GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
The calm before the storm. There's a system to our west whose effects we might start seeing this evening, but you could spend the day happily oblivious: It'll be mostly sunny until clouds start scooting in this afternoon, highs around 80, no real winds to speak of. Chance of rain overnight rising to a likelihood around dawn, lows in the mid-60s.Drowned man was thru-hiking the AT. Joey Harvey, the man from Mississippi whose body was found in the Connecticut River last Thursday after he apparently drowned while staying in Norwich, was on a journey to scatter his dad's ashes at significant spots along the Appalachian Trail, reports The Trek's Kelly Floro. He'd been posting regular video updates on TikTok, and last posted from Norwich's Happy Hill Shelter. "They claim it can fit 12 people, but you're really going to have to like each other for that to happen," he told followers.Dartmouth produces most greenhouse-gas emissions per student in Ivies. The college, writes the VN's Frances Mize in a sweeping look at its energy challenges, has the "operational impacts of a town almost double the size of Hanover." Though its new Irving Institute, focused on energy research, is a showcase of efficiency, the college hasn't pursued lowering its footprint with the gusto on-campus critics would like to see. Its scrubbed effort to switch to biomass have left it burning No. 6 fuel oil, and it lags on building retrofits, says the Irving Institute's Stephen Doig—who led the Empire State Building's retrofit.Windsor to get transit. Next year it will become one of six communities around VT piloting a free ride-hailing service funded by VTrans, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein. Each town will shape the program differently; Windsor's will be a "one-bus microtransit program" that's expected to serve 15 to 35 riders a day, with an average wait time of 8 to 10 minutes for a ride, Weinstein writes. The program's scheduled to launch in January. Former Hatch's Store in Post Mills slated for demolition soon. The building, just up and across Rt. 113 from Baker's General Store, has a long history in the village, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, but it's been falling apart for years. It was bought Aug. 31 by John Freeman, who grew up in Norwich and splits his time between Post Mills and San Diego. He "hated the way the derelict structure cast a 'bad vibe' over the south end of Post Mills," Shen reports. Freeman tells her, "If you see a piece of trash on the ground you pick it up, not because it’s your trash but because it’s your community.""Qualified with a Ph.D. in the school of life." That's Leb's innovation officer, Melanie McDonough, talking to Cindy Heath in the Lebanon Times about Paula Maville, the jack-of-all-trades administrator who's retiring from full-time civic work after 35 years with the city. She began as a temporary clerk/typist in the planning office after graduating from Lebanon High. It was only supposed to last a few months. Instead, Maville wound up with stints in the planning, zoning, building, public works, and human services offices, before becoming deputy city manager and, for a time, acting city manager.With vote on area across from the VA, Hartford hopes to add multiple uses to current mix. The town planning commission's vote last Thursday, writes Ray Couture in the VN, would shift the 32-acre "gateway to town" off Route 5 from strictly commercial and light industrial use to allow for residential and multi-use buildings, including retail, restaurants, and more. It's part of an ongoing effort to leave behind "strict segregation of land uses," town planner Matt Osborne says. The change still must be approved by the selectboard.Seeking to clarify new gun law, NH DOJ issues interpretation. The nine-page opinion is "part of an effort by the department to...cool tensions" around the bill passed this year barring local and state law enforcement from enforcing some federal firearms laws, writes Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin. In particular, the document says state and local officials can't directly assist federal operations that "solely concern enforcement of federal firearms laws,” but they can share information, take action against threats to schools, and continue to take firearms from people convicted of domestic violence."Trying to find the good dirt" while building the Velomont Trail. That's the grand effort to create an end-to-end, hut-to-hut mountain biking trail the length of the state, and up on Rochester Mountain, Vermont Public's Kevin Trevellyan caught up with trail builder Tom Lepesqueur for a how-to. Lepesqueur uses a chainsaw and an excavator, but, he says, "We're thinking about everything from where the water is flowing, and how to deal with it, as well as the trees that we are trying to avoid disrupting. And really, the end goal is to have that ribbon of trail behind you that almost looks like it just got sat there.""One story connected to Vermont that’s being told in modern times but that’s also deeply intertwined with things that happened a long time ago." That's how Vermont Public's Josh Crane describes Sweet Tooth, the new album by bassist, singer, and Thetford Front Porch Music Series participant Mali Obomsawin. In the latest Brave Little State episode, Obomsawin, a member of the Québec-based Odanak First Nation, talks us through the album, which she began composing when she was at Dartmouth. Impossible to summarize, except to say it's about the past, about spirituality, and about "community-keeping and community definition and community preservation."A long look back at fall foliage. The item in Friday's Daybreak pointing to that national foliage predictor created by a group in the Smokies brought an email from Kathie Cote, grand-daughter of Polly Dexter—whose name adorns Sugar Hill, NH icon Polly's Pancake Parlor. Back in 1975, Kathie's mom, Nancy, began keeping track of when the leaves began to turn, when they peaked, when they faded, and when the first snow appeared on the mountains nearby. Kathie's kept up the tradition, and the result is a 46-year record. In 1975, the leaves began turning Sept. 5. This year, Aug. 19.The Monday Vordle. Still with a word from an item in Friday's Daybreak.
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Today at 5:30, Still North Books & Bar in Hanover brings in veterans' health researcher Suzanne Gordon and journalists Steve Early and Jasper Craven to talk about their new book, Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs. The book takes a broad look at the impact of military service and the challenges veterans face after returning to civilian life—and looks critically at "the role of advocacy organizations, philanthropies, corporations, and politicians who purport to be 'pro-veteran.'"
And something to get you on your feet for the week...
The Kinnaris Quintet may be based in Glasgow, but the band takes its name from a Southeast-Asian mythological creature and delves into Scottish and Irish music by way of
bluegrass, Scandinavian, Appalachian, and classical influences as well. Last year, at the Edinburgh International Festival, they stepped outside for a spirited rendition of their song, "Space Ghettoes."
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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