Daybreak Friday, 3/6/26

Slight chance of snow first thing, otherwise mostly cloudy. Whatever’s left over from last night will taper off, leaving us with a cloudy, cooler day, with temps only getting into the mid 30s—but watch the roads on the commute this morning. Low pressure is coming in from the west and there’s high pressure off the coast, and the play between the two will bring in warm air—but not before we get rain and freezing rain overnight tonight, with below-freezing temps hanging tough east of the Greens until mid-morning tomorrow. After that, warm weather starts arriving, raising concerns for ice jams and snowmelt-related flooding starting on Sunday. More on all that Monday.

Loyalty matters. A coyote couple on Erin Donahue’s trail cam from E. Thetford. “Depending upon where you grew up or where you roamed as a child,” writes Ted Levin, “you pronounce the word coyote one of two ways: ky-yotee (dust-dry West) or ky-yote (virtually everywhere else). Either way, you speak of a mammal stitched to one heart ... forever. Mourns the loss of a mate: long, sad howls; haunts trails both once walked. A rarity—less than five in a hundred mammal species are monogamous. But coyotes are genetically monogamous. Genes linked by loyalty. No sly midnight trysts. Even wolves, foxes, and humans occasionally stray. Coyotes: never.”

Did you catch Dear Daybreak yesterday? If not, you missed Bob Walker’s photo of a raccoon stirring from its winter’s rest; VINS’s Alden Smith reflecting on what the new eagle cams have shown him; Samantha Milnes’ poem about a milkweed pod in winter along a bank of the Ompompanoosuc; and Ken Davis’s fond hat-tip to the great NYT reporter and Thetford resident Christopher Wren, who died recently.

Why Randolph’s public library budget got voted down. If there’s one sure thing in local politics, it’s that voters will back the public library’s budget. But that’s not what happened in Randolph on Tuesday. As The Herald’s Tim Calabro explains, library reps told voters at town meeting that the budget figures “were based on outdated staffing assumptions, leading to underfunded wage lines”—trustees had hoped to boost staff salaries after years of “stagnation.” Advised that the budget couldn’t be amended, trustees and staff urged voters to reject the budget, and attendees indicated by straw poll that they want the incoming selectboard to increase funding as needed.

That was a heck of a two-day hearing on Woodstock’s police chief. Village trustees met this week once again to consider the fate of Chief Joe Swanson and whether municipal manager Eric Duffy is right to demote him. A decision’s expected in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Alex Ebrahimi in the Valley News is up with a description of the hearing—noting that “construction noise next door…frequently caused the walls, tables and chairs to quake.” Swanson’s attorney, Linda Fraas, took on haircuts, complaints against Duffy, and whether he’s homophobic; the village’s attorney fought back with new allegations against Swanson. Catch up at the link.

A quick visit to Enfield’s Baltic Mill. You’ve seen it along the rail trail through town, and Sarah Copps—who last wrote in Daybreak about the old Hillcrest Chevrolet building on Route 120—has been curious about it. She began digging into its history and talking to locals: “Nearly everyone I mentioned the mill to had a relative who had worked there, or had worked there themselves, or had a fact or story to relate,” she writes. The story was so big, in fact, that she decided to offer just a snapshot: the Irish and Finnish immigrants who worked there, Steve Patten’s memory of cleaning oil from under the looms (“the filthiest job ever,” he says), Enfield’s tourist history, and more.

Norwich’s volunteer fire department is unusual: It’s got lots of volunteers. To be sure, as VT Public’s Josh Crane points out in his entertaining Brave Little State profile of the department, it has an unusual makeup, which includes everyone from a national security expert to a novelist to a state prison worker and some nurses. But while VFDs elsewhere are scrambling, Norwich’s is building. Young pandemic migrants have helped; so does a workforce with some flexibility. As Crane spends time at intense training sessions and talking to old hands like deputy chief Matt Swett and newer volunteers like Matt Rojansky, Cody Williams, and Peter Orner, what’s clear is that working with people you like and helping people you know plays a huge part.

For former Canaan police officer with Long Covid, “there is no path that someone can say, ‘This is how you get better.’” For a time after her illness forced her to quit the force, Nenia Ballard worked part-time at VINS as a grant writer, but even that is too much for her now; she uses a wheelchair these days to get around. In NH Bulletin, William Skipworth talks to Ballard and two other Granite Staters he first wrote about a year ago. One’s the same, one’s improved, but for Ballard, it’s gotten worse. She’s tried a variety of experimental treatments, but “no doctor will sit down with me and commit to an answer because they don’t know either.” One bright spot: her videos reviewing clothes online for wheelchair users have taken off.

Sometime in the next few years, 65 heavy pieces of limestone may turn into a rose window. At least, that’s the hope, writes Susan Apel in Artful. They used to form a rose window, probably in late 14th- or early 15th-century southern Italy, Dartmouth Art History chair Nicola (Nick) Camerlenghi believes, but they’ve been sitting for decades in storage at the Hood Museum (by way of William Randolph Hearst and then a 1977 gift from a college alum). Camerlenghi and the Hood’s Beth Mattison have gotten a grant to study and then, maybe, reconstruct the window on campus. Susan tells the story.

Hiking Close to Home: Mud Season. It’ll be here before we know it (like, this weekend, briefly), which means it's time to be strategic about where you hike. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance's Mud Season Hikes guide features trails specifically selected for early spring conditions: lower elevation forest walks, dirt roads, and recreation paths that are easier on the trails than muddy mountain routes. Protect our fragile hiking paths by choosing trails that can handle spring moisture. Check out the complete Mud Season guide with trail recommendations at the link.

Daybreak’s Upper Valley News Quiz. Were you paying attention this week? Because we’ve got questions! Like, how many police officers will Bradford VT have on its force going forward? And what’s moving into the space once occupied by Country Kids Clothing in the Powerhouse Mall? Meanwhile, you’ll find NHPR’s New Hampshire quiz here, and Seven Days’ Vermont quiz here.

NH bill ending use of school IDs for voting heads to Kelly Ayotte’s desk. If she signs the measure, reports NHPR’s Todd Bookman, college and high school students “would no longer be able to use photo identification cards issued by their schools to obtain a ballot.” That’s after the Senate passed it yesterday with a 16-8 vote; the House had already passed it. GOP legislators argue the measure’s needed for election integrity. Democrats counter that its effect will be to squelch the college vote. Drivers licenses, passports, and armed services identification cards are still accepted.

NH National Guard was activated last month. Gov. Kelly Ayotte told reporters Wednesday that the federally ordered deployment is in connection to the Iran war, reports NHPR. Initially, she said that “she was unable to share additional details about the nature of the New Hampshire National Guard’s activity related to the conflict, including how many guard members have been activated or what role they are playing.” But yesterday, her office confirmed that the 157th Air Refueling Wing based at Pease was "deployed in late February to the US Central Command area of responsibility in support of” the Iran war. The VT Air Guard’s F-35As are also deployed.

Most VT towns considering local option taxes pass them. Of the 19 that took up whether to impose a 1 percent tax on some combination of meals, rooms, alcohol, and/or sales, 12 passed them, reports VTDigger Report for America journalist Theo Wells-Spackman. Six rejected them and one—West Windsor—approved all but the sales tax. The arguments for the new taxes are rooted in municipalities’ budget struggles in the face of rising costs, state mandates, and other issues. Even so, some residents were uneasy: “There’s a recognition that that money is needed,” says Chester’s town manager, but business owners worried the tax would harm restaurants and inns.

Visiting abbeys in Quebec for the culinary delights. Seven Days’ Suzanne Podhaizer gives a tour of three Québécois abbeys that turn out hyper-local treats. Trappist monks lived at Abbaye Notre-Dame-du-Lac in Oka until 2009, making cheese and running an agricultural school for orphans; it’s now a restaurant and inn. The monks’ new home, Abbaye Val Notre-Dame, in Saint-Jean-de-Matha, includes a foresting center, a cooking school, and 462 acres that provide hazelnuts, berries, and herbs. Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac still houses Benedictine monks. Visitors can take tours and attend services. Bleu Bénédictin cheese is made on site, and apples from their vast orchard end up in a range of products sold in the shop. 

A pair of swans doing swan things. A pair of Labradors doing Labrador things. BBC sportscaster Andrew Cotter’s been working on a book and sometimes he needs a break. So what better than to take Olive and Mabel down to a nearby body of water, toss some sticks, and contemplate the swans. “I mean, typical swans, really. It looks serene on the surface, but no, it's turmoil underneath.” Meanwhile, Mabel’s got a stick and Olive’s wading “like an elephant matriarch through the swollen Zambezi…”

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak. Just use the same link tomorrow and Sunday, and you’ll find new words drawn from the region’s publications.

Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:

THERE'S SOME GREAT DAYBREAK SWAG! Like Daybreak tote bags, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!

HEADS UP

There’s a chock-full weekend ahead, from feature films at WRIF to Kalos and If You Must Know down in Putney to the VSO’s Skylark Quartet in Windsor and the Adam McMahon Trio at the Tunbridge Shindig! and Vicki Ferentinos’ new show at Artistree and a free preview screening of Project Hail Mary at the Hop and… whew, just a whole lot more. Check it all out here.

And for today...

One other thing going on this weekend: Jerron Paxton and Dennis Lichtman at the Chandler in Randolph on Saturday. They’ve got the whole ragtime/Tin Pan Alley thing down cold. Here they are with Irving Berlin’s “Sunshine” on eTown.

See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.

Looking for all of the hikes, Enthusiasms, daybreak photos, or music that Daybreak has published over the years? Go here!

And always, if you’re not a subscriber yet:

Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on Daybreak’s homepage.

Written and published by Rob Gurwitt      Poetry editor: Michael Lipson    Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt

And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to visit daybreak.news to sign up.

Thank you!