GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny, getting hot. With high pressure right overhead, we're due a day much like the last two: lots of sun, temps reaching the mid or upper 80s. Winds today from the west, and lows tonight in the mid 50s.Not your usual church pic. From Lyme, Jack Elliott sends in this view of the Lyme Congregational Church, looking otherworldly one night last week.Work on roundabout near DHMC begins today. Just a heads up that construction prep work is due to begin at the intersection of Mt. Support Road and Lahaye Drive this morning—and to last at least through the end of the year, with crews working Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm. The roundabout project will include roadway widening, new curbs, drainage and lighting adjustments, landscaping, and extension of a multi-use path along Mt. Support Road to the north. Major construction begins next Monday. Expect delays. Here's the project page."Fanciful and rambling" thoughts from the subject of last week's police search in Newport. Last Wednesday, Valley News reporter John Lippman and photographer Jennifer Hauck knocked on Jeffrey Champagne's door in the Kellyville section of Newport. Champagne's home was the target of that search by NH's Cold Case Unit, thought to be connected to the “Connecticut River Valley Killer" murders from 1977 to 1988. Lippman spent 25 minutes talking to Champagne—whom local speculation for years has pegged as the killer. "Pretty unlikely," Champagne said when asked if the rumors were true.Helicopter crash in Danbury, NH. Witnesses help pilot get out. The pilot, whom police haven't identified, was trying to land his Hughes TH-55 Osage—originally used by the military as a training helicopter—when he lost control a bit after noon on Saturday. The craft caught fire and the fire spread to the woods, reports WMUR's Matt Leighton; witnesses who'd seen it go down in the community between E. Grafton and Wilmot were able to help rescue the pilot and give aid until first responders arrived—actions, the police said, that were "instrumental" in saving the pilot's life. The FAA and NTSB will investigate.Meanwhile, Tunbridge glider pilot uninjured in Benton, NH crash. NH Fish & Game reports that yesterday afternoon, 84-year-old Henry Swayze took off from the Post Mills Airport, flew to Cannon Mountain, then on the return had trouble getting lift and, trying to circle the ridge near the Hogsback, hit a downdraft around 4:20 pm. He wound up nose-down "hanging from a tree approximately 20 feet off the ground." He was able to call 911, and rescuers from the state, US Forest Service, and Haverhill, Hanover, and Lebanon fire departments were able to reach him yesterday evening. Post includes pics.
After first rejecting the budget at the school district's annual meeting in April, voters from Fairlee, West Fairlee, Vershire, and Orford on Saturday reversed course, approving a somewhat modified version 189-142, reports the
VN
's Christina Dolan. In all, the board proposed savings of about $426K from the earlier version; tax rates, Dolan reports, are expected to drop in the three VT towns and rise marginally in Orford. “I’m ecstatic,” board chair Mark Avery said after Saturday's floor meeting. “We can get down to business and focus on students again.”
Memories of the day downtown Lebanon went up in flames. It was nearly 60 years ago, on June 19, 1964, and when the Great Lebanon Fire was done, Steve Taylor writes in the VN, 20 buildings were gone and one person had died. Taylor was in a National Guard convoy that had passed through town just minutes before; now he circles back and gathers the recollections of people who witnessed or heard about the fire—including Terry Lacasse, who recalls "watching the roaring inferno and its enormous column of smoke marching up Hanover Street toward Colburn Park." Includes VN photos from that day."We don’t want New Hampshire to be a dump." That's how GOP Rep. David Rochefort, from Littleton, describes the tenor of the messages he gets from constituents who write in about landfill issues. About half the waste dumped in NH's six landfills (Lebanon's is one of them) comes from other New England states, writes Claire Sullivan in NH Bulletin, and in the House this year a series of bills tried to get a handle both on out-of state trash and new landfill development only to go down in the Senate. Sullivan looks at what happened. "The Senate is just kind of sitting on their hands," Rochefort tells her.A guide to NH's proposed voter registration changes. One version of legislation that would drastically tighten restrictions on the registration process has already passed the legislature, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman; a tweak may be on its way. In short, the measures would jettison sworn affidavits for people who register on Election Day without ID in hand, and instead require a passport, birth certificate, or other proof of citizenship when someone registers to vote—"a unique system not used anywhere else in the country," Bookman reports. He looks at the data on fraud and the arguments for and against.Euthanized bear in Underhill, VT showed predatory behavior. The young bear killed by a VT game warden ten days ago was approaching the warden not in a defensive posture, but in a way that suggested it was testing whether the warden "might actually be a food source," state bear project leader Jaclyn Comeau tells the Burlington Free Press's Dan D'Ambrosio. Bear-human interactions have risen dramatically in the past decade. "Vermonters have a responsibility to stop these kind of conflicts before they escalate" by removing food sources, says Fish & Wildlife's Robert Currier.
Filings for VT state primaries point to low-drama election. Signatures and paperwork were due Thursday, and in Seven Days, Kevin McCallum runs down what's known: Gov. Phil Scott drew no big-name Democrats looking to run against him; Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman has a Democratic challenger, while on the GOP side former Democratic state Sen. John Rodgers switched parties to seek the Republican nomination. Other statewide incumbents face no primary challengers. And for the legislature, though not all filings are in, VT GOP chair Paul Dame says the party had trouble recruiting candidates this year.The Monday jigsaw. The Norwich Historical Society's Sarah Rooker writes about this week's puzzle: "Just as it was when this postcard was made in 1906, this location is a very popular spot in the Upper Valley. Can you guess what business this is?"
Heads Up
There've been two already, and there are two more scheduled—with more possibly to come, depending on enthusiasm—organized by Woodstock musician (and Zero Music Festival organizer) Ben Kogan. The "etc." is the Beatles and the Dead, plus jazz if enough people know the tune. Acoustic guitar, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, upright bass, horns, snares with brushes—and the people who play them—all welcome. "We’re trying to foster an inclusive community of musicians in the Upper Valley and the Woodstock region," Kogan writes. At the Ottauquechee Yacht Club from 6:30-9.
Seems like a good time...
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Associate writer: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
If you like Daybreak and would like to help it keep going and evolve, please hit the "Support" button below and I'll tell you more:
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!