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Brattleboro, Vermont
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 • Vol. VIII, No. 11 • Issue #194
WINDHAM COUNTY’S AWARD-WINNING, INDEPENDENT SOURCE FOR NEWS AND VIEWS
State wraps up
hearings for
Vermont Yankee
Town &
Village
PUTNEY
New manager
is sought
for historic
General Store
Shadis permitted to
testify after challenge
from Entergy lawyers
page A7
By Olga Peters
Voices
The Commons
ESSAY
Hanging out
at the sugar
shack is the
best part of
maple season
page C1
ELAYNE CLIFT
The deadly
civilian toll
of U.S. drone
warfare keeps
growing
page C1
The Arts
TRAVELING SONG
Jazz vocalist
says she’ll go
anywhere for a
gig, including
Brattleboro
page B1
WITH A SHOUT
VPL debuts
new piece by
Reggie Wilson,
with help from
local singers
page B1
Sports
PLAYOFFS
Colonel boys
fall in hockey
semifinals;
Rebel girls
knocked out
by Richford
Having his
BACK
A son and daughter-in-law run in a
marathon to honor the journey of — and
get closer to — a mother’s unique friend
By Alexandra Ossola
The Commons
B
RATTLEBORO—
The 26.2 miles of
a marathon are
known to be a test
of human endurance, for those who have run
the race as well as for those who
have only imagined it.
On Feb. 17 in Austin, Texas,
Dummerston native Jeremiah
Cioffi and his wife Kim ran
the Livestrong Marathon on
behalf of Brattleboro resident
Neil Taylor.
They did so to to honor
Taylor’s battle with cancer as
well as gain a new understanding of his ongoing struggle.
Jeremiah Cioffi, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed
at Fort Hood, is the son of
Taylor’s close friend Laura
Momaney, and it is because of
Neil and Laura’s profound relationship that the newlyweds
were inspired to undertake the
grueling test.
About a year ago, both
Taylor and Momaney were living in the Manley Apartments
building on High Street, and
their paths crossed at just the
right time.
Taylor was rediscovering
his independence after a malignant brain tumor affected
his optic nerve approximately
four years ago. Surgery to remove the tumor left him totally
blind at age 28.
“I basically had to learn to
live life again as a blind person,” he said. “It was a huge
challenge, totally losing my
independence.”
He couldn’t return to his
previous job as a math teacher
at the Greenwood School in
Putney, but he reinvented
himself as a massage therapist,
eventually opening a practice as
The Blind Masseur.
His time at the Manley
building, where he first lived
on his own after the surgery,
brought a variety of ongoing
struggles.
With his disability, “it’s scary
even to go on the road,” Taylor
said.
As for Momaney, who contracted polio at the age of 6
weeks and uses a wheelchair
as a result of post-polio syndrome, she was going through
her own difficulties regarding
living independently when she
met Taylor.
Momaney has written
publicly and candidly about
her struggles after becoming addicted to narcotic pain
medication.
“I began a long descent into
addiction and despair,” she
wrote in a column that she and
Taylor contribute to Vermont
Views (www.vermontviews.org).
“Hopelessness became my
disability and it was crippling, a formidable opponent.
Eventually, I lost all the things
I owned and loved, I lost the
people in my world, too, and I
almost lost my liberty.”
“I lost myself,” she wrote.
“Hopelessness is pernicious.
It kills everything in its path. It
is absolutely deadly.”
In the column, she credits Jeremiah for his “strength
and his love and his immense
hope.”
But Taylor has been her
brick. “Our meeting was
■ SEE MASSEUR, PAGE A2
COMMONS FILE PHOTO
Raymond Shadis, the
technical consultant
for the New England
Coalition, the
Brattleboro-based antinuclear nonprofit.
Second Circuit Court of Appeals
in New York City.
In 2012, U.S. District Court
Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled in
Entergy’s favor, saying that the
state had overstepped its bounds
on nuclear safety. Murtha added,
however, that the state is permitted to regulate in some non-nuclear safety areas.
According to Shadis, Entergy’s
arguments before the PSB mirrored the arguments it made
before Murtha. Entergy claims
that all of Vermont’s attempts to
regulate the plant stem from concerns over nuclear safety.
Entergy had stated early on
that if it receives a negative ruling from the PSB, it would appeal. According to Shadis, the
corporation also spent considerable time arguing that it didn’t
need to appear before the board
for the CPG.
Shadis said that Entergy’s lawyers have worked determinedly
to dismiss any concerns from the
interveners that don’t fit into the
company’s legal argument. The
lawyers have called counter arguments “irrelevant” or “lodged in
pretext for safety.”
According to Shadis, Entergy’s
claims of “pretext for safety”
were comparable to someone
saying he didn’t like the color
of his necktie and his response
being a harangue about nuclear
safety.
In Shadis’ view, opponents
left the hearing “outraged” at
Entergy’s constant objections to
counter-arguments.
Shadis said he believes
Entergy is using the CPG hearing to build its case for appeal to
■ SEE VY HEARING, PAGE A2
Preparing the
ground for
Putney Road
State holds public hearing
on construction, set for 2020
By Olga Peters
The Commons
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page C4
COURTESY PHOTO
Neil Taylor and his friend Laura Momaney, whose
son and daughter-in-law, Jeremiah and Kimberly
Cioffi, ran in the 2013 Livestrong Austin marathon
in February. They ran the race, which raises funds
and awareness for cancer, in honor of Taylor, a
Brattleboro masseur who lost his eyesight as a
complication of surgery to remove a brain tumor.
BRATTLEBORO—Ten days
of technical hearings before the
Public Service Board on the
Vermont Yankee nuclear power
plant wrapped up the final week
of February.
A slightly road-weary
Raymond Shadis, consulting advisor and expert witness for the anti-nuclear New
England Coalition, provided
his views on the the fight over
Vermont Yankee’s state-awarded
Certificate of Public Good.
“There’s a real fight on,” said
Shadis of the CPG hearing.
The PSB said it anticipates
announcing in November
whether it will award the CPG.
Meanwhile, Shadis said he feels
the Vermont Public Interest
Resource Group (VPIRG), the
Conservation Law Foundation,
the Vermont Natural Resources
Council, the Connecticut River
Watershed Council, and NEC
are “holding their own” as interveners against Entergy’s five
law firms.
After challenges from Entergy
Corp., VY’s Louisiana-based
owner, Shadis was admitted into
the record as an expert witness.
Entergy, Shadis said, had
asked to strike his testimony and
exhibits. The one portion of his
testimony not admitted, about 5
percent, said Shadis, was on cold
shock stress in fish that have acclimated to warmer waters, like
those near nuclear plants, but
might not thrive in the cooler waters away from the plant.
When asked if he felt the admittance of his testimony was
a positive, Shadis fired back,
“Hell yes."
Vermont Yankee, Vermont’s
lone nuclear plant, must receive
a CPG to continue operating.
Its current certificate expired
last year. The plant received its
federal operating license shortly
before the Fukushima nuclear
disaster in Japan in March 2011.
Entergy and the state have
duked out in court how much the
state can regulate the 605-megawatt, boiling water reactor located in Vernon. Entergy claims
the state attempted to preempt
federal authority by regulating
nuclear safety, including criteria
used to issue a CPG.
The corporation has multiple court cases open on VY,
including a federal case against
the state. This case is before the
BRATTLEBORO—
The Vermont Agency of
Transportation has big plans
for the section of Putney Road
between the West River bridge
and the Exit 3 roundabout.
A major reconstruction involving sidewalks, a bike lane,
landscaping, and four new
roundabouts is planned.
The project, conservatively
estimated at $15 million, will reconstruct about one and a quarter miles of roadway, and cover
more than 10 acres. According
to state officials, construction is
slated for summer 2020.
“It’s all about safety and
mobility,” said Ken Upmal, a
project manager with AOT’s
highway and safety division. “We
do things for safety.”
■ SEE PUTNEY ROAD, PAGE A3
Putney Road, in a photograph from the Brattleboro Master Plan.
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definitely at the right time,”
Momaney says.
She and Taylor quickly
formed a deep friendship as
well as a mutual reliance.
“When you’re really limited
with what you can do, you have
to really enjoy the people you
keep company with. There aren’t
a lot of distractions,” she said.
“We have a very similar sense
of humor, similar personalities,
and an openness and willingness
to engage with people. I have my
own disabilities, so I can relate to
him on that level as well. I know
when he needs to be filled in and
I recognize and understand his
disability.”
“Laura gets it,” Taylor agreed.
“She has become such a great
friend, and we have a lot in common. You wouldn’t even know
that I was blind when we walk
around town, we just cruise
around.”
The two often take “jaunts”
through Brattleboro, Momaney
wheeling ahead of Taylor, who
follows by holding on to the handles of her wheelchair.
“It’s the one time in my life
I don’t feel blind,” Taylor said.
Momaney assists Taylor as
“chief security dog” in his practice, where she spends much of
her time assisting clients, helping
with payments, or doing some
light housekeeping.
Since the practice at 160 High
St. is also universally accessible
— a fairly uncommon installation
in a small practice — Taylor has
treated an increasing number of
patients in wheelchairs, largely as
a result of Momaney’s influence.
“There’s always something
to be doing, and when there’s
not, just hanging out with Neil
is great,” Laura said.
Rebuilding
their worlds
Although Jeremiah Cioffi has
not lived in the area for much
of the time that his mother has
known Taylor, Momaney’s frequent communications have reflected the positive change the
friendship has brought to her life.
“My mom’s been through a
lot, especially in the past few
years,” Cioffi said. “Her world
from section front
crumbled, and she’s been in the
process of building it back up.
It’s hard to see a family member
go through something really difficult, and I saw Neil as a main
catalyst in this process of her
coming back up.”
Jeremiah and Kim Cioffi had
wanted to run a marathon for
several years, and after hearing
about the Livestrong marathon
in nearby Austin, the opportunity to honor Taylor seemed too
good to pass up.
“I saw there was this real bond
[that Laura and Neil] have and
I wanted to do something,”
Cioffi said. “I thought [running
the marathon] was perfect; Neil
loves the outdoors, and has been
a blessing to my mom, and by
default to my life too.”
“I just feel so honored that I
mean that much to Jeremiah and
his new wife, especially because
she’s never run a marathon before,” Taylor said. “I have such
love and gratitude for that.”
The couple kept Taylor updated throughout their training
and, for race day, made t-shirts
that read, “The Blind Masseur
has my back.”
I understand more,” Cioffi said.
And Cioffi sees the benefits in
his relationship with his mother
as well, as two of the people
most important in her life have
become closer to one another.
As for Taylor and Momaney,
they continue to cook, spend
time outdoors, and take jaunts
around town, dealing with daily
challenges with their mutually
colorful sense of humor.
They are able to discuss some
of the deeper issues at play in
each of their disabilities.
Taylor admits that he’s sad
that he can’t notice someone’s
haircut or a new outfit. Momaney
regrets that Taylor, who has so
much physical strength, is physically limited due to his lack of
sight. Both agree that they’re
both the better for it.
“We have a very non-traditional relationship in many ways
— our age difference, our disabilities, our non-sexual relationship,” she said. “But it’s been one
of the most wonderful relationships of my life.”
Taylor agrees.
Even though he’s not physically present to see their relationship grow, Cioffi knows that
the two are even closer now than
they were before.
“Their relationship has taken
on a different dimension because I’m more involved with
Neil,” Cioffi said. “I just really
admire both of them. They’ve
been through so much, and it
doesn’t get easier.”
“They have to make a conscious effort to truck on,” he
continued. “They have to have
a positive attitude to enjoy and
embrace life. I’m blessed to be
in their lives.”
“With cancer, you never know
if your battle with it is done,”
Momaney said. “I pray that everything for Neil would be more
in a straight line.”
A deeper
understanding
of disability and
friendship
Cioffi also sees new depth in
his understanding of the difficulties Taylor faces daily.
“When I was running the marathon, there were a few times I
imagined being blind,” Cioffi
said. “I would try to run with
my eyes closed. Obviously, I
couldn’t do it for more than a
few seconds.”
“But personally, I developed
more of an understanding of
what it’s like for him, putting
more thought into his predicament and situation,” he continued. “Other than the physical
challenges, what sorts of emotional problems exist as you relearn how to live?”
“You can’t do the same profession as in the past, your house
has to be set up differently, you
can’t walk down steps easily. I
got more of a glimpse into Neil’s
life. I got closer to him because
Laura Momaney and Neil
Taylor together write “Blind in
Sight,” (www.vermontviews.org/
vermontviews.org/BlindInSight.html)
a column for Vermont Views. To
find out more about Taylor’s practice, visit theblindmasseur.com or call
802-451-9651.
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either the Vermont Supreme and many nuclear plant opCourt or in federal court.
erators, practice online
maintenance.
Power plants, he said, have
‘The end of
redundant safety systems in
the event of an emergency.
the line...’
Tests or repairs to the sysThe CPG hearing repre- tems ideally occur by taking
sents the “last regulatory pro- the systems “off line,” shutceeding for Vermont,” Shadis ting them down and checking
said after driving from the everything out.
hearings in Montpelier to
With online maintenance,
Brattleboro last week.
repairs take place during plant
According to Shadis, the operation.
CPG proceedings represent
The power companies
the final stage for Vermont “make a bet” with online
having a say in VY’s operation. maintenance that the sys“It’s literally the end of the tem under repair is either not
line for those controlling ac- needed during an emergency
tivities [such as requiring a or that the system won’t conCPG]. If Entergy prevails, tribute to a severe emergency,
they’ll never have to come to he said.
the state for approval for anyShadis likened online mainthing,” said Shadis.
tenance to climbing onto the
Entergy could redevelop the wing of a two-engine aircraft
site, sell the plant, or increase in-flight to repair an engine.
the power generation without
According to Shadis, a
state input, he said.
few years ago, an inspection
Shadis said he thought the port on the feed water system
PSB’s behavior reflected an rusted and leaked. The feed
understanding of the critical water system, part of the steam
nature of the hearing.
system that generates power,
Entergy has defined pre- pipes water into the reactor.
emption outlined in Murtha’s Employees investigated and
2012 ruling as the broadest fixed the leaky port.
possible definition of preempThe same problem haption, said Shadis.
pened with another port the
In its arguments before the following year.
PSB, said Shadis, Entergy atShadis said the NEC raised
torneys went beyond argu- their concern about the steam
ing that radiological safety is water system. The NRC repreempted: The legal team sponded that as the system
argued for taking all plant op- wasn’t safety related there was
erations off the table.
no issue.
In Shadis’ view, interveners
Aiming for fewer outages
DPS and PSB give Murtha’s due to maintenance or safety is
preemption ruling a narrower a “numbers game” most utility
definition.
companies play, said Shadis.
Prior to 2001, Vermont utilWhen Entergy brags about
ities owned VY.
running 500 days without an
According to Shadis, when outage, they’ve been making
Entergy eyed purchasing the same bet, Shadis said. “It
Vermont Yankee in 2001, doesn’t come without a price.
the corporation’s plan for the They’re pushing their luck and
plant had three phases: in- everybody else’s luck.”
crease power generation by 20
percent; start onsite dry cask
storage of spent nuclear fuel; Not financially
and extend the plant’s operat- viable?
ing license beyond 2012.
The NEC asked how much
“We’re trying to figure out
control the state would have what the game is,” said Shadis
should the plant become a of Entergy’s fight to keep VY
wholesale merchant plant as open.
Entergy said it intended.
Entergy has refused to disShadis said multiple par- cuss its plans for VY or disties in 2001 worried Entergy close its finances, said Shadis.
would “call preemption” if
Still, Shadis said he feels
the state tried to maintain the plant’s financial future
some say in the plant’s future. looks dim.
Entergy agreed, in turn, sayVY has not turned a
ing it would seek a CPG for profit since 2007, he said.
all three phases.
Meanwhile, the NRC in
“The only reason they the wake of Fukushima has
[Entergy] have to come to called for expensive upgrades
the PSB at all … is because of throughout the industry.
this agreement,” Shadis said.
Shadis speculated that
Entergy’s motive does not
with saving VY. Instead,
Enough non-nuclear rest
he said, the corporation likely
is thinking ahead to saving its
safety issues
other merchant plants, such
According to Shadis, the Indian Point in New York.
main point of his testimony Peer pressure not to throw
before the PSB centered these court battles from other
on Vermont Yankee having nuclear plant owners may also
enough multiple non-nuclear play into Entergy’s favor.
and non-radiological safety
In Shadis’ view, VY’s fiissues to ax it receiving a new nancial viability hinges on
CPG.
Entergy’s maintenance
The plant has “big negatives practices.
to be thrown on the scale,”
Entergy is weighing how
said Shadis, pointing to VY’s much money to invest in recooling towers.
placing, repairing, or upgradCooling towers, according ing the plant against letting
to Shadis, emit mostly vapor parts “run to failure,” said
that is “cleaned” of toxins. Shadis.
However, cooling towers of
“On balance, we think that’s
all sizes, and not exclusive to what’s going on,” he said.
power plants, also emit water
He said he believes Entergy
droplets. These droplets can has instructed its employes at
travel as much as a mile on VY that it doesn’t want to fithe wind and can contain con- nance all repairs and to be
centrated amounts of contami- judicious with what repairs
nants such as biocides used to employees report. According
clean the plant, or heavy met- to Shadis, Maine Yankee,
als that may pool in the cool- which closed in 1997, took
ing tower basin.
that stance.
The NEC has asked
Shadis said he also bases
Entergy for the chemical con- this assertion on information
tent of VY’s cooling tower from Entergy’s 2004 busidroplets. Entergy replied that ness plan the corporation
an analysis has not occurred, submitted to the PSB during
said Shadis.
the power uprate hearings. In
The droplets might not pose that plan, Entergy said that
a health concern, said Shadis. VY must be mindful of mainBut without rigorous analy- tenance and operation costs.
sis, it’s impossible to know
Shadis called Entergy’s legal
for certain.
strategy “swamping.”
According to the Centers
“It’s mind-boggling how
for Disease Control and much [paper] they generate,”
Prevention, American Legion he said.
members at a convention in
If the interveners were basePhiladelphia in 1976 con- ball players swinging at evtracted a pneumonia later ery ball Entergy pitched, said
termed Legionnaires’ disease. Shadis, “our arms would break
The infection’s source was off.”
traced to bacteria growing in
Shadis admitted that
nearby cooling towers.
fighting Entergy in court
VY also has multiple main- was stretching the NEC’s
tenance issues related to the resources.
plant’s age and the expense
The hearing marked the
of forthcoming equipment midway point in NEC’s nineupgrades developed in the month timeline. Entergy is exwake of the nuclear accident pected to file rebuttals to the
at Fukushima, said Shadis.
information in the technical
Shadis believes the corpo- hearing in a few weeks. Legal
ration is “running to failure” back and forth of discovery,
by not properly maintain- and interveners filing rebuting components of the plant. tals to Entergy will follow,
Some of these mechanical said Shadis.
components, although not
The next phase of technical
considered safety-related by hearings will involve narrowthe NRC, could shut the plant ing and focusing arguments.
down if they malfunctioned. Filing of briefs and reply briefs
According to Shadis, an- follows in August.
other concern is that Entergy,
THE COMMONS
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
NEWS
A3
■ Putney Road
FROM SECTION FRONT
According to Upmal, pedestrians and drivers will benefit from
the Putney Road project.
AOT representatives discussed the plan with a capacity
crowd of people who have property in the area, and others, at a
public hearing March 7 at the
Selectboard meeting room in the
Municipal Center.
State statute requires what
are known as 502 hearings for
proposed highway and bridge
projects when the state may potentially acquire property from
individual owners. The purpose
of the hearing was for AOT to
solicit feedback from the public
about the project prior to acquiring property.
Upmal, and AOT civil engineers Brandon McAdams and
Amos Kempton, took comment
from the audience. They also
provided handouts on the project
and Vermont’s right-of-way and
acquisition process. The state
notified abutters via certified
mail of the possibility of acquiring land, said McAdams. AOT
staff will also meet with abutters
personally.
Upmal told the audience they
had until March 17 to send comment to the state. AOT will then
report back to the Selectboard
within 30 days.
The project will also go
through the state’s Act 250 environmental permitting process,
he added.
The AOT representatives
presented the project’s concept
plans that have hung on the
wall outside the town planning
department.
According to Public Works
Director Steve Barrett, the
project grew out of the town’s
and Windham Regional
Commission’s efforts to improve Putney Road and address
safety concerns for cars, bikes,
and pedestrians.
The town assigned a committee to work on the issue
several years ago. This committee work led to a public hearing and later to a presentation
to the Selectboard. The board
voted to accept a project concept. The town sent the concept
to the state.
The state and town have
collaborated on the Putney
Road reconstruction project,
Barrett said.
“It’s a really big nut, but that’s
why we’re [all] here,” Barrett
said.
According to McAdams,
Putney Road is an “extremely
high” crash corridor.
Upmal added that, over the
past five years, 182 accidents
had occurred on Putney Road,
resulting in 40 injuries.
The new project design is intended to reduce collisions and
improve mobility for pedestrians,
cyclists, and drivers.
The roundabouts would help
slow traffic, McAdams said.
Upmal added that the Exit 3
roundabout has seen some accidents, though none resulted in
injuries as drivers there operate
at slower speeds.
The current Putney Road has
unacceptable E and F grades.
The new design would raise the
grade to an A.
Upmal said that the state also
conducted a two-year scoping
phase between 2005 and 2008.
The project design also syncs
with the Putney Road 50-year
master plan.
The new roadway will have
two 12-foot lanes, two five-foot
bike lanes, and a six-foot wide
sidewalk at the southern end
closest to the West River bridge.
Starting by the Peoples Bank
property, the road will divide into
four lanes with a grassy median.
Along with the car and bike
lanes, the state also will construct sidewalks on each side
of the road, which most of
Putney Road lacks now, and
four roundabouts.
McAdams said that the existing Putney Road covers a lot
of ground. He anticipated that
much of the new design would fit
within the same footprint.
The new design would also
eliminate left-hand turns from
the side roads and some of the
businesses along Putney Road.
McAdams said that many of the
collisions on Putney Road were
“sideswipes” occurring when
drivers attempted to turn left.
The bike lane is considered
shared-use as cars will have access to it in case of emergency,
Brattleboro School Endowment
distributes funds for school extras
BRATTLEBORO—The
Brattleboro School Endowment
recently distributed funds to
three area elementary schools
for use in their winter sports
programs.
Funds from the nonprofit can
be used to support all the extras that make a good education
even better, said its president, Jill
Stahl Tyler.
“Winter sports has been a specific emphasis for the endowment since its creation,” Tyler
said. “We hope that the money
eventually given each year to the
schools can help with paying for
such things as artists-in-residence, winter sports programs,
field trips — all those things
that enrich the quality teaching that already happens here in
Brattleboro.”
Funds were released to Green
Street School, Canal St./Oak
Grove Schools, and Academy
School at $2 per student, Tyler
said. The Endowment is working
with the schools, parent groups,
and donors to support enrichment opportunities not already
funded by tax dollars.
“We’re not going to fund a
Spanish teacher, say … we knew
winter sports were struggling and
that’s where we felt we could
help,” explained Tyler.
By having a source of funds
over and above what is provided
for through the school district
budget, the Brattleboro School
Endowment can make a difference and offer special opportunities in education. Winter sports
programs, field trips, visiting
artists, writers and after school
programs can all benefit from
Endowment gifts.
Through gifts and bequests
the Endowment will provide
a financially stable funding
source with annual assistance
that goes directly to the schools
for the benefit of the students
of Brattleboro. Principal is preserved through careful and
conservative management and
increased with continued support from the community.
Donations are tax-deductible.
For more information on
the Brattleboro School
E n d o w m e n t , v i s i t w w w.
brattleboroschoolendowment.org.
An adventure is just
around the corner.
How will you get there?
Whether you’re purchasing or refinancing,
we offer the same low rates for new and
used vehicles.
Federally insured by NCUA.
VSECU is a credit union
for everybody in Vermont.
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Brattleboro – Price Chopper Plaza, off exit one
Proof generated March 12, 2013 9:46 PM
Putney Road at Interstate 91’s Exit 3, in a 1962 photo.
such as a breakdown.
According to the AOT, the
state and federal government will
pick up the project’s tab with the
federal government covering 81
percent of the cost and the state
picking up 19 percent.
“We’re at the beginning of
the project,” said Upmal, assuring audience members that the
residents would have additional
opportunities to comment on
the project.
Audience members’ reaction
to the project spanned the spectrum from very positive to feeling the project was unnecessary.
Adam Hubbard called the
design “forward thinking,” and
believes it would improve traffic
flow and property values along
Putney Road.
Paul Cameron, executive director of Brattleboro Climate
Protection, also praised the project design. He said it would help
reduce pollution as the roundabouts would reduce idling and
effectively eliminate the consumption of more than 500,000
gallons of gas per year.
Overall, he said the project
would help the town reach its
goal of a 30 percent reduction
from 2010 levels of emissions,
energy consumption, and pollution by the year 2030 as stated in
the town plan.
Scott Borofsky strongly opposed the project. He said he
could not understand why AOT
should take on the project at all.
“Why?” he asked repeatedly.
The expensive project,
Borofsky said, would hinder
travel and frustrate drivers. He
said he did not like the addition
of roundabouts, but did praise
the sidewalks.
“It’s not the city here, and
these roundabouts seem to imply
it’s going to be,” Borofsky said.
“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it."
Borofsky also asked who
would provide an extra fire truck
or police officers to handle any
increased development on the
new Putney Road. He also challenged the AOT representatives’
data on accidents in the Exit 3
roundabout.
David Gartenstein, a
Selectboard member who
stressed he was speaking only for
himself at the meeting, echoed
Borofsky.
“I personally, looking at this,
I don’t understand this at all,”
he said.
The next phase of the project
will entail developing preliminary
plans, said Upmal.
These designs will include
more detailed design elements
such as storm water runoff
systems.
DONALD WIEDENMAYER/VERMONT STATE ARCHIVES (VIA UVM.EDU/LANDSCAPE)
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March 14
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NEWS
A4
AROUND THE TOWNS
Toastmasters to meet
BRATTLEBORO —
BrattleMasters, the Brattleborobased chapter of Toastmasters
International, meets Thursday,
March 14, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
at Marlboro College Graduate
Center, room 2E, 28 Vernon St.
The theme of this week’s
meeting is “Speak Up to Win,”
focusing on what it takes to advocate for oneself on the job and
for a more prosperous career.
Four new member inductions
are also scheduled. Refreshments
are provided.
The club meets the second
and fourth Thursday of every
month at the same time and
location. Guests are welcome.
For more information, visit
brattleboro.toastmastersclubs.org.
NAMI Vermont hosts
Family-to-Family
Education Program
BELLOWS FALLS — NAMI
Vermont, the state chapter of
the National Alliance on Mental
Illness, will sponsor the NAMI
Family-to-Family Education
Program for families of persons
diagnosed with mental health
challenges.
The 12-week series of classes
starts on March 14 and meets
once a week during the early evening hours.
The course covers information
about schizophrenia; the mood
disorders bipolar disorder and
major depression; borderline
personality disorder; panic disorder and obsessive compulsive
disorder; coping skills such as
handling crisis and relapse; basic
information about medications;
listening and communication
techniques; problem-solving
skills; recovery and rehabilitation; and self care around worry
and stress.
The curriculum was written
by an experienced family member mental health professional
and the course will be taught by
NAMI Vermont family member
volunteers who have taken intensive training as course instructors. For more information or
to register, call Laurie Emerson,
NAMI Vermont program director, at 800-639-6480, ext. 102,
or write program@namivt.org.
Halifax Senior Meal
served on March 15
HALIFAX — The monthly
Halifax Senior Meal is Friday,
March 15, at noon, at the
Community Hall at the intersection of Brook and Branch
roads in West Halifax.
On the menu is New England
boiled dinner, with corn bread,
rolls, and a dessert. All seniors
are welcome. Sponsored by
Senior Solutions. Reservations
are appreciated; call Joan
Courser at 802-368-7733.
BF Winter Farmers’
Market wraps
up season
BELLOWS FALLS —
The last Bellows Falls Winter
Farmers’ Market of the season
is Friday, March 15, from 4-7
p.m., inside the Train Station.
The Farmers’ Market, which
celebrates its 10th anniversary
in May, is accepting applications now for the 2013 summer
season. The market is always
looking for farmers, crafters, and
prepared food vendors to join.
Visit www.bffarmersmarket.com for
details and application.
The market still has plenty
of Harvest Health Coupons to
give away. Just swipe your EBT
card at the manager’s booth,
and the market will match your
purchase dollar for dollar (maximum $10 per visit). The farmer’s
market accepts both EBT/debit
as well as Farm to Family and
Harvest Health coupons. For
additional information, contact
market manager Rachel Ware
at bellowsfallsmarket@gmail.com or
802-463-2018.
Wilmington offers
rabies clinic
WILMINGTON — There
will be a rabies clinic at the
Wilmington Fire House on
Saturday, March 16, from 10
a.m. – 1 p.m. Veterinarian Miles
Powers will be in attendance to
administer vaccinations, and
licensing will be available to
Wilmington dog owners.
For questions, call the
Wilmington Town Clerk’s office at 802-464-5836.
Potluck, dance
a double Putney
fundraiser
PUTNEY — On Saturday,
March 16, the Putney
Community Center will host a
potluck dinner and dance fundraiser for Putney Cares and the
Putney Community Center from
6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Suggested donation for the “Big Bash Potluck
& Dance Double Fundraiser” is
$5 to $10.
Folks are invited to bring their
favorite dish and/or a beverage
for the potluck feast (no alcoholic
beverages, please). The DJ’ed
music will be an eclectic mix of
danceable tunes.
The Putney Community
Center, located at 10 Christian
Square, a block off Main Street,
has provided a range of educational, cultural, recreational, and
social services for the community
since 1925. The historic, wheelchair accessible building has
hosted a wide range of activities,
including community events,
benefits, movies and dances,
summer school programs, and is
currently the home of the Putney
Food Shelf.
Putney Cares supports the
needs of elders in the community
so that they can remain independent for as long as possible. The
range of services and programs
they provide includes transportation for seniors to medical appointments, lending medical
equipment, Meals on Wheels,
monthly lunches, the Artist in
Each of Us, Gentle Yoga, Living
Strong, Folk Dancing, and the
monthly foot clinic. Putney
Cares also maintains the Noyes
House, a home for shared living
for seniors in Putney.
Tree pruning
workshop on March 17
WESTMINSTER WEST
— A fruit tree pruning workshop takes place Sunday, March
17, from 10 a.m.-noon, at the
Westminster West School, 3724
Westminster West Rd.
The demonstration workshop, sponsored by the
Windham County Extension
Master Gardener program,
will be hosted by Gay Foster
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• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Dates set for info sessions for
town, school district meetings
BRATTLEBORO—
Brattleboro’s pre-Town
Meeting information session
for the town budget is scheduled for Wednesday, March
13, at Academy School, 860
Western Ave.
Town Meeting Members of
each of the three districts will
caucus at 6:30 p.m. to appoint
members to vacant seats.
Districts 1 and 2 have nine
vacancies each; District 3 has
four vacancies to fill. Anyone
interested in being appointed
as a town meeting member
should be present at the caucus or contact the Brattleboro
Town Clerk at 802-251-8129
or townclerk@brattleboro.org.
Appointees will serve until the
annual election in March 2014.
At 7 p.m., following the districts’ caucuses, the town will
of Hollyhock Farm in Putney.
Foster has had many years experience working for Green
Mountain Orchard, as well as
maintaining clients of her own,
and will demonstrate how to
prune fruit trees.
This is a hands-on workshop,
so feel free to bring your own
pruning tools. RSVP via email
to windhamcountyemg@gmail.com.
Donations gratefully accepted.
will be raffled off during each
seating. All proceeds benefit the
church, which actively supports
more than 15 local programs that
serve the community, including
Brattleboro Area Hospice, Meals
on Wheels, and Brigid’s Kitchen.
From Interstate 91 Exit 1 in
Brattleboro, go south on Route 5
just past Guilford Country Store,
left on Bee Barn Road, then left
again on Church Drive.
AARP Chapter to
meet March 19
Bereaved Parents
Support Group forms
BRATTLEBORO —
Members of Brattleboro AARP
Chapter #763 and friends are
invited to attend the chapter’s
monthly meeting on Tuesday,
March 19, at 2 p.m., at the
Brattleboro Senior Center.
The program for this month
will be “The Road For Investing
and Estate Planning,” presented
by Thomas McRae of Edward
Jones.
BRATTLEBORO — A new
eight-week Bereaved Parents
Support Group for parents who
are mourning the death of their
teenage or young adult child
will begin at Brattleboro Area
Hospice on April 1.
The group will meet Mondays
from 5-6:30 p.m. Lynn Martin
will be the facilitator.
The death of a child can be
one of the most devastating of
losses. Sharing with other grieving parents is often a powerful
component in the healing process. Brattleboro Area Hospice
also offers other bereavement
support groups. These groups RVTC seeks students
are free of charge, and it is not for 2013-14
necessary to have a prior connection with Hospice to participate.
SPRINGFIELD — The River
Call Cheryl Richards at 802- Valley Technical Center (RVTC)
257-0775, ext. 108, by March is now accepting applications for
20 to register.
the 2013-14 school year.
RVTC offers programs in
carpentry, industrial trades,
BMH Doula Program mechanical design innovation,
business and financial services,
seeks volunteers
culinary arts, human services,
BRATTLEBORO — The criminal justice, horticulture
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and natural resources, tech esDoula Program is seeking new sentials, hands-on computers,
volunteers. The training starts audio and video production, and
in late March.
health careers.
A doula is a person who supThe Center also offers ninthports women in childbirth. Any and 10th-graders the opportuwoman who is planning on hav- nity to explore all program areas
ing a baby at BMH is eligible to through enrollment in the prehave a doula attend her birth at technical studies program. Their
no cost to the mother. Research cooperative education program
shows that doulas present at offers job shadows, internships
birth can lead to decreased rates and cooperative work opporof caesarian sections, decreased tunities for all students. Many
requests for pain medications, programs provide college credit.
shortened labors, and increased
RVTC serves Bellows Falls
maternal satisfaction.
Union High School, Black River
The doula training starts High School, Fall Mountain
March 27, during World Doula Regional High School, Green
Week, and runs for six weeks Mountain Union High School,
on Wednesday evenings. A $75 and Springfield High School,
fee includes books. Anyone in- as well as non-traditional stuterested should contact Carol dents. Download an enrollment
Schnabel at cschnabel@bmhvt.org application at RVTC.org (rvtc.
or 802-257-1894.
org) or call the guidance office
at 802-885-8305.
Tax help available
at RFPL
BELLOWS FALLS — Tax
forms from the Internal Revenue
Service and the Vermont
Department of Taxes are no
longer being mailed directly to
homes, and fewer forms are to
be found in familiar places like
post offices and libraries.
The Rockingham Free Public
Library has a limited supply of
common tax forms, and printing available for additional
forms and instructions. To order forms and instructions in the
mail, call 800-TAX-FORM, or
866-828-2865.
For people needing help preparing their taxes, the RFPL has
a limited number of appointments available on March 19
and 21 with AARP Tax Help
volunteers from the Bellows
Falls Senior Center. Call 802463-4279 for more information. Alternately, people
can call 211 to connect with
SEVCA’s Volunteer Income Tax
Assistance program. Vermont
211 is a service of the United
Way connecting Vermonters to
community services.
More tax information is
available at rockinghamlibrary.org/
taxinfo.html.
Guilford Church
Sugar-on-Snow
supper March 16
GUILFORD — The Sugaron-Snow Supper at Guilford
Community Church will be held
on Saturday, March 16.
There are three seatings: 4:30,
5:45, and 7 p.m. Prices are
$10 adults, $5 children age
11 and under, and $3 for preschoolers. For reservations,
call 802-254-9562 or email
guilfordchurchsupper@gmail.com.
The menu features ham,
baked beans, deviled eggs, potato
salad, coleslaw, freshly baked
rolls, sugar on snow, homemade doughnuts, pickles, and
coffee, tea or milk. Maple syrup
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Dummerston
Kindergarten
registration
DUMMERSTON —
Kindergarten registration will
be held on Tuesday, March
26 at Dummerston School on
Schoolhouse Road.
Call the school at 802-2542733 to make an appointment
if you have a child, or know of
a child, that will be five before
Sept. 1, 2013.
Arch Bridge Society
to meet March 27
CHESTERFIELD, N.H. —
The Chesterfield Arch Bridge
Society will hold its first meeting
of 2013 on Wednesday, March
27, at 7 p.m., at the Riverview
Motel in West Chesterfield.
The society was formed in
2009 by a group of concerned
citizens to preserve and enhance the Justice Harlan Fiske
Stone pedestrian bridge over the
Connecticut River. It is the society’s hope that with the increased
use of the bridge for cultural and
artistic events, it will become a
popular tourist destination.
All are welcome to their
events. Visit www.hfsarchbridge.
com for more information.
present its budget.
The Brattleboro Town
School District’s information meeting is scheduled for
Wednesday, March 20, at
Academy School. They will
hold their regular meeting
at 5:30 p.m., conduct a facilities review at 6 p.m., and
begin their budget review at
6:30 p.m.
Moore Free Library
offers scholarships
NEWFANE — Generously
funded by the family of the late
Robert L. Crowell, the Moore
Free Library is again offering a
total of $12,000 in scholarships.
These awards are open to
students residing in Newfane,
Williamsville, South Newfane,
and Brookline who will be entering their first year of college
this fall. The scholarship committee will consider academics,
contributions to the community, and financial need. The
number of scholarships awarded
and the award amounts will be
determined by the applications
received.
Applications should include
a brief autobiography (including plans for continued study
and the name of the school to
which you have been accepted),
high school transcript, and a letter of reference. Completed applications should be submitted
by May 1 to Board of Trustees,
Moore Free Library, P.O. Box
208, Newfane, VT 05345.
Sign-ups for
Little League in
Brattleboro begin
BRATTLEBORO — Signups for the 2013 season of the
Brattleboro Little League will
be held on Tuesday, March
19 and 26, from 4:30-6 p.m.,
at American Legion Post 5 on
Linden Street.
Any boy or girl, ages 9-12,
who intends to try out for a
Little League team must sign
up at either of these times.
Children who live in Brattleboro,
Dummerston, Guilford, Vernon,
Marlboro, Halifax. Newfane, or
Putney are eligible to play in the
league. Returning players should
also sign up as well. A fee of $50
will be collected, and raffle tickets distributed at this time. New
players must bring a birth certificate or passport to sign-ups.
Tryouts for Little League will
be held on Saturday, March 30
at the BUHS gym, with 11- and
12-year-olds trying out at 9 a.m.,
and 9- and 10-year-olds trying
out at 9:30 a.m. Coaches will
hold a draft on April 2 to select
those who tried on March 30.
Coaches and adult volunteers
are asked to meet at the Little
League field on South Main
Street on Saturday, April 13, at 9
a.m., for the annual spring cleanup and grounds maintenance.
Any questions? Call David Cyr
at 802-254-2470.
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Got something on your mind? Send contributions to our Letters from Readers section (500
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The Commons
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013 ADVERTISEMENT
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Women’s
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founded a Qur’an school for girls in Damascus 30
years ago. Every summer, her female students immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam. A
surprising cultural shift is under way—women are
claiming space within the mosque. Shot right before
the uprising in Syria erupted, The Light in Her Eyes
offers an extraordinary portrait of a leader who challenges the women of her community to live according
to Islam, without giving up their dreams.
3 p.m.
Raging Grannies
2011 • Pam Walton • 30min • USA • Documentary
Raging Grannies is a lively and thought-provoking
documentary that tells the story of The Action League
of the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula. In ostrich
feathers, crazy hats, and boas these women protest
with a sense of outrage, a sense of humor, and a commitment to non-violence. They are women over 50,
some as old as 90, who are enraged by the conditions
under which some people are forced to live, by threats
to our environment, by war, and by injustice wherever
they find it. As we travel with the Grannies to their
many gigs, we see that life isn’t over at 90!
American Outrage
2008 • Beth Gage • 56min • USA • Documentary
Two elderly Western Shoshone sisters, the Danns,
put up a heroic fight for their land rights and human rights. AMERICAN OUTRAGE asks why the
United States government has spent millions persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few
hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert?
Tickets
Tickets
for movies are $7.50 for
general admission, $6.00 for students/
seniors. A five-movie pass is available for
$30. Passes may be purchased:
• By calling the Women’s Freedom Center
– 257-7364
• Online at womensfreedomcenter.net.
Once on the website, click the donate
button, put “film pass” in the message
line and we’ll mail them out to you.
5 p.m.
Self-Portrait with Cows
Going Home and Other Works
2008 • Rebecca Dreyfus • 10min • USA • Short Documentary
Ms. Plachy is perhaps best known for her weekly pictures in The Village Voice but her images have been
widely exhibited both in the US and abroad and have
appeared in numerous publications. This film is a
rare, soulful and slightly eccentric look into the private
world of one of the greatest living photographers,
who is ironically camera shy. Legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles makes an on-camera
appearance as Ms. Plachy’s subject as well as shooting
segments of the film. Ms. Plachy’s son, actor, Adrien
Brody has contributed a delightful original score.
Little Sparrows
2010 • Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen • 88min • Australia • Drama
Little Sparrows is the story of a family of women.
In the middle of an Australian summer, we meet
three sisters. Nina is widowed with two young children. Anna is an aspiring actress unhappily married
to a filmmaker. Christine is a med student who has
yet to fully come to terms with her sexuality. When
their mother Susan’s breast cancer returns, the family is faced with the reality of their last Christmas together. As each daughter confronts personal change
and growth, Susan guides them by revealing a secret
of her own.
7 p.m.
The Bathhouse
2012 • Jisoo Kim • 6min 19sec • USA • Short Animated
The Bathhouse is an animated short film by Korean
filmmaker and artist, Jisoo Kim. The film takes the
viewer on a luscious and poetic journey from the dark,
polluted streets of the modern city, into the sanctuary
of the Bathhouse. The women who venture into this
place enter as strangers, weary from the toils of the
city, but together they undergo an empowering physical and spiritual transformation in this luscious and
fantastical paradise.
Scarlet Road
2011 • Catherine Scott • 70min • Australia • Documentary
Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression,
Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in
a long overlooked clientele— people with disabilities.
Working in New South Wales—where prostitution
is legal— Rachel’s philosophy is that human touch
and sexual intimacy can be the most therapeutic aspects to our existence. We follow her from conducting sex and disability workshops to speaking to the
World Congress on Sexual Health about her mission
to observing her overnight stays with severely disabled
clients. Rachel has made it her life’s work to end the
stigma surrounding these populations; the depth, humor and passion in this documentary may transform
the way we see sex workers and people with disabilities forever.
Sunday, March 17
1 p.m.
Jungle Radio
2009 • Susanne Jäger • 90min • Germany • Documentary
The Jungle Radio takes us deep into the jungle of
Nicaragua, where feminist Yamileth Chavarría has
launched a radio station with a unique mission: denouncing domestic violence against women and
children. Although Chavarría receives many death
threats, she refuses to give in to intimidation: “If they
shoot me on the air, everyone will hear it.”
3 p.m.
The World Before Her
2012 • Nisha Pahuja • 90min • Canada/India • Documentary
Two young women follow divergent paths in the
new, modernizing India-one wants to become Miss
India, the other is a Hindu Nationalist prepared to
kill and die for her beliefs. Moving between a beauty
boot camp, an annual Hindu militant camp for girls
and the characters’ private lives, The World Before
Her dramatizes the tension between traditional and
modern perspectives toward women in today’s India.
Initially representing the two threads as mutually exclusive worldviews, Pahuja ultimately draws surprising
parallels in the way women are perceived and the opportunities that are afforded them at both extremes,
convincingly depicting each as real sources of both
oppression and empowerment.
5 p.m.
Graceland Girls
2012 • Jordan Salvatoriello • 28min • USA/
Kenya • Short Documentary
Educating its adolescent girls has proven to be the
cornerstone of Kenyan development, yet so many
are denied equal access to education, social and economic equality and respect. Graceland Girls provides
an intimate look at how the high school students at
Graceland Girls School in central Kenya have, so far,
defied the odds. Using a combination of video and
digital photographs – taken by both the subjects and
the filmmaker – the girls express the beauty and pressures of empowered Kenyan girlhood and share their
personal struggles to find hope for a better future.
Words of Witness
2012 • Mai Iskander • 70min • USA/Egypt • Documentary
Every time 22-year-old Heba Afify heads out to cover
the historical events shaping her country’s future, her
mother is compelled to remind her, “I know you are
a journalist, but you’re still a girl!” Defying cultural
norms and family expectations, Heba takes to the
streets to report on an Egypt in turmoil, using tweets,
texts and Facebook posts. Her coming of age, political
awakening and the disillusionment that follows, mirrors that of a nation seeking the freedom to shape its
own destiny, dignity and democracy.
7 p.m.
For more info, visit
www.womensfilmfestival.org
Weightless Traveler
2010 • Eva Colmers • 10min • Canada • Short Animated
Without possessions to tie her down, young vagabond
Bo is taking off: to the big city, the desert and the jungle. With street-smart and magic, she overcomes any
obstacles on her way to find a true home. The unique
shadow projection and intriguing sound track make
The Weightless Traveller a special delight to view.
Deaf Jam
2012 • Judy Lieff • 70min • USA • Documentary
Aneta Brodski is a deaf teen introduced to American
Sign Language (ASL) Poetry, who then boldly enters
the spoken word slam scene. In a wondrous twist,
Aneta, an Israeli immigrant living in the Queens section of New York City, eventually meets Tahani, a
hearing Palestinian slam poet. The two women embark on a collaboration/performance duet - creating a
new form of slam poetry that speaks to both the hearing and the Deaf.
Proof generated March 12, 2013 9:46 PM
NEWS A6
T h e C o m m ons
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
CORRECTIONS
• Dr. Rebecca Jones had suspicion, but no proof, of drug
use taking place at the Elliot
Street Cafe, a business that she
co-owns. A reporting error in
“Redefining a neighborhood”
[News, Feb. 20] mischaracterized the drug activity as definitively taking place in her
medical practice, which is in a
separate building across from
the cafe.
A file photo accompanying
the same story was taken at a
part of Elliot Street that falls
outside of the area where the
FEET Neighbors group has focused its outreach, community
building, and activities.
• A number of reporting and
copy editing errors in “Guilford
votes to send grades 7, 8 to
Brattleboro” [News, March 6]
are corrected in a letter on page
C2 this issue.
VY’s safety record gets
approval from the NRC
Marking
the second
anniversary
of Fukushima
disaster
By Andrew Stein
vtdigger.org
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission recently completed
its 2012 performance review for
the Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant.
In a letter dated March 4,
NRC Branch Chief Ronald
Bellamy told Chris Wamser,
site vice president of Vermont
Yankee, that the plant’s safety
was up to par.
“The NRC determined that
overall, Vermont Yankee operated in a manner that preserved
public health and safety and
met all cornerstone objectives,”
Bellamy wrote.
This finding comes after former Public Service Department
Commissioner Liz Miller sent
the NRC a series of letters asking
why the NRC was not strengthening its oversight of the plant in
light of a string of human performance errors in 2012.
As the NRC’s letters stated
then and the annual assessment letter stated this month,
those incidents are considered
by the regulatory commission
to be “green” or of “low safety
Above: Participants
gather in Pliny Park in
Brattleboro to adopt
the town of Namie, a
town that is five miles
away from the crippled
reactor complex.
Putney, Hanover,
N.H., and Greenfield,
Amherst, and Wendell,
Mass. all established
similar relationships
with similar towns.
Right: A line of people
hold a vigil at the
Vermont Yankee gate
in Vernon on Sunday.
Retreat launches new health record system
BRATTLEBORO—The
Brattleboro Retreat has gone
live with a new electronic health
record system, a nearly $2 million investment it says will improve accountability and patient
care and safety.
According to Robert E.
Simpson Jr., Retreat president
and CEO, the move is “a truly
auspicious and critically important event for the Retreat.
“An electronic health record is
a crucial component in modernizing patient care and ensuring
patient safety; goals that match
perfectly with the Retreat’s
philosophy of care and workplace culture,” he said in a press
statement.
The Retreat selected
Netsmart’s myAvatar as its
electronic health record (EHR)
vendor in large part because it is
a fully integrated system specifically designed for mental health
and addiction care, and because
of what Simpson said was the
company’s solid reputation and
commitment to supporting mental health and addiction software
in clinical settings.
Netsmart lists its primary U.S.
offices in Kansas, New York,
Ohio, and Illinois.
EHR eliminates paper documentation, duplication of documents, and problems associated
with illegible handwriting. It also
interfaces with current and anticipated computerized systems
and allows multiple clinical disciplines to seek and access information at the same time.
Along with reducing clinical
errors and supporting consistency of care across an organization, an EHR facilitates the
exchange of medical information
with providers both in-state and
across the country, Simpson said.
Health care facilities across the
nation are increasingly turning
to electronic health records as a
condition of participation in both
private and public reimbursement programs. The federal
EHR Incentive Program specifically asks providers to utilize the
capabilities of EHRs to achieve
benchmarks that can lead to improvements in patient care.
Simpson said that according
to a national survey of providers
published at www.healthit.gov, 79
percent report their practices run
Producer
more efficiently with an EHR;
70 percent report enhanced data
confidentiality with an EHR; and
82 percent report that prescribing medications electronically
through an EHR saves time.
As part of its investment, the
Retreat also has improved its
internet bandwidth and added
wireless capacity that can be expanded and utilized as the system
is refined and adapted to meet
demands, Simpson said.
The Brattleboro Retreat, at
75 Linden St., is a private, notfor-profit mental health and addictions hospital that provides
comprehensive inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization, and
intensive outpatient services for
children, adolescents and adults.
Month
OF
THE
significance.” Such incidents included a missing risk analysis, a
missing flood seal and a poorly
installed condenser.
The Vernon plant shut down
last Saturday night to begin a
scheduled refueling for its 31st
operating cycle.
In a press release, plant officials hailed the reliability of the
plant since its most recent refueling in November 2011.
“Running for 493 consecutive days is a testament to the
condition of the plant and the
safety focus of our workforce,”
said Wamser. “During this refueling, we will take the time
necessary to carefully perform
testing, maintenance, and capital
Rich Earth
Institute awarded
grant for urine
reclamation project
BRATTLEBORO—The Rich
Earth Institute (REI) has received a $15,000 grant from the
USDA Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education (SARE)
program to conduct a second
season of field trials with Jay and
Janet Bailey of Fairwinds Farm
on Upper Dummerston Road.
The Rich Earth Institute is a
nonprofit research and demonstration organization founded
in 2011 by Abe Noe-Hays and
Kim Nace. Dedicated to closing the food nutrient cycle, the
mission of REI is to advance
and promote human manure as
a resource.
In 2012, REI’s Urine Nutrient
Reclamation Project recycled
600 gallons of human urine by
collecting, transporting, sanitizing, and applying it as fertilizer
to a hay field.
The project will expand this
summer to 3,000 gallons of
urine. All aspects of the research
will be replicated, refined, and
fully documented.
Urine contains vast quantities
of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium — elements required for
healthy soils.
Instead of collecting nutrients for reuse as REI proposes,
our current system mixes human waste with potable water
and transports it to a wastewater
Immanuel
Episcopal
Church
Sunday
Services:
8:00 &
10:00 am
20 Church St, Bellows Falls, VT
802-463-3100
immanuelepsicopal.org
Green River Aprons
improvements which will position the plant for safe and reliable
operation for years to come.”
Vermont Yankee’s staff are
being supplemented during the
refueling by other workers, including Entergy employees from
other nuclear plants, radiation
protection technicians, engineers, inspectors, millwrights,
electricians, pipefitters, boilermakers, welders, painters,
equipment operators, insulators,
carpenters, and laborers.
Plant officials say that the influx of maintenance workers
during the outage creates about
$2.5 million of economic activity in the region through local
purchases of goods and services.
treatment plant. Treatment
plants use an energy-intensive
and relatively inefficient process
to extract these same elements in
an attempt to lessen water pollution. They then discharge nonpotable water back into rivers.
Similar to the evolution of
solid waste management systems, where planners started
with extracting glass bottles and
then paper, metals and plastics
from our landfills, extracting
nutrient-laden urine from our
wastewater stream could greatly
reduce potable water consumption as well as alleviate pollution
to our waterways. It will simultaneously create a source of local, inexpensive, and abundant
fertilizer.
“There is a heightened awareness now of the need to close the
food nutrient cycle and to create
infrastructure based on a sustainable flow of nutrients in our environment,” said Nace.
REI is collaborating nationally
with engineers in the sanitation
industry, water quality advocates, soil scientists, and microbiologists at the EPA.
Additionally, REI is working
with the Vermont Department
of Environmental Conservation
for permitting and regulatory
purposes.
Urine is being collected for
REI through informal donations
from local volunteers. To participate, write info@richearthinstitute.
org.
Urine also can be collected
formally via waterless urinals and
new source separating toilets,
which are gaining popularity,
especially in Europe. A demonstration model is installed at the
REI office in Brattleboro.
Tours may be arranged by calling Nace at 802-579-1857. For
more information, visit www.
richearthinstitute.org or visit their
Facebook page.
DEAD HARD DRIVE!!
Guilford, VT
W
e’ve all wondered about our paths leading us to certain lives, and it
would seem that Kathy Thomas and Edith Platt took a circuitous route
to ultimately founding Green River Aprons. Edith was making quilts, and
anyone who makes quilts knows that fabric remnants are a big part of one’s
life. Kathy, who exhibits a particular propensity for order, suggested making an
apron with the remnants. Thus began a process of continuous refinement. The
choice of 100% cotton soft fabrics is quite deliberate, with precise attention
to grouping fabrics together, sometimes in startling ways, and rarely do more
than two or three of the same apron emerge from the workshop. They take
no more than one yard of fabric, apply the pattern templates which have been
immortalized by Kathy in masonite, and then Kathy lays out and cuts them
with a rotary cutter equipped with a tungsten blade (an industrial pizza cutter,
basically). Then, Kathy sews the inside seams and Edith sews all of the precise
external seams on their Swiss-made Bernina mechanical sewing machines.
Proof generated March 12, 2013 9:46 PM
Be sure to d
rop
by the Co-o
p on
Friday, Marc
h 15
from 11am-2
pm to
visit with bo
th fine
seamstresse
s.
They will en
tertain
and enthrall
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also raffle o
ff a
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*Ask about data recovery options
TOWN & VILLAGE
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
page A7
Watershed Council
wants more
information for
hydro relicensing
SAXTONS RIVER—March 1
marked a major deadline for public comments on five hydroelectric facilities on the Connecticut
River seeking renewal of their
operating licenses.
The Connecticut River
Watershed Council (CRWC)
submitted more than 100 pages
of comments and study requests
to the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) for additional information needed to
make sound decisions about license renewal.
The five hydro projects included in the 2018 relicensing are Wilder, Bellows Falls,
and Vernon dams in Vermont,
and Turners Falls Dam and
Northfield Mountain Pump
Storage Project in Massachusetts.
These facilities account for more
than 30 percent of hydropower
generation in New England.
The new licenses will be virtually unalterable, and the operating conditions FERC places on
the new licenses will affect 175
miles of the Connecticut River
for the next 30 years.
CRWC’s comments focus on
improvements to the ecological
health of the river and recreational opportunities for the public. It believes that recreational
and educational opportunities,
such as improved fishing and
boating access, reasonable walkable portage facilities, more and
better campsites, and migratory
fish viewing facilities that support
educational programs and are
ADA accessible, must continue.
The group said it also wants
to see riverbank erosion minimized by moderating river flow
and reservoir fluctuations, and
wants studies conducted exploring the option of a closedloop system at the Northfield
Mountain Pump Storage Project
in Massachusetts.
Many more studies are needed
to improve aquatic species habitat, CRWC says. Important factors to consider include efficient
and successful fish passage; minimum river flows to support fish
habitat and spawning; and impacts of dams on American shad,
American eel, dwarf wedgemussel, and the endangered shortnose sturgeon.
Finally, CRWC wants studies
■ SEE HYDRO, PAGE A8
Library offers
genealogy, local
history workshop
BRATTLEBORO—Brooks
Memorial Library hosts a workshop on local history and genealogy with Linda Hay, former
Academy School librarian, on
Saturday, March 16, at 10:30
a.m. in the Brooks Memorial
Library meeting room.
If you’re a family historian, a
writer, a historical adventurer, or
are simply curious, you’ll find the
daily lives ordinary people lived
in the past a wonderful story
worth piecing together. That’s
what Hay found in researching
what life was like in Guilford in
one particular year. Out of that
emerged an unexpectedly lively
picture, she said.
Hay’s talk will cover her search
for documents, methods for teasing out the fascinating details
from apparently boring statistics, and how she synthesized her
findings to bring history to life.
The workshop is free and
open to the public and requires
no registration. The library is at
RANDOLPH T. HOLHUT/THE COMMONS
Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark and Deputy First Class Melissa Martin confer before their
presentation at the Putney Annual Town Meeting on March 5.
Putney debates sharing
deputy with Westminster
By Eben Holderness
the two contracting options and
answered the many budgetary questions Putney residents
PUTNEY—Putney vot- voiced for more than an hour.
ers decided via voice vote
The first option, he exat their annual town meet- plained, was for the town to
ing on March 5 to allow the keep its current full-time contown’s Selectboard to
tract with the Windham
make a final decision
County sheriff, who
on whether Putney
currently assigns
a n d n e i g h b o r i n g ANNUAL Deputy First Class
Westminster should
Melissa Martin to duty
TOWN
share a 70-hour per MEETING in the town.
week contract with
For the past four
2013
the Windham County
years, Putney has paid
Sheriff’s Department.
for its contract using
Westminster voters had al- a federal grant, which expires
ready decided at their own in September. The proposed
March 2 town meeting to ap- $40,000 listed in the town
prove a budget for a shared meeting article was to be added
Windham County sheriff con- to a current $20,000 fund
tract. Putney Selectboard Chair to pay for the remaining 10
Josh Laughlin, however, said months of fiscal year 2014 not
that Westminster voters had covered by the grant.
acted prematurely in their
In total, the town would pay
decision.
around $70,000 for a full-year
“In my opinion it was a mis- contract.
take that it was put on the
The other option was to
Westminster article as being share a contract for 70 hours
shared with Putney, because a week between Putney and
Putney had not agreed to a Westminster. This would alshared contract prior to that,” low more fluidity, as the same
he said.
sheriff could respond to calls
At the meeting, Windham from both towns. Costs and
County Sheriff Keith Clark ex- hours spent in each town would
plained the differences between “be split down the middle,”
The Commons
224 Main St.
Hay has a wealth of experience
exploring the past in Brattleboro
and Vermont generally, owing
to her three decades working
in local libraries. Since her own
school days, her passion has been
finding and using primary documents to understand people and
their world.
Many of these resources are
now available online. Others
abound at local libraries and historical societies.
Join Hay for an illustrated
talk, followed by hands-on examination and analysis of typical sources from the Brattleboro
area, including the challenges of
deciphering records written with
a quill pen.
For more information or to check
on weather cancelations, call
Brooks Memorial Library at 802254-5290, ext. 0, or write info@
brookslibraryvt.org.
Clark said.
Putney residents were divided on the issue.
“It’s great that we have
the opportunity to possibly
share sheriff services with
Westminster, but I think it’s
in our best interest to keep
it a Putney-only position,”
Kathleen Lawrence said.
“Westminster is roughly 50
square miles, Putney is 30. If
[Martin] got a call right now it
could take as long as 35 minutes
to drive from Westminster. Also
[Martin] is part of Putney, she’s
been doing a great job, and I
think we should keep it as just
a Putney position.”
Lawrence continued
to explain that there are
roughly 1,400 households in
Westminster, compared to 950
in Putney, which could result
in a large volume of calls coming in simultaneously. Martin
received more than 300 calls
in the past year from Putney
alone, although the number of
calls the sheriff in Westminster
received was less.
Other residents, such as
Eva Mondon, felt similarly to
Lawrence. “We have a crowded
school and need a full time
sheriff in Putney,” she said.
“We have three private schools
here, we need full time coverage. Let’s not be naive about
this sharing business: response
time is very important.”
Questions were also raised
regarding the differences in financial benefits the town would
receive from tickets issued by
the sheriff should they share
a contract with Westminster.
“The amount that goes back
to the towns is set by the state,”
Clark responded. “We report
to the town what tickets we’ve
written and what the initial fine
was. Once the ticket is written,
we don’t control them.”
Approximately one-fifth of
the initial fine printed on the
ticket is deducted for various
fees, leaving the town with the
remaining profits.
Following additional discussion on the financial aspects of
the decision, a straw poll to determine whether Putney should
join Westminster in a shared
sheriff contract found it should
be passed. However, residents
opted instead to amend the article to give the Selectboard a
final decision in the matter.
Putney General Store proprietor to step aside
Historical Society: ‘We’re going to keep
this thing open, one way or another’
By Jeff Potter
The Commons
PUTNEY—The Putney
General Store will remain open,
even though store operator Ming
Chou will leave this summer.
That’s the vow from the
Putney Historical Society, the
nonprofit that owns the building.
Historical Society board member Lyssa Papazian said that
Chou, who is working toward a
smooth transition with the board,
is coping with health concerns,
and with no family in the area
to help with the store and serve
as backup, “it’s not doable for
him.”
“We certainly expected to see
him here a long time,” Papazian
said of Chou, who signed a 20year lease for the space in 2011.
“We’ll be sad to see him go.”
Attempts to reach Chou at the
store were unsuccessful.
Papazian said that the board
has encouraged Chou to list
the business for sale, and she
said that Chou has maintained
a transparency with the board
about the store’s “healthy,
strong, and growing” operations
and finances, a characterization
that she said was confirmed by
an independent grocery consultant who analyzed the store’s
business health.
In addition to the inventory
and equipment, Chou brings to
the table a “healthy customer
count” and the “goodwill he created out of nothing,” Papazian
said.
“At the same time, we’re exploring the possibility of hiring a
manager and taking [the store]
over ourselves,” Papazian said.
The building was constructed
from the ground up after a 2008
fire leveled the historic structure
on the site. With help from the
Preservation Trust of Vermont
and community investors, the
Historical Society purchased the
store, which had been the longest
continually operating general
store in the state’s history.
The Historical Society was
on the home stretch of finishing renovations in 2009 when
a fire — later determined to be
arson — consumed the building in 2009.
Chou, from Sterling, Mass.,
told The Commons in 2011 that
he fell in love with the old Putney
General Store more than a decade ago on a trip to Vermont
and twice tried to buy it before
the fires intervened.
“We will miss him,” Papazian
said, describing Chou as “an
incredibly generous person”
who “gives at the drop of a
hat” to community causes and
organizations.
OLGA PETERS/COMMONS FILE PHOTO
Whatever happens with Chou,
Putney
General
Store
proprietor
Ming
Chou,
shown
here
during the store’s
she said, “We’re going to keep
this thing open, one way or grand opening celebration in 2011, plans to step down this summer because of
health issues.
another.”
Publication of the Town & Village section of THE COMMONS is brought to you by a grant from
Vermont Community Foundation
www.vermontcf.org
Proof generated March 12, 2013 9:46 PM
NEWS A8
T h e C o m m o ns
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Children create mural
for Greater Falls
Warming Shelter
BELLOWS FALLS—A
group of children from the First
Universalist Parish of Chester
has created a mural to brighten
the Greater Falls Warming
Shelter.
Working with artist Jamie
Townsend of Springfield as part
of a religious education project
focused on social action and
homelessness, the youngsters
painted a colorful scene depicting hands holding a heart and a
bird singing in a tree while the
sun shines brightly down on
them all.
The mission of the Greater
Falls Warming Shelter is to provide a safe, warm overnight shelter during the winter months for
those in need. It serves towns
in the Greater Falls area principally, including Rockingham,
Westminster, Athens, Grafton,
North Walpole and Walpole,
N.H.
The mural will hang in the
shelter, which is located in North
Walpole, N.H., this year.
The shelter is open every
night during the winter season
(November to April) from 7 p.m.
to 7 a.m.
The children unveiled the mural at the shelter’s recent benefit
showing of “E.T.: The ExtraTerrestrial” at the Bellows Falls
Children from the First Universalist Parish
of Chester with the mural they created
with the help of artist Jamie Townsend
for the Greater Falls Warming Shelter.
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decide what additional studies
will be required of the companies
by July, after releasing a draft
document based on the information submitted to them this past
week by many different organizations and individuals.
CRWC river stewards Andrea
Donlon and David Deen are participating in the formal proceedings and are working to engage
the public in the process.
For more information about
these projects, visit CRWC at
www.ctriver.org.
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from SECTION FRONT
to be conducted exploring the
option of decommissioning one
or more of the dams.
“The power companies have
made a good start putting information forward,” said CRWC
executive director Andrew Fisk.
“But there is a tremendous
amount of additional information that we all need in order to
make good decisions about our
river and our environment. It’s
important to remember that this
river belongs to all of us.”
The federal government will
Jewett
Opera House.
Townsend is a painter, illustrator, and sculptor who says
his artistic mission is to share
art with the community, to teach
kids about art, and expose them
to the power of art.
“When an artist shares or donates his art to a community,
it becomes theirs to embrace,”
he said recently, citing how, in
much of Europe, art is appreciated and supported, even in the
smallest towns.
Rev. Telos Whitfield, pastor of
the church and a board member
of the shelter, said the board was
grateful for Townsend’s involvement and the children’s dedication to the project.
“I’m sure this mural will bring
a literal and figurative ray of sunshine to the guests at the warming shelter,” he said.
Since its opening in
November, the shelter has
housed more than 35 different
guests, with a maximum allowed
of 10 each night. It expects to remain open until early April.
Information about the shelter
is available on Facebook or by
writing gfwarmingshelter@gmail.
com. Volunteers to staff the 7
p.m. to 1 a.m., and 1 to 7 a.m.
shifts are always needed, with
training provided, Whitfield said.
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THE COMMONS
B1
SECTION B
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
H AV E
page B1
voice,
WILL
travel
Vocalist Karrin Allyson, who
With a
SHOUT
New Vermont
has performed for audiences
Performance Lab
around the world, comes to
the Vermont Jazz Center
artist-in-residence
By Richard Henke
Reggie Wilson
The Commons
B
RATTLEBORO—
Jazz vocalist Karrin
Allyson explains
what brings her to
the Vermont Jazz
Center (VJC) on Saturday,
March 16, at 8 p.m., in concert with, “A World Tour in a
Single Night.”
“In a word, work,” she said,
laughing.
“That’s my job, to go where
the people want me. I travel
around the world for concerts.
I just did a wedding in Beirut
that was really amazing. And
often you don’t know until the
last minute where you might
have to go,” she said.
“I have concerts pending
in a couple of weeks at music
festivals in both Russia and
China. This jazz business is
not for the faint of heart. You
really have to be dedicated to
the music and to your audiences,” she said.
Allyson will be performing at VJC with with Steve
Cardenas on guitar, George
Kaye on acoustic bass, and
Todd Strait on drums.
Tickets are $20 general admission or $15 with student
identification.
Allyson has recorded 13
original studio albums, all
under the Concord Jazz label, and earned four Grammy
nominations along the way.
She’s regarded as among
the top vocalists in jazz today. Don Heckman of the Los
Angeles Times describes her as
“a musician’s musician, and
for once the overused term
actually makes sense...”
Allyson lives in New York
City, and has performed at
top stages around the world,
including major jazz festivals
in Brazil, Japan, Australia
and Europe, as well as the
most legendary venues in
the United States, including
regular appearances at
New York’s Blue Note and
Birdland.
This will be Allyson’s first
time singing at VJC, which
she got to know along with
its director, Eugene Uman,
through her love of community in the Pioneer Valley
of Western Massachusetts,
where she has a “getaway
house.”
“I’m thrilled … Eugene is
such nice man, and plays piano beautifully,” she said.
A diverse artist, Allyson
sings in English, French,
Portuguese, Italian, and
Spanish.
Her songs are drawn from
bossa nova, blues, bebop,
samba, jazz standards, and
other jazz modalities, as well
as ballads, pop standards, the
Great American Songbook,
soft rock, and folk rock.
She has also recorded vocal
performances of several instrumental jazz compositions,
using both scat and vocalese
techniques.
According to Wikipedia,
vocalese is a style or genre of
jazz singing wherein words
are sung to melodies that
were originally part of an allinstrumental composition or
improvisation.
In “Wild For You” (2004),
she even performs jazz takes
on Joni Mitchell, Carol King
and Elton John.
Allyson grew up in Omaha,
Kansas, where her father was
a Lutheran minister, and her
mother was a psychotherapist,
teacher and classical pianist.
Allyson studied classical piano, sang at her local church
and in musical theater, and
also began writing songs.
In college, where she studied classical piano, she also
was lead singer for her own
all-girl rock band, Tomboy.
She developed an avid interest in jazz, performing both
■ SEE ALLYSON, PAGE B2
KARRIN.COM
Internationally known jazz musician Karrin
Allyson will perform Saturday, March 16 at
Vermont Jazz Center.
asks community to
help his ensemble
give voice to a
spiritual journey
PENTACLE.ORG
Reggie Wilson, artist in residence at Vermont Performance Lab.
By Richard Henke
The Commons
G
UILFORD—
Join choreographer
Reggie Wilson
and two vocalists
from his Fist and
Heel Performance Group at a
“Community Shout” for “(project) Moseses Project,” a dance
performance work exploring representations of the Biblical figure
Moses in story, myth, and history.
Wilson is the first artist-inresidence through the Vermont
Performance Lab’s new
Hatchery Project, a multi-year
collaborative residency partnership supporting dance and other
performance artists.
Guests are invited to add their
voices and bodies to this performance, which VPL Director
Sara Coffey calls a “transformative sing-along” rooted in
tales and songs from Africa, the
Caribbean, and the American
South.
The event is Saturday, March
16, at 7 p.m. at the Broad Brook
Grange in Guilford.
Wilson is using his residency
at VPL to develop a “sound
montage” of tales and songs for
“(project) Moseses Project,”
which will have its world premiere this fall at the Philadelphia
Live Arts Festival.
Wilson says his ensemble’s
work examines the migration of
peoples and culture out of Africa
and into the rest of the world,
and considers “how we lead and
why we follow.”
“I wonder about the methodologies of why we like to be
led, why we sometimes want
our leaders to be very strict, and
at other limes loosey-goosey. I
found it exciting that these issues
are very contemporary but also
quite ancient,” he says.
“Broadly speaking, ‘(project)
Moseses Project,’ is the story or
myth (of Moses) seen through
the black Afro-American community and the the black church,
as well as the African cultures
like Egypt and Nubia. There
are a lot of ways of looking at
this material. Different folks
will come to the piece with different assumptions, and I desire
to honor this diversity,” he adds.
Wilson will be joined at the
Grange by vocalists Rhetta
Aleong and Lawrence Harding,
also of Fist and Heel.
Many Moseses
Careers are spent interpreting
the figure and import of Moses
of the Old Testament, from rebel
to teacher to prophet to Great
Emancipator.
Against this backdrop, Wilson
says his project was inspired
by his rereading of Zora Neale
Hurston’s 1939 novel, “Moses,
Man of the Mountain,” which
blends that story with black folklore and song for an effect the
New York Times called, “A narrative of great power. Warm with
friendly personality and pulsating
with … profound eloquence and
religious fervor.”
“Hurston was a big influence
on me. She was an anthropologist, a scholar, and an artist at
a time when few black women
were any of these things.
“The story, rewritten in a
black idiom, reads well and is
■ SEE WILSON, PAGE B3
New BMAC exhibits showcase
contemporary art of China
Renowned photographer Liu Bolin among featured
Chinese artists in museum-wide installation
BRATTLEBORO—Two
remarkable new exhibits of
Chinese contemporary art and
photography will be on display
at the Brattleboro Museum &
Art Center (BMAC) beginning
Saturday, March 16.
Featuring the work of renowned photographer Liu Bolin
and 20 other contemporary
Chinese artists, the new exhibits invite visitors to take a deep
exploration of contemporary
Chinese artistic expression.
Museum visitors will also have
the opportunity to contribute
their own creations to a related
interactive exhibit in the museum’s family-friendly Ticket
Gallery.
Four of the museum’s six galleries will be dedicated to “Hot
Pot: A Taste of Contemporary
Chinese Art.” This exhibit features the work of 20 contemporary Chinese artists, ranging
from painting and photography
to sculpture and metalwork.
Collectively, their work addresses
■ SEE CHINA, PAGE B2
“Hiding in the City No. 87 — Demolition,” by Liu Bolin.
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THE ARTS B2
Help
Wanted
To place your
employment ad,
call Nancy at
(802) 246-6397
or email ads@
commonsnews.org
New England
Career
Connection
802-254-3310
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Deduction Coordinator
$13-$13/hr
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Additional 80+ Openings:
T he C o m m o n s
IndieFlix now available through
Brooks Memorial Library
BRATTLEBORO—Now that
you’ve watched the Academy
Awards, stream independent
films to your favorite digital device—via your library card.
Brooks Memorial Library has
added another digital service to
its suite of online services with
IndieFlix, a digital streaming service offering nearly 2,000 films.
IndieFlix is similar to other
digital content to download eAudio and eBooks from the library’s
website in that users create an account, register with their library
card number, and then set to
streaming content.
The company’s website says
the service “curates the best from
film festivals around the world,”
and offers “unlimited access to
award-winning independent
movies, shorts, documentaries,
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and Web series. Discover films
that launch careers, blaze new
trails, and that artists make for
the love of the craft.”
Films may be streamed to
your computer or mobile device.
Moreover, IndieFlix films may
be streamed to your television
with a Roku player.
Without a library card number, this service costs customers
$69 per year.
IndieFlix through Brooks is
funded by the Friends of Brooks
Memorial Library.
For more Information, call 802254-5290, Ext. 0, or visit www.
brookslibraryvt.org . To use the
service, click on “Borrow and
Download,” then select “Digital
Media.”
Fiddle Frenzy
planned
at Stone
Church Arts
WWW.NECC-VT.COM
Reliable, self-starting hard worker needed.
Part time. Will be cross-trained in
car washing & detailing. Apply in person.
Ask for Rick, Joe, or Connie. No phone calls please.
Burton Car Wash, 201 Canal Street, Brattleboro.
Office Manager
Brattleboro Office
Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters is looking
for a full time office manager.
Responsibilities:
Full Time (some Saturday mornings).
Overseeing all accounting and associated
procedures for a regional 3 retail store chain.
Salary commensurate with experience.
Generous benefits package offered.
Please e-mail cover letter & resume
to: pnadeau@samsoutfitters.com
No phone calls please.
Open 7 Days a week
for daily
updates!
Find us
on
Mexican Night EVERY Wednesday 5-9PM
View our menu on our website!
THE
Thursdays: OPEN MIC Sunday Brunch 10-1, West River Trail Head
w/ Kevin Parry 7-10pm Jazz with Draa Hobs
Starts Here!
Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT • 802-257-7563
VermontMarina.com
Fiddler Emerald Rae.
BELLOWS FALLS—On
Saturday, March 16, at 7:30
p.m., Stone Church Arts presents its annual celebration of
Spring and Celtic music, the St.
Patrick’s Fiddle Frenzy.
This year, they welcome two
veterans to the Fiddle Frenzy,
cellist Eugene Friesen and fiddler
Emerald Rae, as well as two newcomers, multi-instrumentalists
Rachel Clark and Bob DeMarco
of the Celtic duo Blackbird.
Join them for this one-of-akind musical party at Immanuel
Episcopal Church, “The Stone
Church on the Hill,” at 20
Church St.
Friesen has broken new
ground for the cello, using it in
a wide variety of non-classical
settings and creating new techniques to expand its role as a
solo and accompanying instrument. He has also performed
thousands of concerts for young
audiences on cello and electric cello as “Celloman.” He is
a multi-Grammy award winner for his work with the Paul
Winter Consort and a professor
at the Berklee College of Music
in Boston.
Rae is an American singer and
multi-instrumentalist. She grew
up in a musical family where
country music and rock ’n roll
were prevalent and has spent the
last 20 years studying all facets of
folk music. With a degree in film
Courtesy photo
scoring from Berklee College of
Music and a National Scottish
Championship under her belt,
Emerald has become well-known
in the Boston area for her versatility, her dynamic power-house
playing style, and her unique
perspective.
Clark comes from a family
rich in music. Both her mom
and dad play professionally as
classical musicians. She lived in
Sweden as a child and was drawn
to Celtic music in her teens. She
plays the Irish flute, penny whistle, accordion, and piano.
DeMarco’s mom came originally from County Limerick,
Ireland, and inspired his love
for Celtic music. When he was
a boy, she frequently sang in
Gaelic and loved to play the
fiddle and piano. Bob plays the
fiddle, guitar, cittern, and piano.
Admission is $17 for adults ($13
for seniors and children under
12) in advance and $20 ($15)
at the door. Tickets are available
at Village Square Booksellers in
Bellows Falls, Toadstool Bookshop
in Keene, N.H., Brattleboro Books,
Misty Valley Books in Chester,
and at http://www.brattleborotix.
com (www.brattleborotix.com), or
available at the door. For more
information or directions, go to
http://www.stonechurcharts.org
(www.stonechurcharts.org) or call
802-463-3100.
The Tri-state region’s premier center for jazz.
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n China
three central themes: image
and identity, environment and
politics, and reinterpreting artistic traditions.
An integral part of Chinese
culture for more than 1,000
years, hot pot is a communal
dish of broth, meat, vegetables, and other ingredients,
each of which retains its distinctive flavor and texture.
“Here at BMAC, the hot
pot meal serves as a metaphor
for the art of China today in
all its complexity and variety,
for Chinese artists’ experiences and perceptions of the
world, and for their individual
and collective memories,” says
BMAC Chief Curator Mara
Williams. “Just as people
gather around a hot pot to eat
and socialize, our ‘Hot Pot’
encourages viewers to experience and savor, as a community, the contemporary art of
China.”
Alongside “Hot Pot” is a
major exhibit of the work of
performance artist and photographer Liu Bolin. “The
Invisible Man” features 14
large photographs from Liu’s
“Hiding in the City” and
“Hiding in New York” series.
In addition to their political
and metaphorical commentary on Chinese government
and culture, Liu’s stunning
photographs address and challenge notions of identity — for
the viewer, artist, and subject.
“Camouflaged in a particular setting then photographed
by his assistants, Liu employs
concealment as a method for
addressing activeness/passivity, identity, and appearance,”
says BMAC Curatorial Intern
Elissa Watters. “The concealed individual in Liu’s photographs often looks directly at
Robin
MacArthur.
from SECTION FRONT
the viewer from the center of
the scene. Fixed in position,
the individual is a distinct
part of the space he inhabits,
and the works raise the question of what it means that the
hidden figure’s gaze is the artist’s own.”
In keeping with BMAC’s
efforts to make contemporary
art accessible to a diverse audience and people of all ages,
the museum’s interactive
Ticket Gallery offers visitors a
hands-on activity inspired by
Liu Bolin’s use of camouflage
in his artwork. Examining the
role of camouflage in nature,
from the perspective of both
predator and prey, participants will create creatures in
an attempt to hide them within
different habitats represented
on the gallery’s painted walls.
In connection with the new
exhibits and supported by
a grant from the National
Endowment for the Arts,
BMAC has organized 15 educational and engaging events,
ranging from hands-on activities for kids to kung-fu demonstrations, films, and lectures
by experts on Chinese culture
and environmental policies.
The museum’s exhibits and gift
shop are open Sunday, Monday,
Wednesday, Thursday: 11
a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday: 11 a.m.-7
p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-5
p.m.. Regular admission is $8
for adults, $6 for seniors, and
$4 for students. Members and
children under 6 are admitted free. Located in downtown
Brattleboro at the intersection of
Main Street and routes 119 and
142, the museum is wheelchair
accessible. For more information,
call 802-257-0124 or visit www.
brattleboromuseum.org.
John Rose.
Franklin Reeve.
UI&U hosts poetry reading
BRATTLEBORO—Union
Institute & University is holding its third annual poetry
reading this Saturday, March
16, at 3 p.m., featuring Robin
MacArthur, John Rose, and F.
D. Reeve.
The event is free. Union
Institute & University is at 157
Old Guilford Rd.
MacArthur is an affiliated
professor at Union Institute &
University. A mother, writer and
educator, she represents half of
the indie-folk duo Red Heart the
Ticker. Her essays and short fiction have been featured in Orion
magazine, Shenandoah: The
Washington and Lee University
Review, and on National Public
Radio.
Rose’s work has appeared in
numerous journals, including
Old Crow, Jack Mackerel magazine, and Today’s Poets.
Described by James Tate as “a
powerful and original poet,”
Rose has twice been nominated
for a Pushcart Prize.
Reeve has published 10 volumes of poetry, seven books of
fiction, 12 books of translations,
three books of literary criticism,
four libretti, and countless uncollected essays, articles, stories, poems, reviews, and translations in
journals including The Atlantic,
The New Yorker, and The Sewanee
Review. Reeve has won numerous awards and honors including the 2012 Award of the New
England Book Festival for his novella “Nathaniel Purple.”
For more information, call Ben
Mitchell at 802-869-3378.
Film, discussion on migrant workers
in Vermont planned for March 22
Saturday, March 16
8 Music
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Cellist Eugene Friesen.
Courtesy photo
B R A TT L E B ORO — O n
Friday, March 22, Migrant
Justice will show the new documentary HIDE, which takes
viewers inside the daily lives and
struggles for dignity of eight migrant farm workers from Latin
America working on Vermont
dairy farms.
The film showing will be followed by a discussion led by
Migrant Justice and migrant
farm workers. The film is produced by Elori Kramer and Peter
Coccoma in collaboration with
Migrant Justice.
There will be two showings.
In Keene, N.H., the film will
be shown at the Keene State
n Allyson
in her college’s jazz swing choir
and in her own jazz ensemble. In
1990, she moved to Kansas City,
where she began her recording
career with Concord Jazz.
“I always liked to sing,” she
says. “I was never too shy. You
see I’m a bit of ham. I have a
great commitment to the music
I play, but I do like to have a little humor in my concerts also.”
Allyson believes that jazz
should not be rigidly intellectual, but spiritual and soulful
— and fun.
“Bonnie Raitt, one of my idols,
told me when I got to meet her at
the Grammy Awards, ‘We do it
for love. That is the best part.’”
“The Grammy Awards are
a little silly,” she says. “I don’t
mean that I don’t appreciate
them. I consider it a great honor
to have been four-times nominated for the Grammy. But the
extravaganza, the big televised
show, seems a little overblown.”
College Student Center at 3 p.m.
In Brattleboro, it will be shown
at the Hooker-Dunham Theater,
139 Main St., at 7:45 p.m.; it will
be preceded by a reception at 7
p.m. Donations are suggested.
The events are co-sponsored
by Southern Vermont Migrant
Workers Solidarity Committee,
Vermont Workers Center,
Post Oil Solutions, Keene
State College, Keene State
College Fair Trade Club, and
Keene State College Diversity
Commission.
For more information, contact http://www.migrantjustice.
net/HIDE (www.migrantjustice.
net/HIDE).
from SECTION FRONT
She said that jazz artists get
their awards not during the televised show, but earlier in the day,
along with winners in classical,
spoken word, and other “less
popular” genres.
“At least nowadays, this ceremony can be streamed on your
computer. Jazz artists almost
never perform on the nighttime
show. However, I do remember
a time when Ella [Fitzgerald] and
Mel Torme actually sang as they
gave awards. Talk about seeing
pros in action,” she said.
Allyson says she picks different material when she performs
for different audiences or at different venues.
“Not everything is right for every audience,” she says, “I don’t
have a set concert I take with me
when I go performing. When I
decide what to do at a specific
place, like here in Vermont, I
take into consideration where
I’m playing, such as the size of
the hall and its acoustics. I like
variety in my shows, and so I
choose from blues, ballads, bebop, and pop.”
She says how she puts a show
together “always turns out to
be loose, but still well-thought
out. I don’t like to do the same
thing twice. When I recently performed at Blue Note, where the
club turns its audience over during the evening, I do two shows
a night, and each of those were
very different from each other.
“The places where I perform
can vary a lot. I have performed
to very small crowds at private
parties. I have appeared at venues like here at VJC, bigger at
Birdland, which is the largest jazz
club in NYC, or the 92nd Street
Y, which is bigger still.
“Yet no matter how big the
space, I still try to make the music feel intimate. I learned this
from great artists whom I have
had the honor to see: jazz legends
like Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan
or Carmen McRae, who had the
gift to always to make you feel
they are singing to just you.”
The one thing Allyson says
she dislikes about critics is when
when they go out their way to
point out, “Oh, you sound like
so-and so.”
“Reference points are fine,
but in the end, as an artist, you
struggle to find your own voice,”
Allyson says.
Tickets for Karrin Allyson at the
Vermont Jazz Center, 74 Cotton
Mill Hill, at 8 p.m. on Saturday,
March 16, are $20 general admission; $15 with student identification. (Ask VJC about educational
discounts.) Tickets are available at
In the Moment in Brattleboro and
www.vtjazz.org. Reserve tickets by
calling the VJC ticket line at 802254-9088, ext. 1.
THE ARTS • Wednesday, March 13, 2013 very funny,” Wilson says.
In addition, Wilson was inspired by his travel to Israel,
Egypt, Turkey and Mali. There,
he discovered how different cultures interpret the story of Moses
uniquely.
Wilson explains, “I discovered
that there was not one Moses,
but many Moseses, and the myth
changed as each culture assimilated (him).
“For instance, I found it interesting how there are parts of the
story we remember, and other
parts that seem foreign to us,
and how those parts differ among
groups. The story involves deep
cultural contextualization.”
And in some places, he says,
there seems at first blush to be
no context.
“One member of our group
admitted that the only thing
he ever knew about Moses was
the (Val Kilmer-starring) animated motion picture from
DreamWorks, “The Prince of
Egypt” (1998) says Wilson. “But
then I thought that was as valid a
way into the story as any.”
This seemed especially true as
the scholar with whom Wilson
had his long discussions about
Moses in Israel happened to be
a consultant on the film.
Wilson notes that his project
was widely embraced by many
he spoke with from across the
Jewish faith, though a few people questioned his assimilation
of this revered figure.
“For a few, there is one right
way to represent Moses, and our
work is something of a challenge.
This perhaps has made me a little
nervous about what I am doing
in this piece. I hope it is transparent that this work is about
my relation to this material, and
that I believe there is meaning in
this material outside the religious
Jewish context,” Wilson says.
Moses is the most important
prophet in Judaism. He is also
considered an important prophet
in Christianity and Islam, as well
as other faiths.
Wilson says he has taken
scholarship into a studio to turn
this story into what he calls a
“postmodern-contemporary
dance performance piece.” The
important thing, he contends,
“is what goes on right in front of
me, and how I develop it choreographically, as I transform …
scholarly material to movement.”
Ultimately, the performance
will combine live music with
pre-recorded songs: many field
songs Wilson has collected in
his travels from places as diverse
as the American South and the
Caribbean. He also will employ
hymns from the black church as
well as modern pop music.
Something to
shout about
Wilson says he enjoys hosting
Community Shouts. The Grange
event will contain elements of a
ring shout, or an ecstatic, transcendent religious ritual, as first
practiced by African slaves on
plantations in the American
South, in which worshipers move
in a circle while shuffling and
stomping their feet and clapping
their hands.
As Wilson explains, “The
black church came out of this
early musical ritual.”
“Moseses” has been a work in
progress for more than two years.
During this spring and summer
as part of the Hatchery Project,
Wilson will be engaged in a series of residencies to finish and
refine the piece. At this week’s
VPL residency, he is limiting his
focus to the piece’s sound.
Visitors at the Grange event
should expect part lecture and
part demonstration, but no
dance. “The only thing I will be
doing as a choreographer (that
night) is to try to control everything that happens, which I am
afraid to admit is a weakness of
us choreographers,” Wilson says
with a smile.
From the Hatchery
According to VPL Director
Sara Coffey, Wilson is the first
artist-in-residence through VPL’s
new Hatchery Project, a multiyear collaborative residency
from SECTION FRONT
partnership supporting dance
and other performance artists.
“We’re excited to link our
work and our small rural communities with a national effort
that will enable us to connect
with such exemplary performing arts organizations and bring
exceptional artists like Reggie
Wilson and members of his Fist
and Heel Performance Group to
Vermont,” Coffey says.
With lead support by The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
and additional funding by the
National Endowment For The
Arts and the four partner organizations, The Hatchery
Project will devote approximately
$600,000 over the course of
three years to specially designed
multi-site creative residencies for
four artists: Luciana Achugar,
Beth Gill, Annie-B Parson and
Paul Lazar (Big Dance Theater)
and Wilson.
VPL’s three partner organizations are The Live Arts Brewery
and Philadelphia Live Arts
Festival in Philadelphia; Maggie
Allesee National Center for
Choreography at Florida State
University; and The Chocolate
Factory in Long Island City,
New York.
Each Hatchery artist will receive financial and administrative
support to conduct residencies at
the partner sites, which will tailor their residencies to the artists’
practices and goals.
Fist and Heel
Wilson says he founded Fist
and Heel in 1989 as a vehicle
for choreographic development
and for presenting his performance work. At VPL, he says he
was given his first chance to look
solely at the music outside of the
“distraction” of dance, and to be
able to record in a sound studio.
His company’s name derives from a time when enslaved
Africans in the Americas, denied
their drums, reinvented their
spiritual dance traditions as a
soulful art form that white authorities dismissed as “fist and
heel” worshipping, according
to Coffey.
The group blends contemporary dance with African
traditions from the rich spiritual traditions of the African
Diaspora.
Wilson says he believes that
much of what has come out of
Africa continues to influence
world events, and that this fact
is being “erased” from public
consciousness.
As Fist and Heel’s artistic
director, Wilson uses what he
calls an intersection of cultural
anthropology and movement
practices to investigate what he
describes as Africa’s marginalization. Drawing on the ritual
and body languages of the blues,
and slave and spiritual cultures
of Africa, Wilson employs postmodern choreographic structures to create multi-disciplinary
performance works, or what he
calls Post-African Neo Hoodoo
Modern dance.
Wilson, described as a dance
ethnography artist, has presented
at such venues as Dance Theater
Workshop in New York City,
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in
Massachusetts, and other prestigious international venues.
Wilson was the recipient of the Minnesota Dance
Alliance’s McKnight National
Fellowship (2000-2001), a 2002
BESSIE, and a 2002 John Simon
Guggenheim Fellowship. In
2009 he was the Herb Alpert
Award recipient in Dance, and
also a Prudential USA Fellow. In
2012 he was named a member of
the inaugural class of Doris Duke
Artists, an initiative of the Doris
Duke Charitable Foundation,
which awards artists in contemporary dance, jazz, theater, and
multidisciplinary work an unrestricted, multi-year cash grant of
$225,000.
Broad Brook Grange is at 3940
Guilford Center Rd. “Community
Shout” is free, but space is limited. For reservations call
Vermont Performance Lab at
802-257-3360 or write info@
vermontperformancelab.org.
L
et us read, and let us dance;
these two amusements will
never do any harm to the world.
—Voltaire
heLP ChARLes
C
harles Marchant of Townshend has
a collection of 20,000 postcards
and historical photos, and he would
like to know more about the people and
places they show. Each issue we will
publish one of his images with a question or two in the hopes that readers can
help him preserve a piece of Vermont
history for future generations.
A family group, identified
as “Ed Wright, Aliza
Burkhart and husband Leo,
Will, and Maggie, taken at
Burkharts’.” Does anyone
recognize this family?
If you can help Charles
Marchant, please call him at
802-365-7937 or email
helpcharles@commonsnews.org.
Publication of this postcard
is underwritten by:
henRY hooK
The Commons CRossWoRD
“Centennials”
CENTENNIALS Henry Hook
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Thursday, March 14
7:30 pm
THE STRAY BIRDS and
KEITH MURPHY
Acoustic folk guitar/banjo/fiddle/bass trio –
Maya de Vitry, Oliver Craven (The Steel
Wheels) and Charles Muench - plus
Brattleboro’s own singer, songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist Keith Murphy
Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery
139 Main Street, Brattleboro
Ticket reservations and info:
802-254-9276
www.twilightmusic.org
Proof generated March 12, 2013 10:41 PM
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Sugar suffixes
Spider’s prey
Beatles descriptor
Face of a coin
Mohammed’s predecessor
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1913 inauguration VIP
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Fenway scoreboard letters
Jackie of action flicks
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1913 novel
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Spandex brand
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17th-century actress Nell
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Last issue’s solution
“What Is It?”
WHAT IS IT? Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
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© 2013 Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
PUBLICATION OF THE CROSSWORD IS UNDERWRITTEN BY
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THE ARTS B4
I n str u ct i o n
arts & community
CALENDAR
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
14
n
MONDAY
V i s u al arts
a n d sh o ws
. Your 16
n
Community St. Patrick's
16 Space: Camouflage/The
n
Day Celebration: This event starts with
W I L M I N G T O N ,
BRATTLEBORO
Invisible Man (Liu Bolin); and
Hot Pot: A Taste of Contemporary
Chinese Art: In "Your Space," Liu chooses
camouflage as a metaphor for individuals and
their place—or lack of it—in contemporary Chinese
society. In "The Invisible Man" Liu embodies in
photographs the role of the conflicted citizen in
a country torn between tradition and "progress,"
communal interests and individual freedom. In
this exhibit "Hot Pot" serves as a metaphor for
the art of China today in all its complexity and
variety, for Chinese artists' experiences and perceptions of the world, and for their individual
and collective memories. Selected images from
20 artists' slideshows are on view. n . Through
Sunday, June 23. n Brattleboro Museum & Art
Center, 10 Vernon Street.
WEDNESDAY
14
n
a Vermont Humanities Council presentation on
"The Irish Wave in the Green Mountains" by Vince
Feeney. He'll discuss how thousands of Irish immigrants settled in Vermont from the late 1840s
through the 1860s. Following this, the Friends
of the Library will host an Irish potluck. The
celebration closes with a lively Irish dance performance. n 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall.
n Free. n Pettee Memorial Library, 16 South
Main Street. Information: 802-464-8557; www.
petteelibrary.org.
16
n
CHESTER
.
Maple Fest
Dinner: Everything you eat will be
made with a bit of maple syrup: roast turkey
breast with cranberry sauce, carrots and parsnips,
baked beans, crucifer salad, pumpkin muffins,
14
n
.
GUILFORD
Sugar-onSnow Supper: n Three seatings: 4:30, 5:45, 7 p.m. n $10, $5 children,
$3 pre-schoolers. n Guilford Community Church,
Corner of Route 5 and Guilford Center Road.
Information: For reservations: 802-254-9562
or guilfordchurchsupper@gmail.com.
Music
.
14
n
BRATTLEBORO
The
Stray Birds and Keith
Murphy: Acoustic folk trio Maya de Vitry,
Oliver Craven, and Charles Muench with instrumentalist/songwriter Keith Murphy n 7:30
p.m. - 9:30 p.m. n $16, $14 students/seniors. n Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery, 139
Main Street. Information: 802-254-9276; www.
hookerdunham.org.
14
n
.
DJ Rob
Wampum: Dance the night away. n
9 p.m. - 11:45 p.m. n No cover. n Metropolis
BRATTLEBORO
Wine Bar, 55 Elliot Street. Information: 1-802-4902255; www.metropoliswinebar.com.
.
Swing
15 Band: PlayingButterfly
hot classic swing
n
PUTNEY
grooves from the '20s, '30s and '40s. Joe
LoMonaco percussion; Scott Sizer on trumpet,
harmonica and vocals; Mark Anagnostopulos guitar and vocals; Walter Slowinski clarinet, sax and
vocals; and Lynn Lovell upright bass and vocals.
n 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. n No cover. n Putney
Inn, 57 Putney Landing Road. Information:
802-345-3769.
15
n
.
Kevin
Parry: On guitar and vocals. Plays
acoustic rock and roll takes requests. n 7
p.m. - 10 p.m. n West Dover Inn, Route 100.
WEST DOVER
Information: 802-464-5207.
15
n
.
Wildcat
O'Halloran Band: Contemporary
Blues. n 9 p.m. n No cover. n Inferno,
BRATTLEBORO
19 Elliot St. Information: www.wildcatohalloran.
com; 802-258-6529; www.reverbnation.com/
venue/theweathervanemusichall.
16
n
B E L L O W S
F A L L S
.
Samirah Evans and Her
Handsome Devils: Experience a night of
Big Easy excitement with the big smoky voice of
Samirah, a New Orleans native, and her engaging
repertoire in the Windham Ballroom. A portion
of ticket sales go to Black Sheep Radio. n 8
p.m. (doors open at 7:30 p.m.). n $20 in advance, $22 at the door. n Popolo Restaurant,
36 Square. Information: 802-460-7676; www.
popolomeanspeople.com.
16
n
.
St.
Patr ick's Fiddle Frenzy:
BELLOWS FALLS
Cellist Eugene Friesen is joined by the Vermont
Celtic duo "Blackbird." n 7:30 p.m. n $17
($13 for seniors and children under 12) in advance; $20 ($15) at the door. n Stone Church
Arts/Immanuel Episcopal Church, 14-20 Church
Street. Information: 802-463-3100; www.
stonechurcharts.org.
16
n
.
The Break
Maids: Rock/funk all female band.
n 8 p.m. in the Phelps Barn. n No cover. n
GRAFTON
Grafton Inn, Main Street. Information: 802-8432211; www.graftoninnvermont.com.
16
n
.
The
Metropolitan Opera: Live in
High Definition: Zandonai's "Francesca
Da Rimini" n 12 noon. n $26 Saturday;
BRATTLEBORO
$24 Sunday encore performance; $10 students in
grades K-12. n Latchis Theatre, 50 Main Street.
Information: www.bmcvt.org/the-met-live-in-hd;
802-254-1109; www.latchis.com.
16
n
.
Molly and her band provide music and stories.
Spanning the Irish traditional and alternative
playbook, there will be everything from haunting
airs to rowdy drinking songs, reels, jigs,slides,
readings from Irish greats and some surprises.
The very first Gathering was performed at the
Common Ground in 1984 and the tradition has
continued almost unbroken every year since.
Molly on vocals, whistles and keyboard; James
Pentland on guitar; Louisa Engle on fiddle; Chris
Bakriges on keyboard; Dan Lydon on bodhran;
and Sir George on vocals and spoken word. n
7:30 p.m. n $7 at the door. n Bluedot,
139 Main Street, #607 (2nd fl., in the Hooker
Dunham Building).
16
n
.
Karrin
Allyson: Jazz Vocalist: Allyson,
BRATTLEBORO
who sings in English, French, Portuguese, Italian
Spanish, and plays classical piano, performs
with Steve Cardenas on guitar, George Kaye on
acoustic bass, and Todd Strait on drums. n 8
p.m. - 10:30 p.m. n $21, $16 students. n
Vermont Jazz Center, 72 Cotton Mill Hill, #222.
Information: 802-254-9088; www.vtjazz.org.
17
n
B E L L O W S
F A L L S
Band, firmly rooted in the traditions of the early
decades of bluegrass and country music, and the
classic bluegrass music of the Seth Sawyer Band.
n 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. n $15 in advance, $20 at the
door; $5/$10 for students, children under 12 free.
n Bellows Falls Opera House, Rockingham Town
Hall, The Square. Information: 802-463-2525;
http://compassschool.ticketleap.com.
It’s March, and we are reminded of the contributions
of women all month, including at the Co-op!
Cooperatives have given women around the world a way to work together
democratically to bring their products to market, offer services, and empower
themselves to better their families’ and communities’ lives. according to the United
Nations, women “organizing themselves into collective enterprises enables
them to overcome barriers to pursuing economic activities.”
We have many women cooperative producers in our Co-op: african Market baskets,
Hope for Women housewares, Co-op 108 natural care products from right down
the road in Haydenville, Ma. Come visit and see! Just by purchasing something
that strikes your fancy, you may very well make a difference to a whole community
through some enterprising women, right next door or halfway across the world.
BrattleBoro Food Co - op
Now with
Mon - Sat 7–9, Sun 9–9 • 2 Main Street, Brattleboro
BrattleboroFoodCoop.coop
OPEN 365 DAYS A YEAR
802 365 4600
Hand-Cut Meats & Oven Ready Entrées
Custom Cuts & Special Orders
Full Service Deli Including Hot & Cold Lunches
Now Featuring Certified Organic Beef & Chicken
Store-Made Salads • Cold Beverages • Fresh Seafood
Call ahead for Pizza Fried Foods & Grinders
on the Deli Line 365-4180
Located on Scenic Rt 30, In Townshend, Vermont
M-F 6 AM-9 PM SAT 7 AM - 9 PM SUN 8 AM -9 PM
Pet Food, Bird Seed, Equine, Pet & Stable Supplies, Tack, Hay, & Shavings
Open Monday – Friday 9:00-5:30, Saturday 10:00-2:00
802-365-7800 Located on Riverdale Road
(Just off Rte 30, Behind River Bend Farm Market) Townshend VT
Proof generated March 12, 2013 10:41 PM
.
Beginners Tai
Chi & Taoist Exercises: This
PUTNEY
ancient form of martial art has been practiced for both health and self defense. It increases strength, flexibility, and vitality well
into old age. Tai Chi Chuan is not performed in
the same manner as most western calisthenics
or sports as it requires a tremendous amount
of mental and physical concentration and
control. It is sometimes described as a moving meditation. Taught by Thomas Garbarino.
n 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays
through June 13. n $180 for the series or
$65 per month. n Medicine for the People,
25 Main St. Information: 802-387-3028; www.
medicineforthepeople.org.
16
n
.
Pruning
and Grafting Workshop:
DUMMERSTON
Participants receive instruction while pruning
old and young fruit trees and practice grafting
apple trees. Caring for trees, the proper tools to
use, and the knowledge, confidence and skills
P er f o r m i n g
arts
16
n
G U I L F O R D
.
been described as a dance ethnography artist.
His performance pieces combine movement,
languages and song of African slave and spiritual cultures in the Americas with post-modern
elements and his own personal style to create what he calls "post-African/Neo-HooDoo
Modern" dances. Wilson and his Fist and Heel
ensemble will also lead a Community Shout, a
transformative sing-a-long where participants
will connect to their rhythmic voices and bodies. This event is made possible in part through
the Vermont Performance Lab. n 7 p.m. - 9
p.m. n Free. n Broad Brook Grange, 3940
Guilford Center Rd. Information: 802-257-3361;
www.vermontperformancelab.com/events.
Community
b u i ld i n g
17
n
.
Open Music
Collective/Open Mic/Coffee
House Series: Jazz Jam with Jamie
PUTNEY
MacDonald. Hosting the event every third
Sunday of the month is "Vermont Timbre": Amelia
Struthers and Mike Mrowicki. They'll also perform
the featured set on this, the first night, and
share music from their work in progress: "Songs
To Light the Way." Musicians, storytellers, and
other local-vores who wish to share their art are
welcome. Or simply listen and enjoy. n 6:30
p.m.; Open Mic sign-up at 6 p.m. n $5 suggested donation. n Next Stage Arts Project,
15 Kimball Hill. Information: 802-387-0102;
nextstagearts@gmail.com.
.
The Art
of Calligraphy: This is an introSAXTONS RIVER
duction to the Pilot Parallel Pen, which gives a
smooth flow of ink without drips or blobs and
makes it easy to achieve the thick-and-thin
lines that characterize fine calligraphy. Taught
by Lynn Hoeft, concentration will be on the
Italic alphabet (also called Chancery Cursive)
developed in Italy during the Renaissance. Using
these letterforms, participants will create invitations, fancy cards and envelopes, certificates
and journals. n 9. a.m. - 11 a.m. on Sundays
through April 6. n $56 members, $68 non-members includes materials. n Main Street Arts, 37
Main Street. Information: 802-869-2960; www.
mainstreetarts.org.
16
n
.
BRATTLEBORO
LA
Smooth Style Salsa: For beginner and intermediate/advanced dancers.
Five-week series. Timing, steps, combinations,
partnership. n 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. beginners; 4
p.m. - 5 p.m. intermediate/advanced. n $50
for a series, $12 drop-in; $75 for both, $18 for
drop-in ($40, $60, $8, $15 for students). n
Stone Church in Brattleboro, 210 Main Street.
Information: Ray, 802 579-9990; ray@
shallwedance.biz.
16
n
B E L L O W S
F A L L S
.
Painting Workshop: Paint
the beautiful New England winter landscape.
Values, composition and basic watercolor techniques will be emphasized. Students work from
photo reference and learn to create a finished
painting from a favorite winter subject. Robert
O'Brien will demonstrate his approach and provide hands on guidance to each student. A critique will be held at the end of the session. n
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. n $60 members, $80
non-members. n Saxtons River Art Guild, United
Church. Information: Barbara, 603-756-9389.
16
n
.
Yo g a ,
Acupuncture, Meditation:
P U T N E Y
17
n
.
Open Music
Collective/Open Mic/Coffee
House Series: Jazz Jam with Jamie
PUTNEY
MacDonald. Hosting the event every third
Sunday of the month is "Vermont Timbre": Amelia
Struthers and Mike Mrowicki. They'll also perform
the featured set on this, the first night, and
share music from their work in progress: "Songs
To Light the Way." Musicians, storytellers, and
other local-vores who wish to share their art are
welcome. Or simply listen and enjoy. n 6:30
p.m.; Open Mic sign-up at 6 p.m. n $5 suggested donation. n Next Stage Arts Project,
15 Kimball Hill. Information: 802-387-0102;
nextstagearts@gmail.com.
T he wr i tte n
w o rd
15
n
.
Open
Readings: Read your own work;
BRATTLEBORO
poetry, prose, or come to listen to local writers. There is an eight minute time limit for each
reader. Refreshments will be served. This event
is held every third Friday of the month. n
7:30 p.m. n Donations go to Write Action. n
Bluedot, 139 Main Street, #607 (2nd fl., in the
Hooker Dunham Building).
L o cal
h i st o r y
.
through March 30, 2013. Sponsored by Post Oil
Solutions. n 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. n Robert H.
Gibson River Garden, 157 Main Street. farmersmarket@postoilsolutions.org 802-257-4886;
www.brattleborovt.org/RiverGarden.html.
BRATTLEBORO
.
rian, a researcher into local history, or just curious, the daily lives ordinary people lived in the
past can seem a mystery. Wary of much of what
passes for "history" in older sources, it's become
librarian Linda Hay's habit to look for "facts"
which have not been obscured by points of view.
She'll discuss searching for documents, methods
for digging out fascinating details from apparently boring statistics, and ways of combining
the findings to "make history come alive." Join
her for an illustrated talk, followed by "hands on"
examination and analysis of typical sources from
the Brattleboro area, including the challenges
of deciphering records written with a quill pen.
n 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. n Free. n Brooks
Memorial Library, 224 Main Street. Information:
802-254-5290; www.brooks.lib.vt.us.
F i l m a n d v i de o
14
n
.
" A Wo m a n
Under the Influence": Mabel,
PUTNEY
a wife and mother, is loved by her husband Nick
but her madness proves to be a problem in the
marriage. This is a film by actor/director John
Cassavetes. Hosted by Clark Glennon. n 7 p.m
- 9-30 p.m. n By donation. n Next Stage Arts
Project, 15 Kimball Hill. Information: 802-3878500; www.nextstagearts.org.
16
n
.
Women's
Film Festival: This 22nd annual
BRATTLEBORO
festival is a fundraiser for the Women's Freedom
Center. Saturday: "The Light in Her Eyes": A
conservative Muslim preacher and founder of a
Qur'an school for girls in Damascus challenges
the women to live according to Islam without
giving up their dreams. "Raging Grannies": The
Action League of the San Francisco Bay Area
Peninsula consists of women ages 50 to 90 who
are enraged by living conditions, by environmental threats, by war, and by injustice. "American
Outrage": Two elderly Western Shoshone sisters
fight for their land rights and human rights.
"Self-portrait with Cows Going Home and Other
Works": A look into the world of one of the
greatest living photographers, Ms. Plachy. "The
Bathhouse": The women who venture into this
place enter as strangers and undergo a physical
and spiritual transformation. "Scarlet Road":
Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton specializes in a long-overlooked clientele: people with
disabilities. Sunday: "Jungle Radio": Deep in a
Nicaraguan jungle, a radio station denounces
domestic violence. "The World Before Her": Two
young women follow divergent paths in the
new India: one wants to become Miss India, the
other is a Hindu Nationalist. "Graceland Girls":
So many Kenyan adolescent girls are denied
equal access to education, social and economic
equality and respect, but some defy the odds.
"Words of Witness": Defying cultural norms and
family expectations, 22-year-old Heba Afify takes
to the streets to report on an Egypt in turmoil.
"Weightless Traveler": Young vagabond Bo takes
off to the big city, the desert, and the jungle,
overcoming obstacles on her way to find a true
home. "Deaf Jam": Aneta Brodski, an Israeli immigrant deaf teen introduced to American Sign
Language Poetry, enters the spoken word slam
scene. She meets Tahani, a hearing Palestinian
slam poet. They embark on a collaboration/
performance duet: a new form of slam poetry
that speaks to both the hearing and the deaf.
n Times vary. Through Sunday, March 17. n
$7.50, $6 students/seniors, $30 5-movie pass.
n Women's Film Festival; New England Youth
Theatre, 100 Flat Street. Information: Tickets:
802-257-7464; womensfreedomcenter.net.
17
n
B R A T T L E B O R O
.
Peaceable Kingdom: The
Journey Home: A story of awakening
consciousness offering a glimpse into the moral
struggles of farmers and the emotional lives of
farm animals. Presented by Vine Sanctuary, providing a safe haven for animals who have escaped
or been rescued from the meat, dairy and egg
industries or other abusive circumstances. n
2 p.m. - 4 p.m. n Free. n Stone Church in
Brattleboro, 210 Main Street.
20
n
.
Vacanza
i n I t a l i a Fi l m Fe s t iv a l :
"Under the Tuscan Sun ": Diane Lane
BRATTLEBORO
This class led by Deirdre Kelley highlights the
many benefits of physical movement through
yoga asana, community-style acupuncture, and
the relaxation and integration of the mind and
body through gentle meditation techniques. n
12 noon - 2 p.m. n $40. n Medicine for the
People, 25 Main St. Information: 802-387-3028;
www.medicineforthepeople.org.
17
n
.
Nature
Drawing Group: Develop your
drawing skills in a supportive setting. n 3
p.m. - 5 p.m. on Sundays through April 7. n
SAXTONS RIVER
$15 members, $18 non-members; drop-in rate
$6 members, $7 non-members. n Main Street
Arts, 37 Main Street. Information: 802-869-2960;
www.mainstreetarts.org.
17
n
B R A T T L E B O R O
.
Community Circle Dance
with Bobbi Bailin: All dances are taught.
No partner needed. All are welcome. n 3:30
p.m. - 5:30 p.m. n By donation. n Aikido
Studio, 11 Cottage Street. Information: 2579108 or 380-3291.
18
n
.
Strong
Living for Older Adults: This
BELLOWS FALLS
is a safe and effective way for adults age 40plus (with clearance from your physican) to increase strength, improve balance, and maintain
healthy bones. Experienced instructors lead each
class through a series of exercises and provide
guidance to help participants modify exercises
for their individual level of ability and fitness.
Dumbbells and leg weights provided. Classes
meet every Monday and Thursday. n 11 a.m.
- 12 noon. n $2 donation. n 1 Hospital
Court. Information: 802-722-3607; wecares@
sover.net.
19
n
.
East
Coast Swing Classes: For beBRATTLEBORO
ginners and intermediate dancers. Five-week
series. n 6:30 p.m. beginners; 7:30 p.m. intermediate. n $40 for a series ($60 for both); $10
drop-in ($15 for both classes); students $8/$12
(both). n Stone Church in Brattleboro, 210 Main
Street. Information: Ray, 802 579-9990; ray@
shallwedance.biz to-pre-register.
W ell - b e i n g
L i fe
i n O n e Ve r m o n t To w n :
A Genealogy & Local Histor y
Workshop : Whether one's a family histo-
Winter
Farmer's Market: Every Saturday
BRATTLEBORO
16
n
16
n
Far m ers ’
m arkets
16
n
needed to work on your own fruit trees at home
will be discussed. n 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. (pruning); 11 a.m. - 12 noon (grafting). n $40.
Reservations required. n Scott Farm, 707
Kipling Road. Information: 802-254-6868; www.
scottfarmvermont.com.
Community
b u i ld i n g
C h o r e og r ap h e r R e gg i e
Wilson: Wilson, an African American, has
AMPLE PARKiNG!
Happy St. Pat’s From The Folks At River Bend!
Certified
Organic
.
Compass School Bluegrass
Benefit Concert: Featuring the Corey Zink
BRATTLEBORO
Molly
Melloan's Irish Gathering:
.
adults age 40-plus (with clearance from your
physican) to increase strength, improve balance,
and maintain healthy bones. Experienced instructors lead each class through a series of exercises
and guide participants in modifying them to meet
their level of ability and fitness. Dumbbells and
leg weights provided. Classes meet every Monday
and Thursday. n 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. n $2 donation. n Congregational Church of Westminster
West, 44 Church St. Information: 802-722-3607;
wecares@sover.net.
cheesecake, chocolate cake, white cake, carrotdate cake, coconut cream, pecan, apple, and
cranberry nut. There will also be a raffle of assorted items. This annual event is a fundraiser
for Partners in Service, bringing faith communities and human service agencies together. n
6 p.m. n $10 adults/$5 for children for dinner;
$5 for 6 raffle tickets. n St. Lukes Church, 313
Main Street. Information: Call 802- 875-2784
for reservations.
16
n
WESTMINSTER WEST
Strong Living for Older
Adults: This is a safe and effective way for
C ele b rat i o n s , f est i v als ,
c o m m u n i t y m eals
.
.
series providing the basic skills needed to create delicious, healthy meals. Visual equivalents, organic vs. non-organic, basics to stock
in your freezer and cabinet, and classifying
herbs and spices will be covered. n 6 p.m.
- 7:30 p.m. Through Thursday, March 21. n
Free. n Pettee Memorial Library, 16 South
Main Street. Information: 802-464-8557; www.
petteelibrary.org.
SATURDAY
TUESDAY
W I L M I N G T O N ,
Lear ning to Cook with
House to House: Instructional
Skills: This is the second class in a 3-week
14 15 16
17 18 19 20
SUNDAY
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
T he C o m m o n s
plays a 35 year-old writer from San Francisco who
has just gone through a divorce that has left her
with terminal writer's block. In a drastic step,
she buys a house in the Tuscan countryside after
a visit to Italy. A new life includes a new love
that gives her a fresh start. n 6:30 p.m. - 9
p.m. n Free. n Brooks Memorial Library, 224
Main Street. Information: 802-254-5290; www.
brooks.lib.vt.us.
16
n
.
Refilling
Your Well: Focusing, mindfulness
BRATTLEBORO
meditation, guided imagery, facilitated by
Psychosynthesis counselor Robin White. Repeats
April 6. n 1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. n $15 to $25
(sliding scale); financial aid available. n Curves,
464 Putney Road. Information: 802-257-3500.
20
n
.
Spring
Cleansing for Optimal
Health: Learn to choose, use, and prepare
BRATTLEBORO
healing foods and herbal remedies to: safely
cleanse toxins from your organs for increased
energy, detoxify heavy metals from your cells
for brain and mood health, and reduce pathogen overgrowth for better digestion and immune strength. Reduce pain and discomfort
associated with degenerative disease, autoimmune disorders and chronic pain conditions.
A bowl of local, vegan, homemade soup will be
served to all who sign up in advance(bring your
bowl, if you're able). Time for questions. n 12
noon - 1:30 p.m. n $10 to $25 sliding fee. n
Biologic Wellness Center, 205 Main Street, Ground
Floor. Information: cindy@wisdomofhealing.com.
K i ds a n d
f a m i l i es
16
n
.
Tales of Br-er
Rabbit: Br'er Rabbit may be smaller
PUTNEY
than Br'er Fox or Br'er Bear, but he was blessed
with a good dose of wits. In this collection of
trickster tales where everyone seems to be trying to trick everyone else, Br'er Rabbit not only
manages to survive among the local predator
population, he seems to have a pretty good time
doing it! This is a Magical Moonshine Theatre
performance. n 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. n $8. n
Sandglass Theater, 17 Kimball Hill. Information:
802-387-4051; www.sandglasstheater.org,
www.sandglasstheater.org.
18
n
.
Story
Hour: Spring: Themed stories
WILMINGTON,
and activities for young children and their
caregivers. n 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. n
Free. n Pettee Memorial Library, 16 South
Main Street. Information: 802-464-8557; www.
petteelibrary.org.
Ideas a n d
ed u cat i o n
18
n
.
Teen
Advisor y Council: You can
BELLOWS FALLS
have a say in what programs the Library offers teens by joining the Teen Advisory Council.
Meets monthly on Mondays. n 5 p.m. n
Free. n Rockingham Free Public Library, 65
Westminster Street. Information: Sam Mekell,
Youth Services Librarian, 802-463-4270, www.
rockinghamlibrary.org.
18
n
.
Bone
Health Myths: True Bone
H e a l t h i s N o t A b o u t Ta k i n g
Calcium and Vitamin D: Studies
BRATTLEBORO
show that taking calcium and drinking milk
both actually increase osteoporosis. You probably know somebody who has used calcium, yet
their bones keep getting worse. Find out why.
You'll also find out which foods, supplements and
herbs can work to increase bone health and help
prevent problems in the future. Using these simple, inexpensive, holistic strategies, you can help
prevent or reverse osteopenia, osteoporosis, and
bone fractures at any age. n 5:30 p.m. - 7:30
p.m. n $10 to $25 sliding fee. n Wisdom of
Healing, 95 Main Street, #2. Information: cindy@
wisdomofhealing.com.
20
n
.
A
Healthy Brain: Improve Your
Memory Naturally: One of the greatest
B R A T T L E B O R O
concerns many of us have as we age is the loss
of memory and brain function. Supporting the
brain with nourishing foods and safe herbal remedies is an powerful way to improve memory, focus, attention, test scores, and overall quality of
life. Learn about natural options for coping with
our world of high-speed technology, the push in
schools, and highly competitive workplaces; sensible options for preventing dementia, brain fog,
memory loss, and learning difficulties your family can begin to incorporate right away. Time for
questions. n 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. n $10 to
$25 sliding fee. n Wisdom of Healing, 95 Main
Street, #2. Information: Pre-register at cindy@
wisdomofhealing.com.
THE COMMONS
S E C T I O N C1
B
C
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
VOICES
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 • page C1
OPINION • COMMENTARY
Join the discussion: voices@commonsnews.org
M I L E S T O N E S , C3
S P O R T S , C4
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
page C1
Drone
dilemma
ESSAY
No wonder kids in places like
Yemen are afraid to go to school
and people think twice before
attending weddings or funerals
I
Saxtons River
HAD TO SEE the con-
troversial film Zero Dark
Thirty for myself to decide if, as charged, it
advanced the case for “enhanced interrogation methods” — military-speak for
torture.
It did not, in my view.
What it did was affirm the
hideous and inhumane nature of torture, no matter
where it is carried out and
by whom. It should never
be used by any country that
positions itself as a moral
leader.
Now, I need to see the
documentary Dirty Wars:
The World Is a Battlefield. It is
likely to confirm my growing
antipathy toward the everincreasing use of drones,
especially following the recently leaked memo that has
alarmed so many in public
and private quarters.
Reading “Bug Splats,” a
piece by George Monbiot
in The Guardian in
December, made me think
about drones. Why, Mr.
Monbiot wondered in the
essay, written shortly after the Newtown massacre,
were the murders of children by a deranged man in
Connecticut any more worthy of the world’s grief than
the children killed in countries like Pakistan as a matter
of American policy?
If the victims of drone
strikes are mentioned at all,
he wrote, “they are discussed
in terms which suggest they
are less than human.”
An article in Rolling Stone,
he said, alleged that “people who operate drones describe their casualties as ‘bug
splats’ since seeing bodies
through a green video image
gives them the sense of an
insect being crushed.”
This is harsh and emotional stuff. So I went in
search of fact and further
opinion.
FACTS WERE HARD to
come by since much of what
happens with drones is classified. But here are some
things I learned.
• The Pentagon has about
7,000 drones. A decade ago,
it had 50 of them.
• In the 2012 budget, the
Obama administration asked
Congress for almost $5 billion for more drones, now
seen as crucial for fighting
terrorism.
• A reported 1,900 insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal
regions have been killed
ELAYNE CLIFT
by American drones since
2006, and in 2011, a drone
in Yemen killed Anwar alAwlaki (an American and
Yemeni imam alleged to
have connections to al
Qaida).
Here’s the problem: the
United States is not at war
with Pakistan or Yemen, and
that makes their use in these
countries officially illegal.
For the first time in history a
civilian intelligence agency is
using robots to carry out military missions — killing people — in countries where the
U.S. is not officially at war.
Proponents of drone use
argue that so long as their
use is grounded in sound intelligence information, the
drones enable the U.S. to
attack terrorists with a fair
degree of precision without risking American lives.
Mistakes happen in war, they
say, but not as much “collateral damage” — killing of innocents — occurs as would
if bombs or troops were being used.
If we didn’t use drones,
they argue, what action
could the U.S. take to stop
al-Qaida and other terrorist
organizations?
But concerns are beginning to surface as drones
become more ubiquitous
and more deadly. A United
Nations panel led by Ben
Emmerson, special investigator for the UN Human
Rights Council, has begun
to look at “drone strikes and
other forms of remotely targeted killing.”
Of particular concern are
25 selected drone strikes that
have been conducted in recent years in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia,
and the Palestinian territories. Noting that it is not only
the U.S. coming under scrutiny — 50 other states have
the technology to develop
“active drone arsenals” —
Emmerson says “it is completely unacceptable to allow
the world to drift blindly
toward the precipice without any agreement between
states as to the circumstances in which drone-strike
targeted killings are lawful,
and on the safeguards necessary to protect civilians.”
■ SEE DRONES, PAGE C2
ROBIN MACARTHUR
S UGAR B OOGIE
As the sap starts flowing,
people drop in after
thawing from a long winter
H
Marlboro
ALF THE PEOPLE on your
road park their cars near the
highway and walk; the other
half fasten their seat belts, take
a deep breath, and gun it, bucking ruts and
jerking wheels as their bodies get slammed
this way and that.
The kids on the school bus hold on to
the seats in front of them and scream as
the bus driver (your mother) presses the
pedal to the floor, tightens her jaw, and
keeps the bus pointed forward with bedrock determination.
Car struts get shot, the alignment goes
out of whack. You step out of your car in
the driveway, and your boots sink down
six inches.
You track it onto the porch, and into the
hall, and into the kitchen. Ten miles away,
in the town with paved streets, people are
wearing sundresses and sandals; you’re
still in jeans and the Muck Boots you’ve
been wearing for six months straight.
Around here, March and April are called
“mud season.”
But there is one consolation. Mud season is also sugaring season.
Mud and sugaring go hand in hand during these cold nights, warm days. The
frost under the roads settles, creating sinkholes; the sap in the maple trees runs, filling buckets.
You walk down the road with your twoyear-old daughter to the sugarhouse, looking, hoping, for steam, and there it is: a
thick waft of sweet, moist air billowing
out of the vented roof. Inside, your parents are throwing logs into the evaporator,
ROBIN MACARTHUR describes
herself as a “writer, mother, and musician who lives on the rock-studded hillside in southern Vermont where I was
born.” This piece originally appeared in
the March/April 2012 issue of Orion
(orionmagazine.org).
checking levels, pouring beautiful resincolored syrup into the glass Mason jars
neighbors have brought by.
Firelight shimmers through the cracks
of the iron doors. You run across the
(muddy) road with your daughter to collect sap and watch her press her lips
against the metal spigot; from where you
stand it looks like she is kissing the tree.
“Yum!” she exclaims, pulling away, her
face smeared with sap and tree bark and
moss and snot.
PEOPLE DROP BY: a family bearing bowls
of soup, a single man proffering a sixpack of beer. It’s an open house, the sugar
shack, and everyone knows it.
This dropping in is a way of keeping the
sugar makers company — they’re in here
for 10 hours at a time most days — but it’s
also what happens to people in spring.
You begin to thaw. You want to see
faces again, converse, be outside for
long stretches of time. Neighbors bring
in wood; you scoop scum from the back
pans; your daughter pulls out empty plastic jugs for your mother to fill.
The fire hisses. The steam rises. You
crack open beers. A party: “Sugar Boogie,”
your dad and daughter call it.
That night you make pizzas, cooking
them on the open grate of the evaporator door. You throw on red pepper, fresh
mozzarella, pesto from last summer’s garden. You sit on old tractor and bus seats
turned into makeshift chairs and eat off
your hands.
Later, someone steps through the door
with a bottle of Glenlivet and cups. Last
year, you all determined, after much sampling, the perfect combination of scotch
and near-syrup; now you attempt to find
that perfect ratio once more.
OUTSIDE, it grows dark. The room fills
with hooting laughter. Once in a while,
you hear a car revving up the road, gunning it through deep pockets of mud.
You watch the steam, the fire, the glistening faces, and you’re glad you’re not in
that car, out on those roads, trying to get
somewhere.
You step out the back door to take a
leak in the snow and look up at sparks
shooting out of the rusted chimney, an
ash-flecked moon rising above the trees.
You could go back inside, but instead you
linger for a while: pants down, grinning,
grateful for this dissolution of walls and
of boundaries between inside and out, for
this synchronicity between what the trees
do and what people do, for the fact that
it’s (finally) warm enough for you to be
out here half-naked, knee deep in a pile of
snow, not wanting to be anywhere but the
very spot your boots are planted.
VIEWPOINT
Has the tribe really spoken about the skatepark?
We could have handled this controversial issue as a community, allowing
for a more unified and respectful decision-making process
T
Brattleboro
HIS WHOLE skate-
park ordeal reminds
me of the reality
show Survivor, where
inside alliances are formed and
galvanized, strategies are plotted, and immunity from public
process and scrutiny is granted,
then granted again for privileged access to the spoils of a
valued green-space splendor
and the once-spacious neighborhood playground haven it
will permanently occupy as its
reward.
There, the producers create
a fractious and desperate atmosphere to maximize drama and
to present pop-up obstacles.
At this point, castaways bump
into one another to try and find
With boosted and boasted
preference and favoritism
granted to the proponents, ophas lived in the neighponents to the plan are painted
borhood surrounding the
THIS COVETED, longtime,
as people who don’t respect
Crowell Park for the last 15
and familiar place — a distinct our youth and are given no
years and has spent over
part of our lives — will be con- place setting at the table.
two years working with
crete-converted and compacted
However, our reality is very
two groups opposed to the
as an attraction, an overwhelm- far removed from that island
skatepark.
ing draw, and a landing pad for and more evolved — at least,
skateboarders from all around. one would hope, as we are a
secure ground (maybe even
The increased commotion
community with many intellioverlapping territory) to find
will purportedly not genergent, well-thought-out choices
some leverage point and bearate noise from an unsupervised and a multitude of assets at our
ing to stand firm.
concrete area open until evedisposal.
Those left behind are contin- ning hours, even when comJust as I would not prioritize
ually driven off and treated as
bined with users funneling
one of my kids’ needs over the
some intrusive annoyance.
through from Routes 9 and 30. needs of the other when makThat same description apWe have been forced into
ing a parental decision, neither
plies to a lot of us who are
a win/lose situation with one
should one group be preferred
neighbors to Crowell Park. The dominant, yet select, group
by the town at the expense of
concrete skatepark plan has
prevailing the entire way.
another.
LES MONTGOMERY
Proof generated March 12, 2013 7:01 PM
now miraculously arrived here
at its apparent hand-selected,
but unsuitable, resting place.
The very people who live
near Crowell Park have clearly
experienced such treatment.
We could have handled this
controversial issue as a community, allowing for a more
unified and respectful decisionmaking process.
We could have evaluated
criteria with fresh ideas for all
proposed sites when time was
of the essence, when awareness peaked and the issue demanded our attention.
There was plenty of opportunity to do so. No insurmountable harm would have
resulted in an effort to reach
out for unified resolution at
this critical juncture to find the
best solution.
THE SKATEPARK will be a
permanent concrete structure
that replaces something else —
the simpler things that we take
for granted until they’re gone
for good.
Things like shade on a hot
summer day. Some natural
space conveniently close by for
small children with parents.
The Crowell Park site has so
many demands that are emerging and will emerge for the
skatepark: drastic alterations,
hidden costs, and complications. The skatepark will be unsafe, and we all will live with its
impacts for a long, long time.
Isn’t it worth a second look
at other possible sites?
VOICES
C2
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1227 Marlboro Rd.
West Brattleboro
802.254.5275
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The Hotel Pharmacy
20 Elliot St, Suite 1
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-254-2303
fax 802-257-0023
hotline 802-258-3008
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by the Giamartino Family!
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People You Know!
Located in the Historical
Methodist Church on Elliot Street
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
LETTERS FROM READERS
House needs to fix ‘death with dignity’ bill
O
(Route. 9 West)
THE COMMONS
ur representatives in the
Vermont House will soon
take up a bill having to do with
end-of-life choice, or patientdirected dying. This action
follows the passage of an endof-life bill by the Senate last
month.
Credit is due the Senate for
its serious consideration of a
carefully written bill based on
Oregon’s “death with dignity”
law and the experience with it
over the past 14 years, but the
Senate’s bill is woefully lacking.
It’s a one-page amendment
of the original, carefully-crafted
22-page bill and focuses primarily on physician protection
rather than giving a terminally ill, mentally competent
Vermonter a sound and sensitive way to make a request for,
and for a doctor to prescribe,
medication that would be selfadministered to hasten his or
her death.
The House needs to restore
to the Senate bill the legal standards and safeguards in the
original bill for both patients
and doctors to ensure that patients have true end-of-life
choices.
For example, the kind of
choice needed in the bill is
a terminal patient’s own informed decision to make after
he or she has received counseling on alternative end-of-life
services that include hospice
care, palliative care, and the
kinds of pain control that are
available.
The patient should also express desire both orally and in
writing for medication to hasten the end of his or her life,
and this request should be witnessed by qualified individuals
who can attest that he or she is
of sound mind, acting voluntarily, and is not being forced
to make this request.
Taking control of one’s life
and ending it in this way is the
most serious of decisions a terminal patient can make. It has
to be respected and treated as
such.
While it might not be the
choice for most people, it
should be one that’s legally
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Proof generated March 12, 2013 7:01 PM
E: “Bipartisan support
for a ‘pause?’” [Town &
Village, March 6]:
It is critical that Vermonters
understand that these senators,
joined by State Representatives
Carolyn Partridge and Matt
Trieber, support Senate bill
S30 after careful review of all
the issues, including:
• the cost of actual energy
produced, both in terms of
money and the environment,
• economic impact to homeowners, second homeowners,
and tourism, which produces
many more local jobs than the
wind developers at less environmental impact,
• harm to wildlife, such
as the eagles nesting in
Townshend,
• watershed disruption,
which will increase flooding,
• health concerns of hundreds of families.
Note these facts:
• The project in Windham/
Grafton will produce more
power than Lowell/Sheffield
and Searsburg combined.
• Towers might be ¼ mile
from many residences, not ¾
of a mile, the distance between
the Therriens, the family who
spoke about ill effects of living
near industrial turbines.
• Compared to the top five
states, Vermont has 1/2000th
of the wind resource but
already has developed 16 times
its comparative proportion, according to the Department of
Energy.
Vermont cannot save the
world and has done its share
in wind development, but foreign developers can stop us
from saving Vermont, and they
have more than their share
in millions of dollars of taxcredit money taken from your
pockets.
Contact your legislators —
Senator Jeannette White in
particular — and urge the passage of S30 to keep our mountains green.
Maurice J. Morey
Windham
Not voting is sometimes the better choice
I
didn’t go to town meeting,
but I went to vote today.
I vote only on the issues that
I feel strongly about, or that I
know are the right thing to do
(like funding local charities, libraries, etc.) and which are in
danger of losing funding if I do
not vote. On some issues, I just
do not have an opinion, so I do
not vote on those articles on
the ballot.
I really don’t think it matters
who the town clerk (or several
other town positions) is; either
way he/she’s going to be filing
papers in an office doing the
job. If he/she doesn’t, he/she
gets “fired” next election.
Because Rockingham is a
small rural community, everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business. Unfortunately,
it becomes a popularity contest
in a town this small.
I don’t know what most of
these positions entail as far as
the job description goes; how
in the hell am I qualified to hire
them for the job?
Here in Bellows Falls, it’s
all about who knows whom
and how respected they are
in the community. It’s social
class awards ceremony. Town
Meeting here is just a huge
drama-fest where a handful of
strong-opinioned people (the
far-right or far-left wingnuts,
usually) who actually have no
clue about the job duties or
article being voted on harass
other people in public by asking loaded questions or criticizing every proposal.
So, if I say that I didn’t vote
on most of the issues this year,
don’t assume that I don’t care,
but rather know, that actually, I
have just given up on the town
and its ability to sustain itself.
The few people who share
my views (which are based on
what would be better for me,
in my low social class) who get
into these positions have very
little power to change things
because the powerful/popular
people in the higher-ranking
social class are elected alongside them, and they negate
each other’s work, effort, and
ideals.
In effect, the whole town is
stagnant because of the small
and closed nature of the community, where the largely divided social class rules the
town’s action (or rather, lack
thereof), regardless of the actual detriment or benefit to the
inhabitants.
Just because you can do
something doesn’t mean
you should, nor does not
voting imply that someone is
anti-democracy.
Voting is one of the more obvious acts of freedom and of
choice that exist in the U.S.A.
Choosing to vote or to not vote
is also an obvious act of freedom and choice.
When I am forced to vote, I
don’t consider that very free.
The fact that so many people
do go into the election and just
mark something because they
feel they have to as their duty
indicates a lack of freedom, not
an expression of it.
I believe that the outcome of
a democratic election is more
important than the act of democratic voting. I would prefer
to abstain from causing harm
with my ignorance than to subject everyone to a result based
on my ignorance.
Phae O’Guin
Bellows Falls
available to those whose life is
ebbing away in such physical
and mental suffering that death
becomes more inviting than
continuing life that lacks meaningful quality.
I want such a choice to be
available if I’m in this kind of
terminal condition when my
time comes.
Bill Schmidt
Dummerston
Megawatts
don’t add up
R
E: “Bipartisan support
for a ‘pause?’” [Town &
Village, March 6]:
There are several important corrections that need to be
made with respect to my comments. Most important: For
New England to achieve 20
percent of our energy coming
from wind power, we need to
build 9,000 MW.
Today, New England has
around 700 MW installed.
Onshore wind power is twice
as, and in some cases three
times more, expensive than
conventional sources.
Lisa Linowes
Lyman, N.H.
Blame
Ratzinger,
not me
J
oseph Ratzinger — Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI —
will go down in history as one
of the most disgusting, hypocritical, unrepentant, criminal
sinners in modern times.
To anyone offended by my
comments, blame Ratzinger
and years of abuses by the
Catholic Church, not me. They
did the deeds.
Daniel Kasnitz
Brattleboro
A matter of
temperament
B
en ‘Spoon’ Agave:
Providing expertise to
‘make a good town better’”
[News, Feb. 27] was great and
gave me a good glimpse into
Mr. Agave, whom, after reading this article, I determined I
could not support.
I supported Kate O’Connor
for the simple reason that she
has a better temperament to be
on the Selectboard than Mr.
Agave.
Plus, I really did not like
than two hours as mentioned.
how he said that he was “run• The tuition Guilford will
ning against the O’Connors
pay the first year is $230,000
and everything that name
for all seventh and eight grade
represents....”
students, not $230,000 per
No, Mr. Agave, you were
student.
not running against the
• Mike Szostak’s name was
O’Connors. You were running
correctly spelled once but not
against Kate O’Connor, who,
twice.
• Kudos for correctly spelling I believe, is a far better person
Carol Jaenson’s name; it wasn’t for this role than you.
Laura Straffe
in an article I read elsewhere.
Brattleboro
Bevan Quinn
Guilford
Errors in Guilford story
R
E: “Guilford votes to send
grades 7, 8 to BAMS”
[News, March 6]:
• Guilford Central School
was a first-grade-througheighth-grade school from 1957
to 1969. A kindergarten class
was added in 1969.
• The school board member
mentioned is Penny Lussier.
• The vote was taken by paper ballot, requested from the
floor in lieu of a voice vote, not
via Australian ballot.
• The entire discussion and
vote on the article was one
hour and 45 minutes, not more
Editor’s note: We regret the errors.
Forest Moon thanks supporters for fundraiser
F
orest Moon: Celebrating
Cancer Survivorship thanks
all those who made our recent fundraiser at the Stump
Sprouts Lodge and Cross
Country Ski Center in Hawley,
Mass., a success.
Forest Moon lights a path
through cancer, but we can’t
shine that light without lots of
help from individual, corporate
and foundation supporters.
A fresh snowfall overnight
and a crisp, bright January afternoon made for excellent
trail conditions. And the hearty
homemade dinner was a terrific
way to relax and share the fun
after an afternoon of skiing and
snowshoeing.
We especially acknowledge
Lloyd and Suzanne Crawford,
our hosts at Stump Sprouts,
and volunteers Edite Cunha
and Betty Wolfson for serving
a delicious dinner, and Dave
Maxcy, Marianna McKimm,
Rol Hesselbart, and Ken
Simons for helping with rentals
and ski lessons.
We also thank Sam’s
Outdoor Outfitters for providing prizes for the raffle.
All the funds raised will be
devoted to Forest Moon’s free
support programs for cancer
survivors and their loved ones
in northern Massachusetts and
southern Vermont and New
Hampshire.
Upcoming programs include “Circus for Survivors”
workshops at the New England
Center for Circus Arts, 10week writing workshops in
■ Drones
Such safeguards will not
come soon enough for the 64
children killed during the first
three years of Barack Obama’s
administration. (Drone attacks
began during the George W.
Bush administration. One of
them killed 69 children.)
During those three years,
a report by the Stanford and
New York University law
schools suggests, there were
259 drone strikes. They killed
an estimated 569 civilians.
Some say that is a conservative
estimate.
IT IS WORRYING, then, that
President Obama’s choice
to head the CIA is John O.
Brennan, deputy national security advisor, a man who calls
Greenfield and Brattleboro,
and a couples retreat in
Jacksonville, Vt. Later in
August, we’ll offer a weekend
retreat at Stump Sprouts.
For more information, call
802-246-1368, or visit www.
forestmoon.org.
Richard Ewald
Brattleboro
The writer works as executive director of Forest Moon.
FROM SECTION FRONT
drone targets “cancerous tumors.” No wonder kids in
places like Yemen are afraid to
go to school and people think
twice before attending weddings or funerals that might be
mistaken for a gang of plotters.
Writing in The Guardian
in January, Simon Jenkins
sounded this alarm: “The
greatest threat to world peace
[…] is from drones and their
certain proliferation. [...]
Drones are now sweeping the
global arms market [with]
some 10,000 said to be in
service.”
Some reports, he said, say
that “they have killed more
non-combatant civilians than
died in 9-11.”
The threat of serious
backlash looms. A Yemeni
writer told The New York Times
that al-Qaida recruiters “wave
pictures of drone-butchered
women and children.” National
membership of al-Qaida in
Yemen is now three times
larger than it was in 2009.
If that doesn’t worry you,
consider this.
Last February, President
Obama signed a law compelling the FAA to allow drone
use for commercial endeavors in this country. These uses
range from selling real estate
to dusting crops and monitoring wildlife. Hollywood may
even use drones to film, and local police will be freer to deploy
flying robots.
While drone manufacturers
drool, safety concerns increase.
I understand that drones,
used with an abundance of
caution for selective anti-terrorism operations, backed by
stringent legislation, might be a
necessary part of our arsenal.
But I can’t get the picture of
those innocent children out of
my mind. And no one should
have to fear going to school, attending a wedding, or mourning at a funeral, especially
when the one being buried is
a child.
Elayne Clift (www.elayneclift.com)
writes about women, health, politics, and social issues.
THE COMMONS
C3
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
MILESTONES
Births, deaths, and news of people from Windham County
Obituaries
• Tad Clawson of West
Townshend. Died March 2, after a brief illness. Husband of
Heidi Andrus Clawson for 30
years. Son of the late Robert
and Muriel Smythe Clawson.
Brother of Jill Berghel and her
husband, Bill, of Memphis,
Tenn. He graduated from
Duke University with a B.A. in
Business Administration and
went on to an insurance career
as partner in the agency, BonoClawson Associates. After retirement, he became an independent
consultant for investments and
small business management. He
was very active in his church, volunteered in the overnight shelter
in Brattleboro, and also served
in the chaplaincy program at
the Southern State Correctional
Facility in Springfield. A longtime member of the Brattleboro
Country Club, one of his great
passions was golf. He took up
the sport early in life, and won
the local club championship at
age 16. He went on to win numerous other trophies over the
years. For him, golf became a
metaphor for life — a place to
practice focusing one’s thoughts.
He explained that when you hold
a good and steady thought, the
golf shot is straight and true. He
was a straight shooter, both on
the golf course and off. In addition to his deep integrity, his
good nature, storytelling, and
sense of humor could always be
counted on. More recently, he
delighted in learning to play the
bass guitar, picking out the bass
notes by listening to his favorite
recordings, and even played in
a gig or two. MEMORIAL INFORM ATION : In accordance with
his wishes, there will be no memorial service. Donations to the
West River Community Project,
(a nonprofit organization at the
renovated West Townshend
Country Store), 6573 Route 30,
West Townshend, VT 05359, or
to the Brattleboro Country Club
Junior Golf Program, P. O. Box
478, Brattleboro, VT 05302.
• D a n i e l P. D e L u c a of
Jupiter, Fla. Died March 4 at
the Broadmoor Assisted Living
Facility in Fort Pierce, Fla.
Husband of Ginger DeLuca.
Father of Daniel DeLuca of
Bolton, Conn., and Kelly
DeLuca of New Haven, Conn.
Brother of Maria DeLuca of
Brattleboro and the late Paul
DeLuca. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
the son of Margaret and the late
Michael DeLuca, he lived in
Greenwich, Conn., before moving to Jupiter, Fla., in 1978. He
attended Norwalk Tech, and
received a B.S. in Mechanical
Engineering. He worked for
Pratt & Whitney in West Palm
Beach, Fla., for 29 years and
was an Associate Fellow with
an expertise in fatigue fracture
micromechanics and engine service investigations. He received
nine patent awards while working at Pratt & Whitney and authored many technical papers.
Some of his notable accomplishments include an entry in
Who’s Who of Engineers and
inventing many metals for the
defense and aerospace industry. MEMORIAL INFORMATION:
A memorial service was held
March 12 at Taylor & Modeen
Funeral Home in Jupiter, Fla.
Donations to Treasure Coast
Hospice, 5000 Dunn Road, Fort
Pierce, FL 34981.
• John G. Fuchs, 67, of
Bellows Falls. Died March 4
at Springfield Hospital after
collapsing at the Rockingham
Annual Town Meeting.
Husband of Deirdre Nora
O’Shea for 44 years. Father
of John and Matthew Fuchs.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son
of John and Marie (Holzman)
Fuchs, he was a 1967 graduate
of Manhattan College, where he
earned a bachelor’s degree, and
a 1968 graduate of University of
Massachusetts, where he earned
a master’s degree. He was a lifelong educator and an avid gardener with a love of reading and
collecting books. MEMORIAL INFORMATION: A memorial service
was held March 8 at Fenton &
Hennessey Funeral Home in
Bellows Falls. Memorial donations may be made to Parks
Place, 44 School St., Bellows
Falls, VT 05101, or to Our Place
Drop In Center, 4 Island St.,
Bellows Falls, VT 05101.
• John Francis Kennedy,
85, of Bellows Falls. Died Feb.
27 in Key West, Fla. Husband
of Jean Ann Kenneally Kennedy
for nearly 52 years. Father of
Jeanne F. Kennedy and her husband, Rick Bascom, and the late
Jack Kennedy. Born in Bellows
Falls, son of the late Timothy
and Hattie (Farr) Kennedy, he
attended Bellows Falls High
School where he became a Hall
of Fame football player, and
also excelled on the BF baseball
diamond as a catcher. Upon
graduation, he was awarded a
football scholarship to attend the
University of North Carolina, but
chose instead to serve his country
in the Pacific as a Marine. After
World War II ended, he worked
in construction before enrolling
first at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, and then transferring
to the University of Vermont,
where he earned an engineering degree in 1959. After obtaining his degree, he embarked
upon a engineering career. With
transit and machete in hand,
he surveyed the backwoods of
Northern New England, engineering interstates, access roads,
and ski resorts, first for the state
of Vermont and later for Perini
Construction Co. In 1967, John
founded Soils Engineering in
Charlestown, N.H., which he
ran for over 25 years. A devoted
father, John passed on his value
of education and his love of the
outdoors to his children and,
later, his grandchildren. Having
the name of John F. Kennedy
brought smiles and comments
wherever he went, enhancing
the glint in his eye that sparkled
whenever he was about to begin
a tale. Masterful in both the art
of storytelling and fishing, he
accrued a lifetime of anecdotes
from time spent on both fresh
and salt waters. For him, it was
never about the size of the fish
he caught, it was about the size
of the adventure. He retired to
Northern Maine at his summer
camp trolling East Grand Lake
until he knew its inlets by heart,
declaring he never had a bad day
on the water. Winters were spent
in Little River, S.C., until John’s
son-in-law convinced him that
Key West winters were friendlier, and there were plenty of fish
there just waiting to be caught.
He embraced all of life’s experiences. From youthful dives from
the top of the old Arch Bridge,
falling to the Connecticut River
100 feet below, to, at age 84,
venturing into the rainforests
of Nicaragua to visit one of his
granddaughters serving in the
Peace Corps, no leap was too
large. ME MOR I A L I N FOR M A TION : A memorial service will
be held this summer in New
Hampshire, at a date to be determined. Donations may be made
to http://runforgrumps.com
(runforgrumps.com), for a triathalon
that benefits Leukemia research,
or to the Norris Cotton Cancer
Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock
Medical Center.
• David A. Ladd, 59, of
Saxtons River. Died March 1 at
his home. Husband of Chonqsuk
Ladd. Father of Shannon and
Shawn Ladd. Brother of Roger
Ladd and Barbara Pellett. Born
in Laconia, N.H., the son of
Winnie (Lovely) and the late
Maurice Ladd, he attended Kurn
Hattin School in Westminster,
VT, graduated from Hartford
(Conn.) High School, and then
joined the Air Force. He attended Officers Training School,
rising to the rank of captain.
He served as a NATO officer in Europe and as a base
commander in Korea. He attended the University of New
Hampshire and earned his B.A.
from Troy State University in
Alabama. At the time of his
death he was Postmaster of the
U.S. Post Office in Bellows Falls.
He was a member of American
Legion Post 37 in Bellows
Falls, the Cribbage Club at the
Loyal Order of the Moose in
Bellows Falls, and the National
Association of Postmasters. He
was a beloved husband, father,
and a friend to all. MEMORIAL INFORMATION: A memorial service
was held March 6 at the Fenton
& Hennessey Funeral Home in
Bellows Falls.
• Duane Edward Miller,
58, of Westminster. Died March
4 in Williamsburg, Mass, the result of an accidental fall while on
a job site. Husband of Lori J. Bell
for more than 27 years. Father of
Samuel Miller of Marlborough,
N.H. and Matthew Miller of
West Dummerston. Brother of
Donald Miller of Sumter, S.C.,
Virginia Parry of Englewood,
Fla., Lynn Hume of Lempster,
N.H., and Kathleen Nightingale
of Winchester, N.H. A resident of the area since the age of
five, he was born in Bessemer
Township, Mich., the son of
Duane Edsel and Joann (Rose)
Miller. He attended New
England Kurn Hattin Homes
and was a graduate of Bellows
Falls Union High School, Class
of 1974. He went on to attend
Keene State College. For the
past several years, he was a selfemployed commercial painter
and owner of Team Paint based
in Westminster. Previously,
he had worked at Kurn Hattin
Homes for 18 years as a house
parent. He loved the outdoors
and helping the area youth,
serving as a mentor. A large
percentage of his workforce included young single adults from
the greater Bellows Falls and
Brattleboro area. In conjunction
with his painting business, he
also was an arborist. MEMORIAL
I N FOR M AT ION : A memorial
service will be held Saturday,
March 23, at 10 a.m., at Grace
Community Evangelical Free
Church in Spofford, N.H. A reception will follow the services to
be held in the church’s fellowship
hall. Donations to New England
Kurn Hattin Homes, P.O. Box
127, Westminster, VT 05158,
attention: Connie Sanderson.
• Joyce Turner Porett, 71,
of Beach Park, Ill. Died Feb. 18
at Highland Park (Ill.) Hospital.
Wife of Peter M. Porett for
nearly 42 years. Mother of James
J. Porett. Sister of the late Terry
Turner. Born in Brattleboro,
daughter of the late Luther
Turner and Dorothy (Graves)
Turner, she was a graduate of
Brattleboro Union High School,
Class of 1960. She worked at
Vermont National Bank for several years and met her future husband at the wedding of Charles
and Elaine Ranney in 1970.
She got married a year later and
moved to her husband’s hometown of Lake Bluff, Ill. She loved
growing up in the Brattleboro
area, and her love of Vermont
remained strong throughout her
life. She and her family took annual summer trips back to her
beloved Brattleboro. She was a
loving wife and mother and coowned the former Lake Bluff
Hardware with her husband.
She was a member of the Calvary
Way International Fellowship in
Libertyville, Ill. MEMORIAL INFOR MATION : A memorial service was held March 1 at Village
Church of Gurnee, Ill., with entombment at Warren Cemetery
Mausoleum in Gurnee. A memorial gathering will be held
this spring in the Brattleboro
area for New England-area
family and friends. Details
to be announced. Donations
to the Arthritis Foundation,
Compassion International or
http://www.CaringBridge.org
(www.CaringBridge.org).
• M a r y
Ann “Andy”
B e r t l e s
Stewar t, 93,
of Brattleboro.
Died March 4.
Wife of the late
U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Potter Stewart
for 42 years. Mother of Harriet
Stewart Virkstis and her husband, Richard, and Potter
Stewart Jr. and his wife, Robin
Stern, all of Brattleboro, and
David B. Stewart and his wife,
Peggy, of Chatham, Mass. Sister
of Cornelia Pollard, and her husband, Robert, of Palm Beach,
Fla., the late Katharine Ley,
Katy Redwine, William Bertles,
and John Bertles. Born in Grand
Rapids, Mich., the daughter of
the late William Matthew and
Katharine Hummer Bertles, she
grew up in Glen Cove, N.Y., and
then Tucker’s Town, Bermuda.
She attended The Green
Vale School, The Fermotta
School, The American School
in Bermuda, and Bennington
College. While living in Bermuda
with her family at the beginning
of World War ll, she had a job at
Pan American World Airways.
During this time, she met and became engaged to an Englishman,
Christopher Scrutton, who was
in the RAF. Soon after the engagement, he and his plane were
lost during a mission over the Sea
of Gibraltar. She later moved to
New York City, and was working for Life when she met thenEnsign Potter Stewart when he
was home on leave from naval
duty in the Mediterranean. They
married soon thereafter. She
continued as a photojournalist
for Time and Life in Washington,
D.C., until the war ended and
the Stewarts were reunited. They
spent their early years in New
York, where their daughter had
been born, and soon moved to
Cincinnati, Ohio, where their
two sons followed. In 1958, the
family moved to Washington,
D.C. when Mr. Stewart was appointed to the Supreme Court.
As the wife of a Supreme Court
Justice, she had occasion to know
and befriend many interesting
people. Much as she enjoyed
and appreciated the exciting social aspect of her Washington
life, her vast store of energy and
knowledge was endlessly funneled into various humanitarian
causes. She sat on many boards,
too many to name, but was particularly interested in juvenile
justice, the court system, family
and child services, the Visiting
Nurse Association, the prevention of crime and delinquency,
women’s rights and issues of
equality, prisoners’ rights and
rehabilitation through the arts,
and women and the arts. She
was appointed an Ambassador
to UNICEF during the George
H.W. Bush Administration
and also sat on the National
Osteoporosis Foundation Board
and the Board of the Jefferson
Awards for Public Service. After
her husband’s death in 1985,
she lived on for many years in
Washington, until 2008, continuing to be active and involved
with her contributions of time
and energy into philanthropic endeavors. She spent the final four
years of her life in Thompson
House in Brattleboro, where she
lived her final days with courage,
grace and dignity; with patience,
gratitude, and a loving heart.
MEMOR I A L I N FOR M ATION : A
celebration of her life will take
place in Washington D.C. in the
spring, and in Franconia, N.H.
in the summer. Burial will be in
Arlington National Cemetery.
Donations to the Thompson
House Activities Fund, Grace
Cottage Hospital, or Brattleboro
Memorial Hospital.
• A n n e Vo r c e , 8 4 , o f
Manlius, N.Y. Died Feb. 9. Born
in Syracuse, N.Y., the daughter
of Harold and Frances Brown
Vorce. She retired as an art
teacher for the Dryden School
District. After retiring, she
moved to Newfane, where she
lived until her move to Manlius
nine years ago. She was a member of the First Congregational
Church of Newfane. Surviving
are her niece, Virginia True
of Chittenango, N.Y., and her
nephew, Richard Leland Judge
of Deland, Fla. MEMORIAL INFOR MATION : A graveside services will be held in the spring
in Valley Cemetery in Syracuse.
Transitions
• Brattleboro
Memorial
Hospital announced Sean
Amos, MD
has joined its
Department
of Hospitalist
Medicine. Amos is a 2003 graduate of Harvard Medical School
and has worked as a hospitalist
on a contract basis in several settings. Most recently, he worked
for St. Vincent’s Hospital in
Santa Fe, N.M. Amos was certified by the American Board
of Internal Medicine in 2006.
The BMH Hospitalist staff is a
team of physicians specializing
in internal medicine who provide immediate care to patients
experiencing acute medical conditions when they are admitted to
the hospital. The other hospitalists are Amy Gadowski, MD,
Christopher Meyer, MD and
Aida Avdic , MD, who also
serves as Hospitalist Director.
• Brattleboro
Memorial
Hospital has
hired B r i a n
Richardson
as EMS Liaison/
Emergency
Preparedness
Coordinator. His responsibilities will include maintaining and
strengthening relationships with
EMS first response services and
EMS agencies that transport
patients to BMH. He will also
oversee all policies, procedures
and programs related to emergency preparedness. He has been
involved in EMS for nearly 25
years and has been a paramedic
for the past 20 years. In 2008,
he joined Brattleboro’s Rescue
Inc. as the Assistant Chief of
Operations and Agency Training
Coordinator.
• New England Youth Theatre
announces that four new board
members and one student representative are joining its board
of directors. They are Rusty
Blossom, who has taught high
school English with a focus in
Shakespeare for 38 years; MaryEllen Bixby, who has taught
youth for 42 years and counting
and also serves on the Vermont
Humanities Council; Todd
Mandell, a psychologist and
theater aficionado; and Chip
Greenberg, an architect with a
major focus in design of arts and
education buildings, including
the 2007 New England Youth
Theatre building. NEYT’s new
student representative, elected by
the NEYT mentors, is Kaelan
Selbach, an active NEYT mentor who most recently played
Romeo in Peter Gould’s Romeo
& Juliet last October. Bo Foard
will serve as NEYT’s new board
president. And at the most recent meeting, the following officers were also elected: Chip
Greenberg as Vice President,
Kirsten Beske as Secretary,
and Steve Fitch will remain
Treasurer for another year.
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Beth Perkins
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Ker-Westerlund Funeral Home
57 High St Brattleboro • 254-5655 • kerwesterlund.com
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C4
THE COMMONS
• Wednesday, March 13, 2013
SPORTS
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
page C4
Colonel boys
fall short in
quest for state
hockey title
T
he only thing worse
than losing a playoff
game and falling one
game short of playing for a state championship is
being a senior and tasting that
bitter defeat in the last game
you’ll ever play for your school.
For the eight seniors on
the Brattleboro Colonels
boys’ hockey team — Jimmy
Podlaski, Romello Lindsey,
Nik Rancourt, Ryan Cobb,
Andy Harris, Philip Perkins,
Adam Griffin, and Jason
Molina — last Friday’s 2-1 loss
to the Burr & Burton Bulldogs
in the Division II semifinals at
Withington Rink was crushing.
For a long time after the final whistle, the Colonel seniors lingered on the ice or on
the bench, the pain of this loss
written all over their faces. And
while the Colonels enjoyed one
of their best seasons in years,
finishing with a 17-3 regular
season record and the second
seed in the tournament, the
disappointment of coming so
close to a trip to the finals will
take a long time to go away.
It was a night filled with
emotion and passion at
Withington. The rink was
packed and the fans of both
teams were into the action
from the opening faceoff.
Unfortunately, it was the
Colonels who were deflated before many fans had a chance
to get inside the rink. With
the game just 22 seconds old,
Burr & Burton defenseman
Nate Eisenman beat Colonels
goalie Greg DiSilva with a slap
Leland & Gray
center Ashley
Goddard (25)
battles Richford’s
Elle Purrier for a
loose ball during
the first half of
a Division III
playoff game in
Townshend on
March 6.
RANDOLPH T.
HOLHUT
Sports Roundup
shot to DiSilva’s glove side that
he never saw because he was
screened on the play. Forward
Chris Kornaros got the assist.
But Podlaski brought the
Colonel fans to their feet when
he streaked in from the right
wing and wristed a shot to the
top right corner past Bulldogs
goalie Zack Stuart at 13:25 in
the first period.
That was the only puck
Brattleboro could get past
Stuart as the Colonels fired 26
shots, half that number coming
in a frantic third period where
the Colonels desperately tried
to force overtime with a tying
goal.
DiSilva also faced 26 shots,
but he never saw the two he
couldn’t stop. As was the case
with the first goal, Burr &
Burton’s second goal came on
another screen. This time, it
was defenseman Elijah Brown
who beat DiSilva on his glove
side at 11:01 of the second period. Brock Pollard got the assist on what ended up being the
winning goal.
Brattleboro coach Eric
Libardoni had nothing but
praise for his seniors. “They’re
the best,” he said. “They
played hard for me for four
years. They should be proud of
everything they did. I couldn’t
ask for a better group of kids to
coach.”
Burr & Burton, the third
seed in the tournament, will
face defending champion U-32
for the state title at UVM’s
Gutterson Rink on March 13.
RANDOLPH T. HOLHUT/THE COMMONS
were the hallmark of this game.
The Rebels, who have
failed to make it past the first
round since 2001, were trying to make history against the
Rockets. After trailing 7-4 at
the end of the first quarter, the
Rebels rallied in the second to
earn back the lead. The offense
was led by senior captain Alex
Morrow, who scored eight of
the Rebels’ 10 points that quarter. By halftime, the Rebels led
14-13.
In the third quarter, things
started to fall apart noticeably for both teams. Although
the Rockets could not produce the points they needed to
run away with the game, their
great defense prevented the
Rebels from taking control.
Senior captain Ashley Goddard
was the only Rebel to put up
any points that quarter, as the
Rockets came back to tie it
19-19.
The final quarter seemed to
take the longest, as points continued to be scarce for both
teams. Two quick baskets by
A Family Business
senior captain Chelby Nystrom
and sophomore Haley Buffum
Since 2001
gave the Rebels the early 23SERVING THE
Girls’ basketball
19 lead, but the Rockets rallied
BRATTLEBORO AREA
• In a close but ragged
right back.
first round Division III playRichford junior guard
24 Hour Full
off
game,
the
eighth-seeded
Johanna
Sherrer hit a three,
Service Business
Leland & Gray Rebels lost to
followed by a basket by sophoHeating Oil • Kerosene the No. 9 Richford Rockets,
more forward Hannah Gleason
27-25 in Townshend on March and a foul shot by sophomore
Non-road & On-road
6.
center Gabby Coons to give the
Diesel
It was close throughout, as
Rockets a 25-23 lead with less
Toll Free
neither team had more than a
than two minutes remaining.
four-point lead. Turnovers and After Buffum tied the game
missed shots by both teams
with a jumper, Coons sank
what ultimately was the winning basket in the final minute.
With just 15 seconds to go,
the Rebels had one more op“The SMALL Credit Union
portunity to tie the game. The
ball was passed in and the
with a BIG HEART”
Rebels took their time setting
up on offense. It was clear that
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Falls. The 15-foot jumper
bounced over the rim and into
the hospitable arms of the
Rockets, who held on dearly
through the final buzzer to get
the 27-25 win.
Family Owned & Operated Since 1987
Coons led the Rockets with
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Buy Direct from the Farmer
Mount Snow
discounts
extended
• Mount Snow has extended its discount pricing
to Brattleboro Area Middle
Schoolers and their friends.
During the rest of the season
on Sundays, tickets are $33 per
youth and $38 per adult for a
full-day lift ticket. Tickets must
be purchased as a group, and
at least 10 people must go each
week in order to receive the
special price.
To confirm your place, write
jill@globalcow.com or call 802254-2879 to leave a message
before 6 p.m. the Saturday
night prior. Tickets are distributed at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday
inside the rental area.
Bowlers needed
for Bowl for
Kids’ Sake
• Families, friends and teams
from work are invited to celebrate the 32nd Annual Bowl
for Kids’ Sake to benefit Youth
Services’ Big Brothers Big
Sisters program on Saturday,
April 6.
The fundraising event is 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. with teams signing up for a one-hour time slot
at Brattleboro Bowl on Putney
Road.
Call Youth Services at 802257-0361 for pledge sheets and
to reserve a lane or for more
information about becoming
involved. To learn more or to
sponsor your favorite bowlers
with an online donation, visit
www.youthservicesinc.org/bowling.
With additional reporting from
Robert Litchfield in Townshend.
RANDOLPH T. HOLHUT/THE COMMONS
Brattleboro’s Jimmy Podlaski, left, celebrates after
scoring a goal in the first period of their Division II
semifinal game against Burr & Burton last Friday
at Withington Rink. At right is Burr & Burton
defenseman Elijah Brown, who later scored the
game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory.
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Proof generated March 12, 2013 7:01 PM
Softball meetings
planned
about softball season. The
first organizational meeting of
the Brattleboro Area Softball
Association is Wednesday,
March 13, at 7 p.m., at the
Gibson-Aiken Center on Main
Street. On the agenda: election
of board members, an update
on the summer season, and the
status of the town’s new West
River Park.
A follow-up meeting
Wednesday, March 27, at 7
p.m., at the Gibson-Aiken
Center, will cover league rules
and review of divisions. The
final meeting is Wednesday,
April 10, at 6 p.m., at the
Gibson-Aiken Center, which
will be the deadline for the submission of rosters and liability forms and the collection of
fees. Distribution of game balls
will also take place.
Weather-permitting,
Monday, April 29, will be
Opening Day with games at
Living Memorial Park and
West River Park.
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She and Goddard accounted
for 76 percent of Leland &
Gray’s total points.
“It just wasn’t our night,”
said Morrow after the game.
“Our shooting was off, and I
do give them credit for coming such a long way and how
they handled the pressure at
the end. They kept their composure when we didn’t, and I
think that’s why they held on in
the end.”
• Tenth-seeded Brattleboro
got an early exit from the
Division I playoffs with a 31-20
road loss to No. 7 Rutland in a
first-round game on March 5.
The Colonels had plenty of
good looks at the basket, but
the shots would not go in, and
that spoiled a great defensive
effort by Taylor Bird, Kayla
Savage, and Abbie Lesure.
The Colonels finished with
an 8-13 record. The good
news is that Bird, Savage, and
Lesure will be back next season, along with six other underclasswomen, including junior
forward Ari Harrison, who for
the second straight season was
knocked out the lineup by injury. If Harrison stays healthy,
and this year’s sophomores and
juniors step up, next season
will be brighter.
• The second-seeded U-32
Raiders pummeled the 15thseeded Bellows Falls Terriers,
72-29, in a first-round Division
II playoff game in East
Montpelier on March 6.
The Terriers fell behind
early and never caught up.
Madison Bennett led U-32
with 16 points, while Emily
Dufault and Chelsea Wilder
led Bellows Falls with 10 and
seven points, respectively.
• The fifth-seeded Winooski
Spartans cruised past the 12thseeded Twin Valley Wildcats,
51-31, in a first-round Division
III playoff game on March 6.
Abbi Molner led the 7-14
Wildcats with nine points, all
of them coming in the opening half. Colton Butler and
Hannah Swanson each added
six, while Christina Moore
added five.
Fallon Perrault had 15
points to lead the 15-6
Spartans, who built up a 2619 lead at the half, and pulled
away after that.
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