GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Getting sunnier (supposedly) and warming up a little. It's a calm day out there and the forecast is for more sun than clouds, with temps running a bit above normal—we should be getting into the mid- or upper 30s this afternoon. Winds today from the west, down into the mid- or lower 20s tonight.Now that's a woodpile. Syrup-makers who still fire with wood are getting ready, and in S. Royalton, Kit Hood sends along a photo of Ray Collins's sugarhouse stack.As Dresden schools consider budgets, uncertainty reigns. Though much more so in Norwich than in Hanover, writes Alex Hanson in the Valley News. The Norwich School Board—which oversees the Marion Cross School—is considering cutting positions that are currently unfilled. Even so, everything from a drop in the number of students to a rise in the prices paid for houses in town and an uncertain level of per-pupil support from the state suggest taxes are headed in a direction that isn't "favorable to Norwich," Hanson writes. Hanover faces an estimated 7 percent tax boost.This all takes place, by the way, against an overall drop in public school enrollment. In fact, from fall, 2009 to fall, 2020, NH led the country, with a 14 percent drop in public school enrollment, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. VT saw a 10 percent drop. In states that saw drops, declining birthrates take much of the blame, writes Erica Pandey for Axios.And jumps in operating budgets are on the agenda throughout the region. The Journal-Opinion's Alex Nuti-de Biasi writes in today's newsletter that Fairlee's selectboard tonight will be reviewing a draft budget that contemplates an increase of over 12 percent. Officials have proposed some potential savings that include hiring a part-time replacement for the police chief, cutting lifeguards, and reducing cost-of-living adjustments for town staff. Meanwhile, Nuti-de Biasi writes, "we have seen similar (if not higher) increases in draft budgets for school districts (Orange East... and Piermont), and towns (Orford)."Speaking of budgets, rising cost of Hartland project brings "public outcry." So reports Ray Couture in the VN, reflecting a 15-minute public comment period at last week's selectboard meeting that stretched to an hour and a half as residents talked over the $1.5 million project to reconfigure Hartland Three Corners. The board and town officials, though, were having none of it. The project was first okayed at town meeting in 2014, then re-upped in 2020, and an RFP went out in December. “This discussion is not new nor has it been held in a vacuum,” said town manager David Ormiston.December storm unveils ECFiber vulnerability in Thetford. Back when the mid-December storm that knocked out power throughout the region roared through, it turned out that a generator at Thetford Elementary School enabling it to serve as an emergency shelter wasn't working. This mattered because that generator was also supposed to power ECFiber's nearby phone and internet hub, writes Li Shen in Sidenote. The fire department provided a substitute, but the switchover burned out a controller card at the hub, affecting some 450 ECFiber customers. Thetford is looking for a reliable generator contractor.Charlestown no longer "urban." Not that it ever was, in real life. But it turns out that back in 1910, the Census Bureau set the threshold population for an "urban cluster" at 2,500—and ever since then, Charlestown has been lumped in with Concord as one of New Hampshire's 17 urban clusters. (It also had four "urbanized areas"). Now, writes David Brooks in the Monitor, the bureau has revamped its definitions. "Urban clusters" require at least 5,000 residents; hence Charlestown's disappearance from the list. It can commiserate with Epping and Farmington, which have suddenly become rural, too.In NH, "landlords are just moving forward with evictions." That's Marta Hurgin, legal director of 603 Legal Aid, talking to NHPR's Jeongyoon Han about a spike in evictions at the end of last year. The reason, she says, is the October end of the federally funded pandemic-era rental assistance program that helped keep more than 23,000 tenants housed. The only way out, Hurgin argues, is boosting housing affordability. "Until rents drop to what their actual market value is and are no longer inflated beyond what people can afford...I think we're going to see increased evictions into 2023,” she says.New life for long-abandoned St. J grain mill—if hemp growers can be coaxed back into business. In 2019, reports Vermont Public's Henry Epp, over 1,000 Vermonters grew hemp. Now there are 99. Which is bad news for cousins Travis Samuels and Brandon MacFarlane, who in 2021 bought the old E.T. & H.K Ide mill near the Passumpsic. Their aim is to process industrial hemp, which can be used for everything from textiles to animal bedding to heating fuel pellets. But growers who tried to cash in on the CBD craze a few years ago got burned. Now? There's only one in VT growing industrial hemp.Gauntlet thrown: Consumer Reports says BJ's, Target brand maple syrups taste better than a VT brand. The headline on this Reddit thread is a little misleading and really, the best part of the whole thing is the comments section, which is a graduate course in maple syrup distribution. Still, there it is in black and white: CR says BJ's and Target's house brands "tasted better" than syrup from Butternut Mountain Farm, a syrup company in Morrisville. Though as commenters point out, some chain-store brands are Made in Vermont, too—like Target's, some of which comes from... Butternut Mountain Farm.The Monday Vordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
And music to take us into the week...Just to get us off on the right — and left — foot... Last week, iconic Italian singer/songwriter Adriano Celentano turned 85. Nicknamed "il Molleggiato"—the springy one—for his dancing, he had a big hand in bringing rock to Italy. He had uncountable hits, but maybe the best known internationally was his 1972 classic, "Prisencolinensinainciusol." In the Guardian back in 2012, Andrew Khan described it as "glam stomp" and explained, "Designed to sound like American English does to people who don't speak the language, the Dylanesque vocals are pure gibberish from start to finish—putting them in a similar category to much of Bob Dylan's own work from the '80s onwards." But really: Forget the Dylan reference. Here's a snippet from a 1974 television performance, and if this doesn't set you up right for the week, can anything?See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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