GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
So. much. fun. Okay, this is just going to be one of those "stuff coming out of the sky" days. With the added bonus that the arriving system seems all set to ramp up right around the morning commute. In some combination, we're going to see rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow, with amounts and timing depending entirely on location. Roads will likely be a mess. Unusually, it looks like it could be a few degrees colder during the day than it was in the early-morning hours: lower or mid 30s, with no change tonight.Sparring deer. On Erin Donahue's trail cam in E. Thetford. Ted Levin writes, "Bucks grow new headgear every winter—buds and tines—soft, vascular, living tissue that eventually elongates and branches under the summer sun. Stripped from bones, the translocation of calcium to growing antlers causes temporary osteoporosis, a seasonal affliction that yearly builds eye-catching armament. While bucks direct resources to the top of their heads, females direct resources inside their heads ... they develop larger, more discriminating brains. Maybe it's time for women to run our show?"VT's largest remaining grange heavily damaged in E. Bethel fire. “When I first got there [last Saturday], I thought, this is going to go all the way to the ground, we’re not going to be able to stop it,” Bethel Fire Chief David Aldrighetti tells the Herald's Darren Marcy. But in the end, five fire departments were able to save a portion of the building. The fire started in the basement, which houses two wood stoves. Grange master Jillian Dean tells Marcy the stage was destroyed and the back of the building is unsafe to occupy. "It’s heartbreaking,” she says. “We make memories with each other. It’s a huge loss.”Woodstock's already torn about a $99 million new school. It may have to buy its water company. Now it faces a $20-$25 million wastewater project. "Things are falling apart" at its current facility, municipal manager Eric Duffy tells the VT Standard's Lauren Dorsey—and, a hired engineer told the selectboard, "doing nothing is not an option." Some parts of the plant need renovation, while others have trouble in the kind of flooding Woodstock has seen recently. The board is aiming for a November bond vote. Meanwhile, emotions are already running high on the proposed March school bond.Chelsea, seat of Orange County, opts for policing from Windsor County sheriff. The selectboard Tuesday approved a $47,320 contract for 14 hours per week of coverage, reports the Herald's Marcy, after a bid to split policing between the two county departments fell through when Orange County Sheriff George Contois rejected it. At Tuesday's meeting, Marcy writes, board members were clearly exasperated with months of confusing and, they said, conflicting messages from Contois. “This has been a long, frustrating situation with a lot of misinformation presented to us,” said board chair Kevin Marshia.SPONSORED: Save $1,000 when you explore solar now! Moving to solar energy protects you from ever-rising utility rates, saves the average homeowner over $25K in lifetime electric bills, and takes advantage of over $10K in solar tax credits. And with a solar Tracker, it's one of the most impactful ways to clean up your carbon footprint, right in your backyard. Save $1,000 if you get the ball rolling before the end of February—and you can start making your own clean energy not long after the snow melts. Hit the burgundy link to explore the smarter way to go solar. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.What's behind all the turmoil in Orford. In the Valley News, Christina Dolan dives into a series of events that have roiled the town in recent months, leading to the resignation of its planning board and 14 members of the fire department, and to the temporary disappearance of its listserv. The spark, Dolan writes, came last March when the selectboard decided between longtime fire chief Terry Straight and retired Lebanon firefighter Kevin Follensbee for the fire chief's position; they opted for Straight, but animosity between the two sides has snowballed. It's a complicated story, involving everything from bitter online posts to a bottle rocket aimed at a marauding squirrel.Lebanon Opera House renovations: "From the front door all the way to the back." It's taken five months, but on Feb. 7 the refurbished opera house will reopen in city hall. The front lobby, writes Lauren Dorsey in the Standard, has been transformed: “It now feels more like a proper theater entrance,” LOH director Joe Clifford says. There's a new box office. The seats are wider (and there are fewer of them), with more leg room and—to take account of new beverage service—cup holders. There's a completely overhauled lighting setup—"You'll know it when you see it," Clifford says—and a redone backstage.For first time in almost four years, Dartmouth's astronomy dept will host a public observing event. It will be Saturday from 5-8 pm, reviving a popular pre-pandemic tradition, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN. The event, aimed especially at kids—or adults who want to recapture what it felt like to be a kid looking at the night sky—will be led by astronomy grad students Keighley Rockcliffe and Stephanie Podjed with help from other grad and undergrad students. It will use the the North Shed Telescope if it's clear, with tours of the Shattuck Observatory, as well as the Montshire's portable planetarium.SPONSORED: Healing is what your body does best... when it has the right resources. What are they? Air, water, food, movement, rest, a safe environment, and social connection. At Upper Valley Integration Therapy, we offer therapeutic bodywork that evaluates your habits, teaching you research-based best practices that empower the routines of your daily life. We work with self-motivated people of all ages and abilities who aspire to a healthful relationship with their body. If this sounds like you, hit the burgundy link to learn more and get in touch. Sponsored by Upper Valley Integration Therapy.Let's not get ahead of ourselves. A quick correction on yesterday's item about the Hartland Selectboard's vote on conserving the 75-acre Pohl property. Its vote was to add an article to the town meeting ballot asking voters' approval for setting aside up to $100,000 toward the property's purchase by the Upper Valley Land Trust—not to authorize that spending on its own. If the article passes, the money would go into a town reserve account, pending UVLT's ability to strike a deal for the property's conservation."I consider myself an optimist. I'm having a hard time staying positive." Garrett Palm, who chairs the Norwich school board, pretty much summed up the sentiments that met VT House and Senate education committees yesterday when they held a "deep listening" session with school officials from around the state. As VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein reports, much of the ire was directed at Act 127, which one superintendent called “one of the most detrimental and dangerous pieces of legislation in recent history.” The measure, aimed at helping districts with economically disadvantaged students, may instead be having the opposite effect—while also burdening better-off districts.Hiking Close to Home: Spike Hikes. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance's Kaitie Eddington checks in with an updated version of her popular compilation of trails and trail networks good for winter walking and hiking that also have easily accessible parking. Eight suggestions, from Norwich's Bill Ballard Trail to Enfield's Lower Shaker Wildlife Management Area to the Orford Heritage Trail, plus plenty of others. Includes a list of stores in the region that sell spikes for your boots (and other hiking stuff).So... Think you know what's been going on in the Upper Valley? Because Daybreak's News Quiz has some questions for you. Like... What's slated to move into the old Piecemeal Pies space in WRJ? And which Upper Valley ski hill just got singled out by Men's Journal? Those questions and more at the link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know how many households VT is turning away each day due to lack of space in its motel housing program.
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about mostly political doings around the Granite State—like, why is the NH AG's office investigating a robocall that people started receiving last weekend?
Feds to Twin States: Charge yourselves. The government just handed out $622.57 million in grant funding to 47 applicants across the country to build EV charging and alternative fuel infrastructure. Deerfield, MA got $2 million for public EV charging. Maine's DOT got $15 million for its "Recharge Maine" project. But VT and NH? Not a penny. The news was especially disappointing to EV advocates in NH, writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog, who had "this quiet hope that the Biden administration will save us from ourselves, giving us the money to do what the gasoline-loving state government won’t."With $14 million in cuts looming, "the mood is very somber" at UNH. Roughly 75 employees are losing their jobs, reports Ian Lenahan in Foster's Daily Democrat, and among other things, the university's art museum is being closed. The College of Liberal Arts is losing 12 positions, the Enterprise Technology & Services team is facing cuts, research positions and some student social programs are being eliminated, and some Wellness staff are being laid off—affecting the university's therapy dog program. The lecturers union says it's also preparing for possibl lecturer cuts.In NH and VT, housing shortages affect a range of programs. Two prime examples:
In NH, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe's Morning Report(no paywall), it's made it tougher to find "recovery housing"—houses where people recovering from addiction can live in a shared space, sometimes with supervision, and rebuild normal relationships. The director of the state coalition behind such housing tells Gokee that people who stay in recovery housing for six months to a year have a much greater chance of attaining long-term recovery.
And in VT, the state's refugee resettlement programs, which are looking at helping some 600 people this year arriving from Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, are bumping up against the state's severe housing shortage. Some families are being put up in hotels, motels, or even Airbnbs while agencies look for housing, state refugee director Tracy Dolan tells VT Public's Mary Engisch. The two talk over not just housing, but the issues facing refugee resettlement in general.
The new "Dig Deep Vermont" campaign brings together the state agency of agriculture and an array of organizations, from the Farm Bureau to the VT Association of Broadcasters to Ski Vermont in an effort to help some 350 family farms that, the group says, suffered nearly $45 million in losses collectively. The campaign is organized by county, "so that neighbors can help neighbors", and reports that farms in Orange County reported some $2.75 million in losses, and farms in Windsor County over $3 million in losses.
Head north … It’s carnival time! Half a million people attend the Carnaval de Québec, one of the world’s largest winter happenings, and by the end of Pamela MacNaughtan’s piece in Seven Days, you’ll know why. This year it runs longer than usual: January 25 to February 11. Bundle up and dive in—ice sculptures, ski trails, maple taffy, music (“dancing is practically a requirement to keep the blood flowing at these outdoor concerts”), a frozen mustache contest. MacNaughtan has advice about where to stay, what to do, how to drink caribou (the signature beverage), and pro tips (hint: bring cardboard).“Sometimes the animals just don’t want you to take their photo, and you need to respect that and move on.” Ethics in wildlife photography dictates that your best picture might be the one you don’t take. Canadian Geographic's Rhiannon Russell covers how experienced nature photographers approach—or sometimes, don’t—the subject. No baiting, no mimicking calls, no stressing the animal, no disrupting its natural behavior. Many pros remove GPS data from photos to protect the animals’ habitat. “A part of being an ethical wildlife photographer is also questioning your own ethics each and every time you go out in the field,” says one. Lots of photos to go along.Meanwhile, here are Canadian Geographic's photos of the year. A loon, bear, lynx... and some unreal landscapes.The Friday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak. And are you new to Vordle? Fresh ones appear on weekends, using words from the Friday Daybreak, and you can get a reminder email each weekend morning: Just sign up here.
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There's that Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, perfect for long nights by the fire. Plus, of course, fleece vests, hoodies, sweatshirts, even a throw blanket. And hats, mugs, and—once you work up a puzzle-piece sweat—tees. Check it all out at the link!
At 7 this evening, Hop Film screens Dream Scenario, Kristoffer Borgli's "wickedly entertaining" 2023 comedy featuring Nicholas Cage as a geeky zoology prof, ignored both in the classroom and at home, who suddenly starts showing up in millions of people's dreams—and discovers the risks of stardom. At the Loew.
Also at 7, Still North Books & Bar in Hanover hosts a reading by poet and translator Eugene Ostashevsky from his collection, The Feeling Sonnets. "Energetic and allusive, humorous and multilingual, by turns aching and philosophical, these sonnets wheel down the page, full of wit and linguistic wonder," wrote Hannah Green for the Poetry Foundation.
At 7:30 this evening, the Anonymous Coffeehouse takes over the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, with young Burlington folk-rock-pop singer-songwriter Grace Palmer starting things off. At 8:15, fiddler Andy Stewart and guitarist/vocalist Mary Jo Slattery play Cajun two-steps and waltzes, French Canadian and New England fiddle tunes, early blues, southern old time, and more. And at 9 pm, the Dartmouth College undergrad bluegrass trio Ramblers and Co. will close things out. Afterward, Palmer and the Ramblers will repair to the Galway Room at Salt Hill and trade tunes with local favorite Dan Freihofer in a more impromptu setting until 11.
At 8 tonight, the Hop presents pianist Frederick Chiu, bringing his Classical Smackdown to Rollins Chapel. As they describe it, "he pits two legendary composers against each other in a musical context. Audiences are invited to listen, debate and vote for their preferred artist over several short rounds of contrasting examples. Insightful commentary from Chiu brings to life favorites along with lesser-known pieces, making the audience's choices engaging, difficult and often surprising!" Tonight: in one corner it's Johann Sebastian Bach, and in the other, Philip Glass!
And at 9 tonight, Lyme's James Graham and his band return to Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover, with their blend of folk, rock, and soul, along with "grooves and heartfelt energy."
Saturday
From 10 am until noon tomorrow, Sustainable Hanover is holding its styrofoam special collection at the Richmond School in Hanover, postponed from last week. Most transfer stations, curbside recycling, and the Leb recycling center don't take styrofoam, so this is your chance; it'll get hauled to a special facility in Gilford, NH. They accept only expanded polystyrene, the #6 plastic commonly known as styrofoam. Info on what they'll take is here. Must be clean and dry, and with no tape or stickers.
At 1 pm tomorrow, the Hop screens a live performance of the Met Opera's modern-day version of Carmen, with mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina in the lead role and the opera itself directed by English director Carrie Cracknell in her Met debut. At the Loew.
Tomorrow at 3 pm, and again on Sunday at the same time, Billings Farm's Woodstock Film Series screens All That Breathes, Shaunak Sen's 2023 Academy Award-nominated documentary about two brothers who rescue and rehabilitate kites (the birds) and other raptors who fall from Delhi's polluted skies. The pair, along with their assistant, have turned their basement into a makeshift hospital, and over more than a decade have saved over 20,000 kites. The film's about the birds, of course, but also about Delhi, the impact on nature of social and political unrest, and a whole lot more.
From 5 to 8 tomorrow evening, the Shattuck Observatory at Dartmouth hosts a kick-off event for public observing—its first such event since the pandemic began (see article above). Whatever the weather dishes out, they'll have things to do, whether it's telescope observations and tours of the constellations (if it's clear) or the Montshire's portable planetarium (if it's not). Also at the North Shed Telescope and Fairchild Tower.
At 6 tomorrow evening, Artistree in S. Pomfret hosts a milonga—an evening of improvisational and social Argentinian tango. It'll be taught starting at 5 pm by Eva Zimet, with pianist Bob Merrill's Trio Tango Norte joined by Jakob Breitbach on violin providing the music. Dance begins at 6. Empanadas and a cash bar as well.
At 7 pm tomorrow, Royalton Community Radio kicks off a four-part, four-town series of music films with a screening of Questlove's 2021 documentary, Summer of Soul, at the Royalton Memorial Library. They'll be at the libraries in Tunbridge in February, Strafford in March, and Chelsea in April with different films—more on that when the time comes (or just scroll down at the link).
Also at 7 tomorrow, Hop Film screens George C. Wolfe's 2023 film Rustin, starring Colman Domingo in a "galvanic title performance" (NYT) as Bayard Rustin, the Quaker civil rights activist who was the key force behind the 1963 March on Washington, a close aide to Martin Luther King, Jr.—and an often passed-over historical figure because he was openly gay at a time when that was politically and socially suspect. Discussion afterward with Prof. Ralph Craig III, author most recently of Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner. In the Loew.
And at 7:30 pm tomorrow, the What Doth Life collective is back at the Main Street Museum in WRJ for the final installment of its 11-band January extravaganza. Tomorrow the lineup's: Shy Husky, Phantom Suns, Vallory Falls, and Ex-Temper.
Sunday
Finally, at 3 pm on Sunday, the Upper Valley Community Band—which has been growing both larger and ever more ambitious under the baton of director Mark Nelson—presents its winter concert at the Richmond School in Hanover. The program ranges from the Northern Lights to a Renaissance homage to an American icon, with pieces by Brian Balmages, Ronald Lo Presti, Walter Piston, Robert Rumbelow, Gordon Jacob, and George Gershwin.
And to take us out of the week...
Melanie Safka died on Tuesday at 76. You probably just knew her as Melanie; she soared to prominence at Woodstock, had national hits two years later with "Brand New Key"... okay, okay, "The Rollerskate Song"... and "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma", then over time mostly faded from view. Just for that little tingle from the past,
See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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