakers convene
for the 2011 legislative session.
Shumlin, a Democrat, and
leaders of his party in the
Statehouse, have been critical
of Entergy Corp.’s handling of
maintenance problems at the
nuclear power plant in Vernon,
including a transformer fire, the
collapse of a cooling tower and
radioactive leaks, none of which
affected public safety, according
to the company and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. Last
year, Gov.-elect Shumlin led
the charge, as president pro tem
of the Vermont Senate, to nix
Entergy’s relicensure effort.
necessary … I don’t see your new
governor as part of this.”
The rationale for
taking all comers
Waste Control Specialists
An aerial view of Waste Control Specialists’ facility in Texas for radioactive
canisters.
the Vermont Legislature’s Public
Oversight Panel.
The compact legally entitles
Vermont under a 15-year license
to 20 percent, or 462,000 cubic feet, of the 2.3 million cubic
feet at the nuclear waste dump.
Under the proposal, however,
space could be at a premium at
the waste facility if “noncompact” entities are allowed to
apply for permits to deposit radioactive materials at the site in
Andrews County, Texas, according to Bob Gregory, a member
of the commission from Texas.
Requests for waste “importation” would be vetted on a caseby-case basis, according to the
published rules.
In 2009, the Compact
Commission determined that
Vermont and Texas together
need 6 million cubic square feet
of capacity for the amount of
radioactive waste generated by
both states.
Gregory, one of the dissenting
members, said the commission
doesn’t have the staff capacity
or financial resources to evaluate
applications. (The annual budget
of $125,000 covers only travel
and meeting expenses.) In addition, the subjective nature of the
proposed permitting process, he
said, could leave the commission
vulnerable to lawsuits.
He doesn’t know how the
commission will defend itself
from legal challenges if the commission says no to one entity and
yes to another.
“Waste Control specialists,
Entergy, Santa Claus — anyone can sue us for not allowing
radioactive waste to come in,”
Gregory said. “What are we
going to say if we can’t defend
ourselves?”
Entergy, according to a Texas
official, would have much to
gain if the new landfill rules go
through. The Louisiana-based
corporation needs a place to
put the waste from its fleet of
10 plants around the country.
“Opening the Texas facility
The facility, which is designed to take radioactive materials such as contaminated
clothing, glass, metal, reactor
components and sludge, needs a
certain amount of waste to cover
the fixed costs associated with
construction.
White, speaking as commission vice chair, said allowing material from other states into the
landfill would lower the operating costs for the compact members tenfold.
Vanags said opening up the
site to more entities will keep
disposal fees at the site reasonable for Texas and Vermont.
The commission hasn’t set fees
for “imports,” but so far it hasn’t
imposed up-front contributions
from noncompact waste generators. Vermont will pay $25 million to support construction of
the site this year.
“The way to reduce cost per
cubic foot is to increase your capacity,” Vanags said in contending the only way the commission
would consider “imports” would
be if there is surplus capacity.
Vanags said before the commission would accept applications, it would conduct an
updated study to determine how
much capacity would be needed
by the two compact states.
“We recognize as a commission we have to have a process
[for dealing with requests],”
Vanags said. “We’re not opposed
to importation. We’re open to it,
but as long as our capacity is protected. The facility in the future
may be expanded, and they may
amend their license. In future,
there may be surplus capacity.”
White supports expanding the
site to accommodate more waste.
The limitations now placed on
the landfill are under the terms
of the current license issued
by the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality, White
said. The site itself, he believes,
could be expanded.
In the meantime, demand is
high, White said.
Medical waste vendors are already coming in to the state of
Texas in anticipation of the facility opening a year from now, he
said, and hospitals are having a
difficult time disposing of waste
used in research and in the treatment of cancer.
“So many people say you’re
opening the door,” White said.
“The door is already open. Waste
is already coming into Texas,
and we don’t have control over
where the waste is stored. We
don’t have procedures to say you
can’t bring it in.”
would allow them to take it from adoption of the new rules, said
those other plants,” Gregory he doesn’t understand why the
said.
rule has to be adopted by early
January. He suspects the timA giveaway?
ing has something to do with a
G u n d e r s e n s a i d t h e changing of the political guard in
Douglas administration sup- the Vermont governor’s office.
ports Entergy’s proposal to put
“What on Earth is the rush?”
Vermont Yankee in SAFSTOR Gregory said. “It’s rushing to
for 60 years, while the company beat a date for when the new
waits for the decommissioning governor comes to town. If the
fund to grow enough to cover commissioners change, then the
the cost of moving the material vote would be 4-4; now it’s 6-2.”
offsite.
The terms for the commisSAFSTOR, in Gundersen’s sioners from Vermont – Vanags,
view, is not necessary. He said Wark and their alternate Sarah
Vermont Yankee could be de- Hoffman – expire Feb. 28,
commissioned in 10 years, but 2010. Gov.-elect Shumlin, in
that scenario is contingent on the interim, will likely appoint
access to landfill capacity in a new commissioner for the
Texas. There is just enough cu- Department of Public Service,
bic square footage on the site to who could in turn name new “exaccommodate the radioactive empt” employees, or appointed
waste from the plant.
officials, who would take the
“There’s a limited amount of place of the three who are now
land (for radioactive waste dis- on the commission.
posal) in Texas, and the state is
Tom Smith, of Public Citizen,
giving away Vermont’s land to an advocacy group that opposes
Storage in
35 other states, which will make the landfill, said the commission
Vermont, or Texas?
it impossible to decommission wants to get the rule rammed
Vermont Yankee is licensed
Vermont Yankee,” Gundersen through before the Texas and
to operate until March 2012.
said.
Vermont legislatures have a
Unless the license is extended,
In June 2009, Vanags tes- chance to take action to block it.
which would appear politically
tified to the Vermont Public
“They’re afraid the new govuntenable given the Vermont
Service Board that decommis- ernor of Vermont might apSenate’s decision last year to
sioning Vermont Yankee would point commissioners that might
block Entergy’s bid to relicense
cost less than the $568 million stand up for the state, as opthe 38-year-old plant for 20
spent on Maine Yankee, even posed to going along with what
years, the plant will be shut down
though projections that include the nuclear industry wants,”
next year, preparing the way for
the SAFSTOR option have been Smith said.
decommissioning.
higher. Vermont Public Radio
John C. White, vice chair of
At that point, where and how
reported in 2007 that decom- the commission and a radiation
the radioactive waste is stored
missioning Vermont Yankee safety officer for the University
will become a crucial issue.
could cost as much as $1.7 bil- of Texas Southwestern Medical
Entergy Corp. has proposed
lion. In September of this year, Center, says nothing of the sort
keeping the materials on the
the decommissioning fund was is going on.
Vernon site in a system called
at about $443 million. Entergy is
“We’ve been talking about this
SAFSTOR for six decades.
responsible for making sure there for 16 months,” White said of the
Another alternative would be
is adequate money available for rule. “We can amend the rule if
a more accelerated decommisdecommissioning.
sioning process, in which the
Gundersen said Vanags’ testiwaste would be sent to the West
mony was based on the assumpTexas landfill overseen by the
tion that the radioactive waste
commission and operated by a
would be shipped to Texas.
Dallas-based private company,
“If Vanags’ testimony unWaste Control Specialists, acder oath is correct, we could
GREENFIELD, Mass.—A Rosemary Bassilakis, technical
cording to Arnie Gundersen, a
complete decommissioning by
Vermont Yankee decommis- advisor for the Connecticut
nuclear engineer who serves on
2020, (but) he’s giving away the
sioning forum will be held on Citizens Awareness Network;
land to which you need to ship
Wednesday, Dec. 8, from 7-9 Robert Stannard, lobbyist for
it,” Gundersen said. “If you
p.m., at the downtown cam- the Vermont Citizens Action
give away the land, you force
pus of Greenfield Community Network; and Dr. Marvin
SAFSTOR to occur. With no
College, 270 Main St.
Resnicoff, nuclear physicist
place to send it, we’re sort of
A four-person panel will and international consulconstipated.”
discuss what will happen if tant on radioactive waste
Vanags, who voted to publish
Vermont Yankee stops op- issues, Radioactive Waste
the rules that will allow other
erating in March 2012, what Management Associates.
states to apply for access to the
might happen before that
A period of open discuslandfill, said: “There absolutely
date, and what local residents, sion will follow the panel
will be enough space.”
elected officials, and town and presentation.
“We will not give up our caregional bodies can do to make
This event is co-sponsored
pacity that we need to fulfill the
sure Vermont Yankee is prop- by the Safe & Green Campaign
decommissioning of Vermont
erly dismantled and cleaned- and Nuclear Free Vermont by
Yankee,” he said.
up, with the radioactive waste 2012. Refreshments will be
In audio testimony, Vanags
safely stored.
served. For more informaand Wark voted against amendThe panelists will be Deb tion, contact Deb Katz at
ments to the proposed rules
Katz, executive director of the 413-339-5781.
that would have given Compact
Citizens Awareness Network;
members first dibs to the landfill
and also that would have delayed
action and allowed the Texas and
Vermont legislatures an opportunity to weigh in on the matter.
“We’re actually under the
“The SMALL Credit Union
closing phases of the Douglas
administration,” Gundersen
with a BIG HEART”
said. “We’re getting to the point
where we, the state of Vermont’s
www.members1cu.com
administrative agencies, are actu10
Browne
CT
PO Box 8245
ally assisting Entergy, as opposed
to looking out for the best interN. Brattleboro, VT 05304
Waste Control Specialists
A schematic of how waste would be stored underground taken from Waste ests of the state.”
NCUA
Tel. (802) 257-5131
Insured to
Gregory, a Texas commisControl Specialists’ 2007 license application. The facility would accept low-level
250,000
Fax
(802) 257-5837
radioactive waste from government and private sources in Texas and Vermont, sion member who opposed the
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10
T h e C ommons
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
ARTS CALENDAR
Music
Bahman’s son Emmett on trumpet, Quinn Darrow on bass,
Fabian Gaspero-Beckstrom
on drums, Jaoquin Borofsky
on sax, and special guest Sam
Indenbaum on piano.
Tickets are (a suggested) $5,
available at the door. For more
information, visit www.openmusiccollective.org or call 802275 5054. OMC is located in
the Cotton Mill in Brattleboro
in Studio A335.
(keyboards) of Dominique
Eade and Heather Masse, Ryan
• Student concert at
Scott (guitar) of Josh Mease and
Open Music Collective: On
Rumblefoot, Jacob Silver (bass)
Thursday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m.,
of The Mammals, and Robin
the Open Music Collective will
MacMillan (drums) of Sugar and
host a student ensembles concert
Gold and Tao Seeger.
featuring the music of Wayne
Tickets are $16 general adShorter and other works by
mission, $14 for students and seMongo Santamarìa, Coltrane,
niors. For ticket reservations and
Monk and Ray Anderson.
information, call 802-254-9276.
Local favorites Steve Frankel
For more information, visit
(bass), Jon Mack (sax and
• O’Donovan, Courtin in www.myspace.com/aoifeodonoflute), Kate Parsons (piano), Putney: Twilight Music pres- van, www.christinacourtin.com
Bahman Mahdavi (guitar) and ents an evening of progressive and www.twilightmusic.org.
Dan Borden (drums) have re- folk music with vocalist/guitar• Legion Band Christmas
hearsed challenging Wayne ist Aoife O’Donovan (of the al- concer ts: The Brattleboro
Shorter compositions including ternative bluegrass stringband American Legion Band will presAna Maria, Armageddon, Speak no Crooked Still and the folk-noir ent its annual Christmas conEvil, and Water Babies. Shorter is trio Sometymes Why) and vocal- cert on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at
commonly regarded as one of ist/violinist Christina Courtin on 7:30 p.m., at the Legion Hall on
the most important American Friday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Linden Street. There is no adjazz musicians of his generation The United Church of Putney, mission charge, but donations
which included extended rela- 15 Kimball Hill.
are welcome.
tionships with Art Blakey, Miles
The pair of singer/songwritFrom the opening strains of
Davis, and Weather Report.
ers will share a back-up band A Festival of Carols to the final
The other group performing of some of today’s top young notes of Let It Snow, the 45-piece
is a youth ensemble including roots musicians — Jed Wilson Legion Band will feature popular and familiar music of the holiday season. The first half of the
concert, led by Bruce Corwin,
Support BBBS...learn more at rivercu.com
features old favorites such as
Santa Claus is Coming to Town, a
George Gershwin Christmas
Look into medley, and ends with We Need
Christmas, from the musiBig Brothers/Big Sisters acalLittle
Hello Dolly. The second half,
of Windham County led by Raymond Brown, features
a short visit from The Grinch Who
Stole Christmas and a sing-along of
familiar carols.
The band will also do its annual “Around Town” tour on
Dec. 18.
Opus 21 selects three compositions
from Grammar School students
PUTNEY—Three student
composers from The Grammar
School traveled to St. Michael’s
College in Colchester on Dec.
6 to hear their original musical compositions played live
by professional musicians in
the Vermont Midi Project’s
Opus 21 Concert. The selected pieces are Summer’s
Dance by eighth-grader Jamie
Lumley, a second time winner; Chaos by sixth-grader
Russell Boswell; and My Friend
The Wind by fifth-grader Isaac
Freitas-Eagan.
In his notes for the program,
Isaac wrote, “I really liked
watching my piece come together. I thought it was really
cool to be able to connect with
a music mentor through the internet, and I was excited when
my piece was selected.”
Jamie Lumley’s notes say,
“As well as writing music, I
also love to play piano and sing.
Music has always been one of
my interests and I love to be
able to have my thoughts written out on paper and expressed
to others.”
When describing his piece,
Chaos, Russell Boswell said,
“The song’s name is not so
much based on the attitude of
the composition as it is about
me…sometimes. The ending
holds a surprise.”
In addition to the evening
concert, each composer had
dedicated rehearsal time with
the performers during the afternoon and the opportunity
to attend workshops and discussion groups.
Other Opus 21 entries were
composed by five TGS fifthgraders: Roselle Lovell-Smith
and William Parkman; Ethan
Foster and Robin McOwen;
and Tyler Silbey.
Under the direction of
Alli Lubin, head of the music program and technology
administrator, these young
BE A BIG
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Factory Machine Maintenance Technician – Major firm
accepting applications for a manufacturing machine maintenance technician, with PLC and light electrical background.
The hours are 11:00pm to 7:00am and the starting wage will
be between $14.00 to $16.00 start per hour based on experience and will offer rapid pay increases. Direct hire, offers free
health and dental health premium, including 401k. For more
information call Dutton toll free at 1-888-786-0791.
Shippers/Movers – Major firm accepting applications for
rugged positions using a two wheel dolly loading and unloading trucks. Must be able to complete shipping orders
accurately and have an excellent school or work record for
reference check. Pay is $12.00 per hour, various shifts, regular full-time. For more information call Dutton toll free at
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Lead Machine Operator with Forklift – Major firm needs
candidate with good decision making skills. Second shift,
2:00pm to 2:00am or complete, $14.00 to $16.00 start per
hour based on experience. For more information call Dutton
toll free at 1-888-786-0791.
The show will run through
December and be open during
library hours: Saturdays 9 a.m.-1
p.m., and Tuesday–Friday 1-5
p.m. For more information,
call librarian Meris Morrison at
802-365-7948.
• Grassy Brook Arts Festival
in Brookline: The first-ever
•TubaChristmas returns to
Brattleboro: The second an-
nual TubaChristmas will be held
on Sunday, Dec. 19, at 3 p.m., at
the First Congregational Church
on Western Avenue.
TubaChristmas is a concert
held in cities around the world
that celebrates those who play,
teach, and compose music for
instruments in the tuba family,
such as the tuba, Sousaphone,
baritone, and euphonium horns.
It was first held in 1847 in New
York City, with more than 300
musicians playing together.
Last year, tuba players from
Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts and New York
State came to Brattleboro for
the inaugural TubaChristmas
concert.
• Jatoba in Saxtons River:
Vermont “groovegrass” trio
Jatoba will present a holiday concert on Wednesday, Dec. 22, at
7 p.m., at Main Street Arts in
Saxtons River.
Admission is $5 and concertgoers are asked to bring a nonperishable food item for a food
drive for the Vermont Foodbank.
• Sing along at the River
www.myspace.com/jatobamusic/
Jatoba will present a holiday concert Dec. 22.
Garden: Join Ali and your com-
munity family members for a
Music Together all ages Holiday
Sing-Along on Thursday, Dec
23, at 11 a.m., at the River
Garden in Brattleboro
Regular Music Together
classes will begin again the second week of January at New
England Youth Theatre in
Brattleboro on Wednesday
mornings at 9:30 and 10:30,
and Friday monrings at 9:30.
For more information, or to
reserve a space, contact Ali at
[email protected] or call
802-275-7478.
Performing arts
• Po e t r y r e a d i n g i n
Bellows Falls : On Saturday,
Southern Vermont
P ainting &
RestoRation
Interior & Exterior
Painting
Carpentry
Plaster Work
802.257.3026
composers join the list of 15
former TGS Opus selected
composers: Jacob Knapp,
Miles Hume, Colin Clark,
Brooke Mooney, Katelyn
Donovan, Julian Stolper,
Tim Quimby, Nathaniel
Todd Long, Antonia Dufort,
Michaela Shea-Gander, Lucie
Foster, Ona Hauert, Claire
Thomas, Jamie Lumley, and
Libby Green.
“The live performance experience is such a reward,”
writes Sandi MacLeod, VT
Midi Project coordinator.
“When music comes from living, breathing musicians, there
is an energy and vibrance that
the computer can’t imitate.”
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, The Grammar
School in Putney educates
children in preschool through
eighth grade. More information about the Opus 21 program can be found on the web
at www.vtmidi.org/opus21.htm
Dec. 11, at 2 p.m., Ben Mitchell
will read from his book, Only The
Sound Itself, at the Village Square
Booksellers in Bellows Falls.
After the reading, the floor
will be open for attendees to
read their poems as well. This is
part of the 2nd Saturday, Poetry
Open Mic, hosted by The River
Voices writing group. River
Voices encourages participants
to read from your own poetry,
bring a favorite poetry book to
read from, or just listen. Call
Give the gift of joy
to your favorite gardener.
the bookstore at 802-463-9404
to get on the reader’s schedule.
• A Christmas Carol in
Brookline: The Brookline
Players stage reading of A
Christmas Carol will be presented
Sunday, Dec. 12, at 4 p.m., at
the Brookline School on Grassy
Brook Road.
The show is a fundraiser to
restore the Historic Brookline
Church. It is directed by Bob
DuCharme.
Visual arts
• Quilt display in Newfane:
The Crowell Gallery of the
Moore Free Library, 23 West
St., is featuring an exciting exhibit of 16 quilts and wall hangings made by members of the
Sew What’s Group of Newfane.
The group has met for over a
decade on Tuesday evenings for
dinner and craft work at the local
Congregational Church.
Members exhibiting work
are Pat Bellou, Judy Acampora,
Leona Tabel, Jean Wilson,
Winnie Dolan, Jane Robinson,
Jan Becket, Flo Staats, Jan
Knowles, Shirley Hendricks,
Betty Horton, Ginny Grabowski,
Elsie Garbe, and Betty Ann
Nelson.
Grassy Brook Art Festival will be
held on Sunday, Dec. 10, from
noon until 6 p.m., at the former
Brookline School building.
Formerly known as The
Artists of Brookline, the group
has expanded and changed its
venue from an open studio tour
to a new holiday event showcasing locally made crafts for sale,
including pottery, fiber arts,
photography, and other arts
and artisanry; a group exhibit
showcasing the talents of primarily Brookline artists and artisans; craft demonstrations and
a weave-your-own-ornament table. Box lunches will be offered
for sale from noon until 2 pm to
enjoy while browsing and shopping; baked goodies will also be
available.
This event is the first re-use
of the school building since its
closing and is part of the initiative to explore new uses for the
facility, with the hope of building
interest in a multi-purpose community center where all types of
programs can be held to benefit
this community.
The Grassy Brook Art Fest
is the newest event of the group
formed in 2008 to promote local artists, and by doing so enhance and support the image
of Brookline as well as provide
an opportunity for sharing experiences and resources among
artists and artisans in the community. Artists include Carolyn
Albee, Paul Madalinski, Trish
Naudon-Thomas, Windmill
Hill Alpaca Farms, Whitney
Hill Design, Z-pots, Rae Rice,
Dandelion Designs, The Ladies
Benevolence Society Crafts of
the HBCPI, Gary Lavorgna,
Suzanne D’Corsey, Chris
Thomas, Treah Pichette, The
NATCH!, and more.
SPEND ONCE,
GIVE TWICE!
Brattleboro Area Affordable Housing’s Save Our Homes
program helps people with housing emergencies.
Our no-interest loans help mainly with:
• security deposits (Though they can afford a month’s
rent, people often don’t have the security deposit
money needed to get an apartment.)
• back rent (These days too many people are living at
the edge. So, when the car needs fixing or there’s a
medical bill, the rent money may not be there. And that
can start them down a path to eviction.)
The Meditative Gardener
cultivating mindfulness of
b o d y , fe e l i n g s , a n d m i n d
by Cheryl Wilfong
Published by Heart Path Press

256 f u l l c o l o r pag e s
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By this fall we had loaned more than $300,000 to 850+ families
in 13 towns. Because a number of our loans turned into grants,
we spent this year’s budget by October. Next year does not look
better.
So, if there are people on your gift list who don’t need
more things, please consider a gift to BAAH. And send
your friend a card telling them you’ve done that in
their honor. They will appreciate it. And the hard-pressed
neighbors your gift will help will have a better new year.
Thank you!
Brattleboro Area Affordable Housing
1-800-345-6665 • [email protected]
PO Box 1284, Brattleboro 05302
w w w. m e d i t a t i ve g a r d e n e r. c o m
We are a volunteer, 501(c)(3) organization.
Donations to ‘BAAH’ are fully tax-deductible.
T h e C ommons
Knitting group celebrates
fourth anniversary
SAXTONS RIVER—On
Dec. 6, 2006, Susan Bourne
of Saxtons River offered and
facilitated the first gathering
of KnittingTogether at the
Rockingham Free Public Library
in Bellows Falls.
Her goals was simple: offer
knitters of all levels a time and
place where they could meet
freely each week for a few hours
to knit hats, mittens, scarves,
and sweaters for local children
and families.
After two years at the public
library, KnittingTogether moved
its weekly sessions to the Saxtons
River Inn in Saxtons River,
where they have been sitting and
knitting together since then on
Wednesdays from 1-3 p.m.
Also around that time,
Bourne began graduate school
and asked Mary Guild if she
would kindly handle active facilitation and distribution for
KnittingTogether. For the next
two years, Guild did just that
and kept KnittingTogether humming, right up until her death
this fall.
Now, after four years of
KnittingTogether, group members share all aspects of knitting,
sorting, storing, and distributing items made throughout the
year for gifting to local children
when the weather turns cold and
another Vermont winter sets in.
As with any volunteer group,
members come and go for various reasons, but — as witnessed
by this month’s four-year anniversary — the personal dedication of each member carries on.
KnittingTogether welcomes
new members each week and
will show (or remind) folks how
to cast on, knit up, and bind
off. The group wishes to thank
Caroline Naberezny, Donna
Golec, Felicia Cuming, JoAnne
Russo, Susan Bourne, and other
knitters who continue to bring
their willing hearts and hands to
KnittingTogether as they join
in this effort to help warm local
community children.
For information or to offer
time and/or yarn, contact Bourne
at [email protected].
River Gallery School plans trip
to Tuscany, Umbria
BRATTLEBORO —
The River Gallery School in
Brattleboro will sponsor a trip
to Italy this spring for a week of
making art and exploration of the
Tuscan countryside.
Travelers will spend seven
nights in a small hotel/villa south
of Siena, with a day trip to Assisi,
home of St. Francis, and an excursion to Siena, among the most
beautiful cities in all of Italy.
There will also be wonderful
Italian food and wine.
Tour guide Cicely Carroll of
Putney will lead the group in
painting, drawing, and photographing the rolling hills around
Pienza and Montepulcino, an
area designated a UNESCO
Cultural Landscape Site.
An informational meeting will
be held for those interested in
participating in this art trip on
Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. at the River
Gallery School, 32 Main St., in
Brattleboro. Call 802-257-1577
for more information.
The trip will be held from
April 9 to 16, 2011. An option
for participants will be a cooking class, featuring preparation
of Italian specialties. As an additional option, participants
can add a side trip to Florence
or Rome to visit museums and
other sights.
Travelers will be encouraged
to bring their own journals and
sketch pads, pastels and watercolor supplies, but since activities are all optional, non-artists
are welcome, and will equally
enjoy the trip.
For more information outside
this meeting, contact the River
Gallery School at 802-257-1577
or [email protected].
Cuba’s ‘Why Generation’ is subject of
Windham World Affairs Council talk
BRATTLEBORO — On
Thursday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m.,
the Windham World Affairs
Council of Vermont will host
Anthony DePalma, former New
York Times correspondent and
Writer in Residence at Seton
Hall University, at the Marlboro
Collge Tech Center on Vernon
Street.
Also joining the presentation will be students from the
Brattleboro Union High School
who recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Cuba.
DePalma will speak on
“Cuba’s Why Generation:
Shifting Attitudes in Policy and
the Population.” The students
will offer a PowerPoint presentation on their trip, which included
work with Down Syndrome children and meetings with officials
from the Cuban ministries of
Health, Education and Finance.
Coffee with the speakers will
begin at 7 p.m. The event is free
and open to the public.
DePalma is the author of
The Man Who Invented Fidel,
Here: A Biography of the New
American Continent, and the
recently released City of Dust:
Illness, Arrogance and 9/11. He
was the first foreign correspondent of The New York Times to
serve as bureau chief in both
Mexico and Canada; he has also
reported from Cuba, Central and
South America, Montenegro and
Albania. After 9/11, he wrote
more than 85 profiles for the
Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning
Portraits of Grief series, and
was a 2007 Emmy nominee for
his work on the documentary
Toxic Legacy.
To join the Windham World
Affairs Council of Vermont
and receive regular mailings of
events, send an e-mail to info@
windhamworldaffairs.org.
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For the Holidays, Consider a
Gift Box of Vermont
For those friends and relatives that no
longer live in New England, Harlow’s
offers several gift boxes with pure
Vermont Maple products, jams,
jellies, cheese, honey and candy. You
can also design your own gift box.
Visit us on the web at
harlowsugarhouse.com, call us at
802-387-5852, or visit us at our farm
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US Route 5.
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]
1,046 reasons
to join and support
this holiday season
Yes, 1,046 reasons.
That’s the number of stories we’ve published to date this year in The Commons, at least
according to our all-knowing computer system.
Do you want more reasons to join Vermont Independent Media?
how about 1,021,328 of them? That’s the number of words we’ve published in the
paper since January, more or less.
Or maybe another 234 reasons — the number of writers, photographers, columnists,
and artists who have contributed to our pages, from our employees all the way to the
individual readers writing passionate letters about pay-as-you-throw trash disposal in
Brattleboro this summer.
Most of those 234 contributors are just like you. when you write a letter or give us
news, all our readers benefit, and we do a better job. we can’t create an excellent newspaper
without your enthusiastic participation.
We also can’t pay the bills without your financial support.
That’s the simple truth. we have a great and growing number of advertisers and the
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Like most nonprofits, Vermont Independent Media runs a tight ship. we need your
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If you are among our hundreds of members, we hope you’ll consider an additional
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we’ll even put a gift announcement in the paper if you’d like.
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12
T h e C ommons
LIFE & WORK
Life lessons from
a beekeeper
Brattleboro resident recalls
grandfather’s skills and values
The Commons
B
RATTLEBORO—
“When my grandfather, whom we
called John, went
deer hunting, he wore
his simple plaid jacket, carried his
Winchester rifle from the 1940s
and went out to the woods at
sun up. He walked patiently all
day, and came back when it was
dark,” says native Brattleborian
Michael Fairchild, now 59, who
spent part of his youth growing
up on Marlboro Avenue, the
backyard to Oak Grove School.
“He taught me patience. For
a young boy, that’s a wonderful skill to be taught to you by
a grandfather. John was a lean,
kind, quiet sort of guy who was
sensible and practical in every
kind of way. He was humble; he
didn’t have a lot, but he didn’t
need a lot either. I was fortunate
to have lived two houses away
from my uncle, and he, John, and
I used to go hunting and fishing
together. We’d take a Thermos
and a simple sandwich and we’d
head on out into the woods,” remembers Fairchild.
John Russell lived with his wife
Jenny on Highland Street. Before
they were joined, Jenny owned
the house, and since she was
raising two sons alone, she used
to rent out rooms in the 1930s.
Russell was a boarder there and
eventually the two were married.
Working at the C.F. Church
factory on Elm Street, he helped
make the toilet seats that earned
the company its motto, “the best
seat in the house.”
Russell walked to work every morning because he’d never
learned to drive and spent his
weekends doing the things that
renaissance men who had grown
up in the country did on the
weekend — hunting, fishing, and
bee keeping.
“Many years later,” says
Fairchild, “I moved with my
family to Westminster West.
Initially, my father was a tailor
who owned Fairchild’s Clothiers
on Main Street (where Zephyr
Art Store is located today), and
my mother ran a store in the
basement selling fabrics and
notions. She was a dressmaker
by trade. When we moved from
Marlboro Avenue, my parents
closed their stores, and my father bought the Putney General
Store, which he ran for many
years.”
Bob Gray, the two time
U.S. Ski Team Olympian from
Putney, was a good friend to
Michael Fairchild. Gray’s parents were friends of Scott and
Helen Nearing, who lived in
Jamaica. The Nearings were
back to the land enthusiasts who
published the classic book Living
the Good Life in 1954. The Grays
worked at Putney School and
were familiar with, and practiced
a lot of the same skills as, their
friends the Nearings.
“Their son Bob was about my
age and knew bees. He introduced me to the old time skill of
tracking bees,” says Fairchild. “If
you think about the term ‘making a bee line,’ you’ll understand
what we were doing.”
Fairchild explains that these
days, those thinking about becoming bee keepers can go to a
catalog and purchase anything
that they might have needed,
including the bees themselves.
In older times, skills like “lining bees” or tracking them were
common.
“It’s the kind of skill that generations of people passed on to
their children,” he says, “the
kind of thing that my grandfather
John was raised with. When I was
growing up post-World War II in
the 1950s, these were skills that
the old timers around still had.
And bees were different then,
too. In those days you could go
out in the backyard, and if there
was a patch of clover, you’d find
a wild bee working it. That isn’t
so common anymore because of
disease and pesticides, among
other things,” he says.
While Fairchild knew that his
grandfather had many of the old
skills of his day, he didn’t realize that John also knew about
bee keeping.
“I was in my early 20s. I’d already been exposed to the hunting and the fishing, but John was
getting hives set up in the backyard of his house on Oak Grove
Avenue and had been tracking bees to fill his hive,” says
Fairchild. “I doubt there were
many old time skills he didn’t
know about, but I hadn’t realized until that day he knew bees.”
Bees can be “tracked” back
to their hives because they are a
working community. The bees
responsible for finding pollen
are out looking for flowers and
grasses to provide them with the
means for creating honey, their
food. An experienced bee keeper
has the patience and the skill to
see a bee working a flower and
with a good eye, can track it back
to its hive. Other than perhaps a
small initial circle of flight, a bee
will travel from the flower on a
“bee line” back to its hive.
Sometimes, bee keepers put
out a jar of sugar water to attract a wild bee. From there, a
bee keeper can either follow it
or take some colored chalk to
dust the top of the bee to see
how long it takes for the bee to
collect the sugar water, bring it
back to the hive, and come back
for more, giving the bee keeper
an idea of how far away the hive
might be located.
Fairchild remembers, “I got a
call from my uncle that John had
tracked a hive and needed help
getting the bees to the hives that
he built in his back yard because
he didn’t drive. The remarkable
thing is that he tracked that one
bee from his house on Oak Grove
Avenue, all the way across the
Connecticut River to the side
of the Wantastiquet Mountain
in New Hampshire. That takes
some serious skill.
“This was the early 1970s. We
jumped in my truck, and John
brought me to the area where
he found the hive on a steep
embankment on the side of the
mountain, in the hollow of a big
pine tree that was almost dead.
He was nervous because we were
on state land. The bees were
buzzing all over the place. He
didn’t want to fell the tree because he didn’t have permission,
but I looked at it and decided
that we were only going to fell
a dead tree and leave it in a better condition than we found it. I
went home and came back with a
chain saw to take the tree down.
We didn’t want to have to climb
a dead tree to remove the hive.”
Fairchild brought the tree
down and then, with a few swift
hits of his axe, opened up the
hive.
“There was now sawdust inside the hive, and there were
about 20,000 bees flying around
in a panic. The bees are really
more concerned about what happened to their home than getting
99that did the deed. That’s
the bear
SALE use a smoker to calm
why people
Kick bees
Multitool
the
down. It brings their
Pliers, wire cutter,to
knife,the
container
attention
hive and not to
opener, screwdrivers. Leather sheath
you,”
included. says Fairchild.
The
pair had brought along
R 531
766 B12
one of the hive boxes that Russell
had made. They laid a white
sheet on the ground, put the box
on top of it, and then looked inside the hive for the queen bee.
Fairchild
says, “There are sev5-Pc.
GTearWrench
eral
sections
to a hive. There is
Ratcheting
Wrench
aSet
brood
Tighten area
& loosenand a storage area
where
honey
faster withthe
ratcheted
box is kept as their
ends. Metric
or SAE. and there is an area
food
supply,
where the queen lives. It’s important to find her right away
because once in the bee box, the
other bees will follow her into the
hive. We were able to do that
pretty quickly, because if you
know what you’re looking for,
she’s a very distinct bee.”
The pair placed the queen into
the bee box on the white sheet.
“It is a miracle. Bees are incredible. I’ll never get tired of
watching an event like that. It’s
fascinating. We put the queen
inside the box, and you could
watch the other bees walking
across the white sheet and moving right into that bee box. It’s
like an army of 20,000 men just
marching together. We let them
get settled, and then in the early
evening went back to the box,
closed the top, put them in the
truck and took them back to Oak
Grove Avenue.
“These days, well even then,
you could go to another bee
keeper and purchase hive materials. There is a sheet called
a stamping that you can buy
that is like honey comb. The
bees will start building out their
comb from there, but not John.
He didn’t buy anything; he made
all of it himself. Where someone
might spend some serious money
to get started with bee keeping,
John spent hours instead. He
bought himself about $8 worth
of pine boards and built everything himself. That’s the old
school way of doing things, and
I really respected him for that,”
recalls Fairchild.
“I know that he put up a lot
of honey over the years. One of
his granddaughters used to sell it
at the Farmer’s Market for him.
But the next time that I was involved, it was the early 1990s and
it was because John had died.
My uncle called and asked me
if I’d like to have his bee hives
and equipment. It was so great
to have these pieces that he had
handcrafted himself. In fact, I
also am the proud owner of his
rifle,” says Fairchild.
“I was really lucky. I feel
like, even though I still live in
Brattleboro now, I grew up in a
time that is no more. These were
the good old days, and it feels
like they’re gone. We had the
Sale Ethat
nds
black-and-white television
Nov.so30
th
only had three stations,
we
didn’t sit around watching that.
Instead, we ran around Marlboro
Avenue like a pack of dogs. Our
parents didn’t always have to
know where we were. We’d walk
Your One Stop Shopping For The Holidays!
19
reg. 12.99
70-Ct. M5 Pinecone
LED Light Set Green cord. Assorted color lights.
Operated
T749 236, 216, 244, 257,
126 by081 B12
Connecticut River Transit
Pliers, wire cutter, knife, container
opener, screwdrivers. Leather sheath
reg. 24.99
included.
and torx. With steel shaft, acetate
While supplies last.
5-Pc. GTearWrench
Ratcheting Wrench
Set Tighten & loosen
faster with ratcheted box
ends. Metric or SAE.
9
AA battery included.
reg. 24.99
www.crtransit.org
Heats up to 600 - 2,400 sq. ft. with a
heating capacity of up to 65,000 BTU’s.
Stainless Steel Heat Exchanger and
Automatic Circulation Blower to spread
heat evenly. EPA Certified. Dimensions:
28.25"D x 25.25"W x 33"H Door
Opening: 15.1"W x 12.25"H. Takes 20"
log. Mobile Home Approved!
Retail… $1,399
or Call us at 888-869-6287 or
802-460-RIDE (7433)
8
Saw Blade
97 Circular
Shop Clock with 12-in-1
18-Pc. Screwdriver Set Slotted,
Phillips and torx. With steel shaft, acetate
AA battery included. While supplies last.
With keyless chuck.
Includes screwdriving
bits, battery and
charger.
12-Volt Cordless
Drill/Driver
With keyless chuck.
Includes screwdriving
bits, battery and
charger.
Sale
reg. 12.99
999
Green cord. Assorted color lights.
T749 236, 216, 244, 257, 126 081 B12
Assorted colors. T126 076, 079, 077,
075, 080 B12
SALE
$
1697
We Provide the Ride!
Sale $999
Tax Credit… $300
Your Cost After Tax Credit … $699
112-336
Sale
$
Holiday
Sale SaveHeating
$100 Costs
Give The Gift Of Lower
Saturday, December
18
MAGNOLIA WOOD STOVE
MODEL 2400
1 - 4 PM
Heats up to 600 - 2,400 sq. ft. with a
off MacArthur Road,
Supplies
heating capacity of up to 65,000 BTU’s.
Stainless Steel Heat Exchanger and
Limited!
Marlboro, VT
Heats…750 sq. ft.
Hopper capacity… 40 lbs
802.254.2168
1099
$
Tax Credit…
$330 call for Directions
Please
Your Cost After Tax Credit $76999
Automatic Circulation Blower to spread
heat evenly. EPA Certified. Dimensions:
28.25"D x 25.25"W x 33"H Door
Opening: 15.1"W x 12.25"H. Takes 20"
log. Mobile Home Approved!
Retail… $1,399
Sale $999
Tax Credit… $300
www.theturnpikeroad.com
Your Cost After Tax Credit … $699
on all two stage
snowthrowers
GASSED, OILED &
READY TO BLOW!
Supplies
Limited!
726 OE
$
Heats…750MSRP
sq. ft.
1099 99
Hopper capacity… 40 lbs
$
1099
999 99
Power Max® 726 OE
$
MSRP $1099 99
$
Tax Credit… $330
Your Cost After Tax Credit $76999
999 99
Putney Rd., ht For The Holi
Putney Rd.,
Brattleboro, VT
Brattleboro, VT
We(802)
have
everything you
need
254-4927
(802) 254-4927
y
da
s Sale
Start Rig
Save $100
GASSED, OILED &
READY
TO BLOW!
MODEL 2400
FIRESIDE
Staff Pick! FIRESIDE
The Ho
For
li
ht
1697
TORO SNOW THROWERS
IN STOCK!
on all two stage
snowthrowers
WINDOW
INSTALLED PELLET HEATER
• easiest pellet heater ever
to install!
• no extra venting needed
Power
Max®
• no fresh air
kit needed
Multitool
An ideal gift for your favorite handyman or
handywoman. R 130 107 B4
handles.
12-Volt Cordless
While
supplies last.
Drill/Driver
WINDOW INSTALLED PELLET HEATER
• easiest pellet heater ever
to install!
• no extra venting needed
• no fresh air kit needed
SPECIAL
PURCHASE
AA battery included. While supplies last.
road poTTery
Assorted colors. T126 076, 079, 077,
075, 080 B12
for festive holiday decorating!
O PEN 7 DAYS • FREE PARKING
O PEN 7 DAYS • FREE PARKING
We have lots of local greens like fresh wreaths
for $19.99 and fragrant balsam swags for $6.99
from Couch Brook Farm in Bernardston, and a
beautiful selection of Christmas trees locally grown
in Athens,Vermont. Bring your home alive with the
colors and scents of the season with poinsettias,
cyclamens, and lovely Norfolk Island pines.
Center Pieces ~ Christmas Balls ~ Garland
ELYSIAN HILLS
TREE FARM
Dummerston, VT ~ 802-257-0233
handywoman.
70-Ct. C6 LED Light Set
Trees - 5 varieties ~ Wreaths 8”-60”
Follow signs on Rte. 5 OR from Dumm. Ctr.
[email protected] ~ www.elysianhillsfarm.com
Multitool
An ideal gift for your favorite handyman
or B4.
R 130 107
handywoman. R 130 107 B4
handles.
SALEthe Turnpike
112-336
32 years of growing trees
10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Nov. 27 - Dec. 24
Bill & Mary Lou Schmidt
Saw An
Blade
ideal gift for
97 Circular
Shop Clock with
your12-in-1
handyman or
Malcolm Wright
CHRISTMAS TREES
“Known for the Best Trees”
8
18-Pc. Screwdriver
Set Slotted,
18-Pc.
Screwdriver
Phillips and torx. With steel shaft, acetate
Set
Slotted,
Phillips
handles.
s Sale
Please contact Sandy Clark, Asset
Manager, Brattleboro Housing Authority
802-254-6071 or [email protected]
for more information and showings.
SALE
Kick Multitool
y
da
3980 square feet of commercial/office
space in our newly renovated Ann
Wilder Richards Building at 1063
Western Avenue one mile from exit two
off I-91 or Route 9 in the village of
West Brattleboro. ADA handicapped
access, heat and central air conditioning included, free abundant parking,
separate entrance to leased space,
private bathroom, reception area,
available immediately.
897
1999
R 531 766 B12
Sale Ends
Nov. 30 th
Circular Saw
Blade Shop
SPECIAL
Clock with
PURCHASE
12-in-1 Multitool
thM5 Pinecone
70-Ct.
70-Ct. C6 LED Light Set
39
Annual
TORO SNOW THROWERS
LED Light Set
Give
The
Gift
Of
Lower
Heating
Costs
For Bus Schedules and Information Visit our Website at
IN STOCK!
MAGNOLIA WOOD STOVE
FOR LEASE
down the street with guns, going off to practice shoot at the
sand pit near the high school or
over in Wilson’s Woods, practicing for hunting season. Can you
imagine now what would happen if five boys walked down the
street with guns? There would
be a SWAT team over there in
minutes,” says Fairchild with a
shake of his head.
“John grew up in an orphanage somewhere over in western
New York State and made his
way here by foot. He wouldn’t
tell us about his growing up, but
I imagine he was raised at an old
orphanage that was a county
farm. Every town has a road
called County Farm Road or
Town Farm Road. Those were
usually the roads, just outside of
a little town, where the poor people, the single mothers, the orphaned kids lived, supported by
the state and by the farm where
they all worked. John had a lot of
skills that he must have learned
in those places, and I feel lucky
that I grew up having him teach
me what he knew.”
Your One Stop Shopping For The Holidays!
99
Serving Windsor & Windham Counties
Courtesy photo
John Russell stands with his bee hives in this 1978 photo.
Start Rig
By Fran Lynggaard Hansen
Stop by our floral department and
enjoy the fragrance of the season.
Our wreaths and swags are perfect
for your door or to bring as a gift
when visiting friends and family.
— Tanna, Floral Staff
BRATTLEBOROFOODCO-OP
2 Main Street, Brattleboro
M–S 8–9, Sun 9–9
www.brattleborofoodcoop.coop
■

Brattleboro man blocked from civil rights panel Bellows Falls

Transcription

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