WELCOME TO THE WEEK, UPPER VALLEY!
Nothing but good weather news today. Clouds this morning will clear out, as will any valley fog, and it'll be mostly sunny. These temps right now (in the 50s while I type) are headed into the high 70s. Tonight's mostly clear until after midnight, with lows back down into the 50s.Norwich's Rebecca Holcombe explores run for VT governor. Holcombe served as Vermont's secretary of education for four years before resigning last year over policy differences with Gov. Phil Scott. She's been talking to Democrats around the state, as well as to EMILY's List, the DC-based org that raises money for female candidates. Atty Genl TJ Donovan, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, and Brattleboro activist Brenda Siegel are also considering runs.Lucky's Coffee Garage now open for dinner. The popular downtown Leb hangout spot has started up Late Shift at Lucky's -- on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays the café will be open until 9 pm with a small but creative menu. Bone broth, asparagus toast, grilled romaine bowl... who said the Upper Valley's a backwater?It looks like Mascoma Preservation has a signed purchase-and-sale agreement for the Grafton Center Meetinghouse. The newly formed group of volunteer activists has been pressing to save the old meetinghouse, now a church, which was damaged by fire in 2016. It announced the new development on FB last night, and adds, "Press release coming soon." Now, of course, the hard work starts. Kleen Laundry closing its retail locations, leaving one dry cleaner in the UV -- and that's in New London. Just catching up with this weekend story by the VN's John Lippman. All is not lost. The River Valley Club is doing pickup and dropoff with New London Cleaners, and Carpet King & Tile in Norwich is doing the same with a Rutland cleaner. Dartmouth, which owns Kleen's Hanover building, says it's looking for a new cleaner to take over there. (VN, subscription reqd)Now we know the secret of WRJ's success: impactful investing. Also: collision density. No, that's not lots of accidents. John Lasala, who writes about socially responsible real estate investing, has a piece in Forbes tracing WRJ's revival to Matt Bucy's repurposing of the Tip Top building to draw artists and creatives, and then "DJ'ing" the tenant mix to produce creative ferment. Things were a tad more complicated, but it's bracing to see WRJ in a national context. But Lasala's t-shirt reference: It's "It's not so bad," not "It ain't so bad." Right? (Thanks for the tips, CC and CK!)Vermont may have had a fine maple year, but New Hampshire, not so much. In fact, its 148,000 gallons of syrup (compared to VT's 2.07 million gallons) was its lowest yield in five years. A shorter season, fewer taps, and lower production per tap all combined to drag the numbers down. In fact, in 2019 NH produced less syrup than Pennsylvania. Or Wisconsin. Or Michigan. Of course, lest Vermonters get all airy, Quebec produced 9.8 million gallons last year.NHDOT is considering public transit improvements and is looking for public input via a survey. Among the 8 regional service options the agency's considering -- and on which it would like the public to weigh in -- are proposed rush-hour routes between Claremont and Lebanon/Hanover, and between Leb/Hanover and Concord. They also want to know whether you think transit should mainly be a social service, serve only urbanized areas, or be a viable option throughout the state. Choose only one.UVM study finds older forests are less vulnerable to climate change. The study analyzed data from 18,500 forest plots stretching from Minnesota and Manitoba to Maine and Nova Scotia. It found that the older the forest, the lower the sensitivity of forest carbon, timber, and biodiversity to projected increases in temperature and precipitation. The results suggest "opportunities to make forest management more adaptive to global change,” says William Keeton, a UVM forestry professor and one of the study's co-authors. Vermont currently ranks second in the country for the incidence of Lyme disease, and tick populations for 2019 look to be high. VTDigger is up with a "deeper dig" into Lyme concerns in the state, and in particular the contention by some patients that cases haven't been well diagnosed or treated. But the plain tick facts are alarming by themselves: babesiosis and anaplasmosis are also on the rise, and in some areas there's a one in four chance you'll find a tick in any given square meter. So that whole Dartmouth/Daniel Webster/"yet there are those who love it" Supreme Court case from 1819... do you really understand it? Yeah, me neither. Now, though, CommonWealth -- a public policy mag about Massachusetts -- has a helpful piece about how the case came about and what it's meant over the last two centuries for colleges around the country, as well as for modern corporate law. It comes up because as small colleges struggle, MA is considering several bills to regulate them. IT'S MONDAY. YOU HEADED OUT TONIGHT?It's going to be a lovely night, so you could pack a picnic and go hear the Michele Fay Band in Leb's Coburn Park. The Ripton, VT-based band has been going strong for over a decade with its blend of folk, swing, and bluegrass. Fay's voice "continues to be smooth and entrancing," the Rutland Herald wrote a few years back. "While the band’s playing is top-notch, there’s a reason it’s called the Michele Fay Band, and that’s Michele’s voice…" At 7 pm.Or you could go see Long Shot in Woodstock. Charlize Theron is all glamor and running for president; Seth Rogen is mostly schlub and her former babysit-ee. Nonetheless, there are sparks--not least among reviewers. The New Yorker's Richard Brody says, "There isn’t an undead character in it." His colleague Anthony Lane says, "[W]hile the movie lasts you buy into its blend of chemistry and calculation," though he does admit it's "aimed at adolescents of all ages."Hope your week gets off to a great start. See you tomorrow.
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