GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Cloudy to start then clearing, cooler. This is all due to a cold front that dropped by from Canada yesterday and seems content to hang around for a bit. Highs today will be in the upper 50s, maybe 60, with more clouds than sky until later in the afternoon, when things start to clear up. Mostly clear skies tonight, lows in the mid or upper 30s.Mountain views, conserved areas, fog, birds, and a mini-photo lesson. Photographer Jim Block is back with a blog/photo post on the first five weeks of fall, and he's been covering a lot of territory: Moose and Cardigan from Canaan, a stunning view of Ascutney from Cornish, mountain views from Etna, the Cardigan range from Grafton, a long-range view of Kearsarge from Hanover (believe it or not), and lots more. Then there are his travels through the region's many conservation areas, which make you want to visit pretty much all of them, plus, as advertised, birds and that photo lesson.And while we're looking at pretty pictures...
Here's a late-season blast of red in Strafford, from Robin Osborne;
And the barest rime of snow on ferns in Hartland, from Harriet Dumas.
Early yesterday morning, naturalist Ted Levin was outside—as he does most days, checking to see what was out there with him. All in all, there were 13 species of birds, including chickadees, with their remarkable memories. "Feathered Einsteins," he calls them in his newest Another "Morning in Paradise" post. "I accept the night and throw my lot with chickadees—industrious, cheerful, animated, energetic, beneficial, gregarious, provocative, tolerant ... cute helps, too."
It's time for Dear Daybreak! In this week's collection on life in the Upper Valley: From Paul Jensen, log-splitter haiku; Anita Onofrio tells us about a gesture of thoughtfulness from a firefighter trying to keep her house from burning down; Laura Harris-Hirsch finds a tranquil spot in the midst of the traffic maelstrom near the Miracle Mile; and Peter Burghardt checks in with the first "Little-Known Gems of the Upper Valley" that'll be running each week. If you've got a little-known gem or an Upper Valley story, here's the place.Bethel, Royalton voters reject school improvement bond by 10 votes. Hartford voters approve Fairview Terrace repair. Both votes were on Tuesday.
In the towns that make up the White River Unified District, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, the vote was 753 against to 743 in favor of a $6.8 million project that would have created a new performing arts center at the high school in S. Royalton and secured entrances at both the high school and the middle school, which is in Bethel. Voters who opposed the $3.8 million bond to enable the project cited the tax burden on residents. School board chair Andrew Jones tells Sauchelli, "I think that maybe there could be some options for where we could go from here, but I don’t want to speculate as to what we could do as a board.”
Meanwhile, Hartford went 3,314 to 2,176 in favor of a $4.1 million bond for stabilization work and other repairs on Fairview Terrace where it meets Gates Street, reports WCAX. The construction will allow the road, which has been closed for years, to reopen in one direction, toward downtown. Here's the town fact sheet on the project.
SPONSORED: “I wanted to be able to continue hiking with my wife..." What do you really want? After experiencing a serious water-skiing injury, Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy founder Billy Cioffredi, PT, is embracing new challenges and experiences, now as a patient. Read about his story, still in progress, via the link above. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy.Police shoot, kill man early this morning after standoff at Plymouth NH inn. The incident on Route 25, just by the Plymouth traffic circle, began yesterday afternoon with a report of shots fired at the Federal House Inn. A nearby charter school went into lockdown as state police converged on the scene. "Somebody had come out of that building with a bloody face and kind of went over down the street to the west, and then from there, more police just started showing up, showing up, showing up," a nearby business owner told WMUR. In a tight-lipped press release this morning, the NH AG's office says the man's identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.GOP expands its hold on NH House. In addition to appearing to have unseated two Senate Democrats, reports NHPR's Josh Rogers, Republicans say they will hold 222 seats in the 400-member House, a significant increase from the 197 seats they held before Tuesday's elections. With Republicans' hefty majorities in the legislature and Kelly Ayotte in the governor's office, Rogers expects efforts to expand school vouchers and debates on transgender rights and abortion policy. In NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt breaks down some of the changes and talks to voters about what drove their choices.Where Republicans made gains in the VT House. In all, the GOP picked up 17 seats, report Erin Petenko and Kristen Fountain in VTDigger, 14 of them by defeating Democratic incumbents. They now hold 55 in the 150-member chamber. Several veteran legislators lost seats, including Vergennes Democrat Diane Lanpher, who chaired the House Appropriations Committee, St. Albans' Mike McCarthy, who chaired the Government and Military Affairs Committee, and several committee vice chairs. Democrats picked up seats in Chittenden County and Windham County. Petenko and Fountain detail the changes.In VT, "there is no debate: Health care has become unaffordable and grows more so each year." It's a dire picture, writes Colin Flanders in a deep Seven Days dive into what's going on: residents are going uninsured because they can't afford premiums; regulators' efforts to rein in hospital costs have 9 of the state's 14 hospitals losing money; and the debate over a recent consultant's report that recommended shrinking some hospitals "has threatened to drown out a desperately needed conversation" about the state's health care system. Flanders explains the trends and why they've led to this point.
And in related news, OneCare Vermont will shut down. The accountable care organization with the near-impossible-to-understand role in running the “all-payer” health care reform model in the state, will close at the end of next year, reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria. That's because the federal program that that allows OneCare to accept payments from both Medicare and Medicaid is also shutting down. Administrators are trying to figure out how to make it a smooth transition, but "because the organization works with health care providers around the state, patients and practices may notice the change," D'Auria writes.
Vermont's moose "trending in the right direction." That assessment comes from Nick Fortin, the state's lead moose and deer biologist, talking to VT Public's Lexi Krupp. Fortin bases his analysis on moose who are shot in each fall's moose hunt. For the past three years, he tells Krupp, the average birth rate of female moose has been slightly above 1—more than any time since the early 2000s. And moose have weighed more, on average. Fortin says he still wouldn't consider the moose population "super healthy," but "the sky is not falling, like we were concerned about five years ago.”
Chubby Muffin. Roz. Enchillada. Yep, you guessed it. The results are in for VTrans' "Name a Plow" program with state elementary schools. Those three names come, in order, from Marion Cross in Norwich, the Newton School in Strafford, and the Open Fields School in Thetford. They'll adorn the state's fleet of plows this winter. In addition, VTrans invited schools to name its new plow truck with a 21-foot-long wing, which will be used to clear I-89 in one pass. The winner? The Vermonster, from the school in Townshend.An utterly mesmerizing trip to Japan. And you don't even have to leave your seat. Over three weeks this fall, photographer Gavin Heffernan criss-crossed the country, taking over 35,000 photos, many of them as long-exposure images. He then did something unusual with them: He stitched them into a timelapse, much like night-sky photographers do with star photos. The result, Dreamlapse Japan 3, is a four-minute tour, lightshow, and mind-bender.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
Annie Sundberg's 2024 documentary captures what went into creating a pandemic-time holiday production at a grand estate in the Hudson Valley with a roster of internationally acclaimed dancers, furloughed at the time from New York City Ballet—with Oscar de la Renta and Todd Snyder designing the costumes. Sundberg will be on hand to talk about it, as the Dartmouth Film Society
. 6 pm in the Loew.
Insurance agent and Medicare specialist Jessica Dunn will talk about Medicare, its complexities, and the various options for coverage for those hitting 65 or leaving employer plans after that age. 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
The Grammy-nominated saxophonist, composer, and bandleader leads a group that includes Sarah Vaughn Competition winner Gabrielle Cavassa for
where are we
: "a meditation on the power and importance of place" that includes arrangements of Springsteen’s
Streets of Philadelphia
, Woody Guthrie’s
After Minneapolis
, Rodgers & Hart’s
Manhattan
, and John Coltrane’s
Alabama
. 7:30 pm.
Seamus Good and Cameron Silliman formed the band back in the teeth of the pandemic (Granite Garden: he's from NH, she's from NJ). Together with Jon Schneider, Peter Michaels Jr., and Ray Elizabeth Wilson, the NYC-based ensemble "harmonizes the garishness and theatricality of rock n’ roll with the sensitivity and tact of folk and jazz," they write of themselves. Their MSM gig tonight is at 8 pm, with Time-Life Magazines. Tomorrow night at 7:30
.
And for today...
last year at the
Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans.
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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