SUCH A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, UPPER VALLEY!
Oh, Canada! So there's this cold front north of the border due to drop our way.... but it's moving sloooowly. So slowly, in fact, that we won't really see its impact until tonight. Which is giving skies around here a chance to warm up again: Heat warnings for these parts from noon until this evening, with highs around while humidity will make it feel like it's in the mid-90s, cooler the farther north you go. But! There's a chance of rain and thunder this afternoon, then a likelihood this evening. Lows tonight in the low 70s.How hot? Well, the weather folks are happy to tell us.
So there's this election tomorrow... You've totally made up your mind how you're going to cast your ballot in tomorrow's Vermont primaries, right? Well, just in case you didn't vote absentee and haven't quite settled on the boxes you plan to darken, here's Daybreak's voter guide: a page with links to resources and articles that might help you find your bearings. And here's the Valley News's page with voting locations and hours by town.After over a decade chairing regional Act 250 commission, Post Mills' Tim Taylor bounced by VT guv. Taylor, who with his wife Janet owns Crossroad Farm, got the news in an email last month, reports Jim Kenyon in the VN. The commission, which passes judgment on development projects in Orange and northern Windsor counties, was prepping for hearings on a couple of large retail projects in Royalton and Hartland (a proposed "farm outlet" store on 17 acres off I-91). "With Taylor not around to ask tough questions, the developers’ plans will likely face less scrutiny," Kenyon writes.SPONSORED: VINS' Magnificent Mammals Day is just around the corner! Visit the VINS Nature Center on Saturday, August 13 for a day exploring the amazing lives of mammals. Discover the specialties of our furred cousins and find out how important they are to our ecosystems. There will be live mammals, pelts, and skulls, as well as hands-on activities and crafts. It’s sure to be a magnificent day! The event runs all day, 10 AM – 5 PM, and is included with General Admission. Sponsored by VINS.Etna Country Store opens its doors. In case you missed it last week, Susan Apel didn't. In Artful, she writes that the store on Etna Road "had been an almost 2 year-long reconstruction site, its parking lot sometimes empty but more often lined with panel and pickup trucks of builders, carpenters, plumbers, and electricians." Last week, though, a sign appeared out front: "Surpise! We're Open." So she went inside..."There’s only so many times you can sketch a half-empty coffee cup and a wrinkled napkin..." It's been almost two decades since four local artists—two from Thetford, two from Lyme—decided to get together for weekly practice. These days, it's more like 10 to 15 people and they no longer meet in local cafés, but the Little Village Artists still gather—and, writes Nick Clark in his profile of the group in Sidenote, "try to pick painting locations where they can get a good Wifi signal for those still attending virtually."In a region where towns like to go it alone, seven join forces on energy. In the VN, Frances Mize profiles the two-year-old effort by energy committees in Barnard, Bradford, Norwich, Sharon, Strafford, Thetford, and Woodstock to share a regional energy coordinator who can help them coordinate on projects—like, say, creating guidelines to help their towns' property owners lower carbon emissions. “There are things that don’t make sense for one tiny town to do, but when seven towns are doing it, it’s great,” says Strafford's Dorian Yates."I’m worried I’m going to lose the really great team I have because of their travel time.” That's Piecemeal Pies owner Justin Barrett talking to VTDigger's Fred Thys about the challenges workers face finding housing in VT. His head baker drives 90 minutes to Piecemeal's new Stowe location, and two other prospective employees can't find anything a reasonable drive away. It's a general problem, Thys writes—for state and municipal offices as well as for private employers.Meanwhile, in NH the rental vacancy rate is 0.5 percent. That's not a typo. In NH Bulletin last week, Ethan DeWitt noted that while the average vacancy rate in the Northeast is 4.9 percent and housing economists consider 5 percent a sign of a healthy market, the figure in NH is a fraction of that. Rents have jumped, and pretty much everywhere, only a handful of units are priced below the median affordable rent. “We desperately need the workers and they can’t find the rental housing," says one housing advocate.Cooler days are coming and trails are waiting... Which has Happy Vermont's Erica Housekeeper thinking about mountain biking. But not Kingdom Trails or the Champlain Causeway—no, she's in search of lesser-known spots. Like Woodstock's Mt. Peg and Aqueduct trails. Or the Memphremagog Trails up north. Or the Plainfield Rail Trail headed into Groton State Forest. Short descriptions, with links to (lots) more.You've just gotta love a curious parrot. Especially when it's inspecting a traffic cam high above a highway in Brazil.The Monday Vordle. Well hey, Vordlers! Look at this! Back in Daybreak...
And a little music for your morning...We're going to ease ourselves back into the music scene today. Here's Lebanon NH-based classical guitarist William Ghezzi with the Allegro from Georg Philipp Telemann's Fantasia no. 1.See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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