GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny. Eventually. Enjoy it, whenever the fog and gloom part, because it looks like a series of low-pressure systems will keep things at least modestly damp the rest of the week. Today, though, we’re looking at mostly clear skies, highs getting into the upper 70s, and clouds not really starting to build in until after dark. Calm winds today, overnight lows in the mid 50s.
Look up! It’s that sunflower time of year.
At the Sunflower House at Billings Farm the other day, writes Doug Donaldson, “We found sunflowers, common and not-so-common varieties, plus zinnias, dahlias and more. A riot of color!”
And in Lyme, writes Brian Rich, “We usually have several sunflowers come up from our winter bird feeding. This year we had just this one. But so many flowers!”
Just a reminder about I-91/I-89. One lane of I-89 southbound from the ramp feeding off I-91N to beyond Exit 20 in NH is due to be closed starting today and lasting through Wednesday (weather permitting) as NHDOT work continues on the bridge over the river. There may also be rolling roadblocks. In addition, the Exit 10A NB ramp from I-91N to I-89S will be closed either Wednesday this week or Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm, so the ramp can be paved. It’ll only be closed for that one day. Traffic will be detoured up to I-91 Exit 12 (Wilder), then back down 91 to Exit 10A SB onto I-89 South.
But hey, both lanes of the Quechee Bridge are back open! Actually, they have been for a few weeks: two-way traffic began flowing Aug. 14. This coming Friday, a bunch of businesses and sites like VINS will be staying open late to celebrate, but in the meantime, the Valley News’s Sofia Langlois notes that with the three-year bridge project finished, what visitors might notice most are “green, steel rails that are over nine feet high and curved at the top, separated by about six inches,” meant to act as suicide barriers. But there’s more, including a major structural rehab and wider, longer sidewalks. Langlois recaps, with a great photo from the gorge by Alex Driehaus.
Physician opening free-standing WRJ surgery center gets fired from Mt. Ascutney Hospital. You may remember that back in June, VT health regulators okayed plans by urologist Michael Curtis and fertility specialist Misty Blanchette Porter to open their center as a way to speed access to procedures in the region. But last month, VT Public’s Lola Duffort reports today, Curtis was called in and fired “without cause.” “The surgery center wouldn’t compete with the services Mt. Ascutney offers,” Duffort notes. “But it would compete directly with Dartmouth-Hitchcock.” Mt. Ascutney is part of the Dartmouth Health network. Spokesperson Audra Burns notes to Duffort that DH didn’t oppose the center, but didn’t explain the firing.
Catching up on the Woodstock mess. Over the weekend, the VN’s Sofia Langlois reported that over the fiscal year from July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025, Woodstock spent $234K in legal fees, compared $14.8K the year before. And that was before the state police began investigating spending on the effort to demote former police chief Joe Swanson. As Langlois writes, the town and village have plenty of legal travails. There’s the current court case to decide whether the village board’s second-time-around decision to demote Swanson will stand. There’s Swanson’s lawsuit alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation. There’s the VSP investigation…
Just what are all those rail cars on a siding in Ely? For some time now, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, the rail siding in the village at the northern tip of Thetford has hosted some 40 white tanker cars that arrived… well, no one can quite remember when. “They are marked ‘limestone slurry’ and are either owned or leased by the Omya corporation,” she writes—and explains that Omya is a privately owned Swiss corporation that’s the world's largest producer of ground calcium carbonate, which is used in making paper. It owns the VT Marble Co. near Rutland, as well as marble deposits throughout the state, and ships slurry to paper mills in ME and Canada, idling cars when they’re not needed.
Teen arrested for crashing his car into Pease, striking plane. Technically, it’s the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease—and on Saturday night, reports WMUR’s Jon Schoenheider, a 17-year-old in a 2008 Ford Mustang who was trying to escape a police stop (and was driving without headlights on) crashed through the perimeter fence, drove onto the apron, hit a tractor, and then a parked aircraft. “Airport officials told News 9 breaches like this do not happen often,” Schoenheider reports. “They said while the information they have does not point to any threat, they will take measures to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
Looking for things to do this fall? Happy Vermont’s got you covered. In fact, Erica Houskeeper’s up with a list of 20 ideas, from exploring forest service roads in the Green Mountains to heading up a fire tower (Gile Mountain in Norwich is on the list) to hiking lesser-known state lands (like Amity Pond Natural Area in Pomfret) to strolling through Peacham or riding the “Single” chairlift at Mad River Glen or taking in the East Charlotte Tractor Parade or, right there at the end, wandering the Path of Life Garden in Windsor. Plus lots more besides, with plenty of links to help you plan.
The Monday Jigsaw: The Norwich Village School, back in the horse and wagon days. The photo, Cam Cross notes, was taken not long after the school went up in 1898, “back when electricity had reached the village but pavement had not.” The school was built on the foundation of the old Norwich University North Barracks, which remained in town long after the university decamped for Northfield in 1866. The barracks burned in 1897 and, Cam writes on his Curioustorian blog, “this building went up on the same foundation the following year. The building is still there. It is the Marion Cross School now.”
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
A walk-and-talk on learning to identify deer overbrowsing. As the Upper Valley Land Trust writes, “Many of us in the Upper Valley are experiencing deer pressure on our favorite plants -- like non-native hostas and native plants such as Trillium, oak and sugar maple seedlings. It is getting difficult to find maple and oak saplings in some forested patches.” So they, along with the Hanover Biodiversity Committee and the Norwich Conservation Commission, are hosting a walk with the Grafton and Windsor county foresters today at 3 pm at the Brookmead Conservation Area in Norwich to learn how to gauge deer pressure and to protect plants.
And for today...
Let’s ease into the week with bassist Charles Berthoud and guitarist Mike Dawes, hanging out in a rebuilt and repurposed 15th century church in Bristol, England.
See you tomorrow.
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