GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Daybreak is brought to you this week with help from YWCA Vermont. Although South Hero may seem like a hike, girls+ from the Upper Valley have been spending joyful summers at Camp Hochelaga for 100+ years. Check us out if you’re seeking an inclusive, screen-free, nature-based experience for kiddos in your life!
The snow’s light and fluffy and best of all, it’s going to stay cold into next week. This is actual real snow. Lots of places—schools, businesses, municipal offices—are closed for the day, so check before you take to the roads; we’re getting more snow throughout the day and into tonight, though not at the rate we got overnight. All in all, we’re due a foot or more around here, and more to the south and east. Projected totals are below. In the meantime, highs today in the upper teens, lows tonight down to around zero. And because the snow’s so downy, power outages haven’t been an issue so far.
As always for road conditions, check New England 511.
Leaf witch. Some snow-and-shadow humor from Annemieke McLane in Strafford.
Cape Air flight makes emergency landing at Lebanon Airport. The regularly scheduled flight was forced to turn around shortly after takeoff from Leb late Friday morning, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, after smoke was noticed in the cabin. Six people were on board. Firefighters and ambulances responded from Lebanon, Hanover, and Hartford, “but by the time the plane landed less than ten minutes later the smoke had dissipated,” Eric writes. Said Lebanon Fire Chief Jim Wheatley, “We assume it was something mechanical.”
Two incidents yesterday. From VT State Police reports:
Sharon firefighters responding to reports of a camper fire on Route 14 yesterday morning found a man dead inside, the VSP reports. In its preliminary investigation, the state’s Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit concluded that “this was an accidental fire related to smoking materials and is not considered suspicious.” The victim was taken to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy; his name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Yesterday afternoon, in the midst of the snowstorm, a W. Fairlee man rear-ended a state plow truck on I-91 just by the Norwich exit. “Following the collision,” the VSP writes, the first vehicle—a Prius—“became fully engulfed in flames, resulting in the closure of both southbound lanes of traffic until approximately 5:15 p.m.” First responders from Hartford, Norwich, Thetford, Hanover, and VTrans helped put the fire out and remove the Prius. Neither man had reported injuries; the plow truck suffered minor damage.
Randolph’s Valley Bowl goes up for sale. “It’s super sad for both of us, and what’s really sad is this month is 20 years in business,” co-owner Karen Warner tells Maryellen Apelquist in The Herald, adding that she and her husband Wayne are selling because they are divorcing. “We should be having a big celebration [to mark 20 years in business]. And we’re celebrating by selling it, which stinks, but it is what it is.” The Warners have put it on the market for $1.125 million. The lanes see about 350 bowlers a week. “Karen’s built up a really good pro shop business,” says Wayne Warner. “We’ve got an excellent restaurant going. We’re open seven days a week all year round, which is phenomenal for the bowling industry in Vermont.”
In Lebanon, The Notch thrives—especially with families. The indoor climbing gym, writes the Valley News’s Patrick O’Grady in a business profile, is popular with climbing enthusiasts and other adults, but “children have helped to fuel The Notch’s growth. In fact, you are as likely to see young children learning the basics of climbing as you are more experienced climbers honing their skills for the outdoor season.” Moreover, as the only climbing gym between Concord and Burlington the 13,000-square foot facility’s got an avid audience. “Being a new gym with state-of-the art facilities, people will travel a ways to climb here,” co-owner Josh Garrison tells O’Grady.
Not so fast on Lake Fairlee wakesports rule. If you set aside the editorializing in Li Shen’s new piece in Sidenote, it’s a handy way to catch up on where things stand. As you may remember, the state last summer proposed putting more limits on wakesports, adding a buffer both to land and other lake users; the effect, Li writes, would most likely have made Lake Fairlee off limits. But last week, another state agency convened a meeting to “brainstorm alternative ideas and strategies to resolve conflict” over the issue. Li describes the meeting—which focused on Fairlee and drew a wide range of wakesport opponents and one family that owns a wakeboat. Lots of play-by-play.
Plenty of athletes headed to the Winter Olympics with twin-state ties. There are the headliners, of course, including downhillers Mikaela Shiffrin (early days in Lyme, Burke grad), Paula Moltzen (UVM), and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Cochran’s); xcers Jessie Diggins (Stratton), Ben Ogden (UVM), and Dartmouth grads Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern, Lauren Jortberg, and John Steel Hagenbuch (these last two are both first-time Olympians); and others in biathlon and freestyle. Dartmouth’s got nine athletes on the alpine and nordic teams. At the burgundy link, Kevin O’Connor’s VTDigger roundup focused on VT; full ski roster here, with bios; and full USA team here.
The Monday jigsaw. The Lewis House in Norwich, now home to the town historical society, “as it looked when you could enter the Town Offices through the entrance to the right of the porch,” writes the historical society’s Cam Cross. For more, here’s Kevin Hybels’ history of the building.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
And for today…
We’ll go back a bit, with the English singer Olivia Chaney—who trained as a classical singer at the Royal Academy of Music before she decided to teach herself guitar and Indian harmonium, explore the folk revival, and then strike off on her own incandescent career. (Thanks, JM!)
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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