GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Rain, winds. Flood warning in effect. This storm moving up the east coast is due to continue for a good bit of the day, and there's the potential for minor to moderate stream and river flooding as well as flooding along roads in low-lying areas, what with steady rain and snowmelt and partially frozen ground and roads not soaking it all up. As you've seen, there are also wind gusts, which could near 50 mph. Highs today either side of 60, though you wouldn't call it a pleasant day to be out. The storm clears out quickly tonight, with a cold front behind it. Lows in the mid or upper 30s.Here are wind and rainfall predictions for the day, in VT and western NH. And here's where to track river stages—just hover over the gauge you're interested in. Around here, a few rivers may reach flood stage: the Williams River near Rockingham is there now, the Sugar River in W. Claremont and the Baker River in Rumney are expected to crest just short of flood stage later. And the weather service in VT this morning was citing Rt. 14 in Sharon, Woodstock, Chester, WRJ, Reading, Bridgewater, W. Windsor, Plymouth, Hartland, Cavendish, Pomfret, Windsor, Barnard, Quechee, and Weathersfield as places especially to watch out for road and lowland flooding.
There are outages involving hundreds of customers in Fairlee, West Fairlee, Thetford, Woodstock, Bridgewater, and elsewhere in VT.
NH Electric Co-op is reporting hundreds each out in Unity, Haverhill, Cornish, Plainfield, and elsewhere. Liberty is also showing outages, while Eversource is reporting just a relative handful. Here's WMUR's page with links to the various utilities.
Project at former Kleen Laundry site in Leb lands property tax break. The 11-year abatement for the planned apartment complex and riverwalk at the Woolen Mill property off Mechanic Street is the longest the city council has granted, writes Patrick Adrian in the Valley News. The council's vote was 5-3, with backers of the idea citing its rehab of a historic building (the Woolen Mill was built in the 1880s) and proximity to downtown; two of the members who voted no wanted to see the project include affordable housing.In E. Thetford, reborn Wing's becomes Baker's Grocery Store. Like its namesake general store in Post Mills, the store is owned Ankit Patel and family, write Rosemary Fifield and Li Shen in Sidenote; both are managed by a cousin, Rocky. "The store feels newly energized," they report, "with fully stocked shelves and a cheerful atmosphere." It sports a new butcher block counter, an expanded cold beverage section, and new items in the aisles. A deli service counter is slated to open in a few months.Postal carriers "work six days a week and sometimes on Sundays. They’re overwhelmed beyond imagination; they need help." That's retired Canaan postal worker Roy Weaver talking to Nicola Smith in the VN about the struggles of the region's rural post offices to deliver the mail. Carriers themselves, Smith writes, come in for plenty of praise; the national system, not so much. Despite legislative reform last year, it faces both funding, staff shortages (18 open positions in NH last week, 35 in VT), and the glitchy rollout of a new compensation system.At the Woodstock Inn, a six-foot house: "You can really smell all the ginger and the cinnamon." The inn's gingerbread house is up—huge by normal gingerbread standards, small by tiny-house standards, but it comes complete with fireplace and sugar decorations. It's become a seasonal attraction in town over the eight years it's been around, and for seven of those years the guy behind it has been executive pastry chef Philippe Niez. VT Public's Mary Williams Engisch caught up with him to talk history and construction. We like to [build] it when people are here," he says.SPONSORED: Celebrate the Winter Solstice with Chapman’s General! The winter solstice is the time of year when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky, marking the shortest day and the longest night. It is also a time to celebrate the hope of returning light and life, as the days will gradually get longer and brighter from now on. At Chapman’s General in Fairlee, we want to help you make the most of this special season with our Winter Solstice Sale. This Thursday, December 21st, shop at Chapman’s General and get a chance to win special gifts and store discounts. Sponsored by Chapman's General."I’m at the Dick, Jane and Sally level of computerness, and I really miss the It’s Classified paper." If you're new to these parts, that was a now-defunct weekly in which you could find pretty much anything. Like, say, the collection of 62 dried chicken wishbones (and one turkey bone) that Hartford's James Dow amassed over a decade and then tried unsuccessfully to give away via listserv. His posting drew the attention of the VN's Alex Hanson, who visited with photographer James M. Patterson. They got the stories behind the bones and a deer hide—and somehow managed to walk away with the bones themselves.NH AG issues consumer fraud alert for "Phantom Hacker" scam. The state has seen some recent cases of a scammer getting in touch with a victim posing as a computer technician, claiming the victim's computer or device has been hacked and their financial accounts are at risk; an accomplice then poses as a finance or government official urging the victim to transfer their funds to a designated account, or to buy gold, which the scammer then picks up for "safekeeping." In its release, the AG's office outlines what financial institutions will never do, and how to respond if you get one of these calls or messages.Logan Clegg gets two 50-years-to-life sentences. Clegg was convicted in October on nine charges in the 2022 shooting deaths in Concord of Stephen and Wendy Reid. Calling him a "stone-cold, violent murderer" as he handed down the sentence on Friday, Superior Court Judge John Kissinger Jr. added, "I truly hope he engages in rehabilitation, but there is no chance—if this sentence holds—that he will spend a day outside of the prison." The AP's Kathy McCormack the scene in court.VT sees gun violence spike. It's been apparent anecdotally, with high-profile shootings around the state and in Burlington since October, including the recent case of three Palestinian college students. Now, the AP's Lisa Rathke follows up with numbers. There were seven firearms deaths in 2021 and 20 last year; this year's totals aren't available yet. They come at a time when the state police have 51 positions unfilled and, with people on leave, a 25 percent functional vacancy rate. Many of the homicides this fall "are likely drug-related and all are isolated from each other," Rathke writes. The VSP says it's making progress."So how did a veteran reporter get duped into thinking one of the most famous rockers in history stopped for mushroom bisque in the smallest city in Vermont?" Friday evening, Seven Days' Dan Bolles reported that Rod Stewart and his wife, Penny Lancaster, had been spotted thrifting and hanging out in Vergennes, causing quite a stir. Last night, he went up with another story: "Oops," as he puts it. Turns out Sir Rod was doing a concert in Madrid on Thursday, the day he was supposedly setting Vergennes hearts aflutter. Meanwhile, Not Rod—"or Not Sir Rod, if you prefer"—was all over VT. "While he may not have explicitly said he was Sir Rod, Not Rod reportedly seemed happy to let people think he was," Bolles writes.The MondayVordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
And to start us off this week...We'll turn to Hanover High senior Eli Hoffer, co-leader of the school's a cappella group Dachords and a member of the Footnotes chorus, with his multi-layered version of Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" as arranged by the a cappella trio T.3.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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