Daybreak Monday 12/23/24

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Warming trend! Hey, around here we were only in the minus single digits. Over in Saranac Lake, NY it was -24 back before daylight arrived. "Warming," of course, is relative, but temps should be up around 20 by early or mid afternoon under partly sunny skies. Things cloud over late in the day as a fast-moving snowstorm blows in out of the west. It'll last into tomorrow morning, with 1 to 3 inches expected in the heart of the Upper Valley, 4 to 6 north and in the mountains. Here are the projected totals for:

Water at play.

Now there are just three: Hartford High's Macy Bettwieser makes it to the final round. If you've been following along, you know that the Hartford senior entered Broadway World's Next On Stage competition for high school students just to see what would happen. First she made it to the top 10. Last week, she was among the top 5. And on Friday, the four judges announced she'll be one of three finalists to head to NYC on Jan. 19 to perform at 54 Below, a cabaret venue underneath Studio 54. Link takes you to Friday's announcement show; Bettwieser's up first.Dartmouth decides to keep child care center under its own management; employees vote to unionize. Over the summer, you probably recall, the college said it was considering handing its child care center over to a third-party, for-profit chain; over 300 faculty, staff signed a petition against the move. On Dec. 10, reports the Valley News's Emma Roth-Wells, the college told the child care center staff that it had decided against privatization. Then, last Thursday, 21 of the 25 staff members eligible to vote opted to join SEIU Local 560, which already represents some 500 Dartmouth workers.An obscure local district suddenly has money available for community-scale agriculture and stream-side plantings. You'll want to read Li Shen's post in Sidenote for the full import, but here's the gist: the White River Natural Resources Conservation District covers a swath of mostly Orange and Windsor county towns in the watersheds of the White, Waits, Wells, Ompompanoosuc, and Connecticut river watersheds. It does everything from helping farmers to planting stream-side trees. And now, Li writes, it's got money to help landowners participate—including creating buffers in the Pompy watershed.SPONSORED: Peace on earth, goodwill toward all. Find peace and joy this Christmas, and throughout the New Year, at St. Thomas. Be part of a glorious, caring, and faith-filled community as we celebrate the arrival of the Prince of Peace. Join us and experience ‘good tidings of great joy’. Sponsored by St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Hanover. New state-created bike lanes in Hartford mostly generate a collective shrug. That wasn't the case, of course, when they were first announced over the summer, writes the VN's Christina Dolan. The town—which wasn't responsible for them—got a raft of complaints worrying about more accidents, delays, and congestion. Now, town manager John Haverstock tells Dolan, "I would say that some of the more dire predictions from members of the public do not appear to have materialized thus far." There's one prominent unhappy voice, though: the VN editorial board. "It stinks. Sorry, but really, it does."SPONSORED: Families: Celebrate the New Year without staying up late! New Year's at Noon is full of countdowns, ball drops, and festive fun you can only find at the Montshire. Race balloons, create indoor fireworks and optical illusions, hear a New Year's story and ring in 2025 well before bedtime! New Year's at Noon at the Montshire is on December 31st, starting at 9:30am. Guests are invited to dress up, dress down, or creatively mix the two (think jammies and sparkles). Tickets at the burgundy link or at montshire.org. Sponsored by the Montshire Museum of Science.The Golden Age for the Union Leader, New Hampshire’s only statewide newspaper, appears to be over. That was the headline atop a Boston Globe piece by Aidan Ryan late last week (sorry, paywall). The upshot: The once-dominant newspaper has lagged at building a digital audience, "is running out of things to cut as it tries to balance its books," and is losing readers, ad revenue, reach, and clout. Ryan looks at the paper's decades under William and Nackey Scripps Loeb, and at its decline. “New Hampshire knows far less about itself now, and that’s a damn shame," says former editor Charlie Perkins.In NH, electric rates may drop in February—but don't count on that long-term. It'll be the first time rates are set using a new process mandated by the state’s Public Utilities Commission that requires utilities to buy some of their power on the spot market—which, as consumer advocate Don Kreis tells NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian, raises the risks for consumers. “The prices go up and down minute by minute, literally," he says, which is fine until, say, a prolonged cold spell sends them "through the roof." Also, regulators might let utilities charge community power customers if purchase costs go up.Hypothermic solo hiker rescued from Franconia Ridge. Thursday morning, the 28-year-old from Portland, ME, called 911 to say he was off-trail, with frozen limbs in several feet of snow and unable to move. He'd set out the night before so he could watch sunrise from atop Mt. Lafayette, but on Little Haystack ran into deep, blowing snow in high winds, so turned around and got lost. NH Fish & Game asked the National Guard to bring in a helicopter, but low visibility at first stymied that effort. Rescuers bushwacked in and found him, gave him warm clothes and fluids, and on Thursday afternoon the clouds lifted just enough to get the chopper in. Fish & Game narrative and photos at the link.A look back to when winter in VT was "a test to be passed." It's been 22 years since Kimberly Harrington moved to the state, and though it's fair to say she never became a fan of arctic temps, raging snowstorms, and deep wind chills, she embraced them all the same. Now, she writes in a personal essay in Seven Days, she's leaving, and she looks back to what it took to make winter her own. "I've survived," she writes, "by employing every strategy I could think of other than taking up snowshoeing. (Please, I'm begging you, stop pushing snowshoeing on me. The last thing I need is to be cold and slow.)"

The Monday jigsaw. Thanks to the Norwich Historical Society's Sarah Rooker, a photo by the great Upper Valley photographer Collamer Abbot, "Sugaring at the Hazen farm in West Hartford, VT." There's really only one music video to play today...Or, well, maybe two, but of the same event. Last Wednesday and Thursday, Paul McCartney's "Got Back" tour played The O2 in London. On Thursday, in the midst of the concert, he suddenly brought Ringo Starr on stage—to take on the drum kit for "Sgt. Pepper" and "Helter Skelter". The only videos that seem to be available of the two songs are from audience members. Here's one. And here's the all-too-brief official video.See you tomorrow for the last Daybreak of 2024.

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

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