Daybreak Monday 1/22/24

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Warming trend! Though you might not really notice, since we started out this morning in the minuses and today's high will still be a bit below freezing. But there's air coming in from the south that will drive temps up as the week goes on, and today's the first breath of it. Sunny to start, clouds rolling in as the day wears on, winds shifting to come from the southwest. Down around 20 tonight.Not quite what you expect at the bird feeder in winter... Birds, sure. Squirrels, you bet. Maybe the odd bear. But deer? From Jim Zien in Thetford.Leb city council opts for mixed-use development in downtown West Leb, nixes fire station. It voted last week to seek proposals from private developers for apartments and commercial spaces on three city-owned parcels along Main Street, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News. "People have consistently said...they want a downtown, walkable West Lebanon," said councillor Douglas Whittlesey. City officials last year had proposed using the land for a new fire station, and some council members last week suggested incorporating one into a larger project, but with a new Leb station planned, officials advised against it.Tuckerbox will bring Turkish bakery to former Piecemeal space in WRJ. In Artful, Susan Apel reports that Tuckerbox owners Vural and Jackie Oktay plan to open Cappadocia Cafe next to their restaurant. The idea, they say, is for "more of a quick service concept with a large part of the business being take-out"—with two Turkish chefs using a wood-fired oven to turn out pide (a long flatbread that often features lamb); lahmacun (a rounder flatbread); börek; and other specialties. The Oktays hope to open in April, but timing rests in part on staffing, "including processing of visas for the chefs," Susan writes.In 1890, a Black preacher living in Norwich disappeared and was probably murdered. His story was forgotten; now it's being remembered. That's thanks to VT Public's Lexi Krupp, who until recently lived, she thinks, where the young preacher, John Harrison, lived, in the section of town known as Beaver Meadow. With help from her neighbor, Claudia Marieb, who got curious about why her deed included a racist reference, Krupp digs deep into the historical record to piece together the story: about an itinerant preacher, the harassment and danger he faced, a confession by a Sharon farmer that he and three others had killed Harrison, and how it got forgotten.Family of man burned in Grantham fire launches fundraiser. You may remember that last Monday night, Zachary Beaulieu plunged back into his burning apartment when he thought his girlfriend and their dog were still inside; he was badly burned, and airlifted to Mass General for treatment. "He has a long road ahead of him," his family writes on a GoFundMe page as they seek help with medical bills. So far they've raised $8,250 of the $20K they hope for.“Your mother will be very disappointed in you.” That was the wording on a note Jack Candon was handed by a VT House page—written by Candon's father, who was a House colleague and disagreed with how his son planned to vote on a bill. It's one of a variety of anecdotes collected by the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr in her "A Life" piece about Candon, who died in early December at 73. Doyle-Burr outlines his early life, career as an attorney and public servant—he left the Norwich selectboard when “he couldn’t stand being called stupid anymore," says his wife, Marty—and community stalwart.A bobcat story in a snow imprint. Mary Holland has a great photo on her Naturally Curious blog: bobcat and wing prints, but otherwise no sign of hunting success. Bobcats need one or two pounds of food a day to survive, she writes, which means they need to capture "at least two Gray Squirrels, or one Eastern Cottontail or eight Eastern Meadow Voles a day to survive." In other words, she writes, they "can’t afford too many near misses!"NH: "It's very obvious that it's everybody that is being hurt by this lack of affordable housing." That's an outreach worker for Merrimack and Belknap counties telling NHPR's Julia Furukawa that the housing crisis is now putting working people out on the street. The result, says Rob Dapice, who runs New Hampshire Housing, a public corporation focused on the issue, is that "we're seeing housing conversations happen in places [where] that probably wouldn't have been happening five or 10 years ago." Furukawa sat down with Dapice to talk about the issue, how New London and other towns are addressing workforce housing needs, and why it's top-of-mind for state voters.23 lost skiers and snowboarders rescued from Killington backcountry in frigid temps on Saturday. The initial call to the Killington PD said the number was seven to nine, but in its report (via Facebook), officers determined there were 21 people in all, including six kids. A dozen members of Killington Search & Rescue hiked and skinned five miles in to reach the group and bring them out of the woods. As the rescuers were getting ready to move on, a call came in about two more lost skiers; six KSR volunteers returned to the woods, found them, and brought them out Saturday evening.In Stowe's ongoing battle with rogue housing construction, beavers get a reprieve. If you've got a long memory, you might recall that the town has been struggling with rising water levels at its rec fields because of den and dam construction. Last month, reports Tommy Gardner in the Stowe Reporter, the selectboard initially decided to start trapping the animals, but then decided to hold off in order to see if adding new "baffles", or flow devices, might be able to help lower water levels. There are no really good options, Gardner reports: Beavers can circumvent the baffles, and often repopulate areas after trapping.The Monday Vordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.

Heads Up

And to take us into the week...

Here's the French multi-instrumentalist Mathias Duplessy, Chinese

erhu

master Guo Gan, and Mongolian

morin khuur

player Mandakh Daansuren

, a piece Duplessy composed for the 2023 documentary

La Chine, Rêves et Cauchemars

.

See you tomorrow.

Written and published by Rob Gurwitt   Associate writer: Jonea Gurwitt   Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                                                                  About Michael

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