HOPE YOU'VE HAD A TERRIFIC 2020 SO FAR, UPPER VALLEY!
Though if it's 2020, why does it feel so 2019? There's a weak dollop of high pressure moving through today, bringing sunny skies and, as the Weather Service puts it, temps "on the milder side of normal" for early January. They'll get into the mid- or high 30s today, and with winds from the south/southwest and clouds coming in tonight, it won't get down much below 30 overnight, if at all. As you may have noticed, Daybreak's a little later than usual today. Tomorrow, too. Why plunge into the year when you've got a couple of days to dip your toe in? But come Monday, everything will be back to normal. Oh... except for a couple of small changes that we'll talk over then.In case you blinked, Thetford has a new selectboard chair. Last Friday, longtime SB chair Stuart Rogers resigned the board, charging that three others on the five-member body were trying behind the scenes to oust the town's new (and first) town manager. Now the four remaining members have named newcomer Nick Clark to the position until March. Town elections should be interesting this year, eh? (VN, sub reqd)ValleyNet turns 25, ECFiber adds 4000th customer. It started up in 1994 as a dial-up internet provider with a small office in the Montshire. Twelve years later, it sold its modems and launched ECFiber, which since then has built over 1,000 miles of optical fiber across 23 towns. Now, ValleyNet's added LymeFiber to its mix and is talking to towns on both sides of the river about helping them build broadband as well. Just a reminder that Elizabeth Warren will be at the Hanover Inn at 5 today. And in case you missed Amy Klobuchar in Claremont on Tuesday, here's Patrick O'Grady's writeup for the VN. Meanwhile, Andrew Yang had to move yesterday's campaign appearance from Salt Hill across to Colburn Park because about 250 people showed up. Here's WCAX's coverage. Andrea Zanis pleads guilty in Norwich stabbing. You'll remember that back in September, Zanis stabbed her boyfriend during an argument at their home on New Boston Road. In December, she was charged with obstruction of justice for calling him 90 times from prison and asking him to tell authorities he had no memory of the attack. She pled to three charges on Tuesday and will serve at least a year in prison. Windsor Co. State's Atty David Cahill says she'll need mental health treatment after she's released. "She has trouble regulating her emotions,” he says. (VN)Okay, sure, he was late to work.... Here's one reason why Jessica's Law, the 2002 NH law requiring drivers to clear their car or truck of snow before getting on the road, exists. Sports betting in NH is now a thing. On Monday, it became legal in the state to bet on sports. By the end of the day Tuesday, over 6,000 people had registered to do so and, according to the New Hampshire Lottery, they'd wagered over $250,000. And this will stun you: A lot of them are from Massachusetts. “Clearly there is strong consumer demand that will only grow as we market this new and exciting product," says the lottery's executive director.Really, it's easy: Compress air by freezing it, then have it spin a turbine as it warms and expands. Okay, maybe not that easy. You may remember that a few weeks ago British company HIghview Power announced plans to build the country's first "CryoBattery" site in northern Vermont, which will store excess power from wind farms. The idea is to smooth out the intermittent shortfalls that solar and wind produce. David Brooks caught up with the company's VP for US operations, and explains it all.Meanwhile, not to be left out, NH has its own cutting-edge energy bid going. There's a mill up in Groveton that's being turned into a hydrogen-to-energy plant using water from the Upper Ammonoosuc River (yes, it's real). The developer and the state are now trying to recruit business tenants to set up on the 140-acre site and take advantage of the power generated by the plant. VT's demographic news keeps getting worse. It's not just that the latest population estimates from the Census Bureau show the state's population declining between 0.6 percent between 2018 and last summer (that's 400 people, in case you like cardinal numbers), but in every year since 2016, Vermont has seen more deaths than births. Odds are good that the 2020 census will show the state's population declining since the 2010 version, the first time that will have happened since 1930-40. NH, on the other hand, grew despite more deaths than births. It gained about 6,200 people while VT was losing its 400, as people moved there from other states and from abroad. Overall, the state saw the second-highest population gain in New England for the decade so far, after MA. According to Ken Johnson, senior demographer at UNH's Carsey School of Public Policy, deaths are rising as the state's population ages and drugs take a toll on younger residents.“Nobody’s happy." There was a time when Vermont Life turned out 100,000 calendars a year. Now it's down to... 0. The state-run magazine and publishing house shut down in 2018, and the 2019 calendar was the last one it produced. West Leb's Vermont Illustrating and the Vermont Country Store (in tandem with Yankee) are giving it a go, but Phoenix Books' Tod Gross says sales have been slow. "We’re not selling nearly as many of the replacements. They’re nice, but people like what they like," he tells VTDigger.The definitive history of the Scrabble tile in Vermont. For two decades, the tiles and racks for every game manufactured in North America were made in Fairfax, VT. Ben Heintz, who teaches high school social studies in E. Montpelier, goes long on the whole story: how Alfred Butts, an unemployed architect during the Depression, invented the game; the former hockey-stick manufacturer who got the tile/rack contract and took over an abandoned sawmill to do the work; and the maple syrup producer that's in the space now.
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THE NEW YEAR'S JUST WAKING UP, STRETCHING ITS ARMS, YAWNING A DEEP YAWN. BUT STILL...
LL Bean's hosting an in-store clinic at the Powerhouse for newbies and old hands alike to get the basics down, learn some key techniques, and check out the equipment. Starts at 5:30, signup at the link.
It's Comedy Club Night, with body piercer and pro wrestler Pierre Vachon; up-and-comer Heather Keith (originally from Enid, OK, now living in Claremont); Marsh Brothers (Little Store) cook Gilman Seymour; Burlington's Ryan Kenyon; WRJ's Leigh Whitten; and Tuck student Peter Struckmeyer. Starts at 7.
The singer-songwriter from Thetford by way of... well, let's just let him tell it: "In late 2018, with a fire to help others who struggled with addiction, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue my career as a singer/songwriter. Today, my heart continues to fill with the stories of loss and hope and love all across our country, as I travel to sing my story, as well as the stories of those who can’t." Starts at 6 pm.
Here's hoping you get to dip your toes for the next few days, too. See you tomorrow.
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