SO NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, UPPER VALLEY!
And thank you for bearing with my long break! I’ll fill you in more tomorrow, but for now: Daybreak’s on a new platform, so you may notice some changes. The first big test? Here’s hoping you’re actually reading these words. From now on, if you ever miss it, just find the previous day’s and hit the logo at the top.
Go ahead, try it with today’s—that yellow “CoffeeBreak” right above.
Now then…
Sunny, definitely cooler. Yesterday evening’s cold front didn’t bring much moisture, but it did take temps down a notch. With high pressure nudging our way from Canada, we get plenty of sun today, highs in the mid 70s, and mostly clear skies tonight with the coolest night of the week: lows in the low or mid 40s.
Civic-spirited planting. “Thank you to whoever planted this on River Rd!!!” writes Nicky Corrao. She calls the field on the stretch between Lyme and Hanover “a gift to all who pass by!” Here’s a little more perspective from Janice Fischel, who adds, “What a visual surprise and treat!”
Law enforcement officials investigate “suspicious death” in Canaan. A bit of breaking news to start things out: Police were called to a home on Sawyer Hill Road last night, where they found him dead of an apparent stab wound. In an announcement this morning, Attorney General John Formella, NH State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall, and Canaan Police Chief Ryan Porter identified the victim as 67-year-old William Colao. “While the investigation is ongoing, there is no known threat to the general public at this time. The exact circumstances surrounding this incident remain under active investigation,” the statement says.
Claremont schools face financial crisis. In the dry summation of the district’s attorney at a school board meeting last week, the schools have “insufficient cash flow,” reports Patrick O’Grady in the Valley News. Translation: They may run out of cash at the end of September, business administrator Mary Henry told the school board on Thursday. Facing a $5 million deficit for the fiscal year just past, district administrators are trying to delay bill payments and prepping a series of budget cuts. In most states “a financial crisis of this magnitude would likely lead to the takeover of the district by the state,” writes O’Grady, but NH law has no provisions for that.
Royalton’s Fox Stand Bridge fix will take three more years. The bridge linking Route 14 to Royalton Hill Road, which has been closed for over a year, will be replaced by a permanent new bridge—but construction won’t begin until 2027, with reopening due sometime in the fall of 2028. That’s after a 3-2 selectboard vote last week not to spend money on a temporary bridge, reports Lukas Dunford in the VN. The board majority cited lower costs and a “speedier” timeline by going the permanent route.
We need to do some catching up! A bunch has happened over the past six weeks, and while there’s no way to recap it all, some of it may interest you. Like…
Last week, VT Public’s Lexi Krupp took a look at the Montshire’s efforts to turn its 110-acre forest into a “Healing Forest”—a chance to support mental health through its natural spaces. The installations include a wind phone—an old landline in a wooden enclosure that’s not connected and yet, former director David Goudy tells Krupp, yet somehow still connects users to whoever they have in mind at the other end. “There's something about it that really touches you — you feel it,” he says.
Back in mid-July, Susan Apel dropped by Casa Brava Tapas, the (sort-of) new place next to the Six South hotel lobby in Hanover. Here’s her Artful review.
In Randolph, meanwhile, a “Oaxacan-style micro-bakery” that drew national attention for its year-long stint in NYC is setting up shop, writes Jordan Barry in Seven Days. Atla’s Conchas will make its VT debut at the Chelsea Farmers Market on Friday, Aug. 29.
The VT Center for Ecostudies came out with its Field Guide to August: migrating shorebirds stopping by for a rest; wild berries; and photos of roadless areas in the Whites and Greens (and why some may soon face challenges).
Back in July, The Herald’s Isabel Dreher highlighted an exhibit at the Brookfield Historical Society of t-shirts and other objects the late cartoonist Ed Koren decorated and gave out over decades of volunteering in the region. The exhibit runs through September, Sunday afternoons 2-4 or by appointment.
William Skipworth took an interesting look in NH Bulletin in early August at the impact of federal cuts on DHMC researchers. On the one hand, some projects have come to a halt and others are in limbo, while younger researchers are weighing whether to continue. On the other, Skipworth writes, “Dartmouth has been receiving lots of very qualified applications from researchers leaving institutions that have faced more stringent cuts.”
In Sidenote about a week ago, Li Shen highlighted the pollinator garden designed by Alicia Houk and installed by volunteers in Thetford Center a few years back: butterflies, bees, bumblebees, moths, and more, all attracted by native plants like slender mountain mint, milkweed, and boneset.
Last week, the feds (the Secretary of the Interior, no less) announced that the Colburn Park Historic District in Lebanon has been expanded to take in several buildings along the pedestrian mall and a bunch of others, including a certain “former service station” that was ineligible to be included in the original 1986 listing but has since “been converted into a café.”
The Valley News is getting a new website. In a short announcement last week, publisher Rich Wallace wrote that the paper will be rolling it out this week, with “features that will make our website easier to read, engage and explore our stories, and allow access and easier navigation to our archives.”
And as John Lippman reported in the VN about 10 days ago, Robert Tulloch—sentenced to a lifetime in prison in 2002 for the murders the year before of Half and Susanne Zantop—is now eligible to be considered for parole. That’s after a July court ruling that that “life in prison without parole for juvenile offenders runs afoul of the New Hampshire state constitution.”
The new owners of Gardener’s Supply said last week that the Lebanon store will be among those it keeps open. In its press release, reports Seven Days’ Courtney Lamdin, Indiana-based Gardens Alive! said it will close its Shelburne VT garden center, but keep five other stores—including in Lebanon—open.
And finally, the VN’s Clare Shanahan last week profiled Jamison O’Neil, the 35-year-old Wilder School special educator who died in a head-on collision in Hartland on Aug. 9—the day before his daughter, Charlie, was born. The youngest of three brothers, he grew up roughhousing in WRJ, held down a variety of jobs—”every place he worked he turned it into a family atmosphere,” his dad tells Shanahan—and then found his calling in special ed, dedicated to “creating a sense of belonging,” in the words of former Wilder School Principal Doug Heavisides.
New analysis finds NH ranks last in nation for public higher ed funding. The report by the NH Fiscal Policy Institute, released on Thursday, found that in fiscal year 2024, the state spent $4,629 per full-time student—less than any other state that year and half the national average of $11,683. Those spending levels, the report’s authors warn, drive costs for students and families higher at a time when “four of the ten occupations with the largest projected ten-year employment growth…require at least a four-year degree.”
Cross-border traffic is down in both states. And businesses are taking a hit. Late last week, NH Bulletin’s William Skipworth reported that state business commissioner Taylor Caswell told the Exec Council Canadian visitors are “running at about 30 percent underneath what we’ve seen in prior years.” The same day, VT Public’s Peter Hirschfeld noted passenger vehicles crossing from Canada into VT over the past six months have dropped 26 percent, while “spending transacted on Canadian credit cards” is down 44 percent. “My basic observation is that this is as bad as we feared it would be,” says the mayor of Newport, VT.
Federal prosecutors say they’ll seek the death penalty for Teresa Youngblut in border agent slaying. Last Thursday morning, prosecutors indicted Youngblut for allegedly shooting and killing border agent David Maland in January—then, a few hours later, filed notice that they’d seek the death penalty in the case. As VTDigger’s Alan J. Keays writes, authorities had previously held back from directly accusing Youngblut of firing the shot that killed Maland. Keays details the case’s current state of play.
Meanwhile, you also might want to know about…
Cartoonists Alison Bechdel and Harry Bliss—she lives in Bolton, VT, he splits his time between Cornish, NH and Burlington—talking to each other (and Seven Days’ Dan Bolles) about their own and each other’s new books… and the challenges of drawing, say, goats. “If you look at their slit pupils, they look like they're possessed,” says Bechdel.
Forest Service roads in VT worth the drive. That was the title of Erica Houskeeper’s Happy Vermont post earlier this month about roads throughout the Green Mountain National Forest she recommends exploring. There’s Forest Service Road 42 (also known as Bingo Road) in Rochester; FS Road 10 between Landgrove and Mount Tabor (“an ideal spot for a scenic drive and wildlife viewing”); and more.
The Monday Jigsaw. It’s West Hartford in the mid-’60s. “I was drawn in by the cars, but came away learning much more,” writes the Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross. You can see the original photo, flooding photos from 1927 and 2011, the car models and links for ID, a 1906 map, and more at his Substack, The Curioustorian
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from a regional news item.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
THERE'S SOME GREAT DAYBREAK SWAG! Like Daybreak tote bags, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
And some music for today...
Just for some welcome-back kicks, let’s outright shatter 6 ½ years of Daybreak’s text-only format to bring you jazz pianist and composer Brad Mehldau (you may remember his truly great series of Beatles tunes) and mandolinist Chris Thile on singer/songwriter Elliott Smith’s “Colorbars”, off Mehldau’s new album.
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page, or on Daybreak’s homepage.
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to visit https://daybreak.news to sign up.
Thank you!