Daybreak Monday 1/25/21

WELCOME TO THE WEEK, UPPER VALLEY!

Sunny, slightly warmer. Today's a quiet day, as high pressure shifts north and east above us. We start moving out of the below-normal temps of the last few days, with plenty of sunshine and highs in the mid-20s, though there'll be enough wind to make things feel colder. Lows in the single digits tonight. Winds from the northwest.Norwich finance committee members resign, say their efforts are "pointless." On his Norwich Observer blog, Chris Katucki reports that four out of five members of the finance committee, which serves as an advisory body to the town and the selectboard, stepped down last week; only Linda Cook remains. "It is our shared belief that the Selectboard does not take, nor seems to desire, input from the NFC," they wrote. Katucki notes that the SB did not make the letter an agenda item. "I guess that was the Finance Committee's point," he adds. Claremont spike "is like a tsunami washing over the city’s restaurant business." The Valley News's John Lippman surveys the scene in the city, and it's grim. “We’re doing all we can for precautions, washing everything down, but people are just scared to come out,” says Dusty's Café owner Sam Davis. Most restaurants have had to close at one point or another, and many have cut back hours or shifted to serving just one meal a day. Even so, Rocky Beliveau, who opened Rocky's Taqueria in the face of the pandemic, is optimistic. “Claremont is on the brink of change with all the revitalization going on," he says.Law prof Beth McCormack named interim president and dean at Vermont Law School. McCormack, a former litigator who has taught at the school since 2011 and served as vice dean for students since 2017, will become the first woman to hold the post in VLS's history. She takes over as the school's board is pursuing a strategic planning process that could rewrite how it operates in S. Royalton or lead it to decide to pull up stakes and move to Burlington.With Singleton's purchase, Kerrigan expands Quechee turf. Ed Kerrigan, who owns the Squeechee Clean laundromat and car wash and Jake's Quechee Market along Rte. 4 (and used to own the whole Jake's empire), has bought the old Singleton's property next to his car wash. He has no immediate plans for it, Lippman reports in the VN, except to find “a quality tenant or two." Lippman also reports that the closing of Cantore's Crossroads Cafe on Sykes Mtn. Ave. in WRJ is temporary, while Vinnie Cantore finishes buying the property.SPONSORED: Try out online lessons and classes with Upper Valley Music Center—for free! New to UVMC or to online learning? Schedule a trial lesson at no cost, so you can experience online learning and get to know the teacher before enrolling. You can also try the first meeting of group classes with no commitment—including fiddle, guitar, singing, music theory, and more. Spring semester classes and lessons begin February 1. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.D-H won't be doing vaccinations. At least, not yet. In a press release on Friday, the hospital system announced that NH residents will need to go through the state vaccination sites. "In light of the limited supply of vaccine, the state will not provide Dartmouth-Hitchcock any vaccine in the near-term." The hospital added, though, that it will identify patients who are NH residents and have two or more high-risk health conditions, then verify that to the state as the next vaccination phase rolls out.Even as NH limits vaccine doses for its residents, it okays vaccinations for out-of-state property owners. State health department spokesman Jake Leon yesterday told NHPR's Todd Bookman that the policy, announced on a state website last week, is not new. “The intent of the vaccination plan is to make it as easily and efficiently as possible for people in NH to get vaccinated, not to throw up barriers,” he said. That compares to VT, which is allowing vaccines only to residents or people who work in the state, and ME, which is reserving them for residents.Tuckerman's rescue a reminder of the risks. The Mt. Washington Avalanche Center announced Friday that a skier had been caught by an avalanche set off by his companion. He was swept into the debris and wound up "buried face down, fortunately with his head very near the surface... He was unable to move but could raise his head for a breath." His companion skied on to alert a rescue team. "This pair was among many poorly equipped or skiers traveling alone yesterday. All were very nice people with families," the center writes, and adds: carry the right equipment and take an avalanche class!Meanwhile, don't do this: run barefoot through the snow on Mt. Lafayette. Two trail runners on Saturday had to be airlifted off the mountain after they set out to do Bridle Path/Falling Waters loop, summited Lafayette in 40 mph winds and single digits...and then one of them lost his running shoes. They headed downhill but could no longer continue due to "frozen extremities." They eventually thawed out a cellphone, reports the Union Leader's Paul Feely, and called for help. The NH Air National Guard managed to get a helicopter in before the summit was socked in by clouds. (Paywall alert)NH state police reverse course, decide arm tattoos are okay. As long, that is, as they're not racist, sexist, or indecent. “We've walked some pretty talented people out of our lines and out of the opportunity merely on the basis that they had a little ink that would've shown in the short-sleeve uniform,” State Police Lt. Brendan Davey tells WMUR's Mike Cronin. Ink on the neck, face, or hands is still disqualifying. Cronin notes that police agencies throughout the state are reporting shortages in officer applications.Hmm. Just a week and a half after police arrested a Stowe man on eight arson-related charges for a series of fires there over two years, state arson investigators were at it again yesterday after two separate storage sheds at Trapp Family Lodge caught on fire. One, a shed used to store firewood and trash/recycling, was destroyed. Firefighters were able to get to the second before the building was damaged.In case you're wondering what happened to that Red Hen bread you want to buy... The bakery announced Friday it's closing temporarily after an employee tested positive for Covid. It could be shuttered for as long as a week, Seven Days' Sally Pollak reports, with 10 of its employees in quarantine. “We’re baking for the community and we’ve always been committed to making fresh bread,” co-owner Randy George tells her. “If we’re making this kind of bread, we need to be delivering it fresh.”Zoom may not be ideal, but theaters are adapting. In the Times-Argus, theater reviewer Jim Lowe writes that three VT theaters—Northern Stage, the Dorset Theater Festival, and Weston Playhouse—have turned to Zoom to help them develop new plays. "While stage productions over Zoom are at best awkward," he writes, "prepared readings work well, as it is easy to focus on the individual actors, and they can be scattered throughout the country." He takes a look at NS's ongoing New Works Now festival, Dorset's work on a new play, “The W(ai)(eigh)T. Of Skin,” and Weston's new "Postcard Plays."

"I’ve learned to accept that, being in a mostly liberal state, I can’t expect everyone to hear my opinion, or even listen to my opinion." Cameron Russin is a senior at Lamoille Union HS, getting ready to test for a journeyman plumber's license, and a political conservative. He talks to Lamoille's Adelle Macdowell about how his views developed, what it's like being being in a political minority in school, and the nation's political divisions in general for "Red State Vermont," a project by the Underground Workshop, VTDigger's platform for student journalists.So, just how high is your place? Usually, if you want to get the elevation of a particular spot, you need to be an ace at delving into state databases. But thanks to new work by the IT team at VT's agencies of natural resources and community development, you can now just point and click on a map. The elevation reading is accurate to within 12 inches, which is astounding, although the developer warns that it has not been "ground truthed" yet, which means don't use it for official calculations. (Thanks, JF!)But if you want real elevation... As you may have read, nine days ago two teams of Nepali climbers became the first to reach the top of K2, the second highest mountain in the world, in winter. Now they've released a brief video of their final steps to the top... singing the Nepali national anthem (which gets overdubbed with a canned version a few notes in) and, as North Conway professional climber Freddie Wilkinson put it in the NYT Saturday, "making a statement of teamwork and selflessness for Indigenous Himalayan climbers."

Time to catch up...

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Venezuelan composer Antonio Lauro learned how to play guitar from his father, an Italian-immigrant barber who died when Lauro was young. Lauro eventually went on to become one of the foremost composers of classical guitar music in Latin America in the 20th century. To usher us into the week in style,

performed by Lebanon (NH) jazz and classical guitarist William Ghezzi. 

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