WAIT, IT'S MARCH ALREADY?
So can you call partly sunny with warming temps "in like a lion"? Yeah, didn't think so. There's a warm front moving into the region, up high at first, reaching the ground later in the day, so while we're starting in the teens, it will reach the low 40s by late afternoon. There's the very slightest chance of snow showers first thing, and then of rain later in the day. Winds from the south, and only down into the mid-30s tonight.NH-side town meeting previews: The VN on what's coming up...
In Lebanon, contested races for the city council's at-large and wards 1 and 2 seats.
And looks at town meeting warrants in Dorchester, Orford, Grafton, Canaan, Plainfield, and elsewhere: just click on the link and then choose the town that interests you (you might have to go to the second page).
In VT, results of Saturday's meetings (also VN coverage):
In Woodstock, voters approved the town budget and money for an energy coordinator, but won't weigh in until Tuesday on renovating the emergency services building and hiring full-time emergency responders.
In Thetford, voters adopted the town budget and overturned a ban on selling or cultivating commercial cannabis.
Remember that "young fox" on Friday? Ted Levin, the veteran nature writer, checks in with a gentle correction. "This is an adult fox," he writes. "Pups are born mid-April to early May; any fox out and about in late February is an adult looking for company . . . it's breeding season." Some of you were unable to get to the photo (apologies), so the link takes you to a version that ought to work.Meanwhile, ever wonder what a coyote looks like when it's prowling a hen house at night? "After a couple coyotes made off with two of our chickens," Jason LeMoine writes in, "I put a camera on the hen house. This one has been investigating since the chickens took up residence. Finally busted it." A 21-second video, and all I can say is, you can just imagine the fluster inside. Oh, and while we're talking videos... Drone artist William Daugherty is up with a particularly vertiginous short flight above the railroad bridge over the Sugar River in Claremont.And a little food mystery in Lebanon. There's a new "American-style tapas bar" coming, the third restaurant in the Blue Sky Group that includes Jesse's and Molly's. It will be called Snax, but owner Tony Barnett wouldn't tell the VN's John Lippman where it'll be, "because the restaurant it will take over has not yet told the public it is closing." Lippman notes that the existing restaurant does have a bar area, which Snax will expand.Concord Coach changes mind, will no longer allow warrantless immigration checks on its buses. Just catching up on Friday's news: A couple of weeks ago, the AP reported on a Customs and Border Patrol memo stating that agents can’t board private buses without the consent of the bus company. After reviewing its policy, Concord has followed the lead of other bus companies, and has equipped its drives with cards explaining its new policy to Border Patrol agents.And while we're catching up on Friday... VT House passes Act 250 changes. The measure now heads to the Senate without two of its initial provisions: a statewide project review board and an elevation trigger for Act 250 review of 2000 feet rather than 2500 feet. The bill does exempt state-designated downtowns and neighborhoods from the process, gives village centers a "path forward" for exemption, and requires developers to meet "climate adaptation" criteria, though it does not detail them. If you thought February was warmer than usual: Yep. The maroon link takes you to a map put together by the Weather Service in Caribou, Maine, of the entire northeast, showing warmer-than-usual temps for the month... well, everywhere (except for a couple of counties along the WV-OH border). And here's a Vermont-specific chart from the NWS in Burlington putting numbers to the visuals, including 5 inches less snow than average.NH is warning about a fun new scam out there. Using NHDOT's logo and an email address "[email protected]," the scammers seek payment for a speeding ticket and warn that failure to pay will result in a criminal investigation. "NH DOT will never send an email asking for payment for a traffic violation," AG Gordon MacDonald says in a press release.37.65 pounds. That's the size of the lake trout a guy named Thomas Knight pulled out from under the ice on Big Diamond Pond in West Stewartstown, NH last week. That's not just a state record, Fish & Game biologist Andy Schafermeyer says. "Knight’s fish shattered the old record by over 9 pounds. This fish is now the largest lake trout caught in all of New England. I’m glad he got it. This couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”“There’s no comparison to online bookselling. People remember the buying of the book as much as the book itself." That's Vince McCaffrey, who with his wife, Thais Coburn, owns Avenue Victor Hugo Books over in Lee, NH. The veteran Boston antiquarian booksellers opened shop there last fall after being online-only for years. NH Business Review's John Angelo talks to McCaffrey and Henniker Book Barn's Melinda McGrath about the treasures people run across from time to time, like the copy of Edgar Allen Poe's Tamerlane and Other Poems that was found in a $15 box of NH farm tools. It sold for $198,000 at Sotheby's.
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SO... GOT PLANS?
You could show up early to Norwich town meeting and catch Downtown Crossing.
For the last few years, Elisabeth Gordon's been writing 10-minute slice-of-small-town-life plays based on controversies on the Norwich listserv. Tonight's might sound familiar: "The beleaguered town safety officer once again stirs up the town-folk—this time by suggesting the town implement blinking lights at the town's only crosswalk." More a staged reading than a full-on production, but the actors are pros and most are Northern Stage vets. Starts promptly at 6:45 in Tracy Hall, but come a little early so you can watch townspeople walk in and try to figure out why there's a play onstage. No link.
Bethel University's up and running all of March, and this one-night course offers you the chance to take a part. "After a brief introduction we'll... dive right into reading some classics live — maybe daring detective Candy Matson, a classic script by Orson Welles, or…? We’ll choose together based on the actors in the room and where the day takes us." 6 pm, Bethel Public Library, and it's free but you need to register: Full class description and signup link at the link.
It's been a thing in Woodstock since 2014, now it's expanding: "Green Drinks is an international movement to make sustainability fun by gathering people in an informal social environment to share ideas, projects, and inspiration." This one, which starts at 5 pm in the Galway Room, is timed to build on the hoopla around the
for Leb's municipal solar projects, which takes place at noon at the Kilton.
Okay, let's just dive into the week together. Ready... Set...
See you tomorrow.
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