GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Cloudy, showers likely this afternoon. There's a weak front moving in from the west, and if anything falls it probably won't amount to much—but still, there'll be some welcome wet out there. Highs in the mid-50s, winds shifting to come from the southeast this afternoon, low or mid-40s tonight.It's still construction season... And every Monday, VTrans has a rundown of what's ahead for the coming week. In addition to the usual work on the interstates, you should expect serious delays in WRJ tomorrow at the intersection of Bridge and Maple streets as crews install a new pole and delays all week at the intersection of Routes 4 and 5 and VT 14 as crews work on the signal system. Here's a map of projects in NH and VT (and ME, for that matter).Dartmouth president, wife, test positive for Covid. Phil Hanlon and Gail Gentes take PCR tests routinely, reports the college's communications office, and had tested negative on Thursday. But yesterday, antigen rapid tests for both showed positive. "Hanlon says he has no symptoms and feels fine. Gentes says she is 'a bit under the weather' but is not suffering serious symptoms," the college's writeup reports. Both are isolating at home.“I don’t sleep a lot lately." Inflation isn't just hitting Upper Valley consumers in their wallets, it's keeping small-business owners up t night, reports Lacie Austin in the Valley News. At the B&B Cash Market in West Fairlee, co-owner Erin Cilley has seen everything from frying oil to eggs double in price—and send shoppers to big-box stores. At Vittles Espresso and Eatery in Bradford, Vt., Austin writes, owner Kendall Gendron has been forced to increase prices twice in the last six months.VT faults Springfield schools for failing to provide adequate special ed. The state's report involves a single student, writes VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, but parents of two other kids—one with behavioral issues, one with autism—told Weinstein similar stories. The state report comes after a two-month investigation found Springfield had failed to implement the student’s individual education plan and to provide a "free and appropriate public education." In the other two cases, Weinstein writes, the students have been expelled from other programs and, without services in Springfield, are sitting at home.
SPONSORED: Join the Senior Solutions team and make a difference in the lives of aging Vermonters! We believe that all older Vermonters should have access to a meaningful life within their community, without undue hardship. Senior Solutions is hiring for several positions in Windsor County: Case Management Supervisor, Volunteer Supervisor, Americorps Program Manager. Be part of a dedicated team that provides services and resources for successful aging! Hit the maroon link above for details. Sponsored by the Senior Solutions-Council on Aging Southeastern Vermont.It's a ferocious world for nesting loons. On Lake Fairlee, volunteers try to tilt the balance. Raccoons, mink, ravens, snapping turtles: All make it tough for loons to successfully hatch and raise offspring. For a few years, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, a nesting raft on Lake Fairlee did the trick...until some geese moved in. So the volunteers for the Vermont Loon Conservation Project made adjustments, only to discover they now need to start worrying about the recovering bald eagle population. They've just refurbished the raft with shrubbery. Who needs This Old House when you've got a lake to watch?“Absolutely off the charts.” That would be the wedding business this year, inkeeper Rick Trahan of The Quechee Inn at Marshland Farms says. Which has the whole industry delighted, of course—though WRJ's Michelle Boleski tells Fred Thys in VTDigger that it also presents challenges. Boleski runs a floral design business for weddings, and has turned to starting plants from seed to supply her bouquets. The problem? Eucalyptus, for which demand is so high nationwide that she can't get seeds.With roots in Long Island's Jamaican diaspora, DJ Sean brings the party to the Upper Valley. In the VN, Liz Sauchelli profiles Sean Hay, who with his wife Melaine and two kids moved to Quechee a few years back. Missing the parties and events and vibe that his aunt and uncles used to create, he set out to do it himself. He created Livemixkings and gigged regularly around the Upper Valley, including pioneering the intensely successful silent discos at LOH. These days he's hosting popup Jamaican Jerk parties and teaching a "DJ Academy" at Upper Valley Music Center.One less food truck in the Upper Valley. After nearly 10 years in business, Tanya and Doug Boisvert of Boisvert's Curbside Kitchen announced via Facebook over the weekend that they've shut down. "We have both found permanent full time local employment that we are excited about and we will be putting the trailer up for sale shortly," they write. "That food truck did become a social stopping point and was always amazing food cooked with love," a commenter writes. (Thanks to Susan Apel for pointing it out.)“I believe that what is safely contained in a book (or photo or movie or story) lives forever." Speaking of Susan Apel... That's photographer Tara Wray, who's got a new exhibition of photos up at AVA Gallery. She focuses on her family, but these aren't just any family photos, Susan writes in her latest Artful post. She's drawn to one in particular, of Wray's two sons in front of the 2018 Woodstock fire that destroyed Pi Brick Oven Trattoria and the VT Standard's offices... while on their way to the post office to mail a package.$10,860. That's how much Hartford's Our Court Tennis Club asked Norwich ad copywriter Josh Mannheimer to fork over for failing to pay for guests he played tennis with "at least 724 times" over seven years. In the VN, Jim Kenyon tells Mannheimer's story: Mannheimer refused to pay, the club suspended him but eventually reduced its demand to $1,000, Mannheimer's filed a civil lawsuit... No response yet from club officials or their lawyer to either the suit or Kenyon, but he'll no doubt fill us in when they do.Landmark N. Conway hotel burns, guests seen jumping from upper-level to lower-level balconies to escape flames. In all, three people were injured and 75 rooms at the Red Jacket Mountain View Resort burned on Saturday, WMUR reports, and 28 fire departments responded to the blaze. WBZ-Boston reports that N. Conway fire chief Pat Preece said yesterday it took 12 hours in all to put the fire out—and that it lasted so long because there were no sprinklers in the wing that burned, which was built in the 1970s before sprinklers were required.Third shoe drops: Quiros sentenced to five years. Ariel Quiros, the former owner of Jay Peak Resort, on Friday drew the longest in a trio of sentences handed down by a federal judge in the so-called EB-5 scandal—who, along with Bill Stenger, former president of Jay Peak, and William Kelly, a Quiros friend and advisor, was charged with defrauding investors in a $110 million biomedical research center in Newport, VT. Quiros was also ordered to pay $8,338,600 in restitution, reports VTDigger's Alan J. Keays.VT Book Awards return after two-year hiatus. And instead of a single award, there are now three. On Saturday, reports Margot Harrison in Seven Days, they went to cartoonist Alison Bechdel for creative nonfiction (The Secret to Superhuman Strength), Melanie Finn for fiction (The Hare), and Shanta Lee Gander for poetry (Ghettoclaustrophobia: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak Woman in Woke Tongues). Last year, Melanie Finn with local writer Joni Cole about The Hare and the allure of bad characters."Don't bother fighting the old; just build the new." For the last couple of years on his birthday, Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired (and former editor of Whole Earth Review) has celebrated by passing along bits of advice he's collected. He just turned 70, and offers 103 "bits of advice I wish I had known." Some are a little lame, some are gems. "Anything you say before the word 'but' does not count." "Don't ever work for someone you don't want to become." "Always read the plaque next to the monument." And 99 more.The Monday Vordle. Just to get your week started right. The word will relate in some way to an item in Friday's Daybreak.
"Long before we were musicians, we were music fans. We didn’t grow up sitting around the kitchen table playing instruments and harmonizing. We grew up sitting around the record player listening to each other’s record collections and having our minds blown. This was the passion that we shared." That's the Cowboy Junkies' Michael Timmins reflecting on the roots of the Toronto alt-country band's latest album, Songs of the Recollection, a set of nine covers released a bit over a month ago. Here's their version of Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down." See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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