WELL GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Feels like this is becoming a running gag: Mostly beautiful weekend, then along comes the Monday forecast. Looks pretty darn nice out right now, but there's some chance of showers, mostly in the afternoon, and temps will be below normal (but really, what's "normal" this year?). Possible thunder as well. Highs only around 60 during the day, and it's getting down into the low 40s tonight. Maybe this is just a blip? You'll notice something different about Daybreak today. This newsletter started with a handful of subscribers three months ago. Now, thanks to you, it has a lot more. It's been a blast to do, also thanks to you -- your readership, your emails, your enthusiasm -- and it's time for it to start earning its keep. If you like getting Daybreak, you'll find a "Support" button below: Hit it and I'll explain why I do this and how you can help keep it going. I hope you do. Just a head's up that VT's going to be running a "highway safety campaign" on I-91 in the WRJ area this summer. The state's identified four roadway corridors that need special attention, after noticing high rates of speeding, crashes, or traffic volume. Lucky us! The others are all on the other side of the Greens: I-89 up around Burlington, VT 22A around Vergennes, and US Route 7 over by Bennington.The 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing is on Thursday. There are vanishingly few veterans of that time left, and those who remain are in their mid-90s. The VN's David Corriveau spoke with John Yocom and Bob Christie, both now living at Kendal in Hanover, about their experiences in Europe: Neither was in the first landing waves, but both went on to fight as Allied troops advanced. “Every day I put my feet on the floor,” says Christie, “I’m thankful.” (VN, subscription reqd)Now that it's June, you know darn well that it's time to pack up dinner and go eat outside. Well, maybe not tonight. But soon! Katy Donovan's got a list of places around the Upper Valley with picnic tables, grills, and space to play. Spots in Lebanon, Hartford, Canaan, Thetford, Hartland, and, of course, Silver Lake in Barnard... plus a few farther afield.Cam Brown picks up commercial real estate reins from Bruce Waters. If you've driven anywhere around the Upper Valley where there's commercial activity in the last three decades, you've seen Waters's name on a For Sale or For Lease sign. The Powerhouse, Centerra, 12A... that's him. He's stepping back now and handing things over to Cam Brown, a veteran realtor himself. The VN's John Lippman also talks to Bruce McLaughry--for whom Brown will be working--about what's coming down the pike. The region's in play, McLaughry says, with tech spinoffs coming out of DHMC and Thayer. “There’s a lot of big money flowing into the Upper Valley,”Another milestone's coming up this month, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and there was an observance on the Statehouse steps in Montpelier yesterday. Among the speakers were Senate Majority Leader Becca Balint, who talked about getting teased in school after writing a love note to a female classmate, and Rep. William Lippert, the state's longest-serving openly gay legislator.Speaking of Montpelier, it's going to the goats again this year. They're pretty much the only natural way to get rid of poison ivy -- if you don't want to pull the plants up yourself, that is. Last year, the city used them by the high school and along the Winooski, so it could avoid spraying. This year, a herd of Kikos (a New Zealand breed) will be back to make more inroads. There'll be more fencing this time around, not so much to keep them in as to keep people and dogs out: those oils spread, you know.VTDigger's up with a nice interactive chart that breaks down where VT's $6.1 billion 2020 budget spending is going. Of the $592 million for transportation, for instance, $34 million is going to rail, and the same amount to public transit. There'll be $26 million for forests, parks, and recreation. A full $80 million is going for debt service. Gov. Phil Scott hasn't signed off on the budget yet, but has suggested that he will.Meanwhile, NH is still working on its $13.3 billion budget plans for the next two years. There's still a ways to go: The Senate gave its first approval to it on Friday, will revisit it this coming Thursday, then pass it back over to the House. The biggest differences lie in general fund spending, including significant differences over spending on a new secure psychiatric unit and capital and infrastructure projects. InDepthNH's Garry Rayno has the state of play.Yesterday, though, all was comity at the State House in Concord, as the state kicked off the building's bicentennial celebration. It'll last all week. This morning, there's a roundtable with Sununu and a gaggle of former governors: his dad (John H. Sununu), Stephen Merrill, Craig Benson, Jeanne Shaheen, John Lynch and Maggie Hassan. Full schedule at the link.Did you know that Vermont once wanted to link up lakes Champlain and Memphremagog with the Connecticut? This was a while ago, admittedly, during the canal-building fever that followed the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. But it's a reminder that technologists always dream big.There were serious plans, including a route proposed by Dewitt Clinton Jr. that would have brought boats from Memphremagog down the Black River Valley, through Lake Eligo, down the Lamoille over to Joe’s Pond, then into the Passumpsic and Stevens rivers and finally to the Connecticut. Maybe it was the two-mile tunnel through a hill in Walden that hung things up?HERE WE ARE, MONDAY, WHAT'S UP?If you missed Amazing Grace at WRIF on Friday, it's at Pentangle Arts tonight. I won't make you read the description again--but you can check out Rolling Stone's review if you want the back story: "It’s the closest thing to witnessing a miracle — just some cameras, a crowd and a voice touched by God." At Woodstock Town Hall Theater at 7:30.Or look, rain's supposed to clear out by late afternoon, and the Hartford Conservation Commission is hosting a wildflower walk. It'll be at the David Chang Conservation Area -- meet at 5:45 in the Quechee Library parking lot. Long pants, boots, and definitely some bug spray.Have a great start to your week. See you tomorrow.
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