GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Chance of showers until early afternoon. We’ll see. What’s happening is that a cold front and low pressure that were predicted to arrive from the west late yesterday are moving veeerrrrryyyy slowly. But they’re getting here, with a narrow band of showers and possibly some thunder. Skies should clear right after, and we’re in for a sunny mid-to-late afternoon with highs into the mid 70s. Clear tonight, low 50s.
But hey, why wait on sunshine? Or, actually, the brightness that sunflowers in full bloom provide… The sunflower house at Billings Farm has been at its peak, and Lauran Corson was there with her camera on a perfect day.
The Monday recipes. Today, we start with food—and an introduction. Mitchell Davis isn’t just any food writer: He worked at the James Beard Foundation for nearly three decades and was a moving force behind the James Beard Awards. He’s the author of five cookbooks, including the comprehensive Kitchen Sense, and an ongoing Substack of that name. A few years back, Epicurious.com named him one of the "100 Greatest Home Cooks of All Time." And most important: He lives in Plainfield and has joined forces with Edgewater Farm’s Jenny Sprague to provide weekly recipes for her CSA blog on what’s getting picked right now. The latest—for maple Dijon vinaigrette, tabbouleh, and fermented pepper sauce (not all in one dish)—at the burgundy link.
Philanthropist and former innkeeper plans performing arts center for Woodstock’s East End. For years, writes Tom Ayres in the VT Standard, Max Comins—who owned and ran the Kedron Valley Inn for 18 years, made a fortune trading stocks and bonds, and has been a longtime local community theater presence—hoped to revitalize the Town Hall Theatre. But he and the town couldn’t see eye to eye, Ayres writes, and now Comins plans to buy the site of the former Gerrish auto dealership and adjoining gas station, erect a “world class” performing and visual arts center with adjoining housing for artists, and endow it. He and Ayres talk over his ideas.
Proposed new rule would bar wakesports from Lake Fairlee, keep them on Lake Morey. If you’ve followed the wakeboat controversy, you know that in 2024, VT imposed new regs setting limits on where wakeboats could operate. They included a “home lake” rule keeping a wake boat to one lake per summer unless it was decontaminated. For the past two summers, a zone on Lake Fairlee has been open to wakeboats, but now, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, VT’s Agency of Natural Resources is proposing changes that would take Fairlee off the list—but get rid of the “home lake” provision and axe a requirement that ballast tanks be decontaminated.
Court filing details what led to Hartford Village shooting. Police affidavits filed on Friday allege that Demetrius Drew—who was arrested Thursday and charged with the murder of David Labrecque and wounding of Jessica Lemay, both of Canaan—had conspired with accomplices Jeffrey and Michelle Mullins to rob the home on Verna Court where the shooting took place. Lemay told police that the gunman emerged “from behind a tent erected on the property” and shot her, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News, then shot and killed Labrecque when he came to her aid.
The VT State Police operation that resulted in the arrests of Drew and the Mullinses on Thursday afternoon at a mobile home park off Sykes Mountain Ave. above WRJ—and also involved bystanders caught up in the incident—was captured on a home video camera across the way. The owner posted it to Facebook on Friday.
NH officials and Enfield police issue warning after rabid fox attacks. The first incident was a week ago Sunday, when a mother and her son were attacked and bitten by a gray fox. That fox, reports the VN’s Liz Sauchelli, was killed by the woman’s husband; tests later confirmed it was rabid. Then, Wednesday evening, Enfield police began getting reports of another fox that was “acting strange,” in the words of Police Chief Roy Holland, and several people were attacked. As Sauchelli writes, neighbors are on the alert: “If you go out, you carry a bat with you or whatever you have,” says one. A local neighbors FB group has been keeping tabs.
NH sits out regional state public health gathering. Last week’s meeting in Providence brought together public health officials from eight states—all but NH in New England, plus NY, NJ, and PA—to talk about working collectively to coordinate vaccine recommendations and maintain effective disease tracking and emergency response services “in the face of the Trump administration’s…funding cuts and changing health priorities,” reports the Globe’s Jason Laughlin (possible paywall). A spokesperson for the NH health department “said the state coordinates with national, regional, and local public health agencies in other ways,” Laughlin writes.
NH to resume EV charger buildout. That’s after the feds released new guidelines for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, or NEVI, which was suspended by the administration in February. The program was not among those rescinded by Congress this summer, and, reports NHPR’s Mara Hoplamazian, the new guidelines give states more flexibility in siting and eliminate a variety of requirements. NH officials say they’re now revising their plans and three charger projects—in Tilton, Rochester, and Sanbornville—are moving into their design phase.
With new law, VT reverses course on public funds for religious schools. Two weeks ago, reports VTDigger’s Corey McDonald, the state released a list of 18 independent schools that remain eligible for public tuition dollars under Act 73, the education reform act signed into law last month. Thetford Academy and The Sharon Academy are on it. But 12 religious schools that last year received public money are no longer eligible under the act’s provisions, including Mid Vermont Christian in Quechee. The schools received some $1.4 million total in the 2023-24 school year, much of it by two Catholic high schools. McDonald looks at the ramifications, legal and otherwise.
The perfect lawn ornament! This morning at 10 (15 minutes from now), Killington resort opens up bidding on its decommissioned Skyeship gondola cabins, featuring “45 whimsical and varied designs, provided by artists and graphic designers” from the early ‘90s, when the cabins were first put into service. Also up: a few Snowdon Quad ski chairs. Starting price on the gondolas: $1,000 apiece, though you can buy one outright for $2,000. One word, though: They weigh more than 950 pounds each, will require a telehandler, excavator, or forklift to handle, and you’ve got to retrieve it yourself. Also, they’ve seen lots of wear and tear. Bidding runs until Sept. 12.
The Monday jigsaw: Movie poster for Way Down East. This was DW Griffith’s 1920 classic starring Lillian Gish and, among other things, her rescue from an iced-up White River in WRJ. On his The Curioustorian blog, the Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross provides the original photo, an enthralling clip of the iconic ice rescue scene, and some historical context.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Today is Day 1 of Read Me Ishmael: A Moby-Dick-athon. Yep, the entire Herman Melville classic, read aloud by… well, you could be one of the readers! It all kicked off about 45 minutes ago at The Literary Arts Bridge in Hanover (7 Lebanon Street), with “Etymology” and “Extracts” and then the good stuff, “Loomings”… some sections a minute, some a half hour. Today’s readings will run until about 10 pm. Tomorrow is Day 2 at Still North Books and Bar, beginning at 9 am. You can sign up here: there are still slots open for both today and tomorrow.
At the Norwich Bookstore, Marguerite Holloway and Take to the Trees! The science and environment writer (and Director of Science and Environmental Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University) has a new memoir. It’s partly about her experiences at the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop as a beginner with a fear of heights—but also about women in the forestry industry, the effect of climate change on forests, and a family narrative. 7 pm.
And for today...
The French classical guitarist Edith Pageaud plays Alexandre Tansman’s “Passacaille”.
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.
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