GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, warming up. There's a warm front coming in from the west, and though clouds will build over the course of the day, we should see sun and temps reaching the high 60s. Then we get a chance of showers overnight. Winds today from the south, lows tonight around 50.Did you see those northern lights Friday night? Yeah, me neither. But there are some pretty amazing shots, especially from farther east in NH, where people put them up on WMUR's U Local NH Facebook page. Here are two surreal sets:
From around Tamworth, over near Mt. Chocorua;
Just in case you've yet to venture that way: There's Miracle Mile paving going on, as well as work on the ramps themselves, so NHDOT this morning planned to close the
northbound
I-89 on and off ramps. It's expected to last just for today. If you're getting on the highway, you'll be directed to take the southbound on-ramp and head to Exit 18, then reverse direction; if you're headed north on the highway and trying to get off, you'll be directed to Exit 20, where you can reverse directions.
That's Ben Harper, originally from Hartford, talking to the
Valley News
's Frances Mize about the public response to the month he and Nichole Rogers, from Lebanon, spent living in their camper in a pullout on Route 14 in Sharon. After a public outcry about trash, along with concerns about drugs and theft, state and local officials impounded the camper and evicted Harper and Rogers. Mize talks to the pair, who are homeless and insist they just wanted a place to live, and to locals about what actually occurred.
In Union Village Dam area, trying to balance habitat with trails. Over the years, there's been plenty of unauthorized trail building on Army Corps lands near the dam, in Thetford Hill State Forest, and on other properties in the area. But now, write Krista Karlson and Li Shen in Sidenote, the all-volunteer Thetford Trails Team is trying to get a handle on "a trail management structure that will safeguard natural resources while fostering a safe and accessible multi-use trail system." They're closing some trails, working on erosion and stream/wetland crossings on others, and re-routing still others, the pair write.In Windsor, plans for downtown park, recreation site—if enough contributions come in. The roughly three-acre town-owned railyard site, writes Liz Sauchelli in the VN, is both a brownfield contaminated by lead and train and vehicle exhaust, and sits on a flood plain—a combination, Artisans Park owner Terry McDonnell says, that makes it "very difficult" to develop. McDonnell is spearheading a nonprofit, Windsor Railyard Recreation, that aims to clean up the land and turn it into a skate park, pickleball courts, walking paths, and more. “I just think our downtown needs projects like this," he says.SPONSORED: Upper Valley Baroque presents Bach's St. John Passion this weekend. Tickets still available. Upper Valley Baroque will celebrate the 300th anniversary of J.S. Bach's St. John Passion, which premiered in Leipzig, Germany in 1724. UVB's professional choir and orchestra, on period instruments, will bring this masterwork to life in two upcoming performances: Saturday, May 18 at 7 pm at the Lebanon Opera House; and Sunday, May 19 at 3 pm at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph. Tickets at the burgundy link or by calling 203-240-1164. Sponsored by UV Baroque.In VT, Phil Scott announces for a fifth term. "We need more balance in the legislature," he wrote in a statement to supporters on Saturday, as he confirmed what many people in the state had expected: that he'll try for another two-year term. If he wins, it would give him one of the longest tenures as governor in state history—topped by the dozen years served by Democrat Howard Dean. Who, as you probably know, has been making noises about running for the seat again. Seven Days' Sasha Goldstein reports.VT Legislature adjourns, sending two big bills that may face vetoes to the governor's desk.
The first, passed Saturday morning shortly after midnight, sets property taxes to pay for public education in the state; it will raise the average education property tax bill by 13.8 percent. What it does not do is address the rising costs and taxes that embroiled school boards and the legislature earlier this year and that sent about a third of this year's school budgets to defeat on Town Meeting Day. Instead, the legislature opted for a study committee, due to report in December. Scott has signaled he'll veto the bill and, reports VT Public's Lola Duffort, it's not clear whether the legislature has the votes to override.
The second major bill, which passed the House (it had already cleared the Senate) just before midnight Friday, covers reforms to Act 250, the state's landmark development law. As VTDigger's Carly Berlin writes, the new measure "relaxes Act 250’s reach in existing development centers... and tacks on a range of other housing policies intended to spur more building. It also lays the groundwork for extending Act 250’s protections over to-be-determined ecologically sensitive areas." Scott has criticized earlier versions, but hasn't commented on the final legislation. Berlin explains the bill's details.
“This has been perhaps the hardest session of my 20 years in the Statehouse," Windsor state Sen. Alison Clarkson said as the session drew to a close. In Seven Days, Kevin McCallum pulls together the maneuvering on the property tax and Act 250 bills, as well as on another final measure affecting data privacy.
A guide to summer and fall at eight VT museums. For instance, you could go check out stains—yes: stains—at the Museum of Everyday Life in Glover starting on July 28, writes Erica Houskeeper on her Happy Vermont blog. There's the importance of mining and minerals to VT at the Bennington Museum, the Underground Railroad at the Rokeby Museum, reed organs at the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, patents and inspired “firsts” that have come out of Vermont at the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury—including the clothespin and the sports bra—plus plenty more.The Monday jigsaw. It's a historical photo of Main Street in an Upper Valley town that's not Norwich, courtesy of the Norwich Historical Society's Sarah Rooker. She asks: Can you figure out which it is?
Heads UpThis evening at 6:30, the Orford Social Library hosts wildlife biologist Jesse Mohr for a talk about bats in the region. Mohr (who's also the guy behind the trails plan around Union Village Dam mentioned above), will cover bat ecology, their presence in and around Orford, and what landowners can do to protect and enhance bat habitat.
And one weird-looking instrument to take us into the week.Back in 2021, Austrian guitar virtuoso and YouTube personality Bernth Brodträger decided to promote his first solo album by scorching his guitar with blowtorches. "Maybe it was a bit dramatic," he said later—then picked up his crisped six-string and played it. He followed that up in 2022 by filling an acoustic Ibanez with water—and played that, too. Now he's taking his guitar in a different direction: up to 109 strings with various add-ons that make it more harp than guitar—and plays that, too. Here's "I Still Miss You".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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