GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Some snow. It’s a full-on nor’easter to the south and east of us, with blowing winds, heavy snow, and tens of thousands of customers out of power in MA, NY, and down the eastern seaboard. Around here? Maybe a couple inches, though we’ll definitely see some gusty winds from the north. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, highs in the upper 20s. Snow will eventually taper off; temps will drop into the mid or low teens overnight. Meanwhile, just for a sense of the difference between here and farther south and east, here are the expected snow total maps for NH and MA/CT/RI.
After the storm… You’ve got to get out in it. As Doug Donaldson shows in this photo from Saturday morning, looking east from Route 10 in Hanover, not far from Kendal.
In Thetford, E.C. Browns’ Nursery passing into new hands. The Upper Valley horticultural mainstay, founded by Elmer Brown in 1967, has been on the market and now it’s found a buyer. Or, rather, buyers, reports Li Shen in Sidenote. John Freeman, who grew up in Norwich and now splits his time between Post Mills and San Diego, is leading a group that includes two friends from UVM and his nephew. “One of the objectives in taking ownership is to keep E.C. Browns’ the same—same employees, same business model, same appearance, same horticultural offerings,” Li writes. She describes the employees and “the leadership and ceaseless toil of Kevin Brown.”
Looking ahead to Town Meeting. As it does each year at this time, the Valley News has pulled together a series of short write-ups on what voters will be weighing next week for their towns. From a handful of contested races to town budgets to new equipment to a privately-funded JV hockey program for the Dresden school district, policy on open enrollment in Grantham, and big-time bond votes in Woodstock and Hartford, you’ll find a town-by-town preview at the link.
One of those votes is in Newbury, VT, where residents will decide whether or not to accept a gift of 127 acres of land abutting Tucker Mountain Town Forest—and then, in turn, sell a piece of town-owned property so that, as selectboard chair Susan Culp puts it, “… in the end the town is not made financially worse off by taking land off the tax rolls.” The VN’s Liz Sauchelli describes what’s at stake.
Meanwhile, in Hanover, the ad hoc group of Kendal residents who each year pull together the stances of candidates for the Hanover School Board have put out their latest version. Former high school science teacher Christopher J. Rivet is facing off with current school board member Tara Velozo for a three-year seat, while Renée Sullivan, who was appointed to the board last year to fill a vacancy is running unopposed for her two-year seat. At the link, you’ll find their answers to why they’re running and what they consider the biggest challenges ahead.
Upper Valley mail delays seem to be getting worse. At least, that’s what a series of postal customers trying to get a bead on missing mail tell the VN’s Sofia Langlois. “While some are missing letters, magazines and product orders, others…are struggling with delays of more time-sensitive items, such as medicine, bills and checks,” she writes. As online ordering continues to climb, one carrier tells her, post offices are “stretched pretty thin,” and though the USPS has been holding virtual job fairs every week, the problems persist. That may be, the carrier tells her, because the hiring process takes a long time and candidates drop out.
At Pellegrino’s Italian Market & Deli in downtown Leb, “a food-centered meeting of strangers.” On his Upper Valley VT/NH Musings blog, Dave Celone—who knows a thing or two about Italian food—is the latest to wax rhapsodic about the food served up by Joey Pellegrino and his staff. The chicken parm, the meatball subs (“The meatballs were made just like those I ate as a child, with egg and bread mixed with fresh Italian spices and high-quality ground beef,” Dave writes)… But also, he noticed, everyone eating “wanted to know what I’d ordered, and we began easy conversations about our luncheon choices,” which led to talk about where they grew up, what they ate…
Colby-Sawyer’s art and design faculty shows what it can do. Though the new group exhibition at the college’s art gallery is “an eclectic group of work with art ranging from collage to photography to monotype prints to ceramics to jewelry,” writes Marion Umpleby in the VN, “there’s a sense of harmony in how the pieces play off each other.” Prints hang next to cyanotypes which set off vases and hang opposite paintings that, in turn, offset a display of pottery—all of which is underscored by Mt. Kearsarge away off through a wall of windows. Umpleby offers a tour through the particular pieces.
In northern NH, border patrol agent and unidentified person exchange gunfire. The incident occurred in the wee hours yesterday morning, and details remain scant. An FBI spokesperson last night told WMUR, "The subject allegedly fired at the agent, the agent returned fire, striking the subject who is now receiving medical attention at an area hospital.” The agent was unharmed, and details about what led to the shooting and the current status of the person who was shot remain undisclosed. “The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire are now investigating,” reports WMUR’s Arielle Mitropoulos.
VT’s Senate president won’t seek re-election. Phil Baruth, the Burlington Democrat and UVM English prof who’s held the post since 2022, told his colleagues on the floor on Friday, “I will be retiring from the Senate when this year winds down.” He went on to explain that he’ll be turning 65 in January: “To my mind, at least, there’s only one good thing about turning 65… And that is you don’t need any other reason to lay down some of your work and some of your tools.” He added that he won’t be endorsing replacements for either his Chittenden County seat or his leadership role. VTDigger’s Shaun Robinson looks at Baruth’s impact and priorities over the last few years.
VT schools overall are “well below” goals for math, English language arts. The latest annual assessment of students’ and schools’ performance by the state Department of Education came out on Thursday last week, finding that a majority of VT’s students during the ‘24-’25 school year were “not yet meeting grade-level academic standards”—and that more than half the state’s schools saw stagnant or declining student performance, reports VTDigger’s Corey McDonald. Schools in Springfield and Fairlee were added to the “Comprehensive Support and Improvement” watch list, while a variety of other Upper Valley schools moved up in assessments. You’ll find the full report here.
Ever wondered what it looks like to curl using wheels of cheese? Greensboro, VT’s Highland Center for the Arts on Saturday once again hosted Jasper Hill Cheese for its “Curds and Curling” tournament, which uses seconds as stones. “A curling stone is called a cheese, so we figured why not make a real cheese,” Jasper Hill owner Mateo Kehler tells WCAX. Video at the link.
The Monday Jigsaw: Paul Sample’s “Beaver Meadow”. That painting is among the New England regionalist’s best-known works, and it’s the subject of the Norwich Historical Society’s final Zoom talk later this week. To whet your appetite, Cam Cross has turned the painting into a jigsaw. More about Sample and the painting here.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Dartmouth’s Dickey Center hosts Robert Malley and “Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine”. That’s the title of Malley’s 2025 book with Hussein Agha, but before that he had a long career both in Middle Eastern diplomacy and on the National Security Council during Democratic administrations and as an author of books and articles focused on the region. He’ll be talking with novelist, Middle Eastern studies prof, and former Egyptian diplomat Ezzedine Fishere. 4:30 pm in Rockefeller Center 003 and livestreamed.
And for today...
Northeast Kingdom songwriter, storyteller, guitarist, and fiddler Dana Robinson last fall at the Anonymous Coffeehouse in Lebanon, with "Raspberry Cane" in a new video from Chad Finer.
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