NICE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Things are starting to get interesting. For a chunk of today we're in a dry slot and will manage to see some sun, but a new system's moving in from the Ohio Valley toward evening; the rain will stick with us overnight, then be on its way. Highs only in the low 50s today and tomorrow, though tonight, at least, won't be as cold as last night, with temps in the 40s. Norwich scam cost town $249,720. In a prepared statement after the selectboard met in executive session yesterday evening, SB member John Langhus said the money was taken through four transactions in August in which the perpetrator spoofed the email address of Town Manager Herb Durfee. The US Attorney's office is now conducting a criminal investigation. (VN, subscription reqd)Snapper brings UV Aquatic Center traffic to a halt. "It was just before 10:30, very near the turtle crossing sign on the UVAC access road," Randi Myers emailed yesterday. A bunch of cars had pulled over, as people tried to figure out how to get a large snapping turtle out of the road. Then two guys with shovels hopped out of their truck and helped it off to the side. "It was a really beautiful thing to see so many people care about a big ol’ snapper," says Randi, who got a pic of the action. Turns out, this is not uncommon at UVAC.Mid-Manhattan coming to Fairlee... Well, maybe not quite. But the PD announced yesterday that I-91 southbound will close between Bradford and Fairlee for what may be several weeks starting in mid- or late October. VTrans will be removing ledge. "The closure could bring up to 4000+ additional vehicles down the Route 5 corridor daily during the project," Chief Jason Bachus wrote on FB. Maybe Gladstone Creamery could start serving maple/coffee twist cones for breakfast?So perhaps this will come in handy. VTrans has announced a new smartphone app for bus riders anywhere in Vermont that tracks the location of buses and their arrival times, and helps search for bus routes and stops. The app was developed by Transit, a Montreal-based company that aggregates transit options in cities worldwide. You can find the app here.Artichoke? Fern? Oh, wait, no... Mint! Today's VTrans day on Daybreak! Remember back in April when the agency sought public feedback on the design of the new fence for the Quechee Gorge Bridge? Well, tonight they're holding another hearing — 6:30 pm at Hartford Town Hall — to talk about design options for a lower-level barrier and to get public input on the "various shades of green paint that could be selected for the bridge steel." Royalton singer-songwriter Alison Turner has a new album. You may know her as AliT, and Smoke & Mirrors will be her second indie/pop release as she looks to bust out of the Upper Valley and start touring the big cities of the East Coast. “I want to spread my wings as much as possible,” she tells the VN's David Corriveau. D-H and GraniteOne Health sign on the dotted line. Nine months after signing a letter of intent to merge, the two health systems have made it official. They'll become Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health GraniteOne, if state and federal regulators approve. The deal's already crossed one significant hurdle: The Most Reverend Peter Libasci, Bishop of Manchester, issued a nihil obstat, or declaration of no objection, allowing the merger to proceed.Hall/Kenyon farm in Wilmot, Warren social hall make NH Preservation Alliance's "Seven to Save" list. Eagle Pond Farm, where poets Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon lived, needs a "sustainable business model" after a local couple bought the farm to preserve it. The 1920 Glencliff Willing Workers Society Hall in Warren is still used for card games, dances, holiday parties, and suppers, but badly needs maintenance. This year's list of endangered historic structures also includes New Hampshire's general stores. And speaking of poets, NH may get a poet laureate after all. Remember all the fireworks earlier this year when the state's poets faced off against Gov. Chris Sununu and his eventually unsuccessful pick for poet laureate? Well now he's nominated Londonderry poet Alexandria Peary, who was on the original shortlist of possible choices — the list that Sununu ignored the first time around. Looks like this one will take.Interesting news in Vermont's hemp-growing world. Just as WCAX reports that the 900 — that's 900! — farms growing hemp are about ready to start harvesting and are facing a shortage of processing facilities, a processor in Middlebury has shut its doors because "Everyone was all about CBD" and it couldn't get farmers interested in providing hemp grain to make its cold-pressed hemp oil and hemp protein powder.You know the whole midnight-voting thing in New Hampshire? Turns out it wasn't Dixville Notch that started it. NHPR has done some digging, and pride of ownership goes to Millsfield, NH (a few miles away in the North Country) and a woman named Genevieve Nadig. In 1936, when she was 27, she converted her garage painting studio into a polling place, improvised a booth with a sewing machine to set ballots on, and invited her neighbors over for sandwiches, cookies and coffee just before midnight. Five showed up.Moose? Swimming pool? What could go wrong? A young bull moose somehow found his way into a swimming pool in Bedford, NH on Tuesday. The problem? The pool had no stairs, and the moose couldn't get out. Wildlife biologists and local conservation officers eventually installed wooden steps and coaxed him out. NH Fish & Game has the video.
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Two 70-somethings — outgoing Jewish guy with a sense of humor; Rosary-society Catholic woman with five daughters and a sense of propriety — meet online and try to navigate their differences and, more complicated, their similarities. "It's funny, it's witty, but it's also I think a very honest and touching piece," says SBT founder Bill Coons. At 7:30 pm, runs through Oct. 20.
She'll be at the Farmer's Table in Grantham. Starts at 6.
It's "an evening of food, drink, good company, and songs-you-may-not-know-but-can-definitely-learn," as they put it. They'll do sea shanties, drinking songs, chorus songs, some American classics, and anything else you want to belt out as long as people can join in. Starts at 7.
Elizabeth Krajewski, humanities prof
and
reference librarian at Colby-Sawyer — and an ordained Episcopal priest — will be talking about pilgrimages as "the intersection of 'sacred place' and 'life as journey' using examples from a range of world religions." At 7 pm.
Maybe you know the story: Charlie Price inherits his dad's shoe factory, tries to save it from bankruptcy, teams up with Lola, an entertainer in need of sturdier-than-usual stilettos. Book by Harvey Fierstein, music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, snagged 6 Tonys after it premiered. At 7:30 at the Loew.
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